Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 3 John (English → Czech)
This glossary extends the baseline Romans translation_memory.json for the 3 John curriculum. Terms marked “Reused from baseline TM” must use the exact recorded Czech rendering from the baseline and must not be altered. All other terms are new to this curriculum, proposed here for the first time using the same risk-assessment method the baseline established, and are recommended for addition to translation_memory.json (with version increment) before Phase 2 translation begins.
Risk tier definitions (identical to baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json):
- Critical — Mistranslation alters or destroys essential doctrine. Human theologian review required.
- 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 or imprecision. Automated review sufficient.
Glossary Table
| # | English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Czech Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Status | Grounded Risk Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | elder | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | starší | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride | New | Everyday Czech “starší” = comparative “older,” not automatically a leadership title; office sense must be taught. |
| 2 | beloved | ἀγαπητός (agapētos) | milovaný | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Established, transparent rendering. |
| 3 | love (verb/noun) | ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη (agapaō/agapē) | milovat / láska | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality | New | Secular Czech “láska” defaults to romantic/familial love; covenantal sense must be actively taught (no baseline entry exists to inherit from). |
| 4 | truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | pravda | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship (governing term of the whole book) | New | Ordinary Czech “pravda” = mere factual correctness; Johannine sense of a lived, communal, theological reality has no everyday equivalent and recurs 6x in 15 verses, making this the book’s single highest-priority term. |
| 5 | prosper / be in health / soul | εὐοδόω / ὑγιαίνω / ψυχή (euodoō/hygiainō/psychē) | prospívat / být zdravý / duše | High | (Epistolary greeting; risk of prosperity-gospel misreading) | New | Documented global mistranslation pitfall: 3 John 2 is frequently misused as a “health and wealth” promise; must be framed as a conventional ancient letter-greeting, not a doctrinal formula. “Duše” also skews toward therapeutic/psychological register in modern Czech. |
| 6 | rejoice / joy | χαίρω / χαρά (chairō/chara) | radovat se / radost | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Standard, transparent. |
| 7 | brother(s) | ἀδελφός (adelphos) | bratr / bratři | Low–Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Spiritual-family sense (not biological) needs brief reinforcement on first use. |
| 8 | walk (conduct) | περιπατέω (peripateō) | žít / chodit (v pravdě) | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Conduct-metaphor unfamiliar in Czech idiom; “chodit” also colloquially means “to date someone,” a collision risk. Prefer “žít v pravdě.” |
| 9 | children (spiritual) | τέκνα (tekna) | děti | Low–Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Spiritual (not biological) sense needs brief note. |
| 10 | faithful(ly) | πιστός (pistos) | věrný / věrně | Low–Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Same root family as baseline’s víra/faith vocabulary; link explicitly for learner consistency. |
| 11 | stranger(s) | ξένος (xenos) | cizí lidé | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Direct equivalent “cizinec” carries live, politically charged contemporary Czech connotations (immigration debate); risks distorting the ancient-hospitality point into contemporary political commentary. Use softer “cizí lidé” with an explanatory note. |
| 12 | church | ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) | církev | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride; Hospitality | Reused from baseline TM | Retain baseline distinction from “kostel” (building); note the small, local house-church scale in 3 John, unlike readers’ likely large-institution association. |
| 13 | send on one’s way / support for travel | προπέμπω (propempō) | vypravit na cestu | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Risk of being read as a mere social farewell rather than substantive material provisioning for missionary travel. |
| 14 | worthily of God | ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ (axiōs tou theou) | hodně/důstojně Boha | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | New phrase; reframes ordinary hospitality as worship-quality service to God — needs explanation. |
