Semantic Analysis

Semantic Analysis — 1 Corinthians (English → Dutch)

Methodology and Baseline Continuity

This analysis extends the Romans Language Package for Dutch (translation_memory.json, bible_term_registry.json, doctrine_risk_registry.json). Where a term already carries an established Dutch rendering from that baseline (e.g. gospel → evangelie, grace → genade, faith → geloof, salvation → behoud, apostle → apostel, called/calling → geroepen/roeping, holy → heilig, saints → heiligen, sanctification → heiliging, resurrection → opstanding, lord → Heer, church → gemeente, spiritual gifts → genadegaven, fellowship → gemeenschap, sin → zonde, glory → heerlijkheid), that rendering is reused exactly and is marked [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE]. No baseline term is redefined or contradicted here. Every newly introduced term follows the same risk-tier conventions (Critical/High/Medium/Low) as the baseline registries.

1 Corinthians introduces substantially more vocabulary around wisdom/foolishness, church unity, sexuality and marriage, idol meat, the Lord’s Supper, spiritual gifts (charismata detail), tongues, and love (agape) than Romans did, and these form the bulk of new terminology below.

PART 1 — Core Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:1–11 (verse-by-verse)

15:1 — “Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand”

Term: make known / remind — γνωρίζω (gnōrizō)

Literal meaning: to make known, to cause to know, to remind.
Semantic range: revelation-disclosure verb; also ordinary “inform.”
English variants: “declare,” “make known,” “remind you.”
Contextual theological meaning: Paul reintroduces foundational, already-taught doctrine — signals this is core catechesis, not new teaching.
Dutch rendering & risk: bekendmaken / u in herinnering brengen. Low risk; standard vocabulary.

Term: gospel — εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — evangelie, Low risk]

Contextual theological meaning: here specifically the message of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (defined in vv. 3–4) — the gospel is content-specific, not generic “good news about life.”
Dutch rendering & risk: evangelie. Low risk per baseline, but flag: this passage is the fullest NT definition of gospel content, useful to anchor the term against secular drift toward vague “good news.”

Term: preached — εὐηγγελισάμην (euēngelisamēn, aorist of εὐαγγελίζω)

Literal meaning: to announce good news, verb form of euangelion.
Semantic range: authoritative proclamation, not casual sharing of opinion.
English variants: “preached,” “proclaimed,” “announced.”
Contextual theological meaning: Paul’s original apostolic proclamation act, historically anchored.
Dutch rendering & risk: verkondigd. Low-Medium risk; keep distinct from generic “vertellen” (told).

Term: stand — ἑστήκατε (hestēkate)

Literal meaning: to stand firm, be established.
Contextual theological meaning: present, stable position in the gospel — assurance language.
Dutch rendering & risk: staan. Low risk.

15:2 — “by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain”

Term: saved / being saved — σῴζεσθε (sōzesthe, present passive of σώζω) — [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE doctrine: Salvation → behoud, High risk]

Literal meaning: to be rescued, kept safe, delivered.
Semantic range: physical rescue and, dominantly in Paul, eschatological deliverance from sin and wrath.
English variants: “saved,” “being saved,” “kept safe.”
Contextual theological meaning: present passive tense — an ongoing, Spirit-sustained state, not a one-time human achievement; ties directly to the gospel content just defined.
Dutch rendering & risk: behouden worden, consistent with baseline’s behoud. High risk per baseline’s three-way register split (behoud/verlossing/zaligheid); this verse’s present passive tense should be rendered so as not to suggest salvation is a human-sustained work (“u wordt behouden,” not an active “u behoudt uzelf”).

Term: hold fast — κατέχετε (katechete)

Literal meaning: to hold down firmly, retain, keep possession of.
Contextual theological meaning: perseverance in the received apostolic message, not passive assent.
Dutch rendering & risk: vasthouden. Low-Medium risk; note possible confusion with legalistic “vasthouden aan regels” — keep tied to “het woord” (the message) as object.

Term: in vain — εἰκῇ (eikē)

Literal meaning: without purpose, groundlessly.
Contextual theological meaning: warns against merely notional or unrooted belief that does not truly rest on the gospel content of vv. 3–4 — sets up the resurrection argument of the whole chapter.
Dutch rendering & risk: zonder grond / tevergeefs. Low risk.

15:3 — “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures”

Term: delivered — παρέδωκα (paredōka, from παραδίδωμι) Term: received — παρέλαβον (parelabon, from παραλαμβάνω)

Literal meaning: paradidōmi = to hand over, transmit; paralambanō = to receive, take over.
Semantic range: a fixed technical pair for formal transmission of authoritative tradition (rabbinic and early Christian catechetical vocabulary), not casual reporting.
English variants: “delivered/received,” “passed on/took over,” “handed down.”
Contextual theological meaning: Paul is quoting a pre-existing, fixed creedal formula received from the earliest apostolic community — evidence of very early, structured gospel tradition, not Paul’s private invention.
Dutch rendering & risk: overgeleverd / ontvangen. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: the vocabulary of “overlevering” (tradition) sits directly on the historic Reformation fault line between the Reformed sola Scriptura principle (Scripture alone as final authority, in polemical opposition to Catholic Magisterial Tradition) and Catholic theology’s twin authorities of Scripture and Tradition. This verse commends receiving fixed apostolic tradition with full authority — reviewers must render this so it reinforces the authority of the apostolic, scriptural deposit, without either (a) implying an ongoing extra-biblical Magisterium-style Tradition (Catholic register risk) or (b) dismissively flattening “overlevering” into something suspect (Reformed over-correction risk). Route to human theologian.

Term: sins — ἁμαρτιῶν (hamartiōn) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — zonde, High risk]

Contextual theological meaning: Christ’s death is vicarious and substitutionary — “for our sins” (ὑπὲρ).
Dutch rendering & risk: zonden. High risk per baseline (colloquial “zonde” = “a pity/waste”); here specifically plural, concrete transgressions atoned for — must not soften into a vague “for our shortcomings.”

Term: according to the Scriptures — κατὰ τὰς γραφάς (kata tas graphas)

Literal meaning: “in agreement with the writings.”
Contextual theological meaning: fulfillment-of-prophecy formula (cf. Romans 1:2 doctrine, “Inspiration of Scripture” / “Fulfillment of Prophecy” in the baseline doctrine registry).
Dutch rendering & risk: volgens de Schriften. Medium risk; low OT literacy among secular Dutch readers requires explicit cross-referencing (as flagged in the Romans doctrine registry for “fulfillment_of_prophecy”).

15:4 — “that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”

Term: buried — ἐτάφη (etaphē, from θάπτω)

Literal meaning: to bury, entomb.
Contextual theological meaning: establishes the reality and finality of Christ’s physical death — no docetic escape clause.
Dutch rendering & risk: begraven. Low risk.

