Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 3 John (English → Japanese)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md for the whole book of 3 John (a single chapter, 1:1–14, in its entirety — see full-book coverage note in that document). Terms already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are reused exactly as recorded and are marked “Baseline reuse” below; they must not be re-adjudicated or altered. New terms unique to 3 John’s vocabulary are proposed here with a recommended Japanese rendering and risk tier, for confirmation/promotion into translation memory in Phase 1 Step 3.
Risk tiers follow the baseline definitions: Critical (mistranslation destroys essential doctrine — human theologian review required for every occurrence), High (significant theological confusion/syncretism risk — human theologian review required), Medium (reduces clarity, preserves essential meaning — native speaker review recommended), Low (minor imprecision — automated review sufficient).
Part A — Terms Reused Exactly from the Baseline Romans Package
| Term (English) | Baseline Japanese Rendering | Risk | Occurrence in 3 John | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | 神 (Kami) | Critical | v.6, v.11 (×2) | Apply baseline’s persistent-qualifier rule (唯一のまことの神) at first occurrence within any 3 John teaching unit, per baseline “god” entry. |
| Church | 教会 (kyoukai) | Medium | v.6, v.9, v.10 | Same corporate-assembly sense as Romans; never 寺/神社. |
| Peace | 平安 (heian) | Medium | v.14 | Epistolary closing blessing; same relational sense as Romans 5:1, not generic 安心/癒し. |
| Gentiles (ethnic/covenant sense, ἔθνη) | 異邦人 (ihoujin) | Medium | (not directly used; ἐθνικός at v.7 is a related but distinct term — see Part B) | Retained for reviewer cross-reference only; do not conflate with ἐθνικός. |
| Fellowship (κοινωνία, thematic parallel) | 交わり (majiwari) | Low | (thematic only; word not present in 3 John Greek text) | Cited for doctrinal continuity with “Truth and Christian Fellowship” curriculum theme; no direct lexical occurrence in 3 John. |
Part B — New Terms Identified in 3 John (Proposed for Translation Memory)
| Term (English) | Greek / Transliteration | Recommended Japanese Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Key Collision / Dilution Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elder (title) | πρεσβύτερος / presbyteros | 長老 (chourou) | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride | Possible confusion with generic “elderly person” or secular village elder; clarify as recognized pastoral office. |
| Beloved (address) | ἀγαπητός / agapetos | 愛する者 (aisuru mono) | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Shares the risk of ἀγάπη below; term of covenantal address, not casual affection. |
| Love | ἀγάπη, ἀγαπάω / agape, agapao | 愛 / 愛する (ai / aisuru) | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Japan’s dominant secular register for 愛 is romantic love; must be actively taught as self-giving, truth-grounded covenantal love. |
| Truth | ἀλήθεια / aletheia | 真理 (shinri) | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Collides with Buddhist philosophical usage of 真理 for abstract/impersonal cosmic or enlightenment-truth; must be anchored to the person of Christ and the gospel, not an impersonal principle. |
| Prosper (well-being) | εὐοδοῦσθαι / euodoo | 繁栄する (hanei suru) | Medium | (background — Hospitality/Fellowship context) | Risk of prosperity-gospel misreading if separated from its own qualifying “soul” clause. |
| Soul | ψυχή / psyche | 魂 (tamashii) | Medium-High | (background) | Strong folk-animist/ancestral-spirit and horror-genre associations in ordinary Japanese usage. |
| Brother(s) (fellow believer) | ἀδελφός / adelphos | 兄弟 (kyoudai) | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Japanese kinship vocabulary is age-ranked (兄/弟), a distinction absent in Greek; context must clarify extended spiritual-family sense. |
| Testify / Testimony | μαρτυρέω, μαρτυρία / martyreo, martyria | 証しする / 証し (akashi suru / akashi) | Medium | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius); Truth and Christian Fellowship | Avoid legalistic-register 証言 (courtroom/scandal-reporting testimony); use warm commendation register. |
| Walk (conduct of life) | περιπατέω / peripateo | 歩む (ayumu) | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Already established idiom in Japanese Bible tradition; reuse consistently. |