| 15 | the Name (Christ) | ὄνομα (onoma, absolute use) | (to) Jméno [+ gloss: Kristovo] | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Fragile-signal risk structurally identical to baseline’s “Pán”: absolute capitalized “the Name” is a Johannine idiom with no self-evident referent for a reader without explicit explanation. |
| 16 | Gentiles / pagans / unbelievers (non-ethnic sense) | ἐθνικός (ethnikos) | pohané [+ gloss] | Medium–High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Reused rendering / new nuance | Same Czech word as baseline’s ἔθνη → “pohané,” but referent has shifted from Romans’ ethnic Jew/Gentile sense to a general “non-believers outside the church” sense; requires an explicit note to prevent cross-document doctrinal conflation. |
| 17 | ought / obligated | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | máme povinnost | Low–Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Standard; note this is gospel-partnership duty, not legalistic burden. |
| 18 | support / receive | ὑπολαμβάνω (hypolambanō) | podporovat / přijímat | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Ancient hospitality-support background unfamiliar; part of a reception-verb synonym cluster with ἐπιδέχομαι and προπέμπω. |
| 19 | fellow worker(s) | συνεργός (synergos) | spolupracovník(ci) | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Secular Czech default = workplace colleague; gospel-partnership sense must be taught. |
| 20 | one who loves to be first / self-exalting ambition | φιλοπρωτεύω (philoprōteuō) | ten, kdo touží po prvenství | High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New | New Testament hapax legomenon with no prior Czech Bible-translation convention beyond ČEP’s periphrasis; secular culture often frames “wanting to be first” positively (ambition, competitiveness), inverse of the term’s vice-naming force here — must be clearly marked as a fault. |
| 21 | receive / welcome (hospitality + authority) | ἐπιδέχομαι (epidechomai) | přijímat | Medium–High | Church Leadership and Pride; Hospitality | New | Carries a dual sense (receiving a guest AND acknowledging authority); Diotrephes’ refusal (v. 9) invokes both senses simultaneously and must not be flattened to only one. |
| 22 | speak against / slander | καταλαλέω (katalaleō) | pomlouvat | Low–Medium | Church Leadership and Pride | New | Standard word; note the seriousness in a leadership-authority context, not ordinary gossip. |
| 23 | hinder / forbid | κωλύω (kōlyō) | zabraňovat / zakazovat | Low | Church Leadership and Pride | New | Standard, unambiguous. |
| 24 | cast out / expel (from the church) | ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) | vylučovat z církve | High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New | Names a formal act of ecclesiastical exclusion, echoing synagogue-expulsion background (cf. John 9:34); risk of either sounding like mere physical eviction or landing as incomprehensibly harsh to a secular reader unfamiliar with church discipline as a lived practice. |
| 25 | works / deeds | ἔργα (erga) | skutky | Low | Church Leadership and Pride | New | Standard. |
| 26 | imitate | μιμέομαι (mimeomai) | napodobovat | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New | Transparent word, but underlying mimesis doctrine (character formed by patterning on examples, not abstract belief alone) needs explicit teaching. |
| 27 | evil / do evil | κακός / κακοποιέω (kakos/kakopoieō) | zlo / činit zlo | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New | Risk is doctrinal, not lexical: must preserve the ontological link (“has not seen God”), avoiding flattening into generic moralism. |
| 28 | good / do good | ἀγαθός / ἀγαθοποιέω (agathos/agathopoieō) | dobro / činit dobro | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New | Same doctrinal-flattening risk as #27; “is of God” ontological claim must be preserved. |
| 29 | God | θεός (theos) | Bůh | Critical | Imitating Good rather than Evil; Church Leadership and Pride | Reused from baseline TM | No new notes; standard usage. |
| 30 | Demetrius | Δημήτριος (Dēmētrios) | Démétrios | Low (name); High doctrinal significance | Commendation of Faithful Witness | New | Standard transliteration; the positive-example doctrine attached to this name is High-value teaching content even though the name itself carries low lexical risk. |
| 31 | testify / testimony / bear witness | μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία (martyreō/martyria) | svědčit / svědectví | High | Commendation of Faithful Witness; Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Everyday Czech “svědectví” defaults to courtroom/legal testimony; Johannine sense of a trustworthy report on someone’s godly character (and, in v. 12, personified “truth itself” bearing witness) must be actively taught, paralleling the baseline’s “ospravedlnění” forensic-drift pattern. |
| 32 | true | ἀληθής (alēthēs) | pravdivý | Medium | Commendation of Faithful Witness | New | Related to ἀλήθεια (#4); reinforces reliability of testimony rather than mere factual accuracy. |
