Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 3 John (English → Fulfulde)
This glossary lists every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entire book of 3 John (a single chapter, vv.1–14, which is also the full core passage). Terms marked [BASELINE] reuse the exact rendering recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json; these renderings are non-negotiable per the hard rules of this pipeline. Terms marked [NEW] are introduced by this curriculum and must be added to translation_memory.json in Phase 2 with theologian/native-speaker confirmation before enforcement, per this Language Package’s standing instructions for provisional and thinner-tradition vocabulary.
| # | English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Fulfulde Rendering | Status | Risk | Doctrine Category | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elder (office) | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | Mawɗo | [NEW] | High | Church Leadership | Risk of conflation with Fulani age-based lineage/clan elder authority and Islamic clerical titles; must be taught as a specific pastoral-apostolic office. |
| 2 | Beloved | ἀγαπητός (agapētos) | yiɗaaɗo | [NEW] | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Must carry covenantal, not merely affectionate, sense. |
| 3 | Love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω (agapē / agapaō) | giggol (n.) / yiɗde (v.) | [NEW] | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality | yiɗde’s broad range (want/like/love) risks diluting self-giving covenantal love; possible resonance with Sufi maḥabba devotional love requires explicit Christian content. |
| 4 | Truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | goonga | [NEW] | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship (central term) | Resonance with Islamic Al-Ḥaqq (a divine name) and with Pulaaku’s own truthfulness value; must be anchored to apostolic gospel content, not left as generic virtue-word. Occurs 6x in the letter — single most load-bearing term. |
| 5 | Walk / conduct (of life) | περιπατέω (peripateō) | yahdu (e goonga) | [NEW] | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Path/way-of-life metaphor resonates with Sahelian “path” imagery (sharia, Sufi path) — useful bridge but must be filled with gospel-specific content. |
| 6 | Health / soundness | ὑγιαίνειν (hygiainein) | cellal | [NEW] | Low | (Epistolary greeting) | Standard, well-attested vocabulary. |
| 7 | Prosper / go well | εὐοδοῦσθαι (euodousthai) | ɗum yahra no moƴƴiri | [NEW] | Medium | Hospitality (contextual) | Guard against prosperity-gospel misreading; must stay subordinate to spiritual well-being. |
| 8 | Soul | ψυχή (psychē) | wonkii | [NEW] | Medium | (General anthropology) | Must be kept distinct from Ruuhu Ceniiɗo [BASELINE Holy Spirit] — human inner self, not the divine Spirit. |
| 9 | Rejoice / joy | χαίρω / χαρά (chairō / chara) | weltaade (v.) / weltaare (n.) | [NEW] | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Standard vocabulary. |
| 10 | Brother(s) / fellow believer(s) | ἀδελφός (adelphos) | musiɗɗo / musiɗɓe | [NEW] | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Strong Fulani lineage/clan (banndiraagal) association risks narrowing “brother” to blood-kin; must be taught as spiritual kinship extending to strangers. |
| 11 | Child(ren) (spiritual) | τέκνον (teknon) | ɓiɗɗo / ɓiɓɓe (qualified: spiritual) | [NEW] | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Parallel to baseline’s “adoption” caution: strong biological/lineage weight in Fulani kinship must be explicitly reframed as spiritual. |
| 12 | Faithful(ly) (of an action) | πιστός (pistos) | golle ɗe fotde hoolaade | [NEW] | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Distinct from gomɗinal [BASELINE faith]; describes trustworthy action, not saving belief. |
| 13 | Stranger / traveling minister | ξένος (xenos) | koreeɗo (provisional) | [NEW] | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers (central term) | Provisional rendering; confirm dialectal currency with native speakers. Central to the doctrine that hospitality extends beyond kin/clan to unknown fellow believers. |
| 14 | Testify / testimony | μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία (martyreō / martyria) | seedaade (v.) / seedaare (n.) | [NEW] | Medium | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | Resonance with Islamic shahāda (testimony/confession) — genuine point of contact but must not imply a fixed creedal recitation; here it is testimony to observed Christlike conduct. |
