Linguistic Gap Analysis: 2 Samuel (English → French)

Curriculum: 2 Samuel 1–24 Core passage: 2 Samuel 7:1-17 Doctrines in scope: The Davidic Covenant and the Promise of an Eternal Throne; David’s Sin and Repentance; Consequences of Sin within the Covenant Family; God’s Steadfast Love despite Human Failure; The Messianic Hope Rooted in David’s Line Depends on: 07_semantic_analysis.md, 08_core_glossary.md, baseline translation_memory.json, baseline bible_term_registry.json, curriculum-extended bible_term_registry.json Feeds into: 09_gender_number_register.md, 10_transliteration_standards.md, 11_doctrine_analysis.md, curriculum extensions of doctrine_risk_registry.json

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1. Purpose and Method

This document performs the linguistic gap analysis mandated by PRD Phase 1 Step 8: for each of the five named doctrines, it inventories the French vocabulary actually available, evaluates its weaknesses against French religious culture (Catholic majority, historic Reformed/Huguenot minority, strongly laïque secular majority, significant Jewish community), and recommends a translation strategy. It then separates missing vocabulary (concepts French has no precise word for) from crowded semantic neighborhoods (concepts French has too many competing words/associations for) that require deliberate “fencing” — glosses, qualifiers, or capitalization rules that keep a term’s biblical sense from bleeding into an unrelated cultural association. It closes with a ranked list of this curriculum’s highest-risk ambiguities for Phase 2 routing.

This is an extension of, and must never contradict, the baseline Romans Language Package. Where a term is already fixed by baseline translation_memory.json, that rendering is treated as non-negotiable and reused; this analysis only evaluates NEW gaps introduced by 2 Samuel’s distinct vocabulary (royal-covenant, dynastic, historical-narrative material largely absent from Romans).

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2. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix

2.1 The Davidic Covenant and the Promise of an Eternal Throne

Concept	Available French term(s)	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
covenant (berit)	alliance	None specific to this doctrine beyond baseline’s general caution; risk here is scope-conflation between the human covenants earlier in the book (5:3 elders; 3:12-13 Abner) and God’s unilateral, unconditional covenant with David in ch. 7	Reuse baseline “alliance” exactly; add explicit teaching gloss distinguishing “alliance humaine/politique” from “l’alliance de Dieu avec David” at every ch. 7 occurrence
house/dynasty (bayit)	maison	Virtually none — French “maison” preserves the building/dynasty double sense of Hebrew bayit almost perfectly (cf. “la maison de Bourbon”)	Use “maison” consistently in both directions of the wordplay (David building God a maison / God building David a maison); do NOT vary the noun even where French style might prefer a synonym
throne (kisse)	trône	French “trône” carries strong historical-monarchical resonance (own dethroned royal history, 1789/1848) that can pull the term toward antiquarian-political reading only, missing the messianic-eternal horizon	Pair every occurrence in ch. 7 and 23:5 with explicit forward cross-reference (Luc 1:32-33) in teaching notes; never let “trône” stand as a purely historical-political artifact
forever/eternal (olam)	pour toujours / éternel	Literary/secular French “toujours” easily reads as rhetorical hyperbole (“a very long reign”) rather than strict theological perpetuity	Reserve “éternel” (not merely “pour toujours”) for the ch. 7:13,16 and 23:5 promise texts specifically, to mark the strict theological claim; use “pour toujours” only in looser narrative contexts
kingdom (mamlakah)	royaume	Risk of silent conflation with baseline’s kingdom_of_god → “Royaume de Dieu” (NT concept)	Keep lowercase “royaume” for David’s dynastic-political kingdom in 2 Samuel; teach the typological line to the NT Kingdom explicitly rather than assuming shared vocabulary implies shared referent
everlasting covenant (berit olam)	alliance éternelle	Compound of two High-risk terms; French secular ear can hear “éternelle” as marketing hyperbole (as in commercial “garantie à vie”)	Anchor 23:5 explicitly back to 7:13,16 in every teaching occurrence; never let it stand as an isolated poetic flourish
father/son formula (av/ben)	père / fils (lowercase)	CRITICAL fencing case — see §4 below	Lowercase “fils” only; absolute prohibition on “Fils de Dieu” for this referent

2.2 David’s Sin and Repentance

Concept	Available French term(s)	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
sin (chata)	péché	Baseline caution reused: colloquial “péché mignon” trivializes; here the sin is adultery + murder, maximal culpability	Reuse baseline “péché”; pair with explicit narrative weight-markers (“péché grave”, “rébellion”) in exposition, not in the running text
evil in the sight of the LORD	mal aux yeux de l’Éternel	Risk of softening into therapeutic register (“une erreur de jugement”, “un mauvais choix”) common in French pastoral-counseling idiom	Preserve the formal evaluative idiom literally; never substitute a therapeutic paraphrase
adultery (na’aph)	adultère	Risk of euphemistic softening (“liaison”, “une affaire”) in a culture where extramarital affairs are narrated euphemistically in media and literature	Use “adultère” without euphemism; do not adopt journalistic softenings
confession of sin	j’ai péché contre l’Éternel	HIGH — collision with sacramental confession; see §4 below	Preserve as direct, unmediated speech to God; explicit contrast note with sacramental confession required in teaching material
forgiveness (he’evir)	ôter le péché / pardonner	Risk of implying confession earns removal of guilt (merit reading), parallel to baseline’s grace/justification caution	Frame forgiveness as God’s gracious response, never a wage for confession; avoid transactional verbs (“mériter”, “obtenir”)
repentance (general doctrine, no single Hebrew term in ch.12 beyond confession)	repentir / se repentir	No major weakness, but under-specified: French “repentir” can register as purely emotional remorse (regret) rather than the reoriented will toward God that biblical repentance denotes	When the doctrine word “repentance” is used in teaching prose (not as a direct Bible term), gloss it as “changement de cœur et retour vers Dieu” the first time it appears in each lesson

2.3 Consequences of Sin within the Covenant Family

Concept	Available French term(s)	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
sword/ongoing judgment (chereb)	épée	Risk of readers hearing this as eternal condemnation/curse rather than a durable but historical, temporal covenant-family consequence	Footnote at first occurrence (12:10) clarifying temporal scope; do not let it stand unglossed near eschatological language
discipline (yasar)	corriger / châtier	French “châtier” carries a severe, punitive-only register in ordinary usage (cf. “châtiment corporel”) that risks eclipsing the relationship-preserving character of divine discipline	Prefer “corriger” as primary verb, reserve “châtier” for contexts of maximal severity; always state explicitly (per 7:15’s contrast with Saul) that the covenant relationship continues through the discipline
shame (bosheth)	honte	Low weakness; standard vocabulary	No special strategy needed beyond consistent use
folly/disgraceful act (nebalah)	infamie / chose insensée	Risk of “chose insensée” reading as mere foolishness (poor judgment) rather than a grave covenant-community violation	Prefer “infamie” or “acte infâme” where moral gravity (Tamar’s protest, 13:12) is central; reserve “chose insensée” for lighter contexts if any arise
avenger of blood (go’el ha-dam)	vengeur du sang	French “vengeur” alone connotes personal vendetta/vigilantism (cinematic “vengeur”) rather than a legal-covenantal kinship duty	Always use the full phrase “vengeur du sang”, never bare “vengeur”, to keep the legal-institutional sense visible
bloodguilt (dam)	sang	Bare “sang” is only physical; the legal-covenantal weight (guilt transmission, e.g., 3:28-29) is invisible in the noun alone	Use clarifying periphrasis (“le sang de X retombe sur la maison de Y”) wherever bloodguilt, not mere bloodshed, is meant

2.4 God’s Steadfast Love despite Human Failure

Concept	Available French term(s)	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
steadfast love / covenant love (chesed)	amour fidèle	CRITICAL fencing case; French has no single word that natively carries chesed’s fusion of loyalty + love + covenant obligation + freely-given kindness — see §3 and §4 below	Fixed compound “amour fidèle” as the sole primary rendering across the whole book; never “grâce” (NT collision) nor bare “bonté” (too weak/generic)
compassion/favor for a specific plea (chanan)	compassion / faveur	Risk of collision with baseline’s Critical NT grace if rendered “grâce”	Use “compassion” or “faveur”; reserve “grâce” strictly for the NT soteriological sense per baseline
relational favor (chen)	faveur	Same collision risk as above, milder	”Faveur” alone, undecorated; never “grâce”
God’s persistence with a flawed dynasty (no single Hebrew term; theological synthesis of 7:15, ch. 9, ch. 12)	fidélité de Dieu / amour fidèle de Dieu	Not a lexical gap but a synthetic-doctrine gap: French has the words but no fixed idiom bundling them the way English “steadfast love despite failure” does as a curriculum title	Adopt a fixed doctrine-title French phrase for consistency across all lesson material: “l’amour fidèle de Dieu malgré l’échec humain” — record this exact phrase in translation memory as the doctrine name

2.5 The Messianic Hope Rooted in David’s Line

Concept	Available French term(s)	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
anointed one, historical office (mashiach YHWH)	l’oint de l’Éternel	CRITICAL fencing case against baseline’s messiah → “Messie”; see §4 below	”L’oint de l’Éternel” exclusively for Saul/David in 2 Samuel; “Messie” reserved for the fulfilled eschatological title per baseline
seed/offspring (zera)	descendance	Minor weakness only: “descendance” is a collective noun and can obscure that a specific individual (Solomon) is the immediate referent even while the term also carries forward canonically	Where the immediate historical referent (Solomon) is in view, add “(Salomon)” in teaching gloss at first occurrence; canonical/messianic extension may then be taught separately
father/son formula, messianic trajectory (Hebrews 1:5 citation)	père / fils	Same CRITICAL fencing issue as §2.1	See §4
everlasting throne/covenant	trône éternel / alliance éternelle	See above; the specific risk here is under-teaching the connection to Luke 1:32-33 for a low-OT-literacy readership	Every messianic cross-reference must be spelled out in full citation, not assumed as common knowledge
shepherd metaphor (ra’ah), proto-messianic	berger / faire paître	Weakness: French secular readers may hear “berger” as a purely pastoral/rural occupational image, missing its royal-messianic trajectory (Ezekiel 34; Jean 10)	Preserve the literal metaphor (never flatten to “gouverner”/“diriger”); add explicit forward cross-reference to Jean 10 in Messianic Hope lesson material

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3. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods

A key distinction for this curriculum: some concepts suffer because French has no adequate word at all (a true lexical gap, requiring compounding or borrowing); others suffer because French has too many words already assigned to conflicting religious traditions, so the correct word exists but must be fenced off from its dominant cultural association.

3.1 True Missing Vocabulary (Gaps)

Concept	Why French lacks a native equivalent	Resolution adopted
chesed (steadfast love)	No single French word fuses covenant loyalty + freely-given love + persistent faithfulness the way Hebrew chesed does; French “fidélité” is relational-loyalty only (no warmth), “amour” is warmth only (no loyalty-obligation), “grâce” is theologically pre-assigned to a different NT concept	Compound coinage “amour fidèle”, fixed in translation memory as the standing solution for this whole curriculum
nagid (designated, non-hereditary ruler)	French “prince” presumes hereditary nobility; there is no single French word for “a divinely designated ruler with no dynastic claim by birth”	Retain “prince” but require an explicit one-line gloss at first occurrence: “un chef désigné par Dieu, non par hérédité”
berit olam as a fixed retrospective covenant-confirmation formula	French has “alliance éternelle” but no established idiomatic set phrase the way Hebrew’s grammatical construction functions as an almost legal-technical seal	Standardize as “une alliance éternelle” with the definite cross-reference apparatus described in §2.1, functioning as this curriculum’s fixed equivalent formula
shem as covenant-legacy (not self-made fame)	French “un grand nom” defaults to celebrity/renown; there is no separate word marking divinely conferred legacy as opposed to self-achieved fame	Gloss at first occurrence: “un grand nom” (donné par Dieu, non acquis)

3.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (Fencing Required)

These are cases where French vocabulary is abundant but each candidate word already has a strong, doctrinally live competing referent from either French Catholic devotional culture, French Reformed/Segond tradition, or secular civic/political culture. The correct word must be used, but hedged.

French word	Competing occupant of the semantic space	Biblical sense needed here	Fencing strategy
grâce	(1) baseline NT charis (unmerited saving favor); (2) Catholic sacramental “état de grâce”	Must NOT be used for chesed, chanan, or chen in 2 Samuel	Total prohibition of “grâce” outside its baseline NT usage; use “amour fidèle”, “compassion”, or “faveur” instead, per term
Messie	The fulfilled eschatological title of Christ (baseline)	Historical anointed-king office applied to Saul/David	Use “l’oint de l’Éternel” exclusively in 2 Samuel narrative text; “Messie” reserved for explicit fulfillment-teaching passages
Fils de Dieu	Christ’s eternal, unique, co-equal ontological Sonship (baseline Critical term)	Solomon/Davidic-line’s adoptive royal “sonship” (7:14)	Lowercase “fils” only; capitalized “Fils de Dieu” is never permitted for this referent under any circumstance
Église	Institutional Catholic Church / body-of-Christ (baseline)	N/A directly in 2 Samuel, but “peuple de Dieu”/assembly language recurs; risk if teaching material draws NT ecclesial parallels carelessly	When cross-referencing 2 Samuel’s Israel to the NT church, use “peuple de Dieu”, never “l’Église”, to avoid anachronism
serviteur (de Dieu)	Catholic canonization-process honorific (“Serviteur de Dieu” as an official beatification-track title)	David’s royal covenant-office title (“mon serviteur David”)	Gloss at first occurrence in each lesson: “titre d’alliance, non un titre ecclésiastique de canonisation”
arche (de l’alliance)	Catholic Marian typology (“Arche de la Nouvelle Alliance” applied to the Virgin Mary)	The literal Mosaic-covenant sacred object (chs. 6, 7, 15)	Explicit teaching-note disclaimer required at first occurrence: this refers to the literal historical object, not to Marian typology
élection (already fenced in baseline)	Political/democratic elections	Not directly a 2 Samuel term, but David’s choosing by God (implicit throughout, explicit 7:8) risks the same collision if the doctrine word “election” surfaces in lesson prose	Prefer “choix souverain de Dieu” in expository prose describing David’s selection; reserve “élection” for its already-fenced baseline NT usage
vocation	Catholic clergy/religious-life calling (baseline caution)	David’s calling from shepherd to king (7:8) — a calling, not a vocation in the narrow clerical sense	Use “appel” per baseline convention; never “vocation”
trône	France’s own historical, now-abolished monarchy (dethroned royal houses, republican political memory)	The theologically freighted eternal Davidic throne	See §2.1; requires forward messianic anchoring, not fencing from a religious competitor but from a secular-historical flattening
l’Éternel / le Seigneur (YHWH)	Le Seigneur is also the baseline’s fixed NT Christological title for Kyrios (Romans 10:9, “Jésus est Seigneur”)	The OT covenant name YHWH, used over a dozen times in 2 Samuel 7 alone	Fix “l’Éternel” as the primary rendering for YHWH throughout this curriculum (Segond-aligned convention, per curriculum registry); reserve “le Seigneur” secondary-gloss use to explicitly labeled ecumenical (TOB) quotations only, so as never to blur OT covenant-name with NT Christological confession
justice	Baseline Critical NT forensic-soteriological “justice de Dieu” (Romans)	2 Samuel 8:15’s royal-governance sense (mishpat u-tzedaqah)	Always pair with “et équité” in the royal-governance sense (“justice et équité”) and add an explicit teaching note distinguishing it from the Romans doctrine of justification whenever both appear in the same curriculum unit
salut	Baseline Critical NT eternal salvation (soteria)	2 Samuel 22’s historical, military deliverance (yesha’)	Prefer “délivrance” as primary narrative rendering; “salut” permitted only with an explicit typological clarifying note (this-worldly rescue foreshadowing, not equaling, eternal salvation)
expiation	No live French-cultural competitor as strong as the others, but risk of standing as a complete, self-sufficient doctrine of atonement rather than OT type	Reparation acts of chs. 21, 24	Teaching material must explicitly frame as type/shadow pointing to Christ’s atonement; never presented as a stand-alone doctrine

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4. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions

Term	Decision	Rationale
YHWH (יהוה)	Paraphrase/convention, not transliteration: render “l’Éternel”	French Bible tradition never transliterates the tetragrammaton; Segond’s “l’Éternel” is the most stable, non-Christological-title option for this curriculum’s Segond-aligned register, keeping it distinct from the baseline’s NT “Seigneur”/Kyrios confession
mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ), historical office	Paraphrase: “l’oint de l’Éternel”	Transliterating as “machiah” would be unrecognizable and pastorally useless; a literal descriptive phrase is required, and it must be visibly different from “Messie”
chesed (חֶסֶד)	Paraphrase, not transliteration: “amour fidèle”	Unlike Abba (below), chesed has no history of being retained untranslated in French Bible tradition; a compound descriptive phrase communicates better to a mixed Catholic/secular/Protestant readership than a borrowed Hebrew term would
ephod (אֵפוֹד)	Transliterate + gloss: “éphod” (vêtement de lin sacerdotal)	Established minor transliteration pattern in French Bibles (cf. baseline’s “Abba”); no natural French equivalent exists for this specific garment, and the object is peripheral enough that a glossed loanword is preferable to an awkward descriptive paraphrase in running text
Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) — appears in poetic material (22:6)	Transliterate + gloss: “le séjour des morts (Shéol)“	Established French Bible convention (TOB, BJ both use “Shéol” with gloss); avoid the Segond archaism “séjour des morts” alone without the transliterated anchor, and avoid any term suggesting purgatory/hell in the developed doctrinal sense not yet present in this text
Proper names (Bath-Shéba, Urie, Absalom, Amnon, Tamar, Joab, Nathan, Gad, Mephiboshet, Tsiba, Aravna/Orna, les Ammonites, les Gabaonites)	Use established French Bible-tradition forms	Follow Segond/TOB conventions exactly; note the Segond/TOB spelling variant for Araunah (Aravna vs. Orna) for reviewer awareness but fix ONE spelling for curriculum-wide consistency
Book title “2 Samuel”	No transliteration issue; fixed citation form	French convention: “2 Samuel” (Arabic numeral prefix, as with “1 Corinthiens” in the baseline); do not use Roman numeral “II Samuel”
berit olam (בְּרִית עוֹלָם)	Paraphrase: “alliance éternelle”	A compound of two already-established French renderings; no transliteration warranted, this is a theological phrase, not a proper noun or untranslatable cultural object
nagid (נָגִיד)	Paraphrase with gloss: “prince” (chef désigné par Dieu)	Transliteration would be opaque; “prince” is the best available lexical match provided it is fenced (see §3.2)

General transliteration principle for this curriculum: transliterate only (a) proper names, per established French Bible convention, and (b) the small set of culturally/materially specific nouns with no French equivalent and an existing French-Bible transliteration precedent (éphod, Shéol). All theological-concept vocabulary (chesed, mashiach, berit, olam) is paraphrased into French, never transliterated, consistent with the baseline’s own practice (Abba being the sole conceptual-term exception in the baseline, justified there by its unique liturgical/devotional retention across all French Bible traditions — a precedent that does not extend to 2 Samuel’s vocabulary).

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5. Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities

Ranked by combined severity of doctrinal distortion risk and likelihood of occurrence, for Phase 2 review-routing priority.

1. Father/son adoption formula (2 Samuel 7:14) vs. “Fils de Dieu” (baseline Critical Christological term). Highest risk in the entire curriculum: a single capitalization slip or a translator’s habitual instinct to elevate “son” register could silently equate Solomon’s disciplined, fallible sonship with Christ’s eternal co-equal Sonship, corrupting both the Davidic Covenant and Messianic Hope doctrines simultaneously. Every occurrence requires theologian review.

2. YHWH → “l’Éternel” vs. “le Seigneur” convention consistency. 2 Samuel 7 alone uses the divine name over a dozen times; any drift toward “le Seigneur” (the baseline’s fixed NT Kyrios/Christ confession term) would blur the OT covenant God with the NT Christological title before the reader has been taught the connection. Requires locked style-guide enforcement, checked at validation.

3. Chesed → “amour fidèle” vs. “grâce” collision. The doctrine “God’s Steadfast Love despite Human Failure” depends entirely on this term being held distinct from the baseline’s NT charis; any lapse into “grâce” flattens a five-doctrine curriculum’s central term into the wrong Testament’s concept. Theologian review every occurrence.

4. Mashiach (historical office) → “l’oint de l’Éternel” vs. “Messie”. Applying “Messie” to Saul or David prematurely grants them the fulfilled eschatological office the whole Messianic Hope doctrine is building toward. Theologian review every occurrence.

5. Righteousness/justice: soteriological (Critical, baseline) vs. royal-governance (2 Samuel 8:15) senses of “justice”. Same French word, two theologically distinct registers in the same curriculum; a reader moving between Romans-based and 2-Samuel-based lesson material could conflate justification-by-faith with David’s administrative fairness. Theologian review recommended wherever both appear in shared teaching material.

6. Ark of the covenant → “arche de l’alliance” vs. Catholic Marian typology. A majority-Catholic readership carries a live devotional association (“Arche de la Nouvelle Alliance” = Mary) that has nothing to do with 2 Samuel’s literal narrative object; unglossed use risks an unintended devotional detour. Native speaker + theologian review at first occurrence per lesson.

7. Confession of sin (12:13) vs. sacramental confession/absolution. David’s direct, unmediated “j’ai péché contre l’Éternel” and Nathan’s announcement (not administration) of forgiveness must not be assimilated to the Catholic sacrament of Reconciliation’s priest-mediated structure. Theologian review required.

8. Atonement/expiation (chs. 21, 24) presented as self-sufficient doctrine vs. OT type. Risk of readers concluding David’s reparations themselves secure divine favor, colliding with the baseline’s grace/justification Critical cautions on merit. Theologian review required.

9. Throne/forever (kisse/olam) read as historical-political only, missing messianic horizon. Particularly acute given France’s own dethroned-monarchy cultural memory, which can pull “trône éternel” toward ironic or purely antiquarian reading. Native speaker review; theologian review for ch. 7 and 23:5 specifically.

10. Servant (“serviteur”) vs. Catholic canonization-track honorific “Serviteur de Dieu”. Lower doctrinal stakes than items above but high frequency (recurs throughout ch. 7 and elsewhere), creating cumulative drift risk if left unglossed. Native speaker review.

11. Deliverance/salvation, historical (yesha’, ch. 22) vs. “salut” (baseline Critical eternal salvation). Risk of collapsing David’s this-worldly military rescue into the full soteriological doctrine without the typological qualifier. Native speaker review; theologian spot-check for ch. 22 song material.

12. Compassion/favor (chanan, chen) vs. “grâce”. Lower-frequency but same collision family as #3; must be caught at validation stage. Native speaker review.

13. Kingdom (mamlakah, “royaume”) vs. baseline “Royaume de Dieu”. Risk of assumed equivalence between David’s dynastic-political kingdom and the NT Kingdom-of-God doctrine without explicit typological teaching. Native speaker review.

14. Prince (nagid) hereditary-nobility default reading. Risk of losing the humility/grace logic of a shepherd being made ruler by divine choice, not birthright. Native speaker review.

15. Rest (nuach, “repos”) read as leisure rather than covenant-gift security. Lower stakes, but foundational to correctly framing why 2 Samuel 7 opens where it does. Native speaker review.

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6. Summary Recommendation for Phase 2 Preparation

Before Phase 2 translation begins on this curriculum:

1. Merge this document’s fencing rules into the curriculum-specific extension of bible_term_registry.json and doctrine_risk_registry.json (already drafted in 08_core_glossary.md), with explicit “never render as X” forbidden-substitution entries for: grâce (for chesed/chanan/chen), Messie (for l’oint), Fils de Dieu (for the 7:14 father/son formula), Église (for Israel-as-people-of-God parallels), vocation (for appel), and unqualified salut (for historical yesha’).
2. Fix the YHWH → “l’Éternel” convention as an absolute style-guide rule, checked at automated validation for every segment containing the divine name.
3. Require theologian review (not merely native-speaker review) for all segments touching items #1–#8 in the ranked list above, regardless of the base doctrine-risk tier otherwise assigned to the surrounding passage.
4. Carry forward every baseline-established term unchanged; this analysis introduces no exceptions to the baseline’s existing Critical/High entries (grâce, justification, Fils de Dieu, Seigneur, saints, Église, élection, vocation).