Doctrine Risk Group
Risk: CriticalCritical Risk Doctrines
Atonement and the New Covenant
Arabic name: الكفارة والعهد الجديد
Key terms: blood of the covenant, body of christ (supper), ransom, temple veil
Review routing: Human theologian
No parallel sacramental or substitutionary-atonement category exists in Islam; ‘my body’ and ‘my blood of the covenant’ risk being heard as shockingly literal or as mere shared-meal symbolism without explicit sacrificial-memorial framing, and the torn veil’s حجاب rendering additionally risks a jarring, unrelated modern association with the Islamic head covering that must be pre-emptively addressed.
Jesus’ Authority over Sickness, Sin, and Nature
Arabic name: سلطان يسوع على المرض والخطية والطبيعة
Key terms: authority, unclean spirit/demon, forgiveness of sins, power of god
Review routing: Human theologian
Critical primarily because of the demonology term: Islamic jinn cosmology is a populous, morally mixed category (including believing jinn) that does not map onto Mark’s uniformly hostile demonic spirits under Satan’s dominion; combined with the direct-forgiveness claim (2:5-10), which assumes deity without mediating tawbah, this doctrine requires sustained theologian oversight throughout, not only at its introduction.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
Arabic name: التجديف على الروح القدس
Key terms: blasphemy, holy spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
Requires the baseline’s Holy Spirit caution (distinguishing this divine Person from the created angel Jibril of mainstream tafsir) combined with the double-edged blasphemy/shirk dynamic; also requires pastoral care that anxious believers not wrongly fear they have committed this settled, hardened rejection through ordinary doubt.
Deity of Christ
Arabic name: لاهوت المسيح
Key terms: son of god, lord, i am declaration, transfiguration
Review routing: Human theologian
Co-equal divine nature is the paradigm case of shirk from an Islamic standpoint; must not be softened to ‘a great and honored man.’ The Transfiguration’s تجلي rendering additionally risks Sufi pantheistic-manifestation associations that must be explicitly excluded.
Historicity of the Crucifixion
Arabic name: واقعية صلب المسيح التاريخية
Key terms: cross, necessity of suffering, king of the jews
Review routing: Human theologian
Mainstream Islamic doctrine (Qur’an 4:157) holds a substitute appeared to die in Jesus’s place; the detailed, historically verifiable narration in chapter 15 (including Joseph of Arimathea’s burial account) functions as apologetic scaffolding foundational to nearly every other Christological doctrine in the book and must be taught as historical narration, not theological metaphor.
Lordship of Christ
Arabic name: ربوبية المسيح
Key terms: lord, sabbath (lord of), shema declaration
Review routing: Human theologian
الرب is a defining Quranic title of Allah; applying it to Jesus over the Sabbath (2:28) directly claims authority over Torah itself, a maximally confrontational claim that must never be softened to mere permission to reinterpret custom.
The Necessity of the Cross
Arabic name: ضرورة الصليب
Key terms: necessity of suffering, cross, son of man
Review routing: Human theologian
ينبغي must convey divine necessity grounded in God’s redemptive plan, not tragic inevitability; this doctrine collides directly with Qur’an 4:157’s denial that the crucifixion occurred at all, so every occurrence requires apologetic historicity-scaffolding, not merely correct vocabulary for ‘must.‘
The Ransom for Many
Arabic name: الفداء لأجل كثيرين
Key terms: ransom, son of man, blood of the covenant, body of christ (supper)
Review routing: Human theologian
فدية is a live Islamic fiqh term for a compensatory payment substituting for an unperformed duty, funded by the worshiper, addressed to a ritual shortfall — the opposite mechanism from a life given in place of the condemned to satisfy sin’s penalty, which Qur’an 6:164 explicitly denies is possible. This is the linchpin verse of the curriculum’s core passage and requires the heaviest scaffolding in the book.
Repentance and the Gospel
Arabic name: التوبة والإنجيل
Key terms: repentance, gospel, kingdom of god
Review routing: Human theologian
Islamic tawbah is a self-sufficient turning to Allah’s mercy through the sinner’s own initiative, with no mediator or atoning sacrifice; Markan repentance is repentance toward Jesus and the Kingdom specifically, inseparable from faith in him and grounded in his ransom (10:45) — must always be taught paired with its object.
Resurrection of Christ
Arabic name: قيامة المسيح
Key terms: resurrection, son of man
Review routing: Human theologian
Requires the historicity of the crucifixion (chs. 14-15) established first, since Qur’an 4:157 denies the crucifixion occurred; the Sadducee debate (12:18-27) supplies useful scriptural argumentation for bodily resurrection that should be paired with this doctrine’s teaching.
Sabbath and Fulfillment of Torah
Arabic name: السبت وتحقيق الناموس
Key terms: sabbath (lord of), lord
Review routing: Human theologian
The claim ‘the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath’ (2:28) fuses the Son of Man title with الرب, asserting authority over one of Torah’s most sacred institutions; this must be preserved at full force, not softened into permission to merely reinterpret a custom.
Sonship of Christ
Arabic name: بنوة المسيح
Key terms: son of god, beloved son, father, abba
Review routing: Human theologian
Qur’an 112:3 and 19:35 directly and repeatedly deny that Allah begets or has a son; ‘the Beloved Son’ phrase (الابن الحبيب) must intensify rather than be allowed to dilute the filial claim toward a merely honorific reading, as the baseline explicitly warns regarding softened alternatives.
Spiritual Warfare and Exorcism
Arabic name: الحرب الروحية وإخراج الأرواح النجسة
Key terms: unclean spirit/demon, legion, beelzebul
Review routing: Human theologian
Islamic jinn cosmology is a populous, morally mixed category (some jinn described as believing/Muslim) that does not map onto the NT category of uniformly hostile spirits opposed to God’s kingdom; جن must be avoided as a rendering to prevent collapsing NT demonology into this different folk-cosmological framework.
Jesus as the Suffering Servant and Son of God
Arabic name: يسوع بصفته العبد المتألم وابن الله
Key terms: son of man, son of god, ransom, beloved son
Review routing: Human theologian
This fuses two claims each independently Critical in Arabic: ابن الله collides with the Qur’an’s explicit denial that Allah begets or has a son (112:3; 19:35), while the Suffering Servant/ransom framing collides with Islamic denial that one bears another’s sin-penalty (6:164). The book’s structural bookends (1:1 and 15:39) must be taught together as a single claim, not two separable ideas.
The Great Commandment and Divine Oneness
Arabic name: الوصية العظمى ووحدانية الله
Key terms: shema declaration, god, lord
Review routing: Human theologian
Islamic tawhid also centers on God’s absolute, strict oneness (Surat al-Ikhlas, 112); it would be doctrinally disastrous for this apparently ‘safe’ passage to be read as endorsing Islamic-style unitarian monotheism against Trinitarian doctrine, since the oneness affirmed here is fully compatible with, and progressively unfolded by, the Triune revelation given elsewhere in Mark.
Transfiguration and Divine Glory
Arabic name: التجلي والمجد الإلهي
Key terms: transfiguration, glory, beloved son
Review routing: Human theologian
Established Christian usage of تجلي risks being read through Sufi mystical vocabulary for pantheistic or illuminationist divine self-manifestation; teaching materials must clarify this is a bounded, historical unveiling of a distinct divine Person’s pre-existent glory, not a mystical absorption-experience.
Referenced passages