Core Glossary
Core Glossary: Acts 1–28 (English → Kashmiri)
Purpose and Usage
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, drawn from every chapter of Acts. Terms already present in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE — REUSE EXACTLY] and carry forward their recorded Kashmiri rendering and risk tier unchanged; no alternative rendering is proposed for these. Terms new to the Acts curriculum are marked [NEW] and carry a proposed rendering for formal entry into an updated translation memory in a subsequent pipeline step. Risk tiers follow the same Critical/High/Medium/Low framework as the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json.
A. Reused Baseline Terms (from Romans translation_memory.json)
| Term | Kashmiri | Risk | Doctrine(s) in Acts | Key Passages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| apostle | رسول | Critical [BASELINE] | Apostolic Authority; constitutes “the Twelve” | 1:2, 26; 2:37, 42; 4:33; 5:12; 11:1; 14:14; 15:2 |
| holy spirit | پاک روح | Critical [BASELINE] | Holy Spirit and Pentecost; every doctrine touching Spirit-empowerment | 1:5, 8; 2:4, 38; 4:31; 5:3; 8:15-19; 10:44-47; 13:2; 15:28; 19:1-7 |
| gospel | انجیل | High [BASELINE] | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | Used contextually of “the word,” “the good news” throughout |
| grace | فضل | Critical [BASELINE] | Justification apart from the Law | 4:33; 11:23; 13:43; 14:3, 26; 15:11, 40; 18:27; 20:24, 32 |
| faith | ایمان | High [BASELINE] | Repentance and Baptism; Justification apart from the Law | 3:16; 6:5, 7; 13:8; 14:9, 22, 27; 16:31; 20:21 |
| righteousness | راستبازی | Critical [BASELINE] | Justification apart from the Law | 13:38-39; 17:31; 24:25 |
| justification | راستباز ٹھہرایہ گیہ | Critical [BASELINE] | Justification apart from the Law | 13:38-39 |
| salvation | نجات | Critical [BASELINE] | Repentance and Baptism; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 2:21, 40, 47; 4:12; 11:14; 13:26, 47; 16:17, 30-31; 27:20, 34 |
| called / calling | سَدہ گیہ / سَدنُک | High [BASELINE] | Apostolic Authority; Great Commission | 2:39; 13:2; 16:10 |
| holy | پاک | High [BASELINE] | Church as Community | throughout, e.g. 9:13, 32, 41 (“saints”) |
| saints | پاک لوکہ | High [BASELINE] | Church as Community | 9:13, 32, 41; 26:10 |
| sanctification | پاکیزگی | High [BASELINE] | Church as Community | 20:32; 26:18 |
| resurrection | مُردٕن پؠٹھ زندٕ تھِیُن | Critical [BASELINE] | Central sermon proof throughout | 1:22; 2:24, 31-32; 3:15; 4:2, 33; 13:30-37; 17:18, 32; 23:6-8; 24:15, 21; 26:8, 23 |
| lord | خُداوند | Critical [BASELINE] | Lordship of Christ; salvation confession | 2:34-36; 4:33; 10:36; 16:31; 28:31 |
| son of god | خُدایہ ہند پُتر | Critical [BASELINE] | (Implicit in apostolic preaching of Christ’s unique identity) | 9:20 |
| incarnation | خُدا منش رُوپ منز آمت | Critical [BASELINE] | Background to Christological preaching | (conceptual background, cf. 2:22-24) |
| peace | امن | Medium [BASELINE] | Church as Community | 9:31; 10:36; 15:33; 16:36 |
| spiritual gifts | روحانی نعمتہ | Medium [BASELINE] | Apostolic Authority and Miracles (contrast with karamat) | (conceptual background to signs/wonders, cf. 2:22) |
| thanksgiving | شکر | Low [BASELINE] | — | 27:35; 28:15 |
| fellowship | رفاقت | Low [BASELINE] | Church as Community | 2:42 |
| church | کلیسیا | Medium [BASELINE] | Church as Community | 2:47; 5:11; 8:1, 3; 9:31; 11:26; 20:17, 28 |
| kingdom of god | خُدایُک بادشاہت | Medium [BASELINE] | Great Commission Fulfilled | 1:3, 6; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31 |
| law | شریعت | High [BASELINE] | Justification apart from the Law | 13:38-39; 15:1, 5, 24; 21:20-24; 22:3; 24:14 |
| sin | گناہ | High [BASELINE] | Repentance and Baptism | 2:38; 3:19; 22:16 |
| gentiles | غیر-قوم | Medium [BASELINE] | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 9:15; 10:45; 11:1, 18; 13:46-48; 14:27; 15:3, 7, 12, 14; 18:6; 21:19, 25; 22:21; 26:17, 20, 23; 28:28 |
| glory | جلال | High [BASELINE] | Deity of Christ | 7:2, 55; 12:23 |
| obedience of faith | ایمانہ منز فرمانبرداری | High [BASELINE] | Justification apart from the Law | (conceptual, cf. 6:7) |
| power of god | خُدایُک قوت | High [BASELINE] | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 2:22; 3:12; 4:7, 33; 6:8; 8:10, 13; 10:38; 19:11 |
| messiah / christ | مسیح | Critical [BASELINE] | Conversion of Paul; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 2:31, 36, 38; 3:18, 20; 4:26; 5:42; 8:5; 9:22; 17:3; 18:5, 28; 26:23 |
| prophet | پیغمبر | Medium [BASELINE] | Fulfillment of Prophecy | 2:16, 30; 3:22-25; 7:37, 48, 52; 13:20, 40; 21:10; 24:14; 26:22, 27; 28:23 |
| prophecy | پیشن گوئی | Medium [BASELINE] | Fulfillment of Prophecy | 2:16-21; 11:27-28; 13:1; 21:9-11 |
| covenant | عہد | Medium [BASELINE] | Davidic Covenant background | 3:25; 7:8 |
| election | خُدایُک چُنٲوُن | High [BASELINE] | Conversion of Paul | 9:15 |
| intercession | منٛزبولی | Medium [BASELINE] | Prayer background | 1:14; 4:24-31; 12:5; 13:3; 20:36; 21:5 |
| providence | خُدایُک انتظام | High [BASELINE] | Apostolic Authority; Conversion of Paul | 2:23; 27:22-25 |
| mission | انجیلہ ہنٛز منادی | Medium [BASELINE] | Great Commission Fulfilled | throughout, e.g. 13:2-3; 26:16-18 |
| david | داؤد | Low [BASELINE] | Davidic Covenant | 2:25, 29, 34; 4:25; 7:45; 13:22, 34, 36; 15:16 |
| israel | اسرائیل | Medium [BASELINE] | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 1:6; 2:22, 36; 3:12; 4:10, 27; 5:31; 13:16-24; 28:20 |
| jesus | یِسوع | Critical [BASELINE] | Every Christological doctrine | throughout |
| god | خُدا | High [BASELINE] | Every doctrine | throughout |
| father | باپت | Critical [BASELINE] | (background, cf. 1:4, 7) | 1:4, 7; 2:33 |
| exhort | حوصلہ دِنہ | Low [BASELINE] | Church as Community | 2:40; 11:23; 14:22; 15:32; 16:40; 20:1-2 |
| seed of david | داؤدَس نسلہ منٛز | High [BASELINE] | Davidic Covenant | 2:30; 13:23 |
| imputed righteousness | دِتمُت راستبازی | Critical [BASELINE] | Justification apart from the Law | 13:39 (conceptual parallel) |
B. New Terms Introduced by Acts
| Term (English) | Original Greek | Transliteration | Kashmiri Rendering (proposed) | Risk | Doctrine | Key Passages | Rendering Risk Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pentecost | πεντηκοστή | Pentēkostē | پنتِکوست | Medium/High | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | 2:1 | Transliterated proper festival name; no existing Kashmiri Christian vocabulary; must be glossed with its Old Testament fulfillment logic, not treated as a generic “Christian holiday.” |
| rushing wind | πνοὴ βιαία | pnoē biaia | زبردست ہوا | Medium | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | 2:2 | Must not read as an impersonal cosmic life-breath/prana echoing Trika categories; a one-time historical sign. |
| tongues of fire | γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός | glōssai hōsei pyros | باہ ہنٛدی زبانہ | High | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | 2:3 | Distinguish from Sufi devotional “burning of divine love” imagery; a historical, corporate, once-for-all theophanic sign. |
| other tongues (languages) | ἕτεραι γλῶσσαι | heterai glōssai | ٲنٛے زبانہ | High | Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 2:4, 6, 11 | Must denote real human languages, not ecstatic/trance speech; distinguish from possession phenomena in regional folk religion; reverses Babel. |
| declared/uttered forth | ἀποφθέγγομαι | apophthengomai | بولنہ لگیہ (descriptive) | Low/Medium | Holy Spirit and Pentecost | 2:4, 14 | Intensifies “spoke”; no standalone entry required. |
| nation(s) (general) | ἔθνος | ethnos | قوم | Medium | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 2:5 | Distinguish from the established baseline sense of غیر-قوم (Gentiles as a theological category); here simply “nation/diaspora.” |
| dialect/language | διάλεκτος | dialektos | زبان | Low/Medium | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 2:6, 8 | Affirms every mother tongue’s dignity; minor point of contact re: Arabic-only-revelation assumptions. |
