Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Matthew 1–28 (English → French)
This glossary extends, and never contradicts, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. Section A lists baseline terms reused unchanged in the Matthew curriculum. Section B lists new terms this curriculum introduces, using the same risk framework (Critical / High / Medium / Low). All French renderings follow formal ecumenical study-Bible register (TOB / Bible de Jérusalem), readable by Catholic, Protestant, and secular audiences per the destination-language package.
Section A — Baseline Terms Reused Exactly (Romans → Matthew)
| Term | French rendering | Risk | Key Matthew chapters | Contextual note for Matthew |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | Évangile | Low | 4, 9, 24, 26 | Combines with kingdom: “l’Évangile du Royaume” (4:23) |
| faith | foi | Medium | 8, 9, 15, 17 | Centurion (8), Canaanite woman (15) — Gentile faith theme |
| righteousness | justice | High | 3, 5, 6 | Matthean ethical-conduct nuance distinct from Romans’ forensic nuance; see Sec. B note under “righteousness (Matthean sense)“ |
| salvation | salut | Medium | 1, 10, 19, 24 | ”he will save his people from their sins” (1:21) |
| apostle | apôtre | Low | 10 | First formal list of the Twelve |
| called / calling | appelé / appel | Medium/High | 2, 4, 9, 22 | Calling of disciples; parable of the wedding feast (“many called, few chosen,” 22:14) |
| holy | saint | Medium | 6, 27 | ”hallowed be thy name” (6:9); temple as “holy place” |
| sanctification | sanctification | Medium | (implicit) | Not a frequent Matthean noun; underlies “be perfect” (5:48) teaching |
| adoption | adoption filiale | Medium | 5 | Underlies “sons of God” (5:9) — see Sec. B distinct entry, capitalization rule |
| resurrection | résurrection | Medium | 22, 27, 28 | Sadducee debate (22); climactic event (28) |
| lord | Seigneur | High | 7, 8, 12, 22, 25 | ”Lord, Lord” false confession (7); Lord of the Sabbath (12); Ps 110 riddle (22) |
| son of God | Fils de Dieu | Critical | 1 (implicit), 3, 4, 8, 14, 16, 17, 26, 27 | Central Christological title throughout; see Sec. B rule distinguishing from “fils de Dieu” (believers, lower-case) |
| incarnation | incarnation | Medium | 1 | Underlies virgin birth/Immanuel narrative |
| peace | paix | Low | 5, 10 | Peacemakers (5:9); “not peace but a sword” (10:34) |
| church | Église | High | 16, 18 | Foundational text (16:18) and discipline procedure (18:17) |
| kingdom of God | Royaume de Dieu | Medium | 12:28, 19:24, 21:31, 21:43 | Rare Matthean form; taught as synonymous in referent with “Royaume des cieux” (Sec. B) |
| law | loi | High | 5, 7, 11, 12, 22, 23 | ”I have not come to abolish the Law” (5:17); “the Law and the Prophets” (22:40) |
| sin | péché | Medium | 1, 3, 6, 9, 26 | ”save his people from their sins” (1:21); forgiveness of sins (9) |
| gentiles | païens / nations | Medium | 4, 6, 10, 12, 20 | Context-sensitive: render “nations” (not “païens”) when ἔθνη is inclusive of all peoples, e.g., Matthew 28:19; see Sec. B |
| glory | gloire | Medium | 6, 16, 17, 19, 24, 25 | Transfiguration (17); Son of Man’s coming in glory (24-25) |
| messiah | Messie | Medium | 1, 2, 11, 16, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27 | Programmatic from 1:1; Peter’s confession (16); Ps 110 riddle (22) |
| prophet | prophète | Low | 1–5, 7, 11, 13, 21, 23 | Fulfillment-formula citations throughout; false prophets (7, 24) |
| prophecy | prophétie | Low | 13 (implicit), 24 | Undergirds the fulfillment-formula doctrine |
| covenant | alliance | Medium | 26 | Words of institution: “my blood of the covenant” (26:28) — Critical passage, see Sec. B |
| election / chosen | élection / élu | High | 22, 24 | ”many called, few chosen” (22:14); “for the sake of the elect” (24:22, 24) |
| providence | providence | Medium | 19, 24 | ”with God all things are possible” (19:26); “no one knows the day or hour” (24:36) |
| mission | mission | Medium | 10, 28 | Sending of the Twelve (10); Great Commission (28) — postcolonial framing caution applies |
| david | David | Low | 1, 9, 12, 15, 20, 21, 22 | Combined into “Fils de David” — see Sec. B |
| israel | Israël | Medium | 2, 8, 9, 10, 15, 19, 27 | ”not even in Israel” (8:10); “lost sheep of Israel” (10:6, 15:24) |
| jesus | Jésus | Low | throughout | Name glossed at 1:21 (“YHWH saves”) |
| god | Dieu | Medium | throughout | — |
| holy spirit | Esprit Saint | Medium | 1, 3, 12, 28 | Virginal conception (1); descent at baptism (3); blasphemy against the Spirit (12); baptismal formula (28) |
| father | Père | Medium | 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 17, 28 | Lord’s Prayer (6); mutual Father-Son knowledge (11); Transfiguration voice (17); baptismal formula (28) |
| exhort | exhorter | Low | (rare in Matthew) | Caution: παρακαλέω at 5:4 requires “consoler,” not “exhorter” — context-conditioned, see Sec. B |
| seed of David | descendance de David | Medium | 1 | Underlies “Fils de David” genealogical claim (Sec. B) |
| imputed righteousness | justice imputée | Critical | (not directly used in Matthew) | Retained for cross-curriculum consistency; the Romans-specific forensic category should not be imported wholesale into Matthew’s own righteousness texts (5:6, 5:20, 6:33) without the Matthean-nuance note in Sec. B |
Section B — New Terms Introduced by the Matthew Curriculum
| Term (key) | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | French rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Key chapters/verses | Rationale / rendering risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| kingdom_of_heaven | βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν | basileia tōn ouranōn | Royaume des cieux | High | The Kingdom of Heaven | 3:2; 5:3,10; 13; throughout (~32x) | Must stay lexically distinct from baseline “Royaume de Dieu” while taught as the identical referent (God’s reign); French “le ciel” risks an afterlife-only reading rather than God’s present-and-future reign. |
| son_of_david | υἱὸς Δαυίδ | huios Dauid | Fils de David | High | Jesus as the Promised Messiah and Son of David | 1:1; 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9,15; 22:42-45 | Combined title new to the curriculum; risk of a merely genealogical reading that misses the Davidic-covenant messianic office (2 Sam 7). |
| son_of_man | υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου | huios tou anthrōpou | Fils de l’homme | Critical | Authority of Jesus’ Teaching; Judgment | 8:20; 9:6; 12:8; 16:13; 24:30; 26:64 | Widely misread as emphasizing only Jesus’ humanity/humility; is in fact a Daniel-7 authority-and-judgment title. Must never be conflated with “Fils de Dieu.” |
| fulfillment_formula | πληρόω (ἵνα/ὅπως πληρωθῇ) | plēroō | afin que s’accomplisse / accomplir | Medium | Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy | 1:22; 2:15,17,23; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21:4; 26:56; 27:9 | Lexically stable; risk is low OT literacy obscuring which OT text is cited — requires cross-reference notes, not a different rendering. |
| authority | ἐξουσία | exousia | autorité | High | Authority of Jesus’ Teaching | 7:29; 8:9; 9:6,8; 21:23-27; 28:18 | French secular/laïque culture and post-Vatican II clerical-authority sensitivity risk hearing “autorité” as institutional power rather than Jesus’ intrinsic, self-authenticating authority. |
| disciple / follow | μαθητής / ἀκολουθέω | mathētēs / akoloutheō | disciple / suivre | Medium | Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus | 4:18-22; 8:18-22; 10; 16:24; 28:19 | Stable loanword risks under-signaling the total-life-allegiance cost embedded in the term. |
| repentance | μετάνοια / μετανοέω | metanoia / metanoeō | repentir / se repentir | High | (undergirds Kingdom of Heaven doctrine) | 3:2,8,11; 4:17; 11:20; 12:41 | Catholic sacramental “sacrement de la Pénitence” strongly associates repentir with the confession rite; Matthew’s usage is the prior inward reorientation. |
| baptism | βάπτισμα / βαπτίζω | baptisma / baptizō | baptême / baptiser | High | The Great Commission | 3:6,11,13-16; 28:19 | Catholic sacramental/infant vs. Protestant believer’s-baptism divide is live and unresolved across this curriculum’s mixed audience; render literally, no doctrinal resolution in the glossary. |
