Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved German translation (and a transliteration/pronunciation field, mostly mirroring the translation since German uses Latin script)
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Established Reformation-era usage over invention — where Luther’s own translation choices (Gerechtigkeit, Rechtfertigung, Kindschaft, zugerechnete Gerechtigkeit) remain sound, this glossary follows them rather than proposing modern alternatives.
- Explicit disambiguation and sensitivity flagging, not silent avoidance — every Critical or High-risk term records why the ordinary German rendering is underspecified between Catholic and Lutheran/Reformed tradition, or carries historical sensitivity (see
alternatives_rejectedandnotes), so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule. - Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document.
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.
Critical Risk Terms
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: zugerechnete Gerechtigkeit
Transliteration: zugerechnete Gerechtigkeit
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: verdiente Gerechtigkeit
CRITICAL: ‘zurechnen’ (to impute/credit/reckon) is Luther’s own precise verb from Romans 4, central to the forensic, not infused, understanding at the heart of the Reformation breakthrough.
Justification
Approved rendering: Rechtfertigung
Transliteration: Rechtfertigung
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Erlösung (distinct concept)
CRITICAL: ‘Rechtfertigungslehre’ is the Lutheran material principle of the Reformation (iustificatio sola fide). The 1999 Gemeinsame Erklärung zur Rechtfertigungslehre (Joint Declaration, signed in Augsburg by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church) narrowed but did not erase the historic gap with Catholic theology’s view of justification as a process involving infused grace.
Lord
Approved rendering: Herr
Transliteration: Herr
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Meister, Chef
CRITICAL: Romans 10:9 ‘Jesus ist Herr.’ ‘Herr’ is also the ordinary everyday title ‘Mr.’ (Herr Müller), a stronger flattening risk than in most languages in this batch because there is no separate everyday honorific to protect the exalted sense — biblically illiterate readers may perceptually collapse the confession into a mundane form of address.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: Gerechtigkeit
Transliteration: Gerechtigkeit
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Tugend
CRITICAL: ‘Gerechtigkeit Gottes’ in Romans 1:17 is the exact phrase behind Luther’s own reported breakthrough (Turmerlebnis) — realizing it names a righteousness God gives and credits, received passively by faith, not a righteousness God demands and that must be achieved. This is the single most historically load-bearing term in the German package.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Sohn Gottes
Transliteration: Sohn Gottes
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
CRITICAL: full phrase required, conveying eternal, unique Sonship.
High Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: Gemeinde
Transliteration: Gemeinde
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: Kirche (institution-default)
HIGH RISK: Catholic and state-church (Landeskirche) usage defaults ‘Kirche’ to the institution; Free church (Freikirche) and Pietist tradition prefer ‘Gemeinde’ for the gathered local body, closer to NT ekklesia. Germany’s church-tax system (Kirchensteuer) and formal ‘Kirchenaustritt’ (exit) further couple ‘Kirche’ with bureaucratic institution in the secular mind. This curriculum prefers ‘Gemeinde’ for the body-of-Christ sense.
Election
Approved rendering: Erwählung
Transliteration: Erwählung
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
German Reformed (Calvinist) tradition, present in parts of western Germany, historically debated double predestination more directly than Lutherans, who tend toward a more pastoral, comfort-oriented emphasis on election. Translators must not impose either tradition’s precise systematic doctrine onto a curriculum serving both audiences.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: Heiden
Transliteration: Heiden
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
HIGH RISK: the traditional Lutheran rendering carries a pejorative ‘uncivilized pagan’ connotation in modern German. Given Germany’s specific historical relationship to antisemitism, the pairing ‘Juden und Heiden’ requires deliberate, historically sensitive handling from reviewers, more so than the equivalent pairing in most other languages.
Grace
Approved rendering: Gnade
Transliteration: Gnade
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: Barmherzigkeit, Wohlwollen
Luther’s ‘sola gratia’ (Gnade allein) is a Reformation cornerstone. Catholic Einheitsübersetzung uses the same word but ties it more to sacramental means of grace (Gnadenmittel); must render as unmerited and apart from any human or ecclesial cooperation.
