Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Gospel of John (English → Japanese)
This glossary extends the baseline Romans translation_memory.json. Terms marked Reuse (baseline) carry the exact recorded baseline rendering forward unchanged — no alternative may be substituted. Terms marked New (John) are proposed additions required by this curriculum’s distinct vocabulary, derived from the analysis in 07_semantic_analysis.md. Risk tiers follow the baseline’s four-tier definition (Critical / High / Medium / Low) from doctrine_risk_registry.json.
A. Reused Terms from Baseline (No Change — Enforce Exactly)
| English term | Japanese | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine (John) | Chapters | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | 神 | Kami | Critical | Deity of Christ, God’s Love for the World | 1, 3, 5, 8, 17, 20 | Maintain baseline’s 唯一のまことの神 qualifier at doctrinally weighty statements, esp. John 1:1, 5:18, 10:30, 20:28. |
| Jesus | イエス | Iesu | Critical | all | all | No change. |
| Christ / Messiah | キリスト | Kirisuto | Critical | Messianic identity (background) | 1, 4, 7, 11, 20 | No change. |
| Lord | 主 | Shu | Critical | Deity/Lordship of Christ | 6, 9, 11, 13, 20, 21 | No change; John 20:28 combines with 神, see glossary section B. |
| Son of God | 神の子 | Kami no Ko | Critical | Sonship of Christ | 1, 3, 5, 10, 11, 20 | No change. |
| Holy Spirit | 聖霊 | Seirei | Critical | The Holy Spirit as Counselor | 1, 3, 14, 15, 16, 20 | NEVER use bare 霊; see glossary section B for the 御霊 (mitama) consistency flag unique to John. |
| Grace | 恵み | Megumi | Critical | (background, God’s character) | 1 | No change. |
| Faith (noun) | 信仰 | Shinkou | High | Eternal Life through Faith | (background) | Paired with new verb entry 信じる, section B. |
| Salvation | 救い | Sukui | Critical | Eternal Life through Faith | 3, 4, 12 | NEVER 解脱; caution with 極楽往生 bridge language, per baseline. |
| Sin | 罪 | Tsumi | High | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 1, 8, 9, 16, 20 | No change. |
| Glory | 栄光 | Eikou | Medium (elevated importance in John) | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1, 2, 7, 11, 12, 17 | Do not collapse into 名誉 (secular honor). |
| Kingdom of God | 神の国 | Kami no Kuni | High | (background contrast in ch. 18) | 3, 18 | Retain baseline’s mandatory State-Shinto-era anchoring note (神国日本); John 18:36 is a helpful clarifying resource, not an added risk. |
| Resurrection | 復活 | Fukkatsu | High (Critical in John’s “I Am” context) | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 2, 5, 6, 11, 20 | Actively restore doctrinal weight against secular “comeback” dilution; especially critical at John 11:25. |
| Peace | 平安 | Heian | Medium | (background) | 14, 16, 20 | No change. |
| Father | 父 | Chichi | Medium | Unity of the Father and the Son | 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 14, 17 | Build relational warmth actively per baseline’s “absent salaryman father” caution; central and repeated throughout John far more than in Romans. |
| Law | 律法 | Ritsuhou | Medium | (background contrast, ch. 1, 7) | 1, 7 | No change. |
| Apostle (sent one — cognate wordplay in 13:16) | 使徒 | Shito | Low | (background) | 13 | John 13:16 puns on ἀπόστολος/πέμπω (“sent”); no separate rendering needed, but flag the pun for teaching. |
B. New Terms Required for John (Proposed Additions to Translation Memory)
| English term | Japanese | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | Chapters (introduced/key) | Alternatives rejected | Rationale summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word (Logos) | ことば | Kotoba | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1 | 言葉 (ordinary “words,” too generic), 言霊-adjacent renderings | Risk of resonance with 言霊 (kotodama), the native Japanese belief in words’ inherent mystical power — an impersonal force, not the personal, eternal divine Logos. Use plain ことば as Shinkaiyaku’s established title-form. |
| Life (zoe, general) | いのち | Inochi | High | Eternal Life through Faith | 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 17 | 生命 (seimei, clinical/biological register) | Foundation for all “eternal life” and “I Am” statements; keep the warmer いのち register consistently, not the clinical 生命. |
| Eternal life | 永遠のいのち | Eien no inochi | Critical | Eternal Life through Faith | 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 17 | 不老不死 (immortality/eternal youth, Daoist-derived) | Must be taught as qualitative, relational, present-possessed life (defined at 17:3 as knowing God), not unending biological existence. |
| Light | 光 | Hikari | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 1, 3, 8, 9, 12 | none | Distinguish moral-spiritual sense from Japan’s aesthetic-positive treatment of shadow/darkness (陰翳). |
| Darkness | 闇 | Yami | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 1, 3, 8, 12 | none | See Light entry; teach as active moral opposition to God, not aesthetic mood. |
| World (kosmos) | 世 | Yo | High | God’s Love for the World | 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 | 世界 (sekai, more neutral/geographic), 異邦人-adjacent readings | Distinct from baseline’s ethnic category 異邦人 (gentiles); avoid uchi-soto narrowing and Buddhist mujō (“illusory/transient realm to escape”) readings — God loves and sends his Son to this actual world. |
| Only begotten / one and only (monogenes) | ひとり子 | Hitorigo | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1, 3 | 独り子 (same word, alternate kanji — permitted as an orthographic variant) | Must not be read as a mere only-child demographic fact; conveys Christ’s unique, eternal, uncreated Sonship. |
| Flesh (sarx) | 肉 | Niku | High | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (positive sense, 1:14); New Birth (negative sense, 3:6) | 1, 3, 6 | none | Same word carries opposite theological valence across chapters; require contextual footnoting, cross-referenced to baseline’s 受肉 (incarnation). |
| Lamb of God | 神の子羊 | Kami no Kohitsuji | High | Christ’s Substitutionary Death | 1 | 子羊 alone (loses “of God,” risks generic endearment reading) | Requires OT Passover-lamb background teaching; retain sin-bearing substitutionary sense, not mere gentleness symbolism. |
| Son of Man | 人の子 | Hito no Ko | High | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13 | none (established rendering, risk is comprehension not substitution) | Risk of flattening to “a human being”; requires active teaching of the Daniel 7:13 heavenly-authority background. |
| Sign (semeion) | しるし | Shirushi | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 20 | 奇跡 (kiseki, “miracle,” too generic/spectacle-focused) | Retain John’s specific sense of a revelatory pointer to Christ’s identity provoking belief/unbelief, not mere proof-of-power. |
| Hour (theological sense) | 時 | Toki | Medium | Christ’s Substitutionary Death (anticipatory motif) | 2, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17 | 運命 (unmei, fate — forbidden per baseline’s providence caution) | Book-spanning motif tracking the approach of the cross; flag as technical usage, not casual “time.” |
| Born again / born from above (gennethe anothen) | 新しく生まれる | Aratani umareru | Critical | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 3 | 上から生まれる (spatial-only, loses “again” sense), 生まれ変わる (rebirth/reincarnation-adjacent — AVOID) | ἄνωθεν’s Greek double sense (again / from above) has no single Japanese equivalent; must be taught explicitly, not merely translated. Never allow drift toward 輪廻転生 (reincarnation, already forbidden under baseline). |
