Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Galatians (Koine Greek → French)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, spanning all six chapters of Galatians. Per the hard rule of this project, terms already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json are reused exactly — they are marked “Baseline reuse” below and must never be re-derived or altered. New terms specific to Galatians are assigned risk tiers using the identical Critical/High/Medium/Low framework as the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json.
Risk tier definitions (identical to baseline):
- Critical — Mistranslation alters or destroys essential doctrine. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — Mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or denominational-conflation risk. Human theologian review required.
- Medium — Mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning. Native speaker review recommended.
- Low — Mistranslation causes minor misunderstanding or imprecision. Automated review sufficient.
Part 1 — Baseline Terms Reused Exactly (Romans Language Package)
These terms already exist in the baseline translation_memory.json. Galatians uses them in the same doctrinal sense as Romans; the recorded French rendering is enforced without modification.
| Term | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | French rendering | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Galatians chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | εὐαγγέλιον | euangelion | Évangile | Low | True Gospel vs False Gospels | 1, 2 | Elevated contextual scrutiny in Galatians due to the “another gospel” contrast (see Part 2). |
| grace | χάρις | charis | grâce | High | Law and Grace | 1, 2, 5 | Must always reinforce “apart from merit”; central to the letter’s entire argument, not just Romans. |
| faith | πίστις | pistis | foi | High | Justification by Faith; Faith Working through Love | 2, 3, 5 | Watch the πίστις Χριστοῦ genitive construction (2:16, 2:20, 3:22) — retain objective-genitive “foi en/au Christ” per established French tradition; flag for theologian awareness. |
| righteousness | δικαιοσύνη | dikaiosynē | justice | Critical | Justification by Faith | 2, 3, 5 | Forensic, gift-status righteousness, never human moral achievement. |
| justification | δικαιόω / δικαίωσις | dikaioō / dikaiōsis | justification / justifié | Critical | Justification by Faith | 2, 3 | Same Trent-vs-Reformation flashpoint as Romans; Galatians 2:16 is a primary proof text on both sides. |
| law | νόμος | nomos | loi (la Loi) | High | Law and Grace; The Law’s Purpose | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Capitalize “la Loi” for the Mosaic referent; narrowly Mosaic in this curriculum. |
| sin / sinner | ἁμαρτία / ἁμαρτωλός | hamartia / hamartōlos | péché / pécheur | Medium | Justification by Faith | 2 | Guard against colloquial trivialization (“péché mignon”). |
| gentiles | ἔθνη | ethnē | païens | Medium | Circumcision and the New Creation | 2 | Prefer “les nations” in mission-emphasis framing per baseline note. |
| covenant | διαθήκη | diathēkē | alliance | High | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | 3 | The wedding-ring resonance of “alliance” is a genuine asset for the Abrahamic covenant material. |
| calling / called | κλῆσις / κλητός (καλέω) | klēsis / klētos (kaleō) | appel / appelé | Medium-High | Paul’s Apostleship | 1 | Do not narrow to “vocation” (clergy/religious-life connotation). |
| apostle | ἀπόστολος | apostolos | apôtre | Low (base); Medium in context | Paul’s Apostleship | 1 | Stable term; emphasis in Galatians is on the divine, not human-derivative source of Paul’s apostleship — an exposition point, not a term-choice risk. |
| son of God | υἱὸς θεοῦ | huios theou | Fils de Dieu | Critical | (undergirds Adoption and Sonship) | 2, 4 | Eternal, unique, co-equal Sonship — never adoptive/metaphorical; full phrase required. |
| adoption | υἱοθεσία | huiothesia | adoption filiale | Medium | Adoption and Sonship | 4 | Bare “adoption” reads as modern legal-procedural process; qualify as “filiale.” |
| abba/father | Ἀββά ὁ πατήρ | Abba ho patēr | Abba / Père | Medium | Adoption and Sonship | 4 | Verbatim parallel to Romans 8:15. |
| holy_spirit / spirit | πνεῦμα ἅγιον / πνεῦμα | pneuma hagion / pneuma | Esprit Saint / Esprit | Medium | Flesh versus Spirit; Fruit of the Spirit | 3, 4, 5 | Ensure the divine-Person sense is unambiguous; shorter “l’Esprit” acceptable once referent is established in a passage. |
| god | θεός | theos | Dieu | Critical | (undergirds multiple doctrines) | 1, 2, 3, 4 | Personal, triune God; avoid deist-abstraction drift. |
| jesus | Ἰησοῦς | Iēsous | Jésus | Low | (all doctrines) | 1-6 | Stable across all French traditions. |
| christ (proper name) | Χριστός | Christos | Christ | Low | (all doctrines) | 1-6 | Established proper-name form; reserve “Messie” (baseline) for contexts foregrounding the fulfilled-promise title. |
| exhort | παρακαλέω | parakaleō | exhorter | Low | Bearing One Another’s Burdens | 6 | Context-sensitive per baseline; general encouragement sense operative here. |
Part 2 — New Terms Specific to Galatians
These terms do not appear in the baseline Romans translation memory and require new entries. Full contextual analysis for each is in 07_semantic_analysis.md.
