Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — Titus (English → French)
Curriculum: Titus 1–3
Core passage: Titus 2:11–3:8
Language pair: English → French
Consistency statement: This matrix is generated directly from, and is fully consistent with, assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (v1, 2026-07-09). Doctrine names, risk tiers, and review routing are identical to that file. This document adds supporting-passage detail, translation-risk rationale, and full-book chapter-by-chapter coverage confirmation required by Phase 1 Step 4/5.
Purpose
This document is the full doctrine matrix for the Titus curriculum, spanning every chapter (1–3) of the book, not solely the core passage (2:11–3:8). It extends the baseline Romans doctrine_risk_registry.json methodology to the 21 doctrines identified for Titus, seven of which are the curriculum’s named doctrines (Grace That Trains for Godly Living, Qualifications for Elders, Sound Doctrine and Good Works, Salvation by Grace not Works, Regeneration by the Holy Spirit, Submission to Authority, Avoiding Divisive Controversies), and fourteen of which are additional load-bearing doctrines surfaced by full-book coverage (e.g., Deity of Christ, Divine Election, Atonement and Redemption).
Full Doctrine Matrix
| # | Doctrine | Supporting Passages (Titus) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grace That Trains for Godly Living | 2:11–12, 2:14, 3:5 | Critical | παιδεύω must render with a positive formative sense (“former/éduquer”); French “discipliner” carries a punitive connotation that would invert grace’s action from formation to chastisement, destroying the doctrine’s claim that grace itself produces godliness. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Qualifications for Elders | 1:5–9 | Critical | ἐπίσκοπος rendered unglossed as “évêque” imports the French Catholic diocesan-bishop office (apostolic succession, multi-congregation hierarchy) into a text where the term is synonymous with the plural, local “ancien” of v.5. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Sound Doctrine and Good Works | 1:9, 1:13, 1:16, 2:1, 2:7–8, 2:10, 3:8, 3:14 | High | French “œuvres” carries the full historical weight of the indulgence/merit controversy; must consistently frame “bonnes œuvres” as fruit of sound doctrine, not a means of establishing standing before God. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Salvation by Grace not Works | 3:4–5, 3:7 | Critical | ”Non à cause des œuvres de justice” must remain unambiguous; Tridentine catechesis links inward-infused righteousness to sacramental grace, a live francophone flashpoint identical to the baseline’s justification/grace cautions. | Human theologian |
| 5 | Regeneration by the Holy Spirit | 3:5–6 | Critical | The λουτρόν/παλιγγενεσία pairing sits on the Trent-vs-Reformation baptismal-regeneration fault line; render literally, let teaching material — not the translation — carry interpretive weight. | Human theologian |
| 6 | Submission to Authority | 2:5, 2:9, 3:1 | High | Contemporary secular French discourse carries strong negative associations with “soumission”; δεσπότης further risks false-cognate collision with French “despote” (tyrant), the opposite of the neutral household-master sense intended. | Human theologian |
| 7 | Avoiding Divisive Controversies | 1:10, 1:14, 3:9–11 | Critical | αἱρετικὸς ἄνθρωπος (3:10) must never use the French cognate “hérétique,” which carries Inquisition-era doctrinal-tribunal freight foreign to Paul’s limited pastoral instruction about a quarrelsome individual. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Deity of Christ | 1:3–4, 2:13, 3:4–6 | Critical | Titus 2:13’s single-article Greek construction (“our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”) must be preserved as one comma group; a distancing comma would wrongly suggest two persons. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Apostleship and Divine Truth | 1:1–3 | Medium | French secular-academic culture may read “connaissance de la vérité” as detached, historical-critical knowledge rather than saving, personally appropriated truth entrusted through apostolic proclamation. | Native speaker review |
| 10 | Divine Election | 1:1 | High | ”Élection” is the everyday French word for political/democratic elections, risking a competitive or merit-based reading of God’s sovereign, gracious choice — same collision as the Romans baseline. | Human theologian |
| 11 | Godliness and Piety | 1:1, 2:12 | High | French Catholic culture strongly associates “piété” with discrete devotional exercises (novenas, images pieuses) rather than Paul’s holistic, whole-of-life God-orientation. | Human theologian |
