Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — Acts 1–28
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Steps 4–5 for the Acts curriculum. It is fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json: every doctrine name, risk tier, and review routing below is reproduced exactly from that registry. This file adds (a) a translation-risk rationale for each doctrine and (b) a chapter-by-chapter coverage map demonstrating full-book scope, per the PRD’s full-book-coverage mandate. No chapter is silently omitted; chapters contributing no new doctrinal weight are explicitly marked as reviewed-and-reused.
Risk tier definitions (inherited from the Romans baseline, unchanged):
- Critical — mistranslation alters or destroys essential doctrine; human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or syncretism risk; human theologian review required.
- Medium — mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning; native speaker review recommended.
- Low — mistranslation causes minor misunderstanding; automated review sufficient.
Part A — Master Doctrine Matrix
| # | Doctrine (English / Cantonese) | Risk | Primary Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Holy Spirit and Pentecost / 聖靈同五旬節 | Critical | 1:4-5,8; 2:1-4,17-18,33; 4:31; 10:44-45 | 聖靈 must never collapse to bare 靈 (ancestral/temple/問米-medium spirits in HK folk usage); wind/fire imagery (2:2-3) must not read as temple-incense “sacred fire.” | Human theologian |
| 2 | Spirit Filling as Normal Christian Experience / 被聖靈充滿 | High | 2:4; 4:8,31; 9:17; 13:9,52 | 被聖靈充滿 (filled) is superficially adjacent to 附體 (spirit-medium possession); the surface-form similarity is the specific danger, not a semantic overlap that actually exists in the source text. | Human theologian |
| 3 | The Gift of the Holy Spirit / 聖靈嘅恩賜 | Critical | 2:38; 8:18-20; 10:45; 11:17 | Simon Magus’s cash offer for this gift (8:18-20) is the NT’s own dramatization of the exact transactional grace-collision the Romans baseline forbids (cf. Wong Tai Sin “whatever you ask, you shall receive”); must never read as purchasable and must stay distinct from 屬靈恩賜 (χαρίσματα). | Human theologian |
| 4 | Tongues as a Sign of the Spirit’s Coming / 講方言作為聖靈降臨嘅記號 | High | 2:4-11; 10:46; 19:6 | 方言 ordinarily names a Chinese regional dialect (Cantonese itself is popularly called a 方言), a politically live term given Cantonese-Mandarin standardization debates; must not flatten to code-switching nor to unintelligible ecstatic speech. | Human theologian |
| 5 | Spirit-Baptism Distinguished from John’s Baptism / 聖靈嘅洗同約翰嘅洗禮嘅分別 | High | 1:5; 11:16; 19:1-6 | A single undifferentiated “baptism” term erases the historical-redemptive distinction Acts 19 makes explicit; requires a teaching note, not a lexical substitution alone. | Human theologian |
| 6 | The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles / 福音傳給猶太人同外邦人 | Critical | 1:8; 2:39; 10:1-48; 11:1-18; 13:46-48; 15:1-29; 28:28 | The book’s narrative hinge; must resist softening toward a local/outsider or clan-based hierarchy reading, given HK’s own insider/outsider clan-village vocabulary (外江佬, 鄉下人) already forbidden for “gentiles” in the Romans baseline. | Human theologian |
| 7 | Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One Church / 猶太人同外邦人喺教會入面嘅合一 | High | 6:1-6; 10:34-35; 11:1-18; 15:1-29 | The Hellenist/Hebrew tension (ch.6) and Jew-Gentile unity (ch.15) sit near HK’s own majority/minority-language sensitivities (Cantonese-Mandarin politics); requires theological clarity, not diplomatic softening. | Human theologian |
| 8 | God’s Impartiality toward All Peoples / 神唔偏待人嘅品格 | High | 10:34-35; 17:26 | Must be distinguished from impersonal karmic 報應 (already a rejected framing for “sin” in the Romans baseline); this is personal moral consistency in a relational God, not automatic karmic fairness. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Repentance / 悔改 | Critical | 2:38; 3:19; 8:22; 17:30; 26:20 | Must be kept distinct from 懺悔 (Buddhist ritual confession within a karma-purification frame) and from 洗心革面 (willpower self-reform with no reference to God); this is relational reorientation toward a personal God. | Human theologian |
| 10 | Baptism / 洗禮 | High | 2:38,41; 8:36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:15,33; 18:8; 19:5; 22:16 | Must be distinguished from repeatable ritual-purification bathing customs (pre-worship purification, New Year symbolic cleansing, folk 洗邋遢 “washing away bad luck”); baptism is unique and non-repeatable. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Forgiveness of Sins / 罪得赦免 | Critical | 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18 | Never 消災解難 (temple calamity-dispelling petition) nor 還神還願 (vow-discharge); forgiveness cancels moral guilt before a personal God and is granted freely, not earned. | Human theologian |
