Core Glossary
08 Core Glossary — 2 John (English ⇄ Arabic)
Purpose
This glossary compiles every load-bearing theological/cultural term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md across the whole of 2 John (1:1–13), with the destination-language (Arabic) rendering, risk tier, doctrine linkage, and — where applicable — the exact baseline Romans translation_memory.json entry being reused. This glossary must be merged into the project’s translation_memory.json before any Phase 2 segment translation of 2 John begins, per the baseline’s Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions.
Risk tiers follow the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions exactly:
- Critical — mistranslation destroys essential doctrine; human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or syncretism risk; human theologian review required.
- Medium — mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning; native speaker review recommended.
- Low — minor misunderstanding risk; automated review sufficient.
Section A: Terms Reused Exactly from Baseline Romans translation_memory.json
(No new rendering proposed. Enforce exactly as recorded in baseline. Listed here for cross-reference completeness in the 2 John curriculum.)
| English term | Arabic rendering | Transliteration | Baseline risk | Baseline doctrine | 2 John occurrence(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Father | الآب | al-Āb | Critical | Adoption into God’s Family / Sonship pairing | 1:3, 1:4, 1:9 |
| Son of God (Sonship doctrine) | ابن الله (adapted here as ابن الآب, “Son of the Father,” tracking Greek construction) | Ibn Allāh / Ibn al-Āb | Critical | Sonship of Christ | 1:3, 1:9 |
| Jesus | يسوع | Yasūʿ | Critical | Lordship of Christ | 1:3, 1:7 |
| Messiah/Christ | المسيح | al-Masīḥ | Critical | Messianic Promise | 1:3, 1:7, 1:9 |
| Incarnation (doctrine name/scaffolding) | التجسد | al-tajassud | Critical | Incarnation | 1:7 (doctrine underlying “coming in flesh”) |
| Grace | النعمة | al-niʿmah | High | Grace | 1:3 |
| Peace | السلام | al-salām | Medium | Peace with God | 1:3 (distinct from the greeting-word χαίρειν discussed in Section B) |
| Fellowship (positive sense, noun) | الشركة | al-sharikah | Medium | Christian Fellowship | Background reference only (v.11’s κοινωνεῖ deliberately does NOT use this noun — see Section B) |
| Election (root concept) | اختيار الله | ikhtiyār Allāh | High | Effectual Calling | Background reference for ἐκλεκτῇ (1:1, 1:13) |
| Apostle (comparison term) | الرسول | al-rasūl | High/Medium (per baseline TM/registry) | Apostleship | Background reference for “the Elder” (1:1) — see Section B “elder” for the distinct risk profile |
| God | الله | Allāh | Critical | Deity of Christ | Throughout |
Section B: New Terms Introduced by 2 John (Full Risk Assessment)
| # | English term | Greek original | Arabic rendering | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | Key passage(s) | Rationale summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Truth | ἀλήθεια | الحق | al-ḥaqq | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 | Shares its form with Al-Ḥaqq, one of the 99 names of Allah, but is also the unavoidable, established Van Dyck/NAV rendering throughout John’s writings (Jn 14:6). Must be taught as relational fidelity to apostolic testimony about Christ, not invocation of the divine name. |
| 2 | Love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | المحبة / يحب | al-maḥabbah / yuḥibbu | High | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:6 | Islamic maḥabbah (love of God) is typically responsive love conditioned on obedience to revealed law (Qur’an 3:31); Johannine agape flows from God’s prior unconditional love and command. Must be taught alongside النعمة (grace) to avoid merit-based collapse. |
| 3 | Commandment | ἐντολή | الوصية / وصية | al-waṣiyyah | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 | Must remain distinct from الشريعة/الشرع (per baseline’s Critical rejection of shari’a-vocabulary for νόμος); this is relational apostolic instruction rooted in love, not a legal-religious code. |
