Semantic Analysis

07 Semantic Analysis — Matthew 1–28 (Koine Greek → Burmese)

Method and Scope

This analysis follows the mandate of Phase 1 Step 1: full-book coverage of Matthew in the original Koine Greek, with the core passage (Matthew 5:1–12, the Beatitudes) receiving verse-by-verse treatment, and every other chapter receiving a chapter-level treatment of its load-bearing theological terms. Every term already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json is reused exactly — it is not re-litigated here except to note new Matthew-specific senses or collocations (e.g., “kingdom of heaven” alongside the baseline “kingdom of God”). New terms required by Matthew’s distinct vocabulary and doctrines are analyzed in full and proposed for addition to the language package in 08_core_glossary.md.

Field key applied to every term below: Original (Greek word), Transliteration, Literal meaning, Semantic range, English variants, Contextual theological meaning (in Matthew), Burmese rendering (with transliteration), Risk tier and rationale.

Baseline-reused terms are marked [BASELINE — REUSED, no change] and given only a short cross-reference rather than a full re-derivation, per the hard rule that established renderings must be reused exactly.

PART 1 — CORE PASSAGE: Matthew 5:1–12 (The Beatitudes) — Verse-by-Verse

Matthew 5:1

Greek: Ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ὄχλους ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ ὄρος, καὶ καθίσαντος αὐτοῦ προσῆλθαν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ.

ὄχλος (ochlos) — Literal: “crowd, throng.” Semantic range: an undifferentiated mass of people, sometimes with a connotation of the untaught or vulnerable multitude (cf. Matt 9:36). English variants: “crowds,” “multitudes.” Contextual meaning: the crowd is present but Jesus turns first to teach his committed followers — setting up the Sermon on the Mount as covenant instruction for disciples, overheard by the crowd. Burmese: လူအုပ် (lu-ok). Risk: Low. No ready collision; standard vocabulary.
μαθητής (mathētēs) — Literal: “learner, one who is taught.” Semantic range: in Hellenistic usage, a student attached to a teacher’s school; in Matthew, one bound to Jesus in committed, life-reordering allegiance, not mere academic enrollment. English variants: “disciple,” “follower,” “student.” Contextual meaning: introduces Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus as the frame for the whole Sermon. Burmese: တပည့်တော် (tapyedaw). Risk: Medium. Burmese religious culture has a well-understood teacher–pupil bond (ဆရာ–တပည့်) including the monk–novice relationship; the risk is that “disciple” is flattened into a temporary academic or apprenticeship tie rather than the total, exclusive, life-reordering allegiance Matthew intends. Teaching notes should stress permanence and total re-orientation of life around Jesus as the Teacher of unique authority (see “authority,” Matt 7).

Matthew 5:2

Greek: καὶ ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ ἐδίδασκεν αὐτοὺς λέγων·

διδάσκω (didaskō) — Literal: “to teach.” Semantic range: formal, authoritative instruction, distinct from casual conversation. English variants: “taught,” “began to teach.” Contextual meaning: Jesus is presented as the authoritative Teacher of a new covenant ethic, not one voice among several rabbis — feeding directly into The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching, developed fully at 7:28–29 (“the crowds were astonished… for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes”). Burmese: သွန်သင်ခြင်း (thun-thin chin). Risk: Medium. Burmese hearers readily map “teaching” onto the respected monastic role of imparting Dhamma; the distinguishing claim — that Jesus teaches with the innate, non-derived authority (ἐξουσία) of the divine Son, not the derived authority of a scholar citing tradition — must be carried by context and reinforced in ch. 7 notes, not by this verb alone.

Matthew 5:3

Greek: Μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

μακάριος (makarios) — Literal: “blessed, happy, fortunate.” Semantic range: in Greco-Roman usage, denotes a state of flourishing or divine favor; in the LXX/NT it pronounces God’s own verdict of favor on a person or condition, often surprising by ordinary standards. English variants: “blessed,” “happy,” “fortunate,” “favored.” Contextual meaning: opens each Beatitude as a divine pronouncement — not advice on how to become fortunate, but a declaration of God’s present verdict on those the world does not consider fortunate. Burmese: မင်္ဂလာရှိသော (mingala shi thaw). Risk: CRITICAL. မင်္ဂလာ is the central term of the Mangala Sutta (မင်္ဂလသုတ်), one of the most widely known and recited Buddhist texts in Myanmar, listing 38 auspicious conditions/practices that secure good fortune and protection through right conduct. Burmese hearers will spontaneously map “မင်္ဂလာရှိသော” onto this framework: auspiciousness earned by correct behavior. Jesus’ Beatitudes invert this logic — they pronounce God’s favor on the poor, the mourning, and the persecuted, precisely the people a merit/auspiciousness framework would call unfortunate. Every occurrence requires a translator note: this is God’s sovereign, favor-granting verdict on those who lack worldly or religious standing, not a list of behaviors that generate auspicious outcomes.
πτωχός τῷ πνεύματι (ptōchos tō pneumati) — Literal: “poor/destitute in the spirit.” Semantic range: πτωχός denotes not relative want but abject destitution (a beggar with nothing); paired with πνεῦμα it describes a person’s inward posture of total spiritual bankruptcy and dependence on God, not literal material poverty and not a low IQ or lack of willpower. English variants: “poor in spirit,” “spiritually poor,” “humble in spirit.” Contextual meaning: names the entry posture into the Kingdom of Heaven — total dependence on grace, not merit. Burmese: ဝိညာဉ်တွင် ဆင်းရဲသော (weinnyin twin sinyay thaw). Risk: High. Risk of being heard as a claim about literal poverty or personal spiritual weakness/failure, rather than the posture of unmerited dependence that opens onto grace (ကျေးဇူးတော်, baseline). Must be taught alongside the grace doctrine’s core distinction from merit-accumulation.
βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν (basileia tōn ouranōn) — Literal: “kingdom/reign of the heavens.” Semantic range: Matthew’s characteristic phrase (used ~32 times, vs. “kingdom of God” only 4 times) for God’s sovereign, inbreaking reign, emphasizing its heavenly origin and eschatological consummation, while remaining the same reality as “the kingdom of God” used by Paul and the other Gospels (cf. baseline kingdom_of_god). English variants: “kingdom of heaven,” “heavenly kingdom,” “reign of heaven.” Contextual meaning: the central organizing theme of Matthew and of this curriculum’s first doctrine (The Kingdom of Heaven) — God’s present-and-coming reign, inaugurated by Jesus, entered by the poor in spirit, not by ethnic, ritual, or merit qualification. Burmese: ကောင်းကင်နိုင်ငံတော် (kaungkin-nainggan-taw). Risk: CRITICAL. Two distinct collision risks converge: (1) Burmese cosmology includes multiple heavenly realms (နတ်ပြည်/deva-loka) attained by accumulated merit (ကုသိုလ်) and lost again when that merit is exhausted — “heaven” here must be taught as God’s own eternal sovereign reign entered by grace through faith, not a temporary meritorious rebirth-destination within samsara. (2) The relationship between “ကောင်းကင်နိုင်ငံတော်” (this document, Matthew) and “ဘုရားသခင်၏နိုင်ငံတော်” (baseline, Romans/other NT books) must be explicitly taught as the same divine reign under two biblical phrasings, not two different kingdoms — this note must accompany the first occurrence in every Matthew lesson to avoid confusing learners moving between Romans and Matthew curricula.

Matthew 5:4

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται.

πενθέω (pentheō) — Literal: “to mourn, grieve.” Semantic range: deep grief, often over loss or over sin (cf. 2 Cor 7:10 “godly grief”); in this context best read as grief over sin and brokenness, one’s own and the world’s. English variants: “mourn,” “grieve,” “sorrow.” Burmese: ဝမ်းနည်းသော (wanne-nay thaw). Risk: Low-Medium. Minor risk of being heard only as ordinary bereavement rather than the specific posture of grief over sin/brokenness that Kingdom comfort answers.
παρακαλέω (parakaleō, passive παρακληθήσονται) — Literal: “to call alongside, to comfort/console.” Semantic range: encouragement, exhortation, or comfort depending on context (cf. baseline exhort, which notes this same verb’s context-sensitivity). Here the divine passive implies God himself is the comforter. English variants: “comforted,” “consoled.” Contextual meaning: God’s own consolation answers grief over sin — an eschatological reversal, not a psychological technique. Burmese: နှစ်သိမ့်ခြင်းခံရမည် (hnit-thein chin khan ya-mei). Risk: Medium. Should be distinguished from self-generated equanimity cultivated through meditative detachment (a common Buddhist framing of overcoming grief); this is comfort given by a personal God, received, not self-produced.

Matthew 5:5

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πραεῖς, ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσιν τὴν γῆν.

πραΰς (praus) — Literal: “gentle, mild, meek.” Semantic range: not weakness but strength held under control, particularly toward God’s will (cf. Matt 11:29, 21:5 of Jesus himself); the opposite of self-assertive force. English variants: “meek,” “gentle,” “humble.” Burmese: နူးညံ့သိမ်မွေ့သော (nu-nyan-thein-mway thaw). Risk: Medium. Burmese has strong cultural respect for outward gentleness/deference (a virtue prized in Buddhist social ethics), which can mask the specifically Christological content here — Jesus himself is “meek,” so this Beatitude is implicitly a call to Christlikeness, not generic social courtesy.
κληρονομέω (klēronomeō) — Literal: “to inherit.” Semantic range: to receive a possession by virtue of a designated relationship (usually familial), not by purchase or achievement. English variants: “inherit,” “receive as a possession.” Contextual meaning: echoes the promise of Psalm 37:11 and connects to the Adoption doctrine (baseline) — inheritance received by grace-given relationship, foreshadowing the full inheritance of the new earth. Burmese: အမွေခံရမည် (a-mway-khan ya-mei). Risk: Medium. Should retain the sense of a legal/familial inheritance right (as in baseline adoption notes on Burmese customary adoption already carrying full inheritance rights) rather than a prize won by achievement.

Matthew 5:6

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην, ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται.

πεινάω / διψάω (peinaō / dipsaō) — Literal: “to hunger / to thirst.” Semantic range: intense, felt physical need, used metaphorically for intense spiritual longing. English variants: “hunger and thirst.” Burmese: ဆာလောင်ခြင်းနှင့် ရေငတ်ခြင်း (sa-laung chin nhint yay-ngat chin). Risk: Low. Straightforward metaphor, well understood.
δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē) — [BASELINE — REUSED, no change]. Burmese: ဖြောင့်မတ်ခြင်း (baseline righteousness, Critical). Contextual meaning here: not merely a desired legal verdict (as emphasized in Romans) but a hungered-for way of life and right standing that only God supplies — the same Critical risk applies (never ကုသိုလ်ကံ/သီလ), reinforced here by the added collision that “hungering/thirsting for right conduct” could be misheard as ascetic craving for merit through spiritual discipline (fasting, precept-keeping) rather than a Spirit-given longing that God himself satisfies (χορτασθήσονται, “shall be satisfied/filled,” Burmese ဝပြောစေတော်မူမည်).