| Child(ren) (spiritual) | τέκνον / teknon | 子どもたち (kodomotachi) | Medium-High | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Risk of reading as literal offspring, or of importing a guru-disciple lineage frame (師弟関係) rather than familial-adoption sense. |
| Faithful (of an act) | πιστός / pistos | 忠実な (chuujitsu na) | Medium-High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Strong Bushido/feudal-loyalty and corporate-loyalty resonance; must be gospel-conviction faithfulness, not hierarchical loyalty-display. |
| Stranger | ξένος / xenos | 旅人 (tabibito) | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Omotenashi hospitality culture is a bridge but normally operates within a known host-guest frame; this term crosses the uchi-soto insider/outsider boundary specifically. |
| Send forward (support journey) | προπέμπω / propempo | 旅の支援をして送り出す (tabi no shien wo shite okuridasu) | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Risk of reduction to ceremonial 見送り (farewell send-off) without the intended material-support sense. |
| Worthily | ἀξίως / axios | 神にふさわしく (kami ni fusawashiku) | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Risk inherited from 神’s own Critical-risk qualifier requirement. |
| The Name (of Christ) | ὄνομα / onoma | 御名（のため） (mina [no tame]) | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Possible confusion with Japanese name-avoidance/honorific-naming customs (imperial name taboo, kaimyō); clarify as Christ’s identity/authority. |
| Gentile / pagan (outsider) | ἐθνικός / ethnikos | 異教徒 (ikyouto) | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Distinct from, and must not be conflated with, baseline 異邦人 (ἔθνη, the ethnic Jew/Gentile covenant category in Romans). |
| Ought (moral obligation) | ὀφείλω / opheilo | 〜べきである (~beki de aru) | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Superficial resonance with on-giri reciprocal-obligation framework (Critical risk under baseline “grace”); must be taught as gospel-partnership duty, never a salvation-repayment mechanic. |
| Support / receive (hospitably) | ὑπολαμβάνω / hypolambano | 支える (sasaeru) | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Must remain visibly distinct from ἐπιδέχομαι’s rendering below to preserve the letter’s right-reception vs. wrongful-refusal contrast. |
| Fellow worker | συνεργός / synergos | 協力者 (kyouryokusha) | Low-Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | Ensure “partnership with gospel truth,” not generic teamwork. |
| Love to be first / preeminence | φιλοπρωτεύω / philoproteuo | 自分が一番になりたがること (jibun ga ichiban ni naritagaru koto) | High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | NT hapax legomenon; Japan’s rank/status culture (senpai-kohai, corporate title-consciousness) risks a sympathetic misreading of Diotrephes’ ambition as admirable drive rather than sinful self-exaltation. |
| Receive / welcome (refuse to) | ἐπιδέχομαι / epidechomai | 受け入れる (ukeireru) | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes); Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | See ὑπολαμβάνω note above re: preserving the contrast. |
| Slander / malicious babble | φλυαρέω / phlyareo | 中傷する (chuushou suru) | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | Avoid trivializing renderings (“mere gossip”); this is malicious, reputation-damaging false accusation. |
| Wicked (of words) | πονηρός / poneros | よこしまな / 悪い (yokoshima na / warui) | Low-Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | Distinguish in teaching (not necessarily in word choice) from κακός’s more general “bad” in v.11. |
| Forbid / hinder | κωλύω / koluo | 妨げる (samatageru) | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | Standard term, minor risk. |
| Cast out / expel | ἐκβάλλω / ekballo | 追い出す (oidasu) | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | Must be taught unambiguously as a condemned abuse of authority, not a model for legitimate church discipline; same verb elsewhere used for exorcism. |
| Imitate | μιμέομαι / mimeomai | 見習う (minarau) | Medium-High | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Avoid 真似る (superficial/mindless copying connotation, cf. 猿真似); use 見習う/倣う for genuine character-modeling. |
| Evil (general) | κακός / kakos | 悪 (aku) | Low-Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | See πονηρός note; both Greek “evil” words may render identically in Japanese without teaching-supplied nuance. |
