Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 1 John (English → Bavarian)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md across the whole of 1 John (chapters 1–5). Terms marked [BASELINE] are fixed in the Romans translation_memory.json/bible_term_registry.json and are reused here exactly, spelling included, per project mandate. Terms marked [NEW] are proposed additions specific to this curriculum, pending Phase 2/Step-17 review routing per the risk tier assigned. Risk tiers and review-routing categories follow the conventions established in the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json (Critical/High = human theologian review; Medium = native speaker review; Low = automated review; all terms additionally require native-speaker dialect/orthography review per the baseline’s standing rule for unstandardized Bavarian orthography).
A. Reused Baseline Terms (cited from 1 John)
| Term | Bavarian Rendering | Risk | Doctrine(s) | 1 John Citations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Gott | Critical | God is Light and God is Love; all doctrines | 1:2, 5; 4:8, 16; throughout | Reused exactly. “Herrgott” folk-devotional variant remains reserved per baseline note, not used for the ontological “God is love/light” predications. |
| Jesus | Jesus | Low | Incarnation; Assurance | 1:3, 7; 2:1; 4:2, 15; 5:1, 5, 20 | Reused exactly. |
| Holy Spirit | Heiliger Geist | Critical | Testing the Spirits; Fellowship; Assurance | 3:24; 4:2, 13; 5:6-8 | Reused exactly; must be distinguished terminologically from generic “Geist” used of false/tested spirits in 4:1-6 (see Testing the Spirits doctrine below). |
| Father | Voda | Medium | Fellowship; God is Love | 1:2-3; 2:1, 15-16, 22-24; 3:1; 4:14 | Reused exactly. |
| Son of God | Sohn vo Gott | Critical | Incarnation and Antichrist; Deity of Christ (cross-doctrine) | 1:3, 7; 3:8, 23; 4:9-10, 15; 5:5, 9-13, 20 | Reused exactly; full phrase required per baseline rule, never abbreviated. |
| Faith | Glaam | Medium | Overcoming the World; Assurance | 5:1, 4-5, 10, 13 | Reused exactly. |
| Righteousness | Gerechtigkeit | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth (evidentiary use, distinct from Romans’ forensic-soteriological use) | 2:29; 3:7, 10 | Reused exactly; teaching notes must clarify the evidentiary (not merit-earning) function here. |
| Sin | Sünd | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Love for the Brethren | 1:7-10; 2:1-2; 3:4-9; 5:16-17 | Reused exactly; baseline warning against colloquial “what a shame” trivialization applies with equal force. |
| Holy | heilig | Medium | Fellowship with God (background) | (implicit throughout; explicit holiness vocabulary is sparse in 1 John compared to Romans) | Reused exactly where applicable. |
| Fellowship | Gmoaschaft | Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another | 1:3, 6-7 | Reused exactly; 1 John’s distinctive double object (with God AND with one another) should be made explicit in surrounding teaching text. |
| Incarnation | Menschwerdung | Critical (re-tiered up from Romans’ Medium — see note) | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 1:1-3; 4:2-3; 5:6 (cf. 2 John 7) | Reused exactly; risk tier raised within this curriculum because the incarnation is the letter’s actively contested polemical confession, not settled background doctrine as in Romans. |
| Messiah / Christ | Messias / Christus | Critical | Incarnation and Antichrist; Assurance | 1:3; 2:22; 4:2; 5:1, 6, 20 | Reused exactly; “Christus” per AI requirements doc transliteration standard for the proper title. |
| Salvation | Erlösung | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | (implicit; underlies 4:14 “Savior,” 5:11-13) | Reused exactly; “Heil” remains forbidden per baseline Nazi-era contamination rule. |
| Law | Gsetz | High | Love for the Brethren (background contrast w/ “lawlessness”) | 3:4 (ἀνομία, negated form) | Reused exactly as the root for the new compound “Gsetzlosigkeit.” |
| Lord | Herr | High | (background; 1 John itself favors “Son of God” Christology over “Lord” confession language, unlike Romans 10:9) | (sparse direct use) | Reused exactly if/when occurring; note 1 John’s Christological emphasis differs from Romans’. |
| Intercession | Fürbitt | High | (background contrast term for the new “Advocate” entry) | cf. 2:1’s advocate concept | Reused exactly; kept conceptually distinct from the new “Fürsprecher” (Advocate of Christ) entry — see New Terms below. |
| Adoption / Kindschaft | Kindschaft | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth (complementary to new “born of God” term) | cf. 3:1-2 “children of God” | Reused exactly; teaching notes should relate Paul’s adoption-picture (legal) to John’s begetting-picture (organic) as complementary, not competing. |
| Prophet | Prophet | Low | Testing the Spirits | 4:1 (negated: false prophets) | Reused exactly as root of new compound “falsche Prophetn.” |
| Apostle | Apostl | Low | (background; 1 John is written by “the Elder,” not explicitly self-titled apostle, but apostolic eyewitness authority is claimed in 1:1-3) | 1:1-3 (implicit) | Reused exactly if referenced in teaching material. |
| Calling | Beruafa / Beruafung | Medium | (background; less prominent in 1 John than in Romans) | — | Reused exactly if occurring in derived teaching text. |
B. New Terms Proposed for This Curriculum
| Term | Bavarian Rendering | Risk | Doctrine(s) | 1 John Citations | Translation Notes / Forbidden Substitutions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Love (ἀγάπη) | Liab | Critical | God is Light and God is Love; Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth; Fellowship | 2:5, 15; 3:1, 11, 16-18; 4:7-21 (repeatedly); 5:2-3 | Regular apocope pattern (cf. baseline Gnad, Sünd, Friad). Must not collapse into everyday “mögn” (like) or romantic “Liab” alone; God’s self-giving, willed, sacrificial love must be reinforced by context every occurrence, especially 4:8, 16’s “Gott ist Liab” ontological predication. Forbidden: rendering “Gott ist Liab” in a way that could be reversed to “Liab is Gott” (personifying love as itself divine apart from God). |
| Light (φῶς) | Liacht | Critical | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5, 7; 2:8-10 | Attested Bavarian diphthongized form of Licht. Ontological predication “Gott is Liacht” (1:5) parallels “Gott is Liab” (4:8) — both are statements of God’s nature, not metaphor/mood language. Devotional light-symbolism (Lichtmess, votive candles) is a protective cultural resource but must not reduce this to seasonal-liturgical atmosphere. |
