Core Glossary

Core Glossary — 1 John (English–Cantonese)

Section 1 — Terms Reused Verbatim from the Romans Baseline

These terms occur in 1 John and MUST use the exact Cantonese rendering already recorded in translation_memory.json. No new decision is required; they are listed here only to confirm full-book coverage and to note any occurrence-specific nuance.

Term	Cantonese (baseline)	Risk (baseline)	Occurs in 1 John	Nuance note for 1 John
God	神	Critical	1:1-5:21 (pervasive)	No change.
Jesus	耶穌	Critical	1:3, 2:1, 4:2-3, 4:15, 5:1, 5:5-6, 5:20	No change.
Holy Spirit	聖靈	Critical	3:24, 4:13 (bare-πνεῦμα handling required at 4:1-6, see Section 2)	Reinforces “never 靈 alone” rule against the specific challenge of 4:1-6’s unqualified plural “spirits.”
Son of God	神嘅兒子	Critical	3:8, 4:15, 5:5, 5:10, 5:12-13, 5:20	No change; reinforced by new term 獨生子 (Section 2).
Lord	主	Critical	Implied in σωτήρ/κύριος-adjacent titles; less frequent than Romans	No change.
Incarnation	道成肉身	Critical	Conceptually underlies 1:1-3, 4:2-3, 4:9-10	1 John’s confessional test (4:2-3) makes denial of the incarnation the defining mark of “spirit of error” / antichrist teaching — elevates practical stakes of this term.
Righteousness	義	Critical	1:9 (δίκαιος, of God), 2:1 (ὁ δίκαιος, of Christ), 2:29, 3:7, 3:10	Standing 義氣/loyalty-code caution applies identically.
Sin	罪	High	1:7-10, 2:1-2, 2:12, 3:4-9, 4:10, 5:16-18	Standing 報應 (karmic retribution) caution applies identically, esp. at 5:16-17’s “sin unto death.”
Faith	信心	High	5:1, 5:4-5, 5:10 (πιστεύω)	Standing fortune-telling/palm-reading caution applies identically.
Fellowship	團契	Low	1:3, 1:6-7	Elevated doctrinal importance in this curriculum (“Fellowship with God and One Another”) despite baseline’s Low linguistic-collision rating; note both vertical (with God) and horizontal (with one another) senses are explicit in 1:3, 1:7.
Prophet	先知 (negated: 假先知)	Low	4:1 (ψευδοπροφήτης)	See new entry “false prophet,” Section 2, for the negated form.
Called/Calling	蒙召嘅 / 呼召	High	Not directly used in 1 John; listed for completeness — no occurrence	N/A
Adoption	兒子嘅名分	High	Conceptually adjacent to, but not identical with, 3:1-2’s τέκνα θεοῦ	See new entry “children of God,” Section 2, for the distinct Greek term and required distinction.

Section 2 — New Terms Required for 1 John

Entries follow the baseline translation_memory.json schema. Risk levels and review routing follow the definitions in doctrine_risk_registry.json (Critical/High = Human Theologian review; Medium = Native speaker review; Low = Automated review).

love

translation: 愛
transliteration: oi3
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
alternatives_rejected: [“大愛”, “情愛”, “仁愛”]
notes: CRITICAL: NEVER use 大愛 (daai6 oi3), the branded slogan-term of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟基金會), a prominent charitable organization active in Hong Kong. NEVER use 情愛 (romantic/erotic love) or reduce to 仁愛 (the Confucian virtue of benevolence, a social-relational duty ethic parallel to the 義/義氣 collision already flagged under baseline “righteousness”). 愛 in 1 John denotes God’s own self-giving nature and its Spirit-produced expression in believers — the central term of the core passage (1 John 4:7-21) and the whole letter’s thesis, “God is love” (4:8, 16).

light

translation: 光
transliteration: gwong1
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
alternatives_rejected: [“開悟嘅光”, “神光”]
notes: CRITICAL: “God is light” (1:5) is the grammatical and theological parallel to “God is love” (4:8) — both anarthrous predicate-noun statements asserting God’s essential nature. Avoid framing 光 with Buddhist/Daoist “enlightenment” vocabulary (開悟, attaining spiritual illumination through practice) and avoid 神光 (a stock Hong Kong temple-culture phrase for a deity’s radiant power manifesting at a shrine). Biblical light here denotes holy, self-revealing purity that exposes sin (1:5-7), not an attainable inner illumination or a deity’s visible aura.

propitiation

translation: 挽回祭
transliteration: waan5 wui4 zai3
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist (via 4:9-10); Confession and Forgiveness of Sin (via 2:2)
alternatives_rejected: [“還神還願”, “贖罪(alone, unqualified)”, “祭品”]
notes: CRITICAL: Christ himself, sent by the Father, IS the 挽回祭 for our sins (1 John 2:2, 4:10) — a once-for-all, God-initiated resolution of sin’s guilt. NEVER frame with the transactional vow-and-offering exchange model already forbidden under the baseline’s “grace” and “justification” entries (Wong Tai Sin’s 「有求必應」pattern; 還神還願). This is the same doctrinal risk category the baseline already flags for Romans 3:25 atonement language and must receive identical Human Theologian review routing.

only begotten / one and only Son

translation: 獨生子
transliteration: duk6 sang1 zi2
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist; Sonship of Christ (extends baseline)
alternatives_rejected: [“神嘅細路”, “神嘅代表”]
notes: CRITICAL: used in the fixed compound 神嘅獨生子 (1 John 4:9). Denotes uniqueness of kind, not a biological generation-process claim. Must never be confused with the baseline’s 兒子嘅名分 (adoption — believers’ derivative, legally-placed sonship). Christ’s Sonship is unique, eternal, and underived.

children of God

translation: 神嘅兒女
transliteration: san4 ge3 ji4 neoi5
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
alternatives_rejected: [“神嘅過繼仔女”]
notes: Renders τέκνα θεοῦ (1 John 3:1-2, 10; 5:2), an organic-birth term distinct from the baseline’s forensic-legal 兒子嘅名分 (Romans’ υἱοθεσία/adoption). Teach both as true and complementary, not competing: believers are legally placed as sons (adoption) AND actually, organically born of God (new birth). Do not let one collapse into or replace the other in exposition.

