Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis — Acts 1–28 (English → Hungarian)
Purpose and Method
This analysis identifies where Hungarian’s existing theological vocabulary (as fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json) is sufficient for the Acts curriculum, where Acts introduces genuinely new vocabulary needs, and where a single Hungarian word is forced to cover multiple distinct source-text concepts (“crowded semantic neighborhoods”) that require explicit fencing in teaching notes to prevent doctrinal conflation. It also records transliteration-versus-paraphrase decisions for proper nouns and technical terms new to this curriculum, and ranks the highest-risk ambiguities Phase 2 translators and reviewers will encounter.
This analysis governs and must remain consistent with analysis/08_core_glossary.md and the Acts-specific entries already recorded in assets/bible_term_registry.json. Where a conflict is found, the risk tier and Hungarian rendering fixed in those two documents control; this document explains the reasoning behind them and extends the coverage sweep across every chapter of Acts, including chapters that surface no new terms.
All doctrine names, risk tiers, and citation conventions follow the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json exactly. This document does not re-litigate any baseline Romans term; it addresses only what Acts adds or complicates.
Part A — Full-Book Chapter Coverage Sweep (Acts 1–28)
Per the full-book coverage mandate, every chapter of Acts has been reviewed. Chapters contributing no new load-bearing vocabulary beyond what is already fixed are marked explicitly as reviewed with no new gap.
| Ch. | Key terms / doctrine touched | Gap status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | apostol, Szentlélek, Isten országa, tanúk, felvitetett/mennybemenetel, kiválasztás (Judas’ replacement, 1:24-26) | New gap: ascension (no baseline equivalent); witnesses introduced programmatically (1:8). |
| 2 | pünkösd, megtelt(ek) Szentlélekkel, más nyelveken, Szentlélek ajándéka, megtérés, keresztség, bűnök bocsánata, elhívás, ígéret/szövetség, Isten elhatározott terve (2:23), Messiás, Úr, Dávid | Core passage. Highest concentration of new Critical-risk terms in the whole book. |
| 3 | próféta, Messiás, megtérés (3:19), igazság (contextual) | Reviewed; reinforces ch. 2 terms, no new gap. |
| 4 | bátorság (4:13, 4:29, 4:31), főtanács, Isten ereje, közösen volt mindenük (4:32) | New gap: boldness/parrēsia; Sanhedrin; sharing of possessions introduced. |
| 5 | egyház (5:11 — first ekklēsia use), angyal, hazugság a Szentlélek ellen (Ananias/Sapphira — flagged for teaching, no new term) | Reviewed; “egyház” first occurrence confirmed consistent with baseline. |
| 6 | diakónus/szolgálat, kézrátétel (6:6), hellenisták, hitből fakadó engedelmesség (6:7), tanúk→ shift begins | New gap: deacon/service, laying on of hands, Hellenists. |
| 7 | Emberfia (7:56), dicsőség (7:55), vértanú (7:58-60), közbenjárás (7:59-60, prayer to Christ) | New gap: Son of Man; martyr (semantic split from “tanú”) introduced at Stephen’s death. |
| 8 | az Út (implicit precursor), szamaritánusok, mágia/mágus (Simon), eunuch, keresztség (Philip/eunuch, 8:36-38) | New gap: Samaritans, magician/sorcery, eunuch; reinforces baptism narrative pattern. |
| 9 | az Út (9:2, first explicit occurrence), látomás, kiválasztott eszköz (9:15, vocational election), megtérés/Saul’s conversion | New gap: “The Way” as proper self-designation; vocational vs soteriological election distinction opens here. |
| 10 | istenfélő (God-fearer, technical sense), közönséges/tisztátalan, Isten nem személyválasztó, más nyelveken (10:46), Szentlélek ajándéka | New gap cluster: the Cornelius narrative is the single densest concentration of Justification-apart-from-the-Law and Gospel-to-Gentiles vocabulary outside ch. 2 and ch. 15. |
