Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 2 John
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, covering all 13 verses of 2 John. Terms already present in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE REUSE] and their recorded Japanese rendering is reused exactly, per the hard rule that established renderings must not be altered. New terms (not present in the Romans baseline) are marked [NEW] and are proposed here for addition to translation memory before Phase 2 processing, following the Language Package’s version-increment procedure.
Risk tiers (Critical / High / Medium / Low) follow the definitions in the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json.
A. Baseline Terms Reused Exactly (No Deviation Permitted)
| English Term | Greek | Transliteration | Japanese Rendering | Risk | 2 John Occurrences | Baseline Doctrine Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Θεός | Theos | 神 (Kami) | Critical | vv.2,3,4,9 | god | Qualify with 唯一のまことの神 at v.3 (first occurrence) and at v.9’s “does not have God” statement. |
| Father | Πατήρ | Patēr | 父 (chichi) | Medium | vv.1(implied),3,4,9 | father | Build relational warmth actively per baseline note; paired here with Son in inseparable unity (v.9). |
| Lord | Κύριος | Kyrios | 主 (shu) | High/Critical | v.3 | lord | Reserved exclusively for Christ’s title; never conflated with κυρία (“lady,” v.1,5) — see Section B. |
| Jesus | Ἰησοῦς | Iēsous | イエス (Iesu) | Critical | vv.3,7 | jesus | Standard form; object of the required confession in v.7. |
| Christ / Messiah | Χριστός | Christos | キリスト (Kirisuto) | Critical | vv.3,7,9 | messiah | v.9’s “teaching of Christ” (διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ) is the letter’s doctrinal center. |
| Son (of God) | Υἱός | Huios | 御子 / 神の子 (miko / Kami no Ko) | Critical | vv.3,9 | son_of_god | Never presented as separable from “the Father” — v.9’s force depends on their inseparability; never equate with 現人神. |
| Incarnation | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί | erchomenon en sarki | 受肉 (juniku) | Critical | v.7 | incarnation | The letter’s central doctrinal test. NEVER 化身/権化. This is arguably the highest-stakes single verse in the curriculum for this doctrine. |
| Grace | χάρις | charis | 恵み (megumi) | Critical | v.3 | grace | Retain non-transactional clarification even in the brief greeting formula. |
| Peace | εἰρήνη | eirēnē | 平安 (heian) | Medium | v.3 | peace | Relational peace from God, paired with grace and mercy. |
| Fellowship (noun, positive sense) | κοινωνία (root; not used as noun in 2 John, but its verb κοινωνέω appears in v.11) | koinōnia | 交わり (majiwari) | Low (positive sense only) | — (root form appears via κοινωνέω, v.11, in a NEGATIVE sense — see Section C for that occurrence) | fellowship | Do not use 交わり to render v.11’s κοινωνεῖ (see Section C partake/be complicit entry) — same Greek root, opposite moral valence; a critical cross-reference risk unique to this book. |
| Election (root concept) | ἐκλεκτός | eklektos | 選ばれた (erabareta), root of 選び (erabi) | Medium | vv.1,13 | election | Applied here to the “elect lady” (v.1) and “elect sister” (v.13) rather than to soteriological election generally; avoid competitive-selection (合格/選抜) framing per baseline note. |
| Amen | ἀμήν | amēn | アーメン (aamen) | Low | v.13 | (transliteration standard) | Standard closing liturgical form. |
B. New Terms Requiring Translation Memory Addition — High/Critical Risk
| English Term | Greek | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Proposed Japanese Rendering | Risk | 2 John Occurrences | Alternatives Rejected | Rationale / Collision Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truth | ἀλήθεια | alētheia | that which is unconcealed; reality | 真理 (shinri) | High | vv.1,2,3,4 | 本当 (honto, mere factual truth — too weak/casual for the Johannine sense) | Risk of (1) dilution toward abstract philosophical/scientific truth, and (2) syncretistic overlap with Buddhist doctrinal truth (四諦の真理, the Four Noble Truths), which frames truth as an impersonal principle realized through insight rather than a Person trusted and obeyed. Requires active anchoring to Christ (cf. v.7, v.9). |
