Core Glossary
Core Glossary: 3 John — English → Korean
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, citing every occurrence across the book (3 John’s single chapter, verses 1–14). Terms marked REUSED are already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and MUST be rendered identically here. All other terms are new proposed entries for this curriculum, pending formal addition to translation memory in a later pipeline step.
Risk tiers follow the baseline definitions: Critical (destroys essential doctrine) > High (significant confusion/syncretism risk) > Medium (reduces clarity) > Low (minor imprecision).
A. Reused Baseline Terms (Do Not Alter)
| English | Greek | Korean | Translit. | Risk | Verses | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | θεός | 하나님 | Hananim | Critical | 11 (×2) | REUSE EXACTLY. Never 하느님/천주/산신령. |
| church | ἐκκλησία | 교회 | gyohoe | Medium | 6, 9, 10 | REUSE EXACTLY. Never 당집/절. |
B. New Terms Proposed for 3 John
| English Gloss | Greek | Translit. | Korean | Korean Translit. | Risk | Doctrine Category | Verses | Alternatives Rejected | Rationale / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| elder (self-designation) | πρεσβύτερος | presbyteros | 장로 | jangno | High | Apostleship / Authorship | 1 | 나이 많은 자 (merely “an old man,” loses office/authority sense) | Korean Presbyterian church culture treats 장로 as a specific elected lay office; must be footnoted as John’s apostolic-generation self-designation, not the modern institutional office. |
| beloved | ἀγαπητός | agapētos | 사랑하는 | sarang-haneun | Medium | Christian Fellowship | 1, 2, 5, 11 | — | Standard KRV address term; distinguish covenantal love from Confucian/정(jeong)-based affection. |
| love (verb/noun) | ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη | agapaō / agapē | 사랑(하다) | sarang(hada) | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 1, 6 | — | See ἀγαπητός above. |
| truth | ἀλήθεια | alētheia | 진리 | jilli | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 1, 3 (×2), 4, 8, 12 | 도(道) (invites Buddhist/Daoist “the Way” reading) | Must be explicitly tied to the specific gospel reality in Christ; risk of collapse into Buddhist doctrinal-truth (사성제) or generic philosophical truth. Central thematic term of the book. |
| to prosper / go well | εὐοδόω | euodousthai | 형통하다 | hyeongtonghada | Critical | (Cross-doctrinal; prosperity-teaching risk) | 2 | 복 받다 alone (bare “receive fortune/blessing,” reinforces 기복신앙 pattern) | Direct proof-text of Korean “threefold blessing” (삼박자 축복) prosperity teaching. MUST be taught as an epistolary wish subordinated to the soul’s prior spiritual health, never as a stand-alone guaranteed-prosperity formula. Highest-priority risk term in this book. |
| to be in health | ὑγιαίνω | hygiainō | 강건하다 | ganggeonhada | Medium | (linked to prosperity-teaching risk) | 2 | — | Same contextual caution as εὐοδόω above. |
| soul | ψυχή | psychē | 영혼 | yeonghon | High | (Anthropology / Sanctification-adjacent) | 2 | 넋/혼 (folk-shamanistic “spirit/soul” subject to ritual capture/appeasement) | Must be taught as the believer’s inner spiritual life before God, never a wandering folk-animistic soul-entity requiring shamanistic ritual care. |
| joy / to rejoice | χαρά / χαίρω | chara / echarēn | 기쁨 / 기뻐하다 | gippeum / gippeohada | Low | Christian Fellowship | 3, 4 | — | Standard vocabulary. |
| brother(s) | ἀδελφός | adelphos | 형제 | hyeongje | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 3, 5, 10 | — | Standard Christian usage; distinguish from φίλος (“friend,” v. 14). |
| to testify / testimony | μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία | martyreō / martyria | 증언하다 / 증거 | jeungeonhada / jeunggeo | High | Commendation of Faithful Witness; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3, 6, 12 (×2) | 증인 alone in isolation (over-legalizes to courtroom-only register) | Central verb/noun of the letter’s witness motif; must retain the sense of a life or report that visibly confirms gospel-consistent character, not narrow forensic testimony. |
