Core Glossary
Core Glossary
This curriculum’s glossary covers 47 terms drawn from Romans 1-16, each recorded in full in translation_memory.json with its approved Javanese rendering, transliteration, doctrine link, risk tier, and rejected alternatives.
Highest-priority terms for translator onboarding
Before translating any Romans segment, translators should be drilled on the Critical-risk terms first, since these carry the highest cost of error and the most tempting false-friend alternatives:
| Term | Approved | Never use |
|---|---|---|
| Incarnation | Gusti Allah dados manungsa | manunggaling kawula gusti |
| Salvation | kaslametan (with framing note) | — (established term needs context, not replacement) |
| Resurrection | wungu saka pati | titisan |
| Grace | sih-rahmat | kasekten / wahyu / utang budi |
| Power of God | panguwaosipun Gusti Allah | kasekten |
| Messiah | Sang Mesias | Satrio Piningit |
| Jesus | Gusti Yesus | Nabi Isa |
| Holy Spirit | Roh Suci | dhemit / lelembut |
Glossary structure
The full glossary is bucketed by risk tier in the published bundle (glossary/risk-groups/), Critical first, so reviewers can prioritize their attention. Each entry records the doctrine it supports, so a reviewer flagged on a doctrine (e.g. Incarnation) can immediately see every term tied to that doctrine.
Maintenance note
Any new term encountered during Phase 2 translation that is not yet in this glossary must be added to translation_memory.json before the segment is finalized, following the same fields and risk-assessment process documented in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Gusti Allah
Transliteration: Gusti Allah
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Gusti (alone)
CRITICAL: The compound joins the Javanese honorific Gusti (lord/master) with Allah. Never shorten to bare Gusti, which is also the ordinary address for any feudal lord or palace master; the full compound is required to specify the one supreme personal Creator.
Grace
Approved rendering: sih-rahmat
Transliteration: sih-rahmat
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: kasekten, wahyu, utang budi
CRITICAL: Never use kasekten (spiritual/magical potency attributed to sacred objects or ascetics), wahyu (the mystical mandate-light believed to legitimize a ruler), or utang budi (a reciprocal debt of gratitude that Javanese social ethics obligates a person to repay). Sih-rahmat must be taught as favor given with no debt incurred and nothing to repay.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Roh Suci
Transliteration: Roh Suci
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: dhemit, lelembut
CRITICAL: Never use dhemit or lelembut (categories of folk spirits/unseen beings in Javanese belief). Roh Suci must always appear in full, marking the third Person of the Trinity, not a spirit-category from the surrounding unseen world of kejawen belief.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: kabeneran kang kaanggep saking Gusti Allah
Transliteration: kabeneran kang kaanggep saking Gusti Allah
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: kasampurnan kang digayuh
Righteousness credited by God, not earned. Kasampurnan kang digayuh (self-attained spiritual perfection, pursued through ascetic practice) is explicitly rejected as the opposite doctrinal direction.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: Gusti Allah dados manungsa
Transliteration: Gusti Allah dados manungsa
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: manunggaling kawula gusti
CRITICAL: NEVER use manunggaling kawula gusti, the central Javanese mystical teaching (traced to Syekh Siti Jenar and embedded broadly in kejawen and Javanese Sufi thought) that the human self and the Divine become indistinguishably fused through spiritual attainment. The Incarnation is the eternal Son permanently taking on a real, distinct human nature, once, in history, not a pantheistic merging any devotee could in principle achieve.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Gusti Yesus
Transliteration: Gusti Yesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Nabi Isa
CRITICAL: Never use Nabi Isa, the Islamic framing of Jesus as one prophet among a line culminating in Muhammad. Gusti Yesus preserves full confessional identity as Lord and Son of God.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Sang Mesias
Transliteration: Sang Mesias
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: Satrio Piningit
CRITICAL: Never use Satrio Piningit (the ‘hidden knight’ of Javanese Jayabaya prophecy, expected to arise and restore justice to Java). The transliterated Sang Mesias preserves the unique, exclusively fulfilled OT promise rather than folding it into a separate Javanese prophetic tradition.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: panguwaosipun Gusti Allah
Transliteration: panguwaosipun Gusti Allah
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: kasekten
CRITICAL: Never use kasekten, the pervasive Javanese concept of magical or spiritual potency attributed to a sacred keris, an ascetic, or a wahyu-legitimized ruler. God’s power to save is his own personal power, not an impersonal potency that can be possessed or channeled.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: wungu saka pati
Transliteration: wungu saka pati
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: titisan, reinkarnasi
CRITICAL: Never use titisan (the Javanese belief that an ancestor’s or deity’s spiritual quality is reborn or manifested in a later descendant or chosen figure, often invoked in royal-legitimacy narratives) or reinkarnasi. Wungu saka pati = the same body raised bodily, once for all, not a spiritual quality descending into a new bearer.
