Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 2 Corinthians
Destination Language: English
This glossary compiles every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, spanning 2 Corinthians chapters 1–13. Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json are marked [BASELINE REUSE] and carry their recorded rendering and risk tier forward unchanged, per the hard rule that established renderings must be reused exactly. New terms specific to 2 Corinthians are assessed using the same three-part risk framework as the baseline: (1) False-friend drift (a dominant competing secular/legal/commercial meaning), (2) Denominational contest (English-speaking Christian traditions disagree), (3) Obsolescence/post-Christian erosion (the term is rare or has lost felt weight).
Baseline Terms Reused Exactly (no change)
| Term | Original (Greek) | Baseline Risk | 2 Corinthians Occurrences (representative) | 2 Corinthians-specific note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| grace | χάρις | Critical | 1:2, 1:12, 4:15, 6:1, 8:1,6,7,9,19, 9:8,14, 12:9, 13:14 | Central to Generosity and Grace in Giving (ch. 8-9) and Power in Weakness (12:9); reuse baseline “apart from works” clarification requirement in full. |
| faith | πίστις | High | 1:24, 4:13, 5:7, 8:7, 10:15, 13:5 | 13:5’s “examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith” ties directly to Genuine vs. False Apostleship doctrine. |
| righteousness | δικαιοσύνη | Critical (registry) / High (memory) | 3:9, 5:21, 6:7,14, 9:9,10, 11:15 | 5:21 is 2 Corinthians’ clearest restatement of Romans’ imputed-righteousness doctrine; reuse “imputed righteousness” clarification. |
| justification / imputed righteousness | δικαίωσις / ἐλογίσθη…εἰς δικαιοσύνην | Critical | 5:19 (λογιζόμενος, “not counting” — same root/metaphor) | 2 Corinthians uses the verb form and its negative (“not counting trespasses”) rather than the noun; teach as the flip side of imputation. |
| salvation | σωτηρία | Critical | 1:6, 6:2, 7:10 | 7:10’s “salvation” as the fruit of godly grief; reuse the “event vs. process” denominational-transparency note. |
| apostle | ἀπόστολος | Medium (registry: this term); High (doctrine: apostleship in context of false apostles) | 1:1, 11:5,13, 12:11-12 | Central office contested throughout ch. 10-12 against “false apostles” / “super-apostles” (see new-term entries below). |
| called / calling | κλητός / κλῆσις | High | limited explicit occurrence; conceptually present in 1:1’s apostolic commission | Reuse baseline direction-of-agency note. |
| holy | ἅγιος | High (registry) / Medium (memory) | 1:1, 7:1, 13:12 (“holy kiss”) | 7:1’s “bringing holiness to completion” ties to Sanctification. |
| saints | ἅγιοι | High | 1:1, 8:4, 9:1,12, 13:12 | Recipients of the Jerusalem collection (ch. 8-9) are called “the saints” — corporate, not elite, sense reused exactly. |
| sanctification | ἁγιασμός (cognate ἁγιωσύνη, 7:1) | Medium (doctrine) / High (registry) | 7:1 | ”Bringing holiness to completion” — ongoing Spirit-empowered process, reuse baseline note. |
| adoption | υἱοθεσία (concept; direct term not used, but sonship language present) | Low | 6:18 (“you shall be my sons and daughters”) | Positive secular-drift asset noted in baseline applies equally here. |
| resurrection | ἀνάστασις (noun not used; verb ἐγείρω used, e.g., 5:15, 4:14) | Critical (doctrine) / High (registry) | 4:14, 5:15 | Historical-fact-vs-metaphor risk applies identically; note the noun/verb form distinction documented in 07_semantic_analysis.md, 5:15. |
| Lord | κύριος | Critical | throughout (e.g., 1:2,3,14, 4:5, 5:11, 8:9, 10:17-18, 13:14) | Reuse baseline clarification requirement in full; especially load-bearing at 4:5 (“we proclaim… Jesus Christ as Lord”) and 10:17-18. |
| Son of God | υἱὸς θεοῦ (cf. 1:19 “Son of God, Jesus Christ”) | Critical | 1:19 | Reuse baseline exactly; grounds God’s “Yes” faithfulness in Christ’s own divine sonship. |
| glory | δόξα | High | 3:7-11,18, 4:4,6,17, 8:19,23 | Chapter 3-4’s “glory to glory” transformation theme is this doctrine’s densest concentration in the letter. |
| covenant | διαθήκη | High | 3:6,14 | ”New covenant” (3:6) requires the letter/Spirit disambiguation documented above; reuse baseline legal-document drift note. |
| law | νόμος | Medium (registry) / High (doctrine, as “old covenant” backdrop) | 3:6-15 (implicit, “old covenant,” “letter”) | Old Covenant backdrop for New Covenant argument; reuse baseline note on legalistic-culture partial asset. |
| sin | ἁμαρτία | High | 5:19,21, 11:7 | 5:21’s “he… became sin” is a uniquely dense concentration of this doctrine; reuse baseline trivialization/guilt-averse-culture note in full. |
| peace | εἰρήνη | Medium | 1:2, 13:11 | Standard epistolary greeting/benediction use; reuse baseline note distinguishing from political/therapeutic senses. |
| thanksgiving | εὐχαριστία | Low | 1:11, 4:15, 9:11-12 | Reuse baseline exactly; ch. 9’s thanksgiving flows from received generosity. |
| fellowship | κοινωνία | Medium (registry) / Low (doctrine) | 6:14, 8:4, 13:14 | 13:14’s Trinitarian benediction is the single highest-visibility occurrence in the letter; reuse baseline “academic fellowship” drift note. |
| church | ἐκκλησία | Critical | 1:1, 8:1,18-19,23-24, 11:8,28, 12:13 | Reuse baseline exactly; 2 Corinthians’ plural “churches of Macedonia/Galatia” (8:1, 8:18-19) usefully reinforces the corporate, non-institutional sense. |
| power of God | δύναμις θεοῦ | Medium (registry) / High-adjacent via 12:9 | 4:7, 6:7, 12:9, 13:4 | 12:9’s “power is perfected in weakness” is this doctrine’s climactic statement in 2 Corinthians; reuse baseline note on negative secular power-discourse, now sharpened by the weakness paradox. |
| Israel | Ἰσραήλ | Medium | 3:7,13, 11:22 | Reuse baseline exactly; contemporary geopolitical-sensitivity note applies. |
| Jesus | Ἰησοῦς | Critical | throughout | Reuse baseline exactly. |
| God | θεός | Critical | throughout | Reuse baseline exactly. |
| Holy Spirit | πνεῦμα ἅγιον | Critical | 1:22, 3:3,6,8,17-18, 5:5, 13:14 | Reuse baseline exactly; 1:22’s “seal” and “guarantee” (ἀρραβών) language and 3:17-18’s “Spirit… freedom… transformed” passage are load-bearing. |
| Father | πατήρ | High (registry: God) / Medium (doctrine) | 1:3, 6:18, 11:31 | Reuse baseline exactly, including its pastoral-sensitivity note. |
| exhort | παρακαλέω | Low | 1:4,6, 2:7,8, 5:20, 7:6-7,13, 9:5, 10:1, 12:8, 13:11 | Extremely frequent in this letter; reuse baseline rendering but note the wide semantic range (comfort/appeal/urge) documented per-occurrence in 07_semantic_analysis.md. |
New Terms Introduced in 2 Corinthians
| Term | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | Category/Doctrine | Risk | Primary passages | Risk reason (grounded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| reconciliation | καταλλαγή / καταλλάσσω | katallagē / katallassō | Reconciliation with God | Critical | 5:18-20 | Dominant competing senses in contemporary English: (1) accounting/business “reconciling the books” (zero relational content); (2) mutual interpersonal patch-up (implies mutual fault/initiative, contra Paul’s God-initiated, unilateral act); (3) political/social “truth and reconciliation” processes (implies negotiated settlement between comparable parties). All three actively obscure the one-directional, God-initiated, Christ-accomplished nature of the doctrine. Mandatory explicit clarification on every substantive use, per baseline Critical-tier convention. |
| new creation | καινὴ κτίσις | kainē ktisis | New Creation in Christ | Critical | 5:17 | Heavily colonized by contemporary self-help/wellness/marketing “new you” and “reinvent yourself” culture, which frames renewal as self-achieved improvement through effort; Paul’s term denotes God’s own unilateral re-creative act, received not achieved — the same false-friend pattern as baseline’s “grace” and “justification.” |
| ambassador | πρεσβεύω | presbeuō | Sincerity and Apostolic Authority | High | 5:20 | Contemporary dominant living use is “brand ambassador” (paid social-media influencer/spokesperson), risking the reframing of a costly, authoritative, sovereign-delegated diplomatic office into a casual, self-interested promotional role. |