| Love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | agapē / agapaō | self-giving, covenantal love | 愛 / 愛する (ai / ai suru) | High | vv.1,3,5,6 | 恋 (koi, romantic love — must never be used for agapē) | No viable alternative to 愛 exists, but modern secular Japanese usage of 愛 is saturated with romantic/pop-culture connotation (J-pop, anime, dating culture). Requires active first-occurrence teaching to establish the commandment-keeping, self-giving, non-romantic sense (v.6 explicitly defines love as obedient walking in commandments — this definitional move must be preserved, not paraphrased away). |
| Confess | ὁμολογέω | homologeō | to say the same thing, publicly affirm | 告白する (kokuhaku suru) | High | v.7 | 認める (mitomeru, too weak — lacks the public/formal affirmation sense) | Major Japanese-specific dilution risk: 告白 in contemporary secular usage (esp. youth culture) primarily denotes a romantic confession of love (“kokuhaku culture” in anime/drama/manga). Analogous to baseline’s flagged risk for 復活’s pop-culture “comeback” dilution — the correct word is doctrinally right but rhetorically deflated without active restoration teaching. Must be explicitly and immediately framed as public doctrinal affirmation regarding Christ’s incarnation, not personal romantic disclosure. |
| Deceiver | πλάνος | planos | one who wanders/leads astray | 惑わす者 (madowasu mono) | High | v.7 | 嘘つき (usotsuki, “liar” — too weak, implies personal dishonesty rather than doctrinal false teaching) | 惑わす carries folkloric resonance with fox-spirit/tanuki trickster tales in Japanese popular culture (kitsune/tanuki “bewitching” humans), risking a folk-supernatural reading rather than a doctrinal false-teacher reading. Must always be anchored explicitly to denial of the incarnation (v.7b). |
| Antichrist | ἀντίχριστος | antichristos | against/in place of Christ | 反キリスト (Han-Kirisuto) | High | v.7 | アンチクライスト (unnecessary double loanword; less standard) | Inverse risk from most terms in this package: already a familiar apocalyptic-villain trope in Japanese fantasy/horror fiction, risking trivialization rather than blankness or syncretism. Requires teaching to restore sober theological meaning: active, present-tense doctrinal opposition to Christ’s true incarnation, not a fictional supervillain. |
| Teaching (of Christ) | διδαχή | didachē | body of authoritative instruction | 教え (oshie), qualified as キリストの教え | High | vv.9,10 | 教理 (kyouri, “doctrine” — overly academic/abstract for the pastoral register of this letter) | 教え is Japan’s generic word for any religious/philosophical teaching (Buddhist, Confucian, Shinto 教え all identical in form), risking relativization of “the teaching of Christ” as one option within Japan’s syncretistic religious marketplace. Must stress exclusivity: THE teaching, bounded and singular, tied to v.7’s incarnation confession. |
| Have God / does not have God | Θεὸν ἔχει / οὐκ ἔχει | Theon echei | to have/possess God | 神との関係を持つ (idiomatic; avoid literal 神を持つ) | High | v.9 | 神を持つ (literal — risks amulet/possession connotation) | A literal rendering risks evoking omamori (お守り) amulet-carrying practice — “having” a protective charm/deity-object — rather than a relational either/or claim. Must render relationally (e.g., 神とのつながりがない, “not connected to God”), preserving the verse’s stark binary force without the object-possession overtone. |
| Reward | μισθός | misthos | wage, payment earned | 報い (mukui) | High | v.8 | 賞 (shou, “prize” — too competitive/game-like) | 報い is closely associated with 応報 (ōhō), Buddhist/folk karmic retribution earned through merit/demerit accumulation. Must be taught as God’s gracious response to grace-enabled perseverance, not karmically earned payout — parallel caution to baseline’s 恵み entry. |
