Semantic Analysis

07 Semantic Analysis — Acts (Apostelgeschichte)

Scope and Method

This analysis covers the entire book of Acts, chapter 1 through chapter 28, in the original Koine Greek. The core passage (Acts 2:1-41, Pentecost and Peter’s sermon) receives full verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter receives a chapter-level section documenting its load-bearing theological terms using the same seven fields:

Original word (Koine Greek)
Transliteration
Literal meaning
Semantic range
English variants (as found across major English versions)
Contextual theological meaning (in Acts)
Destination-language (German) rendering risk

Where a term is already recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json or bible_term_registry.json, this is marked [BASELINE REUSE] and the established German rendering is carried forward unchanged, per the hard rule that established term renderings must be reused exactly. Chapters that introduce no new load-bearing vocabulary beyond what has already been analyzed are explicitly marked as such.

Acts is Luke’s second volume (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1), so this analysis also tracks direct continuations of terms and formulas already fixed in the Luke package (e.g., Reich Gottes, Auferstehung, ascension — “er ward aufgehoben gen Himmel”).

PART 1: CORE PASSAGE — Acts 2:1-41 (Verse-by-Verse)

Acts 2:1

Term: Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē)

Original word: Πεντηκοστή
Transliteration: Pentēkostē
Literal meaning: “fiftieth [day]”
Semantic range: The Jewish harvest festival Shavuot/Feast of Weeks, observed fifty days after Passover; in Acts, also the proper name marking the day of the Spirit’s outpouring.
English variants: Pentecost; Feast of Weeks; “the day of Pentecost had come”
Contextual theological meaning: The Spirit is poured out on the very day Israel celebrated the giving of the Law at Sinai in later Jewish tradition — a deliberate typological pairing of old-covenant law-giving with new-covenant Spirit-giving.
German rendering risk: Low. “Pfingsten” is the long-established German term (itself derived from Pentēkostē) and is a nationally recognized public holiday (Pfingstmontag), giving it exceptionally high cultural recognition. Risk is not mistranslation but under-teaching: secular/konfessionslos readers know the holiday but not its Jewish festival background or theological content, requiring explicit exposition rather than assumed background knowledge.

Term: ὁμοῦ (homou)

Transliteration: homou
Literal meaning: “together, in the same place”
Semantic range: Physical togetherness; also carries a unity-of-purpose connotation reinforced by 1:14’s “with one accord” (ὁμοθυμαδόν).
English variants: “together”; “in one place”; “all together”
Contextual theological meaning: The gathered, unified community as the setting for the Spirit’s coming — foundational to the Church as Community doctrine.
German rendering risk: Low. “beieinander”/“an einem Ort” — no false-friend risk.

Acts 2:2

Term: ἦχος (ēchos), πνοή βίαιος (pnoē biaios)

Transliteration: ēchos; pnoē biaios
Literal meaning: “sound, noise”; “violent breath/wind”
Semantic range: πνοή is cognate with πνεῦμα (Spirit/wind/breath) — the same root underlying “Holy Spirit” itself, making the wind imagery a deliberate wordplay in Greek.
English variants: “sound”; “noise”; “rushing wind”; “violent wind”
Contextual theological meaning: Echoes Genesis 1:2 and Ezekiel 37’s wind/breath imagery of life-giving divine power; the Spirit’s arrival is sensory and dramatic, not merely internal.
German rendering risk: Medium. German “Wind”/“Sturm” (wind/storm) does not carry the same πνοή/πνεῦμα wordplay available in Greek; teaching material should note the Greek pun explicitly since it is not recoverable from the German text alone.

Term: οὐρανός (ouranos)

[BASELINE REUSE — established as part of “Himmel” throughout the Lutherbibel tradition; cf. ascension term “er ward aufgehoben gen Himmel,” Luke 24:51.]
German rendering risk: Low.

Acts 2:3

Term: γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός (glōssai hōsei pyros)

Transliteration: glōssai hōsei pyros
Literal meaning: “tongues as of fire” / “tongue-shaped [flames] as of fire”
Semantic range: γλῶσσα literally means “tongue” (the organ) but is the standard Greek word for “language” — the same word used three verses later for the miracle of speech (2:4) and eleven verses later for mockery (2:13). Fire (πῦρ) is a recurring OT theophany image (burning bush, Sinai, pillar of fire).
English variants: “tongues of fire”; “flames like tongues of fire”; “divided tongues, as of fire”
Contextual theological meaning: Visible divine presence resting individually on each disciple — the Spirit is given personally and permanently, not corporately and temporarily as at Sinai.
German rendering risk: Medium. “feuerartige Zungen” or “Zungen wie von Feuer” preserves both the fire-theophany image and sets up the wordplay with v.4’s “tongues” — must be rendered so a German reader recognizes the same word (Zunge/Sprache) is doing double duty across vv.3-4, which the Luther tradition and modern German Bibles handle by keeping “Zungen” literal here and switching to “Sprachen” contextually at v.4/2:11 — this switch must be flagged for translators so continuity is not lost.

Acts 2:4

Term: ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες πνεύματος ἁγίου (eplēsthēsan pantes pneumatos hagiou)

Transliteration: eplēsthēsan pantes pneumatos hagiou
Literal meaning: “they were all filled with Holy Spirit”
Semantic range: πίμπλημι (to fill) denotes a decisive, complete filling, distinct from the ongoing/repeated sense of πληρόω used in Ephesians 5:18’s present passive imperative.
English variants: “were all filled with the Holy Spirit”; “were filled with the Holy Ghost”
Contextual theological meaning: The foundational, once-for-all corporate empowering of the church for its witnessing mission (Acts 1:8) — the fulfillment of the Baptist’s and Jesus’ own promise (Luke 3:16; 24:49; Acts 1:5).
German rendering risk: High. [Connects to BASELINE “filled_with_the_spirit” — established German: “lasst euch vom Geist erfüllen,” Ephesians 5:18.] Acts 2:4 uses the aorist passive indicative (a completed historical event: “wurden erfüllt”), not the present passive imperative of Ephesians (an ongoing command: “lasst euch…erfüllen”). Both must use the shared root “erfüllen/Erfüllung” for lexical consistency across the curriculum, but the grammatical distinction (one-time historical filling at Pentecost vs. the church’s repeated ongoing filling) must be preserved and explicitly taught, since German verb-tense choices can obscure this if handled carelessly.

Term: γλῶσσαι (glōssai), ἑτέραις γλώσσαις (heterais glōssais)

Transliteration: glōssai; heterais glōssais
Literal meaning: “tongues”; “other/different tongues [languages]”
Semantic range: Real, identifiable human languages (confirmed explicitly in vv.6, 8, 11 — “each one heard them speaking in his own language”), not an unintelligible ecstatic utterance.
English variants: “other tongues”; “other languages”
Contextual theological meaning: A miracle of intelligible cross-cultural proclamation, reversing Babel’s confusion of languages (Genesis 11) and prefiguring the gospel’s advance to every nation — directly serves the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles doctrine.
German rendering risk: Critical. German “Zungenrede” (glossolalia) has acquired a strong, specific, and confessionally contested association with Pentecostal/charismatic ecstatic speech in contemporary German Protestantism (Pfingstbewegung, charismatische Bewegung), a movement viewed variously across Landeskirche, Freikirche, and Pentecostal/charismatic communities in Germany. Acts 2 itself describes known human languages, not ecstatic unintelligible speech (contrast this with the different phenomenon in 1 Corinthians 14, outside this curriculum’s scope). Render as “in anderen Sprachen” (other languages) rather than “in Zungen” to avoid importing the contemporary charismatic-controversy connotation into the historical narrative; flag for mandatory theologian review given this confessionally live distinction.

Acts 2:5-6

Term: διάλεκτος (dialektos)

Transliteration: dialektos
Literal meaning: “dialect, language, manner of speech”
Semantic range: A specific regional or national language/speech-form, reinforcing that real distinguishable languages are meant, not generic sound.
English variants: “language”; “tongue”; “dialect”
Contextual theological meaning: Emphasizes precision — not just any foreign sound but each hearer’s specific native tongue, underscoring divine intention to reach every people group individually.
German rendering risk: Low. “Sprache” (or “Mundart” for the more technical “dialect” sense) — no significant risk, but should be rendered consistently with the “other tongues” term above to keep the miracle’s linguistic-precision point clear.

Acts 2:7-13 (Reaction and Mockery)

Term: ἐξίσταντο (existanto) / ἔκστασις concept

Transliteration: existanto
Literal meaning: “they were amazed, astounded, beside themselves”
Semantic range: Ranges from wonder/awe to disorientation; root of English “ecstasy,” though the Greek here denotes bewildered amazement, not the later technical “ecstatic” religious-experience sense.
English variants: “amazed”; “astonished”; “confounded”; “perplexed”
Contextual theological meaning: A public, undeniable, sign-attested event provoking genuine wonder among religiously observant Jewish pilgrims.
German rendering risk: Low. “erstaunt/außer sich” — minor risk of over-translating toward German “Ekstase,” which (like English “ecstasy”) could misleadingly suggest the later charismatic-controversy sense flagged above; prefer “erstaunt” or “fassungslos.”

Term: γλεῦκος (gleukos)

Transliteration: gleukos
Literal meaning: “sweet new wine”
Semantic range: Freshly pressed, unfermented or lightly fermented grape juice/wine — the mockers’ accusation is deliberately implausible (new wine is weaker than aged wine), heightening the irony of the charge.
English variants: “new wine”; “sweet wine”
Contextual theological meaning: The mocking dismissal (“they are filled with new wine,” v.13) that Peter’s sermon directly rebuts (v.15) — establishes the pattern of hostile misreading of Spirit-empowered witness that recurs throughout Acts (cf. Persecution and Bold Witness doctrine).
German rendering risk: Low. “Süßer Wein”/“neuer Wein” — straightforward.