| 15 | True / truthful | ἀληθής (alēthēs) | goonga / goongaari | [NEW] | Medium | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | Adjectival form of the central term #4; same cautions apply. |
| 16 | Church (assembly) | ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) | kawtal | [BASELINE] | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride; general Ecclesiology | Reused exactly per baseline; must remain distinct from moosaale (mosque). |
| 17 | Send on the way (support a traveler) | προπέμπω (propempō) | wallitde ɓe e taƴre maɓɓe | [NEW] | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Descriptive compound for concrete material/logistical support, distinct from mere verbal welcome. |
| 18 | Worthily (of God) | ἀξίως (τοῦ θεοῦ) (axiōs) | e nder teddungal e Alla | [NEW] | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Must be distinguished from human-conferred teddungal honor; conduct measured against God’s own standard, per baseline’s glory/teddungal caution. |
| 19 | The Name (of Christ) | ὄνομα (onoma, v.7) | Innde (Yeesu) | [NEW] | High | (Implicit Christology) | 3 John never names Jesus/Christ lexically; this is the letter’s one implicit Christological reference and must be made explicit in teaching materials. |
| 20 | Name (ordinary, “by name”) | ὄνομα (onoma, v.14) | innde | [NEW] | Low | (Epistolary greeting) | Same Greek word as #19 but non-technical here; context-sensitive risk, paralleling baseline’s treatment of “called.” |
| 21 | Pagans / unbelieving outsiders | ἐθνικός (ethnikos) | yimɓe ɓe gomɗinaa Almasiihu | [NEW] | Critical | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | FORBIDDEN SUBSTITUTION: NEVER use heeferɓe (Islamic kāfir-derived “infidel” designation) — would trigger automatic reading through the Islamic takfīr framework. Distinct from baseline’s ἔθνη/“gentiles” (leƴƴi goo), a different, non-pejorative sense. |
| 22 | Ought / obligated | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | foti | [NEW] | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Standard modal expression. |
| 23 | Receive / support (a person) | ὑπολαμβάνω (hypolambanō) | jaɓde e wallitde | [NEW] | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Compound covering both relational welcome and material provision; teach as inseparable. |
| 24 | Fellow worker | συνεργός (synergos) | gollotooɗo (e goonga) | [NEW] | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Ties hospitality directly to active partnership in gospel labor. |
| 25 | Receive / welcome (a person/authority) | ἐπιδέχομαι (epidechomai) | jaɓde | [NEW] | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride | Distinguish from jaɓde used for accepting teaching/doctrine. |
| 26 | Works / deeds | ἔργον (ergon) | golle | [NEW] | Low (this context) | Church Leadership and Pride | Same root as Romans’ works/grace discussion; avoid importing that full argument into this simpler descriptive usage. |
| 27 | Wicked / evil (adj.) | πονηρός (ponēros) | bonɗo / bone | [NEW] | Low | Church Leadership and Pride; Imitating Good rather than Evil | Standard vocabulary. |
| 28 | Talk maliciously / baseless gossip | φλυαρέω (phlyareō) | haala konngi bonɗi | [NEW] | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride | Must convey specifically slanderous/false speech, not mere unkindness. |
| 29 | Hinder / prevent | κωλύω (kōlyō) | haɗde | [NEW] | Low | Church Leadership and Pride | Standard verb. |
| 30 | Cast out / expel (from church) | ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) | riiwde e kawtal | [NEW] | High | Church Leadership and Pride | Risk of resonance with Islamic takfīr/exclusion categories; must teach this as Diotrephes’ abuse of legitimate church discipline, not a model to follow or reject wholesale. |
| 31 | Love to be first / preeminence-seeking | φιλοπρωτεύω (philoprōteuō) | yiɗde wonande gardiiɗo | [NEW] | High | Church Leadership and Pride (central term) | Direct collision with Pulaaku’s teddungal (honor/status); must be taught as illegitimate self-seeking, not leadership or honor as such. |
| 32 | Imitate (follow an example) | μιμέομαι (mimeomai) | jokkude (mesaal) | [NEW] | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil (central term) | jokk- primarily means “follow/attach to”; the “pattern conduct after an example” sense must be reinforced explicitly. |
| 33 | Good / evil (moral categories) | ἀγαθός / κακός (agathos / kakos) | moƴƴere / bone | [NEW] | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Foundational Fulfulde moral vocabulary. |