| Partake / be complicit in | κοινωνέω | koinōneō | to share, participate | 加担する (kadan suru) | Critical (cross-reference risk) | v.11 | 交わり参加する / any use of 交わり (majiwari) | Same Greek root as baseline’s positive fellowship term (交わり) but negative moral valence here (complicity in evil deeds). Using 交わり in this verse would contradict its established warm, positive sense elsewhere in the curriculum. Flag for mandatory human theologian review specifically on this cross-reference ground. |
C. New Terms — Medium Risk
| English Term | Greek | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Proposed Japanese Rendering | Risk | 2 John Occurrences | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commandment | ἐντολή | entolē | injunction, charge | 命令 (meirei) | Medium | vv.4,5,6 | 命令 risks a military/hierarchical “order” connotation; rejected alternatives 戒め (too Decalogue-specific) and 掟 (yakuza-code connotation in pop culture) are worse. Consistent use across all three occurrences required. |
| World | κόσμος | kosmos | ordered universe; humanity; the fallen order | 世 (yo), or 世界 (sekai) in general register | Medium | v.7 | Prefer 世 in doctrinal statements to avoid 世界’s neutral globalized-geography default sense; avoid conflation with Buddhist 世間 (the mundane realm to be transcended). |
| Elect lady | ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ | eklektē kyria | chosen lady | 選ばれた婦人 (erabareta fujin) | Medium | v.1 | κυρία (婦人, “lady”) must never be confused with Κύριος (主, “Lord,” reserved for Christ). Retain interpretive openness (individual/church-personification). |
| Mercy | ἔλεος | eleos | compassion, pity from a position of ability to help | 憐れみ (awaremi) | Medium | v.3 | Distinguish from generic sympathy (同情) and from the Buddhist cultivated-virtue sense of compassion (慈悲, jihi); this is God’s freely given covenant compassion toward the guilty. |
| Walk (ethical metaphor) | περιπατέω | peripateō | to walk about; live/conduct oneself | 歩む (ayumu) | Medium | vv.4,6 | Natural Japanese bridge (人生を歩む) but must retain doctrinal content (truth/commandments), not become a vague “lifestyle” term. |
| Abide / remain | μένω | menō | to stay, continue | とどまる/留まる (todomaru) | Medium | vv.2,9 | Must be taught as active, willed perseverance in doctrine, not passive stasis. |
| Receive into house (hospitality) | λαμβάνω εἰς οἰκίαν | lambanō eis oikian | to take/welcome into the house | 家に迎え入れる (ie ni mukae ireru) | Medium | v.10 | Cuts against Japan’s strong omotenashi (おもてなし) hospitality ethic; must be taught as a narrow, doctrinally bounded exception, not a general principle against hospitality. |
| Goes ahead/beyond (of false teachers) | προάγω | proagō | to go before, progress beyond | 教えを越えて先走る者 (a periphrastic rendering; avoid 進歩, “progress”) | Medium/High | v.9 | Must not sound like commendable spiritual growth; 進歩 carries strong positive connotations from Japan’s modernization narrative and would invert the verse’s polemical point. |
| Elder (title) | πρεσβύτερος | presbyteros | older man; church office | 長老 (chourou) | Low/Medium | v.1 | Standard, well-established Japanese ecclesiastical term (cf. 長老派教会, Presbyterian church); low risk. |
D. New Terms — Low Risk
| English Term | Greek | Transliteration | Proposed Japanese Rendering | Risk | 2 John Occurrences | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children | τέκνα | tekna | 子たち / 子どもたち (kodomotachi) | Low | vv.1,4,13 | Retain ambiguity between biological and spiritual/house-church membership senses. |
| Rejoice / joy | χαίρω / χαρά | chairō / chara | 喜ぶ / 喜び (yorokobu / yorokobi) | Low | vv.4,12 (joy); 10,11 (greeting formula, see below) | Note the deliberate ironic reuse of the χαίρω root between v.4 (the elder’s joy) and vv.10-11 (the withheld greeting) — do not let the Japanese renderings obscure this connection if teaching notes wish to highlight it. |
