Cross-Reference Analysis
Cross-Reference and Theme Analysis — 1 John
Method Note
1 John, unlike Romans, contains almost no formula-introduced OT quotations (“as it is written,” “the Scripture says”). Its relationship to the Old Testament is carried almost entirely through allusion, motif, and typology — creation/light imagery, the Cain-and-Abel narrative named outright, sacrificial and Day-of-Atonement vocabulary, covenant-love language, and idol polemic. Translators must resist forcing an OT-quotation citation apparatus onto verses that are allusive rather than citational; the sensitivity notes below flag where the temptation to over-formalize (or, conversely, to miss the allusion entirely) is highest. Coverage below proceeds chapter by chapter through the whole letter (1–5), then adds a dedicated Messianic/Typology section and a dedicated Romans-parallel section, since Romans is the sibling curriculum in this Language Package and the two books share several theologically load-bearing terms and confessional formulas that must render identically.
Section A — Chapter-by-Chapter Cross-Reference Matrix
Chapter 1
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 1:1 | Eternal pre-existence of the Word | Christ (the Word) | Genesis 1:1 (creation “beginning”); John 1:1, 14 (the Word) | 從起初 must echo, not compete with, John 1:1’s established Cantonese rendering; do not introduce a new phrase for “beginning” than the one already used in Cantonese Gospel-of-John tradition. |
| 1 John 1:1-3 | Apostolic eyewitness testimony grounding the gospel | The apostles; Christ | John 1:14 (“we have seen his glory”); John 20:27-29 (Thomas’s tangible encounter) | 見證 (testimony) must retain eyewitness/legal-attestation force, not slide into the commercial “testimonial” register (see 08 glossary). |
| 1 John 1:3, 1:6-7 | Fellowship, vertical and horizontal | God the Father; Christ; fellow believers | Exodus 24:9-11 (covenant meal fellowship with God); Amos 3:3 (“can two walk together…”) | 團契 (baseline, Low risk) must be shown to cover BOTH senses here explicitly — with God and with one another — since the curriculum doctrine “Fellowship with God and One Another” depends on this double reference being visible in exposition, not just the bare term. |
| 1 John 1:5 | ”God is light” — God’s holy self-revealing nature | God | Genesis 1:3-4 (God separates light from darkness); Psalm 27:1; Isaiah 60:1-3; John 1:4-5, 8:12 | 光 (Critical, new term) — grammatically parallel anarthrous predicate to 4:8’s “God is love”; both statements must be rendered with the identical subject-predicate structure 神就是X so Cantonese readers see the two as a matched theological pair spanning the whole letter. |
| 1 John 1:7-9 | Cleansing by Christ’s blood; confession of sin | Christ; believers | Leviticus 17:11 (“the blood makes atonement”); Exodus 24:8 (covenant blood); Psalm 32:5; Proverbs 28:13 | 血 (blood) and 洗淨 (cleanse) both carry standing cautions (blood-oath brotherhood idiom; ritual purification idiom, see 08 glossary) — must be read together with 1:9’s 認罪 as one integrated cleansing-through-confession unit, not two unrelated rituals. |
| 1 John 1:9 | God’s character guarantees forgiveness | God | Deuteronomy 32:4 (God faithful and just); Psalm 89:14 (righteousness and justice as the foundation of God’s throath); Psalm 51 (David’s confession) | 信實同公義 renders πιστός καὶ δίκαιος; δίκαιος inherits the baseline’s Critical 義 caution — flag every occurrence for Human Theologian review per baseline routing. |
Chapter 2
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 2:1-2 | Christ our Advocate and Propitiation | Christ; the Father | Zechariah 3:1-5 (an accuser opposed by a defending angel); Job 16:19-21 (a heavenly witness/advocate); Leviticus 16 (Day of Atonement); Romans 8:34 (Christ interceding at God’s right hand) | 中保 (advocate) and 挽回祭 (propitiation) form a single legal-and-sacrificial unit; both must be taught together as Christ’s ongoing intercession resting on his completed atoning work — Critical, Human Theologian review required for both terms in the same segment. |
| 1 John 2:2 | Universal scope of the propitiation | Christ | Isaiah 53:6 (“the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all”); John 1:29 (“Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”); Romans 3:23-25 | Ties directly to the baseline doctrine “universal_scope_of_gospel” (High risk in Romans registry) — the “whole world” language here must retain the same unqualified universality already required for Romans 3:23 and 10:12-13. |
