Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis: Acts 1–28 (English → Konkani)
0. Method and Scope
This analysis executes PRD Phase 1 Step 8 for the Acts curriculum. It identifies, for the destination language Konkani (Devanagari script, Goa Official Language Act standard, Bible Society of India translation tradition), where the existing Romans-baseline vocabulary transfers cleanly to Acts, where genuine vocabulary gaps exist that Romans never had to solve, and where semantic neighborhoods are crowded enough with competing Goan Hindu, Goan Catholic (Romi Konkani), and secular meanings that explicit “fencing” (restrictive glossing / contrastive translator notes) is required to prevent doctrinal drift.
Coverage is full-book: all 28 chapters of Acts were reviewed. Chapters that introduce no new gap beyond what is already resolved by the Romans baseline or by 08_core_glossary.md are noted as reviewed — no new gap in §5.
This document does not re-derive risk tiers (that is Step 9’s doctrine_risk_registry.json update); it explains why particular renderings are the least-bad option available in Konkani, and flags where Phase 2 translators and Phase 3 reviewers must apply special caution.
1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each of the nine curriculum doctrines, this matrix records: the Konkani terms currently available (baseline-reused or newly proposed in 08_core_glossary.md), the specific weaknesses of the best available option, and the recommended mitigation strategy.
1.1 The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Spirit | पवित्र आत्मा [baseline TM, Critical] | None as a lexical item — the real risk is not the noun phrase itself but adjacent phenomena (filling, tongues) being read through a different local grid. | Retain exactly; no change needed from Romans usage. |
| filled with the Holy Spirit | पवित्र आत्म्यान भरप् [NEW, Critical] | Goan folk-Hindu/animist practice has a rich existing vocabulary for a deity or spirit “coming upon” a person — आवेश येवप्, अंगारो येणें — associated with trance, shaking, oracular speech at devachar/bhuta shrines and local jatra festivals. Acts 2 filling produces coherent, Scripture-quoting proclamation, the opposite phenomenology. | Never use आवेश or अंगारो. Footnote at first occurrence (Acts 2:4) explicitly contrasting sober Spirit-empowered speech with trance-possession. Reinforce at every recurrence (4:8,31; 6:3,5; 9:17; 13:9) rather than assuming the distinction, once made, will be remembered. |
| Pentecost (the feast) | पेंटेकोस्त [NEW, Medium, transliterated] | No native Konkani term names this Jewish harvest/covenant feast; a descriptive gloss (पन्नासावो दीस, “fiftieth day”) is available but strips the covenantal/historical specificity and could be misread as a floating seasonal observance parallel to Goa’s own agrarian harvest festivals (e.g., Novem). | Transliterate as proper noun; gloss on first occurrence as a specific, once-only, datable OT feast fulfilled at a single historical event — not an annually repeating nature festival. |
| tongues (glossolalia at Pentecost) | वेगळ्यो भाषा [NEW, Medium] | Konkani has no single word distinguishing “real foreign human language” from “ecstatic unintelligible utterance”; both readings are grammatically available for “tongues.” | Always accompany with the nation-list context (Acts 2:8-11) in teaching notes so translators/reviewers are cued that Acts 2 specifically means known languages, not the debated glossolalia of 1 Corinthians. |
| last days / day of the Lord (Pentecost’s eschatological frame, Joel quotation) | निमाण्या दिसांनी / प्रभूचो दीस [NEW, Medium] | Konkani/Marathi religious register has a ready cyclical-time vocabulary (युग, युगांत, कली युग) for age-ending; a careless rendering could pull Peter’s Joel quotation into a Puranic four-yuga framework. | Never use युग-based vocabulary for either phrase. Keep both as plain, linear-time phrases; briefly gloss “an era that began with Christ’s resurrection and is still unfolding,” not a recurring cosmic dissolution-and-renewal. |
1.2 The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | सुवार्ता [baseline TM, High] | None new; already established. | Retain exactly. |
| Gentiles | परराष्ट्रीय [baseline TM, Medium] | None new; already established. | Retain exactly. |
| common/unclean (Peter’s sheet vision) | अशुद्ध [NEW, High] | Everyday Konkani अशुद्ध carries both ritual-purity and moral-uncleanness senses; the term sits directly on top of Goa’s own caste-purity social grammar (touchability, commensality, temple-entry restrictions historically tied to caste). | Do not soften. The passage’s whole rhetorical force (Acts 10:14-15,28; 11:8-9) is that God is overturning a purity boundary — this must land with its full social weight, paired with 10:34’s “God shows no partiality,” not blunted into a merely dietary point. |
