Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Gospel of John (Czech Language Package)
Purpose and Usage Notes
This glossary registers every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md across the entire Gospel of John, cross-referenced by chapter. Terms already present in the Romans baseline translation_memory.json are marked “Reused” and their Czech rendering and risk tier are carried forward exactly, per the hard rule that established renderings must never be altered. New terms — those introduced by John’s distinctive vocabulary (the Logos, the seven “I Am” statements, the Paraclete, “born again,” etc.) — are registered here as new entries pending incorporation into an updated, versioned translation_memory.json in Phase 2.
Risk tier definitions (unchanged from the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json):
- Critical: Mistranslation alters or destroys essential doctrine. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High: Mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or comprehension failure. Human theologian review required.
- Medium: Mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning. Native speaker review recommended.
- Low: Mistranslation causes minor misunderstanding or imprecision. Automated review sufficient.
Czech-specific risk pattern reminder (carried from baseline): for this Language Package, “risk” as often denotes total conceptual blankness for a secular reader (e.g. Slovo, jednorozený, Boží hněv) as it does competing secular meaning (e.g. povolání, milost, svět). Both risk types receive the same tier labels but require different remediation: blankness requires foundational teaching from zero; competing-meaning requires active correction against a specific wrong default.
Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline
| English Term | Czech Rendering | Risk | Doctrine Category | John Chapters Where Term Recurs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Bůh | Critical | Deity of Christ / Unity of Father and Son | 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 17, 20 | Reused exactly; John 20:28 (“My Lord and my God”) is this Gospel’s climactic deity-confession text. |
| Jesus | Ježíš | Critical | Lordship / Deity of Christ | All chapters | Reused exactly; register-awareness caution (colloquial exclamation risk) applies equally to John’s narrative material. |
| Lord | Pán | Critical | Lordship of Christ | 4, 9, 11, 20, 21 | Reused exactly; John 20:28 and 20:18 both use this term — distinguish descriptive-title uses from confessional uses per 07_semantic_analysis.md. |
| Son of God | Syn Boží | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1, 3, 5, 10, 11, 19, 20 | Reused exactly; John intensifies this baseline term with explicit pre-existence claims (1:1-18, 8:58) not emphasized the same way in Romans. |
| Holy Spirit | Duch svatý | Critical | Holy Spirit as Counselor | 1, 3, 7, 14, 15, 16, 20 | Reused exactly; John’s Paraclete material (chs. 14-16) is new conceptual content built on this existing term. |
| Father | Otec | Critical | Unity of Father and Son | 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 14, 17, 20 | Reused exactly; central to the Unity of the Father and the Son doctrine unique to this curriculum. |
| Messiah | Mesiáš | Critical | Messianic Promise | 1, 4, 7, 11 | Reused exactly. |
| grace | milost | High | Grace | 1 | Reused exactly; John 1:14, 1:16-17 (“grace and truth,” “grace upon grace”). |
| faith (noun form) | víra | High | Faith | (noun form rare in John; see “believe,” below, for the dominant verb form) | Reused exactly; John overwhelmingly prefers the verb πιστεύω over the noun πίστις — see new entry “believe” below. |
| sin | hřích | High | Universal Human Accountability / Judgment | 1, 8, 9, 15, 16, 20 | Reused exactly; ch.8’s “slave to sin” imagery gives useful concrete content countering the baseline’s noted colloquial-triviality risk. |
| glory | sláva | Medium | Deity of Christ | 1, 2, 11, 12, 17 | Reused exactly; the “signs reveal glory” pattern (2:11) is new supporting content built on this existing term. |
| resurrection | vzkříšení | High/Critical* | Resurrection of Christ; extended to universal resurrection | 2, 5, 6, 11 | Reused exactly (baseline lists “resurrection” at High and “resurrection_of_christ” doctrine at Critical — both tiers apply depending on whether the segment concerns Christ’s own resurrection [Critical] or the general/universal resurrection [High], per John 5:28-29). |
| kingdom of God | království Boží | Medium | Kingdom Mission | 3, 18 | Reused exactly; John 18:36 (“my kingdom is not of this world”) functions as a strong internal corrective to the baseline’s fairy-tale-kingdom caution. |
| law | zákon | High | (background term) | 1, 7 | Reused exactly; minor presence relative to Romans. |
| peace | pokoj | Medium | Peace with God | 14, 16, 20 | Reused exactly; John 14:27 and 20:19-26 reactivate the fuller relational sense against the everyday “quiet” drift the baseline flags. |
| covenant (background) | smlouva | High | Davidic Covenant (background) | (implicit, via Davidic/kingly title material) | Reused exactly; not a frequent explicit term in John but underlies royal-messianic titles (1:49, 12:13-15). |
| apostle (background) | apoštol | Low | Apostleship | (implicit; ἀποστέλλω “send” is the operative verb — see new entry “send” below) | Reused exactly; John prefers the verb ἀποστέλλω/πέμπω (“send”) over the noun ἀπόστολος, worth teaching as the same root concept. |
| Israel | Izrael | Low | Messianic Promise | 1 | Reused exactly. |
*See note under “resurrection” above regarding dual risk tier depending on referent.
