Linguistic Gap Analysis
06 Linguistic Gap Analysis — 1 John (English → Filipino)
Purpose
This analysis identifies where standard Filipino Bible vocabulary is adequate for 1 John’s doctrine set, where it is structurally missing, and where it is present but crowded — already carrying strong competing meaning from Filipino folk-Catholic devotional practice, secular romance culture, or the baseline Romans package’s own established usage. It extends the baseline Romans translation_memory.json/bible_term_registry.json and is a companion to 08_core_glossary.md. It does not re-litigate baseline term choices; it identifies new gap points specific to 1 John’s vocabulary and to the letter’s distinctive theological argument, anchored in the core passage (1 John 4:7-21) but covering the whole letter, chapters 1–5.
1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
| Doctrine | Available Filipino Term(s) | Weaknesses | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| God is Light and God is Love | liwanag; kadiliman; Ang Diyos ay pag-ibig | (1) “Liwanag” easily sentimentalized into vague positivity/blessing rather than holy, sin-excluding purity. (2) “Pag-ibig” is Filipino culture’s dominant word for romantic love (love songs, courtship, telenovela usage); a bare “Ang Diyos ay pag-ibig” risks being heard as “God is romantically warm/kind” rather than an ontological claim about God’s self-giving nature demonstrated in the cross (4:9-10). (3) The two statements (1:5; 4:8,16) are structurally parallel in Greek but have no shared Filipino syntactic marker tying them together for the reader. | Use established terms (liwanag, kadiliman, pag-ibig) — do not coin new vocabulary. Attach a mandatory teaching note at both 1:5 and 4:8/4:16 explicitly naming these as parallel essential-nature statements, and explicitly distinguishing “pag-ibig” here from romantic sentiment and from baseline’s rejected utang na loob (reciprocal debt) framing. Consider a translator’s cross-reference linking 1:5 and 4:8 in study-note apparatus. |
| Fellowship with God and One Another | pagsasamahan (baseline reuse); manatili (abide) | “Pagsasamahan” alone underrepresents 1 John’s repeated, structural use of “menō” (abide/remain) as the letter’s dominant relational-communion verb — a near-synonym cluster with fellowship but doctrinally load-bearing in its own right (2:6, 24, 27-28; 3:24; 4:12-16). Treating “manatili” as merely a stylistic variant of “pagsasamahan” would flatten a distinct theological emphasis (continuing, settled union) into a looser social one (companionship). | Reuse “pagsasamahan” exactly per baseline for koinōnia contexts (1:3, 1:6-7). Reserve “manatili” consistently for every menō occurrence, and note in translator guidance that these are two distinct (though related) Greek terms, not stylistic variants — do not let translators substitute one for the other for variety. |
| Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | ipagtapat/aminin (confess sin); patawad (forgive); linisin (cleanse); dugo (blood) | Sharpest crowding risk in the letter: the natural, most fluent Filipino word for “confess” in religious register is kumpisal, which in lived Filipino Catholic practice names the sacrament of Confession/Penance performed to a priest as a required channel for absolution. A translator defaulting to fluency over doctrine will reach for kumpisal/ikumpisal. Likewise “patawad” alone, without framing, is compatible with a hearer’s assumption that forgiveness still requires the sacramental channel to be complete or certain. | Hard-fence: never use kumpisal/ikumpisal for homologeō. Use ipagtapat/aminin (to God directly) for 1:9, and ipahayag for confessing Christ’s identity (2:23; 4:2-3, 15) — same Greek verb, two senses, both requiring the fence. Every 1:9 occurrence carries a mandatory note: forgiveness is God’s own direct, faithful and just response to confession made to him, not a benefit whose certainty depends on priestly mediation. |
| Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | pag-ibig; kapatid; ipinanganak ng Diyos; mga anak ng Diyos | (1) Same “pag-ibig” romantic-crowding risk as above, intensified because this doctrine’s entire logical structure (new birth → love; absence of love → absence of new birth, 3:14-15; 4:7-8, 20) depends on “love” bearing full theological weight, not a vague emotional register. (2) “Ipinanganak ng Diyos” risks collapsing into folk-Catholic assumption that spiritual new life was already conferred at infant binyag (baptism) by the ritual itself, independent of present, living, love-producing faith — inverting the letter’s own evidentiary logic (love proves birth; birth is not proved by a past rite alone). (3) “Mga anak ng Diyos” (plural, common) must stay visually/grammatically distinct from baseline’s “Anak ng Diyos” (singular, capitalized, Christ) — a real orthographic collision risk in translated running text. | Reuse pag-ibig with the same forbidden-substitution fence as above (never utang na loob). For “ipinanganak ng Diyos,” attach a note at each major occurrence (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 18) tying the doctrine to present, observable love and righteousness as evidence, not to the past performance of an infancy rite. Maintain strict capitalization/article discipline: “Anak ng Diyos” reserved for Christ; “mga anak ng Diyos” (lowercase, plural) for believers — flag any Phase 2 output that blurs this distinction. |
| The Incarnation and Antichrist | laman (flesh); Salita ng buhay (Word of Life); bugtong na Anak (monogenēs); anticristo | (1) “Laman” inherits the baseline’s documented Santo Niño—devotional-image localization risk (attachment to a specific miraculous image’s perceived power rather than the historical event of the Son’s taking on true human flesh) — now doubly load-bearing in 1 John, since 4:2-3 makes confessing “Jesus Christ come in the flesh” the literal test separating true from false spirits. (2) “Anticristo,” though an established transliteration, risks readers mapping it onto popular end-times/pop-culture “Antichrist” speculation (a singular future villain-figure) and missing John’s present-tense claim that the spirit of antichrist is already active in false teachers now (2:18-19; 4:3). | Attach the incarnation teaching note (already established in baseline) to every “laman” occurrence in 1 John, with explicit anchoring to the historical, once-for-all event, not image-devotion. For “anticristo,” require a note at first occurrence (2:18) clarifying the dual sense (future figure AND present pattern/spirit) and tying the term specifically to denial of the Father-Son relationship and Christ’s true incarnation — not a generic label for “opponent” or “evil figure.” |
| Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Tagapagligtas (Savior); buhay na walang hanggan (eternal life); pagtitiwala/lakas ng loob (confidence); katuwiran (righteousness, baseline reuse) | (1) “Tagapagligtas” inherits the baseline’s Critical “kaligtasan” framing exactly — same folk-sacramental risk (salvation as mechanically secured through ritual observance). (2) “Buhay na walang hanggan” must communicate a present possession (5:11-13, the letter’s stated purpose verse) — a register 1 John repeatedly reinforces but that Filipino devotional habit (praying/hoping for eternal life as a future reward “pagkatapos ng kamatayan”) tends to push toward future-only. (3) “Pagtitiwala”/“lakas ng loob” for parrēsia has no natural single Filipino equivalent carrying both “boldness before God in prayer” and “confidence at the judgment” — English’s one word covers two register (relational and forensic) that Filipino idiom tends to split. | Attach the baseline salvation note to every Tagapagligtas/kaligtasan occurrence. For eternal life, require translator emphasis (via tense/adverb choice, e.g., “nasa atin na” / “tinatamasa na natin”) that this is present possession, not solely future hope — most acutely at 5:11-13, the letter’s thesis-equivalent verse (parallel weight to Romans 1:16-17 in the baseline). For parrēsia, select pagtitiwala as the default and permit lakas ng loob only where the forensic/judgment sense (4:17) is more prominent than the prayer-access sense (3:21-22; 5:14) — record the choice per occurrence, do not alternate arbitrarily. |
| Overcoming the World | dumaig/managumpay (overcome); sanlibutan/daigdig (world) | (1) “Dumaig” risks drifting toward a generic, secular self-help “overcoming obstacles” reading unless the specific ground of victory (faith in the Son of God, 5:4-5) is kept syntactically attached in every occurrence. (2) “Kosmos” has three senses (created order / humanity generally / anti-God moral-spiritual system) collapsing onto only two readily available Filipino words (sanlibutan, daigdig), and Filipino usage does not draw the physical/moral distinction as sharply as John’s argument requires — “daigdig” defaults to a neutral physical-planet sense that under-carries the negative moral sense dominant in 2:15-17 and 5:19. | Use “sanlibutan” as the default for the negative/moral-system sense (2:15-17; 4:4-5; 5:19) and reserve “daigdig” only for clearly physical/neutral references, if any occur; flag every kosmos occurrence for a translator context-check rather than defaulting mechanically. For nikaō, require the phrase pattern “dumaig sa sanlibutan sa pamamagitan ng pananampalataya” (or equivalent) rather than a bare “nagtagumpay,” to keep victory’s ground explicit. |