| Good / do good; evil / do evil | ἀγαθός, ἀγαθοποιέω, κακοποιέω | 善（を行う）/ 悪（を行う） (zen [wo okonau] / aku [wo okonau]) | High | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Risk of merit-accumulation misreading (cf. Buddhist 功徳/kudoku, already forbidden for “grace”); must teach doing-good as fruit/evidence of belonging to God, not the means of earning it. |
| True (of testimony) | ἀληθής / alethes | 真実な (shinjitsu na) | Low-Medium | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | Cognate of ἀλήθεια; maintain visible word-family connection to 真理. |
| Hope (mundane sense) | ἐλπίζω / elpizo | 望む (nozomu) | Low | (background) | Distinguish from theologically weighted “hope” (ἐλπίς) elsewhere in the NT; ordinary epistolary sense here. |
| Face to face (“mouth to mouth” idiom) | στόμα πρὸς στόμα / stoma pros stoma | 直接顔を合わせて (chokusetsu kao wo awasete) | Medium | (background) | NEVER render literally as 口から口へ, which risks a resuscitation or physical-intimacy misreading in modern Japanese. |
| Friend(s) | φίλος / philos | 友人 (yuujin) | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Draw explicit connection to John 15:14-15’s elevated “friend” language; guard against reduction to casual peer-relationship register and against imported senpai-kohai status-consciousness. |
Risk Summary for 3 John
| Risk Tier | Count (new terms, Part B) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 0 (all Critical-risk terms present are baseline reuse: God) | Human theologian (baseline term) |
| High | 4 (Love, Truth, φιλοπρωτεύω/love of preeminence, Good/Evil-doing) | Human theologian |
| Medium-High | 3 (Soul, Child(ren), Faithful, Imitate) | Human theologian |
| Medium | 15 | Native speaker review |
| Low / Low-Medium | 6 | Automated / native speaker spot-check |
Note: Although 3 John contains no new Critical-tier terms of its own, it inherits the baseline’s Critical-tier “God” term at vv.6 and 11, which governs the letter’s climactic theological claim (“the one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God”) and therefore requires human theologian review wherever it occurs in this curriculum’s materials, consistent with baseline routing rules.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: Kami
Doctrine: Evidence of Belonging to God
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, unchanged. CRITICAL: 神 (kami) is the generic Japanese word for the countless Shinto deities/spirits (八百万の神). Persistent qualifying language (唯一のまことの神, ‘the one and only true God’) is REQUIRED at first occurrence within any 3 John teaching unit and at the letter’s climactic doctrinal statement, 3 John 1:11 (‘the one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God’), and also at 1:6 (‘worthy of God’). Do not treat this term as already fully resolved merely because it is a reused baseline entry; every occurrence in 3 John’s doctrinal statements requires the full qualifying treatment.
High Risk Terms
Love
Approved rendering: 愛 / 愛する
Transliteration: ai / aisuru
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 恋 (romantic longing register)
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (ἀγάπη/ἀγαπάω, esp. 1:1, ‘whom I love in truth’). HIGH RISK: contemporary Japanese 愛 usage is overwhelmingly romantic-love vocabulary (love songs, dramas, Valentine’s Day marketing); 恋 (koi) is the narrower romantic-longing term, but 愛 itself is heavily colored by that register in everyday speech. Because this is the letter’s opening theological word, teaching must immediately and actively establish 愛 here as self-giving, truth-grounded covenantal love, paralleling the baseline’s active-restoration requirement for ‘grace.’ Requires human theologian review at every doctrinally weighted occurrence.
Truth
Approved rendering: 真理
Transliteration: shinri
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 悟りの真理 (Buddhist enlightenment-truth framing, must never stand unqualified)
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (ἀλήθεια, occurring 6+ times: 1:1, 1:3, 1:4, 1:6, 1:8, 1:12). HIGH RISK: 真理 is standard vocabulary in Japanese Buddhist philosophy for an abstract, impersonal cosmic or enlightenment-truth attainable through practice (悟りの真理) — the opposite of a personal reality revealed by and identified with Christ (cf. John 14:6). This letter’s dominant keyword; must be repeatedly anchored to the person and gospel of Christ at every doctrinally weighty occurrence, never left to stand as an unqualified abstract principle. Requires human theologian review.
