Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Galatians
English → English | Full-Book Term Registry
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, drawn from every chapter of Galatians (1–6), including the verse-by-verse core passage (2:15–21). Risk tiers follow the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions (Critical/High/Medium/Low). Terms marked “Reuse (baseline)” carry forward the exact rendering, risk tier, and notes recorded in the Romans translation_memory.json/bible_term_registry.json per the mandatory reuse rule. Terms marked “New (Galatians)” are newly assessed here using the same three-part risk framework (false-friend drift / denominational contest / obsolescence, plus the Galatians-specific fourth category of internal English-translation-tradition drift).
Section A — Reused Baseline Terms (from Romans Language Package)
| Term | Chapter(s) | Original | Transliteration | Risk | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | 1, 2 | εὐαγγέλιον | euangelion | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | Elevated stakes here via “a different gospel” — see Section B |
| grace | 1, 2 (core), 5 | χάρις | charis | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | “Fallen from grace” idiom adds a Galatians-specific false-friend layer |
| faith | 2 (core), 3, 5 | πίστις | pistis | High | Reuse (baseline) | Genitive ambiguity (“faith of/in Christ”) elevates risk in 2:16, 20, 3:22 |
| righteousness | 2 (core), 3, 5 | δικαιοσύνη | dikaiosynē | High/Critical | Reuse (baseline) | Both baseline figures preserved as recorded (translation_memory: High; bible_term_registry: Critical) |
| justification | 2 (core), 3, 5 | δικαιόω / δικαίωσις | dikaioō | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | Triple concentration in 2:16 — highest density in the NT |
| apostle | 1 | ἀπόστολος | apostolos | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | Direct-commissioning emphasis added in 1:1 |
| called | 1, 5 | καλέω | kaleō | High | Reuse (baseline) | 5:13 “called to freedom” |
| calling | (implicit) | κλῆσις | klēsis | High | Reuse (baseline) | Related concept; term itself not separately headlined in Galatians |
| adoption | 4 | υἱοθεσία | huiothesia | Low | Reuse (baseline) | Exact verbatim reuse — one of only two NT occurrences outside Romans/Ephesians |
| resurrection | 1 | ἐγείρω (ἐκ νεκρῶν) | egeirō | High | Reuse (baseline) | 1:1, “raised him from the dead” |
| Lord | 1, 6 | κύριος | kyrios | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | 1:3; 6:14, 18 |
| Son of God | 2 (core), 4 | υἱὸς θεοῦ | huios theou | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | 2:20; 4:4 |
| incarnation | 4 | (θεολ. term; cf. γενόμενον ἐκ γυναικός) | — | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | 4:4, “born of a woman, born under the law” — added covenant-identification nuance |
| peace | 1, 6 | εἰρήνη | eirēnē | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | 1:3; 6:16 |
| fellowship | 2 | κοινωνία | koinōnia | Low | Reuse (baseline) | 2:9, “right hand of fellowship” |
| church | 1 | ἐκκλησία | ekklēsia | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | 1:2, 1:13 |
| kingdom of God | 5 | βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ | basileia tou theou | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | 5:21 |
| law | 2–6 (pervasive) | νόμος | nomos | High | Reuse (baseline) | The letter’s most pervasive term; see also new compound “works of the law” and “law of Christ” |
| sin | 1, 2 (core), 3 | ἁμαρτία | hamartia | High | Reuse (baseline) | 1:4; 2:17; 3:22 |
| Gentiles | 2, 3 | ἔθνη | ethnē | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | 2:15; 3:8 |
| glory | 1, 6 | δόξα | doxa | High | Reuse (baseline) | 1:5, 24; 6:14 |
| messiah / Christ | pervasive | Χριστός | Christos | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | Used as a proper name throughout; messianic-fulfillment sense should still be actively restated |
| covenant | 3, 4 | διαθήκη | diathēkē | High | Reuse (baseline) | 3:15–17 deliberately exploits the covenant/testament double sense — an asset here, not only a risk |
| mission | 1, 2 | (ἀποστολή concept) | — | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | Paul’s apostleship to the Gentiles (1:16; 2:7–9) |
| Israel | 6 | Ἰσραήλ | Israēl | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | 6:16, “Israel of God” — supersessionism caution applies |
| Jesus | pervasive | Ἰησοῦς | Iēsous | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | |
| God | pervasive | θεός | theos | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | |
| Holy Spirit / Spirit | 3, 4, 5, 6 | πνεῦμα (ἅγιον) | pneuma (hagion) | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | Heavily used chs. 3–5; central to Flesh versus Spirit and Fruit of the Spirit doctrines |
| Father | 1, 4 | πατήρ | patēr | High | Reuse (baseline) | 1:1, 3, 4; 4:2, 6 |
| Abba | 4 | Ἀββά | Abba | Medium | Reuse (baseline) | 4:6; ABBA-pop-group association note applies verbatim |
| seed (of Abraham) | 3 | σπέρμα | sperma | High | Reuse (baseline, adapted) | Same term family as baseline “seed_of_david,” here applied to Abraham’s singular “seed” (Christ) — see Section B for the grammatical-number risk specific to this occurrence |
| imputed righteousness | 3 | ἐλογίσθη … εἰς δικαιοσύνην | elogisthē eis dikaiosynēn | Critical | Reuse (baseline) | 3:6 — verbatim identical Greek phrase to Romans 4:3 |
Section B — New Galatians-Specific Terms
| Term | Chapter(s) | Original | Transliteration | Doctrine | Risk | Rendering Risk Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| works of the law | 2 (core), 3 | ἔργα νόμου | erga nomou | Justification by Faith; Law and Grace | Critical | Live scholarly/denominational contest (traditional vs. New Perspective readings); state this curriculum’s position plainly |
| flesh | 2 (core), 5 | σάρξ | sarx | Flesh versus Spirit | High | Two distinct senses (neutral “human” vs. moral “sin-nature”) must be disambiguated per occurrence |
| a different gospel | 1 | ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον | heteron euangelion | True Gospel vs. False Gospels | High | Modern pluralism resists an exclusive-truth claim; state plainly |
| accursed / anathema | 1 | ἀνάθεμα | anathema | True Gospel vs. False Gospels | Critical | Secular idiom (“anathema to me”) badly understates a formal divine curse |
| slave of Christ | 1 | δοῦλος | doulos | Paul’s Apostleship; Freedom in Christ (contrast) | High | Heavy modern connotations of chattel slavery; address the translation-tradition softening (“servant”) directly |
| revelation | 1 | ἀποκάλυψις | apokalypsis | Paul’s Apostleship | High | ”Apocalypse” now means catastrophic destruction in popular use — false-friend risk |