| 1 John 2:3-6 | Obedience as evidence of knowing God | Christ (as pattern) | Deuteronomy 6:1-9 (covenant obedience); John 14:15, 21 | Parallels baseline’s “obedience_of_faith” caution: obedience flows from relationship already established, not from a debt still owed (avoid 還神還願 framing). |
| 1 John 2:7-8 | The love command, old and new | — | Leviticus 19:18 (“love your neighbor as yourself”); Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37-39; John 13:34-35 | 誡命/命令 (commandment) — the “old” commandment is Levitical; the “new” commandment is its Christ-fulfilled, cross-shaped intensification. Exposition must show continuity, not replacement, with the OT love command. |
| 1 John 2:9-11 | Light/darkness as ethical categories | — | Isaiah 9:2; Micah 7:8-9 | 光/黑暗 pairing continues 1:5’s theme; must not be flattened into a merely moral “good vs. bad” metaphor divorced from God’s own nature as light. |
| 1 John 2:12-14 | Assurance addressed to a spiritual family (children, fathers, young men) | — | Joel 2:28 (generational address pattern); cf. Ephesians 6:1-4 household address | Low risk; standard familial address forms in Cantonese church literature apply. |
| 1 John 2:15-17 | Do not love the world | — | James 4:4; Matthew 6:24 | 世界 here (kosmos as fallen system) must be visibly distinct from 4:9’s neutral “into the world” sense — see 07 semantic analysis note; do not use 江湖. |
| 1 John 2:18-23 | Antichrist; denial of the Father and the Son | The antichrist(s) | Daniel 7:25, 11:36 (the “little horn” who exalts himself and speaks against the Most High); 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; Psalm 2:7 (the Son’s unique relationship to the Father, denied by antichrist teaching) | 敵基督 (Critical) — must connect explicitly to the baseline’s Critical “sonship_of_christ” and “deity_of_christ” doctrines: denying the Son IS the antichrist mark, not an unrelated heresy category. |
| 1 John 2:20, 27 | The anointing that teaches | The Holy One (Christ or the Spirit) | 1 Samuel 16:13 (anointing of David); Isaiah 61:1 (“the Spirit of the Lord… has anointed me”); Psalm 45:7 | 恩膏 — see 08 glossary; must not be rendered with the ritual-consecration term 開光. |
| 1 John 2:28-29 | Confidence at Christ’s return; born of him | Christ (at his coming) | Malachi 3:1-2 (“who can stand when he appears?”); 1 Thessalonians 2:19 | 坦然無懼 ties forward to 4:17’s identical phrase — render both occurrences identically to preserve the letter’s inclusio structure around confidence at judgment. |
Chapter 3
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 3:1-2 | Believers as God’s children now; future glorification | Believers; God the Father | Hosea 1:10 (“sons of the living God”); Romans 8:14-17, 29 (Spirit-led adoption and predestined conformity to Christ’s image); John 1:12 | 神嘅兒女 (High) — see extensive note in 08 glossary distinguishing this organic new-birth term from Romans’ forensic 兒子嘅名分 (adoption). Both curricula must be taught as complementary, not competing, doctrines of sonship. |
| 1 John 3:2 | ”We shall be like him” | Christ | Psalm 17:15 (“I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with beholding your likeness”); 1 Corinthians 15:49; Romans 8:29 (“conformed to the image of his Son”) | Direct doctrinal parallel to Romans 8:29’s glorification language — render the “likeness/image” concept consistently with any existing Romans-curriculum rendering of Romans 8:29 if available in a shared glossary; flag for cross-curriculum theologian check. |
| 1 John 3:3-5 | Purification; Christ’s sinlessness | Christ; believers | Isaiah 53:9 (“he had done no violence… no deceit in his mouth”); 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:3 | Reinforces 道成肉身 (incarnation, baseline Critical): the sinless one who appeared in the flesh, not a temporary manifestation-form. |
| 1 John 3:8 | The devil’s works, destroyed by Christ | The devil; Christ | Genesis 3:1-15, esp. 3:15 (the protoevangelium — the serpent’s head to be crushed); John 8:44 | 魔鬼 (High) — this is the letter’s clearest typological link to the Genesis serpent; exposition should draw the Genesis 3:15 connection explicitly so readers see Christ’s incarnation and cross as the fulfillment of the first messianic promise, not an unrelated later development. |
