Core Glossary
Core Glossary: 3 John (English–Konkani)
| # | English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Konkani Rendering | Risk | Status | Doctrine | Notes / Alternatives Rejected | Citation(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elder (office) | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | वडील (vaḍīl) | Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | Ecclesial office/authority, not merely an elderly or family-caste elder; context must mark it as a title. Rejected: no separate coinage needed, but must not stand unmarked as “an old man.” | v. 1 |
| 2 | Beloved (address) | ἀγαπητός (agapētos) | प्रिय (priya) | Low | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Standard warm address; consistent across all 4 occurrences. | vv. 1, 2, 5, 11 |
| 3 | Love (verb/noun) | ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη (agapaō / agapē) | मोग करप / मोग (mog karap / mog) | High | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Authentic Konkani root word for committed, self-giving love. Rejected: प्रेम (romantic/Sanskritic overtone), भक्ती (already reserved in the baseline for devotional worship of a chosen deity — see baseline “faith” entry). Must be anchored to shared gospel truth, not sentiment. | vv. 1, 6 |
| 4 | Truth | ἀλήθεια / ἀληθής (alētheia / alēthēs) | सत्य / खरें (satya / kharẽ) | High | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Unavoidable standard term, but also names ultimate impersonal Reality/Brahman in Vedantic Hindu philosophy. Must always be anchored to the revealed, relational truth of the gospel embodied in Christ and lived out in conduct, not abstract philosophical Truth. Dominant term of the letter (6 occurrences). | vv. 1, 3 (x2), 4, 8, 12 (x2) |
| 5 | Walk (conduct of life) | περιπατέω (peripateō) | चालचलण / सत्यांत चलप (cālcalaṇ / satyānt calap) | Medium | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Idiom for lived conduct, not literal ambulation; must not be flattened into bare cognitive assent to true doctrine. | vv. 3, 4 |
| 6 | Prosper / be healthy | εὐοδόω / ὑγιαίνω (euodoō / hygiainō) | बरें चलप / बरी प्रकृत आसप (barẽ calap / barī prakr̥t āsap) | Medium | [NEW] | (supporting — epistolary greeting) | Guard against a prosperity-gospel reading; qualified in-context by “just as your soul prospers” — spiritual health is the standard. | v. 2 |
| 7 | Soul | ψυχή (psychē) | जीव (jīv) | Medium | [NEW] | (supporting) | Must be kept distinct from आत्मा, reserved in the baseline exclusively for पवित्र आत्मा (the Holy Spirit). | v. 2 |
| 8 | Brother (fellow believer) | ἀδελφός (adelphos) | बंधू (bandhū) | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | Distinguish from भाव (biological/social brother) and from Hindu guru-sampradaya “brotherhood” usage. | vv. 3, 5, 10 |
| 9 | Testify / testimony / witness | μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία (martyreō / martyria) | साक्ष दिवप / साक्ष (sākṣ divap / sākṣ) | Medium-High | [NEW] | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | Must convey authoritative, corroborated testimony to observed Christian character, not casual hearsay or flattery. | vv. 3, 6, 12 (x3) |
| 10 | Joy / rejoice | χαρά / χαίρω (chara / chairō) | आनंद (ānand) | Low | [NEW] | (supporting) | Standard term, no doctrinal collision. | vv. 3, 4 |
| 11 | Children (spiritual) | τέκνον (teknon) | आत्मिक भुरगीं (ātmik bhurgĩ) | Medium | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Qualifier आत्मिक required (parallel to baseline’s आत्मिक वरदान construction) to prevent a literal biological-offspring reading. | v. 4 |
| 12 | Faithful (adjective) | πιστός (pistos) | विश्वासू (viśvāsū) | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Built on established विश्वास (faith) root for consistency; describes faithful action flowing from faith, not faith itself. | v. 5 |
