Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 3 John
Coverage Note
3 John is a single-chapter, fourteen-verse letter. Every term below is drawn from that one chapter, which is also the curriculum’s core passage — full-book coverage and core-passage coverage are therefore identical for this curriculum (see analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, Scope Note). Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked Baseline Reuse (exact) and must never be re-rendered. All other terms are newly established for this curriculum and should be added to translation_memory.json before Phase 2 begins, per the Language Package’s term-registration procedure.
Risk tiers follow the baseline definitions exactly:
- Critical — mistranslation destroys essential doctrine; theologian review on every occurrence.
- High — significant theological confusion/syncretism risk; theologian review required.
- Medium — reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning; native speaker review recommended.
- Low — minor imprecision; automated review sufficient.
Glossary Table
| # | English Term | Greek (transliteration) | Dogri Rendering (transliteration) | Doctrine | Risk | Status | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | God | θεός (theos) | परमेश्वर (Parmeshwar) | (all doctrines; cross-cutting) | Critical | Baseline reuse (exact) | Reuse baseline exactly; never भगवान. |
| 2 | Church | ἐκκλησία (ekklesia) | कलीसिया (kalisiya) | Church Leadership and Pride; Truth and Fellowship | Medium | Baseline reuse (exact) | Reuse baseline exactly; never मंदर. |
| 3 | Peace (greeting) | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | शान्ति (shanti) | Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing benediction) | Medium | Baseline reuse (exact) | Reuse baseline exactly; here an epistolary greeting rather than Romans 5:1’s justification-peace, but the same term applies. |
| 4 | Elder (title) | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | पुरनिया (purania) | Church Leadership and Pride | Medium | New | Must read as a ministry-authority title, not merely “old man.” Confirm against BSI Dogri Bible; compare baseline’s भेजेआ होया (apostle) as a parallel descriptive office-title pattern. |
| 5 | Beloved (address) | ἀγαπητός (agapētos) | प्यारे (pyare) | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Medium | New | Part of the love word-family; see #6. |
| 6 | Love (verb/noun) | ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη (agapaō / agapē) | प्यार करना / प्यार (pyar karna / pyar) | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Medium | New | Reject प्रेम as default: strong Radha-Krishna bhakti-devotional resonance risks recasting covenantal Christian love as romantic-devotional love toward a deity. प्यार preferred as the neutral everyday term. |
| 7 | Truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | सच्चाई (sachai) | Truth and Christian Fellowship (controlling theme, 6 occurrences) | High | New | Reject सत्य: carries Hindu philosophical freight (cosmic/impersonal Truth, Satya Yuga, Satyagraha) that risks abstracting “the truth” away from the specific, personal, revealed truth of the gospel. सच्चाई keeps consistency with baseline’s खरी खबर (“true news” = gospel). |
| 8 | True (adjective) | ἀληθής (alēthēs) | सच्चा / सच्ची (sachcha / sachi) | Commendation of Faithful Witness | Medium | New | Same root family as #7; used of John’s testimony about Demetrius (v.12). |
| 9 | To walk (conduct of life) | περιπατέω (peripateō) | (सच्चाई च) चलणा (sachai cha chalna) | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Medium | New | Idiom for habitual conduct; must not be flattened to literal “walking.” |
| 10 | Joy / to rejoice | χαρά / χαίρω (chara / chairō) | खुशी / खुशी होणा (khushi / khushi hona) | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Low | New | Standard vocabulary; low doctrinal risk. |
| 11 | Children (spiritual) | τέκνον (teknon) | आत्मिक बच्चे (aatmik bachche) | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Medium | New | Must be explicitly marked “spiritual” (आत्मिक) to avoid confusion with biological heirs, given Dogra Rajput lineage/inheritance emphasis; parallels baseline caution on “adoption” and “seed_of_David.” |
