Linguistic Gap Analysis — Matthew (Full Book) for Hebrew Translation

Purpose and Method

This analysis identifies, for the Matthew curriculum, where the destination language (Modern Israeli Hebrew, Messianic Jewish register) has (a) no adequate native vocabulary for a required doctrinal concept, (b) crowded semantic neighborhoods where an available Hebrew word is already anchored to a competing sense strong enough to distort the intended doctrine unless explicitly fenced, and (c) genuine transliteration-vs-paraphrase choices. It closes with a ranked list of the highest-risk ambiguities in the book.

This document extends, and never contradicts, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json, and is the linguistic foundation underlying analysis/08_core_glossary.md and the Matthew-extension bible_term_registry.json. Every term decision recorded here is reflected identically in those two documents; this file supplies the reasoning — why each strategy was chosen — including for the full sweep of Matthew 1–28, not only the core passage (Matthew 5:1-12).

Risk tiers follow the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions: Critical / High / Medium / Low, with the same review-routing consequences (theologian / native speaker / automated).

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Part 1 — Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix

For each of the curriculum’s nine doctrines: the available Hebrew terms, their specific weaknesses, and the recommended handling strategy.

Doctrine	Available Hebrew Term(s)	Weakness of Available Term(s)	Recommended Strategy
The Kingdom of Heaven	מלכות השמים (malchut hashamayim); מלכות האלוהים (malchut ha-Elohim) [BASELINE]	מלכות השמים already denotes, in Rabbinic/liturgical usage (Shema-adjacent “accepting the yoke of the kingdom of heaven”), present submission to the commandments — not Matthew’s inaugurated-yet-future redemptive reign. Using it interchangeably with מלכות האלוהים would erase Matthew’s own Greek-text distinction between the two phrases.	Keep the two Hebrew phrases lexically distinct and mapped 1:1 to Matthew’s own two Greek phrases (βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν / βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ) throughout all ~32+5 occurrences. Teach the Rabbinic category explicitly as a genuine asset requiring redirection, not as a false-friend to be avoided.
Jesus as the Promised Messiah and Son of David	משיח [BASELINE]; בן דוד (ben David); בן אדם (ben Adam); זרע דוד [BASELINE]	משיח and בן דוד both carry the full weight of the Rabbinic single-reign, this-worldly job description (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 11-12); בן אדם on its own reads as generic “a human being” (Ezekiel, Psalm 8:4), risking total loss of the Danielic exaltation sense Matthew intends at its highest-stakes moments.	Retain all four established terms; require mandatory theologian-authored teaching notes at every structurally significant occurrence (esp. 16:13-16; 22:42-45; 26:63-64) explaining the two-comings resolution rather than assuming it is self-evident.
Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy	להתגשם/התגשמות (fulfilled-formula) [NEW]; למלא (fulfill_torah, 5:17 only) [NEW]; נביא/נבואה [BASELINE]	Hebrew’s single most natural verb for “fulfill” in ordinary usage could, if used indiscriminately across both senses, blur two doctrinally distinct claims: (1) an event fulfilling a prediction (fulfilled-formula) vs. (2) Jesus’ own stated relationship to the Torah itself (5:17). Collapsing these into one verb would make 5:17 read as merely another prophecy-citation rather than Jesus’ programmatic self-statement about Torah.	Enforce two distinct Hebrew verbs (להתגשם for the ~11 fulfillment-citations; למלא exclusively for 5:17) as already fixed in the extended term registry. Flag every fulfilled-formula occurrence as requiring engagement with, not silent bypass of, the contested messianic prooftext history.