| 12 | The Church as Community / 教會作為屬靈嘅群體 | Medium | 2:42-47; 4:32-35; 6:1-6; 11:19-26 | Voluntary common life must be distinguished from Pearl River Delta clan ancestral-hall (祠堂) shared-property arrangements (lineage/ancestor-worship continuity); keep historically descriptive, not a general economic prescription, given contemporary political sensitivity. | Native speaker review |
| 13 | Church Leadership and Governance / 教會嘅領導同治理 | Medium | 14:23; 15:2-29; 20:17-28 | 長老 must be distinguished from the clan-village patriarch (族長, ancestor-worship-bound authority); 監督 carries a false-friend secular “supervisor” sense in modern Cantonese business usage. | Native speaker review |
| 14 | Apostolic Authority / 使徒嘅權柄 | High | 1:2,8,26; 2:42-43; 5:1-42; 15:1-29 | Rests on eyewitness testimony to a historical, bodily resurrection, not subjective impression; the once-only lot-casting (1:26) requires a mandatory note distinguishing it from 求籤 temple fortune-stick divination — never a repeated normative practice. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Apostolic Miracles as Divine Authentication / 使徒嘅神蹟奇事作為神嘅印證 | Critical | 2:19,22,43; 3:1-10; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; 14:3; 19:11-12 | 神蹟奇事 collides directly with HK temple culture’s marketing of miraculous “efficacy” (靈驗, esp. Wong Tai Sin); every occurrence must anchor explicitly to God authenticating apostolic gospel proclamation, never free-floating supernatural proof. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Confrontation with Occult and Divinatory Power / 同巫術占卜嘅權勢對抗 | Critical | 8:9-24; 13:6-11; 16:16-18; 19:13-19 | Simon Magus, Elymas, and the Pythian slave girl each dramatize a sharp separation between Spirit-given power and occult ritual power-for-hire; directly engages HK’s active 問米 and 睇相算命 culture — 靈 must never stand bare or ambiguous here. | Human theologian |
| 17 | Persecution and Bold Witness / 迫害中嘅坦然見證 | High | 4:1-31; 5:17-42; 7:54-60; 8:1; 12:1-19; 14:19-20; 16:19-40 | 膽量/坦然無懼 must be distinguished from face-seeking bravado (威水/面子, prominent in HK commercial culture); this is Spirit-given courage rooted in the gospel, and requires native-speaker sensitivity to HK’s contemporary political climate around persecution/authority language. | Human theologian |
| 18 | Conversion of Paul / 保羅嘅悔改歸主 | Critical | 9:1-19; 22:3-21; 26:9-23 | The “darkness to light” polarity (26:18) must not be assimilated to yin-yang cosmological dualism (陰陽) or Buddhist enlightenment imagery (開悟/覺悟); a moral-spiritual reversal of allegiance, not a cosmic-balance shift. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Divine Calling and Election of Paul / 神揀選同呼召保羅 | High | 9:15; 13:2; 16:10 | ”Chosen instrument” language must never be rendered with fatalistic birth-chart vocabulary (八字注定, already forbidden in the Romans baseline); a personal, purposive, missional choice, not fixed cosmic destiny. | Human theologian |
| 20 | Justification Apart from the Law / 唔藉住律法嘅稱義 | Critical | 13:38-39; 15:1-29 | Acts 13:38-39 is the curriculum’s clearest single-verse thesis and must render verbatim-consistent with Romans 3-4; the Jerusalem Council’s rejection of circumcision as a salvation requirement (ch.15) must not be softened into a merely cultural-accommodation debate. | Human theologian |
| 21 | Grace Received Apart from Merit or Payment / 唔靠功德嘅恩典 | Critical | 4:33; 8:18-24; 11:23; 13:43; 15:11; 18:27; 20:24,32 | Simon Magus’s attempted purchase of spiritual power (8:18-20) is the clearest NT enactment of the transactional exchange logic the Romans baseline forbids for grace; Peter’s rebuke should carry full repudiating force against any pay-for-power reading. | Human theologian |
| 22 | The Great Commission Fulfilled / 大使命嘅應驗 | High | 1:8; 8:1; 13:1-3; 13:47; 28:23,31 | The programmatic mission statement (1:8) and climactic closing verse (28:31, “unhindered”) must render with consistent, triumphant momentum across every echo; kingdom-of-God framing must stay doctrinal, not politically restorationist — acute given 1:6 and HK’s political sensitivities. | Human theologian |
| 23 | Resurrection of Christ / 基督嘅復活 | Critical | 2:24-32; 3:15; 4:2,33; 13:31; 17:18,31-32; 23:6-8; 24:15,21; 26:23 | Never 投胎轉世 (rebirth cycle) or 問米 spirit-medium framing — sharpened in Acts because “eyewitness testimony” language (2:32; 13:31) could otherwise echo 問米’s own claim of contact with the dead; also explicitly mocked (17:32) and disputed (23:6-8), useful for teaching it was contested from the outset. | Human theologian |