New Terms Introduced by the Gospel of John
| English Term | Original (Greek) | Czech Rendering | Risk | Doctrine Category | John Chapters | Translation Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word (Logos) | Λόγος | Slovo | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1 | Ordinary Czech “slovo” carries zero inherited philosophical/theological weight (unlike Greek λόγος for its first readers); total-blankness risk requiring the heaviest scaffolding in this glossary. Capitalize consistently: “Slovo.” |
| the Word was God | Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος | Slovo bylo Bůh | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1 | Must never be softened to “the Word was a god” or “was divine” (rejected alternative associated with a different tradition’s translation); render with full, qualitative deity intact. |
| world | κόσμος | svět | High | God’s Love for the World / Judgment | 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 | Deliberately paradoxical across John: both God’s love-object (3:16) and the God-opposing system (15:18, 1:10). Ordinary Czech “svět” is entirely secular/neutral; neither theological sense can be assumed — both must be actively built up, and readers should be shown the tension is deliberate, not resolved by picking one sense. |
| life | ζωή | život | High | Eternal Life through Faith in Christ | 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 17, 20 | Ordinary Czech “život” is entirely biological/everyday; John’s sense (God’s own intrinsic, self-existent life, mediated to believers) has no secular counterpart and must be taught from its first occurrence (1:4) forward. |
| eternal life | ζωὴ αἰώνιος | věčný život | Critical | Eternal Life through Faith in Christ | 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 17 | Risks registering as a vague poetic afterlife notion (paralleling the baseline’s “spasení” archaic-literary drift) rather than a concrete, relational, already-begun reality; anchor teaching to John 17:3’s explicit definition (“this is eternal life, that they know you”) as the primary cross-reference text. |
| light | φῶς | světlo | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 1, 3, 8, 9, 12 | Individually accessible vocabulary, but John’s specific claim that response to Christ himself (not a generic moral-metaphor “light”) is what light/darkness signifies must be actively taught, not assumed. |
| darkness | σκοτία / σκότος | tma / temnota | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 1, 3, 8, 12 | Paired with “light” above; same risk profile. |
| believe | πιστεύω | věřit | High | Eternal Life through Faith in Christ | 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 20 | Secular Czech usage (self-belief, optimism — “věřím, že to dobře dopadne”) arguably even more entrenched colloquially than the noun “víra“‘s already-flagged secular drift; the object of belief (Christ specifically) must be made explicit every time, never left implicit. |
| born again / from above | γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν | narodit se znovu / narodit se shora | Critical | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 3 | Deliberate double meaning (again/from above) in the Greek; Czech has no equivalent single-word ambiguity and, unlike English’s “born again,” carries no secular pop-culture idiom to build on at all — total blankness, requiring both senses to be explicitly preserved rather than collapsed to one. |
| born of water and Spirit | γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ Πνεύματος | narodit se z vody a z Ducha | High | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 3 | Risk that “voda” registers only through the lens of infant-baptism-as-cultural-custom rather than Spirit-worked new life; note parallels the baseline’s caution about “posvěcení” being flattened to ceremonial blessing. |
| flesh | σάρξ | tělo | High | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 1, 3, 6 | Ordinary Czech “tělo” means simply the physical body; John’s contrast (flesh vs. Spirit, “flesh profits nothing,” 6:63) requires active teaching as a theological category, not anatomy. |
| Spirit / wind (wordplay) | πνεῦμα | Duch / vítr | Critical | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 3 | John 3:8’s illustration depends on one Greek word covering both “wind” and “Spirit”; Czech (like English) uses two separate words, so the wordplay is structurally unrecoverable in translation and requires an explicit translator’s footnote, not merely a translated meaning. |
| Son of Man | υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου | Syn člověka | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13 | Easily and wrongly read by a secular audience as emphasizing mere humanity; John (following Daniel 7) intends the opposite emphasis — a heavenly, authoritative figure. Requires the Daniel 7 background to be actively supplied. |
| lifted up | ὑψωθῆναι | vyvýšen | Critical | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 3, 8, 12 | Deliberate fusion of physical crucifixion and honorific exaltation into a single verb; Czech “vyvýšen” leans toward the honorific sense alone, risking loss of the literal-crucifixion half of the deliberate double meaning. |
| only begotten / one and only | μονογενής | jednorozený | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1, 3 | Established, largely archaic-register Czech term with almost no secular-usage competitor, but for that reason risks total blankness for a reader without prior creedal exposure; must be distinguished explicitly from believers’ adoptive “children of God” status. |
| perish | ἀπόλλυμι | zahynout | Medium/High | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 3, 10 | Ordinary Czech usage evokes physical death/accident rather than final spiritual ruin; requires the “eternal, not merely biological outcome” clarification, paralleling the baseline’s “spasení” narrative-scaffolding mandate. |
| send | ἀποστέλλω / πέμπω | poslat | Medium | The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (mission from the Father) | 1, 3, 5, 17, 20 | Unremarkable Czech verb; under-teaching, not mistranslation, is the risk — should be explicitly connected to the baseline’s apoštol (“sent one”) root concept. |
| judgment / condemn | κρίσις / κρίνω | soud / odsoudit | High | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 16 | Ordinary Czech “soud” evokes a civil/criminal courtroom (useful forensic anchor), but the specifically revelatory trigger (response to the light having come) must be taught, not assumed; also must be distinguished from κρίνω’s neutral “evaluate” sense elsewhere (7:24). |
| truth | ἀλήθεια | pravda | High | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief; Holy Spirit as Counselor | 1, 3, 4, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21 | Ordinary Czech “pravda” defaults to purely propositional truth (a true statement); John’s “doing the truth” (3:21) and “I am the truth” (14:6) require the lived, personal, relational sense to be actively built up. Also watch the secular-quotation risk of 8:32 (“the truth will set you free”) circulating detached from Christ as its referent. |
| sign | σημεῖον | znamení | Medium | (supporting: reveals glory, produces belief) | 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 20 | Czech “znamení” carries a folk/superstitious secular sense (omens, horoscope signs); must be anchored to John’s specific sense of a revelatory act pointing to Christ’s identity, not an independently-decodable portent. |
| witness / testify | μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω | svědectví / svědčit | Medium | Inspiration and reliability of the Gospel testimony | 1, 3, 5, 8, 15, 21 | Works well via Czech’s courtroom-evidentiary resonance, but the specifically revelatory, firsthand-divine-knowledge sense (not mere human eyewitness report) needs to be built out. |
| Lamb of God | ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ | Beránek Boží | Critical | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 1, 19 (typological fulfillment) | Distinctive Czech risk: “beránek” has strong, positive, non-theological cultural associations via the traditional Czech Easter pastry “velikonoční beránek,” risking a quaint folk-culinary reading rather than a sacrificial-substitutionary claim. Actively counter this by anchoring the title concretely to the Exodus 12 Passover-lamb background and its narrative fulfillment in John 19:36. |
| I Am (absolute self-identification) | ἐγώ εἰμι | Já jsem | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements; Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 4 (contextual), 6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18 | Occurrences range from ordinary self-identification (4:26) to full theophanic self-naming echoing Exodus 3:14 (8:58, 18:5-6); each occurrence must be assessed individually for register — flattening all instances to the same weight, or all to mere self-identification, each distorts different verses. The tense-preservation requirement at 8:58 (“before Abraham was, I am”) is especially critical. |
| bread of life | ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς | chléb života | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 6 | ”Chléb” carries strong positive cultural/proverbial resonance in Czech (a genuine asset); the exclusivity claim (“the,” not “a,” source of sustenance) must be actively preserved against a reading that treats Christ as one spiritual resource among several. |
| light of the world | φῶς τοῦ κόσμου | světlo světa | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 8, 9 | Compounds the “light” and “world” entries; the exclusivity claim (light of and for the whole world, with no rival source) needs explanation beyond the individual component words. |
