Titus (Hmong) — Phase 1 Executive Summary

Why it matters

Titus packs seven Critical/High-risk doctrines into just 46 verses — a far denser doctrinal-risk ratio than Romans. The core passage (Titus 2:11–3:8) alone contains the letter’s single most hazardous clause (3:5), where three independent collision points — soul-reincarnation, ritual-purification, and the divine-Spirit marker — converge in one sentence, alongside the sharpest works-exclusion statement in either letter. Every one of the seven assigned doctrines requires mandatory human theologian review before any Phase 2 content ships. This Language Package extends, and does not alter, any Critical/High Romans-baseline term.

Key findings

• New highest-priority collision in the whole pipeline: παλιγγενεσία (“regeneration/new birth,” Titus 3:5) risks being heard through Hmong belief that an ancestor’s soul-portion is reborn in a descendant — more severe than any single Romans collision, including grace/koob hmoov.
• A second severe, novel collision: γενεαλογίαι (“genealogies,” 3:9) collides with keeb kwm xeem, the centrally-valued Hmong clan-genealogy tradition — the opposite failure mode from most collisions, since the competing practice is positively valued, not merely different.
• A new Christological escalation tier: σωτήρ (“Savior”) is applied identically to Father and Son six times — the same review tier as Romans 9:5, but now a six-fold consistency requirement rather than a single verse.
• A genuine lexical gap, not a collision: grace as the active, personifying “trainer” of godliness (2:12, paideuousa) has no vetted Hmong verb yet — flagged for urgent TM-revision.
• A wordplay that cannot be lexically fixed: “works” (erga) is used for both salvation’s excluded ground (3:5) and its commanded fruit (six other places) with the identical Hmong phrase, mirroring the Romans flesh/sarx discipline but with zero lexical escape valve.
• A new script-level risk: in unaccented RPA, “master” (human slave-owner, 2:9) is orthographically identical to “Lord” (the divine title) unless the qualifier qhev is always appended.
• A social over-reinforcement risk, not under-comprehension: submission vocabulary (2:5, 2:9, 3:1) risks being received as blanket endorsement of Hmong culture’s already-strong hierarchical norms rather than Paul’s gospel-bounded, qualified submission.

Risks

Category	Count
Doctrines requiring mandatory human theologian review	7 of 7 (4 Critical, 3 High) — zero Medium/Low doctrines, matching the Romans baseline’s pattern
Critical-tier terms (new + inherited relevant)	~12 (incl. Savior title, regeneration, Spirit-renewal, sound doctrine, works-excluded-ground, works-commanded-fruit, grace, holy_spirit, righteousness, justify/reckon, election, law)
High-tier terms (new + inherited relevant)	~17 (incl. godliness, submit, elder/overseer, husband-of-one-wife, master-of-slave, myths, foolish controversies, genealogies, washing, servant/slave, power, salvation, wrath, governing authority, people-for-God’s-possession, saving-adjective)
Combined Critical + High terms requiring theologian oversight	~29
Single most hazardous verse in the book	Titus 3:5 — requires BOTH theologian and native-speaker sign-off before any Phase 2 use

Opportunities

• The Romans baseline’s enforcement architecture (fixed TM strings, mandatory qualifiers, forbidden-substitution tables, escalation routing) transfers cleanly to Titus with zero contradiction — no re-architecture needed, only extension.
• Several Titus collisions have strong positive cultural bridges available (heir/inheritance, clan-adoption-style “people for God’s possession” once ethnic-narrowing is fenced, domestic role language for “keepers at home”) that can be leveraged pedagogically once properly scoped.
• The letter’s short length makes it an efficient pilot for testing the highest-severity escalation workflow (theologian + native-speaker joint review) before applying it to longer future books.
• The σώφρων-family and pistos ho logos formula recur in 1–2 Timothy; solving them once here yields a reusable cross-Pastoral-Epistles rendering standard.

Recommended actions

1. Prioritize TM-revision review, in order: (1) regeneration/3:5, (2) Savior-title six-fold consistency, (3) works/works wordplay teaching-note discipline, (4) the grace-as-trainer lexical gap (2:12) — before any Phase 2 lesson drafting begins.
2. Route Titus 3:5 through the dual theologian + native-speaker gate as a standing rule, not a case-by-case decision.
3. Draft a dedicated “genealogies” scoping note (3:9) in consultation with Hmong cultural informants before this passage reaches any curriculum module, given the acute risk of alienating hearers or being dismissed as inapplicable.
4. Confirm provisional proper-name transliterations (Titau, Kelej/cov Kalej, Xenas, Apoloj, Nikaupauliv) against the published Vaj Lug Kub Npaiv Npaum (HWB) text before Phase 2 lock.
5. Carry the Romans YouVersion ID (1663) forward for Titus (book code TIT), subject to the same live-verification caveat already logged in the Romans baseline.