Semantic Analysis

07 Semantic Analysis — 1 Corinthians (Full Book) — Koine Greek → Arabic

Methodology and Scope

This analysis covers 1 Corinthians in its entirety, chapter 1 through chapter 16. The core passage, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (the resurrection kerygma), receives full verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter receives a chapter-level treatment of its load-bearing theological terms using the same field set:

Original word (Koine Greek, with Aramaic/Hebrew loanwords noted where relevant)
Transliteration
Literal meaning
Semantic range
English variants (how major English versions render it)
Contextual theological meaning (in 1 Corinthians specifically)
Destination-language (Arabic) rendering and risk

Any term already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json is marked REUSE and rendered exactly as recorded there. New terms proposed for this curriculum are marked NEW and carry a full risk justification consistent with the baseline’s risk-tier conventions (Critical / High / Medium / Low) and its method of grounding risk in specific Islamic-theological or Arab-cultural collision points, not mere word-choice preference.

No chapter of 1 Corinthians is theologically inert; every chapter is treated below. Where a chapter’s vocabulary is fully covered by terms already introduced earlier in the book or in the Romans baseline, this is stated explicitly per the full-coverage mandate.

CORE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 — Verse-by-Verse Analysis

15:1 — Γνωρίζω δὲ ὑμῖν, ἀδελφοί, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ὃ εὐηγγελισάμην ὑμῖν, ὃ καὶ παρελάβετε, ἐν ᾧ καὶ ἑστήκατε

γνωρίζω (gnōrizō)

Literal meaning: “I make known,” “I remind”
Semantic range: to disclose, declare, remind of something already known
English variants: “I want to remind you” (NIV), “I make known” (ESV, KJV), “let me remind you” (NLT)
Contextual meaning: Paul is not introducing new content but re-anchoring the Corinthians in the foundational tradition they already received — critical given the doubts about resurrection surfacing in the church.
Arabic rendering: أُعرّفكم / أُذكّركم (u’arrifukum / udhakkirukum) — NEW, Low risk. Standard verb, no collision.

εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) — REUSE — الإنجيل (al-Injīl), High risk per baseline. Note: here Paul defines the gospel’s content explicitly in vv.3-4 (Christ died, was buried, was raised, appeared) — this definitional anchor should be flagged in Phase 2 as the primary proof-text establishing what “al-Injīl” refers to against the tahrif (corruption) framing noted in the baseline.

εὐηγγελισάμην (euēngelisamēn)

Literal meaning: “I gospeled/announced as good news” (verb form of εὐαγγέλιον)
Semantic range: to proclaim, herald good news publicly and authoritatively
English variants: “preached,” “proclaimed,” “announced”
Contextual meaning: Paul’s original apostolic proclamation among the Corinthians, the historical origin-point of their faith.
Arabic rendering: بشّرتكم (bashshartukum) — NEW, Low-Medium risk. Root ب-ش-ر (bashara, good news) is shared, non-Islamic-loaded vocabulary; safe.

παρελάβετε (parelabete)

Literal meaning: “you received” (technical term for receiving a formally transmitted tradition, paired with παραδίδωμι “to hand down,” see v.3)
Semantic range: to receive a teaching, tradition, or deposit passed down through an authorized chain
English variants: “received,” “you received” (all major versions)
Contextual meaning: establishes the resurrection kerygma as fixed, pre-formed apostolic tradition, not Paul’s private opinion — important for authority and reliability.
Arabic rendering: تسلّمتموه (tasallamtumūhu) — NEW, Medium risk. Note: the tradition-reception pairing παραδίδωμι/παραλαμβάνω has a rough structural parallel to the Islamic isnad (chain of transmission) concept used to validate hadith authenticity. This can be a bridge (Corinthians readers already value verified transmission chains) but must be handled so the parallel does not imply the gospel needs hadith-style multi-generational verification to be trustworthy — it is apostolic eyewitness testimony, one generation removed.

ἑστήκατε (hestēkate)

Literal meaning: “you stand” / “you have taken your stand” (perfect tense — a past action with continuing present result)
Semantic range: to stand firm, to be established, to persevere
English variants: “you stand,” “on which you have taken your stand” (NIV)
Contextual meaning: the Corinthians’ present spiritual standing rests on this received gospel.
Arabic rendering: تقفون / قد ثبتّم عليه (taqifūn / thabattum ‘alayhi) — NEW, Low risk.

15:2 — διʼ οὗ καὶ σῴζεσθε, τίνι λόγῳ εὐηγγελισάμην ὑμῖν εἰ κατέχετε, ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ εἰκῇ ἐπιστεύσατε

σῴζεσθε (sōzesthe) — REUSE stem — الخلاص (al-khalāṣ), Critical risk per baseline.

Note on form: present passive (“you are being saved” / “you are in the process of being saved”) — this progressive-passive nuance must not be lost in Arabic, since it reinforces salvation as an ongoing state resting on a completed past event (the gospel already received), not a probabilistic outcome still to be determined at a future Judgment. This directly supports the baseline’s Critical-risk caution against the mizan (deeds-scale) framing of Islamic soteriology — the Arabic rendering should retain a durative sense (e.g. “أنتم فيه إلى الخلاص” or “به أنتم مخلَّصون”) rather than a bare future/conditional form.

κατέχετε (katechete)

Literal meaning: “hold fast,” “retain,” “keep firm possession of”
Semantic range: to hold down, restrain, possess firmly, retain a teaching
English variants: “hold firmly,” “hold fast,” “retain”
Contextual meaning: continued grip on the received gospel content, contrasted with those doubting the resurrection later in the chapter.
Arabic rendering: تتمسّكون به (tatamassakūna bihi) — NEW, Low risk.

εἰκῇ (eikē)

Literal meaning: “in vain,” “without due cause,” “for nothing”
Semantic range: purposelessly, groundlessly
Arabic rendering: عبثًا / باطلاً (‘abathan / bātilan) — NEW, Low risk.

ἐπιστεύσατε (episteusate) — REUSE verb form of الإيمان (al-īmān), High risk per baseline. Contextual note: here faith is anchored specifically to the historical content just defined (Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, appearances) — reinforcing the baseline’s caution that Pauline faith is trust directed at a specific, recoverable, historical referent, not creedal assent in the abstract.

15:3 — παρέδωκα γὰρ ὑμῖν ἐν πρώτοις, ὃ καὶ παρέλαβον, ὅτι Χριστὸς ἀπέθανεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν κατὰ τὰς γραφάς

παρέδωκα (paredōka)

Literal meaning: “I handed down/delivered” (root of παράδοσις, “tradition”)
Semantic range: to pass on a teaching, deposit, or physical object to another’s keeping
English variants: “delivered,” “passed on,” “handed down”
Contextual meaning: names Paul’s role as a transmitter, not originator, of this core creedal summary — probably the earliest post-resurrection creed in Christian history (c. AD 35-38).
Arabic rendering: سلّمتُ (sallamtu) — NEW, Medium risk (see v.1 note on transmission-chain resonance with isnad; here it must be paired with “ἐν πρώτοις” to convey priority/foundational status, not mere sequence).

ἐν πρώτοις

Literal meaning: “among the first things,” “as of first importance”
Arabic rendering: في المقام الأول / كأهم الأمور (fī al-maqām al-awwal) — NEW, Low risk.

Χριστός (Christos) — REUSE — المسيح (al-Masīḥ), Critical risk per baseline (Messianic Promise doctrine). Every occurrence in this creedal statement is load-bearing: it identifies Yasū’ al-Masīḥ as the one who died, was buried, and was raised — directly countering the Quranic al-Masih narrative that denies crucifixion and death.

ἀπέθανεν (apethanen)

Literal meaning: “died,” “he died” (aorist, simple past, a completed historical fact)
Semantic range: to die, to cease bodily life
Contextual meaning: asserts a real, historical death — the essential first plank of the four-part creed (died / buried / raised / appeared).
Arabic rendering: مات (māta) — NEW, Critical risk by association. Not because “died” is a difficult word, but because this is precisely the historical claim the Quran (4:157, “they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him… it was made to appear so to them”) denies at the root. This verb must never be softened, qualified, or hedged in translation; the entire creed depends on مات being an unambiguous, literal, historical predicate.