| door / gate | θύρα | dveře / brána | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 10 | Exclusive-access claim; “the,” not “a,” legitimate way in — must be actively preserved. |
| good shepherd | ποιμὴν ὁ καλός | dobrý pastýř | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements; Christ’s Substitutionary Death | 10, 21 (extended to Peter) | Agricultural imagery remains reasonably legible even in a secular, urbanized culture; but the specifically substitutionary, voluntary self-giving content (“lays down his life for the sheep”) must be explicitly taught, not left to a generic “caring” reading. |
| I and the Father are one | ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ Πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν | Já a Otec jsme jedno | Critical | Unity of the Father and the Son | 10, 17 | The neuter “jedno” (one entity/essence) vs. masculine “jeden” (one person) is the crucial grammatical signal distinguishing unity-of-essence from a claim of literal personal identity; this nuance must be actively explained, not left to grammar alone (paralleling the baseline’s caution about capitalization alone being a fragile doctrinal signal). |
| resurrection and the life | ἀνάστασις καὶ ζωή | vzkříšení a život | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements; Eternal Life through Faith in Christ | 11 | Compound of two Critical/High baseline-and-new terms; the statement is immediately, narratively demonstrated (Lazarus’s raising), and this connection must not be lost in teaching material — word and deed interpret each other. |
| way, truth, and life | ὁδὸς, ἀλήθεια, ζωή | cesta, pravda a život | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 14 | Individually gentle-sounding words; the risk is entirely in the explicit exclusivity clause that follows (14:6b, “no one comes to the Father except through me”) being softened or detached in a culturally pluralistic context. |
| Counselor / Paraclete | Παράκλητος | Přímluvce (alt.: Utěšitel, Zastánce) | Critical | The Holy Spirit as Counselor | 14, 15, 16 | Must be kept terminologically distinct from the baseline’s existing přímluva (“intercession,” a different Greek term family, Romans 8:26-27) despite conceptual overlap, to avoid conflating two related-but-distinct pneumatological concepts. No single Czech (or English) word covers the full legal-advocacy-plus-comfort range; requires an explanatory note on first use, retained consistently across all four chapters. |
| Spirit of truth | Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας | Duch pravdy | High | The Holy Spirit as Counselor | 14, 15, 16 | Compound title combining two already-registered terms (Duch svatý, pravda); teach as a specific title (the Spirit’s truth-revealing, truth-guiding function), not merely two juxtaposed words. |
| true vine | ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή | pravá vinná réva | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 15 | Requires Old Testament vine-as-Israel background (Psalm 80, Isaiah 5, Jeremiah 2:21) to convey the typological-replacement claim; the agricultural image alone is accessible, but the fulfillment claim is not self-evident without this background. |
| abide / remain in | μένω | zůstávat (v někom) | High | Christian Identity/Union with Christ (Johannine parallel to Pauline “in Christ”) | 15 | Should be explicitly distinguished from, while related to, the baseline’s Pauline “in Christ” union-with-Christ doctrine — complementary vocabulary from a different Gospel writer, not identical terminology. |
| overcome the world | νικάω τὸν κόσμον | přemoci svět | High | Assurance of Salvation (Johannine parallel) | 16 | Perfect tense signals an already-accomplished, settled victory spoken proleptically before the cross; must not be flattened to a future promise. |
| it is finished | τετέλεσται | Dokonáno jest / Je dokonáno | Critical | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 19 | Established Kralice-tradition rendering risks the same archaic-literary drift the baseline flags for “spasení” — recognizable as a famous quotation but disconnected from its conceptual content (triumphant completion, not resigned ending); must be actively unpacked. |
| My Lord and my God | ὁ Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου | Můj Pán a můj Bůh | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 20 | Compounds two existing Critical-risk baseline terms into this Gospel’s climactic deity-confession; recommend explicit cross-referencing with Romans 10:9 as this curriculum’s parallel confession text, with identical escalation-to-theologian routing. |
| love (agapaō) | ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη | milovat / láska | Medium | God’s Love for the World | 3, 13, 14, 15, 21 | Risk is the reverse of most terms in this glossary: not blankness but over-familiarity diluting the specifically self-giving, Christ-patterned sense in a language where “milovat” is used broadly and casually (romantic love, hobbies, sports teams). |
| new commandment | ἐντολὴ καινή | nové přikázání | Medium/High | God’s Love for the World (ethical outworking) | 13 | The “newness” is of standard (Christ’s own self-giving love as the pattern), not novelty of the basic idea of loving others; must be distinguished from a secular reader’s likely assumption that neighbor-love is simply generic, pre-existing ethics. |
| the wrath of God | ὀργὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ | Boží hněv | High | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 3 | No everyday secular Czech usage carries this term’s theological freight at all (unlike “milost” or “spasení,” which at least have secular cognates); total-blankness risk requiring careful, non-sensationalized foundational teaching, always paired with 3:16’s love. |
| living water | ὕδωρ ζῶν | živá voda | High | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit; Holy Spirit as Counselor | 4, 7 | Must be cross-referenced explicitly with 3:5’s “water and Spirit” and 7:39’s explicit Spirit-identification so readers track one developing image, not three unrelated ones. |
| worship in spirit and truth | προσκυνεῖν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ | klanět se v duchu a v pravdě | High | Holy Spirit as Counselor (anticipatory) | 4 | Lowercase “duch” (manner/mode, possibly implying the Spirit’s enabling) must be carefully distinguished from capitalized Duch svatý (the divine Person) — a genuine capitalization-fragility risk paralleling the baseline’s “Pán” caution. |
| Savior of the world | σωτὴρ τοῦ κόσμου | Spasitel světa | Critical | God’s Love for the World; Universal Scope of the Gospel | 4 | Reuses spasení word-family (Critical, baseline) combined with svět (High); reinforces baseline’s Universal Scope of the Gospel doctrine (Romans 1:16, 10:12-13) via this Samaritan-context confession. |
| making himself equal with God | ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ Θεῷ | činí se rovným Bohu | Critical | Deity of Christ; Unity of the Father and the Son | 5 | Must not be softened to suggest this was merely a hostile misreading by Jesus’ opponents; John’s narrative voice affirms the substance of the charge. |
| ruler of this world | ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου | vládce tohoto světa | High | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection (cosmic-conflict background) | 12 | A personal, defeated spiritual antagonist with no strong secular-Czech reference point; requires foundational explanation, not assumed background knowledge. |
| that they may be one | ἵνα ὦσιν ἕν | aby byli jedno | Critical | Unity of the Father and the Son (extended to the Church) | 17 | Analogical, not identical, relationship between believers’ unity and the Father-Son unity of 10:30; must not be collapsed into a single claim. |
| this is eternal life, that they know you | αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ αἰώνιος ζωή… | to je věčný život, aby poznali tebe | Critical | Eternal Life through Faith in Christ | 17 | John’s own definitional anchor text for “eternal life” — should function as the primary cross-reference for věčný život throughout the curriculum. |
| do you love me? (agapaō/phileō) | ἀγαπᾷς με / φιλεῖς με | miluješ mě? / mám tě rád | High | God’s Love for the World (pastoral/restorative application) | 21 | Czech, like English, lacks two ordinary distinguishable verbs mapping cleanly onto the Greek pair; recommend flattening both to “milovat” for readability but flag explicitly for a translator’s/teacher’s note on the underlying Greek variation. |
Cross-Reference Notes for Phase 2 Consistency
- John 3:16 and John 1:1, 1:14 should receive the same curriculum-wide consistency treatment the baseline mandates for Romans 1:16-17 and Romans 8:28 — these are John’s thesis-level verses.
- John 20:30-31 functions as this Gospel’s own explicit purpose statement and should be treated with the same fixed, verbatim-across-documents consistency the baseline requires for Romans 10:9-10.
- Wherever Přímluvce (Paraclete, new) and přímluva (intercession, baseline) both occur in the same teaching document, include an explicit note distinguishing the two terms, since their visual/aural similarity in Czech creates a genuine confusion risk not present in the Greek (which uses entirely distinct word families: παράκλητος vs. ὑπερεντυγχάνει/ἔντευξις).
- The Seven “I Am” Statements (6:35, 8:12, 10:7, 10:11, 11:25, 14:6, 15:1 — plus the absolute, non-predicate uses at 8:58 and 18:5-6) should be compiled into a single standing cross-reference list in Phase 2 documentation, since consistent recognition of the pattern across chapters is itself pedagogically significant for this curriculum’s doctrine list.
