Core Glossary
2 John — Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package)
This glossary covers every load-bearing theological term surfaced in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, spanning the entire book of 2 John (Part A: core passage 1:4-11; Part B: full-letter coverage 1:1-3, 1:12-13). Terms already fixed in the Romans Hmong Language Package Baseline TM (assets/translation_memory.json) are marked [REUSED — TM baseline] and reproduced with their exact, unchanged rendering; no alternate gloss is permitted for these under 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §2. All other terms are marked [NEW] and are logged here for formal TM-revision review, per §2.4 of that document, before permanent adoption.
A. Reused Terms (No Change Permitted)
| # | English Term | Greek | Hmong Rendering | Risk | Verses | TM Source Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | God | θεός | Vajtswv | Low | 1:3, 1:9 | Romans TM #1 |
| 2 | Father (God) | πατήρ | Leej Txiv | Low | 1:3, 1:4, 1:9 | Romans TM #4 |
| 3 | Jesus Christ | Ἰησοῦς Χριστός | Yexus Khetos | Low | 1:3, 1:7 | Romans TM #3 |
| 4 | Son (of God/the Father) | υἱός | Leej Tub ntawm Vajtswv | Low | 1:3, 1:9 | Romans TM #7 |
| 5 | Truth | ἀλήθεια | qhov tseeb | Low | 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 | Romans TM #33 |
| 6 | Love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | kev hlub / hlub | Low | 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:6 | Romans TM (love, NEW entry §b of Romans TM) |
| 7 | Grace | χάρις | txiaj ntsim | Critical | 1:3 | Romans TM #14 — koob hmoov remains permanently forbidden |
| 8 | Mercy | ἔλεος | txoj kev khuv leej | Medium | 1:3 | Romans TM (mercy, NEW entry §b) — kept distinct from grace |
| 9 | Peace | εἰρήνη | kev thaj yeeb | Low | 1:3 | Romans TM #15 |
| 10 | World | κόσμος | lub ntiajteb | Low | 1:7 | Romans TM #74 |
| 11 | Flesh (neutral/physical base sense) | σάρξ | lub cev nqaij tawv | Critical | 1:7 | Romans TM #23 — base lexeme reused; see item #21 below for the required doctrinal extension unique to this letter |
| 12 | Confess (verb) | ὁμολογέω | lees paub | Medium | 1:7 | Romans requirements doc §3.1 forbidden-substitution table (established for confessing Christ as Lord); reapplied here to confessing the Incarnation |
| 13 | Eternal/forever idiom | εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα | mus ib txhis | Low | 1:2 | Romans TM (eternal_life phrase, txoj sia nyob mus ib txhis) — reused as the “forever” component only |
B. New Terms Surfaced in 2 John (Logged for TM-Revision Review)
| # | Category | English Term | Greek / Transliteration | Hmong Rendering (Proposed) | Risk | Doctrine Link | Verses | Translation Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Office/Title | Elder | ὁ πρεσβύτερος / ho presbyteros | tus Kev Laus | Medium | General/Authorship | 1:1 | Positive comprehension bridge to strong existing Hmong elder-respect value, but title carries apostolic-era teaching authority beyond mere age; needs a teaching note distinguishing this office-sense from ordinary village-elder status, paralleling the Romans-baseline “apostle” note. |
| 15 | Address/Honorific | Elect Lady | ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᳵ / eklektē kyria | tus Muam uas Vajtswv Xaiv | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:1, 1:5 | Forbidden: any rendering of κυρία using tus Tswv (Lord) — κυρία is a feminine social honorific, not a divine title, despite the shared root. Referent (individual woman vs. personified church) is exegetically debated; flag ambiguity in teaching notes rather than resolving silently. Root shares ἐκλεκτός with the Romans-baseline election doctrine (kev xaiv) but must not be taught as invoking the full Romans 9-11 election argument. |
| 16 | Family/Relational | Children | τέκνα / tekna | cov me nyuam | Low | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:1, 1:4, 1:13 | Referent ambiguity (literal children vs. congregation members) is comprehension-level only, no collision. |
| 17 | Ethical | Commandment | ἐντολή / entolē | tej lus samhwm | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love; Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 | Must be kept lexically distinct from the Romans-baseline Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv/Mauxes) (Mosaic Law) to avoid collapsing the apostolic/dominical love-command into Torah-observance vocabulary. Never use the kevcai root for this term. |
