Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 1 John (English ⇄ Czech)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entire book of 1 John, chapters 1 through 5. Terms already present in the baseline Romans Language Package (translation_memory.json) are marked [BASELINE] and their recorded Czech rendering and risk tier are reused exactly, per the hard rule governing this pipeline. New terms specific to 1 John are marked [NEW] and assigned a risk tier using the same Critical/High/Medium/Low framework, with the collision or comprehension rationale stated explicitly for every Critical/High entry.
Risk tier definitions follow doctrine_risk_registry.json exactly:
- Critical — mistranslation destroys/alters essential doctrine; human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or comprehension failure; human theologian review required.
- Medium — mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning; native speaker review recommended.
- Low — mistranslation causes minor misunderstanding; automated review sufficient.
Table 1 — Terms Reused Exactly from the Baseline Romans Language Package
| English Term | Czech Rendering | Risk | First Occurrence in 1 John | Notes for This Curriculum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Bůh | Critical | 1:5 | Reused exactly; 1 John adds “the true God” (5:20) contrast with idols (5:21) — see Table 2. |
| Jesus | Ježíš | Critical | 1:3 | Reused exactly. |
| Son of God | Syn Boží | Critical | 3:8; 4:15; 5:5 | Reused exactly; 1 John’s confessional formula (“Jesus is the Son of God,” 4:15) is structurally parallel to Romans 10:9’s “Ježíš je Pán” and should receive the same explanatory-note treatment. |
| Father | Otec | Critical | 1:2 | Reused exactly; note dual usage in 1 John — God as Father (throughout) vs. “fathers” as an address to the older generation of the congregation (2:13-14), which must be kept lexically and contextually distinct. |
| Holy Spirit | Duch svatý | Critical | 3:24; 4:2, 13 | Reused exactly; heightened context-sensitivity risk in 4:1-6 alongside generic πνεῦμα usage — see Table 2, “spirit.” |
| faith / believe | víra / věřit | High | 5:1, 4-5, 10, 13 | Reused exactly; object of faith (Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God) must be explicit per baseline instruction. |
| sin | hřích | High | 1:7-10; throughout | Reused exactly; 1 John adds the specific pastoral problem of a false claim to sinlessness (1:8, 10), a nuance beyond the baseline’s colloquial-idiom risk note. |
| righteousness / righteous | spravedlnost / spravedlivý | Critical / High | 2:1, 29; 3:7 | Reused exactly; applied to both Christ (2:1) and believers’ conduct (2:29; 3:7). |
| fellowship | společenství | Low | 1:3, 6-7 | Reused exactly; 1 John’s dual vertical/horizontal usage (with God AND with one another, inseparably) is new theological weight on a low-risk word — flag for teaching despite the low lexical risk. |
| incarnation | vtělení | Critical | 4:2 (concept); cf. 1:1-3 | Reused exactly; 1 John supplies the letter’s own doctrinal test-formula for this baseline concept (“confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh”). |
| calling / called (root) | povolání / povolaný | High | not directly used | Not lexically present in 1 John; noted for completeness — no new occurrence to reconcile. |
| grace | milost | High | not directly used | 1 John does not use χάρις; noted for completeness. |
| peace | pokoj | Medium | not directly used | 1 John’s typical epistolary form omits the grace/peace greeting; noted for completeness. |
| salvation | spasení | Critical | conceptually present (cf. “Savior,” Table 2) | 1 John favors “eternal life” (ζωὴ αἰώνιος) and “Savior” (σωτήρ) over the noun “spasení” itself; both new terms carry the identical Critical-risk profile documented in baseline for “spasení” (archaic-registration risk) — see Table 2. |
| intercession (root) | přímluva | Medium | 2:1 (cognate: advocate) | Root reused as the base of the new term “přímluvce” (advocate) — see Table 2. |
| prophet | prorok | Medium | 4:1 (cognate: false prophet) | Reused exactly as root of “falešný prorok” — see Table 2. |
| law | zákon | High | 3:4 (cognate: lawlessness) | Reused exactly as root of “nezákonnost” — see Table 2. |
| adoption | přijetí za syna | Medium | conceptually adjacent to 3:1-2 | 1 John uses a different metaphor (organic birth, τέκνα θεοῦ/γεννάω) for a related reality; must be actively distinguished from this baseline term, not merged with it — see Table 2, “children of God” and “born of God.” |
| apostle | apoštol | Low | not used | 1 John does not use ἀπόστολος of its author; noted for completeness. |
| Christ / Messiah | Kristus / Mesiáš | Critical | 2:22; 5:1 | ”Christ” reused as the established Bible-translation proper-name form (per baseline AI instructions: “Christ = Kristus”); 1 John’s confession “Jesus is the Christ” (2:22; 5:1) functions identically to the baseline’s Messianic Promise doctrine and should receive the same Critical-tier handling. |
Table 2 — New Terms Specific to 1 John
| English Term | Greek (transliteration) | Czech Rendering | Risk | Chapter(s) | Rationale / Collision Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| love | ἀγάπη (agapē) | láska | Critical | 4:7-21 (thesis term); 2:5, 15; 3:1, 11-18, 23 | No lexical distinction available in Czech between agapē/erōs/philia; “láska” is saturated with romantic-sentimental pop-culture usage. This is the thesis word of the entire book and must be actively, repeatedly distinguished from romantic love, not translated once and assumed to stick. |
| God is love | ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν | Bůh je láska | Critical | 4:8, 16 | Identity-predication (God’s essence, not merely an activity); risk of being flattened into vague greeting-card sentiment by a secular reader. |
