Doctrine Analysis
11 Doctrine Analysis — Acts 1–28 — Full-Book Doctrine Matrix
This matrix extends 04_comparative_theology.md and is fully consistent with doctrine_risk_registry.json: same 36 doctrines, same risk tiers, same review routing. It is organized chapter-by-chapter across the entire book (PRD full-book coverage mandate). Chapters that introduce no new doctrine beyond material already tabulated in an earlier chapter are marked [REVIEWED — reused doctrine/vocabulary only] rather than omitted. The core passage, Acts 2:1–41, sits at the theological center of the matrix (Pentecost, the Spirit, the first gospel sermon, and the first response of repentance/baptism) but is not the boundary of scope.
Risk tiers: Critical = human theologian review, every occurrence. High = human theologian review. Medium = native speaker review. Low = automated review.
Section I: Jerusalem — The Spirit Given, the Church Founded (Acts 1–7)
| Ch. | Doctrine | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Commission Fulfilled | 1:8 | High | Structural outline verse; “ends of the earth” (أقاصي الأرض) must retain God-initiated sending direction, distinct from da’wah’s human-initiated framework. | Human theologian |
| 1 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 1:2, 1:21–26 | High | The strict, bounded eyewitness qualification for apostleship (must have seen the risen Lord) must be distinguished from Islam’s open prophetic succession culminating in a “seal of the prophets” claim. | Human theologian |
| 1 | Election and Sovereign Calling / Divine Calling | 1:24–26 | High | Choosing Judas’s replacement by prayer and lot must be read as God’s sovereign disclosure, not impersonal chance/qadar. | Human theologian |
| 1 | Resurrection of Christ | 1:22 | Critical | Foundational reference; must carry forward the crucifixion-then-resurrection scaffolding established from the outset. | Human theologian |
| 1 | Kingdom of God | 1:3, 1:6 | Medium | Disciples’ question about restoring an earthly kingdom must be answered (implicitly, by the narrative) as God’s spiritual reign, not a political-territorial expectation Arabic readers might import via khilafah associations. | Native speaker review |
| 2 | Holy Spirit and Pentecost (CORE PASSAGE) | 2:1–4, 2:17–18, 2:33 | Critical | Every occurrence must explicitly assert the Spirit’s full personal deity against the Jibril (angel) identification in mainstream tafsir. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Spirit-Empowered Witness and Tongues | 2:4, 2:6–11 | Medium | Must be taught as real, known human languages (Babel-reversal, Gen. 11), not unintelligible ecstatic speech; distinguish from “tongues of fire” (2:3), a separate visionary image. | Native speaker review |
| 2 | Fulfillment of Prophecy | 2:16–21 (Joel citation) | High | Peter’s citation formula must read as fulfillment/continuity of Joel, not abrogation (naskh) of it. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Davidic Covenant | 2:25–31, 2:34 | High | Peter’s Psalm 16 argument depends on forward-pointing covenant-king typology absent from the Qur’anic Dawud; must be taught explicitly. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Messianic Promise | 2:31, 2:36 | Critical | Must actively correct the Qur’anic al-Masih narrative (not divine, not crucified, not risen), not assume shared referent. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Deity of Christ / Lordship of Christ | 2:34–36 | Critical | Direct application of Psalm 110:1 (“the Lord said to my Lord”) to Jesus — one of the NT’s strongest OT proof-texts for this claim; never softened to “master/teacher.” | Human theologian |
| 2 | Resurrection of Christ | 2:24, 2:31–32 | Critical | Acts 2:23’s crucifixion statement (“you crucified… by the hands of lawless men”) must precede and scaffold the resurrection claim in every rendering. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Repentance and Baptism | 2:38 | Critical | The clause binds repentance to baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ” and to forgiveness — must not be read as al-tawbah’s self-sufficient, sincerity-based mechanism. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Forgiveness of Sins | 2:38 | High | Must be anchored to Christ’s atoning work, not bare responsive mercy parallel to ghufran. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Name of Jesus — Exclusive Saving Authority | 2:21, 2:38 | Critical | ”Whoever calls on the name of the Lord” (2:21, citing Joel) must retain exclusivity; first appearance of the “Name” motif that peaks at 4:12. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Divine Calling | 2:39 | High | ”As many as the Lord our God calls” is God’s summons toward himself — the reverse direction of da’wah; flag at first use. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Universal Scope of the Gospel | 2:21, 2:39 | High | ”Everyone who calls,” “all who are far off” must retain all-inclusive language without collapsing into a pluralist “all paths valid” reading. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Church as Community | 2:42–47 | Medium | Devotion to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, and voluntary sharing describes the living gathered people, not a building; economic sharing is descriptive, not imposed law. | Native speaker review |
| 3 | Deity of Christ — “Holy and Righteous One” | 3:14 | Critical | Applies القدوس (one of Allah’s 99 names) directly to Jesus as personal title — the paradigm case of shirk; never softened to a merely honorific “holy man.” | Human theologian |
