Core Glossary
08 Core Glossary — 2 Thessalonians | English → Filipino
Purpose
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md into a single per-term reference table for Phase 2 translation memory construction. Terms already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked Baseline reuse and their recorded Filipino rendering is carried forward unchanged, per the hard rule that established renderings must be reused exactly. New terms required by 2 Thessalonians are marked New term and are proposed here for formal addition to translation memory in Phase 2.
Risk tiers follow the baseline’s exact definitions (Critical / High / Medium / Low). Every Critical/High entry includes a specific, grounded reason tied to Filipino religious culture, consistent with the baseline’s documented risk pattern.
Table 1 — Terms Carried Forward from the Baseline (Reused Exactly)
| Term | Filipino Rendering | Risk (Baseline) | Doctrine | 2 Thessalonians Occurrences | Note for This Curriculum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | Mabuting Balita | Medium | Gospel | 1:8; 2:14 | No change; used of the message being obeyed/believed. |
| grace | biyaya | High | Grace | 1:2, 12; 2:16; 3:18 | Grace-vs-utang na loob caution applies at every occurrence, including both letter-opening/closing formulas. |
| faith | pananampalataya | Medium | Faith | 1:3, 4, 11; 2:13; 3:2 | Object is consistently Christ/the gospel truth. |
| lord | Panginoon | High | Lordship of Christ | throughout (1:1-2, 7-9, 12; 2:1, 8, 13-14, 16; 3:1, 3-5, 6, 12, 16, 18) | Highest-frequency term in the book; exclusive Lordship must be preserved in every instance. |
| son of God | Anak ng Diyos | High | Sonship of Christ | 1:12 (implicit in “Lord Jesus Christ”) | No new occurrence requiring separate treatment. |
| holy_spirit | Espiritu Santo | High | Sanctification | 2:13 | Never anito or bare kaluluwa. |
| father | Ama | High | Adoption into God’s Family | 1:1-2; 2:16 | Standard greeting formula usage. |
| god | Diyos | Critical | Deity of Christ / God | throughout | Never Bathala. |
| jesus | Jesus | Critical | Christology | throughout | Standard Protestant-register spelling retained. |
| kingdom_of_god | Kaharian ng Diyos | Medium | Kingdom Mission | 1:5 | ”Worthy of the kingdom” — see new term maging karapat-dapat below for the surrounding phrase. |
| glory | kaluwalhatian | High | Deity of Christ | 1:9, 12; 2:14 | Applies to Christ’s glory, believers’ future glory, and the wicked’s exclusion from glory. |
| saints | mga banal | Critical | Sainthood | 1:10 | Mandatory contextual framing note carried forward without modification. |
| sanctification | pagpapabanal | Medium | Sanctification | 2:13 | Standard usage; Spirit’s ongoing sanctifying work. |
| salvation | kaligtasan | Critical | Salvation | 2:10, 13 | Mandatory contextual framing note carried forward: salvation received by loving/believing the truth, not by ritual performance. |
| peace | kapayapaan | Medium | Peace with God | 1:2; 3:16 | Standard greeting/benediction usage. |
| election | pagkahirang | High | Effectual Calling | 2:13 (“God chose you”) | Reinforces baseline caution against swerte/kapalaran. |
| calling | pagkatawag | High | Divine Calling | 1:11; 2:14 | ”Worthy of this calling” — calling to salvation and glory. |
| power_of_god | kapangyarihan ng Diyos | High | Power of God | (root reused, contrasted with Satan’s counterfeit power, 2:9) | Root term reused; see new term kapangyarihan ng panlilinlang below for the counterfeit application. |
| church (implicit) | iglesia | Medium | Church as God’s People | 1:1, 4 (addressed “to the church”) | Standard usage. |
| righteousness (root) | katuwiran | High | Salvation | (root used to build new term matuwid na paghuhukom, 1:5-6) | Root reused to preserve terminological continuity with Romans. |
Table 2 — New Terms Required for 2 Thessalonians (Proposed for Translation Memory Addition)
| Term (English) | Original Greek | Transliteration | Filipino Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Alternatives Rejected | Grounded Risk Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day of the Lord | ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου | hē hēmera tou kyriou | Araw ng Panginoon | Critical | The Day of the Lord | — | Existing Filipino Catholic “Araw ng Paghuhukom” familiarity risks flattening Paul’s specific, sequenced argument (apostasy and the man of lawlessness must precede it) into generic apocalyptic dread. Requires a teaching note anchoring the term to the specific sign-sequence of 2:1-12. |
| Coming / Parousia | παρουσία | parousia | pagparito | Critical | The Day of the Lord; The Man of Lawlessness | Must be used identically for both Christ’s coming (2:1, 8) and the lawless one’s counterfeit coming (2:9). Any inconsistency destroys Paul’s deliberate ironic parallel between the true and the counterfeit “arrival.” | |
| Man of Lawlessness / the Lawless One | ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἀνομίας / ὁ ἄνομος | ho anthrōpos tēs anomias / ho anomos | ang Tao ng Kawalang-Batas / ang Walang-Batas | Critical | The Man of Lawlessness | The Philippines has a documented history of local religious/political movements identifying specific living persons as “the antichrist.” A concrete-sounding title risks readers mapping the term onto a contemporary figure rather than grasping that this figure’s identity is presently hidden and unrevealable until the restrainer is removed. Mandatory teaching note against contemporary identification. | |