Term: raised — ἐγήγερται (egēgertai, perfect passive of ἐγείρω)

Literal meaning: to raise up, wake up; perfect tense = a past act with continuing effect/result.
Semantic range: distinct Greek lexeme from the noun anastasis (used extensively in the same chapter, e.g. v.12) — egeirō is the verb “to raise,” anastasis is the noun “resurrection.” Both belong to the same doctrinal field but are lexically separate.
English variants: “was raised,” “rose,” “has been raised.”
Contextual theological meaning: passive voice — Christ is raised by the Father (divine act), not self-resuscitated; perfect tense underlines a permanent, settled fact with ongoing significance for believers.
Dutch rendering & risk: opgewekt (verb, perfect: “is opgewekt”), kept lexically distinct from but doctrinally unified with the baseline noun opstanding. Medium risk (per baseline “resurrection_of_christ” doctrine): ensure translators do not blur the verb/noun distinction inconsistently across the chapter, since v.4 uses the verb and later verses (12ff.) pivot to the noun anastasis for the doctrinal argument.

Term: third day — τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ

Contextual theological meaning: historically specific, not mythic/cyclical timing.
Dutch rendering & risk: op de derde dag. Low risk.

15:5 — “and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve”

Term: appeared — ὤφθη (ōphthē, passive of ὁράω)

Literal meaning: “was seen,” “was made visible to,” “appeared to.”
Semantic range: standard verb for a personal, visible, historically-verifiable appearance — used in the LXX for theophanies as well.
English variants: “appeared,” “was seen by,” “showed himself to.”
Contextual theological meaning: emphasizes objective, external, verifiable eyewitness encounter with the risen, bodily Christ — foundational apologetic term for the whole chapter’s argument against a merely spiritual/metaphorical resurrection.
Dutch rendering & risk: is verschenen aan. Medium risk; ensure this reads as a real, historical appearance and not merely a vision/dream (“verschijning” can carry a ghost-like connotation in casual Dutch — context and the eyewitness-list format should anchor it as bodily and historical).

Term: Cephas / the twelve — Κηφᾷ / τοῖς δώδεκα

Contextual theological meaning: named, verifiable, still-living witnesses (Paul’s readers could check).
Dutch rendering & risk: Kefas / de twaalf. Low risk; established proper-noun and title forms.

15:6 — “Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep”

Term: fallen asleep — ἐκοιμήθησαν (ekoimēthēsan, from κοιμάομαι)

Literal meaning: “to sleep,” used euphemistically for death.
Semantic range: standard early Christian euphemism affirming that death is temporary and followed by waking (resurrection), not annihilation or reincarnation.
English variants: “fallen asleep,” “died,” “passed away.”
Contextual theological meaning: frames death for believers as a temporary state pending bodily resurrection — directly reinforces the chapter’s argument.
Dutch rendering & risk: ontslapen / in slaap gevallen. Low-Medium risk; “ontslapen” is the classic devotional Dutch term (still used on Reformed funeral cards); modern secular Dutch would default to neutral “overleden” — the euphemism’s theological freight (temporary sleep awaiting resurrection, not annihilation or reincarnation) should be preserved, especially given the New Age-influenced reincarnation interest present in secular Dutch culture.

15:7 — “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles”

Term: James / all the apostles — Ἰακώβῳ / τοῖς ἀποστόλοις πᾶσιν

Contextual theological meaning: expands the witness list beyond the Twelve, showing a broader apostolic circle.
Dutch rendering & risk: Jakobus / alle apostelen. Low risk; apostel reused [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE, Low risk].

15:8 — “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me”

Term: last of all — ἔσχατον (eschaton)

Contextual theological meaning: Paul positions himself at the end of, but still within, the authoritative resurrection-witness chain.
Dutch rendering & risk: als laatste van allen. Low risk.

Term: one untimely born — ἔκτρωμα (ektrōma)

Literal meaning: a miscarried or stillborn fetus; an abortion (in the ancient medical/obstetric sense of a birth cut off before its time).
Semantic range: a vivid, self-deprecating, almost violent image — Paul calls himself something like a monstrosity or a birth that should not have happened, given his history as a persecutor.
English variants: “one born out of due time,” “untimely born,” “abnormal birth,” “premature birth.”
Contextual theological meaning: self-abasing metaphor emphasizing Paul’s unworthiness and the sheer grace by which he nonetheless became a genuine, last-in-line resurrection witness and apostle — ties directly into v.9’s “least of the apostles” and v.10’s grace theme.
Dutch rendering & risk: als een ontijdig geboren kind / als een misgeboorte. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: the underlying image (miscarriage/premature, non-viable birth) intersects with genuinely sensitive contemporary Dutch realities — the Netherlands has one of Europe’s most liberalized abortion frameworks, and miscarriage/pregnancy-loss is an emotionally freighted topic in pastoral care. The translation must preserve Paul’s rhetorical self-abasement without either trivializing the image or landing insensitively for readers who have experienced pregnancy loss. Most Dutch Bible traditions (HSV, NBV) soften slightly toward “als het ware een ontijdig geborene” rather than a blunt clinical term; this curriculum should follow that softened, non-clinical register. Route to human theologian / native speaker review.

15:9 — “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God”

Term: least — ἐλάχιστος (elachistos) — Low risk; de minste.

Term: persecuted — διώκω (diōkō, aorist ἐδίωξα)

Literal meaning: to pursue, chase, persecute.
Contextual theological meaning: Paul’s pre-conversion history as an active persecutor of believers (cf. Acts 9) — grounds the magnitude of the grace described in v.10.
Dutch rendering & risk: vervolgd. Low risk.

Term: church of God — τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — gemeente, High risk]

Contextual theological meaning: the concrete, gathered new-covenant community, not an abstract institution — consistent with the baseline’s preference for gemeente over kerk for the NT ekklēsia sense.
Dutch rendering & risk: de gemeente van God. High risk per baseline; maintain gemeente, not kerk.

15:10 — “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me”

Term: grace — χάριτι (chariti) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — genade, High risk]

Contextual theological meaning: threefold repetition of charis in one verse — grace as the sole efficient cause of Paul’s transformed identity and fruitful labor, explicitly not Paul’s own merit (“not I, but the grace of God”).
Dutch rendering & risk: genade. High risk per baseline; this verse is one of the clearest anti-merit statements in the NT and should be rendered to reinforce, not soften, the baseline’s “apart from human cooperation” requirement — directly relevant to the Canons of Dort’s polemic against synergistic (Remonstrant) readings of grace. Route to human theologian.

Term: worked harder / labored — ἐκοπίασα (ekopiasa, from κοπιάω)

Literal meaning: to grow weary from labor, to toil.
Contextual theological meaning: genuine, effortful ministry labor — but framed (via the verse’s final clause) as itself the product of grace, not a human achievement that grace merely assists. This is the same grace-versus-merit tension flagged in the Romans baseline for 4:4–5 and 11:5–6.
Dutch rendering & risk: heb ik meer gearbeid. Medium risk; ensure the concluding clause “maar de genade van God die met mij is” is not read as diminishing the reality of Paul’s labor, but as its ultimate ground — ordo: grace enables and undergirds genuine effort, effort does not generate grace.

