Core Glossary
Core Glossary: The Epistle of James (English → Hebrew)
Curriculum: James | Destination language: Hebrew | Core passage: James 2:14–26
Companion document to: analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md
Methodology
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified across the full-book pass in 07_semantic_analysis.md, chapter 1 through chapter 5, into a single reference table. Three status categories are used:
- Reused (Romans TM) — the term is already fixed in the baseline
translation_memory.json/bible_term_registry.jsonand MUST be used exactly as recorded there. No deviation is permitted. - Extends (Romans TM) — the term shares a root or doctrinal category with a baseline entry but requires a new derived form (e.g., a verb form of a noun already fixed) not explicitly covered by the baseline. The extension is proposed here and must be added to
translation_memory.jsonin Phase 2 before use. - New (James) — the term does not appear, even by root, in the Romans baseline and is proposed here for the first time. All New entries must be added to
translation_memory.jsonbefore Phase 2 segment translation begins, per the Pre-flight Checklist’s term-registration procedure.
Risk tiers (Critical / High / Medium / Low) follow the identical definitions used in the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json.
A. Reused Terms (Romans Translation Memory — no deviation permitted)
| English term | Hebrew | Transliteration | Risk | James passages | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| faith | אֱמוּנָה | emunah | High | 1:3,6; 2:1,5,14-26 (throughout); 5:15 | Reuse exactly; core passage’s central term. |
| salvation / save | ישועה / להושיע | yeshu’ah / lehoshi’a | Critical | 1:21; 2:14; 4:12; 5:20 | Reuse exactly; shares root with Yeshua. |
| justification (noun) | ההצדקה | ha-hatzdakah | Critical | (conceptual background to 2:14-26) | Reuse exactly for the noun form; see Section C for the required verb-form extension. |
| righteousness | צדק | tzedek | Critical | 1:20; 3:18 | Reuse exactly; never tzedakah outside a Genesis 15:6 citation. |
| imputed righteousness | נחשבת לו לצדקה | nechshevet lo li-tzedakah | Critical | 2:23 | MANDATORY verbatim match to the Romans 4:3 occurrence of the identical Genesis 15:6 citation. |
| grace | חסד | chesed | High | 4:6 | Reuse exactly. |
| sin | חטא | chet | High | 1:15; 2:9; 4:17; 5:15-16,20 | Reuse exactly. |
| lord | אדון | Adon | Critical | 1:1; 4:15; 5:4,7-8,10-11,14-15 | Reuse exactly; see extended Section C entries for Lord of Hosts and Parousia. |
| god | אלוהים | Elohim | Critical | throughout | Reuse exactly. |
| law | תורה | Torah | Critical | 1:25; 2:8-12; 4:11 | Reuse exactly; James’s framing is unusually positive toward Torah (see Section C). |
| glory | כבוד | kavod | Medium | 2:1 | Reuse exactly. |
| kingdom (of God, implied) | מלכות | malchut | High | 2:5 | Reuse exactly. |
| prophet(s) | נביא / נביאים | navi / nevi’im | Low | 5:10 | Reuse exactly. |
| messiah/christ | משיח | mashiach | Critical | 1:1; 2:1 | Reuse exactly. |
| jesus | ישוע | Yeshua | Critical | 1:1; 2:1 | Reuse exactly; never ישו. |
| holy_spirit (where clearly intended) | רוח הקודש | Ruach HaKodesh | Critical | (cf. disputed 4:5, see Section D) | Reuse exactly only where referent is clearly the Holy Spirit; see 4:5 ambiguity note. |
B. New Terms Requiring Addition to Translation Memory
| English term | Hebrew | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | James passages | Note (rationale / collision / resonance) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James (author/book title) | יעקב / אגרת יעקב | Ya’akov / Igeret Ya’akov | Critical | Authorship & Identity | 1:1 (title) | Author’s Greek name Ἰάκωβος is simply “Jacob”; established Hebrew Bible-tradition title is אגרת יעקב, not a transliteration of “James.” |
| twelve tribes / dispersion | שנים עשר השבטים / תפוצות | shneim asar ha-shvatim / tfutzot | Critical | Jewish Identity of Audience | 1:1 | ”Diaspora/tfutzot” is a living, central category in contemporary Hebrew self-understanding; must not be flattened to a generic “abroad.” |
| servant (of God) | עבד | eved | Medium | Divine Calling | 1:1 | Strong “eved Adonai” prophetic-servant resonance; distinct rendering from שליח (apostle, already fixed in Romans TM). |
| trial (external testing) | ניסיון | nisayon | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:2-3,12 | Same root spans “trial” and colloquial “temptation” in Hebrew, mirroring the Greek peirasmos ambiguity; must be distinguished from the temptation-to-sin sense by context/phrasing. |
| temptation (to sin) | פיתוי / מנוסה לחטא | pittuy / menuseh le-chet | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:13-14 | Explicitly NOT attributed to God; must be kept distinct in phrasing from the “trial” sense above. |
| desire / craving | תאווה | ta’avah | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:14-15 | Resonant with, but not identical to, yetzer hara theology; requires explicit teaching, not assumed equivalence. |
| endurance / perseverance | התמדה | hatmadah | Medium | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:3-4; 5:11 | Keep distinct from μακροθυμία’s rendering below. |
| mature / complete / whole | שלם | shalem | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith / Wisdom from Above | 1:4,17,25; 3:2; 2:22 (verb) | Preferred over תמים (risk of “naive” connotation) and מושלם (risk of sinless-perfection misread). |
| wisdom | חכמה | chochmah | High | Wisdom from Above | 1:5; 3:13-17 | No viable alternative exists; framing risk parallels the Romans baseline’s caution on גבורה (a Kabbalistic sefirah) — chochmah is also a sefirah name and must be taught without mystical-emanationist overtones. |
| double-minded | דו-נפשי | du-nafshi | Medium | Wisdom from Above / Faith and Works | 1:8; 4:8 | Unique NT coinage; no Hebrew idiom precedent; requires explanatory phrase on first use. |
| crown of life | כתר/עטרת החיים | keter/ateret ha-chayim | Medium | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:12 | Eschatological reward imagery. |
| firstfruits | ראשית / ביכורים | reshit / bikkurim | Medium | New Creation Identity | 1:18 | Strong positive OT sacrificial-offering resonance. |
| meekness | ענווה | anavah | Medium | Wisdom from Above | 1:21 | Positive resonance with Mosaic anavah (Numbers 12:3). |
| implanted word | הדבר הנטוע | ha-davar ha-natu’a | Medium | Scripture / New Covenant | 1:21 | Echoes Jeremiah 31:33’s Torah-on-the-heart promise; should be taught with that cross-reference. |
| doer of the word / hearer only | עושה הדבר / שומע בלבד | oseh ha-davar / shome’a bilvad | High | Faith and Works | 1:22-25 | Seeds the entire 2:14-26 argument; render consistently with the core-passage vocabulary. |
