Core Glossary
Core Glossary — James (English → Dutch)
Every term below is cited to its chapter(s) of first/primary occurrence in James. Risk tiers follow the baseline’s four-tier framework (Critical / High / Medium / Low) and routing conventions (Human theologian / Native speaker / Automated review).
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline
| # | English term | Dutch (reused exactly) | Greek | Ch. in James | Risk | Doctrine | James-specific note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | faith | geloof | πίστις | 1, 2, 5 | Critical (elevated in James 2:14-26; baseline Medium) | Faith and Works | Baseline “Medium” risk escalates to Critical specifically across 2:14-26, where “faith” must be distinguished as mere profession vs. living, working faith — the book’s central theological crux. |
| A2 | grace | genade | χάρις | 4 | High | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | James 4:6 cites Prov 3:34; reuse baseline sovereign/unmerited-grace notes exactly. |
| A3 | salvation (noun) | behoud | σωτηρία (implied) | — | High | Salvation | No bare noun occurrence in James; retained for consistency with the verb extension below. |
| A4 | sin | zonde | ἁμαρτία | 1, 2, 4, 5 | High | Universal Human Accountability / Confession and Restoration | Baseline’s colloquial-drift risk (“a pity/waste”) applies equally in James 1:15 (sin’s genesis) and 5:16-20 (confession); reuse baseline note verbatim. |
| A5 | law | wet | νόμος | 1, 2, 4 | High | Fulfillment of Prophecy (baseline); Faith and Works (James) | James’s “law of liberty” (νόμος ἐλευθερίας) and “royal law” (νόμος βασιλικός) are new Jamesian qualifiers on the reused base term “wet” — see new terms table. |
| A6 | righteousness | gerechtigheid | δικαιοσύνη | 2, 3 | Critical | Faith and Works | Occurs both forensically (2:23, quoting Gen 15:6) and ethically (“fruit of righteousness,” 3:18) — same Dutch word, two senses requiring contextual disambiguation. |
| A7 | justification / justified | rechtvaardiging / rechtvaardigen | δικαιόω / δικαίωσις | 2 | Critical | Faith and Works | THE central collision term of the whole book (James 2:21, 2:24, 2:25) against baseline’s Critical Romans justification doctrine; mandatory harmonization note (before God / before people) required at every occurrence. |
| A8 | imputed righteousness | toegerekende gerechtigheid | ἐλογίσθη … εἰς δικαιοσύνην | 2 | Critical | Faith and Works | James 2:23 quotes the identical Genesis 15:6 text as Romans 4:3; mandatory verbatim cross-document consistency. |
| A9 | lord | Heer | κύριος | 1, 2, 5 | Critical | Lordship of Christ / Patience and the Lord’s Return | James 5:7-8’s “coming of the Lord” (παρουσία τοῦ κυρίου) reuses this Critical baseline term in a new eschatological compound — see new term “wederkomst.” |
| A10 | glory | heerlijkheid | δόξα | 2 | High | Deity of Christ | James 2:1, “our Lord Jesus Christ, [the Lord] of glory” — reuse baseline Deity-of-Christ handling. |
| A11 | church | gemeente | ἐκκλησία | 5 | High | Church as God’s People | James 5:14, “elders of the church” — reuse baseline preference for “gemeente” over “kerk.” |
| A12 | prophet | profeet | προφήτης | 5 | Low | Inspiration of Scripture | James 5:10, prophets as examples of patient suffering; reuse baseline term exactly. |
| A13 | mission-adjacent: gentiles/heidenen | (not directly occurring; no reuse needed) | — | — | — | — | James does not use ἔθνη in a Jew/Gentile doctrinal sense; no reuse required. |
B. New Terms Introduced by James (Proposed for Translation Memory Addition)
| # | English term | Dutch rendering | Greek/translit. | Ch. | Risk | Doctrine | Grounded reason for risk tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | works | werken | ἔργα / erga | 2 | Critical | Faith and Works | Direct doctrinal tension with baseline’s Critical “justification”/“grace” entries (sola fide, Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 60-61); James’s positive use of “works” as evidence, not instrument, of justification requires a standing translator’s note at every occurrence in 2:14-26. |
| B2 | save (verb, behoud-family) | behouden | σῴζω / sōzō | 2, 5 | High | Salvation | Extends baseline noun “behoud” with a required verb form; guards against drift to generic “redden,” which lacks doctrinal register. |
| B3 | trial (external testing) | beproeving | πειρασμός / peirasmos (trial sense) | 1 | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith | Same Greek lexeme as “temptation” below; must render as a distinct Dutch word to preserve James’s argument that God tests but does not tempt. |
| B4 | temptation (internal enticement) | verzoeking | πειρασμός / peirasmos (temptation sense) | 1 | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith | See B3; mistranslating 1:13 with the trial-sense word would blur “God tempts no one” into an incoherent claim. |
| B5 | steadfastness / endurance | volharding | ὑπομονή / hypomonē | 1 | Medium | Trials and the Testing of Faith | Distinguish from B15 “patience” (ch. 5); endurance under pressure vs. patience toward people/time. |