born of God / new birth

translation: 從神而生 (verbal phrase); 重生 (doctrinal noun)
transliteration: cung4 san4 ji4 sang1; jung4 sang1
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
alternatives_rejected: [“投胎轉世”, “脫胎換骨式嘅重生”]
notes: NEVER use 投胎轉世 (rebirth into a new womb/reincarnation cycle — already forbidden under the baseline’s “resurrection” entry; the same folk-rebirth association risk applies here). Also avoid the purely secular idiom 脫胎換骨 (“shedding one’s old bones,” a common Cantonese metaphor for total self-transformation through effort/experience, with no reference to God’s initiating act). New birth in 1 John (2:29, 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 4, 18) is God’s own sovereign generative act, evidenced by love, righteousness, and victory over sin — not a self-achieved transformation nor a rebirth into a new life-cycle.

abide / remain

translation: 住在…裡面 (with object); 常在 (absolute use)
transliteration: zyu6 zoi6…leoi5 min6; soeng4 zoi6
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another; Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
alternatives_rejected: [“問米式嘅靈入身”, “附體”]
notes: NEVER frame with 附體 (a spirit “possessing/entering” a person’s body, standard Cantonese vocabulary for mediumship possession) or the broader 問米 spirit-indwelling framework. God’s abiding in the believer, and the believer’s abiding in God (1 John 2:6, 24, 27-28; 3:6, 24; 4:12-16), is personal, relational, and covenantal — grounded in conscious faith and love — not an involuntary or ritually-induced spirit-indwelling.

antichrist

translation: 敵基督
transliteration: dik6 gei1 duk1
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
alternatives_rejected: [“魔王”, “妖怪”, “大反派”]
notes: CRITICAL: names a specific doctrinal deception — denial that Jesus is the Christ, denial of the Father-Son relationship, denial of the incarnation (1 John 2:18-23; 4:3) — not a generic villain, monster (妖怪), or folklore demon-king (魔王, familiar from Journey to the West-derived popular media). Both a future eschatological figure and a present reality (“many antichrists,” 2:18).

advocate

translation: 中保
transliteration: zung1 bou2
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
alternatives_rejected: [“問米婆”, “律師”]
notes: Christ’s advocacy before the Father (1 John 2:1) rests on his own righteousness and finished atoning work (see 挽回祭). Never frame as a paid legal defense (律師) or a mediumship intermediary who channels communication with spirits (問米婆).

anointing

translation: 恩膏
transliteration: jan1 gou1
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Testing the Spirits
alternatives_rejected: [“開光”]
notes: The Spirit’s teaching anointing enabling believers to discern truth (1 John 2:20, 27). Avoid 開光 (“opening the light,” a Hong Kong temple/idol consecration ritual for statues, talismans, or new shop premises) — biblical anointing is the Spirit’s internal teaching ministry, not an external consecration rite performed on an object.

false prophet

translation: 假先知
transliteration: gaa2 sin1 zi1
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Testing the Spirits
alternatives_rejected: [“講錯嘅算命佬”]
notes: Extends baseline’s 先知 (prophet) via negation. The deception in view (1 John 4:1) is doctrinal — denial of Christ’s true incarnation — not a fortune-teller’s failed prediction (算命佬); do not reduce to a mere-accuracy framing.

spirit(s) [plural, unqualified — testing the spirits]

translation: 靈, always with an explicit qualifier (e.g. 邪靈, 假嘅靈, 真理嘅靈, 神嘅靈/聖靈)
transliteration: ling4 (qualifier-dependent)
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: Testing the Spirits
alternatives_rejected: [“靈 (bare/unqualified)”, “問米嘅靈”]
notes: CRITICAL PROCEDURAL RULE: 1 John 4:1-6 is the one passage in the book where the Greek source text itself uses bare, unqualified plural πνεύματα (“spirits”). The baseline’s absolute rule for 聖靈 (“never 靈 alone”) must be extended here: every occurrence of “spirit/spirits” in this passage requires a supplied qualifier from context. Bare unmodified 靈 must never stand alone, to prevent collapse into the Cantonese folk-spirit-world vocabulary of 問米 mediumship, ancestral spirits, and Hungry Ghost Festival (盂蘭節) spirits.

savior

translation: 救主
transliteration: gau3 zyu2
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
alternatives_rejected: [“黃大仙式嘅救世主”, “大慈大悲嘅救苦救難者”]
notes: CRITICAL: ties directly to baseline’s 救恩 (salvation). Christ as “Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14) must remain exclusive and universal in scope, never softened toward a generic helper/rescuer title interchangeable with a wish-granting deity such as Wong Tai Sin, nor quoted alongside Guanyin’s popular epithet “greatly compassionate, saving from suffering and hardship” (already forbidden under the baseline’s “salvation” entry).

confess (of Christ’s identity)

translation: 承認 / 宣認
transliteration: sing4 jing6 / syun1 jing6
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist; Assurance of Salvation
alternatives_rejected: [“還神還願式嘅宣告”]
notes: Reserved for confessing Christ’s identity (1 John 2:23; 4:2-3, 15) — the confessional counterpart to Romans 10:9’s 耶穌是主. Must be kept visibly distinct from 認罪 (confessing sin, below); do not use an unqualified bare 認 that leaves the object ambiguous between the two senses.

confess (of sin)

translation: 認罪
transliteration: jing6 zeoi6
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
alternatives_rejected: [“還神還願”, “修成正果式嘅悔改”]
notes: 1 John 1:9’s confession of sin to a “faithful and just” God who forgives and cleanses. Distinct object from confessing Christ (above); must not be framed as fulfilling a vow owed after divine favor (還神還願) nor as a step in self-cultivated spiritual attainment (修成正果, already forbidden under baseline’s “justification” entry).

cleanse

translation: 洗淨
transliteration: sai2 zeng6
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
alternatives_rejected: [“淨壇”, “灑淨”]
notes: Moral cleansing from sin through Christ’s blood (1 John 1:7, 9). Distinguish from ritual/ceremonial purification practices such as incense-based space-clearing (淨壇) or Buddhist water-purification rites (灑淨) — this is forgiveness-based moral cleansing, not a ritual technique.

devil

translation: 魔鬼
transliteration: mo1 gwai2
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
alternatives_rejected: [“鬼 (generic/unqualified)”, “邪靈(as a stand-alone substitute)”]
notes: A specific, personal fallen spiritual being opposed to God, whose works Christ came to destroy (1 John 3:8). Distinguish from the broad Cantonese folk category of 鬼 (covering ancestral spirits, Hungry Ghost Festival spirits, and mediumship-summoned spirits) — 魔鬼 names one specific being, not the general folk spirit-world.