| God shows no partiality | देव कोणाचोय पक्षपात करिना [NEW, High] | No lexical weakness; the risk is under-application — treating this as an abstract theological statement rather than pressing its implications for caste and Hindu/Catholic communal division in a Goan setting. | Teaching notes (not the translation itself) should make the caste/communal application explicit; the Konkani sentence itself should remain plain and unqualified. |
| unknown god (Areopagus) | अज्ञात देव [NEW, High] | Risk is theological misuse, not lexical ambiguity: a fluent Konkani reader steeped in a Hindu inclusivist framework (“all gods are ultimately the one unknown reality”) could read Paul’s Areopagus speech as endorsing religious pluralism rather than confronting ignorance. | Always pair अज्ञात देव with एकच खरो देव at the point the passage turns to proclamation (17:24-31); the translator note must state the apologetic move is a bridge to exclusive truth-claim, not an affirmation of shared ground. |
| idol | मूर्ती [NEW, Critical — pastoral sensitivity] | मूर्ती is the ordinary, affectionate Konkani/Marathi word for a Hindu temple image, used respectfully in daily religious life across Goa. Using it in Acts’ polemical contexts (17:16, Paul “greatly distressed” at the idols; 19:26, “gods made with hands are not gods”) risks reading as a direct insult to Hindu neighbors’ devotional objects if handled without care. | No better lexical alternative exists (avoiding मूर्ती entirely would obscure the text’s plain meaning). Mitigate through framing, not word choice: render Paul’s distress as theological grief over confused worship, never contempt for persons; avoid any added editorializing beyond the source text; flag every occurrence for native-speaker pastoral-sensitivity review in addition to standard risk routing. |
| Messiah / Christ | मसीहा / ख्रिस्त [baseline TM, Critical] | None new. | Retain exactly per baseline transliteration standard. |
1.3 Repentance and Baptism
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| repentance | पश्चात्ताप [NEW, High] | The semantically adjacent, higher-register Sanskrit-derived प्रायश्चित्त names ritual/ascetic expiation (a specific penitential act, sometimes involving austerity, pilgrimage, or ritual offering, performed to cancel out sin or bad karma) and is common in regional religious vocabulary; a translator unfamiliar with the distinction could reach for it as a “more theological-sounding” synonym. | प्रायश्चित्त is forbidden absolutely. पश्चात्ताप (inward turning/change of heart) is the correct, already-attested Konkani/Marathi Bible term and must be used at every occurrence (2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 11:18; 17:30; 19:4; 20:21; 26:20). |
| baptism | बाप्तिस्मा [NEW, High, transliterated] | The competing native option, स्नान, is well established for ritual bathing (including at Goa’s sacred tanks/rivers and during Hindu festival observance) and could feel more “natural” to a translator seeking a non-loanword. | Retain the transliteration बाप्तिस्मा throughout (as the Bible Society of India Konkani tradition does), never स्नान. First occurrence (2:38) should carry a brief gloss distinguishing the once-for-all, allegiance-marking rite from repeatable ritual purification bathing. |
| forgiveness of sins | पापांची माफी [NEW, High] | Adjacent risk is the same प्रायश्चित्त-family confusion as repentance: a translator could render this phrase as “sins cancelled through penance” rather than “sins pardoned by God’s grace.” | Keep पापांची माफी (not पापांचें प्रायश्चित्त) at every occurrence (2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18); reinforce the grace-not-merit frame already established for Romans’ कृपा entry. |
| call on the name of the Lord | प्रभूच्या नांवान उलो मारप् [NEW, Critical] | Konkani/Marathi devotional idiom has an extremely well-worn practice of नांव जपप् — repeated invocation (japa) of a deity’s name, understood to accumulate merit or invoke a boon, central to bhakti practice regionally (e.g., repeated invocation of Vithoba, Shantadurga, or a personal ishta-devata). | Never render as नांव जपप्. The Acts/Romans phrase names a single act of personal trust and appeal to a specific, exclusive Lord for salvation, not a repeatable merit-generating practice. Must match the Romans 10:9-13 confession register verbatim in tone. |
| deeds worthy of repentance | पश्चात्तापाक शोबणारीं कामां [NEW, High] | Risk of collapsing into a works-righteousness reading (Konkani कमावप्, “to earn,” is a very natural verb to reach for here). | Frame explicitly as fruit/evidence of a prior, freely granted repentance, never its earning cause — ties to the Romans grace-apart-from-works pattern already fenced in the baseline. |
1.4 The Church as Community
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| church | मंडळी [baseline TM, Medium] | None new. | Retain exactly; never देऊळ/मंदिर. Note for reviewers that Goan Catholic Romi Konkani independently uses “Igorz” (Portuguese loanword) — a different register, not to be merged in here. |
