Core Glossary
3 John — Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package)
This glossary tabulates every load-bearing term surfaced in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entire book of 3 John (1:1-14, its only chapter). Terms already fixed in the Romans baseline TM (assets/translation_memory.json) are marked REUSED (baseline) and their recorded Hmong string is quoted exactly, with no modification. All other terms are marked NEW — pending TM revision per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §2.4, and must not be treated as permanent until a formal TM-revision review occurs.
Reused Baseline Terms (exact TM strings, no modification)
| # | English Term | Greek / Transliteration | Hmong Rendering (baseline TM, verbatim) | Risk Level | Doctrine(s) in 3 John | Verse(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | God | θεός / theos | Vajtswv | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 11 |
| B2 | Lord | κύριος / kyrios | tus Tswv | Low | (implicit, general) | — |
| B3 | Jesus Christ | Ἰησοῦς Χριστός / Iēsous Christos | Yexus Khetos | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers (implicit referent of “the Name”) | 7 |
| B4 | Love | ἀγάπη / agapē; ἀγαπάω / agapaō | kev hlub | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 1, 2, 6, 11 |
| B5 | Truth | ἀλήθεια / alētheia | qhov tseeb | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship; Commendation of Faithful Witness | 1, 3(x2), 4, 8, 12(x2) |
| B6 | Witness | μάρτυς / martys (root); μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία verb-noun forms | tus timkhawv (noun base) | Low | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | 3, 6, 12 |
| B7 | Peace | εἰρήνη / eirēnē | kev thaj yeeb | Low | (closing greeting) | 14 |
| B8 | Faith / Believe (root) | πιστός / pistos (adjectival root shared with pistis/pisteuō) | kev ntseeg / ntseeg (root reused; adjectival sense requires disambiguation, see NEW term N9 below) | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 5 |
| B9 | Nations / Gentiles (contrast term, narrower nuance in 3 John — see N16) | ἔθνη / ethnē (baseline); cf. ἐθνικός / ethnikos (this book) | lwm Haiv Neeg (baseline sense; NOT reused for 3 John’s narrower sense — see N16) | Low (baseline) / Medium (this book’s distinct nuance) | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 7 |
| B10 | Servant/Slave (doulos) — cited for contrast only | δοῦλος / doulos | qhev | High (baseline) | (cited only to clarify N15’s koom tes is NOT the same collision case) | — |
| B11 | Debtor (root, cited for contrast) | ὀφειλέτης / opheiletēs | tus tshuav nqi | Low | (cited only to clarify N12’s ὀφείλω is a related but distinct verb form) | 8 |
| B12 | Hope | ἐλπίς / elpis (root); ἐλπίζω / elpizō (this verse) | kev cia siab | Low | (closing; personal travel-hope, lighter sense than Romans’ eschatological hope) | 14 |
New Terms Surfaced in 3 John (NEW — pending TM revision)
| # | English Term | Greek / Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Candidate Hmong Rendering | Risk Level | Doctrine(s) | Verse(s) | Collision / Comprehension Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N1 | Elder (church office) | πρεσβύτερος / presbyteros | ”older man, elder” | tus kev txwj laus | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 1 | Positive bridge to Hmong clan-elder honor system, but risks defaulting to mere age-based seniority; needs teaching note on apostolic pastoral authority distinct from secular eldership. |
| N2 | Beloved (address) | ἀγαπητός / agapētos | ”dear one” | tus kuv hlub | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 1, 2, 5, 11 | Built on fixed kev hlub; no collision. |
| N3 | Prosper | εὐοδοῦσθαι / euodousthai | ”to have a good/prosperous road” | vam meej / lam lig zoo | High | (general well-being; adjacent to Grace/Salvation doctrine collision domain from baseline) | 2 | Borders the Critical koob hmoov fate/fortune collision already forbidden in the Romans baseline for grace; also borders forbidden prosperity-gospel drift per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §5/§9. Must be taught as personal greeting-wish only, never a doctrinal material-prosperity promise. |
| N4 | Health | ὑγιαίνειν / hygiainein | ”to be sound/healthy” | muaj kev noj qab haus huv | Low | (general well-being) | 2 | No collision. |
| N5 | Soul | ψυχή / psychē | ”soul, inner life” | koj sab hauv ntsws (tentative; distinct from fixed ntsuj plig) | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship (inner spiritual condition) | 2 | Direct collision risk with Hmong animistic multi-soul concept (plig) and hu plig soul-retrieval ritual if rendered with the baseline’s fixed ntsuj plig (reserved for anthropological pneuma); requires a distinct periphrasis and mandatory teaching note. Flagged for human theologian + native speaker review. |
| N6 | Joy / Rejoice | χαίρω, χαρά / chairō, chara | ”I rejoice / joy” | zoo siab | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3, 4 | No collision. |
| N7 | Walk (conduct/live) | περιπατέω / peripateō | ”to walk about” (metaphor: conduct oneself) | ua neej raws li qhov tseeb | Low-Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3, 4 | Comprehension-level metaphor adaptation only. |
| N8 | Children (spiritual) | τέκνα / tekna | ”children” | kuv cov me tub me nyuam (ministry sense, contextually marked) | Low-Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 4 | Comprehension gap only; distinct from baseline adoption_as_sons (God’s adoption of believers). |