| 11 | egyház (8:1, 11:26 confirmed), keresztények (11:26, first occurrence), buzdítani | New gap: “Christians” as a name. |
| 12 | dicsőség (12:23, negatively — Herod), angyal | Reviewed; no new gap. |
| 13 | Messiás (9:22, 13:x), megigazulás (13:38-39, decisive justification statement), kiválasztás (13:48, soteriological), mágia (Elymas), csodák és jelek | Second core-adjacent passage. New gap: 13:38-39 fixes “megigazulás” verbatim-consistent with Romans; 13:48 is flagged as the sharpest Calvinist-resonant single clause outside Romans 9. |
| 14 | vének/presbiterek (14:23, first occurrence), Isten országa | Reviewed; “elders” term-family opens here, carried forward. |
| 15 | törvény, körülmetélkedés, iga, kegyelem (15:11), az apostoli határozat, bálványok | Jerusalem Council — doctrinal hinge of Justification apart from the Law. Highest-density legal/covenantal vocabulary cluster after ch. 2. |
| 16 | háza népe megkeresztelkedett (16:15, 16:33), üdvösség (16:30-31), hit (16:31), látomás (16:9-10), bátorság | New gap: household baptism — cited by both paedobaptist and credobaptist readings. |
| 17 | Areopágosz, bálványok, ismeretlen isten, feltámadás (general, philosophical objection) | New gap: Areopagus, unknown god — model for engaging religious plurality. |
| 18 | Messiás (18:5, 18:28), közösség | Reviewed; reinforces existing terms. |
| 19 | más nyelveken (19:6), Artemisz, az Út (19:9, 19:23) | Reviewed; reinforces tongues/Way terms with new proper noun Artemis. |
| 20 | vének/presbiterek, püspökök/felügyelők (20:17, 20:28 — same referents, two titles), kenyér megtörése (20:7, 20:11) | Single highest polity-risk verse-pair in Acts (20:17/28); breaking of bread reinforced. |
| 21 | fogadalom (21:23-24), törvény | New gap: vow (Nazirite-type) — Paul’s own law-observant accommodation, distinguished from a salvation-condition. |
| 22 | tanúk, az Út (22:4) | Reviewed; no new gap. |
| 23 | a halottak feltámadása (23:6-8, general resurrection vs. Christ’s resurrection), főtanács | New gap: general resurrection as distinct referent from “feltámadás” (Christ’s resurrection). |
| 24 | igazság (24:25, broader ethical sense), a halottak feltámadása (24:15, 24:21), az Út (24:14, 24:22) | Reviewed; confirms righteousness’ contextual breadth flagged in glossary. |
| 25 | (procedural/legal narrative) | Reviewed; no new theological term. |
| 26 | megtérés, bűnök bocsánata, szent/szentek (26:18, “inheritance among the sanctified”), a halottak feltámadása (26:8), látomás (26:19) | Reviewed; consolidates repentance/forgiveness/sanctification cluster, no new term. |
| 27 | Isten elhatározott terve / gondviselés (27:23-24, lower-stakes physical-deliverance sense), hálaadás (27:35 — ordinary meal, non-ecclesial) | Reviewed; confirms the providence term’s lower High-risk tier in this narrower context, and confirms “hálaadás” must stay distinguished from “kenyér megtörése.” |
| 28 | Isten országa, akadálytalanul (28:31, closing word) | New gap: unhindered — deliberately open-ended closing term, to be tied back to 1:8 and ch. 2. |
Conclusion of sweep: No chapter of Acts is silently omitted. Chapters 3, 5, 12, 14, 18, 19, 22, 24, 25, 26 introduce no new Critical/High-risk vocabulary beyond what is fixed elsewhere and are recorded above as reviewed. All other chapters contribute at least one term addressed in Parts B–D below.
Part B — Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each doctrine named in the curriculum parameters, this matrix records the available Hungarian term(s), their specific weaknesses for this curriculum, and the recommended handling strategy. Risk tiers match assets/bible_term_registry.json and analysis/08_core_glossary.md.