| fellowship / one heart and soul | सहभागिता [baseline TM] / एका काळजाचे आनी एका जिवाचे [NEW, Low] | No major weakness; risk is under-translation — reading Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32 merely as an admirable social-cooperative model rather than a Spirit-produced spiritual unity. | Keep language warm and relational per the Romans package’s tone guidance for Romans 12-style passages; teaching notes should tie the unity to shared union with Christ, not mere communal generosity. |
| Christian (identity label) | ख्रिस्ती [NEW, Medium] | None significant; this is a comparatively low-risk positive new corporate label. | Consistent with the baseline’s existing “ख्रिस्ती सहभागिता” usage; retain as the standard identity term across all Acts materials. |
| elders / overseers | वडील [NEW, Medium] | गुरू is the obvious, natural-sounding regional alternative for “respected spiritual authority figure” given the prominence of guru-disciple lineage structures in Goan Hindu practice (including hereditary temple priesthoods), but it imports a very different authority model (lineage transmission, personal devotion to the guru) than congregational eldership. | Never use गुरू for this office. वडील (elder, a term already carrying respected-community-leader connotations in ordinary Konkani social usage) is preferred, with role clarified in teaching notes as appointed, plural, congregational oversight — not a solitary guru figure. |
| deacon / service | सेवा [NEW, Medium] | सेवा is shared vocabulary — it is also the standard word for devotional/temple service (deva-seva) in Goan Hindu practice, where service can be understood as merit-generating religious observance. | सेवा itself may be retained as a natural bridge term (better than inventing an artificial coinage), but every occurrence in Acts 6 teaching material must mark this service as flowing from the Spirit’s gifting and the church’s calling, not merit-accumulation. |
| tabernacle | साक्षीचो तंबू [NEW, Medium] | Minor risk of confusion with “church” if rendered loosely as a “holy tent-structure,” which could visually blur with देऊळ/मंदिर despite the different referent (a portable OT tent-shrine, not a permanent temple). | Keep साक्षीचो तंबू intact; explicitly note in first-occurrence gloss (Acts 7:44) that this is the OT precursor structure, distinct from Solomon’s later temple and from any present-day place of worship. |
1.5 Apostolic Authority and Miracles
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| apostle | प्रेषित [baseline TM, Medium] | None new. | Retain exactly; distinguished from गुरू per baseline note. |
| signs and wonders | चिन्नां आनी अद्भुत कृत्यां [NEW, Medium] | The single natural Konkani word चमत्कार (“miracle”) is deeply embedded in regional storytelling about holy men, healers, and godmen whose chamatkar narratives function to authenticate the holy man’s own personal spiritual attainment or power — a fundamentally different theological structure from apostolic signs that point away from the apostle to the risen Christ. | Avoid चमत्कार as the primary rendering; use the compound चिन्नां आनी अद्भुत कृत्यां, and where a single-word gloss is unavoidable in running prose, immediately anchor it back to “Christ’s resurrection/the gospel” rather than to the apostle’s own status. |
| authority (general, and specifically Satan’s authority) | अधिकार [NEW, High, established via “power of Satan” entry] | Minor risk of confusion with देवाचें सामर्थ्य (“power of God,” baseline) if used interchangeably; अधिकार denotes delegated/rightful authority (a jurisdiction), सामर्थ्य denotes raw capability/might. | Keep the two terms distinct: सामर्थ्य for God’s mighty power to act; अधिकार for authority/jurisdiction (whether Christ’s, the apostles’ delegated authority, or Satan’s usurped authority in 26:18). Do not merge. |
| angel of the Lord | प्रभूचो देवदूत [NEW, Medium] | Regional cosmology includes a range of independently venerated spirit-beings and local deities (grama-devata, kul-devata) who could be conflated with “angel” if the qualifying phrase is dropped. | Always retain the qualifying प्रभूचो (“of the Lord”); never render bare देवदूत without it in doctrinally load-bearing passages, to keep the being’s subordinate, created, dispatched status clear. |
| ascension | वयर व्हरणें [NEW, High] | Puranic narrative includes patterns of a deity’s temporary earthly descent followed by return to a heavenly abode, available for reuse in popular retelling; a loose rendering could assimilate Christ’s ascension to this repeatable descent-return pattern. | Frame explicitly (Acts 1:9-11) as a single, bodily, historical, witnessed, non-repeatable departure with a promised bodily return (1:11), not a cyclical avatar-withdrawal. |
