Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 2 John
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, covering all thirteen verses of 2 John’s single chapter. Terms marked “Reused (baseline)” carry forward the exact Hindi rendering already established in the Romans/Galatians translation_memory.json and MUST NOT be altered. Terms marked “New” are proposed additions for this curriculum, to be entered into an updated translation memory version pending Phase 1 Step-13 doctrinal fidelity review and adjudication.
Risk tiers follow the baseline’s four-level framework: Critical (theologian review, every occurrence, absolute enforcement) / High (theologian review required) / Medium (native speaker review recommended) / Low (automated review sufficient).
Glossary Table
| # | English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Hindi Rendering (Transliteration) | Status | Risk | Doctrine Link | Key Passage(s) | Rejected Alternatives | Risk Rationale (summary) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Truth | ἀλήθεια (alḗtheia) | सत्य (satya) | New | High | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:1(×2),2,3,4 | सच्चाई (reserved for Galatians’ “truth of the gospel” compound phrase; see cross-reference note) | Collides with सत्य as Hindu cosmic-moral absolute (Satyameva Jayate; Sat-Chit-Ananda); must be anchored to specific apostolic content about Christ, not impersonal cosmic principle. |
| 2 | Love | ἀγάπη (agápē) | प्रेम (prema) | New | High | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:1,3,5,6 | स्नेह (too weak, mere affection) | Collides with Krishna-bhakti “prema-bhakti” (devotional/romantic divine longing); must be anchored as willed, mutual, obedience-linked covenantal love, not devotional rapture. |
| 3 | Antichrist | ἀντίχριστος (antichristos) | मसीह-विरोधी (Masīha-virodhī) | New | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | (no viable transliteration alternative identified; loanword avoided in favor of transparent compound) | Unique Johannine term; must denote specific doctrinal opposition to Christ’s incarnation, not a generic villain or a Hindu apocalyptic figure (e.g. Kalki). |
| 4 | Teaching of Christ | διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (didachē tou Christou) | मसीह की शिक्षा (Masīha kī śikṣā) | New | Critical | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9(×2),10 | मसीह की व्यवस्था (reserved — this is law_of_christ, a different Greek word/referent: the love-command, not the doctrinal deposit about Christ’s identity) | Hinge of the passage’s verdict on possessing God; must not collapse into the guru-teaching paradigm which expects a disciple to eventually progress beyond the teacher. |
| 5 | Goes ahead / progresses beyond | προάγω (proagō) | आगे बढ़ जाना (āge baṛh jānā) | New | Critical | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9 | उन्नति करना (advancement — too positively loaded) | Directly inverts the positively-valued Indian religious pattern of advancing beyond a teacher’s stage (karma→bhakti→jñāna mārga; guru transcendence); here “going ahead” of Christ’s teaching = losing God, not spiritual maturity. |
| 6 | Deceiver | πλάνος (planos) | भरमानेवाला (bharamānevālā) | New | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | ठग (cheater, too transactional); भ्रम फैलानेवाला (too close to माया/illusion root) | भरमानेवाला’s भ्रम root risks assimilation to Vedantic माया (cosmic illusion); must denote a specific human doctrinal opponent, not a metaphysical illusion-force. |
| 7 | Incarnation (“coming in the flesh”) | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί (erchomenon en sarki) | देहधारण होकर आना (dehadhāraṇa hokara ānā) | Reused (baseline) | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | अवतार (FORBIDDEN — baseline prohibition) | This passage’s very definition of heresy is denial of this doctrine; अवतार’s temporary/repeatable descent framing would erase the distinction the letter itself insists on. |
| 8 | Flesh | σάρξ (sarx) | शरीर (śarīra) | Reused (baseline) | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | देह (acceptable but baseline reserves शरीर as the technical term) | Here used in the literal incarnational sense (real human body), distinct from the Pauline technical “fallen nature” sense also carried by शरीर elsewhere in the baseline — translator note required to distinguish senses across curricula. |
| 9 | Confess / Confession | ὁμολογέω (homologeō) | अंगीकार करना (aṅgīkāra karanā) | Reused (baseline) | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | स्वीकार करना (FORBIDDEN — baseline prohibition, private acceptance only) | Public, binding, personal confession of Christ’s real incarnation; same term as the Romans 10:9-10 Lordship confession, now applied to Christ’s nature. |
