Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 2 John | English → Dutch
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entire book of 2 John (its single chapter, verses 1–13). Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE REUSE] and reused exactly, without modification, per project mandate. All other terms are new entries proposed for this curriculum’s translation memory and are marked [NEW], pending the same theologian/native-speaker review routing conventions established in the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json.
Glossary Table
| Term (EN) | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | Dutch Rendering | Status | Risk Tier | Doctrine(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truth | ἀλήθεια | alētheia | waarheid | NEW | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | Not in baseline TM. Modern Dutch relativizes “waarheid” (“jouw waarheid”); must anchor to fixed apostolic content, not perspective. |
| Love | ἀγάπη | agapē | liefde | NEW | Walking in Truth and Love | Medium-High | No dedicated baseline entry. “Liefde” is unmarked for romantic/familial/agape distinctions; must be glossed as obedient, self-giving love per v.6’s own definition. |
| Walking (conduct) | περιπατέω | peripateō | wandelen | NEW | Low | Walking in Truth and Love | Preserve ongoing-lifestyle metaphor; confirm not archaic for younger/secular readers. |
| Commandment | ἐντολή | entolē | gebod | NEW | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love; Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Must be kept distinct from baseline High-risk wet (Mosaic Law) to avoid legalistic misreading. |
| From the beginning | ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς | ap’ archēs | van het begin af (aan) | NEW | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Fixed Johannine idiom; render identically every occurrence to preserve old-vs-novel-teaching contrast. |
| Lady | κυρία | kyria | vrouwe | NEW | Medium | (Address/Greeting; ecclesiological ambiguity) | Elevated register preserves literal-woman/personified-church ambiguity; do not flatten to plain “vrouw.” |
| Elder | πρεσβύτερος | presbyteros | ouderling (primary) / de oudste (alternative) | NEW | High | Apostolic authority (letter’s self-designation) | Risk of anachronistic collapse into the modern Dutch Reformed church-office title “ouderling”; flag for reviewer decision between institutional vs. literal rendering. |
| Elect / Chosen | ἐκλεκτός / ἐκλεκτή | eklektos / eklektē | uitverkoren | NEW | Critical | (Shares root with baseline Critical doctrine: Election) | Directly invokes the baseline’s Critical election/verkiezing doctrine (Canons of Dort) even in this non-soteriological, address-context usage (vv.1, 13); must not be treated as incidental vocabulary. |
| Grace | χάρις | charis | genade | [BASELINE REUSE] | High | Grace | Exact reuse of baseline grace entry. |
| Mercy | ἔλεος | eleos | barmhartigheid | NEW | Medium | (Completes apostolic greeting triad with grace/peace) | Standard, low-collision term; formal/liturgical register appropriate to curriculum target. |
| Peace | εἰρήνη | eirēnē | vrede | [BASELINE REUSE] | Low | Peace with God | Exact reuse of baseline peace entry. |
| Father | πατήρ | patēr | Vader | [BASELINE REUSE] | High (per doctrine registry) | Sonship/Deity of Christ (relational) | Exact reuse of baseline father entry. |
| Son (of the Father) | υἱός (τοῦ πατρός) | huios (tou patros) | de Zoon (van de Vader) | NEW phrase / [BASELINE-ALIGNED] | Critical | Sonship of Christ; Deity of Christ | Not the exact baseline phrase Zoon van God, but names the identical Critical doctrine; must carry equal doctrinal weight, never softened to honorific/adoptive sonship. |
| Jesus | Ἰησοῦς | Iēsous | Jezus | [BASELINE REUSE] | Low | Lordship/Deity of Christ | Exact reuse of baseline jesus entry. |
| Christ (proper name, “Jesus Christ”) | Χριστός (in Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν) | Christos | Christus (in “Jezus Christus”) | NEW — flags tension with baseline | High | Deity/Sonship of Christ; Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Flag: baseline’s messiah registry entry maps Χριστός to dutch_term Messias, but established Dutch Bible convention (Statenvertaling, HSV, NBV) always renders the fixed compound name “Ἰησοῦς Χριστός” as “Jezus Christus,” never “Jezus Messias.” Recommend a Phase 2 disambiguation rule: use “Christus” for the fixed proper-name usage; reserve “Messias” for explicit messianic-title contexts (rare in this letter). |
