Doctrine Analysis
11 Doctrine Analysis — Acts 1–28 (Full-Book Coverage)
Purpose and Scope
This document is the full doctrine matrix for the Acts curriculum, covering every chapter of the book from first to last, per the PRD Phase 1 full-book coverage mandate. Acts 2:1–41 (Pentecost, Peter’s sermon, the call to repentance and baptism) is the curriculum’s theological anchor and receives the deepest treatment, but every other chapter is analyzed and explicitly accounted for — either as a load-bearing contributor to one of the 35 doctrines below, or, where a chapter introduces no new doctrinal content, as an explicitly noted “reviewed” chapter.
All doctrine names, risk tiers, and review routing below are IDENTICAL to assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json and must not be altered without a corresponding update to that file. This document groups the 35 registry doctrines into 10 thematic clusters aligned to the nine curriculum doctrines specified in curriculum_parameters, plus one cross-cutting Christological cluster anchored in the Pentecost sermon’s climax (Acts 2:36).
Cluster 1 — The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Critical | 1:5, 8; 2:1-4; 2:17-18; 2:33; 10:44-47 | পবিত্র আত্মা must retain full personal divine-Person status (never ব্রহ্ম/পরমাত্মা, per Romans baseline). Pentecost itself has no Bengali festival analogue and risks assimilation to a harvest festival (Nabanna) or Bengali New Year (Poyla Boishakh) without an explanatory note on the Jewish Feast of Weeks background. | Human theologian |
| Spirit-Filling and Empowerment for Witness | High | 2:4; 4:8, 31; 9:17; 13:9 | The repeated “filled with the Spirit” idiom must not be rendered as self-cultivated yogic śakti-attainment; the agent is the personal পবিত্র আত্মা giving a gift, never a practitioner accumulating power. | Human theologian |
| Tongues as Known Human Languages | Medium | 2:4; 2:6; 2:8; 2:11 | Must not be conflated with unintelligible ecstatic speech or trance-possession speech familiar from Bengali folk-religious and Kali-worship ecstatic practice; the text specifies real, known languages understood by hearers. | Native speaker review |
| Spiritual Gifts and Prophecy (Acts) | Medium | 2:17-18; 11:27-28; 19:6; 21:9-10 | Legitimate ভাববাণী/ভাববাদী must never lexically overlap with the counterfeit গণনার আত্মা (“spirit of divination,” 16:16-18); Bengali folk astrology (জ্যোতিষ) and possession-based fortune-telling make this a live distinction requiring vigilance. | Native speaker review |
Core passage note: Acts 2:1-41 is the definitive text for this cluster. The outpouring (2:17, 33), the tongues-as-languages phenomenon (2:4-11), and the crowd’s amazed response (2:12-13) must all be translated so that the miracle is unmistakably the Spirit’s sovereign gift, not a devotional or ecstatic attainment familiar from Bengali religious life.
Cluster 2 — The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | High | 2:5-11; 10:1-48; 11:1-18; 13:46-48; 15:1-29 | The dismantling of ceremonial food-purity barriers (10:14-15) must not be read through, or accidentally reinforce, Hindu caste/ritual-purity categories (শুচি/অশুচি) or Islamic halal/haram frameworks; the passage’s entire point is to remove such barriers. | Human theologian |
| Universal Scope of the Gospel (Acts) | High | 2:39; 10:34-35; 15:9; 17:26-27 | Must retain full universal force; “all who are far off” (2:39) must not be narrowed to distant diaspora Jews only, since chs. 10-15 confirm Gentile inclusion — a socially pointed claim given caste and communal-identity lines in Bengali society. | Human theologian |
| Gentile Inclusion and God’s Impartiality | High | 10:1-48; 11:1-18; 15:7-11 | Must retain full force against caste, ethnic, or communal-identity partiality; do not soften to generic tolerance language. | Human theologian |
| False Religion and Idolatry Confronted | Critical | 14:11-18; 17:16-31; 19:23-41 | দেবতা/দেবী must be sharply distinguished from ঈশ্বর. The Artemis narrative (ch. 19) is the single highest collision risk in the book: দেবী is a live, active devotional term in Bengal, the historic heartland of Shakta Hinduism, where মহাদেবী is itself a standing devotional title for Durga. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Acts 2:5-11’s list of nations foreshadows this entire cluster; the Pentecost crowd’s ethnic diversity is the narrative seed of the Gentile mission developed across chs. 10-15.
