Semantic Analysis

Semantic Analysis — 3 John (English → Czech)

Book Overview

3 John is a short personal letter from “the Elder” (traditionally identified with the Apostle John, writing in his later years as an authoritative pastoral figure over several churches in Asia Minor) to a named individual, Gaius. It is the shortest book in the New Testament by Greek word count. Unlike Romans, 3 John is a single chapter (in the Nestle-Aland/UBS Greek text, 15 verses; some English versifications combine vv. 14–15 into a single verse 14, which is why the curriculum’s core passage is cited as “3 John 1:1–14”). Because the book has only one chapter, full-book coverage and core-passage coverage are nearly identical: the verse-by-verse treatment below covers 1:1–14 as instructed, and a short addendum covers v. 15 (the closing greeting) to ensure the entire book — not just the curriculum’s boundary — is documented, per the full-book coverage mandate. A concluding section explicitly confirms there are no further chapters to analyze.

Occasion: The letter commends Gaius for his hospitality to traveling gospel workers, contrasts him with a power-seeking local leader named Diotrephes who refuses hospitality and expels those who show it, and commends a third figure, Demetrius, as a model of faithful character. The letter’s governing concern is truth (ἀλήθεια), which functions as both a doctrinal standard and a description of a way of life, and the practical outworking of that truth in hospitality, church leadership integrity, and the imitation of good rather than evil.

Doctrines addressed in this curriculum: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Imitating Good rather than Evil; Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius); Truth and Christian Fellowship.

Baseline reuse note: Per the hard rule governing this Language Package, any term already recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json is reused exactly as recorded (e.g., ἐκκλησία → církev, εἰρήνη → pokoj, θεός → Bůh, ἔθνη-family vocabulary → pohané). These are marked “Reused from baseline TM” below. All other terms are new to this curriculum and are proposed here for the first time, following the same risk-assessment method the baseline established (comprehension risk weighted as heavily as doctrinal-corruption risk, given the Czech Republic’s low baseline biblical literacy).

Part 1 — Core Passage Verse-by-Verse Analysis (3 John 1:1–14)

3 John 1:1

Greek: Ὁ πρεσβύτερος Γαίῳ τῷ ἀγαπητῷ, ὃν ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ.

πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros)

Literal meaning: “older man”; by extension, “elder.”
Semantic range: (1) a man advanced in age; (2) a recognized office of church leadership/oversight; (3) in Johannine usage, a self-designation of pastoral authority, likely referring to the Apostle John in his elder years.
English variants: “the elder” (most versions); “the presbyter” (formal/literal).
Contextual theological meaning: Not a claim about mere old age but an assertion of recognized apostolic-pastoral authority, entitling the writer to correct Diotrephes and commend Gaius and Demetrius.
Czech rendering: starší — Risk: Medium — “Starší” is a stable, established Czech Bible term (also used in 1–2 Timothy and Titus for the church office), but in ordinary Czech “starší” is simply the comparative adjective “older” (e.g., “starší muž,” “an older man”). Without a capitalization convention or contextual gloss, a secular reader may miss that this is a title of recognized church authority rather than a note about the author’s age.

ἀγαπητός (agapētos)

Literal meaning: “beloved,” “dearly loved.”
Semantic range: term of endearment among believers; used four times in this short letter (vv. 1, 2, 5, 11) as a mark of pastoral affection.
English variants: “beloved,” “dear friend,” “my dear Gaius.”
Contextual theological meaning: Signals covenantal, family-of-God affection, not mere social politeness.
Czech rendering: milovaný — Risk: Low — Established, stable rendering; low ambiguity, though see ἀγάπη below for the underlying risk of collision with the modern Czech romantic sense of love-language.

ἀγαπῶ (agapō, from ἀγαπάω)

Literal meaning: “I love.”
Semantic range: covenantal, self-giving love; distinct from ἔρως (romantic/erotic love) and φιλία (friendship affection, though see φίλος at v. 15, which Johannine literature uses in overlapping ways).
English variants: “I love,” “whom I love.”
Contextual theological meaning: The Elder’s love for Gaius is “in truth” — rooted in shared confession, not mere personal fondness.
Czech rendering: milovat (here: “kterého já miluji”) — Risk: Medium — Not present in the baseline Romans TM (Romans’ glossary did not require a standalone “love” entry). In everyday secular Czech, “milovat/láska” overwhelmingly evokes romantic or familial love (a partner, a spouse, a child) with no automatic reference to covenantal Christian love. NEW TERM — recommend adding to translation memory with a note that the object and quality of the love (fellow believer, “in truth”) must be actively taught rather than assumed.

