Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — Acts (English → Italian)
This document provides the full doctrine matrix for the book of Acts (chapters 1–28), consistent with and non-contradictory to assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json. Every doctrine name, risk tier, and review routing below is reused exactly from that registry. This document adds the chapter-by-chapter coverage mandated by the PRD Phase 1 full-book coverage rule, tracing where each doctrine surfaces across the entire narrative, not only in the core passage (Acts 2:1-41).
Risk tiers (unchanged from baseline and from the Acts registry):
- Critical — Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — Human theologian review required.
- Medium — Native speaker review recommended.
- Low — Automated review sufficient.
Part A: Master Doctrine Matrix (Whole-Book)
| Doctrine | Italian Name | Risk | Key Passages (Acts) | Translation Risk Summary | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | lo Spirito Santo e la Pentecoste | Critical | 1:8; 2:1-4; 2:16-21; 2:38; 5:3-9; 10:44-47; 15:8; 19:1-6 | ”Pentecoste” collides with the Catholic liturgical feast and with “Pentecostale” (Italy’s largest Protestant denominational family); must anchor the historical, once-for-all inauguration of the church age. | Human theologian |
| Tongues as Known, Intelligible Languages | le lingue come lingue reali e comprensibili | Critical | 2:4-11; 10:46; 19:6 | Italian Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition may default to 1 Corinthians’ private-language sense; Acts 2’s “altre lingue” are real, known, intelligible human languages. | Human theologian |
| The Gift of the Holy Spirit | il dono dello Spirito Santo | High | 2:38; 8:17-18; 10:44-47; 19:2-6 | Collides with the distinct Catholic catechetical “sette doni dello Spirito Santo” tied to Confirmation; clarify the Spirit himself is given at conversion. | Human theologian |
| Repentance and Baptism | la conversione e il battesimo | Critical | 2:38-41; 3:19; 8:36-38; 9:18; 16:31-33; 19:1-5; 22:16 | Direct Catholic infant-sacramental vs. evangelical believer’s-baptism collision; “pentimento” risks collapsing into sacramental Confession/absolution. | Human theologian |
| Household Salvation and Baptism | la salvezza e il battesimo del nucleo familiare | High | 10:44-48; 16:15; 16:31-34; 18:8 | Live Waldensian/Reformed paedobaptist vs. Pentecostal/Baptist-evangelical credobaptist flashpoint; flag without dogmatic resolution. | Human theologian |
| Forgiveness of Sins | il perdono dei peccati | High | 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18 | Reuses baseline “peccato” colloquial-drift risk (“che peccato!”); “remissione dei peccati” echoes the sacramental absolution formula. | Human theologian |
| The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | il vangelo per Giudei e pagani | High | 1:8; 10:1-48; 11:1-18; 13:46-48; 15:7-19; 18:6; 28:28 | ”Pagani” carries mild pejorative connotation across dozens of occurrences; “turn to the Gentiles” risks a supersessionist misreading. | Human theologian |
| Unity of Jews and Gentiles | l’unità di Giudei e pagani | High | 10:34-35; 11:18; 15:6-29; 21:17-26 | Requires historically aware handling given Italy’s Jewish community history and Middle East political sensitivity. | Human theologian |
| Ceremonial Law and Gentile Inclusion | la legge cerimoniale e l’inclusione dei pagani | High | 10:9-16; 10:28; 15:1-29; 21:20-26 | Modern Italian “impuro” defaults to sexual-moral impurity; must clarify referent is ritual food law, point is Gentile inclusion, not moral relativism. | Human theologian |
| Justification apart from the Law | la giustificazione senza la legge | Critical | 13:38-39; 15:1-11; 15:28-29 | Same Trent-vs-Reformation flashpoint as baseline Romans package, explicitly narrated at the Jerusalem Council; 13:38-39 must match baseline rendering exactly. | Human theologian |
| Grace | la grazia | High | 4:33; 11:23; 13:43; 14:3; 14:26; 15:11; 18:27; 20:24; 20:32 | Catholic sacramental grace vs. Waldensian/evangelical sola gratia, same Italian word, different doctrinal freight; 15:11 is the book’s most load-bearing occurrence. | Human theologian |
| Faith | la fede | Medium | 3:16; 6:5, 7; 11:24; 13:8; 14:9, 27; 16:5; 20:21; 24:24; 26:18 | Object of faith (Christ) must remain recoverable from context. | Native speaker review |
