Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Philippians (French)
Purpose
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md across the whole of Philippians (chapters 1–4), citing the chapter(s) in which each occurs. Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans Language Package are marked [Baseline] and MUST be reused exactly, with no deviation. Terms new to Philippians are marked [NEW] and are proposed as additions to translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json for this curriculum, following the same schema and risk-tier conventions as the baseline.
Risk tiers follow the baseline definitions exactly:
- Critical — Mistranslation alters or destroys essential doctrine. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — Mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or denominational-conflation risk. Human theologian review required.
- Medium — Mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning. Native speaker review recommended.
- Low — Mistranslation causes minor misunderstanding or imprecision. Automated review sufficient.
Part 1 — Baseline Terms Reused Exactly (Romans → Philippians)
| Term | French Rendering | Risk (baseline) | Chapters in Philippians | Note for Philippians usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | Évangile | Low | 1, 2, 4 | Stable across the book; cf. Phil 1:5, 1:27, 4:15 |
| grace | grâce | High | 1, 2, 4 | Phil 1:2 greeting; 4:23 closing benediction; also the root of ἐχαρίσατο in 2:9 |
| faith | foi | Medium | 1, 2, 3 | Central to 3:9’s righteousness contrast |
| righteousness | justice | High | 3 | Phil 3:6, 3:9 — direct restatement of the Romans righteousness-by-faith contrast |
| justification | justification | Critical | 3 | Implicit in 3:9’s forensic-vs-legal-merit contrast; not the Greek noun δικαίωσις itself but the same doctrine |
| salvation | salut | Medium | 1, 2 | Phil 1:19, 1:28, 2:12 |
| apostle | apôtre | Medium (registry) | 1, 2 | Reserve for Paul’s own office; do NOT use for Epaphroditus in 2:25 (see “envoyé” below) |
| called / calling | appelé / appel | High | 3 | Phil 3:14, “the upward call [κλῆσις] of God” |
| holy | saint | High | 1 | Adjectival use implicit in “saints” below |
| saints | saints (glossed “tous les croyants”) | High | 1, 4 | Phil 1:1, 4:21–22 |
| sanctification | sanctification | High | — | Not directly lexicalized in Philippians but the underlying doctrine of the church’s set-apartness is present via “saints” |
| resurrection | résurrection | Critical (registry) | 3 | Phil 3:10, 3:21; also implicit in the exaltation logic of 2:9 |
| lord | Seigneur | Critical (registry) | 2, 3, 4 | Phil 2:11 (“Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός”) — MUST match Romans 10:9’s fixed rendering exactly |
| son_of_god / deity of Christ | (concept present without the exact phrase; see “forme de Dieu” below) | Critical | 2 | Phil 2:6 grounds the same doctrine via different vocabulary |
| incarnation | incarnation | Critical (registry) | 2 | The doctrinal frame for the whole core passage; Phil 2:7’s “ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος” is a direct incarnation statement |
| peace | paix | Low/Medium | 1, 4 | Phil 1:2, 4:7, 4:9 |
| thanksgiving | action de grâce | Low | 1, 4 | Phil 1:3, 4:6 |
| fellowship | communion fraternelle | Low/Medium (registry) | 1, 2, 4 | Reserve for general interpersonal koinōnia; DO NOT use for the distinct “partnership in the gospel” or “fellowship of the Spirit” senses — see NEW terms below |
| church | Église | High | — | Not the term ἐκκλησία itself, but the doctrine “Church as God’s People” underlies 1:1’s overseers/deacons/saints and 2:1–4/4:2-3’s unity exhortations |
| glory | gloire | High (registry) | 1, 2, 3 | Phil 1:11, 2:11, 3:19, 3:21 |
| obedience_of_faith | obéissance de la foi | High | — | Distinct from Christ’s own ὑπήκοος (obedient, 2:8) — do not conflate; Christ’s atoning obedience is a different referent from believers’ obedience-flowing-from-faith |
| power_of_god | puissance de Dieu | Medium/High | 3 | Phil 3:10, “power of his resurrection” |
| messiah / Christ | Christ | Critical | 1–4 | Throughout |
| israel | Israël | Medium | 3 | Phil 3:5 |
| jesus | Jésus | Critical | 1–4 | Throughout |
| god | Dieu | Critical | 1–4 | Throughout |
| holy_spirit | Esprit Saint | Critical | 1, 2, 3 | Phil 1:19, 2:1 (“κοινωνία πνεύματος”), 3:3 |
| father | Père | High | 1, 2, 4 | Phil 1:2, 2:11, 4:20 |
| exhort | exhorter | Low | 4 | Phil 4:2 (“παρακαλῶ”) |
Part 2 — New Terms Introduced in Philippians (Proposed Language Package Additions)
| Term (ID) | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | French Rendering | Doctrine | Risk | Chapters | Alternatives Rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| joy | χαρά / χαίρω | chara / chairō | joie / se réjouir | Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment | Medium | 1, 2, 4 | ”bonheur” (too circumstantial/secular), “bien-être” (wellness-industry flattening) | Must be anchored to Paul’s imprisonment (1:12–26) to prevent flattening into feel-good secular positivity; joy here is a Spirit-produced disposition that persists through suffering, not despite theological content but because of it (1:19–21). |
| humility | ταπεινοφροσύνη / ταπεινόω | tapeinophrosynē / tapeinoō | humilité / s’humilier | Unity and Humility in the Church | High | 2, 4 | none proposed; “modestie” too weak, loses moral-theological weight | French “humilité” risks a weakness/self-deprecation connotation opposite to Christ’s powerful, voluntary self-lowering (2:6–8); also risks narrowing to Catholic ascetic/monastic practice. Must be anchored explicitly to the Christ Hymn’s example. |
| form_of_god | μορφὴ θεοῦ | morphē theou | forme de Dieu (gloss: nature et condition divines) | The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis) / Deity of Christ | Critical | 2 | ”apparence de Dieu” (explicitly rejected — implies mere appearance, docetic risk) | Extends the baseline’s Critical Deity-of-Christ category; “forme” alone in ordinary French denotes shape/appearance and needs the mandatory teaching gloss to secure the essential-nature sense. Human theologian review required every occurrence. |