15:11 — “Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed”

Term: preach — κηρύσσομεν (kēryssomen, from κηρύσσω)

Literal meaning: to herald, publicly proclaim as an official announcement.
Semantic range: distinct from euangelizomai (v.1, “announce good news”) — kēryssō emphasizes the herald’s authoritative public office, the “town-crier” dimension of proclamation.
English variants: “preach,” “proclaim,” “announce publicly.”
Contextual theological meaning: unified apostolic proclamation regardless of which apostle is speaking — content, not personality, is authoritative.
Dutch rendering & risk: verkondigen / preken. Low-Medium risk; keep distinct in register from “preken” (which can suggest a Sunday-sermon-only setting) — “verkondigen” is the safer, broader term matching Paul’s public/missionary proclamation sense.

Term: believed — ἐπιστεύσατε (episteusate, from πιστεύω) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — geloof-family, Medium risk]

Contextual theological meaning: personal, saving trust that received the specific gospel content just recounted (vv.3–4), not generic religious assent.
Dutch rendering & risk: geloofde(n). Medium risk per baseline “faith” doctrine; the object of belief (this specific gospel) must remain recoverable from context, consistent with the baseline’s guard against generic pluralistic “geloof.”

PART 2 — Chapter-by-Chapter Study of the Whole Book (1 Corinthians 1–16)

Chapter 1 — Divisions, the Cross, and Wisdom

Term: divisions / factions / schism — σχίσματα (schismata)

Literal meaning: tears, rifts, splits (from σχίζω, to split — the same root as English “schism”).
Semantic range: literal tearing of cloth (Mark 2:21) extended to relational/communal rupture.
English variants: “divisions,” “quarrels,” “factions,” “dissensions.”
Contextual theological meaning: the Corinthian church is fractured into personality-based factions (Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ-parties) — this is the letter’s presenting problem, addressed also under the “Christian Unity versus Factionalism” doctrine.
Dutch rendering & risk: verdeeldheid (primary), scheuring (for the sharper “tearing” sense). HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: Dutch Protestant church history is itself marked by a well-known sequence of formal denominational splits — the Afscheiding (1834), the Doleantie (1886), and the Vrijmaking (1944) — each remembered by name in Reformed church history. Rendering “schisma” language here will almost inevitably evoke this specific national memory of church splitting for Reformed Dutch readers, which can either usefully sharpen Paul’s point or distractingly redirect it toward denominational politics. Route to human theologian.

Term: boasting — καυχάομαι (kauchaomai) / καύχησις (kauchēsis)

Literal meaning: to boast, glory in, take pride in.
Contextual theological meaning: “let no one boast in men” (1:29, 31) — human boasting is excluded precisely because salvation is by grace; ties to Romans’ grace-versus-merit theme.
Dutch rendering & risk: roemen (zich beroemen op). Medium risk; consistent with baseline’s grace/merit contrast passages (Romans 3–4, 11:5–6) — ensure “roemen” is not softened into neutral “trots zijn.”

Term: wisdom — σοφία (sophia)

Literal meaning: skill, learning, insight, practical and philosophical wisdom.
Semantic range: in 1 Corinthians spans (a) Greco-Roman rhetorical/philosophical sophistication, which Paul deliberately contrasts with (b) God’s wisdom revealed in the cross.
English variants: “wisdom,” “philosophy,” “human wisdom,” “wisdom of the world.”
Contextual theological meaning: doctrine “The Cross as Wisdom and Power” — God’s wisdom is paradoxically expressed through what appears foolish (a crucified Messiah), overturning worldly standards of wisdom and status.
Dutch rendering & risk: wijsheid. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: the Netherlands has a strong national self-image tied to rationalist and empiricist intellectual tradition (Erasmus, Spinoza, and a highly secularized, science-literate contemporary culture). Paul’s paradox — that human wisdom is folly and a crucified man is God’s wisdom — can collide sharply with this rationalist self-image, risking a reading of Christianity as anti-intellectual rather than as a genuine paradox subverting worldly categories of wisdom. Route to human theologian.

Term: foolishness — μωρία (mōria)

Literal meaning: folly, stupidity (root of English “moron”).
Contextual theological meaning: “the folly of what we preach” (1:21) — the cross appears foolish by worldly standards but is in fact the locus of God’s saving wisdom and power.
Dutch rendering & risk: dwaasheid. High risk (paired directly with “wisdom” above); must retain the deliberate paradox, not resolve it into either pure literal stupidity or pure metaphor.

Term: cross — σταυρός (stauros) / crucified — ἐσταυρωμένος (estaurōmenos)

Literal meaning: the Roman execution stake/cross; the state of having been crucified.
Contextual theological meaning: “Christ crucified” (1:23) is the specific, scandalous content of the gospel — a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to Greeks, but the power and wisdom of God to the called.
Dutch rendering & risk: kruis / gekruisigd. Medium risk; stable, unambiguous term across Dutch traditions, but note the secular idiom “een kruis te dragen hebben” (to have a burden to bear) can drift the term toward generic suffering rather than Christ’s specific atoning execution — keep “Christus, de Gekruisigde” concrete and named.

Term: stumbling block — σκάνδαλον (skandalon)

Literal meaning: a trap-trigger, a stone that causes stumbling.
Contextual theological meaning: the cross as offensive obstacle to Jewish messianic expectation (1:23).
Dutch rendering & risk: struikelblok / aanstoot. Low-Medium risk; stable term.

Term: power (of God) — δύναμις (θεοῦ) (dynamis theou) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — kracht van God, Medium risk]

Contextual theological meaning: paired with wisdom (above) as the second pole of the “Cross as Wisdom and Power” doctrine — God’s saving power is displayed, not negated, by the apparent weakness of the cross.
Dutch rendering & risk: kracht (van God). Medium risk per baseline; consistent usage required across Romans and 1 Corinthians materials.

Other chapter terms reused without new risk notes: called (geroepen), church/gemeente, saints/heiligen (1:2 “called to be saints,” identical construction to Romans 1:7), grace/genade, fellowship/gemeenschap (1:9, “fellowship of his Son”), apostle/apostel. All [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE].

New term: baptism — βάπτισμα / βαπτίζω (baptisma / baptizō)

Literal meaning: to dip, immerse; the noun for the rite itself.
Contextual theological meaning: 1:13–17 addresses factions forming around who baptized whom — Paul insists baptism points to Christ, not to the human minister.
Dutch rendering & risk: doop / dopen. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: not present in the Romans baseline and must be added here. The Netherlands has a live, historically entrenched denominational fault line over baptismal practice — mainstream Reformed and Catholic traditions practice infant/paedobaptism, while Baptist, Doopsgezind (Mennonite), and many evangelical/Pentecostal churches practice only believer’s baptism, and the very name “Doopsgezinden” (the Anabaptist-descended Mennonite tradition) is built around this distinctive. Any curriculum discussion of baptism risks being read as taking a side in this debate even where the text (1 Cor 1, 12) is not addressing paedobaptism vs. believer’s baptism at all. Route to human theologian for any expanded catechetical material.

