Core Glossary
Core Glossary — James (Jakobusbrief)
Curriculum: James | Language pair: English–German | Generated for: Phase 1 Step 1 doctrine-aware requirements
Instruction: Terms marked [TM-REUSE] already exist in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and MUST be used exactly as recorded there — no substitution permitted. Terms marked [NEW] are proposed additions to translation memory for Phase 2, pending theologian sign-off on Critical/High entries. This glossary cites terms from every chapter of James (1–5).
1. Reused Baseline Terms (must match translation_memory.json exactly)
| English Term | Greek (transliteration) | German Rendering | Risk (baseline) | James References | James-Specific Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| faith | πίστις (pistis) | Glaube | Medium (baseline); elevated to Critical in 2:14–26 | 1:3, 1:6, 2:1, 2:5, 2:14–26, 5:15 | Faith/Works tension with Romans/Galatians requires explicit reconciling doctrine note at every core-passage occurrence. |
| sin | ἁμαρτία (hamartia) | Sünde | Medium | 1:15, 2:9, 4:17, 5:15–16, 5:20 | James 1:15’s birth-metaphor (desire conceives sin, sin gives birth to death) intensifies but does not alter the baseline sense. |
| righteousness | δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē) | Gerechtigkeit | Critical | 1:20, 2:23, 3:18 | 2:23 directly cites the Romans 4/Genesis 15:6 event; must cross-reference the baseline’s imputed_righteousness doctrine. |
| justification | δικαιόω (dikaioō) | Rechtfertigung / rechtfertigen | Critical | 2:21, 2:24, 2:25 | Sense differs from Paul’s forensic sense — James’s is demonstrative/evidentiary (vindication before observers). Mandatory reconciling framing (§0 of semantic analysis) required at every occurrence; highest-priority theologian flag in this package. |
| grace | χάρις (charis) | Gnade | High | 4:6 | Citing Proverbs 3:34 LXX; cross-reference 1 Peter 5:5. |
| salvation (soteriological) | σῴζω (sōzō) | retten / Rettung | Critical | 1:21, 2:14, 4:12, 5:20 | Must be kept distinct from the physical-healing sense of the same verb at 5:15. |
| lord | κύριος (kyrios) | Herr | Critical | 1:1, 1:7, 2:1, 4:10, 4:15, 5:4, 5:7–8, 5:10–11, 5:14–15 | High-frequency in James; the baseline’s “Herr Müller” everyday-title flattening risk applies at every occurrence. |
| law | νόμος (nomos) | Gesetz | High | 1:25, 2:8–12, 4:11 | James’s “law of liberty” (1:25, 2:12) and “royal law” (2:8) are novel combinations — see below. |
| freedom | ἐλευθερία (eleutheria) | Freiheit | Critical | 1:25, 2:12 | Inherits full Galatians-package Freiheit caution; combination with Gesetz doubles the sensitivity. |
| peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | Friede | Low–Medium | 2:16, 3:18 | 2:16 = ironic/hollow greeting; 3:18 = genuine wisdom-fruit peace — distinguish in teaching notes. |
| blessed | μακάριος (makarios) | selig | Critical | 1:12, 1:25, 5:11 | Apply the baseline’s Seligsprechung-avoidance caution throughout. |
| holy spirit | πνεῦμα ἅγιον (pneuma hagion) | Heiliger Geist | Critical | (not directly named in James; relevant by contrast at 2:26 and 4:5’s disputed πνεῦμα) | 2:26’s πνεῦμα is the ordinary human spirit/breath, NOT the Holy Spirit — critical disambiguation. |
| glory | δόξα (doxa) | Herrlichkeit | Medium | 2:1 | ”Our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” — Christological title. |
| good works | ἔργα ἀγαθά (erga agatha, cf. Ephesians 2:10) | gute Werke | Critical | (conceptually parallel to James’s ἔργα, though James does not use this exact phrase) | Useful cross-reference: James’s ἔργα are the same fruit-category as Ephesians’ “gute Werke,” never “Werke des Gesetzes.” |
| submission | ὑποτάσσω (hypotassō) | sich unterordnen | Critical | 4:7 | Different referent (submission to God) from the Ephesians/Colossians household-code use — flag referent shift explicitly. |
| church leadership / elders | πρεσβύτεροι (presbyteroi) | Älteste | (new context; reuses established ecclesial-office vocabulary) | 5:14 | See below — Critical in James due to Anointing-of-the-Sick sacramental collision. |
2. New James-Specific Terms (proposed translation-memory additions)
| English Term | Greek (transliteration) | German Rendering | Doctrine Risk | James References | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| works (general, non-Torah) | ἔργα (erga) | Werke | Critical | 1:25, 2:14–26, 3:13 | NEVER “Werke des Gesetzes” (reserved for Galatians’ technical Torah-boundary-marker sense). Rejected: any rendering implying meritorious law-observance. |
| faith and works (doctrine formula) | πίστις χωρὶς ἔργων / ἐξ ἔργων (pistis chōris ergōn) | Glaube ohne Werke / aus Werken | Critical | 2:14, 2:17–18, 2:20, 2:24, 2:26 | Mandatory reconciling doctrine note (fides quae iustificat numquam est sola) at every occurrence; historically the “Luther stroherne Epistel” flashpoint. |
| dead faith | πίστις νεκρά (pistis nekra) | toter Glaube | Critical | 2:17, 2:20, 2:26 | Never softened to “wirkungslos” or “unfruchtbar” — retain full “dead” force. |
| faith alone (contested phrase) | ἐκ πίστεως μόνον (ek pisteōs monon) | aus Glauben allein | Critical | 2:24 | The single word “monon/allein” is the historic controversy’s exact locus; mandatory theologian sign-off, mandatory accompanying doctrine note distinguishing James’s target (bare, fruitless mental assent) from Reformation sola fide (living, fruit-bearing trust). |
| imputed/credited righteousness (James’s citation) | ἐλογίσθη εἰς δικαιοσύνην (elogisthē eis dikaiosynēn) | wurde ihm zur Gerechtigkeit angerechnet / zugerechnet | Critical | 2:23 | Must match the verb sense of the baseline’s “zugerechnete Gerechtigkeit”; mandatory cross-reference to Romans 4. |
| friend of God | φίλος Θεοῦ (philos theou) | Freund Gottes | High | 2:23 | Relational intimacy flowing from, not earning, credited righteousness. |
| trial / testing | πειρασμός (peirasmos, trial sense) | Prüfung (or Anfechtung) | High | 1:2–4, 1:12 | Must be distinguished in rendering from the temptation sense below despite shared Greek root. |
| temptation | πειρασμός / πειράζω (peirasmos/peirazō, temptation sense) | Versuchung | High | 1:13–14 | God is never the source of this sense (1:13); source is ἐπιθυμία. Mandatory translator note on the shared Greek root with the trial sense. |
