Passage

Romans 15

• Doctrine

  Christ-Centered Ministry

  Ministry done in the Messiah's name and for his glory, not humanitarian service divorced from gospel proclamation.

  ROM.15.17-21

• Doctrine

  Christian Fellowship

  Shared participation in the Messiah; low risk once kept distinct from 'kehilah' (church) to avoid conflating the two concepts.

  ROM.15.24

• Glossary Term

  Church

  CRITICAL: עדה (edah, 'congregation') is used in the Torah specifically for the assembled community of Israel ('adat Yisrael'); using it, or framing kehilah loosely, risks implying the Church replaces Israel as God's people - a supersessionist reading with a painful history.

  ROM.15.26

• Doctrine

  Church as God's People

  CRITICAL: must be taught through Romans 11's grafting-in framework, not as Israel's replacement - a distinction with serious historical weight given supersessionism's entanglement with antisemitism.

  ROM.15.26

• Glossary Term

  Covenant

  Unlike most target languages, this concept is not absent but extremely present and specific (Brit Milah, the Sinai covenant) - so tightly bound to Torah-observance and circumcision in Jewish self-understanding that 'new covenant' (ברית חדשה, itself Jeremiah 31:31's own phrase) extended to uncircumcised Gentiles apart from Torah observance is a live point of difficulty, not a foreign concept needing basic introduction.

  ROM.15.12

• Glossary Term

  David

  Beloved and entirely shared figure.

  ROM.15.12

• Doctrine

  Davidic Covenant

  Rich, genuinely shared territory - not an absence but a contested application.

  ROM.15.12

• Doctrine

  Evangelism

  Missionary activity specifically targeting Jews carries a fraught history (forced conversions, coercive missions); language of witness and invitation must be handled with awareness of this history, distinct from generic outreach framing.

  ROM.15.20

• Glossary Term

  Exhort

  Context-sensitive: להוכיח (lehochiach, to admonish) for beseeching; לעודד (to encourage) for building up.

  ROM.15.2

• Glossary Term

  Fellowship

  קהילה is reserved for 'church' in this glossary and should not double as 'fellowship' to avoid conflating the two distinct NT concepts.

  ROM.15.24

• Doctrine

  Fulfillment of Prophecy

  Requires careful handling of contested messianic prooftexts with a long history of divergent Jewish and Christian exegesis (see Messianic Promise); fulfillment claims should engage rather than assume away that interpretive history.

  ROM.15.8-12

• Glossary Term

  Gentiles

  Biblically neutral (even used of Israel itself, 'goy kadosh,' Exodus 19:6) but has acquired a mildly to strongly pejorative colloquial shade in everyday Modern Hebrew/Yiddish-inflected usage.

  ROM.15.7-12

• Doctrine

  Gospel

  Besorah is generic good-news vocabulary in everyday Hebrew; must be consistently qualified as the specific proclamation of salvation through the Messiah.

  ROM.15.19-20

• Glossary Term

  Gospel

  Besorah is generic Hebrew for 'good news' of any kind (a birth, a victory).

  ROM.15.19-20

• Glossary Term

  Holy

  Deeply shared vocabulary (Kadosh Baruch Hu, 'the Holy One, Blessed be He,' a common Jewish name for God).

  ROM.15.16

• Glossary Term

  Holy Spirit

  CRITICAL: a genuine, positive Tanakh phrase (God's Spirit inspiring the prophets), but mainstream Rabbinic tradition holds two claims that must both be addressed: the Ruach HaKodesh functions as an impersonal divine influence rather than a distinct Person, and (per the Talmud, Yoma 9b) it 'departed from Israel' with the death of the last prophets.

  ROM.15.16

• Doctrine

  Inspiration of Scripture

  Judaism holds a tiered view - Torah as direct verbatim dictation to Moses (Torah min HaShamayim, one of Rambam's 13 principles), Prophets/Writings as a lesser but real inspiration.