| bind_and_loose | δέω / λύω | deō / lyō | lier / délier | Critical | The Church and Church Discipline | 16:19; 18:18 | Direct collision with the Catholic sacramental doctrine of priestly/episcopal absolution and “le pouvoir de lier et de délier”; present as the church’s corporate, Spirit-given authority, flag every occurrence for theologian review. |
| keys_of_the_kingdom | κλεῖδας τῆς βασιλείας | kleidas tēs basileias | clés du Royaume [des cieux] | Critical | The Church and Church Discipline | 16:19 | Extremely loaded in French Catholic visual/institutional culture (papal insignia, “les clés de saint Pierre”); glossary does not adjudicate the papal-primacy debate; mandatory theologian review every occurrence. |
| hypocrite | ὑποκριτής | hypokritēs | hypocrite | Medium | Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees | 6:2,5,16; 15:7; 23 (repeated refrain) | French idiom “faire le pharisien” risks flattening Pharisees into cartoon villains, undercutting the passage’s self-examination aim. |
| pharisee_scribe | Φαρισαῖος / γραμματεύς | Pharisaios / grammateus | pharisien / scribe | Medium | Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees | 3:7; 5:20; 9:11; 12:38; 15:1; 23 | Same idiom risk as “hypocrite”; also French “scribe” today denotes chiefly a copyist, obscuring the historical scribe’s authoritative legal-scholarly role. |
| love_agape | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | agapē / agapaō | amour / aimer | Medium | (undergirds Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees) | 5:44; 22:37-39 | Modern French “amour” is dominated by romantic connotation; must be clarified as covenantal, willed, self-giving love. |
| neighbor | πλησίον | plēsion | prochain | Low-Medium | (undergirds Great Commandment) | 22:39 | Stable Bible French term; scope-of-neighbor is a pastoral, not lexical, question. |
| mammon | μαμωνᾶς | mamōnas | Mamon | Medium | (Kingdom priorities) | 6:24 | Transliterate to preserve personification of wealth as rival master; flattening to “l’argent” loses rhetorical force. |
| lords_prayer_debts | ὀφειλήματα | opheilēmata | dettes (liturgical variant: “offenses”) | High | (undergirds Kingdom / discipleship ethics) | 6:12; cf. 18:21-35 | Collides with the fixed, memorized Catholic liturgical “Notre Père” text (“nos offenses”); recommend literal “dettes,” flag liturgical variant for reviewers. |
| the_evil_one | τοῦ πονηροῦ | tou ponērou | le Mauvais (personal) / le mal (abstract) | Medium | (Lord’s Prayer) | 6:13 | Genuinely ambiguous in Greek between personal Satan and abstract evil; recommend following the 2017 ecumenical liturgical choice (“le Mauvais”) for consistency with what French speakers already pray. |
| judge | κρίνω | krinō | juger | Medium | Judgment and the End of the Age | 7:1-5 | Risk of over-application (quietist “never judge”) or under-application (dismissing as relativism); requires the log/speck co-text intact. |
| narrow_gate | ἡ στενὴ πύλη | hē stenē pylē | la porte étroite | Medium | Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus | 7:13-14 | Risk of moralistic misreading (more effort) rather than the intended exclusivity of the one true way. |
| forgive_sins | ἀφίημι | aphiēmi | pardonner | Medium | Authority of Jesus’ Teaching | 9:2-6; 6:12; 18:21-35 | Must be taught as Jesus’ direct, unmediated divine prerogative, not read through the lens of priestly sacramental absolution. |
| compassion | σπλαγχνίζομαι | splanchnizomai | avoir compassion | Low | (undergirds Mercy/Kingdom ethics) | 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 18:27; 20:34 | Low ambiguity; vivid gut-level compassion prompting action. |
| life_soul | ψυχή | psychē | vie | Medium | Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus | 10:39; 16:25-26 | ”Âme” risks importing later body-soul dualism; “vie” better preserves the whole-person sense. |
| yoke | ζυγός | zygos | joug | Low | Discipleship / Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees | 11:29-30 | Stable rendering; agrarian image unfamiliar to French readers, requires teaching-note context, not lexical change. |
| sabbath_lord | σάββατον / κύριος τοῦ σαββάτου | sabbaton / kyrios tou sabbatou | sabbat / Seigneur du sabbat | Medium | Authority of Jesus’ Teaching | 12:1-8 | Low French familiarity with Jewish Sabbath practice; the Christological claim (authority over an institution God himself gave) needs framing. |
| blasphemy_against_spirit | βλασφημία τοῦ πνεύματος | blasphēmia tou pneumatos | blasphème contre l’Esprit | Critical | Judgment and the End of the Age | 12:31-32 | The “unforgivable sin”; must not be broadened to ordinary sin/doubt given its pastoral sensitivity; mandatory theologian review. |
| parable | παραβολή | parabolē | parabole | Medium | The Kingdom of Heaven | 13 (throughout) | Dual revealing/concealing function (13:10-17) easily lost if taught as mere friendly illustration. |
| mystery | μυστήριον | mystērion | mystère | Medium | The Kingdom of Heaven | 13:11 | Catholic liturgical “mystère” (Mass, Rosary) risks importing sacramental categories foreign to the present-hidden/future-revealed Kingdom sense. |
| tradition | παράδοσις | paradosis | tradition | High | Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees | 15:1-9 | Direct collision with capital-T Catholic “Tradition” as co-authoritative revelation; requires theologian framing distinguishing the specific first-century target from the broader Catholic theological category. |
| defile | κοινόω | koinoō | souiller / rendre impur | Medium | Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees | 15:11,18,20 | Must retain the external-ritual vs. internal-moral contrast central to the passage’s polemical structure. |
| take_up_cross | ἆρον τὸν σταυρὸν | aron ton stauron | prendre sa croix / porter sa croix | High | Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus | 16:24 | French idiom “porter sa croix” has drifted to mean any life burden, stripped of its costly, public, potentially fatal original referent. |
| transfiguration | μετεμορφώθη | metemorphōthē | fut transfiguré / la Transfiguration | Medium | Jesus as the Promised Messiah (Deity of Christ) | 17:1-8 | Established liturgical term; must retain “revealed pre-existing glory” sense, not “external transformation into something new.” |
| little_ones | μικροί | mikroi | petits | Low | The Church and Church Discipline | 18:1-14 | Low ambiguity; frames church discipline as protective of the vulnerable. |
| stumbling_block | σκάνδαλον | skandalon | scandale / occasion de chute | Medium | The Church and Church Discipline | 18:6-9 | Modern French “scandale” (public controversy) risks losing the original sense of causing another believer to sin. |
| ransom | λύτρον | lytron | rançon | Critical | (undergirds Kingdom/Cross doctrine) | 20:28 | Must anchor to substitutionary payment satisfying God’s justice, not a payment appeasing a hostile third party nor a merely sentimental reading. |
| slave_servant | δοῦλος / διάκονος | doulos / diakonos | esclave / serviteur | High | Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus | 20:26-28 | France’s specific historical memory of the transatlantic/colonial slave trade gives “esclave” unusually heavy national-memory resonance; requires a culturally sensitive teaching note, not a softened rendering. |
| hosanna | ὡσαννά | hōsanna | Hosanna (transliterated) | Low | Jesus as the Promised Messiah | 21:9,15 | Retained untransliterated per the same convention as Amen/Alléluia/Abba in the baseline. |
| cornerstone | κεφαλὴ γωνίας | kephalē gōnias | pierre angulaire | Medium | Jesus as the Promised Messiah; Fulfillment of Prophecy | 21:42 | Risk of a purely architectural/decorative reading that misses the rejection-then-vindication narrative arc. |
| parousia | παρουσία | parousia | avènement / venue | Critical | Judgment and the End of the Age | 24:3,27,37,39 | Secular drift toward “dawning of an era”; Greek’s own secondary sense of mere “presence” creates live eschatological-interpretation stakes; theologian review every occurrence. |