| 12 | Brother(s) | ἀδελφός (adelphos) | भाई (bhai) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | High | New | Must be taught explicitly as fellow-believer, chosen-family kinship in Christ, not blood/clan brotherhood — directly relevant given Dogra Rajput izzat-bound kinship culture and Diotrephes’ exclusion of these very “brothers” (v.10). |
| 13 | Faithful (deed) | πιστός (pistos) | भरोसे जोग्गा (bharose jogga) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Medium | New | Built on baseline’s भरोसा (faith) root; preserves word-family link between “faith” and “a faithful act” across curricula. |
| 14 | Stranger / guest | ξένος (xenos) | पराहुणा (parahuna) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Medium | New | Existing Duggar/North-Indian guest-honor culture (“अतिथि देवो भव”) is a possible bridge but also a risk: teach that Christian hospitality here is gospel-partnership love (v.7), not a general social guest-honor code. |
| 15 | Send forward (support for journey) | προπέμπω (propempō) | सफर आस्तै तैयार करी अग्गें भेजणा | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Medium | New | Technical term for material/logistical support of gospel travel, not a bare farewell. |
| 16 | Worthily | ἀξίως (axiōs) | परमेश्वर दे जोग्ग तरीके कन्नै | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Low-Medium | New | Standard of hospitality is God’s honor, not social reciprocity. |
| 17 | Name (of Christ) | ὄνομα (onoma) | नां (naa/naam) [मसीह दे नां आस्तै] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Medium | New | Must always be anchored explicitly to Christ in context; bare “name” loses theological weight. |
| 18 | Gentile / pagan (outsider) | ἐθνικός (ethnikos) | गैर-मसीही लोक (gair-masihi lok) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Medium | New | Distinct from baseline’s गैर-यहूदी (gentiles, Jew/Gentile salvation-historical category in Romans). Here the sense is simply “non-Christian outsider”; do not reuse the Romans term. |
| 19 | Ought (moral obligation) | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | जिम्मेदारी बणदी ऐ / फर्ज़ (zimmedari bandi ai / farz) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Medium | New | Avoid धरम-family vocabulary per baseline’s caution on “law” (Dogra Rajput lineage-duty overtone); use जिम्मेदारी/फर्ज़ instead. |
| 20 | Receive / support | ὑπολαμβάνω (hypolambanō) | सहारा देना (sahara dena) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Medium | New | Positive duty urged on Gaius; material/hospitable support. |
| 21 | Fellow worker | συνεργός (synergos) | सांझे सेवक (sanjhe sevak) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Medium | New | Hospitality as active partnership in gospel labor, not passive kindness. |
| 22 | Loves to be first / preeminence-seeking | φιλοπρωτεύω (philoprōteuō) | पहल्ल बणने दी हवस (pahall banne di havas) | Church Leadership and Pride | High | New | Dogra Rajput honor/status culture (izzat) risks hearing status-seeking as admirable rather than sinful; must be taught explicitly as a condemned vice, contrasted with humble leadership (πρεσβύτερος, Demetrius). |
| 23 | Receive / welcome (person, authority) | ἐπιδέχομαι (epidechomai) | कबूल करना / अपनाना (kabul karna / apnauna) | Church Leadership and Pride | Medium | New | Diotrephes’ refusal to receive apostolic authority; opposite of Gaius’s hospitality. |
| 24 | Remind / call to account | ὑπομνήσκω (hypomimnēskō) | चेता करौणा (cheta karauna) | Church Leadership and Pride | Low-Medium | New | Model of accountable, in-person church discipline. |
| 25 | Works / deeds | ἔργον (ergon) | कम्म (kamm) | Church Leadership and Pride | Low | New | Neutral term, colored negatively by context in v.10. |
| 26 | Slander / malicious accusation | φλυαρέω (phlyareō) | निंदा करना (ninda karna) | Church Leadership and Pride | Medium | New | Rare NT word: false/frivolous/malicious accusation, not mere gossip. |
| 27 | Hinder / prevent | κωλύω (kōlyō) | रोकना (rokna) | Church Leadership and Pride | Low-Medium | New | Diotrephes actively suppresses others’ hospitality. |
| 28 | Cast out / expel | ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) | कलीसिया चा कढ्ढी देना (kalisiya cha kaddhi dena) | Church Leadership and Pride | Medium | New | Illegitimate, self-serving expulsion; distinguish from legitimate communal church discipline. |
| 29 | Imitate | μιμέομαι (mimeomai) | पाछै चलना (pachhai chalna) | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Medium | New | ”Follow after / walk in the footsteps of,” not mere surface mimicry; central command of v.11. |