ὑπέρ (hyper)

Literal meaning: “on behalf of,” “for the sake of,” “in place of”
Semantic range: substitutionary/representative preposition — the person’s death benefits or stands in for another
English variants: “for,” “for our sins,” “on behalf of”
Contextual meaning: substitutionary atonement — Christ’s death dealt with sins that were not his own, on behalf of others. This is the theological center of gravity for the doctrine “The Cross as Wisdom and Power.”
Arabic rendering: من أجل / لأجل (min ajl / li-ajl) — NEW, Critical risk. Doctrine: this is the precise point of collision with Quran 6:164 (“no bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden”), already flagged Critical in the baseline under “salvation.” Must be rendered so the substitutionary sense (Christ bearing sin for others) is unambiguous, not merely “died because of” or “died regarding” sins in a vague associative sense.

ἁμαρτιῶν (hamartiōn) — REUSE — الخطية (al-khaṭīyah), High risk per baseline.

κατὰ τὰς γραφάς (kata tas graphas)

Literal meaning: “according to the Scriptures”
Semantic range: in fulfillment of, in accordance with the written prophetic witness (primarily Isaiah 53, Psalm 16, Hosea 6:2 in this context)
English variants: “according to the Scriptures,” “as the Scriptures said,” “just as the Scriptures said”
Contextual meaning: grounds the death and resurrection in prophetic fulfillment, not novelty — directly relevant to the “Fulfillment of Prophecy” doctrine already flagged High-risk in the baseline (naskh/abrogation collision).
Arabic rendering: حسب الكتب المقدسة / كما جاء في الكتب (ḥasab al-kutub al-muqaddasah) — NEW glossary term (scripture), High risk. Doctrine: intersects both the fulfillment-of-prophecy caution (Islamic naskh treats later revelation as superseding, not fulfilling, earlier revelation) and the tahrif caution already noted under “gospel” — “the Scriptures” here means the actual, un-corrupted OT text Paul is citing, not a lost original. See glossary entry.

15:4 — καὶ ὅτι ἐτάφη, καὶ ὅτι ἐγήγερται τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᳳ κατὰ τὰς γραφάς

ἐτάφη (etaphē)

Literal meaning: “he was buried” (aorist passive of θάπτω)
Semantic range: to place a body in a tomb/grave
Contextual meaning: the second plank of the creed — burial confirms the reality of death (no death, no burial) and sets up the empty-tomb reality resolved in the next clause.
Arabic rendering: دُفن (dufina) — NEW, High risk by association with the same crucifixion-denial collision noted above; burial is the evidentiary hinge between a real death and a real resurrection and must not be treated as incidental detail.

ἐγήγερται (egēgertai) — REUSE stem — القيامة (al-qiyāmah) family, Critical risk per baseline.

Note on form: perfect passive (“has been raised,” an accomplished past act with a continuing present result — he remains risen). Arabic should preserve this abiding-state sense (e.g. “قد قام” with implied ongoing significance) rather than a simple past that could read as a one-off historical curiosity. This reinforces “The Resurrection of Christ and Believers” as the curriculum’s central doctrine: Christ’s past resurrection is the present guarantee of believers’ future resurrection (developed at length later in ch.15).

τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᳳ (“on the third day”)

Semantic range: specific, dateable, historical time marker; echoes Hosea 6:2 and the Jonah sign (Matthew 12:40)
Arabic rendering: في اليوم الثالث (fī al-yawm al-thālith) — NEW, Medium risk. Notes: the specificity of the timeframe is itself apologetically significant — it anchors the resurrection as a datable historical event, not a legend that developed gradually; this specificity should be preserved and, where appropriate, highlighted in teaching notes as evidence against the “it merely appeared so” framing.

15:5 — καὶ ὅτι ὤφθη Κηφᾷ, εἶτα τοῖς δώδεκα

ὤφθη (ōphthē)

Literal meaning: “he was seen,” “he appeared” (aorist passive of ὁράω)
Semantic range: technical term in resurrection-appearance narratives for a genuine, objective visual encounter with the risen Christ, not a subjective vision or dream
English variants: “he appeared,” “he was seen by”
Contextual meaning: the fourth plank of the creed — verifiable eyewitness appearances, repeated five times in vv.5-8, functioning as a legal-style list of witnesses.
Arabic rendering: ظهر لـ (ẕahara li-) — NEW, Critical risk. This verb must be rendered so it conveys an objective, bodily, external appearance to real witnesses — not a subjective inner experience, vision, or dream (ru’ya), a category that exists in Islamic prophetic experience (e.g. dream-revelation) but would collapse Paul’s evidentiary claim into something far weaker than what he intends.

Κηφᾷ (Kēpha) — proper name, Aramaic. REUSE convention: retain established Arabic Bible form بطرس (Buṭrus, “Peter”) in narrative use, or الصفا/كيفا (Kayfā) when the Aramaic form itself is in view; footnote the Cephas/Peter identity. Low risk.

τοῖς δώδεκα (“the Twelve”) — established apostolic group. Arabic: الاثنا عشر (al-ithnā ‘ashar) — NEW, Low risk, standard.

15:6 — ἔπειτα ὤφθη ἐπάνω πεντακοσίοις ἀδελφοῖς ἐφάπαξ, ἐξ ὧν οἱ πλείονες μένουσιν ἕως ἄρτι, τινὲς δὲ ἐκοιμήθησαν

ἐπάνω πεντακοσίοις ἀδελφοῖς (“more than five hundred brothers”)

Contextual meaning: a mass, named, checkable witness pool — heightens the historical/evidentiary weight of the resurrection claim.
Arabic rendering: أكثر من خمسمائة أخ (akthar min khamsimi’ah akh) — NEW, Low risk.

ἐφάπαξ (ephapax)

Literal meaning: “at one time,” “once for all,” “on a single occasion”
Semantic range: emphasizes a single, unrepeated, collectively-witnessed event (cf. Hebrews’ use of ἐφάπαξ for the atonement’s finality)
Arabic rendering: مرة واحدة (marratan wāḥidah) — NEW, Medium risk. Doctrinal resonance: the “once for all” quality parallels the finality language already flagged for salvation/atonement in the baseline (secured once for all, not probabilistically pending); worth cross-referencing in teaching notes.

ἐκοιμήθησαν (ekoimēthēsan)

Literal meaning: “fell asleep” (euphemism for death)
Semantic range: a distinctly Christian resurrection-hope idiom for death as temporary “sleep” awaiting bodily resurrection, not annihilation or a different afterlife state
Arabic rendering: رقدوا (raqadū) — NEW, Medium risk. Note: established Christian Arabic idiom (also used liturgically, e.g. “الراقدون على رجاء القيامة,” “those who sleep in hope of the resurrection”); should not be flattened to a generic ماتوا (“they died”), since the euphemism itself carries the resurrection-hope doctrine.

15:7 — ἔπειτα ὤφθη Ἰακώβῳ, εἶτα τοῖς ἀποστόλοις πᾶσιν

Ἰακώβῳ — James, the Lord’s brother. Established Arabic form: يعقوب (Ya‘qūb). Low risk; footnote needed distinguishing this James from James son of Zebedee.

τοῖς ἀποστόλοις πᾶσιν — REUSE — الرسل جميعًا (al-rusul jamī‘an), High risk per baseline (Apostleship doctrine). Contextual note: “all the apostles” here is a wider circle than “the Twelve” in v.5, encompassing the broader apostolic company (cf. 15:9-10 where Paul includes himself in this category despite not being one of the Twelve).

15:8 — ἔσχατον δὲ πάντων ὥσπερεὶ τῷ ἐκτρώματι ὤφθη κἀμοί

ἔσχατον (“last of all”) — Arabic: آخِرًا / وأخيرًا (ākhiran) — NEW, Low risk.

ἐκτρώματι (ektrōmati)

Literal meaning: “one born prematurely/abnormally,” “a miscarried/stillborn child” (a jarring, self-deprecating image)
Semantic range: an untimely, abnormal, unworthy birth
English variants: “one abnormally born” (ESV), “one born untimely” (NASB), “the least likely person” (paraphrase versions), “as to one born at the wrong time” (NRSV)
Contextual meaning: Paul underscores that his apostleship, unlike the others’, did not come through following the earthly Jesus but through a startling, undeserved, “abnormal” encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road — deepening the grace-not-merit theme developed further in vv.9-10.
Arabic rendering: كطفل سقط ولادةً غير طبيعية / كالسقط (ka-ṭifl saqaṭ wilādatan ghayr ṭabī‘iyyah / ka-al-saqṭ) — NEW, Medium risk. This is a difficult idiom to render with dignity in any language; must avoid a rendering that sounds merely insulting rather than conveying Paul’s own chosen self-humiliation. No specific Islamic-collision risk identified; the challenge is purely lexical/register.