| 10 | Receive into house (hospitality to a teacher) | λαμβάνειν εἰς οἰκίαν (lambanein eis oikian) | घर में ग्रहण करना (ghar meṃ grahaṇa karanā) | New | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:10 | स्वागत करना alone (too weak — loses the specific material/social-endorsement content) | Directly restricts the sacred Indian hospitality norm अतिथि देवो भवः (Atithi Devo Bhava) for a specific doctrinal reason; requires pastoral framing distinguishing this narrow restriction from general hospitality (cf. baseline’s positively-valued अतिथि-सत्कार, Romans 12:13). |
| 11 | Greeting formula (withheld) | χαίρειν (chairein, as greeting) | अभिवादन (abhivādana) | New | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:10,11 | नमस्ते (FORBIDDEN in this context — imports “divine within you” premise) | नमस्ते’s devotional content would either import an Advaitic premise or generalize into rudeness-to-all-outsiders; अभिवादन keeps the instruction religiously neutral and behaviorally concrete. |
| 12 | Participate in / share in (evil works) | κοινωνέω (koinōneō) | भागी होना (bhāgī honā) | New | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:11 | संगति करना alone (risks sounding positive, per baseline’s warmly-valenced संगति noun) | Verb form of the baseline’s Low-risk positive fellowship noun; here negatively valenced (complicity in evil) — object phrase must never be dropped in translation. |
| 13 | Abide / remain | μένω (menō) | बना रहना / स्थिर रहना (banā rahnā / sthira rahnā) | New | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:2,9(×2) | टिके रहना (acceptable secondary option) | Positive counterpart to the Critical προάγω term; must be rendered consistently across all occurrences so the abide/depart antithesis remains visible. |
| 14 | Commandment | ἐντολή (entolē) | आज्ञा (ājñā) | New | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:4,5,6 | हुक्म (too militaristic/administrative in register) | Standard, low-collision term; note required distinguishing God’s charge (via apostolic tradition) from a personal guru’s directive. |
| 15 | Walk (conduct) | περιπατέω (peripateō) | चलना / चाल चलना (calanā / cāl calanā) | New | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love; Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:4,6(×2) | जीवन बिताना (too generic, loses the “walk” metaphor) | Established Hindi Christian conduct-idiom; soft resonance only with मार्ग (path) traditions — not a doctrinal collision, but should be anchored to the specific content of v.6 (his commandments). |
| 16 | World | κόσμος (kosmos) | जगत (jagat) | New | Medium | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | संसार (higher collision risk — directly evokes samsara/rebirth cycle) | जगत is the established BSI rendering (cf. John 3:16) and lower-risk than संसार; retains a soft Advaitic “phenomenal-world” resonance requiring a brief clarifying note given this letter’s Gnostic-adjacent opponents. |
| 17 | Reward / wage | μισθός (misthos) | पुरस्कार (puraskāra) | New | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:8 | फल (FORBIDDEN — collides with कर्म-फल, karma-fruit) | Must be a person-given wage/prize, not an automatically-ripening natural-law result; guards the same कर्म-collision the baseline documents for works_of_the_law and fruit_of_the_spirit. |
| 18 | Works (deeds) | ἔργον (ergon) | काम (kāma) | Reused convention (baseline) | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ; Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:8,11 | कर्म (FORBIDDEN — baseline works_of_the_law prohibition, extended here) | Reuses the baseline’s established काम-not-कर्म convention for ἔργον across all curricula. |
| 19 | Evil / wicked | πονηρός (ponēros) | दुष्ट / बुरा (duṣṭa / burā) | New | Low-Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:11 | पापी (too narrowly “sinful person,” not “evil quality”) | Standard, low-collision vocabulary. |
| 20 | New commandment / from the beginning | ἐντολὴ καινή / ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς (entolē kainē / ap’ archēs) | नई आज्ञा / आरम्भ से (naī ājñā / ārambh se) | New | Medium-High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:5,6 | नया वचन (too weak — loses the “commandment” force) | Risk that “not new” reads as modest disclaimer rather than the letter’s operative claim that the fixed apostolic deposit is closed and unchangeable, against a culture that often prizes ongoing fresh revelation/guru insight. |
| 21 | Elect / chosen (personal address) | ἐκλεκτός / ἐκλεκτή (eklektos/ē) | चुनी हुई (cunī huī) | New (address-level use of baseline root) | Medium | (epistolary; echoes Effectual Calling doctrine) | 1:1,13 | (baseline election root: परमेश्वर का चुनाव) | Personal epistolary compliment, not a fresh soteriological exposition; keep tonally distinct from the weightier Romans 9-11 election doctrine while using the same root. |
| 22 | Lady (address) | κυρία (kyria) | प्रिय बहन / आदरणीय बहन (priya bahan / ādaraṇīya bahan) | New | Medium (translator-education risk) | (epistolary address) | 1:1,5 | प्रभु-based renderings (FORBIDDEN — would conflate with the Critical Lordship term) | Shares a root with κύριος/प्रभु (Christ’s Critical Lordship title) but is a mundane social honorific here; must never be rendered with any deity-implying term. |