| Son of Destruction / Son of Perdition | ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας | ho huios tēs apōleias | ang anak ng kapahamakan | Critical | The Man of Lawlessness | — | The Filipino “anak ng ___” idiom for character/destiny transfers reasonably well, but requires a teaching note preventing a literalistic reading (a literal offspring of personified “Destruction”) and connecting the title to certain, fixed doom. |
| The Apostasy / The Rebellion | ἡ ἀποστασία | hē apostasia | ang pagtalikod (sa pananampalataya) | High | The Man of Lawlessness / The Day of the Lord | — | Ordinary Filipino church usage of this phrase denotes an individual’s personal backsliding; Paul’s term is a specific, large-scale, datable end-times event functioning as a sign. Teaching note must distinguish the eschatological Apostasy from ordinary personal apostasy. |
| The Restrainer / that which restrains | ὁ κατέχων / τὸ κατέχον | ho katechōn / to katechon | ang tagapigil / ang pumipigil | High | The Man of Lawlessness | One of the most scholarly-debated phrases in the NT (proposals: Roman Empire, human government, the Holy Spirit, Paul’s ministry, an angelic power). The Filipino rendering must stay as grammatically open as the Greek; identity questions belong in teaching materials, not in the translation choice. | |
| Mystery of Lawlessness | τὸ μυστήριον τῆς ἀνομίας | to mystērion tēs anomias | ang hiwaga ng kawalang-batas | High | The Man of Lawlessness | — | “Hiwaga” (Mystery) is the standard devotional term for the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, carrying warm positive associations. Applying it to a hidden, malevolent reality risks dissonance. Teaching note required distinguishing this from the devotional Rosary Hiwaga. |
| Lawlessness | ἀνομία | anomia | kawalang-batas | High | The Man of Lawlessness | Must be built consistently from the established kautusan (law) root across all occurrences (2:3, 7, 8) so the reader tracks a single, coherent reality, not several unrelated “evils.” | |
| Signs and wonders (counterfeit) / power of Satan | δύναμις καὶ σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα ψεύδους / κατ’ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Σατανᾶ | dynamis kai sēmeia kai terata pseudous / kat’ energeian tou Satana | kapangyarihan at mga huwad na tanda at kababalaghan / ayon sa paggawa ni Satanas | High | The Man of Lawlessness | The baseline’s prohibition on rendering supernatural power language as anting-anting (folk-Catholic amulets believed to grant supernatural power) applies directly here, since this verse concerns Satan’s authentic-seeming but deceptive supernatural power. The qualifier huwad (“false/counterfeit”) is mandatory — its omission would make Satan’s signs sound equally authentic as God’s. | |
| Righteous Judgment | δίκαιον… κρίναι / κριθῶσιν | dikaion… krinai / krithōsin | matuwid na paghuhukom / hahatulan | Critical | God’s Righteous Judgment | — | Must convey God’s personal, forensic, morally-grounded verdict against a specific prior human choice (rejecting truth, delighting in unrighteousness). Must never be softened into impersonal kapalaran (fate) language, paralleling the baseline’s existing caution against fatalistic framings of election/providence. |
| Vengeance / Retribution | ἐκδίκησις | ekdikēsis | paghihiganti [ng Diyos] | High | God’s Righteous Judgment / Perseverance under Persecution | — | Filipino culture carries strong personal/familial revenge concepts (e.g., blood-debt, clan-conflict cycles). Must always be explicitly bound to “ng Diyos” (of God) — this is God’s exclusive prerogative alone, never a model or license for personal vendetta. |
| Eternal Destruction | ὄλεθρος αἰώνιος | olethros aiōnios | walang-hanggang kapahamakan | Critical | God’s Righteous Judgment | — | Filipino Catholic eschatology includes purgatory (purgatoryo), a temporary purifying state. This term denotes final, everlasting, irreversible separation from God’s presence. Teaching note required distinguishing it from any temporary intermediate state. |
| Perseverance / Steadfastness | ὑπομονή | hypomonē | pagtitiyaga | High | Perseverance under Persecution | — | The Filipino cultural virtue of being matiisin risks flattening this into stoic cultural endurance or fatalistic resignation (echoing the baseline’s bahala na caution on providence), rather than active, hope-fueled endurance grounded in Christ’s certain return. |
| Traditions | παράδοσις | paradosis | mga aral na ipinasa (sa inyo) | Critical | Standing Firm in the Traditions | Filipino Catholic theology treats “Tradisyon” as an ongoing, open-ended, co-equal authority to Scripture, mediated by the Magisterium. Paul’s term denotes a closed, specific body of apostolic teaching personally delivered to this one church by word or letter in the apostolic era — essentially coextensive with inspired Scripture’s content, not an ongoing body of ecclesial custom. Teaching note mandatory at every occurrence (2:15; 3:6). | |
| Stand Firm / Hold Fast | στήκετε / κρατεῖτε | stēkete / krateite | magpakatatag / panghawakang mahigpit | High | Standing Firm in the Traditions | — | Must convey active, engaged grip on specific received apostolic content, not passive traditionalism, ritual observance, or mere institutional loyalty. |