| Darkness (σκοτία) | Finsternis (dialect var. “Dunkl”) | High | God is Light and God is Love; Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:5-6; 2:8-11 | Must retain moral-spiritual sense (unconfessed sin, separation from God, hatred of brother 2:9-11), not merely visual/atmospheric absence of light. |
| Walk (περιπατέω) | wandln / leb’n | Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another | 1:6-7; 2:6, 11 | Whole-life-pattern term; “leb’n” preferred for clarity in oral-register teaching contexts. |
| Blood (of Jesus) (αἷμα) | Bluat (vom Jesus) | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:7; cf. 5:6, 8 | Must retain sacrificial-atoning force (cleansing agent), avoid purely gruesome-literal or purely metaphorical flattening. |
| Confess (ὁμολογέω) | bekenna | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin (sin-sense); The Incarnation and Antichrist (Christ-sense) | 1:9 (sin); 2:23; 4:2-3, 15 (Christ) | -en > -a infinitive pattern (cf. baseline ermahna). Critical caution: must not be silently assimilated to sacramental “Beichte” (priestly absolution) in 1:9’s direct-to-God confession; two distinct senses (sin vs. Christ) share one Bavarian verb and require context-clarity in every occurrence. |
| Forgive / Forgiveness (ἀφίημι / ἄφεσις) | vergeb’n / Vergebung | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9 | -en > -‘n contraction. Forbidden: implying the sacrament of Penance is required to receive the forgiveness 1:9 describes as immediately available upon confession to God alone. |
| Cleanse (καθαρίζω) | raini(g)n | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9; 3:3 | Must retain inward moral-cleansing sense, not merely external/ritual washing. |
| Unrighteousness (ἀδικία) | Ungerechtigkeit | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9 | Regular negation of baseline Gerechtigkeit. |
| Propitiation (ἱλασμός) | Sühne | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; The Incarnation and Antichrist (Christ’s atoning work) | 2:2; 4:10 | Borrowed standard-German abstract compound, per baseline’s register-gap pattern (cf. Rechtfertigung). Distinguish sharply from “Versöhnung” (reconciliation, the result) — hilasmos is the wrath-addressing means. Forbidden: any rendering implying an ongoing, repeatable devotional-transaction re-propitiation (cf. baseline Gnad forbidden-reading rule). |
| Advocate (of Christ) (παράκλητος) | Fürsprecher | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Assurance of Salvation | 2:1 | Distinct from baseline’s Fürbitt (general intercession, High risk). Names Christ himself, singularly, as the believer’s advocate with the Father — must not be diffused into Bavaria’s strong Marian/saints intercessory devotional frame (Altötting). |
| Anointing (χρῖσμα) | Salbung | High (flag as Critical for teaching-note purposes) | Testing the Spirits | 2:20, 27 | Major sacramental-collision risk: defaults to Firmung/Krankensalbung sacramental rite administered by clergy. 1 John’s sense: every believer already possesses Spirit-given discernment, no human validator required. |
| Little children (τεκνία) | liabe Kinder | Low | Love for the Brethren (pastoral address) | 2:1, 12-14, 18, 28; 3:2, 7, 18; 4:4; 5:2, 21 | Affectionate pastoral address; distinct from theological “children of God.” |
| Born of God / Begotten (γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ) | aus Gott gebor’n | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth; Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18 | Distinct from baseline Kindschaft (legal adoption) — organic begetting/regeneration. Risk: collision with Catholic baptismal-regeneration catechesis; must retain John’s evidentiary emphasis (ongoing righteousness/love/faith as fruit), not merely restate a past sacramental event. |
| Children of God (τέκνα θεοῦ) | Kinder vo Gott | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:1-2, 10 | Status term from begetting; complementary to, not identical with, baseline Kindschaft (adoption picture). |
| Seed (of God) (σπέρμα) | sein Somen | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:9 | Avoid crudely literal-biological reading; requires explanatory gloss (God’s abiding divine nature/principle in the believer). |
| Lawlessness (ἀνομία) | Gsetzlosigkeit | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth (sin’s definition) | 3:4 | Regular compound on baseline Gsetz; echoes but distinct from Gsetz’s natural-law-theology risk note. |
| Practice righteousness / sin (ποιεῖν δικαιοσύνην / ἁμαρτίαν) | Gerechtigkeit toa / Sünd toa | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth; Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 3:7-10; 1:8-10 | Habitual life-pattern, not sinlessness nor a single lapse; must not cancel 1:8-10’s acknowledgment that believers still sin and must confess. |
| World (κόσμος) | Welt (dialect var. “Wejt”/“Wödd”) | High | Overcoming the World; God is Light and God is Love (tension between senses) | 2:15-17; 3:1, 13; 4:1, 3-5, 9, 14, 17; 5:4-5, 19 | Single Bavarian word must carry ≥3 distinct senses (object of God’s love / God-opposed system / neutral present sphere) — disambiguate contextually every occurrence; flag for native-speaker review each time. |
| Lust of the flesh / eyes (ἐπιθυμία) | Gwullt (vom Fleisch / vo de Augn) | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:16 | Morally negative, disordered-desire sense required. |
| Pride of life (ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου) | Hochmuat vom Lebn | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:16 | Ostentatious material self-sufficiency/status-seeking. |
| Antichrist (ἀντίχριστος) | Antichrist | High | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:18, 22; 4:3 | Borrowed as-is. Bavarian folk Endzeit-legend tradition may pre-load singular-supervillain imagery; John’s usage is present, plural, doctrinal (denial of incarnation), requiring explicit teaching-note correction. |
| Deny (ἀρνέομαι) | leugna / vaneina | High | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:22-23 | Direct antonym of “bekenna” (confess); must read as pointed opposite. |
| Word of life (ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς) | s’Wort vom Lebn | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist; Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 1:1 | Johannine Logos-Christology; parallel weight to baseline Sohn vo Gott/Menschwerdung; do not flatten to “the message about life.” |
