Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Titus (English → english)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, spanning Titus 1–3 in full. Terms already recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE — reuse exactly] and their established rendering, risk tier, and notes are carried forward unchanged, per the hard rule that established term renderings must be reused exactly. New terms introduced by Titus receive a fresh risk assessment using the same three-category framework (false-friend drift / denominational contest / obsolescence) and the same Critical/High/Medium/Low tiers.
How to read this table
- Rendering: the destination-language (English) term to use consistently across all Titus curriculum material.
- Category: doctrinal category, aligned to
Bible_Doctrinesin the curriculum parameters where applicable. - Risk: Critical / High / Medium / Low, per the shared risk-tier definitions in the baseline
doctrine_risk_registry.json. - Status: BASELINE (reuse exactly, no modification) or NEW (first documented in this Titus package).
- Key passages: primary Titus occurrences; core-passage verses (2:11–3:8) are marked with *.
| Rendering | Original (Transliteration) | Category | Risk | Status | Key passages | Rendering risk notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| grace | χάρις (charis) | Salvation | Critical | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 1:4; 2:11*; 3:7* | Not physical elegance/poise or a legal “grace period.” Titus 2:11–12 is a primary anchor for the baseline’s required “apart from works” clarification (cf. 3:5*, 3:8*) — grace that both saves and trains must be held together explicitly. |
| faith | πίστις (pistis) | Faith | High | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 1:1, 1:4, 1:13; 2:2, 2:10; 3:8* | Not generic optimism or an unsupported gamble. Note Titus 2:10’s distinct “good faith/faithfulness” (trustworthy conduct) sense alongside the more common “trust in Christ” sense (3:8*) — both occur in this short letter and should be distinguished explicitly on first use of each. |
| salvation / saved | σωτηρία / σῴζω (sōtēria / sōzō) | Salvation | Critical | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 2:11* (“bringing salvation”); 3:5* (“he saved us”) | Not a fully secularized generic “rescue,” and not merely one denominational reading of “being saved” as an event versus a process. Titus 3:5*‘s aorist (“he saved us”) favors the decisive-event sense in this specific instance — state this explicitly per baseline instruction. |
| Savior | σωτήρ (sōtēr) | Salvation / Christology | Critical | NEW — extends baseline “salvation” doctrine | 1:3, 1:4; 2:10, 2:13*; 3:4*, 3:6* | Titus uses this title six times in three short chapters — proportionally the densest concentration in the NT — applied to both God the Father (1:3; 3:4*) and Jesus Christ (1:4; 2:13*; 3:6*), which is itself a significant deity-of-Christ data point. Contemporary English “savior” survives mainly in secularized, sometimes ironic usage (“a self-styled savior,” “messiah complex” adjacent mockery, or comic-book “superhero savior” tropes); must be restored to its specific, exclusive, divine-rescue sense each time, not treated as generic heroism. |
| righteousness | δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē) | Salvation | Critical | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 3:5* (“works done…in righteousness”) | Not self-righteous smugness, and here specifically named as the domain of “works” explicitly excluded as the ground of salvation (3:5*) — a direct, compact restatement of the baseline’s core “apart from works” clarification. |
| justification / justified | δικαίωσις / δικαιόω (dikaiōsis / dikaioō) | Salvation | Critical | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 3:7* (“having been justified”) | Not “giving a reason for an action” (the dominant everyday sense). Titus 3:5–7* gives a compact three-term map of regeneration → justification → adoption/heirship in three verses — a uniquely dense passage for teaching the ordo salutis. |
| election / God’s elect | ἐκλογή / ἐκλεκτός (eklogē / eklektos) | Salvation | Critical | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 1:1 | Not a political vote. Applied corporately to believers as a class (“God’s elect”) rather than in the individual-predestination argument-form of Romans 9; still carries the same false-friend risk. |
| glory | δόξα (doxa) | God / Christology | High | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 2:13* | Not nostalgic “glory days” or a “glory hound.” Paired with a future ἐπιφάνεια (appearing) — glory here is specifically the visible splendor of Christ’s future return, not a vague spiritual abstraction. |
| Holy Spirit | πνεῦμα ἅγιον (pneuma hagion) | God | Critical | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 3:5* (“renewal of the Holy Spirit”) | Not vague “good vibes” or impersonal spiritual energy. Named explicitly as the agent of regeneration/renewal in 3:5* — a specific, personal divine Person doing a specific saving work, not a diffuse force. |
| peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | Salvation | Medium | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 1:4 | Not “world peace” or merely “inner peace.” Standard greeting-formula usage alongside grace. |
| apostle | ἀπόστολος (apostolos) | Church | Medium | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 1:1 | Not a generic “leading advocate.” Grounds Paul’s authority to write the letter’s instructions, including the elder qualifications and household code. |
| called / calling | κλητός / κλῆσις (klētos / klēsis) | Divine Calling | High | BASELINE — reuse exactly (concept present via “election,” 1:1; no direct κλῆσις occurrence in Titus) | 1:1 (via “God’s elect”) | No direct occurrence of καλέω/κλῆσις vocabulary in Titus itself; the calling concept is present through “God’s elect” (1:1) rather than a separate term. Included here for cross-reference completeness with the baseline. |
| God | θεός (theos) | God | Critical | BASELINE — reuse exactly | throughout; esp. 1:1–4; 2:13*; 3:4* | Not “a higher power” or “the universe.” Titus 2:13*‘s “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” is a primary deity-of-Christ text requiring the same weight as Romans 9:5 in the baseline. |
| Jesus / Christ | Ἰησοῦς Χριστός (Iēsous Christos) | Christology | Critical | BASELINE — reuse exactly | 1:1, 1:4; 2:13*; 3:6* | Use the established Christian Bible-translation form; avoid casual/expletive usage. Popular “historical Jesus” framings should not be allowed to quietly strip out the deity claims of 2:13*. |
| Father | πατήρ (patēr) | God | Medium | BASELINE — reuse exactly (implicit; God the Father is in view in 1:4, 3:4 alongside Christ, without the word πατήρ itself occurring)* | 1:4 (implicit); 3:4* | Titus does not use the explicit vocative “Father” as Romans 8 does, but the Trinitarian structure of 3:4–6* (Father’s kindness appearing, Spirit’s renewal, through Christ) presumes the same Fatherly relationship; cross-reference the baseline’s “Father” and “Abba” entries as relevant background for the doctrine of adoption/heirship (3:7*). |
| adoption / heir | υἱοθεσία (baseline) / κληρονόμος (klēronomos, new) | Salvation | Low (baseline: adoption) / Medium (new: heir) | BASELINE (adoption) + NEW (heir) | 3:7* | Baseline “adoption” risk profile applies as background; “heir” (κληρονόμος) is Titus’s own specific term, extending adoption’s legal consequence (guaranteed inheritance). Contemporary “heir” usage (inheritance law, monarchy) is a mild asset if not read as implying scarcity/rivalry among co-heirs. |