Salvation
Approved rendering: kaslametan
Transliteration: kaslametan
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: karahayon
CRITICAL: Kaslametan is the linguistically natural word for salvation (from slamet, safe) and is the term established Javanese Bibles use, but it shares its root with slametan, the communal ritual meal held to ward off misfortune and secure protection from ancestral and territorial spirits. Every occurrence requires a teaching note distinguishing biblical salvation, a rescue accomplished once by Christ, from the repeated, protective ritual practice the same root word evokes.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Putrané Gusti Allah
Transliteration: Putrané Gusti Allah
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
CRITICAL: Full phrase required. Conveys eternal, unique Sonship within the Godhead, not a titled descendant of a ruling house.
High Risk Terms
Called
Approved rendering: katimbalan
Transliteration: katimbalan
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: wahyu
Katimbalan (being personally summoned, drawn from Javanese court protocol for a ruler summoning a subject) conveys a personal, relational call. Never use wahyu, the impersonal mystical mandate-light believed to descend on a legitimate ruler.
Calling
Approved rendering: katimbalanipun Gusti Allah
Transliteration: katimbalanipun Gusti Allah
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: wahyu
Noun form for the state of being called. Keep distinct from wahyu, which describes an impersonal charismatic mandate rather than a personal relationship.
Covenant
Approved rendering: prajanjian
Transliteration: prajanjian
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
A relational, binding bond initiated by God; needs context to carry more weight than an ordinary negotiated agreement.
Election
Approved rendering: pepilihanipun Gusti Allah
Transliteration: pepilihanipun Gusti Allah
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: wahyu
God’s sovereign personal choice, not wahyu, the impersonal mystical mandate believed to legitimize a Javanese ruler’s claim to the throne.
Father
Approved rendering: Rama
Transliteration: Rama
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: Leluhur
God as personal, relational Father. Never substitute Leluhur (venerated ancestral forebear), since ancestor veneration through slametan ritual is a live practice that could otherwise absorb this relationship into ancestor devotion.
Glory
Approved rendering: kamulyan
Transliteration: kamulyan
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: wahyu, kasekten
Never use wahyu (a transferable charismatic mandate-light) or kasekten (earned spiritual potency) for divine glory. Kamulyan is God’s own inherent radiance and honor, not something conferred or accumulated.
Holy
Approved rendering: suci
Transliteration: suci
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: kramat
Set apart for God and morally pure. Kramat carries connotations of sacred potency attached to a shrine, grave, or object, rather than moral holiness.
Justification
Approved rendering: kaanggep bener dening Gusti Allah
Transliteration: kaanggep bener dening Gusti Allah
Doctrine: Salvation
Compound phrase required; no single Javanese word carries the forensic sense of being declared, not made, righteous.
Lord
Approved rendering: Gusti
Transliteration: Gusti
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ndara
In Romans 10:9 the confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ = Gusti Yesus punika Gustinipun. Gusti is also the ordinary address for a feudal lord, palace master, or member of the Javanese aristocracy, so every occurrence needs context establishing Christ’s exclusive, supreme Lordship, not deference language borrowed from the keraton social hierarchy.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: pambangun-turut kang metu saka pitados
Transliteration: pambangun-turut kang metu saka pitados
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Obedience that flows from faith, not ritual compliance performed to secure protection or favor.
Providence
Approved rendering: pepesthenipun Gusti Allah kang kebak katresnan
Transliteration: pepesthenipun Gusti Allah kang kebak katresnan
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: pesthi, nrimo ing pandum
God’s personal, loving governance; never bare pesthi (impersonal predetermined fate) or the passive fatalistic ethic of nrimo ing pandum (accepting one’s lot without expecting a personal, purposive Governor behind it).
Righteousness
Approved rendering: kabeneran
Transliteration: kabeneran
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: kasampurnan
Never use kasampurnan (a state of spiritual perfection attained through Javanese mystical ascetic practice). Kabeneran = right standing before God granted by faith, not a perfection reached through discipline.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: pensucen
Transliteration: pensucen
Doctrine: Sanctification
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy, distinct from ritual purification practices performed before slametan ceremonies.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: tedhak turune Dawud
Transliteration: tedhak turune Dawud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and fulfillment of the Davidic covenant promise.