| Greeting formula (“say to him, Rejoice”) | χαίρειν λέγειν | chairein legein | 挨拶の言葉をかける / 歓迎の言葉を述べる (idiomatic; not literal “say rejoice”) | Low/Medium | vv.10,11 | Idiom-handling: literal rendering is opaque in Japanese; render as the functional withholding of a formal greeting/blessing of endorsement. |
| Evil works/deeds | ἔργα πονηρά | erga ponēra | 悪い行い (warui okonai) | Low | v.11 | Connect explicitly to doctrinal denial (v.7), not generic bad behavior. |
| Sister | ἀδελφή | adelphē | 姉妹 (shimai) | Low | v.13 | Likely a sister church/community parallel to the “elect lady,” modeling positive fellowship. |
| Greet (epistolary closing) | ἀσπάζομαι | aspazomai | 挨拶を送る / よろしくと言っています | Low | v.13 | Standard Japanese epistolary closing formula. |
| Face to face | στόμα πρὸς στόμα | stoma pros stoma | 直接会って (chokusetsu atte) | Low | v.12 | Idiom-handling: literal “mouth to mouth” is unnatural/confusing in Japanese; render functionally. |
| Full/fulfilled (of joy) | πληρόω (πεπληρωμένη) | peplērōmenē | 満たされる / 満ちる (michiru) | Low | v.12 | Standard vocabulary. |
| Paper and ink | χάρτης, μέλαν | chartēs, melan | 紙と墨 (kami to sumi) | Low | v.12 | Descriptive detail; no doctrinal weight. |
E. Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference (Curriculum Alignment)
| Curriculum Doctrine | Primary Terms | Primary Verses |
|---|---|---|
| Walking in Truth and Love | ἀλήθεια (真理), ἀγάπη/ἀγαπάω (愛/愛する), περιπατέω (歩む), ἐντολή (命令) | vv.1-6 |
| Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | πλάνος (惑わす者), ἀντίχριστος (反キリスト), ὁμολογέω (告白する), ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί / 受肉, κόσμος (世) | v.7 |
| Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | λαμβάνω εἰς οἰκίαν (家に迎え入れる), χαίρειν λέγειν (挨拶の言葉をかける), κοινωνέω (加担する — negative sense), Βλέπετε ἑαυτούς | vv.8, 10-11 |
| Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | μένω (とどまる), διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (キリストの教え), προάγω (教えを越えて先走る者), Θεὸν ἔχειν (神との関係を持つ), μισθός (報い) | vv.8-9 |
F. Escalation Flags for Phase 2 (per baseline routing rules)
The following terms/verses require mandatory human theologian review (Critical/High risk, per baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json routing conventions):
- v.7 in full (incarnation denial, antichrist identification) — highest-stakes verse in the letter
- v.9 (Θεὸν οὐκ ἔχει / teaching of Christ / Father-Son inseparability)
- v.11 (κοινωνέω — cross-reference collision risk with baseline 交わり)
- v.3 (compressed high-Christology greeting clause)
The following require native speaker review:
- v.8 (μισθός / reward — karmic-retribution collision risk)
- v.10 (hospitality exception vs. omotenashi cultural norm)
- v.1, v.13 (ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ / ἐκλεκτῆς — election-root terms applied to persons/communities)
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: Kami
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 八百万の神の一柱としての神, 神様
Original: Θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 John, qualify with 唯一のまことの神 (‘the one true God’) at v.3’s first occurrence (the tripartite grace/mercy/peace blessing) and again at v.9’s stark ‘does not have God’ statement, to preempt a Shinto yaoyorozu-no-kami (‘eight million kami’) pantheon reading. V.9’s force depends entirely on the Father and the Son being confessed as inseparably one; 神 must never be softened toward ‘a divine being’ in that context.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: shu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 主君, ご主人様
Original: Κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; risk tier elevated to Critical for this book specifically because 2 John also addresses a human ‘lady’ (κυρία, transliterated kyria, sharing the same Greek root as Κύριος). 主 must be reserved EXCLUSIVELY for Christ’s title in v.3 and must NEVER be used for, or visually/phonetically blended with, the 婦人 (fujin, ‘lady’) rendering of κυρία used for the letter’s addressee in vv.1 and 5. This is a collision risk specific to 2 John, absent from the Romans baseline.