| 4 | Walk (conduct of life) | περιπατέω | يسلك | yasluku | Low–Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:4, 1:6 | Must render figuratively (ongoing conduct), never literal ambulation; well-attested Van Dyck idiom. |
| 5 | Deceiver(s) | πλάνος | المُضِلّ / المُضِلّون | al-muḍill / al-muḍillūn | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | Root echoes الضلال, the primary Qur’anic antonym of guidance (cf. Surat al-Fatiha) — a real conceptual bridge, but risks importing broad Islamic legal/heresy categories onto the narrower NT referent (denial of the incarnation specifically). Referent must stay fixed by context. |
| 6 | World (in opposition to God) | κόσμος | العالم | al-ʿālam | Low–Medium | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | Standard NT usage; ensure the Johannine negative sense is not flattened to neutral “physical world.” |
| 7 | Confess/acknowledge | ὁμολογέω | يعترف / معترفين بـ | yaʿtarifu / muʿtarrifīna bi- | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | Direct doctrinal parallel to the baseline’s Romans 10:9 confession rule; must retain full declarative force, no hedging. |
| 8 | Coming in the flesh (Incarnation clause) | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί | آتيًا في الجسد | ātiyan fī al-jasad | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | The letter’s single highest-stakes phrase; direct collision with Qur’an 4:157 (crucifixion denial) and tanzīh (embodiment “unthinkable” for God). Must never permit a “seeming/apparent” reading (shubbiha lahu). |
| 9 | Antichrist | ἀντίχριστος | ضدّ المسيح | didd al-Masīḥ | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | MUST NOT render as المسيح الدجال (the Islamic eschatological Dajjal figure, with extensive independent hadith-derived lore incompatible with 2 John’s own usage — a present, plural, doctrinal-error category, cf. 1 John 2:18’s “many antichrists”). Retain established Van Dyck calque ضدّ المسيح without exception. |
| 10 | Teaching of Christ | διδαχή τοῦ Χριστοῦ | تعليم المسيح | taʿlīm al-Masīḥ | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9, 1:10 | Must not be reduced to a legal-code sense (shari’a-adjacent) nor collapsed into “islam” (submission to revealed teaching) as itself the ground of standing before God; connects to baseline “obedience_of_faith” (طاعة الإيمان) — teaching is content persevered in, downstream of grace. |
| 11 | Remain/abide (in the teaching) | μένω | يثبت | yathbutu | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9 | Central verb for this curriculum’s fourth doctrine; must render ongoing perseverance, not mere initial belief. |
| 12 | Go beyond/transgress | προάγω | يتعدى | yataʿaddā | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9 | Conceptual parallel (pastoral, not lexical) to Islamic naskh (abrogation) logic of later revelation superseding earlier; v.9 explicitly condemns this “going beyond,” reversing that logic for Christian doctrine. |
| 13 | ”Has/does not have God” (idiom) | θεὸν ἔχει / οὐκ ἔχει | له الله / ليس له الله | lahu Allāh / laysa lahu Allāh | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9 | Established Van Dyck idiom for forfeited/retained saving relationship with God; must be glossed so it is not misheard as a claim about literal possession of a deity. |
| 14 | Reward/wage | μισθός | الأجر / أجرًا تامًا | al-ajr / ajran tāmman | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment (ministry fruitfulness) | 1:8 | Prefer أجر (established NT wage/recompense term) over ثواب (Islamic deeds-scale reward term), to avoid collision with the baseline’s Critical “salvation”/mīzān concerns; this reward concerns ministry-labor fruitfulness, not individual merit toward salvation. |
| 15 | Receive into the house (hospitality refusal) | λαμβάνετε εἰς οἰκίαν | تقبلوه في البيت | taqbalūhu fī al-bayt | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:10 | Directly overrides the near-sacred Middle Eastern hospitality obligation (ضيافة); must be scoped explicitly to a traveling teacher actively promoting incarnation-denial, not a general license to withhold hospitality broadly. |
