Core Glossary
Jonah — Core Glossary (Phase 1, Step 1)
Per-term glossary for the entire book of Jonah, citing terms from every chapter (1–4), plus one cross-referenced New Testament term relevant to the “Sign of Jonah” doctrine. Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE REUSE] and must be rendered exactly as recorded there; no alternative may be substituted. New terms proposed for this curriculum are marked [NEW] and are candidates for addition to translation memory pending Phase 1 sign-off.
| Term (English) | Hebrew (MT) | LXX Greek (Koine) | Transliteration | Recommended German Rendering | Risk Tier | Status | Doctrine | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word of the LORD | דְּבַר־יְהוָה | λόγος Κυρίου | logos Kyriou | das Wort des HERRN | Medium | [BASELINE REUSE: “Herr”] | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | Jonah 1:1; 3:1. Reuses baseline “Herr” for κύριος/YHWH. |
| God (generic) | אֱלֹהִים (Elohim) | ὁ θεός | ho theos | Gott | Medium | [BASELINE REUSE: “Gott”] | God’s Compassion for the Nations | Note the MT’s deliberate YHWH/Elohim distinction: sailors and Ninevites relate to “Elohim,” Jonah invokes “YHWH” — track consistently; German “Gott”/“HERR” split must mirror this. |
| Nineveh, “the great city” | נִינְוֵה הָעִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה | Νινευη ἡ πόλις ἡ μεγάλη | Nineuē; Nineveh | Ninive, die große Stadt | Low | Proper noun | God’s Compassion for the Nations | Standard German Bible form “Ninive.” |
| Proclaim/preach | קרא (qara) | κηρύσσω / κήρυγμα | kēryssō; qara | ausrufen / verkündigen (NEVER “predigen [das Evangelium]“) | High | [NEW] | God’s Compassion for the Nations | Jonah’s message is judgment-warning, not gospel (Evangelium); must not be conflated with baseline “Evangelium.” |
| Great city to/before God | עִיר גְּדוֹלָה לֵאלֹהִים | πόλις μεγάλη τῷ θεῷ | polis megalē tō theō | eine sehr große Stadt (+ footnote on idiom) | Medium | [NEW] | God’s Sovereignty over Creation | Hebrew superlative idiom; follow German Bible convention in running text, gloss idiom in teaching notes. |
| Three days / forty days (textual variant) | אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם (40 days, MT) | τρεῖς ἡμέραι (3 days, LXX) | arba’im yom; treis hēmerai | vierzig Tage (MUST follow MT) | Critical | [NEW — textual flag] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Jonah 3:4. LXX/MT diverge; German tradition follows MT “forty days.” Do not import LXX “three days” here. |
| Overthrown/overturned | נֶהְפָּכֶת (haphakh) | καταστραφήσεται | katastraphēsetai; nehpachet | umgestürzt / zerstört werden | Medium | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Echoes Sodom’s destruction vocabulary (Genesis 19); intertextual, not lexical, risk. |
| Believed God | וַיַּאֲמִינוּ בֵּאלֹהִים | ἐνεπίστευσαν τῷ θεῷ | episteusan tō theō | glauben (an Gott) | High | [BASELINE REUSE: “Glaube” root, new context] | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | Reuses baseline Glaube vocabulary; guard against reading full Pauline justification-faith into this verse. |
| Fast/fasting | צוֹם | νηστεία | nēsteia; tsom | Fasten | Medium | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Catholic/Protestant differing ritual weight; present as spontaneous urgent response, not liturgical calendar practice. |
| Sackcloth | שַׂק | σάκκος | sakkos; saq | Sacktuch / Bußgewand | Medium | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Gloss on first occurrence; mourning/penitence association not self-evident to secular readers. |
| Ashes | אֵפֶר | σποδός | spodos; epher | Asche | Low | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Paired with sackcloth; minimal independent risk. |
| King of Nineveh | מֶלֶךְ נִינְוֵה | ὁ βασιλεύς τῆς Νινευη | ho basileus tēs Nineuē | der König von Ninive | Medium | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Historical-critical genre question; render plainly, flag transparently in teaching material only. |
| Man and beast | הָאָדָם וְהַבְּהֵמָה | οἱ ἄνθρωποι καὶ τὰ κτήνη | anthrōpoi kai ktēnē | Mensch und Vieh | Low | [NEW] | Sovereignty of God over Creation | Decree extends to animals; supports creation-theology reading. Echoed at 4:11. |
| Cry mightily to God | וְיִקְרְאוּ אֶל־אֱלֹהִים בְּחָזְקָה | ἀνεβόησαν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἐκτενῶς | aneboēsan…ektenōs | ernstlich/eindringlich zu Gott rufen | Low-Medium | [NEW] | God’s Compassion for the Nations | Distinguish from baseline “Fürbitte” (formal intercession); this is urgent direct crying-out. |