Jesus
Approved rendering: イエス
Transliteration: Iesu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ゼズス
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 John, イエス is the object of the required public confession in v.7 (denial of Jesus Christ’s coming in the flesh marks one as ‘the deceiver and the antichrist’).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: 神の子
Transliteration: Kami no Ko
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 現人神, 神の化身
Original: Υἱός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. In relational context alongside ‘the Father’ (2 John vv.3, 9), the honorific 御子 (miko) — standard Shinkaiyaku usage for the divine Son in Father-Son relational statements — is an APPROVED CONTEXTUAL VARIANT of this same entry, not a substitute rendering. NEVER equate with 現人神 (arahitogami, the pre-1946 living-god emperor doctrine, formally renounced in Hirohito’s 1946 Humanity Declaration); v.9’s entire argument depends on the Father and Son being confessed as inseparable.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: 受肉
Transliteration: juniku
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: 化身, 権化
Original: ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. 2 John 1:7 is arguably the single highest doctrinal-risk verse in this entire curriculum: it is a direct denial-test for exactly the syncretistic collapse this entry guards against. NEVER use 化身 or 権化 (a kami’s or bodhisattva’s provisional, repeatable manifestation-form per honji suijaku theology). Render σάρξ (‘flesh’) in this verse as 肉体 (nikutai, ‘physical body’) rather than bare 肉, which risks a fleshly-appetite (肉の欲) reading that distracts from the christological point.
Grace
Approved rendering: 恵み
Transliteration: megumi
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: 恩返しが要る恵み, 功徳
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 John 1:3’s opening blessing (‘grace, mercy, peace… from God the Father and from Jesus Christ’), retain the non-transactional clarification against Japan’s on-giri (恩・義理) reciprocal-obligation system even in this brief greeting formula.
Partake Complicit
Approved rendering: 加担する
Transliteration: kadan suru
Doctrine: Complicity in False Teaching
Rejected alternatives: 交わり, 交わり参加する
Original: κοινωνέω
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book — CRITICAL CROSS-REFERENCE RISK. This is the verb form (κοινωνέω) of the same Greek root as the established, positive, Low-risk fellowship term (交わり, majiwari) reused from the Romans baseline, but v.11 uses it with the OPPOSITE moral valence: complicity in a false teacher’s evil works. The Japanese rendering must NOT reuse 交わり, which would create a direct internal contradiction with its established warm, positive sense elsewhere in the curriculum. Flag every occurrence for MANDATORY human theologian review specifically on this cross-reference ground.
High Risk Terms
Messiah
Approved rendering: キリスト
Transliteration: Kirisuto
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: 救世主
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 John, キリスト anchors both the incarnation-denial test of v.7 and the bounded, exclusive ‘teaching of Christ’ (διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ) of v.9 — teaching materials must stress that this names a specific, singular body of doctrine, not one option among Japan’s many available 教え.
Truth
Approved rendering: 真理
Transliteration: shinri
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: 本当
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. Two collision risks unique to Japanese: (1) secular default toward abstract philosophical/scientific truth (物理の真理), diluting the relational-covenantal Johannine sense; (2) syncretistic overlap with Buddhist doctrinal truth (四諦の真理, the Four Noble Truths), which frames truth as an impersonal principle realized through insight rather than a Person to be trusted and obeyed. Must be actively anchored to Christ (cf. vv.7, 9) at every doctrinally weighty occurrence (vv.1-4).
Love
Approved rendering: 愛
Transliteration: ai
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: 恋
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. No viable alternative to 愛/愛する exists, so the risk is one of default connotation, not mistranslation: modern secular Japanese 愛 is heavily saturated with romantic-love associations (J-pop, anime, dating culture). NEVER use 恋 (koi, romantic love). Preserve v.6’s circular definitional structure (love IS walking in the commandments; the commandment IS to love) in Japanese syntax rather than smoothing it into a looser paraphrase — the mutual definition is itself the theological point.
Confess
Approved rendering: 告白する
Transliteration: kokuhaku suru
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: 認める
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Christology
NEW TERM for this book. MAJOR JAPANESE-SPECIFIC DILUTION RISK: 告白 in contemporary secular usage, especially youth culture, overwhelmingly denotes a romantic confession of love (‘kokuhaku culture’ in anime/drama/manga). Analogous to the baseline’s flagged dilution of 復活 (resurrection) by pop-culture ‘comeback’ usage. Every occurrence in v.7 must be immediately and explicitly framed as public doctrinal affirmation about Christ’s incarnation, not personal romantic disclosure.
