Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Jonah | English → French
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, covering all four chapters of Jonah. Terms that already exist in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked REUSED (baseline) and their recorded French rendering is repeated here unchanged, per the hard rule that established renderings must be reused exactly. New terms unique to this curriculum are marked NEW and are proposed as translation memory additions at Phase 2.
| # | Term (EN label) | Original (Hebrew / LXX / NT Greek) | Transliteration | Chapter(s) | French Rendering | Risk | Doctrine(s) | Status / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | YHWH / “the LORD” | יהוה / Κύριος | Yahweh / Adonai / Kyrios | 1,2,3,4 | le SEIGNEUR (majuscules) | High | Sovereignty of God; God’s Compassion for the Nations | NEW. Distinguish typographically from NT Seigneur (baseline, κύριος/Christ) while preserving theological continuity; do not use “l’Éternel” and “le Seigneur” inconsistently within this curriculum. |
| 2 | Lord (NT confession) | κύριος | kyrios | cross-ref only (Matt 12) | Seigneur | High | Lordship of Christ | REUSED (baseline) exactly — see baseline lord entry. |
| 3 | word of the LORD | דְּבַר־יְהוָה / λόγος Κυρίου | devar-Adonai | 1,3 | la parole du Seigneur / de l’Éternel | Medium | Divine Calling; Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. Authoritative prophetic speech-act, not generic message. |
| 4 | call out / cry / proclaim | קָרָא | qara | 1,3 | crier / proclamer (context-dependent) | Medium | God’s Compassion for the Nations | NEW. Must vary by context (distress cry vs. judgment proclamation vs. public summons); flag every instance. |
| 5 | Nineveh | נִינְוֵה | Nineveh | 1,3,4 | Ninive | Low (name) / High (doctrine) | God’s Compassion for the Nations | NEW. Proper noun low linguistic risk; high catechetical weight as paradigm Gentile/enemy city. |
| 6 | Arise, go | קוּם לֵךְ | qum lek | 1,3 | Lève-toi, va | Low | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | NEW. Preserve identical wording across ch.1 (flight) and ch.3 (obedience) to retain the deliberate narrative echo. |
| 7 | evil / calamity (dual sense) | רָעָה | ra’ah | 1,3,4 | mal (moral) / malheur, calamité (consequential) | High | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. Single Hebrew word requires two French words; flag the wordplay loss explicitly in teaching notes (esp. 3:8 vs 3:10). |
| 8 | flee | בָּרַח | barach | 1 | fuir | Low | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | NEW. |
| 9 | presence of the LORD | מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה | mi-lifnei YHWH | 1 | loin de la présence du Seigneur | Medium | Sovereignty of God over Creation | NEW. Gloss against a naive doctrine of divine spatial limitation. |
| 10 | cast lots | גּוֹרָל | goral | 1 | tirer au sort / jeter les sorts | Medium | (contrast with) Effectual Calling / Election | NEW. Must not be conflated with baseline élection (High risk, political-competitive connotation) — lots are chance-based, election is sovereign choice; keep conceptually distinct. |
| 11 | great fish | דָּג גָּדוֹל / κῆτος μέγα | dag gadol / kētos mega | 1 | un grand poisson | Medium | Sovereignty of God; Sign Foreshadowing Resurrection | NEW. Never “une baleine” (whale) — inaccurate to text and disrupts consistency with Matthew 12:40’s French rendering. |
| 12 | appointed / prepared (recurring sovereignty verb) | מָנָה (וַיְמַן) | manah / vayeman | 1,4 | suscita / fit venir (recommend single consistent verb) | Medium | The Sovereignty of God over Creation | NEW. Recurs at 1:17 (fish), 4:6 (plant), 4:7 (worm), 4:8 (wind) — a deliberate fourfold pattern; French must preserve verb consistency to keep the pattern visible. |
| 13 | fear (contrastive: terror vs. reverence) | יָרֵא | yare | 1 | avoir peur (terror) / craindre (reverential awe) | Medium | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | NEW. Context-sensitive; pagan sailors’ growing reverence ironically exceeds Jonah’s own. |
| 14 | sacrifice / vow | זֶבַח / נֶדֶר | zebach / neder | 1,2 | sacrifice / vœu | Low | Christian Fellowship (analogy); Thanksgiving | NEW, but conceptually adjacent to REUSED baseline thanksgiving = action de grâce. |
| 15 | Sheol | שְׁאוֹל | she’ol | 2 | le séjour des morts | High | Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | NEW. Never “l’enfer” (false-cognate risk: implies eternal punishment, not the shadowy realm of the dead). Transliteration “le Shéol” acceptable as secondary gloss. |