| B6 | double-minded / doubting | dubbelhartig / wankelmoedig; twijfelen | δίψυχος / διακρίνω | 1, 4 | Medium-High | Trials and the Testing of Faith | Must be read as divided trust/loyalty toward God, not forbidding ordinary intellectual questions. |
| B7 | wisdom (from above) | wijsheid (van boven) | σοφία / sophia | 1, 3 | Medium | Wisdom from Above | Practical, God-given skill for righteous living; contrasted against B8. |
| B8 | earthly / soulish / demonic wisdom | aardse / ongeestelijke (natuurlijke) / demonische wijsheid | ἐπίγειος / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης | 3 | High | Wisdom from Above | ”ψυχική” reflects a body-soul-spirit anthropology with no clean one-word Dutch equivalent; literal “zielse” risks a New-Age/self-help misreading in secular Dutch culture. Requires standing translator’s note. |
| B9 | religion (pure and undefiled) | godsdienst | θρησκεία / thrēskeia | 1 | Medium | (supporting: Favoritism and the Poor) | “Godsdienst” preferred over “religie” because Dutch secular public discourse has flattened “religie” into a generic comparative-religions category, losing James’s lived-piety sense. |
| B10 | favoritism / partiality | partijdigheid / aanzien des persoons | προσωπολημψία / prosōpolēmpsia | 2 | High | Favoritism and the Poor | Directly implicates God’s impartial character; live pastoral issue given ongoing socioeconomic stratification within Dutch congregational life. |
| B11 | law of liberty | wet van de vrijheid | νόμος ἐλευθερίας | 1, 2 | High | Favoritism and the Poor / Faith and Works | Compounds baseline’s High-risk “wet” (three-uses-of-the-law doctrine) with a liberty qualifier that must not be read as abolishing moral obligation. |
| B12 | mercy | barmhartigheid | ἔλεος / eleos | 2 | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | Kept lexically distinct from reused baseline “genade” (grace) to preserve James’s ethical (not soteriological) point. |
| B13 | tongue (speech) | tong | γλῶσσα / glōssa | 3 | Medium | Taming the Tongue | High cultural resonance with Dutch “roddelcultuur” (gossip culture); leverage rather than soften in teaching material. |
| B14 | friendship with the world | vriendschap met de wereld | φιλία τοῦ κόσμου | 4 | High | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | Absolute either/or logic (“is enmity with God”) must not be softened to a matter of degree. |
| B15 | patience (toward people/time) | geduld (modern) / lankmoedigheid (elevated/archaic register, esp. of God) | μακροθυμία / makrothymia | 5 | Medium-High | Patience and the Lord’s Return | Distinct from B5 “endurance”; register choice between modern and Statenvertaling-style archaic form needs reviewer confirmation per passage. |
| B16 | the Lord’s coming / return | de wederkomst / de komst van de Heer | παρουσία τοῦ κυρίου | 5 | High | Patience and the Lord’s Return | Compounds Critical baseline term “Heer”; “wederkomst” (not bare “komst”) must be used to avoid a first-coming misreading. |
| B17 | elders (church office) | oudsten (van de gemeente) | πρεσβύτεροι / presbyteroi | 5 | High | Prayer and Healing | Collides with the Dutch Reformed formal ordained office “ouderling” and the Catholic priestly office; ecclesiology-sensitive rendering choice requiring denominational-context flag. |
| B18 | anointing with oil | zalven met olie | ἀλείφω ἐλαίῳ | 5 | High | Prayer and Healing | Direct collision with the Catholic Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick (historically last-rites associated); Protestant/Pentecostal reading as non-sacramental healing prayer differs sharply — same Catholic-south/Reformed-north fault line as baseline “heiligen.” |
| B19 | the prayer of faith will save/heal | het gelovig gebed zal behouden/gezond maken | εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως σώσει | 5 | High | Prayer and Healing | Risk of prosperity-gospel-style overclaiming in growing Dutch Pentecostal/charismatic streams (cf. baseline “spiritual_gifts” denominational-tension note); must not guarantee physical healing in every instance. |
| B20 | confess sins to one another | belijd elkaar uw zonden | ἐξομολογέομαι ἀλλήλοις | 5 | High | Confession and Restoration | Direct collision with Catholic sacramental “de biecht” (priestly, unilateral, absolution-granting); James’s practice is mutual and non-hierarchical — “elkaar” must remain prominent, avoid “biechten.” |
| B21 | servant/slave (self-designation) | dienstknecht (preferred) / slaaf (literal) | δοῦλος / doulos | 1 | High | (introductory; supports Faith and Works ethos) | Dutch national reckoning with the VOC/WIC transatlantic slave trade (2023 royal apology, national slavery monument) makes literal “slaaf” for an apostolic self-designation carry unintended colonial weight; “dienstknecht” preferred. |
| B22 | messengers (Rahab narrative) | verkenners / boodschappers (NEVER “engelen”) | ἄγγελοι / angeloi | 2 | High | Faith and Works | False-friend trap: primary Dutch cognate association of ἄγγελος is “engel” (angel); context (Joshua 2 spies) requires “verkenners/boodschappers.” |
