Accoring to the Bible, the mercy seat (Hebrew: כפורת, Kaporet ; "atonement piece") was an object which rested upon the Ark of the Covenant, and was connected with the rituals of Yom Kippur; the term also appears in the Pauline Epistles, and has a significance in Christian theology. The phrase mercy seat is not a translation of the Hebrew term kapporeth, which appears in its place in the Masoretic text, nor of the Greek term hilasterion, which takes the same place in the Septuagint, but instead is the translation by William Tyndale of the German term gnadenstuhl, from the same narrative position in Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into German; gnadenstuhl literally means seat of grace, in the sense of location of grace.