| harpagmos | ἁρπαγμός | harpagmos | chose à retenir jalousement / à exploiter à son avantage | Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ | High | 2 | ”un butin à arracher” (Segond 1910, archaic/obscure), “une chose à saisir” (ambiguous — could wrongly imply Christ had not yet attained deity) | Genuine textual-critical ambiguity; the “did not exploit/cling to” reading (preserving pre-existent deity) must be preserved over the “did not grasp for/attain” reading. Flag for theologian review. |
| kenosis | ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν | heauton ekenōsen | s’est dépouillé lui-même | The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis) | Critical | 2 | ”s’est vidé lui-même” (explicitly rejected — implies ontological loss of divine nature/attributes, heterodox kenoticism) | Anchor term for the curriculum’s kenosis doctrine. Must convey voluntary setting-aside of divine privilege/glory-display, never loss of divine nature. Human theologian review required every occurrence, parallel to baseline’s “imputed_righteousness”/“son_of_god” rigor. |
| form_of_servant | μορφὴν δούλου | morphēn doulou | la forme de serviteur (teaching note: literally “d’esclave”) | Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ | High | 2 | ”forme d’employé” (loses total-ownership sense) | Must structurally mirror “forme de Dieu” (same μορφή root) to preserve Paul’s deliberate parallelism; “esclave” carries live French colonial-slavery-history weight (2001 Taubira law), requiring careful register calibration. |
| servant_slave | δοῦλος | doulos | esclave / serviteur | (undergirds Christ-Hymn kenosis doctrine and Paul’s self-designation) | High | 1, 2 | ”employé,” “domestique” (both too weak, lose total-ownership sense) | Same collision as “form_of_servant” above; applies also to Paul and Timothy’s self-designation (1:1). |
| overseer | ἐπίσκοπος | episkopos | responsables / surveillants | Church as God’s People (local leadership) | High | 1 | ”évêques” (explicitly rejected — reads later institutional Catholic/Orthodox episcopal office back into Paul’s local first-century congregational leaders) | Parallel collision pattern to baseline’s “Église” institutional-anachronism risk. |
| deacon | διάκονος | diakonos | diacres / serviteurs | Church as God’s People | Medium-High | 1 | none proposed | Lesser but real collision with the later formal Catholic permanent-diaconate office and some Reformed formal deacon offices. |
| citizenship | πολιτεύεσθε (verb, 1:27) / πολίτευμα (noun, 3:20) | politeuesthe / politeuma | conduisez-vous en citoyens (dignes de l’Évangile) / notre cité est dans les cieux (alt. nous sommes citoyens des cieux) | Citizenship in Heaven | Critical | 1, 3 | Segond’s fully de-metaphorized “conduisez-vous d’une manière digne” (rejected as principal rendering — loses the citizen-metaphor entirely, though retained as a secondary/simplified option for very low-literacy contexts) | The single highest French-specific risk term in the book: “citoyen” carries the full weight of French Republican civic identity (1789 Déclaration, laïcité) and can either fail to register as a metaphor at all or import contemporary secular-Republican civic concepts foreign to Paul’s point about heavenly allegiance. Requires theologian AND native-speaker review; 1:27 and 3:20 must be rendered as a coherent pair. |
| partnership_in_gospel | κοινωνία εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον / κοινωνέω | koinōnia eis to euangelion / koinōneō | communion en vue de l’Évangile / association pour l’Évangile | Partnership in the Gospel | High | 1, 4 | ”partenariat” (rejected as primary term — commercial/business register); bare “communion” (rejected — collides with Eucharistic sense per baseline fellowship note) | Distinct from baseline “fellowship” (communion fraternelle, general interpersonal koinōnia); this sense is concrete and missional/financial (cf. 4:15’s giving-and-receiving ledger language). Also intersects with baseline’s “mission” colonial-history caution — frame as mutual gospel partnership, not one-directional patronage. |
| fellowship_of_spirit | κοινωνία πνεύματος | koinōnia pneumatos | communion de l’Esprit | Unity and Humility in the Church | Medium | 2 | bare “communion” (risk of Eucharistic collision) | Distinguish from both “communion fraternelle” (interpersonal) and “communion en vue de l’Évangile” (missional/financial) — the Spirit himself is the source/genitive here. |
| suffering_fellowship | κοινωνία παθημάτων αὐτοῦ | koinōnia pathēmatōn autou | communion à ses souffrances / participation à ses souffrances | Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment | High | 3 | ”souffrances méritoires” (explicitly rejected — implies believers’ suffering adds atoning merit) | Direct collision with Catholic redemptive/meritorious-suffering devotional theology (suffering “offered up,” purgatory-adjacent piety). Must be clarified as solidarity/identification with Christ, not a contribution to atonement. |
| cross | σταυρός | stauros | croix | Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ / Atonement | Medium | 2, 3 | none proposed | Established term, but French idiom “porter sa croix” risks trivializing Christ’s unique atoning death into a generic-suffering metaphor; teaching notes must preserve the historical singularity. |
| exaltation | ὑπερύψωσεν | hyperypsōsen | l’a souverainement élevé | Lordship of Christ | Medium | 2 | ”l’a honoré” (too weak — loses reversal logic and intensive compound) | Must preserve the humiliation-to-exaltation reversal signaled by διό (“therefore”). |
| confession_of_lordship | ἐξομολογήσηται | exomologēsētai | confesse (ouvertement) | Lordship of Christ | High | 2 | bare noun “confession” (rejected as primary framing — collides with Catholic sacramental penance) | Same act-category as Romans 10:9’s fixed confession formula; must render as public acclamation, not sacramental disclosure, and remain verbatim-consistent with the Romans 10:9 rendering per baseline cross-document consistency rules. |