| God is light | ὁ θεός φῶς ἐστιν | Bůh je světlo | Critical | 1:5 | The letter’s other identity-predication; ordinary Czech “světlo” is a purely physical/practical word with no independent moral-metaphorical resonance for a secular reader. |
| light | φῶς (phōs) | světlo | High | 1:5, 7; 2:8-10 | See above; must be unpacked as moral purity and self-revelation, not brightness/comfort. |
| darkness | σκοτία / σκότος (skotia/skotos) | temnota / tma | Medium | 1:5-6; 2:8-11 | Standard vocabulary; ensure moral (not merely atmospheric) sense is taught. |
| propitiation / atoning sacrifice | ἱλασμός (hilasmos) | oběť smíření | Critical | 2:2; 4:10 | Zero pre-existing secular content, positive or negative; must be built from the ground up with OT sacrificial background, exactly like baseline’s “přičtená spravedlnost.” |
| Savior | σωτήρ (sōtēr) | Spasitel | Critical | 4:14 | Identical risk profile to baseline’s “spasení”: stable Kralice/ČEP term at real risk of registering as archaic-literary rather than living content. Must be paired with narrative content every occurrence. |
| eternal life | ζωὴ αἰώνιος (zōē aiōnios) | věčný život | Critical | 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11-13, 20 | Same archaic-registration risk as “spasení”/“Spasitel”; risk of secular misreading as mere unending duration (medical life-extension, sci-fi immortality) rather than relational, already-possessed quality of life. Directly grounds “Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life.” |
| confess | ὁμολογέω (homologeō) | vyznat / vyznávat | High | 1:9; 4:2-3, 15 | Colloquial Czech “vyznat se v něčem” = “know one’s way around a subject,” risking flattening of the confessional/allegiance-declaring force into mere familiarity. Structurally parallel to baseline’s Romans 10:9 treatment. |
| advocate | παράκλητος (paraklētos) | přímluvce | High | 2:1 | Builds on baseline’s “přímluva” (intercession) root; specific legal-defense-counsel nuance is unfamiliar and must be kept lexically distinct from the Holy Spirit’s separate Advocate role (John 14) to avoid conflating the two Persons’ distinct advocacy functions. |
| abide / remain | μένω (menō) | zůstávat | Medium | 2:6, 24, 27-28; 3:6, 9, 14-17, 24; 4:12-13, 15-16 | Purely spatial/literal in ordinary Czech (“zůstat doma”); the letter’s relational, mutual-indwelling sense needs explicit unpacking and strict lexical consistency across all ~20 occurrences, since this verb functions as a structural refrain. |
| boldness / confidence | παρρησία (parrēsia) | důvěra | High | 2:28; 3:21; 4:17; 5:14 | Ordinary Czech “důvěra” is a comfortable, low-charge word; the specific forensic setting (confident standing before the Judge on judgment day) must be actively built up, not left as generic positive feeling. Directly grounds “Assurance of Salvation.” |
| perfected / perfect (love) | τελειόω / τέλειος (teleioō/teleios) | naplněná / dokonalá (láska) | Medium | 4:12, 17-18 | Czech “dokonalý” carries a strong “flawless” connotation risking moralistic misreading (“you must love flawlessly”) rather than the Greek’s telic sense of love reaching its intended goal. |
| fear | φόβος (phobos) | strach | Medium | 4:18 | Low-charge ordinary word; distinguish this “fear of punishment” from the unrelated biblical sense of reverential “fear of the Lord” (not in view here). |
| testify / testimony | μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία (martyreō/martyria) | svědčit / svědectví | Medium-High | 1:2; 4:14; 5:6-11 (concentrated) | Ordinary Czech courtroom-witness sense is a genuine asset (preserves juridical force) but the OT two-or-three-witness legal background (5:6-8) needs explicit grounding. |
| world | κόσμος (kosmos) | svět | High | 2:15-17; 3:1, 13; 4:1-5, 9, 14, 17; 5:19 | Three distinct senses (neutral creation; humanity, object of God’s love; God-opposing value-system) collapse into one neutral Czech word with no built-in disambiguation; the negative “world-system” sense central to “Overcoming the World” is entirely absent from ordinary usage and must be actively supplied per occurrence. |
| lust / desire | ἐπιθυμία (epithymia) | touha / žádost | Medium | 2:16-17 | Ordinary Czech “touha” is largely neutral-to-positive; needs explicit negative framing as disordered craving; “žádost” (more negatively marked, closer to Kralice/ČEP tradition) may be preferable. |
| flesh | σάρξ (sarx) | tělo | High | 2:16 (negative sense); 4:2 (positive, incarnational sense) | Genuinely double-duty term within the same letter: neutral/positive for Christ’s real humanity (4:2) vs. negative moral-critique sense for sinful human nature (2:16). Each occurrence’s governing sense must be flagged explicitly. |
| antichrist | ἀντίχριστος (antichristos) | antikrist | Critical | 2:18, 22; 4:3 | Genuine, specific pop-culture collision risk unusual for this Language Package: the internationally circulated 2009 arthouse horror film Antichrist is a live, specific competing reference point in Czech film culture, risking horror/occult associations overriding 1 John’s comparatively mundane doctrinal definition (a false teacher denying Christ’s identity, 2:22). Must be defined from the text itself on first use. |
| anointing | χρῖσμα (chrisma) — cf. Kristus/Χριστός, “the Anointed One” | pomazání | High | 2:20, 27 | Real Czech word but near-zero active secular use and no independent cultural resonance (unlike “svatý”); entire OT royal/priestly anointing background must be constructed from scratch. |
| the last hour | ἐσχάτη ὥρα (eschatē hōra) | poslední hodina / poslední čas | Medium | 2:18 | Requires brief inaugurated-eschatology framework (an already-begun end-times era, not a single future countdown). |
| liar | ψεύστης (pseustēs) | lhář | Low | 1:10; 2:4, 22; 4:20 | Blunt, standard Czech word; preserve the bluntness rather than softening it diplomatically. |