| ministry | διακονία / διακονέω | diakonia / diakoneō | Sincerity and Apostolic Authority; New Covenant | High | 3:6-9, 4:1, 5:18, 6:3-4, 8:4,19-20, 11:8,23 | Competes with (a) the British/Commonwealth governmental sense (“Ministry of Defence”) and (b) a generic “helping profession” secular sense (coaching, social work), both of which can drain the term of its specifically gospel-proclaiming, divinely-commissioned content. |
| letter and Spirit | γράμμα / πνεῦμα | gramma / pneuma | New Covenant versus Old Covenant | High | 3:6 | The extremely common secular-legal idiom “letter of the law vs. spirit of the law” (literal wording vs. underlying intent in contract/statute interpretation) will be confidently but wrongly imported; Paul’s contrast is Old Covenant written code (no Spirit, death-dealing) vs. New Covenant Spirit-empowered life — a redemptive-historical, not hermeneutical, distinction. |
| comfort/consolation | παράκλησις | paraklēsis | Suffering and Comfort in Ministry | Medium–High | 1:3-7, 7:4,13 | Contemporary English “comfort” is dominated by passive, consumerist senses (“comfort food,” “comfort zone”), risking a soft self-soothing gloss on Paul’s active, God-sourced, ministry-producing comfort. |
| affliction | θλῖψις | thlipsis | Suffering and Comfort in Ministry | Medium | 1:4,8, 2:4, 4:17, 6:4, 7:4, 8:2,13 | Formal/rare in everyday speech (obsolescence risk); readers may under-estimate severity relative to Paul’s “utterly crushed” description (1:8). |
| sufferings of Christ | παθήματα τοῦ Χριστοῦ | pathēmata tou Christou | Suffering and Comfort in Ministry | High | 1:5 | Risk of two opposite errors: trivializing as generic “life is hard,” or importing a denominationally contested sense that human suffering adds to Christ’s atoning work (live Catholic/Protestant difference); requires denominational transparency. |
| seal / guarantee (down payment) | σφραγίζω / ἀρραβών | sphragizō / arrabōn | Assurance; Holy Spirit | Medium | 1:22, 5:5 | ”Deposit/down payment” registers as everyday commercial language (asset for comprehension) but risks flattening a personal, Trinitarian assurance into a merely financial transaction if not tied explicitly to the Holy Spirit’s personal presence. |
| sincerity | ἁπλότης / εἰλικρίνεια | haplotēs / eilikrineia | Sincerity and Apostolic Authority | Medium | 1:12, 2:17, 11:3 | Contemporary “authenticity” language has been reframed by self-expression culture as fidelity to one’s own feelings rather than transparent conformity to truth and to God’s scrutiny. |
| boasting | καύχημα / καυχάομαι | kauchēma / kauchaomai | Genuine vs. False Apostleship; Power in Weakness | High | 1:12,14, 5:12, 7:4,14, 8:24, 9:2-3, 10:8,13,15-17, 11:10,12,16-18,30, 12:1,5-6,9,11 | Contemporary English “boasting” is almost uniformly negative (humility-culture disapproval) yet coexists with pervasive social-media self-promotion; Paul’s careful, ironic, reluctant use across ch. 10-12 must be distinguished from both plain arrogance and casual online self-promotion. |
| forgive (grace-rooted) | χαρίζομαι | charizomai | Grace | Medium | 2:7,10, 12:13 | Shares χάρις’s root and Critical risk profile; “forgive” itself is stable in English but should be explicitly tied to grace-language, not treated as a merely interpersonal nicety. |
| triumphal procession | θριαμβεύω | thriambeuō | Suffering and Comfort in Ministry | Medium | 2:14 | Entirely obsolete cultural referent (Roman military triumph parades) requiring active historical explanation; genuine scholarly ambiguity (celebrated companion vs. displayed captive) merits range-of-options treatment. |
| fragrance/aroma | ὀσμή | osmē | Genuine vs. False Apostleship | Medium | 2:14-16 | Dominated by wellness/commercial associations (aromatherapy, perfume branding) in contemporary use, risking reduction of an OT sacrificial-cultic image to a pleasant-sensation metaphor. |
| peddlers of God’s word | καπηλεύω | kapēleuō | Genuine vs. False Apostleship; Sincerity | High | 2:17 | Connects to widespread contemporary skepticism of religious money-making (prosperity-preacher scandals in secular media); should be engaged directly, not assumed neutral. |
| veil | κάλυμμα | kalymma | New Covenant versus Old Covenant | Medium | 3:13-16 | Mostly archaic/unfamiliar object outside the biblical narrative (obsolescence); the Exodus 34 background must be actively supplied. |
| transformed / glory to glory | μεταμορφούμεθα | metamorphoumetha | Sanctification; New Creation | Medium | 3:18 | Competing English associations: caterpillar-to-butterfly (positive asset) vs. Kafkaesque “metamorphosis” into something lesser (liability); the positive association should be reinforced deliberately. |
| freedom | ἐλευθερία | eleutheria | New Covenant versus Old Covenant | Medium | 3:17 | Dominated by political/civil-liberties and individual-autonomy senses in contemporary usage, obscuring Paul’s specific sense of freedom from condemnation and for Spirit-empowered transformation. |
| treasure in jars of clay | θησαυρός ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν | thēsauros en ostrakinois skeuesin | Power in Weakness | Low–Medium | 4:7 | Mostly needs cultural-historical background (cheap, ordinary ancient pottery, not decorative/valuable) rather than false-friend correction. |
| do not lose heart | οὐκ ἐγκακοῦμεν | ouk enkakoumen | Suffering and Comfort in Ministry | Low | 4:1,16 | Stable, low-risk idiom in contemporary English. |
| outer/inner man (self) | ὁ ἔξω / ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος | ho exō / ho esō anthrōpos | New Creation; Suffering in Ministry | Low–Medium | 4:16 | Contemporary pop-psychology “true self” language often implies a self-discovered, autonomous identity, whereas Paul’s “inner man” is renewed by God, not introspectively discovered. |
| earthly tent / building from God | ἐπίγειος σκῆνος / οἰκοδομὴ ἐκ θεοῦ | epigeios skēnos / oikodomē ek theou | Resurrection; New Creation | High | 5:1-4 | Reuse baseline “resurrection” risk profile; contemporary “tent” is entirely literal/camping-associated, requiring the metaphor to be actively built rather than assumed. |
| judgment seat of Christ | βῆμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ | bēma tou Christou | Suffering in Ministry; Genuine Apostleship | High | 5:10 | Genuine denominational contest (rewards-evaluation of believers vs. unified final judgment reading); requires transparent statement of the reading presented, per baseline’s denominational-transparency rule. |
| workers together with God | συνεργέω | synergeō | Grace; Sincerity | High | 6:1 | English “synergy” is dominant, often-mocked corporate jargon, risking trivialization of a costly grace-partnership claim; also intersects the Critical grace/works denominational-contest zone. |
| unequally yoked | ἑτεροζυγέω | heterozygeō | Sincerity; Church as God’s People | Medium | 6:14 | Retained almost exclusively as marriage/dating advice in English-speaking Christian culture, risking eclipse of Paul’s broader partnership-loyalty point. |
| temple of the living God | ναὸς θεοῦ ζῶντος | naos theou zōntos | Church as God’s People | Medium–High | 6:16 | Contemporary pluralistic usage associates “temple” primarily with other religious traditions’ physical buildings (Hindu, Buddhist, LDS), a real interfaith/denominational collision risk for the metaphorical corporate-church sense. |
| godly grief / sorrow | λύπη κατὰ θεόν | lypē kata theon | Repentance (adjacent to Universal Human Accountability) | High | 7:9-11 | Contemporary therapeutic, non-judgmental culture is broadly resistant to guilt-oriented language and often pathologizes all guilt as unhealthy, risking flattening of this term into generic sadness. |
| repentance | μετάνοια | metanoia | Repentance | High | 7:9-10 | Survives mainly in caricatured “sandwich-board preacher” pop-culture usage, making the term sound theatrical/judgmental rather than describing an ordinary necessary turning. |
| zeal | σπουδή | spoudē | Sincerity | Low–Medium | 7:11-12, 8:7-8 | Mildly negative contemporary connotation (association with “zealotry”) not present in the neutral-to-positive Greek term. |
| the collection (for the saints) | λογία | logia | Generosity and Grace in Giving | High | 8:1-9:15 (esp. 8:4, 9:1) | Strong contemporary skepticism of religious fundraising appeals (prosperity-gospel scandal coverage) should be named directly, not assumed absent. |
