Semantic Analysis: 2 Peter (Full Book, Koine Greek)

Method and Scope

This document analyzes the entire Greek text of 2 Peter, chapter 1 through chapter 3 (the whole book — 2 Peter has no chapter 4 or beyond), for load-bearing theological vocabulary relevant to destination-language (French) translation risk. The core passage, 2 Peter 1:16–21, receives full verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter section receives chapter-level treatment of its own load-bearing terms using the same fields. Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE — reuse exactly] and are not renegotiated; only their contextual application in 2 Peter is discussed.

Fields applied per term: Original (Greek) · Transliteration · Literal meaning · Semantic range · English variants (as seen across major English versions) · Contextual theological meaning in 2 Peter · French destination-language rendering risk.

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PART 1 — CORE PASSAGE: 2 Peter 1:16–21 (Verse-by-Verse)

Verse 16

“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

μῦθος (μύθοις σεσοφισμένοις)

• Transliteration: mythos
• Literal meaning: a story, tale, fable, myth
• Semantic range: neutral “story” in classical Greek; in the NT (1 Tim 1:4, 4:7; Titus 1:14) always pejorative — fabricated, non-historical religious tale contrasted with apostolic eyewitness testimony
• English variants: “myths,” “fables,” “fabrications”
• Contextual theological meaning: Peter contrasts apostolic testimony (grounded in verified historical event) with invented religious tales — directly undergirds the Reliability of Scripture doctrine
• French rendering risk: Medium. Established French Bibles render mythos as “fable(s)” (Segond) or “mythe” (TOB/NBS). “Fable” risks the La Fontaine/Aesop register in French — moralizing children’s tale — which could soften Peter’s polemical, “dangerous fabrication” sense into something quaint. “Mythe” is more neutral/modern but risks academic-secular flattening (myth as harmless cultural narrative). Recommend “fable” with contextual reinforcement (“fables habilement conçues”) per established Segond/TOB convention, but flag for reviewer awareness of the register risk.

σεσοφισμένοις

• Transliteration: sesophismenois
• Literal meaning: perfect passive participle of sophizō, “made wise/clever”; “cleverly concocted”
• Semantic range: skillfully devised, artfully contrived (root of “sophist,” “sophistry”)
• English variants: “cleverly devised,” “cunningly devised,” “skillfully invented”
• Contextual theological meaning: emphasizes deliberate human artifice behind false teaching, as opposed to the unplanned, Spirit-borne character of true prophecy (v. 21)
• French rendering risk: Low. “Habilement conçues” or “forgées avec art” both convey the deliberate artifice without doctrinal ambiguity.

δύναμις (καὶ παρουσία)

• Transliteration: dynamis
• Literal meaning: power, might, capability
• Semantic range: inherent power, miraculous power, authority to act
• English variants: “power,” “might”
• Contextual theological meaning: Christ’s demonstrated divine power, historically witnessed at the Transfiguration and anticipated at his return
• French rendering risk: Low. Reuse baseline [BASELINE — “puissance” reused; cf. “power_of_god” = puissance de Dieu]. Here rendered “puissance,” consistent across curricula.

παρουσία

• Transliteration: parousia
• Literal meaning: presence, arrival, coming
• Semantic range: a technical term in Hellenistic usage for the ceremonial arrival/visit of a king or dignitary; in the NT, the personal, visible, bodily return of Christ
• English variants: “coming,” “advent,” “arrival,” “presence”
• Contextual theological meaning: this is the doctrinal anchor for The Certainty of Christ’s Return — 2 Peter’s central polemic against scoffers (ch. 3) who deny it
• French rendering risk: High. Established rendering is “avènement” (Segond) or “venue.” Risk: French “avènement” is heavily used secularly and historically for “the dawning of an era” (l’avènement de l’ère numérique; l’avènement d’un roi = a coronation/accession to power, a one-time political/historical event) and liturgically overlaps with “l’Avent” (Advent season, Christ’s first coming, in the Catholic/Protestant liturgical calendar). Readers may unconsciously reduce Christ’s parousia to a symbolic “dawning of a new age” or confuse it with Advent/Christmas remembrance of the first coming, rather than a literal, personal, future, visible return. Must gloss explicitly as Christ’s personal, bodily, future return every time it recurs, especially in chapters 1 and 3.

ἐπόπται

• Transliteration: epoptai
• Literal meaning: eyewitnesses, those who have personally seen (root: “overseer,” “spectator”)
• Semantic range: firsthand observers, especially of a solemn or sacred event (used of initiates who had seen the Eleusinian mysteries)
• English variants: “eyewitnesses,” “we ourselves saw”
• Contextual theological meaning: grounds apostolic authority in verified historical experience, not derivative hearsay — directly supports Scripture’s reliability
• French rendering risk: Low. “Témoins oculaires” is the standard, unambiguous rendering.

μεγαλειότης

• Transliteration: megaleiotēs
• Literal meaning: greatness, majesty, magnificence
• Semantic range: splendor and grandeur befitting deity or royalty (cf. Luke 9:43 of Christ’s miracle; Acts 19:27 of Artemis’s “greatness”)
• English variants: “majesty,” “grandeur,” “greatness”
• Contextual theological meaning: the visible divine splendor Peter witnessed at the Transfiguration, anticipating the parousia’s greater display
• French rendering risk: Low. “Majesté” is standard and unambiguous, paired with “gloire” (baseline) elsewhere in the passage.

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Verse 17

“For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’”

τιμή

• Transliteration: timē
• Literal meaning: honor, value, price
• Semantic range: esteem, worth, honor bestowed
• English variants: “honor,” “esteem”
• Contextual theological meaning: honor conferred by the Father on the Son at the Transfiguration
• French rendering risk: Low. “Honneur” is standard; minor risk of a purely social-status reading rather than divine bestowal, mitigated by pairing with “gloire.”

δόξα [BASELINE — “gloire” reused]

• Transliteration: doxa
• Contextual theological meaning: the Father’s glory displayed in and through the Son at the Transfiguration; anticipatory of the parousia’s glory (cf. baseline doctrine “Deity of Christ”)
• French rendering risk: Low (per baseline). Reuse “gloire” exactly.

μεγαλοπρεπὴς δόξα

• Transliteration: megaloprepēs doxa
• Literal meaning: “magnificent/majestic glory” — a reverential circumlocution for God himself, avoiding direct utterance of the divine name
• Semantic range: befitting greatness; used of grandeur appropriate to a king or deity
• English variants: “the Majestic Glory,” “the excellent glory,” “the magnificent glory”
• Contextual theological meaning: a title for God the Father at the theophany; reinforces that the voice from heaven is God’s own
• French rendering risk: Medium. Segond renders “la magnifique gloire”; TOB similar. Risk is that French readers may read this as a poetic ornament rather than recognizing it as a reverential divine title (a circumlocution for God, similar to Jewish avoidance of the divine name). Recommend a translator note clarifying this is a title for God the Father, not a separate glory-being.

υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός

• Transliteration: huios mou ho agapētos
• Literal meaning: “my Son, the beloved [one]”
• Semantic range: “beloved” (agapētos) denotes the object of the Father’s unique, chosen love — echoing Genesis 22’s “your son, your only son, whom you love,” and the baptismal/transfiguration divine declarations in the Gospels
• English variants: “my beloved Son,” “my Son, whom I love,” “my dearly loved Son”
• Contextual theological meaning: directly connects to the baseline Sonship of Christ / Deity of Christ doctrines (Critical risk in Romans); here the Father’s own voice affirms the unique, eternal Sonship at a datable historical event
• French rendering risk: Critical. The noun phrase itself is new to this curriculum (Romans TM records “Fils de Dieu” for huios theou, not this exact phrase), but the underlying doctrine is identical and Critical. Render as “mon Fils bien-aimé” — never “mon fils préféré” (which reduces to ordinary parental favoritism among several children) nor any phrase implying adoptive, honorary, or metaphorical sonship. Cross-reference baseline “son_of_god” (Fils de Dieu) doctrine notes.