| 18 | Ethical/Idiom | Walk (conduct/lifestyle) | περιπατέω / peripateō | taug kev | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:4, 1:6 (x2) | Metaphorical “walk” for habitual conduct; requires explicit teaching note that it denotes lifestyle, not literal locomotion. Cross-reference with the Romans-baseline nyob hauv Khetos union-idiom family for pipeline consistency, though not identical. |
| 19 | Doctrinal/Warning | Deceiver | πλάνος / planos | tus dag ntxias | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 (x2) | Specific collision risk: overlaps with Hmong folk vocabulary for deceptive/soul-luring spirits (dab ntxias). Must be explicitly taught as a doctrinal false teacher denying Christ’s incarnation, not a nature-spirit or soul-luring entity. |
| 20 | Doctrinal/Warning | Antichrist | ὁ ἀντίχριστος / ho antichristos | Tus Tawm Tsam Khetos (Antikhes) | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | Loanword-plus-gloss pattern (parallel to the Romans-baseline “Abba, Leej Txiv” treatment). Specific collision risk: must not collapse into generic dab (evil-spirit) vocabulary, which would strip the term of its precise Christological content (denial of the Incarnation) and risk either folk-animistic flattening or sectarian end-times speculation (both already forbidden patterns per the Romans baseline). Mandatory teaching note anchoring strictly to Johannine usage: present, plural, doctrinal — not a single future figure. |
| 21 | Doctrinal — Incarnation | Christ coming in the flesh (Incarnation affirmation) | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί / erchomenon en sarki | Yexus Khetos tuaj ua neeg muaj lub cev nqaij tawv tiag tiag | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | Extends Romans-baseline item #11 (lub cev nqaij tawv, flesh-neutral) with a mandatory “tiag tiag” (truly/really) qualifier absent from the Romans baseline, since this context specifically opposes docetic (appearance-only) denial of Christ’s real humanity. Logged as a formal TM-extension requiring theologian review before permanent adoption; does not contradict the Romans-baseline entry, but adds a doctrinal qualifier not previously required. |
| 22 | Doctrinal | Teaching of Christ | ἡ διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ / hē didachē tou Christou | tej lus qhia ntawm Khetos | Critical | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9 (x2), 1:10 | Must never be rendered with the kevcai root (would create a second collision with kev cai dab qhuas, ancestral spirit-worship customs, on top of the one already documented for Txoj Kevcai in the Romans baseline). This is Christ’s own apostolic-era teaching (His incarnate identity plus the love-command), distinct from Torah-observance. |
| 23 | Doctrinal/Idiom | Abide/Remain (in the teaching) | μένω (μένων) / menō | nyob ruaj nreeg hauv | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:2 (of truth), 1:9 (x2) | Cross-reference with the Romans-baseline nyob hauv Khetos (in-Christ union formula, High risk there); same verb family (μένω-related concept), different grammatical object (teaching, not the person of Christ directly) — keep distinguishable in teaching notes even while noting the family resemblance. |
| 24 | Doctrinal/Warning | Goes ahead / progresses beyond | προάγων / proagōn | tus uas hais tias nws mus deb dhau lawm | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9 | Specific collision risk flagged for theologian review: the rhetorical pattern of claiming advanced/updated revelation superseding the apostolic deposit parallels sectarian-stream patterns already forbidden in the Romans baseline (NWT-style substitution; LDS-influenced continuing revelation; diaspora broadcast-paraphrase drift, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §3.1). Teaching material must make this parallel explicit. |