| B23 | crown of life | kroon van het leven | στέφανος τῆς ζωῆς | 1 | Low-Medium | Trials and the Testing of Faith | Stable eschatological reward image. |
| B24 | Father of lights | Vader der lichten | πατὴρ τῶν φώτων | 1 | Medium | (supports: Trials and the Testing of Faith) | Unique James epithet; retain elevated register, avoid flattening to generic “Schepper.” |
| B25 | word of truth / implanted word | woord van de waarheid / het ingeplante woord | λόγος ἀληθείας / ἔμφυτος λόγος | 1 | Medium | (supports: Faith and Works) | Horticultural metaphor; precise compound needed to preserve “planted/rooted” sense. |
| B26 | hearer / doer of the word | hoorder / dader (van het woord) | ἀκροατής / ποιητής λόγου | 1 | Medium | Faith and Works | ”Dader” carries a criminal-suspect connotation in everyday modern Dutch; use descriptive phrasing in running prose, reserve fixed term for glossary/heading use. |
| B27 | wages / fraud (withheld pay) | loon / bedrog (achterhouden van loon) | μισθός / ἀποστερέω | 5 | Medium | (supports: Favoritism and the Poor) | Social-justice extension of ch. 2 doctrine into ch. 5. |
| B28 | Lord of hosts | Heere der heerscharen | κύριος Σαβαώθ | 5 | Medium | (supports: Patience and the Lord’s Return) | Standard elevated Dutch Bible-translation convention for this divine title. |
| B29 | prayer of a righteous person | het gebed van een rechtvaardige | δέησις δικαίου | 5 | Medium | Prayer and Healing | Reuses baseline “gerechtigheid”/“rechtvaardig” root in a devotional-confidence sense. |
| B30 | cover a multitude of sins | een menigte van zonden bedekken | καλύπτω πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν | 5 | Low-Medium | Confession and Restoration | Restorative-community outcome language. |
| B31 | poor / rich | arme(n) / rijke(n) | πτωχός / πλούσιος | 1, 2, 5 | Medium (ch.1) / High (ch.2, 5) | Favoritism and the Poor | Escalates from a general theme (ch.1) to a concrete church-practice and social-justice indictment (ch.2, ch.5). |
| B32 | breath/spirit (of the body) | adem / geest | πνεῦμα | 2 | Medium | Faith and Works | Must be clearly distinguished in context from the Critical baseline term “Heilige Geest” (Holy Spirit); this is the human animating breath, not the third Person of the Trinity. |
C. Risk Summary for the James-Specific Extension
| Risk tier | Count (new terms, Section B) | Count (reused terms elevated in James context, Section A) | Review routing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | 1 (B1 “works”) + A1, A6, A7, A8 elevated/reused Critical | 4 reused Critical | Human theologian — mandatory, every occurrence |
| High | B2, B3, B4, B8, B10, B11, B14, B16, B17, B18, B19, B20, B21, B22, B31(ch.2/5) = 15 | A2, A5, A9, A10, A11 = 5 | Human theologian |
| Medium | B5, B6, B7, B9, B12, B13, B15, B23, B24, B25, B26, B27, B28, B29, B32, B31(ch.1) = 16 | — | Native speaker review |
| Low | B30 (Low-Medium, counted here) | A12, A13 | Automated review |
Chapter coverage confirmation: Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of James each contribute load-bearing new or reused vocabulary; no chapter is silently omitted. The core passage (2:14–26) is fully covered in 07_semantic_analysis.md Part A and cross-referenced into this glossary via terms A1, A6, A7, A8, B1, B2, B22, B32.
Pre-Phase-2 action items:
- Add all Section B terms to
translation_memory.json(version increment required) before any Phase 2 segment translation of James begins. - Add corresponding entries to
bible_term_registry.jsonfor B1, B8, B10, B11, B14, B16, B17, B18, B19, B20, B21, B22 (all High/Critical) prior to Phase 2. - Extend
doctrine_risk_registry.jsonwith the nine James-specific doctrines listed in the curriculum parameters (Faith and Works; Trials and the Testing of Faith; Wisdom from Above; Favoritism and the Poor; Taming the Tongue; Worldliness versus Friendship with God; Prayer and Healing; Patience and the Lord’s Return; Confession and Restoration) — to be executed in the next Phase 1 step.
Critical Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: geloof
Transliteration: geloof
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith and Works
Inherited from Romans package exactly (baseline risk: Medium). Risk elevated to Critical specifically for this curriculum across James 2:14-26, where ‘faith’ must be distinguished as mere profession vs. living, working faith — the book’s central theological crux and a direct touchpoint with the Reformed sola fide doctrine already flagged Critical in the baseline for ‘righteousness’/‘justification’.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: gerechtigheid
Transliteration: gerechtigheid
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: deugd
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Faith and Works
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Occurs in James both forensically (2:23, quoting Genesis 15:6) and ethically (‘fruit of righteousness,’ 3:18) — same Dutch word, two senses requiring contextual disambiguation so the ethical usage is never mistaken for a claim about the forensic ground of justification.