| Testing the Spirits | subukin/suriin ang mga espiritu; espiritu ng katotohanan/kamalian; pahid (anointing) | This is the letter’s single highest cultural-collision doctrine. (1) “Subukin ang mga espiritu” sits in direct, acute tension with widespread Filipino folk-religious practice of consulting espiritista/albularyo (spirit-mediums, folk healers) or ancestral/nature spirits (anito) for guidance and discernment — the same general activity (seeking spiritual insight/verification) but through a categorically different, forbidden channel. (2) “Espiritu ng katotohanan / kamalian” must not visually or doctrinally blur into “Espiritu Santo” (capitalized baseline term), implying multiple divine spirits of comparable rank. (3) “Pahid” (chrisma) is native Filipino vocabulary but is heard through the specific ritual lens of Catholic sacramental chrism (Confirmation) or Anointing of the Sick, administered by clergy to a subset of the faithful at specific ritual moments — the opposite of 2:20/2:27’s claim that every believer already has this anointing from the Spirit. | Mandatory teaching note at every occurrence of “subukin ang mga espiritu” (4:1) distinguishing doctrinal, Scripture-content-based discernment (does this teaching confess Jesus Christ come in the flesh?) from consulting mediums or occult sources for guidance — framed respectfully, not dismissively, toward readers whose families may practice folk consultation. Keep “espiritu ng katotohanan/kamalian” consistently lowercase/uncapitalized and never abbreviated to “Espiritu” alone. Attach the anointing note at 2:20 and 2:27 clarifying this is the Spirit’s direct, universal gift to all believers, not a clergy-administered rite for some. |
2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Crowded neighborhoods (term exists, but a dominant competing sense must be fenced)
| Filipino Term | Competing Dominant Sense | Doctrine at Risk | Fencing Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| pag-ibig | Romantic/erotic love (pop culture, courtship) | God is Love; Love for the Brethren | Contextual note distinguishing agapē from romantic pag-ibig at every Critical occurrence (4:7-21 pervasively; 2:5, 15; 3:1, 11, 14-18, 23; 4:7-21; 5:1-3) |
| pag-ibig / paglilingkod bilang tugon | Utang na loob (reciprocal debt of gratitude) — baseline-documented Filipino social value | God is Love (esp. 4:11, 19: “we love because he first loved us”) | Explicit note: God’s love is prior, unearned, self-giving — human love is a response of the same nature, not a debt repayment transaction |
| kumpisal | Catholic sacrament of Confession/Penance to a priest | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | Hard forbidden-substitution rule: never use kumpisal/ikumpisal for homologeō in any sense (sin or Christ) |
| pahid | Catholic sacramental chrism (Confirmation) / Anointing of the Sick | Testing the Spirits | Note: universal Spirit-given gift to every believer, not a clergy-administered rite for a subset |
| mga banal (baseline term, recurs by extension since 1 John addresses believers as God’s set-apart people) | Canonized Catholic saints venerated with feast days/novenas | Love for the Brethren; Fellowship (secondary echo of the baseline’s Critical “saints” entry, though 1 John itself uses “kapatid” more than “banal”) | Where “banal”/“pagpapabanal” language is used in translator apparatus or study notes referencing believers’ set-apart status, reuse the baseline’s Critical framing note |
| mga diyus-diyosan / idolo | Devotional images/statues of Christ, Mary, and the saints (santos) central to Filipino Catholic piety | Overcoming the World; God is Light and God is Love (closing warning, 5:21) | Respectful, non-dismissive note: the doctrinal point is exclusive worship/ultimate trust in the one true God, not a blanket verdict against religious imagery as such |
| anticristo | Popular/pop-culture “Antichrist” as a singular future super-villain figure (film, prophecy-speculation literature) | The Incarnation and Antichrist | Note distinguishing present-tense “spirit of antichrist already at work in false teachers” (2:18-19; 4:3) from a strictly future-only figure |