Cluster 3 — Repentance and Baptism
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repentance and Baptism | Critical | 2:37-41; 3:19; 5:31; 8:12-13, 36-38; 9:18; 16:31-33; 19:1-5 | মন-পরিবর্তন must never be rendered তওবা (the Islamic ritual-repentance term, framed around submission and weighed deeds). বাপ্তিস্ম must never use স্নান (Hindu ritual bathing) or ওজু/গোসল (Islamic ablution). This is the doctrinal hinge of the core passage. | Human theologian |
| Baptism Explicitly in the Name of Jesus Christ | High | 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:1-5 | The explicit naming of Jesus Christ in baptism must never be generalized to “in God’s name” alone; Acts 19:1-5 depends on precisely this distinction to differentiate Christian baptism from John’s preparatory rite. | Human theologian |
| Forgiveness of Sins | High | 2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 22:16; 26:18 | পাপের ক্ষমা must be kept distinct from, and never substituted for, the baseline forensic compound ধার্মিক বলে গণ্য হওয়া (justification); the two are related but theologically distinct blessings. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Acts 2:37-41 is the single most load-bearing passage in the entire curriculum. Peter’s answer (“Repent and be baptized… in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins… and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” 2:38) binds repentance, baptism, forgiveness, and Spirit-reception into one inseparable response; each term must be rendered with its established, distinct Bengali gloss and none may be collapsed into another.
Cluster 4 — The Church as Community
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Church as Community | Medium | 2:42-47; 4:32-35; 6:1-6; 11:19-26; 20:17-28 | Voluntary, Spirit-motivated communal sharing (2:44-45; 4:32-35) must not be conflated with a political-economic collectivist ideology, a live risk in South Asian political discourse where “everything in common” language can trigger unrelated communist/collectivist associations. | Native speaker review |
| Church Leadership and Polity | Medium | 6:1-6; 11:30; 14:23; 15:2, 6; 20:17-28 | প্রাচীন/অধ্যক্ষ must not import a hierarchical clerical-rank system foreign to the text’s flatter usage, nor titles carrying external religious-authority connotations such as a Hindu mahant’s temple authority or an Islamic imam’s distinct juridical role. | Native speaker review |
| Holiness and Sanctification (Acts) | High | 9:13, 32, 41; 20:32; 26:10, 18 | পবিত্র লোক must never be rendered সাধু/সাধুগণ (a Hindu/Jain wandering ascetic renunciate); all believers, not an ascetic elite, are পবিত্র লোক throughout Acts as in Romans. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Acts 2:42-47 introduces the church’s defining marks (teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, communal sharing, daily “adding” to their number) immediately after Pentecost, establishing the pattern developed through the rest of the book.
Cluster 5 — Apostolic Authority and Miracles
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apostolic Authority | High | 1:2, 26; 4:33-37; 5:12-18; 8:14-18; 15:1-29 | Risk of reducing apostleship to a generic spiritual-guide role resembling a Sufi pir or Hindu guru rather than an authorized, sent apostolic office with delegated authority over the whole church, as the Jerusalem Council demonstrates. | Human theologian |
| Apostolic Miracles and Signs | High | 2:43; 3:1-10; 5:12-16; 8:6-7, 13; 9:32-42; 14:3; 19:11-12; 28:8-9 | Must be distinguished from Hindu siddhi (yogic supernatural attainment) and Islamic karamat (a saint’s miracle); these are God’s own authenticating acts, not a holy person’s personal attainment or a guru’s blessing-touch transferring merit. | Human theologian |
| Sorcery and Occult Power Confronted | High | 8:9-24; 13:6-11; 16:16-18; 19:19 | Bengal’s widespread folk practices — Hindu tantra-mantra and folk-Islamic taweez/amulet and pir-based occult practice, both colloquially called “jadu” — make জাদুবিদ্যা a live collision term requiring careful, unambiguous confrontational framing. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Acts 2:22, 43 (Jesus’s own “mighty works and wonders and signs,” and the apostles’ own “wonders and signs”) anchor this cluster’s terminology in the core passage’s immediate aftermath.
Cluster 6 — Persecution and Bold Witness
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persecution and Bold Witness | High | 4:1-31; 5:17-42; 7:51-60; 8:1-3; 12:1-19; 16:19-40; 21:27-36 | Boldness (parrēsia) must be tied explicitly to Spirit-empowerment, not innate human courage or confrontational aggression — a needed distinction given real social sensitivity around public religious speech in Muslim-majority and Hindu-majority communities. | Human theologian |
| Martyrdom as Witness unto Death | High | 7:54-60; 12:1-2 | Never render with শহীদ, the dominant Bengali Muslim term for a jihad/religious martyr, carrying a militant-sacrificial framework foreign to dying-while-testifying-to-Christ; use a descriptive phrase instead of a single loaded noun. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Acts 2:14-40, Peter’s confrontational sermon delivered before a mixed, potentially hostile Jerusalem crowd just weeks after the crucifixion, is the book’s first model of bold Spirit-given proclamation and sets the tone for this cluster’s later, costlier instances.