| 3 | Fulfillment of Prophecy | 3:18, 3:21–25 | High | Peter’s appeal to “all the prophets” for the suffering-then-glory pattern must read as continuity, not abrogation. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Repentance and Baptism (repentance/forgiveness pairing) | 3:19 | Critical | ”Repent… that your sins may be blotted out” reinforces the Christ-grounded (not self-sufficient) sense established at 2:38. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles / Signs and Wonders | 3:1–16 | High | Healing of the lame man performed explicitly “in the name of Jesus” (3:6, 3:16), not by apostolic power in itself. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Name of Jesus | 3:6, 3:16 | Critical | Healing power flows from the Name, not from Peter/John personally — reinforces 4:12’s exclusivity claim in advance. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 4:33 | High | Bold apostolic testimony to the resurrection “with great power,” grounded in eyewitness authority. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 4:13–31 | High | Boldness (παρρησία/الجرأة) is explicitly prayed for (4:29), not a personality trait; carries real contemporary safety weight. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Name of Jesus — Exclusive Saving Authority | 4:7, 4:10, 4:12 | Critical | Acts 4:12 (“no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved”) is the book’s sharpest exclusivity claim; must never be softened toward “through Jesus’s teaching” or treated as comparable to other prophetic names. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Church as Community / Economic Sharing and Generosity | 4:32–35 | Medium | Voluntary, Spirit-motivated sharing; not to be taught as abolishing private property as universal church law. | Native speaker review |
| 5 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 5:12 | High | Signs performed through the apostles as attestation, continuing the 3:1–16 pattern. | Human theologian |
| 5 | Holy Spirit and Pentecost (deity of the Spirit) | 5:3–4 (background) | Critical | Ananias’s lie “to the Holy Spirit” is equated with lying “to God” — direct narrative evidence for the Spirit’s full personal deity; must be surfaced in teaching notes even though not in the section’s key-terms list for this passage. | Human theologian |
| 5 | Forgiveness of Sins | 5:31 | High | ”Exalted… to give repentance and forgiveness” ties both explicitly to the exalted, risen Christ, not to human initiative. | Human theologian |
| 5 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 5:40–41 | High | Rejoicing in suffering “for the Name” anticipates Stephen’s death in ch.7; distinguish from war-context martyrdom vocabulary. | Human theologian |
| 6 | Church Leadership and Ministry | 6:1–6 | Medium | The Seven’s appointment and ordination by laying on of hands; a plural, accountable office, not a solitary tribal/mystical role. | Native speaker review |
| 6 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles / Signs and Wonders | 6:8 | High | Stephen’s signs continue the apostolic-attestation pattern beyond the Twelve themselves. | Human theologian |
| 7 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 7:54–60 | High | Stephen’s death is the book’s paradigm nonviolent martyrdom; شاهد/شهود must be distinguished from الشهيد’s war-martyrdom connotation even as this trajectory is textually appropriate. | Human theologian |
| 7 | Deity of Christ — “Son of Man” | 7:56 | High | A Daniel-7 exaltation/authority title, distinct from “Son of God”; both converge on high Christology but must not be conflated. | Human theologian |
| 7 | Davidic Covenant (background) | 7:45 | High | Passing reference within Stephen’s historical review; covenant-typology background, not the main argument of this chapter. | Human theologian |
| 7 | Fulfillment of Prophecy | 7:37, 7:52 | High | Stephen’s speech frames Israel’s history as consistently rejecting God’s sent prophets, climaxing in Christ — continuity, not abrogation. | Human theologian |
Section II: The Gospel Expands beyond Jerusalem (Acts 8–12)
| Ch. | Doctrine | Supporting Passages | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Samaritan stage) | 8:4–25 | High | First deliberate step of the gospel’s progressive Gentile-ward expansion (Samaritans); do not over-read as full Gentile inclusion — that is completed only by ch.10–15. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles / Signs and Wonders | 8:6–13 | High | Philip’s signs attest the message; contrast with Simon’s counterfeit religious showmanship. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Gift of the Holy Spirit | 8:17–20 | Critical | Simon’s attempted purchase of the Spirit’s power is the paradigm negative case: the Spirit is an unearned, unpurchasable gift, never obtainable by payment or ritual. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Sorcery/Magic (background, low collision) | 8:9, 8:11 | Low-Medium | Genuinely bridge-friendly: Islamic tradition also condemns sihr; distinguish from Simon’s later simony error. | Native speaker review |
| 9 | Conversion of Paul | 9:1–19 | Critical | Saul’s Damascus-road encounter with the risen, glorified Jesus is a direct deity-of-Christ claim; must never be flattened into a generic religious-experience narrative. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Lordship of Christ | 9:5, 9:17 | Critical | Saul’s address “Who are you, Lord?” and Jesus’s self-identification are the same exclusive-lordship claim as 2:34–36 and 10:36. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Sonship of Christ | 9:20 | Critical | The very first content of the converted Paul’s preaching is “Jesus is the Son of God” — must be retained in full (ابن الله), never diluted to a relational honorific, per the forbidden-substitution rule. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Election and Sovereign Calling / Chosen Instrument | 9:15 | High | Paul’s designation as a “chosen instrument” must be taught as God’s specific, purposive redemptive election, never collapsed into folk qadar fatalism. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Christian Identity and “the Way” | 9:2 | High | The earliest self-designation of the movement; risks being read as merely “a path” among several legitimate paths, undercutting 4:12’s exclusivity. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Sainthood and Sanctification | 9:13, 9:32, 9:41 | Medium | ”Saints” describes ordinary, sometimes persecuted believers as a corporate class, not a shrine-veneration elite (guard against awliya’ resonance). | Native speaker review |