Chapter 2 — The Spirit and Human Wisdom

Term: mystery — μυστήριον (mystērion)

Literal meaning: a secret; something hidden until revealed by initiation or disclosure.
Semantic range: in Paul, not an unsolvable riddle but a previously hidden divine plan now disclosed in Christ (cf. Romans 11:25 doctrine background).
English variants: “mystery,” “secret,” “hidden wisdom.”
Contextual theological meaning: 2:1, 7 — “God’s wisdom, hidden in a mystery,” disclosed by the Spirit, not discoverable by unaided human reason.
Dutch rendering & risk: verborgenheid (classic Statenvertaling register) / geheimenis (HSV) / geheim (NBV, but also the plain secular word for “secret”). HIGH RISK, a three-way register split analogous to the baseline’s “salvation” (behoud/verlossing/zaligheid) case: “verborgenheid” signals older devotional/Reformed register, “geheimenis” a more contemporary confessional register, and “geheim” risks collapsing into an ordinary secular secret with no sense of authoritative divine disclosure. This curriculum recommends verborgenheid/geheimenis as primary and flags any use of bare “geheim” for reviewer confirmation.

Term: spiritual (person) — πνευματικός (pneumatikos) Term: natural / soulish (person) — ψυχικός (psychikos)

Literal meaning: pneumatikos = “of the Spirit/spirit”; psychikos = “of the soul/natural life” (from psychē, soul/life).
Semantic range: a Pauline technical contrast (2:14–15) between a person indwelt and taught by the Holy Spirit versus one operating only on unaided human faculties — not a body/soul-versus-spirit dualism, and not a hierarchy of “spiritual elites.”
English variants: “spiritual person” vs. “natural man,” “unspiritual person,” “person without the Spirit.”
Contextual theological meaning: only the Spirit-indwelt person can receive and evaluate the things of God; this is a Spirit-versus-no-Spirit distinction, not a superior-versus-average-Christian distinction (a common misreading Paul himself corrects in 3:1–3).
Dutch rendering & risk: geestelijke mens / natuurlijke mens. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: the Dutch noun “geestelijke” is the standard word for an ordained member of the clergy (a priest, pastor, or minister — “de geestelijke van de kerk”), and “geestelijk” as an adjective also commonly describes New Age/paranormal phenomena (“geestelijke genezing,” “geestelijke krachten” in a spiritist sense) in secular Dutch usage. Rendering pneumatikos anthrōpos as simply “de geestelijke” risks being heard as “the clergyman” or as an occult-adjacent “spiritual person” rather than Paul’s precise sense of “a person indwelt by the Holy Spirit.” A disambiguating phrase such as “de mens die de Geest heeft” is safer for catechetical contexts. Route to human theologian.

Other chapter terms: Holy Spirit (Heilige Geest) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE, Medium risk]; wisdom (wijsheid, reused from ch. 1).

Chapter 3 — Foundations, Temple, and Fleshly Christians

Term: fleshly / carnal — σαρκικός (sarkikos)

Literal meaning: pertaining to the flesh (sarx).
Semantic range: here specifically believers behaving according to unredeemed human nature and worldly rivalry (3:1, 3), distinct from Paul’s broader “flesh vs. Spirit” theology developed more fully in Romans 8.
English variants: “carnal,” “fleshly,” “worldly,” “immature.”
Contextual theological meaning: addressed to genuine believers still exhibiting factionalism — moral/relational immaturity, not a claim about their salvation status.
Dutch rendering & risk: vleselijk. Medium risk; must be distinguished from a claim of unbelief — these are “infants in Christ” (3:1), not unregenerate persons.

Term: foundation — θεμέλιος (themelios)

Literal meaning: the base/footing of a building.
Contextual theological meaning: 3:11, “no one can lay a foundation other than… Jesus Christ” — Christ alone as the sole foundation of the church’s construction, with ministers building various materials (gold, wood, hay) atop it, tested by eschatological fire.
Dutch rendering & risk: fundament / grondslag. Low risk.

Term: temple — ναός (naos)

Literal meaning: the inner sanctuary of a temple (distinct from hieron, the wider temple precinct).
Semantic range: in 3:16–17 applied corporately to the church as God’s dwelling place; in 6:19 applied individually to the believer’s body.
English variants: “temple,” “sanctuary,” “dwelling place of God.”
Contextual theological meaning: the Corinthian church corporately is God’s holy dwelling place (3:16) — divisiveness that damages the church is treated with the same gravity as desecrating a sacred sanctuary.
Dutch rendering & risk: tempel. Medium risk; no living pagan-temple culture in the Netherlands lowers the literal-confusion risk, but the weightiness of “sacred, indwelt space” needs explicit unpacking for a highly secularized audience with little instinctive sense of sacred space.

Chapter 4 — Stewards and Apostolic Servanthood

Term: steward / manager — οἰκονόμος (oikonomos)

Literal meaning: household manager, estate steward — entrusted with another’s property, accountable to the owner.
Contextual theological meaning: 4:1–2 — apostles/ministers are stewards of “the mysteries of God” (reusing the mystērion term from ch. 2), accountable to Christ rather than to the Corinthians’ factional judgments.
Dutch rendering & risk: rentmeester / beheerder. Low-Medium risk; “rentmeester” is the classic devotional Dutch term (still used in stewardship-of-creation contexts); “beheerder” is more neutral/modern.

Term: servants (of Christ) — ὑπηρέτας (hypēretas)

Literal meaning: an under-rower, assistant, subordinate helper.
Contextual theological meaning: 4:1 — a deliberately humble self-designation, undercutting the Corinthians’ celebrity-status treatment of apostolic teachers.
Dutch rendering & risk: dienaars. Low risk.

Other chapter terms: mystery (verborgenheid/geheimenis, reused from ch. 2); judge/judgment (oordelen — low risk, standard vocabulary).

Chapter 5 — Church Discipline and Holiness

Term: sexual immorality — πορνεία (porneia)

Literal meaning: prostitution-derived term broadened to any sexual immorality outside the bounds of biblical marriage.
Semantic range: covers the specific case in ch. 5 (a man living with his father’s wife) and recurs throughout the letter (ch. 6, 7, 10) as a major pastoral concern.
English variants: “sexual immorality,” “fornication,” “sexual sin.”
Contextual theological meaning: grounds for the church discipline instructed in this chapter — treated as a serious communal holiness issue, not a private matter.
Dutch rendering & risk: ontucht (modern legal/general register) / hoererij (classic Statenvertaling register). HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: “ontucht” is also the operative term in the Dutch Criminal Code (Wetboek van Strafrecht, art. 247ff.) for sexual offenses, particularly against minors — using it for consensual adult immorality can inadvertently import connotations of criminal abuse. “Hoererij” is archaic and can sound moralistic/harsh to secular ears. This mirrors, in the specific domain of sexual ethics, the same drift pattern the baseline documents for “zonde” generally. Recommend context-sensitive phrasing (e.g., “seksuele zonde,” “ontucht” glossed) rather than a single fixed term; route to human theologian for pastoral framing.

Term: leaven — ζύμη (zymē)

Literal meaning: yeast/leavening agent.
Contextual theological meaning: 5:6–8, Passover imagery — a small corrupting influence (tolerated sin) spreads through the whole community; “unleavened” church = purity from tolerated sin.
Dutch rendering & risk: zuurdeeg / gist. Medium risk; requires OT Passover background explanation for a low-OT-literacy Dutch readership (consistent with the baseline’s general note on low OT narrative literacy across Dutch audiences).