| endurance | ὑπομονή (hypomonē) | Ausdauer / Standhaftigkeit | Medium | 1:3–4, 1:12, 5:11 | Distinguish from μακροθυμία/Geduld (patience with people, ch. 5). |
| perfect/mature | τέλειος (teleios) | vollkommen (= reif/vollständig) | Medium–High | 1:4, 1:17, 1:25, 3:2 | Guard against sinless-perfection misreading; sense is maturity/wholeness. |
| wisdom | σοφία (sophia) | Weisheit | Medium | 1:5, 3:13–17 | See “wisdom from above” below for the elevated-risk qualified form. |
| wisdom from above | σοφία ἄνωθεν (sophia anōthen) | Weisheit von oben | High | 3:13–17 | Doctrine title term; cross-reference John 3’s “from above” (ἄνωθεν) vocabulary already established in this pipeline. |
| double-minded | δίψυχος (dipsychos) | wankelmütig / zwiespältig | Medium | 1:8, 4:8 | — |
| desire/lust | ἐπιθυμία (epithymia) | Begierde | High | 1:14–15, 4:1–2 | Never softened to neutral “Wunsch.” |
| doer of the word / hearer of the word | ποιητὴς λόγου / ἀκροατής (poiētēs logou / akroatēs) | Täter des Wortes / Hörer des Wortes | Critical | 1:22–25 | Luther’s established rendering; directly anticipates the core passage’s ἔργα doctrine — teach as one unit. |
| perfect law of liberty | νόμος τέλειος τῆς ἐλευθερίας (nomos teleios tēs eleutherias) | vollkommenes Gesetz der Freiheit | Critical | 1:25, 2:12 | Combines two baseline Critical/High terms (Gesetz + Freiheit); inherits maximum Freiheit-caution context requirement. |
| religion (true) | θρησκεία (thrēskeia) | Frömmigkeit (preferred) / Gottesdienst | High | 1:26–27 | Avoid bare “Religion,” which defaults to the abstract institutional sense in contemporary German. |
| tongue | γλῶσσα (glōssa) | Zunge | Medium | 1:26, 3:1–12 | Doctrine title term (Taming the Tongue); keep extended metaphors (bit, rudder, fire) concrete. |
| favoritism | προσωπολημψία (prosōpolēmpsia) | Parteilichkeit (with Ansehen der Person as traditional gloss) | High | 2:1, 2:9 | Doctrine title term (Favoritism and the Poor). |
| poor | πτωχός (ptōchos) | Arme(r) | Medium | 2:2–6, 5:1–6 | Consistent with established Luke-package usage for concrete economic poverty. |
| royal law | νόμος βασιλικός (nomos basilikos) | königliches Gesetz | Medium | 2:8 | — |
| neighbor (citation) | πλησίον (plēsion) | Nächster | Critical | 2:8 | Full citation “Liebe deinen Nächsten wie dich selbst” must match Matthew 22:39/Romans 13:9/Galatians 5:14 verbatim (shared-citation rule). |
| image/likeness of God | ὁμοίωσις Θεοῦ (homoiōsis theou) | Gottes Ebenbild | High | 3:9 | Foundational anthropological doctrine; connect explicitly to Genesis 1:26. |
| earthly/soulish/demonic (wisdom) | ἐπίγειος / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης | irdisch / seelisch / dämonisch | Medium | 3:15 | ”seelisch” false-friend risk with contemporary “psychological/emotional” sense — requires first-occurrence gloss. |
| fruit of righteousness | καρπὸς δικαιοσύνης (karpos dikaiosynēs) | Frucht der Gerechtigkeit | Medium | 3:18 | Reuses Gerechtigkeit; structurally echoes but is distinct from Galatians’ Frucht des Geistes. |
| friendship with the world / enmity with God | φιλία τοῦ κόσμου / ἔχθρα τοῦ Θεοῦ | Freundschaft mit der Welt / Feindschaft mit Gott | Critical | 4:4 | Doctrine title term (Worldliness versus Friendship with God); retain full OT covenant-adultery force of the preceding μοιχαλίδες. |
| adulteresses (covenant-infidelity metaphor) | μοιχαλίδες (moichalides) | Ehebrecherinnen | Critical | 4:4 | Do not soften to generic “Untreue” — loses the OT marriage-covenant background (Hosea, Ezekiel 16). |
| Lord of Hosts / Sabaoth | Κύριος Σαβαώθ (Kyrios Sabaōth) | Herr Zebaoth (traditional) / der Herr der Heerscharen (modern) | High | 5:4 | Liturgical Sanctus connection; flag for reviewer choice of register. |
| patience (relational) | μακροθυμέω (makrothymeō) | Geduld haben/üben | Medium | 5:7–8 | Distinguish from ὑπομονή/Ausdauer (endurance under trial). |
| the Lord’s coming / Parousia | παρουσία (parousia) | Wiederkunft (established) / Parusie (technical) | Critical | 5:7–8 | Doctrine title term (Patience and the Lord’s Return); eschatological technical term requiring cross-curriculum consistency. |
| elders (anointing context) | πρεσβύτεροι (presbyteroi) | Älteste (der Gemeinde) | Critical | 5:14 | Avoid unqualified “Priester” — see anointing-with-oil entry below for the full sacramental-sensitivity note. |
| anoint with oil | ἀλείφω ἐλαίῳ (aleiphō elaiō) | mit Öl salben | Critical | 5:14 | Direct biblical basis for the Catholic sacrament of Anointing of the Sick (Krankensalbung); Protestant tradition reads as non-sacramental pastoral practice. Mandatory theologian AND denominational-sensitivity review, structurally parallel to the baseline’s “saints” flag and the Ephesians package’s “submission” flag. |
| prayer of faith / healing of the sick | εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως / σῴζω τὸν κάμνοντα | das Gebet des Glaubens / den Kranken retten (heilen) | High | 5:15 | Physical-healing sense of σῴζω; disambiguate explicitly from 2:14’s soteriological sense; guard against unconditional-healing-guarantee misreading. |
| confess (to one another) | ἐξομολογέομαι (exomologeomai) | bekennen | Critical | 5:16 | NEVER “beichten” — that word denotes the Catholic sacrament of Penance/Confession (priestly, sacramental). James’s ἀλλήλοις (“to one another”) is mutual/lay confession among believers. Forbidden substitution on par with the baseline’s “verdiente Gerechtigkeit” caution. |
| turn back / restore a wanderer | ἐπιστρέφω / πλανάω (epistrephō / planaō) | zurückführen / abirren | Medium | 5:19–20 | Doctrine title term (Confession and Restoration). |
| cover a multitude of sins | καλύπτω πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν (kalyptō plēthos hamartiōn) | eine Vielzahl von Sünden bedecken | High | 5:20 | Present as consistent with, not a substitute for, Christ’s atoning work (cf. Colossians’ Schuldschein doctrine) — avoid implying restorative human action itself atones. |
3. Forbidden Substitutions — James-Specific (in addition to baseline list)
The following are never permitted in the German James package, in addition to all forbidden substitutions already established in the baseline 12_ai_translation_requirements.md:
- ἔργα (James’s general “works”) → “Werke des Gesetzes” — NEVER. Collapses James’s fruit-evidencing works into Paul’s specific Torah-boundary-marker target, destroying the doctrinal distinction both books require.
