Core Glossary
08 — Core Glossary: 1 John (Kurdish / Kurmanji)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, spanning all five chapters of 1 John. Terms marked REUSED are already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and MUST be rendered identically here — no alternatives permitted. Terms marked NEW are proposed additions for this curriculum, pending the same theologian/native-speaker review routing the baseline mandates by risk tier, and should be merged into translation_memory.json (version increment) before Phase 2 processing begins.
A. Reused Terms (Baseline Romans Translation Memory — Enforce Exactly)
| English Term | Kurdish Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Primary 1 John Passages | Note for This Curriculum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Xwedê | Critical | Deity of Christ / God | 1:5; 4:8,16; 5:20 | ”God is Light,” “God is Love” essence-statements both require full copula-of-identity weight |
| Jesus | Îsa | Critical | Lordship of Christ | 1:3,7; 2:1; 4:2,15; 5:1,5 | Confession “Jesus is the Son of God” (4:15) is the letter’s touchstone, parallel to Romans 10:9 |
| Christ / Messiah | Mesîh | Critical | Messianic Promise | 1:3; 2:1,22; 4:2; 5:1,6,20 | 2:22’s “denies Jesus is the Christ” defines antichrist |
| Son of God | Kurê Xwedê | Critical | Sonship of Christ | 3:8; 4:15; 5:5,10-13,20 | Guard against both tawhid-denial and Sufi/Yazidi over-assimilation, per baseline |
| Holy Spirit | Ruhê Pîroz | Critical | Sanctification / God | 3:24; 4:2,13; 5:6-8 | Distinguish from created-being (Jibril) identification per baseline note |
| Father | Bav | Critical | Adoption into God’s Family | 1:2-3; 2:1,13-16,22-24; 3:1; 4:14 | Coordinate with new “children of God” (zarokên Xwedê) entry below |
| Holy (One) | Pîroz | High | Sanctification | 2:20 (“the Holy One”) | Reused as Christ’s title here, not only as a generic quality |
| Sin | Guneh | High | Universal Human Accountability | 1:7-10; 3:4-9; 4:10; 5:16-17 | Runs against regional fitrah-purity default throughout Ch.1 and Ch.3 |
| Righteousness | Adalet | Critical | Salvation | 1:9; 2:1,29; 3:7,10 | God “faithful and just to forgive” (1:9) — justice as basis, not tension, for forgiveness |
| Salvation | Rizgarî | Critical | Salvation | (conceptually throughout; underlies “Savior,” “passed from death to life”) | Root for new “Savior” (Rizgarkar) entry; same nationalist-political anchoring discipline applies |
| Fellowship | Hevaltî | Medium (Low per term registry / Medium per doctrine registry) | Christian Fellowship | 1:3,6-7 | Must carry both vertical (with God) and horizontal (with believers) senses in 1 John, more than Romans required |
| Faith / Believe | Îman | High | Faith | 3:23; 4:16; 5:1,4-5,10,13 | ”Faith…overcomes the world” (5:4) — reinforce trust/reliance sense against creedal-assent-only reading |
| Law (Mosaic) | Şerîeta Mûsa | Critical | Fulfillment of Prophecy | (background to 3:4’s anomia) | Do NOT use for 3:4’s broader “lawlessness” sense — see new “anomia” entry below |
| Advocate/Intercession (related concept) | Navbeynkarî (general) | High | Prayer and Intercession | (background to 2:1) | 2:1’s paraklētos is a distinct, more specific forensic-advocate sense — see new “Parêzvan” entry |
B. New Terms Proposed for This Curriculum (1 John)
| English Term | Greek Original | Transliteration | Kurdish Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Primary Passages | Rationale Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light | φῶς | phōs | Ronahî | Critical | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5-7; 2:8-10 | Risk of assimilation into Zoroastrian/Yazidi cosmic light-dark dualism (two competing eternal principles) rather than John’s ethical-relational sense (darkness as mere absence of God’s purity) |
| Darkness | σκοτία | skotia | Tarî | High | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5-7; 2:9,11 | Companion term to Ronahî; same dualism caution |
| Love (noun) | ἀγάπη | agapē | Evîn | Critical | God is Light and God is Love | 4:7-21 (throughout); 2:5,15; 3:1,16-18 | Kurdish Sufi mystical lover/beloved poetic register risks reading “God is love” as mystical union rather than personal, historically self-giving love (anchor to 4:9-10) |
| Love (verb) | ἀγαπάω | agapaō | hez kirin | Critical | God is Light and God is Love / Love for the Brethren | 4:7-21; 3:11,14,18,23 | Paired with Evîn; same anchoring discipline required |
| Word of Life / Logos | ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς | ho logos tēs zōēs | Peyva Jiyanê | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 1:1-2 | Parallels baseline Incarnation (Tecessud); establishes the letter’s anti-docetic apologetic from its opening verse |
