Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Japanese translation and Hepburn romaji transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons tied to Shinto pantheism, Buddhist doctrine, State Shinto political history, or secular dilution as appropriate
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Established usage over invention — where Shinkaiyaku 2017 already has a settled rendering (神, イエス, 主, キリスト), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
- Explicit rejection, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why the tempting alternative is wrong and which mechanism drives the risk (a competing Shinto/Buddhist concept, a historical-political association, or secular dilution), since the correct teaching response differs by mechanism.
- Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.
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
CRITICAL: this is the single highest-risk term in the Japanese package. 神 (kami) is the generic Japanese word for the countless Shinto deities and spirits (the yaoyorozu no kami, ‘eight million kami’ — nature spirits, ancestor spirits enshrined after death, even deified historical humans). Using 神 without qualification risks being heard as ‘a kami,’ one spirit-being among many, not the singular transcendent Creator. This package retains 神 as the settled Bible-translation choice (no viable alternative exists) but REQUIRES persistent qualifying language at first occurrence and in doctrinally weighty passages: 唯一のまことの神 (‘the one and only true God’). 神様 (kamisama, the everyday reverential-but-vague form) is acceptable in casual narrative but must not stand alone in doctrinal statements about God’s uniqueness.
Grace
Approved rendering: 恵み
Transliteration: megumi
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: 恩返しが要る恵み, 功徳
CRITICAL: Japanese social ethics run on 恩 (on, a debt of gratitude/obligation incurred when one receives a favor) and 義理 (giri, the felt duty to repay it) — the on-giri reciprocity system. Grace must be taught as explicitly non-transactional: it produces grateful response but creates no repayment debt. Without this clarification, 恵み risks being processed as an on that the recipient now owes back. NEVER use 功徳 (kudoku, Buddhist accumulated merit).
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: 聖霊
Transliteration: Seirei
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 霊, 幽霊
CRITICAL: always use the compound 聖霊; NEVER use 霊 (rei) alone. Japan’s animistic spirit-world remains culturally vivid even among secular Japanese — ancestral spirits honored at Obon, nature spirits, and an entire mainstream horror/pop-culture genre built around 幽霊 (yuurei, ghosts) and 妖怪 (yōkai, folk spirit-monsters). Without the 聖 qualifier, 霊 risks being heard as one more entity in this vast folk spirit-world rather than the third Person of the Trinity.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: 義と認められること
Transliteration: gi to mitomerareru koto
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: 修行によって得た義, 自己義認
CRITICAL: righteousness credited by God, NOT earned through ascetic spiritual training (修行) or self-righteousness (自己義認). Must retain the forensic ‘counted/recognized as’ sense, resisting collapse into the Bushido-virtue sense of 義 flagged under righteousness.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: 受肉
Transliteration: juniku
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: 化身, 権化
CRITICAL: established Japanese theological term (‘receiving flesh’). NEVER use 化身 (keshin) or 権化 (gonge) — both describe a bodhisattva’s or kami’s provisional, repeatable manifestation in a form to help beings, a concept formalized historically in honji suijaku theology (the medieval Shinto-Buddhist syncretism holding that Japanese kami are local manifestations/traces of Buddhas). The incarnation is the eternal Son permanently and uniquely taking human nature — once, not a repeatable local manifestation.
Jesus
Approved rendering: イエス
Transliteration: Iesu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ゼズス
イエス is the modern Protestant/ecumenical standard, phonetically close to Greek/English. Historical note: early Japanese Catholic Kirishitan-era Bibles (16th century, following Francis Xavier’s 1549 mission) used ゼズス (Jezusu), a Portuguese-derived transliteration reflecting Japan’s first Christian contact via Portuguese Jesuits. Modern curriculum materials should use イエス exclusively but may reference this history when discussing Japan’s Christian heritage.
Justification
Approved rendering: 義と認められること
Transliteration: gi to mitomerareru koto
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 悟りを開くこと, 解脱
CRITICAL: established Shinkaiyaku compound, ‘being recognized/counted as righteous’ — a forensic declaration, not a process. NEVER use 悟りを開く (‘attaining enlightenment,’ a core Buddhist concept of awakening achieved through practice) — this imports an earned-attainment framework opposite to justification by faith.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: 義
Transliteration: gi
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 道徳, 正義感
CRITICAL: 義 is one of the core Bushido virtues (rectitude/moral courage) as codified in Nitobe Inazo’s influential Bushido: The Soul of Japan — a samurai-ethics honor-code virtue displayed through right action. Biblical righteousness in Romans is a right standing before God received through faith, not a personal virtue of moral courage cultivated and displayed. Always flag with a distinguishing note in justification contexts.
