Core Glossary
08 Core Glossary — Titus (English → German)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entire book of Titus (chapters 1–3). Terms already recorded in the baseline Romans translation memory are marked [BASELINE — reuse exactly] and must not be altered. New terms are marked [NEW — proposed for translation memory] with a recommended German rendering and risk tier for Step 2 ratification.
Part 1 — Baseline Terms Reused in Titus
| Term | Original (Greek) | German rendering | Risk (baseline) | Titus occurrences | Notes for this curriculum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grace | χάρις | Gnade | Critical | 1:4; 2:11; 3:7, 15 | Titus 2:11’s “grace… has appeared” personifies grace as saving agent; 3:7’s “justified by his grace” is a core justification statement. |
| Faith | πίστις | Glaube | Medium | 1:1, 4, 13; 2:2, 10; 3:15 | ”Common faith” (1:4), “sound in the faith” (1:13, 2:2) — personal trust, not generic religiosity. |
| Righteousness | δικαιοσύνη | Gerechtigkeit | Critical | 2:12; 3:5 | 3:5 “works of righteousness” — see nicht aus Werken entry; must not collapse into moral achievement. |
| Justification | δικαιόω | Rechtfertigung / gerechtfertigt | Critical | 3:7 | The letter’s single explicit justification statement; forensic, grace-alone, immediately following the “not by works” denial in 3:5. |
| Salvation | σῴζω / σωτήριος (adj.) | Rettung / retten | Critical/High | 2:11 (σωτήριος); 3:5 (ἔσωσεν) | Consistently prefer Rettung-family vocabulary over Heil-root; σωτήριος describes grace’s saving property. |
| Apostle | ἀπόστολος | Apostel | Low | 1:1 | Stable. |
| Called / Election | ἐκλεκτός | Erwählung-family (“die Erwählten Gottes”) | High | 1:1 | Ties to effectual-calling doctrine; theologian review per existing escalation rule. |
| Church (implicit) | οἶκος θεοῦ (household of God, cf. 1:7) | Gemeinde (contextual) | High | 1:7 (implied) | The elder/overseer manages God’s household; prefer Gemeinde-adjacent framing over institutional Kirche language. |
| Law | νόμος | Gesetz | High | 1:14 (implied, “commandments of men” contrasted); 3:9 (νομικάς) | Care to distinguish Mosaic-Torah sense from the broader “legal wrangling” sense in 3:9. |
| Glory | δόξα | Herrlichkeit | Medium | 2:13 | ”The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior.” |
| God | θεός | Gott | Critical | throughout (1:1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 16; 2:5, 10, 11, 13; 3:4, 8) | Stable. |
| Jesus / Christ | Ἰησοῦς Χριστός | Jesus / Christus | Low/Critical | 1:1, 4; 2:13; 3:6 | Stable proper names. |
| Holy Spirit | πνεῦμα ἅγιον | Heiliger Geist | Critical | 3:5 | Agent of regeneration/renewal; ties to Trinitarian structure of 3:4-6. |
| Peace | εἰρήνη | Friede | Low | 1:4 | Standard salutation pairing with Gnade. |
| Exhort | παρακαλέω | ermahnen | Low | 1:9; 2:6 (implied), 2:15 | Context-sensitive per baseline note; 2:15’s triad (speak/exhort/rebuke) requires register distinction. |
| Good works | καλὰ/ἀγαθὰ ἔργα | gute Werke | Critical | 1:16; 2:7, 14; 3:1, 8, 14 | Six occurrences — the letter’s structural refrain; always fruit, never ground, of salvation. |
| Not of works | οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων | nicht aus Werken | Critical | 3:5 | Reused exactly from Ephesians 2:9; broader in scope than Galatians’ Werke des Gesetzes — denies any human moral achievement as salvation’s ground, not specifically Torah-markers. Mandatory disambiguation note. |
| Works of the Law (conceptually adjacent) | ἔργα νόμου (cf. Galatians; Titus uses a related but distinct phrase, ἔργα … ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ) | Werke des Gesetzes (NOT the phrase used in Titus 3:5; cited for contrast only) | Critical | — | Titus 3:5 must NOT be silently merged with this Galatians-specific phrase; see nicht aus Werken note. |
| Submission | ὑποτάσσω/ὑποτάσσεσθαι | sich unterordnen | Critical | 2:5, 9; 3:1 | Three distinct applications (wives, slaves, civil authority); 3:1’s civil-authority application carries an elevated German-specific historical-sensitivity risk beyond the Ephesians precedent — see Part 2. |
| Slaves and Masters | δοῦλοι/δεσπόται | Sklaven/Herren | High | 2:9-10 | Reused exactly with mandatory first-century historical-distancing framing. |
| Circumcision | περιτομή | Beschneidung | Medium | 1:10 | ”Of the circumcision” faction; keep to the first-century controversy, avoid 2012 legal-controversy resonance. |
| Holy | ἅγιος (adj. sense, cf. ὅσιος 1:8) | heilig / fromm | Medium | 1:8 | Elder-virtue list. |
Part 2 — New Terms Introduced in Titus (Proposed for Translation Memory)
| Term (English label) | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | Literal meaning | German rendering (recommended) | Risk | Occurrences | Rendering-risk rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Savior | σωτήρ | sōtēr | ”savior, rescuer, deliverer” | Retter (flag “Heiland” for case-by-case reviewer sign-off in hymnic/liturgical register only) | Critical | 1:3, 4; 2:10, 13; 3:4, 6 | Six occurrences of a programmatic title applied to both God and Christ; 2:13’s “great God and Savior Jesus Christ” is a Critical deity-of-Christ text requiring German syntax that does not split the title into two referents. Consistent with baseline’s Rettung-over-Heil preference. |
| Overseer / Bishop | ἐπίσκοπος | episkopos | ”one who watches over, overseer” | Aufseher (never “Bischof”) | Critical | 1:7 | Used interchangeably with πρεσβύτερος (1:5) for one local congregational office; “Bischof” imports anachronistic German diocesan/institutional weight (Landeskirche, Catholic dioceses) absent from the text. |
| Elder | πρεσβύτερος | presbyteros | ”elder, older man [as officeholder]“ | Ältester | High | 1:5 | Interchangeable with ἐπίσκοπος in this passage; distinct from πρεσβύτης (2:2, elderly layman, non-office) — German “Ältester” vs. “die Alten” naturally preserves this distinction. |
| Regeneration | παλιγγενεσία | paliggenesia | ”again-birth, re-genesis” | Wiedergeburt (mandatory disambiguating gloss required) | Critical | 3:5 | German “Wiedergeburt” is the standard term for reincarnation in German discourse on Buddhism/Hinduism — a genuine and significant false-friend collision absent from the baseline’s parallel caution about “Auferstehung.” Must be explicitly glossed as a one-time, non-cyclical, Spirit-wrought transformation. |
| People for his own possession | λαὸς περιούσιος | laos periousios | ”a people for [God’s own] possession/property” | Menschen, die ihm ganz gehören / avoid bare “Volk” as headline term | Critical | 2:14 | LXX covenant-election echo (Exodus 19:5). Bare German “Volk” carries specific 20th-century völkisch/ethnic-nationalist contamination; recommend foregrounding “Eigentum” (possession) over “Volk.” |
| Divisive/factious person | αἱρετικὸς ἄνθρωπος | hairetikos anthrōpos | ”a person of faction/division” | wer Spaltung/Zwietracht verursacht (never “Ketzer”) | Critical | 3:10 | The etymological ancestor of “Ketzer/Häresie,” but denoting only a mildly-handled locally divisive person (warn twice, then avoid) — “Ketzer” imports the entire German Inquisition/heresy-trial historical weight, wildly disproportionate to the text. |