| Prince/Author of Life | जिवाचो मूळ कारण [NEW, High] | Literal back-translation (“the root cause of life”) risks sounding philosophically abstract/impersonal rather than a personal Christological title. | Confirm in teaching notes this is a title of Christ’s unique authority over life and death (tied to resurrection doctrine), not a metaphysical description detached from his person. |
1.6 Persecution and Bold Witness
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| boldness | निर्भयपण / धैर्य [NEW, High] | धीटाई, the more colloquial near-synonym, reads as ordinary social confidence or even brashness, not Spirit-given courage before hostile authority under real threat of violence. | Prefer निर्भयपण/धैर्य consistently; avoid धीटाई in doctrinally load-bearing passages (4:13,29,31; 9:27-28; 13:46; 19:8; 26:26; 28:31). |
| witness | साक्षी [NEW, High] | निरीक्षक (“observer”) is too passive/weak; साक्षी itself is shared with ordinary legal usage (a court witness), which is actually helpful here since Acts’ usage is deliberately legal/eyewitness in force. | Retain साक्षी; the legal-register overlap with ordinary Konkani usage is an asset, not a liability, and should be leveraged in teaching notes to underscore the eyewitness, testimonial nature of resurrection proclamation. |
| spirit of divination | भविष्य सांगपी दुष्ट आत्मो [NEW, High] | Adjacent to संदेष्टा (prophet) and भविष्यवाणी (prophecy), both positive baseline terms; a careless reader could see “भविष्य” (future) shared across all three and assume a spectrum rather than a sharp moral break. | The compound must always include दुष्ट (“evil”) to mark this decisively as a demonic counterfeit, never a lesser-but-still-legitimate form of prophecy; reinforce the baseline’s existing caution against ज्योतिषी (astrologer/fortune-teller) as the same family of counterfeit. |
| Sanhedrin | यहुदी न्यायसभा (सान्हेड्रिन) [NEW, Low] | No major weakness; historical/institutional term. | Transliterate with gloss at first occurrence; low ongoing risk. |
| God’s determined plan and foreknowledge | देवाचो थारावील्लो हेत आनी पूर्वज्ञान [NEW, High] | नशीब/प्रारब्ध (fate/destiny-by-past-karma) are the natural-sounding Konkani options for “things predetermined to happen,” but both strip out personal agency and moral responsibility, exactly what Acts 2:23 holds together (God’s plan AND real human guilt). | Never use नशीब/प्रारब्ध. Teaching notes must state plainly that this verse affirms both divine sovereignty and genuine human moral responsibility, resisting a fatalistic reading in either direction. |
1.7 Conversion of Paul
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| conversion (as a general doctrinal category — this curriculum’s own doctrine label, not a single fixed Acts word) | GAP — no settled single Konkani term identified in the baseline or in 08_core_glossary.md. Candidate: धर्मांतर (lit. “change of religion/dharma”) or मतपरिवर्तन (“change of belief/opinion”). | Both candidates carry heavy, specifically Goan freight. धर्मांतर is the standard modern Marathi/Konkani administrative and media term for “religious conversion,” and in Goa it is inseparably associated with the coercive, often forced conversions carried out under the Portuguese-era Goa Inquisition (est. 1560) and colonial-era social pressure — a live, sensitive historical memory, not an abstract concern. मतपरिवर्तन is less politically loaded but sounds more like “changing one’s opinion” than a decisive spiritual reorientation, and risks under-selling the depth of what happens to Paul. | Recommended strategy: avoid a single fixed doctrinal label term entirely in translated Scripture text (Acts itself narrates the event, it does not name the doctrine); reserve धर्मांतर/मतपरिवर्तन discussion for teacher’s-guide framing material only, with an explicit note that Paul’s transformation is God’s sovereign, gracious, non-coercive turning of a persecutor into a witness — the opposite structural pattern from any coercive mass “conversion” campaign. This must be flagged for Step 9’s doctrine risk registry as a curriculum-level (not verse-level) gap requiring a theologian-reviewed teaching-note solution rather than a lexical fix. |
| chosen vessel | निवडिल्लें पात्र [NEW, High] | None significant; reuses baseline देवाची निवड (election) cleanly. | Retain; reinforces continuity with Romans’ election doctrine. |
| power of Satan | सैतानाचो अधिकार [NEW, High] | None significant. | Retain; see §1.5 for अधिकार/सामर्थ्य distinction. |
| deeds worthy of repentance | (see §1.3) | — | — |
1.8 Justification apart from the Law