Soul
Approved rendering: 魂
Transliteration: tamashii
Doctrine: Spiritual Well-Being and the Soul’s Prosperity
Original: ψυχή
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (ψυχή, 1:2). HIGH RISK: 魂 is ordinary Japanese vocabulary but carries strong folk-animist resonance — ancestral spirits venerated at Obon, ghost-story 幽霊 associations, and popular-culture ‘spirited away’ soul-extraction imagery (千と千尋の神隠し). Occurring early in the letter before any theological anchoring is established, teaching must clarify 魂 denotes the whole inner person’s spiritual condition before God, not a detachable animist spirit-entity.
Spiritual Child
Approved rendering: 子どもたち
Transliteration: kodomotachi
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 師弟関係の弟子 (guru-disciple lineage-transmission framing)
Original: τέκνον
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (τέκνον, 1:4, ‘my children’). HIGH RISK: without qualification reads as literal offspring. Japan’s culturally vivid teacher-disciple lineage tradition (師弟関係 — martial arts, craft apprenticeship, historically Buddhist master-disciple transmission) is a resonant frame but risks importing a guru-disciple hierarchy/lineage-transmission model rather than the NT’s familial-adoption sense. Must be explicitly connected to the baseline’s adoption doctrine (子とされること), not to lineage-transmission vocabulary.
Faithful Act
Approved rendering: 忠実な
Transliteration: chuujitsu na
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (πιστός, 1:5, describing Gaius’s hospitality). HIGH RISK: 忠実 carries strong resonance with Bushido/feudal loyalty ethics (忠, loyalty to one’s lord, a core samurai virtue) and modern corporate loyalty culture. Teaching must clarify Gaius’s faithfulness flows from gospel conviction toward fellow believers and strangers, not hierarchical loyalty-display toward a superior — the same collision risk already flagged for ‘obedience of faith’ in the baseline package.
Love Of Preeminence
Approved rendering: 自分が一番になりたがること
Transliteration: jibun ga ichiban ni naritagaru koto
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (φιλοπρωτεύω, 1:9). A NT hapax legomenon (occurring only here in the entire New Testament) with no inherited Japanese Bible-tradition rendering. HIGH RISK: Japan’s rich resonance for status-consciousness and rank (senpai-kohai seniority structures, corporate title/rank culture, 肩書き business-card status markers) risks a sympathetic misreading of Diotrephes’ ambition as admirable, even ordinary, leadership drive rather than the condemned sinful self-exaltation the text diagnoses. Requires mandatory explicit glossary-box framing note at every use; never present without it.
Cast Out
Approved rendering: 追い出す
Transliteration: oidasu
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (ἐκβάλλω, 1:10). HIGH RISK: this same verb root elsewhere in the NT describes exorcism (‘casting out demons’), and unqualified church-expulsion language could be mistaken by readers as a positive model of legitimate church discipline (cf. Matt 18, 1 Cor 5) rather than Diotrephes’ condemned, unilateral abuse of authority. Requires an unambiguous ‘negative example’ framing note at every occurrence; never present without it.
Imitate
Approved rendering: 見習う
Transliteration: minarau
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: 真似る (superficial/mindless copying, cf. 猿真似, ‘monkey imitation’)
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (μιμέομαι, 1:11), the curriculum’s central ‘Imitating Good rather than Evil’ doctrine verb. HIGH RISK for word choice specifically: avoid 真似る, the more common everyday word, which carries a strong connotation of surface-level copying without genuine understanding. 見習う (or 倣う) conveys learning from and internalizing a good model, matching the NT sense of character formation through imitation.