- All new terms in this glossary are recommended for immediate incorporation into an updated
translation_memory.json(version 2) before any Phase 2 segment translation of John begins, per the baseline’s translation memory update procedure.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Bůh
Transliteration: theos
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / Unity of the Father and the Son
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Standard and unambiguous, though ‘proboha’ functions as a common secular exclamation requiring register awareness. John 20:28 (‘My Lord and my God’) is this Gospel’s climactic deity-confession and should be flagged for the same escalation routing as Deity of Christ material generally.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Ježíš
Transliteration: Iēsous
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ / Deity of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Standard and stable, though ‘Ježíšmarjá’ also functions as a common secular interjection/mild profanity; translators must ensure formal doctrinal material never echoes this casual exclamatory register.
Lord
Approved rendering: Pán
Transliteration: kyrios
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: pán s malým ‘p’ ve smyslu běžného zdvořilostního oslovení (‘pane’)
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. ‘Pán/pane’ is the ordinary Czech word for ‘Mister/Sir’; capitalization alone is a fragile signal for exclusive divine lordship. In John, distinguish descriptive uses (20:18, ‘I have seen the Lord’) from confessional uses (20:28, ‘My Lord and my God’) — both draw on this Critical-risk term but carry different weight.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Syn Boží
Transliteration: huios theou
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Unique eternal Sonship; basic Trinitarian categories cannot be assumed. John intensifies this term with explicit pre-existence claims (1:1-18, 8:58) and the direct equality-claim of 5:18 not foregrounded the same way in Romans.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Duch svatý
Transliteration: pneuma hagion
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Original: τὸ πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: Holy Spirit
Inherited from Romans package. Standard and unambiguous personal third Person of the Trinity. John’s Paraclete material (chs. 14-16) is new conceptual content built on this existing established term.
Father
Approved rendering: Otec
Transliteration: patēr
Doctrine: Unity of the Father and the Son / Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. God as personal Father. John’s usage (5:18-23, 10:30, 14:9-11) requires distinguishing Christ’s unique filial relationship from the believer’s adoptive relationship — both use ‘Otec’ but with different theological weight.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Mesiáš
Transliteration: Christos / Messias
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: Χριστός / Μεσσίας
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Requires foundational OT messianic-expectation background. John 1:41 explicitly translates the transliterated term for its readers (‘Messiah… that is, Christ’) — model this active-definition move in teaching material.
Salvation
Approved rendering: spasení
Transliteration: sōtēria / sōzō
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: spasení chápané pouze jako archaický, literární výraz bez skutečného obsahu
Inherited from Romans package. John 3:17’s ‘sōthē’ (‘might be saved’) reuses this Critical-risk term family exactly; the baseline’s warning that ‘spasení’ risks registering as archaic and inert applies with full force here and must be paired with narrative content (from what, to what, by whom).
Righteousness
Approved rendering: spravedlnost
Transliteration: dikaiosynē
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief (via the Spirit’s conviction, John 16:8)
Rejected alternatives: spravedlnost výhradně v moderním občanském/právním smyslu
Inherited from Romans package. Recurs at John 16:8 in the Spirit’s threefold conviction of the world ‘concerning sin and righteousness and judgment’ — reuse this Critical-risk term exactly, tying it to the Holy Spirit as Counselor doctrine as well as its Romans usage.
Word Logos
Approved rendering: Slovo
Transliteration: Logos
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: transliterace ‘Logos’ bez překladu (ponechala by termín zcela cizí a bez opory v české biblické tradici)
Original: Λόγος
Category: Christology
The single flattest term in this Language Package: ordinary Czech ‘slovo’ carries zero inherited philosophical weight, unlike Greek λόγος for John’s first Hellenistic-Jewish readers. Total conceptual blankness, not competing meaning; requires the heaviest available explanatory scaffolding of any term in this package. Capitalize consistently as ‘Slovo.‘
Word Was God
Approved rendering: Slovo bylo Bůh
Transliteration: Theos ēn ho Logos
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: Slovo bylo bůh (malé ‘b’) nebo ‘Slovo bylo božské’ — odmítnuto, protože oslabuje plné, kvalitativní božství a odpovídá sektářskému překladu (viz Svědkové Jehovovi)
Original: Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος
Category: Christology
CRITICAL, and the single highest-stakes clause in the whole curriculum. Must never be softened to ‘the Word was a god’ or ‘was divine’ — a rendering associated with the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Czech New World Translation and explicitly rejected. Flag for human theologian review at every occurrence.
Son Of Man
Approved rendering: Syn člověka
Transliteration: huios tou anthrōpou
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: opisný titul zdůrazňující nebeský původ (např. ‘Nebeský Syn člověka’) — odmítnuto jako neustálený novotvar bez opory v žádné tradici českého biblického překladu
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου
Category: Christology
Uniquely dangerous: the literal, correct Czech words point a secular reader toward the OPPOSITE of John’s intended meaning (mere humanity, not Daniel 7:13-14’s heavenly, dominion-receiving figure). Requires mandatory Daniel 7 background teaching at every occurrence, not just the first.
Only Begotten
Approved rendering: jednorozený
Transliteration: monogenēs
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: jediný (pouze ‘jediný,’ bez smyslu ‘zplozený’) — odmítnuto, protože ztrácí obsah věčného zplození odlišující Kristovo synovství od adoptivního synovství věřících
Original: μονογενής
Category: Christology
Established, largely archaic-register Czech term with almost no secular-usage competitor; risks total blankness for a reader without creedal background. Must be actively distinguished from believers’ adoptive ‘děti Boží’ status. John 1:18 carries a genuine manuscript variant (μονογενὴς θεός vs. μονογενὴς υἱός) — follow ČEP’s footnoting convention rather than silently choosing.
I Am
Approved rendering: Já jsem
Transliteration: egō eimi
Doctrine: The Seven “I Am” Statements
Rejected alternatives: jednotné zploštění všech výskytů na stejnou úroveň (buď vše jako běžné sebeurčení, nebo vše jako teofanické zjevení) — odmítnuto, protože každý výskyt zkresluje jiný verš
Original: ἐγώ εἰμι
Category: Christology
Occurrences range from ordinary self-identification (4:26) to full theophanic self-naming echoing Exodus 3:14 (8:58, 18:5-6); each occurrence must be individually assessed for register. At 8:58, present tense ‘já jsem’ (never ‘byl jsem’/‘existoval jsem’) must be preserved exactly, since flattening to past tense erases the Exodus 3:14 echo — the Czech NWT-CZ error pattern to actively avoid.
Bread Of Life
Approved rendering: chléb života
Transliteration: ho artos tēs zōēs
Doctrine: The Seven “I Am” Statements
Original: ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
First of the Seven ‘I Am’ Statements (John 6:35). ‘Chléb’ carries strong positive proverbial resonance in Czech (a genuine teaching asset); the exclusivity claim (‘the,’ not ‘a,’ source of sustenance) must be actively preserved against a reading that treats Christ as one spiritual resource among several.
Light Of The World
Approved rendering: světlo světa
Transliteration: to phōs tou kosmou
Doctrine: The Seven “I Am” Statements
Original: τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου
Category: Christology
Second of the Seven ‘I Am’ Statements (John 8:12). Compounds the ‘light’ and ‘world’ entries; the compounded exclusivity claim needs its own explanatory emphasis beyond the individually accessible component words.
Door Gate
Approved rendering: dveře / brána
Transliteration: hē thyra
Doctrine: The Seven “I Am” Statements
Original: ἡ θύρα
Category: Christology
Third of the Seven ‘I Am’ Statements (John 10:9). Czech does not mark definiteness morphologically, so the exclusive-access claim (‘the’ door, not ‘a’ door) relies entirely on context and teaching notes.
