Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Philemon (English–Greek–Bavarian)
This glossary lists every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entire Letter to Philemon (vv. 1–25). Terms already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE — REUSED EXACTLY] and their recorded rendering, spelling, and risk tier are carried over unchanged, per the hard rule that established renderings must not be altered. New terms introduced by Philemon’s vocabulary are marked [NEW] and are proposed here for addition to translation memory in Phase 2, subject to the same review routing conventions as the baseline (Critical/High → human theologian; Medium → native speaker; Low → automated, with mandatory dialect spot-check per baseline note on orthographic non-standardization).
A. Baseline Terms Reused Exactly
| English Term | Greek / Transliteration | Category | Risk | Bavarian Rendering | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | εὐαγγέλιον / euangelion | Salvation | Medium | Evangelium | Reused exactly; v.13 “chains of the gospel.” |
| grace | χάρις / charis | Salvation | High | Gnad | Reused exactly; vv.3, 25; echoed in v.22’s χαρισθήσομαι. |
| faith | πίστις / pistis | Faith | Medium | Glaam | Reused exactly; v.5, v.6. |
| peace | εἰρήνη / eirēnē | Salvation | Low | Friad | Reused exactly; v.3. |
| saints | ἅγιοι / hagioi | Church | High | Heiling | Reused exactly; vv.5, 7. Baseline patron-saint collision risk fully applies. |
| church | ἐκκλησία / ekklēsia | Church | High | Kirch (compound: Hauskirch) | Reused exactly; v.2, “church in your house.” Baseline building/Kirchweih-default risk applies, compounded by the house-church context. |
| fellowship | κοινωνία / koinōnia | Church | Medium (general) / High (v.17 κοινωνόν) | Gmoaschaft | Reused exactly for v.6; see NEW entry below for v.17’s stronger koinōnos (business-partner) sense. |
| thanksgiving | εὐχαριστία / eucharistia (verb εὐχαριστῶ) | Faith | Low | Dank | Reused exactly; v.4. |
| lord | κύριος / kyrios | Christology | Critical | Herr | Reused exactly; vv.3, 5, 16, 20, 25. |
| god | θεός / theos | God | Critical | Gott | Reused exactly; vv.3, 4. |
| father | πατήρ / patēr | God | High | Voda | Reused exactly; v.3. |
| jesus | Ἰησοῦς / Iēsous | Christology | Critical | Jesus | Reused exactly. |
| (christ) | Χριστός / Christos | Christology | Critical | Christus | Reused exactly (proper-noun transliteration standard). |
| obedience of faith (root) | ὑπακοή / hypakoē | Faith | High | Gehorsam (root of baseline’s Gehorsam vom Glaam) | v.21 uses the bare noun; see NEW entry for the standalone-usage risk. |
| exhort (related root) | παρακαλέω-family / parakaleō | Faith | Low (baseline) | ermahna (baseline) | See NEW entry: Philemon’s usage (vv. 7, 9) requires the distinct sense “appeal/comfort,” not “admonish” — flagged separately below. |
B. New Terms Introduced by Philemon
| English Term | Greek / Transliteration | Category | Risk | Bavarian Rendering | Grounded Risk Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| prisoner (for Christ) | δέσμιος / desmios | Intercession & Appeal | Medium | Gfangana | Must retain the rhetorical, self-humbling force of Paul’s self-identification, not read as a neutral legal fact. |
| brother/sister (kinship) | ἀδελφός, ἀδελφή / adelphos, adelphē | Christian Brotherhood | Medium (general use) / High (v.16, applied to Onesimus) | Bruada / Schwesta | In v.16, applying real-kinship “Bruada” to a former slave is the letter’s central social-status-reversal claim; must not read as generic Christian courtesy address. |
| beloved | ἀγαπητός / agapētos | Christian Brotherhood | Low | gliabt | Straightforward, but must consistently combine with Bruada in v.16. |
| fellow worker | συνεργός / synergos | Ministry Partnership | Low | Mitarbeita | Stable borrowed compound. |
| fellow soldier | συστρατιώτης / systratiōtēs | Ministry Partnership | Medium | Mitsoldat | Bavaria’s strong regional military-regiment folk memory could either helpfully concretize costly shared struggle or trivialize the metaphor into literal soldiery. |
