Passage

Romans 10

• Doctrine

  Evangelism

  In an increasingly secular, religiously plural society, evangelism language must be framed as respectful proclamation and witness rather than pressure.

  ROM.10.14-15

• Doctrine

  Faith

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

  ROM.10.9-10, ROM.10.17

• Glossary Term

  Faith

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

  ROM.10.9-10, ROM.10.17

• Doctrine

  Fulfillment of Prophecy

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

  ROM.10.11

• Glossary Term

  Gentiles

  HIGH RISK: the traditional Lutheran rendering carries a pejorative 'uncivilized pagan' connotation in modern German.

  ROM.10.12

• 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.10.15-16

• Glossary Term

  Gospel

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

  ROM.10.15-16

• Glossary Term

  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.

  ROM.10.1

• Glossary Term

  Israel

  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.

  ROM.10.12

• Glossary Term

  Jesus

  Stable across all German traditions.

  ROM.10.9, ROM.10.12

• Glossary Term

  Justification

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

  ROM.10.1, ROM.10.10

• 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.10.11

• 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.10.9, ROM.10.12

• 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.10.9, ROM.10.12

• Doctrine

  Prayer and Intercession

  Direct access to God in Christ's name; 'Fürbitte' is a shared liturgical term across Catholic and Protestant German worship, lowering (though not eliminating) risk of Marian/saint-devotional conflation.

  ROM.10.1

• Glossary Term

  Prophecy

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

  ROM.10.11

• 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.10.1, ROM.10.10

• 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.10.1, ROM.10.10

• Glossary Term

  Salvation

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

  ROM.10.1, ROM.10.10

• Doctrine

  Unity of Jews and Gentiles

  Given Germany's specific historical relationship to antisemitism, this pairing requires unusually careful, historically aware handling from reviewers rather than casual paraphrase.

  ROM.10.12

• Doctrine

  Universal Scope of the Gospel

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

  ROM.10.12-13