Salvation
Approved rendering: 救い
Transliteration: sukui
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 解脱, 極楽往生
CRITICAL: NEVER use 解脱 (gedatsu, Buddhist liberation from the cycle of samsara). Use caution with 極楽往生 (gokuraku oujou, ‘rebirth into the Pure Land,’ the Jōdo Shū/Pure Land Buddhism goal reached through Amida Buddha’s other-power grace by faith in the nembutsu) — this doctrine’s tariki (他力, other-power) structure is genuinely close in shape to sola gratia and can be a helpful teaching bridge, but must never be presented as equivalent: biblical salvation is reconciliation with a personal, holy God who judges sin, not rebirth into a paradise realm within an ongoing cosmology of rebirth.
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
CRITICAL: NEVER use 現人神 (arahitogami, ‘a god in human form,’ the pre-1946 State Shinto doctrine that the Emperor was a living, incarnate divine being descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu — a doctrine Emperor Hirohito formally renounced in his 1946 Ningen-sengen, ‘Declaration of Humanity’). Christ’s Sonship is eternal, unique, and not a semi-divine imperial-lineage office. NEVER use 神の化身 (an avatar-style manifestation).
High Risk Terms
Called
Approved rendering: 召された
Transliteration: mesareta
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 運命づけられた, 天職
Avoid 運命づけられた (destined by impersonal fate) and use 天職 (tenshoku, ‘heaven-appointed vocation,’ a common secular Japanese phrase for one’s calling/career passion) only with caution — it risks reducing God’s specific relational summons to a generic sense of career fulfillment.
Calling
Approved rendering: 召し
Transliteration: meshi
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 運命, 天職
NEVER use 運命 (unmei, impersonal fate/destiny) alone. God’s calling is a personal, relational summons, not a fixed destiny.
Covenant
Approved rendering: 契約
Transliteration: keiyaku
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
契約 is the only common Japanese word for both ‘covenant’ and an ordinary secular contract (employment, rental, insurance) — a fully secularized commercial term in everyday use. This is a dilution risk, not a syncretism risk: teaching must actively restore the sense of a gracious, relational divine promise, since the word’s default modern association is a negotiated business agreement between equal parties.
Faith
Approved rendering: 信仰
Transliteration: shinkou
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: 信心, 宗教心
Personal trust in Christ specifically; must be distinguished from generic 宗教心 (religious sentiment) common in Japan’s famously syncretistic ‘do both’ religious practice (visiting a Shinto shrine at New Year and a Buddhist temple at Obon without exclusive commitment to either).
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: 神の国
Transliteration: Kami no Kuni
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: 神国日本
This exact phrase was the slogan of pre-1945 State Shinto ultranationalist ideology (神国日本, ‘divine-nation Japan,’ the doctrine that Japan itself was a sacred land under a divine emperor) — a 2000-era prime ministerial remark reviving this phrase caused significant public controversy. Teaching materials must clearly and immediately anchor 神の国 as God’s spiritual reign in Romans 14:17, not risk unwanted resonance with this militarist-era political theology for readers old enough to remember it or aware of the history.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: shu
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 主君, ご主人様
Established term. Romans 10:9’s confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ = イエスは主です. 主君 (shukun, a feudal-era liege lord) can be a helpful bridge given samurai loyalty-to-lord culture, but risks reducing exclusive divine Lordship to feudal political fealty if used without qualification; avoid 主人 in the ‘husband/master of the house’ sense entirely.
Messiah
Approved rendering: キリスト
Transliteration: Kirisuto
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: 救世主
キリスト (transliteration of ‘Christos’) is the standard term — so standard that ‘Christianity’ itself is キリスト教. The risk here is not syncretism but biblical illiteracy: most secular Japanese know ‘Kirisuto’ only as a foreign cultural reference point (commercialized Christmas, Western-style wedding-chapel aesthetics chosen for style rather than belief) with no connection to the Old Testament messianic-fulfillment concept the term actually carries. Heavy explanatory teaching is required, not just correct word choice.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: 信仰の従順
Transliteration: shinkou no juujun
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: 空気を読んだ従順, 上下関係への服従
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Japan’s strong hierarchical-obedience culture (senpai-kohai seniority structure, corporate hierarchy, historic Bushido loyalty-to-lord ethics) risks making ‘obedience’ default to social-conformity compliance rather than a Spirit-produced response flowing from genuine faith.