| love | ἀγάπη / agapē | Christian Brotherhood | Medium | Liab | Everyday Bavarian “Liab” carries romantic connotations; must be anchored to covenantal/familial Christian love by context. |
| boldness / authority to speak | παρρησία / parrēsia | Intercession & Appeal | Medium | Freimüatigkeit | Register-gap abstract compound; the letter’s central rhetorical contrast (having authority vs. not using it) depends on this term landing clearly. |
| appeal / beseech (distinct from admonish) | παρακαλέω / parakaleō | Intercession & Appeal | High | bitt’n | Baseline’s “ermahna” carries an admonishing sense; using it here would make Paul’s love-appeal read as a scolding, destroying the letter’s rhetorical strategy. |
| comfort (distinct sense of same root) | παράκλησις / paraklēsis | Intercession & Appeal | Medium | Trost | Must be distinguished from the admonishing sense of the same root family used elsewhere. |
| old man / ambassador (textual variant) | πρεσβύτης / πρεσβευτής | Intercession & Appeal | High | oida Mo (primary) / Gsandta (alternative) | Genuine manuscript ambiguity materially changes how Paul presents his authority to appeal; requires theologian sign-off on which reading to follow. |
| spiritual child (fatherhood) | τέκνον + ἐγέννησα / teknon, gennaō | Forgiveness & Reconciliation | Medium | Kind + phrase “zum Glaam bracht” | Must not be confused with baseline’s Kindschaft (God’s adoption of believers); this is Paul’s apostolic spiritual fatherhood over a convert. |
| useless / useful (Onesimus wordplay) | ἄχρηστος / εὔχρηστος | Slavery & Gospel’s Power | Medium | unnutz / nutzbar | Wordplay with Onesimus’s name is untranslatable; requires translator’s note, not a forced Bavarian pun. |
| may I benefit (Onesimus wordplay) | ὀναίμην / onaimēn | Slavery & Gospel’s Power | Medium | phrase: mögst du mir a Freud sei | Second occurrence of the untranslatable name-pun; requires translator’s note. |
| innermost heart / affections | σπλάγχνα / splanchna | Forgiveness & Reconciliation | Medium | Herz | Vivid “bowels” physicality lost in favor of “heart”; risk of sentimentalizing a term meaning the whole inner person. Must be identical across vv. 7, 12, 20 (literary inclusio). |
| refresh (heart) | ἀναπαύω / anapauō | Forgiveness & Reconciliation | Medium | erfrischen / “Ruah gebn” | Must match identically at vv. 7 and 20 to preserve the inclusio. |
| retain / keep back | κατέχω / katechō | Slavery & Gospel’s Power | Low | bei mir behalt’n | Stable. |
| serve / minister | διακονέω / diakoneō | Slavery & Gospel’s Power | Medium | dian | Must retain gospel-ministry connotation, not read as ordinary menial servitude — the precise doctrinal point at stake. |
| consent / free judgment | γνώμη / gnōmē | Grace-Motivated Obedience | High | dei Zuastimmung | Textual anchor (with ἀνάγκη/ἑκούσιον) for the doctrine that Philemon’s response must be freely chosen, not extracted; mistranslation undermines the whole ethical argument of the letter. |
| compulsion | ἀνάγκη / anankē | Grace-Motivated Obedience | High | Zwang | Paired with γνώμη/ἑκούσιον; must stand in unmistakable contrast. |
| voluntary | ἑκούσιον / hekousion | Grace-Motivated Obedience | High | freiwillig | Same doctrinal pairing as above. |
| separated / departed (euphemism) | χωρίζω / chōrizō | Forgiveness & Reconciliation | Medium | is furtganga | Paul’s deliberate tact in describing Onesimus’s flight must be preserved, not sharpened into blunter language. |
| slave / bondservant | δοῦλος / doulos | Slavery & Gospel’s Power | High | Sklave (never “Knecht”) | Bavarian folk-term “Knecht” (historic agrarian bondservant/near-serf status) would soften Greco-Roman chattel slavery’s total non-personhood into a familiar, sympathetic labor relation, inverting the verse’s force. Theologian + native-speaker review required. |
| partner (business/status-equal) | κοινωνός / koinōnos | Christian Brotherhood | High | Partner | The letter’s most direct social-equality demand; a weak “friend/buddy” rendering would blunt the radical equalizing claim. |
| receive / welcome fully | προσλαμβάνω / proslambanō | Christian Brotherhood | High | aufnehma | Must convey full, formal welcome into fellowship/household, not grudging tolerance — the concrete reconciliation action the whole letter requests. |
