Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — 1 Corinthians (English → Cantonese)
Purpose
This document maps every doctrine in doctrine_risk_registry.json to its supporting passages across the full span of 1 Corinthians 1–16, chapter by chapter, and records the specific grounded translation-risk reasoning behind each risk tier for a Hong Kong / Guangdong / Macau Cantonese-speaking audience. Risk tiers and review routing here are drawn directly from the registry and must never diverge from it. The core passage (1 Corinthians 15:1-11) anchors the curriculum theologically but is not the boundary of this analysis — every chapter is accounted for below.
Part A: Chapter-by-Chapter Coverage
1 Corinthians 1
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages (this book) | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Unity versus Factionalism | High | 1:10-17 | 分黨 must be named as sin against unity, not softened toward “different opinions”; Cantonese sworn-brotherhood (結拜) and clan/native-place association (同鄉會) idiom could make factional loyalty sound admirable rather than destructive. | Human theologian |
| Baptism and Union with Christ | High | 1:13-17 | Baptism must not become a badge of factional allegiance (“were you baptized in the name of Paul?”) — directly reinforces the unity doctrine; distinct from generic ritual water-cleansing across HK folk/religious traditions. | Human theologian |
| The Cross as Wisdom and Power | Critical | 1:17-25 | 十字架 must remain the specific historical execution instrument central to atonement, not generalized “suffering” absorbable into folk merit-through-hardship narratives. | Human theologian |
| The Wisdom of God versus Worldly Wisdom | High | 1:18-31 | 智慧 must be distinguished from Buddhist prajñā-wisdom (般若智慧, attained through cultivation) and Confucian scholarly wisdom; God’s wisdom here is his redemptive plan apprehended by faith. | Human theologian |
| The Gospel as a Fixed Apostolic Deposit | High | 1:1 (background to 15:1-11) | Paul’s apostolic self-identification anticipates the closed-deposit gospel argument developed fully in ch.15; consistency of 蒙召嘅/使徒 vocabulary must be maintained from the opening verse. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 2
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Cross as Wisdom and Power | Critical | 2:1-5 | 神嘅大能 must never render as 法力 (medium/practitioner ritual power) or be attributed to feng shui; reprises the baseline’s power_of_god forbidden-substitution rule. | Human theologian |
| The Wisdom of God versus Worldly Wisdom | High | 2:6-16 | 血氣嘅人/屬靈嘅人 (natural/spiritual man) names a Spirit/no-Spirit distinction, not an intelligence or social-class distinction; 奧秘 (mystery) must be distinguished from folk-occult “secret knowledge” or fortune-telling’s hidden fate — this is revealed truth. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 3
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Unity versus Factionalism | High | 3:1-9 | Continues ch.1’s factionalism concern with agricultural imagery (planting/watering); no new term risk beyond consistency with ch.1 rendering. | Human theologian |
| The Wisdom of God versus Worldly Wisdom | High | 3:18-20 | ”Let him become a fool” paradox must retain its deliberate, culturally-jarring force; 愚拙 risk of being read as mere stupidity persists here. | Human theologian |
| The Church as God’s Temple | Critical | 3:16-17 | 神嘅殿 must be sharply distinguished from a literal folk/Daoist/Buddhist temple building (廟), already forbidden for “church” in the Romans baseline; this names the Spirit-indwelt community, not a shrine to be visited or offered to. | Human theologian |
| Apostolic Authority and Stewardship | Medium | 3:10-15 | 建造/建立 (build) and 根基 (foundation) imagery for ministry accountability; low collision but requires clarity that the “fire” test is God’s future evaluation, not karmic retribution. | Native speaker review |
1 Corinthians 4
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apostolic Authority and Stewardship | Medium | 4:1-21 | 管家 (steward) must not be conflated with a temple caretaker role; apostolic accountability is fiduciary accountability to God for entrusted truth, not popularity ranking among rival teachers — precisely the Corinthian error being corrected. | Native speaker review |
| Christian Unity versus Factionalism | High | 4:6-7 | ”Boast” (誇口) language reprised from ch.1’s factionalism concern; must connect to grace-versus-merit doctrine, contrasted with “face” (面子) / “flashy success” (威水) culture. | Human theologian |
Chapter 4 reviewed in full; no additional doctrines beyond those above are load-bearing in this chapter.