| 16 | three days and three nights | שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת / τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας | shelosha yamim ushlosha leloth / treis hēmeras kai treis nyktas | 2 | trois jours et trois nuits | Critical | Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | NEW. Must be rendered identically here and at every citation of Matthew 12:40 across the full Language Package; mandatory theologian review for cross-book consistency. |
| 17 | the deep / the pit / the abyss | מְצוֹלָה / שַׁחַת / תְּהוֹם | metsulah / shachath / tehom | 2 | les profondeurs / la fosse / l’abîme | Medium | Sovereignty of God over Creation | NEW. Distinguish from NT apocalyptic “abyss” (ἄβυσσος) in cross-references. |
| 18 | holy temple | הֵיכַל קֹדְשְׁךָ | heikal qodshekha | 2 | ton saint temple | Medium | Prayer and Intercession (analogy) | NEW. God’s heavenly dwelling, not an earthly building or specific denominational church. |
| 19 | steadfast love / covenant loyalty (chesed) | חֶסֶד | chesed | 2,4 | bonté / amour fidèle / fidélité | High | God’s Compassion for the Nations; Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. Do NOT default to REUSED baseline grâce (χάρις/charis) — distinct covenant-relational nuance; document distinction for future OT curricula. |
| 20 | salvation | יְשׁוּעָה | yeshu’ah | 2 | salut | Medium | Salvation | REUSED (baseline) exactly. |
| 21 | fast | צוֹם | tsom | 3 | jeûne | Low | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. |
| 22 | sackcloth | שַׂק | saq | 3 | sac / vêtements de sac | Low | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. |
| 23 | ashes | אֵפֶר | epher | 3 | cendre | Low | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. |
| 24 | overthrown / overturned | נֶהְפָּכֶת (הָפַךְ) | nehpakhet / haphak | 3 | renversée (preferred) / détruite | Medium | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. Preserve Sodom-echo (Genesis 19:25) via “renversée.” |
| 25 | believed God | וַיַּאֲמִינוּ בֵּאלֹהִים / ἐνεπίστευσαν τῷ θεῷ | va-ya’aminu ba-Elohim | 3 | crurent en Dieu / crurent Dieu | High | Faith; Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | NEW, but must follow REUSED baseline faith (foi) doctrine notes: genuine trust, not intellectual assent. |
| 26 | turn / repent | שׁוּב | shuv | 3 | se détourner (de sa mauvaise voie) / revenir | High | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. Behavioral reorientation, not mere emotional regret; do not use loose colloquial “repentir” for mild regret. |
| 27 | violence | חָמָס | chamas | 3 | violence | Low | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. |
| 28 | fierce anger | חֲרוֹן אַף | charon aph | 3,4 | colère ardente | Medium | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. |
| 29 | relent (of God) | נִחַם | nacham | 3,4 | renoncer (au mal) / changer de dessein — NOT “se repentir” for God | Critical | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. Reserve “se repentir” exclusively for human repentance to avoid implying divine fallibility; mandatory theologian review every occurrence. |
| 30 | Who knows? | מִי יוֹדֵעַ | mi yodea | 3 | Qui sait ? | Low | Repentance and Divine Mercy | NEW. Idiom of humility guarding against presumption on grace. |
| 31 | king of Nineveh | מֶלֶךְ נִינְוֵה | melekh Nineveh | 3 | le roi de Ninive | Low | (historical note only) | NEW. |
| 32 | gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love | חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב־חֶסֶד | channun v’rachum, erekh appayim, rav-chesed | 4 | miséricordieux et compatissant, lent à la colère et riche en bonté | Critical | God’s Compassion for the Nations | NEW. Exodus 34:6 formula; align exactly with established French OT rendering tradition (Segond/TOB) for cross-Scripture recognizability. |
| 33 | plant (qiqayon) | קִיקָיוֹן | qiqayon | 4 | ricin | Low | Sovereignty of God over Creation | NEW. Botanical identity historically disputed (cf. Jerome’s “ivy” controversy); not doctrinally load-bearing. |
| 34 | worm | תּוֹלַעַת | tola’ath | 4 | ver | Low | Sovereignty of God over Creation | NEW. |
| 35 | scorching east wind | רוּח קָדִים חֲרִישִׁית | ruach qadim charishith | 4 | vent d’orient brûlant | Low | Sovereignty of God over Creation | NEW. |
| 36 | pity / spare | חוּס | chus | 4 | avoir pitié (de) / épargner | Medium | God’s Compassion for the Nations | NEW. Preserve rhetorical-question form of 4:11 in translation. |
| 37 | much cattle / many animals | בְּהֵמָה רַבָּה | behemah rabbah | 4 | une grande quantité de bêtes | Low | Sovereignty of God over Creation | NEW. Do not trim from summaries; deliberate closing theological detail. |
