According to the Bible, the mercy seat (Hebrew: כפורת, Kapporet ; "atonement piece") was the lid or cover of solid gold of the Ark of the Covenant, and was connected with the rituals of the Day of Atonement; the term also appears in later Jewish sources, and twice in the New Testament, from where it has significance in Christian theology.The English phrase mercy seat is a translation of the Hebrew kapporeth (in the Masoretic text) and its Greek hilasterion (in the Septuagint) by William Tyndale influenced by the German word Gnadenstuhl as in the Luther Bible; Gnadenstuhl, literally meaning seat of grace.