| 24 | Lordship and Deity of Christ / 基督嘅主權同神性 | Critical | 2:36; 9:5,20; 10:36; 16:31; 22:8 | Peter’s climactic “Lord and Christ” (2:36) and the jailer’s confession (16:31) must render 主/基督 with full exclusive doctrinal weight, never softened toward 事頭/老爺, and never framed as political loyalty. | Human theologian |
| 25 | Ascension of Christ / 基督升天 | High | 1:9-11; 2:33 | 升天/被高舉 must anchor to Christ’s visible, bodily, historical departure, promised to recur at his return; must not assimilate to the Daoist ascension-to-immortality motif (羽化登仙) or a generic soul’s post-death ascent. | Human theologian |
| 26 | Providence and Divine Sovereignty / 神嘅護理同主權 | High | 2:23; 4:28; 27:22-25,31,34,44 | Never 天意/運程 (impersonal fate/annual fortune-forecast); the shipwreck narrative (ch.27) additionally risks Tin Hau (天后) sea-goddess devotion framing given HK’s prominent fishing-community maritime folk religion. | Human theologian |
| 27 | Fulfillment of Prophecy / 預言嘅應驗 | High | 2:16-21; 3:18,24; 13:27,32-33; 15:15-18 | Pentecost is one-time, linear historical fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, not the cyclical fortune-forecast framework (運程) of HK almanac culture; “day of the Lord” must likewise avoid 老黃曆 lucky/unlucky-day framing. | Human theologian |
| 28 | Fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant / 大衛之約嘅應驗 | High | 2:25-31; 13:22-23,32-37; 15:16 | Requires OT covenant background given assumed low OT literacy; no directly analogous perpetual-lineage covenant exists in Cantonese/Pearl River Delta clan tradition, where continuity runs through succession-adoption (過繼) rather than unconditional divine promise. | Human theologian |
| 29 | The Way as a Name for the Christian Faith / 「道」作為基督信仰嘅名稱 | Critical | 9:2; 18:25; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22 | 道 directly names the foundational term of Daoism (道教); HK’s active Daoist temple culture gives this the single strongest prior-association collision in the curriculum. Mandatory explanatory clause at every occurrence. | Human theologian |
| 30 | Universal Human Accountability / 全人類都當向神負責 | High | 10:34-35; 17:30-31 | Paul’s Areopagus call that God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (17:30) must retain unqualified universal scope; must not be softened toward a status-graded reading given HK’s status-conscious 面子 culture. | Human theologian |
| 31 | The Growth of the Word of God / 神嘅道不斷興旺 | Medium | 6:7; 12:24; 19:20 | Describes church growth as God’s sovereign act; should not be rendered as a mere institutional-success metric divorced from the gospel’s own advance. | Native speaker review |
| 32 | Spirit-Guided Corporate Church Decisions / 聖靈引導教會作決定 | Medium | 13:2; 15:28 | Must not be reduced to a bare consensus-mechanism, nor elevated to an impersonal fate-mechanism resembling divinatory lot-casting (already flagged Critical at 1:26). | Native speaker review |
| 33 | Kingdom of God Teaching / 神嘅國嘅教導 | Medium | 1:3,6; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23,31 | Given HK’s political history and present sensitivities around sovereignty language, keep framed as God’s spiritual reign advancing through the gospel — acute at 1:6, the disciples’ own political misreading. | Native speaker review |
| 34 | Prayer and Intercession / 禱告同代求 | Medium | 1:14; 4:24-31; 12:5,12; 16:25 | Corporate prayer directed to God alone must be distinguished from drawing a temple fortune-stick (求籤) or consulting a spirit-medium (問米) on someone else’s behalf. | Native speaker review |
| 35 | Christian Fellowship and Common Life / 基督徒嘅團契同共同生活 | Low | 2:42; 11:26 | 團契 and 基督徒 are established, low-collision terms; minor risk of assimilation to clan/native-place association (同鄉會) vocabulary. | Automated review |
| 36 | Thanksgiving / 感恩 | Low | 27:35 | Standard term; minor risk of generic secular gratitude without reference to God specifically. | Automated review |
| 37 | Mutual Edification and Encouragement / 彼此造就同勸勉 | Low | 9:31; 11:23; 14:22; 15:32; 16:40; 20:1-2 | Standard encouragement-and-strengthening vocabulary; no significant doctrinal risk beyond the general fellowship cautions already noted. | Automated review |
| 38 | Messianic Promise Fulfilled in Jesus / 彌賽亞嘅應許喺耶穌身上應驗 | Critical | 2:31,36; 3:18,20; 9:22; 13:23,32-33; 17:3; 18:5,28 | Must never conflate with Maitreya (彌勒) or wish-granting-savior framing popularly attached to a folk deity such as Wong Tai Sin; Christ is the Messiah who has already come, fulfilling specific covenant promises argued repeatedly across Acts’ sermons. | Human theologian |
Summary check against registry: Critical = 14, High = 15, Medium = 6, Low = 3; total 38 doctrines, matching doctrine_risk_registry.json exactly. 29 require human theologian review, 6 require native speaker review, 3 require automated review only.