| to walk / conduct oneself | περιπατέω | peripateō | 행하다 | haenghada | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 3, 4 | 도를 걷다 (invites Buddhist “walking the Way” reading) | Must retain 진리 as governing noun to avoid Buddhist path/self-cultivation resonance. |
| children (spiritual) | τέκνα | tekna | 자녀 | janyeo | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 4 | — | Must be marked as spiritual, not biological or Confucian-filial-hierarchy, parentage. |
| faithful | πιστός | pistos | 신실한 | sinsilhan | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 5 | — | Distinguish gospel-motivated faithfulness from dutiful social/guest-etiquette obligation. |
| stranger / traveling minister | ξένος | xenos | 나그네 | nageune | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 5 | 손님 alone (flattens to ordinary “guest,” loses missionary-support sense) | Central term of the Hospitality doctrine; must be taught as gospel-partnership support of itinerant ministers, not generic Korean guest-hospitality courtesy. |
| to send on one’s journey (with support) | προπέμπω | propempō | 전송하다 | jeonsonghada | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 6 | 배웅하다 alone (mere social “seeing off,” no material-support entailment) | Must be footnoted as including practical/financial provision for onward gospel travel, not a bare farewell. |
| worthy of God | ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ | axiōs tou theou | 하나님께 합당하게 | Hananim-kke hapdanghage | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 6 | — | 하나님 portion reuses baseline exactly (Critical); phrase as a whole is Medium risk. |
| the Name (of Christ) | ὄνομα | onoma | 그 이름 | geu ireum | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 7 | — | Must not echo shamanistic name-talisman (부적) name-invocation practice; refers to Christ’s person/authority proclaimed in ministry. |
| Gentiles / pagan outsiders (contextual sense) | ἐθνικός | ethnikos | 이방인 | ibangin | Medium | (Contextual variant of Romans’ Jew/Gentile category) | 7 | — | REUSES baseline term, but here means “unbelieving outsiders” generally, NOT the Romans redemptive-historical Jew/Gentile category; footnote required to prevent misapplied cross-reference. |
| ought / obligated | ὀφείλω | opheilō | 마땅하다 | matdanghada | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 8 | — | Standard vocabulary. |
| to support / take up (hospitality) | ὑπολαμβάνω | hypolambanō | 영접하다 | yeongjeophada | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | 8 | — | Stronger than ordinary welcome; implies taking material responsibility. |
| fellow worker | συνεργός | synergos | 동역자 | dongyeokja | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 8 | — | Must be tied explicitly to “for the truth” (τῇ ἀληθείᾳ) to frame hospitality as gospel partnership. |
| loves to be first / preeminence-seeking | φιλοπρωτεύω | philoprōteuō | 으뜸 되기를 좋아하는 | eutteum doegireul joahaneun | High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 9 | — | Established KRV rendering; must be taught as sinful self-exaltation in church leadership, resonant with (and a needed corrective to) documented Korean megachurch authoritarian/succession controversies. |
| to receive / welcome | ἐπιδέχομαι | epidechomai | 받아들이다 / 영접하다 | badadeurida / yeongjeophada | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 9, 10 | — | Positive term (영접하다, common for “receiving Christ”) used here in negation; polarity must remain unmistakable in context. |
| deeds / works | ἔργον | ergon | 행위 | haengwi | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | — | Standard vocabulary. |
| evil (words) | πονηρός | ponēros | 악한 | akhan | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | — | Standard vocabulary. |
| to slander / gossip maliciously | φλυαρέω | phlyareō | 비방하다 | bibanghada | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | — | Must convey deliberate malicious intent, not mere disagreement/criticism. |
| to be content/satisfied | ἀρκέω | arkeō | 만족하다 | manjokhada | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | — | Standard vocabulary. |
| to forbid / hinder | κωλύω | kōlyō | 막다 | makda | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | — | Standard vocabulary. |