| 12 | Atonement and Redemption | 2:14 | High | French colloquial “racheter ses fautes” (to make up for one’s mistakes) risks a self-effort reading — the opposite of Paul’s point that Christ’s redemption is his own costly, voluntary act. | Human theologian |
| 13 | Church as God’s Treasured People | 2:14, 3:7 | High | The Exodus 19:5 covenant-possession echo behind “un peuple qui lui appartienne en propre” will not be recovered unaided by French readers with low Old Testament literacy; requires explanatory cross-reference. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Self-Control as the Fruit of Grace | 2:2, 2:4–6, 2:12 | High | The σώφρων family must not be narrowed to French “sobriété/sobre” (alcohol-abstinence primary sense), which would flatten a comprehensive, structurally repeated self-mastery virtue and obscure its link to grace’s training in 2:12. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Household and Social Relationships | 2:1–10 | Medium | Contemporary readers may hear household-code instructions as universal, timeless social prescriptions rather than situated instructions whose purpose is the credibility of sound doctrine (2:5b); the purpose clause must remain visible. | Native speaker review |
| 16 | Eschatological Hope | 2:12–13 | Medium | Use “espérance,” not weaker “espoir,” to preserve certainty; “ce siècle présent” must be understood as biblical age/era language, not merely “this century.” | Native speaker review |
| 17 | Mercy and Kindness of God | 3:4–5 | Medium | φιλανθρωπία must never render as “philanthropie” (secular charitable giving); “miséricorde” also carries added French Catholic devotional resonance (Divine Mercy piety) worth flagging for reviewer awareness. | Native speaker review |
| 18 | Adoption and Inheritance | 3:7 | High | French “héritiers” must align with the baseline’s “adoption filiale” full-inheritance framing; disconnecting inheritance from the preceding justification clause risks presenting it as a separate, later-earned reward. | Human theologian |
| 19 | Sound Speech and Pastoral Ministry | 1:9, 2:15, 3:8 | Medium | The three-verb ministry triad (declare/encourage/correct) must retain its full corrective dimension; “reprends” should not be softened toward mere “encourage,” diminishing the pastoral authority Paul delegates to Titus. | Native speaker review |
| 20 | Public Witness Through Good Works | 2:5, 2:10, 3:1, 3:8, 3:14 | Medium | Good works are consistently framed as making sound doctrine credible before outside observers, not as a means of earning standing before God; this fruit-not-basis distinction must remain visible near grace/salvation language. | Native speaker review |
| 21 | Conscience and Integrity | 1:15–16, 2:7 | Medium | French secular usage of “conscience” as broad, subjective moral self-awareness risks obscuring the specifically God-oriented dimension Paul intends. | Native speaker review |
Full-Book Chapter-by-Chapter Coverage Confirmation
Titus 1:1–4 (Salutation)
Active doctrines: Apostleship and Divine Truth (1:1–3), Divine Election (1:1), Godliness and Piety (1:1), Deity of Christ (1:3–4). Reviewed in full; no additional terms beyond those captured in the matrix above and in 08_core_glossary.md.
Titus 1:5–9 (Qualifications for Elders)
Active doctrines: Qualifications for Elders (elder/overseer/steward/blameless/virtue-vice lists), Sound Doctrine and Good Works (1:9 anticipates the theme). Fully covered; grouped virtue/vice vocabulary carries Low-to-Medium term-level risk but sits under the Critical doctrine-level risk of the elder/overseer office collision.
Titus 1:10–16 (False Teachers, Sound Doctrine, Defiled Conscience)
Active doctrines: Avoiding Divisive Controversies (1:10, 1:14 — circumcision party, Jewish myths, Cretan-proverb citation), Sound Doctrine and Good Works (1:13, 1:16), Conscience and Integrity (1:15–16). Fully covered.
Titus 2:1–10 (Household Instructions)
Active doctrines: Household and Social Relationships (older men, older women, young women, young men, slaves), Self-Control as the Fruit of Grace (2:2, 2:4–6, recurring σώφρων family), Sound Doctrine and Good Works (2:1, 2:7–8, 2:10), Submission to Authority (2:5, 2:9), Conscience and Integrity (2:7, Titus’s own example). Fully covered.
Titus 2:11–15 (Core Passage, Part 1 — Grace’s Purpose)
Active doctrines: Grace That Trains for Godly Living (2:11–12, the curriculum’s theological anchor), Godliness and Piety (2:12), Self-Control as the Fruit of Grace (2:12), Eschatological Hope (2:12–13), Deity of Christ (2:13, “great God and Savior” title), Atonement and Redemption (2:14), Church as God’s Treasured People (2:14), Public Witness Through Good Works (2:10, 2:14), Sound Speech and Pastoral Ministry (2:15). This is the doctrinally densest section of the book; every occurrence of these terms is flagged Critical/High per the matrix.