15:9 — οὐ γάρ εἰμι ἱκανὸς καλεῖσθαι ἀπόστολος, διότι ἐδίωξα τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ

ἱκανός (hikanos) — “sufficient, worthy, adequate.” Arabic: مستحق / كافٍ (mustaḥiqq / kāfin) — NEW, Low risk.

καλεῖσθαι — REUSE verb form of الدعوة/المدعوون, High risk per baseline (Divine Calling doctrine). Contextual note: Paul denies personal worthiness for the title “apostle,” reinforcing that this calling — like salvation itself — is unearned (see grace, v.10).

ἐδίωξα (ediōxa) — “I persecuted.” Arabic: اضطهدتُ (iḍṭahadtu) — NEW, Low-Medium risk. Contextual/apologetic value: Paul’s own conversion from persecutor to apostle is itself sometimes cited in Christian-Muslim dialogue as a category-parallel to Muhammad’s biography (persecutor-turned-prophet); teaching notes should clarify the difference is not in the narrative shape but in the content of what each was called to (Paul to proclaim an already-completed, historically-anchored resurrection; not to receive an ongoing new revelation superseding it).

ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ — REUSE — كنيسة الله (kanīsat Allāh), Medium risk per baseline (Church as God’s People doctrine).

15:10 — χάριτι δὲ θεοῦ εἰμι ὅ εἰμι, καὶ ἡ χάρις αὐτοῦ ἡ εἰς ἐμὲ οὐ κενὴ ἐγενήθη, ἀλλὰ περισσότερον αὐτῶν πάντων ἐκοπίασα, οὐκ ἐγὼ δὲ ἀλλὰ ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ [ἡ] σὺν ἐμοί

χάριτι θεοῦ (charis theou) — REUSE twice in this verse — نعمة الله (ni‘mat Allāh), High risk per baseline (Grace doctrine). Contextual note: this verse is one of the clearest NT statements that ministry fruitfulness itself flows from grace, not from human merit or effort as its ultimate ground — even Paul’s exceptional labor (“I worked harder than all of them”) is re-attributed entirely to grace in the final clause. This must be preserved as a grace-versus-works contrast per the baseline’s escalation rule for such passages.

κενή (kenē) — “empty, without effect, in vain.” Arabic: باطلة / بلا ثمر (bāṭilah / bilā thamar) — NEW, Low risk.

ἐκοπίασα (ekopiasa) — “I labored, I toiled (to the point of weariness).” Arabic: تعبتُ / كافحتُ (ta‘ibtu / kāfaḥtu) — NEW, Low risk.

15:11 — εἴτε οὖν ἐγὼ εἴτε ἐκεῖνοι, οὕτως κηρύσσομεν καὶ οὕτως ἐπιστεύσατε

κηρύσσομεν (kēryssomen)

Literal meaning: “we proclaim/herald” (a public, authoritative, town-crier-style announcement)
Semantic range: to preach, announce publicly with authority
English variants: “we preach,” “we proclaim”
Contextual meaning: closes the unit by affirming that Paul’s gospel and the other apostles’ gospel are one and the same message — apostolic unity of testimony, directly serving the “Christian Unity versus Factionalism” doctrine even within this resurrection unit.
Arabic rendering: نكرز / نبشّر (nakriz / nubashshir) — NEW, Low-Medium risk. Note: نكرز (from كرازة, kerygma) is the standard established Arabic Christian homiletic term (distinct from تبشير which the baseline’s doctrine registry already flags Medium-risk for its intersection with apostasy-law sensitivities in some contexts — see “evangelism” doctrine). Prefer نكرز in formal doctrinal contexts describing apostolic proclamation, reserving تبشير/الإرسالية for outward-facing mission contexts per baseline convention.

ἐπιστεύσατε — REUSE, repeated for rhetorical closure — الإيمان family, High risk per baseline.

CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER STUDY: 1 Corinthians 1–16

Chapter 1 — Factionalism, the Cross, and Wisdom

σχίσμα (schisma) — NEW

Literal meaning: “tear, split, division” (from a garment-tearing image)
Semantic range: a split or faction within a group
English variants: “divisions,” “quarrels,” “factions”
Contextual meaning: the Corinthians’ partisan loyalty to different teachers (Paul, Apollos, Cephas) threatens the church’s unity — the presenting problem of the whole letter.
Arabic rendering: الانقسامات (al-inqisāmāt) — High risk. Doctrine: “Christian Unity versus Factionalism.” Note: Arab Christian and broader Arab social discourse already carries a heavy, often painful, awareness of sectarian division (Sunni/Shia, denominational splits within Arab Christianity itself); this term will land with real cultural weight and should be handled pastorally, consistent with the baseline’s caution (under “christian_identity_in_christ”) against identity rooted in tribal/sectarian markers.

ἔρις (eris) — NEW — “strife, quarreling, rivalry.” Arabic: الخصومات / المشاحنات (al-khuṣūmāt) — High risk, same doctrine as above.

σοφία (sophia) — NEW

Literal meaning: “wisdom”
Semantic range: skill, insight, practical and philosophical wisdom; in 1 Cor 1-2 specifically contrasted as “wisdom of the world” vs. “wisdom of God” revealed paradoxically in the cross
English variants: “wisdom”
Contextual meaning: the doctrinal center of “The Cross as Wisdom and Power” — God’s wisdom appears as foolishness to the world precisely in the crucified Messiah.
Arabic rendering: الحكمة (al-ḥikmah) — Medium-High risk. Doctrine note: al-ḥikmah is a strongly positive term in Islamic theology (a divine attribute; hikmah associated with Solomon/Sulaymān and with the Sufi wisdom tradition). The specific Pauline paradox — that God’s wisdom looks like foolishness and weakness (the cross) to worldly wisdom — has no ready Islamic parallel and must be taught deliberately; a reader may default to hikmah as self-evidently rational, dignified insight, which is precisely what Paul says the cross does not look like to outsiders.

μωρία (mōria) / μωρόν (mōron) — NEW

Literal meaning: “foolishness,” “folly”
Semantic range: stupidity, absurdity, that which appears senseless
Contextual meaning: what the cross looks like “to those who are perishing” (1:18) — a deliberately provocative term Paul embraces rather than avoids.
Arabic rendering: الجهالة (al-jahālah) — Medium risk. Caution: the root ج-ه-ل is also the root of الجاهلية (al-jāhiliyyah), the specific Islamic historical-theological term for the pre-Islamic “age of ignorance.” Using الجهالة for “the foolishness of the cross” risks an unintended resonance suggesting the cross belongs to a pre-revelation ignorant age rather than being God’s chosen means of salvation; a clarifying gloss or alternate root (e.g. حماقة, ḥimāqah, “absurdity/folly,” avoiding ج-ه-ل entirely) may be preferable and should be tested with native reviewers.

σταυρός (stauros) — NEW

Literal meaning: “cross” (the Roman execution stake/crossbeam)
Semantic range: the physical instrument of crucifixion; metonymically, the event and message of Christ’s crucifixion
English variants: “cross”
Contextual meaning: “the message of the cross” (1:18) is the content of the gospel, the definitive locus of both divine wisdom and divine power, and the ultimate “stumbling block” (v.23).
Arabic rendering: الصليب (al-ṣalīb) — Critical risk. Doctrine: shares the exact upstream collision already flagged Critical in the baseline for “resurrection” — mainstream Islamic doctrine (Quran 4:157) denies the crucifixion occurred at all. Every occurrence of الصليب in 1 Corinthians (a letter that names the cross as its central message, 1:17-18, 2:2) requires the same apologetic scaffolding as resurrection language: the historical crucifixion must first be established as a real event before “the cross” can function as a theological symbol of wisdom, power, or salvation.

δύναμις θεοῦ — REUSE — قوة الله (quwwat Allāh), Medium risk per baseline. Contextual note: paired here directly with الصليب — “the power of God” is revealed specifically in the crucified Christ (1:18, 24), an inversion of power (weakness as the locus of strength) that should be taught explicitly rather than assumed self-evident.

σκάνδαλον (skandalon) — NEW

Literal meaning: “stumbling block,” “trap-trigger” (originally the bait-stick of an animal trap)
Semantic range: an obstacle causing offense or downfall
English variants: “stumbling block,” “offense”
Contextual meaning: the cross is “a stumbling block to Jews” (1:23) — a term Paul uses positively, embracing the offense rather than smoothing it away.
Arabic rendering: حجر عثرة (ḥajar ‘athrah) — Medium-High risk. Note: this term should be preserved with its full provocative edge; do not soften “stumbling block” into a merely difficult teaching point, since Paul’s argument depends on the cross remaining genuinely offensive to natural religious sensibility (a category that includes contemporary Islamic sensibility toward a suffering, executed Messiah).