| zealous | 1 | ζηλωτής | zēlōtēs | Paul’s Apostleship (biographical) | Medium | Mild negative “fanaticism” connotation in contemporary use |
| traditions | 1 | παραδόσεις | paradoseis | Paul’s Apostleship (biographical) | Low-Medium | Neutral/positive in modern English; do not import unrelated NT “human tradition vs. God’s word” contrast |
| false brothers | 2 | ψευδάδελφοι | pseudadelphoi | True Gospel vs. False Gospels | Medium | ”Fake” can trivialize the serious charge intended |
| circumcision | 2, 5, 6 | περιτομή | peritomē | Circumcision and the New Creation | Critical | Word itself stable; doctrinal/denominational stakes very high |
| hypocrisy | 2 | ὑπόκρισις | hypokrisis | Law and Grace (narrative) | Low | Stable meaning |
| compel | 2, 6 | ἀναγκάζω | anagkazō | True Gospel vs. False Gospels | Low | Stable meaning |
| transgressor | 2 (core) | παραβάτης | parabatēs | Justification by Faith | Medium | Obsolescence risk; rare formal word |
| crucified with Christ | 2 (core), 5 | συσταυρόω | synestaurōmai / estaurōsan | Crucified with Christ | Critical | ”Crucified” now a metaphor for harsh criticism in popular use — false-friend risk |
| gave himself / handed over | 2 (core) | παραδίδωμι | paradidōmi | Crucified with Christ | High | Verb spans “betray” and “voluntarily give up” — clarify self-sacrificial sense |
| nullify | 2 (core) | ἀθετέω | athetō | Law and Grace | High | KJV “frustrate” is now a false friend (means “annoy” today) |
| died in vain / for no purpose | 2 (core) | δωρεάν | dōrean | Justification by Faith | Medium | Mild literary-register obsolescence |
| foolish | 3 | ἀνόητοι | anoētoi | Justification by Faith (rebuke) | Low | Modern tone slightly softer/more comedic than intended |
| bewitched | 3 | ἐβάσκανεν | ebaskanen | True Gospel vs. False Gospels | Medium | Modern fantasy/pop-culture associations risk trivializing |
| hearing of faith | 3 | ἀκοὴ πίστεως | akoē pisteōs | Justification by Faith | Medium | ”Hearing” as passive sense-verb underplays receptive trust |
| Abraham | 3, 4 | Ἀβραάμ | Abraam | Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | Low | ”Abrahamic faiths” framing can flatten the specific covenantal argument |
| blessing | 3 | εὐλογία | eulogia | Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | Low | Risk of genericizing to vague good fortune |
| curse | 3 | κατάρα | katara | Abrahamic Covenant and Promise; The Law’s Purpose | Critical | Competes with both a trivialized fantasy sense and an unrelated “cursing/swearing” sense |
| redeemed | 3, 4 | ἐξαγοράζω | exagorazō | Abrahamic Covenant and Promise; Adoption and Sonship | High | Modern “redeem” mainly financial (coupons) or generic “comeback story” |
| promise | 3, 4 | ἐπαγγελία | epangelia | Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | Medium | Risk of genericizing into a casual interpersonal promise |
| seed / offspring (of Abraham) | 3 | σπέρμα | sperma | Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | High | Grammatical-singular argument (3:16) not preserved in English “offspring/descendants” |
| mediator | 3 | μεσίτης | mesitēs | The Law’s Purpose | Medium | Modern legal-mediation sense underplays covenantal/revelatory role |
| guardian / tutor | 3 | παιδαγωγός | paidagōgos | The Law’s Purpose | High | KJV “schoolmaster” is now a false friend implying a classroom teacher, not a custodial/disciplinary household role |
| baptized into Christ | 3 | βαπτίζω | baptizō | Adoption and Sonship (incorporation) | High | Live denominational contest over mode, subjects, and efficacy |
| neither Jew nor Greek… | 3 | — | — | Unity of Jews and Gentiles (Romans doctrine, reapplied) | Medium | Live contemporary debate on gender/status implications |
| heirs | 3, 4 | κληρονόμος | klēronomos | Adoption and Sonship | Medium | Modern inheritance law is more adversarial in connotation |
| fullness of time | 4 | πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου | plērōma tou chronou | Incarnation (Romans doctrine, reapplied) | Low-Medium | Mild obsolescence outside religious register |
| elemental spirits | 4 | στοιχεῖα | stoicheia | Freedom in Christ; The Law’s Purpose | Critical | Genuine scholarly/translation contest (physical elements / basic teachings / cosmic spiritual powers) |
| allegory | 4 | ἀλληγορέω | allēgoreō | Abrahamic Covenant and Promise (method) | Medium | Paul’s interpretive method must be named explicitly, not silently applied |
| yoke of slavery | 5 | ζυγὸς δουλείας | zygos douleias | Freedom in Christ | Medium | Agricultural metaphor moderately obsolescent in urban English |
| fallen from grace (idiom) | 5 | τῆς χάριτος ἐξέπεσον | tēs charitos exepeson | Law and Grace | Critical | Common secular idiom for public disgrace displaces Paul’s specific sense |
| faith working through love | 5 | πίστις διʼ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη | pistis dia agapēs energoumenē | Faith Working through Love | High | Historic Catholic-Protestant contest passage (fides caritate formata) |
| love | 5 | ἀγάπη | agapē | Faith Working through Love; Fruit of the Spirit | Medium | Contemporary English “love” is broad/romantic-coded; Pauline self-giving sense needs restating |
| walk (by the Spirit) | 5 | περιπατέω | peripateō | Flesh versus Spirit | Medium | Lifestyle-metaphor sense of “walk” survives mainly in religious register |
| works of the flesh | 5 | ἔργα τῆς σαρκός | erga tēs sarkos | Flesh versus Spirit | High | Vice-list application of the “flesh” term |
| fruit of the Spirit | 5 | καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματος | karpos tou pneumatos | Fruit of the Spirit | Critical | Extreme popular familiarity risks flattening into a self-effort checklist, inverting Paul’s works/fruit contrast |
| bear one another’s burdens | 6 | ἀλλήλων τὰ βάρη βαστάζετε | allēlōn ta barē bastazete | Bearing One Another’s Burdens | Low-Medium | Risk of genericizing into vague therapeutic “be supportive” language |
| law of Christ | 6 | νόμος τοῦ Χριστοῦ | nomos tou Christou | Bearing One Another’s Burdens; Law and Grace | Medium | Deliberately paradoxical phrase requiring explicit explanation |
| sow and reap | 6 | σπείρω / θερίζω | speirō / therizō | Flesh versus Spirit (application) | Low | Secular idiom can carry fatalistic “karma” connotations to be distinguished |
| boast | 6 | καυχάομαι | kauchaomai | Circumcision and the New Creation | Medium | Ironic positive use (boasting in the cross) needs explicit explanation |
| new creation | 6 | καινὴ κτίσις | kainē ktisis | Circumcision and the New Creation | Critical | Popular “new you”/rebranding usage risks flattening a cosmic eschatological claim |