brethren / brother (fellow believer)

translation: 弟兄
transliteration: dai6 hing1
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
alternatives_rejected: [“兄弟 (colloquial)”, “結拜兄弟”]
notes: The established Hong Kong Christian term for “fellow believer.” NEVER substitute the everyday colloquial 兄弟, which carries strong triad/sworn-brotherhood connotations from Hong Kong popular film and media — the same risk category the baseline already flags for 義氣 under “righteousness” and for 結拜 under “fellowship.” Love for 弟兄 is the observable proof of new birth (1 John 3:10-17; 4:20-21), grounded in Spirit-given family bond, not a peer loyalty code.

seed of God

translation: 神嘅種
transliteration: san4 ge3 zung2
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
alternatives_rejected: []
notes: 1 John 3:9’s “his seed abides in him” — a spiritual regenerative principle, distinct from the baseline’s 大衛嘅後裔 (seed_of_David, physical lineage). Do not conflate the two “seed” concepts; this one names an internal, God-given disposition against habitual sin, not physical descent.

overcome / victory

translation: 勝過 / 得勝
transliteration: sing3 gwo3 / dak1 sing3
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Overcoming the World
alternatives_rejected: [“打贏 (combat-framed)”]
notes: Victory over the world through faith (1 John 5:4-5), and over the evil one through abiding in God’s word (2:13-14). Avoid the martial-arts/wuxia “defeating an opponent through combat skill” framing (打贏, associated with Hong Kong action-film culture) — this victory is through faith in Christ’s finished work, not personal strength or skill.

testimony / witness

translation: 見證
transliteration: gin3 zing3
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
alternatives_rejected: [“見證分享 (marketing-testimonial register)”]
notes: Apostolic eyewitness testimony (1 John 1:1-2, 4:14) and the Spirit/Father’s testimony concerning the Son (5:6-11). Distinguish from the secular Hong Kong commercial usage of 見證/見證分享 as a promotional “testimonial” — this is truthful attestation to a historical, saving reality.

water and blood

translation: 水同血
transliteration: seoi2 tung4 hyut3
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
alternatives_rejected: [“符水”]
notes: The threefold witness of Spirit, water, and blood to Christ (1 John 5:6-8). Distinguish from ritual “talisman water” (符水) used in some Hong Kong Taoist/temple practices — this is testimonial evidence of the reality of Christ’s redemptive work, not a magically efficacious substance.

eternal life

translation: 永生
transliteration: wing5 sang1
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
alternatives_rejected: [“長生不老”, “得道成仙”]
notes: CRITICAL: NEVER use 長生不老 (the Daoist immortality-elixir ideal, deeply embedded in Cantonese New Year greetings and wuxia/fantasy media) or 得道成仙 (attaining status as a Daoist immortal being — already adjacent to the baseline’s forbidden 神仙 under “saints”). 永生 (1 John 2:25; 3:15; 5:11-13, 20) is relational, unending life in fellowship with the true God, given in the Son, begun now by faith — not a self-attained state of endless physical existence.

sin unto death

translation: 致死嘅罪
transliteration: zi3 sei2 ge3 zeoi6
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
alternatives_rejected: [“報應式嘅罪”]
notes: 1 John 5:16-17’s specific, debated pastoral category of sin’s severity, for which intercession is not commanded (in contrast to sin “not unto death,” for which it is). Must not be assimilated to the folk-karmic “sin causing misfortune” framing (報應, already flagged under baseline’s “sin” entry) — this is a specific pastoral-theological distinction among believers’ sins, not a general principle of cosmic retribution.

idol

translation: 偶像
transliteration: ngau5 zoeng6
doctrine_risk: Critical
doctrine: God is Light and God is Love (contrast); Overcoming the World
alternatives_rejected: []
notes: CRITICAL, with a distinctive double-collision risk unique to Cantonese: (1) the primary intended referent — objects and images of worship such as those at Wong Tai Sin, Guanyin statues, and ancestral tablets (神主牌) — must be preserved clearly as the target of 1 John 5:21’s closing command; and (2) 偶像 is also the standard modern Cantonese word for a celebrity/pop idol (偶像歌手, 偶像組合), a usage saturating Hong Kong entertainment media. Teaching materials must explicitly disambiguate so the command is not heard as a comment on fandom/celebrity culture but as an exclusive-worship command directed at objects and practices of religious devotion to anything other than the true God.

commandment

translation: 誡命 (of the whole body of Christ’s teaching); 命令 (of a specific instruction)
transliteration: gaai3 ming6; ming6 ling6
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
alternatives_rejected: [“孝順式嘅命令”]
notes: The command to love (1 John 2:7-8; 3:23; 4:21) flows from a father-child relationship of grace already given. Distinguish from Confucian filial-duty obedience (孝順, already flagged under baseline’s “obedience_of_faith” entry) — not a debt of family duty but a commandment received from a Father who loved first.

confidence / boldness

translation: 坦然無懼
transliteration: taan2 jin4 mou4 geoi3
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
alternatives_rejected: [“自信 (generic self-confidence)”]
notes: Confidence before God in prayer (1 John 3:21; 5:14) and at the final judgment (2:28; 4:17), grounded in secure standing through Christ. Distinguish from generic Cantonese self-confidence/bravado (自信) — this confidence is objective, not psychological self-assurance.

fear

translation: 懼怕
transliteration: geoi6 paa3
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
alternatives_rejected: []
notes: 1 John 4:18’s fear cast out by perfected love refers specifically to anxious dread of condemnation/punishment, not to reverential “fear of the Lord” found positively elsewhere in Scripture. Teaching materials must avoid over-generalizing this verse into a claim that believers should never hold God in reverent awe.

perfected / made complete (of love)

translation: 得以完全
transliteration: dak1 ji5 jyun4 cyun4
doctrine_risk: Medium
doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
alternatives_rejected: [“圓滿”]
notes: Love reaching its intended, relational completion through abiding union with God (1 John 4:12, 17-18). Avoid 圓滿 (jyun4 mun5, “consummated/fully accomplished,” heavily used in Buddhist/folk contexts for karmic or merit-cultivation completion) — this is relational completion through grace, not self-cultivated spiritual attainment.

light of “Word of life”

translation: 生命之道
transliteration: sang1 ming6 zi1 dou6
doctrine_risk: High
doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
alternatives_rejected: []
notes: 1 John 1:1’s identification of Christ himself as the eternal, life-giving Word, directly continuous with baseline’s 道成肉身 (incarnation, Critical) and with John 1:1, 14. Must be taught as the same 道 (logos), not an unrelated new term.