| Espiritu ng katotohanan / kamalian | Visual/doctrinal confusion with “Espiritu Santo” | Testing the Spirits | Keep terminology and capitalization visibly distinct; never abbreviate to “Espiritu” alone |
| sanlibutan / daigdig | Neutral/physical “world” (planet, nations) crowding out the moral-system sense | Overcoming the World | Default to sanlibutan for the negative moral-system sense; flag every kosmos occurrence for context check |
| Anak ng Diyos vs. mga anak ng Diyos | Visual/orthographic collision between Christ’s unique Sonship and believers’ derived sonship | The Incarnation and Antichrist; Love for the Brethren | Maintain strict singular-capitalized (Christ) vs. plural-lowercase (believers) distinction throughout Phase 2 output |
2.2 Missing vocabulary (no single natural Filipino equivalent; requires compound/paraphrase construction)
| Concept | Gap | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| menō (abide/remain, relational-communion sense) | Filipino “manatili” primarily connotes physical/durational remaining (staying in a place), not the Johannine sense of settled, living, mutual indwelling union with God | Adopt “manatili” as the fixed rendering by convention (per 08_core_glossary), but require it be reinforced by surrounding phrase structure (“nananatili sa Diyos at ang Diyos ay nananatili sa kanya,” 4:16) rather than relying on the verb alone to carry the full theological weight |
| hilasmos (propitiation, judicial/sacrificial satisfaction) | No single Filipino word carries both “sacrifice” and “satisfaction of judicial offense against sin”; “haing” alone is a bare sacrifice term, insufficiently forensic | Retain the compound phrase “haing pantubos sa kasalanan” as fixed rendering (per bible_term_registry.json); do not shorten to “haing” alone in any Phase 2 output |
| parrēsia (dual-register confidence: relational prayer-access + forensic judgment-day boldness) | Filipino idiom splits this into two registers (pagtitiwala for relational trust; lakas ng loob for courage), where Greek uses one word for both | Select per-occurrence per the doctrine matrix above (2.7); record the choice in the segment cache, do not treat as freely interchangeable |
| monogenēs (unique/only Son, emphasizing costliness+singularity together) | “Bugtong” alone (common Filipino word for “only child”) underplays the costliness dimension present in context (4:9-10, sent as a sacrifice) | Retain “bugtong na Anak” as fixed phrase (per baseline-linked registry) but require the surrounding verse context (sending for sacrifice) to carry the costliness sense; do not expect the noun phrase alone to do this work |
| dokimazō ta pneumata (criterion-based doctrinal testing, as opposed to generic “discernment”) | Filipino has words for testing/trying (subukin, suriin) but no established phrase that specifically excludes folk-spiritual consultation methods (pakikipag-ugnayan sa espiritu, paghula) by definition | Require the mandatory teaching note (see matrix, row 8) to do this exclusionary work explicitly; the verb phrase alone cannot carry it |
3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Term | Decision | Filipino Rendering | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| antichristos | Transliterate | anticristo | Already an established, recognizable transliteration in Filipino Christian usage; paraphrasing (e.g., “kalaban ni Kristo”) would lose the term’s specific doctrinal technicality and its NT-wide cross-reference value (2 Thess 2, Rev 13). |
| Christos / Mesiyas | Baseline reuse (transliterate) | Mesiyas / Kristo | No change from baseline; both established forms retained per pipeline convention. |
| chrisma | Paraphrase (native word, not transliterated) | pahid | Transliteration (“krisma”) would import the Catholic sacramental term directly, worsening rather than easing the collision risk; the native word “pahid” allows the mandatory teaching note to redirect its sense, whereas a transliterated loanword would more strongly anchor to the sacrament by sound alone. |
| hilasmos | Paraphrase (compound phrase) | haing pantubos sa kasalanan | No single Filipino word carries the sacrificial + judicial-satisfaction sense together; a compound descriptive phrase is required, following the same pattern as the baseline’s “pagpapawalang-sala” (justification) and “katuwirang ibinilang” (imputed righteousness). |