| 33 | mouth to mouth / face to face | στόμα πρὸς στόμα (stoma pros stoma) | tváří v tvář | Low–Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Literal “ústy k ústům” risks an unintended modern collision with “mouth-to-mouth resuscitation”; prefer natural idiom “tváří v tvář.” |
| 34 | peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | pokoj | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing benediction) | Reused from baseline TM | Retain baseline caution against the everyday “mere quiet” sense. |
| 35 | friend(s) | φίλος (philos) | přítel / přátelé | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Note theological parity with “bratři” (brothers); not a lesser, merely casual term in Johannine usage. |
| 36 | Diotrephes | Διοτρέφης (Diotrephēs) | Diotrefés | Low (name); High doctrinal significance | Church Leadership and Pride | New | Standard transliteration; the negative-example doctrine attached to this name is High-value teaching content though the name itself carries low lexical risk. |
Summary Statistics
| Risk Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 1 | Human theologian |
| High | 8 | Human theologian |
| Medium–High (borderline, treat as High for routing) | 2 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 13 | Native speaker review |
| Low–Medium (borderline, treat as Medium for routing) | 5 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 7 | Automated review |
| Total terms | 36 |
Notes for Phase 2 Integration
- Terms #4 (pravda/truth), #20 (φιλοπρωτεύω), #31 (svědčit/svědectví), and #11 (cizí lidé/strangers) are the four highest-priority new terms for this curriculum and should receive the same “plain-language gloss on first substantive use” treatment the baseline mandates for Critical/High terms in Romans.
- Term #16 (pohané) requires a cross-document consistency note distinguishing its 3 John sense (non-believers generally) from its Romans sense (ethnic non-Jews) to prevent doctrinal conflation for learners moving between curricula.
- All “Reused from baseline TM” terms (#12, #29, #34) must not be re-translated or varied from the baseline Romans rendering under any circumstances, per the hard rule governing this Language Package.
- Recommend all 33 new terms be added to
translation_memory.jsonas version 2, with theologian review flagged for all High-risk new entries (#4, #5, #11, #15, #20, #24, #31, plus proper-name doctrinal significance notes for #30 and #36) before Phase 2 segment translation begins.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Bůh
Transliteration: theos
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil; Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly, no alteration. In 3 John 1:11, conduct (doing good/evil) is treated as diagnostic of one’s relationship to God (‘is of God’ / ‘has not seen God’); standard, unambiguous rendering carries no new risk on its own.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Ježíš
Transliteration: Iēsous / Yeshua
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers (referent of ‘the Name’)
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Not lexically present in the Greek text of 3 John itself (the letter never names Jesus/Christ directly), but required in teaching material to gloss ‘the Name’ (v.7) and to explain the Elder’s authority; register-awareness note about the colloquial exclamatory use of ‘Ježíš’ from the baseline still applies.
Father
Approved rendering: Otec
Transliteration: patēr
Doctrine: Pastoral Authority of the Elder (spiritual fatherhood)
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Not lexically present in 3 John’s Greek text, but relevant teaching vocabulary for the Elder’s pastoral, parental relationship to his ‘children’ (tekna, v.4) and for any commentary distinguishing divine Fatherhood from the human relational metaphors in this letter.
Lord
Approved rendering: Pán
Transliteration: kyrios
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers (the Name / Christ’s authority)
Rejected alternatives: pán s malým ‘p’ jako běžné oslovení
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Not lexically present in 3 John’s Greek text, but likely needed in teaching commentary when explaining that the missionaries went out ‘for the sake of the Name’ (v.7), i.e. under Christ’s Lordship; the baseline’s capitalization-fragility caution applies identically here.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: víra
Transliteration: pistis
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers (root of ‘faithful,’ pistos)
Rejected alternatives: víra v obecném slova smyslu (např. sebedůvěra)
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Not lexically present as a standalone noun in 3 John’s Greek text, but shares its root with pistos (‘faithful,’ v.5), rendered ‘věrný/věrně’ in this curriculum; explicitly link the two word families in teaching material so learners see the connection between belief (víra) and faithful action (věrně jednáš).