| proselyte | προσήλυτος | prosēlytos | یہودیت منز شامل غیر-قوم (descriptive) | Low | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 2:10 | Descriptive only; bridge population before full Gentile inclusion. |
| all flesh (universal scope) | πᾶσα σάρξ | pasa sarx | سٲری اِنسان | High | Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 2:17 | Must retain full universality without softening, across both audiences. |
| Hades / realm of the dead | ᾅδης | Hadēs | ہادِیس (transliterated) / عالمِ اموات | Medium | Resurrection of Christ (background) | 2:27, 31 | Distinguish from Islamic برزخ (barzakh); do not silently equate. |
| signs and wonders | δυνάμεις, τέρατα, σημεῖα | dynameis, terata, sēmeia | قوت، عجائبات تہٕ نِشانہ | High | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 2:22, 43; 4:30; 5:12; 14:3; 15:12 | Must be distinguished from کرامت (a Sufi saint’s charism) and from occult جادو; these authenticate the apostolic message, not personal sanctity. |
| God’s determined plan and foreknowledge | ὡρισμένη βουλὴ καὶ πρόγνωσις τοῦ θεοῦ | hōrismenē boulē kai prognōsis tou theou | خُدایُک مقررٕ منصوبہ تہٕ اڳم زانٕن | High | Conversion of Paul (background); Apostolic Authority | 2:23 | Parallels baseline providence entry; must not collapse into قسمت/تقدیر fatalism; holds together divine sovereignty and human responsibility. |
| crucified (historical claim) | προσπήξαντες ἀνείλατε / ἐσταυρώσατε | prospēxantes aneilate / estaurōsate | مصلوب کرنہ / سُولہ چاڑنہ | Critical | Resurrection of Christ (background); Conversion of Paul | 2:23, 36; 4:10 | Must be stated as unambiguous historical fact; directly counters mainstream Sunni interpretation of Quran 4:157. |
| exalted to God’s right hand | τῇ δεξιᾷ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑψωθείς | tē dexia tou theou hypsōtheis | خُدایُک ساڑس ست عزت سٟتی اُوچھ کرنہ گیہ | Critical | Lordship of Christ; Deity of Christ | 2:33 | Directly contradicts mainstream Tawhid doctrine’s denial of shared divine majesty; must be taught plainly. |
| witness | μάρτυς | martys | گواہ | High | Persecution and Bold Witness; Apostolic Authority | 1:8; 2:32; 3:15; 22:20 | Distinguish carefully from شہید (Islamic martyr category, politically loaded regionally); shifts from “eyewitness” (ch.1-2) toward “one who dies for testimony” (ch.7, 22). |
| cut to the heart | κατανύσσομαι | katanyssomai | دِلَس منز چھِد لگُن | Medium | Repentance and Baptism | 2:37 | Idiom; source natural Kashmiri phrasing from native speakers rather than literal calque. |
| repent/repentance | μετανοέω / μετάνοια | metanoeō / metanoia | توبہ | Critical | Repentance and Baptism | 2:38; 3:19; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20 | Major collision with Islamic توبہ (deeds-weighing reorientation); must be taught as God-given response that receives rather than earns forgiveness. |
| baptize/baptism | βαπτίζω / βάπτισμα | baptizō / baptisma | بپتِسمہ | Critical | Repentance and Baptism | 2:38, 41; 8:36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:15, 33; 19:1-7 | Transliterated; must not be assimilated to غسل or وضو (repeatable ritual purification); a once-for-all rite of identification with Christ. |
| forgiveness of sins | ἄφεσις τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν | aphesis tōn hamartiōn | گناہن ہنٛز معافی | High | Repentance and Baptism; Justification apart from the Law | 2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18 | Distinguish from Islamic deeds-weighed mercy; distinguish from, and pair with, the fuller forensic justification concept. |
| promise | ἐπαγγελία | epangelia | وعدہ | High | Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 1:4; 2:33, 39 | Consistent with baseline covenant/عہد vocabulary; must retain “all who are far off” Gentile scope explicitly. |
| added (to the church) | προσετίθεντο / προσετέθησαν | prostithentai / prosetethēsan | شامل کرنہ گیہ | Medium | Church as Community; Repentance and Baptism | 2:41, 47; 5:14; 11:24 | Reinforces baptism’s role as entry rite into the visible church. |
| ascension | ἀνάλημψις / ἀναλαμβάνω | analēmpsis / analambanō | آسمانَس منز اُوچھ کرنہ گیہ | Critical | (Background to Lordship of Christ) | 1:2, 9-11 | Presupposes and completes the bodily resurrection; must not be read as conceding Quran 4:158’s account, which denies the prior crucifixion. |
| lot (casting lots) | κλῆρος | klēros | قرعہ | Medium | Apostolic Authority (background) | 1:17, 26 | Not fortune-telling; bounded by prior prayer to the heart-knowing God. |
| office/position | ἐπισκοπή | episkopē | خدمت / عہدہ | Low | Apostolic Authority (background) | 1:20 | Foundational vocabulary for later overseer/elder terms (ch.20). |
| breaking of bread | κλάσις τοῦ ἄρτου | klasis tou artou | روٹی ٹُکُر کرُن | Medium/High | Church as Community | 2:42, 46 | Descriptive, not yet a fixed liturgical term in Acts; carries Eucharistic resonance without over-specifying sacramental theology. |
| all things in common | κοινά | koina | سٲری شے مِلی برَابر ہاوُن | Medium | Church as Community | 2:44-45; 4:32-35 | Voluntary Spirit-motivated sharing in that specific moment, not a mandated economic system for every era. |
| Author/Founder of life | ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς | archēgos tēs zōēs | زِندگیہ ہنٛدِس بانی | Critical | Deity of Christ; Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 3:15 | Exalted Christological title implying unique authority over life and death; teach alongside existing Critical Christology terms. |
| times of refreshing / restoration of all things | καιροὶ ἀναψύξεως / ἀποκατάστασις πάντων | kairoi anapsyxeōs / apokatastasis pantōn | تازگیہ ہنٛز وقت / سٲری چیزَن ہنٛز بحالی | Medium/High | Great Commission Fulfilled (eschatology) | 3:19-21 | Risk of being misheard through a Trika lens as return to undivided cosmic consciousness rather than Christ’s personal renewed reign. |
| boldness | παρρησία | parrēsia | دلیری / بے دھڑک بولُن | High | Persecution and Bold Witness | 4:13, 29, 31; 28:31 | Handle with the same political sensitivity as “peace”/“kingdom,” given the region’s conflict history; teach as Spirit-given trust, not provocation. |
| with one accord | ὁμοθυμαδόν | homothymadon | اکھ دِلا سٟتی | Low/Medium | Church as Community | 1:14; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12 | Low doctrinal risk; supports corporate unity theme. |
| service/ministry | διακονία | diakonia | خدمت | Medium | Church as Community; Apostolic Authority | 6:1, 4 | Positive point of contact with regional khidmat-e-khalq ethical vocabulary. |
| stoning | λιθοβολέω | lithoboleō | سنگسار کرُن | Medium | Persecution and Bold Witness | 7:58-59 | Sensitive resonance with regional/Islamic hadd-punishment discourse; frame carefully as historical martyrdom narrative, not endorsement of the practice. |
| sorcery/magic | μαγεία / μάγος | mageia / magos | جادو | Medium/High | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 8:9, 11; 13:6, 8; 19:19 | Distinguish from both genuine apostolic signs and from کرامت; Simon Magus narrative warns against transactional views of spiritual power. |
| eunuch | εὐνοῦχος | eunouchos | خواجہ سرا (descriptive, handle with sensitivity) | Low | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 8:27 | Primary doctrinal point is Gentile/African inclusion, not the term itself. |
| persecute/persecution | διώκω / διωγμός | diōkō / diōgmos | ظلم / ایذا رسانی | High | Persecution and Bold Witness; Conversion of Paul | 9:1, 4-5; 13:50 | Genuine point of contact with Islamic ethical vocabulary (ẓulm as grave injustice); teach with non-partisan framing given regional communal history. |
| chosen instrument | σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς | skeuos eklogēs | چُنٲوَتھ آلہ (descriptive, reuses election root) | High | Conversion of Paul | 9:15 | Reinforces baseline election entry’s personal/relational sense against fatalistic قسمت misreading. |
| cleanse (ritual, overturned) | καθαρίζω | katharizō | صاف کرنہ | High | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | 10:15 | Overturning of Mosaic purity code; teach redemptive-historical fulfillment, not disrespect for Mosaic law; note parallel to regional halal/haram categories. |