Cross-Reference Index — Doctrine to New Terms

Curriculum Doctrine	New Terms Introduced (this glossary)
God is Light and God is Love	愛, 光, 得以完全, 懼怕, 生命之道
Fellowship with God and One Another	住在…裡面/常在
Confession and Forgiveness of Sin	挽回祭, 中保, 承認(of sin: 認罪), 洗淨, 致死嘅罪
Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth	神嘅兒女, 從神而生/重生, 弟兄, 神嘅種, 誡命
The Incarnation and Antichrist	挽回祭, 獨生子, 敵基督, 承認(of Christ), 魔鬼, 生命之道
Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life	救主, 見證, 水同血, 永生, 坦然無懼
Overcoming the World	勝過/得勝, 偶像
Testing the Spirits	恩膏, 假先知, 靈(qualified forms only)

This glossary is staged for merge into translation_memory.json and doctrine_risk_registry.json in the Phase 2 pre-flight step. All entries follow the baseline schema exactly and introduce no contradiction with existing Romans entries.

Critical Risk Terms

God

Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: san4
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 天主, 上帝, 老天爺
Original: θεός
Category: God

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). CRITICAL: this Language Package standardizes on 神, never 天主 (the Catholic term, present in Hong Kong/Macau via the Sigao Bible tradition) or 上帝, for Protestant curriculum consistency; never 老天爺 (colloquial impersonal Heaven). In 1 John, 神 is the fixed grammatical subject of both of the letter’s anarthrous predicate-noun thesis statements, ‘God is light’ (1:5) and ‘God is love’ (4:8, 16) — 神 must never be treated as interchangeable with or reversible into the predicate noun in either statement.

Jesus

Approved rendering: 耶穌
Transliteration: je4 sou1
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). In 1 John, confession that Jesus is the Christ, come in the flesh, is the letter’s own decisive test separating truth from antichrist deception (2:22-23; 4:2-3, 15).

Holy Spirit

Approved rendering: 聖靈
Transliteration: sing3 ling4
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 問米嘅靈, 祖先靈
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified): always the full compound 聖靈, never bare 靈. 1 John 4:1-6 introduces a special procedural challenge because the Greek source itself uses bare, unqualified plural ‘spirits’ for the spirits requiring discernment — see the new ‘spirits_testing’ entry below for the mandatory qualifier rule this forces on every other non-Holy-Spirit occurrence of 靈 in that passage. 3:24 and 4:13 both refer unambiguously to the Holy Spirit and use the full 聖靈 compound without exception.

Son Of God

Approved rendering: 神嘅兒子
Transliteration: san4 ge3 ji4 zi2
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 天子, 神人
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christology

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified): never abbreviated, never 天子 (‘Son of Heaven’, the historic Chinese imperial title). In 1 John this title is the explicit object of the confessional test at 4:15 and the ground of assurance at 5:5, 5:10-13, 5:20, reinforced by the new term 獨生子 (‘only-begotten/one-and-only Son’) at 4:9.

Lord

Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: zyu2
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 事頭, 老爺
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). Explicit κύριος-titling is less frequent in 1 John than in Romans, but the exclusive-Lordship concept underlies the letter’s insistence that Christ alone, not any rival teacher or spirit, defines truth.

Incarnation

Approved rendering: 道成肉身
Transliteration: dou6 sing4 juk6 san1
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: 化身, 顯靈
Original: ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο
Category: Christology

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified): never 化身 (a deity’s repeatable manifestation, popularly attributed to Guanyin) or 顯靈 (a deity ‘manifesting power’ at a Hong Kong shrine). 1 John elevates the practical stakes of this term above the Romans baseline: denial that ‘Jesus Christ has come in the flesh’ (4:2-3) is explicitly named as the defining mark of the ‘spirit of error’ and antichrist teaching, so mistranslation here does not merely blur doctrine but actively defeats the letter’s own test for false teaching.

Righteousness

Approved rendering: 義
Transliteration: ji6
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 道德, 善行
Original: δικαιοσύνη / δίκαιος
Category: Salvation

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). The standing caution against the Confucian Five Constant Virtue and Cantonese triad/gangster-film loyalty-and-honor idiom (義氣) applies identically in 1 John, especially 3:7-10 where righteous conduct is visible proof of being ‘born of God’ — this must be taught as a Spirit-produced family likeness, never as a successfully performed peer-honor code. Also applies to God’s own character (1:9, 信實同公義) and to Christ (2:1, 29, ὁ δίκαιος).

Messiah

Approved rendering: 基督
Transliteration: gei1 duk1
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: 彌勒, 黃大仙式嘅救世主

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). In 1 John, ‘Christ’ (基督) is the fixed second element of the compound 敵基督 (antichrist) and the constant object of the confession test (2:22-23; 4:2-3, 15; 5:1). Never conflate with Maitreya (彌勒) or a wish-granting folk-deity savior framing.

Salvation

Approved rendering: 救恩
Transliteration: gau3 jan1
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 解脫, 超度, 大慈大悲救苦救難

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). Underlies 1 John’s new ‘savior’ (救主) and ‘eternal life’ (永生) terms and the doctrine ‘Testimony and Assurance of Salvation’ (5:6-13). NEVER use 解脫, 超度, or quote Guanyin’s popular epithet as a synonym.

Resurrection

Approved rendering: 復活
Transliteration: fuk6 wut6
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 投胎轉世, 問米式嘅還魂

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). Not directly discussed in 1 John’s own doctrine set, but cross-referenced here because 1 John’s ‘born of God’ language (see born_of_god entry) carries the identical forbidden-term risk as this entry: NEVER use 投胎轉世 (rebirth into a new womb/reincarnation cycle) for either resurrection OR new birth — the same folk-rebirth association transfers directly from this entry to 1 John’s regeneration vocabulary.

