Core Glossary
Core Glossary: Genesis (English → French)
How to Use This Glossary
Each row gives: the English gloss, the original Hebrew term (transliterated), the fixed French rendering, the doctrine it serves, its risk tier, key notes/rejected alternatives, whether it reuses a baseline Romans term, and its primary Genesis passage(s). Critical and High risk terms require human theologian review per the baseline’s review-routing convention; Medium requires native speaker review; Low requires automated review only.
Core Passage Terms (Genesis 1:1–2:3)
| English Gloss | Hebrew (Transliteration) | French Rendering | Doctrine | Risk | Notes / Rejected Alternatives | Baseline Reuse | Primary Passage(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beginning | bereshit | au commencement | Creation Ex Nihilo | Low | Stable across all traditions | No | Gen 1:1 |
| create | bara | créer | Creation Ex Nihilo | High | Must gloss “à partir de rien” to block ordinary-artisanal-creativity reading | No | Gen 1:1, 21, 27; 2:3 |
| God (generic) | Elohim | Dieu | Deity of God | Medium | Reused exactly | Yes (god) | Gen 1:1 passim |
| heavens/earth | shamayim/eretz | les cieux / la terre | Creation Ex Nihilo | Low | Totality merism | No | Gen 1:1 |
| formless and void | tohu wa-bohu | informe et vide | Creation Ex Nihilo | Medium | Guard against ANE chaos-myth import | No | Gen 1:2 |
| deep | tehom | l’abîme | Creation Ex Nihilo | Medium | Avoid Revelation-abyss conflation | No | Gen 1:2 |
| Spirit of God | ruach Elohim | l’Esprit de Dieu | Creation Ex Nihilo / Providence | High | Distinct from baseline “Esprit Saint”; must retain personal agency, not “un vent” | Related, not identical | Gen 1:2 |
| light | or | lumière | Creation Ex Nihilo | Low | — | No | Gen 1:3 |
| good | tov | bon | Creation Ex Nihilo | Medium | Theological verdict, not aesthetic-only | No | Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31 |
| day | yom | jour | Creation Ex Nihilo | Low | Interpretive-length debate is not a translation issue | No | Gen 1:5 passim |
| expanse/firmament | raqia | étendue | Creation Ex Nihilo | Medium | Prefer over archaic “firmament” to avoid science-conflict framing | No | Gen 1:6-8 |
| seed (botanical) | zera | semence | Creation Ex Nihilo | Low | Distinct from covenantal sense below | No | Gen 1:11-12, 29 |
| living creature | nefesh chayah | être vivant | Image of God (contrast) | Low | Shared with animals; contrast sharpens 1:26-27 | No | Gen 1:20-24 |
| bless | barak | bénir / bénédiction | Common Grace / Abrahamic Covenant | Medium | Guard against casual-exclamation flattening | No | Gen 1:22, 28; 2:3 |
| image | tselem | image | Image of God | High | Ground human dignity in Creator, not humanism; distinguish from devotional icônes | No | Gen 1:26-27 |
| likeness | demut | ressemblance | Image of God | Medium | Fixed pairing “à notre image, selon notre ressemblance” | No | Gen 1:26 |
| man/mankind | adam | l’homme / l’être humain | Image of God | Medium | Clarify collective, both-sexes referent | No | Gen 1:26-27 |
| male and female | zakhar u-nekevah | mâle et femelle | Image of God | Low | Confirms equal dignity of both sexes | No | Gen 1:27 |
| dominion/subdue | radah / kabash | dominer / soumettre | Image of God (stewardship) | High | Frame as accountable stewardship, not exploitation license (French ecological discourse risk) | No | Gen 1:26, 28 |
| very good | tov me’od | très bon | Creation Ex Nihilo | Medium | Superlative verdict; grounds Fall-as-corruption doctrine | No | Gen 1:31 |
| rested | shabat | se reposa | Creation Ex Nihilo / Sabbath anticipation | Medium-High | Rest = satisfaction not fatigue; anticipates Sabbath commandment | No | Gen 2:2 |
| sanctified/made holy | qadash | sanctifia | Sanctification | Medium | Reuses baseline root | Yes (holy/sanctification root) | Gen 2:3 |
Chapter-by-Chapter Additional Terms (Genesis 2–50)
| English Gloss | Hebrew (Transliteration) | French Rendering | Doctrine | Risk | Notes / Rejected Alternatives | Baseline Reuse | Primary Passage(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| the LORD (divine name) | YHWH | le Seigneur / le SEIGNEUR (flag Segond alt. “l’Éternel”) | Providence / Covenant Faithfulness | Critical | Requires reviewer decision on Segond vs. TOB/Jérusalem convention; distinct from OT “Elohim” and NT “Seigneur”(Kyrios) | Related to lord | Gen 2:4 passim |
| ground/soil | adamah | sol / terre | Image of God (etymology) | Low | Untranslatable pun with “adam” | No | Gen 2:7 |
| living being (of man) | nefesh chayah | être vivant | Image of God | Medium | Heightened theological freight vs. animal usage | No | Gen 2:7 |
| helper | ezer | une aide (qui lui correspond) | Image of God | Medium | Not a subordinate role; equal-dignity counterpart | No | Gen 2:18, 20 |
| one flesh | basar echad | une seule chair | Covenant Faithfulness (marriage) | Low | Stable | No | Gen 2:24 |
| naked | arom | nus | Fall | Low | Sets up ch.3 shame contrast | No | Gen 2:25 |
| serpent | nachash | serpent | Fall / Origin of Sin | Medium | Real spiritual adversary, not folkloric animal only | No | Gen 3:1 |
| tree of life / knowledge | etz ha-chayim / etz ha-da’at tov va-ra | l’arbre de vie / l’arbre de la connaissance du bien et du mal | Fall | Low | Avoid moralistic flattening | No | Gen 2:9; 3:1-6 |
| cursed | arur | maudit | Sin’s Consequences | Medium | Pairs with “béni”; structures whole book | No | Gen 3:14, 17; 9:25 |
| seed/offspring (covenantal) | zera | descendance | Fall (protoevangelium) / Abrahamic Covenant | Critical | First messianic promise; never flatten to mere biology | Pattern from seed_of_david | Gen 3:15; 12:7; 15:5; 22:17 |
| garments (skins) | kutonet | vêtements / tuniques | Common Grace | Low/Medium | Grace within judgment | No | Gen 3:21 |
| sin (noun) | chatta’ah | péché | Fall / Sin’s Consequences | Medium | Reused exactly; guard against “péché mignon” trivialization | Yes (sin) | Gen 4:7 |
| sign/mark | oth | signe | Common Grace | Low/Medium | Protective mercy under judgment | No | Gen 4:15; 9:12-17 |
| generations | toledot | généalogie / les générations de | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations | Low/Medium | Theological function, not mere record-keeping | No | Gen 5:1 passim |
| walked (with God) | halak | marcha avec Dieu | Covenant Faithfulness | Low | Established devotional French idiom | No | Gen 5:22, 24 |
| was grieved | nacham | eut le cœur peiné / fut affligé | Providence & Sovereignty of God | High | Avoid “se repentit” (implies divine error); hold grief/sovereignty tension | No | Gen 6:6 |
| righteous | tzaddik | juste | Fall / Abrahamic Covenant (anticipatory) | High | Connects forward to Gen 15:6 imputed-righteousness doctrine | Related to righteousness | Gen 6:9 |
| flood | mabbul | déluge | Sin’s Consequences | Low | — | No | Gen 7-8 |
| remembered | zakar | se souvint | Providence | Medium | Covenantal action-language, not memory-lapse correction | No | Gen 8:1 |
| covenant | berit | alliance | Covenant Faithfulness / Abrahamic Covenant | High | Reused exactly | Yes (covenant) | Gen 9:9; 15:18; 17:7 |
| nations | goyim | nations | Covenant Faithfulness | Medium | Reject “païens” (anachronistic, pejorative) here | No (distinct from gentiles) | Gen 10:5 passim |
| language/lip | safah | langue | (background) | Low | — | No | Gen 11:1 |
| confused | balal | brouilla | (background) | Low | Untranslatable Babel/balal pun | No | Gen 11:9 |
