Semantic Analysis

07 Semantic Analysis — James 1–5 (Koine Greek)

Purpose

This document analyzes the Epistle of James in the original Koine Greek, chapter by chapter, first to last, with verse-by-verse treatment of the core passage (James 2:14–26). It extends — and never contradicts — the baseline Romans Language Package for Burmese. Every term already recorded in translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json is reused exactly as recorded there; this document flags those reuses explicitly and proposes new entries only for terms James introduces that Romans does not.

Risk tiers (Critical / High / Medium / Low) follow the definitions fixed in the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json. James, more than Romans, forces direct engagement with Burmese Theravada Buddhist technical vocabulary — merit (ကုသိုလ်), wisdom/insight (ပညာ), perfection (ပါရမီ), the hell realms (ငရဲ), and the cycle of rebirth (သံသရာ) — because James’s subject matter (works, wisdom, testing, perfecting, hell-fire, healing-rituals, confession) sits directly on top of these categories. This analysis flags every such collision.

PART 1: Core Passage — James 2:14–26, Verse by Verse

James 2:14

Term: πίστις (pistis) — “faith”

Transliteration: pistis
Literal meaning: trust, reliance, conviction
Semantic range: intellectual assent; personal trust in a specific object; fidelity/faithfulness
English variants: “faith” (KJV, ESV, NIV, NASB, NLT) — uniform
Contextual theological meaning: Here introduced as a claim (“if someone says he has faith”) that is put on trial by the rest of the passage — James interrogates whether a merely professed, inert faith is the genuine article.
Destination-language rendering risk: Medium. Reuse baseline term exactly: ယုံကြည်ခြင်း (yun-kyi-chin). No deviation permitted. Must retain the baseline caution that the object of faith is Christ, not a generic confidence; James 2:14’s rhetorical setup (“faith” that “does not save”) requires the Burmese reader to understand James is not devaluing faith itself but exposing a counterfeit — a critical nuance for teaching notes, since a surface reading in Burmese could wrongly suggest ယုံကြည်ခြင်း itself is insufficient for salvation.

Term: ἔργα (erga) — “works”

Transliteration: erga
Literal meaning: deeds, actions, accomplished labor
Semantic range: any human action; in Pauline usage often “works of the law” (meritorious deeds attempted as a basis for righteousness); in James, concrete acts of obedience and love that necessarily accompany genuine faith
English variants: “works” (KJV, ESV, NASB), “deeds” (NIV), “good deeds” (NLT — an interpretive gloss)
Contextual theological meaning: The pivotal term of the whole passage and of the “Faith and Works” doctrine. James does not present works as the ground of justification (contrast Romans 3–4) but as the necessary, observable fruit that proves faith is alive.
Destination-language rendering risk: Critical — NEW TERM, not in baseline. No Burmese Bible term exists in the Romans package for “works,” because Romans discusses “works of the law” polemically as what does NOT justify. James uses the same Greek root affirmatively as evidence. Proposed rendering: အကျင့် (a-kyin, “conduct/deeds”) — transliteration: a-kyin. This must be sharply distinguished in teaching notes from ကုသိုလ် (kutho, merit accumulated through ritual and moral performance to improve one’s karmic standing/next rebirth), which the baseline already forbids for “grace” and “righteousness.” အကျင့် in James names the observable, Spirit-produced fruit of a faith already freely given by grace — not merit-generating action that earns favor. Every occurrence of ἔργα in James 2:14–26 must carry this distinction; this is the single highest-stakes term in the entire James curriculum, because a careless Burmese rendering could make James 2 sound like it is teaching salvation by kutho, directly undoing the grace doctrine established in Romans.

Term: σῴζω (sōzō) — “save”

Transliteration: sōzō
Literal meaning: to rescue, deliver, preserve from harm or death
Semantic range: physical rescue from danger/illness/death; spiritual deliverance from sin and judgment (as in Romans)
English variants: “save” (all major versions)
Contextual theological meaning: The rhetorical question “can that faith save him?” uses σῴζω in its full soteriological sense — the same sense as Romans’ salvation doctrine.
Destination-language rendering risk: Critical. Reuse baseline term exactly: ကယ်တင်ခြင်း (kaetin-chin). Never နိဗ္ဗာန်ရောက်ခြင်း. Note for Phase 2: σῴζω recurs later in this letter (James 5:15) in a physical healing sense, which must NOT be rendered with ကယ်တင်ခြင်း in that context — see Chapter 5 analysis below for the required distinction.

James 2:15–16

Term: ἀδελφός/ἀδελφή (adelphos/adelphē) — “brother/sister”; πρακτικαλκαρε for the poor

Transliteration: adelphos / adelphē
Literal meaning: brother/sister (blood or covenant kin)
Semantic range: biological sibling; fellow believer (James’s dominant usage, “my brothers,” throughout the letter)
English variants: “brother”/“sister” (all versions); some render inclusively as “fellow believer”
Contextual theological meaning: James deliberately calls the needy person “brother or sister” — a member of the household of faith, not a stranger — sharpening the moral force of the illustration.
Destination-language rendering risk: Low. Standard, established rendering: ညီအစ်ကို / ညီအစ်မ (nyi-a-hkoh / nyi-a-ma). No collision; consistent with existing Myanmar Christian usage for fellow believers.

Term: εἰρήνη (eirēnē) in the farewell “go in peace”

Transliteration: eirēnē
Literal meaning: peace, well-being
Semantic range: covenantal peace with God (Romans 5:1 sense); everyday farewell blessing (this verse’s sense)
English variants: “go in peace” (all versions)
Contextual theological meaning: Here it is an empty conventional blessing spoken instead of concrete help — James’s irony is that the words are pious but the body remains unclothed and unfed.
Destination-language rendering risk: Medium. Reuse baseline term ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်း for consistency, but the translator note must clarify that in this verse the phrase functions as an empty ritual farewell exposed by James as inadequate — not a positive description of the deep “peace with God” doctrine. Risk of a Burmese reader missing the sarcasm and taking the blessing at face value.

James 2:17

Term: νεκρά (nekra) — “dead”

Transliteration: nekra
Literal meaning: dead, lifeless, inert
Semantic range: physically dead; figuratively inoperative, without effect
English variants: “dead” (all versions)
Contextual theological meaning: The thesis statement of the passage: “faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself.” Not “weak” or “immature” faith — a corpse, something that only appears to be alive.
Destination-language rendering risk: High. No existing baseline entry; propose သေနေသော (thei-nei-thaw, “dead/lifeless”) modifying ယုံကြည်ခြင်း. Risk: Burmese Buddhist hearers may assimilate “dead faith” into a graded-quality framework (weak merit vs. strong merit) rather than James’s binary claim that a faith without works is not really faith at all — it is entirely absent of saving power, just as a corpse has no life at all, not diminished life. Teaching notes must preserve the binary, not gradient, force of νεκρά.