| Doctrine | Available Hungarian term(s) | Weakness(es) for Acts | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Szentlélek (Critical, reused); pünkösd (High, NEW); megtelt(ek) Szentlélekkel (Critical, NEW); a Szentlélek ajándéka (Critical, NEW); más nyelveken (High, NEW) | “Pünkösd” carries a heavy non-biblical Hungarian folk-festival layer (pünkösdölés, király-járás, pünkösdi rózsa) that risks folklorizing the event; “megtelt Szentlélekkel” is read as unrepeatable-foundational by mainline Catholic/Reformed readers but as normatively repeatable by Hungary’s charismatic-Pentecostal movement (Hit Gyülekezete and classical Pentecostal bodies); “nyelvek” collapses Acts 2’s intelligible-language miracle with later technical glossolalia. | Render Luke’s own narrative claims plainly at each occurrence; attach a standing teaching note at first occurrence of each term distinguishing (a) the biblical salvation-historical event from folk custom, (b) the foundational Pentecost filling from later repeated fillings, without adjudicating the charismatic-cessationist question, and (c) known-language miracle from ecstatic-tongues usage. |
| The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | evangélium (High, reused); pogányok / nemzetek (Medium, reused); Isten nem személyválasztó (High, NEW); istenfélő (Medium, NEW); szamaritánusok (Medium, NEW) | “Pogányok” over-carries a “pagan” charge where the neutral “nations” sense is meant; “istenfélő” is reused for two distinct referents (devout Jew, 2:5, vs. Gentile sympathizer, 10:2, 13:16) with no separate Hungarian lexeme available. | Apply the baseline’s existing pogányok/nemzetek split consistently; add a disambiguating note at each “istenfélő” occurrence identifying which referent is active; use the Samaritan and Cornelius narratives as the doctrine’s narrative anchor rather than introducing new abstract vocabulary. |
| Repentance and Baptism | megtérés (Critical, NEW); keresztség / (meg)keresztelkedik (Critical, NEW); háza népe megkeresztelkedett (Critical, NEW); bűnök bocsánata (High, NEW) | Hungarian Catholic tradition channels ongoing repentance through sacramental Confession; Hungarian Reformed tradition holds no sacramental confession; both traditions (plus Reformed) practice infant baptism, while the historically significant Hungarian Baptist Church and other free churches practice only believer’s baptism upon personal repentance — the exact pattern narrated in Acts 2:38-41 and cited by both sides regarding “household baptism” (16:15, 16:33). | Translate Luke’s narrated sequence (repent → be baptized → receive the Spirit) and the household-baptism narrative claims exactly as stated, without adjudicating mode, timing, subject-scope, or efficacy; flag every occurrence of “keresztség,” “megtérés,” and “háza népe megkeresztelkedett” for theologian review per the baseline’s escalation rules for Critical terms. |
| The Church as Community | egyház (Medium, reused); közösség (Low, reused); kenyér megtörése (High, NEW); közösen volt mindenük (Medium, NEW); az Út (Medium, NEW); keresztények (Low, NEW); vének/presbiterek (High, NEW); püspökök/felügyelők (Critical, NEW); diakónus/szolgálat (High, NEW) | “Kenyér megtörése” sits directly on the Catholic real-presence/Reformed memorial-or-spiritual-presence divide over the Lord’s Supper; “közösen volt mindenük” risks being heard against the backdrop of 20th-century Hungarian state collectivization; “vének”/“püspökök” is the single sharpest polity term-pair in Acts (20:17, 28 uses both for the same persons). | Translate descriptively without importing a developed sacramental or polity system; explicitly note that Acts 20 uses both titles for one office without resolving the later historical debate; add the collectivization-distinction note for 2:44-45/4:32-37; flag “püspökök/felügyelők” for mandatory theologian review at every occurrence per the core glossary. |
| Apostolic Authority and Miracles | apostol (Low, reused); Isten ereje (Medium, reused); csodák és jelek (Medium, NEW); kézrátétel (High, NEW); mágia/mágus (Medium, NEW) | “Kézrátétel” intersects Catholic sacramental Confirmation/Holy Orders theology versus Reformed non-sacramental commissioning; “csodák és jelek” must not collapse into a single generic “miracle” word that loses the sign’s pointing-beyond-itself function; the Simon/Elymas narratives require a sharp Spirit-gift-vs-purchasable-power contrast relevant to Hungary’s residual occult/esoteric cultural presence. | Render each laying-on-of-hands occurrence per its own narrative function (commissioning, Spirit-reception, healing) without collapsing into either tradition’s later system; retain the twofold “csodák és jelek” phrase rather than a single-word reduction; teach the magic/Spirit-gift contrast explicitly. |
| Persecution and Bold Witness | tanúk (High, NEW); vértanú (Medium, NEW); bátorság (High, NEW); főtanács (Medium, NEW) | Hungarian’s “tanú”/“vértanú” split (unlike English’s single “witness/martyr” continuum) requires the translator to decide, occurrence by occurrence, whether ordinary testimony or death-witness is meant; introducing “vértanú” too early would anticipate Stephen’s death before the text itself makes the transition. | Use “tanúk” consistently through Acts 1–6; introduce “vértanú” explicitly and only at Stephen’s death (7:58-60) with a note marking the semantic transition; hold “bátorság” to strict cross-occurrence consistency (4:13, 4:29, 4:31, 9:27-28, 14:3, 19:8, 28:31) per the baseline’s consistency principle. |