| Test (the spirits) (δοκιμάζω) | prüaf’n | High | Testing the Spirits | 4:1 | Metallurgical-assaying nuance (discernment for authenticity), not generalized skepticism. |
| Spirits (πνεύματα, tested) | Geister (context-flagged) | High | Testing the Spirits | 4:1-6 | Must be distinguished from baseline Heiliger Geist and from Alpine folk-spirit categories (Rauhnächte, Perchten lore); refers narrowly to claimed sources of Christian teaching authority. |
| False prophets (ψευδοπροφῆται) | falsche Prophetn | Medium | Testing the Spirits | 4:1 | Regular compound on baseline Prophet. |
| Confess Jesus Christ come in the flesh (ὁμολογεῖ … ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα) | bekennt, dass da Jesus Christus im Fleisch kemma is | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist; Testing the Spirits | 4:2-3; cf. 2 John 7 | The letter’s central touchstone confession; combines “bekenna” + Menschwerdung concept; requires theologian review at every occurrence. |
| Spirit of truth / error (πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / πλάνης) | Geist vo da Wahrheit / Geist vom Irrtum | High | Testing the Spirits | 4:6 | Two competing spiritual sources, tested by the incarnation-confession criterion. |
| Overcome (νικάω) | übawindn | High | Overcoming the World | 4:4; 5:4-5 | Must be tied exclusively to faith (trust in the Son of God) as the stated means, not ascetic effort or willpower; caution against Bavarian penitential-practice resonance. |
| Assurance / Confidence (παρρησία) | Zuvasicht | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 2:28; 3:21; 4:17; 5:14 | Grounded in Christ’s finished work, Spirit’s testimony, and perfected love — NOT merit, sacramental standing, or devotional frequency; inherits baseline’s assurance_of_salvation risk note directly. |
| Fear (φόβος) | Angst/Furcht (servile dread sense) | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:18 | Must be distinguished from reverent “Gottesfurcht” (a different, positive biblical sense) elsewhere affirmed; this verse addresses only dread of condemnation. |
| Brother (ἀδελφός) | Bruada | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:9-11; 3:10, 14-17; 4:20-21 | Reuses baseline lenition pattern (Bruder > Bruada). Risk: Bavarian village fictive-kinship culture (Godl, parish mutual-aid networks) may narrow scope; must retain universal “every fellow believer” sense, gloss as “Bruada im Glaam” where needed. |
| Hate (μισέω) | hassn | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:9-11; 3:15; 4:20 | Binary love/hate framework; no neutral-indifference middle ground implied by the text. |
| Liar (ψεύστης) | Liagner | Low | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Love for the Brethren | 1:10; 2:4, 22; 4:20; 5:10 | Blunt everyday dialect term; appropriately direct register match. |
| Commandment (ἐντολή) | Gebot | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth; Fellowship | 2:3-4, 7-8; 3:22-24; 4:21; 5:2-3 | Kept distinct from baseline Gsetz (Mosaic law-code/natural-law frame) — this is Christ’s personal, relational directive. |
| Cain (Κάϊν) | Kain | Low | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:12 | Standard proper name form. |
| Murderer (ἀνθρωποκτόνος) | Mördar | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:15 | Extension from literal murder to hatred as moral equivalent must be retained. |
| In deed and truth (ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ) | in Werk und Wahrheit | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:18 | Preserve deed/word contrast against mere verbal profession. |
| Overcomes the world / faith (νικᾷ τὸν κόσμον) | see “Overcome” above | High | Overcoming the World | 5:4-5 | — |
| Water and blood (ὕδωρ καὶ αἷμα) | Wasser und Bluat | High | The Incarnation and Antichrist; Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 5:6-8 | Strong sacramental (Baptism/Eucharist) resonance risk in Catholic-majority culture; primary exegetical point is threefold witness to Christ’s identity. |
| Testimony / witness (μαρτυρία) | Zeugnis | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:14 (μαρτυροῦμεν); 5:9-11 | Legal-forensic register; God’s own testimony concerning the Son. |
| Eternal life (ζωὴ αἰώνιος) | s’ewige Lebn | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 5:11-13, 20 | Present possession beginning now in relationship with the Son, not merely future afterlife; explicit basis of the letter’s stated purpose (5:13). |
| Sin unto death (ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον) | Sünd zum Tod | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 5:16-17 | Must not be conflated with the Catholic Todsünde/lässliche Sünde (mortal/venial sin) catechetical taxonomy; a narrower pastoral statement about intercessory prayer’s limits in one situation. |
| Whole world lies in wickedness (ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται) | de gaunze Welt liegt im Bösn | High | Overcoming the World | 5:19 | Negative “world” sense; see World entry above. |
| Idols (εἴδωλα) | Götznbilder | Medium | The Incarnation and Antichrist (rival object of devotion); God is Light and God is Love (rival to true God) | 5:21 | Retain religious rival-worship sense; do not dilute into secularized modern “idol” (celebrity) usage. |
| Savior (σωτήρ) | Erlöser | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:14 | Regular agent-noun built on baseline Erlösung; retain unqualified universal (“vom Welt”) scope. |
C. Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference Summary
| Curriculum Doctrine | Key Terms (Bavarian) | Overall Risk Tier |
|---|---|---|
| God is Light and God is Love | Liab, Liacht, Finsternis, Gott | Critical |
| Fellowship with God and One Another | Gmoaschaft, bleib’n (abide), wandln/leb’n | High |
| Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | bekenna, vergeb’n/Vergebung, raini(g)n, Sünd, Sühne, Fürsprecher, Bluat | Critical |
| Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | Liab, Bruada, aus Gott gebor’n, Kinder vo Gott, sein Somen, hassn, Gerechtigkeit toa | Critical |
| The Incarnation and Antichrist | Menschwerdung, Antichrist, bekennt…im Fleisch kemma is, leugna, s’Wort vom Lebn, Wasser und Bluat | Critical |
| Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Zuvasicht, s’ewige Lebn, Erlöser, Sünd zum Tod, Zeugnis | High |