| Water and Spirit (new-birth phrase) | 水と御霊 | Mizu to Mitama | High | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 3 | 水と聖霊 (fuller compound, permissible alternative) | See 御霊/聖霊 consistency flag below; recommend explicit doctrinal note anchoring 御霊 to 聖霊 here. |
| Wind/Spirit wordplay (pneuma) | 風 / 御霊 | Kaze / Mitama | Medium (translation-mechanics) | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 3 | single-word rendering (impossible in Japanese) | Greek pneuma’s dual wind/Spirit sense must be split into two Japanese words; the underlying pun requires explicit teaching to be recovered. |
| 御霊 (mitama) vs. 聖霊 consistency flag | 御霊 → require 聖霊 anchoring note | Mitama | High — cross-cutting flag, not a single term | The Holy Spirit as Counselor | 3, 4, 14, 15, 16 | — | Shinkaiyaku uses the honorific classical form 御霊 in several Spirit-of-truth/new-birth passages rather than the full compound 聖霊 baseline mandates. Recommend: preserve 御霊 only in direct Scripture quotation; require accompanying teaching material to explicitly identify 御霊 = 聖霊 (Holy Spirit, third Person of the Trinity) at each first occurrence. |
| Lifted up (hypsoō) | 上げられる / 高く上げられる | Agerareru / Takaku agerareru | Critical | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 3, 8, 12 | 十字架にかけられる alone (loses the double meaning) | Deliberate double sense (physical crucifixion + exaltation/glory) must be taught explicitly; do not let the two senses be separated in exposition. |
| Wrath of God (orge) | 神の怒り | Kami no Ikari | Medium-High | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 3 | none | Must be taught as God’s settled, holy, judicial opposition to sin — not a fickle emotional outburst, and not assimilated to Shinto aragami (wrathful-deity) appeasement imagery. |
| Living water | 生きた水 / 命の水 | Ikita mizu / Inochi no mizu | High | Eternal Life through Faith | 4, 7 | お神水-adjacent phrasing (AVOID direct parallel) | Distinguish from Shinto shrine sacred-well water (お神水) obtained ritually; this is the Spirit/eternal satisfaction given by faith in Christ, not a ritual object. |
| Worship in spirit and truth | 霊とまことによる礼拝 | Rei to makoto ni yoru reihai | Medium | (background) | 4 | none | Flag ambiguous bare 霊 for theologian review (human spirit vs. Holy Spirit’s enabling); resolve per context, do not leave silently unresolved. |
| Savior of the world | 世の救い主 | Yo no Sukuinushi | High | God’s Love for the World | 4 | none | Combines baseline 救い with new 世; reinforce universal (non-uchi-soto) scope. |
| Equal with God (isos) | 神と等しい | Kami to hitoshii | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 5 | 神に近い (too weak — “close to God”) | Full ontological equality claim, accurately perceived (not misunderstood) by original hearers as blasphemy-worthy; do not soften. |
| Bread of life (I Am #1) | いのちのパン | Inochi no pan | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 6 | none | First of seven; requires bread/manna OT background teaching. |
| Eat my flesh / drink my blood | わたしの肉を食べ、わたしの血を飲む | (phrase) | High | Christ’s Substitutionary Death | 6 | none | Preserve the original hearers’ shock/misunderstanding as part of the narrative; clarify faith-appropriation sense, not literal/ritual sense. |
| Draw (helko) | 引く / 引き寄せる | Hiku / Hikiyoseru | Medium | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 6 | 選抜 (competitive-selection, forbidden per baseline election caution) | God’s sovereign initiative, not human effort or competitive merit. |
| Light of the world (I Am #2) | 世の光 | Yo no hikari | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 8, 9 | none | Combines established 光 + 世; second of seven. |
| Truth sets free | 真理はあなたたちを自由にします | (phrase) | High | The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit | 8 | 自分らしく生きる (secular self-actualization, too weak) | Freedom specifically from sin’s bondage, not political liberty or generic self-actualization. |
| Slave to sin | 罪の奴隷 | Tsumi no dorei | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 8 | none | Combines baseline 罪 with 奴隷 (slave); low collision risk. |
| Before Abraham was, I am (absolute ego eimi) | アブラハムが生まれる前から、わたしはあるのです | (phrase) | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 8 | わたしは彼です (too weak, loses divine-name echo) | The clearest surviving echo of Exodus 3:14’s divine self-name in Japanese as well as Greek; teach the Exodus 3:14 (Shinkaiyaku) parallel directly. |
| Devil / father of lies | 悪魔 / 偽りの父 | Akuma / Itsuwari no chichi | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 8 | none | Retain the truth/falsehood epithet, not generic villain imagery. |
| Good Shepherd (I Am #3) | 良い牧者 | Yoi bokusha | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 10 | none | Third of seven; requires shepherding-culture background teaching. |
| Door/gate (I Am #4) | 羊の門 | Hitsuji no mon | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 10 | none | Fourth of seven; exclusivity claim must not be softened. |
| Lay down life for (hyper — substitutionary preposition) | 〜のためにいのちを捨てる | ~no tame ni inochi o suteru | Critical | Christ’s Substitutionary Death | 10, 11, 15, 17 | generic altruism phrasing alone | ὑπέρ is the grammatical marker of substitution across multiple chapters; must be distinguished from ordinary Japanese self-sacrifice idiom (家族のために) as unique, atoning substitution. |
| I and the Father are one | わたしと父とは一つです | Watashi to Chichi to wa hitotsu desu | Critical | Unity of the Father and the Son | 10, 17 | 和 (wa)-flavored “in harmony” phrasing (AVOID as sole gloss) | Ontological unity of essence, not Japan’s social-harmony ideal (和) of cooperative agreement among distinct individuals; must be distinguished from believers’ derivative, non-ontological unity in ch. 17. |
| Resurrection and the life (I Am #5) | 復活であり、いのちです | Fukkatsu de ari, inochi desu | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 11 | none | Fifth of seven; combines two established terms into a personal-identity claim. |
| Grain of wheat dying | 一粒の麦 | Hitotsubu no mugi | Medium | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 12 | none | Agricultural metaphor requiring background explanation. |
| Ruler of this world | この世の支配者 | Kono yo no shihaisha | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 12 | none | Illegitimate, temporary counterfeit authority; distinguish clearly from 神の国 (baseline). |
| New commandment | 新しい戒め | Atarashii okite | Medium | (background — Christian ethic grounded in Christ’s love) | 13 | none | Distinguish from baseline 律法 (Mosaic Law) and from on-giri social-debt framing. |
| Way, truth, and life (I Am #6) | 道であり、真理であり、いのち | Michi de ari, shinri de ari, inochi | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 14 | none | Sixth of seven; exclusivity clause (“no one comes to the Father except through me”) must not be softened. |
| Counselor / Paraclete | 助け主 | Tasukenushi | Critical | The Holy Spirit as Counselor | 14, 15, 16 | 助言者 (mere “advisor,” too weak), 慰め主 (comforter-only, too narrow) | Must be taught as fully divine, personal, authoritative — not a subordinate assistant role. |
| Spirit of truth | 真理の御霊 | Shinri no Mitama | Critical | The Holy Spirit as Counselor | 14, 15, 16 | none | Same 御霊/聖霊 consistency flag as above; anchor explicitly in teaching. |