Matthew 5:7

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.

ἐλεήμων (eleēmōn) / ἔλεος (eleos) — Literal: “merciful / mercy.” Semantic range: compassionate action toward those in need or distress, especially when one has power or right to withhold it. English variants: “merciful,” “compassionate.” Contextual meaning: mercy shown reflects and anticipates the mercy received from God — a reciprocity theme developed fully in the unmerciful servant parable (Matt 18:21-35). Burmese: သနားကြင်နာသော (thanar-kyinnar thaw). Risk: Low-Medium. Generally well mapped in Burmese (a highly valued virtue also in Buddhist ethics, e.g., မေတ္တာ/ကရုဏာ), but should be distinguished from ကရုဏာ as a self-cultivated meditative virtue (loving-kindness meditation) practiced for one’s own merit; here mercy is relational obedience flowing from having received God’s own mercy.

Matthew 5:8

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὅτι αὐτοὶ τὸν Θεὸν ὄψονται.

καθαρός τῇ καρδί�ᾳ (katharos tē kardia) — Literal: “pure/clean in the heart.” Semantic range: καθαρός ranges from ritual/ceremonial cleanness to inward moral purity; paired with καρδία (the seat of will, thought, and moral disposition, not merely emotion) it denotes undivided, sincere moral integrity before God. English variants: “pure in heart,” “clean-hearted.” Contextual meaning: promises the beatific vision — seeing God — to those with undivided moral sincerity, a gift and fruit of grace, not a status achieved through ritual or meditative purification. Burmese: နှလုံးသားစင်ကြယ်သော (hlonbon-thar sin-kyay thaw). Risk: High. The baseline explicitly flags စင်ကြယ် (rejected for “holy,” Romans TM) as leaning toward ritual/ceremonial cleanliness; here the same word must be redirected toward moral-relational sincerity of the inner person, and distinguished from the meditative purification of the mind (စိတ်ကို စင်ကြယ်အောင်ပြုလုပ်ခြင်း, vipassana/samatha practice) pursued for one’s own attainment. This is one of the highest-risk terms in the passage precisely because it reuses vocabulary the baseline had already flagged in another connection.

Matthew 5:9

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί, ὅτι αὐτοὶ υἱοὶ Θεοῦ κληθήσονται.

εἰρηνοποιός (eirēnopoios) — Literal: “peace-maker” (compound of εἰρήνη “peace” + ποιέω “to make”). Semantic range: one who actively creates reconciliation, not merely one who avoids conflict. English variants: “peacemaker.” Burmese: ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်းကိုပြုသူ (nyeinthet-chin ko pyu thu), built on baseline [BASELINE — REUSED] peace = ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်း. Risk: Medium. Baseline notes already distinguish ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်း from meditative stilling of mental defilements (ကိလေသာ); here the added risk is reducing “peacemaking” to passive social harmony-keeping (a highly prized value in Burmese communal culture) rather than active gospel-shaped reconciliation between estranged parties, reflecting the character of God the reconciler.
υἱοὶ Θεοῦ (huioi Theou) — Literal: “sons of God.” Semantic range: here plural and lower-case in force — believers granted filial standing with God, distinct from the unique, singular, eternal Sonship of Christ (baseline son_of_god, Critical, reserved for Christ’s unique deity). English variants: “sons of God,” “children of God.” Contextual meaning: connects directly to the Adoption doctrine (baseline) — this filial identity is declared (κληθήσονται, “shall be called,” reusing baseline called) by God as a status conferred, not achieved. Burmese: ဘုရားသခင်၏သားများ (Phayarthakhin i thar-myar), deliberately without the honorific “-တော်” reserved for Christ’s unique Sonship (ဘုရားသခင်၏သားတော်). Risk: Critical. The honorific distinction (သားတော် for Christ alone vs. သား for adopted believers) must be preserved consistently across the whole Matthew curriculum to avoid implying either that believers share Christ’s unique deity, or that Christ’s Sonship is merely the same adoptive kind as the believer’s.

Matthew 5:10

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

διώκω (diōkō, perfect passive δεδιωγμένοι) — Literal: “to pursue, chase, persecute.” Semantic range: active hostile pursuit intending harm, here specifically for righteousness’ sake. English variants: “persecuted.” Contextual meaning: launches the Discipleship and Cost of Following Jesus doctrine, developed further at 10:16-39 and throughout; the reward is the same Kingdom of Heaven named in v.3, forming an inclusio around the whole set of Beatitudes. Burmese: နှောင့်ယှက်ညှဉ်းဆဲခြင်းခံရသော (hnaung-yet-nyin-hsair-chin khan-ya thaw). Risk: Medium-High. In the contemporary Myanmar context, conversion from Buddhism and public identification with Christ carry genuine social and familial cost (as already flagged in the baseline’s evangelism doctrine note); this Beatitude should be taught pastorally, not merely doctrinally, given that risk is not hypothetical for many learners.

Matthew 5:11–12

Greek: μακάριοί ἐστε ὅταν ὀνειδίσωσιν ὑμᾶς καὶ διώξωσιν καὶ εἴπωσιν πᾶν πονηρὸν καθ᾿ ὑμῶν [ψευδόμενοι] ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ. χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, ὅτι ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν πολὺς ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· οὕτως γὰρ ἐδίωξαν τοὺς προφήτας τοὺς πρὸ ὑμῶν.

ὀνειδίζω (oneidizō) — Literal: “to revile, reproach, insult.” English variants: “revile,” “insult,” “mock.” Burmese: ကဲ့ရဲ့ခြင်း (ke-yeh chin). Risk: Low.
ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ (heneken emou) — “for my sake,” i.e., specifically on account of allegiance to Jesus, not persecution for any cause whatsoever. Risk: Medium — must not be generalized into “suffering for any principled stand,” which would blur the Christ-centered focus of the whole Sermon.
χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε (chairete kai agalliasthe) — Literal: “rejoice and exult greatly.” Semantic range: ἀγαλλιάω intensifies χαίρω, expressing exuberant, leaping joy, often in an eschatological or worship context (cf. LXX Psalms). English variants: “rejoice and be glad,” “rejoice exceedingly.” Burmese: ဝမ်းမြောက်ရွှင်လန်းကြလော့ (wanmyauk-shwinlan kya-lawt). Risk: Low.
μισθός (misthos) — Literal: “wages, pay, reward.” Semantic range: originally commercial (a laborer’s due wage), extended metaphorically to God’s gracious reckoning toward his people. English variants: “reward,” “wages,” “recompense.” Contextual meaning: the reward is “in the heavens” — future, kingdom-scaled, and given by grace in response to faithful endurance, not earned by merit-transaction. Burmese: ဆုလာဘ် (su-larhat). Risk: High. ဆုလာဘ် risks being heard within the merit/karma framework as a reward accrued proportionally to good deeds performed (ကုသိုလ်ဆုလာဘ်) — precisely the logic the baseline’s grace entry (Critical) works to exclude. Every occurrence of this term in Matthew (5:12; 6:1-6,16-18; 10:41-42; 20:8) should carry a note reinforcing that the reward flows from grace and covenant relationship with the Father, not from a running merit ledger.
προφήτης (prophētēs) — [BASELINE — REUSED, no change]. Burmese: ပရောဖက် (baseline prophet, Low risk). Contextual meaning here: the disciples’ persecution is placed in continuity with the persecuted prophets of Israel’s history, reinforcing Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy as a controlling theme of the whole Gospel.

PART 2 — WHOLE-BOOK CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER ANALYSIS (Matthew 1–28)

Chapter 1 — Genealogy and Virgin Birth

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning in Matthew	Burmese rendering (translit.)	Risk & rationale
Son of David	υἱὸς Δαυίδ (huios Dauid)	“son of David”	Messianic royal title claiming Davidic lineage and covenant right to Israel’s throne, distinct from baseline `seed_of_david`’s genealogical-descent framing	”Son of David”	Opens the Gospel (1:1) identifying Jesus as the promised royal Messiah; recurs as a title of address (9:27; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9,15)	ဒါဝိဒ်၏သားတော် (Dawid i tharadaw)	High. Distinct from baseline `seed_of_david` (ဒါဝိဒ်၏အနွယ်ဝင်, descent-language for Romans 1:3); here it is a direct messianic title of address/acclamation and requires the honorific “-တော်.” Requires OT Davidic Covenant background teaching (per baseline `davidic_covenant`) for a Burmese audience with no analogous royal-line covenant concept.
Christ / Messiah	Χριστός (Christos)	“Anointed One”	Titular use, the Greek equivalent of Hebrew Mashiach	”Christ,” “Messiah”	1:1,16-18 — establishes Jesus as the Messiah of Israel from the genealogy’s first verse	ခရစ်တော် (Khayitto) — established Christian proper-title form (see baseline TM system prompt); doctrinal content = baseline `messiah` (မေရှိယ)	Critical. Reuses baseline `messiah` doctrine exactly: never conflate with မိတ္တေယျ (Metteyya, the future Buddha of Theravada expectation).
Virgin	παρθένος (parthenos)	“virgin, unmarried young woman”	In Matthew’s citation of Isaiah 7:14, denotes a woman who has not had sexual relations, essential to the miraculous, non-ordinary conception	”virgin”	1:23, citing Isaiah 7:14 — grounds the Incarnation doctrine in a literal, non-metaphorical virginal conception by the Holy Spirit	ကညာမ (kanya-ma)	Critical. Must be taught as a unique, once-for-all, literal miracle of the Holy Spirit’s direct agency (see baseline `incarnation`, `holy_spirit`), not assimilated to Burmese folk narratives of miraculous or spirit-conceived births (e.g., nat-husband tales) nor to Buddhist Jataka birth legends of a bodhisatta’s conception, which are framed within karma and rebirth rather than a unique divine act by a personal, eternal God.
Immanuel	Ἐμμανουήλ (Emmanouēl)	“God with us” (Hebrew עִמָּנוּ אֵל)	A theophoric name, explicitly glossed by Matthew himself	”Immanuel,” “God with us”	1:23 — Matthew supplies the gloss “μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός” (God with us) immediately, anchoring the Incarnation and Deity of Christ doctrines together	ဣမ္မာနွေလ (transliteration), glossed ငါတို့နှင့်အတူရှိတော်မူသောဘုရား	Critical. Directly ties to baseline `god` (ဘုရားသခင်) and `incarnation`; the gloss must always accompany the transliteration so learners do not treat it as an unexplained foreign name.
Holy Spirit (conception)	Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον (Pneuma Hagion)	—	[BASELINE — REUSED, no change]	“Holy Spirit”	1:18,20 — the Spirit’s direct agency in the incarnation, not a human father	သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော် (baseline `holy_spirit`, Critical)	Critical, per baseline: never ဝိညာဉ် alone or နတ်ဝိညာဉ်.
Jesus	Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous)	“YHWH saves”	[BASELINE — REUSED, no change]	“Jesus”	1:21,25 — named for his saving mission (“he will save his people from their sins”)	ယေရှု (baseline `jesus`, Critical)	Critical, per baseline.

