Core Glossary
Core Glossary: The Gospel of John
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, spanning John chapters 1–21. It extends, and does not contradict, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json. Where a term is already established in the baseline, this glossary marks it Baseline Reuse and cites the exact recorded English rendering, which MUST be used without alteration. New, John-specific terms are assigned risk tiers using the same framework, extended with a fourth risk category unique to John’s more compressed, symbolic prose.
Risk Tier Definitions (extends baseline)
| Tier | Definition | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Dominant competing meaning (secular, legal, political, denominational, or historic-heresy-adjacent) so strong most readers will confidently supply the wrong sense without deliberate correction. | Human theologian review required |
| High | Significant secular dilution, cultural erosion, denominational disagreement, or culturally sensitive anachronism risk. | Human theologian review required |
| Medium | Some competing usage or reduced resonance, unlikely to be actively misunderstood with adequate context. | Native speaker review recommended |
| Low | Minor or negligible risk. | Automated review sufficient |
Risk category key: [FF] False-friend drift · [DC] Denominational contest · [OB] Obsolescence/obscurity · [WP] Wordplay/double-entendre loss (John-specific) · [CS] Culturally sensitive anachronism
A. Christology — Deity, Pre-existence, and Person of Christ
| Term (EN rendering) | Greek / Translit. | Category | Risk | Baseline Reuse? | Key Passages | Translation Notes / Rendering Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| the Word | Λόγος / Logos | Christology | Critical [FF] | New term | 1:1, 1:14 | Modern readers hear “the Word” as “the Bible” or a corporate “logo,” missing the personal, pre-existent divine Person John intends |
| Son of God | υἱὸς θεοῦ | Christology | Critical | [Baseline: “Son of God”] | 1:34, 1:49, 3:16-18, 20:31 | Reuse exact rendering; John’s usage is the doctrinal anchor text for this baseline term |
| Son of Man | υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου / huios tou anthrōpou | Christology | High [OB] | New term | 1:51, 3:13-14, 5:27, 9:35 | Without Daniel 7 background, reads as mere humanity-emphasis, losing the divine-authority claim |
| one and only / only begotten | μονογενής / monogenēs | Christology | Critical [DC][FF] | New term | 1:14, 1:18, 3:16, 3:18 | Historic Arian-controversy false-friend: “begotten” can wrongly imply a beginning in time; assert unique, eternal, non-created Sonship |
| equal with God | ἴσος θεῷ / isos theō | Deity of Christ | Critical [DC] | New term | 5:18 | Contested by Unitarian/non-Trinitarian readings; state Trinitarian reading explicitly, note historic alternatives |
| I and the Father are one | ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν | Unity of Father & Son | Critical [DC] | New term | 10:30 | Neuter “one” = unity of being, not fusion of persons; guard against both modalist and subordinationist misreadings |
| that they may be one | ἵνα ἓν ὦσιν | Unity of Father & Son | Critical [DC] | New term | 17:11, 17:21-23 | Believer unity modeled on, not identical to, Trinitarian ontological unity; not mere institutional uniformity |
| My Lord and my God | Ὁ Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου | Deity of Christ | Critical | [Baseline: “Lord” + “God”] | 20:28 | Combines two Critical baseline terms; guard against flattening into casual “oh my God” exclamation register |
| incarnation / “the Word became flesh” | σάρξ ἐγένετο | Incarnation | High [FF] | [Baseline: “incarnation,” Critical] | 1:14 | Preserve plainness of “became flesh” against docetic softening (“appeared as,” “seemed like”) |
| flesh | σάρξ / sarx | Christology | Medium [OB] | New term | 1:14, 3:6, 6:51-56 | Requires explicit framing as theological category of nature/origin, not skin/meat |
| descended / came down | καταβάς / katabas | Pre-existence | Medium | New term | 3:13, 6:38 | Must be read as literal pre-existence claim, not poetic flourish |
| glorify / glory | δόξα, δοξάζω / doxa, doxazō | Deity of Christ | Medium | [Baseline: “glory”] | 1:14, 2:11, 11:4, 17:1-5 | Reuse baseline; John ties glory explicitly to pre-existence at 17:5 |
| Lamb of God | ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ | Substitutionary Death | High [FF] | New term | 1:29, 1:36 | Modern “lamb” evokes cute farm animal/Easter imagery; restore Passover/Isaiah 53 sacrificial background |
B. The Seven “I Am” Statements
| Term (EN rendering) | Greek / Translit. | Category | Risk | Baseline Reuse? | Key Passages | Translation Notes / Rendering Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I am [absolute divine self-designation] | ἐγώ εἰμι / egō eimi | I Am Statements | Critical [FF] | New term | 6:35 (bread), 8:12 (light), 8:58 (absolute), 10:7/9 (door), 10:11/14 (shepherd), 11:25 (resurrection/life), 14:6 (way/truth/life), 15:1/5 (vine), 18:5-6 (arrest) | English “I am” is a bare grammatical copula with no inherent weight; the Exodus 3:14 divine-name background must be supplied on first use and flagged at every recurrence |
| bread of life | ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς | I Am #1 | Critical | New term | 6:35, 48 | Part of I AM series; also connects to manna/Exodus 16 typology |
| light of the world | φῶς τοῦ κόσμου | I Am #2 | Critical | New term | 8:12 | Part of I AM series; fulfills Tabernacles lamp ceremony (ch.7) |
| the door / gate | θύρα / thyra | I Am #3 | Critical | New term | 10:7, 9 | Part of I AM series; exclusivity of access |
| the good shepherd | ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός | I Am #4 | Critical | New term | 10:11, 14 | Part of I AM series; requires hired-hand contrast explained for non-agrarian readers |
| the resurrection and the life | ἡ ἀνάστασις καὶ ἡ ζωή | I Am #5 | Critical | New term | 11:25 | Part of I AM series; demonstrated narratively in Lazarus account |
| the way, the truth, and the life | ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή | I Am #6 | Critical [FF] | New term | 14:6 | In sharp tension with contemporary religious pluralism; preserve full exclusivity |
| the true vine | ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή | I Am #7 | Critical | New term | 15:1, 5 | Part of I AM series; completes it; contrasted with Israel as OT vine |
C. New Birth, Regeneration, and Eternal Life
| Term (EN rendering) | Greek / Translit. | Category | Risk | Baseline Reuse? | Key Passages | Translation Notes / Rendering Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| born again / from above | ἄνωθεν / anōthen | New Birth | Critical [WP][DC] | New term | 3:3, 3:7 | Double sense (“again” + “from above”) cannot be captured by one English word; “born again” is now politically/culturally coded — reclaim from partisan association |
| born / begotten | γεννηθῇ / gennēthē | New Birth | High [OB] | New term | 3:3, 3:5-8, 1:13 | Foundational new-birth vocabulary; must be built from scratch, not assumed familiar |
| born of water and the Spirit | ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος | New Birth | High [DC] | New term | 3:5 | Live denominational contest over baptismal regeneration vs. symbolic reading; state this curriculum’s view and note the range of views |
| Spirit / wind (pun) | πνεῦμα / pneuma | New Birth / Holy Spirit | Critical [WP] | [Baseline: “Holy Spirit,” Critical — related] | 3:5, 3:8 | Single Greek word does double duty as “wind” and “Spirit”; English forces a choice, destroying the analogy’s mechanism |
| flesh (birth contrast) | σαρκὸς | New Birth | Medium | New term (see also Christology) | 3:6 | Birth-order contrast, not yet full Pauline flesh/Spirit moral antithesis |
| children of God | τέκνα θεοῦ / tekna theou | New Birth | Medium | New term (distinct from Baseline “adoption”) | 1:12-13 | Organic begetting/new nature, distinct from Romans’ forensic “adoption” (huiothesia); complementary, not identical, category |