| 23 | Elder | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | प्राचीन (prācīna) | New | Medium | (authorial self-designation) | 1:1 | बड़े (too vague — loses office-specific sense) | Recognized church office, not personal guru-authority; light distinguishing note recommended. |
| 24 | Children (congregational) | τέκνα (tekna) | सन्तान / बच्चे (santāna / bacce) | New | Low-Medium | (epistolary; adjacent to Adoption doctrine) | 1:1,4,13 | पुत्र-पुत्रियाँ (overly formal for this context) | Pastoral/congregational relationship term, distinct from the baseline’s technical adoption doctrine though related in theological world. |
| 25 | Sister | ἀδελφή (adelphē) | बहन (bahan) | New | Low | (epistolary) | 1:13 | — | Standard, unambiguous term; no collision. |
| 26 | Joy | χαρά (chara) | आनन्द (ānanda) | New | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love (relational fruit) | 1:4 (verb form ἐχάρην),12 | हर्ष/खुशी (acceptable secondary options, less established) | Well-absorbed BSI term despite Sat-Chit-Ananda philosophical resonance; risk lower than सत्य’s due to precedent, but awareness note recommended given this letter’s collision density. |
| 27 | Grace, Mercy, Peace, God, Father, Jesus, Christ, Son (of God) | χάρις, ἔλεος, εἰρήνη, θεός, πατήρ, Ἰησοῦς, Χριστός, υἱός | अनुग्रह, दया, शांति, परमेश्वर, पिता, यीशु, मसीह, (परमेश्वर का) पुत्र | Reused (baseline) | Critical/High (per baseline entries) | (trinitarian greeting formula; Sonship/Deity of Christ) | 1:3,9 | (see baseline translation_memory.json for each term’s individually documented rejected alternatives) | All render exactly per baseline; grouped here as a single row because 2 John introduces no new risk profile for these terms beyond what the baseline already documents in full. |
Summary Statistics
- Total distinct terms analyzed: 27 (rows above; row 27 groups 8 baseline terms carried forward unchanged)
- Reused exactly from Romans/Galatians baseline TM: 11 terms (Incarnation, Flesh, Confession, Grace, Mercy, Peace, God, Father, Jesus, Christ, Son of God) — zero deviation permitted
- New terms proposed for this curriculum: 16 terms, pending Step 13 doctrinal fidelity review and formal translation_memory.json version increment
- Risk distribution (new terms only): Critical: 2 (Antichrist, Teaching of Christ + goes-ahead pairing counted once each — see table) · High: 5 · Medium-High: 1 · Medium: 6 · Low-Medium: 2 · Low: 1
- Terms requiring mandatory human theologian review: rows 1–13 (all Critical and High risk terms) plus the grouped baseline row 27
- Terms requiring native speaker review: rows 10, 11 (hospitality/greeting withholding — also theologian-flagged given doctrinal weight), 20, 23
- Single highest cross-cultural collision term in this book: row 1 (Truth / सत्य) and row 5 (goes ahead / आगे बढ़ जाना) are jointly the highest-stakes renderings, given their centrality to two of the four assigned doctrines and their direct inversion of positively-valued Hindu religious-philosophical concepts (Satyameva Jayate; guru-transcendence/mārga advancement).
Cross-Curriculum Consistency Flags for Step 13 Review
- सत्य vs. सच्चाई for ἀλήθεια — this document recommends सत्य for the standalone Johannine noun while the Galatians baseline retains सच्चाई for the compound phrase “truth of the gospel.” Requires explicit adjudication and documentation in the next translation_memory.json version.
- मसीह की शिक्षा (teaching of Christ, διδαχή) vs. मसीह की व्यवस्था (law of Christ, νόμος, Galatians baseline) — two distinct Greek words with related but non-identical referents; must never be conflated or interchanged across curricula.
- शरीर (σάρξ) sense-shift — 2 John’s incarnational/literal-body sense of σάρξ (v.7) differs from the Romans/Galatians technical “fallen nature” sense also carried by शरीर; both curricula’s materials should carry a disambiguating note wherever σάρξ appears.
- जगत vs. संसार for κόσμος — this document selects जगत as lower-risk than संसार for all Johannine “world” occurrences; any future curriculum introducing κόσμος should confirm this choice remains consistent.
This glossary extends, and in no place contradicts, the Romans/Galatians baseline Language Package. All baseline-reused terms above are locked; all newly proposed terms remain open for Step 13 doctrinal fidelity adjudication before being written into an updated translation_memory.json.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर
Transliteration: Parameśvara
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वर, भगवान
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. परमेश्वर (Supreme Lord) is the BSI OV standard; भगवान has broad Hindu deity usage — avoid. In 2 John 1:9 this term anchors the stark either/or verdict (‘does not have God’ / ‘has … God’) that is the letter’s second Critical hinge; doctrinal precision here is non-negotiable.