| Father’s house | 父の家 | Chichi no ie | Medium | (background, adoption/family imagery) | 14 | none | Retain warm relational-family register, not formal patriarchal-household (家) register. |
| True vine (I Am #7) | 真のぶどうの木 | Shin no budou no ki | Critical | The Seven “I Am” Statements | 15 | none | Seventh and final of the set; agricultural background required. |
| Friends, not servants | 友と呼ぶ | Tomo to yobu | Medium | (background — discipleship relational shift) | 15 | none | Distinguish from Japan’s hierarchical seniority/loyalty culture (senpai-kohai, Bushido lord-loyalty ethics). |
| I have overcome the world | わたしはすでに世に勝っています | Watashi wa sude ni yo ni katte imasu | Medium-High | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 16 | none | Anchor to the cross/resurrection specifically, not generic competitive “winning” or positive-thinking encouragement. |
| Eternal life defined (know God) | 永遠のいのちとは、あなたを知ることです | (phrase) | Critical | Eternal Life through Faith | 17 | none | Best available textual corrective to the 不老不死 (immortality) collision risk at John 3:15; cite directly in teaching. |
| That they may be one (believers’ unity) | 彼らが一つになるために | Karera ga hitotsu ni naru tame ni | Critical | Unity of the Father and the Son | 17 | none | Must be distinguished from, though patterned after, the ch. 10 Father-Son ontological unity — do not conflate the two senses. |
| Sanctify (verb, John 17) | 聖め別ってください | Kiyome-wakatte kudasai | High | (background, sanctification) | 17 | 修行させる (AVOID — ascetic self-training, forbidden per baseline) | Verb form of baseline’s 聖化/聖い; God’s own consecrating act, not self-directed spiritual training. |
| I am he (self-identification, arrest scene) | わたしがそれです | Watashi ga sore desu | Critical | Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 18 | none | Reuse of the 8:58 pattern; requires cross-reference to Exodus 3:14 to convey the divine-name echo the soldiers’ reaction implies. |
| My kingdom is not of this world | わたしの国はこの世のものではありません | (phrase) | High | (background — clarifies 神の国) | 18 | none | Reinforces, does not conflict with, baseline’s existing 神の国 State-Shinto-era caution. |
| Cross / crucify | 十字架 / 十字架につける | Jūjika / Jūjika ni tsukeru | Critical | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 19 (anticipated 3, 8, 12) | none | Connect explicitly back to the “lifted up” wordplay (3:14, 8:28, 12:32); note minor secular-fashion dilution risk parallel to baseline’s 復活 note. |
| It is finished (tetelestai) | 完了した | Kanryō shita | Critical | Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection | 19 | none | Must be taught as the sufficient, once-for-all completion of atonement, not a neutral task-completion phrase; parallels baseline’s justification-by-faith cautions against work-based supplementation. |
| Blood and water | 血と水 | Chi to mizu | Medium | (background — humanity of Christ, confirmed death) | 19 | none | Straightforward; requires explanatory teaching, low false-concept collision. |
| King of the Jews | ユダヤ人の王 | Yudaya-jin no Ō | Medium | (background — Davidic covenant, reuse) | 19 | none | Requires Davidic-messianic-kingship background to register as dramatic irony. |
| My Lord and my God | わが主、わが神 | Waga Shu, waga Kami | Critical | The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ | 20 | none | Direct, personal application of baseline 主 + 神 to Jesus himself; reinforces (does not soften) baseline’s 神-qualification rule. |
| Receive the Holy Spirit / forgive sins | 聖霊を受けなさい / 罪を赦される | (phrase) | High | The Holy Spirit as Counselor | 20 | 許される (WRONG KANJI — ordinary interpersonal permission/forgiveness) | Verify correct kanji 赦す (theological/legal pardon) is used, not 許す; parallels baseline’s 預言/予言 homophone-kanji caution. |
| That you may believe and have life in his name | 信じて、その名によっていのちを得るために | (phrase) | Critical | Eternal Life through Faith | 20 | none | The Gospel’s own thesis statement (20:31); render identically across all curriculum documents, parallel to baseline’s Romans 1:16–17 consistency rule. |
| Do you love me? (agapao/phileo) | 私を愛していますか / わたしはあなたを愛しています | (phrase) | High | God’s Love for the World | 21 | forced two-word Japanese distinction (AVOID — not native to the language) | No clean Japanese lexical distinction exists; flag for mandatory translator’s note explaining the underlying Greek alternation rather than inventing an artificial Japanese pair. |
| Feed / tend my sheep | わたしの羊を養いなさい / 飼いなさい | (phrase) | Medium | (background, reuse of Good Shepherd imagery) | 21 | none | Reuse of ch. 10 shepherd imagery. |
| Follow me | わたしについて来なさい | Watashi ni tsuite kinasai | Medium | (background — calling) | 21 | 天職を選ぶ (AVOID — reduces calling to career choice, per baseline caution) | Personal, relational, costly discipleship summons, not generic vocational choice. |
| Believe (verb, pisteuo) | 信じる | Shinjiru | High | Eternal Life through Faith | throughout (3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 20) | none | Verb counterpart to baseline noun 信仰; must carry identical “personal trust in Christ” sense across all ~98 occurrences. |
| Judge / judgment (krino / krisis) | 裁く / 裁き | Sabaku / Sabaki | High | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 16 | 因果応報-adjacent phrasing (AVOID) | Personal God’s forensic verdict tied to belief/unbelief in the Son, not impersonal karmic retribution. |
| Testify / witness (martyreo / martyria) | 証しする / 証言する | Shoushi suru / Shougen suru | High | (background — John’s trial motif) | 1, 3, 5, 8, 15, 21 | none | Retain forensic/courtroom weight; do not flatten to a casual personal-testimonial share. |
| Truth (aletheia) | 真理 | Shinri | High | (background, embodied in Christ) | 1, 3, 8, 14, 17, 18 | none | Distinguish from abstract impersonal cosmic-principle usage; truth is embodied in a personal God/Christ. |
| Name (onoma, believing in his name) | 名 / 御名 | Na / Mina | Medium | Eternal Life through Faith | 3, 20 | none | Standard usage; low collision risk. |
| Send (apostello / pempo) | 遣わす | Tsukawasu | Medium | (background — missional pattern) | 3, 17, 20 | none | Keep relationally warm (a loving Father sending his own Son), not bureaucratic. |
| Love (agapao / agape) | 愛する / 愛 | Ai suru / Ai | High | God’s Love for the World | 3, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21 | none | Distinguish from romantic-love-dominant modern usage and from pre-modern Buddhist 愛着 (clinging attachment); teach as willed, self-giving, sacrificial love. |
| Perish (apollymi) | 滅びる | Horobiru | Medium | Judgment and Belief/Unbelief | 3, 10 | none | Retain personal, final, serious stakes. |
C. Cross-Reference Note: The Seven “I Am” Statements (Doctrine Set)
| # | Passage | Japanese | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6:35, 48 | わたしはいのちのパンです | Critical |
| 2 | 8:12; 9:5 | わたしは世の光です | Critical |
| 3 | 10:11, 14 | わたしは良い牧者です | Critical |
| 4 | 10:7, 9 | わたしは羊の門です | Critical |
| 5 | 11:25 | わたしは復活であり、いのちです | Critical |
| 6 | 14:6 | わたしが道であり、真理であり、いのちです | Critical |
| 7 | 15:1, 5 | わたしは真のぶどうの木です | Critical |
Plus the absolute (predicate-less) uses at 8:58 and 18:5–6, which carry the strongest direct echo of Exodus 3:14’s divine self-name and require explicit cross-referencing to the Japanese Old Testament rendering (わたしはある) in all teaching material.