| hope | ἐλπίς (elpis) | Faith / Eschatology | High | NEW — no direct baseline entry | 1:2; 2:13* (“blessed hope”); 3:7* (“hope of eternal life”) | False-friend risk: contemporary English “hope” defaults to an uncertain-outcome wish (“I hope it works out”), the opposite of biblical ἐλπίς’s settled, guaranteed confidence grounded in God’s character (1:2, “God, who never lies”). Should be flagged for explicit clarification with the same seriousness as a Critical-tier baseline term, though newly documented here. |
| eternal life | ζωὴ αἰώνιος (zōē aiōnios) | Eschatology | Medium | NEW | 1:2; 3:7* | Forms a ring structure bracketing the letter (1:2, 3:7*). Contemporary usage risks a vague “afterlife in general” gloss; should retain the specific sense of resurrection life in God’s own presence, tied to hope’s guaranteed-future sense above. |
| mercy | ἔλεος (eleos) | Salvation | Medium | NEW | 3:5* | Near-synonym of grace, distinguished by its emphasis on relief from a miserable condition rather than favor toward the undeserving as such. Contemporary “mercy” survives mainly in judicial usage (“throw yourself at the mercy of the court”) — a mild asset if not reduced to mere leniency. |
| redemption / redeem | λύτρωσις / λυτρόω (lytrōsis / lytroō) | Salvation | High | NEW — related to but distinct from baseline “salvation” | 2:14* | Contemporary “redeem” is dominated by a financial sense (redeem a coupon/bond) and a loose narrative “redemption arc” sense; both drift from the ransom-from-slavery image. Should be corrected toward “bought out of bondage by a price paid,” not “cashed in” or “made a comeback.” |
| regeneration | παλιγγενεσία (palingenesia) | Regeneration by the Holy Spirit | Critical | NEW — anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine | 3:5* | Same tier as baseline “grace”/“justification”/“election.” Three converging risks: (1) obsolescence/false-friend — contemporary “regeneration” defaults to natural biological/ecological/urban renewal processes, not supernatural new birth; (2) denominational contest — sacramental traditions (baptismal regeneration) vs. Evangelical/Reformed traditions (Spirit-and-faith-worked regeneration symbolized by water) read “the washing” very differently; this curriculum must state its own reading transparently while noting the range of views; (3) must not be flattened into a gradual self-improvement process — this is a decisive, monergistic divine act. |
| renewal | ἀνακαίνωσις (anakainōsis) | Regeneration by the Holy Spirit | High | NEW | 3:5* | Paired grammatically with regeneration as one saving act. Contemporary “renewal” risks a wellness/self-help gloss (a spa “renewal package,” New Year’s “personal renewal”); must be tied explicitly to the Holy Spirit as personal divine agent, per the baseline’s Holy Spirit entry. |
| training / trains | παιδεύω (paideuō) | Grace That Trains for Godly Living | High | NEW — anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine | 2:12* | Contemporary “training” defaults to either a fitness/self-improvement metaphor or one-off corporate compliance training, both of which flatten the parental, formative, ongoing sense and both of which risk detaching this training from grace’s prior saving act (2:11*). Must state explicitly: grace itself does the forming; this is not self-improvement performed to earn or keep grace. Distinguish from the related but distinct σωφρονίζω (“train to be sensible,” 2:4) — a human-teaching-level term operating within the same field. |
| godliness / ungodliness | εὐσέβεια / ἀσέβεια (eusebeia / asebeia) | Grace That Trains for Godly Living | Medium | NEW | 1:1; 2:12* | Rare, slightly archaic-sounding in ordinary speech (obsolescence risk); “pious/godly” can also carry a mild pejorative connotation of showy religiosity that should be distinguished from the comprehensive, genuine devotion intended. |
| self-controlled / sensible | σώφρων / σωφρονέω / σωφρονίζω (sōphrōn / sōphroneō / sōphronizō) | Grace That Trains for Godly Living | High | NEW — most-repeated character term in the letter | 1:8; 2:2, 2:4, 2:5, 2:6, 2:12* | Recurs five times across chapter 2 alone plus 1:8, functioning as the letter’s structural keyword for the trained life. Contemporary “self-controlled” is a reasonable working gloss but under-conveys the fuller sense of a well-governed, clear, sound mind across every life domain — worth actively drawing out on first occurrence rather than treating as a throwaway adjective. |
| kindness | χρηστότης (chrēstotēs) | Salvation by Grace not Works | Medium | NEW | 3:4* | Risk of being flattened into mere politeness/niceness; should be restored to a decisive, active, saving divine initiative. |
| love for mankind / loving-kindness | φιλανθρωπία (philanthrōpia) | Salvation by Grace not Works | High | NEW — false-friend risk | 3:4* | Contemporary “philanthropy” is fully secularized (wealthy donors, charitable foundations); must be explicitly traced back to its root sense — God’s own saving love for humanity — and distinguished from human charitable giving, which borrowed and emptied the word of divine reference. |
| good works | καλὰ/ἀγαθὰ ἔργα (kala/agatha erga) | Sound Doctrine and Good Works / Salvation by Grace not Works | High | NEW — recurring structural refrain across the whole letter | 1:16; 2:7, 2:14*; 3:1*, 3:8*, 3:14 | The letter’s most important structural refrain: 1:16 (negative) → 2:7 → 2:14* (redemption’s purpose) → 3:1* → 3:8* → 3:14. In every positive instance, good works follow a prior act of grace/redemption/belief, never precede or produce it. This sequencing is the key to relating “Sound Doctrine and Good Works” to “Salvation by Grace not Works” without contradiction and should be taught as a deliberate literary pattern, not scattered exhortations. Contemporary “good deeds” carries no serious false-friend risk but should be actively connected back to its grace-grounding each time to prevent moralistic misreading. |
| sound doctrine / sound in the faith | ὑγιαίνουσα διδασκαλία / ὑγιαίνω (hygiainousa didaskalia / hygiainō) | Sound Doctrine and Good Works | High | NEW — anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine | 1:9, 1:13; 2:1, 2:2, 2:8 | Root meaning “healthy” (cf. “hygiene”) — teaching that produces spiritual health, contrasted with the false teaching of ch. 1 that “defiles” mind and conscience. Contemporary “doctrine” can sound cold, abstract, or authoritarian; the positive, medical “health” image embedded in the Greek should be actively restored as a teaching aid, not left implicit. |
| elder | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | Qualifications for Elders | High | NEW — anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine | 1:5 | Denomination-specific contemporary usage (LDS missionary title, Presbyterian polity, indigenous-community “elder”) means readers may not map this onto their own church structure; must be explained as a specific, qualified, appointed local-church office, used interchangeably with “overseer” in this passage. |
| overseer / bishop | ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos) | Qualifications for Elders | High | NEW | 1:7 | Denominational-contest risk: later church history’s “bishop” (a higher, translocal office in Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican polity) is a much larger office than this passage’s local “overseer,” which functions as a synonym for “elder” here. Must clarify this is very likely the same local office, not a separate higher rank, in this specific text. |