| 16 | Greeting formula (χαίρειν, withheld) | χαίρειν | سلام (لا تقولوا له سلام) | salām (lā taqūlū lahu salām) | Critical (real-world/pastoral risk, distinct from doctrinal-content risk) | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:10–11 | سلام is functionally identical to the ubiquitous Arabic/Islamic social greeting “as-salāmu ʿalaykum.” A directive to withhold it risks being read as a directive to publicly refuse the standard social greeting — a serious real-world social/safety signal. Mandatory explicit teaching note scoping this to formal doctrinal/ecclesial endorsement of a specific false teacher, not ordinary social courtesy. |
| 17 | Share/participate (negative — complicity) | κοινωνεῖ | يشترك | yashtariku | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:11 | Must NOT use الشركة (baseline’s positive Christian-fellowship noun); use the plain verb, whose everyday negative sense (“shares in wrongdoing”) is unambiguous in context. |
| 18 | Elder (author’s self-title) | πρεσβύτερος | الشيخ | al-shaykh | High | (Authorial voice / apostolic authority background) | 1:1 | الشيخ is also the standard contemporary title for a Muslim religious scholar/cleric, carrying independent religious-authority weight; requires explicit note distinguishing the modest, relational NT eldership office from Islamic clerical authority, paralleling the baseline’s “apostle” note. |
| 19 | Elect lady / κυρία (address/addressee) | κυρία (address) → السيدة (المختارة) or transliterated كيرية | al-sayyidah (al-mukhtārah) / Kīriyā | Medium–High | (Background — Election root concept, and Lordship-title collision avoidance) | 1:1, 1:5 | Shares root κυρ- with the divine title “Lord” (baseline: الرب, Critical) though referring to an ordinary human addressee; must render as السيدة, never any construction implying divine lordship. Two legitimate interpretive traditions exist (proper name transliteration vs. generic honorific/personified-congregation reading) — footnote the ambiguity rather than silently resolving it. | |
| 20 | Mercy | ἔλεος | الرحمة | al-raḥmah | Medium | (Greeting formula, background to Grace) | 1:3 | Ar-Raḥmān/Ar-Raḥīm are prominent divine names in Islam — broadly compatible shared vocabulary (parallel to baseline’s “power_of_god” treatment), used here as its own distinct term, not a substitute for grace (per baseline’s explicit rejection of الرحمة as a grace-alternative). |
| 21 | Children (spiritual/familial ambiguity) | τέκνα | أولاد / أبناء | awlād / abnāʾ | Medium | (Background — Christian Identity / Church as God’s People) | 1:1, 1:4, 1:13 | Genuine literal/corporate ambiguity (individual woman’s children vs. congregation’s members) must be preserved, not resolved, in translation; footnote both readings at first use. |
Section C: Risk Summary for 2 John
| Risk tier | Count (new terms, Section B) | Review routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 4 (confess/acknowledge; coming in the flesh; antichrist; greeting formula χαίρειν) | Human theologian |
| High | 8 (love; deceiver; teaching of Christ; remain/abide; “has God” idiom; reward; receive into house; elder) | Human theologian |
| Medium | 8 (truth; commandment; world; go beyond/transgress; share/participate; κυρία/elect lady; mercy; children) | Native speaker review |
| Low–Medium | 1 (walk/conduct) | Native speaker review, leaning automated |
| Total new terms requiring theologian review | 12 | |
| Total new terms requiring native speaker review | 9 |
Combined with the baseline Romans registry (10 Critical / 19 High / 9 Medium / 2 Low doctrines), this curriculum adds a further concentration of Critical/High risk specifically around the Incarnation-denial passage (1:7–9) and the culturally volatile hospitality/greeting instruction (1:10–11) — both of which require deliberate, explicit teaching scaffolding beyond correct vocabulary alone, consistent with the baseline’s treatment of “resurrection_of_christ” and “evangelism.”