| Incarnation (“coming in flesh”) | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί | erchomenon en sarki | in het vlees gekomen | [BASELINE-ALIGNED] (doctrine vleeswording reused; verbal form new) | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Forbidden substitution: never render as “als mens gekomen” (NBV’s softened option) — this loses the literal “flesh” wording that is the doctrinal crux of this letter’s warning against docetism. |
| Deceiver | πλάνος | planos | verleider (primary) / dwaalleraar (alternative) | NEW | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Lock one primary rendering curriculum-wide once confirmed; “verleider” preferred for pastoral-warning register. |
| World | κόσμος | kosmos | wereld | NEW | Medium | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Must reinforce Johannine morally-loaded sense (world-system opposed to God), not merely geographic/global sense. |
| Confess | ὁμολογέω | homologeō | belijden | NEW | Medium-High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation; Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Risk of importing Reformed institutional “belijdenisgeschriften” weight over the simpler intended sense of public doctrinal affirmation. |
| Antichrist | ἀντίχριστος | antichristos | antichrist | NEW | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Popular-culture associations (horror-genre usage) risk trivializing the specific doctrinal referent: incarnation-denial embodied already in present false teachers. |
| Watch yourselves | βλέπετε ἑαυτούς | blepete heautous | let op uzelf / pas op voor uzelf | NEW | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Preserve reflexive self-directed force; discernment is the readers’ own active responsibility. |
| Reward / Wage | μισθός | misthos | loon (“vol loon” / “volledig loon”) | NEW | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Must not imply merit-based salvation; a reward for faithful ministry/labor only, consistent with baseline grace-vs-merit rules. |
| Go ahead / Progress beyond | προάγω | proagō | wie verder gaat (dan de leer van Christus) | NEW | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Contemporary Dutch “voortschrijdend inzicht”/“vooruitgang” vocabulary risks making condemned doctrinal overreach sound like commendable progress; recommend explicit clarifying gloss, not a bare single-word rendering. |
| Abide / Remain | μένω | menō | blijven | NEW | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Ordinary low-register verb must be reinforced by context to carry Johannine covenantal-perseverance weight (cf. John 15). |
| Teaching (of Christ) | διδαχή (τοῦ Χριστοῦ) | didachē (tou Christou) | de leer (van Christus) | NEW | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Risk of sounding academic/institutional (“leerstelling”) rather than living apostolic content with personal, saving import. |
| Receive into house (hospitality) | λαμβάνω εἰς οἰκίαν | lambanō eis oikian | in huis ontvangen | NEW | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Dutch “gastvrijheid” is a strongly held positive virtue; command to withhold hospitality risks sounding harsh/uncharitable unless doctrinal rationale is made explicit. |
| ”Greetings!” (formulaic endorsement) | χαίρειν | chairein | groeten (“groet hem niet”) | NEW | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Modern readers will read this as bare etiquette; requires translator note that the ancient greeting functioned as public doctrinal endorsement, not mere politeness. |
| Share / Participate (in evil) | κοινωνέω | koinōneō | deelhebben aan / deel hebben aan | NEW — related to [BASELINE REUSE] noun fellowship/gemeenschap | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Same root as positive Christian “gemeenschap” (fellowship) now applied negatively; translators should preserve awareness of this deliberate root-connection. |
| Evil / Wicked (works) | πονηρός (ἔργα) | ponēros (erga) | kwade werken / slechte daden (avoid unglossed “boze werken”) | NEW | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Modern Dutch “boos” primarily means “angry,” not “evil” — a drift pattern parallel to baseline’s documented zonde (sin → “pity”) risk. Lock rendering choice curriculum-wide; “de Boze” remains valid as a fixed idiom for Satan specifically. |
| Joy | χαρά | chara | vreugde / blijdschap | NEW | Low | (Christian fellowship; frames the letter’s opening/closing) | Root-connected to χαίρειν (withheld greeting, vv.10-11); minimal risk but worth noting the wordplay in study material. |
| Children | τέκνα | tekna | kinderen | NEW | Low | Walking in Truth and Love | Preserves same literal/spiritual-children double sense as the Greek; low risk. |
