07 Semantic Analysis — Acts (Full Book) — English → Arabic

Methodology Note

This analysis proceeds in two parts per the PRD Phase 1 Step 1 mandate:

1. Core passage (Acts 2:1-41) — verse-by-verse treatment of every load-bearing term.
2. Full-book coverage (Acts 1, 3-28) — chapter-by-chapter treatment of every load-bearing theological term introduced or re-deployed in a theologically significant way.

Where a term is already recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json, this document reuses the recorded Arabic rendering exactly and cites the baseline entry rather than re-deriving doctrine notes from scratch; only the Acts-specific contextual nuance is added. New terms not present in the Romans package are analyzed in full and carried forward into 08_core_glossary.md as new entries, following the same risk-tier conventions (Critical/High/Medium/Low) established by the baseline.

Field key used for every term below: Original (Koine Greek) / Transliteration / Literal meaning / Semantic range / English variants (how English versions render it) / Contextual theological meaning / Arabic rendering risk.

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PART 1 — CORE PASSAGE: ACTS 2:1-41 (Verse-by-Verse)

Acts 2:1

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.”

• Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē) / Pentēkostē / lit. “fiftieth [day]” / Range: the Jewish harvest feast Shavuot, fixed fifty days after Passover, later re-signified as the Christian feast of the Spirit’s outpouring / English variants: “Pentecost,” “Feast of Weeks” / Contextual meaning: the historical, dateable moment the Spirit is poured out corporately, fulfilling both the OT feast typology and Christ’s promise (1:5, 1:8) / Arabic rendering: العنصرة (al-‘Anṣarah) — the established Eastern Christian liturgical term. Risk: Medium. Not a word-collision risk (no competing Islamic referent), but it is opaque to readers unfamiliar with the Christian calendar; first use in any lesson must gloss it as “the fiftieth day after Christ’s resurrection, the Jewish harvest feast,” not assume prior knowledge the way “gospel” or “messiah” can assume prior Quranic exposure.
• ὁμοῦ / ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό (homou / epi to auto) / “together / in the same place” / corporate gathering language, echoes 1:14 and 2:44, 46 / Contextual meaning: sets up the “Church as Community” doctrine from the outset — the Spirit falls on a gathered, praying body, not on isolated individuals. Low risk; render with standard Arabic معًا / في مكان واحد.

Acts 2:2

“And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house.”

• πνοή (pnoē) / “breath, wind, blast” / shares root with πνεῦμα (Spirit) / English variants: “wind,” “breath” / Contextual meaning: the wordplay between πνοή (wind) and πνεῦμα (Spirit) is deliberate — an audible sign of the invisible Spirit’s arrival, echoing Ezekiel 37 and John 3:8. Arabic risk: Medium. Arabic ريح (wind) and روح (Spirit/spirit) already share a root visually and phonetically close enough to preserve some of the wordplay; translators should note this resonance explicitly rather than let it pass unremarked, since it is a genuine exegetical feature, not accidental.

Acts 2:3

“And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them, and rested on each one of them.”

• γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός (glōssai hōsei pyros) / “tongues as-of fire” / γλῶσσα ranges from the physical organ, to “language,” to this visionary “flame-shaped” sense / English variants: “tongues of fire,” “flame-like tongues” / Contextual meaning: visible, individualized (ἐφ’ ἕνα ἕκαστον — “on each one”) manifestation, signaling both judgment/purification imagery (fire) and the coming gift of languages (tongues) in v.4. Arabic rendering: ألسنة كنار / ألسنة من نار. Risk: Low-Medium. Fire theophany imagery is broadly compatible with the biblical-Quranic shared narrative world (burning bush, Sinai), but translators must keep ألسنة visionary/symbolic here distinct from the following verse’s ألسنة meaning literal human languages, so readers do not think the apostles’ tongues literally combusted.

Acts 2:4

“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

• ἐπλήσθησαν Πνεύματος Ἁγίου (eplēsthēsan Pneumatos Hagiou) — see Holy Spirit (baseline holy_spirit = الروح القدس, Critical). Contextual meaning here: this is the fulfillment of 1:5, 1:8, and Joel’s prophecy (quoted in v.17) — a decisive, corporate empowerment for witness, not a private mystical experience. Reaffirm the baseline note: Quranic tafsir identifies “the Holy Spirit” with the created angel Jibril; Acts 2 requires the co-equal divine Person sense throughout, made explicit at first use in this lesson.
• ἑτέραις γλώσσαις (heterais glōssais) / “other/different tongues” / Semantic range: γλῶσσα = tongue (organ), language, or (later, in Pentecostal traditions) ecstatic utterance / English variants: “other tongues,” “other languages” / Contextual meaning: v.6, 8, 11 make clear these are real, known human languages (“each one heard them speaking in his own language,” “we hear them telling… in our own tongues”) — not unintelligible ecstatic speech. Arabic rendering: بلغات أخرى (established Van Dyck rendering) rather than ألسنة أخرى alone, to keep the “known-language” sense forward. Risk: Medium. Distinguish clearly in any teaching note from later charismatic “speaking in tongues” debates and from any suggestion of unintelligible utterance; Acts 2’s miracle is a reversal of Babel (Genesis 11), enabling immediate cross-cultural understanding, and this typological point should be surfaced.
• ἀποφθέγγεσθαι (apophthengesthai) / “to declare, utter forth” (a somewhat elevated verb, used elsewhere of oracular pronouncement) / Contextual meaning: the Spirit is the active source of the utterance, not the apostles’ own initiative. Low risk; render as كما أعطاهم الروح أن ينطقوا.

Acts 2:5

“Now there were Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.”

• Ἰουδαῖοι … ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους (Ioudaioi … apo pantos ethnous) — see baseline gentiles (ethnē = الأمم, Medium) for the root ἔθνος; here it describes the diaspora scattering of ethnic Jews, not Gentiles, so render ἔθνος contextually as أمة/شعب (nation, people) rather than “الأمم” in its technical Gentile sense. Low-Medium risk, purely a disambiguation note.
• εὐλαβεῖς (eulabeis) / “devout, reverent” / Contextual meaning: pious diaspora Jews gathered for the feast. Arabic: أتقياء / صالحون متعبدون. Low risk; avoid متقون alone since it may over-lexically echo Quranic muttaqin — acceptable as a broad descriptive term but should be paired with “Jewish pilgrims” context so it is not read as a technical Islamic virtue category.

Acts 2:6

“And at this sound the crowd came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.”

• συνεχύθη (synechythē) / “was thrown into confusion, bewildered” / Contextual: astonishment, not doubt — sets up the crowd’s genuine question in v.12 versus the mockers’ dismissal in v.13. Low risk, standard vocabulary ارتبك / تحيّر.
• διάλεκτος (dialektos) / “dialect, language, mode of speech” / English variants: “language,” “tongue,” “dialect” / Contextual meaning: reinforces that real, distinct native languages were heard — the same disambiguation flagged in v.4. Arabic: لغة/لهجة. Low-Medium; prefer لغته الخاصة (his own language) over لهجته (his dialect) to avoid implying merely regional Arabic dialect variation, which could confuse a modern Arabic-speaking audience already navigating fusha/ammiyya distinctions.

Acts 2:7-8

“And they were amazed and astonished… ‘And how is it that we hear, each of us, in his own native language?’”

• ἐξίσταντο / ἐθαύμαζον (existanto / ethaumazon) / “were amazed, astounded / marveled” / Low risk, standard اندهشوا / تعجبوا. No doctrinal collision; simply narrates authentic astonishment as an apologetic marker — the miracle is public and undeniable, a pattern that recurs at every major turning point in Acts (signs and wonders — see below, v.19, v.22, v.43).

Acts 2:9-11

The list of nations (Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Cretans, Arabians) and:

• προσήλυτοι (prosēlytoi) / “proselytes, converts [to Judaism]” / Contextual meaning: Gentile converts to Judaism already present among the pilgrims, quietly anticipating the Gentile inclusion argument that will not become explicit until Acts 10-15. Arabic: دخلاء / متهودون. Medium risk: the concept of a formal convert to another religion carries acute social and legal weight in many Arabic-speaking contexts (conversion/apostasy sensitivities); the term itself is historically descriptive here, but any teaching note applying it analogically to conversion today should flag this real-world sensitivity, echoing the baseline’s caution on evangelism (evangelism doctrine, Native speaker review).
• The nation-list itself functions as a rhetorical “table of nations,” foreshadowing the Great Commission Fulfilled doctrine’s global scope (cf. 1:8, “Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” — see Chapter 1 below). Low risk; render place names using standard modern Arabic geographic/historical forms.

Acts 2:12-13

“And all were amazed and perplexed… But others mocking said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’”

• διηπόρουν (diēporoun) / “were greatly perplexed” — intensified form of the v.6 confusion, distinguishing genuine seekers (v.12, “what does this mean?”) from mockers (v.13). Low risk.
• γλεῦκος (gleukos) / “sweet new wine” / Contextual meaning: the mocking accusation of drunkenness, which Peter directly rebuts in v.15, becomes the rhetorical hinge into the sermon. Low risk, standard نبيذ جديد/عصير مسكر; no special collision, though translators should be aware Arabic-speaking Muslim-background readers may find the entire wine motif culturally loaded (alcohol prohibition) — a cultural-sensitivity flag for teaching notes, not a mistranslation risk.

Acts 2:14-15

“But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice… ‘these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.’”

• Narrative/apologetic verses; no new theological term. Peter’s role here previews apostolic authority (see baseline apostle = الرسول, High) exercised publicly for the first time after Pentecost — the first apostolic sermon. Note for teaching: this is the paradigmatic instance of the doctrine “Apostolic Authority and Miracles” — authoritative, Spirit-empowered public proclamation, not private mystical insight.