| God shows no partiality | οὐκ ἔστιν προσωπολήμπτης ὁ θεός | ouk estin prosōpolēmptēs ho theos | خُدا کہین سٟتی طرفداری نہٕ کران | High | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; Universal Scope | 10:34 | Retain full unqualified force across both Muslim-majority and Pandit-minority audiences. |
| Christian | Χριστιανός | Christianos | مسیحی | Medium | Church as Community | 11:26; 26:28 | Natural derivation from مسیح root; note as historic self-designation, not a modern political-communal label. |
| angel | ἄγγελος | angelos | فرشتہ | Medium | Apostolic Authority (background) | 5:19; 8:26; 10:3; 12:7-23; 27:23 | Keep clearly distinct from the Holy Spirit; do not let regional Gabriel-Ruh al-Qudus identification bleed into ordinary angelic references. |
| a spirit of divination | πνεῦμα πύθωνα | pneuma pythōna | فالگیری ہنٛز روح | Medium/High | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | 16:16 | Must always carry a qualifying term distinguishing it from پاک روح (Holy Spirit); shared word “spirit” is a real hazard. |
| unknown god | ἄγνωστος θεός | agnōstos theos | نامعلوم خُدا | High | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (contextualization method) | 17:23 | Must not imply Islam’s خُدا or Trika’s Shiva-consciousness are simply unrecognized versions of the biblical God; Paul moves quickly to particulars (Creator distinct from creation; the resurrected Judge). |
| idol | εἴδωλον | eidōlon | بُت | Critical | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (contextualization); Persecution | 17:16; 19:24-41 | Heavily weighted in Islamic theology (shirk); must not be applied as a blanket judgment on Kashmir Shaivism’s philosophically non-iconic monist core; targets crafted cult-images specifically. |
| gods (polytheistic) | θεοί | theoi | دیوتا | High | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (contextualization) | 14:11 | Direct resonance with popular Kashmiri Pandit devotional practice; distinguish carefully from Trika’s own philosophical monism, a different target than Lystra’s crowd-polytheism. |
| yoke | ζυγός | zygos | جوا / بار | Medium/High | Justification apart from the Law | 15:10 | Link explicitly to baseline grace entry; the law-yoke lifted through grace. |
| circumcision | περιτομή | peritomē | ختنہ | Critical | Justification apart from the Law | 15:1, 5 | Shared practice with regional Islamic sunnah observance for different reasons; text rejects circumcision-plus-law as necessary for salvation, not the practice itself — a fine distinction requiring explicit teaching. |
| synagogue | συναγωγή | synagōgē | عبادت خانہ / کنیسہ | Low | Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (background) | 13:14; 14:1; 17:1, 10, 17; 18:4, 19, 26 | Distinct from کلیسیا (church) and مسجد (mosque). |
| overseer | ἐπίσκοπος | episkopos | نگہبان | Medium | Apostolic Authority | 20:28 | Functional shepherd-role, not a title of personal veneration. |
| elder | πρεσβύτερος | presbyteros | بزرگ | Medium | Apostolic Authority; Church as Community | 11:30; 14:23; 15:2-6; 20:17 | Distinguish from the Sufi-devotional resonance of بزرگ as a venerated pir; the NT elder is a functional overseer, not a shrine-associated intercessory figure. |
| shepherd (verb) | ποιμαίνω | poimainō | چوپان بنی خدمت کرُن | Low/Medium | Apostolic Authority | 20:28 | Positive agrarian metaphor already familiar in regional life; low collision risk. |
| obtained with his own blood | περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου | periepoiēsato dia tou haimatos tou idiou | خونہ سٟتی حاصل کرنہ گیہ | High | Deity of Christ (implicit atonement) | 20:28 | Implicit atonement/propitiation statement; escalate to theologian review per baseline’s atonement-language rule. |
| vow | εὐχή | euchē | نذر | Low/Medium | (Background, Paul’s continued Jewish practice) | 21:23 | Positive point of contact with Islamic vow-vocabulary; clarify as cultural practice, not reintroduced works-righteousness. |
| Caesar (appeal to) | Καῖσαρ | Kaisar | قیصر | Low | Apostolic Authority (legal background) | 25:11-12, 21, 25 | Purely legal-narrative device; model of legitimate civil recourse distinguished from political agitation. |
| without hindrance | ἀκωλύτως | akōlytōs | بغٲیر رُکاوَٹہٕ | Medium/High | Great Commission Fulfilled | 28:31 | Book’s deliberately open-ended closing note; forms inclusio with Acts 1:8 and with “boldness” (ch.4). |
C. Summary Statistics
| Risk Tier | Baseline Reused Terms | New Terms (Acts) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | 15 | 7 | 22 |
| High | 10 | 16 | 26 |
| Medium | 7 | 15 | 22 |
| Low | 5 | 9 | 14 |
| Total | 37 | 47 | 84 |
Chapters contributing no new theological vocabulary (explicitly reviewed, fully reusing prior chapters’ terms): Chapter 18 (narrative continuation, minor new low-risk term “synagogue” only), Chapter 22 (full reuse of Chapters 9, 16), Chapter 27 (narrative reuse of providence/angel background only).
Next steps: All New terms above require formal entry into an updated translation_memory.json (with version increment) and bible_term_registry.json before Phase 2 segment translation begins, per the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions. Critical and High risk New terms must be flagged for human theologian review before first deployment; Medium risk terms for native speaker review; Low risk terms for automated review, consistent with the baseline’s review-routing framework.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: فضل
Transliteration: faz’l
Doctrine: Justification apart from the Law
Rejected alternatives: شکتی پات (Shaktipat, the Kashmir Shaivite descent of divine power/grace, never use as a substitute), رحم (mercy in the general Islamic sense of divine compassion weighed against deeds, use only as a supporting synonym, never a replacement)
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Recurs at Acts 4:33; 11:23; 13:43; 14:3,26; 15:11,40; 18:27; 20:24,32. Acts 15:11 (‘we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will’) is the Jerusalem Council’s own summary of Justification apart from the Law; must resist both an Islamic deeds-weighing reading and a Kashmir Shaivite shaktipat (self-awakening) reading.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: راستبازی
Transliteration: rāstbāzī
Doctrine: Justification apart from the Law
Rejected alternatives: تقویٰ (piety/God-consciousness, an Islamic virtue achieved through disciplined practice, too works-oriented)
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 13:38-39 (Paul’s Pisidian Antioch sermon, Acts’ clearest justification statement), 17:31, and 24:25 (Paul reasoning with Felix about righteousness, self-control, and coming judgment). Must not collapse into تقویٰ, disciplined pious self-effort.
Justification
Approved rendering: راستباز ٹھہرایہ گیہ
Transliteration: rāstbāz ṭharāyi gyi
Doctrine: Justification apart from the Law
Rejected alternatives: معافی (forgiveness alone, too narrow)
Original: δικαίωσις
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Acts 13:38-39 (‘everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses’) is Acts’ single clearest statement of Justification apart from the Law; must use this identical compound phrase, never abbreviated to mere forgiveness (گناہن ہنٛز معافی).
Salvation
Approved rendering: نجات
Transliteration: najāt
Doctrine: Repentance and Baptism; The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: جنت (paradise as a destination, never a stand-alone gloss for salvation itself), موکش (moksha-style liberation as understood in wider Indian Hindu usage, never use for Kashmir Shaivite readers), پرتیبھِجنا (pratyabhijna, self-recognition of one’s own innate divinity in Trika philosophy, never use as a substitute)
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Recurs at Acts 2:21,40,47; 4:12; 11:14; 13:26,47; 16:17,30-31; 27:20,34. Acts 4:12 (‘there is salvation in no one else’) is Acts’ sharpest exclusivity claim; retain full universality of offer alongside exclusivity of basis, per the baseline’s dual caution against Islamic deeds-weighing paradise-entry and Trika’s pratyabhijna self-recognition.
