Core Glossary
08 Core Glossary — 3 John (Complete Book)
Purpose and Scope
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological/relational term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entire book of 3 John (a single chapter, verses 1–14, fully coextensive with the core passage). Terms already established in the baseline Romans Language Package are marked [REUSED] and their recorded German rendering is repeated here exactly, per the mandatory reuse rule. All other terms are marked [NEW] and are proposed for addition to translation memory as this curriculum’s language package is built out in later pipeline steps.
Risk tiers follow the baseline’s four-tier framework exactly:
- Critical — mistranslation alters or destroys essential doctrine; mandatory theologian review every occurrence.
- High — mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or denominational/cultural-conflation risk; mandatory theologian review.
- Medium — mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning; native speaker review recommended.
- Low — minor imprecision risk; automated review sufficient.
Notable finding: 3 John contains no Critical-risk terms. Its risk profile is concentrated in High and Medium tiers, driven primarily by German-specific homonym collisions, denominational-structure differences, and contemporary political/cultural resonance rather than by core Christological or soteriological stakes. This is itself a meaningful finding for reviewer calibration and is stated explicitly rather than left implicit.
Glossary Table
| # | English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Proposed German Rendering | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Primary Verse(s) | Key Risk Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | elder | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | der Älteste | Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,1 | German ecclesial traditions vary sharply on the office-weight of “Ältester” (formal Freikirche eldership vs. no equivalent office in most Landeskirche structures); requires a glossing note identifying this as an apostolic-generation authority title. |
| 2 | beloved | ἀγαπητός (agapētos) | der/die Geliebte / “Mein Lieber” (address) | Medium | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,1.2.5.11 | ”Geliebte(r)” carries strong romantic/mistress connotations in everyday German; Luther’s vocative idiom “Mein Lieber” avoids this collision and is recommended. |
| 3 | to love | ἀγαπάω (agapaō) | lieben / liebhaben | Medium | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,1 | German “lieben” is an all-purpose love-verb, flattening the Greek’s distinction from φίλος (friend-love, v.14); no baseline precedent exists for a standalone “love” glossary entry. |
| 4 | truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | die Wahrheit | High | [REUSED] (worship_in_spirit_and_truth) | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,1.3.4.8.12 | German defaults to propositional/correspondence-theory sense; must preserve John’s relational-covenantal sense (truth as shared life and bond of fellowship), the letter’s central theological category. |
| 5 | to prosper / go well | εὐοδοῦσθαι (euodousthai) | es soll dir gut gehen / gedeihen | Medium-High | [NEW] | (supporting; general pastoral wellbeing) | 3. Johannes 1,2 | Risk of collision with contemporary German “Wohlstandsevangelium” (prosperity gospel) discourse if rendered too materially; verse’s own logic (prosperity measured by, not rewarding, spiritual health) must be preserved. |
| 6 | soul | ψυχή (psychē) | die Seele | Medium | [NEW] | (supporting) | 3. Johannes 1,2 | German “Seele” carries strong body/soul dualist overtones; obscures the holistic Hebraic/Johannine “whole self” sense without a brief gloss. |
| 7 | brothers | ἀδελφός, pl. ἀδελφοί (adelphos) | die Brüder | Medium | [NEW] (cf. baseline false_brothers compound) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,3.5.10 | Contemporary gender-inclusive convention (“Brüder und Schwestern”) vs. historically specific male referent (traveling emissaries); reviewer discretion needed per occurrence. |
| 8 | to testify / bear witness | μαρτυρέω (martyreō) | bezeugen | High | [NEW] | Commendation of Faithful Witness; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,3.6.12(x3) | German “Zeugnis” collides with the everyday bureaucratic senses (school report, job reference) — a genuine German-specific homonym-collision risk, comparable to the documented “Berufung” collision in the baseline. |
| 9 | to walk (conduct one’s life) | περιπατέω (peripateō) | wandeln / leben | Low-Medium | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,3.4 | ”wandeln” is an established biblical-German ethical idiom; low ambiguity once recognized as figurative. |
| 10 | joy | χαρά (chara) | die Freude | Low | [NEW] | (supporting) | 3. Johannes 1,4 | Low ambiguity. |
| 11 | children (spiritual) | τέκνον, pl. τέκνα (teknon) | die Kinder | Low-Medium | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,4 | Minor risk of literal-family misreading without a light pastoral-idiom gloss. |
| 12 | to act faithfully | πιστὸν ποιεῖς (piston poieis) | du handelst treu | Medium-High | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,5 | Idiom describing character, not a discrete meritorious “work”; literal renderings risk a Werkgerechtigkeit misreading, echoing the baseline’s repeated grace/works caution. |
| 13 | stranger / guest | ξένος, pl. ξένοι (xenos) | die Fremden / die Gäste | High | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,5 | ”Fremde” carries strong contemporary German immigration/asylum political resonance; must be explicitly anchored as itinerant Christian gospel-workers, not generalized into contemporary migration-policy commentary. |
| 14 | love (noun) | ἀγάπη (agapē) | die Liebe | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,6 | Shares the ἀγαπάω flattening risk (#3); here expressed concretely as hospitality, not sentiment. |
| 15 | church / congregation | ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) | Gemeinde | High | [REUSED] (church) | Church Leadership and Pride; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,6.9.10 | Never “Kirche” (institution-default); the referent is the concrete local congregation Diotrephes abuses — the same distinction the baseline documents for Romans’ church_as_gods_people. |