Truth
Approved rendering: pravda
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship (governing term of the whole book)
Rejected alternatives: pravda výhradně ve smyslu prosté faktické správnosti
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth
Single highest-priority term in this curriculum. Ordinary Czech ‘pravda’ denotes simple factual correctness (‘to je pravda’); the Johannine sense of a lived, communal, theological reality one ‘walks in’ (vv.3-4) and is bound to others by has no everyday Czech equivalent. Occurs roughly six times in fifteen verses; requires a plain-language gloss on first substantive use in EVERY document, treated as this curriculum’s structural equivalent of the baseline’s ‘spasení.‘
Prosper
Approved rendering: prospívat
Transliteration: euodoō
Doctrine: Risk of Prosperity-Gospel Misreading (3 John 1:2)
Rejected alternatives: dařit se (B21-style, reads as an even more purely secular modern well-wishing formula)
Original: εὐοδόω
Category: Pastoral Greeting
3 John 2 is one of the most globally misused verses in prosperity-gospel preaching. A secular Czech reader primed by wellness/self-improvement culture could read ‘ať se ti daří’ as a formulaic promise of material prosperity. MUST be framed explicitly as a conventional ancient epistolary greeting (‘I hope this letter finds you well’), with real theological weight placed on the accompanying ‘soul’ clause, never presented as a stand-alone doctrinal promise.
Soul
Approved rendering: duše
Transliteration: psychē
Doctrine: Risk of Prosperity-Gospel Misreading (3 John 1:2)
Rejected alternatives: duše výhradně v moderním psychologickém/terapeutickém smyslu (‘duševní zdraví’)
Original: ψυχή
Category: Pastoral Greeting
Contemporary Czech usage of ‘duše’ skews toward a psychological/therapeutic register (mental health) rather than the fuller Johannine sense of one’s whole spiritual life before God — the true anchor of v.2’s greeting, since the wish is grounded in Gaius’s PROVEN spiritual vitality, demonstrated by his hospitality. This drift compounds the prosperity-gospel misreading risk and requires explicit correction.
Strangers
Approved rendering: cizí lidé
Transliteration: xenos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: cizinec / cizinci (BANNED — live, politically charged contemporary Czech immigration-debate connotation)
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality
The most direct Czech equivalent, ‘cizinec,’ carries strong, live, politically charged connotations in contemporary Czech public discourse around immigration and national identity. A rendering that reads as commentary on modern immigration policy would badly distort the ancient hospitality point. Use only ‘cizí lidé,’ always paired with a note grounding the term in ancient hospitality custom, never modern immigration framing.
The Name
Approved rendering: (to) Jméno
Transliteration: onoma (absolute use)
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: jméno bez glosy (nedostatečný signál referentu; čtenář nemá jak dovodit, o čí jméno se jedná), Jméno ve smyslu Jehovova osobního jména (svědkové Jehovovi — NIKDY nepoužívat tento rámec)
Original: ὄνομα (absolute use, ‘the Name’)
Category: Christology
Structurally the same fragile-signal problem the baseline documented for ‘Pán’: an absolute, capitalized ‘the Name’ gives a secular Czech reader no basis for decoding the referent without explicit explanation. MANDATORY: always pair with bracketed gloss ‘[tj. pro Krista]’ at first occurrence. Never let this collide with Jehovah’s Witnesses’ distinctive personal-divine-name theology.
Loves To Be First
Approved rendering: ten, kdo touží po prvenství
Transliteration: philoprōteuō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: ambiciózní / soutěživý (nese v současné sekulární češtině kladný význam, opak vlastnosti, kterou text odsuzuje)
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership
New Testament hapax legomenon with no prior Czech Bible-translation convention beyond ČEP’s periphrasis; this exact periphrasis is FIXED as the single consistent rendering across all curriculum documents. Contemporary secular Czech culture often frames ‘wanting to be first’ positively (career ambition, competitiveness), the inverse of this term’s vice-naming force — must be explicitly marked as a fault, not an admirable trait.