ἀλήθεια (alētheia)

Literal meaning: “truth,” “reality,” “that which is not concealed.”
Semantic range: factual correctness; but in Johannine literature, a governing theological category — the revealed reality of God in Christ, and the sphere within which genuine Christian life is lived (“walking in truth,” “fellow workers for the truth”).
English variants: “truth.”
Contextual theological meaning: The letter’s dominant term (occurring six times in fifteen verses). “In truth” is not a modifier of sincerity but a description of the shared theological reality binding the Elder, Gaius, and the itinerant brothers together.
Czech rendering: pravda — Risk: High — NEW TERM, not in baseline TM. Ordinary Czech “pravda” denotes simple factual accuracy (“to je pravda,” “that’s true/correct”). The Johannine sense — truth as a lived, communal, theological reality one “walks in” and works for — has no everyday Czech equivalent and must be built up as new conceptual content across the letter, exactly as the baseline requires for terms like “spasení.” Given 3 John’s brevity and the term’s structural centrality (occurring in nearly every paragraph), this is the single highest-priority term in the book.

3 John 1:2

Greek: Ἀγαπητέ, περὶ πάντων εὔχομαί σε εὐοδοῦσθαι καὶ ὑγιαίνειν, καθὼς εὐοδοῦταί σου ἡ ψυχή.

εὔχομαι (euchomai)

Literal meaning: “I wish,” “I pray.”
Semantic range: a prayer-wish, common in ancient letter openings.
English variants: “I pray,” “I wish,” “my prayer is.”
Contextual theological meaning: A conventional epistolary greeting-wish, given genuine pastoral weight by the Elder’s affection for Gaius.
Czech rendering: modlím se / přeji (here: “přeji ti”) — Risk: Low — Standard.

εὐοδοῦσθαι (euodousthai, from εὐοδόω) and ὑγιαίνειν (hygiainein) and ψυχή (psychē)

Literal meaning: εὐοδόω = “to have a good journey,” extended to “to prosper/succeed”; ὑγιαίνω = “to be healthy/sound”; ψυχή = “soul,” “inner life,” “self.”
Semantic range: εὐοδόω ranges from literal travel-success to general well-being; ὑγιαίνω covers physical health and (in the Pastorals) “sound” doctrine; ψυχή covers the whole inner person — mind, will, and spiritual life — not merely emotion.
English variants: “that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health” (ESV); “that you may enjoy good health” (NIV); “prosper… be in health” (KJV).
Contextual theological meaning: This is a conventional ancient letter-opening formula (a standard secular Greco-Roman epistolary greeting adapted by the Elder), NOT a doctrinal promise that spiritual health guarantees material prosperity. The clause “even as your soul prospers” anchors the wish in Gaius’s proven spiritual vitality, which the rest of the letter demonstrates through his hospitality.
Czech rendering: prospívat (εὐοδόω), být zdravý (ὑγιαίνω), duše (ψυχή) — Risk: High — NEW TERMS. This verse is one of the most frequently misapplied verses in the entire New Testament in global “health and wealth” (prosperity gospel) preaching, and the risk transfers directly into Czech: a modern secular reader, primed by wellness and self-improvement culture, could easily read “ať se ti daří a jsi zdráv, tak jako prospívá tvá duše” as a formulaic promise that spiritual devotion produces material prosperity and physical health, rather than recognizing it as a standard ancient letter-greeting whose theological weight lies entirely in the final clause about Gaius’s soul. Additionally, “duše” in contemporary Czech usage skews toward a psychological/therapeutic register (“duševní zdraví,” mental health) rather than the fuller Johannine sense of one’s whole spiritual life before God. Requires an explicit translator/teaching note distinguishing this from prosperity-gospel readings.

3 John 1:3–4

Greek (v.3): ἐχάρην γὰρ λίαν ἐρχομένων ἀδελφῶν καὶ μαρτυρούντων σου τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, καθὼς σὺ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ περιπατεῖς. Greek (v.4): μειζοτέραν τούτων οὐκ ἔχω χαράν, ἵνα ἀκούω τὰ ἐμὰ τέκνα ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ περιπατοῦντα.

ἀδελφός / ἀδελφοί (adelphos)

Literal meaning: “brother(s).”
Semantic range: biological sibling; extended in the New Testament to fellow believers as members of God’s family; here specifically itinerant Christian missionaries.
English variants: “brothers,” “brethren.”
Contextual theological meaning: Frames the traveling ministers as family, not strangers to be treated with suspicion — the theological basis for the hospitality obligation developed in vv. 5–8.
Czech rendering: bratři — Risk: Low–Medium — Standard word, but the spiritual-family sense (fellow believers, not biological kin) should be reinforced on first use, since Czech readers with no church background will default to the literal-kinship sense.

