Linguistic Gap Analysis — Luke 1–24 (Italian)

0. Purpose and Method

This document executes Phase 1 Step 8 for the Luke curriculum: it identifies where standard Italian vocabulary is insufficient, crowded, or actively misleading for the doctrine vocabulary this curriculum requires, and prescribes fencing/disambiguation strategies. It presupposes and does not contradict the baseline Romans translation_memory.json/bible_term_registry.json, nor the Luke-specific entries already logged in analysis/08_core_glossary.md and the Luke additions to assets/bible_term_registry.json. Where this analysis surfaces items not yet captured in those documents, they are flagged [NEW FINDING] for incorporation before Phase 2.

Coverage is full-book: every chapter of Luke (1–24) has been reviewed. Chapters contributing no findings beyond items already logged elsewhere are marked explicitly in §5 rather than omitted.

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1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix

Doctrine	Available Italian Terms	Weaknesses	Recommended Strategy
Jesus as Savior for All Nations and All People (Jew/Gentile, Rich/Poor)	Salvatore, salvezza, salvare, pagani, tutte le nazioni / tutti i popoli, ricco, povero, Giudeo/pagano	A single Greek word (ἔθνη) requires two different Italian renderings depending on polarity (contrastive “pagani” vs. missionary-universal “tutte le nazioni”), risking inconsistency across chapters; “ricco”/“povero” pairing risks moralizing wealth itself rather than illustrating the Savior’s reach across both social poles.	Maintain the context-sensitive dual rendering already logged in bible_term_registry.json (gentiles vs all_nations_missionary); in teaching notes accompanying rich/poor pairings (e.g. 12:16-21, ch.16, 19:1-10), state explicitly that neither wealth nor poverty itself determines standing before the Savior.
The Holy Spirit’s Work in Salvation History	Spirito Santo, lo Spirito del Signore, potenza dall’alto, profezia/si è compiuto	Italian has no distinct register for the OT prophetic-empowering mode of the Spirit (“lo Spirito del Signore è sopra di me,” Isaiah 61 citation, 4:18) versus the fuller NT Pentecostal-indwelling mode; risk of flattening the deliberate ch.1-4 crescendo (Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, John, Jesus at baptism, Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus at Nazareth) into one undifferentiated “Spirito Santo.”	Preserve “lo Spirito del Signore” as a distinct compound phrase at 4:18 rather than substituting bare “Spirito Santo”; require terminological continuity tracking across all Spirit references in chs.1-4 in teaching materials so the crescendo is visible to the reader.
Good News to the Poor and Marginalized	povero/poveri, annunciare la buona notizia, beato, liberazione, guai	Italy’s Franciscan cultural heritage (San Francesco, voluntary poverty as ascetic virtue) risks re-spiritualizing Luke’s concrete economic referent; “beato” collides with the Catholic canonization title “il Beato…”; readers steeped in Matthew’s Beatitudes (“poveri in spirito”) may unconsciously import that qualifier into Luke’s unqualified “beati i poveri” (6:20).	Add an explicit contrastive note at 6:20 distinguishing Luke’s unqualified “i poveri” from Matthew’s “poveri in spirito”; gloss “beato” at first Beatitudes occurrence to block the canonization-title reading; keep “liberazione” (4:18) and “perdono dei peccati” (1:77, 24:47) visibly distinct with the mandated cross-reference footnote despite the shared Greek root.
Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins	conversione / ravvedimento, perdono dei peccati / remissione dei peccati, peccatori, frutto	”Conversione” pulls toward the Catholic sacrament of Reconciliation; “remissione” carries the priestly-absolution liturgical register; ἄφεσις’s dual sense (release of captives / forgiveness of sins) is invisible once split into two different Italian words.	Standardize “conversione” as the primary rendering with an explicit non-sacramental gloss at first occurrence (3:3); standardize “perdono dei peccati” as the primary rendering, reserving “remissione” only for segments explicitly quoting liturgical text; maintain the ἄφεσις cross-reference footnote at 1:77, 4:18, and 24:47 without exception.
Prayer and Dependence on God	Padre, pane quotidiano, chiedete/cercate/bussate, non la mia volontà ma la tua	Comparatively low-risk category; “Padre” carries a mild priestly-title adjacency (already fenced in baseline) but direct address to God is unambiguous in context. No missing vocabulary identified.	No new lexical intervention required; maintain the baseline’s warm-but-formal register (cf. Romans 8/12 precedent) consistently across the Lord’s Prayer (11:1-13) and Gethsemane (22:39-46).
The Kingdom of God Present and Future	Regno di Dio, si è avvicinato/è vicino, è in mezzo a voi, redenzione, il Figlio dell’uomo che viene con potenza e gloria	The present/future (“already/not yet”) tension is easy to collapse toward either pole in translation; “redenzione” in the apocalyptic-discourse context of ch.21 is pulled toward a purely historical-political reading (Jerusalem’s fall) rather than final cosmic deliverance; “è in mezzo a voi” vs. “è dentro di voi” (17:21) is a genuinely ambiguous Greek text requiring an editorial decision with real theological consequence.	Lock in “è in mezzo a voi” as the fixed rendering per the glossary decision; pair every “kingdom is near/present” occurrence with an explicit già/non ancora (already/not-yet) teaching frame; flag 21:28’s “redenzione” for explicit apocalyptic (not merely historical) framing in accompanying notes.
The Cost and Joy of Discipleship	discepolo, rinnegare se stesso, croce, calcolare il costo, gioia	Italy’s dense visual/devotional saturation with crucifixes risks banalizing “croce” into a decorative or purely liturgical object rather than the existential daily demand of 9:23; “discepolo” risks academic-student flattening; “rinnegare se stesso” (positive, 9:23) shares its verb root with Peter’s negative “rinnegare” of Christ (22:34, 61).	Pair “croce” with explicit “ogni giorno” (daily) framing wherever the cost-of-discipleship saying recurs (9:23; 14:27) to resist decorative flattening; explicitly disambiguate the positive self-denial sense from the negative Christ-denial sense in surrounding teaching notes at both 9:23 and ch.22.
Jesus’ Compassion and Table Fellowship with Sinners	provare compassione / muoversi a compassione, peccatori, pubblicano, mangiare con i peccatori, Samaritano	Italian has no visceral/gut-level idiom equivalent to σπλαγχνίζομαι, risking flattening to passive “pietà,” itself adjacent to the baseline’s documented “che peccato!” pity-drift; “i peccatori” risks becoming a fixed narrative social “type” rather than the universal category the reader also occupies; “buon samaritano” is a common secular idiom that flattens the original ethnic-religious hostility.	Render σπλαγχνίζομαι as an active verb phrase always paired with the narrated action that follows (“si mosse a compassione e corse…”), never as a static noun; supply teaching-note framing at every “sinners” occurrence (5:30, 7:37-39, 15:1-2, 18:13) that includes the reader within the category; avoid the idiomatic “buon samaritano” shorthand in exposition, using plain “il Samaritano” to preserve the parable’s scandal.