| The Church as Community | la chiesa come comunità | High | 2:42-47; 4:32-35; 5:11; 6:1-7; 8:1; 9:31; 11:26; 20:28 | ”La Chiesa” capitalized defaults to the institutional Catholic Church; “frazione del pane” collides with the technical Mass-liturgical phrase. | Human theologian |
| Christian Fellowship | la comunione fraterna | High | 2:42; 2:44-46; 4:32 | Bare “comunione” defaults to the Eucharist/First Communion; “fraterna” required; “frazione del pane” needs the same caution. | Human theologian |
| Church Governance and Eldership | il governo della chiesa e l’anzianato | Critical | 6:1-6; 14:23; 20:17-28 | ἐπίσκοπος rendered “vescovo” risks importing the fully developed Catholic episcopal office into a text equating overseer with local elder — live Catholic-episcopal vs. Waldensian/evangelical-presbyterian flashpoint. | Human theologian |
| Sainthood (Corporate Designation for Believers) | la santità di tutti i credenti | High | 9:13, 32, 41; 26:10 | Italy’s intense saint-veneration culture makes “i santi” default to canonized intercessors; Acts uses the term as a plain corporate designation. | Human theologian |
| Apostolic Authority and Miracles | l’autorità apostolica e i miracoli | High | 1:21-26; 2:22, 43; 3:1-10; 5:12-16; 8:9-24; 14:3; 19:11-12 | Healing/sign authority flows from Jesus’s invoked name, not apostolic spiritual capital; Simon Magus (8:18-24) warns against commodifying miracle-power — a live concern given prosperity-adjacent teaching in some charismatic circles. | Human theologian |
| Persecution and Bold Witness | la persecuzione e la testimonianza coraggiosa | Medium | 4:13-31; 5:41; 7:54-60; 8:1-3; 9:1-2; 12:1-5; 14:19-22; 16:22-25; 24:24-25 | Spirit-given “franchezza” is a recurring standing term; risk is consistency of rendering, not doctrinal collision; must not soften to mere “frankness.” | Native speaker review |
| Conversion of Paul | la conversione di Paolo | High | 9:1-19; 22:3-16; 26:9-18 | ”Strumento scelto” reuses baseline “elezione” root; must read as sovereign divine choice, not democratic selection; threefold retelling requires consistent terminology. | Human theologian |
| Effectual Calling and Election | la chiamata efficace e l’elezione | High | 2:39; 9:15; 13:48; 16:14 | ”Elezione” is also the everyday word for political elections; Catholic Thomistic-synergistic view of election differs from Reformed-tradition assumptions a translator might import. | Human theologian |
| Lordship of Christ | la signoria di Cristo | Critical | 2:21, 36; 10:36; 16:31 | Acts 2:36’s double confession is the core passage’s theological hinge; “Signore” doubles as the everyday polite title; any softening collapses the sermon’s climax. | Human theologian |
| Deity of Christ | la divinità di Cristo | Critical | 9:20; 2:34-35 | Co-equal divine nature must not soften into a merely inspired human figure; Psalm 110 citation (2:34-35) distinguishes YHWH from the enthroned Messiah. | Human theologian |
| Sonship of Christ | la filiazione di Cristo | Critical | 9:20; 7:56 | ”Il Figlio dell’uomo” (Stephen’s vision, 7:56) is a distinct Daniel-7 title from “Figlio di Dio”; must not be collapsed into it, though both affirm eternal, unique Sonship. | Human theologian |
| Resurrection of Christ | la risurrezione di Cristo | High | 2:24-32; 4:2, 33; 17:18, 32; 23:6-8; 24:15, 21; 26:8, 23 | Elevated from baseline’s Medium tier given Acts’s sustained apologetic use; must never use reincarnation/rebirth-cycle language; “Ades” (not “inferno”) for Hades. | Human theologian |
| Providence | la provvidenza | Medium | 2:23; 27:22-24; 27:34 | Manzoni’s literary “la Provvidenza” gives a strong but sometimes more fatalistic cultural reference point; shipwreck narrative (ch. 27) tests sovereignty operating through ordinary means. | Native speaker review |
| Fulfillment of Prophecy | il compimento della profezia | Medium | 2:16-21; 3:18-25; 7:37; 13:47; 15:15-18 | Low OT literacy requires explicit cross-referencing; “restaurazione di tutte le cose” (3:21) must not be conflated with heterodox universalist “apocatastasis.” | Native speaker review |
| The Great Commission Fulfilled | il compimento della grande missione | Medium | 1:8; 13:47; 28:28; 28:31 | Book’s narrative geography (Jerusalem to Rome) enacts 1:8; “senza impedimento” (28:31) is the deliberately open-ended climactic final word. | Native speaker review |