Section D: Notes for Phase 2 Translation Memory Merge
- All Section A terms: load from baseline
translation_memory.jsonunchanged — do not re-define. - All Section B terms: new entries to be appended to
translation_memory.jsonwith"curriculum": "2 John"tagging, following the same JSON schema as the baseline (fields: translation, transliteration, doctrine_risk, doctrine, alternatives_rejected, notes). - Terms #9 (antichrist), #16 (greeting formula), and #8 (coming in the flesh) require a
[TRANSLATOR NOTE]flag at every occurrence per the baseline AI Translation Requirements’ footnote convention, given their combination of doctrinal and real-world social/safety stakes. - Term #19 (κυρία) requires an editorial decision at the project level (transliterated proper name vs. generic honorific) BEFORE Phase 2 batch processing begins, to ensure consistency across all lesson materials referencing 2 John 1:1, 1:5, and 1:13.
Critical Risk Terms
Antichrist
Approved rendering: ضدّ المسيح
Transliteration: didd al-Masīh
Doctrine: Antichrist and False Teachers
Rejected alternatives: المسيح الدجال
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: False Teaching
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:7. Render the established Van Dyck calque ضدّ المسيح. MUST NOT render المسيح الدجال, the specific, richly-elaborated Sunni hadith-derived end-times figure (one-eyed, forty-day reign, defeated at a named location) - foreign to 2 John’s plural, present, doctrinal-error category (cf. 1 John 2:18’s ‘many antichrists’). Mandatory [TRANSLATOR NOTE] at every occurrence, and never used even in explanatory footnotes as an equivalence.
Coming In Flesh
Approved rendering: آتيًا في الجسد
Transliteration: ātiyan fī al-jasad
Doctrine: Incarnation Denial by Deceivers / Confession of Christ’s Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: ظهر في الجسد, جاء بشكل إنسان (paraphrase omitting جسد)
Original: ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί
Category: Christology
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:7. The letter’s single highest-stakes phrase. جسد must denote a real, physical body, never softened toward a merely apparent or spiritual coming - the exact point of collision with Qur’an 4:157’s crucifixion denial (shubbiha lahum, ‘it was made to appear so’) and tanzīh’s assumption that embodiment is unthinkable for God. Render the full clause literally every time; never a compressed one-word paraphrase. Mandatory [TRANSLATOR NOTE] at every occurrence, cross-referencing baseline ‘incarnation’ and ‘resurrection_of_christ’ apologetic-scaffolding requirements.
Confess
Approved rendering: يعترف بـ
Transliteration: ya’tarifu bi-
Doctrine: Confession of Christ’s Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: يقول بعضهم أن
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Christology
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:7. Directly parallel in weight to the baseline’s Romans 10:9 confession rule (‘Jesus is Lord,’ never softened). The confession under dispute here is the Incarnation itself; the Arabic verb must retain full declarative force - never hedge into ‘some believe’ or ‘some say’ phrasing. Mandatory [TRANSLATOR NOTE] at every occurrence.
Father
Approved rendering: الآب
Transliteration: al-Āb
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family / Sonship of Christ
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. In 2 John 1:3, 1:4, and 1:9, the Father is named alongside the Son as the joint source of apostolic commandment and blessing, and as the object of the relationship at stake in the ‘has God’ idiom (1:9). The paired Father/Son risk from the baseline is heightened here: denying the Son’s incarnation is presented as forfeiting relationship with the Father as well.
God
Approved rendering: الله
Transliteration: Allāh
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. In 2 John 1:9, the object of the starkest statement of doctrinal stakes in the letter (‘does not have God’); see ‘has_god_idiom’ below.