| abomination_of_desolation | βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως | bdelygma tēs erēmōseōs | l’abomination de la désolation | High | Judgment and the End of the Age | 24:15 | Comprehension risk (requires Daniel background), not lexical-ambiguity risk; low OT literacy audience needs substantial cross-referencing. |
| generation | γενεά | genea | génération | Medium | Judgment and the End of the Age | 24:34 | Contested referent across theological traditions (preterist/futurist); glossary must not silently resolve the exegetical debate. |
| talents_parable | τάλαντον | talanton | talents | High | Judgment and the End of the Age; Discipleship | 25:14-30 | Circular collision: modern French “talent” (natural ability) derives historically from this very parable; must not be conflated with baseline “dons spirituels” (Spirit-given gifts). |
| eternal_punishment_life | κόλασιν αἰώνιον / ζωὴν αἰώνιον | kolasin aiōnion / zōēn aiōnion | châtiment éternel / vie éternelle | Critical | Judgment and the End of the Age | 25:46 | Must preserve the identical adjective for both outcomes; must not soften toward purgatorial or annihilationist readings; mandatory theologian review. |
| words_of_institution | τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου / τὸ αἷμά μου τῆς διαθήκης | touto estin to sōma mou / to haima mou tēs diathēkēs | Ceci est mon corps… mon sang de l’alliance | Critical | (undergirds Church doctrine) | 26:26-28 | The most Catholic-Protestant-contested words in the Gospel (transubstantiation/Real Presence vs. memorial readings); render literally, resolve nothing in translation, mandatory theologian review every occurrence. |
| crucify | σταυρόω | stauroō | crucifier | Low | (Passion narrative) | 27 | Stable, unambiguous across all French traditions. |
| eli_eli_lema_sabachthani | Ἠλὶ Ἠλὶ, λεμὰ σαβαχθάνι | Ēli Ēli, lema sabachthani | Éli, Éli, lema sabachthani (transliterated + glossed) | Medium | (Passion narrative / atonement) | 27:46 | Preserve transliteration plus Matthew’s own Greek gloss, per the Abba precedent in the baseline. |
| make_disciples | μαθητεύσατε | mathēteusate | faites… des disciples | High | The Great Commission | 28:19 | No single French verb equivalent; must render as a full clause to retain the total-life-formation sense, not collapse into “évangélisez”; postcolonial-mission framing caution applies (cf. baseline mission). |
| all_nations | πάντα τὰ ἔθνη | panta ta ethnē | toutes les nations (NOT “païens” here) | High | The Great Commission; Universal Scope of the Gospel | 28:19 | Context-sensitive counterpart to baseline gentiles→“païens”: here ἔθνη is inclusive of all peoples, including Israel; “païens” would wrongly narrow scope and import an unintended pejorative connotation. |
| trinitarian_baptismal_formula | εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος | eis to onoma tou Patros kai tou Huiou kai tou Hagiou Pneumatos | au nom du Père, et du Fils, et du Saint-Esprit | Critical | The Great Commission (undergirds Trinity doctrine) | 28:19 | Singular “name” for three Persons and fixed order must be preserved exactly; mandatory theologian review; connects to baseline Père/Fils de Dieu/Esprit Saint entries. |
| immanuel | Ἐμμανουήλ | Emmanouēl | Emmanuel (transliterated + glossed “Dieu avec nous”) | Critical | Fulfillment of Prophecy; Incarnation | 1:23; cf. 28:20 inclusio | Preserve both transliteration and Matthew’s own in-text gloss; direct incarnational/deity claim. |
| virgin | παρθένος | parthenos | vierge | Critical | Fulfillment of Prophecy; Incarnation | 1:23; 1:18,20,25 (narrative) | No “young woman” softening within Matthew’s own narrative frame, regardless of the separate Isaiah-source debate. |
| magi | μάγοι | magoi | mages | Medium | Jesus as the Promised Messiah (Gentile recognition) | 2:1-12 | French “mage” carries occult/fortune-telling connotations stronger than the intended “wise scholar” sense; needs a brief clarifying note. |
| worship_proskyneo | προσκυνέω | proskyneō | adorer (divine sense) / se prosterner devant (homage sense) | Medium | Jesus as the Promised Messiah; Deity of Christ | 2:2,11; 14:33; 28:9,17 | Genuinely ambiguous between royal homage and divine worship; must shift toward unambiguous “adorer” at the Christological climaxes (14, 28). |
| righteousness_matthean_sense | δικαιοσύνη | dikaiosynē | justice (baseline reuse, same French word) | High | Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees | 5:6,10,20; 6:33 | Same French word as Romans’ forensic “justice,” but Matthew’s sense is the lived, ethical righteousness exceeding Pharisaic rule-keeping; teaching notes, not a different French word, must carry the distinction. |
| parakaleo_console | παρακαλέω (comfort sense) | parakaleō | consoler (context-conditioned; baseline records “exhorter” for a different sense) | Medium | (Beatitudes; undergirds Kingdom of Heaven) | 5:4 | Same Greek verb as baseline’s “exhort”/“exhorter,” but Matthew 5:4 requires the “console/comfort” point on its semantic range; risk that translators mechanically reuse “exhorter” from the baseline table. |
| perfect | τέλειος | teleios | parfait | Medium | Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees | 5:48 | French “parfait” connotes flawless performance; must be anchored to covenant wholeness/maturity, not moral perfectionism, to avoid despair or legalism. |
| reward | μισθός | misthos | récompense | High | Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus; Judgment | 5:12; 6:1-18; 10:41-42; 20:1-16; 25:14-30 | Direct grace-vs-merit collision already flagged at doctrine level in the Romans baseline; must be taught as gracious response to faith-produced obedience, never as earned wages creating a legal claim on God. |
Risk Summary (Section B new terms only)
| Risk tier | Count | Review routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 11 | Human theologian, every occurrence |
| High | 13 | Human theologian required |
| Medium | 21 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 6 | Automated review |
Critical-tier new terms requiring theologian review at every occurrence: son_of_man, bind_and_loose, keys_of_the_kingdom, blasphemy_against_spirit, ransom, parousia, eternal_punishment_life, words_of_institution, trinitarian_baptismal_formula, immanuel, virgin.
Cross-reference note: This glossary must be merged into an updated translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json (Matthew edition) before Phase 2 segment translation begins, per the Pre-flight Checklist established in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md. Two context-conditioned dual-sense entries (παρακαλέω: exhorter/consoler; ἔθνη: païens/nations) must be encoded as context-sensitive, not merged into a single default rendering.
Critical Risk Terms
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: justice
Doctrine: Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees
Rejected alternatives: vertu, droiture, justice méritée
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (French rendering unchanged; risk elevated to Critical per assets/bible_term_registry.json Matthew edition). CRITICAL Matthew-specific nuance: 5:6, 5:10, 5:20, 6:33 use this same French word for the lived, ethical righteousness that exceeds Pharisaic external rule-keeping, distinct from Romans’ forensic declared-status sense. Do not silently import Romans’ ‘justice imputée’ framing into these Matthean texts, and do not drain Matthew’s ethical seriousness by over-forensicizing it. Carry the distinction in teaching notes, never by inventing a second French word.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salut
Transliteration: salut
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: délivrance
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to Critical for Matthew: 1:21 grounds the very name ‘Jésus’ in this doctrine (‘il sauvera son peuple de ses péchés’); must not be read as this-worldly rescue or well-being.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: résurrection
Transliteration: résurrection
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: renaissance
Original: ἀνάστασις
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to Critical given Matthew’s climactic narrative use (22:23-33 Sadducee debate; ch. 28 empty tomb); must render as historical and bodily, resisting secular-naturalist metaphorical readings.