- δικαιόω / δικαιοῦται (2:21, 24, 25) taught or rendered without the reconciling doctrine note — NEVER present James 2:24 in isolation as though it contradicts Romans 3:28/Galatians 2:16 without the fides-quae-iustificat-numquam-est-sola framing.
- ἐξομολογέομαι (5:16) → “beichten” — NEVER. Imports the Catholic sacrament of Penance where the Greek specifies mutual, lay, horizontal confession (ἀλλήλοις).
- ἀλείφω ἐλαίῳ / πρεσβύτεροι (5:14) taught as unambiguously either sacramental or non-sacramental without flagging both historic readings — NEVER adjudicate the Catholic/Protestant reading silently; flag for theologian-authored both-traditions framing.
- πειρασμός in its trial sense (1:2–4, 12) and its temptation sense (1:13–14) rendered with the same undifferentiated German word without a translator note on the shared root — NEVER; risks implying God tempts to sin.
- τέλειος (1:4, 1:17, 1:25) → an unqualified “perfekt” implying sinless moral perfection — NEVER without a maturity/wholeness gloss.
- μοιχαλίδες / φιλία τοῦ κόσμου (4:4) softened to a generic “Untreue” or “Weltlichkeit” losing the covenant-marital force — NEVER.
4. Doctrine-to-Chapter Cross-Reference Map
| Doctrine | Primary Chapters | Key Terms (this glossary) |
|---|---|---|
| Faith and Works | 2 (core: 2:14–26); anticipated 1:22–25 | Glaube, Werke, toter Glaube, aus Glauben allein, Rechtfertigung, zugerechnete Gerechtigkeit, Täter/Hörer des Wortes |
| Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1 (1:2–4, 12–15) | Prüfung, Versuchung, Ausdauer, Begierde |
| Wisdom from Above | 1 (1:5–8); 3 (3:13–18) | Weisheit, Weisheit von oben, wankelmütig, irdisch/seelisch/dämonisch, Frucht der Gerechtigkeit |
| Favoritism and the Poor | 2 (2:1–13); cf. 5:1–6 | Parteilichkeit, Ansehen der Person, Arme(r), königliches Gesetz, Nächster |
| Taming the Tongue | 1 (1:26); 3 (3:1–12) | Zunge, Gehenna, Gottes Ebenbild |
| Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 1 (1:27); 4 (4:1–10) | Welt, Ehebrecherinnen, Freundschaft mit der Welt/Feindschaft mit Gott, Gnade, sich unterordnen, demütigt euch |
| Prayer and Healing | 5 (5:13–18) | Herr Zebaoth (context), Gebet des Glaubens, Kranken retten/heilen, Älteste, mit Öl salben |
| Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5 (5:7–11) | Geduld, Ausdauer, Wiederkunft/Parusie, selig |
| Confession and Restoration | 5 (5:16, 19–20) | bekennen, zurückführen, eine Vielzahl von Sünden bedecken |
Critical Risk Terms
Adulteresses
Approved rendering: Ehebrecherinnen
Transliteration: Ehebrecherinnen
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Rejected alternatives: Untreue (generic, loses the covenant-adultery background)
Original: μοιχαλίδες
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:4’s moichalides applies the OT marriage-covenant metaphor (Israel as YHWH’s unfaithful spouse, Hosea, Ezekiel 16) to believers who court the world’s values. Must retain full covenantal-marital force; German has no equivalent everyday religious idiom, making this rendering essential rather than a softer alternative.
Anoint With Oil
Approved rendering: mit Öl salben
Transliteration: mit Öl salben
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: ἀλείφω ἐλαίῳ
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW. James 5:14’s aleipho elaio. The single most denominationally sensitive act in this curriculum: direct biblical basis for the Catholic sacrament of Anointing of the Sick (Krankensalbung), read by Protestant tradition as non-sacramental pastoral practice. Mandatory theologian AND denominational-sensitivity review; both historic readings must be presented, neither adjudicated.
Blessed
Approved rendering: selig
Transliteration: selig
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: μακάριος
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Matthew package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). James uses this at 1:12 (endurance under trial), 1:25 (the doer of the word), and 5:11 (Job). Apply the baseline’s Seligsprechung-avoidance caution at every occurrence so blessedness is not read in the narrower Catholic beatification sense.
Born From Above
Approved rendering: von neuem geboren
Transliteration: von neuem geboren
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Inherited from John package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). Cross-reference for James 3:13-17’s ‘Weisheit von oben’ (sophia anothen): both use the same anothen (‘from above’) vocabulary already established in this pipeline via John 3:3, 7. Anchoring James’s phrase to this existing doctrinal echo helps prevent a philosophical or Gnostic-adjacent misreading of ‘from above.‘
Certificate Of Debt
Approved rendering: der Schuldschein
Transliteration: der Schuldschein
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Inherited from Colossians package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). Cross-reference for James 5:20’s ‘cover a multitude of sins’: the objective forgiveness grounded in Christ’s atoning work (Colossians 2:14’s cancelled certificate of debt) must remain the ground; James 5:20’s restorative human action is consistent with, never a substitute for, this atonement.
Confess To One Another
Approved rendering: bekennen
Transliteration: bekennen
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: beichten (FORBIDDEN — Catholic sacrament of Penance)
Original: ἐξομολογέομαι
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW. James 5:16’s exomologeomai allelois: mutual, horizontal confession among believers, NOT a technical sacramental-priestly act. NEVER rendered with ‘beichten.’ Never let ‘bekennen’ stand alone without an explicit horizontal marker (‘einander,’ ‘voreinander’) in the same clause.
Dead Faith
Approved rendering: toter Glaube
Transliteration: toter Glaube
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: wirkungslos, unfruchtbar
Original: πίστις νεκρά
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James’s repeated diagnosis (2:17, 20, 26) that a claimed faith producing no works is not merely weak but dead — lacking the substance of genuine faith entirely. Never softened; the corpse-metaphor’s full shock value must be retained in German.