Deceiver
Approved rendering: 惑わす者
Transliteration: madowasu mono
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: 嘘つき
Original: πλάνος
Category: Christology
NEW TERM for this book. 惑わす carries strong folkloric resonance in Japanese popular culture with fox-spirit and tanuki trickster tales (kitsune/tanuki ‘bewitching’ humans, 人を惑わす), risking a folk-supernatural trickster reading rather than a doctrinal false-teacher reading. Must always be anchored explicitly to the denial of the incarnation (v.7b) in every occurrence.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: 反キリスト
Transliteration: Han-Kirisuto
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: アンチクライスト
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
NEW TERM for this book. Inverse risk from most terms in this package: 反キリスト already carries secular apocalyptic-villain connotations from Japanese fantasy/horror fiction and anime, risking trivialization rather than blankness or syncretism. Teaching must restore its sober theological meaning: active, present-tense doctrinal opposition to Christ’s true incarnation, not a fictional end-times supervillain trope.
Teaching Of Christ
Approved rendering: キリストの教え
Transliteration: Kirisuto no oshie
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 教理
Original: διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Christology
NEW TERM for this book. 教え is Japan’s generic word for any religious, philosophical, or ethical teaching — Buddhist, Confucian, and Shinto 教え all use the identical word, positioning ‘the teaching of Christ’ as merely one option within Japan’s syncretistic religious marketplace. Teaching materials must stress the exclusivity embedded in the definite, singular reference of v.9 (tied to v.7’s incarnation confession); never render as ‘a teaching of Christ’ among others.
Have God
Approved rendering: 神との関係を持つ
Transliteration: Kami tono kankei wo motsu
Doctrine: Deity and Sonship of Christ (Father-Son Inseparability)
Rejected alternatives: 神を持つ
Original: Θεὸν ἔχειν / οὐκ ἔχειν
Category: God
NEW TERM for this book. A literal rendering (‘神を持つ,’ ‘to have God’) risks sounding transactional/possessive and could evoke the near-universal Japanese religious practice of carrying a protective amulet or charm (お守りを持つ, omamori). Render relationally, e.g. 神とのつながりがない for the negative form, to avoid the amulet-object connotation while preserving v.9’s stark binary force.
Reward
Approved rendering: 報い
Transliteration: mukui
Doctrine: Reward for Perseverance
Rejected alternatives: 賞
Original: μισθός
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. 報い is closely associated with 応報 (ōhō), the Buddhist/folk karmic-retribution concept, earned through the accumulation of merit or demerit. Teaching must clarify v.8’s reward as God’s gracious response to grace-enabled perseverance (cf. grace entry’s non-transactional clarification), not a karmically earned payout, and keep it doctrinally distinct from justification/salvation, which this verse never puts at risk of forfeiture.
Goes Ahead
Approved rendering: 教えを越えて先走る者
Transliteration: oshie wo koete senbashiru mono
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 先へ進む者, 進歩した者
Original: προάγω
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. A literal rendering (‘one who goes ahead’) risks sounding like commendable spiritual growth. NEVER use 進歩 (shinpo, ‘progress’), which carries strong positive connotations from Japan’s modernization narrative and would invert v.9’s polemic against false teachers who present their departure from apostolic teaching as spiritual advancement.
Medium Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: 父
Transliteration: chichi
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: 家長
Original: Πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 John, 父 names the source of the commandment to love (v.4) and is inseparably paired with ‘the Son’ in v.9’s either/or test of true relationship with God — this pairing must never be loosened or treated as separable in translation.
Peace
Approved rendering: 平安
Transliteration: heian
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: 安心, 癒し
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 John 1:3, paired with grace and mercy as flowing jointly from the Father and the Son; distinguish from the generic wellness/self-care sense of 安心 or 癒し.