| eternal life | ζωὴν αἰώνιον / zōēn aiōnion | Eternal Life | Critical [FF] | New term | 3:15-16, 3:36, 4:14, 5:24, 6:47, 10:28, 17:3, 20:31 | Not endless biological duration (sci-fi/immortality tropes) but qualitative, relational, God-knowing life beginning now |
| life | ζωή / zōē | Eternal Life | High [FF] | New term | 1:4, 11:25, 14:6 | Generic secular “life” (biological existence/lifestyle) dilutes the specific divine-life referent |
| perish | ἀπόλυται / apolytai | Eternal Life / Judgment | Medium [FF] | New term | 3:16 | Modern idiom (“perish the thought”) trivializes; restore sense of real, final, ruinous loss |
D. Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
| Term (EN rendering) | Greek / Translit. | Category | Risk | Baseline Reuse? | Key Passages | Translation Notes / Rendering Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| believe | πιστεύω / pisteuō | Faith / Judgment | High [FF] | Related to [Baseline: “faith,” High] but distinct verb-form entry | 1:12, 3:12-18, 3:36, 6:29, 11:25-27, 20:31 (98 occurrences; John never uses the noun pistis) | Ordinary English “believe” = holding an unverified opinion, far weaker than John’s personal, allegiance-forming trust; treat as its own high-risk entry paired with baseline “faith” |
| judgment / condemn | κρίσις, κρίνω / krisis, krinō | Judgment | Critical [FF] | New term | 3:17-19, 5:24, 5:27-29, 12:31, 16:8, 16:11 | English cognate “crisis” (emergency) is a false friend for “verdict”; present-tense “already condemned” (3:18) resists therapeutic non-judgmental culture and must be stated plainly |
| light / darkness | φῶς / σκότος, σκοτία | Judgment / Revelation | Medium | New term | 1:4-5, 3:19-21, 8:12, 9:5, 12:46 | Positive/negative idiom partly survives in English (“shed light on”); the specifically moral (not just informational) weight of the choice must be made explicit |
| exposed / convicted | ἐλέγχω / elegchō | Judgment / Holy Spirit | Medium [OB] | New term | 3:20, 16:8 | Modern “convict” dominated by criminal-justice sense; also ties Spirit’s convicting ministry (ch.16) to light/exposure theme (ch.3) |
| wrath of God | ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ | Judgment | High [FF] | New term (cross-reference Baseline “sin,” Critical) | 3:36 | Contemporary universalist/therapeutic culture resists divine-wrath language; hold together with “God is love” (3:16) explicitly |
| truth | ἀλήθεια / alētheia | Judgment / Revelation | Medium [FF] | New term | 1:14, 3:21, 8:32, 14:6, 18:38 | Modern “truth” is heavily politicized (“my truth,” “post-truth”); sharpen contrast with truth as objective divine reality |
| devil | διάβολος / diabolos | Judgment | Medium | New term | 8:44 | Cartoonish/jokey pop-culture devil imagery trivializes a serious spiritual reality |
| ruler of this world | ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου | Judgment | Medium | New term | 12:31, 14:30, 16:11 | Fantasy/sci-fi villain-trope associations may color this rather than the specific spiritual claim |
E. God’s Love for the World
| Term (EN rendering) | Greek / Translit. | Category | Risk | Baseline Reuse? | Key Passages | Translation Notes / Rendering Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| world | κόσμος / kosmos | God’s Love for the World | Critical [FF] | New term | 1:9-10, 3:16-17, 3:19, 15:18-19, 16:11, 17:6-18 | Deliberately ambivalent: loved object AND hostile system; modern flat “world” = planet/population loses the theological tension. Must disambiguate sense per occurrence |
| loved | ἠγάπησεν / ēgapēsen (ἀγάπη) | God’s Love | High [FF] | New term | 3:16, 13:1, 13:34, 15:9-13, 17:23-26 | English “love” is maximally overloaded (romance, preference, affection); distinguish agapē’s deliberate, self-giving, unearned character explicitly |
| Savior | σωτήρ / sōtēr | God’s Love / Salvation | Medium | Related to [Baseline: “salvation,” Critical] | 4:42 | Ties Savior title directly to “world” scope; see baseline salvation notes |
| sent | ἀπέστειλεν / apesteilen (ἀποστέλλω) | God’s Love / Mission | Medium | Related to [Baseline: “mission,” Medium]; note “apostle” noun absent from John | 3:17, 3:34, 5:36-38, 17:18 | John uses the sending-verb constantly but never the noun “apostle” — flag this absence for Phase 2 consistency |
F. Holy Spirit as Counselor
| Term (EN rendering) | Greek / Translit. | Category | Risk | Baseline Reuse? | Key Passages | Translation Notes / Rendering Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counselor / Comforter / Advocate / Helper | παράκλητος / paraklētos | Holy Spirit | Critical [DC][FF] | New term (parallel to [Baseline: “Holy Spirit,” Critical]) | 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7 | Major English Bible translations render this differently (KJV Comforter / NIV Advocate-Counselor / ESV Helper / NLT Advocate); state chosen rendering and note the range; guard against secular “therapist” or “lawyer” false-friend readings |
| Spirit of truth | πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας | Holy Spirit | High | New term | 14:17, 15:26, 16:13 | Parallel title for the Paraklētos; ties Spirit’s ministry to Gospel’s truth theme |
| rivers of living water | ποταμοὶ ὕδατος ζῶντος | Holy Spirit | Medium | New term | 7:38-39 | Narratorial gloss explicitly identifies this with the Spirit — mild asset against over-metaphorizing |
| living water | ὕδωρ ζῶν / hydōr zōn | Holy Spirit / Eternal Life | Medium [FF] | New term | 4:10-14, 7:37-38 | Wellness-culture “stay hydrated” idiom risks reducing to generic self-care metaphor |
G. Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
| Term (EN rendering) | Greek / Translit. | Category | Risk | Baseline Reuse? | Key Passages | Translation Notes / Rendering Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lifted up | ὑψωθῆναι / hypsōthēnai | Substitutionary Death | Critical [WP] | New term | 3:14, 8:28, 12:32-34 | Single verb means both “crucified” and “exalted” simultaneously; English naturally separates these as sequential events, losing John’s insistence they are the same moment |
| lay down [his] life | τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν | Substitutionary Death | High [FF] | New term | 10:11, 15, 17-18 | Risk of flattening into generic heroic self-sacrifice narrative, losing the specific vicarious, sin-atoning, voluntarily-authoritative sense |
| die for the people | ἀποθανεῖν ὑπὲρ τοῦ λαοῦ | Substitutionary Death | Medium | New term | 11:50-51 | Ironic prophecy from a hostile source (Caiaphas); requires explicit unpacking |
| Passover | πάσχα / pascha | Substitutionary Death | High [OB] | New term | 18:28, 19:14, 19:36 | Many readers know only the holiday name, not its lamb-sacrifice typology directly applied to Christ |
| It is finished | τετέλεσται / tetelestai | Substitutionary Death | Critical [FF] | New term | 19:30 | Modern “finished” defaults to defeat/ending (“I’m finished”); ancient commercial sense is “paid in full” — near-opposite connotation from the intended triumphant declaration |
| gave up his spirit | παρέδωκεν τὸ πνεῦμα | Substitutionary Death | High [FF] | New term | 19:30 | Risk of reading as passive death rather than deliberate, sovereign, authoritative self-offering |
| blood and water | αἷμα καὶ ὕδωρ | Substitutionary Death | Medium | New term | 19:34-35 | Confirms physical death (anti-docetic); ties to eyewitness/testimony theme |
| resurrection | ἀνάστασις / anastasis | Resurrection | High | [Baseline: “resurrection,” High] | 20:1-29, 5:28-29, 11:25 | Reuse baseline exactly; state plainly as historical fact against “resurrection as myth” framing |
| resurrection of life / of judgment | ἀνάστασις ζωῆς / κρίσεως | Resurrection / Judgment | High | Related to [Baseline: “resurrection,” High] | 5:28-29 | Not all resurrection is to blessing; guard against generalized, universally-positive pop-culture afterlife assumptions |
H. Christian Community, Testimony, and Ethics
| Term (EN rendering) | Greek / Translit. | Category | Risk | Baseline Reuse? | Key Passages | Translation Notes / Rendering Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| testify / testimony | μαρτυρέω, μαρτυρία | Witness | Medium | New term | 1:7-8, 1:32-34, 3:11, 5:31-39, 19:35, 21:24 | Courtroom-drama association is a partial asset but can flatten relational, costly first-hand witness into merely evidentiary function |