| 30 | Good (moral) | ἀγαθός (agathos) | भला (bhala) | Imitating Good rather than Evil | High (in v.11’s doctrinal use) | New | Part of an ontological claim (“of God”) in v.11, not casual “good.” |
| 31 | Evil (moral) | κακός (kakos) | बुरा (bura) | Imitating Good rather than Evil | High (in v.11’s doctrinal use) | New | Part of an ontological claim (“has not seen God”) in v.11. |
| 32 | Do good | ἀγαθοποιέω (agathopoieō) | भलाई करने वाला (bhalai karne wala) | Imitating Good rather than Evil | High | New | Must not collapse into a merit-earns-God’s-favor framework; doing good is evidence/fruit of relationship with God, not its cause — consistent with baseline’s grace/justification cautions. |
| 33 | Do evil | κακοποιέω (kakopoieō) | बुराई करने वाला (burai karne wala) | Imitating Good rather than Evil | High | New | See #32; contrastive pair. |
| 34 | See (spiritual perception) | ὁράω (horaō) | डिट्ठा ऐ (dittha ai), metaphorical | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Medium | New | ”Has not seen God” = has no true knowledge/relationship with God; must be taught as metaphorical, not literal eyesight. |
| 35 | Testify / bear witness | μαρτυρέω (martyreō) | गवाही देना (gavahi dena) | Commendation of Faithful Witness; Truth and Christian Fellowship | Medium | New | Formal, reliable attestation — used of the brothers (v.3), Gaius’s love (v.6), and Demetrius (v.12). |
| 36 | Testimony | μαρτυρία (martyria) | गवाही (gavahi) | Commendation of Faithful Witness | Medium | New | Noun form of #35; John stakes his personal testimony on Demetrius. |
| 37 | Hope | ἐλπίζω (elpizō) | आस रखणा (aas rakhna) | Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing) | Low | New | Everyday travel-plan use, lower doctrinal stakes than Romans’ theological ἐλπίς, but same root family. |
| 38 | Face to face (idiom) | στόμα πρὸς στόμα (stoma pros stoma) | आमने-सामने (aamne-saamne) | Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing) | Low | New | Idiom rendered by meaning, not literal “mouth to mouth,” per idiom-handling rules. |
| 39 | Friend(s) | φίλος (philos) | मित्तर (mittar) | Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing) | Low | New | Distinct from ἀδελφός (#12); a named circle of Christian friends. |
| 40 | Greet | ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai) | जुहार (juhar) | Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing) | Low | New | Dogri/Pahari-specific greeting term, preferred over defaulting to a generic Hindi greeting (e.g. नमस्ते); confirm against BSI Dogri Bible. |
| 41 | Soul / inner life | ψυχή (psychē) | जिंद (jind) | (general; v.2 well-being wish) | Medium | New | Prefer जिंद over bare आत्मा, which the baseline reserves carefully (पवित्तर आत्मा = Holy Spirit) and which carries Hindu ātman/Brahman monistic overtones. |
| 42 | Prosper / be well | εὐοδοῦσθαι (euodousthai) | राजी-खुशी रौणा / फलणा-फूलणा | (general; v.2 well-being wish) | Medium | New | Must not be read as a guaranteed material-blessing formula parallel to a shrine-vow (mannat) boon; this is a relational wish, not a transaction. |
| 43 | Health | ὑγιαίνειν (hygiainein) | तंदुरुस्ती (tandurusti) | (general; v.2 well-being wish) | Low | New | Standard vocabulary. |
| 44 | Ink | μέλαν (melan) | स्याही (syahi) | (material/cultural detail, v.13) | Low | New | No doctrinal content. |
| 45 | Pen / reed | κάλαμος (kalamos) | कलम (kalam) | (material/cultural detail, v.13) | Low | New | No doctrinal content. |
| 46 | Gaius (proper name) | Γάϊος (Gaios) | गयुस (Gayus) | — | Low | New | Confirm transliteration against BSI Dogri Bible. |
| 47 | Diotrephes (proper name) | Διοτρέφης (Diotrephēs) | दियोत्रिफेस (Diyotriphes) | Church Leadership and Pride | Low | New | Confirm transliteration against BSI Dogri Bible. |
| 48 | Demetrius (proper name) | Δημήτριος (Dēmētrios) | देमेत्रियुस (Demetriyus) | Commendation of Faithful Witness | Low | New | Confirm transliteration against BSI Dogri Bible. |
Summary by Doctrine
| Doctrine | Load-bearing terms (# in table) | Highest risk tier present |
|---|---|---|
| Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 12–21 | High (#12 brother) |
| Imitating Good rather than Evil | 29–34 | High |
| Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 4, 22–28 | High (#22 φιλοπρωτεύω) |
| Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | 8, 35–36, 48 | Medium |