Receive Welcome
Approved rendering: přijímat
Transliteration: epidechomai
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership
Carries a dual sense (receiving a guest AND acknowledging apostolic authority); Diotrephes’ refusal (v.9) invokes both simultaneously and must not be flattened to only one, or it will read as simple inhospitality rather than a leadership crisis.
Cast Out
Approved rendering: vylučovat z církve
Transliteration: ekballō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: vyhodit / vyhnat (příliš civilní, ztrácí církevně-autoritativní váhu)
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership
Names a formal act of church discipline/exclusion echoing the synagogue-expulsion background of John 9:34-35, carried out for illegitimate, status-protecting reasons. Risk of either sounding like ordinary physical eviction, or landing as incomprehensibly harsh to a secular Czech audience unfamiliar with church discipline as lived practice; requires explicit background explanation of real social/spiritual stakes.
Testify Testimony
Approved rendering: svědčit / svědectví
Transliteration: martyreō / martyria
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius); Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: svědectví výhradně v soudním/právním smyslu
Original: μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία
Category: Truth
Everyday secular Czech usage is dominated by the courtroom sense, paralleling the baseline’s documented ‘ospravedlnění’ forensic-drift pattern. The Johannine sense — a trustworthy report on someone’s godly character, and in v.12 ‘truth itself’ personified as a witness — must be actively taught with an explicit gloss distinguishing legal evidence from character commendation before the church.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: církev
Transliteration: ekklēsia
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: kostel (budova) namísto společenství věřících, sbor (Watchtower/Jehovah’s Witnesses distinctive rendering — do not adopt)
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. In 3 John (vv.6, 9, 10) refers to a small, local, first-century house-church gathering; retain the baseline’s church/building distinction, and additionally note the house-church scale, unfamiliar to readers whose only association with ‘církev’ may be a large historic institution or tourist landmark. Never render as ‘sbor’ (the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Překlad nového světa convention).
Peace
Approved rendering: pokoj
Transliteration: eirēnē
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing benediction, v.15)
Rejected alternatives: pokoj ve smyslu pouhého klidu či nepřítomnosti hluku
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Fellowship
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Retain the baseline’s caution against the everyday sense of ‘pokoj’ as mere quiet/absence of disturbance (‘Dej mi pokoj’), since in 3 John 1:15 this is the letter’s final theological note, not casual chatter.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: pohané
Transliteration: ethnē / ethnikos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers (non-ethnic ‘outsiders’ sense, v.7)
Rejected alternatives: pohané v etnickém smyslu Židé/pohané z Římanům (nesprávné pro tento kontext), nevěřící bez odkazu na baseline termín (ztráta lexikální konzistence)
Inherited from Romans package Czech word, but referent shifts in 3 John 1:7 (ethnikos) from Romans’ ethnic Jew/Gentile argument to a general ‘non-believers outside the church’ sense from whom gospel workers should not accept support. MANDATORY: always accompany with the disambiguating gloss ‘zde ve smyslu nevěřících vně církve, nikoli v etnickém smyslu Židé/pohané z Římanům’ to prevent cross-curriculum doctrinal conflation for learners who have also studied Romans.
Mission
Approved rendering: misie
Transliteration: apostolē / pempō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Relevant when describing the itinerant gospel workers (adelphoi, xenoi) Gaius hosts; retain the baseline’s caution that ‘misie’ may carry a mild historical/colonial-era or NGO-humanitarian connotation in contemporary secular usage rather than a specifically gospel-proclamation sense — a risk directly relevant here since 3 John’s traveling ministers went out ‘for the sake of the Name’ (v.7), not as generic humanitarian workers.
Elder
Approved rendering: starší
Transliteration: presbyteros
Doctrine: Pastoral Authority of the Elder
Rejected alternatives: starší pouze ve smyslu věku (‘starší muž’)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
Ordinary Czech ‘starší’ is simply the comparative adjective for ‘older,’ with no automatic association to a recognized office of church authority. Must be glossed at first occurrence in every document as a title of recognized apostolic-pastoral authority, not a remark about the author’s age.
