Linguistic Gap Analysis
06 Linguistic Gap Analysis — Matthew 1–28 (English → Arabic)
Purpose and Method
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Step 8 (linguistic gap analysis) for the Matthew curriculum, extending the baseline Romans Language Package for Arabic without contradicting it. It answers four questions for full-book coverage (Matthew 1–28), anchored theologically in the core passage (Matthew 5:1–12, the Beatitudes):
- Doctrine vocabulary matrix — for each of the nine curriculum doctrines (plus the Beatitudes as the core-passage anchor), what Arabic vocabulary is available, what are its weaknesses/collision risks, and what strategy is recommended?
- Missing vocabulary vs. crowded semantic neighborhoods — where does Arabic lack a term entirely (requiring compound/coinage), and where does Arabic have too many competing, doctrinally-loaded neighbors that require deliberate “fencing” (explicit boundary-setting in teaching material)?
- Transliteration vs. paraphrase decisions — for proper nouns, technical terms, and untranslatable concepts, is the correct move to transliterate, reuse an established Arabic Bible word, or paraphrase?
- Ranked ambiguities — of everything surfaced, which items carry the highest risk of doctrinal distortion if mishandled in Phase 2?
This analysis assumes and does not duplicate the baseline translation_memory.json, bible_term_registry.json, and doctrine_risk_registry.json. All baseline term renderings (يسوع, الله, الرب, ابن الله, المسيح, البر, التبرير, الخلاص, الناموس, التجسد, القيامة, etc.) are reused exactly as established. Findings here that identify genuinely new vocabulary gaps (see §4.1, the “Rabbi” collision, and the Beatitudes term set) are flagged for incorporation into the Matthew-specific translation memory extension alongside the Part 1 terms already catalogued in 08_core_glossary.md.
0. Full-Book Chapter Coverage Log
Every chapter of Matthew has been reviewed for load-bearing vocabulary. Chapters contributing no new terms beyond what is already logged are explicitly marked “reviewed, no new load-bearing terms” rather than omitted.
| Ch. | Load-bearing content? | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | Genealogy/lineage register, virgin, Immanuel, sin (1:21, programmatic) |
| 2 | Yes | Magi, fulfillment formula (first cluster of citation-introductions) |
| 3 | Yes | Repentance, baptism, kingdom of heaven, Holy Spirit, Father’s voice |
| 4 | Yes | Temptation, devil, gospel of the kingdom, calling of disciples |
| 5 | Yes — core passage | Beatitudes (see dedicated §1.10 below); fulfill-the-law; retaliation; oath; perfect; salt/light |
| 6 | Yes | Almsgiving, prayer, fasting, reward, Father (Lord’s Prayer) |
| 7 | Yes | False prophet, authority (7:29), narrow gate |
| 8 | Yes | Faith (centurion), Son of Man, authority over nature/demons |
| 9 | Reviewed, no new load-bearing terms | Reinforces sin-forgiveness authority and faith already logged; no new vocabulary |
| 10 | Yes | Apostle, mission, sword/division, deny/confess Christ |
| 11 | Yes | The Coming One, yoke, woes to towns |
| 12 | Yes | Blasphemy against the Spirit, Sign of Jonah, Sabbath controversy |
| 13 | Yes | Parable, end of the age (harvest imagery) |
| 14 | Reviewed, no new load-bearing terms | Reinforces Son of God confession (14:33); no new vocabulary |
| 15 | Yes | Tradition of elders, defile/clean, Gentile (Canaanite) faith |
| 16 | Yes | Living God, Son of God, keys of the kingdom, bind/loose, cross, rock |
| 17 | Yes | Transfiguration, Son of Man, faith |
| 18 | Yes | Cause to stumble, bind/loose (church discipline), forgiveness |
| 19 | Yes | Divorce, sexual immorality, eternal life |
| 20 | Yes | Ransom, reward (vineyard parable), Son of David |
| 21 | Yes | Hosanna, Son of David, fulfillment formula, tenants parable |
| 22 | Yes | Tax (Caesar’s), greatest commandment, Lord (Ps 110 argument), resurrection debate |
| 23 | Yes | Hypocrite, scribes/Pharisees, Rabbi (see new finding, §4.1) |
| 24 | Yes | Parousia, end of the age, false christs, judgment |
| 25 | Yes | Judgment, eternal life/eternal punishment contrast, reward (talents) |
| 26 | Yes | Body and blood covenant, blasphemy charge, Rabbi, Gethsemane |
| 27 | Yes | Crucifixion, Golgotha, Barabbas |
| 28 | Yes | Resurrection, Great Commission, Trinitarian baptismal formula, make disciples |
1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each curriculum doctrine: available Arabic term(s), weaknesses/collision risk, recommended strategy. All Arabic renderings below match 08_core_glossary.md and bible_term_registry.json exactly; this section supplies the linguistic reasoning behind those choices.