| 16 | to send on one’s way / escort | προπέμπω (propempō) | aussenden / für die Reise ausrüsten | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,6 | Luther’s historic “abfertigen” now sounds bureaucratic/administrative in modern German; prefer a rendering conveying warm, practical, material support. |
| 17 | worthily of God | ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ (axiōs tou theou) | Gottes würdig | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,6 | Bare “würdig” risks reading as generic politeness rather than a God-reflecting ethical standard; clarifying phrase recommended. |
| 18 | the Name (of Christ) | τὸ ὄνομα (to onoma) | der Name (“um des Namens willen”) | High | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,7 | Deliberately unglossed early-church idiom for Christ’s name/cause; bare literal rendering risks reading as cryptic to biblically low-literacy German audiences without an explicit teaching-material gloss naming Christ. |
| 19 | Gentiles / pagans / unbelievers | ἐθνικός, pl. ἐθνικοί (ethnikos) | Heiden | Medium | [REUSED] (gentiles) | (contextual only — not unity_of_jews_and_gentiles) | 3. Johannes 1,7 | Contextual sense here is “non-believing outsiders generally,” distinct from the Jew/Gentile salvation-historical pairing central to Romans/Galatians/Ephesians; must not import that doctrine into this verse. |
| 20 | we ought / are obligated | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | wir sollen / wir sind verpflichtet | Low | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,8 | Low ambiguity. |
| 21 | to support / receive (with provision) | ὑπολαμβάνω (hypolambanō) | aufnehmen | Medium-High | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,8 | Central hospitality-verb; teaching material must make explicit this denotes active, costly, material support, not passive welcome. |
| 22 | fellow worker / co-worker | συνεργός, pl. συνεργοί (synergos) | Mitarbeiter der Wahrheit / Gefährten der Wahrheit | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,8 | Modern “Mitarbeiter” risks a flat corporate/employment connotation; Luther’s “Gefährte” is warmer but looser on the co-laboring sense — flag for reviewer choice. |
| 23 | to love being first / seek preeminence | φιλοπρωτεύω (philoprōteuō) | der Erste sein wollen / nach der Vorherrschaft streben | High | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,9 | Diagnostic term for Diotrephes’ core sin; risk of under-translation given contemporary German professional culture’s generally positive view of ambition (Ehrgeiz) — must connect explicitly to Christ’s servant-leadership teaching (cf. Mark 9:35, servanthood_as_greatness). |
| 24 | Diotrephes (proper name) | Διοτρεφής (Diotrephēs) | Diotrephes | Low | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,9.10 | Standard transliteration; named individual, not a symbolic type. |
| 25 | to receive / welcome / accept | ἐπιδέχομαι (epidechomai) | annehmen | High | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,9.10 | Single German verb must carry both the hospitality sense (welcoming guests) and the authority-recognition sense (accepting apostolic authority) present across both occurrences; must not flatten to mere hosting-etiquette. |
| 26 | to remind / confront / bring to account | ὑπομιμνήσκω (hypomimnēskō) | vorhalten / zur Rechenschaft ziehen | Low-Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,10 | ”vorhalten” alone can sound mild in modern German for the confrontational tone intended. |
| 27 | works / deeds (ethical-descriptive, non-soteriological) | ἔργα (erga) | die Werke / das Verhalten | Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,10 | Must not be read through the justification-by-works lens attached elsewhere to “Werke” (Werke des Gesetzes, gute Werke); purely descriptive of Diotrephes’ conduct. |
| 28 | to talk maliciously / prate against | φλυαρέω (phlyareō) | mit boshaften, unbegründeten Worten hetzen/schwatzen | Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,10 | Rare NT word (hapax); no single perfect German equivalent — combines malice and baselessness beyond mere gossip or formal slander; flag for reviewer choice. |
| 29 | to be content / satisfied | ἀρκέομαι (arkeomai) | sich zufrieden geben / sich genug tun lassen | Low | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,10 | Low ambiguity. |
| 30 | to want / be willing | βούλομαι (boulomai) | wollen | Low | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,10 | Low ambiguity. |
| 31 | to hinder / forbid | κωλύω (kōlyō) | hindern | Low | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3. Johannes 1,10 | Low ambiguity. |
| 32 | to cast out / expel | ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) | aus der Gemeinde ausstoßen/ausschließen | High | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | 3. Johannes 1,10 | Disambiguate from the unrelated exorcism sense of the same verb elsewhere in the NT; avoid Latinate “exkommunizieren” (Catholic canon-law association) in favor of a denomination-neutral “ausstoßen/ausschließen”; pair with a teaching note distinguishing legitimate church discipline from its abuse here. |
| 33 | to imitate | μιμέομαι (mimeomai) | nachahmen / nachfolgen | Medium | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 3. Johannes 1,11 | Linguistically low-risk; pastoral risk is losing the concrete, named-example basis (Diotrephes/Demetrius) behind an abstract moral principle. |
| 34 | evil | κακός (kakos) | das Böse | Low-Medium | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 3. Johannes 1,11 | Concretely embodied in Diotrephes’ narrated conduct; keep concrete, not abstracted. |
| 35 | good | ἀγαθός (agathos) | das Gute | Low-Medium | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 3. Johannes 1,11 | Concretely embodied in Demetrius’s narrated conduct; keep concrete, not abstracted. |
| 36 | one who does good | ἀγαθοποιέω (agathopoiōn) | Wer Gutes tut | High | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 3. Johannes 1,11 | Must be taught as fruit/evidence of a prior God-given identity (cf. born_of_god), never as the means of earning standing with God — same Werkgerechtigkeit discipline the baseline applies to Grace and Justification as Critical elsewhere. |
| 37 | one who does evil | κακοποιέω (kakopoiōn) | Wer Böses tut | High | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 3. Johannes 1,11 | Mirror-image caution to #36; must not be over-read as a single-act damnation test, but as a characteristic-pattern diagnostic. |