| Sister | ἀδελφή | adelphē | zuster | NEW | Low | (Closing greeting) | Standard, low-risk term. |
Cross-Reference to Baseline Doctrine Registry
The following curriculum doctrines map to baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json entries and must maintain review-routing consistency:
| Curriculum Doctrine | Related Baseline Doctrine Entries | Review Routing (per baseline convention) |
|---|---|---|
| Walking in Truth and Love | (no direct baseline doctrine; new doctrine entries required for truth and love) | Human theologian (new Medium-High risk terms; recommend elevating to theologian review given centrality to curriculum) |
| Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | incarnation (Medium, baseline), Deity/Sonship of Christ (Critical, baseline) | Human theologian (Critical incarnation content; High-risk planos/antichristos) |
| Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | christian_fellowship (Medium, baseline) | Human theologian (High-risk hospitality/greeting-withholding terms) |
| Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | (no direct baseline doctrine; connects thematically to baseline’s covenant/law fidelity concerns) | Human theologian (High-risk proagō; Medium-risk menō/didachē) |
Note for Phase 2: Four new terms in this glossary (uitverkoren/elect, de Zoon van de Vader/Son of the Father, in het vlees gekomen/incarnation-verbal-form, and the Χριστός/Messias-vs-Christus tension) are assessed at Critical risk because they directly invoke baseline Critical-risk doctrines (Election, Sonship/Deity of Christ, Incarnation) even where the surface phrasing in 2 John differs from the exact baseline-fixed phrase. These require the same absolute enforcement and human theologian review routing the baseline package mandates for Critical terms, with no deviation permitted without explicit reviewer sign-off.
Critical Risk Terms
Election
Approved rendering: verkiezing
Transliteration: verkiezing
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. The doctrinal root underlying 2 John’s ‘uitverkoren’ (elect/chosen, vv.1, 13). Even though 2 John’s usage is address vocabulary rather than explicit soteriological argument, the Canons of Dort’s condemnation of the Dutch Remonstrants (1618-19) attaches to this root wherever it appears in Dutch, including here.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Zoon van God
Transliteration: Zoon van God
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. 2 John’s own phrasing (‘Son of the Father’, v.3; ‘the Son’, v.9) differs textually from this exact baseline phrase but names the identical Critical doctrine; see the new ‘son_of_the_father’ entry below, which must carry equal doctrinal weight without contradicting this baseline entry.
Elect
Approved rendering: uitverkoren
Transliteration: uitverkoren
Doctrine: Sovereign Election in the Letter’s Address
Rejected alternatives: gekozen (weaker, ordinary-selection word; loses the deliberate root-connection to the baseline’s Critical ‘verkiezing’/election doctrine)
Original: ἐκλεκτός / ἐκλεκτή
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL. Shares its root exactly with the baseline’s Critical election/verkiezing doctrine (Synod of Dordrecht, 1618-19, against the Dutch Remonstrants). Occurs at vv.1 and 13, bracketing the entire letter as an inclusio. Even as incidental address vocabulary, Dutch Reformed readers will inevitably hear the full doctrinal weight; must never be treated as casual descriptive vocabulary.
Son Of The Father
Approved rendering: de Zoon (van de Vader)
Transliteration: de Zoon (van de Vader)
Doctrine: Sonship and Deity of Christ in 2 John
Rejected alternatives: Gods vertegenwoordiger (generic-representative reading; forbidden — destroys eternal co-equal Sonship), geestelijke zoon (implies adoptive/honorific rather than eternal ontological sonship)
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ πατρός / τὸν υἱὸν
Category: Christology
CRITICAL. 2 John’s phrasing (‘Son of the Father’, v.3; ‘the Son’, v.9) is grammatically shorter than the baseline’s fixed Critical phrase ‘Zoon van God’ but names the identical doctrine and must carry equal weight. Verse 9 states that denying the incarnation forfeits relationship with both Father and Son together; must never soften toward a generic or merely honorific reading. Must also explicitly foreclose Jehovah’s Witness (Nieuwe-Wereldvertaling) subordinationist theology in accompanying teaching notes, given that translation’s wide devotional circulation in the Netherlands and Flanders.