| Term | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | Literal meaning | French rendering | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Galatians chapters | Grounded risk reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| another/false gospel | ἕτερον / ἄλλο εὐαγγέλιον | heteron / allo euangelion | a different gospel | un autre évangile | High | The True Gospel versus False Gospels | 1 | In laïque, religiously plural France, “un autre évangile” risks sounding like one valid option among many rather than Paul’s flat denial that it is a gospel at all. |
| accursed/anathema | ἀνάθεμα | anathema | given over to destruction | anathème | Critical | The True Gospel versus False Gospels | 1 | Direct loanword tied to Council of Trent’s “anathema sit” formula, historically aimed at Reformation justification teaching — an ironic, confusable echo in a curriculum teaching justification by faith. |
| revelation | ἀποκάλυψις | apokalypsis | an unveiling | révélation | Medium | Paul’s Apostleship | 1 | Same root as French “apocalypse,” which in ordinary usage means cataclysmic disaster, not disclosure — risk of genre-confusion. |
| set apart | ἀφορίζω | aphorizō | to mark off, separate | mis à part | Medium | Paul’s Apostleship | 1 | Cross-reference baseline separation_unto_gods_service; must not read as monastic withdrawal. |
| works of the law | ἔργα νόμου | erga nomou | deeds of law | œuvres de la loi | Critical | Justification by Faith; Law and Grace | 2, 3 | Central Reformation-Trent flashpoint term and New Perspective on Paul debate; the letter’s core doctrinal fulcrum. |
| circumcision | περιτομή | peritomē | the cutting-around | circoncision | High | Circumcision and the New Creation | 2, 5, 6 | Risk of reduction to a contemporary ritual/medical-practice discussion; requires historically careful, non-polemical framing regarding Jewish practice. |
| uncircumcision | ἀκροβυστία | akrobystia | foreskin (i.e., uncircumcised state) | incirconcision | Medium | Circumcision and the New Creation | 5, 6 | Paired term with “circoncision”; same framing care required. |
| false brothers | ψευδάδελφοι | pseudadelphoi | false brothers | faux frères | Medium | The True Gospel versus False Gospels | 2 | Ensure read as Paul’s specific professing-but-compromising category, not generic insult. |
| hypocrisy | ὑπόκρισις | hypokrisis | play-acting | hypocrisie | Low | Paul’s Apostleship (Antioch incident) | 2 | Transparent cognate; minimal collision risk. |
| to judaize | Ἰουδαΐζω | ioudaizō | to live as Jews | judaïser / vivre à la manière des Juifs | Medium | Circumcision and the New Creation | 2 | Requires historically careful framing to avoid any anti-Jewish reading; describes first-century social pressure, not ethnic critique. |
| crucified with Christ | συσταυρόω (συνεσταύρωμαι) | synestaurōmai | crucified together with | crucifié avec Christ | High | Crucified with Christ | 2, 5 | Risk of being read as devotional imitation (imitatio Christi, stigmata piety) rather than Paul’s specific real-participatory, once-for-all union claim. |
| flesh (neutral, bodily) | σάρξ | sarx | flesh | chair | Medium | Crucified with Christ | 2 | ”Chair” in ordinary French carries sensual/sexual connotation risking conflation with the morally loaded sense used elsewhere in the letter. |
| flesh (moral, opposed to Spirit) | σάρξ | sarx | flesh | chair | High | Flesh versus Spirit | 5 | Modern French “la chair” narrows to bodily/sexual appetite; Paul’s sense includes pride, rivalry, and religious self-effort as much as sensual sin — must be glossed broadly. |
| gave himself (substitutionary) | παραδίδωμι ἑαυτόν ὑπέρ | paradidōmi heauton hyper | handed himself over on behalf of | s’est livré lui-même pour | High | Crucified with Christ | 2 | French “pour” can read as merely beneficial rather than substitutionary; surrounding exposition must make substitution explicit. |
| died in vain / for nothing | δωρεάν ἀπέθανεν | dōrean apethanen | died freely/pointlessly | est mort pour rien / en vain | Low-Medium | Justification by Faith | 2 | Must preserve the force of Paul’s reductio ad absurdum, not read as a casual aside. |
| promise | ἐπαγγελία | epangelia | a promise | promesse | High | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | 3 | Doctrinal weight of the promise-precedes-and-is-not-overridden-by-law argument is not self-evident to low-biblical-literacy readers. |
| curse (of the law) | κατάρα | katara | a curse | malédiction | High | The Law’s Purpose | 3 | Must preserve the specific covenant-legal sense (Deut 27-28 background) rather than a vague folk-superstition reading. |
| redeemed | ἐξαγοράζω | exagorazō | to buy out of bondage | racheter | Medium-High | The Law’s Purpose; Adoption and Sonship | 3, 4 | Slave-market purchase metaphor not native to contemporary French experience; needs background explanation. |
| seed/descendants of Abraham | σπέρμα | sperma | seed | descendance d’Abraham | Medium | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | 3 | Follows baseline precedent rejecting archaic/clinical “semence” in favor of “descendance.” |
| blessing | εὐλογία | eulogia | a speaking well of | bénédiction | Low-Medium | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | 3 | Standard, stable term; low collision risk. |
| guardian/tutor (law as paidagōgos) | παιδαγωγός | paidagōgos | custodial slave-supervisor of a child | gardien / surveillant (NOT “pédagogue”) | High | The Law’s Purpose | 3 | Modern French “pédagogue” has drifted to mean a skilled positive educator — the opposite connotation of the ancient custodial-slave role; a genuine false-friend risk. “Pédagogue” (Segond 1910, archaic) is the rejected alternative. |
| heir | κληρονόμος | klēronomos | heir | héritier | Medium | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise; Adoption and Sonship | 3, 4 | Ensure promise-based, not merit-based, ground of inheritance is retained. |