Doer And Hearer Of The Word
Approved rendering: Täter des Wortes / Hörer des Wortes
Transliteration: Täter des Wortes / Hörer des Wortes
Doctrine: Being Doers of the Word, Not Hearers Only
Original: ποιητὴς λόγου / ἀκροατής λόγου
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 1:22-25’s mirror illustration, using Luther’s own classic, still-standard rendering. Directly anticipates the core passage’s ergon doctrine; teaching material must present 1:22-25 and 2:14-26 as one connected unit with fully consistent vocabulary.
Elders
Approved rendering: Älteste (der Gemeinde)
Transliteration: Älteste (der Gemeinde)
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Rejected alternatives: Priester (implies exclusively ordained sacramental office), Presbyter (imports German Reformed polity-specific office title)
Original: πρεσβύτεροι
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW. James 5:14’s presbyteroi. Must render as ‘Älteste (der Gemeinde)’ rather than any term implying an exclusively ordained priestly office, given Germany’s roughly even historical Catholic/Protestant confessional split and the sacramental sensitivity of the surrounding anointing instruction.
Faith Alone
Approved rendering: aus Glauben allein
Transliteration: aus Glauben allein
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: ἐκ πίστεως μόνον
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:24’s exact phrase, the historic locus of the Reformation-era controversy over this letter. THE single word most likely to be quoted in German in apparent opposition to Luther’s ‘sola fide.’ Mandatory theologian sign-off and mandatory accompanying doctrine note distinguishing James’s target (bare, inert assent, cf. 2:19’s demons) from Reformation sola fide (living, fruit-bearing trust) every time this phrase is rendered or taught. Never presented in isolation from its context.
Faith
Approved rendering: Glaube
Transliteration: Glaube
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Weltanschauung
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith and Works
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Medium). RISK ELEVATED TO CRITICAL for James 2:14-26: the same German word must carry James’s demonstrative/evidentiary sense of a claimed-but-possibly-inert trust, without German readers perceiving a contradiction of Luther’s own sola fide. Mandatory reconciling doctrine note (fides quae iustificat numquam est sola) at every core-passage occurrence.
Freedom
Approved rendering: Freiheit
Transliteration: Freiheit
Doctrine: The Royal Law and the Unity of the Law
Original: ἐλευθερία
Category: Law and Grace
Inherited from Romans/Galatians package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). James’s ‘law of liberty’ (1:25; 2:12) combines this term with ‘Gesetz,’ doubling the sensitivity: every occurrence must carry enough context that ‘Freiheit’ reads as Christ-empowered obedience, never license, and ‘Gesetz’ reads as the unified love-ethic, never renewed Torah-legalism.
Friendship With The World
Approved rendering: Freundschaft mit der Welt / Feindschaft mit Gott
Transliteration: Freundschaft mit der Welt / Feindschaft mit Gott
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: φιλία τοῦ κόσμου / ἔχθρα τοῦ Θεοῦ
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:4’s doctrine-title claim: philia tou kosmou / echthra tou theou. Must not let ‘Freundschaft mit der Welt’ collapse into a vague call to cultural withdrawal from ordinary German civic, professional, or cultural life — the target is a value-system in active opposition to God, not engagement with culture as such.
Good Works
Approved rendering: gute Werke
Transliteration: gute Werke
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Inherited from Ephesians package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). James’s ergon (general, non-Torah works) belongs in the same fruit-not-ground category as this term, though James does not use this exact Greek phrase. Useful cross-reference for teaching material distinguishing James’s ‘Werke’ from Galatians’ ‘Werke des Gesetzes.‘
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Heiliger Geist
Transliteration: Heiliger Geist
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). Reproduced here specifically as a DISAMBIGUATION ANCHOR: James 2:26’s pneuma (the ordinary human life-breath animating the body) and James 4:5’s disputed pneuma (textually ambiguous between the human spirit and the Holy Spirit) must never be silently identified with this Critical baseline term without explicit exegetical flagging. Never capitalize or Trinitarian-frame James 2:26’s ‘Geist.‘
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: zugerechnete Gerechtigkeit
Transliteration: zugerechnete Gerechtigkeit
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: verdiente Gerechtigkeit
Original: ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). James 2:23 cites Genesis 15:6 verbatim, the same event Paul expounds in Romans 4:3, 4:9, 4:22. James’s citation of this verse immediately after his ‘justified by works’ statement (v.21) is itself evidence he assumes, not denies, this earlier faith-reckoning as foundational. Mandatory cross-reference to Romans 4 in teaching material.
Justification Demonstrated
Approved rendering: rechtfertigen / gerechtfertigt werden
Transliteration: rechtfertigen / gerechtfertigt werden
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: δικαιόω / δικαιοῦται
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James’s evidentiary sense of dikaioo (2:21, 24, 25): faith shown/vindicated as genuine before human observers by its accompanying works — distinct from the baseline ‘justification’ entry’s forensic sense (a sinner declared righteous before God on the basis of Christ’s work, received by faith alone). Uses the SAME German verb as the baseline forensic entry, which is precisely the risk. Highest-priority theologian flag in this package; mandatory reconciling frame at every occurrence.
Justification
Approved rendering: Rechtfertigung
Transliteration: Rechtfertigung
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Erlösung (distinct concept)
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged) — this entry preserves Paul’s FORENSIC sense (a sinner declared righteous before God on the basis of Christ’s work, received by faith alone). James 2:21, 24-25 use the same verb family in a DIFFERENT, demonstrative/evidentiary sense; see the separate ‘justification_demonstrated’ entry below for James’s own usage. Never let the two senses appear in the same teaching unit without the reconciling doctrine note.
Lord
Approved rendering: Herr
Transliteration: Herr
Doctrine: Providence and Presumptuous Human Planning
Rejected alternatives: Meister, Chef
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). James has the highest per-chapter frequency of kyrios of any book in this pipeline to date (1:1, 1:7, 2:1, 4:10, 4:15, 5:4, 5:7-8, 5:10-11, 5:14-15). The baseline’s ‘Herr Müller’ everyday-title flattening risk applies at every occurrence; vary surrounding syntax across dense clusters (e.g. 5:7-11) to keep the exalted sense perceptually live.
Neighbor
Approved rendering: Nächster
Transliteration: Nächster
Doctrine: The Royal Law and the Unity of the Law
Original: πλησίον
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW. James 2:8’s plesion, citing Leviticus 19:18. The full citation ‘Liebe deinen Nächsten wie dich selbst’ MUST render identically to this pipeline’s existing Matthew 22:39, Romans 13:9, and Galatians 5:14 renderings, per the established cross-document shared-citation verbatim rule.