Providence
Approved rendering: 摂理
Transliteration: setsuri
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: 運命, 宿命
NEVER use 運命 or 宿命 (unmei/shukumei, impersonal fate/destiny, very common secular vocabulary). 摂理 is a formal, somewhat unfamiliar theological term to secular readers (a biblical-illiteracy risk rather than a false-concept risk) but must be maintained: it names God’s personal, purposive governance, not impersonal fatalism.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: 復活
Transliteration: fukkatsu
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 輪廻転生, カムバック
NEVER use 輪廻転生 (rinne tenshou, the Buddhist cycle of reincarnation). A distinct, non-syncretistic risk here: 復活 is heavily used in ordinary secular Japanese for a band’s ‘comeback,’ a discontinued product’s ‘return,’ or a sports team’s rally — the word is doctrinally correct but rhetorically deflated by pop-culture overuse. Teaching materials must actively restore its weight as a unique, bodily, historical event, not simply supply the correct word.
Saints
Approved rendering: 聖徒
Transliteration: seito
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: 聖者, 菩薩
NEVER use 菩薩 (bosatsu, a bodhisattva, a being who has attained enlightenment but remains to help others — a specific, elevated Buddhist category). 聖者 (a Buddhist arhat/holy sage) similarly names a rare achiever class. 聖徒 applies corporately to all ordinary believers (Romans 1:7).
Sanctification
Approved rendering: 聖化
Transliteration: seika
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 修行, 悟り
The Spirit’s ongoing work in a believer already justified by faith. Distinguish from 修行 (shugyou, ascetic spiritual training/discipline, a core Buddhist practice concept familiar from popular culture) and from 悟り (satori, sudden enlightenment).
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: ダビデの子孫
Transliteration: Dabide no shison
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment.
Sin
Approved rendering: 罪
Transliteration: tsumi
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: 恥, 迷惑をかけること
Japan’s culture is frequently described (following Ruth Benedict’s shame/guilt framework) as shame-oriented (恥, haji, public loss of face) rather than guilt-oriented; there is a real risk that 罪 gets processed primarily as causing 迷惑 (meiwaku, trouble/inconvenience to others) or public shame rather than moral guilt before a holy God regardless of social consequence. This is compounded by biblical illiteracy: many secular Japanese have no prior framework at all for guilt before a personal God.
Medium Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: アバ
Transliteration: Aba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15 (アバ、父よ). Keep the transliteration to convey filial closeness the more formal 父 alone may not carry, especially given the father-figure distance risk noted above.
Adoption
Approved rendering: 子とされること
Transliteration: ko to sareru koto
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: 養子縁組
Unlike some contexts where adoption customs carry a reduced-status risk, Japan’s well-established practice of adult heir adoption (養子縁組, yōshi engumi — commonly adopting a son-in-law or capable outsider as full heir to continue a family name or business when no biological heir exists, still common in Japanese corporate succession today) is actually a helpful cultural bridge: it already carries full inheritance and family-name status, which maps well onto Romans 8’s picture of adoption bringing complete inheritance rights.
Church
Approved rendering: 教会
Transliteration: kyoukai
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: 寺, 神社
Established term. NEVER use 寺 (Buddhist temple) or 神社 (Shinto shrine).
David
Approved rendering: ダビデ
Transliteration: Dabide
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Standard Shinkaiyaku proper name form.
Election
Approved rendering: 選び
Transliteration: erabi
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: 合格, 選抜
Avoid framing through Japan’s intensely competitive, merit-based exam and hiring ‘selection’ culture (受験, 選抜) — being ‘selected’ colloquially implies passing a competitive process through effort and ability, whereas God’s election is a sovereign, gracious, unmerited choice.
Father
Approved rendering: 父
Transliteration: chichi
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: 家長
God as personal, caring Father. Traditional Japanese family structure (家, ie) emphasizes formal patriarchal authority (家長, kachou) over warmth; additionally, Japan’s modern ‘absent salaryman father’ social trope means many readers, especially secular younger readers, may have a culturally weak or distant personal father-figure association to draw on. Teaching should actively build the relational-intimacy sense (see Abba) rather than assume it.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: 異邦人
Transliteration: ihoujin
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: 外人
Avoid casual 外人 (gaijin, ‘outsider/foreigner’), which risks reinforcing Japan’s strong insider/outsider (内・外, uchi-soto) social framework as the operative category, when Romans’ Jew/Gentile distinction is a specific redemptive-historical category, not a generic ethnic-insider one.