| 34 | Do good / do evil | ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω (agathopoieō / kakopoieō) | waɗde moƴƴere / waɗde bone | [NEW] | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Standard compound verbs. |
| 35 | See God (relational knowledge) | ὁράω τὸν θεόν (horaō ton theon) | yi’ude Alla | [NEW] | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Metaphorical/relational, not literal vision; resonates with Islam’s own insistence God is unseen — useful bridge if the relational sense is made explicit. |
| 36 | Friend(s) | φίλος (philos) | sehil / sehilaaɓe | [NEW] | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Arabic-derived; shares root with Ṣaḥāba (Muhammad’s companions) — genuine point of contact, must not import that specific religious status. |
| 37 | Peace (greeting) | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | jam | [BASELINE] | Medium | (Epistolary greeting) | Reused exactly; this is the everyday greeting-register sense the baseline explicitly distinguishes from Romans 5:1’s forensic peace-with-God. |
| 38 | God | θεός (theos) | Alla | [BASELINE] | Critical | (Implicit Christology; Church Leadership) | Reused exactly; teaching materials must supply explicitly Trinitarian/Christ-centered content per baseline instruction, since 3 John never names Christ lexically. |
| 39 | Church / assembly (general concept) | ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) — see #16 | kawtal | [BASELINE] | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride | See #16; listed again for cross-reference completeness. |
| 40 | Gaius (proper name) | Γάϊος (Gaios) | Gaayus | [NEW] | Low | (Proper name) | Confirm against any existing regional Fulfulde NT translation of 3 John. |
| 41 | Diotrephes (proper name) | Διοτρεφής (Diotrephēs) | Diyotrefes | [NEW] | Low | (Proper name) | Confirm against any existing regional Fulfulde NT translation of 3 John. |
| 42 | Demetrius (proper name) | Δημήτριος (Dēmētrios) | Demeteriyus | [NEW] | Low | (Proper name) | Confirm against any existing regional Fulfulde NT translation of 3 John. |
Risk Summary for This Curriculum
| Risk Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 2 (#21 ethnikos/heeferɓe forbidden substitution; #38 God, baseline-inherited) | Human theologian — mandatory |
| High | 8 (#1, #3, #4, #10, #19, #30, #31, plus baseline cross-references) | Human theologian |
| Medium | 22 | Native speaker review (theologian review recommended for #14, #15, #18, #23, #35, #36 given Islamic-vocabulary resonance) |
| Low | 10 | Automated review sufficient |
Escalation note for Phase 2: Consistent with the baseline package’s escalation rules, every segment containing terms #1, #3, #4, #10, #19, #21, #30, or #31 must be automatically flagged for human theologian review and must never be marked approved on native-speaker review alone. Term #21 (ἐθνικός) carries a hard forbidden substitution (heeferɓe must never be used) and should be added to the CRITICAL FORBIDDEN SUBSTITUTIONS list in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md when this curriculum’s instruction set is generated in a later step.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Alla
Transliteration: Alla
Doctrine: Implicit Christology (‘the Name’)
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, no change. Because 3 John never lexically names Jesus/Christ (vv.6, 11), every occurrence of Alla in this letter’s teaching materials must carry explicit Trinitarian and Christ-centered supplementary content; without it, Fulfulde-speaking readers formed by Islamic Tawhid theology will read this letter’s God-language as fully compatible with standard Islamic monotheism, missing any distinctively Christian content.
Pagans Outsiders
Approved rendering: yimɓe ɓe gomɗinaa Almasiihu
Transliteration: yimɓe ɓe gomɗinaa Almasiihu
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: heeferɓe (FORBIDDEN — never use under any circumstance)
Original: ἐθνικός
Category: Hospitality
CRITICAL. New term for 3 John (v.7). Descriptive compound (‘people who do not believe in the Messiah’) required to avoid heeferɓe, the Arabic kāfir-derived term embedded in West African Islamic takfīr discourse. Using heeferɓe would cause this verse to be automatically read through an Islamic exclusion framework, implying gospel workers regarded all non-believers as religious enemies to be shunned — a doctrinal distortion this curriculum must forestall. This is a hard forbidden substitution parallel in kind to the baseline’s barke/rasuulu/jinna list. Distinct from baseline ἔθνη/‘gentiles’ (leƴƴi goo), a different, non-pejorative sense.