| law of liberty / royal law | תורת החרות / התורה המלכותית | torat ha-cherut / ha-Torah ha-malchutit | High | Faith and Works / Law | 1:25; 2:8,12 | Positive Torah-framing; inherits Romans baseline’s “never anti-Torah” framing caution but here the text itself models the needed positive framing. |
| religion (true vs. mere) | דת | dat | High | Wisdom from Above / Ethics | 1:26-27 | Entangled with the Israeli dati/chiloni sociological spectrum; must not be read as an identity-marker term. |
| orphans and widows | יתומים ואלמנות | yetomim ve-almanot | Low | Favoritism and the Poor | 1:27 | Strong positive OT triad resonance (Deuteronomy 10:18). |
| unstained from the world | נקי מן העולם | naki min ha-olam | Medium | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 1:27 | Anticipates ch.4’s fuller treatment. |
| favoritism / partiality | משוא פנים | masso panim | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | 2:1,9 | Direct calque of Leviticus 19:15; strong positive asset. |
| synagogue / assembly | בית הכנסת / התכנסותכם | beit ha-kneset / hitkanshutchem | Critical | Church / Jewish Context | 2:2 | James uniquely uses “synagōgē” for a Christian gathering; must not be silently merged with קהילה (church, fixed in Romans TM); requires mandatory translator note and theologian review. |
| neighbor | רע / רעך | rea / re’acha | Low | Favoritism and the Poor | 2:8 | Must match Leviticus 19:18’s traditional citation wording exactly. |
| transgressor | עובר עברה / פושע | over averah / posheah | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | 2:9,11 | |
| mercy | רחמים | rachamim | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | 2:13 | Strong positive OT resonance; not present in the Romans baseline, newly added here. |
| works | מעשים | ma’asim | Critical | Faith and Works | 2:14-26 (throughout) | Must NOT be conflated with “מעשי התורה” (works of the [Mosaic] law), the specific Pauline/Qumran boundary-marker phrase; James’s ἔργα are generic deeds of love/obedience. |
| dead (of faith) | מתה | metah | High | Faith and Works | 2:17,20,26 | Must not be read as “faith that died,” implying prior genuine faith perished; James’s point is diagnostic (never truly alive). |
| show / demonstrate | הראה לי | har’eh li | Medium | Faith and Works | 2:18 | Prefer over להוכיח (risk of “rebuke” overtone in Modern Hebrew). |
| justified (verb form) | הוצדק (never הצטדק) | hutzdak (never hitzdadek) | Critical | Faith and Works / Justification | 2:21,24,25 | EXTENDS the Romans TM justification entry; the reflexive הצטדק is FORBIDDEN (colloquially means “make excuses for oneself”), extending the baseline’s forbidden-substitution list. See Section C. |
| Abraham our father | אברהם אבינו | Avraham avinu | Medium | Faith and Works / Covenant | 2:21,23 | Collective Jewish covenantal identity marker; must not be read as excluding Gentile believers (cf. Romans 4, Galatians 3). |
| altar | מזבח | mizbe’ach | Low | Faith and Works (Akedah) | 2:21 | Standard OT cultic term. |
| worked together (synergized) | פעלה יחד עם | pa’alah yachad im | High | Faith and Works | 2:22 | Must not be read as faith and works jointly earning merit before God. |
| perfected / completed | הושלמה | hushlemah | High | Faith and Works | 2:22 | Ties to τέλειος/שלם maturity theme; not sinless perfection. |
| Scripture fulfilled (evidentiary sense) | הכתוב נתמלא | ha-katuv nitmale | Medium-High | Faith and Works / Scripture | 2:23 | Distinct nuance from predictive-prophecy fulfillment language used elsewhere in the NT; requires its own note. |
| friend of God | ידיד האלוהים | yedid ha-Elohim | High | Faith and Works / Covenant | 2:23 | Echoes Isaiah 41:8, 2 Chronicles 20:7; fixes the יְדִיד root reused at 4:4. |
| faith alone | אמונה בלבד | emunah bilvad | Critical | Faith and Works | 2:24 | The phrase James negates in a sense distinct from Romans/Reformation usage; requires mandatory harmonization note at every occurrence. |
| Rahab the prostitute | רחב הזונה | Rachav ha-zonah | Medium | Faith and Works / Unity of Jew & Gentile | 2:25 | Matches Joshua 2:1’s own wording; positive Gentile-inclusion and Matthew 1 genealogy resonance. |
| messengers / spies | מרגלים | meraglim | Low | Faith and Works | 2:25 | Disambiguates from angelic מלאך, matching Joshua 2’s own vocabulary. |
| body / spirit (breath) | גוף / רוח | guf / ruach | Medium | Faith and Works | 2:26 | רוח ambiguity (breath vs. Spirit) recurs at 4:5; flag as a standing cross-reference. |
| tongue | לשון | lashon | Medium | Taming the Tongue | 3:1-12 | Strong positive resonance with the Rabbinic lashon hara ethical tradition; genuine teaching asset. |
| bridle / control | לרתם / לשים רסן | leratem / lasim resen | Low | Taming the Tongue | 3:2-3 | |
| fire / Gehenna | אש / גיהנום | esh / Gehinom | Medium | Taming the Tongue | 3:5-6 | Gehinom’s mainstream Jewish sense (temporary, purgative) differs from the NT’s eternal-judgment sense; teach the distinction. |
| likeness of God | בדמות אלוהים | bidmut Elohim | Medium | Taming the Tongue / Anthropology | 3:9 | Echoes Genesis 1:26 directly; positive resonance. |
| jealousy / selfish ambition | קנאה / תחרותנות | kin’ah / tacharutanut | High | Wisdom from Above / Worldliness | 3:14,16; 4:5 | קנאה is double-edged: also names God’s own holy jealousy (Exodus 20:5); must be disambiguated by context. |
| wisdom from above / earthly-demonic wisdom | חכמה מלמעלה / נפשית / שדית | chochmah milma’lah / nafshit / shedit | High | Wisdom from Above | 3:15,17 | The explicit demonic contrast helps guard against a mystical misreading of chochmah itself. |
| fruit of righteousness | פרי הצדק | pri ha-tzedek | Medium | Wisdom from Above | 3:18 | Built on reused TM צדק root. |
| friendship with the world | ידידות עם העולם | yedidut im ha-olam | High | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:4 | Built on the same יְדִיד root fixed for φίλος θεοῦ at 2:23. |
| enmity with God | איבה עם האלוהים | eivah im ha-Elohim | High | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:4 | Paired directly with the term above. |
| adulteresses (spiritual) | נואפות | no’afot | Medium | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:4 | Draws on the OT prophetic covenant-unfaithfulness metaphor (Hosea, Jeremiah); not literal. |
| devil | השטן | ha-satan | Medium | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:7 | Existing OT adversary category (Job 1-2, Zechariah 3). |
| purify (the heart) | לטהר את הלב | letaher et ha-lev | Medium | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:8 | Must be anchored as moral/relational purification, not ritual tum’ah/taharah purity. |
| lawgiver / judge | מחוקק / שופט | mechokek / shofet | Low | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:11-12 | |
