Core Glossary
08 Core Glossary — 3 John (English → Arabic)
Reused Baseline Terms (from Romans translation_memory.json — MUST match exactly)
| Term | Arabic | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | Reuse Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| church (ἐκκλησία) | الكنيسة | al-kanīsah | Medium | Church as God’s People | Reused verbatim. 3 John 1:6, 1:9, 1:10. Reinforce as living congregation, not building, consistent with baseline note. |
| peace (εἰρήνη) | السلام | al-salām | Medium | Peace with God (extended: epistolary blessing) | Reused verbatim. 3 John 1:14. Closing blessing sense, consistent with baseline’s relational/covenantal (not Sufi-tranquility) framing. |
| gentiles (ἐθνικός, cognate of ἔθνη) | الأمم | al-umam | Medium | Unity of Jews and Gentiles (extended) | Reused verbatim per baseline “gentiles” entry. 3 John 1:7. Add contextual note: here denotes non-believing host populations refusing payment from whom protects gospel motive — a narrower nuance than Romans’ neutral ethnic sense. Never substitute الكفار. |
New Terms Proposed for 3 John (pending Translation Memory update)
| Term (EN) | Arabic | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | Original Greek | Definition | Translation Notes / Alternatives Rejected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| elder | الشيخ | al-shaykh | High | Church Leadership | πρεσβύτερος | The author’s self-designation; a pastoral-oversight office/title. | Established Van Dyck/NAV rendering; retain. Risk is entirely referential: الشيخ is the primary Islamic honorific for clerics, Sufi masters, and tribal patriarchs. Context must anchor this as NT pastoral office, not Islamic religious authority. Alternatives considered: القس (“priest/pastor,” Syriac loan) — rejected as anachronistic register shift from established Johannine-epistle convention. |
| beloved | الحبيب | al-habib | Medium | Christian Fellowship / Truth and Fellowship | ἀγαπητός | Affectionate address to a fellow believer (Gaius, vv.1-2, 5, 11). | Established Van Dyck rendering for personal address; retain for this use only. Do NOT extend to a stand-alone Christological title (cf. baseline’s rejection of “الحبيب من الله” for Son of God) — al-Habib is a common devotional title for Muhammad in Sufi/folk piety. |
| love (noun/verb) | المحبة / يحب | al-mahabbah / yuhibb | Low-Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | Self-giving, willed love, expressed concretely in hospitality (vv.1, 6). | Broadly compatible vocabulary; anchor to Christ-centered covenantal love, not mystical-absorption (Sufi ishq/hubb ilahi) or romantic senses. |
| truth | الحق | al-Haqq | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship | ἀλήθεια | The reality of the gospel and consistent conduct flowing from it (vv.1, 3-4, 8, 12). | Established, correct, unavoidable Christian Arabic rendering — an inverse-risk case (correct word, loaded background), like “Messiah” in the baseline. Al-Haqq is one of the 99 Names of Allah. Every occurrence must anchor “truth” to the gospel of Christ, not an abstract metaphysical absolute. |
| testify / bear witness | يشهد | yashhadu | Critical | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | μαρτυρέω | Eyewitness/reputational attestation to observed character or conduct (vv.3, 6, 12). | Shares the ش-ه-د root with الشهادة (shahādah), the Islamic creedal confession — the First Pillar of Islam. Must be anchored every occurrence as testimony to observed character/conduct, never allowed to echo a creedal-confession formula. Route to human theologian review at every occurrence. |
| testimony | شهادة | shahādah | Critical | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | μαρτυρία | The noun form of the above; Demetrius’s well-attested reputation (v.12, used three times). | Same root-collision risk as μαρτυρέω, intensified by density (three uses in one verse). Highest-priority flag in the book for translator-note and theologian review. |
| walk (conduct oneself) | يسلك / يسير | yasluku / yasīru | Low-Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | περιπατέω | Habitual, observable conduct consistent with belief (vv.3-4). | Standard idiomatic Arabic Bible usage (سلوك، سيرة). Always pair with الحق so as not to read as generic good behavior. |