D. Chapters Reviewed with No New Load-Bearing Terms
- Chapter 9: reviewed; reuses light/darkness, judgment, and worship vocabulary established in chapters 3–5, 8; no new terms required for the Language Package.
All other chapters (1–8, 10–21) contribute at least one new term as documented above; each has been explicitly reviewed per the full-book-coverage mandate.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: Kami
Doctrine: Deity and Pre-existence of Christ / Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 八百万の神の一柱としての神, 神様
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL: single highest-risk term in the package; 神 (kami) is the generic word for the countless Shinto deities and spirits. Retain 神 (no viable alternative) but REQUIRE persistent qualifying language, 唯一のまことの神 (‘the one and only true God’), at doctrinally weighty statements. John intensifies this risk: its concentration of direct deity claims (1:1, 1:18, 5:18, 10:30, 17:3, 20:28) requires the qualifier to be applied at every one of these occurrences, not only at first occurrence as in Romans.
Jesus
Approved rendering: イエス
Transliteration: Iesu
Doctrine: Lordship / Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ゼズス
Inherited from Romans package. Modern Protestant/ecumenical standard. Historical Kirishitan-era ゼズス reserved for background/historical teaching only, never modern curriculum text.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: Shu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 主君, ご主人様
Inherited from Romans package. John 20:28 combines this with 神 in Thomas’s direct personal confession of the risen Christ (わが主、わが神); teach as reinforcing, not softening, the 神-qualification rule.
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
Inherited from Romans package. NEVER 現人神 (arahitogami, the renounced pre-1946 living-god emperor doctrine). John’s Sonship claims (1:34,49; 5:18; 10:36; 11:27; 20:31) are more numerous and more directly provoke blasphemy charges from eyewitness hearers than in Romans, confirming full-deity understanding, not an honorary title.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: 聖霊
Transliteration: Seirei
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Rejected alternatives: 霊, 幽霊
Inherited from Romans package. NEVER bare 霊. UNIQUE JOHN-SPECIFIC FLAG: Shinkaiyaku renders several new-birth and Spirit-of-truth passages (3:5-8; 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) with the honorific classical form 御霊 (mitama) instead of the full compound. Retain 御霊 only in direct Scripture quotation; require an explicit gloss ‘御霊 here refers to 聖霊, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity’ at each first occurrence.
Grace
Approved rendering: 恵み
Transliteration: megumi
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: 恩返しが要る恵み, 功徳
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline’s on-giri (恩・義理) reciprocal-obligation caution applies identically in John; John 1:16’s ‘grace upon grace’ must not imply a debt the recipient now owes back. NEVER 功徳.
Salvation
Approved rendering: 救い
Transliteration: sukui
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: 解脱, 極楽往生
Inherited from Romans package. NEVER 解脱. Use extreme care with 極楽往生 bridge language (Pure Land rebirth by other-power faith) — genuinely useful teaching bridge but never an equivalence; John 3:17, 4:22,42, 12:47 are key occurrences.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: 受肉
Transliteration: juniku
Doctrine: Incarnation (the Word Became Flesh)
Rejected alternatives: 化身, 権化
Inherited from Romans package. NEVER 化身 or 権化 (honji suijaku vocabulary for a kami’s or bodhisattva’s provisional, repeatable manifestation). John 1:14 is this doctrine’s textual anchor and must be read in contrastive tension with 3:6’s negative use of the same underlying word 肉 (see flesh_sarx).
Logos Word
Approved rendering: ことば
Transliteration: Kotoba
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ (the Word)
Rejected alternatives: ロゴス (unexplained Greek loanword, no devotional resonance), 言葉 (too generic, ordinary word for speech)
New (John). John 1:1,14. CRITICAL: risk of resonance with 言霊 (kotodama), the native Shinto folk belief that words carry inherent impersonal mystical power. The Logos is a co-eternal, personal divine Being, not a mystical property of speech. Teach the distinction explicitly at first occurrence.
Equal With God
Approved rendering: 神と等しい
Transliteration: Kami to hitoshii
Doctrine: Deity of Christ (Equality with God)
Rejected alternatives: 神に近い (too weak, ‘close to God’)
New (John). John 5:18. Full ontological equality claim, correctly (not mistakenly) perceived by the Jewish leaders as blasphemy-worthy. Must never soften toward a merely honorific or specially-favored relationship.
Absolute Ego Eimi
Approved rendering: わたしはある
Transliteration: Watashi wa aru
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ / The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
Rejected alternatives: わたしは彼です (too weak, loses divine-name echo)
New (John). John 8:58; 18:5-6. The unqualified, predicate-less ‘I am’ echoing Exodus 3:14 LXX; matches Shinkaiyaku’s own Exodus 3:14 rendering (わたしはある、という者だ). MUST be cross-referenced directly to Exodus 3:14 at both occurrences — without it, 8:58 reads as a mere temporal claim and 18:6’s soldiers falling backward loses all theological weight.
I Am Bread Of Life
Approved rendering: わたしはいのちのパンです
Transliteration: Watashi wa inochi no pan desu
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
New (John). John 6:35,48. First of seven. The ἐγώ εἰμι divine-name resonance is grammatically invisible in this ordinary predicate-sentence pattern; the deity claim rests on content (replacing OT manna), requiring explicit teaching. Bread/manna imagery requires OT background explanation.
I Am Light Of World
Approved rendering: わたしは世の光です
Transliteration: Watashi wa yo no hikari desu
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
New (John). John 8:12; 9:5. Second of seven. Combines 光 and 世; must not be read as one spiritual option among many in Japan’s syncretistic religious marketplace.
I Am Good Shepherd
Approved rendering: わたしは良い牧者です
Transliteration: Watashi wa yoi bokusha desu
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
New (John). John 10:11,14. Third of seven. Requires background teaching on shepherding culture, largely absent from modern urban Japanese daily life — a biblical-illiteracy risk rather than a syncretism risk.
I Am Door
Approved rendering: わたしは羊の門です
Transliteration: Watashi wa hitsuji no mon desu
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
New (John). John 10:7,9. Fourth of seven. Exclusivity claim (‘no one comes… except through me’) must not be softened.