| to cast out / expel | ἐκβάλλω | ekballō | 쫓아내다 | jjochanaeda | High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | 10 | — | Same Korean idiom used for exorcism (“casting out a spirit”); disambiguate context to avoid conflation with exorcistic imagery. |
| to imitate | μιμέομαι | mimeomai | 본받다 | bonbatda | High | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 11 | — | Established Christian usage; must clarify imitation criterion is the moral source of conduct (“of God”), not the model’s rank/authority — directly excludes imitating Diotrephes despite his church position. |
| evil / to do evil | κακός / κακοποιέω | kakos / kakopoieō | 악 / 악을 행하다 | ak / ageul haenghada | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 11 | — | Moral evil before a personal God, not bad luck (액운) or loss of face (체면 손상). |
| good / to do good | ἀγαθός / ἀγαθοποιέω | agathos / agathopoieō | 선 / 선을 행하다 | seon / seoneul haenghada | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 11 | — | Must retain “of/from God” (ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ) as the source, not autonomous Confucian self-cultivated virtue. |
| to see / perceive (spiritually) | ὁράω (ἑώρακεν) | horaō (heōraken) | 보다 | boda | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | 11 | — | “Has not seen God” = lacks genuine saving knowledge of God. |
| true / truthful | ἀληθής | alēthēs | 참된 | chamdoen | Medium | Commendation of Faithful Witness; Truth and Christian Fellowship | 12 | — | Maintain thematic link to 진리 (ἀλήθεια), not merely generic factual correctness. |
| to hope | ἐλπίζω | elpizō | 소망하다 / 바라다 | somanghada / barada | Low | (Epistolary closing) | 13/14 | — | Standard vocabulary. |
| peace (epistolary greeting) | εἰρήνη | eirēnē | 평강 | pyeonggang | Medium | (Epistolary closing) | 13/14 | 화평 (reserved for Romans 5:1 justification-peace sense per baseline) | Use 평강 (standard KRV epistolary closing greeting), NOT 화평 — this is a benediction-greeting, not a fresh justification statement. |
| to greet | ἀσπάζομαι | aspazomai | 문안하다 | munanhada | Low | (Epistolary closing) | 13/14 | — | Standard vocabulary. |
| friend(s) | φίλος | philos | 친구 | chin-gu | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | 13/14 | — | Deliberate variation from ἀδελφοί elsewhere in the letter; must not be read as merely casual/secular peer-friendship register. |
C. Proper Names (Established Transliteration Forms)
| English | Greek | Korean | Translit. | Risk | Verses | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaius | Γάϊος | 가이오 | Gaio | Low | 1 | Established KRV form; letter’s recipient. |
| Diotrephes | Διοτρέφης | 디오드레베 | Diodeurebe | Low | 9, 10 | Established KRV form; the church leader who loves preeminence. |
| Demetrius | Δημήτριος | 데메드리오 | Demedeurio | Low | 12 | Established KRV form; the commended faithful witness. |
D. Risk Summary
| Risk Tier | Count | Requires |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 3 (하나님 reused; 형통하다 new) | Human theologian review, every occurrence |
| High | 11 (진리, 영혼, 증언하다/증거, 나그네, 전송하다, 그 이름, 으뜸 되기를 좋아하는, 쫓아내다, 본받다, 장로, plus 교회 reused at Medium) | Human theologian review |
| Medium | 16 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 15 | Automated review sufficient |
Highest-priority alert for Phase 2: 형통하다 (εὐοδόω, 3 John 1:2) carries a documented, named collision with Korean prosperity-gospel (“threefold blessing,” 삼박자 축복) teaching and requires mandatory theologian review with an explicit teaching footnote on every occurrence, regardless of which named curriculum doctrine a given lesson addresses.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: 하나님
Transliteration: Hananim
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 하느님, 천주, 산신령
Original: θεός
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. NEVER substitute 하느님 (Catholic/general term), 천주 (Catholic ‘Lord of Heaven’), or 산신령 (folk mountain spirit). 3 John 1:11 uses this term twice (‘of God’ / ‘has not seen God’) as the diagnostic standard for the Imitating Good rather than Evil doctrine; no new risk beyond the baseline is introduced by this book’s usage.