| marks / brand-marks | 6 | στίγματα | stigmata | Paul’s Apostleship (biographical) | Medium | Modern “stigma” is negative; popular “stigmata” (miraculous wounds) is an unrelated and potentially confusing devotional association |
Risk Tier Summary (Galatians-Specific New Terms, Section B)
| Tier | Count | Terms Requiring Human Theologian Review |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 8 | works of the law; anathema; circumcision; crucified with Christ; curse; elemental spirits; fallen from grace (idiom); fruit of the Spirit; new creation (9 total — see note) |
| High | 13 | a different gospel; slave of Christ; revelation; gave himself/handed over; nullify; redeemed; seed/offspring of Abraham; guardian/tutor; baptized into Christ; faith working through love; works of the flesh; flesh |
| Medium | 20 | (see full table above) |
| Low / Low-Medium | 6 | (see full table above) |
Note: nine Critical-tier new terms are listed in the risk-tier summary count above (works of the law; anathema; circumcision; crucified with Christ; curse; elemental spirits; fallen from grace idiom; fruit of the Spirit; new creation); all require human theologian review per the baseline’s Critical-tier review routing rule, consistent with doctrine_risk_registry.json’s established convention. Combined with the reused baseline Critical-tier terms (grace, justification, Lord, church, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Son of God, incarnation, imputed righteousness), Galatians carries a very high concentration of Critical-tier review requirements, appropriate to its status as the New Testament’s most concentrated single-letter treatment of justification, law, and gospel-purity.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: grace
Transliteration: grace
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: elegance/poise (the dominant secular sense), a grace period (the dominant legal/financial sense)
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians intensifies the denominational-contest risk because the entire letter is structured around a sustained grace-versus-law polemic (2:21; 5:4); the ‘apart from works’ reading must be restated explicitly at every occurrence, not asserted once and assumed carried forward. Also carries a Galatians-specific added false-friend layer via the idiom ‘fallen from grace’ (5:4) — see that separate entry below.
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: justification
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: justifying your answer / justifying an action (the near-universal everyday sense of giving a reason or excuse for something already done)
Original: δικαιόω / δικαίωσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 2:16 uses the verb three times in a single sentence — the single highest concentration of this false-friend risk anywhere in the New Testament — requiring the forensic clarification to be restated at each occurrence within that verse, not assumed carried over from the first use.
Lord
Approved rendering: Lord
Transliteration: Lord
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: boss / master (loses exclusivity and worship-worthiness), a British Lord (the aristocratic title sense)
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 1:3 and 6:14, 18 use ‘Lord’ in the letter’s opening and closing frame; the same near-obsolescence of felt authority in everyday English applies and must be actively restored, not passively repeated.
Church
Approved rendering: church
Transliteration: church
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 1:2 and 1:13 (Paul’s persecution of ‘the church of God’) require the same restoration of the living, Spirit-indwelt sense against contemporary post-Christian institutional-decline associations.
Works Of The Law
Approved rendering: works of the law
Transliteration: works of the law
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: trying to obey the law (an acceptable loose paraphrase that flattens the specific covenant-boundary-marker debate), good deeds (too generic; loses the Torah-specific referent)
Original: ἔργα νόμου
Category: Salvation
New term. A live scholarly and denominational contest within English-speaking Christian scholarship itself: the traditional Reformation reading (general moral/ceremonial law-observance as a merit system) versus the ‘New Perspective on Paul’ reading (specifically the covenant-boundary markers of circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath). Used three times in Galatians 2:16 alone. This curriculum states its own reading (Reformation-consistent, faith-alone justification, read with Romans 4) while briefly and respectfully noting the New Perspective’s alternative emphasis, per the baseline’s denominational-transparency principle.
Anathema
Approved rendering: accursed / anathema
Transliteration: anathema
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Rejected alternatives: that’s anathema to me (the weakened contemporary secular idiom for mere strong dislike)
Original: ἀνάθεμα
Category: Gospel
New term. Contemporary English ‘anathema’ survives mainly as a weakened secular idiom, a significant false-friend risk that badly undersells the formal, severe divine curse Paul pronounces twice in 1:8-9. Retain the transliterated word, always paired with a full paraphrase (‘a formal divine curse’).
Circumcision
Approved rendering: circumcision
Transliteration: peritomē
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Original: περιτομή
Category: Covenant
New term. The English word itself is stable and carries no competing secular sense, but the doctrinal stakes are exceptionally high: whether Gentile believers must be circumcised is the letter’s central controversy, intersecting directly with the live scholarly/denominational contest over ‘works of the law.’ State this curriculum’s reading plainly.
Crucified With Christ
Approved rendering: crucified with Christ
Transliteration: synestaurōmai
Doctrine: Crucified with Christ
Rejected alternatives: crucified in the press (the dominant contemporary metaphor for harsh public criticism)
Original: Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι
Category: Union with Christ
New term. Contemporary English ‘crucified’ survives almost entirely as a metaphor for harsh public criticism, a false-friend risk that could reduce Paul’s participatory-union theology at 2:20 to a metaphor for suffering or humiliation rather than real identification with Christ’s atoning death. The sanctification-application at 5:24 (‘crucified the flesh’) must be distinguished from the once-for-all justification statement at 2:20, not treated as a repeated ritual re-crucifixion.