Not Of Works
Approved rendering: nicht aus Werken
Transliteration: nicht aus Werken
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Inherited from Ephesians package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). Useful cross-reference fence for James 2:14-26: Ephesians 2:9 denies works as salvation’s GROUND, precisely the point James’s core passage does not contradict; James’s ‘ergon’ functions instead as salvation’s FRUIT, matching Ephesians 2:10’s ‘gute Werke’ below.
Parousia
Approved rendering: Wiederkunft
Transliteration: Wiederkunft
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: παρουσία
Category: Eschatology
NEW. James 5:7-8’s parousia. FIXED PRIMARY RENDERING for this curriculum: ‘Wiederkunft’ (Luther’s established, warmly devotional term); ‘Parusie’ is available only as a technical/academic teaching-note gloss, never the primary reader-facing rendering. Requires cross-curriculum consistency with any future related pipeline material.
Perfect Law Of Liberty
Approved rendering: vollkommenes Gesetz der Freiheit
Transliteration: vollkommenes Gesetz der Freiheit
Doctrine: The Royal Law and the Unity of the Law
Original: νόμος τέλειος τῆς ἐλευθερίας
Category: Law and Grace
NEW. James 1:25; cf. 2:12’s ‘law of liberty’ (nomos teleios tes eleutherias): James’s term for the whole of Christian ethical instruction summed up in the love command — a law that liberates rather than merely constrains. Combines two Critical/High baseline terms (Gesetz + Freiheit); inherits the maximum-sensitivity Freiheit caution in full.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: Gerechtigkeit
Transliteration: Gerechtigkeit
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Tugend
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). James 2:23 cites Genesis 15:6 directly — the identical event and vocabulary Paul expounds in Romans 4. Teaching material must cross-reference the baseline’s imputed_righteousness doctrine so this is read as confirming, not competing with, Paul’s exposition.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Rettung
Transliteration: Rettung
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Heil (Nazi-era contamination risk), Erlösung (more existential/liberation-flavored)
Original: σῴζω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: High; ELEVATED to Critical for James). James uses sozo in (at least) two distinct senses: final soteriological salvation (1:21; 2:14; 4:12; 5:20) and physical healing/restoration of the sick (5:15). The two senses must never be silently collapsed; disambiguate explicitly at 5:15.
Submission
Approved rendering: sich unterordnen
Transliteration: sich unterordnen
Doctrine: Household Code: Marriage as Christ and the Church
Inherited from Ephesians/Colossians household-code package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). Reproduced here ONLY as a referent-contrast anchor for James 4:7’s ‘submission_to_god’ entry below, which uses the same German verb root but with an entirely different referent (submission to God, not spousal submission). The household-code marital-submission sensitivity notes must NOT be imported into James 4:7, nor should James 4:7’s straightforward call be diluted by that separate, unrelated controversy.
Works Of The Law
Approved rendering: Werke des Gesetzes
Transliteration: Werke des Gesetzes
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: gute Werke (good works generally)
Inherited from Galatians package (baseline risk: Critical, unchanged). Reproduced here specifically as a FORBIDDEN-SUBSTITUTION REFERENCE: James’s plain ‘Werke’ (ergon, general fruit-bearing deeds) must NEVER be rendered as or glossed alongside this phrase, which is reserved exclusively for Paul’s Torah-boundary-marker-observance target (circumcision, food laws, calendar) in Galatians. Confusing the two would manufacture a false direct contradiction between James and Paul.
Works
Approved rendering: Werke
Transliteration: Werke
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Werke des Gesetzes (forbidden — reserved for Galatians’ Torah-boundary-marker sense)
Original: ἔργα
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James’s ergon: concrete deeds of love and obedience (e.g. 2:15-16’s care for the poor) that evidence and complete genuine faith. NEVER rendered as or glossed alongside ‘Werke des Gesetzes.’ Gloss as ‘Werke der Liebe’ or ‘Taten des Glaubens’ where added clarity is needed. James 1:25; 2:14-26; 3:13.
High Risk Terms
Apart From Works
Approved rendering: ohne / getrennt von
Transliteration: ohne / getrennt von
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: χωρίς
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James’s repeated structuring preposition chōris (2:18, 20, 26). Flag for theologian review given the lexical near-identity with Romans 3:28’s ‘apart from works of the law’ (chōris ergōn nomou); the two passages use structurally similar Greek to make compatible, not contradictory, points.
Body And Human Spirit
Approved rendering: Leib / Geist
Transliteration: Leib / Geist
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: σῶμα / πνεῦμα
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:26’s soma / pneuma: works are to faith what breath/animating spirit is to a body. Critical disambiguation: this pneuma is the ORDINARY HUMAN life-breath, NOT the Holy Spirit. Never capitalize or Trinitarian-frame; gloss explicitly as ‘der Geist, der den Leib lebendig macht.‘
Brought To Completion
Approved rendering: vollendet werden / zur Vollendung kommen
Transliteration: vollendet werden / zur Vollendung kommen
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: vervollständigt (implies faith was previously incomplete/insufficient for salvation)
Original: τελειόω
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:22’s teleioo: Abraham’s faith reached its mature, intended expression through his works. Guard against a reading in which faith is soteriologically insufficient until works are added — the completion in view is demonstrative/experiential maturity.
Cover A Multitude Of Sins
Approved rendering: eine Vielzahl von Sünden bedecken
Transliteration: eine Vielzahl von Sünden bedecken
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: καλύπτω πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW. James 5:20’s kalypto plethos hamartion. Present as consistent with, never a substitute for, the objective forgiveness grounded in Christ’s atoning work (cf. certificate_of_debt/Schuldschein doctrine); avoid implying restorative human action itself atones.
Desire Lust
Approved rendering: Begierde
Transliteration: Begierde
Doctrine: Temptation and the Source of Sin
Rejected alternatives: Wunsch (too neutral)
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Trials and Testing
NEW. James 1:14-15; 4:1-2’s epithymia: the internal source of temptation, which when it conceives gives birth to sin and death. Must never be softened to a neutral ‘Wunsch,’ which would lose James’s moral indictment and the deliberate pregnancy/birth metaphor of 1:15.
Favoritism
Approved rendering: Parteilichkeit
Transliteration: Parteilichkeit
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: προσωπολημψία
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW. James 2:1, 9’s prosopolempsia. Luther’s traditional calque ‘Ansehen der Person’ is retained as a supporting gloss for readers familiar with that idiom, but is not the primary rendering, since cold reading risks it sounding neutral or even positive to less biblically literate contemporary readers.
Friend Of God
Approved rendering: Freund Gottes
Transliteration: Freund Gottes
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: φίλος Θεοῦ
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:23’s honorific for Abraham, expressing covenantal relational intimacy flowing from his credited righteousness. Must be taught as intimacy flowing from grace-given righteousness, never a status earned through the sacrifice of Isaac.