κλητοί — REUSE stem of “called” — المدعوون (al-mad‘uwwūn), High risk per baseline (used in 1:2, 1:9, 1:24, 1:26 — Divine Calling doctrine, effectual-calling sense).

ἁγιασμένοις / ἅγιοι — REUSE — القديسون / مقدَّسون (al-qiddīsūn / muqaddasūn), Medium-High risk per baseline (Sainthood/Sanctification doctrine, 1:2).

κοινωνία — REUSE — الشركة (al-sharikah), Medium risk per baseline (Fellowship doctrine, 1:9 — “fellowship of his Son”).

Chapter 2 — Spirit-Revealed Wisdom vs. Human Wisdom

No entirely new terms beyond ch.1’s wisdom/foolishness vocabulary, but two important new anthropological terms appear:

ψυχικός (psychikos) — NEW

Literal meaning: “soulish,” “natural” (from ψυχή, soul/natural life, as opposed to πνεῦμα, spirit)
Semantic range: the unregenerate person operating by natural human faculties alone, without the Spirit
English variants: “natural man” (ESV/KJV), “person without the Spirit” (NIV), “unspiritual person” (NRSV)
Contextual meaning: 2:14 — such a person “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God… they are folly to him” — explains why the cross’s wisdom (ch.1) seems foolish to those without the Spirit.
Arabic rendering: الإنسان النفساني (al-insān al-nafsānī) — High risk. Doctrine: the root ن-ف-س (nafs) carries substantial weight in Islamic and especially Sufi psychology/anthropology, where al-nafs (the self/lower soul, particularly al-nafs al-ammārah, “the commanding self” prone to base desire) is contrasted with al-rūḥ (spirit) in a developmental ascent achieved through spiritual discipline (often self-directed). Paul’s contrast is structurally similar (natural/soulish vs. Spirit-indwelt) but the content differs sharply: the shift from “natural” to “spiritual” person in 1 Corinthians is not self-achieved discipline but a Spirit-given regeneration received by grace through faith. This must be taught carefully so as not to collapse into a tazkiyah-style (self-purification) framework — the same caution already flagged Critical in the baseline for “justification.”

πνευματικός (pneumatikos) — NEW — “spiritual, Spirit-indwelt person.” Arabic: الإنسان الروحي (al-insān al-rūḥī) — High risk, same doctrine note as above; must be paired explicitly with رُوح الله (God’s Spirit) as the source of this state, not a level of attainment.

μυστήριον (mystērion) — NEW

Literal meaning: “mystery, secret”
Semantic range: in Pauline usage, not an esoteric secret reserved for initiates, but a previously hidden divine plan now fully disclosed to all in the gospel
English variants: “mystery,” “secret”
Contextual meaning: “we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery… hidden… which God decreed before the ages” (2:7) — the crucified Christ as the long-hidden, now-revealed plan of God.
Arabic rendering: السر (al-sirr) — Medium-High risk. Doctrine: the Sufi tradition has an extensive vocabulary of أسرار (asrār, spiritual secrets/mysteries) reserved for advanced initiates on the mystical path, accessed through esoteric practice under a guide (shaykh). Pauline μυστήριον is the opposite direction: a previously hidden plan that is now openly proclaimed to all believers, not a graduated, elite, esoteric revelation. This distinction must be made explicit at first use.

Chapter 3 — Building the Church, the Temple of God

ναός (naos) — NEW

Literal meaning: “temple, sanctuary” (the inner shrine specifically, not the whole temple precinct)
Semantic range: the dwelling place of deity
English variants: “temple”
Contextual meaning: 3:16-17 — “you [plural, the church corporately] are God’s temple, and God’s Spirit dwells in you… God’s temple is holy.” The corporate church, not a building, is where God’s Spirit dwells.
Arabic rendering: الهيكل (al-haykal) — Medium-High risk. Doctrine: “Church as God’s People.” Note: this term must be explicitly taught as a corporate metaphor (the gathered church as a whole) here, distinct from the individual-body application of the same term in 6:19. Also note the baseline’s caution (church) that everyday Arabic usage of الكنيسة often denotes a physical building; الهيكل risks a parallel misreading unless the metaphorical, Spirit-indwelling sense is reinforced.

σοφία τοῦ κόσμου — reuses ch.1-2 wisdom vocabulary; no new term.

οἰκοδομέω / ἐποικοδομέω (building imagery, “gold, silver, precious stones… wood, hay, straw”) — figurative image, not a technical doctrinal term; Low risk, standard construction vocabulary (بناء / يبني).

Chapter 4 — Apostolic Stewardship and Humility

οἰκονόμος (oikonomos) — NEW

Literal meaning: “household manager, steward”
Semantic range: one entrusted with managing another’s property or affairs, accountable to the owner
English variants: “steward,” “servant”
Contextual meaning: 4:1-2 — apostles are “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God,” accountable to Christ, not to factional human approval — reinforcing both “Christian Unity versus Factionalism” (ch.1) and apostleship (already Critical/High in baseline).
Arabic rendering: الوكلاء (al-wukalā’) — Medium risk. Standard administrative/stewardship term; low independent collision risk, but should be reinforced as accountable service, not authority for its own sake, given the chapter’s rebuke of factional pride in human leaders.

ἀπόστολος — REUSE — الرسول, High risk per baseline (4:9, “we apostles”).

βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ — REUSE — ملكوت الله (malakūt Allāh), Medium risk per baseline (4:20 — “the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power”).

Chapter 5 — Church Discipline and Holiness (Sexual Immorality)

πορνεία (porneia) — NEW

Literal meaning: “sexual immorality” (broad term covering various forms of illicit sexual activity; here specifically incest, a man with his father’s wife)
Semantic range: fornication, sexual sin generally
English variants: “sexual immorality,” “fornication”
Contextual meaning: the presenting case for church discipline — the church has tolerated, even boasted of tolerating, a case of gross sexual sin instead of grieving and acting.
Arabic rendering: الزنى (al-zinā) — High risk. Doctrine: “Church Discipline and Holiness.” Note: al-zinā is a major, fixed-hadd-punishment category in classical and much contemporary Islamic law — a criminal offense carrying prescribed corporal or capital punishment under shari’a, adjudicated by civil/religious courts. Paul’s remedy in this chapter is categorically different: not civil/criminal punishment, but communal, spiritual, restorative church discipline (exclusion from fellowship “until such a time,” 5:2,5,13, with restoration in view, cf. 2 Cor 2:6-8). Readers may default to the hadd-punishment framework as the expected response to this word; the note must clarify these are different remedy categories entirely (spiritual/relational vs. civil/criminal), and that the goal of church discipline is redemptive, not punitive.

ζύμη (zymē) — NEW

Literal meaning: “leaven, yeast”
Semantic range: a small corrupting agent that spreads through the whole; drawn from Passover unleavened-bread imagery
English variants: “leaven,” “yeast”
Contextual meaning: 5:6-8 — tolerated sin is like leaven that will corrupt “the whole lump”; the church is to be “unleavened,” consistent with its identity as those for whom “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”
Arabic rendering: الخمير (al-khamīr); “unleavened” = فطير (faṭīr) — Low-Medium risk. Note: this draws on shared Torah/Exodus background (Passover) already familiar to Arabic-speaking readers with Jewish/Christian scriptural exposure; low independent collision risk, but the Passover-lamb typology (Christ as Passover sacrifice) should be explained for readers without OT background.

παραδοῦναι τῷ Σαταν᷇ (“to hand over to Satan,” 5:5) — NEW

Semantic range: a severe act of church discipline placing an unrepentant member outside the church’s protective covering, into the sphere where Satan is allowed to work discipline/consequence, with a stated redemptive goal (“that his spirit may be saved”).
Arabic rendering: تسليمه للشيطان (taslīmuhu li-al-shayṭān) — Medium-High risk. Note: must be clearly framed as formal church discipline (removal from fellowship/covenant community), not a magical curse, exorcism formula, or a claim that a demon will literally seize the person; the stated purpose (“that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord”) must remain visible so the act reads as severe-but-restorative, not vindictive.

κρίνω (krinō, “to judge”) — 5:12-13, contextual: “judge those inside [the church]… God judges those outside.” Arabic: يحكم / يدين (yaḥkumu / yadīnu) — Low-Medium risk; note the careful inside/outside distinction Paul draws, relevant also to ch.6’s lawsuits.

