Linguistic Gap Analysis — Acts, English → Czech
Purpose and Method
This analysis identifies where standard modern Czech (drawing on Bible kralická and Český ekumenický překlad, per the baseline register standard) has no available term at all for a load-bearing Acts concept (“missing vocabulary”), where it has a term that is already saturated by a competing secular meaning that will dominate a reader’s first association (“crowded semantic neighborhood”), and where a transliteration vs. paraphrase decision must be made explicitly rather than left to translator instinct. It closes with a ranked list of the highest-risk ambiguities specific to this curriculum.
This document extends, and does not contradict, the baseline Romans Language Package. Every term already resolved in translation_memory.json retains its established rendering; this analysis exists to (a) diagnose why new Acts-specific terms behave the way 08_core_glossary.md records, and (b) give Phase 2 translators an explicit strategy — not merely a rendering — for each doctrine.
The baseline’s foundational premise governs this entire analysis: for Czech, the dominant risk is conceptual absence, not rival-framework substitution. Most gaps below are gaps in lived conceptual furniture, not gaps in the lexicon — the words usually exist; the doctrine they must carry usually does not pre-exist in the reader’s mind.
Part 1 — Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each of the nine curriculum doctrines named in the curriculum parameters, this matrix records the available Czech term(s), their specific weaknesses for a secular Czech reader, and the recommended handling strategy for Phase 2.
1. The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | Duch svatý (established, baseline); naplněný/naplněni Duchem svatým (phrase, new); Letnice (established but dormant, new); jazyky (established, new) |
| Weaknesses | ”Duch svatý” has zero secular-competing meaning but also near-zero pre-existing conceptual content as a personal agent rather than an impersonal force/atmosphere (“duch” alone can mean mood/spirit-of-the-age, e.g. “duch doby”). “Letnice” has no living cultural footprint comparable to Velikonoce (Easter) or Vánoce (Christmas) — it will not be recognized at all by most readers, unlike “vzkříšení,” which at least rides on Easter’s cultural residue. “Naplněný Duchem” has no experiential analogue in secular Czech life to serve as a bridge metaphor. |
| Recommended strategy | (1) Always pair “Duch svatý” with personal-agent verbs (mluvil, poslal, dal) rather than passive/atmospheric ones, reinforcing personhood established already for Romans. (2) Introduce “Letnice” at first use with an explicit one-sentence gloss identifying it as the Jewish harvest festival fifty days after Passover — never assume recognition. (3) Render “filled with the Holy Spirit” identically at every occurrence as a technical formula (per 08_core_glossary.md #46) and gloss it concretely as empowerment for bold proclamation, not emotional intensity. |
2. The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | evangelium (baseline); pohané / národy (baseline); obřízka (new); čistý/nečistý (new); bohabojný (new); nikomu nestraní (new) |
| Weaknesses | ”Pohané” carries a stronger “pagan” charge than neutral English “Gentiles,” risking readers hearing an ethnic slur rather than a neutral demographic category. “Obřízka” and “čistý/nečistý” are linguistically stable but activate no live cultural practice in Czech to anchor them — unlike a reader from a Torah-observant or Islamic-heritage background, a secular Czech reader has never encountered ritual purity or circumcision as a contested identity marker, so the Acts 10-11, 15 controversy will read as an antiquarian curiosity unless explicitly reframed as a people-inclusion question. “Bohabojný” names a social category (God-fearing Gentile sympathizer) that has no modern equivalent at all — not even a rough approximation. |
| Recommended strategy | Use “pohané” only where Acts itself uses ἔθνη in a marked, salvation-historical sense; default to “národy” in more neutral summary statements. For circumcision/clean-unclean material, do not rely on the vocabulary alone — accompany with explicit narrative framing (“otázka nebyla o jídle, ale o tom, kdo může patřit k Božímu lidu”) so the doctrine, not just the term, transfers. Treat “bohabojný” as a term requiring a full sentence of background, not a one-word gloss. |
3. Repentance and Baptism