μαρτυρέω (martyreō)

Literal meaning: “to bear witness,” “to testify.”
Semantic range: legal/judicial testimony; personal report/confirmation; in Johannine literature, a technical term for authoritative confirmation of someone’s genuine spiritual character or of the truth of the gospel itself.
English variants: “testify,” “report,” “bear witness (to).”
Contextual theological meaning: The traveling brothers’ testimony about Gaius’s “truth” (i.e., his authentic Christian life) is treated as reliable, weighty confirmation — the same verb (and its noun μαρτυρία) becomes the key term for the commendation of Demetrius in v. 12, tying the doctrine “Commendation of Faithful Witness” directly to this word.
Czech rendering: svědčit (noun: svědectví) — Risk: High — NEW TERM. Established, stable Czech Bible vocabulary, but everyday secular Czech usage of “svědectví/svědčit” is dominated by the courtroom sense (a witness’s legal testimony, “svědek u soudu”). This parallels the risk pattern the baseline flagged for “spravedlnost”/“ospravedlnění”: the reader’s only readily available association will be forensic/legal rather than the Johannine sense of a trustworthy report about someone’s observable spiritual character. Given that this term structurally carries the “Commendation of Faithful Witness” doctrine (v. 12, on Demetrius), it requires an explicit teaching gloss distinguishing “bearing witness to someone’s godly character” from “giving legal testimony.”

περιπατέω (peripateō)

Literal meaning: “to walk,” “to go about.”
Semantic range: literal physical walking; a common Hebraic/Johannine idiom for one’s manner of life, conduct, or lifestyle (“walking in the light,” “walking in truth”).
English variants: “walk,” “live,” “conduct oneself.”
Contextual theological meaning: “Walking in truth” describes a whole way of life consistently shaped by the gospel, not a single act of correct belief.
Czech rendering: chodit (here: “chodit v pravdě” / “žít v pravdě”) — Risk: Medium — The conduct-metaphor sense of “walking” is not native to everyday Czech idiom, where “chodit” ordinarily means literal movement, or — in a striking colloquial collision — “chodit s někým” (“to date/go steady with someone”). A literal rendering risks either flatness or unintended romantic-idiom interference. Recommend “žít v pravdě” (“to live in truth”) as the primary rendering, retaining “chodit” only where the established Bible-translation tradition (Kralice/ČEP) already uses it, with an explanatory note on the conduct-metaphor.

χαρά (chara) / ἐχάρην (from χαίρω)

Literal meaning: “joy” / “I rejoiced.”
Semantic range: gladness, delight; here specifically the Elder’s pastoral joy at hearing good reports of his spiritual children.
English variants: “joy,” “I was overjoyed,” “no greater joy.”
Contextual theological meaning: Joy is grounded in others’ faithfulness to the truth, not in personal circumstance — a pastoral, relational joy.
Czech rendering: radost / zaradoval jsem se — Risk: Low — Standard.

τέκνα (tekna)

Literal meaning: “children.”
Semantic range: biological children; in pastoral/apostolic usage, spiritual children — those the writer led to faith or nurtured.
English variants: “my children,” “my own children.”
Contextual theological meaning: Establishes the Elder’s pastoral, parental relationship to the churches under his care.
Czech rendering: děti (here: “moje děti”) — Risk: Low–Medium — Standard word; the spiritual (not biological) sense should be briefly noted for a reader unfamiliar with this common pastoral metaphor.

3 John 1:5

Greek: Ἀγαπητέ, πιστὸν ποιεῖς ὃ ἐὰν ἐργάσῃ εἰς τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τοῦτο ξένους,

πιστός / πιστὸν ποιεῖς (pistos)

Literal meaning: “faithful”; the phrase means “you are doing a faithful thing” / “you act faithfully.”
Semantic range: trustworthy, reliable, faith-full; from the same root family as πίστις (faith), already established in the baseline as víra.
English variants: “you are faithful in what you are doing,” “you do a faithful thing,” “you are acting faithfully.”
Contextual theological meaning: Gaius’s hospitality is not incidental kindness but an expression of the same faith-loyalty commended throughout the New Testament.
Czech rendering: věrně jednáš / prokazuješ věrnost — Risk: Low–Medium — Draws on the same root as the baseline’s víra/věrný word family; no new doctrinal risk, but worth linking explicitly to the faith vocabulary already taught elsewhere in the curriculum so learners see the connection between “faith” and “faithful action.”

ξένος / ξένους (xenos)

Literal meaning: “stranger,” “foreigner,” “guest.”
Semantic range: an outsider unknown to the host; in Greco-Roman and Jewish culture, a person owed hospitality precisely because of, not despite, being unknown — the basis of the ancient hospitality code this letter assumes.
English variants: “strangers,” “even though they are strangers” (ESV/NIV); “strangers though they were” (older versions).
Contextual theological meaning: The itinerant gospel workers had no prior personal relationship with Gaius’s church; his hospitality was to Christian strangers purely on the basis of their gospel mission, not personal acquaintance — the doctrinal heart of “Hospitality to Traveling Ministers.”
Czech rendering: cizí lidé (ČEP-style, “ačkoli jsou to cizí lidé”) — Risk: High — NEW TERM. The most direct Czech equivalent, “cizinec” (“foreigner”), carries strong, live, and often politically charged contemporary connotations in Czech public discourse around immigration and national identity — a genuinely contemporary collision risk distinct from anything in the Romans baseline. A rendering that reads as commentary on modern immigration policy would badly distort Paul’s/John’s actual point (ancient hospitality toward unknown fellow-believers). Recommend the softer, less politically loaded “cizí lidé” (“people who were strangers/unfamiliar to them”) over “cizinci,” paired with an explanatory note grounding the term in the ancient hospitality custom rather than any modern immigration framing.