Father
Approved rendering: पिता
Transliteration: Pitā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: ब्रह्मा, सृष्टिकर्ता
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. God as personal Father. Never use Hindu creator-deity names. In 2 John 1:3-4 and 1:9, names both the source of the original love-commandment and, together with the Son, the object one either ‘has’ or does not have.
Jesus
Approved rendering: यीशु
Transliteration: Yīśu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईसा, ईशू
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. BSI OV standard form. ईसा is used in Muslim/Urdu contexts; यीशु is the Hindi Christian standard. Never adopt Urdu-Injil-tradition Sonship dilution (see 05_translation_landscape.md §3.2) alongside this name in 2 John materials.
Messiah
Approved rendering: मसीह
Transliteration: Masīha
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: अभिषिक्त व्यक्ति, देव-दूत
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. The Anointed One fulfilling OT promise; not one of many divine figures. In 2 John, मसीह is the root of two new compounds central to two of the letter’s four doctrines: मसीह-विरोधी (antichrist) and मसीह की शिक्षा (teaching of Christ) — precision in this root term is foundational to both.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का पुत्र
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā putra
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वर का अंश, देव-पुरुष
Original: ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ πατρός / τὸν υἱόν
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. Full phrase required; conveys eternal, unique Sonship within the Godhead. In 2 John 1:3 and 1:9 (‘has … the Son’), the abbreviated possessive ‘the Son’ must still be understood by translators as this same referent — never a generic or lesser filial title, and never diluted per NWT-adjacent or Islamic-Christology-adjacent hedging (see 05_translation_landscape.md §3.1-3.2).
Incarnation
Approved rendering: देहधारण
Transliteration: dehadhāraṇa
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: अवतार, देह प्रकटीकरण
Original: Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. CRITICAL: NEVER use अवतार (Hindu avatar/deity-descent — temporary, repeatable). In 2 John 1:7, this is the single highest-stakes rendering decision in the entire book: the letter’s very definition of heresy is denial of Christ’s real, permanent, once-for-all coming in the flesh. Full phrase in context: देहधारण होकर आना (‘coming/having come in the flesh’). If अवतार’s temporary/repeatable descent framing enters the text, the heresy this verse condemns becomes textually indistinguishable from orthodoxy. Mandatory theologian review, every occurrence.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: मसीह-विरोधी
Transliteration: Masīha-virodhī
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
New term for 2 John. Renders ἀντίχριστος (2 John 1:7) — a genuine vocabulary gap; no existing Hindi Christian-tradition term exists beyond this transparent compound (मसीह + विरोधी), deliberately avoiding a loanword. Names a recurring type/spirit of doctrinal denial of Christ’s real incarnation, not exclusively a future eschatological figure. Must never be assimilated to Hindu apocalyptic figures (e.g. Kalki, the final avatar); must remain anchored strictly to denial of the incarnation and departure from Christ’s teaching (2 John 1:7, 1:9). Mandatory theologian review, every occurrence.
Teaching Of Christ
Approved rendering: मसीह की शिक्षा
Transliteration: Masīha kī śikṣā
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: मसीह की व्यवस्था (reserved — different Greek word/referent; see the law_of_christ fencing entry)
Original: ἡ διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Perseverance
New term for 2 John. Renders ἡ διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (2 John 1:9 x2, 1:10). The hinge of the passage’s either/or verdict on possessing God. Must not collapse into the Indian guru-teaching paradigm, in which a teacher’s instruction is a stage a disciple is expected to eventually transcend — this is a fixed, closed, non-negotiable apostolic deposit to be permanently persevered within. Must never be conflated with the baseline’s law_of_christ (a different Greek word, νόμος, naming the love-command, not this doctrinal deposit about Christ’s person). Mandatory theologian review, every occurrence.
Going Ahead Of The Teaching
Approved rendering: आगे बढ़ जाना
Transliteration: āge baṛh jānā
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: उन्नति करना (FORBIDDEN — positively-loaded advancement term), प्रगति करना (FORBIDDEN — same reason)
Original: προάγων
Category: Perseverance
New term for 2 John. Renders προάγων (2 John 1:9). MAJOR CULTURAL COLLISION: directly inverts the positively-valued Indian religious pattern of advancing beyond a teacher’s stage (karma-mārga → bhakti-mārga → jñāna-mārga; guru-transcendence). Here, ‘going ahead’ of Christ’s fixed teaching = losing God, not spiritual maturity. Must always appear paired in context with ‘and does not abide in the teaching of Christ’ so the negative valence is unmistakable, since no bare Hindi verb inherently carries a pejorative sense for ‘advancing.’ Mandatory theologian review with explicit translator note contrasting biblical perseverance against the guru-transcendence paradigm, every occurrence.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: अनुग्रह
Transliteration: anugraha
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: कृपा, दया, वरदान, भाग्य, कर्म-फल, पुण्य
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. Must convey unmerited favor apart from any human merit. Directly counters karma worldview. कृपा may be used for mercy/compassion in non-grace contexts only. In 2 John 1:3 this term is co-invoked with mercy and peace from both God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son — part of the letter’s trinitarian-adjacent opening greeting; flagged Critical-adjacent in the 2 John doctrine registry because of this pairing, though the term’s own risk tier remains High per baseline.