| Truth and Christian Fellowship | 5–11, 37–40, 2–3 (baseline) | High (#7 ἀλήθεια) |
Summary by Risk Tier
| Tier | Count | Review routing (per baseline convention) |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 1 (God — baseline reuse) | Human theologian |
| High | 8 (#7, #12, #22, #30, #31, #32, #33) | Human theologian |
| Medium | 24 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 15 | Automated review |
This glossary must be merged into translation_memory.json (as new entries, version incremented) and cross-referenced into bible_term_registry.json and doctrine_risk_registry.json before Phase 2 translation of 3 John begins.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर
Transliteration: Parmeshwar
Doctrine: Knowledge of and Relationship with God (cross-cutting; underlies v.11’s ontological claim and the whole letter)
Rejected alternatives: भगवान (broad Hindu deity usage; avoid for doctrinal precision) — inherited baseline rejection
Original: θεός
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly, no changes permitted. In 3 John this term is load-bearing at v.11 (‘is of God’ / ‘has not seen God’) and throughout as the personal God whose favor is not for sale (cf. baseline grace/salvation cautions against the Vaishno Devi mannat economy).
High Risk Terms
Truth
Approved rendering: सच्चाई
Transliteration: sachai
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship (controlling theme; 6 occurrences: vv.1, 3x2, 4, 8, 12)
Rejected alternatives: सत्य (Hindu philosophical freight: cosmic/impersonal Truth, Brahman-adjacent, Satya Yuga, Gandhian Satyagraha — NEVER use), ईमानदारी (reduces to mere personal honesty, losing the gospel-content sense)
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
The letter’s single highest-risk term; requires a validation pass across all six occurrences, not spot-checking one. सच्चाई keeps consistency with baseline’s खरी खबर (‘true news’ = gospel). A single silent lapse into सत्य anywhere would systematically re-frame the letter’s theology of truth as an abstract cosmic principle.
Brother
Approved rendering: भाई
Transliteration: bhai
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: बिरादर (Persian-origin regional term strongly coded to clan/biradari kinship-solidarity — too strongly biological/honor-bound for this context)
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Fellow believer in Christ regardless of blood-kinship; appears at both the positive pole (brothers Gaius receives, vv.3,5) and negative pole (brothers Diotrephes expels, v.10) — the SAME rendering must carry the identical ‘chosen gospel-family’ sense in both places for the letter’s contrast to land. In Dogra Rajput culture ‘brother’ carries strong lineage- and honor-bound (izzat) kinship associations; teaching must clarify NT ‘brothers’ are a new, chosen family in Christ cutting across blood-lineage and caste.
Loves To Be First
Approved rendering: पहल्ल बणने दी हवस
Transliteration: pahall banne di havas
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: रुतबा (status/rank; can be positively coded in Dogra Rajput honor culture), बडप्पण (greatness; also risks positive coloring), पहल्ल alone (first place; izzat-coded and status-neutral without हवस’s negative charge)
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
CRITICAL FOR THIS LETTER (High tier): rare NT compound (only occurrence, v.9) naming Diotrephes’ defining vice. NEW COINAGE, not a borrowing decision — no single existing Dogri word names ‘compulsive craving for top rank’ as a vice rather than a status fact. Dogra Rajput izzat culture means status-seeking language risks being heard as admirable rather than sinful; हवस (‘craving/lust’) deliberately supplies the negative moral charge plain status-words lack. Flag for theologian confirmation of tone on every occurrence.
Good Moral
Approved rendering: भला
Transliteration: bhala
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: धरम/अधरम-family vocabulary (would import caste-and-duty logic entirely foreign to v.11; avoid per baseline’s standing caution on ‘law’/‘righteousness’)
Original: ἀγαθός
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
The moral pattern to be followed (v.11), embodied by Gaius and Demetrius, part of the ontological claim ‘is of God.’ Not a casual ‘good’; carries the theological weight of divine origin/relationship and must never stand without that relational-evidentiary frame explicit in the same sentence.