| commandment | ἐντολή (entolē) | přikázání | Medium | 2:3-8; 3:22-24; 4:21; 5:2-3 | ”Desatero přikázání” (Ten Commandments) gives this real cultural traction even among secular Czechs; must clarify this refers to the NEW love-commandment, not the Mosaic Decalogue, to avoid a false assumption of reference. |
| brother | ἀδελφός (adelphos) | bratr | Medium | 2:9-11; 3:10, 14-17; 4:20-21 | Simple word, but the extended non-biological “fellow believer” sense must be explicitly taught; a secular reader’s default association will be literal biological sibling. |
| children of God | τέκνα θεοῦ (tekna theou) | děti Boží | High | 3:1-2, 10; 5:2 | Johannine organic-birth metaphor; must be actively distinguished from the baseline’s Pauline forensic-adoption metaphor (“přijetí za syna”) rather than collapsed into it — two distinct biblical images for a related reality. |
| born of God / begotten of God | γεννάω, passive (gennaō) | narodit se z Boha / je zrozen z Boha | Critical | 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18 | The letter’s central recurring doctrinal refrain (~10 occurrences); zero ordinary secular usage; must be rendered with the identical Czech phrase at every occurrence to preserve the letter’s rhetorical repetition-structure. Directly grounds “Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth.” |
| lawlessness | ἀνομία (anomia) | nezákonnost / bezzákonnost | Medium-High | 3:4 | Abstract legal-sounding coinage without strong independent traction; pair with a concrete gloss (“rejection of God’s order”) rather than leaving as a bare abstract noun. |
| devil | διάβολος (diabolos) | ďábel | Medium | 3:8, 10 | Stable term, but distinguish from the more folkloric Czech “čert” (folk-devil imagery), which risks supplying a less theologically serious mental picture than 1 John’s stark moral antithesis intends. |
| murderer | ἀνθρωποκτόνος (anthropoktonos) | vrah | Low | 3:15 | Standard, blunt word; preserve the shock value of the Cain-allusion equivalence. |
| lay down (one’s) life | τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν (tithēmi tēn psychēn) | položit život | Medium | 3:16 | Standard Czech idiom (echoing secular heroic self-sacrifice language); ensure connection to Christ’s specific atoning death, not generic heroism. |
| heart / compassion | σπλάγχνα (splagchna) | srdce / slitování | Low-Medium | 3:17 | Idiom transfers naturally into modern Czech “srdce.” |
| test / discern (spirits) | δοκιμάζω (dokimazō) | zkoušet / rozlišovat | High | 4:1 | Directly grounds “Testing the Spirits”; must be reframed around doctrinal content (what is confessed about Christ), not phenomena, to avoid drift toward ghost-investigation/entertainment associations (see “spirit” below). |
| spirit (context-sensitive) | πνεῦμα (pneuma) | duch | Critical | 4:1-6 (6x); cf. Duch svatý baseline | Same lexical item covers Holy Spirit, human disposition, AND folkloric ghosts (“duch zámku,” a live Czech cultural category — haunted-castle tourism/ghost stories); every occurrence in 4:1-6 needs its referent (the source/content behind a religious teaching) made explicit to prevent drift toward folklore/entertainment associations. |
| false prophet | ψευδοπροφήτης (pseudoprophētēs) | falešný prorok | Medium | 4:1 | Builds on baseline “prorok”; standard compound, low additional risk beyond the baseline prophet entry. |
| error / deception (spirit of) | πλάνη (planē) | blud (preferred) / omyl (weaker) | Medium | 4:6 | Prefer “blud” (comprehensive deception-system) over “omyl” (mere innocent mistake) to preserve the intended force. |
| overcome / conquer | νικάω (nikaō) | přemoci / zvítězit | High | 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5 | Directly grounds “Overcoming the World”; ordinary Czech “zvítězit” carries strong secular competitive-achievement connotations, risking a self-help “win through effort” misreading rather than victory grounded in God’s indwelling presence. |
| water and blood (with the Spirit) | ὕδωρ καὶ αἷμα (with πνεῦμα) | voda a krev (s Duchem) | High | 5:6, 8 | Concrete historical referents (Jesus’s baptism; his death) requiring narrative background not assumable in a low-biblical-literacy readership; without it, reads as a cryptic triad rather than converging legal-style testimony. |
| sin leading to death | ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον (hamartia pros thanaton) | hřích k smrti | High | 5:16-17 | RARE CASE of an actual competing religious framework risk in this Language Package: Czech lands’ residual (if secularized) Catholic heritage risks this phrase being read through the formal Catholic mortal-sin/venial-sin taxonomy, a distinction 1 John itself does not draw in those terms. Must be actively clarified as a distinct, debated Johannine category. |
| the evil one | ὁ πονηρός (ho ponēros) | ten Zlý | Medium | 5:18-19 | Matches the traditional Czech Lord’s Prayer phrase (“chraň nás od Zlého”), a modest cultural asset; risk is under-personalizing “zlý” into abstract “evil” rather than a personal being (Satan). |
| idols | εἴδωλα (eidōla) | modly | High | 5:21 | SPECIFIC COLLISION RISK: the loanword “idol” is in active contemporary Czech colloquial use for a celebrity/pop star/admired public figure (talent-show culture, “je to můj idol”). Must use “modly,” not “idoly,” to avoid a trivializing misreading of the letter’s climactic exclusivity-of-worship warning. |
| the true God | ἀληθινός θεός (alēthinos theos) | pravý Bůh | Medium | 5:20 | Builds on baseline “Bůh”; “genuine vs. counterfeit” nuance (not merely “factually existing”) benefits from brief clarification given proximity to the idols warning. |
| truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | pravda | High | 1:6, 8; 2:4, 21; and throughout | Ordinary Czech “pravda” is primarily factual-correctness; the letter’s relational/moral sense (self-deception about one’s own sin; living “in the truth”) needs active distinction. |
