Core Glossary
08 Core Glossary — Philemon (English–Greek–Burmese)
This glossary documents every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, spanning the entire book of Philemon (vv. 1–25). Terms already present in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE — REUSE EXACTLY] and their recorded rendering is repeated here unchanged, per the hard rule that established renderings must never be altered. New terms proposed for this curriculum are marked [NEW — Philemon] and should be submitted to translation memory (with version increment) before Phase 2 segment translation begins, per the Step 8/Pre-flight procedure in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
Risk tiers follow the baseline’s doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions (Critical / High / Medium / Low).
Section A — Baseline Terms Reused Exactly
| English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Burmese Rendering (Transliteration) | Risk | Doctrine Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grace | χάρις (charis) | ကျေးဇူးတော် (kyayzu-taw) | Critical | Forgiveness/Reconciliation; Grace-Motivated Obedience | Frames the whole letter as an inclusio (v. 3, v. 25). Never render with ကုသိုလ်/ကံကောင်းခြင်း. |
| Faith | πίστις (pistis) | ယုံကြည်ခြင်း (yun-kyi-chin) | Medium | — | Object of faith (the Lord Jesus) must remain explicit in context (v. 5). |
| Saints | ἅγιοι (hagioi) | သန့်ရှင်းသူများ (thangyin thu myar) | Medium | — | Philemon’s household church members (v. 5, v. 7). |
| Fellowship | κοινωνία (koinōnia) | မိတ်သဟာယ (meikthahaya) | Low | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | Root shared with new term κοινωνός (see Section B). |
| Church | ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) | အသင်းတော် (athin-taw) | Medium | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | The house church meeting in Philemon’s home (v. 2). |
| Lord | κύριος (kyrios) | သခင် (thakhin) | Critical | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | ”In the Lord” (v. 16, 20) names the sphere of transformed relationship. |
| Father | πατήρ (patēr) | အဖ (a-pha) | Critical | — | Salutation, v. 3. |
| God | θεός (theos) | ဘုရားသခင် (Phayarthakhin) | Critical | — | Salutation, v. 3. |
| Jesus | Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) | ယေရှု (Yayshu) | Critical | — | Standard form throughout. |
| Gospel | εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) | သတင်းကောင်း (thadin kaung) | High | Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power | v. 13, Paul’s chains are “for the gospel.” |
| Peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်း (nyein-thet-chin) | Medium | — | Salutation, v. 3. |
| Thanksgiving | εὐχαριστέω (eucharisteō) | ကျေးဇူးတင်ခြင်း (kyayzu-tin-chin) | Low | — | v. 4. |
| Holy Spirit (contrast term only — see πνεῦμα, Section B) | πνεῦμα ἅγιον | သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော် | Critical | — | NOT the referent of v. 25’s πνεῦμα; listed here only to mark the contrast boundary. |
Section B — New Terms Introduced by Philemon
| English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Proposed Burmese Rendering (Transliteration) | Risk | Doctrine Link | Rejected Alternatives / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bondservant / Slave | δοῦλος (doulos) | ကျွန် (kyun) | Critical | Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power | Must be distinguished both from karma-merit readings of low social status AND from the everyday humble-pronoun use of ကျွန်တော်/ကျွန်မ. Requires explicit teaching note at every occurrence (v. 16). |
| Brother (cross-status) | ἀδελφός (adelphos) | ညီအစ်ကို (nyi-a-ko) | High | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | Burmese honorific/age-status speech patterns risk reasserting hierarchy the text dismantles; teaching notes must stress equal standing in God’s family (vv. 1, 7, 16, 20). |
| Voluntary / Of One’s Own Accord | ἑκούσιος (hekousios) | စေတနာအလျောက် (say-dana a-lyauk) | High | Grace-Motivated Obedience | စေတနာ (cetana) is a Buddhist karma-intention term; must be anchored to grace already received, not merit yet to be earned (v. 14). |
| Obedience (situational, to appeal) | ὑπακοή (hypakoē) | နာခံမှု (na-khan-hmu) | High | Grace-Motivated Obedience | Distinct occurrence from baseline’s “obedience_of_faith” (ယုံကြည်ခြင်း၏နာခံမှု); link conceptually but do not merge renderings (v. 21). Must not be taught as merit-earning compliance. |
| Prisoner / Bondsman (of Christ) | δέσμιος (desmios) | ချည်နှောင်ခံရသူ (chi-hnaung-khan-ya-thu) | High | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | Frame as honorable, voluntary identification with Christ’s sufferings, not criminal shame (vv. 1, 9). Keep consistent with δεσμός. |