| paraklētos | Paraphrase (descriptive term), not baseline’s “pamamagitan” | Tagapagtanggol | Distinguished from the baseline’s “pamamagitan” (intercession, used for the Spirit’s/Christ’s general intercessory ministry in Romans 8) because 1 John 2:1’s paraklētos usage is specifically forensic/legal-defense (advocate before a judge), a narrower and more courtroom-specific image than general intercession; “Tagapagtanggol” (defender/counsel) better isolates this sense while remaining conceptually linked to the baseline’s Critical intercession framework. |
| monogenēs | Paraphrase (established compound) | bugtong na Anak | Standard, already-established Filipino Bible phrase (cf. John 3:16 “bugtong na Anak”); reused here for consistency across Johannine literature rather than coining a new rendering. |
| sōtēr | Direct established term (native, not transliterated) | Tagapagligtas | Already fixed and linked to baseline’s “kaligtasan” family; no transliteration needed or desirable. |
| Abba (Romans 8:15 baseline precedent) — N/A in 1 John | — | — | No equivalent Aramaic retention required anywhere in 1 John; noted here only to confirm no parallel case exists in this letter. |
| eidōla | Native word, not transliterated | mga diyus-diyosan (primary) / mga idolo (secondary/gloss) | “Diyus-diyosan” is the natural, judgment-laden Filipino compound (diyos + reduplication, “god-like things,” implying falseness) and is preferred as the primary rendering; “idolo” may be retained as a parenthetical gloss for clarity but should not replace the primary term, since it reads as a more neutral loanword lacking the built-in “false/counterfeit” connotation. |
| kosmos | Native word, not transliterated | sanlibutan / daigdig (context-dependent, see matrix) | Standard existing Filipino Bible vocabulary; no transliteration warranted. |
| dokimazō | Native word (paraphrase as verb phrase) | subukin ang mga espiritu / suriin ang mga espiritu | Standard verb; the doctrinal fencing is carried by the mandatory teaching note, not by word choice. |
General principle applied throughout: transliteration is reserved for proper names and terms with no meaningful native equivalent and low collision risk (Mesiyas, anticristo); paraphrase/compound phrasing is used wherever a single native word would either (a) fail to carry the full doctrinal weight of the Greek term, or (b) actively import a competing ritual/cultural frame that the native word alone cannot exclude (chrisma → pahid, hilasmos → haing pantubos sa kasalanan).
4. Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities in 1 John
Ranked by combined severity of doctrinal consequence and probability of collision with existing Filipino religious/cultural frameworks.
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“Confess” (homologeō) defaulting to kumpisal — 1:9; 2:23; 4:2-3, 15. Highest risk: a single lexical slip imports an entire sacramental system (priestly mediation, required ritual step) into a verse whose entire rhetorical force is the directness and sufficiency of confessing to God himself. Affects both the sin-confession and Christ-confession senses identically.
-
“Test the spirits” (dokimazō ta pneumata) read as compatible with, rather than opposed to, folk-spiritual consultation — 4:1. Filipino folk practice of consulting mediums, healers, or ancestral spirits for guidance is a live, common activity; without a strong fence, the verse could be misread as endorsing a method (spiritual consultation) rather than prescribing a content-based doctrinal test that excludes that method category entirely.
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“God is love” (4:8, 16) read as sentimental benevolence or romantic pag-ibig — 4:7-21 (the core passage), pervasively. This is the letter’s theological center; a drift into vague warmth or romantic connotation would corrupt the passage on which the entire curriculum is anchored, and would blunt 4:10’s sacrificial specificity (“not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”).
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“Born of God” (gennaō ek tou theou) collapsing into infant-baptism sacramentalism — 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 18. Risk of readers concluding new birth was already settled at binyag in infancy, inverting the letter’s own logic that present, observable love and obedience are the evidence of new birth, not a past ritual’s guarantee independent of ongoing faith and love.