James 2:18

Term: δεῖξον (deixon) — “show/demonstrate”

Transliteration: deixon
Literal meaning: to show, display, make visible/evident
Semantic range: visual demonstration; legal/rhetorical proof
English variants: “show” (KJV, ESV, NASB, NIV), “prove” (NLT)
Contextual theological meaning: James’s imagined interlocutor demands empirical proof — faith is invisible; only works make it visible to others. This anticipates the “demonstrative justification” sense of δικαιόω in vv. 21–25 (see below).
Destination-language rendering risk: Medium. Standard verb ပြပါ (pya-par, “show/demonstrate”) — no baseline conflict. Flag for translator note: this verb frames the entire logical argument of the passage and must not be rendered merely as “tell me,” which would lose the demand for observable evidence.

James 2:19

Term: εἷς θεός (heis theos) — “one God”; δαιμόνια (daimonia) — “demons”

Transliteration: heis theos / daimonia
Literal meaning: “one God” (monotheistic confession, echoing the Shema); “demons,” evil spiritual beings
Semantic range: εἷς θεός = the foundational monotheistic creed of Judaism and Christianity; δαιμόνια = malevolent spirits under Satan’s dominion, distinct from ambiguous “spirits” generally
English variants: “one God” (all versions); “demons” (KJV “devils,” modern versions “demons”)
Contextual theological meaning: James sarcastically notes that even demons hold correct monotheistic doctrine and respond with terror — proving that bare correct belief, without transformed obedience, is worthless and does not indicate saving faith.
Destination-language rendering risk: Medium for εἷς θεός — reinforces (does not alter) the baseline’s Critical-risk ဘုရားသခင် term; no new rendering needed, but the verse is a strong teaching opportunity against Burmese folk-religious plurality of spirit-lords. Medium for δαιμόνια — Burmese traditional religion readily accepts the existence of malevolent spirits (နတ်ဆိုး), so existential belief in demons is not a comprehension barrier; the risk is doctrinal, not conceptual: teaching must stress that mere factual belief (even demons have it) is categorically different from saving faith, which necessarily produces obedience.

James 2:20

Term: κενέ (kene) — “empty/foolish”

Transliteration: kene
Literal meaning: empty, vain, without substance
Semantic range: literally “empty” (of a container); figuratively foolish, senseless, futile
English variants: “foolish” (ESV, NIV, NASB, NLT), “vain” (KJV)
Contextual theological meaning: James’s direct address, “O foolish person,” intensifies the rhetorical force before restating his thesis: faith without works is dead.
Destination-language rendering risk: Low. Standard အသိဉာဏ်တုံးသော or simply အလိမ္မာမရှိသောသူ (“foolish person”). No doctrinal collision; register note only — must remain formal/literary, not colloquial insult.

James 2:21

Term: ἐδικαιώθη (edikaiōthē) — “was justified”; θυσιαστήριον (thysiastērion) — “altar”

Transliteration: edikaiōthē / thysiastērion
Literal meaning: “was declared/shown righteous”; “place of sacrifice”
Semantic range: δικαιόω ranges from the forensic, once-for-all declaration of righteous status before God (Romans’ dominant sense) to a demonstrative, evidential vindication before others on the basis of visible conduct (James’s dominant sense here)
English variants: “justified” (KJV, ESV, NASB, NIV), “shown to be right” (NLT — explicitly disambiguating toward the demonstrative sense)
Contextual theological meaning: Abraham’s offering of Isaac (Genesis 22) did not initially secure his righteous standing before God — that occurred by faith alone in Genesis 15:6 (quoted in v. 23) — but rather vindicated, before onlookers and in the narrative record, that his faith was genuine and complete.
Destination-language rendering risk: Critical. Reuse the baseline lexical item ဖြောင့်မတ်ရာသို့ ရောက်ခြင်း for δικαιόω, but this verse REQUIRES a mandatory translator note distinguishing James’s evidential sense from Romans’ forensic sense: “Paul answers the question ‘how is a sinner declared righteous before God?’ (by faith alone, apart from works — Romans 3–4); James answers a different question, ‘how is that faith shown to be real before others?’ (by the works it produces).” Without this note, Burmese readers moving between the Romans and James curricula will perceive Scripture as self-contradictory. This is the single most theologically consequential harmonization issue in the entire James curriculum and must be flagged for mandatory human theologian review in every occurrence (vv. 21, 24, 25). θυσιαστήριον (“altar”) is Low risk — standard term ယဇ်ပလ္လင် (yat pallin), already established in Myanmar OT vocabulary.

James 2:22

Term: συνήργει (synērgei) — “worked together”; ἐτελειώθη (eteleiōthē) — “was perfected/completed”

Transliteration: synērgei / eteleiōthē
Literal meaning: “worked together with, cooperated with” (from συνεργέω); “was brought to completion/maturity” (from τελειόω)
Semantic range: συνεργέω = cooperative, synchronized action (not two independent causes, but one united action); τελειόω = to bring to its intended goal, completion, or maturity — the same root that produces τέλειος (“perfect/mature/complete”), a major recurring term across James (1:4, 1:17, 1:25, 3:2)
English variants: “wrought with” (KJV), “working together” (ESV, NASB, NIV), “acted together” (NLT); “made perfect” (KJV), “completed” (ESV), “made complete” (NIV), “perfected” (NASB)
Contextual theological meaning: Faith and works are not two separate causes of justification but one united reality — faith active in obedience is what “completes” faith, brings it to its intended, mature expression. This is not faith becoming MORE saving through addition of merit, but faith reaching its designed, visible fullness.
Destination-language rendering risk: Critical. No baseline term for τελειόω exists (Romans does not use this word family theologically in the same way). Proposed rendering: ပြည့်စုံစေသည် (pyi-sohn-say-thi, “brought to fullness/completion”). CRITICAL COLLISION: Burmese Buddhism has a technical doctrine of ပါရမီ (parami, “perfections”) — the ten virtues a Bodhisatta cultivates across countless rebirths through self-effort to attain Buddhahood. James’s τελειόω/τέλειος word-family must NEVER be rendered with ပါရမီ or any term suggesting self-cultivated accumulation across multiple lives. ပြည့်စုံစေသည် must be taught as: works do not ADD merit to faith across a lifetime of self-effort, but REVEAL and BRING TO ITS DESIGNED SHAPE a faith already given by grace in this one life, in union with Christ. Flag for mandatory theologian review; this term-family also recurs independently in Chapter 1 (see below).