Part B — Chapter-by-Chapter Coverage Map (Full Book, Acts 1–28)
Every chapter is listed. Chapters whose doctrinal content is entirely a reuse of doctrines already established in earlier chapters are marked [REVIEWED — REUSE ONLY] with a note, per the PRD’s full-coverage mandate; they are never silently omitted.
| Ch. | Doctrines Active (see Part A # references) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #22 Great Commission (1:8 thesis verse); #25 Ascension; #14 Apostolic Authority (lot-casting, 1:26); #33 Kingdom of God (1:3,6) | Programmatic chapter; 1:8 is the book’s mission thesis, must render identically at every echo (8:1; 13:47; 28:28). |
| 2 | #1 Holy Spirit/Pentecost; #4 Tongues as Sign; #9 Repentance; #10 Baptism; #11 Forgiveness; #12 Church as Community; #23 Resurrection; #24 Lordship/Deity of Christ; #27 Prophecy Fulfillment; #28 Davidic Covenant; #38 Messianic Promise | Core passage (2:1-41); highest doctrinal density in the book — every Critical-tier doctrine listed here converges in Peter’s Pentecost sermon and its response. |
| 3 | #15 Miracles; #38 Messianic Promise; #9 Repentance; #11 Forgiveness; #27 Prophecy Fulfillment | Healing of the lame man frames apostolic miracle as pointing to Christ, not free-floating power. |
| 4 | #17 Persecution/Bold Witness; #14 Apostolic Authority; #15 Miracles; #12 Church as Community; #21 Grace Apart from Merit | Peter and John before the Sanhedrin; believers’ shared possessions (4:32-35) introduced. |
| 5 | #1 Holy Spirit (Ananias/Sapphira, “lying to the Holy Spirit”); #15 Miracles; #17 Persecution | Underscores the Spirit’s full personhood — one can lie to him, a category error if 聖靈 is rendered as an impersonal force. |
| 6 | #12 Church as Community; #7 Unity of Jews and Gentiles (Hellenist/Hebrew tension); #14 Apostolic Authority (appointment of the Seven) | First internal ethnic-linguistic tension in the church, resolved constructively. |
| 7 | #17 Persecution/Bold Witness (Stephen’s martyrdom); #30 Universal Human Accountability (stiff-necked rebuke); #28 Davidic Covenant background (Stephen’s historical review) | Establishes the martyrdom pattern that recurs through the book. |
| 8 | #6 Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Samaria); #21 Grace Apart from Merit; #16 Occult Confrontation (Simon Magus); #3 Gift of the Holy Spirit; #22 Great Commission (scattering advances mission); #17 Persecution | Simon Magus is the book’s paradigm case for the grace-vs-merit collision. |
| 9 | #18 Conversion of Paul; #19 Divine Calling and Election; #23 Resurrection (Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ); #29 The Way; #10 Baptism; #12 Church as Community (Ananias receives Saul) | First full conversion narrative; “The Way” (9:2) requires its mandatory explanatory clause at this first occurrence. |
| 10 | #6 Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; #8 God’s Impartiality; #1 Holy Spirit (poured on Gentiles); #10 Baptism | Cornelius narrative; hinge point of the whole book’s Jew-Gentile doctrine. |
| 11 | #7 Unity of Jews and Gentiles; #12 Church as Community; #31 Growth of the Word of God; #35 Christian Fellowship (naming “Christians,” 11:26) | Antioch church established; Jerusalem’s acceptance of Gentile inclusion. |
| 12 | #17 Persecution/Bold Witness (Herod, Peter’s escape); #26 Providence and Sovereignty; #34 Prayer and Intercession | Prayer and providence directly paired in the narrative structure. |
| 13 | #20 Justification Apart from the Law (13:38-39 thesis verse); #38 Messianic Promise; #28 Davidic Covenant; #22 Great Commission (Paul/Barnabas “set apart”); #27 Prophecy Fulfillment; #16 Occult Confrontation (Elymas); #6 Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (“light for the Gentiles”) | Second thesis-statement chapter of the curriculum alongside ch.2; 13:38-39 must be verbatim-consistent with Romans. |
| 14 | #13 Church Leadership (elders appointed); #17 Persecution; #15 Miracles; #33 Kingdom of God; #6 Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | First missionary journey concludes with structural church-planting language. |
| 15 | #20 Justification Apart from the Law (Jerusalem Council); #7 Unity of Jews and Gentiles; #32 Spirit-Guided Church Decisions; #21 Grace Apart from Merit | Council’s rejection of circumcision as salvation-requirement is the doctrinal climax of the Law/grace tension. |
| 16 | #16 Occult Confrontation (spirit of divination, Philippi); #10 Baptism (Lydia, jailer); #17 Persecution/Bold Witness; #9 Repentance (“what must I do to be saved?”); #34 Prayer and Intercession | The jailer’s question (16:30-31) must render identically to its echoes at 2:37 and 22:10. |
| 17 | #30 Universal Human Accountability; #23 Resurrection (mocked at Athens); #6 Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (“unknown god”) | Areopagus speech models engaging a plural religious culture without syncretism — directly relevant to HK’s own religious plurality. |