Term: hand over to Satan — παραδοῦναι τῷ Σατανᷣ (paradounai tō Satana)

Contextual theological meaning: the severe form of church discipline (excommunication) in view — removing a persistently unrepentant member from the protective fellowship of the church, exposing them to the sphere of Satan’s influence, for the ultimate purpose of restoration (cf. 2 Cor 2).
Dutch rendering & risk: overgeven aan de satan. High risk pastorally (not lexically) — modern Dutch church culture, across Reformed, Catholic, and especially secular audiences, is generally uncomfortable with visible church discipline; must be framed as restorative rather than punitive/vindictive. Route to human theologian for any expository material.

Chapter 6 — The Body, Lawsuits, and Sexual Purity

Term: body — σῶμα (sōma)

Literal meaning: the physical body.
Semantic range: a major theological term across 1 Corinthians — individual body (ch. 6), corporate Body of Christ (ch. 12), resurrection body (ch. 15).
English variants: “body,” “physical body.”
Contextual theological meaning: 6:19–20, the believer’s body is “a temple of the Holy Spirit,” bought at a price, to be used for God’s glory — grounds Paul’s sexual ethics in theology of the body, not mere rule-keeping.
Dutch rendering & risk: lichaam. Medium risk; the Dutch cultural context of a highly secularized, body-autonomy-centered sexual ethic (reinforced by comprehensive Dutch sex education and liberal social norms) can make Paul’s “your body is not your own” (6:19) land as culturally counter-intuitive; requires careful, non-shaming framing. Route to native speaker review, human theologian for direct exposition.

Term: sanctified — ἡγιασμένοι (hēgiasmenoi, from ἁγιάζω) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE doctrine — heiliging, Medium risk] Term: justified — ἐδικαιώθητε (edikaiōthēte, from δικαιόω) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — rechtvaardiging family, Critical risk]

Contextual theological meaning: 6:11, “washed… sanctified… justified” — a compact summary of conversion, listing definitive holiness-standing terms already established in the Romans baseline; reused exactly.
Dutch rendering & risk: geheiligd / gerechtvaardigd. Critical/Medium per baseline; ensure the forensic, declared sense of “gerechtvaardigd” (not moral self-improvement) is preserved here exactly as in Romans.

Term: joined / one flesh — κολλώμενος (kollōmenos) / μία σάρξ (mia sarx)

Literal meaning: kollaomai = to be glued/joined; mia sarx = “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24 citation).
Contextual theological meaning: 6:16–17 — sexual union creates a real, not merely symbolic, bodily-spiritual bond, contrasted with union with the Lord “one spirit” with him.
Dutch rendering & risk: verenigd / één vlees. Low-Medium risk; standard marriage-theology vocabulary.

Chapter 7 — Marriage and Singleness

Term: marriage / to marry — γάμος / γαμέω (gamos / gameō)

Literal meaning: wedding, marriage; to marry.
Contextual theological meaning: doctrine “Marriage and Singleness” — Paul commends marriage as good and normal, while commending singleness as a valuable, Spirit-enabled calling for undivided devotion to the Lord (7:7, 32–35), against both ascetic devaluation of marriage and cultural over-valuation of marriage as the only legitimate adult state.
Dutch rendering & risk: huwelijk / trouwen. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: the Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex civil marriage (2001), and “huwelijk” in contemporary Dutch legal and everyday usage now denotes marriage generally, inclusive of same-sex marriage. Paul’s chapter-long discussion assumes a male-female marital relationship throughout; translators and curriculum writers must ensure the term’s referent in this specific text remains clear from context without either (a) importing an anachronistic exclusionary gloss into the bare word “huwelijk” itself or (b) obscuring the text’s own assumed referent. This is a live pastoral-sensitivity issue for Dutch churches across the theological spectrum. Route to human theologian.

Term: unmarried — ἄγαμος (agamos) — Low-Medium risk; ongehuwd. Term: virgin — παρθένος (parthenos)

Literal meaning: a virgin, an unmarried young woman (or, contextually in 7:36–38, possibly a man’s fiancée/betrothed).
Contextual theological meaning: 7:25–38 discusses the value of remaining unmarried “as I am” for undistracted devotion, addressed to a specific pastoral situation in Corinth.
Dutch rendering & risk: maagd. Medium risk; modern Dutch “maagd” carries a strong purely-physiological (virginity-status) connotation that can obscure Paul’s broader vocational point about undivided devotion; context should clarify the vocational/devotional sense over the narrowly physiological one.

Term: divorce / separate — χωρίζω (chōrizō) — Medium risk; scheiden. Standard term; pastoral sensitivity required given high Dutch divorce rates, but no lexical ambiguity.

Term: gift — χάρισμα (charisma) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — genadegaven, Medium risk]

Contextual theological meaning: 7:7, both marriage and celibacy are framed as “gifts” (charismata) from God — extends the baseline term beyond the more familiar “ministry gift” sense (Romans 12) to a state-of-life gift.
Dutch rendering & risk: genadegave. Medium risk; ensure the extended sense (celibacy/marriage as gift, not merely ministry ability) is clear in context.

Chapter 8 — Christian Liberty and Idol Meat (I)

Term: food offered to idols — εἰδωλόθυτον (eidōlothyton)

Literal meaning: “sacrificed to an idol” — meat from animals ritually offered in pagan temple worship, later sold in the marketplace.
Contextual theological meaning: doctrine “Christian Liberty and Idol Meat” — the concrete first-century pastoral controversy: may a believer eat such meat, given that “idols are nothing,” or does eating it wrongly signal participation in idolatry and damage weaker believers’ consciences?
Dutch rendering & risk: aan de afgoden geofferd vlees / offervlees. Medium risk; the Netherlands has no living temple-idolatry culture, so the specific ancient practice requires explicit cultural-background explanation; the underlying principle (liberty exercised in love, limited for the sake of weaker consciences) transfers readily to modern analogues (alcohol, entertainment media, etc.) and should be framed accordingly for a low-background-knowledge audience.

Term: knowledge — γνῶσις (gnōsis)

Contextual theological meaning: 8:1, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” — sets up the whole chapter’s contrast between correct theological knowledge (idols are nothing) and love that limits the exercise of that knowledge for others’ sake.
Dutch rendering & risk: kennis. Low-Medium risk; no strong secular collision, though note a very mild echo of Gnostic-style “secret knowledge” connotations best avoided by keeping “kennis” plain and unadorned.

Term: conscience — συνείδησις (syneidēsis)

Literal meaning: moral self-awareness, the inner faculty that judges one’s own actions.
Contextual theological meaning: 8:7, 10, 12 — a “weak conscience” can be wounded/defiled by observing a stronger believer exercise liberty carelessly; central to the chapter’s pastoral ethic.
Dutch rendering & risk: geweten. Low-Medium risk; stable term across Dutch traditions.