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to Critical for Matthew: 7:21-23 (‘Seigneur, Seigneur’), 12:8 (Lord of the Sabbath), and the Psalm 110 riddle (22:41-45) all depend on unqualified, exclusive force, not the feudal-title distancing the baseline flags.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Fils de Dieu
Transliteration: Fils de Dieu
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ / Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: envoyé de Dieu, homme divin
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (Critical, unchanged). CAPITALIZED ONLY for Christ: 3:17; 4:3,6; 16:16; 17:5; 26:63-64; 27:54. Must remain typographically and lexically distinct from the lower-case ‘fils de Dieu’ used of believers at 5:9 — see ‘sons_of_god_believers’. A capitalization slip is a genuine Critical-tier doctrinal risk in this curriculum.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: incarnation
Transliteration: incarnation
Doctrine: Incarnation
Original: ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο (concept)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to Critical for Matthew: underlies the virgin-birth/Immanuel narrative (ch. 1); secular ‘incarner’ (an actor embodying a role) risks diluting the once-for-all metaphysical claim.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messie
Transliteration: Messie
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: Χριστός / מָשִׁיחַ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to Critical for Matthew: programmatic from 1:1 (‘Jésus-Christ, fils de David, fils d’Abraham’), climactic at Peter’s confession (16:16) and the Sanhedrin’s question (26:63); must not flatten into a generic wise-teacher figure for the biblically-unchurched secular reader segment.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jésus
Transliteration: Jésus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ / Deity of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to Critical for Matthew given the name’s own etymological gloss at 1:21 (‘YHWH sauve’), tying the proper name itself directly to the doctrine of Salvation; no rendering-choice risk, but doctrinal centrality is unusually high.
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to Critical for this curriculum given the density of direct deity claims throughout Matthew (Emmanuel, Transfiguration voice, trial confession, centurion’s confession).
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Esprit Saint
Transliteration: Esprit Saint
Doctrine: Sanctification / Trinitarian Baptismal Formula
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to Critical for Matthew: virginal conception (1:18,20), baptismal descent (3:16), the unforgivable-sin text (12:31-32), and the Trinitarian baptismal formula (28:19). MUST remain capitalized and personal; never render lower-case ‘esprit saint’ as an impersonal force (see 12_ai_translation_requirements.md forbidden substitutions, TMN sect-rendering caution).
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice imputée
Transliteration: justice imputée
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: justice méritée
Original: ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package for cross-curriculum consistency. Not directly used in Matthew’s own text, but retained so the Romans-specific forensic category is not silently imported into Matthew’s own righteousness passages (5:6,20; 6:33), which carry a distinct ethical-conduct emphasis — see ‘righteousness_matthean_sense’.
Son Of Man
Approved rendering: Fils de l’homme
Transliteration: Fils de l’homme
Doctrine: Son of Man as Authority-and-Judgment Title
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου
Category: Christology
8:20; 9:6; 12:8; 16:13; 24:30; 26:64. Widely and plausibly misread by French readers as emphasizing only Jesus’ humanness/humility, missing the Daniel 7:13-14 authority-and-judgment claim entirely. MUST NEVER be conflated with or treated as a synonym for ‘Fils de Dieu’ — the single most consequential ambiguity in this curriculum per the linguistic gap analysis.
Bind And Loose
Approved rendering: lier / délier
Transliteration: lier / délier
Doctrine: The Church and Church Discipline
Original: δέω / λύω
Category: Church
16:19; 18:18. Directly collides with the historic Catholic theological phrase ‘le pouvoir de lier et de délier’ tied to sacramental priestly/episcopal absolution. Matthew 18:18’s congregational context (a gathered community, not a solitary office-holder) must be preserved; present as the church’s corporate, Spirit-given authority. Mandatory theologian review at every occurrence; do not resolve the sacramental-authority debate in the glossary.
Keys Of The Kingdom
Approved rendering: clés du Royaume [des cieux]
Transliteration: clés du Royaume
Doctrine: The Church and Church Discipline
Original: κλεῖδας τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν
Category: Church
16:19. Extraordinarily loaded in French Catholic visual and institutional culture (Vatican coat of arms, ‘les clés de saint Pierre’). Glossary does not adjudicate the Petrine-primacy/papal-office debate; mandatory theologian review at every occurrence.
Blasphemy Against Spirit
Approved rendering: blasphème contre l’Esprit
Transliteration: blasphème contre l’Esprit
Doctrine: Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
Original: βλασφημία τοῦ πνεύματος
Category: Judgment
12:31-32. The ‘unforgivable sin’; must not be broadened in French teaching to ordinary sin, doubt, or spiritual struggle, given documented pastoral anxiety this text provokes. Mandatory theologian review at every occurrence.
Ransom
Approved rendering: rançon
Transliteration: rançon
Doctrine: Christ’s Death as Ransom
Original: λύτρον
Category: Atonement
20:28. Must anchor to a substitutionary payment satisfying God’s own justice on behalf of guilty sinners, not a payment appeasing a hostile third party, nor a merely sentimental ‘price of love’ reading. Mandatory theologian review.
Parousia
Approved rendering: avènement / venue
Transliteration: parousia
Doctrine: The Parousia (Christ’s Second Coming)
Original: παρουσία
Category: Eschatology
24:3,27,30,37,39; 25:31. Secular ‘avènement’ drifts toward a generic ‘dawning of a new era’; the Greek’s own secondary sense of mere ‘presence’ creates live eschatological-interpretation stakes. Render as visible, personal, future coming; mandatory theologian review at every occurrence.
Eternal Punishment Life
Approved rendering: châtiment éternel / vie éternelle
Transliteration: châtiment éternel / vie éternelle
Doctrine: Eternal Punishment and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: retranchement éternel (Jehovah’s Witnesses annihilationist rendering — forbidden)
Original: κόλασιν αἰώνιον / ζωὴν αἰώνιον
Category: Eschatology
25:46. Must preserve the identical French adjective ‘éternel/éternelle’ for both outcomes, since the text’s rhetorical structure depends on this symmetry; must not soften toward purgatorial or annihilationist readings. Mandatory theologian review at every occurrence.
Words Of Institution
Approved rendering: Ceci est mon corps… mon sang de l’alliance
Transliteration: touto estin to sōma mou / to haima mou tēs diathēkēs
Doctrine: The Lord’s Supper (Words of Institution)
Rejected alternatives: ceci représente / ceci symbolise (resolves the debate — forbidden)
Original: τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ σῶμά μου… τὸ αἷμά μου τῆς διαθήκης
Category: Church
26:26-28. The single most doctrinally contested words in the Gospel for this curriculum’s mixed audience (transubstantiation/Real Presence vs. Lutheran/Reformed/Zwinglian readings). Render with maximal literalness; reuse ‘alliance’ exactly; resolve nothing; mandatory theologian review at every occurrence, per the same principle applied to ‘justification’ in the Romans baseline.
Trinitarian Baptismal Formula
Approved rendering: au nom du Père, et du Fils, et du Saint-Esprit
Transliteration: eis to onoma tou Patros kai tou Huiou kai tou Hagiou Pneumatos
Doctrine: The Trinitarian Baptismal Formula
Original: εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος
Category: God
28:19. The clearest single-verse Trinitarian formula in Matthew: the singular French ‘nom’ encompassing three Persons, and the fixed Père-Fils-Esprit order, must be preserved without simplification or reordering. Mandatory theologian review.
Immanuel
Approved rendering: Emmanuel (glossed: Dieu avec nous)
Transliteration: Emmanouēl
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy; Incarnation; Deity of Christ
Original: Ἐμμανουήλ
Category: Prophecy
1:23 (citing Isaiah 7:14), forming a deliberate inclusio with 28:20 (‘I am with you always’). One of the most direct incarnational/deity claims in the Gospel; preserve both the transliteration and Matthew’s own in-text gloss.