εὐδοκέω (εἰς ὃν ἐγὼ εὐδόκησα)

• Transliteration: eudokēsa
• Literal meaning: to be well-pleased, to take delight in, to approve
• Semantic range: settled divine approval and delight, not fluctuating emotional pleasure
• English variants: “with whom I am well pleased,” “in whom I delight,” “who brings me great joy”
• Contextual theological meaning: the Father’s eternal, settled approval of the Son, publicly declared at the Transfiguration as at the baptism
• French rendering risk: Medium. Segond: “en qui j’ai mis toute mon affection.” TOB/NBS variants use “qui a toute ma faveur” or “en qui j’ai pris plaisir.” Risk: French “affection” or “plaisir” can sound emotionally casual/fluctuating rather than a settled divine verdict of approval. Recommend “en qui j’ai mis toute mon affection” (Segond-aligned, per this curriculum’s register) with a note that this expresses fixed divine approval, not changeable sentiment.

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Verse 18

“We ourselves heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”

φωνή

• Transliteration: phōnē
• Literal meaning: voice, sound
• Semantic range: audible speech, especially divine speech-events in Scripture (theophany language)
• English variants: “voice,” “sound”
• Contextual theological meaning: an audible, historical, verifiable divine utterance — foundational to the doctrine of Scripture’s reliability
• French rendering risk: Low. “Voix” is standard and unambiguous.

οὐρανός

• Transliteration: ouranos
• Literal meaning: heaven, sky
• Semantic range: the visible sky; the abode of God; the eschatological “new heavens” (ch. 3)
• English variants: “heaven,” “sky”
• Contextual theological meaning: source of the divine voice, distinguishing it from any human or earthly origin
• French rendering risk: Low. “Ciel” is standard; note that this same word recurs with heightened doctrinal weight in ch. 3 (“nouveaux cieux”).

ἅγιον ὄρος

• Transliteration: hagion oros
• Literal meaning: holy mountain
• Semantic range: a site set apart by God’s manifest presence (echoing Sinai and Zion language)
• English variants: “holy mountain,” “sacred mountain”
• Contextual theological meaning: the Mount of Transfiguration is marked “holy” by the theophany that occurred there, not by any inherent property of the site
• French rendering risk: Low. “Sainte montagne” — reuses baseline “saint” [BASELINE — “saint” reused]. Minor risk of readers assuming a pilgrimage-shrine sense (holy site tourism, common in French Catholic devotional culture); a brief clarifying note that holiness here derives from the event, not the geography, is advisable but not Critical.

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Verse 19

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

προφητικὸς λόγος

• Transliteration: prophētikos logos
• Literal meaning: “prophetic word/message”
• Semantic range: the OT prophetic writings, understood as a unified, divinely authoritative corpus
• English variants: “the prophetic word,” “the word of prophecy,” “the message of the prophets”
• Contextual theological meaning: the OT Scriptures, confirmed rather than superseded by the eyewitness experience of vv. 16–18 — central to Reliability and Inspiration of Scripture
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Parole prophétique” is straightforward, but low OT literacy among the target French readership (per the baseline’s own audience profile: lapsed/cultural Catholics, small Protestant minority, secular unchurched) means the referent (“the prophetic word” = the OT prophetic corpus) will need contextual glossing, not the term itself.

βεβαιότερον (ἔχομεν βεβαιότερον)

• Transliteration: bebaioteron
• Literal meaning: comparative of bebaios, “firm, sure, guaranteed”; “more confirmed / made more certain”
• Semantic range: legally/evidentially secured, guaranteed, valid (used of legal guarantees and inheritance security in papyri)
• English variants: “more fully confirmed,” “more sure,” “made more certain,” “confirmed all the more”
• Contextual theological meaning: the eyewitness Transfiguration testimony corroborates — does not replace — the OT prophetic word; both stand as equally certain grounds for faith. This directly undergirds the doctrine of Scripture’s reliability
• French rendering risk: Medium. Render “d’autant plus certaine” or “confirmée de façon plus sûre.” Risk: an overly literal comparative (“more certain than…”) could wrongly imply the OT prophetic word was previously uncertain and only now becomes reliable through apostolic testimony — inverting Peter’s actual argument, which is that the two testimonies mutually reinforce each other. Flag for native speaker review to ensure the comparative does not destabilize confidence in the OT text itself.

λύχνος (λύχνῳ φαίνοντι)

• Transliteration: lychnos
• Literal meaning: lamp, portable oil lamp
• Semantic range: a small household light source (distinct from phōstēr, a heavenly luminary)
• English variants: “lamp,” “light”
• Contextual theological meaning: Scripture’s guiding, illuminating function for believers navigating the present, spiritually dark age
• French rendering risk: Low. “Lampe” is standard and unambiguous.

αὐχμηρὸς τόπος

• Transliteration: auchmēros topos
• Literal meaning: a dry, murky, dismal place
• Semantic range: darkness associated with squalor or gloom, not merely absence of light
• English variants: “a dark place,” “a dismal place,” “a squalid place”
• Contextual theological meaning: describes the moral-spiritual darkness of the present age, which Scripture illuminates until Christ’s return
• French rendering risk: Low. “Lieu obscur” or “lieu sombre” is adequate; the “squalid/dismal” nuance may be softened but this is not doctrinally load-bearing.

φωσφόρος (ἕως… φωσφόρος ἀνατείλῃ)

• Transliteration: phōsphoros
• Literal meaning: “light-bearer,” morning star (the planet Venus at dawn)
• Semantic range: a herald of daybreak; in classical/astrological usage, a name for the planet Venus
• English variants: “morning star,” “daystar”
• Contextual theological meaning: symbolizes the dawning of full eschatological clarity/Christ’s return in believers’ understanding and experience
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Étoile du matin” is the standard rendering, but in French popular culture this phrase (and its synonym “étoile du berger”) is closely associated with the planet Venus and with astrology/horoscope culture (“l’étoile du matin” appears in astrological contexts). There is no equivalent risk of confusion with Revelation 22:16’s messianic “bright morning star” title unless both passages are taught together — flag for a clarifying note distinguishing the natural/astronomical image here from any occult or astrological association.

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Verse 20

“Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.”

προφητεία [BASELINE — “prophétie” reused]

• Transliteration: prophēteia
• Contextual theological meaning: here specifically “prophecy of Scripture” (γραφή), i.e., the written OT prophetic corpus, as opposed to spontaneous individual prediction
• French rendering risk: Low per baseline; reuse “prophétie” exactly.

γραφή

• Transliteration: graphē
• Literal meaning: writing, a written document
• Semantic range: in the NT, almost always the technical term for sacred, authoritative Scripture (the OT canon)
• English variants: “Scripture,” “the Scripture,” “the writing”
• Contextual theological meaning: identifies the OT prophetic writings as authoritative, God-given Scripture — the term itself is central to Reliability and Inspiration of Scripture
• French rendering risk: Medium. Must be capitalized “l’Écriture” / “les Écritures” to distinguish from lowercase “écriture” (handwriting, a written text, a writing style — as in “l’écriture de cet auteur”). A lowercase or ambiguous rendering would flatten the sacred, canonical sense into mere “written material.”

ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως (ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως οὐ γίνεται)

• Transliteration: idias epilyseōs
• Literal meaning: “of one’s own release/loosing/solving” — from epilysis, “a releasing, an interpretation, a solution to a riddle”
• Semantic range: the act of unlocking or resolving meaning; here, the origination of prophecy — i.e., prophecy did not arise from the prophet’s own private understanding or initiative
• English variants: “someone’s own interpretation” (ESV), “the prophet’s own interpretation” (NIV), “private interpretation” (KJV), “the prophet’s own understanding” (NLT)
• Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s point is about the origin of prophecy (it did not spring from a human prophet’s own mind), not primarily a rule about how readers may or may not later interpret Scripture — though this verse has a long history of being read the second way
• French rendering risk: Critical. This is 2 Peter’s own version of a Trent-vs-Reformation flashpoint, directly parallel to the baseline’s “justification” entry. The KJV’s historic rendering “private interpretation” has been used for centuries in Catholic apologetics to argue against the Reformation principle that individual believers may read and interpret Scripture themselves apart from magisterial authority — even though the Greek concerns the prophet’s origination of the message, not the reader’s later interpretive act. French renderings must avoid phrasing this as “n’est pas laissée à une interprétation personnelle [du lecteur]” (which imports the disputed private-interpretation reading) and instead render it as concerning the prophecy’s source: “aucune prophétie de l’Écriture ne provient d’une initiative personnelle [du prophète]” or “…ne procède de la seule compréhension du prophète.” Any Phase 2 segment touching this verse must be flagged for human theologian review per the same escalation logic as baseline’s justification/imputed_righteousness entries.