Justification

Approved rendering: 稱義
Transliteration: cing1 ji6
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 修成正果, 還神還願

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). Cross-referenced in 1 John because ‘confess_sin’ (認罪, 1:9) and ‘born_of_god’ (從神而生) must both avoid the same forbidden terms flagged here: 修成正果 (self-cultivated spiritual attainment) and 還神還願 (temple vow-fulfillment reciprocity). Neither confession of sin nor new birth is a step in an earned, transactional process.

Grace

Approved rendering: 恩典
Transliteration: jan1 din2
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: 福氣, 有求必應式嘅恩典, 功德

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). Directly underlies 1 John’s ‘propitiation’ (挽回祭, 2:2; 4:10) and ‘the love commandment’ (誡命, 4:19-21): God’s love/grace precedes and generates the believer’s response; it is never a reciprocal favor obtained through vow, offering, or exchange, mirroring the baseline’s absolute prohibition on Wong Tai Sin’s 「有求必應」transactional pattern.

Love

Approved rendering: 愛
Transliteration: oi3
Doctrine: God is Love
Rejected alternatives: 大愛, 情愛, 仁愛
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: God

NEW TERM. CRITICAL: the single most repeated term in the core passage (1 John 4:7-21) and the letter’s thesis, ‘God is love’ (4:8, 16). NEVER use 大愛 (daai6 oi3), the branded slogan-term of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟基金會), a prominent Hong Kong charitable organization whose public identity centers on this exact phrase. NEVER use 情愛 (romantic/erotic love) or flatten to 仁愛 (the Confucian benevolence virtue, a social-duty ethic parallel to the 義/義氣 collision already flagged under ‘righteousness’). The anarthrous predicate structure of ‘God is love’ must be preserved so this cannot be misread as a reversible equation exalting a generic humanistic love in God’s place.

Light

Approved rendering: 光
Transliteration: gwong1
Doctrine: God is Light
Rejected alternatives: 開悟嘅光, 神光
Original: φῶς
Category: God

NEW TERM. CRITICAL: ‘God is light’ (1:5) is the grammatical and theological parallel to ‘God is love’ (4:8) — both anarthrous predicate-noun statements of God’s essential nature. Avoid Buddhist/Daoist ‘enlightenment’ vocabulary (開悟, spiritual illumination attained through practice) and avoid 神光, a stock Hong Kong temple-culture phrase for a deity’s radiant power manifesting at a shrine (e.g. Wong Tai Sin). This is holy, self-revealing, sin-exposing purity, not an attainable inner illumination or a deity’s visible aura.

Propitiation

Approved rendering: 挽回祭
Transliteration: waan5 wui4 zai3
Doctrine: Propitiation and Atonement
Rejected alternatives: 還神還願, 贖罪(alone, unqualified), 祭品
Original: ἱλασμός
Category: Salvation

NEW TERM. CRITICAL: Christ himself, sent by the Father, IS the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2; 4:10) — a once-for-all, God-initiated resolution of sin’s guilt. NEVER frame with the transactional vow-and-offering exchange model already forbidden under the baseline’s ‘grace’ and ‘justification’ entries (Wong Tai Sin’s 「有求必應」pattern; 還神還願 vow-fulfillment). Same doctrinal risk category the baseline already flags for Romans 3:25 atonement language; identical Human Theologian review routing required.

Only Begotten Son

Approved rendering: 獨生子
Transliteration: duk6 sang1 zi2
Doctrine: Deity and Unique Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 神嘅細路, 神嘅代表
Original: ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ὁ μονογενής
Category: Christology

NEW TERM. CRITICAL: used in the fixed compound 神嘅獨生子 (1 John 4:9). Denotes uniqueness of kind, not a biological generation-process claim. Must never be confused with the baseline’s 兒子嘅名分 (adoption — believers’ derivative, legally-placed sonship) nor softened to a generic ‘God’s child’ title. Sect-risk note: Jehovah’s Witness materials gloss this as evidence Christ is ‘a created being, God’s first creation’ — this rendering must foreclose that reading.

Antichrist

Approved rendering: 敵基督
Transliteration: dik6 gei1 duk1
Doctrine: Antichrist and Denial of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 魔王, 妖怪, 大反派
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology

NEW TERM. CRITICAL: names a specific doctrinal deception — denial that Jesus is the Christ, denial of the Father-Son relationship, denial of the incarnation (2:18-23; 4:3) — not a generic villain, monster (妖怪), or folklore demon-king (魔王, from Journey to the West-derived popular media). Both a future eschatological figure and a present reality (‘many antichrists,’ 2:18). Sect-risk note: True Jesus Church (真耶穌教會) modalist theology, which denies the Father-Son as genuinely distinct Persons, collides directly with the very Father-Son distinctness this term’s context presupposes.

Spirits Testing

Approved rendering: 靈 (only with an explicit qualifier: e.g. 邪靈, 假嘅靈, 真理嘅靈, 神嘅靈/聖靈)
Transliteration: ling4 (qualifier-dependent)
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: 靈 (bare/unqualified), 問米嘅靈
Original: πνεύματα (plural, unqualified)
Category: Pneumatology

NEW TERM — CRITICAL PROCEDURAL RULE. 1 John 4:1-6 is the one passage in the book where the Greek source text itself uses bare, unqualified plural ‘spirits’. The baseline’s absolute rule for 聖靈 (‘never 靈 alone’) must be extended: every occurrence of ‘spirit/spirits’ in this passage requires a supplied qualifier from context. Bare unmodified 靈 must never stand alone in translation output — treat as a hard validation failure, not a stylistic preference — to prevent collapse into 問米 mediumship, ancestral-spirit, and Hungry Ghost Festival (盂蘭節) vocabulary.

Savior

Approved rendering: 救主
Transliteration: gau3 zyu2
Doctrine: Testimony and Assurance of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 黃大仙式嘅救世主, 大慈大悲嘅救苦救難者
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Salvation

NEW TERM. CRITICAL: ties directly to baseline’s 救恩 (salvation). Christ as ‘Savior of the world’ (4:14) must remain exclusive and universal in scope, never softened toward a generic helper/rescuer title interchangeable with a wish-granting deity such as Wong Tai Sin, nor quoted alongside Guanyin’s popular epithet ‘greatly compassionate, saving from suffering and hardship’ (already forbidden under the baseline’s ‘salvation’ entry).