| 38 | the sign of Jonah | τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ | to sēmeion Iōna | (NT cross-ref: Matt 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32) | le signe de Jonas | High | Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | NEW. Established French rendering across Segond/TOB/BJ; gloss “signe” as God-given doctrinal pointer, not omen. |
| 39 | nations / Gentiles | (referent: Nineveh as Gentile city; cf. NT ἔθνη) | — | 1,3,4 | les nations (preferred) / païens (contextual alternative) | Medium | God’s Compassion for the Nations | REUSED (baseline) gentiles risk notes exactly — prefer “les nations” in mission-emphasis contexts per baseline guidance. |
| 40 | great city | עִיר גְּדוֹלָה | ir gedolah | 1,3,4 | grande ville | Low | God’s Compassion for the Nations | NEW. |
| 41 | thanksgiving (vow-paying) | תּוֹדָה | todah | 2 | action de grâce | Low | Thanksgiving | REUSED (baseline) exactly. |
Risk Tier Summary (Jonah-Specific Additions)
| Risk Tier | Count (new Jonah terms) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 4 (#16, #29, #32, and #1 elevated by typographic ruling) | Mandatory human theologian review |
| High | 8 (#7, #9 is Medium not High — corrected list: #1, #7, #15, #19, #25, #26, #38, plus baseline-linked #4/#5 doctrine weight) | Mandatory human theologian review |
| Medium | 16 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 14 | Automated review |
Notes for Phase 2 Translation Memory Integration
- All 41 terms above must be added to a Jonah-specific extension of
translation_memory.jsonbefore Phase 2 segment translation begins, following the same JSON schema as the baseline Romans file (translation,transliteration,doctrine_risk,doctrine,alternatives_rejected,notes). - Terms marked REUSED must be copied byte-for-byte from the baseline file; do not re-derive or paraphrase.
- The four Critical-risk terms (#1, #16, #29, #32) require explicit
[TRANSLATOR NOTE: ...]flags per the baseline AI instruction set’s footnote requirement, on every occurrence, throughout Phase 2. - The ra’ah wordplay (#7) and the chesed/grâce distinction (#19) should be documented as standing translation policy for any future Old Testament curriculum added to this Language Package, since both issues will recur well beyond Jonah.
Critical Risk Terms
Three Days Three Nights
Approved rendering: trois jours et trois nuits
Transliteration: shelosha yamim ushlosha leloth / treis hēmeras kai treis nyktas
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Original: שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת (LXX/Matt 12:40: τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας)
Category: Christology/Typology
NEW — CRITICAL. The fixed duration of Jonah’s entombment (1:17; 2:1), explicitly cited by Jesus (Matthew 12:40) as the pattern for His death and resurrection. This exact French phrase MUST be rendered identically here and at every citation of Matthew 12:40 across the wider Language Package. Mandatory theologian review for cross-document verbatim consistency, parallel to the baseline’s Romans 1:16-17 / 8:28 / 10:9-10 consistency rules.
Relent Nacham
Approved rendering: renoncer au mal / changer de dessein
Transliteration: nicham / nacham
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Rejected alternatives: se repentir (established Segond/TOB wording applied to God; risks implying God sins or errs as humans do)
Original: נִחַם (Niphal of נחם)
Category: Repentance and Divine Mercy
NEW — CRITICAL. Anthropopathic expression describing God’s response changing in relation to human repentance (3:9-10; 4:2), never a statement that God erred or sinned. Reserve ‘se repentir’ exclusively for human repentance (see turn_repent). Mandatory theologian review, every occurrence, parallel to baseline’s Critical handling of ‘justification’ and ‘imputed_righteousness’.
Exodus 34 6 Formula
Approved rendering: miséricordieux et compatissant, lent à la colère et riche en bonté
Transliteration: channun v’rachum, erekh appayim, rav-chesed
Doctrine: The Character of God Revealed (Exodus 34:6 Formula)
Rejected alternatives: devotional synonym-swapping (e.g., substituting ‘grâce’ or ‘amour’ loosely for any of the four attributes)
Original: חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב־חֶסֶד
Category: God’s Character
NEW — CRITICAL. Classic fourfold divine self-revelation formula (Exodus 34:6), quoted by Jonah in complaint (4:2) — the doctrinal center of the whole book. Must align exactly with the established Segond/TOB rendering tradition for cross-Scripture recognizability. Mandatory theologian review to confirm consistency wherever this formula recurs elsewhere in the Language Package (Numbers 14:18; Psalm 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Nehemiah 9:17; Joel 2:13).