Cluster 7 — Conversion of Paul
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conversion of Paul | Critical | 9:1-31; 22:3-21; 26:9-23 | Never render “conversion” with ধর্মান্তর, the legally and politically loaded term for formal religious conversion in both India (anti-conversion laws) and Bangladesh (communal-tension rhetoric); use ফেরা/মন ফেরানো, the verb family already established for repentance. | Human theologian |
| ”The Way” as Early Christian Identity | Medium | 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22 | পথ must not be confused with শরিয়ত (Islamic legal-religious path) nor the Hindu/Buddhist mārga concept of one valid path among several; this is the early church’s self-designation for the exclusive way of salvation in Christ. | Native speaker review |
| Divine Sovereignty and Election | High | 1:24-26; 2:23; 9:15; 13:48 | God’s sovereign plan and choice (including “chosen instrument,” 9:15) must never be rendered as impersonal fate or destiny (ভাগ্য/নিয়তি, forbidden per the Romans baseline), while preserving genuine human responsibility. | Human theologian |
| Prayer and Divine Guidance through Visions | High | 9:10-12; 10:1-22; 16:9-10; 18:9-10 | দর্শন is the standard Bengali word for a Hindu devotee’s ritual “beholding” of a deity’s image at a temple; every major vision narrative requires framing that this is a vision given by God to a person, not devotional idol-viewing. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Peter’s Pentecost sermon (2:22-24, 36) proclaims the very risen, exalted “Lord and Christ” who will later confront Saul on the Damascus road (9:5); the Christological content Paul’s conversion narrative depends on is first established in the core passage.
Cluster 8 — Justification apart from the Law
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justification apart from the Law | Critical | 13:38-39; 15:1-29; 16:3; 21:20-25 | Acts 13:38-39 must use the exact baseline compound phrase ধার্মিক বলে গণ্য হওয়া, never abbreviated to bare ক্ষমা; the whole point of the Jerusalem Council’s ruling is that Jewish covenant-signs are not required for Gentile salvation. | Human theologian |
| The Circumcision Controversy | High | 15:1-29; 16:3; 21:20-25 | ত্বকচ্ছেদ must never use খৎনা, the Islamic loanword, keeping the Council’s ruling lexically and theologically distinct from an unrelated Islamic ritual-legal frame. | Human theologian |
| Grace versus Merit (Acts) | High | 8:18-24; 15:10-11; 20:24, 32 | Simon Magus’s attempt to buy the gift of God (8:18-20) and the Council’s rejection of the law’s “yoke” (15:10) both dramatize grace-versus-merit; must reinforce God’s gift as unmerited, contradicting both a karma-merit framework and a weighed-deeds salvation framework. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Acts 2:38’s “gift of the Holy Spirit,” received through repentance and baptism rather than earned, is the curriculum’s first statement of the grace-not-merit principle this cluster develops fully in chs. 13-16.
Cluster 9 — The Great Commission Fulfilled
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Great Commission Fulfilled | High | 1:8; 13:1-3; 28:23, 30-31 | The book’s structural thesis (1:8) and climactic closing statement (28:31, ending emphatically on নির্বাধে, “unhindered”) must retain full geographic universality; do not narrow to a regional or nationalistic reading of gospel advance. | Human theologian |
| Evangelism and Bold Proclamation | Medium | 4:29-31; 8:4-40; 10:34-43; 13:16-41; 14:1-7; 17:16-34; 28:23-31 | Culturally sensitive, particularly in Bangladesh, where public proselytizing directed at Muslims carries real social and sometimes legal risk. Use language of witness and reasoned proclamation, not confrontation. | Native speaker review |
| Fasting and Devotional Practice | Medium | 13:2-3; 14:23; 21:23-24 | Christian fasting and vows must be distinguished from Hindu vrata-fasting and Islamic Ramadan roja/mannat; these are voluntary devotional accompaniments to prayer, not merit-earning or obligatory rituals. | Native speaker review |
| Providence and God’s Sovereign Plan | High | 2:23; 4:28; 27:21-26 | Ties Christ’s death, and later Paul’s shipwreck deliverance, to sovereign divine purpose rather than tragedy, accident, or impersonal fate; never ভাগ্য/নিয়তি. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Acts 1:8 (“you will be my witnesses… to the end of the earth”) is fulfilled in miniature at Pentecost, where representatives “from every nation under heaven” (2:5) hear the gospel in their own tongues — the narrative first-fruits of the commission this cluster traces to its completion in 28:31.
Cluster 10 — Christological Foundations (Cross-Cutting)
These five doctrines are not named as a separate item in the curriculum’s doctrine list but are the theological substance of Peter’s Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:14-36) and recur at every major turning point of the book. They are grouped here because they share a single collision profile: both Bengali Hindu (avatar) and Bengali Muslim (prophet-only) frameworks for Jesus directly contradict them.
| Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lordship of Christ (Acts) | Critical | 2:36; 10:36; 16:31; 28:31 | Acts 2:36’s climactic “Lord and Christ” (প্রভু ও খ্রীষ্ট) must be rendered with zero softening; “God has made him” is a legal-declarative act, not a gradual attainment that could wrongly suggest adoptionism; must match Romans 10:9’s register exactly. | Human theologian |
| Deity of Christ (Acts) | Critical | 2:33-34; 3:13-15; 5:31 | The “servant of God” title (ঈশ্বরের দাস) risks being misread by Muslim-background readers as confirming Isa as merely God’s servant/prophet, a title Islam readily affirms; must always be paired with unambiguous Sonship/Lordship/exaltation language. | Human theologian |
| Sonship of Christ (Acts) | Critical | 9:20; 13:33 | Muslim-background readers frequently hear “Son of God” as a literal biological claim, forcefully rejected by Islam; a translator note clarifying the relational, eternal sense is required wherever this title occurs. | Human theologian |
| Resurrection of Christ (Acts) | Critical | 1:22; 2:24, 31-32; 4:2, 33; 17:18, 32; 23:6-8; 24:15, 21; 26:23 | Never পুনর্জন্ম. Acts 23’s Sadducee-Pharisee controversy makes preserving the literal, historical, bodily force especially urgent, since the passage’s dramatic tension depends on resurrection being a contested bodily claim. | Human theologian |
| Ascension and Exaltation of Christ | High | 1:9-11; 2:33-34 | স্বর্গ is shared vocabulary with the Hindu svarga (a temporary heavenly abode within an ongoing rebirth cycle); a translator note is required at the first Ascension narrative clarifying this is Christ’s unique, permanent, bodily enthronement. | Human theologian |
Core passage note: Acts 2:22-36 is the fullest single Christological statement in the book, moving from the historical Jesus (“attested… by God with mighty works and wonders and signs,” 2:22) through the crucifixion and resurrection (2:23-24) to David’s prophetic anticipation (2:25-31) and the climactic exaltation confession, “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ” (2:36). Every rendering choice in this cluster must be checked first against this passage.
Full Chapter-by-Chapter Coverage Map (Acts 1–28)
| Ch. | Reference Range | Doctrines Active | Coverage Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:1-26 | Great Commission Fulfilled; Holy Spirit and Pentecost (promise); Apostolic Authority (Matthias); Resurrection of Christ; Ascension and Exaltation; Divine Sovereignty and Election (casting lots) | Structural thesis (1:8) and Ascension narrative anchor the book. |
| 2 | 2:1-47 | CORE PASSAGE. Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Spirit-Filling; Tongues as Known Languages; Spiritual Gifts and Prophecy; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; Universal Scope of the Gospel; Repentance and Baptism; Baptism in Jesus’ Name; Forgiveness of Sins; The Church as Community; Lordship of Christ; Deity of Christ; Resurrection of Christ; Ascension and Exaltation; Providence | Every major curriculum doctrine has its first, and often definitive, statement here. |
| 3 | 3:1-26 | Apostolic Miracles and Signs; Deity of Christ (Servant/Author of Life); Repentance and Baptism (3:19) | — |
| 4 | 4:1-37 | Persecution and Bold Witness; The Church as Community; Apostolic Authority; Resurrection of Christ; Providence | — |
| 5 | 5:1-42 | Apostolic Miracles and Signs; Apostolic Authority; Persecution and Bold Witness; Forgiveness of Sins; Deity of Christ | — |
| 6 | 6:1-15 | The Church as Community; Church Leadership and Polity (appointment of the Seven) | — |
| 7 | 7:1-60 | Persecution and Bold Witness; Martyrdom as Witness unto Death (Stephen) | — |
| 8 | 8:1-40 | Persecution and Bold Witness; Apostolic Miracles and Signs; Sorcery and Occult Power Confronted; Grace versus Merit; Baptism in Jesus’ Name; Repentance and Baptism; Evangelism and Bold Proclamation | — |
| 9 | 9:1-43 | Conversion of Paul; Sonship of Christ; Prayer and Divine Guidance through Visions; Divine Sovereignty and Election (chosen instrument); Holiness and Sanctification; Apostolic Miracles and Signs; “The Way”; Spirit-Filling | — |
| 10 | 10:1-48 | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; Gentile Inclusion and God’s Impartiality; Universal Scope of the Gospel; Prayer and Divine Guidance through Visions; Baptism in Jesus’ Name; Lordship of Christ; Forgiveness of Sins | — |
| 11 | 11:1-30 | Gentile Inclusion and God’s Impartiality; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; The Church as Community (Antioch, first use of “Christian”); Church Leadership and Polity; Spiritual Gifts and Prophecy | — |
| 12 | 12:1-25 | Persecution and Bold Witness; Martyrdom as Witness unto Death (James) | — |
| 13 | 13:1-52 | Great Commission Fulfilled (sending from Antioch); Fasting and Devotional Practice; Spirit-Filling; Sonship of Christ; Justification apart from the Law; Sorcery and Occult Power Confronted; Divine Sovereignty and Election | — |
| 14 | 14:1-28 | Apostolic Miracles and Signs; False Religion and Idolatry Confronted (Lystra); Evangelism and Bold Proclamation; Church Leadership and Polity; Fasting and Devotional Practice | — |