| 25 | Relational/Doctrinal | Have God / have the Father and the Son | θεὸν ἔχει / τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὸν υἱὸν ἔχει | muaj Vajtswv nyob ntawm nws / tsis muaj Vajtswv nyob ntawm nws | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9 | Specific collision risk: the verb “muaj” (have/possess) applied to a deity echoes the shamanic idiom of a txiv neeb “having” spirit-helpers (dab qhua/neeb) for ritual empowerment. Must be taught explicitly as covenantal relationship/fellowship, not ritually-acquired spirit-possession/spirit-ownership. |
| 26 | Economic Metaphor | Full reward | μισθὸν πλήρη / misthon plērē | nqi zog puv npo | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:8 | Strong economic-wage cultural bridge (parallel to the Romans-baseline “debtor” entry), but must be cross-referenced to the Romans-baseline Grace/Justification doctrines to prevent a works-righteousness misreading of “reward.” |
| 27 | Hospitality | Receive into house | λαμβάνειν εἰς οἰκίαν / lambanein eis oikian | txais tos rau hauv tsev | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:10 | Specific, grounded collision risk: direct tension with deep-rooted Hmong guest-honor hospitality customs. Mandatory teaching note: this is a narrow, doctrine-specific exception (public endorsement of a denier of the Incarnation), not a general license to withhold ordinary hospitality/kindness. |
| 28 | Social/Greeting Formula | Greeting (“Rejoice”/“Hail”) | χαίρειν / chairein | hais tias “Nyob zoo” | Critical | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:10, 1:11 | Forbidden substitution: never render with any koob hmoov-based phrase (e.g., “foom koob hmoov rau”). Doing so would violate the Romans-baseline permanent prohibition on koob hmoov for grace/blessing contexts and wrongly conflate withholding a social greeting with withholding salvific grace. Must remain a plain, secular greeting expression. |
| 29 | Ethical | Shares/partakes (in evil works) | κοινωνεῖ / koinōnei | koom nrog | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:11 | Must be marked as negative participation (shared guilt), not the generally positive κοινωνία register used elsewhere in the NT for church fellowship; kept distinct from the Romans-baseline deacon_servant/tus pab tu pawg ntseeg service vocabulary. |
| 30 | Ethical | Evil works/deeds | ἔργα πονηρά / erga ponēra | tej hauj lwm phem | Low | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:11 | No collision; straightforward moral-descriptive phrase. |
| 31 | Emotional/Relational | Joy | χαρά / chara | kev zoo siab | Low | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:4, 1:12 | Must be kept lexically distinct from item #28 (χαίρειν, the greeting formula) despite the shared root — one is an emotion-noun, the other a fixed social-greeting idiom. |
| 32 | Family/Relational | Sister | ἀδελφή / adelphē | tus muam | Low | General/Closing | 1:13 | No collision; straightforward kinship/congregational term. |
| 33 | Material Culture | Paper and ink | χάρτης καὶ μέλαν / chartēs kai melan | ntawv thiab kua av xeeb | Low-Medium | General/Closing | 1:12 | Comprehension gap only (unfamiliar ancient writing materials); brief explanatory note sufficient. |
| 34 | Idiom | Mouth to mouth (face to face) | στόμα πρὸς στόμα / stoma pros stoma | tim ntsej tim muag | Low-Medium | General/Closing | 1:12 | Idiom-substitution (literal “mouth to mouth” would read unnaturally in Hmong); logged for TM-revision review as an idiom-equivalence decision, not a doctrinal collision. |
| 35 | Vigilance/Warning | Watch yourselves | βλέπετε ἑαυτούς / blepete heautous | ceev faj rau nej tus kheej | Low | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:8 | No collision; straightforward vigilance imperative tied to the deceivers named in 1:7. |
| 36 | Vigilance/Warning | Lose what we have worked for | ἀπολέσητε ἃ εἰργασάμεθα / apolesēte ha eirgasametha | ua kom ploj tag tej uas peb tau khwv siv zog ua | Low-Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:8 | Economic/agricultural forfeiture metaphor; bridges cleanly to Hmong agrarian/wage culture, similar to the Romans-baseline “debtor” bridge. |
| 37 | Doctrinal | Known the truth | οἱ ἐγνωκότες τὴν ἀλήθειαν / hoi egnōkotes tēn alētheian | twb paub qhov tseeb lawm | Low | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:1 | Reuses the TM qhov tseeb; verb “paub” (know) pairing is comprehension-level only, no collision. |
C. Risk-Tier Summary for This Book