Prosper
Approved rendering: 형통하다
Transliteration: hyeongtonghada
Doctrine: Prosperity, Health, and the Soul’s Well-Being
Rejected alternatives: 복 받다 alone (bare ‘receive fortune/blessing,’ reinforces 기복신앙 pattern)
Original: εὐοδόω
Category: Christian Living
CRITICAL: 3 John 1:2 is the direct, historically documented proof text of the Korean ‘threefold blessing’ teaching (삼박자 축복, sambakja chukbok), associated with a major Korean megachurch movement and long debated within Korean Protestantism as edging toward 기복신앙 (shamanistic fortune-seeking faith) — the same transactional pattern flagged Critical for ‘grace’ in the Romans baseline. MUST always be taught as (1) a personal epistolary greeting-wish to one individual, not a universal doctrinal formula or guaranteed promise, and (2) subordinated by the Greek καθώς (‘just as’) to the soul’s prior spiritual health as the governing standard. NEVER present as a stand-alone prosperity formula. Mandatory theologian review and teaching footnote on every occurrence.
High Risk Terms
Gentiles
Approved rendering: 이방인
Transliteration: ibangin
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: 외국인 (단일민족 의미로)
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly for lexical consistency. CAUTION: 3 John 1:7’s ἐθνικῶν uses the same Korean word 이방인 but in a DIFFERENT, narrower sense than the Romans redemptive-historical Jew/Gentile category — here it means simply ‘unbelieving outsiders’ from whom traveling ministers refused financial patronage. A footnote is mandatory wherever this term appears in 3 John material to prevent learners from importing Romans’ Israel/nations theology into 3 John’s plain sense. See also the dedicated entry ‘gentiles_pagan_outsiders’ below for the 3-John-specific doctrinal framing.
Faith
Approved rendering: 믿음
Transliteration: mideum
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: 미신적 믿음, 사주팔자를 믿는 것
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. 3 John does not use πίστις directly, but its cognate πιστός (‘faithful,’ v. 5, describing Gaius’s hospitality) draws on this same semantic family; translators should let the established 믿음 vocabulary inform, without duplicating, the new term ‘faithful’ (신실한) below so the two concepts read as clearly related in Korean.
Elder Self Designation
Approved rendering: 장로
Transliteration: jangno
Doctrine: Apostolic Self-Designation and Authority (“The Elder”)
Rejected alternatives: 나이 많은 자 (merely ‘an old man,’ loses office/authority sense)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:1’s opening self-designation. Korean Presbyterianism (장로교, the majority Korean Protestant tradition) treats 장로 as a specific, often contested, congregationally-elected lay office. Mandatory footnote required at first occurrence clarifying this is John’s understated apostolic-generation self-designation as an aged, pastorally intimate authority — NOT a reference to the modern elected office. Human theologian review required to prevent readers from either overestimating (full formal apostleship) or underestimating (modern lay elder) the writer’s authority.
Truth
Approved rendering: 진리
Transliteration: jilli
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 도(道) (invites Buddhist/Daoist ‘the Way’ reading)
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth and Fellowship
The letter’s central motif (3 John 1:1, 3 x2, 4, 8, 12). 진리 is also the standard Korean word for Buddhist doctrinal truth (사성제, the Four Noble Truths) and secular philosophical ‘Truth.’ Must always be taught as the specific gospel reality revealed in Jesus Christ and lived out relationally, never an abstract proposition or a meditative insight attained through self-cultivation. Must always govern 행하다 (walk/conduct) rather than being paired with 도.
