Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis — Acts 1–28
1. Purpose and Method
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Step 8 for the Acts curriculum: a systematic gap analysis identifying (a) doctrines whose available Cantonese vocabulary is inadequate, ambiguous, or shared with competing religious frameworks; (b) genuinely missing vocabulary items with no existing Cantonese lexical candidate; (c) crowded semantic neighborhoods — existing Cantonese words that are lexically adequate but culturally overloaded with competing meanings requiring a “fence” (a mandatory disambiguating gloss, compound form, or forbidden-alternative rule); (d) transliteration-vs-paraphrase decisions; and (e) a ranked list of this book’s highest-risk ambiguities.
This analysis governs, and must not contradict, the Romans-baseline translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json. Every finding below either (i) confirms a baseline term is safely reusable in Acts, (ii) extends a baseline doctrine with an Acts-specific new collision layer, or (iii) identifies a genuinely new term the baseline does not cover. All full-book chapter coverage (Acts 1–28) is confirmed in Section 3; no chapter is silently skipped.
The nine assigned curriculum doctrines are treated as the primary organizing categories in Section 2, with all supporting lexical items — old and new — mapped underneath them.
2. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
| Doctrine | Available Cantonese Term(s) | Weaknesses / Semantic Risk | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | 聖靈 (baseline, Critical); new compounds 被聖靈充滿, 澹灌/傾倒(聖靈), 講別種方言, 五旬節 | 靈 alone collides with ancestral-spirit, temple-spirit, and 問米-mediumship vocabulary; 充滿 risks drifting toward 附體 (possession) framing; 方言 in everyday Cantonese usually means regional Chinese dialect, risking a flattened “code-switching” reading of a supernatural, unlearned-language miracle; 五旬節 risks being read as a generic festival (節) rather than the specific fulfilled-calendar event. | Retain 聖靈 as compound-only, never bare 靈 (baseline rule inherited and reinforced). Fix 被聖靈充滿 as the fixed formula for every occurrence (2:4; 4:8,31; 9:17; 13:9,52), fenced against 附體. Fix 澹灌/傾倒(聖靈) for the pouring-out verb, fenced against vow-exchange dispensing imagery. Gloss 講別種方言 with a mandatory translator’s note distinguishing real unlearned human languages from both dialect-switching and ecstatic utterance. Gloss 五旬節 at first use with the “fifty days after Passover” explanation. |
| The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 福音 (baseline), 外邦人 (baseline), 神唔偏待人 (new), 俗物/唔潔淨嘅嘢 (new), 外邦人嘅光 (new), 未識嘅神 (new) | 福 carries prosperity-luck resonance (baseline-documented); 外邦人 risks clan/native-place insider-outsider overtones if mistranslated colloquially; impartiality (神唔偏待人) risks conflation with impersonal karmic 報應 “fairness”; ritual purity language (俗物/唔潔淨) risks being read as an ongoing Cantonese folk-taboo concern (funeral/childbirth pollution) rather than a superseded ceremonial category; “light for the Gentiles” risks Buddhist enlightenment (悟/開悟) framing. | Reuse 福音/外邦人 exactly per baseline. Fence 神唔偏待人 against 報應 with an explicit note that this is personal, relational impartiality, not mechanical cosmic fairness. Fence 俗物/唔潔淨嘅嘢 with a note that Peter’s vision teaches inclusion, not hygiene, and that no ongoing ritual-purity practice is implied for Cantonese cultural taboos. Fence 外邦人嘅光 against 悟/開悟 — this is revelatory light given, not attained awakening. |