| 13 | Stranger / guest | ξένος (xenos) | पावणे (pāvṇe) | High | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Authentic, culturally resonant Konkani hospitality word — an asset, but must be anchored to v. 7’s specific motive (support “for the sake of the Name”) so it is not read as generic cultural guest-honor or a merit-earning act (which would collide with the Critical-risk Grace doctrine in the Romans baseline). | v. 5 |
| 14 | Church | ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) | मंडळी (maṇḍaḷī) | Medium | [BASELINE TM] | Church Leadership and Pride; Truth and Christian Fellowship | Reused exactly from Romans baseline. Never देऊळ/मंदिर; distinct from the Romi Konkani Catholic loanword “Igorz.” | vv. 6, 9, 10 |
| 15 | Send forward / send on one’s way | προπέμπω (propempō) | वाटखर्च दिवन धाडप (vāṭkharc divan dhāḍap) | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Must convey concrete material support for continued ministry travel, not a bare social farewell. | v. 6 |
| 16 | God | θεός (theos) | देव (dev) | Critical | [BASELINE TM] | Church Leadership and Pride (v. 6 “worthy of God”); Imitating Good rather than Evil (v. 11) | Reused exactly from Romans baseline. Must always carry or be paired with an exclusivity marker (e.g. “एकच खरो देव”) in doctrinally load-bearing contexts, per the standing baseline caution. | vv. 6, 11 (x2) |
| 17 | The Name (Christ’s authority) | ὄνομα (onoma) | नांव / ख्रिस्ताचें नांव (nāṃv / khristāce nāṃv) | Medium-High | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | Idiom for Christ’s own person and authority; requires translator note so it is not read as a bare literal personal name. | v. 7 |
| 18 | Gentiles/pagans (unbelieving outsiders, 3 John sense) | ἐθνικός (ethnikos) | अविश्वासी लोक (aviśvāsī lok) | Medium | [NEW — distinct from baseline “gentiles”] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Must NOT reuse the baseline’s परराष्ट्रीय (fixed for the Romans 9-11 Jew/Gentile ethnic-unity sense); here the referent is unbelieving outsiders in general, a different doctrinal point (financial independence of gospel workers from unbelievers). | v. 7 |
| 19 | Ought / obligated | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | जबाबदारी आसप (jabābdārī āsap) | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Frames hospitality as moral obligation flowing from shared truth, not optional generosity or a merit-earning act. | v. 8 |
| 20 | Fellow worker | συνεργός (synergos) | सहकारी (sahakārī) | Medium | [NEW] | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Partnership specifically in gospel truth-work, not a generic business/social partnership. | v. 8 |
| 21 | Loves to be first / craves preeminence | φιλοπρωτεύω (philoprōteuō) | मुखेलपणाची हांव (mukhelpaṇācī hāṃv) | High | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | NT hapax legomenon. Must carry a clearly negative, self-seeking connotation, distinct from legitimate humble church eldership (contrast with v. 1’s वडील). Never render as a neutral/admiring word for “leader.” | v. 9 |
| 22 | Receive / welcome | ἐπιδέχομαι (epidechomai) | स्वीकारप (svīkārap) | Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Diotrephes’s refusal to receive is framed as defiance of apostolic authority and gospel hospitality alike. | vv. 9, 10 |
| 23 | Wicked / evil (words, deeds) | πονηρός (ponēros) | वायट (vāyṭ) | Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride; Imitating Good rather than Evil | Retain moral seriousness (active harmful intent), not merely “unpleasant.” | v. 10 |
| 24 | Gossip maliciously | φλυαρέω (phlyareō) | वायट उलोवप / कागाळी करप (vāyṭ ulovap / kāgāḷī karap) | Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | Names Diotrephes’s specific offense: baseless, reputation-damaging talk. | v. 10 |
| 25 | Forbid / hinder | κωλύω (kōlyō) | आडावप (āḍāvap) | Medium | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | Names abuse of church authority to block others’ hospitality. | v. 10 |
| 26 | Cast out / expel | ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) | भायर काडप (bhāyar kāḍap) | High | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | Carries ecclesiological weight (church-discipline-like action misused for self-protection); must not be softened to a mild “ask to leave.” | v. 10 |