| equality / fair balance | ἰσότης | isotēs | Generosity and Grace in Giving | Medium | 8:13-14 | Contemporary political discourse’s charged “equality/equity” debates risk importing a specific modern political program onto Paul’s more modest need-based fair-balance point. |
| poverty/riches of Christ | ἐπτώχευσεν / πλούσιος | eptōcheusen / plousios | Generosity and Grace in Giving; Incarnation | High | 8:9 | Risk of conflation with prosperity-gospel teaching (widely circulated in English-language Christian media), which inverts Paul’s sacrificial-generosity point into a material wealth-return formula. |
| cheerful giver | ἱλαρὸς δότης | hilaros dotēs | Generosity and Grace in Giving | Medium | 9:7 | Etymological false-friend: root of English “hilarious” (now “extremely funny”), a near-total semantic drift from “cheerful/glad.” |
| sufficiency | αὐτάρκεια | autarkeia | Power in Weakness; Generosity | Medium–High | 9:8; cf. 12:9 | Paul repurposes a Stoic self-generated-contentment term into a claim about God-supplied sufficiency; contemporary Western self-reliance ideals risk importing exactly the self-generated sense Paul overturns. |
| weapons / spiritual warfare | ὅπλα / στρατεία | hopla / strateia | Genuine vs. False Apostleship | High | 10:3-4 | Genuine, live denominational contest between literal-spiritual-combat (charismatic/deliverance traditions) and metaphorical-for-ideas (cessationist/mainline) readings; requires transparent statement of range. |
| strongholds | ὀχύρωμα | ochyrōma | Genuine vs. False Apostleship | Medium | 10:4 | Contemporary charismatic usage (assigned territorial demonic “strongholds”) risks narrowing Paul’s more general “proud arguments/reasoning” sense. |
| measure / rule of assignment | κανών | kanōn | Genuine vs. False Apostleship | Medium | 10:13,15-16 | Related but distinct modern sense (“biblical canon,” “literary canon”) from the same root could cause mild confusion if left unexplained. |
| pure virgin (betrothed to Christ) | παρθένος ἁγνή | parthenos hagnē | Genuine vs. False Apostleship; Church | Medium | 11:2-3 | Contemporary “virgin/purity” language carries charged purity-culture associations in current discourse; the specific point (undivided devotion) should stay in view over any modern purity ethic. |
| false apostles | ψευδαπόστολοι | pseudapostoloi | Genuine versus False Apostleship | High | 11:13 | Compounds baseline “apostle” (Medium) with counterfeit-detection; contemporary “cult leader” cultural awareness is an asset but risks anachronistic import of unrelated modern tropes. |
| super-apostles | οἱ ὑπερλίαν ἀπόστολοι | hoi hyperlian apostoloi | Genuine versus False Apostleship | High | 11:5, 12:11 | Modern “super-” prefix usage aids recognition of Paul’s irony (a mild asset) but risks flat, non-ironic misreading as genuine honorific if the sarcasm is not flagged. |
| godly jealousy | ζῆλος θεοῦ | zēlos theou | Genuine vs. False Apostleship; Church | Medium | 11:2 | Contemporary “jealousy” is almost uniformly negative (possessive insecurity); Paul’s positive, protective, covenant-loyalty sense needs active recovery. |
| angels of light | ἄγγελος φωτός | angelos phōtos | Genuine vs. False Apostleship | Medium | 11:14 | Contemporary sentimentalized “guardian angel” pop culture is nearly opposite this passage’s point about deceptive, dazzling appearances. |
| third heaven / Paradise | τρίτος οὐρανός / παράδεισος | tritos ouranos / paradeisos | Power in Weakness | Medium | 12:2-4 | Contemporary “paradise” is dominated by vacation/travel-marketing imagery, diluting the term’s Jewish cosmological/Edenic sense. |
| thorn in the flesh | σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί | skolops tē sarki | Power in Weakness; Suffering in Ministry | High | 12:7 | Heavily secularized English idiom (“a thorn in my side” for any minor annoyance), a significant trivialization of Paul’s severe, unresolved, prayed-against-three-times affliction. |
| messenger of Satan | ἄγγελος σατανᾶ | angelos satana | Power in Weakness | Medium | 12:7 | Requires holding divine-purpose and real-satanic-hostility together without resolving the tension toward either extreme. |
| sufficient grace / power perfected in weakness | ἀρκεῖ ἡ χάρις μου / ἡ δύναμις ἐν ἀσθενεί�ᾳ τελειοῦται | arkei hē charis mou / hē dynamis en astheneia teleioutai | Power in Weakness | Critical | 12:9 | Direct reuse of Critical “grace”; stands in sharpest tension with contemporary achievement/resilience/self-optimization culture, which frames weakness as a problem to be overcome rather than the venue of God’s power — this curriculum’s single most load-bearing doctrinal claim requiring mandatory explicit clarification. |
| signs of a true apostle | σημεῖα τοῦ ἀποστόλου | sēmeia tou apostolou | Genuine versus False Apostleship | Medium | 12:12 | Reuse baseline “apostle” (Medium) plus “false/super-apostles” entries above. |
| examine / test yourselves | ἑαυτοὺς πειράζετε / δοκιμάζετε | heautous peirazete / dokimazete | Genuine vs. False Apostleship; Faith | Medium | 13:5 | Contemporary self-examination/therapy language aids basic comprehension but risks generic psychological self-assessment rather than the specific Christ-centered test Paul intends. |
| holy kiss | ἅγιον φίλημα | hagion philēma | Church as God’s People | Low | 13:12 | Minimal false-friend risk; mainly needs brief cultural-historical explanation as an ancient greeting custom. |
| Trinitarian benediction (grace, love, fellowship) | χάρις, ἀγάπη, κοινωνία | charis, agapē, koinōnia | Grace; Church; Holy Spirit | High (compound) | 13:14 | Compounds Critical “grace,” Critical “Holy Spirit,” and Medium “fellowship” simultaneously in the letter’s single most liturgically prominent verse. |
Risk Tier Summary (2 Corinthians-specific new terms)
| Tier | Count | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 3 | reconciliation, new creation, sufficient grace/power perfected in weakness |
| High | 15 | ambassador, ministry, letter and Spirit, sufferings of Christ, boasting, peddlers of God’s word, earthly tent/building from God, judgment seat of Christ, workers together with God, godly grief/sorrow, repentance, the collection, poverty/riches of Christ, weapons/spiritual warfare, false apostles, super-apostles, thorn in the flesh, Trinitarian benediction |
| Medium–High | 3 | temple of the living God, sufficiency, pure virgin |
| Medium | 17 | comfort/consolation (Medium-High), affliction, seal/guarantee, sincerity, forgive, triumphal procession, fragrance/aroma, veil, transformed/glory to glory, freedom, unequally yoked, equality/fair balance, cheerful giver, strongholds, measure/rule, godly jealousy, angels of light, third heaven/Paradise, messenger of Satan, signs of a true apostle, examine yourselves |
| Low–Medium | 2 | treasure in jars of clay, outer/inner man, zeal |
| Low | 2 | do not lose heart, holy kiss |
Note on totals: counts approximate given several terms span two adjacent tiers as documented in the notes column above; exact tier for review-routing purposes in Phase 2 should follow the higher of the two listed tiers per the baseline’s “apply the higher-priority rule” convention (Glossary Enforcement Priority Order, 12_ai_translation_requirements.md).
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: grace
Transliteration: grace
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: elegance/poise (the dominant secular sense, e.g. ‘she moved with such grace’), a grace period (the dominant legal/financial sense, an extension of time, not unmerited favor)
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT: ‘grace’ in ordinary contemporary English overwhelmingly means physical elegance or poise, or, in contracts and billing, a ‘grace period.’ CRITICAL DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: English-speaking Christian traditions disagree sharply on grace’s relationship to works and human cooperation; this curriculum must state its own reading explicitly. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians extends this Critical risk in two new directions: (1) chapters 8-9 use ‘grace’ to name generous giving itself as evidence of God’s grace at work (8:1,6,7,9,19; 9:8,14), requiring the same ‘apart from merit, God-sourced’ clarification against a transactional or civic-minded donor-culture reading; (2) 12:9’s ‘my grace is sufficient for you’ names the sufficient divine resource operating precisely through human weakness, this curriculum’s single most load-bearing claim.