Evil Moral
Approved rendering: बुरा
Transliteration: bura
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: धरम/अधरम-family vocabulary — see ‘good_moral’
Original: κακός
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
The moral pattern not to be followed (v.11), embodied in Diotrephes’ conduct, part of the ontological claim ‘has not seen God.’ Carries the theological weight of the absence of true relationship with God.
Do Good
Approved rendering: भलाई करने वाला
Transliteration: bhalai karne wala
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: any phrasing resembling कर्मफल / फल-भोगणा (karma-merit, deeds-mechanically-determine-status constructions) — must never be used
Original: ἀγαθοποιέω
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Habitual doer of good (v.11), treated as evidence of divine origin/relationship, NOT a means of earning it. Must not collapse into a merit-earns-favor framework the baseline package already guards against for grace/salvation (cf. Romans 4:4-5, 11:5-6 cautions); doing good here is fruit/evidence, not cause.
Do Evil
Approved rendering: बुराई करने वाला
Transliteration: burai karne wala
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: कर्मफल-adjacent phrasing — see ‘do_good’
Original: κακοποιέω
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Habitual doer of evil (v.11), treated as evidence of not having seen/known God. Contrastive pair with ‘do_good’; preserve the absolute, evidentiary force of the claim.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: कलीसिया
Transliteration: kalisiya
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Church Discipline and Authority
Rejected alternatives: मंदर (temple) — inherited baseline rejection
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Central to v.6 (testimony given before the church) and v.10 (Diotrephes’ illegitimate expulsion of believers from the church); keep distinct from Jammu’s own prominent temple architecture and identity.
Peace
Approved rendering: शान्ति
Transliteration: shanti
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship (epistolary closing greeting, v.14)
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Fellowship
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly. Here an everyday closing-benediction register, distinct from Romans 5:1’s justification-peace sense, though the identical Dogri term applies without modification.
Elder
Approved rendering: पुरनिया
Transliteration: purania
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) — positive foil; Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: बुजुर्ग (generic senior/elder, no office sense), आगू (generic secular/political leader, risks assimilating John’s pastoral office to any leadership role including self-appointed preeminence)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
John’s self-designation (v.1), modeling humble, accountable, sent leadership as the deliberate contrast to Diotrephes’ self-appointed preeminence (v.9). Must read as a recognized ministry-authority title, not merely ‘an old man.’ Confirm against BSI Dogri Bible; compare baseline’s भेजेआ होया (apostle) as a parallel descriptive office-title pattern.
Beloved
Approved rendering: प्यारे
Transliteration: pyare
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Christian Fellowship
Term of affectionate address for a genuinely loved fellow believer (vv.1, 2, 5, 11); part of the love word-family (see ‘love’).
Love
Approved rendering: प्यार / प्यार करना
Transliteration: pyar / pyar karna
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: प्रेम (Radha-Krishna bhakti-devotional romantic-divine-love resonance; risks recasting covenantal Christian love as a register of devotion toward a deity-figure — NEVER use as default)
Original: ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη
Category: Christian Fellowship
Self-giving, gospel-grounded love among believers, qualified ‘in truth’ (vv.1, 6). प्यार is the neutral, everyday Dogri term and must be preferred; this is a NEW term not present in the baseline Romans package (Romans does not use ἀγαπάω as a discrete glossary entry) but is now fixed here for cross-curriculum consistency going forward.
True
Approved rendering: सच्चा / सच्ची
Transliteration: sachcha / sachi
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
Describes the reliability of John’s own testimony about Demetrius (v.12); same root family as ‘truth,’ built on सच्च/खरा for cross-curriculum consistency, avoiding सत्य for the same reason.
Walk In Truth
Approved rendering: सच्चाई च चलणा
Transliteration: sachai cha chalna
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: literal ‘walking’ image without idiom marking
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
NT idiom (vv.3, 4) for the whole manner of a person’s life, shaped by gospel truth, not a single act. Must not be flattened to literal walking per idiom-handling rules; must be taught explicitly as consistent Christian conduct.