1.1 The Kingdom of Heaven
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| ملكوت السماوات (malakūt al-samāwāt) | Plural “heavens” risks absorption into Qur’anic seven-heavens cosmology (al-samāwāt al-sab’) or reduction to “the afterlife place” | Teach explicitly as synonymous with ملكوت الله (kingdom_of_god), Matthew’s Jewish circumlocution avoiding the divine Name — not two kingdoms, not a spatial location. Reinforce present in-breaking + future consummation in every occurrence cluster (3:2; 4:17; 13; 25). |
| ملكوت الله (malakūt Allāh) | None independent (baseline Medium risk) | Use interchangeably per Matthew’s own usage (12:28; 19:24; 21:31,43). |
1.2 Jesus as the Promised Messiah and Son of David
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| المسيح (al-Masīḥ) | Pre-loaded with Qur’anic non-divine, non-crucified, non-resurrected ‘Isa al-Masīḥ narrative | Every occurrence actively corrects the pre-loaded content rather than assuming neutrality (per baseline). |
| ابن داود (Ibn Dāwūd) | Triggers the same begetting-language sensitivity as ابن الله (Qur’an 112:3; 19:35) even though it denotes human royal descent, not divine sonship | Explicitly distinguish from ابن الله at every co-occurrence (e.g. 22:41-45); never let the two titles collapse into one another. |
1.3 Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| لكي يتم ما قيل (fulfillment formula) | Risks being read through Islamic naskh (abrogation) logic — later revelation superseding earlier | Teach fulfillment as completion/confirmation, the opposite movement from naskh, at first occurrence (1:22) and reinforce at each recurrence (10 total). |
| يتمّم الناموس (5:17, fulfill the law) | Single sharpest naskh flashpoint; risk of being heard as “Jesus abolishes the Torah” or conversely “Jesus supersedes it the way later revelation supersedes earlier” | Anchor to the text’s own explicit denial (“not to abolish”) each time; never pair with شريعة. |
1.4 The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| سلطان (sulṭān) | Shares root with political “Sultan” and modern Islamist ḥākimiyyah (sovereign authority belongs to God, exercised through Islamic law) discourse; risk of being heard as a political rule-claim | Anchor to Jesus’ unmediated teaching/moral authority (7:29) and his explicit refusal of political rule (4:8-10); never gloss as legal-political jurisdiction. |
1.5 Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| البر (al-birr) | Qur’anic checklist-righteousness sense (2:177: charity, prayer, honesty as achieved piety) | Reinforce at 5:20 (“unless your righteousness exceeds…”) that Jesus is contrasting two competing accounts of righteousness, not raising the bar on the same deeds-checklist model; tie to inward heart-orientation (5:8; 6:1,33). |
| مرائي / الرياء (hypocrite) | Positive bridge — riyā’ is a named Islamic ethical vice (“minor shirk”) | Use as common ground while keeping critique text-bounded (6:2,5,16; 23). |
1.6 The Church and Church Discipline
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| الكنيسة (al-kanīsah) | Everyday usage skews toward “building of a minority religious community” | Reinforce living, gathered-people sense at both foundational texts (16:18; 18:17). |