| 38 | has seen (idiom: has truly known) | ἑώρακεν (perfect of ὁράω) | hat … nicht gesehen | Medium | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 3. Johannes 1,11 | Fixed Johannine idiom (cf. 1 John 3:6, 4:20) for relational knowledge, not literal physical sight; needs a brief idiom-clarifying note. |
| 39 | Demetrius (proper name) | Δημήτριος (Dēmētrios) | Demetrius | Low | [NEW] | Commendation of Faithful Witness | 3. Johannes 1,12 | Standard transliteration; the letter’s positive named example, contrasted with Diotrephes. |
| 40 | testimony (noun) | μαρτυρία (martyria) | das Zeugnis | High | [NEW] | Commendation of Faithful Witness | 3. Johannes 1,12 | Same “Zeugnis” homonym-collision risk as #8; appears three times in this single verse, requiring especially careful, consistent rendering. |
| 41 | true / truthful | ἀληθής (alēthēs) | wahr / wahrhaftig | Low | [NEW] | Commendation of Faithful Witness; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,12 | Shares the ἀλήθεια word-family risk (#4) but the adjective form is itself low-ambiguity. |
| 42 | to write | γράφω (graphō) | schreiben | Low | [NEW] | (supporting) | 3. Johannes 1,9.13 | Low ambiguity; v.9’s occurrence also carries a minor textual-history footnote (identity of the earlier letter referenced is uncertain). |
| 43 | ink and pen (reed) | μέλαν καὶ κάλαμος (melan kai kalamos) | Tinte und Feder | Low | [NEW] | (supporting) | 3. Johannes 1,13 | Well-established German idiom (Luther); no modernization needed. |
| 44 | to hope | ἐλπίζω (elpizō) | hoffen | Low | [NEW] | (supporting) | 3. Johannes 1,14 | Low ambiguity. |
| 45 | soon / shortly | εὐθέως (eutheōs) | bald | Low | [NEW] | (supporting) | 3. Johannes 1,14 | Distinct from the Mark package’s stylistic “sogleich” (εὐθύς as narrative marker) — this is an ordinary temporal “soon”; do not force cross-document consistency with the unrelated Mark convention. |
| 46 | face to face | στόμα πρὸς στόμα (stoma pros stoma) | von Angesicht zu Angesicht | Low | [NEW] | (supporting) | 3. Johannes 1,14 | Avoid a literal “Mund zu Mund,” which collides with the German idiom for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (Mund-zu-Mund-Beatmung); use the established biblical-German idiom instead. |
| 47 | peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | Friede | Low | [REUSED] (peace) | (supporting; epistolary blessing) | 3. Johannes 1,14 | Standard closing peace-blessing; reuse baseline rendering exactly. |
| 48 | friend | φίλος, pl. φίλοι (philos) | Freund / Freunde | Low-Medium | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3. Johannes 1,14 | Keep visibly distinct in German from “Brüder” (#7) and “der/die Geliebte” (#2) so the letter’s deliberately varied relational vocabulary is not flattened. |
| 49 | by name / individually | κατ᾽ ὄνομα (kat’ onoma) | mit Namen / namentlich | Low | [NEW] | (supporting) | 3. Johannes 1,14 | Low ambiguity. |
Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference
| Doctrine | Key Terms (by # above) |
|---|---|
| Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | #7, #12, #13, #14, #16, #17, #18, #20, #21, #22, #25, #31 |
| Imitating Good rather than Evil | #33, #34, #35, #36, #37, #38 |
| Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | #1, #15, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32 |
| Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | #8, #39, #40, #41 |
| Truth and Christian Fellowship | #2, #3, #4, #6, #9, #11, #14, #15, #22, #40, #41, #48 |
Note: several terms serve more than one doctrine simultaneously (e.g. ἐκκλησία serves both Hospitality and Church Leadership; ἀλήθεια and μαρτυρία serve both Truth and Christian Fellowship and Commendation of Faithful Witness). This overlap reflects the letter’s tightly integrated argument rather than imprecise categorization.
Reused Baseline Terms Summary
| Term | Baseline Source Entry | German Rendering | Risk (as recorded in baseline) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ἐκκλησία (church) | church | Gemeinde | High |
| ἀλήθεια (truth) | worship_in_spirit_and_truth (John package) | die Wahrheit | Critical in that context; High as inherited into 3 John’s usage |
| ἐθνικῶν (gentiles) | gentiles | Heiden | Medium |
| εἰρήνη (peace) | peace | Friede | Low |
No other terms in 3 John have a direct baseline precedent. All remaining entries above are newly proposed for this curriculum and should be added to translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json in the appropriate subsequent pipeline step, with version increment per the established translation-memory governance rule.
This glossary should be read alongside analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md for full verse-by-verse context on every term listed here.
Critical Risk Terms
Servant Of All
Approved rendering: Wer da will der Erste sein, der soll der Letzte sein aller und aller Diener
Transliteration: Wer da will der Erste sein, der soll der Letzte sein aller und aller Diener
Doctrine: Servanthood as Greatness
Inherited from the Mark package, copied exactly. CROSS-REFERENCE ONLY: this fixed phrase does not itself appear in 3 John’s translated text. It is inherited because Diotrephes’ ‘φιλοπρωτεύω’ (love of being first, 1,9) is a direct, deliberate inversion of this exact teaching, and teaching material accompanying the ‘love_of_preeminence’ entry below must make the Mark 9:35 contrast explicit so contemporary German professional culture’s positive view of ambition (Ehrgeiz) does not soften the diagnosis. This inherited Critical-risk phrase does not add a new Critical-risk term to 3 John’s own vocabulary, which remains at zero.
Worship In Spirit And Truth
Approved rendering: Gott ist Geist, und die ihn anbeten, müssen ihn im Geist und in der Wahrheit anbeten
Transliteration: Gott ist Geist, und die ihn anbeten, müssen ihn im Geist und in der Wahrheit anbeten
Doctrine: True Worship in Spirit and Truth
Inherited from the John Gospel package, copied exactly. CROSS-REFERENCE ONLY: this fixed phrase does not itself appear in 3 John’s translated text. It is the baseline source of the German rendering ‘die Wahrheit’ for ἀλήθεια, which the new standalone ‘truth’ entry below extracts and applies to 3 John’s five occurrences of this word. Recorded here so the derivation is traceable and does not silently duplicate baseline governance.