Chapter 6 — Lawsuits, the Body as Temple

κριτήριον / κρίνεσθαι (lawsuits/going to law before unbelievers, 6:1-8) — NEW

Semantic range: taking a grievance to a civil court, specifically before unbelieving judges
Contextual meaning: Paul rebukes believers suing one another in pagan courts instead of resolving disputes within the church.
Arabic rendering: التقاضي / الخصومات القضائية (al-taqāḍī / al-khuṣūmāt al-qaḍā’iyyah) — Medium risk. Note: relevant, practically, in contexts where Christian minority communities may have limited trust in, or limited standing before, civil courts shaped by a different legal tradition; teaching notes should distinguish the first-century pagan-court situation from any implication that Christians today should never use civil courts.

σῶμα (sōma, “body”) — NEW (first extended theological development)

Literal meaning: “body,” physical body
Semantic range: ranges from the individual physical body (6:13-20) to the corporate “body of Christ” (ch.12) to the resurrection body (ch.15) — one Greek word carrying at least three distinct theological freight-loads across the letter
English variants: “body”
Contextual meaning: 6:19-20 — “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit… you were bought with a price… glorify God in your body.” Sexual sin is uniquely a sin against one’s own body (6:18).
Arabic rendering: الجسد (al-jasad) — High risk (context-sensitive across the whole letter; must track which of the three senses — individual physical body, corporate church-body, resurrection body — is active in a given passage, similar to the baseline’s caution on “called”). Note: established Christian Arabic usage of الجسد (rather than الجسم, more generic/secular “body”) for theologically-loaded body references; retain الجسد for consistency with “body of Christ” (ch.12) and “spiritual body” (ch.15).

ναὸς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος — combines ναός (ch.3 note) with الروح القدس REUSE, Critical risk per baseline. Contextual shift: here the temple metaphor applies to the individual believer’s body, not the corporate church as in 3:16 — this shift itself should be flagged so translators do not collapse the two senses into an identical rendering without noting the referent change.

ἠγοράσθητε τιμῆς (“you were bought with a price,” 6:20) — NEW

Semantic range: purchase/redemption language, likely drawing on the slave-market manumission image
Contextual meaning: believers belong to God, having been purchased at a cost (implicitly, the cross) — grounds the ethical appeal to honor God with the body.
Arabic rendering: اشتُريتم بثمن (ushtaraytum bi-thaman) — Medium-High risk. Note: this redemption-purchase image intersects with the same substitutionary-atonement collision flagged Critical under 15:3 (ὑπέρ) — the “price” paid is Christ’s death on believers’ behalf; should not be flattened to a generic “price of belonging” without that connection surfaced.

Chapter 7 — Marriage and Singleness

γάμος (gamos, “marriage”) — NEW. Arabic: الزواج (al-zawāj) — Low risk; shared institution, though Paul’s monogamous, mutual-authority framework (7:2-4, “the wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband; likewise the husband…”) assumes lifelong monogamy, which should be noted against the backdrop of religiously permitted polygamy in the destination culture’s dominant tradition, without necessarily flagging polygamy itself as the chapter’s topic.

ἄγαμος (agamos, “unmarried”) / παρθένος (parthenos, “virgin,” used broadly for the unmarried in this chapter) — NEW

Literal meaning: “unmarried,” “virgin”
Semantic range: the state of not being (or not yet being) married; celibate singleness
English variants: “unmarried,” “virgins,” “single”
Contextual meaning: 7:7-8, 25-38 — Paul commends singleness as a valid, even in some respects advantageous, calling for undivided devotion to the Lord, explicitly calling it a χάρισμα (gift, see below) “just as” marriage is — not a lesser or incomplete state.
Arabic rendering: العزوبة / غير المتزوج (al-‘uzūbah / ghayr al-mutazawwij); العذراء (al-‘adhrā’) for “virgin” specifically — High risk. Doctrine: “Marriage and Singleness.” This is a genuine doctrinal-cultural collision point comparable in weight to the baseline’s caution on “law”: a well-known hadith states “there is no monasticism/celibacy in Islam” (lā rahbāniyyata fī al-Islām), and marriage carries strong sunnah (normative prophetic-example) status alongside intense social expectation across most Arab cultural contexts regardless of religious affiliation. Romans-adjacent teaching that frames singleness as spiritually equal or even situationally preferable to marriage (7:38, “he who refrains from marriage will do even better”) runs directly against this default and must be taught deliberately, not assumed as neutral ground. Note also العذراء shares its title with Mary (العذراء مريم), a positively-regarded figure in Islamic tradition as well — generally a safe resonance, worth noting as a minor bridge point.

χάρισμα (charisma, singular, 7:7) — NEW, related to REUSE family “spiritual_gifts” (المواهب الروحية). Here used for the specific “gift” of either marriage or celibacy that God grants each person. Arabic: الموهبة (al-mawhibah), singular form — Medium risk; should be clearly linked to the broader spiritual-gifts doctrine (ch.12) so readers see both marital states as Spirit-apportioned callings, not human achievements or defaults.

κλῆσις — REUSE — الدعوة (al-da‘wah), High risk per baseline (7:17-24, “each in the calling in which he was called” — used here for one’s providential life-situation, e.g. circumcised/uncircumcised, slave/free, married/unmarried, at the time of God’s call).

Chapter 8 — Christian Liberty and Idol Meat

εἴδωλον (eidōlon, “idol”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “image, likeness, idol”
Semantic range: an image representing a false god; by extension, the false god itself
English variants: “idol”
Contextual meaning: 8:4 — “an idol has no real existence” and “there is no God but one” — Paul’s argument is not that idols are dangerous rival powers, but that they are ontologically nothing; the danger is entirely in the conscience of the “weaker” believer, not in the food itself.
Arabic rendering: الوثن / الأوثان (al-wathan / al-awthān) — Medium risk. Note: established, Quranic-shared vocabulary (idol-worship is condemned in both traditions), a genuine point of shared moral ground. The risk is not the word but Paul’s specific argument-structure (idols are nothing; food itself is religiously neutral; the real issue is love and conscience) being flattened into a simpler avoidance-only ethic.

εἰδωλόθυτον (eidōlothyton, “food/meat sacrificed to idols”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “that which has been sacrificed to idols”
Semantic range: meat from animals ritually offered in pagan temple worship, later sold in the marketplace or served at meals
English variants: “food sacrificed to idols,” “food offered to idols”
Contextual meaning: the central practical question of chapters 8 and 10 — may a believer eat such meat?
Arabic rendering: ما ذُبح للأوثان / طعام الأصنام (mā dhubiḥa lil-awthān / ṭa‘ām al-aṣnām) — High risk. Doctrine: “Christian Liberty and Idol Meat.” This is a striking direct-collision category: Islamic dietary law (Quran 2:173, 5:3, 6:145) explicitly forbids “that which has been dedicated/slaughtered to other than Allah” (mā uhilla li-ghayri Allāhi bih) as an absolute, non-negotiable prohibition integrated into the halal/haram legal system. Paul’s argument is considerably more nuanced and, on its face, more permissive in principle (the food itself is not defiled, since idols are nothing; the constraint is love for the conscience of others, not the food’s intrinsic status) — a structure that could easily be misheard by a reader steeped in absolute halal/haram categories as either dangerously lax or as confirming that “Christians don’t take food dedicated to false gods seriously.” Requires deliberate, careful framing distinguishing Paul’s principle-plus-love-limited-liberty approach from the halal/haram absolute-prohibition category, without implying Paul is indifferent to idolatry itself (he is not — see ch.10’s warnings).

συνείδησις (syneidēsis, “conscience”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “conscience,” “co-knowledge” (moral self-awareness)
Semantic range: the inner faculty of moral judgment about one’s own actions
English variants: “conscience”
Contextual meaning: 8:7-12 — the “weak” conscience of a new believer, still forming right categories, must be protected by the “strong” believer’s voluntary restraint, even where the strong believer’s own liberty is theologically correct.
Arabic rendering: الضمير (al-ḍamīr) — Medium risk, standard term; the risk is conceptual (protecting others’ consciences as a limit on one’s own rights) rather than lexical.

ἐξουσία (exousia, “right, authority, freedom to act”) — NEW, distinct nuance from ἐλευθερία (see ch.9-10)

Contextual meaning: 8:9 — “take care that this right (ἐξουσία) of yours does not become a stumbling block.”
Arabic rendering: الحق / السلطة (al-ḥaqq / al-sulṭah) — Medium risk; must be distinguished in context from mere personal preference — this is a genuine theological right that is nonetheless to be voluntarily limited by love.