| 10 | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Cornelius) | 10:1–48 | High | The decisive narrative turning point of full Gentile inclusion; must be read together with ch.11 and ch.15 as a progressive-revelation sequence, not an isolated event. | Human theologian |
| 10 | No Partiality of God | 10:34 | Medium | Must be cross-referenced with Romans 3:29–30 and must not be flattened into a statement on the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict. | Native speaker review |
| 10 | Gentile Inclusion and Ceremonial Purity | 10:14–15, 10:28 | High | Peter’s vision must be taught as ceremonial boundary-markers fulfilled/set aside in Christ, not an arbitrary reversal or a claim that Christianity substitutes its own halal/haram code. | Human theologian |
| 10 | Gift of the Holy Spirit | 10:45 | Critical | The Spirit falls on Gentiles exactly as at Pentecost — proof the gift is not earned by prior law-observance. | Human theologian |
| 10 | Repentance and Baptism | 10:47–48 | Critical | Baptism follows the Spirit’s falling, reinforcing that the initiation rite ratifies, rather than earns, what God has already given. | Human theologian |
| 10 | Lordship of Christ | 10:36 | Critical | ”He is Lord of all” — a universal, not merely national, lordship claim. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 11:1–18 | High | Peter’s defense before the Jerusalem church formalizes the Cornelius event as a recognized precedent, not a private anomaly. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Repentance and Baptism (repentance “unto life”) | 11:18 | Critical | ”God has granted repentance that leads to life” — repentance is itself God-given, not a human achievement earning divine response. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Gift of the Holy Spirit | 11:17 | Critical | Reiterates 10:45’s point in retrospective argument form. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Christian Identity and “the Way” | 11:26 | Medium | First use of “Christians” (Χριστιανοί) as an outsider-applied label at Antioch; gap between original personal-identity sense and today’s inherited communal-label sense should be surfaced. | Native speaker review |
| 11 | Church as Community | 11:26 | Medium | Antioch as the first place disciples are gathered and named as a distinct community. | Native speaker review |
| 12 | [REVIEWED — reused doctrine/vocabulary only] Persecution and Bold Witness; Providence | 12:1–5 | High / Medium | Herod’s persecution of the church and Peter’s angelic deliverance reuse persecution and providence vocabulary already established in ch.4–5 and to be developed further in ch.27; no new theological term introduced. | Human theologian (persecution) / Native speaker review (providence) |
Section III: The First Missionary Journey and the Jerusalem Council (Acts 13–15)
| Ch. | Doctrine | Supporting Passages | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Justification apart from the Law | 13:38–39 | Critical | ”By him everyone who believes is freed from everything you could not be freed from by the law of Moses” is the curriculum’s foundational proof-text for this doctrine; must never suggest law-keeping plus faith, and must never substitute الشريعة for الناموس. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Messianic Promise / Davidic Covenant | 13:22–23, 13:32–37 | Critical / High | Paul’s synagogue sermon repeats and extends Peter’s Psalm-based argument (cf. ch.2) that the Christ’s death and resurrection fulfill, not abrogate, the Davidic promise. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Fulfillment of Prophecy | 13:32–33 | High | ”What God promised… this he has fulfilled” — explicit fulfillment-not-abrogation language, valuable as a direct counter to naskh framing. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Election and Sovereign Calling / Appointed to Eternal Life | 13:48 | High | ”As many as were appointed to eternal life believed” — sovereign election and genuine faith-response occur in the same clause; must not be taught as bypassing real faith. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 13:46–48 | High | Paul and Barnabas’s programmatic turn “to the Gentiles” after synagogue rejection. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Resurrection of Christ | 13:34-37 (implicit) | Critical | Reinforces the crucifixion-resurrection scaffolding in a fresh sermon context. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles / Signs and Wonders | 14:3 | High | Signs given “to bear witness to the word of his grace” — evidentiary, not self-authenticating apart from the message. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 14:5, 14:19, 14:22 | High | Stoning at Lystra; the apostles’ pattern of suffering-then-strengthening disciples. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Kingdom of God | 14:22 | Medium | ”Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” — present, costly discipleship, not a coming political state. | Native speaker review |
| 15 | Circumcision and the Law as Non-Salvific | 15:1–29 | High | The Council’s ruling is a soteriological argument (circumcision/law-keeping not required for salvation), not a verdict against the rite’s ongoing cultural/familial validity; must not be heard as an attack on a practice many readers of Muslim background still observe. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Justification apart from the Law | 15:1–11 | Critical | Peter’s speech (“why do you make trial of God… we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus”) restates 13:38–39’s argument at the highest ecclesial level. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Gentile Inclusion and Ceremonial Purity | 15:9 | High | ”Cleansed their hearts by faith” reinforces the ch.10 argument in summary form. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Church Leadership and Ministry | 15:2–6, 15:22–23 | Medium | The Council models plural, accountable, deliberative church governance. | Native speaker review |
