Semantic Analysis — Matthew 1–28 (English → Bavarian)

Methodology

This document analyzes the entire book of Matthew in the original Koine Greek, chapter by chapter, first to last. The core passage (Matthew 5:1–12, the Beatitudes) receives full verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter receives a chapter section covering its load-bearing theological terms with the same fields: original word, transliteration, literal meaning, semantic range, English variants, contextual theological meaning, and destination-language (Bavarian) rendering risk.

Any term already recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json is reused exactly (spelling included) and marked “[baseline reuse]” with only a chapter-specific contextual note added — it is not redefined from scratch. New terms introduced by Matthew’s distinctive vocabulary and doctrines receive full fresh treatment and a proposed Bavarian rendering with risk tier, to be added to translation memory in Step 2 (Core Glossary) and formally logged in Phase 2.

Risk tiers follow the baseline’s four-tier convention (Critical / High / Medium / Low), and every Critical/High assignment below is grounded in a specific competing Bavarian Catholic folk-devotional, liturgical, or cultural reading, per the established pattern in the Romans package (Gnad, Heiling, Kirch, Fürbitt, etc.).

A chapter contributing no new theological vocabulary is explicitly marked as such rather than silently omitted.

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PART A — Core Passage: Matthew 5:1–12 (The Beatitudes), Verse by Verse

Matthew 5:1

Greek: Ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ὄχλους ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ ὄρος, καὶ καθίσαντος αὐτοῦ προσῆλθον αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ.

• disciple(s) — Greek μαθητής (mathētēs). Literal: “learner, pupil,” from manthanō, “to learn.” Semantic range: a student attached to a teacher/rabbi ↔ (in NT usage) one who follows Jesus in committed, life-reordering allegiance, not mere intellectual pupilage. English variants: “disciple,” “follower,” “student,” “pupil.” Contextual meaning: Matthew 5:1 deliberately narrows the audience of the Sermon to “his disciples” (though the crowds overhear, 7:28) — the Sermon is community-formation teaching for those already committed to follow Jesus, foundational to the whole Discipleship doctrine of this curriculum. Bavarian rendering: Jünga (transliteration: Jünger, with the regular Bavarian -er > -a agentive-suffix reduction seen elsewhere in the baseline, e.g. Apostl). Risk: Medium. No competing folk reading, but must be kept distinct from “Christian” generally — not every hearer of the gospel is automatically a committed disciple, a distinction with real teaching weight for a nominally-Catholic, culturally-Christian Bavarian audience (cf. baseline’s christian_identity_in_christ doctrine note on nominal heritage-identity risk).

Matthew 5:2

Greek: καὶ ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ ἐδίδασκεν αὐτοὺς λέγων·

• teach — Greek διδάσκω (didaskō). Literal: “to teach, instruct.” Semantic range: informal instruction ↔ formal, authoritative doctrinal teaching. English variants: “teach,” “instruct,” “was teaching.” Contextual meaning: the imperfect tense (“was teaching”) frames the whole Sermon as sustained, authoritative instruction — the first of many Matthean markers of the “Authority of Jesus’ Teaching” doctrine, which climaxes at 7:28–29 (“not as their scribes”). Bavarian rendering: lehr’n (lehren). Risk: Medium, rising to Critical when paired with ἐξουσία “authority” later in the book (see ch. 7); on its own, teaching vocabulary is stable and familiar from catechism contexts.

Matthew 5:3

Greek: Μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

• blessed — Greek μακάριος (makarios). Literal: “happy, fortunate.” Semantic range: subjective good feeling ↔ (dominant biblical/LXX sense) an objective pronouncement of divine favor and eschatological flourishing, independent of present circumstance. English variants: “blessed,” “happy,” “fortunate,” “favored,” “to be envied.” Contextual meaning: the thesis-word of the whole Sermon — a solemn divine verdict, not a mood report; each beatitude pronounces God’s favor resting on people the world would not expect to be favored. Bavarian rendering: seelig (selig). Risk: Critical. Bavarian Catholic devotional vocabulary uses seelig heavily for the beatified/canonized dead (“der seelige Bruder Konrad,” Bavaria’s own beatified figures) and for the departed generally (“de arme Seelig’n”), risking the hearer defaulting to a posthumous-beatification or “rest in peace” reading rather than Jesus’ present-tense pronouncement over the living. Must be anchored by context every occurrence.
• poor in spirit — Greek πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι (ptōchoi tō pneumati). Literal: “beggarly/destitute in spirit,” from ptōchos, one reduced to begging (stronger than penēs, merely poor). Semantic range: material destitution ↔ (here) a metaphorical, spiritual destitution — utter dependence on God with no resources of one’s own to offer. English variants: “poor in spirit,” “spiritually poor,” “those who know their spiritual poverty.” Contextual meaning: the opposite of self-sufficient religious pride; the entry qualification for the kingdom is empty-handed dependence, not achievement. Bavarian rendering: arm im Geist. Risk: High. Bavarian folk piety includes a strong devotional tradition honoring literal material poverty (mendicant orders, almsgiving, Bettler piety at pilgrimage sites); risk of collapsing this into a commendation of literal poverty as itself meritorious, rather than the humility/dependence Jesus intends.
• kingdom of heaven — Greek βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν (basileia tōn ouranōn). Literal: “kingdom/reign of the heavens.” Semantic range: a place (heaven as afterlife destination) ↔ (dominant Matthean sense) God’s present-and-future sovereign reign breaking into history through Christ, entered now and consummated at the end of the age. English variants: “kingdom of heaven,” “kingdom of God” (used synonymously elsewhere in Matthew, e.g. 12:28, 19:24), “reign of heaven.” Contextual meaning: Matthew’s distinctive, reverence-driven substitution of “heaven(s)” for the divine name — the single most important recurring phrase in the book, framing the whole Gospel’s structure (see full discussion under ch. 3 below, its first occurrence). Bavarian rendering: s’Reich vo de Himmel (attested compound alternative: s’Himmireich, from standard German Himmelreich, well established in Bavarian Christmas-carol tradition, e.g. “Vom Himmel hoch”). Risk: CRITICAL. Bavarian Catholic folk piety strongly associates “der Himmel” with the individual soul’s afterlife destination after death (indulgences, prayers for the dead, “in den Himmel kommen”), risking the whole phrase collapsing into “you will go to heaven when you die” rather than Matthew’s now-and-not-yet reign of God breaking into present history. This is the single highest-priority doctrinal term in the whole curriculum and requires human theologian review at every occurrence, paralleling the baseline’s treatment of kingdom_of_god.

Matthew 5:4

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται.

• mourn — Greek πενθέω (pentheō). Literal: “to grieve, lament,” often with outward expression (as in mourning the dead). Semantic range: bereavement grief ↔ (here) grief over sin, brokenness, and the world’s fallenness. English variants: “mourn,” “grieve,” “lament.” Contextual meaning: not merely bereavement but a Godward sorrow over sin and suffering that anticipates divine comfort. Bavarian rendering: traura (trauern). Risk: Medium. Rural Bavarian mourning customs (Totenwache, black mourning dress, requiem Masses) are vivid and concrete, which helps convey depth of feeling but risks narrowing the term to grief-over-death specifically rather than the broader grief over sin Jesus intends.
• comforted — Greek παρακληθήσονται, future passive of παρακαλέω (parakaleō). Literal: “called alongside,” i.e. to comfort, console, or encourage. Semantic range: encourage/exhort ↔ comfort/console (this is the same root recorded in baseline TM under “exhort” = ermahna, but here the sense is comfort, not admonition — a context-sensitivity flag already anticipated by the baseline’s note on ermahna). English variants: “comforted,” “consoled,” “encouraged.” Contextual meaning: the divine passive (“shall be comforted”) — God himself is the comforter. Bavarian rendering: tröst’t wer’n (getröstet werden), kept distinct from ermahna in this sense. Risk: Medium. Must not default to the baseline’s admonition-sense rendering; requires a distinct dialect term for the comfort-sense of this verb family.

Matthew 5:5

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πραεῖς, ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσιν τὴν γῆν.

• meek — Greek πραΰς (praus). Literal: “gentle, mild.” Semantic range: weakness/passivity ↔ (biblical sense) strength held under control, gentleness that is a disciplined virtue rather than an inborn weakness (the same word describes Jesus himself, Matt 11:29, 21:5). English variants: “meek,” “gentle,” “humble,” “unassuming.” Contextual meaning: not doormat-passivity but power submitted to God, echoing Psalm 37:11. Bavarian rendering: sanftmiatig (sanftmütig). Risk: Medium. Colloquial Bavarian can use “sanft” dismissively for someone considered weak or naive; the translation must be anchored by context (inheriting the earth) to preserve the strength-under-control sense.
• inherit — Greek κληρονομέω (klēronomeō). Literal: “to receive an allotted portion, inherit.” Semantic range: receiving property by legal inheritance ↔ (biblical sense) receiving God’s covenantal promise as one’s rightful, granted portion. English variants: “inherit,” “receive as inheritance,” “possess.” Contextual meaning: echoes the land-inheritance promise to Israel (Ps 37), now extended eschatologically to the meek. Bavarian rendering: erb’n (erben). Risk: Low. Stable, everyday inheritance vocabulary familiar from rural Bavarian farm-succession culture (Hoferbe), which if anything reinforces rather than distorts the sense of a rightfully granted portion.

Matthew 5:6

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην, ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται.

• hunger and thirst — Greek πεινάω / διψάω (peinaō / dipsaō). Literal: physical hunger and thirst. Semantic range: literal bodily need ↔ (here) intense, all-consuming desire and longing. English variants: “hunger and thirst,” “long for,” “crave.” Contextual meaning: an urgent, whole-person longing for righteousness as the deepest felt need, comparable to physical survival needs. Bavarian rendering: hungern und dürsten (dialectally hungan und dirschtn). Risk: Low. Concrete, universally understood imagery with no competing reading.
• righteousness — Greek δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē). [baseline reuse: Gerechtigkeit, Critical, per Romans TM/registry.] Contextual note for Matthew 5:6: here the sense leans toward a hungered-for right relationship with God and right conduct flowing from it, rather than the specifically forensic imputed-righteousness sense central in Romans; the same Bavarian term (Gerechtigkeit) is retained per the “no folksy re-coinage” rule, with reviewers alerted that Matthew’s usage spans both the forensic-status sense (echoed at 5:20, 6:33) and the lived-conduct sense (5:10, 5:20’s “exceeding” righteousness) — see ch. 5 discussion below for the doctrine this founds.
• satisfied/filled — Greek χορτάζω (chortazō). Literal: “to feed to the full” (originally of fodder for animals). Semantic range: literal feeding until full ↔ complete spiritual satisfaction. English variants: “satisfied,” “filled,” “fed full.” Contextual meaning: the promised divine answer to the hunger just described — complete, not partial, satisfaction. Bavarian rendering: sätt wer’n (satt werden). Risk: Low.

Matthew 5:7

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.