| elements/elemental forces of the world | στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου | stoicheia tou kosmou | basic components | les éléments du monde | High | The Law’s Purpose | 4 | Ambiguous even in source text; risk of a physical-elements or astrological/New Age misreading in secular French spirituality. |
| slave / slavery | δοῦλος / δουλεία | doulos / douleia | slave / bondage | esclave / esclavage | Medium-High | The Law’s Purpose; Freedom in Christ | 4 | France’s historical reckoning with the slave trade gives “esclavage” strong resonance distinct from, and potentially eclipsing, Paul’s covenant-theological metaphor. |
| allegory | ἀλληγορούμενα (ἀλληγορέω) | allēgoroumena | to speak allegorically | dit allégoriquement / allégorie | Low-Medium | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | 4 | Ensure framed as Paul’s own inspired interpretive move, not general license for allegorical reading of Scripture. |
| free woman / freeborn | ἐλευθέρα | eleuthera | free (woman) | femme libre | Low | Freedom in Christ | 4 | Narrower application of the freedom term (see below); low risk in isolation. |
| freedom / liberty | ἐλευθερία | eleutheria | freedom | liberté | High | Freedom in Christ | 5 | Collides directly with “Liberté,” the first word of France’s Republican motto and a foundational secular/Enlightenment autonomy concept — structurally opposite to Paul’s freedom-from-sin-and-law-to-serve-in-love. |
| fruit of the Spirit | καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματος | karpos tou pneumatos | fruit of the Spirit | le fruit de l’Esprit | Medium | Fruit of the Spirit | 5 | Retain singular “fruit” (not “fruits”) to preserve the organic-unity image against the atomized “works of the flesh” list. |
| love | ἀγάπη | agapē | love | amour | Medium | Faith Working through Love; Fruit of the Spirit | 5 | French “amour” defaults to romantic love; lacks Greek’s threefold ἀγάπη/ἔρος/φιλία distinction — self-giving, covenantal sense must be made explicit. |
| faith working through love | πίστις διʼ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη | pistis di’ agapēs energoumenē | faith operating through love | la foi agissant par l’amour | Critical | Faith Working through Love | 5 | Literal biblical source text for the Tridentine “fides caritate formata” (faith formed by love) doctrine; must be presented as faith’s fruit/evidence, not an added condition for justification. |
| works of the flesh | τὰ ἔργα τῆς σαρκός | ta erga tēs sarkos | works of the flesh | les œuvres de la chair | Medium | Flesh versus Spirit | 5 | Deliberate structural echo with “œuvres de la loi” (2:16) — both self-generated, both opposed to grace/Spirit-given realities. |
| to crucify (the flesh) | σταυρόω | stauroō | to crucify | crucifier (la chair) | High | Crucified with Christ; Flesh versus Spirit | 5 | Inherits the co-crucifixion risk of 2:19-20; must read as flowing from the once-for-all union with Christ, not repeated self-mortification. |
| bear (burdens) | βαστάζω / βάρος | bastazō / baros | to carry / a weight | portez les fardeaux les uns des autres | Low | Bearing One Another’s Burdens | 6 | Standard, transparent rendering; note the deliberate structural echo/contrast with “works of the law.” |
| gentleness/meekness | πραΰτης | prautēs | gentleness | esprit de douceur | Low | Bearing One Another’s Burdens; Fruit of the Spirit | 5, 6 | Standard rendering; low collision risk. |
| to sow / to reap | σπείρω / θερίζω | speirō / therizō | to sow / to reap | semer / récolter | Low | (undergirds Flesh versus Spirit) | 6 | Transparent agricultural metaphor, well understood in French. |
| new creation | καινὴ κτίσις | kainē ktisis | new creation | nouvelle création | Medium | Circumcision and the New Creation | 6 | Risk is under-emphasis rather than mistranslation; must be connected explicitly to the letter’s crucified-with-Christ argument as its climactic summary. |
| to boast | καυχάομαι | kauchaomai | to boast, glory in | se glorifier | Low-Medium | Crucified with Christ | 6 | Note deliberate contrast with false teachers’ boasting “in the flesh.” |
| marks (of Jesus) | στίγματα | stigmata | brand-marks, scars | les marques de Jésus | Low | Paul’s Apostleship | 6 | Avoid loanword “stigmates,” which carries a specific Catholic mystical-wound-marks devotional connotation absent from Paul’s plain reference to persecution scars. |
| household of faith | οἰκεῖοι τῆς πίστεως | oikeioi tēs pisteōs | members of the household of faith | la famille de la foi | Low | Bearing One Another’s Burdens | 6 | Reinforces baseline christian_fellowship sense (koinonia, not civic community) without the Eucharistic-overtone risk of bare “communion.” |
| rule/standard | κανών | kanōn | a measuring rod | cette règle | Low | Circumcision and the New Creation | 6 | Note for reviewer awareness only: later develops into the technical “canon of Scripture” term, not the sense operative here. |
| Jew(s) | Ἰουδαῖος | Ioudaios | Jew | Juifs | Low-Medium | Circumcision and the New Creation | 2 | Must remain strictly historical/theological, per baseline israel note on contemporary political conflation. |
Summary Counts
| Risk tier | Count (new Galatians terms) | Count (baseline terms reused) | Review routing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | 3 | 3 | Human theologian review required for every occurrence |
| High | 12 | 4 | Human theologian review required |
| Medium | 13 | 6 | Native speaker review recommended |
| Low | 9 | 3 | Automated review sufficient |
Full contextual analysis, verse citations, and rationale for every entry above are documented in 07_semantic_analysis.md. Baseline-reused terms are governed by the existing translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json entries, which remain the language authority and are not altered by this glossary.