| 15 | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 15:7, 15:12, 15:14, 15:19 | High | The Council formally ratifies what ch.10–11 established narratively. | Human theologian |
Section IV: The Second and Third Missionary Journeys (Acts 16–21)
| Ch. | Doctrine | Supporting Passages | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Repentance and Baptism | 16:31–33 | Critical | The Philippian jailer’s “believe… and you will be saved,” immediately followed by baptism, ties belief and initiation together as in 2:38. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Name of Jesus / Lordship of Christ | 16:31 | Critical | ”Believe in the Lord Jesus” — exclusive-object-of-faith formula. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles / Spirit of Divination (contrast) | 16:16–18 | Low-Medium | The Pythian spirit is clearly distinct from, and opposed to, the Holy Spirit; moral overlap with Islamic condemnation of divination is a genuine bridge point. | Native speaker review |
| 16 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 16:22–24 | High | Paul and Silas beaten and imprisoned; continues the established pattern. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Holy Spirit and Pentecost (guidance) | 16:6–7 | Critical | The Spirit’s active directional guidance of the mission reinforces his personal agency. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Universal Scope of the Gospel / “Unknown God” | 17:23, 17:29–30 | High | The Athens altar inscription is a valuable apologetic bridge but must not be read as endorsing prior idol-worship as already valid; 17:29–30 explicitly calls for repentance from ignorant idolatry. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Resurrection of Christ | 17:31–32 | Critical | Paul’s Areopagus argument makes the resurrection the ground of coming judgment — met with mockery by some hearers, itself a realistic model for anticipated audience reaction. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Fulfillment of Prophecy / Messianic Promise | 17:3 | Critical/High | ”Explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise” — the corrective-argument pattern, not an assumed shared referent. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Providence | 17:26–28 | Medium | God’s personal, purposive ordering of history and nations; keep distinct from folk qadar fatalism. | Native speaker review |
| 18 | [REVIEWED — reused doctrine/vocabulary only] Messianic Promise; Lordship of Christ | 18:5, 18:28 | Critical | Paul’s continued synagogue argumentation (“the Christ was Jesus”) in Corinth and Apollos’s teaching in Ephesus reuse the ch.2/13/17 messianic-proof pattern; no new vocabulary introduced. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Holy Spirit and Pentecost / Gift of the Holy Spirit | 19:1–6 | Critical | The Ephesian disciples’ reception of the Spirit with accompanying tongues and prophecy parallels Pentecost and Cornelius; reinforces the gift’s availability apart from prior Jewish covenant status. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Spirit-Empowered Witness and Tongues | 19:6 | Medium | Same real-language clarification as 2:4 applies. | Native speaker review |
| 19 | Name of Jesus | 19:5, 19:13, 19:17 | Critical | Contrast between the Name rightly invoked in baptism/exorcism and its attempted misuse by itinerant exorcists (19:13) — reinforces the Name’s unique, non-transferable authority. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Christian Identity and “the Way” | 19:9, 19:23 | High | ”The Way” as a distinct, named movement provoking civic opposition (the Ephesian riot). | Human theologian |
| 19 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 19:23–41 | High | Economically-motivated civic persecution, distinct from purely religious opposition seen earlier. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Sorcery/Magic | 19:19 | Low-Medium | Public burning of magic scrolls upon conversion; bridge-friendly given shared condemnation of sihr. | Native speaker review |
| 20 | Church Leadership and Ministry | 20:17, 20:28 | Medium | Paul’s charge to the Ephesian elders/overseers models plural, accountable oversight (“shepherd the church of God”). | Native speaker review |
| 20 | Forgiveness of Sins (“redeemed with his own blood”) | 20:28 | Critical | Substitutionary atonement statement; inherits the baseline’s mandatory-theologian-review escalation for atonement/propitiation language (cf. Romans 3:25). | Human theologian |
| 20 | Inspiration of Scripture / “Whole Counsel of God” | 20:27 | High | Paul’s claim to have withheld nothing profitable is a text-internal counter-point to the tahrif claim that the Christian record is corrupted or partial. | Human theologian |
| 20 | Great Commission Fulfilled (mission language) | 20:24 | High | Paul’s “ministry” (διακονία) language of his own commissioning reinforces the sending-not-self-appointing pattern. | Human theologian |
| 20 | Thanksgiving | (implicit, cf. 27:35 for explicit occurrence) | Low | No distinct new occurrence in ch.20 itself; carried forward. | Automated review |
| 21 | Circumcision and the Law | 21:21, 21:24, 21:28 | High | Paul’s own participation in a purification vow (21:24,26) alongside his Gentile-freedom teaching must be framed as respecting Jewish cultural practice without reintroducing it as salvific necessity. | Human theologian |
| 21 | Holy Spirit and Pentecost (prophetic guidance) | 21:4, 21:11 | Critical | The Spirit’s specific, personal foretelling of Paul’s arrest continues to reinforce his personal agency in guiding the mission. | Human theologian |
| 21 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 21:27–36 | High | Mob violence and arrest in the Temple precincts; the pattern established since ch.4–5 reaches Jerusalem itself. | Human theologian |
| 21 | Vow (cultural-practice context) | 21:23 | Low-Medium | Shared vocabulary category with Islamic devotional vow-practice; low collision, a comparative bridge point about voluntary religious practice’s non-salvific place. | Native speaker review |