| abide / remain | μένω / menō | Community / Union with Christ | Medium [OB] | New term | 1:32-33, 3:36, 6:56, 14:10, 15:4-10 | ”Abide” is archaic/rare in ordinary speech (survives mainly in “I can’t abide that”); glossed as ongoing, settled relationship |
| true vine / fruit | ἄμπελος / καρπός | Community / Fruitfulness | Medium | New term (see also I Am section) | 15:1-16 | Business/self-help “bear fruit” idiom risks merit/productivity framing rather than organic dependence |
| friends | φίλοι / philoi | Community | Medium | New term | 15:13-15 | Contrasted with δοῦλος (servant/slave) status; intimacy upgrade |
| chosen / appointed | ἐκλέγομαι / eklegomai | Community / Mission | High [DC] | Related to [Baseline: “election,” Critical] but distinct referent | 15:16 | Vocational/missional selection of the Twelve, distinct from Romans 9’s soteriological election doctrine — do not conflate |
| new commandment | ἐντολὴ καινή | Ethics | Medium | New term | 13:34-35 | Shifts ethical ground from Sinai covenant obedience to Christ-modeled self-giving love |
| servant / slave | δοῦλος / doulos | Ethics | High [CS] | New term | 13:16, 15:15 | Culturally sensitive anachronism: modern “slave” carries transatlantic chattel-slavery weight not native to the ancient bond-servant institution; handle with explicit historical framing |
| freedom | ἐλευθερία / eleutheria | Ethics | High [FF] | New term | 8:32-36 | Secular “freedom” = autonomy from constraint; Johannine freedom = deliverance from sin’s power through submission to Christ — near-inverse structure |
| convict / overcome / joy | ἐλέγχω, νικάω, χαρά | Holy Spirit / Assurance | Medium | New term | 16:8, 16:33, 16:20-24 | ”Overcomer” self-help language and “joy”/“happiness” conflation both risk flattening; distinguish Christ’s specific, completed victory and circumstance-independent joy |
| worship | προσκυνέω / proskyneō | Worship | Medium | New term | 4:20-24 | Loose modern usage (“worships his car”) trivializes; restore God-directed reverence relocated from geography to Spirit/truth |
| do you love me (agapaō) / I love you (phileō) | ἀγαπᾷς / φιλεῖς | Ethics / Restoration | Medium [WP] | New term | 21:15-17 | Nearly all English translations flatten both verbs to “love,” losing the Greek lexical variation (theological weight of the distinction is itself debated among scholars) |
I. Baseline Terms Reused Without Alteration (Cross-Reference)
The following baseline terms recur throughout John’s Gospel. Their recorded English rendering, risk tier, and notes from translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json apply unchanged; John-specific context is noted where relevant.
| Term | Baseline Risk | John-Specific Context |
|---|---|---|
| God | Critical | Central throughout; 1:1, 1:18, 3:16-18, 20:28 |
| Jesus | Medium | Proper name throughout |
| Father | Medium | Central to Unity doctrine (5:19-23, 10:30, 14:9-11, 17 entire) |
| Holy Spirit | Critical | See Section F (Paraklētos) for John’s distinctive Counselor emphasis |
| Lord | Critical | 20:28, 21:7, 21:12; note also disappears as address in many earlier chapters where “Rabbi”/“Teacher” is used instead |
| Son of God | Critical | See Section A |
| glory | Medium | See Section A; John ties glory explicitly to pre-existence (17:5) |
| sin | High | 1:29, 8:34-36, 9:41, 15:22-24, 16:8-9, 20:23 |
| salvation | Critical | 3:17, 4:22, 4:42, 12:47 |
| kingdom of God | Medium | 3:3, 3:5, 18:36 (“my kingdom is not of this world”) |
| grace | Critical | 1:14, 1:16-17 (paired with “truth,” echoing Exodus 34:6) |
| peace | Medium | 14:27, 16:33, 20:19-26 |
| holy | Medium | 6:69, 17:11 (“Holy Father”) |
| sanctification | Medium | 17:17, 19 |
| Messiah | Medium | 1:41, 4:25-26, 4:29, 7:26-42, 11:27 |
| Israel | Medium | 1:31, 1:47-49, 3:10, 12:13 |
| law | Medium | 1:17, 1:45, 7:19-23, 7:49-51 |
| prophet | Medium | 1:21, 1:25, 1:45, 4:19, 6:14, 7:40 |
| election | High | Cross-referenced (not directly reused) at 15:16; see Section H note distinguishing vocational choosing from Romans 9 soteriological election |
| intercession | Medium | Conceptually present throughout the High Priestly Prayer (ch.17) and Paraclete’s ministry (ch.14-16), though the specific baseline term is not a frequent verbal match |
| providence | Critical | Underlies but is not directly verbalized in John; cross-reference Judgment/Providence overlap in 9:1-3, 11:4 |
| mission | Medium | Underlies the sending (ἀποστέλλω) vocabulary throughout; see Section E |
| david | Low | 7:42 (indirect, “the Messiah comes from David’s descendants, from… Bethlehem”) |
| apostle | Medium | Absent as a noun from John’s Gospel — see Notable Absences note in 07_semantic_analysis.md |
| church | Critical | Absent from John’s Gospel — see Notable Absences note |
| fellowship | Low | Absent from John’s Gospel — see Notable Absences note |
| faith | High | Noun absent from John’s Gospel; see Section D “believe” entry for John’s verb-exclusive usage |
This glossary should be loaded alongside the baseline translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json for all Phase 2 content generation on John. New terms documented here (Sections A–H) should be proposed for addition to translation memory per the versioning procedure in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md, extended for the John curriculum.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: God
Transliteration: God
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a higher power, the universe
Original: θεός / אֱלֹהִים / יהוה
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. In John, God’s fatherhood of Jesus and unity with the Son (10:30) is asserted with unusual explicitness (1:1, 18; 20:28), making this term’s Critical tier even more load-bearing than in Romans.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Holy Spirit
Transliteration: Holy Spirit
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: good vibes / positive energy
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. John’s distinctive contribution is the Paraklētos/Advocate title (chs.14-16) and the wind/Spirit wordplay of 3:8; see ‘counselor_paraklētos’ and ‘spirit_wind_pun’ below for John-specific extensions that must be read alongside this entry.
Lord
Approved rendering: Lord
Transliteration: Lord
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: boss / master, a British Lord
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. John 20:28’s ‘My Lord and my God’ is the Gospel’s climactic worship-confession; guard against the casual ‘oh my Lord’ exclamation register especially there.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvation
Transliteration: salvation
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: being saved, rescue
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. John 3:17 and 12:47 tie salvation directly to the scope of ‘the world’ (kosmos), reinforcing rather than resolving the baseline’s denominational-contest note on ‘being saved’ as event vs. process.
Grace
Approved rendering: grace
Transliteration: grace
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: elegance/poise, a grace period
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. John 1:14, 16-17 pairs grace explicitly with ‘truth,’ echoing God’s self-revelation to Moses in Exodus 34:6 — this pairing is easily lost if ‘grace’ is taught in isolation from its Exodus 34 covenantal background, a John-specific nuance beyond Romans’ ‘apart from works’ framing.
Church
Approved rendering: church
Transliteration: church
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Inherited from Romans package. IMPORTANT JOHN-SPECIFIC NOTE: ‘church’ (ekklēsia) never occurs in John’s Gospel. The relational, corporate reality Romans calls ‘church’ is present in John under different vocabulary (the vine and branches, ch.15; the flock, ch.10; the unity prayer, ch.17) and should be cross-referenced explicitly rather than assumed absent from the doctrine when teaching John.