| wrong (verb, do injustice to) | ἀδικέω / adikeō | Forgiveness & Reconciliation | Medium | Unrecht tui | Must retain genuine moral weight, not soften to mere inconvenience. |
| owe / debt | ὀφείλω, προσοφείλω / opheilō, prosopheilō | Forgiveness & Reconciliation | Medium | schulden / du schuldst mir sogar di selm | Part of the debt-accounting metaphor cluster; must retain binding, real-debt force. |
| charge to one’s account | ἐλλογάω / ellogaō | Forgiveness & Reconciliation | High | phrase: des setz auf mei Rechnung | Core linguistic image of substitutionary debt-absorption; thematically parallel to baseline’s Critical zuagrechnete Gerechtigkeit (imputed righteousness) though lexically distinct — losing the ledger/accounting image erases the letter’s central illustration of the doctrine. |
| repay | ἀποτίνω / apotinō | Forgiveness & Reconciliation | Medium | zruckzahl’n | Must read as a genuine binding commitment, continuing the v.18 debt cluster. |
| obedience (standalone, v.21) | ὑπακοή / hypakoē | Grace-Motivated Obedience | High | Gehorsam | Standing alone (without baseline’s “vom Glaam” qualifier), this risks reintroducing a command-compliance reading at the letter’s climax, contradicting v.14’s insistence on voluntary response. |
| trust / confidence | πείθω (perf. πεποιθώς) / peithō | Grace-Motivated Obedience | Medium | im Vertraua | Must read as warm personal confidence, not suspicious pressure-testing. |
| hospitality / guest room | ξενία / xenia | Intercession & Appeal | Low | a Herberg | Positive cultural resonance via Bavarian Nativity tradition; opportunity, not risk. |
| granted as a gift of grace | χαρίζομαι / charizomai | Grace-Motivated Obedience | Medium | phrase: aus Gnad wer i eahna wieder gschenkt | Deliberate χάρις-wordroot echo at the letter’s close; must not be rendered with an unrelated neutral verb that severs the grace-vocabulary connection. |
| fellow prisoner/captive | συναιχμάλωτος / synaichmalōtos | Intercession & Appeal | Low–Medium | Mitgfangana | More vivid “captive” nuance than plain δέσμιος; minor distinction. |
| flesh (neutral/social sense) | σάρξ / sarx | Christian Brotherhood | Medium | auf irdische Weis / noch da Wealt | Distinct neutral sense (“in worldly/social terms”), not Romans’ sinful-flesh doctrine; must not import that connotation for a curriculum audience primed by Romans vocabulary. |
C. Proper Names (Low Risk, Standard Transliteration)
| Name | Greek | Bavarian Rendering | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onesimus | Ὀνήσιμος | Onesimus | Name meaning “useful/profitable”; source of the wordplay in vv. 10–11, 20 (see Part B). |
| Philemon | Φιλήμων | Philemon | Letter’s addressee. |
| Apphia | Ἀπφία | Apphia | |
| Archippus | Ἄρχιππος | Archippus | |
| Epaphras | Ἐπαφρᾶς | Epaphras | |
| Mark | Μᾶρκος | Markus | Standard Bavarian Catholic devotional form. |
| Aristarchus | Ἀρίσταρχος | Aristarchus | |
| Demas | Δημᾶς | Demas | |
| Luke | Λουκᾶς | Lukas | Standard Bavarian Catholic devotional form. |
D. Summary of High/Critical Risk New Terms Requiring Theologian Review
- παρακαλέω / bitt’n (v.9) — appeal vs. admonish distinction
- πρεσβύτης/πρεσβευτής / oida Mo / Gsandta (v.9) — textual-critical ambiguity
- γνώμη, ἀνάγκη, ἑκούσιον / Zuastimmung, Zwang, freiwillig (v.14) — grace-motivated obedience anchor
- δοῦλος / Sklave (v.16) — slavery term, “Knecht” forbidden substitution
- ἀδελφὸς ἀγαπητός / Bruada… gliabt (v.16) — brotherhood-across-status claim
- κοινωνόν, προσλαβοῦ / Partner, aufnehma (v.17) — status-equalizing reception
- ἐλλογάω / “des setz auf mei Rechnung” (v.18) — imputed-debt image
- ὑπακοή / Gehorsam (v.21) — climactic obedience term, risk of undercutting v.14
All eight items above should be routed to human theologian review in Phase 2, consistent with the baseline’s escalation conventions for Critical/High risk terms, in addition to the mandatory native-speaker dialect/orthography spot-check required for every Bavarian segment per the baseline’s non-standardized-orthography note.