| if the Lord wills | אם ירצה האדון | im yirtzeh ha-Adon | Medium | Worldliness / Providence | 4:15 | Connects to the Romans baseline’s providence doctrine (השגחה פרטית). |
| wealth / the rich | עושר / עשירים | osher / ashirim | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | 1:9-11; 2:2-6; 5:1-6 | |
| the righteous one | הצדיק | ha-tzadik | High | Favoritism and the Poor / Intercession | 5:6 | Possible resonance with the disputed suffering-servant identity question already flagged in the Romans baseline (Isaiah 53); flag for theologian review. |
| patience / longsuffering | אורך רוח | orekh ruach | Medium | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:7-8,10 | Echoes the divine attribute “erekh apayim” (Exodus 34:6); positive teaching asset. Keep distinct from endurance (התמדה) above. |
| the Lord’s coming (Parousia) | ביאת האדון | bi’at ha-Adon | Critical | Patience and the Lord’s Return / Messianic Promise | 5:7-8 | Requires the Romans baseline’s two-comings teaching framework at every occurrence. |
| grumble | להתלונן | lehitlonen | Low | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:9 | Echoes the wilderness-generation grumbling narrative. |
| oath / swear | שבועה / להישבע | shevu’ah / lehishava | Medium | Confession and Restoration / Ethics | 5:12 | Aligns with, rather than contradicts, existing Jewish caution around oaths (cf. Numbers 30, Kol Nidre). |
| anointing with oil | משיחה בשמן | meshichah be-shemen | High | Prayer and Healing | 5:14 | Shares the מ־ש־ח root with מָשִׁיחַ (Mashiach); genuine teaching asset, parallel to the Yeshua/yeshu’ah wordplay in the Romans baseline. |
| elders | זקנים | zekenim | Medium | Prayer and Healing | 5:14 | Clarify as congregational leadership office, not merely aged individuals. |
| prayer of faith | תפילת האמונה | tefillat ha-emunah | Medium | Prayer and Healing | 5:15 | Built on reused TM אמונה root. |
| confess (sins) | התוודו | hitvadu | High | Confession and Restoration | 5:16 | Strong positive resonance with the Yom Kippur Vidui liturgy; distinguish ongoing mutual confession from annual corporate confession. |
| heal | לרפא | lerape | Medium | Prayer and Healing | 5:16 | |
| prayer of a righteous person | תפילת הצדיק | tefillat ha-tzadik | Medium | Prayer and Healing | 5:16 | Built on reused צדיק root. |
| wander / go astray | לתעות | lit’ot | Medium | Confession and Restoration | 5:19 | |
| turn back / restore | להשיב | lehashiv | High | Confession and Restoration | 5:19-20 | Built on the שׁ־ו־ב root of תשובה (teshuvah); major positive resonance requiring careful, non-conflating teaching. |
| save a soul from death / cover sins | להציל נפש ממות / לכסות חטאים | lehatzil nefesh mi-mavet / lechasot chata’im | Critical | Confession and Restoration / Salvation | 5:20 | AVOID the כ־פ־ר (atonement) root for “cover”; use לכסות instead to prevent implying a competing atonement alongside Christ’s. |
C. Extended Entries (Derived Forms of Existing Romans TM Roots)
| Base term (Romans TM) | Extension required | Hebrew | Transliteration | Risk | James passages | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| justification (ha-hatzdakah, noun) | Passive verb form of δικαιόω | הוצדק | hutzdak | Critical | 2:21,24,25 | FORBIDDEN alternative: הצטדק (hitzdadek), which colloquially means “made excuses for himself.” This forbidden substitution must be added to the destination-language forbidden-substitution list alongside ישו, bare צדקה, קידוש, עדה, bare השגחה, and גבורה. |
| lord (Adon) | Divine title “Lord of Hosts” | יהוה צבאות / אדוני צבאות | YHWH/Adonai Tzeva’ot | Critical | 5:4 | The Greek preserves the Hebrew “Tzevaot” untranslated (transliterated); requires the same Tetragrammaton-substitution decision already documented for “Lord” in the Romans baseline. Confirm with destination platform house style. |
| lord (Adon) | Eschatological “coming of the Lord” | ביאת האדון | bi’at ha-Adon | Critical | 5:7-8 | See Section B entry above; requires the two-comings teaching framework. |
| righteousness (tzedek) | “Fruit of righteousness” compound | פרי הצדק | pri ha-tzedek | Medium | 3:18 | See Section B. |
| torah (Torah) | “Law of liberty” / “royal law” compounds | תורת החרות / התורה המלכותית | torat ha-cherut / ha-Torah ha-malchutit | High | 1:25; 2:8,12 | See Section B. |
D. Flagged Interpretive Ambiguities (Not Simple Term Choices)
| Passage | Issue | Required handling |
|---|---|---|
| James 4:5 | τὸ πνεῦμα — Holy Spirit or the human spirit God placed within a person? Genuinely disputed among commentators. | Mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence; render as רוח with an explicit interpretive translator note recording the choice made and the alternative considered. |
| James 2:24 | ”Justified by works and not by faith alone” vs. Romans 3:28/5:1’s “justified by faith apart from works.” | Mandatory harmonization note at every occurrence: James addresses vindication of faith’s genuineness before others; Romans addresses God’s initial forensic declaration. Both must be preserved, not silently smoothed into agreement by mistranslation. |
| James 2:2 | συναγωγή applied to a Christian gathering — a unique NT usage. | Must not be silently merged into קהילה (church); requires its own rendering decision and mandatory translator note; flagged for theologian review. |
| James 5:6 | ”The righteous one” — generic collective or a further resonance? | Flag for theologian review; note possible (not certain) connection to the disputed Isaiah 53 servant-identity question already documented in the Romans baseline. |
| James 5:20 | ”Cover a multitude of sins” — avoid the כפר/atonement root. | Use לכסות (cover, non-sacrificial) rather than any כפר-root rendering. |
This glossary must be merged into a language-specific translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json extension for the James curriculum before Phase 2 segment translation begins, per the Pre-flight Checklist and Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions established in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md. All Section A terms are enforced exactly as already recorded in the Romans baseline; all Section B and C terms are new proposals requiring formal registration, version increment, and — for every Critical and High risk entry — theologian review before first use.
Critical Risk Terms
Salvation Save
Approved rendering: ישועה / להושיע
Transliteration: yeshu’ah / lehoshi’a
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: גאולה
Original: σῴζω / σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly, sharing the root ישע with Yeshua’s own name. In James, applied to both eternal salvation (1:21; 2:14; 4:12) and, at 5:15 and 5:20, physical healing/rescue via a cognate use; context must disambiguate the senses in each occurrence.