| husband of one wife | μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ (mias gynaikos anēr) | Qualifications for Elders | High | NEW — denominational-contest term | 1:6 | Genuinely debated construction (excludes polygamy? excludes remarriage? means marital faithfulness generally?) with real practical consequences for elder eligibility today across denominations. State this curriculum’s own reading transparently while noting the range of views, per the baseline’s denominational-transparency rule. |
| blameless | ἀνέγκλητος (anenklētos) | Qualifications for Elders | Medium | NEW | 1:6, 1:7 | Legal-flavored “no valid charge can be brought,” not sinlessness; a reputational/behavioral standard. |
| submission / submit | ὑποτάσσω (hypotassō) | Submission to Authority | High (citizens/general) / Critical (slaves, 2:9) | NEW — anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine, recurring across three distinct relationships | 2:5 (wives); 2:9 (slaves); 3:1* (citizens) | A single Greek verb structures three of the letter’s relational instructions. Must be presented as voluntary, dignity-preserving ordering, not coerced subjugation. Genuine, live denominational contest on its application to marriage (2:5; complementarian vs. egalitarian readings) — flag with the same transparency the baseline requires for grace/works. The slavery instance (2:9) is Critical-tier and requires human theologian review: must not minimize the moral gravity of the institution being addressed, and should acknowledge directly the text’s regulation of (not abolition of) first-century slavery, its historical misuse to justify chattel slavery, and the range of ways Christian traditions have read its trajectory (cf. Galatians 3:28; Philemon). |
| obedient / disobedient | πειθαρχέω / ἀπειθής (peitharcheō / apeithēs) | Submission to Authority | Medium | NEW | 1:16; 3:1*, 3:3* | Reuses the baseline “obedience of faith” cultural-autonomy-suspicion risk. Deliberate before/after structural pairing: what “we” once were (ἀπειθεῖς, 3:3*) is precisely what citizens are now called away from (πειθαρχεῖν, 3:1*) — regeneration reverses disposition, not merely behavior. |
| rulers and authorities | ἀρχαὶ καὶ ἐξουσίαι (archai kai exousiai) | Submission to Authority | High | NEW — direct parallel to Romans 13:1’s baseline-flagged government/authority discourse | 3:1* | Contemporary political polarization means this instruction lands very differently depending on a reader’s view of their own government; present without partisan coloring, as general pastoral instruction, not blanket endorsement of specific rulers’ conduct. |
| gentleness / meekness | πραΰτης (prautēs) | Submission to Authority / general character | Medium | NEW — false-friend risk | 3:2* | Contemporary “meek” (as in “meek and mild”) suggests weakness or being a pushover — nearly the reverse of the NT sense of strength willingly restrained. Should be actively clarified. |
| divisive person / heretic | αἱρετικός (hairetikos) | Avoiding Divisive Controversies | Critical | NEW — anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine | 3:10 | Genuine false-friend risk from two directions at once: (1) the later, narrower technical “heresy” sense (a specific false doctrine, e.g., about the Trinity) is not yet fully present in this word here — Paul’s sense is behavioral/relational (a factious, quarrelsome person), regardless of specific doctrinal content; (2) the modern secular positive-contrarian sense (“heretical thinking” praised in innovation culture) risks reversing the connotation entirely. Must be distinguished from both. |
| foolish controversies | μωραὶ ζητήσεις (mōrai zētēseis) | Avoiding Divisive Controversies | High | NEW | 3:9 | Should not be read as license to dismiss all theological disagreement or careful inquiry — Paul elsewhere models vigorous doctrinal argument; the target is specifically speculative, unprofitable, identity-driven wrangling, distinguished from 1:9’s call to actively refute false teaching. |
| quarrels about the law | μάχαι νομικαί (machai nomikai) | Avoiding Divisive Controversies | High | NEW — reuses baseline “law” risk | 3:9 | ”The law” here means the Mosaic Law specifically (echoing the “circumcision party” of 1:10), not general civil-court legal disputes a litigious contemporary culture might default to reading in. |
| truth / knowledge of the truth | ἀλήθεια / ἐπίγνωσις ἀληθείας (alētheia / epignōsis alētheias) | Sound Doctrine and Good Works | Medium | NEW | 1:1, 1:14 | Contemporary relativism (“your truth”/“my truth” as personal narrative) is a live false-friend risk for the objective, universally-binding sense intended; should be named directly. |
| covenant / promise | ἐπαγγέλλομαι (epangellomai) | Davidic/covenant background (cross-doctrine) | Medium | BASELINE (“covenant”) — reuse background notes | 1:2 | Reuses the baseline “covenant” term’s legal-document drift risk as relevant background; God’s promise “before the ages began” is a relational, binding pledge, not a contract clause. |
| slave / servant of God | δοῦλος θεοῦ (doulos theou) | Church / Apostleship | Medium | NEW | 1:1 | ”Slave” carries serious, legitimate contemporary sensitivity from the transatlantic slave trade’s history; “servant” softens but loses the total-belonging force of the original. Name the translation tension explicitly rather than silently choosing one word. |
| Gentiles | ἔθνη (ethnē) — implicit background, not a direct Titus term | Unity of Jews and Gentiles | Medium | BASELINE — reuse exactly (background; no direct occurrence in Titus) | background to 1:10 (circumcision party) | Included for cross-reference completeness; the Jew/Gentile tension underlies the “circumcision party” controversy (1:10) even though the word ἔθνη itself does not occur in Titus. |
| a people for his own possession | λαὸς περιούσιος (laos periousios) | Church as God’s People / Unity of Jews and Gentiles | Medium | NEW — draws on OT covenant-people background shared with baseline “election”/“covenant” | 2:14* | Direct LXX covenant-people language (Exodus 19:5) applied to the church; requires the same OT background the baseline supplies for “election” and “covenant,” or risks sounding merely proprietary rather than treasured and chosen. |
Risk Summary for This Package
| Risk tier | Count (new terms) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 4 | regeneration; divisive person/heretic; savior (extends baseline); submission (slavery instance, 2:9) |
| High | 12 | training; hope; renewal; redemption; good works; sound doctrine; elder; overseer/bishop; husband of one wife; submission (general); rulers and authorities; foolish controversies / quarrels about the law; self-controlled/sensible |
| Medium | 13 | godliness; kindness; mercy; heir/eternal life; gentleness/meekness; obedient/disobedient; blameless; truth; slave/servant of God; a people for his own possession; and related grouped entries |
| Low | (see full semantic analysis for grouped low-risk entries: vice/virtue catalogue terms, proper names, minor connective vocabulary) | Automated review sufficient per baseline conventions |
All Critical- and High-tier new terms above should be routed to human theologian review before Phase 2 content generation, per the baseline’s escalation rules, with the same routing logic applied: Critical/High → human theologian; Medium → native speaker; Low → automated review only.