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| justification / justified apart from the law | नीतिमान ठरवणें + नियमशास्त्र, combined as नियमशास्त्रान नीतिमान ठरूंक जमनासलें, पूण ख्रिस्तान नीतिमान ठरता [NEW, Critical, compressed doctrinal phrase] | No lexical weakness — this is a direct, successful reuse of two already-fenced baseline Critical/High terms — but the compressed phrase is long and syntactically dense; a Phase 2 worker under time pressure might be tempted to shorten it in ways that blur the “could not… but does” contrast. | This exact compressed phrase (or a construction preserving the same contrastive structure) must be used at Acts 13:38-39 without abbreviation; flag any shortened variant for mandatory theologian review. |
| law | नियमशास्त्र [baseline TM, High] | None new. | Retain exactly; never धर्म. |
| circumcision | सुंता [NEW, High] | Low lexical risk; risk is doctrinal-application, not vocabulary — a reader could conclude the Jerusalem Council abolished all continuity with the OT rather than specifically ruling that this physical sign is not a salvation-requirement for Gentiles. | Teaching notes should frame Acts 15’s ruling precisely: circumcision is not required for salvation (which is by grace through faith), without implying the OT law was worthless or that Jewish believers were told to abandon their own covenant practices. |
| grace (Acts’ compressed version of the doctrine) | कृपा [baseline TM, High] | None new; Acts 15:11 must match Romans renderings exactly. | Retain exactly; cross-check against Romans grace-apart-from-works passages for consistency. |
1.9 The Great Commission Fulfilled
| Concept | Available Konkani term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| ”Great Commission” (curriculum doctrine label; not itself a fixed single Acts phrase — closest anchor is Acts 1:8) | GAP — no existing fixed Konkani label. Candidate: reuse baseline सुवार्ता प्रसार (“gospel proclamation/spreading”) for the activity, and coin a descriptive teaching-label सुवार्तेची निमाणी आज्ञा (“the gospel’s final/parting command”) for the doctrine name when a label is needed in headings. | सुवार्ता प्रसार alone (already established for “mission”) does not carry the sense of a specific, authoritative, once-given commanding charge (Acts 1:8’s programmatic force); a literal borrowing of English “Great Commission” as a transliterated phrase would be an awkward, meaningless loanword in Konkani. | Use सुवार्ता प्रसार for ordinary references to the missionary activity throughout Acts (as already fixed in the glossary); reserve सुवार्तेची निमाणी आज्ञा strictly for curriculum headings/unit titles naming this specific doctrine, and gloss it there as referring to Acts 1:8 and its narrative fulfillment across the whole book (Jerusalem → Judea/Samaria → the ends of the earth, culminating at 28:31). |
| witness (structural to the Commission) | साक्षी [NEW, High] | See §1.6. | Retain; note its programmatic role at 1:8 as the geographic outline of the whole book. |
| kingdom of God | देवाचें राज्य [baseline TM, Medium] | None new. | Retain exactly; sensitive given Goa’s colonial history (see baseline note), reinforced at Acts 1:6 and 28:23,31. |
| mission | सुवार्ता प्रसार [baseline TM, Medium] | None new beyond the Inquisition-history sensitivity already documented in the baseline. | Retain exactly; frame proclamation as invitation throughout, per baseline system-prompt rule 6. |
2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Genuine Gaps (no adequate existing Konkani term; new coinage or compound required)
These are concepts for which Konkani has no pre-existing settled Bible-translation term and where the Romans baseline provides no precedent, requiring the compound/descriptive solutions proposed in 08_core_glossary.md and this document:
- Pentecost (proper-noun feast name) — solved by transliteration (पेंटेकोस्त).
- filled with the Holy Spirit as a repeated technical phrase — solved by compound (पवित्र आत्म्यान भरप्), requiring active fencing against आवेश/अंगारो.
- “the Way” as a self-designation for the Christian movement — solved by deliberately avoiding the most natural word (मार्ग) in favor of a plainer one (वाट) precisely because the natural word is over-full of competing meaning (see §2.2).
- Call on the name of the Lord as a fixed liturgical-confessional phrase — solved by compound (प्रभूच्या नांवान उलो मारप्), requiring active fencing against नांव जपप्.
- “Great Commission” as a doctrine label — no fixed term exists; solved by a coined descriptive teaching-label (सुवार्तेची निमाणी आज्ञा), restricted to headings only (§1.9).
- “Conversion” as a doctrine label (distinct from the narrated event itself, which Acts simply tells) — the two available candidates (धर्मांतर, मतपरिवर्तन) are each unsatisfactory in different ways; this is the single largest unresolved curriculum-level gap identified in this analysis (§1.7) and should be escalated to Step 9 for a formal risk-tier decision and a teacher’s-guide-only mitigation, not a Scripture-text lexical fix.
- God’s determined plan and foreknowledge as a compressed doctrinal phrase (Acts 2:23) — no single Konkani word exists; solved by compound, actively fenced against नशीब/प्रारब्ध.