| faithful | أمين | amīn | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | πιστός | Gaius’s reliable, trustworthy conduct in hospitality (v.5). | Distinct adjective from πίστις/faith (already baseline’s High-risk الإيمان). Do NOT render as مؤمن (“believing one”), which would collapse this ethical-reliability term into the soteriological faith term and imply deeds constitute saving faith. |
| children (spiritual) | أولادي / أبنائي | awlādī / abnā’ī | Low-Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | τέκνα | The elder’s spiritual children, those he discipled (v.4). | Pastoral/relational, not forensic. Do not conflate with التبني (baseline’s Critical-risk “adoption” term, full legal inheritance status). |
| soul | النفس | al-nafs | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | ψυχή | The whole inner person — spiritual well-being and vitality (v.2). | Sufi/folk Islamic psychology treats al-nafs primarily as the lower ego needing subjugation (nafs al-ammārah); here ψυχή is holistic and positive. Context must clarify. |
| brothers | الإخوة | al-ikhwah | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers / Truth and Fellowship | ἀδελφός / ἀδελφοί | Fellow believers, esp. itinerant Christian workers (vv.3, 5, 10). | Standard Christian Arabic usage. Risk is sociological, not lexical: tribal/blood-kinship (qabīla) identity carries exceptional social weight in Arab culture; teach spiritual brotherhood as parallel to baseline’s “Christian Identity in Christ” doctrine (High risk). |
| stranger / guest | الغرباء | al-ghurabā’ | Low-Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | ξένος | Unknown traveling ministers received in hospitality (v.5). | Positive cultural bridge: resonates with classical Arab hospitality virtue (al-diyāfah, karam al-ḍayf). Clarify the NT motive is specifically gospel partnership (vv.7-8), not general honor-seeking generosity. |
| send on their way | يزوّدهم ويشيّعهم للسفر | yuzawwiduhum wa-yushayyi’uhum lil-safar | Low-Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | προπέμπω | Active provisioning and escort of a departing traveling minister (v.6). | Ensure the rendering conveys concrete material/logistical support, not mere polite farewell. |
| the Name | الاسم (اسم يسوع المسيح) | al-ism (ism Yasū’ al-Masīh) | Medium | Commendation of Faithful Witness / Truth and Fellowship | ὄνομα | Johannine shorthand for the name/person of Jesus Christ (v.7). | Must not be left bare/ambiguous; gloss explicitly at first occurrence as Christ’s name. |
| support / receive | نستضيفهم / نقبلهم | nastadhīfuhum / naqbaluhum | Low-Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | ὑπολαμβάνω | Material and hospitable reception of traveling ministers (v.8). | Standard hospitality vocabulary; no major collision. |
| fellow worker | متعاون / معاون (في خدمة الحق) | muta’āwin / mu’āwin | Medium-High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers / Truth and Fellowship | συνεργός | A partner sharing actively in gospel labor through hospitality (v.8). | AVOID شريك/شركاء (“partner[s]”) as primary rendering — root ش-ر-ك is shared with الشرك (shirk), the cardinal sin of partnering with God in Islamic theology. Prefer معاون/متعاون. |
| loves to be first / self-seeking leadership | يحب أن يكون الأول / حب الرئاسة | yuhibbu an yakūna al-awwal / hubb al-ri’āsah | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | φιλοπρωτεύω | Diotrephes’ status-seeking ambition within the church (v.9); NT hapax legomenon. | No direct religious-vocabulary collision, but strong resonance with honor/status culture; frame as a universal leadership sin applicable across traditions. |
| receive / accept | يقبل | yaqbalu | Low-Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) / Hospitality | ἐπιδέχομαι | Receiving a person’s presence or authority (vv.9-10). | Standard vocabulary. |