Greeting Formula Withheld
Approved rendering: لا تقولوا له سلام
Transliteration: lā taqūlū lahu salām
Doctrine: Withheld Greeting and Complicity in Evil
Original: χαίρειν αὐτῷ μὴ λέγετε
Category: Hospitality
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:10-11. Established Van Dyck rendering. سلام is functionally identical in contemporary Arabic to the ubiquitous social/Islamic greeting ‘as-salāmu ‘alaykum’ used across the Arabic-speaking world regardless of religion - a directive to withhold it risks being read or applied as a directive to publicly, visibly refuse the standard social greeting to a named individual, carrying real social/safety stakes parallel to the baseline’s ‘evangelism’ flag. Mandatory [TRANSLATOR NOTE] at every occurrence, scoping the refused greeting strictly to formal doctrinal/ecclesial endorsement of an incarnation-denying traveling teacher, never ordinary social courtesy. Critical tier here reflects real-world/pastoral risk, distinct from doctrinal-content risk.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: التجسد
Transliteration: al-tajassud
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: الحلول, الظهور
Original: (doctrinal name; cf. ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί, 1:7)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged, used here as the doctrine name underlying 2 John 1:7’s diagnostic test. See ‘coming_in_flesh’ below for the exact scriptural clause. Never الحلول (Sufi pantheistic indwelling) or الظهور (mere appearance, echoing Qur’an 4:157’s shubbiha lahu crucifixion-denial language).
Jesus
Approved rendering: يسوع
Transliteration: Yasū’
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: عيسى
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Occurs in 2 John 1:3 and 1:7 as the subject of the incarnation-confession under dispute. Never render عيسى; the letter’s entire argument depends on a real, fleshly, historical Jesus, the opposite of the Qur’anic ‘Isa referent.
Messiah
Approved rendering: المسيح
Transliteration: al-Masīh
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Occurs in 2 John 1:3, 1:7, 1:9, always paired with ‘Jesus.’ Every occurrence must actively correct al-Masih’s pre-loaded Qur’anic content (honored prophet, not divine, not crucified) rather than assume neutrality.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: ابن الله
Transliteration: Ibn Allāh
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: الحبيب من الله, الكلمة من الله (بدون ‘ابن’)
Original: υἱός (τοῦ θεοῦ / τοῦ πατρός)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Governs 2 John 1:9’s ‘the Father and the Son’ pairing. See ‘son_of_the_father_construction’ below for 1:3’s grammatically distinct phrasing, which must carry identical doctrinal weight.
Son Of The Father Construction
Approved rendering: ابن الآب
Transliteration: Ibn al-Āb
Doctrine: Sonship and Deity of Christ in 2 John
Rejected alternatives: ابن الله (would obscure the letter’s own distinct grammatical construction, though doctrinally identical)
Original: τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ πατρός
Category: Christology
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:3 (τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ πατρός, ‘the Son of the Father’ rather than the more familiar ‘Son of God’). Render ابن الآب to track the Greek construction precisely. Must be taught as fully identical in doctrinal weight to ابن الله (the baseline’s Critical Sonship-of-Christ doctrine) - Arabic readers, already primed by Qur’an 112:3 (‘He neither begets nor is begotten’) and 19:35 to minimize father-son language applied to God, must not infer a lesser or merely relational title from the grammatical variation. Cross-reference baseline ‘son_of_god’ and ‘father’ entries.
High Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: الرسول
Transliteration: al-rasūl
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: المبعوث, التلميذ المرسل
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Background comparison term only - the Elder does not call himself an apostle in 2 John; see ‘elder’ below for the letter’s actual self-designation and its own distinct risk profile.
Deceiver
Approved rendering: المُضِلّون
Transliteration: al-muḍillūn
Doctrine: Incarnation Denial by Deceivers / Doctrinal Discernment and Self-Vigilance
Rejected alternatives: الكافرون
Original: πλάνος
Category: False Teaching
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:7. Root ض-ل-ل directly echoes الضلال, the primary Qur’anic antonym of هداية/guidance (cf. Surat al-Fatiha’s closing petition against الضالّين) - a genuine conceptual bridge, but risks importing the full weight of Islamic legal/heresy categories onto the narrower NT referent. The referent must stay fixed by context to v.7’s specific denial of the incarnation, never generalized moral or legal deviance or an implicit judgment on adherents of other faiths broadly.