Do Good Do Evil
Approved rendering: 善（を行う）/ 悪（を行う）
Transliteration: zen (wo okonau) / aku (wo okonau)
Doctrine: Evidence of Belonging to God
Rejected alternatives: 功徳を積む (Buddhist merit-accumulation framing; NEVER use, per baseline’s identical prohibition for ‘grace’)
Original: ἀγαθός / ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (ἀγαθός/ἀγαθοποιέω/κακοποιέω, 1:11). HIGH RISK, the letter’s doctrinal climax: Japan’s ethical vocabulary for 善 sits inside both Confucian virtue-cultivation and Buddhist merit-accumulation (功徳, kudoku) frameworks, in which good deeds improve one’s standing or future condition — the exact concept already forbidden for ‘grace’ in the baseline package. Teaching must explicitly state, at every occurrence, that doing good is EVIDENCE/FRUIT of an already-existing relationship with God through Christ, never the MEANS of earning or improving that relationship. Co-occurs with the Critical-tier term ‘god’ in the same verse, making 1:11 the highest cumulative-risk sentence in the letter. Mandatory human theologian review.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: 教会
Transliteration: kyoukai
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: 寺, 神社
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. NEVER use 寺 (Buddhist temple) or 神社 (Shinto shrine). In 3 John, denotes the local gathered congregation before whom the traveling brothers testified to Gaius’s love (1:6), and from which Diotrephes wrongfully expels believers (1:9, 1:10) — the same corporate-assembly sense as the Romans baseline entry, not a building.
Peace
Approved rendering: 平安
Transliteration: heian
Doctrine: Christian Greeting and Personal Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 安心, 癒し
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. In 3 John 1:14, used as a standard epistolary closing blessing, carrying the same relational/covenantal well-being sense as Romans 5:1, not the generic wellness/self-care sense of 安心 or 癒し.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: 異邦人
Transliteration: ihoujin
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: 外人
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Names the ethnic-covenant Jew/Gentile category (ἔθνη). Not directly used in 3 John’s Greek text; retained here strictly for reviewer cross-reference so it is never conflated with the related-but-distinct ‘gentile_outsider’ entry below (ἐθνικός, 3 John 1:7), which carries a more pointed ‘non-believing pagan outsider’ sense.
Elder
Approved rendering: 長老
Transliteration: chourou
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: 村の長老, 教祖
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (πρεσβύτερος, 1:1). Established Japanese Christian term (cf. 長老派, ‘Presbyterian’), doctrinally sound, but secular readers may hear it as a generic village/clan elder (村の長老) or simply ‘an elderly person.’ Require a brief office-clarifying gloss at first occurrence: this designates a recognized apostolic-era pastoral office, the standard against which Diotrephes’ illegitimate self-promotion (1:9) is measured.
Beloved
Approved rendering: 愛する者
Transliteration: aisuru mono
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (ἀγαπητός, vocative in 1:2, 1:5, 1:11). A term of covenantal address expressing genuine Christian affection, not casual epistolary flattery. Shares the romantic-register dilution risk of 愛 below and must be fenced the same way.
Prosper
Approved rendering: 繁栄する
Transliteration: hanei suru
Doctrine: Spiritual Well-Being and the Soul’s Prosperity
Original: εὐοδοῦσθαι
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (εὐοδοῦσθαι, 1:2). Risk is dilution toward a prosperity-gospel reading if quoted apart from its own qualifying clause (‘even as your soul prospers’). Teaching must always keep the soul-clause visibly attached as the interpretive key: outward prospering is wished for in proportion to, not instead of, spiritual health.
Brother
Approved rendering: 兄弟
Transliteration: kyoudai
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (ἀδελφός, 1:3, 1:5, 1:10). Japanese kinship vocabulary is inherently age-ranked (兄 elder brother / 弟 younger brother), a distinction absent from the Greek, and 兄弟 in ordinary usage denotes literal siblings. Context must clarify this is the extended spiritual-family sense (itinerant fellow believers), not literal relatives.
Testimony
Approved rendering: 証しする / 証し
Transliteration: akashi suru / akashi
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Rejected alternatives: 証言 (legalistic courtroom/scandal-reporting register)
Original: μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία
Category: Witness
New term for 3 John (μαρτυρέω/μαρτυρία, 1:3, 1:6, 1:12 [×3]). Established Japanese Christian vocabulary for personal testimony of faith/character; 証言 carries a legalistic, adversarial register from secular Japanese news reporting of scandals/trials, inappropriate for this letter’s warm pastoral commendations of Gaius and Demetrius. Use 証しする/証し consistently across all three named figures’ evaluations.