| envoy_messenger | ἀπόστολον (non-technical, 2:25) | apostolon | votre envoyé / votre messager | (disambiguation from Apostleship doctrine) | Medium | 2 | ”apôtre” (explicitly rejected in this verse — would wrongly elevate Epaphroditus to Paul’s foundational office) | Must NOT reuse the baseline “apôtre” rendering here; this is Epaphroditus as the Philippians’ sent representative, not the technical office. |
| rubbish | σκύβαλα | skybala | ordures / fumier | Righteousness by Faith versus the Law | Medium | 3 | ”une perte” (Segond — rejected as primary rendering; badly under-translates the crudeness Paul intends) | Register-calibration risk: must preserve Paul’s visceral rhetorical force without becoming gratuitously vulgar in a formal-register study curriculum. |
| perfected | τετελείωμαι | teteleiōmai | je suis parvenu à la perfection (with mandatory negation: “non que je le sois déjà”) | Pressing on toward the Goal in Christ | Medium | 3 | none proposed | The negation must be preserved with equal emphasis to avoid a perfectionist-holiness misreading. |
| press_on | διώκω / ἐπεκτείνομαι | diōkō / epekteinomai | je cours vers / je poursuis / je tends vers | Pressing on toward the Goal in Christ | Low-Medium | 3 | none proposed | Must be rendered consistently with “le prix / le but” (βραβεῖον/σκοπός) to preserve the extended athletic-race metaphor. |
| savior_title | σωτήρ | sōtēr | Sauveur | Citizenship in Heaven / Salvation | Medium | 3 | none proposed | Titular form of the baseline “salut” root; low ambiguity but formally new to the Language Package. |
| contentment | αὐτάρκης / αὐτάρκεια | autarkēs / autarkeia | content / satisfait (en toute circonstance) | Contentment in All Circumstances | High | 4 | ”autosuffisant” (explicitly rejected — reintroduces the Stoic self-sufficiency Paul is subverting) | Paul repurposes a Stoic technical term (αὐτάρκεια, central to Stoic ethics taught in the standard French lycée philosophy curriculum) to describe a Christ-dependent, not self-generated, sufficiency (v.13). Educated French readers may default to a Stoic self-mastery reading unless explicitly contrasted. Human theologian review required given the doctrine’s prominence in this curriculum. |
| strengthening_christ | ἐνδυναμοῦντι | endynamounti | celui qui me fortifie | Contentment in All Circumstances | Medium | 4 | none proposed | Popularly over-quoted/decontextualized in French Christian and secular motivational culture as a generic self-empowerment slogan; must be kept paired with vv.11–12’s contentment-in-want-and-plenty framing. |
| service_ministry | λειτουργία / λειτουργός | leitourgia / leitourgos | service / serviteur | Christ-Centered Ministry / Partnership in the Gospel | High | 2 | ”liturgie / liturgue” (explicitly rejected — collides with the formal Catholic/Orthodox Mass rite) | Mirrors the baseline’s “communion”/Eucharist collision pattern exactly. |
| libation_offering | σπένδομαι | spendomai | verser comme une libation | Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment | Medium | 2 | none proposed | OT/pagan cultic drink-offering background is unfamiliar to most French readers regardless of tradition; requires explanatory gloss. |
| fragrant_sacrifice | ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας / θυσία δεκτή / εὐάρεστος | osmē euōdias / thysia dektē / euarestos | parfum de bonne odeur, sacrifice agréable, qui plaît à Dieu | Partnership in the Gospel | Medium | 4 | none proposed | Metaphorical use for the Philippians’ financial gift; risk of collision with live Catholic Eucharistic-sacrifice theology (Mass as re-presented sacrifice) versus Protestant once-for-all-sacrifice framing. Teaching notes must keep the metaphorical, non-cultic sense explicit. |
| work_out_salvation | κατεργάζεσθε (with σωτηρία) | katergazesthe | mettez en œuvre votre salut | Contentment / Sanctification (practical outworking) | High | 2 | ”gagnez votre salut” (explicitly rejected — merit-earning misreading) | Must be paired tightly with 2:13 (“it is God who works in you”) to prevent a works-righteousness misreading, parallel to the baseline’s grace/works distinction. |
| gnosis_of_christ | γνῶσις (Χριστοῦ) | gnōsis (Christou) | connaissance (du Christ) | Righteousness by Faith versus the Law | Medium | 3 | none proposed | Must be anchored to relational/experiential knowing, not abstract intellectual knowledge, given French rationalist philosophical associations with “connaissance.” |
Part 3 — Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference (Curriculum Doctrines)
| Curriculum Doctrine | Primary Terms | Primary Passages | Overall Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis) | forme de Dieu, ἁρπαγμός, s’est dépouillé lui-même, forme de serviteur, semblable aux hommes, incarnation [Baseline] | Phil 2:6–8 | Critical |
| Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment | joie/se réjouir, communion à ses souffrances, verser comme une libation | Phil 1:12–26, 2:17–18, 3:10, 4:4 | High |
| Unity and Humility in the Church | humilité, communion de l’Esprit, φρονέω (avoir cette pensée) | Phil 1:27–2:5, 4:2–3 | High |
| Righteousness by Faith versus the Law | justice, loi, foi [all Baseline], ordures, connaissance | Phil 3:2–9 | Critical |
| Contentment in All Circumstances | content/satisfait, celui qui me fortifie | Phil 4:10–13 | High |
| Citizenship in Heaven | conduisez-vous en citoyens, notre cité est dans les cieux, Sauveur | Phil 1:27, 3:20–21 | Critical |
| Partnership in the Gospel | communion en vue de l’Évangile, service/serviteur, de donner et de recevoir, parfum de bonne odeur | Phil 1:5, 2:25–30, 4:10–19 | High |
| Pressing on toward the Goal in Christ | je poursuis/je tends vers, le prix/le but, je suis parvenu à la perfection (négation) | Phil 3:12–14 | Medium |
Coverage Confirmation
All four chapters of Philippians have been reviewed for load-bearing theological vocabulary:
- Chapter 1: reviewed — introduces δοῦλος, ἐπίσκοπος, διάκονος, κοινωνία εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, χαρά, πολιτεύεσθε, προκοπή, ἀγών (new/extended terms); reuses grâce, paix, salut, action de grâce, Christ [Baseline].