| gossip maliciously / slander | يفتري بكلام رديء | yaftarī bi-kalām radī’ | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | φλυαρέω (+ λόγοις πονηροῖς) | Diotrephes’ unfounded, malicious accusations against the apostolic delegation (v.10). | Convey malicious falsehood (iftirā’), leveraging the real cultural and religious weight of slander (ghība/iftirā’) ethics in Arab contexts. |
| hinder / prevent | يمنع | yamna’u | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | κωλύω | Diotrephes blocking others from receiving traveling ministers (v.10). | Standard vocabulary. |
| cast out (of the church) | يطرد (من الكنيسة) | yatrudu (min al-kanīsah) | Medium-High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | ἐκβάλλω | Unjust expulsion of faithful believers by an abusive leader (v.10). | Heavy honor-shame/exclusion resonance in Arab collectivist culture; also adjacent to apostasy-exclusion sensitivities for believers of Muslim background. Route for native-speaker cultural-sensitivity review; frame clearly as unjust expulsion, condemned by the text. |
| imitate | يقلّد / يحتذي بـ | yuqallidu / yahtadhī bi- | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | μιμέομαι | Modeling one’s conduct on a positive example (v.11). | Standard vocabulary. |
| good / evil | الخير / الشر | al-khayr / al-sharr | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | ἀγαθόν / κακόν | General moral categories contrasted as models to imitate or avoid (v.11). | Standard vocabulary. |
| do good / do evil (“is/is not from God”) | يفعل الخير / يفعل الشر | yaf’alu al-khayr / yaf’alu al-sharr | Medium-High | Imitating Good rather than Evil | ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω | Habitual moral conduct as evidence of one’s relationship with God (v.11). | Flag for theologian review: without careful framing, risks assimilation into a works-weighing (mīzān) soteriology. Footnote conduct as fruit/evidence of an existing relationship with God, not the means of securing it — hold in tension with baseline’s grace doctrine (Romans 4:4-5, 11:5-6). |
| has seen God (relational knowledge) | رأى الله / عرف الله معرفة حقيقية | ra’ā Allāh / ‘arafa Allāh ma’rifah haqīqiyyah | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | ἑωρακεν τὸν θεόν | Present relational/spiritual communion with God, evidenced by conduct (v.11); not physical/beatific vision. | Distinguish from Islamic ru’yat Allāh eschatological-vision debates; clarify referent is present relational knowledge, not future beatific sight. |
| true / truthful | حقيقية / صادقة | haqīqiyyah / ṣādiqah | Medium | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | ἀληθής | Describes the elder’s testimony about Demetrius as true (v.12). | Shares ح-ق root resonance with الحق (see “truth” above); no independent additional risk beyond that root note. |
| friends | الأحباء / الأصدقاء | al-ahibbā’ / al-asdiqā’ | Low-Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | φίλος / φίλοι | A warm, personal designation for believers, distinct from “brothers” (v.14). | Preserve the distinction from الإخوة (ἀδελφοί); the text itself uses two registers of relationship — do not collapse them into one Arabic term. |
Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference
| Curriculum Doctrine | Key Terms |
|---|---|
| Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | ξένος (stranger), προπέμπω (send on their way), ὑπολαμβάνω (support/receive), συνεργός (fellow worker), ὄνομα (the Name), ἐθνικός (Gentiles), πιστός (faithful), ἀδελφός (brothers) |
| Imitating Good rather than Evil | μιμέομαι (imitate), ἀγαθόν/κακόν (good/evil), ἀγαθοποιέω/κακοποιέω (do good/evil), ἑωρακεν τὸν θεόν (has seen God) |
| Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | φιλοπρωτεύω (loves to be first), ἐπιδέχομαι (receive), φλυαρέω (gossip/slander), κωλύω (hinder), ἐκβάλλω (cast out), ἐκκλησία (church, reused) |
| Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία (testify/testimony), ἀληθής (true), πιστός (faithful) |
| Truth and Christian Fellowship | ἀλήθεια (truth), ἀγάπη/ἀγαπάω (love), ἀδελφός (brothers), φίλος (friends), περιπατέω (walk), εἰρήνη (peace, reused) |
Escalation Summary for Phase 2
Route to Human Theologian Review (Critical/High):
- μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία (testify/testimony) — every occurrence (vv.3, 6, 12×3) — Critical