| blessing | berakhah | bénédiction | Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | High | Preserve universal (“toutes les familles de la terre”) scope unqualified | No | Gen 12:2-3; 27:1 |
| Melchizedek | Malki-Tsedek | Melchisédek | Abrahamic Covenant (typology) | Medium | Name = “king of righteousness”; typological link to Christ | No | Gen 14:18 |
| God Most High | El Elyon | le Dieu Très-Haut | Common Grace (general revelation) | Medium | Distinct from Elohim/YHWH | No | Gen 14:18-20 |
| believed | he’emin | crut | Abrahamic Covenant / Justification | Critical | Personal trust, not generic belief | Related to faith | Gen 15:6 |
| counted/reckoned/imputed | chashab | imputa / compta | Abrahamic Covenant / Justification (imputed righteousness) | Critical | OT source of Romans 4:3; never “justice méritée” | Related to imputed_righteousness | Gen 15:6; 50:20 |
| righteousness | tzedaqah | justice | Abrahamic Covenant / Justification | Critical | Reused exactly | Yes (righteousness) | Gen 15:6; 18:19; 38:26 |
| the God who sees me | El Roi | le Dieu qui me voit | Common Grace / Providence | Low/Medium | Given by Hagar, an outsider — providence beyond covenant line | No | Gen 16:13 |
| covenant of circumcision | berit milah | circoncision | Abrahamic Covenant | High | Distinguish covenant-sign function from contemporary medical-ethics debate | No | Gen 17:10-14 |
| everlasting (covenant) | olam | perpétuelle / éternelle | Covenant Faithfulness | Medium | — | No | Gen 17:7, 13 |
| God Almighty | El Shaddai | Dieu Tout-Puissant | Abrahamic Covenant | Medium/High | Distinct title from Elohim/YHWH | No | Gen 17:1 |
| righteousness and justice | tzedaqah u-mishpat | justice et droit | Abrahamic Covenant (ethical outworking) | High | Do not reintroduce merit into Gen 15:6 declaration | No | Gen 18:19 |
| burnt offering | olah | offrande / sacrifice | Providence (substitution motif) | High | Avoid “holocauste” (Shoah association) in general prose | No | Gen 22:2-13 |
| the LORD will provide | YHWH Yireh | l’Éternel y pourvoira / le Seigneur pourvoira | Providence and Sovereignty of God | High | Same YHWH-rendering decision as above | Related to lord/YHWH | Gen 22:14 |
| lovingkindness / covenant faithfulness | chesed | fidélité bienveillante / bonté | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations | High | No single French word suffices; flag every occurrence | No | Gen 24:12, 14, 27 |
| birthright | bekhorah | droit d’aînesse | Covenant Faithfulness | Medium | Cultural/historical gloss aids comprehension | No | Gen 25:31-34 |
| ladder/stairway | sullam | échelle | Providence | Low | — | No | Gen 28:12 |
| house of God | Beit-El | Béthel (maison de Dieu) | Covenant Faithfulness | Low | — | No | Gen 28:19 |
| Israel (renamed) | Yisra’el | Israël | Covenant Faithfulness | Medium | Reused exactly | Yes (israel) | Gen 32:28 |
| dream (revelatory) | chalom | songe | Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering | Medium | Use elevated “songe,” not ordinary “rêve,” to preserve revelatory register | No | Gen 37:5-10; 40-41 |
| interpret/interpretation | patar / pitron | interpréter / interprétation | Providence in Suffering | Low/Medium | Credited to God, not occult skill | No | Gen 40:8; 41:16 |
| peace/well-being | shalom | paix | Providence in Suffering (reconciliation) | Low/Medium | Broader range than baseline’s Rom 5:1 “peace with God” sense | Related to peace | Gen 43-45 |
| Shiloh (messianic title/name) | Shiloh | Shiloh (transliterated, glossed) | Abrahamic Covenant / Messianic Promise | High | Genuinely obscure in Hebrew; transliterate and gloss, do not resolve by translation | No | Gen 49:10 |
| staff/scepter/tribe | shevet | sceptre / tribu | Messianic Promise (background) | Medium | Royal/messianic expectation | No | Gen 49:10, 16 |
| God meant it for good | chashab (reused) | Dieu l’a changé en bien | Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering | High | Same root as Gen 15:6 “imputed”; lexical link must be supplied by teaching notes, not recoverable from French alone | Related to imputed_righteousness root | Gen 50:20 |
Chapters Reviewed with No New Theological Vocabulary
The following chapters were fully reviewed and introduce no new load-bearing theological terms beyond those already catalogued above; they reuse established vocabulary from earlier chapters as noted:
- Chapter 13 — reuses covenant/land-promise vocabulary from ch.12.
- Chapter 19 — reuses judgment/curse vocabulary from ch.3, 6, 9.
- Chapter 20 — no new terms.
- Chapters 23, 26 — reuse covenant/blessing vocabulary from ch.12, 15, 17.
- Chapters 29–31 — reuse blessing/covenant/name-etymology patterns.
- Chapter 33, 34 — no new terms.
- Chapter 35 — reuses “Israël,” “Béthel,” “berakhah.”
- Chapter 36 — reuses “toledot” genealogical pattern from ch.5.
- Chapter 39 — reuses YHWH-presence and Providence narrative themes established at Gen 2:4.
- Chapter 41 — reuses “chalom” and “ruach Elohim” vocabulary.
- Chapters 46–47 — reuse covenant/blessing/toledot vocabulary.
- Chapter 48 — reuses “berakhah” (blessing) vocabulary.
Risk Summary
| Risk Tier | Count (approx., Genesis-specific + reused) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 5 (YHWH divine name, believed/faith, counted/imputed, righteousness, seed/protoevangelium) | Human theologian, every occurrence |
| High | 17 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 24 | Native speaker |
| Low | 20 | Automated |
This glossary extends, and never contradicts, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. All terms marked “Baseline Reuse: Yes” must appear in Phase 2 output with the exact French rendering fixed in those files.
Critical Risk Terms
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: justification
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: sanctification (conflation), salut (too generic)
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis 15:6 is the Old Testament fountainhead of this doctrine (quoted verbatim in Romans 4:3); every Genesis-curriculum teaching unit touching Genesis 15:6, 18:19, or 38:26 must apply this term’s Critical-tier review routing and forensic (declared, not gradually achieved) sense with the same rigor as the baseline Romans package.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Fils de Dieu
Transliteration: Fils de Dieu
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: envoyé de Dieu, homme divin
Inherited from Romans package. Not a Genesis lexical term, but directly relevant to teaching the fulfillment trajectory of the protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15) and the Abrahamic ‘seed’ promise (see ‘seed_covenantal’ entry) in Christ; use only in expository/teaching-note prose connecting Genesis to its New Testament fulfillment, never as a direct translation of any Genesis-period text.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice imputée
Transliteration: justice imputée
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: justice méritée
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis 15:6 is the exact Old Testament source verse for this doctrine (quoted in Romans 4:3, 22-24). The verb underlying this noun-phrase concept in Genesis is חָשַׁב (chashab) — see new entry ‘counted_imputed’. The baseline’s explicit rejection of ‘justice méritée’ applies with full force at Genesis 15:6, since this is the very verse from which that theological principle is drawn; Abraham’s faith itself must never be read as a meritorious work.