| 18 | [REVIEWED — REUSE ONLY] #6 Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; #12 Church as Community; #17 Persecution (pattern continues) | No new doctrine introduced; Corinth/Ephesus narrative reuses established vocabulary (福音, 教會, 主, 信心) and the persecution/testimony pattern from chs. 4–7, 12. Explicitly reviewed in full. |
| 19 | #5 Spirit-Baptism vs. John’s Baptism; #16 Occult Confrontation (magic scrolls burned); #4 Tongues as Sign; #31 Growth of the Word of God; #33 Kingdom of God | Ephesus narrative resolves the John’s-baptism question explicitly (19:1-6). |
| 20 | #13 Church Leadership (elders/overseer/shepherd, Miletus address); #17 Persecution (anticipated suffering); #37 Mutual Edification | Paul’s farewell charge to the Ephesian elders; pastoral-office vocabulary concentrated here. |
| 21 | #17 Persecution/Bold Witness; law-observance accommodation (Jewish vow/purification, 21:23-26) read under #20 Justification Apart from the Law as background tension, never softened into a normative requirement | Requires care that voluntary cultural accommodation is not mistaken for salvation-by-law-works. |
| 22 | #18 Conversion of Paul (retelling); #11 Forgiveness of Sins (“wash away your sins,” 22:16); #29 The Way; #19 Divine Calling and Election | Paul’s defense speech before the Jerusalem crowd. |
| 23 | #23 Resurrection (Sanhedrin dispute, Pharisee/Sadducee division); #17 Persecution | Demonstrates the resurrection doctrine was contested from the outset among Jewish authorities themselves. |
| 24 | #23 Resurrection; #29 The Way; #17 Persecution | Trial before Felix; “the Way” used again as the outsider’s name for the movement (24:14,22). |
| 25 | [REVIEWED — REUSE ONLY] #23 Resurrection; #14 Apostolic Authority (witness/testimony) | No new doctrine; narrative-legal chapter (trial before Festus) reusing testimony and resurrection vocabulary from chs. 22–24. Explicitly reviewed in full. |
| 26 | #18 Conversion of Paul (third retelling); #38 Messianic Promise; #23 Resurrection; #30 Universal Human Accountability (echo of the universal repentance call); #24 Lordship/Deity of Christ | ”Darkness to light… from Satan’s power to God” (26:18) is the fullest single statement of the conversion doctrine’s polarity language. |
| 27 | #26 Providence and Sovereignty (recurs); #36 Thanksgiving | Largely a reuse chapter for terminology, but the providence doctrine is doctrinally active throughout the shipwreck narrative; carries the Tin Hau (天后) maritime-devotion collision note. Reviewed in full; no new term but doctrine content is substantive, not silently passed over. |
| 28 | #22 Great Commission Fulfilled (climactic “unhindered,” 28:31); #33 Kingdom of God; #6 Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (28:28); #31 Growth of the Word of God | Closing chapter; must carry the triumphant momentum established at 1:8 through to its final echo. |
Part C — Cross-Document Consistency Notes
- All doctrine names, Cantonese doctrine names, risk tiers, and review routings in Part A are copied verbatim from
assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json; no divergence is introduced here. - All term-level renderings referenced in the “Translation Risk” column defer to
analysis/08_core_glossary.mdand the Romans baselinetranslation_memory.json/bible_term_registry.json. - Where a single doctrine spans multiple chapters (e.g., Resurrection of Christ across chs. 2, 3, 4, 13, 17, 23, 24, 26), Phase 2 translation must apply the Theological Consistency Rules from the Romans
12_ai_translation_requirements.md— same Cantonese rendering across every occurrence in every chapter. - Chapters marked [REVIEWED — REUSE ONLY] must still pass through Phase 2 segment translation and Phase 2 validation; “reuse” describes doctrinal/terminological novelty, not exemption from the translation or review pipeline.
See analysis/08_core_glossary.md for term-level detail and analysis/04_comparative_theology.md for cross-tradition interpretive context underlying the risk assignments above.
Critical Risk Doctrines
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Cantonese name: 聖靈同五旬節
Key terms: holy_spirit, pentecost, filled_with_spirit, pour_out_spirit, other_tongues
Review routing: Human theologian
The Holy Spirit’s outpouring is the book’s central event; 聖靈 must never collapse into bare 靈, which in Hong Kong folk usage names ancestral spirits, temple spirits, or spirits summoned via 問米 mediumship. The wind/fire phenomena (2:2-3) must be tied explicitly to the Spirit’s arrival, not to generic ‘sacred fire’ temple-incense imagery.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Cantonese name: 聖靈嘅恩賜
Key terms: gift_of_holy_spirit, spiritual_gifts, grace
Review routing: Human theologian
Simon Magus’s attempt to purchase this gift with money (8:18-20) is the clearest NT dramatization of the transactional-exchange logic the Romans baseline forbids for grace (cf. Wong Tai Sin’s ‘whatever you ask, you shall receive’); must never be framed as purchasable, earned, or merit-exchanged, and must be kept as a distinct concept from 屬靈恩賜 (spiritual enablements).