High Risk Terms
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Ruuhu Ceniiɗo
Transliteration: Ruuhu Ceniiɗo
Doctrine: (Anthropology contrast term)
Rejected alternatives: ruuhu (never use alone), jinna (never use)
Inherited from Romans package, no change. Cited here solely as the required contrast term for psychē/‘soul’ (wonkii) in 3 John 1:2: wonkii denotes the human inner self and must never be confused with or substituted for Ruuhu Ceniiɗo, which is reserved exclusively for the divine Holy Spirit.
Faith
Approved rendering: gomɗinal
Transliteration: gomɗinal
Doctrine: (Contrast term for pistos/faithful deed)
Rejected alternatives: hoolaare (trust, acceptable supporting synonym)
Inherited from Romans package, no change. Cited here as the required contrast term for pistos (‘faithful,’ describing Gaius’s actions in v.5): gomɗinal denotes saving/confessional belief and must never be conflated with golle ɗe fotde hoolaade (the trustworthy character of an action), lest hospitable deeds be implied to constitute or earn saving faith.
Elder
Approved rendering: Mawɗo
Transliteration: Mawɗo
Doctrine: Pastoral-Apostolic Authority of the Elder
Rejected alternatives: Alfa (reserve for Islamic clerical/teacher title, never use for this NT office)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John. Mawɗo is the standard Fulfulde word for a respected senior, but carries strong pre-existing associations with age-based lineage/clan authority (a structural feature of Pulaaku) and, in religious registers, may evoke Islamic clerical authority. Must be explicitly taught at first occurrence (v.1) as a specific New Testament pastoral-apostolic office of oversight over multiple churches — the office Diotrephes rejects (vv.9-10) — not a traditional village/clan-elder role and not an Islamic scholarly/clerical title.
Love
Approved rendering: giggol
Transliteration: giggol (n.) / yiɗde (v.)
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. Fulfulde yiɗde’s broad range (want/like/love) risks diluting agapē’s self-giving, covenantal sense into mere preference; within Sufi-influenced West African Islam, ḥubb/maḥabba (mystical love of God) is a rich devotional category, and giggol/yiɗde for God’s/Christ’s love must not be collapsed into that framework without explicit Christian content, paralleling the baseline’s caution on arjunde (grace). Must be glossed explicitly at first occurrence (v.1).
Truth
Approved rendering: goonga
Transliteration: goonga
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth
New term for 3 John; this letter’s single most load-bearing term, occurring six times in fourteen verses (vv.1, 3, 4, 8, 12). goonga is well-attested Fulfulde vocabulary and also a traditionally cited Pulaaku virtue, giving real cultural traction, but risks flattening in two directions: (1) Islamic Al-Ḥaqq, one of the names of Allah, risking a generic religious-philosophical divine-attribute reading; (2) Pulaaku’s own truthfulness virtue, risking reduction to mere personal honesty in speech. Every occurrence must be explicitly anchored to the apostolic gospel content about Christ, never left as an undefined virtue-word.
Brother
Approved rendering: musiɗɗo
Transliteration: musiɗɗo (sg.) / musiɗɓe (pl.)
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (vv.3, 5, 10), referring to traveling gospel workers/fellow believers. musiɗɗo is the standard Fulfulde term for a blood sibling and is deeply embedded in Fulani lineage and clan identity (banndiraagal). Must be explicitly taught, at first occurrence, as extending to fellow believers who are, in Fulani kinship terms, complete strangers — the doctrine’s central point — not narrowed to blood-kin or clan-kin obligation.
The Name Of Christ
Approved rendering: Innde (Yeesu)
Transliteration: Innde (Yeesu)
Doctrine: Implicit Christology (‘the Name’)
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Christology
New term for 3 John (v.7); the letter’s one implicit Christological reference. 3 John never lexically names Jesus/Christ, so this connection must be supplied explicitly in teaching materials, capitalized when referring to Christ. Left implicit, ‘the Name’ risks being read as a generic pious circumlocution for Allah, a familiar Islamic devotional pattern, rather than the specifically Christian confession that gospel workers labor for Christ’s name and cause. The translated text itself must not silently insert ‘Yeesu’ where the Greek reads only ‘the Name’; the supplementation belongs in surrounding pedagogical material.