Virgin
Approved rendering: vierge
Transliteration: parthenos
Doctrine: Incarnation; Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: jeune femme (Isaiah-source debate softening — forbidden within Matthew’s own narrative frame)
Original: παρθένος
Category: Prophecy
1:18,20,23,25. Matthew’s own narrative locks the sense to a literal, miraculous virginal conception; no ‘young woman’ softening permitted regardless of the separate scholarly debate over Isaiah 7:14’s Hebrew almah.
High Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: Évangile
Transliteration: Évangile
Doctrine: Gospel / Great Commission
Rejected alternatives: bonne nouvelle (informal only)
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (French rendering unchanged). Risk elevated from the baseline’s Low to High for Matthew: the compound ‘l’Évangile du Royaume’ (4:23; 9:35; 24:14) ties the term directly to the High-risk Kingdom of Heaven doctrine, and must convey an authoritative royal announcement, not generic good news.
Faith
Approved rendering: foi
Transliteration: foi
Doctrine: Faith / Universal Scope of the Gospel
Rejected alternatives: croyance, religion
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to High in Matthew: the centurion (8:10) and the Canaanite woman (15:28) exhibit Gentile faith explicitly exceeding Israel’s own, reinforcing the universal-scope doctrine; must retain personal-trust sense, not generic religiosity.
Called
Approved rendering: appelé
Transliteration: appelé
Doctrine: Divine Calling / Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: invité
Original: κλητός / καλέω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Matthew 22:14 (‘many are called, but few are chosen’) sharpens the calling/election distinction; must not be rendered as a weak mere-invitation.
Calling
Approved rendering: appel
Transliteration: appel
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: vocation (clergy-narrowing risk)
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Low frequency as a noun in Matthew but underlies the calling vocabulary of chs. 4, 9, 22; reserve ‘vocation’ only for explicit occupational/clergy discussion.
Holy
Approved rendering: saint
Transliteration: saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: pur
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. Underlies 6:9 (‘que ton nom soit sanctifié’) and the compound ‘Esprit Saint’; set apart for God and morally pure, not merely ritual purity.
Saints
Approved rendering: saints
Transliteration: les saints
Doctrine: Sainthood
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Matthew’s single occurrence (27:52) is narrative, not corporate address, but French ‘les saints’ still overwhelmingly evokes canonized intercessors; add a clarifying gloss if this verse is taught devotionally.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: sanctification
Transliteration: sanctification
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: purification
Original: ἁγιασμός
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. Not a frequent Matthean noun but underlies ‘be perfect’ (5:48) and the Lord’s Prayer’s holiness vocabulary.
Adoption
Approved rendering: adoption filiale
Transliteration: adoption filiale
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: adoption (bare, legal-procedural)
Original: υἱοθεσία (concept); υἱοὶ θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Underlies Matthew 5:9’s ‘fils de Dieu’ (lower-case, believers) — see the separate entry ‘sons_of_god_believers’ for the specific capitalization rule distinguishing this from the Critical ‘Fils de Dieu’ title.
Law
Approved rendering: loi
Transliteration: loi (la Loi)
Doctrine: The Law Fulfilled, Not Abolished
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. 5:17-20 is the single most load-bearing Law text in this curriculum, holding fulfillment and intensified authority together; French Catholic natural-law categories and antinomian misreadings are both live risks, now sharpened by Jesus’ claim to authority over the Law’s interpretation (5:21-48).
Sin
Approved rendering: péché
Transliteration: péché
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to High for Matthew: 1:21 and 9:2-6 (Jesus’ direct, unmediated forgiveness of sins) are key texts; colloquial French trivialization (‘péché mignon’) risks softening what Jesus claims unique divine authority to forgive.
Glory
Approved rendering: gloire
Transliteration: gloire
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to High for Matthew: central to the Transfiguration (17:1-8) and the Son of Man’s coming ‘in glory’ (24:30; 25:31); secular ‘gloire’ (military, celebrity) risks a triumphalist, self-achieved reading.
Covenant
Approved rendering: alliance
Transliteration: alliance
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant / Lord’s Supper
Rejected alternatives: contrat
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to High for Matthew: 26:28 (‘my blood of the covenant’) is the Gospel’s single most doctrinally contested use — see ‘words_of_institution’ — where ‘alliance’ must be rendered literally without resolving the eucharistic debate.
Election
Approved rendering: élection / élu
Transliteration: élection / élu
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: chance, destin
Original: ἐκλογή (concept); ἐκλεκτός
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. French ‘élection/élu’ still carries the political-democratic-election risk flagged in the baseline, sharpened by the wedding-feast parable (22:1-14, ‘many called, few chosen’) and 24:22,24,31 (‘for the sake of the elect’), which without careful framing could read as merit-based selection among equally-qualified guests.
Providence
Approved rendering: providence
Transliteration: providence
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: destin, hasard
Original: πρόνοια (concept)
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to High for Matthew: 19:26 (‘with God all things are possible’) and 24:36 (‘no one knows the day or hour’) both require the personal, purposive sense, resisting a deist-impersonal reading and speculative date-setting alike.
Father
Approved rendering: Père
Transliteration: Père
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Risk elevated to High for Matthew: central to the Lord’s Prayer (6:9), the mutual Father-Son knowledge saying (11:27), the Transfiguration voice (17:5), and the baptismal formula (28:19).
Kingdom Of Heaven
Approved rendering: Royaume des cieux
Transliteration: Royaume des cieux
Doctrine: The Kingdom of Heaven
Rejected alternatives: Royaume (bare, unqualified)
Original: βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν
Category: Kingdom
New term, Matthew’s preferred phrase (~32 occurrences: 3:2; 4:17; 5:3,10; 13; 19:14; 24:14). Must stay lexically distinct from ‘Royaume de Dieu’ (inherited term) while both are taught as the identical referent. French secular ‘le ciel’ is heard primarily as an afterlife destination; sustained teaching apparatus, not a lexical fix, is required at every recurrence.
Son Of David
Approved rendering: Fils de David
Transliteration: Fils de David
Doctrine: Jesus as the Promised Messiah and Son of David
Original: υἱὸς Δαυίδ
Category: Christology
New combined title built from the inherited Low-risk ‘David’. 1:1; 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9,15; 22:42-45. Risk of a merely genealogical reading that misses the Davidic-covenant messianic office (2 Samuel 7:12-16); requires explicit cross-reference for French readers with low OT literacy.
Authority
Approved rendering: autorité
Transliteration: autorité
Doctrine: The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching
Rejected alternatives: puissance (reserved for δύναμις/power, not ἐξουσία)
Original: ἐξουσία
Category: Christology
7:29; 8:9; 9:6,8; 12:8; 21:23-27; 28:18. In a strongly laïque French public culture with post-Vatican II sensitivity to institutional clerical-authority abuse, ‘autorité’ risks being heard as organizational power rather than Jesus’ intrinsic, self-authenticating authority. Climaxes at 28:18’s unqualified cosmic claim.
Repentance
Approved rendering: repentir / se repentir
Transliteration: repentir
Doctrine: Repentance and the Kingdom’s Arrival
Original: μετάνοια / μετανοέω
Category: Kingdom
3:2,8,11; 4:17; 11:20; 12:41. French Catholic sacramental theology strongly associates ‘repentir’ with the formal act of confession (le sacrement de la Pénitence et de la Réconciliation); Matthew’s usage is the prior, inward reorientation of mind and life such a rite is meant to express, not the rite itself.
Baptism
Approved rendering: baptême / baptiser
Transliteration: baptême
Doctrine: Baptism / The Great Commission
Original: βάπτισμα / βαπτίζω
Category: Church
3:6,11,13-16; 28:19. The Catholic-Protestant divide over baptismal mode, timing (infant vs. believer), and sacramental efficacy is a live, unresolved denominational difference across this curriculum’s mixed readership; render literally, let teaching notes carry denominational nuance.