Justification
Approved rendering: rechtvaardiging / rechtvaardigen
Transliteration: rechtvaardiging
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: vrijspraak (too narrow alone)
Original: δικαιόω / δικαίωσις
Category: Faith and Works
Inherited from Romans package exactly. THE central collision term of the whole book of James (2:21, 2:24, 2:25) against the baseline’s Critical Romans justification doctrine. Mandatory harmonization note (justification ‘voor God’, by faith alone, versus ‘voor de mensen’, vindicated/demonstrated by works) required at every occurrence, per Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 60-61.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: toegerekende gerechtigheid
Transliteration: toegerekende gerechtigheid
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: verdiende gerechtigheid
Original: ἐλογίσθη … εἰς δικαιοσύνην
Category: Faith and Works
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 2:23 quotes the identical Genesis 15:6 text as Romans 4:3; mandatory verbatim cross-document consistency per the baseline’s own Theological Consistency Rules.
Lord
Approved rendering: Heer
Transliteration: Heer
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ / Patience and the Lord’s Return
Rejected alternatives: meester
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Applied to Christ in James 1:1, 2:1 and to God the Father as ‘Lord of hosts’ (5:4) and in ‘the coming of the Lord’ (5:7-8, see ‘lords_coming’). Retains baseline’s Critical risk tier and note on modern Dutch’s narrowing of everyday polite address to ‘meneer’.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Heilige Geest
Transliteration: Heilige Geest
Doctrine: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Loaded specifically to support the fence at James 2:26 and the textually disputed James 4:5, where ‘pneuma’ refers to the human animating breath/spirit (see ‘breath_of_the_body’) or is genuinely ambiguous in Greek; must never be capitalized or otherwise rendered so as to suggest the third Person of the Trinity unless the Trinity is actually in view.
Works
Approved rendering: werken
Transliteration: werken
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: verdienen (to earn/merit) — forbidden association anywhere near this doctrine
Original: ἔργα
Category: Faith and Works
New term, not present in the Romans baseline. Dutch Reformed dogmatics (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 60-61; Canons of Dort) draws a sharp works/grace distinction specifically in the doctrine of justification; James’s positive use of ‘werken’ must be framed as evidence OF genuine faith, never as a co-instrument OF justification before God. Mandatory standing translator’s note required at every occurrence in 2:14-26.
Apart From Works
Approved rendering: zonder
Transliteration: zonder
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: χωρίς
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:18’s ‘faith apart from works’ uses the identical Greek preposition (chōris) as Romans’ ‘justified apart from works,’ but in a different logical scope (demonstrating faith before people, not the forensic ground before God). Every occurrence requires a standing harmonization note; mandatory human theologian review.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: genade
Transliteration: genade
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: gunst
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 4:6 cites Proverbs 3:34, ‘God gives grace to the humble’; reuse baseline sovereign/unmerited-grace notes in full, tied to the Synod of Dordrecht’s condemnation of Arminian teaching.
Salvation
Approved rendering: behoud
Transliteration: behoud
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: verlossing (more common, less precise), zaligheid (older/pietistic register)
Original: σωτηρία (implied)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package exactly (noun form). No bare noun occurrence in James; retained for consistency with the required verb extension ‘behouden’ (see ‘save’).
Sin
Approved rendering: zonde
Transliteration: zonde
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability / Confession and Restoration
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package exactly. The baseline’s colloquial-drift risk (‘a pity/waste’ being the dominant everyday Dutch sense) applies equally to James 1:15 (sin’s genesis from desire) and James 5:16-20 (mutual confession and restoration).
Law
Approved rendering: wet
Transliteration: wet
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Favoritism and the Poor
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package exactly, including its note on the Dutch Reformed ‘drie gebruiken van de wet’ doctrine. James develops two Jamesian qualifiers on this base term: ‘wet van de vrijheid’ (law of liberty) and ‘koninklijke wet’ (royal law) — see separate entries.
Glory
Approved rendering: heerlijkheid
Transliteration: heerlijkheid
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 2:1, ‘our Lord Jesus Christ, [the Lord] of glory’ — a strong, compact deity-of-Christ statement; reuse baseline Deity-of-Christ handling without softening into a descriptive paraphrase (never ‘onze glorieuze Heer’).
Church
Approved rendering: gemeente
Transliteration: gemeente
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: kerk (institution-default)
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 5:14, ‘elders of the church’ — reuse baseline preference for ‘gemeente’ over ‘kerk’ for the New Testament gathered-people sense.
Working Together With Works
Approved rendering: werkte samen met
Transliteration: werkte samen met
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: συνήργει
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:22, faith and works shown ‘working together’ as one organically united living act, not two separate causal contributors to salvation. Must avoid implying soteriological synergism (human cooperation in obtaining grace), rejected by the baseline’s ‘grace’ entry.