| Kingdom Mission | la missione del Regno | Medium | 1:3, 6; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31 | God’s reign advancing through the gospel must be distinguished from a political/nationalist kingdom; 1:6 stages the disciples’ own nationalistic misreading that the book corrects. | Native speaker review |
| Spiritual Gifts | i carismi | Medium | 2:4; 10:46; 19:6; 11:28; 21:9-10 | Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Pentecostal, and traditional evangelical streams engage this vocabulary differently; Acts narrates gift-manifestation more than naming “carismi” abstractly. | Native speaker review |
| Universal Human Accountability | la responsabilità universale dell’umanità | High | 2:38-40; 3:19; 17:30-31 | Universal guilt and universal call to repent (17:30, extended even to sophisticated Athenians) is undercut if “peccato” reads in its colloquial “che peccato!” sense. | Human theologian |
Risk summary (matches doctrine_risk_registry.json exactly): Critical: 8 · High: 15 · Medium: 7 · Low: 0 · Total requiring theologian review: 23 · Total requiring native speaker review: 7 · Total automated-only: 0
Part B: Chapter-by-Chapter Doctrine Coverage (Full Book, Acts 1–28)
Every chapter of Acts is addressed below. Chapters that primarily recur previously established doctrines (rather than introducing new load-bearing content) are explicitly marked “Recurrence only” rather than silently omitted.
Acts 1 — Ascension, Promise, and Apostolic Qualification
- Doctrines present: The Great Commission Fulfilled (1:8, the programmatic thesis verse); Kingdom Mission (1:3, 1:6 — the disciples’ nationalistic misreading the whole book corrects); The Holy Spirit and Pentecost (1:4-5, 1:8, the promise anticipating ch. 2); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (1:21-26, the eyewitness-to-resurrection qualifying criterion for apostleship).
- Note: Sets up nearly every doctrine developed later; no new terms beyond those already tracked in the Core Glossary.
Acts 2 — Core Passage (2:1-41): Pentecost, Peter’s Sermon, Response
- Doctrines present: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Tongues as Known, Intelligible Languages; The Gift of the Holy Spirit; Lordship of Christ (2:36, the double confession); Deity of Christ (2:34-35, Psalm 110 citation); Repentance and Baptism (2:38); Forgiveness of Sins (2:38); Universal Human Accountability (2:38-40); Effectual Calling and Election (2:39); The Church as Community and Christian Fellowship (2:42-47).
- Note: The theological anchor of the entire curriculum; every Critical-tier doctrine in Part A except Sonship of Christ and Justification apart from the Law makes its first or defining Acts appearance here.
Acts 3 — Healing of the Lame Man, Peter’s Second Sermon
- Doctrines present: Fulfillment of Prophecy (3:18-25); Deity of Christ (the “Holy and Righteous One” and “Author of life” titles); Repentance and Baptism (3:19, “repent and turn”); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (3:1-10, healing in Jesus’s name).
- Note: Introduces “restoration of all things” (3:21), flagged against a universalist “apocatastasis” misreading.
Acts 4 — Persecution Begins; Church’s Bold Prayer
- Doctrines present: Apostolic Authority and Miracles (4:1-22); Persecution and Bold Witness (4:13-31, first extended “franchezza” passage); Grace (4:33); The Church as Community (4:32-35, “everything in common”); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (4:12, “no other name,” salvation exclusivity).
- Note: 4:12’s exclusivity claim must retain unqualified force in translation.
Acts 5 — Ananias and Sapphira; Apostolic Signs; Sanhedrin
- Doctrines present: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost (5:3-9, lying to/testing the Spirit — reinforces the Spirit’s personal deity); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (5:12-16); Persecution and Bold Witness (5:41).
- Note: Recurrence-heavy chapter; no new doctrine categories beyond those already established in chs. 1-4, but 5:3-9 is a key supporting passage for the Holy Spirit’s personhood.
Acts 6 — Hellenists and Hebrews; Choosing of the Seven
- Doctrines present: The Church as Community (6:1-7, “ministry of the word” vs. “ministry of tables”); Church Governance and Eldership (6:1-6, historical root of, but not identical to, the later diaconate).
- Note: Introduces the intra-Jewish Hellenist/Hebrew linguistic-cultural distinction, requiring a gloss so it is not mistaken for the book’s Jew-Gentile distinction.