| Overcoming the World | übawindn, Welt, Gwullt, Hochmuat vom Lebn, Glaam | High |
| Testing the Spirits | prüaf’n, Geister, Salbung, falsche Prophetn, Geist vo da Wahrheit/vom Irrtum | High |
End of 08_core_glossary.md. This glossary extends but does not contradict the baseline Romans translation_memory.json/bible_term_registry.json; all overlapping terms are reused verbatim. New entries above are proposed for formal addition to translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json in the next Phase 1 step, subject to human theologian and native-speaker review per the risk tiers assigned.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Gott
Transliteration: Herrgott
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: θεός
Category: God
‘Herrgott’ is the characteristic Bavarian/Alpine Catholic folk term for God (Herrgottswinkel); reserved for culturally warm, folk-devotional contexts only, never for the ontological predications ‘Gott is Liacht’ (1:5) or ‘Gott is Liab’ (4:8, 16), which must use plain ‘Gott’ as grammatical subject. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Heiliger Geist
Transliteration: Heiliga Geist
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: πνεῦμα (ἅγιον)
Category: God
The personal third Person of the Trinity. In 1 John must be terminologically distinguished in every 4:1-6 occurrence from the generic ‘Geister’ (spirits) being tested, so the Holy Spirit is never implied to be merely one claimant among several. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Sohn vo Gott
Transliteration: Sohn vom Gott
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Full phrase required, never abbreviated. In 1 John this confession is the letter’s central dividing line between true and false teaching (2:22-23; 4:15; 5:1, 5, 10-13, 20). Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: Gerechtigkeit
Transliteration: Gerechtigkeit
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Register-gap borrowed abstraction, no native folk coinage, exactly as in the Romans baseline. In 1 John (2:29; 3:7, 10) it functions evidentially (observable fruit proving new birth) rather than Romans’ forensic-soteriological sense; teaching notes must mark this shift explicitly. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: Menschwerdung
Transliteration: Menschwerdung
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα
Category: Christology
Well-established via Catholic Christmas liturgy; no native folk coinage. RE-TIERED for this curriculum: risk raised from the Romans baseline’s Medium to Critical, because in 1 John the incarnation is the letter’s actively contested polemical confession (1:1-3; 4:2-3; 5:6; cf. 2 John 7), not settled background doctrine as in Romans. This re-tier applies only within the 1 John curriculum and does not alter the baseline Romans package. Inherited term and spelling from Romans package; risk tier updated per 1 John doctrine_risk_registry.json.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messias
Transliteration: Messias
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
The Anointed One fulfilling OT promise; borrowed as-is. RE-TIERED for this curriculum: risk raised from the Romans baseline’s Medium to Critical because 1 John 2:22 names denial that ‘Jesus is the Christ’ as the specific mark of the liar and antichrist — a materially higher pastoral stake than Romans’ usage. This re-tier applies only within the 1 John curriculum. Inherited term and spelling from Romans package; risk tier updated per 1 John bible_term_registry.json.
Love
Approved rendering: Liab
Transliteration: Liab
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: mögn (too weak/casual, everyday liking sense)
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Love
Selfless, self-giving love; God’s own essential nature (4:8, 16) and the wellspring of all Christian love for others (4:7, 19). Regular apocope pattern matching baseline Gnad/Sünd/Friad. Everyday Bavarian ‘Liab’/‘mögn’ spans romantic, familial, and casual liking without lexically marking agapē’s distinctive self-giving, willed, sacrificial character; the ontological predication ‘Gott is Liab’ must never be reversible into ‘Liab is Gott’ (forbidden — see Christian Science convergence risk in 05_translation_landscape.md). Requires reinforcement by context on every occurrence in 4:7-21. Human theologian review required at every occurrence.
Light
Approved rendering: Liacht
Transliteration: Liachd
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: φῶς
Category: God
God’s own nature — holy self-revelation exposing sin (1:5) — structurally parallel to ‘God is love’ (4:8). Attested Bavarian diphthongized form of Licht. Devotional light-symbolism (Lichtmess, votive candles, Herrgottswinkel) is a protective cultural resource but risks pulling this ontological, ethical claim toward seasonal-liturgical atmosphere rather than 1 John’s exposure-of-sin logic. Human theologian review required.
Confess Incarnation
Approved rendering: bekennt, dass da Jesus Christus im Fleisch kemma is
Transliteration: bekennt, dass da Jesus Christus im Fleisch kemma is
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ὁμολογεῖ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα
Category: Christology
The letter’s central touchstone confession distinguishing the Spirit of God from the spirit of antichrist/error (4:2-3; cf. 2 John 7). Compound of ‘bekenna’ + the fixed ‘Menschwerdung’ concept. Must not be smoothed into a vaguer ‘glaam an’ (believe in) that would blur the specific, falsifiable propositional content John requires. Human theologian review required at every occurrence.
Propitiation
Approved rendering: Sühne
Transliteration: Sühne
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: Versöhnung (Luther-tradition collapse of propitiation-as-means into reconciliation-as-result, rejected)
Original: ἱλασμός
Category: Salvation
A sacrifice that turns away righteous wrath and effects reconciliation; Christ’s atoning death addressing God’s just response to sin (2:2; 4:10). Borrowed standard-German abstract compound, following the baseline’s register-gap pattern (cf. Rechtfertigung). Must be distinguished sharply from ‘Versöhnung’ (the relational result). FORBIDDEN: any rendering implying an ongoing, repeatable devotional-transaction re-propitiation, a live sensitivity in a Eucharist-centered culture. Human theologian review required at every occurrence (2:2; 4:10).