| مفاتيح الملكوت (keys) | Loose resonance with hadith “keys of Paradise” imagery tied to formulas/hereditary custodianship | Bound to delegated apostolic/church authority through gospel proclamation, not ritual formula or inherited office. |
| الربط والحل (bind/loose) | Structural parallel to halal/haram fatwā rulings | Bound explicitly to church doctrine/discipline (16:19; 18:18), not comprehensive sharīʿah-style legal jurisdiction. |
1.7 The Great Commission
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| تلمذة الأمم (make disciples of the nations) | None independent; risk is downstream via تلميذ (see §1.9) | Tie explicitly to Kingdom, Church, and mission (الإرسالية) doctrines. |
| باسم الآب والابن والروح القدس (baptismal formula) | Singular “name” (not “names”) is grammatically easy to blur in translation; maximal collision point with tawḥīd | Preserve singular الاسم construction exactly; never pluralize, reorder, or soften “Son” to an honorific. |
1.8 Judgment and the End of the Age
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| الدينونة (judgment) | Risk of being heard as an impersonal cosmic weighing (mīzān) rather than Christ’s own seated judgment | Anchor to 25:31-32’s explicit “the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne.” |
| المجيء الثاني (parousia) | Genuine bridge to Sunni nuzūl ‘Īsā expectation, but with sharply different content (non-crucified righteous Muslim figure vs. incarnate divine Son returning in his own glory) | Use the shared expectation as a bridge while explicitly distinguishing Matthew’s Christological content at every Olivet Discourse occurrence. |
| مسحاء كذبة (false christs) | Forbidden-substitution risk: never use any دجّال-root compound | Enforce as hard rule at 24:24; see §3 forbidden list. |
| النار الأبدية / العقاب الأبدي (eternal punishment) | Risk of softening toward a probationary/purificatory reading that echoes a still-pending deeds-scale outcome | Preserve full force of 25:46’s fixed, two-destiny contrast with الحياة الأبدية. |
1.9 Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus
| Available terms | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| تلميذ (disciple) | Must never drift to مريد (Sufi master-disciple initiatory framework) | Enforce as forbidden substitution throughout. |
| الصليب (cross, discipleship sense) | Presupposes the historical crucifixion Qur’an 4:157 denies, even in metaphorical use | Apply full apologetic scaffolding (same as baseline resurrection entry) before teaching 16:24’s discipleship application. |
| سيف (sword, 10:34) | Framing risk given jihad-associated stereotypes in interreligious discourse | Explicit scaffolding tying the metaphor to the immediate household-division context (vv. 35-37); never leave unglossed. |
| أجر (reward) | Load-bearing Islamic deeds-reward term operating within the mīzān framework | Teach reward as flowing from grace/kingdom belonging (esp. 20:1-16’s vineyard parable), not an independent merit ledger. |
1.10 Core Passage Anchor — The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1–12)
The core passage introduces a distinct micro-vocabulary not fully itemized elsewhere in the curriculum’s glossary and requires its own linguistic gap treatment, since it is the theological anchor of the entire study.