| Submission to civil authority | ὑποτάσσεσθαι (ἀρχαῖς καὶ ἐξουσίαις) | hypotassesthai archais kai exousiais | ”to be subject to rulers and authorities” | sich der Obrigkeit/den Regierenden unterordnen (mandatory Barmen/Bonhoeffer-aware framing) | Critical | 3:1 | Directly implicates the German Lutheran Obrigkeitslehre tradition historically entangled with Deutsche Christen accommodation of the Nazi regime; requires explicit qualification distinguishing legitimate civic submission from the historical misuse as blanket political quietism (Barmen Declaration, Bonhoeffer). |
| Love toward mankind / kindness to humanity | φιλανθρωπία | philanthrōpia | ”love of humanity” | Menschenliebe (avoid bare “Philanthropie”) | High | 3:4 | Contemporary German “Philanthropie” has secularized to mean charitable/foundation giving by wealthy donors — a false-friend risk; this is God’s own disposition toward humanity, not a model of human charity. |
| Washing (baptismal image) | λουτρόν | loutron | ”a washing, a bath” | die Waschung / das Bad | High | 3:5 | Baptismal allusion intersecting the confessionally-contested Taufe und Wiedergeburt debate among German Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic traditions; render the concrete image without adjudicating the sacramental question. |
| Husband of one wife | μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἄνδρα | mias gynaikos andra | ”a man of one wife” | Mann einer Frau (with interpretive-debate note) | High | 1:6 | Debated construction (marital fidelity vs. strict exclusion of widowers/unmarried); German literal rendering risks silently resolving the debate. |
| Jewish fables | Ἰουδαϊκοὶ μῦθοι | Ioudaikoi mythoi | ”Jewish myths/fables” | jüdische Fabeln (mandatory historical-context framing) | High | 1:14 | Refers to a specific first-century Jewish-Christian faction’s extra-biblical legendary elaborations, not Judaism/the Hebrew Bible generally; acute antisemitism-adjacent misreading risk given German history. |
| ”Cretans always liars” quotation | Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί | Krētes aei pseustai, kaka thēria, gasterēs argai | quoted Cretan proverb (Epimenides) | literal translation; mandatory framing as quotation, not Pauline ethnic judgment | High | 1:12 | Ethnic-generalization risk if presented without explicit quotation/local-context framing; parallel discipline to the Matthew 23 caution, proportioned lower. |
| Grace’s training/formative discipline | παιδεύουσα | paideuousa | ”training, disciplining, forming” | erzieht uns / nimmt uns in Zucht | Critical | 2:12 | Doctrinal anchor of “Grace That Trains for Godly Living”; cognate with the Galatians Zuchtmeister (law’s now-ended custodial office) — must be distinguished as grace’s permanent, internal formative work versus the law’s temporary, external office. |
| Godliness | εὐσέβεια / εὐσεβῶς | eusebeia / eusebōs | ”piety, godly reverence expressed in conduct” | Frömmigkeit (alt.: Gottesfurcht) | Medium | 1:1; 2:12 | Colloquial German “fromm” risks a mildly dated/naive-religiosity connotation; consider reinforcing alternatives in teaching material. |
| Sound doctrine | ὑγιαίνουσα διδασκαλία | hygiainousa didaskalia | ”healthy/sound teaching” | gesunde Lehre | Medium | 1:9, 13; 2:1 | Medical metaphor recurring as a structural motif; preserve the “health” image rather than a flatter “richtige Lehre.” |
| Sound speech | λόγος ὑγιής | logos hygiēs | ”healthy/sound speech” | gesunde Rede | Medium | 2:8 | Same health-metaphor family as sound doctrine. |
| Redeem | λυτρόω | lytroō | ”to ransom, redeem, buy back” | erlösen | High | 2:14 | Precise commercial-ransom sense (cognate with established Lösegeld, Matthew 20:28); distinct from the broader Rettung used for salvation generally — recommend erlösen specifically here. |
| Mercy | ἔλεος | eleos | ”mercy, compassion toward the needy” | Barmherzigkeit | Medium | 3:5 | Distinct from and complementary to χάρις (Gnade) and χρηστότης (Güte) in the same unit; the three terms should remain distinguishable, not collapsed. |
| Kindness | χρηστότης | chrēstotēs | ”kindness, benevolence” | Güte | Low-Medium | 3:4 | Low collision risk. |
| Heir | κληρονόμος | klēronomos | ”heir, inheritor” | Erbe | Medium-High | 3:7 | Ties to established Kindschaft (adoption) doctrine; teach as one coherent family-inheritance picture. |
| Appearing / Epiphany | ἐπιφάνεια (noun) / ἐπιφαίνω (verb) | epiphaneia / epiphainō | ”appearing, manifestation, epiphany” | Erscheinung / erscheinen | Medium-High | 2:11, 13; 3:4 | Three deliberate occurrences (grace, glory, kindness) structuring the passage’s already/not-yet framework; German rendering must stay consistent across all three for the pattern to remain visible. Positive cultural bridge: German liturgical feast Epiphanias. |
| Blessed hope | μακαρία ἐλπίς | makaria elpis | ”blessed/happy hope” | die selige Hoffnung (alt.: glückselige Hoffnung) | High | 2:13 | Reuses established selig (Matthew Beatitudes, Critical); same caution against the narrower Catholic Seligsprechung connotation applies. |
| Faithful saying (formula) | πιστὸς ὁ λόγος | pistos ho logos | ”faithful/trustworthy [is] the word” | Das Wort ist gewiss/zuverlässig | Medium | 3:8 | Fixed cross-letter Pastoral-Epistles formula (cf. 1–2 Timothy); recommend consistency with any future Pastorals curriculum in this pipeline. |
| Maintain / devote to good works | προΐστασθαι (καλῶν ἔργων) | proistasthai | ”to be devoted to, diligently engage in, stand at the head of” | sich [guten Werken] widmen | Medium | 3:8, 14 | Active-devotion nuance beyond passive performance; consistent rendering across both occurrences. |
| Foolish controversies / strivings about the law | μωρὰς ζητήσεις… μάχας νομικάς | mōras zētēseis… machas nomikas | ”foolish debates… legal battles/quarrels” | törichte Streitfragen, gesetzliche Auseinandersetzungen | Medium-High | 3:9 | Core “Avoiding Divisive Controversies” term; must be framed as targeting unprofitable, divisive speculation specifically, not intellectual rigor generally — given Germany’s high cultural regard for academic theological debate. |
| Unprofitable / worthless | ἀνωφελεῖς καὶ μάταιοι | anōpheleis kai mataioi | ”unprofitable and futile/worthless” | unnütz und nichtig | Low-Medium | 3:9 | Deliberate verbal contrast with 3:8’s ὠφέλιμα (“profitable”) — preserve the contrast in teaching material. |
| Servant/slave of God (Paul’s self-designation) | δοῦλος θεοῦ | doulos theou | ”slave/bondservant of God” | Knecht Gottes | Medium-High | 1:1 | Distinguish from the literal household δοῦλοι of 2:9-10 (established Sklaven); document translator’s choice on whether to differentiate or intentionally parallel the two uses. |
| Steward of God | θεοῦ οἰκονόμος | theou oikonomos | ”household manager/steward of God” | Verwalter / Haushalter Gottes | Medium | 1:7 | Elder as entrusted manager, not autonomous owner, of God’s household. |
