Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Hungarian translation
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons specific to the internal Catholic-Reformed doctrinal split where relevant
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice, including which Hungarian Christian tradition’s systematic theology a term risks defaulting toward
Governing principles
- Established usage over invention — where the Károli tradition already has a settled rendering shared across confessions (evangélium, üdvösség, Szentlélek), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
- Explicit cross-confessional disambiguation, not silent avoidance — because so much of this glossary’s vocabulary carries opposite systematic theological content depending on the reader’s Reformed or Catholic formation, every Critical-risk term records both readings and translates to Romans’ own argument rather than either tradition’s later system (see Comparative Theology).
- Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document.
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary and names its cross-confessional doctrinal freight, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.
Critical Risk Terms
Calling
Approved rendering: elhívás
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: ellenállhatatlan elhívás mint kizárólagos érvényes olvasat, katolikus szinergizmus kizárásával
CRITICAL: Hungarian Reformed theology has a specific, technical Calvinist category, ‘ellenállhatatlan kegyelem/elhívás’ (irresistible grace/calling), taught in Hungarian Reformed seminaries (Debrecen, Sárospatak). Catholic theology holds a synergistic view in which grace can be resisted. Romans 8:28-30’s ‘called’ language will be read through fundamentally different systematic lenses by these two audiences; translate to Paul’s actual claim rather than either full system.
Covenant
Approved rendering: szövetség
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: szövetség kizárólag jogi vagy politikai szerződésként
CRITICAL for the Reformed-reading half of this Language Package’s audience: Hungarian Reformed theology has a fully developed federal/covenant theology (szövetségi teológia — covenant of works, covenant of grace) as a major systematic framework; Catholic Hungarian tradition does not use this same systematic covenant framework. Translate ‘szövetség’ to Romans’ own covenantal argument without assuming the full Reformed federal-theology system as background for all readers.
Election
Approved rendering: kiválasztás
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: kiválasztás, mely emberi együttműködés nélkül értelmezhetetlen (szinergista olvasat kényszerítése), kiválasztás mint szabad akarat nélküli, vak végzet (fatalista félreolvasás)
CRITICAL: the sharpest internal doctrinal fault line in this Language Package. The Hungarian Reformed Church holds classical Calvinist double predestination as a central, comfortably-held doctrine taught in Reformed catechesis; the Catholic majority holds a synergistic view resisting strict predestination in favor of cooperating free will. Romans 9-11, historically the central biblical battleground for this very debate, must be translated to Paul’s own argument and rhetorical structure, not forced into either community’s developed system.
Father
Approved rendering: Atya
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
God as personal Father; standard and unambiguous.
God
Approved rendering: Isten
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Standard and unambiguous.
Grace
Approved rendering: kegyelem
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: kegyelem mint érdemek által gyarapítható, szentségek közvetítette adomány (tridenti értelmezés)
CRITICAL: Hungary uniquely in this pipeline has two large, historically entrenched Christian traditions holding opposite theological instincts about grace within the same language community. The Hungarian Reformed Church (centered historically on Debrecen, called the ‘Calvinist Rome,’ and closely tied to national resistance against Habsburg Catholic imperial rule) holds a Calvinist doctrine of irresistible, monergistic grace (ellenállhatatlan kegyelem), while the Roman Catholic majority holds the Tridentine doctrine of grace infused and increased through merit and the sacraments. Romans’ argument for unmerited grace (4:4-5; 11:5-6) must be translated to Paul’s own argument without silently adopting either community’s fully developed systematic framework.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Szentlélek
Doctrine: Sanctification
Standard and unambiguous personal third Person of the Trinity across all Hungarian Christian traditions.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: beszámított igazság
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: befogadott/beoltott igazság mint kizárólag belső átalakulás (tridenti értelmezés)
CRITICAL: Reformed Hungarian theology, following Károli’s translation tradition and Calvinist doctrine, holds righteousness is credited/imputed by faith (Romans 4) as a distinct forensic category from sanctification; Catholic theology, per Trent, holds righteousness is infused and increased through grace-enabled merit, without treating ‘imputed’ as a separate, sufficient category. This is the clearest doctrinal fault line in the entire glossary and should be handled with the same rigor as the election/predestination term.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jézus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Standard across all Hungarian Bible traditions; no variant-form risk.
Justification
Approved rendering: megigazulás
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: fokozatos belső megszentelődés kizárólag, jogi kijelentés nélkül (tridenti értelmezés)
CRITICAL: the Hungarian Reformed tradition, following Károli Gáspár’s foundational 1590 Vizsolyi Biblia and Calvinist theology, reads ‘megigazulás’ as a forensic, once-for-all declaration received by faith alone (sola fide); Catholic tradition reads it, per Trent, as a process of infused, merit-cooperated transformation. Romans 3-5’s argument must be translated to preserve the forensic sense without erasing the Reformed community’s classical reading or alienating the Catholic-majority audience by treating Trent’s category as simply wrong within the translated text itself.
Lord
Approved rendering: Úr
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
CRITICAL: Romans 10:9’s confession requires exclusive, supreme lordship.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messiás
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
CRITICAL: the unique, Old Testament-promised Anointed One fulfilled exclusively in Jesus.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: feltámadás
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
CRITICAL: bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection; standard and unambiguous across all Hungarian Christian traditions, with no rival-religion confusion.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: igazság
Doctrine: Salvation
CRITICAL: right standing before God granted through faith. Both Reformed and Catholic traditions use this same word, so the doctrinal distinction (see imputed_righteousness) must be carried by teaching notes.