Flesh
Approved rendering: शरीर
Transliteration: śarīra
Doctrine: Sin
Rejected alternatives: देह (in sarx contexts)
Original: σάρξ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. SENSE-SHIFT NOTE for 2 John 1:7: here σάρξ is used in its literal incarnational sense (Christ’s real human body/nature), distinct from the Pauline technical ‘fallen self-reliant nature’ sense शरीर carries in the Romans/Galatians baseline (Romans 7-8; Galatians 5). A disambiguating translator note is required wherever this term appears across curricula so the two senses are not confused.
Confession Of Faith
Approved rendering: अंगीकार करना
Transliteration: aṅgīkāra karanā
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: स्वीकार करना
Original: ὁμολογέω / ὁμολογοῦντες
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. Public, personal allegiance-confession; never स्वीकार करना (mere private acceptance). In 2 John 1:7, applies to confessing Christ’s real incarnation rather than exclusively his lordship (as in Romans 10:9-10), but the same public, binding, personal-allegiance sense governs both uses.
Works Of The Law
Approved rendering: व्यवस्था के काम
Transliteration: vyavasthā ke kāma
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: कर्म
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. NEVER कर्म for ‘works’ — karma imports merit-accumulation cosmology. Retained here as the source of the काम-not-कर्म convention that governs 2 John’s new works_deeds and reward entries (2 John 1:8, 1:11), even though 2 John does not itself discuss Torah-works.
Election
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर का चुनाव
Transliteration: Parameśvara kā cunāva
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: भाग्य, नियति, किस्मत
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. God’s sovereign personal choice; not karma-determined fate. Retained here as the doctrinal root of 2 John’s new elect_lady entry (चुनी हुई, 2 John 1:1, 1:13), which reuses this root at a lighter, epistolary-address register — the two usages must remain tonally distinguishable without contradicting each other.
Law Of Christ
Approved rendering: मसीह की व्यवस्था
Transliteration: Masīha kī vyavasthā
Doctrine: Covenant
Rejected alternatives: मसीह का धर्म (Christ’s religion/dharma, one rival dharma among many)
Inherited from Galatians package; do not alter. The love-command embodied in Christ (Galatians 5:14; 6:2), not a new Torah-code. RETAINED HERE SOLELY AS A FENCING REFERENCE: this term must never be substituted for, or conflated with, 2 John’s new teaching_of_christ entry (मसीह की शिक्षा, διδαχή) — two different Greek words (νόμος vs. διδαχή) with two different referents (the love-command vs. the doctrinal deposit about Christ’s identity). See Cross-Curriculum Consistency Flag in 08_core_glossary.md.
Truth Of The Gospel
Approved rendering: सुसमाचार की सच्चाई
Transliteration: susamācar kī saccāī
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: संदेश (message), दृष्टिकोण (perspective)
Inherited from Galatians package; do not alter. RETAINED HERE AS A FENCING REFERENCE: this document reserves सच्चाई for this Pauline compound phrase, while 2 John’s new truth entry uses सत्य for the standalone Johannine noun ἀλήθεια. The two must not be interchanged across curricula; adjudicated as an open cross-curriculum consistency flag pending future Step 13 review.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: अनन्त जीवन
Transliteration: ananta jīvana
Doctrine: Eschatology
Rejected alternatives: अमरता (immortality-through-liberation framing)
Inherited from Galatians package; do not alter. Gift-harvest from the Spirit; never moksha-style absorption. RETAINED HERE AS A FENCING REFERENCE: 2 John 1:2’s εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (‘forever’) is a related but distinct temporal-eternity idiom; the अनन्त root is available for consistency where a more formal register is wanted, but 2 John 1:2 itself is rendered सदा के लिये / अनन्तकाल तक, not this full compound.
Truth
Approved rendering: सत्य
Transliteration: satya
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: सच्चाई (reserved for the Galatians baseline compound ‘truth of the gospel’)
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth and Love
New term for 2 John. Renders ἀλήθεια throughout the letter (2 John 1:1 x2, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4). CRITICAL CULTURAL RISK: सत्य is enshrined in India’s national motto ‘सत्यमेव जयते’ and names Sat, the first term of Sat-Chit-Ānanda describing Brahman’s essential nature — an impersonal cosmic-moral absolute that self-vindicates apart from any personal revelatory content. Mandatory translator note on first occurrence anchoring सत्य to received apostolic testimony about Christ (2 John 1:7, 1:9), not cosmic self-evidence. Mandatory theologian review, every occurrence.