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: grâce
Transliteration: grâce
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: faveur, mérite
Original: χάρις (NT correspondent, contrasted with chesed)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Same word used by Catholic and Protestant traditions, but the theology differs: Catholic catechesis ties grâce to sacramental mediation; Reformed/Segond tradition insists on grâce apart from any ecclesial mediation. Must render as wholly unmerited. In Jonah, this entry exists specifically to fence ‘grâce’ OFF from the OT term chesed (see chesed entry, Section B): ‘grâce’ must remain reserved for NT charis and must never be used to translate chesed.
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. ‘Seigneur’ carries feudal-historical resonance in French, risking a distant, archaic-title reading rather than a living confession. In Jonah, this entry must be kept typographically distinct from the OT divine name (see yhwh, Section B, rendered ‘le SEIGNEUR’ in majuscules): plain ‘Seigneur’ is reserved strictly for NT κύριος cross-references (e.g., when teaching material cites Matthew 12:39-41 alongside Jonah).
Election
Approved rendering: élection
Transliteration: élection
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: chance, destin
Inherited from Romans package. ‘Élection’ is the everyday word for political/democratic elections, risking a competitive or merit-based reading rather than sovereign, gracious choice. In Jonah, this entry exists specifically to fence ‘élection’ OFF from the sailors’ chance-based lot-casting (see cast_lots, Section B): the two are deliberately contrasted mechanisms in the narrative (chance versus sovereign choice), never to be conflated in teaching material.
Yhwh
Approved rendering: le SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: YHWH / Adonai
Doctrine: YHWH’s Continuity with the New Testament Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: l’Éternel (breaks the deliberate NT-bridge convention), Yahvé (unfamiliar phonetic transliteration for the target readership)
Original: יהוה
Category: God
NEW. The personal covenant name of Israel’s God, used throughout Jonah as the one who commissions, pursues, and shows mercy. This curriculum adopts ‘le SEIGNEUR’ (majuscules) rather than Segond’s ‘l’Éternel’, to preserve a visible typographic bridge to the NT confession ‘Seigneur’ (see lord, Section A above) already fixed in baseline translation memory, while still marking the OT divine name as distinct from ordinary address. Mandatory theologian review for cross-document typographic consistency.
Nineveh
Approved rendering: Ninive
Transliteration: Nineveh
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Original: נִינְוֵה
Category: Missiology
NEW. The capital of the Assyrian Empire, Israel’s historic imperial oppressor; the paradigm Gentile city to which God sends compassion. Proper name itself is low linguistic risk, but teaching material must make explicit that Nineveh represents a hostile foreign power, not a neutral city, or the scandal of God’s mercy toward an enemy nation is flattened.
Evil Calamity Raah
Approved rendering: mal (sens moral) / malheur, calamité (sens de jugement)
Transliteration: ra’ah
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Rejected alternatives: a single French word covering both senses (none exists)
Original: רָעָה
Category: Repentance
NEW. A single Hebrew noun spanning moral wrongdoing (1:2; 3:8, ‘their evil’/‘his evil way’) and consequential disaster (3:10; 4:2, God’s ‘calamity’). No French word covers both senses; requires a mandatory [TRANSLATOR NOTE] flagging the wordplay at every 3:8-4:2 cluster, since the doctrine’s central logic (Nineveh turns from its ra’ah, so God turns from His ra’ah) depends on readers perceiving this deliberate symmetry.
Sheol
Approved rendering: le séjour des morts
Transliteration: she’ol
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: l’enfer (false-cognate: implies eternal conscious punishment, not the shadowy realm of the dead)
Original: שְׁאוֹל
Category: Eschatology
NEW. The OT shadowy realm of the dead (2:2); never ‘l’enfer’. A transliterated ‘le Shéol’ is acceptable only as a secondary in-text gloss. Mandatory theologian review to guard the resurrection-typology doctrine this term supports.
Chesed
Approved rendering: bonté / amour fidèle
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: The Character of God Revealed (Exodus 34:6 Formula)
Rejected alternatives: grâce (reserved exclusively for NT charis; see grace, Section A above)
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: God’s Character
NEW. Covenant loyalty, steadfast love, faithful kindness — describing God’s character (4:2, part of the Exodus 34:6 formula) and, ambiguously, what idolaters forfeit (2:9). Do NOT default to ‘grâce’. This distinction is standing translation policy for all future Old Testament curricula in this Language Package.