1 Corinthians 5
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Church Discipline and Holiness | High | 5:1-13 | 交給撒但 must be read as redemptive discipline aimed at repentance/restoration, not a vengeful curse or folk exorcism/curse ritual (放符, 詛咒); 淫亂 must retain moral seriousness before a holy God, not reduce to lost face (面子). 酵/無酵 (leaven) requires OT Passover background explanation. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 6
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Church as God’s Temple | Critical | 6:19-20 | 聖靈嘅殿 (temple of the Holy Spirit) applied to the individual believer’s body; same forbidden-substitution caution as ch.3’s church-as-temple entry. | Human theologian |
| Bodily Holiness and Purity | High | 6:12-20 | 用重價買咗 (bought with a price) must not sound like a cold commercial transaction devoid of costly self-giving love — a real risk given Hong Kong’s heavily contract-driven commercial vocabulary; this is redemption grounding bodily holiness. | Human theologian |
| Spiritual Gifts and the Unity of the Body | High | 6:15 (“members of Christ”) | 肢體 (member) vocabulary introduced here, consistent with its fuller development in ch.12. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 7
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marriage and Singleness | Medium | 7:1-40 | Paul’s careful distinctions (command vs. permission; believer- vs. unbeliever-initiated separation) must not be flattened into one blanket 分開/離婚 term; singleness as a legitimate, even advantageous, calling requires careful framing against strong Cantonese family-continuity and marriage-pressure expectations. Gift-of-celibacy language reuses 屬靈恩賜 with a footnoted broader sense. | Native speaker review |
1 Corinthians 8
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Liberty | High | 8:1-13 | 自由 must be conveyed as real liberty voluntarily self-limited for love’s sake, the opposite of libertine license; 良心 must be personal moral awareness answerable to God, not social conformity or “face” (面子). | Human theologian |
| Idolatry and Idol Food | Critical | 8:1-13 | The closest real-world HK analogue to εἰδωλόθυτον is food from temple altars (Wong Tai Sin, Tin Hau) and ancestral-rite offerings later eaten during Ching Ming/Chung Yeung — a live pastoral situation, not merely an ancient illustration. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 9
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apostolic Authority and Stewardship | Medium | 9:1-27 | 賞賜 (reward), 冠冕 (crown), 被棄絕 (disqualified), 節制 (self-control) form an athletic-race metaphor cluster; must read as gospel-motivated discipline, not merit accumulation toward salvation (cf. baseline’s grace/works caution). | Native speaker review |
| Christian Liberty | High | 9:1-23 | Paul’s voluntary relinquishment of his own rights models the self-limiting-for-love’s-sake pattern developed fully in ch.8 and 10. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 10
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idolatry and Idol Food | Critical | 10:14-22, 10:25-30 | 拜偶像 (idolatry) is a direct, urgent command with live cultural analogues (temple offerings, ancestral veneration, incense worship); must not be softened into purely ancient-historical warning. | Human theologian |
| The Spiritual Reality behind Idolatry (Demons) | Critical | 10:19-21 | 鬼魔 must be sharply distinguished from Cantonese folk-ghost vocabulary (鬼, 盂蘭節 Hungry Ghost Festival, ancestral spirits, 問米 spirit-mediumship), all actively practiced/engaged in Hong Kong; biblical δαιμόνιον names hostile personal fallen spirits tied to organized idol worship, not ancestral ghosts requiring appeasement. | Human theologian |
| Christian Liberty | High | 10:23-11:1 | ”All things lawful, not all things helpful” — 自由/絆腳石 (stumbling block) vocabulary must retain the controlling pastoral concern of the whole liberty discussion. | Human theologian |