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2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods

2a. Missing Vocabulary (no ready single-word Italian equivalent)

Concept	Greek	Gap	Required Strategy
σπλαγχνίζομαι	splanchnizomai	No Italian visceral/bowels-based idiom exists; nearest single word (“pietà”) is a static-emotion noun, not an action verb.	Paraphrase construction: verb phrase + narrated resulting action, never a bare noun.
ἄφεσις (dual sense)	aphesis	No single Italian word covers both “release from captivity” and “forgiveness of sins” simultaneously.	Split rendering (“liberazione” / “perdono dei peccati”) plus mandatory cross-reference footnote at every occurrence cluster (1:77; 4:18; 24:47).
κεχαριτωμένη (Luke 1:28) [NEW FINDING]	kecharitōmenē	This is a distinct perfect-passive participle of χαριτόω (“favored/graced one”), not simply the noun χάρις (“grace”) already logged in the baseline. Italian has no verb form that isolates this nuance from the noun “grazia.”	See §2b below — this item is simultaneously a missing-vocabulary problem and Italy’s single most crowded semantic neighborhood; treat as Critical.
ἐντός ambiguity (17:21)	entos	Not a vocabulary gap but a genuine source-text ambiguity with no neutral Italian equivalent that preserves both possible senses at once.	Editorial decision required (see doctrine matrix above); documented as an ambiguity, not resolved by vocabulary substitution.