Believed God
Approved rendering: crurent en Dieu
Transliteration: va-ya’aminu ba-Elohim
Doctrine: Faith of the Gentiles (Ninevites’ Belief)
Rejected alternatives: furent convaincus (reduces trust to mere cognitive persuasion)
Original: וַיַּאֲמִינוּ בֵּאלֹהִים (LXX: ἐνεπίστευσαν τῷ θεῷ)
Category: Faith
NEW. Gentile, pagan Assyrians exercising the same root verb (aman) used for saving faith (3:5) — genuine trust producing repentance, not mere acknowledgment that a report was true. Must follow the baseline ‘faith’ doctrine note: the object of faith must remain recoverable from context.
Turn Repent
Approved rendering: se détourner de sa mauvaise voie
Transliteration: shuv
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Rejected alternatives: regretter (mere emotional remorse), repentir used loosely for mild regret
Original: שׁוּב
Category: Repentance
NEW. The OT’s primary repentance verb (3:8, 3:10) — a concrete reorientation of life-direction, not emotional remorse alone. Must be kept distinct from relent_nacham (God’s response) to preserve the doctrine’s central human/divine distinction.
Sign Of Jonah
Approved rendering: le signe de Jonas
Transliteration: to sēmeion Iōna
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: a rendering implying omen or astrological portent
Original: τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ
Category: Christology/Typology
NEW. Jesus’ own identification (Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32) of Jonah’s fish-entombment as the pattern for His resurrection. Established rendering across Segond, TOB, Bible de Jérusalem; ‘signe’ must be glossed as a God-given doctrinal pointer, not superstition.
Medium Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: foi
Transliteration: foi
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: croyance, religion
Original: πίστις (NT correspondent) / cf. אָמַן
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. In secular French, ‘la foi’ can drift toward generic religiosity or ‘la religion’ as an institutional label. Must specify personal trust, not adherence to a religious system. In Jonah 3:5, this doctrine-category underlies ‘the Ninevites believed God’ (see believed_god, Section B) — the first Gentile exercise of this same trust-category in the curriculum.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salut
Transliteration: salut
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: délivrance
Original: יְשׁוּעָה
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Stable shared term. Chief risk is Catholic sacramental-economy framing versus Protestant faith-alone framing. In Jonah 2:9 (‘salvation belongs to the LORD’), the term’s context intensifies its doctrinal weight: Jonah confesses salut as entirely God’s sovereign act while praying from inside a fish as a direct consequence of his own disobedience, reinforcing that salut is never self-achieved.
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Secularization risk: ‘Dieu’ is used as a casual interjection and, in academic French, can be treated as an abstract deist concept rather than the personal, active God of Scripture. In Jonah, ‘Dieu’ (Elohim) is the term the pagan sailors and Ninevites come to trust (1:6, 3:5, 3:10, 4:2); the personal, active sense must be preserved against any deist flattening.
Holy
Approved rendering: saint
Transliteration: saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: pur
Inherited from Romans package. Set apart for God and morally pure; ‘pur’ alone loses the set-apart sense. Relevant to Jonah 2:4, 2:7 (‘ton saint temple’) — see holy_temple, Section B — where the adjective describes God’s heavenly dwelling, not an earthly sanctuary.
Sin
Approved rendering: péché
Transliteration: péché
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Inherited from Romans package. Secularization risk: colloquial French uses ‘péché’ loosely for minor indulgence (‘péché mignon’), which can trivialize culpable wrongdoing. In Jonah, teaching summaries must not let unqualified ‘péché’ understate the severity of Nineveh’s violence (chamas) and evil (ra’ah, Section B), which threatened total destruction (‘renversée’).
Gentiles
Approved rendering: païens
Transliteration: païens
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: étrangers
Inherited from Romans package. ‘Païens’ carries a pejorative ‘uncivilized/irreligious’ connotation stronger than the neutral original sense. Prefer ‘les nations’ in mission-emphasis contexts. Directly relevant to Jonah, where Nineveh functions as the paradigm Gentile city; see gentiles_nations cross-entry.
Providence
Approved rendering: providence
Transliteration: providence
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: destin, hasard
Inherited from Romans package. 18th-century Enlightenment deism used ‘la Providence’ for an impersonal benevolent order; must render as the personal, purposive care of a covenant God. Directly relevant to Jonah’s doctrine ‘The Sovereignty of God over Creation’ (storm, fish, plant, worm, wind, all personally ‘appointed’ by God, see appointed_manah, Section B) — the same deist-flattening risk applies to this fourfold pattern.
Mission
Approved rendering: mission
Transliteration: mission
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Inherited from Romans package. France’s colonial missionary history carries live postcolonial critique; frame mission as gospel proclamation, not cultural conquest. Directly relevant to Jonah’s own prophetic mission to Nineveh, which must be anchored in Nineveh’s role as imperial aggressor rather than a passive mission-field, to avoid an unintended colonial-mission framing.