| Baptism and Union with Christ | High | 10:1-4 | Typological wilderness “baptism” and the Rock (磐石) identified with Christ must be presented as OT type, not a claim that a literal stone was itself divine. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 11
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head Covering and Gender Order in Worship | High | 11:2-16 | κεφαλή (“head”, 頭) carries a genuinely disputed source-vs-authority sense; the Cantonese rendering must preserve this semantic range rather than resolving the debate unilaterally. Head covering (蒙頭) has no equivalent HK custom, so risk is chiefly reader confusion requiring framing notes. | Human theologian |
| The Lord’s Supper | Critical | 11:17-34 | 聖餐 must be kept doctrinally distinct both from the Corinthians’ own abuse (unequal potluck favoring the wealthy) and from folk-ritual communal-offering meals (temple banquet food, ancestral-rite shared meals during Ching Ming/Chung Yeung). | Human theologian |
| The Gospel as a Fixed Apostolic Deposit | High | 11:2, 11:23 | 傳/領受 (delivered/received) technical pair reprised for the Supper tradition; must avoid vocabulary suggesting teacher-disciple lineage transmission (師傳) rather than a fixed apostolic deposit. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 12
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confession of Christ’s Lordship | Critical | 12:3 | 耶穌是主 must render verbatim identical to Romans 10:9’s salvation confession per the baseline’s cross-document consistency rule; 聖靈 must never soften to 靈 alone (folk ancestral/mediumship-summoned spirits). | Human theologian |
| Spiritual Gifts and the Unity of the Body | High | 12:1-31 | 醫病嘅恩賜 and 異能 must never be confused with folk-healer or spirit-medium ritual power (法力) or cultivation-attained supernatural powers (神通); every gift is Spirit-given for common good, not individually attained achievement to be ranked. | Human theologian |
| Baptism and Union with Christ | High | 12:13 | ”Baptized into one body” reinforces the unity-of-Jews-and-Gentiles doctrine already Critical/High in the Romans baseline; must not be read merely as a ritual act separate from actual incorporation into Christ’s body. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 13
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Love as the Greater Way | High | 13:1-13 | 愛 must be distinguished from romantic love (愛情), casual affection (鍾意), and Confucian relational-duty benevolence (仁), as well as the loyalty-and-honor idiom already flagged under 義 in the Romans baseline; agapē is unconditional, self-giving, active goodwill, not primarily emotion or social-duty code. 盼望 (hope) must be distinguished from wish-fulfillment fortune/luck hope (好運, 心願) reinforced by temple wish-granting culture. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 14
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tongues, Prophecy, and Discerning of Spirits | High | 14:1-40 | 方言 must be clearly Spirit-given, interpretable speech serving the church, not a trance/possession phenomenon; 辨別諸靈 must be clearly distinguished from folk spirit-medium “detection” practices (問米), actively practiced and sought out in Hong Kong. | Human theologian |
| Order in Worship | Medium | 14:26-40 | ”God is not a God of confusion but of peace” must be linked explicitly to God’s own character, not merely to social propriety/etiquette norms, to avoid collapsing into generic “good manners” teaching. | Native speaker review |
| Women’s Participation in Worship | High | 14:34-35 | A genuinely contested passage across interpretive traditions regarding scope and referent; render faithfully and literally without unilateral softening or expansion, accompanied by contextual teaching notes rather than silent interpretive resolution. | Human theologian |
1 Corinthians 15 (Core Passage: 15:1-11)
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gospel as a Fixed Apostolic Deposit | High | 15:1-3, 15:11 | 傳/領受 must name a fixed, closed, multiply-witnessed apostolic deposit, not an evolving oral tradition (avoid 師傳 lineage-transmission overtones). | Human theologian |