- Chapter 2: reviewed — core passage (2:1–11) treated verse-by-verse; remainder (2:12–30) introduces κατεργάζεσθε, σπένδομαι, λειτουργία/λειτουργός, and the ἀπόστολος disambiguation for Epaphroditus.
- Chapter 3: reviewed — introduces σκύβαλα, the righteousness-by-faith-vs-law contrast, κοινωνία παθημάτων, τετελείωμαι, διώκω/ἐπεκτείνομαι, βραβεῖον/σκοπός, πολίτευμα, σωτήρ; reuses Israël, appel, puissance de Dieu, résurrection [Baseline].
- Chapter 4: reviewed — introduces αὐτάρκης, ἐνδυναμοῦντι, κοινωνέω/δόσις καὶ λῆψις, ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας κτλ.; reuses action de grâce, paix, exhorter, saints [Baseline].
No chapter contributed zero new theological vocabulary; all four required dedicated analysis.
Critical Risk Terms
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: justification
Doctrine: Righteousness by Faith versus the Law
Rejected alternatives: sanctification (conflation), salut (too generic)
Inherited from Romans package. Not a separate Greek noun in Philippians, but the identical Trent-vs-Reformation forensic/imputed vs. infused/merited tension is present in 3:9’s contrast of law-righteousness and faith-righteousness. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice imputée
Transliteration: justice imputée
Doctrine: Righteousness by Faith versus the Law
Rejected alternatives: justice méritée
Inherited from Romans package. Applies to Philippians 3:9’s δικαιοσύνη … διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ: righteousness credited by faith, never earned through the law-keeping credentials Paul lists in 3:5-6 and then calls σκύβαλα (see ‘rubbish’ below).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Fils de Dieu
Transliteration: Fils de Dieu
Doctrine: Pre-existence and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: envoyé de Dieu, homme divin
Inherited from Romans package. The exact phrase is not lexicalized in Philippians, but the identical Critical deity-of-Christ doctrine is grounded here through different vocabulary (μορφὴ θεοῦ, ἴσα θεῷ, 2:6) — see the new terms ‘form_of_god’ and ‘equal_with_god’ below, which extend this doctrine for this book.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Christ
Transliteration: Christ
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Inherited from Romans package’s doctrinal category, but rendered as the established proper-name form ‘Christ’ (not ‘Messie’) throughout Philippians per this curriculum’s own established convention (08_core_glossary.md Part 1: ‘messiah / Christ -> Christ’), since Χριστός functions here overwhelmingly as part of the union-formula ‘Christ Jésus’ / ‘Jésus Christ’ rather than as a distinct messianic argument as in Romans 1:3-4.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jésus
Transliteration: Jésus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs throughout, frequently in the union-formula ‘Christ Jésus’ / ‘Jésus Christ’.
Form Of God
Approved rendering: forme de Dieu (gloss obligatoire: nature et condition divines)
Transliteration: morphē theou
Doctrine: Pre-existence and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: apparence de Dieu (docetic risk, explicitly rejected), condition divine (loses the μορφή/μορφή parallel with ‘forme de serviteur’ unless separately glossed)
NEW TERM, extends the baseline’s Critical Deity-of-Christ risk category via different Greek vocabulary than Romans. Ordinary French ‘forme’ denotes shape/appearance and risks a docetic-adjacent reading; mandatory teaching gloss required at every occurrence. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
Equal With God
Approved rendering: être égal à Dieu
Transliteration: isa theō
Doctrine: Pre-existence and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: semblable à Dieu (softens to mere resemblance, compromising the co-equal deity claim)
NEW TERM. Must never be softened; parallel and reinforcing to μορφὴ θεοῦ. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
Kenosis
Approved rendering: s’est dépouillé lui-même
Transliteration: heauton ekenōsen
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis)
Rejected alternatives: s’est vidé lui-même (heterodox ontological kenoticism — implies loss of divine nature/attributes; forbidden)
NEW TERM, anchor term for the curriculum’s central doctrine. All five major existing French translations (LSG, S21, TOB, BJ, BDS) converge on ‘s’est dépouillé lui-même’ — strong external warrant. The Greek loanword ‘kénose’ may appear only in doctrine-label headers/teaching notes, never inside the translated Scripture text itself. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
Citizenship
Approved rendering: conduisez-vous en citoyens (dignes de l’Évangile) / notre cité est dans les cieux (nous sommes citoyens des cieux)
Transliteration: politeuesthe / politeuma
Doctrine: Citizenship in Heaven
Rejected alternatives: conduisez-vous d’une manière digne (Segond — fully de-metaphorized; retained ONLY as a labeled simplified secondary option for very low-literacy audiences, never as the primary rendering), notre patrie est dans les cieux (S21 — rejected; imports French Republican-nationalist homeland resonance foreign to Paul’s civic-membership point), notre pays est le ciel (BDS — rejected; territorial/homeland sense, not civic-membership sense)
NEW TERM, the single highest French-specific risk term in the book. Occurs 1:27 and 3:20, must be rendered as a coherent metaphorical pair. ‘Citoyen’ carries the full weight of French Republican civic identity (1789 Déclaration, laïcité); risk runs in two directions (metaphor lost vs. metaphor over-politicized). TOB’s consistent ‘citoyens…citoyens’ pairing across both verses is the closest existing precedent. Requires human theologian AND native-speaker review for every occurrence.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: grâce
Transliteration: grâce
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: faveur, mérite
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs in the epistolary greeting (1:2) and benediction (4:23), and underlies ἐχαρίσατο (2:9, God’s gracious bestowal of the exalted name on the Son). The Catholic sacramental-grace vs. Reformed sola gratia collision documented in the baseline applies unchanged; 2:9 must reinforce, not contradict, the apart-from-merit sense.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: justice (de Dieu)
Doctrine: Righteousness by Faith versus the Law
Rejected alternatives: vertu, droiture
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:6, 3:9 restate the Romans forensic-vs-merit contrast in the sharpest single-verse form found outside Romans. French secular ‘justice’ still risks a legal-system reading unless anchored to gift-status received by faith.