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Verse 21

“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

θέλημα ἀνθρώπου

• Transliteration: thelēma anthrōpou
• Literal meaning: “the will of a human being”
• Semantic range: human volition, intention, initiative
• English variants: “will of man,” “human will,” “human initiative”
• Contextual theological meaning: negates human initiative as the source of prophecy, setting up the positive claim that follows (Spirit-carried speech)
• French rendering risk: Low. “Volonté humaine” or “volonté d’homme” is unambiguous.

φέρω (ὑπὸ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου φερόμενοι)

• Transliteration: pheromenoi
• Literal meaning: present passive participle of pherō, “to carry, bear, bring along”; “being borne/carried along”
• Semantic range: used elsewhere of a ship driven by the wind (Acts 27:15, 17) — the prophets were like a vessel actively moved by an outside force, not passive dead instruments, but also not self-directing
• English variants: “carried along,” “moved,” “borne along,” “inspired”
• Contextual theological meaning: the mechanism of inspiration — the Spirit actively directs the prophets’ speech while they remain personally engaged speakers (“men spoke”)
• French rendering risk: Medium. Segond renders “poussés par le Saint-Esprit.” Risk: “poussés” (pushed/driven) can either rightly convey active divine propulsion or wrongly suggest coercive override of the human author’s personality and word choice (a “mechanical dictation” theory of inspiration foreign to the verse’s own balance of divine initiative and human speech, “men spoke”). Recommend “poussés par l’Esprit Saint” while flagging any accompanying teaching content to clarify this is not dictation but Spirit-directed human speech.

Πνεῦμα Ἅγιον [BASELINE — “Esprit Saint” reused]

• Transliteration: Pneuma Hagion
• Contextual theological meaning: the Holy Spirit as the active divine agent of inspiration, the same Person active throughout Romans’ baseline doctrine of Sanctification
• French rendering risk: Low per baseline. Reuse “Esprit Saint” exactly (this curriculum follows the baseline’s ecumenical/modern convention, not Segond’s “Saint-Esprit” word order).

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PART 2 — CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER STUDY OF THE WHOLE BOOK

Chapter 1 (verses 1–15 — remainder not covered in the core passage)

Σίμων Πέτρος

• Transliteration: Simōn Petros
• Literal meaning: proper name, “Simon Peter”
• Semantic range: n/a (proper name)
• English variants: “Simon Peter,” “Simeon Peter” (some manuscripts)
• Contextual theological meaning: author’s self-identification, establishing apostolic authorship and authority for the whole letter
• French rendering risk: Low. Established French Bible form: “Simon Pierre.”

δοῦλος (καὶ ἀπόστολος)

• Transliteration: doulos
• Literal meaning: slave, bondservant (a person wholly owned by a master, with no legal autonomy)
• Semantic range: in Paul’s and Peter’s self-designations, a title of honor expressing total, willing devotion to Christ as absolute owner
• English variants: “servant,” “bondservant,” “slave”
• Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s self-designation frames the entire letter’s authority as flowing from total submission to Christ, prior to and undergirding his apostleship
• French rendering risk: Medium. Established rendering “serviteur” (as in Segond/TOB) softens the word considerably — the literal sense is “esclave” (slave), a term French translation tradition avoids for social-register reasons. This softening is consistent and traditional but should be flagged so translators understand the term’s actual force (total ownership, not employment) is being deliberately muted for register reasons, consistent across French Bible tradition.

ἀπόστολος [BASELINE — “apôtre” reused]

• Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s delegated apostolic authority, paired with his self-designation as doulos
• French rendering risk: Low per baseline.

ἰσότιμος πίστις

• Transliteration: isotimos pistis
• Literal meaning: “equally precious/equal-in-honor faith”
• Semantic range: of equal value, standing, or privilege
• English variants: “a faith of equal standing,” “like precious faith,” “a faith as precious as ours”
• Contextual theological meaning: affirms that Gentile believers’ faith carries the same value/standing as the apostles’ own — an equality-of-standing claim resonant with the baseline’s “Universal Scope of the Gospel”
• French rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Une foi de même prix” or “une foi tout aussi précieuse” — reuses baseline “foi” [BASELINE — “foi” reused].

δικαιοσύνη τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

• Transliteration: dikaiosynē… sōtēros
• Literal meaning: “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”
• Semantic range: δικαιοσύνη reuses baseline “justice”; the phrase as a whole is a grammatical construction (article-noun-καί-noun, the “Granville Sharp” pattern) in which “God” and “Savior” both describe the single person Jesus Christ
• English variants: “our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (most versions preserve the single-referent reading)
• Contextual theological meaning: one of the NT’s clearest single-verse affirmations that Jesus Christ is fully God — directly bears on Deity of Christ, a doctrine flagged Critical in the baseline Romans registry
• French rendering risk: Critical. Must render so the French syntax preserves the single-referent reading (“de notre Dieu et Sauveur Jésus-Christ,” not “de notre Dieu et du Sauveur Jésus-Christ,” which would wrongly split the phrase into two persons — God the Father and a separate Savior). Flag for human theologian review, cross-referencing baseline’s “son_of_god” and “lord” Critical entries.

σωτήρ

• Transliteration: sōtēr
• Literal meaning: savior, deliverer, rescuer
• Semantic range: a title used in the Greco-Roman world for emperors and deities as “benefactor/savior/deliverer” of a city or people; in the NT, exclusively of God the Father and Jesus Christ
• English variants: “Savior”
• Contextual theological meaning: recurs at 1:1, 1:11, 2:20, 3:2, 3:18 as a fixed title for Christ, tightly bound to kyrios (“Lord and Savior”) throughout the letter
• French rendering risk: Medium-High. “Sauveur” is the established term, but secular/pop-cultural French usage (“le sauveur” of a football match, a company’s “sauveur financier”) can flatten the term into “hero who rescues from a difficult situation” rather than the exclusive, cosmic, saving Lordship the NT intends. Since the term recurs as a fixed formula “Seigneur et Sauveur” throughout 2 Peter, consistent, unqualified rendering as “Sauveur” is required at every occurrence — do not vary with “libérateur” or “rédempteur.”

χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη [BASELINE — “grâce” and “paix” reused]

• Contextual theological meaning: the standard Petrine/Pauline epistolary greeting, identical doctrinal content to Romans 1:7
• French rendering risk: Low per baseline.

ἐπίγνωσις (τῇ ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ)

• Transliteration: epignōsis
• Literal meaning: full, precise, or complete knowledge (intensive compound of gnōsis)
• Semantic range: personal, experiential, thorough knowledge, especially of God/Christ — distinct in nuance from the simple gnōsis used later in the ch. 1 virtue list (v. 5–6)
• English variants: “knowledge,” “true knowledge,” “full knowledge”
• Contextual theological meaning: the saving, relational knowledge of God/Christ through which grace and peace are multiplied (1:2, 1:3, 1:8; also 2:20) — a keyword unique to this letter’s emphasis
• French rendering risk: Medium. French has no distinct lexical equivalent for the epignōsis/gnōsis distinction; both are ordinarily rendered “connaissance.” Recommend consistently qualifying epignōsis as “pleine connaissance” or “connaissance véritable” to preserve the intensifying nuance the Greek marks morphologically, especially since this word recurs as a thematic marker across chs. 1–2.

θεία δύναμις

• Transliteration: theia dynamis
• Literal meaning: “divine power”
• Semantic range: God’s supernatural, saving capability (distinct from the baseline’s Romans-specific phrase dynamis theou, though conceptually related)
• English variants: “divine power,” “His divine power”
• Contextual theological meaning: the source of “everything necessary for life and godliness” (1:3) — grounds the doctrine of Divine Nature and Escaping Corruption
• French rendering risk: Low. “Puissance divine,” consistent with baseline’s “puissance de Dieu.”