2b. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing

Italian Term	Competing Senses Crowding It	Fencing Strategy
grazia	(1) baseline soteriological “unmerited grace”; (2) Luke 4:19’s Jubilee “anno di grazia del Signore”; (3) Luke 1:28’s Marian “piena di grazia” (Ave Maria — the single most recited prayer in Italian Catholic devotional life); (4) secular “grazie” (thank you).	This is the most heavily crowded single word in the entire Luke package — four distinct senses competing in one lexeme. Recommend: (i) reuse baseline “grazia” for soteriological sense per translation memory; (ii) retain “anno di grazia del Signore” for 4:19 but require the Leviticus-25/Jubilee teaching note every time; (iii) for 1:28, do NOT default silently to the Ave Maria wording — render as “Rallegrati, tu che hai ricevuto grazia” or equivalent, with an explicit footnote acknowledging and distinguishing it from, rather than silently reinforcing, the liturgical “piena di grazia” formula, since the doctrinal point (undeserved divine favor, not a title of honor Mary possesses independently) must not be absorbed into devotional/Marian theology uncritically.
comunione	Eucharist / First Communion vs. koinonia-fellowship.	Already fenced by baseline (“comunione fraterna” mandatory); extend the same rule to all Luke table-fellowship contexts without exception.
vocazione / chiamata	Priestly/religious-life calling vs. general discipleship calling.	Already fenced by baseline; extend explicitly to Luke’s call narratives (5:1-11, 27-28; 9:57-62).
beato	Beatitudes’ pronouncement of divine favor vs. the Catholic pre-canonization honorific “il Beato…” vs. secular idiom “che vita beata!” (the good life).	Gloss at first Beatitudes occurrence (6:20); avoid capitalized “Beato” formatting anywhere in the Beatitudes to prevent visual conflation with the canonization title.
Pasqua	Jewish Passover (Exodus-lamb typology, Luke 22) vs. the major civic/cultural Christian Easter holiday (chocolate eggs, national public holiday).	Retain “Pasqua” (no viable alternative exists in standard usage) but require an explicit teaching note at 22:1, 7-15 recovering the Exodus-deliverance/sacrificial-lamb background before any connection is drawn to the later Christian feast.
croce	Theological cost-of-discipleship metaphor (9:23; 14:27) vs. the ubiquitous decorative/devotional physical object (crucifixes in homes, schools, courtrooms) vs. the secular idiom “ogni testa una croce” (everyone has their burdens to bear).	Pair with “ogni giorno” (daily) at every occurrence to resist collapse into decoration or vague fatalistic idiom.
prossimo	Covenantal neighbor-love, deliberately redefined across ethnic-religious hostility (10:25-37) vs. generic secular-humanist “help thy neighbor” ethics.	Recover the parable’s boundary-crossing force explicitly in teaching notes; do not let the term stand unglossed as if it were self-evidently humanist ethics.
Ade / inferi vs. inferno [NEW FINDING]	Hades (16:23, place of the dead in the Rich Man and Lazarus parable) vs. the fully developed doctrine of Hell (“inferno”) that later Christian tradition (including Dante’s Inferno, deeply embedded in Italian literary culture) elaborates in far greater systematic detail than this parable intends.	Prefer “Ade” (transliteration) or “il regno dei morti” over “inferno” at 16:23 to avoid importing Dante-inflected systematic afterlife geography into a parable whose rhetorical point is the reversal of fortunes, not a doctrinal map of the afterlife.
Signore (Psalm 110 citation, 20:41-44) [NEW FINDING]	Two distinct referents (YHWH and the Messiah) rendered with the identical Italian word “Signore” in “Il Signore disse al mio Signore,” reproducing in Italian the same double-referent compression already present in the Greek/Hebrew, but with zero visual/orthographic marker (unlike English capitalization conventions “LORD” vs “Lord”) to distinguish them.	Flag for teaching-note clarification explaining the double referent; no lexical fix is possible within standard Italian orthography, so this must be handled exegetically rather than lexically.