  ROM.15.4

• Glossary Term

  Intercession

  Rooted directly in Isaiah 53:12's 'yafgia' ('and made intercession for the transgressors') - a strong textual anchor, but the identity of Isaiah 53's suffering, interceding servant is itself one of the most long-disputed points in Jewish-Christian exegesis; mainstream Rabbinic tradition since Rashi generally reads the servant as collective Israel rather than an individual Messiah.

  ROM.15.30-32

• Glossary Term

  Israel

  CRITICAL: unlike other target languages, this is not merely politically live but names the reader's own nation and central ethnic-religious-national identity.

  ROM.15.7-12

• Doctrine

  Kingdom Mission

  Distinguish the gospel's advancing spiritual reign from Jewish national/political sovereignty expectations tied to the Land.

  ROM.15.12, ROM.15.18-21

• Glossary Term

  Kingdom Of God

  'Malchut Shamayim' (Kingdom of Heaven) is a genuine Rabbinic category (recited with the Shema as 'accepting the yoke of the kingdom of heaven') but denotes present submission to the commandments, not the NT's inaugurated-through-Messiah redemptive-historical reign.

  ROM.15.12, ROM.15.18-21

• Glossary Term

  Law

  CRITICAL: Torah is not, in Jewish self-understanding, a negative burden but the central, beloved gift of covenant relationship (Psalm 119; the holiday of Simchat Torah).

  ROM.15.8-12

• Glossary Term

  Messiah

  CRITICAL: the unavoidable and correct word, but Rabbinic Judaism holds a specific, developed messianic job description (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 11-12) - a Davidic king who rebuilds the Temple, ingathers all exiles, and establishes universal peace within his own reign.

  ROM.15.8-12

• Doctrine

  Messianic Promise

  CRITICAL: Rabbinic Judaism holds a specific, developed messianic job description (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 11-12) completed within one reign.

  ROM.15.8-12

• Glossary Term

  Mission

  Shares its root with shaliach/apostle.

  ROM.15.15-24

• Doctrine

  Mission to the Nations

  Distinguish from the modern secular Israeli usage of shlichut as Jewish Agency emissary work.

  ROM.15.15-24

• Doctrine

  Mutual Edification

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

  ROM.15.2

• Doctrine

  Prayer and Intercession

  Hafga'ah is rooted directly in Isaiah 53:12, but the identity of Isaiah 53's interceding servant (individual Messiah vs.

  ROM.15.30-32

• Glossary Term

  Prophecy

  Shares root with navi; low independent risk.

  ROM.15.8-12

• Glossary Term

  Prophet

  Deuteronomy 18:15's 'a prophet like Moses' (cited messianically in Acts 3:22) is itself a long-disputed prooftext in Jewish-Christian polemics; mainstream Rabbinic reading treats it as describing the ongoing succession of prophets, not one final eschatological figure.

  ROM.15.4

• Doctrine

  Sanctification

  Must not evoke the specific Kiddush wine-blessing ritual; this is the Spirit's ongoing work of moral transformation, not a liturgical ceremony.

  ROM.15.16

• Glossary Term

  Sanctification

  קידוש (Kiddush) is overwhelmingly recognized as the specific Shabbat/holiday wine blessing ritual in everyday Jewish life; using it here would evoke that ceremony rather than the Spirit's ongoing moral transformation.

  ROM.15.16

• Glossary Term

  Seed Of David

  Romans 1:3; resonates directly with Jeremiah 23:5's promised righteous Branch (tzemach) from David's line.

  ROM.15.12

• Doctrine

  Separation unto God's Service

  Judaism has an existing category of separation for service (Kohanim, Levi'im, the Nazirite vow), but it is priestly-class-specific; the NT extends this separation to all believers, a democratizing move that must be taught explicitly.

  ROM.15.16

• Doctrine

  Unity of Jews and Gentiles

  CRITICAL: this is the crux of Romans 9-11 for a Hebrew-speaking reader specifically.

  ROM.15.7-12