| Repentance and Baptism | 悔改 (new, Critical), 受洗/洗禮/施洗 (new, High), 罪得赦免 (new, Critical), 求告主嘅名 (new, Critical), 我應該做啲乜先可以得救？ (new, Critical), 扎心 (new), 轉向（神）(new), 洗去你嘅罪 (new) | 悔改 risks collapse into 懺悔 (Buddhist karma-purification ritual confession) or 洗心革面 (secular willpower self-reform with no reference to God); 受洗 risks conflation with repeatable Daoist/folk ritual-purification bathing or New Year symbolic cleansing baths; 罪得赦免 risks the folk-petition idiom 消災解難 (dispel calamity) or 還神還願 (vow-discharge exchange); the salvation-appeal formula risks inconsistent rendering across its three occurrences (2:37; 16:30; 22:10) if not fixed; 扎心 risks a face/shame (面子) reading rather than conviction before God; 洗去你嘅罪 (22:16) risks implying mechanical water-efficacy or resembling folk luck-washing (洗邋遢). | Retain 悔改 with mandatory fencing note distinguishing it from 懺悔 and 洗心革面 at every occurrence (2:38; 3:19; 8:22; 17:30; 26:20). Retain 受洗/洗禮/施洗 with a note on non-repeatability and unique “in the name of Jesus Christ” grounding; require a distinct teaching note at 19:3-6 contrasting John’s baptism with Spirit-accompanied Christian baptism. Retain 罪得赦免 fenced against 消災解難 and 還神還願. Fix 我應該做啲乜先可以得救？ verbatim across all three occurrences per the Theological Consistency Rules. Render 扎心 with an explicit “before God” clause, not a bare emotional idiom. Teach 洗去你嘅罪 alongside baptism without implying water itself causes cleansing. |
| The Church as Community | 教會 (baseline), 團契 (baseline), 同心合意 (new), 大家共享所有嘅嘢 (new), 加入教會 (new), 長老 (new), 監督 (new), 基督徒 (new), 服侍/事奉 (new), 聖靈同我們都認為好 (new) | 教會 must avoid 廟/祠堂 (baseline rule); 同心合意 risks a soft echo of clan/native-place solidarity (同鄉會); communal-property language (大家共享所有嘅嘢) risks both a Pearl River Delta ancestral-hall clan-property association and contemporary political sensitivity around communal-property rhetoric in Hong Kong; 長老/監督 risk clan-patriarch (族長) ancestor-authority overtones or a flattened secular “supervisor” reading; 服侍/事奉 needs disambiguation by context (practical service vs. word-ministry). | Reuse 教會/團契 exactly per baseline. Fence 同心合意 with a light note that this unity is Spirit-given across ethnic/social lines, not clan solidarity. Flag 大家共享所有嘅嘢 for native-speaker political-sensitivity review and keep strictly historically descriptive (Jerusalem church only), never prescriptive. Fence 長老/監督 against 族長 and against the secular “supervisor” false-friend sense respectively. Disambiguate 服侍/事奉 by context at each occurrence. |
| Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 使徒 (baseline), 神蹟奇事 (new, Critical), 神嘅大能 (baseline/extended), 醫好 (new), 抽籤 (new, Critical), 見證人/見證 (new), 榮耀 (baseline) | 神蹟奇事 is the single highest-frequency new collision in the book: Wong Tai Sin’s reputation for 靈驗 (“efficacious, answers requests”) actively markets miracle-as-proof-of-transactional-deity-power; 抽籤 directly names the same act as 求籤 (temple fortune-stick divination), the most iconic form of Wong Tai Sin divination; 醫好 escalates risk when paired with sign-language; 見證 risks weakening from eyewitness historical testimony toward generic subjective impression. | Reuse 使徒 per baseline (Low risk retained). Retain 神蹟奇事 fenced permanently against 靈驗 with mandatory anchoring to apostolic gospel-authentication, never free-floating proof; theologian review every occurrence. Retain 抽籤 with a mandatory one-time explanatory note (pre-Pentecost, prayer-grounded, never repeated as normative guidance) distinguishing it categorically from 求籤; theologian review every occurrence. Escalate 醫好 to High risk whenever co-occurring with 神蹟奇事. Retain 見證人/見證 anchored to direct eyewitness testimony to a historical bodily event. |