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: justification
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: justifying your answer / justifying an action (the near-universal everyday sense: giving a reason or excuse for something already done)
Original: δικαίωσις / λογίζομαι (negative form, 5:19)
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT: in everyday English, ‘to justify’ overwhelmingly means to give a reason or defense for an action, completely different from Paul’s forensic sense of God declaring a sinner righteous. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 5:19’s ‘not counting their trespasses against them’ (λογιζόμενος) is the negative, flip-side statement of the same forensic-accounting metaphor and must be taught together with justification: God credits Christ’s righteousness to believers AND refuses to charge their sins against them — two sides of one legal transaction, not mere overlooking of guilt.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvation
Transliteration: salvation
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: being saved (contested denominational shorthand — see notes), rescue (too generic a gloss on its own)
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL DENOMINATIONAL CONTEST: English-speaking Christian traditions are divided on ‘being saved’ as a single datable event versus an ongoing, lifelong reality. Also guard against the fully secularized generic sense of ‘salvation’ as any rescue from a bad situation. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 7:10’s ‘salvation’ as the fruit of godly grief should carry the event-vs-process note; 6:2’s ‘now is the day of salvation’ leans toward the decisive-moment sense and should be flagged as such; 1:6 ties salvation directly to the comfort/affliction pattern of ministry.
Lord
Approved rendering: Lord
Transliteration: Lord
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: boss / master (attempts at modernization that lose the term’s exclusivity and worship-worthiness), a British Lord (the aristocratic title sense, especially salient for British/Commonwealth readers)
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
CRITICAL: ‘Lord’ has nearly disappeared from ordinary spoken English outside this specific religious usage. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] Load-bearing throughout 2 Corinthians (1:2-3,14; 4:5’s ‘we proclaim… Jesus Christ as Lord’; 5:11; 8:9; 10:17-18’s quotation of Jeremiah 9:24, ‘let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’; 13:14); the baseline’s active weight-restoration must be applied at each of these high-use points, not assumed carried over automatically from prior use in a document.
Church
Approved rendering: church
Transliteration: church
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
CRITICAL: in the contemporary post-Christian West, ‘church’ increasingly carries negative or purely institutional connotations. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians’ plural ‘churches of Macedonia’ (8:1) and similar plural usage (8:18-19,23-24; 11:8,28) usefully reinforces the corporate, translocal, non-institutional sense the baseline requires be actively restored; 6:16’s added ‘temple of the living God’ image compounds this risk (see that new entry below).
God
Approved rendering: God
Transliteration: God
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a higher power (a common, deliberately vague contemporary substitute, e.g. in recovery-program language), the universe (a New-Age-influenced impersonal substitute, e.g. ‘the universe has a plan for you’)
Original: θεός
Category: God
Contemporary spiritual-but-not-religious culture often substitutes deliberately vague or impersonal alternatives for a personal, specific, self-revealing God. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 5:19’s ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ is a direct incarnational/Trinitarian claim requiring careful handling alongside ‘reconciliation’ below.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Holy Spirit
Transliteration: Holy Spirit
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: good vibes / positive energy (vague contemporary spiritual substitutes for a specific, personal, divine Person)
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Contemporary ‘spiritual but not religious’ and wellness-culture language offers vague, impersonal substitutes for a specific, personal divine Person. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 1:22 and 5:5’s ‘seal’ and ‘guarantee/down payment’ language (see ‘seal_guarantee’ below) and 3:3,6,8,17-18’s letter/Spirit and freedom argument are load-bearing; 13:14’s benediction closes the letter on this Person’s name.
Reconciliation
Approved rendering: reconciliation
Transliteration: katallagē / katallassō
Doctrine: Reconciliation with God
Rejected alternatives: reconciling a bank statement / an accounting reconciliation (the dominant business sense — zero relational content), getting back together / patching up a quarrel (the dominant mutual-interpersonal sense — wrongly implies mutual fault and mutual initiative), a truth and reconciliation process (the political/social sense — implies a negotiated settlement between roughly equal offending parties)
Original: καταλλαγή / καταλλάσσω
Category: Reconciliation with God
CRITICAL FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT, new to this curriculum. All three dominant competing English senses actively obscure the one-directional, God-initiated, Christ-accomplished nature of Paul’s doctrine at 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. The passive imperative ‘be reconciled to God’ (5:20) is grammatically passive — a call to receive an already-accomplished work, not to perform one’s own reconciling effort, the same grace-not-works pattern the baseline documents for ‘grace’ and ‘justification.’ Also note the Catholic sacrament of Reconciliation/Penance uses this exact English word for a distinct, ongoing post-baptismal rite; the two uses must not be silently conflated. Mandatory explicit clarification required on every substantive use.
New Creation
Approved rendering: new creation
Transliteration: kainē ktisis
Doctrine: New Creation in Christ
Rejected alternatives: a new you / reinvent yourself (dominant contemporary self-help and marketing framing — self-achieved improvement through effort or technique), a fresh start (a milder version of the same self-help drift unless paired with explicit divine-agency language), born again (baseline-adjacent phrase now coded to evangelical political/cultural identity in American usage; related but distinct concept — do not substitute)
Original: καινὴ κτίσις
Category: New Creation in Christ
CRITICAL FALSE-FRIEND DRIFT, new to this curriculum. Contemporary self-help, wellness, and marketing culture has heavily colonized this phrase’s territory. Paul’s term (5:17) denotes God’s own unilateral re-creative act, received not achieved — a false-friend risk of the same order as ‘grace’ and ‘justification.’ Mandatory explicit clarification required on first substantive use, per the baseline’s Critical-tier convention.
Power Perfected In Weakness
Approved rendering: my grace is sufficient / power is perfected in weakness
Transliteration: arkei hē charis mou / hē dynamis en astheneia teleioutai
Doctrine: Power in Weakness
Rejected alternatives: God helps those who help themselves (a folk-proverb inversion not found in Scripture and contrary to this verse’s point), a resilience/grit narrative (contemporary self-optimization framing that treats weakness as a problem strength must overcome)
Original: ἀρκεῖ … ἡ χάρις μου / ἡ δύναμις … ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ τελειοῦται
Category: Power in Weakness
New to this curriculum (12:9), directly reusing Critical-risk ‘grace.’ This curriculum’s single most load-bearing doctrinal claim. Stands in the sharpest possible tension with contemporary achievement/resilience/self-optimization culture. Must state plainly that God’s power is not merely displayed despite weakness but specifically completed and perfected through it — operating precisely where human capacity runs out. Mandatory explicit clarification on every occurrence, no exceptions.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: faith
Transliteration: faith
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: faith in humanity / a leap of faith (secularized idioms meaning generic optimism or an unsupported gamble, not trust in a specific person)
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Contemporary English has largely detached ‘faith’ from any specific object. Romans’ sense of specific, personal trust in Christ must be made explicit in context every time. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 13:5’s ‘examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith’ ties this term directly to the Genuine versus False Apostleship doctrine — ‘the faith’ here names a state of genuine union with Christ to be verified, not a generic belief system or personal outlook to be assessed.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: righteousness
Transliteration: righteousness
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: self-righteous / holier-than-thou (the dominant connotation ‘righteous’ now carries in casual usage — smug, judgmental superiority)
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
In contemporary usage, ‘righteous’ and especially ‘self-righteous’ carry a strongly negative, sanctimonious connotation. Readers must be told explicitly that biblical righteousness is a status given, not achieved or performed. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 5:21 (‘so that we might become the righteousness of God’) is this letter’s clearest restatement of the Romans imputation doctrine and must carry the identical clarifying language recorded under ‘imputed_righteousness’ below.
Called
Approved rendering: called
Transliteration: called
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Original: κλητός
Category: Salvation
Context-sensitive across at least three distinct senses (apostleship, sainthood, salvation). [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] Conceptually present in 2 Corinthians 1:1’s apostolic commission.
Calling
Approved rendering: calling
Transliteration: calling
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: finding your calling (the dominant contemporary secular sense: career vocation or personal passion, discovered through self-reflection rather than received from God)
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Modern self-actualization culture has repurposed ‘calling’ as career vocation discovered through introspection. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] The direction-of-agency correction (God calls; the person does not self-select) applies equally to 2 Corinthians’ ministry-commissioning language.
Saints
Approved rendering: saints
Transliteration: saints
Doctrine: Sainthood
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
Real denominational contest: Catholic/Orthodox usage reserves ‘saint’ for a formally canonized figure, while the New Testament uses it for every ordinary believer. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] The recipients of the Jerusalem relief ‘collection’ in chapters 8-9 (8:4; 9:1,12) are called ‘the saints’ in this same corporate, non-elite sense — worth reinforcing given the collection’s fundraising context, which might otherwise suggest an exclusive beneficiary class.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: resurrection
Transliteration: resurrection
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Easter (the commercialized cultural holiday sense — chocolate eggs, an Easter bunny — increasingly detached from the historical claim)
Original: ἀνάστασις (noun not used in 2 Cor; verb ἐγείρω used, e.g. 4:14, 5:15)
Category: Eschatology
Contemporary post-Christian Western culture broadly treats the resurrection as a religious metaphor or myth rather than a claimed historical fact. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians uses the verb form (ἐγείρω) rather than the baseline’s noun form at 4:14 and 5:15; the historical-fact-vs-metaphor risk applies identically regardless of grammatical form, and 5:1-4’s ‘earthly tent / building from God’ extends this doctrine into resurrection-body imagery requiring active metaphor-building given ‘tent’s’ entirely literal, camping-associated contemporary sense.