Calling
Approved rendering: appel
Transliteration: appel
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: vocation (clergy-narrowing risk)
Inherited from Romans package. Reserve ‘vocation’ with caution: it strongly connotes a call to priesthood or religious life in Catholic French culture. Directly relevant to Jonah’s own prophetic commissioning (‘the word of the LORD came to Jonah’, see word_of_the_lord, Section B): render Jonah’s summons as ‘appel’, never ‘vocation’.
Called
Approved rendering: appelé
Transliteration: appelé
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: invité
Inherited from Romans package. Context-sensitive across senses of calling. ‘Invité’ is too weak (mere invitation, not divine initiative) — directly relevant to Jonah, whose commissioning (‘Arise, go’, see arise_go, Section B) is an authoritative summons Jonah initially refuses, not an invitation he could reasonably decline.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Inherited from Romans package. Contemporary Middle East politics and France’s significant Jewish community make it easy to conflate biblical Israel with the modern nation-state; keep the referent historical/theological. Relevant background for Jonah as an Israelite prophet sent to Israel’s imperial oppressor (Nineveh/Assyria); the covenant-versus-nations tension underlying ‘God’s Compassion for the Nations’ presupposes this referent.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: résurrection
Transliteration: résurrection
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: renaissance
Inherited from Romans package. No competing reincarnation folk-concept in French; the real risk is secular naturalism flattening ‘résurrection’ into a metaphor rather than a historical, bodily event. This is the doctrinal target of the whole curriculum doctrine ‘Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection’: Jonah’s three days in the fish (see three_days_three_nights, Section B) is the OT sign; this term (‘résurrection’) names the NT reality it foreshadows and must never be softened here either.
Word Of The Lord
Approved rendering: la parole du Seigneur
Transliteration: devar-YHWH
Doctrine: Prophetic Calling and Commissioning
Rejected alternatives: un message, une pensée
Original: דְּבַר־יְהוָה
Category: Prophecy
NEW. A specific divine utterance/command given to a prophet (1:1, 3:1); marks Jonah’s commissioning as objective, externally-given revelation, not personal opinion or impression. Must not be softened to a generic message.
Call Out Proclaim
Approved rendering: proclamer / crier (contextuel)
Transliteration: qara
Doctrine: Prophetic Calling and Commissioning
Rejected alternatives: a single mechanical French verb applied uniformly across all occurrences
Original: קָרָא
Category: Prophecy
NEW. Spans the sailors’ distress cry (1:14), Jonah’s prophetic proclamation of judgment (1:2, 3:2, 3:4), and the king’s public summons to fasting (3:5, 3:7). Choose ‘proclamer’/‘crier contre’ for prophetic judgment-proclamation and ‘crier à’ for urgent appeal/prayer (3:8); flag every occurrence for context check.
Presence Of The Lord
Approved rendering: loin de la présence du Seigneur
Transliteration: mi-lifnei YHWH
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Original: מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה
Category: God
NEW. Idiom for leaving God’s manifest commissioned service, not a claim of escaping God’s omnipresence (disproven by the storm and Jonah’s own prayer). Requires a gloss for a biblically unchurched readership against a naive spatial-limitation reading.
Cast Lots
Approved rendering: tirer au sort
Transliteration: goral
Doctrine: Divine Sovereignty versus Chance (Lots and Election Contrast)
Rejected alternatives: élire / élection (conflation risk with baseline election term)
Original: גּוֹרָל
Category: Divination
NEW. Ancient Near Eastern chance-based divination practice used by pagan sailors (1:7). Must never be rendered with, or taught alongside, the baseline term ‘élection’, which denotes sovereign personal choice — the opposite mechanism from chance.
Great Fish
Approved rendering: un grand poisson
Transliteration: dag gadol / kētos mega
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: une baleine (whale — zoologically inaccurate to the Hebrew and disrupts NT cross-reference consistency)
Original: דָּג גָּדוֹל (LXX: κῆτος μέγα)
Category: Creation/Typology
NEW. An unspecified large sea creature (1:17), sovereignly commanded by God; cited by Jesus (Matthew 12:40) as the type for His burial and resurrection. Consistency with the French NT rendering of Matthew 12:40 is required for the typology to remain visible.
Appointed Manah
Approved rendering: suscita / fit venir
Transliteration: manah / vayeman
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: varying the verb per occurrence (fit venir, fit croître, envoya) — obscures the deliberate fourfold pattern
Original: מָנָה (וַיְמַן)
Category: Creation/Sovereignty
NEW. God’s deliberate appointing of the fish (1:17), plant, worm, and wind (4:6-8) — a fourfold literary pattern. Recommend a single consistent French verb across all four occurrences, since standard French Bibles vary their rendering, which conceals the pattern.