| Conversion of Paul | megtérés (Critical, reused from Repentance entry); látomás (Medium, NEW); kiválasztott eszköz (Critical, reused from Election entry); Úr (Critical, reused) | Paul’s Damascus-road experience uses the same “megtérés” vocabulary as ordinary gospel-response repentance and the same “kiválasztás” vocabulary as soteriological election in 13:48, risking conflation of his unique, vocational apostolic commissioning with either a generalizable conversion template or unqualified predestinarian doctrine. | Distinguish, in teaching notes only (not in the translated text itself), Paul’s vocational election (9:15) from Acts 13:48’s soteriological election; treat Paul’s conversion narrative as historically unique in mode (a personal Christophany) while sharing its repentance-and-faith substance with every other conversion in Acts. |
| Justification apart from the Law | megigazulás (Critical, reused); törvény (High, reused); körülmetélkedés (High, NEW); iga (High, NEW); közönséges/tisztátalan (High, NEW); kegyelem (Critical, reused) | Acts 13:38-39 and 15:1-11 are the most explicit justification-apart-from-the-law statements outside Romans; “iga” (yoke) is a rhetorically forceful metaphor that a Catholic-formed audience accustomed to a positive view of precept-keeping could misread as rejecting moral obligation generally rather than specifically Mosaic law-keeping as a salvation-condition; “közönséges/tisztátalan” must not be over-extended to imply the moral law is likewise abrogated. | Render 13:38-39 verbatim-consistent with the Romans baseline’s “megigazulás” usage; preserve the “iga” metaphor’s full rhetorical force while adding a teaching note narrowing its referent to Mosaic ceremonial/identity law as a salvation-condition, not moral obligation generally; flag 15:1-11 as a unit for mandatory theologian review. |
| The Great Commission Fulfilled | misszió (Medium, reused); Isten országa (Medium, reused); akadálytalanul (Medium, NEW); ismeretlen isten (Medium, NEW) | “Misszió” carries no significant colonial connotation in Hungarian (lower risk than in some other language pairs), but the doctrine’s narrative arc (1:8 → 28:31) requires the closing term “akadálytalanul” to be explicitly tied back to the Pentecost inauguration for the commission’s fulfillment to register as a completed narrative arc rather than an isolated closing remark. | Preserve “misszió” as-is; add a structural teaching note at 28:31 linking “akadálytalanul” back to 1:8’s “ends of the earth” and to Pentecost’s inauguration in ch. 2, framing the whole book as the Great Commission’s narrated fulfillment. |
Part C — Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
C.1 Missing Vocabulary (no existing Hungarian Bible-translation-tradition term; Acts requires a first designation)
These are concepts for which the baseline Romans package supplies no precedent and Hungarian requires either a new compound phrase or a loanword.
| Concept | Gap | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Ascension (bodily, historical) | No baseline term; distinct from but parallel to “feltámadás" | "felvitetett / mennybemenetel,” paired with the liturgical anchor “Áldozócsütörtök” (Ascension Day), observed by both Catholic and Reformed Hungarian churches — a rare point of shared, uncontested liturgical vocabulary. |
| Son of Man (Danielic title) | No baseline term; must not be confused with “Isten Fia" | "az Emberfia” — fixed as a distinct, complementary Christological title in the core glossary. |
| Household baptism as a narrative datum | No baseline term (Romans does not narrate baptisms) | “háza népe megkeresztelkedett” — a plain descriptive rendering of the narrative claim, deliberately not resolving scope. |
| The Way (self-designation) | No baseline term | ”az Út,” capitalized, with a note fencing off any generic “spiritual path” association. |
| Breaking of bread (ambiguous meal/Eucharist practice) | No baseline term (Romans does not narrate the practice) | “a kenyér megtörése” — literal, descriptive, deliberately pre-sacramental-system. |
| Sharing of possessions | No baseline term | ”közösen volt mindenük” — descriptive rendering with a mandatory anti-collectivist teaching note specific to Hungarian 20th-century history. |
| Overseers/bishops as distinct from elders | No baseline term (Romans uses neither this way) | “püspökök / felügyelők,” with the interchangeability with “vének/presbiterek” at Acts 20:17/28 stated plainly rather than resolved. |
| Unknown god (Areopagus inscription) | No baseline term | ”ismeretlen isten” — transparent rendering; proper noun “Areopágosz” transliterated. |
| Vow (Nazirite-type, Paul’s accommodation) | No baseline term | ”fogadalom” — standard Hungarian religious-vocabulary term, with a note distinguishing voluntary cultural accommodation from a salvation-condition. |
C.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (one Hungarian word serving multiple distinct source concepts — fencing required)
These are the inverse problem: Hungarian vocabulary that already exists but is asked to do too much work across Acts, risking silent conflation of theologically distinct referents.