| The Resurrection of Christ | Critical | 15:3-8, 15:20 | ὤφθη (“appeared”) must render as 顯現, never 顯靈 — the standard HK temple-culture phrase for a deity “manifesting its power” at a shrine (Wong Tai Sin, Man Mo Temple); Christ’s bodily appearances are unique historical events witnessed by named individuals, not folk-deity manifestation. | Human theologian |
| Grace and Apostolic Identity | Critical | 15:9-10 | Paul’s “not I, but the grace of God with me” is a direct biblical safeguard against the transactional temple-vow framing the baseline forbids (Wong Tai Sin’s “whatever you ask, you shall receive”); labor did not earn apostolic standing — grace preceded and produced it. | Human theologian |
| The Resurrection of Believers | Critical | 15:12-58 | 屬靈嘅身體 must be taught as a real, physical, transformed body continuous with the present body, not a disembodied-spirit afterlife (a common HK folk-religious expectation tied to ancestral spirits/盂蘭節 culture); must avoid any rebirth-cycle framing (投胎轉世). | Human theologian |
| The Futility of Faith without the Resurrection | Critical | 15:12-19 | 徒然 (vain/empty) must convey the logical emptiness of a faith with no true historical referent — a theological/logical category — not a folk “bad luck/misfortune” register, which would shift the argument to superstition. | Human theologian |
| Eschatological Transformation | Medium | 15:35-58 | Figurative imagery (trumpet, twinkling of an eye, death’s sting) must be read as describing a real, future, instantaneous bodily transformation, not merely poetic or mythological language detached from historical expectation. | Native speaker review |
1 Corinthians 16
| Doctrine | Risk | Passages | Translation Risk Note | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generosity and the Collection | Low | 16:1-4 | Standard practical instruction with minor doctrinal weight; low risk of theological distortion beyond basic translation accuracy. | Automated review |
| Final Exhortation and Maranatha Hope | Medium | 16:13-24 | 咒詛 must be understood as a solemn formal pronouncement of exclusion from blessing for lack of love toward the Lord, not casual cursing or folk-curse practice (詛咒/放符); Maranatha should retain its transliteration alongside its meaning. | Native speaker review |
Part B: Consolidated Doctrine Matrix (matches doctrine_risk_registry.json exactly)
| # | Doctrine | Risk | Primary Passages (1 Corinthians) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Resurrection of Christ | Critical | 15:3-8, 15:20 | Human theologian |
| 2 | The Resurrection of Believers | Critical | 15:12-58 | Human theologian |
| 3 | The Gospel as a Fixed Apostolic Deposit | High | 15:1-3, 15:11, 11:2,23 | Human theologian |
| 4 | Grace and Apostolic Identity | Critical | 15:9-10, 1:1 | Human theologian |
| 5 | Christian Unity versus Factionalism | High | 1:10-17, 3:1-9, 11:18-19, 12:12-27 | Human theologian |
| 6 | The Cross as Wisdom and Power | Critical | 1:17-25, 2:1-5 | Human theologian |
| 7 | The Wisdom of God versus Worldly Wisdom | High | 1:18-2:16, 3:18-20 | Human theologian |
| 8 | The Church as God’s Temple | Critical | 3:16-17, 6:19-20 | Human theologian |
| 9 | Church Discipline and Holiness | High | 5:1-13 | Human theologian |
| 10 | Bodily Holiness and Purity | High | 6:12-20 | Human theologian |
| 11 | Marriage and Singleness | Medium | 7:1-40 | Native speaker review |
| 12 | Christian Liberty | High | 8:1-13, 10:23-11:1 | Human theologian |
| 13 | Idolatry and Idol Food | Critical | 8:1-13, 10:14-22, 10:25-30 | Human theologian |
| 14 | The Spiritual Reality behind Idolatry (Demons) | Critical | 10:19-21 | Human theologian |
| 15 | The Lord’s Supper | Critical | 11:17-34 | Human theologian |
| 16 | Head Covering and Gender Order in Worship | High | 11:2-16 | Human theologian |
| 17 | Spiritual Gifts and the Unity of the Body | High | 12:1-31 | Human theologian |