Acts 7 — Stephen’s Speech and Martyrdom
- Doctrines present: Sonship of Christ (7:56, “the Son of Man” — the only NT occurrence of this title spoken by someone other than Jesus); Persecution and Bold Witness (7:54-60, the book’s first martyrdom); Fulfillment of Prophecy (Stephen’s OT historical survey).
- Note: 7:56 requires careful handling so as not to collapse “Figlio dell’uomo” into “Figlio di Dio.”
Acts 8 — Philip, Simon Magus, the Ethiopian Eunuch
- Doctrines present: Apostolic Authority and Miracles (8:9-24, Simon Magus’s attempted purchase of Spirit-power); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Samaritan mission, the Ethiopian eunuch as an early boundary-crossing convert); Repentance and Baptism (8:36-38).
- Note: Simon Magus narrative is the built-in scriptural warning against commodifying miracle-working.
Acts 9 — Conversion of Paul; Peter’s Healings
- Doctrines present: Conversion of Paul (9:1-19, first of three retellings); Sainthood (9:13, 32, 41, corporate designation in Damascus/Joppa/Lydda); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (Peter’s healings of Tabitha/Dorcas).
- Note: First occurrence of “chosen instrument” (9:15), reusing the “elezione” conceptual root.
Acts 10–11 — Cornelius; Gentile Pentecost; Jerusalem’s Response
- Doctrines present: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; Unity of Jews and Gentiles (10:34-35, thesis statement “God shows no partiality”); Ceremonial Law and Gentile Inclusion (10:9-16, 10:28); The Holy Spirit and Pentecost / The Gift of the Holy Spirit (10:44-47, the “Gentile Pentecost”); Household Salvation and Baptism (10:44-48).
- Note: The narrative demonstration that Acts 2’s promise (2:39, “all who are far off”) extends fully to Gentiles; theologically load-bearing for the whole “Gospel to Jews and Gentiles” curriculum doctrine.
Acts 12 — Peter’s Imprisonment and Deliverance; Herod’s Death
- Doctrines present: Apostolic Authority and Miracles (angelic deliverance); Persecution and Bold Witness (James’s martyrdom, Herod’s persecution); Providence (implicit, the church’s intercessory prayer answered).
- Note: Recurrence-heavy; the church’s corporate prayer for Peter (12:5) is a supporting passage for intercession as modeled by believers for one another, reinforcing baseline caution against a saints’-intercession reading.
Acts 13–14 — First Missionary Journey; Justification Statement; Elder Appointment
- Doctrines present: Justification apart from the Law (13:38-39, the earliest explicit Acts statement of the doctrine); Effectual Calling and Election (13:48, “appointed to eternal life”); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (13:46-48, “turn to the Gentiles”; 13:47, “light for the Gentiles”); Fulfillment of Prophecy; The Great Commission Fulfilled (13:2-4, missionary commissioning); Church Governance and Eldership (14:23, appointing elders); Persecution and Bold Witness (14:19-22, “through many tribulations”); Kingdom Mission (14:22).
- Note: 13:38-39 must match the baseline Romans
translation_memory.jsonrendering of “giustificazione” exactly, per the Theological Consistency Rules.
Acts 15 — The Jerusalem Council
- Doctrines present: Justification apart from the Law (15:1-11, the council’s central question); Grace (15:11, the single most doctrinally load-bearing occurrence in the book); Unity of Jews and Gentiles (15:6-29); Ceremonial Law and Gentile Inclusion (15:28-29, the apostolic decree).
- Note: The narrative resolution presupposed by the baseline Romans package’s discussion of Jews and Gentiles; requires non-partisan translation given the live Catholic-Tridentine vs. Waldensian/evangelical flashpoint this chapter represents in Italy itself.
Acts 16 — Lydia; the Philippian Jailer; Silas
- Doctrines present: Effectual Calling and Election (16:14, “the Lord opened her heart”); Household Salvation and Baptism (16:31-34, “believe and be saved, you and your household”); Persecution and Bold Witness (16:22-25, imprisonment and praise); Lordship of Christ (16:31).
- Note: 16:31-34 is the primary supporting passage for the paedobaptist/credobaptist household-salvation flashpoint, to be flagged without dogmatic resolution.
Acts 17 — Areopagus Address
- Doctrines present: Fulfillment of Prophecy (apologetic use of Greek poets); Universal Human Accountability (17:30-31, the call to repent extended even to philosophically sophisticated hearers); Resurrection of Christ (17:18, 32, mixed/mocking reception); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (bridge-building “unknown god” language).
