Linguistic Gap Analysis
06 Linguistic Gap Analysis — Acts 1–28 (English → Bengali)
Purpose
This document identifies where Bengali’s existing religious vocabulary is insufficient (missing vocabulary requiring coinage or compound phrases) and where it is oversupplied with the wrong associations (crowded semantic neighborhoods requiring explicit fencing away from Hindu, Muslim, or folk-religious neighbor concepts). It also records the transliteration-vs-paraphrase decision for every borderline term and ranks the curriculum’s highest-risk ambiguities for reviewer attention.
This analysis was conducted across the full text of Acts 1–28, cross-checked against every doctrine named in the curriculum parameters: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost, The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles, Repentance and Baptism, The Church as Community, Apostolic Authority and Miracles, Persecution and Bold Witness, Conversion of Paul, Justification apart from the Law, The Great Commission Fulfilled. It presupposes and must never contradict the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json.
1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
| Doctrine | Available Bengali Terms | Weaknesses / Gaps | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Baseline পবিত্র আত্মা (Holy Spirit). No Bengali term for Pentecost itself; “vision” only has দর্শন available; “pour out” has ঢালিয়া দেওয়া (literal “to pour”). | (1) No Bengali festival lexically or theologically maps onto Πεντηκοστή — risk of silent assimilation to a harvest/New Year festival. (2) দর্শন is the single most active word in Bengali Hindu devotional life (temple দর্শন of an idol); using it for divine vision to a person risks a devotional-gaze reading rather than a sovereign, unrequested revelation. (3) “Pour out the Spirit” risks a shakti-descent/tantric-invocation reading if the divine Person is not kept explicit. | Coin পঞ্চাশত্তমীর দিন with a mandatory translator note explaining the Feast of Weeks background at first occurrence (2:1). Retain দর্শন for vision but require a standing fencing note distinguishing God-initiated revelation from devotee-initiated temple-viewing at every major vision narrative (2:17; 9:10; 10:3, 17; 16:9; 18:9). Always pair ঢালিয়া দেওয়া with পবিত্র আত্মা, never leave the outpouring verb without its personal object in the same clause. |
| The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | Baseline সুসমাচার, পরজাতি, ইস্রায়েল. New: দেবতা/দেবী (pagan gods), জীবন্ত ঈশ্বর, শুচি/অশুচি, ঈশ্বর পক্ষপাতিত্ব করেন না, অজানা ঈশ্বর, ঈশ্বরিক সত্তা, ধর্মভাবাপন্ন/কুসংস্কারপ্রবণ, ঈশ্বরের সৃষ্ট সন্তান, বিচার. | This is the single most linguistically crowded doctrine in the book. Bengali has abundant existing vocabulary for gods-plural, ritual purity, and religious sentiment — all drawn from Hindu or Islamic frameworks that Acts is directly confronting or repurposing (chs. 10, 14, 15, 17). The risk is not absence of words but wrong words: reusing দেবতা for ঈশ্বর, or শুচি/অশুচি in a way that reinforces rather than dismantles caste-purity logic, or ঈশ্বরের সৃষ্ট সন্তান bleeding into the baseline’s soteriological দত্তকপুত্রতা. | Fence প্রেসিসely: ঈশ্বর never applied to Zeus/Hermes/Artemis (ch. 14, 19); দেবতা/দেবী reserved exclusively for false gods. শুচি/অশুচি framed explicitly as ceremonial categories being set aside, never conflated with পাপ (moral sin) or with active caste-food purity logic. ঈশ্বরের সৃষ্ট সন্তান (17:28-29, generic creational relationship) kept lexically and doctrinally separate from দত্তকপুত্রতা (soteriological adoption by faith). অজানা ঈশ্বর retains ঈশ্বর (not দেবতা) because Paul is reinterpreting, not affirming, the inscription. |