| Risk Tier | Count | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 5 | Grace* [reused], Flesh (base)* [reused], Christ coming in the flesh [NEW extension], Teaching of Christ [NEW], Antichrist [NEW], Greeting/χαίρειν forbidden-substitution [NEW] |
| High | 6 | Deceiver [NEW], Elect Lady [NEW], Goes ahead/progresses beyond [NEW], Have God [NEW], Receive into house [NEW] |
| Medium | 9 | Mercy* [reused], Confess* [reused], Elder [NEW], Commandment [NEW], Walk [NEW], Abide/Remain [NEW], Full reward [NEW], Shares/partakes [NEW], — |
| Low / Low-Medium | remainder | See tables above |
*Note: the Critical-tier count of 6 items is grouped into 5 rows above where two Critical risks (grace, flesh-base) are inherited unchanged from the Romans baseline and three are newly surfaced in this letter (Christ coming in the flesh, Teaching of Christ, Antichrist), plus one newly forbidden substitution (χαίρειν/koob hmoov) — all six require mandatory human theologian review before publication, consistent with the Romans-baseline routing rule for Critical-tier terms.
D. Cross-Reference to Doctrines
| Doctrine | Terms Involved (New) | Terms Involved (Reused) |
|---|---|---|
| Walking in Truth and Love | Commandment, Walk, Joy, Known the truth, Children | Truth, Love |
| Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Deceiver, Antichrist, Christ coming in the flesh, Evil works | Flesh (base), Confess, World |
| Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Elect Lady, Receive into house, Greeting (χαίρειν), Shares/partakes | — |
| Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Teaching of Christ, Abide/Remain, Goes ahead/progresses beyond, Have God, Full reward, Watch yourselves, Lose what we worked for | Mercy, Peace, Father/Son |
Governing note: This glossary is a Phase 1 analytical artifact. No entry marked [NEW] may be treated as a permanent rendering until it passes the TM-revision review process specified in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §2.4 and §9; all Critical- and High-tier new entries above require mandatory human theologian review before any Phase 2 generation may rely on them.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: txiaj ntsim
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: Grace and Salvation by Faith Alone
Rejected alternatives: koob hmoov (fortune/blessing tied to fate and ritual correctness) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for this sense; would invert sola gratia
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 1:3, first of the letter’s unique triadic greeting (grace, mercy, peace). The permanent koob hmoov prohibition is EXTENDED in this letter to also govern the withheld greeting (χαίρειν, 1:10-11) — see ‘greeting_chairein’ below — so that withholding a social greeting is never confused with withholding grace itself.
Flesh Neutral Descent Body
Approved rendering: lub cev nqaij tawv
Transliteration: sarx (neutral)
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: bare nqaij used unmarked for both senses — rejected, collapses neutral and moral senses of flesh
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim, as the BASE LEXEME only. In Romans this phrase needed only to denote physical descent/body (Rom 1:3, 9:3), a genealogical claim never under direct attack. In 2 John 1:7 this base phrase is INSUFFICIENT ALONE and must be extended with a mandatory qualifier — see ‘christ_coming_in_the_flesh’ below — because 2 John’s polemical context is specifically anti-docetic, a doctrinal load the Romans baseline never had to carry.
Election Choose
Approved rendering: kev xaiv (Vajtswv xaiv raws li nws lub siab nyiam)
Transliteration: eklogē / eklegomai
Doctrine: Election and the Sovereignty of God
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (impersonal fate/fortune) vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, collapses personal divine choice into fatalism
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Retained in this TM specifically to fix the BOUNDARY against the new term ‘elect_lady’ (ἐκλεκτῇ, 1:1, 1:5): the shared Greek root ἐκλεκτός/ἐκλέγομαι means the honorific ‘elect lady’ must be explicitly taught as NOT invoking the full Romans 9-11 sovereign-election doctrinal apparatus, even though the lexical family resemblance is real and should be noted, not silently ignored.