• merciful — Greek ἐλεήμων (eleēmōn), from ἔλεος (eleos), mercy. Literal: “merciful, compassionate.” Semantic range: pity/emotional sympathy ↔ active compassion expressed in concrete help toward those in need or distress, especially the undeserving. English variants: “merciful,” “compassionate,” “full of mercy.” Contextual meaning: mercy shown to others as the condition correlated with (not earning) receiving mercy — reciprocity of grace-response, not merit-transaction. Bavarian rendering: barmherzig. Risk: Medium. “Barmherzig” is well-established via Catholic liturgical use (Werke der Barmherzigkeit, corporal/spiritual works of mercy), which gives strong positive grounding but also risks the term collapsing into a specific catalogued list of pious “works of mercy” performed for merit, rather than a Spirit-formed character trait — the same grace/merit-transaction caution flagged throughout the baseline package.

Matthew 5:8

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὅτι αὐτοὶ τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται.

• pure in heart — Greek καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ (katharoi tē kardia). Literal: “clean/pure in the heart.” Semantic range: ritual/ceremonial cleanness ↔ (here) inward moral and motivational integrity, undivided devotion. English variants: “pure in heart,” “clean of heart,” “sincere in heart.” Contextual meaning: undivided, single-minded devotion to God as opposed to outward ritual conformity without inner integrity — a direct anticipation of the “righteousness exceeding the Pharisees” doctrine developed later in ch. 5–6 and 23. Bavarian rendering: reinherzig / a reines Herz ham. Risk: Medium. Must be distinguished from ritual/ceremonial purity categories (handwashing, dietary rules addressed later in ch. 15) which a Catholic-formed audience may reflexively associate with “purity” language via sacramental-preparation vocabulary (confession before Communion); the risk is a ritual-purity reading crowding out the moral-motivational one.
• see God — Greek τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται (ton theon opsontai). Literal: “they will see God.” Contextual meaning: the eschatological beatific hope, being in unmediated relational fellowship with God. Bavarian rendering: Gott schaugn (schauen). Risk: Low, though it echoes the beatific-vision language familiar from Catholic eschatological teaching, which is a positive, not competing, resonance here.

Matthew 5:9

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί, ὅτι αὐτοὶ υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθήσονται.

• peacemakers — Greek εἰρηνοποιός (eirēnopoios), compound of εἰρήνη (peace) [baseline reuse root: Friad] + ποιέω (to make/do). Literal: “peace-maker.” Semantic range: passive peace-lover ↔ active reconciler who does the work of making peace between parties. English variants: “peacemakers,” “those who make peace.” Contextual meaning: active reconciling work, not mere conflict-avoidance, reflecting God’s own character as reconciler (cf. Rom 5:1 Friad with God). Bavarian rendering: Friadensmacher (compound built directly on the baseline Friad root, matching the Greek’s own compound structure). Risk: Medium. Natural and transparent compound with no competing reading, though care is needed that it not be flattened to mere conflict-avoidance (“live and let live”) in a culture where social harmony (Gmiatlichkeit) is highly prized — the text calls for active reconciling effort, not passive non-confrontation.
• called sons of God — Greek υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθήσονται (huioi theou klēthēsontai). Literal: “shall be called sons of God.” Semantic range: named/labeled ↔ (biblical καλέω) sovereignly, effectually designated and constituted as such — [baseline reuse: called = beruafa, Medium/High; ties to the adoption doctrine, Bavarian Kindschaft]. Contextual meaning: peacemaking is presented as the family likeness of God’s children, echoing the adoption theology developed fully in Romans 8 (already in this package’s baseline) and anticipating Matthew’s own sonship language throughout the Sermon (5:45, 6:9). Bavarian rendering: reuse beruafa + Sohn/Kinder vo Gott. Risk: High, per baseline’s existing called entry — the everyday career/vocation homonym risk applies equally in Matthew.

Matthew 5:10

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

• persecuted — Greek δεδιωγμένοι, perfect passive participle of διώκω (diōkō). Literal: “to pursue, chase,” hence “to persecute.” Semantic range: literal physical pursuit ↔ sustained hostility/oppression for religious commitment. English variants: “persecuted,” “pursued,” “oppressed.” Contextual meaning: the perfect tense marks a settled, ongoing state — those who have suffered and continue to suffer hostility specifically for righteousness’ sake, tying directly into the Discipleship/Cost-of-Following doctrine developed fully in ch. 10. Bavarian rendering: verfolgt. Risk: High. In a religiously comfortable, culturally Catholic Bavarian context where nominal Christian identity carries no social cost, this beatitude risks reading as remote/historical (persecuted Christians “elsewhere”) rather than a live category of discipleship cost that Matthew intends as normative expectation; requires careful contextualizing teaching, not just translation.
• for righteousness’ sake — Greek ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης (heneken dikaiosynēs). [baseline reuse: Gerechtigkeit.] Contextual note: the cause of persecution is explicitly righteous living/allegiance to God’s kingdom, not persecution in general — an important qualifier the Bavarian rendering must not lose.
• kingdom of heaven — [see 5:3 above; reuse within core passage, forming the beatitudes’ inclusio — first and eighth beatitude both end on this phrase, a structural feature that must be preserved identically in Bavarian both times.]

Matthew 5:11

Greek: μακάριοι ἐστε ὅταν ὀνειδίσωσιν ὑμᾶς καὶ διώξωσιν καὶ εἴπωσιν πᾶν πονηρὸν καθ’ ὑμῶν [ψευδόμενοι] ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ.

• revile/insult — Greek ὀνειδίζω (oneidizō). Literal: “to reproach, heap insult upon.” Semantic range: mild teasing ↔ public shaming/reproach that damages social honor. English variants: “revile,” “insult,” “mock,” “reproach.” Contextual meaning: honor-shame dynamics of the ancient Mediterranean world — public shaming was a serious social weapon, not mere name-calling. Bavarian rendering: schimpf’n und schlecht mach’n. Risk: Medium. Village-level honor/shame dynamics (gossip, reputation, Dorftratsch) remain a live social reality in small-town/rural Altbayern, giving this term real cultural traction, but reviewers should ensure the rendering conveys public reproach for Christ’s sake specifically, not generic village gossip.
• evil (falsely said) — Greek πονηρός (ponēros) and the disputed textual addition ψευδόμενοι (“falsely,” present in the majority text but bracketed/absent in some early manuscripts). Contextual meaning: the beatitude’s blessing is pronounced specifically on unjust/false accusation borne for Christ’s sake, not on all suffering indiscriminately. Bavarian rendering: allerhand Schlechts (v.11a) / fälschlich (if retained). Risk: Low, a textual-critical note for translators rather than a doctrinal risk, but should be flagged for consistency with whichever critical text the wider curriculum’s base translation follows.
• for my sake — Greek ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ (heneken emou), “on account of me.” Contextual meaning: the object of persecution shifts from “righteousness” (v.10) to Christ personally — a christological intensification; suffering is for Jesus himself, not an abstract virtue. Bavarian rendering: wegn mir. Risk: Medium, given how directly this personalizes the cost-of-discipleship doctrine central to this curriculum.

Matthew 5:12

Greek: χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, ὅτι ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν πολὺς ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· οὕτως γὰρ ἐδίωξαν τοὺς προφήτας τοὺς πρὸ ὑμῶν.

• rejoice / be glad — Greek χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε (chairete kai agalliasthe). Literal: “rejoice and exult/leap for joy.” Semantic range: quiet contentment ↔ exuberant, demonstrative joy (the second verb especially conveys strong, even physical, exultation, as in the Magnificat, Luke 1:47). English variants: “rejoice and be glad,” “rejoice and exult,” “be exceedingly glad.” Contextual meaning: a command, not a mere observation — joy is the appropriate response to persecution when its eschatological reward is understood, a genuinely countercultural instruction. Bavarian rendering: freut’s eich und jubelt’s. Risk: Medium. Requires care that the imperative force (a command to actively rejoice, not simply “feel happy if you can”) is preserved in the warm, oral Bavarian register.
• reward — Greek μισθός (misthos). Literal: “wages, pay” (a commercial/labor term). Semantic range: earned commercial wages ↔ (here) a gracious, promised divine recompense that is given, not strictly earned in a commercial sense, though the vocabulary is deliberately commercial/transactional. English variants: “reward,” “wages,” “recompense,” “pay.” Contextual meaning: God’s generous response to faithful endurance — a genuine tension the Bavarian rendering must hold, since the word’s commercial root could reinforce (rather than merely risk) a merit-transaction reading already flagged throughout this package for Gnad/grace. Bavarian rendering: Lohn. Risk: High. Precisely because Lohn is the ordinary Bavarian word for wages/pay earned by labor, this term sits at the exact intersection of the baseline’s central grace-vs-merit caution (cf. baseline notes on pilgrimage-vow devotional transaction); teaching must clarify this is a gracious reward flowing from union with Christ and faithful endurance, not commercial payment for services rendered to God.
• prophets — Greek προφήτας (prophētas). [baseline reuse: Prophet, Low.] Contextual note: Jesus places his disciples’ suffering in continuity with the OT prophets’ suffering — an early instance of the Fulfillment-of-Prophecy doctrinal thread that runs throughout Matthew (see ch. 1–2 below).

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PART B — Chapter-by-Chapter Study, Matthew 1–28