| N9 | Faithful (act/deed) | πιστός / pistos (adjectival) | “faithful, trustworthy” | ua ib yam uas ncaj thiab tso siab tau | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 5 | Shares root with baseline faith_believe; must be kept distinct from the justification-faith sense (Romans Doctrine 1, Critical) — describes a trustworthy action, not saving belief. |
| N10 | Brothers (fellow believers) | ἀδελφοί / adelphoi | ”brothers” | cov kwvtij | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3, 5, 10 | kwvtij is structurally clan/blood-kinship language; applying it to non-kin believers (including strangers, v.5) needs a note that gospel-kinship transcends clan boundaries. |
| N11 | Stranger / Guest | ξένος / xenos | ”stranger, foreign guest” | cov qhua txawv teb chaws / cov neeg tsis paub | Medium-High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 5 | Hmong hospitality customs (kev tos qhua) are strongly clan-bounded; hospitality to unrelated outsiders cuts against instinctive kin-based obligation and needs explicit teaching that gospel-hospitality exceeds clan boundaries. |
| N12 | Ought / Obligation | ὀφείλω / opheilō | ”I owe, am obligated” | yuav tsum / tsim nyog | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 8 | Related to but distinct from fixed tus tshuav nqi (debtor noun, B11); verb of moral obligation, not financial debt-holder. |
| N13 | Church (assembly) | ἐκκλησία / ekklēsia | ”called-out assembly” | pawg ntseeg | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 6, 9, 10 | Already used descriptively within the Romans baseline TM (deacon_servant entry); formally promoted to a standalone entry here. Stable, no collision. |
| N14 | Send on one’s way (journey-support) | προπέμπω / propempō | ”to send forward, escort with provision” | xa kev / pab kev mus | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 6 | Comprehension gap: ancient travel-provisioning custom; needs illustrative cultural note distinguishing it from a mere polite farewell. |
| N15 | Fellow worker | συνεργός / synergos | ”co-worker” | koom tes ua haujlwm rau qhov tseeb | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 8 | IMPORTANT: koom tes was rejected in the Romans baseline TM only as a softening substitute for δοῦλος (servant_slave_doulos, B10 above); that rejection does NOT extend to this genuinely distinct Greek word (synergos), for which koom tes is the correct, unproblematic rendering. Recorded to prevent future misapplication of the baseline rejection. |
| N16 | Gentiles / Outsiders (narrow sense: non-believing patrons refused) | ἐθνικός / ethnikos | ”of the nations, pagan” | cov tsis ntseeg Vajtswv | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 7 | Distinct narrower nuance from baseline nations_gentiles (ethnē → lwm Haiv Neeg, a neutral ethnic-contrast term in Romans); here it means specifically unbelieving outsiders whose patronage was refused. Do NOT reuse lwm Haiv Neeg for this sense. |
| N17 | The Name (title for Christ) | ὄνομα / onoma | ”name” (absolute/titular use) | lub npe (ntawm Yexus Khetos) | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 7 | Mandatory qualifier parenthetical at first occurrence. Must NOT be rendered with hu-family ritual soul/spirit-calling vocabulary, per the forbidden substitution already documented in the Romans baseline (12_ai_translation_requirements.md §3.1) for “calling on the name of the Lord.” |
| N18 | Worthily of God | ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ / axiōs tou theou | ”in a manner worthy of God” | raws li tsim nyog rau Vajtswv | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 6 | Must not be flattened into ordinary Hmong hospitality-reciprocity motivation (expectation of future social credit); standard is God’s honor. |
| N19 | Receive / Support (material) | ὑπολαμβάνω / hypolambanō | ”to take up under, support” | txhawb nqa / pab nyiaj txiag rau | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 8 | Must be kept lexically distinct from N20 (epidechomai, “welcome”) so the letter’s two hospitality-verbs are not conflated. |
| N20 | Welcome / Receive (hospitality reception) | ἐπιδέχομαι / epidechomai | ”to receive to oneself” | tos txais | Medium-High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 9, 10 (x2) | The letter’s pivot hospitality-reception verb; its refusal by Diotrephes is the concrete sin being condemned. Must retain full customary welcome-force while staying distinct from N19. |
| N21 | Love to be first / Primacy-seeking | φιλοπρωτεύω / philoprōteuō | ”to love being first/preeminent” | nyiam ua thawj coj tshaj lwm tus | High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 9 | Hmong clan culture assigns strongly positive value to achieving recognized headman/first-rank (thawj coj) status; rendering with ordinary leadership vocabulary risks framing Diotrephes’ sin as mere assertive leadership rather than prideful self-exaltation displacing legitimate authority. Mandatory pejorative-framing teaching note required. |
| N22 | Speak against / Slander | καταλαλέω / katalaleō | ”to talk down against” | hais lus phem tawm tsam | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | No collision. |
| N23 | Hinder / Prevent | κωλύω / kōlyō | ”to hinder, forbid” | thaiv / txwv tsis pub | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | No collision. |