Cast Out Expel
Approved rendering: riiwde e kawtal
Transliteration: riiwde (ɓe) e kawtal
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (v.10). Church discipline/exclusion is a weighty biblical category, but in a Fulfulde-speaking context shaped by Islamic takfīr categories and social/clan expulsion practices, this verse’s point — that Diotrephes wrongly and self-servingly uses expulsion — must be taught with care to avoid either legitimizing arbitrary exclusion or suggesting all church exclusion is inherently abusive.
Love Of Preeminence
Approved rendering: yiɗde wonande gardiiɗo
Transliteration: yiɗde wonande gardiiɗo
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (v.9); the load-bearing diagnostic term for Diotrephes’ fundamental sin. Direct flashpoint with teddungal, the core Pulaaku honor/status value, since status-seeking is legitimately and openly pursued within Fulani pastoralist social life. Must be taught as illegitimate self-seeking, illegitimate grasping for church authority contrary to Christlike humility — not honor or leadership as such.
Medium Risk Terms
Jesus
Approved rendering: Yeesu
Transliteration: Yeesu
Doctrine: Implicit Christology (‘the Name’)
Rejected alternatives: Iisa (Quranic form, reserved only for explicit interfaith-dialogue contexts)
Inherited from Romans package, no change. Yeesu does not occur lexically anywhere in the Greek text of 3 John; it is used only in this curriculum’s teaching apparatus to explicitly supply the referent of ‘the Name’ (v.7) and ‘God’ (vv.6, 11), since the letter itself never names Christ directly. Never substitute Iisa.
Church
Approved rendering: kawtal
Transliteration: kawtal
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: moosaale (mosque, never use)
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church Leadership
Inherited from Romans package, no change. In 3 John, kawtal is the local gathered congregation before whom testimony about Gaius’s love was given (v.6) and from which Diotrephes wrongly expels believers (v.10, riiwde e kawtal). Must remain clearly distinct from moosaale (mosque).
Peace
Approved rendering: jam
Transliteration: jam
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting and Fellowship Conventions
Rejected alternatives: deeƴre (calm/stillness, too passive/psychological)
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Epistolary Greeting
Inherited from Romans package, no change. In 3 John 1:14 this is used in its ordinary, everyday epistolary-greeting sense, and must be explicitly taught as distinct from Romans 5:1’s deeper, forensic peace-with-God doctrine, so students moving between curricula do not confuse the two registers.
Beloved
Approved rendering: yiɗaaɗo
Transliteration: yiɗaaɗo
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John. Passive participle of yiɗ-, ‘to love/want,’ naturally read as ‘one who is loved’; must be anchored to the specifically Christian, covenantal sense of agapē rather than ordinary personal fondness. Used of Gaius throughout (vv.1, 2, 5, 11).
Walk In Truth
Approved rendering: yahdu (e goonga)
Transliteration: yahdu (e goonga)
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Truth
New term for 3 John (vv.3-4). The walking/path metaphor for a way of life is broadly intelligible in the Sahel (compare sharia, ‘the path,’ and the Sufi spiritual path) — a genuine point of contact — but must be taught as a lived pattern of following the apostolic gospel about Christ, not law-observance as such.
Prosper
Approved rendering: ɗum yahra no moƴƴiri
Transliteration: ɗum yahra no moƴƴiri
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting and Fellowship Conventions
Original: εὐοδοῦσθαι
Category: Epistolary Greeting
New term for 3 John (v.2). Must be taught carefully to avoid a prosperity-gospel misreading; the verse’s logic subordinates bodily well-being to the prior, greater reality of the soul’s health, not the reverse. This verse is a known proof-text of prosperity-gospel drift in regional informal Fulfulde Pentecostal materials and must be explicitly corrected in teaching notes.
Soul
Approved rendering: wonkii
Transliteration: wonkii
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting and Fellowship Conventions
Original: ψυχή
Category: Anthropology
New term for 3 John (v.2). Standard Fulfulde term for the inner life/soul; must be kept strictly distinct from Ruuhu Ceniiɗo [BASELINE Holy Spirit], since psychē here denotes the human inner self, not the divine Spirit.