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“Anointing” (chrisma) heard as clergy-administered sacramental chrism — 2:20, 2:27. Directly inverts the verse’s own claim (every believer already has this, and “you need no one to teach you” in the sense of an external mediating authority) if read through the lens of a rite reserved to some believers at specific ritual moments.
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“Propitiation/advocate” cluster (hilasmos, paraklētos) read as one intercessory relationship among several available (Mary, saints) — 2:1-2; 4:10. High doctrinal cost if diluted, since it directly concerns the sufficiency and uniqueness of Christ’s mediating work — the same Critical risk the baseline documents for Romans’ “intercession,” now doubled by 1 John’s explicit courtroom/advocate imagery.
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“Idols” (eidōla) heard as a blanket condemnation of religious imagery — 5:21. Severe pastoral risk if mishandled: could alienate readers from a santo-devotional background rather than communicating the letter’s actual, narrower point (exclusive ultimate trust in the true God). Requires the most carefully worded teaching note of any Low-frequency term in the letter.
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“World” (kosmos) sense-collapse between physical/human/moral-system readings — 2:15-17; 3:1, 13; 4:1, 3-5, 9, 14, 17; 5:4-5, 19. Frequent term (highest occurrence count of any ambiguity on this list) where a wrong sense per-occurrence produces either an overly negative view of creation/humanity (if the moral-system sense is wrongly universalized) or an underly negative view of the anti-God system (if the neutral physical sense is wrongly substituted in 2:15-17 or 5:19).
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“Anticristo” narrowed to a future-only pop-culture figure — 2:18-19, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7 (adjacent letter, same author, same term family — relevant for curriculum consistency). Risk of readers missing John’s urgent present-tense pastoral point (false teachers already among the readers) in favor of speculative future-figure fascination common in some Filipino Christian subcultures influenced by prophecy-conference literature.
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“Sin unto death” (hamartia pros thanaton) resolved rather than preserved as ambiguous — 5:16-17. Lower doctrinal centrality than items 1-9 but high pastoral risk: premature interpretive resolution (e.g., naming specific sins as unforgivable, or conversely implying all intercessory prayer is futile in hard cases) could cause real pastoral harm; flagged for mandatory theologian/native-speaker review specifically to prevent over-resolution.
5. Full-Book Coverage Note (1 John 1–5)
This analysis is anchored in the core passage (4:7-21) but has been checked against the entire letter to ensure no chapter is silently skipped:
- Chapter 1 (1:1-10): Reviewed. Contributes Word of Life, fellowship, light/darkness, blood, cleanse, confess, forgiveness, sin, unrighteousness — all addressed above (rows 1, 2, 3).
- Chapter 2 (2:1-29): Reviewed. Contributes advocate, propitiation, commandment, abide, world, antichrist, deny, lie/liar, anointing, born of God, righteousness — addressed above (rows 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).
- Chapter 3 (3:1-24): Reviewed. Contributes children of God, purify, lawlessness, devil, love/hate, murderer, lay down one’s life, commandment, confidence — addressed above (rows 4, 6, 8, 9). No new gap points beyond those already logged; chapter reinforces the love/new-birth cluster’s centrality.
- Chapter 4 (4:1-21): Reviewed — the core passage. Contributes test the spirits, spirit of truth/error, God is love, only/unique Son, Savior, fear, punishment, perfect/complete love, confidence — addressed comprehensively above (rows 1, 5, 6, 8; ambiguities 1-6).
- Chapter 5 (5:1-21): Reviewed. Contributes overcome, faith, testimony/witness, eternal life, the true God, sin unto death, idols — addressed above (rows 6, 7, 8; ambiguities 8, 10). Verse 5:21 (idols) and 5:11-13 (eternal life as present possession, the letter’s stated purpose) are flagged as load-bearing closing/thesis material requiring the same consistency discipline the baseline applies to Romans 1:16-17 and 8:28.
No chapter contributes vocabulary requiring a rendering strategy beyond what is logged in Sections 1–4 above.