Fear Yare
Approved rendering: avoir peur / craindre (contextuel)
Transliteration: yare
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Original: יָרֵא
Category: Human Reluctance
NEW. Ranges from ordinary terror (sailors, 1:5) to reverential awe (1:10, 1:16) to Jonah’s own claimed but functionally absent fear of YHWH (1:9). Context-sensitive; preserve the irony that pagan sailors display more authentic reverence than God’s own prophet.
The Deep Abyss
Approved rendering: les profondeurs / l’abîme
Transliteration: metsulah / shachath / tehom
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Original: מְצוֹלָה / שַׁחַת / תְּהוֹם
Category: Creation
NEW. Cosmic, chaotic waters over which only God has mastery (2:3-6), echoing Genesis 1:2’s primordial deep. ‘L’abîme’ must not be silently equated with the NT apocalyptic abyss (ἄβυσσος, Revelation) without a clarifying note in cross-reference material.
Holy Temple
Approved rendering: ton saint temple
Transliteration: heikal qodshekha
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession (Jonah’s Prayer from the Deep)
Original: הֵיכַל קֹדְשְׁךָ
Category: Worship
NEW. God’s heavenly dwelling, to which Jonah confesses access even from inside the fish (2:4, 2:7) — not an earthly sanctuary. Must not be read as referring to any specific denominational church building, consistent with baseline caution on ‘Église’.
Overthrown Overturned
Approved rendering: renversée
Transliteration: nehpakhet / haphak
Doctrine: Divine Justice and Judgment
Rejected alternatives: détruite (generic; loses the ‘overturned’-image and the Sodom echo)
Original: נֶהְפָּכֶת (from הָפַךְ)
Category: Judgment
NEW. Total destruction/reversal announced against Nineveh (3:4), the identical Hebrew root applied to Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction (Genesis 19:25). Prefer ‘renversée’ to preserve the deliberate intertextual echo raising the stakes of what repentance averts.
Fierce Anger
Approved rendering: colère ardente
Transliteration: charon aph
Doctrine: The Character of God Revealed (Exodus 34:6 Formula)
Rejected alternatives: mécontentement (too mild; understates the judgment averted)
Original: חֲרוֹן אַף
Category: God’s Character
NEW. Idiom (lit. ‘the burning of his nostril’) for God’s intense wrath (3:9; 4:2). Must preserve intensity.
Pity Spare
Approved rendering: avoir pitié de
Transliteration: chus
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Rejected alternatives: converting the rhetorical question into a flat declarative statement
Original: חוּס
Category: God’s Compassion
NEW. God’s closing rhetorical question to Jonah (4:11), ‘should I not pity Nineveh?’ Preserve the rhetorical-question form; the unresolved, address-the-reader force is deliberate.
Gentiles Nations
Approved rendering: païens / les nations
Transliteration: goyim / ethnē
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Original: עֶם (referent: Nineveh as Gentile city; NT cross-ref ἔθνη)
Category: Missiology
NEW cross-reference entry (uses baseline gentiles rendering, Section A). Nineveh functions in Jonah as the paradigm Gentile nation to whom God’s compassion and prophetic word are sent. Prefer ‘les nations’ in mission-emphasis/positive-doctrine contexts.
Low Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: Évangile
Transliteration: Évangile
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: bonne nouvelle (informal only)
Inherited from Romans package. Shared, stable term across Catholic and Protestant French Bibles (Segond, TOB, Bible de Jérusalem). Low risk; ‘bonne nouvelle’ is acceptable as a plain-language gloss but not a substitute in doctrinal text. Relevant to Jonah as the NT lens (Matthew 12:41, ‘something greater than Jonah is here’) that reads Nineveh’s repentance as anticipating gospel proclamation to the nations.
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: voyant
Inherited from Romans package. God’s spokesperson; avoid ‘voyant’ (fortune-teller connotation). Jonah himself is a prophète in this established sense, situated within the classical Hebrew prophetic office; his reluctance is a moral failure within that office, not a discrediting of it.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Inherited from Romans package. God-inspired declaration, not astrological prediction. Relevant to Jonah’s proclamation of Nineveh’s forty-day judgment (3:4) and to ‘le signe de Jonas’ (see sign_of_jonah, Section B), which must likewise be kept distinct from omen or portent.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: action de grâce
Transliteration: action de grâce
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: תּוֹדָה
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Minor note: the phrase also names the Eucharistic ‘action de grâce’ in Catholic liturgy; context distinguishes general thanksgiving from the rite. Relevant to the sailors’ and Jonah’s vow-paying worship responses to deliverance (Jonah 1:16, 2:9; see sacrifice_vow, Section B).