| 27 | Imitate | μιμέομαι (mimeomai) | अणकार करप / अनुकरण करप (aṇkār karap / anukaraṇ karap) | High | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Anchor explicitly to imitating observable Christlike moral character (good vs. evil, as the verse defines them); must not be conflated with devotional imitation of a personal guru’s authority, a strong theme in regional bhakti practice. | v. 11 |
| 28 | Good / evil (moral) | ἀγαθός / κακός (agathos / kakos) | बरें / वायट (barẽ / vāyṭ) | Medium | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Standard moral-quality pair; central contrast term of v. 11. | v. 11 |
| 29 | Do good / do evil | ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω (agathopoieō / kakopoieō) | बरें करप / वायट करप (barẽ karap / vāyṭ karap) | Medium | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Action forms of the above pair. | v. 11 |
| 30 | See / has (not) seen God | ὁράω (horaō) | पळेवप (“देवाक पळयलां ना”) (paḷevap) | High | [NEW] | Imitating Good rather than Evil | Must be anchored by translator note to relational/moral knowledge of God evidenced in conduct — not ritual visual देवदर्शन (deity-darshan) at a temple, a central devotional practice in Goan Hindu worship. | v. 11 |
| 31 | Peace (benediction) | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | शांती (śāntī) | Medium | [BASELINE TM] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Reused exactly from Romans baseline; relational/covenantal peace, not meditative calm. | v. 14 |
| 32 | Friend | φίλος (philos) | इश्ट (iṣṭ) | Low | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Ordinary word for individual friends by name; distinct from the deeper corporate “fellowship” (सहभागिता) sense already defined in the baseline, where इश्टागत was rejected as too weak — that caution does not apply to this ordinary literal use. | v. 14 |
| 33 | Face to face (idiom) | στόμα πρὸς στόμα (stoma pros stoma) | मुखामुख (mukhāmukh) | Low | [NEW] | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Natural Konkani idiom for direct personal meeting; do not translate literally as “mouth to mouth.” | v. 14 |
| 34 | Gaius (proper name) | Γάϊος (Gaios) | गायस (Gāyas) | Low | [NEW] | — | Established Marathi-Konkani Bible transliteration convention. | vv. 1, 15 (addressee throughout) |
| 35 | Diotrephes (proper name) | Διοτρέφης (Diotrephēs) | दियोत्रेफेस (Diyotrephes) | Low | [NEW] | Church Leadership and Pride | Proper name; the letter’s negative example. | vv. 9 |
| 36 | Demetrius (proper name) | Δημήτριος (Dēmētrios) | देमेत्रियुस (Demetriyus) | Low | [NEW] | Commendation of Faithful Witness | Proper name; the letter’s positive example. | v. 12 |
Reused Baseline Terms (from Romans translation_memory.json — enforced exactly, no changes)
| Term | Konkani | Risk (baseline) | 3 John Citation(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Church | मंडळी | Medium | vv. 6, 9, 10 |
| God | देव | Critical | vv. 6, 11 (x2) |
| Peace | शांती | Medium | v. 14 |
New Terms Requiring Theologian/Native-Speaker Review Before Phase 2 (per baseline routing conventions)
Human theologian review required (Critical/High): मोग/मोग करप (love), सत्य/खरें (truth), पावणे (guest/stranger), मुखेलपणाची हांव (craves preeminence), भायर काडप (cast out), अनुकरण करप (imitate), पळेवप — “देवाक पळयलां ना” (has not seen God) — in addition to the baseline’s existing Critical देव entry.
Native speaker review recommended (Medium): वडील (elder), साक्ष दिवप/साक्ष (testify/testimony), बंधू (brother), विश्वासू (faithful), वाटखर्च दिवन धाडप (send forward), नांव (the Name), अविश्वासी लोक (Gentiles/pagans, 3 John sense), जबाबदारी आसप (ought), सहकारी (fellow worker), स्वीकारप (receive), वायट (evil/wicked), वायट उलोवप (gossip maliciously), आडावप (forbid/hinder), बरें/वायट करप (do good/evil), जीव (soul), चालचलण (walk/conduct), आत्मिक भुरगीं (spiritual children), बरें चलप/बरी प्रकृत (prosper/healthy).