Child Spiritual
Approved rendering: ɓiɗɗo
Transliteration: ɓiɗɗo (sg.) / ɓiɓɓe (pl.)
Doctrine: Spiritual Kinship vs. Blood Kinship
Original: τέκνον
Category: Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John (v.4). Basic, non-negotiable Fulfulde kinship words with strong lineage weight, paralleling the baseline’s caution on ‘adoption.’ Must be explicitly qualified as spiritual, non-biological children under the Elder’s pastoral care.
Faithful Deed
Approved rendering: golle ɗe fotde hoolaade
Transliteration: golle ɗe fotde hoolaade
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (v.5). Describes the trustworthy character of an action (Gaius’s hospitality), not saving belief. Must be kept distinct from gomɗinal [BASELINE faith]; conflating the two risks implying hospitable deeds constitute or earn saving faith.
Stranger Traveling Minister
Approved rendering: koreeɗo
Transliteration: koreeɗo
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality
PROVISIONAL. New term for 3 John (v.5); the doctrine’s central lexical pivot. Confirm dialectal currency and naturalness with native speakers before enforcement — existing informal renderings that narrow this to a term implying an already-known guest, or a kin/clan-linked visitor, must not be echoed, since the doctrine’s point is hospitality to a personally-unknown fellow believer with no prior social claim. Must be taught as overriding, though able to draw on, ordinary Fulani cultural hospitality traditions.
Testify Testimony
Approved rendering: seedaade
Transliteration: seedaade (v.) / seedaare (n.)
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία
Category: Truth
New term for 3 John (vv.3, 6, 12). Well-attested Fulfulde legal/religious witness vocabulary, but carries resonance with the Islamic shahāda (the confession ‘There is no god but Allah…’). Must be taught explicitly as testimony to observed Christlike conduct, not a fixed creedal recitation.
True Truthful
Approved rendering: goonga
Transliteration: goonga / goongaari
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Truth
New term for 3 John (v.12), adjectival form of alētheia/goonga. Must be taught alongside the High-risk note on truth (goonga), ensuring the theological content of the apostolic gospel is not lost behind a general virtue sense of ‘truthfulness.‘
Send On Journey
Approved rendering: wallitde ɓe e taƴre maɓɓe
Transliteration: wallitde ɓe e taƴre maɓɓe
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (v.6). Descriptive compound for concrete material/logistical support of a traveler’s onward journey, distinguished from mere verbal welcome, consistent with this Language Package’s pattern for compounds like ‘adoption’ and ‘imputed righteousness.‘
Worthy Of God
Approved rendering: e nder teddungal e Alla
Transliteration: e nder teddungal e Alla
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (v.6). Invites a natural but risky connection to teddungal, the core Pulaaku honor/dignity value. Per the baseline’s caution on ‘glory’ (manaango vs. teddungal), must be taught as conduct that reflects and honors God’s own standard, not socially-conferred human honor, even while teddungal’s cultural resonance can illustrate the obligation’s seriousness comparatively.
Receive Support
Approved rendering: jaɓde e wallitde
Transliteration: jaɓde e wallitde
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (v.8). Compound covering both relational welcome and material provision the Greek term holds together; must be taught as inseparable, since welcome without material support falls short of the letter’s hospitality standard.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: gollotooɗo (e goonga)
Transliteration: gollotooɗo (e goonga)
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: συνεργός
Category: Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John (v.8). Descriptive compound built on the established rendering of goonga (truth); must communicate active partnership in gospel labor, not mere distant approval.
Receive Welcome Authority
Approved rendering: jaɓde
Transliteration: jaɓde
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (vv.9-10). Diotrephes refuses to ‘receive’ the Elder and his messengers, and implicitly his apostolic authority. Distinguish contextually from jaɓde used for accepting teaching/doctrine, paralleling the baseline’s caution on ‘faith’ defaulting to confessional identity.
Malicious Speech
Approved rendering: haala konngi bonɗi
Transliteration: haala konngi bonɗi (e hoore)
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: φλυαρέω
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (v.10). Descriptive compound; must communicate specifically slanderous/false speech, not merely unkind words.