ἴδια δόξα καὶ ἀρετή

• Transliteration: idia doxa kai aretē
• Literal meaning: “his own glory and excellence/virtue”
• Semantic range: here aretē describes God’s own moral excellence/majestic character, distinct from the human virtue commanded in v. 5
• English variants: “his own glory and goodness,” “his glory and excellence”
• Contextual theological meaning: the means by which believers are called — God’s own glorious character, not human achievement
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Sa propre gloire et sa vertu/excellence” — note the dual sense of aretē (divine excellence here vs. human virtue in v. 5) must be tracked; using the same French word “vertu” for both is acceptable but a translator note should flag that v. 3’s referent is God’s own character, not a human quality to imitate at this specific occurrence.

τίμια καὶ μέγιστα ἐπαγγέλματα

• Transliteration: timia kai megista epaggelmata
• Literal meaning: “precious and very great promises”
• Semantic range: solemn divine pledges (a rarer synonym of epangelia, used at 3:4, 3:9, 3:13)
• English variants: “precious and very great promises,” “precious and magnificent promises”
• Contextual theological meaning: God’s promises (including the promise of Christ’s return, ch. 3) as the ground of hope and the means of partaking in the divine nature
• French rendering risk: Low. “Précieuses et magnifiques promesses.”

θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως

• Transliteration: theias koinōnoi physeōs
• Literal meaning: “partakers/sharers of divine nature”
• Semantic range: koinōnos = one who shares/participates in something with others; physis = nature, essential character
• English variants: “partakers of the divine nature,” “participants in the divine nature,” “share in God’s own nature”
• Contextual theological meaning: believers come to share in God’s moral character (holiness, incorruptibility) through the gospel promises — this is the letter’s most distinctive doctrinal phrase, anchoring Divine Nature and Escaping Corruption
• French rendering risk: Critical. This is the single highest-risk phrase in 2 Peter for a French readership because of a genuine denominational/theological flashpoint parallel to the baseline’s “grace”/“justification” entries: Eastern Orthodox and some Catholic mystical theology read this verse through the lens of théosis (“divinization,” an ontological transformation/participation in God’s own being), while Reformed/evangelical exposition reads it as moral renewal and Spirit-given holiness — never an erasure of the Creator/creature distinction. French “participer à la nature divine” is the literal, necessary rendering, but it must never be taught or footnoted in a way that suggests believers become divine in essence, nor smuggled toward a théosis reading without qualification. Flag for mandatory human theologian review wherever this phrase occurs (1:4, and by extension its echo in the doctrine name itself).

ἀποφεύγω (ἀποφυγόντες)

• Transliteration: apophygontes
• Literal meaning: to flee from, escape, get away from
• Semantic range: decisive, completed escape from a danger or entrapment
• English variants: “having escaped,” “having fled from”
• Contextual theological meaning: believers’ definitive escape from the world’s corrupting desire, made possible only through partaking of the divine nature
• French rendering risk: Low. “Ayant échappé à.”

φθορά

• Transliteration: phthora
• Literal meaning: corruption, decay, ruin, destruction
• Semantic range: moral corruption and its consequence, mortal decay/perishing (opposite of aphtharsia, incorruptibility); recurs at 2:12, 2:19
• English variants: “corruption,” “decay,” “destruction”
• Contextual theological meaning: the moral-spiritual decay and ultimate ruin that characterizes the fallen world and, in ch. 2, false teachers themselves — central to Divine Nature and Escaping Corruption
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Corruption” in ordinary French usage primarily denotes bribery/political corruption (la corruption d’un fonctionnaire), which risks narrowing the term to financial/institutional wrongdoing rather than the broader biblical sense of moral decay leading to spiritual death and destruction. A clarifying gloss (“la corruption qui mène à la perdition/à la ruine”) is advisable at first occurrence.

ἐπιθυμία

• Transliteration: epithymia
• Literal meaning: desire, craving, longing
• Semantic range: neutral “desire” in secular Greek; in the NT, overwhelmingly negative — sinful lust or craving contrary to God’s will, unless otherwise qualified
• English variants: “desire,” “lust,” “passion,” “craving,” “evil desire”
• Contextual theological meaning: the corrupting force at work in the world (1:4) and driving false teachers (2:10, 2:18) — the object from which believers must “escape”
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Désir” alone is too neutral in French (any desire, positive or negative); “convoitise” better captures the negative, illicit-craving sense the context requires. Recommend “convoitise” wherever epithymia is negatively qualified, as throughout 2 Peter.

πίστις, ἀρετή, γνῶσις, ἐγκράτεια, ὑπομονή, εὐσέβεια, φιλαδελφία, ἀγάπη (the virtue chain, 1:5–7) This eight-term chain is the letter’s central passage for Growing in Christian Virtue and requires careful, mutually distinguishing renderings so that no two terms collapse into the same French word.

• πίστις [BASELINE — “foi” reused]. Foundation of the chain; no new risk beyond baseline.

• ἀρετή

  • Transliteration: aretē
  • Literal meaning: excellence, virtue, moral courage (a major term in Greco-Roman ethics, esp. Stoic thought)
  • Semantic range: moral excellence and courageous goodness in action, not passive niceness
  • English variants: “virtue,” “moral excellence,” “goodness,” “moral courage”
  • Contextual theological meaning: active, courageous moral excellence flowing from faith — the doctrinal keyword of “Growing in Christian Virtue”
  • French rendering risk: High. “Vertu” is the established rendering, but it carries two live risks in French: (1) Catholic moral-theological weight (les vertus cardinales et théologales), which is broadly compatible but can pull the term toward a scholastic virtue-ethics framework absent from Peter’s more dynamic, courage-inflected sense; (2) colloquial French historically applies “vertu” narrowly to female chastity (“perdre sa vertu”), a strong and specific register risk that could trivialize or gender-narrow this foundational term in casual reading. Flag for native speaker review with an explicit gloss toward “excellence morale active” / “courage moral” alongside “vertu.”

• γνῶσις

  • Transliteration: gnōsis
  • Literal meaning: knowledge
  • Semantic range: general or practical knowledge; distinct from the intensified epignōsis discussed above
  • English variants: “knowledge”
  • Contextual theological meaning: practical, applied knowledge of how to live out the faith, not merely theoretical
  • French rendering risk: Medium. “Connaissance” is standard, but must never be rendered “gnose” — a French noun that specifically denotes the ancient heretical Gnostic systems (le gnosticisme) that the NT itself combats; using “gnose” here would ironically imply Peter is commending the very heresy his letter opposes.

• ἐγκράτεια

  • Transliteration: egkrateia
  • Literal meaning: self-control, self-mastery
  • Semantic range: disciplined control over one’s desires and impulses (a cardinal Greco-Roman virtue)
  • English variants: “self-control,” “temperance”
  • Contextual theological meaning: Spirit-enabled mastery over the corrupting desires named in v. 4
  • French rendering risk: Low. “Maîtrise de soi” is clear and standard.

• ὑπομονή

  • Transliteration: hypomonē
  • Literal meaning: patient endurance, steadfastness under pressure
  • Semantic range: active, persevering endurance through trial (not passive resignation)
  • English variants: “perseverance,” “steadfastness,” “patient endurance”
  • Contextual theological meaning: human perseverance in the Christian life amid trial and opposition — this must be kept lexically distinct from God’s makrothymia (“patience,” ch. 3), a different Greek word describing God’s forbearance, not the believer’s endurance
  • French rendering risk: Medium. Recommend “persévérance” (reserving “patience” for makrothymia in ch. 3) so that the two distinct Greek concepts — human perseverance under trial vs. divine forbearance in delaying judgment — are not collapsed into a single French word across the curriculum. Flag for consistency check against ch. 3’s “Patience of God’s Timing” doctrine.