Section V: Jerusalem to Rome — Trials, Testimony, and Arrival (Acts 22–28)
| Ch. | Doctrine | Supporting Passages | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | [REVIEWED — reused doctrine/vocabulary only] Conversion of Paul | 22:3–21 | Critical | Paul’s retelling of his Damascus-road encounter before the Jerusalem crowd reuses ch.9’s conversion vocabulary in full; no new theological term introduced, but the doctrinal weight (Critical) and review routing carry forward unchanged. | Human theologian |
| 23 | Resurrection (general, background to Christ’s) | 23:6–8 | Critical | Paul strategically invokes the Pharisee/Sadducee resurrection debate; the general-resurrection hope (shared, notably, with Islamic Yawm al-Qiyamah) must be distinguished from the specific historical claim of Christ’s own bodily resurrection, already contested at 4:157 in the Qur’an. | Human theologian |
| 23 | Persecution and Bold Witness | 23:1–11 (council uproar), background legal narrative | High | Continued legal-narrative persecution pattern; no new vocabulary. | Human theologian |
| 24 | Resurrection of Christ (hope of) | 24:15, 24:21 | Critical | Paul’s defense before Felix restates the resurrection hope as the true point of contention with his accusers. | Human theologian |
| 24 | Righteousness (ethical, not forensic sense) | 24:25 | Critical | ”Righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” — this occurrence uses البر in its ordinary ethical-conduct sense (Felix’s own righteousness of life), not the forensic Romans 1:17/13:39 sense; flag explicitly so translators do not force the forensic gloss where the context is hortatory-ethical. | Human theologian |
| 24 | Christian Identity and “the Way” | 24:14, 24:22 | High | Felix’s own recognition of “the Way” as a distinct, named movement. | Human theologian |
| 25 | [REVIEWED — reused doctrine/vocabulary only] Apostolic Authority and Miracles (legal-appeal narrative); Resurrection (background) | 25:1–27 | High / Critical | Standard legal-appeal narrative continuing Paul’s trial sequence; no new theological vocabulary introduced beyond what ch.23–24 already establish. | Human theologian |
| 26 | Conversion of Paul | 26:9–18 | Critical | Third telling of the Damascus-road account, now before Agrippa, with fuller commissioning detail (26:16–18); reinforces rather than introduces the doctrine. | Human theologian |
| 26 | Resurrection of Christ | 26:8, 26:23 | Critical | ”That Christ must suffer and… be the first to rise from the dead” — final full statement of the crucifixion-resurrection argument before the Roman world. | Human theologian |
| 26 | Sainthood and Sanctification | 26:18 | Medium | ”Sanctified by faith in me” pairs sanctification directly with faith in Christ, not self-directed ritual purification. | Native speaker review |
| 26 | Fulfillment of Prophecy | 26:22–23 | High | ”Saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen” — continuity claim at its most explicit. | Human theologian |
| 26 | Christian Identity | 26:28 | Medium | Agrippa’s “almost persuaded to be a Christian” — the term’s earliest recorded ironic/outsider usage. | Native speaker review |
| 27 | Providence | 27:22–25, 27:34 | Medium | Paul’s promise-bound preservation en route to Rome is personal and purposive, tied to a specific redemptive-historical appointment, not generic fate; this chapter reuses providence vocabulary established in ch.17 and ch.12 but supplies the doctrine’s fullest narrative development — noted per full-book-coverage mandate as contributing doctrinal development though not new terminology. | Native speaker review |
| 27 | Thanksgiving | 27:35 | Low | Paul’s giving of thanks before the ship’s company; broadly compatible with Islamic shukr, low risk. | Automated review |
| 28 | Great Commission Fulfilled | 28:23–31 | High | The book’s climactic closing scene: gospel preached “unhindered” (28:31) even under chains — confident hope in ultimate advance, not a promise against personal suffering. | Human theologian |
| 28 | Kingdom of God | 28:23, 28:31 | Medium | Paul’s final recorded topic in Rome; spiritual reign, not political state. | Native speaker review |
| 28 | Fulfillment of Prophecy | 28:23 | High | Paul’s appeal “from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets” one final time, before Rome’s Jewish community. | Human theologian |
| 28 | Inspiration of Scripture | 28:25 | High | Final citation of “the Holy Spirit said through Isaiah the prophet” — reinforces the divinely-moved-human-author model of inspiration against the wahy-dictation model. | Human theologian |
Summary Cross-Check Against doctrine_risk_registry.json
| Risk Tier | Count in Registry | Confirmed Represented in Matrix |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 11 | ✅ Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Gift of the Holy Spirit; Repentance and Baptism; Name of Jesus (Saving Authority); Conversion of Paul; Justification apart from the Law; Messianic Promise; Deity of Christ; Sonship of Christ; Lordship of Christ; Resurrection of Christ |
| High | 16 | ✅ Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; Unity of Jews and Gentiles; Universal Scope of the Gospel; Gentile Inclusion and Ceremonial Purity; Forgiveness of Sins; Christian Identity and “the Way”; Apostolic Authority and Miracles; Signs and Wonders; Persecution and Bold Witness; Election and Sovereign Calling; Divine Calling; Circumcision and the Law; Great Commission Fulfilled; Fulfillment of Prophecy; Inspiration of Scripture; Davidic Covenant |
| Medium | 7 | ✅ Spirit-Empowered Witness and Tongues; Church as Community; Church Leadership and Ministry; Sainthood and Sanctification; Providence; No Partiality of God; Economic Sharing and Generosity |
| Low | 2 | ✅ Thanksgiving; Mutual Edification and Exhortation |
Every chapter of Acts (1–28) is represented above, either as a direct contributor of doctrine or explicitly marked [REVIEWED — reused doctrine/vocabulary only] (chapters 12, 18, 22, 25). No chapter is silently omitted, per the full-book-coverage mandate.