Saints
Approved rendering: saints
Transliteration: les saints
Doctrine: Sainthood (Called to be Holy)
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs at the epistolary opening (1:1) and closing (4:21-22), framing the whole letter as addressed to ordinary believers. Must carry the baseline’s mandatory ‘tous les croyants’ teaching gloss given how strongly French ‘les saints’ evokes canonized intercessors.
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Inherited from Romans package. The climactic confession of 2:11 (‘Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός’) MUST match the fixed Romans 10:9 rendering verbatim per the baseline’s cross-document consistency rule. ‘Seigneur’ still carries feudal-historical resonance risking a distanced, archaic-title reading.
Church
Approved rendering: Église
Transliteration: Église
Doctrine: Apostleship and Servant Leadership
Rejected alternatives: temple (building only)
Inherited from Romans package. The doctrine underlies 1:1’s overseers/deacons/saints structure and the unity exhortations of 2:1-4 and 4:2-3, even though the noun ἐκκλησία itself is not used in Philippians. Must not collapse into the institutional ‘l’Église’ alone.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: obéissance de la foi
Transliteration: obéissance de la foi
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: devoir religieux
Inherited from Romans package, reserved for believers’ obedience flowing from faith. MUST be kept distinct from Christ’s own atoning obedience (ὑπήκοος, 2:8) — see ‘christs_obedience’ below, a different referent sharing root vocabulary only.
Humility
Approved rendering: humilité / s’humilier
Transliteration: tapeinophrosynē / tapeinoō
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Rejected alternatives: modestie (too weak, loses moral-theological weight)
NEW TERM. Occurs 2:3, 2:8 (ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτόν), and by circumstantial-sense contrast at 4:12 (ταπεινοῦσθαι — do not conflate). French ‘humilité’ risks a weakness/self-deprecation connotation opposite Christ’s powerful, voluntary self-lowering; also risks narrowing to Catholic ascetic/monastic practice. Must be anchored explicitly to Christ’s example in 2:6-8.
Mindset Phroneo
Approved rendering: avoir cette même pensée / cette disposition
Transliteration: phroneō
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
NEW TERM. Occurs 2:2 and 2:5, forming a literary inclusio binding the unity exhortation to the Christ Hymn. French has no single-word equivalent for this durative ‘settled mental orientation’ sense; the 2:2 and 2:5 occurrences MUST be rendered with matching vocabulary — inconsistency severs the inclusio, a structural doctrinal loss, not merely a stylistic one.
Eternal Preexistence
Approved rendering: étant / existant depuis toujours (en forme de Dieu)
Transliteration: hyparchōn
Doctrine: Pre-existence and Deity of Christ
NEW TERM. Renders the durative present participle ὑπάρχων (2:6), signaling Christ’s continuing, essential prior state of being, not a temporary or newly acquired condition. French past tenses do not naturally carry this durative force; the adverbial phrase must supply it.
Harpagmos
Approved rendering: chose à retenir jalousement / à exploiter à son avantage
Transliteration: harpagmos
Doctrine: Pre-existence and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: un butin à arracher (LSG 1910, archaic/obscure image), une chose à saisir (ambiguous — could wrongly imply Christ had not yet attained deity)
NEW TERM. Genuine textual-critical ambiguity in Koine Greek with real doctrinal stakes; the French rendering must preserve the ‘did not exploit/cling to an already-possessed equality’ reading, never the ‘had not yet attained it’ reading. Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
Form Of Servant
Approved rendering: la forme de serviteur (litt. esclave)
Transliteration: morphēn doulou
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis)
Rejected alternatives: forme d’employé (loses total-ownership sense of δοῦλος)
NEW TERM. Must structurally mirror ‘forme de Dieu’ (both ‘forme de X’) to preserve Paul’s deliberate parallelism; losing this parallel breaks the hymn’s descent-ascent logic. ‘Esclave’ carries live weight from France’s transatlantic slave-trade history and the 2001 loi Taubira; ‘serviteur’ is used in running text with a mandatory ‘(litt. esclave)’ gloss.
Servant Slave
Approved rendering: esclave / serviteur
Transliteration: doulos
Doctrine: Apostleship and Servant Leadership
Rejected alternatives: employé, domestique (both too weak, lose total-ownership sense)
NEW TERM. Applies to Paul and Timothy’s self-designation (1:1) as well as underlying Christ’s self-humbling (2:7). Same colonial-memory collision as ‘form_of_servant’; recommend ‘serviteur’ with a teaching gloss ‘(litt. esclave)’.
Confession Of Lordship
Approved rendering: confesse (ouvertement)
Transliteration: exomologēsētai
Doctrine: Public Confession of Christ’s Lordship
Rejected alternatives: la confession (bare noun — collides with the Catholic sacrament of penance)
NEW TERM. French noun ‘la confession’ overwhelmingly denotes auricular confession to a priest. Must render as public, eschatological acclamation, verbatim-consistent with the fixed Romans 10:9 confession rendering. Human theologian review required to prevent sacramental-confession bleed-through.