Soul
Approved rendering: 영혼
Transliteration: yeonghon
Doctrine: Prosperity, Health, and the Soul’s Well-Being
Rejected alternatives: 넋/혼 (folk-shamanistic ‘spirit/soul’ subject to ritual capture/appeasement)
Original: ψυχή
Category: Anthropology
3 John 1:2. Korean shamanism (무속신앙) holds an active folk concept of the soul/spirit (혼, 넋) as an entity that can wander, be startled out of the body, be captured by malevolent spirits, or require ritual recall (초혼) or appeasement. 영혼 must be taught strictly as the believer’s inner spiritual life measured by its standing before a personal God through the gospel, never a folk-animistic soul-entity subject to shamanistic ritual care.
Testify Testimony
Approved rendering: 증언하다 / 증거
Transliteration: jeungeonhada / jeunggeo
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Rejected alternatives: 증인 alone in isolation (over-legalizes to courtroom-only register)
Original: μαρτυρέω / μαρτυρία
Category: Witness
3 John 1:3, 1:6, 1:12 (x2). Korean legal/courtroom register (증인, ‘witness’; 증언, ‘testimony’) is well established and risks reading this narrowly as forensic. Must be taught as the specifically Christian sense of a life or report that visibly confirms another’s gospel faithfulness, central to both the Truth/Fellowship and Demetrius-commendation doctrines. Always pair with 진리 (e.g. ‘진리 자체가 증거하고’) at v. 12 to keep the Christian sense governing.
Stranger Traveling Minister
Approved rendering: 나그네
Transliteration: nageune
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: 손님 alone (flattens to ordinary ‘guest,’ loses missionary-support sense)
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality
3 John 1:5. Korean culture already has strong indigenous hospitality norms toward 손님 (guests) and 나그네 (travelers/sojourners), risking a reading of generic Korean social courtesy rather than the specific NT category of material and logistical support for gospel ministers as gospel co-laboring. Must be taught as missions-support hospitality, not merely cultural guest-etiquette.
Send On Journey With Support
Approved rendering: 전송하다
Transliteration: jeonsonghada
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: 배웅하다 alone (mere social ‘seeing off,’ no material-support entailment)
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality
3 John 1:6. Risk of collapse into the common everyday Korean sense of a bare social farewell/‘seeing someone off,’ which loses the material-support entailment (funds, provisions) central to NT missionary hospitality. Must be footnoted as ‘send off with material provision for the journey.‘
The Name
Approved rendering: 그 이름
Transliteration: geu ireum
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Christology
3 John 1:7, metonymy for the person and authority of Jesus Christ. Korean folk-shamanistic practice includes ritual use of names on talismans (부적) and name-invocation formulas believed to carry spiritual power apart from relationship. Must be clearly taught/footnoted as referring to the person and authority of Christ proclaimed in gospel ministry, never a magical name-invocation formula.
Loves To Be First
Approved rendering: 으뜸 되기를 좋아하는
Transliteration: eutteum doegireul joahaneun
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:9 (φιλοπρωτεύω, a NT hapax legomenon). Established KRV rendering. Korean Protestantism (majority Presbyterian, with a strong senior-pastor/담임목사 authority tradition) has its own well-documented, publicly debated history of authoritarian church leadership and contested pulpit-succession controversies. Must be taught as sinful self-exaltation to be named and resisted, avoiding any Confucian-inflected framing that reads deference to a dominant leader’s ambition as itself virtuous or expected.
Cast Out Expel
Approved rendering: 쫓아내다
Transliteration: jjochanaeda
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:10 (ἐκβάλλω). In Korean, the identical idiom 쫓아내다 is used both for wrongful ecclesiastical expulsion here and for exorcistic ‘casting out a spirit’ (귀신을 쫓아내다) elsewhere in Christian usage. Must clearly disambiguate context so Diotrephes’ abusive expulsion of faithful believers is not read through, or trivialized/sensationalized by association with, exorcism imagery.