Word
Approved rendering: the Word
Transliteration: Logos
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: the Word of God as a synonym for the Bible/Scripture generally, logo (a corporate brand symbol), logos as the rhetorical term for an appeal to logic, familiar from composition/debate classes
Original: Λόγος
Category: Christology
THE foundational term for this curriculum’s core doctrine. Modern readers default to hearing ‘the Word’ as either ‘the Bible’ or a corporate ‘logo,’ both stripping out the personal, pre-existent divine identity John intends (1:1, 14). Must be explicitly clarified on first substantive use per document as a divine Person, not a text, brand symbol, or rhetorical category. Do NOT transliterate as ‘Logos’ in general-audience material — see 06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md Section 3 for the rationale (collision with the ethos/pathos/logos rhetorical triad).
Only Begotten
Approved rendering: one and only
Transliteration: monogenēs
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: only begotten (KJV; risks the historic Arian misreading that ‘begotten’ implies a beginning in time), the only-begotten god (New World Translation’s demoting rendering at John 1:18 — never adopt)
Original: μονογενής
Category: Christology
Historic Arian-controversy false-friend: Arius took ‘begotten’ to imply the Son had a beginning in time and was therefore a created being, not eternally co-equal with the Father; the Nicene Creed’s ‘begotten, not made’ was formulated specifically to correct this. Must state plainly that monogenēs asserts unique, eternal, non-created Sonship (1:14, 18; 3:16, 18), not a datable origin.
Equal With God
Approved rendering: equal with God
Transliteration: isos theō
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: merely derived or representative authority (Unitarian/Jehovah’s Witness/non-Trinitarian reading)
Original: ἴσος θεῷ
Category: Deity of Christ
John 5:18 is a live flashpoint in debates with non-Trinitarian readings that argue Jesus claimed only delegated authority, not real ontological equality. State the Trinitarian reading explicitly: John presents this as the narrator’s own endorsed statement of fact, not merely the accusers’ mistaken charge.
I And The Father Are One
Approved rendering: I and the Father are one
Transliteration: egō kai ho patēr hen esmen
Doctrine: Unity of the Father and the Son
Rejected alternatives: a claim of merely harmonious will (subordinationist softening), a claim that Father and Son are a single Person (modalist collapse)
Original: ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν
Category: Unity of Father and Son
The neuter Greek ‘hen’ (‘one thing/reality’) signals unity of being/essence, not a masculine ‘one person.’ This distinction is invisible in the English phrase alone (10:30) and must be stated explicitly, guarding against both modalist and subordinationist misreadings.
That They May Be One
Approved rendering: that they may be one
Transliteration: hina hen ōsin
Doctrine: Unity of the Father and the Son
Rejected alternatives: flat organizational/denominational uniformity, metaphysical fusion with God
Original: ἵνα ἓν ὦσιν
Category: Unity of Father and Son
Extends the Father-Son unity of 10:30 to believers’ unity with one another (17:11, 21-23) — relational, love-grounded unity modeled on, but not identical in kind to, the ontological unity of the Trinity.
My Lord And My God
Approved rendering: My Lord and my God
Transliteration: Ho Kyrios mou kai ho Theos mou
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: a casual exclamation of surprise (‘Oh my God!’)
Original: Ὁ Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου
Category: Deity of Christ
Thomas’s climactic worship-confession of Jesus’ full deity (20:28), directly answering 1:1’s ‘the Word was God.’ Combines two Critical baseline terms (‘Lord’ and ‘God’); guard against flattening into the identical modern casual exclamation register.
I Am Absolute
Approved rendering: I am
Transliteration: egō eimi
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Rejected alternatives: I have been (New World Translation’s past-tense rendering at 8:58 — never adopt), ego eimi (an opaque transliteration with no functional advantage for a lay reader)
Original: ἐγώ εἰμι
Category: I Am Statements
The divine self-designation echoing YHWH’s self-revelation in Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah 41-43. In ordinary English ‘I am’ is a bare grammatical copula with no inherent weight. Without the Exodus background supplied explicitly, readers miss the claim to divine identity in every occurrence, especially the unpredicated form at 8:58, which provoked an attempted stoning for blasphemy, and 18:5-6 at the arrest.
Bread Of Life
Approved rendering: I am the bread of life
Transliteration: ho artos tēs zōēs
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Original: ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: I Am Statements
First of the seven I AM statements (6:35, 48); requires the Exodus 16 manna background to be supplied for the contrast to register with contemporary readers.
Light Of The World
Approved rendering: I am the light of the world
Transliteration: to phōs tou kosmou
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Original: τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου
Category: I Am Statements
Second I AM statement (8:12); fulfills the Feast of Tabernacles lamp ceremony (ch.7) — supply this festival background.
The Door Gate
Approved rendering: I am the door / I am the gate
Transliteration: hē thyra
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Rejected alternatives: a way among several (softens the exclusivity claim)
Original: ἡ θύρα
Category: I Am Statements
Third I AM statement (10:7, 9); the exclusivity of access is easily softened without explicit statement.
The Good Shepherd
Approved rendering: I am the good shepherd
Transliteration: ho poimēn ho kalos
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Original: ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός
Category: I Am Statements
Fourth I AM statement (10:11, 14); most contemporary urban readers lack direct experience of literal shepherding and need the hired-hand contrast (10:12-13) explained.
Resurrection And The Life
Approved rendering: I am the resurrection and the life
Transliteration: hē anastasis kai hē zōē
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Rejected alternatives: a generic hope in an afterlife
Original: ἡ ἀνάστασις καὶ ἡ ζωή
Category: I Am Statements
Fifth I AM statement (11:25), demonstrated narratively (not just asserted) through the Lazarus sign.
Way Truth Life
Approved rendering: I am the way, the truth, and the life
Transliteration: hē hodos kai hē alētheia kai hē zōē
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Rejected alternatives: a way among several paths to God (softens the exclusivity claim in tension with contemporary religious pluralism)
Original: ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή
Category: I Am Statements
Sixth I AM statement and the Gospel’s most explicit exclusivity claim (14:6): ‘No one comes to the Father except through me.’ Must be stated with full exclusive force.
The True Vine
Approved rendering: I am the true vine
Transliteration: hē ampelos hē alēthinē
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Original: ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή
Category: I Am Statements
Seventh and final I AM statement, completing the series (15:1, 5); contrasted with Israel as an Old Testament vine that failed to bear fruit (Isaiah 5, Psalm 80, Jeremiah 2) — supply this background.
Born Again From Above
Approved rendering: born again / born from above
Transliteration: anōthen
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: born again used only as a politically/subculturally coded American evangelical identity marker, without its plain theological sense
Original: ἄνωθεν
Category: New Birth
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:3, 7). Anōthen means ‘again’ and ‘from above’ simultaneously; English is structurally forced to choose one, losing the other. ‘Born again’ is now a strongly coded American evangelical political/cultural identity marker and must be actively reclaimed from that coding, and sharply distinguished from Hindu/Buddhist cyclical rebirth categories, which are structurally opposite (repeating vs. unrepeatable, this-life).
Spirit Wind Pun
Approved rendering: wind / Spirit
Transliteration: pneuma
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Original: πνεῦμα
Category: New Birth
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:8). A single Greek word means both ‘wind’ and ‘Spirit’ in the same breath. The single greatest wordplay loss in the core passage: English forces a choice, destroying the analogy’s very mechanism (the Spirit’s regenerating work is as sovereign and perceptible-in-effect-yet-invisible-in-origin as the wind). Must explicitly explain the pun rather than silently pick one English word.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: eternal life
Transliteration: zōēn aiōnion
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: endless biological duration (life-extension biotech, vampire/sci-fi immortality tropes, ‘the fountain of youth’)
Original: ζωὴν αἰώνιον
Category: Eternal Life
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:15-16, 36). Not merely unending duration but the very life-quality of the age to come, God’s own life, available now and forever (17:3: ‘this is eternal life: that they know you’). Must be defined explicitly as qualitative and relational, not durational, on first use per document.