Glory
Approved rendering: 栄光
Transliteration: eikou
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 名誉
Avoid collapsing into 名誉 (meiyo, secular honor/reputation), which reduces God’s radiant divine glory to human social prestige.
Gospel
Approved rendering: 福音
Transliteration: fukuin
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: いい知らせ, グッドニュース
Established Shinkaiyaku term. Main risk is not mistranslation but blankness: most secular Japanese readers have zero prior exposure to 福音 as a concept and will need it explained from scratch, unlike a culturally loaded term that carries a wrong meaning.
Holy
Approved rendering: 聖い
Transliteration: kiyoi
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 清らか, 穢れがない
Set apart for God, morally pure. Distinguish from Shinto ritual purity (清らか, kegare-focused ritual cleanliness restored through purification rites, harae) which addresses ceremonial pollution rather than moral character before a holy God.
Intercession
Approved rendering: とりなし
Transliteration: torinashi
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Prayer on behalf of others addressed to God. Established term; no significant risk.
Israel
Approved rendering: イスラエル
Transliteration: Isuraeru
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; established form.
Law
Approved rendering: 律法
Transliteration: ritsuhou
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: 空気を読むこと, 法律
The Mosaic Law. NEVER use 法律 (secular/civil law). Be alert to reducing ‘law’ to Japan’s strong social-conformity expectation (‘reading the air,’ 空気を読む, kuuki wo yomu) — God’s law is his moral revelation, not an unwritten social-harmony code.
Mission
Approved rendering: 宣教
Transliteration: senkyou
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: 布教
Japan’s Christian history carries the weight of the 16th-17th century Kirishitan persecution and the subsequent two-and-a-half centuries of national seclusion (sakoku) during which hidden Christians (隠れキリシタン, Kakure Kirishitan) practiced underground. ‘Mission’ also carries the modern reality that Japan is one of the least responsive mission fields per capita despite centuries of effort. Frame with awareness of both this historical weight and the risk of a ‘foreign import’ association (外国の宗教).
Peace
Approved rendering: 平安
Transliteration: heian
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: 安心, 癒し
In Romans 5:1, clarify this is relational peace with God through justification, not the generic ‘peace of mind’/self-care sense of 安心 or 癒し (iyashi, ‘healing/soothing,’ heavily used in Japan’s large wellness/relaxation-goods marketing).
Power Of God
Approved rendering: 神の力
Transliteration: Kami no Chikara
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 気, パワー
Avoid 気 (ki, the vital life-energy concept from traditional Japanese medicine and martial arts such as aikido) and generic loanword パワー (pawaa, ‘power’), which given Japan’s anime/manga/tokusatsu pop-culture saturation risks sounding like a generic fictional superpower rather than the specific saving power of Romans 1:16.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: 預言
Transliteration: yogen
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: 予言, 占い
Same 預言/予言 homophone risk as ‘prophet’ above. Verify the 預 kanji; distinguish from 占い (fortune-telling/divination).
Prophet
Approved rendering: 預言者
Transliteration: yogensha
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: 予言者, 占い師
IMPORTANT: 預言者 (‘one who deposits/entrusts words,’ prophet) is a homophone of 予言者 (‘one who predicts,’ a fortune-teller), differing only in the kanji 預 vs. 予 — a purely orthographic risk unique to Japanese, since spoken teaching, furigana-less text, or IME auto-conversion can silently swap the wrong kanji. Always verify the 預 kanji is used, and distinguish clearly from 占い師 (fortune-teller).
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: 賜物
Transliteration: tamamono
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: 超能力, 霊力
Always clarify as 霊的な賜物 (Spirit-given gifts) in context. NEVER use 超能力 (chounouryoku, ‘superpowers,’ a term saturated with anime/manga/pseudoscience pop-culture associations in Japan) or 霊力 (spiritual/psychic power, associated with folk mediums and TV psychics).
Low Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: 使徒
Transliteration: shito
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: 教祖
Established term. Avoid 教祖 (kyouso, ‘the founder/guru of a religious movement’), a title carrying negative associations in Japan following high-profile new-religious-movement scandals (notably Aum Shinrikyo in the 1990s).
Exhort
Approved rendering: 勧める
Transliteration: susumeru
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Standard term for encouraging/urging fellow believers. No significant risk.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: 交わり
Transliteration: majiwari
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 仲間意識
Shared participation in Christ. Avoid 仲間意識 (nakama ishiki, generic in-group solidarity/harmony feeling, from Japan’s wa group-harmony culture), which describes social cohesion without necessarily any gospel content.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: 感謝
Transliteration: kansha
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term. No significant risk.
Referenced passages