Acts 2:16-17a

“but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…’”

• προφήτης (prophētēs) — reuse baseline نبي (prophet, High). Contextual note specific to Acts: Peter’s citation of Joel is the paradigm case of the Fulfillment of Prophecy doctrine already flagged in the baseline (fulfillment_of_prophecy, High) — Christ’s Spirit-outpouring fulfills, rather than abrogates, OT prophecy. This directly counters Islamic naskh (abrogation) reasoning and must be framed as continuity, not replacement.
• ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις (en tais eschatais hēmerais) / “in the last days” / Semantic range: the inaugurated eschatological era beginning with Christ’s first coming, not exclusively the final end-time. English variants: “last days,” “latter days,” “afterward” (Joel’s own wording) / Arabic: في الأيام الأخيرة. Risk: Medium. Islamic eschatology has its own robust “end times” (akhir al-zaman) vocabulary and signs-literature; teaching notes should clarify Peter is declaring the last days as already begun at Pentecost, not merely predicting a future terminal countdown — an inaugurated-but-not-yet-consummated framing distinct from popular akhir al-zaman expectation.
• ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ Πνεύματός μου (ekcheō apo tou Pneumatos mou) / “I will pour out from my Spirit” / Contextual meaning: the defining verb of the Holy Spirit and Pentecost doctrine — a decisive, historical, once-for-all outpouring inaugurating the church age. Arabic: سأسكب من روحي. Risk: High (inherits the Critical risk of holy_spirit itself). Must not be flattened into a vague “spiritual feeling” outpouring; the passage claims a specific, identifiable divine Person is given.
• ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα (epi pasan sarka) / “upon all flesh” / Contextual meaning: universal scope — anticipates the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles doctrine, though at this point in the narrative “all flesh” still refers to “sons and daughters,” “young and old,” “menservants and maidservants” within Israel; full Gentile inclusion is not narratively realized until Acts 10. Arabic: على كل بشر. Risk: Medium. Do not over-read Gentile inclusion into this verse alone; flag for teaching that the universal scope is progressively unfolded across chapters 2, 8, 10, and 15, not completed at Pentecost itself.

Acts 2:17b-18

“…and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”

• δούλους … καὶ δούλας (doulous … kai doulas) / “male slaves/servants and female slaves/servants” / Contextual meaning: the Spirit’s gift crosses every social boundary — gender, age, and class — a radically leveling inclusion. Arabic: عبيدي وإمائي / خدامي وخادماتي. Risk: Medium. عبيد carries strong historical slavery connotation in Arabic; ensure the rendering is understood as Joel’s ancient social category (bondservants) rather than read as endorsing or normalizing contemporary servitude; some modern Arabic Bible versions soften to خدام/خادمات (servants), which is acceptable provided the leveling force (even the lowest social class receives the Spirit) is preserved in teaching notes.

Acts 2:19-20

“And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below… The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.”

• σημεῖα … τέρατα (sēmeia … terata) / “signs … wonders” / see full treatment under “signs and wonders” below (v.22, v.43); here in the Joel quotation they describe cosmic apocalyptic portents rather than apostolic miracles specifically. Risk: High — see consolidated note at v.22.
• ἡμέρα Κυρίου (hēmera Kyriou) / “day of the Lord” / Contextual meaning: the OT/prophetic Day of Yahweh, now — per v.21, 36 — identified with the day tied to the Lord Jesus. Arabic: يوم الرب. Risk: High, inheriting the Critical risk of the lord entry (الرب, baseline) because the identification of Jesus with “the Lord” of this day is the sermon’s climactic claim (v.36). Must not be softened.

Acts 2:21

“‘And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

• πᾶς ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου (pas hos an epikalesētai to onoma Kyriou) / “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord” / Contextual meaning: this clause becomes, by the end of the sermon (v.36, 38), an appeal to call on the name of Jesus specifically — the single most important universal-salvation-formula verse in Acts, paralleling Romans 10:13 (already governed by the baseline’s lord and universal_scope_of_gospel entries). Arabic rendering: كل من يدعو باسم الرب فإنه يخلص — reuse baseline الرب (Critical) and يخلص from salvation (الخلاص, Critical). Risk: Critical. Two compounding risks converge here: (1) ascribing “the Lord” (al-Rabb) unambiguously to Jesus by the sermon’s end, and (2) framing salvation as secured by simply “calling on a name” rather than by a lifetime deeds-balance — both directly confront mainstream Islamic default assumptions (see baseline lord, salvation). Must be flagged for mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence.
• ὄνομα (onoma) / “name” / Semantic range: in Semitic thought, a name carries the bearer’s authority, character, and presence, not merely a label / Contextual meaning: “the name of the Lord/Jesus” (also v.38) is the locus of saving authority and forgiveness. Arabic: الاسم. Risk: High (new term, add to glossary). The phrase “no salvation in any other name” (paralleling Acts 4:12, not yet reached but thematically anticipated here) is an exclusivity claim that should be actively preserved, not diluted into “through Jesus’s teaching” or similar vaguer phrasing — this is a direct doctrinal collision with any framing that treats multiple prophetic names/intercessors as equally efficacious.

Acts 2:22

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst…”

• δυνάμεσι καὶ τέρασι καὶ σημείοις (dynamesi kai terasi kai sēmeiois) / “mighty works/powers, and wonders, and signs” / English variants: “miracles, wonders and signs” / Contextual meaning: this triad is Peter’s summary evidentiary case for Jesus’s divine attestation, and it becomes the recurring formula throughout Acts for apostolic ministry as well (2:43; 4:30; 5:12; 14:3; 15:12) — the doctrine “Apostolic Authority and Miracles.” Arabic rendering: قوات وعجائب وآيات. Risk: High. آية (sing. of آيات) is the standing Arabic word for a verse of the Qur’an, and in Islamic usage “signs” (āyāt) are pre-eminently the Qur’an’s own verses and God’s signs in creation pointing to His unity. Using آيات here is nonetheless the established, correct, and necessary rendering (paralleling the baseline’s treatment of “messiah” as unavoidable-but-loaded) — it must be actively taught as evidentiary acts of divine power attesting to Jesus specifically, not softened or replaced, but also not left to silently absorb Qur’anic resonance unaddressed. Recommend a first-use translator note distinguishing “signs” (āyāt) as attesting acts from “Ayah” as a Qur’anic textual unit.
• ἀνήρ … ἀποδεδειγμένον (anēr … apodedeigmenon) / “a man … attested/demonstrated” / Contextual meaning: deliberately begins from Jesus’s full, undiminished humanity (“a man”) before building (v.24-36) to His resurrection, Lordship, and identity as “both Lord and Christ.” This is a key text for the Humanity of Christ doctrine already flagged in the baseline (High) — do not let “a man attested by God” alone be mistaken for a merely-prophetic Christology; the sermon’s trajectory corrects that reading by its end.

Acts 2:23

“…this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

• ὡρισμένῃ βουλῇ καὶ προγνώσει τοῦ Θεοῦ (hōrismenē boulē kai prognōsei tou Theou) / “determined plan/counsel and foreknowledge of God” / Contextual meaning: God’s sovereign plan and human culpability held together without contradiction — the crucifixion was neither an accident nor merely apparent, but a foreordained, historical act of real violence against Jesus. Arabic: بمشورة الله المحددة وسابق علمه. Risk: Critical. This verse is the direct textual anchor refuting the Qur’anic denial of the crucifixion (4:157) — it must be translated and taught with full apologetic scaffolding (see baseline resurrection and resurrection_of_christ notes): the crucifixion is affirmed here as historical fact, planned by God, executed by real human agents, not an illusion or substitution.
• ἀνόμων (anomōn) / “lawless [men]” — shares root with νόμος (see baseline law = الناموس, Critical) / Contextual meaning: describes the executioners’ moral state, not a statement about the Mosaic Law itself; translators must avoid any reading that implicates “the Law” doctrine here. Arabic: أثمة/أشرار. Risk: Low, provided the νόμος-root connection is not accidentally surfaced by choosing a cognate of الناموس.

Acts 2:24

“God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”

• ἀνέστησεν (anestēsen) — see baseline resurrection (ἀνάστασις/cognate verb, القيامة, Critical). Contextual meaning: the first of several resurrection affirmations in this sermon (v.24, 31, 32), each requiring the full apologetic scaffolding the baseline mandates — crucifixion-as-historical-fact is the necessary precondition already established in v.23, so this verse’s force depends on that prior verse doing its work.
• λύσας τὰς ὠδῖνας τοῦ θανάτου (lysas tas ōdinas tou thanatou) / “loosing/releasing the birth-pangs/agonies of death” / Semantic range: ὠδίν typically = labor pains; here metaphorically the “pangs” or grip of death, possibly echoing Psalm 18:5’s “cords/snares of death” via the Hebrew idiom / Contextual meaning: death’s hold was decisively and permanently broken, not merely survived or escaped. Arabic: ناقضًا أوجاع الموت / فاكًّا رباطات الموت. Risk: Medium. Standard Arabic Bible tradition renders this with “أوجاع/أربطة الموت” (Van Dyck: “نقض ربط الموت”); no direct doctrinal collision, but ensure the verb conveys a completed, decisive victory, not a temporary reprieve — reinforcing assurance_of_salvation-adjacent confidence already flagged as High/Critical in the baseline.

Acts 2:25-28

“For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me… you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption…’”

• Δαυίδ (David) — reuse baseline داود (david, Low/Medium). Contextual meaning specific to Acts 2: Peter interprets Psalm 16 as David prophesying about the Messiah, not merely describing his own experience — a typological reading requiring the Davidic Covenant background already flagged in the baseline (davidic_covenant, High), since the Qur’anic Dawud carries none of this forward-pointing typology and this must be taught explicitly.
• ᾍδης (Hadēs) / “Hades” / Semantic range: the realm/state of the dead in general (not the Christian “hell”/eternal punishment sense of γέεννα) / English variants: “Hades,” “the grave,” “the realm of the dead” / Contextual meaning: Christ’s soul was not abandoned to the state of death. Arabic: الهاوية. Risk: Medium. الهاوية is the standard, non-technical Arabic Bible term for the abode of the dead; must be distinguished in teaching notes from جهنم/النار (hell/eternal punishment, γέεννα), a distinction that also matters when addressing Islamic afterlife vocabulary (barzakh, jahannam), which maps unevenly onto these NT categories.
• ὅσιος (hosios) / “Holy One” (title applied to Christ via the Psalm) / relates to baseline holy (hagios ≈ مقدس, Medium/High) though a distinct Greek root; render consistently with the established “Holy One” Christological title. Risk: High — another divine-title ascription to Jesus, compounding the Christological weight of this sermon.

