06 — Linguistic Gap Analysis: Acts 1–28

1. Purpose and Method

This analysis identifies, for each of the curriculum’s nine doctrine units, where established Kannada Christian vocabulary (much of it already fixed by the Romans baseline) is adequate, where it is missing (no existing Kannada term carries the needed sense, requiring coinage, compounding, or transliteration), and where it is crowded — i.e., the natural Kannada word is already heavily occupied by a specific, well-known meaning within Karnataka’s Haridasa bhakti, Lingayat/Veerashaiva, Shakta, or folk-religious traditions, such that using it without a “fence” (a restrictive gloss, compound qualifier, or standing translator note) would import the wrong theology.

Method: each doctrine is scored against the same Critical/High/Medium/Low risk framework used throughout the baseline and 08_core_glossary.md/bible_term_registry.json. Recommendations here are advisory for Phase 2 segment translation and for any future extension of doctrine_risk_registry.json to cover Acts.

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2. Summary Table: Vocabulary Adequacy by Doctrine Unit

Doctrine Unit	Vocabulary Adequacy	Primary Gap Type
The Holy Spirit and Pentecost	Partial	Crowded (ದರ್ಶನ, trance-speech, fire imagery) + Missing (Pentecost itself)
The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles	Adequate with fencing	Crowded (purity/caste, ಜಾತಿ-adjacent boundary language)
Repentance and Baptism	Adequate with fencing	Crowded (ಪ್ರಾಯಶ್ಚಿತ್ತ, ಸ್ನಾನ, ದೀಕ್ಷೆ)
The Church as Community	Adequate	Minor crowding (ಹರಕೆ, ಸೇವೆ)
Apostolic Authority and Miracles	Partial	Crowded (ಸಿದ್ಧಿ, ಮಾಟಮಂತ್ರ, godman phenomenon, ಹೆಸರು/mantra)
Persecution and Bold Witness	Adequate with development note	Missing (ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ’s martyrdom sense must be built, not assumed)
Conversion of Paul	Crowded, Critical	ಮಾರ್ಗ collides with mārga theology
Justification apart from the Law	Adequate (REUSE)	Crowded (ಹರಕೆ/vow; ಮನಸ್ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ vs karma-tracking)
The Great Commission Fulfilled	Crowded, Critical	Monism/Aikya-adjacent risk (17:28); idol/temple critique (ch.17, 19)

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3. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix

3.1 The Holy Spirit and Pentecost

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
Holy Spirit	ಪವಿತ್ರಾತ್ಮ (REUSE, Critical)	None new in Acts; but Acts intensifies personhood claims (5:3-4, lying to the Spirit = lying to God)	Retain baseline term; add standing note that 5:3-4 is the strongest Acts-internal personhood/deity proof-text and must never be softened to an impersonal force
Pentecost (festival)	ಪಂತೆಕೊಸ್ತೆ (transliteration) vs. generic ಹಬ್ಬ	No indigenous Kannada word for the Feast of Weeks; generic ಹಬ್ಬ (“festival”) erases the Sinai/harvest covenant background entirely	Transliterate + gloss: ಪಂತೆಕೊಸ್ತೆ (ಐವತ್ತನೆಯ ದಿನದ ಹಬ್ಬ). Requires one-time OT background footnote at Acts 2:1, not repeated every occurrence
Tongues (real languages)	ಅನ್ಯಭಾಷೆಗಳು / ಪರಭಾಷೆಗಳು	Crowded neighbor: ಮೈಮೇಲೆ ಬರುವುದು (deity “coming upon” a medium) trance-possession speech at village goddess shrines is the culturally dominant analogy a hearer will reach for	Fence with translator note at first occurrence (2:4) specifying: (a) real human languages, (b) speaker retains consciousness/agency, (c) content is intelligible gospel proclamation, not ecstatic utterance
Tongues of fire	ಬೆಂಕಿಯಂತಿರುವ ನಾಲಿಗೆಗಳು	Crowded neighbor: ಅಗ್ನಿ/ಹೋಮ ritual fire veneration	Symbolic-manifestation note required; fire is sign, not object of devotion
Visions/dreams	ದರ್ಶನಗಳು / ಕನಸುಗಳು	Severely crowded: ದರ್ಶನ is the single most theologically loaded everyday Kannada devotional word (devotee’s ritual act of beholding a deity/guru image, itself believed to confer blessing)	Retain ದರ್ಶನ (no better established Bible-Kannada alternative exists) but attach a standing fence: prophetic ದರ್ಶನ = God’s sovereign initiative and revelatory content; devotional darshan = devotee’s initiative and image-veneration act. Repeat the fence at each major occurrence cluster (2:17; 9:10; 10:3, 17; 16:9; 18:9), not just the first
Wind/breath sound	ಬಲವಾದ ಗಾಳಿಯಂತಿರುವ ಶಬ್ದ	Low risk; risk only of conflating ಗಾಳಿ (wind) with ಆತ್ಮ (spirit) as strictly identical words	Preserve the wind/spirit word-play as teaching point but note they are not interchangeable synonyms in Kannada
Spiritual gifts / gift of the Spirit	ಆತ್ಮಿಕ ವರಗಳು (REUSE)	Simon Magus’s error (8:18-20) sharpens the merit/purchase risk already flagged in Romans	Retain baseline term; Acts adds a vivid negative case study (Simon) worth a cross-reference note