Born Of God
Approved rendering: aus Gott gebor’n
Transliteration: aus Gott geborn
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: γεγέννηται / γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
Organic begetting/regeneration, a completed past act with a continuing present state evidenced by love, righteousness, and faith (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18). Distinct from the baseline’s ‘Kindschaft’ (legal adoption). Risk: collision with the sacramental, event-based Catholic doctrine of baptismal regeneration (Taufe); must retain John’s evidentiary, ongoing-fruit emphasis without denying baptism’s validity. Human theologian review required.
Children Of God
Approved rendering: Kinder vo Gott
Transliteration: Kinda vom Gott
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
Family membership conferred by new birth (3:1-2, 10), a status term distinct from huios (son, the legal-status term behind adoption). Complementary to, not identical with, the baseline’s ‘Kindschaft’; teaching materials must relate the two pictures without conflating them.
Word Of Life
Approved rendering: s’Wort vom Lebn
Transliteration: s’Wort vom Lebm
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: die Botschaft vom Leben (the message about life — dynamic-equivalence flattening, rejected)
Original: ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
Christ himself as the eternal, life-giving Word, made physically perceptible (‘heard, seen, touched,’ 1:1) — Johannine Logos-Christology applied to the apostolic eyewitness message. Must retain the same Logos-Christology weight as the fixed ‘Sohn vo Gott’/‘Menschwerdung’ entries; must not be flattened to ‘the message about eternal life,’ the direction taken by dynamic-equivalence translations (GNB, HfA) and rejected here in favor of the formal-equivalence pattern (EU/LU17/Elberfelder).
Only Begotten
Approved rendering: oanzigartig (qualifying ‘Sohn vo Gott’)
Transliteration: oanzichartig
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: sei liabster Sohn (his favorite/special son — softens uniqueness to mere preeminence, rejected)
Original: μονογενής
Category: Christology
‘One of a kind,’ emphasizing uniqueness of kind, not mere birth order — Christ’s unique, unrepeatable divine Sonship (4:9). Rendered as an explanatory qualifier alongside the fixed Sonship phrase rather than as a standalone coinage; must retain uniqueness, not mere preeminence.
High Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: Sünd
Transliteration: Sind
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
The baseline’s warning against ‘Sünd’ trivializing into colloquial ‘what a shame’ applies with equal force in 1 John, especially 1:8-10’s insistence that believers who deny having sin deceive themselves. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Erlösung
Transliteration: Erlesung
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: Heil (Nazi-era contamination risk, acute in Bavaria specifically)
Original: σωτηρία (cf. σωτήρ, 4:14)
Category: Salvation
The forbidden-substitution rule against ‘Heil’ applies with equal force in 1 John’s assurance-of-salvation teaching materials. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Law
Approved rendering: Gsetz
Transliteration: Gsötz
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: νόμος (background; cf. ἀνομία, 3:4)
Category: Covenant
Catholic natural-law/Thomistic resonance documented in the baseline continues to shape how ‘Gsetz’ is heard; retained here as the fixed root of the new compound ‘Gsetzlosigkeit’ (lawlessness, 1 John 3:4). Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Lord
Approved rendering: Herr
Transliteration: Herr
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
1 John favors ‘Son of God’ Christology over the explicit ‘Lord’ confession language central to Romans 10:9; this term is comparatively rare in 1 John but reused exactly where it occurs. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Intercession
Approved rendering: Fürbitt
Transliteration: Fiabitt
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: (cf. ἔντευξις; contrast term for παράκλητος, 2:1)
Category: Faith
Retained as the background category of general intercessory prayer against which Christ’s unique ‘advocate’ role (2:1, new term ‘Fürsprecher’) must be kept conceptually distinct, so Christ’s singular advocacy with the Father is not diffused into the general Marian/saints intercessory category anchored at Altötting. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Grace
Approved rendering: Gnad
Transliteration: Gnod
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Bavarian Catholic folk piety’s devotional-transaction undertone must be guarded against wherever 1 John parallels grace’s unmerited, God-initiated priority logic to love’s own God-initiated priority (4:10, 19 — ‘he loved us first’). Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Darkness
Approved rendering: Finsternis
Transliteration: Finsternis
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: σκοτία
Category: Sin
Moral-spiritual darkness — unconfessed sin, falsehood, hatred of the brother (1:5-6; 2:9-11) — not merely absence of visual light. Dialect variant ‘Dunkl’ noted for oral register but ‘Finsternis’ preferred for teaching-text consistency.
Blood
Approved rendering: Bluat
Transliteration: Bluad
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: αἷμα (τοῦ Ἰησοῦ)
Category: Salvation
Christ’s sacrificial, atoning blood, the cleansing agent for sin (1:7), tied directly to propitiation (2:2; 4:10) and the threefold witness (5:6, 8). Must avoid a purely gruesome-literal reading or a merely metaphorical flattening.
Confess
Approved rendering: bekenna
Transliteration: bekennen
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Sanctification
-en > -a infinitive pattern per baseline ‘ermahna’. Two distinct senses in 1 John: confession of sin before God (1:9) and confession of Christ’s identity (2:23; 4:2-3, 15). CRITICAL CAUTION: 1:9’s direct, unmediated confession to God must not be silently assimilated to sacramental Beichte (priestly absolution, the Lossprechung formula) — confirmed by the Einheitsübersetzung’s own base text, which also uses ‘bekennen’ rather than ‘beichten’ at 1:9. Context must clarify which sense is active on every occurrence.