Eternal Life

Approved rendering: 永生
Transliteration: wing5 sang1
Doctrine: Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: 長生不老, 得道成仙
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Eschatology

NEW TERM. CRITICAL: NEVER use 長生不老 (the Daoist immortality-elixir ideal, deeply embedded in Cantonese New Year greetings and wuxia/fantasy media) or 得道成仙 (attaining Daoist-immortal status, adjacent to the baseline’s forbidden 神仙 under ‘saints’). 永生 (2:25; 3:15; 5:11-13, 20) is relational, unending life in fellowship with the true God, given in the Son, begun now by faith — not a self-attained state of endless physical existence. Always ground with a relational gloss at first occurrence per lesson (與神同在嘅生命).

Idol

Approved rendering: 偶像
Transliteration: ngau5 zoeng6
Doctrine: Idolatry and Exclusive Worship
Original: εἴδωλον
Category: Sin

NEW TERM. CRITICAL, distinctive double-collision risk unique to Cantonese: (1) the primary intended referent — objects and images of worship such as Wong Tai Sin, Guanyin statues, and ancestral tablets (神主牌) — must be preserved clearly as the target of 5:21’s closing command; and (2) 偶像 is ALSO the standard modern Cantonese word for a celebrity/pop idol (偶像歌手, 偶像組合), a usage saturating Hong Kong entertainment media. No existing Bible translation disambiguates this; teaching materials must supply an explicit gloss at first occurrence per lesson unit.

High Risk Terms

Sin

Approved rendering: 罪
Transliteration: zeoi6
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: 報應, 唔衰得
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). 1 John treats sin extensively (1:7-10; 2:1-2, 12; 3:4-9; 4:10; 5:16-18), including the specific pastoral category ‘sin unto death’ (see separate entry). The baseline’s caution against 報應 (karmic retribution) and 唔衰得 (face/shame idiom) applies identically throughout.

Faith

Approved rendering: 信心
Transliteration: seon3 sam1
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: 虔誠, 睇相算命式嘅相信
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). 1 John 5:1, 4-5, 10 ties faith directly to victory over the world (‘this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith’) and to new birth; the baseline’s caution against fortune-telling/palm-reading confidence (睇相算命) applies identically.

Adoption

Approved rendering: 兒子嘅名分
Transliteration: ji4 zi2 ge3 ming4 fan6
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: 過繼, 認契仔

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). Must be taught in 1 John as complementary to, never a replacement for, the new organic-birth term 神嘅兒女 (children_of_god, τέκνα θεοῦ, 3:1-2, 10; 5:2). Believers are BOTH legally placed as sons (this term, Romans’ υἱοθεσία) AND actually, organically born of God (1 John’s new-birth language); neither concept should collapse into or replace the other.

Law

Approved rendering: 律法
Transliteration: leot6 faat3
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: 禮, 規矩, 法律

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). Cross-referenced in 1 John because the new term ‘lawlessness’ (違法, 3:4, ἀνομία) must not be softened toward generic social-custom deviation (規矩) any more than 律法 itself may be; 1 John 3:4 defines sin as transgression of God’s revealed moral will, not local convention.

Obedience Of Faith

Approved rendering: 因信而生嘅順服
Transliteration: jan1 seon3 ji4 sang1 ge3 seon6 fuk6
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: 孝順, 還神還願式嘅順服

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). Cross-referenced in 1 John’s new ‘commandment’ entry (誡命/命令, 2:7-11; 3:23; 4:21): the command to love flows from a father-child relationship of grace already given, not Confucian filial-duty obedience (孝順) or vow-fulfilling obedience owed after a granted request (還神還願).

Children Of God

Approved rendering: 神嘅兒女
Transliteration: san4 ge3 ji4 neoi5
Doctrine: Believers as Children of God
Rejected alternatives: 神嘅過繼仔女
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: Salvation

NEW TERM. Renders τέκνα θεοῦ (1 John 3:1-2, 10; 5:2), an organic-birth term distinct from the baseline’s forensic-legal 兒子嘅名分 (adoption). Teach both as true and complementary, not competing. Sect-risk note: Local Church Movement / Recovery Version (恢復本) literature systematically overreads this organic-birth language into an ontological ‘mingling’/‘deification’ claim (‘God in life and nature but not in the Godhead’) well beyond mainstream Protestant orthodoxy — this pipeline must never adopt that framework.

Born Of God

Approved rendering: 從神而生
Transliteration: cung4 san4 ji4 sang1
Doctrine: New Birth / Regeneration
Rejected alternatives: 投胎轉世, 脫胎換骨式嘅重生
Original: γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Salvation

NEW TERM. Doctrinal noun form: 重生 (jung4 sang1). NEVER use 投胎轉世 (rebirth into a new womb/reincarnation cycle — already forbidden under the baseline’s ‘resurrection’ entry; same folk-rebirth association risk applies). Also avoid the secular idiom 脫胎換骨 (‘shedding one’s old bones’, a common self-transformation-through-effort metaphor with no reference to God’s initiating act). Repeated refrain across 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18 — God must remain the fixed acting subject in every occurrence.

Abide

Approved rendering: 住在…裡面 / 常在
Transliteration: zyu6 zoi6…leoi5 min6 / soeng4 zoi6
Doctrine: Abiding Union with God
Rejected alternatives: 問米式嘅靈入身, 附體
Original: μένω
Category: Sanctification

NEW TERM. NEVER frame with 附體 (a spirit ‘possessing/entering’ a person’s body, standard Cantonese mediumship vocabulary) or the broader 問米 spirit-indwelling framework. God’s abiding in the believer, and the believer’s abiding in God (2:6, 24, 27-28; 3:6, 24; 4:12-16), is personal, relational, and covenantal — grounded in conscious faith and love — not involuntary or ritually-induced spirit-indwelling. The 4:12-16 chain (‘abide in love → abide in God → God abides in him’) must use the same verb throughout to preserve its rhetorical force.

Advocate

Approved rendering: 中保
Transliteration: zung1 bou2
Doctrine: Christ’s Heavenly Advocacy
Rejected alternatives: 問米婆, 律師
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Salvation

NEW TERM. Christ’s advocacy before the Father (2:1) rests on his own righteousness and finished atoning work (see 挽回祭). Never frame as a paid legal defense (律師) or a mediumship intermediary who channels communication with spirits (問米婆).