This glossary extends, and does not contradict, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. All baseline entries are reused verbatim; no baseline rendering has been altered. New entries proposed here are recommendations for Phase 2 translation-memory ingestion and remain subject to the same version-increment and review-routing rules documented in the baseline 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
Critical Risk Terms
Lord
Approved rendering: Herr
Transliteration: Herr
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Occurs vv.3, 5, 16, 20, 25. In v.16 ‘both in the flesh and in the Lord’ contrasts Onesimus’s earthly and spiritual standing — ‘Herr’ must retain full exclusive weight in the spiritual half of that contrast.
God
Approved rendering: Gott
Transliteration: Herrgott
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεός
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. vv.3-4. Plain ‘Gott’ remains primary; ‘Herrgott’ reserved for warm folk-devotional contexts only, per baseline caution regarding its mild-profanity register risk.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς Χριστός
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Occurs throughout the letter, often paired with ‘Christus’ (see separate new entry below) and within the relational phrase ‘ἐν Χριστῷ’, handled as ‘in_christ’ below.
Christ
Approved rendering: Christus
Transliteration: Christus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
NEW (registry entry; the baseline’s transliteration-standards section already fixes ‘Christus’ as the established form). Used throughout the letter, frequently paired with ‘Jesus’ and within ‘in Christus’ (see above).
High Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: Evangelium
Transliteration: Evangelium
Doctrine: Gospel
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. In Philemon 1:13, appears in the compound ‘chains of the gospel’ (δεσμοὶ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου): render so Paul, not the gospel itself, is bound — ‘meine Gfangenschaft wegn’m Evangelium’ — never a phrase implying the gospel is restrained.
Grace
Approved rendering: Gnad
Transliteration: Gnod
Doctrine: Grace
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Occurs vv.3, 25. In v.22 the related verb χαρισθήσομαι deliberately echoes this root; the Bavarian verb rendering must carry the Gnad-root through explicitly (see ‘granted_as_gift_of_grace’ below) rather than severing the echo with a neutral term.
Faith
Approved rendering: Glaam
Transliteration: Gloam
Doctrine: Faith
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Appears vv.5-6, including the debated genitive ‘the fellowship of your faith’ (v.6); the Bavarian rendering necessarily commits to Philemon’s faith as the source of his generous partnership.
Saints
Approved rendering: Heiling
Transliteration: de Heiling
Doctrine: Sainthood
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Occurs vv.5, 7. Bavarian rural Catholic patron-saint/Namenstag culture makes ‘de Heiling’ default to venerated canonized figures; must be clarified with ‘alle Gläubign’ at first occurrence, since it frames Philemon’s own identity before the letter extends comparable status to Onesimus as ‘brother’ (v.16).
Father
Approved rendering: Voda
Transliteration: Voter
Doctrine: Father
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. v.3 greeting formula.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: Gehorsam vom Glaam
Transliteration: Gehorsam vom Gloam
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Retained for cross-reference only: Philemon 1:21 uses the bare noun ὑπακοή WITHOUT this qualifier — do not silently insert ‘vom Glaam’ there, as the Greek is genuinely unqualified. See new entry ‘obedience’ below for the standalone Philemon usage and its distinct risk profile.
Appeal
Approved rendering: bitt’n
Transliteration: bittn
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Rejected alternatives: ermahna (baseline exhort-sense, wrongly implies admonishment — forbidden for this usage)
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Intercession and Appeal
NEW. vv.9-10, παρακαλέω. GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: the baseline’s ‘ermahna’ for this same Greek root carries an admonishing sense; using it here inverts the letter’s entire rhetorical strategy of love-motivated appeal-not-command. Theologian review required; flag prominently for Phase 2 workers habituated to the Romans package.