Good Shepherd
Approved rendering: dobrý pastýř
Transliteration: ho poimēn ho kalos
Doctrine: The Good Shepherd’s Self-Sacrifice
Original: ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός
Category: Christology
Fourth of the Seven ‘I Am’ Statements (John 10:11). Agricultural imagery remains legible even in urbanized secular Czech culture, but the substitutionary content (‘lays down his life FOR the sheep’) must be explicitly taught, not left to a generic ‘caring shepherd’ reading. Extended to Peter’s ministry at 21:15-17.
Resurrection And Life
Approved rendering: vzkříšení a život
Transliteration: hē anastasis kai hē zōē
Doctrine: The Seven “I Am” Statements
Original: ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀνάστασις καὶ ἡ ζωή
Category: Christology
Fifth of the Seven ‘I Am’ Statements (John 11:25). Compound of two Critical/High-risk terms; immediately, narratively demonstrated by Lazarus’s raising — this word-deed connection must not be lost in teaching material.
Way Truth Life
Approved rendering: cesta, pravda a život
Transliteration: hē hodos kai hē alētheia kai hē zōē
Doctrine: The Seven “I Am” Statements
Original: ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή
Category: Christology
Sixth of the Seven ‘I Am’ Statements (John 14:6). Each component word is individually gentle-sounding in Czech; the risk lies entirely in the exclusivity clause (14:6b, ‘no one comes to the Father except through me’) being softened or detached in a culturally pluralistic Czech context.
True Vine
Approved rendering: pravá vinná réva
Transliteration: hē ampelos hē alēthinē
Doctrine: The Seven “I Am” Statements
Original: ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή
Category: Christology
Seventh of the Seven ‘I Am’ Statements (John 15:1). Requires OT vine-as-Israel background (Psalm 80, Isaiah 5, Jeremiah 2:21) to convey the typological-replacement claim; the agricultural image alone is accessible, the fulfillment claim is not.
Lifted Up
Approved rendering: vyvýšen
Transliteration: hypsōthēnai
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Original: ὑψωθῆναι
Category: Christology
Deliberate fusion of physical crucifixion and honorific exaltation into one verb (3:14, 8:28, 12:32-34). Czech ‘vyvýšen’ leans toward the honorific sense alone; a note must hold both senses together rather than letting exaltation silently absorb the literal crucifixion sense.
Equal With God
Approved rendering: činí se rovným Bohu
Transliteration: ison heauton poiōn tō Theō
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / Unity of the Father and the Son
Rejected alternatives: vykreslení jako pouhé nepřátelské nedorozumění ze strany židovských vůdců — odmítnuto, protože Janovo vyprávění potvrzuje podstatu obvinění
Original: ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ Θεῷ
Category: Christology
John 5:18. Must not be softened to suggest this was merely a hostile misreading by Jesus’ opponents; John’s narrative voice affirms the substance of the charge even while condemning the leaders’ murderous response.
My Lord And My God
Approved rendering: Můj Pán a můj Bůh
Transliteration: ho Kyrios mou kai ho Theos mou
Doctrine: Worship and Confession of Christ’s Deity (Thomas)
Original: ὁ Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου
Category: Christology
John 20:28. Compounds two existing Critical-risk terms (Pán, Bůh) into this Gospel’s clearest single deity-confession by a former skeptic. Treat as this curriculum’s parallel to Romans 10:9 with identical fixed, verbatim, human-theologian-escalated treatment. Do not let this register as mere astonished exclamation rather than considered confession (a known sectarian reframing).
Savior Of The World
Approved rendering: Spasitel světa
Transliteration: ho sōtēr tou kosmou
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World / Universal Scope of the Gospel (Johannine)
Original: ὁ σωτὴρ τοῦ κόσμου
Category: Christology
John 4:42, the Samaritan townspeople’s confession. Reuses the ‘spasení’ word-family (Critical) combined with ‘svět’ (High). The Samaritan narrative setting dramatizes the Universal Scope of the Gospel doctrine before Paul articulates it in Romans.
Lamb Of God
Approved rendering: Beránek Boží
Transliteration: ho amnos tou Theou
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: opisný výraz vyhýbající se slovu ‘beránek’ (např. ‘obětní jehně’) — odmítnuto, protože by narušil kontinuitu s ustálenou českou biblickou tradicí a její vazbou na Exodus 12 a Izajáše 53
Original: ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ
Category: Christology
John 1:29, 1:36; fulfilled narratively at 19:36. Genuinely distinctive Czech risk: ‘beránek’ carries strong, positive, non-theological cultural associations via the traditional Czech Easter pastry ‘velikonoční beránek.’ Must be actively anchored to Exodus 12 and John 19:36 every time, never left to register through the baking-tradition association.
Father Son One
Approved rendering: Já a Otec jsme jedno
Transliteration: egō kai ho Patēr hen esmen
Doctrine: Unity of the Father and the Son
Rejected alternatives: výklad jako jednota pouhého záměru/organizace mezi dvěma oddělenými bytostmi — odmítnuto jako popření podstatné jednoty
Original: ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ Πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν
Category: God
John 10:30. The Greek neuter ‘ἕν’ (one entity) versus masculine ‘εἷς’ (one person) is preserved by Czech’s neuter ‘jedno’ versus masculine ‘jeden’ — the crucial grammatical signal distinguishing unity-of-essence from personal identity. This nuance must be actively explained; grammatical gender/number is a fragile, easily-missed doctrinal signal on the page, paralleling the baseline’s caution about capitalization alone for ‘Pán.‘
That They May Be One
Approved rendering: aby byli jedno
Transliteration: hina ōsin hen kathōs hēmeis hen esmen
Doctrine: Unity of the Father and the Son (extended to the Church)
Original: ἵνα ὦσιν ἕν καθὼς ἡμεῖς ἕν ἐσμεν
Category: God
John 17:11, 17:21-22. Extends the Father-Son unity of 10:30 analogically, not identically, to believers’ unity with one another; must not be collapsed into a single ontological claim.
Counselor Paraclete
Approved rendering: Přímluvce
Transliteration: ho Paraklētos
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Rejected alternatives: Utěšitel (příliš úzké, zdůrazňuje jen útěchu), Zastánce (příliš úzké, zdůrazňuje jen právní obhajobu), transliterace ‘Paraklétos’ bez překladu — odmítnuto, chybí opora v ustálené české biblické tradici
Original: ὁ Παράκλητος
Category: Holy Spirit
John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7. No single Czech (or English) word covers the full legal-advocacy-plus-comfort range. MUST be kept terminologically distinct from the baseline’s existing ‘přímluva’ (intercession, Romans 8:26-27, a different Greek term family) despite conceptual overlap — a genuine Czech-specific visual/aural collision risk absent in the Greek. Requires a standing explanatory note maintained identically across all four chapters.