Apostle
Approved rendering: رسول
Transliteration: rasūl
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Rejected alternatives: پیغمبر (prophet, a distinct office, avoid conflating)
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, RISK ELEVATED] Baseline recorded this as High risk; ELEVATED TO CRITICAL for this curriculum because Acts names ‘the apostles’/‘the Twelve’ and Paul’s own apostleship dozens of times across a sustained narrative arc (1:2,26; 2:37,42; 4:33; 5:12; 11:1; 14:14; 15:2, and constantly of Paul from ch.9 forward) rather than Romans’ sparser references. رسول is the Arabic-derived title reserved in mainstream Islamic usage for Muhammad (‘Rasūlullāh’) and a small set of major prophet-messengers; every occurrence in Acts must state plainly that this names a distinct New Testament sent-ministry office, not a claim on Muhammad’s specific title, and this fence must be reinforced repeatedly across the book, not stated once and assumed retained.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: مُردٕن پؠٹھ زندٕ تھِیُن
Transliteration: murdan pyeṭh zinda thyun
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Original: ἀνάστασις
Category: Eschatology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] The central proof of nearly every apostolic sermon in Acts (1:22; 2:24,31-32; 3:15; 4:2,33; 13:30-37; 17:18,32; 23:6-8; 24:15,21; 26:8,23). Mainstream Sunni interpretation of Quran 4:157 denies Jesus was actually crucified, directly denying the historical event these passages depend on; must be stated plainly at every occurrence, never assumed uncontested. Acts 17:32 additionally shows resurrection preaching mocked on purely philosophical grounds, a distinct kind of resistance requiring separate handling from the Quranic denial.
Lord
Approved rendering: خُداوند
Transliteration: Khudāwand
Doctrine: Lordship and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: مالِک (owner/master, reserve for ordinary human authority contexts)
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Recurs at Acts 4:33; 10:36; 16:31; 28:31. Acts 2:36 (‘God has made him both Lord and Christ’) is a thesis-level verse parallel to Romans 10:9 and must be fixed for cross-document consistency across the whole curriculum.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: خُدایہ ہند پُتر
Transliteration: Khudāya hind putr
Doctrine: Lordship and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: نبی (a great prophet, an explicit downgrade and mainstream Islamic reading of Isa’s status, rejected)
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ
Category: Christology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 9:20, Paul’s very first recorded proclamation after his conversion. Direct flashpoint for Tawhid doctrine (Quran 112); must never be softened to ‘a great prophet.‘
Incarnation
Approved rendering: خُدا منش رُوپ منز آمت
Transliteration: Khudā manūsh rūp manz āmat
Doctrine: Lordship and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: اوتار (avatar, a Vaishnava-style deity-descent familiar to some Kashmiri Pandit readers through wider Indian Hindu exposure, never use)
Original: ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο
Category: Christology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Conceptual background to Acts 2:22-24’s presentation of Jesus as ‘a man attested by God’ who is also raised and exalted to God’s right hand; must never use اوتار (avatar).
Messiah
Approved rendering: مسیح
Transliteration: Masīḥ
Doctrine: Conversion of Paul; The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: Χριστός / מָשִׁיחַ
Category: Christology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs constantly throughout Acts (2:31,36,38; 3:18,20; 4:26; 5:42; 8:5; 9:22; 17:3; 18:5,28; 26:23). Shared Quranic vocabulary for Isa, but mainstream Islamic theology denies Christ’s divinity, atoning death, and resurrection while still using the title; must build on the shared word while teaching the different content explicitly.
Jesus
Approved rendering: یِسوع
Transliteration: Yisū’
Doctrine: Lordship and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: عیسیٰ (the Quranic Arabic/Perso-Arabic form, reserve only for explicit interfaith-dialogue contexts)
Original: Ἰησοῦς / יֵשׁוּעַ
Category: Christology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Used throughout Acts; never substitute عیسیٰ, the Quranic form, outside explicit interfaith-dialogue framing.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: پاک روح
Transliteration: pāk rūḥ
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Rejected alternatives: روح القدس (Ruh al-Qudus, an Arabic Quranic phrase that mainstream Islamic exegesis commonly identifies with the angel Gabriel, not a divine Person; never use interchangeably without explicit distinction)
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] The central actor of Acts (1:5,8; 2:4,38; 4:31; 5:3; 8:15-19; 10:44-47; 13:2; 15:28; 19:1-7). Never use bare روح القدس without qualification. Acts 5:3-4 (lying to the Spirit is lying to God) is an explicit Trinitarian identity-statement worth flagging for theologian review alongside the baseline’s existing caution.
Father
Approved rendering: باپت
Transliteration: bāpath
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 1:4,7; 2:33 (‘the promise of the Father’). Requires care in a Muslim-majority context where ‘Father’ as a divine title is unfamiliar and can sound uncomfortably close to attributing offspring to God.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: دِتمُت راستبازی
Transliteration: ditmut rāstbāzī
Doctrine: Justification apart from the Law
Rejected alternatives: حاصل کرمُت راستبازی (earned righteousness, the explicit rejected opposite)
Original: ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Conceptual parallel underlying Acts 13:39’s justification-by-faith statement; no ready equivalent in Islamic deeds-weighing soteriology or Trika’s self-recognition framework.
Crucified Historical
Approved rendering: مصلوب کرنہ / سُولہ چاڑنہ
Transliteration: maslūb karnah / sūlah chāṛnah
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ‘He suffered’ or ‘he was taken,’ softened alternatives, never use
Original: προσπήξαντες ἀνείλατε / ἐσταυρώσατε
Category: Eschatology
[NEW] The historical claim, repeated across Peter’s sermon and later apostolic preaching (Acts 2:23,36; 4:10; 5:30; 10:39; 13:28-29), that Jesus was actually nailed to a cross and put to death by human hands. Must be stated as unambiguous historical fact every time; mainstream Sunni interpretation of Quran 4:157 denies Jesus was actually crucified, well known among Kashmiri Muslim readers. This is one of the curriculum’s highest-frequency Critical exposures, given how many apostolic sermons repeat it.
Exalted Right Hand
Approved rendering: خُدایُک ساڑس ست عزت سٟتی اُوچھ کرنہ گیہ
Transliteration: Khudāyuk sāṛas sath ‘izzat saeti ūch karnah gyi
Doctrine: Lordship and Deity of Christ
Original: τῇ δεξιᾷ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑψωθείς
Category: Christology
[NEW] Christ’s exaltation to the position of supreme honor and co-regency at God’s right hand (Acts 2:33), the capstone of the apostolic sermon alongside the resurrection. Directly contradicts mainstream Islamic Tawhid theology’s denial that any created being shares God’s unique majesty; must be taught plainly, never softened.
Repentance
Approved rendering: توبہ
Transliteration: tawbah
Doctrine: Repentance and Baptism
Rejected alternatives: پچھتاوٕ (pachhtāv, regret/contrition, rejected as too weak, lacking توبہ’s sense of decisive whole-person reorientation)
Original: μετανοέω / μετάνοια
Category: Repentance and Baptism
[NEW] A God-given change of mind and whole-person reorientation from sin toward God (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20), the necessary response to the Gospel, immediately followed in Acts 2:38 by baptism and forgiveness. Major collision: توبہ is itself a precise, major Islamic theological term naming a turning back to Allah in sincere regret combined with resolve to obey, tied to deeds-weighing soteriology. Must be explicitly taught at every occurrence that biblical metanoia is the God-given response that RECEIVES, rather than EARNS, forgiveness and the Spirit. This is ranked the single highest-risk term in the whole Acts curriculum, per the linguistic gap analysis, because Acts 2:38 is the verse most likely to be quoted and memorized outside its full teaching context.
Baptism
Approved rendering: بپتِسمہ
Transliteration: baptismah
Doctrine: Repentance and Baptism
Rejected alternatives: غسل (ghusl, ritual purification bath after major impurity, repeatable Islamic practice, never use), وضو (wudu, ritual ablution before Islamic prayer, repeatable, never use)
Original: βαπτίζω / βάπτισμα
Category: Repentance and Baptism
[NEW] The once-for-all initiatory rite of immersion in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38,41; 8:36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:15,33; 19:1-7), marking union with Christ’s death and resurrection and identification with the believing community. Transliterated deliberately rather than translated into ritual-purity vocabulary; the foreignness of the term is a feature marking it as a distinct rite. Note the internal distinction Acts itself draws at 19:1-7 between John’s baptism of repentance and Christian baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus — do not flatten this into a single undifferentiated ritual across the whole book.
Ascension
Approved rendering: آسمانَس منز اُوچھ کرنہ گیہ
Transliteration: āsmānas manz ūch karnah gyi
Doctrine: Ascension of Christ
Original: ἀνάλημψις / ἀναλαμβάνω
Category: Christology
[NEW] Christ’s bodily, visible, historical being taken up into heaven (Acts 1:2,9-11; cf. 2:33), completing his resurrection appearances and establishing his heavenly session. Mainstream Islamic theology (Quran 4:158) affirms God ‘raised Isa to Himself,’ superficially similar but within a framework denying the prior crucifixion and bodily resurrection; must state that Acts’ ascension presupposes and completes the bodily resurrection already established, never conceding the Quranic account’s rejection of the cross.