3.2 The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
Unclean/common	ಅಶುದ್ಧ / ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ	Directly parallels ritual purity/impurity categories historically undergirding caste hierarchy in the Indian context	Do not soften (per baseline’s own caste-handling principle); render Peter’s vision (10:14-15, 28) with full clarity that God himself dismantles the boundary
God shows no partiality	ದೇವರು ಪಕ್ಷಪಾತ ಮಾಡುವವನಲ್ಲ	Adequate; risk is pastoral application, not vocabulary	Pair consistently with the Unity of Jews and Gentiles doctrine already High-risk in the Romans baseline
God-fearer	ದೇವರಿಗೆ ಭಯಪಡುವವನು	Adequate; background category only	No fencing required; Medium risk retained
Gentiles	ಅನ್ಯಜನಾಂಗದವರು (REUSE)	Adequate	No change
Proselytes	ಮತಾಂತರಗೊಂಡ ಅನ್ಯಜನಾಂಗದವರು	Adequate	Compound retained from core glossary

3.3 Repentance and Baptism

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
Repentance	ಪಶ್ಚಾತ್ತಾಪ(ಪಡು)	Crowded neighbor: ಪ್ರಾಯಶ್ಚಿತ್ತ (ritual/expiatory penance that itself removes guilt or offsets karma)	Fence firmly: metanoia is an inward, Spirit-enabled change of heart in response to grace already given, not a self-performed expiatory transaction. Apply at 2:38, 11:18, 17:30
Baptism	ದೀಕ್ಷಾಸ್ನಾನ	Crowded on two fronts: (a) repeatable ritual bathing (ಸ್ನಾನ) at sacred rivers/tanks understood as washing ritual impurity through repetition; (b) guru-lineage ದೀಕ್ಷೆ initiation	Retain established compound; fence as one-time, non-repeatable identification with Christ’s death/resurrection, not a purificatory or lineage-initiatory rite. Acts 19:1-6 additionally requires distinguishing John’s preparatory baptism from Christian baptism-with-the-Spirit — flag both senses explicitly where they appear together
”What must I do to be saved?” (16:30-31)	ರಕ್ಷಣೆ ಹೊಂದಲು ನಾನೇನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕು? / ಕರ್ತನಾದ ಯೇಸುವಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಂಬಿಕೆಯಿಡು, ಆಗ ನೀನು ರಕ್ಷಣೆ ಹೊಂದುವಿ	Adequate given REUSE terms; must match Romans 10:9 rendering pattern exactly per cross-document consistency rule	Lock as verbatim-fixed formula once first translated (flagged already in Section 3 of 08_core_glossary.md)