| Repentance and Baptism | No prior Bengali Christian curriculum term existed in the baseline (Romans does not surface this pairing as a headline doctrine). New: মন-পরিবর্তন করা, বাপ্তিস্ম, পাপের ক্ষমা, হৃদয়ে বিদ্ধ হওয়া. | Bengali’s most available “repentance” vocabulary is either তওবা (Islamic, ritual/verbal, submission-and-weighed-deeds framework) or অনুশোচনা (mere regret, no volitional turning). Neither carries Acts’ sense of a Spirit-produced, decisive reorientation toward God in Christ. | Coin মন-পরিবর্তন করা as a transparent descriptive compound rather than borrowing a religiously loaded single word from either neighbor tradition. Retain বাপ্তিস্ম as the already-established Bengali Christian loanword (not স্নান/ওজু/গোসল). Keep পাপের ক্ষমা (forgiveness of sins) lexically distinct from the baseline’s compound ধার্মিক বলে গণ্য হওয়া (justification) — related blessings, never substitutable. |
| The Church as Community | Baseline মণ্ডলী, পবিত্র লোক, সহভাগিতা. New: একমনে/একচিত্তে, সেবক/সেবা, প্রজ্ঞা, খ্রীষ্টান, প্রাচীন, অধ্যক্ষ/তত্ত্বাবধায়ক, পালন করা, যুক্ত হওয়া/সংযুক্ত হওয়া, প্রাণ/জন. | Bengali social vocabulary for communal unity and leadership office is saturated with para (neighborhood-association) and extended joint-family hierarchy connotations, and with Hindu/Islamic institutional-leadership titles (mahant, imam) for church office terms. | Fence একমনে/একচিত্তে as Spirit-produced unity of purpose, not crowd conformity. Fence অধ্যক্ষ/তত্ত্বাবধায়ক and প্রাচীন away from mahant/imam institutional connotations via translator note at first occurrence (4:5; 20:28). Reserve আত্মা exclusively for the Holy Spirit within this doctrine’s texts; use প্রাণ/জন (never আত্মা) for the “souls added” person-count idiom at 2:41 to avoid a same-chapter homonym collision with পবিত্র আত্মা. |
| Apostolic Authority and Miracles | Baseline প্রেরিত, ঈশ্বরের সামর্থ্য. New: চিহ্ন ও আশ্চর্য কাজ, পরাক্রম, জাদুবিদ্যা, হাত রাখা, গণনার আত্মা. | Bengal has extremely active, everyday folk-religious vocabulary for supernatural power — tantra-mantra, siddhi (yogic attainment), karamat (Sufi saint-miracle), taweez/jadu (occult amulet practice), and astrology/possession-based fortune-telling. Any of these frames, if allowed to bleed into the Acts miracle vocabulary, would recast apostolic miracles as one more variety of the same folk-power marketplace the text is confronting. | Keep পরাক্রম and চিহ্ন ও আশ্চর্য কাজ strictly in the register of “God’s own authenticating acts,” never siddhi/karamat vocabulary. জাদুবিদ্যা and গণনার আত্মা must be fenced as condemned counterfeits, with a standing translator note distinguishing them from the legitimate গifts they mimic (ভাববাণী/ভাববাদী). হাত রাখা must be distinguished from a guru’s or pir’s blessing-touch, which Bengali readers may otherwise assume transfers the holy person’s own accumulated spiritual merit. |
| Persecution and Bold Witness | Baseline none directly; adjacent to Romans’ faith/suffering vocabulary. New: সাক্ষী, প্রাণ দিয়ে সাক্ষ্য দেওয়া (ব্যক্তি), সাহস/নির্ভীকভাবে বলা, অবাধ্য (কঠিন-গ্রীব), পবিত্র আত্মার বিরুদ্ধে দাঁড়ানো. | Bengali Muslim vocabulary supplies a single ready-made, emotionally powerful, and lexically dominant word for “one who dies for the faith” — শহীদ — carrying a militant, jihad-linked theological-political framework fundamentally different from Stephen’s or James’s death. Using it, even informally, would import that framework wholesale. | Missing-vocabulary gap: there is no safe single Bengali noun for “martyr” in this book’s sense. Resolve by paraphrase only — প্রাণ দিয়ে সাক্ষ্য দেওয়া (ব্যক্তি), “one who gave their life while testifying” — never a single noun, and never শহীদ under any circumstance. Tie সাহস explicitly to Spirit-empowerment (4:31), not innate courage or social defiance, given how confrontational public religious speech is read in both Bangladesh and West Bengal. |