Old Man Ambassador
Approved rendering: oida Mo
Transliteration: oide Mo
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Rejected alternatives: Gsandta (envoy/ambassador reading — retained as documented alternative, not rejected outright, pending theologian sign-off)
Original: πρεσβύτης / πρεσβευτής
Category: Intercession and Appeal
NEW. v.9, πρεσβύτης/πρεσβευτής textual variant. GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: a genuine one-letter manuscript ambiguity materially changes how Paul presents his standing to appeal (frail elder vs. Christ’s envoy) at the exact sentence where he chooses appeal over command. ‘oida Mo’ is primary (better-attested modern critical reading); ‘Gsandta’ is the documented alternative. Mandatory theologian sign-off before Phase 2 lock-in.
Brother
Approved rendering: Bruada
Transliteration: Bruader
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
NEW. Regular Bavarian -er > -a pattern (cf. baseline Voda). General courtesy address to Timothy (v.1) carries Medium risk on its own, but applied to Onesimus in v.16 it becomes the letter’s central social-status-reversal claim and must land with full real-kinship force, not polite courtesy address; also crowded by Bavarian confraternity (Bruderschaft) usage — fence explicitly at v.16.
Partner
Approved rendering: Partner
Transliteration: Partner
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Rejected alternatives: Freund (friend, too weak), Kamerad (buddy/comrade, too weak), Gschäftspartner (overly narrow business framing)
Original: κοινωνός
Category: Christian Brotherhood
NEW. v.17, κοινωνός. GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: Paul asks Philemon to extend to Onesimus, a former slave, the exact standing of full partnership he would extend to Paul himself — the letter’s most direct social-equality demand. A weak or merely polite rendering would blunt this radical equalizing claim. Retain the loanword deliberately; do not substitute a warmer native word.
Receive Welcome
Approved rendering: aufnehma
Transliteration: aufnehman
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Original: προσλαμβάνω
Category: Christian Brotherhood
NEW. v.17, προσλαμβάνω, -en > -a dialect infinitive. GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: this is the concrete action-verb of reconciliation Paul requests; it must convey full, formal welcome into household/community, not grudging tolerance, or the letter’s central request loses its force.
Slave
Approved rendering: Sklave
Transliteration: Sklave
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Rejected alternatives: Knecht (softens Greco-Roman chattel slavery’s total legal non-personhood into a familiar, sympathetic Bavarian agrarian bondservant/near-serf labor relation tied to historic Gutsherrschaft estate-labor systems — FORBIDDEN)
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Slavery and Gospel’s Transforming Power
NEW. v.16, δοῦλος. GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: Bavarian dialect retains a live, emotionally resonant folk-term for a subordinate agrarian laborer, ‘Knecht’, still a recognizable Altbayern village social memory. Defaulting to it would invert the verse’s force. Mirrors the corrected Luther-revision trajectory (older editions’ ‘Knecht’ replaced by ‘Sklave’). ‘Sklave’ mandatory; theologian and native-speaker review required for every occurrence.
Consent
Approved rendering: dei Zuastimmung
Transliteration: dei Zuastimmung
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Original: γνώμη
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
NEW. v.14, γνώμη, regular u > ua diphthongization. GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: this term, with ἀνάγκη/ἑκούσιον, is the textual anchor for the doctrine that Philemon’s response must be freely chosen, not extracted. Must be treated as a single locked triad with ‘Zwang’ and ‘freiwillig’, not three independent word choices.
Compulsion
Approved rendering: Zwang
Transliteration: Zwang
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Original: ἀνάγκη
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
NEW. v.14, ἀνάγκη. Paired with γνώμη/ἑκούσιον; must stand in unmistakable contrast to ‘freiwillig’ in the same sentence, or the letter’s non-coercion argument collapses.
Voluntary
Approved rendering: freiwillig
Transliteration: freiwillig
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Original: ἑκούσιον
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
NEW. v.14, ἑκούσιον. Same doctrinal pairing as γνώμη/ἀνάγκη; the Zwang/freiwillig contrast must be unmistakably clear in the Bavarian sentence.
Charge To Account
Approved rendering: des setz auf mei Rechnung
Transliteration: des setz auf mei Rechnung
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Rejected alternatives: i vergib dir (generic ‘I forgive you’ — erases the accounting-ledger/imputed-debt image entirely)
Original: ἐλλογάω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
NEW. v.18, ἐλλογάω. GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: the letter’s linguistic core for the Forgiveness doctrine, thematically parallel to the baseline’s Critical-risk ‘zuagrechnete Gerechtigkeit’ (imputed righteousness) though lexically distinct. Mandatory phrase-level rendering; never collapse to a single generic ‘forgive’ verb.