| N24 | Cast out / Expel (church discipline) | ἐκβάλλω / ekballō | ”to throw/cast out” | tsis pub nyob hauv pawg ntseeg (recommended non-exorcism periphrasis) | CRITICAL | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | Direct collision with ntiab dab (shamanic spirit-exorcism verb-family); rendering Diotrephes’ unjust expulsion of believers with ntiab-family vocabulary risks framing it as a legitimate spiritual-cleansing act or blurring church discipline with exorcism cosmology. Highest-risk lexical item in the book; mandatory human theologian review before permanent TM entry. |
| N25 | Imitate | μιμέομαι / mimeomai | ”to mimic, copy, follow the example of” | ua raws li qauv / xyaum ua raws | Low-Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 11 | Comprehension-level; culturally familiar intergenerational-example concept, no collision. |
| N26 | Evil / Do evil | κακόν / κακοποιέω / kakon / kakopoieō | ”evil / to do evil” | kev phem / ua phem | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 11 | No collision; distinct lexical item from baseline unrighteousness/sin_act_and_condition domains. |
| N27 | Good / Do good | ἀγαθόν / ἀγαθοποιέω / agathon / agathopoieō | ”good / to do good” | kev zoo / ua zoo | Low-Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 11 | CAUTION: surface-string overlap with the Romans baseline’s permanently forbidden justification-context substitution (“ua zoo (do good) framing — rejected, reintroduces works-righteousness at 4:5”). Doctrinally correct here (ethics/imitation context, not justification), but requires a footnote distinguishing this use from that forbidden Romans-context substitution whenever taught alongside Romans. |
| N28 | See / Has seen (relational knowing) | ὁράω (perf. ἑώρακεν) / horaō | ”to see; has seen” | tsis tau paub Vajtswv tiag tiag (knowing-verb, not seeing-verb) | Medium-High | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 11 | Risk of collision with shamanic (txiv neeb) trance-vision claims of literally “seeing” spirits; render with a knowing-verb (paub) rather than a literal seeing-verb to preserve the relational-moral sense. |
| N29 | True testimony (composite) | μαρτυρία ἀληθής / martyria alēthēs | ”testimony that is true” | tej lus timkhawv … yog qhov tseeb (built from fixed nouns B6 + B5) | Low | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | 12 | Composite of two already-fixed baseline nouns; no new collision, but doctrinally central — triple-layered testimony (all/truth itself/apostolic “we”) must not be flattened. |
| N30 | Ink and pen | μέλαν καὶ κάλαμος / melan kai kalamos | ”ink and reed-pen” | rau xim thiab xyoob sau ntawv | Low | (epistolary convention) | 13 | Comprehension gap only (ancient writing technology); no doctrinal collision. |
| N31 | Face to face | στόμα πρὸς στόμα / stoma pros stoma | ”mouth to mouth” | ntsib tim ntsej muag (idiomatic; avoid literal mouth-to-mouth calque) | Low-Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 14 | Literal calque risks unintended kissing/intimacy connotation; use standard Hmong face-to-face idiom instead. |
| N32 | Friend | φίλος / philos | ”friend, dear one” | cov phooj ywg | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 14 | Structurally a lesser relational bond than kwvtij (N10) in Hmong kinship-oriented society; needs a note that adelphoi and philoi describe one believing community from two valid angles, not two social tiers. |
| N33 | By name (individualized greeting) | κατ’ ὄνομα / kat’ onoma | ”according to name” | hu lawv lub npe tuaj tuaj | Low | (closing greeting) | 14 | Ordinary, non-cultic use of hu (“call/address”); distinguish in teaching from the cultic hu-collision flagged for N17 (“the Name,” v.7). |
Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference
| Doctrine | Key Terms (by ID) | Overall Risk Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | N9, N10, N11, N12, N14, N15, N16, N17, N18, N19, N20 | High — multiple Medium/High items (N11, N17, N19-20) converge on a single doctrine; clan-bounded Hmong hospitality custom is the dominant comprehension/collision axis. |
| Imitating Good rather than Evil | N25, N26, N27, N28 | Medium-High — N27’s surface-overlap with a forbidden Romans substitution and N28’s shamanic-vision collision are the load-bearing risks. |
| Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | N1, N13, N20, N21, N22, N23, N24 | Critical — driven entirely by N24 (ekballō/cast out, shamanic exorcism collision) and N21 (philoprōteuō, clan-headman-status collision). |
| Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | B6, B5, N29 | Low — fully covered by stable, already-fixed baseline terms; no new collision. |
| Truth and Christian Fellowship | B4, B5, N5, N6, N7, N8, N10, N31, N32 | High — driven by N5 (psychē, animistic multi-soul collision); otherwise largely comprehension-level. |
Escalation Summary
Per analysis/12_ai_translation_requirements.md §9, the following terms are flagged for mandatory human theologian review before any permanent TM entry is set: N24 (ekballō — Critical, exorcism-vocabulary collision), N3 (euodousthai — High, prosperity/fate collision), N5 (psychē — High, animistic multi-soul collision), N21 (philoprōteuō — High, clan-headman-status collision). All remaining NEW terms require at minimum native-speaker review before curriculum publication, per the same escalation table’s Medium-risk routing rule.