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | pokání (new, Critical); obrácení (new, High); křest/křtít (new, High); odpuštění hříchů (new, High) |
| Weaknesses | ”Pokání” risks the exact archaic-detachment fate already documented for “spasení” in the baseline — a real Kralice/ČEP word that many readers will recognize as Bible-sounding without any live conceptual content, and additionally risks narrowing to mere private remorse (near Czech “lítost,” a shame/regret feeling) rather than a whole-life reorientation. “Křest” is the inverse problem: it is too familiar, carrying a strong secular folk-cultural association (infant christening as family celebration, godparents, a party) that is fully detached from repentance-and-faith content. |
| Recommended strategy | Treat “pokání” and “křest” as a matched pair requiring opposite correctives: pokání needs conceptual filling (it is empty and archaic), křest needs conceptual redirection (it is full of the wrong content). Use “obrácení” (“darkness to light,” Acts 26:18) as the primary teaching bridge into “pokání,” since it requires no specialized background to grasp. Every occurrence of “křest” in this curriculum should include enough surrounding context (repentance preceding it, faith professed, adult volition) to actively displace the infant-christening default. |
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | církev (baseline); společenství (baseline); Cesta (new); křesťan (new); sekta (new); starší/dohlížitel/pastýř (new) |
| Weaknesses | ”Církev” competes with “kostel” (building)/heritage-tourism associations, per baseline. “Cesta” as a bare common noun carries zero built-in religious signal — capitalization is a print-only cue that disappears in speech and is fragile in text. “Sekta” has strongly negative, cult-associated connotation in contemporary Czech (a media word for dangerous fringe groups) that the ancient, comparatively neutral usage (“the sect of the Nazarenes”) does not carry — an anachronistic overcorrection risk unique to Acts. “Biskup” would import specific Roman Catholic hierarchical assumptions Acts 20 does not intend. |
| Recommended strategy | Reserve “Cesta” (capitalized) exclusively for the technical self-designation and gloss it at first occurrence as “tak si raná církev nejprve říkala” (what the earliest church first called itself). Never let “sekta” stand untranslated-in-effect from outsiders’ mouths without a note flagging that the modern Czech word imports a harsher, more sinister connotation than the source term carries. Default to “starší” for πρεσβύτεροι/ἐπίσκοποι, with “dohlížitel” as a same-sentence clarifying gloss rather than “biskup.” |
5. Apostolic Authority and Miracles
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | apoštol (baseline); divy a znamení (new); vzkládání rukou (new); duch věštění (new); vůdce/původce (new, for archēgos) |
| Weaknesses | ”Divy a znamení” risks being read through an entertainment/spectacle lens (“kouzelnický trik,” “iluze”) rather than as self-authenticating divine confirmation — Czech has no ready idiom for miracle-as-credential rather than miracle-as-spectacle. “Vzkládání rukou” is linguistically transparent but carries no inherited theological content at all — it will simply describe a physical gesture unless explicitly explained as commissioning/blessing, not a transactional power transfer (contra Simon Magus). No single Czech noun captures “archēgos” (founder + pioneering leader who goes first); “vůdce” alone loses the pioneering/trailblazing sense, and “původce” alone loses the leadership sense. |
| Recommended strategy | Consistently pair “divy a znamení” with the phrase “potvrzující Boží poselství/posly” (confirming God’s message/messengers) at least at first substantial occurrence per document, functioning the same way the baseline treats power_of_god. For archēgos, use an explanatory phrase (“ten, kdo jako první otevřel cestu ke spasení / šel jako první”) rather than forcing a single noun; do not attempt a one-word coinage. |
6. Persecution and Bold Witness
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | svědek/svědectví/svědčit (new); smělost/odvaha (new); Syn člověka (new); velerada (new); římský občan (new) |