| Elect of God | ἐκλεκτῶν θεοῦ | eklektōn theou | ”chosen ones of God” | die Erwählten Gottes | High | 1:1 | Reuses established Erwählung root; theologian review per existing election-doctrine escalation rule. |
| Knowledge of the truth | ἐπίγνωσις ἀληθείας | epignōsis alētheias | ”full/precise knowledge of the truth” | Erkenntnis der Wahrheit | Low-Medium | 1:1 | Standard. |
| God who cannot lie | ὁ ἀψευδὴς θεός | ho apseudēs theos | ”the not-lying God” | der nicht lügen kann / der untrügliche Gott | Medium | 1:2 | Rare, emphatic compound; grounds gospel certainty. |
| Blameless | ἀνέγκλητος | anegklētos | ”not open to accusation” | untadelig / unbescholten | Low-Medium | 1:6, 7 | Legal-forensic background; “unbescholten” preserves a helpful faint legal-record connotation. |
| Gainsayers | ἀντιλέγοντες | antilegontes | ”those who contradict/speak against” | Widersprecher | Low | 1:9 | Cognate with 2:9’s μὴ ἀντιλέγοντας (slaves not talking back) — opposite polarity, same root. |
| Unruly, vain talkers, deceivers | ἀνυπότακτοι, ματαιολόγοι, φρεναπάται | anypotaktoi, mataiologoi, phrenapatai | ”insubordinate, empty talkers, mind-deceivers” | aufsässig, Leute mit leerem Geschwätz, Verführer der Herzen | Medium-High | 1:10 | ἀνυπότακτος is the direct negative of established ὑποτάσσω/sich unterordnen root. |
| Subverting whole houses for filthy lucre | ὅλους οἴκους ἀνατρέπουσιν… αἰσχροῦ κέρδους χάριν | holous oikous anatrepousin… aischrou kerdous charin | ”they overturn whole households… for shameful gain” | richten ganze Familien zugrunde… um schändlichen Gewinns willen | Low-Medium | 1:11 | Economic-exploitation critique of false teachers. |
| Rebuke sharply | ἔλεγχε ἀποτόμως | elegche apotomōs | ”rebuke severely/sharply” | scharf zurechtweisen | Low-Medium | 1:13 | Purpose: restoration to doctrinal health, not punitive cruelty. |
| Pure vs. defiled; conscience | καθαρός / μεμιαμμένος; συνείδησις | katharos / memiammenos; syneidēsis | ”pure/clean” vs. “defiled”; “conscience” | rein/unrein; Gewissen | Low-Medium | 1:15 | Inward corruption, not ceremonial status, determines true impurity. |
| Profess to know God, deny by works; unfit for good work | ὁμολογοῦσιν… ἀρνοῦνται… ἀδόκιμοι | homologousin… arnountai… adokimoi | ”they profess… they deny… disqualified” | bekennen… verleugnen… untauglich | Medium-High | 1:16 | ἀρνοῦνται echoes 2:12’s ἀρνησάμενοι ironically (positive vs. negative denial); ἀδόκιμος preserves a testing/metallurgical metaphor. |
| Older men’s virtues | νηφάλιος, σεμνός, σώφρων, ὑπομονή | nēphalios, semnos, sōphrōn, hypomonē | ”temperate, dignified, self-controlled, patient endurance” | nüchtern, achtbar, besonnen, geduldig | Low-Medium | 2:2 | Household-code age-based instruction. |
| Older women’s conduct | ἱεροπρεπής, διάβολος (adj.), καλοδιδάσκαλος | hieroprepēs, diabolos (adj.), kalodidaskalos | ”reverent in demeanor, slanderous, teacher of good” | würdevoll/der Heiligkeit entsprechend; nicht verleumderisch; Lehrerin des Guten | Medium | 2:3 | The adjectival διάβολος sense must be flagged as distinct from the titular “Devil/Satan” despite the shared root. |
| Blasphemed (word of God’s reputation) | βλασφημεῖται (ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ) | blasphēmeitai | ”is blasphemed/discredited” | verlästert / in Verruf gebracht | Medium | 2:5 | Distinct, milder sense from the Critical “blasphemy against the Spirit” (Matthew 12); reputational, not the unforgivable sin. |
| Pattern of good works; sound, unimpeachable speech | τύπος καλῶν ἔργων; λόγος ὑγιὴς ἀκατάγνωστος | typos kalōn ergōn; logos hygiēs akatagnōstos | ”a model/pattern of good works; healthy speech beyond reproach” | Vorbild guter Werke; gesunde, unanfechtbare Rede | Low-Medium | 2:7-8 | Titus himself as the model; links personal integrity to apologetic effectiveness. |
| The adversary/opponent | ὁ ἐξ ἐναντίας | ho ex enantias | ”the one from the opposite side” | der Gegner | Low | 2:8 | General human critic, not necessarily a titular reference to Satan. |
| Well-pleasing; not pilfering; good fidelity | εὐάρεστος; μὴ νοσφιζόμενος; πίστιν ἀγαθήν | euarestos; mē nosphizomenos; pistin agathēn | ”well-pleasing; not embezzling/pilfering; good faithfulness” | wohlgefällig; nichts veruntreuend; gute Treue | Low-Medium | 2:9-10 | Household-code slave instructions, paired with mandatory Sklaven/Herren historical-distancing framing. |
| Foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to passions | ἀνόητος, ἀπειθής, πλανώμενος, δουλεύων ἐπιθυμίαις | anoētos, apeithēs, planōmenos, douleuōn epithymiais | ”senseless, disobedient, led astray, enslaved to desires” | unverständig, ungehorsam, verführt/in die Irre gehend, versklavt an Begierden | Low-Medium | 3:3 | The “before conversion” catalogue grounding the grace/works contrast; preserve the slavery-to-sin metaphor concretely. |
| A divisive/factious person’s fate: self-condemned | αὐτοκατάκριτος | autokatakritos | ”self-condemned” | selbst das Urteil sprechend / sich selbst richtend | Low-Medium | 3:11 | Reinforces the non-punitive, pastoral framing of the αἱρετικός procedure. |
| Zenas, Apollos, Artemas, Tychicus (proper names) | Ζηνᾶς, Ἀπολλῶς, Ἀρτεμᾶς, Τυχικός | Zēnas, Apollōs, Artemas, Tychikos | proper names | Zenas, Apollos, Artemas, Tychikus | Low | 3:12-13 | Standard German Bible transliteration convention. |
| Unfruitful | ἄκαρπος | akarpos | ”unfruitful, barren” | unfruchtbar | Medium | 3:14 | Agricultural metaphor; positive teaching bridge to the established “fruit of the Spirit” family (Galatians). |
Part 3 — Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference (Curriculum Alignment)
| Curriculum doctrine | Primary passages | Key terms (this glossary) |
|---|---|---|
| Grace That Trains for Godly Living | Titus 2:11-12 | Gnade, erzieht uns (παιδεύουσα), Retter (σωτήριος), besonnen/gerecht/gottgefällig triad |
| Qualifications for Elders | Titus 1:5-9 | Aufseher/Ältester, untadelig, Mann einer Frau, Verwalter Gottes, gesunde Lehre |
| Sound Doctrine and Good Works | Titus 1:9, 13; 2:1, 7-8, 10; 3:1, 8, 14 | gesunde Lehre, gesunde Rede, gute Werke, Vorbild guter Werke, sich [guten Werken] widmen |
| Salvation by Grace not Works | Titus 3:4-7 | Gnade, nicht aus Werken, Barmherzigkeit, Retter, gerechtfertigt, Erbe |
| Regeneration by the Holy Spirit | Titus 3:5-6 | Wiedergeburt (παλιγγενεσία), Erneuerung (ἀνακαίνωσις), Heiliger Geist, die Waschung |
| Submission to Authority | Titus 2:5, 9-10; 3:1-2 | sich unterordnen, Sklaven/Herren, Obrigkeit, gütig/Sanftmut |
| Avoiding Divisive Controversies | Titus 1:10-16; 3:9-11 | jüdische Fabeln, törichte Streitfragen, wer Spaltung verursacht (NEVER Ketzer), unnütz und nichtig |
This glossary is the required companion to 07_semantic_analysis.md and must be loaded alongside the baseline translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json before Phase 1 Step 2 (translation memory update / new-term ratification) begins.