| English | Greek | Recommended Arabic | Risk | Weakness / collision | Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blessed (μακάριος) | makarios | طوبى (ṭūbā) | Medium-High | NEW TERM — not yet in translation memory. ṭūbā is the established Van Dyck/NAV rendering, but it is also Qur’anic vocabulary (Qur’an 13:29, “ṭūbā lahum” — blessedness is for them), where blessedness attaches to deeds-based Paradise entry. Not مبارك (mubārak), which reads as “blessed/fortunate” in a generic, circumstantial sense and loses the pronouncement-of-favored-status force. | Retain established طوبى per Van Dyck tradition (do not innovate); teach each beatitude as a present, kingdom-inaugurated status conferred by Christ’s authoritative pronouncement, not a future reward contingent on a deeds-balance. |
| Poor in spirit (5:3) | ptōchoi tō pneumati | المساكين بالروح | Medium | NEW TERM. Awkward Arabic construction; risks being read as “those who are spiritually destitute/lacking” (a deficiency) rather than “those who humbly acknowledge their spiritual need before God.” | Gloss explicitly as humble, God-dependent poverty of spirit, not spiritual weakness or lack of piety. |
| Mourn (5:4) | penthountes | الحزانى / النائحون; comforted = يتعزَّون | Low-Medium | Must not be mechanically rendered with the baseline يشجع/يعظ (“exhort”) sense of παρακαλέω used for comfort here | Reuse the distinct “comforted” sense (يتعزَّون) as already flagged in 08_core_glossary.md. |
| Meek (5:5) | praeis | الودعاء | Medium | Risk of reading as passivity/weakness rather than strength restrained under God’s authority | Teach as controlled gentleness, not lack of resolve; distinguish from cultural shame-avoidance meekness. |
| Hunger and thirst for righteousness (5:6) | peinōntes kai dipsōntes tēn dikaiosynēn | الجياع والعطاش إلى البر | Critical (inherits البر) | Direct load-bearing occurrence of the Critical البر term; risk of reading as “hungering to fulfill a piety-checklist” | Reinforce apart-from-works sense of البر in this very verse — the hunger is for a righteousness given, not achieved. |
| Merciful (5:7) | eleēmones | الرحماء | Medium | Positive bridge (root shared with Ar-Raḥmān/Ar-Raḥīm) but must be distinguished from the baseline’s caution against الرحمة for “grace” — here it is a human ethical virtue commended, not a claim about God’s saving favor | Use freely as a bridge; note in teaching material that this is a different sense from the baseline’s grace caution. |
| Pure in heart (5:8) | katharoi tē kardia | نقيّو القلب (never طاهر) | High | طاهر imports ritual-purity (wuḍū’-style) connotation | Consistent with the Part 3 forbidden list in 08_core_glossary.md; ties forward to 15:11-20’s defile/clean teaching. |
| Peacemakers (5:9) | eirēnopoioi | صانعو السلام | Medium | Distinct sense from baseline’s السلام (peace with God, forensic/relational); this is horizontal peace-making among people | Distinguish explicitly from Peace with God doctrine so the two senses of السلام are not flattened together. |
| Persecuted for righteousness (5:10-12) | dediōgmenoi heneken dikaiosynēs | المطرودون / المُضطهَدون من أجل البر | High | Ties البر (Critical) directly to real social/legal risk of persecution, echoing the baseline’s evangelism safety caution | Teach with pastoral awareness of genuine contemporary cost of public Christian identity in some Arabic-speaking contexts. |
2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Genuinely Missing Vocabulary (no natural Arabic equivalent; requires compound/established Christian coinage)
| Concept | Gap | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of Heaven’s present+future dual sense | No single Arabic word carries both “already inaugurated” and “not yet consummated” | Compound teaching gloss required at every occurrence, not a lexical fix |
| Body and blood of the covenant (26:26-28) | No Islamic liturgical parallel exists at all (unlike ransom/fidyah, which has a partial bridge) | Must be taught as a wholly new institutional category, paired with the ransom entry for full scaffolding; note dietary blood-prohibition sensitivity as a framing consideration, not a translation obstacle |
| Trinitarian “one name” grammar (28:19) | Arabic naturally permits pluralizing or reordering without flagging a doctrinal problem | Syntactic vigilance required, not a new word: باسم الآب والابن والروح القدس must retain the singular الاسم |