Sin
Approved rendering: sin
Transliteration: sin
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: sinfully delicious / my one sin (trivialized marketing and joking usage, e.g. dessert advertising)
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Contemporary marketing and casual speech have trivialized ‘sin’ into a jokey synonym for a harmless indulgence. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 5:21’s dense statement (‘he made him… to be sin’) requires the trivialization/guilt-averse-culture correction in its sharpest form, since the verse also depends on readers grasping Christ’s total sinlessness as the necessary basis of the substitution, not shared guilt.
Covenant
Approved rendering: covenant
Transliteration: covenant
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: a restrictive covenant (the dominant contemporary legal sense: a binding clause in a property deed, employment contract, or loan agreement)
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
Most contemporary English speakers now encounter ‘covenant’ chiefly in real estate or contract law. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 3:6,14’s ‘new covenant’ requires the added letter/Spirit disambiguation documented under ‘letter_and_spirit’ below; the baseline’s real-estate/contract-law drift risk applies at full force here since the passage explicitly contrasts a written, stone-inscribed covenant with a Spirit-written one.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: imputed righteousness
Transliteration: imputed righteousness
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: earned righteousness / good-person status (the explicit rejected opposite — righteousness achieved by good behavior)
Original: ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην (Rom 4:3 pattern) / λογιζόμενος (2 Cor 5:19, negative form) / γενώμεθα δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ (2 Cor 5:21)
Category: Salvation
‘Imputed’ is a rare, technical, almost exclusively theological/legal word in contemporary English, which paradoxically makes it safer than ‘justification’ alone. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 5:21 (‘so that we might become the righteousness of God’) is 2 Corinthians’ clearest restatement of this doctrine, and 5:19’s ‘not counting their trespasses’ is its negative counterpart using the same accounting-ledger verb (λογίζομαι); both must use the identical clarifying language recorded in the baseline.
Ambassador
Approved rendering: ambassador
Transliteration: presbeuō
Doctrine: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
Rejected alternatives: brand ambassador (the dominant contemporary living sense: a paid social-media influencer or spokesperson promoting products for personal or corporate gain)
Original: πρεσβεύω
Category: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
New to this curriculum. Contemporary English’s dominant living use of ‘ambassador’ is now ‘brand ambassador,’ which risks reframing Paul’s costly, authoritative, life-risking diplomatic office (5:20) as a casual, self-interested promotional role. The historic diplomatic sense — an official envoy speaking with the sending government’s full authority, unable to freelance a different message — must be actively foregrounded.
Ministry
Approved rendering: ministry
Transliteration: diakonia / diakoneō
Doctrine: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
Rejected alternatives: Ministry of Defence / government ministry (the British/Commonwealth governmental sense), life coaching / social work (the generic secular ‘helping profession’ sense)
Original: διακονία / διακονέω
Category: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
New to this curriculum, extremely frequent (3:6-9; 4:1; 5:18; 6:3-4; 8:4,19-20; 11:8,23). Both competing senses drain the term of its specifically gospel-proclaiming, divinely-commissioned content. Anchor every use to gospel proclamation and divine commissioning, not generic care-giving or bureaucratic department.
Letter And Spirit
Approved rendering: letter and Spirit
Transliteration: gramma / pneuma
Doctrine: The New Covenant versus the Old
Rejected alternatives: the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law (the extremely common secular-legal idiom for literal wording vs. underlying legislative intent — a genuinely different, non-covenantal point)
Original: γράμμα / πνεῦμα
Category: New Covenant
New to this curriculum. 2 Corinthians 3:6’s ‘the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life’ will be confidently but wrongly read through the secular-legal idiom. Paul’s contrast is redemptive-historical: Old Covenant written code without the Spirit (death-dealing) versus New Covenant Spirit-empowered life — not a hermeneutical principle about interpreting rules. Mandatory explicit disambiguation on first use.
Comfort
Approved rendering: comfort
Transliteration: paraklēsis
Doctrine: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
Rejected alternatives: comfort food / comfort zone / comfortable (dominant passive, consumerist, self-soothing senses)
Original: παράκλησις
Category: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
New to this curriculum, foundational to 1:3-7 and recurring at 7:4,13. Contemporary ‘comfort’ is dominated by passive, therapeutic, consumerist senses. In Paul the term is active, God-sourced, and productive of endurance and ministry to others, not mere emotional relief — this distinction must be stated explicitly.
Sufferings Of Christ
Approved rendering: sufferings of Christ
Transliteration: pathēmata tou Christou
Doctrine: Participation in the Sufferings of Christ
Rejected alternatives: life is hard (a trivializing generic cliché that loses the mystical-union claim)
Original: παθήματα τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
New to this curriculum (1:5). Risk of two opposite errors: trivializing as generic hardship, or importing a denominationally contested sense that human suffering adds to Christ’s atoning work — a live Catholic devotional emphasis (‘offering up’ suffering) versus most Protestant insistence on the completed, unrepeatable nature of Christ’s atonement. Requires denominational-transparency treatment: state the reading presented (participatory overflow, not addition to atonement) and note the range.
Boasting
Approved rendering: boasting
Transliteration: kauchēma / kauchaomai
Doctrine: Boasting in the Lord
Rejected alternatives: humble-bragging / personal branding (pervasive contemporary social-media self-promotion)
Original: καύχημα / καυχάομαι
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum, the letter’s densest-concentration term (over twenty occurrences: 1:12,14; 5:12; 7:4,14; 8:24; 9:2-3; 10:8,13,15-17; 11:10,12,16-18,30; 12:1,5-6,9,11). Contemporary English ‘boasting’ is almost uniformly negative yet coexists with pervasive self-promotion culture; Paul’s careful, ironic, reluctant use across chapters 10-12 must be distinguished from both plain arrogance and casual online self-promotion, and from legitimate boasting that terminates only in God’s own commendation (10:17-18).
Peddlers Of Gods Word
Approved rendering: peddlers of God’s word
Transliteration: kapēleuō
Doctrine: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
Original: καπηλεύω
Category: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
New to this curriculum (2:17). Connects directly to contemporary skepticism of religious money-making, reinforced by secular media coverage of megachurch and prosperity-preacher financial scandals; this skepticism should be engaged directly rather than assumed absent.
Earthly Tent Building From God
Approved rendering: earthly tent / building from God
Transliteration: epigeios skēnos / oikodomē ek theou
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Original: ἐπίγειος σκῆνος / οἰκοδομὴ ἐκ θεοῦ
Category: Resurrection
New to this curriculum (5:1-4). Reuses the baseline ‘resurrection’ risk profile. Contemporary ‘tent’ is entirely literal and camping-associated, requiring the temporary-dwelling-vs-permanent-resurrection-body metaphor to be actively built for the reader rather than assumed self-evident.
Judgment Seat Of Christ
Approved rendering: judgment seat of Christ
Transliteration: bēma tou Christou
Doctrine: The Judgment Seat of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a judge’s bench / TV talent-competition ‘judge’s seat’ (unrelated modern pop-culture imagery)
Original: βῆμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
New to this curriculum (5:10). Genuine, live denominational contest: some traditions (especially dispensational/free-grace strands) sharply distinguish this evaluation of believers’ service and rewards from a separate final judgment of unbelievers, while others read a single unified final judgment. This curriculum states its own reading plainly and notes the range, per the baseline’s denominational-transparency rule for ‘assurance of salvation.‘
Workers Together With God
Approved rendering: workers together with God / co-laborers with God in his grace
Transliteration: synergeō
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: business synergies / corporate synergy (dominant, often-mocked corporate-strategy jargon)
Original: συνεργέω
Category: Grace
New to this curriculum (6:1). English ‘synergy’ risks trivializing a costly grace-partnership claim into empty management-speak; this term also directly intersects the Critical grace/works denominational-contest zone (Reformed ‘grace alone’ vs. Wesleyan/Arminian and Catholic synergistic readings). Prefer the fuller phrase ‘co-laborers with God in his grace’ over a bare synergy-adjacent wording.
Temple Of The Living God
Approved rendering: temple of the living God
Transliteration: naos theou zōntos
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: a Hindu or Buddhist temple building (dominant contemporary pluralistic association), an LDS/Mormon temple (a distinct denominational usage)
Original: ναὸς θεοῦ ζῶντος
Category: Church
New to this curriculum (6:16). Contemporary pluralistic usage most readily associates ‘temple’ with other religious traditions’ physical buildings, a genuine interfaith and denominational collision risk requiring the metaphorical, corporate-church sense to be actively distinguished.