Critical Risk Terms
Divisive Person
Approved rendering: wer Spaltung / Zwietracht verursacht
Transliteration: wer Spaltung verursacht
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Rejected alternatives: Ketzer (forbidden — imports the entire weight of German medieval/early-modern Inquisition and Ketzerprozesse/Ketzerverbrennung history, radically disproportionate to the text’s mild, restorative, two-warnings-then-avoid procedure)
Original: αἱρετικὸς ἄνθρωπος
Category: False Teaching
NEW. Titus 3:10’s hairetikos anthropos, the etymological ancestor of ‘Ketzer/Häresie’ but at this stage denoting only a locally divisive person handled pastorally. Note: the Lutherbibel 2017, Einheitsübersetzung, and modern Elberfelder have already corrected away from Luther’s own historic ‘ketzerischen Menschen’ rendering — this curriculum’s prohibition continues, rather than departs from, the settled mainstream published landscape. Mandatory theologian review for every use.
Good Works
Approved rendering: gute Werke
Transliteration: gute Werke
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Original: καλὰ/ἀγαθὰ ἔργα
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans/Ephesians package, unchanged. Titus’s own structural refrain: occurs six times (1:16 negatively; 2:7, 14; 3:1, 8, 14 positively), rendering both kalos (Titus’s consistent preference, 6/6 occurrences) and agathos — a stylistic, not doctrinal, difference. Always fruit, never ground, of salvation.
Grace Trains Us
Approved rendering: erzieht uns
Transliteration: erzieht uns
Doctrine: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
Rejected alternatives: diszipliniert uns (sounds coercive, reintroduces a legalistic register), bildet uns (too weak, loses the formative-discipline sense)
Original: παιδεύουσα
Category: Sanctification
NEW. The doctrinal anchor of this letter’s core doctrine. Titus 2:12’s paideuousa casts grace itself in the paideutic/formational role the Galatians baseline assigns to the law’s now-ended custodial office (Zuchtmeister, see that entry above). MANDATORY: distinguish explicitly — the law’s office was TEMPORARY and EXTERNAL and ENDED at Christ’s coming; grace’s formative work here is PERMANENT and INTERNAL. Also guard against the German state-school connotation of ‘Erziehung’ flattening the personal, transformative sense. Theologian review required for every occurrence.
Grace
Approved rendering: Gnade
Transliteration: Gnade
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: Barmherzigkeit, Wohlwollen
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus usage: 2:11 personifies grace as the acting subject that ‘appears’ and saves (‘die Gnade Gottes ist erschienen’); 3:7 ‘gerechtfertigt durch seine Gnade’ is the letter’s core justification statement. Must never soften toward ‘Gottes Wohlwollen’ and must remain distinguishable from the adjacent, distinct terms Barmherzigkeit (mercy, 3:5) and Güte (kindness, 3:4) introduced in this letter.
Great God And Savior
Approved rendering: unseres großen Gottes und Retters Jesus Christus
Transliteration: unseres großen Gottes und Retters Jesus Christus
Doctrine: The Deity and Saviorhood of Christ
Rejected alternatives: any rendering inserting an implied comma-break separating ‘des großen Gottes’ from ‘unseres Retters Jesus Christus’ as two persons (the Jehovah’s Witness Neue-Welt-Übersetzung referent-splitting pattern)
NEW. Titus 2:13’s Greek grammar (a single article governing both theos and soter, both further modified by the one relative ‘hemon… Iesou Christou’) identifies Jesus Christ as ‘our great God and Savior’ in one unbroken title — a Critical deity-of-Christ text on par with the John and Colossians deity passages already in the pipeline. German syntax must not permit a two-referent reading. Mandatory theologian review for every occurrence; standing negative test case for automated QA (see 05_translation_landscape.md sec. 5.1).
Justification
Approved rendering: Rechtfertigung / gerechtfertigt
Transliteration: Rechtfertigung
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Erlösung (distinct concept)
Original: δικαιόω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 3:7’s ‘gerechtfertigt durch seine Gnade’ is the letter’s single explicit use, following directly on 3:5’s denial of works as ground — one of the tightest grace-alone justification statements in the NT outside Romans/Galatians/Ephesians. Must not be silently glossed toward the Catholic infused-grace-process reading.
Not Of Works
Approved rendering: nicht aus Werken
Transliteration: nicht aus Werken
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace not Works
Original: οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων τῶν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ ἃ ἐποιήσαμεν ἡμεῖς
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Ephesians package (2:9), unchanged. Titus 3:5’s ‘ouk ex ergon ton en dikaiosyne ha epoiesamen hemeis’ reuses this exact rendering, but MANDATORY DISAMBIGUATION: Titus’s denial is broader in scope than Galatians’ narrower ‘Werke des Gesetzes’ (Torah-boundary-marker observance specifically) — Titus denies ANY human moral achievement as salvation’s ground. Must never be silently merged with the Galatians phrase; theologian review required for every occurrence in this letter.
Overseer
Approved rendering: Aufseher
Transliteration: Aufseher
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: Bischof (forbidden — imports anachronistic contemporary German diocesan/Landeskirche institutional weight absent from the text)
Original: ἐπίσκοπος
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. Titus 1:7’s episkopos, used interchangeably with presbyteros (1:5) for one local congregational office, not a developed monarchical-episcopal role. ‘Bischof’ would collide with the baseline’s existing Gemeinde-versus-Kirche caution. Mandatory theologian review.
People For His Own Possession
Approved rendering: Menschen, die ihm ganz gehören
Transliteration: Menschen, die ihm ganz gehören
Doctrine: The Church as God’s Own Possession
Rejected alternatives: sein eigenes Volk, ein Volk für sich, Volk Gottes (unqualified, as a headline phrase)
Original: λαὸς περιούσιος
Category: Covenant
NEW. One of the highest German-specific risk terms in the letter. Titus 2:14’s laos periousios, a direct LXX covenant-election echo (Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2, 26:18). Bare German ‘Volk’ carries 20th-century political contamination (Volk, Volksgemeinschaft, völkisch ethnic-nationalist ideology). MANDATORY: foreground ‘Eigentum’ (possession) rather than ‘Volk’ as the headline term. This is a documented departure from the entire mainstream published German Bible landscape (Luther 1912, Lutherbibel 2017, Einheitsübersetzung all retain ‘Volk’ as headline noun) and must be defended as such in reviewer notes. Mandatory theologian review.