The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching	סמכות (samchut) [NEW]	Positive resource (echoes rabbinic semichah, ordination via a transmitted chain), but risks flattening Matthew’s deliberate contrast — Jesus teaches with unmediated, self-derived authority “not as their scribes” (7:29) — into equivalence with ordinary rabbinic authority if the contrast is not made explicit.	Retain סמכות; require the contrastive framing (“not as the scribes”) be carried in surrounding teaching material at every occurrence, not left implicit in the word alone.
Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees	צדק [BASELINE]; צדקה (alms exception only) [NEW]; מסורת הזקנים; סופרים ופרושים; צבוע	The Modern Hebrew narrowing of צדקה to “charity” is normally forbidden per baseline rule, but Matthew 6:1-4 requires exactly that narrowed sense (correct exception). Simultaneously, the entire doctrine risks being taught as anti-Jewish/anti-Pharisaic polemic rather than the intra-Jewish covenant-fulfillment critique it actually is.	Maintain the single explicit carve-out (6:1-4 = צדקה correct) against the general rule (elsewhere = צדק), with a standing cross-reference note preventing this exception from being mistaken for an error. Mandate theologian review for all ch. 23 material specifically to guard against anti-Judaic caricature.
The Church and Church Discipline	קהילה [BASELINE]; לאסור ולהתיר (bind/loose) [NEW]; מפתחות המלכות [NEW]; מכשול [NEW]	קהילה is safe (never עדה), but “bind and loose” borrows direct halakhic ruling-terminology whose scope in ordinary Rabbinic use (communal legal authority) could be read as unbounded if not tied explicitly to the Matthew 18:15-18 discipline procedure.	Retain established terms; require scope-limiting teaching notes at 16:19 and 18:18 tying the authority to its immediate ecclesial-discipline context.
The Great Commission	לך… עשה תלמידים בכל הגויים, והטבל אותם בשם האב והבן ורוח הקודש [NEW, compound]; טבילה [NEW]	No single Hebrew word carries the full Trinitarian-baptismal-missionary complex; גויים (“nations,” here “all nations”) in ordinary colloquial Hebrew carries a mildly-to-strongly pejorative shade, a serious risk precisely because גויים here names the very group being commanded discipled with dignity.	Retain the compound phrase as fixed; mandatory theologian review of the whole formula per Trinitarian-language escalation rule; explicit teaching note that “all nations” (כל הגויים) grammatically includes Israel, resolving the ch. 10/ch. 28 staged-mission tension.
Judgment and the End of the Age	קץ העולם / אחרית הימים [NEW]; גהינום [NEW]; עונש עולם / חיי עולם [NEW]; נבחרים [NEW]	אחרית הימים carries a strong existing OT/Rabbinic eschatological category but assumes a single unbroken Messianic Age, not Matthew’s inaugurated-yet-future pattern. גהינום in mainstream Rabbinic tradition denotes generally finite, purifying punishment; Matthew’s pairing with “eternal” is a genuine doctrinal divergence, not a lexical error.	Retain both terms as the correct, recognizable Hebrew vocabulary, but require explicit theologian-authored notes distinguishing Matthew’s claims from the Rabbinic defaults at every occurrence, rather than assuming shared vocabulary implies shared doctrine.
Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus	תלמיד [NEW]; לשאת את צלבו [NEW]; עול / מנוחה [NEW]; שער צר [NEW]	תלמיד/רב is a robust existing category but ordinarily denotes a bounded apprenticeship, not Matthew’s demand for total, exclusive, life-and-death allegiance; צלב (cross) carries documented historical association with antisemitic violence in Jewish collective memory, an emotional/cultural risk distinct from lexical accuracy.	Retain established terms; require an explicit historical-sensitivity note wherever cross-bearing is taught, and an explicit intensification note wherever discipleship exceeds the ordinary talmid-rav bond (8:19-22; 10:37-39; 16:24-26).

