Ancient Board Games

Suzanne,

Your post brings up a fascinating question about how to translate words for such games. What’s this mean in Joshua 18:6, for example: יריתי לכם גורל? I love how Mariottini describes this with such specificity (from archeology and from history and from more specific texts, I’m guessing):

A throw of dice, knucklebones, or even heelbones (lots) determined play. In the Old Testament, lots decided things such as slave allotments (Nahum 3:10), apportionment of land (Joshua 18:6), and care of the Temple (Nehemiah 10:34; 1 Chronicles 24:5). Their use of dice or “lots” gradually extended to gambling, then to simple table games. Soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ garment at the crucifixion (John 19:24). The knucklebones of sheep were specially suited to deciding lots since they could fall in only four positions. Dice eventually replaced knucklebones.

With respect to ancient Greek, especially Aristotle’s, I have been interested in whether translators should re-make such games into things like “tennis.” This link is to another post with some examples:

http://speakeristic.blogspot.com/2008/04/tennice-anyone-aristotle.html