3 John 1:6

Greek: οἳ ἐμαρτύρησάν σου τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἐνώπιον ἐκκλησίας· οὕς καλῶς ποιήσεις προπέμψας ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ·

ἀγάπη (agapē)

Literal meaning: “love.”
Semantic range: see ἀγαπῶ at v. 1; the noun form of covenantal, self-giving love, here specifically demonstrated in concrete hospitality.
English variants: “love,” “your love.”
Contextual theological meaning: Gaius’s love is publicly attested before the gathered church — love is not private sentiment but visible, verifiable action.
Czech rendering: láska — Risk: Medium — See notes at v. 1; same romantic-love collision risk in ordinary secular Czech usage.

ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) — Reused from baseline TM

Czech rendering: církev — Risk: Medium (per baseline) — Here refers to the local assembly before whom the missionaries testified; retain the baseline’s caution to distinguish “církev” (the gathered community) from “kostel” (the building), especially since 3 John’s ἐκκλησία (vv. 6, 9, 10) is a small, local, first-century house-church gathering, a scale unfamiliar to readers whose only association with “církev” may be a large historic institution or tourist landmark.

προπέμπω (propempō)

Literal meaning: “to send forward,” “to escort,” “to send on one’s way.”
Semantic range: in the ancient world, sending a traveler off with provisions, funds, an escort, or letters of introduction — substantive material and social support for a journey, not merely a farewell wave.
English variants: “to send them on their journey,” “help them on their way,” “send them forward.”
Contextual theological meaning: Concrete material partnership in the missionaries’ work — the practical outworking of “Hospitality to Traveling Ministers.”
Czech rendering: vypravit na cestu — Risk: Medium — NEW TERM. Without explanation, a Czech reader may take this as a simple social farewell (“rozloučit se,” “doprovodit ke dveřím”) rather than understanding the ancient practice of materially outfitting missionaries for travel (funds, supplies, companions). Requires a brief cultural-background note.

ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ (axiōs tou theou)

Literal meaning: “worthily of God,” “in a manner worthy of God.”
Semantic range: a standard of conduct measured against God’s own character/honor, not merely social propriety.
English variants: “in a manner worthy of God,” “as befits God’s service.”
Contextual theological meaning: Sets an unusually high bar for hospitality — it is to be rendered as an act of service to God himself, not mere social courtesy.
Czech rendering: hodně/důstojně Boha (e.g., “jak se sluší před Bohem”) — Risk: Medium — New phrase requiring explanation that ordinary generosity is here reframed as worship-quality service to God.

3 John 1:7

Greek: ὑπὲρ γὰρ τοῦ ὀνόματος ἐξῆλθον μηδὲν λαμβάνοντες ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνικῶν.

ὄνομα (onoma, “the Name”)

Literal meaning: “name.”
Semantic range: ordinary personal name; in Johannine and wider NT Christological usage, an absolute reference (“the Name,” without further specification) understood to mean Christ’s name/identity/authority — a technical shorthand rather than a generic word.
English variants: “for the sake of the Name” (ESV, NIV — capitalized to signal the technical sense); “for his name’s sake” (older versions, adding “his”).
Contextual theological meaning: The missionaries went out specifically as representatives of Christ’s own identity and authority — their mission is Christ’s mission, not a personal or humanitarian project.
Czech rendering: pro to Jméno (capitalized, with a bracketed gloss “[tj. pro Krista]” at first occurrence) — Risk: High — NEW TERM. This is structurally the same fragile-signal problem the baseline documented for Pán (Lord): an absolute, capitalized “the Name” is a distinctly Johannine idiom that a secular Czech reader has no basis for decoding correctly without explicit explanation — “for the name” of what/whom is not self-evident. This requires the same kind of accompanying explanatory note the baseline mandates for the Lordship confession in Romans 10:9.

ἐθνικός / ἐθνικῶν (ethnikos)

Literal meaning: “of a nation,” “pagan,” “heathen”; adjectival form related to but distinct from ἔθνη (the noun rendered “Gentiles”/“pohané” in the Romans baseline).
Semantic range: in this context, refers not to ethnic non-Jews (Romans’ Jew–Gentile argument) but simply to non-Christian outsiders in general — people outside the believing community, from whom it would be inappropriate for gospel workers to accept support (to avoid entangling the gospel mission with pagan patronage or the appearance of financial dependence on unbelievers).
English variants: “the pagans,” “the heathen,” “unbelievers,” “outsiders.”
Contextual theological meaning: A financial/missiological principle: gospel workers relied on the believing community’s hospitality specifically so the gospel’s advance would not appear to depend on, or be indebted to, non-Christian patrons.
Czech rendering: pohané (reusing the baseline term) with an explanatory note — Risk: Medium–High — This is a genuine cross-document consistency risk: the baseline’s “pohané” entry was calibrated to Romans’ ethnic Jew/Gentile argument (Medium risk, “pohané” carrying a stronger charge than neutral “Gentiles”). Here the referent has shifted to a broader, non-ethnic sense — simply “non-believers/outsiders” — and using the identical Czech word without a clarifying note risks readers importing Romans’ Jew–Gentile framework into a passage where it does not apply. Recommend retaining “pohané” for lexical consistency with the baseline but adding an explicit gloss: “zde ve smyslu nevěřících vně církve, nikoli v etnickém smyslu Židé/pohané z Římanům” (“here in the sense of unbelievers outside the church, not in the ethnic Jew/Gentile sense from Romans”).