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3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decision Log

Term	Greek/Source	Decision	Rationale
Abba	Ἀββά	Transliterate (“Abba, Padre”)	[BASELINE] Already established across CEI/Riveduta tradition; preserves Aramaic intimacy the formal “Padre” alone cannot supply.
Amen	Ἀμήν	Transliterate (“Amen”)	[BASELINE] Standard convention.
Mammona	μαμωνᾷς	Transliterate (“mammona”), with occasional gloss “ricchezza”	Preserves the personified rival-master framing (16:9, 13) that a bare abstraction (“ricchezza”) would lose.
Beelzebul	Βεελζεβούλ	Transliterate (“Beelzebùl”) [NEW FINDING, Luke 11:15,18-19]	Established Italian Bible convention (CEI/Riveduta both transliterate); no viable Italian paraphrase exists for a proper name, and substituting a generic “il diavolo” would collapse the specific accusation being answered.
Gehenna	γέεννα	Paraphrase as “inferno” [NEW FINDING, Luke 12:5]	No distinct Italian transliteration tradition exists for Gehenna independent of the general Hell-concept; unlike the Hades case above (§2b), Luke 12:5 is a direct teaching statement (not a parable’s rhetorical device), so the more general “inferno” rendering is defensible here, but the passage must still be flagged so it is not conflated lexically with the Hades/16:23 parable occurrence, which is handled differently for genre reasons.
Hades	ᾍδης	Prefer transliteration (“Ade”) over “inferno” [NEW FINDING, Luke 16:23]	See §2b; genre-sensitive distinction from the Gehenna decision above — a parable’s rhetorical use of Hades should not import the more doctrinally systematic weight “inferno” carries in Italian religious and literary culture.
Pasqua	πάσχα	Retain established loanword (not a transliteration decision but a fixed-equivalence one)	[Luke curriculum registry] No viable alternative in standard Italian; equivocation risk is managed by teaching note, not lexical substitution.
κεχαριτωμένη	kecharitōmenē	Paraphrase, NOT direct adoption of the liturgical “piena di grazia”	See §2b; a distinct choice from bare “grazia,” made to avoid silently reinforcing Marian devotional wording where the text’s own doctrinal point is God’s initiative-favor, not a title Mary possesses.
Rabbi/Teacher forms	ἐπιστάτα / διδάσκαλε	Paraphrase as “Maestro,” not transliterated “Rabbi”	Luke consistently prefers ἐπιστάτης (“Master/Commander,” a term with Greek administrative resonance) over the Hebraic “Rabbi” favored by the other Synoptics; “Maestro” is the stable, already-established Italian rendering across traditions and requires no new decision, but is logged here for completeness since curricula sometimes default to “Rabbi” by habit from other Gospels.

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4. Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities (This Book)

Ranked by combination of (a) doctrinal weight, (b) likelihood of silent mistranslation, and (c) strength of the competing Italian cultural/devotional pull.