Chapter 2 — Magi, Herod, Flight to Egypt

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Magi	μάγοι (magoi)	“magi, wise men/astrologers” from the east	Persian/Babylonian court class of astrologer-sages	”wise men,” “magi”	2:1-12 — Gentile astrologers, not Israelites, are the first worshippers of the newborn King, foreshadowing the Gentile inclusion doctrine developed later	မာဂု ပညာရှိများ (Magu pyinnyar-shi-myar)	Medium. Their star-following practice risks being read as an endorsement of astrology (ဗေဒင်), which the baseline already flags as incompatible with biblical prophecy/God’s providence (`prophet`, `providence` entries). Teaching note: their coming to worship the true King, not their astrological method, is what Matthew commends.
Fulfilled	πληρωθῇ / ἐπληρώθη (plēroō)	“to fill up, complete, bring to full realized meaning”	Matthew’s signature formula (“that it might be fulfilled…”) recurs across the whole Gospel	”fulfilled,” “so that it might come true”	2:15 (Hosea 11:1, “out of Egypt”), 2:17-18 (Jeremiah 31:15, Rachel weeping), 2:23 (Nazarene) — establishes the Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy doctrine as structural to the whole Gospel	ပြည့်စုံစေခြင်း (pyi-sohn say chin)	High. Must convey linear, historically anchored, one-time fulfillment of a specific prior divine word — not the cyclical recurrence of world-ages (ကမ္ဘာ) in Buddhist cosmology, and not generic coincidence. Directly extends baseline `fulfillment_of_prophecy` doctrine (High) into Matthew’s most frequently repeated formula.
Herod (proper name)	Ἡρῴδης (Hērōdēs)	—	Proper name, historical king	”Herod”	2:1-19 — political hostility to the promised King, foreshadowing the passion narrative’s hostility from earthly power	ဟေရုဒ် (Hayrote)	Low. Proper name; establish consistent transliteration for the whole curriculum (distinguish Herod the Great, ch.2, from Herod Antipas, ch.14, and Herod Antipas again in the passion narrative if referenced).

Chapter 3 — John the Baptist, Repentance, Baptism

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Repent / repentance	μετανοέω / μετάνοια (metanoeō / metanoia)	“to change one’s mind,” a complete reorientation of mind and life	Moral-spiritual turning from sin toward God, not mere regret	”repent,” “repentance”	3:2,8,11 — John’s preaching prepares for the Kingdom of Heaven’s arrival by calling for a decisive, fruit-bearing turn from sin	နောင်တရခြင်း (naung-ta-ya chin)	High. Must be distinguished from ritual confession before the Triple Gem before a Buddhist ceremony (ဝန်ချတောင်းပန်ခြင်း), which acknowledges a fault without necessarily entailing sorrow before, or reconciliation with, a personal God; biblical repentance is relational reorientation toward the one true God who forgives.
Kingdom of heaven	βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν (basileia tōn ouranōn)	—	See full entry at core passage, Matt 5:3	”kingdom of heaven”	3:2 — “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” — the phrase’s first occurrence in the Gospel, chronologically prior to its full treatment at 5:3	ကောင်းကင်နိုင်ငံတော်	Critical — see core passage entry for full rationale.
Baptism / baptize	βάπτισμα / βαπτίζω (baptisma / baptizō)	“to dip, immerse”	A ritual act of immersion in water, here signifying repentance and preparation, later (28:19) becoming the sign of entry into discipleship	”baptism,” “baptize”	3:6,11,13-17 — John’s baptism of repentance, distinguished from Jesus’ future baptism “with the Holy Spirit and fire”; Jesus’ own baptism inaugurates his public ministry and receives the Father’s and Spirit’s confirmation	ဗတ္တိဇံ ခံယူခြင်း (Battizan khan-yu chin)	Medium-High. Must be distinguished from ritual water-purification/bathing practices at pagodas (already flagged for baseline `sanctification`); baptism here is a decisive, once-for-all sign of repentance and covenant identification, not a repeatable ritual cleansing.
Beloved Son / voice from heaven	Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός (Houtos estin ho huios mou ho agapētos)	“This is my beloved Son”	The Father’s direct verbal testimony	”my beloved Son,” “This is my Son, whom I love”	3:17 — the Father’s own voice confirms the Sonship of Christ (baseline Critical doctrine) at the outset of Jesus’ ministry, paralleling 17:5 at the Transfiguration	ဤသူသည် ငါချစ်သော သားတော် ဖြစ်၏	Critical — reuses baseline `son_of_god` doctrine exactly; the honorific “-တော်” must be retained.

Chapter 4 — Temptation, Calling of Disciples

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Devil / Satan	διάβολος / Σατανᾶς (diabolos / Satanas)	“slanderer, accuser” / “adversary” (Heb. שָׂטָן)	A single, personal, malevolent spiritual being who opposes God and tempts humanity	”devil,” “Satan,” “the tempter”	4:1-11 — Jesus, unlike Israel in the wilderness, resists every temptation with Scripture, establishing his sinless authority to redeem	မာရ်နတ် (Mareknat) / စာတန် (Satan, transliteration)	CRITICAL. မာရ်နတ် is the established Myanmar Christian rendering, but it directly borrows the name of Māra, the tempter-deity of Burmese Buddhist cosmology who unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. This is a genuine collision requiring sustained catechesis: biblical Satan is not a defeated deity within an endless cycle of rebirth, but the singular created adversary of the one eternal God, already under God’s ultimate sovereignty and finally to be judged (cf. Matt 25:41). This term must always carry a translator note on first occurrence in any Matthew lesson.
Wilderness / temptation	ἔρημος / πειρασμός (erēmos / peirasmos)	“desert, deserted place” / “trial, test”	Testing that may either strengthen or destroy faith depending on response	”wilderness,” “temptation,” “testing”	4:1 — deliberate echo of Israel’s forty years of testing; establishes Jesus as the true, obedient Israel/Son	ကျင်းပ/တောကန္တာရ (taw-kantara) — “wilderness”; စုံစမ်းခြင်း (soun-san chin) — “testing”	Medium. Should retain the sense of a genuine moral trial permitted for a purpose, distinguished from impersonal karmic testing of one’s accumulated merit.
Kingdom of heaven (preached)	—	—	See core passage entry	”kingdom of heaven”	4:17 — Jesus begins his public preaching with John’s own message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”	ကောင်းကင်နိုင်ငံတော်	Critical — reuse; no new analysis needed.
Fishers of men	ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων (halieis anthrōpōn)	“fishers of men”	Metaphor for gathering people into the Kingdom through gospel proclamation	”fishers of men”	4:18-22 — the call of the first disciples reframes their livelihood as a calling into mission	လူများကို ဆွဲငင်သောသူများ (lu-myar ko sweh-ngin thaw thu-myar)	Low-Medium. Minor risk of being read as manipulative “catching” rather than compassionate gathering into salvation; contextual teaching should clarify the gospel-proclamation sense.

Chapter 5 (continued: vv.13–48) — Salt, Light, Fulfilling the Law, Antitheses

(vv.1-12, the core passage, are treated fully in Part 1 above.)

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Fulfill (the Law)	πληρῶσαι (plērōsai)	“to fill up, complete, bring to intended fullness”	Same root as ch.2’s prophecy-fulfillment formula, here applied to the Law and Prophets themselves	”fulfill,” “complete”	5:17 — “I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them,” directly grounding Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees	ပြည့်စုံစေခြင်း	High. Must convey Jesus’ authoritative completion and true intent of the Law, not its abolition, and not a reduction of the Law to changeless external precept-observance (ပညတ်တရား, baseline).
Law and the Prophets	ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται (ho nomos kai hoi prophētai)	—	Combines baseline `law` and `prophet`, both [BASELINE — REUSED, no change]	“the Law and the Prophets”	5:17; 7:12; 22:40 — shorthand for the entirety of OT revelation	ပညတ်တရားနှင့် ပရောဖက်ကျမ်းများ	High, inherited from baseline `law` entry: ပညတ်တရား must never be confused with ဝိနည်း (Buddhist monastic Vinaya).
Righteousness (exceeding)	περισσεύῃ ἡ δικαιοσύνη ὑμῶν (perisseuē hē dikaiosynē hymōn)	“your righteousness exceeds/overflows”	Same baseline term, here in comparative construction against “the scribes and Pharisees” (5:20)	“righteousness surpassing/exceeding”	5:20 — names this curriculum’s doctrine, Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees: a righteousness that is inward and Spirit-produced, not merely a stricter external rule-keeping	ဖြောင့်မတ်ခြင်း (baseline, Critical)	Critical, inherited. The “exceeding” comparison must not be taught as “trying harder at merit-accumulation than the Pharisees” — the antitheses (5:21-48) that follow relocate righteousness from external act to internal disposition (anger as murder, lust as adultery), which if mishandled could still be heard as an intensified precept-list (a “stricter Vinaya”) rather than heart-level transformation flowing from grace.
Perfect	τέλειος (teleios)	“complete, mature, whole”	Not sinless moral perfectionism but wholehearted, undivided completeness of character reflecting God’s own	”perfect,” “complete,” “mature”	5:48 — “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” — the climax of the antitheses, calling for Christlike wholeness	စုံလင်သော (soun-lin thaw)	High. Risk of being heard as flawless moral achievement attainable by sufficient effort (echoing the graduated path to arahantship), rather than Spirit-enabled wholehearted love reflecting the Father’s own character; requires explicit distinction from a self-perfecting spiritual path.