| 15 | 15:1-41 | Justification apart from the Law; The Circumcision Controversy; Apostolic Authority (Jerusalem Council); Gentile Inclusion and God’s Impartiality; Grace versus Merit; Universal Scope of the Gospel; Church Leadership and Polity | — |
| 16 | 16:1-40 | Repentance and Baptism; The Circumcision Controversy (Timothy); Sorcery and Occult Power Confronted (spirit of divination); Persecution and Bold Witness; Lordship of Christ; Prayer and Divine Guidance through Visions | — |
| 17 | 17:1-34 | Resurrection of Christ; False Religion and Idolatry Confronted (Areopagus); Universal Scope of the Gospel; Evangelism and Bold Proclamation | — |
| 18 | 18:1-28 | Prayer and Divine Guidance through Visions (18:9-10) | Reviewed — otherwise reuses established terms (the Way, baptism, witness, Lord). No new doctrinal content beyond continuity of the vision-guidance pattern. |
| 19 | 19:1-41 | Repentance and Baptism; Baptism in Jesus’ Name; “The Way”; Apostolic Miracles and Signs; Sorcery and Occult Power Confronted; Spiritual Gifts and Prophecy; False Religion and Idolatry Confronted (Artemis) | Highest single collision-risk chapter in the book (Artemis/দেবী). |
| 20 | 20:1-38 | The Church as Community; Church Leadership and Polity (Ephesian elders); Holiness and Sanctification; Grace versus Merit | — |
| 21 | 21:1-40 | The Circumcision Controversy; Persecution and Bold Witness; Spiritual Gifts and Prophecy; Fasting and Devotional Practice (vow) | — |
| 22 | 22:1-30 | Conversion of Paul; “The Way”; Forgiveness of Sins | Reviewed — reuses established conversion/baptism/witness vocabulary; no new doctrine beyond Cluster 7 continuity. |
| 23 | 23:1-35 | Resurrection of Christ (Sadducee-Pharisee controversy) | Reviewed — no new vocabulary; reinforces baseline resurrection doctrine with heightened dramatic stakes. |
| 24 | 24:1-27 | ”The Way”; Resurrection of Christ | — |
| 25 | 25:1-27 | (none — see note) | Reviewed — legal/civic proceedings before Festus and Agrippa; reuses established terms (সাক্ষী/witness, বিচার/judgment from chs. 17, 24) with no new doctrinal content introduced. |
| 26 | 26:1-32 | Conversion of Paul; Forgiveness of Sins; Holiness and Sanctification; Resurrection of Christ | — |
| 27 | 27:1-44 | Providence and God’s Sovereign Plan (shipwreck deliverance) | Reviewed — reuses established salvation/faith vocabulary under trial; no new doctrinal vocabulary beyond providence continuity. |
| 28 | 28:1-31 | Apostolic Miracles and Signs; Great Commission Fulfilled; Lordship of Christ; Evangelism and Bold Proclamation | Book’s climactic closing statement (28:31). |
Risk Summary (must match doctrine_risk_registry.json)
| Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 9 | Human theologian, every occurrence |
| High | 19 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 7 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 0 | — |
| Total requiring theologian review | 28 | |
| Total requiring native speaker review | 7 |
This matrix must be loaded alongside assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json and analysis/08_core_glossary.md before Phase 2 segment translation begins. Any discrepancy between this document and the registry must be resolved in favor of the registry, with this document corrected to match.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Conversion of Paul
Bengali name: পৌলের ঈশ্বরের দিকে ফেরা
Key terms: conversion, turning, the Way, chosen instrument, light and darkness
Review routing: Human theologian
Never render ‘conversion’ with ধর্মান্তর, the intensely loaded legal-political term for formal religious conversion in both India (subject to state-level anti-conversion laws) and Bangladesh (subject to communal-tension rhetoric); use ফেরা/মন ফেরানো, the same verb family established for repentance, to keep this a theological turning-to-Christ rather than a legally-fraught act of leaving one religious community for another.
Deity of Christ (Acts)
Bengali name: খ্রীষ্টের ঈশ্বরত্ব
Key terms: right hand of God, Author of life, servant of God
Review routing: Human theologian
The ‘servant of God’ title (ঈশ্বরের দাস, Isaiah’s Servant applied to Jesus) risks being misread by Muslim-background readers as confirming Isa as merely God’s servant/prophet, a title Islam readily affirms; must always be paired with unambiguous Sonship/Lordship/exaltation-to-God’s-right-hand language.
False Religion and Idolatry Confronted
Bengali name: মিথ্যা ধর্ম ও প্রতিমাপূজার মোকাবিলা
Key terms: gods (plural), the great goddess, the living God, idols
Review routing: Human theologian
দেবতা/দেবী must be sharply and consistently distinguished from ঈশ্বর. The Artemis narrative (ch. 19) carries the single highest collision risk in the whole book: দেবী is an unusually active, live devotional term in Bengal, historic heartland of Shakta Hinduism, where মহাদেবী is itself a standing devotional title for Durga; a firm translator note is required to prevent any accidental honorific echo of currently-worshiped deities.