3.4 The Church as Community

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
Church	ಸಭೆ (REUSE)	Must stay distinct from ಸಭಾಮಂದಿರ (synagogue) — both institutions appear side-by-side in the same narrative from ch. 9 onward	Maintain strict lexical separation; never use ಸಭೆ for the Jewish synagogue building/institution
Christian (name)	ಕ್ರೈಸ್ತರು	Adequate, established	Must read as belonging-to-Christ identity, not generic ಧಾರ್ಮಿಕರು (“religious people”)
Fellowship	ಅನ್ಯೋನ್ಯತೆ (REUSE)	Adequate	No change
Elder / Overseer	ಹಿರಿಯರು / ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷ, ಮೇಲ್ವಿಚಾರಕ	Minor crowding: risk of reading ಹಿರಿಯರು as generic community-elder honor or guru-status attained through personal ascetic seniority	Fence as a delegated, accountable office of oversight (20:17-35), not status earned by spiritual attainment
Vow	ಪ್ರಮಾಣ / ಹರಕೆ	Heavily crowded: ಹರಕೆ is the everyday word for a transactional votive pledge to a deity in exchange for a granted favor, deeply embedded in folk devotional practice	Gloss Acts 21:23-24 explicitly as an OT Nazirite consecration act of cultural sensitivity, not a bargain-vow for personal gain
Diaconal service	ಶುಶ್ರೂಷೆ / ಸೇವೆ	Minor crowding: ಸೇವೆ alone can suggest ritual temple service (ಪೂಜಾ ಸೇವೆ) offered to a deity’s image	Fence as care-ministry directed toward fellow believers (6:1-6), not cultic service toward God via ritual object
Shepherd/flock	ಕುರುಬ / ಹಿಂಡು	Low risk, standard metaphor	No fencing needed

3.5 Apostolic Authority and Miracles

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
Signs and wonders	ಸೂಚಕಕಾರ್ಯಗಳೂ ಅದ್ಭುತಕಾರ್ಯಗಳೂ (ಮಹತ್ಕಾರ್ಯಗಳೂ)	Crowded on two fronts: (a) ಸಿದ್ಧಿ, the yogic-attained-power framework; (b) the contemporary “godman”/miracle-guru phenomenon, in which feats are marketed as proof of personal spiritual attainment or divine status	Fence consistently: these are God’s own authenticating action through his sent messengers, pointing to the risen Christ — never evidence of the messenger’s own spiritual attainment. Apply at every cluster (2:22, 43; 3:1-10; 4:30; 5:12; 8:6-13; 14:3; 19:11-12)
Name of Jesus (invoked)	ಹೆಸರು	Crowded: risk of mantra/japa-style efficacy (sacred syllables producing automatic effect through correct repetition)	Fence using the sons-of-Sceva failure (19:13-16) as the built-in negative case study: power flows from faith in the person named, not phonetic formula
Sorcery/magic	ಮಾಟಮಂತ್ರ / ಮಂತ್ರವಾದ	Engages a serious, still-active cultural reality (black-magic belief, folk ritual specialists)	Draw a firm categorical line at Simon (8:9-24) and Elymas (13:6-12): Spirit-given gifts are freely given, never purchased/transactable; occult power is acquired, manipulated, transactional
Python spirit / divination	ಶಕುನ ಹೇಳುವ ಆತ್ಮ / ಭವಿಷ್ಯ ಹೇಳುವ ದೆವ್ವದ ಆತ್ಮ	Engages astrology (ಜ್ಯೋತಿಷ್ಯ, already flagged in Romans baseline) and oracle/medium practice at village shrines	Distinguish clearly from legitimate Spirit-given prophecy: submitted to Scripture, glorifies Christ, freely given, vs. self-serving, commercially exploited, silenced by Christ’s authority (16:16-18)
Angel	ದೂತ	Moderate crowding: risk of being received as one autonomous minor deity/devata within a populated spiritual hierarchy	Fence as a created servant-messenger of the one God (12:7-11; 27:23-24), not an independent divine being
Exorcist	ಬೂತ ಬಿಡಿಸುವವನು	Adequate; reinforces the ಹೆಸರು fencing already established	No additional fencing beyond 19:13-16 note

3.6 Persecution and Bold Witness

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
Boldness	ಧೈರ್ಯ / ನಿರ್ಭಯವಾಗಿ ಮಾತನಾಡುವಿಕೆ	Risk of collapsing into generic ಆತ್ಮವಿಶ್ವಾಸ (self-confidence)	Fence as Spirit-empowered, unashamed public gospel proclamation specifically under threat (4:13, 29, 31; 9:27-28; 13:46; 14:3; 19:8; 26:26; 28:31), not rhetorical skill or personality trait
Witness/martyr	ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ	Missing dimension: base Kannada ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ (e.g., a legal witness) does not on its own carry the martyrdom nuance that develops across Acts	Track and note the semantic arc explicitly: “eyewitness testifier” (1:8; 2:32) → “one who testifies unto death” (7:54-60, definitionally sealed by Stephen’s death; technical by 22:20). A single standing cross-reference note should accompany the term’s reintroduction after ch. 7