Chapter 1 — Genealogy and Birth of Jesus

• Christ / Messiah — Greek Χριστός (Christos). [baseline reuse: Messias, Medium, per Romans TM.] Contextual note: Matthew 1:1 opens the whole Gospel with this title in the very first verse, immediately linked to Davidic and Abrahamic covenant lines — establishing “Messianic Promise” as the book’s controlling frame from its first word.
• Son of David — Greek υἱὸς Δαβίδ (huios Dauid). Literal: “son of David.” Semantic range: a literal grandson-generations-removed descendant ↔ (dominant NT sense) the specific royal-messianic title claiming Jesus as the promised heir to David’s throne (2 Sam 7). English variants: “Son of David,” “David’s son,” “descendant of David.” Contextual meaning: distinct from the baseline’s seed_of_david (Rom 1:3’s σπέρμα Δαυίδ, a descent-statement) — this is a repeated, direct messianic address/title used by petitioners and crowds throughout Matthew (1:1, 9:27, 12:23, 15:22, 20:30–31, 21:9,15, 22:42), functioning almost as a confession of messianic identity. Bavarian rendering: Sohn vom David (built in parallel to baseline’s Nachkomme vom David, but retained as a distinct title-entry since it functions grammatically and rhetorically as direct address/acclamation, not narrative descent-statement). Risk: High. A Bavarian Catholic audience’s devotional Christology is shaped far more heavily by the suffering/Passion Christ (Kreuzweg, Oberammergau-style Passion tradition) and the infant Christ (Krippenspiel) than by royal-Davidic-kingship categories; risk of the title being heard as decorative genealogical color rather than the weighty messianic claim it makes each time a crowd or petitioner uses it.
• virgin — Greek παρθένος (parthenos), quoting Isaiah 7:14 LXX. Literal: “virgin, unmarried young woman.” Semantic range: a young unmarried woman generally ↔ (the specific doctrinal claim here) virginal conception without male participation. English variants: “virgin,” “young woman” (a live translation debate rooted in the underlying Hebrew almah, but Matthew’s LXX-based Greek parthenos is unambiguous). Contextual meaning: grounds the doctrine of the Incarnation and the sinlessness/uniqueness of Christ’s origin; also the first of Matthew’s programmatic fulfillment-quotations. Bavarian rendering: Jungfrau. Risk: CRITICAL. Bavaria’s Marian devotional culture is among the most intense in the German-speaking world (already documented in the baseline under intercession, centered on the national shrine at Altötting); the risk here is not doctrinal disagreement over the virgin birth itself (Catholic and Protestant traditions both affirm it) but that the term’s devotional gravity may pull audience attention toward Marian veneration and the elaborated Catholic Marian dogmas (perpetual virginity, Immaculate Conception) rather than the specific doctrinal point Matthew is making: the miraculous, prophecy-fulfilling divine origin of Christ himself. Requires theologian review to keep the Christological, not Marian, emphasis primary.
• Emmanuel — Greek Ἐμμανουήλ (Emmanouēl), transliterating Hebrew Immanu El. Literal: “God with us.” Semantic range: a proper name ↔ a theological title asserting God’s personal presence. English variants: “Emmanuel,” “Immanuel,” glossed “God with us.” Contextual meaning: names the Incarnation’s central claim in a single word — directly relevant to the baseline’s incarnation doctrine (Menschwerdung). Bavarian rendering: Immanuel, transliterated and retained per the established Abba-pattern (baseline: proper theological terms transliterated, not translated), glossed in-text as “Gott mit uns” / dialectally “Gott mit ins.” Risk: High. Must not be reduced to a mere name-etymology footnote; its theological force (the Incarnation’s central claim) should be actively taught, especially since it recurs thematically at the Gospel’s close (28:20, “I am with you always”).
• fulfilled (prophecy formula) — Greek ἵνα πληρωθῇ (hina plērōthē), “so that it might be fulfilled,” from πληρόω (plēroō). Literal: “to fill up, complete.” Semantic range: literal filling (a container) ↔ (technical Matthean sense) the linear, historical fulfillment of a specific prior OT prophetic word in a specific later NT event. English variants: “fulfilled,” “was fulfilled,” “came to pass,” “in order that it might be fulfilled.” Contextual meaning: this is Matthew’s signature literary formula, recurring at least ten times across the book (1:22, 2:15, 2:17, 2:23, 4:14, 8:17, 12:17, 13:35, 21:4, 27:9), and it is the linguistic backbone of the “Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy” doctrine central to this curriculum. Bavarian rendering: erfüllt / so dass des erfüllt worn is (matching the baseline doctrine registry’s existing framing, “d’Erfüllung vo da Weissogung”). Risk: High. As already flagged in the baseline’s fulfillment_of_prophecy doctrine entry, low OT narrative literacy outside liturgically-conveyed familiarity (Mass lectionary readings) means this formula risks being received as a pious rhetorical flourish rather than the linear historical-argument claim Matthew is making; every occurrence benefits from explicit cross-referencing to the OT text quoted.
• righteous (man) — Greek δίκαιος (dikaios), describing Joseph (1:19). [baseline reuse root: Gerechtigkeit family.] Contextual note: Joseph’s righteousness is displayed precisely in his mercy toward Mary (not exposing her to the law’s full penalty) — an early foreshadowing of the “righteousness exceeding the Pharisees” theme (mercy-tempered obedience over rigid legalism) that Matthew 5 will develop at length.
• Holy Spirit — Greek Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον (Pneuma Hagion). [baseline reuse: Heiliger Geist, Medium.] Contextual note: introduced here (1:18, 1:20) as the agent of the virginal conception, establishing the Spirit’s role in the Incarnation before his fuller role is developed later in the book (3:16, 12:28, 28:19).

Chapter 2 — The Magi, Flight to Egypt, Return to Nazareth

• magi / wise men — Greek μάγοι (magoi). Literal: “magi,” originally a Persian priestly-astrological caste. Semantic range: pagan astrologer-priests ↔ (Matthew’s narrative use) Gentile seekers who recognize and worship the Jewish Messiah before most of Israel’s own leaders do. English variants: “wise men,” “magi,” “astrologers.” Contextual meaning: an early, deliberate signal of the Gentile-inclusion theme that runs through the whole Gospel (culminating in the Great Commission, ch. 28) and directly anticipates the “Unity of Jews and Gentiles” doctrine already flagged High-risk in the baseline package. Bavarian rendering: Weise aus’m Morgnland (the established, positive, culturally beloved rendering, reinforced by Bavaria’s own beloved Sternsinger/Star-singers Epiphany tradition, in which children dressed as the three magi go house to house — a rare case of strong, positive cultural grounding rather than collision risk). Risk: Low, and worth flagging as a positive-resonance case distinct from the baseline’s mostly cautionary pattern.
• worship/homage — Greek προσκυνέω (proskyneō). Literal: “to fall down and do homage,” originally of prostration before a superior. Semantic range: formal court homage to a king ↔ religious worship of deity. English variants: “worship,” “bow down,” “pay homage,” “kneel before.” Contextual meaning: the magi’s act is deliberately ambiguous between royal homage and religious worship, a tension the narrative resolves in Christ’s favor by the Gospel’s end (28:9, 28:17). Bavarian rendering: oabet’n (anbeten) for the worship-sense, si niederwerfa for the homage-sense; context must determine which. Risk: Medium.
• King of the Jews — Greek βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων (basileus tōn Ioudaiōn). Contextual meaning: the political-messianic title that both frames the magi’s search (2:2) and, ironically, Pilate’s inscription at the cross (27:37) — a deliberate narrative bracket around the whole Gospel. Bavarian rendering: Kini vo de Juden (König). Risk: Medium.
• Fulfillment formula continues (see ch. 1; reused at 2:15, 17, 23 — no new field treatment needed).

Chapter 3 — John the Baptist, Baptism of Jesus

• John the Baptist — Greek Ἰωάννης ὁ βαπτιστής (Iōannēs ho baptistēs). Bavarian rendering: Jopham da Täufer / standard Johannes der Täufer, an already well-established Bavarian Catholic devotional and calendar figure (Johannistag, Midsummer bonfires historically associated with his feast day). Risk: Low, positive cultural grounding.
• repent / repentance — Greek μετανοέω / μετάνοια (metanoeō / metanoia). Literal: “to change one’s mind/perception afterward,” a compound of meta (after/change) + noeō (to think/perceive). Semantic range: mere regret/remorse ↔ (biblical sense) a whole-orientation turning of mind and life-direction toward God. English variants: “repent,” “turn,” “change one’s mind,” “have a change of heart.” Contextual meaning: John’s call to repentance in preparation for the coming kingdom (3:2) is the Gospel’s opening ethical-spiritual demand, and it recurs at the heart of Jesus’ own preaching (4:17). Bavarian rendering: Buaß tuan (Buße tun). Risk: HIGH. “Buaß” in Bavarian Catholic usage is inseparably tied to the sacrament of Penance/Confession (d’Beichte, “a Buaß auferlegn” — a confessor assigning a penance); this risks the term collapsing into a sacramental-procedural act (going to confession, performing an assigned penance) rather than the whole-life reorientation of mind and direction John and Jesus intend. Requires theologian-level care every occurrence.
• baptize / baptism — Greek βαπτίζω / βάπτισμα (baptizō / baptisma). Literal: “to dip, immerse.” Semantic range: a simple physical washing/dipping action ↔ (here) a decisive, public, repentance-marking rite anticipating the later, fuller Christian sacrament. English variants: “baptize,” “baptism,” “immerse,” “wash.” Contextual meaning: John’s baptism is explicitly a baptism “of repentance” preparatory to Christ, later superseded/fulfilled by Christian baptism in the triune name (28:19) — an important historical-theological distinction. Bavarian rendering: taffn / d’Tauf (taufen). Risk: CRITICAL. Bavarian Catholic sacramental theology (infant baptism, baptismal regeneration, the sacrament’s central place at every family’s life-cycle) creates a strong risk of importing later sacramental categories (ex opere operato grace, godparents, christening customs) into John’s preparatory repentance-baptism, obscuring the historical distinction Matthew is careful to make (3:11, “I baptize you with water… he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”).
• kingdom of heaven — first occurrence in the book at 3:2 (“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”). [Full field treatment given under 5:3 above; this is its formal introduction into the narrative, spoken first by John, then adopted by Jesus at 4:17.] Bavarian rendering and Critical risk tier as established above.
• beloved Son — Greek ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός (ho huios mou ho agapētos), the Father’s voice at Jesus’ baptism (3:17). [baseline reuse: Sohn vo Gott, Critical.] Contextual note: this is the Trinity’s first full self-disclosure in the narrative (Father speaking, Spirit descending as a dove, Son standing in the water) and anchors the Sonship-of-Christ doctrine from the book’s earliest chapters, not only at the Transfiguration (ch. 17) or the cross (ch. 27).

Chapter 4 — Temptation, Call of the First Disciples, Early Ministry

• temptation/tempt — Greek πειρασμός / πειράζω (peirasmos / peirazō). Literal: “trial, test.” Semantic range: a neutral testing of quality/character ↔ (here, with the devil as subject) an enticement toward sin. English variants: “temptation,” “tempt,” “test,” “put to the test.” Contextual meaning: Jesus’ wilderness temptation directly mirrors and reverses Israel’s wilderness failures, establishing him as the obedient Son where Israel failed — a key Fulfillment-of-Prophecy/typology thread. Bavarian rendering: Versuachung / versuacha. Risk: Medium.
• devil — Greek διάβολος (diabolos). Literal: “slanderer, accuser.” Semantic range: a personal, malicious accuser/adversary ↔ (folk-culture risk, see below) a theatrical trickster or folklore figure. English variants: “devil,” “the tempter,” “Satan” (used interchangeably at 4:10). Contextual meaning: a real, personal spiritual adversary directly opposing God’s purposes — never a comic or folkloric figure in Matthew’s usage. Bavarian rendering: Teife (Teufel). Risk: HIGH. Alpine Bavarian folk culture carries an unusually vivid, often half-theatrical folkloric devil tradition (Krampus- and Perchten-adjacent processions, “Teufelsbrücke” legends, carved devil-masks) that can trivialize the term into colorful folklore entertainment rather than Matthew’s serious depiction of a real spiritual adversary; conversely, some folk-magical countermeasure traditions (charms, blessed objects used talismanically) risk importing folk-exorcism categories foreign to the text. Reviewers must keep the register serious and personal, not theatrical.
• kingdom of heaven preached (4:17, 4:23) — reuse, Critical, as above; note this is where Jesus begins preaching it himself, taking up John’s exact wording (3:2/4:17 verbatim parallel), a structural feature worth preserving identically in Bavarian.
• disciple reuse (4:18-22, calling of the first disciples) — see ch. 5:1 above.