| forgive | ἀφίημι (aphiēmi) | odpustit | Medium | 1:9 | Ordinary interpersonal-forgiveness word; needs the specific judicial ground (Christ’s oběť smíření) made explicit so it is not reduced to purely emotional “letting go.” |
| cleanse | καθαρίζω (katharizō) | očistit | Medium | 1:7, 9 | Ordinary physical-cleaning word; sacrificial/cultic OT background needs explicit grounding. |
| blood | αἷμα (haima) | krev | Medium | 1:7; 5:6, 8 | Sacrificial-substitutionary background (Levitical sacrifice) needs explicit grounding to avoid a merely gruesome or confusing reading. |
| walk (= live/conduct oneself) | περιπατέω (peripateō) | chodit | Medium | 1:6-7; 2:6, 11 | Metaphorical “walk = conduct of life” sense is not active in ordinary secular speech, where “chodit” is either literal walking or, colloquially, “to date someone” (“chodit s někým”) — an idiom to actively avoid triggering; needs a brief gloss on first use. |
| word of life | λόγος τῆς ζωῆς (logos tēs zōēs) | slovo života | High | 1:1 | Requires John 1:1’s “Slovo” (Logos) Christological background to avoid reading as a vague inspirational phrase rather than a specific claim about the eternal Son. |
| owe / ought (obligation to love) | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | máme povinnost / jsme povinni | Medium | 4:11 | Ordinary financial/legal-debt usage is a genuine asset (preserves the debt-metaphor); risk is under-teaching the logical “if…then” connective rather than the vocabulary. |
| judgment (day of) | κρίσις (krisis) | soud / den soudu | Medium | 4:17 | Ordinary Czech civil/criminal-court sense is theologically useful (final judgment is genuinely forensic); needs the specific eschatological horizon (a future divine event) made explicit. |
| punishment / torment | κόλασις (kolasis) | trest | Low | 4:18 | Standard, unambiguous. |
Cross-Reference Notes for Phase 2
- Highest-priority Critical terms requiring theologian review on every occurrence: láska (love) / Bůh je láska, Bůh je světlo, oběť smíření (propitiation), Spasitel, věčný život, antikrist, narodit se z Boha (born of God), duch in 4:1-6 (spirit, context-sensitive), plus all baseline Critical terms recurring in 1 John (Bůh, Ježíš, Syn Boží, Otec, Duch svatý, spravedlnost/spravedlivý, Kristus/Mesiáš, vtělení).
- Consistency mandate: γεννάω (“born of God”) and μένω (“abide”) are structural refrain-verbs occurring roughly 10 and 20 times respectively; both MUST receive a single, unvarying Czech rendering across every occurrence and every document in this curriculum, per the same consistency principle the baseline applies to Romans 1:16-17, 8:28, and 10:9-10.
- New forbidden-substitution candidates to add to the AI Translation Requirements (Step 12, Phase 1 continuation): never render εἴδωλα as “idoly” (celebrity collision); never render ἀντίχριστος without an accompanying doctrinal gloss (film-title collision); never render πνεῦμα in 4:1-6 without specifying its referent (ghost-folklore collision); never render ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον as equivalent to the Catholic “smrtelný hřích” category without clarification.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Bůh
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: θεός / אֱלֹהִים / יהוה
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. In 1 John this anchors both identity-predications (‘God is light,’ 1:5; ‘God is love,’ 4:8, 16) and the closing contrast with ‘the true God’ (5:20) versus idols (5:21).
Jesus
Approved rendering: Ježíš
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: Ἰησοῦς / יֵשׁוּעַ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Fixed anchor of 1 John’s confessional test-formula (‘Jesus is the Christ,’ 2:22; 5:1; ‘Jesus Christ come in the flesh,’ 4:2).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Syn Boží
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. 1 John’s confession ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ (4:15) is structurally parallel to Romans 10:9 and receives the same explanatory-note treatment. Must never be confused with ‘children of God’ (děti Boží), a different, non-identical metaphor applied to believers.
Father
Approved rendering: Otec
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Keep God as Father lexically and contextually distinct from ‘fathers’ as address to the older generation of the congregation (2:13-14).
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Duch svatý
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Must be actively distinguished from the generic, context-sensitive ‘duch’ entry below (4:1-6), where the same Czech word also covers human disposition and folkloric ghosts.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: spravedlnost / spravedlivý
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: δικαιοσύνη / δίκαιος
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. In 1 John applied both to Christ (‘Jesus Christ the righteous,’ 2:1) and, derivatively, to believers who ‘practice righteousness’ (2:29; 3:7) as evidence of new birth.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: vtělení
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: σὰρξ ἐληλυθότα (cf. ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, John 1:14)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. 1 John supplies its own doctrinal test-formula for this concept: ‘every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God’ (4:2-3); denial of it is the definitional mark of ‘the spirit of antichrist.‘
Messiah
Approved rendering: Kristus / Mesiáš
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: Χριστός / מָשִׁיחַ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly (established Bible-translation proper-name form ‘Kristus’ plus baseline ‘Mesiáš’). 1 John’s ‘Jesus is the Christ’ (2:22; 5:1) functions identically to the baseline’s Messianic Promise doctrine; denial of it is 1 John’s explicit definition of antichrist (2:22).