Spirit Wind Wordplay
Approved rendering: vítr / Duch
Transliteration: to pneuma hopou thelei pnei
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: pokus o jednoslovné české řešení zachovávající slovní hru — odmítnuto, žádné takové slovo neexistuje a vynucené řešení by zatemnilo význam více než přiznaná ztráta
Original: τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ
Category: Holy Spirit
John 3:8. Structural translation challenge distinct in kind from doctrinal-confusion risk: Czech uses two separate words (‘vítr’/‘Duch’), so the Greek’s shared-root wordplay is structurally unrecoverable. A mandatory translator’s footnote explaining the Greek wordplay is required wherever this verse is taught.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: věčný život
Transliteration: zōē aiōnios
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Salvation
John 3:15-16, 3:36, 5:24, 6:47, 10:28, 11:25-26, 17:3, 20:31. Risks registering as a vague, poetic afterlife notion (paralleling the baseline’s ‘spasení’ archaic-literary drift) rather than a concrete, relational, already-begun reality. John 17:3’s explicit definition must function as the fixed cross-reference anchor throughout the curriculum.
Eternal Life Defined
Approved rendering: to je věčný život, aby poznali tebe
Transliteration: hautē estin hē aiōnios zōē, hina ginōskōsin se
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Original: αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ αἰώνιος ζωή, ἵνα γινώσκωσίν σε
Category: Salvation
John 17:3. John’s own explicit definition of eternal life as relational, personal knowledge of the Father and the Son. This verse supplies exactly the narrative, conceptual scaffolding the baseline mandates for ‘spasení’ and must be used verbatim and consistently wherever ‘věčný život’ is taught across this curriculum’s documents.
Born Again From Above
Approved rendering: narodit se znovu / narodit se shora
Transliteration: gennēthē anōthen
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: zúžení pouze na ‘narodit se znovu’ (ztrácí prostorový smysl ‘shora’), zúžení pouze na ‘narodit se shora’ (ztrácí časový smysl ‘znovu’, klíčový pro Nikodémovo nedorozumění)
Original: γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν
Category: Salvation
John 3:3, 3:7. Located inside the curriculum’s core passage. Czech, unlike English’s ‘born again,’ has no equivalent double-meaning idiom at all — total conceptual blankness, not competing meaning. Requires an explanatory note preserving BOTH senses rather than collapsing to one, since the ambiguity is itself theologically load-bearing in the Nicodemus dialogue.
It Is Finished
Approved rendering: Dokonáno jest / Je dokonáno
Transliteration: tetelestai
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: zjednodušení na neutrální ‘skončilo to’ — odmítnuto, ztrácí smysl vítězného, úspěšného dokončení vyjádřený řeckým perfektem
Original: τετέλεσται
Category: Eschatology
John 19:30. The established Kralice-tradition rendering risks the same archaic-literary drift the baseline flags for ‘spasení’ — a recognizable quotation disconnected from its conceptual content. Must be actively unpacked as triumphant completion of the Father’s redemptive purpose, not a resigned ‘well, that’s over.‘
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: milost
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: Grace and Truth Revealed in Christ
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Still used in ordinary Czech for judicial clemency; needs explicit unpacking as unmerited divine favor. John 1:14, 1:16-17’s ‘grace upon grace’ echoes Exodus 34:6 and requires OT covenant-faithfulness background to be supplied.
Faith
Approved rendering: víra
Transliteration: pistis
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: víra v obecném slova smyslu (např. sebedůvěra)
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. The noun form is comparatively rare in John, which overwhelmingly prefers the verb ‘věřit’ (see new entry ‘believe’); note this distribution difference so students are not confused by the noun’s relative scarcity in this book.
Sin
Approved rendering: hřích
Transliteration: hamartia
Doctrine: Sin and Universal Accountability (Johannine)
Rejected alternatives: hřích s oslabeným, žertovným významem (‘to je hřích…’)
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. John 8:34’s slavery/bondage imagery (‘otrok hříchu’) gives useful concrete content countering the colloquial-triviality risk where ‘hřích’ can mean ‘a shame/pity’ about mundane matters.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: vzkříšení
Transliteration: anastasis
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Original: ἀνάστασις
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package (Critical when referring specifically to Christ’s own resurrection per doctrine_risk_registry; High for the general/universal future resurrection of John 5:28-29 — teaching material must not conflate the two referents even though both use this same word).
Law
Approved rendering: zákon
Transliteration: nomos
Doctrine: Covenant background
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Minor presence relative to Romans (John 1:17, 1:45, 7:19, 7:23); the same risk of conflation with civil law/legislation-in-general applies whenever it recurs.
Covenant
Approved rendering: smlouva
Transliteration: diathēkē
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant background
Rejected alternatives: smlouva výhradně jako běžná obchodní nebo právní smlouva
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Not a frequent explicit term in John but underlies royal-messianic titles applied to Jesus (1:49, 12:13-15); teach with the same relational, non-commercial emphasis the baseline mandates.
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: Boží hněv
Transliteration: hē orgē tou Theou
Doctrine: The Wrath and Judgment of God
Rejected alternatives: zjednodušení na pouhý literární obrat bez skutečného obsahu, přemrštěné vykreslení jako obraz Boží krutosti odtržené od Jana 3:16
Original: ἡ ὀργὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ
Category: God
John 3:36. No everyday secular Czech usage carries this term’s theological freight at all (unlike ‘milost’ or ‘spasení,’ which at least have secular cognates) — total blankness, not competing meaning. Always pair with 3:16’s love, which directly precedes it in the text.
Ruler Of This World
Approved rendering: vládce tohoto světa
Transliteration: ho archōn tou kosmou toutou
Doctrine: Cosmic Conflict and the Ruler of This World
Original: ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου
Category: God
John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11. A personal, defeated spiritual antagonist has no strong secular-Czech reference point in a low-religious-framing society; requires foundational explanation rather than correction of an existing wrong framework.
Spirit Of Truth
Approved rendering: Duch pravdy
Transliteration: to Pneuma tēs alētheias
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Original: τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας
Category: Holy Spirit
John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13. Compound title combining two already-registered terms (Duch svatý, pravda); teach as a specific title naming a function (truth-revealing, testifying about Christ), not two separately-translated words merely juxtaposed.
Born Of Water And Spirit
Approved rendering: narodit se z vody a z Ducha
Transliteration: gennēthē ex hydatos kai Pneumatos
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Original: γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ Πνεύματος
Category: Holy Spirit
John 3:5. Risk that ‘voda’ registers only through the lens of infant baptism practiced as cultural custom by much of secular Czech society, rather than Spirit-worked new life; note parallels the baseline’s caution about ‘posvěcení’ being flattened to ceremonial blessing.
Living Water
Approved rendering: živá voda
Transliteration: hydōr zōn
Doctrine: Living Water and the Spirit
Original: ὕδωρ ζῶν
Category: Holy Spirit
John 4:10-14, 7:37-39. Must be cross-referenced explicitly with 3:5’s ‘water and Spirit’ and 7:39’s explicit Spirit-identification so readers track one developing image across three chapters, not three unrelated ones.
Worship In Spirit And Truth
Approved rendering: klanět se v duchu a v pravdě
Transliteration: proskynein en pneumati kai alētheia
Doctrine: Worship in Spirit and Truth
Original: προσκυνεῖν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ
Category: Holy Spirit
John 4:20-24. Lowercase ‘duch’ (manner/mode, possibly implying the Spirit’s enabling) must be carefully distinguished from capitalized ‘Duch svatý’ (the divine Person) — a capitalization-fragility risk directly paralleling the baseline’s caution about ‘Pán’ versus ‘pán.’ Also requires Samaritan/Jewish worship-location dispute background.