Acts 2:14

Term: ἀποφθέγγομαι (apophthengomai)

Transliteration: apophthengomai
Literal meaning: “to speak forth, declare with solemn, weighty, or inspired utterance”
Semantic range: A rare, elevated verb (used also in 2:4 and 26:25) denoting authoritative, Spirit-prompted proclamation rather than ordinary speech.
English variants: “addressed them”; “declared”; “spoke out”
Contextual theological meaning: Marks Peter’s sermon as itself a Spirit-empowered act, not mere rhetoric — ties directly to Apostolic Authority doctrine.
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. “sich vernehmen lassen” or “verkündete” — must not be flattened to generic “sagte” (said), which loses the weight of authoritative proclamation.

Acts 2:16-21 (Joel Citation)

Term: ἐν ταῖς ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις (en tais eschatais hēmerais)

Transliteration: en tais eschatais hēmerais
Literal meaning: “in the last days”
Semantic range: The eschatological era inaugurated by the Messiah’s coming, running from Pentecost until the consummation — not a narrowly future-only end-times marker.
English variants: “in the last days”; “afterward” (Joel’s own wording, adapted)
Contextual theological meaning: Peter reframes Pentecost as the beginning of the promised last days, not an isolated miracle — the church now lives in this inaugurated-but-not-consummated era.
German rendering risk: Medium. “in den letzten Tagen” — risk of popular German apocalyptic-sensationalist reading (Endzeit-Literatur is a lively, sometimes fringe, genre); teaching material should anchor this to inaugurated eschatology, not speculative end-times timelines.

Term: ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου (ekcheō apo tou pneumatos mou)

Transliteration: ekcheō apo tou pneumatos mou
Literal meaning: “I will pour out from my Spirit”
Semantic range: ἐκχέω (pour out) is a liquid-outpouring verb applied metaphorically to the Spirit’s abundant, universal distribution — used again at 2:33 of the exalted Christ pouring out the Spirit.
English variants: “I will pour out my Spirit”; “I will pour out of my Spirit”
Contextual theological meaning: Universal (all flesh — sons, daughters, young, old, servants; v.17-18), breaking down status distinctions in direct fulfillment of prophecy — central to both the Holy Spirit and Pentecost doctrine and the wider Jew/Gentile inclusion trajectory of Acts.
German rendering risk: Medium. “ausgießen” (pour out) — established Lutherbibel rendering; keep identical at 2:17, 2:18, and 2:33 for cross-reference consistency, per the curriculum’s shared-citation verbatim-match discipline.

Term: προφητεύσουσιν (prophēteusousin)

[BASELINE REUSE — cf. “prophecy”/“Weissagung” and “prophet”/“Prophet.”]
Contextual theological meaning: The Spirit democratizes the prophetic gift across gender, age, and social status — a striking egalitarian claim within its first-century context.
German rendering risk: Low, but the egalitarian scope (Söhne und Töchter, Knechte und Mägde) must not be softened or narrowed in translation.

Term: ἡμέρα κυρίου (hēmera kyriou)

Transliteration: hēmera kyriou
Literal meaning: “day of the Lord”
Semantic range: The OT prophetic day of divine judgment and vindication (Joel, Amos, Zephaniah), here retained as still future relative to Pentecost itself, framing the “last days” as an already-begun but not-yet-consummated period.
English variants: “the day of the Lord”; “the Lord’s great and glorious day”
Contextual theological meaning: Reinforces that Pentecost inaugurates, but does not complete, the eschatological timetable — judgment and final salvation remain future.
German rendering risk: Medium. “der Tag des Herrn” — established phrase; must be kept distinct in teaching material from the Christian Sunday designation “Tag des Herrn” sometimes used liturgically, to avoid confusing the eschatological Day of Judgment with the weekly day of worship.

Term: πᾶς ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου σωθήσεται (pas hos an epikalesētai to onoma kyriou sōthēsetai)

Transliteration: pas hos an epikalesētai to onoma kyriou sōthēsetai
Literal meaning: “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved”
Semantic range: ἐπικαλέομαι (call upon/invoke) denotes a decisive, personal appeal for rescue; κύριος here (via the Joel citation) is applied by Peter to Jesus specifically.
English variants: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”; “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
Contextual theological meaning: Critical cross-reference. This clause is quoted again verbatim by Paul in Romans 10:13, already fixed in this curriculum’s baseline as central to the salvation confession and Universal Scope of the Gospel doctrine.
German rendering risk: Critical. [BASELINE REUSE — must render identically to the established Romans 10:13 rendering.] Any deviation between the Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13 German texts would violate the curriculum’s cross-document consistency rule for shared citations. Use: “jeder, der den Namen des Herrn anruft, wird gerettet werden” (or the exact phrase already fixed for Romans 10:13 if it differs slightly in wording — flag for verification against the Romans translation output before finalizing).

Acts 2:22-24

Term: Ναζωραῖος (Nazōraios)

Transliteration: Nazōraios
Literal meaning: “the Nazarene,” i.e., “of/from Nazareth”
Semantic range: A geographic-designation title distinguishing this Jesus from others of the same common name; used repeatedly across Acts as a semi-formal identifier (3:6; 4:10; 6:14; 22:8; 26:9).
English variants: “Jesus of Nazareth”; “Jesus the Nazarene”
Contextual theological meaning: Anchors the sermon’s claims in a specific, verifiable, recent historical figure — insists on the historicity of the resurrection claim before a skeptical audience.
German rendering risk: Low. “Jesus von Nazareth”/“der Nazarener” — stable across German traditions.

Term: δυνάμεσι καὶ τέρασι καὶ σημείοις (dynamesi kai terasi kai sēmeiois)

Transliteration: dynamesi kai terasi kai sēmeiois
Literal meaning: “with mighty works and wonders and signs”
Semantic range: A three-part formula combining δύναμις (power/capability — [BASELINE REUSE, “Kraft Gottes”]), τέρας (wonder — an event provoking awe), and σημεῖον (sign — an event pointing beyond itself to a truth). Recurs across Acts (2:43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; 14:3; 15:12) as the standard descriptor for apostolic miracle-working.
English variants: “wonders and signs”; “mighty works and wonders and signs”; “miracles, wonders and signs”
Contextual theological meaning: Central formula for the Apostolic Authority and Miracles doctrine — miracles function as divine authentication of the apostolic message, not as independent spectacle.
German rendering risk: Medium-High. “Wunder und Zeichen” (with “Machttaten” or “Kraftaten” for δύναμις where the fuller triad appears) — must consistently render all three terms across every Acts occurrence to preserve the formula’s recognizability; collapsing the triad to a generic “Wunder” loses the doctrine’s structure.

Term: ὥρισμένῃ βουλῇ καὶ προγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ (hōrismenē boulē kai prognōsei tou theou)

Transliteration: hōrismenē boulē kai prognōsei tou theou
Literal meaning: “by the determined plan and foreknowledge of God”
Semantic range: βουλή (deliberate plan/counsel) + πρόγνωσις (foreknowledge) together assert full divine sovereignty over the crucifixion itself, while the following clause (“you crucified”) retains full human moral responsibility.
English variants: “the determined plan and foreknowledge of God”; “God’s set purpose and foreknowledge”; “deliberate plan and foreknowledge”
Contextual theological meaning: Holds divine sovereignty and human culpability together without resolution — directly continues the Providence doctrine already established in Romans (8:28-30) and touches the same Election/predestination sensitivities flagged there for the mixed Lutheran/Reformed German audience.
German rendering risk: High. [Connects to BASELINE “providence”/“Vorsehung” and “election”/“Erwählung.”] Must avoid a deterministic reading that removes human guilt for the crucifixion (a live antisemitism-adjacent risk, since the accusing crowd includes “you” — first-century Jewish hearers — see also the Matthew 27:25 caution already fixed in this curriculum). Render as “nach Gottes festgesetztem Plan und Vorauswissen,” and pair mandatorily with explicit historical-sensitivity framing given the audience addressed. Flag for theologian review.

Term: ἀνέστησεν (anestēsen)

[BASELINE REUSE — “Auferstehung”/resurrection doctrine; verb ἀνίστημι, “raise up.”]
Contextual theological meaning: God, not Jesus himself unaided, is the grammatical subject who raises Christ — consistent with the Trinitarian pattern already established across the curriculum’s Christology material.
German rendering risk: Low, provided the divine-subject grammar is preserved (“Gott hat ihn auferweckt,” not a passive that obscures the agent).

Acts 2:25-31 (David/Psalm 16 Citation)

Term: ᾍδης (Hadēs)

Transliteration: Hadēs
Literal meaning: “Hades,” the OT Hebrew Sheol rendered into Greek — the realm/state of the dead generally, not a place of torment specifically.
Semantic range: Distinct from later Christian “Hell” (Gehenna/lake of fire) as a place of punishment; here simply “the realm of the dead,” from which Christ was not abandoned.
English variants: “Hades”; “hell” (older translations, now considered imprecise); “the grave”; “the place of the dead”
Contextual theological meaning: Christ’s resurrection means he was not left in the state of death — a bodily, historical claim, continuing the Resurrection of Christ doctrine already fixed in the Romans baseline.
German rendering risk: Medium. German “Hölle” (Hell) carries strong, specific torment/damnation connotations (Luther’s usage, folk piety, Dante-adjacent imagery) that do not match Hadēs/Sheol’s more neutral “realm of the dead” sense. Prefer transliterated “Hades” or “Totenreich” (realm of the dead) over “Hölle,” with an explicit translator’s note distinguishing this from Gehenna/the lake of fire elsewhere in the NT.

Term: πατριάρχης (patriarchēs)

Transliteration: patriarchēs
Literal meaning: “patriarch, family/tribal father-ruler”
Semantic range: Applied to David here (v.29) as a term of high honor, extending the OT patriarchal category (normally Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) to Israel’s ideal king.
English variants: “patriarch”; “the patriarch David”
Contextual theological meaning: Reinforces David’s Davidic Covenant significance, already fixed in the Romans baseline (Romans 1:3; 9:5), as the necessary background for the Messianic argument that follows.
German rendering risk: Low. “Patriarch” — established, low-ambiguity loanword in German biblical vocabulary.