Chapter 5 — The Sermon on the Mount, Part 1 (5:13–48; vv. 1–12 = core passage above)

• salt of the earth — Greek ἅλας τῆς γῆς (halas tēs gēs). Contextual meaning: disciples as a preserving, flavor-giving presence in the world. Bavarian rendering: s’Salz vo da Erdn. Risk: Low.
• light of the world — Greek φῶς τοῦ κόσμου (phōs tou kosmou). Contextual meaning: visible, unhidden good works that point observers to glorify God, not the disciples themselves. Bavarian rendering: s’Liacht vo da Weit. Risk: Low/Medium; positively reinforced by Bavarian Christmas/Advent light imagery (Lichterfest customs), but reviewers should ensure the emphasis on visible good works is not lost in a purely decorative or sentimental “light” association.
• fulfill the Law — Greek πληρῶσαι τὸν νόμον (plērōsai ton nomon), 5:17. [baseline reuse: Gsetz, High; fulfilled, High, see ch. 1 above.] Contextual meaning: Jesus explicitly denies he abolishes the Law and Prophets — he fulfills them, bringing them to their intended completion, which grounds everything that follows in this chapter (the antitheses). This is doctrinally load-bearing for the “Authority of Jesus’ Teaching” and “Fulfillment of Prophecy” doctrines simultaneously. Risk: High, inheriting both component terms’ risk profiles jointly.
• righteousness exceeding the Pharisees — Greek περισσεύῃ ἡ δικαιοσύνη ὑμῶν πλεῖον τῶν γραμματέων καὶ Φαρισαίων (5:20). Literal: “your righteousness abounds/exceeds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees.” Semantic range: outward legal conformity ↔ (Jesus’ demand) a deeper, heart-level righteousness that fulfills the Law’s inner intent, exemplified in the following antitheses (murder/anger, adultery/lust, oaths/truthfulness, retaliation/love of enemies). English variants: “righteousness that exceeds,” “greater righteousness,” “surpassing righteousness.” Contextual meaning: this is the doctrinal center of the curriculum’s “Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees” theme — not more rigorous rule-keeping, but righteousness reaching to motive and heart. Bavarian rendering: reuse Gerechtigkeit, with the comparative phrase mehra Gerechtigkeit as de Schriftgelehrtn und Pharisäer. Risk: CRITICAL. Given the baseline’s well-documented Bavarian Catholic folk-piety pattern of devotional/merit-transaction thinking (pilgrimage vows, votive offerings — cf. baseline Grace entry), this doctrine carries a real risk of being heard as a call to more rigorous rule-observance (more devotions, more precise ritual conformity) rather than the Sermon’s actual demand for a transformed heart that exceeds mere external legalism — the opposite of Jesus’ point. Requires human theologian review at every occurrence, per this curriculum’s Bible_Doctrines list.
• scribes and Pharisees — Greek γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι (grammateis kai Pharisaioi). Literal: “scribes/legal experts and Pharisees [a specific first-century Jewish religious-legal renewal movement].” Semantic range: specific historical Jewish religious-political groups ↔ (colloquial German/Bavarian usage) a live idiom for “hypocrite” (“der ist a richtiger Pharisäer”). English variants: “scribes and Pharisees,” “teachers of the law and Pharisees.” Contextual meaning: Matthew’s Pharisees are Jesus’ most frequent theological sparring partners, representing a genuine, sincere (not merely hypocritical) commitment to Torah observance that Jesus nonetheless finds insufficient at the heart level. Bavarian rendering: Schriftgelehrte und Pharisäer. Risk: High. The everyday Bavarian/German idiomatic collapse of “Pharisäer” into simple “hypocrite” is doctrinally convenient in some respects (matches Matt 23’s later usage) but risks flattening the group’s historical specificity and sincerity, weakening the force of “righteousness exceeding” doctrine, which depends on the Pharisees being a genuinely serious, not merely hypocritical, religious standard that Jesus’ righteousness still surpasses.
• but I say to you (authority formula) — Greek ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν (egō de legō hymin), repeated six times in the antitheses (5:21-48). Contextual meaning: Jesus sets his own authoritative word alongside/against received legal interpretation without appeal to any prior authority — a uniquely bold claim to speak with God’s own authority, central to the “Authority of Jesus’ Teaching” doctrine. Bavarian rendering: i sag enk aber. Risk: Critical, tied directly to the ἐξουσία/authority doctrine developed fully in ch. 7 below.
• love (your enemies) — Greek ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη (agapaō / agapē), 5:44, “ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθρούς ὑμῶν.” Literal: “to love,” the NT’s preferred term for committed, willed, self-giving love (as distinct from erōs, romantic desire, or philia, friendship-affection). Semantic range: warm affection/liking ↔ (biblical sense) a willed, covenantal commitment to another’s good, extended even to enemies, independent of feeling or reciprocity. English variants: “love,” “charity” (older translations), “self-giving love.” Contextual meaning: introduced here as the Sermon’s ethical climax — love extended even to persecutors — and later named the greatest commandment (ch. 22). Bavarian rendering: Liab (Liebe, with the regular apocope pattern used elsewhere in the baseline, e.g. Gnad, Sünd). Risk: CRITICAL. Everyday Bavarian “Liab” carries strong romantic and familial-affection connotations (as in standard German “Liebe”), risking the flattening of this willed, self-giving, even enemy-directed covenantal love into mere warm sentiment or in-group family feeling — precisely the opposite of what “love your enemies” demands. This term recurs as the greatest commandment (ch. 22) and requires theologian-level attention wherever it bears doctrinal weight.
• perfect — Greek τέλειος (teleios), 5:48. Literal: “complete, mature, having reached its intended goal” (from telos, end/goal), not “flawless” in the modern performance sense. Semantic range: moral flawlessness ↔ (biblical sense) wholeness, maturity, completeness of character corresponding to God’s own character. English variants: “perfect,” “complete,” “mature,” “whole.” Contextual meaning: the Sermon’s summarizing standard — likeness to the Father’s own indiscriminate love (5:45), not sinless performance. Bavarian rendering: vollkommen. Risk: Medium. Risk of a performance-anxiety reading (flawless moral achievement) rather than Matthew’s goal-oriented, maturity/wholeness sense, especially given the baseline’s already-documented pattern of Bavarian Catholic devotional practices carrying an underlying assurance-of-standing anxiety (cf. baseline assurance_of_salvation doctrine note on frequent confession).

Chapter 6 — The Sermon on the Mount, Part 2 (Lord’s Prayer, Treasures, Anxiety)

• Our Father — Greek Πάτερ ἡμῶν (Pater hēmōn), 6:9. [baseline reuse: Voda, Medium.] Contextual meaning: the Lord’s Prayer’s opening address; Bavarian rendering must align with established liturgical Bavarian “Vater unser” wording tradition already familiar from Mass, since this is the single most-recited prayer text in any Christian dialect community — consistency with existing liturgical usage takes precedence here even over the baseline’s phonological pattern, per the Theological Consistency Rules established in this package’s AI instruction set. Risk: Critical, purely on the grounds of required liturgical-textual consistency, not doctrinal ambiguity.
• hallowed be thy name — Greek ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου (hagiasthētō to onoma sou). [baseline reuse root: heilig, Medium.] Bavarian rendering: gheiligt soll dei Nam sei, matching established liturgical wording. Risk: Medium.
• daily bread — Greek τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον (ton arton hēmōn ton epiousion), 6:11. Literal: notoriously difficult — epiousios is a rare word (possibly coined for this prayer) meaning something like “for the coming day” or “necessary for existence.” Semantic range: literal daily physical bread ↔ sufficient provision for each day, trust-inducing rather than hoarding-inducing. English variants: “daily bread,” “bread for today,” “bread for tomorrow,” “bread we need.” Contextual meaning: a request for daily-sufficient provision that fosters ongoing trust in the Father, echoing the manna pattern (Exod 16). Bavarian rendering: unser täglich Brot (matching liturgical tradition). Risk: Medium. The word’s genuine linguistic difficulty is itself worth flagging to reviewers rather than papered over with false translational confidence.
• forgive us our debts/trespasses — Greek ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν (aphes hēmin ta opheilēmata hēmōn), 6:12. [baseline reuse root: Sünd, High.] Literal: ὀφείλημα = “a debt owed,” a commercial-legal metaphor for sin. Contextual meaning: sin conceived as a debt requiring forgiveness/cancellation, tied explicitly to the disciple’s own forgiveness of others’ debts — reinforcing the reciprocal-mercy pattern already seen in the Beatitudes (5:7). Bavarian rendering: vergib uns unsere Schuld, matching liturgical tradition, with Schuld (debt/guilt) functioning alongside Sünd as a debt-metaphor register distinct from but related to the baseline’s core sin vocabulary. Risk: High, inheriting the baseline’s sin risk profile (colloquial trivialization risk) plus the added commercial-debt metaphor needing careful handling so it isn’t read as literal financial transaction.
• almsgiving — Greek ἐλεημοσύνη (eleēmosynē), 6:1-4. Literal: “act of mercy/pity,” hence “charitable giving.” Semantic range: generic charity ↔ (here) a specific devotional practice Jesus assumes his disciples already do, but warns against doing publicly for human praise. English variants: “alms,” “giving to the poor,” “charitable giving.” Contextual meaning: not the practice itself but its motive (secret, God-seen, not performative) that Jesus addresses. Bavarian rendering: Almosen gebn. Risk: Medium. Bavarian Catholic almsgiving/charitable-giving culture (church collections, pilgrimage-adjacent charity, Caritas tradition) is strong and positive, but the specific warning against performative, praise-seeking giving requires care not to be read as a critique of charitable giving itself, nor should it slide into the grace-vs-merit devotional-transaction risk already flagged in the baseline (giving alms as a means of “earning” religious credit).
• hypocrite — Greek ὑποκριτής (hypokritēs). Literal: “stage actor,” one who plays a role/wears a mask. Semantic range: a theatrical performer (neutral) ↔ (NT usage) one whose outward religious performance masks a contrary inward reality. English variants: “hypocrite,” “pretender,” “play-actor.” Contextual meaning: recurring critique throughout the Sermon (6:2, 6:5, 6:16) and climaxing in the ch. 23 woes; the gap between outward religious display and inward reality. Bavarian rendering: Scheinheiliga — a genuinely apt native Bavarian/German compound, literally “false-holy [one],” which happens to capture the Greek metaphor’s sense (a false outward show) remarkably well. Risk: Medium. Low structural risk since the compound is transparent and accurate, but reviewers should note that “Scheinheilig” is also common secular insult vocabulary in everyday Bavarian speech, which could either sharpen or (if used too casually) cheapen the term’s weight in a solemn teaching context.
• mammon — Greek μαμωνᾶς (mamōnas), an Aramaic loanword meaning wealth/possessions, personified here as a rival master. Contextual meaning: total, exclusive allegiance is demanded — one cannot serve both God and Mammon. Bavarian rendering: Mammon, transliterated as-is (already the standard German/international borrowing). Risk: Low.
• treasure in heaven — reuse kingdom of heaven root cautions; Bavarian: Schatz im Himmel. Risk: Medium, same afterlife-individualism caution as flagged for kingdom of heaven.