Author Of Life
Approved rendering: زِندگیہ ہنٛدِس بانی
Transliteration: Zindagyi handis bānī
Doctrine: Lordship and Deity of Christ
Original: ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
[NEW] An exalted Christological title (Acts 3:15): the one who was killed is himself the Originator/Founder and source of life. Implies Christ’s unique divine authority over life and death itself; teach alongside son_of_god and lord, since mainstream Islamic theology would readily accept ‘a great prophet who was killed’ but not one who is himself the source of life.
Idol
Approved rendering: بُت
Transliteration: but
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: εἴδωλον
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] A crafted cult-image or object of pagan worship, confronted directly by Paul at Athens and Ephesus (Acts 17:16; 19:24-41). Heavily weighted in Islamic theology (shirk is the gravest sin in mainstream Islamic doctrine). Must not be applied as a blanket judgment on Kashmir Shaivism’s philosophically non-iconic monist core; Paul responds to crafted cult images specifically, not to a philosophical claim about the nature of reality. Requires human theologian review for precision with each audience separately.
Circumcision
Approved rendering: ختنہ
Transliteration: khatnah
Doctrine: Justification apart from the Law
Original: περιτομή
Category: Justification apart from the Law
[NEW] The Mosaic covenant sign at the center of the Jerusalem Council’s dispute over whether Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the full law to be saved (Acts 15:1,5). Standard shared term, since circumcision is also near-universal among Kashmiri Muslims as a sunnah practice, for different theological reasons. Requires precision: the text does not evaluate the practice of circumcision itself (not forbidden, cf. v.28-29) but specifically rejects circumcision-plus-law-keeping as NECESSARY FOR SALVATION — a fine distinction requiring explicit teaching.
High Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: انجیل
Transliteration: Injīl
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: اچھی خبر (a plain descriptive gloss, acceptable only as an explanatory aside)
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Enforce exactly. In Acts, occurs as ‘the word,’ ‘the good news,’ preached from Jerusalem (ch.2) to Rome (ch.28). Injil is shared Quranic vocabulary understood by mainstream Islamic teaching as a scripture given to Isa and later corrupted (tahrif); Acts’ own content (resurrection, forgiveness through Christ’s name specifically, the Spirit poured out) must be taught explicitly rather than assumed to transfer with the shared word.
Faith
Approved rendering: ایمان
Transliteration: īmān
Doctrine: Repentance and Baptism; Justification apart from the Law
Rejected alternatives: یقین (certainty/conviction, too intellectual/impersonal alone)
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Recurs at Acts 3:16; 6:5,7; 13:8; 14:9,22,27; 16:31; 20:21. Acts 16:31 (‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’) is a thesis-level salvation-formula verse requiring the same cross-document consistency the baseline mandates for Romans 10:9.
Called
Approved rendering: سَدہ گیہ
Transliteration: sada gyi
Doctrine: The Great Commission Fulfilled
Rejected alternatives: دعوت دِنہ (invited, too weak)
Original: κλητός
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Acts 2:39 (‘as many as the Lord our God calls’) extends effectual calling explicitly to ‘all who are far off,’ anchoring both The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles and The Great Commission Fulfilled.
Calling
Approved rendering: سَدنُک
Transliteration: sadanuk
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Background term for Acts 13:2 and 16:10’s sense of divine ministry summons; must convey sovereign summons, not impersonal fate (قسمت/taqdir).
Holy
Approved rendering: پاک
Transliteration: pāk
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Rejected alternatives: صاف (physically clean, ritual-ablution sense, avoid as a substitute)
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Distinct from صاف (ritual/physical cleanliness). Background throughout Acts (9:13,32,41, ‘the saints’).
Saints
Approved rendering: پاک لوکہ
Transliteration: pāk lūkh
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Rejected alternatives: ولی (a Sufi saint venerated at a shrine, e.g. within the Rishi order tradition, never use for the corporate biblical sense)
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 9:13,32,41; 26:10. Must not be rendered with a term implying a small class of especially venerated figures (ولی/wali); The Church as Community doctrine depends on the corporate sense.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: پاکیزگی
Transliteration: pākīzagī
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: ἁγιασμός
Category: Sanctification
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 20:32; 26:18 (‘those who are sanctified by faith in me’). Distinct from ritual purification (wuzu/ghusl) and from Trika self-purification disciplines.
Law
Approved rendering: شریعت
Transliteration: sharī’at
Doctrine: Justification apart from the Law
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Central to Acts 13:38-39; 15:1,5,24; 21:20-24; 22:3; 24:14. Must distinguish the Mosaic Law’s specific redemptive-historical role from a comprehensive Sharia-style life-code, especially in the Jerusalem Council narrative.
Sin
Approved rendering: گناہ
Transliteration: gunāh
Doctrine: Repentance and Baptism
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 2:38; 3:19; 22:16, always tied to repentance and baptism ‘in the name of Jesus Christ.‘
Glory
Approved rendering: جلال
Transliteration: jalāl
Doctrine: Lordship and Deity of Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 7:2,55 (Stephen’s vision) and 12:23 (Herod’s judgment for not giving God the glory).
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: ایمانہ منز فرمانبرداری
Transliteration: īmāna manz farmānbardārī
Doctrine: Justification apart from the Law
Rejected alternatives: شریعتہ ہنٛز فرمانبرداری (rule-obedience to religious law, a works-based misreading given the prominence of Sharia-observance in regional Islamic practice)
Original: ὑπακοὴ πίστεως
Category: Faith
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Conceptual background to Acts 6:7 (‘a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith’); keep distinct from rule-compliance with a comprehensive religious law-code.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: خُدایُک قوت
Transliteration: Khudāyuk quwwat
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Rejected alternatives: شکتی (Shakti, associated with Kashmir Shaivism’s dynamic divine energy/Spanda concept, avoid as the primary term for Pandit-background readers)
Original: δύναμις θεοῦ
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Central to Acts 2:22; 3:12; 4:7,33; 6:8; 8:10,13; 10:38; 19:11. Never use شکتی for Pandit-background readers.
Election
Approved rendering: خُدایُک چُنٲوُن
Transliteration: Khudāyuk chunāwun
Doctrine: Conversion of Paul
Rejected alternatives: قسمت (fate, tied to the Islamic concept of taqdir/al-qadar, divine predetermination, use with caution)
Original: ἐκλογή
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Directly underlies the ‘chosen instrument’ description of Paul at Acts 9:15; must not be rendered with قسمت (fate/taqdir) without explicit definition.
Providence
Approved rendering: خُدایُک انتظام
Transliteration: Khudāyuk intizām
Doctrine: Providence Amid Suffering
Rejected alternatives: قسمت (fate/taqdir, use with caution)
Original: πρόνοια
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs implicitly at Acts 2:23 (God’s determined plan) and 27:22-25 (Paul’s shipwreck confidence). Must not collapse into قسمت/تقدیر impersonal fatalism.
God
Approved rendering: خُدا
Transliteration: Khudā
Doctrine: Lordship and Deity of Christ
Original: θεός / אֱלֹהִים / יהוה
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Used throughout; must consistently be presented in explicitly Trinitarian and Christ-centered terms per Acts’ own preaching pattern.
Abba
Approved rendering: ابّا
Transliteration: Abbā
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Not directly attested in Acts’ narrative text but retained here for cross-curriculum vocabulary consistency with the Romans baseline’s adoption/Father doctrine, should later lessons in this curriculum draw on it.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: داؤدَس نسلہ منٛز
Transliteration: Dā’ūdas naslah manz
Doctrine: Inspiration and Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: σπέρμα Δαυίδ
Category: Covenant
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 2:30; 13:23, extended in Acts to Christ’s resurrection argument (David remains dead and buried while prophesying of another’s resurrection), not human descent alone.
Pentecost
Approved rendering: پنتِکوست
Transliteration: Pantikost
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Rejected alternatives: Any implied equivalence with an existing regional Islamic or Hindu festival name, never use
Original: πεντηκοστή
Category: Holy Spirit and Pentecost
[NEW] Transliterated proper festival name (Feast of Weeks/Shavuot, fifty days after Passover). No existing Kashmiri Christian festival vocabulary; must be glossed at first use with its Old Testament first-fruits fulfillment logic, not treated as a generic ‘Christian holiday’ with no salvation-historical content. Acts 2:1.
Tongues Of Fire
Approved rendering: باہ ہنٛدی زبانہ
Transliteration: bāh handi zabāna
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Original: γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός
Category: Holy Spirit and Pentecost
[NEW] Visible, flame-shaped forms resting on each believer at Pentecost (Acts 2:3), a theophanic sign echoing Sinai’s fire. Must be distinguished from Sufi devotional ‘burning of divine love’ imagery common in Kashmiri Rishi/Sufi poetry; a historical, corporate, once-for-all sign, not a repeatable interior mystical state.