Chapter 6 — Prayer, Fasting, Treasure, Anxiety

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Hypocrite	ὑποκριτής (hypokritēs)	“stage-actor, one who wears a mask”	A person whose outward religious performance does not match inward reality	”hypocrite”	6:2,5,16 — repeated critique of alms, prayer, and fasting done “to be seen by others,” directly relevant to Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees	ကြောင်ဖျင်းသူ / လျှို့ဝှက်လှုပ်ရှားသူ — Myanmar Bible convention: ကြောင်ဖျင်းဆရာ/ လျှို့ဝှက်သူ; recommend လျှို့ဝှက်ကြောင်ဖျင်းသူ	Medium. Should be taught as pretense before God specifically (not merely social hypocrisy), since public religious performance (almsgiving, fasting, visible devotion) carries strong social-merit value in Burmese Buddhist culture; the term must clarify that God sees the heart, not the public display.
Our Father / Lord’s Prayer	Πάτερ ἡμῶν (Pater hēmōn)	“Our Father”	[BASELINE — REUSED for `father`, no change], here in corporate/relational address	”Our Father,” “Lord’s Prayer”	6:9-13 — models prayer as intimate, filial address to a personal Father, not petition offered to impersonal cosmic forces or the 37 nats	အဖ (baseline) — full prayer opening: အကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏အဖ	Critical, per baseline `father`: never ဗြဟ္မာ. Directly reinforces the Prayer and Intercession doctrine (baseline), distinguished from petitioning nat-spirits for protection/favor.
Treasure in heaven	θησαυρὸς ἐν οὐρανῷ (thēsauros en ouranō)	“treasure in heaven”	Eternal, secure reward contrasted with perishable earthly wealth	”treasure in heaven”	6:19-21 — reorients the disciple’s ultimate loyalty and security	ကောင်းကင်ဘုံရှိ ဘဏ္ဍာ (kaungkinbon shi banda)	Medium. Risk of being read as merit stored up (ကုသိုလ်စုဆောင်းခြင်း, explicitly rejected in baseline’s `imputed_righteousness` entry) rather than treasure that is a fruit of grace-shaped devotion and generosity; teaching note should draw this contrast explicitly.
Seek first the kingdom	ζητεῖτε δὲ πρῶτον τὴν βασιλείαν (zēteite de prōton tēn basileian)	“seek first the kingdom”	Priority-ordering of ultimate loyalty	”seek first the kingdom of God/heaven”	6:33 — ties anxiety over provision to trust in God’s Providence (baseline doctrine) and kingdom priority	ရှေးဦးစွာ နိုင်ငံတော်ကို ရှာကြလော့	Medium-High, reusing `kingdom_of_heaven`/`kingdom_of_god` (Critical) and `providence` (High, baseline): God’s personal care for provision, never ကံ (impersonal karmic cause-and-effect).

Chapter 7 — Judging, Narrow Gate, Authority of Teaching

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Narrow gate / way	στενὴ πύλη / ὁδός (stenē pylē / hodos)	“narrow gate/way”	Exclusive, demanding path, contrasted with the “wide” easy path to destruction	”narrow gate,” “narrow way”	7:13-14 — reinforces exclusivity of the Kingdom’s entry, tied to Discipleship’s Cost	ကျဉ်းသောတံခါး (kyin-thaw tan-khar)	Medium. Must retain the exclusivity claim without being softened into “one path among several equally valid ones,” a live risk given Burma’s religiously plural context.
False prophets	ψευδοπροφῆται (pseudoprophētai)	“false prophets”	Uses baseline `prophet` root negatively	”false prophets”	7:15-20 — tested by fruit, not appearance (“wolves in sheep’s clothing”)	မိစ္ဆာပရောဖက် (baseline root ပရောဖက်, prefixed မိစ္ဆာ “false/wrong”)	Medium, inherited from baseline `prophet` (Low) but elevated here because false-teacher discernment is a live pastoral concern for the target audience.
Authority (of Jesus’ teaching)	ἐξουσία (exousia)	“authority, right, power to act”	Ranges from delegated administrative authority to inherent divine authority; distinct from raw force (δύναμις)	“authority,” “power”	7:28-29 — “he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” — the capstone statement of The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching doctrine, recurring at 9:6,8; 21:23-27; 28:18	အခွင့်အာဏာ (a-khwin-arna)	High. Burmese အာဏာ carries strong political/military connotations (state or ruling power); teaching must clarify that Jesus’ authority is inherent, non-derived divine authority (unlike a scribe citing tradition, or a king ruling by force), which becomes the ground for both his teaching (ch.7), his forgiving sins (ch.9), and his commissioning of the church (ch.28) — one unified claim traced across the whole Gospel.

Chapter 8 — Miracles, Faith, the Centurion

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Faith (great faith)	πίστις (pistis)	—	[BASELINE — REUSED, no change]	“faith”	8:10 — the centurion’s faith, a Gentile, exceeds that found “in Israel,” anticipating the Great Commission’s scope	ယုံကြည်ခြင်း (baseline `faith`, Medium)	Medium, inherited. Object of faith is specifically Jesus’ authoritative word, distinguished from သဒ္ဓါ’s experiential confidence per baseline notes.
Son of Man (no place to lay head)	ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (ho huios tou anthrōpou)	“the son of man”	See full treatment at ch.9 below (first major theological use); here a self-designation of humility and homelessness in mission	”Son of Man”	8:20	လူသား (lu-thar)	Critical — see ch.9 full entry.

Chapter 9 — Authority to Forgive Sins, Calling of Matthew

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Son of Man	ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (ho huios tou anthrōpou)	“the son of man”	A title drawn from Daniel 7:13-14 denoting a divine-human figure who receives everlasting dominion from God; Jesus’ most frequent self-designation in the Gospels, deliberately ambiguous (sounds merely human) yet carrying full messianic-divine freight	”Son of Man”	9:6 — “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” directly linking this title to divine prerogative (only God forgives sins) and to The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching doctrine; recurs at 12:8 (Lord of the Sabbath), 16:13, 24:27-44 (end-time coming), 26:64 (trial)	လူသား (lu-thar)	Critical. This is Jesus’ preferred self-title in Matthew and must never be flattened to a mere synonym for “a human being” or “humanity in general.” It must be taught with its Danielic background as a claim to divine authority and eschatological glory exercised in human form — directly reinforcing both the Incarnation and Deity of Christ doctrines (baseline, Critical) and requiring sustained catechesis since Burmese has no ready parallel category.
Tax collectors and sinners	τελῶναι καὶ ἁμαρτωλοί (telōnai kai hamartōloi)	“tax collectors and sinners”	Social category of the religiously and morally marginalized in first-century Judaism	”tax collectors and sinners”	9:10-13 — Jesus’ table fellowship with social/religious outcasts, defending it with “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (quoting Hosea 6:6)	အခွန်ခံသူများနှင့် အပြစ်ရှိသူများ	Medium. Reuses baseline `sin` (High); the pastoral point — grace extended to the socially despised — must not be diluted into a message about social inclusion alone, detached from the deeper reality of sin and grace.
Physician (need of)	ἰατρός (iatros)	“physician, healer”	Metaphor: those who know their sickness seek a doctor	”physician”	9:12 — “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”	ဆေးဆရာ (hsay-hsaya)	Low. Minor risk of reading as literal medical healing only rather than the spiritual-sickness metaphor for sin.
New wine, new wineskins	οἶνον νέον εἰς ἀσκοὺς καινούς (oinon neon eis askous kainous)	“new wine into new skins”	Metaphor for the incompatibility of the in-breaking Kingdom’s newness with the old covenant’s forms	”new wine in new wineskins”	9:17 — signals that Jesus’ kingdom ministry cannot simply be poured into unreformed old religious structures	အသစ်သောစည်ပုံများတွင် အသစ်သောဝိုင်ရည်	Medium. Should not be read merely as “innovation is generally good” but as the specific claim that the Kingdom’s arrival requires new covenant realities, tying to Fulfillment of Prophecy and the newness of the New Covenant (developed fully at 26:28).

Chapter 10 — The Sending of the Twelve, Discipleship’s Cost

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Apostle	ἀπόστολος (apostolos)	—	[BASELINE — REUSED, no change]	“apostle”	10:2 — “the names of the twelve apostles,” the first formal listing, grounding the Apostleship doctrine developed further at 28:16-20	တမန်တော် (baseline, Medium)	Medium, inherited: distinguish from senior-monk (ဆရာတော်) connotation.
Not peace but a sword	οὐκ ἦλθον βαλεῖν εἰρήνην ἀλλὰ μάχαιραν (ouk ēlthon balein eirēnēn alla machairan)	“I did not come to bring peace but a sword”	Figurative: the gospel’s arrival provokes division, even within families, not literal violence	”not peace but a sword,” “division”	10:34-36 — a hard word preparing disciples for the social cost of allegiance to Christ, directly serving Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus	ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်းကို မငါဆောင်ခဲ့သော်လည်း ဓားကို ဆောင်ခဲ့ခြင်း	High. Must not be misread as endorsing literal violence; the point is relational/familial division caused by allegiance to Christ, acutely relevant where conversion divides Burmese Buddhist families — must be taught pastorally alongside `peace` (baseline).
Take up the cross / lose life to find it	ὁ μὴ λαμβάνων τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ… ὁ εὑρὼν τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἀπολέσει αὐτήν (ho mē lambanōn ton stauron autou… ho heurōn tēn psychēn autou apolesei autēn)	“the one not taking up his cross… the one finding his life will lose it”	σταυρός: the Roman instrument of execution, here a metaphor for total self-surrendering allegiance even unto death; ψυχή: “soul/life” in the sense of one’s whole self and its claims to autonomy	”take up the cross,” “lose one’s life to find it”	10:38-39 (developed fully at 16:24-25) — the definitive statement of the cost of discipleship	လက်ဝါးကပ်တိုင်ကို ထမ်းရွက်ခြင်း / အသက်ရှင်ရန်အသက်ကို စွန့်ခြင်း	Critical. Requires the historical reality of Roman crucifixion to be taught (an unfamiliar mode of execution in Burmese context) so “take up the cross” is not flattened into a vague idiom for “endure hardship,” but understood as total, costly, even life-risking allegiance to the crucified and risen Christ.
Send / sending (mission of the Twelve)	ἀποστέλλω (apostellō)	“to send out with a commission”	Root of “apostle”; delegated, authorized sending	”sent,” “sending”	10:5,16 — anticipates the Great Commission (28:19) in miniature, restricted here to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (10:6)	စေလွှတ်ခြင်း (say-hlwot chin)	Medium, reuses baseline `mission` root (သာသနာပြု doctrine) — same translator-note caution applies regarding Buddhist Sasana-institutional connotations.

Chapter 11 — John the Baptist’s Question, Rest for the Weary

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
”The one who is to come”	ὁ ἐρχόμενος (ho erchomenos)	“the coming one”	Messianic self-reference echoing OT expectation	”the one who is to come,” “he who was to come”	11:2-6 — John’s disciples ask if Jesus is the promised Messiah; Jesus answers with fulfilled-prophecy signs (Isaiah 35:5-6; 61:1)	ကြွလာမည့်သူ (kywa-la-meh thu)	High. Directly reinforces Messianic Promise (Critical, baseline) and Fulfillment of Prophecy; Jesus’ answer (healing, gospel to the poor) is itself evidence, requiring OT background teaching for full force.
Yoke / rest	ζυγός / ἀνάπαυσις (zygos / anapausis)	“yoke” (a wooden crosspiece binding draft animals, metaphor for a rabbi’s or law’s binding teaching) / “rest, repose”	Contrasts Jesus’ “easy” yoke and “light” burden with the burdensome interpretive traditions of the Pharisees	”my yoke is easy,” “rest for your souls”	11:28-30 — a gracious invitation, directly reinforcing Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees by contrasting Jesus’ liberating authority with the burdensome legal tradition of the scribes	ဝန်ထုပ် (wan-htote, “yoke/burden”) / အနားယူခြင်း (a-nar-yu chin, “rest”)	Medium-High. Must not be read as an invitation to a lighter set of precepts to keep (still merit-framed), but as rest found in relationship with Christ himself, who has already fulfilled the Law on the disciple’s behalf.