| Evil way / violence | דֶּרֶךְ הָרָעָה / חָמָס | ὁδὸς πονηρά / ἀδικία | hodos ponēra; adikia; chamas | böser Weg / Gewalttat, Unrecht | Medium | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Ethical-social repentance, not only ritual; guard against over-spiritualized exposition. |
| God “repents”/relents | וְנִחַם הָאֱלֹהִים (nacham) | μετενόησεν ὁ θεός | metenoēsen ho theos; nicham | Gott lässt sich das Unheil leid sein / Gott wendet sich vom Unheil ab | Critical | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | MUST NOT use baseline “Buße” for God’s action — that would imply moral fault. Distinct from human repentance in same verse (3:10). Mandatory theologian review, every occurrence (3:9, 3:10, 4:2). |
| Fierce anger / wrath | חֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ | ὀργὴ θυμοῦ | orgē thymou; charon apo | Zorn Gottes / sein glühender Zorn | Medium | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Not capricious rage; righteous judicial response, real until averted by relenting mercy. |
| Turned from evil way (human) | שָׁבוּ מִדַּרְכָּם הָרָעָה | ἀπέστρεψαν ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ…πονηρᾶς | apestrepsan; shavu | sich abwenden von ihrem bösen Weg (Umkehr/Buße) | High | [BASELINE REUSE: “Buße”/“Umkehr”] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Pair carefully with the God-relenting term above in 3:10 — same verse, two categorically distinct actions requiring two distinct German terms. |
| The calamity/evil threatened | הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּר | ἡ κακία ᾗ ἐλάλησεν | hē kakia; ha-ra’ah | das Unheil (nicht “das Böse”) | Medium | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Hebrew wordplay (same root as human “evil”/v.8) lost in German; flag transparently. |
| Flee from the LORD | לִבְרֹחַ…מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה | φυγεῖν…ἐκ προσώπου Κυρίου | pheugein; livroach | fliehen vom Angesicht des HERRN | Medium | [NEW] | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | Preserve repeated “face/presence” idiom (1:3 x2; 1:10) rather than flattening to plain “vor Gott weg.” |
| Great wind/storm | רוּח…סַעַר גָּדוֹל | πνεῦμα…κλύδων μέγας | pneuma; kata typo | großer Sturm | Low-Medium | [NEW] | Sovereignty of God over Creation | Keep God as explicit causal subject (“Der HERR erregte…”), not passive “a storm arose.” |
| Feared / feared greatly | וַיִּירְאוּ | ἐφοβήθησαν | ephobēthēsan; yare | sich fürchten / Gottesfurcht | Medium | [NEW] | God’s Compassion for the Nations | Track escalation from ordinary fear (1:5) to reverent fear of the LORD (1:10, 1:16), paralleling 3:5. |
| Cast lots | וַיַּפִּלוּ גּוֹרָלוֹת | ἔβαλον κλήρους | eblalon klērous | das Los werfen | Low | [NEW] | Sovereignty of God over Creation | God works sovereignly even through pagan divinatory practice. |
| Great fish | דָּג גָּדוֹל | κῆτος μέγα | kētos mega; dag gadol | großer Fisch (NEVER “Walfisch”) | High | [NEW] | Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | Must match German rendering of Matthew 12:40’s “Fisch” exactly for typological consistency. |
| Three days and three nights | שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת | τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας | treis hēmeras kai treis nyktas | drei Tage und drei Nächte | Critical | [NEW] | Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | Fixed numeric phrase; must match Matthew 12:40 citation exactly. Jonah 1:17. |
| Sheol / Hades (realm of the dead) | שְׁאוֹל | ᾅδης | Hadēs; She’ol | Totenreich / Scheol (NEVER “Hölle”) | High | [NEW] | Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | ”Hölle” wrongly imports eternal-torment doctrine absent from OT Sheol concept. Jonah 2:2. |
| Salvation belongs to the LORD | לַיהוה הַיְשׁוּעָה | σωτηρία τοῦ Κυρίου | sōtēria tou Kyriou | Rettung kommt vom HERRN | Low | [BASELINE REUSE: “Rettung”] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Direct reuse of baseline σωτηρία rendering. Jonah 2:9. |
| Vow | נֶדֶר | εὐχή | euchē; neder | Gelübde | Medium | [NEW] | Repentance and Divine Mercy | Guard against importing Catholic votive/monastic-vow connotations. Jonah 2:9. |
| Displeased/grieved greatly | וַיֵּרַע אֶל־יוֹנָה רָעָה גְדוֹלָה | ἐλυπήθη Ιωνας λύπην μεγάλην | elypēthē; wayera | Das missfiel Jona sehr / er wurde zornig | High | [NEW] | Human Reluctance vs. God’s Universal Love | Wordplay with ch.3’s “evil/calamity” root lost in German; footnote required for teaching material. Jonah 4:1. |
| Gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abundant in steadfast love | חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב־חֶסֶד | ἐλεήμων καὶ οἰκτίρμων, μακρόθυμος καὶ πολυέλεος | eleēmōn, oiktirmōn, makrothymos, polyeleos | gnädig und barmherzig, langmütig und von großer Güte | Critical | [NEW] | God’s Compassion for the Nations | Citation of Exodus 34:6-7. חֶסֶד (chesed) ≠ baseline forensic “Gnade”; distinguish covenant-loyalty-love from justification-grace. Jonah 4:2. |
| Should I not have pity/compassion? | הֲלֹא אָחוּס | οὐ φείσομαι | ou pheisomai; achus | Sollte ich da nicht Erbarmen haben? | High | [NEW] | God’s Compassion for the Nations | Preserve rhetorical-question form; the book’s deliberately unresolved ending. Jonah 4:10-11. |
| Plant/gourd (qiqayon) | קִיקָיוֹן | κολόκυνθα | kolokyntha; qiqayon | Rizinusstaude (or Kürbis) | Medium | [NEW] | Sovereignty of God over Creation | Historic Jerome/Augustine translation-controversy precedent; flag for native-speaker reception sensitivity. Jonah 4:6-10. |
| Worm | תּוֹלַעַת | σκώληξ | skōlēx; tola’at | Wurm | Low | [NEW] | Sovereignty of God over Creation | Jonah 4:7. |
| The sign of Jonah (NT cross-reference) | — | τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ | to sēmeion Iōna | das Zeichen des Jona | Critical | [NEW, NT cross-ref] | Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection | Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32. Connects to baseline “Auferstehung”; must cross-match Matthew package rendering. |
Summary by Risk Tier
- Critical (5): three days/forty days textual variant (3:4); God “repents”/relents (3:9-10, 4:2); gracious-merciful-slow-to-anger cluster (4:2); three days and three nights (1:17); the sign of Jonah (NT cross-ref).
- High (7): proclaim/preach; believed God; turned from evil way (human half of 3:10); great fish; Sheol/Hades; displeased/grieved greatly; should I not have pity.
- Medium (14): great city to/before God; overthrown; fast/fasting; sackcloth; king of Nineveh; evil way/violence; fierce anger/wrath; the calamity/evil threatened; flee from the LORD; word of the LORD; God (generic); feared/feared greatly; vow; plant/gourd.
- Low (7): Nineveh; man and beast; cry mightily to God; ashes; great wind/storm; cast lots; worm; salvation belongs to the LORD.
Baseline Reuse Terms (must match translation_memory.json exactly)
- Herr (word of the LORD)
- Gott (God, generic)
- Glaube-family (believed God)
- Buße/Umkehr (human turning from evil way — used only for the human half of Jonah 3:10, never for God’s relenting)
- Rettung (salvation belongs to the LORD)
- Auferstehung (cross-referenced for the Sign of Jonah doctrine)
All four chapters of Jonah are represented above; no chapter’s vocabulary has been silently omitted.
Critical Risk Terms
Lord
Approved rendering: Herr
Transliteration: Herr
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Meister, Chef
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Underlies the recurring formula ‘das Wort des HERRN’ throughout Jonah (1:1; 3:1) and the sailors’/Ninevites’ progression toward naming Israel’s God specifically as ‘der HERR’ (1:16), distinct from the generic ‘Gott’ (Elohim) used earlier. See word_of_the_lord and god_generic below.
Three Days Forty Days Variant
Approved rendering: vierzig Tage
Transliteration: arba’im yom (MT) / treis hēmerai (LXX)
Doctrine: The Three Days / Forty Days Textual Variant
Rejected alternatives: drei Tage (LXX reading — MUST NOT be imported at Jonah 3:4)
Original: אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם (MT) / τρεῖς ἡμέραι (LXX)
Category: Textual Criticism
MUST follow the Hebrew Masoretic Text per Lutherbibel 2017 and Einheitsübersetzung, both rendering ‘vierzig Tage.’ The LXX’s thematically tempting ‘drei Tage’ (echoing 1:17 and Matthew 12:40) must NEVER be imported here — doing so would conflate two distinct manuscript traditions and manufacture a false typological link absent from German Bible tradition. Mandatory theologian AND native-speaker review.
God Relents
Approved rendering: Gott lässt sich das Unheil leid sein / Gott wendet sich vom Unheil ab
Transliteration: wenicham ha-Elohim; metenoēsen ho theos
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Rejected alternatives: Buße (FORBIDDEN — wrongly implies God sinned), Gott bereut (never used as a bare, unglossed verb)
Original: וְנִחַם הָאֱלֹהִים (nacham) / μετενόησεν ὁ θεός
Category: Divine Character
MUST NEVER use the baseline ‘Buße’ (reserved exclusively for human repentance from sin) for this action. Always accompanied by an explicit gloss that this is God relenting from a declared judgment, never repenting of sin — a live concern given ongoing German Lutheran/Reformed debate over divine immutability. Mandatory theologian review at every occurrence (3:9, 3:10, 4:2).