3.7 Conversion of Paul

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
The Way	ಮಾರ್ಗ	Critical crowding: unqualified ಮಾರ್ಗ collides directly with bhakti-mārga, jñāna-mārga, karma-mārga (the classical named “paths” to liberation) and the Lingayat shatsthala “path” framework	Mandatory qualifying gloss ಕ್ರಿಸ್ತನ ಮಾರ್ಗ at every occurrence (9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22); never leave bare. Mandatory theologian review at each occurrence per baseline escalation rules
Chosen instrument	ಆಯ್ಕೆಯ ಸಾಧನ	Adequate; reuses ದೇವರ ಆಯ್ಕೆ (REUSE, High)	No fencing beyond existing election-doctrine notes
Satan	ಸೈತಾನ	Moderate crowding: risk of casual equation with a specific existing folk-demon figure, or reduction to an impersonal evil-principle	Fence as a single, personal, defeated-yet-active spiritual adversary opposed to the one God (26:18) — not one hostile deity among many
Conscience	ಮನಸ್ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ	Moderate crowding: risk of reading as an impersonal karma-tracking mechanism	Fence as a personal moral faculty directly answerable to a personal God (23:1; 24:16)
Casting lots	ಚೀಟು	Moderate crowding: risk of conflation with divination/omen-reading or astrological fortune-casting	Fence as one-time apostolic-era trust in God’s sovereign election (1:26), not an attempt to read impersonal fate

3.8 Justification apart from the Law

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
Justification	ನೀತಿವಂತರೆಂದು ನಿರ್ಣಯಿಸುವುದು (REUSE, Critical)	None new; Acts 13:38-39 is the central narrative proof text	Must match any Romans 3-4 rendering exactly; flagged already for verbatim cross-document consistency
Circumcision	ಸುನ್ನತಿ	Adequate; the narrative embodiment of the whole doctrine unit (Jerusalem Council, 15:1-11)	Render with the same care as 13:38-39; pair explicitly with ಕೃಪೆ and ರಕ್ಷಣೆ in the same passage
Yoke of the law	ನೊಗ	Adequate, low ambiguity	Retain as teaching metaphor (15:10)
Law	ನಿಯಮಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ (REUSE, High)	None new	Never ಧರ್ಮ, per baseline

3.9 The Great Commission Fulfilled

Concept	Available Kannada terms	Weaknesses	Recommended strategy
Unknown god	ಅಪರಿಚಿತ ದೇವರು	Crowded: risk of being absorbed into pluralistic inclusivist formulas already current in Indian religious discourse (“ekam sat, viprāḥ bahudhā vadanti” — one truth, sages call it by many names)	Mandatory translator note: Paul’s argument at 17:23-31 is correction and fulfillment of ignorance, decisively ended — not equivalence of deities
Idolatry / “full of idols”	ವಿಗ್ರಹಾರಾಧನೆ	Culturally sensitive given centrality of murti-worship in majority religious practice	Render faithfully without softening; pair with pastoral care matching Paul’s own Areopagus tone
”In him we live and move and have our being”	ಆತನಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ಜೀವಿಸುತ್ತೇವೆ, ಚಲಿಸುತ್ತೇವೆ ಮತ್ತು ಇದ್ದೇವೆ	Critical crowding: reads panentheistic/monistic if mishandled, directly adjacent to the Veerashaiva Aikya risk the Romans baseline already flags Critical for “salvation” and “god”	Fix rendering verbatim across all curriculum materials; mandatory theologian review every occurrence; standing note that Paul teaches creaturely dependence, not ontological identity or eventual dissolution of self into God
Made with hands	ಕೈಯಿಂದ ಮಾಡಿದ	Culturally sensitive (7:48; 17:24; 19:26)	Render faithfully; no editorializing tone
Artemis of the Ephesians	ಆರ್ತೆಮಿ (ಎಫೆಸದ ಆರ್ತೆಮಿ)	Structural parallel to Karnataka’s own goddess devotion/temple economies (cf. Chamundeshwari, Mysore)	Teach as accurate historical narrative about a specific ancient cult; do not frame to appear to mock present local devotional life
Zeus and Hermes	ಜೀಯುಸ್ ಮತ್ತು ಹೆರ್ಮೀಸ್	Crowd deification impulse parallels avatāra theology and Lingayat Aikya-attainment categories and today’s “godman” phenomenon	Retain Paul/Barnabas’s refusal (14:15, “we also are men, of like nature with you”) as the explicit apologetic counter-model
Restoration of all things	ಎಲ್ಲಾ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಪುನಃಸ್ಥಾಪನೆ	Moderate crowding: risk of cyclical-renewal (yuga-cosmology) misreading	Fence as a single, future, Christ-centered consummation (3:21), not a recurring cosmic cycle
Kingdom of God (political misunderstanding)	ದೇವರ ರಾಜ್ಯ (REUSE)	Acts 1:6’s disciples’ question risks the Kannada rendering appearing to affirm a political/nationalist restoration reading	Must be rendered so Jesus’ redirect (1:7-8) clearly corrects, not confirms, the disciples’ assumption