Forgive
Approved rendering: vergeb’n / Vergebung
Transliteration: vergebn / Vergebung
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀφίημι / ἄφεσις
Category: Sin
-en > -‘n contraction. FORBIDDEN: implying that the sacrament of Penance (with its own vivid Lossprechung absolution formula) is required to receive the forgiveness 1:9 describes as immediately available upon direct confession to God alone.
Advocate
Approved rendering: Fürsprecher
Transliteration: Firsprecher
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: Fürbitt (general intercession, risks diffusion into the Marian/saints devotional frame anchored at Altötting, rejected as the primary term for this role)
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Christology
The risen Christ’s ongoing, singular intercessory advocacy for believers before the Father when they sin (2:1) — a different reference of the same Greek word (paraklētos) used of the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel. Must not be diffused into Bavaria’s uniquely intense Marian and saints’ intercessory devotional tradition; always pair with an explicit singularity marker (‘der oanzige Fürsprecher’).
Anointing
Approved rendering: Salbung
Transliteration: Salbung
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: χρῖσμα
Category: Sanctification
The Spirit’s teaching/discerning gift given to every believer (2:20, 27), NOT a sacramental rite performed by a minister. Major sacramental-collision risk: ‘Salbung’ defaults overwhelmingly to Firmung’s chrism anointing or Krankensalbung, even in the Einheitsübersetzung’s own study apparatus. Flagged for elevated, Critical-level teaching-note handling despite the High term-risk tier; every occurrence requires an explicit contrast statement that no priest or sacrament is needed.
Seed Of God
Approved rendering: sein Somen
Transliteration: sei Somen
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: σπέρμα (αὐτοῦ)
Category: Sanctification
The divine life/nature implanted in the believer at new birth, abiding and producing fruit (3:9). Must avoid a crudely literal-biological reading; requires an explanatory gloss identifying it as God’s abiding nature/principle in the believer.
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: Gsetzlosigkeit
Transliteration: Gsetzlosigkeit
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Sin
Transgression of God’s order; John’s definition of sin itself (3:4). Regular compound on the fixed ‘Gsetz’; echoes but is not identical to the baseline’s Catholic natural-law/Thomistic risk note for Gsetz.
Practice Righteousness Sin
Approved rendering: Gerechtigkeit toa / Sünd toa
Transliteration: Gerechtigkeit toa / Sünd toa
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Habitual, characteristic life-pattern (3:7-10), not sinlessness nor a single lapse; must not cancel 1:8-10’s acknowledgment that believers still sin and must confess. Risk of a perfectionist misreading among an audience already primed toward merit-categories by the baseline’s documented Gnad risk note.
World
Approved rendering: Welt
Transliteration: Wejt
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: κόσμος
Category: World
Carries at least three senses in 1 John: (1) the created realm/humanity as object of God’s saving love (4:9, 14); (2) the God-opposed value-system believers must not love (2:15-17); (3) the neutral present sphere believers inhabit (4:17; 4:3). Bavarian, like standard German, has only one everyday word for ‘world’; disambiguation relies entirely on surrounding phrasing. Flag every occurrence for native-speaker review to confirm the intended sense is not accidentally collapsed with an adjacent verse’s different sense.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: Antichrist
Transliteration: Antichrist
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
Borrowed as-is, matching standard German. Both a future expected figure and a present, plural pattern of denial already active in former community members (2:18-19, 22; 4:3). Bavarian/Alpine folk Endzeit-legend and Passion-play tradition pre-loads a singular cosmic-supervillain image that does NOT match John’s present, plural, doctrinal usage; requires explicit teaching-note correction at every occurrence.
Deny
Approved rendering: leugna / vaneina
Transliteration: leugna / vaneina
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἀρνέομαι
Category: Christology
To disown, refuse to acknowledge; the antichrist’s defining act (2:22-23), the direct antonym of ‘bekenna’. Must read as the pointed, direct opposite so the letter’s binary confess/deny structure is not blurred.
Test The Spirits
Approved rendering: prüaf’n
Transliteration: prüfn
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα
Category: Spiritual Discernment
A metallurgical assaying metaphor applied to discerning claimed sources of Christian teaching authority, true or false (4:1). Must retain the discernment-for-authenticity nuance, not generalized skepticism.
Spirits
Approved rendering: Geister
Transliteration: Geista
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: πνεύματα
Category: Spiritual Discernment
Claimed sources of prophetic/teaching authority, true or false (4:1) — not a general folk category of ghosts/nature-spirits. Alpine/Bavarian rural folk culture carries a vivid, currently-practiced tradition of belief in spirits (Rauhnächte, Perchten processions, restless-soul lore) entirely distinct from John’s narrow sense. Never use unqualified; require an explanatory appositive at first occurrence per lesson, and distinguish terminologically from ‘Heiliger Geist’.
Spirit Of Truth And Error
Approved rendering: Geist vo da Wahrheit / Geist vom Irrtum
Transliteration: Geist vo da Wahrheit / Geist vom Irrtum
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης
Category: Spiritual Discernment
Two competing spiritual sources, tested by the incarnation-confession criterion (4:6). Must be read as governed by the single incarnation-confession test of 4:2-3, not a general spiritual-discernment intuition.
Overcome
Approved rendering: übawindn
Transliteration: überwindn
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: νικάω
Category: Faith
Decisive victory over an opposing power; believers have already overcome false spirits (4:4) and overcome the world specifically by faith (5:4-5), not ascetic withdrawal, penitential practice, or personal willpower. Bavarian Catholic folk-devotional penitential traditions (fasting vows, pilgrimage practice) risk being imported unintentionally as the implied ‘method’; every occurrence must carry an explicit means-clause reminder (‘through faith, not through penance/effort’).
Assurance
Approved rendering: Zuvasicht
Transliteration: Zuversicht
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: παρρησία
Category: Salvation
Fearless, unashamed confidence/standing before God and at the final judgment (2:28; 3:21; 4:17), and confident access in prayer (5:14). Must be grounded explicitly in Christ’s finished propitiatory work, the indwelling Spirit’s testimony, and love’s perfecting — NOT one’s own accumulated merit, sacramental standing, or frequency of confession/devotional practice, directly inheriting the baseline Romans package’s assurance_of_salvation risk note.