Imitate
Approved rendering: jokkude (mesaal)
Transliteration: jokkude (mesaal)
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (v.11); the load-bearing term for this doctrine. jokk- primarily means ‘follow/attach to’ and needs the ‘pattern one’s conduct after an observed example’ sense reinforced explicitly at first occurrence, or it risks being read as mere personal allegiance rather than deliberate moral imitation.
See God Relational
Approved rendering: yi’ude Alla
Transliteration: yi’ude Alla
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ὁράω τὸν θεόν
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (v.11). Metaphorical/relational ‘seeing’ — knowing and having genuine relationship with God, evidenced by conduct, not literal ocular vision. Resonates usefully with Islamic theology’s own insistence God is unseen, a bridge if the relational sense is made explicit rather than read as a claim about visual perception; must also not be taught as a deeds-weighing test of acceptance by God.
Friend
Approved rendering: sehil
Transliteration: sehil (sg.) / sehilaaɓe (pl.)
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: φίλος
Category: Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John (v.14). Arabic-derived loanword sharing its root with Ṣaḥāba, the honored title for the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. Genuine point of contact but must not import that specific Islamic religious status; here it denotes simply the ordinary circle of fellow believers in Gaius’s community.
Low Risk Terms
Health
Approved rendering: cellal
Transliteration: cellal
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting and Fellowship Conventions
Original: ὑγιαίνειν
Category: Epistolary Greeting
New term for 3 John (v.2). Standard, well-attested Fulfulde vocabulary for health/wellness. Minor risk only.
Rejoice Joy
Approved rendering: weltaade
Transliteration: weltaade (v.) / weltaare (n.)
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: χαίρω / χαρά
Category: Christian Fellowship
New term for 3 John (vv.3-4). Standard, well-attested Fulfulde vocabulary. No significant risk.
Name Ordinary
Approved rendering: innde
Transliteration: innde
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting and Fellowship Conventions
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Epistolary Greeting
New term for 3 John (v.14), ordinary non-technical use (‘greet each by name’). Same Greek word as the_name_of_christ but non-technical here; contrast explicitly with v.7’s theologically loaded use, paralleling the baseline’s treatment of ‘called’ (noddaaɗo) as context-sensitive.
Ought Obligated
Approved rendering: foti
Transliteration: foti
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (v.8). Standard Fulfulde modal expression of obligation.
Works Deeds
Approved rendering: golle
Transliteration: golle
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ἔργον
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (v.10). Low risk in this specific context (Diotrephes’ blameworthy observable conduct), but the same root is discussed at length in the Romans package’s grace/works discussion; avoid unintentionally importing that full theological argument into this simpler descriptive usage.
Wicked Evil
Approved rendering: bonɗo
Transliteration: bonɗo (adj.) / bone (noun)
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: πονηρός
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (v.10). Standard Fulfulde vocabulary for moral evil, well attested.
Hinder Prevent
Approved rendering: haɗde
Transliteration: haɗde
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (v.10). Standard Fulfulde verb for prevention/prohibition.
Good Evil Moral
Approved rendering: moƴƴere
Transliteration: bone (evil) / moƴƴere (good)
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακός / ἀγαθός
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (v.11). Foundational, well-attested Fulfulde moral vocabulary.
Do Good Do Evil
Approved rendering: waɗde moƴƴere
Transliteration: waɗde moƴƴere / waɗde bone
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (v.11). Standard compound verbs, well attested.
Gaius
Approved rendering: Gaayus
Transliteration: Gaayus
Doctrine: (Proper Name)
Original: Γάϊος
Category: Proper Names
New proper name for 3 John. Standard transliteration; confirm against any existing regional Fulfulde NT translation of 3 John before final deployment.
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: Diyotrefes
Transliteration: Diyotrefes
Doctrine: (Proper Name)
Original: Διοτρεφής
Category: Proper Names
New proper name for 3 John. Standard transliteration; confirm against any existing regional Fulfulde NT translation of 3 John before final deployment.
Demetrius
Approved rendering: Demeteriyus
Transliteration: Demeteriyus
Doctrine: (Proper Name)
Original: Δημήτριος
Category: Proper Names
New proper name for 3 John. Standard transliteration; confirm against any existing regional Fulfulde NT translation of 3 John before final deployment.
Referenced passages