| Confess (sin) | ὁμολογέω | homologeō | îtîraf kirin / eşkere kirin | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9; 4:2,15 | Sufi murīd-to-pîr disclosure practice risks substituting a human spiritual intermediary for direct, unmediated confession to God |
| Cleanse | καθαρίζω | katharizō | paqij kirin | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:7,9 | Must be kept distinct from baseline Teqdîs (Sanctification, High) — a judicial cleansing-upon-confession event, not the ongoing sanctification process |
| Forgive / Forgiveness | ἀφίημι / ἄφεσις | aphiēmi / aphesis | lêbihûrandin | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9; 2:12 | Must be anchored to Christ’s atonement (hilasmos) as basis, not God’s mercy alone apart from a satisfied basis |
| Propitiation | ἱλασμός | hilasmos | Kefaret | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin / Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:2; 4:10 | Regional Islamic kaffārah is a self-performed compensatory work by the sinner; 1 John’s hilasmos is God’s own provided, substitutionary atoning sacrifice — opposite mechanisms, must be explicitly distinguished every occurrence |
| Advocate | παράκλητος | paraklētos | Parêzvan | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 2:1 | Distinct from general Navbeynkarî (intercession); a specific legal-defense-counsel image for Christ before the Father, not a shafa’at-style intermediary figure |
| Commandment | ἐντολή | entolē | Emir (NEVER “Ferman”) | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:3-11; 3:22-24; 4:21; 5:2-3 | ”Ferman” carries active, painful Yazidi genocide-memory associations (“the 74 Fermans,” incl. the 2014 Sinjar genocide); must be added to the forbidden-substitutions list for Kurdish |
| World (negative sense) | κόσμος | kosmos | dinya | High | Overcoming the World | 2:15-17; 4:1,5; 5:19 | Regional dunya/ākhirah (this-world/hereafter) framework is temporal; John’s sense is a moral-allegiance system opposed to God — must not be flattened into the temporal framework alone |
| World (neutral/positive sense) | κόσμος | kosmos | cîhan | Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another | 4:9,14,17 | Disambiguate from the negative “world-system” sense at each occurrence; context-sensitive like baseline’s “called” entry |
| Antichrist | ἀντίχριστος | antichristos | Dijî-Mesîh | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:18,22; 4:3 | Close structural parallel to Islamic eschatology’s Dajjal figure — genuine bridge but risk of importing extra-biblical Dajjal narrative details; must be defined strictly by 1 John’s own doctrinal-denial criterion (2:22; 4:2-3) |
| Confess Christ come in flesh | ὁμολογεῖ…ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα | homologei…en sarki elēlythota | Îsa Mesîh ku bi laş hatiye eşkere/îtîraf kirin | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 4:2-3; (cf. 2 John 7) | Direct application of baseline Tecessud (Incarnation, Critical); the letter’s positive doctrinal test corresponding to the antichrist warning |
| Anointing | χρῖσμα | chrisma | Rûnkirin | High | Testing the Spirits | 2:20,27 | Every believer’s direct Spirit-given discernment, not a hierarchically-transmitted Sufi tariqa/pîr esoteric knowledge reserved for initiates |
| Test the spirits | δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα | dokimazete ta pneumata | ruhan biceribînin | High | Testing the Spirits | 4:1 | Must be taught as a specific doctrinal-confession test (4:2-3), not assimilated into general folk jinn-discernment/exorcism practice |
| Spirit of truth / error | πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / πλάνης | pneuma tēs alētheias / planēs | Ruhê Rastiyê / Ruhê Şaşîtiyê | High | Testing the Spirits | 4:6 | Opposing spiritual realities, not merely differing human viewpoints |
| Abide / Remain | μένω | menō | dimîne / man | High | Fellowship with God and One Another | 2:6,24,27-28; 3:6,24; 4:12-16 | Signature recurring verb (~24x); render with one consistent Kurdish verb throughout per baseline’s cross-document consistency principle |
| Perfected (love) | τελειόω | teleioō | bi tevahî pêk hatiye | Medium | God is Light and God is Love | 2:5; 4:12,17-18 | Distinguish from Sufi ascetic-attainment/fana perfection-through-stages; here it is love reaching its intended relational completeness, God’s initiative |
| Born of God / New Birth | γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ | gennaō ek tou theou | ji Xwedê hatin zayîn | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18 | No native regional-Islamic category (fitrah = innate purity, not new birth); must coordinate with, but not collapse into, baseline’s Kurxwendin (Adoption, Critical) |