Christ Coming In The Flesh
Approved rendering: Yexus Khetos tuaj ua neeg muaj lub cev nqaij tawv tiag tiag
Transliteration: erchomenon en sarki
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘lub cev nqaij tawv’ with no ‘tiag tiag’ qualifier — rejected, only affirms Christ had a body/lineage-category, does NOT rule out an appearance-only (docetic) body, leaving the letter’s central doctrinal test unstated, transliterated loanword for ‘incarnation’ — rejected, would be opaque and would prevent the needed contrast-teaching against docetism
NEW TM-EXTENSION of ‘flesh_neutral_descent_body’ above. Mandatory ‘tiag tiag’ (truly/really/actually) qualifier required at EVERY occurrence to explicitly rule out an appearance-only reading, since 2 John’s polemical context (unlike Romans 1:3/9:3’s genealogical statements) is specifically an anti-Incarnation heresy. This is the letter’s doctrinal center of gravity (1:7) and requires mandatory human theologian sign-off before permanent adoption.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: Tus Tawm Tsam Khetos (Antikhes)
Transliteration: ho antichristos
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘dab’ (generic evil-spirit vocabulary) — rejected, strips the term of its precise Christological content (denial of the Incarnation specifically), risking folk-animistic flattening, elaborate identifiable end-times-figure schemes — rejected, sectarian-speculative drift already forbidden for other eschatological terms in the Romans baseline, pure paraphrase alone (‘tus tawm tsam Khetos’) with no loanword anchor — rejected, severs the term from its recognizable fixed theological identity across translations/traditions
NEW. Loanword-plus-gloss pattern, parallel to the Romans-baseline ‘Abba, Leej Txiv’ treatment. Occurs at 1:7. Mandatory teaching note anchoring strictly to Johannine usage at every occurrence: a present, plural, doctrinal denial-of-the-Incarnation phenomenon, NOT a single future world-ruler figure.
Teaching Of Christ
Approved rendering: tej lus qhia ntawm Khetos
Transliteration: hē didachē tou Christou
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: any rendering using the kevcai root — FORBIDDEN, would create a SECOND collision with kev cai dab qhuas (ancestral spirit-worship customs) layered on top of the one already documented for Txoj Kevcai in the Romans baseline, generic ‘kev qhuab qhia’ (preaching/teaching) with no Christ-anchor — rejected, register-thin and loses the specific apostolic-deposit sense
NEW. Occurs at 1:9 (x2), 1:10. The body of authoritative apostolic/dominical instruction (Christ’s incarnate identity plus the love-command); the measuring line for fellowship with God. Second of two new terms in this letter (with ‘commandment’) requiring independent fencing of the kevcai root — logged as a newly-identified ‘adjacent-root drift’ escalation category.
Greeting Chairein
Approved rendering: hais tias “Nyob zoo”
Transliteration: chairein
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: any koob hmoov-based blessing formula (e.g., ‘foom koob hmoov rau’) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN; would violate the Romans-baseline permanent koob hmoov prohibition and wrongly conflate withholding a social greeting with withholding grace (txiaj ntsim) itself
NEW forbidden-substitution rule. Occurs at 1:10, 1:11. Must remain a plain, secular greeting expression with zero koob hmoov/txiaj ntsim vocabulary, at every occurrence, with no exceptions.
High Risk Terms
Elect Lady
Approved rendering: tus Muam uas Vajtswv Xaiv
Transliteration: eklektē kyria
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: any rendering of kyria using tus Tswv (Lord) — FORBIDDEN, would appear to confer a divine title on a human addressee, a transliterated ‘kyria’ loanword — rejected, opaque and fails to signal the honorific-not-divine distinction that is this term’s core risk
NEW. The letter’s addressee (1:1, 1:5) — either a named individual Christian woman or a personification of a local congregation; referent is exegetically debated and must be flagged in teaching notes, not resolved silently. Two converging risks: (1) κυρία shares its root with κύριος (tus Tswv, reserved for God/Christ); must never be conflated. (2) ‘Elect’ shares its root with the Romans-baseline Critical election doctrine (kev xaiv) but is a personal/epistolary honorific here, not the Romans 9-11 sovereign-election argument — see ‘election_choose’ note above.
