Passage

Romans 1

• Glossary Term

  Apostle

  A descriptive compound ('one sent with a commission') conveys authorized, sent-out ministry.

  ROM.1.1

• Doctrine

  Apostleship

  Risk of reducing apostleship to a generic religious-specialist role paralleling the doudini or ओझा (folk ritual specialist) rather than a unique, authorized, Christ-commissioned office.

  ROM.1.1

• Glossary Term

  Called

  Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Glossary Term

  Calling

  Noun form for the state of being called.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Doctrine

  Christian Fellowship

  Shared participation in Christ; not merely village- or clan-based social association.

  ROM.1.12

• Glossary Term

  Covenant

  A relational covenant bond, built on gwsw (heart) and thari (a binding/tie); confirm this compound's exact naturalness with a Bodo-speaking theologian, as no crystallized single covenant-theology term is attested in currently available Bodo Christian literature.

  ROM.1.3

• Glossary Term

  David

  Standard proper-name transliteration, following regional Bible-translation convention.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Davidic Covenant

  Requires explicit Old Testament background teaching; there is no analogous royal-covenant concept in Bathou tradition, though the strong Bodo cultural value placed on clan (afad) lineage gives 'seed of David' language a point of natural resonance to build from.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Deity of Christ

  CRITICAL: full, co-equal divine nature; must not be softened into 'a great spirit-being among the Kherai pantheon' or 'a specially favored elder-spirit.'

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Divine Calling

  Must be distinguished from a doudini being ritually 'called'/seized by a deity during Kherai trance.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Glossary Term

  Exhort

  Context-sensitive: use for encouragement/building up; use बिनयनाय for entreaty/pleading contexts.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Faith

  Personal trust in Christ specifically; the object of faith must always be named, since बिश्वास alone could be read as devotion transferable to Bathoubwrai or the wider Kherai pantheon.

  ROM.1.17

• Glossary Term

  Faith

  बिश्वास (a Sanskrit/Assamese loan already established in Bodo Christian usage) covers belief and trust.

  ROM.1.17

• Glossary Term

  Fellowship

  A descriptive term for shared heart/mind and mutual participation in Christ; confirm regional naturalness with native speakers given limited established Bodo Christian devotional vocabulary for this specific sense.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Fulfillment of Prophecy

  Linear, historical fulfillment (Old Testament promise to New Testament fulfillment in Christ) has no ready parallel in Bathou oral tradition and should not be assimilated into Brahma Dharma's own progressive-reform narrative of Bodo religious history.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Glory

  God's radiant honor and presence.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  God

  CRITICAL: ईश्वर (a Sanskrit/Assamese loan, standard across most Bodo Christian usage) is deliberately preferred over बाथौबुरै (Bathoubwrai, the aniconic supreme deity of traditional Bathou worship, represented by the sijou plant), to avoid presenting the biblical God as simply the existing Bathou high god under a new name.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Gospel

  Must be distinguished from Brahma Dharma's own reform 'good tidings' rhetoric of a return to Sanskritized purity; the gospel is specifically the proclamation of salvation through Christ's death and resurrection, not a call to religious reform.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Gospel

  मंगल खबर ('auspicious/good news,' built on the widely understood Assamese-Sanskrit loan मंगल) is preferred over a direct Hindi सुसमाचार borrowing, since this curriculum should read as Bodo, not as Hindi-with-Devanagari-spelling.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Humanity of Christ

  Christ's full, real humanity must not be diluted into a temporary spirit-medium's altered state as in Kherai trance possession, where the human host's own identity recedes during the ritual.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Incarnation

  CRITICAL: must be sharply distinguished from the doudini's Kherai-trance possession, in which a deity is understood to temporarily seize and speak through a human medium.

  ROM.1.3

• Glossary Term

  Incarnation

  CRITICAL: a descriptive compound ('taking on a human body') is required.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Inspiration of Scripture

  Bathou tradition has no fixed written scripture (its teaching is oral and ritual); Brahma Dharma, by contrast, produced its own reform literature.

  ROM.1.2

• Glossary Term

  Jesus

  जिसु follows the Bodo Bible's established form (paralleling Assamese যীচু, Zisu).

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Justification

  CRITICAL: a descriptive compound ('the declaration of being made righteous') is required; no single Bodo word carries the forensic, once-for-all legal-declaration sense.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Law

  बिथान (law/rule/ordinance) refers to the Mosaic Law/Torah in this curriculum.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Lord

  CRITICAL: प्रभु (a Sanskrit/Assamese loan already used in the Bodo Bible) is preferred specifically because it is not one of the honorific elder-titles (बर'ऐ/बुरहा, 'great old one') applied to Bathoubwrai and other Kherai-pantheon deities.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Lordship of Christ

  CRITICAL: exclusive, supreme Lordship.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Messiah

  Transliterated term, following regional Bible-translation convention.

  ROM.1.3-4

• Doctrine

  Messianic Promise

  CRITICAL: Messiah is a specific Jewish Old Testament category fulfilled exclusively in Jesus; it must not be presented as one figure among the many deities and spirit-mediators recognized in the Bathou pantheon.