Other Tongues
Approved rendering: ٲنٛے زبانہ
Transliteration: anye zabāna
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Original: ἕτεραι γλῶσσαι
Category: Holy Spirit and Pentecost
[NEW] Real, existing human languages miraculously spoken by the Spirit-filled believers at Pentecost (Acts 2:4,6,11), confirmed as genuine foreign languages by the hearers. Must denote real foreign human languages, not ecstatic/trance speech, dhikr-adjacent utterance, or spirit-possession phenomena reported in regional folk religion; a reversal-sign of Babel. Translator’s note required stating these were genuine languages understood by hearers per v.6-11.
All Flesh
Approved rendering: سٲری اِنسان
Transliteration: sāri insān
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Original: πᾶσα σάρξ
Category: Holy Spirit and Pentecost
[NEW] The universal scope of the Spirit’s outpouring (Joel 2:28 quotation, Acts 2:17) across age, sex, and social status. Must retain full universal scope without softening, paralleling the baseline’s ‘Universal Scope of the Gospel’ entry, across both the Muslim-majority and Kashmiri Pandit audiences.
Signs And Wonders
Approved rendering: قوت، عجائبات تہٕ نِشانہ
Transliteration: quwwat, ajā’ibāt tih nishānah
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: δυνάμεις, τέρατα, σημεῖα
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] Luke’s recurring triad (δυνάμεις, τέρατα, σημεῖα) naming God’s authenticating, attesting miraculous activity through Jesus and later the apostles (Acts 2:22,43; 4:30; 5:12; 14:3; 15:12). Must be sharply distinguished from کرامت, the charism attributed to a Sufi wali, and from occult جادو (Acts 8, 19); apostolic signs authenticate God’s redemptive message, not personal sanctity.
Gods Determined Plan
Approved rendering: خُدایُک مقررٕ منصوبہ تہٕ اڳم زانٕن
Transliteration: Khudāyuk muqarrar mansooba tih agam zānun
Doctrine: Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
Original: ὡρισμένη βουλὴ καὶ πρόγνωσις τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] God’s determined plan and foreknowledge (Acts 2:23; cf. 4:27-28), by which the crucifixion, though carried out by lawless human hands, occurred within his sovereign redemptive purpose. Parallels the baseline providence entry; must not be flattened into قسمت/تقدیر impersonal fatalism; holds together divine sovereignty and full human moral accountability.
Witness
Approved rendering: گواہ
Transliteration: gawāh
Doctrine: Persecution and Bold Witness
Rejected alternatives: شہید (shaheed, the specific and highly weighted Islamic martyr category, never use as a substitute)
Original: μάρτυς
Category: Church
[NEW] An eyewitness-testifier to Christ’s resurrection (Acts 1:8; 2:32; 3:15), a sense that by Stephen’s death (ch.7) and beyond (22:20) begins to shade toward willing death for one’s testimony. Must be carefully distinguished from شہید, which carries strong devotional and politically loaded resonance in the Kashmir region’s own recent history; both senses (eyewitness and martyr) must remain distinguishable and never silently collapsed into شہید.
Forgiveness Of Sins
Approved rendering: گناہن ہنٛز معافی
Transliteration: gunāhan hanz mu’āfī
Doctrine: Repentance and Baptism
Original: ἄφεσις τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν
Category: Repentance and Baptism
[NEW] The full release/cancellation of the guilt of sin, judicial in force, tied to repentance and baptism in Acts 2:38 (also 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18). Must not be taught as equivalent to Islamic deeds-weighed mercy; always teach alongside, and clearly distinguished from, the fuller forensic justification concept (راستباز ٹھہرایہ گیہ), so learners do not conclude forgiveness is the whole of salvation’s legal dimension.
Promise
Approved rendering: وعدہ
Transliteration: wa’dah
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Original: ἐπαγγελία
Category: Holy Spirit and Pentecost
[NEW] The covenant promise of the Spirit (Acts 1:4; 2:33,39), tying Pentecost to Israel’s covenant promises while widening scope to the Gentile mission. Consistent with the baseline’s covenant/عہد vocabulary; must retain the ‘all who are far off’ (Gentile) scope explicitly.
Restoration Of All Things
Approved rendering: تازگیہ ہنٛز وقت / سٲری چیزَن ہنٛز بحالی
Transliteration: tāzagyi hanz waqt / sāri chizan hanz bahālī
Doctrine: Eschatological Hope and Restoration
Original: καιροὶ ἀναψύξεως / ἀποκατάστασις πάντων
Category: Great Commission Fulfilled
[NEW] The ‘times of refreshing’ and ‘the restoration of all things’ Peter announces as the eschatological hope tied to Christ’s future return (Acts 3:19-21). Risk of being misheard through a Kashmir Shaivite (Trika) lens as return to undivided cosmic consciousness rather than the biblical hope of a renewed created order under Christ’s personal bodily return and reign.
Boldness
Approved rendering: دلیری
Transliteration: dilērī
Doctrine: Persecution and Bold Witness
Rejected alternatives: بے دھڑک بولُن (be-dhaṛak bolun, an acceptable descriptive gloss alongside دلیری)
Original: παρρησία
Category: Persecution and Bold Witness
[NEW] Courageous, unashamed, Spirit-given public proclamation (Acts 4:13,29,31; 28:31), particularly in the face of official opposition. Given the region’s decades-long conflict and the real danger historically associated with open religious speech across communal lines, teach as Spirit-given trust in God’s sovereign purpose, not political defiance or provocation. Forms an inclusio with 28:31’s ‘without hindrance.‘
Sorcery Magic
Approved rendering: جادو
Transliteration: jādū
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: μαγεία / μάγος
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] Occult sorcery/magical practice, exemplified by Simon Magus (Acts 8:9,11) and later at Ephesus (13:6,8; 19:19), shown powerless before the genuine power of God at work through the apostles. Must be distinguished from both legitimate apostolic signs and from کرامت; Simon’s error (attempting to purchase the Spirit’s power) is a live cautionary example against transactional views of spiritual power.
Persecution
Approved rendering: ظلم
Transliteration: ẓulm
Doctrine: Persecution and Bold Witness
Original: διώκω / διωγμός
Category: Persecution and Bold Witness
[NEW] Hostile opposition and harm directed at believers because of their testimony to Christ (Acts 9:1,4-5; 13:50), beginning with Saul’s own campaign against the church. ظلم is heavily weighted in Islamic ethical vocabulary denoting grave injustice — a genuine point of contact, not a collision — but teach with awareness that Kashmiri readers may map this vocabulary onto the region’s own recent communal history, requiring non-partisan framing. ایذا رسانی (īzā rasānī) is an acceptable secondary descriptive gloss.
Chosen Instrument
Approved rendering: چُنٲوَتھ آلہ
Transliteration: chunāwath ālah
Doctrine: Conversion of Paul
Original: σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς
Category: Conversion of Paul
[NEW] God’s description of Paul as ‘a chosen instrument’ to carry Christ’s name before Gentiles, kings, and Israel (Acts 9:15). Reuses the baseline election root (خُدایُک چُنٲوُن); reinforces the caution that election is personal and relational, not impersonal fate (قسمت/taqdir).
Cleanse Ritual
Approved rendering: صاف کرنہ
Transliteration: sāf karnah
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: καθαρίζω
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] God’s declaration in Peter’s vision that the Mosaic food-purity distinctions are abolished (Acts 10:15), symbolically announcing the abolition of the Jew-Gentile purity barrier. Contextually correct here since the text specifically overturns a ritual-purity distinction (distinct from the baseline’s پاک vs. صاف caution, which applies elsewhere); the teaching point runs directly against regional halal/haram observance and must be taught as redemptive-historical fulfillment, not disrespect for the Mosaic law.
No Partiality
Approved rendering: خُدا کہین سٟتی طرفداری نہٕ کران
Transliteration: Khudā kahin saeti tarafdārī nah karan
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: οὐκ ἔστιν προσωπολήμπτης ὁ θεός
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] Peter’s foundational declaration that God shows no favoritism between ethnic groups (Acts 10:34). Must retain full, unqualified force across both the Muslim-majority and Kashmiri Pandit-minority audiences.
Spirit Of Divination
Approved rendering: فالگیری ہنٛز روح
Transliteration: fālgirī hanz rūḥ
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: πνεῦμα πύθωνα
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] An evil, divining spirit possessing the slave girl at Philippi (Acts 16:16), cast out by Paul in Jesus’s name. Must always carry a qualifying term distinguishing it from پاک روح; the shared word ‘spirit’ across an evil divining spirit and the divine Holy Spirit is a genuine, recurring translation hazard.