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Cantonese name: 福音傳給猶太人同外邦人
Key terms: gentiles, gospel, gods_impartiality, common_unclean, light_for_gentiles
Review routing: Human theologian
The narrative hinge doctrine of the whole book; must resist any softening toward a local/outsider or clan-based hierarchy reading, given Hong Kong’s own insider/outsider clan-village vocabulary (外江佬, 鄉下人) already forbidden in the Romans baseline for ‘gentiles.‘
Repentance
Cantonese name: 悔改
Key terms: repent
Review routing: Human theologian
悔改 must be distinguished from 懺悔 (Buddhist ritual confession functioning within a karma-purification framework) and from the secular idiom 洗心革面 (‘wash the heart, change the face,’ willpower self-reform with no reference to God); biblical repentance is relational reorientation toward a personal God, not karmic account-clearing or mere behavioral discipline.
Forgiveness of Sins
Cantonese name: 罪得赦免
Key terms: forgiveness_of_sins, sin
Review routing: Human theologian
Must never use the folk-petition idiom 消災解難 (dispel calamity/resolve hardship, a common temple-petition phrase for removing impersonal misfortune) nor 還神還願 vow-discharge framing; forgiveness cancels moral guilt before a personal God and is granted freely upon repentance and faith, not earned.
Apostolic Miracles as Divine Authentication
Cantonese name: 使徒嘅神蹟奇事作為神嘅印證
Key terms: signs_and_wonders, power_of_god, healed
Review routing: Human theologian
神蹟奇事 collides directly with Hong Kong temple culture’s marketing of miraculous ‘efficacy’ (靈驗), especially at Wong Tai Sin Temple; every occurrence must be anchored explicitly to God’s authentication of apostolic gospel proclamation, never presented as free-floating supernatural proof detachable from the message.
Confrontation with Occult and Divinatory Power
Cantonese name: 同巫術占卜嘅權勢對抗
Key terms: sorcery, spirit_of_divination, gift_of_holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
Simon Magus, Elymas, and the Pythian slave girl each dramatize a sharp, non-negotiable separation between Spirit-given power/gift and occult ritual power-for-hire; this directly engages Hong Kong’s active 問米 (spirit-medium) and 睇相算命 (fortune-telling) culture, and 靈 must never stand bare or ambiguous in these passages.
Conversion of Paul
Cantonese name: 保羅嘅悔改歸主
Key terms: repent, darkness_to_light, election, satan
Review routing: Human theologian
The ‘darkness to light’ polarity (26:18) must not be assimilated to Chinese yin-yang cosmological dualism (陰陽) or Buddhist enlightenment imagery (開悟/覺悟); this is a moral-spiritual reversal from Satan’s dominion to God’s, not a cosmic-balance concept, and the persecutor-to-witness reversal is central to the doctrine’s translation weight.
Justification Apart from the Law
Cantonese name: 唔藉住律法嘅稱義
Key terms: justification, law, circumcision, yoke_of_law, grace
Review routing: Human theologian
Acts 13:38-39 is the curriculum’s clearest single-verse thesis statement and must render verbatim-consistent with Romans 3-4’s justification-by-faith-apart-from-law passages; the Jerusalem Council’s rejection of circumcision as a salvation requirement (ch.15) must not be softened into a merely cultural-accommodation debate.
Grace Received Apart from Merit or Payment
Cantonese name: 唔靠功德嘅恩典
Key terms: grace, sorcery, gift_of_holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
Simon Magus’s attempted purchase of spiritual power (8:18-20) is the single clearest NT enactment of the exact transactional exchange logic the Romans baseline forbids for grace (Wong Tai Sin’s ‘whatever you ask, you shall receive’); Peter’s rebuke should be translated with full repudiating force against any pay-for-power reading.
Resurrection of Christ
Cantonese name: 基督嘅復活
Key terms: resurrection, witness
Review routing: Human theologian
Never 投胎轉世 (rebirth cycle) or a 問米 spirit-medium framing (temporarily summoning the deceased for consultation) — a caution sharpened in Acts because apostolic ‘eyewitness testimony’ language (2:32; 13:31) could otherwise echo 問米 practice’s own claim of contact with the dead; the doctrine is also explicitly mocked at Athens (17:32) and disputed at the Sanhedrin (23:6-8), useful for teaching it was contested from the outset, not a later development.
Lordship and Deity of Christ
Cantonese name: 基督嘅主權同神性
Key terms: lord, messiah, son_of_god
Review routing: Human theologian
Peter’s climactic double confession ‘Lord and Christ’ (2:36) and the jailer’s confession formula (16:31) must render 主 and 基督 with full exclusive doctrinal weight, never softened toward an employer-employee title (事頭) or feudal honorific (老爺), and never framed as a political-loyalty statement given Hong Kong’s political sensitivities around sovereignty language.
The Way as a Name for the Christian Faith
Cantonese name: 「道」作為基督信仰嘅名稱
Key terms: the_way
Review routing: Human theologian
道 directly names the foundational term of Daoism (道教), and Hong Kong’s active Daoist temple culture (Wong Tai Sin, Man Mo Temple) gives this term the single strongest prior religious association of any collision in this curriculum; every occurrence requires a mandatory explanatory clause identifying it as the path of following Jesus Christ, never left to stand as a bare, unqualified title.