Acts 2:32-35 (Exaltation and Psalm 110)

Term: μάρτυρες (martyres)

Transliteration: martyres
Literal meaning: “witnesses”
Semantic range: Legal/courtroom sense (one who testifies to a fact) extended in early Christian usage to eyewitness testimony to the resurrection, and later still (by the time of Stephen, ch.7, and the term’s ultimate semantic destination) to death-testimony — the origin of the English/German loanword “martyr”/“Märtyrer.”
English variants: “witnesses”
Contextual theological meaning: The apostles’ resurrection testimony is the foundational warrant for the entire Petrine sermon and, structurally, for the whole book of Acts (cf. Acts 1:8, “you will be my witnesses”). Central to both the Great Commission Fulfilled and Persecution and Bold Witness doctrines.
German rendering risk: High. German distinguishes “Zeuge” (legal/courtroom witness, the primary sense needed here) from “Märtyrer” (one who dies for the faith, the sense the word develops by Acts 7 and 22:20). Both derive from the same Greek root, but German requires two different words. Translators must track which sense is active per occurrence — early Acts chapters require “Zeuge/bezeugen”; by chapter 22 (Stephen retrospectively called ὁ μάρτυς σου Στέφανος, “your witness Stephen,” in a context of his death) the semantic shift toward “Märtyrer” becomes exegetically significant and should be flagged for teaching material to trace explicitly.

Term: ὑψωθείς (hypsōtheis) / ἐξέχεεν (execheen)

Transliteration: hypsōtheis; execheen
Literal meaning: “having been exalted”; “he poured out”
Semantic range: ὑψόω (exalt/lift up) is the same verb family as ὑπερύψωσεν (“highly exalted”) already fixed for Philippians 2:9 in this curriculum, though a simpler, non-intensified form here.
English variants: “being exalted”; “having been exalted”; “he has poured out”
Contextual theological meaning: Christ’s resurrection-exaltation to God’s right hand is the direct cause of the Spirit’s outpouring — ties Pentecost causally to the ascension and lordship of Christ already established in Luke 24:51 and the Philippians Christ Hymn.
German rendering risk: Medium. “erhöht” (exalted) — keep distinguishable from the intensified “hoch erhöht” (highly exalted, Philippians 2:9) since Acts 2:33 uses the simple, non-compound verb; do not import the intensified compound here, but note the thematic connection for teaching material.

Acts 2:36

Term: κύριον καὶ Χριστόν (kyrion kai Christon)

[BASELINE REUSE — “Herr”/lord, “Messias”/messiah.]
Literal meaning: “Lord and Christ [Messiah/Anointed One]”
Contextual theological meaning: The sermon’s climactic double confession, directly paralleling and consistent with the Romans 10:9 confession (“Jesus is Lord”) and the messianic promise doctrine already fixed in the baseline. “Let all the house of Israel know for certain” (ἀσφαλῶς) signals this as the sermon’s central, unmistakable claim.
German rendering risk: Critical. Must render “Herr und Christus” with the same weight and clarity as the established Romans 10:9 confession — no softening (e.g., never “ein bedeutender Herr und Lehrer”). Given the baseline’s specific caution that German “Herr” doubles as the everyday honorific “Mr.” with no protective alternative honorific, this verse requires the same mandatory theologian review already applied to Romans 10:9.

Acts 2:37

Term: κατενύγησαν τὴν καρδίαν (katenygēsan tēn kardian)

Transliteration: katenygēsan tēn kardian
Literal meaning: “they were pierced/stabbed in the heart”
Semantic range: κατανύσσομαι is a vivid, almost violent verb (root sense: to strike/prick sharply) used only here in the NT, denoting a deep, painful, convicting realization — far stronger than mere intellectual persuasion.
English variants: “were cut to the heart”; “were pierced to the heart”; “were deeply troubled”
Contextual theological meaning: Genuine Spirit-worked conviction of sin preceding repentance — the necessary emotional/spiritual antecedent to the following verse’s call to repent, directly serving the Repentance and Baptism doctrine.
German rendering risk: Medium. “es traf sie mitten ins Herz” or “es ging ihnen durchs Herz” — must preserve the intensity; avoid flattening to a mild “sie waren betroffen” (they were affected), which loses the piercing/wounding image.

Acts 2:38

Term: μετανοήσατε (metanoēsate)

[BASELINE REUSE — “Buße,” established Matthew 3:2, 8.]
Contextual theological meaning: The first apostolic sermon’s direct, personal, corporate imperative — the paradigmatic call-and-response pattern for the whole book of Acts (repeated at 3:19; 8:22; 17:30; 26:20).
German rendering risk: High. Continues the established confessional-history caution around “Buße” (the Reformation’s own internal dispute over its sacramental-penitential vs. purely internal sense). Acts pairs μετανοέω repeatedly with ἐπιστρέφω (“turn,” e.g., 3:19; 26:20) — a turning/reorientation sense not fully captured by “Buße” alone. Teaching material should supplement “Buße” with “Umkehr” (turning) language where Acts pairs the two Greek verbs, to capture the fuller biblical picture without abandoning the established baseline term.

Term: βαπτισθήτω ἕκαστος ὑμῶν … ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (baptisthētō hekastos hymōn … epi tō onomati Iēsou Christou)

Transliteration: baptisthētō hekastos hymōn epi tō onomati Iēsou Christou
Literal meaning: “let each of you be baptized … upon/in the name of Jesus Christ”
Semantic range: βαπτίζω (immerse/baptize) here paired with a Christ-specific naming formula, distinct from (though not contradictory to) the fuller Trinitarian formula of Matthew 28:19 already fixed in this curriculum (“auf den Namen des Vaters und des Sohnes und des Heiligen Geistes”).
English variants: “be baptized … in the name of Jesus Christ”; “be baptized … in Jesus Christ’s name”
Contextual theological meaning: Central text for the Repentance and Baptism doctrine — baptism as the outward, public, name-invoking act of response to the gospel, uniting repentance, forgiveness, and reception of the Spirit into a single event.
German rendering risk: Critical, newly established for this curriculum. “Taufe”/“taufen” has no prior baseline entry (Romans discusses baptism only allusively, Romans 6:3-4). This is a NEW Critical-risk term requiring formal glossary entry. Primary German-specific risk: the historic and ongoing confessional divide between infant baptism (Kindertaufe, universal in Landeskirche Protestant and Catholic practice) and believer’s baptism (Gläubigentaufe/Erwachsenentaufe, the norm in German Baptist/Mennonite/many Freikirche communities) is directly engaged by this verse’s sequence (hear → be cut to the heart → repent → be baptized), which assumes conscious, responsive faith. Teaching material must present the Acts 2:38 pattern accurately without adjudicating the wider infant/believer’s baptism debate; flag for mandatory theologian AND native-speaker review, paralleling the household-baptism sensitivity that recurs at Acts 16:15, 33 and 18:8.

Term: εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν (eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn hymōn)

Transliteration: eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn hymōn
Literal meaning: “for/unto the forgiveness of your sins”
Semantic range: ἄφεσις (release, letting-go, forgiveness/remission) — a legal-financial-debt metaphor (release from an obligation), paired with [BASELINE REUSE: Sünde].
English variants: “for the forgiveness of your sins”; “so that your sins may be forgiven”; “unto the remission of sins”
Contextual theological meaning: The grammatical relationship between “repent/be baptized” and “for the forgiveness of sins” (does εἰς mean “in order to obtain” or “because of/on the basis of already-granted”) is genuinely debated across Christian traditions and must not be silently resolved by translation choice.
German rendering risk: Critical. “zur Vergebung eurer Sünden” — the preposition “zur” carries the same directional ambiguity as the Greek εἰς and should be preserved rather than disambiguated toward either a sacramental-instrumental reading (baptism causes forgiveness) or a purely symbolic reading (baptism merely signifies already-granted forgiveness). Flag for mandatory theologian review; do not resolve the ambiguity in the translated text itself.

Term: δωρεά τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος (dōrea tou hagiou pneumatos)

Transliteration: dōrea tou hagiou pneumatos
Literal meaning: “the gift of the Holy Spirit”
Semantic range: δωρεά (free gift, gratuitous favor) is a synonym of, but a different Greek word from, δῶρον (used in Ephesians 2:8, already fixed as “Gottes Geschenk” for the gift of salvation).
English variants: “the gift of the Holy Spirit”; “you shall receive the Holy Spirit as a gift”
Contextual theological meaning: The Spirit himself, not merely spiritual benefits, is given as gift — grounds the doctrine that every believer, not a spiritual elite, receives the Spirit at conversion.
German rendering risk: Medium. To avoid confusion with the already-fixed “Gottes Geschenk” (Ephesians 2:8, δῶρον), render Acts 2:38’s δωρεά as “die Gabe des Heiligen Geistes” — same root family, distinguishable rendering, preserving that these are related-but-distinct Greek terms describing related-but-distinguishable gifts (salvation itself vs. the Spirit’s personal indwelling).

Acts 2:39

Term: ἐπαγγελία (epangelia)

Transliteration: epangelia
Literal meaning: “promise, announcement”
Semantic range: A formal, binding pledge — used throughout Acts (1:4; 2:33) and across the NT (already touched by the “seed_of_david”/covenant vocabulary in the Romans baseline) for God’s covenantal promises now being fulfilled.
English variants: “promise”; “the promise [of the Spirit]”
Contextual theological meaning: Ties the Pentecost gift explicitly back to God’s covenant faithfulness (cf. Joel’s prophecy just cited) rather than presenting it as a novel, disconnected event.
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Verheißung” — established biblical-German term (distinct from the more everyday “Versprechen”); consistent with covenant-fulfillment vocabulary used elsewhere in this curriculum (e.g., the messianic promise doctrine).

Term: ὑμῖν καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις ὑμῶν καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς εἰς μακράν (hymin kai tois teknois hymōn kai pasi tois eis makran)

Transliteration: hymin kai tois teknois hymōn kai pasi tois eis makran
Literal meaning: “to you and to your children and to all who are far off”
Semantic range: “Far off” (εἰς μακράν) echoes Isaiah 57:19’s language for both dispersed Jews and, as Acts’s narrative will bear out, Gentiles.
English variants: “for you and your children, and for all who are far off”
Contextual theological meaning: The promise’s threefold scope (present hearers; their children; the far-off) is a major seed-text for both the household-baptism question (ch.16, 18) and the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles doctrine that structures the whole book.
German rendering risk: High. “euren Kindern” (your children) has been used historically by different German confessional traditions as supporting evidence in the infant-baptism debate — teaching material must present this exegetical question transparently rather than resolving it silently through translation choice, paralleling the caution already required at 2:38.