Love
Approved rendering: milovat / láska
Transliteration: agapaō / agapē
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: láska výhradně v romantickém či rodinném smyslu
Original: ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη
Category: Fellowship
Not present in the baseline Romans TM. Everyday secular Czech ‘milovat/láska’ overwhelmingly evokes romantic or familial love; the covenantal, self-giving sense — demonstrated concretely in hospitality (v.6) rather than stated abstractly — must be actively taught and always anchored to the hospitality narrative, since 3 John defines love almost entirely through action.
Health
Approved rendering: být zdravý
Transliteration: hygiainō
Doctrine: Risk of Prosperity-Gospel Misreading (3 John 1:2)
Original: ὑγιαίνω
Category: Pastoral Greeting
Standard, low-ambiguity Czech word on its own, but must be kept within the same explanatory frame as ‘prospívat’ so the pairing is not read as a wellness/prosperity formula rather than an epistolary convention.
Brothers
Approved rendering: bratr / bratři
Transliteration: adelphos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Fellowship
Standard Czech word, but a reader with no church background will default to the literal-kinship sense; the spiritual-family sense underlying the whole hospitality obligation of vv.5-8 must be reinforced on first use.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: žít v pravdě
Transliteration: peripateō
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: chodit v pravdě (kolidující s hovorovým ‘chodit s někým’ = ‘to date someone’)
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Truth
The conduct-metaphor sense of ‘walking’ is not native to everyday Czech idiom, where ‘chodit’ ordinarily means literal movement or, colloquially, ‘to date/go steady with someone.’ Prefer ‘žít v pravdě’ as the primary rendering; retain ‘chodit’ only where established Bible-tradition wording already uses it, with an explanatory note.
Children Spiritual
Approved rendering: děti
Transliteration: tekna
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship; Pastoral Authority of the Elder
Original: τέκνα
Category: Fellowship
Standard word; the spiritual (not biological) sense should be briefly noted for a reader unfamiliar with this common pastoral metaphor of spiritual fatherhood, reinforcing ‘starší’ and ‘Otec’ vocabulary above.
Faithful
Approved rendering: věrný / věrně
Transliteration: pistos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality
Shares its root with the inherited ‘víra’ entry. Gaius’s hospitality is described as ‘a faithful thing he does’ — an expression of faith-loyalty rather than incidental kindness; link explicitly to the faith vocabulary above for learner consistency.
Send On Way
Approved rendering: vypravit na cestu
Transliteration: propempō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: rozloučit se / doprovodit ke dveřím (redukuje na pouhé sociální rozloučení)
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality
Without explanation, a Czech reader may take this as a simple social farewell rather than the ancient practice of substantively provisioning missionaries for travel (funds, supplies, escort). Requires a brief cultural-background note.
Worthily Of God
Approved rendering: důstojně Boha
Transliteration: axiōs tou theou
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Hospitality
New phrase with no everyday Czech parallel; reframes ordinary hospitality as an act of worship-quality service to God, requiring explanation that generosity here is held to a divine, not merely social, standard.
Support Receive
Approved rendering: podporovat / přijímat
Transliteration: hypolambanō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality
Part of a reception-verb synonym cluster with epidechomai and propempō. The ancient hospitality-support background (material, not merely social) is unfamiliar to a modern secular reader and needs teaching, not just translation.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: spolupracovník(ci)
Transliteration: synergos
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: spolupracovník výhradně ve smyslu pracovního kolegy
Original: συνεργός
Category: Fellowship
Everyday secular Czech ‘spolupracovník’ simply means a workplace colleague or business partner. The theological sense — shared partnership in advancing gospel truth through material support alone, without direct preaching — must be actively taught.
Slander
Approved rendering: pomlouvat
Transliteration: katalaleō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: καταλαλέω
Category: Church Leadership
Standard, everyday Czech word with low ambiguity; note the seriousness of this behavior in a leadership-authority context, distinct from ordinary social gossip.
Imitate
Approved rendering: napodobovat
Transliteration: mimeomai
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Ethics
Transparent Czech word with no secular-collision risk on its own, but the underlying mimesis doctrine (character formed by patterning oneself on concrete community examples, not abstract belief alone) is unfamiliar and must be taught explicitly.