Messianic Promise Fulfilled in Jesus
Cantonese name: 彌賽亞嘅應許喺耶穌身上應驗
Key terms: messiah, holy_one, servant_of_god, davidic_covenant
Review routing: Human theologian
Must never be conflated with Maitreya (彌勒) or with the wish-granting-savior framing popularly attached to a folk deity such as Wong Tai Sin; Christ is the Messiah who has already come, fulfilling specific Jewish covenant promises argued repeatedly from the OT across Acts’ sermons.
High Risk Doctrines
Spirit Filling as Normal Christian Experience
Cantonese name: 被聖靈充滿
Key terms: filled_with_spirit, holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
被聖靈充滿 (filled) must be kept sharply distinct from 附體 (possessed/indwelt by a spirit-medium’s spirit), a term used in Cantonese folk-mediumship for ancestral-spirit or deity possession; superficial translation similarity between ‘filled’ and ‘possessed’ is the specific risk.
Tongues as a Sign of the Spirit’s Coming
Cantonese name: 講方言作為聖靈降臨嘅記號
Key terms: other_tongues, signs_and_wonders
Review routing: Human theologian
方言 in everyday Cantonese usually names a regional Chinese dialect (Cantonese is popularly called a 方言 itself), a politically live topic given Cantonese-Mandarin standardization debates; the miracle (real, unlearned foreign languages) must not be flattened into ordinary dialect-switching or confused with unintelligible ecstatic utterance.
Spirit-Baptism Distinguished from John’s Baptism
Cantonese name: 聖靈嘅洗同約翰嘅洗禮嘅分別
Key terms: baptize, holy_spirit, gift_of_holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
Collapsing John’s preparatory, repentance-only baptism into an undifferentiated single ‘baptism’ term obscures the historical-redemptive distinction Acts 19 makes explicit; requires a teaching note, not merely a term substitution.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One Church
Cantonese name: 猶太人同外邦人喺教會入面嘅合一
Key terms: church, gentiles, hellenists_hebrews
Review routing: Human theologian
The Hellenist/Hebrew tension resolved in Acts 6 and the Jew-Gentile unity resolved in Acts 15 must be translated with theological clarity; the underlying majority-language/minority-language and insider/outsider dynamics may carry unintended resonance given Hong Kong’s Cantonese-Mandarin language-politics sensitivities.
God’s Impartiality toward All Peoples
Cantonese name: 神唔偏待人嘅品格
Key terms: gods_impartiality, gentiles
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be distinguished from the impersonal-karma concept 報應 already flagged as a rejected framing under ‘sin’ in the Romans baseline; divine impartiality is the personal moral consistency of a relational God, not automatic karmic fairness.
Baptism
Cantonese name: 洗禮
Key terms: baptize, wash_away_sins
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be distinguished from repeatable ritual-purification bathing customs (Daoist pre-worship water purification, symbolic New Year cleansing baths, folk ‘washing away bad luck’ 洗邋遢); Christian baptism is a unique, non-repeatable public identification with Christ’s death and resurrection, not a mechanically efficacious rite.
Apostolic Authority
Cantonese name: 使徒嘅權柄
Key terms: apostle, witness, lot_casting
Review routing: Human theologian
Apostolic authority rests on eyewitness testimony (見證人) to a historical, bodily resurrection, not a subjective impression; the once-only lot-casting method of selecting Matthias (1:26) must be flagged with a mandatory note distinguishing it from 求籤 temple fortune-stick divination, since it was never repeated as a normative practice.
Persecution and Bold Witness
Cantonese name: 迫害中嘅坦然見證
Key terms: persecution, boldness, witness, stone_to_death
Review routing: Human theologian
膽量/坦然無懼 (boldness) must be distinguished from face-seeking bravado (威水/面子), a status-conscious register prominent in Hong Kong commercial culture; this is Spirit-given courage rooted in the gospel’s truth, not self-generated confidence, and the topic requires native-speaker sensitivity to Hong Kong’s contemporary political climate around authority and persecution language.
Divine Calling and Election of Paul
Cantonese name: 神揀選同呼召保羅
Key terms: divine_calling, election
Review routing: Human theologian
The ‘chosen instrument’ (σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς) language must never be rendered with fatalistic birth-chart vocabulary (八字注定, already forbidden under the Romans baseline); this is a personal, purposive, missional choice, not a fixed cosmic destiny.
The Great Commission Fulfilled
Cantonese name: 大使命嘅應驗
Key terms: end_of_earth, unhindered, mission, kingdom_of_god
Review routing: Human theologian
The programmatic mission statement (1:8) and the climactic closing verse (28:31, ‘unhindered’) must render with consistent, triumphant momentum across every echo; keep the kingdom-of-God framing doctrinal rather than politically restorationist, an acute risk given the disciples’ own political misreading at 1:6 and Hong Kong’s contemporary political sensitivities.