Salvation
Approved rendering: spasení
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. 1 John favors ‘eternal life’ (věčný život) and ‘Savior’ (Spasitel) over the bare noun; both new entries below carry the identical archaic/hollow-registration risk documented here for ‘spasení.‘
Love
Approved rendering: láska
Transliteration: agapē / agapaō
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love; Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: invented compound distinguishing agapē from romantic love (unnatural, would break with the entire Czech Bible-translation tradition)
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Love
The single highest-stakes rendering decision in this curriculum. No Czech lexical distinction exists between agapē/erōs/philia; ‘láska’ is saturated with romantic-sentimental pop-culture usage (song lyrics, advertising, secular wedding quotation of 1 John 4). Must be actively and repeatedly distinguished from romantic love throughout every document, never translated once and assumed to register correctly.
God Is Love
Approved rendering: Bůh je láska
Transliteration: ho theos agapē estin
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: Bůh je milující (weakens the essence-predication into a description of activity/mood)
Original: ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν
Category: God
Copulative identity statement (God = love), not merely ‘God loves.’ Must be taught, not merely quoted, and paired every occurrence with the letter’s own historical definition of this love (4:9-10, the sending of the Son).
God Is Light
Approved rendering: Bůh je světlo
Transliteration: ho theos phōs estin
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: ὁ θεός φῶς ἐστιν
Category: God
The letter’s other essence-predication. Ordinary Czech ‘světlo’ is purely physical/practical with no independent moral-metaphorical resonance for a secular reader; must be actively unpacked as moral purity and self-revealing truthfulness (‘no darkness at all in him,’ 1:5).
Propitiation
Approved rendering: oběť smíření
Transliteration: hilasmos
Doctrine: Propitiation for Sin (The Atoning Sacrifice of Christ)
Rejected alternatives: oběť slitování (Bible kralická’s older mercy-oriented nuance; less precise than ČEP’s reconciliation-oriented rendering), usmíření alone (too abstract, loses sacrificial-offering frame)
Original: ἱλασμός
Category: Salvation
No ordinary secular Czech usage whatsoever, positive or negative. Must be built from the ground up with Old Testament sacrificial background, exactly paralleling the baseline’s treatment of ‘přičtená spravedlnost.’ Occurs at 2:2 and 4:10.
Savior
Approved rendering: Spasitel
Transliteration: sōtēr
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Christology
Shares the identical archaic/hollow-registration risk baseline documents for ‘spasení.’ Must be paired every occurrence (4:14) with concrete narrative content — saved from what, to what, by whom.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: věčný život
Transliteration: zōē aiōnios
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Salvation
Shares baseline’s ‘spasení’ archaic-registration risk, compounded by a distinctly contemporary secular misreading (medical life-extension, sci-fi immortality). Letter’s explicitly stated purpose term (5:13); must be taught narratively and relationally, never as a bare label. Occurs at 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11-13, 20.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: antikrist
Transliteration: antichristos
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: popírač Krista (paraphrase — breaks with established Czech Bible-translation consistency and cross-reference navigability)
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
SPECIFIC POP-CULTURE COLLISION: the internationally circulated 2009 arthouse horror film ‘Antichrist’ (dir. Lars von Trier) is a live, named competing reference point in Czech film culture. Must be defined immediately and exclusively from the text’s own definition (2:22, denial that Jesus is the Christ) on first use, specifically to override the film association. Occurs at 2:18, 22; 4:3.
Born Of God
Approved rendering: narodit se z Boha / je zrozen z Boha
Transliteration: gennaō (passive)
Doctrine: New Birth and the Family of God; Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: a single invented noun-coinage (would obscure the letter’s rhetorical refrain rather than clarify it)
Original: γεννάω (passive: γεγέννηται / γεγεννημένος)
Category: Salvation
The letter’s single most important recurring doctrinal term. Zero ordinary secular Czech usage. Occurs approximately ten times (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18); EVERY occurrence must be rendered with the identical Czech phrase across every document in this curriculum.
Spirit
Approved rendering: duch
Transliteration: pneuma
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: leaving the referent unspecified at any occurrence in 4:1-6
Original: πνεῦμα
Category: Pneumatology
SEVERE CONTEXT-SENSITIVITY: the same word covers the Holy Spirit, human disposition, and — for secular Czech popular culture — folkloric ghosts (‘duch zámku,’ a live haunted-castle-tourism category). Every occurrence in 4:1-6 (six times in six verses) needs its referent explicitly established.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: víra / věřit
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: πίστις / πιστεύω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. ‘Believing that Jesus is the Christ’ (5:1) and ‘believing in the name of the Son of God’ (5:13) are the letter’s explicit new-birth and assurance markers; object of faith must remain explicit at every occurrence.
Sin
Approved rendering: hřích
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. 1 John adds a new pastoral problem beyond the baseline’s colloquial-idiom risk: the false claim of sinlessness (‘if we say we have no sin,’ 1:8, 10), which must be taught as its own distinct error.
Law
Approved rendering: zákon
Doctrine: New Birth and the Family of God
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Root of ‘lawlessness’ (ἀνομία, 3:4), 1 John’s definition of sin at its root.
Grace
Approved rendering: milost
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Not used lexically (χάρις does not occur) in 1 John; retained here for cross-document consistency and in case of cross-referencing teaching material.
Calling
Approved rendering: povolání / povolaný
Doctrine: New Birth and the Family of God
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Not lexically present in 1 John; retained for cross-document consistency and the FORBIDDEN SUBSTITUTIONS list.