Term: ὅσους ἂν προσκαλέσηται κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν (hosous an proskalesētai kyrios ho theos hēmōn)

[BASELINE REUSE — “berufen”/called, “Berufung,” effectual calling doctrine.]
Contextual theological meaning: God’s sovereign initiative in calling, framing the promise’s universal offer within divine calling — directly continues the Effectual Calling doctrine (Romans 8:28-30) already established.
German rendering risk: High, per the existing baseline caution on “Berufung“‘s homonym collisions (career vocation; legal appeal) — context here is unambiguously the divine-calling sense, and should be rendered with the baseline’s established “berufen” verb form.

Acts 2:40

Term: διεμαρτύρατο καὶ παρεκάλει (diemartyrato kai parekalei)

Transliteration: diemartyrato kai parekalei
Literal meaning: “he solemnly testified/warned and exhorted/encouraged”
Semantic range: διαμαρτύρομαι intensifies μαρτυρέω (to witness/testify) toward solemn warning; παρακαλέω [BASELINE REUSE — “ermahnen,” noted as context-sensitive between admonish and encourage] here likely carries the warmer “encourage/urge” sense given the pastoral outcome (v.41).
English variants: “he testified and exhorted”; “he warned them and pleaded with them”; “he continued to exhort them”
Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s sermon does not end with the altar-call-like exchange of vv.37-39 but continues with sustained apostolic exhortation — modeling ongoing pastoral care alongside proclamation.
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. Per the existing baseline note on “ermahnen” being context-sensitive, prefer “ermutigte” (encouraged) or a paired “bezeugte und ermahnte/ermutigte” here, since the context (a positive, receptive crowd) calls for warmth alongside solemn testimony.

Term: γενεᾶς σκολιᾶς (geneas skolias)

Transliteration: geneas skolias
Literal meaning: “crooked generation”
Semantic range: σκολιός (crooked, bent, morally deviant) applied to a “generation” (γενεά) — an OT-echoing indictment (Deuteronomy 32:5) of the present unbelieving age.
English variants: “this corrupt generation”; “this crooked generation”; “this perverse generation”
Contextual theological meaning: Frames the call to repentance as rescue from a doomed spiritual-moral trajectory, not merely personal self-improvement.
German rendering risk: Low. “diese verkehrte/verdorbene Generation” — standard rendering, minimal risk.

Acts 2:41

Term: ἀποδεξάμενοι τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ (apodexamenoi ton logon autou)

Transliteration: apodexamenoi ton logon autou
Literal meaning: “having received/welcomed his word”
Semantic range: ἀποδέχομαι (receive favorably, welcome, accept) applied to λόγος [BASELINE-adjacent — “Wort,” cf. John 1:1/1:14 “das Wort”] here in its proclaimed-gospel-message sense.
English variants: “received his word”; “accepted his message”; “welcomed his message”
Contextual theological meaning: Genuine reception of the apostolic proclamation as the ground of the baptisms that follow — faith precedes and grounds the baptismal response.
German rendering risk: Low. “nahmen sein Wort an” — straightforward.

Term: ἐβαπτίσθησαν (ebaptisthēsan)

[Cross-reference to the newly established “Taufe” term at v.38 above.]
Contextual theological meaning: The narrated fulfillment of Peter’s imperative in v.38 — three thousand responsive baptisms mark the church’s dramatic founding growth.
German rendering risk: Critical, per the full note at v.38.

Term: προσετέθησαν (prosetethēsan)

Transliteration: prosetethēsan
Literal meaning: “were added”
Semantic range: προστίθημι (add to, increase) — a numerical/incorporative verb recurring at 2:47 and 5:14 to describe church growth as addition to an existing, bounded community.
English variants: “were added [to their number]”; “were added to them”
Contextual theological meaning: The church as a definite, identifiable community that new believers join, not a vague spiritual state — foundational for the Church as Community doctrine.
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. “wurden hinzugefügt” — must be read alongside “Gemeinde” [BASELINE REUSE] to keep clear that incorporation is into the concrete, gathered body of believers, not an abstract “invisible church” concept alone.

Term: ψυχαὶ τρισχίλιαι (psychai trischiliai)

Transliteration: psychai trischiliai
Literal meaning: “three thousand souls”
Semantic range: ψυχή (soul/life/person) used in its whole-person sense (“souls” = “people,” a common Hebraic idiom carried into Greek), not a body/soul dualism claim.
English variants: “about three thousand souls”; “about three thousand people”; “three thousand persons”
Contextual theological meaning: A concrete, countable, historically-anchored number — Luke’s stated concern for historical precision (cf. Luke 1:1-4) extends to the church’s founding growth statistics.
German rendering risk: Low. “dreitausend Menschen/Seelen” — “Seelen” is acceptable idiomatic biblical German but should not be read as implying a dualistic soul/body doctrine; “Menschen” is an equally valid, perhaps clearer, alternative.

PART 2: CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER STUDY OF THE WHOLE BOOK

Acts 1 — Ascension, Promise, and Preparation

Term: μάρτυς / μαρτυρέω (martys / martyreō)

[See full treatment under 2:32 above; first appearance at 1:8, “you will be my witnesses” (ἔσεσθέ μου μάρτυρες).]
Contextual theological meaning (ch.1 specifically): Acts 1:8 is the book’s programmatic thesis statement, structuring the entire narrative geography (Jerusalem → Judea/Samaria → the end of the earth).
German rendering risk: High — see full note above; establish “Zeuge/bezeugen” as the ch.1-21 default, flagging the later martyrdom-sense shift.

Term: ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς (heōs eschatou tēs gēs)

Transliteration: heōs eschatou tēs gēs
Literal meaning: “to the end/uttermost part of the earth”
Semantic range: Echoes Isaiah 49:6’s servant-mission language (“light to the nations, salvation to the ends of the earth”), already touched in this curriculum via the seek_and_save/universal-scope doctrines.
English variants: “to the end of the earth”; “to the uttermost parts of the earth”; “to the ends of the earth”
Contextual theological meaning: Structural key to the Great Commission Fulfilled doctrine — Acts narrates the geographic outworking of this exact promise, arriving at Rome (the practical “end of the earth” from a Jerusalem-centered viewpoint) by 28:16.
German rendering risk: Medium. “bis an die Grenzen der Erde” — an established Lutherbibel phrase; keep identical wording if this phrase recurs at 13:47 (Isaiah citation) for cross-reference consistency, and note the deliberate inclusio with Acts 28 in teaching material (paralleling the Mark 1:1/15:39 and John 1:1/20:28 inclusio pattern already documented in this curriculum).

Term: δύναμις (dynamis)

[BASELINE REUSE — “Kraft Gottes,” power_of_god.]
Contextual theological meaning (ch.1): “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” (1:8) — directly links the Spirit’s coming to empowerment for witness, not merely inward comfort.
German rendering risk: Medium, per baseline note — keep distinct from “Vollmacht” (delegated authority) used for ἐξουσία below.

Term: ἐξουσία (exousia)

Transliteration: exousia
Literal meaning: “authority, right, jurisdiction”
Semantic range: Delegated or inherent right to act, distinct from δύναμις’s raw capability sense; used at 1:7 of the Father’s sovereign authority over times and seasons.
English variants: “authority”; “power” (older translations often blur exousia/dynamis); “jurisdiction”
Contextual theological meaning: God’s exclusive prerogative over the timing of final restoration — a rebuke to speculative date-setting, continuing the Providence doctrine.
German rendering risk: Medium. “Vollmacht”/“Macht” — [connects to the Matthew package’s established “Vollmacht Jesu” for Christ’s authority to forgive sins]; keep distinguishable from “Kraft” (dynamis) so the authority/capability distinction is not lost.

Term: ἐπίσκοπή (episkopē)

Transliteration: episkopē
Literal meaning: “oversight, office of overseeing”
Semantic range: Applied at 1:20 (citing Psalm 109:8 LXX) to Judas’s forfeited apostolic “office”; the noun root of ἐπίσκοπος (overseer/bishop), which becomes a major term again at Acts 20:28.
English variants: “office”; “position”; “charge”
Contextual theological meaning: The apostolic office is a real, definable, transferable ministry position (hence Matthias’s appointment) — an early seed of later church-office questions more fully engaged at 6:1-6 and 20:28.
German rendering risk: Medium-High. “Amt” — should not be over-translated toward “Bischofsamt” (the specific episcopal office) at this early, undeveloped stage; “Amt” alone is safest, reserving fuller treatment for ch.20’s ἐπίσκοπος discussion.

Term: κλῆρος (klēros)

Transliteration: klēros
Literal meaning: “lot; portion; that which is allotted”
Semantic range: A literal casting-of-lots practice (1:26) continuing OT precedent (e.g., Proverbs 16:33), also the root of “clergy” (klēros → Latin clerus) in later church history — though that later development is not present in the text itself.
English variants: “lot”; “they cast lots”
Contextual theological meaning: Divine sovereignty exercised through an ordinary decision-making method, prior to Pentecost’s fuller Spirit-guidance — a transitional moment in how the church discerns God’s will.
German rendering risk: Low. “Los”/“das Los warfen” — straightforward; note the “clergy” etymological connection only as background trivia, not a live translation risk.

Acts 3 — Healing at the Temple Gate

Term: ὁ ἅγιος καὶ ὁ δίκαιος (ho hagios kai ho dikaios)

[BASELINE REUSE — “heilig” (holy), “Gerechtigkeit”-family (righteous).]
Literal meaning: “the Holy One and the Righteous One”
Contextual theological meaning: A Christological title (3:14) applying OT divine-holiness language directly to Jesus, in a sermon otherwise built on OT covenant-fulfillment vocabulary (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses).
German rendering risk: High. “der Heilige und Gerechte” — deity-adjacent title requiring the same theologian-review discipline already applied to other Christological titles in this curriculum (e.g., Colossians’s “image of the invisible God”).