| Persecution and Bold Witness | 迫害 (new), 坦然無懼 (new), 用石頭打死 (new), 見證人/見證 (shared with Apostolic Authority) | 迫害 carries no folk-religious collision but is politically sensitive in the contemporary Hong Kong climate; 坦然無懼 risks a false-friend reading as bravado or face-seeking assertiveness (威水/面子, already flagged under “glory” in the baseline); the witness→martyr semantic drift (from ch.7 onward) risks conflating eyewitness testimony with the martyrdom sense if not kept distinct. | Flag 迫害 for native-speaker political-sensitivity review; keep description historically anchored to the Acts narrative (Herod, Sanhedrin, Roman authorities), not contemporary analogy. Fence 坦然無懼 explicitly as Spirit-given courage rooted in the truth of the message, not self-generated confidence or status display. Keep eyewitness (μάρτυς, testimony sense) and martyrdom (narrative development from Stephen onward) doctrinally distinct in teaching notes even though the same Cantonese headword is used. |
| Conversion of Paul | 撒但 (new), 從黑暗轉向光明，從撒但嘅權勢歸向神 (new), 神嘅兒子 (baseline), 揀選 (baseline/extended) | 撒但 risks assimilation to Cantonese folk-demonology’s diffuse “hungry ghost” (鬼) category, appeased rather than defeated during Ghost Festival (盂蘭節) observances; the darkness-to-light reversal formula risks Chinese yin-yang cosmological-dualism (陰陽) framing or Buddhist “enlightenment” (開悟/覺悟) framing; “vessel of election” (9:15) risks fatalistic 八字注定 birth-chart framing if not anchored to personal missionary commissioning. | Fence 撒但 as a specific, personal, already-defeated spiritual enemy with a definite narrative role — not one ghost among many appeasable spirits. Fence the darkness-to-light formula explicitly against both yin-yang dualism and Buddhist enlightenment imagery; this is moral-spiritual reversal, not cosmological balance or attained inner awakening. Extend 揀選 into the “chosen instrument” compound with an explicit personal-missional-choice gloss, never fatalistic destiny vocabulary. |
| Justification apart from the Law | 稱義 (baseline), 律法 (baseline), 義 (baseline), 算為義 (baseline), 受割禮 (new), 軛/重擔 (new) | 稱義/義 inherit the full baseline Critical-tier collision with 修成正果 (earned spiritual attainment) and 義氣 (loyalty-and-honor idiom); 律法 must not drift to 禮 (Confucian ritual propriety), generic 規矩, or 法律 (secular law); 受割禮 has no ready Cantonese cultural analogue and risks a purely surgical/medical reading without OT background; 軛/重擔 risks confusion with the unrelated Confucian ritual-duty-burden idiom register. | Reuse 稱義/律法/義/算為義 exactly per baseline; render Acts 13:38-39 verbatim-consistent with Romans 3–4 as the curriculum’s single clearest verse-level justification statement. Provide a mandatory OT-background gloss for 受割禮 given Hong Kong readers’ generally low OT narrative literacy. Fence 軛/重擔 as specifically the burden of legal requirement for salvation, distinct from the Confucian ritual-propriety idiom. |
| The Great Commission Fulfilled | 宣教 (baseline), 神嘅國 (baseline), 地極 (new), 被接上天/升天 (new), 被高舉 (new), 分別出嚟 (new), 無阻擋噉 (new), 萬物復興 (new) | 神嘅國 risks a political-restoration misreading, acute at 1:6 (the disciples’ own question about restoring Israel); 升天 risks assimilation to Daoist ascension-to-immortality imagery (羽化登仙) or a generic folk-Buddhist soul-ascent notion; 萬物復興 risks a political-restoration reading parallel to 神嘅國’s risk; 地極 and 無阻擋噉 are thesis-and-closing terms requiring identical rendering at every echo for narrative-arc coherence. | Reuse 宣教/神嘅國 per baseline, with explicit doctrinal (not political-restoration) framing reinforced at 1:6. Fence 升天/被接上天 against 羽化登仙 and the folk-Buddhist soul-ascent notion — this is Christ’s unique, bodily, historical, witnessed departure, promising a future bodily return. Fence 萬物復興 as eschatological-cosmic, not political-restoration, framing. Fix 地極 (1:8; echoed 13:47; 28:31) and 無阻擋噉 (28:31) as identically-rendered thesis/closing terms carrying triumphant, unstoppable momentum. |
3. Full-Book Chapter Coverage Ledger (Acts 1–28)
Per the PRD full-coverage mandate, every chapter is confirmed reviewed for gap-analysis purposes. Chapters contributing new lexical-gap findings are cross-referenced to Section 2 and Section 4; chapters contributing no new gap-analysis findings beyond terms already fenced are explicitly noted as reviewed.