2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (existing terms serve too many masters; require fencing)
These are cases where Konkani/Marathi religious vocabulary already has a well-established word that would be the “obvious” choice, but that word’s dominant existing meaning belongs to Goan Hindu devotional practice, Goan Catholic Romi Konkani tradition, or ordinary secular usage, and must therefore be avoided or tightly fenced:
| Konkani term | Its dominant existing meaning | Why it is a false friend here | Fencing decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| मार्ग | One of several valid spiritual paths (bhakti-mārga, jñāna-mārga, karma-mārga) toward a shared ultimate goal | Would make “the Way” (Acts’ self-designation for the one true way to God) read as one option among a pluralistic menu | Use वाट instead, always qualified (ख्रिस्ताची वाट / प्रभूची वाट); never bare वाट or मार्ग |
| आवेश / अंगारो | Trance-possession by a deity or spirit at local shrine/oracular practice | Would make Spirit-filling (Acts 2:4 etc.) read as ecstatic possession phenomena rather than sober Scripture-quoting empowerment | Never used; compound पवित्र आत्म्यान भरप् only, with contrastive footnote |
| प्रायश्चित्त | Ritual/ascetic penitential act that cancels sin or bad karma | Would make repentance (and “forgiveness of sins”) read as a self-performed merit-transaction rather than God-granted, faith-received pardon | Absolutely forbidden; पश्चात्ताप / पापांची माफी only |
| स्नान | Ritual purificatory bathing (sacred rivers/tanks, festival bathing) | Would make baptism read as one more purification ritual rather than a once-for-all allegiance-marking identification with Christ | Never used; बाप्तिस्मा (transliterated) retained throughout |
| नांव जपप् | Repeated invocation (japa) of a deity’s name for merit or a boon | Would make “calling on the name of the Lord” read as mantra-repetition rather than a single act of personal trust | Never used; प्रभूच्या नांवान उलो मारप् only |
| चमत्कार | Miracle narrative authenticating a holy man’s/godman’s personal spiritual power | Would make apostolic signs read as validating the apostle rather than pointing to Christ’s resurrection | Prefer compound चिन्नां आनी अद्भुत कृत्यां; if चमत्कार is unavoidable in casual prose, immediately re-anchor to Christ |
| गुरू | Spiritual teacher within a guru-disciple lineage transmission structure | Would make apostles or elders read as personal-devotion lineage-holders rather than a delegated/corporate office | Never used for प्रेषित or वडील (both already fenced in the baseline and in §1.4) |
| व्रत | A religious/votive vow, typically tied to fasting or austerity, for merit or a boon | Would make Paul’s Nazirite vow completion (21:23-26) read as a merit-generating ascetic act | Retain व्रत (no better native alternative exists) but always with the qualifier नाजीर and a brief distinguishing note |
| सेवा | Devotional/temple service (deva-seva), broadly positive and widely shared | Could make deacon-service read as merit-accumulating religious duty rather than Spirit-gifted, calling-based ministry | Retain as bridge term (better than an artificial coinage) but mark every occurrence as flowing from calling/gifting, not merit |
| मूर्ती | Ordinary, affectionate word for a Hindu temple image | Direct pastoral-sensitivity collision in every idol-polemic passage (15:20; 17:16; 19:26) | Retain (no adequate substitute), but require pastoral-sensitivity review in addition to standard doctrinal review at every occurrence |
| शक्ती | Goddess-power / Shakta-tradition divine feminine potency (Shantadurga, Mahalasa) | Already forbidden by the Romans baseline for “power of God”; equally applicable across all Acts occurrences of देवाचें सामर्थ्य | Continue baseline prohibition; never शक्ती |
| धर्मांतर | Standard modern administrative/media term for religious conversion | In Goa specifically evokes coercive Inquisition-era and colonial-era conversion campaigns | Not used in Scripture-text translation; reserved, if used at all, for carefully framed teacher’s-guide discussion only (see §1.7 and §2.1) |
| संत | The revered Varkari bhakti-poet category (Tukaram, Namdev, Dnyaneshwar) | Already forbidden by the Romans baseline for “saints”; equally applicable throughout Acts (9:13,32,41; 26:10) | Continue baseline prohibition; use पवित्र जन only |
| अवतार | Repeatable divine descent-and-return pattern (e.g., Mahalasa Narayani’s Mohini avatar at Mardol) | Already forbidden by the Romans baseline for “incarnation”; directly relevant again at the Lystra episode (14:11-15) and at the ascension (1:9-11) | Continue baseline prohibition; use देहधारण for incarnation, वयर व्हरणें (with explicit non-cyclical framing) for ascension |
| नशीब / प्रारब्ध | Impersonal fate / karma-determined destiny | Already forbidden by the Romans baseline for calling/election/providence; equally applicable to Acts 2:23’s “determined plan and foreknowledge” | Continue baseline prohibition; use देवाचो थारावील्लो हेत आनी पूर्वज्ञान |