Justification Noun
Approved rendering: ההצדקה
Transliteration: ha-hatzdakah
Doctrine: Salvation
Original: δικαίωσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly, always with the qualifying phrase ‘by faith’ (על ידי אמונה). Functions in James as the conceptual background against which 2:14-26’s distinct vindication-sense verb (see justified_verb_form) must be read; the noun itself does not occur in James but must be held in mind as the forensic-declaration category James is NOT redefining.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: צדק
Transliteration: tzedek
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: צדקה
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs at James 1:20 and 3:18 (‘fruit of righteousness’). Never rendered as תזדקה outside a direct Genesis 15:6 citation (see imputed_righteousness).
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: נחשבת לו לצדקה
Transliteration: nechshevet lo li-tzedakah
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: צדק מוענק
Original: ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly and MANDATORY verbatim at James 2:23, which directly quotes the identical Genesis 15:6 citation governed by the Romans 4:3 occurrence. Cross-document consistency is required word-for-word. Must retain the same translator note distinguishing the Biblical-Hebrew citation sense of tzedakah from Modern Hebrew’s narrowed ‘charity’ sense.
Lord
Approved rendering: אדון
Transliteration: Adon
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs throughout James, applied to Christ (1:1; 4:15; 5:4,7-8,10-11,14-15). See the James-specific extensions lord_of_hosts (5:4) and lords_coming_parousia (5:7-8) below, each requiring additional handling beyond this base entry.
God
Approved rendering: אלוהים
Transliteration: Elohim
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs throughout James. James 2:19’s ‘God is one’ directly echoes the Shema and must be handled per the Romans baseline’s caution: the point is monotheistic assent’s insufficiency without a transformed life, not any devaluing of the Shema itself.
Law Torah
Approved rendering: תורה
Transliteration: Torah
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. James’s own framing (1:25; 2:8-12; 4:11) is unusually positive toward Torah — ‘the perfect law of liberty,’ ‘the royal law’ — one of the least adversarial Torah passages in the NT, requiring the baseline’s never-anti-Torah caution to be applied in its positive, not merely defensive, register. See law_of_liberty and royal_law extensions below.
Messiah
Approved rendering: משיח
Transliteration: mashiach
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs at James 1:1 and 2:1. James’s anointing-oil passage (5:14, see anointing_with_oil below) shares the מ־ש־ח root with this term — a genuine cross-passage teaching asset, not a doctrinal claim about the oil itself.
Jesus
Approved rendering: ישוע
Transliteration: Yeshua
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ישו
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs at James 1:1 and 2:1 — only two occurrences in the entire letter, raising the stakes of a single spelling lapse. Never ישו under any circumstance.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: רוח הקודש
Transliteration: Ruach HaKodesh
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly, but used ONLY where the referent is unambiguously the Holy Spirit. Must NOT be used at the genuinely disputed James 4:5 (see spirit_disputed_referent below), where the referent (Holy Spirit vs. the human spirit) is contested among commentators.
Church
Approved rendering: קהילה
Transliteration: kehilah
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: עדה
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly for its established Romans-curriculum sense. CAUTION SPECIFIC TO JAMES: this term must NOT be used to render James 2:2’s συναγωγή (synagōgē), James’s own unique NT usage of a synagogue-term for a Christian gathering. See synagogue_assembly below — the two terms must remain visibly distinct across the James curriculum, not merged.
James Author Title
Approved rendering: יעקב / אגרת יעקב
Transliteration: Ya’akov / Igeret Ya’akov
Doctrine: Authorship and Jewish Identity of the Audience
Rejected alternatives: ג’יימס (a transliteration of the English name ‘James’)
Original: Ἰάκωβος
Category: Authorship
The author’s Greek name Ἰάκωβος is simply the Greek form of ‘Jacob.’ Established Hebrew NT tradition (Delitzsch and successors, and the contemporary Habrit Hachadasha) titles the book אגרת יעקב, not a transliterated ‘James.’ This resonance with the patriarch Jacob/Israel, paired with ‘the twelve tribes in the Dispersion’ (1:1), is uniquely available to a Hebrew reader and must never be severed.
Twelve Tribes Dispersion
Approved rendering: שנים עשר השבטים / תפוצות
Transliteration: shneim asar ha-shvatim / tfutzot
Doctrine: Authorship and Jewish Identity of the Audience
Rejected alternatives: גולה (generic ‘exile,’ flattens the living covenantal-national category)
Original: ταῖς δώδεκα φυλαῖς … ἐν τῇ διασπορᾷ
Category: Covenant
James 1:1’s audience designation. Tfutzot is a living, central category in contemporary Israeli self-understanding, not a neutral ‘abroad’; must retain its full covenantal-national weight, grounding the letter as addressed to a Jewish believing audience specifically.
Synagogue Assembly
Approved rendering: בית הכנסת / התכנסותכם
Transliteration: beit ha-kneset / hitkanshutchem
Doctrine: Church as God’s People / Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: קהילה (would erase James’s own historically significant word choice and its accurate picture of early Jewish-Christian congregational life)
Original: συναγωγή
Category: Church
James 2:2. James uniquely among NT writers uses συναγωγή for a Christian gathering, reflecting his audience’s still-synagogue-shaped communal life. Must NOT be silently merged with the Romans baseline’s קהילה; requires a mandatory translator note explaining the term’s Jewish-congregational background and mandatory theologian review at every occurrence.
Works
Approved rendering: מעשים
Transliteration: ma’asim
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: מעשי התורה (the specific Second Temple/Pauline/Qumran boundary-marker phrase; FORBIDDEN gloss)
Original: ἔργα
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:14-26 throughout. Must NEVER be rendered or glossed as מעשי התורה; James’s ἔργα are generic deeds of love and obedience (illustrated by clothing and feeding the poor, 2:15-16), not ceremonial Torah-observance boundary markers. Conflating the two phrases would import Paul’s distinct polemic into a passage not making that argument.
Justified Verb Form
Approved rendering: הוצדק
Transliteration: hutzdak
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Justification
Rejected alternatives: הצטדק (FORBIDDEN — colloquially means ‘made excuses for himself, rationalized his own conduct’ in Modern Hebrew)
Original: ἐδικαιώθη / δικαιοῦται (δικαιόω, passive)
Category: Salvation
James 2:21,24,25. EXTENDS the Romans TM justification_noun entry into its passive/Hophal verb form. הצטדק is FORBIDDEN — it carries precisely the rationalizing sense the Romans baseline already forbids for the noun form. Every occurrence requires a mandatory harmonization note distinguishing James’s vindication-before-others sense from Romans 3:28’s forensic declaration-before-God sense.