Godly Grief
Approved rendering: godly grief
Transliteration: lypē kata theon
Doctrine: Godly Grief and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: unhealthy guilt (contemporary self-help framing that all guilt should be released, not rightly felt)
Original: λύπη κατὰ θεόν
Category: Repentance
New to this curriculum (7:9-11). Contemporary therapeutic, non-judgmental culture is broadly resistant to guilt-oriented language and risks pathologizing this term as mere unhealthy guilt rather than a rightly-felt response producing genuine repentance; requires the baseline’s unapologetic sin/accountability treatment.
Repentance
Approved rendering: repentance
Transliteration: metanoia
Doctrine: Godly Grief and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: ‘Repent! The end is near’ (caricatured sandwich-board street-preacher pop-culture usage)
Original: μετάνοια
Category: Repentance
New to this curriculum (7:9-10). ‘Repent’ survives mainly in theatrical, caricatured pop-culture usage, making the term sound performative rather than describing an ordinary, necessary reorientation available to any reader.
The Collection
Approved rendering: the collection
Transliteration: logia
Doctrine: The Collection for the Saints
Original: λογία
Category: Generosity and Grace in Giving
New to this curriculum (8:1-9:15, esp. 8:4; 9:1,12). Strong contemporary skepticism toward religious fundraising appeals, driven by prosperity-gospel scandal coverage, should be named directly rather than assumed absent.
Poverty Riches Of Christ
Approved rendering: poverty and riches of Christ
Transliteration: eptōcheusen / plousios
Doctrine: The Poverty and Riches of Christ
Rejected alternatives: prosperity-gospel wealth-return formula (a widely circulated inversion of Paul’s actual point)
Original: ἐπτώχευσεν … πλούσιος ὤν
Category: Generosity and Grace in Giving
New to this curriculum (8:9). Significant risk of conflation with prosperity-gospel teaching; Paul’s actual point is sacrificial, incarnational self-impoverishment for others’ spiritual, not material, enrichment. Must be stated explicitly.
Sufficiency
Approved rendering: sufficiency
Transliteration: autarkeia
Doctrine: Power in Weakness
Rejected alternatives: self-sufficiency / self-reliance / bootstrapping (contemporary Western individualist ideals — the opposite direction of agency)
Original: αὐτάρκεια
Category: Power in Weakness
New to this curriculum (9:8; cf. 12:9). Paul deliberately repurposes a Stoic philosophical virtue term (self-generated contentment) into a claim about God-SUPPLIED sufficiency. Never leave the term bare; always attach the paraphrase clause ‘supplied by God, not generated by yourself.‘
Weapons Spiritual Warfare
Approved rendering: weapons / spiritual warfare
Transliteration: hopla / strateia
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and Strongholds
Original: ὅπλα / στρατεία
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (10:3-4). Genuine, live denominational contest between charismatic/deliverance-ministry traditions (literal, direct engagement with personal demonic forces) and cessationist/mainline traditions (metaphor for proud, ideological arguments). This curriculum states which reading it presents, per the baseline’s denominational-transparency rule.
False Apostles
Approved rendering: false apostles
Transliteration: pseudapostoloi
Doctrine: False Apostles and Super-Apostles
Rejected alternatives: cult leader (a partial, imperfect modern analogy that risks anachronistically importing unrelated tropes)
Original: ψευδαπόστολοι
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (11:4,12-15). Contemporary cult-leader cultural awareness is a comprehension asset but risks importing modern tropes (charisma, financial exploitation) rather than Paul’s specific concern — a different, works-based gospel and self-commendation.
Super Apostles
Approved rendering: super-apostles
Transliteration: hoi hyperlian apostoloi
Doctrine: False Apostles and Super-Apostles
Rejected alternatives: a genuine honorific (a flat, non-ironic misreading that must be avoided)
Original: οἱ ὑπερλίαν ἀπόστολοι
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (11:5; 12:11). Paul’s own biting irony; the modern ‘-super’ prefix aids recognition of the sarcasm (a rare comprehension asset), but the irony must be explicitly flagged or readers may read it as sincere praise.
Thorn In The Flesh
Approved rendering: thorn in the flesh
Transliteration: skolops tē sarki
Doctrine: The Thorn in the Flesh and Sufficient Grace
Rejected alternatives: a thorn in my side (the heavily secularized casual idiom for any minor annoyance)
Original: σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί
Category: Power in Weakness
New to this curriculum (12:7). One of the most heavily secularized biblical idioms in English; readers will import a trivial-annoyance sense that flattens Paul’s severe, unresolved, three-times-prayed-against affliction. Explicit severity restoration required.
Trinitarian Benediction
Approved rendering: grace, love, and fellowship (Trinitarian benediction)
Transliteration: charis, agapē, koinōnia
Doctrine: The Trinitarian Benediction
Original: ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ ἡ κοινωνία τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος
Category: God / Grace / Church
New to this curriculum (13:14). Compounds Critical-risk ‘grace,’ Critical-risk ‘Holy Spirit,’ and Medium-risk baseline ‘fellowship’ simultaneously in the letter’s most liturgically prominent verse across English-speaking Christian tradition; ‘fellowship’ here specifically risks the baseline-documented drift toward ‘an academic/professional grant’ if not tied explicitly to Trinitarian communion.
Medium Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: gospel
Transliteration: gospel
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: good news (acceptable as an explanatory gloss, but should not fully replace ‘gospel’ since it loses the term’s proclamatory weight)
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Comparatively stable: the idiom ‘gospel truth’ (meaning absolute, unquestionable truth) actually reinforces rather than undermines the word’s authoritative connotation. Main risk is that ‘the Gospels’ (the four New Testament books) can be confused with ‘the gospel’ (the message itself) by readers with limited church background. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] In 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, ‘the gospel’ is specifically the light unbelievers are blinded to by ‘the god of this age’; keep the proclamatory, revelatory weight intact in that passage.
Apostle
Approved rendering: apostle
Transliteration: apostle
Doctrine: Apostleship
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
Fairly stable technical term; main risk is treating ‘apostle’ as simply a job title rather than a specific, foundational, non-repeatable New Testament office. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] In 2 Corinthians 10-12 the office itself is contested throughout against rival ‘false apostles’ and self-styled ‘super-apostles’ (see those entries below); the underlying office keeps its baseline Medium risk, but the surrounding controversy is tracked separately at High risk.
Holy
Approved rendering: holy
Transliteration: holy
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: holier-than-thou (negative idiom for sanctimonious superiority), holy cow / holy moly (mere exclamations, entirely secularized)
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
‘Holy’ survives mainly in negative idiom or as a content-free exclamation. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] Present in 2 Corinthians 1:1 and in the greeting formula 13:12’s ‘holy kiss’ (see that entry for the distinct obsolescence risk of the custom itself).
Sanctification
Approved rendering: sanctification
Transliteration: sanctification
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: ἁγιασμός / ἁγιωσύνη (cognate, 7:1)
Category: Sanctification
OBSOLESCENCE RISK rather than false-friend risk: essentially unused in ordinary contemporary English outside religious contexts. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 7:1’s ‘bringing holiness to completion’ (a cognate, ἁγιωσύνη) names this as an ongoing, Spirit-empowered process rather than a single completed event.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Son of God
Transliteration: Son of God
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Comparatively stable phrase, but ‘historical Jesus’ popular narratives can quietly strip theological content from it. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 1:19 grounds God’s unwavering ‘Yes’ of faithfulness specifically in ‘the Son of God, Jesus Christ’ — the doctrine’s stability point in this letter.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: incarnation
Transliteration: incarnation
Doctrine: Incarnation
Original: ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο (theological category; cf. 2 Cor 8:9’s kenotic pattern)
Category: Christology
Comparatively stable and mostly encountered in explicitly Christian contexts. Minor risk: loose secular metaphorical usage can dilute the doctrine’s uniqueness. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 8:9 (‘though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor’) restates this doctrine as the theological ground for Christian generosity; guard against conflation with prosperity-gospel teaching that inverts the direction of the exchange (see ‘poverty_riches_of_christ’ below).
Peace
Approved rendering: peace
Transliteration: peace
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: world peace / inner peace (the dominant secular senses: political non-conflict or psychological calm)
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
‘Peace’ is heavily used in political and therapeutic/wellness senses in contemporary English. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] Occurs in 2 Corinthians’ standard epistolary greeting (1:2) and closing exhortation (13:11); lower load-bearing weight here than in Romans, but the same political/therapeutic-drift caution applies.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: fellowship
Transliteration: fellowship
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: a fellowship (the dominant contemporary secular sense: an academic, research, or professional grant/appointment, e.g. ‘a postdoctoral fellowship,’ ‘a Rhodes Scholarship fellowship’)
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
In contemporary English, ‘a fellowship’ is more likely encountered as an academic or professional grant/appointment than as shared Christian communal life. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 13:14’s Trinitarian benediction (‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’) is the single highest-visibility occurrence of this term in 2 Corinthians and across much of English-speaking liturgical use; the baseline’s academic/professional-fellowship drift note applies with special force here.