Acts 2:29-31

“Brothers, I may say to you confidently about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried… Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ…”

• πατριάρχης (patriarchēs) / “patriarch” — new term, low risk, standard البطريرك/الجَدّ الأكبر; note modern Arabic Christian usage of بطريرك as an ecclesial office title (Eastern patriarchates) — here it is used in its plain ancestral sense, so disambiguate in teaching notes to avoid confusion with the ecclesiastical office.
• ἀνάστασις τοῦ Χριστοῦ (anastasis tou Christou) / “resurrection of the Christ/Messiah” — combines baseline resurrection (القيامة, Critical) and messiah (المسيح, Critical) in a single compound claim. This is the single highest-doctrinal-density phrase in the sermon so far: it asserts simultaneously that (a) the Messiah was to be resurrected (contra any purely triumphant, non-suffering messianic expectation) and (b) Jesus specifically fulfills this, correcting the Qur’anic Messiah profile (honored prophet, not crucified, not resurrected) at its root. Risk: Critical, mandatory theologian review at every occurrence.
• σπέρμα (via “his descendant/throne”) — echoes baseline seed_of_david (نسل داود, High); the oath to David (2 Samuel 7; Psalm 132) about an enthroned descendant is the OT covenant hinge Peter is arguing Jesus fulfills. Same risk profile as baseline entry.

Acts 2:32-33

“This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

• μάρτυρες (martyres) / “witnesses” — new term, first major occurrence (cf. also 1:8, 1:22). Literal meaning: one who testifies to what he has personally seen/experienced, originally a legal-forensic term for a courtroom witness. Semantic range: eyewitness testimony → (later, post-Acts, especially from Stephen’s death in ch.7 onward) one who testifies even unto death, the origin of the English derivative “martyr.” English variants: “witnesses,” “martyrs” (later sense). Contextual theological meaning: the apostles’ authority to preach rests specifically on firsthand eyewitness testimony to the risen Christ — this is the epistemic backbone of the entire book of Acts and the doctrine “Apostolic Authority and Miracles.” Arabic rendering: شهود. Risk: High. شاهد/شهود shares its root with الشهادة (al-shahādah), the Islamic creedal confession (“There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger”) and with الشهيد (al-shahīd), the honored martyr who dies for the faith, especially in a jihad context. The NT sense here (eyewitness legal testimony to a historical resurrection) must be actively distinguished from both the creedal-confession sense and the war-martyrdom sense, even though the trajectory toward willing martyrdom (Stephen, James, Peter tradition) is itself textually appropriate later in Acts and should be surfaced pastorally, not suppressed.
• δεξιὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ (dexia tou Theou) / “right hand of God” / Semantic range: Hebrew idiom for the position of highest honor, authority, and co-regency, not literal spatial location / Contextual meaning: enthronement language identical to Psalm 110 (quoted directly in v.34-35), asserting Christ’s exaltation to share in God’s own sovereign rule. Arabic: يمين الله. Risk: High, compounding the Christological claims already flagged; must not be read as merely “a place of favor” but as functional co-regency.
• ἐπαγγελία (epangelia) / “promise” — see baseline calling/covenant-adjacent vocabulary; here specifically “the promise of the Holy Spirit” foretold at 1:4-5 and Joel’s prophecy. Arabic: الموعد/الوعد. Low-Medium risk; keep consistent with covenant-promise language used elsewhere (baseline covenant = العهد).

Acts 2:34-35

“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’”

• Direct quotation of Psalm 110:1, applying κύριος (Lord) in both occurrences to God the Father and to the Messiah respectively — see baseline lord (الرب, Critical). Contextual meaning: this is the OT text Jesus himself used (Matthew 22:41-46) to press the Pharisees on the Messiah’s divine status, and Peter now applies it directly to Jesus as its fulfillment — one of the strongest OT proof-texts for the Lordship of Christ doctrine (baseline Critical risk) in the entire NT. Risk: Critical, mandatory theologian review; no softening of either “Lord” occurrence permitted.

Acts 2:36

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

• Κύριον καὶ Χριστόν (Kyrion kai Christon) / “Lord and Christ/Messiah” — the sermon’s climactic double title, combining baseline lord (الرب, Critical) and messiah (المسيح, Critical) in a single verse, applied to the very Jesus his hearers crucified. Contextual meaning: this is the thesis-statement verse of the entire Pentecost sermon and one of the highest-density Christological claims in Acts — full deity (Lord) and covenantal fulfillment (Christ/Messiah) asserted together, with the crucifixion (previously established as historical, v.23) as the very act of rejection now reversed by resurrection and exaltation. Risk: Critical. Per the Theological Consistency Rules inherited from the baseline (same rendering required for high-use, thesis-level verses across all documents), this verse’s Arabic rendering must be fixed once and used identically in every Acts lesson: فليعلم كل بيت إسرائيل علم اليقين أن الله قد جعله ربًّا ومسيحًا، هذا يسوع الذي صلبتموه أنتم.

Acts 2:37

“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’”

• κατενύγησαν τὴν καρδίαν (katenygēsan tēn kardian) / “were pierced/stabbed to the heart” / Semantic range: a strong verb of sudden, painful conviction, distinct from ordinary sadness / Contextual meaning: this is the Spirit-produced conviction of sin that precedes genuine repentance — the narrative hinge from proclamation to response. Arabic: انسحقت قلوبهم / نُخسوا في قلوبهم. Risk: Low-Medium. No direct doctrinal collision, but pair carefully with the following verse’s call to repentance so the conviction is not read as self-generated remorse (which would edge toward the Islamic nadam component of tawbah) but as Spirit-wrought.

Acts 2:38

“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

This verse is the doctrinal hinge of the whole sermon and requires the fullest treatment in the book.

• μετανοήσατε (metanoēsate) / “Repent!” (imperative) / Literal meaning: μετά (“change”) + νοέω (“mind, perceive”) = “change of mind/heart,” a reorientation of the whole person, not mere regret / Semantic range: turning from sin and unbelief toward God in trust, inseparably bound (in this verse) to faith in “the name of Jesus Christ” / English variants: “repent,” “turn,” “change your mind.” Arabic rendering: توبوا (tūbū) / التوبة (al-tawbah). Risk: Critical. التوبة is the single most central term in Islamic personal piety — one of Islam’s most emphasized devotional acts, described in the Qur’an (e.g. 66:8, “sincere repentance,” tawbatan naṣūḥā) as a human-initiated turning that Allah then may accept, generally understood as sufficient in itself (with sincerity, cessation of the sin, and resolve) to erase the sin, with no substitutionary or sacrificial mechanism required or available (cf. Qur’an 6:164, no one bears another’s burden). Acts 2:38’s repentance is not free-standing; it is bound in the very same clause to baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ,” and the forgiveness that follows is grounded in Christ’s finished work, not in the sincerity or sufficiency of the repentance act itself. Every occurrence of التوبة in this curriculum must be taught with this qualification made explicit, on the same pattern as the baseline’s treatment of “grace” and “faith.”
• βαπτισθήτω (baptisthētō) / “let him be baptized” (passive imperative) / Literal meaning: from βάπτω/βαπτίζω, “to dip, immerse” / Semantic range: ranges from a simple physical washing to the specific, once-for-all Christian initiation rite marking union with Christ’s death and resurrection (cf. Romans 6:4, already covered in the baseline curriculum) / English variants: “baptize,” “immerse.” Arabic rendering: يعتمد (ya’tamid) / المعمودية (al-ma’mūdiyyah) — the established Arabic Christian sacramental term (root ع-م-د, “pillar/support,” used distinctively for this rite since pre-Islamic Syriac-Arabic Christian usage). Risk: High. Islam has ritual washings (wudu, ghusl) for ritual purity before prayer, but no sacramental rite of initiation into a new covenant community comparable to Christian baptism; teaching notes must clarify that al-ma’mudiyyah is not a purification rite repeated as needed but a once-for-all public act of identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, tied here inseparably to receiving forgiveness and the Spirit — reinforcing the doctrine “Repentance and Baptism.”
• ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (epi tō onomati Iēsou Christou) / “in/upon the name of Jesus Christ” — see the “name” entry under v.21 above (High risk); here it specifies baptism’s exclusive authorization and identification with Jesus Christ by name, not a generic religious washing. Combines with baseline jesus (يسوع, Critical) and messiah (المسيح, Critical).
• εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν (eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn hymōn) / “for/unto the forgiveness of your sins” / Literal meaning: ἄφεσις = “release, letting go, sending away” (also used of releasing prisoners/debts) / Semantic range: complete release/cancellation of sin’s guilt and penalty, not partial mitigation / English variants: “forgiveness,” “remission.” Arabic rendering: لغفران خطاياكم. Reuse baseline الخطية (sin, High) for the root, combined with غفران (forgiveness/pardon). Risk: High. غفران is broadly shared vocabulary (Allah’s names al-Ghafūr, al-Ghaffār), but Islamic forgiveness is granted by divine mercy in direct response to repentance and good deeds weighed on the mizan, without any substitutionary/sacrificial ground; this verse’s forgiveness is secured through Christ’s finished atoning work (already established doctrinally in Romans, and to be built out further in this curriculum via Acts 13:38-39, 20:28) — teaching notes must make the atoning basis explicit rather than let “forgiveness” default to bare responsive mercy.
• δωρεὰν τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος (dōrean tou Hagiou Pneumatos) / “the gift of the Holy Spirit” / Literal meaning: δωρεά = a free, gratuitous gift (root shared with δίδωμι, “to give”) / Semantic range: distinct from the plural χαρίσματα (“spiritual gifts,” baseline spiritual_gifts = المواهب الروحية, Medium) — here a singular gift, the Spirit himself, given as a person, not an enablement or ability. Arabic rendering: عطية الروح القدس (new compound term; combine عطية, a free unearned gift, with baseline الروح القدس). Risk: Critical, inheriting the baseline’s Critical rating for holy_spirit itself, plus the “unmerited gift” emphasis already established for grace. Must not be confused with the plural المواهب الروحية; this is the indwelling Spirit given as the seal and down payment of salvation (a theme developed further in Ephesians, outside this curriculum’s scope, but the Acts occurrence should be taught with full weight).