Faith Alone
Approved rendering: אמונה בלבד
Transliteration: emunah bilvad
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Salvation
Original: πίστεως μόνον
Category: Salvation
James 2:24. The phrase James negates: ‘not by faith alone,’ in the sense of an unvindicated, unevidenced profession. Requires a mandatory harmonization note at every occurrence: James negates this in answer to ‘how do we know faith is genuine,’ not Paul’s/Romans’ question of ‘how does a sinner come to be right with God,’ which Romans affirms is by faith alone apart from prior works (Romans 3:28).
Spirit Disputed Referent
Approved rendering: רוח
Transliteration: ruach
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: τὸ πνεῦμα
Category: God
James 4:5. Genuinely disputed among commentators: either the Holy Spirit indwelling believers, or the human spirit God placed within a person at creation. Hebrew orthography (no capitalization convention) cannot resolve the ambiguity English capitalization typically marks. Requires mandatory human theologian review and an explicit interpretive translator note recording the choice made and the alternative considered, at every occurrence. Do not substitute רוח הקודש here.
Lord Of Hosts
Approved rendering: יהוה צבאות / אדני צבאות
Transliteration: YHWH Tzeva’ot / Adonai Tzeva’ot
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: סבאות (a bare transliteration of the Greek’s own transliteration — a linguistically absurd double-transliteration of Hebrew’s own vocabulary back through Greek)
Original: Κύριος Σαβαώθ
Category: God
James 5:4. Κύριος Σαβαώθ preserves the Hebrew צבאות transliterated untranslated in the Greek text; must be restored to the original OT divine title. Requires the same sacred-Name sensitivity already documented for אדון/אדני in the Romans baseline. Confirm house style with the destination platform on whether the Tetragrammaton may be printed or must be substituted before Phase 2 batch processing.
Lords Coming Parousia
Approved rendering: ביאת האדון
Transliteration: bi’at ha-Adon
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return / Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: פרוסיה (bare transliteration, obscures the doctrinal content for a reader with no Greek)
Original: παρουσία
Category: Eschatology
James 5:7-8. EXTENDS the Romans TM lord entry. Connects directly to the Romans baseline’s messianic_promise doctrine, requiring the two-comings framework (a completed first coming, a still-future second coming) to be taught explicitly at every occurrence, since it is not self-evident against the mainstream Rabbinic expectation of a single unbroken messianic reign.
Cover Sins
Approved rendering: לכסות חטאים
Transliteration: lechasot chata’im
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration / Salvation
Rejected alternatives: כיפר / לכפר (the atonement root — FORBIDDEN, implies a competing atoning act alongside Christ’s own)
Original: καλύπτειν ἁμαρτίας
Category: Confession and Restoration
James 5:20. Must AVOID the כ־פ־ר root — the root of כִּפֵּר (kipper, ‘to atone’) and יוֹם כִּפּוּר (Yom Kippur), an extremely loaded sacrificial-atonement root. לְכַסּוֹת (a non-sacrificial ‘cover’) must be used instead, to prevent implying that restoring a straying believer constitutes a new atoning sacrifice competing with Christ’s own.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: אמונה
Transliteration: emunah
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: ביטחון
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. In James, uniquely close to the mainstream Jewish praxis-oriented sense of emunah (faithfulness demonstrated through mitzvot) at 2:14-26, which creates a distinct risk from Romans: readers may too quickly assume James and Romans agree on ‘faith’ without seeing the different question each text answers (vindication of a profession vs. forensic declaration). Occurs throughout James (1:3,6; 2:1,5,14-26; 5:15).
Grace
Approved rendering: חסד
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: חן
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs in James 4:6, citing Proverbs 3:34 (‘God gives grace to the humble’).
Sin
Approved rendering: חטא
Transliteration: chet
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs at James 1:15; 2:9; 4:17; 5:15-16,20. James’s own psychology of sin’s origin (desire→sin→death, 1:14-15) is a related but distinct model from the Romans baseline’s Adam/federal-headship framing; see desire_craving below for the James-specific extension.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: מלכות האלוהים
Transliteration: malchut ha-Elohim
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Original: βασιλεία
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs at James 2:5, ‘the kingdom promised to those who love him,’ within the favoritism discussion.
Trial
Approved rendering: ניסיון
Transliteration: nisayon
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: πειρασμός
Category: Trials
James 1:2-3,12. Hebrew nisayon spans both ‘test/experience’ and colloquial ‘temptation,’ mirroring the Greek peirasmos ambiguity James himself exploits and then deliberately separates from the internal enticement-to-sin sense at 1:13-14 (see temptation_to_sin). Must be kept distinct by context and phrasing.
Temptation To Sin
Approved rendering: פיתוי / מנוסה לחטא
Transliteration: pittuy / menuseh le-chet
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: ניסיון alone (fails to distinguish from the neutral trial sense)
Original: πειράζω / πειραζόμενος
Category: Sin
James 1:13-14. God is explicitly NOT the source of this sense (‘let no one say, I am being tempted by God’); the true source is one’s own desire. Must be phrased distinctly from the neutral trial sense (adding ‘לחטא’) so the reader never conflates God-permitted testing with God-caused enticement to sin.
Desire Craving
Approved rendering: תאווה
Transliteration: ta’avah
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: יצר הרע (imports a distinct two-inclinations framework not James’s own)
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Sin
James 1:14-15. Strong OT resonance (Numbers 11’s ‘graves of craving’), but must not be silently equated with the mainstream Jewish yetzer hatov/yetzer hara two-inclinations framework; James’s linear causal chain (desire conceives sin, sin brings forth death, from one individual’s own craving) is a related but distinct model requiring explicit teaching.
Mature Complete
Approved rendering: שלם / הושלם
Transliteration: shalem / hushlam
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: תמים (risk of a naive/innocent connotation), מושלם (risk of implying flawless sinless perfection)
Original: τέλειος / τελειόω
Category: Sanctification
James 1:4,17,25; 3:2; verb form at 2:22 (see faith_perfected). Must be taught consistently as wholeness/maturity brought to intended completion, never sinless flawlessness, at every occurrence.
Wisdom
Approved rendering: חכמה
Transliteration: chochmah
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: σοφία
Category: Wisdom
James 1:5; 3:13-17. No viable alternative exists, but chochmah is also the name of the second Kabbalistic sefirah in the Tree of Life; as with the Romans baseline’s caution on גבורה, this is a framing risk requiring guard against a mystical-emanationist reading, not a vocabulary problem. James’s own explicit contrast with earthly/demonic wisdom (3:15) supplies a built-in textual fence — see wisdom_from_above below.
Doer Of The Word
Approved rendering: עושה הדבר / שומע בלבד
Transliteration: oseh ha-davar / shome’a bilvad
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: ποιητὴς λόγου / ἀκροατὴς
Category: Faith and Works
James 1:22-25. This pairing seeds the entire faith-and-works argument of 2:14-26 and must be rendered consistently with that passage’s vocabulary (מעשים, אמונה).