Imitate
Approved rendering: 본받다
Transliteration: bonbatda
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: 사사하다 / 스승을 따르다 (hierarchical master-disciple deference regardless of moral character)
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Ethics
3 John 1:11 (μιμέομαι), the letter’s direct doctrinal command. Established Korean Christian usage (e.g. ‘그리스도를 본받아’). Risk of conflation with Confucian/Buddhist ‘learning from a master’ patterns that emphasize hierarchical deference to the model regardless of the model’s moral character. The criterion for imitation here is exclusively whether the conduct itself is good/evil (‘of God’), not the model’s rank — Diotrephes is precisely an authority figure NOT to be imitated despite his church position.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: 교회
Transliteration: gyohoe
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: 당집, 절
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Never 당집 (shamanistic village shrine) or 절 (Buddhist temple). 3 John 1:6, 1:9, 1:10 additionally surface the risk of readers projecting documented Korean megachurch authority disputes onto 교회 itself in the Diotrephes narrative; teach the term as doctrinally neutral, with the abuse located in Diotrephes’ conduct, never in the concept of 교회.
Peace
Approved rendering: 화평
Transliteration: hwapyeong
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: 평안 (일반적 안녕)
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly, reserved strictly for the Romans 5:1 relational peace-with-God-through-justification sense. CRITICAL DISTINCTION FOR 3 JOHN: the epistolary greeting in 3 John 1:14/15 (‘Peace to you’) is NOT this term — it must be rendered 평강, a separate established KRV epistolary-closing term (see ‘peace_epistolary’ below). NEVER substitute 화평 for 3 John’s closing greeting; doing so would misleadingly import a fresh justification-doctrine statement into a conventional epistolary benediction.
Beloved
Approved rendering: 사랑하는
Transliteration: sarang-haneun
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Christian Fellowship
3 John 1:1, 2, 5, 11 — the structural address marker introducing each new exhortation to Gaius. Must not collapse into the familial/hierarchical affection sense carried by Korean 정 (jeong) or Confucian filial-affection categories; this is covenantal, brotherly love in Christ.
Love
Approved rendering: 사랑(하다)
Transliteration: sarang(hada)
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη
Category: Christian Fellowship
3 John 1:1 (‘whom I love in truth’), 1:6 (Gaius’s love testified before the church). Same collision risk as ‘beloved’: must not be reduced to Confucian relational duty or 정-based sentiment. This new curriculum term should echo, without duplicating, any future Romans-package ‘love’ entry.
Be In Health
Approved rendering: 강건하다
Transliteration: ganggeonhada
Doctrine: Prosperity, Health, and the Soul’s Well-Being
Original: ὑγιαίνω
Category: Christian Living
3 John 1:2, paired with 형통하다 as an ordinary greeting-wish for Gaius’s bodily welfare. Must not be isolated from the soul-health priority established in the same verse or taught as an independent guarantee of physical wellness.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: 행하다
Transliteration: haenghada
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 도를 걷다 (invites Buddhist ‘walking the Way’ reading)
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Christian Living
3 John 1:3, 1:4. Standard KRV metaphorical usage (‘진리 안에서 행하다’). Must retain 진리 as the governing noun in every rendering to avoid Buddhist ‘the Way/Path’ (도, 道) self-cultivation resonance.
Children Spiritual
Approved rendering: 자녀
Transliteration: janyeo
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: τέκνα
Category: Christian Fellowship
3 John 1:4, John’s spiritual converts/disciples. Korea’s Confucian filial-piety framework (효, hyo) organizes parent-child relationships around strict hierarchical obedience owed to a parent. Must be clearly marked as spiritual, not biological, parentage — joyful nurture and relational pride, not a claim to filial authority or obedience owed to John.
Faithful
Approved rendering: 신실한
Transliteration: sinsilhan
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality
3 John 1:5. Gaius’s hospitality commended as gospel-motivated faithfulness, the practical outworking of genuine faith, not mere social generosity or Confucian guest-etiquette obligation. Echoes without duplicating the baseline’s established 믿음 (faith) family.