Term: right / liberty — ἐξουσία (exousia)

Literal meaning: authority, right, permission, freedom to act.
Semantic range: distinct from eleutheria (freedom in the more abstract sense); here concretely “the right” to do something one is permitted, though not obligated, to do.
English variants: “right,” “authority,” “liberty,” “freedom.”
Contextual theological meaning: doctrine “Christian Liberty and Idol Meat” — Paul affirms the right to eat such meat in principle (8:9) while urging its voluntary restriction for love’s sake, a pattern repeated for ministry support in ch. 9.
Dutch rendering & risk: recht / vrijheid (context-dependent). Medium risk; must be distinguished in context from unconditional entitlement — Paul’s whole argument is that a genuine right may be voluntarily surrendered out of love.

Term: stumbling block — πρόσκομμα (proskomma), synonym of skandalon (ch. 1) — Low-Medium risk; struikelblok/aanstoot.

Chapter 9 — Apostolic Rights Surrendered

Reuses right/liberty (exousia, from ch. 8) applied to Paul’s right to financial support as an apostle, voluntarily foregone for the gospel’s sake.

Term: reward — μισθός (misthos) — Low risk; loon/beloning. Term: run (a race) — τρέχω / ἀγών (trechō / agōn)

Contextual theological meaning: 9:24–27, athletic-competition metaphor (drawing on the Isthmian Games held near Corinth) for disciplined Christian perseverance toward an eternal, not perishable, prize.
Dutch rendering & risk: wedloop / hardlopen. Low risk; the athletic metaphor transfers naturally to modern Dutch sports culture, though the specific ancient-games background (Isthmian Games) benefits from a brief historical note for a low-background-knowledge audience.

Term: self-control — ἐγκράτεια (enkrateia) — Low risk; zelfbeheersing.

Chapter 10 — Idolatry, the Lord’s Table, and Christian Liberty (II)

Term: idolatry — εἰδωλολατρία (eidōlolatria)

Contextual theological meaning: 10:14, “flee from idolatry” — grounded in Israel’s wilderness failures (10:1–13) as a warning example for the church.
Dutch rendering & risk: afgoderij. Medium risk; low risk of literal misunderstanding, but note secular Dutch usage sometimes applies “afgoderij” loosely and metaphorically to celebrity worship or materialism — this can actually be a useful contemporary bridge if handled deliberately, but should not be allowed to fully replace the text’s concrete, cultic referent.

Term: participation / table of the Lord vs. table of demons — κοινωνία (koinōnia, reused from Romans baseline [gemeenschap]), τράπεζα κυρίου / τράπεζα δαιμονίων

Contextual theological meaning: 10:16–21 — sharing the Lord’s cup and bread is real spiritual participation in Christ, incompatible with participation in pagan cultic meals; extends the baseline’s “fellowship” term to its most theologically weighty NT usage regarding the Lord’s Supper.
Dutch rendering & risk: gemeenschap (met het lichaam en bloed van Christus) / tafel des Heren / tafel der demonen. High risk; anticipates and connects directly to the Lord’s Supper terminology developed fully in ch. 11 (see below) — route to human theologian in tandem with ch. 11 material.

Term: temptation — πειρασμός (peirasmos) — Medium risk; verzoeking. Standard shared Reformed/Catholic vocabulary (cf. Lord’s Prayer, “en leid ons niet in verzoeking”), low ambiguity.

Chapter 11 — Head Covering, and the Lord’s Supper

Term: head — κεφαλή (kephalē)

Literal meaning: the physical head; metaphorically, source, authority, or preeminence, depending on context.
Contextual theological meaning: 11:3, “the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, the head of Christ is God” — a headship framework grounding the chapter’s argument about head coverings; theologically and culturally one of the most contested passages in the letter.
Dutch rendering & risk: hoofd. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: the Netherlands is one of the most gender-egalitarian societies in Western Europe by prevailing secular social measure, and headship language in marriage is a genuinely contested topic even within Dutch Protestant churches (with more conservative “bevindelijk gereformeerd” and evangelical streams holding a traditional headship reading, and more progressive Reformed/PKN and Catholic streams reading it as culturally conditioned or mutual). Any curriculum treatment must be handled with theological care and awareness of this live internal Dutch church debate, not just a secular-versus-religious divide. Route to human theologian.

Term: head covering — κατακαλύπτω / κάλυμμα (katakalyptō / kalymma)

Contextual theological meaning: 11:4–16 — first-century head-covering practice as a culturally-embedded sign of the headship order just described; one of the most historically-and-culturally-distant passages in the letter for a modern reader.
Dutch rendering & risk: hoofdbedekking. Medium-High risk; still an active, visible practice in a minority of conservative Dutch Reformed and Anabaptist-descended (Doopsgezind-adjacent, and some “bevindelijk gereformeerd”) congregations, but entirely foreign to the broader secular and even mainstream Christian Dutch population — requires explicit historical-cultural framing to avoid the passage reading either as directly binding modern dress code or as simply irrelevant/embarrassing. Route to human theologian for any prescriptive material.

Term: the Lord’s Supper — κυριακὸν δεῖπνον (kyriakon deipnon)

Literal meaning: “the Lord’s dinner/meal.”
Contextual theological meaning: doctrine “The Lord’s Supper” — 11:20–34, the ordinance instituted by Christ (11:23–26, quoting the Last Supper words), abused by factional and gluttonous behavior in Corinth, and to be approached with self-examination.
Dutch rendering & risk: het Avondmaal des Heren / het Heilig Avondmaal. CRITICAL RISK: this is the single most historically loaded doctrinal term-cluster in the entire Dutch Reformation, on par with justification itself. The Dutch Reformed tradition (following Calvin, formalized in the Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 75–82) holds a spiritual, not corporeal, presence view, explicitly rejecting the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation (the literal change of bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood) — a rejection that was a central, polemical dividing line of the Reformation in the Low Countries specifically, including historic persecution and martyrdom on both sides. Catholic Dutch usage prefers Eucharistie for the sacrament proper. This curriculum must use Avondmaal (des Heren) consistent with the Reformed-anchored register of the baseline (paralleling its choice of “vleeswording” over “incarnatie” and “gemeente” over “kerk”), while ensuring exposition of 11:23–26 does not read as either affirming or overtly polemicizing against transubstantiation — the text itself, read plainly, supports a real spiritual (not merely notional/empty) participation without adjudicating the precise ontology denominations dispute. Route every occurrence to human theologian.

Term: remembrance — ἀνάμνησις (anamnēsis)

Literal meaning: a calling-to-mind, a memorial.
Contextual theological meaning: 11:24–25, “do this in remembrance of me” — grounds the Reformed memorialist emphasis (distinct from, though not automatically opposed to, a “mere” empty memory).
Dutch rendering & risk: gedachtenis. High risk (paired with the Lord’s Supper entry above); ensure “gedachtenis” is not read as implying an exclusively backward-looking, non-participatory memorial if the curriculum intends to also convey real spiritual communion (10:16), which some Reformed streams affirm alongside the memorial emphasis. Route to human theologian.