Elder
Approved rendering: الشيخ
Transliteration: al-shaykh
Doctrine: Elder Authority and Pastoral Office
Original: ὁ πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:1 (ὁ πρεσβύτερος), the author’s self-designation. الشيخ is the established Christian Arabic rendering (cf. مجمع الشيوخ, council of elders), pre-Islamic in Christian usage, but is also the standard contemporary title for a Muslim religious scholar/cleric (‘Sheikh’) carrying substantial independent religious authority - parallel risk pattern to the baseline’s ‘apostle’ (الرسول) note. Requires an explicit distinguishing note so readers do not import Islamic clerical-authority connotations onto the author’s modest, relational pastoral self-designation.
Elect Lady
Approved rendering: السيدة المختارة
Transliteration: al-sayyidah al-mukhtārah
Doctrine: Election and Calling in Epistolary Address
Original: ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:1, 1:5 (ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ). κυρία shares the κυρ- root with the divine title ‘Lord’ (baseline: الرب, Critical, reserved exclusively for Christ’s supreme lordship) - must render as السيدة, an ordinary honorific, and never use any construction resembling الربة or otherwise implying divine lordship for this human addressee. Two legitimate interpretive traditions exist (transliterated proper name ‘كيرية’/Kīriyā vs. the generic honorific/personified-congregation reading adopted here as primary); the alternative proper-name reading is retained as a documented footnote option, not rejected outright - an editorial decision was made at the project level (see analysis/06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md §4) to adopt السيدة المختارة as primary while footnoting the ambiguity rather than silently resolving it.
Election
Approved rendering: اختيار الله
Transliteration: ikhtiyār Allāh
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: القدر
Original: ἐκλεκτός / ἐκλεκτῇ
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Background root-reference for ἐκλεκτῇ (‘elect,’ 1:1, 1:13). Do not import the full Romans-9-style determinism weight into 2 John’s simple epistolary honorific; see ‘elect_lady’ below for the actual address rendering.
Grace
Approved rendering: النعمة
Transliteration: al-ni’mah
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: الفضل, الرحمة
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. First term of 2 John 1:3’s tripartite blessing ‘grace, mercy, peace.’ Keep distinct from ‘mercy’ (الرحمة, new term below) in the same verse - do not merge grace’s unmerited-favor sense with mercy’s compassion sense.
Has God Idiom
Approved rendering: ليس له الله
Transliteration: laysa lahu Allāh
Doctrine: Relationship with the Father and Son Contingent on Right Doctrine
Rejected alternatives: لا يؤمن بالله
Original: θεὸν ἔχει / θεὸν οὐκ ἔχει
Category: Salvation
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:9 (positive form له الله and negative form ليس له الله). Established Van Dyck idiom for forfeited or retained saving relationship/fellowship with God; must be glossed at every occurrence so it is not misheard as a claim about literal possession of a deity, which could otherwise sound transactional or polytheistic-adjacent.
Love
Approved rendering: المحبة
Transliteration: al-maḥabbah
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love / Love Defined by Obedience
Rejected alternatives: الهوى
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum. Islamic maḥabbah (love of/for God) is typically responsive love conditioned on obedience to revealed law (Qur’an 3:31, ‘if you love Allah, follow me [Muhammad]’). Johannine agape in 2 John 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:6 moves in the same direction (love expressed through obedience, v.6) but is grounded in God’s own prior, unconditional love and command, not law-observance as the basis of favor. Must always be taught alongside النعمة (grace) to prevent merit-based collapse.
Receive Into House
Approved rendering: لا تقبلوه في البيت
Transliteration: lā taqbalūhu fī al-bayt
Doctrine: Hospitality Boundaries for False Teachers
Original: μὴ λαμβάνετε αὐτὸν εἰς οἰκίαν
Category: Hospitality
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:10. Directly overrides ضيافة, the near-sacred Middle Eastern hospitality obligation carrying very strong social and honor weight. Every occurrence requires an explicit scoping note restricting this to a traveling teacher actively promoting the specific incarnation-denial of 1:7/1:9 - not neighbors, strangers, or people of other faiths generally, and does not overturn the baseline’s positive hospitality mandate (Romans 12:13).