Chapter 9 — Apostolic Rights and Self-Denial

ἐλευθερία (eleutheria, “freedom, liberty”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “freedom,” “liberty”
Semantic range: the state of not being bound or obligated; here specifically Paul’s freedom as an apostle to receive support, which he voluntarily forgoes
English variants: “freedom,” “liberty,” “free”
Contextual meaning: 9:1,19 — “Am I not free?”…“though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all” — Christian liberty exercised through voluntary self-limitation for the sake of the gospel’s advance, developing the same theme as ch.8 and anticipating ch.10.
Arabic rendering: الحرية (al-ḥurriyyah) — Medium risk. Note: modern Arabic ḥurriyyah carries strong contemporary political/human-rights connotations (freedom of speech, political liberty) that can crowd out the specific theological sense here — freedom from a legitimate claim, voluntarily not exercised for love’s sake. Context must reinforce this self-limiting, others-oriented sense over a rights-assertion sense.

στέφανος (stephanos, “crown, wreath”) — NEW — athletic-games imagery (9:24-25), a perishable winner’s wreath contrasted with an imperishable reward. Arabic: الإكليل (al-iklīl) — Low-Medium risk, standard imagery; note connection to φθαρτός/ἄφθαρτος vocabulary developed fully in ch.15.

μισθός (misthos, “reward, wage”) — NEW, 9:17-18. Arabic: الأجر (al-ajr) — Medium risk. Doctrine caution: ajr is also a significant Islamic theological term (heavenly reward for righteous deeds, tied to the deeds-weighing framework already flagged Critical under “salvation” in the baseline). Must be clearly framed here as a ministry-specific reward tied to gospel proclamation freely given (Paul preaches “free of charge” precisely so no one can say he preaches for ajr), not as a description of how salvation itself is obtained.

εὐαγγέλιον — REUSE, repeated emphasis in this chapter (9:12,14,16,18,23) on gospel proclamation “free of charge” — reinforces “grace” doctrine’s works/merit contrast.

Chapter 10 — Warnings from Israel’s History; the Lord’s Table vs. the Table of Demons

τύπος (typos, “type, example, pattern”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “mark, pattern, model” (originally the impression left by a stamp)
Semantic range: a foreshadowing pattern; an OT event or figure that prefigures a NT reality
English variants: “example,” “type,” “warning”
Contextual meaning: 10:6,11 — Israel’s wilderness failures (idolatry, immorality, testing God, grumbling) “happened to them as an example (τύποι), and were written down for our instruction.”
Arabic rendering: مثال / رمز (mithāl / ramz) — Medium risk, standard typological-hermeneutic vocabulary; low independent collision risk, though the whole typological reading-method (Christ and the church prefigured in the OT text) is itself an interpretive move distinct from, though not incompatible with, methods of reading sacred text more familiar in the destination culture; a brief methodological note may help readers unfamiliar with typology as a genre.

πειρασμός (peirasmos, “temptation, testing”) — NEW, 10:13 (“God is faithful… he will provide a way of escape”). Arabic: التجربة (al-tajribah) — Low risk, standard.

τράπεζα κυρίου vs. τράπεζα δαιμονίων (“the table of the Lord” vs. “the table of demons,” 10:21) — NEW

Semantic range: sharing a sacred communal meal signifies real participation/fellowship (κοινωνία) with the spiritual reality the meal is associated with — one cannot participate in both.
Contextual meaning: directly anticipates the Lord’s Supper teaching of ch.11; grounds Paul’s warning against idol-temple participation not in the food’s intrinsic properties (ch.8’s point) but in the meal’s covenantal-fellowship significance.
Arabic rendering: مائدة الرب / مائدة الشياطين (mā’idat al-Rabb / mā’idat al-shayāṭīn) — High risk. Note: pairs directly with the Lord’s Supper doctrine (ch.11) and should use identical vocabulary for “table”/“cup” across both chapters for consistency; also intersects with the idol-meat collision noted in ch.8 (mā’idat al-shayāṭīn functions as Paul’s own sharpest statement that idolatry, while ontologically “nothing” in itself, has a real spiritual danger in willful participation with demonic reality behind it).

ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας (“the cup of blessing,” 10:16) / κοινωνία — REUSE κοινωνία (الشركة) applied here specifically to the Lord’s Supper cup and bread as “participation in the blood of Christ” / “participation in the body of Christ” — see ch.11 for full Lord’s Supper treatment; flag High risk here as the doctrine’s first appearance in the letter.

Chapter 11 — Head Covering, Order, and the Lord’s Supper

κεφαλή (kephalē, “head”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “head” (the physical head)
Semantic range: literal head; metaphorically, source, prominence, or authority-in-relationship (contested among scholars regarding the precise metaphorical force in 11:3)
English variants: “head”
Contextual meaning: 11:3 — “the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God” — establishes a relational ordering invoked to explain head-covering practice in worship.
Arabic rendering: الرأس (al-ra’s) — High risk. Doctrine: intersects with contemporary debates on gender roles and authority; the metaphorical “head” sense must be handled with the same theological care as any passage bearing on church-order and gender, flagged for theologian review per the escalation pattern already established in the baseline for contested passages.

κατακαλύπτω / ἀκατακάλυπτος (“to cover the head” / “uncovered,” 11:4-7,13) — NEW

Semantic range: the specific first-century Corinthian practice of women covering their heads (and men not covering theirs) during worship/prophesying, tied to honor/shame conventions of the period
Arabic rendering: تغطية الرأس (taghṭiyat al-ra’s) — High risk — flagged explicitly for careful handling. Doctrine note: do NOT render this using الحجاب (al-ḥijāb). While etymologically related, حجاب in contemporary Arabic usage denotes the entire, highly specific, and religiously and socially loaded modern Islamic legal-devotional practice and its associated debates — importing that term would make Paul’s culturally-specific first-century instruction read as either endorsing or engaging the modern hijab debate directly, which is a category error the source text does not make. Use the more neutral, descriptive تغطية الرأس / غطاء الرأس (ghiṭā’ al-ra’s) instead, and flag the passage overall for human theologian review given its ongoing contested status even among Bible translators as to how much is culturally-bound practice versus enduring principle.

δόξα / εἰκών (“glory” / “image,” 11:7) — δόξα REUSE المجد, High risk; εἰκών NEW — الصورة (al-ṣūrah), Low-Medium risk, standard “image of God” vocabulary (cf. Genesis 1:26-27 background).

κυριακὸν δεῖπνον (“the Lord’s Supper,” 11:20) — NEW

Literal meaning: “the Lord’s dinner/supper”
Semantic range: the communal sacramental meal commemorating Christ’s death, instituted at the Last Supper
English variants: “the Lord’s Supper,” “the Lord’s Table,” “Communion”
Contextual meaning: 11:17-34 — Paul corrects abuses (factional eating, gluttony while others go hungry) and re-grounds the practice in the words of institution (11:23-26).
Arabic rendering: عشاء الرب (‘ashā’ al-Rabb) — High risk. Doctrine: “The Lord’s Supper.” Established rendering across Arabic Christian traditions (Van Dyck and successors); the doctrinal risk is not the term itself but the “body and blood” language in the words of institution (see below), which intersects with the Quran’s own absolute dietary prohibition on consuming blood (Quran 2:173, 5:3, 6:145 — “forbidden to you is… blood”). This is a genuine, non-trivial collision point requiring explicit teaching that the Supper is a sacramental, symbolic-yet-real participation (κοινωνία, ch.10) in Christ’s sacrifice, not literal blood consumption — a clarification with deep roots in historic Christian-Muslim polemical exchange and therefore one the curriculum should anticipate rather than avoid.

τὸ σῶμά μου… τὸ αἷμά μου (“my body… my blood,” 11:24-25) — σῶμα REUSE stem (see ch.6 note); αἷμα NEW — الدم (al-dam) — High risk, per the note directly above.

ἀνάμνησις (anamnēsis, “remembrance,” 11:24-25) — NEW

Literal meaning: “remembrance, memorial”
Semantic range: an act of calling something to mind, often ritually/liturgically (“do this in remembrance of me”)
Arabic rendering: الذكرى / التذكار (al-dhikrā / al-tidhkār) — Medium risk. Note: root ذ-ك-ر (dh-k-r) is the same root as ذِكْر (dhikr), the major Islamic devotional practice of ritual repetition/remembrance of God’s names, often performed communally or in Sufi contexts with distinctive rhythmic/repetitive form. The underlying concept of “remembering God” is broadly shared and not inherently problematic, but the Lord’s Supper’s remembrance is a specific, historically-anchored, once-instituted sacramental meal tied to a particular past event (Christ’s death), not a repeatable devotional technique for cultivating God-consciousness in general; this distinction is worth surfacing so ἀνάμνησις is not assimilated into a dhikr-practice framework.