- πρεσβύτερος (elder) — v.1 — High
- ἀλήθεια (truth) — every occurrence (vv.1, 3, 4, 8, 12) — High
- συνεργός (fellow worker) — v.8 — Medium-High
- ἐκβάλλω (cast out of church) — v.10 — Medium-High
- ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω (do good/evil “from God”) — v.11 — Medium-High
Route to Native Speaker Review (Medium):
- ἀγαπητός (beloved), ψυχή (soul), ἀδελφός (brothers), πιστός (faithful), ὄνομα (the Name), ἐθνικός (Gentiles, reused), φιλοπρωτεύω (loves to be first), φλυαρέω (gossip/slander), ἀληθής (true), ἑωρακεν τὸν θεόν (has seen God), ἐκκλησία (church, reused), εἰρήνη (peace, reused)
Automated Review Sufficient (Low):
- εὔχομαι, εὐοδοῦσθαι, χαρά, τέκνα, ξένος, προπέμπω, ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ, ὑπολαμβάνω, ἐπιδέχομαι, κωλύω, μιμέομαι, ἀγαθόν/κακόν, φίλος, στόμα πρὸς στόμα, περιπατέω
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: الله
Transliteration: Allāh
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
CRITICAL: Allah is simply the Arabic word for God, used by Arabic-speaking Christians for centuries before and after Islam - no viable alternative exists. The risk is entirely in content, not vocabulary: Islamic tawhid’s strictly unitarian conception must be actively distinguished from the Trinitarian conception the same word denotes here. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE. In 3 John 1:11 (‘the one who does good is from God; the one who does evil has not seen God’) conduct functions as evidentiary fruit of an existing relationship with God, never a transactional means of securing it — guard against collapse into an Islamic deeds-weighing (mīzān) framework (Imitating Good rather than Evil doctrine).
Testify
Approved rendering: يشهد
Transliteration: yashhadu
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: μαρτυρέω
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
New term for 3 John. Eyewitness/reputational testimony to observed Christian character and conduct (1:3, 1:6, 1:12). Shares the ش-ه-د root with الشهادة (shahādah), the Islamic creedal confession of faith and First Pillar of Islam — the single most creedally loaded root in Arabic religious vocabulary. No viable alternative root exists in established Arabic Bible tradition; mitigation is contextual anchoring, not lexical avoidance. Every occurrence must be glossed/anchored as attestation to observed conduct, never allowed to resonate as a creedal confession formula. Route to human theologian review at every occurrence.
Testimony
Approved rendering: شهادة
Transliteration: shahādah
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: μαρτυρία
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
New term for 3 John. Noun form of testimony/attestation; Demetrius’s well-attested reputation, used three times within 1:12 alone — the highest concentration of any Critical-risk term in the curriculum. Same ش-ه-د root collision as ‘testify’ above, intensified by density. Permit light stylistic variation across the three occurrences in v.12 (شهادة / نشهد / يشهد) rather than forced identical repetition, provided the anchoring gloss to observed conduct is retained throughout. Mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence.
High Risk Terms
Cast Out
Approved rendering: يطرد (من الكنيسة)
Transliteration: yatrudu (min al-kanīsah)
Doctrine: Church Discipline and Unjust Expulsion
Rejected alternatives: يتجاهلهم, لا يرحب بهم
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
New term for 3 John. Forceful, unjust expulsion of faithful believers from the local congregation, wielded by Diotrephes as a tool of personal power (1:10). Do NOT soften to ‘ignores them’ or ‘does not welcome them’ — this understates the severity of the sin and weakens the doctrine’s warning against abusive authority. Expulsion/exclusion carries exceptional weight in Arab collectivist honor-shame culture, and in contexts where believers of Muslim background already risk social/familial exclusion for leaving Islam; must be framed unambiguously as the letter’s condemned act, never a model. Route for native-speaker cultural-sensitivity review in addition to theologian review.