High Risk Terms
Act Faithfully
Approved rendering: du handelst treu
Transliteration: du handelst treu
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: du tust ein treues Werk (implies a discrete meritorious deed, risking Werkgerechtigkeit misreading)
Original: πιστὸν ποιεῖς
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,5 (πιστὸν ποιεῖς). A Greek idiom (ποιέω + adjective) describing the character of an action, not naming a discrete meritorious deed. John commends Gaius’s reliable, trustworthy character as displayed in hospitality. Luther’s ‘du handelst treu (in allem)’ correctly renders this as a character-description rather than a merit-transaction and must be followed, echoing the baseline’s repeated Ephesians-package Werkgerechtigkeit caution.
Born Of God
Approved rendering: von Gott geboren
Transliteration: von Gott geboren
Doctrine: New Birth / Born from Above
Inherited from the John Gospel package, copied exactly. CROSS-REFERENCE ONLY: this term does not itself appear in 3 John’s translated text. It is inherited because 3. Johannes 1,11’s ‘Wer Gutes tut, der ist von Gott’ must be taught as pointing to the same identity-by-new-birth logic as this entry (cf. John 1:13), never as a means of earning standing with God. Mandatory cross-reference in all teaching material accompanying the ‘doer_of_good’ entry below; does not add a new Critical-risk term to 3 John’s own vocabulary.
Cast Out
Approved rendering: aus der Gemeinde ausstoßen/ausschließen
Transliteration: aus der Gemeinde ausstoßen/ausschließen
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: exkommunizieren (Latinate, evokes specifically Catholic canon-law procedure and misrepresents Diotrephes’ unilateral abuse as regulated ecclesiastical due process)
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,10 (ἐκβάλλω). To expel from the congregation — Diotrephes’ climactic abuse. Two converging German risks: (1) disambiguation from the unrelated NT exorcism sense of the same Greek verb; (2) denominational conflation if rendered with a Latinate term. Recommend ‘aus der Gemeinde ausstoßen/ausschließen’, paired with a teaching note distinguishing legitimate biblical church discipline (cf. Matthew 18) from Diotrephes’ self-serving abuse of that authority.
Church
Approved rendering: Gemeinde
Transliteration: Gemeinde
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: Kirche (institution-default)
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. HIGH RISK, distinctly German: Catholic and state-church (Landeskirche) usage defaults ‘Kirche’ to the institution; Free church (Freikirche) and Pietist tradition prefer ‘Gemeinde’ for the gathered local body, closer to NT ekklesia. Germany’s church-tax system (Kirchensteuer) and formal ‘Kirchenaustritt’ (exit) further couple ‘Kirche’ with bureaucratic institution in the secular mind. Extended to 3 John: the same local congregation before whom the traveling brothers testified to Gaius’s love (1,6) and from which Diotrephes later expels dissenters (1,10) — Diotrephes’ abuse of power is precisely a local congregation’s leadership crisis, not an institutional-church dispute, making this distinction especially load-bearing here.
Doer Of Evil
Approved rendering: Wer Böses tut
Transliteration: Wer Böses tut
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακοποιέω
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
- Johannes 1,11 (κακοποιέω). Mirror-image of ἀγαθοποιέω: a settled, characteristic pattern of evil conduct revealing that a person has not truly known God. Must not be read as ‘one act of wrongdoing proves damnation’ but as a characteristic-pattern diagnostic; pair with the same caution against over-reading assurance-of-salvation implications into a single verse.
Doer Of Good
Approved rendering: Wer Gutes tut
Transliteration: Wer Gutes tut
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθοποιέω
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
- Johannes 1,11 (ἀγαθοποιέω). A settled, habitual pattern of good conduct (present participle) that marks a person as one born of/belonging to God — a fruit-reveals-root logic, not a merit-earns-standing logic. The single most theologically delicate clause in 3 John for the German context: must be read and taught as EVIDENCE of a God-given identity/new birth (cf. inherited ‘born_of_god’ cross-reference), never as the MEANS of achieving standing with God, per the baseline’s repeated Werkgerechtigkeit caution attached to Grace and Justification elsewhere as Critical.
Love Of Preeminence
Approved rendering: der Erste sein wollen / nach der Vorherrschaft streben
Transliteration: der Erste sein wollen / nach der Vorherrschaft streben
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: Ehrgeiz (ambition) alone, unqualified — reads as a neutral or admirable trait in contemporary German professional culture, under-translating the named spiritual vice
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,9 (φιλοπρωτεύω). An inordinate, self-serving desire for status and control — the letter’s sharpest diagnostic word, naming Diotrephes’ fundamental sin as a direct inversion of Christ’s own servant-pattern. Must be paired in teaching material with the inherited ‘servant_of_all’ cross-reference (Mark 9:35) to make the contrast with Christ’s servant-leadership teaching explicit.
Prosper
Approved rendering: es soll dir gut gehen
Transliteration: es soll dir gut gehen
Doctrine: Pastoral Well-Being and Spiritual Health
Rejected alternatives: gedeihen / Erfolg haben (risks resonance with contemporary German ‘Wohlstandsevangelium’/prosperity-gospel discourse)
Original: εὐοδοῦσθαι
Category: Christian Life
- Johannes 1,2 (εὐοδοῦσθαι). General outward/circumstantial flourishing wished for Gaius in proportion to — not as reward for — his already-flourishing spiritual health. HIGH RISK: Germany has an active, growing charismatic/Pentecostal ‘Wohlstandsevangelium’ movement (partly reaching German audiences via translated American televangelism) for which this verse is a known proof text. The soul-health clause (‘so wie es deiner Seele wohlgeht’) must remain grammatically and logically prior to the wellbeing clause in the same sentence/teaching unit to prevent this verse being lifted as a material-blessing promise.