Unknown God
Approved rendering: نامعلوم خُدا
Transliteration: nāma’lūm Khudā
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: ἄγνωστος θεός
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] The Athenian altar inscription Paul uses as a contextualizing bridge to proclaim the true Creator God previously unrecognized by his hearers (Acts 17:23). Must not be misapplied to suggest that Islam’s خُدا or Kashmir Shaivism’s Shiva-consciousness are simply unrecognized versions of the biblical God; Paul’s address moves quickly to particulars — a personal Creator distinct from creation, and the resurrected man appointed as coming Judge.
Polytheistic Gods
Approved rendering: دیوتا
Transliteration: dēvtā
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: θεοί
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] The plural ‘gods’ of Greco-Roman polytheism (Acts 14:11), invoked by the Lystra crowd who mistake Paul and Barnabas for Zeus and Hermes. Direct resonance for Kashmiri Pandit readers whose popular devotional Hindu practice includes multiple named deities; must not imply that Trika philosophy’s own monism is the same error as Lystra’s crowd-polytheism — different targets requiring different, precise responses.
Obtained With Blood
Approved rendering: خونہ سٟتی حاصل کرنہ گیہ
Transliteration: khūna saeti hāsil karnah gyi
Doctrine: Atonement and the Blood of Christ
Original: περιεποιήσατο διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου
Category: Christology
[NEW] Paul’s statement that God obtained the church ‘with his own blood’ (Acts 20:28), an implicit atonement statement tying Christ’s blood directly to God’s own identity. Escalate to human theologian review per the baseline’s atonement/propitiation escalation rule, parallel to Romans 3:25; also carries an implicit deity-of-Christ claim worth flagging alongside son_of_god and lord.
Medium Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: امن
Transliteration: amn
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 9:31; 10:36; 15:33; 16:36. Handle with the same regional-conflict sensitivity the baseline requires.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: روحانی نعمتہ
Transliteration: rūḥānī ni’amat
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Rejected alternatives: کرامت (a Sufi saint’s miraculous gift/charism, avoid as the primary term)
Original: χαρίσματα
Category: Church
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Conceptual background to the signs-and-wonders triad in Acts 2:22,43 etc.; must be kept distinct from کرامت, a Sufi saint’s charism.
Church
Approved rendering: کلیسیا
Transliteration: kalīsiyā
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Rejected alternatives: مسجد (mosque, never use), مندر (temple, never use)
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 2:47; 5:11; 8:1,3; 9:31; 11:26; 20:17,28. Must remain clearly distinct from مسجد (mosque), مندر (temple), and Sufi order/shrine structures.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: خُدایُک بادشاہت
Transliteration: Khudāyuk bādshāhat
Doctrine: The Great Commission Fulfilled
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Acts 1:3,6 immediately raises the disciples’ mistaken territorial-political expectation (‘will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’); recurs at 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23,31 (the book’s final theme). This term forms a structural inclusio across the whole book (1:6 and 28:31) and must be fenced against any territorial-political framing at BOTH bracketing occurrences, given the region’s contested-sovereignty history.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: غیر-قوم
Transliteration: ghair-qaum
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 9:15; 10:45; 11:1,18; 13:46-48; 14:27; 15:3,7,12,14; 18:6; 21:19,25; 22:21; 26:17,20,23; 28:28, becoming the theological hinge of the whole book from ch.10 onward. Must be distinguished from the general sense of قوم (nation_general) at Acts 2:5, where diaspora Jews, not Gentiles, are meant — the two terms are visually/aurally close and require an explicit translator’s note at first co-occurrence.
Prophet
Approved rendering: پیغمبر
Transliteration: paighambar
Doctrine: Inspiration and Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 2:16,30; 3:22-25; 7:37,48,52; 13:20,40; 21:10; 24:14; 26:22,27; 28:23. Must not be assumed to fit a Quranic prophetology (each revelation superseding the last).
Prophecy
Approved rendering: پیشن گوئی
Transliteration: pēshan go’ī
Doctrine: Inspiration and Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: προφητεία
Category: Covenant
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Central to the Joel quotation (Acts 2:16-21) and Agabus’s prophecies (11:27-28; 21:9-11).
Covenant
Approved rendering: عہد
Transliteration: ‘ahd
Doctrine: Inspiration and Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 3:25 (the Abrahamic covenant) and 7:8 (the covenant of circumcision).
Intercession
Approved rendering: منٛزبولی
Transliteration: manzbolī
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Rejected alternatives: شفاعت (a Sufi saint’s mediating intercession at a shrine, or Muhammad’s eschatological intercession in mainstream Islamic theology, avoid as a substitute)
Original: ὑπερεντυγχάνει (Rom 8:26) / ἔντευξις
Category: Faith
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Background to Acts’s frequent corporate prayer scenes (1:14; 4:24-31; 12:5; 13:3; 20:36; 21:5); kept distinct from شفاعت.
Mission
Approved rendering: انجیلہ ہنٛز منادی
Transliteration: Injīla hanz munādī
Doctrine: The Great Commission Fulfilled
Original: ἀποστολή / πέμπω
Category: Church
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Structures the entire book (e.g., Acts 13:2-3; 26:16-18); frame as gentle proclamation and witness, not confrontation, given the region’s political sensitivity.
Israel
Approved rendering: اسرائیل
Transliteration: Isrā’īl
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: יִשְׂרָאֵל
Category: Covenant
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 1:6; 2:22,36; 3:12; 4:10,27; 5:31; 13:16-24; 28:20. Clarify the biblical covenant referent apart from the contemporary nation-state, a distinction of particular regional sensitivity.
Rushing Wind
Approved rendering: زبردست ہوا
Transliteration: zabardast havā
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Original: πνοὴ βιαία
Category: Holy Spirit and Pentecost
[NEW] The violent rushing-wind sound accompanying the Spirit’s descent at Pentecost (Acts 2:2), a historically real, audible, one-time sign. Must not read as an impersonal cosmic life-breath/prana energy echoing Kashmir Shaivism’s spanda categories.
Nation General
Approved rendering: قوم
Transliteration: qaum
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: ἔθνος
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] A people or nation in the general sense, at Acts 2:5 referring to diaspora Jews ‘from every nation,’ distinct from the theological sense of Gentiles. Must not be confused with غیر-قوم (Gentiles as a theological category); an explicit translator’s note is required at first co-occurrence since the two terms are visually/aurally close.
Hades
Approved rendering: ہادِیس
Transliteration: Hādīs
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: عالمِ اموات (‘ālam-i-amwāt, an acceptable descriptive alternative gloss)
Original: ᾅδης
Category: Eschatology
[NEW] The realm/abode of the dead, referenced in the Psalm 16 quotation applied to Christ’s resurrection (Acts 2:27,31). Distinct from a general word for grave (قبر); must not be silently equated with the Islamic برزخ (barzakh, the intermediate state), a related but distinct category requiring its own brief gloss.
Cut To The Heart
Approved rendering: دِلَس منز چھِد لگُن
Transliteration: dilas manz chhid lagun
Doctrine: Repentance and Baptism
Original: κατανύσσομαι
Category: Repentance and Baptism
[NEW] To be pierced or struck in the heart (Acts 2:37), the Spirit-empowered conviction of sin that precedes genuine repentance. An idiom; natural Kashmiri phrasing should be confirmed with native speakers rather than treated as a fixed literal calque.
Added To Church
Approved rendering: شامل کرنہ گیہ
Transliteration: shāmil karnah gyi
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: προσετίθεντο / προσετέθησαν
Category: Church as Community
[NEW] To be added to, joined to, the number of believers upon baptism (Acts 2:41,47; 5:14; 11:24). Reinforces baptism’s role as the recognized boundary-marking entry rite into the visible believing community.
Lot Casting
Approved rendering: قرعہ
Transliteration: qur’ah
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: κλῆρος
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] The casting of lots used to select Matthias (Acts 1:17,26), maintaining the apostolic body’s full number and authority. Bounded by prior prayer to the heart-knowing God (v.24); flag that this is not the same as consulting fortune or omens, a live folk-practice risk in the region.
Breaking Of Bread
Approved rendering: روٹی ٹُکُر کرُن
Transliteration: roṭī ṭukur karun
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: κλάσις τοῦ ἄρτου
Category: Church as Community
[NEW] A regular, communal, sacred meal practice among the earliest believers (Acts 2:42,46), carrying eucharistic resonance from the Last Supper. Descriptive, not yet a fixed liturgical term in Acts; should be distinguished from ordinary shared meals (an important Kashmiri hospitality custom) by contextual framing pointing to remembrance of Christ, without over-specifying sacramental theology beyond what Acts itself states.