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4. Missing Vocabulary (No Existing Kannada Term Available)

These concepts have no ready-made Kannada Christian or general vocabulary and require transliteration, compounding, or careful descriptive paraphrase rather than a single-word gloss:

1. Pentecost (Πεντηκοστή) — no indigenous term for this specific OT festival; solution: transliteration + gloss (ಪಂತೆಕೊಸ್ತೆ, ಐವತ್ತನೆಯ ದಿನದ ಹಬ್ಬ).
2. The Way as a technical self-designation of the movement — ಮಾರ್ಗ exists but carries the wrong theological freight; the qualified compound ಕ್ರಿಸ್ತನ ಮಾರ್ಗ is a constructed solution, not a pre-existing idiom.
3. Martyrdom sense of ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ — the word exists (legal witness) but its Christian technical sense (one who testifies even unto death) must be built across the book’s narrative arc rather than assumed from the dictionary meaning.
4. “No other name” exclusivity formula (4:12) — Kannada has abundant vocabulary for a name (ಹೆಸರು) but no single existing devotional formula asserting only one saving name; this must be rendered as an unqualified, non-idiomatic doctrinal statement rather than reached for via any existing devotional exclusivity phrase (which in bhakti contexts usually names devotion to one chosen personal deity among others available, not the only Savior for all people).
5. “Chosen instrument” (σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς) — no natural single Kannada idiom; compound ಆಯ್ಕೆಯ ಸಾಧನ constructed from existing election vocabulary.
6. Times of refreshing / restoration of all things — eschatological compounds (ಚೈತನ್ಯದ ಕಾಲಗಳು; ಎಲ್ಲಾ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಪುನಃಸ್ಥಾಪನೆ) had to be built rather than drawn from an existing Kannada eschatological vocabulary, since linear one-time cosmic consummation is not a native category in cyclical-time-dominant popular cosmology.

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5. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing

The inverse problem: Kannada vocabulary exists and is fluent, but each candidate word already has a strong, specific, and different theological home in Karnataka’s religious landscape. These require standing translator notes (“fences”) rather than avoidance, since no better alternative exists.

Kannada term	Its “home” meaning in Karnataka religious life	Acts risk	Fence required
ದರ್ಶನ	Devotee’s ritual act of beholding a deity/guru image or person, conferring blessing through sight	2:17; 9:10; 10:3, 17; 16:9; 18:9	God’s sovereign revelatory initiative vs. devotee-initiated image-viewing
ಮಾರ್ಗ	The classical mārga soteriological “paths” (bhakti/jñāna/karma) and the Lingayat shatsthala path	9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22	Always qualify as ಕ್ರಿಸ್ತನ ಮಾರ್ಗ; never leave the early church as “one path among many”
ಶಕ್ತಿ	Karnataka’s prominent Shakta tradition (Chamundeshwari, Mysore); a specific divine-feminine power	already fenced in Romans baseline for “power of God”; reinforced by Acts 1:8, 4:33, 6:8, 10:38	Never use for God’s saving/empowering power; always ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯ
ಸಿದ್ಧಿ	Yogic attained supernatural power through personal discipline	signs/wonders throughout	Distinguish God’s authenticating action from personal spiritual attainment
ಹರಕೆ	Transactional votive pledge to a deity for a granted favor	21:23-24 (Nazirite vow)	Gloss as OT consecration practice, not a favor-bargain
ಪ್ರಾಯಶ್ಚಿತ್ತ	Ritual/expiatory penance removing guilt or offsetting karma	repentance throughout, esp. 2:38; 17:30	Metanoia is grace-enabled inward change, not self-performed ritual transaction
ಸ್ನಾನ / ದೀಕ್ಷೆ	Repeatable ritual purification bathing; guru-lineage initiation	baptism throughout	One-time identification with Christ’s death/resurrection, not repeatable purification or lineage entry
ಹೆಸರು (invoked)	Mantra/japa: sacred-syllable repetition believed effective by correct recitation	3:6, 16; 4:7-12, 30; 16:18; 19:13-17	Power flows through faith in the person named, not phonetic formula (sons of Sceva as built-in negative case)
ಮಾಟಮಂತ್ರ	Widespread, culturally serious black-magic belief and folk ritual-specialist practice	8:9-24; 13:6-12; 19:19	Occult power is acquired/transactional; Spirit-given gifts are freely given, never purchased
ಜ್ಯೋತಿಷ್ಯ-adjacent divination	Astrology and oracle/medium practice at village shrines	16:16-18 (python spirit)	Distinguish legitimate Scripture-submitted prophecy from self-serving, commercially exploited divination
ಗಳಿಸಿದ ಗುರುಪದವಿ / godman phenomenon	Contemporary miracle-worker figures marketed as proof of personal divine attainment	signs and wonders; Zeus/Hermes at Lystra (14:11-18)	Miracles authenticate God’s message through a sent messenger; they are never proof of the messenger’s own divinity or attainment
ಸೇವೆ	Ritual temple service (ಪೂಜಾ ಸೇವೆ) rendered to a deity’s image	diaconal service, 6:1-6	Care-ministry to fellow believers, not cultic service to God via ritual object
ಪಕ್ಷಪಾತ/ಜಾತಿ-boundary language (ಅಶುದ್ಧ)	Ritual purity categories historically undergirding caste hierarchy	10:14-15, 28	Do not soften; God himself dismantles the boundary — treat with the same pastoral gravity the baseline gives caste material
ಅಪರಿಚಿತ ದೇವರು framing	Pluralistic inclusivist “many names, one truth” formulas current in Indian religious discourse	17:23	Correction/fulfillment of ignorance, not equivalence of deities
”ಆತನಲ್ಲಿ …ಇದ್ದೇವೆ” (17:28)	Aikya/monistic merger-with-the-divine language already Critical in the Romans baseline	17:28	Creaturely dependence, not ontological identity or dissolution of self