| Conversion of Paul | New: ফেরা/ঈশ্বরের দিকে ফেরা, পথ, মনোনীত পাত্র, শয়তানের কর্তৃত্ব. | This is the curriculum’s single highest sociopolitical risk. ধর্মান্তর (“religious conversion” in the formal legal-political sense) is a live, legally and communally explosive term in the Indian subcontinent — several Indian states have anti-conversion statutes that name ধর্মান্তরকরণ specifically, and the word saturates communal-tension news coverage. There is no neutral single-word Bengali equivalent for ἐπιστρέφω that fully avoids this charge. | Never use ধর্মান্তর anywhere in this curriculum. Use the descriptive verb phrase ফেরা / ঈশ্বরের দিকে ফেরা (“turning/turning toward God”) consistently — grammatically a verb of personal reorientation, not a noun naming a formal, community-transferring legal act. Flag every occurrence for native-speaker sensitivity review given real-world legal exposure risk, not merely theological risk. |
| Justification apart from the Law | Baseline ব্যবস্থা, ধার্মিকতা, ধার্মিক বলে গণ্য হওয়া, অনুগ্রহ. New: ত্বকচ্ছেদ, জোয়াল, ব্রত/মানত, আত্মসংযম. | ত্বকচ্ছেদ has a direct, lexically dominant Islamic-loanword competitor, খৎনা, referring to the parallel Islamic rite; ব্রত/মানত both carry Hindu vrata (merit-seeking vow to a deity) or Islamic mannat (shrine-based transactional vow) associations that risk reframing Paul’s Nazirite vow (21:23-24) as salvation-relevant when the whole chapter’s point is that it is not. | Never খৎনা for circumcision; retain the established Bengali Bible term ত্বকচ্ছেদ paired consistently with ব্যবস্থা. For vow, retain ব্রত/মানত (no safer alternative exists) but require a standing translator note at 21:23-24 clarifying this is cultural accommodation, not merit-earning, and does not reopen the Jerusalem Council’s ch. 15 ruling. |
| The Great Commission Fulfilled | Baseline সুসমাচার প্রচার, ঈশ্বরের রাজ্য. New: পৃথিবীর প্রান্ত পর্যন্ত, পৃথক করা, উপবাস, নির্বাধে/অবাধে. | পৃথক করা (set apart for commissioning) risks a sannyasa/Sufi-withdrawal reading (world-renunciation) rather than active sending. উপবাস risks assimilation to Hindu vrata-fasting (merit/vow-fulfillment) or Islamic Ramadan roja (obligatory religious duty). | Frame পৃথক করা explicitly as commissioning for mission, never retreat from the world (13:2). Frame উপবাস as voluntary devotional accompaniment to prayer, never merit-earning or obligatory ritual duty (13:2-3; 14:23). Preserve পৃথিবীর প্রান্ত পর্যন্ত’s full universal geographic force at 1:8 and its fulfillment through ch. 28 — no regional or nationalist narrowing. |
2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2A. Missing Vocabulary (no adequate existing Bengali term; requires coinage or compound phrase)
| Concept | Gap | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Repentance (μετάνοια) as decisive Spirit-produced turning | No single word combines “change of mind/direction” with “turning to God in Christ” without importing a neighbor tradition’s theology | Compound coinage: মন-পরিবর্তন করা |
| Pentecost as a named feast-event | No Bengali festival maps onto Shavuot/Pentecost | Descriptive coinage + mandatory background note: পঞ্চাশত্তমীর দিন |
| Martyrdom (extended sense of μάρτυς) | The one available single noun (শহীদ) is doctrinally disqualified | Descriptive paraphrase, never a noun: প্রাণ দিয়ে সাক্ষ্য দেওয়া (ব্যক্তি) |