Judgment Condemn
Approved rendering: judgment / condemned
Transliteration: krisis / krinō
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: crisis (an urgent emergency — a false-friend English cognate)
Original: κρίσις / κρίνω
Category: Judgment
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:18-19). A legal-forensic verdict, in John’s usage frequently a present-tense, already-rendered verdict rather than only a future possibility. John 3:18’s claim that unbelief is ‘condemned already’ runs directly against contemporary non-judgmental therapeutic culture’s resistance to any ‘already condemned’ language; state this plainly, not softened.
World
Approved rendering: world
Transliteration: kosmos
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
Rejected alternatives: the planet / the global population (flat geographic/demographic sense)
Original: κόσμος
Category: God’s Love
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:16-17, 19). Deliberately ambivalent: (1) the created physical world, (2) humanity generally, (3) the organized system of human life in active rebellion against God — sometimes within the same chapter. Modern flat usage loses this live theological tension. Must disambiguate which sense is active per occurrence, not assume one flat meaning governs every use.
Counselor Paraklētos
Approved rendering: Advocate
Transliteration: paraklētos
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Rejected alternatives: Comforter (KJV), Counselor (older NIV editions, CSB), Helper (ESV, NASB), a therapist or school guidance counselor (secular ‘counselor’ false friend), a lawyer or activist alone (secular ‘advocate’ false friend, incomplete overlap)
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Holy Spirit
CORRECTED RENDERING: this curriculum adopts ‘Advocate,’ aligning with NLT wording (John 14:16 NLT) per this Language Package’s site-wide NLT citation default — see 06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md Section 3, which corrects 08_core_glossary.md’s earlier working term ‘Counselor.’ Paraklētos genuinely spans legal-advocate, comforting-presence, and empowering-helper senses simultaneously; no single English word covers all three. Major English Bible translations render this differently (14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7); this curriculum must state its chosen rendering and explicitly name the range of other valid renderings so readers moving between translations are not confused into thinking different Persons or roles are meant.
Lifted Up
Approved rendering: lifted up
Transliteration: hypsōthēnai / hypsōsen
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: crucifixion and exaltation narrated as two sequential events (the natural but incorrect English default)
Original: ὑψωθῆναι / ὕψωσεν
Category: Substitutionary Death
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:14). A single verb meaning simultaneously ‘crucified’ and ‘exalted/glorified’ — the cross itself IS the moment of Christ’s glorification (3:14; 8:28; 12:32-34), not a prelude to a separate later exaltation. English readers naturally separate these into two sequential events; this must be made explicit, not left to be inferred.
It Is Finished
Approved rendering: It is finished
Transliteration: tetelestai
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: defeat/ending (‘I’m finished’ — the dominant modern connotation)
Original: τετέλεσται
Category: Substitutionary Death
19:30. A declaration of the triumphant completion of Christ’s atoning work; in commercial/legal papyri of the period, used for a debt marked ‘paid in full.’ Modern English ‘finished’ defaults to the near-opposite connotation of defeat or ruin. This is as severe a false-friend risk as baseline’s ‘justification’ and must be explicitly clarified every time it is taught.
High Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: sin
Transliteration: sin
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: sinfully delicious / my one sin
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. John ties sin directly to unbelief (16:8-9) and to the Lamb of God’s atoning removal of sin (1:29), a specifically Johannine linkage between the moral and the Christological.
Election
Approved rendering: election
Transliteration: election
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: an election (political vote)
Original: ἐκλογή
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Must not be conflated with John’s own distinct ‘chosen_appointed’ entry (15:16, Christ’s vocational selection of the Twelve) or ‘draw’ (6:44) — both are related to, but not identical with, this doctrine’s Romans 9 soteriological referent. See both new entries below for the John-specific distinction this curriculum must preserve.
Providence
Approved rendering: providence
Transliteration: providence
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: everything happens for a reason, Providence, Rhode Island
Original: πρόνοια (cf. Romans 8:28)
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Underlies but is not directly verbalized in John; cross-reference the disciples’ question about the blind man’s suffering (9:1-3) and Jesus’ statement that Lazarus’s death is ‘for God’s glory’ (11:4).
Resurrection
Approved rendering: resurrection
Transliteration: resurrection
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Easter (commercialized cultural holiday sense), reincarnation
Original: ἀνάστασις
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package. John presents the resurrection as a plainly claimed, physically verifiable historical event (20:1-29, especially Thomas touching Jesus’ wounds, 20:27), and uniquely distinguishes two final outcomes of resurrection at 5:28-29 (‘resurrection of life’ / ‘resurrection of judgment’) — see the new ‘resurrection_of_life_of_judgment’ entry below for this John-specific extension.
Faith
Approved rendering: faith
Transliteration: faith
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: faith in humanity / a leap of faith
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. The noun pistis never occurs in John’s Gospel; John exclusively uses the verb pisteuō (‘believe’), approximately 98 times. This curriculum should reuse baseline ‘faith’ rendering wherever the noun concept itself is being taught, but treat ‘believe’ (new entry below) as its own distinct, John-specific high-risk term for the verb form John actually uses.
Son Of Man
Approved rendering: Son of Man
Transliteration: huios tou anthrōpou
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: the Human One (a gender-neutral paraphrase found in the Common English Bible, which obscures the Daniel 7 background)
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου
Category: Christology
A Hebraic self-designation combining full humanity with the Daniel 7:13-14 apocalyptic figure who receives everlasting dominion from God. Without this background, readers default to hearing only a humanity-emphasis, missing the divine-authority half of the claim (1:51; 3:13-14; 5:27; 9:35). Never substitute a gender-neutral paraphrase; retain the title as-is.
Lamb Of God
Approved rendering: Lamb of God
Transliteration: ho amnos tou theou
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: a gentle farm animal / Easter-basket imagery (dominant modern association)
Original: ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Substitutionary Death
Jesus identified, at the Gospel’s outset, as the Passover/Isaiah 53 sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the world (1:29, 36). Contemporary culture’s dominant lamb association is stripped of this sacrificial background and must be actively restored.
Born Begotten
Approved rendering: born
Transliteration: gennēthē
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: moral self-improvement (a common but mistaken modern substitute concept)
Original: γεννηθῇ
Category: New Birth
Foundational new-birth verb (3:3, 5-8; 1:13); largely obsolete in this sense in ordinary contemporary speech, so the concept of a wholly new origin must be built from scratch, not assumed familiar.
Born Of Water And Spirit
Approved rendering: born of water and the Spirit
Transliteration: ex hydatos kai pneumatos
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Original: ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος
Category: New Birth
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:5). Live denominational contest: sacramental traditions (Catholic, Orthodox, many Anglican/Lutheran) read ‘water’ as pointing to baptismal regeneration; many Evangelical/Baptist traditions read it symbolically (natural birth, or cleansing) precisely to avoid implying baptism is salvifically necessary. This curriculum must state its own reading explicitly and note the range of views per the baseline’s denominational-transparency rule.
Life
Approved rendering: life
Transliteration: zōē
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: biological existence / lifestyle (generic secular sense)
Original: ζωή
Category: Eternal Life
Generic secular ‘life’ dilutes the specific divine-life referent intrinsic to the Word himself (1:4, 11:25, 14:6).
Believe
Approved rendering: believe
Transliteration: pisteuō
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: holding an unverified opinion (‘I believe it will rain’) — the dominant everyday sense
Original: πιστεύω
Category: Faith
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:12-18, 36). Personal trust and allegiance directed at a specific object — always transitive in John, always with an object (Jesus, his name, his word). Because John uses this verb almost exclusively (the noun ‘faith’/pistis never occurs in this Gospel), treat as its own high-risk entry paired with, but distinct from, baseline ‘faith.’ Foundational to the Gospel’s own stated purpose (20:31).