Coming In Flesh
Approved rendering: in het vlees gekomen
Transliteration: in het vlees gekomen
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: als mens gekomen (NBV’s softened option; FORBIDDEN — loses the literal ‘flesh’/σάρξ wording that is the letter’s doctrinal crux against docetism)
Original: ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί
Category: Christology
CRITICAL, curriculum-defining forbidden-substitution rule. The baseline incarnation/vleeswording doctrine applies to the underlying doctrine without modification, but this letter’s own verbal construction (2 John 1:7) requires its own absolute enforcement: NEVER substitute ‘als mens gekomen’ for ‘in het vlees gekomen’. Parallel in force to the baseline’s imputed_righteousness forbidden-substitution rule.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: genade
Transliteration: genade
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: gunst
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Dutch Reformed dogmatics has an unusually developed doctrine of sovereign grace (‘soevereine genade’), formalized against the Remonstrants at the Synod of Dordrecht (1618-19). Must always convey grace as unearned and apart from human cooperation. Applies unmodified to 2 John 1:3’s apostolic greeting triad (genade, barmhartigheid, vrede), which establishes the theological ground for the entire letter.
Law
Approved rendering: wet
Transliteration: wet
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Not itself present in 2 John’s Greek text, but required as a fixed reference point: 2 John’s new term ‘commandment’/‘gebod’ (the Christ-derived love-command) must be kept lexically and doctrinally distinct from this baseline High-risk ‘wet’ (Mosaic Law/Torah, Sinai/covenant-of-works freight) to avoid legalistic misreading.
Love
Approved rendering: liefde
Transliteration: liefde
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Walking in Truth and Love
New term; no baseline Romans entry exists for ‘love’. Modern Dutch ‘liefde’ is unmarked for romantic/familial/agapē distinctions Greek preserves (agapē/erōs/philia). Elevated to High risk because this doctrine is the letter’s central concern (inclusio, vv.1-6) and the term must never stand alone in doctrinal exposition without restating the letter’s own behavioral definition (v.6: love = walking according to his commandments).
Elder
Approved rendering: de oudste
Transliteration: de oudste
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority of the Elder
Rejected alternatives: ouderling (SV/HSV literal rendering; but modern Dutch ‘ouderling’ is the live, specific, currently active Dutch Reformed lay church-governance office — a member of the kerkenraad, distinct from the dominee — creating a real anachronism risk not shared by most other target languages; per analysis/05_translation_landscape.md this curriculum locks ‘de oudste’ as primary and records ‘ouderling’ only as a rejected alternative)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church
New term; author’s self-designation in v.1, traditionally the apostle John in his elder years, carrying informal apostolic-era pastoral authority. ‘De oudste’ avoids suggesting the author held a fixed council office analogous to the modern kerkenraad ouderling.
Christ
Approved rendering: Christus (binnen “Jezus Christus”)
Transliteration: Christus
Doctrine: Sonship and Deity of Christ in 2 John
Rejected alternatives: Messias (correct for the baseline’s generic Χριστός-as-title mapping, but must NOT be mechanically applied to the fixed proper-name compound ‘Jezus Christus’, which is universal, uncontested Dutch Bible-translation convention across Statenvertaling, HSV, and NBV)
Original: Χριστός (in Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν)
Category: Christology
LOCKED PHASE 2 RULE: render the fixed compound name Ἰησοῦς Χριστός as ‘Jezus Christus’ in every occurrence in 2 John (vv.3, 7). Reserve ‘Messias’ strictly for explicit messianic-title contexts, which do not occur in this letter. This resolves an artificial collision with the baseline’s own messiah entry.