James 2:23

Term: γραφή (graphē) — “Scripture”; ἐπίστευσεν…ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην — “believed…it was credited to him as righteousness”; φίλος θεοῦ (philos theou) — “friend of God”

Transliteration: graphē; episteusen…elogisthē autō eis dikaiosynēn; philos theou
Literal meaning: “writing” (Scripture); “was reckoned/credited/counted to him for righteousness”; “friend of God”
Semantic range: γραφή = the OT Scriptures as authoritative written revelation; λογίζομαι = an accounting/ledger term, to credit to someone’s account something they do not intrinsically possess; φίλος = one bound in relationship of mutual trust and access, not a servant merely following orders
English variants: “Scripture” (all versions); “counted”/“credited”/“reckoned” (varies by version) “as righteousness”; “friend of God” (all versions)
Contextual theological meaning: This verse quotes Genesis 15:6 directly and is the theological anchor showing that Abraham’s righteous standing was credited by faith, BEFORE the offering of Isaac in Genesis 22 (which occurred years later) — proof that James’s “justified by works” (v. 21) cannot mean the initial crediting of righteousness, which was by faith alone. Abraham’s works in ch. 22 vindicated, rather than produced, the righteousness already credited in Genesis 15.
Destination-language rendering risk: Critical — EXACT MATCH to baseline term. The phrase ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην is the identical Greek clause behind the baseline’s imputed_righteousness entry. MUST reuse verbatim: ဖြောင့်မတ်ခြင်းအဖြစ် မှတ်တော်မူခြင်း (pyaungmat-chin a-phyit hmat-taw-mu-chin). Never render with ကုသိုလ်စုဆောင်းခြင်း (accumulating merit), which is explicitly rejected in the baseline. φίλος θεοῦ (“friend of God”) is a Medium risk new term: propose ဘုရားသခင်၏မိတ်ဆွေ (Phayarthakhin i meik-swei, “God’s friend”) — note that this conveys covenantal intimacy and access, a relational category with no Buddhist devotional analogue requiring correction (no forbidden term to avoid), but requiring positive explanation since it is a uniquely biblical category of relationship with the Creator, distinct from the merit-based devotee relationship to a Buddha image.

James 2:24

Term: δικαιοῦται (dikaioutai) — “is justified”

Same term-family as v. 21 (δικαιόω), present tense generalizing the principle.
Contextual theological meaning: “A person is justified by works and not by faith alone” — the most quoted, most apparently Romans-contradicting verse in James. Must be read (and the teaching note must state) in light of vv. 21–23: this is evidential/vindicating justification before people, not the initial forensic declaration before God, which Scripture (including James himself, v. 23) locates in faith alone.
Destination-language rendering risk: Critical — same rendering and same mandatory theologian-review flag as v. 21. This is the verse most likely to be quoted out of context by either a works-righteousness distortion or a faith-only antinomian distortion; the Burmese curriculum notes must carry the full harmonization explanation at this verse specifically, not only at v. 21.

James 2:25

Term: πόρνη (pornē) — “prostitute”; ὑποδεξαμένη τοὺς ἀγγέλους — “received/welcomed the messengers”

Transliteration: pornē; hypodexamenē tous angelous
Literal meaning: “prostitute” (Rahab’s occupation in Joshua 2); “having received/welcomed the messengers/spies”
Semantic range: πόρνη is unambiguous; ἄγγελος here means human messengers/spies (Joshua’s scouts), not heavenly angels
English variants: “prostitute” (ESV, NIV, NASB, NLT), “harlot” (KJV); “spies” or “messengers” (varies)
Contextual theological meaning: James pairs the most honored patriarch (Abraham) with a Canaanite prostitute to demonstrate that this pattern of faith-evidenced-by-works applies universally, without social or moral-status distinction — reinforcing the letter’s broader theme against favoritism based on status.
Destination-language rendering risk: Medium. Standard term ပြည့်တန်ဆာ (pyi-tan-sa, “prostitute”) — established OT/NT vocabulary, no collision. Translator note: ἄγγελος must be rendered here as human “messengers/spies” (စစ်ဆင်ခြင်းသမားများ or သတင်းယူသူများ), not with a word implying heavenly beings, to avoid confusion with angelic messenger vocabulary used elsewhere in Scripture.

James 2:26

Term: σῶμα (sōma) — “body”; πνεῦμα (pneuma) — “spirit/breath”

Transliteration: sōma; pneuma
Literal meaning: “body”; “spirit, breath, breath of life”
Semantic range: πνεῦμα ranges enormously — the Holy Spirit (baseline Critical term), the human spirit, wind, or simply “breath”/life-force animating a body. Here, in the phrase “the body without the/a spirit is dead,” πνεῦμα means the animating breath of life, NOT the Holy Spirit.
English variants: “spirit” (most versions, ambiguous in English too); some study Bibles gloss as “breath”
Contextual theological meaning: The closing analogy: just as a corpse is a body from which life-breath has departed, so faith without works is a “corpse” of faith — present in form, absent in reality.
Destination-language rendering risk: High. σῶμα = ခန္ဓာကိုယ် (khan-da-koe), no collision. πνεῦμα in THIS verse must NOT be rendered with the baseline’s Critical term သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော် (Holy Spirit) or even with bare ဝိညာဉ် in a way that could be misread as referencing the Holy Spirit. Propose အသက်ရှူသက် (a-thet-shu-thet, “breath of life”) or အသက် (a-thet, “life/breath”) for this specific occurrence. Mandatory translator note: this is a life-force/breath sense, distinguished from every other Critical-risk πνεῦμα occurrence in the curriculum (compare James 4:5 below, which carries its own distinct ambiguity flag).