Automated review sufficient (Low): प्रिय (beloved), आनंद (joy), इश्ट (friend), मुखामुख (face to face), शाई (ink), लेखणी (pen), नमस्कार करप (greet), आस्त बाळगप (hope), all three proper names (गायस, दियोत्रेफेस, देमेत्रियुस).
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: देव
Transliteration: dev
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / Church Leadership and Pride / Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: भगवान
Original: θεός
Category: God
inherited from Romans package. Reused exactly, unchanged. In 3 John occurs at v.6 (‘worthy of God’) and v.11 (x2, ‘is of God’ / ‘has not seen God’). Must always be paired with an exclusivity marker (e.g. ‘एकच खरो देव’) in these doctrinally load-bearing occurrences, per the standing baseline caution about देव’s ambiguity in a Goan Hindu multi-deity context (Shantadurga dev, Mangueshi dev, Mahalasa dev).
High Risk Terms
Love
Approved rendering: मोग करप / मोग
Transliteration: mog karap / mog
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: प्रेम, भक्ती
Original: ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη
Category: Fellowship
NEW. Self-giving, willed love flowing from and directed toward shared gospel truth (v. 1, ‘whom I love in truth’; v. 6, Gaius’s love testified before the church). Use मोग (authentic Konkani root); never प्रेम (romantic/Sanskritic overtone) or भक्ती (already reserved in the Romans baseline for devotional worship of a chosen temple deity, under the ‘faith’ entry). Must be anchored to shared gospel truth, not sentiment.
Truth
Approved rendering: सत्य / खरें
Transliteration: satya / kharẽ
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀλήθεια / ἀληθής
Category: Truth
NEW. The letter’s single dominant theological term, occurring 6 times in 14 verses (vv. 1, 3 x2, 4, 8, 12 x2). सत्य is the unavoidable standard Konkani/Marathi Bible term, but is also the term for ultimate impersonal Reality/Brahman in Vedantic Hindu philosophy (cf. ‘सत्यमेव जयते’). Every occurrence must be anchored to the revealed, relational, Christ-centered truth believed and lived out in conduct (‘walking in truth’), never left as an abstract philosophical absolute. Co-occur with conduct language (चालचलण) wherever possible.
Stranger Guest
Approved rendering: पावणे
Transliteration: pāvṇe
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Traveling gospel worker personally unknown to the host, received purely because of service to the truth (v. 5). पावणे is an authentically resonant Konkani hospitality word (an asset, echoing the region’s strong ‘atithi devo bhava’ guest-honor ethic), but must be anchored to v. 7’s specific motive (‘for the sake of the Name’) so it is not read as generic cultural guest-honor or a merit-earning act (पुण्य), which would collide with the Critical-risk Grace doctrine already established in the Romans baseline.
Loves Preeminence
Approved rendering: मुखेलपणाची हांव
Transliteration: mukhelpaṇācī hāṃv
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: फुडारी (neutral ‘leader’), मुखेल (neutral ‘head/chief’)
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. NT hapax legomenon (φιλοπρωτεύω, v. 9) naming Diotrephes’s self-seeking craving to be first/preeminent. Must carry a clearly negative, self-exalting connotation, sharply distinguished from the legitimate, humble church eldership modeled by ‘the elder’ himself in v. 1 (वडील). Never rendered with a neutral or admiring word for ‘leader’ or ‘head.’ First-of-its-kind coinage; requires theologian sign-off.
Cast Out
Approved rendering: भायर काडप
Transliteration: bhāyar kāḍap
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: सोडून वच्चप सांगप (mild ‘ask to leave’ — explicitly rejected as too soft)
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. Forcible expulsion of faithful believers from the congregation (v. 10), the letter’s climactic abuse of church authority. Carries ecclesiological weight approaching misused church discipline; must not be softened, since it names an unjust abuse of power for self-protection, not righteous correction.