This glossary must be read alongside analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md (full verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter argumentation) and the baseline translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json / doctrine_risk_registry.json, which remain authoritative for every reused baseline term.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: grace
Transliteration: grace
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: elegance/poise (the dominant secular sense, e.g. ‘she moved with such grace’), a grace period (the dominant legal/financial sense, an extension of time, not unmerited favor)
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
(Inherited from Romans package.) Anchors Titus 2:11 (‘the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation’) and 3:7 (‘having been justified by his grace’). Titus 2:11-12 requires the mandatory apart-from-works clarification AND the further clarification that this same grace both saves (2:11) and trains (2:12) — hold both functions together explicitly, per this package’s namesake doctrine ‘Grace That Trains for Godly Living.‘
Righteousness
Approved rendering: righteousness
Transliteration: righteousness
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: self-righteous / holier-than-thou (the dominant connotation ‘righteous’ now carries in casual usage — smug, judgmental superiority)
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 3:5 names ‘works done…in righteousness’ as the explicitly excluded ground of salvation — a compact restatement of the baseline’s core grace/works clarification, cross-referenced with Romans 3:20, 28 and 4:4-5.
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: justification
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: justifying your answer / justifying an action (the near-universal everyday sense: giving a reason or excuse for something already done)
Original: δικαίωσις / δικαιόω
Category: Salvation
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 3:7’s aorist passive participle (‘having been justified’) marks a completed, settled legal fact. Occurs in immediate sequence with regeneration (3:5) and heirship (3:7), giving Titus a compact three-step map of the ordo salutis in three verses.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvation
Transliteration: salvation
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: being saved (contested denominational shorthand — see notes), rescue (too generic a gloss on its own)
Original: σωτηρία / σῴζω
Category: Salvation
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 2:11 (‘bringing salvation for all people’) and 3:5 (‘he saved us’) both occur. Titus 3:5’s aorist tense favors the decisive, completed-past-act sense; state this explicitly per baseline instruction rather than assuming it settles the wider event-vs-process debate for every passage.
Election
Approved rendering: election
Transliteration: election
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: an election (the near-total dominant contemporary sense: a political vote, e.g. ‘the presidential election’)
Original: ἐκλεκτῶν θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 1:1 applies this corporately: ‘God’s elect.’ The same near-total political-vote false-friend risk documented in the baseline for Romans 9 applies identically here; readers will import a campaigning/majority-choice frame onto ‘God’s elect’ without explicit correction.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Jesus (as a casual interjection/expletive, entirely secularized and disrespectful usage)
Original: Ἰησοῦς Χριστός
Category: Christology
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 1:1, 1:4, 2:13, 3:6 all name Jesus Christ; 2:13 identifies him explicitly as ‘our great God and Savior.’ Popular ‘historical Jesus’ framings should not be allowed to quietly strip out this deity claim.
God
Approved rendering: God
Transliteration: God
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a higher power (a common, deliberately vague contemporary substitute, e.g. in recovery-program language), the universe (a New-Age-influenced impersonal substitute, e.g. ‘the universe has a plan for you’)
Original: θεός
Category: God
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 2:13’s ‘our great God and Savior Jesus Christ’ is a primary deity-of-Christ text and must carry the same weight the baseline assigns to Romans 9:5. See new term ‘savior’ below for the title’s dense concentration across the letter.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Holy Spirit
Transliteration: Holy Spirit
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: good vibes / positive energy (vague contemporary spiritual substitutes for a specific, personal, divine Person)
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 3:5 names the Holy Spirit explicitly as the agent of ‘renewal’ accompanying regeneration — a specific, personal divine Person doing a specific saving work, not a diffuse spiritual force.
Savior
Approved rendering: Savior
Transliteration: Savior
Doctrine: Salvation / Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a self-styled savior / superhero savior (secularized, ironic, or comic-book usage), messiah complex (a pop-psychology pejorative implying grandiosity, not a title of genuine honor)
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM extending the baseline ‘salvation’ doctrine cluster. Occurs six times in three short chapters (1:3, 1:4, 2:10, 2:13, 3:4, 3:6), the densest concentration in the New Testament, applied to both God the Father (1:3, 3:4) and Jesus Christ (1:4, 2:13, 3:6) — a significant deity-of-Christ data point. Restore to its specific, exclusive, divine-rescue sense at every occurrence; always name which Person (Father or Son) is in view.
Regeneration
Approved rendering: regeneration
Transliteration: regeneration
Doctrine: Regeneration by the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: tissue regeneration / forest regeneration / urban regeneration (dominant contemporary natural, gradual, non-supernatural process senses)
Original: παλιγγενεσία
Category: Regeneration by the Holy Spirit
NEW TERM, anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine, same tier as the baseline’s ‘grace,’ ‘justification,’ and ‘election.’ Titus 3:5’s ‘washing of regeneration’ is the single most theologically dense phrase in the letter. THREE CONVERGING RISKS: (1) obsolescence/false-friend — contemporary English defaults to gradual natural-process senses; (2) denominational contest — sacramental traditions read ‘the washing’ as baptism itself effecting regeneration, Evangelical/Reformed traditions read the washing as symbolic of a Spirit-and-faith-worked regeneration; state this curriculum’s own reading transparently while noting the range of views; (3) must not be flattened into gradual self-improvement — this is a decisive, monergistic divine act, new birth not renovation. Never let the bare word stand alone even after a first-use gloss; pair with ‘new birth’ at every recurrence.