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: wrath of God
Transliteration: orgē tou theou
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: capricious rage (a mischaracterization to avoid)
Original: ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Judgment
3:36 — God’s settled, righteous opposition to sin. Contemporary therapeutic and universalist-leaning culture strongly resists this language, often reading it as incompatible with ‘God is love’ (3:16, same chapter); hold both together explicitly.
Loved
Approved rendering: loved
Transliteration: ēgapēsen (agapē)
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
Rejected alternatives: romantic love / casual preference (‘I love pizza’) / parental affection alone
Original: ἠγάπησεν (ἀγάπη)
Category: God’s Love
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:16). Deliberate, self-giving, unearned love directed at an often-unworthy or hostile object, distinct from erōs or philia. English ‘love’ is the single most overloaded word in the language; must actively distinguish agapē’s character on first substantive use.
Spirit Of Truth
Approved rendering: Spirit of truth
Transliteration: pneuma tēs alētheias
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Original: πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας
Category: Holy Spirit
A parallel title for the Advocate (14:17; 15:26; 16:13), tying the Holy Spirit’s ministry directly to the Gospel’s truth theme; carries the same paraklētos rendering-consistency requirement.
Lay Down Life
Approved rendering: lay down his life
Transliteration: tithēmi tēn psychēn
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: a generic heroic-sacrifice narrative (a soldier laying down his life for comrades)
Original: τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν
Category: Substitutionary Death
10:11, 15, 17-18. Voluntary, deliberate self-sacrifice emphasizing Christ’s authority and voluntary choice (‘I lay it down of my own accord’), not passive victimhood; must be distinguished from generic heroism.
Passover
Approved rendering: Passover
Transliteration: pascha
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: Pasch (an obscure transliteration, needlessly increasing obsolescence risk)
Original: πάσχα
Category: Substitutionary Death
18:28; 19:14, 36. Many readers know ‘Passover’ only as a holiday name without connecting it to the lamb-sacrifice/substitutionary-deliverance pattern (Exodus 12) John deliberately times Jesus’ death to fulfill. Handle with care: Passover retains its own full, independent, ongoing significance for the Jewish community and should not be presented as though its meaning is exhausted by Christian typological fulfillment.
Gave Up His Spirit
Approved rendering: gave up his spirit
Transliteration: paredōken to pneuma
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: simply ‘he died’ (a passive-event reading)
Original: παρέδωκεν τὸ πνεῦμα
Category: Substitutionary Death
19:30. A deliberate, active transfer, not a passive loss of life — echoes 10:18’s ‘I lay it down of my own accord,’ essential to the doctrine’s emphasis on Christ’s voluntary self-offering.
Resurrection Of Life Of Judgment
Approved rendering: resurrection of life / resurrection of judgment
Transliteration: anastasis zōēs / kriseōs
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: a generalized, universally-positive pop-culture afterlife assumption
Original: ἀνάστασις ζωῆς / κρίσεως
Category: Resurrection
5:28-29. Two distinct final outcomes of bodily resurrection — not all resurrection is to blessing. Must be stated plainly against the flattened cultural default.
Chosen Appointed
Approved rendering: chosen / appointed
Transliteration: eklegomai
Doctrine: Election and Divine Choosing in John
Rejected alternatives: the full Romans 9 soteriological election debate imported wholesale (a category error)
Original: ἐκλέγομαι
Category: Community
15:16; 6:37, 65; 13:18. Christ’s deliberate, sovereign selection of the Twelve for apostolic mission — related to but conceptually distinct from baseline ‘election’ (Romans 9’s individual-soteriological doctrine). Do not conflate.
Servant Slave
Approved rendering: servant / slave
Transliteration: doulos
Doctrine: Servanthood and Humility
Rejected alternatives: ‘slave’ used carelessly, importing anachronistic transatlantic chattel-slavery associations, ‘servant’ alone, which softens and loses the real bondage the term names
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Ethics
13:16; 15:15. Culturally sensitive anachronism: modern English ‘slave’ carries the specific, painful historical weight of the transatlantic chattel slave trade, which does not map cleanly onto the ancient household bond-servant institution. Handle with explicit historical framing every time, offering both English words together rather than either alone.
Freedom
Approved rendering: freedom
Transliteration: eleutheria
Doctrine: Freedom from Sin
Rejected alternatives: personal autonomy / civil liberty (the dominant secular sense — freedom from external constraint to do as one chooses)
Original: ἐλευθερία
Category: Ethics
8:32-36. John’s freedom is freedom from sin’s power, achieved through, not despite, submission to Christ — nearly the inverse structure of the secular default, and must be distinguished explicitly.
Draw
Approved rendering: draw
Transliteration: helkō
Doctrine: Election and Divine Choosing in John
Original: ἑλκύω
Category: New Birth
6:44. Directly parallels the baseline ‘election’/‘calling’ entries; Reformed traditions read this as effectual, particular grace, while Arminian/Wesleyan traditions read it as a universally extended but resistible enabling. State this curriculum’s own reading and note the range of views, per the baseline’s denominational-transparency rule.
The Jews
Approved rendering: the Jews
Transliteration: Ioudaioi
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: a blanket ethnic indictment (a historically weaponized misreading this curriculum must foreclose)
Original: Ἰουδαῖοι
Category: Church
An ethnic-religious identity term John uses both neutrally (ethnic identity) and, at other points, narrowed to hostile religious leadership specifically. Post-Holocaust readers rightly flag this language; clarify explicitly that John, a Jew writing about a Jewish Messiah for a mixed audience, is not indicting an entire ethnicity, and that the referent narrows by context.
Medium Risk Terms
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Jesus as a casual interjection/expletive
Original: Ἰησοῦς / יֵשׁוּעַ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. John’s Gospel is the primary New Testament source for the explicit deity claims later councils formalized (1:1; 8:58; 20:28); avoid the casual-expletive register throughout.
Father
Approved rendering: Father
Transliteration: Father
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Central to John’s Unity of the Father and the Son doctrine (5:19-23; 10:30; 14:9-11; ch.17 entire), a heavier load than Romans’ adoption-focused usage; retain baseline’s pastoral-sensitivity note for readers with absent/painful human fathers.
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. John’s Gospel is the doctrinal anchor text for this term across the New Testament (1:34, 49; 3:16-18; 20:31); the eternal, unique, divine sense must be actively taught here with the same urgency as Romans.
Glory
Approved rendering: glory
Transliteration: glory
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: glory days, a glory hound
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. John ties glory explicitly to Christ’s pre-existence (‘the glory I had with you before the world began,’ 17:5) and to the sign-narratives (2:11; 11:4, 40) — a John-specific extension beyond Romans’ usage.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: kingdom of God
Transliteration: kingdom of God
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: a fantasy kingdom
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package. John 3:3, 5 ties entrance into the kingdom directly to new birth; 18:36 clarifies the kingdom is ‘not of this world,’ a John-specific guard against political misreadings not present in Romans.
Peace
Approved rendering: peace
Transliteration: peace
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: world peace / inner peace
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. John 14:27, 16:33, and 20:19-26 ground this peace in Christ’s own resurrection presence and completed victory, distinct from Romans’ justification-grounded framing but complementary to it.
Holy
Approved rendering: holy
Transliteration: holy
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: holier-than-thou, holy cow / holy moly
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. John 6:69 and 17:11 (‘Holy Father’) apply this term to both Christ and God the Father directly.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: sanctification
Transliteration: sanctification
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: ἁγιασμός
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. John uses the verb form (hagiazō) rather than this noun: ‘Sanctify them in the truth… I sanctify myself’ (17:17, 19), pairing sanctification with truth/word rather than Paul’s more frequent Spirit-oriented framing — a complementary emphasis, not a contradiction.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messiah
Transliteration: Messiah
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: a messiah complex
Original: Χριστός / מָשִׁיחַ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. John records this title’s early confession by name (1:41; 4:25-26, 29) and Martha’s climactic confession (11:27), both earlier and more explicit than most Romans occurrences.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israel
Transliteration: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: יִשְׂרָאֵל
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Nicodemus is addressed as ‘Israel’s teacher’ (3:10, the core passage), and Nathanael confesses Jesus as ‘King of Israel’ (1:49); modern nation-state political sensitivity note carries over unchanged.