Deceiver
Approved rendering: tus dag ntxias
Transliteration: planos
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: leaving the term free-standing with no stated doctrinal object — rejected, allows collapse into generic animistic soul-luring vocabulary
NEW. Occurs at 1:7 (x2). Specific, grounded collision risk: overlaps with Hmong folk vocabulary for deceptive, soul-luring spirits (dab ntxias) that lead a person’s plig (soul) astray. Must always be anchored in the same clause to its specific doctrinal object — denial that Jesus Christ truly came in the flesh — never left as a free-standing noun, or the term will be absorbed into an animistic rather than Christological-doctrinal framework.
Goes Ahead Progresses Beyond
Approved rendering: tus uas hais tias nws mus deb dhau lawm
Transliteration: proagōn
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: a softer, less pointed paraphrase — rejected, would blunt the letter’s explicit warning against claims of revelation superseding the apostolic deposit, abbreviating to a single noun — rejected, must remain a full descriptive clause to resist informal re-paraphrase drift
NEW. Occurs at 1:9. Describes a teacher’s self-justifying claim of spiritual advancement while abandoning Christ’s received teaching. Specific collision risk flagged for theologian review: this rhetorical pattern closely parallels sectarian-stream patterns already permanently forbidden in the Romans baseline (NWT-style substitution, LDS-influenced ‘continuing revelation,’ diaspora broadcast-paraphrase drift, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §3.1). Fixed as a full clause, never abbreviated.
Have God Father Son
Approved rendering: muaj Vajtswv nyob ntawm nws / tsis muaj Vajtswv nyob ntawm nws
Transliteration: theon echei … ton patera kai ton huion echei
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘muaj Vajtswv’ with no covenantal-relationship teaching note — rejected, risks being heard as a Christianized shamanic spirit-possession claim
NEW. Occurs at 1:9. Specific, grounded collision risk unusually deep among this Language Package’s terms: the verb ‘muaj’ (have/possess) applied directly to a deity-object is an exact grammatical match to the shamanic idiom of a txiv neeb ‘having’ spirit-helpers (dab qhua/neeb) for ritual empowerment. Must be explicitly taught at every occurrence as covenantal relationship/fellowship, never ritually-acquired spirit-possession.
Receive Into House
Approved rendering: txais tos rau hauv tsev
Transliteration: lambanein eis oikian
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: a general, unscoped hospitality-withholding statement — rejected, risks being heard as sanctioning general rudeness or a grave violation of Hmong guest-honor ethics
NEW. Occurs at 1:10. Specific, grounded collision risk: hospitality toward travelers is one of the deepest positive social obligations in Hmong culture; refusing lodging is customarily a serious social/ritual breach. MUST always co-occur with an explicit narrowing clause in the same teaching unit: this is a narrow, doctrine-specific exception (public endorsement of a denier of the Incarnation), never a general license to withhold ordinary hospitality/kindness.
Medium Risk Terms
Mercy
Approved rendering: txoj kev khuv leej
Transliteration: eleos
Doctrine: Election and the Sovereignty of God
Rejected alternatives: txiaj ntsim (grace) used interchangeably for mercy — rejected, mercy and grace are theologically distinct and must not be flattened into one term
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 1:3, the second (and distinctive) term of 2 John’s unusual three-term epistolary greeting, absent from most Pauline greetings; must remain lexically distinct from grace here as in Romans.
Elder
Approved rendering: tus Kev Laus
Transliteration: presbyteros
Doctrine: General / Authorship
Rejected alternatives: a transliterated loanword — rejected, no disambiguation benefit since Hmong already has a strong, positive, non-competing elder-respect vocabulary field
NEW. The letter’s self-designation of authorship (1:1), an apostolic-era office/title of settled teaching authority (likely the Apostle John), not merely age-based respect. Positive comprehension bridge to Hmong elder-respect values, but requires a first-use teaching-note footnote distinguishing this office-sense from ordinary village-elder status, paralleling the Romans-baseline ‘tus Tub Txib’ (apostle) note.