Imitate
Approved rendering: अनुकरण करप
Transliteration: anukaraṇ karap
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Ethics
NEW. Deliberately patterning conduct after an observed moral example (v. 11: Demetrius’s good example, not Diotrephes’s evil one). Imitation of an exemplar is also a strong theme in regional Hindu guru-bhakti practice; must be anchored explicitly to imitating observable Christlike moral character as the verse itself defines it (good vs. evil), never to devotional imitation of a personal spiritual master’s authority. Always pair with बरें/वायट in the same clause.
Seen God
Approved rendering: पळेवप (“देवाक पळयलां ना”)
Transliteration: paḷevap (“devāk paḷaylã nā”)
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ὁράω (with θεόν)
Category: Christology
NEW. Metaphorical ‘seeing’ meaning genuine relational/moral knowledge of God evidenced by godly conduct (v. 11) — conduct is evidence of, not the basis for, relationship with God. HIGHEST single-phrase risk in the letter: in a Goan Hindu devotional context ‘seeing God’ readily evokes दर्शन (darshan), the ritual act of viewing a temple deity’s image at sites such as Shantadurga or Mangueshi. Mandatory translator note anchoring this to relational, moral knowledge of God evidenced in conduct, never ritual visual beholding of an image.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: मंडळी
Transliteration: maṇḍaḷī
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: देऊळ, मंदिर
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church Leadership
inherited from Romans package. Reused exactly, unchanged. In 3 John occurs at vv. 6, 9, 10, naming the congregation before whom testimony is given and within which Diotrephes wrongly wields authority. Keep Diotrephes, not मंडळी, as the grammatical subject of wrongdoing in vv. 9-10 so the term itself is never implicated.
Peace
Approved rendering: शांती
Transliteration: śāntī
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: सुख, समाधान
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Fellowship
inherited from Romans package. Reused exactly, unchanged. In 3 John this is the closing epistolary benediction (v. 14); relational/covenantal peace, not meditative or devotional calm achievable through ritual practice.
Gentiles Romans Sense
Approved rendering: परराष्ट्रीय
Transliteration: pararāṣṭrīya
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles (Romans 9-11 sense only)
inherited from Romans package — included here ONLY as a cross-reference caution, NOT as a rendering used in 3 John. This term is fixed in the Romans baseline for the ethnic Jew/Gentile theological-unity argument. It must NOT be reused for 3 John 1:7’s ἐθνικός (‘the Gentiles’ who declined support); see the separate new entry ‘unbelieving_outsiders’ below, which is the correct rendering for that verse’s different doctrinal point.
Elder
Approved rendering: वडील
Transliteration: vaḍīl
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: गुरू, म्होतारो
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. John’s self-designation combining pastoral office/authority with affection (v. 1). Must be marked in context as an ecclesial office/title, not merely an age-based or caste/family-elder honorific, since वडील is also used colloquially in Konkani for any senior or respected older person. This positive, legitimate eldership is the deliberate contrast to Diotrephes’s φιλοπρωτεύω (v. 9).
Walk In Truth
Approved rendering: चालचलण / सत्यांत चलप
Transliteration: cālcalaṇ / satyānt calap
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Christian Living
NEW. Idiom for ongoing manner of life/conduct (vv. 3, 4), not literal ambulation. Must not be flattened into bare cognitive assent to true doctrine; conduct is the point.
Prosper And Health
Approved rendering: बरें चलप / बरी प्रकृत आसप
Transliteration: barẽ calap / barī prakr̥t āsap
Doctrine: (supporting — epistolary greeting)
Original: εὐοδόω / ὑγιαίνω
Category: Christian Living
NEW. Holistic greeting-wish (v. 2) for outward well-being and physical health, explicitly qualified by ‘just as your soul prospers.’ Guard against a prosperity-gospel reading of guaranteed material/financial success; spiritual health is the standard the greeting is measured against, not the reverse.