| 1 John 3:11-15 | Cain and Abel as the negative paradigm for brotherly love | Cain; Abel | Genesis 4:1-16 (direct narrative source); Hebrews 11:4; Jude 11 | This is the ONE explicit named-OT-character reference in 1 John. 該隱 (Cain) and 亞伯 (Abel) must use the same proper-name transliterations already established in Cantonese Genesis translation tradition (consistent with CUV Traditional-character forms); do not coin new transliterations. |
| 1 John 3:16-18 | Christ’s self-giving love as the pattern for practical love | Christ | Isaiah 53:12 (“he poured out his soul”); John 10:11, 15; John 15:13; Romans 5:8; Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (care for the poor brother) | 3:16’s “laid down his life” must echo the same self-giving-love vocabulary used for God’s initiating love in 4:9-10, since both describe the same single redemptive act. |
| 1 John 3:19-24 | Confidence of heart before God; keeping his commandments; the Spirit given | Believers | Psalm 139:23-24 (heart-searching before God); Romans 8:16 (Spirit bearing witness) | 心 (heart) as the seat of conscience parallels but is textually distinct from the Pauline conscience vocabulary in Romans 2:15; do not conflate the two into one technical term. |
Chapter 4 (Non-Core Verses 4:1-6; Core Passage 4:7-21 fully treated in 07_semantic_analysis.md Part A)
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 4:1-3 | Testing the spirits; confession of the incarnation | False prophets; the Spirit of God/of error | Deuteronomy 13:1-3 (testing a prophet’s message against known truth); 1 Kings 22:19-23 (discerning true from false prophecy); John 1:14 | 靈 (unqualified plural) requires supplied qualifiers throughout — see 08 glossary Critical entry. Deuteronomy 13 gives the OT root of the test-the-message principle, though the content of the test (confessing Christ’s incarnation) is distinctly Christological, not merely predictive-accuracy-based. |
| 1 John 4:4-6 | Overcoming false teachers; spirit of truth vs. error | Believers; false teachers | 2 Chronicles 32:7-8 (“with us is the LORD our God… greater is he who is with us”); John 14:17, 16:13 | 勝過/得勝 first appears here (before its fuller development in 5:4-5); render identically both places. |
| 1 John 4:9 | God sending his only Son | God the Father; Christ (獨生子) | Genesis 22:2, 16 (Abraham’s “only son” Isaac, offered in type — LXX ἀγαπητός; the “beloved/only son” motif); John 3:16; Romans 8:32 (“he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all”) | Strong typological parallel: Isaac as Abraham’s uniquely-promised son offered on the altar prefigures God’s own uniquely-begotten Son given for the world. Romans 8:32 uses nearly identical “giving up the Son” language — the Cantonese rendering of “sent/gave his Son” across both curricula should use compatible verbs (差遣/賜下) so learners recognize the same theological event described from two angles. |
| 1 John 4:10 | Propitiation | Christ | Leviticus 16 (Day of Atonement); Isaiah 53:5-6; Romans 3:25 | See Section C below for full Romans-parallel rendering-consistency treatment. |
| 1 John 4:12 | No one has seen God | God | Exodus 33:20 (“you cannot see my face and live”); John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16 | God’s invisibility is an OT-rooted, not novel, claim; do not let the Cantonese rendering imply this is a surprising new revelation rather than a reaffirmed OT truth now resolved relationally through love and the Spirit’s witness. |
| 1 John 4:17-18 | Confidence at judgment; fear cast out by love | Believers | Malachi 3:2 (“who can endure the day of his coming?”); Romans 8:1, 8:15 (no condemnation; not a spirit of fear but of adoption) | Direct thematic parallel to Romans 8:1 and 8:15 — see Section C. |
| 1 John 4:19-21 | Love God, love brother; command received from him | Believers | Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (God’s prior, unearned love for Israel); Matthew 22:39; James 2:8-9 | Deuteronomy 7:7-8’s account of God loving Israel not because of merit but from his own initiative is the OT root of 4:19’s “he loved us first” — should be cited in teaching notes as the covenantal background for grace’s priority. |
Chapter 5