- Note: Demonstrates the gospel’s address to a purely secular/philosophical audience, directly relevant to this curriculum’s contemporary Italian secular readership.
Acts 18 — Corinth; Gallio; Apollos
- Doctrines present: Faith (18:8, Crispus’s household); Persecution and Bold Witness (18:12-17, Gallio’s tribunal); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (18:6, turning to Gentiles in Corinth).
- Note: Recurrence-heavy chapter, reinforcing established doctrines rather than introducing new categories.
Acts 19 — Ephesus; John’s Baptism; the Riot
- Doctrines present: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost / Spiritual Gifts (19:1-6, tongues at Ephesus); Repentance and Baptism (19:1-5, John’s baptism as a unique, time-bound preparatory rite, not an ongoing parallel to Christian baptism); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (19:11-12); Persecution and Bold Witness (19:23-41, the Artemis riot).
- Note: The third and final tongues-occurrence in the “tongues as known languages” term-family (with 2:4 and 10:46), requiring cross-chapter consistency.
Acts 20 — Miletus Address; Elders and Overseers
- Doctrines present: Church Governance and Eldership (20:17-28, the interchangeable “elder”/“overseer” usage — the doctrine’s single most load-bearing passage in the whole book); The Church as Community (20:7, 11, “breaking of bread”); Apostolic Authority and Miracles (20:27, “the whole counsel of God”).
- Note: Requires the same Critical-tier theologian-review routing given the direct consequence for Catholic episcopal vs. Waldensian/evangelical presbyterian ecclesiology.
Acts 21 — Return to Jerusalem; the Nazirite Vow
- Doctrines present: Ceremonial Law and Gentile Inclusion (21:20-26, the Nazirite vow and purification, showing freedom from the Law’s necessity for salvation is not hostility to Jewish practice); Unity of Jews and Gentiles (21:17-26).
- Note: Balances Acts 15’s decree by showing continued respect for Jewish cultural-religious practice among Jewish believers.
Acts 22–23 — Paul’s Defense Before the Crowd and Sanhedrin
- Doctrines present: Conversion of Paul (22:3-16, second retelling); Deity of Christ / Sonship of Christ (“the Righteous One,” 22:14); Resurrection of Christ (23:6-8, the Pharisee-Sadducee dispute, showing resurrection was itself a contested claim within Judaism); Persecution and Bold Witness.
- Note: 23:6-8 risks a “one Jewish theological opinion among others” flattening if not carefully translated as a historically verifiable, once-for-all event.
Acts 24–26 — Paul Before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa
- Doctrines present: Persecution and Bold Witness; Faith (24:24); Resurrection of Christ (24:15, 21; 26:8, 23); Conversion of Paul (26:9-18, third retelling); Forgiveness of Sins and Sanctification (26:18, “sanctified by faith in me”); Universal Human Accountability.
- Note: The threefold Paul-conversion retelling (chs. 9, 22, 26) requires consistent terminology across all three accounts, per the Core Glossary’s cross-reference note.
Acts 27 — The Shipwreck
- Doctrines present: Providence (27:22-24, 27:34, the extended test-case of divine sovereignty operating through ordinary means, not around them); Thanksgiving (27:35, giving thanks before breaking bread, a baseline Low-risk term recurrence).
- Note: Manzoni’s literary “la Provvidenza” reference point (native speaker review tier) is especially relevant here given the chapter’s sustained providence theme.
Acts 28 — Arrival in Rome; the Book’s Climax
- Doctrines present: The Great Commission Fulfilled (28:31, “unhindered,” the book’s deliberately open-ended climactic final word); Kingdom Mission (28:23, 31); The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (28:28, the final “turn to the Gentiles” statement; 28:2, 4, the “barbarians” of Malta, requiring a gloss against the modern Italian pejorative sense).
- Note: Bookends Acts 1:8’s programmatic thesis; “senza impedimento” should be paired consistently with “franchezza” (boldness) as the book’s closing rhetorical pairing.
Part C: Cross-Cutting Review Priorities
- Highest-density Critical cluster: Repentance and Baptism, Church Governance and Eldership, Lordship of Christ, Deity of Christ, Sonship of Christ, Justification apart from the Law, The Holy Spirit and Pentecost, and Tongues as Known Languages (8 doctrines total) require theologian review at every occurrence across all 28 chapters, not only within the core passage.