Commandment
Approved rendering: tej lus samhwm
Transliteration: entolē
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: any rendering using the kevcai root — FORBIDDEN, would collapse the apostolic/dominical love-command into Torah-observance vocabulary and re-import the kev cai dab qhuas (ancestral spirit-worship customs) collision already fenced for Txoj Kevcai in the Romans baseline
NEW. Occurs at 1:4, 1:5 (x1), 1:6. The apostolic love-command, presented as received tradition ‘from the beginning,’ not innovation (1:5). Must remain lexically distinct from Txoj Kevcai (Mosaic Law) at every occurrence — this is the first of TWO new terms in this letter (with ‘teaching_of_christ’) requiring independent fencing of the kevcai root, an ‘adjacent-root drift’ risk newly documented in this Language Package.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: taug kev
Transliteration: peripateō
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
NEW. Occurs at 1:4, 1:6 (x2). Metaphorical idiom for habitual conduct/lifestyle; must always co-occur in the same clause with its domain noun (qhov tseeb or tej lus samhwm) so the non-literal, ongoing-conduct sense is structurally forced rather than left to context alone (avoids literal-locomotion misreading).
Full Reward
Approved rendering: nqi zog puv npo
Transliteration: misthon plērē
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
NEW. Occurs at 1:8. Strong economic-wage cultural bridge, but must be cross-referenced to the Romans-baseline Grace/Justification doctrines to prevent a works-righteousness misreading — the wage idiom must never be taught as merit earned apart from grace.
Confess Incarnation
Approved rendering: lees paub
Transliteration: homologeō
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Reused from the Romans-baseline forbidden-substitution table convention (12_ai_translation_requirements.md §3.1, established for confessing Christ as Lord, Romans 10:9-13), redirected here to confessing the Incarnation specifically (1:7). Must always be anchored explicitly to its object (Christ’s real, physical coming), mirroring the Romans-baseline discipline requiring explicit anchoring for kev cawm dim/kev xaiv.
Abide Remain
Approved rendering: nyob ruaj nreeg hauv
Transliteration: menō / menōn
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
NEW. Occurs at 1:2 (of truth abiding in us), 1:9 (x2, of abiding in the teaching). Cross-reference required with the Romans-baseline ‘in_christ_union_formula’ (nyob hauv Khetos, High risk there) — same μένω-family verb, different grammatical object (the teaching, not the person of Christ directly); keep distinguishable in teaching notes even while noting the family resemblance.
Shares Partakes
Approved rendering: koom nrog
Transliteration: koinōnei
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
NEW. Occurs at 1:11. Must be clearly marked as NEGATIVE participation (shared guilt) in this context, not the generally positive κοινωνία register used elsewhere in the NT for church fellowship; kept distinct from the Romans-baseline deacon_servant vocabulary.
Low Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv
Transliteration: theos
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: Ntuj (impersonal sky/heaven) — rejected, lacks personal deity sense, dab (spirit) — rejected, denotes false/lesser spirit
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 2 John 1:3, 1:9 (source of grace/mercy/peace; possessed only by those abiding in Christ’s teaching).
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: kyrios
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Retained in this TM specifically to fix the mandatory BOUNDARY against the new term ‘elect_lady’ (κυρία, 1:1, 1:5): κυρία must NEVER be rendered with any form of ‘tus Tswv’, since it is a human social honorific (feminine of κύριος), not a divine title. This entry’s stability is the anchor that makes that prohibition enforceable.
Jesus Christ
Approved rendering: Yexus Khetos
Transliteration: Iēsous Christos
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 1:3, 1:7 (the Incarnation-affirmation clause).
Father God
Approved rendering: Leej Txiv
Transliteration: patēr
Doctrine: Union with Christ
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 1:3, 1:4 (commandment ‘from the Father’), 1:9.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Leej Tub ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: huios theou
Doctrine: Union with Christ
Rejected alternatives: diminished-sonship renderings found in sectarian materials — rejected, must preserve full deity
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 1:3, 1:9 (jointly ‘had’ with the Father by the one who abides in Christ’s teaching).