| Ch. | Gap-Analysis Status |
|---|---|
| 1 | New findings: 地極 (thesis term), 被接上天/升天, 揀選 extension, 抽籤 (Critical divination collision), 神嘅國 political-misreading risk at 1:6. |
| 2 | Highest-density chapter in the book (core passage, Acts 2:1-41). New findings: 五旬節, 被聖靈充滿, 講別種方言, 澹灌/傾倒(聖靈), 主嘅日子, 神嘅先見, 陰間, 聖者, 先祖, 被高舉, 應許, 扎心, 悔改, 求告主嘅名, 受洗, 罪得赦免, 聖靈嘅（白白嘅）恩賜, 加入教會, 我應該做啲乜先可以得救？(first occurrence), 同心合意, 大家共享所有嘅嘢. |
| 3 | New findings: 醫好 (first sign-miracle occurrence), 神嘅僕人, 轉向（神）, 安舒嘅時候, 萬物復興. Reuses 悔改/罪得赦免 pattern from ch.2. |
| 4 | New findings: 坦然無懼 (first occurrence), 榮耀 extension (Christ’s name as sole healing/salvation ground, 4:12). Confirms 見證人 pattern (4:33). |
| 5 | New findings: 欺騙聖靈, 好大嘅懼怕. Reinforces 聖靈 Critical tier via Ananias/Sapphira narrative. |
| 6 | New findings: 服侍/事奉 (διακονία disambiguation), 講希臘話嘅猶太人/講希伯來話嘅猶太人 (Hellenists/Hebrews). |
| 7 | New findings: 頸硬/抗拒聖靈, 用石頭打死 (martyrdom pattern established). Witness (見證/μάρτυς) sense begins its narrative drift toward the martyrdom sense; kept doctrinally distinct per Section 2. |
| 8 | New findings: 巫術/行邪術嘅人 (Simon Magus — dramatizes grace-vs-merit transactional collision at narrative length), 神嘅大能 sign-miracle extension, 聖靈嘅（白白嘅）恩賜 purchase-attempt collision (8:18-20). Highest-value narrative case study for the Critical “grace” fence. |
| 9 | New findings: 神嘅兒子 (Paul’s first post-conversion proclamation, 9:20), 揀選/”vessel of election” compound (9:15), 撒但/darkness-to-light background introduced (fuller statement at 26:18), 見證人 extension. |
| 10 | New findings: 俗物/唔潔淨嘅嘢, 神唔偏待人 (10:34) — Gentile-inclusion turning point of the book. |
| 11 | New findings: 基督徒-adjacent 教會 expansion language; confirms 俗物/唔潔淨 and 外邦人 patterns from ch.10 applied retrospectively. |
| 12 | New findings: 榮耀 extension (Herod’s usurped glory, 12:23) as a negative case study distinguished from divine glory. |
| 13 | Major doctrinal chapter. New findings: 稱義（唔藉住律法） (13:38-39, single clearest justification-apart-from-law statement in the curriculum), 分別出嚟 (Spirit-directed commissioning), 大衛之約 extension, 外邦人嘅光 (13:47). |
| 14 | New findings: 長老 (πρεσβύτεροι, first occurrence); otherwise reuse chapter (神蹟奇事, 信心, 宣教 patterns continue). |
| 15 | Jerusalem Council chapter. New findings: 受割禮, 軛/重擔, 聖靈同我們都認為好 (15:28, Spirit-guided corporate decision model), 恩典 thesis restatement (15:11). |
| 16 | New findings: 占卜嘅邪靈 (πνεῦμα πύθωνα, 16:16-18 — direct collision with 問米/睇相算命 culture), 我應該做啲乜先可以得救？ (second occurrence, 16:30-31, must render identically to ch.2 and ch.22). |
| 17 | New findings: 未識嘅神 (Areopagus altar bridge), 復活 contested/mocked at Athens (17:32) — reinforces the Critical resurrection fence with a new mockery-context caution. |
| 18 | Reviewed in full. No new theological vocabulary; reuses 教會, 福音, 主, 信心, and the persecution/testimony pattern established in chs. 4–7, 12. |
| 19 | New findings: 約翰嘅洗禮 vs. Spirit-baptism distinction (19:3-6), 巫術/行邪術嘅人 extension (magic-book burning, 19:19), 好大嘅懼怕 extension (19:17). |
| 20 | New findings: 監督, 牧養/牧者 (20:28), 服侍/事奉 extension (20:24). |
| 21 | New findings: 願主嘅心意得成 (21:14), 願/自潔 (21:23-26, requiring sharp fencing against 還神還願). |
| 22 | New findings: 洗去你嘅罪 (22:16), 我應該做啲乜先可以得救？ (third occurrence, must render identically to ch.2 and ch.16), 道 (ἡ ὁδός) attested. |
| 23 | New findings: 復活 contested again (Sadducee/Pharisee dispute, 23:6-8) — second reinforcement of the resurrection fence in a different social register (internal Jewish dispute rather than Gentile mockery). |
| 24 | New findings: 道 extension (24:14,22); confirms 律法/復活 patterns continue into the legal-defense speeches. |
| 25 | Reviewed in full. No new theological vocabulary; narrative-legal chapter reusing testimony (μάρτυς) and resurrection (ἀνάστασις) vocabulary from chs. 22–24. |
| 26 | New findings: 產業 (κλῆρος inheritance sense — must be kept as a separate translation-memory key from 抽籤, the unrelated lot-casting sense in ch.1), 撒但 and 從黑暗轉向光明 formula given its fullest statement (26:18), 成聖/algiasmos background (“sanctified by faith”). |
| 27 | Reviewed in full. No new theological term, though 神嘅護理 (Baseline TM, providence) recurs with a Hong Kong-specific Tin Hau (天后) maritime-devotion collision note (see Section 4.2). |
| 28 | New findings: 無阻擋噉 (climactic closing term, thesis-consistent with 地極ैfrom 1:8); confirms 神嘅國 doctrinal (not political) framing carried through to the book’s final verse. |
No chapter in Acts 1–28 is omitted from this ledger.
4. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
4.1 Missing Vocabulary (no existing Cantonese lexical item; new compound/coinage required)
These concepts have no pre-existing single Cantonese word adequate to the doctrine; a compound phrase must be constructed, as already reflected in Table B of the companion glossary.
| Concept | Gap Description | Constructed Rendering | Justification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gift of the Holy Spirit (δωρεά) vs. spiritual gifts (χαρίσματα) | Cantonese has no single existing word distinguishing “the Spirit himself, given” from “particular Spirit-given enablements” — both would default to 恩賜 alone. | 聖靈嘅（白白嘅）恩賜 / 所賜嘅聖靈 (distinct TM key from 屬靈恩賜) | Prevents the two senses collapsing into one word, which would blur Simon Magus’s attempted purchase of the Spirit himself with the ordinary distribution of ministry gifts. |
| Filled with the Spirit (formulaic) | No single existing Cantonese verb captures the repeated Acts formula distinct from folk spirit-possession vocabulary. | 被聖靈充滿 (fixed formula) | 附體 already exists but names something categorically different (mediumship possession); a new fixed compound is required rather than reusing an existing word. |
| Signs and wonders (compound) | No existing single Cantonese term names divinely-authenticating apostolic miracle without importing 靈驗’s transactional-efficacy connotation. | 神蹟奇事 | Retained as the least-bad existing compound but requires the heaviest fencing in the whole glossary (see 4.2 and Section 6). |
| Obedience/appeal salvation formula (“what must I do to be saved?”) | No existing fixed liturgical phrase in Cantonese church usage predates this; must be freshly rendered and then fixed for consistency. | 我應該做啲乜先可以得救？ | New coinage, but low collision risk in itself; the risk is inconsistency across its three occurrences, not competing cultural meaning. |
| Vessel/instrument of election (missionary commissioning sense) | No existing word distinguishes personal missionary commissioning from either general “calling” or fatalistic destiny language. | 揀選 + explanatory compound (“蒙揀選嘅使者/器皿”) | Extends baseline 揀選 rather than coining an unrelated word, but requires an added clause identifying the missional-instrument sense specific to 9:15. |
| End of the earth (thesis term) | 地極 exists as a literal geographic term but has no established use as a missiological thesis-statement term in general Cantonese usage. | 地極 (fixed, identical at every echo) | Existing word repurposed as a technical term; requires consistency enforcement rather than construction from scratch. |
4.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing (existing terms, but culturally overloaded)
These are cases where a lexically adequate Cantonese term already exists but sits inside a crowded semantic neighborhood shared with Hong Kong folk religion, secular idiom, or a different Chinese-Christian tradition — requiring an explicit fence (forbidden-alternative rule, mandatory gloss, or fixed compound) rather than a fresh coinage.