Grace
Approved rendering: Gnade
Transliteration: Gnade
Doctrine: Humility and God’s Grace to the Humble
Rejected alternatives: Barmherzigkeit, Wohlwollen
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: High, unchanged). James 4:6 cites Proverbs 3:34 LXX (‘God gives grace to the humble’); cross-reference 1 Peter 5:5 for teaching material.
Image Of God
Approved rendering: Gottes Ebenbild
Transliteration: Gottes Ebenbild
Doctrine: Cursing and the Image of God
Original: ὁμοίωσις Θεοῦ
Category: Anthropology
NEW. James 3:9’s homoiosis theou grounds the prohibition on cursing people made in God’s likeness. Must connect explicitly to Genesis 1:26 / 1. Mose 1,26 given documented low OT-narrative literacy across all German confessional groups.
Law
Approved rendering: Gesetz
Transliteration: Gesetz
Doctrine: The Royal Law and the Unity of the Law
Original: νόμος
Category: Law and Grace
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: High, unchanged). James’s combinations — ‘law of liberty’ (1:25; 2:12) and ‘royal law’ (2:8) — are novel pairings not present in Romans/Galatians and carry their own dedicated entries below (perfect_law_of_liberty, royal_law).
Lord Of Hosts
Approved rendering: Herr Zebaoth
Transliteration: Herr Zebaoth
Doctrine: Warning to the Oppressive Rich
Original: Κύριος Σαβαώθ
Category: God
NEW. James 5:4’s Kyrios Sabaoth. ‘Herr Zebaoth’ carries direct liturgical currency via the German Sanctus (‘Heilig, heilig, heilig ist der Herr Zebaoth’); ‘der Herr der Heerscharen’ is the more transparent modern paraphrase. Flag for reviewer sign-off between the two rather than fixing one — this is a register decision, not a doctrinal one.
Perfect Mature
Approved rendering: vollkommen (= reif / vollständig)
Transliteration: vollkommen
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: perfekt (unqualified, sinless-perfection risk)
Original: τέλειος
Category: Trials and Testing
NEW. James’s teleios (1:4, 1:17, 1:25; cf. 3:2): complete, whole, mature — having reached its intended end, NOT sinless moral perfection. German ‘vollkommen’ carries the same sinless-perfection risk as English ‘perfect’; every occurrence requires the maturity/wholeness gloss, especially at 1:4 where it names a goal of ongoing growth.
Prayer Of Faith And Healing
Approved rendering: das Gebet des Glaubens / den Kranken retten (heilen)
Transliteration: das Gebet des Glaubens / den Kranken retten (heilen)
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως / σῴζω τὸν κάμνοντα
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW. James 5:15’s euche tes pisteos / sozo ton kamnonta. Physical-healing sense of sozo, distinct from 2:14’s soteriological sense; must be disambiguated explicitly (‘hier: körperliche Genesung, nicht die endgültige Rettung wie in 2,14’). Guard against an unconditional-healing-guarantee misreading.
Show Demonstrate
Approved rendering: zeigen
Transliteration: zeigen
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: δείκνυμι
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:18’s central verb for the evidentiary argument that works are the only available proof of faith to another observer. Teaching material must make explicit that this concerns demonstration TO OBSERVERS, not the ground of justification before God.
Submission To God
Approved rendering: sich unterordnen
Transliteration: sich unterordnen
Doctrine: Humility and God’s Grace to the Humble
Original: ὑποτάσσω
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:7’s hypotageite: submission TO GOD, a different referent from the baseline Ephesians/Colossians household-code use of the same verb family for marital submission (see the ‘submission’ entry above). Teaching material must make this referent shift explicit so the household-code sensitivity notes are neither imported into nor allowed to dilute this straightforward context.
Temptation
Approved rendering: Versuchung
Transliteration: Versuchung
Doctrine: Temptation and the Source of Sin
Original: πειρασμός / πειράζω
Category: Trials and Testing
NEW. James 1:13-14: enticement to sin, arising from one’s own desire (epithymia), never from God. Shares a Greek root with the trial sense above (peirasmos/peirazo) but rendered with a distinct German word; mandatory translator note flagging the shared root so readers do not conclude God is ever the source of enticement to sin.
Trial Testing
Approved rendering: Prüfung
Transliteration: Prüfung
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: Anfechtung (reserved for reviewer discretion in devotional register only, not the default rendering)
Original: πειρασμός
Category: Trials and Testing
NEW. James 1:2-4, 12: externally imposed hardship/testing God permits to produce endurance and maturity. Must be sharply distinguished in German from the temptation sense of the same Greek word-family at 1:13-14 (see ‘temptation’ entry) despite the shared Greek root peirasmos.
True Religion
Approved rendering: Frömmigkeit
Transliteration: Frömmigkeit
Doctrine: True Religion Defined
Rejected alternatives: Religion (bare — defaults to abstract institutional sense)
Original: θρησκεία
Category: Speech Ethics
NEW. James 1:26-27’s threskeia: outward religious observance/practice, redefined away from ritual/verbal piety toward practical compassion and personal purity. ‘Gottesdienst’ (older ‘service to God’ sense) is an acceptable secondary option.
Wisdom From Above
Approved rendering: Weisheit von oben
Transliteration: Weisheit von oben
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Rejected alternatives: höhere Weisheit (German Idealist/esoteric register)
Original: σοφία ἄνωθεν
Category: Wisdom
NEW. James 3:13-17’s doctrine-title term, sophia anothen. Cross-reference explicitly to the established John 3 ‘born from above’ (anothen) vocabulary in this pipeline; must not be confused with generic human cleverness or a Gnostic-adjacent ‘secret higher knowledge’ register.
Work Together
Approved rendering: zusammenwirken (mit)
Transliteration: zusammenwirken (mit)
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: συνεργέω
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:22’s synergeo: faith and works cooperating — faith as root/source, works its necessary, organically connected expression. Must not suggest a 50/50 partnership contributing equally to the ground of justification.
Medium Risk Terms
Brothers
Approved rendering: Brüder
Transliteration: Brüder
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Geschwister (gender-inclusive contemporary alternative; not adopted per the baseline’s anti-gender-neutral-rewriting convention for terms fixed by established Bible-translation tradition)
Original: ἀδελφοί
Category: Church
NEW. James’s characteristic direct pastoral address (adelphoi), 15+ occurrences across the letter — the highest concentration of this vocative in this pipeline to date. Default rendering ‘Brüder’; flag every occurrence for reviewer awareness of the live contemporary gender-inclusivity debate.