| ”Blessed” (μακάριος) as pronounced kingdom-status | See §1.10 — no baseline precedent; nearest existing word (طوبى) carries a different theological warrant in its Qur’anic occurrence | Retain طوبى with explicit re-teaching of its content |
| Poor in spirit (5:3) | The construction has no natural Arabic idiom; literal calque risks miscommunication | Requires explanatory gloss, not lexical substitution |
2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing
These are cases where Arabic has too much existing, doctrinally-loaded vocabulary immediately adjacent to the needed term, requiring explicit boundary-setting (“fencing”) in every occurrence rather than word substitution (since no substitute exists):
| Term | Crowded neighbor(s) | Fence required |
|---|---|---|
| الصلاة (prayer, 6:5-13) | Second Pillar of Islam; fixed, five-times-daily, ritually-prescribed rite | Fence: free, secret, relational address to “our Father,” not liturgical performance |
| الصوم (fasting, 6:16-18) | Ramadan’s communal, public fast (Qur’an 2:183) | Fence: secrecy/motive contrast, not a denial of fasting’s value |
| التوبة (repentance, 3:2,8,11; 4:17) | Islamic tawbah — private, repeatable, sin-by-sin turning | Fence: total, kingdom-oriented, Christ-directed reorientation |
| أجر (reward, throughout) | Mīzān deeds-weighing framework | Fence: reward flows from grace/kingdom belonging |
| سلطان (authority, 7:29 and throughout) | Political “Sultan” title; Islamist ḥākimiyyah | Fence: teaching/moral authority, explicitly non-political |
| المغفرة (forgiveness, 6:12; 18:21-35) | Islamic forgiveness contingent on sincere tawbah, weighed in the mīzān | Fence: forgiveness received first as free gift, modeled on 18:21-35’s unpayable-debt logic |
| الطلاق (divorce, 19:3-9) | Classical fiqh ṭalāq structure (unilateral repudiation formulas) | Fence: Jesus’ permanence-plus-single-exception teaching, pastoral not lexical framing |
| البر (righteousness, throughout) | Qur’anic al-birr checklist (2:177) | Fence: apart-from-works forensic/relational standing |
| نجس (defiled, 15:11-20) | Islamic ritual-impurity states requiring purification | Fence: internal moral corruption, not external/ritual contact |
| مفاتيح الملكوت / الربط والحل (16:19; 18:18) | Hadith Paradise-keys imagery; halal/haram fatwā rulings | Fence: delegated church doctrine/discipline authority, not ritual formula or comprehensive legal jurisdiction |
| المجيء الثاني (parousia, ch. 24) | Sunni nuzūl ‘Īsā expectation | Fence: incarnate divine Son returning in inherent glory, not a previously-non-crucified prophet’s return |
| طوبى (blessed, 5:3-11) | Qur’anic ṭūbā (13:29), deeds-based blessedness | Fence: kingdom-inaugurated present status pronounced by Christ, not future reward contingent on deeds-balance |
3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Term | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Immanuel (1:23) | Dual: transliterate عمانوئيل and gloss الله معنا | Preserves the Hebrew proper name while making the incarnation claim explicit, per baseline “Abba” preservation pattern |
| Hosanna (21:9,15) | Transliterate: أوشعنا | No Arabic equivalent conveys the acclamation force; low independent risk |
| Gehenna (5:22 etc.) | Reuse established word: جهنم | Genuinely shared Qur’anic vocabulary; word itself is safe (risk lies in surrounding framework, not the term) |
| Golgotha (27:33) | Transliterate: الجلجثة, with gloss “موضع الجمجمة” (place of the skull) | Established Van Dyck/NAV form; the text itself supplies the gloss |
| Gethsemane (26:36) | Transliterate: جثسيماني | Established form; proper place-name, no doctrinal content to paraphrase |
| Barabbas (27:16-21) | Transliterate: بارأباس | Proper name, established form |
| Son of Man (throughout) | Calque/compound, not transliteration: ابن الإنسان | Requires Daniel 7 doctrinal scaffolding, which transliteration cannot supply; established compound already exists in Arabic Bible tradition |
| Kingdom of Heaven | Established compound: ملكوت السماوات | No transliteration tradition exists (unlike Immanuel); calque is the only viable path |
| Ransom (20:28) | Established bridge word: فدية | Genuine partial Qur’anic cognate (2:196; 37:107); paraphrase would forfeit the bridge, but scope/finality difference must be taught |