Term: discerning the body — διακρίνων τὸ σῶμα (diakrinōn to sōma)

Literal meaning: “judging/discerning rightly the body.”
Contextual theological meaning: 11:29 — approaching the Supper without recognizing the weight of Christ’s body (and, by extension, the unity of the church, his corporate body, cf. ch. 12) brings judgment; a notoriously difficult exegetical phrase with both individual-sacramental and corporate-ecclesial readings represented across the Christian tradition.
Dutch rendering & risk: het lichaam onderscheiden/naar waarde schatten. Critical risk; the ambiguity between the sacramental referent (Christ’s body in the elements) and the ecclesial referent (the body = the church, cf. 12:27) must be flagged for reviewer decision rather than silently resolved. Route to human theologian.

Term: in an unworthy manner — ἀναξίως (anaxiōs)

Contextual theological meaning: 11:27 — warns against careless, factional, self-indulgent participation, not against personal moral imperfection per se (a common pastoral-anxiety misreading, especially relevant given the Dutch Reformed “bevindelijke” tradition’s historic emphasis on self-examination before communion, which can tip into scrupulous anxiety).
Dutch rendering & risk: op onwaardige wijze. High risk pastorally; frame to avoid feeding introspective assurance-anxiety, echoing the same caution the Romans baseline registers for “assurance_of_salvation.” Route to human theologian.

Chapter 12 — Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ

Term: body of Christ — σῶμα Χριστοῦ (sōma Christou)

Contextual theological meaning: doctrine “Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ” — the church as one organic body with many interdependent members (12:12–27), each gift necessary, none dispensable or superior by nature.
Dutch rendering & risk: lichaam van Christus. Medium risk; extends the ch. 6 “body” term to its corporate-ecclesial sense; consistent rendering required with ch. 6 and ch. 15 uses of sōma.

Term: members — μέλη (melē) — Low-Medium risk; leden.

Term: manifestation (of the Spirit) — φανέρωσις (phanerōsis) — Low-Medium risk; openbaring/manifestatie.

Term: gifts / grace-gifts — χαρίσματα (charismata) [REUSED FROM ROMANS BASELINE — genadegaven, Medium risk]

Contextual theological meaning: 12:4–11 gives Paul’s fullest single list of gifts (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues) — an expansion of the Romans 12 list requiring careful, gift-by-gift treatment below.
Dutch rendering & risk: genadegaven, reused exactly. Medium risk per baseline; the small but visible and growing Dutch Pentecostal/charismatic stream (Pinkstergemeenten, Volle Evangelie churches) reads this chapter very differently from cessationist or non-charismatic Reformed and Catholic readers — flagged again below under “tongues.”

Term: miracles / works of power — δυνάμεις (dynameis), plural of dynamis [extends REUSED “power” term] — Medium risk; krachten/wonderen.

Term: healing(s) — ἰάματα (iamata) — Low-Medium risk; genezingen.

Term: discerning of spirits — διάκρισις πνευμάτων (diakrisis pneumatōn) — Medium risk; onderscheiding van geesten. Requires care to avoid either occult-adjacent framing or dismissive rationalist flattening, given the same secular-rationalist backdrop noted for “wisdom” in ch. 1.

Term: tongues — γλῶσσαι (glōssai)

Literal meaning: tongues, languages.
Semantic range: disputed between (a) actual known human languages (as clearly in Acts 2) and (b) a Spirit-given ecstatic/non-discursive prayer-language requiring interpretation (the reading many take from 1 Cor 12–14 specifically).
English variants: “tongues,” “languages,” “ecstatic speech,” “tongues-speaking.”
Contextual theological meaning: one of the charismata, valuable but explicitly subordinated by Paul to intelligible, edifying speech (ch. 14) when used in public worship without interpretation.
Dutch rendering & risk: tongen(taal) / vreemde talen. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: this is the sharpest practical fault line between mainstream Dutch Reformed/Catholic churches (which are generally cessationist or at least non-practicing regarding tongues) and the smaller but theologically vocal Dutch Pentecostal and charismatic-evangelical movement (Pinkstergemeenten, Volle Evangelie Gemeenten, and charismatic renewal streams within larger denominations). Curriculum material must present Paul’s own balanced, non-dismissive-yet-ordered treatment (ch. 12–14) without the exposition being co-opted to either fully validate or fully suppress contemporary tongues-practice as a denominational talking point. Route to human theologian.

Term: interpretation (of tongues) — ἑρμηνεία (hermēneia) — Medium risk; uitlegging/vertolking, paired directly with the “tongues” entry above.

Term: baptism (in one Spirit) — reuses the ch. 1 baptism term (doop), here specifically Spirit-baptism into the one body (12:13) — Medium-High risk per ch. 1 notes; do not conflate with water baptism practice debates in exposition.

Chapter 13 — Love as the Greater Way

Term: love — ἀγάπη (agapē)

Literal meaning: selfless, committed, other-directed love; in the NT elevated from a relatively rare classical Greek word to the primary term for God’s own covenantal, self-giving love and the love believers are to have for one another.
Semantic range: distinct in Koine Greek from erōs (romantic/passionate desire) and philia (friendship affection) — Paul’s agapē in ch. 13 is defined entirely by action and character (patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, bears all things), not by feeling or attraction.
English variants: “love,” “charity” (older English, cf. KJV “the greatest of these is charity”).
Contextual theological meaning: doctrine “Love as the Greater Way” — presented as the necessary animating quality without which even the most impressive spiritual gifts (tongues, prophecy, knowledge, ch. 12, 14) are worthless (13:1–3); the “greater way” (12:31) than competitive pursuit of showier gifts.
Dutch rendering & risk: liefde. CRITICAL RISK: unlike Koine Greek, standard modern Dutch (like most modern European languages) has essentially one common-usage word — liefde — covering romantic love, familial affection, friendship, and self-giving covenantal love alike, with no equivalent lexical distinction to Greek’s agapē/erōs/philia. Dutch popular culture (film, music, greeting-card culture) overwhelmingly primes “liefde” toward its romantic-attraction sense. There is real risk that 1 Corinthians 13 — one of the most publicly quoted NT chapters, frequently read at Dutch weddings regardless of the couple’s or officiant’s church background — gets heard almost entirely as a romantic-relationship text, obscuring Paul’s actual, broader argument about the church community’s use of spiritual gifts and mutual life together. Curriculum material must explicitly frame ch. 13’s love as ecclesial and character-based, addressed to a fractious congregation (linking back to ch. 1’s divisions), not primarily a wedding-liturgy text. Route to human theologian.

Supporting virtue vocabulary (patient — makrothymei; kind — chrēsteuetai; not envious — ou zēloi; not boastful — ou perpereuetai, echoing ch. 1’s kauchaomai/boasting theme): Low-Medium risk individually; standard Dutch virtue vocabulary (geduldig, vriendelijk, niet jaloers, niet pochend) with no major collision risk, though collectively they should be rendered so the list reads as concrete, active behavior rather than abstract sentiment, reinforcing the “love” entry above.

Chapter 14 — Order in Worship

Term: edification / building up — οἰκοδομή (oikodomē)

Literal meaning: building, construction; metaphorically, spiritual strengthening of the community.
Contextual theological meaning: 14:3–5, 12, 26 — the controlling criterion for all worship practices in this chapter: does it build up the church? Directly connects to the Romans baseline doctrine “Mutual Edification.”
Dutch rendering & risk: opbouw. Low-Medium risk; consistent with baseline’s Romans “build up/edify” vocabulary.