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 5:1 | Born of God; believing Jesus is the Christ | Believers | John 1:12-13; John 3:3-8 | 從神而生/重生 — see 08 glossary; keep consistent with usage at 2:29, 3:9, 4:7, 5:4, 5:18. |
| 1 John 5:4-5 | Overcoming the world through faith | Believers | John 16:33 (“I have overcome the world”) | 勝過/得勝 — render identically to 4:4 occurrence; avoid martial-combat framing (see 08 glossary). |
| 1 John 5:6-8 | Threefold witness: Spirit, water, blood | Christ; the Spirit | Deuteronomy 19:15 (legal principle: two or three witnesses establish a matter); John 19:34-35 (blood and water from Christ’s side); John 5:31-39 (multiple witnesses to Christ) | 見證/水同血 — the Deuteronomic two-or-three-witness legal principle is the OT structural root of this passage’s argument form; exposition should make the legal-testimony logic explicit so it is not misread as a mystical triad. |
| 1 John 5:9-13 | God’s own testimony concerning the Son; eternal life given in the Son | God the Father; Christ | Psalm 19:7-9 (the trustworthy testimony of the LORD); John 5:36-37; John 20:31 | 見證 and 永生 converge here; 永生 must retain its Critical caution against Daoist immortality framing even in this testimony-heavy context. |
| 1 John 5:14-15 | Confidence in prayer according to God’s will | Believers | 1 Kings 3:5-14 (Solomon’s prayer according to God’s will and purposes); John 14:13-14; Matthew 7:7-11 | 坦然無懼 recurs a third time (2:28, 4:17, 5:14) — the letter’s confidence-refrain must be rendered identically at all three occurrences. |
| 1 John 5:16-17 | Sin unto death | Believers (sinning brother) | Numbers 15:30-31 (deliberate, presumptuous sin); 1 Corinthians 11:30 (sickness/death from abuse of the Lord’s Supper, an NT parallel pastoral category) | 致死嘅罪 (High) — must be kept as a specific pastoral distinction, never generalized into 報應 (karmic retribution); see 08 glossary. |
| 1 John 5:18-20 | Assurance: kept by God, knowing the true God | Believers; God the Father; Christ | Jeremiah 10:10 (“the LORD is the true God, the living God”); John 17:3 (“this is eternal life, that they know you…”); Numbers 6:24-26 (priestly blessing of divine keeping) | “The true God and eternal life” (5:20) directly echoes Jeremiah 10:10’s polemic against idols with a living God — sets up the immediate transition to 5:21’s idol command; the two verses should be exposited as one unit, not read as unrelated closing remarks. |
| 1 John 5:21 | Keep yourselves from idols | Believers | Exodus 20:3-4 (the first and second commandments); Psalm 115:4-8; Isaiah 44:9-20 (idol polemic); 1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 Thessalonians 1:9 | 偶像 (Critical) — see extended double-collision note in 08 glossary (temple-idol referent vs. celebrity-idol referent). This closing command is the letter’s final application of the entire “God is light/God is love” argument: exclusive devotion to the true, living, self-revealing God. |
Section B — Messianic References and Typology (Whole-Book Summary)
| Type/Reference | 1 John Passage | OT Root | Typological/Messianic Significance | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The eternal Word, active in creation, now incarnate | 1:1-3 | Genesis 1:1-3 (God’s creative Word); Psalm 33:6 | Christ is the same Word/agent through whom God spoke at creation, now historically manifested — continuity between creation and incarnation | 生命之道 must be taught as continuous with John 1:1, not a new coinage (see 08 glossary). |
| The serpent-crusher | 3:8 | Genesis 3:15 (protoevangelium) | Christ’s incarnate mission is to “destroy the works of the devil” — the first messianic promise in Scripture finding its enactment | Exposition should draw this link explicitly; 07/08’s caution against generic-demon framing for 魔鬼 applies with special force here. |
| The Isaac/only-son typology | 4:9 | Genesis 22:2, 16 | Abraham’s uniquely-loved son offered up prefigures the Father giving his uniquely-begotten Son | See Section A (4:9 row) and Section C (Romans 8:32 parallel) for rendering-consistency detail. |
| The Passover/atonement lamb | 2:2, 4:10 (via ἱλασμός) | Leviticus 16 (Day of Atonement); Exodus 12 (Passover); Isaiah 53:5-7,10 (the Suffering Servant as guilt offering) | Christ as the once-for-all atoning sacrifice fulfilling and superseding the entire OT sacrificial system | 挽回祭 must always be taught with reference to its OT sacrificial background, not as an isolated NT technical term with no history. |