Yhwh
Approved rendering: le Seigneur / le SEIGNEUR (variante Segond : l’Éternel)
Transliteration: YHWH
Doctrine: Divine Names and Titles
Rejected alternatives: Jéhovah (sectarian, Traduction du Monde Nouveau rendering — never use)
New Genesis term. God’s personal, revealed covenant name (Exodus 3:14), distinct from the generic Elohim. FIXED CURRICULUM CONVENTION: render as ‘le Seigneur’ / small-caps ‘le SEIGNEUR’ (TOB/Bible de Jérusalem ecumenical convention), matching this curriculum’s target register. MANDATORY FLAG: Segond 1910 tradition instead uses ‘l’Éternel’ — reviewers moving between this curriculum and Segond-based resources must be alerted to the divergence. Do NOT conflate with the baseline NT ‘lord’/‘Seigneur’ (κύριος, of Christ) at the translation level, even while positively teaching their deliberate canonical connection (Romans 10:9). Requires human theologian review at every occurrence. Genesis 2:4 passim; compounded at ‘YHWH Yireh’ (Gen 22:14, see ‘yhwh_yireh’).
Seed Covenantal
Approved rendering: descendance
Transliteration: zera
Doctrine: The Protoevangelium and Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: semence (archaic/clinical register in modern French; reserved for literal botanical seed only)
Original: זֶרַע
Category: Christology
New Genesis term. The first messianic promise in Scripture (Genesis 3:15, the protoevangelium — ‘he will crush your head’), continued in the Abrahamic seed promise (12:7; 15:5; 22:17) and the Shiloh prophecy (49:10). Must carry the same theological weight as the baseline’s Critical-tier ‘Messie’/‘Fils de Dieu’; never flatten into a merely biological/genealogical footnote. Note the theologically significant collective/singular ambiguity (a multitude vs. one individual, later exploited in Galatians 3:16) — flag as deliberately unresolved at the Genesis stage, not to be prematurely disambiguated by translation choice. Flag every occurrence for human theologian review.
Believed
Approved rendering: crut
Transliteration: he’emin
Doctrine: Justification by Faith (Abraham)
Original: הֶאֱמִין
Category: Salvation
New Genesis term. Personal trust in and reliance on God’s promise, not mere intellectual assent or generic religiosity (root ‘aman’, same root as ‘amen’). This is the Old Testament source text Paul quotes for justification by faith (Romans 4:3). Must be rendered with the same care the baseline gives ‘faith’. Genesis 15:6.
Counted Imputed
Approved rendering: imputa / compta
Transliteration: chashab
Doctrine: Justification by Faith (Abraham)
Rejected alternatives: justice méritée (FORBIDDEN — the baseline’s rejected phrase applies with full force here, at the doctrine’s OT source)
Original: חָשַׁב
Category: Salvation
New Genesis term. THE Hebrew source term underlying the baseline’s Critical-tier ‘imputed_righteousness’. An accounting/legal-reckoning term — to attribute something to someone’s account, not earned by works. Must never be rendered in a way suggesting Abraham’s faith itself was a meritorious work. Flag every occurrence for human theologian review. Genesis 15:6. The same root recurs at Genesis 50:20 (‘God meant it for good’) — see ‘god_meant_for_good’ — a lexical echo lost in natural French that must be supplied by teaching notes.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: grâce
Transliteration: grâce
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: faveur, mérite
Inherited from Romans package. IMPORTANT Genesis-specific extension: the Hebrew text of Genesis 3:21, 4:15, 8:21-22, and 9:8-17 (the Common Grace doctrine’s narrative anchors) never uses a ‘grace’ word at all. Do NOT assert ‘grâce’ as a lexical label for these passages in translated text; reserve ‘grâce’/‘grâce commune’ for teaching-note/expository prose only, clearly distinguished from this saving-grace baseline entry. See new entry ‘grace_commune’ below.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: justice (de Dieu)
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: vertu, droiture
Original: צְדָקָה
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis-specific extension: this is the exact rendering of Hebrew צְדָקָה (tzedaqah) at Genesis 15:6, 18:19, and 38:26 — the Old Testament root of the entire Romans discussion of righteousness. Risk escalates to Critical specifically at Genesis 15:6 (see ‘counted_imputed’ and ‘believed’ entries) because that verse is the historical source of the Trent-vs-Reformation forensic/infused controversy the baseline documents for ‘justification’. Also applied to Noah (tzaddik, ‘juste’, Genesis 6:9) — see new entry ‘righteous’.
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Inherited from Romans package. Reserved for the NT title applied to Christ (κύριος). Do NOT use this key’s rendering (‘Seigneur’) as the default translation of the OT divine personal name YHWH in Genesis — see the distinct, Critical-risk ‘yhwh’ entry below, which recommends ‘le Seigneur / le SEIGNEUR’ as a French-convention choice while explicitly flagging that this is a different underlying Hebrew word than κύριος, even though the canonical connection (Romans 10:9) should be positively taught.
Election
Approved rendering: élection
Transliteration: élection
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: chance, destin
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis narrates this doctrine through concrete family-selection episodes (Isaac chosen over Ishmael, Genesis 17:19-21; Jacob chosen over Esau, Genesis 25:23) without necessarily using the abstract noun itself; this makes the baseline’s political/electoral collision risk in French (‘élection’ as a democratic vote) even more acute, since readers may (wrongly) read these narratives as validating favoritism or merit rather than sovereign, gracious divine choice. Use with a standing teaching-note fence in every Genesis occurrence.
Create
Approved rendering: créer
Transliteration: bara
Doctrine: Creation Ex Nihilo
Rejected alternatives: faire/façonner (conflates bara with asah/yatsar)
Original: בָּרָא
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. French ‘créer’ is used constantly for ordinary human creativity (‘créer une entreprise’), risking a materials-based reading. MUST be glossed ‘créer à partir de rien’ at every occurrence to preserve the doctrine of Creation Ex Nihilo. Contrast explicitly with ‘faire’ (asah, Gen 1:7, 16, 25) and ‘former’ (yatsar, Gen 2:7) in teaching notes; never apply the ex-nihilo gloss to those verbs. Genesis 1:1, 21, 27; 2:3.
Spirit Of God
Approved rendering: l’Esprit de Dieu
Transliteration: ruach Elohim
Doctrine: Divine Agency in Creation (Spirit of God)
Rejected alternatives: Esprit Saint (imports NT Trinitarian precision not textually warranted here), un vent (strips personal divine agency)
Original: רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים
Category: God
New Genesis term. God’s own personal presence actively superintending creation. Do NOT substitute baseline ‘Esprit Saint’. Do NOT flatten to ‘un vent’ (a wind), stripping personal divine agency essential to Creation Ex Nihilo and Providence doctrine. Genesis 1:2; echoed at 41:38 of Joseph.
Image
Approved rendering: image
Transliteration: tselem
Doctrine: The Image of God
Original: צֶלֶם
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. THE anchor term for the Image of God doctrine. Two convergent French risks: (1) French Catholic devotional culture strongly associates ‘image’ with icônes/images pieuses; (2) France’s secular humanist rights culture affirms human dignity (‘dignité humaine’, droits de l’homme) as a self-standing philosophical axiom detached from Creator-grounding. Teaching material must clarify: this is the nature and calling of every human being, grounded explicitly in God as Creator, not devotional imagery or free-standing humanism. Fixed pairing ‘à notre image, selon notre ressemblance’ must be retained as a unit. Genesis 1:26-27; reused at 5:1 and 9:6 (Universal Human Dignity and Justice).