Term: ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς (archēgos tēs zōēs)

Transliteration: archēgos tēs zōēs
Literal meaning: “the originator/pioneer/prince of life”
Semantic range: ἀρχηγός (leader, founder, one who goes first and opens the way for others) combined with ζωή (life) — a compressed Christological title recurring at 5:31 (“Prince and Savior”).
English variants: “the Author of life”; “the Prince of life”; “the source of life”
Contextual theological meaning: Christ as both the originating source of life and the pioneer who leads others into it — connects to the Creator and Sustainer of All doctrine already fixed for Colossians 1:16-17.
German rendering risk: High. “der Urheber des Lebens” (originator) or “der Fürst des Lebens” (prince) — no single German word captures both the “founder/source” and “pioneering leader” senses simultaneously; flag for theologian review to select the emphasis appropriate to context, and note the Colossians cross-reference explicitly.

Term: ἀποκατάστασις (apokatastasis)

Transliteration: apokatastasis
Literal meaning: “restoration, return to a former state”
Semantic range: Used at 3:21 of the eschatological “restoration of all things” God promised through the prophets; distinct from, and not to be confused with, the later technical theological term “apokatastasis” used by some (e.g., Origen) for universal salvation — a controversial doctrine outside the scope of this text’s own claim.
English variants: “restoration”; “restore all things”; “renewal of all things”
Contextual theological meaning: God’s promised final setting-right of creation, tied to Christ’s return — must not be read through the lens of the later, disputed “universalist apokatastasis” doctrine.
German rendering risk: Medium. “Wiederherstellung aller Dinge” — flag for teaching material to distinguish this text’s more general restoration-hope claim from the later, narrower, disputed universal-salvation doctrine debate, since the same transliterated Greek term surfaces in both contexts in scholarly literature.

Acts 4 — Boldness Before the Council

Term: παρρησία (parrēsia)

Transliteration: parrēsia
Literal meaning: “freedom of speech, frankness, boldness, openness”
Semantic range: Originally a political/civic term (the right of a free citizen to speak openly in the assembly), extended in the NT to confident, unashamed gospel proclamation, especially under pressure (4:13, 29, 31; recurring throughout Acts).
English variants: “boldness”; “confidence”; “courage”
Contextual theological meaning: The defining term for the Persecution and Bold Witness doctrine — boldness is explicitly the fruit of being filled with the Holy Spirit (4:31), not natural courage or personality.
German rendering risk: High. No single German word fully captures parrēsia’s blend of confident speech, fearlessness, and openness. “Freimütigkeit” (frank openness) or “Kühnheit” (boldness/courage) each capture only part of the sense; “Freimut” is probably the best single-word choice but should be reinforced with fuller phrasing (“mit aller Freimütigkeit reden”) at key occurrences. Must not be rendered in a way suggesting mere assertiveness or rhetorical confidence detached from the Spirit’s empowering — flag for native speaker review at minimum, theologian review at the doctrinally central occurrences (4:13, 29, 31).

Term: οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἄλλῳ οὐδενὶ ἡ σωτηρία (ouk estin en allō oudeni hē sōtēria)

[BASELINE REUSE — “Rettung,” salvation.]
Literal meaning: “there is salvation in no one else”
Contextual theological meaning (4:12): “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” — an exclusivity claim paralleling the already-fixed “way_truth_life_exclusivity” doctrine from John 14:6.
German rendering risk: Critical, given the existing baseline caution on “Rettung”/“Heil” and the John 14:6 exclusivity-claim caution already documented; requires the same pastoral/interfaith sensitivity framing given Germany’s contemporary religious pluralism.

Term: κοινά / ἅπαντα κοινά (koina / hapanta koina)

Transliteration: koina; hapanta koina
Literal meaning: “common [things]”; “all things common”
Semantic range: κοινός (shared, common, held jointly) — cognate with, but grammatically distinct from, κοινωνία [BASELINE REUSE — “Gemeinschaft,” fellowship]; describes the voluntary economic sharing practiced in the earliest Jerusalem church (2:44-45; 4:32-35).
English variants: “they had all things in common”; “everything they owned was held in common”; “shared everything they had”
Contextual theological meaning: A concrete, voluntary, Spirit-motivated expression of unity central to the Church as Community doctrine — not a mandated, permanent economic system for the whole church (contrast the continuing private ownership implied later, e.g., 12:12’s “Mary’s house”).
German rendering risk: High. German readers bring two live twentieth-century associations to any language of compulsory or ideologically-driven common ownership: the DDR-era socialist collectivization of property, and the Nazi-era “Volksgemeinschaft” collectivist rhetoric already flagged in the baseline under “fellowship”/“Gemeinschaft.” Render as “sie hatten alles gemeinsam” or “sie teilten alles miteinander,” with explicit teaching-material framing that this was a voluntary, temporary, love-motivated response specific to the earliest Jerusalem community, not a normative economic mandate or state-imposed system. Flag for native speaker review; escalate to theologian review if teaching material draws contemporary economic-policy applications.

Acts 5 — Ananias and Sapphira; Apostolic Signs

Term: ψεύδομαι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον (pseudomai to pneuma to hagion)

Transliteration: pseudomai to pneuma to hagion
Literal meaning: “to lie to the Holy Spirit”
Semantic range: ψεύδομαι (to lie, deceive) directed at the Spirit himself, not merely at Peter or the church — implies the Spirit’s full personal presence and deity within the gathered community.
English variants: “you have lied to the Holy Spirit”; “you have not lied to man but to God”
Contextual theological meaning: Confirms the Holy Spirit’s personal deity (5:3-4 explicitly equates lying to the Spirit with lying to God) — reinforces the already-established Holy Spirit doctrine (personal, divine, not an impersonal force).
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. “den Heiligen Geist belügen” — straightforward, though teaching material should draw out the deity-of-the-Spirit implication explicitly since the German phrasing alone may not surface it for readers.

Term: φόβος μέγας (phobos megas)

Transliteration: phobos megas
Literal meaning: “great fear”
Semantic range: Ranges from ordinary fright to reverential, awe-struck fear of God’s holiness; recurs at 5:5, 5:11, and echoes Luke’s own established pattern (cf. Luke’s frequent φόβος usage at moments of divine revelation).
English variants: “great fear”; “great fear came upon the whole church”
Contextual theological meaning: A sober, reverent response to God’s holiness and the seriousness of sin within the covenant community, not merely social shock.
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. “große Furcht”/“Furcht Gottes” — should be distinguished in teaching material from ordinary German “Angst” (anxiety/fear), favoring “Furcht” (reverential fear) to preserve the theological register.

Acts 6 — The Seven and the Widening Ministry

Term: διακονία / διάκονος (diakonia / diakonos)

Transliteration: diakonia; diakonos
Literal meaning: “service, ministry, waiting on tables”; “servant, one who serves”
Semantic range: Originally denoted the humble, practical service of table-waiting; extended by the apostles themselves (6:4, “the ministry of the word”) to cover the entire spectrum of Christian ministry, both practical and proclamatory.
English variants: “service”; “ministry”; “the daily distribution”; “deacon” (from the later technical office title)
Contextual theological meaning: Establishes an early, functional distinction of ministry roles within the one body without hierarchy of value — practical service and word-ministry are both called διακονία.
German rendering risk: High. German “Diakon”/“Diakonie” carries substantial institutional weight: “Diakonie” is one of Germany’s largest Protestant social-welfare organizations (alongside the Catholic “Caritas”), a major contemporary cultural institution whose scale and structure postdate and considerably exceed this text’s simple narrative. Teaching material must clarify that Acts 6 describes the New Testament origin-narrative later church tradition drew on to name the office/organization, not a description of the modern Diakonie institution itself. Flag for native speaker review to manage this institutional-scale-collision risk.

Term: ἐπίθεσις τῶν χειρῶν (epithesis tōn cheirōn)

Transliteration: epithesis tōn cheirōn
Literal meaning: “laying on of the hands”
Semantic range: A commissioning/blessing gesture with OT roots (e.g., Moses and Joshua, Numbers 27:18-23), used at 6:6 for the Seven’s commissioning and recurring at 8:17-19; 9:17; 13:3; 19:6; 28:8 for varied purposes (Spirit-reception, healing, commissioning).
English variants: “laying on of hands”; “they laid their hands on them”
Contextual theological meaning: A physical, visible act accompanying prayer for commissioning to ministry or for the Spirit’s coming — foundational for the Apostolic Authority doctrine’s practice of authorization.
German rendering risk: High. “Handauflegung” — the established German term, but one carrying live sacramental-theology weight: Catholic tradition treats the analogous gesture within ordination as sacramental (part of the Sacrament of Holy Orders); most Protestant traditions treat it as a non-sacramental commissioning act. Teaching material must present the Acts narrative without adjudicating this later sacramental-theology dispute; flag for theologian review given the term’s varied functions across Acts (commissioning vs. healing vs. Spirit-reception must be distinguished per occurrence).

Acts 7 — Stephen’s Speech and Martyrdom

Term: μάρτυς (martys) — martyrdom-sense transition

[See ch.1/2:32 base entry; this chapter marks the decisive narrative turn toward the later “martyr” sense, as Stephen’s witness-testimony culminates in his death for that testimony.]
Contextual theological meaning: Stephen becomes the paradigmatic first Christian martyr, modeling both bold witness under persecution and Christlike forgiveness of persecutors (7:60, echoing Luke 23:34’s “Father, forgive them,” already fixed in this curriculum).
German rendering risk: High — this is the chapter where “Zeuge” (witness) and “Märtyrer” (martyr) genuinely converge in referent, though the Greek word itself does not shift; German teaching material should make this semantic-historical development explicit, since German readers will naturally supply the “Märtyrer” association from the narrative outcome even though the Greek text still says simply “witness.”