Chapter 12 — Sabbath, Blasphemy Against the Spirit, Sign of Jonah

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Sabbath / Lord of the Sabbath	σάββατον / κύριος τοῦ σαββάτου (sabbaton / kyrios tou sabbatou)	“Sabbath” / “lord of the Sabbath”	The seventh-day rest commanded in the Law; Jesus claims sovereign authority even over this institution	”Sabbath,” “Lord of the Sabbath”	12:1-8 — reuses baseline `law` and `lord`; Jesus’ claim to be “Lord of the Sabbath” is a direct claim to divine authority, extending the Authority of Jesus’ Teaching doctrine over the Law itself	ဥပုသ်နေ့ (Upositne’) — established Myanmar term / သခင် (baseline `lord`, Critical)	High. ဥပုသ်နေ့ (Uposatha day) is also the name of the Buddhist observance day (precept-keeping, temple attendance); teaching should distinguish the Sabbath’s covenantal, creation-rooted rest from a day of merit-generating religious observance, while Jesus’ lordship claim over it reuses the Critical baseline `lord` doctrine exactly.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit	βλασφημία εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα (blasphēmia eis to Pneuma)	“slander/blasphemy against the Spirit”	The unforgivable sin: a settled, willful attribution of the Spirit’s clearly divine work to an evil source	”unpardonable sin,” “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”	12:31-32 — a uniquely severe warning, reusing baseline `holy_spirit` (Critical)	သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော်ကို ကဲ့ရဲ့ခြင်း	Critical. Must be taught precisely (a settled hostile rejection of the Spirit’s clear witness to Christ, not any single doubt or sin) to avoid inducing false despair; reinforces the personal, divine identity of the Spirit against baseline’s warning against impersonal “spirit” renderings.
Sign of Jonah	τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ (to sēmeion Iōna)	“the sign of Jonah”	Typological reference: as Jonah was three days in the fish, so the Son of Man will be three days in the earth	”sign of Jonah”	12:39-41 — an explicit prophecy of the Resurrection (baseline Critical doctrine), tying Fulfillment of Prophecy directly to that event before it occurs	ယောနာ၏အမှတ်လက္ခဏာ	High. Requires the Jonah narrative background; sets up ch.28’s resurrection as the fulfillment of Jesus’ own prediction here, reinforcing the “predicted-then-fulfilled” pattern central to this Gospel’s apologetic.

Chapter 13 — Parables of the Kingdom

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Parable	παραβολή (parabolē)	“a placing beside,” a comparison/analogy	An extended figurative narrative that both reveals and conceals, depending on the hearer’s disposition	”parable”	13:3,10-17 — Jesus’ primary teaching form in this chapter; explicitly said to reveal Kingdom “mysteries” to disciples while concealing them from the crowds (13:11-15, citing Isaiah 6:9-10)	ပုံဥပမာ (pon-upama)	Medium. ဥပမာ is also the standard term for the similes used throughout Buddhist Dhamma teaching (e.g., in the suttas); risk that Jesus’ parables are heard as generic wisdom-illustrations rather than revelatory acts tied to the hearer’s relationship to the Kingdom (revealing to the responsive, concealing from the hardened) — a distinctly different epistemic function than an illustrative simile.
Mysteries of the kingdom	τὰ μυστήρια τῆς βασιλείας (ta mystēria tēs basileias)	“the mysteries of the kingdom”	Previously hidden truths now disclosed by revelation, not through ascetic attainment or philosophical discovery	”mysteries of the kingdom”	13:11 — reuses `kingdom_of_heaven` (Critical); the Kingdom’s true nature is disclosed by grace to those given “ears to hear,” not earned through spiritual effort	နိုင်ငံတော်၏ လျှို့ဝှက်ချက်များ (nainggan-taw i shyo-hwet-chet-myar)	High. Must not be read as esoteric knowledge attained through progressive meditative insight (a structurally similar but theologically distinct pattern in Buddhist practice); these mysteries are given, not achieved.
Weeds / harvest / end of the age	τὰ ζιζάνια / ὁ θερισμός / συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος (ta zizania / ho therismos / synteleia tou aiōnos)	“the weeds/tares” / “the harvest” / “the completion/end of the age”	αἰών: a bounded era with a definite terminus, not an endlessly recurring cosmic cycle	”weeds,” “harvest,” “end of the age”	13:24-30,36-43 — the parable of the wheat and weeds explicitly interprets the harvest as final judgment “at the end of the age,” directly serving the Judgment and the End of the Age doctrine	ကြိမ်ပင် (kyein-bin, “weeds”) / ရိတ်သိမ်းချိန် (yate-thein-chein, “harvest time”) / ကမ္ဘာအဆက်ဆုံးချိန် (kaba a-sat-sohn chein)	CRITICAL. ကမ္ဘာ is the standard Burmese Buddhist cosmological term for a “world-era” (kalpa) within an essentially beginningless, endlessly repeating cycle of world-arising and world-dissolution. “The end of the age” in Matthew is a linear, final, one-time consummation of history under God’s judgment, not one kalpa’s end among an unbounded series. This distinction must be explicitly taught every time this phrase recurs (13:39-40,49; 24:3; 28:20).
Mustard seed / leaven (kingdom growth)	κόκκος σινάπεως / ζύμη (kokkos sinapeōs / zymē)	“mustard seed” / “leaven”	Metaphors for small, hidden beginnings producing large, pervasive growth	”mustard seed,” “leaven”	13:31-33 — the Kingdom’s present, hidden, organically expanding growth, contrasted with a sudden political takeover	မုန်လာဥသီး (mun-lar-u-thi, “mustard seed”) / တဆေး (ta-hsay, “leaven”)	Low-Medium. Minor agricultural-metaphor translation issues only; theological point (organic, certain, God-given growth of the Kingdom) is not itself high-collision.
Hidden treasure / pearl (kingdom worth)	θησαυρός / μαργαρίτης (thēsauros / margaritēs)	“treasure” / “pearl”	Metaphors for the surpassing worth of the Kingdom, worth total sacrifice to obtain	”hidden treasure,” “pearl of great price”	13:44-46 — reinforces Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus: total, joyful sacrifice for supreme worth	ဘဏ္ဍာချုပ် (banda-chok) / ပုလဲ (pulay)	Medium. Should be read as joyful response to surpassing worth freely found/given (grace-shaped), not as a transactional “buying” of the Kingdom through renunciation, which could be misheard as merit-earning renunciation practice (dana/precept-keeping for merit).

Chapter 14 — Death of John the Baptist, Feeding of the 5,000, Walking on Water

No new theological vocabulary of Critical/High doctrinal weight beyond terms already treated. Load-bearing continuity: Son of God (14:33, disciples’ confession “Truly you are the Son of God” — reuses baseline son_of_god, Critical) and faith/doubt (14:31, Peter’s “little faith” — reuses baseline faith, Medium; note the added nuance of doubt amid faith, ὀλιγοπιστία “little-faith-ness,” which should be rendered ယုံကြည်ခြင်း အနည်းငယ် rather than a separate term). Reviewed for full-book coverage; no new glossary entries required.

Chapter 15 — Tradition vs. Commandment, the Canaanite Woman’s Faith

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Tradition (of men)	παράδοσις (paradosis)	“that which is handed down”	Accumulated interpretive rulings added to the Law by the elders, here contrasted unfavorably with God’s actual commandment	”tradition,” “the tradition of the elders”	15:1-9 — Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for elevating human tradition above God’s commandment (“you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition”), directly serving Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees	လူတို့ ဆက်ခံထားသော ထုံးတမ်း (lu-do sat-khan htar-thaw htonedan)	High. This is one of the sharpest textual statements against religious tradition as a rival authority to God’s own word — directly relevant to how learners should weigh inherited Burmese Buddhist customary/ritual traditions against Scripture, and must be handled with pastoral sensitivity rather than as an invitation to generic anti-traditionalism.
Canaanite woman’s faith	ὦ γύναι, μεγάλη σου ἡ πίστις (ō gynai, megalē sou hē pistis)	“O woman, great is your faith”	[BASELINE — REUSED `faith`, no change], here explicitly commended in a Gentile	”great is your faith”	15:21-28 — a Gentile woman’s persistent faith is commended above Israel’s own, previewing Unity of Jews and Gentiles (baseline doctrine) and the Universal Scope of the Gospel	ယုံကြည်ခြင်း (baseline)	Medium, inherited; here reinforced by the doctrine of the gospel’s universal scope regardless of ethnicity.

Chapter 16 — Peter’s Confession, the Church, Taking Up the Cross

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
”You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”	Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος (Sy ei ho Christos ho huios tou Theou tou zōntos)	—	Combines baseline `messiah` and `son_of_god` (both Critical) in Peter’s climactic confession	”You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”	16:16 — the Gospel’s theological turning point, confessing both Jesus’ Messiahship and unique divine Sonship together	သင်သည် ခရစ်တော်၊ အသက်ရှင်တော်မူသော ဘုရားသခင်၏ သားတော်ဖြစ်တော်မူ၏	Critical, fully inherited from baseline; this verse should be flagged for verbatim consistency across every Matthew lesson referencing it, parallel to the baseline’s flag on Romans 10:9-10.
Church	ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia)	—	[BASELINE — REUSED, no change]	“church”	16:18 — “on this rock I will build my church,” Matthew’s first occurrence of this term, directly founding the Church and Church Discipline doctrine developed fully in ch.18	အသင်းတော် (baseline, Medium)	Medium, inherited: never ဘုရားကျောင်း/ဘုရားရိပ်သာ (pagoda/monastic compound).
Keys of the kingdom / bind and loose	τὰς κλεῖς τῆς βασιλείας… δήσῃς… λύσῃς (tas kleis tēs basileias… dēsēs… lysēs)	“the keys of the kingdom… bind… loose”	Authoritative, delegated power of ecclesial declaration (admitting/excluding, approving/prohibiting), an image of stewardship authority, not magical potency	”keys of the kingdom,” “bind and loose”	16:19 (developed further at 18:18) — grounds Church and Church Discipline in delegated divine authority, reusing the ἐξουσία (`authority`) concept from ch.7	နိုင်ငံတော်၏ သော့ချက်များ / ချုပ်ခြင်းနှင့် လွှတ်ခြင်း	High. Risk of being heard through the lens of weizza (esoteric adept) or amulet/incantation practices that “bind” spirits or fortune through ritual formula (already flagged for baseline `power_of_god`’s rejection of အနုဘော်တန်ခိုး); must be taught as delegated, Spirit-guided authoritative declaration exercised by the gathered church, not incantational power wielded by an individual.
Deny self, take up the cross	ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτόν… ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ (aparnēsasthō heauton… aratō ton stauron autou)	“let him deny himself… take up his cross”	See full treatment at ch.10; here made the explicit condition of following Jesus	”deny himself and take up his cross”	16:24-26 — “what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul” — the definitive discipleship-cost statement	မိမိကိုယ်ကို ငြင်းပယ်ပြီး လက်ဝါးကပ်တိုင်ကို ထမ်းရွက်ခြင်း	Critical, reusing ch.10 entry; central proof-text for the Discipleship and Cost of Following Jesus doctrine.