Deceiver
Approved rendering: verleider
Transliteration: verleider
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: dwaalleraar (NBV; more clinical/doctrinal, under-sells the relational, pastoral danger; retained only as a secondary option for expository/teaching-register passages)
Original: πλάνος
Category: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
New term. ‘Verleider’ locked as the primary curriculum-wide rendering to preserve the visceral, relational danger appropriate to a pastoral warning (2 John 1:7).
Confess
Approved rendering: belijden
Transliteration: belijden
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: erkennen (too weak; loses the public, formal, declarative force ὁμολογέω carries)
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
New term. In Dutch Reformed usage, ‘belijden’ is strongly associated with the formal confessional documents (‘de belijdenisgeschriften’) and ‘belijdenis doen’ (formal profession of faith/church membership). This institutional weight can overshadow the simpler, testable doctrinal-affirmation sense John intends (2 John 1:7), and may under-communicate for Catholic or unaffiliated readers unfamiliar with the Reformed ‘belijdenis’ tradition. Gloss on first occurrence.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: antichrist
Transliteration: antichrist
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
New term; established loanword, unchanged from HSV/NBV. Contemporary Dutch popular culture (horror-film franchises, secular idiom for ‘an especially awful person’) has detached the word from its doctrinal referent; readers may default to a generic supernatural-villain trope rather than John’s specific claim that incarnation-denial is already, presently, the antichrist’s mark. Always pair with the letter’s own definition on first appearance in study material.
Go Beyond Teaching
Approved rendering: wie verder gaat (dan de leer van Christus)
Transliteration: wie verder gaat (dan de leer van Christus)
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: wie vooruitgaat (bare single-word rendering; invites a positive-progress misreading via contemporary Dutch ‘voortschrijdend inzicht’/‘vooruitgang’ vocabulary)
Original: προάγω
Category: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
New term (2 John 1:9, προάγων). Contemporary Dutch ecclesial discourse (notably PKN liberal-orthodox debate) uses positively-loaded vocabulary for exactly the kind of doctrinal ‘going beyond’ this verse condemns. Requires an explicit clarifying gloss/paraphrase at every occurrence, never a bare single-word rendering.
Receive Into House
Approved rendering: in huis ontvangen
Transliteration: in huis ontvangen
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Original: λαμβάνω εἰς οἰκίαν
Category: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
New term (2 John 1:10). Dutch culture (religious and secular alike) holds ‘gastvrijheid’ as a strongly positive, near-inviolable virtue; a command to withhold hospitality risks sounding harshly countercultural unless the protective doctrinal rationale (guarding the church’s confession, not personal unkindness) is made explicit in accompanying study material.
Greetings Formula
Approved rendering: groeten (“groet hem niet”)
Transliteration: groeten
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Original: χαίρειν
Category: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
New term (2 John 1:10-11, χαίρειν). Genuine linguistic gap, not merely a crowded neighborhood: modern Dutch ‘groeten’ carries only the bare interpersonal-politeness sense; there is no single Dutch word for the ancient function of a formal public act of doctrinal endorsement. Requires a mandatory translator/study note on every occurrence.
Evil Works
Approved rendering: kwade werken / slechte daden
Transliteration: kwade werken
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: boze werken (FORBIDDEN unglossed; modern colloquial Dutch ‘boos’ overwhelmingly means ‘angry,’ not ‘evil’ — a drift pattern paralleling the baseline’s documented zonde risk); de Boze (retained only as a valid fixed idiom specifically for Satan, not for this verse’s plural ‘works’)
Original: τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ τὰ πονηρά
Category: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
New term (2 John 1:11, τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ τὰ πονηρά). Lock ‘kwade werken’/‘slechte daden’ curriculum-wide; the deceiver’s doctrinal error is named as morally evil, culpable deeds, not merely an intellectual mistake.