Law
Approved rendering: Gesetz
Transliteration: Gesetz
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
‘Gesetz und Evangelium’ (law and gospel) is a cornerstone Lutheran hermeneutical dialectic, more load-bearing in German homiletic tradition than in most other languages in this batch.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: Gehorsam des Glaubens
Transliteration: Gehorsam des Glaubens
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Romans 1:5, 16:26. Must be guarded carefully against reintroducing Werkgerechtigkeit (works-righteousness), the very error Luther’s sola fide rejected; obedience is fruit of faith, not its precondition.
Saints
Approved rendering: Heilige
Transliteration: die Heiligen
Doctrine: Sainthood
HIGH RISK: Catholic ‘die Heiligen’ (canonized saints, Heiligsprechung, patron saints, Namenstag) differs from the Lutheran/Reformed sense of all believers as ‘Heilige’ under the priesthood of all believers (allgemeines Priestertum). Given Germany’s roughly even historical Catholic/Protestant split, this fault line is live for a broad audience.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Rettung
Transliteration: Rettung
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Heil (Nazi-era contamination risk), Erlösung (more existential/liberation-flavored)
HIGH RISK, distinctly German: three partially overlapping words exist (Heil, Erlösung, Rettung). ‘Heil’ is doctrinally apt (wholeness/salvation) but is heavily contaminated in contemporary usage by its Nazi-era co-optation (‘Heil Hitler’), making many modern speakers and reviewers instinctively avoid it. This curriculum prefers ‘Rettung’ (concrete rescue) or ‘Erlösung’ (Luther’s own preferred term) depending on context, and flags ‘Heil’ for case-by-case reviewer judgment rather than blanket use or blanket avoidance.
Medium Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved by Luther as ‘Abba, lieber Vater’ (Romans 8:15), retained in all major modern German translations.
Adoption
Approved rendering: Kindschaft
Transliteration: Kindschaft
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: Adoption (bare, legal-procedural)
Luther’s own term for huiothesia. Modern bare ‘Adoption’ now defaults to the legal-procedural sense (adoption agencies); ‘Kindschaft’ preserves the full-son-status, full-inheritance sense.
Called
Approved rendering: berufen
Transliteration: berufen
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation.
Calling
Approved rendering: Berufung
Transliteration: Berufung
Doctrine: Divine Calling
‘Berufung’ is also the everyday word for career/life calling (Berufung zum Lehrer) and, distinctly, the legal term for a court appeal (Berufung einlegen) — a genuine German-specific homonym-collision risk requiring context to disambiguate from either secular sense.
Covenant
Approved rendering: Bund
Transliteration: Bund
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Relational covenant bond, established biblical German usage since Luther.
Faith
Approved rendering: Glaube
Transliteration: Glaube
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: Weltanschauung
Secularized usage now often treats ‘Glaube’ as generic worldview or spirituality (‘etwas Höheres glauben’). Must specify personal trust in Christ, not generic religiosity.
Father
Approved rendering: Vater
Transliteration: Vater
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
God as personal Father.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: Gemeinschaft
Transliteration: Gemeinschaft
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
The ordinary Luther Bible word for koinonia. Note for translators/reviewers: ‘Gemeinschaft’ also has 20th-century political baggage (Volksgemeinschaft, Nazi-era collectivist ideology); the biblical word itself is not tainted, but constructions should avoid echoing that specific collectivist phrasing register.
Glory
Approved rendering: Herrlichkeit
Transliteration: Herrlichkeit
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
God’s radiant presence and honor.
God
Approved rendering: Gott
Transliteration: Gott
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Sharp religious-literacy divide between former West and East Germany (the latter shaped by decades of state-atheist policy) means ‘Gott’ is increasingly encountered as cultural-historical vocabulary rather than a live claim for a large and growing ‘konfessionslos’ (religiously unaffiliated) population.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Heiliger Geist
Transliteration: Heiliger Geist
Doctrine: Sanctification
The personal third Person of the Trinity; no competing deity-concept risk in German culture.