Dominion Subdue
Approved rendering: dominer / soumettre
Transliteration: radah / kabash
Doctrine: Human Dominion as Stewardship
Original: רָדָה / כָּבַשׁ
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. Humanity’s derived, accountable royal-stewardship mandate. In contemporary French ecological/theological discourse (shaped by Laudato Si’ and environmental-ethics debate), risks being read as license for exploitative domination rather than accountable stewardship exercised as God’s answerable image-bearer. Must be glossed ‘intendance responsable’ (accountable stewardship) in every teaching-note context. Genesis 1:26, 28.
Rested
Approved rendering: se reposa
Transliteration: shabat
Doctrine: Sabbath Rest of God
Original: שָׁבַת
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. Two risks: (1) anthropomorphic-fatigue misreading undermining divine transcendence/omnipotence — gloss as ‘un repos de satisfaction et d’achèvement, non de fatigue’; (2) the term’s doctrinal payload (Exodus 20:11’s Sabbath commandment; Hebrews 4’s rest-in-Christ) is easily missed if rendered too thinly. Genesis 2:2. The verb, not the later noun-institution ‘Shabbat’, is in view — do not transliterate as ‘shabbat’ here.
Was Grieved
Approved rendering: eut le cœur peiné / fut affligé
Transliteration: nacham
Doctrine: Providence and the Sovereignty of God
Rejected alternatives: se repentit (implies divine error; shares a root with human sin-repentance vocabulary — FORBIDDEN)
Original: נִחַם
Category: God
New Genesis term. A striking anthropomorphic expression of God’s genuine grief over human sin (6:6). Two opposite errors to avoid: rendering too strongly (‘se repentit’) wrongly suggests God erred or sinned; rendering too weakly flattens the text’s real emotional/relational content. Hold the grief/sovereignty tension in teaching notes rather than resolving it by translation choice. Genesis 6:6.
Righteous
Approved rendering: juste
Transliteration: tzaddik
Doctrine: The Flood: Judgment and Grace
Original: צַדִּיק
Category: Salvation
New Genesis term. Introduces righteousness-language applied to a human being for the first time since the Fall (Noah, 6:9), anticipating the fuller doctrine of imputed righteousness at Genesis 15:6. Flag whether this is a graciously granted status, observed uprightness within a corrupt generation, or both — mirroring the Trent/Reformation-adjacent tension the baseline documents for ‘righteousness’/‘justification’. Genesis 6:9.
Blessing
Approved rendering: bénédiction
Transliteration: berakhah
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: בְּרָכָה
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. THE anchor term for the Abrahamic Covenant and Promise doctrine (‘I will bless you… all the families of the earth will be blessed through you’). Must preserve the universal (‘toutes les familles de la terre’) scope without qualification, mirroring the baseline’s validation rule for universality claims; this is the Old Testament root of the baseline’s Universal Scope of the Gospel / Unity of Jews and Gentiles doctrines. Genesis 12:2-3; reused at 27:1 (stolen blessing — do not let the narrative’s disapproval of Jacob’s deception soften the doctrinal weight of the blessing term itself).
Covenant Of Circumcision
Approved rendering: circoncision
Transliteration: berit milah
Doctrine: The Covenant Sign of Circumcision
Original: בְּרִית מִילָה
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. The sign/seal of the Abrahamic covenant applied to Abraham’s household — later engaged by Paul (Romans 4:9-12) as evidence that righteousness was credited to Abraham before circumcision. Contemporary France hosts a live, unrelated secular medical-ethics and religious-liberty debate over Jewish and Muslim religious circumcision practice; keep the text’s covenant-sign function distinguished from that contemporary controversy without side-stepping or overloading the passage. Genesis 17:9-14, 23-27.
God Almighty
Approved rendering: Dieu Tout-Puissant
Transliteration: El Shaddai
Doctrine: Divine Names and Titles
Original: אֵל שַׁדַּי
Category: God
New Genesis term. A significant divine title (etymology debated: ‘God of the mountain’ or ‘the all-sufficient’) introduced at a key covenant-renewal moment. Traditional rendering is stable across French traditions; flag as a distinct title from both Elohim and YHWH, each with its own nuance to be distinguished in teaching notes. Genesis 17:1.
Righteousness And Justice
Approved rendering: justice et droit
Transliteration: tzedaqah u-mishpat
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Original: צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט
Category: Salvation
New Genesis term. Pairs credited-righteousness vocabulary with mishpat (right judicial/social order) — Abraham’s covenant calling includes practicing justice, not merely receiving credited righteousness passively. Care must be taken not to reintroduce a merit-based reading of the Genesis 15:6 declaration by conflating the two here. Genesis 18:19.
Burnt Offering
Approved rendering: offrande / sacrifice
Transliteration: olah
Doctrine: Providence in Testing and Sacrifice
Rejected alternatives: holocauste (FORBIDDEN in general teaching prose — overwhelming, unavoidable Shoah association in contemporary French; reserve only for explicit technical liturgical-register footnotes, if used at all)
Original: עוֹלָה
Category: Providence
New Genesis term. A whole burnt offering, wholly consumed on the altar; the offering Abraham is commanded to bring of Isaac. Genesis 22:2-13.
Yhwh Yireh
Approved rendering: l’Éternel y pourvoira / le Seigneur pourvoira
Transliteration: YHWH Yireh
Doctrine: Providence in Testing and Sacrifice
Original: יהוה יִרְאֶה
Category: Providence
New Genesis term. ‘The LORD will provide/see to it’ — God’s specific, timely, sacrificial provision at the point of testing, foreshadowing substitutionary sacrifice fulfilled in Christ. Involves the same Critical YHWH-rendering decision as the ‘yhwh’ entry above and must be handled consistently with the curriculum’s fixed divine-name convention. Genesis 22:14.
Chesed
Approved rendering: fidélité bienveillante / bonté / fidélité
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: Chesed: Covenant Loyalty
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. Loyal love, covenant faithfulness, kindness rooted in relational commitment rather than obligation alone — no single French word fully captures it. Adopt ‘fidélité bienveillante’ as the curriculum’s consistent working rendering, with a standing teaching note explaining the term’s untranslatable richness. Flag every occurrence for native-speaker/theologian review. Genesis 24:12, 14, 27; 39:21.
Shiloh
Approved rendering: Shiloh (transliteré, avec glose interprétative)
Transliteration: Shiloh
Doctrine: Messianic Lineage Anticipation
Rejected alternatives: le Messie (overclaims exegetical certainty not present in the disputed Hebrew), celui à qui appartient le sceptre (a paraphrase resolution, avoid as primary rendering)
Original: שִׁילֹה
Category: Christology
New Genesis term. A difficult, much-debated term/name in Judah’s blessing, traditionally read messianically (‘until Shiloh comes’). The term’s obscurity is genuine in the Hebrew itself, not merely a translation problem; transliterate and gloss rather than resolve the debate by translation choice. Directly connects to the baseline’s Messiah/Davidic Covenant doctrines. Flag for human theologian review. Genesis 49:10.
God Meant For Good
Approved rendering: Dieu l’a changé en bien
Transliteration: chashab
Doctrine: Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering
Rejected alternatives: tout arrive pour une raison (therapeutic-secular flattening — FORBIDDEN; drops the personal, covenant-God-specific claim)
Original: חָשַׁב
Category: Providence
New Genesis term. Capstone text for Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering. Uses the identical Hebrew root (chashab) as Genesis 15:6’s ‘counted/credited’ righteousness — a lexical connection lost in natural French (distinct verbs for ‘changer en bien’ versus ‘imputer/compter’). This doctrinal link must be supplied by mandatory teaching notes cross-referencing Genesis 15:6 and 50:20, not left to the French text alone. Genesis 50:20.