| Cantonese Term | Competing Neighbors in the Semantic Field | Fence Required |
|---|---|---|
| 抽籤 (lot-casting, 1:26) | 求籤 (Wong Tai Sin temple fortune-stick divination) — near-identical surface act | Mandatory one-time explanatory note: unique, pre-Pentecost, prayer-grounded, never repeated or commended as ongoing guidance practice. Theologian review every occurrence. |
| 神蹟奇事 (signs and wonders) | 靈驗 (temple-efficacy — “answers requests,” Wong Tai Sin’s core marketing claim) | Permanent fence: always anchor explicitly to God’s authentication of apostolic gospel proclamation; never described with 靈驗 vocabulary. Theologian review every occurrence. |
| 占卜嘅邪靈 (spirit of divination, 16:16) | 問米 (spirit-medium consultation), 睇相算命 (fortune-telling/palm-reading) | Never render as bare 靈 (which would risk confusion with 聖靈 itself); always compound with 邪 (evil/deviant) and 占卜 (divination) to keep the entity unambiguously distinct from both the Holy Spirit and a legitimately “spiritually gifted” person. |
| 悔改 (repent) | 懺悔 (Buddhist karma-purification ritual confession); 洗心革面 (secular willpower self-reform) | Fencing note required at every occurrence distinguishing whole-person, God-directed change of mind from both ritual karma-clearing and secular self-help reform. |
| 受洗/洗禮 (baptize) | Daoist pre-worship ritual water purification; New Year symbolic cleansing baths (洗邋遢) | Fence as unique, non-repeatable, performed specifically “in the name of Jesus Christ,” never a repeatable purification rite. |
| 罪得赦免 (forgiveness of sins) | 消災解難 (temple petition to dispel impersonal calamity); 還神還願 (vow-discharge exchange) | Fence as judicial release of moral guilt before a personal God, granted freely — never earned by vow-fulfillment or aimed at removing impersonal misfortune. |
| 升天/被接上天 (ascension) | 羽化登仙 (Daoist ascension-to-immortality); generic folk-Buddhist soul-ascent after death | Fence as Christ’s unique, bodily, historical, apostle-witnessed departure with a promised bodily return — not a spiritual release available to any devotee. |
| 撒但 (Satan) | 鬼 (diffuse folk-demonology “hungry ghost/evil spirit” category, appeased at 盂蘭節 Ghost Festival) | Fence as a specific, personal, already-defeated enemy with a definite biblical narrative role — not one appeasable ghost among many. |
| 神嘅護理 (providence, ch.27) | 天后 (Tin Hau) sea-goddess maritime-protection devotion, prominent in Hong Kong fishing-community folk religion | Fence explicitly in the shipwreck narrative: God’s personal providential care for Paul and the ship’s company, not the intercession of a maritime protector-deity. |
| 神唔偏待人 (God’s impartiality, 10:34) | 報應 (impersonal karmic retribution, “fair” only as a mechanical cosmic law) | Fence as the personal, relational moral consistency of a relational God, not automatic karmic fairness. |
| 長老/監督 (elders/overseer) | 族長 (clan-village patriarch, ancestor-worship-linked hereditary authority); secular 監督 = “supervisor/inspector” | Fence church office as spiritual-service role within the gospel community, distinct from hereditary clan authority and from a purely secular management title. |
| 坦然無懼 (boldness) | 威水/面子 (status-conscious bravado/face-display, already flagged under “glory” in the baseline) | Fence as Spirit-given courage rooted in the truth of the gospel message, not self-generated confidence or social-status display. |
| 陰間 (Hades, 2:27,31) | 城隍-governed folk underworld bureaucracy, active within 盂蘭節 (Ghost Festival) cosmology | Gloss simply as “the realm of the dead” without endorsing the folk underworld’s bureaucratic/ritual structure. |
| 願/自潔 (vow/purify, 21:23-26) | 還神還願 (temple vow-and-offering exchange) | Fence sharply: this is a culturally-accommodating Jewish purification custom Paul submits to for the sake of unity, never a transactional vow discharged in exchange for a granted request. |
| 道 (the Way) | 道教 (Daoism) — the single largest crowded semantic neighborhood in the entire curriculum | See Section 6, Rank #1. Mandatory explanatory clause at every first occurrence per document; theologian review every occurrence without exception. |
5. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decision Log
| Term | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Πεντηκοστή (Pentecost) | Established calendrical rendering 五旬節 (not a transliteration; a calqued/calendar term) | Shared across the Chinese Bible-translation tradition; a phonetic transliteration would strip the fifty-days-after-Passover meaning entirely, which is doctrinally load-bearing for the fulfillment-of-prophecy reading of Acts 2. |
| Ἀββά (Abba) — cross-reference to Romans baseline | Transliteration retained (阿爸), not paraphrased | Not newly attested as a distinct occurrence in Acts but retained for consistency; the baseline’s rationale (preserving Aramaic filial intimacy alongside 父) still applies wherever adoption theology is cross-referenced. |
| Χριστιανοί (Christians) | Established loan-coinage 基督徒 (transliteration of “Christ” + native suffix 徒, not a full paraphrase) | Already fully naturalized in Cantonese self-designation with no folk-religious collision; no paraphrase needed. |
| Σατανᾶς (Satan) | Retained transliteration 撒但 | An established, doctrinally load-bearing proper name; paraphrasing (e.g., as “the evil one” 邪惡者) would blur the personal, defeated-enemy identity into the diffuse folk 鬼 category — transliteration preserves the name’s specificity better than any descriptive paraphrase. |