Critical Risk Terms
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: justification
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: sanctification (conflation), salut (too generic)
Original: δικαίωσις / δικαιόω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL: the historic Reformation/Trent flashpoint. Galatians 2:16 is, if anything, cited even more frequently than Romans 3-4 in this controversy, since it records Paul’s face-to-face rebuke of Peter that produces the letter’s thesis. Render as a declared, not gradually achieved, status at every occurrence (2:16 x3, 2:17, 3:8, 3:11, 3:24, 5:4).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Fils de Dieu
Transliteration: Fils de Dieu
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: envoyé de Dieu, homme divin
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL: full phrase required, conveying eternal, unique Sonship. Occurs in Galatians 2:20 (‘la foi au Fils de Dieu’) and 4:4 (‘Dieu a envoyé son Fils’); must never be softened toward the adoptive sonship language (‘adoption filiale’) used elsewhere in the letter for believers — the two categories appear together in 4:4-7 and must remain terminologically distinct.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice imputée
Transliteration: justice imputée
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: justice méritée
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL: credited/attributed righteousness, not earned righteousness (‘justice méritée’, explicitly rejected). Galatians 3:6 quotes Genesis 15:6 (‘Abraham crut Dieu, et cela lui fut compté comme justice’) as the letter’s own proof text for this doctrine, identical to Romans 4:3’s use of the same verse.
Anathema
Approved rendering: anathème
Transliteration: anathema
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Rejected alternatives: maudit (loses formal-declaration weight; Segond 21’s modernization)
Original: ἀνάθεμα
Category: Gospel
New term. Galatians 1:8-9. CRITICAL: direct loanword tied to the Council of Trent’s repeated ‘anathema sit’ formula, which concluded canons condemning propositions directly opposed to the Reformation reading of justification this curriculum teaches. A French Catholic reader may recall conciliar anathemas aimed at justification-by-faith teaching — the reverse direction of Paul’s own use. Requires an explanatory note distinguishing Paul’s apostolic pronouncement from later ecclesial-conciliar usage at every occurrence. Flag for human theologian review every time.
Works Of The Law
Approved rendering: œuvres de la loi
Transliteration: erga nomou
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: pratique de la Loi (TOB/BDJ; under-specifies the doctrinal load), bonnes œuvres (wrong category; Catholic moral theology treats this positively)
Original: ἔργα νόμου
Category: Salvation
New term. Galatians 2:16, 3:2, 3:5, 3:10. CRITICAL: the fulcrum of the Reformation-Trent justification controversy and the modern New Perspective on Paul debate over ethnic-boundary-marker vs. general law-keeping readings. The French rendering is lexically transparent; the doctrinal payload is maximal. Deliberately departs from TOB/BDJ’s softer ‘pratique de la Loi.‘
Faith Working Through Love
Approved rendering: la foi agissant par l’amour
Transliteration: pistis di’ agapēs energoumenē
Doctrine: Faith Working through Love
Original: πίστις διʼ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη
Category: Salvation
New term. Galatians 5:6. CRITICAL: the literal Vulgate/Tridentine source text for ‘fides caritate formata’ (faith formed by love), Trent’s condition that justifying faith must be completed by acts of love (Session 6) — the identical fault line as ‘justification’ itself, now at its precise biblical proof text. French exposition must make unmistakable that Paul describes what genuine faith produces, not a second ingredient added to faith as a condition for justification (contra 2:16). Mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: grâce
Transliteration: grâce
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: faveur, mérite
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Must render as wholly unmerited. In Galatians, grace and ‘les œuvres de la loi’ are posed as structurally exclusive systems for obtaining right standing (2:16-21; 3:2-5; 5:4) even more starkly than in Romans; any reading implying grace is supplemented by law-works directly contradicts the letter’s argument.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: justice (de Dieu)
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: vertu, droiture
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Must be read as God’s saving, gift-status righteousness, not human moral virtue. Galatians 2:21 and 3:6 (citing Genesis 15:6) make this term’s forensic, credited sense as central to the letter’s argument as to Romans’.
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs in Galatians’ greeting formulas (‘notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ’, 1:3) and closing material (6:14, 6:18) and in 5:10 (‘j’ai confiance en vous, dans le Seigneur’). ‘Seigneur’ carries feudal-historical resonance in French, risking a distant, archaic-title reading rather than a living, exclusive confession.
Church
Approved rendering: Église
Transliteration: Église
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: temple (building only)
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs at Galatians 1:2 (‘aux Églises de la Galatie’), 1:13 (‘l’Église de Dieu’), and 1:22 (‘les Églises de la Judée qui sont en Christ’). Capitalized ‘l’Église’ strongly denotes the institutional Catholic Church in ordinary French usage; must clarify the body-of-Christ/local-assembly sense distinct from the institution or building.
Law
Approved rendering: loi
Transliteration: loi (la Loi)
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Capitalize as ‘la Loi’ for the Mosaic referent throughout Galatians (2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Galatians develops the law’s temporary, custodial purpose (3:19-25) more explicitly than Romans; ensure the guardian/paidagōgos image (3:24, see ‘law_as_guardian’) does not import a positive-educator connotation via the false-friend ‘pédagogue.‘
Another Gospel
Approved rendering: un autre évangile
Transliteration: heteron euangelion / allo euangelion
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Rejected alternatives: un évangile différent (weaker, invites ‘variant’ reading)
Original: ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον / ἄλλο εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Gospel
New term. Galatians 1:6-9. In France’s laïque, religiously plural public culture, ‘un autre évangile’ risks sounding like one legitimate spiritual option among many rather than Paul’s flat denial that it is a gospel at all. Teaching material must make the exclusivity claim explicit rather than let ‘autre’ read as a neutral alternative.