Acts 2:39

“For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

• ἡ ἐπαγγελία (hē epangelia) / “the promise” — see v.33 note; here made explicit as the same promise extending outward. Arabic: الموعد. Low-Medium.
• τοῖς εἰς μακράν (tois eis makran) / “those far off” / Semantic range: distance, both geographic and, by echo of Isaiah 57:19 and later Ephesians 2:13,17, covenantal/spiritual distance — i.e. Gentiles / Contextual meaning: this is the first narrative seed of the “Gospel to Jews and Gentiles” doctrine, though (as with v.17’s “all flesh”) full Gentile inclusion is not yet narratively realized — Peter’s own horizon at this point is likely diaspora Jews, with the fuller Gentile referent becoming clear only in retrospect after Acts 10. Arabic: البعيدين. Risk: Medium. Teaching notes should flag the progressive-revelation structure here: the words are broader than Peter’s own understanding at the time, a pattern worth surfacing for the doctrine “Gospel to Jews and Gentiles” as it unfolds across the book.
• ὅσους ἂν προσκαλέσηται Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν (hosous an proskalesētai Kyrios ho Theos hēmōn) / “as many as the Lord our God calls” — reuse baseline called/calling (المدعوون/الدعوة, High). Contextual meaning: the sovereign, divine-initiative direction of calling already flagged in the baseline note — this is God’s summons of people to himself, the precise reverse direction of Islamic da’wah (human invitation to Islam). This distinction should be made explicit at first use in the Acts curriculum exactly as mandated in the baseline.

Acts 2:40

“And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’”

• διεμαρτύρατο (diemartyrato) — cognate of μάρτυς (witness, see v.32); here verbal, “testified solemnly.” Same risk profile as the noun (High, shahid-root resonance).
• παρεκάλει (parekalei) — reuse baseline exhort (parakaleō = يشجع / يعظ, Low). Contextual note: here the “urging/entreating” sense (يعظ) fits better than the “encouraging” sense, since Peter is pressing an urgent appeal to respond, not comforting an already-believing audience.
• σκολιᾶς γενεᾶς (skolias geneas) / “crooked/twisted generation” / echoes Deuteronomy 32:5 and anticipates Paul’s own use of similar language (Philippians 2:15) / Contextual meaning: describes the corrupted state of the unbelieving age from which converts are being rescued — not a specific ethnic or tribal condemnation. Arabic: هذا الجيل الملتوي/الفاسد. Low-Medium risk; ensure it reads as a moral-spiritual judgment on the age, not (given Acts’s later ethnic-political sensitivities around “Israel,” already flagged in the baseline) as a blanket condemnation of the Jewish people as a whole — Peter himself is a Jew speaking to fellow Jews inviting them to be saved, not condemning an ethnicity.

Acts 2:41

“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

• οἱ ἀποδεξάμενοι τὸν λόγον (hoi apodexamenoi ton logon) / “those who received/welcomed the word” — reuse baseline word/gospel vocabulary; ὁ λόγος here functions as shorthand for “the message of the gospel” just proclaimed. Low-Medium risk.
• ἐβαπτίσθησαν (ebaptisthēsan) — see v.38 note (المعمودية, High). Contextual meaning: baptism is the immediate, public, corporate response — never merely private assent — reinforcing “Repentance and Baptism” as the doctrine’s structural pairing.
• προσετέθησαν (prosetethēsan) / “were added” / Contextual meaning: introduces the numerical-growth motif that recurs throughout Acts (4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 9:31; 16:5) as evidence of the gospel’s unstoppable advance — thematically linked to the book’s closing word ἀκωλύτως (“unhindered,” 28:31; see Chapter 28 below). Low risk; Arabic: انضم/أُضيف.
• ψυχαί (psychai) / “souls” / Semantic range: here simply “persons, people” (a common Hebraic idiom, not a body/soul dualism statement) / Arabic: نفس/أنفس أو أشخاص. Low risk; render as نفس (person) consistent with established Arabic Bible idiom, not as a technical philosophical/theological claim about the soul’s nature.

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PART 2 — FULL-BOOK CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER ANALYSIS (Acts 1, 3-28)

Chapter 1 — Ascension, Apostolic Commission, and the Promise of the Spirit

• βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ (basileia tou Theou) — reuse baseline kingdom_of_god (ملكوت الله, Medium). Contextual note (1:3, 1:6): the risen Christ’s forty-day teaching topic; v.6’s question (“will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”) shows the disciples still expect an immediate political-national kingdom — a live tension the baseline already flags (distinguish God’s present spiritual reign from a future political state), directly relevant to avoiding a khilafah-adjacent misreading.
• μάρτυρες (martyres) — full treatment given under 2:32 above; first occurrence is here, 1:8: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This verse is the structural outline of the entire book of Acts and the foundational text for “The Great Commission Fulfilled” doctrine. Risk: High (shahid/shahada resonance, see above), with the added note that 1:8’s geographic progression (Jerusalem → Judea/Samaria → ends of the earth) is the map the narrative literally follows chapter by chapter, culminating in Rome (ch. 28).
• ἔσχατον τῆς γῆς (eschaton tēs gēs) / “the end/uttermost part of the earth” / Arabic: أقصى الأرض / أقاصي الأرض. Low-Medium risk; standard universal-mission language, compatible with but distinct from the Islamic da’wah mandate — the direction of sending (from God, through the church, to the nations) should again be kept clear against a reflex identification with da’wah’s human-initiated proselytizing framework (see baseline calling).
• ἀναλαμβάνομαι (analambanomai) / “was taken up” (the Ascension) / Contextual meaning: bodily, visible, historical departure into heaven — pairs with the promised bodily return (1:11, “will come in the same way”). Arabic: ارتفع / صُعد به. Risk: Medium. Distinct from Islamic accounts of Jesus’s own bodily ascension without death (which Islam affirms in a very different framework, tied to its denial of the crucifixion) — teaching notes should clarify this is Christ’s ascension after his resurrection and forty post-resurrection days, not a substitute-for-crucifixion “rescue ascension” as in the Qur’anic account.
• κλῆρος (klēros) / “lot, portion, share” (used of Judas’s ministry-share, 1:17, 25, and the casting of lots for Matthias, 1:26) — root shares etymology loosely with English “clergy” via later ecclesial usage, and conceptually intersects with baseline calling (κλῆσις is a different but related root); low risk, standard نصيب / قرعة. Note for teaching: casting lots here is a specific, Spirit-guided, one-time apostolic-succession decision, not a general model for church decision-making (contrast the deliberative process of Acts 15).
• ἀποστολή/ἀπόστολος (apostolos) — reuse baseline apostle (الرسول, High). Contextual note: 1:21-26’s careful qualification criteria for Judas’s replacement (must have accompanied Jesus from his baptism to his ascension, and be a witness of the resurrection) sharpens the baseline’s caution: the NT apostolic office is a bounded, historically-closed eyewitness office, unlike an open-ended prophetic succession — an important distinction to draw explicitly against the Islamic “seal of the prophets” framework, which the baseline already flags for the term prophet.

Chapter 3 — Healing at the Temple and Peter’s Second Sermon

• ὄνομα Ἰησοῦ (onoma Iēsou) — see 2:21, 2:38 above (High/Critical). Recurs here as the explicit healing authority (“in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk,” 3:6) — reinforces “Apostolic Authority and Miracles.”
• παῖς (pais, of God) / “servant/child” (3:13, 3:26, echoing Isaiah’s Suffering Servant) / Semantic range: can mean “child” or “servant/slave” depending on context / Contextual meaning: identifies Jesus as the promised Isaianic Servant who suffers on behalf of others. Arabic: فتاه / عبده. Risk: High. عبد (servant/slave) is also the standard Arabic term for a human being’s relationship to Allah as Creator (‘abd Allah, used of every human, and famously of Muhammad in the shahada, “Muhammad ‘abduhu wa rasuluh”); care is needed so “God’s servant” applied to Jesus is not read as demoting him to the same generic creature-status category Islam applies to every prophet, when the surrounding sermon (3:15, “the Author of life,” 3:13 “glorified”) is building toward a much higher Christology.
• ὁ Ἅγιος καὶ ὁ Δίκαιος (ho Hagios kai ho Dikaios) / “the Holy and Righteous One” (3:14) — combines baseline holy (مقدس / here القدوس, a divine-title form) and righteousness-root (البر / الصديق, Critical). Risk: Critical. القدوس is itself one of Allah’s 99 names (al-Quddūs); applying it as a personal title to Jesus is a direct, high-stakes divine-title ascription requiring the same careful, unsoftened handling mandated for “Lord” and “Son of God” in the baseline.
• ἀποκατάστασις (apokatastasis) / “restoration” (3:21, “the time for restoring all things”) / Contextual meaning: the future consummation of all things at Christ’s return — eschatological, not a this-worldly political restoration (echoing and correcting the 1:6 misunderstanding). Arabic: ردّ كل شيء / استرداد كل شيء. Low-Medium risk; note conceptual proximity to (but real distinction from) Islamic eschatological restoration themes (akhir al-zaman, the return of a righteous order) — a possible bridge point if handled with care.
• προφήτης ὡς Μωϋσῆς (prophētēs hōs Mōusēs) / “a prophet like Moses” (3:22, citing Deuteronomy 18:15) — reuse baseline prophet (نبي, High) and Moses (موسى, per the 12_ai_translation_requirements naming convention). Risk: High. This “prophet like Moses” text is independently a contested proof-text in Muslim-Christian polemics (some Muslim apologetics apply it to Muhammad); Peter’s own application of it to Jesus in this very speech should be foregrounded so the text’s NT referent is unambiguous within this curriculum.