Fear
Approved rendering: Angst / Furcht
Transliteration: Angst / Furcht
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: φόβος
Category: Sin
Servile dread of condemnation/punishment (4:18), distinct from the positive, reverent ‘Gottesfurcht’ (fear of God) sense affirmed elsewhere in Scripture, which this verse does not address. Requires explicit distinction in teaching materials, since Bavarian (like German) has no separate lexeme for the two senses.
Brother
Approved rendering: Bruada
Transliteration: Bruader
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Church
Fellow believer in the family of faith, the object of the love-test ‘whom he has seen’ (4:20), recurring throughout (2:9-11; 3:10, 14-17). Reuses the baseline’s regular lenition pattern (Bruder > Bruada). Bavarian rural village culture’s fictive-kinship framework (Godl/godparent networks, parish-based mutual aid) risks narrowing this to literal biological brother or a bounded local circle rather than John’s universal scope; gloss as ‘Bruada im Glaam’ where context does not make the universal scope clear.
Commandment
Approved rendering: Gebot
Transliteration: Gebot
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Covenant
An authoritative, relational directive from Christ — believing in his name and loving one another (3:23) — distinguished from the Mosaic law-code, though carrying comparable authority. Kept deliberately distinct from the fixed ‘Gsetz’ to avoid triggering the baseline’s documented natural-law/Thomistic frame; confusing the two risks reintroducing a merit-based works framework.
In Deed And Truth
Approved rendering: in Werk und Wahrheit
Transliteration: in Werk und Wahrheit
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ
Category: Love
Active, practical love expressed in concrete action, contrasted with mere ‘word or talk’ (3:18). Must preserve the deed/word contrast and not blur the polemical edge against mere verbal profession of love.
Water And Blood
Approved rendering: Wasser und Bluat
Transliteration: Wasser und Bluad
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: d’Zeichen vom Herrn (symbolic substitution erasing the concrete forensic/witness imagery, rejected)
Original: τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα
Category: Christology
Part of the threefold witness (with the Spirit) converging on the identity/mission of Jesus Christ (5:6-8). Carries inescapable Baptism/Eucharist sacramental resonance in a Catholic-majority culture, reinforced even in the Einheitsübersetzung’s own study apparatus; render literally and let teaching commentary note the sacramental-resonance reading as a legitimate secondary reflection while keeping the primary threefold-witness point clear.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: s’ewige Lebn
Transliteration: s’ewige Lebm
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Salvation
A present possession beginning now in relationship with the Son (‘he who has the Son has life’), not merely unending future existence — the explicit basis of the letter’s stated purpose (5:13). Must retain the present-possession sense rather than being read as only a future afterlife hope.
Sin Unto Death
Approved rendering: Sünd zum Tod
Transliteration: Sünd zum Tod
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον
Category: Sin
A specific, likely apostasy-level sin bearing on the limits of efficacious intercessory prayer in a particular pastoral situation (5:16-17), not a general taxonomy of sin-severity. Sits in immediate, unavoidable proximity to the fully developed Catholic Todsünde/lässliche Sünde (mortal/venial sin) taxonomy; even the Einheitsübersetzung’s own base text resists importing that taxonomy directly here, and this rendering must do the same — the taxonomy belongs in teaching commentary only, clearly distinguished, never in the verse text itself.
Whole World In Wickedness
Approved rendering: de gaunze Welt liegt im Bösn
Transliteration: de gaunze Welt liegt im Bösn
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται
Category: World
Cosmic-scale statement of the world’s fallen condition under the devil’s sway (5:19) — the clearly negative sense of ‘world’. Shares the same disambiguation issue as the general ‘Welt’ entry; here the negative sense is unambiguous from context.
Savior
Approved rendering: Erlöser
Transliteration: Erlöser
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Salvation
Agent noun: ‘one who saves/rescues’; here explicitly ‘Savior of the world’ (4:14), universal in scope. Regular agent-noun built on the fixed ‘Erlösung’; must retain unqualified universal scope (‘vom Welt’) per the baseline’s universality-preservation rule.
Medium Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: Voda
Transliteration: Voter
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
God as personal Father; also the object of Christ’s advocacy (2:1) and the source of the believer’s love (2:15-16; 4:14). Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Faith
Approved rendering: Glaam
Transliteration: Gloam
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Personal trust in Christ, not generic folk-Catholic religiosity. 1 John 5:4-5 explicitly names this as the specific means by which believers overcome the world. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Holy
Approved rendering: heilig
Transliteration: hoalig
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Set apart for God and morally pure; sparse explicit vocabulary in 1 John compared to Romans but presupposed throughout the light/darkness ethical dualism. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: Gmoaschaft
Transliteration: Gemoaschoft
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
1 John’s distinctive double object (fellowship with the Father and the Son, AND with fellow believers, 1:3, 6-7) is not marked by the compound alone; surrounding teaching text must state both objects explicitly. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Adoption
Approved rendering: Kindschaft
Transliteration: Kindschaft
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: Adoption (bare, legal-procedural)
Original: υἱοθεσία (cross-reference; 1 John itself uses τέκνα θεοῦ, not υἱοθεσία)
Category: Salvation
Legal-placement picture (Romans 8); retained here as the complementary counterpart to 1 John’s organic-begetting picture (‘aus Gott gebor’n’, ‘Kinder vo Gott’). Teaching notes must relate, not conflate, the two NT pictures. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Calling
Approved rendering: Beruafung
Transliteration: Berufung
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Less prominent in 1 John than in Romans; reused exactly if occurring in derived teaching text. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Called
Approved rendering: beruafa
Transliteration: beruaft
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Context-sensitive per baseline; less prominent in 1 John than in Romans. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Aramaic term of intimacy; not present in 1 John’s own text but retained from the baseline for cross-reference in this curriculum’s Fellowship-with-God teaching material, paralleling Voda/Father. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Walk
Approved rendering: wandln / leb’n
Transliteration: wandln / lebn
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Sanctification
Whole-life-pattern term (1:6-7; 2:6, 11), not a single act. ‘leb’n’ preferred for clarity in oral-register teaching contexts; ‘wandln’ preserves the walking metaphor for narrative register.