Grace Commune
Approved rendering: grâce commune
Transliteration: n/a (theological label, not a single Hebrew lexeme)
Doctrine: Common Grace
New Genesis theological-category term (not a direct Hebrew-word translation). ‘Grâce commune’ is a genuine technical neologism/import (Kuyperian/Reformed systematic-theology term) with no independent currency in ordinary or Catholic French devotional usage. Must be introduced with an explicit gloss at first occurrence (teaching notes on Genesis 3:21) distinguishing it from the baseline’s ‘grâce’ (saving grace, Romans 3:24) — this is grace given to all humanity within judgment, not grace unto salvation specifically. Never assert as a direct lexical translation of any single Genesis Hebrew word; the concept is narrated (clothing, Cain’s mark, the rainbow, Hagar’s ‘Dieu qui me voit’), not lexically labeled, in the Hebrew text itself.
Medium Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of God
Inherited from Romans package (baseline key ‘god’). In Genesis this term also renders אֱלֹהִים (Elohim), the generic plural-form divine-nature name used with singular verbs (‘plural of majesty’), throughout Genesis 1 and passim. Guard against casual interjection use (‘Mon Dieu!’) and deist/abstract ‘prime mover’ flattening; Genesis 1 emphasizes Elohim’s transcendent, sovereign creative power, distinct from the personal covenant name YHWH introduced at Genesis 2:4 (see ‘yhwh’ entry below).
Faith
Approved rendering: foi
Transliteration: foi
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: croyance, religion
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis 15:6’s verb ‘he’emin’ (‘he believed/trusted’, rendered ‘crut’) is the Old Testament source of this doctrine’s noun form; see new entry ‘believed’ below for the verb-specific Critical-risk rendering at the doctrinal fountainhead Paul quotes in Romans 4:3.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salut
Transliteration: salut
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: délivrance
Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Genesis as the eventual telos of the Abrahamic Covenant, the protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15), and Joseph’s typological deliverance narrative; no direct Hebrew lexical equivalent occurs in Genesis, so this term is used only in expository/teaching-note prose, never asserted as a translation of a specific Genesis word.
Holy
Approved rendering: saint
Transliteration: saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: pur
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis 2:3 (‘God… made it holy’, qadash) is the first use of this root in Scripture — see new entry ‘sanctified’. Genesis establishes that holiness originates in God’s own declaration over creation, not human ritual achievement, a thread running directly into this baseline entry’s use in Romans.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: sanctification
Transliteration: sanctification
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: purification
Inherited from Romans package. Reused for lexical continuity with Genesis 2:3’s qadash root (see ‘sanctified’ entry) per the curriculum’s cross-document vocabulary-consistency mandate.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: incarnation
Transliteration: incarnation
Doctrine: Incarnation
Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Genesis only as forward-looking teaching-note vocabulary connecting the ‘seed of the woman’ (Genesis 3:15) and ‘seed of Abraham’ (Genesis 12:7; 22:17-18) promises to their fulfillment; not a translation of any Genesis-period Hebrew term.
Sin
Approved rendering: péché
Transliteration: péché
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Inherited from Romans package. Also renders חַטָּאת (chatta’ah), the first explicit ‘sin’ noun-root in Scripture, personified as a crouching predator at Genesis 4:7. Colloquial French trivializes ‘péché’ (‘péché mignon’ = guilty pleasure); Genesis 4:7’s vivid image should be preserved in teaching material to counteract this drift.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: païens
Transliteration: païens
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: étrangers
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL GENESIS CAVEAT: this rendering must NOT be used for Genesis 10’s גּוֹיִם (goyim), a neutral, pre-covenant genealogical-ethnographic term for peoples/nations. Using ‘païens’ there would wrongly import an anachronistic, pejorative Jew/Gentile religious contrast that does not yet exist in the Genesis 10 narrative. See new entry ‘nations’ for the correct Genesis rendering.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messie
Transliteration: Messie
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Genesis as the fulfillment-horizon of the protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15), the Abrahamic seed promise, and the Shiloh prophecy (Genesis 49:10); use only in teaching-note/expository prose, since the word itself does not occur in Genesis.
Covenant
Approved rendering: alliance
Transliteration: alliance
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: contrat
Original: בְּרִית
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis-specific extension: this is the exact rendering of בְּרִית (berit) at every covenant occurrence in Genesis — the Noahic covenant (Genesis 9, the first covenant explicitly so-named), the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12, 15, 17), and the covenant renewals with Isaac and Jacob. Risk escalates to High in the Genesis-specific doctrine registry given the sheer covenant-density of this book; the relational-not-merely-contractual sense, and the positive resonance with ‘l’alliance’ as a wedding ring, must be maintained consistently across every occurrence. The idiom ‘to cut a covenant’ (karat berit, Genesis 15:9-18) renders idiomatically as ‘conclure une alliance’, not a literal ‘couper une alliance’.
Intercession
Approved rendering: intercession
Transliteration: intercession
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Inherited from Romans package. Relevant to Genesis 18:22-33, Abraham’s intercession for Sodom before the LORD — an early biblical model of intercessory prayer distinct from, but a helpful entry-point for teaching against, the Catholic devotional category of the intercession of the saints the baseline already flags.
Providence
Approved rendering: providence
Transliteration: providence
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: destin, hasard
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis intensifies the baseline’s Enlightenment-deist ‘impersonal benevolent order’ risk because Genesis narrates providence through ordinary means (famine, family conflict, political intrigue: Gen 6:6, 8:1, 45:5-8, 50:20) rather than Paul’s didactic prose, giving translators less explicit doctrinal scaffolding. Prefer explicit relational phrasing (‘Dieu a agi’, ‘le dessein de Dieu’) over the bare abstract noun in narrative-adjacent teaching prose; reserve ‘la providence’ for summary/header use.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Inherited from Romans package. Also renders יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra’el), the name given to Jacob after wrestling with God (Genesis 32:28, ‘he struggles/strives with God’), the pivotal renaming that gives the covenant nation its enduring name. The baseline’s caution about contemporary political sensitivity applies with equal force in Genesis: keep the referent historical/theological (the patriarch/covenant people), distinct from the modern nation-state.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Esprit Saint
Transliteration: Esprit Saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. Do NOT substitute this NT rendering for Genesis 1:2’s OT construct רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים (ruach Elohim) — see the distinct new entry ‘spirit_of_god’ below, which must be rendered ‘l’Esprit de Dieu’, not ‘l’Esprit Saint’, to avoid overclaiming Trinitarian precision the Hebrew construct does not itself lexically supply, while still permitting the canonical connection to be taught.
Father
Approved rendering: Père
Transliteration: Père
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Inherited from Romans package. God is not typically addressed as ‘Père’ within Genesis itself; relevant chiefly as forward-looking teaching-note vocabulary and via the honorific ‘father of many nations’ given to Abraham (Genesis 17:5), which is a distinct human-patriarchal sense not to be confused with this entry’s divine-Fatherhood sense.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: descendance de David
Transliteration: descendance de David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: semence de David (archaic)
Inherited from Romans package. Establishes the precedent this curriculum extends: ‘semence’ is rejected as archaic/clinical for the human-lineage sense of Hebrew zera; Genesis applies the identical principle to the broader covenantal ‘seed’ language (protoevangelium, Abrahamic promise) — see new entry ‘seed_covenantal’, rendered ‘descendance’ throughout, reserving ‘semence’ strictly for literal botanical seed (see ‘seed_botanical’).