| Temple of God | ναὸς τοῦ θεοῦ | naos tou theou | templo ng Diyos | High | The Man of Lawlessness | Must use the distinct loanword templo (never simbahan, the building, or iglesia, the gathered church) to preserve the historic sanctuary-specific referent and keep the interpretive question (rebuilt Jerusalem temple / the Church / figurative) genuinely open, as the Greek itself leaves it. | |
| Divine Judicial Delusion | ἐνέργεια πλάνης | energeia planēs | kapangyarihan ng panlilinlang | High | God’s Righteous Judgment | — | Risk of implying God arbitrarily manufactures deception in otherwise-innocent people. Teaching note required clarifying the judicial sequence: prior rejection of truth (2:10) grounds God’s judicial confirmation of that choice (2:11); this is righteous judgment on a prior human refusal, not unprovoked divine deception. |
| Love of the Truth | ἀγάπη τῆς ἀληθείας | agapē tēs alētheias | pag-ibig sa katotohanan | Medium | God’s Righteous Judgment | — | Compound of two terms new to translation memory (pag-ibig, love; katotohanan, truth); the moral-cause term behind the judgment sequence of 2:10-12. |
| Love | ἀγάπη | agapē | pag-ibig | Low/Medium | (general) | — | Newly formalized in translation memory; not previously present in baseline Romans TM despite its centrality in the NT. |
| Truth | ἀλήθεια | alētheia | katotohanan | Low/Medium | (general) | — | Newly formalized in translation memory. |
| Delighted in Unrighteousness | εὐδοκήσαντες τῇ ἀδικίᾳ | eudokēsantes tē adikia | nalugod sa kalikuan | High | God’s Righteous Judgment | — | Must retain the sense of willing delight, not mere weakness or passive failure — this moral posture is what grounds the righteous judgment of 2:12. |
| Testimony | μαρτύριον | martyrion | patotoo | Low | Perseverance under Persecution | — | Shares a root with “martyr” (witness unto death); worth a light connective note to the persecution theme. |
| Worthy [of the Kingdom] | ἀξιωθῆναι | axiōthēnai | maging karapat-dapat | High | Perseverance under Persecution | — | Must not be read as merit accumulated through suffering, which would contradict the grace-vs-utang na loob caution; worthiness is demonstrated evidence, not a purchase price. |
| Gathering Together | ἐπισυναγωγή | episynagōgē | pagtitipon | Medium | The Day of the Lord | — | Distinguish from an ordinary social gathering; this is the specific eschatological gathering of believers to Christ. |
| Appearing / Manifestation | ἐπιφάνεια | epiphaneia | paglitaw | Medium | The Man of Lawlessness / The Day of the Lord | A plain descriptive Filipino term avoids unintentional association with the Catholic feast day of the same name while retaining the “visible manifestation” sense. | |
| Command | παραγγέλλω | parangellō | mag-utos / utos | Medium | Standing Firm in the Traditions | — | Should retain binding apostolic authority; not a soft recommendation. |
| Disorderly / Idle | ἀτάκτως | ataktōs | walang-ayos (na pamumuhay) | Medium | Standing Firm in the Traditions / The Day of the Lord | — | Must be connected in teaching to the specific eschatological confusion of 2:1-2 (work seen as pointless if “the Day” had already come), not treated as unrelated generic laziness. |
| Withdraw / Keep Away From | στέλλεσθαι | stellesthai | lumayo (bilang disiplina) | Medium | Standing Firm in the Traditions | — | Corrective, restorative-intent church discipline, not permanent hostile exclusion (cf. 3:15’s “admonish as a brother”). |
| Admonish | νουθετέω | noutheteō | paalalahanan | Low/Medium | Standing Firm in the Traditions | — | Should retain the warm “as a brother” relational framing alongside the correction. |
| Establish / Strengthen | στηρίζω | stērizō | patatagin | Medium | Standing Firm in the Traditions / Perseverance under Persecution | — | Standard strengthening-for-endurance term. |
| Persecution | διωγμός | diōgmos | pag-uusig | Medium | Perseverance under Persecution | — | Should retain the “for the gospel’s sake” specificity, not general hardship. |
| Affliction / Tribulation | θλίψις | thlipsis | kapighatian | Medium | Perseverance under Persecution | — | Standard term for distress endured because of the faith. |
| Pattern / Example | τύπος | typos | halimbawa | Low | Standing Firm in the Traditions | — | Paul’s labor as a deliberate model to imitate. |
| Busybodies | περιεργαζομένους | periergazomenous | mga mapanghimasok | Low | Standing Firm in the Traditions | — | Idle meddling in others’ affairs, connected to the ataktōs problem. |
Risk Summary for 2 Thessalonians New Terms
| Risk Tier | Count (New Terms) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 6 | Human theologian review (mandatory contextual framing note per occurrence) |
| High | 12 | Human theologian review |
| Medium | 12 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 4 | Automated review |
Critical-tier new terms requiring mandatory teaching/contextual-framing notes at every occurrence: Day of the Lord (Araw ng Panginoon), Coming/Parousia (pagparito), Man of Lawlessness/the Lawless One (ang Tao ng Kawalang-Batas / ang Walang-Batas), Son of Destruction (ang anak ng kapahamakan), Righteous Judgment (matuwid na paghuhukom / hahatulan), Eternal Destruction (walang-hanggang kapahamakan), Traditions (mga aral na ipinasa).