3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
Konkani Bible translation practice (per the baseline) already establishes a pattern: proper names and untranslatable Semitic/Greek covenantal terms are transliterated; theological concepts, even when a Greek term underlies them, are paraphrased/compounded into meaningful Konkani wherever a natural equivalent exists. Acts introduces several new decisions in this vein:
| Term | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Pentecost | Transliterate (पेंटेकोस्त) | Proper noun naming a specific historical feast; no native equivalent exists, and a descriptive paraphrase (पन्नासावो दीस) would lose the covenantal specificity and could misleadingly suggest a generic “fiftieth-day” observance. |
| Sanhedrin | Transliterate + gloss (यहुदी न्यायसभा (सान्हेड्रिन)) | Institutional proper noun; the descriptive gloss (Jewish ruling council) carries the functional meaning while the transliteration preserves recognizability across translated materials and any future audio/video Bible content. |
| Messiah / Christ | Transliterate (मसीहा / ख्रिस्त) | Already fixed by the Romans baseline; retained without change — a paraphrase (“Anointed One,” अभिषिक्त पुरुष) was already rejected at the Romans stage as sounding like one of several avatar-figures. |
| Baptism | Transliterate (बाप्तिस्मा) | The native paraphrase candidate (स्नान) is a crowded, false-friend term (§2.2); transliteration avoids the collision entirely and matches the established Bible Society of India Konkani practice. |
| Abba | Transliterate (अब्बा) | Already fixed by the Romans baseline; retained for cross-curriculum consistency even though Acts does not directly quote it. |
| Amen / Hallelujah | Transliterate (आमेन, हल्लेलूया) | Per baseline transliteration standards; unchanged for Acts. |
| Areopagus, Artemis, Ephesus, Lystra, etc. (place/deity proper names in narrative) | Transliterate | Standard proper-noun handling; no theological content requiring paraphrase. Note: “Artemis” (19:24-41) must be transliterated as a proper name (आर्तेमी) and never rendered with a functionally equivalent Konkani goddess-name, to avoid implying equivalence with any regional deity. |
| ”the Way” | Paraphrase, deliberately avoiding the more literal option (वाट, not मार्ग) | A rare case where the more literal/natural Konkani rendering (मार्ग) is rejected precisely because it is too semantically rich in the wrong direction (§2.2); वाट is chosen as the plainer, less theologically pre-loaded word, always with an exclusive qualifier. |
| Nazirite vow | Transliterate the proper term + retain native word for “vow” (नाजीर व्रत) | व्रत is retained because no better native word for “vow” exists and total avoidance would sound stilted, but नाजीर anchors it as a specific, bounded OT practice rather than an open-ended merit-vow category. |
| Common doctrinal/technical compounds (justification apart from the law; filled with the Holy Spirit; call on the name of the Lord; God’s determined plan and foreknowledge; deeds worthy of repentance) | Paraphrase as fixed compound phrases | Greek compresses these into single words or short phrases with no Konkani lexical equivalent; the Romans baseline’s own practice (e.g., “नीतिमान ठरवणें” for justification) establishes compound-phrase paraphrase as the correct strategy for Konkani rather than forcing an artificial single-word coinage. |
4. Ranked List of This Curriculum’s Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined severity (doctrinal centrality × likelihood of a natural but wrong rendering being reached for) and specific to what Acts adds beyond the Romans baseline:
- “Filled with the Holy Spirit” vs. आवेश/अंगारो trance-possession (Acts 2:4 and throughout) — the single highest-risk new ambiguity in this curriculum: the core Pentecost event could be lexically pulled toward regional shamanic/oracular phenomenology if the compound term and its contrastive footnote are ever dropped.
- मूर्ती (“idol”) pastoral framing (15:20; 17:16; 19:26) — highest combined doctrinal-and-relational risk: the correct word choice is unavoidable, but tone and framing failures here could cause real relational harm and undermine the curriculum’s credibility with Hindu-background readers and neighbors.
- “The Way” vs. मार्ग pluralism (9:2; 18:25-26; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22) — a single wrong word choice (reverting to the “more natural” मार्ग) at any occurrence would quietly reintroduce a pluralistic reading across a term used dozens of times.
- “Common/unclean” and the caste-purity resonance (10:14-15,28; 11:8-9) — theologically correct but socially explosive; requires deliberate non-softening plus careful teaching-note application to caste dynamics without overstating scriptural warrant.