This matrix must be read alongside assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (authoritative risk tiers), assets/translation_memory.json (authoritative renderings), and analysis/08_core_glossary.md (term-level detail). Any apparent conflict must be resolved in favor of the JSON registries.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Conversion of Paul
Arabic name: اهتداء بولس
Key terms: election, chosen_instrument, witness, lord
Review routing: Human theologian
Saul’s encounter with the risen Jesus addressed as ‘Lord’ (9:5) is itself a direct deity-of-Christ claim; his designation as a ‘chosen instrument’ (9:15) must be taught as God’s specific, purposive redemptive election, never collapsed into folk qadar fatalism about life outcomes generally.
Deity of Christ
Arabic name: لاهوت المسيح
Key terms: lord, holy_and_righteous_one, son_of_man
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 3:14’s ‘the Holy and Righteous One’ applies القدوس, one of Allah’s 99 names, directly to Jesus as a personal title — the paradigm case of shirk from an Islamic standpoint; must never be softened to a merely honorific ‘holy man.‘
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Arabic name: عطية الروح القدس
Key terms: gift_of_the_holy_spirit, holy_spirit, grace
Review routing: Human theologian
The Spirit himself is given as an unearned, unpurchasable gift (contrast Simon’s attempted purchase, 8:18-20); must not be confused with the plural المواهب الروحية (natural talents/enablements) nor treated as obtainable through payment, ritual, or works.
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Arabic name: الروح القدس والعنصرة
Key terms: holy_spirit, pentecost, tongues
Review routing: Human theologian
Mainstream tafsir identifies ‘the Holy Spirit’ with the created angel Jibril, not a co-equal divine Person; every Pentecost occurrence must explicitly assert the Spirit’s full personal deity (reinforced narratively by Acts 5:3-4, lying to the Spirit is lying to God), not assume this as shared ground.
Justification apart from the Law
Arabic name: التبرير بدون الناموس
Key terms: justification, law, righteousness, grace
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 13:39’s explicit contrast (‘by him everyone who believes is freed from everything you could not be freed from by the law of Moses’) is the curriculum’s foundational text for this doctrine; must never suggest justification is achieved by law-keeping and merely supplemented by faith, nor substitute الشريعة for الناموس.
Lordship of Christ
Arabic name: ربوبية المسيح
Key terms: lord
Review routing: Human theologian
الرب is a defining title of Allah in the Qur’an’s opening surah; Acts 2:34-36’s direct application of Psalm 110:1’s ‘the Lord said to my Lord’ to Jesus is one of the strongest OT proof-texts for this claim in the NT and must never be softened to ‘master’ or ‘teacher.‘
Messianic Promise
Arabic name: الوعد المسيحاني
Key terms: messiah, resurrection, davidic_covenant
Review routing: Human theologian
المسيح is ‘Isa al-Masih’s own Qur’anic title, pre-loaded with a competing narrative (honored prophet, not divine, not crucified, not resurrected); Acts 17:3 and 18:28 show the apostles explicitly arguing from Scripture that the Christ had to suffer and rise — this corrective argument, not an assumed shared referent, must be preserved.
The Name of Jesus as Exclusive Saving Authority
Arabic name: اسم يسوع سلطان الخلاص الوحيد
Key terms: name, salvation, lord
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 4:12 (‘no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved’) is the book’s sharpest exclusivity claim, directly confronting any framework (Islamic or pluralist) that treats multiple prophetic names or intercessors as comparably efficacious; must never be softened toward ‘through Jesus’s teaching.‘
Repentance and Baptism
Arabic name: التوبة والمعمودية
Key terms: repentance, baptism, forgiveness_of_sins, name
Review routing: Human theologian
التوبة is Islam’s central, human-initiated, self-sufficient act of turning from sin (cf. Qur’an 66:8), with no substitutionary mechanism (Qur’an 6:164). Acts 2:38 binds repentance in the same clause to baptism ‘in the name of Jesus Christ,’ grounding forgiveness in Christ’s finished work, not the sincerity of the repentance act; المعمودية must likewise be taught as a once-for-all initiation rite with no Islamic ritual-washing parallel (wudu/ghusl are repeated purity rites, not covenant initiation).
Resurrection of Christ
Arabic name: قيامة المسيح
Key terms: resurrection
Review routing: Human theologian
Mainstream Islamic doctrine (Qur’an 4:157) denies Jesus was crucified at all; Acts 2:23 (‘you crucified and killed… by the hands of lawless men’) supplies the necessary historical-crucifixion scaffolding before the resurrection claim has any event to refer to, and must always be taught together with it.