PART 2: Chapter-by-Chapter Study of the Whole Book

Chapter 1 — Trials, Wisdom, the Word Implanted, and Pure Religion

Term	Original & Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering & Risk
δοῦλος	doulos	slave, bondservant	one owned by a master; one wholly devoted, without residual autonomy	”servant” (most), “slave” (NIV footnote, NASB)	James identifies himself (1:1) as belonging wholly to God and the Lord Jesus Christ — total, willing devotion, not apostolic office (contrast Paul’s “apostle” self-designation in Romans 1:1)	Medium. New term: ကျွန် (kyun, “servant/bondservant”). Note distinct from baseline’s `apostle` (တမန်တော်); James claims no apostolic authority-title here, only devoted ownership. Care needed given literal-slavery associations in Burmese social history — teach as willing, honored belonging, not degrading bondage.
πειρασμός	peirasmos	trial, testing; also “temptation”	(1) external circumstance testing faith (1:2, positive, God-permitted for growth); (2) internal enticement to sin (1:13-14, explicitly NOT from God) — same Greek word, two senses in one chapter	”trials” (ESV, NIV, NASB), “temptations” (KJV) — English versions often translate the same Greek root two different ways depending on sense	Central to the “Trials and the Testing of Faith” doctrine. God does not send moral temptation (1:13) but does permit testing circumstances that produce endurance (1:2-3, 12)	High. New term: စုံစမ်းခြင်း (soun-san-chin, “testing/trial”) for the external sense; for the internal-enticement sense in 1:14 use အလိုဆွဲငင်ခြင်း (a-lo-swe-ngin-chin, “being drawn by one’s own desire”). MUST NOT be rendered with ကံ (impersonal karmic cause-and-effect, already forbidden for baseline’s `providence`); trials are personally permitted by a purposive God, not impersonal karmic consequence for past-life demerit.
δοκίμιον	dokimion	the testing/proving (of metal) that yields genuineness	a refining process that proves authenticity	”testing” (ESV, NIV, NASB), “trying” (KJV)	The testing of faith produces ὑπομονή (endurance) — a purposeful refining, not punishment	Medium. Folded into စုံစမ်းခြင်း above with the added nuance of proving genuineness; teaching note should draw the refining-fire image without invoking generic karmic purification concepts.
ὑπομονή	hypomonē	endurance, steadfastness under pressure	patient perseverance specifically through hardship (distinct from μακροθυμία below, patience toward people/circumstances while waiting)	“patience” (KJV), “steadfastness”/“endurance” (ESV, NASB, NIV)	The intended fruit of trials (1:3-4, 12); recurs at 5:11 regarding Job	Medium. New term: ခံရည်ခံသန်မှု or simply သည်းခံခြင်း (thi-khan-chin, “endurance/patience”). Distinguish from စိတ်ရှည်ခြင်း (see Ch. 5) used for waiting for the Lord’s return.
τέλειος / τελειότης / ὁλόκληρος	teleios / teleiotēs / holoklēros	perfect, complete, mature; entire, whole, lacking nothing	maturity/completeness as a designed goal reached, not flawless sinlessness; recurs 1:4, 1:17 (“every good gift,” implicitly perfect and complete), 1:25 (“perfect law”), 3:2 (“perfect man” in speech) — and shares its root with ἐτελειώθη in 2:22	”perfect” (KJV, NASB), “complete”/“mature” (ESV, NIV)	Spiritual maturity that trials are designed to produce; James’s recurring standard for genuine faith and speech	Critical. New term: ပြည့်စုံခြင်း (pyi-sohn-chin, “completeness/fullness”) or စုံလင်ခြင်း. FORBIDDEN SUBSTITUTION: never render with ပါရမီ (parami), the Buddhist technical term for the ten perfections a Bodhisatta cultivates through self-effort across countless rebirths toward Buddhahood. James’s maturity is a Spirit-produced, grace-enabled completeness reached within a single redeemed life through trials and obedience, not multi-life self-cultivation. Flag every occurrence for theologian review (1:4, 1:17, 1:25, 3:2, and cross-reference 2:22).
σοφία	sophia	wisdom	practical, God-given skill for righteous living, asked for and freely given (1:5); recurs as a major term in ch. 3	”wisdom” (all versions)	God is the generous, personal source of wisdom, given to “anyone who asks” without reproach (1:5) — contrasts sharply with attainment-based views of wisdom	Critical. New term: ပညာ (pyinnya, “wisdom”). MASSIVE COLLISION: ပညာ (paññā) is the third and highest of the three trainings in Theravada Buddhism (sīla, samādhi, paññā) — liberating insight into impermanence, suffering, and non-self, attained through one’s own meditative effort as the direct cause of enlightenment. Biblical σοφία in James is a relational GIFT requested from and freely given by a personal God (1:5), not a self-attained meditative insight. This must be taught explicitly and flagged for mandatory theologian review at every occurrence in the book (1:5; 3:13-17).
δίψυχος / διακρίνομαι	dipsychos / diakrinomai	double-souled, divided in mind; to waver, be split in judgment	a person with two competing loyalties/minds, unable to commit; wavering “like a wave of the sea” (1:6)	“double-minded” (all versions); “wavers” / “doubts”	The opposite of the settled, undivided trust required to receive wisdom (1:6-8); recurs 4:8	Medium. New term: စိတ်နှစ်ခွရှိသော (seit hna-khwa shi thaw, “having a divided mind”). No major collision; straightforward metaphor.
πτωχός / πλούσιος	ptōchos / plousios	poor / rich	economic poverty/wealth, with social-status implications reversed by James (the poor exalted, the rich humbled, 1:9-11)	“poor” / “rich” (all versions)	Seeds the “Favoritism and the Poor” doctrine developed fully in ch. 2 and ch. 5	High. New terms: ဆင်းရဲသား (hsin-yay-thar, “poor person”) / ချမ်းသာသူ (chan-thar-thu, “rich person”). Standard vocabulary, but doctrinally High risk because James’s unqualified exaltation of the poor and condemnation of the rich intersects real socioeconomic and ethnic-majority/minority tensions in Myanmar; must not be softened into a generalized “blessed are the content” message.
πατὴρ τῶν φώτων	patēr tōn phōtōn	”Father of lights”	God as the unchanging source and giver of every good gift, sovereign over the celestial lights themselves	”Father of lights” (KJV, ESV, NASB), “Father who created all the lights in the heavens” (NIV/NLT paraphrase)	Immutability of God’s goodness (1:17), contrasted with “shifting shadows”	Medium. Reuse baseline အဖ, qualified as အလင်းတို့၏အဖ. Translator note required: God is Creator and sovereign OVER the heavenly lights, not one governed by them — guards against assimilation into Burmese astrological (ဗေဒင်) reading of “lights” as fate-determining celestial bodies.
λόγος ἔμφυτος	logos emphytos	”implanted word”	the gospel word taking root within, uniquely occurring only here in the NT (1:21)	“implanted word” (ESV, NASB), “word planted in you” (NIV), “engrafted word” (KJV)	The word that is able to save the soul when received with meekness — received, not self-generated	High. New term: စိုက်ပျိုးထားသောနှုတ်ကပတ်တော် (planted/implanted Word). Must be taught as God’s gift taking root by grace, distinct from a practitioner’s own memorized/recited teaching (dhamma) mastered through self-effort — parallel to the faith-vs-saddhā distinction already established in the baseline.
ποιητὴς λόγου / ἀκροατής	poiētēs logou / akroatēs	”doer of the word” / “hearer”	one who acts on the word vs. one who merely listens (1:22-25)	“doer” / “hearer” (all versions)	Direct forerunner of the faith-and-works argument in ch. 2; a mere hearer deceives himself	Medium. New terms: နှုတ်ကပတ်တော်ကိုကျင့်သောသူ (doer of the Word) / နာကြားရုံသာသူ (hearer only). No major collision; reinforce link forward to Chapter 2’s core passage.
θρησκεία	thrēskeia	religion, religious observance	ritual/cultic religious practice generally; James redefines it ethically	”religion” (all versions)	“Pure and undefiled religion” (1:26-27) is caring for orphans and widows and remaining unstained by the world — an ethical-relational redefinition against empty ritualism	High. New term: propose ဝတ်ပြုကိုးကွယ်မှု (worship/religious devotion) rather than ဘာသာ (the institutional-religion term used to name Buddhism, Christianity, Islam as competing world religions in Burmese public discourse). Using ဘာသာ risks framing this as a comparison between institutional religions; James’s point is that authentic devotion to God is inherently ethical, not ritual-only — a point that can either usefully critique empty ritualism or be misheard as a comparative religions statement if handled carelessly.
ὀρφανός / χήρα	orphanos / chēra	orphan / widow	socially and economically vulnerable persons without a protector	”orphans” / “widows” (all versions)	The concrete content of “pure religion” — practical care for the vulnerable	Low-Medium. Standard terms မိဘမဲ့ကလေး / မုဆိုးမ. No collision; ties directly into the “Favoritism and the Poor” doctrine.
ἄσπιλος ἀπὸ τοῦ κόσμου	aspilos apo tou kosmou	”unstained from the world”	keeping oneself morally uncorrupted by the world’s value-system	”keep oneself unstained/unspotted from the world” (all versions)	Introduces the “Worldliness versus Friendship with God” doctrine, developed fully in ch. 4	Medium. See κόσμος treatment under Chapter 4 below for the full risk discussion; here simply flag the connection forward.