Critical Risk Terms
Cast Out Expel
Approved rendering: tsis pub nyob hauv pawg ntseeg
Transliteration: ekballō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: ntiab / ntiab tawm hauv pawg ntseeg (the ntiab verb-family, core verb of shamanic exorcism, ntiab dab, ‘drive out a spirit’) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN; would frame Diotrephes’ unjust ecclesial expulsion of believers as either a legitimate spiritual-cleansing rite or a case of literal demonic affliction, inverting the text’s condemnation of Diotrephes
NEW ENTRY — the single highest-risk lexical item in 3 John (1:10). The most natural Hmong verb-family for forceful expulsion (ntiab) is identical to shamanic exorcism vocabulary; this periphrasis (‘not allow to remain within the church’) sidesteps that root entirely. Full lexical avoidance, not qualifier-fencing, is the required strategy. MANDATORY human theologian review before any use; no automated or native-speaker-only bypass permitted.
High Risk Terms
Servant Slave Doulos
Approved rendering: qhev
Transliteration: doulos
Doctrine: General / Ecclesial Office (Romans)
Rejected alternatives: koom tes (co-worker/partner) — rejected softening found in some pulpit paraphrases, erases total-surrender force
Strong residual connotation of literal chattel/debt slavery in Hmong social memory. Inherited from Romans package, cited here ONLY for contrast: 3 John 1:8’s synergos (‘fellow worker’) is a genuinely distinct Greek word for which ‘koom tes’ IS the doctrinally correct rendering (see new entry ‘fellow_worker’ below). This entry’s rejection of ‘koom tes’ is scoped narrowly to doulos and must never be misapplied to block ‘koom tes’ as a rendering of synergos in 3 John.
Human Spirit Soul
Approved rendering: ntsuj plig
Transliteration: pneuma (anthropological)
Doctrine: Sanctification and Life in the Spirit (Romans)
Rejected alternatives: Vaj Ntsuj Plig — forbidden for this referent, reserved exclusively for the Holy Spirit
Inherited from Romans package, cited here ONLY for contrast and disambiguation. 3 John 1:2’s psychē (‘your soul prospers’) is a THIRD, distinct Greek word (neither pneuma nor Holy Spirit) and must NOT be rendered with this already-doubly-occupied Hmong term (anthropological pneuma / Holy Spirit); see new entry ‘soul_psyche’ below, which uses a wholly separate periphrasis. This entry is retained in the 3 John package specifically to document why that avoidance was necessary.
Prosper
Approved rendering: vam meej / lam lig zoo
Transliteration: euodousthai
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: koob hmoov (fortune/blessing tied to fate and ritual correctness) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN per the Romans baseline’s grace entry; must never be used for this outcome-word, any dynamis/health-and-wealth-adjacent framing — rejected as prosperity-gospel drift per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §5/§9 (Romans baseline)
NEW ENTRY — 1:2’s epistolary greeting-wish (‘I pray that you may prosper’). Directly borders the Critical-tier koob hmoov fate/fortune collision already forbidden in the Romans baseline for grace, and borders forbidden prosperity-gospel vocabulary drift. Must be taught explicitly as a personal epistolary greeting-wish, never a doctrinal material-prosperity promise. Mandatory human theologian review before permanent TM entry.
Soul Psyche
Approved rendering: koj sab hauv ntsws
Transliteration: psychē
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: ntsuj plig (the fixed baseline term for anthropological pneuma / reserved for Holy Spirit) — rejected, would introduce a THIRD competing referent onto an already-doubly-occupied term and risks the Hmong multi-soul animistic framework (plig, hu plig soul-retrieval ritual)
NEW ENTRY — 1:2, ‘your soul prospers.’ GROUNDED HIGH RISK: if rendered with the fixed ntsuj plig, this risks being heard as a claim that Gaius’ wandering soul has not been lost/stolen by spirits, rather than John’s intended inner spiritual-moral well-being. Distinct periphrasis mandated; requires a mandatory first-occurrence teaching note distinguishing it from hu plig ritual soul-retrieval. Flagged for mandatory human theologian + native speaker review before this becomes a permanent TM entry.