Salvation
Approved rendering: üdvösség
Doctrine: Salvation
CRITICAL: standard term across traditions, but assurance around it differs sharply. Reformed Hungarian theology (perseverance of the saints, part of historic Calvinist doctrine) teaches settled assurance of salvation for the elect; Catholic theology maintains ongoing uncertainty pending final perseverance and purgatorial purification. Romans 8’s assurance language will land very differently across this internal Hungarian doctrinal divide.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Isten Fia
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Isten fia általános értelemben, minden hívőre alkalmazva
CRITICAL: full phrase required. Unique, eternal, divine Sonship, distinct from the adoptive ‘Isten gyermekei’ language Romans 8 applies to believers.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: hit
Doctrine: Faith
Personal trust in Christ. Standard and unambiguous as a word, though it carries different theological weight depending on the reader’s Reformed (sola fide) or Catholic (faith plus cooperating works) formation.
Gospel
Approved rendering: evangélium
Doctrine: Gospel
Standard term shared by Catholic and Reformed (Református) Hungarian Bibles alike. Must be taught as the specific proclamation of salvation through Christ crucified and risen.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: megtestesülés
Doctrine: Incarnation
Standard, unambiguous term shared across Hungarian Catholic and Reformed Bibles; no significant syncretism risk in Hungarian culture.
Intercession
Approved rendering: közbenjárás
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: kizárólag szentek és Mária közbenjárása mint szükséges (katolikus olvasat)
Catholic Hungarian piety includes saints’ and Marian intercession; Hungarian Reformed tradition historically and polemically rejected this practice during the Reformation and holds to direct access to God through Christ alone. Romans 8:26-27, 34 describe the Spirit’s and Christ’s direct intercession, which aligns closely with the Reformed reading and should be taught with sensitivity to Catholic readers, for whom this may register as a corrective rather than a neutral description.
Law
Approved rendering: törvény
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
The Mosaic law/Torah. Reformed covenant theology’s ‘threefold use of the law’ (törvény hármas haszna) is a well-developed systematic Reformed Hungarian category relevant to Romans 7; Catholic tradition does not use this same threefold framework. Translate Paul’s own argument about the law’s role without assuming either systematic framework as settled background.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: hitből fakadó engedelmesség
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: törvény szerinti engedelmesség, hit nélkül
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Obedience flowing from faith, not law-compliance considered independently of faith — a distinction both Reformed ‘third use of the law’ theology and Catholic precept-observance culture must be taught to keep straight.
Saints
Approved rendering: szentek
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: szentek mint kizárólagosan kanonizált, közbenjárásra kért személyek (katolikus olvasat)
Genuine internal Hungarian split: Catholic popular piety venerates canonized szentek and requests their intercession; the Hungarian Reformed tradition historically and explicitly rejected saint veneration as part of the Reformation protest and generally does not practice it today. Romans 1:7’s corporate ‘szentek’ (all believers) note is especially important for Catholic-background readers.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: megszentelődés
Doctrine: Sanctification
Reformed theology (following Calvin’s ‘third use of the law,’ törvény harmadik haszna) frames sanctification as the believer’s ongoing, law-guided growth in holiness; Catholic theology frames it through sacramental participation and penitential purification. Both differ from Romans’ own Spirit-driven transformation emphasis in ways that should be taught directly.
Medium Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15, paired with ‘Atya’ following Károli-tradition precedent.
Adoption
Approved rendering: örökbefogadás
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Full son-status with complete inheritance rights; lexically unambiguous.
Called
Approved rendering: elhívott
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Context-sensitive: Romans 1:1 (called to apostleship), 1:7 (called to be saints), 8:28-30 (effectual calling).
Church
Approved rendering: egyház
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
The same word serves the hierarchical, sacramental Catholic ecclesiology and the presbyterian/congregational Reformed ecclesiology; keep Romans 16’s local gathered-congregation sense distinct from either institutional polity model.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: pogányok
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
As with Polish ‘poganie,’ ‘pogányok’ literally means ‘pagans,’ carrying a stronger charge than the neutral English ‘Gentiles’; use ‘nemzetek’ (nations) where the more neutral sense is intended.
Glory
Approved rendering: dicsőség
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
God’s radiant honor and presence; standard usage.
Holy
Approved rendering: szent
Doctrine: Sanctification
Set apart for God and morally pure; applies to all believers.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Isten országa
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
God’s sovereign reign, not a political state or the institutional church.
Mission
Approved rendering: misszió
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Standard term.
Peace
Approved rendering: béke
Doctrine: Peace with God
Relational peace with God through justification, not merely inner calm.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: Isten ereje
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Standard, unambiguous rendering.
Providence
Approved rendering: gondviselés
Doctrine: Providence
God’s personal, purposive governance; standard established term across traditions.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: Dávid leszármazottja
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and covenant fulfillment.
Sin
Approved rendering: bűn
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Moral transgression before a personal God; standard and well understood across traditions.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: lelki ajándékok
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Reformed and Catholic Hungarian traditions both generally read spiritual gifts cautiously compared to Pentecostal/Charismatic traditions, a smaller presence in Hungary; ensure gifts are read as Spirit-distributed enablements per Romans 12, neither reduced to a charismatic-only framework nor dismissed as cessationist without textual basis.
Low Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: apostol
Doctrine: Apostleship
Established, unambiguous term.
David
Approved rendering: Dávid
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Standard proper name.
Exhort
Approved rendering: buzdítani
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Standard term.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: közösség
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Shared participation in Christ; standard term across traditions.
Israel
Approved rendering: Izrael
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Standard proper name.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prófécia
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
God-inspired declaration; standard term.
Prophet
Approved rendering: próféta
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
God’s spokesperson; standard term.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: hálaadás
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term. No significant risk.
Referenced passages