Titus 3:1–8 (Core Passage, Part 2 — Salvation and Its Fruit)
Active doctrines: Submission to Authority (3:1), Salvation by Grace not Works (3:4–5, 3:7), Mercy and Kindness of God (3:4–5), Regeneration by the Holy Spirit (3:5–6), Adoption and Inheritance (3:7), Sound Speech and Pastoral Ministry (3:8), Public Witness Through Good Works (3:8). This section contains four of the six Critical-risk doctrines in the entire book (Salvation by Grace not Works, Regeneration by the Holy Spirit, plus recurring Grace That Trains and Deity of Christ threads from 2:11–14) and is the theological climax of the letter.
Titus 3:9–11 (Avoiding Divisive Controversies, continued)
Active doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies (foolish controversies, genealogies, strife, fights about the Law, the factious/“hairetikos” person, self-condemnation). Fully covered; this is the doctrine’s second and final concentration, forming a literary bracket with 1:10–16.
Titus 3:12–14 (Personal Instructions and Final Exhortation)
Reviewed explicitly. Contains only proper names (Artemas, Tychicus, Zenas, Apollos — standard transliteration, Low risk, no glossary action) and a restatement of Public Witness Through Good Works / Sound Doctrine and Good Works (“let our people also learn to devote themselves to good works… so that they may not be unfruitful,” 3:14). No new doctrine introduced beyond what is already captured.
Titus 3:15 (Closing Benediction)
Reviewed explicitly. “Grace be with you all” reuses the baseline “grâce” entry with no new doctrinal content. No new term or doctrine.
Coverage conclusion: All 21 doctrines in the matrix are attested across all three chapters of Titus; every verse range in the book has been explicitly reviewed, including sections (1:1–4 salutation, 3:12–15 closing) that introduce no new theological vocabulary beyond what is already documented.
Risk Summary (identical to doctrine_risk_registry.json)
| Risk | Count | Doctrines |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 6 | Grace That Trains for Godly Living, Qualifications for Elders, Salvation by Grace not Works, Regeneration by the Holy Spirit, Avoiding Divisive Controversies, Deity of Christ |
| High | 8 | Sound Doctrine and Good Works, Submission to Authority, Divine Election, Godliness and Piety, Atonement and Redemption, Church as God’s Treasured People, Self-Control as the Fruit of Grace, Adoption and Inheritance |
| Medium | 7 | Apostleship and Divine Truth, Household and Social Relationships, Eschatological Hope, Mercy and Kindness of God, Sound Speech and Pastoral Ministry, Public Witness Through Good Works, Conscience and Integrity |
| Low | 0 | — |
| Total requiring human theologian review | 14 | Rows 1–8, 10–14, 18 above |
| Total requiring native speaker review | 7 | Rows 9, 15–17, 19–21 above |
| Total automated only | 0 | Titus contains no doctrine-level Low-risk entries; all doctrines touch at least one Critical/High/Medium term per the core glossary |
This matrix extends the baseline Romans Language Package methodology and is fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json. See 08_core_glossary.md for term-level detail and 04_comparative_theology.md for cross-tradition interpretive analysis of each doctrine listed above.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Grace That Trains for Godly Living
French name: la grâce qui forme à une vie pieuse
Key terms: grace, trains_disciplines, godliness, self_control, ungodliness, worldly_desires
Review routing: Human theologian
The doctrine’s entire logic depends on παιδεύω being rendered with a positive formative sense (‘former/éduquer’); French ‘discipliner’ carries a punitive connotation (‘discipliner un enfant’ = to punish) that would invert grace’s action from formation to chastisement, destroying the doctrine’s core claim that grace itself produces godliness rather than merely permitting or punishing its absence.
Qualifications for Elders
French name: les qualifications requises pour les anciens
Key terms: elder, overseer, steward, blameless, elder_virtues, elder_vices
Review routing: Human theologian
ἐπίσκοπος rendered as unglossed ‘évêque’ imports the French Catholic diocesan-bishop office (apostolic succession, hierarchical authority over multiple congregations) into a text where the term is a synonym for the local, plural ‘ancien’ of verse 5; conflating the two offices would fundamentally misrepresent Titus’s congregational church order to French readers formed by Catholic ecclesiology.