Submission
Approved rendering: submit / submission
Transliteration: hypotassō
Doctrine: Submission to Authority
Rejected alternatives: coerced subjugation / loss of agency (the dominant contemporary negative connotation, which the text itself does not intend)
Original: ὑποτάσσω
Category: Submission to Authority
NEW TERM, anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine, and CRITICAL because of its most serious occurrence (Titus 2:9, slaves submitting to masters). A single Greek verb structures three relational instructions: wives (2:5), slaves (2:9), citizens (3:1). Must be presented as voluntary, dignity-preserving ordering, never without an accompanying qualifying clause, at EVERY occurrence, not only the first. Marriage application (2:5) carries live complementarian-vs-egalitarian denominational contest requiring transparency. The slavery instance (2:9) requires human theologian review at every occurrence: must not minimize the moral gravity of chattel slavery, must acknowledge the text’s regulation of (not endorsement or abolition of) a first-century institution, its documented historical misuse to justify New World chattel slavery, and the range of ways Christian traditions have read its trajectory (cf. Galatians 3:28; Philemon).
Divisive Person
Approved rendering: a divisive person
Transliteration: hairetikon anthrōpon
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Rejected alternatives: heretic (the direct etymological descendant, but narrowed to a specific-false-doctrine-content sense not yet present here), heretical thinking (a modern, admiring secular sense for bold contrarianism — the opposite connotation)
Original: αἱρετικὸν ἄνθρωπον
Category: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
NEW TERM, anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine, and a two-directional false friend. Titus 3:10. Paul’s actual sense is behavioral/relational (a factious, quarrelsome person disrupting church unity), regardless of specific doctrinal content. Use the descriptive phrase ‘a divisive person’ as the primary reader-facing rendering; retain ‘heretic’ only as background etymology, never as the operative term.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: faith
Transliteration: faith
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: faith in humanity / a leap of faith (secularized idioms meaning generic optimism or an unsupported gamble, not trust in a specific person)
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 1:1, 1:4, 1:13, 3:8 use the belief/trust-in-Christ sense; Titus 2:10 uses a distinct ‘good faith/faithfulness’ (trustworthy conduct) sense of the same root. Distinguish these two senses explicitly on first occurrence of each within a document.
Called
Approved rendering: called
Transliteration: called
Doctrine: Divine Calling
(Inherited from Romans package.) No direct kaleō/klētos vocabulary occurs in Titus; the calling doctrine is present through ‘God’s elect’ (1:1) instead. Kept here for cross-reference so its absence as a distinct word is not mistaken for the doctrine’s absence.
Calling
Approved rendering: calling
Transliteration: calling
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: finding your calling (the dominant contemporary secular sense: career vocation or personal passion, discovered through self-reflection rather than received from God)
(Inherited from Romans package.) Same background note as ‘called’ above: klēsis itself does not occur in Titus; the concept is carried by ‘God’s elect’ (1:1).
Sin
Approved rendering: sin
Transliteration: sin
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: sinfully delicious / my one sin (trivialized marketing and joking usage, e.g. dessert advertising)
(Inherited from Romans package.) The specific word ‘sin’ does not occur in the Greek of Titus 3:5, though the NLT’s published rendering (‘he washed away our sins’) supplies it; background concept present through ‘lawlessness’ (2:14) and the bleak former-state catalogue of 3:3. Cross-reference for readers noting the NLT wording’s addition.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: obedience of faith
Transliteration: obedience of faith
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: blind obedience / just following orders (negative idioms reflecting contemporary Western suspicion of obedience as servility or complicity)
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus does not use this exact phrase, but its underlying autonomy-suspicion risk applies directly to Titus 3:1’s peitharchein (‘to obey’) and 1:16/3:3’s apeitheis (‘disobedient’). See new term ‘obedient_disobedient’ below for the specific Titus occurrences and their deliberate before/after structural pairing.
Covenant
Approved rendering: covenant
Transliteration: covenant
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: a restrictive covenant (the dominant contemporary legal sense: a binding clause in a property deed, employment contract, or loan agreement)
(Inherited from Romans package.) Provides essential background for Titus 1:2’s ‘promised before the ages began’ and 2:14’s ‘a people for his own possession’ (direct Exodus 19:5 covenant-people language). See new terms ‘covenant_promise’ and ‘treasured_possession’ below.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: imputed righteousness
Transliteration: imputed righteousness
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: earned righteousness / good-person status (the explicit rejected opposite — righteousness achieved by good behavior)
(Inherited from Romans package.) Relevant background for Titus 3:5’s explicit works-exclusion and 3:7’s justification: Titus does not use this exact phrase but presumes the same credited-not-earned righteousness the baseline documents at Romans 4:3.
Hope
Approved rendering: hope
Transliteration: hope
Doctrine: Blessed Hope and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: I hope it works out / fingers crossed (the dominant contemporary sense: an uncertain-outcome wish, the near-opposite of the biblical sense)
Original: ἐλπίς
Category: Faith
NEW TERM, not directly documented in the baseline. Settled, confident expectation of a certain future grounded in God’s character (Titus 1:2, ‘God, who never lies’), not a wish about an uncertain outcome. Occurs at 1:2, 2:13 (‘blessed hope’), and 3:7 (‘hope of eternal life’), forming a ring structure across the whole letter. Requires the same explicit, repeated clarification the baseline mandates for Critical-tier false-friends, at every occurrence, not only the first.
Redemption
Approved rendering: redeem / redemption
Transliteration: redemption
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace not Works
Rejected alternatives: redeem a coupon/bond (the dominant contemporary financial sense), a redemption arc (a loose narrative ‘comeback from failure’ sense)
Original: λύτρωσις / λυτρόω
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM, related to but distinct from the baseline ‘salvation’ entry. Titus 2:14: Christ ‘gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.’ Must be corrected toward ‘bought out of bondage by a price paid,’ never ‘cashed in’ or ‘made a comeback’; pair with the ransom-image gloss at every occurrence, not only the first.