Chapter 2 — Favoritism, the Poor, the Royal Law, and Mercy (2:1–13; vv. 14–26 treated above as the core passage)

Term	Original & Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering & Risk
πίστις τῆς δόξης	pistis tēs doxēs	”faith of [our] glory” — “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ”	δόξα here modifies Christ’s inherent glory	”our glorious Lord” (most versions render δόξα as an adjective describing the Lord)	Christ’s glory is the ground and object of the faith James is about to test	Medium. πίστις reuses baseline ယုံကြည်ခြင်း; δόξα reuses baseline ဘုန်းတော်. Both exact reuses; no new terms needed.
προσωπολημψία / προσωπολήπτης	prosōpolēmpsia / prosōpolēptēs	”receiving the face”; partiality, favoritism	judging or treating people differently based on external appearance, wealth, or social status	”favoritism” (ESV, NIV, NASB), “respect of persons” (KJV)	The named sin at the heart of the “Favoritism and the Poor” doctrine — shown by seating the rich visitor honorably and the poor visitor shamefully (2:2-4)	High. New term: မျက်နှာလိုက်ခြင်း (myet-hna-laik-chin, literally “following the face”), the natural existing Myanmar idiom for partiality. High risk because Myanmar society carries real status-based deference patterns (ethnic-majority privilege, wealth, monastic rank) that this term must confront without softening; must retain full prohibitive force.
κληρονόμος / βασιλεία	klēronomos / basileia	heir / kingdom	those God has chosen to inherit the kingdom he promised (2:5)	“heirs of the kingdom” (all versions)	Reinforces that God’s economy inverts worldly status — the poor are heirs of the kingdom	Medium. βασιλεία reuses baseline ဘုရားသခင်၏နိုင်ငံတော် (kingdom_of_god); κληρονόμος is a new but low-collision term, အမွေခံ (a-mwei-khan, “heir”), resonant with the baseline’s `adoption` doctrine of full inheritance rights.
νόμος βασιλικός	nomos basilikos	”royal law”	the supreme, sovereign commandment — love of neighbor (Lev 19:18, quoted 2:8)	“royal law” (ESV, NASB), “the law of the Kingdom” (NIV interpretive), “royal law” (KJV)	Names the love-of-neighbor command as supreme, tying directly into the favoritism prohibition	Medium. New compound: အမြတ်ဆုံးသောပညတ်တော် (a-myat-sone-thaw pyinnat-taw, “the most excellent commandment”), built on baseline ပညတ်တရား.
νόμος ἐλευθερίας	nomos eleutherias	”law of liberty/freedom”	the law as fulfilled and internalized, producing free, willing obedience rather than external compulsion (1:25, 2:12)	“law of liberty” (KJV, NASB), “law that gives freedom” (NIV), “law of freedom” (ESV)	A paradoxical compound unique to James, requiring careful theological unpacking	High. New compound built on baseline ပညတ်တရား: လွတ်လပ်ခြင်း၏ ပညတ်တရား. Two collision risks: (1) could be misread as antinomian license (freedom FROM law), which James explicitly does not mean; (2) “liberty/freedom” (လွတ်လပ်ခြင်း) risks assimilation into Buddhist concepts of liberation from suffering/rebirth (vimutti, နိဗ္ဗာန်-adjacent vocabulary). Must be taught as law fulfilled in Christ, obeyed from a free, Spirit-enabled heart — not the extinguishing of desire nor a release from all obligation.
ἔλεος	eleos	mercy	compassionate covenant-love in action, expected of God’s people especially in judgment contexts (2:13)	“mercy” (all versions)	“Judgment without mercy” for the merciless; “mercy triumphs over judgment”	High. New term: ကရုဏာ (karuna). COLLISION: ကရုဏာ is one of the Four Brahmavihāra (divine abodes) in Buddhism, a meditative virtue self-cultivated through mental training for the practitioner’s own spiritual advancement. Biblical ἔλεος is God’s covenantal compassion shown to the undeserving, which his people are commanded to extend to others in concrete relationships and social justice — not a cultivated inner meditative state pursued for personal merit. Teaching notes must state this distinction explicitly.

(James 2:14–26 — see Part 1 above for full verse-by-verse treatment of πίστις, ἔργα, σῴζω, δικαιόω, φίλος θεοῦ, and the imputed-righteousness citation.)