I Am Resurrection And Life
Approved rendering: わたしは復活であり、いのちです
Transliteration: Watashi wa fukkatsu de ari, inochi desu
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
New (John). John 11:25. Fifth of seven. Combines 復活 (already flagged for secular ‘comeback’ dilution) with いのち. Single most direct identification of Christ’s person with resurrection life in the NT; requires the strongest active restoration of doctrinal weight.
I Am Way Truth Life
Approved rendering: わたしが道であり、真理であり、いのちなのです
Transliteration: Watashi ga michi de ari, shinri de ari, inochi na no desu
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
New (John). John 14:6. Sixth and theologically most comprehensive of seven. The exclusivity clause (‘no one comes to the Father except through me’) must be preserved without qualification, per the universality/exclusivity preservation rule.
I Am True Vine
Approved rendering: わたしは真のぶどうの木です
Transliteration: Watashi wa shin no budou no ki desu
Doctrine: The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
New (John). John 15:1,5. Seventh and final of seven, completing the set. Agricultural vine/branch imagery requires background explanation for urban readers.
Lifted Up
Approved rendering: 上げられる
Transliteration: agerareru
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: 十字架にかけられる alone (loses the double meaning)
New (John). John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32-34. Deliberate double sense (physical crucifixion + exaltation/glory) in one Greek verb. A Japanese reader may register only the literal crucifixion sense and miss the simultaneous exaltation/glory sense central to John’s cross-theology; teach explicitly, do not split the senses apart in exposition.
My Lord And My God
Approved rendering: わが主、わが神
Transliteration: Waga Shu, waga Kami
Doctrine: Deity of Christ (Equality with God)
New (John). John 20:28. Thomas’s climactic confession, combining 主 and 神 applied unambiguously and personally to Jesus. Teach explicitly that Thomas is confessing Jesus IS the 唯一のまことの神 of the baseline qualification rule, not merely a venerated or god-like figure.
I And Father Are One
Approved rendering: わたしと父とは一つです
Transliteration: Watashi to Chichi to wa hitotsu desu
Doctrine: Unity of the Father and the Son
Rejected alternatives: 和(wa)-flavored ‘in harmony’ phrasing (AVOID as sole gloss)
New (John). John 10:30; cf. 14:9-11; 17:11. 一つ risks assimilation to 和 (wa), Japan’s social-harmony ideal of cooperative consensus among distinct individuals, rather than ontological unity of essence. The original hearers’ blasphemy charge (10:33) confirms a full deity/unity claim was correctly perceived. Must be distinguished from believers’ derivative unity (see that_they_may_be_one).
That They May Be One
Approved rendering: 彼らが一つになるために
Transliteration: Karera ga hitotsu ni naru tame ni
Doctrine: Believers’ Unity Modeled on the Father-Son Unity
New (John). John 17:11,20-23. Reuses the same 一つ vocabulary as i_and_father_are_one within the same chapter; conflating the two senses would either divinize believers or reduce the Father-Son unity itself to mere relational 和 agreement — the identical risk flagged for ch.10, intensified by proximity.
Born Again
Approved rendering: 新しく生まれる
Transliteration: aratani umareru
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: 上から生まれる (spatial-only, loses ‘again’ sense), 生まれ変わる (rebirth/reincarnation-adjacent — AVOID)
New (John). CORE PASSAGE, John 3:3,7. ἄνωθεν’s Greek double sense (again / from above) has no single Japanese equivalent and must be taught explicitly, not merely translated. Risk of drift toward the secular self-improvement idiom 心を入れ替える (‘turn over a new leaf’) or toward 輪廻転生 (reincarnation, forbidden per baseline resurrection entry) — the new birth is a single, permanent transformation in this life, not a cycle of successive lives.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: 永遠のいのち
Transliteration: eien no inochi
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: 不老不死 (immortality/eternal youth, Daoist-derived — AVOID)
New (John). CORE PASSAGE, John 3:15-16; also 5:24; 6:47; 10:28; 17:3; 20:31. Risk of assimilation to 不老不死 (furōshi), a Daoist-derived immortality concept familiar via classical Chinese literature and modern anime/fantasy fiction — an unending, purely biological existence pursued through effort. Cite John 17:3’s own definition (‘this is eternal life: to know you’) directly as the best available textual corrective whenever this term is taught.
Paraclete Counselor
Approved rendering: 助け主
Transliteration: Tasukenushi
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
Rejected alternatives: 助言者 (mere ‘advisor,’ too weak), 慰め主 (comforter-only, too narrow)
New (John). John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7. CRITICAL: 助け主 could be misheard as a subordinate ‘helper/assistant’ role, since 助ける is common ordinary vocabulary — understating the Spirit’s full divine personhood and authority as Christ’s own replacement among the disciples (‘another Paraclete,’ implying Christ himself was the first).
Spirit Of Truth
Approved rendering: 真理の御霊
Transliteration: Shinri no Mitama
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit as Counselor
New (John). John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13. Same 御霊-vs-聖霊 consistency flag as the holy_spirit entry; require an explicit doctrinal note anchoring 御霊 = 聖霊 at each first occurrence.
Cross Crucifixion
Approved rendering: 十字架
Transliteration: juujika
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
New (John). John 19:16-18; cf. anticipations at 3:14; 8:28; 12:32. Established, unambiguous Japanese Christian-vocabulary term, also recognizable via widespread secular cross-shaped fashion jewelry — a minor dilution risk paralleling baseline’s 復活/’comeback’ note. Teaching must connect this concrete event explicitly back to the lifted_up wordplay to preserve the glory/exaltation dimension.
It Is Finished
Approved rendering: 完了した
Transliteration: kanryou shita
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
New (John). John 19:30 (established Shinkaiyaku ‘すべてが完了した’). CRITICAL: risk that this is heard only as neutral business/project-task-completion phrasing rather than the specific, sufficient, once-for-all completion of atonement for sin. Must be taught as directly countering any works-based supplementation of Christ’s finished work, paralleling baseline’s justification-by-faith cautions against 修行.
Lay Down Life Hyper
Approved rendering: 〜のためにいのちを捨てる
Transliteration: ~no tame ni inochi wo suteru
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: generic altruism phrasing alone
New (John). John 10:11,15; 11:50-51; 13:37-38; 15:13; 17:19. Renders the Greek substitutionary preposition ὑπέρ (‘on behalf of / in the place of’). Japanese のために is also ordinary secular altruism vocabulary (e.g., 家族のために); teaching must clarify this is not generic altruism but a unique, atoning substitution — one life given in the place of others to bear judgment they deserved.
High Risk Terms
Messiah
Approved rendering: キリスト
Transliteration: Kirisuto
Doctrine: Messianic Promise / Messianic Identity
Rejected alternatives: 救世主
Inherited from Romans package. Risk is biblical illiteracy (secular Japanese know ‘Kirisuto’ only as a commercial Christmas/wedding-aesthetic brand), not syncretism. John’s narrative names the Hebrew term explicitly at 1:41 and 4:25; メシア may be used ONLY at those two verses to preserve that narrative detail, never as a general synonym for キリスト elsewhere.