Medium Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: Vader
Transliteration: Vader
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. God as personal Father in 2 John 1:3 (‘God the Father’) and 1:4, 1:9 (the Father forfeited by incarnation-deniers). Reused without modification.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: gemeenschap
Transliteration: gemeenschap
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Included here because 2 John 1:11 deliberately reuses the same koinōnia root negatively (κοινωνέω, ‘shares in evil works’); translators must recognize and preserve awareness of this positive/negative root connection rather than treating them as unrelated Dutch vocabulary.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: vleeswording
Transliteration: vleeswording
Doctrine: Incarnation
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. The doctrinal noun underlying 2 John 1:7 and 1:9’s verbal/theological content. The letter’s own verbal construction (‘coming in the flesh’) is tracked as a separate, Critical-risk, curriculum-specific new entry (‘coming_in_flesh’) below; this noun-form baseline entry remains unmodified.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messias
Transliteration: Messias
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Retained as a reference point only: 2 John 1:3 and 1:7 use the fixed proper-name compound ‘Ἰησοῦς Χριστός’, which established Dutch Bible convention renders ‘Jezus Christus’, never ‘Jezus Messias’. This baseline entry’s mapping of generic Χριστός-as-title to ‘Messias’ must NOT be mechanically applied to the fixed compound name in 2 John; see the new ‘christ’ entry below for the locked disambiguation rule.
Truth
Approved rendering: waarheid
Transliteration: waarheid
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Walking in Truth and Love
New term for this curriculum; no baseline Romans entry exists. Standard rendering ‘waarheid’. In highly secularized, pluralistic Dutch public discourse, ‘waarheid’ is frequently used relativistically (‘jouw waarheid’, ‘mijn waarheid’), flattening John’s exclusive, revealed-content sense into one perspective among many. Must be anchored to ‘de leer van Christus’ wherever it occurs in doctrinal exposition.
Commandment
Approved rendering: gebod
Transliteration: gebod
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: wet (baseline High-risk term for Mosaic Law; would misdirect toward legalistic covenant-of-works obedience)
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Walking in Truth and Love
New term. Must be kept lexically and doctrinally distinct from baseline’s ‘wet’ entry. This is the apostolic, Christ-derived love-command (John 13:34), not Sinai/ceremonial law.
From The Beginning
Approved rendering: van het begin af (aan)
Transliteration: van het begin af (aan)
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: vanaf de oorsprong (less idiomatic; breaks the fixed Johannine-idiom consistency needed across occurrences)
Original: ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς
Category: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
New term. A fixed Johannine idiom (cf. 1 John 1:1, 2:7, 24; 3:11) marking the original apostolic content of the gospel as the standard against which ‘progressive’ deceivers are measured. Must be rendered identically at every occurrence in this letter and across curriculum documents; inconsistency weakens the old-versus-novel-teaching contrast structuring the whole letter.
Lady
Approved rendering: vrouwe
Transliteration: vrouwe
Doctrine: Sovereign Election in the Letter’s Address
Rejected alternatives: vrouw (plain form; prematurely resolves the deliberate literal-woman/personified-church ambiguity toward the literal-individual reading)
Original: κυρία
Category: Church
New term. Elevated/formal register preserves the letter’s deliberate ambiguity between a literal woman householder and a personified local congregation; must not be flattened.
Mercy
Approved rendering: barmhartigheid
Transliteration: barmhartigheid
Doctrine: Grace, Mercy, and Peace in Apostolic Greeting
Rejected alternatives: genade (already reserved for charis; using it here would collapse the deliberate grace/mercy distinction in the fixed apostolic greeting triad)
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Salvation
New term completing the fixed apostolic greeting triad ‘genade, barmhartigheid en vrede’ (2 John 1:3; cf. 1–2 Timothy). Compassion shown to one in need, especially withholding deserved judgment, distinct from grace’s broader unmerited favor. Formal/liturgical register appropriate to curriculum target.
World
Approved rendering: wereld
Transliteration: wereld
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Original: κόσμος
Category: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
New term. Default modern Dutch sense is neutral/geographic (‘de wereld rondreizen’); the Johannine dualistic sense (a sphere hostile or indifferent to God, into which deceivers ‘have gone out’) requires contextual reinforcement in study material.