Regeneration
Approved rendering: Wiedergeburt
Transliteration: Wiedergeburt
Doctrine: Regeneration by the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: Palingenesie (too obscure for the target lay/pastoral audience)
Original: παλιγγενεσία
Category: Salvation
NEW. HIGHEST German-specific collision risk in the letter. Titus 3:5’s paliggenesia. ‘Wiedergeburt’ is doctrinally correct and Luther’s own historic rendering, BUT is ALSO the standard, near-universal contemporary German term for REINCARNATION in discourse on Buddhism/Hinduism — structurally the opposite of the baseline’s note that ‘Auferstehung’ has no such competing risk. MANDATORY disambiguating gloss on every occurrence: a one-time, non-cyclical, Spirit-wrought transformation, categorically distinct from cyclical repeated embodiment. Theologian review required for every use.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: Gerechtigkeit
Transliteration: Gerechtigkeit
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Tugend
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus usage: 2:12’s ethical triad (besonnen, gerecht, gottgefällig) and 3:5’s ‘Werke… in Gerechtigkeit,’ where it names human moral achievement explicitly DENIED as salvation’s ground, not affirmed as a basis for it.
Savior
Approved rendering: Retter
Transliteration: Retter
Doctrine: The Deity and Saviorhood of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Heiland (flag for mandatory reviewer sign-off; permitted only in clearly hymnic/liturgical-register contexts distinct from the Heil-root caution), Erlöser (reserved for the concrete ransom sense of erlösen, 2:14; do not use for the general sozer title)
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Christology
NEW. Programmatic Hellenistic imperial-cult/Ptolemaic-dynastic honorific (‘soter’) Paul redirects onto God the Father (1:3; 2:10; 3:4) and Jesus Christ (1:4; 2:13; 3:6) — six occurrences forming a deliberate Trinitarian frame that must render consistently as ‘Retter’ throughout. Consistent with the baseline’s Rettung-over-Heil preference.
Submission To Civil Authority
Approved rendering: sich der Obrigkeit / den Regierenden unterordnen
Transliteration: sich der Obrigkeit unterordnen
Doctrine: Submission to Authority
Original: ἀρχαῖς καὶ ἐξουσίαις ὑποτάσσεσθαι
Category: Civic Authority
NEW. Titus 3:1’s archais kai exousiais hypotassesthai. Uses the established ‘sich unterordnen’ verb, but the OBJECT (civil government) raises a distinct and graver German-specific historical risk than the marital/slave applications: the Lutheran Obrigkeitslehre and Zwei-Reiche-Lehre traditions were directly implicated in the Deutsche Christen movement’s theological accommodation of the Nazi regime, provoking the 1934 Barmen Declaration and Bonhoeffer’s resistance theology and martyrdom. MANDATORY theologian review with explicit Barmen/Bonhoeffer-aware framing for every use, distinguishing legitimate civic submission (gospel reputation, cf. 3:2, 8) from historical blanket political quietism. No mainstream published German Bible translation supplies this caution in its base text; this is a correction to, not merely a preference against, the entire published landscape.
Submission
Approved rendering: sich unterordnen
Transliteration: sich unterordnen
Doctrine: Household Code: Marriage as Christ and the Church
Original: ὑποτάσσω / ὑποτάσσεσθαι
Category: Household Code
Inherited from Ephesians package, unchanged. Titus applies this verb three times: young wives toward husbands (2:5, requiring the same mandatory theologian AND native-speaker review and Grundgesetz Art. 3 awareness as Ephesians 5:21-24), slaves toward masters (2:9), and believers toward civil rulers (3:1, see the new, more severe ‘submission_to_civil_authority’ entry below).
Works Of The Law
Approved rendering: Werke des Gesetzes
Transliteration: Werke des Gesetzes
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: gute Werke (good works generally)
Inherited from Galatians package, unchanged. Not used verbatim in Titus, but retained here as the required CONTRAST term for the mandatory disambiguation note attached to Titus 3:5’s broader ‘nicht aus Werken’ (see that entry). Cited for contrast only; do not apply this narrower phrase to Titus 3:5.
High Risk Terms
Appearing Epiphany
Approved rendering: Erscheinung / erscheinen
Transliteration: Erscheinung
Doctrine: The Two Epiphanies
Rejected alternatives: bekannt werden (too weak, loses the concrete, historically locatable, event-like force)
Original: ἐπιφάνεια / ἐπιφαίνω
Category: Christology
NEW. Three deliberate epiphaneia/epiphaino occurrences (2:11 grace’s first appearing at the incarnation; 2:13 glory’s future appearing at Christ’s return; 3:4 God’s kindness appearing) structure the core passage’s already/not-yet framework. MUST render consistently across all three occurrences or the structural literary pattern is silently erased for German readers. Positive cultural bridge: the German liturgical feast ‘Epiphanias’ (6 January).
Blessed Hope
Approved rendering: die selige Hoffnung
Transliteration: die selige Hoffnung
Doctrine: The Blessed Hope and Christ’s Return
Rejected alternatives: die glückselige Hoffnung (lower-risk alternative worth reviewer consideration to reduce ambiguity)
Original: μακαρία ἐλπίς
Category: Eschatology
NEW. Titus 2:13’s makaria elpis, reusing the established Critical-risk ‘selig’ vocabulary from the Matthew Beatitudes package. Same caution applies: must read as ‘hope characterized by God’s blessing/favor,’ never the narrower Catholic Seligsprechung (beatification) sense.
Church
Approved rendering: Gemeinde
Transliteration: Gemeinde
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: Kirche (institution-default)
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 1:7’s ‘theou oikonomos’ (household of God) implies this Gemeinde sense; prefer congregational framing over Kirche/Landeskirche institutional connotation, consistent with the elder/overseer (Aufseher, never Bischof) discipline established below.
Cretans Quotation
Approved rendering: “Kreter sind immer Lügner, böse Tiere, faule Bäuche” (Zitat)
Transliteration: Kreter sind immer Lügner, böse Tiere, faule Bäuche
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Original: Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί
Category: False Teaching
NEW. Titus 1:12’s Epimenides quotation. The German rendering is a straightforward literal translation; the risk lies entirely in framing. MANDATORY teaching-material framing: (a) a quotation from a pagan source, not Paul’s own independent ethnic judgment; (b) directed at specific first-century troublemakers, never a timeless ethnic generalization or license for any modern equivalent.
Elder
Approved rendering: Ältester
Transliteration: Ältester
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: Bischof
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. Titus 1:5’s presbyteros; interchangeable with episkopos/Aufseher in 1:5-7 for the same office — mandatory synonym note at first occurrence. Distinct from presbytes (‘elderly man,’ 2:2, non-office), which German ‘die Alten’/‘der alte Mann’ naturally distinguishes from ‘Ältester.‘
Election
Approved rendering: die Erwählten Gottes
Transliteration: Erwählung
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Original: ἐκλεκτῶν θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged (Erwählung-family). Titus 1:1: ‘kata pistin eklekton theou’ — Paul’s apostleship is for the faith of God’s elect. The German Lutheran/Reformed predestination-emphasis divide already documented in the baseline must not be resolved in either direction for this mixed-confession curriculum.
Foolish Controversies
Approved rendering: törichte Streitfragen
Transliteration: törichte Streitfragen
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Original: μωρὰς ζητήσεις καὶ γενεαλογίας καὶ ἔρεις καὶ μάχας νομικάς
Category: False Teaching
NEW. Titus 3:9’s catalogue (moras zeteseis kai genealogias kai ereis kai machas nomikas). Given Germany’s high cultural regard for rigorous academic-theological debate, teaching material must clarify this targets unprofitable, divisive, legalistic speculation specifically, not intellectual rigor or doctrinal precision as such.