- No Low-risk doctrines exist in this curriculum’s registry (unlike the baseline Romans registry’s 6 Low-risk doctrines) — reflecting Acts’s greater narrative density of contested, denomination-sensitive material for the Italian context specifically.
- Recurrence chapters (5, 6, 12, 18, 21) still carry theologian- or native-speaker-review-tier supporting passages even where no new doctrine category is introduced; reviewers should not deprioritize these chapters on the assumption that “new terms” is the only trigger for review.
This document must be read alongside assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (authoritative risk tiers), assets/translation_memory.json and assets/bible_term_registry.json (baseline term renderings), and analysis/08_core_glossary.md (full Acts term inventory).
Critical Risk Doctrines
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Italian name: lo Spirito Santo e la Pentecoste
Key terms: holy_spirit, pentecost, tongues, filled_with_holy_spirit, pour_out_spirit, gift_of_holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: ‘Pentecoste’ is simultaneously a major Catholic liturgical feast and the root of ‘Pentecostale,’ Italy’s largest Protestant denominational family; readers risk defaulting either to a sacramental-liturgical frame or importing a denomination-specific ‘second blessing’/tongues-as-normative doctrine not asserted by the narrative itself. Must be anchored as the historical, once-for-all inauguration of the church age.
Tongues as Known, Intelligible Languages
Italian name: le lingue come lingue reali e comprensibili
Key terms: tongues, own_language
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Italian Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition often reads ‘parlare in lingue’ through 1 Corinthians 12-14’s private-prayer-language lens; Acts’s ‘altre lingue’ must be anchored as real, known, human languages confirmed intelligible to native hearers (2:6,8,11), explicitly distinguished from glossolalia.
Repentance and Baptism
Italian name: la conversione e il battesimo
Key terms: repentance, baptism, forgiveness_of_sins
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Acts 2:38’s ordered sequence (repent, be baptized, receive forgiveness and the Spirit) directly engages the historic Catholic infant-baptismal-regeneration practice versus Waldensian/evangelical believer’s-baptism tradition; ‘pentimento/pentitevi’ risks collapsing into the sacrament of Penance/Confession, implying priestly absolution is required.
Justification apart from the Law
Italian name: la giustificazione senza la legge
Key terms: justification, righteousness, law, yoke_of_law, grace
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: the same Trent-vs-Reformation forensic-vs-infused flashpoint documented in the baseline Romans package is explicitly narrated at the Jerusalem Council (15:11, ‘siamo salvati per grazia’); Acts 13:38-39 is the earliest explicit Acts statement of the doctrine Romans develops fully and must match the baseline rendering exactly.
Church Governance and Eldership
Italian name: il governo della chiesa e l’anzianato
Key terms: elders_overseers, appointing_elders, shepherd_the_flock, laying_on_of_hands
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Acts 20:17,28 uses ‘elder’ (πρεσβύτερος) and ‘overseer’ (ἐπίσκοπος) interchangeably for the same office; rendering ἐπίσκοπος as ‘vescovo’ risks importing the fully developed, hierarchically distinct modern Catholic episcopal office (apostolic succession, diocesan authority) into a text that equates ‘overseer’ directly with local ‘elder’ — a live ecclesiological flashpoint between Catholic episcopal and Waldensian/evangelical presbyterian-congregational traditions.
Lordship of Christ
Italian name: la signoria di Cristo
Key terms: lord, messiah
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: Acts 2:36’s climactic double confession ‘Dio lo ha fatto Signore e Cristo’ is the theological hinge of the entire core passage and this curriculum; ‘Signore’ doubles as the everyday polite title ‘Mr./sir,’ and any softening (‘un signore,’ ‘un cristo’) would collapse the sermon’s rhetorical and doctrinal climax.
Deity of Christ
Italian name: la divinità di Cristo
Key terms: son_of_god, holy_and_righteous_one, the_righteous_one
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: as in baseline, co-equal divine nature must not be softened into a merely divinely inspired human figure; Peter’s Psalm 110 citation (2:34-35) is the proof-text that David himself distinguished ‘the Lord’ (YHWH) from ‘my Lord’ (the enthroned Messiah).
Sonship of Christ
Italian name: la filiazione di Cristo
Key terms: son_of_god, son_of_man
Review routing: Human theologian
CRITICAL: ‘il Figlio dell’uomo’ (Stephen’s dying vision, 7:56, the only NT occurrence of this title spoken by someone other than Jesus) is a distinct Daniel-7-rooted title from ‘Figlio di Dio’ [BASELINE, Critical] and must not be collapsed into it, while both affirm the same eternal, unique Sonship against any adoptive or metaphorical reading.