Curse
Approved rendering: curse
Transliteration: katara
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Rejected alternatives: a cursed object (the trivialized fantasy/superstition sense), cursing/swearing (the unrelated profanity sense)
Original: κατάρα
Category: Covenant
New term. Contemporary English ‘curse’ has multiple competing senses unrelated to Paul’s covenantal-legal sense (Deuteronomy 27-28 background) of exclusion from blessing at 3:10, 13; both competing senses must be actively distinguished.
Elemental Spirits
Approved rendering: elemental spirits / elements of the world
Transliteration: ta stoicheia tou kosmou
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Rejected alternatives: basic principles (NASB-tradition rendering, which may underplay a possible personal-powers referent), elemental spirits (ESV/NRSV rendering, which may overstate a personal-powers referent)
Original: τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου
Category: Freedom
New term. A live scholarly-and-translation contest in its own right (physical elements / elementary teachings / cosmic spiritual powers). This curriculum must state which reading it adopts and note the genuine range, since the choice materially affects whether 4:3, 9 targets Jewish law-observance, pagan idolatry, or both. Also guard against unrelated modern occult/astrology associations with the word ‘elemental.‘
Fallen From Grace
Approved rendering: fallen from grace
Transliteration: tēs charitos exepesate
Doctrine: Law and Grace
Rejected alternatives: fallen from grace (public-disgrace idiom sense — a politician or celebrity ‘falling from grace’; this is the rejected everyday reading, not the recommended rendering)
Original: τῆς χάριτος ἐξεπέσατε
Category: Salvation
New term. An added false-friend layer on top of the Critical baseline ‘grace’ entry: this phrase is now a common secular English idiom for any public disgrace or loss of reputation, largely detached from Paul’s specific sense at 5:4 of abandoning grace as the ground of one’s standing before God. Explicitly retire the secular idiom before restating Paul’s sense.
Fruit Of The Spirit
Approved rendering: fruit of the Spirit
Transliteration: karpos tou pneumatos
Doctrine: Fruit of the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: a self-improvement checklist (the trivializing popular-culture default reading, exactly inverting Paul’s fruit/works contrast)
Original: καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματος
Category: Sanctification
New term. An extremely well-known phrase even among nominal/secular English speakers (décor, greeting cards), creating a familiarity-breeds-flattening risk: readers may read the list as a checklist to strive for by personal effort, exactly inverting Paul’s works/fruit, flesh/Spirit contrast at 5:22-23. Note also that ‘fruit’ is grammatically singular in the Greek, a point some English translations obscure.
New Creation
Approved rendering: new creation
Transliteration: kainē ktisis
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Rejected alternatives: a new you / a makeover (the trivializing popular self-improvement/rebranding metaphor), new creature (the KJV’s individual-scale rendering, superseded by modern translations’ cosmic-scale ‘new creation’)
Original: καινὴ κτίσις
Category: Salvation
New term. Moderate secular-drift risk through loose popular usage as a vague self-improvement/rebranding metaphor, risking reduction of Paul’s cosmic, eschatological, Spirit-wrought re-creation claim to a shallow ‘new you’ narrative. Must be restored to full eschatological weight and explicitly tied back to the circumcision controversy at 6:15.
Freedom
Approved rendering: freedom / liberty
Transliteration: eleutheria
Doctrine: Freedom in Christ
Rejected alternatives: personal autonomy / absence of constraint (the dominant contemporary Western secular default sense)
Original: ἐλευθερία
Category: Freedom
New term. Contemporary Western English culture defaults to an individualist-autonomy sense of ‘freedom,’ a genuinely different framework from Paul’s freedom-for-service paradox at 5:1, 13. This contrast must be stated explicitly, paralleling the baseline’s treatment of individual autonomy under ‘obedience of faith.‘
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)
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 2:16, 2:20, and 3:22 use the disputed genitive construction ‘faith of/in Jesus Christ’ (pistis Christou), where English readers will default to the objective-genitive sense (‘faith in Christ’); the minority subjective-genitive scholarly reading (‘the faithfulness of Christ’) should be flagged per the Ambiguity Handling rule even though this curriculum follows the majority English-tradition rendering.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: righteousness
Transliteration: righteousness
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: self-righteous / holier-than-thou (the dominant negative connotation ‘righteous’ now carries in casual usage)
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as High from the Romans translation_memory.json). Note: this curriculum’s own bible_term_registry.json records this term’s risk as Critical, following the Romans bible_term_registry.json convention; both figures are preserved as recorded rather than reconciled into a single number, consistent with the baseline’s own internal precedent. Galatians 2:21 and 3:6 make righteousness-by-faith the letter’s central claim.
Called
Approved rendering: called
Transliteration: called
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Original: καλέω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 1:6 (‘called you in the grace of Christ’) and 5:13 (‘called to freedom’) both require the same direction-of-agency clarification as the baseline: God calls; the believer does not self-select a spiritual path through introspection.
Calling
Approved rendering: calling
Transliteration: calling
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: finding your calling (the dominant contemporary secular sense: career vocation discovered through self-reflection)
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. The concept underlies Galatians’ calling language (1:6; 5:13) even though the noun form itself is not separately headlined in the letter; retain the baseline’s caution against the modern career-vocation/self-actualization sense.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: resurrection
Transliteration: resurrection
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Easter (the commercialized cultural holiday sense)
Original: ἐγείρω (ἐκ νεκρῶν)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 1:1 grounds Paul’s apostolic authority directly in ‘God the Father, who raised him from the dead’; state the historical, bodily claim plainly against the same contemporary ‘resurrection as myth’ drift documented in the baseline.
Sin
Approved rendering: sin
Transliteration: sin
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: sinfully delicious (trivialized marketing usage)
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 1:4, 2:17, and 3:22 use the term; note the distinct nuance at 2:15’s ‘sinners’ (a Jewish covenantal-insider label for Gentile outsiders to the law) versus the universal moral-guilt sense elsewhere — state this distinction explicitly so readers do not collapse the two senses.