Renewal
Approved rendering: renewal
Transliteration: renewal
Doctrine: Regeneration by the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: a spa ‘renewal package’ / New Year’s ‘personal renewal’ (dominant contemporary wellness/self-help senses)
Original: ἀνακαίνωσις
Category: Regeneration by the Holy Spirit
NEW TERM. Titus 3:5: ‘renewal of the Holy Spirit,’ paired grammatically with ‘washing of regeneration’ as one saving act described from two angles. Must be tied explicitly to the Holy Spirit as personal divine agent at every occurrence, not left as a generic feeling of refreshment.
Training
Approved rendering: training
Transliteration: training
Doctrine: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
Rejected alternatives: personal-trainer / gym self-improvement metaphor, one-off corporate compliance training module
Original: παιδεύουσα (παιδεύω)
Category: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
NEW TERM, anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine. Titus 2:12: grace itself ‘training us to renounce ungodliness…and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.’ Must state explicitly that grace itself does the forming; this is not self-improvement performed to earn or keep grace. Distinguish from the related but distinct sōphronizō (‘train to be sensible,’ 2:4), a human-teaching-level term operating in the same field. Prefer a parental/tutoring image over a fitness or compliance image in any supporting paraphrase.
Self Controlled
Approved rendering: self-controlled / sensible
Transliteration: sōphrōn
Doctrine: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
Rejected alternatives: merely ‘not drunk’ (too narrow a gloss of nēphalios/sōphrōn overlap)
Original: σώφρων / σωφρονέω / σωφρονίζω
Category: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
NEW TERM, the most-repeated character term in the letter (1:8; 2:2, 4, 5, 6, 12). Under-conveys its fuller sense if treated as a throwaway adjective; draw out the full sense (a well-governed, clear, sound mind across every area of life) explicitly on first occurrence per document, given how often the root recurs.
Love For Mankind
Approved rendering: loving kindness / love for mankind
Transliteration: philanthrōpia
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace not Works
Rejected alternatives: philanthropy / a philanthropist / a philanthropic foundation (the dominant, fully secularized contemporary sense: human charitable giving, often reputation-linked)
Original: φιλανθρωπία
Category: Salvation by Grace not Works
NEW TERM, false-friend risk. Titus 3:4. The bare cognate ‘philanthropy’ must NEVER be used as a gloss in reader-facing material — it is close to a total inversion of agency (secular human donors giving, vs. God’s own saving love for humanity). Always render as ‘love for mankind’ or ‘loving-kindness’ with the etymological trap named directly.
Good Works
Approved rendering: good works
Transliteration: kala/agatha erga
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works / Salvation by Grace not Works
Original: καλὰ / ἀγαθὰ ἔργα
Category: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW TERM, the letter’s central structural refrain: 1:16 (negative: ‘unfit for any good work’) -> 2:7 (Titus’s own example) -> 2:14 (redemption’s purpose) -> 3:1 (‘ready for every good work’) -> 3:8 (‘devote themselves to good works’) -> 3:14 (urgent needs). In every positive instance, good works follow a prior act of grace/redemption/belief, never precede or produce it. No serious false-friend risk on the words themselves; the risk is structural/sequencing — anchor every recurrence back to the prior grace-act it follows.
Sound Doctrine
Approved rendering: sound doctrine
Transliteration: hygiainousa didaskalia
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Rejected alternatives: doctrine (bare, without the health/wholeness image, which sounds cold, abstract, or authoritarian in contemporary usage — ‘doctrinaire’)
Original: ὑγιαίνουσα διδασκαλία / ὑγιαίνω
Category: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW TERM, anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine. Root shared with English ‘hygiene’ — teaching that produces spiritual health, contrasted with the corrupting false teaching of 1:10-16 (1:9, 13; 2:1, 2, 8). Actively restore the positive medical ‘health’ image on first occurrence per document; this is teaching that produces real wholeness, not merely correct information to be enforced.
Elder
Approved rendering: elder
Transliteration: presbyteros
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: a general older person (loses the specific, qualified, appointed-office sense)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Qualifications for Elders
NEW TERM, anchor term for this curriculum’s namesake doctrine. Titus 1:5. Genuinely split contemporary usage (LDS missionary title; Presbyterian polity office; indigenous-community usage) means readers may not map this onto their own church structure. Used interchangeably with ‘overseer’ in 1:5-7; state this explicitly.
Overseer
Approved rendering: overseer / bishop
Transliteration: episkopos
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: bishop alone without qualification (imports the later, much larger translocal episcopal office of Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican polity)
Original: ἐπίσκοπος
Category: Qualifications for Elders
NEW TERM. Titus 1:7, used as a synonym for ‘elder’ describing the same local office from a functional angle (‘one who watches over’). Must clarify this is very likely the same local office as ‘elder’ in this specific text, not a separate, higher rank.
Husband Of One Wife
Approved rendering: husband of one wife
Transliteration: mias gynaikos anēr
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: faithful to his wife (a specific interpretive resolution, already adopted by some functional translations, that would silently foreclose the debate if used as the sole rendering)
Original: μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ
Category: Qualifications for Elders
NEW TERM, denominational-contest term with real practical consequences for elder eligibility today (polygamy exclusion? remarriage after widowhood/divorce? general marital faithfulness?). Retain the traditional phrase; state this curriculum’s own reading transparently while noting the range of alternative readings, per the baseline’s denominational-transparency rule.
Rulers And Authorities
Approved rendering: rulers and authorities
Transliteration: archai kai exousiai
Doctrine: Submission to Authority
Rejected alternatives: the government (a helpful modernization but risks narrowing the broader scope of the Greek to civil administration alone)
Original: ἀρχαὶ καὶ ἐξουσίαι
Category: Submission to Authority
NEW TERM, direct parallel to the baseline’s Romans 13:1 government/authority discourse. Titus 3:1. Present without partisan coloring, as general pastoral instruction, not blanket endorsement of any specific ruler’s conduct.
Foolish Controversies
Approved rendering: foolish controversies
Transliteration: mōrai zētēseis
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Original: μωραὶ ζητήσεις
Category: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
NEW TERM. Titus 3:9. Must not be weaponized against all theological inquiry or disagreement as such — Paul elsewhere models vigorous doctrinal argument; distinguish sharply from 1:9’s positive command to actively refute false teaching.