Sonship of Christ
Arabic name: بنوة المسيح
Key terms: son_of_god
Review routing: Human theologian
The Qur’an states directly that Allah ‘does not beget nor is He begotten’ (112:3); Acts 9:20 records this as the very first content of the converted Paul’s preaching, so ابن الله must be retained in full per the forbidden-substitution rule, never diluted to a relational honorific.
High Risk Doctrines
Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Arabic name: سلطان الرسل والمعجزات
Key terms: apostle, witness, signs_and_wonders, laying_on_of_hands
Review routing: Human theologian
الرسول is Muhammad’s own defining title (Rasul Allah); Acts 1:21-26’s strict, bounded eyewitness qualification for apostleship must be distinguished from Islam’s open-ended prophetic succession culminating in a ‘seal of the prophets’ claim.
Christian Identity and ‘the Way’
Arabic name: الهوية المسيحية و«الطريق»
Key terms: the_way, christian
Review routing: Human theologian
الطريق risks being read as merely ‘a path’ among several legitimate paths (undercutting Acts 4:12’s exclusivity) and echoes الشريعة’s etymology and the Qur’an’s ‘الصراط المستقيم’; المسيحيون carries a gap between its original personal-conversion sense and today’s inherited sociological/communal identity-label sense.
Circumcision and the Law as Non-Salvific
Arabic name: الختان والناموس بلا ضرورة للخلاص
Key terms: circumcision, law
Review routing: Human theologian
الختان is positively regarded in both Islam and Judaism; the Council’s conclusion is a soteriological argument (not required for salvation), not a verdict on the rite’s ongoing cultural or familial validity, and must not be misheard as an attack on a practice many readers of Muslim background still observe.
Davidic Covenant
Arabic name: العهد الداودي
Key terms: david, seed_of_david, covenant
Review routing: Human theologian
The Qur’anic Dawud carries none of the forward-pointing, covenant-king typology Peter’s Psalm 16 argument (2:25-31) depends on; this typological reading must be taught explicitly, not assumed as shared ground.
Divine Calling
Arabic name: الدعوة الإلهية
Key terms: called
Review routing: Human theologian
God’s sovereign summons (‘the Lord our God calls’) runs the opposite direction from da’wah, the Islamic term for human invitation to Islam; this directional distinction must be made explicit at first use.
Election and Sovereign Calling
Arabic name: اختيار الله والدعوة الفعالة
Key terms: election, chosen_instrument, appointed_to_eternal_life
Review routing: Human theologian
اختيار الله must remain God’s specific, personal, redemptive choice tied to genuine faith-response in the same clause (13:48, ‘appointed… believed’), never absorbed into generic fatalistic qadar (‘it is written’) detached from Christ.
Forgiveness of Sins
Arabic name: غفران الخطايا
Key terms: forgiveness_of_sins, sin, redeemed_with_his_own_blood
Review routing: Human theologian
غفران is shared vocabulary with Allah’s names al-Ghafur/al-Ghaffar, but Islamic forgiveness responds to repentance and weighed deeds without a substitutionary ground; Acts 20:28’s ‘with his own blood’ must be taught alongside every forgiveness occurrence to supply the atoning basis.
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Arabic name: تحقيق النبوءة
Key terms: prophecy, prophet, messiah
Review routing: Human theologian
Islamic naskh (abrogation) treats later revelation as superseding earlier revelation; Peter’s Joel citation (2:16-21) and the apostles’ repeated ‘proving from the Scriptures’ pattern must be framed as fulfillment/continuity, not replacement or abrogation, of the OT promise.
Gentile Inclusion and Ceremonial Purity
Arabic name: قبول الأمم وطهارة الشريعة الطقسية
Key terms: common_unclean
Review routing: Human theologian
Arabic-speaking readers of Muslim background bring an active halal/haram dietary framework to this text; must be taught as ceremonial boundary-markers fulfilled and set aside in Christ, not an arbitrary reversal, and not evidence that Christianity has its own revised purity code.
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Arabic name: الإنجيل لليهود والأمم
Key terms: gospel, gentiles, god_fearer, proselyte
Review routing: Human theologian
The gospel’s Gentile scope unfolds progressively (Samaritans, ch.8; Cornelius, ch.10; Council, ch.15), not completed at Pentecost itself; teaching notes must trace this progressive-revelation structure rather than over-read full inclusion into any single early text.
The Great Commission Fulfilled
Arabic name: إتمام الإرسالية العظمى
Key terms: mission, end_of_the_earth, unhindered, witness
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 1:8’s Jerusalem-to-Rome geographic outline is the book’s structural spine; the sending-direction (from God, through the church, outward) must be kept distinct from da’wah’s human-initiated proselytizing framework, and 28:31’s ‘unhindered’ must be taught as confident hope in ultimate advance, not a promise against personal suffering.