• εὐσέβεια

  • Transliteration: eusebeia
  • Literal meaning: godliness, piety, reverence toward God expressed in conduct
  • Semantic range: right, reverent living oriented toward God, encompassing both worship and ethical conduct
  • English variants: “godliness,” “piety,” “devotion”
  • Contextual theological meaning: a key term of this letter (also 1:3, 1:6–7, 3:11), denoting comprehensive godly living, not merely private devotional feeling
  • French rendering risk: Medium. “Piété” is standard but risks a narrow, sentimental-devotional connotation in French (“un geste pieux,” “une âme pieuse”) that undersells the term’s fuller NT sense of a comprehensively godly, reverent way of life. Recommend qualifying as “la piété, c’est-à-dire une vie de révérence envers Dieu” where teaching content allows.

• φιλαδελφία

  • Transliteration: philadelphia
  • Literal meaning: brotherly affection, love for fellow believers
  • Semantic range: familial-type affection extended to the community of faith
  • English variants: “brotherly affection,” “brotherly kindness,” “mutual affection”
  • Contextual theological meaning: relational warmth among believers, penultimate to and crowned by agapē
  • French rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Affection fraternelle” — kept distinct from baseline’s “communion fraternelle” (koinōnia, a different Greek word/concept) to avoid conflating the two terms.

• ἀγάπη

  • Transliteration: agapē
  • Literal meaning: love
  • Semantic range: selfless, others-oriented love; the term used throughout the NT for both God’s love and the love commanded of believers
  • English variants: “love,” “charity” (archaic)
  • Contextual theological meaning: the crowning virtue of the chain, without which the others remain incomplete — this term is not present in the baseline Romans translation memory and must be newly established for this curriculum
  • French rendering risk: Medium. “Amour” is the necessary rendering (French has no separate register-marked equivalent), but ordinary French “amour” defaults to romantic love in common usage. Recommend a contextual qualifier at first occurrence (“l’amour selon Dieu,” “l’amour désintéressé”) to steer readers away from a romantic-love default reading, and record this new entry in translation memory as Medium risk, Doctrine: Growing in Christian Virtue.

ἄκαρπος / καρποφορεῖν (implied contrast, v. 8)

• Transliteration: akarpos
• Literal meaning: unfruitful, barren
• Semantic range: failing to produce expected results/fruit
• English variants: “unfruitful,” “barren,” “ineffective”
• Contextual theological meaning: the negative outcome of failing to grow in the virtue chain
• French rendering risk: Low. “Stérile” or “sans fruit.”

τυφλός, μυωπάζων (v. 9)

• Transliteration: typhlos, myōpazōn
• Literal meaning: blind; short-sighted, myopic (only NT occurrence of myōpazō)
• Semantic range: spiritual blindness combined specifically with an inability to see the larger, longer-term reality (myopia)
• English variants: “blind and shortsighted,” “so nearsighted that he is blind”
• Contextual theological meaning: describes the one who neglects the virtue chain — unable to perceive their own cleansing from past sin
• French rendering risk: Low. “Aveugle, il ne voit pas plus loin que le bout de son nez” (idiomatic) or more formally “il est aveugle et myope.”

καθαρισμὸς τῶν πάλαι ἁμαρτημάτων

• Transliteration: katharismos tōn palai hamartēmatōn
• Literal meaning: “cleansing of former sins”
• Semantic range: katharismos elsewhere denotes ritual/ceremonial cleansing (Levitical purification, John 2:6); here applied metaphorically to forgiveness at conversion
• English variants: “cleansed from former sins,” “purged of past sins,” “purification from past sins”
• Contextual theological meaning: the forgiveness received at conversion, which the negligent believer effectively forgets
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Purification de ses péchés d’autrefois” risks being read through a ritual/sacramental lens (confession, absolution) given katharismos’s ceremonial background and French Catholic sacramental vocabulary (la purification, penitential rites). Clarify this refers to the once-for-all forgiveness accomplished at conversion, not an ongoing ritual act, reusing baseline “péché” for the noun.

σπουδή

• Transliteration: spoudē
• Literal meaning: eagerness, diligence, zeal, haste
• Semantic range: earnest effort and urgency
• English variants: “diligence,” “effort,” “zeal,” “make every effort”
• Contextual theological meaning: the effort believers are to exert in confirming their calling and election (v. 10) and elsewhere in the letter (1:5, 3:14)
• French rendering risk: Low. “Empressement” or “zèle.”

κλῆσις καὶ ἐκλογή [BASELINE — “appel” and “élection” reused]

• Contextual theological meaning: identical doctrinal pairing to the baseline’s “Divine Calling” and “Effectual Calling” doctrines in Romans 8:28–30 and 9:11–12; here believers are exhorted to “confirm” (βεβαίαν ποιεῖσθαι, cf. v. 19’s bebaioteron) their calling and election through diligent virtue
• French rendering risk: High, matching baseline exactly. Reuse “appel” and “élection” without substitution; retain the baseline’s flag that “élection” must never be read through the lens of French political/democratic elections. This is a direct, load-bearing reuse point — do not create parallel new renderings.

πταίω

• Transliteration: ptaiō
• Literal meaning: to stumble, trip, fail
• Semantic range: moral failure or falling short, not final apostasy in this context
• English variants: “stumble,” “fall,” “fail”
• Contextual theological meaning: the negative outcome avoided by pursuing the virtues; assurance is in view (never stumbling), echoing the baseline’s “Assurance of Salvation” doctrine
• French rendering risk: Low. “Trébucher” or “chuter.”

αἰώνιος βασιλεία τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

• Transliteration: aiōnios basileia
• Literal meaning: “eternal kingdom”
• Semantic range: reuses baseline “kingdom_of_god” (βασιλεία) but here specifically titled the kingdom “of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” rather than “of God” per se
• English variants: “eternal kingdom,” “everlasting kingdom”
• Contextual theological meaning: the final, consummated reign into which believers are welcomed — connects to baseline’s “Kingdom Mission” doctrine
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Royaume éternel de notre Seigneur et Sauveur Jésus-Christ” — reuse baseline “Royaume” root and “Seigneur,” combined with the newly-established “Sauveur.” Preserve baseline’s caution against political/territorial readings of “Royaume.”

ὑπομιμνήσκειν, μνήμη (vv. 12–15)

• Transliteration: hypomimnēskein
• Literal meaning: to remind, call to mind
• Semantic range: deliberate, repeated reminder of already-known truth
• English variants: “to remind,” “to stir up your memory”
• Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s stated purpose for writing — reinforcing settled truth against the coming challenge of false teachers (ch. 2) and scoffers (ch. 3)
• French rendering risk: Low. “Rappeler.”

σκήνωμα

• Transliteration: skēnōma
• Literal meaning: tent, tabernacle, temporary dwelling
• Semantic range: metaphor for the physical body as a temporary dwelling (echoing the OT tabernacle, skēnē), used similarly by Paul (2 Cor 5:1, 4)
• English variants: “tent,” “body,” “earthly dwelling,” “tabernacle”
• Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s body as a temporary dwelling he will soon “put off” at death
• French rendering risk: Medium. A bare literal “tente” risks a banal camping-equipment image in modern French, trivializing the solemn metaphor. Many French Bibles render “cette tente” (Segond, literal) or “ce corps” (functional). Recommend “cette tente [c’est-à-dire mon corps]” or the more dignified periphrasis “cette demeure terrestre” to preserve both the metaphorical dignity and legibility for readers unfamiliar with the OT tabernacle background.

ἔξοδος

• Transliteration: exodos
• Literal meaning: departure, going out, exit
• Semantic range: the same Greek word used as the title of the OT book of Exodus; here a deliberate, dignified euphemism for death
• English variants: “departure,” “decease,” “exodus”
• Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s approaching death, framed with an intentional echo of Israel’s Exodus deliverance — death as a “departure” toward promised rest, not annihilation
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Mon départ” is the plain, safe rendering but loses the deliberate OT Exodus echo. “Mon exode” preserves the literary resonance but risks confusion in French cultural memory with l’Exode of 1940 (the mass civilian flight from the German invasion, a major 20th-century French historical reference) rather than the biblical Exodus. Recommend “mon départ (l’Écriture emploie ici le mot « exode »)” as a glossed compromise, flagged for native speaker review.

