Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Dutch translation (and a transliteration/pronunciation field, mostly mirroring the translation since Dutch uses Latin script)
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Established Reformed confessional usage over invention — where the Statenvertaling, HSV, and the Heidelberg Catechism already have settled renderings (verkiezing, toegerekende gerechtigheid, voorzienigheid), this glossary follows them rather than proposing modern alternatives.
- Explicit disambiguation, not silent avoidance — every Critical or High-risk term records why the ordinary Dutch rendering carries confessional-historical weight or competes with a secular everyday sense (see
alternatives_rejectedandnotes), so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule. - Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document.
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.
Critical Risk Terms
Election
Approved rendering: verkiezing
Transliteration: verkiezing
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
CRITICAL, the most Dutch-specific doctrinal flashpoint in this glossary: the Canons of Dort (Dordtse Leerregels, Synod of Dordrecht 1618-19) formulated the definitive Reformed position on unconditional election directly against the Dutch Remonstrants (followers of the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius). ‘Verkiezing’ is also the everyday word for political elections, risking a democratic-choice misreading on top of the historic doctrinal weight.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: toegerekende gerechtigheid
Transliteration: toegerekende gerechtigheid
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: verdiende gerechtigheid
CRITICAL: ‘toerekenen’ (to impute/credit) is the precise Reformed dogmatic verb, central to Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 60’s teaching that God grants and credits believers the perfect righteousness of Christ.
Justification
Approved rendering: rechtvaardiging
Transliteration: rechtvaardiging
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: vrijspraak (too narrow alone)
CRITICAL: ‘rechtvaardiging door het geloof’ is a core confessional term; Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 23 (Q&A 60-61) is devoted entirely to this doctrine, making it unusually load-bearing in Dutch Reformed catechesis specifically.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: gerechtigheid
Transliteration: gerechtigheid
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: deugd
CRITICAL: ‘gerechtigheid van God’ (Romans 1:17) is a right standing given and credited through faith, not human moral virtue (‘deugd’).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Zoon van God
Transliteration: Zoon van God
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
CRITICAL: full phrase required, conveying eternal, unique Sonship.
High Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: gemeente
Transliteration: gemeente
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: kerk (institution-default)
HIGH RISK: Reformed Dutch tradition prefers ‘gemeente’ (the local gathered congregation) for the NT ekklesia sense, reserving ‘kerk’ more for the institution, denomination, or building (as in the actual denominational names Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk, Gereformeerde Kerken); Catholics use ‘kerk’ for both building and universal institution.
Covenant
Approved rendering: verbond
Transliteration: verbond
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Dutch Reformed dogmatics has an unusually developed and technical covenant theology (‘verbondsleer’ — covenant of works, covenant of grace), more systematized here than in most other national traditions, making this term more doctrinally load-bearing than a simple relational-vs-contract note would suggest.
Grace
Approved rendering: genade
Transliteration: genade
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: gunst
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.
Law
Approved rendering: wet
Transliteration: wet
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Capitalize as ‘de Wet’ for Torah/Mosaic law to distinguish from everyday civil ‘wet’. Dutch Reformed dogmatics has an unusually developed doctrine of the ‘drie gebruiken van de wet’ (three uses of the law, via Calvin), more prominent here than in Lutheran contexts.
Lord
Approved rendering: Heer
Transliteration: Heer
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: meester
Romans 10:9 ‘Jezus is Heer.’ Modern Dutch has shifted the everyday polite title to ‘meneer’, leaving ‘Heer’ more exclusively religious/formal register than German ‘Herr’ — a lower but still present flattening risk.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: gehoorzaamheid van het geloof
Transliteration: gehoorzaamheid van het geloof
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Romans 1:5, 16:26. Obedience flowing from faith, not works-based obedience earning standing before God — must be guarded against Reformed as well as Catholic works-adjacent misreadings.
Saints
Approved rendering: heiligen
Transliteration: heiligen
Doctrine: Sainthood
HIGH RISK: Catholic ‘de heiligen’ (canonized saints, patron-saint culture concentrated in the historically Catholic south, below the ‘grote rivieren’) differs from the Reformed sense of all believers as heiligen. This fault line follows the Netherlands’ own historic Catholic-south/Reformed-north geography.
Salvation
Approved rendering: behoud
Transliteration: behoud
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: verlossing (more common, less precise), zaligheid (older/pietistic register)
HIGH RISK: Dutch has a three-way register split. ‘Verlossing’ (deliverance) is common modern usage; ‘behoud’ (being kept safe) is the register preferred in orthodox Reformed (‘bevindelijk gereformeerd’) circles; ‘zaligheid’ is older, devotional, Statenvertaling-era vocabulary that can read as old-fashioned to secular or younger readers. This curriculum uses ‘behoud’ as the primary doctrinal term but flags all three for context-sensitive review.
Sin
Approved rendering: zonde
Transliteration: zonde
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
HIGH RISK, distinctly Dutch: the dominant everyday sense of ‘zonde’ is now ‘a pity/waste’ (‘dat is zonde!’, ‘zonde van het eten’), almost completely divorced from moral transgression in casual speech — a stronger version of the pan-European sin-word-drift-to-pity pattern also seen in German and Swedish.
Medium Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved as ‘Abba, Vader’ in the Statenvertaling and all modern Dutch translations (Romans 8:15).
Adoption
Approved rendering: aanneming tot kinderen
Transliteration: aanneming tot kinderen
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: adoptie (bare, legal-procedural)
Statenvertaling’s classic phrase, more formal than modern ‘adoptie’ which now defaults to the legal child-adoption process.
Called
Approved rendering: geroepen
Transliteration: geroepen
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation.