Light
Approved rendering: světlo
Transliteration: phōs
Doctrine: Walking in Light versus Walking in Darkness
Original: φῶς
Category: God
Recurring noun (1:7; 2:8-10) describing the sphere/condition believers ‘walk in.’ Same low-resonance risk as god_is_light above.
Confess
Approved rendering: vyznat / vyznávat
Transliteration: homologeō
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: allowing ‘vyznat se v něčem’ colloquial idiom (know one’s way around a subject) to govern the reading
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Christology
Structurally parallel to the baseline’s Romans 10:9 treatment. Must be actively taught as public, allegiance-declaring admission before God, not casual familiarity. Occurs at 1:9; 4:2-3, 15.
Advocate
Approved rendering: přímluvce
Transliteration: paraklētos
Doctrine: The Advocate of Believers
Rejected alternatives: parakletos (bare Greek transliteration — unhelpfully technical where a comprehensible native compound exists)
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Christology
Builds on baseline ‘přímluva’ root; specific legal-defense-counsel nuance is unfamiliar and must be kept lexically distinct from the Holy Spirit’s separate Advocate role in John’s Gospel to avoid conflating the two Persons’ distinct advocacy functions. Occurs at 2:1.
Confidence
Approved rendering: důvěra
Transliteration: parrēsia
Doctrine: Confidence Before God in Prayer and in Judgment
Original: παρρησία
Category: Salvation
Comfortable, low-charge everyday word (trust in a friend); must be built up as the specific forensic content of confident standing before God as Judge (4:17), and in prayer (3:21; 5:14) — not left as generic positive feeling.
Testify
Approved rendering: svědčit / svědectví
Transliteration: martyreō / martyria
Doctrine: The Witness of the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood
Original: μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία
Category: Faith
Ordinary Czech courtroom-witness sense is a genuine asset preserving juridical force; the OT two-or-three-witness legal background (5:6-11) and the historical referents (baptism, death) need explicit grounding.
World
Approved rendering: svět
Transliteration: kosmos
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: a separate coined technical term for the negative sense (e.g. ‘světský systém’) — rejected to preserve Bible-translation-tradition consistency
Original: κόσμος
Category: Sanctification
Collapses three distinct senses (neutral creation, humanity as object of God’s love, God-opposing value-system) into one neutral Czech word; the negative sense central to Overcoming the World must be flagged explicitly per occurrence (2:15-17; 3:1, 13; 4:1-5, 9, 14, 17; 5:19).
Flesh
Approved rendering: tělo
Transliteration: sarx
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist; Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: collapsing both senses into a single negative connotation
Original: σάρξ
Category: Christology
Genuine double-duty term: positive/incarnational at 4:2 (real, genuine humanity of Christ), negative/moral-critique at 2:16 (sin-prone human nature). Governing sense must be flagged explicitly at each occurrence.
Anointing
Approved rendering: pomazání
Transliteration: chrisma
Doctrine: The Anointing and Inward Teaching of the Spirit
Original: χρῖσμα
Category: Pneumatology
Real Czech word but near-zero active secular use and no independent cultural resonance (unlike ‘svatý’); OT royal/priestly anointing background must be constructed from scratch before applying to the Spirit’s teaching ministry (2:20, 27).
Children Of God
Approved rendering: děti Boží
Transliteration: tekna theou
Doctrine: New Birth and the Family of God
Rejected alternatives: merging with baseline ‘přijetí za syna’ (adoption) as if the same metaphor
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
Johannine organic-birth metaphor for believers; must be actively distinguished from the baseline’s Pauline forensic-adoption metaphor — two distinct biblical images for a related but not identical reality. Occurs at 3:1-2, 10; 5:2.
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: nezákonnost / bezzákonnost
Transliteration: anomia
Doctrine: New Birth and the Family of God
Rejected alternatives: přestoupení Zákona (Bible kralická’s Mosaic-Law-specific phrasing — risks importing Romans-style Mosaic-Law argumentation into 1 John where it does not belong)
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Sin
Abstract, somewhat clinical coinage without strong independent traction; pair with a concrete gloss (‘odmítnutí Božího řádu,’ rejection of God’s order). 1 John’s foundational definition of sin (3:4). Follow ČEP/B21 direction, not BK’s.
Test Spirits
Approved rendering: zkoušet / rozlišovat
Transliteration: dokimazō
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: framing as detection of phenomena/manifestations rather than doctrinal content
Original: δοκιμάζω
Category: Pneumatology
Must be reframed around content (what is confessed about Jesus Christ, 4:2-3), not phenomena, to avoid drift toward ghost-investigation/entertainment associations. Occurs at 4:1.
Overcome
Approved rendering: přemoci / zvítězit
Transliteration: nikaō
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: framing victory as achieved through effort/willpower rather than God’s indwelling presence
Original: νικάω
Category: Sanctification
Ordinary Czech ‘zvítězit’ carries strong secular competitive-achievement connotations; must be explicitly grounded in God’s indwelling presence (4:4), not human effort. Occurs at 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5.
Water And Blood
Approved rendering: voda a krev
Transliteration: to hydōr kai to haima
Doctrine: The Witness of the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood
Original: τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα (with τὸ πνεῦμα)
Category: Christology
Concrete historical referents (Jesus’s baptism; his death) requiring narrative background not assumable for a low-biblical-literacy reader. Occurs at 5:6, 8.
Sin Unto Death
Approved rendering: hřích k smrti
Transliteration: hamartia pros thanaton
Doctrine: Sin unto Death
Rejected alternatives: smrtelný hřích (the Catholic mortal-sin category, formally distinguished from všední/venial hřích — explicitly rejected as an equivalence 1 John itself does not draw)
Original: ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον
Category: Sin
RARE EXCEPTION for this Language Package: a genuine competing religious framework (residual Catholic mortal/venial sin taxonomy) rather than a mere absence of framework. Must be clarified as a distinct, debated Johannine category (5:16-17), likely decisive final rejection of Christ.