| The anointed teacher/prophet | 2:20, 27 | 1 Samuel 16:13; Isaiah 61:1 | Believers share, through the Spirit, in the anointing pattern previously reserved for kings/prophets — corporate, Spirit-given discernment | 恩膏 must not be over-individualized into a special-elite gift; it is corporate to all believers who have received the Spirit. |
| The Davidic/eschatological “Son” denied by antichrist | 2:22-23 | Psalm 2:7 (“You are my Son”); 2 Samuel 7:14 (Davidic sonship promise) | Antichrist teaching specifically denies the Father-Son relationship rooted in the Davidic and eternal-sonship promise-line already flagged Critical in the Romans baseline (davidic_covenant, sonship_of_christ) | Reinforces cross-curriculum consistency: the same doctrinal core (Christ’s unique divine Sonship) is under direct denial in 1 John 2:22-23 as is affirmed in Romans 1:3-4. |
| The true God contrasted with idols | 5:20-21 | Jeremiah 10:10; Isaiah 44:6-20; Deuteronomy 6:4 (Shema) | Christ identified with “the true God and eternal life” in direct continuity with OT monotheistic polemic against idols | Ties 偶像 and 永生 together as the letter’s closing theological climax; do not treat 5:21 as a detached ethical add-on. |
Section C — Parallels to Romans (Cross-Curriculum Rendering-Consistency)
Romans is the sibling curriculum already governed by this Language Package. Where 1 John and Romans describe the same theological reality using different Greek vocabulary or a different rhetorical angle, the Cantonese renderings must be chosen so that a learner moving between the two curricula recognizes the underlying unity rather than perceiving two unrelated teachings.
| 1 John Passage | Romans Passage | Shared Theological Reality | Rendering-Consistency Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4:9-10 (“sent/gave his only Son”) | Romans 8:32 (“did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all”) | The Father’s initiative in giving the Son for sinners | Use compatible verbs for “sent/gave up” (差遣 / 賜下) across both curricula’s teaching materials; both must retain 神嘅兒子/神嘅獨生子 without abbreviation (baseline rule). |
| 2:2, 4:10 (ἱλασμός, propitiation) | Romans 3:25 (ἱλαστήριον, propitiation/mercy seat) — flagged in the baseline’s escalation rules as requiring identical Human Theologian review | The same doctrinal category: Christ himself as God’s own provided means of dealing with sin’s guilt and wrath, not a worshipper-initiated appeasement | Recommend that any future retranslation of Romans 3:25 in this Language Package adopt 挽回祭 (already fixed for 1 John) rather than an independent coinage, so the two curricula’s atonement vocabulary matches exactly. Flag for Phase 2 cross-curriculum glossary reconciliation. |
| 3:1-2 (τέκνα θεοῦ, “children of God”) | Romans 8:14-17 (υἱοθεσία, “adoption,” 兒子嘅名分) | Believers’ sonship/childhood status before God | Keep 神嘅兒女 (organic new-birth sense) and 兒子嘅名分 (forensic-legal placement sense) visibly distinct in exposition; teach as two complementary biblical pictures of the same standing, per 08 glossary note — never let one silently substitute for the other in cross-curriculum materials. |
| 3:2 (“we shall be like him”) | Romans 8:29 (“conformed to the image of his Son”) | Future glorification/Christlikeness | Use a consistent Cantonese phrase for “conformed/made like” across both curricula if Romans 8:29 receives its own dedicated rendering in a future Language Package update; flag for reconciliation. |
| 4:17-18 (confidence, fear cast out) | Romans 8:1 (“no condemnation”), 8:15 (“not a spirit of slavery to fear but of adoption”) | Assurance grounded in secure standing, not anxious dread of judgment | 坦然無懼 (1 John) and any future Romans 8:1/8:15 rendering should be checked for compatible register — both describe the same assurance doctrine (baseline: assurance_of_salvation, Critical/High). |
| 4:19 (“he loved us first”) | Romans 5:8 (“God shows his love for us in that… Christ died for us”) | The directional priority of God’s love — God initiates, humanity responds | Both passages use 愛 (1 John, new Critical term) in the identical doctrinal sense of unearned, initiating divine love; when Romans materials eventually render 5:8’s ἀγάπη-noun usage, verify no accidental drift toward the baseline Romans package’s existing caution against reciprocal-favor framing (grace, Critical). |