Note: Traditions is counted once above but functions as the anchor Critical term for its own doctrine (Standing Firm in the Traditions); the summary table’s Critical count of 6 reflects the distinct Critical-tier concepts identified in Table 2 (Day of the Lord; Parousia; Man of Lawlessness/Lawless One as one concept-cluster; Son of Destruction; Righteous Judgment; Eternal Destruction; Traditions) — teams assembling the Phase 2 registry should verify final count against the individual JSON entries created from this table, as some concept-clusters (e.g., Man of Lawlessness / the Lawless One) may be split into separate registry keys.
Critical Risk Terms
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: Araw ng Panginoon
Transliteration: hē hēmera tou kyriou
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: Araw ng Paghuhukom
Original: ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου
Category: The Day of the Lord
NEW TERM. Built compositionally from baseline roots Araw + Panginoon rather than reusing the pre-loaded Filipino Catholic devotional phrase Araw ng Paghuhukom, which risks flattening Paul’s specific, sequenced argument (apostasy and the revealing of the man of lawlessness must precede it, 2:3) into generic, undated apocalyptic dread. Mandatory teaching note at every occurrence anchoring the term to the sign-sequence of 2:1-12.
Eternal Destruction
Approved rendering: walang-hanggang kapahamakan
Transliteration: olethros aiōnios
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: ὄλεθρος αἰώνιος
Category: God’s Righteous Judgment
CRITICAL NEW TERM. Filipino Catholic eschatology includes purgatory (purgatoryo), a temporary, purifying intermediate state. This term denotes something final and everlasting, not temporary or purgative. Mandatory teaching note at every occurrence (1:9) distinguishing this permanent destruction from any temporary purifying state.
Man Of Lawlessness
Approved rendering: ang Tao ng Kawalang-Batas / ang Walang-Batas
Transliteration: ho anthrōpos tēs anomias / ho anomos
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: ang taong makasalanan (man of sin, reflects an older Greek textual variant and loses the anti-law self-exaltation sense), Anti-Kristo (imports a different NT text’s vocabulary and Philippine sectarian identification baggage)
Original: ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἀνομίας / ὁ ἄνομος
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
CRITICAL NEW TERM. Built consistently on the established kautusan (law) root so the anti-law sense is not lost. The Philippines has a documented history of local religious and political movements identifying specific living persons as ‘the antichrist’ or ‘the beast.’ A concrete-sounding Filipino title risks readers mapping this term onto a contemporary figure. Mandatory teaching note against contemporary identification at every occurrence (2:3, 2:8).
Parousia Coming
Approved rendering: pagparito
Transliteration: parousia
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: pagdating (rejected: risks translators using an inconsistent alternate word for the two referents)
Original: παρουσία
Category: The Day of the Lord
NEW TERM. Must be rendered identically for both Christ’s coming (2:1, 2:8) and the lawless one’s counterfeit coming (2:9). Any inconsistency destroys Paul’s deliberate ironic parallel between the true and the counterfeit ‘arrival.’ No established Filipino loanword exists for this technical term; paraphrase, not transliteration, chosen deliberately to make lexical-identity enforcement across all three occurrences straightforward.
Righteous Judgment
Approved rendering: matuwid na paghuhukom / hahatulan
Transliteration: dikaion… krinai / krithōsin
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: δίκαιον… κρίναι / κριθῶσιν
Category: God’s Righteous Judgment
CRITICAL NEW TERM. Built on the baseline katuwiran root. Must convey God’s personal, forensic, morally-grounded verdict against a specific prior human choice (rejecting truth, delighting in unrighteousness), never softened into impersonal kapalaran (fate) language, paralleling the baseline’s existing caution against fatalistic framings of election. Mandatory teaching note (1:5-6; 2:12).
Saints
Approved rendering: mga banal
Transliteration: mga banal
Doctrine: Sainthood
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
CRITICAL: same term used for canonized Catholic saints venerated with feast days, images, novenas. Inherited from Romans package; in 2 Thessalonians 1:10, Christ is glorified ‘in his saints’ at his coming — every believer, not a canonized elite class. Mandatory contextual framing note carried forward without modification.
Salvation
Approved rendering: kaligtasan
Transliteration: kaligtasan
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: seguradong pumunta sa langit dahil sa sakramento
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL: folk-Catholic practice can treat salvation as mechanically secured through sacraments apart from genuine faith. Inherited from Romans package; in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 salvation is tied explicitly to receiving/loving the truth (genuine faith), and in 2:13 it is the stated goal of God’s election — both reinforce rather than contradict the baseline’s mandatory contextual framing note.