Quarrels About The Law
Approved rendering: quarrels about the law
Transliteration: ereis kai machas nomikas
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Original: ἔρεις καὶ μάχας νομικάς
Category: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
NEW TERM, reuses the baseline ‘law’ risk. Titus 3:9. Names the first-century Mosaic Law controversy (echoing the circumcision party of 1:10), not general civil legal disputes.
Profess Deny
Approved rendering: profess…deny by works
Transliteration: homologousin…arnountai
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Original: ὁμολογοῦσιν…ἀρνοῦνται
Category: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW TERM, reuses the ‘good works’ risk. Titus 1:16: ‘they profess to know God, but they deny him by their works’ — the negative counter-example anticipating the letter’s positive good-works refrain (2:14; 3:1, 8, 14). Actively draw this contrast so readers do not treat sound doctrine and good works as unrelated topics.
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)
(Inherited from Romans package.) NOTE: the word ‘gospel’ (euangelion) does not itself occur anywhere in Titus; the same proclaimed-announcement concept is instead carried by ‘proclamation/preaching’ (kērygma, Titus 1:3). Readers moving from Romans should be told explicitly that Titus expresses this doctrine through different vocabulary, not that the doctrine is absent.
Apostle
Approved rendering: apostle
Transliteration: apostle
Doctrine: Apostleship
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 1:1 grounds Paul’s authority to write the letter’s instructions, including elder qualifications and the household code; underwrites the letter’s entire authority structure.
Holy
Approved rendering: holy
Transliteration: holy
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: holier-than-thou (negative idiom for sanctimonious superiority), holy cow / holy moly (mere exclamations, entirely secularized)
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus uses the near-synonym hosios (‘holy/devout’) rather than hagios in the elder virtue list (1:8); both converge on the same ‘set apart, devoted to God’ sense in English and may be treated as a light synonym-pair without extended distinction.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: sanctification
Transliteration: sanctification
Doctrine: Sanctification
(Inherited from Romans package.) The specific noun hagiasmos does not occur in Titus; this Titus curriculum’s own namesake doctrine ‘Grace That Trains for Godly Living’ (2:11-12) functions as this letter’s own distinctive expression of the sanctification doctrine and should be cross-referenced here for readers moving between curricula.
Peace
Approved rendering: peace
Transliteration: peace
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: world peace / inner peace (the dominant secular senses: political non-conflict or psychological calm)
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
(Inherited from Romans package.) Standard greeting-formula usage in Titus 1:4, paired with grace; low incremental risk beyond the baseline’s documented profile.
Law
Approved rendering: law
Transliteration: law
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
(Inherited from Romans package.) Underlies Titus 3:9’s ‘quarrels about the law’ (Mosaic Law specifically, echoing the circumcision-party controversy of 1:10) and ‘lawlessness’ (anomia, 2:14, the condition Christ’s self-giving redeems from). Must not be reduced to a general civil/criminal legal-dispute sense in a highly litigious contemporary culture.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: Gentiles
Transliteration: Gentiles
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: non-believers (a common but incorrect modern gloss — Gentiles are non-Jews, not necessarily non-Christians)
Original: ἔθνη (background; word itself does not occur in Titus)
Category: Church
(Inherited from Romans package.) The word ethnē itself does not occur in Titus, but the underlying Jew/Gentile tension is presumed by the ‘circumcision party’ controversy (1:10). Included for cross-reference completeness.
Glory
Approved rendering: glory
Transliteration: glory
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: glory days (nostalgic secular usage for past success), a glory hound (a pejorative term for self-seeking attention)
Original: δόξα
Category: Christology
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus 2:13’s ‘appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior’ specifically names the future, visible splendor of Christ’s return — a concrete future event, not a vague spiritual abstraction, and must be kept distinct from the modern colloquial ‘epiphany’ sense of sudden personal insight.
Father
Approved rendering: Father
Transliteration: Father
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus does not use the explicit vocative ‘Father’ as Romans 8 does, but the Trinitarian structure of 3:4-6 (Father’s kindness appearing; Spirit’s renewal; through Christ) presumes the same Fatherly relationship underlying Titus 3:7’s heirship. Cross-reference as background.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: eternal life
Transliteration: eternal life
Doctrine: Blessed Hope and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: the afterlife (a vague generic gloss detached from bodily resurrection and God’s own presence specifically)
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM. Occurs at 1:2 and 3:7, bracketing the whole letter. Should retain the specific sense of resurrection life in God’s own presence, not a loosely spiritual immortality concept.
Mercy
Approved rendering: mercy
Transliteration: mercy
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace not Works
Rejected alternatives: leniency / a reduced sentence (a flattened judicial sense missing the relational, unearned dimension)
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Titus 3:5 names mercy, distinct from but closely related to grace, as the basis of salvation — mercy stresses relief from a miserable condition (echoing the bleak 3:3 portrait), grace stresses unearned favor as such. Contemporary judicial usage (‘at the mercy of the court’) is a mild asset if not reduced to mere leniency.
Godliness
Approved rendering: godliness
Transliteration: godliness
Doctrine: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
Rejected alternatives: pious (a mild pejorative in casual English usage for showy, performative religiosity)
Original: εὐσέβεια / ἀσέβεια
Category: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
NEW TERM. Eusebeia (1:1) and its negative counterpart asebeia (‘ungodliness,’ 2:12) form a key structural pair. Rare, slightly archaic-sounding in ordinary speech; should be distinguished from mere religious performance and restored to its comprehensive, genuine-devotion sense.
Kindness
Approved rendering: kindness
Transliteration: kindness
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace not Works
Rejected alternatives: mere politeness / etiquette (a flattened, low-stakes sense)
Original: χρηστότης
Category: Salvation by Grace not Works
NEW TERM. Titus 3:4 (chrēstotēs). Should be distinguished explicitly from merely ‘being nice’; this is a decisive, active, saving divine initiative that broke into the bleak human condition of 3:3.
Blameless
Approved rendering: blameless
Transliteration: anenklētos
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: sinless / morally perfect (overstates the legal-flavored standard actually intended)
Original: ἀνέγκλητος
Category: Qualifications for Elders
NEW TERM. Titus 1:6-7. A legal-flavored standard (‘no valid charge can be brought’), not sinlessness; supply this paraphrase on first occurrence to prevent a perfectionist misreading.
Obedient Disobedient
Approved rendering: obedient / disobedient
Transliteration: peitharcheō / apeithēs
Doctrine: Submission to Authority
Original: πειθαρχέω / ἀπειθής
Category: Submission to Authority
NEW TERM. Reuses the baseline’s ‘obedience of faith’ autonomy-suspicion risk. Titus deliberately pairs the negative (3:3, what ‘we’ once were) with the positive (3:1, what citizens are now called to) — regeneration reverses disposition, not merely external behavior; make this structural pairing explicit.