High Risk Doctrines
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Italian name: il dono dello Spirito Santo
Key terms: gift_of_holy_spirit, filled_with_holy_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: collides with the distinct Catholic catechetical category of the ‘sette doni dello Spirito Santo’ (seven gifts of the Holy Spirit), tied to Confirmation received later in life; must clarify the Spirit himself, not a separate gift-inventory, is given at conversion.
Household Salvation and Baptism
Italian name: la salvezza e il battesimo del nucleo familiare
Key terms: believe_and_household, johns_baptism
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: ‘household’ salvation/baptism language is a live intra-Italian-Christian flashpoint between the Waldensian/Reformed paedobaptist reading (households, including infants, baptized on the head’s professed faith) and the Pentecostal/Baptist-evangelical credobaptist reading (only personal believers baptized); must be flagged without dogmatic resolution beyond the text.
Forgiveness of Sins
Italian name: il perdono dei peccati
Key terms: forgiveness_of_sins, sin
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: reuses baseline ‘peccato’ (High) with its extremely common colloquial drift toward ‘che peccato!’ (what a shame); the liturgical alternative ‘remissione dei peccati’ echoes the Catholic sacramental absolution formula, risking an implied priestly-mediation requirement absent from these texts.
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Italian name: il vangelo per Giudei e pagani
Key terms: gentiles, god_fearer, turn_to_gentiles, no_other_name, god_shows_no_partiality
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: ‘pagani’ carries a mildly pejorative ‘uncivilized/irreligious’ connotation across the whole book’s dozens of occurrences; cumulative flattening risk given this curriculum’s namesake doctrine, and the recurring ‘turn to the Gentiles’ language risks a supersessionist misreading if not carefully handled.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Italian name: l’unità di Giudei e pagani
Key terms: gentiles, israel, god_shows_no_partiality
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: as in the baseline Romans package, requires historically aware handling given Italy’s own Jewish community history and contemporary Middle East political sensitivity; Acts 15’s Jerusalem Council is the narrative resolution the baseline Romans 9-11 discussion presupposes.
Ceremonial Law and Gentile Inclusion
Italian name: la legge cerimoniale e l’inclusione dei pagani
Key terms: common_unclean, yoke_of_law, abstain_from_list, uncircumcised_in_heart
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: modern Italian ‘impuro’ defaults to sexual-moral impurity, risking a misapplication of Acts 10’s dietary-ceremonial-law abrogation to unrelated ethical categories; must clarify the referent is ritual food law and the theological point is Gentile inclusion, not moral relativism.
Grace
Italian name: la grazia
Key terms: grace
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: as in baseline, Catholic sacramental grace and Waldensian/evangelical sola gratia are the same Italian word carrying different doctrinal freight; Acts 15:11’s Jerusalem Council climax is the single most doctrinally load-bearing occurrence in the whole book.
The Church as Community
Italian name: la chiesa come comunità
Key terms: church, fellowship, breaking_of_bread, everything_in_common, one_heart_and_soul, souls_converts
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: as in baseline, capitalized ‘la Chiesa’ denotes the global Catholic institution; Acts 2:42’s ‘frazione del pane’ additionally collides with the technical Mass-liturgical phrase for the Eucharist, requiring explicit clarification that the early church’s simple shared-meal practice is described, not a developed sacramental theology.
Christian Fellowship
Italian name: la comunione fraterna
Key terms: fellowship, breaking_of_bread
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: as in baseline, bare ‘comunione’ is heard first as the Eucharist given First Communion’s centrality as an Italian cultural rite of passage; ‘fraterna’ is required, and ‘frazione del pane’ requires the same clarifying caution.
Sainthood (Corporate Designation for Believers)
Italian name: la santità di tutti i credenti
Key terms: saints
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: as in baseline, Italy’s intense saint-veneration culture (patron saints, feast days, relics, processions) makes ‘i santi’ overwhelmingly default to canonized intercessors; Acts uses the term as a plain corporate designation for ordinary believers in Damascus, Joppa, and Lydda.
Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Italian name: l’autorità apostolica e i miracoli
Key terms: apostle, power_of_god, sorcery, laying_on_of_hands, shepherd_the_flock
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: healing and sign-working authority flows specifically from Jesus’s invoked name (3:6,16), not the apostles’ own spiritual capital; Simon Magus’s attempted purchase of Spirit-power (8:18-24) is a built-in narrative warning against commodifying miracle-working, a live concern given prosperity-adjacent teaching in some charismatic circles.
