Passage

Romans 1

• Glossary Term

  Apostle

  Stable, shared term across all German Bible traditions.

  ROM.1.1

• Doctrine

  Apostleship

  Stable, established term; minimal risk of reduction to a generic teacher role.

  ROM.1.1

• Glossary Term

  Called

  Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Glossary Term

  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.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Doctrine

  Christian Fellowship

  Shared participation in Christ; translators should avoid phrasing that echoes the collectivist 'Volksgemeinschaft' register given Germany's specific 20th-century history, though the word itself is biblically sound and pre-dates that misuse.

  ROM.1.12

• Glossary Term

  Covenant

  Relational covenant bond, established biblical German usage since Luther.

  ROM.1.3

• Glossary Term

  David

  Standard proper name form across all German traditions.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Davidic Covenant

  Requires OT background explanation; 'Same Davids' is archaic and should be rendered 'Nachkomme Davids' to avoid clinical register collision.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Deity of Christ

  CRITICAL: co-equal divine nature must not be softened into 'ein von Gott erfüllter Mensch' or similar diminished readings.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Divine Calling

  'Berufung' collides with two unrelated everyday senses (career vocation; legal appeal), requiring context to keep the divine-initiative sense clear.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Glossary Term

  Exhort

  Context-sensitive: 'ermahnen' leans toward admonish/warn; use 'ermutigen' (encourage) for the building-up sense where the context calls for warmth rather than correction.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Faith

  Personal trust in Christ, not generic secular 'Weltanschauung'-style belief.

  ROM.1.17

• Glossary Term

  Faith

  Secularized usage now often treats 'Glaube' as generic worldview or spirituality ('etwas Höheres glauben').

  ROM.1.17

• Glossary Term

  Fellowship

  The ordinary Luther Bible word for koinonia.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Fulfillment of Prophecy

  Linear historical fulfillment (OT to NT); low OT literacy among secular or lightly-churched readers requires explicit cross-referencing.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Glory

  God's radiant presence and honor.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  God

  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.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Gospel

  Stable term, coined in this exact theological sense by Luther himself; the word is not disputed, though rising biblical illiteracy especially in former East Germany means content can no longer be assumed as common knowledge.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Gospel

  Shared, stable term across Catholic (Einheitsübersetzung) and Protestant (Lutherbibel) German Bibles since Luther himself coined this usage.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Humanity of Christ

  Real physical human nature; no competing illusionist worldview in German culture.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Incarnation

  Well-established doctrinal term; risk is register choice (Menschwerdung vs.

  ROM.1.3

• Glossary Term

  Incarnation

  Native compound (becoming human) preferred in Lutheran catechetical register over the Latinate 'Inkarnation', which is more common in Catholic/academic register.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Inspiration of Scripture

  Distinguish God-breathed Scripture from a purely historical-critical reading common in the German academic theological tradition (historisch-kritische Methode), which has deep roots in German biblical scholarship.

  ROM.1.2

• Glossary Term

  Jesus

  Stable across all German traditions.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Justification

  CRITICAL: 'Rechtfertigungslehre' is the Lutheran material principle of the Reformation (iustificatio sola fide).

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Law

  '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.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Lord

  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.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Lordship of Christ

  CRITICAL: 'Herr' doubles as the everyday title 'Mr.' with no protective alternative honorific in German, making Romans 10:9's confession unusually prone to perceptual flattening into a mundane form of address for biblically illiterate readers.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Messiah

  The Anointed One fulfilling OT promise.

  ROM.1.3-4

• Doctrine

  Messianic Promise

  The specific Jewish OT concept fulfilled exclusively in Jesus must not be flattened into a generic moral teacher, a real drift risk given widespread biblical illiteracy.

  ROM.1.3-4

• Glossary Term

  Mission

  Germany's colonial missionary history (German East Africa) is shorter than France's but still informs some postcolonial critique in contemporary German missiological discourse.

  ROM.1.5, ROM.1.13-14

• Doctrine

  Mission to the Nations

  Germany's shorter colonial missionary history still informs some postcolonial critique in contemporary German missiological discourse.

  ROM.1.5, ROM.1.13-14

• Doctrine

  Mutual Edification

  Building one another up in faith; no significant doctrinal risk.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Obedience of Faith

  Must be guarded against reintroducing Werkgerechtigkeit (works-righteousness); obedience is fruit of faith, not its precondition.

  ROM.1.5

• Glossary Term

  Obedience Of Faith

  Romans 1:5, 16:26.

  ROM.1.5

• Glossary Term

  Power Of God

  Sovereign, saving capability.

  ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Power of God for Salvation

  'Kraft' conveys sovereign capability without the Heil-word contamination risk.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Prophecy

  Luther's older term, still current; 'Prophezeiung' also acceptable.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Prophet

  God's spokesperson.

  ROM.1.2

• Glossary Term

  Resurrection

  Bodily, historical, once-for-all event; no competing reincarnation folk-concept in German culture.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Resurrection of Christ

  Bodily, historical, once-for-all event; chief risk is secular naturalism reading it as metaphor rather than historical claim.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Righteousness

  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.

  ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Sainthood (Called to be Holy)

  Catholic 'die Heiligen' (canonized saints) versus Lutheran/Reformed priesthood-of-all-believers sense is a live fault line given Germany's roughly even historical Catholic/Protestant split.

  ROM.1.7

• Doctrine

  Salvation

  HIGH RISK, distinctly German: the natural doctrinal word 'Heil' is compromised by its Nazi-era co-optation ('Heil Hitler'), forcing a choice among 'Rettung', 'Erlösung', and cautious, context-dependent use of 'Heil' itself — a genuine German-specific translation and reviewer-sensitivity problem with no parallel in the other five languages in this batch.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Salvation

  HIGH RISK, distinctly German: three partially overlapping words exist (Heil, Erlösung, Rettung).

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Seed Of David

  Luther's literal 'von dem Samen Davids' is now archaic; modern 'Same' primarily denotes biological seed/semen in clinical register.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Separation unto God's Service

  Must not collapse into monastic withdrawal; biblical separation is devotion to God while remaining engaged in ordinary life and vocation.

  ROM.1.1

• Glossary Term

  Sin

  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.

  ROM.1.18

• Glossary Term

  Son Of God

  CRITICAL: full phrase required, conveying eternal, unique Sonship.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Sonship of Christ

  CRITICAL: eternal, unique Sonship, not adoptive or metaphorical sonship as in ordinary 'Kindschaft'.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Spiritual Gifts

  Charismatic and cessationist-leaning German Protestant streams read gifts language differently; keep gifts explicitly grace-given, not natural talent.

  ROM.1.11

• Glossary Term

  Spiritual Gifts

  'Gnadengaben' (grace-gifts) ties the gifts explicitly back to Gnade (grace), a more precise Lutheran/Reformed rendering than the looser 'geistliche Gaben'.

  ROM.1.11

• Doctrine

  Thanksgiving

  Standard term.

  ROM.1.8, ROM.1.21

• Glossary Term

  Thanksgiving

  Standard term.

  ROM.1.8, ROM.1.21

• Doctrine

  Universal Human Accountability

  Universal guilt before God; watch for colloquial trivialization of 'Sünde' softening the force of 'all have sinned'.

  ROM.1.18

• Doctrine

  Universal Scope of the Gospel

  No ethnic or national barrier to the gospel; retain unqualified universality without softening.

  ROM.1.16