| Hungarian term | Distinct concepts it must cover | Fencing strategy |
|---|---|---|
| feltámadás | (1) Christ’s unique, historical resurrection (1:22, 2:24, 2:31); (2) the general future resurrection of all the dead, debated by Pharisees/Sadducees (23:6-8, 24:15, 24:21, 26:8) | Use “a halottak feltámadása” for the general/eschatological sense at every occurrence from ch. 23 onward, reserving unqualified “feltámadás” for Christ’s own resurrection; add a standing teaching note distinguishing the two referents, since Hungarian folk-Catholic afterlife intuitions (cf. the Hádész/Sheol distinction at 2:27) make careless conflation a live risk. |
| nyelvek | (1) Real, existing human languages miraculously spoken at Pentecost (2:4, confirmed by the “dialektos” of 2:6,8,11); (2) later occurrences at 10:46, 19:6; (3) contemporary Hungarian charismatic technical “nyelveken szólás” (glossolalia) | Render as “más nyelveken” at every Acts occurrence with a disambiguating note anchoring the referent to intelligible human language per the immediate context (2:6-11’s explicit confirmation), not defaulting to the modern charismatic technical sense. |
| tanú | (1) Ordinary eyewitness testimony (many occurrences); (2) authorized apostolic testimony to the resurrection specifically (1:8, 1:22, 2:32, 3:15, 10:39, 13:31); (3) the root of the later, distinct word “vértanú” | Retain “tanúk” consistently through the ordinary-testimony and apostolic-testimony senses; introduce “vértanú” as a separate lexical event only at 7:58-60, with an explicit note marking the semantic split. |
| istenfélő | (1) A devout, God-fearing Jew (2:5); (2) a technical designation for a Gentile sympathizer who worshipped Israel’s God without full conversion (10:2, 13:16) | Disambiguate at first occurrence of each distinct referent; do not let the Gentile-sympathizer technical sense retroactively color 2:5’s devout-Jew sense or vice versa. |
| kiválasztás | (1) Paul’s specific vocational election to apostolic mission (9:15); (2) soteriological election/appointment to eternal life (13:48) | Distinguish the two referents in teaching notes (not in the translated text, which should render Luke’s own words plainly); do not let 9:15’s vocational sense soften 13:48’s soteriological force, nor let 13:48 be read as license to import full Reformed double-predestination or Catholic synergistic systematics into 9:15. |
| elhívás / elhívott | (1) General gospel-summons language (2:39, “as many as the Lord our God calls”); (2) the baseline’s already-documented Reformed “irresistible calling” technical category | Translate Luke’s own claim without assuming the technical Reformed reading as a lexical given, exactly per the baseline’s forbidden-substitution rule; this crowding is inherited unchanged from Romans and requires no new Acts-specific handling beyond vigilance. |
| gondviselés (paired with “Isten elhatározott terve”) | (1) God’s sovereign, determined plan directly paired with human moral culpability in the crucifixion (2:23) — Critical tier; (2) ordinary physical-deliverance providence (27:23-24) — lower, High-tier context | Use the heightened Critical-tier framing and full phrase “Isten elhatározott terve és eleve elrendelése” (or equivalent) at 2:23 specifically, where sovereignty and guilt are stated in the same breath; the narrower, lower-stakes 27:23-24 physical-deliverance sense may use “gondviselés” alone without the heightened apparatus. |
| szent / szentek | (1) Corporate designation for all believers (9:13, 26:18); (2) Catholic popular-piety sense of canonized/venerated figures | Retain the baseline’s caution unchanged: always accompany the corporate sense with a note that every believer is called “szent,” not exclusively canonized figures. |
| vének / presbiterek paired with püspökök / felügyelők | (1) Local congregational elder-leaders (14:23, 15:2, 20:17); (2) “overseers,” used for the same persons at 20:28 | State plainly, without resolving, that Acts 20:17 and 20:28 use both terms for the same office/persons; this is Luke’s own datum, not a translation choice, and must not be smoothed toward either the Catholic hierarchical-episcopal reading or the Reformed parity-of-elders reading. |
| hálaadás vs. kenyér megtörése | (1) Ordinary gratitude/grace-before-meals language (27:35, shipboard, non-ecclesial); (2) the church’s distinct gathered practice (2:42, 2:46, 20:7, 20:11) | Keep the two phrases lexically and contextually distinct at every occurrence; do not let 27:35’s ordinary meal borrow ecclesial resonance from 2:42, nor vice versa. |