Law
Approved rendering: law
Transliteration: law
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: νόμος (implicit; the ‘old covenant,’ ‘letter,’ and Mosaic ministry of chapter 3 presuppose this term)
Category: Covenant
Contemporary Western readers live in a highly legalistic culture where ‘the law’ primarily evokes civil and criminal law. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] Forms the backdrop of 2 Corinthians 3:6-15’s letter/Spirit and veil argument; the baseline’s caution against a simplistic ‘legalism is always bad’ caricature is especially relevant here, since Paul honors the old covenant’s real but time-bound glory (3:7-11) rather than dismissing it.
Glory
Approved rendering: glory
Transliteration: glory
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: glory days (nostalgic secular usage for past success), a glory hound (a pejorative term for self-seeking attention)
Original: δόξα
Category: God
‘Glory’ survives mainly in nostalgic or self-seeking secular usage. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 3:7-11,18 and 4:4,6,17’s ‘glory to glory’ transformation theme is this doctrine’s densest concentration in the letter; actively counter the ‘glory days’ nostalgic-drift note by emphasizing ongoing, present transformation, not a past peak.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: power of God
Transliteration: power of God
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Original: δύναμις θεοῦ
Category: God
Contemporary secular discourse about ‘power’ is dominated by political, corporate, and abuse-of-power narratives, generally negative in connotation. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 12:9’s ‘power is perfected in weakness’ and 13:4’s resurrection-power statement sharpen this caution into a direct paradox: contemporary readers must be told this power is displayed specifically through, not despite, weakness — an intensification beyond Romans’ more general usage that effectively elevates this term’s practical risk in this book to Critical wherever it intersects the Power in Weakness doctrine.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messiah
Transliteration: Messiah
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: a messiah complex (a pop-psychology pejorative term for grandiose self-importance)
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
‘A messiah complex’ is a common pop-psychology term of mild clinical mockery for main-character grandiosity. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] ‘(In) Christ’ language is exceptionally dense throughout 2 Corinthians (5:17,19,21; 12:9-10 and elsewhere); each occurrence carries the full messianic-fulfillment weight the baseline requires, not merely a proper-name-like second name for Jesus.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israel
Transliteration: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: Ἰσραήλ
Category: Covenant
Standard proper name; note the modern nation-state of Israel is a live, politically contested contemporary topic. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] Present at 3:7,13 (‘the sons of Israel’) and 11:22 (Paul’s own Israelite credentials, ironically listed among his ‘boasting’).
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Jesus (as a casual interjection/expletive, entirely secularized and disrespectful usage)
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Widely used as a casual interjection or mild expletive in secular speech, a use this curriculum’s register must avoid. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] Frequent throughout 2 Corinthians; 4:14’s ‘the one who raised the Lord Jesus’ and 5:20’s ambassadorial appeal are load-bearing occurrences. NOTE: the actual doctrinal risk carried by this name in 2 Corinthians (deity, historicity) is elevated to Critical when read alongside ‘god’ and ‘holy_spirit’ below, given this letter’s density of explicit deity-of-Christ claims (1:19, 5:19).
Father
Approved rendering: Father
Transliteration: Father
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Minor denominational note: in Catholic usage ‘Father’ is also the standard form of address for a priest. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 1:3’s ‘Father of mercies’ directly grounds the Suffering and Comfort in Ministry doctrine; 6:18 and 11:31 are the letter’s other occurrences; the baseline’s pastoral-sensitivity note (readers with painful father figures) applies equally.
Affliction
Approved rendering: affliction
Transliteration: thlipsis
Doctrine: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
Original: θλῖψις
Category: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
New to this curriculum. OBSOLESCENCE RISK: formal/rare word in ordinary contemporary speech; readers may under-estimate its severity, hearing something closer to mild ‘trouble’ rather than the near-death crushing distress explicit at 1:8 (‘so utterly crushed’). Occurs at 1:4,8; 2:4; 4:17; 6:4; 7:4; 8:2,13.
Seal Guarantee
Approved rendering: seal / guarantee
Transliteration: sphragizō / arrabōn
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Seal and Guarantee
Original: σφραγίζω / ἀρραβών
Category: Holy Spirit and Assurance
New to this curriculum (1:22; 5:5). ‘Deposit/down payment’ registers as everyday real-estate or purchase language, a genuine comprehension asset, but risks flattening a rich, personal, Trinitarian assurance into a merely financial transaction if not tied explicitly to the Holy Spirit’s own personal presence.
Sincerity
Approved rendering: sincerity
Transliteration: haplotēs / eilikrineia
Doctrine: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
Rejected alternatives: just being real / authentic to yourself (contemporary self-expression culture’s reframing of sincerity as fidelity to one’s own feelings)
Original: ἁπλότης / εἰλικρίνεια
Category: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
New to this curriculum (1:12; 2:17; 11:3). Contemporary ‘authenticity’ language reframes sincerity as inward feeling-fidelity rather than transparent conformity to truth and to God’s own scrutiny; this distinction must be made explicit.
Forgive
Approved rendering: forgive
Transliteration: charizomai
Doctrine: Grace
Original: χαρίζομαι
Category: Grace
New to this curriculum (2:7,10; 12:13). Shares grace’s root and Critical risk profile at the theological level; ‘forgive’ itself is stable in ordinary English but should be explicitly tied back to grace-language, not treated as a merely interpersonal nicety, in church-discipline restoration contexts.
Triumphal Procession
Approved rendering: triumphal procession
Transliteration: thriambeuō
Doctrine: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
Rejected alternatives: a parade / a victory lap (trivializing modern substitutes with no equivalent cultural weight)
Original: θριαμβεύω
Category: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
New to this curriculum (2:14). Entirely obsolete cultural referent (ancient Roman military triumphs) requiring active historical explanation. Genuine scholarly ambiguity exists over whether Paul pictures himself as celebrated companion or humiliated captive-on-display; present both readings rather than silently resolving the ambiguity.
Fragrance Aroma
Approved rendering: fragrance / aroma
Transliteration: osmē
Doctrine: Genuine versus False Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: aromatherapy / perfume branding (dominant contemporary wellness/commercial associations)
Original: ὀσμή
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (2:14-16). Contemporary usage risks reducing an Old Testament sacrificial-cultic image (e.g. Leviticus 1:9) to a merely pleasant-sensation metaphor; the sacrificial background must be actively supplied.
Veil
Approved rendering: veil
Transliteration: kalymma
Doctrine: The New Covenant versus the Old
Original: κάλυμμα
Category: New Covenant
New to this curriculum (3:13-16). OBSOLESCENCE RISK: a mostly archaic/unfamiliar object outside the biblical narrative itself; the Exodus 34 background must be actively supplied for the metaphor to land.
Transformed Glory To Glory
Approved rendering: transformed from glory to glory
Transliteration: metamorphoumetha
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: Kafkaesque metamorphosis (a competing English literary association implying transformation into something lesser)
Original: μεταμορφούμεθα
Category: Sanctification
New to this curriculum (3:18). English ‘metamorphosis’ carries a helpful positive association (caterpillar-to-butterfly) alongside a mild liability (Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’); the positive association should be reinforced deliberately.
Freedom
Approved rendering: freedom
Transliteration: eleutheria
Doctrine: Freedom in the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: personal freedom to choose (dominant contemporary political/individual-autonomy sense)
Original: ἐλευθερία
Category: New Covenant
New to this curriculum (3:17). Contemporary ‘freedom’ is dominated by political/civil-liberties and individual-autonomy senses, obscuring Paul’s specific sense of freedom from condemnation and for Spirit-empowered transformation.
Treasure In Jars Of Clay
Approved rendering: treasure in jars of clay
Transliteration: thēsauros en ostrakinois skeuesin
Doctrine: Power in Weakness
Original: θησαυρὸν … ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν
Category: Power in Weakness
New to this curriculum (4:7). Mostly needs cultural-historical background (ancient pottery was cheap and disposable, unlike decorative antique pottery readers may picture) rather than false-friend correction.