Covenant
Approved rendering: covenant
Transliteration: covenant
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: a restrictive covenant (the dominant contemporary legal sense in property/employment contracts)
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine field ‘Davidic Covenant’ copied exactly as recorded, though Galatians applies covenant language chiefly to the Abrahamic, not Davidic, promise — see the new ‘Abrahamic Covenant and Promise’ doctrine for the curriculum-specific application). Galatians 3:15-17 deliberately exploits the Greek word’s double sense of ‘covenant’ and ‘human will/testament’ — here the baseline’s noted legal-document association is an asset Paul himself intends, an exception to the general caution.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: imputed righteousness
Transliteration: imputed righteousness
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: earned righteousness / good-person status (the explicit rejected opposite)
Original: ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as High; this curriculum’s bible_term_registry.json records Critical — both preserved per established precedent). Galatians 3:6 quotes the identical Greek phrase found at Romans 4:3 (citing Genesis 15:6); must not be rendered as ‘earned righteousness.‘
Seed Of Abraham
Approved rendering: seed of Abraham
Transliteration: seed of Abraham
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Rejected alternatives: descendant(s) of Abraham (an acceptable modern-register gloss that loses the grammatical-singular point)
Original: σπέρμα (Ἀβραάμ)
Category: Covenant
Adapted from the baseline Romans ‘seed_of_david’ term family and applied here to Abraham (Galatians 3:16, 3:29). The Greek noun is grammatically singular, and Paul’s exegetical argument depends on that singular form applying to one individual (Christ) rather than a collective; English ‘offspring/descendants’ does not preserve this grammatical-number subtlety and must be explained explicitly, following the baseline’s ‘seed_of_david’ precedent of retaining the traditional phrase alongside a modern gloss.
Flesh
Approved rendering: flesh
Transliteration: flesh
Doctrine: Flesh versus Spirit
Rejected alternatives: carnal (archaic register with narrower sexual-sin connotation in contemporary usage), body (loses the specifically moral, sin-oriented sense at 5:13-24)
Original: σάρξ
Category: Sanctification
New term. Galatians uses sarx in at least two distinct senses — neutral ‘mortal/physical existence’ (2:20) and morally loaded ‘sin-oriented human nature opposed to the Spirit’ (5:13-24) — readers must be told explicitly which sense is active in each passage. Contemporary English ‘flesh’ survives mainly in clinical (‘flesh wound’) or vaguely negative (‘carnal’) registers that map imprecisely onto either sense.
A Different Gospel
Approved rendering: a different gospel
Transliteration: heteron euangelion
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Rejected alternatives: another gospel (obscures Paul’s own heteros/allos wordplay distinguishing ‘different in kind’ from ‘another of the same kind’)
Original: ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Gospel
New term. Paul’s 1:6-7 wordplay contrasts heteros (‘different in kind’) with allos (‘another of the same kind’) — there is no second true gospel. Contemporary religious pluralism resists the premise that a ‘gospel’ could be objectively false or that only one true gospel exists; this exclusive-truth claim must be stated plainly, not softened.
Slave Of Christ
Approved rendering: slave of Christ
Transliteration: doulos Christou
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: servant of Christ (the near-universal English translation-tradition softening, which obscures the deliberate slave/free contrast structuring the letter)
Original: Χριστοῦ δοῦλος
Category: Apostleship
New term. Doulos (‘slave’) carries heavy modern historical connotation from chattel slavery; virtually all English translations soften to ‘servant/bond-servant.’ This curriculum addresses the translation-tradition choice directly rather than passing over it, noting the letter’s own positive/negative contrast: positive self-designation (1:10) versus negative ‘slavery’ under the law (4:9; 5:1).
Revelation
Approved rendering: revelation
Transliteration: apokalypsis
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: apocalypse (the dominant contemporary sense: catastrophic destruction)
Original: ἀποκάλυψις
Category: Apostleship
New term. The English derivative ‘apocalypse’ is now overwhelmingly associated with catastrophic destruction in popular culture, a false-friend risk importing disaster connotations into Paul’s claim of direct divine disclosure at 1:12.
Gave Himself
Approved rendering: gave himself
Transliteration: paradontos heauton
Doctrine: Crucified with Christ
Rejected alternatives: betrayed (the verb’s darker sense, which must be excluded here)
Original: παραδόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ
Category: Christology
New term. Paradidōmi (‘hand over, deliver up’) spans neutral ‘deliver’ to treacherous ‘betray’ — the same verb describes both Judas’s betrayal and the Father’s/Son’s own voluntary self-giving elsewhere in Paul. Readers must be told this is voluntary, substitutionary self-giving at 2:20, not victimization.
Nullify
Approved rendering: nullify
Transliteration: athetō
Doctrine: Law and Grace
Rejected alternatives: frustrate (the KJV’s once-accurate rendering, now a false friend meaning merely ‘annoy’)
Original: ἀθετῶ
Category: Salvation
New term. A clear case of internal English-translation-tradition drift: the KJV’s ‘frustrate’ (2:21) was accurate in 1611 English but is now a false friend. Even ‘nullify’ is a formal, legal-register word requiring brief definition, though it carries no wrong meaning, only unfamiliarity.
Redeemed
Approved rendering: redeemed
Transliteration: exēgorasen / exagorasē
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Rejected alternatives: redeem a coupon (the dominant contemporary financial sense), a comeback story (the generalized secular sense)
Original: ἐξηγόρασεν / ἐξαγοράσῃ
Category: Salvation
New term. A marketplace/manumission term: to buy out or buy back a slave from bondage. Modern ‘redeem/redemption’ survives mainly in financial and generic ‘comeback story’ senses, only loosely related to Paul’s specific slave-purchase image at 3:13 and 4:5.
Guardian Tutor
Approved rendering: guardian / tutor
Transliteration: paidagōgos
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Rejected alternatives: schoolmaster (the KJV’s now-obsolete and misleading rendering, which suggests a classroom educator)
Original: παιδαγωγός
Category: Law
New term. Genuine internal English-translation-tradition drift: the KJV’s ‘schoolmaster’ (3:24-25) once meant a household tutor-guardian but now misleads readers into picturing a formal classroom educator; the custodial/disciplinary ancient role must be stated plainly, since many readers’ only exposure to this verse is through a KJV-descended hymn or memory verse.