Overseer
Approved rendering: responsables / surveillants
Transliteration: episkopos
Doctrine: Apostleship and Servant Leadership
Rejected alternatives: évêques (explicitly rejected — reads the later hierarchical Catholic/Orthodox episcopal office back into Paul’s local first-century congregational leaders)
NEW TERM. Parallel collision pattern to the baseline’s ‘Église’ institutional-anachronism risk. LSG 1910 and several Catholic-lineage editions circulate ‘évêques’; reviewers formed on those traditions must be briefed this is a deliberate, historically-grounded departure.
Partnership In Gospel
Approved rendering: communion en vue de l’Évangile / association pour l’Évangile
Transliteration: koinōnia eis to euangelion / koinōneō
Doctrine: Partnership in the Gospel
Rejected alternatives: partenariat (commercial/business-sponsorship register), communion (bare, Eucharistic collision)
NEW TERM. Concrete missional/financial κοινωνία (cf. 4:15’s giving-and-receiving ledger language), distinct from general interpersonal ‘communion fraternelle’. Also intersects with the baseline’s colonial-mission caution — frame as mutual gospel partnership between equals, not one-directional patronage.
Suffering Fellowship
Approved rendering: communion à ses souffrances / participation à ses souffrances
Transliteration: koinōnia pathēmatōn autou
Doctrine: Fellowship with Christ’s Sufferings
Rejected alternatives: souffrances méritoires (explicitly rejected — implies believers’ suffering adds atoning merit)
NEW TERM. Occurs 3:10. Direct collision with Catholic devotional/theological traditions of redemptive or meritorious suffering. Must be clarified as solidarity/identification with Christ, never a contribution to atonement. Human theologian review required.
Contentment
Approved rendering: content / satisfait (en toute circonstance)
Transliteration: autarkēs / autarkeia
Doctrine: Contentment in All Circumstances
Rejected alternatives: autosuffisant / autarcie / autosuffisance (explicitly rejected — reintroduces the Stoic self-sufficiency Paul is subverting)
NEW TERM. Occurs 4:11. Paul repurposes a Stoic technical term (αὐτάρκεια, a standard component of the French lycée philosophy curriculum via Épictète, Sénèque, Marc Aurèle) to describe Christ-dependent, not self-generated, sufficiency (v.13). Every occurrence must explicitly contrast Pauline Christ-dependence with Stoic self-mastery. Human theologian review required.
Work Out Salvation
Approved rendering: mettez en œuvre votre salut
Transliteration: katergazesthe (tēn heautōn sōtērian)
Doctrine: Sanctification and the Practical Outworking of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: gagnez votre salut (explicitly rejected — merit-earning misreading), travaillez à votre salut (Bible de Jérusalem — rejected as primary rendering; most readily suggests salvation achieved through effort, cohering with a Tridentine cooperative-merit framework)
NEW TERM. Occurs 2:12. Must be paired tightly with 2:13 (‘c’est Dieu qui produit en vous’) to prevent a merit-earning misreading, parallel to the baseline’s grace/works distinction. Matches Segond 21’s ‘mettez en œuvre’.
Service Ministry
Approved rendering: service / serviteur
Transliteration: leitourgia / leitourgos
Doctrine: Christ-Centered Ministry and Sacrificial Service
Rejected alternatives: liturgie / liturgue (explicitly rejected — collides with the formal Catholic/Orthodox Mass rite)
NEW TERM. Occurs 2:17, 2:25, 2:30. General self-giving service/ministry, not a cultic liturgical rite. Mirrors the baseline’s ‘communion’/Eucharist collision pattern exactly.
Medium Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: foi
Transliteration: foi
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: croyance, religion
Inherited from Romans package. Central to the righteousness-by-faith contrast of 3:9; also 1:25, 1:27, 2:17. Object of faith (Christ) must remain recoverable from context, not generic religious affiliation.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salut
Transliteration: salut
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: délivrance
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 1:19, 1:28, 2:12, and as the titular ‘Sauveur’ at 3:20 (see ‘savior_title’). The 2:12 occurrence (‘work out your salvation’) requires the added High-risk ‘work_out_salvation’ entry below to prevent a merit-earning misreading.
Calling
Approved rendering: appel
Transliteration: appel
Doctrine: Divine Calling (the Upward Call)
Rejected alternatives: vocation (clergy-narrowing risk)
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 3:14, ‘the upward call [κλῆσις] of God in Christ Jesus’ — the eschatological goal of the athletic race metaphor. Must convey a sovereign summons, not a self-chosen ambition, and never narrow to ‘vocation’ in the Catholic clergy/religious-life sense.
Holy
Approved rendering: saint
Transliteration: saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: pur
Inherited from Romans package. Underlies the corporate designation ‘saints’ (1:1, 4:21-22).
Sanctification
Approved rendering: sanctification
Transliteration: sanctification
Doctrine: Sanctification and the Practical Outworking of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: purification
Inherited from Romans package. Not directly lexicalized in Philippians as a noun, but the underlying doctrine of the church’s set-apartness is present via ‘saints’ and is extended practically by 2:12-13’s ‘work out your salvation’ (see ‘work_out_salvation’).
Resurrection
Approved rendering: résurrection
Transliteration: résurrection
Doctrine: Resurrection Hope
Rejected alternatives: renaissance
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 3:10 (power of his resurrection) and 3:21 (believers’ future bodily transformation). Chief risk remains secular French naturalism flattening ‘résurrection’ into metaphorical renewal rather than a historical, bodily event.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: incarnation
Transliteration: incarnation
Doctrine: Humanity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 2:7 (‘ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος’) is one of the New Testament’s clearest direct incarnation statements. Risk remains secular flattening via ‘incarner’ (to play/embody a role).