Son Of Destruction
Approved rendering: ang anak ng kapahamakan
Transliteration: ho huios tēs apōleias
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
CRITICAL NEW TERM. The Filipino ‘anak ng ___’ idiom for character/destiny (e.g., anak ng kahirapan) transfers reasonably well, but requires a teaching note preventing a literalistic reading (a literal offspring of personified ‘Destruction’) and connecting the title to certain, fixed doom (2:3; cf. John 17:12’s identical title for Judas).
Traditions
Approved rendering: mga aral na ipinasa (sa inyo)
Transliteration: paradosis
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Rejected alternatives: Tradisyon (rejected: direct collision with Sacred Tradition as a parallel magisterial authority alongside Scripture)
Original: παράδοσις
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
CRITICAL NEW TERM. Filipino Catholic theology treats ‘Tradisyon’ as an ongoing, open-ended, co-equal authority alongside Scripture, mediated by the Magisterium and associated with specific devotional practices (novenas, Marian feasts). Paul’s paradosis is a closed, apostolic-era body of teaching delivered personally to this one church, essentially coextensive with inspired Scripture’s content, not an ongoing developing body of ecclesial custom. Notably, no existing major Filipino Bible translation (ADB, MBB, ASND) uses the Tradisyon root here either — all use a teaching/instruction root, a rare point of existing consensus this rendering follows. Mandatory teaching note at every occurrence (2:15; 3:6); both occurrences must render identically.
High Risk Terms
Counterfeit Signs And Wonders
Approved rendering: kapangyarihan at mga huwad na tanda at kababalaghan
Transliteration: dynamei kai sēmeiois kai terasin pseudous
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: anting-anting (rejected per baseline forbidden-substitution rule)
Original: δυνάμει καὶ σημείοις καὶ τέρασιν ψεύδους
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. The baseline’s prohibition on rendering supernatural power language as anting-anting applies with full force here. The qualifier huwad (false/counterfeit) is structurally mandatory, never optional; its omission would make Satan’s miracles sound equally authentic as God’s, collapsing the passage’s central point (2:9).
Day Already Come
Approved rendering: dumating na / narito na
Transliteration: enestēken
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: ἐνέστηκεν
Category: The Day of the Lord
NEW TERM. Perfect-tense force (already-arrived, not merely imminent) must be preserved, since the whole rebuttal in 2:3-12 depends on refuting a false claim of present arrival, not a claim of nearness.
Delighted In Unrighteousness
Approved rendering: nalugod sa kalikuan
Transliteration: eudokēsantes tē adikia
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: εὐδοκήσαντες τῇ ἀδικίᾳ
Category: God’s Righteous Judgment
NEW TERM. Must retain the sense of willing delight, not mere weakness or passive failure; this moral posture grounds the righteous judgment of 2:12 and must not be softened into a merely sympathetic or passive description.
Divine Judicial Delusion
Approved rendering: kapangyarihan ng panlilinlang
Transliteration: energeian planēs
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: ἐνέργειαν πλάνης
Category: God’s Righteous Judgment
NEW TERM. A careless rendering could make it sound as though God arbitrarily manufactures deception in otherwise-innocent people, misrepresenting God’s character. Mandatory teaching note required clarifying the judicial sequence: rejection of truth (2:10) precedes and grounds God’s judicial confirmation of that choice (2:11). Existing dynamic-equivalence translations (e.g., MBB) that compress this clause chain must not be followed without restoring the full three-step causal sequence.
Father
Approved rendering: Ama
Transliteration: Ama
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Keep distinct from the reverence-title Padre used for Catholic priests. Inherited from Romans package; appears in this letter’s greeting and benediction formulas (1:1-2; 2:16).
God
Approved rendering: Diyos
Transliteration: Diyos
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Bathala
Original: θεός
Category: God
Avoid Bathala, the pre-colonial Tagalog supreme-being concept. Inherited from Romans package; used throughout 2 Thessalonians, including as the object of the lawless one’s blasphemous self-exaltation (2:4).
Grace
Approved rendering: biyaya
Transliteration: biyaya
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: utang na loob
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Never frame grace as utang na loob, the deeply held Filipino social value of a debt of gratitude that obligates repayment through loyalty and reciprocal favor. Inherited from Romans package; occurs in both this letter’s opening (1:2, 1:12) and closing (2:16, 3:18) benediction formulas — the caution applies at every occurrence, and the two formulas must render identically to each other.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Espiritu Santo
Transliteration: Espiritu Santo
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: anito, kaluluwa
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Never anito (ancestral/nature spirit) or bare kaluluwa (wandering soul/ghost). Inherited from Romans package; in 2:13 the Spirit’s sanctifying work grounds the believers’ election. IMPORTANT NEW CAUTION for this book: must NOT be inserted to silently resolve the deliberately open ‘restrainer’ question of 2:6-7 (see the_restrainer entry below) — do not render ‘ang Espiritu Santo na pumipigil.‘
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Standard Filipino Protestant Bible spelling, this Language Package’s established register. Inherited from Romans package; used throughout 2 Thessalonians.
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: kawalang-batas
Transliteration: anomia
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: kasamaan (too generic, loses the specific against-law/order sense)
Original: ἀνομία
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Must be built consistently from the established kautusan (Mosaic Law) root across all occurrences (2:3, 7, 8) so the reader tracks a single, coherent reality already secretly operative and one day fully unveiled in a single figure.