Receive Accept
Approved rendering: annehmen
Transliteration: annehmen
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,9.10 (ἐπιδέχομαι). Bridges a hospitality sense (welcoming guests) and an authority-recognition sense (accepting apostolic authority/representatives) — Diotrephes refuses to ‘receive’ John’s delegated authority (1,9) and obstructs others who would receive the brothers (1,10). Fix ‘annehmen’ as the single, consistent rendering for both occurrences; flag any deviation for review so the dual sense and intentional repetition are not lost.
Receive With Support
Approved rendering: aufnehmen
Transliteration: aufnehmen
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,8 (ὑπολαμβάνω). The letter’s central hospitality-verb: to actively receive and materially provide for a guest — lodging, provision, escort — not merely to tolerate or greet them. Luther’s ‘aufnehmen’ is serviceable but somewhat weaker than the Greek’s ‘take up under [oneself]’ force; accompanying teaching material must make explicit this denotes active, costly, material support, not merely a friendly welcome.
Stranger Guest
Approved rendering: die Fremden
Transliteration: die Fremden
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ξένος (pl. ξένοι)
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,5 (ξένος/ξένοι). Itinerant believers, unknown to the local household but dependent on it for material support during gospel travel. HIGH RISK, German-specific: ‘Fremde’ carries strong, unavoidable contemporary political resonance in Germany’s active immigration/asylum discourse (Fremde, Flüchtlinge, Migrationspolitik). Teaching material must explicitly anchor the referent as itinerant Christian gospel-workers known to the wider church network (cf. 1,6, ‘before the church’), never generalized into a direct political-policy statement. ‘die Gäste’ is a softer alternate option reviewers may consider case-by-case, though it loses some of ξένος’s ‘unfamiliar outsider’ force — not a rejected option, a reviewer-discretion alternate.
Testify
Approved rendering: bezeugen
Transliteration: bezeugen
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness
Original: μαρτυρέω
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
- Johannes 1,3.6.12 (μαρτυρέω, appears twice as a verb and underlies μαρτυρία as a noun). To formally vouch for the truth of something personally observed. HIGH RISK: German ‘Zeugnis’/‘bezeugen’ collides with the everyday bureaucratic sense of a school report card (Schulzeugnis) or employment reference (Arbeitszeugnis) — a document-based sense wholly disconnected from the weighty biblical sense of vouching for another’s Christian character before the gathered church. Comparable in kind to the baseline’s documented ‘Berufung’ homonym collision. No viable German alternative exists; mandatory first-occurrence teaching-material gloss required.
Testimony Noun
Approved rendering: das Zeugnis
Transliteration: das Zeugnis
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness
Rejected alternatives: Bescheinigung / Beglaubigung (worse than ‘Zeugnis’ — no viable escape from a bureaucratic register, and further from established Bible-German usage)
Original: μαρτυρία
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
- Johannes 1,12 (μαρτυρία, three occurrences within this single verse). The content or act of formal witness-bearing — part of a triple attestation (the whole congregation, ‘the truth itself,’ and John’s own testimony). Shares the ‘Zeugnis’ homonym-collision risk of the ‘testify’ entry; the triple concentration within one verse makes especially careful, internally consistent rendering essential.
The Name
Approved rendering: der Name (“um des Namens willen”)
Transliteration: der Name (“um des Namens willen”)
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: spelling out ‘Jesu Namen’ within the translated verse text (exceeds the source’s deliberate reticence)
Original: τὸ ὄνομα
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,7 (τὸ ὄνομα). A fixed early-Christian shorthand for the name of Jesus Christ, standing for his person, authority, and cause (cf. Acts 5:41). Retain the established Lutherbibel idiom ‘um des Namens willen’ literally in the translated text, but mandate an explicit teaching-material gloss naming Christ, since a bare literal rendering risks reading as cryptic to a biblically low-literacy German audience, especially the growing konfessionslos population. Also flagged under ‘Financial Integrity in Gospel Ministry’ (1,7-8).
Truth
Approved rendering: die Wahrheit
Transliteration: die Wahrheit
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
NEW standalone entry for this curriculum; the German rendering ‘die Wahrheit’ is not new but is extracted from the baseline’s ‘worship_in_spirit_and_truth’ phrase (John 4:24) for consistency, since no standalone ‘truth’ term previously existed in the baseline package. German ‘Wahrheit’ defaults to the correspondence-theory philosophical sense (a true proposition) in ordinary and academic usage — reinforced by Germany’s own philosophical tradition (Kant, analytische Philosophie) — risking loss of the Johannine relational-covenantal sense: truth as a shared gospel reality and bond of fellowship. This is 3 John’s most repeated (1,1.3.4.8.12) and most theologically central term; functionally requires Critical-tier discipline despite its formal High classification.
Medium Risk Terms
Beloved
Approved rendering: Mein Lieber
Transliteration: Mein Lieber
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: der/die Geliebte (romantic/mistress connotation in everyday German)
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,1.2.5.11 (repeated vocative address to Gaius). A term of affectionate covenantal address for a fellow believer, distinct from φίλος (friend, v.14). A literal ‘der/die Geliebte’ carries strong romantic or extramarital-partner connotations in everyday German (‘die Geliebte’ = mistress/lover), a genuine collision risk for this repeated formal address. Luther’s idiomatic vocative ‘Mein Lieber’ avoids the collision and must be used consistently across all four occurrences rather than ‘corrected’ back toward the literal form.