Faith Completed By Works
Approved rendering: kwam tot volkomenheid / werd tot voltooiing gebracht
Transliteration: kwam tot volkomenheid
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: volmaakt (in isolation, implies sinless moral perfection)
Original: ἐτελειώθη / τέλειος
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:22 (eteleiōthē) and the recurring chapter-1 ‘perfect/complete’ motif (1:4, 1:17, 1:25). Denotes completion/maturation of intended purpose, not sinless moral perfection; avoid ‘volmaakt’ unqualified.
Servant Of God
Approved rendering: dienstknecht (preferred) / slaaf (literal, flagged)
Transliteration: dienstknecht
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: slaaf (literal, carries unintended colonial VOC/WIC association)
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Faith and Works
James 1:1’s self-designation (doulos). The Netherlands’ own 17th-19th century VOC/WIC transatlantic slave trade is a live, unresolved national conversation (2023 royal apology, national slavery monument); literal ‘slaaf’ risks importing this colonial association rather than James’s sense of total, willing devotion.
Messengers Rahab
Approved rendering: verkenners / boodschappers (NEVER “engelen”)
Transliteration: verkenners
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: engelen (FORBIDDEN — false-friend, means heavenly angels; James 2:25 refers to the Joshua 2 spies)
Original: ἄγγελοι
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:25. False-friend trap: the Greek word’s primary Dutch cognate association is ‘engel’ (angel). Context (Joshua 2 spies) requires ‘verkenners/boodschappers’.
Save
Approved rendering: behouden
Transliteration: behouden
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: redden (looser, non-doctrinal register)
Original: σῴζω
Category: Salvation
New verb form extending the baseline noun ‘behoud’ for James 2:14, 5:15, 5:20. Must not drift to the looser ‘redden.’ In 5:15, must avoid collapsing into a prosperity-gospel-style guarantee of physical healing, a real risk given growing Dutch Pentecostal/charismatic streams.
Law Of Liberty
Approved rendering: wet van de vrijheid
Transliteration: wet van de vrijheid
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Favoritism and the Poor
Rejected alternatives: vrijheid van de wet (WRONG — reverses the meaning to freedom FROM the law, an antinomian misreading)
Original: νόμος ἐλευθερίας
Category: Covenant
James 1:25, 2:12. Compounds the baseline’s High-risk ‘wet’ (three-uses-of-the-law doctrine) with a liberty qualifier; must not be read as abolishing moral law nor as mere legalism. Word order/framing must never invert to ‘freedom from the law.‘
Favoritism
Approved rendering: partijdigheid / aanzien des persoons
Transliteration: partijdigheid
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: προσωπολημψία / προσωπολημπτέω
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 2:1, 2:9. Directly implicates God’s own impartial character. Dutch congregational life still stratifies visibly by socioeconomic class (seating, giving, leadership access), a live pastoral issue, not merely historical.
Poor And Rich
Approved rendering: arme(n) / rijke(n)
Transliteration: arme(n) / rijke(n)
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: πτωχός / πλούσιος
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
Risk escalates from Medium in chapter 1’s general reversal-of-status theme to High in chapters 2 and 5, tied directly to church seating practice (2:2-6) and withheld wages from oppressed laborers (5:1-6).
Lords Coming
Approved rendering: de wederkomst / de komst van de Heer
Transliteration: de wederkomst
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Rejected alternatives: de komst van de Heer, bare without ‘weder-’ (risks a first-coming misreading)
Original: παρουσία τοῦ κυρίου
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
James 5:7-8. Compounds the baseline’s Critical ‘Heer’ term. ‘Wederkomst’ must be used to avoid a first-coming misreading.
Elders
Approved rendering: oudsten (van de gemeente)
Transliteration: oudsten
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Eldership
Rejected alternatives: priesters (imports Catholic sacramental clergy structure), ouderlingen (over-specifies the formal, ordained Dutch Reformed office)
Original: πρεσβύτεροι
Category: Church
James 5:14. Dutch Reformed church polity has a formal ordained office ‘ouderling’; Catholic tradition directs analogous pastoral care to an ordained ‘priester.’ Neither is necessarily specified by James’s text; flagged for denominational-context review.
Anointing With Oil
Approved rendering: zalven met olie
Transliteration: zalven met olie
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Rejected alternatives: de Ziekenzalving / het Laatste Sacrament (imports the Catholic last-rites sacramental frame)
Original: ἀλείφω ἐλαίῳ
Category: Prayer and Healing
James 5:14. Direct collision with the Catholic Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick versus the Protestant/Pentecostal reading as non-sacramental healing prayer. Same Catholic-south/Reformed-north fault line as baseline ‘heiligen.‘
Prayer Of Faith
Approved rendering: het gelovig gebed (zal de zieke behouden/gezond maken)
Transliteration: het gelovig gebed
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως
Category: Prayer and Healing
James 5:15. Deliberately spans physical healing and/or ultimate salvation. Must avoid a prosperity-gospel-style guarantee of physical healing in every case, given growing Dutch Pentecostal/charismatic streams.