Soul
Approved rendering: जीव
Transliteration: jīv
Doctrine: (supporting)
Rejected alternatives: आत्मा
Original: ψυχή
Category: Anthropology
NEW. Seat of a person’s inner spiritual condition (v. 2). Must be kept distinct from आत्मा, which the Romans baseline reserves exclusively for पवित्र आत्मा (the Holy Spirit), to preserve that established Trinitarian distinction.
Brother
Approved rendering: बंधू
Transliteration: bandhū
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers / Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: भाव
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Fellowship
NEW. Fellow believer in the family of God (vv. 3, 5, 10). Distinguish from भाव (ordinary biological/social brother) and from generic Hindu guru-sampradaya ‘brotherhood’ usage among fellow disciples of a teacher.
Spiritual Children
Approved rendering: आत्मिक भुरगीं
Transliteration: ātmik bhurgĩ
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: भुरगीं (bare, unqualified)
Original: τέκνον
Category: Fellowship
NEW. Believers under John’s spiritual/pastoral care (v. 4). Qualifier आत्मिक required, parallel to the Romans baseline’s आत्मिक वरदान construction, to prevent a literal biological-offspring reading.
Faithful
Approved rendering: विश्वासू
Transliteration: viśvāsū
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Built on the established विश्वास (faith) root for cross-curriculum consistency; describes Gaius’s faithful hospitable action (v. 5) flowing from faith, not faith itself.
Send Forward
Approved rendering: वाटखर्च दिवन धाडप
Transliteration: vāṭkharc divan dhāḍap
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Concrete material provisioning for missionaries’ continued travel (v. 6), not a bare farewell. Must convey active material support for onward gospel ministry.
Unbelieving Outsiders
Approved rendering: अविश्वासी लोक
Transliteration: aviśvāsī lok
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: परराष्ट्रीय (explicitly rejected — reserved for a different sense)
Original: ἐθνικός
Category: Hospitality
NEW — distinct sense from the Romans baseline’s ‘gentiles’. Unbelieving outsiders in general (v. 7), from whom the traveling gospel workers refused support. Shares a root with ἔθνη but the referent and doctrinal point differ from Romans 9-11’s ethnic Jew/Gentile unity argument. MUST NOT reuse परराष्ट्रीय, which is fixed in the Romans baseline for that different sense; doing so would wrongly import the Romans ethnic-inclusion argument into a verse about financial independence from unbelievers.
Ought Obligated
Approved rendering: जबाबदारी आसप
Transliteration: jabābdārī āsap
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Moral obligation to support gospel workers (v. 8), flowing from shared truth-partnership rather than optional generosity or a merit-earning act.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: सहकारी
Transliteration: sahakārī
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: συνεργός
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Active partner in gospel truth-work (v. 8), the status a hospitable host attains by supporting traveling workers. Not a generic business/social partnership.
Receive Welcome
Approved rendering: स्वीकारप
Transliteration: svīkārap
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride / Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. To receive/welcome a fellow believer or messenger (vv. 9, 10). Diotrephes’s refusal must be framed as defiance of apostolic authority, not a neutral social choice.
Wicked Evil
Approved rendering: वायट
Transliteration: vāyṭ
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride / Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: πονηρός
Category: Ethics
NEW. Morally wicked, actively harmful speech/intent (v. 10) and the negative pole of v. 11’s ethical contrast. Must retain moral seriousness, not merely ‘unpleasant.‘
Gossip Maliciously
Approved rendering: वायट उलोवप / कागाळी करप
Transliteration: vāyṭ ulovap / kāgāḷī karap
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: φλυαρέω
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. Baseless, injurious talk spread to damage reputation (v. 10) — Diotrephes’s specific offense against John’s messengers. Must convey deliberate, damaging slander, not harmless chatter.
Forbid Hinder
Approved rendering: आडावप
Transliteration: āḍāvap
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership
NEW. To forbid others from extending hospitality (v. 10), an abuse of church authority harming the whole congregation.