Double Minded
Approved rendering: wankelmütig / zwiespältig
Transliteration: wankelmütig / zwiespältig
Doctrine: Undivided Faith in Asking for Wisdom
Original: δίψυχος
Category: Wisdom
NEW. James 1:8; 4:8’s dipsychos: internally divided, wavering between trust in God and trust in self/world. No single German word captures the ‘two souls’ image as compactly as the Greek compound; teaching material may surface the literal picture once for depth.
Earthly Soulish Demonic Wisdom
Approved rendering: irdisch / seelisch / dämonisch
Transliteration: irdisch / seelisch / dämonisch
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: ἐπίγειος / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης
Category: Wisdom
NEW. James 3:15’s threefold negative diagnosis of counterfeit wisdom’s source (epigeios / psychike / daimoniodes). ‘seelisch’ is a FALSE FRIEND: contemporary German defaults it to ‘emotional/psychological’ (seelische Gesundheit), nearly the opposite of James’s ‘unaided by God’s Spirit’ sense. Mandatory first-occurrence gloss required.
Empty Or Foolish Person
Approved rendering: du unverständiger Mensch
Transliteration: du unverständiger Mensch
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: du Lieber (too soft, loses James’s rhetorical bluntness)
Original: κενέ
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:20’s direct, diatribe-style vocative (kene): must preserve James’s blunt rhetorical directness, consistent with this pipeline’s existing discipline (e.g. Philippians’ ‘Dreck’ for skybala).
Endurance
Approved rendering: Ausdauer / Standhaftigkeit
Transliteration: Ausdauer / Standhaftigkeit
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: ὑπομονή
Category: Trials and Testing
NEW. James 1:3-4, 12; 5:11 (of Job): active, patient perseverance under pressure, hypomone. Distinguish from makrothymeo/Geduld (patience with people, ch. 5) — James uses two related but distinct Greek terms for adjacent concepts.
Father
Approved rendering: Vater
Transliteration: Vater
Doctrine: God’s Unchanging Goodness as Giver of Good Gifts
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Medium, unchanged). James 1:17 (‘Father of lights’), 1:27 (caring for orphans reflects the Father’s own character), 3:9 (blessing the Father with the tongue used also to curse people). Affirms divine constancy against any deist misreading; ‘Vater der Lichter’ should not be read as poetic astronomy alone.
Fruit Of Righteousness
Approved rendering: Frucht der Gerechtigkeit
Transliteration: Frucht der Gerechtigkeit
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: καρπὸς δικαιοσύνης
Category: Wisdom
NEW. James 3:18’s karpos dikaiosynes: the harvest of peace-sown, above-wisdom. Reuses baseline Gerechtigkeit; structurally echoes but is DISTINCT from Galatians’ singular ‘Frucht des Geistes’ — do not conflate the two fruit-metaphors.
Gehenna
Approved rendering: Gehenna
Transliteration: Gehenna
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Rejected alternatives: Hölle (generic — loses the place-name-turned-eschatological-term background)
Original: γέεννα
Category: Speech Ethics
NEW. James 3:6: the Valley of Hinnom, a historical site later a byword for fiery judgment. Transliterate with mandatory bracketed gloss (‘die Hölle’) at first occurrence rather than flattening to generic ‘Hölle’ throughout.
Glory
Approved rendering: Herrlichkeit
Transliteration: Herrlichkeit
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: δόξα
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Medium, unchanged). James 2:1 (‘our glorious Lord Jesus Christ’) functions as a compact Christological title; follow Lutherbibel’s ‘Herr der Herrlichkeit’ construction per the translation-landscape survey, not Einheitsübersetzung’s adjectival softening, to preserve deity-of-Christ doctrinal weight.
God
Approved rendering: Gott
Transliteration: Gott
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Medium, unchanged). High-frequency term throughout James; the baseline’s East/West German religious-literacy divide note continues to apply.
Humble Yourselves
Approved rendering: demütigt euch
Transliteration: demütigt euch
Doctrine: Humility and God’s Grace to the Humble
Original: ταπεινώθητε
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:10’s tapeinothete: the posture God exalts, contrasted with pride throughout the letter (1:9-10; 2:1-6; 4:6).
Hypocrisy
Approved rendering: Heuchelei
Transliteration: Heuchelei
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Inherited from Galatians package (baseline risk: Medium, unchanged). Cross-reference for James 3:17: wisdom from above is described as ‘without hypocrisy’ (anypokritos) — the negated form of this same term family. Useful for connecting James’s wisdom-doctrine to Paul’s Antioch rebuke of Peter’s hypocrisy.
If The Lord Wills
Approved rendering: So der Herr will
Transliteration: So der Herr will
Doctrine: Providence and Presumptuous Human Planning
Original: Ἐὰν ὁ Κύριος θελήσῃ
Category: God
NEW. James 4:15’s established German idiom (parallel to Deo volente), rebuking presumptuous life-planning that ignores human contingency and divine sovereignty. Carries the baseline’s ‘Herr Müller’ everyday-title flattening risk; context must make clear the divine title is intended.
Intercession
Approved rendering: Fürbitte
Transliteration: Fürbitte
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Medium, unchanged). James 5:14-18: elders’ prayer over the sick; Elijah’s effective prayer as a paradigm of a righteous person’s intercession.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Reich Gottes
Transliteration: Reich Gottes
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Medium, unchanged). James 2:5 references ‘the kingdom that he promised to those who love him’ without the exact phrase ‘kingdom of God’; low-risk implicit connection to the established doctrine, useful for teaching cross-reference rather than a load-bearing lexical match.
Mercy And Merciless Judgment
Approved rendering: Barmherzigkeit / unbarmherziges Gericht
Transliteration: Barmherzigkeit / unbarmherziges Gericht
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: ἔλεος / κρίσις ἀνέλεος
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW. James 2:13’s closing warning (eleos / krisis aneleos): mercilessness toward others meets mercilessness at judgment, while mercy triumphs. Ensure ‘unbarmherzig’ clearly modifies the judgment, not God’s character as such.
One God Shema
Approved rendering: Gott ist einer
Transliteration: Gott ist einer
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Gott existiert (too weak, loses the Shema echo and demon-comparison force)
NEW. James 2:19’s heis ho theos, echoing the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4). Must not be softened into generic theism; the point is that even demons hold this correct belief without saving trust.
Patience Relational
Approved rendering: Geduld haben / üben
Transliteration: Geduld haben / üben
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: μακροθυμέω
Category: Eschatology
NEW. James 5:7-8’s makrothymeo: patient forbearance with people and circumstances while awaiting the Lord’s coming, illustrated by the farmer awaiting the harvest. Distinguish from hypomone/Ausdauer (endurance under trial).