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Part 2 — Missing Vocabulary: Concepts with No Adequate Native Hebrew Term

These are doctrines/concepts for which Hebrew has no existing single word carrying the required sense, requiring compound phrasing, a process-noun construction, or a deliberately built theological neologism rather than a simple lexical match.

Concept	Gap	Strategy Adopted
Incarnation (abstract doctrine)	No continuous native-Hebrew Christian theological tradition exists between the apostolic era and Hebrew’s modern revival; Modern Hebrew’s nearest available word (הגשמה, “actualizing a dream”) trivializes the doctrine into self-actualization language.	Reuse baseline’s process-noun התגלמות (hitgalmut); supplement with Matthew’s own concrete narrative anchor (virgin conception, Immanuel) rather than relying on the abstract noun alone.
Transfiguration	No single Hebrew noun exists for this specific event-category; a transliterated Greek loan (מטמורפוזה, “metamorphosis”) exists in Modern Hebrew but is clinical/biological in register (used of insects, chemical states) and entirely unsuitable.	Use a descriptive paraphrase, השתנות פניו (“the changing of his face/appearance”), deliberately built to echo Moses’ shining face at Sinai (Exodus 34:29-35) and to reuse the baseline’s כבוד (glory) vocabulary in surrounding phrasing, distinguishing it explicitly from the permanent Incarnation.
Great Commission baptismal formula (as a unit)	No existing Hebrew phrase names this compound missionary-mandate-plus-Trinitarian-baptismal-formula as a single doctrinal unit.	Fix the full compound sentence as a single translation-memory entry (see registry) rather than attempting a one-word gloss; treat the whole unit as Critical risk requiring theologian review as a single block.
Son of God (corporate/plural), Matthew 5:9	Hebrew’s most natural rendering of “sons of God” (בני האלוהים) is grammatically adjacent to, and could visually/aurally blur with, the Critical singular Christological title בן האלוהים if not deliberately kept distinct.	Fixed as a separate registry entry (son_of_god_corporate) with explicit plural marking and a standing note preventing conflation with Christ’s unique title.
Eternal Punishment / Eternal Life parallel structure (25:46)	Hebrew has multiple candidate duration-words (נצחי, עולם, לעד) with varying registers; none is a single unambiguous “the Greek αἰώνιος word” equivalent, and using two different words for the two halves of Matthew’s parallel clause would silently weaken the argument for Gehenna’s unending duration.	Fix a matched pair, עונש עולם / חיי עולם, using the same duration-word (עולם) on both sides to preserve Matthew’s own grammatical parallelism, with a mandatory theologian note on the Rabbinic-finite / Matthean-unending divergence.
Ransom (20:28) as a soteriological mechanism, not an isolated financial metaphor	Hebrew כופר exists and is lexically adequate, but nothing in the bare word itself connects it to the doctrine of justification; left alone, it risks being read as a one-off financial image rather than the mechanism by which atonement secures right standing.	Retain כופר (leveraging its genuine kapparah/Yom Kippur resonance, Exodus 30:12) but require it always be taught in explicit connection to the baseline’s Critical justification/imputed_righteousness entries, not left isolated.

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Part 3 — Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing

These are cases where an adequate, even excellent, Hebrew word already exists — but that word’s primary, everyday, or Rabbinic-liturgical sense is strong enough to compete with, distort, or overwrite the intended Matthean doctrine unless explicitly “fenced” with translator notes, context, or a deliberately narrowed usage rule.

Hebrew Term	Competing Established Sense	Fencing Strategy
מלכות השמים	Shema-liturgical “accepting the yoke of the kingdom of heaven” = present Torah-submission	Must always be taught alongside its distinct sibling term מלכות האלוהים; never presented as though its Rabbinic sense is simply identical to Matthew’s redemptive-historical sense.
בן אדם	Generic Biblical-Hebrew idiom for “a human being/mortal” (Ezekiel; Psalm 8:4)	Every occurrence at a structurally significant point (9:6; 16:27-28; 24:30; 25:31; 26:64) requires a contextual note surfacing the Daniel 7:13-14 exaltation sense; never assume the bare phrase alone signals it.
תשובה	Generic High Holy Day ethical/ritual “return,” detached from any specific messianic referent	Must always be anchored explicitly to the arrived kingdom and to Jesus specifically (3:2; 4:17; 11:20-21), not left as generic annual renewal language.
צדקה	Modern Hebrew’s narrowed, near-exclusive sense of “charity/tzedakah box”	Forbidden everywhere in Matthew EXCEPT 6:1-4 (alms) and direct Genesis 15:6 citation, per baseline rule — the single exception must carry its own explicit note so it is never mistaken for a lapse.
שבת	The most halakhically loaded, observance-central word in the entire glossary; touches lived daily/weekly Jewish practice directly	Every Sabbath-controversy passage (12:1-14) must be taught as Jesus’ authoritative priority-ordering/interpretation (mercy over strict ritual application), never as abrogation — the single highest-sensitivity framing decision after 5:17 itself.
עול	Existing Rabbinic idiom “yoke of Torah / yoke of the commandments” (עול תורה, עול מצוות)	Must be taught as Jesus offering his own yoke — a positive reframing of an existing category consistent with the 5:17 fulfillment-not-abolition rule — never as yokelessness or Torah’s cancellation.
כופר	Positive kapparah/Yom Kippur resonance (Exodus 30:12) is itself an asset, but risks being received as merely one more sacrificial-system word without the further soteriological claim Matthew is making	See Part 2 above; must be explicitly linked to justification doctrine, not left as an isolated financial/ritual image.
גהינום	Mainstream Rabbinic tradition’s generally finite, purifying duration (commonly capped at twelve months in later tradition, m. Eduyot 2:10)	Must never be assumed to carry Matthew’s unending sense automatically; requires explicit theologian note distinguishing the two traditions at every occurrence, especially 25:46.
צלב	Documented historical association with periods of antisemitic violence in Jewish collective memory	Every cross-bearing passage (10:38; 16:24-26) requires an explicit historical-sensitivity note addressing this association directly rather than assuming a neutral reception.
סופרים ופרושים / צבוע	Later Christian history of caricaturing “Pharisee” and “hypocrite” language as blanket anti-Judaic polemic	Chapter 23 material requires mandatory theologian review specifically to frame Jesus’ woes as intra-Jewish, covenant-community prophetic critique (in the genre of the OT prophets’ critique of Israel’s own leadership) — never as rejection of Judaism as such.
להשתחוות / סגידה (worship)	Register ambiguity between ordinary human-dignitary bowing and full divine worship, both attested for the same Greek verb προσκυνέω across Matthew’s own narrative arc	Each of the nine occurrences (2:2, 2:11; 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 20:20; 28:9; 28:17) must be individually flagged for theologian confirmation of register — do not default to one rendering throughout the book.
בן דוד	Rabbinic “Mashiach ben David” category assumes a single-reign, this-worldly national deliverer job description	Every direct-address occurrence (9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9,15; 22:42) requires the same two-comings teaching note already required for משיח generally.
ישראל	Names the reader’s own nation and central ethnic-religious-national identity, not merely a biblical-era referent	The staged mission language (10:6 “lost sheep of Israel” → 28:19 “all nations”) must always be taught as sequence, not supersession, per baseline caution intensified for this curriculum.