Chapter 7 — Judging, the Narrow Gate, True and False Disciples

• judge — Greek κρίνω (krinō). Literal: “to judge, discern, decide.” Semantic range: legal/forensic judgment ↔ (here) censorious, condemnatory personal judgment of others’ character/standing. English variants: “judge,” “condemn,” “criticize.” Contextual meaning: 7:1’s prohibition is against hypocritical, self-exempting condemnation, not all discernment (7:6, 7:15-20 both require real discernment) — an important nuance for teaching. Bavarian rendering: richt’n / verurteil’n. Risk: Medium.
• narrow gate — Greek στενὴ πύλη (stenē pylē). Bavarian rendering: s’enge Tor. Risk: Medium, standard image with no major competing reading.
• authority — Greek ἐξουσία (exousia), 7:29, “he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” Literal: “power, right, authority to act.” Semantic range: raw power/ability ↔ legitimate, delegated, or inherent right/authority to act or command. English variants: “authority,” “power,” “right.” Contextual meaning: this verse is the Sermon’s own concluding verdict on everything just heard — the crowds recognize a categorically different kind of teaching authority than the scribes’, an authority resting in Jesus’ own person rather than derived from citing prior rabbinic tradition. This is the linguistic and theological anchor of the whole “Authority of Jesus’ Teaching” doctrine for this curriculum. Bavarian rendering: Vollmacht. Risk: CRITICAL. Jesus’ unique, self-grounded teaching authority must not be diluted into “one respected rabbi’s opinion among others” (a risk if the term is under-translated), nor should it be quietly absorbed into an audience’s default association of religious “authority” with institutional ecclesial authority (the Magisterium, the local parish priest, the bishop) as the primary referent, which a Catholic-formed Bavarian audience may reflexively supply. Requires human theologian review at every occurrence.
• will of the Father — Greek τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός (to thelēma tou patros), 7:21. [baseline reuse: Voda.] Contextual meaning: mere confession (“Lord, Lord”) without doing the Father’s will does not secure entry to the kingdom — a direct anticipation of the “cost of discipleship” and “righteousness exceeding” doctrines. Risk: Medium.

Chapter 8 — Miracles of Healing and Authority over Nature

• leper — Greek λεπρός (lepros). Bavarian: Aussätziga. Risk: Low.
• faith — Greek πίστις (pistis). [baseline reuse: Glaam, Medium.] Contextual note: the centurion’s faith (8:5-13) becomes the explicit occasion for Jesus’ first statement that Gentiles will share the kingdom’s table while some of Israel are excluded (8:11-12) — an early, sharp instance of the Unity-of-Jews-and-Gentiles doctrine.
• Son of Man — Greek υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (huios tou anthrōpou), first occurrence in the book at 8:20. Literal: “son of the man/humankind.” Semantic range: a simple circumlocution for “a human being” (as in some Aramaic/Hebrew idiom) ↔ (the dominant NT sense, drawing on Daniel 7:13-14) a specific, exalted eschatological title for the one given everlasting dominion and authority from the Ancient of Days. English variants: “Son of Man,” left untranslated/transliterated in most traditions rather than glossed as “human one.” Contextual meaning: Jesus’ favorite self-designation throughout Matthew, deliberately holding together two senses at once — genuine, humble humanity (8:20, “nowhere to lay his head”) and exalted divine-authority figure of judgment (24:30, 25:31, 26:64) — never merely one or the other. Bavarian rendering: Menschensohn (Bavarian pronunciation: Menschnsohn), the well-established compound already familiar from Catholic Mass lectionary readings and creedal language. Risk: CRITICAL. The single greatest risk is flattening the term into only one of its two senses — either reducing it to a humble self-effacing “just a man” title (losing the Daniel 7 exalted-judge dimension so important for the Judgment/End-of-Age doctrine) or, conversely, treating it as simply a synonym for “Son of God” (losing the genuine humanity emphasis important for the Incarnation doctrine). Requires theologian review at every doctrinally load-bearing occurrence.
• demon — Greek δαιμόνιον (daimonion). [see ch. 4 devil discussion for the same Alpine folk-collision caution.] Bavarian: böser Geist / Damon. Risk: High, same reasoning as διάβολος above.

Chapter 9 — Authority to Forgive Sins, Calling of Matthew, Mercy Not Sacrifice

• authority to forgive sins — Greek ἐξουσίαν ἀφιέναι ἁμαρτίας (9:6). [reuse: ἐξουσία Critical per ch. 7; ἁμαρτία = Sünd, High per baseline.] Contextual meaning: Jesus explicitly claims a divine prerogative (only God forgives sins, as the scribes themselves object, 9:3) and validates the claim visibly by healing — a direct Deity-of-Christ-adjacent claim, closely related to but distinct from the Lordship/Sonship doctrines already flagged Critical in the baseline. Bavarian rendering: Vollmacht, Sünd vergebn. Risk: CRITICAL. This is the same textual and doctrinal territory as the Catholic sacrament of Confession/Absolution (a priest’s pronouncement “Ich spreche dich los von deinen Sünden”), which is a living, weekly-practiced Bavarian Catholic devotional reality (cf. the keys of the kingdom/binding-and-loosing discussion under ch. 16 and 18 below, which draws on this same authority-to-forgive theme); reviewers must keep clear that Matthew 9 grounds Christ’s own unique divine authority to forgive, which is the basis for any subsequently delegated ecclesial authority, not an independent source of forgiveness.
• mercy, not sacrifice — Greek ἔλεος θέλω καὶ οὐ θυσίαν (9:13, quoting Hosea 6:6). [reuse root: ἔλεος = merciful, Medium, per Beatitudes.] Contextual meaning: Jesus’ programmatic hermeneutical principle for reading the Law itself — ritual observance without mercy misses God’s actual priority, directly anticipating the righteousness-exceeding-the-Pharisees doctrine. Risk: Medium/High, given the Law/ritual-observance categories this touches.
• harvest — Greek θερισμός (therismos), 9:37-38. Contextual meaning: the urgency of gospel proclamation; ties to the Mission/Great-Commission doctrine developed fully in ch. 28. Bavarian rendering: Ernte. Risk: Low.

Chapter 10 — Sending of the Twelve, Cost of Discipleship

• apostles — Greek ἀπόστολοι (apostoloi). [baseline reuse: Apostl, Low.] Contextual note: the Twelve are here named and formally commissioned (10:1-4), the first formal apostolic sending in the book, directly grounding the later Great Commission.
• authority — reuse ἐξουσία, Critical, here specifically delegated to the Twelve (10:1) over unclean spirits and disease — an important nuance: derived, delegated authority distinct from Jesus’ own inherent authority (ch. 7).
• not peace but a sword — Greek οὐ… εἰρήνην ἀλλὰ μάχαιραν (10:34). [reuse root: Friad, Low, baseline.] Contextual meaning: discipleship will divide households and provoke real conflict — a direct, sobering corrective to any sentimentalized reading of “peace” as mere social harmony. Bavarian rendering: koan Friad, sondern a Schwerd. Risk: Medium, precisely because it inverts the expected positive valence of the baseline’s Friad term and must be handled so the contrast is not softened away.
• take up his cross — Greek ἆρον τὸν σταυρόν (10:38), the book’s first mention of cross-bearing as a discipleship metaphor (before the crucifixion narrative itself). Literal: σταυρός = “an upright stake/cross,” the Roman instrument of execution. Semantic range: a literal execution instrument ↔ (metaphorical, as here) total self-denying, costly, public allegiance to Jesus, willing to face social/legal consequences including death. English variants: “take up his cross,” “bear his cross,” “carry his cross.” Contextual meaning: the foundational text for the “Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus” doctrine — a shockingly concrete image (a condemned man carrying his own execution stake) used metaphorically for total, costly allegiance. Bavarian rendering: s’Kreuz auf si nehma. Risk: CRITICAL. Bavaria’s own intensely visual Passion-devotion culture (Kreuzweg/Stations of the Cross processions, crucifixes at every roadside — Marterl — and in every farmhouse’s Herrgottswinkel, already noted in the baseline under god) gives this image striking positive concrete grounding, but also risks the metaphor collapsing into devotional cross-veneration imagery (the cross as sacred object to honor) rather than Jesus’ actual point: a costly, self-denying pattern of daily discipleship each individual disciple must personally undertake. Requires theologian review to keep the metaphor active and personal, not merely devotional/iconographic.
• lose/find his life — Greek ὁ εὑρὼν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἀπολέσει αὐτήν (10:39). Contextual meaning: paradoxical discipleship logic — self-preservation is self-loss, self-surrender to Christ is true self-finding. Bavarian rendering: sei Lebn valiern / findn. Risk: Medium/High, tied to the same cost-of-discipleship doctrinal weight as the cross-bearing saying above.

Chapter 11 — John the Baptist’s Question, Jesus’ Rest and Yoke

• the one who is to come — Greek ὁ ἐρχόμενος (ho erchomenos), 11:3, a recognized messianic-title formula. Contextual meaning: John’s imprisoned uncertainty and Jesus’ answer (pointing to his messianic works, echoing Isaiah 35/61) — ties Fulfillment-of-Prophecy and Messianic-Promise doctrines together explicitly. Bavarian: der, der kemma soll. Risk: High.
• yoke — Greek ζυγός (zygos), 11:29-30, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Literal: a wooden crossbar joining two draft animals for shared labor; also a common rabbinic metaphor for submission to Torah observance (“the yoke of the Law”). Semantic range: literal farm implement ↔ a metaphor for submission to a teacher’s/master’s discipline. English variants: “yoke,” “burden,” “discipline.” Contextual meaning: Jesus offers his own “yoke” (discipleship to him) as restful in contrast to the burdensome yoke of Pharisaic legal observance — directly related to the righteousness-exceeding-Pharisees doctrine. Bavarian rendering: Joch. Risk: Medium. Positively grounded in still-living rural Bavarian agricultural memory (draft-animal yokes remain a familiar, concrete image in Altbayern farm culture), which aids rather than hinders comprehension, though the specific rabbinic “yoke of Torah” background contrast requires explicit teaching to be recovered.
• rest — Greek ἀνάπαυσις (anapausis), 11:28-29. Bavarian: Rua (Ruhe). Risk: Low/Medium.
• gentle and lowly — Greek πραΰς καὶ ταπεινός τῇ καρδί�ᾳ (11:29). [reuse root: πραΰς = meek, see Beatitudes 5:5.] Contextual meaning: Jesus explicitly applies the beatitude’s “meek” quality to his own character — a direct self-referential link the Bavarian rendering should preserve by using the same root term (sanftmiatig) as in 5:5.