Gentleness
Approved rendering: gentleness
Transliteration: prautēs
Doctrine: Submission to Authority
Rejected alternatives: meek and mild (the dominant contemporary connotation: weakness, timidity, being a pushover — nearly the reverse of the intended sense)
Original: πραΰτης
Category: Submission to Authority
NEW TERM. Titus 3:2. Strength held under control, a settled disposition of considerate restraint, not weakness; actively clarify on first occurrence.
Truth
Approved rendering: truth / knowledge of the truth
Transliteration: alētheia / epignōsis alētheias
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Rejected alternatives: your truth / my truth (a contemporary relativist personal-narrative sense, nearly opposite the objective, universally binding sense intended)
Original: ἀλήθεια / ἐπίγνωσις ἀληθείας
Category: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW TERM. Titus 1:1, 1:14. Named directly and explicitly as the objective, universally binding sense; do not assume readers will supply this over the dominant contemporary relativist usage without correction.
Slave Of God
Approved rendering: servant of God
Transliteration: doulos theou
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: slave of God (more literal, but carries serious and legitimate contemporary sensitivity from the transatlantic slave trade’s history)
Original: δοῦλος θεοῦ
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Titus 1:1. Neither ‘slave’ (total-belonging force, but painful contemporary associations) nor ‘servant’ (softer, but loses that total-belonging force) is fully adequate; name this translation tension explicitly rather than silently choosing one word, per the baseline’s ambiguity-handling rule.
Treasured Possession
Approved rendering: a people for his own possession
Transliteration: laon periousion
Doctrine: Church as God’s Treasured People
Rejected alternatives: his property (a merely proprietary/controlling gloss stripped of the treasured, chosen sense)
Original: λαὸν περιούσιον
Category: Church
NEW TERM, draws on Old Testament covenant-people language (Exodus 19:5) applied to the church. Titus 2:14. Without that Old Testament background supplied explicitly, contemporary English ‘possession’ risks sounding merely proprietary; always pair with the Exodus 19:5 background.
Appearing
Approved rendering: appearing
Transliteration: epephanē / epiphaneia
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / Blessed Hope and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: epiphany (the dominant contemporary sense: a sudden personal realization or insight, a subjective psychological event, not an objective historical or future event)
NEW TERM, false-friend risk. Occurs at 2:11 (grace’s past appearing), 3:4 (kindness’s past appearing), and 2:13 (Christ’s future glorious appearing) — a matched pair framing the whole core passage. Avoid the cognate ‘epiphany’ in reader-facing material; state plainly these are real historical and future events (the incarnation; Christ’s return), not moments of insight.
Mind And Conscience
Approved rendering: mind and conscience
Transliteration: nous kai syneidēsis
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Original: νοῦς καὶ συνείδησις
Category: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW TERM. Titus 1:15, describing the false teachers’ comprehensive inward corruption. ‘Conscience’ survives robustly in ordinary English speech, a mild asset; still tie explicitly to God as its ultimate reference point, not a merely generic inner moral sense.
Cretans Quotation
Approved rendering: Cretans are always liars (a quotation)
Transliteration: Krētes aei pseustai
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Original: Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται
Category: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW TERM, cultural-sensitivity note. Titus 1:12, Paul’s approving quotation of the Cretan poet Epimenides addressing a specific first-century cultural reputation. Frame explicitly as an ancient rhetorical device citing a non-biblical source, not a timeless template for characterizing any people group today.
Blaspheme Slander
Approved rendering: speak evil of / slander
Transliteration: blasphēmein
Doctrine: Submission to Authority
Rejected alternatives: blaspheme (in its narrower modern sense of speech against God/the sacred specifically)
Original: βλασφημεῖν
Category: Submission to Authority
NEW TERM. Titus 3:2 and 2:5 (‘so that the word of God may not be reviled’) use this root for ordinary interpersonal slander, a broader Koine sense than contemporary English ‘blaspheme,’ which has narrowed almost entirely to speech against God. Note this semantic range explicitly.
Heir
Approved rendering: heir
Transliteration: klēronomos
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: a competing claimant (imports scarcity/rivalry foreign to the shared, non-diminishing inheritance the text intends)
Original: κληρονόμος
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM, extends the baseline ‘adoption’ doctrine. Titus 3:7: ‘we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.’ Contemporary inheritance-law/monarchy usage is a mild asset (guaranteed future possession by relationship, not earned) provided readers do not import scarcity/rivalry among co-heirs.
Circumcision Party
Approved rendering: the circumcision party
Transliteration: hoi ek peritomēs
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
NEW TERM, contextual/historical. Titus 1:10. Requires brief historical background on the first-century Jewish-Gentile controversy over Torah observance for Gentile believers; should not be confused with ethnic Jewish identity as such.
Low Risk Terms
Adoption
Approved rendering: adoption
Transliteration: adoption
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: υἱοθεσία (background; not the specific term Titus uses)
Category: Salvation
(Inherited from Romans package.) Titus itself uses ‘heir’ (klēronomos, 3:7) rather than the adoption noun directly; the doctrine and its low-risk positive secular drift (contemporary adoption-awareness culture) remain relevant background for Titus 3:7’s heirship language. See new term ‘heir’ below for the specific occurrence.
Exhort
Approved rendering: exhort
Transliteration: exhort
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
(Inherited from Romans package.) Occurs directly in Titus 2:15 (‘exhort and rebuke with all authority’) as one of three ministry verbs (speak / exhort / rebuke) describing Titus’s pastoral task.
Vice Virtue Catalogue
Approved rendering: vice and virtue lists
Transliteration: authadēs, orgilos, paroinos, plēktēs, aischrokerdēs / philoxenos, philagathos, sōphrōn, dikaios, hosios, egkratēs
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Original: αὐθάδης, ὀργίλος, πάροινος, πλήκτης, αἰσχροκερδής / φιλόξενος, φιλάγαθος, σώφρων, δίκαιος, ὅσιος, ἐγκρατής
Category: Qualifications for Elders
GROUP ENTRY. Titus 1:7-8. Several terms (especially ‘given to wine’ for paroinos) sound archaic; supply modern equivalents (‘prone to drunkenness,’ ‘quick to anger,’ ‘greedy for money’) alongside traditional wording.
Referenced passages