| “The Way” (ἡ ὁδός) as a self-designation | No neutral Bengali proper-noun equivalent exists that isn’t already claimed by a neighbor tradition’s “path” concept | Plain common word পথ, capitalized/marked as proper designation in context, with first-occurrence translator note (9:2) |
| Chosen instrument (σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς) | No idiomatic Bengali equivalent for “vessel of election” that avoids either a literal-container reading or a fate-reading | Compound coinage aligned to baseline election vocabulary: মনোনীত পাত্র |
| Author/Pioneer of life (ἀρχηγός) | No single Bengali word captures “originating source” distinct from “founder of a religion” | Compound: জীবনের আদিকর্তা / অগ্রনায়ক |
| ”Cut to the heart” (κατανύσσομαι) | No idiomatic Bengali equivalent; literal translation risks reading as physical pain | Descriptive phrase: হৃদয়ে বিদ্ধ হওয়া, fenced from mere social/honor-shame guilt |
| ”Stiff-necked” (σκληροτράχηλος) | Not a natural Bengali body-idiom | Prefer semantic equivalent অবাধ্য for readability; footnote literal কঠিন-গ্রীব |
2B. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (multiple existing Bengali terms compete, each carrying unwanted associations; require explicit fencing)
| Concept | Competing Bengali Terms in the Neighborhood | Why Each Is Disqualified or Risky | Fencing Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vision (ὅρασις/ὅραμα) | দর্শন (chosen) vs দৃশ্য (too weak) | দর্শন is Bengal’s single most active devotional-visual word (temple দর্শন of an idol) | Standing translator note at every major vision narrative distinguishing sovereign divine revelation from devotee-initiated ritual viewing |
| Pagan gods (θεοί) / Great Goddess Artemis | দেবতা/দেবী (chosen) vs retaining ঈশ্বর (disqualified) | দেবী is lexically identical to titles used for Durga/Kali in Bengal’s Shakta heartland; মহান দেবী echoes the standing devotional epithet মহাদেবী | Firm translator note at 14:11-13 and 19:27-35 stating these describe a condemned historical pagan cult with no parallel to any currently worshiped deity intended; consider descriptive supplement ইফিষের প্রতিমা-দেবী আর্তেমিস |
| Repentance | তওবা (disqualified — Islamic ritual/verbal formula) vs অনুশোচনা (disqualified — mere regret) vs মন-পরিবর্তন করা (chosen) | তওবা imports a submission-and-weighed-deeds framework; অনুশোচনা loses volitional turning | Never তওবা anywhere; consistent single rendering |
| Baptism | স্নান (disqualified — Hindu ritual bathing) vs ওজু/গোসল (disqualified — Islamic ablution) vs বাপ্তিস্ম (chosen) | Both alternatives reduce the rite to ritual cleansing rather than Christian initiation | Retain established loanword; always pair with “in the name of Jesus Christ” where present (2:38; 19:5) |
| Conversion/turning | ধর্মান্তর (disqualified — legally/politically explosive) vs ফেরা (chosen) | ধর্মান্তর names a formal, legally regulated act of communal religious transfer | Never ধর্মান্তর; use verbal reorientation phrasing only |
| Martyrdom | শহীদ (disqualified — jihad-martyr theology) vs descriptive phrase (chosen) | শহীদ presumes a militant-sacrificial framework absent from the text | Never a single noun for this concept |
| Circumcision | খৎনা (disqualified — Islamic loanword) vs ত্বকচ্ছেদ (chosen, established Bengali Bible term) | খৎনা imports an Islamic ritual-legal frame onto a disputed Jewish covenant-sign | Pair consistently with ব্যবস্থা |
| Vow | ব্রত (Hindu merit/vow-to-a-deity) / মানত (Islamic shrine-based transactional vow) — both retained jointly, no clean alternative | Both risk implying salvation-relevant merit-transaction | Mandatory clarifying note at 21:23-24: cultural accommodation, not merit-earning |