Chapter 17 — Transfiguration

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Transfigured	μετεμορφώθη (metemorphōthē)	“was transformed/transfigured”	A temporary, visible unveiling of Christ’s inherent divine glory, not a metamorphosis into a different being	”was transfigured,” “was transformed”	17:2 — Jesus’ glory (δόξα, baseline `glory`, High) is momentarily unveiled to Peter, James, and John, confirmed by Moses, Elijah, and the Father’s voice repeating 3:17’s declaration	ဆင်းသက်တော်မူပြန်ခြင်း — recommend ရုပ်တော်ပြောင်းလဲခြင်း (yut-taw pyaunlai chin)	High. Must not be read through the lens of nat-spirit transformation/shape-shifting tales in Burmese folklore, nor as evidence of impermanent appearance (anicca) applied to Christ’s nature; this is the momentary visible disclosure of an already-existing eternal glory (baseline `glory`, High), not a change of being.
This is my beloved Son	Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός	—	See ch.3 entry, repeated verbatim	”This is my beloved Son”	17:5 — repeats 3:17, bracketing Jesus’ public ministry with the Father’s confirming testimony	ဤသူသည် ငါချစ်သော သားတော်ဖြစ်၏	Critical, per baseline `son_of_god`; verbatim consistency with ch.3 rendering required.

Chapter 18 — Church Discipline, Forgiveness

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Stumbling block / cause to sin	σκάνδαλον / σκανδαλίζω (skandalon / skandalizō)	“a trap-trigger, a snare”	To cause another (especially “little ones”) to fall into sin or to abandon faith	”stumble,” “cause to sin,” “offend”	18:6-9 — severe warning against causing a believer’s downfall, grounding pastoral responsibility within the church community	ထိမိဆုံးရှုံးစေခြင်း (hti-mi sohn-shohn say chin)	Medium-High. Must convey spiritual endangerment of another’s faith, not mere social offense/insult; ties into Church and Church Discipline’s pastoral-protective dimension.
Church discipline (procedure)	ἐὰν δὲ ἁμαρτήσῃ… ἐὰν δὲ παρακούσῃ αὐτῶν, εἰπὲ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ (ean de hamartēsē… ean de parakousē autōn, eipe tē ekklēsia)	“if he sins… tell it to the church”	The structured, escalating procedure of confrontation, witness, and congregational involvement for addressing sin within the church	”church discipline,” “if your brother sins”	18:15-17 — the foundational biblical text for the Church and Church Discipline doctrine, reusing baseline `church` and `sin`	အသင်းတော်ကို ပြောပြခြင်း (procedure); combines baseline အသင်းတော် (Medium) and အပြစ် (High)	High. Must be taught as a restorative, relational process aimed at repentance and restoration, not as punitive social exclusion analogous to shunning practices in some Burmese village/monastic community discipline; the goal (“if he listens… you have gained your brother,” 18:15) is reconciliation.
Bind and loose (church authority)	δήσητε… λύσητε (dēsēte… lysēte)	—	See ch.16 entry, here applied specifically to the gathered church’s disciplinary authority (“where two or three are gathered,” 18:19-20)	“bind and loose”	18:18-20	ချုပ်ခြင်းနှင့်လွှတ်ခြင်း	High, inherited from ch.16 — see that entry’s rationale.
Forgive (seventy times seven)	ἀφίημι (aphiēmi)	“to release, let go, forgive”	Complete release of a debt or offense, without limit, modeled on God’s own forgiveness of a far greater debt	”forgive”	18:21-35, the parable of the unmerciful servant — ties directly to the grace doctrine (baseline Critical): forgiven people must forgive, because they have received far more than they are asked to extend	ခွင့်လွှတ်ခြင်း (khwin-hlwot chin)	High. The parable’s logic (a servant forgiven an unpayable debt refuses to forgive a small one) must retain its grace-shaped asymmetry — forgiveness given because it was first received — and must not collapse into a reciprocal merit-exchange (“I forgive you so I gain merit/so you owe me one back”).

Chapter 19 — Marriage, Divorce, the Rich Young Man

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
What God has joined together	ὃ γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς συνέζευξεν (ho gar ho Theos synezeuxen)	“what God yoked together”	Marriage as a creation-ordinance, God’s own binding act, not a merely social/contractual arrangement	”what God has joined together”	19:4-6 — grounds marriage theology in creation and God’s own authoritative act	ဘုရားသခင် ဖက်စည်းတော်မူသောအရာ	Medium. Should retain the sense of a divinely instituted, not merely socially negotiated, bond; low direct collision with Burmese Buddhist cosmology (which does not have a creation-ordinance marriage doctrine), but requires careful positive teaching.
Eunuchs for the kingdom	εὐνοῦχοι διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν (eunouchoi dia tēn basileian tōn ouranōn)	“eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven”	Voluntary celibacy embraced for undivided kingdom devotion, not a biological condition	”eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven”	19:12 — an unusual, easily misunderstood saying commending voluntary singleness for kingdom service	ကောင်းကင်နိုင်ငံတော်အတွက် လက်မထပ်ဘဲနေခြင်း	Medium. Should be carefully distinguished from monastic celibacy pursued for personal merit/purity (ရဟန်းပြုခြင်း); this is devotion oriented toward kingdom service and mission, reusing `kingdom_of_heaven` (Critical).
Rich young man / eye of a needle	εὐκοπώτερόν ἐστιν κάμηλον διὰ τρυπήματος ῥαφίδος διελθεῖν ἢ πλούσιον εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ (eukopōteron estin kamēlon dia trypēmatos rhaphidos dielthein ē plousion eiselthein eis tēn basileian tou Theou)	“easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”	Hyperbole for the near-impossibility, apart from grace, of wealth-attached hearts entering the Kingdom	”eye of a needle”	19:16-26 — climaxes with “with God all things are possible” (19:26), reinforcing that Kingdom entry is God’s gracious work, not human achievement (even moral achievement, as the young man had “kept” the commandments)	ချည်ချောင်း၏အပေါက် ကုလားအုတ်ဖြတ်သန်းခြင်း	High. Directly reinforces grace vs. merit/works (baseline Critical `grace`); the young man’s moral self-sufficiency (“what do I still lack?”) is exposed as insufficient, paralleling the baseline’s warning against ကုသိုလ်/works-based righteousness.

Chapter 20 — Laborers in the Vineyard, the Son of Man’s Ransom

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Laborers in the vineyard (grace vs. wages)	οὕτως ἔσονται οἱ ἔσχατοι πρῶτοι καὶ οἱ πρῶτοι ἔσχατοι (houtōs esontai hoi eschatoi prōtoi kai hoi prōtoi eschatoi)	“so the last will be first, and the first last”	The parable’s landowner pays equal wages regardless of hours worked, illustrating grace’s non-proportional generosity	”laborers in the vineyard,” “the last will be first”	20:1-16 — one of the most direct parabolic illustrations of grace’s logic overturning a merit-based wage system, reinforcing baseline `grace` (Critical) with maximal force	ဥယျာဉ်တွင် အလုပ်လုပ်သူများ (grace point tied to baseline ကျေးဇူးတော်)	Critical. This parable is arguably Matthew’s single sharpest illustration against a merit-proportional reward system — every worker receives the same wage “denarius” regardless of hours, provoking the objection “these last worked only one hour” (20:12), which the landowner answers by appeal to his own generosity, not their merit. Requires the same Critical-tier translator note as baseline `grace`.
Ransom	λύτρον (lytron)	“ransom price, price paid to redeem/release a captive or slave”	The price paid to secure the freedom of one otherwise bound (to slavery, captivity, or debt)	“ransom”	20:28 — “the Son of Man came… to give his life as a ransom for many” — a foundational atonement statement, directly connecting the Son of Man title (ch.9) to his substitutionary death, anticipating the Passion narrative	ရွေးနှင်းရာဖိုး (ywei-hnin-yar-phoe)	Critical. Must convey a price paid by another (Christ) to secure release from bondage to sin, not a metaphor for self-liberation through discipline or the extinguishing of craving; directly reinforces baseline `salvation` (Critical) and must never be softened into a general statement of Jesus’ exemplary self-sacrifice detached from the specific substitutionary, price-paying sense.

Chapter 21 — Triumphal Entry, Cleansing the Temple, the Wicked Tenants

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Hosanna, Son of David	Ὡσαννὰ τῷ υἱῷ Δαυίδ (Hōsanna tō huiō Dauid)	“Save now/Hosanna, to the son of David”	Public messianic acclamation	”Hosanna to the Son of David”	21:9,15 — public, crowd-wide recognition of Jesus’ messianic, Davidic identity at his triumphal entry, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 (explicitly cited 21:5)	ဟောရှာန္န၊ ဒါဝိဒ်၏သားတော်	High, reusing `son_of_david` (ch.1, High) and Fulfillment of Prophecy (baseline, High). ဟောရှာန္န is transliterated, not translated, per established convention.
Den of robbers	σπήλαιον λῃστῶν (spēlaion lēstōn)	“cave/den of robbers”	Prophetic indictment (citing Jeremiah 7:11) of the temple’s corruption	”den of robbers”	21:12-13 — Jesus’ temple-cleansing act is a prophetic sign-action, not mere anger at commerce, again invoking Fulfillment of Prophecy	ဓားပြများ၏ ခိုအောင်းရာ	Medium. Requires the OT citation background (Jeremiah 7:11) to land with full prophetic force rather than reading as simple moral outrage at marketplace dishonesty.
Wicked tenants / rejected stone	λίθον ὃν ἀπεδοκίμασαν οἱ οἰκοδομοῦντες, οὗτος ἐγενήθη εἰς κεφαλὴν γωνίας (lithon hon apedokimasan hoi oikodomountes, houtos egenēthē eis kephalēn gōnias)	“the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”	Citing Psalm 118:22 — the rejected Messiah becomes the foundation of God’s new building project	”the stone the builders rejected”	21:33-46 — the parable of the wicked tenants and its citation together indict Israel’s leaders for rejecting the Messiah, and announce that “the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (21:43) — a pivotal statement bearing on Unity of Jews and Gentiles	တိုက်ဆောက်သူများ ပယ်ထားသောကျောက်တုံးသည် နောက်ဆုံးအရေးကြီးဆုံးထောင့်ချုပ်ကျောက်ဖြစ်လာခြင်း	High. Must be handled with particular pastoral care given the doctrine’s sensitivity around ethnic/religious identity claims (as already flagged in baseline’s `universal_scope_of_gospel` and `unity_of_jews_and_gentiles` entries, both High); the “kingdom taken and given to a people bearing fruit” must be taught as a warning against presumptuous religious/ethnic entitlement generally, applicable to any nation or people, not a license for supersessionist triumphalism against any particular group in the modern Burmese context.