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Part 4 — Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions

Because the destination language is itself Hebrew, most decisions in this curriculum are which existing Hebrew word to use, not whether to transliterate a foreign term. However, a genuine transliteration-vs-paraphrase axis does arise wherever Modern Hebrew has developed a transliterated Greek/English loanword alongside a native theological alternative, or wherever a Greek proper noun’s Hebrew Vorlage already exists and should be recovered rather than re-transliterated from Greek.

Term	Transliteration Option	Paraphrase/Native Option	Decision	Rationale
Transfiguration	מטמורפוזה (Greek loan, clinical/biological register)	השתנות פניו (descriptive paraphrase)	Native paraphrase	The Greek loan is used in Modern Hebrew for insect metamorphosis and chemical-state change; wholly unsuitable register for a theophanic event.
Immanuel	(already Hebrew; no transliteration decision) — recovered from Masoretic Isaiah 7:14 (עִמָּנוּ אֵל) rather than re-transliterated from Greek Ἐμμανουήλ	עמנואל	Recover existing Hebrew Vorlage, not re-transliterate from Greek	Matthew is itself quoting an already-Hebrew text; re-transliterating from the Greek would sever the direct textual link the Gospel is making.
Virgin (Isaiah 7:14 citation)	—	בתולה, with mandatory note on the underlying Masoretic עַלְמָה	Native term + mandatory translator’s note, not silent harmonization	The LXX/Matthean parthenos is narrower than the Masoretic almah; the gap must be surfaced explicitly, not smoothed over by either transliteration or silent substitution.
Hosanna	הושענא (already a native Hebrew liturgical loan, not a fresh transliteration decision)	—	Retain as-is	Already fully naturalized in Hebrew liturgy (Sukkot); no alternative needed.
Mammon	ממון (native Hebrew/Aramaic cognate)	“wealth,” “riches” (generic paraphrase)	Retain native cognate	ממון is already the ordinary Hebrew word; a generic paraphrase would lose the personified-rival-master force of the original.
Gehenna	גהינום (native, historically loaded term)	“hell” via a generic descriptive phrase (e.g., מקום עינוי, “place of torment”)	Retain native term, with mandatory divergence note	A generic paraphrase would forfeit the deliberate teaching opportunity the shared vocabulary creates (see Part 3); the term itself is correct, the doctrine requires explicit handling.
Amen / Halleluyah	(native Hebrew words, not loans into Hebrew at all)	—	Retain as native Hebrew, per baseline	These are Hebrew’s own words borrowed into other languages, not the reverse; no transliteration question arises for Hebrew itself.
Great Commission’s “baptize”	טבילה/להטביל (native, mikveh-rooted)	“baptism” via a transliterated loan (e.g., a hypothetical בפטיזם)	Native mikveh-rooted term	Hebrew already possesses a rich native immersion-ritual vocabulary; introducing a foreign loan would forfeit this genuine positive resource and its proselyte-conversion resonance, which must instead be taught as related-but-distinct from the NT’s fuller sense.
Passover	פסח (native)	—	Retain native term	No transliteration question; the doctrinal task is framing (typological fulfillment, not replacement), not lexical choice.