1. Luke 1:28, κεχαριτωμένη / “full of grace” — Critical. [NEW FINDING] The single strongest devotional-collision risk in the entire Luke package: Italy’s Ave Maria is arguably its most repeated devotional formula, and a silent default to “piena di grazia” risks the doctrinal point (undeserved divine favor/initiative) being absorbed into a Marian-devotional register the curriculum does not intend to reinforce or adjudicate.
2. ἄφεσις polysemy (release of captives / forgiveness of sins), Luke 1:77; 4:18; 24:47 — Critical. Wordplay invisible once split into two Italian words; without the mandated footnote, the core passage’s central theological move (liberation-as-forgiveness) disappears.
3. “Anno di grazia del Signore,” Luke 4:19 — Critical. Reuses the same crowded “grazia” lexeme as items 1 and 4 below; risks collapsing the concrete Leviticus 25 Jubilee background into generic abstract soteriological grace.
4. δικαιόω narrative enactment, Luke 18:14 — Critical. The Pharisee/tax-collector parable is Luke’s own dramatized instance of the Trent-vs-Reformation justification flashpoint already flagged Critical in the baseline; any translation choice implying the tax collector’s humility was itself meritorious reproduces the exact error Jesus’ parable rebuts.
5. “Figlio dell’uomo” flattening, throughout — Critical. Repeated at high frequency (over 20 occurrences); a title with no competing Italian religious claimant, but easily read as emphasizing only Jesus’ humanity and losing the Daniel 7 judge-and-glory dimension, especially at 21:27 and 22:69.
6. New covenant liturgical collision, Luke 22:20 — Critical. Constant repetition of nearly identical wording at every Catholic Mass risks a purely ritual/transubstantiation-focused hearing crowding out the Jeremiah-31 covenant-fulfillment content.
7. “Beato,” Luke 6:20-22 — High. Direct structural parallel to the baseline’s “santi” collision; risks the Beatitudes being heard as a canonization-track pronouncement rather than Jesus’ direct blessing on ordinary poor, hungry, weeping people.
8. “Pasqua” equivocation, Luke 22:1-15 — High. Conflates the Jewish Passover-deliverance typology with the later, distinct Christian Easter civic holiday.
9. Hades/Gehenna underdetermination, Luke 16:23 / 12:5 — High. [NEW FINDING] Risk of importing Dante-inflected systematic Hell-doctrine into a parable whose rhetorical purpose is reversal-of-fortune, not afterlife geography; compounded by the genre-sensitive need to treat the two passages differently (see §3).
10. σπλαγχνίζομαι flattening to “pietà,” Luke 7:13; 10:33; 15:20 — High. Compounds with the baseline’s documented “che peccato!” pity-drift risk, reducing Jesus’/the Samaritan’s/the father’s active, moved-to-intervene compassion to passive sentiment.
11. “Buon samaritano” idiom flattening, Luke 10:33; 17:16 — High. The single most common secular Italian idiom derived from Luke, and the one most likely to erase the original ethnic-religious hostility the parable depends on.
12. “Il Regno di Dio è in mezzo a voi” vs. “è dentro di voi,” Luke 17:21 — High. Genuinely ambiguous Greek where the two candidate Italian renderings carry substantially different theological weight (communal/in-breaking vs. individualistic/interior).
13. Double referent of “Signore” in the Psalm 110 citation, Luke 20:41-44 — High. [NEW FINDING] No lexical fix possible in Italian; requires exegetical handling since the orthographic LORD/Lord distinction available in English has no Italian equivalent.
14. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Luke 12:10 — High. Easily misheard as a free-floating “unforgivable sin” anxiety trigger disconnected from its specific referent (rejecting the Spirit’s witness to Jesus).
15. “Povero/poveri” Franciscan idealization vs. concrete destitution, throughout, esp. Luke 4:18; 6:20; 14:13, 21; 16:19-31 — High. Italy’s Franciscan heritage is a uniquely strong cultural pull toward spiritualizing/romanticizing what Luke insists is a concrete socioeconomic category.

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5. Full-Book Chapter Coverage Log

Every chapter of Luke has been reviewed for linguistic-gap findings. Chapters below marked “reviewed — no new findings” contribute vocabulary already fully captured in §§1-4 above or in analysis/08_core_glossary.md; they are recorded explicitly per the full-book coverage mandate rather than silently omitted.