| Bonds / Chains | δεσμός (desmos) | ချည်နှောင်ခြင်း (chi-hnaung-chin) | Medium | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | Same root-family as δέσμιος; preserve wordplay across letter (vv. 10, 13). |
| Love | ἀγάπη (agapē) | ချစ်ခြင်းမေတ္တာ (chit-chin metta) | High | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | Risk of collapsing into Buddhist metta (self-cultivated loving-kindness) rather than grace-derived, others-directed love; anchor to Paul’s concrete costly example (vv. 5, 9). |
| Heart / Inmost Affection | σπλάγχνα (splanchna) | နှလုံးသား (hna-loun-thar) | Medium | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Weaker than the visceral Greek image by default; use consistently at vv. 7, 12, 20 with surrounding intensifying language. |
| Boldness (to speak/command) | παρρησία (parrēsia) | ရဲရင့်စွာပြောခွင့်ရှိမှု (yaeyin-swa pyaw-khwin-shi-hmu) | Medium | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | Sets up deliberate contrast with the appeal that follows (v. 8). |
| Command | ἐπιτάσσω (epitassō) | အမိန့်ပေးသည် (a-meint pay-thi) | Low | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | The authority Paul explicitly sets aside (v. 8). |
| Appeal / Entreat | παρακαλέω (parakaleō, entreaty sense) | တောင်းပန်ခြင်း (taung-pan-chin) | Medium | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | Context-sensitive per baseline note; do NOT use the Romans “exhort” rendering (တိုက်တွန်းနှိုးဆော်ခြင်း) here (v. 9). |
| Old Man / Ambassador (textual variant) | πρεσβύτης / πρεσβευτής | အသက်ကြီးသူ (a-thet-kyi-thu) | Medium | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | Genuine textual variant; flag for reviewer awareness (v. 9). |
| Child (spiritual) | τέκνον (teknon) | ငါ့သား (nga tha) | Low | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Paul’s spiritual fathering of Onesimus (v. 10). |
| Beget (spiritual) | γεννάω (gennaō) | မွေးထားသော (mway-hta-thaw) | Medium | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Avoid rebirth/samsara connotation; figurative one-time spiritual fathering (v. 10). |
| Useless / Useful | ἄχρηστος / εὔχρηστος | အသုံးမဝင်သော / အသုံးဝင်သော | Medium | Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power | Wordplay on Onesimus’s name is lost in Burmese; requires translator footnote (v. 11). |
| Send Back | ἀναπέμπω (anapempō) | ပြန်လည်ပို့ဆောင်သည် (pyan-le pou-sound-thi) | Low | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Formal, quasi-legal sending (v. 12). |
| Serve / Minister | διακονέω (diakoneō) | အမှုတော်ဆောင်သည် (a-hmu-taw-saung-thi) | Medium | Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power | Ministry register, not generic chore-vocabulary (v. 13). |
| Consent | γνώμη (gnōmē) | သဘောတူညီချက် (thabaw-tu-nyi-chet) | Low | Grace-Motivated Obedience | v. 14. |
| Compulsion | ἀνάγκη (anankē) | မလွှဲမရှောင်သာမှု (ma-hlwe-ma-shaung-thar-hmu) | Low | Grace-Motivated Obedience | Negative pole against ἑκούσιος (v. 14). |
| Separated | χωρίζω (chōrizō) | ခွဲခွာခဲ့သည် (khwe-khwa-khe-thi) | Low | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Providential reframing of a slave’s flight (v. 15). |
| Forever / Permanently | αἰώνιος (aiōnios, relational sense) | အစဉ်အမြဲ (a-zin-a-myay) | Medium | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | Do not import full eschatological “eternal life” weight here (v. 15). |
| Flesh (neutral/relational sense) | σάρξ (sarx) | ဇာတိအားဖြင့် (za-ti a-hpyin) | Medium | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | Distinguish from Romans’ sinful-nature sense of “flesh” (v. 16). |
| Partner | κοινωνός (koinōnos) | မိတ်ဖက် (meik-phet) | Medium | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | Root-linked to baseline’s fellowship term (v. 17). |
| Receive / Welcome | προσλαμβάνω (proslambanō) | ကြိုဆိုလက်ခံသည် (kyo-so let-khan-thi) | Low | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Same verb used of Christ’s welcome elsewhere in Paul (v. 17). |
| Wrong / Do Injustice | ἀδικέω (adikeō) | ပြစ်မှားခဲ့ (pyit-hmar-khe) | Medium | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Distinguish from baseline’s ἁμαρτία/sin term; interpersonal wrong (v. 18). |
| Owe | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | ကြွေးတင်နေသည် (kwe-tin-nay-thi) | Low | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | v. 18. |
| Charge to Account | ἐλλογάω (ellogaō) | စာရင်းတင်သည် (sar-yin-tin-thi) | Low | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | v. 18. |