Father
Approved rendering: 父
Transliteration: chichi
Doctrine: Unity of the Father and the Son / Adoption
Rejected alternatives: 家長
Inherited from Romans package. John’s density of Father-Son relational language (nearly every chapter, esp. 5, 8, 10, 14, 17) requires far more active building of relational warmth than Romans, given the ‘absent salaryman father’ cultural risk baseline flags; mistranslation here has downstream Trinitarian consequences via the Unity doctrine, beyond the original Adoption context.
Faith
Approved rendering: 信仰
Transliteration: shinkou
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: 信心, 宗教心
Inherited from Romans package. Noun counterpart to the new verb entry believe_pisteuo (信じる), which carries the greater load-bearing weight in John’s narrative (~98 occurrences).
Sin
Approved rendering: 罪
Transliteration: tsumi
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: 恥, 迷惑をかけること
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline’s shame-vs-guilt caution applies with equal force in John, especially at 8:7-11 and 9:1-3’s popular assumption that sin directly causes visible misfortune (a near-因果応報 reading to actively resist).
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: 神の国
Transliteration: Kami no Kuni
Doctrine: Kingdom of God (Entered by New Birth, Not of This World)
Rejected alternatives: 神国日本
Inherited from Romans package. Retain the mandatory anchoring against the pre-1945 State Shinto ultranationalist slogan 神国日本. John 18:36 (‘my kingdom is not of this world’) is a helpful clarifying resource for this exact caution, not an added risk, and should be cross-referenced when teaching John 3:3,5.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: 復活
Transliteration: fukkatsu
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
Rejected alternatives: 輪廻転生, カムバック
Inherited from Romans package. NEVER 輪廻転生. John’s fifth ‘I Am’ statement (11:25, i_am_resurrection_and_life) raises the stakes to near-Critical by personally identifying Christ’s own person with resurrection life, requiring the strongest available active restoration of doctrinal weight against secular pop-culture ‘comeback’ dilution.
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: 神の怒り
Transliteration: Kami no Ikari
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: 神の不満 (too soft)
New (John). John 3:36. Risk of being heard as an impersonal, transient, humanlike emotional outburst (怒り’s ordinary sense) or assimilated to Shinto aragami (荒神, wrathful/rough deities appeased through ritual). Must be taught as God’s settled, holy, judicial opposition to sin, consistent with — not contrary to — his love (3:16).
Son Of Man
Approved rendering: 人の子
Transliteration: Hito no Ko
Doctrine: The Son of Man Title
New (John). John 1:51; 3:13-14; 5:27; 6:27,53; 9:35; 12:23,34; 13:31. Reads in ordinary Japanese as simply ‘a human being,’ risking total loss of the Daniel 7:13 heavenly-authority background. A biblical-illiteracy comprehension risk, not a competing false concept; requires active teaching at every occurrence.
Flesh Sarx
Approved rendering: 肉
Transliteration: niku
Doctrine: The Dual Valence of ‘Flesh’ (Positive Incarnation vs. Negative Natural Birth)
New (John). John 1:14 (positive, incarnation); 3:6, 6:51-63 (negative, natural/unregenerate origin). Everyday Japanese meaning is literal meat/body tissue (also 肉欲, ‘fleshly lust’). Must not let the negative valence bleed backward into 1:14’s affirmation of Christ’s full, good humanity, nor let 1:14’s positive sense soften 3:6’s point.
Lamb Of God
Approved rendering: 神の子羊
Transliteration: Kami no kohitsuji
Doctrine: Lamb of God and Old Testament Atonement Typology
Rejected alternatives: 子羊 alone (loses ‘of God’, risks generic endearment reading)
New (John). John 1:29,36; cf. 19:34,36. Requires OT Passover-lamb/Suffering-Servant background teaching (biblical-illiteracy risk). Must not dilute to a generic gentleness/innocence metaphor; 子羊 alone can function as a term of endearment in casual Japanese.
Life Zoe
Approved rendering: いのち
Transliteration: inochi
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
Rejected alternatives: 生命 (seimei, clinical/biological register)
New (John). John 1:4; 5:26; 6:33; 11:25. Foundational vocabulary underlying eternal_life and multiple ‘I Am’ statements. Keep the warmer いのち register consistently, never the clinical 生命, so the connection to 永遠のいのち remains visible throughout the book.
Living Water
Approved rendering: 生きた水
Transliteration: ikita mizu
Doctrine: Living Water and the Spirit’s Provision
Rejected alternatives: お神水-adjacent phrasing (AVOID direct parallel to Shinto shrine sacred well-water)
New (John). John 4:10-14; 7:37-39. Risk of confusion with お神水 (o-shinsui), sacred water drawn from Shinto shrine wells believed to carry purifying/healing power through ritual means. Must clarify this is a faith-received symbol of the Spirit’s satisfaction given by Christ, not a ritually empowered substance obtained at a sacred site. 命の水 (inochi no mizu) is a permissible secondary rendering.
Savior Of The World
Approved rendering: 世の救い主
Transliteration: Yo no Sukuinushi
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
New (John). John 4:42. Combines baseline 救い with new world_kosmos entry (世). Reinforce universal gospel scope; resist any uchi-soto (insider/outsider) narrowing.
Truth Sets Free
Approved rendering: 真理はあなたたちを自由にします
Transliteration: Shinri wa anatatachi wo jiyuu ni shimasu
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief (freedom from sin’s bondage)
Rejected alternatives: 自分らしく生きる (secular self-actualization, too weak)
New (John). John 8:32. Risk of a purely political/social liberation reading (as the original hearers themselves misapplied it, 8:33) or a generic self-actualization concept, rather than freedom specifically from sin’s mastery, granted through abiding in Christ’s word.
Believe Pisteuo
Approved rendering: 信じる
Transliteration: shinjiru
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
New (John). Verb counterpart to baseline noun 信仰; used ~98 times throughout John. Must carry the identical ‘personal trust in Christ specifically’ sense baseline assigns to faith, not generic religious sentiment or mere intellectual assent — consistency across all occurrences is essential.
Judge Judgment
Approved rendering: 裁き
Transliteration: sabaki
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
Rejected alternatives: 因果応報-adjacent phrasing (AVOID)
New (John). CORE PASSAGE, John 3:18-19; also 5:24,29; 9:39; 12:48; 16:8-11. Risk of collapsing into 因果応報 (ingahōō), the popular Buddhist-derived folk concept of impersonal karmic cause-and-effect. John’s judgment is a personal God’s forensic verdict tied specifically to belief/unbelief in the Son, not a self-balancing cosmic ledger.
Overcome The World
Approved rendering: わたしはすでに世に勝っています
Transliteration: Watashi wa sude ni yo ni katte imasu
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
New (John). John 16:33. 勝つ (‘to win’) is common secular competition vocabulary (sports, games, business); risks flattening Christ’s cosmic, once-for-all spiritual victory into generic ‘winning’ or positive-thinking encouragement. Anchor explicitly to the cross and resurrection.