Brothers
Approved rendering: die Brüder
Transliteration: die Brüder
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀδελφός (pl. ἀδελφοί)
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,3.5.10 (ἀδελφός/ἀδελφοί). Fellow believers, here specifically the itinerant gospel workers whose report of Gaius’s hospitable conduct occasions John’s joy (1,3) and whom Diotrephes later refuses and obstructs (1,10). Contemporary German church register increasingly favors ‘Brüder und Schwestern’ as gender-inclusive for the general congregational sense, while the concrete historical referent here (traveling emissaries) was likely male. Reviewers must decide per occurrence whether the historically specific ‘Brüder’ or an inclusive gloss best serves a teaching-curriculum audience; retain ‘die Brüder’ in the translated verse text and reserve inclusive language for general pastoral application in teaching material only.
Confront Remind
Approved rendering: vorhalten / zur Rechenschaft ziehen
Transliteration: vorhalten / zur Rechenschaft ziehen
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ὑπομιμνήσκω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,10 (ὑπομιμνήσκω). To bring conduct to remembrance in a confrontational, accountability-seeking sense — John announces he will personally confront Diotrephes’ conduct on a future visit. ‘vorhalten’ alone can sound mild in modern German and may need strengthening for the confrontational, in-person pastoral-discipline tone intended. Also relevant to ‘Apostolic Authority and Pastoral Correction’.
Elder
Approved rendering: der Älteste
Transliteration: der Älteste
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Pastoral Correction
Rejected alternatives: Presbyter (untranslated loanword, opaque to general audience)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
- Johannes 1,1. A recognized apostolic-generation pastoral-authority title, not merely a reference to advanced age — grounds the author’s standing to confront Diotrephes later in the letter. German ecclesial traditions diverge sharply: Freikirche/Reformed traditions maintain a formal ‘Ältestenamt’ (elder-board office with defined authority); most Landeskirche structures have no equivalent office; secular/konfessionslos readers default to the plain ‘older man’ sense. Requires a brief teaching-material gloss identifying this as an apostolic-generation leadership title. Note: the doctrine this term serves (‘Apostolic Authority and Pastoral Correction’) is rated High risk in doctrine_risk_registry.json even though the term itself is Medium; theologian review is required at the doctrine level.
Evil
Approved rendering: das Böse
Transliteration: das Böse
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακός
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
- Johannes 1,11 (κακός). Moral evil, here embodied concretely in Diotrephes’ just-narrated pride-driven abuse of authority. Standard term; keep concretely tied to the narrated example rather than abstracted into a free-floating philosophical category (a risk given German devotional and secular ethical discourse’s habitual use of ‘das Böse’ as an abstraction).
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: Mitarbeiter der Wahrheit / Gefährte der Wahrheit
Transliteration: Mitarbeiter der Wahrheit / Gefährte der Wahrheit
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: συνεργός (pl. συνεργοί)
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,8 (συνεργός/συνεργοί). A partner working alongside another toward a shared missional goal (cf. Philippians 4:3, Romans 16:3) — by supporting traveling gospel workers, Gaius becomes an active partner in their mission and in the cause of truth itself. Modern ‘Mitarbeiter’ is theologically precise but risks a flat corporate/employment connotation; Luther’s ‘Gefährte’ is warmer but loosens the co-laboring sense. Flag for reviewer choice; both are defensible, neither is rejected.
Friend
Approved rendering: Freund / Freunde
Transliteration: Freund / Freunde
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: φίλος (pl. φίλοι)
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,14 (φίλος/φίλοι, twice: greetings sent and received). A distinct Greek relational term from ἀγαπητός (beloved) and ἀδελφός (brother) — affectionate personal friendship, closing the letter’s deliberately varied relational vocabulary. Low-ambiguity in itself; the risk is cross-verse consistency — keep visibly distinct from ‘Brüder’ and ‘Mein Lieber’/‘der Geliebte’ so the letter’s varied relational register is not flattened.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: Heiden
Transliteration: Heiden
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: ἐθνικός (pl. ἐθνικοί)
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Established term, low ambiguity risk beyond consistency. IMPORTANT 3 JOHN-SPECIFIC CAVEAT: in 3. Johannes 1,7, ἐθνικῶν means non-believing outsiders in general — the missionaries refuse financial support from them — a financial-integrity point, NOT the ethnic Jew/Gentile salvation-historical unity theme central to Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians (‘Unity of Jews and Gentiles’, High/Critical risk there). Reusing ‘Heiden’ is correct per the reuse rule, but teaching material must not import that doctrine into this verse.
Good
Approved rendering: das Gute
Transliteration: das Gute
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθός
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
- Johannes 1,11 (ἀγαθός). Moral good, here embodied concretely in Demetrius’s commended conduct (1,12). Standard term; keep concretely tied to the narrated example rather than abstracted.
Has Seen Idiom
Approved rendering: hat … nicht gesehen
Transliteration: hat … nicht gesehen
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: explanatory paraphrase such as ‘kennt Gott nicht wirklich’ (doctrinally acceptable but pre-empts the teaching opportunity to explain the Johannine idiom directly)
Original: ἑώρακεν (perfect of ὁράω)
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
- Johannes 1,11 (ἑώρακεν, perfect of ὁράω). A fixed Johannine idiom (cf. also 1 John 3:6, 4:20): ‘has not seen God’ does not claim physical sight of God was otherwise possible, but that the person lacks genuine relational knowledge of God. Retain the literal rendering in the translated text; supply the idiom-clarifying gloss in teaching material only.
Imitate
Approved rendering: nachahmen
Transliteration: nachahmen
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: nachfolgen (already reserved in German devotional vocabulary for ‘Nachfolge Christi’ — discipleship following Christ specifically — a narrower, more exalted register than imitating a named human example)
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Imitating Good rather than Evil
- Johannes 1,11 (μιμέομαι). Deliberate patterning of one’s conduct on an observed model. John commands Gaius to imitate Demetrius’s good example, not Diotrephes’ evil one. Linguistically low-risk; the pastoral risk is losing the concrete, named-example basis behind an abstract moral principle — teaching material should keep that narrative concreteness.