| 5:1, 5:4-5 (“born of God… believes… overcomes”) | Romans 10:9-10 (confession “Jesus is Lord” = the salvation confession) | Both passages tie a specific confession about Christ’s identity to a settled, secure salvation status | 1 John’s confession-of-Christ vocabulary (承認/宣認, High) and Romans’ 耶穌是主 (Critical, verbatim-fixed by baseline) are structurally parallel confessional formulas; both require Human Theologian review routing whenever they appear, per baseline escalation rules. |
| 2:15-17 (“do not love the world”) | Romans 12:2 (“do not be conformed to this world”) | Rejection of the present fallen order’s values | 世界 (1 John) should match whatever Cantonese rendering the Romans curriculum uses for κόσμος/αἰών in Romans 12:2, to preserve a single “world-system” vocabulary across curricula. |
| 3:23 (“believe… and love”) | Romans 1:5, 16:26 (“obedience of faith”) | Faith and its inseparable behavioral fruit | 1 John’s love-as-evidence pairs with Romans’ obedience-as-fruit; both must avoid a merit-earning framing (baseline “obedience_of_faith” caution reused without modification for 1 John’s parallel commandment texts). |
| 2:2 (“propitiation for the whole world”) | Romans 3:23, 10:12-13 (universal accountability and universal offer) | The gospel’s unqualified universal scope | Both must retain fully unqualified “all/whole world” language; neither curriculum may soften toward a local/insider-outsider reading (baseline “universal_scope_of_gospel,” High). |
Section D — Rendering-Consistency Rules for Shared Quotations and Motifs
- Genesis 22 / Romans 8:32 / 1 John 4:9 “only/beloved son” motif. Whenever teaching materials draw this typological line explicitly, use 獨生子 for Christ (never for Isaac, who should retain whatever Cantonese rendering — likely 獨生子 or 愛子 — the Genesis narrative already uses in the Traditional CUV tradition) so learners see the pattern without confusing the two “sons.”
- Cain and Abel (Genesis 4) proper names. 該隱 (Cain) and 亞伯 (Abel) must use the established Traditional-character Cantonese Bible transliterations; do not coin new forms for this curriculum.
- “God is light” (1:5) / “God is love” (4:8, 16). Both anarthrous predicate statements must use the identical grammatical pattern 神就是X in every occurrence, including the repetition at 4:16, so the letter’s structural inclusio is visible in Cantonese.
- 坦然無懼 (confidence) refrain (2:28, 4:17, 5:14). Render identically at all three occurrences; do not vary the phrase for stylistic variety, since the repetition is deliberate and doctrinally load-bearing (Assurance of Salvation).
- 見證 (testimony) across 1:1-2, 4:14, 5:6-11. Render identically throughout; never substitute the commercial-testimonial-flavored 見證分享.
- 靈 (spirit/spirits) qualifier rule (4:1-6). Every occurrence of unqualified “spirit(s)” in this passage requires a supplied Cantonese qualifier; this rule takes absolute priority over any stylistic preference for brevity.
- Propitiation vocabulary reconciliation with Romans 3:25. Until a formal Phase 2 cross-curriculum glossary merge occurs, translators working on either curriculum must flag any Romans 3:25 rendering decision to the 1 John team (and vice versa) so that 挽回祭 is not independently reinvented under a different Cantonese term for Romans.
- 兒子嘅名分 vs. 神嘅兒女 non-substitution rule. These two terms must never be used interchangeably across the two curricula’s shared teaching series (e.g., a combined Romans + 1 John discipleship course); each must be introduced with its own doctrinal frame every time it first appears in a given lesson.
- 偶像 double-sense disambiguation. Any lesson introducing 1 John 5:21 to a Hong Kong audience saturated with celebrity-idol (偶像歌手) media usage must include an explicit sentence-level disambiguation the first time the term is used in that lesson, per the 08 glossary note.
Full-Book Coverage Confirmation
All five chapters of 1 John have been surveyed above (Chapter 1: 1:1-9 reviewed in full; Chapter 2: 2:1-29 reviewed in full; Chapter 3: 3:1-24 reviewed in full; Chapter 4: 4:1-6 reviewed in full in this document, 4:7-21 reviewed in full in 07_semantic_analysis.md Part A; Chapter 5: 5:1-21 reviewed in full). No chapter or verse range was silently omitted; every verse range contributes at minimum a load-bearing OT/NT connection or a Romans-curriculum parallel recorded above.