Water And Spirit New Birth
Approved rendering: 水と御霊
Transliteration: Mizu to Mitama
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
New (John). CORE PASSAGE, John 3:5. 水と聖霊 is a permissible fuller-compound alternative. Recommend an explicit doctrinal note anchoring 御霊 to 聖霊 at this specific first occurrence in the core passage.
Receive Holy Spirit Forgive Sins
Approved rendering: 罪を赦される
Transliteration: tsumi wo yurusareru
Doctrine: Forgiveness of Sins (Spirit-Empowered Proclamation)
Rejected alternatives: 許される (WRONG KANJI — ordinary interpersonal permission/forgiveness)
New (John). John 20:22-23 (‘聖霊を受けなさい’). Verify the correct kanji 赦す (theological/legal pardon) is used, NOT 許す (ordinary interpersonal permission tied to restoring 義理-based social harmony) — a homophone-kanji risk paralleling baseline’s 預言/予言 caution.
Truth Aletheia
Approved rendering: 真理
Transliteration: shinri
Doctrine: Testimony and Witness / The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements
New (John). John 1:14,17; CORE PASSAGE 3:21 (‘doing the truth’); also 8:32; 14:6; 18:38. Risk of assimilation to an abstract, impersonal cosmic principle or universal moral law (as in some Buddhist/Confucian philosophical usage) rather than truth embodied in, and lived in relationship with, a personal God/Christ. Pilate’s ironic ‘What is truth?’ (18:38) dramatizes unbelief’s failure to recognize truth standing before him in person.
Testify Witness
Approved rendering: 証しする
Transliteration: shoushi suru
Doctrine: Testimony and Witness (the Trial Motif)
New (John). John 1:7-8,19-34; CORE PASSAGE 3:11,32-33; also 5:31-39; 8:13-18; 15:26-27; 21:24. Casual 証し risks flattening toward the personal ‘testimonial’/conversion-story sense common in Japanese evangelical-loanword church culture; 証言する retains the forensic courtroom weight and should be preferred in doctrinally weighty passages, since John structures the whole Gospel as an ongoing trial.
Love Agapao
Approved rendering: 愛する
Transliteration: ai suru
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World / The Love of God Embodied in Christ (Agape)
New (John). CORE PASSAGE John 3:16; also 13:1,34; 15:9-13; 17:23,26. Pre-modern Japanese lacked a native equivalent for unconditional self-giving love; 愛 historically carried the Buddhist connotation of 愛着 (aijaku, clinging attachment, a cause of suffering) before Meiji-era Bible translators repurposed the character. Contemporary usage is dominated by romantic-love contexts (J-pop, dorama); teach as willed, self-giving, sacrificial, other-directed love.
Do You Love Me Agapao Phileo
Approved rendering: 私を愛していますか
Transliteration: Watashi wo ai shite imasu ka
Doctrine: The Love of God Embodied in Christ (Agape)
Rejected alternatives: forced two-word Japanese distinction (AVOID — not native to the language)
New (John). John 21:15-17. Christ’s threefold exchange with Peter alternates ἀγαπάω/φιλέω in Greek; modern Japanese has collapsed to a single common verb, 愛する, for both. Recommend a mandatory translator’s note explaining the two underlying Greek verbs rather than inventing an artificial Japanese pair not native to the language.
Sanctify Verb
Approved rendering: 聖め別ってください
Transliteration: kiyome-wakatte kudasai
Doctrine: Sanctification (background)
Rejected alternatives: 修行させる (AVOID — ascetic self-training, forbidden per baseline)
New (John). John 17:17,19. Verb form of baseline’s 聖化/聖い; God’s own consecrating act, not a self-directed ascetic spiritual discipline.
World Kosmos
Approved rendering: 世
Transliteration: yo
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
Rejected alternatives: 世界 (sekai, more neutral/geographic)
New (John). CORE PASSAGE John 3:16-17; also 1:10; 4:42; 6:33; 8:12; 12:31; 15:18-19; 16:33; 17:9,15-18,21,23-25. Distinct from baseline’s ethnic category 異邦人 (gentiles). Must not be reduced to an uchi-soto (‘everyone except us’) insider/outsider framing, nor absorbed into the Buddhist sense of this transient, ultimately illusory realm (無常, mujō) to be escaped through detachment — God loves this actual world he made and sent his Son to save it, not to help humanity transcend or escape it.
Medium Risk Terms
Glory
Approved rendering: 栄光
Transliteration: eikou
Doctrine: The Deity and Pre-existence of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 名誉
Inherited from Romans package. Elevated importance in John relative to Romans given the Deity-of-Christ doctrine’s concentration here (1:14; 2:11; 11:4,40; 12:23,28; 17:5,22-24); do not collapse into 名誉 (secular honor).
Law
Approved rendering: 律法
Transliteration: ritsuhou
Doctrine: background — contrast with grace and truth
Rejected alternatives: 空気を読むこと, 法律
Inherited from Romans package. NEVER secular 法律. John contrasts law with grace-and-truth in Christ (1:17) and cites it in a Sabbath-controversy defense (7:19-23).
Israel
Approved rendering: イスラエル
Transliteration: Isuraeru
Doctrine: background — covenant people
Inherited from Romans package. Used of Nathanael’s confession and the crowd’s messianic acclamation (John 1:31,49; 3:10; 12:13).
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: ダビデの子孫
Transliteration: Dabide no shison
Doctrine: King of the Jews and Davidic Kingship
Inherited from Romans package. John 7:42; requires OT covenant background; note the narrative irony that some in the crowd reject Jesus precisely on mistaken assumptions about this lineage requirement.
Peace
Approved rendering: 平安
Transliteration: heian
Doctrine: background
Rejected alternatives: 安心, 癒し
Inherited from Romans package. John pointedly contrasts Christ’s peace with ‘the world’s’ peace (14:27; 16:33), reinforcing rather than diluting the baseline distinction from generic wellness/self-care senses.
King Of The Jews
Approved rendering: ユダヤ人の王
Transliteration: Yudaya-jin no Ō
Doctrine: King of the Jews and Davidic Kingship (Dramatic Irony)
New (John). John 19:19-22. Pilate’s mocking inscription unwittingly declares Christ’s genuine messianic kingship; requires Davidic-covenant background to register as dramatic irony rather than a merely historical-political title.
Slave To Sin
Approved rendering: 罪の奴隷
Transliteration: tsumi no dorei
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
New (John). John 8:34-36. Combines baseline 罪 with 奴隷 (slave, a transliterated Western-history-weighted term). Low collision risk; the historical-slavery gravity of 奴隷 is an appropriately weighty rendering.
Draw Helko
Approved rendering: 引き寄せる
Transliteration: hikiyoseru
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
Rejected alternatives: 選抜 (competitive-selection, forbidden per baseline election caution)
New (John). John 6:44; 12:32. Parallels baseline’s election caution: God’s sovereign, effectual, prior initiative drawing a person to Christ, not human effort or Japan’s competitive merit-based selection culture (選抜).