Outer Inner Man
Approved rendering: outer self / inner self
Transliteration: ho exō / ho esō anthrōpos
Doctrine: New Creation in Christ
Rejected alternatives: true self / inner self (self-help pop-psychology sense implying a self-discovered, autonomous identity)
Original: ὁ ἔξω / ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος
Category: New Creation
New to this curriculum (4:16). Contemporary pop-psychology ‘true self’ language implies self-discovery, whereas Paul’s ‘inner man’ is renewed BY GOD, not introspectively discovered — the same direction-of-agency correction the baseline applies to ‘calling.‘
Unequally Yoked
Approved rendering: unequally yoked
Transliteration: heterozygeō
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: marriage/dating advice only (the near-exclusive contemporary English-speaking-Christian-culture application, which eclipses Paul’s broader point)
Original: ἑτεροζυγέω
Category: Church
New to this curriculum (6:14). Widely retained almost exclusively as marriage/dating advice, risking eclipse of Paul’s broader partnership-loyalty point (business, close friendship, or ministry alliance, not marriage alone).
Zeal
Approved rendering: zeal
Transliteration: spoudē
Doctrine: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
Rejected alternatives: zealotry / fanaticism (a mildly negative contemporary connotation not present in the neutral-to-positive Greek term)
Original: σπουδή
Category: Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
New to this curriculum (7:11-12; 8:7-8). Worth a brief clarifying note distinguishing the neutral-to-positive Greek sense from the mildly negative contemporary ‘zealotry’ association.
Equality Fair Balance
Approved rendering: equality / fair balance
Transliteration: isotēs
Doctrine: Generosity and Grace in Giving
Rejected alternatives: contemporary political equality/equity programs (a charged modern ideological framing not in view in Paul’s argument)
Original: ἰσότης
Category: Generosity and Grace in Giving
New to this curriculum (8:13-14). ‘Equality’ is a highly charged, actively contested term in current political discourse; Paul’s more modest need-based ‘fair balance’ point should be distinguished without either endorsing or rejecting contemporary debates on Paul’s authority.
Cheerful Giver
Approved rendering: cheerful giver
Transliteration: hilaros dotēs
Doctrine: Generosity and Grace in Giving
Rejected alternatives: hilarious (the near-total etymological semantic drift of the Greek root — ‘extremely funny,’ not the intended sense)
Original: ἱλαρὸς δότης
Category: Generosity and Grace in Giving
New to this curriculum (9:7). Notable etymological false-friend: readers should be told the word means ‘cheerful/glad,’ not ‘comedic,’ despite the visible etymological link to English ‘hilarious.‘
Strongholds
Approved rendering: strongholds
Transliteration: ochyrōma
Doctrine: Spiritual Warfare and Strongholds
Rejected alternatives: assigned territorial demonic ‘strongholds’ over cities (a narrower contemporary charismatic usage)
Original: ὀχύρωμα
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (10:4). Fairly stable English usage; minor risk that a narrower contemporary charismatic usage crowds out Paul’s more general ‘proud arguments/reasoning’ sense.
Measure Rule
Approved rendering: measure / rule of assignment
Transliteration: kanōn
Doctrine: Genuine versus False Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: biblical canon / literary canon (a related but distinct modern sense from the same root)
Original: κανών
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (10:13,15-16). The sense here (a measuring standard / assigned scope of ministry) differs from ‘an authoritative collection of books,’ a related but distinct modern usage of the same root.
Pure Virgin
Approved rendering: pure virgin
Transliteration: parthenos hagnē
Doctrine: Godly Jealousy and Protection of the Church
Rejected alternatives: modern purity-culture ethic (a distinct, contested contemporary discourse)
Original: παρθένος ἁγνή
Category: Church
New to this curriculum (11:2-3). Contemporary ‘virgin/purity’ language carries charged purity-culture associations; the specific point (undivided devotion, echoing Eve’s deception) should be kept distinct from any modern purity ethic.
Godly Jealousy
Approved rendering: godly jealousy
Transliteration: zēlos theou
Doctrine: Godly Jealousy and Protection of the Church
Rejected alternatives: possessive insecurity / envy (the near-uniform negative contemporary connotation of ‘jealousy’)
Original: ζῆλος θεοῦ
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (11:2). The positive, protective, covenant-loyalty sense — also used of God himself in the Old Testament — needs active recovery from the near-uniformly negative contemporary connotation.
Angels Of Light
Approved rendering: angels of light
Transliteration: angelos phōtos
Doctrine: Genuine versus False Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: sentimentalized guardian angels (contemporary greeting-card/pop-culture imagery)
Original: ἄγγελος φωτός
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (11:14). Contemporary sentimentalized ‘angel’ imagery is nearly the opposite of this passage’s point that dazzling appearance can be deliberate deception; the sentimentalized association should be actively set aside.
Third Heaven Paradise
Approved rendering: third heaven / Paradise
Transliteration: tritos ouranos / paradeisos
Doctrine: Power in Weakness
Rejected alternatives: a tropical vacation paradise (dominant contemporary travel-marketing imagery)
Original: τρίτος οὐρανός / παράδεισος
Category: Power in Weakness
New to this curriculum (12:2-4). Contemporary secular usage dilutes the term’s Second-Temple-Jewish, Edenic afterlife sense; a brief clarifying note restores the intended cosmological background.
Messenger Of Satan
Approved rendering: messenger of Satan
Transliteration: angelos satana
Doctrine: The Thorn in the Flesh and Sufficient Grace
Original: ἄγγελος σατανᾶ
Category: Power in Weakness
New to this curriculum (12:7). Requires care to avoid two opposite errors: attributing the affliction to Satan alone (denying divine purpose) or to God alone (denying real satanic hostility); preserve the tension rather than flatten it.
Signs Of A True Apostle
Approved rendering: signs of a true apostle
Transliteration: sēmeia tou apostolou
Doctrine: Genuine versus False Apostleship
Original: τὰ σημεῖα τοῦ ἀποστόλου
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (12:12). Paul’s reluctant final appeal to signs, wonders, and sacrificial endurance as authenticating evidence, not self-promotion; must not be read as requiring present-day ministers to perform miracles to be considered legitimate.
Examine Test Yourselves
Approved rendering: examine / test yourselves
Transliteration: heautous peirazete / dokimazete
Doctrine: Examine Yourselves: The Test of Genuine Faith
Rejected alternatives: generic psychological self-assessment (a contemporary therapy/self-help framing that loses Paul’s specific criterion)
Original: ἑαυτοὺς πειράζετε / δοκιμάζετε
Category: Genuine versus False Apostleship
New to this curriculum (13:5). Contemporary self-examination language aids basic comprehension but risks generic self-improvement reflection rather than Paul’s specific, Christ-centered test: ‘is Christ in you?‘
Low Risk Terms
Adoption
Approved rendering: adoption
Transliteration: adoption
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: υἱοθεσία (concept; direct term not used in 2 Cor, but sonship language present)
Category: Salvation
A rare case of positive secular drift: increased public awareness of adoption generally supports Romans 8:15-17’s sense of full, permanent, loving family inclusion. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 6:18’s ‘you shall be my sons and daughters’ carries this doctrine without using the technical term itself; the positive-secular-drift note applies equally.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: thanksgiving
Transliteration: thanksgiving
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστία
Category: Faith
Minor risk: capitalized ‘Thanksgiving’ names a major secular/cultural American national holiday. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] 2 Corinthians 9:11-12 ties thanksgiving directly to generosity received through the Jerusalem collection, reinforcing that gratitude terminates on God, not merely the human giver.
Exhort
Approved rendering: exhort
Transliteration: exhort
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Faith
OBSOLESCENCE RISK: rare, formal, almost archaic-sounding; readers will likely need it glossed but are unlikely to actively misread it. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE.] This verb (παρακαλέω) is unusually frequent in 2 Corinthians (1:4,6; 2:7-8; 5:20; 7:6-7,13; 9:5; 10:1; 12:8; 13:11) and spans an unusually wide range from ‘comfort’ to ‘urgent appeal/exhort’ — each occurrence needs its specific sense disambiguated per context, since the two poles feel like opposite registers in English even though one Greek word covers both.
Do Not Lose Heart
Approved rendering: do not lose heart
Transliteration: ouk enkakoumen
Doctrine: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
Original: οὐκ ἐγκακοῦμεν
Category: Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
New to this curriculum (4:1, 4:16). Stable, low-risk idiom in contemporary English with no significant competing meaning; grounded not in personal strength but in God’s mercy and resurrection hope.
Holy Kiss
Approved rendering: holy kiss
Transliteration: hagion philēma
Doctrine: The Holy Kiss and Reconciled Community
Original: ἅγιον φίλημα
Category: Church
New to this curriculum (13:12). Minimal false-friend risk since there is no strong competing modern meaning, only an unfamiliar custom; a brief cultural-historical note (roughly equivalent to a modern handshake, hug, or liturgical ‘passing of the peace’) resolves nearly all comprehension risk.
Referenced passages