Term: λιθοβολέω (lithoboleō)

Transliteration: lithoboleō
Literal meaning: “to stone, to throw stones at”
Semantic range: The specific, legally-freighted first-century Jewish capital punishment method (cf. Leviticus 24:16; John 8:59); recurs at 14:19 (Paul stoned at Lystra, though he survives).
English variants: “they stoned him”; “stoning”
Contextual theological meaning: A concrete historical execution method, not a metaphor — must be handled with the same historical specificity discipline already established for other historically-anchored violence passages in this curriculum (e.g., the crucifixion narratives).
German rendering risk: Low. “steinigen” — straightforward historical term.

Acts 8 — Philip, Simon Magus, the Ethiopian Eunuch

Term: μαγεία / Σίμων ὁ μάγος (mageia / Simōn ho magos)

Transliteration: mageia; Simōn ho magos
Literal meaning: “magic, sorcery”; “Simon the magician/sorcerer”
Semantic range: Practiced occult/magical arts, distinguished sharply in the narrative from the genuine miraculous signs worked through the apostles by the Spirit’s power.
English variants: “sorcery”; “magic arts”; “Simon the sorcerer/magician”
Contextual theological meaning: Simon’s attempt to purchase apostolic spiritual power with money (8:18-19) becomes, in later church-historical usage, the origin of the term “simony” (the sin of buying/selling ecclesiastical office or spiritual benefits) — a term with ongoing currency across German Catholic and Protestant church-historical vocabulary (“Simonie”).
German rendering risk: Medium. “Zauberei”/“Magie” — the historical narrative itself carries low translation risk, but teaching material should note the “Simonie” church-historical legacy term explicitly, since German readers with church-historical background will likely supply this association.

Term: εὐνοῦχος (eunouchos)

Transliteration: eunouchos
Literal meaning: “eunuch, castrated man”
Semantic range: A category of person excluded from full temple worship under OT law (Deuteronomy 23:1) yet explicitly included in eschatological promise (Isaiah 56:3-5) — the Ethiopian’s social/religious marginalization is theologically significant, not incidental biographical detail.
English variants: “eunuch”; “court official” (some modern translations soften the term)
Contextual theological meaning: An early, geographically and socially striking instance of gospel inclusion crossing both ethnic (Ethiopian) and bodily-status (eunuch) boundary lines — reinforces the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles doctrine’s still-wider scope.
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Eunuch” — retain the specific term rather than softening to a generic “official,” since the OT exclusion/inclusion background (which the German audience will need explained) depends on the specific bodily category named.

Acts 9 — The Conversion of Saul

Term: φωνή (phōnē) — “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

[Reuses established vocabulary; new contextual weight here.]
Literal meaning: “voice, sound”
Contextual theological meaning: The risen, exalted Christ speaks directly and audibly from heaven — a foundational text for the Conversion of Paul doctrine, and (via 9:5’s self-identification “I am Jesus”) a direct continuation of the resurrection and lordship doctrines already fixed.
German rendering risk: Medium. “eine Stimme” — straightforward; ensure the personal, direct-address nature of the exchange is preserved in translation (a real conversation, not a vague mystical impression).

Term: σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς (skeuos eklogēs)

Transliteration: skeuos eklogēs
Literal meaning: “vessel/instrument of choosing/election”
Semantic range: σκεῦος (vessel, container, instrument/tool) + [BASELINE REUSE: ἐκλογή, “Erwählung,” election]
English variants: “chosen instrument”; “chosen vessel”
Contextual theological meaning: God’s sovereign, gracious selection of Saul/Paul for a specific apostolic mission (9:15), directly invoking the Election doctrine already fixed in the baseline — with the same pastoral care required there to avoid over-systematizing for a mixed Lutheran/Reformed audience.
German rendering risk: High. “auserwähltes Werkzeug” — combines the established “Erwählung”/erwählt vocabulary with “Werkzeug” (tool/instrument); flag for theologian review per the existing Election doctrine caution.

Term: ἡ ὁδός (hē hodos)

Transliteration: hē hodos
Literal meaning: “the Way”
Semantic range: Used throughout Acts (9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22) as an early self-designation/outsider-designation for the Christian movement before the term “Christianoi” (11:26) became current.
English variants: “the Way”; “this Way”; “the sect” (some contexts imply outsider pejorative usage)
Contextual theological meaning: Distinct from, though thematically resonant with, Jesus’ own “I am the Way” self-designation (John 14:6, already fixed in this curriculum’s Exclusivity of Christ doctrine) — here it names the movement/community, not directly Christ’s own person.
German rendering risk: Medium. “der Weg” — teaching material should note the resonance with, but grammatical/referential distinction from, John 14:6’s Christological “Ich bin der Weg,” so the two are not silently conflated as the identical claim.

Acts 10 — Cornelius and the Gentile Pentecost

Term: κοινός / καθαρός (koinos / katharos)

Transliteration: koinos; katharos
Literal meaning: “common, ordinary, [ritually] unclean”; “clean, pure”
Semantic range: κοινός here (10:14-15, 28) means specifically ritually/ceremonially unclean under Mosaic dietary law — distinct from its other Acts 2/4 sense (“common,” as in shared property); [BASELINE-adjacent to the already-established “nothing_outside_defiles” doctrine, Mark 7:15, 19].
English variants: “common or unclean”; “unclean”; “clean”
Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s vision directly extends Jesus’ own teaching (already fixed in the Mark package) from dietary law to human categories: “What God has called clean, do not call common” (10:15) becomes the theological warrant for full Gentile inclusion without requiring adherence to Jewish ceremonial law — the single most important OT-law-and-Gentile-inclusion text in Acts prior to the Jerusalem Council (ch.15).
German rendering risk: High. “unrein”/“rein” — must be flagged as a direct continuation of the Mark 7 “Freiheit von den Speisegesetzen” doctrine already established, now extended explicitly to the Jew/Gentile question; theologian review required given the doctrinal weight of this extension.

Term: οὐκ ἔστιν προσωπολήμπτης ὁ θεός (ouk estin prosōpolēmptēs ho theos)

Transliteration: ouk estin prosōpolēmptēs ho theos
Literal meaning: “God is not a respecter/receiver of faces [persons]”
Semantic range: προσωπολήμπτης (one who shows partiality based on external status/appearance) — a compound rare word built from πρόσωπον (face/person) + λαμβάνω (receive/accept).
English variants: “God shows no partiality”; “God is no respecter of persons”; “God does not show favoritism”
Contextual theological meaning: The direct theological conclusion Peter draws from his Cornelius experience — foundational for the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles and Unity of Jews and Gentiles doctrines already established at Critical/High risk in the Romans baseline.
German rendering risk: Critical. “Gott sieht nicht auf die Person” — an established Lutherbibel idiom; retain this exact traditional phrasing for recognizability, while ensuring teaching material connects it explicitly to the already-fixed Unity of Jews and Gentiles doctrine and its associated German historical-sensitivity requirements.

Acts 11 — The Jerusalem Church’s Response; “Christians” at Antioch

Term: Χριστιανός (Christianos)

Transliteration: Christianos
Literal meaning: “Christian,” a Latinized Greek adjectival formation on “Christ” (Χριστός), likely originally an outsider-applied nickname (cf. also 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16)
Semantic range: A distinct, separable social/religious identity label, marking the point at which the movement becomes recognizable to outsiders as something other than a Jewish sect.
English variants: “Christians”; “the disciples were first called Christians”
Contextual theological meaning: Historically significant first usage — the moment the church receives (or adopts) a name distinguishing it from both Judaism and paganism, at the very city (Antioch) that also first deliberately evangelized Gentiles in numbers (11:19-21).
German rendering risk: Low. “Christen” — fully stable, ubiquitous term; the only teaching-material note needed is the historical-first-usage significance itself, not a translation-choice risk.

Acts 12 — Herod’s Persecution; Peter’s Deliverance

Term: ἐκτενῶς προσευχή (ektenōs proseuchē)

Transliteration: ektenōs proseuchē
Literal meaning: “prayer made fervently/earnestly, stretched-out prayer”
Semantic range: ἐκτενῶς (intensely, fervently — literally “stretched out”) modifying προσευχή [BASELINE-adjacent: intercession/Fürbitte].
English variants: “earnest prayer”; “fervent prayer”; “prayed fervently”
Contextual theological meaning: The church’s corporate, sustained intercession for Peter’s release — models the Prayer and Intercession doctrine already established, now shown functioning under acute persecution.
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. “inständiges Gebet” — reuse “Fürbitte” where the intercessory (on-behalf-of) sense is specifically in view.

Term: ἄγγελος (angelos)

[BASELINE-stable — “Engel.”]
Contextual theological meaning: A recurring narrative device across Acts (5:19; 8:26; 10:3; 12:7-11, 23; 27:23) for direct divine intervention in the church’s history and mission.
German rendering risk: Low.

Acts 13 — First Missionary Journey; Justification Sermon at Pisidian Antioch

Term: δικαιωθῆναι / δικαιοσύνη (dikaiōthēnai / dikaiosynē)

[BASELINE REUSE — “Rechtfertigung”/justification, “Gerechtigkeit”/righteousness — CRITICAL per the established Romans/Galatians/Ephesians risk tier.]
Contextual theological meaning (Acts 13:38-39): “By this Jesus everyone who believes is freed [justified] from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses” — Paul’s first recorded sermon states the Justification apart from the Law doctrine in terms directly parallel to Romans 3-4 and Galatians 2:16, making this the primary Acts text for that doctrine.
German rendering risk: Critical. Must render with the same forensic, faith-alone precision already mandated throughout this curriculum for “Rechtfertigung”; this passage should trigger the identical mandatory theologian review already required for Galatians 2:16 and Romans 3-4, given that it is functionally the same doctrinal claim delivered in a missionary-sermon setting rather than an epistle.

Term: νόμος Μωυσέως (nomos Mōuseōs)

[BASELINE REUSE — “Gesetz,” law; proper name “Mose” per the established transliteration standard.]
Contextual theological meaning: Named explicitly as “the law of Moses,” anchoring the justification argument in the specific Mosaic Torah, consistent with the “works_of_the_law” precision discipline already established in the Galatians package (never a generalized “good deeds” reading).
German rendering risk: High, per existing baseline caution on “Gesetz.”