3 John 1:8

Greek: ἡμεῖς οὖν ὀφείλομεν ὑπολαμβάνειν τοὺς τοιούτους, ἵνα συνεργοὶ γινώμεθα τῇ ἀληθείᾳ.

ὀφείλομεν (opheilō)

Literal meaning: “we owe,” “we ought,” “we are obligated.”
Semantic range: financial debt; moral/ethical obligation.
English variants: “we ought,” “we should,” “it is our duty.”
Contextual theological meaning: Hospitality to gospel workers is framed as an obligation flowing from shared participation in the gospel, not optional generosity.
Czech rendering: máme povinnost / musíme — Risk: Low–Medium — Standard; brief note recommended that this “ought” is gospel-partnership duty, not legal or social obligation.

ὑπολαμβάνω (hypolambanō)

Literal meaning: “to take up,” “to receive,” “to support.”
Semantic range: physically receiving/hosting someone; supporting someone materially.
English variants: “support,” “receive,” “welcome (and support).”
Contextual theological meaning: A synonym cluster with ἐπιδέχομαι (v. 9–10) and προπέμπω (v. 6) — all describing the concrete, material dimension of hospitality to traveling ministers.
Czech rendering: podporovat / přijímat — Risk: Medium — Same ancient-hospitality-background risk as the other reception verbs; needs teaching, not just translation.

συνεργός / συνεργοὶ (synergos)

Literal meaning: “fellow worker,” “co-worker.”
Semantic range: a partner working toward the same goal or task; in Paul’s letters, a common designation for gospel co-laborers.
English variants: “fellow workers,” “co-workers,” “partners.”
Contextual theological meaning: By supporting traveling ministers, Gaius’s church becomes an active partner in the gospel mission, not a passive audience — this is the concrete link between hospitality and “Truth and Christian Fellowship.”
Czech rendering: spolupracovníci — Risk: Medium — NEW TERM. In everyday secular Czech, “spolupracovník” simply means a workplace colleague or business partner. The theological sense — shared partnership in advancing the gospel truth, without direct participation in the actual preaching — needs to be actively taught, since the secular register offers no automatic bridge to this meaning.

3 John 1:9

Greek: Ἔγραψα τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· ἀλλ᾿ ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐτῶν Διοτρέφης οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται ἡμᾶς.

φιλοπρωτεύων (philoprōteuōn, from φιλοπρωτεύω)

Literal meaning: “loving to be first,” “desiring preeminence,” “wanting to hold first place.”
Semantic range: This word occurs only once in the entire New Testament (a hapax legomenon), coined from φιλ- (“loving/fond of”) + πρωτεύω (“to be first/hold first place”). It denotes an ambitious, status-seeking, controlling disposition specifically within a community/leadership context.
English variants: “who loves to put himself first” (NIV); “who likes to put himself first” (ESV); “who loveth to have the preeminence” (KJV).
Contextual theological meaning: This is the single term that names the theological problem at the heart of the doctrine “Church Leadership and Pride.” Diotrephes’ fault is not a specific doctrinal error but a disposition of self-exalting ambition that leads him to reject apostolic authority, slander the Elder, refuse hospitality, and expel dissenters.
Czech rendering: ten, kdo touží po prvenství / chce si hrát na prvního (ČEP-style) — Risk: High — NEW TERM, doctrinally central. Grounded reason for High risk: (1) as a hapax legomenon, there is no existing Czech Bible-translation convention to fall back on beyond the ČEP’s periphrastic rendering, so consistency across this curriculum’s documents must be established here for the first time; (2) contemporary secular Czech culture, like much of the West, often frames personal ambition and “wanting to be first/best” positively (career advancement, competitive achievement), the inverse of the term’s clearly negative, vice-naming force in this text — the translation must ensure the ambition-for-status sense reads unambiguously as a fault, not an admirable trait, requiring an explicit teaching note.

ἐπιδέχεται (epidechomai, negated: οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται)

Literal meaning: “to receive,” “to accept,” “to welcome.”
Semantic range: to receive a person, teaching, or authority; here specifically the refusal to receive/acknowledge the Elder’s authority and, in v. 10, his messengers.
English variants: “does not acknowledge our authority” (NIV, interpretive); “does not receive us/acknowledge us” (ESV, more literal); “receiveth us not” (KJV).
Contextual theological meaning: Diotrephes’ refusal is not passive but an active rejection of apostolic authority and of the missionary-hospitality practice the whole letter commends — the direct negative counterpart to Gaius’s hospitality in vv. 5–8.
Czech rendering: nepřijímá (nás) — Risk: Medium–High — Same hospitality-reception term family as ὑπολαμβάνω/προπέμπω; here the risk is heightened because the refusal carries the additional sense of rejecting recognized authority, not merely declining to host a guest — this dual sense (hospitality + authority) needs to be made explicit in teaching material.