Obedience
Approved rendering: Gehorsam
Transliteration: Gehorsam
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Original: ὑπακοή
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
NEW. v.21, ὑπακοή, standing alone WITHOUT the baseline’s ‘vom Glaam’ qualifier (that qualifier must not be silently inserted; the Greek is genuinely unqualified here). GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: at the letter’s climax, bare ‘Gehorsam’ risks reintroducing a command-compliance reading that contradicts v.14’s insistence on voluntary response; the surrounding sentence must keep it anchored to ‘im Vertraua’ (trust), not obligation.
House Church
Approved rendering: Hauskirch
Transliteration: Hauskircha
Doctrine: House Church as Gathered Community
Rejected alternatives: Gmoa (secular civil-municipality sense, unusable), bare Kirch (defaults to the parish building/Kirchweih sense)
NEW. v.2, compound of baseline ‘Kirch’ + ‘Haus’. GROUNDED REASON FOR HIGH RISK: ‘Kirch’ defaults overwhelmingly to the physical parish building in Bavarian village life; Philemon’s ‘house church’ is a small home gathering, the structural opposite. The compound must be glossed for a general audience to avoid readers picturing a literal chapel in Philemon’s house.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: Kirch
Transliteration: Kircha
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: Gmoa (secular-administrative default, rejected)
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. In Philemon 1:2 combined with ‘house’ as the new compound ‘Hauskirch’ (see separate entry below); bare ‘Kirch’ term-level risk stays Medium per baseline, but the compounded house-church doctrine context is High risk — see ‘house_church’ entry.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: Gmoaschaft
Transliteration: Gemoaschoft
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Used in v.6 of Philemon’s faith-generated participation in gospel work; distinct from the stronger business-partner sense of κοινωνός in v.17, registered separately as ‘partner’ below.
Adoption
Approved rendering: Kindschaft
Transliteration: Kindschaft
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: Adoption (bare, legal-procedural)
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Retained for cross-reference only: Philemon 1:10’s τέκνον/ἐγέννησα (Paul’s spiritual fatherhood over his convert Onesimus) is a DISTINCT relationship from this term’s God-adopts-believers doctrine and must not borrow this vocabulary. See new entry ‘spiritual_child’ below.
Prisoner For Christ
Approved rendering: Gfangana
Transliteration: Gfongana
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Original: δέσμιος
Category: Intercession and Appeal
NEW. Ge- > G- reduction per regular Bavarian pattern (cf. baseline Gsetz). Occurs vv.1, 9. Must retain the rhetorical, self-humbling force of Paul opening the letter from weakness rather than apostolic command-authority; flattening to a neutral legal-status note undercuts the letter’s entire appeal strategy.
Boldness
Approved rendering: Freimüatigkeit
Transliteration: Freimuatigkeit
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Original: παρρησία
Category: Intercession and Appeal
NEW. v.8. Register-gap abstract compound (üt > üat diphthongization), following the baseline’s established borrowed-abstract-compound pattern (cf. Gerechtigkeit). Paul states he possesses this standing precisely in order to set it aside in v.9 — the contrast must remain crisp in the Bavarian sentence structure.
Comfort
Approved rendering: Trost
Transliteration: Trost
Doctrine: Thanksgiving and Prayer for Others
Original: παράκλησις
Category: Intercession and Appeal
NEW. v.7, παράκλησις. Must be kept lexically distinct from both ‘ermahna’ (baseline admonish sense) and ‘bitt’n’ (this letter’s appeal sense) to avoid register bleed across the letter’s three related appeal-family terms.
Love
Approved rendering: Liab
Transliteration: Liabe
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Christian Brotherhood
NEW. vv.5, 9, ἀγάπη. Regular Bavarian diphthongization (Liebe > Liab). Everyday colloquial ‘Liab’ can carry romantic connotations; must be anchored by context to covenantal/familial Christian love, the very lever Paul pulls in v.9’s appeal.
Flesh Neutral Sense
Approved rendering: auf irdische Weis
Transliteration: af irdische Weis
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Rejected alternatives: Fleisch (bare) — imports the Romans sinful-nature sense wrongly
Original: σάρξ
Category: Christian Brotherhood
NEW. v.16, σάρξ, neutral sense (‘in the natural/social realm’), distinct from the Romans 7-8 sinful-flesh sense. Rendered as paraphrase; bare ‘Fleisch’ is forbidden here because it would import the wrong Romans-primed connotation for this curriculum’s audience.