Term: φωτὸς ἔθνεσιν (phōtos ethnesin) — “a light for the Gentiles”

[BASELINE-adjacent — “Heiden,” Gentiles; Isaiah 49:6 citation.]
Contextual theological meaning (13:47): Paul and Barnabas’s decisive missionary turn to the Gentiles, citing the same Isaiah 49:6 servant-mission text already echoed at Acts 1:8’s “end of the earth” — reinforces both the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles and Great Commission Fulfilled doctrines as structurally linked.
German rendering risk: High, per the existing baseline caution on “Juden und Heiden” pairing requiring historical-sensitivity framing.

Acts 14 — Lystra, Iconium, Appointing Elders

Term: πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros)

Transliteration: presbyteros
Literal meaning: “elder, older man”
Semantic range: A term borrowed from Jewish synagogue governance (elders/Sanhedrin), applied here (14:23) to a newly appointed local church leadership office, alongside similar usage at 15:2, 4, 6, 22-23; 16:4; 20:17; 21:18.
English variants: “elders”; “the elders of the church”
Contextual theological meaning: Establishes a pattern of local congregational leadership appointed with prayer and fasting — foundational church-governance vocabulary for the Church as Community and Apostolic Authority doctrines.
German rendering risk: High. “Älteste”/“Presbyter” — German church governance vocabulary varies significantly by tradition: Reformed/Presbyterian-influenced churches in Germany (notably in Reformed regions and Swiss-German-influenced communities) use “Presbyterium”/“Ältestenkreis” for a formal, lay-elder governing body; Lutheran Landeskirchen typically use “Kirchenvorstand” or “Presbyterium” with different theological freight; Catholic tradition has no directly equivalent lay-elder office. Flag for native speaker review to avoid importing any single tradition’s specific modern church-governance structure onto this first-century text.

Term: pagan deity-collision — Ζεύς / Ἑρμῆς (Zeus / Hermēs)

Transliteration: Zeus; Hermēs
Literal meaning: The Greek gods Zeus and Hermes
Semantic range: The Lystran crowd’s mistaken identification of Barnabas as Zeus and Paul as Hermes (14:12) reflects a specific local cult tradition and pagan religious worldview.
English variants: “Zeus”; “Hermes” (or “Jupiter”/“Mercury” in some older, Latinized English traditions)
Contextual theological meaning: Paul and Barnabas’s forceful rejection of the resulting worship attempt (14:14-15) models consistent monotheistic apologetic response to pagan religious categories, paralleling the fuller Areopagus apologetic in ch.17.
German rendering risk: Low. Retain the Greek deity names as proper nouns (“Zeus,” “Hermes”) rather than any German folk-religious substitute; no significant collision risk with contemporary German culture, though note briefly for teaching material as background to the fuller Acts 17 apologetic pattern.

Acts 15 — The Jerusalem Council

Term: ζυγός (zygos)

Transliteration: zygos
Literal meaning: “yoke” (the wooden crossbar binding draft animals for labor)
Semantic range: Metaphorically, a burden of obligation or servitude; used at 15:10 of the Mosaic law’s ceremonial requirements imposed as a condition of salvation.
English variants: “yoke”; “why do you put this yoke on the neck of the disciples”
Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s climactic argument against requiring circumcision/law-observance for Gentile salvation — continues the Justification apart from the Law and Law and Grace doctrines already fixed at Critical/High risk in the Galatians package.
German rendering risk: Medium. “Joch” — established biblical-German term (cf. Matthew 11:29-30’s very different, positive use of the same word, “mein Joch ist sanft,” which teaching material should distinguish from this negative 15:10 usage).

Term: ἔδοξεν τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ καὶ ἡμῖν (edoxen tō pneumati tō hagiō kai hēmin)

Transliteration: edoxen tō pneumati tō hagiō kai hēmin
Literal meaning: “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”
Semantic range: A formal decision-formula (15:28) joining the apostolic council’s human deliberation with explicit Spirit-endorsement — a distinctive claim of Spirit-guided (not merely human-consensus) church authority.
English variants: “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”; “it seemed right to the Holy Spirit and to us”
Contextual theological meaning: Central to the Apostolic Authority doctrine — models the church’s earliest claimed pattern for Spirit-guided doctrinal decision-making, a text with live relevance to (though this curriculum does not adjudicate) later debates over church councils’ authority across Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions.
German rendering risk: High. “es schien dem Heiligen Geist und uns gut” — flag for theologian review, noting (without resolving) its relevance to broader ecclesiology debates about councils, magisterium, and Spirit-guidance across German confessional traditions.

Acts 16 — Lydia, the Philippian Jailer, Household Baptisms

Term: οἶκος (oikos) — household baptism

Transliteration: oikos
Literal meaning: “house, household, family unit [including dependents/servants]”
Semantic range: A first-century household unit, potentially including children, servants, and extended family, not merely a nuclear-family “house” in the modern sense.
English variants: “household”; “he and his household”; “her household”
Contextual theological meaning: The baptisms of Lydia’s household (16:15), the jailer’s household (16:33), and later Crispus’s household (18:8) are frequently cited on both sides of the infant-baptism debate — proponents note the household’s unqualified inclusion; opponents note the text does not specify infants were present or unbelieving members baptized without personal faith.
German rendering risk: Critical. Directly engages the same German confessional divide already flagged at Acts 2:38-39 (Kindertaufe vs. Gläubigentaufe). Render “Haus”/“Haushalt” plainly without translation choices that tip the exegetical scale either direction; teaching material must present the text’s genuine ambiguity on this specific question transparently. Mandatory theologian AND native-speaker review, paralleling the household code sensitivity discipline already established for Ephesians 5-6 and Colossians 3-4.

Term: πνεῦμα πύθωνα (pneuma pythōna)

Transliteration: pneuma pythōna
Literal meaning: “a spirit of Python” (referencing the Delphic Pythia/Apollo oracle tradition)
Semantic range: A specific pagan divinatory spirit associated with the Greco-Roman oracle cult, here possessing a slave girl who profits her owners through fortune-telling (16:16-18).
English variants: “a spirit of divination”; “a spirit by which she predicted the future”; “python spirit”
Contextual theological meaning: Paul’s exorcism of this spirit “in the name of Jesus Christ” (16:18) directly demonstrates Christ’s authority over pagan occult/oracular power, continuing the Apostolic Authority and Miracles doctrine into direct confrontation with Greco-Roman religion.
German rendering risk: Low-Medium. “Wahrsagergeist”/“Geist der Weissagung [im heidnischen Sinn]” — must be distinguished from the positive gift of prophecy [BASELINE REUSE: Weissagung] elsewhere in this curriculum by explicit contrast (pagan divination vs. Spirit-given prophecy), since the German word field for “prophecy/divination/fortune-telling” overlaps more than the Greek does.

Acts 17 — The Areopagus Sermon

Term: ἄγνωστος θεός (agnōstos theos)

Transliteration: agnōstos theos
Literal meaning: “unknown god”
Semantic range: A historically attested Athenian altar inscription Paul uses as an apologetic bridge-point (17:23), not an endorsement of Athenian polytheism but a rhetorical point of contact for proclaiming the true God’s identity.
English variants: “the unknown god”; “an unknown god”; “to an unknown god”
Contextual theological meaning: Models culturally engaged, philosophically literate apologetic method — directly parallel to (and worth cross-referencing with) the already-established Colossians 2:8 caution against a blanket anti-philosophy reading, given Germany’s own high cultural regard for philosophy.
German rendering risk: Medium. “der unbekannte Gott” — risk is not mistranslation but potential misuse in contemporary German interfaith/pluralistic contexts as an endorsement of generic “higher power” spirituality; teaching material should clarify Paul’s argument moves immediately and specifically to the God who raised Jesus from the dead (17:31), not to religious pluralism.

Term: μετάνοια (metanoia) — Areopagus usage

[BASELINE REUSE — “Buße.”]
Contextual theological meaning (17:30): “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” — a universal repentance mandate addressed to a purely Gentile, philosophically sophisticated audience, extending the Repentance and Baptism doctrine beyond its Jewish-audience context in Acts 2 and 3.
German rendering risk: High, per existing baseline caution.

Acts 18 — Corinth; Priscilla and Aquila

No significant new load-bearing theological vocabulary. This chapter narrates Paul’s extended Corinthian ministry, his partnership with Priscilla and Aquila, and Gallio’s judicial dismissal of the case against Paul, reusing established terms (συναγωγή/“Synagoge,” reused without new risk; βαπτίζω/“Taufe,” per the established ch.2/16 caution at 18:8’s household-baptism instance). Chapter reviewed and confirmed to introduce no new theological terms beyond what is already documented.

Acts 19 — Ephesus; John’s Baptism vs. Christian Baptism

Term: βάπτισμα Ἰωάννου vs. εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ (baptisma Iōannou vs. eis to onoma tou kyriou Iēsou)

[BASELINE-adjacent to the newly established “Taufe” term, ch.2.]
Literal meaning: “baptism of John” vs. “into the name of the Lord Jesus”
Contextual theological meaning (19:1-5): Paul distinguishes John’s preparatory repentance-baptism from Christian baptism explicitly naming Jesus and associated with receiving the Holy Spirit — clarifies that Christian baptism is a distinct, Spirit-connected reality, not merely a continuation of John’s ministry.
German rendering risk: High, continuing the ch.2/16 baptism-doctrine caution; this passage is pedagogically useful precisely because it distinguishes rather than conflates the two baptisms, and teaching material should highlight this distinction clearly.