Baptized Into Christ
Approved rendering: baptized into Christ
Transliteration: baptisthentes eis Christon
Doctrine: Adoption and Sonship
Original: βαπτισθέντες εἰς Χριστὸν
Category: Church
New term. Genuine, live denominational contest over mode (immersion vs. sprinkling), subjects (believers-only vs. infant baptism), and efficacy (symbolic ordinance vs. sacramental means of grace). Flag per the transparency principle even though 3:27 itself argues incorporation into Christ, not mode or timing.
Faith Working Through Love
Approved rendering: faith working through love
Transliteration: pistis dia agapēs energoumenē
Doctrine: Faith Working through Love
Rejected alternatives: faith formed by love (the traditional Catholic fides caritate formata rendering, presented here as the noted alternative reading, not this curriculum’s adopted position)
Original: πίστις διʼ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη
Category: Faith
New term. A genuine historic Catholic-Protestant contest passage (whether faith alone justifies, or faith must be ‘formed by love’ to be salvific). This curriculum states its reading plainly — faith’s observable, Spirit-produced fruit/expression, consistent with the ‘apart from works’ reading recorded for grace — while noting other traditions read the ground/fruit distinction differently.
Works Of The Flesh
Approved rendering: works of the flesh
Transliteration: erga tēs sarkos
Doctrine: Flesh versus Spirit
Original: ἔργα τῆς σαρκός
Category: Sanctification
New term. Reuses the morally loaded sense of ‘flesh’ documented above; readers must understand this is the sin-nature sense, not the neutral ‘mortal existence’ sense used elsewhere in the letter (e.g. 2:20). Applied to the specific vice list at 5:19-21.
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: Gospel
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians raises the stakes: Paul immediately contrasts this word with ‘a different gospel’ (1:6-9) and pronounces anathema on distortions of it, so the authoritative, singular, non-negotiable sense must be foregrounded rather than the generic ‘good news’ gloss allowed to stand alone.
Apostle
Approved rendering: apostle
Transliteration: apostle
Doctrine: Apostleship
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Apostleship
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 1:1 adds an emphatic ‘not from men nor through man’ — direct divine commissioning defended against rival claims to authority — a specific emphasis beyond the general baseline caution about loose secular usage (‘an apostle of free trade’).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Son of God
Transliteration: Son of God
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Medium from the Romans translation_memory.json). Note: this curriculum’s own bible_term_registry.json records this term’s risk as Critical, following the Romans bible_term_registry.json convention; both figures are preserved as recorded rather than reconciled, per the established righteousness precedent. Galatians 2:20 (‘faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’) and 4:4 (‘God sent forth his Son’) both require the eternal, non-metaphorical sense to be actively taught.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: incarnation
Transliteration: incarnation
Doctrine: Incarnation
Original: γενόμενον ἐκ γυναικός, γενόμενον ὑπὸ νόμον
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Medium; this curriculum’s bible_term_registry.json records Critical — both figures preserved per the established precedent). Galatians 4:4 adds a covenant-identification nuance beyond the Romans baseline note: ‘born under the law’ ties the incarnation directly to Christ’s full identification with Israel’s covenant obligations.
Peace
Approved rendering: peace
Transliteration: peace
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: world peace / inner peace (dominant secular senses)
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Appears in Galatians 1:3 and 6:16, framing the letter; distinguish from psychological calm or geopolitical non-conflict per the baseline note.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: kingdom of God
Transliteration: kingdom of God
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: a fantasy kingdom (contemporary media associations)
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 5:21 lists exclusion from the kingdom among the consequences of unrepentant works of the flesh; guard against the fantasy-fiction ‘imagined realm’ association.
Law
Approved rendering: law
Transliteration: law
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Medium; this curriculum’s bible_term_registry.json records High — both preserved per established precedent). Galatians is the letter’s most pervasive term (chs. 2-6); it also generates two new compound terms tracked separately in this registry (‘works of the law,’ ‘law of Christ’) carrying their own distinct risk profiles that must not be collapsed into this general entry.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: Gentiles
Transliteration: Gentiles
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: non-believers (a common but incorrect modern gloss)
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 2:15 and 3:8 both depend on ‘Gentiles’ meaning non-Jewish people rather than ‘non-believers,’ a common but mistaken modern gloss the baseline already warns against.
Glory
Approved rendering: glory
Transliteration: glory
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: glory days (nostalgic secular usage), a glory hound (pejorative self-seeking usage)
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Medium; this curriculum’s bible_term_registry.json records High — both preserved per established precedent). Galatians 1:5 and 1:24 use it in doxological framing, and 6:14 in the ironic ‘boasting’ inversion.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messiah
Transliteration: Messiah
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: a messiah complex (pop-psychology pejorative for grandiosity)
Original: Χριστός / מָשִׁיחַ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Used throughout Galatians primarily as a proper name (‘Christ’); the messianic-fulfillment sense should still be actively restated periodically rather than assumed retained through sheer repetition.
Mission
Approved rendering: mission
Transliteration: mission
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: a mission statement (the dominant contemporary corporate/organizational sense)
Original: ἀποστολή / πέμπω
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 1:16 and 2:7-9 describe Paul’s specific apostolic mission to the Gentiles, formally recognized by the Jerusalem apostles; distinguish from the corporate ‘mission statement’ secular sense.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israel
Transliteration: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: יִשְׂרָאֵל
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 6:16’s ‘Israel of God’ connects directly to the Romans 9-11 unity-of-Jews-and-Gentiles doctrine and its anti-supersessionism caution, which carries over here.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Jesus (as a casual interjection/expletive)
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Medium; this curriculum’s bible_term_registry.json records Critical — both preserved per established precedent). Otherwise stable; popular ‘historical Jesus’ framings still risk quietly stripping out the divine claims Galatians makes about him (1:1, 4:4).
God
Approved rendering: God
Transliteration: God
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a higher power / the universe (vague contemporary spiritual substitutes)
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Medium; this curriculum’s bible_term_registry.json records Critical — both preserved per established precedent).