Three Days Three Nights
Approved rendering: drei Tage und drei Nächte
Transliteration: shelosha yamim ushelosha leilot; treis hēmeras kai treis nyktas
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Original: שְׁלֹשָׁה יָמִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה לֵילוֹת / τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας
Category: Typology
Fixed phrase (Jonah 1:17); must match whatever rendering is fixed for Matthew 12:40 in this pipeline’s Matthew package. Must not be confused with, or blended into, the unrelated ‘forty days’ textual-variant issue at 3:4. Mandatory theologian review.
Gracious Merciful Slow To Anger
Approved rendering: gnädig und barmherzig, langmütig und von großer Güte
Transliteration: channun werachum erekh appayim werav-chesed; eleēmōn kai oiktirmōn, makrothymos kai polyeleos
Doctrine: Jonah’s Anger and God’s Self-Revealed Character
Rejected alternatives: von großer Gnade (FORBIDDEN — collapses chesed into the baseline’s forensic ‘Gnade’)
Original: חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב־חֶסֶד / ἐλεήμων καὶ οἰκτίρμων, μακρόθυμος καὶ πολυέλεος
Category: God’s Character
Citation of Exodus 34:6-7. Chesed (covenant-loyal, steadfast love) must NOT collapse into the baseline’s ‘Gnade’ (already Critical-risk for its own distinct Reformation forensic/soteriological reasons). Render per standard Lutherbibel/Einheitsübersetzung phrasing, with an explicit note distinguishing chesed’s covenant-loyalty sense from the baseline’s justification-grace sense. Mandatory theologian review; the single most theologically dense verse cluster in the book outside the core passage.
Sign Of Jonah
Approved rendering: das Zeichen des Jona
Transliteration: to sēmeion Iōna
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Original: τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ (Matthew 12:39; Luke 11:29)
Category: Typology
NT cross-reference (Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32). Connects directly to the inherited baseline ‘Auferstehung’; must be cross-referenced with whatever rendering of Matthew 12:39-41 exists or will exist in this pipeline’s Matthew package. Given the documented Islamic denial of the crucifixion, any interfaith-facing teaching material must explicitly flag this doctrine as a distinctively Christian typological claim, not a point of shared agreement. Mandatory theologian review for any teaching material invoking this connection.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: Gnade
Transliteration: Gnade
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: Barmherzigkeit, Wohlwollen
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Relevant to Jonah 4:2’s citation of Exodus 34:6-7: chesed (רַב־חֶסֶד) must NOT collapse into this term — chesed is covenant-loyal love, distinct from this term’s Reformation forensic/soteriological freight (sola gratia). See gracious_merciful_slow_to_anger below for the fenced rendering.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Rettung
Transliteration: Rettung
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Heil (Nazi-era contamination risk), Erlösung (more existential/liberation-flavored)
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Directly cited in Jonah 2:9, ‘Die Rettung kommt vom HERRN’ — Jonah’s own explicit soteriological confession, placed in the mouth of a rebellious prophet. See salvation_belongs_to_lord below.
Repentance
Approved rendering: Buße
Transliteration: Buße
Doctrine: Repentance
Inherited from the Gospels package (unchanged). CRITICAL FENCE for Jonah: reserved EXCLUSIVELY for human repentance (Nineveh’s turning, 3:8/3:10a — see turned_from_evil_way_human below); NEVER used for God’s own relenting action (see god_relents below) — using Buße for God’s action would wrongly imply moral fault on God’s part.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: Heiden
Transliteration: Heiden
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Relevant to Jonah’s core theme: Nineveh is a historically hostile Gentile imperial power, the object of God’s compassion (Jonah 1:2; 3:10; 4:10-11) — the Old Testament forerunner to this doctrine’s New Testament development. The baseline’s mandatory historical-sensitivity note for ‘Juden und Heiden’ pairings applies wherever this comparison is drawn in teaching material.
Proclaim Preach
Approved rendering: ausrufen / verkündigen
Transliteration: qara; kēryssō
Doctrine: Prophetic Proclamation of Judgment versus Gospel Proclamation
Rejected alternatives: predigen, das Evangelium verkündigen
Original: קרא (qara) / κηρύσσω, κήρυγμα
Category: Proclamation
NEW. German ‘predigen’ carries strong sermon-preaching associations that would wrongly suggest Jonah delivers something structurally equivalent to NT gospel preaching. NEVER pair with ‘Evangelium.’ Jonah’s message is a judgment-warning calling for repentance, conceptually prior to and distinct from the baseline’s Evangelium doctrine.