Law Of Liberty
Approved rendering: תורת החרות השלמה
Transliteration: torat ha-cherut ha-shlemah
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Law
Original: νόμος τέλειος τῆς ἐλευθερίας
Category: Covenant
James 1:25. Built on the reused Romans TM תורה root. James’s framing here is strikingly positive — one of the least anti-nomos passages in the NT; inherits the baseline’s Critical caution never to teach Torah as an attack, and here the text itself models the needed positive framing, a genuine bridge to Jewish readers.
Royal Law
Approved rendering: התורה המלכותית
Transliteration: ha-Torah ha-malchutit
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor / Law
Original: νόμος βασιλικός
Category: Covenant
James 2:8,12. The love-command as the summary/king of Torah’s ethical demand. Built on the fixed תורה root; same positive-framing caution as law_of_liberty.
True Religion
Approved rendering: דת
Transliteration: dat
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above / Ethics
Rejected alternatives: עבודת אלוהים (considered, less standard)
Original: θρησκεία
Category: Ethics
James 1:26-27. In contemporary Israeli Hebrew, dat is entangled with the dati/chiloni (religious/secular) sociological spectrum and risks being heard as an identity-marker label rather than James’s intended sense of devotion demonstrated in ethical action toward the vulnerable. Surrounding phrasing must anchor dat in its concrete ethical content.
Dead Faith
Approved rendering: מתה
Transliteration: metah
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: νεκρά
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:17,20,26. Must not be heard as ‘faith that once lived and has now died,’ implying real saving faith can subsequently perish through inactivity; James’s point is diagnostic — such faith was never vitally alive to begin with. This nuance must be carried by surrounding teaching material, since the bare word does not disambiguate.
Worked Together With Faith
Approved rendering: פעלה יחד עם
Transliteration: pa’alah yachad im
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: συνήργει (συνεργέω)
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:22. Faith and works are not sequential unrelated events but an integrated, living relationship. Must not be read as faith and works jointly earning merit before God — a synergistic-salvation misread. The cooperation described is faith’s own outworking.
Faith Perfected
Approved rendering: הושלמה
Transliteration: hushlemah
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: ἐτελειώθη (τελειόω)
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:22. Ties directly to the ch.1 mature_complete (שלם) theme. Must be taught as ‘faith reached its intended fruition,’ never as ‘faith became morally flawless’ or ‘faith needed works to become valid.‘
Scripture Fulfilled Evidentiary
Approved rendering: הכתוב נתמלא
Transliteration: ha-katuv nitmale
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Scripture
Original: ἐπληρώθη (πληρόω)
Category: Scripture
James 2:23. The earlier statement about Abraham (Genesis 15:6) shown to be fully borne out by his later obedient act. Must not collapse into the predictive-prophecy ‘fulfillment’ register used for messianic prooftexts elsewhere (contrast Romans 1:2); this is a life’s later action vindicating an earlier profession, a distinct sense requiring its own note.
Friend Of God
Approved rendering: ידיד האלוהים
Transliteration: yedid ha-Elohim
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Covenant
Original: φίλος θεοῦ
Category: Covenant
James 2:23. Echoes Isaiah 41:8 and 2 Chronicles 20:7, ready-made Hebrew vocabulary; a genuine asset. Fixes the יְדִיד root reused for friendship_with_the_world (4:4) for deliberate cross-passage consistency.
Jealousy Selfish Ambition
Approved rendering: קנאה / תחרותנות
Transliteration: kin’ah / tacharutanut
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above / Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: ζῆλος / ἐριθεία
Category: Wisdom
James 3:14,16; echoed at 4:5. קנאה is double-edged: it also names God’s own holy jealousy (Exodus 20:5, ‘El kanna’), a positive divine attribute. James’s negative sense (selfish envy among believers) must be clearly disambiguated by context so the same root is not mistakenly read as attributing anything positive to the rivalry James condemns.
Wisdom From Above
Approved rendering: חכמה מלמעלה / נפשית / שדית
Transliteration: chochmah milma’lah / nafshit / shedit
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: σοφία ἄνωθεν / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης
Category: Wisdom
James 3:15,17. Heavenly-sourced wisdom contrasted with earthly, merely-human, and demonically-influenced counterfeits. The explicit demonic contrast helps guard against the mystical-sefirah misreading flagged for chochmah generally, since ‘from above’ wisdom is set against demonic origin, not aligned with any emanationist scheme.
Friendship With The World
Approved rendering: ידידות עם העולם
Transliteration: yedidut im ha-olam
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: φιλία τοῦ κόσμου
Category: Worldliness
James 4:4. A chosen relational allegiance incompatible with allegiance to God. Deliberately built on the same יְדִיד root fixed for friend_of_god (2:23) for cross-passage consistency, contrasting the two allegiances by shared vocabulary.
Enmity With God
Approved rendering: איבה עם האלוהים
Transliteration: eivah im ha-Elohim
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Worldliness
James 4:4. The relational state opposite to friendship with God, the consequence of choosing worldly friendship; paired directly with friendship_with_the_world above.
The Righteous One
Approved rendering: הצדיק
Transliteration: ha-tzadik
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: δίκαιος
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 5:6. ‘You have murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you’ — possibly the righteous poor collectively, possibly bearing a further resonance with the disputed suffering-servant identity question (Isaiah 53) already flagged in the Romans baseline’s intercession doctrine entry. Flag for theologian review regarding any further Christological resonance.
Anointing With Oil
Approved rendering: משיחה בשמן
Transliteration: meshichah be-shemen
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: ἐλαίῳ ἀλείψαντες
Category: Prayer and Healing
James 5:14. The verb root מ־ש־ח (to anoint) is the very root of מָשִׁיחַ (Mashiach), already fixed as Critical in the Romans baseline — a genuine teaching asset, parallel to the Yeshua/yeshu’ah wordplay documented for Matthew 1:21. The healing-oil ritual must not be confused with any Messianic/christological claim about the oil itself.
Confess Sins
Approved rendering: התוודו
Transliteration: hitvadu
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἐξομολογέομαι
Category: Confession and Restoration
James 5:16. Mutual, communal confession of sin among believers for healing. Strong positive resonance with the וִדּוּי (vidui), the Yom Kippur confession liturgy — a genuine existing Jewish category. Must distinguish James’s ongoing, mutual, small-group confession from the annual, corporate, liturgically fixed Vidui, while affirming their theological continuity.
Turn Back Restore
Approved rendering: להשיב
Transliteration: lehashiv
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἐπιστρέφω
Category: Confession and Restoration
James 5:19-20. Restoring a believer who has strayed from the truth. Built on the שׁ־ו־ב root of תְּשׁוּבָה (teshuvah), the central Jewish repentance category — a major positive resonance requiring explicit teaching that distinguishes, without conflating, James’s picture of one believer restoring another from the broader theological category of teshuvah, while affirming their conceptual kinship.