| Ceremonial clean/unclean | শুচি/অশুচি (chosen) vs conflation with পাপ (disqualified) vs Hindu caste-purity or Islamic halal/haram framing (disqualified) | The passage’s entire point is to dismantle purity-based social barriers; reinforcing them defeats the text | Frame explicitly as ceremonial/dietary category being set aside by God, never moral sin, never caste or halal/haram logic |
| Sorcery/occult power | জাদুবিদ্যা (chosen, no safer synonym) vs risk of merging with siddhi/karamat vocabulary elsewhere in the same doctrine cluster | Bengal’s folk-religious vocabulary (tantra-mantra, taweez) sits immediately adjacent | Standing translator note distinguishing condemned counterfeit power from God-authenticated miracles |
| Wisdom (σοφία, Stephen) | প্রজ্ঞা (chosen) vs Buddhist/Hindu prajñā (self-attained enlightened insight) | Risk of reading as meditative self-attainment rather than Spirit-given gift | Brief framing note at 6:3, 10 |
| Ascension / heaven | স্বর্গারোহণ (chosen) vs Hindu svarga (temporary heavenly abode within samsara) | স্বর্গ is shared vocabulary with a cyclical, non-final heavenly concept | Translator note affirming unique, permanent, bodily enthronement, not entry into a temporary heaven |
| Judgment | বিচার (chosen) vs কর্মফল-style karmic accounting (disqualified) | Risk of assimilation to impersonal cross-lifetime moral bookkeeping | Frame as one future personal tribunal presided over by the risen Christ |
3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Term | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Pentecost | Paraphrase/coinage, not transliteration (not পেন্টিকস্ট) | A transliterated loanword would be opaque to readers with no background; a descriptive coinage with a mandatory note carries the Feast of Weeks background more effectively than an unexplained foreign word |
| Baptism | Established loanword, retained (বাপ্তিস্ম, already stabilized in Bengali Christian usage) | Already load-bearing and unambiguous in the existing Bengali Bible tradition; no paraphrase needed |
| Abba (baseline, cross-referenced) | Transliteration preserved (আব্বা) | Baseline precedent; doubles as the everyday Bengali Muslim word for “father,” landing with warmth for that readership |
| Amen / Hallelujah (baseline, cross-referenced) | Transliteration preserved (আমেন, হাল্লিলূয়া) | Established liturgical loanwords across Bengali Christian tradition |
| ”The Way” (ἡ ὁδός) | Paraphrase using existing plain word (পথ), not transliteration of ὁδός nor borrowing শরিয়ত | A plain, unmarked Bengali word functioning as a proper designation is safer than either a foreign loanword or an Islamic/Hindu “path” loanword already carrying a theology of its own |
| Sorcery/magic (μαγεία) | Native compound, not transliteration | জাদুবিদ্যা is transparent, moralized native vocabulary; a transliterated Greek-derived term would be opaque and would miss the folk-practice collision this term is meant to name and reject |
| Great Goddess Artemis | Proper name transliterated (আর্তেমিস) with descriptive supplement | The goddess’s proper name must be kept as a historically specific, foreign, condemned figure (transliteration), while মহান দেবী alone risks reading as a live devotional title; supplement with ইফিষের প্রতিমা-দেবী আর্তেমিস to keep the idol-frame explicit |
| Martyrdom | Paraphrase only, never a single transliterated or native noun | No single noun exists that is not doctrinally compromised (শহীদ); a full descriptive phrase avoids the collision entirely |
| Conversion/turning | Native verb phrase, not the available native noun ধর্মান্তর | The available single native word is disqualified on legal/political, not merely theological, grounds |