Chapter 12 — Sabbath Controversies, Sign of Jonah, Unpardonable Sin

• Sabbath — Greek σάββατον (sabbaton). Literal/semantic: the seventh-day rest commanded in Torah. English variants: “Sabbath,” “the Sabbath day.” Contextual meaning: Jesus asserts lordship over the Sabbath’s proper interpretation and purpose (12:8, “the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”), again tied to the righteousness/Law-fulfillment doctrine. Bavarian rendering: Sabbat. Risk: Medium. Established Catholic Sunday observance already distinguishes itself clearly from the Jewish Sabbath in Bavarian practice, which somewhat lowers confusion risk compared to some other terms in this package, but reviewers should ensure the text’s Sabbath-specific legal controversy is not silently reread through a generic “Sunday rest” lens.
• blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — Greek βλασφημία εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα (12:31-32). [reuse root: Heiliger Geist, Medium baseline.] Contextual meaning: the one unforgivable sin — willful, hardened attribution of God’s clearly demonstrated work to demonic power. Bavarian rendering: Gotteslästerung gegen’n Heiligen Geist. Risk: CRITICAL. Real pastoral risk of either (a) inducing unwarranted anxiety in genuinely troubled consciences who fear they have committed this sin (they have not, by definition, since genuine fear/concern about it demonstrates the soft heart the sin precludes) or (b) trivializing it into casual blasphemous speech generally; requires theologian-level pastoral care in teaching, not merely accurate translation.
• sign of Jonah — Greek τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ (12:39-40). Contextual meaning: an explicit resurrection-typology prophecy (three days/nights), tying Fulfillment-of-Prophecy directly to the Resurrection doctrine already in the baseline. Bavarian: s’Zeichn vom Jona. Risk: Medium.
• kingdom of God — Greek βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ (12:28), a rare Matthean use of this exact synonym-phrase (elsewhere Matthew almost always says “kingdom of heaven”). [baseline reuse: s’Reich vo Gott, per Romans TM.] Contextual note for reviewers: this is not a distinct doctrine from “kingdom of heaven” but the same reality named with Matthew’s less common (though more common in Mark/Luke/John) phrase; both Bavarian renderings (s’Reich vo Gott and s’Reich vo de Himmel) refer to the identical concept and should be recognized as synonymous by reviewers, not treated as two different kingdoms.

Chapter 13 — Parables of the Kingdom

• parable — Greek παραβολή (parabolē). Literal: “a placing beside,” i.e. a comparison. Semantic range: a simple illustrative comparison ↔ (Matthew’s technical sense here) a deliberately veiled teaching form that reveals truth to receptive hearers and conceals it from the hard-hearted (13:10-15, quoting Isaiah 6:9-10). English variants: “parable,” “comparison,” “illustration.” Contextual meaning: the primary literary vehicle for kingdom-of-heaven teaching in Matthew (seven parables in this chapter alone). Bavarian rendering: Gleichnis (standard German borrowing, already familiar via Catholic Mass lectionary sermons). Risk: Medium. Risk chiefly that the deliberate revealing/concealing dual function (13:10-15) is lost if “Gleichnis” is heard merely as a simple illustrative teaching aid rather than Matthew’s more pointed literary-theological device.
• mystery — Greek μυστήριον (mystērion), 13:11, “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” Literal: “a secret thing,” originally of Greco-Roman mystery-cult secrets, adapted in Jewish apocalyptic and NT usage for a previously hidden divine truth now disclosed to God’s chosen. Semantic range: cultic secret ↔ (biblical sense) formerly hidden, now revealed divine truth. English variants: “mystery,” “secret,” “hidden truth.” Contextual meaning: the kingdom’s true nature (present yet hidden, growing gradually, mixed with opposition until the end) was not previously understood but is now disclosed to those with ears to hear. Bavarian rendering: Gheimnis (Geheimnis). Risk: HIGH. Catholic sacramental theology’s technical, liturgically central use of “Mysterium/Geheimnis” (especially of the Eucharist, “mysterium fidei,” and the sacraments generally as “die heiligen Geheimnisse”) risks importing a sacramental-technical reading into Matthew 13’s quite different sense: a previously hidden truth about the kingdom’s nature now revealed in teaching, not a sacramental rite performed. Reviewers should ensure the term is anchored to revealed teaching content, not sacramental mystery.
• end of the age — Greek συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος (synteleia tou aiōnos), 13:39-40, 13:49. Literal: “the completion/consummation of the age.” Semantic range: a vague future endpoint ↔ (Matthew’s technical eschatological sense) the specific, definite culmination of the present age at Christ’s return, marked by final judgment (harvest/separation imagery here; fully developed in ch. 24-25). English variants: “end of the age,” “end of the world,” “consummation.” Contextual meaning: first occurrence of a term central to the Judgment-and-End-of-the-Age doctrine, introduced here via the wheat-and-weeds and net parables’ harvest/separation imagery. Bavarian rendering: s’End vo dera Weltzeit. Risk: High. Requires care to avoid being heard as generic apocalyptic anxiety-vocabulary (a live genre in some folk-religious end-times speculation) versus Matthew’s specific, sober, hope-and-warning-balanced teaching.
• furnace of fire — Greek κάμινος τοῦ πυρός (13:42, 50). [ties to hell/judgment discussion, ch. 25 below.] Bavarian: Feuerofen. Risk: Medium.

Chapter 14 — Feeding of the 5,000, Walking on Water

• little faith — Greek ὀλιγόπιστος (oligopistos), 14:31, “you of little faith,” addressed to Peter. [reuse root: πίστις = Glaam, Medium baseline.] Literal compound: oligos (little) + pistis (faith). Contextual meaning: a gentle rebuke, not condemnation — faith that is real but insufficiently trusting under pressure. Bavarian rendering: kloaglaabig (kleinglaubig), a natural compound built directly on the baseline Glaam root. Risk: Medium.
• Son of God confession (14:33) — [baseline reuse: Sohn vo Gott, Critical.] No new field treatment needed; the chapter otherwise reuses established faith/authority-over-nature vocabulary from ch. 8.
• No further new theological vocabulary in this chapter beyond the above; reuses kingdom, faith, and Son-of-God terms from earlier chapters.

Chapter 15 — Tradition of the Elders, the Canaanite Woman’s Faith

• tradition — Greek παράδοσις (paradosis), 15:2-6, “the tradition of the elders” that Jesus says can nullify God’s actual commandment. Literal: “that which is handed down/passed on.” Semantic range: any handed-down teaching or custom ↔ (here, specifically) accumulated rabbinic legal interpretation treated as equally or more binding than the written Torah itself. English variants: “tradition,” “the traditions of the elders,” “human tradition,” “man-made rules.” Contextual meaning: Jesus’ sharpest critique in this passage is that a specific handed-down human tradition (the Corban vow practice, 15:5-6) was being used to circumvent God’s actual command to honor one’s parents — a critique of a specific abuse, not of the category of tradition as such. Bavarian rendering: Überliefarung. Risk: HIGH. Given the Catholic doctrine of Sacred Tradition as a co-authoritative source of revelation alongside Scripture, this is a historically loaded, Reformation-polemic-adjacent text; reviewers must ensure the translation and accompanying teaching notes make clear Jesus is critiquing a specific human accretion that nullifies God’s actual command in that instance, not issuing a blanket verdict against the theological category of tradition — while also not softening or evading the real force of the textual critique out of undue deference to that sensitivity. Requires human theologian review.
• defilement (heart, not diet) — Greek οὐ τὸ εἰσερχόμενον εἰς τὸ στόμα κοινοῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον (15:11). Contextual meaning: relocates true defilement from ritual/dietary categories to the heart’s moral condition — continues the righteousness-of-the-heart theme from ch. 5. Bavarian: s’Herz, net s’Essn, macht unrein. Risk: Medium.
• great faith (Canaanite woman, 15:28) — reuse πίστις, Medium; notably a Gentile woman receives this commendation, again reinforcing Unity-of-Jews-and-Gentiles.

Chapter 16 — Peter’s Confession, the Keys of the Kingdom, First Passion Prediction

• You are the Christ, the Son of the living God — Greek Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος (16:16). [baseline reuse: Messias + Sohn vo Gott, both Critical.] Contextual meaning: Peter’s confession is the Gospel’s structural turning point — the full messianic and divine-sonship identity now openly named by a disciple, immediately followed by the first Passion prediction. Risk: CRITICAL, jointly inheriting both baseline terms’ risk profiles at full weight.
• keys of the kingdom — Greek τὰς κλεῖδας τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν (16:19). Literal: “the keys of the kingdom of the heavens.” Semantic range: literal door-keys ↔ (biblical/ANE idiom, cf. Isaiah 22:22) delegated administrative/stewardship authority over a household or realm. English variants: “keys of the kingdom,” “keys of heaven.” Contextual meaning: Jesus grants Peter (and, by extension in ch. 18, the gathered disciples/church) authority to “bind and loose” — a rabbinic idiom for authoritative teaching/discipline decisions (declaring what is permitted/forbidden, or exercising disciplinary judgment). Bavarian rendering: d’Schlissl vom Reich vo de Himmel. Risk: CRITICAL. This is the foundational proof-text for the Catholic doctrine of Petrine primacy and papal authority (the papacy’s own self-understanding of apostolic succession from Peter); a Bavarian Catholic audience will almost certainly and immediately supply this association. This is a genuinely different risk profile than most of the baseline’s “pure register-gap” Critical terms (cf. baseline’s election entry, which notes Bavarian culture has no live confessional battleground for that doctrine) — here there IS a live, specific, historically consequential competing doctrinal claim actively taught in the same religious tradition the audience belongs to. Requires human theologian review at every occurrence, with explicit awareness that this text functions very differently for a Bavarian Catholic audience than it would for, e.g., a Reformed-tradition audience.
• bind and loose — Greek δήσῃς / λύσῃς (16:19; repeated 18:18). Literal: “you shall bind / you shall loose,” rabbinic technical vocabulary for authoritative halakhic rulings (declaring conduct forbidden/permitted) and/or disciplinary exclusion/restoration. Semantic range: literal tying/untying ↔ authoritative declarative judgment exercised on God’s behalf. English variants: “bind and loose,” “forbid and permit,” “whatever you bind/loose.” Contextual meaning: grounds both the doctrine of church authority/discipline (fully developed in ch. 18) and, in Bavarian Catholic devotional practice, is the direct scriptural anchor cited for the priestly absolution formula in the sacrament of Confession (“binding and loosing sins”). Bavarian rendering: bind’n und lösn. Risk: CRITICAL, for the same grounded reason as keys of the kingdom above — this connects directly to a living, weekly-practiced Bavarian Catholic sacramental behavior, not merely an abstract doctrinal register gap.
• church — Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia), first occurrence in the book, 16:18 (“on this rock I will build my church”). [baseline reuse: Kirch, High.] Contextual note: this is the founding statement of the “Church and Church Discipline” doctrine central to this curriculum, and inherits the baseline’s already-documented High risk in full (Kirch defaulting to the physical parish building/Kirchweih-festival sense rather than the gathered-people sense); given this verse’s foundational importance for Catholic ecclesiology specifically (built on Peter, “this rock”), reviewers should also be alert to the Petros/petra wordplay (Peter’s name means “rock”) which does not carry over cleanly into Bavarian and may need a translator’s note rather than an attempted pun-preservation.
• take up his cross / lose his life to find it — reuse from ch. 10, Critical, repeated here (16:24-25) in direct connection to the first Passion prediction — an important structural link for teaching.