Believed God
Approved rendering: (an) Gott glauben
Transliteration: wayya’aminu b’Elohim; enepisteusan tō theō
Doctrine: The Ninevites’ Faith and Repentance
Original: וַיַּאֲמִינוּ בֵּאלֹהִים (aman) / ἐνεπίστευσαν τῷ θεῷ
Category: Faith
NEW. Reuses the baseline ‘Glaube’ root in a new, pre-covenantal context. Must not be read as identical to developed Pauline justification-by-faith theology, though it genuinely anticipates and is continuous with it — a real, Spirit-enabled response expressed immediately in fasting and sackcloth.
Turned From Evil Way Human
Approved rendering: sich abwenden von ihrem bösen Weg (Umkehr/Buße)
Transliteration: shavu middarkam ha-ra’ah; apestrepsan
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: שָׁבוּ מִדַּרְכָּם הָרָעָה / ἀπέστρεψαν ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ…πονηρᾶς
Category: Repentance
NEW. Reuses baseline Buße/Umkehr vocabulary, but ONLY for this human half of Jonah 3:10 — the same verse’s second half (God’s relenting, see god_relents) must use the categorically distinct divine-relenting vocabulary. Mandatory theologian review for both halves of the verse together, not separately.
Great Fish
Approved rendering: großer Fisch
Transliteration: dag gadol; kētos mega
Doctrine: Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: Walfisch (FORBIDDEN — English-tradition over-specification, species unspecified in Hebrew/Greek)
Original: דָּג גָּדוֹל / κῆτος μέγα
Category: Typology
German Bible tradition (Luther 2017) correctly avoids ‘Walfisch’ in favor of ‘großer Fisch.’ Must match precisely against any Matthew 12:40 citation used in teaching material, so the typological link Jesus himself draws is visible identically in German. Mandatory theologian review for cross-referential consistency with the Matthew package.
Sheol Hades
Approved rendering: Totenreich / Scheol
Transliteration: She’ol; Hadēs
Doctrine: Prayer from the Deep: Death and Deliverance
Rejected alternatives: Hölle (FORBIDDEN — imports later eternal-torment doctrine foreign to OT Sheol)
Original: שְׁאוֹל / ᾅδης
Category: Death and Resurrection
NEVER render as ‘Hölle.’ Use ‘Totenreich’ or transliterated ‘Scheol’ with a gloss. Mandatory theologian review given the real risk of unreflective ‘Hölle’ substitution invited by the surface cognate temptation (‘Hades’/‘Hölle’). Automated pre-check should flag any ‘Hölle’ occurrence in Jonah chapter 2 output for immediate rejection before human review.
Displeased Grieved Greatly
Approved rendering: Das missfiel Jona sehr, und er wurde zornig
Transliteration: wayera el-Yonah ra’ah gedolah; elypēthē Iōnas lypēn megalēn
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Original: וַיֵּרַע אֶל־יוֹנָה רָעָה גְדוֹלָה / ἐλυπήθη Ιωνας λύπην μεγάλην
Category: Human Reluctance
NEW. The Hebrew wordplay linking Nineveh’s ‘evil’ (ch. 3, ra’ah) to Jonah’s own reaction is not recoverable in German; mandatory translator’s note surfacing the lost wordplay for teaching material, since the connection is central to the book’s sharpest statement on human reluctance versus God’s universal love.
Should I Not Have Pity
Approved rendering: Sollte ich da nicht Erbarmen haben?
Transliteration: halo achus; ou pheisomai
Doctrine: God’s Rhetorical Question and the Book’s Open Ending
Rejected alternatives: Ich habe Erbarmen (FORBIDDEN — flattens to declarative, destroys the open ending)
Original: הֲלֹא אָחוּס (chus) / οὐ φείσομαι
Category: God’s Compassion
Preserve the rhetorical, unresolved-question grammatical form — do NOT convert to a flat declarative statement. The book’s deliberately open ending (no recorded response from Jonah) is itself theologically significant and must not be smoothed over.
Medium Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: Glaube
Transliteration: Glaube
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: Weltanschauung
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Relevant to Jonah 3:5’s ‘believed God’ (glauben an Gott) — reuses this root in a new, pre-covenantal context; guard against reading developed Pauline justification-by-faith theology back into the Ninevites’ response. See believed_god below.
God
Approved rendering: Gott
Transliteration: Gott
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Jonah uses this term for the deity-vocabulary spoken by non-covenant characters (sailors, Ninevites); see the new god_generic entry for the book’s deliberate Elohim/YHWH tracking requirement, which extends but does not alter this entry.
Mission
Approved rendering: Mission
Transliteration: Mission
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Jonah’s reluctant proclamation to Nineveh (3:2-4) is a primary Old Testament forerunner to this doctrine; Germany’s colonial missionary history sensitivity note applies here as well.