Stranger Guest
Approved rendering: cov qhua txawv teb chaws / cov neeg tsis paub
Transliteration: xenos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: treating xenos as functionally equivalent to kwvtij/adelphoi — rejected, erases the letter’s specific point that hospitality is commended precisely because it crosses clan/kinship boundaries
NEW ENTRY — GROUNDED HIGH RISK: Hmong hospitality customs (kev tos qhua) are structurally clan/kinship-bounded; an unrelated itinerant stranger sits outside the instinctive obligation-circle. Rendering without an explicit teaching note under-motivates the letter’s central point that gospel-hospitality is owed to those with no clan claim on the host. Native-speaker review minimum, escalate to theologian if ambiguity about scope of obligation persists.
Welcome Receive Hospitality
Approved rendering: tos txais
Transliteration: epidechomai
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: a softened/weakened welcome-verb that loses customary Hmong hospitality-welcome force — rejected, the refusal must read as a real social/spiritual violation
NEW ENTRY — GROUNDED HIGH RISK: the letter’s central hospitality-reception verb (1:9, 1:10 x2); Diotrephes’ refusal to ‘receive’ the elder and the brothers is the concrete sinful act condemned. Must retain full customary Hmong welcome-force while staying lexically distinct from ‘receive_support_material’ above (personal reception vs. material support).
Love To Be First
Approved rendering: nyiam ua thawj coj tshaj lwm tus
Transliteration: philoprōteuō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: ordinary/neutral leadership vocabulary with no pejorative framing — rejected, risks framing Diotrephes’ sin as merely being an assertive, effective leader rather than prideful self-exaltation
NEW ENTRY — GROUNDED HIGH RISK: 1:9. Hmong clan culture assigns strongly POSITIVE value to attaining recognized headman/first-rank (thawj coj) status; the word for the status Diotrephes wrongly craves is the same word used for legitimate clan leadership — an unavoidable lexical overlap resolved by mandatory pejorative-framing teaching note, not lexical substitution. Flagged for mandatory human theologian review.
Has Not Seen God
Approved rendering: tsis tau paub Vajtswv tiag tiag
Transliteration: horaō (perf. heōraken)
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: pom / tsom (literal seeing-verbs) — rejected, risks evoking shamanic (txiv neeb) trance-vision claims of literally ‘seeing’ spirits as a marker of legitimate spiritual authority
NEW ENTRY — 1:11, ‘has not seen God’ as a relational-knowledge idiom, not literal ocular vision. GROUNDED HIGH RISK: rendered with the knowing-verb ‘paub’ rather than a seeing-verb, with a mandatory teaching note distinguishing this from visionary/trance claims. Native-speaker review minimum, escalate to theologian if ambiguity persists.
Medium Risk Terms
Faith Believe
Approved rendering: kev ntseeg / ntseeg
Transliteration: pistis / pisteuō
Doctrine: Justification by Faith (Romans); root shared with Hospitality to Traveling Ministers (3 John)
Inherited from Romans package. In 3 John, the adjectival cognate pistos (v.5, ‘you do a faithful thing’) shares this root but describes a trustworthy ACT, not saving belief; the two senses must be kept doctrinally distinct — see the new entry ‘faithful_deed’ below, which must never be conflated with this saving-faith entry in teaching.
Elder Office
Approved rendering: tus kev txwj laus
Transliteration: presbyteros
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: bare secular ‘txwj laus’ with no office-marking — rejected, would collapse apostolic pastoral authority into mere age-based seniority
NEW ENTRY — the letter’s self-designated author-title (1:1), carrying pastoral/teaching authority, contrasted with Diotrephes’ illegitimate self-exaltation (1:9). Positively bridges to the Hmong clan-elder honor system but requires a teaching note distinguishing apostolic office from ordinary seniority-by-age. Medium risk; native-speaker review minimum.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: ua neej raws li qhov tseeb
Transliteration: peripateō
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
NEW ENTRY — metaphorical ‘walk’ for habitual conduct of life (1:3, 1:4). The walking-metaphor is not native Hmong idiom in the same form as Greek/Hebrew, but transfers by paraphrase without collision; comprehension-level risk only.
Children Spiritual
Approved rendering: kuv cov me tub me nyuam
Transliteration: tekna
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
NEW ENTRY — 1:4, those the elder discipled. Comprehension gap only; must be kept distinct from the Romans baseline’s adoption_as_sons entry (God’s adoption of believers), which concerns a different referent (human minister’s disciples vs. divine sonship).