Cleanse
Approved rendering: raini(g)n
Transliteration: reinign
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: καθαρίζω
Category: Sin
To make morally/spiritually clean from sin’s defilement (1:9; 3:3), paired with forgiveness as a distinct benefit. Must retain the inward, moral-cleansing sense, not merely an external/ritual washing.
Unrighteousness
Approved rendering: Ungerechtigkeit
Transliteration: Ungerechtigkeit
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀδικία
Category: Sin
Regular negation of the fixed ‘Gerechtigkeit’; wrongdoing cleansed upon confession (1:9).
Lust Of Flesh And Eyes
Approved rendering: Gwullt
Transliteration: Gwuit
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός / τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν
Category: Sin
Disordered, self-serving desire, part of the triadic description of the world-system’s appeal (2:16). Must retain the morally negative, disordered-desire sense, not a neutral ‘want/wish’.
Pride Of Life
Approved rendering: Hochmuat vom Lebn
Transliteration: Hochmuad vom Lebm
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου
Category: Sin
Ostentatious self-sufficiency and status-seeking rooted in possessions/circumstances (2:16).
Manifested
Approved rendering: is offenbar wordn
Transliteration: is offenbar wordn
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: is erschienen (risks a vision/apparition connotation, rejected)
Original: φανερόω (ἐφανερώθη)
Category: Christology
To be made visible/plain; God’s invisible love and Christ’s saving purpose became visible in a historical act (3:5, 8; 4:9). Borrowed, standard-German-pattern preferred over a folk-magical ‘erschienen ist’.
False Prophets
Approved rendering: falsche Prophetn
Transliteration: falsche Prophetn
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: ψευδοπροφῆται
Category: Church
Teachers denying the incarnation, the specific referent of ‘testing the spirits’ (4:1). Regular compound on the fixed ‘Prophet’.
Hate
Approved rendering: hassn
Transliteration: hassn
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: μισέω
Category: Sin
Active ill-will/hostility; 1 John’s binary love/hate framework (2:9-11; 3:15; 4:20) admits no neutral middle ground.
Murderer
Approved rendering: Mördar
Transliteration: Mörder
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀνθρωποκτόνος
Category: Sin
‘Man-killer’; extended by analogy from literal murder (Cain) to hatred of a brother as its moral equivalent (3:12, 15). Must not be softened into mere unkindness.
Testimony
Approved rendering: Zeugnis
Transliteration: Zeugnis
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω
Category: Faith
Formal, eyewitness-grounded testimony (4:14); God’s own testimony concerning his Son (5:9-11). Legal-forensic register should be retained, distinguishing it from casual personal opinion.
Know
Approved rendering: kenna
Transliteration: kenna
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: wissn (factual knowledge, rejected as primary rendering for ginōskō)
Original: γινώσκω
Category: Faith
Experiential, relational knowledge of God, evidenced by loving (4:7-8) and by keeping his commandments (2:3-4), not intellectual assent alone. Bavarian’s ‘kenna’ (relational) vs. ‘wissn’ (factual) distinction must favor the relational ‘kenna’ throughout.
Idols
Approved rendering: Götznbilder
Transliteration: Götzenbilder
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: εἴδωλα
Category: God
Images/statues of false gods, and by extension any rival object of worship/devotion — the letter’s closing charge (5:21). Must retain the religious rival-worship sense, not dilute into the secularized modern ‘idol’ (celebrity/fan-idol) usage now common in casual Bavarian speech.
Perfected Love
Approved rendering: vollendet
Transliteration: vollendt
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: perfekt (risks a flawless-performance reading, rejected)
Original: τελειόω (τετελειωμένη, τελεία ἀγάπη)
Category: Love
Love brought to its intended goal/completion — maturity and full realization of purpose, not sinless moral perfection (4:12, 17-18). Must avoid a ‘perfekt’ reading as flawless performance; convey ‘brought to its full, intended shape’ instead.
Low Risk Terms
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Stable; pronounced with regionally typical vowel quality but not a distinct written form. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Prophet
Approved rendering: Prophet
Transliteration: Prophet
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: προφήτης
Category: Church
God’s spokesperson; borrowed as-is. Retained here as the fixed root of the new compound ‘falsche Prophetn’ (false prophets, 4:1). Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Apostle
Approved rendering: Apostl
Transliteration: Apoastl
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: ἀπόστολος (implicit; the author writes as ‘the Elder’ with apostolic eyewitness authority, 1:1-3)
Category: Church
1 John’s author writes as ‘the Elder’ claiming apostolic eyewitness authority (1:1-3) without the explicit self-title used in Romans; reused exactly if referenced in derived teaching material. Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for 1 John.
Little Children
Approved rendering: liabe Kinder
Transliteration: liabe Kinda
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: τεκνία
Category: Church
Affectionate pastoral address (teknia), distinct from the theological status term ‘children of God’ (tekna theou). Low risk; a warm, natural dialect address term.
Liar
Approved rendering: Liagner
Transliteration: Liagna
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ψεύστης
Category: Sin
One who speaks falsehood characteristically; applied both to false profession of loving God (4:20) and to denial of Christ (2:22). Blunt, appropriately direct everyday dialect term.
Cain
Approved rendering: Kain
Transliteration: Kain
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: Κάϊν
Category: Covenant
Old Testament exemplar of hatred/murder as the polar opposite of brotherly love (3:12). Standard proper name form.
Referenced passages