Chapter 3 — Taming the Tongue, Wisdom from Above

Term	Original & Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering & Risk
διδάσκαλος	didaskalos	teacher	one who instructs others, held to stricter accountability (3:1)	“teacher” (all versions)	Teachers face greater judgment for their words — ties tongue-control to leadership accountability	Low-Medium. New term: ဆရာ (generic teacher) — note distinct from baseline’s caution against ဆရာတော်/ဆရာကြီး for `apostle`; here a plain, non-monastic teacher role is intended.
γλῶσσα	glōssa	tongue	the physical organ; metonym for speech/what one says	”tongue” (all versions)	The central image of ch. 3: a small member with disproportionate destructive or life-giving power (3:2-12)	Medium. New term: လျှာ (hla, “tongue”). Low collision as a body-part word; risk is entirely in the surrounding ethical metaphors (bridle, rudder, fire), which must be rendered as natural equivalents (e.g., ခွာနှင်းခြင်း/ချုပ်တည်းခြင်း for “bridle/control”) preserving the force of self-mastery under God, not Stoic self-mastery for its own sake.
γέεννα	geenna	Gehenna, hell	the place/fire of final divine judgment (3:6, “the tongue… set on fire by hell”)	“hell” (all versions)	The tongue’s destructive power is traced to an infernal, not merely human, source	Critical. New term: standard Myanmar rendering ငရဲ (nga-yei, “hell”). SEVERE COLLISION: ငရဲ is the SAME word used for the Buddhist hell realms (Naraka) — one of 31 planes of existence within the cycle of rebirth, a temporary karmic destination from which a being is eventually reborn elsewhere once its negative karma is exhausted. Biblical γέεννα denotes final, unending judgment for the unrepentant, not a temporary samsaric way-station. This requires the same category of mandatory translator note that the baseline requires for `resurrection` vs. rebirth: every occurrence must carry an explicit distinguishing note. Flag for theologian review.
τροχὸς τῆς γενέσεως	trochos tēs geneseōs	”the wheel/course of birth/becoming”	idiomatically, “the whole course of life”; literally, “the wheel of genesis/birth"	"the course of nature” (KJV), “the entire course of life” (ESV, NASB), “the whole course of a person’s life” (NIV, NLT)	Describes the comprehensive, life-encompassing damage an unbridled tongue inflicts (3:6)	Critical — highest-priority flag in this chapter. This rare Greek phrase, if translated literally as “wheel of birth,” would produce Burmese vocabulary strikingly close to သံသရာ (thanthaya, samsara) or ဘဝသံသရာစက်ဝန်း (the wheel of the cycle of rebirth) — core technical Buddhist cosmology. This must be rendered non-literally and descriptively, e.g., လူ့ဘဝတစ်လျှောက်လုံး (“throughout the whole course of a person’s life”), explicitly AVOIDING သံသရာ and any “wheel” imagery. This is a NEW forbidden-substitution item that must be added to the AI translation requirements’ critical forbidden list for the James curriculum, parallel in severity to the baseline’s resurrection/rebirth caution.
σοφία (ἄνωθεν / ἐπίγειος / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης)	sophia (anōthen / epigeios / psychikē / daimoniōdēs)	wisdom (from above / earthly / soulish-natural / demonic)	James contrasts two sources of “wisdom”: one descending from God (3:17, marked by purity, peace, gentleness, mercy, good fruit, impartiality, sincerity), and one that is merely earthly, unspiritual, and even demonically inspired (3:15)	“wisdom from above” vs. “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (all versions, close agreement)	Direct expansion of the “Wisdom from Above” doctrine introduced in 1:5	Critical. Reuses the flagged σοφία term (ပညာ) established in Chapter 1, now requiring the qualifying modifiers to be built carefully: ဘုရားထံမှလာသောပညာ (wisdom from God) vs. လောကီပညာ (earthly wisdom), ဇာတိပကတိပညာ (natural/unspiritual wisdom), နတ်ဆိုးတို့၏ပညာ (demonic wisdom). The demonic-wisdom category is a genuinely NEW theological claim for Burmese hearers used to thinking of ပညာ as an unqualifiedly positive attainment; must be flagged for theologian review at every occurrence.
ζῆλος / ἐριθεία	zēlos / eritheia	jealousy/zeal; selfish ambition/rivalry	destructive envy and self-seeking competitiveness, the fruit of earthly wisdom (3:14, 16)	“jealousy” / “selfish ambition” (most versions)	Named as the root of disorder and every evil practice	Low-Medium. New terms: မနာလိုမှု (envy) / မိမိအကျိုးရှာမှု (selfish ambition). No major collision.
καρπὸς δικαιοσύνης / εἰρήνη	karpos dikaiosynēs / eirēnē	”fruit of righteousness” sown “in peace”	the good outcome produced by peaceable, godly wisdom	”fruit of righteousness/peacemaking” (varies)	Closes ch. 3 with a positive picture contrasting the disorder above	Low. Reuse baseline ဖြောင့်မတ်ခြင်း and ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်း exactly; no new term needed.

Chapter 4 — Worldliness versus Friendship with God, Submission, Providence

Term	Original & Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual Theological Meaning	Burmese Rendering & Risk
ἐπιθυμία	epithymia	desire, craving, lust	disordered internal desire as the root of conflict (4:1-3), recurring from 1:14	”desires” (ESV, NIV), “lusts” (KJV), “cravings” (NASB)	Internal, self-generated desire, not external circumstance, is the source of quarrels and unanswered prayer	Medium. New term: တပ်မက်မှု (tat-mat-hmu, “craving/lust”). Note structural echo with Buddhist teaching on craving (တဏှာ, tanha) as the root of suffering — a point of genuine common ground that can be leveraged pastorally, provided the solution James offers (submission to God, resisting the devil, drawing near to God, 4:7-8) is clearly presented as relational and grace-enabled, not extinguished through one’s own meditative discipline.
μοιχαλίδες	moichalides	adulteresses	figurative/spiritual unfaithfulness — covenant-breaking idolatry, echoing OT prophetic marriage imagery	”adulterous people” (NIV, NASB, ESV), “adulterers and adulteresses” (KJV)	James addresses the community using OT covenant-unfaithfulness language for worldliness (4:4)	Medium. Standard figurative rendering, e.g., မျောက်မထားသူများ or a periphrastic “you who are unfaithful [to God].” Translator note required: this is a figurative covenant-relationship charge, not a literal accusation of the sin of adultery — must not be flattened into a purely moralistic reading.
φιλία τοῦ κόσμου / κόσμος	philia tou kosmou / kosmos	”friendship with the world” / “world”	κόσμος = the value-system and social order organized in opposition to God, NOT the physical creation (which God loves) nor a Buddhist cosmological realm	”friendship with the world” / “the world” (all versions)	Central to the “Worldliness versus Friendship with God” doctrine: the two friendships are mutually exclusive (4:4)	High. New term: လောကီရေးရာနှင့်မိတ်ဆွေဖြစ်ခြင်း (“friendship with worldly affairs”), using လောကီ (lawki, “worldly/mundane”). COLLISION RISK: လောက (loka) is the standard Buddhist cosmological term for the conditioned realms of existence within samsara (kama-loka, rupa-loka, arupa-loka — the 31 planes). James’s κόσμος is an ethical-relational category (a value-system hostile to God), not a cosmological plane of existence. Teaching notes must state this explicitly to prevent Burmese hearers from hearing James as teaching escape from physical/cosmic existence rather than rejection of a God-opposing value-system while remaining fully engaged in ordinary life (cf. baseline’s parallel note on `separation_unto_gods_service`).
πνεῦμα (4:5, disputed referent)	pneuma	spirit	Genuinely disputed in the Greek text and among interpreters: either the Holy Spirit who “jealously” desires believers wholly for himself, or the human spirit’s inherent tendency toward envy	Major English versions render this differently: “the Spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely” (ESV) vs. “the spirit he caused to dwell in us” (NASB margin notes ambiguity) vs. “that God jealously desires the spirit he has caused to dwell in us” (alternate NIV-family readings)	An unusually ambiguous verse	Critical — mandatory ambiguity flag. This is a distinct occurrence from the 2:26 πνεῦμα (breath-of-life sense) and must be tracked separately in the segment cache. Per the baseline’s ambiguity-handling protocol, record both candidate renderings (ဝိညာဉ်တော် ငြူစူသောစိတ်ရှိတော်မူ၏ [if Holy Spirit] vs. လူ့စိတ်၏မနာလိုမှုသဘောသဘာဝ [if human spirit]) and flag for mandatory human theologian review before final selection, given the baseline’s Critical-risk treatment of the Holy Spirit term elsewhere.
χάρις	charis	grace	unmerited favor, quoting Proverbs 3:34, “God gives grace to the humble” (4:6)	“grace” (all versions)	Direct link back to the Romans grace doctrine; reinforces grace/merit contrast at a second point in the canon	Critical. Reuse baseline term exactly: ကျေးဇူးတော်. Never ကုသိုလ်/ကံကောင်းခြင်း. This occurrence is pastorally significant: it shows grace is given specifically to the humble, not the self-exalted — reinforcing rather than contradicting the grace-apart-from-merit doctrine already anchored in Romans.
ταπεινός / ὑπερήφανος	tapeinos / hyperēphanos	humble / proud	posture of dependence on God vs. self-exaltation	”humble” / “proud” (all versions)	God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble (4:6), echoing 1:9-10’s status-reversal theme	Medium. New terms: နှိမ့်ချသူ (humble person) / ကိုယ်ကိုယ်ချီးမြှောက်သူ (self-exalting/proud person). No major collision, but connects thematically to the favoritism doctrine’s concern with status.
διάβολος	diabolos	devil, slanderer	the personal adversary who is resisted, not negotiated with (4:7)	“devil” (all versions)	“Resist the devil and he will flee from you”	High. Established Myanmar Christian term: မာရ်နတ် (Mara-nat). NOTABLE COLLISION: “Mara” is the specific named tempter-deity in Buddhist tradition who assailed Gautama Buddha to prevent his enlightenment. While မာရ်နတ် is the long-established, accepted Myanmar Christian rendering for “devil/Satan” (an adapted-term situation analogous to ဘုရားသခင် itself), it directly borrows a named being from Buddhist cosmology. Teaching must clarify that the biblical devil is not identical to the Buddhist Mara-deva figure, even though the established term is retained; flag for theologian review as an ESTABLISHED-BUT-LOADED term requiring explanatory teaching, in the same category as the baseline’s treatment of `mission` (သာသနာ).
τὸ θέλημα τοῦ κυρίου	to thelēma tou kyriou	”the will of the Lord”	God’s sovereign disposal of human plans (“if the Lord wills,” 4:15), contrasted with presumptuous self-confident planning	”if the Lord wills” (all versions)	Directly parallel to the baseline’s `providence` doctrine (Romans 8:28)	High. Reuse the conceptual apparatus of baseline providence (ဘုရားသခင်၏ကြည့်ရှုစောင့်ရှောက်မှု); render the phrase as ဘုရားသခင်အလိုတော်ရှိလျှင်. Must not be rendered with ကံ (impersonal karma/fate) — this is a personal God’s purposive disposal of a person’s plans, not fatalistic destiny.