All Things Common
Approved rendering: سٲری شے مِلی برَابر ہاوُن
Transliteration: sāri shay milī barābar hāwun
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: κοινά
Category: Church as Community
[NEW] The voluntary, Spirit-motivated economic sharing of possessions within the earliest believing community (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-35). Should avoid language suggesting an enforced communal-property mandate for every era; Acts presents this as the Spirit’s voluntary fruit in that specific historical moment.
Service Ministry
Approved rendering: خدمت
Transliteration: khidmat
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: διακονία
Category: Church as Community
[NEW] Practical service distinguished from, yet held alongside, ‘the ministry of the word and prayer’ (Acts 6:1,4). A genuine, positive point of contact with regional khidmat-e-khalq ethical vocabulary in both Islamic and general Kashmiri usage — note this positively, not as a collision.
Stoning
Approved rendering: سنگسار کرُن
Transliteration: sangsār karun
Doctrine: Persecution and Bold Witness
Original: λιθοβολέω
Category: Persecution and Bold Witness
[NEW] Stephen’s execution by stoning (Acts 7:58-59), Acts’ first fulfillment of the martyrdom sense witness begins to acquire. Has unfortunate live resonance in regional and Islamic hadd-punishment discourse; flag for native speaker sensitivity review so the historical martyrdom narrative is not read as endorsing the punishment-practice itself.
Christian
Approved rendering: مسیحی
Transliteration: Masīḥī
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: Χριστιανός
Category: Church as Community
[NEW] The historic self-designation of Christ’s followers, first applied at Antioch (Acts 11:26; also 26:28). Natural derivation on the baseline’s مسیح root; introduce with a note that this is a historic self-designation, not a modern ethnic or political-communal category.
Angel
Approved rendering: فرشتہ
Transliteration: frishtah
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: ἄγγελος
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] A heavenly messenger/agent of God (Acts 5:19; 8:26; 10:3; 12:7-23; 27:23). Shared extensively across Islamic and general Persian-influenced Kashmiri religious vocabulary; genuine point of contact. Keep clearly distinct from the Holy Spirit; must not let the regional identification of Ruh al-Qudus with Gabriel bleed into ordinary angelic references.
Yoke
Approved rendering: جوا
Transliteration: juā
Doctrine: Justification apart from the Law
Rejected alternatives: بار (bār, burden, an acceptable secondary gloss)
Original: ζυγός
Category: Justification apart from the Law
[NEW] The ‘yoke’ of the full Mosaic law, which ‘neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear’ (Acts 15:10), now lifted through grace. Link explicitly to the baseline grace entry (فضل); reinforces the Justification apart from the Law doctrine.
Overseer
Approved rendering: نگہبان
Transliteration: nigahbān
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: ἐπίσκοπος
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] The functional shepherding office of a local congregation’s leader, named at Paul’s Miletus farewell (Acts 20:28). A functional shepherd-overseer of a local congregation, not an object of personal veneration.
Elder
Approved rendering: بزرگ
Transliteration: buzurg
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] A senior, respected leader of a local congregation, named throughout Acts alongside apostles as recognized church authority (Acts 11:30; 14:23; 15:2-6; 20:17). Carries respectful weight in regional Islamic and Sufi usage for a venerated senior figure; must not imply the mediating, shrine-associated status of a pir or wali. The New Testament elder is a functional shepherd-overseer, not an object of personal veneration.
Without Hindrance
Approved rendering: بغٲیر رُکاوَٹہٕ
Transliteration: baghair rukāwath
Doctrine: The Great Commission Fulfilled
Original: ἀκωλύτως
Category: Great Commission Fulfilled
[NEW] The book’s deliberately open-ended final word, describing Paul’s unhindered proclamation of the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ at Rome (Acts 28:31). Ties back to Acts 1:8’s ‘to the end of the earth’ and forms an inclusio with ‘boldness’ (ch.4); the mission’s completion still unfolding is relevant framing for Kashmir as a still-unreached, sensitive mission field, handled with the same evangelism-as-gentle-proclamation sensitivity required throughout.
Low Risk Terms
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: شکر
Transliteration: shukur
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστία
Category: Faith
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 27:35; 28:15. No significant doctrinal risk; genuine positive resonance with Islamic gratitude-to-Allah devotion.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: رفاقت
Transliteration: rifāqat
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 2:42, founding The Church as Community doctrine alongside breaking_of_bread and all_things_common.
David
Approved rendering: داؤد
Transliteration: Dā’ūd
Doctrine: Inspiration and Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: דָּוִד
Category: Covenant
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 2:25,29,34; 4:25; 7:45; 13:22,34,36; 15:16.
Exhort
Approved rendering: حوصلہ دِنہ
Transliteration: ḥauslah dinah
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Faith
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Occurs at Acts 2:40; 11:23; 14:22; 15:32; 16:40; 20:1-2.
Declared Forth
Approved rendering: بولنہ لگیہ
Transliteration: bolnah lagyi
Doctrine: The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
Original: ἀποφθέγγομαι
Category: Holy Spirit and Pentecost
[NEW] To utter forth with solemn, oracular authority (Acts 2:4,14); intensifies plain ‘speaking.’ Low risk, conveys the Spirit gives authoritative proclamation, not mere sound.
Dialect Language
Approved rendering: زبان
Transliteration: zabān
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Original: διάλεκτος
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] One’s own native tongue/dialect (Acts 2:6,8), stressing that each hearer heard the Gospel in his own mother tongue. Affirms every mother tongue’s dignity, a gentle point of contact and counterpoint to assumptions privileging a single sacred revelation-language.
Proselyte
Approved rendering: یہودیت منز شامل غیر-قوم
Transliteration: yahūdiyat manz shāmil ghair-qaum
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: A single fixed loanword, rejected in favor of a descriptive phrase to avoid confusion
Original: προσήλυτος
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] A Gentile convert to Judaism (Acts 2:10), present among the Pentecost crowd as a bridge population before the Gospel formally reaches Gentiles in Acts 10. Kept descriptive rather than a fixed loanword to minimize confusion risk.
Office Position
Approved rendering: خدمت / عہدہ
Transliteration: khidmat / ‘ohdah
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: ἐπισκοπή
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] The office/ministry-position vacated by Judas and filled by Matthias (Acts 1:20); foundational vocabulary for the later overseer/elder terms (ch.20).
One Accord
Approved rendering: اکھ دِلا سٟتی
Transliteration: akh dilā saeti
Doctrine: The Church as Community
Original: ὁμοθυμαδόν
Category: Church as Community
[NEW] The gathered unity of heart and mind characterizing the earliest believing community’s prayer and fellowship (Acts 1:14; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12). Low doctrinal risk; supports the corporate-unity theme.
Eunuch
Approved rendering: درباری عہدہ دار
Transliteration: darbārī ‘ohdahdār
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: خواجہ سرا / ہِجڑا (more literal renderings, use only with sensitivity if a literal term is required; the descriptive ‘court official’ is preferred)
Original: εὐνοῦχος
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] The Ethiopian court official (Acts 8:27) whose conversion and baptism marks an early instance of Gospel reach to a Gentile-adjacent, African God-fearer. Render descriptively with sensitivity; primary doctrinal point is Gentile-adjacent inclusion, not the term itself.
Synagogue
Approved rendering: عبادت خانہ
Transliteration: ‘ibādat khānah
Doctrine: The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: کنیسہ (kanīsah, an acceptable transliterated alternative)
Original: συναγωγή
Category: Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
[NEW] The Jewish assembly-place where Paul customarily began his preaching in each city (Acts 13:14; 14:1; 17:1,10,17; 18:4,19,26). Distinct from کلیسیا (church) and مسجد (mosque).
Shepherd Verb
Approved rendering: چوپان بنی خدمت کرُن
Transliteration: chopān banī khidmat karun
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: ποιμαίνω
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] To shepherd/tend, the pastoral responsibility given to overseers/elders over ‘the church of God’ (Acts 20:28). A positive, non-collision pastoral metaphor already familiar in regional agrarian life.
Vow
Approved rendering: نذر
Transliteration: nazr
Doctrine: Cultural Continuity and Jewish Practice
Original: εὐχή
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] The Nazirite vow Paul participates in at Jerusalem (Acts 21:23), a recognized Jewish pious practice. Shared with Islamic vow-vocabulary — a positive, low-risk point of contact. Note the historical-cultural (not salvific) nature of Paul’s participation here, to avoid implying works-righteousness after the Justification apart from the Law teaching of chapters 13-15.
Caesar Appeal
Approved rendering: قیصر
Transliteration: Qaiṣar
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
Original: Καῖσαρ
Category: Apostolic Authority and Miracles
[NEW] The Roman emperor, to whom Paul appeals his case as a Roman citizen (Acts 25:11-12,21,25). No theological collision; a model of legitimate civil recourse distinguished from political agitation, given the region’s sensitivity around religious speech and authority.
Referenced passages