Fellowship
Approved rendering: communion fraternelle
Transliteration: communion fraternelle
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Rejected alternatives: communion (bare)
Inherited from Romans package, reserved for general interpersonal koinōnia ONLY. Philippians introduces three further distinct κοινωνία senses (missional/financial, Spirit-sourced, and suffering-solidarity) that must NOT collapse onto this term or onto bare ‘communion’ — see ‘partnership_in_gospel’, ‘fellowship_of_spirit’, and ‘suffering_fellowship’ below.
Glory
Approved rendering: gloire
Transliteration: gloire
Doctrine: Glory of God (and its Counterfeit)
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 1:11, 2:11, 3:19, 3:21. Philippians adds a French-relevant risk not present in Romans: the counterfeit κενοδοξία (‘vaine gloire’, 2:3) shares the root with true ‘gloire’ and must be clearly distinguished — see ‘vaine_gloire’ below.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: puissance de Dieu
Transliteration: puissance de Dieu
Doctrine: Resurrection Hope
Rejected alternatives: force
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 3:10, ‘the power of his resurrection’ (δύναμις τῆς ἀναστάσεως αὐτοῦ). Use ‘puissance’, never the weaker ‘force’.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Righteousness by Faith versus the Law
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 3:5 in Paul’s list of former Jewish credentials. Keep the referent historical/theological, distinct from the modern nation-state, mindful of France’s significant Jewish community, and careful not to let 3:5-6’s rhetorical devaluation of Paul’s own credentials read as disparagement of Jewish identity or Torah observance as such.
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Pre-existence and Deity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs throughout; also the referent of μορφὴ θεοῦ (2:6) and ἴσα θεῷ (2:6) — see ‘form_of_god’ and ‘equal_with_god’ below.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Esprit Saint
Transliteration: Esprit Saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 1:19, 2:1 (κοινωνία πνεύματος — see ‘fellowship_of_spirit’ below), 3:3. Must never be rendered with a term for an impersonal universal spirit or life-force.
Father
Approved rendering: Père
Transliteration: Père
Doctrine: Grace
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 1:2, 2:11 (glory of God the Father), 4:20. The adoption theme of the baseline doctrine field is not directly developed in Philippians; the term retains its stable relational/personal Father sense.
Joy
Approved rendering: joie / se réjouir
Transliteration: chara / chairō
Doctrine: Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment
Rejected alternatives: bonheur (too circumstantial/secular; etymologically ‘good fortune’), bien-être (wellness-industry flattening)
NEW TERM. Occurs throughout (1:4, 1:18, 1:25, 2:2, 2:17-18, 3:1, 4:4, 4:10). Secular French ‘joie’ is heavily filtered through bien-être/positive-psychology marketing register; must always be co-located with Paul’s imprisonment context (1:12-26) so it reads as Spirit-produced resilience through hardship, not a happiness technique or denial of suffering.
Likeness Of Men
Approved rendering: semblable aux hommes
Transliteration: homoiōmati anthrōpōn
Doctrine: Humanity of Christ
NEW TERM. Bare ‘semblable’ risks a docetic misreading (‘merely appeared human’) unless anchored explicitly to the baseline incarnation doctrine’s affirmation of permanent, real human nature.
Outward Appearance Schema
Approved rendering: quant à son aspect / à son comportement
Transliteration: schēma
Doctrine: Humanity of Christ
NEW TERM. Must not be conflated with μορφή (form of God / form of servant, 2:6-7); this term describes Christ’s outward, observable human manner, narrower and complementary to the preceding ontological claims.
Christs Obedience
Approved rendering: obéissant
Transliteration: hypēkoos
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis)
NEW TERM. Christ’s own voluntary, atoning obedience to death (2:8), distinct from the baseline ‘obéissance de la foi’ (believers’ obedience). Conflating the two risks blurring the unique, once-for-all character of Christ’s redemptive act.
Cross
Approved rendering: croix
Transliteration: stauros
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis)
NEW TERM (not present in the Romans baseline TM). Occurs 2:8 and 3:18 (enemies of the cross). Stable across Catholic and Protestant tradition, but the idiom ‘porter sa croix’ (to bear any hardship) risks trivializing Christ’s unique, historical, atoning death into a generic-suffering metaphor.
Exaltation
Approved rendering: l’a souverainement élevé
Transliteration: hyperypsōsen
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: l’a honoré (too weak — loses reversal logic and intensive compound)
NEW TERM. Must preserve the humiliation-to-exaltation reversal signaled by the opening ‘διό’ (therefore); matches the established Segond rendering.
Name Above Every Name
Approved rendering: le nom qui est au-dessus de tout nom
Transliteration: to onoma to hyper pan onoma
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
NEW TERM. Almost certainly refers to the divine title ‘Lord’ conferred in 2:11, echoing the divine name of the Septuagint. Ties directly into the baseline’s High-risk ‘Seigneur’ doctrine; consistency with Romans 10:9’s fixed rendering is required.
Cosmic Submission
Approved rendering: les êtres célestes, terrestres et souterrains
Transliteration: epouraniōn kai epigeiōn kai katachthoniōn
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
NEW TERM. A threefold cosmic merism denoting universal, including hostile and unwilling, submission to Christ’s Lordship. Must retain this totalizing scope, not narrow it to voluntary human worship alone.
Vaine Gloire
Approved rendering: vaine gloire
Transliteration: kenodoxia
Doctrine: Glory of God (and its Counterfeit)
NEW TERM. The counterfeit of true δόξα (‘gloire’, 2:11 etc.) — empty, self-important boasting condemned in 2:3. Shares its French root with the true baseline term ‘gloire’; must be explicitly glossed as the negated/counterfeit form to prevent reader conflation with the divine attribute.