Formless And Void
Approved rendering: informe et vide
Transliteration: tohu wa-bohu
Doctrine: Creation Ex Nihilo
Original: תֹּהוּ וָבֹהוּ
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. A hendiadys describing raw, unformed, uninhabitable material — not a rival chaos-principle. Guard against readers importing an ANE dueling-chaos-god myth (Babylonian/Ugaritic Tiamat) onto the text; this is unformed potential entirely under God’s sovereign hand. Genesis 1:2.
The Deep
Approved rendering: l’abîme
Transliteration: tehom
Doctrine: Creation Ex Nihilo
Original: תְּהוֹם
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. The primeval deep waters. Risk of connotation with occult/apocalyptic ‘abîme’ imagery (Revelation’s abyss); context must clarify this is the primeval waters, not a demonic pit or mythic sea-deity. Genesis 1:2.
Good
Approved rendering: bon
Transliteration: tov
Doctrine: Goodness of Creation
Original: טוֹב
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. God’s evaluative pronouncement that creation is pleasing, functioning as intended, and unmarred. Secular readers may hear ‘bon’ as merely aesthetic; this is a theological verdict, distinct from human moral-achievement vocabulary tied to ‘justice’. Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25.
Expanse
Approved rendering: étendue
Transliteration: raqia
Doctrine: The Ordered Pattern of Creation
Rejected alternatives: firmament (archaic, risks a literal-solid-dome scientific-cosmology misreading)
Original: רָקִיע
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. The visible sky-dome structuring the cosmos. Prefer TOB/Jérusalem’s ‘étendue’ over Segond’s archaic ‘firmament’ to avoid inviting unnecessary science-vs-Bible conflict. Genesis 1:6-8.
Bless
Approved rendering: bénir / bénédiction
Transliteration: barak
Doctrine: Common Grace
Original: בָּרַךְ
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. God’s speech-act conferring favor, fruitfulness, and flourishing (Gen 1:22, 28; 2:3). Guard against casual secular French flattening (‘béni soit ce jour’ as mild exclamation) diluting a sovereign, effecting divine act. Becomes the master-term for the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 12:2-3) — see ‘blessing’.
Likeness
Approved rendering: ressemblance
Transliteration: demut
Doctrine: The Image of God
Original: דְּמוּת
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. Reinforces tselem as a near-synonym hendiadys. The fixed traditional pairing ‘à notre image, selon notre ressemblance’ should be retained as a unit across all French Bible traditions. Genesis 1:26.
Man Mankind
Approved rendering: l’homme / l’être humain
Transliteration: adam
Doctrine: The Image of God
Original: אָדָם
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. Generic, collective humankind at Gen 1:26-27 (both sexes, per v.27); later the proper name Adam from Gen 2:20 onward (see ‘adam_proper_name’). ‘L’homme’ can be misheard as gender-specific; add a clarifying gloss (‘l’être humain, homme et femme’) to avoid a male-only misreading of the Image of God doctrine.
Very Good
Approved rendering: très bon
Transliteration: tov me’od
Doctrine: Goodness of Creation
Original: טוֹב מְאֹד
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. God’s final, superlative verdict over completed creation; establishes the doctrinal baseline that evil and death are not intrinsic to creation as made, grounding the Fall as subsequent corruption. Genesis 1:31.
Sanctified
Approved rendering: sanctifia
Transliteration: qadash
Doctrine: Sabbath Rest of God
Original: קָדַשׁ
Category: Sanctification
New Genesis term. The seventh day is the first thing in Scripture explicitly called holy — set apart by God’s own declaration, not human ritual action. Reuses the baseline’s established root (holy/sanctification). Genesis 2:3.
Living Being Man
Approved rendering: être vivant
Transliteration: nefesh chayah
Doctrine: The Image of God
Original: נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. Same phrase as animals (Gen 1) but applied to the man who becomes a living being by receiving God’s breath directly (2:7) — heightened theological freight versus the animal usage, reinforcing humanity’s distinct, God-breathed origin without contradicting shared creatureliness. Genesis 2:7.
Helper
Approved rendering: une aide (qui lui correspond)
Transliteration: ezer
Doctrine: Marriage and ‘One Flesh’
Rejected alternatives: une assistante, une servante
Original: עֵזֶר
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. A strong, capable ally/counterpart (used elsewhere of God as Israel’s ‘helper’, Psalm 121:1-2) — no connotation of subordinate inferiority. Bare ‘une aide’ risks being heard as a subordinate domestic-assistant role (‘aide ménagère’); qualify with ‘qui lui correspond’ (matching Hebrew kenegdo, ‘corresponding to/opposite him, as an equal’). Genesis 2:18, 20.
Serpent
Approved rendering: serpent
Transliteration: nachash
Doctrine: The Fall and the Origin of Sin
Original: נָחָשׁ
Category: Fall
New Genesis term. THE anchor term for the Fall doctrine — the tempter who introduces doubt about God’s word and goodness. Modern secular French readers may read this reductively as folklore; the doctrinal point (a real spiritual adversary, later identified as Satan, Revelation 12:9) should be reinforced in teaching notes without altering the accurate, literal translation. Genesis 3:1.
Cursed
Approved rendering: maudit
Transliteration: arur
Doctrine: Sin’s Consequences
Original: אָרוּר
Category: Sin
New Genesis term. A solemn covenantal negative pronouncement with real consequential effect, the opposite of barak (blessed). Keep the béni/maudit pairing visible across the whole book; it structures Genesis’s entire covenant theology. Historical misuse of Gen 9:25 (Canaan) to justify racialized subjugation is a documented interpretive-history problem; render literally and address responsibly in exposition, never by altering the translation. Genesis 3:14, 17; 9:25.
Sin Noun
Approved rendering: péché
Transliteration: chatta’ah
Doctrine: Sin’s Consequences
Original: חַטָּאת
Category: Sin
New Genesis term. The first explicit use of the ‘sin’ noun-root, personified as a crouching predator (4:7). Reuses baseline ‘sin’; colloquial French trivializes ‘péché’ (‘péché mignon’); this crouching-predator image should be preserved in teaching material to counteract that drift. Genesis 4:7.
Sign
Approved rendering: signe
Transliteration: oth
Doctrine: Common Grace
Original: אוֹת
Category: Common Grace
New Genesis term. Anchors Common Grace: the protective mark given to Cain (4:15) and the rainbow covenant sign (9:12-17) both show God restraining full justice and providing protective mercy, foreshadowing the wider pattern of restrained judgment after the Fall. Genesis 4:15; 9:12-17.
Generations
Approved rendering: généalogie / les générations de
Transliteration: toledot
Doctrine: Covenant Faithfulness across Generations
Original: תּוֹלְדוֹת
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. Genesis’s repeated structuring device organizing the whole book into successive units. Anchors Covenant Faithfulness across Generations — God’s promises moving forward reliably through real historical family lines. Watch for reader fatigue/skipping; teaching notes should highlight the theological function, not just record-keeping. Genesis 5:1 passim.
Remembered
Approved rendering: se souvint
Transliteration: zakar
Doctrine: Providence and the Sovereignty of God
Original: זָכַר
Category: Providence
New Genesis term. God’s covenantal action-language — not recalling forgotten information but acting on a covenant commitment (‘God remembered Noah’, 8:1). Clarify in teaching notes this is covenantal action-language, not correcting a memory lapse. Genesis 8:1.
Nations
Approved rendering: nations
Transliteration: goyim
Doctrine: Table of Nations and Common Humanity
Rejected alternatives: païens (anachronistic, pejorative — see baseline ‘gentiles’ entry for the forbidden-substitution rule)
Original: גּוֹיִם
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. Nations/peoples in a purely genealogical-ethnographic sense (Table of Nations, ch.10), before any Jew/Gentile covenant distinction exists in the narrative. EXPLICITLY REJECT the baseline’s ‘gentiles’→‘païens’ rendering here. Use ‘nations’ or ‘peuples’. Genesis 10:5 passim.