Lords Prayer Debts
Approved rendering: dettes (liturgical variant: offenses)
Transliteration: dettes
Doctrine: Kingdom / discipleship ethics; Forgiveness
Original: ὀφειλήματα
Category: Kingdom
6:12; cf. 18:21-35. Direct collision with the memorized French Catholic liturgical ‘Notre Père’ (‘pardonne-nous nos offenses’); recommend the more literal ‘dettes’ (matching the modern 2017 ecumenical liturgical text and most study Bibles) with a mandatory translator’s note flagging the liturgical variant readers will recognize from church usage.
Tradition
Approved rendering: tradition
Transliteration: tradition
Doctrine: Human Tradition versus the Word of God
Original: παράδοσις
Category: Righteousness
15:1-9. Capitalized ‘la Tradition’ functions in Catholic theology as a co-authoritative source of revelation; Matthew’s critique targets a specific first-century body of Pharisaic legal interpretation, not the Catholic theological category — requires theologian-level framing, not a different French word.
Take Up Cross
Approved rendering: prendre sa croix / porter sa croix
Transliteration: porter sa croix
Doctrine: Taking Up the Cross
Original: ἆρον τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι
Category: Discipleship
16:24; 10:38. The French idiom ‘porter sa croix’ has drifted into a secular idiom for any burdensome life circumstance; teaching notes must recover the concrete, violent, public, potentially fatal first-century referent.
Slave Servant
Approved rendering: esclave / serviteur
Transliteration: esclave / serviteur
Doctrine: Servanthood and the Slave Metaphor
Original: δοῦλος / διάκονος
Category: Discipleship
20:26-28; 23:11. France’s specific historical memory of the transatlantic/colonial slave trade (2001 Taubira law) gives ‘esclave’ unusually heavy national-memory resonance. Retain for lexical accuracy (needed for Jesus’ rhetorical escalation from διάκονος to δοῦλος); mandatory culturally sensitive teaching note, not a softened rendering.
Abomination Of Desolation
Approved rendering: l’abomination de la désolation
Transliteration: bdelygma tēs erēmōseōs
Doctrine: Judgment and the End of the Age
Original: τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως
Category: Eschatology
24:15 (citing Daniel). Stable lexically across French traditions; the real risk is comprehension — opaque without substantial cross-referencing to Daniel for a biblically unchurched French reader.
Talents Parable
Approved rendering: talents
Transliteration: talents
Doctrine: Stewardship (the Parable of the Talents)
Rejected alternatives: somme d’argent (removes traceability and teaching hook)
Original: τάλαντον
Category: Judgment
25:14-30. The modern French idiom ‘avoir du talent’ (natural ability) derives historically from this very parable, making a reflexive misreading (innate gifts, not entrusted stewardship) unusually easy. Must never be conflated with the baseline’s Romans-12 ‘dons spirituels’.
Make Disciples
Approved rendering: faites… des disciples
Transliteration: mathēteusate
Doctrine: The Great Commission
Rejected alternatives: évangélisez (thins the total-life-formation sense)
Original: μαθητεύσατε
Category: Great Commission
28:19. No single French verb corresponds one-to-one; must render as a full clause to retain the total-life-formation sense. Connects to the inherited ‘mission’ entry: France’s colonial-era missionary history requires framing as gospel proclamation and disciple-formation, never cultural conquest.
All Nations
Approved rendering: toutes les nations
Transliteration: panta ta ethnē
Doctrine: The Great Commission; Universal Scope of the Gospel
Rejected alternatives: païens (wrongly narrows scope; forbidden at 28:19)
Original: πάντα τὰ ἔθνη
Category: Great Commission
28:19. CONTEXT-CONDITIONED DUAL ENTRY, the mirror image of the inherited ‘gentiles’ term: here ἔθνη is inclusive of all peoples, including Israel. Must NEVER be rendered ‘païens’ at this occurrence.
Righteousness Matthean Sense
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: dikaiosynē
Doctrine: Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees
5:6,10,20; 6:33. CROSS-REFERENCE ENTRY to the inherited ‘righteousness’ term: same French word as Romans’ forensic ‘justice’, but here denotes the lived, ethical conduct exceeding Pharisaic external rule-keeping. Teaching notes, never a second French word, must carry the distinction. Do not gloss with ‘justice imputée’.
Reward
Approved rendering: récompense
Transliteration: misthos
Doctrine: Reward and the Grace-versus-Merit Distinction
Original: μισθός
Category: Discipleship
5:12; 6:1-18; 10:41-42; 20:1-16; 25:14-30. A direct grace-versus-merit collision point already flagged at the doctrine level in the Romans baseline; a careless or unglossed rendering risks smuggling in a merit-based soteriology. Must be taught as gracious response to faith-produced obedience, never earned wages.
Sons Of God Believers
Approved rendering: fils de Dieu (lower-case, believers)
Transliteration: huioi theou
Doctrine: Adoption: Believers as Sons of God
Original: υἱοὶ θεοῦ (plural, of believers)
Category: Salvation
5:9; 5:45. Must be rendered lower-case ‘fils de Dieu’ whenever the referent is believers, reserving the capitalized ‘Fils de Dieu’ exclusively for Christ. A capitalization or contextual slip here would blur Christ’s unique Sonship with common adoptive sonship, a genuine Critical-adjacent risk if mishandled.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: apôtre
Transliteration: apôtre
Doctrine: Apostleship
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (risk raised slightly from Low to Medium). First formal listing of ‘the twelve apostles’ at 10:2; stable term across French Bible traditions.
Peace
Approved rendering: paix
Transliteration: paix
Doctrine: Peace with God
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Matthew 5:9 (peacemakers) and 10:34 (‘not peace but a sword’) use the term in deliberate tension; teaching notes should distinguish this age’s conflict from ultimate peace-with-God.
Church
Approved rendering: Église
Transliteration: Église
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: temple (building only)
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (term-level risk retained near baseline; the associated doctrine cluster ‘The Church and Church Discipline’ is Critical due to the keys/bind-loose texts, not the bare word itself). 16:18 (founding statement) and 18:17 (discipline procedure) require the gathered-body sense distinguished from the institutional Catholic Church or the Protestant building-only ‘temple’.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Royaume de Dieu
Transliteration: Royaume de Dieu
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package. Matthew’s rarer alternate form (12:28; 19:24; 21:31,43) to the dominant ‘kingdom of heaven’; both French phrases must be taught as denoting the identical reality, confirmed by their interchangeable use within 19:23-24.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: païens
Transliteration: païens
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: étrangers
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package for the EXCLUSIVE sense only (non-Jews specifically): 4:15; 6:32; 10:5,18; 12:18-21; 20:19. CONTEXT-CONDITIONED DUAL ENTRY: see ‘all_nations’ below for the inclusive sense at 28:19, which must NOT use ‘païens’, since it would wrongly narrow the Commission’s universal scope and import an unintended pejorative connotation.
Mission
Approved rendering: mission
Transliteration: mission
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations / Great Commission
Original: ἀποστολή / πέμπω
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Matthew 10 (sending of the Twelve) and 28:16-20 (Great Commission) are the key texts; France’s colonial missionary history sharpens the baseline’s caution against a conquest/assimilation framing, especially given 28:19’s ‘make disciples of all nations.‘
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: Ἰσραήλ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. 8:10 (‘not even in Israel’), 10:6 and 15:24 (‘the lost sheep of Israel’) keep the referent historical/theological per the baseline caution.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: descendance de David
Transliteration: descendance de David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: semence de David (archaic)
Original: σπέρμα Δαυίδ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Underlies the new Matthew-specific title ‘Fils de David’ (see separate High-risk entry).
Fulfillment Formula
Approved rendering: afin que s’accomplisse / il arriva ceci pour que s’accomplît
Transliteration: afin que s’accomplisse
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy
Original: πληρόω (ἵνα/ὅπως πληρωθῇ)
Category: Covenant
Matthew’s recurring literary formula (1:22; 2:15,17,23; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21:4; 26:56; 27:9). Lexically stable across French traditions; the live risk is comprehension, not lexis — requires explicit OT cross-referencing given documented low OT literacy across this curriculum’s audience segments.