Faithful Deed
Approved rendering: ua ib yam uas ncaj thiab tso siab tau
Transliteration: pistos (adjectival)
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
NEW ENTRY — 1:5, describing the trustworthy character of Gaius’ hospitality act. Shares a root with the baseline faith_believe entry but must be kept doctrinally distinct in teaching, since this describes a trustworthy ACT, not the saving faith by which one is justified (Romans Doctrine 1, Critical tier). Mandatory cross-book footnote wherever both books are taught together.
Brothers Fellow Believers
Approved rendering: cov kwvtij
Transliteration: adelphos / adelphoi
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship
NEW ENTRY — fellow believers, specifically the itinerant gospel-workers hosted by Gaius (1:3, 1:5, 1:10). Kwvtij is structurally blood/clan-kinship vocabulary; applying it to non-kin believers (including strangers, v.5) requires a mandatory teaching note that gospel-kwvtij-hood transcends clan boundaries. Must be taught alongside ‘stranger_guest’ and ‘friend’ entries below as three overlapping relational categories, not a social hierarchy.
Send On Ones Way
Approved rendering: xa kev / pab kev mus
Transliteration: propempō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
NEW ENTRY — 1:6, the ancient practice of equipping and escorting a departing traveler with material provision. Real Hmong-culture analogue exists (provisioning a departing guest for the road) but requires an illustrative cultural note to convey material sponsorship of gospel work, not merely a polite farewell.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: koom tes ua haujlwm rau qhov tseeb
Transliteration: synergos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
NEW ENTRY — 1:8, hosts of traveling ministers become ‘fellow workers with the truth.’ IMPORTANT DISAMBIGUATION: ‘koom tes’ was rejected in the Romans baseline TM only as a softening substitute for doulos (servant_slave_doulos entry); that rejection is scoped narrowly to doulos and does NOT extend to this genuinely distinct Greek word (synergos), for which ‘koom tes’ is the doctrinally correct, unproblematic rendering. Recorded to prevent future misapplication of the baseline rejection to this unrelated term.
Gentiles Outsiders Narrow
Approved rendering: cov tsis ntseeg Vajtswv
Transliteration: ethnikos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: lwm Haiv Neeg (the Romans baseline’s neutral ethnē rendering) — rejected for this narrower, more pejorative sense; must not be reused here
NEW ENTRY — 1:7, non-Christian outsiders from whom the missionaries deliberately refused material support to remain unbeholden. Narrower and more pejorative than the Romans baseline’s nations_gentiles entry; the two senses must be kept lexically separated at every occurrence, with a cross-reference footnote recommended for curricula teaching both books.
The Name Title
Approved rendering: lub npe (ntawm Yexus Khetos)
Transliteration: onoma
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: hu-family ritual soul/spirit-calling vocabulary applied to invoking ‘the Name’ — FORBIDDEN, inherits the identical forbidden-substitution rule already documented in the Romans baseline for ‘calling on the name of the Lord’ (10:9-13)
NEW ENTRY — 1:7’s absolute/titular ‘the Name’ as shorthand for Jesus Christ. Mandatory qualifier parenthetical required at first occurrence, mirroring the Romans baseline’s mandatory-qualifier structural pattern for Txoj Kevcai. Must never be rendered with hu-family ritual-invocation vocabulary.
Receive Support Material
Approved rendering: txhawb nqa / pab nyiaj txiag rau
Transliteration: hypolambanō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
NEW ENTRY — 1:8, financial/material hospitality-support for gospel workers. Must be kept lexically distinct from ‘welcome_receive_hospitality’ (epidechomai) below so the letter’s two hospitality-verbs (personal reception vs. material support) are not flattened into one.
Imitate
Approved rendering: ua raws li qauv / xyaum ua raws
Transliteration: mimeomai
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
NEW ENTRY — 1:11, doctrinal center of ‘Imitating Good rather than Evil.’ Comprehension-level only; the concept of following an elder’s/role-model’s pattern of conduct is culturally familiar in Hmong intergenerational teaching, no collision.
Good Do Good
Approved rendering: kev zoo / ua zoo
Transliteration: agathon / agathopoieō
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
NEW ENTRY — 1:11, the positive pole of the imitation-exhortation, exemplified by Gaius and Demetrius. CAUTION (cross-book surface collision, NOT a traditional-religion collision): this exact string surface-overlaps with the Romans baseline’s permanently forbidden justification-context substitution (‘“ua zoo” (do good) framing — rejected, reintroduces works-righteousness at 4:5’, justify_reckon_as_righteous entry). This 3 John usage is doctrinally CORRECT (sanctification/imitation ethics, not justification) — the Hmong string itself must NOT be altered, but a mandatory footnote distinguishing the two contexts is required wherever this verse is taught alongside Romans.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: ntsib tim ntsej muag
Transliteration: stoma pros stoma
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: ncauj tim ncauj (literal ‘mouth to mouth’ calque) — rejected, risks an unintended kissing/intimacy connotation absent from the Hebraic idiom’s intent
NEW ENTRY — 1:14, Hebraic idiom for direct, unmediated, in-person communication. Standard Hmong face-to-face idiom substituted to preserve intended sense without the calque’s side-effect.