ἀναξίως (“in an unworthy manner,” 11:27) / διακρίνων τὸ σῶμα (“discerning/recognizing the body,” 11:29) — NEW

Contextual meaning: warns against careless or divisive participation in the Supper without recognizing its significance or the unity of the body it represents — the reason some among the Corinthians were experiencing sickness and death (11:30).
Arabic rendering: بطريقة غير مستحقة (bi-ṭarīqah ghayr mustaḥiqqah) / تمييز الجسد (tamyīz al-jasad) — Medium-High risk. Note: must avoid two extremes — reducing this to a magical/mechanical cause of illness, or, conversely, evacuating it of all seriousness; teach as God’s disciplinary care for the church’s holiness, consistent with ch.5’s discipline doctrine.

Chapter 12 — Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ

χαρίσματα — REUSE — المواهب الروحية (al-mawāhib al-rūḥiyyah), Medium risk per baseline (Spiritual Gifts doctrine). Contextual note: ch.12 gives the fullest NT catalogue of specific gifts (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues) and their single divine source (“the same Spirit… apportions to each one individually as he wills,” 12:11) — reinforcing that gifts are Spirit-given enablements, not merit-earned or self-cultivated powers.

σῶμα Χριστοῦ (“the body of Christ”) — combines REUSE σῶμα (see ch.6 note) with Χριστοῦ — NEW compound doctrinal term

Contextual meaning: 12:12-27 — the church as a single, diverse, interdependent organism, each member (μέλος) necessary and honored regardless of apparent rank.
Arabic rendering: جسد المسيح (jasad al-Masīḥ) — High risk. Doctrine: “Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ” / “Christian Unity versus Factionalism.” Note: this metaphor directly counters the factionalism of ch.1 and the status-competition implicit in gift-ranking; must be taught as organic interdependence and mutual honor, not a hierarchy replicating the world’s status structures — and must not be confused with the individual-body-as-temple sense of ch.6 or the corporate-temple sense of ch.3, even though all three use σῶμα/ναός-family vocabulary.

μέλη (melē, “members, body parts”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “limbs, body parts”
Semantic range: individual parts of a body, each with a distinct function
Arabic rendering: الأعضاء (al-a‘ḍā’) — Low-Medium risk, standard.

Ἰησοῦς Κύριος (“Jesus is Lord,” 12:3) — REUSE, both terms Critical per baseline. Contextual note: “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” — ties the Lordship confession directly to the Spirit’s work, the same confession flagged for verbatim consistency in the baseline (Romans 10:9); ensure identical Arabic rendering (يسوع هو الرب) is used here.

Chapter 13 — Love as the Greater Way

ἀγάπη (agapē, “love”) — NEW, Critical priority new term

Literal meaning: “love”
Semantic range: selfless, willed, others-oriented love, distinct from ἔρως (romantic/desiring love) or φιλία (friendship affection); in the NT, the defining quality of God’s own character and the highest Christian virtue, “greater” even than faith and hope (13:13) or the most impressive spiritual gifts (13:1-3)
English variants: “love,” “charity” (KJV)
Contextual meaning: ch.13 is the letter’s — and arguably the NT’s — most sustained meditation on ἀγάπη, functioning as the corrective standard against which the Corinthians’ gift-competition (ch.12,14) and factionalism (ch.1) are measured: gifts without love are “nothing” (13:2).
Arabic rendering: المحبة (al-maḥabbah) — High risk. Doctrine: “Love as the Greater Way.” Established Christian Arabic term (root ح-ب-ب), distinguished in Christian usage from الحب (al-ḥubb), used more broadly for romantic, familial, or general affection in everyday and literary Arabic. The specific risk is not the choice of root but the term’s resonance with Sufi mystical love-devotion vocabulary (حب إلهي, ḥubb ilāhī; عشق, ‘ishq, in some Sufi poetic traditions — e.g., Rabi’a al-‘Adawiyya, Ibn ‘Arabi), where divine love language often functions within a framework of the self’s dissolution or absorption into the divine (fanā’). Pauline ἀγάπη in 1 Corinthians 13 is not a mystical absorption-experience but a concrete, describable, relational ethic (patient, kind, not envious or boastful, not insisting on its own way, bearing and enduring all things) exercised between distinct persons — God toward humanity, and believers toward one another. Context must reinforce this relational-ethical sense over a mystical-absorption sense; alternatives_rejected: الحب (too generic/romantic-coded for the doctrinal weight required), العشق (too strongly tied to Sufi mystical-erotic devotional poetry).

πίστις, ἐλπίς, ἀγάπη (“faith, hope, love,” 13:13) — πίστις REUSE الإيمان; ἐλπίς NEW — الرجاء (al-rajā’) — Medium risk, standard hope-vocabulary, low independent collision (رجاء is an established, positive Christian Arabic theological term; distinguish from generic optimism).

Chapter 14 — Tongues, Prophecy, and Order in Worship

γλῶσσαι (glōssai, “tongues”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “tongues, languages”
Semantic range: either known human languages or Spirit-given ecstatic/unknown speech requiring interpretation; a debated gift regulated heavily in this chapter
English variants: “tongues,” “other languages”
Contextual meaning: Paul relativizes tongues below prophecy for corporate worship because prophecy edifies the whole assembly while uninterpreted tongues do not (14:1-19).
Arabic rendering: الألسنة / التكلم بألسنة (al-alsinah / al-takallum bi-alsinah) — Medium-High risk. Note: some Sufi devotional orders practice ecstatic, sometimes glossolalia-like or trance-induced vocalization during dhikr/hadra rituals; while the phenomenological resemblance is worth being aware of, the doctrine must be taught as an orderly, intelligible-when-interpreted, Spirit-given sign gift regulated for the church’s edification (14:26-33, “let all things be done for building up… God is not a God of disorder but of peace”), not an uncontrolled ecstatic or trance state.

ἑρμηνεία (hermēneia, “interpretation”) — NEW

Contextual meaning: the companion gift required for tongues to be beneficial in corporate worship (14:5,13,27-28).
Arabic rendering: الترجمة (al-tarjamah) — Medium risk. Note: avoid تفسير (tafsīr) for this term. تفسير is the major, specific Islamic technical term for the scholarly discipline of Quranic exegesis/commentary; using it here would create an unintended and misleading resonance suggesting “interpretation of tongues” belongs to the genre of formal scriptural commentary rather than a spontaneous Spirit-given rendering of an utterance spoken in worship. الترجمة (translation/rendering) avoids this collision.

οἰκοδομή — REUSE family (Mutual Edification, Low risk per baseline doctrine registry) — البنيان (al-bunyān), repeated as the chapter’s controlling value (14:3,4,5,12,17,26).

τάξις / εὐσχημόνως (“order” / “decently, becomingly,” 14:40, “let all things be done decently and in order”) — NEW

Arabic rendering: بلياقة وبنظام (bi-liyāqah wa-niẕām) — Low-Medium risk, standard. Doctrine: “Order in Worship.” Low independent collision risk; the value of orderly, non-chaotic corporate worship is broadly shared across the destination culture’s religious traditions and can function as a point of resonance rather than tension.

γυναῖκες… σιγάτωσαν (“women should keep silent,” 14:34-35) — this is a contested-interpretation passage within Christian scholarship itself (regarding scope and cultural specificity), not primarily a term-translation issue; flag for human theologian review per the baseline’s escalation pattern for passages touching gender and church order (cf. ch.11 head-covering note), rather than treating it as settled vocabulary.

Chapter 15 (vv. 12-58) — The Resurrection of Believers (continuation beyond the core passage)

Verses 1-11 received full verse-by-verse treatment above. The remainder of the chapter introduces the following load-bearing terms:

ἀπαρχή (aparchē, “firstfruits,” 15:20,23) — NEW

Literal meaning: “the first portion of a harvest,” offered to God and guaranteeing the rest of the harvest to come
Semantic range: a first installment that both represents and guarantees a larger whole
Contextual meaning: “Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” — Christ’s resurrection is not an isolated miracle but the guarantee and pattern of believers’ future bodily resurrection.
Arabic rendering: الباكورة (al-bākūrah) — Medium-High risk. Doctrine: “The Resurrection of Christ and Believers.” Established Christian Arabic agricultural-metaphor term; the risk is conceptual rather than lexical — readers must grasp that Christ’s resurrection guarantees believers’ own future resurrection as an organic, connected reality, not merely serve as an inspiring precedent.