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Bengali name: পবিত্র আত্মা ও পঞ্চাশত্তমীর দিন
Key terms: Holy Spirit, Pentecost, filled with the Spirit, poured out, tongues of fire, other tongues
Review routing: Human theologian
পবিত্র আত্মা must retain full, personal divine-Person status (never ব্রহ্ম/পরমাত্মা). The Pentecost outpouring itself has no Bengali festival equivalent and risks assimilation to a Hindu harvest festival (Nabanna) or Bengali New Year without an explanatory note on the Jewish Feast of Weeks background; the ‘filled/poured out’ language must never suggest self-cultivated yogic śakti-attainment or Shakta ritual invocation.
Justification apart from the Law
Bengali name: ব্যবস্থার বাহিরে ধার্মিক বলে গণ্য হওয়া
Key terms: justified, circumcision, yoke of the law, not by the law of Moses
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 13:38-39 must use the exact baseline compound phrase ধার্মিক বলে গণ্য হওয়া, never abbreviated to bare ক্ষমা; circumcision (ত্বকচ্ছেদ) must never use খৎনা, the Islamic loanword, since the whole point of the Jerusalem Council’s ruling is that this Jewish covenant-sign is not required for Gentile salvation.
Lordship of Christ (Acts)
Bengali name: খ্রীষ্টের প্রভুত্ব
Key terms: Lord and Christ, Lord Jesus, believe in the Lord Jesus
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 2:36’s climactic ‘Lord and Christ’ (প্রভু ও খ্রীষ্ট) must be rendered with zero softening or reordering that would blunt ‘God has made him’ (a legal-declarative act, not a gradual attainment that could wrongly suggest adoptionism); must match Romans 10:9’s register exactly.
Repentance and Baptism
Bengali name: মন-পরিবর্তন ও বাপ্তিস্ম
Key terms: repent, repentance, baptize, baptism, in the name of Jesus Christ, cut to the heart
Review routing: Human theologian
মন-পরিবর্তন must never be rendered তওবা, the Islamic ritual-repentance term centered on seeking Allah’s forgiveness within a submission-and-weighed-deeds framework. বাপ্তিস্ম must never use স্নান (Hindu ritual bathing/Ganges purification) or ওজু/গোসল (Islamic ablution); this is the doctrinal hinge of the core passage and the single most load-bearing new doctrine this curriculum introduces.
Resurrection of Christ (Acts)
Bengali name: খ্রীষ্টের পুনরুত্থান
Key terms: raised, resurrection, God raised him up
Review routing: Human theologian
Never পুনর্জন্ম. Acts 23’s Sadducee-Pharisee controversy over bodily resurrection makes preserving its literal, historical, bodily force especially urgent, since the passage’s entire dramatic tension depends on it being contested as a bodily claim, not read as a merely ‘spiritual’ survival concept.
Sonship of Christ (Acts)
Bengali name: খ্রীষ্টের পুত্রত্ব
Key terms: Son of God, his Son
Review routing: Human theologian
As in the Romans baseline, Muslim-background readers frequently hear ‘Son of God’ as a literal biological claim, which Islam forcefully rejects; a translator note clarifying the relational, eternal sense (not biological) is required wherever this title occurs in Acts.
High Risk Doctrines
Apostolic Authority
Bengali name: প্রেরিতদের কর্তৃত্ব
Key terms: apostle, sent, authority
Review routing: Human theologian
Risk of reducing apostleship to a generic spiritual-guide role resembling a Sufi pir or Hindu guru rather than an authorized, sent apostolic office with delegated authority over the whole church, as demonstrated at the Jerusalem Council.
Ascension and Exaltation of Christ
Bengali name: খ্রীষ্টের স্বর্গারোহণ ও উচ্চীকরণ
Key terms: taken up, ascension, right hand of God
Review routing: Human theologian
স্বর্গ is shared vocabulary with the Hindu concept of svarga, a temporary heavenly abode within an ongoing rebirth cycle; a translator note is required at the first major Ascension narrative clarifying this is Christ’s unique, permanent, bodily enthronement, not entry into a temporary heavenly realm within samsara.
Baptism Explicitly in the Name of Jesus Christ
Bengali name: যীশু খ্রীষ্টের নামে বাপ্তিস্ম
Key terms: baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, John’s baptism
Review routing: Human theologian
The explicit naming of Jesus Christ in baptism must never be generalized to ‘in God’s name’ alone, since Acts 19:1-5 uses precisely this distinction to differentiate full Christian baptism from John’s earlier, merely preparatory rite.
The Circumcision Controversy
Bengali name: ত্বকচ্ছেদ বিতর্ক
Key terms: circumcision, custom of Moses, burden
Review routing: Human theologian
The Jerusalem Council’s ruling is Acts’ most explicit institutional statement that salvation does not require adopting Jewish ritual-legal identity; ত্বকচ্ছেদ must be kept lexically and theologically distinct from খৎনা to avoid importing a parallel but distinct Islamic ritual-legal frame.