Poor
Approved rendering: Arme(r)
Transliteration: Arme(r)
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: πτωχός
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW. James 2:2-6; 5:1-6’s ptochos: concrete economic destitution, consistent with this pipeline’s established Luke-package usage. Do not spiritualize.
Prostitute Rahab
Approved rendering: Prostituierte
Transliteration: Prostituierte
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Hure (Luther’s blunter historical term, coarser register than this curriculum’s target)
Original: πόρνη
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:25’s porne: Rahab, deliberately paired with Abraham as a socially extreme second example of works-evidenced justifying faith. ‘Prostituierte’ matches this curriculum’s formal-modern-German register without softening the social scandal James intends.
Providence
Approved rendering: Vorsehung
Transliteration: Vorsehung
Doctrine: Providence and Presumptuous Human Planning
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Medium, unchanged) as the doctrinal category underlying James 4:13-17’s rebuke of presumptuous planning; the concrete idiom James uses is rendered separately below as ‘if_the_lord_wills’ (‘So der Herr will’), not this abstract noun itself.
Royal Law
Approved rendering: königliches Gesetz
Transliteration: königliches Gesetz
Doctrine: The Royal Law and the Unity of the Law
Original: νόμος βασιλικός
Category: Law and Grace
NEW. James 2:8’s nomos basilikos: the love-of-neighbor command (Leviticus 19:18), termed ‘royal’ as supreme among the commandments or as belonging to the King.
Servant Of God
Approved rendering: Knecht
Transliteration: Knecht
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Sklave (would import the Ephesians/Colossians household-code slavery register)
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Church
NEW. James’s self-designation (1:1) as a doulos of God and the Lord Jesus Christ — a title of honored, voluntary service (cf. Moses, the prophets, Paul), not degradation. Distinguish register from the household-code ‘Sklaven/Herren’ pairing, which concerns literal first-century institutional slavery.
Sin
Approved rendering: Sünde
Transliteration: Sünde
Doctrine: Temptation and the Source of Sin
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Medium, unchanged). James 1:15’s birth-metaphor (desire conceives sin, sin gives birth to death) intensifies but does not alter the baseline sense. Watch for the baseline’s documented colloquial-trivialization risk (Sünde used loosely for minor indulgence).
Testing Process
Approved rendering: Bewährung / Erprobung
Transliteration: Bewährung / Erprobung
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: δοκίμιον
Category: Trials and Testing
NEW. James 1:3’s dokimion: the proving process (as of metal by fire) that trial enacts, producing endurance. Distinguish from the noun peirasmos itself (the trial-event).
Tongue
Approved rendering: Zunge
Transliteration: Zunge
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: γλῶσσα
Category: Speech Ethics
NEW. James 1:26; 3:1-12’s glossa. Keep the extended bit/bridle, rudder, and fire metaphor chain (Zaum/Gebiss, Steuerruder, Feuer) concrete rather than abstracted into generic ‘wise speech.‘
Turn Back And Restore
Approved rendering: abirren / zurückführen
Transliteration: abirren / zurückführen
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: πλανάω / ἐπιστρέφω
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW. James 5:19-20’s planao / epistrepho: the closing exhortation to turn back a wandering believer.
Wisdom
Approved rendering: Weisheit
Transliteration: Weisheit
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: σοφία
Category: Wisdom
NEW. James 1:5: practical, God-given skill for righteous living amid trial, freely given to anyone who asks in undivided faith. Low lexical risk in this bare form; see ‘wisdom_from_above’ for the elevated-risk qualified expression.
World
Approved rendering: Welt
Transliteration: Welt
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: κόσμος
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 1:27; 4:1-10’s kosmos: the God-opposed human value-system/order, distinct from the neutral created-physical-world sense. German ‘Welt’ does not morphologically mark this distinction; require explicit contextual signaling (‘die Welt in ihrer Gott-feindlichen Ausrichtung’) at 4:1-10.
Low Risk Terms
Altar
Approved rendering: Altar
Transliteration: Altar
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: θυσιαστήριον
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:21’s thysiasterion, grounding the Abraham/Isaac illustration in the concrete historical Genesis 22 narrative.
Concrete Material Need
Approved rendering: ohne Kleidung / die tägliche Nahrung
Transliteration: ohne Kleidung / die tägliche Nahrung
Doctrine: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:15’s gymnos / ephemeros trophe: deliberately mundane, verifiable material need illustrating the core passage’s argument.
Demons
Approved rendering: Dämonen
Transliteration: Dämonen
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: δαιμόνια
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:19’s daimonia: personal, malevolent spiritual beings who hold correct theology yet are the opposite of saved.
Diaspora
Approved rendering: Zerstreuung / Diaspora
Transliteration: Zerstreuung / Diaspora
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: διασπορά
Category: Church
NEW. James 1:1’s diaspora: Jewish believers scattered outside Palestine, situating the letter’s original audience. Both the translated and naturalized-loanword forms are acceptable; reviewer discretion permitted.
Hollow Greeting
Approved rendering: Wärmt euch und werdet satt
Transliteration: Wärmt euch und werdet satt
Doctrine: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:16’s thermainesthe kai chortazesthe: an empty pious blessing spoken instead of material aid. Flag the sarcasm/irony so it is not read as a genuine benediction.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Low, unchanged). James 1:1, 2:1 (‘our Lord Jesus Christ’).
Peace
Approved rendering: Friede
Transliteration: Friede
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Wisdom
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Low, unchanged). James 2:16 uses this word IRONICALLY (a hollow greeting withholding real material aid); James 3:18 uses it GENUINELY (wisdom-sown peace among believers). Teaching material must flag the contrast so the two are not read as equivalent in force.
Profit Or Use
Approved rendering: Nutzen
Transliteration: Nutzen
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: ὄφελος
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:14, 16’s ophelos: the rhetorical-question term (‘Was nützt es…?’) opening and closing the core pericope.
Prophet
Approved rendering: Prophet
Transliteration: Prophet
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk: Low, unchanged). James 5:10: ‘the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord’ as models of patient suffering.
Shudder
Approved rendering: erschaudern / schaudern
Transliteration: erschaudern / schaudern
Doctrine: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:19’s phrisso: the demons’ visceral terror, contrasting with the complacent human ‘believer’ James confronts.
Teacher
Approved rendering: Lehrer
Transliteration: Lehrer
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: διδάσκαλος
Category: Speech Ethics
NEW. James 3:1’s didaskalos: teachers face stricter judgment given the tongue’s power.
Transgressor
Approved rendering: Übertreter
Transliteration: Übertreter
Doctrine: The Royal Law and the Unity of the Law
Original: παραβάτης
Category: Law and Grace
NEW. James 2:9, 11’s parabates: favoritism as a real transgression of the whole law, since the law is a unified whole (2:10).
Referenced passages