General rule derived: wherever Modern Hebrew has developed a transliterated Greek/English loanword for a technical concept, that loanword’s register is almost always too clinical, secular, or narrow for theological use in this curriculum; native Hebrew vocabulary — even where it requires careful fencing per Part 3 — is preferred in every case identified above.

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Part 5 — Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities (This Curriculum)

Ranked by combined severity of (a) doctrinal weight and (b) genuine lexical/semantic ambiguity (not merely doctrinal sensitivity alone — see doctrine_risk_registry.json for the separate risk-tier framework governing review routing).

1. Virgin/Almah (Matthew 1:23 citing Isaiah 7:14) — the oldest continuously contested Jewish-Christian textual dispute; בתולה vs. the Masoretic’s own עַלְמָה is a genuine text-critical gap, not a translation error, and must never be silently harmonized.
2. Son of Man (בן אדם) register collapse — the single Hebrew phrase spans “a mere mortal” and “the exalted Danielic figure receiving universal dominion” with no lexical marker distinguishing the two; the highest-frequency Christological term in the book (30+ occurrences) is also its most ambiguity-prone.
3. Kingdom of Heaven vs. Kingdom of God — two Hebrew phrases for what is theologically one referent, but which must be kept textually distinct to preserve Matthew’s own Greek-text distinction; the temptation to normalize toward one phrase for “readability” is a real production risk.
4. Fulfill (למלא, 5:17) vs. fulfilled-formula (להתגשם, 11 occurrences) — two doctrinally distinct claims sharing an English gloss (“fulfill”/“fulfilled”); a translator working quickly could easily default to one Hebrew verb throughout, collapsing Jesus’ Torah-relationship claim into a mere prophecy-citation.
5. Worship (להשתחוות/סגידה) — the same Greek verb spans ordinary human-dignitary bowing and unambiguous divine worship across nine occurrences in a single narrative arc; register must be individually determined, not defaulted.
6. Righteousness/Tzedek vs. the single Alms/Tzedakah exception (6:1-4) — a deliberate, narrow exception to an otherwise absolute forbidden-substitution rule; the highest risk of any “correct” usage in the glossary being mistaken for an error by a downstream reviewer or automated check.
7. Gehenna’s finite (Rabbinic) vs. unending (Matthean) duration — identical shared vocabulary masking a genuine doctrinal divergence; the risk is precisely that the term’s familiarity suppresses awareness of the disagreement.
8. Son of God (singular, Critical Christological) vs. Sons of God (plural, corporate, 5:9) — near-identical Hebrew forms (בן/בני האלוהים) for two doctrinally incompatible claims (unique ontological Sonship vs. derivative ethical/familial status); the single letter of difference (plural marker) carries the entire doctrinal weight.
9. Great Commission’s “all nations” (כל הגויים) scope — grammatically includes Israel among the discipled nations, a non-obvious point easily misread as either excluding Israel or as a purely Gentile-directed program, compounded by גויים’s independent everyday pejorative shade.
10. Blessed/Ashrei (5:3-11) — precisely because the Hebrew word is so liturgically familiar (Psalm 1:1, the daily Ashrei prayer), the paradoxical, authoritative, kingdom-inaugurating force of Jesus’ pronouncement risks being domesticated into a routine devotional formula.
11. Yoke (עול, 11:29-30) — offering “his yoke” could be misheard as either abolishing the existing Torah-yoke idiom or as functionally identical to it; the reframing (not replacement, not identity) must be actively taught, not left to the word.
12. Cross-bearing (לשאת את צלבו) — lexically simple but carrying a documented historical trauma-association in Jewish collective memory that has no parallel among this glossary’s other terms; a purely linguistic accuracy check will not catch this risk.
13. Ransom (כופר, 20:28) — its genuine positive kapparah resonance can mask the fact that, left alone, the term does not itself teach the connection to justification; risk is under-teaching, not mistranslation.
14. Scribes and Pharisees / Hypocrite (ch. 23 and throughout) — lexically low-risk, doctrinally high-risk: the words are correct, but centuries of Christian misuse of this exact vocabulary for anti-Judaic caricature make framing the single highest-stakes review item outside the Christological core.
15. Body/Blood of the Covenant (26:26-28) — compounds three already-high-risk categories (covenant, atonement/ransom, Passover typology) into a single institution narrative at the Passover table itself, maximizing the chance that any one mishandled element (e.g., a supersessionist framing of “new covenant”) corrupts the whole passage.