Part D — Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Term/Name | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Πεντηκοστή (Pentecost) | Established-term reuse: pünkösd (not a new transliteration) | Already the fixed Hungarian calendar/liturgical word; paraphrasing it (e.g., “az ötvenedik nap ünnepe”) would sever the reader from the established Hungarian liturgical calendar entirely, at greater cost than the folk-association risk it introduces. Folk-association risk is instead handled by a mandatory teaching note, not by avoiding the established word. |
| Ἀρειος πάγος (Areopagus) | Transliteration: Areopágosz | No natural Hungarian paraphrase exists for this proper Athenian institution; transliteration with a historical-background note is standard practice across Hungarian Bible translations. |
| Ἄρτεμις (Artemis) | Transliteration: Artemisz | Standard Hungarian form for the Greek deity name; no live syncretism risk in contemporary Hungarian culture, unlike some other language pairs in this pipeline. |
| Ναζωραῖος (Nazarene) | Paraphrase as descriptive phrase: “a nazáreti Jézus” rather than a bare transliterated title | Preserves the anti-docetic, geographically grounding function of the title (a real man from a real, verifiable town) better than an isolated transliterated epithet would. |
| Ἀββά (Abba) | Transliteration retained per baseline: Abba, paired with Atya | Inherited unchanged from the Romans baseline (Romans 8:15 precedent); Acts does not use this term, so no new decision is required, but the precedent is noted for consistency. |
| εὐνοῦχος (eunuch) | Established loanword: eunuch | Standard, already-lexicalized Hungarian term; a cultural-background note is recommended over any euphemistic paraphrase, to preserve the narrative’s full force (a person excluded under Deuteronomy 23:1 now fully included). |
| ζυγός (yoke) | Paraphrase (metaphor preserved literally): iga | ”Iga” is itself the literal, standard Hungarian word for a plow-yoke and needs no substitute paraphrase; the risk lies in scope (see Part C), not in the word choice itself. |
| ὁ οἶκος ἐβαπτίσθη (household baptism) | Paraphrase: háza népe megkeresztelkedett | No single Hungarian word captures “household” in the relevant extended sense (dependents, servants, possibly children); the multi-word descriptive phrase is required and is deliberately neutral as to scope. |
| ἐπίσκοποι (overseers/bishops) | Dual rendering, not a single transliteration: püspökök / felügyelők | A bare transliteration-adjacent choice (“episzkoposz”) would be foreign to Hungarian Bible tradition; “püspökök” carries strong post-biblical hierarchical-office connotations for Catholic readers, while “felügyelők” is more polity-neutral but less traditional; both are retained side by side with a note rather than selecting one, since selecting either alone would prejudge the later historical church-polity debate. |
| ἡ ὁδός (the Way) | Paraphrase as proper self-designation: az Út (capitalized) | A literal, transparent rendering; the risk is not lexical but associative (New Age “spiritual path” resonance in contemporary Hungarian usage), handled by capitalization convention and a teaching note rather than by choosing a different word. |
| πρεσβύτεροι (elders) | Dual established terms retained: vének / presbiterek | ”Vének” is the older, more literal Hungarian rendering; “presbiterek” is the loanword already embedded in Hungarian Reformed church-governance vocabulary (presbitérium, presbiter). Both are retained as the core glossary specifies, with consistency required across all occurrences. |
| Ἑλληνισταί (Hellenists) | Transliteration: hellenisták | Standard historical-technical term; no natural Hungarian paraphrase improves on it. |
| Σαμαρῖται (Samaritans) | Established term: szamaritánusok | Standard, already-lexicalized ethnonym in Hungarian Bible tradition. |
Part E — Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities for Acts
Ranked by combined doctrinal weight and likelihood of confessionally divergent misreading within the Hungarian Catholic/Reformed/free-church audience. All items below are Critical or High tier per assets/bible_term_registry.json and require the escalation routing specified in the baseline 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
- Acts 2:38 as a whole clause (megtérés → keresztség → bűnök bocsánata → Szentlélek ajándéka) — the single densest ambiguity cluster in Acts; the causal/logical relationship between repentance, baptism, forgiveness, and Spirit-reception is exegetically and confessionally contested across every Hungarian Christian tradition represented in this audience. Mandatory theologian review of the full verse, not just individual terms.