Life
Approved rendering: život
Transliteration: zōē
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Original: ζωή
Category: Salvation
John 1:4, 5:26, 11:25, 14:6. Ordinary Czech ‘život’ is entirely biological/everyday; John’s divine, self-existent sense has no ready secular counterpart and must be built up from its first occurrence (1:4) forward across the whole Gospel.
Believe
Approved rendering: věřit
Transliteration: pisteuō
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: věřit v obecném, sekulárním smyslu (optimismus, sebedůvěra)
Original: πιστεύω
Category: Salvation
Occurs dozens of times throughout John. Secular Czech usage (‘věřím, že to dobře dopadne’ — generic optimism) is arguably more entrenched colloquially than the noun ‘víra”s already-flagged secular drift. The object of belief (Christ, ‘in his name’) must be made grammatically explicit every time, never left implicit.
Perish
Approved rendering: zahynout
Transliteration: apollymi
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Original: ἀπόλλυμι
Category: Salvation
John 3:16, 10:28. Ordinary Czech usage evokes physical death (accident, disaster) rather than final spiritual ruin; requires the clarification that John intends an eternal, not merely biological, outcome — the ‘from what’ half of the narrative scaffolding the baseline mandates for ‘spasení.‘
Overcome The World
Approved rendering: já jsem přemohl svět
Transliteration: egō nenikēka ton kosmon
Doctrine: Assurance and Eternal Security (Johannine)
Rejected alternatives: budoucí čas ‘přemohu svět’ — odmítnuto, ztrácí sílu již dokončeného vítězství vyjádřenou řeckým perfektem
Original: ἐγὼ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον
Category: Salvation
John 16:33. The perfect tense’s ‘already accomplished’ force, spoken proleptically before the crucifixion, must not be flattened to a future promise; teach alongside the baseline’s Assurance of Salvation doctrine for consistency.
Flesh
Approved rendering: tělo
Transliteration: sarx
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit / Incarnation of the Word
Original: σάρξ
Category: Sin
John 1:14, 3:6, 6:51-56, 6:63. Ordinary Czech ‘tělo’ means simply the physical body; John’s contrasted senses (assumed human nature at 1:14; natural/unregenerate origin contrasted with Spirit at 3:6, 6:63) both require active teaching as theological categories distinct from anatomy.
Judgment Condemn
Approved rendering: soud / odsoudit
Transliteration: krisis / krinō
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Original: κρίσις / κρίνω
Category: Salvation
John 3:17-19, 5:22-30, 9:39, 12:47-48, 16:8-11. Ordinary Czech ‘soud’ evokes a civil/criminal courtroom, a useful forensic anchor, but the specifically revelatory trigger (light having come into the world) must be taught rather than assumed. Must be distinguished from κρίνω’s neutral ‘evaluate’ sense at 7:24.
World
Approved rendering: svět
Transliteration: kosmos
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
Original: κόσμος
Category: Johannine Dualism
John 1:10, 3:16-17, 4:42, 12:31, 15:18-19, 17:14. Ordinary Czech ‘svět’ is entirely neutral/secular, carrying none of John’s moral-theological freight in either direction. Both the love-object sense (3:16) and the God-opposing sense (15:18) must be actively built up from nothing; the tension between them is deliberate and should not be resolved by picking one meaning.
Truth
Approved rendering: pravda
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief / The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Johannine Dualism
John 1:14, 3:21, 8:32, 14:6, 18:37-38. Ordinary Czech ‘pravda’ defaults to purely propositional truth. John’s ‘doing the truth’ (3:21) and ‘I am the truth’ (14:6) require the lived, relational sense to be built up. John 8:32 (‘the truth will set you free’) has significant secular-quotation currency in Czech (mottos, slogans) stripped of Christ as referent and must be actively reattached to 8:31 and 14:6.
Abide Remain
Approved rendering: zůstávat (v někom)
Transliteration: menō
Doctrine: Union with Christ (Abiding in the Vine)
Original: μένω
Category: Faith
John 15:4-7. Should be explicitly distinguished from, while related to, the baseline’s Pauline ‘in Christ’ union-with-Christ doctrine (Romans 6, 8, 12) — complementary vocabulary from a different Gospel writer, not identical terminology.
New Commandment
Approved rendering: nové přikázání
Transliteration: entolē kainē
Doctrine: The Love Command and Christian Ethics
Original: ἐντολὴ καινή
Category: Faith
John 13:34. A secular reader is likely to assume this is generic, culturally universal ethics; the ‘newness’ claim (a new standard, modeled specifically on Christ’s own self-giving love, not a previously unknown idea) needs explicit unpacking.
Do You Love Me
Approved rendering: miluješ mě? / mám tě rád
Transliteration: agapas me / phileis me
Doctrine: The Love Command and Christian Ethics
Rejected alternatives: vytvoření dvou odlišných, uměle rozlišených českých slov pro dva řecké výrazy — odmítnuto jako nepřirozená a nesrozumitelná čeština
John 21:15-17. Czech, like English, lacks two ordinary, cleanly distinguishable verbs mapping onto agapaō/phileō; recommend flattening both to ‘milovat’/‘mám rád’ for readability but flag explicitly for a translator’s/teacher’s note explaining the underlying Greek variation, since teaching material referencing ‘the two Greek words for love’ would otherwise be unintelligible against a flattened translation.
Purpose Statement 20 30 31
Approved rendering: abyste věřili… a měli život v jeho jménu
Transliteration: hina pisteusēte… kai zōēn echēte
Doctrine: Inspiration and Reliability of Gospel Testimony / Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
John 20:30-31. John’s own explicit statement of his Gospel’s purpose; functions as this book’s thesis statement, parallel in curricular importance to Romans 1:16-17. Reuse the ‘věřit’ and ‘život’ entries exactly and treat this verse with the same fixed, verbatim-across-documents consistency mandate.
Medium Risk Terms
Glory
Approved rendering: sláva
Transliteration: doxa
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: sláva ve smyslu světské slávy či úspěchu
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Also the ordinary word for worldly fame; John’s ‘signs reveal glory, glory produces belief’ pattern (2:11) is new supporting content distinguishing it from secular achievement-glory.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: království Boží
Transliteration: basileia tou theou
Doctrine: Kingdom of God as Spiritual, not Political, Reign
Original: ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Guard against the fairy-tale-kingdom association ‘království’ carries in Czech children’s/fantasy literature. John 18:36 (‘my kingdom is not of this world’) functions as a strong internal Johannine corrective and should be used as a teaching anchor.
Peace
Approved rendering: pokoj
Transliteration: eirēnē
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: pokoj ve smyslu pouhého klidu či nepřítomnosti hluku
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. John 14:27 and 20:19-26 reactivate the fuller relational sense: ‘not as the world gives’ — the text itself does corrective work against the everyday ‘quiet/calm’ drift.
Adoption
Approved rendering: přijetí za syna
Transliteration: huiothesia
Doctrine: Unity of the Father and the Son (contrast with unique Sonship)
Inherited from Romans package. John prefers organic new-birth kinship language (‘děti Boží,’ children of God, John 1:12) over Paul’s legal-adoption term; teach the two as complementary metaphors for the same reality, not competing or contradictory ones, and explicitly distinguish believers’ adoptive/born status from Christ’s unique ‘jednorozený’ Sonship.