Providence
Approved rendering: Vorsehung
Transliteration: Vorsehung
Doctrine: Providence
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Per the Jonah-specific linguistic gap analysis, reserve ‘Vorsehung’ for teaching commentary only, not the narrative translation itself — Jonah’s storm, fish, plant, and worm are best rendered with God as the explicit grammatical subject of concrete active verbs (see great_wind_storm below) rather than this more abstract providence noun, to avoid the Enlightenment/deist impersonal-force reading this term already risks in the baseline.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: Kraft Gottes
Transliteration: Kraft Gottes
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Available vocabulary for teaching commentary on Jonah’s Sovereignty of God over Creation doctrine (storm, fish, plant, worm, wind), alongside the concrete narrative verbs preferred in the base translated text.
Intercession
Approved rendering: Fürbitte
Transliteration: Fürbitte
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Must be kept lexically distinct from Jonah’s ‘cry mightily to God’ (see cry_mightily_to_god below, ‘ernstlich zu Gott rufen’) — the latter is urgent, unmediated, direct crying-out by Gentiles with no priest or temple, not the more liturgically formal intercessory sense this term carries.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: Auferstehung
Transliteration: Auferstehung
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Directly connects to the doctrine ‘Jonah as a Sign Foreshadowing Christ’s Resurrection’; the typological link (Matthew 12:40) depends on this term remaining exactly as established across the whole pipeline. See sign_of_jonah, great_fish, and three_days_three_nights below.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israel
Transliteration: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Relevant background for God’s Compassion for the Nations doctrine: Nineveh’s inclusion in God’s mercy must be framed as covenant-transcending divine compassion, never a comparative ranking against Israel nor a template for contemporary geopolitical claims, given Germany’s Staatsräson-level sensitivity around Israel/the-nations discourse.
Word Of The Lord
Approved rendering: das Wort des HERRN
Transliteration: devar-YHWH / logos Kyriou
Doctrine: Divine Calling and Commission
Original: דְּבַר־יְהוָה / λόγος Κυρίου
Category: Divine Calling
NEW. Reuses baseline ‘Herr’ for κύριος/YHWH. The formula must render identically at Jonah 1:1 and 3:1 so German readers perceive the deliberate narrative repetition signaling that Jonah’s flight did not cancel God’s call — his word is repeated, not withdrawn.
God Generic
Approved rendering: Gott
Transliteration: Elohim / ho theos
Doctrine: Gentile Recognition of the LORD versus Generic God
Original: אֱלֹהִים (Elohim) / ὁ θεός
Category: God
NEW. Tracks the book’s deliberate Elohim/YHWH distinction: sailors and Ninevites relate to generic ‘Gott’ (Elohim), while Jonah invokes ‘der HERR’ (YHWH) by name (cf. 1:16). Must not be flattened to one undifferentiated word across the whole book, or the narrative’s progression toward Gentile recognition of Israel’s specific God is lost. Extends, but does not replace, the inherited baseline ‘god’ entry.
Great City Before God
Approved rendering: eine sehr große Stadt
Transliteration: ir gedolah l’Elohim; polis megalē tō theō
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: groß vor Gott (literal; obscures the superlative idiom for modern readers)
Original: עִיר גְּדוֹלָה לֵאלֹהִים / πόλις μεγάλη τῷ θεῷ
Category: Sovereignty
NEW. Hebrew superlative idiom using the divine name as an intensifier. Follow established German Bible convention in running text; preserve the idiom’s theological suggestiveness (pagan Nineveh already stands under God’s purview) for teaching footnotes only.
Overthrown Destroyed
Approved rendering: umgestürzt werden / zerstört werden
Transliteration: nehpachet (haphakh); katastraphēsetai
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Original: נֶהְפָּכֶת (haphakh) / καταστραφήσεται
Category: Judgment
NEW. Echoes Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction vocabulary (Genesis 19:25, 29), casting Nineveh as a ‘new Sodom’ under threat. German has no lexical item preserving this wordplay; the intertextual echo belongs in teaching commentary with a Genesis 19 cross-reference, not in the translation choice itself.
Fast Fasting
Approved rendering: Fasten
Transliteration: tsom; nēsteia
Doctrine: The Ninevites’ Faith and Repentance
Original: צוֹם / νηστεία
Category: Repentance
NEW. Catholic (structured Fastenzeit/Lent) and Protestant (lower ritual emphasis) traditions weight fasting differently. Present as a spontaneous, urgent response to Jonah’s specific warning, not liturgical calendar observance, to avoid denominational conflation.