Love
Approved rendering: प्रेम
Transliteration: prema
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: स्नेह (too weak, mere affection), प्रेम-भक्ति framing (forbidden devotional-romantic drift)
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Truth and Love
New term for 2 John. Renders ἀγάπη (2 John 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:6). CULTURAL RISK: प्रेम is deeply embedded in Krishna-bhakti devotional vocabulary as ‘प्रेम-भक्ति,’ denoting passionate, often romantically-figured divine longing. 2 John’s ἀγάπη is willed, mutual, ethical love among believers, inseparable from obedience to God’s commandments (v.6) — not devotional rapture. Distinct from the baseline’s narrower brotherly_love (भाईचारे का प्रेम, φιλαδελφία) — both terms coexist without collapsing into one another. Mandatory translator note; mandatory theologian review.
Deceiver
Approved rendering: भरमानेवाला
Transliteration: bharamānevālā
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: ठग (too transactional), भ्रम फैलानेवाला (too close to माया/illusion root)
Original: πλάνος
Category: Sin and Deception
New term for 2 John. Renders πλάνος (2 John 1:7). RISK: भरमानेवाला’s भ्रम root sits close to माया (Vedantic cosmic illusion). Mandatory translator note clarifying this names a specific, culpable human doctrinal opponent making a false claim about a historical person (Jesus Christ), not an impersonal illusion-generating metaphysical force. Escalate for theologian review.
Hospitality To False Teacher
Approved rendering: घर में ग्रहण करना
Transliteration: ghar meṃ grahaṇa karanā
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: स्वागत करना alone (too weak — loses the specific material/social-endorsement content)
Original: λαμβάνειν εἰς οἰκίαν
Category: Church
New term for 2 John. Renders λαμβάνειν εἰς οἰκίαν, negated (2 John 1:10). MAJOR CULTURAL COLLISION: directly restricts अतिथि देवो भवः (Atithi Devo Bhava, ‘the guest is a god’), one of the most deeply held hospitality norms in Indian culture. Mandatory pastoral translator note distinguishing this narrow, doctrinally-triggered restriction (withholding lodging/endorsement from a specific traveling teacher denying Christ’s incarnation) from the general biblical hospitality virtue (baseline अतिथि-सत्कार, Romans 12:13), which this verse does not repeal. Must retain full categorical force — never softened into a vague ‘be careful.’ Mandatory theologian AND native speaker review.
Greeting Formula
Approved rendering: अभिवादन
Transliteration: abhivādana
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: नमस्ते (FORBIDDEN in this context — imports ‘divine within you’ premise)
Original: χαίρειν
Category: Church
New term for 2 John. Renders χαίρειν as a withheld greeting (2 John 1:10, 1:11). नमस्ते must NEVER be used inside the translated verse text for this withheld greeting — its literal sense (‘I bow to the divine within you’) would either import an Advaitic premise the letter nowhere holds or generalize into a blanket rudeness ethic toward all outsiders. अभिवादन/नमस्कार is religiously neutral and behaviorally concrete. नमस्ते may appear only in an explanatory footnote, never as the verse’s rendering. Escalate for native speaker review given honor/shame and social-greeting sensitivities.
Koinoneo Complicity
Approved rendering: भागी होना
Transliteration: bhāgī honā
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: संगति करना alone (risks sounding positive, per the baseline’s warmly-valenced संगति noun)
Original: κοινωνεῖ
Category: Sin
New term for 2 John. Renders κοινωνέω used negatively (2 John 1:11). Verb form of the baseline’s Low-risk, positive fellowship noun (संगति). The object phrase (’…उसके बुरे कामों में…’) must NEVER be dropped — without it, this verb could accidentally read as praising solidarity rather than warning against moral complicity in another’s evil doctrinal works.
Abide
Approved rendering: बना रहना / स्थिर रहना
Transliteration: banā rahnā / sthira rahnā
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: टिके रहना (acceptable secondary option)
Original: μένω / μένων
Category: Perseverance
New term for 2 John. Renders μένω / μένων (2 John 1:2, 1:9 x2). Positive counterpart to the Critical going_ahead_of_the_teaching term; must be rendered consistently across every occurrence so the abide/depart antithesis remains visible in Hindi as in Greek. Must not carry any connotation of a temporary resting-stage on a spiritual path (मार्ग).