Remain Abide
Approved rendering: يثبت
Transliteration: yathbutu
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: يؤمن (loses the ongoing-perseverance sense)
Original: μένω
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:9 (twice). Central verb of the fourth curriculum doctrine; must convey ongoing, tested-over-time perseverance, never a single decisive declarative act (risk of a shahada-style one-time-confession misreading).
Reward
Approved rendering: أجرًا كاملًا
Transliteration: ajran kāmilan
Doctrine: Reward for Faithful Ministry
Rejected alternatives: ثوابًا كاملًا
Original: μισθὸν πλήρη
Category: Ministry
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:8. Prefer أجر (the established NT wage/recompense term, e.g. baseline’s أجرة for Romans 6:23’s ‘wages of sin’) over ثواب, the standard Islamic term for deeds-based heavenly reward within the mīzān (deeds-scale) framework the baseline registry already flags as incompatible with assured salvation. This reward concerns ministry-labor fruitfulness already invested among believers, not an individual’s meritorious accumulation toward personal salvation.
Teaching Of Christ
Approved rendering: تعليم المسيح
Transliteration: ta’līm al-Masīh
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: تعليم شرعي
Original: διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Christology
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:9, 1:10. Must not be reduced to a legal-code sense (shari’a-adjacent) nor collapsed into the Islamic category of ‘islam’ (submission to revealed teaching) as itself the ground of standing before God. Connects directly to the baseline’s ‘obedience_of_faith’ (طاعة الإيمان) framework: this teaching is content believed and persevered in, downstream of grace, not a law earning merit.
Medium Risk Terms
Children
Approved rendering: أولاد
Transliteration: awlād
Doctrine: Christian Identity and the Household of Faith
Original: τέκνα
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:1, 1:4, 1:13 (τέκνα). The genuine literal/corporate ambiguity (individual woman’s literal children vs. a congregation’s members) must be preserved, not resolved, in translation - footnote both readings at first use (1:1) rather than collapsing into a single interpretation.
Commandment
Approved rendering: الوصية
Transliteration: al-waṣiyyah
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love / The Commandment from the Beginning
Rejected alternatives: الشريعة, الشرع
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:4, 1:5, 1:6. Must be kept distinct from الشريعة/الشرع, mirroring the baseline’s Critical rejection of shari’a-vocabulary for νόμος/الناموس - this is relational apostolic instruction flowing from and expressing love, not an independent legal-religious code.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: الشركة
Transliteration: al-sharikah
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: الزمالة, الجماعة
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Background reference only for 2 John - the letter’s κοινωνεῖ (1:11) deliberately uses the negative verb form (يشترك), NOT this positive noun. Never use الشركة to render 1:11’s warning about complicity in evil works.
From The Beginning
Approved rendering: منذ البدء
Transliteration: mundhu al-bad’
Doctrine: The Commandment from the Beginning
Rejected alternatives: في البدء
Original: ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:5, 1:6 (ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς). Must be disambiguated from cosmological creation language (في البدء, Gen 1:1/Jn 1:1) - here it denotes the start of apostolic proclamation, not cosmic origin. Positive teaching bridge available: resonates with the target culture’s regard for the authority of the earliest generation of teaching (cf. al-salaf al-ṣāliḥ), usable pastorally to explain why the ‘old’ command is trustworthy precisely because it is original apostolic teaching.
Go Beyond
Approved rendering: يتعدى
Transliteration: yata’addā
Doctrine: Transgressing Beyond Apostolic Teaching
Rejected alternatives: يتقدم
Original: προάγω
Category: False Teaching
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:9. Condemns a false claim of theological ‘progress’ beyond the apostolic deposit; runs counter to the logic of Islamic naskh (abrogation), where later revelation supersedes and improves on earlier revelation. 2 John 1:9 reverses that logic entirely for Christian doctrine - this reversal must be surfaced pastorally, not left as an unexplained lexical choice.