Deacon
Approved rendering: diacres / serviteurs
Transliteration: diakonos
Doctrine: Apostleship and Servant Leadership
NEW TERM. Lesser but real collision with the later formal Catholic permanent diaconate and some Reformed formal deacon offices; context must make clear this is a functional, local first-century role.
Envoy Messenger
Approved rendering: votre envoyé / votre messager
Transliteration: apostolon
Doctrine: Apostleship and Servant Leadership
Rejected alternatives: apôtre (explicitly rejected in this verse — would wrongly elevate Epaphroditus to Paul’s own foundational office)
NEW TERM. Epaphroditus as the Philippians’ sent representative (2:25, non-technical ἀπόστολον), not the technical apostolic office. Must NOT reuse the baseline ‘apôtre’ rendering.
Fellowship Of Spirit
Approved rendering: communion de l’Esprit
Transliteration: koinōnia pneumatos
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Rejected alternatives: communion (bare)
NEW TERM. Occurs 2:1. Must be distinguished from both ‘communion fraternelle’ (interpersonal) and ‘communion en vue de l’Évangile’ (missional/financial) — the Spirit himself is the source/genitive here.
Gnosis Of Christ
Approved rendering: connaissance (du Christ)
Transliteration: gnōsis (Christou)
Doctrine: Righteousness by Faith versus the Law
NEW TERM. Occurs 3:8. French ‘connaissance’ leans toward abstract/intellectual knowledge in the rationalist philosophical tradition; must be anchored to relational, experiential knowing of a person, not facts.
Rubbish
Approved rendering: ordures / fumier
Transliteration: skybala
Doctrine: Righteousness by Faith versus the Law
Rejected alternatives: une perte (Segond 1910 — badly under-translates the crudeness of the original), boue (LSG 1910 — under-translates, loses visceral force)
NEW TERM. Occurs 3:8. Register-calibration risk: French formal religious prose has no exact match for the Greek’s shock value; ‘ordures/fumier’ balances force against gratuitous vulgarity for a formal-register study curriculum.
Perfected
Approved rendering: je suis parvenu à la perfection (avec négation obligatoire: non que je le sois déjà)
Transliteration: teteleiōmai
Doctrine: Pressing on toward the Goal in Christ
NEW TERM. Occurs 3:12. The negation must be preserved with equal syntactic weight; losing it risks a perfectionist-holiness misreading, a live tension with some Renouveau charismatique streams in francophone contexts.
Press On
Approved rendering: je cours vers / je poursuis / je tends vers
Transliteration: diōkō / epekteinomai
Doctrine: Pressing on toward the Goal in Christ
NEW TERM. Occurs 3:12, 3:14. The Greek stadium-footrace metaphor maps readily onto French athletic vocabulary; must be paired consistently with ‘le prix / le but’ (βραβεῖον/σκοπός) to preserve the extended metaphor.
Savior Title
Approved rendering: Sauveur
Transliteration: sōtēr
Doctrine: Citizenship in Heaven
NEW TERM, titular form of the baseline ‘salut’ root. Occurs 3:20. Low ambiguity but must remain tied to the citizenship/future-hope framing of that passage.
Strengthening Christ
Approved rendering: celui qui me fortifie
Transliteration: endynamounti
Doctrine: Contentment in All Circumstances
NEW TERM. Occurs 4:13. One of the most popularly quoted and most frequently decontextualized verses in French Christian and secular motivational culture. Teaching material must keep 4:11-13 together as one indivisible unit; never present v.13 alone.
Libation Offering
Approved rendering: verser comme une libation
Transliteration: spendomai
Doctrine: Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment
NEW TERM. Occurs 2:17. The OT/pagan cultic drink-offering background is unfamiliar to virtually all French readers regardless of tradition; requires an explanatory gloss, not a bare transliteration.
Fragrant Sacrifice
Approved rendering: parfum de bonne odeur, sacrifice agréable, qui plaît à Dieu
Transliteration: osmē euōdias / thysia dektē / euarestos tō theō
Doctrine: Partnership in the Gospel
NEW TERM. Occurs 4:18. Metaphorical, non-cultic use for the Philippians’ financial gift; risk of collision with live Catholic Eucharistic-sacrifice theology (Mass as re-presented sacrifice) versus a Protestant once-for-all-sacrifice framing. Teaching notes must keep the metaphorical, non-cultic sense explicit.
Low Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: Évangile
Transliteration: Évangile
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: bonne nouvelle (informal only)
Inherited from Romans package (translation, transliteration, and doctrine_risk fields copied exactly). Occurs Philippians 1:5, 1:7, 1:12, 1:27, 4:15, frequently in the specific sense of gospel partnership and gospel-worthy conduct. Content of ‘the gospel’ must not be assumed known given low biblical literacy across the target readership.
Apostle
Approved rendering: apôtre
Transliteration: apôtre
Doctrine: Apostleship and Servant Leadership
Inherited from Romans package, reserved for Paul’s own foundational office (implicit self-designation, 1:1). MUST NOT be used for the non-technical ἀπόστολον of 2:25 (Epaphroditus); see ‘envoy_messenger’ below for that occurrence.
Peace
Approved rendering: paix
Transliteration: paix
Doctrine: Prayer and the Peace of God
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 1:2, 4:7, 4:9. The 4:7 occurrence adds a military-guard nuance (φρουρέω, ‘gardera comme une garnison’) not present in the baseline’s Romans 5:1 context; not doctrinally destructive if the garrison image is lost, but recommended in teaching notes.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: action de grâce
Transliteration: action de grâce
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 1:3 (verb form) and 4:6. Minor overlap with the Eucharistic ‘action de grâce’ in Catholic liturgy; context disambiguates.
Exhort
Approved rendering: exhorter
Transliteration: exhorter
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Inherited from Romans package. Occurs 4:2, Paul’s personal appeal to Euodia and Syntyche (παρακαλῶ).
Referenced passages