| Weaknesses | ”Svědek” is unusually helpful — the Czech legal-witness sense reinforces firsthand, testable testimony well — but risks the content (the resurrection specifically) detaching from the form (giving testimony in general). “Smělost/odvaha” reads in ordinary Czech as an innate personality trait (some people are just naturally bold), directly working against the Acts 4:31 claim that boldness is Spirit-produced. “Syn člověka,” if it registers at all, will likely be misread by a secular audience as emphasizing plain, unremarkable humanity — the opposite of the Danielic exalted-judge background Stephen invokes in Acts 7:56. |
| Recommended strategy | Anchor “svědek/svědectví” to the resurrection explicitly at every occurrence in this curriculum’s teaching material (“svědek Kristova vzkříšení,” not bare “svědek”). Treat “smělost/odvaha” as needing an explicit causal clause every time (“smělost, kterou dal Duch svatý,” not free-floating personality language). Treat “Syn člověka” as needing active correction against the intuitive misreading, not passive translation — flag for theologian review whenever it appears (Acts 7). |
7. Conversion of Paul
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | obrácení (new); vidění (new); pokání (new, Critical) |
| Weaknesses | No missing-vocabulary problem here — the narrative itself (light, blindness, voice, Ananias) does most of the teaching work, unusually low-risk for this Language Package’s usual “conceptual absence” problem. The main risk is “vidění” being read as a generic dream/subjective impression/intuition (“mám pocit,” “tak nějak jsem to cítil”) rather than a specific, objective divine communication event. |
| Recommended strategy | Keep the narrative concrete and un-abstracted in all teaching material; resist the temptation to summarize Paul’s conversion into doctrinal shorthand before the story itself has done its work. When labeling the event as “vidění,” pair with “skutečné, konkrétní Boží sdělení” (a real, specific divine communication) to distinguish from generic dream-language. |
8. Justification apart from the Law
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | ospravedlnění (baseline, Critical); zákon (baseline, High); obřízka (new, High); přičtená spravedlnost (baseline, Critical) |
| Weaknesses | This doctrine inherits the single most severe crowded-neighborhood problem in the entire Language Package: “ospravedlnění” is an ordinary, low-stakes Czech word for excusing being late or justifying a minor decision, with essentially zero forensic-theological residue to draw on (per baseline). Acts 13:38-39 and 15:10 must carry this doctrine’s full weight in narrative contexts (a sermon in a synagogue; a council debate) rather than an epistle’s sustained argument, which is arguably a harder rhetorical environment in which to teach a Critical-tier term from scratch. |
| Recommended strategy | Acts 13:38-39 must be rendered with vocabulary identical to the Romans 3-4 baseline rendering of justification, with no stylistic variation permitted (see Part 3, Verbatim-Consistency table in 08_core_glossary.md). Every occurrence of “ospravedlnění” in Acts teaching material must carry the forbidden-substitution warning already established in the baseline system prompt: never let it register as everyday excuse-making. |
9. The Great Commission Fulfilled
| Element | Analysis |
|---|
| Available terms | misie (baseline); království Boží (baseline); svědek (new) |
| Weaknesses | ”Misie” risks a mild colonial-era/NGO-humanitarian connotation in contemporary secular usage, detached from specifically gospel-proclamation content — a live risk given ongoing Czech public discourse about missionary history and development aid. “Království Boží” risks the fairy-tale-kingdom association “království” carries from children’s literature and fantasy genre fiction, a genuinely dominant contemporary Czech association for the bare word. |
| Recommended strategy | Frame “misie” consistently as proclamation/sending (“byli posláni hlásat evangelium”), not generic humanitarian service, per baseline note. Use Acts 1:8 and 28:31 as the fixed bookend anchors (already mandated verbatim in 08_core_glossary.md Section C) to give “království Boží” concrete historical content (gospel going “až na konec země”) rather than abstract or fantastical content. |
Part 2 — Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Missing Vocabulary (no natural single Czech term exists — paraphrase or compound required)
These concepts have no pre-existing lexical slot in Czech at all — the risk is not a wrong competing meaning but complete lexical absence, requiring the translator to build a phrase rather than select a word.