Holy
Approved rendering: heilig
Transliteration: heilig
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: rein
Set apart for God and morally pure; ‘rein’ alone loses the set-apart sense.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: Menschwerdung
Transliteration: Menschwerdung
Doctrine: Incarnation
Native compound (becoming human) preferred in Lutheran catechetical register over the Latinate ‘Inkarnation’, which is more common in Catholic/academic register. Both are doctrinally sound; this is a register choice, not a doctrinal contradiction.
Intercession
Approved rendering: Fürbitte
Transliteration: Fürbitte
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Standard term used in both Catholic and Protestant German liturgy for congregational prayers of intercession; lower risk of Marian/saint-devotional conflation than in French or Italian since it functions primarily as the shared liturgical word for this practice.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israel
Transliteration: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Germany’s post-Holocaust national policy (Staatsräson, explicitly tying German national identity to Israel’s security) makes biblical Israel especially prone to conflation with the modern nation-state in German public discourse, a distinctly acute version of this general Western risk.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Reich Gottes
Transliteration: Reich Gottes
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Long-standing biblical German phrase since Luther; not perceived as problematic in religious context despite ‘Reich’ carrying unrelated 20th-century historical associations (Reich Gottes predates and is theologically unrelated to that history) — worth a brief translator-awareness note for non-native reviewers.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messias
Transliteration: Messias
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
The Anointed One fulfilling OT promise.
Mission
Approved rendering: Mission
Transliteration: Mission
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Germany’s colonial missionary history (German East Africa) is shorter than France’s but still informs some postcolonial critique in contemporary German missiological discourse.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: Kraft Gottes
Transliteration: Kraft Gottes
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Sovereign, saving capability.
Providence
Approved rendering: Vorsehung
Transliteration: Vorsehung
Doctrine: Providence
Also used in Enlightenment/deist philosophical German (e.g. Kant’s ‘die Vorsehung’) for an impersonal governing order; must render Romans 8:28’s providence as personal and purposive, not deist.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: Auferstehung
Transliteration: Auferstehung
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Bodily, historical, once-for-all event; no competing reincarnation folk-concept in German culture.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: Heiligung
Transliteration: Heiligung
Doctrine: Sanctification
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: Nachkomme Davids
Transliteration: Nachkomme Davids
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: Same Davids (archaic/crude register)
Luther’s literal ‘von dem Samen Davids’ is now archaic; modern ‘Same’ primarily denotes biological seed/semen in clinical register. Modern revisions (Luther 2017, Einheitsübersetzung) prefer ‘Nachkomme Davids’ (descendant of David).
Sin
Approved rendering: Sünde
Transliteration: Sünde
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Secularization risk: colloquial German uses ‘Sünde’ loosely for minor indulgence (a ‘Sünde’ on a diet, eating cake), risking trivialization of Romans’ weightier sense of culpable rebellion against God.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: Gnadengaben
Transliteration: Gnadengaben
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: geistliche Gaben (looser)
‘Gnadengaben’ (grace-gifts) ties the gifts explicitly back to Gnade (grace), a more precise Lutheran/Reformed rendering than the looser ‘geistliche Gaben’.
Low Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: Apostel
Transliteration: Apostel
Doctrine: Apostleship
Stable, shared term across all German Bible traditions.
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Standard proper name form across all German traditions.
Exhort
Approved rendering: ermahnen
Transliteration: ermahnen
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: ‘ermahnen’ leans toward admonish/warn; use ‘ermutigen’ (encourage) for the building-up sense where the context calls for warmth rather than correction.
Gospel
Approved rendering: Evangelium
Transliteration: Evangelium
Doctrine: Gospel
Shared, stable term across Catholic (Einheitsübersetzung) and Protestant (Lutherbibel) German Bibles since Luther himself coined this usage.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Stable across all German traditions.
Peace
Approved rendering: Friede
Transliteration: Friede
Doctrine: Peace with God
In Romans 5:1, relational peace with God through justification, not merely psychological calm.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: Weissagung
Transliteration: Weissagung
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Luther’s older term, still current; ‘Prophezeiung’ also acceptable. Register choice, not doctrinal.
Prophet
Approved rendering: Prophet
Transliteration: Prophet
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
God’s spokesperson.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: Danksagung
Transliteration: Danksagung
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term. No significant risk.
Referenced passages