Circumcision
Approved rendering: circoncision
Transliteration: peritomē
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Original: περιτομή
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 2:3, 5:2-3, 5:6, 5:11, 6:12-13, 6:15. Requires historically careful, non-polemical framing given France’s living Jewish and Muslim circumcision-practicing communities; Paul’s argument (as a Jew, within a Gentile-inclusion controversy) concerns circumcision as a condition for justification, not a verdict on the rite itself.
Crucified With Christ
Approved rendering: crucifié avec Christ
Transliteration: synestaurōmai
Doctrine: Crucified with Christ
Original: συνεσταύρωμαι (συσταυρόω)
Category: Christology
New term. Galatians 2:19-20, restated 5:24, 6:14. Risk that French readers (Catholic or secular) hear this as devotional imitation of Christ’s suffering (imitatio Christi, stigmata piety) rather than Paul’s specific, real, once-for-all participatory claim that the believer’s old self and standing under the law’s condemnation have already, decisively ended. Flag for human theologian review at every occurrence.
Flesh
Approved rendering: chair
Transliteration: sarx
Doctrine: Flesh versus Spirit
Original: σάρξ
Category: Anthropology
New term. Two distinct senses occur: (1) neutral, ordinary bodily/mortal existence (Galatians 2:20’s ‘dans la chair’); (2) morally corrupted human nature opposed to the Spirit, including pride, rivalry, idolatry, and self-righteous religious effort, not merely sensual desire (5:16-21, 5:24; cf. 6:8). Modern French ‘la chair’ outside a theological register defaults to bodily/sensual/sexual appetite. Every occurrence must be glossed to specify which sense is active, to avoid readers reducing ‘the flesh’ to a purity-culture-style sexual-ethics topic or conflating the two senses.
Self Giving For Me
Approved rendering: s’est livré lui-même pour moi
Transliteration: paradontos heauton hyper emou
Doctrine: Crucified with Christ
Original: παραδόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ (παραδίδωμι)
Category: Christology
New term. Galatians 2:20; cf. 1:4. French ‘pour’ can be read as merely benefiting someone rather than substituting for them; surrounding exposition must make the substitutionary, in-place-of sense explicit.
Promise
Approved rendering: promesse
Transliteration: epangelia
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: ἐπαγγελία
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 3:14-18, 3:29, 4:23, 4:28. Lexically straightforward, but the letter’s argument depends on readers grasping that the unconditional, faith-received promise logically and chronologically precedes and is not overridden by the later, conditional law — a distinction low-biblical-literacy French readers will not supply unaided.
Curse Of The Law
Approved rendering: malédiction
Transliteration: katara
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Original: κατάρα
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 3:10, 3:13. Must preserve the specific Deuteronomic covenant-legal sense rather than a folk-superstition ‘curse’ reading (e.g., ‘la malédiction du pharaon’). Requires supplied Old Testament covenant background.
Redeemed
Approved rendering: racheter
Transliteration: exagorazō
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Original: ἐξαγοράζω
Category: Salvation
New term. Galatians 3:13, 4:5. The slave-market purchase image (a price paid to free a slave) is not native to contemporary French experience; teaching material must supply the background image so ‘racheter’ is not flattened to a generic ‘help’ or ‘save.‘
Law As Guardian
Approved rendering: gardien
Transliteration: paidagōgos
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Rejected alternatives: pédagogue (false friend: modern French = skilled, positive educator, inverting Paul’s custodial-restraint sense), surveillant (acceptable secondary variant, cf. TOB)
Original: παιδαγωγός
Category: Law
New term. Galatians 3:24-25. Genuine false-friend collision, documented in wide circulation: LSG and BDJ both retain ‘pédagogue,’ whose modern meaning inverts the ancient custodial-slave-minder sense. Use ‘gardien’ (or ‘surveillant’), never ‘pédagogue.’ Flag for human theologian review; reviewers may challenge this choice by pointing to their own Segond or Jérusalem Bible, so the rationale must be documented.
Elements Of The World
Approved rendering: les éléments du monde
Transliteration: stoicheia tou kosmou
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Original: στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου
Category: Law
New term. Galatians 4:3, 4:9. Ambiguous even in the source text (basic religious principles vs. cosmic elemental powers); no surveyed French Bible disambiguates. Risk of a physical-elements or astrological/New-Age-adjacent misreading in secular French spirituality. Requires an explanatory gloss covering both the Jewish law-system and pagan religious systems as equally an infantile enslavement now surpassed.
Slavery
Approved rendering: esclavage
Transliteration: doulos / douleia
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Original: δοῦλος / δουλεία
Category: Law
New term. Galatians 4:1-9, 4:21-31, 5:1. France’s own historical reckoning with the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery gives ‘esclavage’ strong, specific, painful cultural resonance distinct from the metaphor’s biblical background; acknowledge this without minimizing France’s history or letting it eclipse Paul’s covenant-theological point.
Freedom
Approved rendering: liberté
Transliteration: eleutheria
Doctrine: Freedom in Christ
Original: ἐλευθερία
Category: Salvation
New term. Galatians 4:21-31, 5:1, 5:13. ‘Liberté’ is the first word of France’s Republican motto and a foundational secular-Enlightenment autonomy concept central to laïcité — structurally opposite to Paul’s freedom-from-sin-and-law-in-order-to-serve-in-love. No surveyed French Bible disambiguates this. Mandatory explicit contrast in teaching material; mandatory human theologian review.