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Part 6 — Full-Book Chapter Sweep (Matthew 1–28)

Every chapter of Matthew is reviewed below for load-bearing vocabulary and doctrine triggers relevant to this curriculum’s nine doctrines, consistent with the PRD’s full-coverage mandate. Chapters contributing no new terminology beyond what is already fixed are noted explicitly as reviewed rather than omitted.

Ch.	Load-Bearing Content	Terms/Doctrines Triggered
1	Genealogy; virgin conception; naming of Jesus; Immanuel citation	son_of_david, seed_of_david, david, virgin, immanuel, incarnation, jesus (naming etymology), holy_spirit
2	Magi’s homage; Herod’s plot; flight to Egypt; fulfillment citations	worship (ambiguous register, 2:2/2:11), fulfilled_formula (2:15,17,23), israel, prophet/prophecy
3	John’s preaching; baptism of Jesus; Trinitarian voice from heaven	repentance/teshuvah, baptism/tevilah, kingdom_of_heaven (“at hand”), holy_spirit, son_of_god (baptism confirmation), father
4	Temptation narrative; kingdom proclamation; calling of first disciples	kingdom_of_heaven (4:17), fulfilled_formula (4:14), called/karu, gentiles (4:15, Isaiah citation), disciple
5	Core passage. Sermon on the Mount opening; Beatitudes; Law’s fulfillment; antitheses begin	blessed/ashrei, poor_in_spirit, pure_in_heart, see_god, son_of_god_corporate (5:9), mercy, righteousness (5:6,5:10,5:20), fulfill_torah (5:17), law, gehenna (5:22,29-30), disciple (5:1)
6	Lord’s Prayer; almsgiving; fasting; providence teaching; mammon	father/Avinu, alms/tzedakah (correct exception), hypocrite, kingdom_of_god (6:33), providence, mammon, reward
7	Sermon conclusion; narrow gate; false prophets; authority of Jesus’ teaching	narrow_gate, prophet (false prophets, 7:15), authority/samchut (7:28-29), lord (7:21-23 warning)
8	Healings; centurion’s faith; storm-calming; discipleship cost begins	faith (8:10, Israel-comparison flag), worship (8:2), disciple (8:19-22)
9	Forgiveness of sins; Matthew’s calling; mercy-not-sacrifice; faith healings	son_of_man (9:6, sin-forgiving authority), sin, mercy (9:13), faith (9:22)
10	Sending of the Twelve; mission instructions; cost of discipleship	apostle (10:2), lost_sheep_of_israel (10:6), authority (10:1), gentiles (10:5, staged-mission note), peace (10:34, contrastive), cross-bearing precursor (10:38), reward
11	John the Baptist’s question; woes on towns; the easy yoke	repentance (11:20-21), yoke, rest, messianic_promise (implicit, “the one to come”)
12	Sabbath controversies; blasphemy against the Spirit; sign of Jonah; true family	sabbath, son_of_man (12:8, “lord of the Sabbath”), holy_spirit (12:31-32 blasphemy warning — Critical), mercy (12:7), gentiles (12:18,21)
13	Kingdom parables (sower, weeds, mustard seed, etc.)	parable/mashal, kingdom_of_heaven (throughout), fulfilled_formula (13:35), end_of_age (13:39-40)
14	John the Baptist’s death; feeding of 5,000; walking on water	faith (14:31, “small faith”), worship (14:33, Son of God confession)
15	Tradition of the elders; clean/unclean; Canaanite woman’s faith	tradition_of_elders, clean_unclean, lost_sheep_of_israel (15:24 echo), faith (15:22,28)
16	Peter’s confession; church founding; keys of the kingdom; cross-bearing; Son of Man’s coming	messiah, son_of_god (16:16), church/kehilah (16:18), keys_of_kingdom, bind_and_loose (16:19), cross_bearing (16:24-26), son_of_man (16:27-28)
17	Transfiguration; Elijah and Moses; suffering Son of Man foretold	transfiguration, glory/kavod, son_of_man (17:9,22), faith (17:20)
18	Church discipline procedure; stumbling blocks; unlimited forgiveness	bind_and_loose (18:18), stumbling_block (18:6-9), seventy_sevenfold (18:21-22), church (18:17)
19	Divorce teaching; rich young man; kingdom entry; Israel’s future judging role	kingdom_of_god (19:24), disciple (cost), israel (19:28)
20	Parable of the vineyard workers; ransom saying; blind men’s “Son of David” cry	reward, son_of_man / ransom (20:28 — Critical), son_of_david (20:30-31)
21	Triumphal entry; temple cleansing; fig tree; wicked tenants parable	hosanna, son_of_david (21:9,15), authority (21:23-27), rejected_stone_cornerstone (21:42), kingdom_of_god (21:43)
22	Wedding feast parable; Caesar’s coin; Sadducee resurrection debate; greatest commandment; Psalm 110	called (22:14, “many called, few chosen”), resurrection (22:23-33), law (greatest commandment), son_of_david/lord (22:42-45)
23	Woes to scribes and Pharisees; hypocrisy denounced; lament over Jerusalem	scribes_and_pharisees, hypocrite, tradition_of_elders (continued), prophet (23:29-37)
24	Olivet Discourse: signs, abomination of desolation, Son of Man’s coming, the elect	end_of_age (24:3), abomination_of_desolation (24:15), son_of_man (24:27-44), elect/nivcharim (24:22,24,31)
25	Judgment parables: wise/foolish virgins, talents, sheep and goats	son_of_man/glory (25:31), gehenna, eternal_punishment_life (25:41,46)
26	Last Supper institution; Gethsemane; arrest; Sanhedrin trial	passover (26:2,17-19), body_blood_covenant (26:26-28 — Critical), messiah/son_of_god (26:63-64), son_of_man (26:64)
27	Crucifixion; mockery; centurion’s confession; resurrection of saints foreshadowed	son_of_god (27:54), resurrection (27:52-53 foreshadow), fulfilled_formula (27:9)
28	Resurrection; worship of the risen Christ; Great Commission	resurrection (28:6-7), worship (28:9,17 — unambiguous), great_commission (28:18-20 — Critical), authority (28:18), immanuel (28:20 echo)