Worthy Of God
Approved rendering: 하나님께 합당하게
Transliteration: Hananim-kke hapdanghage
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Hospitality
3 John 1:6. The 하나님 component reuses the baseline Critical term exactly; the phrase as a whole is Medium risk since 합당하게 (‘fittingly, worthily’) is standard vocabulary with low independent collision risk.
Gentiles Pagan Outsiders
Approved rendering: 이방인
Transliteration: ibangin
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἐθνικός
Category: Church
3 John 1:7’s ἐθνικῶν, meaning simply ‘unbelieving outsiders’ from whom the traveling ministers refused financial patronage — distinct from the Romans redemptive-historical Jew/Gentile category (Romans 3:29-30, 11:17-24). Reuses the same Korean lexeme as the inherited ‘gentiles’ entry above but requires its own footnote in 3 John teaching material to prevent learners from importing Romans’ Israel/nations theology into this simpler sense.
Support Take Up
Approved rendering: 영접하다
Transliteration: yeongjeophada
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality
3 John 1:8 (ὑπολαμβάνω). KRV renders with reception-language (영접함이 마땅하니); must be taught with the fuller sense of taking material responsibility for someone, not mere polite greeting. NOTE: the identical Korean word 영접하다 recurs at 3 John 1:9-10 with reversed (negative) polarity for ἐπιδέχομαι — see ‘receive_welcome’ below; contexts must be kept clearly distinct in teaching.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: 동역자
Transliteration: dongyeokja
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: συνεργός
Category: Hospitality
3 John 1:8. Established Korean Christian missions/ministry-partnership vocabulary; must be tied explicitly to ‘for the truth’ (τῇ ἀληθείᾳ / 진리를 위하여) so hospitality is framed as gospel partnership, not generic teamwork.
Receive Welcome
Approved rendering: 받아들이다 / 영접하다
Transliteration: badadeurida / yeongjeophada
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:9, 1:10 (ἐπιδέχομαι). 영접하다 is widely and positively used in Korean evangelical vocabulary (e.g. ‘예수님을 영접하다,’ to receive Christ); here it is used NEGATIVELY (Diotrephes’ refusal), so context must make the polarity unmistakable in every rendering.
Slander Gossip Maliciously
Approved rendering: 비방하다
Transliteration: bibanghada
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: φλυαρέω
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:10 (φλυαρέω). Must convey deliberate, malicious slander intended to damage reputation and undermine legitimate authority, not mere disagreement or criticism.
Evil Do Evil
Approved rendering: 악 / 악을 행하다
Transliteration: ak / ageul haenghada
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακός / κακοποιέω
Category: Ethics
3 John 1:11. Must be distinguished from mere bad luck (액운) or social impropriety (체면 손상), per the Romans baseline’s ‘sin’ notes — this is moral evil before a personal God.
Good Do Good
Approved rendering: 선 / 선을 행하다
Transliteration: seon / seoneul haenghada
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθός / ἀγαθοποιέω
Category: Ethics
3 John 1:11. 선 also anchors Korea’s Confucian moral-virtue vocabulary (선인, ‘a virtuous person,’ attained through self-cultivation). Must be taught as goodness having God as its source (ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ), not autonomously achieved Confucian moral character.
True Truthful
Approved rendering: 참된
Transliteration: chamdoen
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Witness
3 John 1:12 (ἀληθής). Must maintain thematic linkage to 진리 (ἀλήθεια) rather than reading as a generic ‘factually correct’ statement in isolation.
Peace Epistolary
Approved rendering: 평강
Transliteration: pyeonggang
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting and Closing Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 화평 (reserved for Romans 5:1 justification-peace sense per baseline)
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Christian Fellowship
3 John 1:14/15, standard apostolic epistolary closing benediction. The Romans baseline reserves 화평 specifically for the Romans 5:1 relational peace-with-God-through-justification sense; Korean Bible tradition renders NT epistolary closing-greetings of this type with 평강 instead. Care must be taken NOT to use 화평 here, while still conveying its rootedness in gospel peace already secured, not mere secular well-wishing.