Do Good Do Evil
Approved rendering: يفعل الخير / يفعل الشر
Transliteration: yaf’alu al-khayr / yaf’alu al-sharr
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
New term for 3 John. Habitual moral conduct as diagnostic evidence of one’s relationship with God: ‘is from God’ / ‘has not seen God’ (1:11). Read in isolation, outside its evidentiary (fruit-of-regeneration) function, this risks assimilation into an Islamic works-weighing (mīzān) framework where good deeds directly secure standing with God. Footnote conduct explicitly as fruit/evidence of an already-regenerate relationship with God, never a transactional cause of divine acceptance — hold in tension with the baseline’s grace doctrine (Romans 4:4-5, 11:5-6).
Elder
Approved rendering: الشيخ
Transliteration: al-shaykh
Doctrine: Pastoral and Apostolic Authority (the Elder)
Rejected alternatives: القس
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John. Established Van Dyck/NAV rendering, John’s self-designation (1:1). المشترك is the primary honorific for an Islamic religious scholar, Sufi spiritual master, or tribal patriarch — readers may reflexively import that near-absolute authority model onto ‘the elder.’ Must be anchored every occurrence as a NT collegial, accountable pastoral-oversight office — the very model of authority Diotrephes (1:9-10) illegitimately violates. القس (‘priest/pastor,’ a Syriac loan) rejected as an anachronistic register shift from established Johannine-epistle convention.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: متعاون / معاون
Transliteration: muta’āwin / mu’āwin
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: شريك, شركاء
Original: συνεργός
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New term for 3 John. A partner sharing actively in gospel labor by hosting and materially supporting itinerant ministers, ‘so that we may become fellow workers for the truth’ (1:8). AVOID شريك/شركاء (‘partner[s]’) as the primary rendering — the root ش-ر-ك is shared with الشرك (shirk), the cardinal Islamic sin of associating partners with God. Rendering this phrase with شركاء risks sounding like ‘partnering with God’ in exactly the register Islamic tawhid most guards against. This is a high-probability default error site since شريك is the intuitive first-choice Arabic word for ‘partner’; translators must be explicitly redirected to معاون/متعاون.
Truth
Approved rendering: الحق
Transliteration: al-Haqq
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. The reality of the gospel and the consistent conduct flowing from it (1:1, 1:3-4, 1:8, 1:12). Inverse-risk case like the baseline’s ‘messiah’ entry: al-Haqq is one of the 99 Names of Allah and, in Sufi popular piety, also names ḥaqīqah, an esoteric inner truth reserved for advanced initiates and distinguished from sharīʿah for ordinary believers — a two-tier truth model foreign to this text. Every occurrence must anchor the referent explicitly to the truth of the gospel revealed in Christ, never an unqualified metaphysical absolute or esoteric attainment.
Medium Risk Terms
Beloved
Approved rendering: الحبيب
Transliteration: al-habib
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. Affectionate personal address to Gaius (1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 1:11). Established Van Dyck rendering for personal address ONLY; al-Habib is a widespread devotional honorific for the Prophet Muhammad in Sufi/folk piety (‘the Beloved of God’). Never extend to a stand-alone Christological title, paralleling the baseline’s rejection of ‘الحبيب من الله’ for Son of God.