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Chapter 2

ψευδοδιδάσκαλος / ψευδοπροφήτης

• Transliteration: pseudodidaskaloi / pseudoprophētai
• Literal meaning: false teachers / false prophets
• Semantic range: those who teach/prophesy falsely, in contrast to genuine, Spirit-sent teachers and prophets (cf. ch. 1’s teaching on true prophecy)
• English variants: “false teachers,” “false prophets”
• Contextual theological meaning: the entire chapter’s subject — anchors the doctrine of False Teachers and Their Judgment
• French rendering risk: Medium. Traditional French Bible rendering is “faux docteurs” (Segond), but modern French “docteur” primarily denotes a medical doctor or an academic doctorate holder, which can sound incongruous or even comic to a contemporary reader (“un faux docteur” suggesting a fake physician). Modern translations (TOB, NBS) prefer “faux enseignants” / “faux prophètes,” which is recommended for this curriculum’s contemporary register target (per baseline’s “lycée-level, national newspaper” reading level).

αἵρεσις (αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας)

• Transliteration: haireseis apōleias
• Literal meaning: “destructive/ruinous sects, opinions, or factions” (root of “heresy”)
• Semantic range: a chosen faction, party, or opinion; in the NT increasingly pejorative for divisive, doctrinally destructive teaching
• English variants: “destructive heresies,” “damnable heresies” (KJV), “destructive opinions”
• Contextual theological meaning: doctrinally ruinous teaching that denies Christ, leading its adherents to destruction
• French rendering risk: High. French “hérésie” is heavily freighted by French ecclesiastical history — the medieval Inquisition, the guerres de religion, and centuries of magisterial condemnation of heterodox movements (Cathars, Albigensians, and later Protestants themselves were historically labeled hérétiques in French Catholic polemics). This risks readers processing the term primarily through an institutional-authority/heresy-trial lens rather than 2 Peter’s own doctrinal-content concern (denial of Christ’s redeeming lordship, 2:1). Flag for native speaker review with a note steering exposition toward the content of the false teaching (denial of Christ, moral license) rather than institutional deviance.

δεσπότης

• Transliteration: despotēs
• Literal meaning: master, absolute owner, sovereign lord (root of English “despot”)
• Semantic range: a stronger, more absolute term than kyrios; denotes unqualified ownership and authority (used of a slave-owner or an absolute ruler)
• English variants: “Master,” “Sovereign Lord,” “Lord”
• Contextual theological meaning: applied to Christ (2:1) as the one who “bought” (redeemed) the false teachers who nonetheless deny him — a term of absolute ownership deliberately distinct from kyrios elsewhere in the letter
• French rendering risk: High. The literal French cognate “despote” is unusable — in contemporary French this word is exclusively and strongly pejorative, denoting a tyrant or dictator (un despote sanguinaire), the opposite of the reverent sense intended. The baseline Romans translation memory has already rejected “maître” as a substitute for kyrios (“Seigneur”), but despotēs is genuinely a different, stronger Greek word than kyrios, so “Maître” (capitalized, “le Maître souverain”) may legitimately be used here specifically to render despotēs — provided it is never substituted for kyrios/“Seigneur” elsewhere. Flag for human theologian review to confirm this distinction is preserved and not confused with the baseline’s rejection of “maître” for a different Greek word.

ἀγοράζω (τὸν ἀγοράσαντα αὐτούς)

• Transliteration: agorasanta
• Literal meaning: to buy, purchase (in the marketplace, agora)
• Semantic range: a commercial purchase term applied metaphorically to Christ’s redemptive death, purchasing believers out of bondage
• English variants: “who bought them,” “who purchased them,” “who redeemed them”
• Contextual theological meaning: even the false teachers were within the scope of Christ’s redemptive purchase, which makes their denial of him more tragic — touches on the extent of the atonement
• French rendering risk: Medium-High. “Racheter” (to buy back/redeem) is the theologically weightier and preferred rendering over a bare “acheter” (to buy, as in ordinary consumer retail — “acheter un produit”), which risks trivializing the costly, substitutionary nature of Christ’s redemptive act into an ordinary commercial transaction. Recommend “racheter” consistently.

ἀπώλεια

• Transliteration: apōleia
• Literal meaning: destruction, ruin, loss, perdition
• Semantic range: final, ruinous destruction, often eschatological (cf. Rom 9:22, Phil 3:19)
• English variants: “destruction,” “perdition,” “ruin,” “doom”
• Contextual theological meaning: the ultimate fate awaiting false teachers, paralleling the judgment themes of ch. 3
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Perdition” (a strong, somewhat formal/archaic French word retained in religious register) or “destruction/ruine.” Recommend “perdition” for its established theological weight in French religious vocabulary, flagged only for register (slightly elevated/formal, consistent with this curriculum’s target register).

ἄγγελοι ἁμαρτήσαντες / ταρταρώσας

• Transliteration: tartarōsas (hapax legomenon in the NT)
• Literal meaning: “cast into Tartarus” — a verb formed directly from Τάρταρος, the abyss/underworld of Greek mythology
• Semantic range: the deepest place of divine confinement/punishment for rebellious spiritual beings, prior to final judgment
• English variants: “cast them into hell,” “committed them to chains of darkness,” “cast down to Tartarus”
• Contextual theological meaning: God’s decisive judgment on the angels who sinned (cf. Genesis 6, Jude 6), grounding the certainty of judgment on the false teachers who follow their pattern — supports False Teachers and Their Judgment
• French rendering risk: Critical — a unique French collision. Established French Bibles wisely avoid a literal transliteration and render this descriptively (Segond: “les a précipités dans les abîmes de ténèbres”; similar in TOB). This convention must be followed strictly: never transliterate as “Tartare,” because in contemporary French “tartare” is overwhelmingly a culinary term (steak tartare, sauce tartare) with zero religious association — a literal transliteration would produce an unintentionally comic or nonsensical reading for a modern reader completely disconnected from Greek mythology’s Tartarus. Render descriptively: “précipités dans les abîmes de ténèbres” / “livrés aux ténèbres des abîmes.” Flag for mandatory theologian/native-speaker review to ensure no transliteration slips through.

κατακλυσμός

• Transliteration: kataklysmos
• Literal meaning: flood, deluge (root of English “cataclysm”)
• Semantic range: the specific, historical Noahic Flood in biblical usage
• English variants: “flood,” “deluge,” “the flood of the world of the ungodly”
• Contextual theological meaning: God’s historical judgment on the ancient world through water, a type of the coming judgment by fire (ch. 3)
• French rendering risk: Low-Medium. Established rendering “déluge” (capitalized “le Déluge” as the proper-noun event) is correct and should be used rather than the etymologically tempting loanword “cataclysme,” which in French denotes any large-scale disaster generically (earthquake, war, financial crash) and would lose the specific historical, biblical referent to Noah’s Flood.

Νῶε / δικαιοσύνης κήρυξ

• Transliteration: Nōe / dikaiosynēs kēryx
• Literal meaning: Noah / “herald/preacher of righteousness”
• Semantic range: proper name; κῆρυξ = a herald, town-crier, official proclaimer
• English variants: “Noah,” “a preacher of righteousness”
• Contextual theological meaning: Noah as a model of righteous, faithful proclamation amid a corrupt generation — reuses baseline “justice” [BASELINE — “justice” reused for δικαιοσύνη]
• French rendering risk: Low. “Noé” (established French form); “prédicateur/héraut de justice.”

Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα, Λώτ

• Transliteration: Sodoma kai Gomorra, Lōt
• Literal meaning: proper names
• English variants: “Sodom and Gomorrah,” “Lot”
• Contextual theological meaning: further historical exemplars of divine judgment on ungodliness and deliverance of the righteous
• French rendering risk: Low. Established forms: “Sodome et Gomorrhe,” “Lot.”

Βαλαάμ / Βαλάκ

• Transliteration: Balaam / Balak
• Literal meaning: proper names
• English variants: “Balaam,” “Balak”
• Contextual theological meaning: Balaam as the paradigm of a teacher motivated by greed (2:15–16), reinforcing the chapter’s portrait of false teachers’ financial exploitation
• French rendering risk: Low. Established forms: “Balaam,” “Balak.”

ἄλογα ζῷα

• Transliteration: aloga zōa
• Literal meaning: “irrational animals,” beasts without reason
• Semantic range: creatures governed by instinct alone, lacking rational moral agency
• English variants: “irrational animals,” “brute beasts,” “unreasoning animals”
• Contextual theological meaning: false teachers are compared to instinct-driven beasts, born only to be caught and destroyed — a vivid image reinforcing coming judgment
• French rendering risk: Low. “Bêtes sans raison” or “animaux dépourvus de raison.”

πλάνη

• Transliteration: planē
• Literal meaning: error, wandering, deception
• Semantic range: deviation from truth, whether self-deceived or actively deceiving
• English variants: “error,” “deception,” “delusion”
• Contextual theological meaning: the false teachers’ doctrinal and moral wandering, which entraps others
• French rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Erreur” is standard; ensure it is not softened to mean mere innocent mistake, but active, culpable deviation from truth.

δοῦλοι τῆς φθορᾶς

• Transliteration: douloi tēs phthoras
• Literal meaning: “slaves of corruption”
• Semantic range: here doulos is used negatively (contrast with Peter’s honorific self-designation in 1:1) — total bondage to moral decay
• English variants: “slaves of corruption,” “slaves of depravity”
• Contextual theological meaning: false teachers, promising freedom, are themselves enslaved to the very corruption named in 1:4 — reinforcing Divine Nature and Escaping Corruption by contrast
• French rendering risk: Medium. Render “esclaves de la corruption” here (unlike 1:1’s softened “serviteur” for the same underlying word δοῦλος) — flag the deliberate register difference for translators: the same Greek word is rendered honorifically in 1:1 and pejoratively in 2:19, and French must track context, not apply a single fixed gloss.

κύων ἐπὶ τὸ ἴδιον ἐξέραμα / ὗς λουσαμένη εἰς κυλισμὸν βορβόρου

• Transliteration: idiom, “a dog returns to its own vomit; a sow, washed, returns to wallow in the mire”
• Literal meaning: a proverbial double image of a reverted false convert
• Semantic range: proverbial (drawing on Proverbs 26:11)
• English variants: various literal renderings across all English versions; no idiomatic softening in any major translation
• Contextual theological meaning: vividly illustrates apostate false teachers reverting to their original corrupt nature despite外 exposure to truth
• French rendering risk: Low (doctrinally); High (rhetorically). Not a term-level doctrinal risk, but flag for register: retain the vivid, deliberately crude proverbial imagery rather than sanitizing it — established French Bibles (Segond) retain it literally (“le chien est retourné à ce qu’il avait vomi… la truie lavée s’est vautrée dans le bourbier”), and this curriculum should do likewise.

ἀσέλγεια, πλεονεξία

• Transliteration: aselgeia, pleonexia
• Literal meaning: sensuality/licentiousness; greed/covetousness
• Semantic range: unrestrained self-indulgence (esp. sexual); insatiable desire for gain
• English variants: “sensuality,” “licentiousness,” “debauchery” / “greed,” “covetousness”
• Contextual theological meaning: the moral and financial vices characterizing the false teachers’ conduct, contrasted with the virtue chain of ch. 1
• French rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Débauche” or “dérèglement” for aselgeia; “cupidité” or “avidité” for pleonexia. No major collision risk, but ensure register remains formal, not clinical.

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Chapter 3

ἐμπαῖκτης (ἐμπαῖκται)

• Transliteration: empaiktai
• Literal meaning: mockers, scoffers
• Semantic range: those who deride or ridicule, especially sacred or serious claims
• English variants: “scoffers,” “mockers”
• Contextual theological meaning: end-time scoffers who ridicule the promise of Christ’s return — the immediate occasion for the chapter’s teaching on The Certainty of Christ’s Return
• French rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Moqueurs” is standard and clear.

ἐπ’ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν

• Transliteration: ep’ eschatōn tōn hēmerōn
• Literal meaning: “in the last days”
• Semantic range: the eschatological period between Christ’s first and second comings
• English variants: “in the last days,” “in the last times”
• Contextual theological meaning: situates the scoffers’ mockery within the expected pattern of end-times opposition
• French rendering risk: Low. “Dans les derniers jours.”

ἐπαγγελία τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ

• Transliteration: epangelia tēs parousias autou
• Literal meaning: “the promise of his coming”
• Semantic range: epangelia = a solemn pledge or promise; combined here with parousia (see core passage v. 16 above)
• English variants: “the promise of his coming,” “where is the promise of his return?”
• Contextual theological meaning: the scoffers’ rhetorical challenge (v. 4) that Peter answers through the rest of the chapter — the doctrinal crux of The Certainty of Christ’s Return
• French rendering risk: High, carrying forward the core passage’s flagged risk on “avènement” (see v. 16 above). Render “la promesse de son avènement,” with the same caution that “avènement” must not drift toward a symbolic “dawning of an era” reading. This is the chapter’s thesis statement and should be treated with the same consistency-across-documents priority the baseline assigns to Romans 1:16–17 and 8:28.

κατακλυσμός (repeated) — see Chapter 2 above; same rendering “déluge,” same risk profile, now used typologically to prefigure the coming judgment by fire.

στοιχεῖα

• Transliteration: stoicheia
• Literal meaning: elements, fundamental components, basic constituents
• Semantic range: in Hellenistic usage, the basic physical elements of the cosmos (earth, water, air, fire) or elementary/foundational principles (cf. Gal 4:3, 9; Col 2:8, 20, where it can also mean elemental spiritual powers)
• English variants: “the elements,” “the heavenly bodies,” “the elemental substances”
• Contextual theological meaning: the fundamental constituents of the created universe that will be dissolved and refashioned at the day of the Lord
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Éléments” is the standard rendering but carries a double risk in French: (1) it evokes les quatre éléments of ancient/alchemical cosmology (terre, eau, air, feu), a concept still culturally present via astrology and popular esotericism in France; (2) it can also evoke modern chemistry (“les éléments du tableau périodique”). Neither association is wrong per se (the ancient cosmological sense is actually close to Peter’s meaning), but a clarifying note is advisable so readers understand this as the physical fabric of the created universe, not an astrological or alchemical reference.

ἡμέρα Κυρίου

• Transliteration: hēmera Kyriou
• Literal meaning: “the Day of the Lord”
• Semantic range: an OT prophetic technical term for God’s decisive, climactic day of judgment and vindication (Joel, Amos, Zephaniah, Malachi), applied in the NT to the day of Christ’s return and final judgment
• English variants: “the Day of the Lord,” “the day of God” (v. 12, of the consummation)
• Contextual theological meaning: the doctrinal anchor of The Day of the Lord and Final Judgment — the day when the heavens will pass away and the earth and its works will be exposed/burned up
• French rendering risk: Critical — a major, specific French collision. In ordinary French Catholic and even secular usage, “le jour du Seigneur” is the standard, everyday designation for Sunday, the weekly day of Christian worship (rooted in liturgical calendars and catechesis: “le dimanche, jour du Seigneur”). A French reader encountering “le jour du Seigneur” in 2 Peter 3 without clear contextual signaling could easily default to the familiar liturgical-calendar meaning (weekly Sunday observance) rather than recognizing the intended eschatological, one-time, final Day of Judgment. This requires an explicit, mandatory clarifying note at every occurrence in teaching content (“le jour du Seigneur, c’est-à-dire le jour final du jugement, et non le dimanche”) and flags this term for human theologian review whenever it recurs — reusing baseline “Seigneur” for the noun but treating the full phrase as a new Critical-risk entry.

κρίσις

• Transliteration: krisis
• Literal meaning: judgment, a decision, a verdict
• Semantic range: the act of judging, separating, or deciding, often with strongly negative/punitive connotation in eschatological contexts
• English variants: “judgment,” “the day of judgment”
• Contextual theological meaning: God’s decisive verdict against the ungodly, coupled with the day of the Lord
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Jugement” is standard and clear; ensure the forensic, decisive sense is retained rather than a vague “crise” (a genuine false-cognate risk — French “crise” means “crisis,” not “judgment,” despite the shared root, and must never be used here).