Confess Sins To One Another
Approved rendering: belijd elkaar uw zonden
Transliteration: belijd elkaar uw zonden
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: biechten / de biecht (FORBIDDEN — imports the unilateral, priestly-mediated Catholic sacramental frame)
Original: ἐξομολογέομαι ἀλλήλοις τὰς ἁμαρτίας
Category: Confession and Restoration
James 5:16. Mutual, non-hierarchical confession among believers. ‘Elkaar’ must remain prominent in every rendering and in all derived teaching material.
Turn Sinner From Error
Approved rendering: een zondaar terugbrengen van zijn dwaalweg / een ziel redden van de dood
Transliteration: een zondaar terugbrengen van zijn dwaalweg
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
James 5:19-20, closing exhortation. Reuses the σῴζω/‘behouden’ verb-form doctrinal issue already flagged for 2:14 and 5:15; restoring a straying believer and rescuing from spiritual death.
Earthly Soulish Demonic Wisdom
Approved rendering: aardse / ongeestelijke (natuurlijke) / demonische wijsheid
Transliteration: ongeestelijke wijsheid
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Rejected alternatives: zielse wijsheid (risks a New Age/self-help misreading), psychische wijsheid (clinical mental-health register, actively misleading)
Original: ἐπίγειος / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης
Category: Wisdom from Above
James 3:15. The Greek ‘psychikē’ (soulish) reflects a body-soul-spirit anthropology with no clean one-word Dutch equivalent. Requires a standing translator’s note and consistent glossing across the curriculum.
Friendship With The World
Approved rendering: vriendschap met de wereld / vijandschap tegen God
Transliteration: vriendschap met de wereld
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Rejected alternatives: kan leiden tot vijandschap (softens the absolute either/or claim into a matter of degree)
Original: φιλία τοῦ κόσμου / ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
James 4:4. Anchor statement; an exclusive relational allegiance, stated as an absolute either/or, not a matter of degree.
Trial
Approved rendering: beproeving
Transliteration: beproeving
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: verzoeking (reserved exclusively for the distinct temptation sense)
Original: πειρασμός
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
James 1:2-4. External adversity that tests and refines faith, producing steadfastness. Same Greek lexeme as ‘temptation’; must render as a distinct Dutch word.
Temptation
Approved rendering: verzoeking
Transliteration: verzoeking
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: beproeving (reserved exclusively for the distinct trial sense)
Original: πειρασμός
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
James 1:12-15. Internal enticement to sin arising from one’s own desire, never from God. Mistranslating 1:13 with the trial-sense word would blur this crucial distinction into an incoherent claim about God’s character.
Medium Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: Vader
Transliteration: Vader
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family / God
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 1:27 (‘pure religion before God and the Father’) and the related unique epithet ‘Vader der lichten’ (see ‘father_of_lights’, 1:17) both reuse this personal, relational Father designation.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Koninkrijk van God
Transliteration: Koninkrijk van God
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission / Favoritism and the Poor
Rejected alternatives: Koninkrijk Gods (archaic genitive)
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 2:5, ‘heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him’ — ties the Favoritism and the Poor doctrine directly to end-time kingdom inheritance, reinforcing that the poor are not marginal but central to God’s kingdom purpose.
God
Approved rendering: God
Transliteration: God
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / God
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Used throughout James (over a dozen occurrences); the baseline’s secularization note (God increasingly encountered as cultural-historical vocabulary rather than a live personal claim) applies equally to this curriculum’s Dutch audience.
Complete Mature Teleios
Approved rendering: volmaakt / volkomen
Transliteration: volmaakt
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
James 1:4, 1:17, 1:25’s recurring adjective keyword (‘perfect and complete,’ ‘perfect gift,’ ‘perfect law’): maturity/wholeness, not flawlessness. Distinct entry from the verb form ‘faith_completed_by_works’ (2:22) but shares the same register caution.
Friend Of God
Approved rendering: vriend van God
Transliteration: vriend van God
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: dicht bij God (generic paraphrase, too diluted)
Original: φίλος θεοῦ
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:23, Abraham called ‘a friend of God’ — intimate covenant relationship, not casual acquaintance. Should not be diluted into a generic paraphrase.
Hearer And Doer Of The Word
Approved rendering: hoorder / dader (van het woord)
Transliteration: hoorder / dader
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: ἀκροατής / ποιητής λόγου
Category: Faith and Works
James 1:22-25. ‘Dader’ carries a strong criminal-suspect connotation in everyday modern Dutch (‘dader van een misdrijf’); use descriptive phrasing (‘iemand die het woord in praktijk brengt’) in running prose, reserving the fixed term ‘dader van het woord’ for glossary/heading use only.
Word Of Truth
Approved rendering: woord van de waarheid / het ingeplante woord
Transliteration: het ingeplante woord
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: λόγος ἀληθείας / ἔμφυτος λόγος
Category: Faith and Works
James 1:18, 1:21. The gospel as objectively true and subjectively rooted/implanted; preserve the horticultural ‘planted/rooted’ sense with the compound ‘het ingeplante woord’ — a bare ‘woord van de waarheid’ alone loses this nuance.