Heir
Approved rendering: Erbe
Transliteration: Erbe
Doctrine: The Believer’s Inheritance and Heirship
Original: κληρονόμος
Category: Salvation
NEW. Titus 3:7’s klēronomos, the legal-relational consequence of justification. Recommend explicit cross-reference to the established Kindschaft (adoption) doctrine so the two are taught as one coherent inheritance-and-family picture.
Husband Of One Wife
Approved rendering: Mann einer Frau
Transliteration: Mann einer Frau
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: nur einmal verheiratet (silently resolves the interpretive debate toward the stricter Catholic clerical-discipline reading; do not adopt as the default German rendering)
Original: μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἄνδρα
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. Titus 1:6’s mias gynaikos andra, a genuinely debated construction (marital fidelity vs. strict exclusion of widowers/the unmarried). German literal rendering must not silently resolve this debate; teaching material must note the interpretive question explicitly.
Jewish Fables
Approved rendering: jüdische Fabeln
Transliteration: jüdische Fabeln
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Original: Ἰουδαϊκοὶ μῦθοι
Category: False Teaching
NEW. Titus 1:14’s Ioudaikoi mythoi, referring to a specific first-century Jewish-Christian faction’s extra-biblical legendary elaborations (paralleling 1 Timothy 1:4 and the Galatians controversy), never Judaism, the Hebrew Bible, or Jewish people generally. MANDATORY explicit historical-context framing for every teaching use, comparable in kind (if lower in absolute severity) to the baseline’s Matthew 23/27:25 cautions.
Law As Guardian
Approved rendering: Zuchtmeister
Transliteration: Zuchtmeister
Doctrine: The Law’s Purpose
Inherited from Galatians package, unchanged. Retained as the required CONTRAST term for Titus 2:12’s new ‘grace_trains_us’ (paideuousa) entry: the law’s Zuchtmeister office was temporary and now ENDED at Christ’s coming; grace’s formative work in Titus 2:12 is by contrast PERMANENT and INTERNAL. The two must never be silently conflated.
Law
Approved rendering: Gesetz
Transliteration: Gesetz
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 1:10 (‘of the circumcision’), 1:14 (‘commandments of men’ contrasted with Gesetz-observance controversy), and 3:9’s derivative adjective ‘machas nomikas.’ The 3:9 sense (unprofitable disputes ABOUT the law) must not be read as a critique of Gesetz/Torah itself.
Love Toward Mankind
Approved rendering: Menschenliebe
Transliteration: Menschenliebe
Doctrine: God’s Saving Character
Rejected alternatives: Philanthropie (false friend — contemporary German has secularized this loanword to mean charitable/foundation giving by wealthy donors, Philanthropen/Stiftungen)
Original: φιλανθρωπία
Category: God
NEW. Titus 3:4’s philanthropia, a Hellenistic virtue-term especially attributed to benevolent rulers and gods, applied here to God’s own disposition toward humanity generally, preparing 3:5’s ‘not by works’ statement. Use the native compound ‘Menschenliebe’ with a note that this is God’s own character, not a model of human charitable giving.
Profess Deny By Works
Approved rendering: bekennen… verleugnen… untauglich
Transliteration: homologousin… arnountai… adokimoi
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Original: ὁμολογοῦσιν… ἀρνοῦνται… ἀδόκιμοι
Category: Ethics
NEW. Titus 1:16’s closing indictment. arnountai echoes 2:12’s arnesamenoi ironically (there, positively denying ungodliness; here, negatively denying God by works) — flag this verbal echo for teaching material. adokimos preserves a metallurgical testing-metaphor; directly foils the letter’s positive good-works refrain.
Redeem
Approved rendering: erlösen
Transliteration: erlösen
Doctrine: The Church as God’s Own Possession
Rejected alternatives: retten (reserved for the letter’s generic sozo/Rettung sense elsewhere)
Original: λυτρόω
Category: Salvation
NEW. Titus 2:14’s lytrosetai, manumission/ransom-price vocabulary cognate with the established Matthew 20:28 lytron/Lösegeld metaphor. Doctrinally precise here specifically because the underlying Greek genuinely is ransom vocabulary, unlike the generic soteria contexts elsewhere in Titus where ‘Rettung’ governs.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Rettung
Transliteration: Rettung
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Heil (Nazi-era contamination risk), Erlösung (reserved in this letter for the concrete ransom sense of erlösen, 2:14)
Original: σῴζω / σωτήριος
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus usage: 2:11’s soteriological adjective sozeirios (‘die Gnade Gottes, die Rettung bringt’) and 3:5’s ‘er hat uns gerettet.’ Never ‘die heilbringende Gnade,’ which reintroduces the flagged Heil-root.
Servant Of God
Approved rendering: Knecht Gottes
Transliteration: Knecht Gottes
Doctrine: Paul’s Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: Sklave Gottes (a recent literalist-tradition alternative; document translator’s choice for consistency rather than defaulting)
Original: δοῦλος θεοῦ
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. Titus 1:1’s honorific ‘doulos theou,’ Paul’s self-designation of total, willing self-surrender — distinct from the literal household doulol of 2:9-10 (Sklaven/Herren) and the metaphorical sin-bondage of 3:3 (versklavt an Begierden). The same Greek root spans three distinct uses in this short letter; do not let one German word span all three.
Slaves And Masters
Approved rendering: Sklaven / Herren
Transliteration: Sklaven / Herren
Doctrine: Household Code: Slaves and Masters
Original: δοῦλοι / δεσπόται
Category: Household Code
Inherited from Ephesians package, unchanged. Titus 2:9-10 requires the same mandatory first-century historical-distancing framing (explicit distinction from later chattel slavery and German colonial-era associations, never endorsing the institution). Note despotes (2:9), not kyrios, is the Greek term used — a marginally stronger absolute-ownership term; low collision risk with the Critical Lordship-of-Christ sense of ‘Herr’ given the unambiguous household context, but worth a brief translator note.
Washing
Approved rendering: die Waschung
Transliteration: die Waschung
Doctrine: Regeneration by the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: das Bad (acceptable literal alternative)
Original: λουτρόν
Category: Salvation
NEW. Titus 3:5’s loutron, a concrete washing-image almost certainly alluding to baptism. Intersects the confessionally-contested German Taufe-und-Wiedergeburt debate across Lutheran, Reformed, and Catholic traditions; render the concrete image plainly without adjudicating the sacramental question in the translated text itself.
Medium Risk Terms
Adoption
Approved rendering: Kindschaft
Transliteration: Kindschaft
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: Adoption (bare, legal-procedural)
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Cross-referenced by Titus 3:7’s ‘Erbe’ (heir) — teach as one coherent family-and-inheritance picture, not two unrelated images.
Blameless
Approved rendering: untadelig
Transliteration: untadelig
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: unbescholten (acceptable, faintly legal-record connotation)
Original: ἀνέγκλητος
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. Titus 1:6-7’s anegklētos, the first and governing elder qualification, with a legal-forensic background.
Circumcision
Approved rendering: Beschneidung
Transliteration: Beschneidung
Doctrine: Circumcision and New Creation
Original: περιτομή
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Galatians package, unchanged. Titus 1:10’s ‘hoi ek tes peritomes’ (those of the circumcision) names the specific first-century Jewish-Christian legalist faction; keep strictly to that controversy, avoid resonance with Germany’s 2012 circumcision legal controversy, and pair with the historical-sensitivity framing required for the adjacent new term ‘jewish_fables’ (1:14).
Covenant
Approved rendering: Bund
Transliteration: Bund
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Relevant background for Titus 2:14’s Exodus 19:5 covenant-election echo (see new term ‘people_for_his_own_possession’).