Salvation by Grace not Works
French name: le salut par la grâce et non par les œuvres
Key terms: not_by_works_of_righteousness, grace, mercy, kindness, righteousness, salvation
Review routing: Human theologian
Titus 3:5 is Titus’s most direct restatement of the Romans justification argument; the negation ‘non à cause des œuvres de justice’ must remain unambiguous, since Tridentine Catholic catechesis links inward-infused righteousness to grace received through the sacraments, a live francophone flashpoint identical to the baseline’s justification/grace cautions.
Regeneration by the Holy Spirit
French name: la régénération par le Saint-Esprit
Key terms: regeneration, washing, renewal, holy_spirit, poured_out
Review routing: Human theologian
The ‘washing’ (λουτρόν) and ‘regeneration’ (παλιγγενεσία) pairing sits directly on the Trent-vs-Reformation fault line over baptismal regeneration; French Catholic catechesis reads this text as sacramental regeneration effected in baptism, while a Reformed/evangelical reading holds the Spirit’s inward work as the efficient cause, with water only a sign. The translation must render literally and let teaching material, not the translation itself, carry the interpretive weight.
Avoiding Divisive Controversies
French name: éviter les controverses qui divisent
Key terms: foolish_controversies, genealogies, strife, fights_about_the_law, factious_person, jewish_myths, false_teacher_description, circumcision_party
Review routing: Human theologian
αἱρετικὸς ἄνθρωπος (3:10) must never be rendered with the French cognate ‘hérétique,’ which carries the heavy historical freight of Inquisition-era formal doctrinal-heresy condemnation; using it would transform Paul’s limited pastoral instruction about a quarrelsome, faction-forming individual into an anachronistic doctrinal-tribunal concept foreign to the text.
Deity of Christ
French name: la divinité du Christ
Key terms: great_god_and_savior, savior, appearing_epiphany, glory
Review routing: Human theologian
Titus 2:13’s single-article Greek construction (‘our great God and Savior Jesus Christ’) must be preserved as one comma group in French; a distancing comma (‘notre grand Dieu, et notre Sauveur Jésus-Christ’) would wrongly suggest two separate persons and erase one of Paul’s clearest direct affirmations of Christ’s co-equal deity.
High Risk Doctrines
Sound Doctrine and Good Works
French name: la saine doctrine et les bonnes œuvres
Key terms: sound_doctrine, teaching_doctrine, good_works, devote_to_good_works, disqualified, adorn_doctrine
Review routing: Human theologian
French ‘œuvres’ carries the full historical weight of the Reformation-era indulgence/merit controversy; if ‘bonnes œuvres’ is not consistently framed as the observable fruit of sound doctrine rather than a means of establishing standing before God, French readers formed by either Catholic merit-theology or a reactive anti-works Protestant instinct may misread the doctrine in opposite directions.
Submission to Authority
French name: la soumission à l’autorité
Key terms: submit_submission, rulers_and_authorities, obey, master, slave_conduct_terms
Review routing: Human theologian
Contemporary secular French public discourse carries strong negative associations with ‘soumission’ (gender-authoritarianism debates and unrelated politically charged usages); unglossed use risks readers hearing coerced subjugation rather than Paul’s voluntary, doctrinally-framed submission to legitimate order. δεσπότης further risks a false-cognate collision with French ‘despote’ (tyrant), the opposite of the neutral household-master sense intended.
Divine Election
French name: l’élection divine
Key terms: election, godliness, faith
Review routing: Human theologian
Same collision as the Romans baseline: ‘élection’ is the everyday French word for political/democratic elections, risking a reading of God’s choice of Titus’s ‘elect’ as competitive or merit-based rather than sovereign and gracious.
Godliness and Piety
French name: la piété authentique
Key terms: godliness, ungodliness, reverent_behavior
Review routing: Human theologian
French Catholic culture strongly associates ‘piété’ with discrete devotional exercises (novenas, images pieuses, piété populaire) rather than Paul’s holistic, whole-of-life God-orientation; without a clarifying gloss the doctrine narrows to devotional practice rather than comprehensive godly character.
Atonement and Redemption
French name: l’expiation et la rédemption
Key terms: gave_himself, redeem, lawlessness, cleanse_purify
Review routing: Human theologian
French colloquial ‘racheter ses fautes’ (to make up for one’s mistakes through personal effort) risks a self-effort reading that is the exact opposite of Paul’s point: Christ’s redemption is his own costly, voluntary act, not the believer’s compensatory achievement.