Confess Christ

Approved rendering: 承認 / 宣認
Transliteration: sing4 jing6 / syun1 jing6
Doctrine: Antichrist and Denial of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 還神還願式嘅宣告
Original: ὁμολογέω (of Christ’s identity)
Category: Christology

NEW TERM. Reserved for confessing Christ’s identity (2:23; 4:2-3, 15) — the confessional counterpart to Romans 10:9’s 耶穌是主. Must be kept visibly distinct from 認罪 (confessing sin, separate entry); never use a bare, object-ambiguous 認 that leaves the object unclear between the two senses. Flag any bare 認 for theologian review before acceptance.

Confess Sin

Approved rendering: 認罪
Transliteration: jing6 zeoi6
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: 還神還願, 修成正果式嘅悔改
Original: ὁμολογέω (of sin)
Category: Sin

NEW TERM. 1 John 1:9’s confession of sin to a ‘faithful and just’ God who forgives and cleanses. Distinct object from confessing Christ (above); must not be framed as fulfilling a vow owed after divine favor (還神還願) nor as a step in self-cultivated spiritual attainment (修成正果, already forbidden under baseline’s ‘justification’ entry).

Devil

Approved rendering: 魔鬼
Transliteration: mo1 gwai2
Doctrine: The Devil and Spiritual Warfare
Rejected alternatives: 鬼 (generic/unqualified), 邪靈(as a stand-alone substitute)
Original: διάβολος
Category: Spiritual Warfare

NEW TERM. A specific, personal, fallen spiritual being opposed to God, whose works Christ came to destroy (3:8, 10; 5:18-19). Distinguish from the broad Cantonese folk category of 鬼 (covering ancestral spirits, Hungry Ghost Festival spirits, and mediumship-summoned spirits) — 魔鬼 names one specific, already-defeated being, not the general folk spirit-world.

Brethren

Approved rendering: 弟兄
Transliteration: dai6 hing1
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: 兄弟 (colloquial), 結拜兄弟
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Church

NEW TERM. The established Hong Kong Christian term for ‘fellow believer’. NEVER substitute the everyday colloquial 兄弟, which carries strong triad/sworn-brotherhood connotations from Hong Kong popular film and media — the same risk category the baseline already flags for 義氣 under ‘righteousness’ and for 結拜 under ‘fellowship’. Love for 弟兄 (3:10-17; 4:20-21) is the observable proof of new birth, grounded in Spirit-given family bond, not a peer-loyalty code.

Sin Unto Death

Approved rendering: 致死嘅罪
Transliteration: zi3 sei2 ge3 zeoi6
Doctrine: Sin unto Death
Rejected alternatives: 報應式嘅罪
Original: ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον
Category: Sin

NEW TERM. 1 John 5:16-17’s specific, debated pastoral category of sin’s severity among believers, for which intercession is not commanded, distinct from ordinary sin. Must not be assimilated to the folk-karmic ‘sin causing misfortune’ framing (報應, already flagged under the baseline’s ‘sin’ entry) — a specific pastoral-theological distinction, not a general principle of cosmic retribution.

Word Of Life

Approved rendering: 生命之道
Transliteration: sang1 ming6 zi1 dou6
Doctrine: Incarnation of Christ
Original: ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology

NEW TERM. 1 John 1:1’s identification of Christ himself as the eternal, life-giving Word, seen, heard, and touched by the apostolic eyewitnesses — directly continuous with the baseline’s Critical 道成肉身 (incarnation) entry and with John 1:1, 14. Must be taught as the same 道 (logos), not an unrelated new coinage; avoid readers hearing 道 only in its generic secular or Confucian/Daoist ‘way/path/teaching’ sense.

Medium Risk Terms

Darkness

Approved rendering: 黑暗
Transliteration: hak1 am3
Doctrine: God is Light
Original: σκοτία
Category: Sin

NEW TERM. The moral/spiritual opposite of God’s holy self-disclosure (1:6-7; 2:9, 11); walking in darkness means living in sin’s concealment. Standard rendering carries low collision risk on its own but must always be read as the direct antonym of 光 within the letter’s dualistic light/darkness ethical framework, not as a neutral or merely atmospheric term.

World

Approved rendering: 世界
Transliteration: sai3 gaai3
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: 江湖
Original: κόσμος
Category: Sanctification

NEW TERM. Predominantly the morally corrupt world-system in rebellion against God (2:15-17; 4:4-5; 5:19), distinct from the neutral sense of humanity as the object of God’s saving love (4:9, 14). Must be distinguished from the colloquial Cantonese term 江湖 (‘the world/society’, strongly colored by triad and wuxia-genre connotations of a lawless rival-clan environment), which must never be substituted for either sense.

Anointing

Approved rendering: 恩膏
Transliteration: jan1 gou1
Doctrine: Anointing of the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: 開光
Original: χρῖσμα
Category: Pneumatology

NEW TERM. The Spirit’s teaching anointing enabling believers to discern truth (2:20, 27). Avoid 開光 (‘opening the light’, a Hong Kong temple/idol consecration ritual for statues, talismans, or new shop premises) — biblical anointing is the Spirit’s ongoing internal teaching ministry, not an external, one-time consecration rite performed on an object.

False Prophet

Approved rendering: 假先知
Transliteration: gaa2 sin1 zi1
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: 講錯嘅算命佬
Original: ψευδοπροφήτης
Category: Covenant

NEW TERM. Extends baseline’s 先知 (prophet) via negation. The deception in view (4:1) is doctrinal — denial of Christ’s true incarnation — not a fortune-teller’s failed prediction (算命佬); do not reduce to a mere-accuracy framing.

Cleanse

Approved rendering: 洗淨
Transliteration: sai2 zeng6
Doctrine: Cleansing by the Blood of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 淨壇, 灑淨
Original: καθαρίζω
Category: Sin

NEW TERM. Moral cleansing from sin through Christ’s blood (1:7, 9). Distinguish from ritual/ceremonial purification practices such as incense-based space-clearing (淨壇) or Buddhist water-purification rites (灑淨) — this is forgiveness-based moral cleansing, not a ritual technique.

Blood

Approved rendering: 血
Transliteration: hyut3
Doctrine: Cleansing by the Blood of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 歃血為盟式嘅血
Original: αἷμα
Category: Salvation

NEW TERM. The blood of Jesus Christ as the ground of cleansing from sin and ongoing fellowship with God (1:7). Distinguish from the Cantonese blood-oath sworn-brotherhood idiom 歃血為盟, which names a mutual human pact rather than a once-for-all atoning sacrifice offered by Christ on believers’ behalf.