Chapter 22 — The Wedding Feast, Render to Caesar, the Greatest Commandment

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Many are called, few are chosen	πολλοὶ γάρ εἰσιν κλητοί, ὀλίγοι δὲ ἐκλεκτοί (polloi gar eisin klētoi, oligoi de eklektoi)	“many are called, few are chosen”	Uses both baseline `called` (High) and `election` (High) together	”many are called, but few are chosen”	22:14 — closes the wedding-feast parable (the “wedding garment” of appropriate response to the invitation), tying Divine Calling and Election doctrines together within Matthew’s Kingdom framework	ခေါ်တော်မူသူများသည် များပြားသော်လည်း ရွေးကောက်ခံရသူတို့သည် နည်းပါး၏	High, fully inherited from baseline `called`/`election`: distinguish God’s sovereign calling/choosing from ကံဇာတာ (fixed karmic destiny).
Render to Caesar	ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ Θεῷ (apodote oun ta Kaisaros Kaisari kai ta tou Theou tō Theō)	“render to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things of God”	Distinguishes legitimate civil obligation from ultimate allegiance owed only to God	”render to Caesar what is Caesar’s”	22:15-22 — establishes a two-tiered loyalty (civil authority vs. ultimate divine allegiance), relevant to how believers relate to civil government	ကဲသာ၏ဥစ္စာကို ကဲသာအားပေး၍ ဘုရားသခင်၏ဥစ္စာကို ဘုရားသခင်အားပေးကြလော့	Medium-High. In the contemporary Myanmar political context this text requires careful, non-partisan pastoral handling — teaching due civil obligation without either sacralizing state authority or licensing disengagement from it; note this is analogous to, but distinct from, the political-authority sensitivity already flagged for Romans 13:1-7 in the baseline.
Greatest commandment	ἀγαπήσεις Κύριον τὸν Θεόν σου… ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν (agapēseis Kyrion ton Theon sou… agapēseis ton plēsion sou hōs seauton)	“you shall love the Lord your God… you shall love your neighbor as yourself”	Summarizes “the Law and the Prophets” (22:40) in twin love-commands	”the greatest commandment,” “love God and neighbor”	22:34-40 — directly answers ch.5’s “fulfill the Law” theme, showing that the Law’s true intent is comprehensive love, reinforcing Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees	သခင်ဘုရားသခင်ကို ချစ်ရမည်… သင်၏အိမ်နီးချင်းကို ကိုယ်နှင့်အမျှချစ်ရမည်	High. Reuses baseline `lord`/`god`; must retain the totalizing, comprehensive claim of “heart, soul, and mind” love owed exclusively to the one true God, not divisible among multiple objects of devotion (a live concern in a religiously plural society with syncretistic practice patterns).

Chapter 23 — Woes Against the Scribes and Pharisees

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Scribes and Pharisees	γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι (grammateis kai Pharisaioi)	“scribes” (learned interpreters of the Law) and “Pharisees” (a lay-pietist movement stressing precise legal observance)	Distinct but allied religious-legal classes, the primary antagonists throughout Matthew	”scribes and Pharisees”	23:1-36 — the “seven woes” chapter, the sharpest sustained critique of external religious performance detached from inward righteousness, capstone of the Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees doctrine	ကျမ်းတတ်ဆရာများနှင့် ဖာရိရှဲများ	High. Must be taught as a critique of a specific first-century religious pattern (performance divorced from heart-devotion) applicable to any tradition’s external-observance-without-inward-transformation, not read as generic anti-Jewish polemic nor casually mapped onto the Buddhist monastic sangha as a direct equivalence; care is needed to keep the critique theologically precise and pastorally non-inflammatory.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled	ὅστις δὲ ὑψώσει ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται (hostis de hypsōsei heauton tapeinōthēsetai)	“whoever exalts himself will be humbled”	A reversal principle central to Matthew’s Kingdom ethic (cf. the Beatitudes’ reversal logic)	“whoever exalts himself will be humbled”	23:12 — reinforces the Beatitudes’ inaugural reversal (blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek) as the abiding shape of Kingdom values	မိမိကိုယ်ကို ချီးမြှောက်သောသူသည် နှိမ့်ချခြင်းခံရလိမ့်မည်	Medium. Reinforces core-passage themes; low new-collision risk beyond what has already been flagged for the Beatitudes.

Chapter 24 — The Olivet Discourse: Signs of the End

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Abomination of desolation	τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως (to bdelygma tēs erēmōseōs)	“the abomination that causes desolation”	Citing Daniel 9:27; a specific, historically-anchored act of desecration signaling severe coming judgment	”abomination of desolation”	24:15 — a Fulfillment-of-Prophecy marker embedded within the eschatological discourse	ပျက်စီးခြင်း၏ ရွံရှာဖွယ်အရာ	High. Requires OT (Daniel) background; must be taught as a specific, historically anchored sign, not a vague generic evil.
Great tribulation	θλῖψις μεγάλη (thlipsis megalē)	“great pressure/affliction”	An intense, unprecedented period of suffering preceding the Son of Man’s return	”great tribulation”	24:21-22 — part of the Judgment and the End of the Age doctrine	ကြီးစွာသောဒုက္ခ (kyi-swar-thaw dukkha)	CRITICAL. ဒုက္ခ (dukkha) is the first of the Four Noble Truths, the foundational Buddhist category naming the inherent, universal suffering of all conditioned existence within samsara — a metaphysical claim about existence itself, addressed by the Eightfold Path toward its cessation (nirvana). Matthew’s “great tribulation” is a specific, bounded, historical period of intensified suffering preceding a personal God’s decisive judgment and the Son of Man’s visible return — categorically different from dukkha’s universal, ever-present, self-resolved character. This collision requires explicit, sustained catechetical distinction every time the term recurs.
Coming of the Son of Man / parousia	ἡ παρουσία τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (hē parousia tou huiou tou anthrōpou)	“the arrival/presence/coming of the Son of Man”	A visible, public, glorious, personal return, not a repeated or cyclical appearance	”the coming of the Son of Man,” “the parousia”	24:27,30,37,39 — reuses `son_of_man` (Critical, ch.9); the singular, climactic, unmistakably visible nature of this coming (“as the lightning… so will the coming of the Son of Man be,” 24:27) is repeatedly stressed against any secretive or private claim	ကြွလာတော်မူခြင်း (kywa-la-taw-mu-chin)	Critical, reusing `son_of_man`. Must be taught as a single, final, universally visible event, not a repeatable descent or one stage in an ongoing cycle of appearances.
Elect (gathered)	τοὺς ἐκλεκτοὺς αὐτοῦ (tous eklektous autou)	“his chosen/elect ones”	[BASELINE — REUSED `election`, no change]	“the elect”	24:22,31 — God’s sovereign gathering of his chosen people at the end of the age	ရွေးကောက်ခံရသူများ (baseline root ရွေးကောက်ခြင်း, High)	High, inherited: never ကံဇာတာ/ကံကြမ္မာ.
No one knows the day or hour	περὶ δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης καὶ ὥρας οὐδεὶς οἶδεν (peri de tēs hēmeras ekeinēs kai hōras oudeis oiden)	“concerning that day and hour, no one knows”	Deliberate withholding of exact timing to enforce constant readiness, not fatalistic ignorance	”no one knows the day or hour”	24:36-44 — calls for vigilant readiness, not date-calculation, reinforcing Judgment and the End of the Age responsibly	ထိုနေ့ရက်နှင့်အချိန်ကို အဘယ်သူမျှမသိ	Medium. Pastorally important given a cultural context where astrology (ဗေဒင်) is commonly consulted for timing and fortune; this text explicitly forecloses date-setting/fortune-telling approaches to the future in favor of ongoing faithful readiness.

Chapter 25 — The Virgins, the Talents, the Sheep and the Goats

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Ten virgins / bridegroom	αἱ παρθένοι… ὁ νυμφίος (hai parthenoi… ho nymphios)	“the virgins… the bridegroom”	Wedding-attendant imagery for watchful readiness for Christ’s return; reuses παρθένος from ch.1 in a distinct, non-Marian sense	”ten virgins,” “the bridegroom”	25:1-13 — a parable of readiness, reinforcing 24:36-44’s call to vigilance	သတို့သမီးလေးများ / သတို့သား	Medium. Should be clearly distinguished contextually from the ch.1 virgin-birth sense of παρθένος; here the term functions within wedding-attendant imagery, not incarnational doctrine.
Talents (parable)	τάλαντα (talanta)	“talents” (a very large unit of monetary weight)	Entrusted resources/gifts for which a servant is accountable to the master upon his return	”talents”	25:14-30 — reinforces stewardship and accountability before Christ’s return, related to but distinct from baseline `spiritual_gifts`	ငွေအခွက် (nge a-khwet) — transliterated unit, or retained as “တာလင်” (talant)	Medium. Should avoid conflating this parable’s stewardship-accountability theme with a merit-accumulation framework; the reward given (“well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your master”) is relational commendation from the master, not a wage earned proportionally.
Sheep and goats / least of these	ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἐποιήσατε ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμοὶ ἐποιήσατε (eph’ hoson epoiēsate heni toutōn tōn adelphōn mou tōn elachistōn, emoi epoiēsate)	“as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me”	Final judgment separates humanity based on concrete acts of mercy toward Christ’s own, in which Christ himself is present and identified	”sheep and goats,” “the least of these,” “inasmuch as you did it unto them”	25:31-46 — the Gospel’s climactic judgment scene, directly serving Judgment and the End of the Age and connecting mercy shown to “the least” with the reality of one’s relationship to Christ himself	သိုးနှင့်ဆိတ် / ငါ့ညီများတွင် အသိမ်ဆုံးသောသူ	Critical. Must be taught carefully to avoid the misreading that acts of mercy earn entrance to eternal life independent of relationship with Christ (a works-merit reading that would directly contradict baseline `grace`); the passage assumes these acts flow from and evidence a prior relationship with the King (“brothers,” recognizing him), not that mercy performed generally constitutes a separate merit-path to salvation.
Eternal fire / eternal life	πῦρ αἰώνιον / ζωὴν αἰώνιον (pyr aiōnion / zōēn aiōnion)	“eternal fire” / “eternal life”	αἰώνιος: without end, belonging to the age to come; a permanent, final state, not a temporary station within an ongoing cycle of rebirths	”eternal fire,” “eternal life”	25:41,46 — the two final, permanent, opposite destinies pronounced by the Son of Man as universal judge	ထာဝရမီး (htawara-mi) / ထာဝရအသက် (htawara-athet)	Critical. ထာဝရ (“eternal,” already implicit in baseline’s resurrection/salvation entries) must be taught as a genuinely final, unending state determined once by a personal God’s righteous judgment — not a temporary rebirth-destination (whether a hell-realm or heaven-realm) within an ultimately impermanent and escapable cycle of samsara. This is among the sharpest cosmological collisions in the entire book and must never be softened toward impermanence.