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Holy Spirit
Transliteration: Holy Spirit
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: good vibes / positive energy (vague contemporary spiritual substitutes)
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Medium; this curriculum’s bible_term_registry.json records Critical — both preserved per established precedent). The Spirit is heavily used across Galatians 3-6, central to the Flesh versus Spirit and Fruit of the Spirit doctrines; guard against wellness-culture substitutes at every occurrence, not only the first.
Father
Approved rendering: Father
Transliteration: Father
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Medium; this curriculum’s bible_term_registry.json records High — both preserved per established precedent). Galatians 1:1, 1:3-4, and 4:2, 6 use ‘Father’; the baseline’s pastoral caution about readers with painful or absent human father figures applies with equal force here.
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: ABBA (the Swedish pop group)
Original: Ἀββά
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, including the ABBA-pop-group association note carried over verbatim. Galatians 4:6 is one of only two NT occurrences of the term.
Zealous
Approved rendering: zealous
Transliteration: zēlōtēs
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Original: ζηλωτής
Category: Apostleship
New term. Contemporary ‘zealotry’ often carries a mildly negative fanaticism connotation, accurate for Paul’s pre-conversion persecuting zeal (1:14) but should not color positive zeal-for-God usage elsewhere without distinction.
False Brothers
Approved rendering: false brothers
Transliteration: pseudadelphoi
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Rejected alternatives: fake believers (trivializes the serious charge of doctrinal betrayal)
Original: ψευδάδελφοι
Category: Gospel
New term. Modern casual ‘fake’ can trivialize the serious charge of doctrinal betrayal within a professed Christian community that Paul intends at 2:4.
Transgressor
Approved rendering: transgressor
Transliteration: parabatēs
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: law-breaker / guilty of breaking the law (acceptable plain-language glosses)
Original: παραβάτης
Category: Law
New term. Obsolescence risk: a rare, formal word in ordinary contemporary speech, surviving mainly in legal/signage registers (‘trespassers will be prosecuted’). Requires definition at 2:18 but is unlikely to be actively misread.
Died In Vain
Approved rendering: died in vain / for no purpose
Transliteration: dōrean apethanen
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: died for nothing (an acceptable plain-language alternative)
Original: δωρεὰν ἀπέθανεν
Category: Salvation
New term. Dōrean (‘as a free gift, for nothing’) carries an ironic etymological echo of grace/gift language, worth noting though not itself a serious risk. This is the strongest possible statement of the stakes of the justification argument (2:21) and must not be softened.
Bewitched
Approved rendering: bewitched
Transliteration: ebaskanen
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Rejected alternatives: cast a spell on (a close but equally fantasy-coded alternative)
Original: ἐβάσκανεν
Category: Gospel
New term. Modern English ‘bewitched’ strongly evokes fantasy/fairy-tale magic, a vivid but potentially trivializing association; Paul’s point at 3:1 is serious spiritual deception by false teachers, not literary sorcery.
Hearing Of Faith
Approved rendering: hearing of faith
Transliteration: akoē pisteōs
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Original: ἀκοὴ πίστεως
Category: Faith
New term. ‘Hearing’ as a passive sensory verb in contemporary English may obscure the sense of active, receptive trust in a proclaimed message that Paul intends at 3:2, 5.
Promise
Approved rendering: promise
Transliteration: epangelia
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Rejected alternatives: a casual interpersonal promise (loses covenant-historical weight)
Original: ἐπαγγελία
Category: Covenant
New term. Risk of genericizing into a vague hopeful assurance or a casual interpersonal promise, losing the covenant-historical weight Paul intends across chapters 3-4.
Mediator
Approved rendering: mediator
Transliteration: mesitēs
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Original: μεσίτης
Category: Covenant
New term. Contemporary ‘mediator’ (divorce/labor mediation) is a reasonable functional analogy but may underplay the specifically covenantal, revelatory role Paul has in view at 3:19-20.
Heirs
Approved rendering: heirs
Transliteration: klēronomoi
Doctrine: Adoption and Sonship
Original: κληρονόμοι
Category: Covenant
New term. Modern secular inheritance law (individual property rights, often litigated) may color readers’ associations more adversarially than Paul’s positive promise-fulfillment sense at 3:29 and 4:1, 7.
Allegory
Approved rendering: allegory
Transliteration: allēgoroumena
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: ἀλληγορούμενα
Category: Covenant
New term. Most contemporary readers are trained to read Genesis narrative primarily historically; Paul’s own interpretive method must be named explicitly at 4:24, not silently applied without comment.
Yoke Of Slavery
Approved rendering: yoke of slavery
Transliteration: zygō douleias
Doctrine: Freedom in Christ
Original: ζυγῷ δουλείας
Category: Freedom
New term. ‘Yoke’ is moderately obsolescent in contemporary urban/suburban English; requires brief agricultural background at 5:1 but has little false-friend competition once explained.
Love
Approved rendering: love
Transliteration: agapē
Doctrine: Faith Working through Love
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Ethics
New term. Contemporary English ‘love’ is broad and romantic-coded by default; Paul’s self-giving, other-oriented sense (5:14, the fulfillment of the whole law) needs restating explicitly rather than assumed from the single English word.
Walk By Spirit
Approved rendering: walk by the Spirit
Transliteration: pneumati peripateite
Doctrine: Flesh versus Spirit
Original: πνεύματι περιπατεῖτε
Category: Sanctification
New term. ‘Walk’ as a lifestyle metaphor survives mainly in explicitly religious register in contemporary English; brief glossing is needed at 5:16, 25 for readers without church background.
Bear One Anothers Burdens
Approved rendering: bear one another’s burdens
Transliteration: allēlōn ta barē bastazete
Doctrine: Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Rejected alternatives: be supportive of one another (the generic therapeutic-culture flattening, which loses the specific restoration-of-a-fallen-believer context)
Original: ἀλλήλων τὰ βάρη βαστάζετε
Category: Ethics
New term. Stable, positive contemporary phrase; risk of genericizing into vague therapeutic-culture ‘be supportive’ language without the specific accountability context of 6:1-2, which concerns restoring a fallen believer under ‘the law of Christ,’ not merely offering emotional support.
Law Of Christ
Approved rendering: law of Christ
Transliteration: ton nomon tou Christou
Doctrine: Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Original: τὸν νόμον τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Ethics
New term. Must be explicitly explained: Paul is not reintroducing Mosaic law-keeping as the ground of righteousness, nor abandoning all norms, but naming Christ’s pattern of self-giving love as the believers’ governing standard at 6:2.