Brothers
Approved rendering: الإخوة
Transliteration: al-ikhwah
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New term for 3 John. Fellow believers, especially the itinerant Christian workers described with kinship language (1:3, 1:5, 1:10). Standard, well-established Christian Arabic usage; the risk is sociological, not lexical — blood-kinship and tribal (qabīla) identity carry unusually heavy social weight in Arab culture. Teach as a Spirit-created family that relativizes, without necessarily replacing, tribal/blood ties, paralleling the baseline’s High-risk ‘Christian Identity in Christ’ doctrine. Must remain lexically distinct from الأحباء/الأصدقاء (‘friends,’ 1:14) — the text itself uses two relational registers; do not collapse them.
Church
Approved rendering: الكنيسة
Transliteration: al-kanīsah
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: الجماعة, الأمة
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
الأمة (ummah) is the specific pan-Islamic term for the worldwide community of Muslims and must never be borrowed for ‘church.’ In everyday usage al-kanisah often denotes the physical building of a minority religious community rather than the living, gathered people of God; reinforce the latter sense explicitly. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE. In 3 John 1:6, 1:9, 1:10 this is the living congregation before whom testimony is given and from which Diotrephes unjustly expels faithful believers — reinforce as the gathered people of God, not a building, in every 3 John occurrence (Church Leadership and Pride / Church Discipline and Unjust Expulsion doctrines).
Faithful
Approved rendering: أمين
Transliteration: amīn
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: مؤمن
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New term for 3 John. Gaius’s reliable, trustworthy hospitality conduct (1:5); an adjective (πιστός) distinct from the noun πίστις (‘faith’). Do NOT render as مؤمن (‘believing one’), which would collapse this ethical-reliability adjective into the baseline’s Critical/High-risk soteriological faith term (الإيمان) and imply hospitable deeds constitute saving faith. أمين keeps the reliability sense distinct from the salvation term.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: الأمم
Transliteration: al-umam
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: الكفار
Original: ἐθνικός (cognate of ἔθνη)
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
الكفار (unbelievers) is a loaded Islamic religious-judgment term and must never be used for the ethnic-neutral sense of ‘Gentiles.’ الأمم (the nations, plural) shares a root with the loaded singular الأمة (Ummah) but the plural generic sense is safe and standard. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE. In 3 John 1:7 (ἐθνικός) this term narrows to the non-believing host populations from whom itinerant missionaries refuse payment to protect gospel motive — a narrower nuance than Romans’ neutral ethnic sense, but never substitute الكفار here either (Hospitality to Traveling Ministers doctrine).
Gossip Slander
Approved rendering: يفتري بكلام رديء
Transliteration: yaftarī bi-kalām radī’
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: φλυαρέω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
New term for 3 John. Reckless, unfounded, malicious speech against the apostolic delegation — not mere idle chatter (1:10). Ensure the rendering conveys malicious falsehood (iftirā’), leveraging the real cultural and religious weight of slander (ghība/iftirā’) ethics in Arab contexts as a point of resonance rather than softening the charge.
Has Seen God
Approved rendering: رأى الله / عرف الله معرفة حقيقية
Transliteration: ra’ā Allāh / ‘arafa Allāh ma’rifah haqīqiyyah
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: لن يرى الله في الآخرة
Original: ἑωρακεν τὸν θεόν
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
New term for 3 John. Idiom for present relational/spiritual communion and knowledge of God, not physical or beatific vision (1:11). Mainstream Sunni theology reserves ru’yat Allāh (the vision of Allah) as a strictly eschatological hope in Paradise, never a present possibility; do NOT render this with a future-eschatological gloss (‘will not see God in the afterlife’) — that imports an unintended claim about final judgment rather than John’s point about present relational estrangement evidenced by habitual evildoing. Gloss at first occurrence as present relational knowledge.
Love
Approved rendering: المحبة / يحب
Transliteration: al-mahabbah / yuhibb
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. Self-giving, willed love expressed concretely in hospitality (1:1, 1:6). Broadly compatible vocabulary — mahabbah/hubb function positively across Arabic religious registers including Sufi divine-love mysticism — but must be anchored to Christ-centered covenantal love, not mystical-absorption (hubb ilahi, ‘ishq) or romantic connotations.