Chapter 26 — The Last Supper, Gethsemane, Betrayal, Trial

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
This is my body / my blood of the covenant	τοῦτο ἐστι τὸ σῶμά μου… τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ αἷμά μου τῆς διαθήκης (touto estin to sōma mou… touto gar estin to haima mou tēs diathēkēs)	“this is my body… this is my blood of the covenant”	Institutes the Lord’s Supper, directly fulfilling and instituting the New Covenant, reusing baseline `covenant` (High)	“this is my body,” “my blood of the covenant”	26:26-28 — anticipates the atoning death (ch.27) and reuses the ransom concept (ch.20); “for the forgiveness of sins” (26:28) directly ties to baseline `sin`	ဤသည်ကား ငါ့ကိုယ်ခံ… ဤသည်ကား ပဋိညာဉ်တော်၏ငါ့အသွေး	Critical. Must retain the sacrificial, covenant-instituting, once-for-all force of Christ’s body and blood offered for forgiveness of sins, not a repeatable merit-generating ritual meal; directly grounds the New Covenant as the fulfillment anticipated since ch.1’s genealogy and ch.5’s “fulfill the Law.”
Not my will, but yours	οὐ τὸ θέλημα μου ἀλλὰ τὸ σόν (ou to thelēma mou alla to son, cf. 26:39,42)	“not my will, but yours”	Christ’s voluntary submission to the Father’s will in Gethsemane, modeling perfect obedience	”not my will but yours be done”	26:36-46 — displays the true humanity of Christ (baseline `humanity_of_christ`, High) in genuine anguish, and his voluntary, obedient submission, essential to the atonement’s validity	ငါ့အလိုမဟုတ်၊ ကိုယ်တော်၏အလိုတော်အတိုင်း	High. Must preserve both full genuine human anguish and full voluntary submission together (the classic two-natures balance); should not be flattened into either mere human resignation or a scripted non-genuine performance of suffering.
Betrayal	παρέδωκεν (paredōken)	“handed over, betrayed”	Judas’s act of handing Jesus over to hostile authorities for money	”betrayed,” “handed over”	26:14-16,47-50 — sets the passion narrative’s central act of treachery in motion, within God’s sovereign plan yet without excusing Judas’s culpability	အပ်နှံခြင်း / သစ္စာဖောက်ခြင်း	Medium. Should retain the tension between divine sovereignty (this fulfills prophecy) and genuine human moral responsibility for betrayal, avoiding a purely fatalistic reading.

Chapter 27 — Crucifixion

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
Crucify / crucifixion	σταυρόω / σταυρός (stauroō / stauros)	“to crucify” / “cross, stake”	Roman method of public execution by nailing/binding to a wooden cross	”crucify,” “crucifixion,” “cross”	27:32-56 — the historical center of the Gospel; Jesus’ actual, physical death by crucifixion, fulfilling prophecy (Psalm 22, cited at 27:46) and securing the ransom announced in ch.20	လက်ဝါးကပ်တိုင်တင်ခြင်း (let-war-kat-tine tin chin)	Critical. Must be taught as a genuine, historical, physical death — not a docetic appearance or illusion (as sometimes implied in folk-narrative accounts of miraculous escapes from death) — since the reality of Christ’s death is the necessary premise for the reality of his bodily Resurrection (baseline Critical doctrine, ch.28).
”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”	Θεέ μου θεέ μου, ἱνατί με ἐγκατέλιπες (Thee mou thee mou, hinati me egkatelipes)	Aramaic Eli Eli lama sabachthani, cited from Psalm 22:1	Christ’s cry of dereliction, expressing the real weight of bearing sin’s judgment	”why have you forsaken me”	27:46 — the depth of Christ’s substitutionary suffering, reusing baseline `god` (Critical) in its most anguished register	အဘယ်ကြောင့် ငါ့ကို စွန့်ပစ်တော်မူသနည်း	Critical. Requires careful theological framing (the Son experiencing, in some real sense, the Father’s judicial abandonment as he bears sin’s penalty) without implying any actual breach in the eternal Trinitarian relationship — a subtle point requiring theologian-level review.
Temple veil torn	τὸ καταπέτασμα τοῦ ναοῦ ἐσχίσθη εἰς δύο (to katapetasma tou naou eschisthē eis dyo)	“the veil of the temple was torn in two”	A dramatic sign that the barrier separating God’s presence from the people has been decisively removed	”the temple curtain was torn in two”	27:51 — signals direct access to God secured through Christ’s death, reinforcing baseline `peace` (peace with God) doctrine	ဗိမာန်တော်၏ကန့်လန့်ကာသည် နှစ်ပိုင်းကွဲသွားခြင်း	High. Should be taught as God’s own act (removing the barrier from his side), not merely a dramatic natural event, directly grounding believers’ confident access to God.
Truly this was the Son of God	ἀληθῶς Θεοῦ υἱὸς ἦν οὗτος (alēthōs Theou huios ēn houtos)	“truly this man was the Son of God”	The centurion’s climactic Gentile confession	”truly this was the Son of God”	27:54 — a Gentile soldier’s confession echoes the Father’s own declarations (3:17; 17:5) and Peter’s confession (16:16), reusing baseline `son_of_god` (Critical)	ဤသူသည် ဘုရားသခင်၏သားတော် အမှန်ပင်ဖြစ်၏	Critical, fully inherited from baseline.

Chapter 28 — Resurrection and the Great Commission

Term	Greek (translit.)	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual meaning	Burmese rendering	Risk & rationale
He is not here; he has risen	οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε, ἠγέρθη γάρ (ouk estin hōde, ēgerthē gar)	“he is not here, for he has risen”	The angel’s announcement of the bodily resurrection, using ἐγείρω, a synonym-in-context of baseline `resurrection`’s ἀνάστασις	”he is not here; he has risen”	28:6 — the climactic historical fact undergirding the entire Gospel and the whole Christian faith, reusing baseline `resurrection` (Critical) exactly	သင်္ဂြိုဟ်ရာ၌ မရှိတော့ပါ၊ ထမြောက်တော်မူပြီ	Critical, per baseline: ထမြောက်ခြင်း, never ပဋိသန္ဓေတည်ခြင်း (rebirth). This is the doctrinal and narrative climax the whole Gospel has been building toward since ch.1’s Immanuel and ch.20’s ransom.
All authority has been given to me	ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς (edothē moi pasa exousia en ouranō kai epi gēs)	“all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”	The risen Christ’s universal, total, cosmic authority, reusing `exousia`/authority (ch.7, High) at its fullest extent	”all authority has been given to me”	28:18 — grounds the Great Commission in Christ’s total sovereign authority, the capstone of The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching doctrine traced across the whole Gospel	ကောင်းကင်နှင့်မြေကြီးပေါ်ရှိ အခွင့်အာဏာ အလုံးစုံကို ငါ့အား ပေးတော်မူပြီ	Critical. Elevates the ch.7 `authority` entry (High) to Critical here, since it is now explicitly total and cosmic, directly grounding the church’s mission and reinforcing Christ’s deity.
Make disciples of all nations	πορευθέντες μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (poreuthentes mathēteusate panta ta ethnē)	“going, make disciples of all nations/ethnic peoples”	μαθητεύω: to make someone a disciple (verb form of `mathētēs`, ch.5); ἔθνη reuses baseline `gentiles`	”make disciples of all nations”	28:19 — the Great Commission’s central command, universalizing the ch.10 restricted mission (“only to the house of Israel”) to all peoples, directly serving both Mission to the Nations (baseline) and this curriculum’s Great Commission doctrine	ထွက်သွား၍ လူမျိုးအပေါင်းတို့ကို တပည့်တော်ဖြစ်စေကြလော့	High, combining baseline `gentiles` (Medium) and `mission` (Medium) with the ch.5 `mathētēs` entry (Medium). Reinforces Unity of Jews and Gentiles/Universal Scope of the Gospel (both baseline High) applied to the whole known world.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit	βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος	”baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”	Explicitly Trinitarian baptismal formula, uniting baseline `father`, `son_of_god`, and `holy_spirit` (all Critical)	“baptizing… in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”	28:19 — one of the clearest Trinitarian formulas in the NT, combining three Critical-risk baseline doctrines in a single verse	အဖ၊ သားတော်၊ သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော်၏ နာမတော်၌ ဗတ္တိဇံပေးခြင်း	Critical. All three Persons named must retain their exact baseline renderings and honorifics; this verse should be flagged for verbatim theologian review given the density of Critical-tier terms in a single clause.
To the end of the age	ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος (heōs tēs synteleias tou aiōnos)	“until the completion/end of the age”	Reuses ch.13’s αἰών entry exactly	”to the end of the age”	28:20 — the risen Christ’s promise of abiding presence (“I am with you always”) is bounded by, and extends to, the same linear “end of the age” as ch.13’s harvest-judgment and ch.24’s Olivet Discourse	ကမ္ဘာအဆက်ဆုံးတိုင်အောင်	CRITICAL, reusing ch.13 entry exactly: must never be read through the lens of a recurring kalpa’s end.

Summary of Doctrine Coverage Across Matthew

All nine curriculum doctrines are traced across multiple chapters as follows: The Kingdom of Heaven (3, 4, 5[core], 6, 13, 18, 19, 25); Jesus as Promised Messiah and Son of David (1, 9, 11, 16, 21); Fulfillment of OT Prophecy (1, 2, 3, 5, 11, 12, 21, 24); Authority of Jesus’ Teaching (5[core], 7, 9, 12, 16, 28); Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees (5[core], 6, 11, 15, 22, 23); The Church and Church Discipline (16, 18); The Great Commission (10, 28); Judgment and the End of the Age (13, 24, 25); Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus (5[core], 8, 10, 16, 19, 20). Every chapter of Matthew (1–28) has been reviewed; chapter 14 is explicitly noted as introducing no new Critical/High-risk theological vocabulary beyond terms already treated.

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