Fellow Soldier
Approved rendering: Mitsoldat
Transliteration: Mitsoldat
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Ministry Partnership
Original: συστρατιώτης
Category: Ministry Partnership
NEW. v.2, of Archippus, συστρατιώτης. Bavaria’s strong regional military-regiment folk memory could concretize costly shared struggle helpfully, or risk trivializing the metaphor into literal soldiery; ensure metaphorical framing is explicit in surrounding text.
Spiritual Child
Approved rendering: Kind (phrase: den i zum Glaam bracht hab)
Transliteration: Kind (phrase: den i zum Gloam bracht hob)
Doctrine: Spiritual Fatherhood in Ministry
Rejected alternatives: Kindschaft-based phrasing (would wrongly conflate with baseline divine-adoption doctrine)
Original: τέκνον / ἐγέννησα
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
NEW. v.10, τέκνον/ἐγέννησα. Paul’s apostolic spiritual fatherhood over his convert Onesimus. Must not be confused with or borrow vocabulary from baseline’s ‘Kindschaft’ (God’s adoption of believers); rendered as a phrase since no single Bavarian verb captures the begetting metaphor safely.
Useless Useful
Approved rendering: unnutz / nutzbar
Transliteration: unnutz / nutzboar
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Rejected alternatives: Any forced Bavarian pun on ‘Onesimus’ (rejected — risks unintended comedy)
Original: ἄχρηστος / εὔχρηστος
Category: Slavery and Gospel’s Transforming Power
NEW. v.11, ἄχρηστος/εὔχρηστος. Direct pun on Onesimus’s name (‘useful’), untranslatable into Bavarian; requires a translator’s note rather than an invented dialect pun.
May I Benefit
Approved rendering: mögst du mir a Freud sei
Transliteration: mechst du mir a Freud sei
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Rejected alternatives: Any forced Bavarian pun on ‘Onesimus’ (rejected)
Original: ὀναίμην
Category: Slavery and Gospel’s Transforming Power
NEW. v.20, ὀναίμην. Second occurrence of the Onesimus name-pun; rendered plainly with a translator’s note, consistent with the treatment of ἄχρηστος/εὔχρηστος above.
Serve Minister
Approved rendering: dian
Transliteration: dienan
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Original: διακονέω
Category: Slavery and Gospel’s Transforming Power
NEW. v.13, διακονέω, -en > -a/-n dialect infinitive pattern. Must retain gospel-ministry connotation; risks reading as ordinary domestic servitude (Bavarian ‘dian’ sits in the same semantic field as farm-labor service) unless anchored to the gospel/Evangelium context each occurrence.
Separated Departed
Approved rendering: is furtganga
Transliteration: is fortganga
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Rejected alternatives: is gflohn / entlaufn (too blunt, sharpens Paul’s deliberate tact)
Original: χωρίζω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
NEW. v.15, χωρίζω. A deliberately gentle euphemism for Onesimus’s flight; Paul’s tact is rhetorically significant and must be preserved, not sharpened.
Wrong Doing
Approved rendering: Unrecht tui
Transliteration: Unrecht toa
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: ἀδικέω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
NEW. v.18, ἀδικέω. Must retain genuine moral weight (real wrong done), not be softened to a mere inconvenience.
Owe Debt
Approved rendering: schulden / du schuldst mir sogar di selm
Transliteration: schuldn / du schuldst mir sogor di selm
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: ὀφείλω / προσοφείλω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
NEW. vv.18-19, ὀφείλω/προσοφείλω. Bavarian’s vigorous everyday debt vocabulary is an asset here, not a gap. Must retain the rhetorical hyperbole of Paul’s spiritual-debt claim without implying a literal financial claim on Philemon.
Repay
Approved rendering: zruckzahl’n
Transliteration: zruckzahln
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: ἀποτίνω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
NEW. v.19, ἀποτίνω, regular contraction. Continues the v.18 debt-cluster; must read as a genuine binding commitment, not a vague promise.
Innermost Heart
Approved rendering: Herz
Transliteration: Herz
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: σπλάγχνα
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
NEW. vv.7, 12, 20, σπλάγχνα. Forms a deliberate literary inclusio; ALL THREE occurrences MUST use this identical rendering. Vivid ‘bowels’ physicality is lost in favor of ‘heart’, risking sentimentalization of a term denoting the whole inner person — this loss is acknowledged and accepted, not silently absorbed.