Ascension of Christ
Cantonese name: 基督升天
Key terms: ascension, exalted
Review routing: Human theologian
升天/被高舉 must be anchored to Christ’s visible, bodily, historical departure witnessed by the apostles, promised to recur at his return; must not be assimilated to the Daoist ascension-to-immortality motif (羽化登仙) or a generic soul’s post-death ascent.
Providence and Divine Sovereignty
Cantonese name: 神嘅護理同主權
Key terms: providence, foreknowledge
Review routing: Human theologian
Never 天意/運程 (impersonal fate or annual fortune-forecast); the shipwreck narrative (ch.27) additionally risks Tin Hau (天后) sea-goddess devotion framing given Hong Kong’s prominent fishing-community maritime folk religion, which must be kept distinct from God’s personal providential care.
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Cantonese name: 預言嘅應驗
Key terms: prophecy, prophet, day_of_the_lord
Review routing: Human theologian
Pentecost is presented as one-time, linear historical fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, not the cyclical fortune-forecast framework (運程) of Hong Kong almanac culture; ‘the day of the Lord’ must likewise be distinguished from 老黃曆 lucky/unlucky-day consultation.
Fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant
Cantonese name: 大衛之約嘅應驗
Key terms: davidic_covenant, david, messiah
Review routing: Human theologian
Requires OT covenant background explanation given the audience’s assumed low OT literacy; no directly analogous perpetual-lineage covenant concept exists in Cantonese/Pearl River Delta clan tradition, where lineage continuity is maintained through succession-adoption (過繼) rather than an unconditional divine promise.
Universal Human Accountability
Cantonese name: 全人類都當向神負責
Key terms: sin, repent, gods_impartiality
Review routing: Human theologian
Paul’s Areopagus call that God ‘commands all people everywhere to repent’ (17:30) must retain unqualified universal scope; must not be softened toward a status-graded reading given Hong Kong’s status-conscious 面子 (face) culture.
Medium Risk Doctrines
The Church as Community
Cantonese name: 教會作為屬靈嘅群體
Key terms: church, fellowship, one_accord, all_things_common, added_to_church
Review routing: Native speaker review
Voluntary common life must be distinguished from Pearl River Delta clan ancestral-hall (祠堂) common-property arrangements, which serve lineage/ancestor-worship continuity rather than gospel-motivated love; keep this historically descriptive of the Jerusalem church, not a general economic prescription, given contemporary political sensitivity around communal-property language.
Church Leadership and Governance
Cantonese name: 教會嘅領導同治理
Key terms: elders, overseer, shepherd, apostle
Review routing: Native speaker review
長老 (elders) must be distinguished from the clan-village patriarch (族長), whose authority is bound to ancestor-worship obligations; 監督 (overseer) carries a false-friend secular ‘supervisor’ sense in modern Cantonese business usage that must be disambiguated in context.
The Growth of the Word of God
Cantonese name: 神嘅道不斷興旺
Key terms: gospel, church
Review routing: Native speaker review
The recurring growth-summary formula describes church growth as God’s own sovereign act; low direct folk-religious collision, but should not be rendered as a mere institutional-success metric divorced from the gospel’s own advance.
Spirit-Guided Corporate Church Decisions
Cantonese name: 聖靈引導教會作決定
Key terms: spirit_guided_decision, set_apart_commissioning, holy_spirit
Review routing: Native speaker review
Models the Spirit’s active, personal governance of church decisions; must not be reduced to a bare consensus-mechanism nor elevated to an impersonal fate-mechanism resembling divinatory lot-casting (already flagged Critical at Acts 1:26).
Kingdom of God Teaching
Cantonese name: 神嘅國嘅教導
Key terms: kingdom_of_god
Review routing: Native speaker review
Given Hong Kong’s political history and present sensitivities around sovereignty language, keep ‘kingdom of God’ framed as God’s spiritual reign advancing through the gospel, not an earthly political program — acutely relevant given the disciples’ own political question at 1:6.
Prayer and Intercession
Cantonese name: 禱告同代求
Key terms: one_accord
Review routing: Native speaker review
Corporate prayer directed to God alone must be distinguished from drawing a temple fortune-stick (求籤) or consulting a spirit-medium (問米) on someone else’s behalf, per the Romans baseline’s existing caution for intercession.
Low Risk Doctrines
Christian Fellowship and Common Life
Cantonese name: 基督徒嘅團契同共同生活
Key terms: fellowship, one_accord, christians
Review routing: Automated review
團契 and 基督徒 are established, low-collision Hong Kong Christian terms; minor risk of assimilation to clan/native-place association (同鄉會) vocabulary already flagged in the Romans baseline.
Thanksgiving
Cantonese name: 感恩
Key terms: thanksgiving
Review routing: Automated review
Standard term; minor risk of generic secular gratitude without reference to God specifically.
Mutual Edification and Encouragement
Cantonese name: 彼此造就同勸勉
Key terms: diakonia_ministry, great_fear
Review routing: Automated review
Standard encouragement-and-strengthening vocabulary; no significant doctrinal risk beyond the general fellowship cautions already noted.
Referenced passages