Term: order — τάξις (taxis) / decently, becomingly — εὐσχημόνως (euschēmonōs)

Contextual theological meaning: 14:40, “let all things be done decently and in order” — Paul’s governing principle for regulating the exercise of gifts (especially tongues and prophecy) in public worship, balancing Spirit-freedom with intelligibility and mutual edification.
Dutch rendering & risk: orde / welvoeglijk (classic) / op gepaste wijze (modern). Medium risk; register choice only, no doctrinal collision — align with the curriculum’s overall formal-modern register preference (per the Romans baseline’s tone requirements) rather than the archaic Statenvertaling “welvoeglijk.”

Other chapter terms: prophecy (profetie, reused [from ROMANS BASELINE], here in its gift-of-the-Spirit sense rather than OT predictive sense — flag this contextual distinction for reviewers); tongues and interpretation (reused from ch. 12, same High-risk notes apply). The chapter’s controverted instructions regarding women’s speech (14:34–35) are a significant interpretive and pastoral matter but do not introduce new lexical/theological vocabulary beyond terms already treated; flag the passage itself (not a specific term) for human theologian review given its contested status across Dutch denominational lines (from full restriction in conservative Reformed streams to full egalitarian practice in progressive Protestant and much of Catholic contemporary practice).

Chapter 15 — The Resurrection (continued: verses 12–58)

Verses 1–11 are treated in full in Part 1 above. This section covers new terms introduced in the remainder of the chapter, which continues the doctrine “The Resurrection of Christ and Believers.”

Term: firstfruits — ἀπαρχή (aparchē)

Literal meaning: the first portion of a harvest, offered to God before the rest was used, guaranteeing and representing the whole harvest to come.
Contextual theological meaning: 15:20, 23 — Christ’s resurrection is the “firstfruits” guaranteeing and previewing believers’ own future bodily resurrection; an agricultural metaphor requiring OT sacrificial-calendar background.
Dutch rendering & risk: eerstelingen. Medium risk; agricultural harvest-offering imagery has low instinctive resonance for a highly urbanized modern Dutch readership and requires brief explanatory framing, though the term itself is standard Bible vocabulary with no competing meaning.

Term: last Adam — ὁ ἔσχατος Ἀδάμ (ho eschatos Adam)

Contextual theological meaning: 15:45 — Christ as the second/last Adam, reversing the first Adam’s legacy of death with a legacy of resurrection life; a typological argument requiring Genesis background.
Dutch rendering & risk: de laatste Adam. Medium risk; low OT/Genesis narrative literacy among secular Dutch readers (as the baseline notes generally) makes explicit cross-referencing to Genesis 2–3 necessary for this typology to land.

Term: perishable / imperishable — φθαρτός / ἄφθαρτος (phthartos / aphthartos) Term: mortal / immortality — θνητός / ἀθανασία (thnētos / athanasia)

Contextual theological meaning: 15:42, 53–54 — the qualitative transformation of the resurrection body: not resuscitation of the same corruptible body, but transformation into an incorruptible, immortal one.
Dutch rendering & risk: vergankelijk/onvergankelijk; sterfelijk/onsterfelijkheid. Medium risk; standard vocabulary, low collision risk in Dutch.

Term: spiritual body — σῶμα πνευματικόν (sōma pneumatikon) Term: natural body — σῶμα ψυχικόν (sōma psychikon)

Literal meaning: pneumatikon reuses the ch. 2 “spiritual” adjective; psychikon reuses the ch. 2 “natural/soulish” adjective, now applied to bodies rather than persons.
Semantic range: this is not a body/no-body or physical/non-physical contrast — Paul explicitly affirms a real, transformed body, only qualitatively different (Spirit-empowered and incorruptible versus merely natural and corruptible).
English variants: “spiritual body,” “natural body,” “physical body” (a potentially misleading English rendering of psychikon, since Paul’s contrast is not “physical vs. non-physical”).
Contextual theological meaning: guards against both a purely physical, unchanged-resuscitation view and a purely non-bodily “spiritual” (ghost-like) view of the resurrection — a real, transformed, still-bodily existence.
Dutch rendering & risk: geestelijk lichaam / natuurlijk lichaam. HIGH RISK, Dutch-specific: secular Dutch culture has a visible contemporary interest in Eastern-influenced spirituality, reincarnation belief, and “spirit-versus-body” New Age frameworks (a measurable minority strand within the broader “religiously unaffiliated” majority the baseline already documents). “Geestelijk lichaam” risks being heard through this New Age lens as a disembodied spirit-existence or a step in a reincarnation cycle, exactly the opposite of Paul’s point (a real, permanent, transformed body). Explicit framing against both reincarnation and disembodied-spirit readings is required. Route to human theologian.

Term: sting of death — τὸ κέντρον τοῦ θανάτου (to kentron tou thanatou) — Low-Medium risk; de prikkel/angel van de dood. Term: victory — νῖκος (nikos) — Low risk; overwinning.

Reused without new risk: resurrection/opstanding, raised/opgewekt (from Part 1); mystery (verborgenheid, 15:51); sin/zonde (15:56, “the sting of death is sin”).

Chapter 16 — Closing Instructions

Term: the collection (for the saints) — ἡ λογεία (hē logeia)

Literal meaning: a collection of money.
Contextual theological meaning: 16:1–3 — a concrete act of cross-congregational generosity toward the Jerusalem church, connecting to the Romans baseline’s “unity_of_jews_and_gentiles” doctrine.
Dutch rendering & risk: inzameling. Low-Medium risk; standard term, no collision.

Term: Maranatha — Μαρανα θα (marana tha, Aramaic)

Literal meaning: “Our Lord, come!” (or possibly “Our Lord has come”)
Contextual theological meaning: 16:22 — one of the earliest preserved Aramaic liturgical expressions in the church, an urgent eschatological prayer for Christ’s return, functioning much like the baseline’s treatment of “Abba” (Romans 8:15) as a preserved Aramaic term of intimacy/urgency.
Dutch rendering & risk: Marana tha (retained, transliterated, as in all major Dutch Bible traditions), optionally glossed “(Kom, Here!)”. Low-Medium risk; follow the baseline’s precedent for “Abba” — preserve the transliteration rather than translating it away.

Term: holy kiss — φίλημα ἅγιον (philēma hagion)

Contextual theological meaning: 16:20 — a first-century greeting convention expressing genuine Christian familial affection and unity within the church, reused across several Pauline closings.
Dutch rendering & risk: heilige kus. Low-Medium risk; contemporary Dutch greeting culture (handshake, or among friends a cheek-kiss with no specific “holy” religious framing) is culturally distant from this practice — requires a brief cultural-background note so the instruction does not read as either literally binding cheek-kissing or as merely quaint/obsolete, but as a call to genuine, embodied Christian affection expressed however is culturally appropriate.

Reused without new risk: grace (genade, closing benediction 16:23); love (liefde, 16:14, 16:24 — reuses ch. 13’s High-risk “love” entry); faith (geloof, 16:13, “stand firm in the faith”).

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