Stranger
Approved rendering: 旅人
Transliteration: tabibito
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: 外人 (casual gaijin, insider/outsider framing)
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (ξένος, 1:5). Japan’s omotenashi (おもてなし) hospitality culture is a genuine cultural bridge but typically operates within a known host-guest frame (an invited visitor, a customer) rather than toward an unknown itinerant stranger crossing the uchi-soto (内・外) insider/outsider boundary, which is precisely this term’s point. Use omotenashi as a bridge concept in teaching while clarifying the boundary-crossing distinction.
Send Forward
Approved rendering: 旅の支援をして送り出す
Transliteration: tabi no shien wo shite okuridasu
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: 見送る (mere ceremonial farewell, no material-support sense)
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (προπέμπω, 1:6). A NT technical term for practical missionary support (funds, provisions, companionship for onward travel). Japan’s ceremonial 見送り (miokuri, formal platform/gate farewell bows) risks reducing this to a polite goodbye gesture. Retain the full descriptive phrase; never abbreviate to 見送る alone.
Worthily
Approved rendering: 神にふさわしく
Transliteration: kami ni fusawashiku
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀξίως
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (ἀξίως, 1:6). Sets the standard for Christian hospitality as God himself, not mere social propriety. Risk here is inherited primarily from 神’s own Critical-risk qualifier requirement; ensure this brief adverbial use is understood within teaching already anchored elsewhere to 唯一のまことの神.
The Name
Approved rendering: 御名（のため）
Transliteration: mina (no tame)
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ὄνομα (absolute christological sense, τὸ ὄνομα)
Category: Christology
New term for 3 John (absolute christological ὄνομα, 1:7, ‘for the sake of the Name’). Japan’s cultural conventions of name-avoidance and honorific naming (historic imperial-name taboo, posthumous Buddhist kaimyō names) could create unintended resonance around name-reverence practices distinct from this text’s sense. Teaching should clarify ‘the Name’ refers specifically to Christ’s identity and authority, not a naming-ritual custom.
Gentile Outsider
Approved rendering: 異教徒
Transliteration: ikyouto
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: 異邦人 (baseline ethnic-covenant Jew/Gentile category; a distinct sense, do not conflate)
Original: ἐθνικός
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (ἐθνικός, 1:7), distinct from ἔθνη. Carries a more pointed ‘non-believing pagan outsider’ flavor than the baseline’s 異邦人 (ihoujin) entry, which names the ethnic-covenant Jew/Gentile category without necessarily a religious-outsider connotation. Flag for reviewer awareness that these are two related-but-different Greek terms and must not be conflated under one Japanese rendering.
Moral Obligation
Approved rendering: 〜べきである
Transliteration: ~beki de aru
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: 恩を返す義務 (on-giri repayment-debt framing)
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (ὀφείλω, 1:8, ‘we ought’). Because ὀφείλω is literally ‘to owe,’ there is a superficial resonance with Japan’s on-giri (恩・義理) reciprocal-obligation framework already flagged Critical for ‘grace’ in the baseline package. This is a distinct, legitimate case: a duty of hospitality flowing from gospel partnership. Must be taught explicitly as a grateful gospel-partnership duty, never as a mechanism for earning standing with God or repaying a favor received.
Support Hospitably
Approved rendering: 支える
Transliteration: sasaeru
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: 受け入れる (reserved exclusively for ἐπιδέχομαι’s refuse/receive vocabulary, see below)
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (ὑπολαμβάνω, 1:8). The positive counterpart to Diotrephes’ wrongful refusal (ἐπιδέχομαι, 1:9-10). Both Greek terms can be glossed ‘receive’ in English, but the letter deliberately contrasts right reception (here) with wrongful refusal (there); 支える must remain visibly distinct from 受け入れる to preserve this structural contrast. Never swap the two renderings.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: 協力者
Transliteration: kyouryokusha
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: συνεργός
Category: Hospitality
New term for 3 John (συνεργός, 1:8). Standard Japanese vocabulary; risk of collapsing into generic teamwork/volunteerism vocabulary with no gospel content. Always qualify contextually as partnership specifically ‘for the truth’ (v.8’s ἵνα… τῇ ἀληθείᾳ).