Chapter 4 — Arrest, Bold Testimony, and the Common Life

• παρρησία (parrēsia) / “boldness, plainness/freedom of speech” / Literal meaning: πᾶν (“all”) + ῥῆσις (“speech”) = “all-speech,” i.e. speaking everything openly and fearlessly / Semantic range: courageous, unashamed, public proclamation, especially under threat / English variants: “boldness,” “confidence,” “courage.” Arabic rendering: الجرأة (al-jur’ah). Risk: High (new term). Contextual meaning: 4:13 marks the Sanhedrin’s own astonishment at Peter and John’s boldness, and 4:29, 31 make it the explicit subject of the church’s prayer (“grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness”) — establishing “Persecution and Bold Witness” as a distinct, prayed-for gift rather than a mere personality trait. This term carries real, non-abstract safety weight in the doctrine already flagged by the baseline’s evangelism entry (Native speaker review; apostasy-law sensitivity); teaching notes for this Acts curriculum must carry forward that same caution explicitly whenever al-jur’ah appears.
• οὐδενὶ ἄλλῳ ἡ σωτηρία (oudeni allō hē sōtēria) / “salvation in no one else” (4:12, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved”) — reuse baseline salvation (الخلاص, Critical) and combine with the “name” entry above. Risk: Critical. This is Acts’s single most explicit exclusivity statement, tightly paralleling Romans 10:9-13’s already-Critical status in the baseline; it must be rendered with full, unqualified exclusivity (“لا خلاص في أحد آخر… لا اسم آخر… به ينبغي أن نخلص”) and flagged for mandatory theologian review at every occurrence.
• ἅπαντα κοινά (hapanta koina) / “all things common” (4:32) / Literal meaning: κοινός = “common, shared, communal” / Semantic range: shared ownership/use — the same root that, in a different valence, produces the “unclean/common” ritual-purity sense in 10:14-15 (see Chapter 10 below); the two senses (economic sharing vs. ritual defilement) are worth flagging together as a single Greek root with two distinct theological trajectories in Acts. Contextual meaning here: voluntary, Spirit-motivated economic sharing within the “Church as Community” doctrine, not compulsory communism or a permanent institutional requirement (the arrangement is not repeated as normative church law elsewhere in the NT). Arabic: مشتركة / كل شيء مشترك بينهم. Risk: Medium. No major Islamic-collision risk on its own (Islamic zakat and sadaqah provide a positive point of comparison for voluntary generosity), but should not be taught as abolishing private property as a universal rule; frame as a specific Spirit-produced generosity within the earliest Jerusalem church.
• χάρις μεγάλη (charis megalē) / “great grace” (4:33) — reuse baseline grace (النعمة, High). Contextual note: grace here functions relationally/communally (favor resting on the whole community, visible in its generosity and unity), an extension of, not a departure from, the baseline’s forensic/soteriological “grace” emphasis.

Chapter 5 — Ananias and Sapphira; Apostolic Signs; Gamaliel’s Counsel

• ψεύσασθαι τῷ Πνεύματι τῷ Ἁγίῳ (pseusasthai tō Pneumati tō Hagiō) / “to lie to the Holy Spirit” (5:3) — reuse baseline holy_spirit (الروح القدس, Critical). Contextual meaning: Peter’s diagnosis treats deception toward the church’s shared life as deception directed at the Holy Spirit personally, and the Spirit personally as “God” (5:4, “you have not lied to man but to God”) — an important text for the full personhood and deity of the Spirit, strengthening the baseline’s Critical rating by supplying a direct narrative proof of the Spirit’s personal deity distinct from the “angel Jibril” identification flagged in the baseline note.
• φόβος μέγας (phobos megas) / “great fear” (5:5, 5:11) / Contextual meaning: the appropriate, sobering response to God’s holiness and the reality of his judgment within the covenant community — not a general terror of God’s arbitrary power. Arabic: خوف عظيم. Low-Medium risk.
• σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα (sēmeia kai terata) — recurs (5:12); see full note under 2:22 (High). Contextual note: here explicitly attributed to “the apostles” as a class, reinforcing the doctrine “Apostolic Authority and Miracles” as a defined, bounded office-function rather than a generally-distributed ability.
• No new theological vocabulary beyond the above; Gamaliel’s counsel (5:34-39) reuses “if this plan or this undertaking is of God” (a providence-adjacent phrase) without introducing new technical terms.

Chapter 6 — The Appointment of the Seven

• διακονία (diakonia) / “service, ministry” (6:1, 6:4, distinguishing “the daily distribution” [διακονία] from “the ministry of the word” [ἡ διακονία τοῦ λόγου]) / Literal meaning: table-service/waiting, extended to any form of practical or spiritual service / English variants: “ministry,” “service,” “distribution.” Arabic rendering: الخدمة (al-khidmah). Risk: Low-Medium (new term). Contextual meaning: establishes a structural principle for “The Church as Community” — diversified ministry roles under apostolic oversight, word-ministry and practical-service ministry both dignified as “service,” neither superior in kind though distinct in function.
• ἐπίθεσις τῶν χειρῶν (epithesis tōn cheirōn) / “laying on of hands” (6:6) / Semantic range: a physical gesture of blessing, commissioning, or impartation, used variously across Acts for ordination (6:6, 13:3), for impartation of the Spirit (8:17, 19:6), and for healing (9:12, 28:8) — the specific sense must be determined per occurrence. Arabic rendering: وضع الأيدي. Risk: Medium (new term). Contextual meaning here: a commissioning/ordination gesture for the Seven, distinct from — though later associated in some traditions with — a sacramental transfer of the Spirit; teaching notes should flag the range of uses across Acts so no single occurrence is over-read into the others.
• Ἑλληνισταί / Ἑβραῖοι (Hellēnistai / Hebraioi) / “Hellenists / Hebrews” (6:1) — a sociolinguistic distinction (Greek-speaking vs. Aramaic/Hebrew-speaking Jews) internal to the early Jewish-Christian community, not a doctrinal term; low risk, transliterate/translate descriptively as اليهود الناطقون باليونانية / بالعبرية.

Chapter 7 — Stephen’s Speech and Martyrdom

• μάρτυς (martys) — see full treatment above (High). This chapter is the narrative turning point where “witness” (eyewitness testimony) begins visibly to shade toward “martyr” (witness unto death) in the developing sense the English derivative preserves — Stephen is Acts’s first Christian killed for his testimony (7:54-60). Teaching notes should draw this connective thread explicitly, since it is the most theologically loaded moment for the shahid/shahada disambiguation flagged earlier: Stephen’s death is not analogous to Islamic martyrdom (dying in active armed struggle, guaranteeing paradise by that act) but is the suffering consequence of nonviolent testimony to Christ, forgiving his killers even as he dies (7:60) — a decisive moral and theological contrast worth surfacing directly.
• υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (huios tou anthrōpou) / “Son of Man” (7:56, Stephen’s vision) — a title from Daniel 7:13-14 denoting an exalted, enthroned, divinely-authorized figure, not merely “a human being.” Arabic rendering: ابن الإنسان. Risk: High. Distinguish carefully from baseline son_of_god (ابن الله, Critical) — these are two different Christological titles with different emphases (Son of Man stresses Christ’s exaltation and eschatological authority via Daniel 7; Son of God stresses eternal divine sonship); do not conflate them in translation or teaching, but note both converge on a high Christology.
• παραδίδωμι τὸ πνεῦμα (paradidōmi to pneuma) — Stephen’s dying prayer, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (7:59), directly parallels Jesus’s own words on the cross (Luke 23:46), and is addressed to Jesus as “Lord” — reinforcing baseline lord (Critical) with a fresh occurrence in a prayer of invocation, itself a significant datum for the deity of Christ (prayer directed to Jesus, not merely about him).
• The bulk of the chapter is a historical recitation (Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the tabernacle, the prophets) using terms already established (covenant = العهد, Medium; law = الناموس, Critical) — reuse baseline renderings throughout; no new technical vocabulary beyond the items above.

Chapter 8 — Philip, Simon the Sorcerer, and the Ethiopian Eunuch

• μαγεία (mageia) / “sorcery, magic” (8:9, 8:11, of Simon) / Semantic range: occult practice claiming supernatural power apart from God, often for personal gain or status. Arabic rendering: السحر (al-sihr). Risk: Low-Medium. Sihr is itself a serious, clearly-forbidden category in Islamic law and popular belief, associated with a form of shirk — a genuinely compatible moral judgment, making this a low-collision, even bridge-friendly term; the risk is narrower than most entries — mainly ensuring Simon’s later attempt to purchase spiritual power (8:18-19, “simony”) is read as a distinct error (treating the Spirit’s gift as a commodity) rather than collapsed into sorcery itself.
• δωρεὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ (dōrea tou Theou) — recurs (8:20, “you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money”) — see 2:38 note (Critical); reinforces the “unmerited gift, not a purchasable commodity” emphasis already central to baseline grace.
• Σαμαρῖται (Samaritai) / “Samaritans” (8:5-25) — the first geographic expansion of the gospel per the Acts 1:8 outline (“Judea and Samaria”), a historically marginalized group relative to mainstream Judaism. Low risk as a proper-noun/ethnonym; theologically significant for “Gospel to Jews and Gentiles” as the first concrete step beyond a purely Jewish audience, though Samaritans are ethnically/religiously distinct from Gentiles proper — a nuance worth preserving in teaching notes (the fuller Gentile breakthrough is Chapter 10).
• εὐαγγελίζω (euangelizō) / “to evangelize, preach the gospel” (8:4, 8:12, 8:25, 8:35, 8:40) — reuse baseline gospel (الإنجيل, High) root, verb form. Standard يبشر rendering; no new risk beyond the baseline note.
• εὐνοῦχος (eunouchos) / “eunuch” (8:27ff, the Ethiopian official) — descriptive social-status term, low theological risk; render الخصي or the more formal historical-court title وزير الخزانة/الخادم; note the Ethiopian eunuch’s reading of Isaiah 53 and Philip’s Christological explanation of it (8:32-35) is itself a strong “Fulfillment of Prophecy” text, reusing baseline vocabulary without new risk.

Chapter 9 — The Conversion of Paul (Saul)

• διώκειν (diōkein) / “to persecute” (9:4, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”) / Literal meaning: to pursue, chase, hound / Semantic range: active, hostile pursuit intending harm / Contextual meaning: Christ speaks of persecution against his church as persecution against himself personally — a strong union-with-Christ statement. Arabic rendering: الاضطهاد / تضطهد. Risk: Medium-High. Beyond the doctrinal point (Christ identifies with his persecuted people), this term carries genuine, non-hypothetical weight for the target audience given contemporary apostasy-related persecution risk in many Arabic-speaking contexts (echoing the baseline’s evangelism safety caution) — teaching notes for “Persecution and Bold Witness” throughout this curriculum should carry this sensitivity consistently, not only where the English word “persecution” appears.
• σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς (skeuos eklogēs) / “a chosen instrument/vessel” (9:15, God’s words to Ananias about Saul) / Literal meaning: σκεῦος = a vessel, container, tool; ἐκλογή = “election, choosing” — reuse baseline election (اختيار الله, High). Arabic rendering: إناء اختيار / وعاء مختار. Risk: High, inheriting the baseline’s caution that ἐκλογή/election must be taught as God’s specific, purposive redemptive choice, never collapsed into generic fatalistic qadar. This is the founding text for the doctrine “Conversion of Paul” understood theologically (not merely biographically) as an instance of sovereign, particular election for a specific redemptive-historical purpose (carrying the gospel to the Gentiles, 9:15b).
• αἱ λεπίδες (hai lepides) / “the scales” (9:18, falling from Saul’s eyes) — vivid narrative detail, low theological risk, standard قشور/غشاوة rendering; a physical sign accompanying spiritual illumination, worth a brief teaching note as a literary marker of conversion but not itself carrying doctrinal freight.
• κηρύσσειν Χριστόν (kēryssein Christon) / “to proclaim/preach Christ” (9:20, 9:22) — reuse baseline messiah (المسيح, Critical); note 9:20’s specific content, “proclaiming Jesus, that he is the Son of God” — reuse baseline son_of_god (ابن الله, Critical) in full, unsoftened form per the baseline’s explicit forbidden-substitution rule.