Breath Of The Body
Approved rendering: adem / geest
Transliteration: adem
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: πνεῦμα
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:26 (cf. Genesis 2:7). The animating breath/spirit of the body, not the Holy Spirit. Must never be capitalized or otherwise formally marked so as to suggest the third Person of the Trinity; prefer ‘adem’ where the sentence permits.
Royal Law
Approved rendering: koninklijke wet
Transliteration: koninklijke wet
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: νόμος βασιλικός
Category: Covenant
James 2:8. The love-of-neighbor command (Leviticus 19:18) given supreme, king-like authority. Keep lexically distinct from ‘wet van de vrijheid.‘
Mercy
Approved rendering: barmhartigheid
Transliteration: barmhartigheid
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Rejected alternatives: genade (reserved for the baseline’s soteriological unmerited-favor doctrine; must not merge)
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 2:13. Compassionate kindness toward the needy or guilty. Kept lexically distinct from ‘genade’ to preserve James’s ethical (not soteriological) point.
Withheld Wages
Approved rendering: loon / bedrog (achterhouden van loon)
Transliteration: loon
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: μισθός / ἀποστερέω
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 5:4. Unpaid wages fraudulently withheld from laborers, which ‘cry out’ to the Lord of hosts. Concrete social-justice extension of chapter 2’s favoritism doctrine.
Pure And Undefiled Religion
Approved rendering: godsdienst
Transliteration: godsdienst
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Rejected alternatives: religie (flattens to an academic, comparative-religions register)
Original: θρησκεία
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 1:26-27. ‘Godsdienst’ preferred over ‘religie’ because Dutch secular public discourse has flattened ‘religie’ into a generic academic category, while ‘godsdienst’ retains the lived-piety sense James intends.
Lord Of Hosts
Approved rendering: Heere der heerscharen
Transliteration: Heere der heerscharen
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: κύριος Σαβαώθ
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
James 5:4. God’s title as commander of the heavenly armies; retain the elevated, Statenvertaling-style register, the standard Dutch Bible-translation convention for this title.
Prayer Of A Righteous Person
Approved rendering: het gebed van een rechtvaardige
Transliteration: het gebed van een rechtvaardige
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: δέησις δικαίου
Category: Prayer and Healing
James 5:16-18, illustrated by Elijah. Effective intercessory prayer offered by one in right standing with God; reuses the ‘gerechtigheid/rechtvaardig’ root in a devotional-confidence sense distinct from forensic justification.
Wisdom
Approved rendering: wijsheid (van boven)
Transliteration: wijsheid
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: σοφία
Category: Wisdom from Above
James 1:5, 3:13-18. Practical, God-given skill for righteous living, asked for in prayer; distinct from mere human cleverness.
Tongue
Approved rendering: tong
Transliteration: tong
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: γλῶσσα
Category: Taming the Tongue
James 3:1-12. High cultural resonance with Dutch ‘roddelcultuur’ (gossip culture); leverage rather than soften in teaching material.
Blessing And Cursing
Approved rendering: zegen / vervloeking
Transliteration: zegen / vervloeking
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
James 3:9-10. Inconsistency of blessing God while cursing people made in God’s likeness.
Likeness Of God
Approved rendering: naar de gelijkenis van God
Transliteration: naar de gelijkenis van God
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
James 3:9, echoing Genesis 1:26. Grounds the moral gravity of cursing a fellow human being: they bear God’s image. Ensure consistency with any future Genesis curriculum built on this Language Package.
The World
Approved rendering: wereld
Transliteration: wereld
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: κόσμος
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
James 1:27, 4:4 and throughout. Either the created order, or (more often) the system of human values organized in opposition to God; context-dependent, reviewer must confirm which sense is active.
Desires And Pleasures
Approved rendering: verlangens/begeerten / genoegens
Transliteration: begeerten
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
James 4:1, 4:3. The root cause of conflict and of prayer offered wrongly (‘to spend it on your pleasures’). Reuses chapter 1’s epithymia term family (see ‘desire_epithymia’).
Adulterous Metaphor
Approved rendering: overspelige(n)
Transliteration: overspelige(n)
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
James 4:4 (moichalides). Metaphor for covenant unfaithfulness to God, echoing OT prophetic marriage imagery (Hosea, Ezekiel 16). Requires an explicit bridging gloss so the covenant-unfaithfulness sense is not read literally, given low OT prophetic-literacy among the target audience.
Submit To God
Approved rendering: je onderwerpen aan / je overgeven aan (God)
Transliteration: je onderwerpen aan God
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
James 4:7. Voluntary submission, not coerced subjugation.
Slander And Judging
Approved rendering: kwaadspreken / oordelen
Transliteration: kwaadspreken
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
James 4:11. Prohibits judgmental speech against a fellow believer, continuing chapter 3’s tongue theme.
Lawgiver And Judge
Approved rendering: wetgever en rechter
Transliteration: wetgever en rechter
Doctrine: Faith and Works
James 4:12. Only God has the authority to give the law and judge by it; human judgment of others usurps this. Reuses the baseline ‘wet’ root.