New Commandment From Beginning
Approved rendering: नई आज्ञा / आरम्भ से
Transliteration: naī ājñā / ārambh se
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: नया वचन (too weak — loses the ‘commandment’ force)
Original: ἐντολὴ καινή / ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς
Category: Covenant
New term for 2 John. Renders ἐντολὴ καινή / ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς (2 John 1:5, 1:6). RISK: in a religious environment where progressive spiritual insight and a living guru’s ongoing fresh teaching are prized, a reader may hear ‘not new’ as a modest disclaimer rather than the letter’s operative claim — that authentic love and truth are unchangeable and were fully given from the beginning, a fixed and closed apostolic deposit. Mandatory translator note tying this to the same ‘from the beginning’ language reused in v.6.
Medium Risk Terms
Mercy
Approved rendering: दया
Transliteration: dayā
Doctrine: Mercy of God
Original: ἔλεος
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. Kept distinct from अनुग्रह (grace, unmerited favor). दया = compassion toward the miserable. Appears in 2 John 1:3’s opening greeting and 1:16 baseline-style closing invocations of the letter genre; no new risk introduced by 2 John.
Peace
Approved rendering: शांति
Transliteration: śānti
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: चैन, सुकून
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. In Romans 5:1 = relational peace with God through justification; not psychological calm. Appears in 2 John 1:3’s opening greeting alongside grace and mercy; no new risk introduced by 2 John, distinguish from Hindu meditation-peace per baseline note.
Commandment
Approved rendering: आज्ञा
Transliteration: ājñā
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: हुक्म (too militaristic/administrative in register)
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Covenant
New term for 2 John. Renders ἐντολή (2 John 1:4, 1:5, 1:6). Standard, low-collision Hindi term for ‘commandment/order.’ Recommend a note clarifying this is God’s own charge, transmitted through apostolic tradition ‘from the beginning,’ not a personal guru’s individual directive to a disciple.
Walk In Truth
Approved rendering: चलना / चाल चलना
Transliteration: calanā / cāl calanā
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love; Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: जीवन बिताना (too generic, loses the ‘walk’ metaphor), मार्ग पर चलना (FORBIDDEN — imports bhakti-mārga/jñāna-mārga/karma-mārga resonance)
Original: περιπατέω / περιπατοῦντας
Category: Sanctification
New term for 2 John. Renders περιπατέω (2 John 1:4, 1:6 x2). Established Hindi Christian conduct-idiom for sustained, observable lifestyle conformity to apostolic truth. Must NEVER be rendered with मार्ग-based phrasing (e.g. ‘मार्ग पर चलना’), which existing dynamic-equivalence and paraphrase editions occasionally use and which this curriculum must not follow (see 05_translation_landscape.md §1.2). Anchor to the specific content of v.6 (his commandments), not a generic spiritual path.
World
Approved rendering: जगत
Transliteration: jagat
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: संसार (higher collision risk — directly evokes the samsara/rebirth cycle)
Original: κόσμος
Category: Gospel
New term for 2 John. Renders κόσμος (2 John 1:7). Established BSI rendering for Johannine κόσμος (cf. John 3:16). Preferred over संसार, whose rebirth-cycle resonance risks ‘deceivers going out into the world’ being misheard as ‘escaping the cycle of rebirth.’ Brief clarifying note recommended given this letter’s Gnostic-adjacent opponents: this ‘world’ is the real, morally accountable created/human sphere, not an illusory phenomenal realm.
Reward
Approved rendering: पुरस्कार
Transliteration: puraskāra
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: फल (FORBIDDEN — collides with कर्म-फल, karma-fruit)
Original: μισθός
Category: Eschatology
New term for 2 John. Renders μισθός (2 John 1:8). CRITICAL GUARDRAIL: NEVER फल — फल would collide directly with कर्म-फल (karma-phala), the fruit automatically ripening from accumulated deeds across lifetimes, converting a warning about preserving a shared apostolic investment into a karma-doctrine restatement. पुरस्कार preserves a wage/prize given by a personal, evaluating authority, not an automatic natural-law result. Brief translator note recommended.
Works Deeds
Approved rendering: काम
Transliteration: kāma
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ; Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: कर्म (FORBIDDEN — baseline works_of_the_law prohibition, extended here)
Original: ἔργον / ἔργοις
Category: Salvation
New term for 2 John. Renders ἔργον / ἔργοις (2 John 1:8 positively — apostolic labor; 1:11 negatively — the deceiver’s wicked works). Reuses the baseline’s established काम-not-कर्म convention (see the works_of_the_law fencing entry above) across both the positive and negative sense in this letter.
Elect Lady
Approved rendering: चुनी हुई
Transliteration: cunī huī
Doctrine: Divine Election and Chosen Identity (Epistolary Address)
Original: ἐκλεκτή
Category: Salvation
New term for 2 John. Renders ἐκλεκτή, used of the addressee (2 John 1:1) and her sister (1:13). Matches the root of the baseline’s High-risk election doctrine (परमेश्वर का चुनाव) but functions here as a warm personal epistolary compliment, not a fresh soteriological exposition. Keep tonally distinguishable from Romans 9-11’s weightier election doctrine while retaining the same Hindi root; must never be glossed as merit-based divine favor.