  ROM.1.3-4

• Glossary Term

  Mission

  'The task/responsibility of the good news.' Given the history of American Baptist mission work among the Bodo (from the mid-19th century) becoming entangled in local memory with colonial-era administration, frame evangelism as the church's own ongoing calling rather than as a foreign historical project.

  ROM.1.5, ROM.1.13-14

• Doctrine

  Mission to the Nations

  Given the history of American Baptist mission work among the Bodo becoming entangled in local memory with colonial-era administration, frame evangelism as the church's own calling rather than a foreign historical project.

  ROM.1.5, ROM.1.13-14

• Doctrine

  Mutual Edification

  Building one another up in faith; no significant doctrinal risk.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Obedience of Faith

  Obedience flowing from faith, not the structured rule-observance ethic Brahma Dharma's early-20th-century reform introduced into Bodo religious practice.

  ROM.1.5

• Glossary Term

  Obedience Of Faith

  Romans 1:5 and 16:26.

  ROM.1.5

• Glossary Term

  Power Of God

  God's saving power (Romans 1:16) must be kept categorically distinct from देउनि सक्ति, the kind of spirit-mediated ritual power attributed to Bathou/Kherai practice, especially the doudini's oracular trance state.

  ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Power of God for Salvation

  Must be kept categorically distinct from the ritual/mediumistic power attributed to a doudini's Kherai-trance state.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Prophecy

  God-inspired declaration of what is to come; distinct from divinatory pronouncements made by a doudini in trance or an ओझा in folk-ritual practice.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Prophet

  God's spokesperson; must not be confused with ओझा, a shamanic ritual specialist/diviner figure recognized in traditional Bodo village religious life, distinct from the doudini's Kherai-specific oracular role.

  ROM.1.2

• Glossary Term

  Resurrection

  CRITICAL: a descriptive phrase ('turning back to life') avoids फिन जोनोम, the rebirth/reincarnation vocabulary that entered Bodo religious discourse through Brahma Dharma's Hindu-influenced reform teaching.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Resurrection of Christ

  CRITICAL: bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection, not फिन जोनोम (rebirth), a rebirth/reincarnation concept absorbed into Bodo religious discourse through Brahma Dharma's Hindu-influenced reform teaching.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Righteousness

  CRITICAL: धार्मिकता (built on the same Sanskrit root Brahma Dharma uses for its own reformed religious-duty system) must be explicitly defined in this curriculum as right standing before God received through faith, not the reformed community's structured code of right conduct.

  ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Sainthood (Called to be Holy)

  All believers are saints corporately; must not be narrowed to imply a specialist religious elite paralleling the doudini's recognized ritual role in traditional practice.

  ROM.1.7

• Doctrine

  Salvation

  CRITICAL: this is a genuine conceptual gap, not a wrong-existing-word problem.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Salvation

  CRITICAL: फोरायनाय ('being rescued/delivered') is preferred because Bathouism itself has no developed eschatological salvation concept at all -- its ritual life (Kherai puja, household sijou offerings) is oriented toward securing protection, harvest, and household prosperity in this life, not deliverance from sin or an afterlife destiny.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Seed Of David

  Romans 1:3; a descriptive phrase conveying physical lineage, resonating with the strong emphasis on clan (afad) and lineage identity in traditional Bodo kinship structure.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Separation unto God's Service

  Must not be confused with the ritual purity separations surrounding Kherai puja preparation, which are occasional and ceremonial.

  ROM.1.1

• Glossary Term

  Sin

  गुनाह (a widely borrowed term across Assam-region languages) conveys moral transgression before a personal God.

  ROM.1.18

• Glossary Term

  Son Of God

  CRITICAL: full phrase required, built on ईश्वर (see 'god' entry).

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Sonship of Christ

  CRITICAL: eternal, unique Sonship, not a lesser spirit-being's offspring as might be assumed within a populated Bathou pantheon that includes many divine and semi-divine figures.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Spiritual Gifts

  Spirit-given enablements for church life; not the ritual/mediumistic power attributed to a doudini's trance abilities during Kherai puja.

  ROM.1.11

• Glossary Term

  Spiritual Gifts

  आत्मानि दान ('gift of the Spirit') must be kept distinct from सक्ति, the kind of ritual/mediumistic power attributed to a doudini in Kherai puja practice.

  ROM.1.11

• Doctrine

  Thanksgiving

  Standard term.

  ROM.1.8, ROM.1.21

• Glossary Term

  Thanksgiving

  Standard term for gratitude/thanks.

  ROM.1.8, ROM.1.21

• Doctrine

  Universal Human Accountability

  All humanity equally guilty before God; retain universal language without softening, even where it sits uneasily alongside reformed Brahma Dharma teaching that frames spiritual progress as an achievable communal reform project.

  ROM.1.18

• Doctrine

  Universal Scope of the Gospel

  No ethnic or clan barrier to the gospel; retain unqualified universality even though Bodo identity in contemporary Assam is closely tied to ethnic and territorial belonging.

  ROM.1.16