Chapter 17 — The Transfiguration

• transfigured — Greek μετεμορφώθη (metemorphōthē), 17:2. Literal: “was changed in form,” from meta (change) + morphē (form/shape) — the source of English “metamorphosis.” Semantic range: any change of outward appearance ↔ (here) a momentary, glorious unveiling of Christ’s true divine nature/glory, not a mere costume change. English variants: “transfigured,” “transformed.” Contextual meaning: a preview of Christ’s future resurrection glory, confirmed by the Father’s voice repeating the baptismal declaration (17:5). Bavarian rendering: verklärt (Verklärung), a well-established standard German/Catholic liturgical term (the Feast of the Transfiguration is a recognized feast day even in dialect-speaking parishes). Risk: Medium.
• This is my beloved Son, listen to him — reuse from ch. 3, Critical; the addition of “listen to him” (17:5) reinforces the Authority-of-Jesus’-Teaching doctrine by directly linking divine Sonship to teaching authority.

Chapter 18 — Church Discipline, Forgiveness, the Lost Sheep

• if your brother sins against you — Greek ἐὰν ἁμάρτῃ [εἰς σέ] ὁ ἀδελφός σου (18:15). [reuse root: ἁμαρτία = Sünd, High, baseline.] Contextual meaning: the opening statement of Matthew’s specific, staged church-discipline procedure (private confrontation → witnesses → the whole church → exclusion), the central passage for this curriculum’s “Church and Church Discipline” doctrine. Bavarian: wenn dei Bruada gegn di sündigt. Risk: High.
• tell it to the church — Greek εἰπὲ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ (18:17). [baseline reuse: Kirch, High.] Contextual meaning: the local gathered congregation, not a distant institutional hierarchy, is the body exercising this discipline in Matthew’s text — an important nuance given the baseline’s documented risk that Kirch defaults to the parish-building/institutional sense; the passage’s actual referent (the local gathered assembly of believers) needs the same “Kirchengmoaschaft”/explicit-context handling the AI instruction set already mandates for the church-as-body sense generally.
• bind and loose — reuse from ch. 16, Critical, here applied explicitly to the corporate church’s disciplinary decisions (18:18) rather than to Peter individually — an important distinction from the ch. 16 usage that reviewers should note (corporate ecclesial authority vs. Peter’s specific commission).
• gathered in my name — Greek συνηγμένοι εἰς τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα (18:20). Contextual meaning: Christ’s promised presence with even a small gathered group exercising this discipline — reinforces “church” as gathered people, not building. Bavarian: in mein’ Nam versammlt. Risk: Medium.
• cause to stumble — Greek σκανδαλίζω (skandalizō), 18:6-9. Literal: “to cause to trip/stumble,” from skandalon, a trap-trigger or stumbling-stone. Semantic range: minor social offense ↔ (biblical sense) leading another, especially “little ones,” into sin or away from faith, treated with the utmost seriousness (the millstone saying, 18:6). English variants: “cause to stumble,” “cause to sin,” “offend,” “cause to fall away.” Contextual meaning: a grave warning against spiritually damaging the vulnerable, directly relevant to church-discipline and pastoral-care teaching. Bavarian rendering: zum Fall’n bringa / in Sünd führn. Risk: Medium/High.
• lost sheep parable (18:12-14) — reuse pastoral imagery, Low/Medium; anticipates the ch. 25 sheep-and-goats judgment imagery and the Good-Shepherd theme familiar from Catholic devotional art.
• seventy times seven (forgiveness, 18:21-22, and the unforgiving-servant parable 18:23-35) — ties directly to the grace-vs-merit caution already documented in the baseline; forgiveness here is modeled on the king’s own unlimited, undeserved forgiveness of an unpayable debt. Risk: High, given the direct parallel to the baseline’s central grace/merit-transaction caution.

Chapter 19 — Divorce, Children, the Rich Young Man

• divorce — Greek ἀπολύω (apolyō, “to release/send away”), 19:3-9. Contextual meaning: Jesus roots marriage’s permanence in creation order (“what God has joined together”), tightening the Mosaic concession. Bavarian: si scheidn lassn. Risk: Medium/High (pastoral sensitivity in a modern audience with divorce experience, though not a doctrinal register-gap risk as such).
• with God all things are possible — Greek παρὰ δὲ θεῷ πάντα δυνατά (19:26). [reuse root: Vorsehung thematically, Providence doctrine, baseline Medium.] Bavarian: bei Gott is olles möglich. Risk: Medium.
• No other major new theological vocabulary; reuses kingdom-of-heaven, children/humility (from ch. 18), and faith terms.

Chapter 20 — Laborers in the Vineyard, the Request of James and John, Ransom

• Son of Man came to serve — reuse υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, Critical (see ch. 8), now explicitly defined by self-giving service (20:28) rather than being served.
• ransom for many — Greek λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν (20:28), “a ransom in place of/instead of many.” Literal: λύτρον = “the price paid to redeem/release a slave or captive” (a concrete commercial/legal term from the ancient slave-manumission and prisoner-ransom systems). Semantic range: a literal payment securing someone’s release ↔ (here) Christ’s substitutionary, sacrificial death securing believers’ release from sin’s bondage. English variants: “ransom,” “the price of release,” “redemption payment.” Contextual meaning: the single clearest statement in Matthew of the substitutionary nature of Christ’s coming death, and the New Testament’s own explanatory gloss on why the cross accomplishes salvation. Bavarian rendering: Lösegeld. Risk: CRITICAL. Worth noting the etymological family connection to the baseline’s own Erlösung (salvation) — both come from the same root lösen, “to loose/free/redeem” — which gives a genuinely helpful, theologically apt linguistic bridge (Bavarian speakers can be shown that “Erlösung” IS, at root, “being ransomed”). The real risk is the reverse direction: because Bavarian Catholic folk piety already carries a documented merit-transaction undertone around grace (pilgrimage vows, votive offerings, cf. baseline Grace entry), “Lösegeld” — an ordinary commercial ransom word — risks being heard as one more devotional transaction (a price the believer or the church must supply or negotiate) rather than Christ’s own unique, sufficient, once-for-all payment on believers’ behalf. Requires human theologian review at every occurrence.

Chapter 21 — Triumphal Entry, Cleansing the Temple, the Wicked Tenants

• Hosanna — Greek ὡσαννά (hōsanna), transliterating Hebrew “save now/we pray,” by NT times a liturgical shout of acclamation rather than a literal petition. Bavarian rendering: Hosanna, transliterated per the established Abba/Halleluja pattern. Risk: Low.
• Son of David acclamation (21:9, 21:15) — reuse from ch. 1, High.
• house of prayer — Greek οἶκος προσευχῆς (21:13, quoting Isaiah 56:7). [reuse root: prayer/Fürbitt family, baseline High for intercession specifically; this is broader “prayer” generally, lower risk.] Bavarian: a Haus zum Bet’n. Risk: Low/Medium.
• stone the builders rejected — Greek λίθον ὃν ἀπεδοκίμασαν οἱ οἰκοδομοῦντες (21:42, quoting Psalm 118:22). Contextual meaning: a messianic-rejection-and-vindication prophecy fulfilled in Christ’s death and resurrection, tying Fulfillment-of-Prophecy directly to the Messianic-Promise doctrine. Bavarian: da Stoa, den de Bauleit verworfa ham. Risk: Medium/High.
• a nation producing the fruits (21:43) — Contextual meaning: the kingdom’s stewardship transferred from unfaithful leadership to a fruit-bearing people; requires careful handling given Bavaria’s own specific 20th-century history around ethnic/national election-language, per the baseline’s existing caution on unity_of_jews_and_gentiles. Risk: High.

Chapter 22 — The Wedding Feast, Render to Caesar, the Greatest Commandment

• called / chosen — Greek κλητοί / ἐκλεκτοί (22:14, “many are called, but few are chosen”). [baseline reuse: called = beruafa, High; election = Erwählung, High.] Contextual meaning: distinguishes a general, wide gospel invitation from the narrower company who actually respond/persevere — the same effectual-calling/election territory the baseline already flags as a pure register-gap risk for Bavarian Catholic culture (no lived predestination-controversy tradition). Risk: High, per baseline.
• render to Caesar what is Caesar’s — Greek ἀπόδοτε… Καίσαρι τὰ Καίσαρος καὶ τῷ θεῷ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ (22:21). Contextual meaning: establishes a distinction (not a strict separation) between civil and divine obligation — relevant to any teaching on church-state relations. Bavarian: Gebt’s dem Kaiser, was dem Kaiser gehört, und Gott, was Gott gehört. Risk: Medium.
• the greatest commandment — Greek ἀγαπήσεις Κύριον τὸν θεόν σου… ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν (22:37-39). [reuse: ἀγάπη = Liab, Critical, established at 5:44 above; Herr reused for “Lord” address to God here as at Rom 10:9.] Contextual meaning: Jesus names love of God and neighbor as the interpretive key to “all the Law and the Prophets” (22:40) — the single most important ethical-summary statement in the book, directly continuing the righteousness-exceeding-the-Pharisees theme from ch. 5. Risk: CRITICAL, inheriting Liab’s full risk profile at its highest doctrinal stakes in the whole book.

Chapter 23 — Woes against the Scribes and Pharisees

• woe — Greek οὐαί (ouai), repeated seven times (23:13-29). Literal: an interjection of lament/judgment, “alas, woe.” Semantic range: an expression of grief ↔ (here) a solemn, prophetic pronouncement of coming judgment, in the OT prophetic tradition. English variants: “woe,” “how terrible,” “alas for.” Contextual meaning: places Jesus explicitly in the line of OT prophetic judgment-oracles (cf. Isaiah 5, Amos), continuing the Fulfillment-of-Prophecy thread even in a passage of confrontation rather than quotation. Bavarian: Wehe. Risk: Low/Medium.
• scribes and Pharisees / hypocrites — reuse from ch. 5 and ch. 6, High; this chapter is the sharpest concentration of both terms in the book and should be flagged for theologian review given how directly it engages live “Pharisee = hypocrite” idiom risk already noted.
• No further new theological vocabulary; the chapter’s weight lies in the concentrated reuse and intensification of already-flagged High-risk terms.

Chapter 24 — Signs of the End, the Coming of the Son of Man

• coming (of the Son of Man) — Greek παρουσία (parousia), 24:3, 24:27, 24:37, 24:39. Literal: “presence, arrival,” used in the Greco-Roman world for a king’s or dignitary’s formal, ceremonial arrival/visit. Semantic range: a routine arrival ↔ (NT technical eschatological sense) Christ’s glorious, visible, and universally evident future return. English variants: “coming,” “advent,” “arrival,” transliterated in some traditions as “parousia.” Contextual meaning: the central term for the “Second Coming” and grounds the whole Judgment-and-End-of-the-Age doctrine developed across ch. 24-25. Bavarian rendering: s’Kemma vom Menschensohn (glossing rather than transliterating, for accessibility, though “Parusie” is the standard German technical term familiar to seminary-trained clergy). Risk: CRITICAL. Must be conveyed as a definite, certain, future historical event (however unknown its timing, 24:36) rather than either a purely symbolic/spiritualized “coming” (already-realized-eschatology reading) or feeding into sensationalist folk end-times speculation; requires human theologian review.
• abomination of desolation — Greek τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως (24:15, alluding to Daniel). Contextual meaning: a specific historical-apocalyptic marker requiring careful, non-sensationalized handling. Bavarian: s’Greisliche, was olles verwüst (an approximate descriptive rendering, since no fixed idiomatic Bavarian equivalent exists). Risk: High.
• great tribulation — Greek θλῖψις μεγάλη (24:21). Bavarian: a groaße Not/Bedrängnis. Risk: Medium.
• end of the age — reuse from ch. 13, High.
• false messiahs — Greek ψευδόχριστοι (24:24). [reuse root: Χριστός = Messias.] Bavarian: falsche Messiasse. Risk: High, given the direct collision with the Messianic-Promise doctrine’s core term.
• no one knows that day or hour (24:36) — Contextual meaning: a deliberate check against date-setting speculation. Bavarian: des woaß neamand. Risk: Medium.