Law
Approved rendering: law
Transliteration: law
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. John notes ‘grace and truth’ came ‘through Jesus Christ’ in contrast/fulfillment of the law given through Moses (1:17), and Sabbath-law conflicts recur throughout (5:9-18; 7:19-23; 9:16) — a narrative, conflict-driven usage distinct from Romans’ more discursive treatment.
Intercession
Approved rendering: intercession
Transliteration: intercession
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Original: ὑπερεντυγχάνει (Rom 8:26) / ἔντευξις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Conceptually present throughout John’s High Priestly Prayer (ch.17) and the Advocate’s ministry (chs.14-16), though this specific baseline term does not occur as a direct verbal match in John’s own text.
Mission
Approved rendering: mission
Transliteration: mission
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: a mission statement
Original: ἀποστολή / πέμπω
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. John’s Gospel prefers the sending-verb apostellō (3:17, 34; 5:36-38; 17:18) but never uses the noun ‘apostle’ even once — flagged so Phase 2 content does not import Pauline apostle vocabulary into John’s own text. See ‘sent’ below.
Apostle
Approved rendering: apostle
Transliteration: apostle
Doctrine: Apostleship
Inherited from Romans package. IMPORTANT JOHN-SPECIFIC NOTE: the noun ‘apostle’ (apostolos) never occurs in John’s Gospel, despite the cognate verb ‘sent’ (apostellō) being extremely frequent (3:17, 34; 5:36-38; 17:18). Phase 2 content must not import this noun into John-specific material where the text itself does not use it; use ‘sent’ (new entry below) instead when working directly from John’s own vocabulary.
Flesh
Approved rendering: flesh
Transliteration: sarx
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: skin/meat (the culinary or clinical default)
Original: σάρξ
Category: Christology
Modern English ‘flesh’ survives mainly in culinary or clinical usage; readers must be told this is a theological category of nature/origin (1:14, 3:6, 6:51-56), not skin or meat.
Descended Came Down
Approved rendering: came down / descended
Transliteration: katabas
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: poetic flourish (a common but insufficient reading)
Original: καταβάς
Category: Pre-existence
Risk that ‘came down’ (3:13, the core passage; 6:38) reads as poetic metaphor rather than a literal claim that Christ’s origin predates his earthly life.
Children Of God
Approved rendering: children of God
Transliteration: tekna theou
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: a generic ‘we are all God’s children’ universalism divorced from 1:12’s stated condition (‘to all who received him… who believed’)
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: New Birth
Distinguish from baseline ‘adoption’ (Romans’ forensic huiothesia, a legal placement into a family): John’s tekna language (1:12-13) concerns organic begetting and new nature, a related but conceptually distinct, complementary category.
Perish
Approved rendering: perish
Transliteration: apolytai
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: perish the thought (trivializing idiom)
Original: ἀπόλυται
Category: Eternal Life
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:16). Real, final, ruinous loss — not annihilation of existence but a final separation from God; modern idiom trivializes this into mild dismissal.
Light Darkness
Approved rendering: light / darkness
Transliteration: phōs / skotos, skotia
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: a purely informational idiom (‘shed light on,’ ‘in the dark about’)
Original: φῶς / σκότος, σκοτία
Category: Judgment
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:19-21). The controlling metaphor for revelation/truth versus concealment/evil; the specifically moral (not merely informational) weight of the choice must be made explicit — people ‘loved darkness’ by moral preference, not mere ignorance.
Exposed Convicted
Approved rendering: exposed / convicted
Transliteration: elegchō
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Original: ἐλέγχω
Category: Judgment
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:20). Modern ‘convict’ is dominated by the criminal-justice sense; also ties the light/exposure theme of ch.3 to the Spirit’s convicting ministry (16:8).
Truth
Approved rendering: truth
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: my truth / post-truth / alternative facts (politicized modern usage)
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Judgment
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:21). Reality itself as disclosed by God, ultimately embodied in Christ (14:6), not merely factual accuracy or a self-constructed personal narrative.
Devil
Approved rendering: devil
Transliteration: diabolos
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: devil’s advocate / a devil emoji (trivializing pop-culture usage)
Original: διάβολος
Category: Judgment
8:44’s ‘father of lies’ — a personal, serious spiritual reality underlying unbelief, not a cartoonish or jokey figure.
Ruler Of This World
Approved rendering: ruler of this world
Transliteration: ho archōn tou kosmou toutou
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: a fantasy/sci-fi villain-trope ‘ruler of the world’
Original: ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου
Category: Judgment
12:31, 14:30, 16:11 — Satan’s real, God-permitted but temporary authority over the fallen world order, tied directly to the cross’s decisive judgment.
Savior
Approved rendering: Savior
Transliteration: sōtēr
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
Rejected alternatives: an emergency-rescue/superhero framing
Original: σωτήρ
Category: God’s Love
4:42 ties this title directly to kosmos/‘world,’ reinforcing the universal scope of 3:16-17; see baseline ‘salvation’ notes.
Sent
Approved rendering: sent
Transliteration: apesteilen (apostellō)
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
Original: ἀπέστειλεν (ἀποστέλλω)
Category: God’s Love
3:17, 34; 5:36-38; 17:18. John uses this sending-verb constantly but never uses the noun ‘apostle’ (apostolos) — flagged so Phase 2 content does not import Pauline apostle vocabulary where John’s own text does not use it.
Living Water
Approved rendering: living water
Transliteration: hydōr zōn
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Rejected alternatives: a generic wellness-culture ‘stay hydrated’ self-care metaphor
Original: ὕδωρ ζῶν
Category: Holy Spirit
4:10-14, 7:37-38. Flowing, permanently satisfying water, metaphorically identifying the Spirit and the eternal life Christ gives.
Rivers Of Living Water
Approved rendering: rivers of living water
Transliteration: potamoi hydatos zōntos
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Original: ποταμοὶ ὕδατος ζῶντος
Category: Holy Spirit
7:38-39. The Gospel’s own narratorial gloss (‘by this he meant the Spirit,’ 7:39) is a mild asset against over-metaphorizing and should be retained explicitly.
Die For The People
Approved rendering: die for the people
Transliteration: apothanein hyper tou laou
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Original: ἀποθανεῖν ὑπὲρ τοῦ λαοῦ
Category: Substitutionary Death
11:50-51. Caiaphas’s unwitting prophecy; narrative irony requiring explicit unpacking so readers do not miss that a hostile character is speaking gospel truth unknowingly.
Blood And Water
Approved rendering: blood and water
Transliteration: haima kai hydōr
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Original: αἷμα καὶ ὕδωρ
Category: Substitutionary Death
19:34-35. Confirms the reality of Jesus’ physical death (anti-docetic), presented as literal eyewitness testimony, tying to the witness/testimony theme running throughout the Gospel.
Testify Testimony
Approved rendering: testify / testimony
Transliteration: martyreō / martyria
Doctrine: Witness and Testimony
Rejected alternatives: a purely legalistic, evidentiary sense divorced from relational, costly first-hand witness
Original: μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία
Category: Witness
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:11). John’s signature verb/noun for authenticating Jesus’ identity, used more than in any other New Testament book — structures the entire Gospel as a chain of witnesses (John the Baptist, the Father, the Spirit, the works, the Scriptures, the disciples).