| ἡ ὁδός (the Way) | Retained as the existing Chinese-Bible-tradition term 道 (not transliterated; a semantic-field word already crowded, see Section 4.2/6) | No transliteration option exists for a semi-technical self-designation; the term must remain 道 for continuity with the wider Chinese Bible tradition, but is fenced procedurally (mandatory gloss + theologian review) rather than replaced. |
| Ἀρεῖος Πάγος / ἄγνωστος θεῷ context (Athens) | Paraphrase strategy for “unknown god” (未識嘅神) rather than transliterating the Greek altar inscription | The doctrinal point is Paul’s rhetorical bridge-and-correction strategy, which requires the meaning (“a god not yet known/named”) to be legible in Cantonese; a transliterated Greek phrase would communicate nothing to the target reader. |
| σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα (signs and wonders) | Paraphrase/compound retained (神蹟奇事), not transliterated | An established Chinese-Christian compound; transliteration is not applicable to a descriptive Greek noun phrase, and the compound already carries acceptable meaning provided it is fenced against 靈驗 (Section 4.2). |
| κλῆρος (lot / inheritance, two senses) | Paraphrase, split into two distinct renderings by sense (抽籤 vs. 產業) | A single transliteration or single paraphrase would merge two unrelated senses and import the divination-collision risk of 抽籤 into the unrelated inheritance sense at 26:18; sense-splitting is mandatory, not optional. |
| δωρεά vs. χαρίσματα | Paraphrase, kept as two separate compounds (聖靈嘅（白白嘅）恩賜 vs. 屬靈恩賜) | As with κλῆρος, transliteration is not applicable to these Greek common nouns; the paraphrase strategy must preserve the sense-distinction between “the Spirit himself given” and “particular enablements given,” per Section 4.1. |
| πνεῦμα πύθωνα (python spirit / spirit of divination) | Paraphrase (占卜嘅邪靈), explicitly avoiding any transliteration of “python” | A transliterated “Python spirit” would be theologically opaque to a Cantonese reader and would obscure the divination-collision point entirely; the paraphrase must foreground 邪 (evil/deviant) and 占卜 (divination) to do the necessary doctrinal work. |
| Proper names (Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Lydia, Cornelius, Felix, Festus, Agrippa, etc.) | Transliteration, following established Traditional-character Chinese Bible-translation forms (保羅, 巴拿巴, 西拉, 提摩太, 呂底亞, 哥尼流, 腓力斯, 非斯都, 亞基帕) | Consistent with the baseline’s transliteration standards for proper names (cf. 12_ai_translation_requirements.md); no paraphrase is applicable or desirable for personal names. |
6. Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined severity of doctrinal stakes and cultural-collision proximity, drawing on the baseline’s Critical/High/Medium/Low framework.
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道 (“the Way”) — The single highest-stakes ambiguity in the entire curriculum. Direct lexical identity with 道教 (Daoism), Hong Kong’s living Daoist temple tradition (Wong Tai Sin, Man Mo Temple). No transliteration or paraphrase alternative exists within the established Chinese Bible tradition. Mitigation: mandatory explanatory clause at every first occurrence per document; theologian review at every occurrence without exception, regardless of how routine the surrounding narrative appears (9:2; 18:25; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22).
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神蹟奇事 (“signs and wonders”) vs. 靈驗 (temple efficacy) — The highest-frequency new collision in Acts (2:19,22,43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; 14:3; 15:12). Wong Tai Sin’s core religious marketing claim is precisely “efficacious, answers requests” — the same semantic territory as apostolic sign-miracles unless permanently fenced to gospel-authentication rather than free-floating proof-of-power.
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抽籤 (lot-casting) vs. 求籤 (temple fortune-stick divination) — Near-identical surface act (1:26) to the single most iconic form of divination practiced at a major Hong Kong temple. Requires the strongest procedural safeguard after 道: mandatory one-time explanatory note plus theologian review, explicitly marking this as a unique, non-repeated, pre-Pentecost act.
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恩典 (grace) vs. transactional temple-vow exchange, dramatized by Simon Magus (8:9-24) — Acts does not merely risk this collision abstractly (as Romans does); it narrates the forbidden alternative at length — a would-be convert literally attempting to purchase the Holy Spirit’s gift with money. This is the curriculum’s highest-value teaching opportunity for the grace/merit fence but also its highest-risk passage if softened.
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占卜嘅邪靈 (spirit of divination, 16:16) vs. 問米/睇相算命 — A second worked narrative case (after Simon Magus) where the text itself stages the exact folk-practice this glossary must fence against; failure to keep 邪靈 sharply distinct from 聖靈 risks the gravest possible doctrinal confusion (mistaking an evil spirit’s true-sounding words for legitimate spiritual authority).