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jésus
Transliteration: Jésus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Stable across all French traditions. Relevant to Jonah exclusively via NT cross-reference: Jesus is the one who identifies ‘le signe de Jonas’ (Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32) as the pattern for His own death and resurrection — see sign_of_jonah, Section B.
Arise Go
Approved rendering: Lève-toi, va
Transliteration: qum lek
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Original: קוּם לֵךְ
Category: Divine Calling
NEW. Imperative prophetic-dispatch formula repeated verbatim at Jonah’s original commission (1:2) and renewed commission (3:2). Must render identically both times so French readers perceive the deliberate flight-versus-obedience echo between chapters 1 and 3.
Flee Barach
Approved rendering: fuir
Transliteration: barach
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Original: בָּרַח
Category: Human Reluctance
NEW. Jonah’s physical escape from his divine commission (1:3); establishes the book’s structural theme from its opening verses.
Sacrifice Vow
Approved rendering: sacrifice / vœu
Transliteration: zebach / neder
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: זֶבַח / נֶדֶר
Category: Worship
NEW. Cultic sacrifice and formal vow offered by the sailors (1:16) and Jonah (2:9) as worship responses to deliverance. Standard French vocabulary; keep unglossed with liturgical Eucharistic language.
Fast
Approved rendering: jeûne
Transliteration: tsom
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: צוֹם
Category: Repentance
NEW. Ritual abstention from food declared by the Ninevites (3:5) as an act of corporate repentance. Standard French term; no significant ambiguity.
Sackcloth
Approved rendering: sac / vêtements de sac
Transliteration: saq
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: שַׂק
Category: Repentance
NEW. Coarse mourning/penitential garment worn by Ninevites from king to commoner, and even the animals (3:5-8). Standard French biblical idiom.
Ashes
Approved rendering: cendre
Transliteration: epher
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: אֵפֶר
Category: Repentance
NEW. Sitting in ashes (3:6), a further intensification of mourning beyond sackcloth alone.
Violence
Approved rendering: violence
Transliteration: chamas
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: חָמָס
Category: Ethics
NEW. Social/interpersonal violence, injustice, oppression — the concrete content of Nineveh’s wrongdoing (3:8). Direct cognate-equivalent exists in French.
Who Knows
Approved rendering: Qui sait ?
Transliteration: mi yodea
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: מִי יוֹדֵעַ
Category: Repentance
NEW. Idiom of epistemic humility (3:9) expressing hope in God’s mercy without presuming upon it as owed — guards against a works-merit reading of the repentance that follows.
King Of Nineveh
Approved rendering: le roi de Ninive
Transliteration: melekh Nineveh
Doctrine: Divine Justice and Judgment
Original: מֶלֶךְ נִינְוֵה
Category: Narrative/Historical
NEW. The governing ruler of Nineveh (3:6-9); the title differs from the standard Assyrian royal title, a minor historical-critical detail, not doctrinally load-bearing.
Plant Qiqayon
Approved rendering: ricin
Transliteration: qiqayon
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: ivy (Jerome’s disputed rendering, not doctrinally load-bearing)
Original: קִיקָיוֹן
Category: Creation
NEW. Unidentified fast-growing plant God appoints to shade Jonah (4:6). Follow established Segond/French tradition; botanical identity is background color only.
Worm
Approved rendering: ver
Transliteration: tola’ath
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Original: תּוֹלַעַת
Category: Creation
NEW. Worm God appoints to destroy the plant (4:7); part of the fourfold sovereignty pattern. Ensure verb consistency with appointed_manah entry.
Scorching East Wind
Approved rendering: vent d’orient brûlant
Transliteration: ruach qadim charishith
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Original: רוּח קָדִים חֲרִישִׁית
Category: Creation
NEW. Scorching wind God appoints against Jonah (4:8), completing the fourfold sovereignty pattern.
Much Cattle
Approved rendering: une grande quantité de bêtes
Transliteration: behemah rabbah
Doctrine: Universal Scope of Divine Compassion (Including Creation)
Original: בְּהֵמָה רַבָּה
Category: Creation
NEW. The book’s final theological word (4:11), extending God’s compassion explicitly to animals. Must not be trimmed in summary/paraphrase material.
Great City
Approved rendering: grande ville
Transliteration: ir gedolah
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Original: עִיר גְּדוֹלָה
Category: Missiology
NEW. Nineveh’s repeated description as a great city (1:2; 3:2-3; 4:11), underscoring the scale of God’s compassion toward a major Gentile population center.
Referenced passages