Lord
Approved rendering: Panginoon
Transliteration: Panginoon
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Must convey exclusive, supreme Lordship, not diluted by devotional attention shared with Mary and the saints. Inherited from Romans package; this is the single highest-frequency title in 2 Thessalonians (throughout 1:1-2, 7-9, 12; 2:1, 8, 13-14, 16; 3:1, 3-6, 12, 16, 18) and must be rendered identically at every occurrence. Never substitute ‘Jehova’ or any Watch Tower-style subordinationist rendering.
Mystery Of Lawlessness
Approved rendering: ang hiwaga ng kawalang-batas
Transliteration: to mystērion tēs anomias
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: τὸ μυστήριον τῆς ἀνομίας
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Hiwaga (Mystery) is the standard devotional term for the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary (Ang mga Hiwaga ng Rosaryo), carrying warm, positive Marian-devotional associations. Applying it to a hidden, malevolent, satanically-empowered reality risks jarring dissonance. No adequate Filipino substitute exists for ‘a hidden reality now partially revealed,’ so hiwaga is retained with a mandatory teaching note at every occurrence (2:7) clarifying this is the opposite of the devotional Hiwaga of the Rosary.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: pagsunod na mula sa pananampalataya
Transliteration: pagsunod na mula sa pananampalataya
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Original: ὑπακοὴ πίστεως
Category: Faith
Obedience that flows from faith, not sacramental or ritual compliance performed to secure standing. Inherited from Romans package; applied here to 1:8’s ‘obey the gospel’ (hypakouō tō euangeliō) — genuine faith expressed as obedient response, not ritual compliance.
Perseverance
Approved rendering: pagtitiyaga
Transliteration: hypomonē
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
Rejected alternatives: pagtitiis, matiisin
Original: ὑπομονή
Category: Perseverance under Persecution
NEW TERM. Prefer pagtitiyaga over pagtitiis/matiisin, the Filipino cultural virtue of stoic long-suffering, which risks flattening this into cultural endurance or fatalistic resignation (echoing the baseline’s forbidden bahala na framing for providence), rather than active, hope-fueled endurance grounded in Christ’s certain future vindication (1:4-7).
Power Of God
Approved rendering: kapangyarihan ng Diyos
Transliteration: kapangyarihan ng Diyos
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: anting-anting
Original: δύναμις θεοῦ
Category: God
Never anting-anting, the folk-Catholic amulet tradition believed to grant supernatural power or protection. Inherited from Romans package; the root is reused in this book’s counterfeit-power vocabulary of 2:9 (see counterfeit_signs_and_wonders below), where it must be explicitly marked huwad (false/counterfeit) when applied to Satan’s imitation power.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: katuwiran
Transliteration: katuwiran
Doctrine: Salvation
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Right standing before God received by faith; also the root for judicial rightness/justice. Inherited from Romans package; this root is reused to build this book’s new compound matuwid na paghuhukom (righteous judgment, 1:5-6) and stands as the direct antonym of adikia (unrighteousness, 2:10, 12).
Satans Working
Approved rendering: ayon sa paggawa ni Satanas
Transliteration: kat’ energeian tou Satana
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: κατ’ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Σατανᾶ
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Filipino folk belief includes a rich taxonomy of malevolent spirit-beings (multo, aswang, engkanto, anito) and impersonal ‘bad luck’ forces. The text must be kept unambiguously about a single, personal, defeated adversary — Satanas — not blended into this broader folk category, paralleling the baseline’s caution against anito for the Holy Spirit (2:9).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Anak ng Diyos
Transliteration: Anak ng Diyos
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Full phrase required; already affirmed in Filipino Catholic catechesis, risk is devotional dilution not denial. Inherited from Romans package; present implicitly in the full title ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ throughout 2 Thessalonians (e.g., 1:12).
Stand Firm Hold Fast
Approved rendering: magpakatatag / panghawakang mahigpit
Transliteration: stēkete / krateite
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: στήκετε / κρατεῖτε
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Must convey an active, engaged grip on specific apostolic content already received, not passive traditionalism, ritual observance for its own sake, or mere institutional loyalty (2:15).
Temple Of God
Approved rendering: templo ng Diyos
Transliteration: naos tou theou
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: simbahan, iglesia
Original: ναὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Must use the distinct loanword templo, never simbahan (church building) or iglesia (gathered church), either of which would wrongly localize the blasphemous enthronement to a Catholic/Protestant church building or body today. Templo keeps the interpretive question (rebuilt Jerusalem temple / the Church / figurative) genuinely open, as the Greek itself does not resolve it (2:4). All three major existing Filipino Bible translations already converge on templo — a rare point of consensus to follow exactly.
The Apostasy
Approved rendering: ang pagtalikod (sa pananampalataya)
Transliteration: hē apostasia
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: ἡ ἀποστασία
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Ordinary Filipino church usage of this phrase denotes an individual’s personal backsliding; Paul’s ἀποστασία (with the definite article) is a specific, large-scale, datable end-times event functioning as a required sign, not private drift. Teaching note required distinguishing the two senses at 2:3.