Medium Risk Terms
Glory
Approved rendering: כבוד
Transliteration: kavod
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs at James 2:1, ‘our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.‘
Father
Approved rendering: אבינו
Transliteration: Avinu
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs at James 1:17 (‘the Father of lights’) and 1:27 (‘God, our Father’). Same corporate-vs-individual emphasis-shift noted in the Romans baseline applies; James’s own usage is closer to the corporate-liturgical register (‘Avinu Malkeinu’).
Providence
Approved rendering: השגחה פרטית
Transliteration: hashgachah pratit
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: השגחה
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly as the doctrinal category underlying James 4:13-17’s rebuke of presumptuous planning. Note that James’s own actual phrasing at 4:15 (‘if the Lord wills,’ אם ירצה האדון — see if_the_lord_wills below) sidesteps the bare-hashgachah kosher-supervision-label risk entirely by not using the word hashgachah at all; prefer James’s own existing phrasing over introducing hashgachah unnecessarily.
Servant Of God
Approved rendering: עבד
Transliteration: eved
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: שליח (apostle, already fixed and doctrinally distinct)
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Divine Calling
James 1:1’s self-designation. Strong positive resonance with the prophetic ‘eved Adonai’ self-designation (Moses, the prophets); ensure not read through Modern Hebrew’s occasional demeaning colloquial sense.
Endurance
Approved rendering: התמדה
Transliteration: hatmadah
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: ὑπομονή
Category: Trials
James 1:3-4; 5:11 (of Job). Keep rendering distinct from μακροθυμία/patience (אורך רוח, ch.5) to preserve James’s own two-term distinction between endurance-under-pressure and patience-toward-people/outcomes.
Double Minded
Approved rendering: דו-נפשי
Transliteration: du-nafshi
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: δίψυχος
Category: Faith
James 1:6-8; 4:8. A NT coinage (δίψυχος) with no prior Hebrew Bible or Rabbinic idiom precedent; du-nafshi is a literal calque requiring an explanatory phrase on first use.
Crown Of Life
Approved rendering: כתר/עטרת החיים
Transliteration: keter/ateret ha-chayim
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: στέφανος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Eschatology
James 1:12. Eschatological reward promised to the one who endures trial; standard reward imagery, no significant collision risk.
Firstfruits
Approved rendering: ראשית / ביכורים
Transliteration: reshit / bikkurim
Doctrine: New Creation Identity
Original: ἀπαρχή
Category: Salvation
James 1:18. Believers as God’s own firstfruits among creation; strong positive OT sacrificial-offering resonance, a genuine asset.
Meekness
Approved rendering: ענווה
Transliteration: anavah
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: πραΰτης
Category: Sanctification
James 1:21. The posture required to receive the implanted word; positive resonance with Moses as ‘the most anav of men’ (Numbers 12:3).
Implanted Word
Approved rendering: הדבר הנטוע
Transliteration: ha-davar ha-natu’a
Doctrine: Scripture / New Covenant
Original: ἔμφυτος λόγος
Category: Scripture
James 1:21. Echoes Jeremiah 31:33’s new-covenant promise of Torah written on the heart; should be explicitly connected to that passage in teaching material.
Unstained From The World
Approved rendering: נקי מן העולם
Transliteration: naki min ha-olam
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: ἄσπιλος ἀπὸ τοῦ κόσμου
Category: Worldliness
James 1:27. Moral purity maintained against corrupting worldly influence; anticipates the fuller ch.4 friendship-with-the-world treatment.
Favoritism
Approved rendering: משוא פנים
Transliteration: masso panim
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: προσωπολημψία
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 2:1,9. Direct calque of Leviticus 19:15’s own idiom (‘lo tissa fnei dal’); a strong positive OT-NT vocabulary bridge. Risk is under-teaching, not collision: ensure the abstract idiom is anchored to James’s concrete social scenario (rich vs. poor visitor in the assembly, 2:2-4).
Transgressor
Approved rendering: עובר עברה / פושע
Transliteration: over averah / posheah
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: παραβάτης
Category: Sin
James 2:9,11. One who breaks even a single point of the law and is thereby a transgressor; no significant collision risk.
Mercy
Approved rendering: רחמים
Transliteration: rachamim
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 2:13. Strong positive OT resonance (the womb-root רחם, God’s own compassion); newly registered for this curriculum, not previously present in the Romans baseline.
Show Demonstrate
Approved rendering: הראה לי
Transliteration: har’eh li
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: להוכיח (risks an unintended ‘rebuke’ overtone in Modern Hebrew)
Original: δεῖξόν (δείκνυμι)
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:18. Works function epistemically here — as evidence by which an invisible faith becomes visible — not as a meritorious cause. Reserve הוכיח for contexts of formal proof/argument specifically.
Abraham Our Father
Approved rendering: אברהם אבינו
Transliteration: Avraham avinu
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Covenant
Original: Ἀβραὰμ ὁ πατὴρ ἡμῶν
Category: Covenant
James 2:21,23. Collective Jewish covenantal identity marker; must not be read as excluding Gentile believers, who per Romans 4 and Galatians 3 are also Abraham’s spiritual children by faith.
Rahab The Prostitute
Approved rendering: רחב הזונה
Transliteration: Rachav ha-zonah
Doctrine: Faith and Works / Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: Ῥαὰβ ἡ πόρνη
Category: Covenant
James 2:25. Matches Joshua 2:1’s own Hebrew wording exactly. A second exemplar deliberately as different from Abraham as possible: a Gentile, a woman, a former prostitute; positive resonance with Jesus’s genealogy (Matthew 1:5).
Body And Spirit
Approved rendering: גוף / רוח
Transliteration: guf / ruach
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: σῶμα / πνεῦμα
Category: Faith and Works
James 2:26. πνεῦμα here is the human life-breath/spirit, not the Holy Spirit; context is decisive here, but the same ambiguity recurs disputedly at 4:5 (see spirit_disputed_referent) and merits a standing cross-reference note.
Tongue
Approved rendering: לשון
Transliteration: lashon
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: γλῶσσα
Category: Ethics
James 3:1-12. Strong positive resonance with the Rabbinic ethical category of לשון הרע (lashon hara, evil speech/gossip); James’s specific point (the same mouth blessing God and cursing people made in his likeness) is resonant with, but not identical to, that tradition.
Fire Gehenna
Approved rendering: אש / גיהינום
Transliteration: esh / Gehinom
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: πῦρ / γέεννα
Category: Eschatology
James 3:6. Gehinom is a robust existing Jewish category for post-mortem punishment/purification, but mainstream Jewish thought generally holds it temporary and purgative, differing from the NT’s apparent eternal-judgment register here; teach the scope distinction, do not assume equivalence.
Likeness Of God
Approved rendering: בדמות אלוהים
Transliteration: bidmut Elohim
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: καθ’ ὁμοίωσιν θεοῦ
Category: Anthropology
James 3:9. Echoes Genesis 1:26 directly; grounds the prohibition on cursing fellow humans in the imago Dei. Strong positive resonance requiring explicit connection to the creation account in teaching.