Mishpechot Ha Adamah
Approved rendering: familles de la terre
Transliteration: mishpechot ha-adamah
Doctrine: The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Rejected alternatives: païens
New Genesis term. ‘All the families/clans of the earth’ — the universal-scope object of the Abrahamic blessing (Genesis 12:3). Keep neutral, non-pejorative ‘familles/peuples de la terre’; never ‘païens’. Directly parallels the baseline’s Universal Scope of the Gospel doctrine’s OT root.
Melchizedek
Approved rendering: Melchisédek
Transliteration: Malki-Tsedek
Doctrine: Messianic Lineage Anticipation
Original: מֶלְכִּי־צֶדֶק
Category: Christology
New Genesis term. Proper name meaning ‘king of righteousness’; a king-priest figure to whom Abram gives tithes, later applied typologically to Christ (Psalm 110; Hebrews 7). Proper-name transliteration is stable; flag the etymology for teaching notes. Genesis 14:18.
God Most High
Approved rendering: le Dieu Très-Haut
Transliteration: El Elyon
Doctrine: Common Grace
Original: אֵל עֶלְיוֹן
Category: God
New Genesis term. A divine title distinct from both Elohim (generic) and YHWH (covenant-personal), used by Melchizedek — a minor but real support for Common Grace/general revelation, showing the one true God known even partially beyond Abram’s immediate family line. Genesis 14:18-20.
God Who Sees Me
Approved rendering: le Dieu qui me voit
Transliteration: El Roi
Doctrine: Common Grace
Original: אֵל רֳאִי
Category: Providence
New Genesis term. A divine name/title given by Hagar, an Egyptian slave-woman — an early, striking witness that God’s providential care is not limited to the covenant line alone, supporting Common Grace and Providence doctrine. Genesis 16:13.
Everlasting Covenant
Approved rendering: perpétuelle / éternelle
Transliteration: olam
Doctrine: Covenant Faithfulness across Generations
Original: עוֹלָם
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. Describes the enduring nature of the Abrahamic covenant. Reinforces Covenant Faithfulness across Generations. Genesis 17:7, 13, 19.
Birthright
Approved rendering: droit d’aînesse
Transliteration: bekhorah
Doctrine: Covenant Faithfulness across Generations
Original: בְּכֹרָה
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. The firstborn’s special inheritance/blessing rights. Culturally recognizable in French (historical primogeniture) but largely obsolete in contemporary practice; a brief cultural/historical gloss aids comprehension. Genesis 25:29-34.
Dream
Approved rendering: songe
Transliteration: chalom
Doctrine: Dreams and Divine Revelation
Rejected alternatives: rêve (too ordinary — loses the revelatory/prophetic register)
Original: חָלוֹם
Category: Providence
New Genesis term. Anchors Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering. French Bible tradition reserves the elevated register word ‘songe’ for revelatory/prophetic dreams, distinct from ordinary ‘rêve’; secular French readers default to ‘rêve’ for all dreams and will not supply this distinction unaided. Use ‘songe’ consistently throughout the Joseph narrative. Genesis 37:5-10; 40-41.
Interpret Interpretation
Approved rendering: interpréter / interprétation
Transliteration: patar / pitron
Doctrine: Dreams and Divine Revelation
Original: פָּתַר / פִּתְרוֹן
Category: Providence
New Genesis term. Explicitly credited to God (‘It is not I; God will give the answer’, 41:16), not to Joseph’s innate skill or occult divination — guards against a magical/fortune-telling misreading, paralleling the baseline’s caution about ‘prophet’ not being confused with fortune-tellers. Genesis 40:8; 41:16.
Staff Scepter Tribe
Approved rendering: sceptre / tribu
Transliteration: shevet
Doctrine: Messianic Lineage Anticipation
Original: שֵׁבֶט
Category: Christology
New Genesis term. Context-dependent rendering reinforcing royal/messianic expectation associated with Judah’s line, later fulfilled in David and ultimately Christ. Genesis 49:10, 16.
Low Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: paix
Transliteration: paix
Doctrine: Peace with God
Inherited from Romans package. Also used in Genesis for שָׁלוֹם (shalom) in the Joseph-and-his-brothers reconciliation narrative (Genesis 42-45), a broader relational/restorative sense than this baseline entry’s narrower Romans 5:1 forensic ‘peace with God’. Teaching material must flag, not silently conflate, the two ranges even though both share the French rendering ‘paix’.
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: voyant
Inherited from Romans package. Minor relevance to Genesis 20:7 (Abraham called a prophet in a secondary sense) and to the general doctrine of predictive prophecy anticipated in the protoevangelium and Shiloh texts.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis 3:15 (protoevangelium) and Genesis 49:8-12 (Shiloh) are the earliest biblical instances of this doctrine, though the Hebrew word itself is absent from Genesis; use in teaching-note prose only.
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Genesis contains no narrative of David himself but supplies the messianic-lineage background (Judah’s line, Genesis 49:8-12, the Shiloh prophecy) that the Davidic Covenant later fulfills; relevant for teaching-note cross-referencing only.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jésus
Transliteration: Jésus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Not a Genesis-period name; used only in teaching-note prose connecting Genesis’s protoevangelium, Abrahamic seed promise, and Shiloh prophecy to their New Testament fulfillment in Jesus.
Beginning
Approved rendering: au commencement
Transliteration: bereshit
Doctrine: Creation Ex Nihilo
Original: בְּרֵאשִׁית
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. Absolute temporal starting point of creation; stable across Segond, TOB, Bible de Jérusalem. Secular readers may hear it as a literary opening rather than a metaphysical claim; address with teaching notes, not a different rendering. Genesis 1:1.
Heavens And Earth
Approved rendering: les cieux / la terre
Transliteration: shamayim / eretz
Doctrine: Creation Ex Nihilo
Original: שָׁמַיִם / אֶרֶץ
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. A totality merism denoting the entirety of the created order. Stable, traditional pairing across all French Bible traditions. Genesis 1:1.
Light
Approved rendering: lumière
Transliteration: or
Doctrine: Creation Ex Nihilo
Original: אוֹר
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. The first created reality named by divine speech-act, establishing the pattern of creation by sovereign word alone. Genesis 1:3.
Day
Approved rendering: jour
Transliteration: yom
Doctrine: The Ordered Pattern of Creation
Original: יוֹם
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. The ordering unit structuring creation into a patterned sequence culminating in the seventh-day rest. Literal-vs-figurative length debates are interpretive, not translation, questions; render literally. Genesis 1:5 passim.
Seed Botanical
Approved rendering: semence
Transliteration: zera
Doctrine: The Ordered Pattern of Creation
Original: זֶרַע
Category: Creation
New Genesis term. Botanical seed only. Reserve ‘semence’ strictly for this literal agricultural sense (Gen 1:11-12, 29); the covenantal/genealogical sense of the same Hebrew root uses ‘descendance’ — see ‘seed_covenantal’.
Living Creature
Approved rendering: être vivant
Transliteration: nefesh chayah
Doctrine: The Image of God
Original: נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. Applied to sea/air/land animals (Gen 1:20-25); shared creaturely category with humanity that sharpens by contrast the uniqueness conferred on humanity alone at 1:26-27. See ‘living_being_man’ for the heightened theological sense at Gen 2:7.
Male And Female
Approved rendering: mâle et femelle
Transliteration: zakhar u-nekevah
Doctrine: The Image of God
Original: זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. Confirms the Image of God belongs fully and equally to both sexes. Genesis 1:27.