| 18 | Confession of Christ’s Lordship | Critical | 12:3 | Human theologian |
| 19 | Tongues, Prophecy, and Discerning of Spirits | High | 12:10, 14:1-40 | Human theologian |
| 20 | Love as the Greater Way | High | 13:1-13 | Human theologian |
| 21 | Order in Worship | Medium | 14:26-40 | Native speaker review |
| 22 | Women’s Participation in Worship | High | 14:34-35 | Human theologian |
| 23 | The Futility of Faith without the Resurrection | Critical | 15:12-19 | Human theologian |
| 24 | Apostolic Authority and Stewardship | Medium | 4:1-21, 9:1-27 | Native speaker review |
| 25 | Baptism and Union with Christ | High | 1:13-17, 10:1-4, 12:13 | Human theologian |
| 26 | Eschatological Transformation | Medium | 15:35-58 | Native speaker review |
| 27 | Generosity and the Collection | Low | 16:1-4 | Automated review |
| 28 | Final Exhortation and Maranatha Hope | Medium | 16:13-24 | Native speaker review |
Risk Summary (matches doctrine_risk_registry.json):
| Tier | Count |
|---|---|
| Critical | 10 |
| High | 12 |
| Medium | 5 |
| Low | 1 |
| Total requiring human theologian review | 22 |
| Total requiring native speaker review | 5 |
| Total automated only | 1 |
Part C: Full-Book Coverage Confirmation
All sixteen chapters of 1 Corinthians have been reviewed above (Part A). Chapter 4 is explicitly noted as fully reviewed with no load-bearing doctrines beyond Apostolic Authority and Stewardship and the reprised Unity/boasting concern. Every other chapter contributes at least one load-bearing doctrine to the matrix in Part B. No chapter has been silently omitted.
This document must be loaded alongside 08_core_glossary.md, translation_memory.json, and doctrine_risk_registry.json before Phase 2 translation begins.
Critical Risk Doctrines
The Resurrection of Christ
Cantonese name: 基督嘅復活
Key terms: resurrection, resurrection_appearance, delivered, received
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: the appearance verb ὤφθη must render as 顯現, never 顯靈 — 顯靈 is the standard Hong Kong temple-culture phrase for a deity ‘manifesting its power’ at a shrine (Wong Tai Sin, Man Mo Temple), and using it here would present Christ’s bodily resurrection appearances as equivalent to a folk-deity manifestation event rather than a unique, historical, bodily event witnessed by named individuals.
The Resurrection of Believers
Cantonese name: 信徒嘅復活
Key terms: resurrection, spiritual_body, natural_body, imperishable, immortality, last_adam, firstfruits
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 屬靈嘅身體 (spiritual body) must be taught as a real, physical, transformed body continuous with the present body, not a disembodied-spirit afterlife — a common expectation in Hong Kong folk religion, where ancestral spirits and ghosts (盂蘭節 culture) are understood to persist apart from the body. Must also avoid any framing that suggests a rebirth cycle (投胎轉世), per the baseline’s resurrection caution.
Grace and Apostolic Identity
Cantonese name: 恩典同使徒嘅身份
Key terms: grace, called, labor, boast
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Paul’s ‘not I, but the grace of God with me’ is a direct biblical safeguard against exactly the transactional temple-vow framing the baseline forbids (Wong Tai Sin’s ‘whatever you ask, you shall receive’); his labor did not purchase apostolic standing — grace preceded and produced the labor. Any rendering that implies Paul’s hard work earned or merited his apostleship contradicts this passage’s own argument.
The Cross as Wisdom and Power
Cantonese name: 十字架作為智慧同大能
Key terms: cross, wisdom, foolishness, power_of_god
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 十字架 must remain the specific historical execution instrument central to atonement, not generalized ‘suffering’ language that could be absorbed into folk-religious merit-through-hardship narratives; 神嘅大能 must never be rendered 法力 (a medium’s or practitioner’s ritual power) or attributed to feng shui, per the baseline’s power_of_god forbidden-substitution rule, which is directly reprised here.