3 John 1:10

Greek: διὰ τοῦτο, ἐὰν ἔλθω, ὑπομνήσω αὐτοῦ τὰ ἔργα ἃ ποιεῖ, λόγοις πονηροῖς καταλαλῶν ἡμᾶς· καὶ μὴ ἀρκούμενος ἐπὶ τούτοις οὔτε αὐτὸς ἐπιδέχεται τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τοὺς βουλομένους κωλύει καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐκβάλλει.

καταλαλέω (katalaleō)

Literal meaning: “to speak against,” “to slander,” “to talk down.”
Semantic range: malicious gossip or slander, speaking evil of someone, usually behind their back or to undermine their standing.
English variants: “spreading malicious nonsense” (NIV); “talking wicked nonsense” (ESV); “speaking evil of” (KJV).
Contextual theological meaning: One concrete “work” of Diotrephes’ self-exalting pride — using speech itself to undermine the Elder’s apostolic authority.
Czech rendering: pomlouvat (here: “pomlouvá nás zlými slovy”) — Risk: Low–Medium — Standard, everyday Czech word; low ambiguity, though worth noting the seriousness of this behavior in a leadership context rather than treating it as ordinary social gossip.

κωλύω (kōlyō)

Literal meaning: “to hinder,” “to prevent,” “to forbid.”
Semantic range: to block or prevent an action.
English variants: “stops them,” “forbids,” “hinders.”
Contextual theological meaning: Diotrephes actively prevents others in the church who wish to extend hospitality from doing so — an abuse of leadership authority to override the church’s own faithful members.
Czech rendering: zabraňovat / zakazovat — Risk: Low — Standard, unambiguous.

ἐκβάλλω (ekballō)

Literal meaning: “to throw out,” “to cast out,” “to expel.”
Semantic range: literal physical ejection; in the Gospels, exorcism (“cast out demons”); here, formal expulsion of members from the local church community — language that echoes the synagogue-expulsion experience of believers described elsewhere in Johannine literature (e.g., John 9:34–35).
English variants: “puts them out of the church” (NIV); “throws them out of the church” (ESV); “casteth them out of the church” (KJV).
Contextual theological meaning: The most severe of Diotrephes’ abuses — using apparent authority over the local assembly to formally exclude faithful believers from the community itself, an act of ecclesiastical power, not mere personal unkindness.
Czech rendering: vylučuje z církve — Risk: High — Grounded reason: this term names a formal act of church discipline/exclusion carried out by an abusive leader for illegitimate reasons (protecting his own status, not protecting doctrine or morals). A flat rendering risks either (a) sounding like ordinary physical eviction, losing the ecclesiastical-authority weight, or (b) being read by a secular Czech audience — largely unfamiliar with any lived experience of church discipline or excommunication — as an oddly harsh, almost incomprehensible action, without understanding the real social and spiritual stakes of exclusion from a first-century house-church community. Requires explicit background explanation, paralleling the baseline’s treatment of other high-stakes, low-familiarity concepts.

ἔργα (erga) and βουλομένους (from βούλομαι, “wishing/willing”)

Literal meaning: ἔργα = “works, deeds”; βούλομαι = “to wish, want, be willing.”
Semantic range: standard vocabulary; ἔργα here denotes Diotrephes’ observable, nameable pattern of behavior; βουλομένους refers to church members willing/wanting to show hospitality whom Diotrephes blocks.
English variants: “the things he does” / “those who want to.”
Contextual theological meaning: The Elder intends to publicly name Diotrephes’ specific deeds on his next visit — a model of accountable, non-anonymous church correction.
Czech rendering: skutky / ti, kdo chtěli — Risk: Low — Standard.

3 John 1:11

Greek: Ἀγαπητέ, μὴ μιμοῦ τὸ κακὸν ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀγαθόν. ὁ ἀγαθοποιῶν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν· ὁ κακοποιῶν οὐχ ἑώρακεν τὸν θεόν.

μιμοῦ (from μιμέομαι, “to imitate”)

Literal meaning: “imitate,” “follow the example of,” “copy.”
Semantic range: to model one’s behavior on another’s pattern; root of the English “mimic/mimesis.”
English variants: “do not imitate,” “do not copy,” “follow not.”
Contextual theological meaning: This is the direct textual basis for the doctrine “Imitating Good rather than Evil”: character formation happens by patterning oneself after observable examples (Demetrius, positively; Diotrephes, negatively), not merely by holding correct abstract beliefs.
Czech rendering: nenapodobuj — Risk: Medium — NEW TERM. Standard, transparent Czech word with no secular-collision risk, but the underlying doctrine of spiritual formation-by-imitation (mimesis) is unfamiliar and should be taught explicitly: the point is not generic moral advice (“don’t be bad, be good”) but a specific claim that believers grow in character by deliberately patterning themselves after godly examples within the community, exemplified concretely by Demetrius in v. 12.