No chapter in Matthew 1–28 was found to contribute zero load-bearing content; every chapter is represented above with its specific doctrinal/terminological contribution to this curriculum.

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Part 7 — Summary Recommendations for Phase 2 Preparation

1. Merge this analysis’s term decisions into translation_memory.json (version increment) exactly as already reflected in analysis/08_core_glossary.md and the extended bible_term_registry.json, before any Phase 2 segment translation begins.
2. Treat Part 3’s “crowded neighborhoods” list as the mandatory fencing checklist for every AI-generated segment touching those terms — each requires an accompanying translator note per the baseline’s footnote convention, not merely correct word choice.
3. Route every item in Part 5’s ranked ambiguity list through human theologian review regardless of the term’s baseline risk tier, since ambiguity risk and doctrinal-weight risk do not always coincide (e.g., item 6 and item 14 are lexically low-risk but doctrinally maximal in framing consequence).
4. Confirm with the destination platform, before batch processing, whether Modern Hebrew’s transliterated-loanword register (Part 4) is acceptable in any adjacent non-doctrinal material (e.g., footnote apparatus), since this analysis rejects it for all core doctrinal vocabulary but has not evaluated peripheral material.
5. Carry the full chapter sweep (Part 6) forward into Phase 2 batch planning so no chapter is silently skipped in segment allocation.

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This document is the linguistic foundation for analysis/08_core_glossary.md and the Matthew-extension bible_term_registry.json and doctrine_risk_registry.json entries. All term renderings recorded here are binding and must be reused exactly in Phase 2, per the baseline Language Package’s hard rules.