Sackcloth
Approved rendering: Sacktuch / Bußgewand
Transliteration: saq; sakkos
Doctrine: The Ninevites’ Faith and Repentance
Original: שַׂק / σάκκος
Category: Repentance
NEW. Coarse mourning/penitence garment worn ‘from the greatest of them to the least,’ signaling total social inclusion. Mourning/penitential association not self-evident to secular German readers; gloss on first occurrence.
King Of Nineveh
Approved rendering: der König von Ninive
Transliteration: melekh Nineveh; ho basileus tēs Nineuē
Doctrine: Royal and National Repentance
Original: מֶלֶךְ נִינְוֵה / ὁ βασιλεύς τῆς Νινευη
Category: Historical and Political
NEW. Assyrian records use ‘king of Assyria,’ not ‘king of Nineveh’ — a historical-critical genre question belonging in teaching-material transparency, not in the translated text, which renders the title plainly.
Cry Mightily To God
Approved rendering: ernstlich zu Gott rufen
Transliteration: weyiqre’u el-Elohim bechozqah; aneboēsan pros ton theon ektenōs
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Original: וְיִקְרְאוּ אֶל־אֱלֹהִים בְּחָזְקָה / ἀνεβόησαν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἐκτενῶς
Category: Prayer
NEW. Nineveh’s urgent, unmediated, corporate cry to God — no priest, temple, or covenant sign required, and directly answered. Keep distinguishable from the inherited baseline ‘Fürbitte’ (formal intercession); this is direct personal/corporate crying-out.
Evil Way Violence
Approved rendering: böser Weg / Gewalttat, Unrecht
Transliteration: derekh ha-ra’ah; chamas; hodos ponēra; adikia
Doctrine: The Ninevites’ Faith and Repentance
Original: דֶּרֶךְ הָרָעָה / חָמָס / ὁδὸς πονηρά / ἀδικία
Category: Ethics and Sin
NEW. Chamas denotes active violent social wrongdoing, not vague immorality. Teaching material must not let ritual elements (fasting, sackcloth, ashes) eclipse this ethical-turning element — a real risk given German Protestant tradition’s tendency toward inward/spiritual emphasis.
Fierce Anger Wrath
Approved rendering: Zorn Gottes / sein glühender Zorn
Transliteration: charon apo; orgē thymou
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Rejected alternatives: Enttäuschung (disappointment — forbidden softening)
Original: חֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ / ὀργὴ θυμοῦ
Category: Divine Character
NEW. God’s settled, righteous judicial response to wickedness, not capricious rage — real and deserved judgment until averted by relenting mercy. Never softened to mere disappointment-language, or the book’s dramatic tension collapses.
Calamity Evil Threatened
Approved rendering: das Unheil
Transliteration: ha-ra’ah asher-diber; hē kakia hē elalēsen
Doctrine: Repentance and Divine Mercy
Rejected alternatives: das Böse / die Bosheit (reserved for human moral evil, v.8)
Original: הָרָעָה אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּר לַעֲשׂוֹת־לָהֶם / ἡ κακία ᾗ ἐλάλησεν τοῦ ποιῆσαι
Category: Judgment
NEW. The Hebrew root ra’ah covers both ‘wickedness’ (human moral evil, v.8) and ‘calamity/disaster’ (God’s threatened judgment, v.10) in a wordplay largely unrecoverable in German. Keep ‘das Unheil’ lexically distinct from ‘das Böse/die Bosheit’; flag the resulting loss of wordplay transparently in a translator’s note.
Flee From The Lord
Approved rendering: fliehen vom Angesicht des HERRN
Transliteration: livroach millifnei YHWH; pheugein ek prosōpou Kyriou
Doctrine: Human Reluctance versus God’s Universal Love
Rejected alternatives: vor Gott weg (flattens the repeated idiom)
Original: לִבְרֹחַ…מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה / φυγεῖν…ἐκ προσώπου Κυρίου
Category: Human Reluctance
NEW. Preserve ‘Angesicht’ for the repeated idiom (1:3 x2; echoed 1:10) rather than flattening to a plain ‘vor Gott weg,’ so attentive readers notice the deliberate threefold repetition and its theological irony (no one flees an omnipresent God — cf. Psalm 139).
Great Wind Storm
Approved rendering: großer Sturm (von Gott erregt)
Transliteration: ru’ach…saar gadol; pneuma…klydōn megas
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: ein Sturm entstand (passive; forbidden — weakens divine causation)
Original: רוּח…וְסַעַר גָּדוֹל / πνεῦμα…κλύδων μέγας
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
NEW. Render ‘Der HERR erregte einen großen Sturm auf dem Meer,’ keeping God as the explicit grammatical subject/cause rather than a passive construction, to preserve the sovereignty-over-creation doctrine’s force.