Fruit Of Righteousness
Approved rendering: פרי הצדק
Transliteration: pri ha-tzedek
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: καρπὸς δικαιοσύνης
Category: Salvation
James 3:18. Built on the reused Romans TM tzedek root; concludes the wisdom discourse. Inherits the baseline’s caution never to use תזדקה outside a Genesis 15:6 citation.
Adulteresses Spiritual
Approved rendering: נואפות
Transliteration: no’afot
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: μοιχαλίδες
Category: Worldliness
James 4:4. Applies the OT prophetic covenant-unfaithfulness metaphor (Hosea, Jeremiah — Israel as unfaithful wife) to friendship with the world. Requires an explicit note at first occurrence: this is spiritual/covenantal infidelity language, not a literal accusation.
Devil
Approved rendering: השטן
Transliteration: ha-satan
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: διάβολος
Category: Spiritual Warfare
James 4:7. ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’ Genuine positive existing OT adversary category (Job 1-2, Zechariah 3), providing a conceptual bridge.
Purify The Heart
Approved rendering: לטהר את הלב
Transliteration: letaher et ha-lev
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: ἁγνίζω
Category: Sanctification
James 4:8. Root טהר carries strong ritual-purity (tum’ah/taharah) connotations in Jewish practice; must be clearly anchored as moral/relational purification of the heart, not ritual purity, echoing the Romans baseline’s caution attached to ‘holy.‘
If The Lord Wills
Approved rendering: אם ירצה האדון
Transliteration: im yirtzeh ha-Adon
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: השגחה (bare form, risks the everyday kosher-supervision-label reading)
Original: ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ
Category: Providence
James 4:15. Reuses the fixed Romans TM אדון root; connects directly to the Romans baseline’s providence doctrine (השגחה פרטית) without needing to invoke the bare hashgachah term at all.
Wealth And The Rich
Approved rendering: עושר / עשירים
Transliteration: osher / ashirim
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: πλοῦτος / πλούσιοι
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 1:9-11; 2:2-6; 5:1-6. No inherent vocabulary collision; sensitivity is the social-economic weight of the prophetic-oracle-style condemnation (5:1-6), which should be taught as continuous with OT prophetic critique (Amos, Isaiah), not a novel anti-wealth polemic.
Patience Longsuffering
Approved rendering: אורך רוח
Transliteration: orekh ruach
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: μακροθυμία
Category: Patience
James 5:7-8,10. Echoes the divine attribute ‘erekh apayim’ (Exodus 34:6, slow to anger); human patience framed as imitation of a divine attribute, a genuine teaching asset. Keep distinct from endurance (התמדה, ch.1).
Oath Swear
Approved rendering: שבועה / להישבע
Transliteration: shevu’ah / lehishava
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ὅρκος / ὀμνύω
Category: Ethics
James 5:12. James’s restriction on oath-taking aligns with, rather than contradicts, existing Jewish caution around vows (Numbers 30; the cultural weight of the Kol Nidre prayer) — a positive point of contact to teach explicitly.
Prayer
Approved rendering: להתפלל / תפילה
Transliteration: lehitpalel / tefillah
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: εὔχομαι / προσεύχομαι
Category: Prayer and Healing
James 5:13-18. General prayer vocabulary opening the extended prayer-and-healing unit; standard vocabulary, no significant collision risk.
Elders
Approved rendering: זקנים
Transliteration: zekenim
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: πρεσβύτεροι
Category: Church
James 5:14. Congregational leadership office called for prayer over the sick; strong OT elder-leadership resonance (the ‘zekenim’ of Israel). Clarify this denotes congregational office, not merely aged individuals generically.
Prayer Of Faith
Approved rendering: תפילת האמונה
Transliteration: tefillat ha-emunah
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως
Category: Prayer and Healing
James 5:15. Prayer offered in reliance on God, associated with healing of the sick; built on the reused Romans TM אמונה root, no independent collision risk.
Heal
Approved rendering: לרפא
Transliteration: lerape
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: ἰάομαι
Category: Prayer and Healing
James 5:16. Physical (and sometimes spiritual) healing following confession/prayer; no significant collision risk.
Prayer Of The Righteous
Approved rendering: תפילת הצדיק
Transliteration: tefillat ha-tzadik
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: δέησις δικαίου
Category: Prayer and Healing
James 5:16-18. Effective, powerful intercessory prayer, illustrated by Elijah; built on the reused tzadik root, no independent collision risk beyond the general the_righteous_one note at 5:6.
Wander Astray
Approved rendering: לתעות
Transliteration: lit’ot
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: πλανάομαι
Category: Confession and Restoration
James 5:19. Departure from truth or right conduct; no significant collision risk.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: נביא / נביאים
Transliteration: navi / nevi’im
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; reused exactly. Occurs at James 5:10, citing the prophets as models of patient suffering.
Orphans And Widows
Approved rendering: יתומים ואלמנות
Transliteration: yetomim ve-almanot
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: ὀρφανοὺς καὶ χήρας
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
James 1:27. Classic OT triad of vulnerable persons; strong positive OT resonance (Deuteronomy 10:18, 24:17), the concrete content of ‘pure religion.‘
Neighbor
Approved rendering: רע / רעך
Transliteration: rea / re’acha
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: πλησίον
Category: Ethics
James 2:8. Direct citation of Leviticus 19:18; must match the traditional Hebrew citation wording exactly (‘ואהבת לרעך כמוך’).
Altar
Approved rendering: מזבח
Transliteration: mizbe’ach
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: θυσιαστήριον
Category: Covenant
James 2:21. The altar on which Abraham offered Isaac, echoing the Akedah (Genesis 22); standard OT cultic term, no risk.
Messengers Spies
Approved rendering: מרגלים
Transliteration: meraglim
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: מלאכים (risks being read as angelic beings)
Original: ἀγγέλους
Category: Covenant
James 2:25. The human spies of Joshua 2, not angelic beings; matches the Joshua narrative’s own vocabulary.
Bridle Control
Approved rendering: לרתם / לשים רסן
Transliteration: leratem / lasim resen
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: χαλιναγωγέω
Category: Ethics
James 3:2-3. Equestrian metaphor for controlling an otherwise unruly force; no significant risk.
Lawgiver And Judge
Approved rendering: מחוקק / שופט
Transliteration: mechokek / shofet
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: νομοθέτης / κριτής
Category: God
James 4:11-12. Roles reserved to God alone, rebuking presumptuous mutual judgment; no significant collision risk.
Grumble
Approved rendering: להתלונן
Transliteration: lehitlonen
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: γογγύζω
Category: Ethics
James 5:9. ‘Do not grumble against one another’; positive-instructive resonance with the wilderness-generation grumbling narrative as a cautionary backdrop.
Referenced passages