Divine Sovereignty and Election
Bengali name: ঈশ্বরের সার্বভৌমত্ব ও মনোনয়ন
Key terms: definite plan and foreknowledge, chosen instrument, casting lots
Review routing: Human theologian
God’s sovereign plan, choice, and even the casting of lots to select Matthias must never be rendered as impersonal fate or destiny (ভাগ্য/নিয়তি, explicitly rejected in the baseline for providence/election), while also preserving genuine human responsibility, since Acts 2:23 explicitly names both together.
Forgiveness of Sins
Bengali name: পাপের ক্ষমা
Key terms: forgiveness of sins, sins washed away
Review routing: Human theologian
পাপের ক্ষমা must be kept distinct from, and never substituted for, the baseline’s forensic compound phrase ধার্মিক বলে গণ্য হওয়া (justification); the two are related but theologically distinct blessings and collapsing them would blur Acts’ and Romans’ justification teaching.
Gentile Inclusion and God’s Impartiality
Bengali name: পরজাতির অন্তর্ভুক্তি ও ঈশ্বরের অপক্षপাত
Key terms: God shows no partiality, what God has made clean, God-fearer
Review routing: Human theologian
Must retain full force against caste, ethnic, or communal-identity partiality — an especially pointed social claim given residual caste hierarchy in Hindu-majority contexts and communal identity lines in Muslim-majority contexts; do not soften to generic tolerance language.
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Bengali name: ইহুদি ও পরজাতিদের কাছে সুসমাচার
Key terms: Gentiles, Jews, clean/unclean, no partiality, God-fearer
Review routing: Human theologian
The dismantling of ceremonial food-purity barriers (10:14-15) must not be read through, or accidentally reinforce, Hindu caste/ritual-purity categories or Islamic halal/haram frameworks, since the passage’s entire point is to remove such a barrier between peoples.
Grace versus Merit (Acts)
Bengali name: অনুগ্রহ বনাম কর্মফল
Key terms: grace, the gift of God, buying the gift, yoke, saved through grace
Review routing: Human theologian
Simon Magus’s attempt to buy the gift of God (8:18-20) and the Jerusalem Council’s rejection of the law’s ‘yoke’ (15:10) both dramatize grace-versus-merit; must reinforce that God’s gift is unmerited and never earned through ritual, payment, or law-keeping, contradicting both a karma-merit framework and a weighed-deeds salvation framework.
The Great Commission Fulfilled
Bengali name: মহা আদেশের পূর্ণতা
Key terms: ends of the earth, set apart for mission, preaching the kingdom of God, unhindered
Review routing: Human theologian
The book’s structural thesis (1:8) and climactic closing statement (28:31, ending on the emphatic ‘unhindered’/নির্বাধে) must retain full geographic universality and doctrinal weight; do not narrow to a regional or nationalistic reading of gospel advance.
Holiness and Sanctification (Acts)
Bengali name: পবিত্রতা ও পবিত্রীকরণ
Key terms: saints, sanctified, inheritance among the sanctified
Review routing: Human theologian
পবিত্র লোক must never be rendered সাধু/সাধুগণ (which evokes a Hindu/Jain wandering ascetic renunciate); all believers, not an ascetic elite, are পবিত্র লোক throughout Acts as in Romans.
Martyrdom as Witness unto Death
Bengali name: প্রাণ দিয়ে সাক্ষ্য দেওয়া
Key terms: Stephen’s death, James’s death, witness
Review routing: Human theologian
Never render with শহীদ, the dominant Bengali Muslim term for a jihad/religious martyr, which carries a militant-sacrificial theological framework foreign to the biblical concept of dying while testifying to Christ; use a descriptive phrase instead of a single loaded noun.
Apostolic Miracles and Signs
Bengali name: প্রেরিতদের আশ্চর্য কাজ ও চিহ্ন
Key terms: signs and wonders, healing, miracle-power, laying on of hands
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be distinguished from Hindu siddhi (yogic supernatural attainment) and Islamic karamat (a saint’s miracle); these are God’s own authenticating acts accompanying gospel proclamation, not a holy person’s personal spiritual attainment or a guru’s blessing-touch transferring accumulated merit.
Persecution and Bold Witness
Bengali name: নিপীড়ন ও নির্ভীক সাক্ষ্য
Key terms: witness, boldness, persecution, resist the Holy Spirit, stiff-necked
Review routing: Human theologian
Boldness (parrēsia) must be tied explicitly to Spirit-empowerment, not innate human courage or confrontational aggression — a needed distinction given real social sensitivity around public religious speech directed at Muslim-majority or Hindu-majority communities in Bangladesh and West Bengal.
Prayer and Divine Guidance through Visions
Bengali name: প্রার্থনা ও দর্শনের মাধ্যমে ঈশ্বরের পরিচালনা
Key terms: vision, dream, the Spirit said, angel appeared
Review routing: Human theologian
দর্শন is the standard Bengali word for a Hindu devotee’s ritual ‘beholding’ of a deity’s image at a temple (মন্দিরে দর্শন) — an extremely live devotional concept in Bengal. Every major vision narrative requires contextual framing that this is a vision given by God to a person, not a worshiper’s devotional viewing of an idol.