Election
Approved rendering: 選び
Transliteration: erabi
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: 合格, 選抜
Original: ἐκλεκτός
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (root concept). In 2 John, the related adjectival form 選ばれた (erabareta) is applied corporately to the letter’s addressee (‘elect lady,’ v.1) and to a parallel community (‘elect sister,’ v.13), rather than to individual soteriological election as in Romans 9-11. Avoid framing through Japan’s competitive exam/hiring ‘selection’ culture (合格, 選抜); God’s choosing here remains gracious and unmerited even when applied to a community.
Commandment
Approved rendering: 命令
Transliteration: meirei
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and the Received Tradition
Rejected alternatives: 戒め, 掟
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. Use consistently across all three occurrences (vv.4,5,6) — the letter’s argument depends on the reader recognizing the recurrence. 戒め rejected as too strongly anchored to the Decalogue/Ten Commandments in Japanese Bible usage; 掟 rejected for its yakuza-code connotation in contemporary pop culture (an unhelpfully sinister association for God’s relational instruction).
World
Approved rendering: 世
Transliteration: yo
Doctrine: Conflict with the Fallen World
Rejected alternatives: 世界
Original: κόσμος
Category: Sin
NEW TERM for this book. Prefer 世 over 世界 in doctrinal statements (v.7) to avoid 世界’s neutral, globalized-geography default sense (世界のニュース, ‘world news’). Secondary risk: avoid collapsing into Buddhist 世間 (seken, the transient mundane realm to be renounced/transcended through practice); biblical κόσμος is a moral-relational category of active rebellion against a personal God, not an ontological category to escape through enlightenment.
Elect Lady
Approved rendering: 選ばれた婦人
Transliteration: erabareta fujin
Doctrine: Divine Election of the Church (Elect Lady and Elect Sister)
Original: ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. κυρία (婦人, fujin, ‘lady’) must never be confused graphically or doctrinally with Κύριος (主, shu, ‘Lord’), reserved exclusively for Christ’s title in v.3 — see the lord entry above. Retain interpretive openness between the individual-woman and church-personification readings of vv.1 and 13; do not resolve it with gender- or name-specific glosses not present in the text.
Mercy
Approved rendering: 憐れみ
Transliteration: awaremi
Doctrine: Trinitarian Blessing: Grace, Mercy, and Peace
Rejected alternatives: 同情, 慈悲
Original: ἔλεος
Category: God
NEW TERM for this book. Distinguish from generic pity/sympathy (同情, doujou, lacking a superior-to-inferior compassionate-rescue sense) and from the Buddhist cultivated compassion virtue (慈悲, jihi, compassion toward suffering sentient beings cultivated through spiritual practice); this is God’s freely-given covenant compassion toward the guilty (v.3), not a cultivated virtue or generalized sympathy.
Walk
Approved rendering: 歩む
Transliteration: ayumu
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. Japanese already uses 歩む metaphorically for ‘walking through life’ (人生を歩む), a genuinely helpful natural bridge (vv.4, 6) — but ensure it is not reduced to a vague ‘lifestyle’ sense empty of doctrinal content; always retain the doctrinal object (真理を歩む / 命令に歩む), never a bare intransitive ‘walk.‘
Abide
Approved rendering: とどまる
Transliteration: todomaru
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Original: μένω
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. No major syncretistic collision, but must be taught as active, willed perseverance in doctrine (vv.2, 9), not passive stasis or complacency — paralleling the baseline’s caution against reducing Spirit-wrought sanctification to a single achieved event.
Receive Into House
Approved rendering: 家に迎え入れる
Transliteration: ie ni mukae ireru
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Original: λαμβάνω εἰς οἰκίαν
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. Cuts directly against おもてなし (omotenashi), a celebrated national hospitality virtue with high international visibility (e.g., Japan’s 2013 Olympic bid speech). V.10’s command must be taught as a narrow, doctrinally bounded exception protecting the house-church from a confirmed denier of the incarnation, never as a general principle against hospitality or a repudiation of omotenashi as a value.