Crucify The Flesh
Approved rendering: ont crucifié la chair
Transliteration: stauroō
Doctrine: Crucified with Christ
Original: σταυρόω
Category: Sanctification
New term. Galatians 5:24. Must be read as flowing from, not separate from, the once-for-all co-crucifixion of 2:19-20, not a repeated ritual or work of self-mortification earning merit; inherits the devotional-imitation risk flagged for ‘crucifié avec Christ.‘
Medium Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: foi
Transliteration: foi
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: croyance, religion
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Must specify personal trust in Christ, not adherence to a religious system. Galatians additionally raises the πίστις Χριστοῦ genitive construction (2:16, 2:20, 3:22); retain the established objective-genitive rendering ‘la foi en/au Christ’ consistent with Segond/TOB/BDJ tradition (no surveyed French Bible adopts the subjective-genitive alternative), and flag every occurrence for theologian awareness of the scholarly alternative even though it is not adopted here.
Called
Approved rendering: appelé
Transliteration: appelé
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: invité
Original: κλητός (καλέω)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. In Galatians 1:6, 1:15, and 5:8, 5:13 the calling in view is God’s gracious summons to the gospel and to freedom, now being abandoned for legal bondage. Do not narrow to ‘vocation’ (clergy/religious-life connotation).
Calling
Approved rendering: appel
Transliteration: appel
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: vocation (clergy-narrowing risk)
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Use ‘appel’ for the general believer’s calling; reserve ‘vocation’ with caution per baseline note. The verb forms (καλέω) carry the noun’s doctrinal weight throughout Galatians even where the noun κλῆσις itself is not heavily used.
Adoption
Approved rendering: adoption filiale
Transliteration: adoption filiale
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: adoption (bare, legal-procedural)
Original: υἱοθεσία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Bare ‘adoption’ reads as the modern legal-procedural process; qualify with ‘filiale’. Central to Galatians 4:4-7’s argument; must be kept terminologically distinct from Christ’s own unique, eternal Sonship (‘Fils de Dieu’) even though both appear in the same short passage (4:4-5).
Resurrection
Approved rendering: résurrection
Transliteration: résurrection
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: renaissance
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 1:1 grounds Paul’s apostleship in God ‘who raised him from the dead’; the chief risk is secular naturalism flattening ‘résurrection’ into a metaphor rather than a historical, bodily event, as in the baseline note.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: incarnation
Transliteration: incarnation
Doctrine: Incarnation
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 4:4’s ‘né d’une femme, né sous la loi’ is the letter’s incarnational statement, parallel in function to Romans 1:3 and 8:3. Risk is secular flattening via ‘incarner’ (to embody a role), not a competing religious concept.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: communion fraternelle
Transliteration: communion fraternelle
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: communion (bare)
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs at Galatians 2:9, ‘ils nous ont donné la main d’association/de communion fraternelle’ (κοινωνία) — the Jerusalem apostles’ recognition of Paul and Barnabas’s Gentile mission. Qualify with ‘fraternelle’ to avoid the bare-‘communion’ Eucharistic-overtone risk the baseline documents.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Royaume de Dieu
Transliteration: Royaume de Dieu
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs at Galatians 5:21: those who practice the works of the flesh ‘n’hériteront pas le Royaume de Dieu.’ Distinguish God’s sovereign reign from any political kingdom association.
Sin
Approved rendering: péché
Transliteration: péché
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: ἁμαρτία / ἁμαρτωλός
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs at Galatians 1:4 (‘qui s’est donné lui-même pour nos péchés’) and 2:15, 2:17 (‘pécheurs des nations’). In 2:15,17 the term also functions as a first-century Jewish social-religious category label (‘Gentile sinners’), not purely individual moral culpability; ensure this distinct usage is clear from context. Guard against colloquial trivialization of ‘péché.‘
Gentiles
Approved rendering: païens
Transliteration: païens
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: étrangers
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 2:15’s ‘pécheurs des nations’ reproduces a first-century Jewish social label Paul is dismantling, not endorsing; frame historically. ‘Les nations’ may be preferred in mission-emphasis contexts per baseline note.
Glory
Approved rendering: gloire
Transliteration: gloire
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs in the doxology of Galatians 1:5 (‘à qui soit la gloire aux siècles des siècles! Amen’) immediately following the account of Christ’s self-giving; secular ‘gloire’ (military, celebrity) risks a triumphalist, self-achieved reading rather than God’s own glory.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messie
Transliteration: Messie
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Inherited from Romans package. Reserve ‘Messie’ for contexts explicitly foregrounding the fulfilled-promise title sense (relevant background to Galatians 3:16’s ‘seed’ argument); Galatians otherwise uses Χριστός predominantly as Jesus’ proper name — see new ‘christ’ entry below.
Covenant
Approved rendering: alliance
Transliteration: alliance
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: contrat
Inherited from Romans package. Central to Galatians 3:15-17’s argument that the Abrahamic covenant, once ratified, cannot be annulled by the later-arriving law. The wedding-ring resonance of French ‘alliance’ is a genuine asset here, reinforcing the relational, promissory character Paul insists on.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs at Galatians 6:16, ‘et sur l’Israël de Dieu’ — the letter’s closing benediction. Contemporary Middle East politics and France’s significant Jewish community make it easy for readers to conflate this covenant-theological usage with the modern nation-state; keep the referent historical/theological, and flag this specific verse for theologian review given the live scholarly and pastoral question of whether ‘the Israel of God’ denotes the Church, believing Jews and Gentiles together, or ethnic Israel specifically.