Disciple
Approved rendering: disciple
Transliteration: disciple
Doctrine: Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus
Original: μαθητής
Category: Discipleship
4:18-22; 8:18-22; 10; 16:24-26; 28:19. Established, comfortable French loanword; the risk is precisely that its familiarity lets readers under-notice how costly the term’s actual content is.
Follow
Approved rendering: suivre
Transliteration: suivre
Doctrine: Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus
Original: ἀκολουθέω
Category: Discipleship
4:18-22. French ‘suivre’ can read as passive accompaniment (following a guide, a trend, a celebrity online) rather than the total, costly reorientation of life Matthew intends; must be reinforced by narrative context (leaving nets, boats, family), not lexical choice alone.
Hypocrite
Approved rendering: hypocrite
Transliteration: hypocrite
Doctrine: Hypocrisy and True Piety
Original: ὑποκριτής
Category: Righteousness
6:2,5,16; 15:7; 23 (repeated refrain). French idiom ‘faire le pharisien’ risks flattening the Pharisees into cartoon villains, undercutting the Sermon’s and ch. 23’s actual self-examination aim.
Pharisee Scribe
Approved rendering: pharisien / scribe
Transliteration: pharisien / scribe
Doctrine: Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees
Original: Φαρισαῖος / γραμματεύς
Category: Righteousness
3:7; 5:20; 9:11; 12:38; 15:1; 23. Same idiom risk as ‘hypocrite’. French ‘scribe’ today denotes chiefly a copyist/clerk, obscuring the historical scribe’s authoritative legal-scholarly role and weakening the force of Jesus’ critique of genuinely learned, respected figures.
Love Agape
Approved rendering: amour / aimer
Transliteration: amour
Doctrine: Love of God and Neighbor (the Great Commandment)
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Ethics
5:44; 22:37-39. Modern French ‘amour’ is dominated by romantic-relational connotation; must be clarified as covenantal, willed, self-giving love encompassing both God and neighbor, not primarily emotion.
Neighbor
Approved rendering: prochain
Transliteration: prochain
Doctrine: Love of God and Neighbor
Original: πλησίον
Category: Ethics
22:39. Stable, established French Bible term without significant secular drift; the scope-of-neighbor question is a pastoral-teaching matter, not a lexical-choice risk.
Mammon
Approved rendering: Mamon
Transliteration: Mamon
Doctrine: Kingdom priorities / discipleship ethics
Rejected alternatives: l’argent (flattens the personification)
Original: μαμωνᾶς
Category: Ethics
6:24. Transliterate to preserve the personification of wealth as a rival master demanding total allegiance; flattening to ‘l’argent’ loses the stark either/or Jesus poses.
The Evil One
Approved rendering: le Mauvais (personal) / le mal (abstract)
Transliteration: le Mauvais
Doctrine: Lord’s Prayer; spiritual warfare
Original: τοῦ πονηροῦ
Category: Kingdom
6:13. Genuinely ambiguous in Greek between personal Satan (masculine) and abstract evil (neuter); recommend following the 2017 French ecumenical liturgical choice (‘le Mauvais’) for consistency with what French speakers already pray, flagging ‘le mal’ as the abstract alternative for reviewers.
Judge
Approved rendering: juger
Transliteration: juger
Doctrine: Judgment and the End of the Age
Original: κρίνω
Category: Judgment
7:1-5. Risk of over-application (a quietist ‘never judge’ reading contradicting 7:6,15-20, which require discernment) or under-application (dismissing the warning as relativism); the log/speck co-text must remain intact.
Narrow Gate
Approved rendering: la porte étroite / le chemin étroit
Transliteration: la porte étroite
Doctrine: Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus
Original: ἡ στενὴ πύλη / ὁδός
Category: Discipleship
7:13-14. Risk of a moralistic misreading (narrow = requiring more effort) rather than the intended exclusivity claim (the one true way, versus many broad, self-chosen ways).
Forgive Sins
Approved rendering: pardonner / pardon
Transliteration: pardonner
Doctrine: The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching
Original: ἀφίημι
Category: Christology
9:2-6; 6:12; 18:21-35. Must be taught as Jesus’ direct, unmediated divine prerogative (provoking the blasphemy charge at 9:3 precisely because forgiveness was God’s alone), not read through the lens of priestly sacramental absolution.
Life Soul
Approved rendering: vie
Transliteration: vie
Doctrine: Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus
Rejected alternatives: âme (imports later Greek body-soul dualism)
Original: ψυχή
Category: Discipleship
10:39; 16:25-26. French ‘âme’ risks importing a later Greek-philosophical dualism not clearly intended in Matthew’s Hebraic usage; ‘vie’ better preserves the whole-person sense.
Sabbath Lord
Approved rendering: sabbat / Seigneur du sabbat
Transliteration: sabbat
Doctrine: Christ’s Lordship over the Sabbath
Original: σάββατον / κύριος τοῦ σαββάτου
Category: Christology
12:1-8. Low French familiarity with Jewish Sabbath practice; the Christological force (Jesus placing himself above an institution God himself instituted) needs contextual framing.
Parable
Approved rendering: parabole
Transliteration: parabole
Doctrine: The Kingdom of Heaven
Original: παραβολή
Category: Kingdom
13 (throughout). Dual revealing/concealing function (13:10-17) is easily lost if parables are taught as mere friendly illustrations.
Mystery
Approved rendering: mystère
Transliteration: mystère
Doctrine: The Kingdom of Heaven
Original: μυστήριον
Category: Kingdom
13:11. Catholic liturgical usage (‘mystère de la foi’, the Rosary’s ‘mystères’) risks importing sacramental categories foreign to the present-hidden/future-revealed kingdom sense.
Defile
Approved rendering: souiller / rendre impur
Transliteration: souiller
Doctrine: Purity of Heart
Original: κοινόω
Category: Righteousness
15:11,18,20. Must retain the deliberate external-ritual-versus-internal-moral contrast structuring the passage’s polemic.
Transfiguration
Approved rendering: fut transfiguré / la Transfiguration
Transliteration: la Transfiguration
Doctrine: The Transfiguration and Christ’s Glory
Original: μετεμορφώθη
Category: Christology
17:1-8. Established liturgical term; must retain ‘revealed pre-existing glory’ sense, not ‘external transformation into something new’, given popular makeover-culture usage of ‘transformation’.
Stumbling Block
Approved rendering: scandale / occasion de chute
Transliteration: occasion de chute
Doctrine: The Church and Church Discipline
Original: σκάνδαλον
Category: Church
18:6-9. Modern French ‘scandale’ primarily denotes public/media controversy; prefer ‘occasion de chute’ as the primary teaching term, retaining ‘scandale’ for lexical traceability.
Cornerstone
Approved rendering: pierre angulaire
Transliteration: pierre angulaire
Doctrine: Jesus as the Promised Messiah; Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: κεφαλὴ γωνίας
Category: Messiah
21:42 (citing Psalm 118:22). Risk of a purely architectural, decorative reading that misses the rejection-then-vindication narrative arc central to its messianic use.
Generation
Approved rendering: génération
Transliteration: génération
Doctrine: Judgment and the End of the Age
Original: γενεά
Category: Eschatology
24:34. Contested referent across theological traditions (preterist/futurist); glossary must not silently resolve the exegetical debate through translation choice.
Eli Eli Lema Sabachthani
Approved rendering: Éli, Éli, lema sabachthani (glossed: Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, pourquoi m’as-tu abandonné?)
Transliteration: Ēli Ēli, lema sabachthani
Doctrine: Christ’s Death as Ransom / Atonement
Original: Ἠλὶ Ἠλὶ, λεμὰ σαβαχθάνι
Category: Passion
27:46 (quoting Psalm 22:1). Theologically weighty but lexically low-ambiguity once the transliteration-plus-Matthew’s-own-gloss convention already established for Abba in the baseline is followed.