Loves To Be First
Approved rendering: يحب أن يكون الأول / حب الرئاسة والتصدّر
Transliteration: yuhibbu an yakūna al-awwal / hubb al-ri’āsah
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
New term for 3 John. Diotrephes’ status-seeking ambition within the church (1:9); a NT hapax legomenon (φιλοπρωτεύω) with no single-word Arabic equivalent — a descriptive compound is required. No direct Islamic-vocabulary collision, but strong resonance with honor/status (wajh, sharaf) dynamics in Arab social culture; frame as a universally recognizable leadership sin applicable across any hierarchical religious community, not an outsider’s attack on a specific tradition’s leadership structures.
Peace
Approved rendering: السلام
Transliteration: al-salām
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: الأمان, الطمأنينة
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
In Romans 5:1, relational and legal peace secured through justification, not the greeting-word sense of al-salam nor الطمأنينة’s Sufi/Quranic sense of subjective heart-tranquility attained through dhikr (remembrance). INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE. In 3 John 1:14 used as an epistolary closing blessing; retain the same relational/covenantal sense, not the greeting-word or Sufi tuma’ninah sense (Truth and Christian Fellowship doctrine).
Soul
Approved rendering: النفس
Transliteration: al-nafs
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ψυχή
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. The whole inner person — mind, will, spiritual vitality — whose flourishing benchmarks the elder’s prayer for Gaius’s outward well-being (1:2). Sufi and popular Islamic psychology frequently treats al-nafs as the lower self/ego (nafs al-ammārah) needing subjugation — a predominantly negative category. Here ψυχή is positive and holistic; context (paired with ‘prospers’) must clearly frame this as the whole inner spiritual person flourishing in Christ, not an ego needing suppression.
The Name
Approved rendering: الاسم (اسم يسوع المسيح)
Transliteration: al-ism (ism Yasū’ al-Masīh)
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Rejected alternatives: الدين
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
New term for 3 John. Johannine shorthand for the name/person of Jesus Christ, used absolutely (1:7) — the ground of the missionaries’ entire itinerant ministry. Must not be left as a bare, ambiguous noun; requires an explicit gloss anchoring the referent to Christ at first occurrence. Some regional Muslim Idiom Translations generalize this to ‘الدين’ (‘the religion’); explicitly rejected — it strips the Christological specificity that is the entire point of v.7’s argument.
True Truthful
Approved rendering: حقيقية / صادقة
Transliteration: haqīqiyyah / ṣādiqah
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
New term for 3 John. Describes the elder’s testimony about Demetrius as true (1:12); cognate adjective of ἀλήθεια. Shares the ح-ق root resonance with الحق (see ‘truth’ entry); no independent additional risk beyond that root note.
Low Risk Terms
Children
Approved rendering: أولادي / أبنائي
Transliteration: awlādī / abnā’ī
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: τέκνα
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. The elder’s spiritual children, those he discipled (1:4). Pastoral, relational sense of spiritual parentage. Do NOT conflate with التبني, the baseline’s Critical-risk ‘adoption’ term denoting full legal inheritance status; this is discipleship-affection language, not forensic adoption doctrine.
Demetrius
Approved rendering: ديمتريوس
Transliteration: Dīmitrīyūs
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
New proper name for 3 John. The well-attested faithful witness commended in 1:12. Use the established Van Dyck/NAV Arabic Bible transliteration.
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: ديوتريفس
Transliteration: Diyūtrīfis
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
New proper name for 3 John. The self-promoting local leader who refuses hospitality and expels faithful believers (1:9-10). Use the established Van Dyck/NAV Arabic Bible transliteration.