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6. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions

Term	Decision	Rationale
Pentecost	Transliterate + gloss (ಪಂತೆಕೊಸ್ತೆ, ಐವತ್ತನೆಯ ದಿನದ ಹಬ್ಬ)	No native term; transliteration preserves proper-noun status of a specific festival while the gloss supplies needed background
Messiah, Jesus, David, Israel	Transliterate (established forms per Romans baseline)	Proper names/titles; established Kannada Bible tradition already fixes these
Satan	Transliterate (ಸೈತಾನ)	Avoids importing any specific existing folk-demon name; preserves the term’s unique, singular referent
Artemis, Zeus, Hermes	Transliterate (ಆರ್ತೆಮಿ, ಜೀಯುಸ್, ಹೆರ್ಮೀಸ್)	These are historically specific pagan deities of a different culture; transliteration keeps them clearly foreign/ancient rather than inviting confusion with any living Kannada deity name
The Way	Paraphrase with qualifying compound (ಕ್ರಿಸ್ತನ ಮಾರ್ಗ), not bare transliteration or bare translation	A bare transliteration (odos/hodos-derived) would be meaningless to readers; a bare translation (ಮಾರ್ಗ) is theologically dangerous; the qualified compound is the only safe option
Tongues (real languages)	Paraphrase (ಅನ್ಯಭಾಷೆಗಳು / ಪರಭಾಷೆಗಳು) with translator note	Translation, not transliteration, is needed since the concept (“other languages”) is linguistically transparent; the note supplies the missing fence against trance-speech conflation
Signs and wonders	Paraphrase (compound doublet ಸೂಚಕಕಾರ್ಯಗಳೂ ಅದ್ಭುತಕಾರ್ಯಗಳೂ)	Preserves the Greek doublet structure (σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα) which itself signals “these acts point beyond themselves,” a nuance a single word would lose
Baptism	Paraphrase/compound (ದೀಕ್ಷಾಸ್ನಾನ), not plain transliteration	Already an established, doctrinally-shaped Kannada Christian compound; transliterating the Greek would strip the established tradition’s own careful fencing work
Christian	Established Kannada form (ಕ್ರೈಸ್ತರು), functionally a naturalized transliteration	Already the standard self-designation; no paraphrase needed or desirable
Hades	Paraphrase (ಪಾತಾಳ ಲೋಕ, “the netherworld/realm of the dead”) rather than transliteration	Transliteration would import a foreign mythological proper noun without meaning; paraphrase conveys “place/state of the dead” while avoiding reincarnation-adjacent ancestor-realm concepts
Python spirit	Paraphrase, not transliteration of “Python”	A transliterated “Python” (Greek mythological serpent-oracle) would be opaque to Kannada readers; the functional paraphrase (ಶಕುನ ಹೇಳುವ ಆತ್ಮ) correctly maps onto the culturally recognizable category of divination-spirit while still requiring the standard fencing note