The Church as God’s Temple
Cantonese name: 教會作為神嘅殿
Key terms: temple_of_god, temple_of_holy_spirit, holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 神嘅殿/聖靈嘅殿 must be sharply distinguished from a literal folk/Daoist/Buddhist temple building (廟), the term already forbidden for ‘church’ in the Romans baseline. This metaphor names the Spirit-indwelt community and individual believer’s body, not a physical shrine housing an image to be visited, offered to, or petitioned — a distinction of particular importance given how visually and culturally present temple buildings (Wong Tai Sin, Man Mo Temple) are in Hong Kong.
Idolatry and Idol Food
Cantonese name: 拜偶像同祭偶像之物
Key terms: idol, food_offered_to_idols, idolatry
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: the closest real-world Hong Kong analogue to εἰδωλόθυτον is food from temple altars (Wong Tai Sin, Tin Hau) and ancestral-rite offerings later distributed and eaten during Ching Ming (清明) and Chung Yeung (重陽) — this is a live, present-day pastoral situation for Cantonese believers with family members who practice ancestor veneration, not merely an ancient illustration; teaching materials must handle it with the same pastoral precision Paul does, neither dismissing the danger nor legalistically forbidding all contact with unbelieving family food customs.
The Spiritual Reality behind Idolatry (Demons)
Cantonese name: 拜偶像背後嘅靈界現實
Key terms: demons, table_of_the_lord_and_demons
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 鬼魔 must be sharply distinguished from Cantonese folk-ghost vocabulary (鬼, tied to the Hungry Ghost Festival 盂蘭節, wandering ancestral spirits, and 問米 spirit-mediumship) — practices actively engaged by many Hong Kong families. Biblical δαιμόνιον names hostile, personal, fallen spiritual beings tied specifically to organized idol worship, requiring resistance and flight, not ancestral ghosts requiring ritual appeasement through offerings; conflating the two risks either trivializing the biblical warning or importing folk-ghost-appeasement logic into Christian teaching.
The Lord’s Supper
Cantonese name: 主嘅聖餐
Key terms: lords_supper, remembrance, new_covenant, unworthy_manner, discerning_the_body
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 聖餐 must be kept doctrinally distinct both from the Corinthians’ own abuse (an unequal potluck-style meal favoring the wealthy) and from any folk-ritual communal-offering meal in the destination culture, such as temple banquet food distributed after an offering or shared ancestral-rite meals during Ching Ming/Chung Yeung; the Supper is a Christ-instituted memorial of the new covenant, not a shared meal that confers benefit through ritual participation in itself.
Confession of Christ’s Lordship
Cantonese name: 宣認基督嘅主權
Key terms: jesus_is_lord, holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 耶穌是主 must be rendered verbatim identical to the Romans baseline’s rendering of Romans 10:9’s salvation confession, per the cross-document consistency rule; this passage additionally teaches that only the Holy Spirit enables this confession, so 聖靈 must never be softened to 靈 alone, which in Hong Kong folk usage covers ancestral and mediumship-summoned spirits.
The Futility of Faith without the Resurrection
Cantonese name: 若冇復活信心就會落空
Key terms: vain, faith, resurrection, sin
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: 徒然 (vain/empty) must be understood as the logical emptiness of a faith or hope with no true historical referent — a theological/logical category — and must not be rendered with vocabulary carrying a folk ‘bad luck/misfortune’ register, which would shift Paul’s argument from a factual claim about the resurrection’s reality to a superstitious claim about fortune.
High Risk Doctrines
The Gospel as a Fixed Apostolic Deposit
Cantonese name: 福音作為使徒傳承嘅內容
Key terms: gospel, delivered, received, tradition
Review routing: Human theologian
The 傳/領受 technical pair must be kept distinct from vocabulary suggesting an evolving oral tradition passed teacher-to-disciple (師傳, common in Cantonese martial-arts/craft-guild lineage culture) or a folk-ritual lineage transmission; the gospel content is a closed, fixed, multiply-witnessed deposit, not a living, adaptable oral tradition.