Love Noun
Approved rendering: die Liebe
Transliteration: die Liebe
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,6 (ἀγάπη). Covenantal, willed love expressed concretely as hospitality — Gaius’s love was publicly attested before the gathered church, inseparable from action rather than sentiment alone. Shares the flattening risk of the ‘love’ verb entry: German’s single generic love-noun does not itself distinguish this concrete, action-embodied love from the letter’s other relational-vocabulary terms; context must carry the concreteness.
Love
Approved rendering: lieben
Transliteration: lieben
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπάω
Category: Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,1 (ἀγαπάω). Selfless, covenantal love rooted in the will, qualified in 1,1 as love ‘in truth’ — bound to shared gospel conviction, not sentiment alone. German ‘lieben’ is an all-purpose love-verb spanning romantic, familial, and casual registers (‘ich liebe Pizza’), flattening the Greek’s distinct vocabulary of love that the letter itself preserves via φίλος at v.14. No baseline precedent exists for a standalone ‘love’ entry. Luther’s slightly more deliberate ‘liebhaben’ is an acceptable alternative register where a less casual tone is wanted, not a rejected option.
Malicious Talk
Approved rendering: mit boshaften, unbegründeten Worten hetzen/schwatzen
Transliteration: mit boshaften, unbegründeten Worten hetzen/schwatzen
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: verleumden alone (implies deliberate, formal legal slander, narrowing the hapax’s baselessness nuance), bloße Gerüchte verbreiten alone (implies harmless idle gossip, losing the malice component)
Original: φλυαρέω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,10 (φλυαρέω). A rare NT word (hapax legomenon) describing baseless, malicious talk against someone — stronger than idle gossip, milder than formal legal slander. No single German word captures both malice and baselessness at once; the combined descriptive phrase is recommended, flagged for reviewer discretion given the word’s rarity.
Send On Journey
Approved rendering: aussenden
Transliteration: aussenden
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: abfertigen (Luther’s historic term, now sounds bureaucratic/administrative in modern German — processing paperwork or dismissing someone)
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,6 (προπέμπω). To send someone forward with practical material and logistical support for their onward journey — provisions, escort, funds — not merely bidding farewell. ‘aussenden’ or ‘für die Reise ausrüsten/versorgen’ better convey the intended warm, practical-support sense than Luther’s now-dated ‘abfertigen’, which has drifted toward a bureaucratic register within German itself over five centuries.
Soul
Approved rendering: die Seele
Transliteration: die Seele
Doctrine: Pastoral Well-Being and Spiritual Health
Original: ψυχή
Category: Christian Life
- Johannes 1,2 (ψυχή). The whole inner person — life, self, the person as a unified whole before God — not exclusively the immaterial ‘soul’ of a body/soul dualist framework. German ‘Seele’ carries strong Platonic/dualistic overtones embedded in German philosophical and pastoral-care vocabulary (Seelsorge), risking obscuring the holistic Hebraic/Johannine ‘whole self’ sense without a brief gloss on first occurrence.
Spiritual Children
Approved rendering: die Kinder
Transliteration: die Kinder
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: τέκνον (pl. τέκνα)
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,4 (τέκνον/τέκνα). A pastoral-relational, not literal-familial, claim: those under an apostolic figure’s spiritual care and instruction. ‘Kinder’ works directly; minor risk that a reader unfamiliar with this common NT pastoral idiom (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:14-15, Galatians 4:19) initially reads it as a literal-family claim. A light contextual gloss is sufficient.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: wandeln
Transliteration: wandeln
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Truth and Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,3.4 (περιπατέω). Literally ‘to walk’; by fixed NT ethical extension, one’s whole manner of life. ‘Wandeln in der Wahrheit’ names a life whose entire conduct is shaped by gospel reality, not occasional acts of belief. ‘wandeln’ is an established biblical-German idiom already familiar from other epistles’ ethical-walk vocabulary in this pipeline; low ambiguity once recognized as figurative rather than literal ambulation.
Works Deeds
Approved rendering: die Werke / das Verhalten
Transliteration: die Werke / das Verhalten
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘Werke’ alone without disambiguating context (risks contamination from ‘Werke des Gesetzes’/‘gute Werke’ justification vocabulary elsewhere in this pipeline)
Original: ἔργα
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,10 (ἔργα). Neutral, purely descriptive term for Diotrephes’ abusive conduct — NOT the soteriological ‘works’ of the justification debate. A clarifying rendering such as ‘sein Verhalten’ (his behavior), alongside or instead of ‘seine Werke’, reduces the risk that reviewers read this purely ethical-descriptive occurrence through a justification-by-works lens.
Worthily Of God
Approved rendering: Gottes würdig
Transliteration: Gottes würdig
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘würdig’ alone (reads as generic politeness/dignity, not a specifically God-reflecting ethical standard)
Original: ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,6 (ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ). A manner of action that matches or reflects God’s own character/standard — hospitality is to be extended not minimally but in a way that reflects who God is. Recommend the fuller clarifying phrase ‘so, wie es Gottes würdig ist’ over a bare adjective.
Low Risk Terms
Be Content
Approved rendering: sich zufrieden geben
Transliteration: sich zufrieden geben
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ἀρκέομαι
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,10 (ἀρκέομαι). To be satisfied/content with a state of affairs — Diotrephes’ hostility escalates beyond malicious words into active obstruction because words alone do not satisfy him. Low ambiguity.
By Name
Approved rendering: mit Namen / namentlich
Transliteration: mit Namen / namentlich
Doctrine: Personal Fellowship over Written Correspondence
Original: κατ᾽ ὄνομα
Category: Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,14 (κατ᾽ ὄνομα). Personal, individualized greeting rather than a generic collective one — a warm closing touch extending greetings to each named individual. Low ambiguity.