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7. Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities for This Curriculum

Ranked by combined doctrinal centrality and syncretism potential, drawing on Sections 3–5 above:

1. “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) — Critical. Direct adjacency to Veerashaiva Aikya/monistic merger theology already Critical in the Romans baseline for “salvation” and “god.” Highest risk in the entire curriculum because it is a quoted philosophical formula, inviting readers to hear it as agreement with monistic categories rather than correction of them.
2. “The Way” (ἡ ὁδός) — Critical. Unqualified ಮಾರ್ಗ collides with the deeply embedded mārga soteriological framework (bhakti/jñāna/karma-mārga, Lingayat shatsthala); recurs eight times across the second half of Acts (9, 19, 22, 24), multiplying the exposure.
3. Ascension (1:9-11) and Resurrection (throughout, esp. 2:24-32; 23:6-8) — Critical. Both risk assimilation to mystic-ascent/attainment narratives (Aikya) or rebirth cosmology (ಪುನರ್ಜನ್ಮ); both are foundational, non-negotiable, and recur at maximum narrative weight (Peter’s Pentecost sermon; Paul’s defense speeches).
4. “No other name… by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) — Critical. The sharpest unqualified exclusivity claim in Acts; must resist any softening toward Indian religious pluralism’s default inclusivist reflex, while remaining pastorally deliverable.
5. Vision/ದರ್ಶನ (2:17; 9:10; 10:3, 17; 16:9; 18:9) — High. No better Kannada word exists, yet it is arguably Karnataka’s single most devotionally overloaded common noun; the fence must be actively re-applied, not assumed to persist from a single footnote.
6. Signs and wonders / Name of Jesus invoked (3:6-16; 4:7-12; 8:9-24; 16:18; 19:11-17) — High. Compounded risk of both the yogic-siddhi/godman-miracle framework and mantra/japa efficacy beliefs; requires the most sustained, repeated fencing of any doctrine unit given its frequency across the whole book.
7. Tongues as real languages vs. trance-possession speech (2:4-11) — High. Core-passage risk (this is the theological anchor text, Acts 2:1-41); mishandling here would corrupt the reader’s baseline understanding of the entire Pentecost narrative before any later chapter is reached.
8. Unclean/common (κοινός, 10:14-15, 28) — High. Directly touches the caste-purity parallel the baseline already treats with special pastoral gravity; theological force depends on not softening the boundary-dismantling claim.
9. Justification apart from the Law / Circumcision (13:38-39; 15:1-11) — Critical/High. Narrative and doctrinal anchor for an entire curriculum unit; must match Romans 3-4 renderings exactly, and any drift here undermines cross-document consistency the whole pipeline depends on.
10. Unknown god / idolatry / Artemis / Zeus-Hermes cluster (Acts 14, 17, 19) — High. Four related but distinct risks (inclusivist-pluralism misreading, purity-critique sensitivity, goddess-devotion structural parallel, deification-impulse parallel) cluster in adjacent chapters and could compound if handled inconsistently across a single lesson.
11. Repentance vs. ritual expiation (2:38; 11:18; 17:30) — High. Recurs at every major evangelistic turning point in the book; the grace-vs-merit distinction central to the whole curriculum rides on this fence holding.
12. Sorcery/magic and the Python spirit (8:9-24; 13:6-12; 16:16-18; 19:19) — High. Engages a culturally serious and still-active belief system; mishandling risks either trivializing real occult concerns or inadvertently validating divination practice as a lesser-but-legitimate spiritual category.
13. Witness/martyr semantic development (1:8; 2:32; 7:54-60; 22:20) — High. Risk is not syncretism but under-translation: if the word’s arc is not tracked, the martyrdom weight of “Persecution and Bold Witness” as a doctrine unit is lost by the time it matters most (Stephen, ch. 7).
14. Vow/ಹರಕೆ (21:23-24) — Medium-High. Lower doctrinal centrality than items above but high everyday-cultural salience; a careless rendering could make Paul look like he is performing a favor-bargain with God.
15. Conscience/ಮನಸ್ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ and Providence/ಪರಿಪಾಲನೆ (17:26-28; 23:1; 24:16; 27:22-25) — Medium-High. Both risk quiet absorption into fatalism (ಹಣೆಬರಹ) or impersonal karma-tracking rather than a personal God’s purposive governance and a personal moral faculty answerable to him; risk is cumulative rather than acute, building across many small occurrences.