Evil Do Evil
Approved rendering: zlo / činit zlo
Transliteration: kakos / kakopoieō
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακός / κακοποιέω
Category: Ethics
Risk is doctrinal, not lexical: standard Czech ethical vocabulary is unambiguous, but a flattened moralistic reading must be corrected with a note that this passage treats conduct as evidence one ‘has not seen God’ — an ontological, not merely behavioral, claim.
Good Do Good
Approved rendering: dobro / činit dobro
Transliteration: agathos / agathopoieō
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθός / ἀγαθοποιέω
Category: Ethics
Same doctrinal-flattening risk as evil_do_evil; the ‘is of God’ ontological claim about spiritual origin must be preserved, not reduced to generic secular moralism (cf. 1 John 3:9-10).
True
Approved rendering: pravdivý
Transliteration: alēthēs
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Truth
Related to alētheia/pravda; reinforces the reliability of testimony rather than merely factual accuracy — link explicitly to the ‘pravda’ word family for learner consistency.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: společenství
Transliteration: koinōnia
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Not lexically present as a standalone term in 3 John’s Greek text, but relevant when teaching material names the doctrine ‘Truth and Christian Fellowship’ or describes the shared partnership in vv.8-9 (synergos) and vv.13-15 (face to face, friends).
Beloved
Approved rendering: milovaný
Transliteration: agapētos
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Fellowship
Established, transparent Czech rendering; used four times in this short letter (vv.1, 2, 5, 11) as a mark of pastoral affection. Low ambiguity on its own; see ‘love’ entry for the underlying root’s secular-drift risk.
Joy
Approved rendering: radovat se / radost
Transliteration: chairō / chara
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: χαίρω / χαρά
Category: Fellowship
Standard, transparent rendering; pastoral gladness grounded in others’ faithfulness to the truth (vv.3-4), not personal circumstance.
Ought
Approved rendering: máme povinnost
Transliteration: opheilō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality
Standard rendering; brief note recommended that this ‘ought’ is gospel-partnership duty, not legal or social obligation.
Hinder
Approved rendering: zabraňovat / zakazovat
Transliteration: kōlyō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership
Standard, unambiguous rendering; Diotrephes actively prevents willing church members from extending hospitality.
Works
Approved rendering: skutky
Transliteration: erga
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἔργα
Category: Church Leadership
Standard rendering; Diotrephes’ observable, nameable pattern of behavior, which the Elder intends to publicly address.
Demetrius
Approved rendering: Démétrios
Transliteration: Dēmētrios
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: Δημήτριος
Category: Proper Names
Standard Czech Bible-tradition transliteration. Name itself carries low lexical risk, but the positive-example doctrine attached to it is high-value teaching content and must be reinforced with the surrounding martyreō (testify) vocabulary.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: tváří v tvář
Transliteration: stoma pros stoma
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: ústy k ústům (kolize s moderním ‘dýchání z ústy do ústa’ = mouth-to-mouth resuscitation)
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Fellowship
A literal rendering risks sounding archaic or unintentionally evoking mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in modern colloquial Czech. Use the natural idiomatic equivalent ‘tváří v tvář,’ consistent with ČEP and B21.
Friends
Approved rendering: přítel / přátelé
Transliteration: philos
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: φίλος
Category: Fellowship
Standard rendering; note that ‘přátelé’ in the closing greeting (v.15) carries the same theological weight as ‘bratři’ elsewhere in the letter, not a step down to mere casual acquaintance (cf. John 15:14-15).
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: Diotrefés
Transliteration: Diotrephēs
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: Διοτρέφης
Category: Proper Names
Standard transliteration. Name itself carries low lexical risk, but the negative-example doctrine attached to it is high-value teaching content, carried by the surrounding vocabulary (loves_to_be_first, cast_out, slander), not by the name itself. Teaching material must frame the fault as personal pride/abuse of a legitimate office, never as evidence against the legitimacy of church office or leadership structure as such (guarding against both secular ‘ambition is good’ misreadings and sectarian/anti-institutional misreadings, e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Watchtower literature).
Referenced passages