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Foundational throughout Galatians (1:1, 1:3-4, 1:10, 2:19-21, 3:6-29, 4:4-9, 6:7); no additional Galatians-specific risk beyond the baseline secularization-drift note.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Esprit Saint
Transliteration: Esprit Saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον / πνεῦμα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 3-5 uses bare πνεῦμα (‘l’Esprit’) extensively in the flesh-Spirit contrast (5:16-25); once the divine-Person referent is established in a passage, the shorter ‘l’Esprit’ is acceptable, but must never suggest an impersonal force, especially across the sustained Chapter 5 argument.
Father
Approved rendering: Père
Transliteration: Père
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs at Galatians 1:1, 1:3, 1:4, 4:6. God as personal, relational Father, source of both Paul’s apostolic commission and believers’ adoptive intimacy through the Spirit.
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: אַבָּא
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs at Galatians 4:6, verbatim parallel to Romans 8:15, with identical doctrinal weight regarding the adopted believer’s intimate access to God.
Revelation
Approved rendering: révélation
Transliteration: apokalypsis
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: apocalypse (false-friend: disaster genre in ordinary French)
Original: ἀποκάλυψις
Category: Apostleship
New term. Galatians 1:12, 1:16. Shares its root with French ‘apocalypse,’ which in ordinary modern usage denotes a cataclysmic, world-ending disaster rather than ‘unveiling.’ Use ‘révélation,’ never ‘apocalypse.‘
Set Apart
Approved rendering: mis à part
Transliteration: aphorizō
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Original: ἀφορίζω
Category: Apostleship
New term. Galatians 1:15. Cross-reference baseline doctrine ‘separation_unto_gods_service’; must not collapse into monastic withdrawal. Denotes God’s sovereign pre-natal designation of Paul for apostleship.
Uncircumcision
Approved rendering: incirconcision
Transliteration: akrobystia
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Original: ἀκροβυστία
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 5:6, 6:15. Paired with ‘circoncision’ to declare both religiously irrelevant to standing in Christ; same historically careful framing required.
False Brothers
Approved rendering: faux frères
Transliteration: pseudadelphoi
Doctrine: The True Gospel versus False Gospels
Original: ψευδάδελφοι
Category: Church
New term. Galatians 2:4. Ensure the compound is read as Paul’s specific category of professing-but-compromising believers, not a generic insult.
Judaize
Approved rendering: judaïser
Transliteration: ioudaizō
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Rejected alternatives: vivre à la manière des Juifs (acceptable descriptive gloss, not the fixed term)
Original: Ἰουδαΐζω
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 2:14. Must be framed carefully and historically so the term describes a specific first-century social-practice controversy, not a generic or pejorative statement about Jewish people or practice today.
Jews
Approved rendering: Juifs
Transliteration: Ioudaioi
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Original: Ἰουδαῖοι
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 2:15. France’s significant Jewish community and post-war historical sensitivity require the term to remain strictly historical/theological (covenant people), never a contemporary ethnic-political statement, consistent with the baseline ‘israel’ entry’s caution.
Died In Vain
Approved rendering: est mort pour rien
Transliteration: dōrean apethanen
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: en vain (acceptable variant)
Original: δωρεὰν ἀπέθανεν
Category: Salvation
New term. Galatians 2:21. Must preserve the force of Paul’s reductio ad absurdum — if righteousness came through the law, the cross would be pointless — not read as a casual aside.
Seed Of Abraham
Approved rendering: descendance d’Abraham
Transliteration: sperma
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Rejected alternatives: semence d’Abraham (archaic/clinical register, per baseline seed_of_david precedent)
Original: σπέρμα
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 3:16, 3:29. Follows the baseline precedent (seed_of_david) rejecting archaic/clinical ‘semence’ for modern French readers.
Heir
Approved rendering: héritier
Transliteration: klēronomos
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: κληρονόμος
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 3:29, 4:1, 4:7. Ensure the promise-based, not merit-based, ground of the inheritance is retained, parallel to the baseline’s ‘imputed_righteousness’ credited-not-earned logic.
Fruit Of The Spirit
Approved rendering: le fruit de l’Esprit
Transliteration: karpos tou pneumatos
Doctrine: Fruit of the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: les fruits de l’Esprit (loses the deliberate singular organic-unity image)
Original: καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματος
Category: Sanctification
New term. Galatians 5:22-23. Retain grammatical singular ‘le fruit’ (never pluralized) to preserve the organic-unity image against the atomized, plural ‘les œuvres de la chair.‘
Love
Approved rendering: amour
Transliteration: agapē
Doctrine: Faith Working through Love
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Ethics
New term. Galatians 5:6, 5:13-14, 5:22. French, like English, lacks Greek’s three-way ἀγάπη/ἔρος/φιλία distinction; ‘amour’ defaults to romantic love in ordinary usage. Teaching material must make the self-giving, non-erotic, covenantal character of ἀγάπη explicit.
Works Of The Flesh
Approved rendering: les œuvres de la chair
Transliteration: ta erga tēs sarkos
Doctrine: Flesh versus Spirit
Original: τὰ ἔργα τῆς σαρκός
Category: Anthropology
New term. Galatians 5:19-21. Deliberate lexical echo with ‘œuvres de la loi’ (2:16) — both self-generated, plural, and opposed to Spirit/grace-given realities; worth surfacing in teaching material as a structural feature of Paul’s argument.
New Creation
Approved rendering: nouvelle création
Transliteration: kainē ktisis
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Original: καινὴ κτίσις
Category: Salvation
New term. Galatians 6:15, the letter’s climactic doctrinal summary. Chief risk is under-emphasis; teaching material must connect this statement back to the crucified-with-Christ argument of 2:19-20 and 6:14 so it reads as the letter’s theological capstone.