| Circumcision | Established Bengali Bible term retained (ত্বকচ্ছেদ), not the Islamic loanword খৎনা | Precise cognate exists in the received Bengali Bible tradition; no need for either transliteration or a neighbor-tradition loanword |
| Casting lots (κλῆρος) | Native compound (গুটিকাপাত), not transliteration | Concrete, descriptive, and avoids fate/destiny vocabulary entirely |
| ”With one accord” (ὁμοθυμαδόν) | Native idiom (একমনে/একচিত্তে), not transliteration or loan-calque | Fully natural, already-available Bengali idiom conveys unity of purpose without additional foreign vocabulary |
| Deacon/service (διάκονος) | Native word (সেবক/সেবা), not transliteration (not ডিকন) | Bengali already has a transparent, moralized register for humble service; a transliterated loanword would create an unnecessary technical-clerical distance from the text’s plain functional sense |
| Elder / Overseer (πρεσβύτερος / ἐπίσκοπος) | Native words (প্রাচীন; অধ্যক্ষ/তত্ত্বাবধায়ক), not transliteration | Avoids importing either a Catholic/Anglican-clerical-rank register or Hindu/Islamic institutional-office vocabulary; native descriptive words keep the flatter New Testament usage intact |
| Christian (Χριστιανός) | Transliteration/established loanword retained (খ্রীষ্টান) | Already fully stabilized and culturally recognized; no ambiguity risk |
General principle applied: transliteration is preferred only where (a) an established, stable Bengali Christian loanword already exists (বাপ্তিস্ম, খ্রীষ্টান, আব্বা, আমেন) or (b) the term names a specific historical proper noun that must be kept foreign and identifiable as such (আর্তেমিস). Everywhere else — especially where a neighbor tradition’s existing loanword would import unwanted theology — native paraphrase or compound coinage is preferred, generally paired with a standing translator note.
4. Ranked List of This Book’s Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined doctrinal severity and real-world (social/legal) collision risk in the Bengali-speaking context (West Bengal Hindu-majority and Bangladesh Muslim-majority readerships):
- Conversion/turning vs. ধর্মান্তর (Critical) — Acts 9, throughout chs. 9–26. The only available single native noun for “conversion” carries active legal exposure under Indian anti-conversion statutes; theological accuracy and real-world reader/translator safety both depend on strict avoidance of ধর্মান্তর.
- Great Goddess Artemis / pagan gods vs. Shakta devotional vocabulary (Critical) — Acts 14:11-13; 19:27-28, 34-35. দেবী/মহান দেবী sits directly on top of live, actively worshiped titles for Durga/Kali in Bengal’s historic Shakta heartland; without a firm fencing note, the text could be misread as commenting on a currently worshiped deity rather than a condemned historical cult.
- Repentance vs. তওবা (Critical) — Acts 2:38 and throughout. The dominant available Bengali Muslim vocabulary for repentance encodes a ritual-verbal, submission-and-weighed-deeds theology fundamentally incompatible with Spirit-produced turning to Christ.
- Offspring of God (creational, 17:28-29) vs. baseline Adoption doctrine (দত্তকপুত্রতা) (Critical) — A single careless rendering could imply all humanity already possesses the full soteriological son-status Acts and Romans reserve for believers by faith; the two must never share vocabulary.
- Vision (দর্শন) vs. Hindu temple darshan (High) — Acts 2:17; 9:10; 10:3, 17; 16:9; 18:9. The chosen Bengali term is simultaneously the single most active word in Bengali Hindu devotional practice; every occurrence needs a standing note.