The Restrainer
Approved rendering: ang tagapigil / ang pumipigil
Transliteration: to katechon / ho katechōn
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: ang Espiritu Santo na pumipigil (rejected: would improperly resolve a deliberately open textual question inside the translation itself)
Original: τὸ κατέχον / ὁ κατέχων
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. One of the most exegetically debated phrases in the NT (proposals: Roman Empire, human government, the Holy Spirit, gospel proclamation, an angelic power). The Filipino rendering must remain as grammatically open as the Greek. Sectarian Philippine teaching materials confidently resolve this to specific institutions (e.g., the Roman Catholic Church/the Pope) as anti-Catholic polemic — this resolution must never be imported into the base translation. Interpretive options belong only in optional teaching commentary (2:6-7).
Vengeance Of God
Approved rendering: paghihiganti [ng Diyos]
Transliteration: ekdikēsis
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: ἐκδίκησις
Category: God’s Righteous Judgment
NEW TERM. Filipino culture carries strong personal/familial revenge concepts (blood-debt, and rido clan-conflict cycles in parts of Mindanao). Must always be explicitly bound to ‘[ng Diyos]’ (of God) — never a free-standing noun that could be read as endorsing personal vendetta (1:8).
Worthy Of The Kingdom
Approved rendering: maging karapat-dapat
Transliteration: axiōthēnai
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
Original: ἀξιωθῆναι
Category: Perseverance under Persecution
NEW TERM. Must not be read as merit accumulated through suffering, which would contradict the baseline’s grace-vs-utang na loob caution; worthiness here is demonstrated evidence of genuine faith, not its purchase price (1:5).
Medium Risk Terms
Affliction
Approved rendering: kapighatian
Transliteration: thlipsis
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
Original: θλίψις
Category: Perseverance under Persecution
NEW TERM. Standard term for distress endured because of the faith; comparatively low collision risk (1:4, 1:6).
Appearing Manifestation
Approved rendering: paglitaw
Transliteration: epiphaneia
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: Epifania (rejected: would associate the text with the January Feast of the Three Kings, Kapistahan ng Tatlong Hari)
Original: ἐπιφάνεια
Category: The Day of the Lord
NEW TERM. A plain descriptive Filipino term avoids unintended association with the Catholic feast day of the same name while retaining the ‘visible manifestation’ sense, stacked with pagparito for emphasis in 2:8.
Appointed Time
Approved rendering: takdang panahon
Transliteration: kairos
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: καιρός
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Should convey a divinely appointed moment, not merely ‘at some point’ (2:6).
Calling
Approved rendering: pagkatawag
Transliteration: pagkatawag
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Noun form for the act/state of being called; standard term. Inherited from Romans package; in 1:11 and 2:14 believers are urged to prove ‘worthy of this calling’ — the call to salvation and future glory.
Church
Approved rendering: iglesia
Transliteration: iglesia
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: simbahan
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Iglesia (the gathered body of believers) preferred over simbahan (the physical building). Inherited from Romans package; the letter is addressed ‘to the church (iglesia) of the Thessalonians’ (1:1).
Command
Approved rendering: mag-utos / utos
Transliteration: parangellō
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: παραγγέλλω
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Should retain apostolic authority/binding force; not to be softened into a recommendation (3:4, 6, 10, 12).
Disorderly Idle
Approved rendering: walang-ayos (na pamumuhay)
Transliteration: ataktōs
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: ἀτάκτως
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Must be connected in teaching to the specific eschatological confusion of 2:1-2 (work seen as pointless because ‘the Day’ had supposedly already come), not treated as an unrelated, generic laziness problem (3:6, 11).
Election
Approved rendering: pagkahirang
Transliteration: pagkahirang
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: swerte, kapalaran
Original: ἐκλογή
Category: Salvation
God’s sovereign personal choice, never swerte/kapalaran (luck/fate). Inherited from Romans package; in 2:13 ‘God chose you from the beginning’ grounds the church’s assurance amid persecution and eschatological confusion — the risk of a fatalistic folk reading is heightened here by the letter’s original eschatological anxiety.
Enthronement
Approved rendering: umupo / mauupo
Transliteration: kathisai
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: καθίσαι
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Should carry the enthronement nuance (claiming the seat of highest authority), not merely a neutral ‘sitting down’ (2:4).
Establish Strengthen
Approved rendering: patatagin
Transliteration: stērizō
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: στηρίζω
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Standard strengthening-for-endurance term; should retain an active, God-given empowerment sense (2:17; 3:3).
Faith
Approved rendering: pananampalataya
Transliteration: pananampalataya
Doctrine: Faith
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Object of faith must always be specified as Christ or gospel truth; standard, well-established term. Inherited from Romans package; object is consistently Christ/gospel truth in 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4, 11; 2:13; 3:2.
Gathering Together
Approved rendering: pagtitipon
Transliteration: episynagōgē
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: ἐπισυναγωγή
Category: The Day of the Lord
NEW TERM. Must be distinguished by context from an ordinary social gathering; this is the specific, once-for-all eschatological gathering of believers to Christ (2:1).