Friend
Approved rendering: cov phooj ywg
Transliteration: philos
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: treating philos as a lower-ranked social tier relative to kwvtij/adelphoi — rejected, the letter uses adelphoi and philoi as two valid descriptive angles on one believing community, not two ranked tiers
NEW ENTRY — 1:14 closing greeting, a relational category distinct from adelphos (used in vv.3-10). Hmong social structure is heavily kinship/clan-oriented; phooj ywg denotes a real but structurally lesser bond than kwvtij. Requires a teaching note reconciling the two terms as complementary, not hierarchical.
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
Established compound (king+lord). Inherited from Romans package. Reused unchanged in 3 John 1:11 (‘the one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God’) — the letter’s only direct occurrence of the term.
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: kyrios
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Stable existing usage; applied to God and Christ. Inherited from Romans package. No direct occurrence of kyrios in 3 John’s Greek text, but this fixed rendering underlies the implicit referent of ‘the Name’ (v.7) and must be reused should any curriculum content gloss that referent explicitly.
Jesus Christ
Approved rendering: Yexus Khetos
Transliteration: Iēsous Christos
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Standard transliteration baseline. Inherited from Romans package. Not named directly in 3 John’s Greek text but is the mandatory referent supplied by the qualifier parenthetical for ‘the Name’ (v.7, see the_name_title entry below).
Love
Approved rendering: kev hlub
Transliteration: agapē / agapaō
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Inherited from Romans package (there tagged as a Romans-package NEW ENTRY surfaced in full-book coverage of Romans ch.5, 8, 12, 13; now further inherited into the 3 John package). Reused exactly in 3 John 1:1 (‘whom I love in truth’), 1:2 (‘Beloved’), 1:6 (‘testified of your love before the church’), 1:11. No collision identified.
Truth
Approved rendering: qhov tseeb
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Stable term. Inherited from Romans package. This is 3 John’s dominant theme-word (7 occurrences: 1:1, 1:3 x2, 1:4, 1:8, 1:12 x2); every occurrence across the letter must reuse this identical fixed string with zero stylistic variation.
Witness
Approved rendering: tus timkhawv
Transliteration: martys
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Stable existing legal/testimonial term. Inherited from Romans package. In 3 John this noun-root is extended (per 08_core_glossary.md B6/registry #33) to verb form ‘ua timkhawv rau’ (testify) and abstract-noun form ‘tej lus timkhawv’ (testimony), used at 1:3, 1:6, and centrally at 1:12 for Demetrius’ triple-layered testimony (Commendation of Faithful Witness doctrine). All derived forms must build consistently from this fixed noun.
Peace
Approved rendering: kev thaj yeeb
Transliteration: eirēnē
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Stable, positive term. Inherited from Romans package. Reused unchanged in 3 John’s closing benediction (1:14).
Nations Gentiles
Approved rendering: lwm Haiv Neeg
Transliteration: ethnē
Doctrine: The Future of Israel (Romans)
Clear contrastive term to ‘cov Yudas’. Inherited from Romans package. IMPORTANT: this baseline sense is NOT reused for 3 John 1:7’s narrower, distinct term ethnikos (‘outsiders/non-believers from whom the missionaries refused patronage’) — that sense uses the new entry ‘gentiles_outsiders_narrow’ below. This entry is retained in the 3 John TM only for cross-reference/contrast purposes; it must not be applied to 3 John 1:7.
Debtor
Approved rendering: tus tshuav nqi
Transliteration: opheiletēs
Doctrine: The Gospel as the Power of God for Salvation (Romans)
Concrete debt-idiom. Inherited from Romans package, cited here for contrast: 3 John 1:8’s opheilō (‘we ought’) shares this root but functions as a verb of moral obligation, not a financial-debt noun — see new entry ‘ought_obligation’ below, kept lexically distinct from this noun.
Hope
Approved rendering: kev cia siab
Transliteration: elpis / elpizō
Doctrine: Sanctification and Life in the Spirit (Romans); Truth and Christian Fellowship (3 John, lighter epistolary sense)
Inherited from Romans package. Reused in 3 John 1:14 (‘I hope to see you soon’) for the elder’s personal travel-hope — a lighter, everyday sense than Romans’ theologically loaded eschatological hope, but the same fixed Hmong term applies without alteration; no collision.
Beloved Address
Approved rendering: tus kuv hlub
Transliteration: agapētos
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
NEW ENTRY — affectionate address to Gaius, repeated at 1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 1:11. Built directly on the fixed baseline noun ‘kev hlub’ (love). No collision.
Health
Approved rendering: muaj kev noj qab haus huv
Transliteration: hygiainein
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
NEW ENTRY — 1:2 epistolary health-wish. Ordinary health idiom; no collision.