| Concept | Why no Czech term exists | Required strategy |
|---|
| Archēgos (founder-pioneer, Acts 3:15; 5:31) | Czech has separate words for “founder” (zakladatel) and “leader” (vůdce) but none combining founding-authority with going-first-to-open-a-way | Explanatory phrase: “ten, kdo jako první otevřel cestu ke spasení” — never a single noun |
| Filled with the Holy Spirit (technical formula) | No experiential category in secular Czech life for being taken over by a distinct divine person | Fixed phrase “naplněný/naplněni Duchem svatým,” always glossed with concrete outcome (bold speech), never left as an abstract state |
| God-fearer (Acts 10:2,22; 13:16,26) | The liminal social category — devout toward Israel’s God, uncircumcised, not a full convert — has no modern sociological or religious parallel in Czech experience | Full-sentence gloss at first use; do not rely on “bohabojný” alone to carry the concept |
| The Way (ἡ ὁδός as self-designation) | “Cesta” as a bare noun carries no religious signal; Czech has no orthographic device (unlike some target languages’ honorific markers) strong enough to flag a technical proper name reliably in running prose | Capitalize AND gloss at first occurrence per document: “tak si raná církev nejprve říkala” |
| Clean/unclean reassigned to people-groups (Acts 10:14-15,28) | Czech has no live ritual-purity culture to activate the metaphor at all | Explicit narrative reframing required; vocabulary alone will not transfer the doctrine |
| Determined plan and foreknowledge held with human responsibility (Acts 2:23; 4:28) | No single Czech phrase captures compatibilist tension between sovereign plan and genuine human guilt | Requires accompanying doctrinal note in every occurrence, not a lexical solution |
| Purchased with [Christ’s] own blood (Acts 20:28) | Czech redemption/purchase vocabulary (“vykoupit,” “získat”) does not by itself carry substitutionary sacrificial content without support | Full clause retained (“vykoupil svou vlastní krví”), never abbreviated to a bare metaphor for “great cost” |
2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (a Czech term exists but is dominated by a strong competing secular sense)
These are the inverse problem: a perfectly good, stable Czech word exists, but its dominant everyday meaning will be the reader’s default and must be actively fenced off.
| Czech Term | Dominant Secular Meaning | Theological Meaning at Risk | Fencing Strategy |
|---|
| křest | Infant christening; a family social occasion with godparents and a party | Repentance-and-faith baptism, an adult act of public identification with Christ | Always narrate the preceding repentance/faith and the convert’s own volition; never let “křest” stand alone as a bare noun |
| pokání | An archaic, liturgical-sounding word already flagged in baseline for salvation-adjacent detachment; narrows toward “lítost” (regret/remorse) | Total reorientation of mind and life direction | Pair with “obrácení / změna smýšlení a života” gloss at every first substantive use per baseline-mandated rule |
| sekta | A dangerous, manipulative cult (contemporary media usage) | A neutral first-century designation for a distinguishable religious party | Flag explicitly when used of outsiders’ perception of the early church (Acts 24, 28); do not let modern connotation silently import onto ancient neutral usage |
| povolání | One’s job/profession — the single most dominant everyday sense in Czech (“Jaké je vaše povolání?”) | Divine, sovereign summons to ministry/apostleship (Acts 1:25) | Actively distinguish at every occurrence; never allow “job/profession” reading to stand uncorrected |
| vyvolení | Competitive selection (a job interview, a sports tryout, a talent contest) | God’s sovereign, gracious choice (Acts 9:15’s “chosen instrument”; 13:48) | Mandatory theologian review per predestination-language escalation rule; explicit contrast with achievement-based selection required |
| smlouva | An ordinary commercial or lease contract | The relational covenant bond with the patriarchs (Acts 3:25; 7:8) | Requires OT covenant-background scaffolding, not vocabulary substitution |
| pokoj | Mere quiet, absence of noise/disturbance (“Dej mi pokoj”) | Relational, covenantal peace through justification (Acts 10:36; 9:31) | Distinguish explicitly wherever it recurs in Acts’ narrative summaries |
| hřích | A mild idiom for “what a shame/pity” about mundane matters | Serious moral transgression before a personal God, driving the Acts 2:37-38 conviction | Preserve full moral seriousness at Acts 2:37-38’s pivotal conviction-and-repentance sequence especially |