Chapter 25 — Ten Virgins, Talents, Sheep and Goats

• ten virgins — reuse παρθένος root from ch. 1, here in its ordinary (non-Marian) sense of unmarried young women in the parable; note for reviewers this is a different contextual sense from the ch. 1 doctrinal usage and does not carry the same Critical-tier Marian-collision risk here, though the same Bavarian word (Jungfrau) is used. Risk: Low in this specific parabolic usage.
• talents — Greek τάλαντα (talanta), a very large unit of monetary weight. Bavarian: Talente (retained as-is; the English “talent” = ability sense is itself historically derived from this parable, an interesting linguistic note for teaching, though the Bavarian rendering should avoid collapsing the parable’s monetary-stewardship sense into only “natural abilities”). Risk: Medium.
• sheep and goats (25:31-46) — Contextual meaning: the definitive judgment scene of the whole book, separating on the basis of concrete deeds of mercy done “to the least of these.” Bavarian: d’Schaf und d’Bock. Risk: High.
• least of these my brothers — Greek τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν ἐλαχίστων (25:40, 25:45). Contextual meaning: Christ personally identifies with the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned — deeds done to them are deeds done to him. English variants: “least of these,” “least of these brothers of mine.” Bavarian rendering: de Gringstn vo meine Brüada. Risk: HIGH. Real risk of moralizing this into pure humanitarian social ethics divorced from its actual christological identification claim (deeds done to the vulnerable are deeds done to Christ himself) — either flattening it into generic charity teaching (losing the Christ-identification) or, in the opposite direction, using it to imply salvation is earned by good works (a serious collision with the grace/merit caution documented throughout this package). Requires human theologian review.
• eternal punishment / eternal life — Greek κόλασιν αἰώνιον… ζωὴν αἰώνιον (25:46). Literal: αἰώνιος = “belonging to an age,” often rendered “eternal/everlasting,” though its precise durational force is a subject of ongoing scholarly discussion; in this verse’s parallel construction (the same adjective modifying both punishment and life) the traditional and majority interpretive tradition takes both as equally unending. Semantic range: a long but bounded age ↔ (dominant NT sense, especially in this exact parallel construction) unending, final duration. English variants: “eternal punishment / eternal life,” “everlasting punishment / everlasting life.” Contextual meaning: the Gospel’s starkest final-judgment statement, closing the sheep-and-goats scene. Bavarian rendering: d’ewige Straf… s’ewige Lebn. Risk: CRITICAL. Bavarian Catholic folk-devotional practice includes purgatory-adjacent theology (prayers and indulgences for souls believed to be undergoing a temporary, ultimately terminable purification) which risks softening “eternal punishment” into an implicitly temporary, purgative state rather than this verse’s parallel, equally final “eternal life.” Must retain the full force of finality on both sides of the parallel; requires human theologian review.

Chapter 26 — The Last Supper, Gethsemane, the Arrest and Trial

• my body / my blood of the covenant — Greek τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου… τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν τὸ αἷμά μου τῆς διαθήκης (26:26-28). [reuse root: διαθήκη = Bund, Medium baseline.] Literal: “this is my body… this is my blood of the covenant.” Contextual meaning: the institution of the Lord’s Supper, directly echoing the Exodus covenant-blood ceremony (Exod 24:8) and Jeremiah’s new covenant promise (Jer 31:31) — the single most doctrinally consequential passage in this entire curriculum for a Bavarian Catholic audience, given the Mass’s absolute centrality to Bavarian Catholic devotional and communal life (already documented in the baseline via the Kirchweih/parish-life discussion). Bavarian rendering: des is mei Leib… des is mei Bluat vom Bund. Risk: CRITICAL. Must render Jesus’ words faithfully to the plain force of the Greek without either (a) flattening the language into pure memorial symbolism that contradicts the text’s own straightforward force, or (b) supplying technical transubstantiation vocabulary (substance/accident philosophical categories) that is simply absent from Matthew’s Greek and belongs to later doctrinal development rather than the biblical text itself. This is the single highest-stakes translation decision in the whole Matthew curriculum for this audience and must be flagged for human theologian review at every occurrence, with explicit awareness that Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions all read this same text differently, and a Catholic Bavarian audience will bring strong existing sacramental assumptions to it.
• for the forgiveness of sins — Greek εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν (26:28). [reuse root: Sünd, High baseline.] Risk: High, inheriting the baseline sin-risk profile at full doctrinal weight (atonement).
• not as I will, but as you will (26:39, Gethsemane) — Contextual meaning: Christ’s submission to the Father’s will even unto death; models the “will of the Father” theme from ch. 7. Bavarian: net wia i will, sondern wia du witt. Risk: Medium.
• No further new theological vocabulary; betrayal, trial, and denial narratives reuse established terms (Christ, Son of God, blasphemy).

Chapter 27 — Crucifixion and Burial

• crucify — Greek σταυρόω (stauroō), the verb form of the σταυρός (cross) already introduced metaphorically at 10:38 and 16:24, now narrated as historical event. Bavarian rendering: kreuzign. Risk: CRITICAL. The metaphorical discipleship-cost usage established earlier in the book (ch. 10, 16) now finds its literal historical referent here; reviewers should ensure the connection between the metaphor and this historical event is not lost, and that the full weight of the actual event (not merely its later devotional/artistic representation, however sincere) is conveyed.
• Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani — Greek transliteration of Aramaic Ēli Ēli lema sabachthani (27:46), itself quoting Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Contextual meaning: Christ’s cry of dereliction from the cross — among the most theologically weighty and difficult utterances in the whole Gospel, bearing directly on the nature of the atonement (the Son bearing the Father’s judgment against sin) without implying any actual rupture within the eternal Trinity. Bavarian rendering: retained as a transliterated Aramaic phrase, per the same established pattern as the baseline’s Abba entry (proper theological/liturgical Aramaic retained untranslated, glossed in-text): “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani” with gloss “mei Gott, mei Gott, warum hast du mi valassn?” Risk: CRITICAL. Requires human theologian review at every occurrence to avoid two opposite errors: softening the cry’s real weight of felt abandonment (undercutting the atonement’s cost), or over-literalizing it into an actual ontological rupture within the Godhead (a serious Trinitarian error). Given Bavaria’s own intense visual Passion-devotion tradition (Kreuzweg, Oberammergau), the emotional register is likely to be received seriously and appropriately, which is a point of positive cultural alignment rather than risk, but the theological precision required remains Critical regardless.
• the temple veil was torn (27:51) — Contextual meaning: symbolizes direct access to God now opened through Christ’s death — a positive, hope-filled counterpart to the cry of dereliction just before it. Bavarian: da Vorhang im Tempel is zrissn. Risk: Medium/High.
• truly this was the Son of God — reuse Sohn vo Gott, Critical (centurion’s confession, 27:54), a Gentile’s climactic recognition — reinforcing Unity-of-Jews-and-Gentiles even at the cross itself.

Chapter 28 — The Resurrection and the Great Commission

• he is risen — [baseline reuse: Aufersteh’ng / ἠγέρθη verb form, Medium.] Contextual note: the empty tomb and angelic announcement (28:6) are narrated with the book’s characteristic sober restraint, without embellishment — worth preserving in tone.
• go therefore and make disciples of all nations — Greek πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (28:19). Literal: “having gone, therefore, make disciples/disciple [verb] all the nations/Gentiles.” μαθητεύω (mathēteuō) is the verb form of μαθητής (disciple, established at 5:1 above) — “to make into a disciple,” a distinct term from the noun requiring its own entry. Semantic range: administrative conversion/enrollment ↔ (Matthew’s sense) an ongoing, relational process of teaching obedience and formation, not a single decisive event. English variants: “make disciples,” “disciple the nations,” “win disciples.” Contextual meaning: the book’s climactic commissioning statement, the foundational text for the “Great Commission” doctrine, extending the mission explicitly to “all nations” (πάντα τὰ ἔθνη) — [reuse root: ἔθνη = Heiden, Medium baseline], resolving the Gentile-inclusion thread running since the magi (ch. 2). Bavarian rendering: geht’s furt und macht’s alle Völker zu Jünger. Risk: CRITICAL. The real risk is that “make disciples” collapses into “convert/baptize/register administratively” (a parish-registration or nominal-Catholic-identity model of Christian belonging) rather than the ongoing relational teaching-and-formation process Matthew intends (explicitly unpacked in the following clause, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,” 28:20) — a risk this package’s baseline has already flagged in a related form under christian_identity_in_christ (nominal/cultural heritage identity vs. genuine union with Christ). Requires human theologian review.
• baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — Greek βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος (28:19). [reuse: baptize (ch. 3, Critical), Voda (baseline), Sohn vo Gott (baseline, Critical), Heiliger Geist (baseline, Medium).] Contextual meaning: the Gospel’s, and arguably the New Testament’s, clearest single Trinitarian formula, now naming Christian baptism explicitly (in contrast to John’s preparatory baptism, ch. 3) and instituting the ongoing sacramental practice. Bavarian rendering: taffn auf’n Nam vom Voda, vom Sohn, und vom Heilign Geist. Risk: CRITICAL, jointly inheriting the full risk profile of baptize (ch. 3) plus the combined Sonship/Father/Spirit terms, at the highest possible doctrinal stakes (the Trinity itself and its central sacramental expression).
• I am with you always — Greek ἐγὼ μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας (28:20). Contextual meaning: a deliberate echo of Emmanuel (“God with us,” ch. 1), closing the Gospel with the same theological claim that opened it — a structural inclusio the Bavarian rendering should preserve recognizably (reusing the “mit uns/mit ins” phrasing established for Emmanuel). Bavarian: i bin bei enk, alle Tag. Risk: High, both for its own doctrinal weight (Christ’s ongoing personal presence, not merely a historical memory) and for the missed-opportunity risk if the Emmanuel-echo structural link is not made explicit in teaching materials.
• worship — reuse προσκυνέω from ch. 2, Medium, here (28:9, 28:17) now unambiguously religious worship of the risen Christ, resolving the ambiguity flagged at the magi’s homage in ch. 2.

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Coverage Note

All 28 chapters of Matthew have been reviewed above. Chapter 14 and Chapter 19 introduce comparatively little new theological vocabulary beyond terms already established in earlier chapters and are marked accordingly rather than omitted. Every chapter’s load-bearing terms are consolidated, with full risk-tier assignment and doctrine mapping, in the accompanying analysis/08_core_glossary.md.