Greets Positive
Approved rendering: تسلم عليك
Transliteration: tusallimu ‘alayka
Doctrine: Christian Identity and the Household of Faith
Original: ἀσπάζεταί σε
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:13 (ἀσπάζεταί σε, a distinct Greek verb from χαίρειν). Conventionally rendered in Arabic using the same سلام root as the withheld greeting of 1:10-11; teaching notes must distinguish this ordinary, positive family/congregational greeting from the doctrinally-loaded withheld-greeting discussion so the two are not confused as contradictory uses of the same root.
Mercy
Approved rendering: الرحمة
Transliteration: al-raḥmah
Doctrine: Grace, Mercy, and Peace from the Father and the Son
Original: ἔλεος
Category: God
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:3 (ἔλεος), the middle term of the letter’s tripartite opening blessing ‘grace, mercy, peace’ - a formula distinct from Paul’s usual two-part ‘grace and peace’ and absent from the baseline Romans package. Ar-Raḥmān/Ar-Raḥīm are among the most prominent of the 99 names of Allah, making this broadly compatible shared vocabulary (parallel to the baseline’s treatment of ‘power_of_god’), but per the baseline’s explicit rejection of الرحمة as an alternative for grace (النعمة), it must stand here as its own distinct term for compassionate mercy, never a synonym absorbing grace’s unmerited-favor sense.
Peace
Approved rendering: السلام
Transliteration: al-salām
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: الأمان, الطمأنينة
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Third term of 2 John 1:3’s tripartite blessing. Distinguish sharply from the greeting-word χαίρειν discussed under ‘greeting_formula_withheld’ below - unrelated Greek terms despite both touching ‘peace/greeting’ territory in English.
Share Participate
Approved rendering: يشترك
Transliteration: yashtariku
Doctrine: Withheld Greeting and Complicity in Evil
Rejected alternatives: الشركة (noun form)
Original: κοινωνεῖ
Category: False Teaching
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:11 (κοινωνεῖ). Do NOT use الشركة, the baseline’s noun reserved for positive Christian fellowship/koinonia - that would create serious confusion, implying ‘extending Christian fellowship’ is the condemned act, when the condemned act is complicity in evil works. Use the plain verb, whose everyday negative sense (‘shares in wrongdoing’) is unambiguous in context.
Truth
Approved rendering: الحق
Transliteration: al-ḥaqq
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum. Al-Ḥaqq is also one of the 99 names of Allah, giving it real theological weight, but it is the unavoidable, standard Van Dyck/NAV rendering throughout John’s writings (cf. Jn 14:6) with no viable substitute. Occurs 2 John 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4. Must be taught as relational fidelity to the apostolic testimony about Christ, not invocation of the divine name or mere creedal-recitation accuracy.
Watch Yourselves
Approved rendering: احترزوا لأنفسكم
Transliteration: iḥtarizū li-anfusikum
Doctrine: Doctrinal Discernment and Self-Vigilance
Original: βλέπετε ἑαυτούς
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:8 (βλέπετε ἑαυτούς). Teaching notes must keep the specific referent explicit (guarding against the incarnation-denying deceivers already named in v.7), so this is not read as a call to indiscriminate suspicion of all outsiders or people of other faiths generally.
World
Approved rendering: العالم
Transliteration: al-‘ālam
Doctrine: Incarnation Denial by Deceivers
Original: κόσμος
Category: False Teaching
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:7. Standard NT usage; ensure the negative, opposition-to-God sense (per Johannine usage elsewhere, e.g. 1 John 2:15-17) is not flattened into a neutral ‘physical world/universe’ reading.
Low Risk Terms
Walk
Approved rendering: يسلك
Transliteration: yasluku
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: يمشي
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum. Occurs 2 John 1:4, 1:6. Must always render figuratively as ongoing life-conduct, never literal ambulation (يمشي would lose the figurative sense); well-attested Van Dyck idiom (cf. baseline Romans 6:4, 8:4).