Calling
Approved rendering: roeping
Transliteration: roeping
Doctrine: Divine Calling
‘Roeping’ is also the ordinary Dutch word for career/life calling (‘onderwijzer is mijn roeping’), a homonym-flattening risk similar to German ‘Berufung’.
Faith
Approved rendering: geloof
Transliteration: geloof
Doctrine: Faith
The Netherlands is one of the most secularized countries in Western Europe; ‘geloof’ increasingly reads as a generic, pluralistic term for any religion rather than assumed Christian content. Must specify personal trust in Christ.
Father
Approved rendering: Vader
Transliteration: Vader
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
God as personal Father.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: gemeenschap
Transliteration: gemeenschap
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
The Apostles’ Creed’s ‘gemeenschap der heiligen’ (communion of saints) is the classic confessional phrase; ‘gemeenschap’ is also the ordinary secular word for community (e.g. ‘de Europese Gemeenschap’), requiring context to keep the koinonia sense specific.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: heidenen
Transliteration: heidenen
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Carries a pejorative ‘uncivilized/irreligious’ secular connotation similar to German ‘Heiden’ and French ‘païens’.
Glory
Approved rendering: heerlijkheid
Transliteration: heerlijkheid
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
God’s radiant presence and honor.
God
Approved rendering: God
Transliteration: God
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
The Netherlands is among the most secularized nations in Europe, with the religiously unaffiliated now the largest single group; ‘God’ is increasingly encountered as cultural-historical vocabulary rather than a live personal claim for many readers.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Heilige Geest
Transliteration: Heilige Geest
Doctrine: Sanctification
The personal third Person of the Trinity; no competing deity-concept risk in Dutch culture.
Holy
Approved rendering: heilig
Transliteration: heilig
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: rein
Set apart for God and morally pure; ‘rein’ alone loses the set-apart sense.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: vleeswording
Transliteration: vleeswording
Doctrine: Incarnation
Reformed Dutch tradition prefers this vivid native compound (cf. John 1:14, ‘het Woord is vlees geworden’) over the Latinate alternative ‘incarnatie’, more common in Catholic and ecumenical usage. A register choice, not a doctrinal contradiction.
Intercession
Approved rendering: voorbede
Transliteration: voorbede
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Standard liturgical term across Dutch Protestant and Catholic traditions. Dutch usefully distinguishes ‘voorbede’ (general intercessory prayer) from ‘voorspraak’ (specifically saints’/Mary’s advocacy in Catholic devotion), a helpful built-in disambiguation other languages in this batch lack.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Dutch orthodox Reformed circles have a notably strong tradition of Christian Zionism (e.g. Christenen voor Israël); combined with general Western political sensitivity, this creates real risk of conflating biblical Israel with the modern nation-state.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Koninkrijk van God
Transliteration: Koninkrijk van God
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: Koninkrijk Gods (archaic genitive)
Modern rendering preferred over the archaic Statenvertaling-style genitive ‘Koninkrijk Gods’.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messias
Transliteration: Messias
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
The Anointed One fulfilling OT promise.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: kracht van God
Transliteration: kracht van God
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Sovereign, saving capability.
Providence
Approved rendering: voorzienigheid
Transliteration: voorzienigheid
Doctrine: Providence
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 27-28 formally defines ‘de voorzienigheid Gods’, giving Reformed-catechized Dutch readers unusually precise prior vocabulary, though secularized readers outside that tradition will lack this grounding.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: opstanding
Transliteration: opstanding
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Bodily, historical, once-for-all event; no competing reincarnation folk-concept in Dutch culture.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: heiliging
Transliteration: heiliging
Doctrine: Sanctification
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: nakomeling van David
Transliteration: nakomeling van David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: uit het zaad Davids (archaic/clinical register)
Statenvertaling’s literal ‘uit het zaad Davids’ is now archaic; modern ‘zaad’ primarily denotes literal or clinical seed. Modern versions (NBV, HSV) prefer ‘nakomeling van David’.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: genadegaven
Transliteration: genadegaven
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: geestelijke gaven (looser)
‘Genadegaven’ (grace-gifts) ties the gifts explicitly to grace, the more precise Reformed rendering.
Low Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: apostel
Transliteration: apostel
Doctrine: Apostleship
Stable, shared term across all Dutch Bible traditions.
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Standard proper name form across all Dutch traditions.
Exhort
Approved rendering: vermanen
Transliteration: vermanen
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: ‘vermanen’ leans toward admonish/warn; use ‘aansporen’ (urge on/encourage) for the building-up sense.
Gospel
Approved rendering: evangelie
Transliteration: evangelie
Doctrine: Gospel
Shared, stable term across Reformed (Statenvertaling) and Catholic (Willibrordvertaling) Dutch Bibles.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jezus
Transliteration: Jezus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Stable across all Dutch traditions.
Mission
Approved rendering: zending
Transliteration: zending
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: missie (broader/secular)
Dutch has a dedicated theological word (‘zending’, ‘zendingswerk’, ‘zendeling’ = missionary) distinct from generic ‘missie’, giving it a cleaner semantic field than most languages in this batch, though it still carries Dutch colonial-era missionary history (VOC-era Dutch East Indies missions).
Peace
Approved rendering: vrede
Transliteration: vrede
Doctrine: Peace with God
In Romans 5:1, relational peace with God through justification, not merely psychological calm.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: profetie
Transliteration: profetie
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
God-inspired declaration.
Prophet
Approved rendering: profeet
Transliteration: profeet
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
God’s spokesperson.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: dankzegging
Transliteration: dankzegging
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term. No significant risk.
Referenced passages