Demetrius
Approved rendering: Demetrius
Transliteration: Demetrius
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness
Original: Δημήτριος
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
- Johannes 1,12 (Δημήτριος). Standard transliteration. The letter’s positive named example, likely its courier, deliberately contrasted with Diotrephes.
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: Diotrephes
Transliteration: Diotrephes
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: Διοτρεφής
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,9.10 (Διοτρεφής). Standard transliteration. A named individual, not a symbolic type — the letter’s realism (naming an actual person’s misconduct) is itself notable and should not be softened into an anonymous ‘certain leader’ in teaching material.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: von Angesicht zu Angesicht
Transliteration: von Angesicht zu Angesicht
Doctrine: Personal Fellowship over Written Correspondence
Rejected alternatives: Mund zu Mund (literal, but collides with the modern German idiom for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Mund-zu-Mund-Beatmung)
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,14 (στόμα πρὸς στόμα). A Hebraic idiom (literally ‘mouth to mouth,’ cf. Numbers 12:8 LXX) for direct, personal, face-to-face communication. Use the established biblical-German idiom ‘von Angesicht zu Angesicht’ (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12) or Luther’s dissolution ‘wir wollen mündlich miteinander reden’; avoid the literal rendering, which is actively counter-productive in German.
Gaius
Approved rendering: Gaius
Transliteration: Gaius
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,1 and throughout (Γάϊος). Standard German Bible transliteration for the letter’s addressee, a commended, hospitable believer. No existing alternative German form exists; low risk, though his identity should not be confused with other New Testament individuals named Gaius (e.g. Acts 19:29, 20:4; Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14) — a brief teaching-material note distinguishing this Gaius is advisable but not a translation risk as such.
Hinder
Approved rendering: hindern
Transliteration: hindern
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,10 (κωλύω). Active obstruction, not passive discouragement — Diotrephes actively blocks other believers from practicing the very hospitality the letter commends. Also relevant to ‘Hospitality to Traveling Ministers’. Low ambiguity.
Hope
Approved rendering: hoffen
Transliteration: hoffen
Doctrine: Personal Fellowship over Written Correspondence
Original: ἐλπίζω
Category: Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,14 (ἐλπίζω). Confident expectation, not mere wishfulness — an ordinary epistolary closing expression of hoped-for reunion. Low ambiguity.
Ink And Pen
Approved rendering: Tinte und Feder
Transliteration: Tinte und Feder
Doctrine: Personal Fellowship over Written Correspondence
Original: μέλαν καὶ κάλαμος
Category: Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,13 (μέλαν καὶ κάλαμος). The concrete physical writing instruments (ink and reed pen) of the period. ‘Tinte und Feder’ (Luther) is the natural, well-established German idiom; ‘Feder’ may sound anachronistic to modern ears but is the correct traditional equivalent and does not require modernization.
Joy
Approved rendering: die Freude
Transliteration: die Freude
Doctrine: Pastoral Well-Being and Spiritual Health
Original: χαρά
Category: Christian Life
- Johannes 1,4 (χαρά). Emotional gladness with a specifically pastoral/spiritual cause — John’s greatest joy is seeing his spiritual children live faithfully. Unambiguous, low risk.
Obligated
Approved rendering: wir sollen / wir sind verpflichtet
Transliteration: wir sollen / wir sind verpflichtet
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
- Johannes 1,8 (ὀφείλω). Moral/relational obligation flowing from shared gospel partnership — hospitality to traveling ministers is framed as a duty, not optional generosity. Low ambiguity in either rendering option.
Peace
Approved rendering: Friede
Transliteration: Friede
Doctrine: Peace with God
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Christian Fellowship
Inherited from Romans package, copied exactly. Relational, covenantal peace, not merely psychological calm. Extended to 3 John 1,14 as a standard apostolic epistolary peace-blessing at the letter’s close (‘Friede sei mit dir’), a low-risk closing convention consistent with its Romans usage.
Soon
Approved rendering: bald
Transliteration: bald
Doctrine: Personal Fellowship over Written Correspondence
Rejected alternatives: sogleich (reserved for Mark’s stylistic marker εὐθύς, 40+ occurrences in that package; an unrelated cross-document convention that must not be forced here)
Original: εὐθέως
Category: Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,14 (εὐθέως). Ordinary temporal adverb (‘soon/shortly’), expressing John’s hope for a near-term visit. Distinct from the unrelated Mark-package stylistic marker; rendering as ‘bald’ rather than ‘sogleich’ is correct and should not be forced into false cross-document consistency.
True Truthful
Approved rendering: wahr / wahrhaftig
Transliteration: wahr / wahrhaftig
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Commendation of Faithful Witness
- Johannes 1,12 (ἀληθής). Describes the reliability/veracity of a testimony or person — John directly asserts the veracity of his own witness about Demetrius. Shares the broader ἀλήθεια word-family risk in general, but the plain adjective form itself is low-ambiguity.
Want Willing
Approved rendering: wollen
Transliteration: wollen
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: βούλομαι
Category: Church Leadership and Pride
- Johannes 1,10 (βούλομαι). Deliberate intention or will, slightly stronger than a casual wish — describes those in the congregation who want to show hospitality but are prevented by Diotrephes. Low ambiguity.
Write
Approved rendering: schreiben
Transliteration: schreiben
Doctrine: Personal Fellowship over Written Correspondence
Original: γράφω
Category: Christian Fellowship
- Johannes 1,9.13 (γράφω). Ordinary verb of writing, contrasted in 1,13-14 with John’s stated preference for face-to-face speech. The 1,9 occurrence refers to a now-lost or textually uncertain earlier letter; merits a brief transparency note in teaching material (a minor textual-history curiosity, not a doctrinal dispute), parallel to the Gospel textual-critical notes flagged elsewhere in this pipeline.
Referenced passages