Refuse To Receive
Approved rendering: 受け入れる
Transliteration: ukeireru
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: 支える (reserved for the positive hospitality sense, ὑπολαμβάνω)
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (ἐπιδέχομαι, 1:9, 1:10). Diotrephes’ refusal to receive the Elder (1:9) and the brothers (1:10) — the concrete outworking of his love of preeminence. Must remain visibly distinct from 支える (see above) to preserve the letter’s right-reception vs. wrongful-refusal contrast.
Slander
Approved rendering: 中傷する
Transliteration: chuushou suru
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: 悪口を言う (trivializing, casual ‘badmouthing’)
Original: φλυαρέω
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (φλυαρέω, 1:10). Recommend the more formal/serious 中傷する over casual alternatives, which would trivialize the seriousness of malicious, reputation-damaging false accusation described here.
Wicked Words
Approved rendering: よこしまな
Transliteration: yokoshima na
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: πονηρός
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (πονηρός, 1:10, modifying Diotrephes’ slanderous words). 3 John uses two distinct Greek ‘evil’ words (πονηρός here, actively malicious; κακός in 1:11, general moral badness); both may render identically with 悪 (aku) family vocabulary in Japanese without a corresponding lexical distinction. Preserve the nuance through explanatory teaching, not word choice alone.
Evil General
Approved rendering: 悪
Transliteration: aku
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακός
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (κακός, 1:11). General moral badness, less pointedly malicious than πονηρός (1:10). See ‘wicked_words’ entry for the shared-vocabulary nuance-preservation note.
True Testimony
Approved rendering: 真実な
Transliteration: shinjitsu na
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Witness
New term for 3 John (ἀληθής, 1:12). Adjectival cognate of ἀλήθεια; must visibly retain its word-family link to 真理 (established for ‘truth’ above) so the reader recognizes Demetrius’s ‘true testimony’ as an instantiation of the letter’s governing truth theme.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: 直接顔を合わせて
Transliteration: chokusetsu kao wo awasete
Doctrine: Christian Greeting and Personal Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 口から口へ (literal calque; risks a mouth-to-mouth-resuscitation or physical-intimacy misreading in modern Japanese)
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (στόμα πρὸς στόμα, 1:14, ‘mouth to mouth,’ a Hebraic/Greek idiom for direct, unmediated conversation, cf. Numbers 12:8 LXX). A literal rendering must be avoided entirely; use only the idiomatic paraphrase.
Friend
Approved rendering: 友人
Transliteration: yuujin
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: φίλος
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (φίλος, 1:14, ‘the friends’). Ordinary Japanese 友人/友達 denotes casual peer relationship and can import unspoken senpai-kohai status-consciousness even among nominal peers. Teaching should draw the explicit connection to John 15:14-15’s elevated ‘friend’ language (Jesus’ elevation of his disciples from servants to friends) so this closing greeting is read as a term of covenantal dignity, not a merely casual farewell remark.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: 交わり
Transliteration: majiwari
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 仲間意識
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. The word κοινωνία itself does not occur in 3 John’s Greek text, but the concept of shared gospel participation underlies 1:1, 1:3-6, and 1:14. Avoid 仲間意識 (generic in-group solidarity/harmony feeling from Japan’s wa culture), which lacks gospel content.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: 歩む
Transliteration: ayumu
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Ethics
New term for 3 John (περιπατέω, 1:3, 1:4). This ethical ‘walking’ metaphor is already established in Japanese biblical idiom (cf. 歩む for ‘walking in newness of life,’ Romans 6:4) and should be reused consistently. No significant collision risk.
Hinder
Approved rendering: 妨げる
Transliteration: samatageru
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership
New term for 3 John (κωλύω, 1:10). Standard term for Diotrephes actively blocking others who want to show hospitality; no significant collision risk.
Hope Mundane
Approved rendering: 望む
Transliteration: nozomu
Doctrine: Christian Greeting and Personal Fellowship
Original: ἐλπίζω
Category: Fellowship
New term for 3 John (ἐλπίζω, 1:14). An everyday personal expectation of an imminent visit, not a doctrinal statement about eschatological hope. Distinguish from the theologically weighted ‘hope’ (ἐλπίς) elsewhere in the NT (e.g. Romans 5, 8), so students do not over-read doctrinal weight into this verse.