Faith
Approved rendering: Glaube
Transliteration: Glaube
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: Weltanschauung
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus usage: ‘common faith’ (1:4), ‘sound in the faith’ (1:13; 2:2) — the latter should stay linked to the letter’s ‘gesunde Lehre’ health-metaphor family.
Faithful Saying
Approved rendering: Das Wort ist gewiss / zuverlässig
Transliteration: Das Wort ist gewiss
Doctrine: The Faithful Saying Formula
Rejected alternatives: Das ist gewisslich wahr (Luther’s traditional rendering, also acceptable)
Original: πιστὸς ὁ λόγος
Category: Sound Doctrine
NEW. Titus 3:8’s fixed pistos ho logos formula, recurring across the Pastoral Epistles (1 Timothy 1:15, 3:1, 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11). Recommend consistency with any future 1-2 Timothy curriculum material in this pipeline.
False Teachers Vice List
Approved rendering: aufsässig, Leute mit leerem Geschwätz, Verführer der Herzen
Transliteration: anypotaktoi, mataiologoi, phrenapatai
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Original: ἀνυπότακτοι, ματαιολόγοι, φρεναπάται
Category: False Teaching
NEW. Titus 1:10’s description of the circumcision-party false teachers. anypotaktos is the direct negative of the established hypotasso/sich-unterordnen root. Pair with the historical-sensitivity note required for ‘circumcision’ and ‘jewish_fables.‘
Father
Approved rendering: Vater
Transliteration: Vater
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 1:4: ‘Gnade und Friede von Gott, dem Vater, und Christus Jesus, unserem Retter.‘
Glory
Approved rendering: Herrlichkeit
Transliteration: Herrlichkeit
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 2:13: ‘the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior’ — the object of the believer’s blessed hope.
God Who Cannot Lie
Approved rendering: der nicht lügen kann
Transliteration: der nicht lügen kann
Doctrine: Election and Calling
Rejected alternatives: der treue Gott (too generic, loses the rare emphatic compound’s rhetorical force)
Original: ὁ ἀψευδὴς θεός
Category: God
NEW. Titus 1:2’s ho apseudēs theos, grounding the gospel’s certainty; forms an inclusio with 3:7’s climactic ‘hope of eternal life.‘
God
Approved rendering: Gott
Transliteration: Gott
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Occurs throughout Titus (1:1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 16; 2:5, 10, 11, 13; 3:4, 8).
Godliness
Approved rendering: Frömmigkeit
Transliteration: Frömmigkeit
Doctrine: Godliness as the Goal of Faith and Knowledge
Original: εὐσέβεια / εὐσεβῶς
Category: Ethics
NEW. Titus 1:1’s eusebeia and 2:12’s adverb eusebos. German ‘Frömmigkeit’ has drifted colloquially toward a mildly dated ‘quaint/naive religiosity’ connotation (parallel to the baseline’s Sünde-trivialization caution); consider ‘Gottesfurcht’ or ‘ein gottgefälliges Leben’ as reinforcing paraphrase in teaching prose while retaining Frömmigkeit as the glossary anchor term.
Godly Triad
Approved rendering: besonnen, gerecht und gottgefällig
Transliteration: besonnen, gerecht und gottgefällig
Doctrine: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
Rejected alternatives: anständig (too generic, loses the self/others/God structure)
NEW. Titus 2:12’s sophronos kai dikaios kai eusebos triad, structurally mapped to self/others/God. ‘gerecht’ must stay visibly connected to the established Gerechtigkeit vocabulary, not flattened to a generic ‘anständig.‘
Good Fidelity Slave Conduct
Approved rendering: wohlgefällig; nichts veruntreuend; gute Treue
Transliteration: euarestous; me nosphizomenous; pistin agathen
Doctrine: Household Code: Slaves and Masters
NEW. Titus 2:9-10, paired with the mandatory Sklaven/Herren historical-distancing framing. nosphizomenos (‘pilfer/embezzle’) is the same verb used of Ananias’s fraud in Acts 5:2-3.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Heiliger Geist
Transliteration: Heiliger Geist
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: Holy Spirit
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 3:5-6: agent of regeneration and renewal, anchoring the passage’s implicit Trinitarian structure (Father’s kindness 3:4, Son’s saving work 3:6, Spirit’s renewing work 3:5).
Holy
Approved rendering: heilig
Transliteration: heilig
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: rein
Original: ὅσιος / ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 1:8 uses the adjacent hosios/heilig-fromm pairing in the elder-virtue list.
Kindness
Approved rendering: Güte
Transliteration: Güte
Doctrine: God’s Saving Character
Original: χρηστότης
Category: God
NEW. Titus 3:4’s chrestotes, God’s gracious, benign disposition in action, paired with philanthropia as the trigger of the epiphany described in 3:4. Low collision risk.
Maintain Good Works
Approved rendering: sich guten Werken widmen
Transliteration: sich guten Werken widmen
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Rejected alternatives: gute Werke tun (too flat, loses the active-devotion nuance)
Original: προΐστασθαι (καλῶν ἔργων)
Category: Sound Doctrine
NEW. Titus 3:8, 3:14’s proistasthai (kalon ergon), an active-devotion nuance beyond passive performance, elsewhere used of elders ‘leading/governing.’ Render consistently across both occurrences.
Mercy
Approved rendering: Barmherzigkeit
Transliteration: Barmherzigkeit
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace not Works
Rejected alternatives: Gnade (reserved for charis; must remain distinguishable from eleos in this passage)
Original: ἔλεος
Category: God
NEW. Titus 3:5’s eleos, God’s saving motive responding to human distress, distinct from and complementary to charis/Gnade (favor toward the unworthy) and chrestotes/Güte (benevolent disposition) in the same unit. All three must remain individually distinguishable, per the baseline’s own note rejecting Barmherzigkeit as an alternative for Gnade precisely because the two concepts differ.
Older Men Virtues
Approved rendering: nüchtern, achtbar, besonnen, geduldig
Transliteration: nephalious, semnous, sophronas, hypomone
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW. Titus 2:2. Note presbytes (elderly layman, this verse) is distinct from presbyteros (office-holding elder, 1:5), a genuine near-homonym pair German naturally distinguishes via ‘die Alten’ vs. ‘die Ältesten.‘
Older Women Conduct
Approved rendering: würdevoll (der Heiligkeit entsprechend); nicht verleumderisch; Lehrerin des Guten
Transliteration: hieroprepeis; mē diabolous; kalodidaskalous
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW. Titus 2:3. The adjectival diabolos sense (‘slanderous’) must be flagged as distinct from the titular ‘Teufel/Satan’ despite the shared root — not the same word-sense, no confusion should be introduced in teaching material.
Pattern Of Good Works
Approved rendering: Vorbild guter Werke
Transliteration: typon kalon ergon
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW. Titus 2:7. Titus himself is addressed as the model; links personal integrity to apologetic effectiveness against ‘ho ex enantias’ (the adversary, see ‘adversary’ entry).
Pre Conversion Catalogue
Approved rendering: unverständig, ungehorsam, verführt/in die Irre gehend, versklavt an Begierden
Transliteration: anoetoi, apeitheis, planomenoi, douleuontes epithymiais
Doctrine: Salvation by Grace not Works
Rejected alternatives: abhängig von (too weak, loses the deliberate slavery-metaphor imagery of douleuontes)
NEW. Titus 3:3’s ‘before conversion’ vice catalogue, the rhetorical foil grounding the grace/works contrast; the emphatic self-inclusion ‘kai hēmeis’ (‘we too’) must be preserved (‘Denn auch wir selbst waren einst…’) as the rhetorical hinge for 3:4’s sharp contrastive turn.