Ἀδάμ / ὁ ἔσχατος Ἀδάμ (“Adam” / “the last Adam,” 15:22,45) — NEW

Semantic range: Adam as the first human, source of death for all connected to him (“in Adam all die”); Christ as “the last Adam,” a new federal head/source of resurrection life for all connected to him
Contextual meaning: establishes the federal-headship logic (parallel to the “in Adam”/Romans 5 argument already flagged High risk in the baseline under “sin” for its collision with fitrah doctrine) applied here specifically to death and resurrection rather than sin and guilt.
Arabic rendering: آدم / آدم الأخير (Ādam / Ādam al-akhīr) — High risk. Doctrine: shared Quranic figure (Adam is honored as the first human and first prophet in Islam), but the Quran has no “last Adam” typological category and no federal-headship theology in which one man’s action determines the destiny-class of all connected to him; this typological structure (already flagged for Romans 5) recurs here applied to resurrection and must be taught as a new theological category, not assumed to carry over automatically from the shared-figure recognition.

φθαρτός / ἄφθαρτος (“perishable / imperishable,” 15:42,50,53-54) — NEW

Semantic range: subject to decay and death vs. incapable of decay — describing, respectively, the present mortal body and the future resurrection body
Arabic rendering: فانٍ / لا يفنى (fānin / lā yafnā), or القابل للفساد / غير القابل للفساد — Medium risk; must remain consistent across the chapter’s several repetitions (15:42,50,53,54) for pedagogical clarity.

σῶμα πνευματικόν (“spiritual body,” 15:44) — NEW compound, combining REUSE σῶμα with πνευματικός (ch.2 note)

Semantic range: not an immaterial ghost/spirit, but a real, transformed, Spirit-empowered physical body suited to resurrection existence, contrasted with the present “natural body” (σῶμα ψυχικόν)
Contextual meaning: 15:35-49 — answers the Corinthian objection “how are the dead raised, with what kind of body?”
Arabic rendering: الجسد الروحاني (al-jasad al-rūhānī) — High risk. Doctrine note: two opposite misreadings must both be guarded against. (1) The rendering must not suggest a disembodied spirit/ghost (denying real bodily resurrection) — note that mainstream Islamic eschatology in fact affirms a real, bodily resurrection at Yawm al-Qiyāmah, which is a genuine point of shared ground and can serve as a bridge; the risk is losing that bridge by an over-spiritualized rendering. (2) Conversely, it must not be reduced to a mere restoration of the present mortal body unchanged — Paul insists on real transformation (“sown perishable, raised imperishable… sown in weakness, raised in power”). The Arabic must hold both realities together: a real body, yet gloriously transformed.

κέντρον τοῦ θανάτου / νῖκος (“sting of death” / “victory,” 15:54-57, quoting Hosea 13:14 and Isaiah 25:8) — NEW

Arabic rendering: شوكة الموت (shawkat al-mawt) / الغلبة (al-ghalabah) — Low-Medium risk, poetic OT-quotation imagery; low independent collision risk beyond ensuring the OT quotations are recognizable and consistent with any existing Arabic OT rendering tradition for these verses.

εἰ Χριστὸς οὐκ ἐγήγερται (“if Christ has not been raised,” 15:13-19) — REUSE resurrection vocabulary, Critical risk; this conditional argument (Paul’s reductio ad absurdum: without the resurrection, faith is “in vain,” preaching is “in vain,” and believers are “still in [their] sins”) is the theological backbone of the whole chapter and should be flagged for priority theologian review as a unit, alongside 15:1-11.

Chapter 16 — Closing: Collection, Greetings, Final Instructions

λογία (logia, “collection,” 16:1-2) — NEW

Semantic range: a gathered offering, here specifically for the relief of the Jerusalem church
Arabic rendering: جمع التبرعات / الجمع (jam‘ al-tabarru‘āt) — Low risk, practical/administrative vocabulary.

ἅγιοι — REUSE — القديسون, Medium-High risk per baseline (16:1, “the collection for the saints”).

ἀνάθεμα (anathema, “accursed,” 16:22, “if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed”) — NEW

Literal meaning: “given over to divine judgment/curse,” “devoted to destruction”
Semantic range: a formal pronouncement of exclusion from covenant blessing
Arabic rendering: محروم / ملعون (maḥrūm / mal‘ūn) — Medium-High risk. Note: this kind of formal communal-exclusion pronouncement bears a structural resemblance to takfīr (formally declaring someone outside the faith/apostate) in contemporary Islamic religious-legal discourse, a category with serious, sometimes life-threatening, real-world consequences in some contexts. The Pauline anathema here is a solemn, narrowly-scoped closing formula about the specific failure to love the Lord, not a general excommunication mechanism to be wielded broadly; teaching notes should note this resonance so the term is not read as inviting or legitimizing a general practice of religious-social exclusion, and should be handled with the same real-world safety awareness the baseline already flags for evangelism/apostasy-adjacent vocabulary.

Μαρανα θά (Marana tha, “Our Lord, come!” — Aramaic, retained untranslated in the Greek text itself, 16:22) — NEW

Semantic range: an early liturgical Aramaic prayer/acclamation for the Lord’s return
Arabic rendering: مرانا ثا (Marānā thā) — Low risk. Follow the baseline’s established precedent for “Abba” (retain the Aramaic transliteration rather than translating it), footnoting the meaning (“Our Lord, come!”) at first use.

φίλημα ἅγιον (“holy kiss,” 16:20) — NEW

Arabic rendering: قبلة مقدسة (qublah muqaddasah) — Low risk; primarily a cultural-adaptation note rather than a doctrinal one — many Arabic Bible translations retain the literal phrase while noting it functions as a formal greeting convention of the period, which may be rendered dynamically (e.g., “greet one another warmly in the Lord”) in less formal teaching contexts if the destination platform’s house style permits; the core passage translation itself should retain the literal phrase per Van Dyck/NAV convention.

κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός (closing benediction, 16:23) — REUSE, all three terms Critical/High per baseline; no new content, final reinforcement of consistent Christological titling through to the letter’s close.

Full-Book Coverage Confirmation

Chapter	New Load-Bearing Terms Introduced	Status
1	σχίσμα, ἔρις, σοφία, μωρία, σταυρός, σκάνδαλον	Reviewed — new terms present
2	ψυχικός, πνευματικός, μυστήριον	Reviewed — new terms present
3	ναός (corporate)	Reviewed — new term present
4	οἰκονόμος	Reviewed — new term present
5	πορνεία, ζύμη, παραδοῦναι τῷ Σαταν᷇	Reviewed — new terms present
6	κριτήριον, σῶμα (individual/temple), ἠγοράσθητε τιμῆς	Reviewed — new terms present
7	γάμος, ἄγαμος/παρθένος, χάρισμα (singular)	Reviewed — new terms present
8	εἴδωλον, εἰδωλόθυτον, συνείδησις, ἐξουσία	Reviewed — new terms present
9	ἐλευθερία, στέφανος, μισθός	Reviewed — new terms present
10	τύπος, πειρασμός, τράπεζα κυρίου/δαιμονίων	Reviewed — new terms present
11	κεφαλή, κατακαλύπτω, κυριακὸν δεῖπνον, ἀνάμνησις, διακρίνων τὸ σῶμα	Reviewed — new terms present
12	σῶμα Χριστοῦ, μέλη	Reviewed — new terms present
13	ἀγάπη, ἐλπίς	Reviewed — new terms present
14	γλῶσσαι, ἑρμηνεία, τάξις	Reviewed — new terms present
15:1-11	Full verse-by-verse core passage treatment (gospel, salvation, faith, tradition, scripture, Christ, sin, resurrection, appearance, apostle, church, grace, proclamation)	Core passage — complete
15:12-58	ἀπαρχή, Ἀδάμ/ἔσχατος Ἀδάμ, φθαρτός/ἄφθαρτος, σῶμα πνευματικόν	Reviewed — new terms present
16	λογία, ἀνάθεμα, Μαρανα θά, φίλημα ἅγιον	Reviewed — new terms present

Every chapter of 1 Corinthians has been reviewed. No chapter was found to contribute zero new theological vocabulary; each chapter’s load-bearing terms are catalogued above and carried into the glossary in 08_core_glossary.md.

Library content is free and openly licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — share and adapt it for non-commercial use, with attribution to tri-bible.ai.