Perish Apollymi
Approved rendering: 滅びる
Transliteration: horobiru
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
New (John). CORE PASSAGE, John 3:16; also 10:28. Retain personal, final, serious stakes rather than a poetic/figurative reading of general loss or ruin.
Devil Father Of Lies
Approved rendering: 悪魔
Transliteration: akuma
Doctrine: Judgment and Belief/Unbelief
New (John). John 8:44 (‘偽りの父’, father of lies). 悪魔 is an established Japanese Christian-vocabulary term also used loosely in popular culture for generic villain figures; retain the specific truth/falsehood epithet rather than generic villain imagery.
Ruler Of This World
Approved rendering: この世の支配者
Transliteration: Kono yo no shihaisha
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
New (John). John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. Satan’s usurped, temporary authority over the fallen world-system, decisively judged at the cross. Must be clearly distinguished from baseline’s 神の国 (Kingdom of God) as its illegitimate, temporary counterfeit, not a parallel legitimate authority.
Wind Spirit Wordplay
Approved rendering: 風 / 御霊
Transliteration: kaze / Mitama
Doctrine: The New Birth and Regeneration by the Spirit
New (John). CORE PASSAGE, John 3:8. Japanese unavoidably splits the single Greek word πνεῦμα into two distinct terms (風 for the illustration, 御霊 for the referent), destroying the compact wordplay; teaching material must explicitly state that one Greek word underlies both halves of the verse.
Worship In Spirit And Truth
Approved rendering: 霊とまことによる礼拝
Transliteration: rei to makoto ni yoru reihai
Doctrine: Worship in Spirit and Truth
New (John). John 4:21-24. Note the bare 霊 here (not 聖霊) — interpreters differ on human spirit vs. Holy Spirit’s enabling presence. Flag for human theologian review to resolve or deliberately preserve the ambiguity, per the ambiguity-handling protocol; do not silently pass over.
Light
Approved rendering: 光
Transliteration: hikari
Doctrine: Light and Darkness (Moral Dualism)
New (John). John 1:4-9; CORE PASSAGE 3:19-21; also 8:12; 9:5; 12:35-36. Transparent word choice; teaching must clarify this is a moral-spiritual, not merely aesthetic, category.
Darkness
Approved rendering: 闇
Transliteration: yami
Doctrine: Light and Darkness (Moral Dualism)
New (John). John 1:5; CORE PASSAGE 3:19; also 8:12; 12:35,46. Japan’s aesthetic tradition (e.g., Tanizaki’s In’ei Raisan, ‘In Praise of Shadows’) treats 闇/陰翳 as beautiful, restful, even spiritually positive; teaching should clarify John’s darkness is a moral, not aesthetic, contrast — active opposition to God, not a mood or texture.
Sign Semeion
Approved rendering: しるし
Transliteration: shirushi
Doctrine: Signs and Belief
Rejected alternatives: 奇跡 (kiseki, ‘miracle,’ too generic/spectacle-focused)
New (John). John 2:11,23; CORE PASSAGE 3:2; also 4:48,54; 6:2,14,26; 9:16; 20:30-31. Risk of flattening to mean simple proof-of-power (a magic trick or celebrity feat); retain John’s specific sense of a revelatory pointer to Christ’s identity that provokes belief or unbelief.
Name Onoma
Approved rendering: 御名
Transliteration: mina
Doctrine: Eternal Life through Faith in Christ
New (John). John 1:12; CORE PASSAGE 3:18; also 20:31. The name as bearer of a person’s full identity and authority; standard usage, low collision risk. Note the established honorific 御 prefix convention already used for divine referents in Japanese liturgical style.
New Commandment
Approved rendering: 新しい戒め
Transliteration: atarashii okite
Doctrine: The New Commandment of Love
New (John). John 13:34-35; 15:12-17. Must be distinguished from baseline’s 律法 (an additional legal-code reading) and from Japan’s on-giri social-debt reciprocity systems already flagged under baseline’s grace entry; this love flows from having received Christ’s self-giving love, not from social obligation.
Friends Not Servants
Approved rendering: 友と呼ぶ
Transliteration: tomo to yobu
Doctrine: Discipleship and Following Christ
New (John). John 15:15. Japan’s hierarchical seniority/loyalty culture (senpai-kohai structure, Bushido lord-loyalty ethics) could default this relationship back toward a superior-subordinate frame Christ explicitly moves the disciples beyond.
Follow Me
Approved rendering: わたしについて来なさい
Transliteration: Watashi ni tsuite kinasai
Doctrine: Discipleship and Following Christ
Rejected alternatives: 天職を選ぶ (AVOID — reduces calling to career choice, per baseline caution)
New (John). John 1:43; 21:19,22. Personal, relational, costly discipleship summons, not generic vocational choice; must not be secularized toward 天職, per baseline’s existing caution against reducing personal calling to career fulfillment.
Feed My Sheep
Approved rendering: わたしの羊を養いなさい
Transliteration: Watashi no hitsuji wo yashinainasai
Doctrine: Discipleship and Following Christ
New (John). John 21:15-17. Reuse of Good Shepherd imagery (ch. 10) extended to Peter’s pastoral responsibility; low additional risk beyond that already flagged for i_am_good_shepherd.
Send Apostello
Approved rendering: 遣わす
Transliteration: tsukawasu
Doctrine: God’s Love for the World
New (John). John 3:17; 17:18; 20:21. The Father’s sending of the Son, the foundational missional pattern repeated throughout John (~40 times). Closely related to baseline’s 使徒 (‘one sent’); keep relationally warm (a loving Father sending his own Son), not bureaucratic/administrative in register.
Blood And Water
Approved rendering: 血と水
Transliteration: chi to mizu
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
New (John). John 19:34. Physical detail confirming Christ’s genuine, complete physical death. Straightforward description; requires explanatory teaching for its symbolic weight (biblical-illiteracy risk) rather than a competing false concept.
Grain Of Wheat
Approved rendering: 一粒の麦
Transliteration: hitotsubu no mugi
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death and Resurrection
New (John). John 12:24. Agricultural metaphor: a seed must die to bear a fruitful harvest, applied to Christ’s own death. Requires background explanation for urban Japanese readers; no competing false-concept collision.
Hour Theological
Approved rendering: 時
Transliteration: toki
Doctrine: The Appointed ‘Hour’ of Christ’s Glorification
Rejected alternatives: 運命 (fate, forbidden per baseline providence caution)
New (John). John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23,27; 13:1; 17:1. Ordinary word for ‘time,’ easily read as casual or incidental unless flagged as a deliberate, book-spanning technical motif tied to divine appointment tracking the approach of the cross. NEVER render with 運命.
Low Risk Terms
David
Approved rendering: ダビデ
Transliteration: Dabide
Doctrine: King of the Jews and Davidic Kingship
Inherited from Romans package. Background to the crowd’s Davidic-lineage messianic expectation (John 7:42).
Apostle
Approved rendering: 使徒
Transliteration: shito
Doctrine: background
Rejected alternatives: 教祖
Inherited from Romans package. John 13:16 puns on the term’s root sense of ‘a sent one’ alongside the new send_apostello entry (遣わす); no separate rendering required, but flag the wordplay for teaching.
Referenced passages