Core Glossary

translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.

Composition

The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:

• The approved Arabic translation and transliteration
• The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
• Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
• Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice, including whichever specific Islamic theological content the term must be actively distinguished from

Governing principles

1. Established Christian Arabic usage over contextualized alternatives — where the Van Dyck/NAV tradition already has a settled rendering (الله، يسوع، الرب، المسيح), this glossary follows it rather than adopting a Muslim-Idiom-Translation-style alternative designed to reduce offense.
2. Explicit correction, not silent avoidance — because Arabic’s highest-risk terms are often the correct and only available word, this glossary cannot simply avoid a wrong word the way some other Language Packages can; instead every Critical entry documents the specific competing content the term already carries and how it must be corrected.
3. Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).

Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry

Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary, despite being correct, still requires deliberate theological handling.