Christian Unity versus Factionalism
Cantonese name: 基督徒嘅合一同分黨
Key terms: division, quarrels, body_of_christ, baptized_into_one_body
Review routing: Human theologian
分黨 must be named as sin against the church’s unity, not softened toward ‘different styles/opinions’ or acceptable diversity; Cantonese culture’s strong loyalty-and-honor idiom (義氣, associated with sworn-brotherhood pacts 結拜 and clan/native-place associations 同鄉會) could make factional loyalty sound like an admirable virtue rather than the destructive sin Paul names it.
The Wisdom of God versus Worldly Wisdom
Cantonese name: 神嘅智慧同世上嘅智慧
Key terms: wisdom, mystery, natural_man, spiritual_man
Review routing: Human theologian
智慧 must be distinguished from Buddhist prajñā-wisdom (般若智慧, attained through meditative cultivation/enlightenment) and Confucian scholarly wisdom, both live and respected concepts in Hong Kong’s religiously plural population; biblical σοφία here is God’s redemptive plan centered on a crucified Messiah, apprehended by faith through the Spirit, not by intellectual or spiritual attainment.
Church Discipline and Holiness
Cantonese name: 教會嘅紀律同聖潔
Key terms: sexual_immorality, hand_over_to_satan, leaven, unleavened
Review routing: Human theologian
交給撒但 must be read as redemptive discipline aimed at the offender’s ultimate repentance and restoration, not a vengeful curse or folk exorcism/curse ritual (放符, 詛咒) familiar in Hong Kong folk-religious practice; 淫亂 must retain moral seriousness before a holy God rather than being reduced to a private matter of social scandal or lost face (面子).
Bodily Holiness and Purity
Cantonese name: 身體嘅聖潔
Key terms: temple_of_holy_spirit, bought_with_a_price, one_flesh
Review routing: Human theologian
用重價買咗 must not sound like a cold commercial transaction devoid of costly self-giving love — a real risk in Hong Kong’s heavily contract- and transaction-driven commercial vocabulary; this is redemption grounding bodily holiness, not a market purchase devoid of relationship.
Christian Liberty
Cantonese name: 基督徒嘅自由
Key terms: liberty, conscience, stumbling_block, knowledge
Review routing: Human theologian
自由 must be conveyed as a real liberty voluntarily self-limited for love’s sake — the opposite of libertine license — and 良心 must be personal moral awareness answerable to God, not social conformity or ‘face’ (面子), a strong pressure-point in Hong Kong’s status-conscious commercial and family culture.
Head Covering and Gender Order in Worship
Cantonese name: 蒙頭同性別次序
Key terms: head, head_covering, tradition
Review routing: Human theologian
κεφαλή (‘head’) carries a genuinely disputed source-vs-authority sense among interpreters; the Cantonese rendering 頭 should preserve this semantic range rather than resolving the debate unilaterally in translation. Head covering itself has no equivalent custom in contemporary Hong Kong, so the primary risk is reader confusion requiring cultural/historical framing rather than direct doctrinal collision; nonetheless flagged High given the passage’s contemporary sensitivity around gender-role teaching.
Spiritual Gifts and the Unity of the Body
Cantonese name: 屬靈恩賜同身體嘅合一
Key terms: spiritual_gifts, body_of_christ, member, gifts_of_healing, miracles
Review routing: Human theologian
醫病嘅恩賜 and 異能 must never be confused with folk-healer or spirit-medium ritual power (法力) or supernatural cultivation-attained powers (神通), per the baseline’s power_of_god forbidden-substitution rule directly reprised here; every gift is Spirit-given for the church’s common good, not an individually attained spiritual achievement to be ranked or admired.