Watch Yourselves
Approved rendering: let op uzelf / pas op voor uzelf
Transliteration: let op uzelf / pas op voor uzelf
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: kijk uit (too casual/colloquial; loses the reflexive, self-directed vigilance force)
Original: βλέπετε ἑαυτούς
Category: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
New term (2 John 1:8). Must retain the reflexive self-directed force — discernment is the reader’s own active, ongoing responsibility, not merely watching out for others.
Reward
Approved rendering: loon
Transliteration: loon
Doctrine: Reward for Faithful Ministry
Rejected alternatives: beloning (viable but less concrete/wage-like than ‘loon’, which more precisely captures μισθός)
Original: μισθός
Category: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
New term (2 John 1:8, ‘vol loon’/‘volledig loon’). Must be kept clearly distinct from any suggestion of merit-based salvation, consistent with the baseline system prompt’s grace-versus-merit preservation rule; this is a reward for faithful ministry/labor at risk of forfeiture, not a wage securing standing before God.
Abide
Approved rendering: blijven
Transliteration: blijven
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Original: μένω
Category: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
New term (2 John 1:9, μένων, repeated 2x). Ordinary, low-register Dutch verb (‘blijven zitten,’ ‘blijven eten’); its Johannine covenantal-perseverance weight (cf. John 15:4-10) must be reinforced by context/study notes or it risks reading as mere passive inertia.
Teaching Of Christ
Approved rendering: de leer (van Christus)
Transliteration: de leer (van Christus)
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: leerstelling (sounds like an abstract syllabus item, not living apostolic content with personal, saving import)
Original: διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
New term (2 John 1:9-10, διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ). Must never be left unqualified as bare ‘de leer’; always attach ‘(van Christus)’ and tie to the ‘van het begin af (aan)’ idiom to anchor it as fixed apostolic content, not abstract subject matter.
Share In Evil
Approved rendering: deelhebben aan / deel hebben aan
Transliteration: deelhebben aan
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Original: κοινωνέω
Category: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
New term (2 John 1:11, κοινωνέω). Verbal cognate of the baseline noun fellowship/gemeenschap, here applied negatively. Translators must preserve awareness of this root-connection — the verse’s rhetorical shock depends on recognizing that healthy Christian koinōnia language is here turned into a warning about unwitting fellowship with evil.
Low Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: vrede
Transliteration: vrede
Doctrine: Peace with God
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. In 2 John 1:3, relational peace with God through Christ, part of the fixed apostolic greeting triad; not merely psychological calm.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jezus
Transliteration: Jezus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Stable across all Dutch traditions. Used in 2 John 1:3 and 1:7 as part of the fixed compound name ‘Jezus Christus’.
Walking
Approved rendering: wandelen
Transliteration: wandelen
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: leven (more natural modern idiom but loses the ongoing-lifestyle metaphor register matched to 1 John’s ‘wandelen in het Licht’ tradition)
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Walking in Truth and Love
New term. Preserves the sustained, habitual-conduct metaphor. Confirm this slightly formal register does not read as archaic to younger or secular readers; no competing doctrinal concept exists in Dutch culture.
Joy
Approved rendering: vreugde / blijdschap
Transliteration: vreugde
Doctrine: Christian Joy and Fellowship
Original: χαρά
Category: Church
New term (2 John 1:4, 1:12, χαρά). Minimal collision risk, though the deliberate Greek wordplay with χαίρειν (the withheld greeting, vv.10-11) does not survive into Dutch, since ‘vreugde/blijdschap’ shares no root with ‘groeten’; note this loss in study material.
Children
Approved rendering: kinderen
Transliteration: kinderen
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Original: τέκνα
Category: Church
New term (2 John 1:1, 1:4, 1:13, τέκνα). Preserves the same literal-offspring/spiritual-children double sense as the Greek without collision in Dutch.
Sister
Approved rendering: zuster
Transliteration: zuster
Doctrine: Christian Joy and Fellowship
Original: ἀδελφή
Category: Church
New term (2 John 1:13, ἀδελφή). Standard, low-risk rendering; closes the letter’s ‘elect’ inclusio together with ‘uitverkoren’.