- Baptism vs. स्नान ritual bathing (throughout) — a very natural substitution error for any translator not steeped in the baseline; consistent transliteration discipline is the only safeguard.
- “Call on the name of the Lord” vs. नांव जपप् mantra-repetition (2:21; 9:14,21; 22:16) — must cross-check against the Romans 10:9-13 confession register at every occurrence; a mismatch here would create a visible inconsistency between the two curricula.
- Repentance vs. प्रायश्चित्त ritual expiation (2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 11:18; 17:30; 19:4; 20:21; 26:20) — high-frequency term; a single lapse anywhere in this list would be doctrinally serious given how central repentance is to Acts’ preaching pattern.
- Signs and wonders vs. चमत्कार godman-narrative framing (2:19,22,43; 4:16,22,30; 5:12; 6:8; 8:6,13; 14:3; 15:12) — risk is subtler than the above (both terms are “true” at a surface level) but affects whether miracles point to Christ or to the apostle’s own status.
- “Conversion” as an unresolved doctrine-label gap (curriculum-wide, esp. ch. 9, 22, 26) — flagged in §1.7/§2.1 as requiring Step 9 escalation; ranked here because, unresolved, it could surface inconsistently across teacher’s-guide materials in ways a lexical fix elsewhere cannot catch.
- Elders/deacons vs. गुरू lineage-authority framing (11:30; 14:23; 15; 16:4; 20:17,28; 21:18; 6:1-4) — moderate risk, but recurring across many chapters; a single careless choice of गुरू anywhere would import an entire competing authority model.
- Ascension vs. avatar descent-return pattern (1:2,9,11,22) — Critical-adjacent risk given its proximity to the already-Critical incarnation doctrine; must be actively distinguished as non-repeatable.
- Spirit of divination vs. legitimate prophecy spectrum confusion (16:16-18) — lower frequency (single episode) but doctrinally sharp; must not be read as a “weaker form” of the Spirit’s prophetic gifting.
- Unknown God (Areopagus) misused for pluralist apologetics (17:23) — single-occurrence but high-visibility passage, often preached on; must be fenced with एकच खरो देव at the pivot point.
- Nazirite vow vs. व्रत merit-vow framing (21:23-24,26) — lower frequency, moderate risk; addressed adequately by the नाजीर qualifier if consistently applied.
- Authority (अधिकार) vs. power (सामर्थ्य) conflation (throughout, esp. 26:18) — lower doctrinal stakes but a frequent enough distinction that inconsistent use could create confusing internal terminology drift across the curriculum.
5. Full-Book Chapter Review Confirmation
All 28 chapters of Acts were reviewed for this gap analysis. Chapters not separately discussed above introduce no new linguistic gap beyond what is resolved in §§1-4 or already fixed by the Romans baseline; they are confirmed reviewed here explicitly per the full-book coverage mandate:
- Ch. 5 (Ananias and Sapphira, lying to the Spirit) — reviewed; reinforces “filled with the Holy Spirit” (§1.1) and the Spirit’s personal, addressable nature (already fenced by baseline’s Holy Spirit entry); no new gap.
- Ch. 12 (Peter’s deliverance, Herod’s death, angel of the Lord) — reviewed; reuses §1.5 angel-of-the-Lord and glory (baseline) fencing; no new gap.
- Ch. 14 (Lystra “avatar-mistake” episode) — reviewed; directly reinforces the baseline’s existing incarnation/अवतार fencing rather than introducing a new term; treated as a positive apologetic model in
08_core_glossary.md. - Ch. 18 (“the Way” first named; Apollos) — reviewed; reuses §2.2 वाट/मार्ग fencing.
- Ch. 19 (Ephesus, magic books burned, Artemis riot) — reviewed; reuses §1.1 tongues, §1.3 baptism, §3 Artemis transliteration decision; no additional new gap.
- Ch. 23, 24, 25 (Sanhedrin trials, Felix, Festus, appeal to Caesar) — reviewed; reuse §1.6 Sanhedrin and baseline resurrection/righteousness fencing; no new gap.
- Ch. 27 (shipwreck) — reviewed explicitly; reuses baseline providence fencing (देवाची तरतूद, never नशीब/प्रारब्ध); no new theological vocabulary introduced.
No chapter of Acts was found to be void of theological content; the above are noted as reviewed-with-no-new-gap rather than silently omitted, per the full-book coverage mandate.
This analysis feeds directly into Step 9 (doctrine risk registry update for Acts) and must be consulted alongside 08_core_glossary.md before any Phase 2 segment translation begins. The single open item requiring Step 9 escalation is the “Conversion” doctrine-label gap (§1.7, §2.1, ranked #9 in §4).