Good
Approved rendering: बरें
Transliteration: barẽ
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθός
Category: Ethics
NEW. Morally excellent, beneficial conduct (v. 11); positive pole of the central ethical contrast.
Evil
Approved rendering: वायट
Transliteration: vāyṭ
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακός
Category: Ethics
NEW. Morally bad, worthless conduct (v. 11); negative pole of the central ethical contrast. Shares its Konkani rendering with ‘wicked_evil’ (πονηρός, v. 10) — consistent across both terms.
Do Good
Approved rendering: बरें करप
Transliteration: barẽ karap
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθοποιέω
Category: Ethics
NEW. Action form of ‘good’ (v. 11), paired with ‘do_evil’ in the same verse.
Do Evil
Approved rendering: वायट करप
Transliteration: vāyṭ karap
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακοποιέω
Category: Ethics
NEW. Action form of ‘evil’ (v. 11), paired with ‘do_good’ in the same verse.
Low Risk Terms
Beloved
Approved rendering: प्रिय
Transliteration: priya
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Fellowship
NEW. Standard warm term of address, used 4x in this short letter (vv. 1, 2, 5, 11). Keep consistent across all occurrences.
Joy
Approved rendering: आनंद
Transliteration: ānand
Doctrine: (supporting)
Original: χαρά / χαίρω
Category: Fellowship
NEW. Standard term for gladness at hearing of believers’ faithful conduct (vv. 3, 4); no doctrinal collision.
Friend
Approved rendering: इश्ट
Transliteration: iṣṭ
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: इश्टागत (already rejected in the Romans baseline as too weak for corporate ‘fellowship’ — that caution does not apply to this ordinary literal use)
Original: φίλος
Category: Fellowship
NEW. Personal friend, greeted individually by name at the letter’s close (v. 14). Ordinary literal use; distinct from the deeper corporate सहभागिता (fellowship) sense in the baseline.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: मुखामुख
Transliteration: mukhāmukh
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: तोंडा तोंड (overly literal ‘mouth to mouth’ — rejected as crude/unclear)
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Fellowship
NEW. Hebraic idiom for direct, personal, in-person communication (v. 14), preferred over the impersonal medium of a letter. Must use the natural Konkani idiom, never a literal ‘mouth to mouth’ rendering.
Gaius
Approved rendering: गायस
Transliteration: Gāyas
Doctrine: —
Original: Γάϊος
Category: Proper Names
NEW. Proper name; the letter’s recipient. Established Marathi-Konkani Bible transliteration convention (cf. Acts 19:29, 20:4).
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: दियोत्रेफेस
Transliteration: Diyotrephes
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: Διοτρέφης
Category: Proper Names
NEW. Proper name; the letter’s negative example (church leader rebuked for craving preeminence, slandering John’s messengers, and expelling believers).
Demetrius
Approved rendering: देमेत्रियुस
Transliteration: Demetriyus
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness
Original: Δημήτριος
Category: Proper Names
NEW. Proper name; the letter’s positive example, commended by all and by the truth itself.
Medium-High Risk Terms
Testify
Approved rendering: साक्ष दिवप / साक्ष
Transliteration: sākṣ divap / sākṣ
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) / Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία
Category: Witness
NEW. Authoritative, corroborated testimony to observed Christian character (vv. 3, 6, 12 x3). साक्ष is the standard Konkani word for witness/testimony (also secular/legal); must be reinforced as testimony to observed conduct and truth, not casual hearsay or flattery. In v. 12 preserve the threefold, escalating structure (all people -> the truth itself -> the apostolic ‘we’) rather than collapsing it into one generic sentence of praise.
The Name
Approved rendering: नांव / ख्रिस्ताचें नांव
Transliteration: nāṃv / khristāce nāṃv
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers / Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: बरें नांव (mere good reputation)
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Christology
NEW. Semitic idiom for the person, authority, and honor of Christ himself (v. 7, ‘for the sake of the Name’). Must not be read as a bare literal personal name; requires a translator note at first occurrence, expanding to ख्रिस्ताचें नांव rather than leaving नांव unqualified.