Idols
Approved rendering: modly
Transliteration: eidōla
Doctrine: Warning Against Idolatry
Rejected alternatives: idoly (the loanword — MUST NOT USE; collides with the dominant colloquial Czech sense of a celebrity/pop star/admired public figure, e.g. talent-show culture, ‘je to můj idol’)
Original: εἴδωλα
Category: Sanctification
SPECIFIC AND EASILY OVERLOOKED COLLISION. Must use the traditional Bible-vocabulary term ‘modly,’ never the cognate loanword ‘idoly,’ to avoid trivializing the letter’s climactic exclusivity-of-worship warning (5:21).
Truth
Approved rendering: pravda
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: Truth and Falsehood: The Letter’s Liars
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Faith
Ordinary Czech ‘pravda’ is primarily factual-correctness; the letter’s relational/moral sense (self-deceptive denial of one’s own sin, living ‘in the truth’) needs active distinction throughout (1:6, 8; 2:4, 21).
Word Of Life
Approved rendering: slovo života
Transliteration: ho logos tēs zōēs
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
Requires John 1:1’s ‘Slovo’ (Logos) Christological background, which cannot be assumed; without it reads as a vague inspirational phrase. Occurs at 1:1.
Know
Approved rendering: znát / vědět
Transliteration: ginōskō / eidenai
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: softening ‘we know’ (5:13, 18-20) into tentative Czech hedging such as ‘myslím, že…’
Original: γινώσκω / εἰδέναι (οἶδα)
Category: Faith
Two distinct nuances: relational/experiential knowing of God (4:7-8) and the letter’s repeated, settled ‘we know’ of assurance (5:13, 18-20), which must be preserved as confident, assured language throughout.
Medium Risk Terms
Adoption
Approved rendering: přijetí za syna
Doctrine: New Birth and the Family of God
Original: υἱοθεσία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. NOT lexically used in 1 John, which instead uses an organic-birth metaphor (‘děti Boží’ / ‘narodit se z Boha’) for a related but distinct reality. Must be actively distinguished from, never merged with, those new entries below — a genuine cross-book distinction unique to comparing Romans and 1 John.
Peace
Approved rendering: pokoj
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. 1 John’s epistolary form omits the grace/peace greeting; retained for cross-document consistency only.
Intercession
Approved rendering: přímluva
Doctrine: The Advocate of Believers
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Root of the new term ‘přímluvce’ (advocate) below.
Darkness
Approved rendering: temnota / tma
Transliteration: skotia / skotos
Doctrine: Walking in Light versus Walking in Darkness
Original: σκοτία / σκότος
Category: Sin
Standard vocabulary; ensure moral (concealed sin, deception) rather than merely atmospheric sense is taught.
Abide
Approved rendering: zůstávat
Transliteration: menō
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Rejected alternatives: trvat, setrvávat (stylistic variants rejected to preserve rigid consistency of this structural refrain)
Original: μένω
Category: Sanctification
Purely spatial/literal in ordinary Czech usage; the mutual-indwelling relational sense needs explicit unpacking on first substantive use. Recurs roughly 20 times (2:6, 24, 27-28; 3:6, 9, 14-17, 24; 4:12-13, 15-16) and MUST receive identical rendering at every occurrence.
Perfected Love
Approved rendering: dokonalá láska / naplněná láska
Transliteration: teleioō / teleios
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: dokonalá láska used without an accompanying gloss (risks moral-perfectionism misreading)
Original: τελειόω / τέλειος
Category: Sanctification
Czech ‘dokonalý’ carries a strong everyday ‘flawless’ sense; gloss on first use (4:12, 17-18) as ‘reaching its intended goal,’ not moral flawlessness.
Fear
Approved rendering: strach
Transliteration: phobos
Doctrine: Confidence Before God in Prayer and in Judgment
Original: φόβος
Category: Sanctification
Low-charge ordinary word; distinguish this specific ‘fear of punishment’ (4:18) from the unrelated biblical sense of reverential ‘fear of the Lord,’ not in view here.
Lust
Approved rendering: touha / žádost
Transliteration: epithymia
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: touha left without negative framing (too neutral/positive by default)
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Sin
Prefer ‘žádost’ (closer to Kralice/ČEP tradition, more negatively marked) where the disordered, sinful-craving sense of 2:16-17 must be preserved.
Last Hour
Approved rendering: poslední hodina / poslední čas
Transliteration: eschatē hōra
Doctrine: The Last Hour and Eschatological Urgency
Original: ἐσχάτη ὥρα
Category: Eschatology
Requires brief inaugurated-eschatology framework (an already-begun end-times era, not a single future countdown). Occurs at 2:18.
Commandment
Approved rendering: přikázání
Transliteration: entolē
Doctrine: The New Commandment to Love
Rejected alternatives: allowing readers to assume reference to the Mosaic Decalogue without correction
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Covenant
‘Desatero přikázání’ (Ten Commandments) gives this real cultural traction even among secular Czechs — an asset; must clarify this refers to the NEW love-commandment (2:7-8; 3:23; 4:21), not the Mosaic Ten Commandments.
Brother
Approved rendering: bratr
Transliteration: adelphos
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Church
Simple, stable word; the extended non-biological ‘fellow believer’ sense must be taught explicitly, or ‘bratr’ will read as literal biological sibling only. Occurs at 2:9-11; 3:10, 14-17; 4:20-21.