| Fulfillment formula (throughout) | Paraphrase: لكي يتم ما قيل | No Greek-loanword tradition for this formula; must be rendered as a full clause, matched consistently across all ten occurrences |
| False christs (24:24) | Paraphrase, deliberately avoiding transliteration/cognate: مسحاء كذبة | Any دجّال-root rendering would import the specific named Islamic Antichrist figure; paraphrase is the only safe path |
| Parousia (ch. 24) | Paraphrase/compound: المجيء الثاني | No established Arabic transliteration tradition for this Greek term (unlike Immanuel or Hosanna, which Matthew’s own narrative flags as names requiring preservation); compound is standard Arabic Bible practice |
| Rabbi (23:7-8; 26:25,49) | Do NOT transliterate — render as يا معلّم (“Teacher”) | NEW FINDING (see §4.1): a transliterated ربّي is visually and phonetically identical to Arabic ربّي, “my Lord” (possessive of الرب). Since 23:8 records Jesus explicitly forbidding the title “Rabbi” for disciples, a transliteration would create the paradox of Jesus forbidding a term that reads as a Lord-title he elsewhere claims for himself. Paraphrase as يا معلّم removes the collision entirely while preserving the address-form. |
| Blessed (5:3-11) | Reuse established word, not transliteration or novel coinage: طوبى | Established Van Dyck/NAV rendering; see §1.10 and §2.2 for required re-teaching of content |
4. Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined probability of mistranslation × severity of doctrinal consequence if mishandled. Items 1–3 are newly surfaced by this analysis and are not yet fully addressed in the existing Matthew term registry; they require priority routing before Phase 2 begins.
4.1 NEW FINDING — “Rabbi” / ربّي collision with الرب (Critical, urgent)
Passages: 23:7-8; 26:25,49. A naive transliteration of “Rabbi” produces Arabic script (ربّي) identical to the possessive form of الرب (“my Lord”), the baseline’s Critical Lordship-of-Christ term. At 23:8, Jesus commands his disciples not to be called “Rabbi” — if rendered as ربّي, the text would read as Jesus forbidding disciples from being called “my Lord,” directly inverting the passage’s actual meaning (a prohibition on a teacher title, not a Lordship title) and creating collateral confusion around the Lordship-of-Christ doctrine elsewhere in the curriculum. Resolution: render as يا معلّم (“Teacher”) throughout; never transliterate. Requires immediate addition to the Matthew translation memory extension.
4.2 NEW FINDING — “Blessed” (μακάριος) / طوبى re-teaching gap (High)
Passages: 5:3-11 (core passage). طوبى is the correct, established rendering but was absent from the prior core glossary pass; its Qur’anic occurrence (13:29) attaches blessedness to deeds-based outcomes. Since this term anchors the curriculum’s core passage, its content must be actively re-taught (kingdom-inaugurated present status, not deeds-earned future reward) at first use, or the entire Beatitudes section risks being absorbed into a merit framework — the same collision pattern the baseline flags for البر and أجر, but previously undocumented at this specific word.
4.3 “Poor in spirit” (5:3) construction risk (Medium-High)
Awkward Arabic calque risks being heard as spiritual deficiency/weakness rather than humble God-dependence — a Critical-adjacent risk because it opens the Beatitudes with a potential misreading.
4.4 Fulfill the Law (5:17) — يتمّم الناموس (Critical)
Highest-frequency naskh (abrogation) collision point in the entire curriculum; sits at the head of the Sermon on the Mount and governs how “Fulfillment of OT Prophecy” as a whole doctrine will be received.
4.5 Son of Man (throughout, esp. 24:30; 25:31; 26:64) (Critical)
Surface meaning (“a human”) matches Islamic Christology’s prophet-only ‘Isa exactly; the Daniel 7 exalted-judge content must be supplied every time, or the title functions as a doctrinal downgrade rather than an elevation.
4.6 Crucifixion / Cross (16:24; chs. 26-27) (Critical)
Directly narrates and presupposes the event Qur’an 4:157 denies; every occurrence, including the metaphorical discipleship use at 16:24, requires the full apologetic scaffolding before the resurrection or discipleship application can be taught meaningfully.