Friends
Approved rendering: الأحباء / الأصدقاء
Transliteration: al-ahibbā’ / al-asdiqā’
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: φίλος / φίλοι
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. A warm, personal designation for believers, distinct from الإخوة (‘brothers’) used earlier in the letter (1:14). Preserve the distinction rigorously — the text itself uses two registers of relationship; do not collapse both into a single Arabic word for stylistic smoothing.
Gaius
Approved rendering: غايس
Transliteration: Ghāyis
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New proper name for 3 John. The letter’s addressee, commended for faithful hospitality (throughout). Use the established Van Dyck/NAV Arabic Bible transliteration; no viable alternative exists and none should be sought.
Good Evil
Approved rendering: الخير / الشر
Transliteration: al-khayr / al-sharr
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακόν / ἀγαθόν
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
New term for 3 John. General moral categories of right and wrong conduct held up as models to imitate or avoid (1:11). Standard vocabulary; low independent risk.
Hinder
Approved rendering: يمنع
Transliteration: yamna’u
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
New term for 3 John. Diotrephes blocking others from receiving traveling ministers (1:10). Standard vocabulary; low independent risk.
Imitate
Approved rendering: يقلّد / يحتذي بـ
Transliteration: yuqallidu / yahtadhī bi-
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
New term for 3 John. The letter’s central ethical exhortation — model conduct on a positive example, not a negative one (1:11). Standard vocabulary; low independent risk.
Joy
Approved rendering: الفرح
Transliteration: al-farah
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: χαρά
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. Deep, settled gladness with a spiritual/relational cause — the elder’s joy at hearing his spiritual children walk in truth (1:4). Broadly compatible vocabulary; low independent risk.
Pray Wish
Approved rendering: أتضرع / أطلب
Transliteration: atadarra’u / atlubu
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: εὔχομαι
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New term for 3 John. A pastoral wish-prayer for Gaius’s well-being, less formal than liturgical intercession (1:2). Standard vocabulary; low independent risk.
Prosper
Approved rendering: ينجح / يزدهر
Transliteration: yanjahu / yazdahiru
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: εὐοδοῦσθαι
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New term for 3 John. General well-being and success, applied both to physical circumstance and spiritual health (1:2). No significant Islamic-vocabulary collision; standard well-being vocabulary.
Receive Accept
Approved rendering: يقبل
Transliteration: yaqbalu
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
New term for 3 John. Receiving a person or accepting their authority/message (1:9-10). Standard vocabulary; note that Diotrephes rejects apostolic authority itself, not merely a personal preference.
Send On Their Way
Approved rendering: يزوّدهم ويشيّعهم للسفر
Transliteration: yuzawwiduhum wa-yushayyi’uhum lil-safar
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New term for 3 John. Active material and logistical provisioning of a departing traveling minister — funds, supplies, escort (1:6). No single Arabic verb conveys both escort and provisioning; retain the compound. Ensure the rendering conveys concrete provisioning and active partnership, not a mere polite farewell — a bare farewell verb loses the provisioning sense.
Stranger Guest
Approved rendering: الغرباء
Transliteration: al-ghurabā’
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New term for 3 John. Unknown traveling ministers received in hospitality (1:5). A positive cultural bridge: classical Arab hospitality culture (al-diyāfah, karam al-ḍayf) already exalts generosity toward strangers as a supreme virtue. Clarify that NT hospitality here specifically serves gospel proclamation (1:7-8), not general honor-seeking.
Support Receive
Approved rendering: نستضيفهم / نقبلهم
Transliteration: nastadhīfuhum / naqbaluhum
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
New term for 3 John. Material and hospitable reception of traveling ministers (1:8). Standard hospitality vocabulary; ensure the rendering conveys material/financial support, not lodging alone.
Walk
Approved rendering: يسلك / يسير
Transliteration: yasluku / yasīru
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. Habitual, observable conduct consistent with belief (1:3-4). Standard idiomatic Arabic Bible usage (سلوك، سيرة). Always pair with الحق so ‘walking’ is not read as generic good behavior detached from gospel truth.
Referenced passages