| Repay | ἀποτίνω (apotinō) | ပြန်ဆပ်မည် (pyan-sat-mae) | Medium | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | Pictures substitutionary payment of another’s debt (v. 19). |
| Owe Besides | προσοφείλω (prosopheilō) | ထပ်၍ကြွေးတင်နေသည် (htat-yue kwe-tin-nay-thi) | Low | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | v. 19. |
| Benefit / Have Joy Of (wordplay) | ὀνίναμαι (oninamai) | အကျိုးခံစားရပါစေ (a-kyo khan-sar-ya-par-say) | Medium | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Closes the Onesimus name-pun loop begun at v. 11 (v. 20). |
| Refresh / Give Rest | ἀναπαύω (anapauō) | နှစ်သက်မှုပေးသည် (hnit-thet-hmu pay-thi) | Low-Medium | Forgiveness and Reconciliation | Links v. 7 and v. 20 (bookending device). |
| Confidence / Trust | πεποιθώς (pepoithōs) | ယုံကြည်စိတ်ချမှုဖြင့် (yun-kyi sate-cha-hmu-hpyin) | Medium | Grace-Motivated Obedience | Confidence based on known character, not leverage (v. 21). |
| Prayer | προσευχή (proseuchē) | ဆုတောင်းခြင်း (su-taung-chin) | Medium | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | Distinguish from petitioning nats (vv. 4, 22). |
| Remembrance / Mention | μνεία (mneia) | အောက်မေ့ခြင်း (auk-mae-chin) | Low | — | v. 4. |
| Effective / Active | ἐνεργής (energēs) | အကျိုးသက်ရောက်သော (a-kyo thet-yauk-thaw) | Low | — | v. 6. |
| Full Knowledge | ἐπίγνωσις (epignōsis) | အသိပညာအပြည့်အစုံ (a-thi pyinnya a-pyay-a-soun) | Low-Medium | — | v. 6. |
| Joy | χαρά (chara) | ဝမ်းမြောက်ခြင်း (wun-myauk-chin) | Low | — | v. 7. |
| Comfort / Encouragement | παράκλησις (paraklēsis) | နှစ်သိမ့်မှု (hnit-thate-hmu) | Low | — | v. 7. |
| Household (house church) | κατ᾽ οἶκόν (kat’ oikon) | အိမ်တွင်စည်းဝေးသော (ain-twin si-way-thaw) | Low-Medium | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | Public/congregational stakes of Philemon’s response (v. 2). |
| Fellow Worker | συνεργός (synergos) | လုပ်ဖော်ကိုင်ဖက် (lote-hpaw kaing-bet) | Low | — | vv. 1, 24. |
| Beloved | ἀγαπητός (agapētos) | ချစ်လှစွာသောသူ (chit-hla-swa-thaw thu) | Low | Christian Brotherhood across Social Status | Applied to both Philemon (v. 1) and Onesimus (v. 16). |
| Sister | ἀδελφή (adelphē) | ညီမ (nyi-ma) | Low | — | v. 2. |
| Fellow Soldier | συστρατιώτης (systratiōtēs) | စစ်သားချင်း (sit-thar-chin) | Low | — | v. 2. |
| Lodging / Guest Room | ξενία (xenia) | တည်းခိုရန်နေရာ (tee-kho-yan-nay-ya) | Low | — | v. 22. |
| Prepare | ἑτοιμάζω (hetoimazō) | ပြင်ဆင်သည် (pyin-sin-thi) | Low | — | v. 22. |
| Greet | ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai) | နှုတ်ဆက်သည် (hnote-set-thi) | Low | — | v. 23. |
| Fellow Prisoner / Captive | συναιχμάλωτος (synaichmalōtos) | အတူချည်နှောင်ခံရသူ (a-tu chi-hnaung-khan-ya-thu) | Medium | Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another | Distinct root-family from δέσμιος; keep visually distinguishable in rendering (v. 23). |
| Your Spirit (human) | πνεῦμα ὑμῶν | သင်၏စိတ်ဝိညာဉ် (thin i seit-weinnyin) | Medium | — | MUST NOT be confused with baseline Holy Spirit term; brief clarifying note recommended (v. 25). |
Section C — Proper Names (Established Myanmar Bible Forms)
| English Name | Greek (Transliteration) | Burmese Rendering | Risk | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul | Παῦλος (Paulos) | ပေါလု | Low | Per Phase 2 requirements transliteration standard. |
| Timothy | Τιμόθεος (Timotheos) | တိမောသေ | Low | v. 1. |
| Philemon | Φιλήμων (Philēmōn) | ဖိလေမုန် | Low | Letter’s addressee. |
| Apphia | Ἀπφία (Apphia) | အပ္ပိယ | Low | v. 2, probable wife of Philemon. |
| Archippus | Ἄρχιππος (Archippos) | အာခိပ္ပု | Low | v. 2, cf. Col 4:17. |
| Onesimus | Ὀνήσιμος (Onēsimos) | ဩနေသိမ် | Low (name); High (associated wordplay, vv. 10–11, 20) | Meaning “useful/profitable” — central to the letter’s wordplay; requires translator footnote. |
| Epaphras | Ἐπαφρᾶς (Epaphras) | ဧပဖြာ | Low | v. 23. |
| Mark | Μᾶρκος (Markos) | မာကု | Low | v. 24. |
| Aristarchus | Ἀρίσταρχος (Aristarchos) | အာရိတ္တာခု | Low | v. 24. |
| Demas | Δημᾶς (Dēmas) | ဒေမ | Low | v. 24. |
| Luke | Λουκᾶς (Loukas) | လုကာ | Low | v. 24. |
| Christ | Χριστός (Christos) | ခရစ်တော် | Critical | Established form; used throughout. |
Coverage Confirmation
Philemon consists of a single chapter (25 verses). Every verse (1–25) has been analyzed above, either in the core-passage verse-by-verse treatment (vv. 8–21, in 07_semantic_analysis.md) or in the remaining-verses treatment (vv. 1–7, 22–25). No verse or load-bearing term has been silently omitted. This glossary and its companion semantic analysis together constitute full-book coverage as mandated by the PRD Phase 1 Step 1 requirement.