| sláva | Worldly fame/success (sporting, artistic, military) | God’s radiant presence and honor (Acts 7:55; 12:23’s warning against self-glorification) | Distinguish explicitly; Acts 12:23 is a useful teaching contrast (Herod’s judgment for taking glory to himself) |
| svatí | Historical, canonized name-day figures on the Czech calendar (folk custom, detached from doctrine) | The corporate designation for all believers under persecution (Acts 9:13,32,41; 26:10) | Mandatory theologian-review-flagged translator note at every occurrence, per baseline system-prompt rule |
| posvěcení | Ceremonial blessing/dedication of a building (church-heritage tourism association) | The Spirit’s ongoing transformative work in a believer’s life (Acts 20:32; 26:18) | Distinguish explicitly; do not let architectural-heritage association stand uncorrected |
| ospravedlnění | Excusing/justifying a minor action (being late, a decision) | God’s forensic declaration of righteousness (Acts 13:38-39) | Absolute enforcement per Critical tier; identical vocabulary to Romans 3-4 required |
| Pán | Ordinary polite address, “Mister/Sir” (“pane”) | Christ’s exclusive, supreme lordship (Acts 2:36; 16:31) | Explanatory note mandatory at every occurrence per baseline rule; capitalization alone is an insufficient signal |
| milost | Judicial clemency/presidential pardon (“udělit milost”) | Unmerited divine favor (Acts 15:11; 4:33’s corporate “veliká milost”) | Explicit unpacking as unmerited gift required every occurrence, not assumed from context |
| Spasitel | Archaic, Christmas-carol-adjacent devotional word (“Kristus Spasitel se narodil”) emptied of content | A Christological title naming the one who accomplishes salvation (Acts 5:31; 13:23) | Never allow as a bare title; always accompany with narrative content tying it to the doctrine of spasení |
Part 3 — Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
Acts introduces several terms new to this curriculum where the choice between transliterating a foreign-origin term and paraphrasing/explaining a native Czech equivalent is doctrinally consequential. This table records the decision and rationale for each.
| Term | Decision | Rationale |
|---|
| Mesiáš | Transliterate (retain, as in baseline) | Established Kralice/ČEP transliteration; a native paraphrase (“pomazaný”) would lose the specific OT-anchored proper-title force; requires accompanying background gloss, not substitution. |
| Letnice | Retain established term, but treat functionally as if new | Technically an existing Czech word, not a transliteration, but its near-total loss of cultural footprint means it must be handled with the same “explain fully at first use” discipline normally reserved for a transliterated loanword. Do NOT paraphrase as merely “svátek padesáti dnů” alone without naming it Letnice, since the term itself needs re-introduction into active vocabulary. |
| Abba | Transliterate (retain, paired with “Otče,” per baseline) | Preserves Aramaic intimacy the formal “Otec” alone cannot convey; consistent with Romans 8:15 baseline handling. Not directly quoted in Acts but retained for cross-curriculum consistency wherever adoption/inheritance imagery appears (Acts 26:18). |
| Spasitel | Retain established term but do NOT rely on transliteration or coinage | This is a native Czech theological compound, not a transliteration; the decision here is not translit-vs-paraphrase but “established term requiring mandatory narrative accompaniment” — never presented as a bare title. |
| The Way (ἡ ὁδός) | Paraphrase with capitalization + gloss, not transliteration | No Greek loanword tradition exists for this term in Czech Bible history (unlike Mesiáš); “Cesta” (native word, capitalized, glossed) is correct, but the decision to capitalize and gloss must be made explicitly since Czech orthography alone will not flag it as a proper technical name. |
| Archēgos | Paraphrase only; do not transliterate and do not coin a new compound noun | No Czech Bible-translation tradition has ever transliterated this term; inventing a novel compound noun risks sounding invented/unstable for a low-biblical-literacy audience already navigating many new terms. An explanatory phrase is more transparent and more teachable. |
| Sōtēr / Savior | Retain established Czech compound “Spasitel”; do not paraphrase away from it | A paraphrase such as “ten, kdo zachraňuje” would lose the title’s proper-noun, confessional weight and its deliberate lexical link to spasení; the correct move is not paraphrase but mandatory narrative anchoring alongside the retained term (see Part 2 above). |