Joy Rejoice
Approved rendering: zoo siab
Transliteration: chairō / chara
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
NEW ENTRY — 1:3-4, the elder’s joy at Gaius’ and his spiritual children’s truth-walk. Stable everyday/liturgical term; no collision.
Ought Obligation
Approved rendering: yuav tsum / tsim nyog
Transliteration: opheilō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
NEW ENTRY — 1:8, moral obligation to support gospel-workers. Related to but kept lexically distinct from the baseline debtor noun (tus tshuav nqi); this is a verb of moral obligation, not a financial-debt noun. Comprehension-level distinction only.
Church Assembly
Approved rendering: pawg ntseeg
Transliteration: ekklēsia
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
NEW ENTRY — the local congregation (1:6, 1:9, 1:10) over which Diotrephes wrongly asserts control. Already used descriptively within the Romans baseline TM (deacon_servant entry: ‘tu pawg ntseeg’); formally promoted here to its own standalone entry since the Diotrephes narrative turns on control over ‘the church’. Stable, no collision.
Worthily Of God
Approved rendering: raws li tsim nyog rau Vajtswv
Transliteration: axiōs tou theou
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: framing tied to expectation of future social credit/return-hosting — rejected, flattens the standard from God’s honor to clan-reciprocity logic
NEW ENTRY — 1:6, the manner-standard for hospitality: God’s honor, not social reciprocity. Lexically low-risk but doctrinally load-bearing; must not be flattened into ordinary Hmong hospitality-reciprocity motivation.
Speak Against Slander
Approved rendering: hais lus phem tawm tsam
Transliteration: katalaleō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
NEW ENTRY — 1:10, Diotrephes speaking maliciously against the elder. Comprehension-level only; no collision.
Hinder Prevent
Approved rendering: thaiv / txwv tsis pub
Transliteration: kōlyō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
NEW ENTRY — 1:10, Diotrephes forbidding others who wished to receive the traveling brothers. Comprehension-level only; no collision.
Evil Do Evil
Approved rendering: kev phem / ua phem
Transliteration: kakon / kakopoieō
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
NEW ENTRY — 1:11, the negative pole of the imitation-exhortation, exemplified narratively by Diotrephes. Related in domain to, but a distinct lexical item from, the Romans baseline entries unrighteousness and sin_act_and_condition; no collision.
True Testimony Composite
Approved rendering: tej lus timkhawv … yog qhov tseeb
Transliteration: martyria alēthēs
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
NEW ENTRY — 1:12, the triple-layered testimony to Demetrius (by all, by the truth itself, and by the apostolic ‘we’). Composite of two already-fixed baseline nouns (tus timkhawv / qhov tseeb); no new lexical collision, but doctrinally central — the three-fold layering must not be flattened into a single generic compliment.
Ink And Pen
Approved rendering: rau xim thiab xyoob sau ntawv
Transliteration: melan kai kalamos
Doctrine: General / Epistolary Convention
Rejected alternatives: transliterated loanword for the writing implements — rejected, doctrinally inert and comprehension-opaque
NEW ENTRY — 1:13, concrete ancient writing-implement pair, idiom for ‘a written letter’ vs. an in-person visit. Comprehension gap only (unfamiliar ancient technology); no doctrinal collision. Brief explanatory footnote recommended.
By Name Greeting
Approved rendering: hu lawv lub npe tuaj tuaj
Transliteration: kat’ onoma
Doctrine: General / Epistolary Convention
NEW ENTRY — 1:14, individualized closing greeting. Ordinary, non-cultic use of ‘hu’ (‘call/address’); distinguish in teaching from the cultic-collision-flagged ‘hu’-family vocabulary forbidden for ‘the_name_title’ entry (v.7).
Proper Name Gaius
Approved rendering: Kaiu
Transliteration: Gaios
Doctrine: General / Proper Name
Rejected alternatives: descriptive paraphrase in place of the proper name — rejected, proper names must be transliterated, never paraphrased
NEW ENTRY — the letter’s addressee. Tentative transliteration pending verification against the existing Hmong Bible (HWB) tradition’s established spelling. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm exact HWB spelling for ‘Gaius’ before treating as a permanent TM entry.]
Proper Name Diotrephes
Approved rendering: Ntiautefes
Transliteration: Diotrephēs
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: a descriptive pejorative label (‘the proud one’, etc.) in place of the proper name — rejected, this would cross from translation into editorializing and must not be done regardless of the individual’s negative narrative role
NEW ENTRY — the letter’s antagonist. Tentative transliteration pending verification. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm exact HWB spelling for ‘Diotrephes’ before treating as a permanent TM entry.]
Proper Name Demetrius
Approved rendering: Nteme Trius
Transliteration: Dēmētrios
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
NEW ENTRY — the letter’s commended positive exemplar. Tentative transliteration pending verification. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm exact HWB spelling for ‘Demetrius’ before treating as a permanent TM entry.]