Greeting Formula
Approved rendering: 挨拶の言葉をかける
Transliteration: aisatsu no kotoba wo kakeru
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Original: χαίρειν λέγειν
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. Idiom-handling required: a literal rendering of χαίρειν λέγειν (‘say to him, Rejoice’) is opaque in Japanese. Render functionally as the withholding of a formal greeting/blessing of endorsement (vv.10-11), preserving the sense that a public act of endorsement is being withheld, not casual politeness.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: 交わり
Transliteration: majiwari
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 仲間意識
Original: κοινωνία (root)
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package — RESTRICTED TO POSITIVE SENSE ONLY in this book. Appropriate for the letter’s closing model of unrestricted, positive fellowship among genuine believers (implied v.13). CRITICAL CROSS-REFERENCE WARNING: the same Greek root appears as the verb κοινωνέω in v.11 with an OPPOSITE, negative moral valence (complicity in evil works). 交わり must NEVER be used to render v.11 — see the separate partake_complicit entry below. This is the single most important cross-reference discipline point in the 2 John curriculum.
Elder
Approved rendering: 長老
Transliteration: chourou
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and the Received Tradition
Rejected alternatives: 教祖
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. Standard, well-established Japanese ecclesiastical term for the office of elder (cf. 長老派教会, Presbyterian church polity). Avoid 教祖 (kyouso, ‘religious movement founder/guru’), per the baseline’s post-Aum Shinrikyo caution already recorded for apostle.
Children
Approved rendering: 子たち
Transliteration: kodomotachi
Doctrine: Divine Election of the Church (Elect Lady and Elect Sister)
Original: τέκνα
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. Retain ambiguity between the biological-children and spiritual/house-church-membership senses (vv.1, 4, 13); do not add a gloss that forces one reading.
Rejoice Joy
Approved rendering: 喜び
Transliteration: yorokobi
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Joy
Original: χαίρω / χαρά
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. Verb form 喜ぶ (yorokobu) for v.4’s ἐχάρην. Note the deliberate ironic reuse of the χαίρω root between v.4 (the elder’s joy) and vv.10-11 (the withheld formal greeting) — the two must not be conflated in rendering; let the wordplay surface only in teaching commentary, not in forced lexical parallelism in the translated text.
Evil Works
Approved rendering: 悪い行い
Transliteration: warui okonai
Doctrine: Complicity in False Teaching
Original: ἔργα πονηρά
Category: Sin
NEW TERM for this book. Connect explicitly to v.7’s doctrinal denial in teaching notes, not left as generic bad behavior.
Sister
Approved rendering: 姉妹
Transliteration: shimai
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Joy
Original: ἀδελφή
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. Combine with 選ばれた (see election/elect_lady) for v.13’s ‘elect sister’; models the positive, unrestricted fellowship due to genuine believers, contrasting deliberately with v.10’s restricted hospitality.
Greet
Approved rendering: 挨拶を送る
Transliteration: aisatsu wo okuru
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Joy
Original: ἀσπάζομαι
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. Standard Japanese epistolary closing formula (v.13), distinct in tone from the withheld greeting of vv.10-11; do not conflate the two renderings.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: 直接会って
Transliteration: chokusetsu atte
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Joy
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. Idiom-handling required: a literal ‘口から口へ’ rendering of στόμα πρὸς στόμα (‘mouth to mouth,’ v.12) would be unnatural and risk a kissing or direct-food-transmission reading; render functionally.
Full Fulfilled
Approved rendering: 満たされる
Transliteration: michitasareru
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Joy
Original: πληρόω (πεπληρωμένη)
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this book. Standard vocabulary for v.12’s ‘that our joy may be full/complete,’ echoing the letter’s opening joy (v.4).
Paper And Ink
Approved rendering: 紙と墨
Transliteration: kami to sumi
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Joy
Original: χάρτης, μέλαν
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this book. Purely descriptive detail (v.12); no doctrinal weight.
Amen
Approved rendering: アーメン
Transliteration: aamen
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Joy
Original: ἀμήν
Category: Faith
Formalized here as a translation_memory entry for the first time in this Language Package; the transliterated form itself was already fixed by the baseline 12_ai_translation_requirements.md transliteration standards for liturgical terms (アーメン, ハレルヤ) though no baseline TM entry previously existed. Standard closing liturgical affirmation, v.13.
Referenced passages