Term: Ἄρτεμις (Artemis)

Transliteration: Artemis
Literal meaning: The Greek goddess Artemis (Roman Diana), patron deity of Ephesus
Semantic range: A major, economically significant regional cult (the Ephesian Artemision was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world); the riot of 19:23-41 is provoked by economic threat to her cult’s silversmith trade, not merely theological offense.
English variants: “Artemis”; “Diana” (in the KJV tradition, following the Latin form)
Contextual theological meaning: Illustrates the gospel’s disruptive economic and social impact when it displaces entrenched pagan religious-commercial systems — continues the Persecution and Bold Witness doctrine into a specifically economic register.
German rendering risk: Low. “Artemis” — retain the Greek proper name (not the Latin “Diana,” to align with the Greek source text and modern German Bible convention); minimal contemporary collision risk, though modern Neopaganism/Wicca movements in Germany occasionally invoke Artemis, a minor background note for teaching material only.

Acts 20 — Farewell at Miletus; Overseers and Shepherds

Term: ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos)

Transliteration: episkopos
Literal meaning: “overseer, one who watches over”
Semantic range: A functional leadership-oversight term, used interchangeably with πρεσβύτερος (“elder”) in this very passage (20:17 calls them “elders”; 20:28 calls the same men “overseers”) — indicating these were not yet, at this early stage, two distinct offices.
English variants: “overseers”; “bishops” (later, more developed ecclesiastical sense); “guardians”
Contextual theological meaning: Root of the later monepiscopal “bishop” office that develops distinctly across church history — but Acts 20 itself uses the term for what appears to be the same local congregational leadership group also called “elders.”
German rendering risk: Critical. German “Bischof” carries very heavy institutional weight, tied specifically to the Catholic and Landeskirche hierarchical episcopal office (Diözesanbischof, Landesbischof) — a structured, historically developed office far beyond what this text describes. Rendering ἐπίσκοπος as “Bischof” risks anachronistically importing the fully developed later office onto this earlier, more fluid leadership pattern. Prefer “Aufseher” or “Hüter” for the functional NT sense, with explicit teaching-material notes tracing the term’s later ecclesiastical-office development without adjudicating which later church-governance model is correct. Mandatory theologian review.

Term: ποιμαίνειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ (poimainein tēn ekklēsian tou theou)

[BASELINE REUSE — “Gemeinde,” church.]
Literal meaning: “to shepherd the church of God”
Semantic range: ποιμαίνω (to shepherd, tend a flock) — pastoral-care verb, root of the German clergy title “Pastor” (though that specific title is a later development, not present in this text).
English variants: “shepherd the church of God”; “care for the church of God”; “be shepherds of the church of God”
Contextual theological meaning: Church leadership defined fundamentally as shepherding care, not institutional administration or status — reinforces that ἐπίσκοπος/πρεσβύτερος above must be understood functionally (caring oversight) rather than title-driven.
German rendering risk: Medium-High. “die Gemeinde Gottes weiden/hüten” — “weiden” (to pasture/shepherd) is the more literal, image-preserving choice; note the etymological connection to the modern clergy title “Pastor” for teaching material, while keeping the verb itself (not the later title) as the translation focus.

Acts 21-23 — Arrest in Jerusalem; Before the Sanhedrin

No new theological terms beyond those already established. These chapters narrate Paul’s arrest, the prophecy of Agabus (reusing [BASELINE REUSE: Weissagung/prophezeien]), Paul’s Nazirite-vow-adjacent purification (a narrative detail, not requiring separate glossary treatment), and the Pharisee/Sadducee dispute over the resurrection ([BASELINE REUSE: Auferstehung]) before the Sanhedrin. Chapters reviewed and confirmed to reuse established vocabulary only, with one partial exception noted below at ch.22.

Term (ch.22): πολίτης Ῥωμαῖος / πολιτεία (politēs Rhōmaios / politeia) — Roman citizenship

Transliteration: politēs Rhōmaios; politeia
Literal meaning: “Roman citizen”; “citizenship, civic status”
Semantic range: A concrete, legally verifiable first-century civic-legal status carrying specific rights (protection from summary scourging, right of appeal), entirely distinct in referent from the already-established heavenly “Bürgerrecht” of Philippians 3:20, though sharing the same root word (πολιτεία/πολίτευμα).
English variants: “Roman citizen”; “Roman citizenship”; “I am a Roman citizen”
Contextual theological meaning: Paul’s literal legal citizenship (22:25-29) provides real, narrative-level protection, distinct from but thematically resonant with his heavenly citizenship claim in Philippians — the two must not be conflated.
German rendering risk: Medium. “römisches Bürgerrecht” — teaching material should explicitly distinguish this literal, legal, earthly citizenship from the already-fixed “Bürgerrecht” (Philippians 3:20’s heavenly citizenship) to avoid readers assuming the same theological weight attaches to both uses of the shared German word.

Acts 24 — Before Felix

Term: δικαιοσύνη, ἐγκράτεια, κρίμα τὸ μέλλον (dikaiosynē, egkrateia, krima to mellon)

Transliteration: dikaiosynē; egkrateia; krima to mellon
Literal meaning: “righteousness”; “self-control”; “the coming judgment”
Semantic range: δικαιοσύνη [BASELINE REUSE: Gerechtigkeit]; ἐγκράτεια (self-mastery, self-control — part of the already-established Frucht des Geistes list, Galatians 5:23); κρίμα τὸ μέλλον (future/coming judgment) — an eschatological term.
English variants: “righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come”
Contextual theological meaning: Paul’s direct, personally confrontational gospel preaching to a Roman governor (24:25) models bold, unfiltered proclamation regardless of audience power or status — reinforces the Persecution and Bold Witness doctrine.
German rendering risk: Medium. “Gerechtigkeit, Selbstbeherrschung und das kommende Gericht” — “Selbstbeherrschung” is already established via the Frucht des Geistes list; “das kommende Gericht” is straightforward eschatological vocabulary requiring no special caution beyond avoiding speculative contemporary-events framing (per the existing Matthew 24-25 caution).

Acts 25 — Before Festus; Appeal to Caesar

Term: ἐπικαλέομαι Καίσαρα (epikaleomai Kaisara)

Transliteration: epikaleomai Kaisara
Literal meaning: “I appeal to/call upon Caesar”
Semantic range: A specific Roman legal procedure — a citizen’s formal right to have a case transferred to the emperor’s own jurisdiction. ἐπικαλέομαι here is used in its precise secular-legal “appeal” sense.
English variants: “I appeal to Caesar”; “I appeal unto Caesar”
Contextual theological meaning: Paul exercises a legitimate legal right, God providentially using Roman legal structures to advance the gospel’s path toward Rome — continues the Providence doctrine into the book’s closing narrative arc toward the fulfillment of Acts 1:8.
German rendering risk: High — direct baseline collision. This is precisely the secular legal-appeal sense of “Berufung” the Romans baseline flagged as a homonym risk against the divine-calling sense of the same German word (“Berufung einlegen”). Render as “ich berufe mich auf den Kaiser” or “ich lege Berufung beim Kaiser ein” — correct and idiomatic German for this legal context — but flag explicitly in teaching material that this is the secular-legal sense of “Berufung,” entirely distinct from the divine-calling doctrine (“Berufung Gottes”) established throughout this curriculum, so that students do not conflate Paul’s legal appeal with a theological calling.

Acts 26 — Before Agrippa

No new theological terms; Paul’s defense before Agrippa recounts his conversion (reusing established Acts 9 vocabulary: φωνή, μετάνοια, ἐπιστρέφω) and restates the Great Commission Fulfilled and Justification themes already documented. One narrative detail worth noting without a full glossary entry: Paul’s claim to have preached that people should “repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance” (26:20) pairs μετάνοια with ἐπιστρέφω exactly as flagged at 2:38 and 3:19 — reinforcing the recommended “Buße und Umkehr” paired-rendering approach.

Acts 27 — The Voyage and Shipwreck

No new theological terms. This chapter narrates Paul’s sea voyage and shipwreck with an angelic reassurance (27:23-24, reusing [BASELINE-stable: Engel]) and models providential care through natural crisis, thematically continuing but not lexically adding to the already-established Providence doctrine (Vorsehung). Chapter reviewed and confirmed to introduce no new theological vocabulary.

Acts 28 — Rome; the Gospel Unhindered

Term: τὴν σωτηρίαν τοῦ θεοῦ (tēn sōtērian tou theou) — “this salvation of God”

[BASELINE REUSE — “Rettung,” salvation.]
Contextual theological meaning (28:28): “Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles” — the book’s near-final programmatic statement, closing the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles doctrine’s narrative arc that began at Acts 2 (Jews and God-fearing proselytes) and Acts 10 (Cornelius) and culminates here in Rome itself.
German rendering risk: High, per existing baseline caution on “Rettung”/salvation doctrine.

Term: ἀκωλύτως (akōlytōs)

Transliteration: akōlytōs
Literal meaning: “unhindered, without hindrance, freely”
Semantic range: A rare adverb (occurring only here in the NT) describing Paul’s freedom to preach “the kingdom of God and teach about the Lord Jesus Christ” even under house-arrest custody in Rome (28:31) — the final word of the book in Greek word order.
English variants: “without hindrance”; “unhindered”; “with all boldness and without hindrance”
Contextual theological meaning: The book’s deliberately open, triumphant, non-conclusive ending: the gospel’s advance from Jerusalem to Rome (fulfilling Acts 1:8’s “end of the earth” from a first-century Roman-world vantage point) continues unstoppably beyond the narrative’s own close — the capstone term for the Great Commission Fulfilled doctrine and, read together with 1:8, forms Acts’s own structural inclusio.
German rendering risk: Medium. “ungehindert” — low lexical risk, but high doctrinal-structural significance; teaching material must draw out its function as the book’s climactic, deliberately unresolved conclusion (paralleling the inclusio structures already documented for Mark 1:1/15:39 and John 1:1/20:28 in this curriculum), reused also alongside “Reich Gottes” [BASELINE REUSE] in the same closing verses.

Summary Note on Structural Doctrine: The Acts Inclusio

Acts 1:8 (“you will be my witnesses … to the end of the earth”) and Acts 28:28-31 (“this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles” … “proclaiming the kingdom of God … quite openly and unhindered”) form a deliberate narrative inclusio structuring the entire book around the Great Commission Fulfilled doctrine. This structural observation should be surfaced explicitly in all teaching material treating either passage, consistent with the inclusio-documentation discipline already established elsewhere in this curriculum for Mark and John.

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