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悔改 (repent) vs. 懺悔 (karma-purification) / 洗心革面 (secular self-reform) — The most frequently recurring soteriological verb in the curriculum (2:38; 3:19; 8:22; 17:30; 26:20), paired with 轉向(神). Because it is used so often, an unfenced drift toward either competing neighbor would compound across the entire book rather than remaining an isolated error.
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升天/被高舉 (ascension/exaltation) vs. 羽化登仙 (Daoist immortal-ascension) — A less frequent but doctrinally load-bearing term (1:9-11; 2:33) where the wrong register would silently reclassify Christ’s unique bodily ascension as one more example of a spiritually accomplished figure’s apotheosis, a very live motif in Hong Kong popular Daoist-influenced media and folklore.
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罪得赦免 (forgiveness of sins) vs. 消災解難 / 還神還願 — Central formula (2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18) whose competing neighbors both remove the personal God from the equation, reframing forgiveness as either impersonal misfortune-management or a discharged ritual debt.
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稱義（唔藉住律法）(justification apart from the law, 13:38-39) vs. 義氣 (loyalty-and-honor idiom) — Lower collision frequency than the above but maximal doctrinal stakes: this is the curriculum’s single verse-level thesis statement for one of the nine assigned doctrines, and 義 already carries the baseline’s documented Critical-tier collision risk with Cantonese triad/brotherhood honor-code vocabulary.
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神嘅國 (kingdom of God) at Acts 1:6 vs. political restoration of Israel — Uniquely acute at the book’s opening line of dialogue, where the disciples themselves voice the very political-restoration misreading the doctrine must resist; Hong Kong’s own political-sovereignty sensitivities make this passage require unusually careful, doctrinally-anchored (not politically-analogous) framing.
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講別種方言 (other tongues) vs. ordinary Cantonese/Mandarin dialect code-switching — 方言 is the everyday Cantonese word for “regional Chinese dialect,” and Cantonese itself is popularly self-described using this word; a live, politically-textured Cantonese-Mandarin standardization debate in Hong Kong makes this an unusually easy term to accidentally flatten into a linguistic-identity statement rather than a supernatural sign.
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陰間 (Hades) vs. 城隍-governed folk underworld (盂蘭節 cosmology) — Medium risk in doctrinal stakes but a genuinely active competing cosmology in contemporary Hong Kong ritual calendar practice (Ghost Festival), requiring a simple but non-optional glossing discipline.
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神嘅護理 (providence, ch.27) vs. 天后 (Tin Hau) maritime devotion — A collision specific to this curriculum’s inclusion of the shipwreck narrative; lower frequency (one chapter) but a concrete, locally salient competing devotional practice among Hong Kong’s historically significant fishing communities.
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大家共享所有嘅嘢 (all things in common) — political-sensitivity flag rather than folk-religious collision — The risk profile here differs qualitatively from the others: the danger is not syncretism but a contemporary political misreading (communal-property rhetoric) if the historically descriptive, non-prescriptive framing of the Jerusalem church narrative is not maintained.
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坦然無懼 (boldness) vs. 威水/面子 (status-display bravado) — Lowest-ranked Critical/High-adjacent risk on this list, but pervasive across the book’s persecution narrative (4:13,29,31; 9:27-28; 13:46; 14:3; 18:26; 19:8; 26:26; 28:31), including the book’s climactic final verse — a subtle register error here would color the reader’s final impression of the entire narrative arc.
7. Carryover to Phase 2
All findings in this document are already reflected, term-by-term, in analysis/08_core_glossary.md and assets/bible_term_registry.json. Phase 2 translation memory construction must:
- Treat Section 6’s Rank #1–#5 items as mandatory-theologian-review-every-occurrence, with no exceptions for narrative familiarity.
- Preserve the two mandatory sense-splits identified in Section 4.1 (κλῆρος: 抽籤 vs. 產業; δωρεά vs. χαρίσματα) as separate translation-memory keys.
- Apply the fencing notes in Section 4.2 as standing validation rules analogous to the Romans baseline’s Forbidden Substitution List, to be incorporated into the Acts extension of
12_ai_translation_requirements.md. - Confirm, at each new document’s first occurrence of 道, that the mandatory explanatory clause is present before allowing the segment to pass validation.
This analysis extends, and defers in every instance of overlap to, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. See analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md for full verse-by-verse derivations and analysis/08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated term tables built on these findings.