Pure Vs Defiled Conscience
Approved rendering: rein / unrein; Gewissen
Transliteration: rein / unrein; Gewissen
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Original: καθαρός / μεμιαμμένος; συνείδησις
Category: Ethics
NEW. Titus 1:15’s katharos/memiammenos and syneidesis — inward corruption, not external ritual observance, determines true impurity, an implicit critique of the false teachers’ ceremonial legalism.
Renewal
Approved rendering: Erneuerung
Transliteration: Erneuerung
Doctrine: Regeneration by the Holy Spirit
NEW. Titus 3:5’s anakainosis pneumatos hagiou (‘renewing of the Holy Spirit’). Low collision risk; usefully echoes the already-established ‘neu-’ family vocabulary (neue Schöpfung, der neue Mensch) from the Galatians/Ephesians/Colossians packages for cross-curriculum teaching continuity.
Sin
Approved rendering: Sünde
Transliteration: Sünde
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 3:11’s hamartanei (‘he sins’) describes the divisive person’s self-condemning ongoing conduct.
Sound Doctrine
Approved rendering: gesunde Lehre
Transliteration: gesunde Lehre
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Rejected alternatives: richtige Lehre (flattens the medical metaphor)
Original: ὑγιαίνουσα διδασκαλία
Category: Sound Doctrine
NEW. Titus’s recurring hygiainousa didaskalia (1:9, 1:13, 2:1) structural medical-metaphor motif. Must preserve the ‘health’ image consistently across all occurrences rather than flattening to a generic ‘correct teaching’ equivalent.
Sound Speech
Approved rendering: gesunde Rede
Transliteration: gesunde Rede
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Original: λόγος ὑγιὴς ἀκατάγνωστος
Category: Sound Doctrine
NEW. Titus 2:8’s logos hygies akatagnostos, same health-metaphor family applied to Titus’s own personal speech, tied to apologetic effectiveness against critics.
Steward Of God
Approved rendering: Verwalter Gottes
Transliteration: Verwalter Gottes
Doctrine: Qualifications for Elders
Rejected alternatives: Haushalter Gottes (acceptable alternative)
Original: θεοῦ οἰκονόμος
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. Titus 1:7’s ‘theou oikonomos’ — the elder/overseer manages God’s household (the church) as a trusted administrator, not its owner; an implicit check on clerical self-aggrandizement worth preserving in teaching material.
Unfruitful
Approved rendering: unfruchtbar
Transliteration: unfruchtbar
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Original: ἄκαρπος
Category: Sound Doctrine
NEW. Titus 3:14’s akarpos, the letter’s final good-works refrain, applied to practical material provision for pressing needs. Positive teaching-material bridge to the established Critical-risk ‘Frucht des Geistes’ family from the Galatians package.
Word Of God Not Blasphemed
Approved rendering: verlästert / in Verruf gebracht
Transliteration: hina me ho logos tou theou blasphemetai
Doctrine: Good Citizenship and the Gospel’s Public Reputation
NEW. Titus 2:5’s blasphemetai, of God’s reputation being brought into disrepute through believers’ bad conduct — a distinct, MILDER sense than the Critical-risk ‘Lästerung wider den Geist’ (Matthew 12, blasphemy against the Spirit). Must not be taught with that passage’s full theological weight despite sharing the same root verb.
Low Risk Terms
Adversary
Approved rendering: der Gegner
Transliteration: der Gegner
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
Rejected alternatives: der Widersacher/Satan (not necessarily the correct sense; a general human critic is more natural in context)
Original: ὁ ἐξ ἐναντίας
Category: Ethics
NEW. Titus 2:8’s ho ex enantias.
Apostle
Approved rendering: Apostel
Transliteration: Apostel
Doctrine: Apostleship
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church Leadership
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 1:1, paired with the new term ‘Knecht Gottes’ (servant_of_god).
Exhort
Approved rendering: ermahnen
Transliteration: ermahnen
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 2:15’s escalating triad (speak/exhort/rebuke) requires ‘ermahnen’ (admonish sense) rather than the warmer ‘ermutigen,’ so the triad is not flattened into synonyms with the following ele(n)gche (‘rebuke’).
Gainsayers
Approved rendering: Widersprecher
Transliteration: Widersprecher
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW. Titus 1:9’s antilegontes, cognate with 2:9’s mē antilegontas (slaves not talking back) — same root, opposite polarity.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Transliteration: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Stable proper name; see new term ‘great_god_and_savior’ for the Critical 2:13 title construction.
Knowledge Of Truth
Approved rendering: Erkenntnis der Wahrheit
Transliteration: Erkenntnis der Wahrheit
Doctrine: Election and Calling
Original: ἐπίγνωσις ἀληθείας
Category: Faith
NEW. Titus 1:1’s epignosis aletheias — the elect’s faith is oriented toward, and produces, recognition of revealed truth, not mere private belief.
Peace
Approved rendering: Friede
Transliteration: Friede
Doctrine: Peace with God
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Titus 1:4 salutation and 3:15 closing benediction pairing with Gnade.
Present Age
Approved rendering: in dieser Weltzeit
Transliteration: in dieser Weltzeit
Doctrine: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
Rejected alternatives: heutzutage (too flat, loses the apocalyptic two-age frame)
NEW. Titus 2:12’s en to nyn aioni, the standard NT two-age framework, preserving the eschatological contrast with 2:13’s blessed hope.
Proper Names Titus
Approved rendering: Titus, Zenas, Apollos, Artemas, Tychikus, Kreta, Nikopolis
Transliteration: Titus, Zenas, Apollos, Artemas, Tychikus, Kreta, Nikopolis
Doctrine: N/A
NEW. Standard German Bible-translation transliteration forms for this letter’s proper names and places (1:4-5; 3:12-13).
Rebuke Sharply
Approved rendering: scharf zurechtweisen
Transliteration: elegche apotomos
Doctrine: Sound Doctrine and Good Works
NEW. Titus 1:13’s elegche apotomos, hina hygiainosin en te pistei — purpose is restoration to doctrinal health, not punitive cruelty.
Self Condemned
Approved rendering: sich selbst das Urteil sprechend
Transliteration: sich selbst das Urteil sprechend
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
NEW. Titus 3:11’s autokatakritos — reinforces that avoidance (3:10) is pastoral, not judicial-punitive; his own conduct, not a formal church tribunal, is the ‘condemnation’ in view.
Subverting Households For Gain
Approved rendering: richten ganze Familien zugrunde… um schändlichen Gewinns willen
Transliteration: holous oikous anatrepousin… aischrou kerdous charin
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
NEW. Titus 1:11’s economic-exploitation critique of the false teachers.
Unprofitable
Approved rendering: unnütz und nichtig
Transliteration: unnütz und nichtig
Doctrine: Avoiding Divisive Controversies
Original: ἀνωφελεῖς καὶ μάταιοι
Category: False Teaching
NEW. Titus 3:9’s anopheleis kai mataioi, the negative of 3:8’s ophelimos (‘profitable’) — a deliberate verbal contrast worth preserving explicitly in teaching material.
Worldly Lusts
Approved rendering: weltliche Begierden
Transliteration: weltliche Begierden
Doctrine: Grace That Trains for Godly Living
NEW. Titus 2:12’s kosmikas epithymias. Brief gloss recommended on first occurrence: ‘weltlich’ here is morally-opposed-to-God, not merely ‘non-ecclesiastical’ as in the German legal-register sense (weltliches Recht).
Referenced passages