Kyria Address
Approved rendering: प्रिय बहन / आदरणीय बहन
Transliteration: priya bahan / ādaraṇīya bahan
Doctrine: Apostolic Office and Authority
Rejected alternatives: प्रभु-based renderings (FORBIDDEN — would conflate with the Critical Lordship term κύριος/प्रभु)
Original: κυρία
Category: Epistolary
New term for 2 John. Renders κυρία, the address to the letter’s recipient (2 John 1:1, 1:5). TRANSLATOR-EDUCATION RISK, not doctrinal drift risk: κυρία shares a root with κύριος but carries no divine title in this grammatical context. Mandatory translator note flagging the shared root; no surveyed Hindi edition cleanly avoids this collision (see 05_translation_landscape.md §1.2), so this curriculum’s choice must be actively defended, not assumed obvious.
Elder
Approved rendering: प्राचीन
Transliteration: prācīna
Doctrine: Apostolic Office and Authority
Rejected alternatives: बड़े (too vague — loses office-specific sense)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church
New term for 2 John. Renders πρεσβύτερος, the author’s self-designation (2 John 1:1). Standard Hindi Christian rendering for the church office of elder. Minor collision risk: carries some resonance with Indian veneration of aged spiritual teachers/gurus whose personal authority is often treated as unquestionable; light translator note recommended distinguishing an accountable church office from individual guru-authority.
Joy
Approved rendering: आनन्द
Transliteration: ānanda
Doctrine: Joy in Fellowship and Truth
Rejected alternatives: हर्ष / खुशी (acceptable secondary options, less established)
Original: χαρά / ἐχάρην
Category: Faith
New term for 2 John. Renders χαρά / ἐχάρην (2 John 1:4, 1:12). Well-established Hindi Christian term for χαρά throughout the NT. CULTURAL NOTE: also names one of Brahman’s three essential qualities in the Vedantic Sat-Chit-Ānanda formula, but is thoroughly absorbed in mainstream Hindi Bible usage, making its collision risk lower than सत्य’s. Brief translator awareness note recommended given this letter’s unusually dense concentration of Hindu-philosophical-vocabulary collisions (सत्य, आनन्द, जगत, भ्रम); no theologian escalation required on this term alone — this joy is relational (fellowship restored), not a contemplative or self-attained inner state.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: संगति
Transliteration: saṃgati
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: दोस्ती, भाईचारा
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. Shared participation in Christ; warmly positive baseline sense. RETAINED HERE AS A FENCING REFERENCE for 2 John’s new koinoneo_complicity entry (भागी होना, 2 John 1:11), the verb form of this same root used NEGATIVELY (complicity in evil works) — the object phrase must never be dropped, or the verse could accidentally echo this term’s normally positive connotation.
Hospitality
Approved rendering: अतिथि-सत्कार
Transliteration: atithi-satkāra
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Inherited from Romans package; do not alter. Romans 12:13’s positively-valued hospitality virtue. RETAINED HERE AS A FENCING REFERENCE: 2 John’s new hospitality_to_false_teacher entry (घर में ग्रहण करना, 2 John 1:10) narrowly restricts this general virtue for a specific doctrinal reason and must never be presented as a repeal of it.
Evil Works
Approved rendering: दुष्ट / बुरा
Transliteration: duṣṭa / burā
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: पापी (too narrowly ‘sinful person,’ not ‘evil quality’)
Original: πονηρός / πονηροῖς
Category: Sin
New term for 2 John. Renders πονηρός / πονηροῖς (2 John 1:11), describing the deceiver’s works. Standard, low-collision Hindi vocabulary. The operative guardrail is consistency with the काम-not-कर्म convention on the noun this adjective modifies, not the adjective itself.
Children Congregational
Approved rendering: सन्तान / बच्चे
Transliteration: santāna / bacce
Doctrine: Congregational Family and Belonging
Rejected alternatives: पुत्र-पुत्रियाँ (overly formal for this context)
Original: τέκνα
Category: Church
New term for 2 John. Renders τέκνα (2 John 1:1, 1:4, 1:13), used both of literal children and, likely, congregation members under pastoral care. Distinct from the baseline’s technical adoption doctrine (दत्तक-पुत्रता); this is pastoral/congregational relationship language, not the forensic/familial-standing category.
Sister
Approved rendering: बहन
Transliteration: bahan
Doctrine: Congregational Family and Belonging
Original: ἀδελφή
Category: Church
New term for 2 John. Renders ἀδελφή (2 John 1:13). Standard, unambiguous Hindi term for a fellow female believer or literal sister. No significant collision risk.
Referenced passages