Chapter 10 — Cornelius and the Gentile Pentecost

This chapter is the single most important turning-point chapter for the doctrine “The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles.”

• κοινός / ἀκάθαρτος (koinos / akathartos) / “common [i.e., ritually defiled by ordinary/non-kosher contact] / unclean” (10:14-15, 28, Peter’s vision: “What God has made clean, do not call common”) / Literal meaning: κοινός = “common, shared, ordinary” (the same root behind κοινωνία’s positive “fellowship” sense, see 2:42 and Chapter 4 above — a single root producing sharply divergent theological valences depending on context); ἀκάθαρτος = “impure, unclean.” Semantic range: ritual/ceremonial purity classification under the Mosaic dietary law, not moral impurity per se. Contextual theological meaning: God declares the Mosaic food-purity distinctions abolished as boundary-markers, symbolically preparing Peter (and the reader) for the parallel declaration that Gentiles themselves are no longer to be regarded as “unclean” outsiders to the covenant people (10:28, 34-35, “God shows no partiality”). Arabic rendering: دنس/نجس (for ἀκάθαρτος) and مُشترك عام / محرَّم شرعًا (for κοινός in this technical sense). Risk: High. This is a delicate, high-value teaching moment: Arabic-speaking readers of Muslim background bring an active, detailed halal/haram dietary framework to this text, and the passage’s real point (ceremonial law distinctions fulfilled/set aside in Christ, opening the way to full Gentile inclusion) can easily be mistranslated or misheard as either (a) Christianity having its own comparable dietary purity code now simply revised, or (b) an arbitrary divine reversal. Teaching notes must frame this within the “Fulfillment of Prophecy” and “Justification apart from the Law” doctrines already established: the ceremonial law served a temporary, boundary-marking purpose fulfilled in Christ, not annulled by whim.
• προσωπολήπτης / οὐ προσωπολημπτεῖ (prosōpolēptēs / ou prosōpolēmptei) / “partial/one who shows favoritism” — negated, “God is not one who shows favoritism/partiality” (10:34) / Literal meaning: πρόσωπον (“face”) + λαμβάνω (“to take/receive”) = “to receive/regard the face,” i.e. to judge by external status. Arabic rendering: لا يحابي بالوجوه / لا محاباة عنده. Risk: Medium-High. Directly reinforces the “Unity of Jews and Gentiles” doctrine already flagged Critical/High in the baseline Romans package (Romans 3:29-30; the baseline’s unity_of_jews_and_gentiles entry); this Acts 10 text is the narrative enactment of that Pauline doctrine and should be cross-referenced explicitly in teaching materials.
• φοβούμενος τὸν Θεόν (phoboumenos ton Theon) / “one who fears/reveres God” (10:2, 10:22, of Cornelius) / Semantic range: a technical designation in this period for Gentile sympathizers/adherents to Jewish monotheism and ethics who had not undergone full proselyte conversion (contrast with προσήλυτος, “proselyte,” Acts 2:11, a formally converted Gentile). Arabic rendering: متقي الله / خائف الله. Risk: Medium. Positive conceptual overlap with Islamic taqwa (God-consciousness) makes this a potential bridge term, but the historically specific “God-fearer” category (a known sociological class in first-century Judaism) should be explained rather than assumed, so it is not misread as a general reference to any pious non-Muslim/non-Jew.
• τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον ἐπέπεσεν (to Pneuma to Hagion epesen) / “the Holy Spirit fell upon” (10:44) — reuse baseline holy_spirit (الروح القدس, Critical). Contextual note: this is explicitly called “the Gentile Pentecost” by the church’s own retrospective language (11:15-17, “just as on us at the beginning”) — the same Spirit-outpouring event-category as Acts 2, now extended without qualification to uncircumcised Gentiles, prior even to their baptism. This ordering (Spirit given before baptism, reversing the Acts 2:38 sequence) is theologically significant — flag for teaching that the Spirit’s gift is God’s sovereign act, not mechanically tied to the rite’s order, while baptism (10:47-48) still immediately follows as the appropriate confirming response.

Chapter 11 — Report to Jerusalem; the Church at Antioch; the Name “Christian”

• Χριστιανοί (Christianoi) / “Christians” (11:26, “in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians”) / Literal meaning: Χριστός (“Christ/Messiah/Anointed One”) + the Latin-derived agent suffix -ianus, “belonging to, partisan of” / Semantic range: originally likely a term coined by outsiders (possibly with mild derision) to label the movement’s adherents, later adopted positively by believers themselves. Arabic rendering: المسيحيون (al-masīhiyyūn) — the established, universally-used Arabic term. Risk: Medium (new term, though its root is already secured via baseline messiah = المسيح, Critical). Contextual meaning: this is the narrative origin-point of the very term now used throughout the Arabic-speaking world for the entire Christian community/minority — a significant sociological weight that did not exist for the term in its Acts 11 context; teaching notes should surface the gap between (a) the original sense (“disciple/follower of the Messiah,” a personal identity marker) and (b) the contemporary Arabic sociological sense (an inherited communal/sectarian identity label, often assumed by birth rather than personal conversion) — the same “identity vs. institution” caution the baseline already applies to church (al-kanisah, Medium).
• γῆν τὴν Ἀντιόχειαν (Antiocheia) — proper noun, low risk; Antioch becomes the base of Gentile-inclusive mission (foreshadowing Chapter 13). No new theological vocabulary otherwise; reuse grace (النعمة, 11:23), the Lord (الرب, 11:21, 11:23-24), and Holy Spirit (11:24) exactly per baseline.

Chapter 12 — Herod’s Persecution; Peter’s Deliverance; James’s Martyrdom

• No new theological vocabulary. Reuses persecution/διώκειν-adjacent themes (see Chapter 9 note, Medium-High), prayer (προσευχή — low risk, standard الصلاة), and angel (ἄγγελος — standard ملاك, low risk; note the term is shared, non-collision vocabulary with Islamic angelology, though the specific narrative function here, delivering an imprisoned apostle, is distinctively Acts’s own). James’s martyrdom (12:2) and Peter’s providential deliverance (12:6-11) together illustrate the doctrine “Persecution and Bold Witness” holding both outcomes (death and deliverance) together under God’s sovereign providence (baseline providence, Medium) without resolving why one apostle dies and another is spared — worth flagging explicitly in teaching notes as a pastoral point, since the question naturally arises for readers.

Chapter 13 — The First Missionary Journey; Justification Apart from the Law

• ἀφορίζω (aphorizō) / “to set apart” (13:2, “the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul’”) — conceptually related to baseline holy/saints vocabulary (set-apartness), though a distinct verb; low-medium risk, standard افرزوا/أفرزهما. Contextual meaning: the Spirit himself directly commissions the first cross-cultural missionary sending — a key text for both “Apostolic Authority” and “The Great Commission Fulfilled.”
• φωστὸ ἔθνεσιν (φῶς ἐθνῶν, phōs ethnōn) / “a light to/for the Gentiles” (13:47, citing Isaiah 49:6) — combines baseline glory-adjacent light-imagery caution (the baseline flags avoiding Sufi-illumination resonance for δόξα specifically) with baseline gentiles (الأمم, Medium). Arabic rendering: نورًا للأمم. Risk: Medium. The baseline’s light-imagery caution (avoid resonance with Sufi ishraq mysticism about direct absorption into divine light) applies here as a secondary consideration, though this phrase is a direct OT quotation functioning primarily as a missiological mandate, not a mystical-experience claim — the caution is about tone in surrounding commentary, not the phrase itself.
• δικαιοῦται πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων (dikaioutai pas ho pisteuōn) / “everyone who believes is justified” (13:39, “by him everyone who believes is freed/justified from everything you could not be freed from by the law of Moses”) — reuse baseline justification (التبرير, Critical) and law (الناموس, Critical) together in a single verse. Risk: Critical. This is the foundational text in Acts for the curriculum’s doctrine “Justification apart from the Law,” directly paralleling Romans 3:21-28 (already Critical in the baseline); must never be rendered so as to suggest justification is achieved by successfully keeping the law and merely supplemented by faith — the text explicitly contrasts the two.
• τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον (tetagmenoi eis zōēn aiōnion) / “appointed/ordained to eternal life” (13:48, “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed”) — reuse baseline election (اختيار الله, High). Arabic rendering: المعينون للحياة الأبدية. Risk: High, inheriting the exact caution the baseline attaches to election: this must be taught as God’s specific, personal, redemptive purpose realized through genuine faith-response (“believed” follows directly from “appointed” in the same clause, not apart from it), never collapsed into impersonal folk-qadar fatalism about life outcomes generally.

Chapter 14 — Lystra, Iconium, and Mistaken Idolatry

• No entirely new Critical/High doctrinal terms; the chapter’s load-bearing point is narrative-apologetic. The Lystra crowd mistakes Paul and Barnabas for the gods Zeus and Hermes (14:11-13) — a direct, explicit idolatry-contrast episode. Arabic rendering: زيوس وهرمس (transliterated proper names). Risk: Medium. This episode is genuinely useful for teaching against any veneration of human religious figures (including, by natural extension in this cultural context, guarding against any drift toward venerating apostles, saints, or founders of the faith in a manner exceeding the baseline’s caution on saints = القديسون, Medium, which explicitly rejects the Sufi awliya’ veneration framework); Paul and Barnabas’s own horrified rejection of the worship offered to them (14:14-15) is a strong positive model to surface.
• πρεσβύτεροι (presbyteroi) / “elders” (14:23, appointing elders in every church) — see fuller treatment under Chapter 20 below (Medium). First occurrence here; note it establishes a repeatable structural pattern for “The Church as Community,” reinforced later at 20:17, 28.
• χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ (charis tou Theou) (14:26) — reuse baseline grace (النعمة, High); no new risk.