Magi
Approved rendering: mages
Transliteration: magoi
Doctrine: Jesus as the Promised Messiah (Gentile recognition)
Original: μάγοι
Category: Messiah
2:1-12. French ‘mage’ carries occult/fortune-telling connotations (tarot, fantasy fiction) stronger than the intended respected-scholar-astronomer sense; a brief clarifying note is warranted.
Worship Proskyneo
Approved rendering: adorer (divine sense) / se prosterner devant (homage sense)
Transliteration: proskyneō
Doctrine: Worship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: rendre hommage (Jehovah’s Witnesses TMN rendering at 14:33; 28:9,17 — forbidden at the Christological climaxes)
Original: προσκυνέω
Category: Christology
2:2,11; 14:33; 28:9,17. Genuinely ambiguous between royal homage and full divine worship; must shift to unambiguous ‘adorer’ at the Christological climaxes (14:33; 28:9,17). NEVER use ‘rendre hommage’ at these climactic verses — this is the documented mechanism by which sect translations (Traduction du monde nouveau) soften the deity claim.
Parakaleo Console
Approved rendering: consoler
Transliteration: parakaleō
Doctrine: Beatitudes as Kingdom Ethics
Rejected alternatives: exhorter (wrong sense at this occurrence)
Original: παρακαλέω (comfort sense)
Category: Kingdom
5:4. CONTEXT-CONDITIONED DUAL ENTRY, mirror image of the inherited ‘exhort’ term: same Greek verb, but 5:4 requires ‘seront consolés’, echoing Isaiah 61:2’s promise to comfort mourners. Genuine risk that translators mechanically reuse ‘exhorter’ from the baseline.
Perfect
Approved rendering: parfait
Transliteration: teleios
Doctrine: Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees
Original: τέλειος
Category: Righteousness
5:48. French ‘parfait’ connotes flawless performance; must be anchored to covenant wholeness/undivided loyalty (echoing Deuteronomy 18:13), not moral perfectionism, to avoid despair or legalism.
Blessed
Approved rendering: heureux
Transliteration: makarios
Doctrine: The Beatitudes as Kingdom Ethics
Rejected alternatives: béni (reserved for εὐλογέω, a distinct verb), Bienheureux (official French Catholic beatification title — risks a canonized-saint reading in the Beatitudes text itself)
Original: μακάριος
Category: Kingdom
5:3-11, the opening word of each Beatitude. Fixed as ‘heureux’ (Segond/S21/TOB/BJ/NBS consensus). Secular French ‘heureux’ primarily denotes subjective happiness; must be taught as an objective, God-given declaration of status, not an emotion or a self-help promise.
Poor In Spirit
Approved rendering: pauvres en esprit
Transliteration: ptōchos tō pneumati
Doctrine: The Beatitudes as Kingdom Ethics
Rejected alternatives: pauvres de cœur (Bible de Jérusalem variant; retained for consistency with Segond/S21 line already established)
Original: πτωχὸς τῷ πνεύματι
Category: Kingdom
5:3. Risk of a purely social-justice reading (economic poverty only) or a purely psychological reading (low self-esteem); must retain the theological sense of spiritual bankruptcy/complete dependence on God.
Meek
Approved rendering: doux
Transliteration: praus
Doctrine: The Beatitudes as Kingdom Ethics
Original: πραΰς
Category: Ethics
5:5; cf. 11:29; 21:5 (used of Jesus himself, and of Moses, Numbers 12:3 LXX). French ‘doux’ alone connotes a mild personality trait; must be glossed as ‘force maîtrisée, non faiblesse’ (strength under restraint, not weakness).
Inherit
Approved rendering: hériter
Transliteration: klēronomeō
Doctrine: The Beatitudes as Kingdom Ethics; Adoption
Original: κληρονομέω
Category: Kingdom
5:5. Must not be read as a future political/territorial land-claim (a live risk given contemporary Israel/Middle-East associations already flagged in the baseline’s ‘israel’ entry); this is eschatological, new-creation inheritance connected to the adoption doctrine.
Merciful
Approved rendering: miséricordieux
Transliteration: eleēmōn
Doctrine: Mercy and Compassion
Original: ἐλεήμων / ἐλεέω
Category: Ethics
5:7. Contemporary French Catholic devotional culture (the Divine Mercy devotion, ‘Dimanche de la Miséricorde Divine’) orients ‘miséricorde’ toward receiving Christ’s mercy; 5:7’s outward-facing sense — believers extending mercy to others — must not be lost to this inward-facing devotional association.
Pure In Heart
Approved rendering: purs de cœur
Transliteration: katharos tē kardia
Doctrine: Purity of Heart
Original: καθαρὸς τῇ καρδί�ᾳ
Category: Ethics
5:8. Low OT ritual-purity literacy among French readers may obscure that Jesus deliberately relocates purity from external rite to internal disposition, anticipating the tradition-of-the-elders controversy (ch. 15).
Heart
Approved rendering: cœur
Transliteration: kardia
Doctrine: Purity of Heart
Original: καρδία
Category: Ethics
5:8; 15:18-19; 22:37. Modern French ‘cœur’ leans toward emotion/sentiment, risking loss of the Hebraic sense of the heart as the seat of will and moral choice.
Persecuted
Approved rendering: persécutés
Transliteration: diōkō
Doctrine: Persecution for Righteousness’ Sake
Original: διώκω (δεδιωγμένοι)
Category: Discipleship
5:10-12; cf. 10:16-23; 24:9. Must retain the qualifier ‘for righteousness’ sake’ / ‘because of me’ to avoid the beatitude being misapplied to any and all suffering rather than suffering specifically for faithful gospel allegiance.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: voyant
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Frequent in the fulfillment-formula citations (chs. 1-2) and the ‘Law and the Prophets’ summary (22:40).
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: προφητεία
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Underlies the fulfillment-formula doctrine throughout the Gospel.
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Original: Δαυίδ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Combines into the new title ‘Fils de David’ (see separate High-risk entry) throughout Matthew.
Exhort
Approved rendering: exhorter
Transliteration: exhorter
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package for the exhort/encourage sense of παρακαλέω only. CAUTION: Matthew 5:4 requires a distinct point on this same verb’s semantic range (‘console the grieving’) — see the separate context-conditioned entry ‘parakaleo_console’. Do NOT mechanically reuse ‘exhorter’ at 5:4.
Compassion
Approved rendering: avoir compassion / être ému de compassion
Transliteration: avoir compassion
Doctrine: Mercy and Compassion
Original: σπλαγχνίζομαι
Category: Ethics
9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 18:27; 20:34. Low ambiguity; consistently describes vivid, gut-level compassion prompting action, not mere sentiment.
Yoke
Approved rendering: joug
Transliteration: joug
Doctrine: Discipleship; Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees
Original: ζυγός
Category: Discipleship
11:29-30. Stable rendering; the agrarian image is unfamiliar to contemporary French readers and needs teaching-note context, not a different word.
Little Ones
Approved rendering: petits
Transliteration: petits
Doctrine: The Church and Church Discipline
Original: μικροί
Category: Church
18:1-14. Low ambiguity; frames church discipline as fundamentally protective of the vulnerable.
Hosanna
Approved rendering: Hosanna
Transliteration: Hosanna
Doctrine: The Hosanna Acclamation
Original: ὡσαννά
Category: Messiah
21:9,15. Retained as an untranslated transliteration, per the established Amen/Alléluia/Abba convention.
Crucify
Approved rendering: crucifier
Transliteration: crucifier
Doctrine: The Crucifixion as Historical Event
Original: σταυρόω
Category: Passion
27 (Passion narrative). Stable, unambiguous across all French Bible traditions.
Peacemaker
Approved rendering: artisans de paix
Transliteration: eirēnopoios
Doctrine: The Beatitudes as Kingdom Ethics
Original: εἰρηνοποιός
Category: Ethics
5:9. Well-established compound rendering across French Bible traditions; one who actively makes/produces peace, not merely one who avoids conflict.
Referenced passages