Critical Risk Terms
Christ
Approved rendering: ခရစ်တော်
Transliteration: Khayitto
Doctrine: Christology
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Established Myanmar Bible form per the Phase 2 transliteration standard; not a formal entry in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json but used identically and with equal doctrinal weight throughout Philemon (‘prisoner of Christ Jesus,’ vv.1, 9; ‘in Christ,’ the sphere of transformed brotherhood). Never abbreviate or substitute.
Doulos
Approved rendering: ကျွန်
Transliteration: kyun
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Rejected alternatives: ကျွန်တော်/ကျွန်မ (as if a mere polite self-reference, masking literal slave status), အမှုထမ်း (generic servant, too weak legally)
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Social Status and Slavery
CRITICAL: Onesimus’s actual civil bondage prior to Paul’s appeal (v.16). Two collision risks: (1) folk karma-merit reading of low/bonded status as residual demerit from a former life, directly contradicted by the letter’s grounding of Onesimus’s dignity ‘in the Lord’; (2) the everyday humble first-person pronoun ကျွန်တော်/ကျွန်မ, detached from literal slavery, which can mask the letter’s real social-legal stakes. Mandatory translator/teaching note required at every occurrence.
Father
Approved rendering: အဖ
Transliteration: a-pha
Doctrine: God as Father
Rejected alternatives: ဗြဟ္မာ
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Salutation, Phlm 1:3. Never substitute ဗြဟ္မာ (Brahma).
God
Approved rendering: ဘုရားသခင်
Transliteration: Phayarthakhin
Doctrine: Deity of God
Rejected alternatives: ဘုရား, နတ်သခင်
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Salutation, Phlm 1:3. Always the full compound, never ဘုရား alone or နတ်သခင်.
Grace
Approved rendering: ကျေးဇူးတော်
Transliteration: kyayzu-taw
Doctrine: Grace / Grace-Motivated Obedience
Rejected alternatives: ကုသိုလ်, ကံကောင်းခြင်း, ဝါသနာတော်
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Forms an inclusio in Philemon (v.3, v.25) framing the entire appeal; even in salutation/benediction formula, retain full doctrinal weight, not merely formulaic greeting language. Never use ကုသိုလ် or ကံကောင်းခြင်း.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော်
Transliteration: thangyinthaw weinnyin-taw
Doctrine: Sanctification / Trinitarian Boundary Marker
Rejected alternatives: နတ်ဝိညာဉ်, ဝိညာဉ်
Inherited from Romans package. Retained in this curriculum’s TM solely as a boundary marker: Philemon 1:25’s ‘your spirit’ (see pneuma_human_spirit below) is NOT this term and must never be conflated with it despite the shared root noun ဝိညာဉ်.
Jesus
Approved rendering: ယေရှု
Transliteration: Yayshu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ရှင်ယေရှု
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Standard Myanmar Bible form since Judson; keep consistent across all documents including Philemon.
Lord
Approved rendering: သခင်
Transliteration: thakhin
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Rejected alternatives: ဘုရင်, ဆရာသခင်
Original: κύριος
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. In Philemon 1:16, 20, ‘in the Lord’ names the sphere of transformed, status-erasing relationship between Philemon and Onesimus. Must convey exclusive supreme authority.
High Risk Terms
Adelphos Cross Status
Approved rendering: ညီအစ်ကို
Transliteration: nyi-a-ko
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Rejected alternatives: ညီငယ်/အစ်ကိုကြီး (age-graded sibling forms reasserting hierarchy)
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Social Status and Slavery
Philemon 1:16, set up from v.1: the letter’s central relational reversal. Burmese honorific/age-status speech patterns risk unconsciously reasserting the master/slave hierarchy the text dismantles. Render identically and invariantly for Philemon and Onesimus; no status-marking permitted.
Agape
Approved rendering: ချစ်ခြင်းမေတ္တာ
Transliteration: chit-chin metta
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Rejected alternatives: မေတ္တာ alone (bare Buddhist brahmavihāra meditation-term, self-generated loving-kindness)
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Love and Affection
Philemon 1:5, 1:9. Risk that Burmese hearers default to self-cultivated meditative metta rather than grace-derived, others-directed, costly commitment. Anchor every occurrence to Paul’s concrete example (his offer to absorb Onesimus’s debt).
Desmios
Approved rendering: ချည်နှောင်ခံရသူ
Transliteration: chi-hnaung-khan-ya-thu
Doctrine: Imprisonment for Christ’s Sake as Honorable Suffering
Rejected alternatives: အကျဉ်းသား (ordinary criminal-prisoner term, carries only shame connotation)
Original: δέσμιος
Category: Imprisonment and Suffering
Philemon 1:1, 1:9. Paul’s characteristic self-designation ‘prisoner of Christ Jesus’. Must be taught explicitly as voluntary, honorable identification with Christ’s sufferings, not disgrace — paralleling how ‘apostle’ (တမန်တော်) names delegated honor.