Inspiration of Scripture
Arabic name: وحي الكتاب المقدس
Key terms: prophet, whole_counsel_of_god
Review routing: Human theologian
Islamic wahy denotes verbatim divine dictation, the Qur’an’s own claimed mode of revelation; biblical inspiration moves human authors to write in their own voice. Acts 20:27’s claim to have delivered ‘the whole counsel of God’ also offers a careful, text-internal counter-point to the tahrif claim that the Christian record is corrupted or partial.
Persecution and Bold Witness
Arabic name: الاضطهاد والشهادة الجريئة
Key terms: persecution, boldness, witness
Review routing: Human theologian
الجرأة carries real, non-hypothetical safety weight given contemporary apostasy-law consequences in many Arabic-speaking contexts; شاهد/شهود must be distinguished from الشهادة (creedal confession) and الشهيد (war-context martyrdom) even while Stephen’s nonviolent martyrdom-trajectory (ch.7) is textually appropriate to surface pastorally.
Signs and Wonders as Evidentiary Attestation
Arabic name: الآيات والعجائب كدليل إثبات
Key terms: signs_and_wonders
Review routing: Human theologian
آية is the standing Arabic word for a verse of the Qur’an and for God’s signs in creation pointing to His unity; this necessary, unavoidable rendering must be actively taught as attesting acts pointing to Jesus and the apostolic message, with a first-use note distinguishing it from the Qur’anic textual-verse sense.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Arabic name: وحدة اليهود والأمم
Key terms: no_partiality, israel, gentiles
Review routing: Human theologian
Requires the same careful pastoral framing the baseline mandates given the contemporary political weight of Isra’il in Arabic-speaking contexts; Peter’s ‘God shows no partiality’ (10:34) must not be flattened into a statement on the present Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Universal Scope of the Gospel
Arabic name: الشمول العالمي للإنجيل
Key terms: salvation, name, gentiles
Review routing: Human theologian
Challenges tribal, clan, and sectarian spiritual hierarchies present in many Arab contexts; must also be framed so as not to be misheard as religious pluralism (e.g., the ‘Unknown God’ bridge in 17:23 must not be read as endorsing prior idol-worship as already valid, since 17:29-30 explicitly calls for repentance from it).
Medium Risk Doctrines
The Church as Community
Arabic name: الكنيسة كجماعة
Key terms: church, fellowship, having_all_things_common, service_ministry
Review routing: Native speaker review
The new-covenant, living-people sense of al-kanisah must be reinforced against everyday Arabic usage that often reduces it to the physical building of a minority-religion community; voluntary economic sharing (2:44-45; 4:32-35) should not be taught as abolishing private property as universal church law.
Church Leadership and Ministry
Arabic name: قيادة الكنيسة وخدمتها
Key terms: elders_overseers, laying_on_of_hands, service_ministry
Review routing: Native speaker review
شيخ carries independent Islamic-authority resonance (tribal elder, religious scholar, Sufi spiritual guide); must be taught as a plural, accountable, congregational-oversight office, not a solitary mystical or tribal-patriarchal role.
Economic Sharing and Generosity
Arabic name: المشاركة الاقتصادية والعطاء
Key terms: having_all_things_common, grace
Review routing: Native speaker review
A genuinely low-collision, bridge-friendly parallel to Islamic zakat/sadaqah’s voluntary generosity, but must not be taught as abolishing private property as universal, repeated institutional law; frame as Spirit-produced generosity specific to the earliest Jerusalem church.
No Partiality of God
Arabic name: عدم محاباة الله
Key terms: no_partiality
Review routing: Native speaker review
The narrative enactment of the baseline’s unity_of_jews_and_gentiles doctrine; should be cross-referenced explicitly with Romans 3:29-30 in teaching materials rather than treated as an isolated Acts-only claim.
Providence
Arabic name: العناية الإلهية
Key terms: providence
Review routing: Native speaker review
Must be kept distinct from folk qadar fatalism; Paul’s promise-bound preservation en route to Rome (27:22-25) is personal and purposive, tied to a specific redemptive-historical appointment, not a generic ‘fate.‘
Sainthood and Sanctification
Arabic name: القداسة والتقديس
Key terms: saints, sanctification, holy
Review routing: Native speaker review
القديسون must not evoke awliya’ (Sufi ‘friends of God,’ a venerated shrine-intercession class); Acts uses the term of ordinary, persecuted believers as a corporate class, not a spiritual elite, and sanctification (26:18) is paired directly with faith in Christ, not self-directed ritual purification.
Spirit-Empowered Witness and Tongues
Arabic name: الشهادة بقوة الروح والتكلم بلغات
Key terms: tongues
Review routing: Native speaker review
The miracle is real, known human language (a Babel-reversal, Genesis 11), not unintelligible ecstatic utterance; ألسنة/بلغات أخرى must be taught with this clarification so readers do not import later charismatic ‘tongues’ debates into the text.
Low Risk Doctrines
Mutual Edification and Exhortation
Arabic name: البنيان المتبادل والوعظ
Key terms: exhort
Review routing: Automated review
Standard encouragement/exhortation vocabulary; no significant doctrinal collision beyond standard context-sensitivity between the entreaty (يعظ) and encouragement (يشجع) senses.
Thanksgiving
Arabic name: الشكر
Key terms: thanksgiving
Review routing: Automated review
Shukr is also a major Islamic virtue; broadly compatible, low risk.
Referenced passages