Tongues, Prophecy, and Discerning of Spirits
Cantonese name: 方言、預言同辨別諸靈
Key terms: tongues, interpretation_of_tongues, discerning_of_spirits, prophecy
Review routing: Human theologian
方言 must be clearly Spirit-given, interpretable speech serving the church, not a trance/possession phenomenon; 辨別諸靈 must be clearly distinguished from folk spirit-medium ‘detection’ practices (問米), which are actively practiced and sought out in Hong Kong. Both terms require explicit clarifying notes given how embedded mediumship culture is in the destination context.
Love as the Greater Way
Cantonese name: 愛係更大嘅道路
Key terms: love_agape, hope, faith, boast
Review routing: Human theologian
愛 must be distinguished from romantic love (愛情), casual affection (鍾意), and the Confucian relational-duty benevolence concept (仁) as well as the loyalty-and-honor idiom already flagged under 義 in the Romans baseline; agapē is unconditional, self-giving, active goodwill toward others, not primarily an emotion, a social obligation, or a code of loyal conduct among peers.
Women’s Participation in Worship
Cantonese name: 婦女喺敬拜中嘅參與
Key terms: let_women_be_silent, head
Review routing: Human theologian
This is a genuinely contested passage across interpretive traditions regarding scope, referent, and application; the Cantonese rendering must be faithful and literal without unilateral softening or expansion, and must be accompanied by contextual teaching notes rather than have the interpretive debate resolved silently within the translation itself.
Baptism and Union with Christ
Cantonese name: 洗禮同與基督聯合
Key terms: baptism_typological, baptized_into_one_body
Review routing: Human theologian
洗禮 must convey sacramental union with Christ and his covenant community, distinct from generic ritual water-cleansing found across many folk and religious traditions in Hong Kong; also must not become a badge of factional allegiance (1:13-17, ‘were you baptized in the name of Paul?’), directly reinforcing the unity-versus-factionalism doctrine.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Marriage and Singleness
Cantonese name: 婚姻同單身
Key terms: marriage, virgin, separate_divorce, unmarried, spiritual_gifts
Review routing: Native speaker review
Paul’s careful distinctions (command vs. permission; believer- vs. unbeliever-initiated separation) must not be flattened into a single blanket divorce term; singleness as a legitimate, even advantageous, calling for undivided devotion may need careful framing against strong Cantonese family-continuity and marriage-pressure cultural expectations.
Order in Worship
Cantonese name: 敬拜中嘅次序
Key terms: order_and_decency, unbeliever, build_up
Review routing: Native speaker review
The governing principle — God is not a God of confusion but of peace — should be linked explicitly to God’s own character, not merely to social propriety or etiquette norms, to avoid the doctrine collapsing into generic ‘good manners’ teaching.
Apostolic Authority and Stewardship
Cantonese name: 使徒嘅權柄同管家職分
Key terms: steward, judgment, reward, disqualified
Review routing: Native speaker review
管家 must not be conflated with a temple caretaker role; apostolic accountability is fiduciary accountability to God for entrusted truth, not a matter of popularity ranking among rival teachers, which was precisely the Corinthian error.
Eschatological Transformation
Cantonese name: 末世嘅改變
Key terms: imperishable, immortality, trumpet, victory, sting_of_death
Review routing: Native speaker review
Figurative imagery (trumpet, twinkling of an eye, death’s sting) must be read as describing a real, future, instantaneous bodily transformation, not merely poetic or mythological language detached from historical expectation.
Final Exhortation and Maranatha Hope
Cantonese name: 最後嘅勸勉同盼望基督再來
Key terms: maranatha, accursed, love_agape
Review routing: Native speaker review
咒詛 must be understood as a solemn formal pronouncement of exclusion from blessing for lack of love toward the Lord, not casual cursing or folk-curse practice (詛咒/放符); Maranatha should retain its transliteration alongside its meaning to preserve the earliest church’s liturgical urgency for Christ’s return.
Low Risk Doctrines
Generosity and the Collection
Cantonese name: 捐獻同慷慨
Key terms: collection
Review routing: Automated review
Standard practical instruction with minor doctrinal weight; low risk of theological distortion beyond basic translation accuracy.
Referenced passages