Low Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: Évangile
Transliteration: Évangile
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: bonne nouvelle (informal only)
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Shared, stable term across Catholic and Protestant French Bibles. Low risk in isolation; Galatians 1:6-9 sharpens the stakes by contrasting the true gospel with a rival claimant — see the new ‘another_gospel’ entry, which carries the elevated risk, not this term alone.
Apostle
Approved rendering: apôtre
Transliteration: apôtre
Doctrine: Apostleship
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Stable, shared term. Contextual emphasis is elevated to Medium in exposition for Galatians 1:1, 1:11-17, 2:6-9 because the doctrine ‘Paul’s Apostleship’ turns on the divine, non-human-derivative source of his authority, which must come through in surrounding exposition even though the term itself is stable.
Peace
Approved rendering: paix
Transliteration: paix
Doctrine: Peace with God
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs in the greeting formula (1:3) and the closing benediction (6:16, ‘paix et miséricorde’); relational peace through Christ’s work, not merely psychological calm.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jésus
Transliteration: Jésus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Stable across all French traditions throughout Galatians; no additional risk.
Exhort
Approved rendering: exhorter
Transliteration: exhorter
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Galatians 6:1-2’s restoration-and-burden-bearing context uses the general encouragement/building-up sense, not entreaty.
Hypocrisy
Approved rendering: hypocrisie
Transliteration: hypokrisis
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Original: ὑπόκρισις
Category: Ethics
New term. Galatians 2:13-14. Transparent cognate describing Peter’s public inconsistency at Antioch, not merely a private failing; minimal collision risk in French.
Blessing
Approved rendering: bénédiction
Transliteration: eulogia
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: εὐλογία
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 3:8, 3:9, 3:14. Standard, stable term across French Bible tradition; low collision risk.
Allegory
Approved rendering: allégorie
Transliteration: allēgoroumena
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: ἀλληγορούμενα (ἀλληγορέω)
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 4:24. Standard literary term; ensure surrounding material clarifies this is Paul’s own inspired interpretive move, not license for unconstrained allegorical reading of Scripture generally.
Free Woman
Approved rendering: femme libre
Transliteration: eleuthera
Doctrine: Freedom in Christ
Original: ἐλευθέρα
Category: Covenant
New term. Galatians 4:22-31. Narrower application of ‘liberté/freedom’; low risk in this specific narrative application (Sarah representing the Jerusalem above and the promise).
Bear Burdens
Approved rendering: portez les fardeaux les uns des autres
Transliteration: bastazō / baros
Doctrine: Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Original: βαστάζω / βάρος
Category: Ethics
New term. Galatians 6:2. Transparent, standard rendering; note the deliberate paradox that ‘fulfilling the law of Christ’ through burden-bearing is contrasted throughout the letter with ‘les œuvres de la loi’ — a structural echo worth surfacing, not a contradiction.
Gentleness
Approved rendering: esprit de douceur
Transliteration: prautēs
Doctrine: Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Original: πραΰτης
Category: Sanctification
New term. Galatians 6:1; cf. 5:23. Standard rendering; low collision risk.
Sow And Reap
Approved rendering: semer / récolter
Transliteration: speirō / therizō
Doctrine: Flesh versus Spirit
Original: σπείρω / θερίζω
Category: Ethics
New term. Galatians 6:7-8. Transparent agricultural metaphor, well understood in French; low collision risk.
Boast
Approved rendering: se glorifier
Transliteration: kauchaomai
Doctrine: Crucified with Christ
Original: καυχάομαι
Category: Ethics
New term. Galatians 6:13-14. Note the deliberate contrast with the false teachers’ boasting ‘in the flesh’ (6:13), echoing the flesh/Spirit contrast of Chapter 5.
Marks Of Jesus
Approved rendering: les marques de Jésus
Transliteration: stigmata
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: stigmates (false friend: French Catholic mystical wound-marks devotional connotation)
Original: στίγματα
Category: Apostleship
New term. Galatians 6:17. Avoid the loanword ‘stigmates,’ which carries a specific devotional-mystical connotation absent from Paul’s plain reference to persecution scars. Prefer plain ‘marques.‘
Household Of Faith
Approved rendering: la famille de la foi
Transliteration: oikeioi tēs pisteōs
Doctrine: Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Original: οἰκεῖοι τῆς πίστεως
Category: Church
New term. Galatians 6:10. Reinforces baseline ‘christian_fellowship’ doctrine (koinonia, not civic community) without the Eucharistic-overtone risk baseline flags for bare ‘communion,’ since ‘famille’ avoids that collision entirely.
Rule Standard
Approved rendering: cette règle
Transliteration: kanōn
Doctrine: Circumcision and the New Creation
Original: κανών
Category: Church
New term. Galatians 6:16. Note for reviewer awareness only: κανών later develops into the technical term for the biblical canon, not the sense operative here, where it simply names the new-creation standard just stated.
Christ
Approved rendering: Christ
Transliteration: Christos
Doctrine: (Christology; supports Sonship of Christ, Lordship of Christ)
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
New/established-convention term. Established proper-name form per baseline requirements-document transliteration standards (Christ = Christ); not a standalone key in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json, added here for Galatians package completeness since Χριστός functions predominantly as Jesus’ proper name throughout Galatians (1-6). Reserve baseline’s ‘Messie’ rendering only where the text explicitly foregrounds the fulfilled-promise title sense (rare in this letter, cf. 3:16).
Referenced passages