Chapter 15 — The Jerusalem Council

• περιτομή (peritomē) / “circumcision” / Literal meaning: the physical rite itself / Semantic range: ranges from the literal physical practice to (as here) a shorthand for the entire question of whether Gentile converts must adopt Jewish covenant identity-markers to be saved. Arabic rendering: الختان (al-khitān). Risk: High. Khitan is a positively-regarded, widely-practiced rite in Islam (following the Abrahamic sunna) as well as in Judaism; the Council’s conclusion — that circumcision is not required for salvation (15:1, 5, 11) — is a soteriological argument about the sufficiency of grace through faith, not a rejection of the physical practice’s ongoing cultural or familial validity generally. Teaching notes must draw this distinction sharply so the passage is not misheard as an attack on a practice many Arabic-speaking readers of Muslim background continue to observe for entirely unrelated (non-salvific) reasons; the point is precisely parallel to the baseline’s law caution — this is a salvation-requirement question, not a blanket verdict on a cultural-religious practice.
• ἔδοξεν τῷ Πνεύματι τῷ Ἁγίῳ καὶ ἡμῖν (edoxen tō Pneumati tō Hagiō kai hēmin) / “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (15:28) — reuse baseline holy_spirit (الروح القدس, Critical). Arabic rendering: رأى الروح القدس ونحن ذلك حسنًا. Risk: High. This is a unique, historically-bounded instance of a specific apostolic council’s Spirit-guided decision, recorded in Scripture as authoritative for that particular question; it should not be presented as an ongoing model for churchwide doctrinal authority independent of Scripture, nor conflated with Islamic ijma’ (juristic consensus) or shura as an ongoing legal-interpretive method, even though a structural parallel (collective deliberation under claimed divine guidance) is worth noting as a talking point.
• ζυγός (zygos) / “yoke” (15:10, “why put a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?”) / Semantic range: a burden of obligation, here specifically the full weight of Torah-observance as a salvation-requirement. Arabic rendering: النير. Low-Medium risk; standard NT metaphor, reused later in Galatians (outside this curriculum) — no independent collision risk beyond the law/circumcision cautions already flagged.
• The Gentile “requirements” retained (15:20, 29 — abstain from things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, what has been strangled, and blood) are pastoral-missional accommodations, not new soteriological conditions; low risk as a list, but teaching notes should clarify the distinction from the salvation question just settled, so as not to reintroduce a subtle works-requirement through the back door.

Chapter 16 — Lydia, the Philippian Jailer, and “The Macedonian Call”

• τί με δεῖ ποιεῖν ἵνα σωθῶ; (ti me dei poiein hina sōthō?) / “What must I do to be saved?” (16:30) — reuse baseline salvation (الخلاص, Critical). Arabic rendering: ماذا ينبغي أن أفعل لأخلص؟ Risk: Critical. Paired directly with Paul’s answer (16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household”) — reuse baseline faith/believe (الإيمان, High) and lord (الرب, Critical) together. This exchange is one of the clearest single-verse summaries of the gospel’s simplicity in all of Acts and must be preserved with full doctrinal weight, resisting any drift toward a deeds-based answer to the jailer’s question.
• πνεῦμα Πύθωνα (pneuma Pythōna) / “a spirit of divination” (literally “a Python-spirit,” referencing the Delphic oracular tradition) (16:16) / Semantic range: an occult, oracular spiritual power, distinct from and opposed to the Holy Spirit. Arabic rendering: روح عرافة / روح تنجيم. Risk: Low-Medium. No major Islamic-collision risk (divination/kahin-practice is also condemned in Islamic tradition, a point of moral overlap); ensure it is clearly distinguished as a demonic/occult power, not confused with “spirit” generically or with the Holy Spirit by proximity of vocabulary.
• βαπτίζω (baptizō) recurs for Lydia (16:15) and the jailer’s household (16:33) — see 2:38 note (High); note the household-baptism pattern here, a datum relevant to but not fully resolving debates about household/family solidarity in conversion (a topic beyond this curriculum’s required scope, but worth flagging for teacher awareness).

Chapter 17 — Thessalonica, Berea, and the Areopagus

• ὁ Ἄγνωστος Θεός (ho Agnōstos Theos) / “the Unknown God” (17:23, the altar inscription Paul references in Athens) / Contextual meaning: Paul’s apologetic bridge-point, arguing the Athenians already sense the true God’s existence without rightly knowing him, then proclaiming that God has now made himself known in Christ. Arabic rendering: الإله المجهول. Risk: Medium-High. This methodology (using an existing altar/inscription as a bridge into full gospel proclamation) is a valuable missiological model, but the specific claim requires careful framing so it is not misread as endorsing religious pluralism (that the Athenians’ worship was already valid and merely needed a label) — Paul’s speech in fact calls for repentance from ignorant idol-worship (17:29-30), the same universalism caution the baseline already applies to universal_scope_of_gospel (High risk: “must also be framed carefully so it is not misheard as religious pluralism claiming all paths are equally valid”).
• ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ ζῶμεν καὶ κινούμεθα καὶ ἐσμέν (en autō gar zōmen kai kinoumetha kai esmen) / “for in him we live and move and have our being” (17:28, quoting Greek poets) — a providence-adjacent affirmation of God’s sustaining presence to all humanity; reuse baseline providence (العناية الإلهية, Medium). Low-Medium risk; a genuinely strong bridge text, broadly resonant with (though theologically deeper than) the Islamic sense of Allah’s immanent sustaining of all creation.
• μετανοεῖν (metanoein) — recurs (17:30, “he commands all people everywhere to repent”) — see 2:38 note (Critical), now expanded explicitly to universal scope (“all people everywhere”), directly reinforcing “Gospel to Jews and Gentiles” and requiring the same care about repentance’s relation to Christ’s finished work, not bare self-generated turning.
• ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν (anastasis nekrōn) — “the resurrection of the dead” (17:31-32, some mocked when they heard it) — reuse baseline resurrection (القيامة, Critical). Contextual note: this is a valuable teaching moment distinguishing (a) the general future resurrection of all people, a category Islam does affirm (Yawm al-Qiyamah), from (b) the specific historical resurrection of Jesus already accomplished, which both the Athenian mockers and mainstream Islamic theology (for different reasons) resist — the same distinction the baseline flags for resurrection_of_christ.

Chapter 18 — Corinth; Gallio; Aquila, Priscilla, and Apollos

• No new Critical/High theological vocabulary. Reuses the Lord (الرب, 18:9-10, in Christ’s vision to Paul, “Do not be afraid… I am with you”), the Way (see fuller treatment at Chapter 19 below, first implicit here in the “sect” language of 18:26’s more developed instruction of Apollos “the way of God”), and standard narrative/legal vocabulary around Gallio’s tribunal (low risk). Worth flagging for “Persecution and Bold Witness”: Gallio’s dismissal of the charges (18:14-15) functions as an early instance of Roman legal tolerance later contrasted with harsher episodes (Philippi, ch.16; Ephesus, ch.19; Paul’s later trials, ch.21-26).

Chapter 19 — Ephesus, “the Way,” and the Riot over Artemis

• ἡ ὁδός (hē hodos) / “the Way” (19:9, 19:23, and recurring at 9:2, 22:4, 24:14, 22) / Literal meaning: a road, path, journey / Semantic range: used throughout Acts as an early self-designation for the Christian movement before “Christian” (11:26) became current — “belonging to the Way,” “persecuting the Way,” “the Way of God/of the Lord.” Arabic rendering: الطريق. Risk: High (new term). Contextual meaning: functions almost as a proper title for the whole Christian movement in Acts’s own idiom. This requires careful handling in Arabic: الطريق could be read as merely “a path” among other paths (undercutting the exclusivity claims already established, e.g. 4:12), and it also stands etymologically close to الشريعة (shari’ah, literally “the way/path to a watering-place,” the term for Islamic religious law) and to the Qur’an’s own “الصراط المستقيم” (al-sirat al-mustaqim, “the straight path,” Al-Fatiha 1:6). Teaching notes should clarify that “the Way” in Acts is a historically specific early self-designation for the apostolic Christian movement, carrying the same exclusive, decisive-commitment force as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6, outside this curriculum but frequently in the background of readers’ minds), and should not be softened into “a way” or “a path” among several legitimate religious paths.
• δώδεκα ἄνδρες (baptism of John’s disciples, 19:1-7) — reuse baseline holy_spirit and baptism vocabulary; contextual note: distinguishes John’s preparatory water-baptism of repentance from Christian baptism “in the name of the Lord Jesus” accompanied by the Spirit’s manifest coming (19:5-6) — a useful text for “Repentance and Baptism” showing the rite’s Christ-centered, Spirit-attested character as distinct from any merely ritual-washing predecessor.
• Ἄρτεμις (Artemis) / the goddess Artemis/Diana of Ephesus (19:24-41) — proper noun, low risk; the riot narrative functions as a strong contemporary-relevant illustration of “Persecution and Bold Witness” arising from economic and religious threat (the silversmiths’ trade) rather than purely theological objection — worth noting as a recurring pattern (economic/social interests entangled with religious opposition) relevant to the doctrine’s real-world application.