Boast
Approved rendering: boast
Transliteration: kauchēma / kauchaomai
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Original: καύχημα / καυχάομαι
Category: Ethics
New term. Contemporary ‘boast’ is almost uniformly negative, a good match for the negative use (6:13) but requires explicit explanation for the ironic reversal at 6:14 (boasting in an instrument of shame and execution).
Marks Stigmata
Approved rendering: marks / brand-marks
Transliteration: stigmata
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: stigmata (avoid the transliterated form in published material; imports an unrelated Catholic/Orthodox devotional-tradition association)
Original: στίγματα
Category: Apostleship
New term. Contemporary ‘stigma/stigmatize’ is almost entirely negative, a near-inversion of Paul’s positive badge-of-honor use at 6:17; separately, popular/Catholic devotional usage of ‘stigmata’ (miraculous wound-marks) is a specific, unrelated association that must be actively distinguished from Paul’s own scars-from-persecution referent.
Truth Of The Gospel
Approved rendering: truth of the gospel
Transliteration: alētheia tou euangeliou
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Original: ἀλήθεια τοῦ εὐαγγελίου
Category: Gospel
New term. Combines the reused ‘gospel’ term with the stable English word ‘truth’; functions as a technical touchstone phrase (2:5, 14) and should be kept consistent wherever it recurs.
Servant Of Sin
Approved rendering: servant / minister of sin
Transliteration: hamartias diakonos
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: minister of sin (risks the contemporary clergy-office connotation of ‘minister’)
Original: ἁμαρτίας διάκονος
Category: Salvation
New term. Contemporary English ‘minister’ carries strong denominational/clergy-office connotations that could confuse readers into picturing a churchly office rather than the general agent/servant role diakonos denotes at 2:17.
Died To The Law
Approved rendering: died to the law
Transliteration: nomō apethanon
Doctrine: Crucified with Christ
Rejected alternatives: the law killed me (the rejected punitive misreading)
Original: νόμῳ ἀπέθανον
Category: Union with Christ
New term. Risk that readers hear ‘the law killed me’ (a punitive misreading) instead of Paul’s intended sense of released jurisdiction through union with Christ’s death at 2:19; parallels Romans 7:4, 6.
Christ Lives In Me
Approved rendering: Christ lives in me
Transliteration: zē en emoi Christos
Doctrine: Crucified with Christ
Rejected alternatives: a figure of speech for moral influence (the rejected reduced reading)
Original: ζῇ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός
Category: Union with Christ
New term. Related to the broader ‘in Christ’ indwelling language found across the Pauline corpus; should be presented as a personal, relational indwelling at 2:20, not a figure of speech for moral influence.
Low Risk Terms
Adoption
Approved rendering: adoption
Transliteration: adoption
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: υἱοθεσία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, including the positive-secular-drift note (contemporary adoption-awareness culture generally supports rather than undermines the doctrine’s sense of full inclusion). Galatians 4:5 is one of only two NT occurrences outside Romans/Ephesians, and the doctrine here is sharpened by the letter’s explicit slave/son legal contrast (4:1-7), which should be stressed even though the term itself remains comparatively low-risk.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: fellowship
Transliteration: fellowship
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: a fellowship (the dominant contemporary secular sense: an academic or professional grant/appointment)
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (doctrine_risk copied exactly as Low here per the Galatians bible_term_registry.json’s own recorded figure, which differs from the Romans baseline TM’s Medium — both preserved per established precedent). Galatians 2:9’s ‘right hand of fellowship’ is a formal gesture of shared apostolic mission, not merely a social handshake.
Traditions
Approved rendering: traditions
Transliteration: paradoseis
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Original: παραδόσεις
Category: Apostleship
New term. Contemporary English ‘tradition’ is fairly neutral to positive, a mild asset here; care should be taken not to import the unrelated negative ‘human tradition vs. God’s word’ contrast found elsewhere in the New Testament, which is not the emphasis of Galatians 1:14.
Hypocrisy
Approved rendering: hypocrisy
Transliteration: hypokrisis
Doctrine: Law and Grace
Original: ὑπόκρισις
Category: Church
New term. Stable meaning in contemporary English (2:13); no significant false-friend or obsolescence risk.
Compel
Approved rendering: compel
Transliteration: anagkazō
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Original: ἀναγκάζω
Category: Gospel
New term. Stable meaning in contemporary English (2:3, 2:14; 6:12); no significant risk.
Foolish
Approved rendering: foolish
Transliteration: anoētoi
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Original: ἀνόητοι
Category: Faith
New term. Stable meaning, though modern English ‘foolish’ can carry a milder, almost comedic tone that softens Paul’s sharp rebuke at 3:1, 3; note the register difference explicitly.
Abraham
Approved rendering: Abraham
Transliteration: Abraam
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: Ἀβραάμ
Category: Covenant
New term. Contemporary ‘Abrahamic faiths’ framing (Judaism/Christianity/Islam) is a mild asset for the covenant theme but may flatten Paul’s specific covenantal argument in Galatians 3 into generic comparative-religion terms; name this distinction directly.
Blessing
Approved rendering: blessing
Transliteration: eulogia
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: εὐλογία
Category: Covenant
New term. Stable positive English word; risk of genericizing to vague good fortune rather than Galatians 3:14’s specific covenantal inheritance.
Fullness Of Time
Approved rendering: fullness of time
Transliteration: to plērōma tou chronou
Doctrine: Adoption and Sonship
Original: τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου
Category: Christology
New term. Mild obsolescence outside religious register; conveys God’s sovereign historical timing at 4:4, requiring brief context but little active misreading.
Sow And Reap
Approved rendering: sow and reap
Transliteration: speirōn / therisei
Doctrine: Flesh versus Spirit
Original: σπείρων / θερίσει
Category: Ethics
New term. The secular idiom ‘you reap what you sow’ generally reinforces the point but can carry more fatalistic, karma-adjacent connotations that should be distinguished from Paul’s specific Spirit-versus-flesh framework (6:7-8), paralleling the baseline’s ‘providence’ caution.
Referenced passages