- Acts 20:17 / 20:28 “elders” / “overseers” — Luke’s own interchangeable usage for a single office is the sharpest polity-sensitive datum in the New Testament outside the Pastoral Epistles; any smoothing toward either term alone misrepresents the text to one tradition or the other.
- Acts 13:48 (“appointed/ordained to eternal life”) — the most Calvinist-resonant single clause in Acts outside Romans 9; must be rendered to Luke’s own statement without importing full double-predestination or full synergistic systematics.
- Acts 15:1-11 as a unit (törvény, körülmetélkedés, iga, kegyelem) — the Jerusalem Council’s resolution is the curriculum’s decisive Justification-apart-from-the-Law narrative; “iga” in particular risks being misread by a Catholic-formed audience as a wholesale rejection of moral obligation rather than specifically Mosaic law as a salvation-condition.
- Acts 16:15, 16:33 “household baptism” — cited by paedobaptist and credobaptist readings for opposing conclusions; the narrative claim itself must not be scoped one way or the other in translation.
- Acts 2:23 (“determined plan and foreknowledge of God… you crucified”) — pairs absolute divine sovereignty with direct human moral guilt in the same breath; the sharpest providence/free-will tension point in Acts, paralleling but exceeding the baseline’s Romans 9-11 caution.
- Acts 8:17, 19:6 and 6:6, 13:3 “laying on of hands” — four narrative functions (Spirit-reception, healing, commissioning, ordination) rendered by one Hungarian phrase; Catholic sacramental (Confirmation/Orders) versus Reformed non-sacramental readings diverge sharply on efficacy.
- Acts 2:4-11 “tongues” — known-language miracle versus contemporary glossolalia technical usage; the single Hungarian word “nyelvek” cannot lexically distinguish these without a contextual note at every occurrence.
- Acts 6:1-6 “deacon/service” — Catholic sacramental-order trajectory versus Reformed non-sacramental elected-ministry trajectory, both later developments not present in Luke’s own narrative.
- Acts 9:15 vs. 13:48 “election” — vocational election of Paul versus soteriological election of believers, sharing one Hungarian word (“kiválasztás”) but requiring distinct doctrinal handling.
- Acts 10:14-15, 10:28 “common or unclean” — risk of over-extension from ceremonial-boundary relativization to a perceived abrogation of moral law generally.
- Acts 2:42, 2:46, 20:7, 20:11 “breaking of bread” — descriptive narrative claim sitting directly atop the historic Eucharistic-theology divide, requiring careful non-adjudication.
- Acts 7:59-60 “intercession” (direct prayer to Christ) — reinforces the baseline’s Reformed-resonant direct-access reading; requires the same pastoral sensitivity toward Catholic readers accustomed to saints’/Marian intercession that the baseline documents for Romans 8.
- Acts 4:32-37 “sharing of possessions” — risk of an unintended political-economic (collectivist) reading given 20th-century Hungarian historical experience, obscuring the text’s voluntary, Spirit-motivated character.
- Acts 23:6-8, 24:15 “the resurrection of the dead” — risk of conflation with Christ’s unique resurrection via the shared Hungarian word “feltámadás,” compounded by folk-Catholic afterlife intuitions.
Handoff Note
This analysis supplies the reasoning basis for every “NEW” entry recorded in analysis/08_core_glossary.md and every corresponding entry in assets/bible_term_registry.json. No rendering decision in those two documents should be altered without first updating the corresponding entry here. Per the baseline’s Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions, any newly discovered term encountered during Phase 2 segment translation that is not already covered by this analysis, the core glossary, or the term registry must be routed back through this same gap-analysis method before being added to translation_memory.json.