Chapter 20 — Miletus Farewell Address

• πρεσβύτεροι / ἐπίσκοποι (presbyteroi / episkopoi) / “elders / overseers” (20:17, 28 — used interchangeably of the same office here) / Literal meaning: πρεσβύτερος = “elder, older man”; ἐπίσκοπος = “overseer, one who watches over” / Semantic range: the emerging local-church leadership office, later differentiated in some traditions (bishop/presbyter distinct offices) but used synonymously in Acts 20. Arabic rendering: الشيوخ / الأساقفة. Risk: Medium (new term). Contextual meaning: charged to “shepherd the church of God” (ποιμαίνειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, 20:28) — reuse baseline church (الكنيسة, Medium). Note: شيخ (shaykh, the literal cognate for “elder”) carries strong independent Islamic-authority resonance (tribal elder, religious scholar, and especially Sufi spiritual guide/master); established Arabic Christian usage already uses الشيوخ or more commonly القسوس/الشيوخ for this office without confusion in ecclesial contexts, but first-use teaching notes should clarify the office is a congregational, plural, accountable oversight role — not a solitary mystical-guide (Sufi shaykh) or tribal-patriarch (tribal shaykh) role.
• πᾶσαν τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ (pasan tēn boulēn tou Theou) / “the whole counsel/plan of God” (20:27, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God”) / Contextual meaning: Paul’s claim to have withheld nothing of God’s revealed purpose — a strong statement of completeness and integrity in apostolic teaching. Arabic rendering: كل مشورة الله / كل قصد الله. Risk: Medium. Relevant to the baseline’s inspiration_of_scripture doctrine (High): this verse is a good anchor for teaching the completeness and non-selectivity of apostolic revelation, a point that can be usefully (though carefully) contrasted with the Islamic tahrif claim that the Christian scriptures are an incomplete or corrupted record — Paul himself claims, from within the text, to have delivered the full counsel, not a partial or later-superseded one.
• τῷ αἵματι τῷ ἰδίῳ (tō haimati tō idiō) / “with his own blood” (20:28, “the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood”) — reuse baseline atonement-adjacent vocabulary (the baseline flags Romans 3:25 atonement/propitiation language for mandatory theologian review); this is a strong, compact statement of the price of the church’s redemption, directly reinforcing “Justification apart from the Law” and the substitutionary framework the baseline already treats as Critical for salvation. Risk: Critical, same rationale as baseline atonement escalation rule.

Chapter 21 — Paul’s Arrest in Jerusalem

• εὐχή (euchē) / “vow” (21:23, the Nazirite vow undertaken by four men, which Paul joins in supporting) / Semantic range: a voluntary religious vow of consecration, involving abstention (from wine, cutting hair) for a set period (cf. Numbers 6). Arabic rendering: نذر (nadhr). Risk: Low-Medium. Nadhr is also a recognized category in Islamic devotional practice (a vow to perform some act if a prayer is answered, or a vow of devotion); the concepts are not identical in structure or purpose, but the shared vocabulary category is low-collision and could serve as a comparative teaching point about ritual devotion and its proper, non-salvific place, echoing the circumcision caution in Chapter 15 (voluntary religious practices are not incompatible with grace-based salvation, provided they are not made salvation-requirements).
• No other new theological terms; reuses law (الناموس, in the context of Jewish believers “living in observance of the law,” 21:24, Critical caution applies as before) and standard legal/narrative vocabulary for the arrest and Roman custody.

Chapter 22 — Paul’s Defense Speech Before the Jerusalem Crowd

• Largely a retelling of Chapter 9’s conversion narrative in Paul’s own first-person speech; reuse all terms and risk notes from Chapter 9 (persecution, election/chosen instrument, the name, Christological titles). New element: Ῥωμαῖος (Rhōmaios) / “a Roman [citizen]” (22:25-29) — a legal-status term with narrative significance (Paul’s citizenship protects him from scourging) but no independent doctrinal risk; low risk, standard مواطن روماني.

Chapter 23 — The Sanhedrin Trial; Pharisees and Sadducees on the Resurrection

• ἀνάστασις (anastasis) — recurs as the specific point of doctrinal division between Pharisees (who affirm a future resurrection) and Sadducees (who deny it), 23:6-8 — reuse baseline resurrection (القيامة, Critical). Contextual note: useful for teaching that intra-Jewish disagreement over the general resurrection doctrine predates and is distinct from the specific Christian claim about Jesus’s own past, historical resurrection — reinforcing the same general/specific distinction flagged in Chapter 17.
• συνέδριον (synedrion) / “the Sanhedrin” / the Jewish high council with religious-legal authority under Roman oversight. Arabic rendering: المجمع اليهودي (or transliterated السنهدريم). Low risk, proper-noun/institutional term; no independent theological collision.

Chapter 24 — Trial Before Felix

• ἡ ὁδός (hē hodos) recurs (24:14, 22, “the Way”) — see Chapter 19 note (High); reinforced here as the term Roman officials themselves use to describe the movement, indicating it was a recognized, named group by this point in the narrative.
• δικαιοσύνη … καὶ ἐγκράτεια καὶ … τὸ κρίμα τὸ μέλλον (dikaiosynē … kai enkrateia … kai to krima to mellon) / “righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” (24:25, the content of Paul’s address that frightens Felix) — reuse baseline righteousness (البر, Critical). Contextual note: here righteousness functions in its ethical/behavioral sense (moral uprightness) within Paul’s address, not the forensic-justification sense central to Romans and Acts 13:38-39; translators must recognize this is a legitimate secondary sense of δικαιοσύνη (ethical righteousness, the fruit of a right relationship with God) and not force the baseline’s forensic caution onto every occurrence — but should note the distinction explicitly so learners do not think the term is being redefined.

Chapter 25 — Trial Before Festus; the Appeal to Caesar

• Καίσαρα ἐπικαλοῦμαι (Kaisara epikaloumai) / “I appeal to Caesar” (25:11) — a technical Roman legal term (provocatio), low theological risk, standard أستأنف إلى قيصر; narratively significant for advancing Paul toward Rome, fulfilling the Acts 1:8/23:11 trajectory toward “the end of the earth” and setting up the doctrine “The Great Commission Fulfilled.” No new doctrinal vocabulary.

Chapter 26 — Paul’s Defense Before Agrippa

• τί ἄπιστον κρίνεται παρ’ ὑμῖν εἰ ὁ Θεὸς νεκρούς ἐγείρει; (ti apiston krinetai par’ hymin ei ho Theos nekrous egeirei?) / “Why is it thought incredible among you that God raises the dead?” (26:8) — reuse baseline resurrection (القيامة, Critical). Contextual meaning: Paul frames resurrection-belief as a matter of God’s power, not an isolated exotic claim — a strong apologetic pattern worth highlighting for the doctrine “Resurrection of Christ” as carried forward from the baseline into Acts.
• οὐρανίῳ ὀπτασίᾳ (ouraniō optasia) / “the heavenly vision” (26:19, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”) — reuse the Chapter 9 conversion-narrative vocabulary; low-medium risk, reinforces “Conversion of Paul” as decisive obedience to a specific divine call (baseline calling, High), not a vague mystical episode.
• πείθομαι/πέπεισαι… ὀλίγῳ … πεῖσαι Χριστιανὸν γενέσθαι (peithomai… oligō… peisai Christianon genesthai) / “almost persuaded… to become a Christian” (26:28-29, Agrippa’s famous near-response) — reuse baseline faith-adjacent vocabulary (الإيمان) and the Chapter 11 term Christianoi (المسيحيون, Medium). Contextual meaning: a sobering illustration that intellectual acknowledgment of the gospel’s force (“almost persuaded”) is not the same as genuine repentance and faith — a useful pastoral text; low-medium independent risk beyond the terms already flagged.

Chapter 27 — The Voyage and Shipwreck

• ἄγγελος … μὴ φοβοῦ, Παῦλε (angelos … mē phobou, Paule) / “an angel… ‘Do not be afraid, Paul’” (27:23-24) — reuse baseline providence (العناية الإلهية, Medium) vocabulary; contextual meaning: God’s sovereign preservation of Paul (and, through him, everyone on the ship) en route to Rome, in fulfillment of the promise that Paul must stand before Caesar — a strong providence text tying personal assurance to a specific redemptive-historical purpose, on the same pattern as providence’s existing caution against collapsing into impersonal fatalism (folk qadar): this is personal, purposive, promise-bound care, not a generic “fate.”
• No other new theological terms; the chapter’s nautical vocabulary (storm, Euroclydon, anchors, soundings) is entirely narrative and carries no independent doctrinal risk.

Chapter 28 — Malta, Rome, and the Unhindered Gospel

• ἔχιδνα (echidna) / “viper” (28:3-6) — narrative miracle detail (Paul unharmed by snakebite), low risk; functions similarly to earlier “signs and wonders” episodes reinforcing “Apostolic Authority and Miracles,” though here it draws pagan islanders’ spontaneous (and mistaken, “he is a god,” 28:6) religious conclusion — another instance of the idolatry-mistaken-identity pattern already flagged in Chapter 14 (Medium risk, same rationale).
• κηρύσσων τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ (kēryssōn tēn basileian tou Theou) / “proclaiming the kingdom of God” (28:23, 31) — reuse baseline kingdom_of_god (ملكوت الله, Medium). Contextual meaning: the book’s closing summary of Paul’s ministry content, bookending the opening question about the kingdom in 1:6 — the disciples’ initial misunderstanding (a political-national restoration) has, by the book’s end, been reframed entirely around gospel proclamation.
• ἀκωλύτως (akōlytōs) / “unhindered, without hindrance” (28:31, the book’s final word) / Literal meaning: ἀ- (negating prefix) + κωλύω (“to hinder, restrain”) / Semantic range: freely, without legal or physical obstruction. Arabic rendering: بلا عائق / بغير عائق (Van Dyck: “غير ممنوع”). Risk: Medium (new term, but theologically significant). Contextual theological meaning: Acts’s deliberately open-ended, triumphant final word — Paul preaches “with all boldness” (reuse παρρησία / الجرأة, High) “unhindered,” even while under Roman guard awaiting trial. This is the book’s climactic statement for “The Great Commission Fulfilled”: the gospel’s advance from Jerusalem to Rome (fulfilling 1:8’s geographic outline) is not merely completed but shown to be unstoppable, continuing even under chains — a fitting closing datum for the whole curriculum’s cumulative doctrinal argument, and a text worth pairing explicitly with the real, contemporary safety cautions already flagged (Chapters 4, 9, evangelism in the baseline) so that “unhindered” is taught as confident hope in the gospel’s ultimate advance, not a promise that individual witnesses will never personally suffer for it (the book itself has just shown the opposite, repeatedly, in Stephen, James, and Paul’s own repeated imprisonments).

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This document loads alongside the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json; all Acts-specific new terms identified above are carried forward into 08_core_glossary.md for formal registry entry and Phase 2 enforcement.