Prophet
Approved rendering: prorok
Transliteration: prophētēs
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: prorok ve smyslu věštce nebo jasnovidce
Inherited from Romans package. John 1:21, 6:14, and 7:40 refer to ‘the Prophet’ as a distinct messianic-expectation title (Deuteronomy 18:15); Czech popular culture’s use of ‘prorokovat’ for fortune-telling risks a secular-predictive misreading.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: potomek Davidův
Transliteration: sperma Dauid
Doctrine: Messianic Promise / Davidic Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Appears at John 7:42 in popular debate over Jesus’ messianic credentials; requires the Davidic covenant background (2 Samuel 7) to be supplied, as in Romans.
Light
Approved rendering: světlo
Transliteration: phōs
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Original: φῶς
Category: Johannine Dualism
John 1:4-9, 3:19-21, 8:12, 9:5, 12:35-36. Czech readers will readily grasp light/dark as a generic moral metaphor but will not automatically extend it to John’s specific claim that response to Christ HIMSELF is what light/darkness signifies.
Darkness
Approved rendering: tma / temnota
Transliteration: skotia / skotos
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Original: σκοτία / σκότος
Category: Johannine Dualism
John 1:5, 3:19, 8:12, 12:35-36. Paired with ‘light’; a person’s preference for darkness is a moral choice, not a neutral epistemic limitation, and this must be taught explicitly.
Sign
Approved rendering: znamení
Transliteration: sēmeion
Doctrine: Signs and Belief
Original: σημεῖον
Category: Faith
John 2:11, 4:48, 6:2, 9:16, 11:47, 20:30-31. Czech ‘znamení’ also has a folk/superstitious secular sense (omens, horoscope signs); must be anchored to John’s specific sense — a revelatory act pointing to Christ’s identity, not an independently-decodable portent.
Witness Testify
Approved rendering: svědectví / svědčit
Transliteration: martyria / martyreō
Doctrine: Inspiration and Reliability of Gospel Testimony
Original: μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω
Category: Faith
John 1:7-8, 5:31-39, 21:24. Works well via Czech’s courtroom-evidentiary resonance, but the specifically revelatory, firsthand-divine-knowledge sense (not mere human eyewitness report) needs to be built out.
Love Agape
Approved rendering: milovat / láska
Transliteration: agapaō / agapē
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
Original: ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη
Category: Faith
John 3:16, 13:34-35, 15:9-13, 21:15-17. Risk is the reverse of most terms in this package: not blankness but over-familiarity diluting the specifically self-giving, Christ-patterned sense, since ‘milovat’ is used broadly and casually in Czech. John 21:15-17’s alternating agapaō/phileō dialogue has no clean two-verb Czech equivalent; recommend flattening both to ‘milovat’/‘mám rád’ for readability with a mandatory translator’s note on the underlying Greek variation.
Apostle Send
Approved rendering: poslat
Transliteration: apostellō / pempō
Doctrine: Mission and Sending
Original: ἀποστέλλω / πέμπω
Category: Church
John 3:17, 17:18, 20:21. Unremarkable Czech verb; the risk is under-teaching, not mistranslation — should be explicitly connected to the baseline’s established ‘apoštol’ (‘sent one with delegated authority’) root concept.
King Of Israel
Approved rendering: král Izraele
Transliteration: basileus tou Israēl
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: βασιλεὺς τοῦ Ἰσραήλ
Category: Christology
John 1:49, 12:13-15. Connects directly to the baseline’s Davidic Covenant doctrine background; render descriptively and cross-reference that entry.
Grain Of Wheat
Approved rendering: pšeničné zrno
Transliteration: ho kokkos tou sitou
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Original: ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου
Category: Christology
John 12:24. A naturally accessible metaphor requiring little conceptual scaffolding beyond what the Substitutionary Death doctrine already needs; low risk of secular misreading given continued general Czech familiarity with agricultural life-cycle imagery.
Hour Of Glorification
Approved rendering: hodina
Transliteration: hē hōra
Doctrine: The “Hour” of Divine Timing and Glorification
Original: ἡ ὥρα
Category: Christology
John 2:4, 7:30, 8:20, 12:23, 13:1, 17:1. Render consistently across all occurrences so the motif’s build-up (‘my hour has not yet come’) and resolution (‘the hour has come’) is recognizable to a reader tracking it chapter by chapter.
Blood And Water
Approved rendering: krev a voda
Transliteration: haima kai hydōr
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection / Humanity of Christ
Original: αἷμα καὶ ὕδωρ
Category: Christology
John 19:34. Straightforward narrative detail; worth a brief note on its apologetic function (proof of genuine, not merely apparent, death) for a secular readership assessing the text’s historical reliability.
Jesus Wept
Approved rendering: Ježíš zaplakal
Transliteration: edakrysen ho Iēsous
Doctrine: Humanity of Christ
John 11:35. The Gospel’s most vivid statement of Christ’s genuine human emotion; must be taught as a both/and alongside the immediately preceding deity-claim (11:25, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’) so readers do not treat the two as contradictory.
Receive The Holy Spirit Breath
Approved rendering: přijměte Ducha svatého
Transliteration: labete Pneuma Hagion
Doctrine: New Creation and the Spirit’s Impartation
John 20:22. Christ’s breathing on the disciples evokes Genesis 2:7’s creation-breath and anticipates Pentecost; worth a note connecting this symbolic/proleptic bestowal to the New Birth doctrine established in chapter 3.
Low Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: apoštol
Transliteration: apostolos
Doctrine: Apostleship / Mission and Sending
Inherited from Romans package. John prefers the verb ‘poslat’ (ἀποστέλλω/πέμπω, ‘send’) over the noun; teach as the same root concept — the Son is the archetypal ‘sent one’ whose pattern the disciples’ own sending imitates.
Israel
Approved rendering: Izrael
Transliteration: Israēl
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: Ἰσραήλ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. The same caution about contemporary political sensitivity around the modern nation-state applies; appears in titles like ‘teacher of Israel’ (3:10) and ‘King of Israel’ (1:49).
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: Dawid
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Standard proper name, underlying the ‘King of Israel’ and ‘seed of David’ titles applied to Jesus in John.
Rabbi
Approved rendering: Rabbi
Transliteration: Rhabbi
Doctrine: Narrative background
Original: Ῥαββί
Category: Narrative Background
John 1:38, 1:49, 3:2, 6:25. Retain transliterated form as in established Czech Bible tradition; a one-line gloss (‘uznávaný učitel Zákona’) is useful on first use.
Pharisee
Approved rendering: farizeus
Transliteration: Pharisaios
Doctrine: Narrative background
Original: Φαρισαῖος
Category: Narrative Background
John 3:1 and throughout the Passion narrative. Established transliterated loanword; the Second Temple Judaism religious-political background needs a brief explanatory gloss for readers with no prior exposure to the Gospels’ setting.
Nicodemus
Approved rendering: Nikodém
Transliteration: Nikodēmos
Doctrine: Narrative background (core passage)
Original: Νικόδημος
Category: Narrative Background
John 3:1-21, 7:50-52, 19:39. Established Czech Bible proper-name form; John’s specificity (a named individual) signals eyewitness-grounded narrative, worth noting for a secular reader inclined to read John as legend.
Referenced passages