κακόν / κακοποιῶν and ἀγαθόν / ἀγαθοποιῶν (kakos/kakopoieō; agathos/agathopoieō)

Literal meaning: κακός = “bad, evil, harmful”; ἀγαθός = “good, beneficial”; the -ποιέω compounds mean “doing evil” / “doing good.”
Semantic range: general ethical vocabulary for morally bad and morally good action.
English variants: “evil… good”; “whoever does good… whoever does evil.”
Contextual theological meaning: Crucially, this is not surface-level moralism (“behave well and you’ll be rewarded”). The clause “ὁ ἀγαθοποιῶν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν” (“the one who does good is of God”) makes an ontological claim: good and evil actions are treated as evidence revealing one’s spiritual origin/relationship to God, not merely behaviors to be judged independently.
Czech rendering: dobro/zlo, činit dobro/zlo — Risk: Medium — Standard ethical vocabulary; the risk is not lexical but doctrinal — a flattened moralistic reading (“be good, not bad”) must be corrected with a note that this passage links visible conduct to one’s underlying spiritual identity (“is of God” / “has not seen God”), consistent with the broader Johannine pattern (cf. 1 John 3:9–10) of treating observable action as diagnostic of spiritual reality.

θεός (theos) — Reused from baseline TM

Czech rendering: Bůh — Risk: Critical (per baseline) — No new notes; standard usage.

3 John 1:12

Greek: Δημητρίῳ μεμαρτύρηται ὑπὸ πάντων καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληθείας· καὶ ἡμεῖς δὲ μαρτυροῦμεν, καὶ οἶδας ὅτι ἡ μαρτυρία ἡμῶν ἀληθής ἐστιν.

Δημήτριος (Dēmētrios)

Literal meaning: proper name (a very common Greco-Roman name, meaning “belonging to Demeter”).
Semantic range: proper noun; possibly the bearer of this letter, otherwise unknown from other New Testament references.
English variants: “Demetrius.”
Contextual theological meaning: Presented as a positive, concrete embodiment of the “good” the reader is told to imitate in v. 11 — the doctrine “Commendation of Faithful Witness” is built entirely around this named individual.
Czech rendering: Démétrios (established Czech Bible transliteration pattern) — Risk: Low (proper name; standard transliteration) — though doctrinal significance as a positive character model is High; this significance belongs to the doctrine-mapping notes, not the name itself.

μεμαρτύρηται / μαρτυροῦμεν / μαρτυρία / ἀληθής (martyreō family, again; ἀλήθεια family)

See μαρτυρέω at v. 3 above for the base term. Here the verb appears three times in one verse (perfect passive “has been well spoken of/attested,” present active “we also testify,” and the noun “our testimony”), the highest concentration of witness-vocabulary in the letter, directly grounding the “Commendation of Faithful Witness” doctrine.
Additional nuance: “ὑπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληθείας” (“by the truth itself”) personifies ἀλήθεια as itself bearing witness to Demetrius’s character — truth is not only a standard to measure against but is depicted as an active, self-evidencing witness. ἀληθής (“true”) modifies “our testimony,” asserting the reliability of the Elder’s own commendation.
Czech rendering: svědčit / svědectví / pravdivý — Risk: High — See notes on μαρτυρέω at v. 3; here the risk is compounded because this verse is the doctrinal anchor for “Commendation of Faithful Witness,” and the personification of “truth itself” bearing witness is a distinctly Johannine theological move with no ready secular parallel — it must be explained, not merely translated, or it will simply read as an odd repetition of “true/testify” vocabulary.

3 John 1:13–14

Greek (v.13): Πολλὰ εἶχον γράψαι σοι ἀλλ᾿ οὐ θέλω διὰ μέλανος καὶ καλάμου σοι γράφειν· Greek (v.14): ἐλπίζω δὲ εὐθέως σε ἰδεῖν, καὶ στόμα πρὸς στόμα λαλήσομεν.

μέλανος / καλάμου (melas, “ink”; kalamos, “reed pen”)

Literal meaning: “ink” and “reed” (the ancient writing instrument).
Semantic range: concrete, literal writing materials.
English variants: “with pen and ink,” “with ink and pen.”
Contextual theological meaning: No distinct doctrinal content; a personal, epistolary detail expressing the Elder’s preference for face-to-face communication over a long letter — reinforcing the letter’s relational, pastoral warmth.
Czech rendering: černí (inkoust) a pero/rákosové pero — Risk: Low — Standard, non-theological vocabulary; no special risk beyond ordinary translation accuracy.

ἐλπίζω (elpizō, “I hope”)

Literal meaning: “I hope,” “I expect.”
Semantic range: confident anticipation, sometimes with theological weight (hope in God’s promises) but here used in its ordinary, non-technical sense of personal expectation of a future visit.
English variants: “I hope,” “I trust.”
Contextual theological meaning: Ordinary usage; no doctrinal freight in this occurrence.
Czech rendering: doufám — Risk: Low.