Sin
Approved rendering: dosa
Transliteration: dosa
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: cemer
Dosa is shared vocabulary across Javanese Muslim and Christian usage, so it must be anchored to moral transgression against a personal God, not left as cemer (ritual impurity or uncleanness).
Medium Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15. Retain the transliteration alongside Rama to convey filial closeness the formal title alone may not carry.
Adoption
Approved rendering: pengangkatan dadi putra
Transliteration: pengangkatan dadi putra
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Full legal son-status with inheritance rights. Javanese customary adoption practice is culturally understood, so the key teaching point is that this sonship is complete and permanent.
Apostle
Approved rendering: utusan
Transliteration: utusan
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: rasul
Utusan (a directly commissioned, sent-out messenger) is used instead of rasul, which in the surrounding Islamic-majority context refers specifically to the line of major messenger-prophets culminating in Muhammad.
Church
Approved rendering: pasamuwan
Transliteration: pasamuwan
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: punden
The gathered people of God. Never use punden (a sacred village shrine site associated with a guardian spirit), which names a spirit-veneration site, not a congregation.
David
Approved rendering: Dawud
Transliteration: Dawud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Established Indonesian-archipelago Bible proper-name form.
Faith
Approved rendering: pitados
Transliteration: pitados (krama); pracaya (ngoko)
Doctrine: Faith
Object of faith must always be specified as Christ. Use the krama (formal/respectful) register pitados in devotional and doctrinal contexts, matching established Javanese church usage.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: bangsa liya
Transliteration: bangsa liya
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Non-Jews; established descriptive term for the theological category of other nations.
Gospel
Approved rendering: Injil
Transliteration: injil
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: kabar kabungahan
Established term shared across Indonesian-archipelago Christian usage. Kabar kabungahan (news of joy) is too generic and loses the specific, unique proclamation of salvation through Christ.
Intercession
Approved rendering: pandonga tetulung tumrap wong liya
Transliteration: pandonga tetulung tumrap wong liya
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: nyuwun berkah ing kuburan
Prayer on behalf of others addressed to God directly, not nyuwun berkah ing kuburan (seeking blessing at a grave), a common practice at Wali Songo tomb pilgrimage sites.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israel
Transliteration: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; established form.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Kratoning Gusti Allah
Transliteration: Kratoning Gusti Allah
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Kraton (the royal palace-realm) gives helpful cosmological weight but must be distinguished from an actual earthly keraton (such as Yogyakarta or Surakarta) as a political institution.
Law
Approved rendering: angger-anggering Toret
Transliteration: angger-anggering Toret
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: hukum agami
Mosaic Law, anchored to Toret (Torah) specifically. Hukum agami (generic religious law) is too broad and does not specify the Mosaic covenant context.
Mission
Approved rendering: pekabaran Injil
Transliteration: pekabaran Injil
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Proclamation of the gospel; kept concrete and action-focused rather than borrowing institutional religious-propagation language.
Peace
Approved rendering: katentreman
Transliteration: katentreman
Doctrine: Peace with God
In Romans 5:1, relational peace with God through justification, not the inner calm sought through spiritual discipline or meditative practice.
Saints
Approved rendering: para suci
Transliteration: para suci
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: wali
Wali names the venerated Javanese Sufi saints (the Wali Songo) whose graves remain popular pilgrimage sites for seeking blessing. Para suci must be taught as every believer set apart in Christ, not a venerated spiritual elite whose tombs mediate favor.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: peparing Roh Suci
Transliteration: peparing Roh Suci
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: kasekten
Spirit-given enablements for service, never kasekten (magical or ascetic-earned spiritual potency).
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: pitutur
Transliteration: pitutur
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use panyuwunan for entreaty and pitutur for building up in encouragement.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: patunggilan
Transliteration: patunggilan
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: kekancan
Shared participation in Christ, deeper than ordinary friendship (kekancan).
Prophecy
Approved rendering: pameca
Transliteration: pameca
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: primbon
God-inspired declaration, distinct from primbon (the Javanese astrological-numerological divination almanac tradition).
Prophet
Approved rendering: nabi
Transliteration: nabi
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: dhukun
God’s spokesperson; do not confuse with dhukun (a traditional Javanese folk healer or diviner).
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: pamuji sukur
Transliteration: pamuji sukur
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term; no significant doctrinal risk.
Referenced passages