4.7 Parousia / Second Coming (ch. 24) (Critical)
Bridge-and-trap simultaneously: the shared nuzūl ‘Īsā expectation invites hearers to assume shared content, when the Christological substance (incarnate divine Son returning in inherent glory) differs sharply.
4.8 False Christs / دجّال-avoidance (24:24) (Critical)
Single highest-stakes forbidden-substitution risk in the eschatology doctrine; any slip into dajjāl-root vocabulary imports an entire competing eschatological narrative wholesale.
4.9 Trinitarian Baptismal Formula (28:19) (Critical)
Singular “name” grammar is fragile under translation pressure (pluralization, reordering); this is the single most concentrated Trinitarian statement in the Gospel and the curriculum’s Great Commission climax.
4.10 Authority (سلطان, 7:29 and throughout) (High)
Political/Sultan-root resonance risks converting a teaching-authority claim into a political-rule claim, especially damaging given Jesus’ own explicit rejection of political power (4:8-10).
4.11 Reward (أجر, throughout) (High)
Mīzān-framework collision recurring at high frequency (5:12; 6:1-18; 10:41-42; 20:8); risk compounds because it appears inside otherwise grace-teaching parables (20:1-16), where a mistranslation would directly undercut the doctrine the parable teaches.
4.12 Keys / Bind and Loose (16:19; 18:18) (High)
Functional parallel to fatwā halal/haram rulings and hadith Paradise-keys imagery; risk of the Church and Church Discipline doctrine being absorbed into a comprehensive-jurisdiction (sharīʿah-like) framework rather than bounded church discipline.
4.13 Almsgiving (6:1-4) — الصدقة vs. الزكاة (High)
Zakāh is the single most tempting default substitution error because it is the natural first word many Arabic speakers reach for; the forbidden-substitution flag must be enforced mechanically, not just noted.
4.14 Ransom (20:28) — فدية scope mismatch (Critical)
Genuine bridge term but narrower in Islamic usage (case-specific compensation) than Matthew’s universal, once-for-all substitutionary payment; risk is under-teaching the scope difference, not word choice.
4.15 Body and Blood of the Covenant (26:26-28) (Critical)
No Islamic liturgical parallel at all — the risk here is conceptual vacancy rather than a wrong-word substitution; without deliberate scaffolding paired with the ransom entry, the institution narrative may simply fail to register as atonement-language.
4.16 Pure in Heart (5:8) / Defile-Clean (15:11-20) — طاهر avoidance (High)
Recurring risk across two widely separated passages (core passage and ch. 15); consistency of نقي (never طاهر) must be maintained curriculum-wide, since a single lapse would reintroduce ritual-purity framing the text itself argues against.
4.17 Divorce (19:3-9) — الطلاق structural mismatch (High)
No alternative word exists, so the risk is entirely in pastoral framing; classical fiqh ṭalāq’s unilateral-repudiation structure differs sharply from Jesus’ permanence-plus-single-exception teaching, and silence on this difference invites readers to import the wrong legal framework wholesale.
5. Summary and Handoff
This analysis surfaces two categories of finding for downstream Phase 1 steps:
- Confirmations — the doctrine vocabulary matrix (§1) and fencing requirements (§2.2) validate and extend the term choices already recorded in
08_core_glossary.mdandbible_term_registry.json, with no contradictions. - New items requiring registry addition — the Beatitudes micro-vocabulary (§1.10, especially طوبى and المساكين بالروح) and the Rabbi/ربّي collision (§4.1) are not yet present in the Matthew term registry and must be added to the Matthew-specific translation memory extension, with the Rabbi finding flagged for theologian review given its direct interaction with the Critical Lordship-of-Christ doctrine before any Phase 2 segment translation of chapters 23 or 26 proceeds.
This document extends, and must be read alongside, 08_core_glossary.md, bible_term_registry.json, and the baseline Romans Language Package. All risk tiers follow doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions.