Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis — Acts 1–28 (English → French)
Purpose and Scope
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Step 8. It analyzes the French language’s capacity to carry the nine curriculum doctrines for Acts, identifies where French vocabulary is missing (no established term exists) versus crowded (an established term exists but is contested or collision-prone), specifies transliteration-versus-paraphrase decisions for terms without a stable French Bible-tradition rendering, and ranks the curriculum’s highest-risk ambiguities for Phase 2 review routing.
Full-book coverage confirmation: All 28 chapters of Acts were surveyed for load-bearing vocabulary in 08_core_glossary.md and the extended bible_term_registry.json. Chapters contributing no new terms or doctrine-relevant lexical items beyond those already logged (chiefly transitional/travel-narrative material within chs. 18, 20–21, 27) are confirmed reviewed and are folded into the relevant doctrine below under “narrative/background” rather than omitted.
This analysis assumes translation_memory.json (Romans baseline) as the language authority for all shared terms and extends it only where Acts introduces new vocabulary or elevates an existing term’s risk tier (notably holy_spirit, elevated to Critical for this curriculum).
Part 1 — Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
| Doctrine | Available French Term(s) | Weaknesses / Collision Risk | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Esprit Saint; Pentecôte; d’autres langues; don de l’Esprit Saint; répandre (l’Esprit) | (a) French charismatic-Catholic (Renouveau) and Pentecostal-evangelical readers both use “être remplis de l’Esprit” but attach different experiential expectations. (b) “Pentecôte” is a French public holiday with near-zero automatic link to Shavuot or doctrine. (c) “d’autres langues” must not merge with later ecstatic-glossolalia debate (outside this book, but a live pastoral association). (d) Catholic Confirmation catechesis names “les sept dons du Saint-Esprit” (Isaiah 11), a fixed, unrelated catechetical category that could be confused with the singular “don de l’Esprit Saint” of Acts 2:38. | Use “Esprit Saint” (baseline, elevated to Critical). Gloss Pentecôte with Shavuot/OT background at first occurrence. Render tongues as “d’autres langues” (never a coined glossolalia-specific term) and anchor to the hearer-list (2:9-11) confirming known human languages. Keep “don de l’Esprit Saint” (singular, once-for-all) sharply distinct in teaching notes from baseline’s plural “dons spirituels” and from the Confirmation “sept dons.” |
| The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | Évangile; païens / les nations / non-Juifs; Samaritains; craignant Dieu; prosélytes; Dieu vivant | (a) “Païens” carries a modern pejorative “uncivilized/irreligious” charge stronger than the neutral biblical sense. (b) “Prosélyte” collides with the negative French public connotation of “prosélytisme” (aggressive proselytizing), a live laïcité-era anxiety. (c) Low intertestamental literacy means the Samaritan schism and the eunuch’s Isaiah 56 background are invisible without footnotes. | Prefer “les nations” / “non-Juifs” over bare “païens” in mission-emphasis passages (chs. 10, 13–15, 28), per baseline. Gloss “prosélyte” and “craignant Dieu” as distinct historical categories (full convert vs. sympathizer) at first occurrence. Footnote Samaritan and eunuch background material rather than folding it into the running text. |
| Repentance and Baptism | repentance / se repentir; baptême / baptiser; pardon des péchés | (a) CRITICAL: French Catholic catechesis binds “repentance” tightly to the sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation (“faire pénitence,” confession, absolution) — a mediated, ongoing sacramental process, whereas Acts’ metanoia is a Spirit-wrought inward reorientation prior to and apart from any sacramental act. (b) CRITICAL: “baptême” sits exactly on the historic Catholic/Protestant fault line over baptismal regeneration vs. sign-and-seal of prior faith, and further on the paedobaptism/credobaptism fault line at household-baptism passages (ch. 16). (c) “Rémission des péchés” (Creed/liturgical form) carries stronger sacramental-mediation overtones than “pardon.” | NEVER use “faire pénitence” for repentance. Render the εἰς-clauses around baptism literally, without doctrinally resolving them toward either regeneration or symbol-only readings — flag every occurrence for mandatory theologian review, with ch. 16 household baptisms specially flagged. Prefer “pardon des péchés,” noting “rémission” only as a recognized liturgical variant for reviewer awareness. |
| The Church as Community | Église; communion fraternelle; tout en commun; un seul cœur et une seule âme; anciens; le service des tables / diaconie; chrétien | (a) Capitalized “l’Église” defaults to the institutional Catholic Church in ordinary usage. (b) “Tout en commun” (2:44-45; 4:32-35) risks a political “communisme”/“collectivisation” reading in secular French discourse. (c) “Diacre” and “évêque” (from diakonos/episkopos) denote later, fixed, ordained Catholic offices; applying them to Acts 6 and Acts 20 imports institutional development not yet present in the text. (d) “Prêtre” descends etymologically from presbyteros (“ancien”), risking a false sacerdotal association. | Always qualify body-of-Christ senses of “Église” with context distinguishing it from institution/building, per baseline. Frame “tout en commun” explicitly as voluntary, Spirit-generated generosity, never state-imposed economics. Avoid “diacre”/“évêque” as translations of Acts 6/20 offices; use “le service des tables” and “surveillant / ancien,” noting the terms’ later institutional development for reviewers only, not in the reader-facing text. |
| Apostolic Authority and Miracles | apôtre; signes et prodiges; puissance de Dieu; nom de Jésus(-Christ); magie / sorcellerie; esprit de divination | (a) “Miracle” carries strong Catholic hagiographic connotation (Lourdes, canonization processes) that risks a devotional miracle-cult reading rather than apostolic sign-authentication. (b) France’s living “voyance”/astrology market makes occult-power contrast-terms culturally load-bearing, not abstract. | Render sēmeia kai terata consistently as “signes et prodiges” throughout (never “miracles”) to keep the authenticating, sign-function sense. Keep “magie/sorcellerie” and “esprit de divination” unambiguously negative and contrasted with unearned, unpurchasable grâce/puissance de Dieu. |
| Persecution and Bold Witness | témoin / témoignage; assurance (hardiesse); persécution; sanhédrin; blasphème; lapider | (a) French “témoin” is primarily a courtroom/legal register word, risking a flattened “eyewitness account” reading that loses the costly, Spirit-empowered, sometimes fatal proclamation sense. (b) “Assurance” in ordinary French means insurance or self-confidence, a false-friend risk for parrēsia’s Spirit-given boldness. (c) Secular “persécution” can mean any harassment, diluting the faith-specific, state-sponsored severity of Acts 12. | Retain “témoin/témoignage” (established Bible-tradition term) but leverage the “martyre” etymological cognate pedagogically to restore costliness. Retain Segond-tradition “assurance” for boldness but gloss with “hardiesse” every occurrence. Specify faith-motivated, sometimes lethal character of “persécution” in context rather than relying on the bare noun. |
| Conversion of Paul | conversion / se convertir; la Voie; instrument choisi; vision céleste; pouvoir de Satan | (a) Secular French usage (“conversion religieuse,” “taux de conversion”) frames conversion as generic religious-switching or a transactional/statistical event. (b) “La Voie” risks assimilation into the contemporary French spiritual marketplace (“voie spirituelle,” “chemin de développement personnel”) as one path among many. (c) A literal “vase d’élection” for skeuos eklogēs risks both archaism and the same political-election collision as baseline’s “élection.” | Frame conversion explicitly as Spirit-wrought, Christ-centered, once-for-all reorientation, not a switch of religious brand. Capitalize “la Voie” as a proper self-designation and gloss it against the self-help “voie spirituelle” association at first occurrence. Use “instrument choisi (par Dieu),” not “vase d’élection.” |
| Justification apart from the Law | justification; justice imputée; grâce; loi; circoncision; décret; viandes sacrifiées aux idoles; immoralité sexuelle | (a) CRITICAL: this is the exact Trent-versus-Reformation forensic/infused fault line already documented in the baseline, now staged as live narrative drama at the Jerusalem Council (ch. 15) and Paul’s synagogue sermon (13:38-39). (b) “Décret” (for dogma) risks the false impression, via its etymological cognate “dogme,” that the Council issues a new binding universal doctrine parallel to the Mosaic Law it deliberately relativizes, rather than a specific pastoral ruling. (c) Readers may wrongly conclude “abolition of the Law” abolishes all ethics, given the retained moral items (idol food, sexual immorality) alongside the abolished ceremonial item (circumcision). | Reuse “justification” and “justice imputée” exactly per baseline; flag Acts 13:38-39 and Acts 15 for mandatory theologian review as this curriculum’s clearest Romans-parallel passages. Render dogma as “décret,” explicitly distinguished from “dogme” in teaching notes. Keep the ceremonial/moral distinction explicit wherever idol-food and sexual-immorality items are discussed alongside circumcision. |
| The Great Commission Fulfilled | mission; Royaume de Dieu; lumière pour les nations; Aréopage; dieu inconnu; sans empêchement | (a) France’s colonial missionary history gives “mission” live postcolonial-critique resonance in contemporary theological and public discourse. (b) “Sans empêchement,” the book’s climactic final word, risks a flat, bureaucratic-permit register if under-translated. (c) Low prophetic (Isaiah) literacy flattens “lumière pour les nations” into a generic enlightenment metaphor. | Frame “mission” consistently as gospel proclamation, never cultural conquest, per baseline. Footnote Isaiah 49:6 wherever “lumière pour les nations” occurs. Preserve the triumphant, sovereign-providence force of “sans empêchement” in teaching commentary, echoing 2:23 and 4:29,31. |
Part 2 — Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Missing Vocabulary (no established French Bible-tradition equivalent; requires coinage or descriptive paraphrase)
These concepts have no single ready-made French term and must be rendered by multi-word descriptive phrases, consistently repeated across the curriculum:
| Concept | Gap | Chosen Paraphrase | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς (chosen instrument, 9:15) | No French noun captures “instrument set apart by sovereign choice” in one word | instrument choisi (par Dieu) | Avoids archaic “vase d’élection” and avoids re-triggering baseline’s “élection” political-vocabulary caution in bare form |
| ὡρισμένῃ βουλῇ καὶ προγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ (2:23) | French has no compact equivalent to this double Greek phrase; “prescience” is rare/academic register | dessein arrêté et prescience de Dieu | Retains both the determinate-plan and foreknowledge senses; flagged as High risk given proximity to election/predestination terrain |
| φοβούμενος/σεβόμενος τὸν θεόν (god-fearer, technical NT category) | No French social category corresponds to “Gentile sympathizer short of full conversion” | craignant Dieu | Literal calque already used in French Bible tradition; requires a first-occurrence gloss distinguishing it from “prosélyte” |
| διακονεῖν τραπέζαις (table-service precursor to deacon, ch. 6) | French “diacre” now names a fixed ordained office; no neutral term for the informal, pre-institutional Acts 6 role | le service des tables | Avoids anachronism; institutional development noted for reviewers only |
| ἐπίσκοποι/ποιμαίνειν as applied to local elders (ch. 20) | No neutral French term free of later hierarchical-office connotation | surveillant / ancien, avec les images du berger et du troupeau | ”Évêque” is explicitly rejected; pastoral-image language (“berger,” “troupeau”) carries the functional sense without the office-import risk |
| ἀκωλύτως (without hindrance, 28:31) | No single French adverb carries the triumphant-providential force of this final word | sans empêchement (with accompanying teaching note on its climactic force) | A flat “sans obstacle” or purely administrative reading must be resisted in commentary |
| εὐχή / ἁγνίζομαι (Nazirite-type vow, ch. 21) | No common French term for this specific temple-purification practice | un vœu / des rites de purification | Requires explicit distinguishing note from ch. 15’s settled circumcision question, so readers do not read this as reopening it |
2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (an established French term exists, but is contested, polysemous, or doctrinally loaded — requires “fencing,” i.e., explicit glosses, footnotes, or context markers restricting the reading)
| French Term | Competing/Adjacent Senses in French Usage | Fencing Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| grâce | (1) Catholic sacramental grâce mediated through the sacraments; (2) Reformed sola gratia; (3) ordinary social “favor/goodwill” (Acts 2:47’s χάρις in this social sense — note Bible_term_registry flags this occurrence must be rendered “faveur,” NOT “grâce”, to avoid importing doctrinal grace into a merely social remark) | Fence at every doctrinal occurrence with “non méritée”/“donnée gratuitement” language; fence the 2:47 occurrence by using “faveur” instead, per registry note |
| les saints | Canonized, venerated intercessors (feast days, statues) vs. Paul’s corporate believer-designation | Gloss “tous les croyants” wherever the corporate sense appears, per baseline; low standalone frequency in Acts does not lower the risk |
| Église | Institutional Catholic Church vs. body-of-Christ community; French Protestants historically reserve “temple” for the building | Always contextualize institution-vs-body distinction at first occurrence per document/lesson |
| élection / instrument choisi | Political/democratic election (competitive, merit-adjacent) vs. God’s sovereign, gracious choice | Never let “élection” stand unglossed near 1:24-26 or 9:15; prefer paraphrase “instrument choisi” for 9:15 specifically |
| repentance / pénitence | Sacramental Penance (confession, priestly absolution) vs. Spirit-wrought inward reorientation | Absolutely forbid “faire pénitence”; always use “se repentir/repentance” |
| baptême | Sacramental regeneration (ex opere operato) vs. sign/seal of prior faith; infant vs. believer’s baptism | Render literally without resolving; flag every occurrence, especially household baptisms (ch. 16), for theologian review |
| communion (bare) | The Eucharist (“la communion”) vs. koinonia/shared life | Always qualify “fraternelle,” per baseline, especially at 2:42’s foundational fourfold description |
| tout en commun | Political communism/collectivization vs. voluntary Spirit-generated sharing | Explicit “volontaire” framing in surrounding teaching text |
| diacre / évêque | Later fixed ordained Catholic offices vs. Acts’ emergent, functional roles | Do not use these French words for the Acts offices at all; use “le service des tables,” “surveillant/ancien” instead |
| anciens / prêtre | ”Prêtre” (priest, sacerdotal) descends etymologically from presbyteros but denotes a different, later, sacramental office | Use “anciens” only; note etymology for reviewer awareness, never in reader-facing text |
| assurance | Insurance policy / self-confidence vs. Spirit-given boldness (parrēsia) | Always gloss “(hardiesse)” per registry |
| la Voie | Contemporary spiritual-marketplace “voie spirituelle”/self-help path vs. the exclusive early-Christian self-designation | Capitalize; gloss as a proper name at first occurrence, distinguishing from generic “chemin spirituel” |
| décret / dogme | Jerusalem Council’s specific pastoral ruling vs. “dogme” as a fixed, binding universal Catholic doctrinal formula | Explicit note in teaching material that this is a pastoral decision, not a new parallel law |
| miracle / signes et prodiges | Catholic hagiographic “miracle” (Lourdes, canonization) vs. authenticating apostolic sign | Use “signes et prodiges” consistently; never substitute bare “miracles” |
| jour du Seigneur | Eschatological Day of the Lord vs. colloquial “jour du Seigneur” = Sunday | Explicit eschatological framing at every occurrence |
| séjour des morts / enfer | Neutral realm of the dead (Hadēs, 2:27,31) vs. “l’enfer” (eternal punishment/damnation) | Never use “enfer” for Hadēs; this is a hard forbidden substitution |
| prosélyte | Historical full Gentile convert to Judaism vs. pejorative modern “prosélytisme” (aggressive proselytizing) | Gloss at first occurrence as a neutral historical category |
| chrétien | Living, Spirit-formed conviction (11:26) vs. nominal/cultural baptismal-certificate identity common in secularizing France | Contextualize as a costly, decisive identity in the founding narrative, not assumed cultural inheritance |
| vocation / appel | Occupational calling (legitimately “vocation,” e.g. tentmaker ch. 18) vs. the general believer’s calling (must be “appel”) | Reserve “vocation” strictly for explicit trade/occupational contexts; never for salvation-calling, per baseline |
| héritage | Material/legal estate vs. eschatological inheritance among the sanctified (20:32) | Frame explicitly as grace-given, future, spiritual possession |
Part 3 — Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
Acts introduces several terms without a single stable French Bible-tradition rendering, requiring a deliberate choice between (a) transliterating/retaining a loanword or proper noun, or (b) paraphrasing descriptively. Decisions below extend the baseline’s transliteration standards.
| Term | Decision | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Πεντηκοστή (Pentecost) | Transliterate/retain loanword: Pentecôte | Long-established French word (also the public holiday name); paraphrase would be more foreign to readers than the loanword itself. Requires a teaching gloss (Shavuot background), not a text change. |
| Ἄρειος Πάγος (Areopagus) | Transliterate proper noun: l’Aréopage | Culturally resonant among French readers with classical/humanities education; standard historical rendering across French translations. |
| Ἀββά (Abba) | Retain transliteration: Abba | Per baseline cross-curriculum consistency; though not lexicalized as a standalone term in Acts’ narrative text, retained for teaching cross-reference to Romans 8:15. |
| Χριστιανός (Christianos) | Use established French equivalent, not transliteration: chrétien | Already fully naturalized in French since its earliest attestation; a transliterated form would be unrecognizable and unnecessary. |
| ἑτέραις γλώσσαις (other tongues) | Paraphrase, not technical coinage: d’autres langues | A specialized coined term (e.g., a would-be “xénolalie”) would create false precision absent from the source and would be unrecognizable to lay readers; plain “d’autres langues,” anchored to the hearer-list at 2:9-11, correctly signals real known languages without importing later glossolalia debates. |
| ᾅδης (Hades) | Paraphrase, explicitly avoiding the natural transliteration/false-friend: séjour des morts | A transliteration (“Hadès”) is possible and used in some French translations, but “l’enfer” is the far more common popular rendering and is explicitly forbidden as a false friend implying eternal punishment. Recommend the descriptive paraphrase “séjour des morts” over either transliteration or “enfer” for this curriculum’s teaching register, consistent with the registry. |
| συνέδριον (Sanhedrin) | Transliterate (established historical proper-noun-like term): sanhédrin | Standard French historiographical and biblical rendering; requires a one-time historical gloss (supreme Jewish judicial-religious council) for readers with low literacy, not a paraphrase substitute. |
| σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς (chosen instrument) | Paraphrase, reject literal/archaic transliteration-adjacent calque: instrument choisi (par Dieu) | The literal “vase d’élection” (a historic Segond-tradition calque) is archaic and re-triggers the political “élection” collision; a functional paraphrase is safer. |
| ἡ ὁδός (the Way) | Paraphrase as a capitalized proper self-designation: la Voie | Not a loanword decision but a capitalization/proper-noun decision: capitalizing signals a technical, in-group self-designation distinct from generic “voie spirituelle,” without requiring a coined or transliterated term. |
| δόγμα (decree, Jerusalem Council) | Paraphrase, avoid the cognate-transliteration trap: décret | The tempting direct cognate “dogme” is explicitly rejected due to its later, fixed-doctrine connotation; “décret” (administrative/pastoral ruling register) is the safer paraphrase. |
| Ναζιραῖος-type vow (ch. 21) | Paraphrase, no transliteration attempted: un vœu / des rites de purification | ”Nazirite” has no currency in French religious vocabulary outside specialist OT study; a transliterated “voeu de naziréat” would be opaque without extensive footnoting, so a functional paraphrase plus footnote is preferred. |
Part 4 — Ranked List of This Book’s Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined doctrinal weight (Critical/High tier) and likelihood of reader misconstrual, for Phase 2 review-routing priority. Each entry names the specific Acts passage(s) and the precise collision.
- Baptism (βάπτισμα/βαπτίζω), all occurrences, esp. household baptisms Acts 16:15,33 — Sits directly on the Catholic/Protestant sacramental-efficacy fault line and the paedobaptism/credobaptism fault line simultaneously. Highest-frequency Critical term in the curriculum. Mandatory theologian review, every occurrence.
- Repentance (μετάνοια), esp. Acts 2:38, 3:19, 17:30, 26:20 — “Faire pénitence” is the instinctive Catholic-register rendering and must be forbidden absolutely; risk of silent drift toward sacramental Penance framing in less-monitored teaching material. Mandatory theologian review.
- “Jesus is Lord and Christ” confession, Acts 2:36 — Direct structural parallel to Romans 10:9; “Seigneur” carries feudal-archaic resonance risking a distant-title rather than living-confession reading, at the Pentecost sermon’s climactic hinge. Mandatory theologian review; must be rendered verbatim consistent with this curriculum’s Romans-package precedent.
- “Call on the name of the Lord,” Acts 2:21, 22:16 — Direct Joel 2:32/Romans 10:13 echo; universal “quiconque” scope must never be narrowed. Highest-consequence universality claim in the Pentecost sermon. Mandatory theologian review.
- Tongues at Pentecost, Acts 2:4-11 — High risk of conflation with unrelated, later ecstatic-glossolalia debates active in French charismatic-Catholic and Pentecostal-evangelical circles; must be anchored to the hearer-list as known human languages.
- Justification apart from the Law, Acts 13:38-39; Jerusalem Council, Acts 15 — This curriculum’s clearest Romans-parallel passage and its most extended narrative staging of the Trent/Reformation forensic-versus-infused controversy; also carries the “décret”/“dogme” collision risk. Mandatory theologian review.
- “Chosen instrument,” Acts 9:15, and casting of lots, Acts 1:24-26 — Inherits baseline’s “élection” political-vocabulary collision at two separate narrative moments; risk of a competitive/chance-based misreading of God’s sovereign choice.
- “Gift of the Holy Spirit” (singular, δωρεά) vs. “spiritual gifts” (plural, χαρίσματα) vs. Catholic Confirmation’s “sept dons du Saint-Esprit,” Acts 2:38, 8:20, 10:45, 11:17 — Three distinct categories risk collapsing into one in reader perception; requires the sharpest three-way fencing in the entire curriculum.
- “Saints” (ἅγιοι), wherever the corporate sense appears — Lower frequency than in Romans, but the canonized-intercessor default reading in French is unchanged; easy to under-flag precisely because it is infrequent.
- Elders/overseers/deacons, Acts 6, 11:30, 14:23, 20:17,28 — Live risk of anachronistically importing developed Catholic clerical offices (“diacre,” “évêque,” “prêtre”) onto emergent, functional first-century roles; affects multiple chapters and compounds across the book.
- “All things in common,” Acts 2:44-45, 4:32-35 — Risk of a political-economic misreading (communism/collectivization) of what is voluntary, Spirit-generated sharing; especially salient given contemporary French political vocabulary.
- Church as body vs. institution, Acts 2:42-47 and throughout — “L’Église” defaults to the institutional Catholic Church; the foundational fourfold description (teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer) must not be read as describing institutional religious observance alone.
- Grace as social favor vs. doctrinal grace, Acts 2:47 — A rare instance where the SAME Greek word (χάρις) must be rendered with a DIFFERENT French word (“faveur,” not “grâce”) than its doctrinal occurrences elsewhere in the same chapter — a subtle, easily-missed exception to normal glossary enforcement.
- Hadēs vs. “l’enfer,” Acts 2:27,31 — A false-friend collision that, if mistranslated, would misstate the resurrection argument itself (Christ was not abandoned to eternal punishment, but did not remain in the realm of the dead).
- Providence/God’s determined plan, Acts 2:23; 4:28 — Stages the cross itself as the outcome of “dessein arrêté et prescience de Dieu,” within the very sermon that also contains election-adjacent language (2:39’s “appelé”); compounding risk within a single chapter.
- The Way, Acts 9:2, 19:9,23, 22:4, 24:14,22 — Contemporary French spiritual-marketplace vocabulary risks flattening an exclusive self-designation into one spiritual path among many.
- Witness/boldness under persecution, Acts 4:13,29,31; 7; 12 — Courtroom-flattened “témoin” and false-friend “assurance” both risk losing the costly, Spirit-empowered, sometimes fatal character of proclamation central to this doctrine.
- Son of Man, Acts 7:56 — Risk of a merely-human reading of a Danielic divine-authority title, at the book’s first martyrdom.
This analysis extends but does not override translation_memory.json (Romans baseline). All Acts-specific terms and fencing strategies above are proposed for formal integration into translation_memory.json v2 and doctrine_risk_registry.json in the subsequent Phase 1 steps (Core Glossary finalization, Doctrine Risk Registry update, AI Translation Requirements update).