Gospel
Approved rendering: သတင်းကောင်း
Transliteration: thadin kaung
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Rejected alternatives: ဓမ္မသတင်း, ကောင်းသောအကြောင်းအရာ
Inherited from Romans package. Philemon 1:13 — Paul’s chains exist ‘for the gospel’; reinforces that his imprisonment directly serves gospel proclamation.
Hekousios
Approved rendering: စေတနာအလျောက်
Transliteration: say-dana a-lyauk
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Rejected alternatives: newly-coined non-Pali compound (rejected; baseline instruction prefers established usage over invented coinages)
Original: ἑκούσιος
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Philemon 1:14. စေတနာ (cetana) is the Buddhist Abhidhamma volition-term determining an act’s karmic weight (‘kamma is cetana’). Must be anchored, at every occurrence, to grace already received (vv.4-7), never to merit yet to be earned.
Hypakoe
Approved rendering: နာခံမှု
Transliteration: na-khan-hmu
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Rejected alternatives: ယုံကြည်ခြင်း၏နာခံမှု (baseline obedience_of_faith rendering; rejected here as too general — see obedience_of_faith cross-reference above)
Original: ὑπακοή
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Philemon 1:21. Philemon’s specific, anticipated response to Paul’s particular appeal, expected to exceed the letter of the request. Must not be taught as merit-earning compliance.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: ယုံကြည်ခြင်း၏နာခံမှု
Transliteration: yunkyichin i nakhan-hmu
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: သီလလိုက်နာခြင်း
Inherited from Romans package. Retained here as a cross-reference boundary marker only: Philemon 1:21’s ὑπακοή (see hypakoe below) is a distinct, situational occurrence — Philemon’s specific anticipated response to Paul’s appeal — and must use its own rendering (နာခံမှု), not this compound, though the two concepts are conceptually linked in teaching material.
Onesimus
Approved rendering: ဩနေသိမ်
Transliteration: Onesim
Doctrine: Spiritual Fatherhood and New Identity in Christ
Original: Ὀνήσιμος
Category: Proper Names
Proper name meaning ‘useful, profitable’, central to the letter’s wordplay (vv.10-11, 20). Name itself is low risk; the associated untranslatable wordplay is High risk and requires a translator footnote at first occurrence.
Medium Risk Terms
Achrestos Euchrestos
Approved rendering: အသုံးမဝင်သော / အသုံးဝင်သော
Transliteration: a-thoun-ma-win-thaw / a-thoun-win-thaw
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Original: ἄχρηστος / εὔχρηστος
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:11. Direct pun on Onesimus’s name (‘useful/profitable’), untranslatable in Burmese; requires a translator footnote at first occurrence (v.10-11) explaining the name’s meaning.
Adikeo
Approved rendering: ပြစ်မှားခဲ့
Transliteration: pyit-hmar-khe
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: ἀδικέω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:18. Interpersonal wrongdoing; must be distinguished from the baseline’s ἁμαρτία/sin-against-God term (အပြစ်), though not theologically unrelated.
Aionios Relational
Approved rendering: အစဉ်အမြဲ
Transliteration: a-zin-a-myay
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Rejected alternatives: ထာဝရ (full eschatological ‘eternal’ weight — rejected as overloading this verse’s this-worldly relational sense)
Original: αἰώνιος
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Philemon 1:15. Modifies a this-worldly, relational reunion (‘have him back for good’), not primarily an eschatological claim; do not import full ‘eternal life’ doctrinal weight.
Apotino
Approved rendering: ပြန်ဆပ်မည်
Transliteration: pyan-sat-mae
Doctrine: Costly Substitutionary Advocacy
Rejected alternatives: ကုသိုလ်ပေးမည် (merit-dedication language — rejected; moves in the opposite direction from debt-absorption)
Original: ἀποτίνω
Category: Intercession and Appeal
Philemon 1:19. Paul’s offer to personally absorb Onesimus’s debt; keep in commercial/legal register so the typological link to Christ’s payment of the sinner’s debt remains recoverable for teaching, without overstating Paul as a literal Christ-type.
Church
Approved rendering: အသင်းတော်
Transliteration: athin-taw
Doctrine: Household Church as Public Witness
Rejected alternatives: ဘုရားကျောင်း, ဘုရားရိပ်သာ
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. In Philemon 1:2, the house church meeting in Philemon’s own home; his response to Onesimus is witnessed congregationally. Never use ဘုရားကျောင်း/ဘုရားရိပ်သာ.
Desmos
Approved rendering: ချည်နှောင်ခြင်း
Transliteration: chi-hnaung-chin
Doctrine: Imprisonment for Christ’s Sake as Honorable Suffering
Original: δεσμός
Category: Imprisonment and Suffering
Philemon 1:10, 1:13. Keep rendering consistent with desmios so the letter’s wordplay linking Paul’s chains and Onesimus’s conversion remains visible.
Diakoneo
Approved rendering: အမှုတော်ဆောင်သည်
Transliteration: a-hmu-taw-saung-thi
Doctrine: Slavery and the Gospel’s Transforming Power
Rejected alternatives: အိမ်စောင့်အလုပ်လုပ်သည် (generic domestic-chore vocabulary — rejected; flattens gospel-service framing)
Original: διακονέω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:13. Onesimus’s service to Paul framed as gospel ministry, not ordinary domestic-servant labor.