Church as God’s Treasured People
French name: l’Église, peuple que Dieu s’est acquis
Key terms: people_for_his_own_possession, good_works, heir
Review routing: Human theologian
The Exodus 19:5 covenant-possession echo behind ‘un peuple qui lui appartienne en propre’ will not be recovered unaided by French readers with low Old Testament literacy, whether Catholic, Protestant, or secular; an explanatory cross-reference is required to prevent the phrase from being read as a merely generic ownership metaphor.
Self-Control as the Fruit of Grace
French name: la maîtrise de soi, fruit de la grâce
Key terms: self_control, endurance, older_man_older_woman, domestically_engaged, slanderous, enslaved_to_wine
Review routing: Human theologian
The letter’s most repeated character term (σώφρων family) must not be narrowed to French ‘sobriété/sobre,’ whose primary contemporary sense is alcohol abstinence; doing so would flatten a structurally repeated, comprehensive self-mastery virtue into a minor behavioral rule and obscure the doctrine’s link to grace’s training in 2:12.
Adoption and Inheritance
French name: l’adoption et l’héritage des croyants
Key terms: heir, justification, grace
Review routing: Human theologian
French ‘héritiers’ must be aligned with the baseline’s ‘adoption filiale’ framing of full, non-provisional inheritance rights; disconnecting inheritance status from the preceding justification clause risks presenting inheritance as a separate, later-earned reward rather than an immediate consequence of being declared righteous.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Apostleship and Divine Truth
French name: l’apostolat et la vérité divine
Key terms: apostle, knowledge_of_the_truth, proclamation_preaching, authority_command
Review routing: Native speaker review
French secular-academic culture may read ‘connaissance de la vérité’ as detached, historical-critical knowledge about the Bible rather than saving, personally appropriated truth entrusted through apostolic proclamation.
Household and Social Relationships
French name: les relations dans la famille et la société
Key terms: older_man_older_woman, loving_husbands_children, reverent_behavior, teacher_of_good, master, slave_conduct_terms
Review routing: Native speaker review
Contemporary French readers may hear the household-code instructions (2:5’s domestic role, 2:9’s slave conduct) as universal, timeless social prescriptions rather than situated instructions whose stated purpose is the credibility of sound doctrine (‘so that the word of God may not be reviled,’ 2:5b); teaching material should retain that purpose clause visibly.
Eschatological Hope
French name: l’espérance eschatologique
Key terms: blessed_hope, appearing_epiphany, present_age, glory
Review routing: Native speaker review
Use ‘espérance,’ not the weaker ‘espoir,’ to preserve the certainty of the hope; ‘ce siècle présent’ must be understood as biblical age/era language, not merely ‘this century,’ for readers with low eschatological literacy.
Mercy and Kindness of God
French name: la miséricorde et la bonté de Dieu
Key terms: mercy, kindness, love_for_mankind
Review routing: Native speaker review
φιλανθρωπία must never be rendered as ‘philanthropie,’ the modern French term for secular charitable giving, which would strip God’s saving disposition of its divine source and reduce it to a humanitarian sentiment; ‘miséricorde’ also carries added French Catholic devotional resonance (Divine Mercy piety) worth flagging for reviewer awareness.
Sound Speech and Pastoral Ministry
French name: la parole saine et le ministère pastoral
Key terms: speak_exhort_reprove, authority_command, faithful_is_the_saying, teaching_doctrine
Review routing: Native speaker review
The three-verb ministry triad (declare/encourage/correct) must retain its full corrective dimension in French; ‘reprends’ should not be softened toward mere ‘encourage,’ or the pastoral authority Paul delegates to Titus would be diminished.
Public Witness Through Good Works
French name: le témoignage public par les bonnes œuvres
Key terms: good_works, devote_to_good_works, adorn_doctrine, profitable, unfruitful
Review routing: Native speaker review
Good works are consistently framed as making sound doctrine credible before outside observers, not as a means of earning standing before God; this fruit-not-basis distinction must remain visible wherever ‘bonnes œuvres’ appears near grace or salvation language.
Conscience and Integrity
French name: la conscience et l’intégrité
Key terms: conscience, integrity, blameless, disqualified
Review routing: Native speaker review
French secular usage of ‘conscience’ as broad, subjective moral self-awareness risks obscuring the specifically God-oriented dimension Paul intends, where a defiled conscience is defiled before God, not merely by personal disapproval.
Referenced passages