λύω (λυθήσεται)

• Transliteration: lythēsetai
• Literal meaning: to loose, dissolve, destroy
• Semantic range: to be undone, dissolved, or broken apart
• English variants: “will be dissolved,” “will be destroyed,” “will melt”
• Contextual theological meaning: describes the literal, cosmic dissolution of the created order by fire at the day of the Lord
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Seront dissous” or “se dissoudront.” As with the baseline’s caution on “résurrection” being flattened into secular metaphor by naturalistic assumptions, this term risks being read metaphorically (“things will change dramatically”) by a secular French readership rather than as Peter’s intended literal claim about the physical cosmos.

καινοὶ οὐρανοὶ καὶ γῆ καινή

• Transliteration: kainoi ouranoi kai gē kainē
• Literal meaning: “new heavens and new earth”
• Semantic range: eschatological renewal of the created order (echoing Isaiah 65:17, 66:22; cf. Revelation 21:1)
• English variants: “new heavens and a new earth”
• Contextual theological meaning: the promised, positive culmination of the day of the Lord’s judgment — not mere annihilation but re-creation
• French rendering risk: Low-Medium. “De nouveaux cieux et une nouvelle terre” — reuses baseline “ciel” root; low risk but should be taught alongside “jour du Seigneur” to complete the doctrinal picture (judgment followed by renewal, not mere destruction).

δικαιοσύνη κατοικεῖ [BASELINE — “justice” reused]

• Contextual theological meaning: “righteousness dwells” in the new heavens and earth — the consummated moral order of God’s kingdom
• French rendering risk: Low per baseline “justice”; κατοικεῖ (“dwells”) rendered “habite.”

μακροθυμία

• Transliteration: makrothymia
• Literal meaning: patience, forbearance, long-suffering (literally “long-temperedness,” the opposite of short temper)
• Semantic range: sustained, willed restraint from acting immediately, especially in delaying deserved judgment
• English variants: “patience,” “longsuffering,” “forbearance,” “slowness to anger”
• Contextual theological meaning: God’s deliberate delay of the day of the Lord is an expression of patience aimed at giving opportunity for repentance — the doctrinal core of Patience of God’s Timing
• French rendering risk: High. “Patience” is the necessary rendering, but this term must be kept lexically distinct from ch. 1’s hypomonē (recommended “persévérance,” human endurance under trial) so that God’s forbearance in delaying judgment is never confused with the believer’s perseverance in trial — two different Greek words describing two different theological realities. Flag for native speaker review to confirm this distinction is consistently maintained across the whole curriculum, not just within 2 Peter.

βραδύνει

• Transliteration: bradynei
• Literal meaning: to be slow, to delay
• Semantic range: taking longer than expected, from the standpoint of a human observer (contrasted with God’s own time-frame, v. 8)
• English variants: “is slow,” “is not slow,” “delays”
• Contextual theological meaning: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise” — answers the scoffers’ complaint directly
• French rendering risk: Low. “Le Seigneur ne tarde pas.”

μὴ βουλόμενός τινας ἀπολέσθαι ἀλλὰ πάντας εἰς μετάνοιαν χωρῆσαι

• Transliteration: mē boulomenos tinas apolesthai alla pantas eis metanoian chōrēsai
• Literal meaning: “not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance”
• Semantic range: expresses God’s desire/will (βούλομαι) regarding the scope of salvation, in tension with the sovereign election language of the baseline’s Romans doctrine
• English variants: “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance,” “he does not want anyone to be destroyed but wants everyone to repent”
• Contextual theological meaning: grounds God’s patient delay of judgment in his desire for repentance — but the scope of “any”/“all” here has long generated the same kind of Calvinist/Arminian interpretive tension the baseline registry already flags around “election” and “effectual calling” in Romans 9–11
• French rendering risk: High. Render literally and without softening (“ne voulant pas qu’aucun périsse, mais voulant que tous parviennent à la repentance/à la conversion”), but flag for human theologian review: this verse is frequently invoked in debates over the extent and nature of God’s saving will versus his sovereign election (cf. baseline’s Critical/High flags on “election” and “effectual calling”). The French rendering itself is not the primary risk; the accompanying doctrinal framing is, and must not resolve the tension in either direction beyond what the text itself states.

μετάνοια [related to but distinct from baseline entries]

• Transliteration: metanoia
• Literal meaning: a change of mind, repentance
• Semantic range: a decisive turning from sin toward God
• English variants: “repentance”
• Contextual theological meaning: the intended outcome of God’s patience — not present as a standalone baseline entry but doctrinally load-bearing throughout Scripture
• French rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Repentance” (formal, standard) or “conversion” (more contemporary/accessible); recommend “repentance” for doctrinal precision, consistent with formal register.

στηριγμός / ἀστήρικτοι

• Transliteration: stērigmos / astēriktoi
• Literal meaning: firmness, stability / unstable, unsteady, unfixed
• Semantic range: stērigmos (hapax legomenon) denotes settled, secure standing; astēriktoi (also 2:14) the opposite condition
• English variants: “stability” / “unstable,” “unsettled”
• Contextual theological meaning: warns that the doctrinally unstable are especially vulnerable to being led astray by twisted Scripture (v. 16) — connects back to ch. 1’s teaching on Scripture’s reliable, confirmed nature
• French rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Fermeté/stabilité” and “mal assurés/instables” respectively; no major collision risk.

στρεβλοῦσιν

• Transliteration: streblousin
• Literal meaning: to twist, distort, wrench out of shape (used of torture/racking instruments in secular Greek)
• Semantic range: deliberate or careless misinterpretation that distorts a text’s true meaning
• English variants: “twist,” “distort,” “wrest”
• Contextual theological meaning: false teachers twist Paul’s letters (and, by extension, “the other Scriptures”) to their own destruction — directly connects back to 1:20’s warning about a prophecy’s true source/meaning and to the broader Reliability and Inspiration of Scripture doctrine
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Déforment” or “tordent le sens de.” Flag for native speaker review as a companion caution to 1:20’s Critical entry: both passages warn against illegitimate handling of Scripture, but from complementary angles (origination in 1:20; distortion in 3:16).

δυσνόητα

• Transliteration: dysnoēta
• Literal meaning: hard to understand
• Semantic range: difficult, requiring careful interpretation
• English variants: “hard to understand,” “difficult to understand”
• Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s own acknowledgment that Paul’s letters contain genuinely difficult material — supports honest, careful engagement with Scripture rather than either naive simplicity or reckless distortion
• French rendering risk: Low. “Difficile à comprendre.”

ἄσπιλοι καὶ ἀμώμητοι

• Transliteration: aspiloi kai amōmētoi
• Literal meaning: “spotless and blameless” (sacrificial-purity vocabulary: “without blemish,” as of an unblemished sacrificial animal)
• Semantic range: ritual and moral purity combined, echoing OT sacrificial requirements
• English variants: “spotless and blameless,” “without spot and blameless”
• Contextual theological meaning: the moral goal for believers awaiting the day of the Lord — echoes Levitical sacrificial purity language applied ethically
• French rendering risk: Medium. “Sans tache et sans défaut” or “irréprochables.” Given the baseline’s own observation that OT literacy is low across this curriculum’s French readership, the sacrificial background (unblemished offering) should be briefly noted in teaching content so the phrase is not read as merely generic “good behavior” language.

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Summary of Full-Book Coverage

• Chapter 1 (vv. 1–15 treated above; vv. 16–21 treated as the core passage in Part 1): full coverage — greeting/authorial self-identification, divine nature and escaping corruption, the virtue chain, calling/election, the body-as-tent, and the Transfiguration testimony.
• Chapter 2: full coverage — false teachers, destructive heresies, the Master who bought them, judgment on the angels/Noah’s generation/Sodom and Gomorrah/Balaam, and the moral corruption of false teachers.
• Chapter 3: full coverage — scoffers, the promise of the parousia, the day of the Lord, cosmic dissolution and renewal, God’s patience, and the proper handling of Scripture (Paul’s letters).

No chapter of 2 Peter is without load-bearing theological vocabulary; the entire three-chapter book has therefore received term-level analysis above.