Faith
Approved rendering: ယုံကြည်ခြင်း
Transliteration: yun-kyi-chin
Doctrine: Faith / Christian Fellowship and Gospel Partnership
Rejected alternatives: သဒ္ဓါတရား
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Object of faith (the Lord Jesus, Phlm 1:5) must remain explicit in surrounding context.
Gennao
Approved rendering: မွေးထားသော
Transliteration: mway-hta-thaw
Doctrine: Spiritual Fatherhood and New Identity in Christ
Rejected alternatives: ပဋိသန္ဓေတည်ခြင်း (rebirth into samsara — CRITICAL FORBIDDEN, inherited principle from baseline’s resurrection entry)
Original: γεννάω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:10. Birth/begetting language for a one-time figurative spiritual fathering; in a culture saturated with samsara, requires a note distinguishing it from any cycle-of-rebirth connotation, per the same principle the baseline applies to ‘resurrection.‘
Koinonos
Approved rendering: မိတ်ဖက်
Transliteration: meik-phet
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Original: κοινωνός
Category: Church
Philemon 1:17. Built on the same root family as the baseline fellowship term (koinonia) to preserve the conceptual link; core to erasing the slave/master distinction in practice.
Oikos
Approved rendering: အိမ်တွင်စည်းဝေးသော
Transliteration: ain-twin si-way-thaw
Doctrine: Household Church as Public Witness
Rejected alternatives: ဘုန်းကြီးကျောင်း (Buddhist monastic-compound vocabulary — rejected)
Original: κατ’ οἶκόν σου
Category: Church
Philemon 1:2. The house church meeting in Philemon’s home; his response to Onesimus is congregationally witnessed, not private.
Oninamai
Approved rendering: အကျိုးခံစားရပါစေ
Transliteration: a-kyo khan-sar-ya-par-say
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: ὀνίναμαι
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:20. Closes the wordplay loop on Onesimus’s name begun at v.11; cross-reference the translator footnote established at vv.10-11.
Parakaleo Entreaty
Approved rendering: တောင်းပန်ခြင်း
Transliteration: taung-pan-chin
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Rejected alternatives: တိုက်တွန်းနှိုးဆော်ခြင်း (baseline Romans ‘exhort’ rendering — rejected; that is edification register, not entreaty)
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Intercession and Appeal
Philemon 1:9. Context-sensitive occurrence of παρακαλέω functioning as entreaty, not edification. Do NOT substitute the Romans exhort rendering.
Parresia
Approved rendering: ရဲရင့်စွာပြောခွင့်ရှိမှု
Transliteration: yaeyin-swa pyaw-khwin-shi-hmu
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Rejected alternatives: ခွင့်ပြုချက် (bare ‘permission’, loses the rhetorical standing-to-command sense)
Original: παρρησία
Category: Intercession and Appeal
Philemon 1:8. Paul’s acknowledged standing to command outright, deliberately set aside — sets up the appeal/command contrast in v.9.
Peace
Approved rendering: ငြိမ်သက်ခြင်း
Transliteration: nyein-thet-chin
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: ကိလေသာငြိမ်းခြင်း
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Salutation, Phlm 1:3. Not the meditative stilling of mental defilements pursued through vipassana practice.
Pepoithos
Approved rendering: ယုံကြည်စိတ်ချမှုဖြင့်
Transliteration: yun-kyi sate-cha-hmu-hpyin
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Original: πεποιθώς
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Philemon 1:21. Paul’s confidence rests on Philemon’s known, Spirit-formed character (vv.5-7), not on leverage of command or debt.
Pneuma Human Spirit
Approved rendering: သင်၏စိတ်ဝိညာဉ်
Transliteration: thin i seit-weinnyin
Doctrine: Trinitarian Boundary Marker
Rejected alternatives: သန့်ရှင်းသောဝိညာဉ်တော် (Holy Spirit — CRITICAL FORBIDDEN here; this is Philemon’s own human spirit, not the Holy Spirit)
Original: τὸ πνεῦμα ὑμῶν
Category: God
Philemon 1:25. Must NOT be confused with the baseline Holy Spirit term despite sharing the root noun ဝိညာဉ်; brief clarifying note recommended, with awareness that anatta doctrine makes even the ordinary sense of an enduring personal spirit worth flagging.
Presbytes
Approved rendering: အသက်ကြီးသူ
Transliteration: a-thet-kyi-thu
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Rejected alternatives: သံအမတ် (ambassador, following the minority textual variant πρεσβευτής — rejected as it would reassert the authority Paul has just set aside)
Original: πρεσβύτης / πρεσβευτής
Category: Intercession and Appeal
Philemon 1:9. Genuine text-critical fork (πρεσβύτης ‘old man’ vs. πρεσβευτής ‘ambassador’); majority reading followed for rhetorical coherence. Flag variant for reviewer awareness.
Proseuche
Approved rendering: ဆုတောင်းခြင်း
Transliteration: su-taung-chin
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: နတ်ကိုးကွယ်ခြင်း (petitioning the 37 nats)
Original: προσευχή
Category: Intercession and Appeal
Philemon 1:4, 1:22. Direct address to God the Father through Christ; distinguish from petitioning the 37 nats for favor or protection.