Chapter 5 — The Rich, Patience for the Lord’s Return, Prayer and Healing, Confession and Restoration

Term	Original & Transliteration	Literal Meaning	Semantic Range	English Variants	Contextual theological meaning	Burmese Rendering & Risk
πλούσιος / μισθός	plousios / misthos	rich / wages	wealth gained by withholding laborers’ due wages (5:1-4)	“rich” / “wages” (all versions)	Denunciation of exploitative wealth; God as vindicator of the oppressed poor	High (continuing the ch. 1/2 poor-rich thread). μισθός new term: လုပ်ခ (louk-kha, “wages”) — low collision, but doctrinally load-bearing for social-justice teaching within the “Favoritism and the Poor” doctrine.
κύριος σαβαώθ	kyrios sabaōth	”Lord of Sabaoth/hosts”	God’s title as commander of the heavenly armies, invoked as the One who hears the cries of exploited laborers (5:4)	“Lord of hosts” / “Lord Almighty” (varies)	Reinforces divine power to vindicate, connecting to the baseline `power_of_god` doctrine	Medium. New compound: ကောင်းကင်ဗိုလ်ခြေအရှင် ထာဝရဘုရား (Lord of the heavenly armies). Care must be taken NOT to let “heavenly armies/hosts” be assimilated to Myanmar’s folk-religious hierarchy of the 37 nats or spirit-legions; must be taught as the unique, sovereign Creator commanding his own angelic hosts, not one spirit-lord among many contending powers.
δίκαιος	dikaios	righteous one	”you have murdered the righteous person” (5:6) — the innocent, oppressed righteous	”the righteous” / “the innocent” (varies)	Continues the rich-vs-poor, oppressor-vs-righteous contrast	Medium. Reuse baseline root ဖြောင့်မတ် → ဖြောင့်မတ်သူ (righteous person). No new coinage needed.
μακροθυμία	makrothymia	patience, long-suffering	patient waiting toward people/circumstances, distinct in nuance from ὑπομονή’s endurance-under-trial (ch. 1)	“patience” (all versions)	Central to the “Patience and the Lord’s Return” doctrine (5:7-8), illustrated by the farmer awaiting the harvest	Medium. New term: စိတ်ရှည်ခြင်း (seit-shay-chin, “long-suffering/patience,” literally “long-mindedness”). Distinguished from ch. 1’s သည်းခံခြင်း (endurance under trial) to preserve James’s two distinct patience-vocabulary items.
παρουσία τοῦ κυρίου	parousia tou kyriou	”the coming/arrival of the Lord”	Christ’s personal, visible, bodily return as reigning Lord and Judge (5:7-8)	“coming of the Lord” (all versions)	Central eschatological anchor of the “Patience and the Lord’s Return” doctrine	Critical. New term: ကြွလာတော်မူခြင်း (kya-la-taw-mu-chin, “his royal coming/arrival”), the established Myanmar Christian term for the Second Coming. DIRECT PARALLEL to the baseline’s Messiah/Metteyya caution: must be explicitly taught as Christ’s OWN personal, singular, bodily return as reigning Lord — never conflated with Theravada expectation of မိတ္တေယျ (Metteyya), the next in a succession of Buddhas yet to appear. Flag for mandatory theologian review at every occurrence (5:7, 5:8; cf. 5:9’s imminence language).
κριτής	kritēs	judge	God/Christ as judge, “standing at the door” (5:9), and God as the only true lawgiver-and-judge (4:12)	“judge” (all versions)	Reinforces urgency of patience and warns against grumbling/judging one another	Low-Medium. New term: တရားသူကြီး or တရားစီရင်တော်မူသူ (“judge”). No collision; standard vocabulary.
ὑπομονή Ἰωβ	hypomonē Iōb	”the patience/endurance of Job”	Job as the paradigm example (5:11), reusing ch. 1’s ὑπομονή	”patience of Job” (KJV, traditional), “endurance” (modern versions)	Ties the whole letter’s testing/endurance theme together with a concrete OT example	Medium. Reuse Chapter 1’s သည်းခံခြင်း term exactly; no new coinage.
ὀμνύω	omnyō	to swear (an oath)	James’s prohibition on oath-taking (5:12), stressing plain truthfulness (“let your yes be yes”)	“swear” (all versions)	Tongue-ethics continued from ch. 3; truthful speech without need of oaths	Low. New term: ကျိန်ဆိုခြင်း (kyein-so-chin, “swearing an oath”). No collision; note connects to the “Taming the Tongue” doctrine.
προσευχή / εὔχομαι	proseuchē / euchomai	prayer / to pray	general term for prayer, central to the “Prayer and Healing” doctrine (5:13-18)	“pray” (all versions)	Prayer in suffering, in cheerfulness, and specifically for healing of the sick; illustrated by Elijah	Medium. New/reused term: ဆုတောင်းခြင်း (hsu-taung-chin, “prayer”), consistent with the doctrine-registry’s existing burmese_doctrine_name for Prayer and Intercession. Distinguish from baseline’s အသနားခံခြင်း (intercession, prayer specifically on behalf of others), which is a related but narrower category; James 5 uses the broader general-prayer term.
ἀλείψαντες ἐλαίῳ	aleipsantes elaiō	”having anointed with oil”	the elders’ physical act accompanying prayer for the sick (5:14)	“anointing with oil” (all versions)	A simple, faith-filled symbolic act, not a magical or merit-generating ritual	High. New term: ဆီလူးခြင်း (si-lu-chin, “anointing with oil”). COLLISION RISK: Burmese folk-Buddhist and animist healing practice (including nat-kadaw/spirit-medium ritual, use of blessed oil, water, and charms) commonly involves oil application understood as channeling supernatural potency. Teaching must clarify this act is a simple expression of faith accompanying prayer offered “in the name of the Lord,” not a vehicle of impersonal magical power (cf. baseline’s caution on `power_of_god` vs. amulet/relic potency).