Ch.	Gap-Analysis Status
1	New finding: κεχαριτωμένη / Ave Maria collision (§2b, §4 #1); dense pneumatological onset noted under Doctrine Matrix item 2.
2	New finding: “pace in terra agli uomini” (2:14) uses “pace” in a cosmic-messianic/shalom register distinct from the baseline’s Romans 5:1 relational-peace-through-justification sense; flag so the two are not silently conflated in cross-document consistency checks. Savior/Christ/Lord triple confession (2:11) and contrastive “pagani” (2:32) already logged in registry.
3	Reviewed — no new findings beyond μετάνοια, βάπτισμα, καρπός, ὀργή, and seed-of-David/genealogy items already logged.
4	Core passage — fully covered in prior documents (ἄφεσις, ἀνοίντεδ, Spirito del Signore, anno di grazia, sinagoga, sabato, authority, demon). No new findings beyond those already logged.
5	Reviewed — no new findings beyond disciple, cleanse/heal, tax collector, sinners, table-fellowship items already logged.
6	Reviewed — no new findings beyond μακάριος/beato, guai, and apostle-appointment items already logged.
7	Reviewed — no new findings; compassion (σπλαγχνίζομαι), faith (centurion), forgiveness (sinful woman) all already logged.
8	Reviewed — no new findings; parable, demon (Legion, proper noun, low risk), faith (woman with the flow of blood) already logged.
9	Reviewed — no new findings beyond deny_himself, cross, Son of Man, glory/Transfiguration, resurrection-anticipation items already logged.
10	Reviewed — no new findings beyond kingdom-come-near, neighbor, Samaritan items already logged.
11	New finding: Beelzebul transliteration decision (§3). Lord’s Prayer vocabulary, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and guai/woes against the Pharisees already logged.
12	New finding: Gehenna paraphrase decision, distinguished from the Hades decision at ch.16 (§3). Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (12:10) and steward (12:42) already logged.
13	Reviewed — no new findings; kingdom parables and Sabbath-healing controversy already covered under existing low/medium-risk terms (parable, sabato).
14	Reviewed — no new findings beyond count_the_cost item already logged.
15	Reviewed — no new findings beyond lost (ἀπόλλυμι), joy, and compassion (15:20) items already logged.
16	New finding: Hades transliteration/paraphrase decision at 16:23, genre-distinguished from the Gehenna decision at ch.12 (§2b, §3). Steward/mammon already logged.
17	Reviewed — no new findings beyond kingdom-in-your-midst (17:21) and cleanse/heal (ten lepers) items already logged.
18	Reviewed — no new findings; δικαιόω narrative enactment (18:14, ranked #4 above) and eternal life (rich ruler) already logged.
19	Reviewed — no new findings beyond salvation/lost (Zacchaeus, 19:9-10) and Blessed-is-the-King items already logged.
20	New finding: double referent of “Signore” in the Psalm 110 citation (20:41-44), no lexical fix possible (§2b, §4 #13). Resurrection debate/“God of the living” already logged.
21	Reviewed — no new findings beyond redemption, Son-of-Man-coming-in-power-and-glory, and widow’s-offering items already logged.
22	Minor new finding: at 22:70, “Σὺ λέγεις ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι” (“You say that I am”) carries a faint possible echo of the divine “I AM” self-disclosure idiom found more explicitly in John’s Gospel; the echo is weaker and more ambiguous in Luke’s Greek than in John’s, so it should be noted for theologian awareness but not built into a load-bearing translation decision. New covenant, body-given/blood-poured, Passover, and the positive/negative “rinnegare” contrast already logged.
23	Reviewed — no new findings; righteous/δίκαιος (centurion’s confession), Paradise/“today,” and “Father forgive them” perdono vocabulary already logged.
24	Reviewed — no new findings; Scripture/fulfilled (Emmaus), all-nations missionary sense, and power-from-on-high items already logged.

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6. Handoff Notes for Phase 2 Preparation

1. All [NEW FINDING] items in this document (κεχαριτωμένη/Ave Maria collision; “pace in terra” register distinction; Beelzebul; Gehenna vs. Hades genre-sensitive treatment; double-referent Kyrios at 20:41-44; the weak ἐγώ εἰμι echo at 22:70) must be added to translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json before Phase 2 segment translation begins, per the version-increment procedure in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
2. The most heavily crowded lexeme across the entire curriculum is “grazia” (four competing senses: baseline soteriological grace, Jubilee 4:19, Marian 1:28, secular “grazie”). Any Phase 2 QA pass should specifically audit every occurrence of “grazia” in Luke output against this four-way disambiguation table.
3. The genre-sensitive Hades/Gehenna distinction (§3) must not be collapsed into a single uniform “inferno” rendering across both passages; reviewers should check 12:5 and 16:23 independently.
4. This analysis does not alter any baseline-established rendering; it extends the baseline’s fencing logic (grazia, chiamata/vocazione, comunione, Padre) to newly identified Luke-specific crowding and supplies the missing-vocabulary paraphrase strategies the baseline’s Romans-only scope did not require.