- Servant of God (ঈশ্বরের দাস) vs. Islamic prophet/servant-only Christology (High) — Acts 3:13, 26; 4:27, 30. Muslim-background readers may read this title as confirming Isa’s status as merely God’s servant/prophet, a title Islam readily affirms; must always be anchored to Sonship/Lordship language in the same context.
- Witness / martyrdom vs. শহীদ (High) — Acts 1:8, 22; 7:54-60; 12:2. The single dominant Bengali word for “one who dies for the faith” carries a militant jihad-linked theology; resolved only by descriptive paraphrase, never a noun substitute.
- Sorcery/jadu vs. legitimate apostolic miracles (High) — Acts 8:9-11; 13:6-10; 16:16-18; 19:19. Bengal’s dense folk-practice vocabulary (tantra-mantra, taweez, astrology) sits immediately adjacent to the miracle vocabulary in the same doctrine cluster and must be kept lexically and conceptually fenced apart.
- Clean/unclean (শুচি/অশুচি) vs. caste-purity and halal/haram logic (High) — Acts 10:14-15, 28. The narrative’s entire purpose is to dismantle purity-based social barriers; careless translation could instead reinforce a caste-like purity category still socially active in Bengal.
- Circumcision vs. খৎনা (High) — Acts 15:1, 5, 24. Retaining the Islamic loanword would import a ritual-legal frame from a different tradition onto the Jerusalem Council’s specifically Jewish covenant-sign dispute.
- Ascension / heaven (স্বর্গারোহণ) vs. Hindu svarga (High) — Acts 1:9-11. স্বর্গ is shared vocabulary with a temporary, cyclical heavenly abode; without a note, Christ’s unique, permanent, bodily enthronement could be misread as one more soul’s temporary heavenly sojourn.
- Pentecost vs. generic festival assimilation (Medium) — Acts 2:1. Without background explanation, readers may assimilate the event to a Bengali harvest festival or New Year observance, losing the Jewish covenantal background Peter’s sermon depends on.
- “The Way” (পথ) vs. শরিয়ত / plural-paths (mārga) framing (Medium) — Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22. Risk of being read as either an Islamic legal path or one valid spiritual path among several in a Hindu/Buddhist mārga framework, rather than the early church’s exclusive self-designation.
- Casting lots (গুটিকাপাত) vs. ভাগ্য/নিয়তি (fate/destiny) (Medium) — Acts 1:26; 26:18. Must be read as the sovereign God making his choice known through a means, not impersonal chance or karmic destiny.
- Judgment (বিচার) vs. karma/rebirth accounting (Medium) — Acts 17:31; 24:25. Risk of assimilation to an impersonal cross-lifetime moral ledger rather than one future personal tribunal before the risen Christ.
5. Full-Book Coverage Confirmation
This gap analysis draws its doctrine vocabulary matrix, missing-vocabulary findings, and fencing requirements from terms occurring across the entirety of Acts 1–28, consistent with the chapter-level term mapping already completed in 08_core_glossary.md. Chapters contributing no new theological vocabulary beyond established baseline and already-catalogued Acts terms — 18, 22, 23, 25, and 27 — were explicitly reviewed and confirmed to reuse existing vocabulary (ἡ ὁδός/পথ, βαπτίζω/বাপ্তিস্ম, μάρτυς/সাক্ষী, Κύριος/প্রভু, ἀνάστασις/পুনরুত্থান, κρίσις/বিচার, σωτηρία/পরিত্রাণ, πίστις/বিশ্বাস) with no new gap or fencing requirement introduced. No chapter of Acts was omitted from this analysis; all findings above are traceable to specific chapter and verse citations spanning the full book.
This document must be loaded alongside 08_core_glossary.md and the Acts additions to bible_term_registry.json before Phase 2 translation begins. All fencing notes recorded here are mandatory translator-note triggers per the escalation rules in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.