σῴζω (5:15, physical-healing sense)	sōzō	to save / to heal / to restore to health	Same verb as the salvation term, here used for physical restoration from illness	”will save”/“will make him well”/“will restore him” (versions vary — a genuine translation decision point)	“The prayer of faith will save/restore the sick person” — physical healing, not soteriological salvation	High. MUST NOT reuse baseline ကယ်တင်ခြင်း (reserved for soteriological salvation) in this verse. Propose distinct rendering: ကျန်းမာစေလိမ့်မည် (kyan-ma-say-lain-mei, “will make well/healthy”) or ကျန်းမာရာရောက်စေလိမ့်မည်. Mandatory translator note explaining that although the same Greek root σῴζω underlies both this verse and the Critical soteriological term, the Burmese rendering deliberately differs here to prevent readers from confusing physical healing with eternal salvation.
ἐγερεῖ αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος	egerei auton ho kyrios	”the Lord will raise him up”	physical raising from a sickbed, using ἐγείρω (a different but related verb-family to ἀνάστασις)	“the Lord will raise him up” (all versions)	Continues the healing promise of 5:15	High. MUST NOT use the baseline’s ထမြောက်ခြင်း (reserved exclusively for Christ’s bodily resurrection / the final resurrection). Propose ထတော်မူစေလိမ့်မည် (will cause him to rise/get up) or နေရာမှထစေလိမ့်မည်, explicitly avoiding ထမြောက် to prevent collision with the Critical-risk resurrection term. Flag for theologian review as a new required translation-memory decision extending the baseline’s resurrection caution into this healing context.
ἐξομολογέομαι τὰς ἁμαρτίας	exomologeomai tas hamartias	”confess your sins”	mutual, relational confession among believers “to one another” for the sake of healing/restoration (5:16)	“confess your sins to each other” (all versions)	Central to the “Confession and Restoration” doctrine	High. New term: ဝန်ခံခြင်း (wan-khan-chin, “confess/admit”). COLLISION RISK: this same term is used in Theravada monastic practice for āpatti-desanā, the formal confession of Vinaya (monastic rule) infractions to a senior monk for the restoration of monastic standing. James’s confession is MUTUAL among ordinary believers, directed relationally and toward God, for healing and restoration within the community — not a hierarchical confession to a religious authority for the restoration of merit/monastic status. Teaching notes must state this distinction.
πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν / καλύπτω	plēthos hamartiōn / kalyptō	”multitude of sins” / “to cover”	God’s forgiveness extended through loving restoration of a straying brother “covers” many sins (5:20)	“cover a multitude of sins” (all versions)	The climactic promise of the “Confession and Restoration” doctrine	High. Risk of being heard as merit compensating for demerit (good deeds “covering”/offsetting bad karma in a running ledger) — directly analogous to the baseline’s grace-vs-merit caution. Must be taught as God’s gracious forgiveness flowing from loving restoration, not a merit-offset transaction. Propose: အပြစ်အများအပြားကို ဖုံးအုပ်ပေးလိမ့်မည်, with mandatory translator note reinforcing the grace framework already established for `grace` and `imputed_righteousness`.
ἐπιστρέφω	epistrephō	to turn back, convert, restore	bringing back a brother who has “wandered from the truth” (5:19-20)	“brings him back” / “turns him back” (varies)	The pastoral goal of the “Confession and Restoration” doctrine	Medium. New term: ပြန်လှည့်လာခြင်း or ပြောင်းလဲခြင်း (“turning back/converting”). No major collision; standard restoration/repentance vocabulary.
ἀλήθεια	alētheia	truth	objective, revealed truth from which one can wander (5:19)	“truth” (all versions)	The standard against which straying is measured	Low-Medium. New term: အမှန်တရား (a-hman-tayar, “truth”). No collision; standard vocabulary.
Ἠλίας	Ēlias	Elijah	the OT prophet, given as the pattern of powerful, effective prayer (5:17-18)	“Elijah” (all versions)	Reinforces the “Prayer and Healing” doctrine with a concrete OT example	Low. Proper name; reuse the established Myanmar Bible OT form (already listed in the baseline’s transliteration standards for OT proper names, e.g., Isaiah = ဟေရှာယ; Elijah = ဧလိယ, standard Myanmar Bible spelling).

Summary of New Forbidden-Substitution Items Introduced by James (to be added to Phase 2 AI instructions)

Works (ἔργα) / faith-completing works — never render or teach as ကုသိုလ် (merit accumulation).
Perfect/complete (τέλειος family) — never render with ပါရမီ (the ten Bodhisatta perfections).
Wisdom (σοφία) — must always be qualified as God-given, requested wisdom; never presented as self-attained ပညာ (paññā) in the Buddhist liberating-insight sense without explicit contrast.
Hell (γέεννα) — never taught as equivalent to the temporary, karma-based ငရဲ realms of the rebirth cycle; must carry a distinguishing note every occurrence.
“Wheel/course of life” (τροχὸς τῆς γενέσεως, 3:6) — never rendered with သံသရာ or wheel/cycle-of-rebirth imagery.
The Lord’s coming (παρουσία) — never conflated with မိတ္တေယျ (Metteyya, the future Buddha).
Physical healing “save”/“raise” (σῴζω, ἐγείρω in 5:15) — never rendered with the Critical-risk baseline terms reserved for soteriological salvation (ကယ်တင်ခြင်း) or bodily resurrection (ထမြောက်ခြင်း).

(See 08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated per-term glossary table with full risk tiers and doctrine mapping.)

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