Spiritual Children
Approved rendering: आत्मिक बच्चे
Transliteration: aatmik bachche
Doctrine: Spiritual Parenthood; Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: bare बच्चे (children) without आत्मिक marker — risks a biological-heir/lineage-inheritance reading
Original: τέκνον
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Gaius as John’s spiritual child through the gospel (v.4), not through blood or clan lineage. The आत्मिक marker is doctrinally load-bearing, not optional, given Dogra Rajput culture’s strong weight on lineage and inheritance; parallels baseline’s cautions on ‘adoption’ and ‘seed_of_David.‘
Faithful Deed
Approved rendering: भरोसे जोग्गा
Transliteration: bharose jogga
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Gaius’s hospitality itself is a faithful act, tangible fruit of faith, not a separate virtue (v.5). Deliberately built on the same root as baseline’s भरोसा (faith/trust), preserving the word-family link between ‘faith’ and ‘a faithful deed’ across curricula.
Stranger Guest
Approved rendering: पराहुणा
Transliteration: parahuna
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: अतिथि (Sanskritic ‘guest’; activates the ‘अतिथि देवो भव’ — ‘the guest is as a god’ — proverb and its implicit reciprocity/merit logic; avoid as the primary term), मेहमान (common colloquial Persian-origin term; acceptable register but does not carry the same doctrinal fencing weight as पराहुणा when paired with teaching notes)
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
One with no prior kinship claim on Gaius, received into hospitality (v.5) — the specific object of praiseworthy hospitality. Existing Duggar guest-honor culture is a possible bridge but also a risk: teaching must clarify Christian hospitality here is gospel-partnership love for Christ’s sake (v.7), not a general socio-religious guest-honor code or merit-generating logic.
Send Forward
Approved rendering: सफर आस्तै तैयार करी अग्गें भेजणा
Transliteration: safar aastai tayaar kari aggen bhejna
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: a bare farewell-greeting phrase (loses the material/logistical support sense)
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Technical term (v.6): to escort, equip, and provision someone setting out on a journey, often including material support. No single Dogri verb captures this; a descriptive paraphrase is required, not a missing-word gap closable by one lexical item.
Name Of Christ
Approved rendering: नां (मसीह दे नां आस्तै)
Transliteration: naa (Masih de naa aastai)
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: bare नां without explicit Christ-anchoring (reads as a generic honorific, losing the theological weight)
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
NT shorthand for the person, authority, and cause of Christ (v.7) — the missionaries’ sole motive for going out. Must always be anchored explicitly to Christ in context.
Gentile Outsider
Approved rendering: गैर-मसीही लोक
Transliteration: gair-masihi lok
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: गैर-यहूदी (baseline’s Romans term for ‘Gentiles’ in the Jew/Gentile salvation-historical category — DO NOT reuse here; would import an unrelated Jew/Gentile frame into 3 John, where ἐθνικός in v.7 simply means ‘non-Christian outsider’ in a mission-support context)
Original: ἐθνικός
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Non-Christian outsiders from whom the traveling missionaries deliberately took no support (v.7). Deliberate, documented non-reuse of the baseline Romans term for a structurally different Greek word (ἐθνικός vs. ἔθνη) in a different doctrinal frame.
Ought
Approved rendering: जिम्मेदारी बणदी ऐ / फर्ज़
Transliteration: zimmedari bandi ai / farz
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: धरम-family vocabulary (inherited Dogra Rajput lineage-duty overtone; avoid per baseline’s standing caution on ‘law’ and ‘righteousness’)
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Moral obligation/debt (v.8): supporting gospel workers is a debt owed, flowing from gospel partnership. जिम्मेदारी/फर्ज़ (responsibility/duty) carries moral obligation without the lineage-duty overtone.
Receive Support
Approved rendering: सहारा देना
Transliteration: sahara dena
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
To receive hospitably and materially sustain traveling gospel workers (v.8) — active reception plus material support, not passive kindness.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: सांझे सेवक
Transliteration: sanjhe sevak
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: συνεργός
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
A partner sharing in the same gospel labor (v.8); hospitality as active partnership in mission, not passive kindness.