Friend
Approved rendering: 친구
Transliteration: chin-gu
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: φίλος
Category: Christian Fellowship
3 John 1:14/15 (φίλος), a deliberate variation from ἀδελφοί (‘brothers’) used throughout the rest of the letter. Must be distinguished in teaching from 형제; risk of flattening the deliberate variation, or of reading ‘friend’ through a purely secular/casual Korean register (친구 often implies same-age, informal peer relationships) rather than a warm ecclesial relationship term.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: 교제
Transliteration: gyoje
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. 3 John elevates this concept to a full curriculum doctrine (‘Truth and Christian Fellowship’) built on ἀλήθεια (truth) as its governing term; 교제 itself remains low risk, but must consistently be shown as truth-grounded fellowship (진리 안에서의 교제), not merely social association or civic community.
Joy Rejoice
Approved rendering: 기쁨 / 기뻐하다
Transliteration: gippeum / gippeohada
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: χαρά / χαίρω
Category: Christian Fellowship
3 John 1:3, 1:4. Standard vocabulary for gospel-rooted gladness; no significant collision risk.
Brother
Approved rendering: 형제
Transliteration: hyeongje
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Church
3 John 1:3, 1:5, 1:10, referring to the traveling ministers. Established Christian usage; distinguish in context from φίλος (‘friend,’ v. 14), a deliberately different term of address later in the letter.
Ought Obligated
Approved rendering: 마땅하다
Transliteration: matdanghada
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality
3 John 1:8. Moral obligation to support traveling gospel workers, not optional generosity. Standard vocabulary.
Deeds Works
Approved rendering: 행위
Transliteration: haengwi
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἔργον
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:10. Diotrephes’ concrete pattern of abusive behavior. Standard vocabulary.
Evil Words
Approved rendering: 악한 말
Transliteration: akhan mal
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: πονηρός (λόγοις πονηροῖς)
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:10. Standard vocabulary.
Content Satisfied
Approved rendering: 만족하다
Transliteration: manjokhada
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἀρκέω
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:10. Standard vocabulary.
Forbid Hinder
Approved rendering: 막다
Transliteration: makda
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership
3 John 1:10. Standard vocabulary.
See Perceive Spiritually
Approved rendering: 보다
Transliteration: boda
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ὁράω (ἑώρακεν)
Category: Faith
3 John 1:11. ‘Has not seen God’ describes a lack of genuine saving knowledge/relationship with God, revealed by habitual evildoing.
Hope
Approved rendering: 소망하다 / 바라다
Transliteration: somanghada / barada
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting and Closing Fellowship
Original: ἐλπίζω
Category: Faith
3 John 1:13-14. John’s confident personal expectation of seeing Gaius soon. Standard vocabulary.
Greet
Approved rendering: 문안하다
Transliteration: munanhada
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting and Closing Fellowship
Original: ἀσπάζομαι
Category: Christian Fellowship
3 John 1:14/15. Standard epistolary greeting exchange; ordinary but warm relational close.
Gaius
Approved rendering: 가이오
Transliteration: Gaio
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: Γάϊος
Category: Proper Name
Established KRV proper-name form; the letter’s recipient, commended for faithful hospitality.
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: 디오드레베
Transliteration: Diodeurebe
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: Διοτρέφης
Category: Proper Name
Established KRV proper-name form. The doctrinal risk resides in the surrounding vocabulary (으뜸 되기를 좋아하는, 쫓아내다), not the name itself.
Demetrius
Approved rendering: 데메드리오
Transliteration: Demedeurio
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: Δημήτριος
Category: Proper Name
Established KRV proper-name form; the commended believer held up as the positive model to imitate, likely the letter-bearer.
Referenced passages