Conversion of Paul
Italian name: la conversione di Paolo
Key terms: the_way, chosen_instrument, scales_fell_from_eyes, heavenly_vision, power_of_satan_to_god
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: ‘strumento scelto’ reuses baseline ‘elezione’ (High) as its conceptual root and must be read as sovereign divine choice, not democratic selection; the threefold retelling (chs. 9, 22, 26) requires consistent terminology across all three accounts.
Effectual Calling and Election
Italian name: la chiamata efficace e l’elezione
Key terms: election, called, calling, chosen_instrument, appointed_to_eternal_life, lord_opened_her_heart
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: as in baseline, ‘elezione’ is also the everyday word for political elections, risking a democratic-choice misreading; Catholic theology’s more synergistic (Thomistic) view of election also differs from Reformed-tradition assumptions a translator might import into 13:48 and 16:14.
Resurrection of Christ
Italian name: la risurrezione di Cristo
Key terms: resurrection, hades
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK (elevated from the baseline Romans package’s Medium tier given Acts’s sustained apologetic use): must never be rendered with reincarnation/rebirth-cycle language; the Sadducee-Pharisee dispute (23:6-8) shows resurrection was itself a live, contested claim within Judaism, risking a flattening into ‘one Jewish theological opinion among others’ rather than a historically verifiable, once-for-all event. Hades (‘Ades,’ not ‘inferno’) must remain the neutral realm-of-the-dead, not the place of final punishment.
Universal Human Accountability
Italian name: la responsabilità universale dell’umanità
Key terms: sin, forgiveness_of_sins, crooked_generation
Review routing: Human theologian
HIGH RISK: as in baseline, universal guilt before God and the universal call to repent (17:30, extended even to the philosophically sophisticated Athenian audience) is directly undercut if ‘peccato’ is read in its extremely common colloquial ‘che peccato!’ sense rather than culpable moral transgression.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Faith
Italian name: la fede
Key terms: faith
Review routing: Native speaker review
As in baseline, the object of faith (Christ specifically) must remain recoverable from context; comparatively lower secular-flattening risk than in some other languages.
Persecution and Bold Witness
Italian name: la persecuzione e la testimonianza coraggiosa
Key terms: boldness, witness, through_many_tribulations, self_control
Review routing: Native speaker review
Spirit-given ‘franchezza’ (boldness) recurs as a standing term across the whole book; risk is primarily consistency of rendering rather than doctrinal collision, though the term must not be softened to mere ‘frankness’ divorced from the courage-under-threat sense.
Providence
Italian name: la provvidenza
Key terms: providence, foreknowledge, not_a_hair_will_perish
Review routing: Native speaker review
As in baseline, Manzoni’s literary ‘la Provvidenza’ gives Italian readers a strong but sometimes more fatalistic cultural reference point; the shipwreck narrative (ch. 27) is an extended test-case of divine sovereignty operating through, not around, ordinary human means.
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Italian name: il compimento della profezia
Key terms: prophecy, prophet, light_for_gentiles, restoration_of_all_things, last_days
Review routing: Native speaker review
As in baseline, low OT literacy among biblically unchurched readers requires explicit cross-referencing; ‘restaurazione di tutte le cose’ (3:21) must not be conflated with the heterodox universalist ‘apocatastasis’ doctrine associated with Origen, given the identical Greek root.
The Great Commission Fulfilled
Italian name: il compimento della grande missione
Key terms: mission, unhindered
Review routing: Native speaker review
The book’s narrative geography (Jerusalem to Rome) itself enacts the commission of 1:8; ‘senza impedimento’ (28:31) is the deliberately open-ended, climactic final word and should be rendered with due rhetorical weight, paired with ‘franchezza.‘
Kingdom Mission
Italian name: la missione del Regno
Key terms: kingdom_of_god
Review routing: Native speaker review
As in baseline, God’s reign advancing through the gospel must be distinguished from a political or nationalist kingdom; Acts 1:6 explicitly stages the disciples’ own nationalistic misreading that the book’s whole narrative corrects.
Spiritual Gifts
Italian name: i carismi
Key terms: spiritual_gifts, tongues
Review routing: Native speaker review
As in baseline, Italy’s Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Pentecostal, and traditional evangelical streams all engage this vocabulary with different emphases; Acts narrates gift-manifestation (tongues, prophecy) more than it names ‘carismi’ abstractly.
Referenced passages