Providence and God’s Sovereign Plan
Bengali name: ঈশ্বরের পরিচালনা ও পরিকল্পনা
Key terms: definite plan and foreknowledge of God, God’s purpose
Review routing: Human theologian
Ties Christ’s death, and later Paul’s shipwreck deliverance, to sovereign divine purpose rather than mere tragedy, accident, or impersonal fate; never ভাগ্য/নিয়তি.
Sorcery and Occult Power Confronted
Bengali name: জাদুবিদ্যা ও ভূতুড়ে শক্তির মোকাবিলা
Key terms: sorcery, magic, spirit of divination, buying the gift of God
Review routing: Human theologian
Bengal’s widespread folk practices — Hindu tantra-mantra and folk-Islamic taweez/amulet and pir-based occult practice, both colloquially called ‘jadu’ — make জাদুবিদ্যা a live collision term; must be clearly aimed at occult power-seeking in general and never conflated with legitimate, gift-given apostolic miracles.
Spirit-Filling and Empowerment for Witness
Bengali name: সাক্ষ্যদানের জন্য আত্মার পূর্ণতা
Key terms: filled with the Holy Spirit, boldness, power
Review routing: Human theologian
Repeated Acts idiom for empowerment must not be rendered as a Hindu/yogic ‘filling with cosmic energy’ attainable through practice; the agent is explicitly the personal পবিত্র আত্মা, a divine gift, never self-cultivated power.
Universal Scope of the Gospel (Acts)
Bengali name: সুসমাচারের সার্বজনীন ব্যাপ্তি
Key terms: all who are far off, everyone who calls, no distinction
Review routing: Human theologian
Must retain full universal force; do not narrow ‘all who are far off’ to distant Jews of the diaspora only, since chs. 10-15 confirm Gentiles are included — a socially pointed claim given caste and communal-identity lines still shaping status in Bengali society.
Medium Risk Doctrines
The Church as Community
Bengali name: সম্প্রদায় রূপে মণ্ডলী
Key terms: with one accord, held all things in common, added to their number, fellowship, elders
Review routing: Native speaker review
Voluntary, Spirit-motivated communal sharing (2:44-45; 4:32-35) must not be conflated with a political-economic collectivist ideology, a risk in South Asian political discourse where ‘everything in common’ language can trigger unrelated communist/collectivist associations.
Church Leadership and Polity
Bengali name: মণ্ডলীর নেতৃত্ব ও শাসনব্যবস্থা
Key terms: elder, overseer, deacon, shepherd
Review routing: Native speaker review
প্রাচীন/অধ্যক্ষ must not import a hierarchical clerical rank system foreign to the text’s flatter usage (elder and overseer describe the same local leaders), nor titles carrying external religious-authority connotations such as a Hindu mahant’s temple authority or an Islamic imam’s distinct juridical role.
Evangelism and Bold Proclamation
Bengali name: সুসমাচার প্রচার
Key terms: preach, proclaim, teach, reasoned
Review routing: Native speaker review
Culturally sensitive, particularly in Bangladesh where public proselytizing directed at Muslims carries real social and sometimes legal risk. Use language of witness and reasoned proclamation, not confrontation.
Fasting and Devotional Practice
Bengali name: উপবাস ও ভক্তি অনুশীলন
Key terms: fasting, prayer, vow
Review routing: Native speaker review
Christian fasting and vows must be distinguished from Hindu vrata-fasting (merit-earning or vow-to-a-deity) and Islamic Ramadan roja/mannat (obligatory ritual duty or shrine-based transactional vow); these are voluntary devotional accompaniments to prayer, not merit-earning or obligatory rituals.
Spiritual Gifts and Prophecy (Acts)
Bengali name: আত্মিক বর ও ভাববাণী
Key terms: spiritual gift, prophesy, spirit of divination
Review routing: Native speaker review
Legitimate ভাববাণী/ভাববাদী must never lexically overlap with the counterfeit গণনার আত্মা (‘spirit of divination,’ 16:16-18); Bengali folk astrology (জ্যোতিষ) and spirit-possession fortune-telling practice make this a live distinction to police.
‘The Way’ as Early Christian Identity
Bengali name: ‘পথ’ নামে খ্রীষ্টীয় পরিচয়
Key terms: the Way, followers of the Way
Review routing: Native speaker review
পথ must not be confused with শরিয়ত (the Islamic legal-religious path) nor with the Hindu/Buddhist mārga concept of one valid path among several; this is the early church’s own self-designation for the exclusive way of salvation in Christ.
Tongues as Known Human Languages
Bengali name: প্রকৃত মানব-ভাষায় কথা বলা
Key terms: other tongues, each in his own dialect
Review routing: Native speaker review
Must not be conflated with unintelligible ecstatic speech or with trance-possession speech familiar from Bengali folk-religious and Kali-worship ecstatic practice; Acts 2 defines these as real, known languages understood by hearers.
Referenced passages