Devil
Approved rendering: ďábel
Transliteration: diabolos
Doctrine: Children of God versus Children of the Devil
Rejected alternatives: čert (Czech folk-devil imagery — too lighthearted, dilutes the stark moral-spiritual antithesis)
Original: διάβολος
Category: Sin
Stable term; must be kept distinct from the more folkloric ‘čert.’ Occurs at 3:8, 10.
Lay Down Life
Approved rendering: položit život
Transliteration: tithēmi tēn psychēn
Doctrine: Laying Down One’s Life: Sacrificial Love
Original: τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν
Category: Sanctification
Genuine cultural asset, echoing secular heroic self-sacrifice language; ensure the reader connects it specifically to Christ’s atoning death (3:16), not generic heroism.
False Prophet
Approved rendering: falešný prorok
Transliteration: pseudoprophētēs
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: ψευδοπροφήτης
Category: Pneumatology
Standard compound built on baseline ‘prorok’ root; low additional risk given the clear negative qualifier. Occurs at 4:1.
Error
Approved rendering: blud
Transliteration: planē
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: omyl (too weak — implies an innocent factual mistake rather than a comprehensive deception-system)
Original: πλάνη
Category: Pneumatology
Prefer ‘blud’ to preserve the intended force of 4:6’s ‘spirit of error.‘
Evil One
Approved rendering: ten Zlý
Transliteration: ho ponēros
Doctrine: New Birth and the Family of God
Rejected alternatives: zlý (lowercase, abstract ‘evil’ rather than a personal title)
Original: ὁ πονηρός
Category: Sin
Matches the traditional Czech Lord’s Prayer phrase (‘chraň nás od Zlého’) — a modest cultural asset. Must retain the personal referent (Satan), not an abstract force. Occurs at 5:18-19.
True God
Approved rendering: pravý Bůh
Transliteration: alēthinos theos
Doctrine: Warning Against Idolatry
Original: ἀληθινός θεός
Category: God
Builds on baseline ‘Bůh’; the ‘genuine vs. counterfeit’ nuance benefits from brief clarification given proximity to the idols warning (5:20-21). Note the JW (Watchtower) doctrinal-bias risk regarding the antecedent of this phrase — see AI Translation Requirements.
Forgive
Approved rendering: odpustit
Transliteration: aphiēmi
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀφίημι
Category: Salvation
Ordinary interpersonal-forgiveness word; specific judicial ground (Christ’s oběť smíření) needs explicit teaching so the term is not reduced to purely emotional ‘letting go’ (1:9).
Cleanse
Approved rendering: očistit
Transliteration: katharizō
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: καθαρίζω
Category: Salvation
Ordinary physical-cleaning word; sacrificial/cultic OT background needs explicit grounding (1:7, 9).
Blood
Approved rendering: krev
Transliteration: haima
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: αἷμα
Category: Salvation
Sacrificial-substitutionary background (Levitical sacrifice) needs explicit grounding to avoid a merely gruesome/confusing reading (1:7; 5:6, 8).
Walk
Approved rendering: chodit
Transliteration: peripateō
Doctrine: Walking in Light versus Walking in Darkness
Rejected alternatives: allowing ‘chodit s někým’ dating-idiom association to intrude unglossed
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Sanctification
Metaphorical ‘walk = conduct of life’ sense is not active in ordinary secular speech, where ‘chodit’ is literal walking or, colloquially, ‘to date someone.’ Needs a brief gloss on first use (1:6-7; 2:6, 11).
Owe
Approved rendering: máme povinnost / jsme povinni
Transliteration: opheilō
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Sanctification
Ordinary financial/legal debt usage is a genuine asset preserving the debt-metaphor; risk is under-teaching the ‘if…then’ connective (4:11), not the vocabulary.
Judgment Day
Approved rendering: den soudu
Transliteration: hēmera tēs kriseōs
Doctrine: Confidence Before God in Prayer and in Judgment
Original: ἡμέρα τῆς κρίσεως
Category: Eschatology
Ordinary Czech civil/criminal-court sense of ‘soud’ is theologically useful; needs the eschatological horizon (a specific future divine event) made explicit (4:17).
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: společenství
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. 1 John’s specific contribution is the doctrinal claim that vertical (with God) and horizontal (with one another) fellowship are a single inseparable reality (1:3, 6-7) — new teaching weight on an otherwise low-risk word.
Prophet
Approved rendering: prorok
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Root of the compound ‘falešný prorok’ (false prophet, 4:1).
Apostle
Approved rendering: apoštol
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. 1 John does not apply ἀπόστολος to its author; retained for cross-document consistency only.
Liar
Approved rendering: lhář
Transliteration: pseustēs
Doctrine: Truth and Falsehood: The Letter’s Liars
Original: ψεύστης
Category: Sin
Blunt, standard Czech word; preserve the deliberate bluntness of 1:10; 2:4, 22; 4:20 rather than softening it diplomatically.
Murderer
Approved rendering: vrah
Transliteration: anthropoktonos
Doctrine: Children of God versus Children of the Devil
Original: ἀνθρωποκτόνος
Category: Sin
Standard, blunt word; preserve the deliberate shock value of the Cain-allusion equivalence (hatred = murder, 3:15).
Compassion
Approved rendering: srdce / slitování
Transliteration: splagchna
Doctrine: Laying Down One’s Life: Sacrificial Love
Original: σπλάγχνα
Category: Sanctification
Idiom transfers naturally into modern Czech ‘srdce.’ Occurs at 3:17.
Punishment
Approved rendering: trest
Transliteration: kolasis
Doctrine: Confidence Before God in Prayer and in Judgment
Original: κόλασις
Category: Eschatology
Standard, unambiguous. Occurs at 4:18.
Referenced passages