Ground Soil
Approved rendering: sol / terre
Transliteration: adamah
Doctrine: The Image of God
Original: אֲדָמָה
Category: Anthropology
New Genesis term. Sets up the untranslatable adam/adamah wordplay (‘the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground’); address via teaching note, not a French neologism. Genesis 2:7.
One Flesh
Approved rendering: une seule chair
Transliteration: basar echad
Doctrine: Marriage and ‘One Flesh’
Original: בָּשָׂר אֶחָד
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. The covenantal, unitive nature of marriage. Stable, traditional rendering across French Bible traditions; foundational to Matthew 19:5, Ephesians 5:31. Genesis 2:24.
Naked
Approved rendering: nus
Transliteration: arom
Doctrine: The Fall and the Origin of Sin
Original: עָרוֹם
Category: Fall
New Genesis term. Sets up the shame-vocabulary contrast immediately activated in Genesis 3. Genesis 2:25.
Tree Of Life And Knowledge
Approved rendering: l’arbre de vie / l’arbre de la connaissance du bien et du mal
Transliteration: etz ha-chayim / etz ha-da’at tov va-ra
Doctrine: The Fall and the Origin of Sin
Original: עֵץ הַחַיִּים / עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע
Category: Fall
New Genesis term. The specific test of trusting God’s word over autonomous self-determination. Avoid a moralistic reading that reduces this to mere ethical awareness. Genesis 2:9; 3:1-6.
Garments
Approved rendering: vêtements / tuniques
Transliteration: kutonet
Doctrine: Common Grace
Original: כְּתֹנֶת
Category: Common Grace
New Genesis term. The animal-skin garments God provides Adam and Eve after the Fall — anchors Common Grace: even under judgment, God graciously provides covering, an early, non-elect-specific act of divine kindness within judgment. Flag for teaching-note emphasis despite low lexical risk. Genesis 3:21.
Walked With God
Approved rendering: marcha avec Dieu
Transliteration: halak
Doctrine: Covenant Faithfulness across Generations
Original: הָלַךְ
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. A vivid idiom for covenant faithfulness/intimate fellowship with God (Enoch). Retain literally; French ‘marcher avec Dieu’ is already an established devotional idiom. Genesis 5:22, 24.
Flood
Approved rendering: déluge
Transliteration: mabbul
Doctrine: The Flood: Judgment and Grace
Original: מַבּוּל
Category: Sin
New Genesis term. The universal deluge of judgment upon a violent, corrupt generation. Stable; no significant French rendering risk. Genesis 7-8.
Language Lip
Approved rendering: langue
Transliteration: safah
Doctrine: Table of Nations and Common Humanity
Original: שָׂפָה
Category: Sin
New Genesis term. The shared human language confused at Babel. Genesis 11:1.
Confused
Approved rendering: brouilla
Transliteration: balal
Doctrine: Table of Nations and Common Humanity
Original: בָּלַל
Category: Sin
New Genesis term. The Hebrew wordplay underlying the name ‘Babel’ (from balal, ‘to confuse’) is untranslatable in French; address with a teaching note, not a translation change. Genesis 11:9.
Ladder Stairway
Approved rendering: échelle
Transliteration: sullam
Doctrine: Providence and the Sovereignty of God
Original: סֻלָּם
Category: Providence
New Genesis term. Jacob’s dream-vision of a ladder/stairway at Bethel connecting heaven and earth. Genesis 28:12.
House Of God
Approved rendering: Béthel (maison de Dieu)
Transliteration: Beit-El
Doctrine: Covenant Faithfulness across Generations
Original: בֵּית־אֵל
Category: Covenant
New Genesis term. Proper name given by Jacob after his vision; retain with etymological gloss. Connects to God’s covenant presence extending across generations. Genesis 28:19.
Mo Ed
Approved rendering: temps fixés / saisons
Transliteration: mo’ed
Doctrine: The Ordered Pattern of Creation
New Genesis term. ‘Appointed time/season’; cosmological in Genesis 1:14 (marking seasons), not yet cultic — avoid importing Israel’s later festival-calendar connotations (same root) prematurely. Genesis 1:14.
Min Kind
Approved rendering: espèce
Transliteration: min
Doctrine: The Ordered Pattern of Creation
New Genesis term. ‘According to their kind’ — marks created biological order/diversity, minor support for an ordered, purposeful creation rather than raw undifferentiated matter. Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24-25.
Luminary
Approved rendering: luminaire
Transliteration: ma’or
Doctrine: The Ordered Pattern of Creation
New Genesis term. ‘Light-bearer’ — sun, moon, stars as ordering lights. Genesis 1:14-16.
Livestock
Approved rendering: bétail
Transliteration: behemah
Doctrine: The Ordered Pattern of Creation
New Genesis term. Domesticated land animals. Genesis 1:24-25.
Creeping Things
Approved rendering: bêtes qui rampent
Transliteration: remes
Doctrine: The Ordered Pattern of Creation
New Genesis term. Genesis 1:24-25.
Qorban Minchah
Approved rendering: offrande
Transliteration: qorban / minchah
Doctrine: Sin’s Consequences
New Genesis term. General ‘gift/offering’ sense (Cain and Abel’s offerings, Gen 4:3-5); distinguish from the later, technical Levitical sacrificial system not yet in view. Genesis 4:3-5.
Chamas
Approved rendering: violence
Transliteration: chamas
Doctrine: Sin’s Consequences
New Genesis term. The violence that fills the earth prior to the Flood. Genesis 6:11, 13.
Ark
Approved rendering: arche
Transliteration: teivah
Doctrine: The Flood: Judgment and Grace
New Genesis term. Distinguish from ‘l’arche de l’alliance’ (the ark of the covenant) — same French word, different Hebrew referent (teivah vs. aron); a minor false-friend risk worth a teaching footnote. Genesis 6-8.
Rainbow
Approved rendering: arc-en-ciel
Transliteration: qeshet
Doctrine: Common Grace
New Genesis term. The visible, perpetual, universal sign of God’s Noahic covenant commitment. Genesis 9:13-17.
Peniel
Approved rendering: Péniel
Transliteration: Peniel
Doctrine: Providence and the Sovereignty of God
New Genesis term. ‘Face of God’ — the place Jacob names after wrestling with God, having ‘seen God face to face and survived’. Proper name, minor theological note on divine transcendence/immanence. Genesis 32:30.
Adam Proper Name
Approved rendering: Adam
Transliteration: Adam
Doctrine: Name Changes and Covenant Identity
New Genesis term. The proper name, distinct from the generic collective ‘l’homme/l’être humain’ used at Genesis 1:26-27 (see ‘man_mankind’). Used from Genesis 2:20 onward. Stable across French Bible traditions.
Abram Abraham
Approved rendering: Abram → Abraham
Transliteration: Avram → Avraham
Doctrine: Name Changes and Covenant Identity
New Genesis term. Stable proper-name transliteration across French Bible traditions; the name change (Genesis 17:5) signals covenant identity transformation, a minor but real echo of the transformation-of-identity theme later developed in the NT (e.g., Pierre, Paul). Teaching-note opportunity, not a translation risk.
Sarai Sarah
Approved rendering: Saraï → Sara / Sarah
Transliteration: Sarai → Sarah
Doctrine: Name Changes and Covenant Identity
New Genesis term. Stable proper-name transliteration; Genesis 17:15.
Isaac Name
Approved rendering: Isaac
Transliteration: Yitzchaq
Doctrine: Covenant Faithfulness across Generations
New Genesis term. From the root ‘to laugh’ (referencing Sarah’s laughter, 18:12; 21:6). Stable name; worth a teaching note on the promise’s seeming impossibility and God’s faithfulness in fulfilling it despite human doubt. Genesis 21:3-6.
Referenced passages