Feared Greatly
Approved rendering: sich fürchten / Gottesfurcht
Transliteration: wayyire’u; ephobēthēsan
Doctrine: The Pagan Sailors’ Fear and Response
Original: וַיִּירְאוּ (yare) / ἐφοβήθησαν
Category: Fear of God
NEW. Track the narrative’s escalation from ordinary fear of the storm (1:5, ‘sich fürchten’) to reverent, name-specific fear of the LORD (1:10, 1:16, ‘Gottesfurcht’), paralleling 3:5. Flattening all occurrences to one register erases this progression; native speaker review required to calibrate correctly.
Vow
Approved rendering: Gelübde
Transliteration: neder; euchē
Doctrine: Prayer from the Deep: Death and Deliverance
Original: נֶדֶר / εὐχή
Category: Piety
NEW. Jonah’s promise made in distress (2:9), fulfilled upon deliverance. Flag for native-speaker awareness of Catholic devotional-vow associations (votive offerings, formal religious vows) versus the simpler Protestant sense of a personal promise to God; do not import monastic-vow connotations absent from the text.
Plant Gourd
Approved rendering: Rizinusstaude
Transliteration: qiqayon; kolokyntha
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Rejected alternatives: Kürbis (older, still defensible alternative), Efeu/Hedera (Jerome’s disputed rendering — historical note only, not a live option)
Original: קִיקָיוֹן / κολόκυνθα
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
NEW. Modern scholarly consensus favors ‘Rizinusstaude’ (castor-oil plant) over the older ‘Kürbis’ (gourd). The historic Jerome/Augustine translation controversy over this exact word is documented precedent that even minor botanical terms can carry disproportionate reader attachment; flag for native-speaker review on reception grounds, not doctrinal risk.
Low Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: Evangelium
Transliteration: Evangelium
Doctrine: Gospel
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Relevant to Jonah as the contrast term for proclaim_preach: Jonah’s κήρυγμα/proclamation to Nineveh is a judgment-warning, not the Evangelium; the two must never be conflated or paired (e.g. NEVER ‘das Evangelium verkündigen’ for Jonah’s message).
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Cross-referenced in any teaching material invoking the Sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32).
Nineveh Great City
Approved rendering: Ninive, die große Stadt
Transliteration: Nineveh; Nineuē
Doctrine: God’s Compassion for the Nations
Original: נִינְוֵה הָעִיר הַגְּדוֹלָה / Νινευη ἡ πόλις ἡ μεγάλη
Category: Missions and Nations
NEW. Standard German Bible proper-name form ‘Ninive’; pair consistently with ‘die große Stadt’ throughout for internal cohesion. Never glossed in a way inviting contemporary political mapping onto any present-day nation or people group.
Ashes
Approved rendering: Asche
Transliteration: epher; spodos
Doctrine: The Ninevites’ Faith and Repentance
Original: אֵפֶר / σποδός
Category: Repentance
NEW. Paired with sackcloth as the king’s own penitential act (3:6); transparent, no special gloss required.
Man And Beast
Approved rendering: Mensch und Vieh
Transliteration: ha-adam vehabehemah; anthrōpoi kai ktēnē
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Original: הָאָדָם וְהַבְּהֵמָה / οἱ ἄνθρωποι καὶ τὰ κτήνη
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
NEW. The royal decree’s extension of fasting even to animals (3:7-8), echoed again at 4:11; supports a creation-theology reading of God’s compassion and sovereignty extending to all creation, not humanity alone.
Cast Lots
Approved rendering: das Los werfen
Transliteration: wayyapilu goralot; ebalon klērous
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Original: וַיַּפִּלוּ גּוֹרָלוֹת / ἔβαλον κλήρους
Category: Sovereignty
NEW. The sailors’ pagan divinatory practice, through which the LORD’s sovereign purpose is nonetheless accomplished (cf. Proverbs 16:33). A brief teaching note on ancient lot-casting practice is useful context only, not an endorsement of divination.
Salvation Belongs To Lord
Approved rendering: Rettung (Die Rettung kommt vom HERRN)
Transliteration: laYHWH hayeshuah; sōtēria tou Kyriou
Doctrine: Salvation as God’s Initiative
Original: לַיהוה הַיְשׁוּעָה / σωτηρία τοῦ Κυρίου
Category: Salvation
NEW (phrase-level). Direct reuse of the inherited baseline ‘Rettung’ term. Jonah’s most explicit soteriological statement (2:9), placed in the mouth of a rebellious prophet — deliverance entirely as God’s initiative and gift. No new risk beyond the baseline’s existing Heil/Erlösung/Rettung discussion.
Worm
Approved rendering: Wurm
Transliteration: tola’at; skōlēx
Doctrine: The Sovereignty of God over Creation
Original: תּוֹלַעַת / σκώληξ
Category: Sovereignty over Creation
NEW. The small creature God appoints to destroy Jonah’s shade plant (4:7); part of God’s ongoing sovereign orchestration of natural events throughout chapter 4, alongside the storm, fish, and plant.
Referenced passages