Receive Welcome Authority
Approved rendering: कबूल करना / अपनाना
Transliteration: kabul karna / apnauna
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
To receive/welcome a person or their authority; Diotrephes’ concrete sin is refusing to receive John’s apostolic authority and messengers (v.9) — the opposite of Gaius’s hospitality.
Slander
Approved rendering: निंदा करना
Transliteration: ninda karna
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: φλυαρέω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
Rare word (v.10): to bring false, frivolous, or malicious accusations against someone. Must convey formal, malicious false speech, not casual gossip.
Cast Out Expel
Approved rendering: कलीसिया चा कढ्ढी देना
Transliteration: kalisiya cha kaddhi dena
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Church Discipline and Authority
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
To drive out or expel forcibly (v.10); must be clearly distinguished from legitimate, communal church discipline exercised transparently for the church’s good — here it names an illegitimate, self-serving expulsion.
Imitate
Approved rendering: पाछै चलना
Transliteration: pachhai chalna
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: a word implying mere surface mimicry (misses the sense of following a moral pattern/example)
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
The letter’s central ethical command (v.11): do not follow the pattern of evil, even when modeled by a recognized leader. ‘Follow after / walk in the footsteps of,’ not surface mimicry.
See Spiritual Perception
Approved rendering: डिट्ठा ऐ (metaphorical use)
Transliteration: dittha ai
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil; Knowledge of and Relationship with God
Rejected alternatives: a literal-eyesight-only rendering (loses the relational/epistemic sense entirely)
Original: ὁράω
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
‘Has not seen God’ (v.11) = has no true knowledge of or relationship with God — a strong, absolute theological claim, not a statement about visual experience. Must be explicitly taught as spiritual perception/relationship in translator notes.
Testify Bear Witness
Approved rendering: गवाही देना
Transliteration: gavahi dena
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius); Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: μαρτυρέω
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
Formal, reliable attestation — used of the visiting brothers (v.3), Gaius’s love (v.6), and Demetrius (v.12). Must convey formal, reliable attestation, not casual gossip.
Testimony
Approved rendering: गवाही
Transliteration: gavahi
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: μαρτυρία
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
The act/content of witness-bearing; John personally stakes his own testimony on Demetrius’s character (v.12) — an apostolic endorsement, not casual praise. Resist any folk-veneration framing (cf. Baba Jitto/Aghar Jitto shrine tradition risk noted in translation landscape analysis); Demetrius is commended for present conduct, not venerated as a self-sacrificing exemplar figure.
Soul
Approved rendering: जिंद
Transliteration: jind
Doctrine: Pastoral Joy and Wellbeing
Rejected alternatives: bare आत्मा alone (reserved strictly by the baseline for पवित्तर आत्मा = Holy Spirit; also carries Hindu ātman/Brahman monistic overtones — the self as ultimately identical with ultimate reality — foreign to the personal, creature/Creator-distinct soul in view here)
Original: ψυχή
Category: General Well-being
The whole inner person/life (v.2); Gaius’s already-flourishing spiritual condition, the standard by which outward prosperity is measured, not the reverse.
Prosper
Approved rendering: राजी-खुशी रौणा / फलणा-फूलणा
Transliteration: raji-khushi rauna / falna-foolna
Doctrine: Pastoral Joy and Wellbeing
Rejected alternatives: any phrasing that could stand alone as a guaranteed-outcome/prosperity formula (risks isolation as a prosperity-gospel proof-text, and risks conflation with the Vaishno Devi mannat vow-for-boon economy already flagged Critical in the baseline for grace and salvation)
Original: εὐοδοῦσθαι
Category: General Well-being
Metaphorical extension from ‘journeying well’ to general prospering/succeeding (v.2), wished for Gaius alongside spiritual health. Must remain grammatically subordinate to ‘as your soul prospers’ — a relational pastoral wish, not a transactional guarantee. This verse is a documented stock proof-text in regional Hindi/Punjabi prosperity-gospel media; render so the soul-prospering clause structurally governs the whole verse.
Low Risk Terms
Joy
Approved rendering: खुशी / खुशी होणा
Transliteration: khushi / khushi hona
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship; Pastoral Joy and Wellbeing
Original: χαρά / χαίρω
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Pastoral gladness at a report of faithful conduct (vv.3, 4). Standard vocabulary; low doctrinal risk.