Refresh
Approved rendering: erfrischen
Transliteration: derfrischn
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Rejected alternatives: Ruah gebn (acceptable idiomatic alternative, but must match at both occurrences if used)
Original: ἀναπαύω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
NEW. vv.7, 20, ἀναπαύω. Closes the σπλάγχνα inclusio with ‘innermost_heart’; both occurrences must match identically (‘Herz erfrischen’).
Trust Confidence
Approved rendering: im Vertraua
Transliteration: im Vertrauen
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Original: πείθω (perf. πεποιθώς)
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
NEW. v.21, πείθω (perf. πεποιθώς). Must convey warm personal confidence in Philemon’s character, not suspicious pressure-testing; pairs directly with ‘Gehorsam’ above.
Granted As Gift Of Grace
Approved rendering: aus Gnad wer i eahna wieder gschenkt
Transliteration: aus Gnod wer i eahna wieder gschenkt
Doctrine: Hospitality and Grace at the Letter’s Closing
Rejected alternatives: freilassen (release — FORBIDDEN for this verse: severs the deliberate χάρις/Gnad wordroot echo closing the letter’s grace-vocabulary arc opened at v.3)
Original: χαρίζομαι
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
NEW. v.22, χαρίζομαι. The Gnad-root must appear explicitly in this phrase to preserve the letter’s closing grace-vocabulary callback.
In Christ
Approved rendering: in Christus
Transliteration: in Christus
Doctrine: Christian Identity in Christ
Rejected alternatives: Any folksy dialect calque (rejected per baseline’s false-native-vocabulary caution)
Original: ἐν Χριστῷ
Category: Christology
NEW. vv.8, 20, 23, ἐν Χριστῷ. Retained as the borrowed phrase, following the baseline’s established preference for retaining borrowed abstract Christological phrasing over inventing a folksy calque.
Low Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: Friad
Transliteration: Friade
Doctrine: Peace with God
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Part of the opening greeting formula (v.3), paired with Gnad.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: Dank
Transliteration: Donk
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστία
Category: Faith
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. v.4, verb form εὐχαριστῶ, rendered ‘i dank Gott.‘
Exhort
Approved rendering: ermahna
Transliteration: ermohna
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly for its baseline admonishing sense. FORBIDDEN for Philemon 1:9-10’s παρακαλέω (‘appeal’): using ‘ermahna’ there would make Paul’s love-appeal read as a scolding, inverting the letter’s rhetorical strategy. See new entry ‘appeal’ below for the correct rendering.
Fellow Prisoner
Approved rendering: Mitgfangana
Transliteration: Mitgfongana
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Original: συναιχμάλωτος
Category: Intercession and Appeal
NEW. v.23, of Epaphras. Compound of ‘mit’ + ‘Gfangana’; preserves the more vivid ‘captive-in-battle’ nuance of συναιχμάλωτος versus plain δέσμιος, though the distinction is minor.
Hospitality
Approved rendering: a Herberg
Transliteration: a Herbergn
Doctrine: Hospitality and Grace at the Letter’s Closing
Original: ξενία
Category: Intercession and Appeal
NEW. v.22, ξενία. ‘Herberg’ carries a felicitous positive resonance via Bavarian Catholic Nativity tradition (‘koa Herberg’ — no room at the inn); an opportunity for warmth, not a risk.
Sister
Approved rendering: Schwesta
Transliteration: Schwester
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
NEW. v.2, of Apphia. Regular -er > -a pattern, feminine counterpart to ‘Bruada’.
Beloved
Approved rendering: gliabt
Transliteration: geliabt
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Christian Brotherhood
NEW. vv.1, 16. Must consistently combine with ‘Bruada’ at v.16 (‘Bruada, gliabt’) to strengthen the status-reversal claim there.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: Mitarbeita
Transliteration: Mitarbeiter
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Ministry Partnership
Original: συνεργός
Category: Ministry Partnership
NEW. vv.1, 24, συνεργός. Stable borrowed compound signaling genuine gospel partnership, not mere wealthy patronage.
Retain
Approved rendering: bei mir behalt’n
Transliteration: bei mir behoitn
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Original: κατέχω
Category: Slavery and Gospel’s Transforming Power
NEW. v.13, κατέχω. Stable, low ambiguity.
Referenced passages