| Sect (αἵρεσις) | Retain existing Czech word “sekta”; flag connotation risk rather than substituting a paraphrase | No better single-word alternative exists, and inventing a paraphrase (“náboženská skupina”) every time would be stylistically awkward across many occurrences; the connotation risk is better handled by an explicit translator note than by avoiding the natural word altogether. |
| Signs and wonders (σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα) | Paraphrase as a fixed two-word Czech formula (“divy a znamení”), not a single-word coinage or transliteration | Czech Bible tradition already renders this idiomatically as a doublet; treat as an established phrase-level term (per baseline’s power_of_god treatment) rather than seeking a single lexical equivalent. |
| Purchased with blood (περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου) | Full clausal paraphrase required; no single-term rendering possible | Atonement-price imagery cannot survive compression into a single noun or transliteration; must remain a full clause at every occurrence, per Critical-tier escalation rules. |
| Determined plan and foreknowledge | Paraphrase as a compound Czech phrase (“ustanovený úmysl / předzvědění Boží”), not a single coined term | The theological content (compatibilist tension) requires two linked concepts held together; a single-word coinage would flatten one side of the tension. |
General transliteration principle for this Language Package: Transliterate only where (a) an established Bible kralická/ČEP transliteration tradition already exists (Mesiáš, Abba, Amen, Haleluja — per baseline), or (b) the underlying concept is a proper name/title with no native equivalent at all. In every other case — especially for the numerous new phrase-level formulas Acts introduces (filled with the Spirit, signs and wonders, purchased with blood, determined plan) — prefer a stable, explicitly-glossed native paraphrase over inventing a new loanword or compound, since this Language Package’s readers are already absorbing many new concepts and a proliferation of unfamiliar transliterated vocabulary compounds the comprehension burden the baseline identifies as the central risk.
Part 4 — Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities for This Curriculum
Ranked by combined score of (a) doctrinal centrality to the nine named Acts doctrines, (b) severity of secular-meaning collision or conceptual absence, and (c) frequency/structural weight within the core passage (Acts 2:1-41) and the book as a whole. Critical-tier baseline terms that recur heavily in Acts are included where Acts adds a materially new dimension of risk beyond what the baseline already documents.
- Salvation / spasení (Acts 2:21,40,47; 16:30-31) — Highest-frequency Critical term in the whole book, anchoring the core passage’s climax (“bude spasen”) and the Philippian jailer’s formula; archaic-detachment risk is compounded by Acts’ insistence on narrating salvation concretely at the height of a public sermon, where there is no room for the slow unpacking an epistle allows.
- Pokání (repentance) — the single newest and most exposed Critical term in this curriculum — Carries the baseline’s worst-case risk pattern (archaic word, zero live content) PLUS a distinct narrowing risk toward mere private remorse; sits at the exact center of the core passage’s imperative (Acts 2:38) with no supporting apparatus beyond what this curriculum itself must build.
- Lord / Pán — Acts 2:36’s compound climax “Pánem a Mesiášem/Kristem ho učinil Bůh” — Stacks three Critical-tier terms (Pán, Mesiáš, and implicitly the resurrection just narrated) into a single clause at the core passage’s theological peak; the honorific-flatness risk is at its most consequential exactly where the sermon is making its strongest claim.
- Ospravedlnění (justification) in Acts 13:38-39 — Must exactly match Romans 3-4 vocabulary under absolute cross-curriculum consistency rules while operating inside a synagogue-sermon narrative register rather than an epistle’s argument, a genuinely harder rhetorical context for introducing a Critical forensic concept from zero.
- Křest (baptism) — familiarity-as-risk — Unique among this curriculum’s terms in that the danger is a wrong pre-existing association (infant christening/family party) rather than absence; every one of its roughly ten occurrences across Acts requires active correction, not mere translation.