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8. Full-Book Chapter Sweep (Coverage Confirmation)

Every chapter of Acts has been reviewed for load-bearing vocabulary contributing to the doctrine units above. Chapters not separately tabled in Sections 3–5 contributed no vocabulary beyond what is already captured:

• Ch. 1 — Ascension, kingdom-restoration misunderstanding, casting lots: covered (§3.9, §3.7, §5).
• Ch. 2 — Core passage; Pentecost, tongues, visions, calling, salvation formula: covered (§3.1, §5, §7).
• Ch. 3 — Restoration of all things, times of refreshing, prophet typology: covered (§3.9, §4).
• Ch. 4 — Boldness, “no other name,” signs and wonders: covered (§3.6, §3.5, §7).
• Ch. 5 — Holy Spirit’s personhood (Ananias/Sapphira), apostolic authority, angelic deliverance: covered (§3.1, §3.5).
• Ch. 6 — The Seven, diaconal service, obedience of faith (priests): covered (§3.4).
• Ch. 7 — Stephen’s speech; covenant, glory, witness/martyr turning point: covered (§3.6, reviewed — no new gap beyond witness-arc tracking).
• Ch. 8 — Simon Magus, sorcery, Ethiopian eunuch’s baptism: covered (§3.5, §3.3).
• Ch. 9 — Conversion of Paul; the Way, chosen instrument, saints: covered (§3.7).
• Ch. 10 — Cornelius; unclean/common, no partiality, Gentile Pentecost: covered (§3.2).
• Ch. 11 — Antioch; Christian name, grace: covered (§3.4).
• Ch. 12 — Herod’s death (glory misappropriated), angelic deliverance, intercession: covered (§3.5; reviewed, no new gap for intercession beyond Romans baseline).
• Ch. 13 — Pisidian Antioch sermon; messiah, seed of David, justification apart from law: covered (§3.8).
• Ch. 14 — Lystra deification; Zeus/Hermes, grace, kingdom: covered (§3.9).
• Ch. 15 — Jerusalem Council; circumcision, yoke, grace vs. law: covered (§3.8).
• Ch. 16 — Macedonian calling, Lydia, Philippian jailer, python spirit, baptism: covered (§3.1 calling reused, §3.3, §3.5).
• Ch. 17 — Athens; unknown god, idolatry, “in him we live and move”: covered (§3.9, §7 top risk).
• Ch. 18 — Corinth; messiah proofs, Priscilla/Aquila: reviewed — no new vocabulary gap beyond messiah (REUSE).
• Ch. 19 — Ephesus; disciples’ baptism, sons of Sceva, Artemis riot: covered (§3.5, §3.9).
• Ch. 20 — Elders, overseers, shepherd/flock, farewell: covered (§3.4).
• Ch. 21 — Vow, prophecy (Agabus): covered (§3.4, §7).
• Ch. 22 — Paul’s testimony; the Way, law: covered (§3.7).
• Ch. 23 — Resurrection dispute (Sadducees/Pharisees), conscience: covered (§3.7, resurrection reinforced §7).
• Ch. 24 — Felix; righteousness, self-control, judgment, the Way: reviewed — no new vocabulary gap beyond righteousness (REUSE, Critical) and the Way (§3.7).
• Ch. 25 — Festus; appeal to Caesar: reviewed — no doctrinally load-bearing new vocabulary; procedural/legal narrative only.
• Ch. 26 — Paul before Agrippa; chosen instrument, Satan, light/darkness: covered (§3.7).
• Ch. 27 — Shipwreck; providence, thanksgiving, angel: covered (§3.5; providence/thanksgiving REUSE from Romans baseline).
• Ch. 28 — Rome; kingdom of God preached unhindered, Israel’s mixed response: covered (§3.9, §3.2).

No chapter is silently omitted; all either receive dedicated matrix treatment above or are explicitly confirmed here as reviewed with no additional vocabulary gap beyond terms already tabled.

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This analysis, together with 08_core_glossary.md, constitutes the complete Phase 1 Step 8 deliverable for the Acts curriculum and is intended to inform the Acts-specific extension of bible_term_registry.json and doctrine_risk_registry.json in subsequent PRD steps.