Patience
Approved rendering: geduld / lankmoedigheid
Transliteration: geduld
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: μακροθυμία
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
James 5:7-8, 5:10. Patience/forbearance toward people and circumstances over time. Distinguish carefully from chapter 1’s ‘volharding’ (endurance under pressure). Register choice between modern ‘geduld’ and elevated ‘lankmoedigheid’ (used especially of God) requires reviewer confirmation per passage, following the same discipline as the baseline’s ‘behoud’ register split.
Steadfastness
Approved rendering: volharding
Transliteration: volharding
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: ὑπομονή
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
James 1:3-4, 1:12. Active, faith-fueled perseverance produced by tested faith. Distinguish from chapter 5’s ‘geduld/lankmoedigheid’ (patience toward people/time); this term denotes endurance under pressure specifically.
Double Minded
Approved rendering: dubbelhartig / wankelmoedig; twijfelen
Transliteration: dubbelhartig
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: tweezielig (unnatural literal calque, not real Dutch)
Original: δίψυχος / διακρίνω
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
James 1:6-8, 4:8. Divided loyalty/trust toward God, undermining the prayer of faith. Must not be read as forbidding all intellectual questions; the issue is divided trust/loyalty.
Father Of Lights
Approved rendering: Vader der lichten
Transliteration: Vader der lichten
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: Schepper (generic, loses the specific light-imagery and unchanging-goodness emphasis)
Original: πατὴρ τῶν φώτων
Category: God
James 1:17. Unique-to-James poetic epithet for God as source of all heavenly light/goodness, emphasizing his unchanging goodness against the fickleness of desire just described.
Desire Epithymia
Approved rendering: begeerte
Transliteration: begeerte
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
James 1:14-15. The genesis of personal sin: desire conceives and gives birth to sin. Context must clarify this is not divinely caused (1:13), safeguarding against a fatalistic misreading.
Early And Late Rain
Approved rendering: vroege en late regen
Transliteration: vroege en late regen
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
James 5:7. Agricultural metaphor for patient waiting for God’s appointed time; requires a cultural-background gloss for Dutch readers unfamiliar with a Mediterranean two-rain agricultural cycle. Background-knowledge gap, not a doctrinal risk.
Oaths
Approved rendering: zweren
Transliteration: zweren
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
James 5:12. ‘Let your yes be yes’ — prohibition of oath-taking to reinforce honest, simple speech. The historic Dutch Anabaptist/Mennonite tradition of literal oath-refusal in civic contexts gives this verse added cultural resonance, though not a doctrinal collision risk per se.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: profeet
Transliteration: profeet
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture / Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: προφήτης
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 5:10 cites the prophets as examples of patient suffering under trial.
Peace
Approved rendering: vrede
Transliteration: vrede
Doctrine: Peace with God
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 3:18, ‘fruit of righteousness sown in peace’ — the ethical, peacemaking sense of communal harmony, consistent with but distinct in emphasis from the baseline’s relational peace-with-God doctrine (Romans 5:1).
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jezus
Transliteration: Jezus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package exactly. James 1:1, 2:1 (‘Jezus Christus’); retain the full compound proper-name form per baseline transliteration standards.
Demons
Approved rendering: demonen
Transliteration: demonen
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: δαιμόνια
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:19. Evil spirits who ‘believe’ in bare monotheism and shudder, showing intellectual assent alone is insufficient for saving faith. Keep terminologically distinct from the singular ‘devil’ (duivel, James 4:7).
Cover A Multitude Of Sins
Approved rendering: een menigte van zonden bedekken
Transliteration: een menigte van zonden bedekken
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: καλύπτω πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν
Category: Confession and Restoration
James 5:20. The restorative, merciful outcome of confronting and restoring a straying believer.
Tongue Imagery
Approved rendering: breidel/beteugelen (bit/bridle); roer (rudder); vuur (fire); vergif (poison); bron (spring)
Transliteration: breidel; roer; vuur; vergif; bron
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
James 3:2-11’s concrete agrarian/nautical image cluster. Retain literally rather than substituting modern equivalents (do NOT render ‘roer’ as ‘stuur/steering wheel’); James’s argument depends on the images’ proportional small-thing/large-thing logic, which survives literal translation.
Devil
Approved rendering: duivel
Transliteration: duivel
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: διάβολος
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
James 4:7. The personal, singular adversary who flees when resisted. Kept terminologically distinct from the plural ‘demonen’ (2:19).
Draw Near To God
Approved rendering: naderen (tot God)
Transliteration: naderen tot God
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
James 4:8. Reciprocal relational intimacy with God.
Boasting Arrogance
Approved rendering: grootspraak / hoogmoed
Transliteration: grootspraak
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
James 4:16. Presumptuous planning (‘we will do this or that’) without acknowledging God’s sovereignty.
Crown Of Life
Approved rendering: kroon van het leven
Transliteration: kroon van het leven
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: στέφανος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
James 1:12. The victor’s wreath, an eschatological reward for the one who endures trial.
Diaspora
Approved rendering: verstrooiing
Transliteration: diaspora
Doctrine: Faith and Works
James 1:1. Original addressees: Jewish Christians scattered among the nations.
Referenced passages