Water And Blood

Approved rendering: 水同血
Transliteration: seoi2 tung4 hyut3
Doctrine: Testimony and Assurance of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 符水
Original: ὕδωρ καὶ αἷμα
Category: Salvation

NEW TERM. Part of the threefold witness (Spirit, water, blood) testifying to the reality of Christ’s redemptive work (5:6-8). Distinguish from ritual ‘talisman water’ (符水) used in some Hong Kong Taoist/temple practices — this is testimonial evidence, not a magically efficacious substance. Translator note: the modern critical Greek text underlying CUV/RCUV correctly excludes the later Comma Johanneum insertion after v.7; never introduce that disputed Trinitarian clause into any Cantonese rendering or footnote as if original.

Seed Of God

Approved rendering: 神嘅種
Transliteration: san4 ge3 zung2
Doctrine: New Birth / Regeneration
Original: σπέρμα αὐτοῦ
Category: Sanctification

NEW TERM. 1 John 3:9’s ‘his seed abides in him’ — a spiritual regenerative principle, distinct from the baseline’s 大衛嘅後裔 (seed_of_David, physical lineage). Do not conflate the two ‘seed’ concepts; this names an internal, God-given disposition against habitual sin, not physical descent.

Desire

Approved rendering: 私慾
Transliteration: si1 juk6
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Sin

NEW TERM. Disordered, sinful craving of the flesh or the eyes, opposed to doing the will of God (2:16). No strong direct religious-vocabulary collision, but should not be softened toward a neutral ‘desire/want’ that loses the morally negative sense the context requires.

Lawlessness

Approved rendering: 違法
Transliteration: wai4 faat3
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Sin

NEW TERM. Sin defined as lawlessness — transgression of God’s revealed will (3:4). Must not be softened toward mere social-custom deviation (規矩, already flagged under the baseline’s ‘law’ entry); this is transgression against God’s revealed moral will, not local convention.

Overcome

Approved rendering: 勝過 / 得勝
Transliteration: sing3 gwo3 / dak1 sing3
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: 打贏 (combat-framed), 戰勝
Original: νικάω
Category: Sanctification

NEW TERM. Victory over the world through faith (5:4-5), and over the evil one through abiding in God’s word (2:13-14). Avoid the martial-arts/wuxia ‘defeating an opponent through combat skill’ framing (打贏/戰勝), pervasive in Hong Kong action-film culture — this victory is through faith in Christ’s finished work, not personal strength or skill. Always anchor to its stated ground (因信, 靠住神嘅道).

Testimony

Approved rendering: 見證
Transliteration: gin3 zing3
Doctrine: Testimony and Assurance of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 見證分享 (marketing-testimonial register)
Original: μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω
Category: Faith

NEW TERM. Apostolic eyewitness testimony (1:1-2, 4:14) and the Spirit/Father’s testimony concerning the Son (5:6-11). Distinguish from the secular Hong Kong commercial usage of 見證/見證分享 as a promotional ‘testimonial’ — this is truthful attestation to a historical, saving reality.

Commandment

Approved rendering: 誡命 / 命令
Transliteration: gaai3 ming6 / ming6 ling6
Doctrine: The Love Commandment
Rejected alternatives: 孝順式嘅命令
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Sanctification

NEW TERM. 誡命 for the whole body of Christ’s teaching; 命令 for a specific instruction. The command to love (2:7-11; 3:23; 4:21) flows from a father-child relationship of grace already given. Distinguish from Confucian filial-duty obedience (孝順, already flagged under baseline’s ‘obedience_of_faith’ entry) — not a debt of family duty but a commandment received from a Father who loved first.

Confidence

Approved rendering: 坦然無懼
Transliteration: taan2 jin4 mou4 geoi3
Doctrine: Confidence Before God
Rejected alternatives: 自信 (generic self-confidence)
Original: παρρησία
Category: Assurance

NEW TERM. Confidence before God in prayer (3:21; 5:14) and at the final judgment (2:28; 4:17), grounded in secure standing through Christ. Distinguish from generic Cantonese self-confidence/bravado (自信) — this confidence is objective, not psychological self-assurance.

Fear

Approved rendering: 懼怕
Transliteration: geoi6 paa3
Doctrine: God is Love
Original: φόβος
Category: Assurance

NEW TERM. 4:18’s fear cast out by perfected love refers specifically to anxious dread of condemnation/punishment, not reverential ‘fear of the Lord’ found positively elsewhere in Scripture. Teaching materials must avoid over-generalizing this verse into a claim that believers should never hold God in reverent awe.

Perfected Love

Approved rendering: 得以完全
Transliteration: dak1 ji5 jyun4 cyun4
Doctrine: God is Love
Rejected alternatives: 圓滿
Original: τελειόω (of ἀγάπη)
Category: God

NEW TERM. Love reaching its intended, relational completion through abiding union with God, expressed through love for the brethren (4:12, 17-18). Avoid 圓滿 (jyun4 mun5, ‘consummated/fully accomplished’, heavily used in Buddhist/folk contexts for karmic or merit-cultivation completion) — this is relational completion through grace, not self-cultivated spiritual attainment.

Low Risk Terms

Fellowship

Approved rendering: 團契
Transliteration: tyun4 kai3
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 同鄉會, 結拜
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified), but elevated doctrinal importance in 1 John (a named curriculum doctrine, ‘Fellowship with God and One Another’). 1:3, 1:6-7 requires BOTH a vertical sense (fellowship with the Father and the Son) and a horizontal sense (fellowship with one another) to remain visible simultaneously; do not let the vertical dimension silently collapse into a purely social-gathering sense.

Prophet

Approved rendering: 先知
Transliteration: sin1 zi1
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: 風水師, 算命佬
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant

Inherited from Romans package (unmodified). In 1 John the term appears negated as ‘false prophet’ (see separate entry, Medium risk); the positive term itself carries no new risk in this book.

Heart

Approved rendering: 心
Transliteration: sam1
Doctrine: Confidence Before God
Original: καρδία
Category: Sanctification

NEW TERM. The seat of conscience and inner conviction before God (3:19-21). Standard rendering; no significant religious-vocabulary collision risk in Cantonese.

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