- Vyvolení (election) at Acts 9:15 and 13:48 — Narratively embodied (a “chosen instrument,” people “appointed to eternal life”) in a way Romans’ more abstract argument is not; the competitive-selection secular reading is especially tempting because Acts frames these as specific individuals singled out, which secular Czech readily reads as a talent-selection narrative.
- Duch svatý as personal agent, esp. Acts 5:3-4; 7:51 — The single most frequent Critical term in Acts; the risk of an impersonal-force misreading is sharper here than in Romans precisely because Acts’ narrative concreteness (the Spirit can be lied to, resisted, grieved) forces a decision every time the word appears, unlike Romans’ more didactic register where the personal/impersonal question can occasionally remain implicit.
- Sekta — anachronistic negative import — A rare case in this Language Package where the risk runs in the opposite direction from the baseline’s usual pattern: the Czech word is not empty of content but full of the wrong, harsher modern content (dangerous cult), risking readers projecting contemporary cult-panic narratives onto the earliest church’s outsider reception.
- Vzkříšení (resurrection) at Acts 17:32 — The baseline’s Easter-detachment risk is compounded here by Acts’ unique feature: a depicted scene of sophisticated, educated secular listeners mocking specifically this claim — an uncomfortably direct mirror of the target reader’s likely posture, requiring careful handling so the mockery reads as the text’s own drama, not an implicit endorsement of the reader’s skepticism.
- Obřízka / clean-unclean cluster (Acts 10-11, 15) — Two linked terms with zero live cultural referent for secular Czech readers; the real doctrinal stakes (Gentile inclusion) are entirely dependent on background scaffolding that the bare vocabulary cannot supply, risking the entire Jerusalem Council narrative reading as an antiquarian dietary dispute.
- Milost (grace) at Acts 15:11 — A single-clause compression of grace + faith + Lordship + salvation at the Jerusalem Council’s climax; the judicial-clemency secular drift risk is at its highest-stakes point here because four Critical/High terms depend on each other working correctly in the same sentence.
- Povolání (calling) at Acts 1:25 — The vocational/job secular sense is Czech’s single strongest and most automatic word-association nationwide (“Jaké je vaše povolání?”); Acts 1:25 pairs it with “apostleship,” giving translators a rare concrete anchor to force the distinction, which must not be missed.
- Cesta (the Way) as under-signaled proper name — Genuinely at risk of complete doctrinal invisibility (reading as merely “the road”) if capitalization and gloss are both omitted even once; unlike most terms on this list, the failure mode here is total content loss, not distortion.
- Svatí (saints) corporate sense at Acts 9:13,32,41 — The Czech calendar’s persistent, still-practiced name-day custom makes this an unusually active competing association (not a dormant one), requiring the mandatory-flag translator note the baseline specifies to be applied with real discipline, not treated as boilerplate.
- Determined plan / foreknowledge at Acts 2:23; 4:28 — The compatibilist tension (God’s sovereign plan and genuine human guilt for the crucifixion) has no natural Czech phrase and is doctrinally adjacent to the Critical-tier election material; mishandling in either direction (denying divine sovereignty or denying human guilt) is a substantive doctrinal error, not merely a comprehension gap.
Summary
The overwhelming majority of gaps identified in this analysis confirm, rather than complicate, the baseline’s central diagnosis for Czech: most Acts-specific terms are not fighting a rival theological framework for the reader’s attention, but are either (a) linguistically present but conceptually inert (pokání, Letnice, posvěcení), (b) linguistically present but pointed at the wrong everyday referent (křest, povolání, vyvolení, sekta), or (c) simply absent from the language’s available lexical stock altogether (archēgos, filled with the Spirit, God-fearer, the compatibilist plan/foreknowledge cluster). Only “sekta” and, more mildly, “svatí” run the opposite risk direction (an active, wrongly-colored competing association rather than a dormant or missing one), and both are flagged accordingly above. Phase 2 translation must treat vocabulary selection and conceptual scaffolding as two separate, equally mandatory tasks for every Critical/High term identified here — consistent with, and required by, the baseline’s Pre-flight Checklist and system-prompt scaffolding rules.