Worthily
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर दे जोग्ग तरीके कन्नै
Transliteration: Parmeshwar de jogg tarike kannai
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀξίως
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
The standard for hospitality is God’s own honor (v.6), not social custom or reciprocal obligation.
Remind Call To Account
Approved rendering: चेता करौणा
Transliteration: cheta karauna
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Church Discipline and Authority
Original: ὑπομνήσκω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
To bring something to public mind, often for correction (v.10) — John’s promised, in-person, accountable confrontation; the legitimate contrast to Diotrephes’ abuse.
Works Deeds
Approved rendering: कम्म
Transliteration: kamm
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἔργον
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
Neutral term for actions/deeds, colored negatively by context as Diotrephes’ concrete pattern of conduct (v.10).
Hinder Prevent
Approved rendering: रोकना
Transliteration: rokna
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
To stop or forbid an action (v.10); Diotrephes actively blocks others in the church who want to show hospitality — leadership pride actively suppressing others’ faithfulness.
Hope
Approved rendering: आस रखणा
Transliteration: aas rakhna
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing, v.14)
Original: ἐλπίζω
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
John’s everyday hope for a future in-person visit (v.14). Lower doctrinal stakes than Romans’ theological ἐλπίς, but same root family.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: आमने-सामने
Transliteration: aamne-saamne
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing, v.14)
Rejected alternatives: literal ‘मूँह-मूँह’ (mouth to mouth) rendering (reads as unnatural or mildly indecorous in Dogri)
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Hebraic idiom (cf. Numbers 12:8 LXX) for direct, personal, unmediated communication. Rendered by meaning, not literal wording, per the Language Package’s idiom-handling rule.
Friend
Approved rendering: मित्तर
Transliteration: mittar
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing, v.14)
Original: φίλος
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
A named circle of Christian friends sending/receiving greetings (v.14), distinct from ἀδελφός/भाई’s covenantal-kinship sense.
Greet
Approved rendering: जुहार
Transliteration: juhar
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship (closing, v.14); Epistolary Peace and Christian Greeting
Rejected alternatives: नमस्ते (generic Hindi greeting — avoid defaulting to it; this is precisely the ‘reach for the nearest fluent Hindi word’ failure mode the baseline package exists to prevent)
Original: ἀσπάζομαι
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Formal or affectionate greeting carrying goodwill/blessing (v.14). जुहार is a live Dogri/Pahari greeting term, preferred over a generic Hindi substitute. Confirm against BSI Dogri Bible before wide deployment.
Health
Approved rendering: तंदुरुस्ती
Transliteration: tandurusti
Doctrine: Pastoral Joy and Wellbeing
Original: ὑγιαίνειν
Category: General Well-being
Bodily health, wished for alongside spiritual flourishing (v.2). Standard vocabulary.
Ink
Approved rendering: स्याही
Transliteration: syahi
Doctrine: Material Detail (v.13)
Original: μέλαν
Category: Material Detail
Writing ink; material/cultural detail of ancient letter-writing. No doctrinal content.
Pen Reed
Approved rendering: कलम
Transliteration: kalam
Doctrine: Material Detail (v.13)
Original: κάλαμος
Category: Material Detail
A reed used as a writing implement (v.13); no doctrinal content, pairs with ‘ink’ as an idiom for written correspondence.
Gaius
Approved rendering: गयुस
Transliteration: Gayus
Doctrine: Proper Name
Original: Γάϊος
Category: Proper Name
The letter’s addressee, commended for faithful hospitality to traveling ministers. Confirm transliteration against BSI Dogri Bible.
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: दियोत्रिफेस
Transliteration: Diyotriphes
Doctrine: Proper Name; Church Leadership and Pride
Original: Διοτρέφης
Category: Proper Name
Named individual, the letter’s negative example of prideful, controlling church leadership (vv.9-10). Confirm transliteration against BSI Dogri Bible.
Demetrius
Approved rendering: देमेत्रियुस
Transliteration: Demetriyus
Doctrine: Proper Name; Commendation of Faithful Witness
Original: Δημήτριος
Category: Proper Name
Named individual commended as a faithful positive example, the counterpart-contrast to Diotrephes (v.12). Confirm transliteration against BSI Dogri Bible.
Referenced passages