Saints
Approved rendering: သန့်ရှင်းသူများ
Transliteration: thangyin thu myar
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: ရဟန္တာ, ရှင်ရဟန်း
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. In Philemon, the members of the house-church whose hearts Philemon has already refreshed (vv.5, 7). Not an ascetic elite comparable to ရဟန္တာ (arahant).
Sarx Neutral
Approved rendering: ဇာတိအားဖြင့်
Transliteration: za-ti a-hpyin
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Rejected alternatives: ဇာတိပကတိ (would import the Romans sinful-nature ‘flesh’ sense)
Original: σάρξ
Category: Social Status and Slavery
Philemon 1:16 — the neutral, natural/social plane of relationship (master/slave) contrasted with ‘in the Lord’. Must be explicitly distinguished from the baseline’s Romans 7-8 sinful-nature sense of ‘flesh’ via translator note.
Splanchna
Approved rendering: နှလုံးသား
Transliteration: hna-loun-thar
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: σπλάγχνα
Category: Love and Affection
Philemon 1:7, 1:12, 1:20. Weaker than the visceral Greek ‘bowels/inward parts’ image by default; use consistently with intensifying surrounding language across all three occurrences.
Synaichmalotos
Approved rendering: အတူချည်နှောင်ခံရသူ
Transliteration: a-tu chi-hnaung-khan-ya-thu
Doctrine: Imprisonment for Christ’s Sake as Honorable Suffering
Original: συναιχμάλωτος
Category: Imprisonment and Suffering
Philemon 1:23, of Epaphras. Distinct Greek root-family from desmios/desmos; keep visibly related but distinguishable in Burmese.
Low Risk Terms
Adelphe
Approved rendering: ညီမ
Transliteration: nyi-ma
Doctrine: Household Church as Public Witness
Original: ἀδελφή
Category: Church
Philemon 1:2, of Apphia.
Agapetos
Approved rendering: ချစ်လှစွာသောသူ
Transliteration: chit-hla-swa-thaw thu
Doctrine: Christian Brotherhood across Social Status
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Church
Philemon 1:1, 1:16. Applied to both Philemon and Onesimus, linking master and former slave under identical vocabulary of affection; render identically at both occurrences.
Ananke
Approved rendering: မလွှဲမရှောင်သာမှု
Transliteration: ma-hlwe-ma-shaung-thar-hmu
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Original: ἀνάγκη
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Philemon 1:14. The negative pole against which ἑκούσιος (voluntary) is defined.
Anapauo
Approved rendering: နှစ်သက်မှုပေးသည်
Transliteration: hnit-thet-hmu pay-thi
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: ἀναπαύω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:7, 1:20. Bookends the appeal; render identically at both occurrences.
Anapempo
Approved rendering: ပြန်လည်ပို့ဆောင်သည်
Transliteration: pyan-le pou-sound-thi
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: ἀναπέμπω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:12. Formal, quasi-legal sending; Onesimus remains, in Roman law, Philemon’s property.
Apphia
Approved rendering: အပ္ပိယ
Transliteration: Apphia
Doctrine: Proper Name
Original: Ἀπφία
Category: Proper Names
Philemon 1:2, probable wife of Philemon.
Archippus
Approved rendering: အာခိပ္ပု
Transliteration: Archippos
Doctrine: Proper Name
Original: Ἄρχιππος
Category: Proper Names
Philemon 1:2, cf. Colossians 4:17.
Aristarchus
Approved rendering: အာရိတ္တာခု
Transliteration: Aristarchos
Doctrine: Proper Name
Original: Ἀρίσταρχος
Category: Proper Names
Philemon 1:24.
Aspazomai
Approved rendering: နှုတ်ဆက်သည်
Transliteration: hnote-set-thi
Doctrine: Hospitality and Christian Community
Original: ἀσπάζομαι
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Philemon 1:23-24.
Chara
Approved rendering: ဝမ်းမြောက်ခြင်း
Transliteration: wun-myauk-chin
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Gospel Partnership
Original: χαρά
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Philemon 1:7. Paul’s response to Philemon’s love and ministry to the saints.
Chorizo
Approved rendering: ခွဲခွာခဲ့သည်
Transliteration: khwe-khwa-khe-thi
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: χωρίζω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:15. Reframes Onesimus’s likely flight as providentially purposeful.
Demas
Approved rendering: ဒေမ
Transliteration: Demas
Doctrine: Proper Name
Original: Δημᾶς
Category: Proper Names
Philemon 1:24.
Ellogao
Approved rendering: စာရင်းတင်သည်
Transliteration: sar-yin-tin-thi
Doctrine: Costly Substitutionary Advocacy
Original: ἐλλογάω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:18. Legal/accounting metaphor supporting the substitutionary-payment picture of v.19.
Energes
Approved rendering: အကျိုးသက်ရောက်သော
Transliteration: a-kyo thet-yauk-thaw
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Gospel Partnership
Original: ἐνεργής
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Philemon 1:6. Describes Philemon’s faith as operative, not static.