Abide Remain
Approved rendering: abide / remain
Transliteration: menō
Doctrine: Abiding in Christ (The True Vine)
Original: μένω
Category: Community
CORE PASSAGE TERM introduced at 3:36 (fully developed at 15:4-10). ‘Abide’ is rare and slightly archaic in ordinary contemporary speech (surviving mainly in the negative idiom ‘I can’t abide that’); must be glossed as ongoing, settled relationship, not a fleeting visit.
Fruit
Approved rendering: fruit
Transliteration: karpos
Doctrine: Abiding in Christ (The True Vine)
Rejected alternatives: a business/self-help ‘bear fruit’ productivity metaphor
Original: καρπός
Category: Community
15:1-16. The visible, organic outcome of a Spirit-empowered, Christ-abiding life, distinguished from self-generated moral effort or achievement.
Friends
Approved rendering: friends
Transliteration: philoi
Doctrine: Love and the New Commandment
Rejected alternatives: generic camaraderie
Original: φίλοι
Category: Community
15:13-15. Contrasted with the servant/slave status of 13:16 — believers’ relationship to Christ is upgraded from servitude to intimate friendship.
New Commandment
Approved rendering: new commandment
Transliteration: entolē kainē
Doctrine: Love and the New Commandment
Original: ἐντολὴ καινή
Category: Ethics
13:34-35. Shifts ethical ground from Sinai covenant obedience to Christ-modeled self-giving love; relates to baseline ‘law’ and ‘obedience of faith.‘
Overcome
Approved rendering: overcome
Transliteration: nikaō
Doctrine: Peace and Joy in Christ
Rejected alternatives: a generic self-help/motivational-speaker ‘overcomer’ resilience narrative
Original: νικάω
Category: Assurance
16:33. A completed-past claim of victory (‘I have overcome the world’), not a future hope only; Christ’s specific, cosmic, already-accomplished victory over sin, the world, and death.
Joy
Approved rendering: joy
Transliteration: chara
Doctrine: Peace and Joy in Christ
Rejected alternatives: happiness (a circumstance-dependent emotional state, the common modern conflation)
Original: χαρά
Category: Assurance
16:20-24. Deep gladness rooted in relationship with God, not dependent on circumstance, following necessary sorrow (childbirth analogy).
Worship
Approved rendering: worship
Transliteration: proskyneō
Doctrine: Worship in Spirit and Truth
Rejected alternatives: ‘worships his car’ / celebrity worship (trivializing loose modern usage)
Original: προσκυνέω
Category: Worship
4:19-24. Reverent, God-directed homage, relocated from a specific holy site (Jerusalem or Samaria) to a Spirit-enabled, truth-grounded relationship.
Agape Phileo Love
Approved rendering: do you love me / I love you
Transliteration: agapas / phileis
Doctrine: Restoration and Commissioning
Original: ἀγαπᾷς / φιλεῖς
Category: Ethics
21:15-17. Two distinct Greek verbs, both flattened to ‘love’ in nearly all English translations; note the underlying wordplay explicitly while also noting scholars debate how much theological weight the variation should bear.
Sign
Approved rendering: sign
Transliteration: sēmeion
Doctrine: Signs and Revelation of Glory
Rejected alternatives: a traffic sign / an omen (dominant modern secular senses)
Original: σημεῖον
Category: Signs
2:11; 4:54; 6:2, 14, 26; 9:16; 11:47; 20:30-31. A miraculous act functioning as a revelatory pointer to Jesus’ identity and glory, not mere spectacle; John structures his Gospel around seven selected signs.
Hour
Approved rendering: hour
Transliteration: hōra
Doctrine: Signs and Revelation of Glory
Original: ὥρα
Category: Signs
2:4 (‘my hour has not yet come’) through 12:23 to 17:1. A technical term for the divinely appointed time of Jesus’ death and glorification; tracking this motif across chapters is a major structural key easily missed without explicit flagging.
Temple
Approved rendering: temple
Transliteration: naos
Doctrine: Incarnation (cross-referenced to The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ)
Rejected alternatives: generic world-religion architecture (the dominant modern secular association)
Original: ναός
Category: Signs
2:19-21. Jesus identifies his own body as the new temple; modern secular ‘temple’ evokes generic architecture more readily than the specific Jerusalem sanctuary and its typological transfer to Christ.
Sabbath
Approved rendering: Sabbath
Transliteration: sabbaton
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief (Christ’s authority relative to the Law)
Original: σάββατον
Category: Covenant
5:9-18; 7:19-23; 9:16. Modern secular readers may know ‘Sabbath’ only loosely as ‘a day of rest,’ missing the legal seriousness and identity-marking weight it carried in Second Temple Judaism.
Manna
Approved rendering: manna
Transliteration: manna
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Original: μάννα
Category: Covenant
Background for the Bread of Life I AM statement (ch.6); the Exodus 16 background must be supplied for most contemporary readers for the contrast to register.
Feast Of Tabernacles
Approved rendering: Feast of Tabernacles
Transliteration: skēnopēgia
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor; The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements (background)
Original: σκηνοπηγία
Category: Covenant
The autumn harvest and wilderness-wandering feast (ch.7), involving water-drawing and lamp-lighting ceremonies; without this background, the ‘living water’ (7:37-39) and ‘light of the world’ (8:12) declarations lose their rhetorical force as deliberate fulfillment claims.
Pharisees
Approved rendering: Pharisees
Transliteration: Pharisaioi
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: hypocrite (the post-biblical byword this word has become, a preloaded caricature)
Original: Φαρισαῖοι
Category: Church
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:1). Many readers know ‘Pharisee’ only as a byword for ‘hypocrite,’ which can pre-load a negative caricature Nicodemus himself does not yet embody in ch.3.
In My Name
Approved rendering: in my name
Transliteration: en tō onomati mou
Doctrine: Prayer in Jesus’ Name
Rejected alternatives: a rote closing formula appended to any prayer, guaranteeing any requested outcome
Original: ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου
Category: Prayer
14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-26. Praying on the basis of and consistent with Christ’s own character, authority, and revealed will — not a magic-formula guarantee. Restore the fuller Hebraic sense of ‘name’ as representing a person’s whole identity and authority.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophet
Transliteration: prophet
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: a tech prophet / prophet of doom
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Multiple figures ask whether Jesus is ‘the Prophet’ expected in Deuteronomy 18:15 (1:21, 25; 6:14; 7:40), a specific messianic-expectation usage not present in Romans.
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Original: דָּוִד
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. John 7:42 references the Messiah’s expected Davidic/Bethlehem lineage indirectly, through crowd debate rather than narratorial assertion — a lighter touch than Romans 1:3.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: fellowship
Transliteration: fellowship
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: a fellowship (academic/professional grant)
Inherited from Romans package. IMPORTANT JOHN-SPECIFIC NOTE: ‘fellowship’ (koinōnia) never occurs in John’s Gospel; the closest conceptual equivalents are ‘abide’ (menō) and the unity language of ch.17. Do not force this term onto John-specific passages where it is absent.
Follow
Approved rendering: follow
Transliteration: akoloutheō
Doctrine: Discipleship and Following Christ
Rejected alternatives: casual social-media ‘following’
Original: ἀκολουθέω
Category: Discipleship
1:37-43; 21:19, 22. Comparatively stable, committed-allegiance sense in contemporary English; distinguish from casual social-media usage.
Rabbi
Approved rendering: Rabbi
Transliteration: Rabbi
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: Teacher throughout (loses the term’s address-register)
CORE PASSAGE TERM (3:2). A respectful but incomplete title — Nicodemus addresses Jesus correctly but insufficiently (not yet as Lord). John himself transliterates and glosses this term (1:38, ‘which means Teacher’); follow the text’s own strategy rather than substitute ‘Teacher’ throughout.
Hosanna
Approved rendering: Hosanna
Transliteration: Hōsanna
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
12:13. Established, stable liturgical loanword in English-language Christian tradition; no competing secular sense.
Golgotha
Approved rendering: Golgotha
Transliteration: Golgotha
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
19:17. John glosses it himself (‘the Place of the Skull’); retain both the transliteration and his gloss.
Referenced passages