Glory
Approved rendering: kaluwalhatian
Transliteration: kaluwalhatian
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: God
God’s radiant honor and majesty; standard, well-established term. Inherited from Romans package; applies in 2 Thessalonians to Christ’s own glory, believers’ future glory (2:14), and the wicked’s exclusion from glory (1:9).
Gospel
Approved rendering: Mabuting Balita
Transliteration: mabuting balita
Doctrine: Gospel
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Established Filipino Bible term (‘good news’). Standard, well-understood across Catholic and Protestant usage. Inherited from Romans package; in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 and 2:14 the gospel is the message obeyed/believed and the means of the effectual calling.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Kaharian ng Diyos
Transliteration: Kaharian ng Diyos
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
God’s sovereign reign; standard, well-established term. Inherited from Romans package; in 1:5 believers are said to be made ‘worthy’ of this kingdom through enduring persecution — see the new term worthy_of_the_kingdom below for the surrounding phrase.
Love Of The Truth
Approved rendering: ang pag-ibig sa katotohanan
Transliteration: hē agapē tēs alētheias
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: ἡ ἀγάπη τῆς ἀληθείας
Category: God’s Righteous Judgment
NEW TERM. Compound of two terms newly formalized in this translation memory; the moral-cause term behind the entire judgment sequence of 2:10-12 — refusal to love the truth grounds everything that follows.
Love
Approved rendering: pag-ibig
Transliteration: agapē
Doctrine: General
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: General
NEW TERM. Not previously present in the baseline Romans translation memory despite its NT centrality; no significant collision risk in Filipino. Formalized here for cross-document consistency.
Object Of Worship
Approved rendering: anumang sinasamba
Transliteration: sebasma
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: σέβασμα
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Paul intends this generically (any and every rival object of worship); keep generic, avoiding a rendering that sounds specific to any one contemporary devotional practice (2:4).
Peace
Approved rendering: kapayapaan
Transliteration: kapayapaan
Doctrine: Peace with God
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Relational peace with God through justification, not merely absence of conflict. Inherited from Romans package; standard greeting formula usage (1:2) and closing benediction usage (3:16, ‘the Lord of peace himself give you peace’).
Persecution
Approved rendering: pag-uusig
Transliteration: diōgmos
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
Original: διωγμός
Category: Perseverance under Persecution
NEW TERM. Should retain the ‘for the gospel’s sake’ specificity, not general hardship of any kind (1:4).
Revealed Unveiled
Approved rendering: ihahayag / ipahahayag
Transliteration: apokalyphthē
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: ἀποκαλυφθῇ
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Must retain the sense of unveiling something presently hidden, not a generic ‘he will appear’ (2:3, 2:6).
Sanctification
Approved rendering: pagpapabanal
Transliteration: pagpapabanal
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: ἁγιασμός
Category: Sanctification
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy. Inherited from Romans package; in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, ‘sanctification of/by the Spirit’ is the instrument through which God’s election is realized in the believer’s life.
Self Exaltation Against God
Approved rendering: kalaban… na nagmamataas / itataas ang kanyang sarili
Transliteration: antikeimenos kai hyperairomenos
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: ἀντικείμενος καὶ ὑπεραιρόμενος
Category: The Man of Lawlessness
NEW TERM. Standard vocabulary with no major cultural collision; should retain the sense of active, ongoing opposition and arrogant self-elevation, not a single past act (2:4).
Truth
Approved rendering: katotohanan
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: General
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: General
NEW TERM. Standard term with no significant collision risk. Formalized here for cross-document consistency; ultimately refers to gospel truth in this book’s usage.
Withdraw Discipline
Approved rendering: lumayo (bilang disiplina)
Transliteration: stellesthai
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: στέλλεσθαι
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Should not be rendered as harsh, permanent exclusion but as a corrective, restorative-intent measure, consistent with 3:15’s instruction to ‘admonish as a brother’ (3:6).
Low Risk Terms
Admonish
Approved rendering: paalalahanan
Transliteration: noutheteō
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: νουθετέω
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Should retain the warm ‘as a brother’ relational framing alongside the correction (3:15).
Authenticating Sign
Approved rendering: tanda (ng pagkakakilala)
Transliteration: sēmeion
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: σημεῖον
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Here an authenticating mark — Paul’s own handwriting verifying the letter’s genuineness against forgeries — a distinct sense from the supernatural ‘signs’ of 2:9. Context sufficiently disambiguates the two senses of tanda (3:17).
Busybodies
Approved rendering: mga mapanghimasok
Transliteration: periergazomenous
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: περιεργαζομένους
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Idle meddling in others’ affairs, connected to the ataktōs/disorderly problem; no significant collision risk (3:11).
Pattern Example
Approved rendering: halimbawa
Transliteration: typos
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: τύπος
Category: Standing Firm in the Traditions
NEW TERM. Paul’s own labor as a deliberate model to imitate; standard term with no significant collision risk (3:9).
Testimony
Approved rendering: patotoo
Transliteration: martyrion
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
Original: μαρτύριον
Category: Perseverance under Persecution
NEW TERM. Shares a root with ‘martyr’ (witness unto death); worth a light connective note to the chapter’s persecution theme, but no significant collision risk (1:10).
Referenced passages