στόμα πρὸς στόμα (stoma pros stoma, “mouth to mouth”)

Literal meaning: “mouth to mouth.”
Semantic range: a Hebraic idiom (cf. Numbers 12:8) for direct, face-to-face, unmediated communication, as opposed to a letter or a third-party messenger.
English variants: “face to face” (most versions, idiomatic); “mouth to mouth” (literal, older/formal versions).
Contextual theological meaning: Expresses the personal, relational character the Elder prefers for resolving the Diotrephes situation and for fellowship generally — consistent with the doctrine “Truth and Christian Fellowship,” which values direct relational engagement, not merely correct doctrine transmitted at a distance.
Czech rendering: tváří v tvář (idiomatic, ČEP-style) rather than a literal “ústy k ústům” — Risk: Low–Medium — A literal rendering (“mouth to mouth”) risks sounding either archaic/odd or, in modern colloquial Czech, could unintentionally evoke resuscitation (“dýchání z ústy do ústa,” mouth-to-mouth resuscitation) — an unrelated and jarring modern association. Recommend the natural idiomatic Czech equivalent “tváří v tvář” (“face to face”) to avoid this collision, noting the departure from literalism in the translator log.

Addendum — 3 John 1:15 (Closing Greeting, Beyond the Core Passage Boundary)

Greek: Εἰρήνη σοι. ἀσπάζονταί σε οἱ φίλοι. ἀσπάζου τοὺς φίλους κατ᾿ ὄνομα.

Included here for full-book coverage, since the Greek text’s fifteenth verse falls just beyond the curriculum’s stated core-passage boundary (1:1–14) but completes the book.

εἰρήνη (eirēnē) — Reused from baseline TM

Czech rendering: pokoj — Risk: Medium (per baseline) — Standard closing greeting-benediction; retain the baseline’s caution against the everyday sense of “pokoj” as mere quiet/absence of disturbance (“Dej mi pokoj”), even in this brief closing formula, since it is the letter’s final theological note.

φίλος / φίλοι (philos)

Literal meaning: “friend(s).”
Semantic range: personal affection and loyalty distinct from, but overlapping with, the family-language ἀδελφός (“brothers”) used earlier in the letter; in Johannine literature (cf. John 15:14–15), “friends” is itself a meaningful relational category for believers, not a lesser, more casual term than “brothers.”
English variants: “friends,” “the friends.”
Contextual theological meaning: The closing shift from “brothers” to “friends” reflects the personal, relationally warm register of the whole letter and echoes Johannine theology’s use of “friend” as a term of intimate discipleship, not mere social acquaintance.
Czech rendering: přátelé — Risk: Low — Standard, though worth a brief note that “přátelé” here carries the same theological weight as “bratři” elsewhere in the letter, not a step down to mere casual acquaintance.

ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai, “to greet”)

Literal meaning: “to greet,” “to send greetings to.”
Semantic range: standard epistolary greeting-exchange formula.
Czech rendering: pozdravovat — Risk: Low — Standard.

κατ᾿ ὄνομα (“by name,” “each by name”)

Literal meaning: “according to name,” i.e., “individually, each by name.”
Contextual theological meaning: A small but warm pastoral detail — personal, individual greeting rather than a generic collective one, consistent with the letter’s relational emphasis throughout.
Czech rendering: jménem, každého jednotlivě — Risk: Low.

Part 2 — Chapter-by-Chapter Coverage of the Whole Book

3 John consists of a single chapter (1:1–15 in the Greek text; 1:1–14 as cited in this curriculum’s core passage, which — as documented above — omits only the closing greeting formula of v. 15). There are no additional chapters in this book to analyze. The verse-by-verse treatment in Part 1 above, together with the v. 15 addendum, therefore constitutes complete, full-book coverage of 3 John’s load-bearing theological vocabulary, satisfying the full-book coverage mandate for this curriculum. No chapter is silently omitted because no further chapter exists.

Doctrine-to-Term Quick Reference

Curriculum Doctrine	Primary Greek Terms	Primary Verses
Hospitality to Traveling Ministers	ξένος, ἐπιδέχομαι, ὑπολαμβάνω, προπέμπω, συνεργός, ἀδελφός	vv. 5–8
Imitating Good rather than Evil	μιμέομαι, κακός/κακοποιέω, ἀγαθός/ἀγαθοποιέω	v. 11
Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)	φιλοπρωτεύων, ἐπιδέχεται (negated), καταλαλέω, κωλύω, ἐκβάλλω, πρεσβύτερος	vv. 9–10
Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)	μαρτυρέω/μαρτυρία, ἀληθής, Δημήτριος	v. 12
Truth and Christian Fellowship	ἀλήθεια, συνεργός, στόμα πρὸς στόμα, φίλος/ἀδελφός	vv. 1, 3–4, 8, 14–15

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