Epaphras
Approved rendering: ဧပဖြာ
Transliteration: Epaphras
Doctrine: Proper Name
Original: Ἐπαφρᾶς
Category: Proper Names
Philemon 1:23, Paul’s fellow prisoner.
Epignosis
Approved rendering: အသိပညာအပြည့်အစုံ
Transliteration: a-thi pyinnya a-pyay-a-soun
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Gospel Partnership
Original: ἐπίγνωσις
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Philemon 1:6. Goal of the shared partnership of faith.
Epitasso
Approved rendering: အမိန့်ပေးသည်
Transliteration: a-meint pay-thi
Doctrine: Intercession and Appeal on Behalf of Another
Original: ἐπιτάσσω
Category: Intercession and Appeal
Philemon 1:8. The authoritative mode Paul explicitly declines to use.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: မိတ်သဟာယ
Transliteration: meikthahaya
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Gospel Partnership
Rejected alternatives: သူငယ်ချင်းဖွဲ့ခြင်း
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. In Philemon 1:6, the active partnership Philemon’s faith produces, root-linked to the new term koinonos (v.17) to preserve the rhetorical connection across the letter.
Gnome
Approved rendering: သဘောတူညီချက်
Transliteration: thabaw-tu-nyi-chet
Doctrine: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Original: γνώμη
Category: Grace-Motivated Obedience
Philemon 1:14. Philemon’s free consent, structurally necessary to the outcome Paul seeks.
Hetoimazo
Approved rendering: ပြင်ဆင်သည်
Transliteration: pyin-sin-thi
Doctrine: Hospitality and Christian Community
Original: ἑτοιμάζω
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Philemon 1:22.
Luke Name
Approved rendering: လုကာ
Transliteration: Loukas
Doctrine: Proper Name
Philemon 1:24.
Mark Name
Approved rendering: မာကု
Transliteration: Markos
Doctrine: Proper Name
Philemon 1:24.
Mneia
Approved rendering: အောက်မေ့ခြင်း
Transliteration: auk-mae-chin
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Original: μνεία
Category: Intercession and Appeal
Philemon 1:4. Paul’s habit of naming Philemon in prayer.
Opheilo
Approved rendering: ကြွေးတင်နေသည်
Transliteration: kwe-tin-nay-thi
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:18. Frames the wrong in economic terms Paul is about to resolve.
Paraklesis
Approved rendering: နှစ်သိမ့်မှု
Transliteration: hnit-thate-hmu
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Gospel Partnership
Original: παράκλησις
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Philemon 1:7. Related noun-form to παρακαλέω.
Paul Name
Approved rendering: ပေါလု
Transliteration: Paulos
Doctrine: Proper Name
Philemon 1:1, the letter’s author. Per Phase 2 requirements transliteration standard.
Philemon Name
Approved rendering: ဖိလေမုန်
Transliteration: Philemon
Doctrine: Proper Name
Rejected alternatives: ဖိလေမုန် Catholic variant spellings — not used; Protestant/Judson-tradition form retained
The letter’s addressee; established proposed Myanmar Bible form. Also used as the book title in citations.
Proslambano
Approved rendering: ကြိုဆိုလက်ခံသည်
Transliteration: kyo-so let-khan-thi
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Original: προσλαμβάνω
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:17. Same verb Paul uses elsewhere for Christ’s welcome of believers; human reconciliation mirrors divine reconciliation.
Prosopheilo
Approved rendering: ထပ်၍ကြွေးတင်နေသည်
Transliteration: htat-yue kwe-tin-nay-thi
Doctrine: Costly Substitutionary Advocacy
Original: προσοφείλω
Category: Intercession and Appeal
Philemon 1:19. Philemon’s own greater debt to Paul (likely his conversion), gently leveraged without ever being commanded.
Synergos
Approved rendering: လုပ်ဖော်ကိုင်ဖက်
Transliteration: lote-hpaw kaing-bet
Doctrine: Household Church as Public Witness
Original: συνεργός
Category: Church
Philemon 1:1, 1:24. Applied to Philemon, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke.
Systratiotes
Approved rendering: စစ်သားချင်း
Transliteration: sit-thar-chin
Doctrine: Household Church as Public Witness
Original: συστρατιώτης
Category: Church
Philemon 1:2, of Archippus. Military metaphor honoring costly, combative gospel labor.
Teknon
Approved rendering: ငါ့သား
Transliteration: nga tha
Doctrine: Spiritual Fatherhood and New Identity in Christ
Original: τέκνον
Category: Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Philemon 1:10. Establishes the new identity later leveraged in v.16’s ‘brother’ language.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: ကျေးဇူးတင်ခြင်း
Transliteration: kyayzu-tin-chin
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστέω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Phlm 1:4. Standard term; no significant doctrinal risk.
Timothy
Approved rendering: တိမောသေ
Transliteration: Timotheos
Doctrine: Proper Name
Original: Τιμόθεος
Category: Proper Names
Philemon 1:1. Established Myanmar Bible form.
Xenia
Approved rendering: တည်းခိုရန်နေရာ
Transliteration: tee-kho-yan-nay-ya
Doctrine: Hospitality and Christian Community
Original: ξενία
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Philemon 1:22. Paul’s requested lodging; adds a note of accountability for his expected visit.
Referenced passages