Peace
Approved rendering: kev thaj yeeb
Transliteration: eirēnē
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 1:3, third term of the greeting.
Truth
Approved rendering: qhov tseeb
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Anchors both ‘walking in truth’ (1:4) and ‘known the truth’ (1:1); central to Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love.
Love
Approved rendering: kev hlub / hlub
Transliteration: agapē / agapaō
Doctrine: Christian Living and Unity in the Church
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:6. Teaching note required (not a lexical risk): 2 John 1:6 defines love operationally as obedient walking according to Christ’s commandments, not mere sentiment — must always be taught alongside this base term to prevent an emotive-only reading.
World
Approved rendering: lub ntiajteb
Transliteration: kosmos
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. Occurs at 1:7, the sphere into which ‘many deceivers have gone out.‘
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: txoj sia nyob mus ib txhis
Transliteration: zōē aiōnios
Doctrine: Union with Christ
Inherited from Romans package, verbatim. In 2 John only the ‘forever’ component (‘mus ib txhis’, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα) is reused, applied to truth’s permanence rather than to life itself (1:2: ‘the truth abiding in us … forever’).
Children
Approved rendering: cov me nyuam
Transliteration: tekna
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
NEW. Occurs at 1:1, 1:4, 1:13. Referent ambiguity (literal children vs. congregation members under the Elect Lady’s care) is comprehension-level only; no collision with Hmong traditional religion.
Sister
Approved rendering: tus muam
Transliteration: adelphē
Doctrine: General / Closing
NEW. Occurs at 1:13, the Elder’s own ‘elect sister,’ paralleling the addressee’s designation. Straightforward kinship/congregational term; no collision.
Known The Truth
Approved rendering: twb paub qhov tseeb lawm
Transliteration: hoi egnōkotes tēn alētheian
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
NEW. Occurs at 1:1. Settled, possessed knowledge (not an ongoing search) binding the wider community; reuses TM ‘qhov tseeb’; verb pairing is comprehension-level only.
Joy
Approved rendering: kev zoo siab
Transliteration: chara
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
NEW. Occurs at 1:4, 1:12. Must be kept lexically distinct from ‘greeting_chairein’ below despite the shared Greek root χαίρω — one is an emotion-noun, the other a fixed social-greeting idiom carrying its own Critical-tier forbidden-substitution rule.
Watch Yourselves
Approved rendering: ceev faj rau nej tus kheej
Transliteration: blepete heautous
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
NEW. Occurs at 1:8. Direct imperative of vigilance against the deceivers named in 1:7; links the Incarnation-denial warning to the call for perseverance. No collision.
Evil Works
Approved rendering: tej hauj lwm phem
Transliteration: erga ponēra
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
NEW. Occurs at 1:11. Concrete deeds proceeding from the false teacher’s denial of the Incarnation, in which greeting-endorsement shares. Straightforward moral-descriptive phrase; no collision.
Low-Medium Risk Terms
Lose What We Worked For
Approved rendering: ua kom ploj tag tej uas peb tau khwv siv zog ua
Transliteration: apolesēte ha eirgasametha
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
NEW. Occurs at 1:8. Economic/agricultural forfeiture metaphor; bridges cleanly to Hmong agrarian/wage culture, similar to the Romans-baseline ‘debtor’ bridge.
Paper And Ink
Approved rendering: ntawv thiab kua av xeeb
Transliteration: chartēs kai melan
Doctrine: General / Closing
NEW. Occurs at 1:12. Ancient writing materials unfamiliar as named objects; comprehension gap only, brief explanatory gloss sufficient, no religious collision.
Mouth To Mouth
Approved rendering: tim ntsej tim muag
Transliteration: stoma pros stoma
Doctrine: General / Closing
Rejected alternatives: literal ‘ncauj rau ncauj’ (mouth to mouth) — rejected, would sound unnatural/comprehension-poor in Hmong
NEW. Occurs at 1:12. Idiom-substitution decision: uses the natural existing Hmong idiom (‘facing face facing eye’) for direct, in-person communication. Comprehension-level only, not a doctrinal collision.