| Children of God | τέκνα θεοῦ | tekna theou | zarokên Xwedê | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:1-2,10; 5:2 | Risk of assimilation into aşîret (tribal) blood-lineage membership categories rather than supernatural new-birth family identity |
| Lawlessness | ἀνομία | anomia | neqanûnî / serhildan li dijî qanûna Xwedê | High | Universal Human Accountability (background) | 3:4 | Must not default to bare “Şerîet,” which would wrongly imply a Mosaic/sharia-code violation rather than John’s broader “rebellion against God’s moral order” sense |
| Brother / Brethren | ἀδελφός | adelphos | bira | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:9-11; 3:10-17; 4:20-21 | Distinguish spiritual family transcending blood ties from aşîret tribal-fraternity and from “heval” political-comrade solidarity (baseline Hevaltî note) |
| Liar | ψεύστης | pseustēs | derewîn | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 1:10; 2:4,22; 4:20; 5:10 | Honor-culture pressure to soften this blunt accusation must be resisted; John’s either/or argument depends on its force |
| Devil | διάβολος | diabolos | Şeytan | Medium | Overcoming the World (background) | 3:8,10 | Shared regional antagonist-figure vocabulary; largely an asset, teach with awareness of differing regional fall/role narratives |
| Passed from death to life | μεταβέβηκα ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν | metabebēka ek tou thanatou eis tēn zōēn | derbas bûn ji mirinê ber bi jiyanê ve | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 3:14 | Decisive, already-accomplished transfer; must not read as gradual moral improvement |
| Boldness / Confidence | παρρησία | parrēsia | wêrekî / cesaret | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 2:28; 3:21; 4:17; 5:14 | Runs against regional presumption-avoidance piety re: certainty of final salvation (same caution as baseline’s assurance_of_salvation doctrine) |
| Fear (of judgment) | φόβος | phobos | tirs | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:18 | Clarify as servile dread of punishment being cast out, not reverent awe of God generally |
| Punishment / Torment | κόλασις | kolasis | ceza | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:18 | Shares vocabulary with regional Islamic ‘adhāb concept; contrast with believer’s freedom from this dread must be explicit |
| Savior | σωτήρ | sōtēr | Rizgarkar | Critical | Fellowship with God and One Another / Salvation | 4:14 | Inherits baseline Rizgarî’s full nationalist-political anchoring discipline; must be tied to personal, spiritual deliverance |
| Testify / Witness (verb) | μαρτυρέω | martyreō | şahidî dan | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:14; 5:6-10 | Consistency required with noun form below |
| Witness / Testimony (noun) | μαρτυρία | martyria | şahidî | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 5:9-11 | Forensic/eyewitness sense, not mere personal opinion |
| Overcome | νικάω | nikaō | serkeftin | High | Overcoming the World | 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5 | Same nationalist/political liberation-vocabulary risk documented for Rizgarî and Hilbijartin in baseline; anchor firmly to spiritual victory through faith, not political/military victory |
| Water and Blood | ὕδωρ καὶ αἷμα | hydōr kai haima | av û xwîn | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 5:6-8 | Genuinely ambiguous referent in scholarship; teaching materials should avoid over-specifying a single interpretation as textually certain |
| Eternal Life | ζωὴ αἰώνιος | zōē aiōnios | jiyana herheyî | Critical | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 5:11-13,20 | Present-tense, already-possessed assurance (5:13) must not be softened into a future hope only, despite regional deeds-weighing/Paradise framework default |
| Sin unto death | ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον | hamartia pros thanaton | guneha ber bi mirinê | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 5:16-17 | Interpretively difficult; must not silently resolve via word-choice into the regional shirk-as-unforgivable-sin framework without explicit teaching support |
| Idols | εἴδωλα | eidōla | pût | Medium | Overcoming the World | 5:21 | Doctrinal point of agreement with regional tawhid conviction; sensitivity needed given occasional pejorative outside use of this vocabulary toward Yazidi sacred-site veneration |
| Know (experiential) | γινώσκω | ginōskō | nasîn | Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another | 2:3-5,13-14; 3:1,6,16,19-20,24; 4:6-8,13,16 | Distinguish from factual/reflective “oida” knowledge; relational knowing evidenced by obedience/love |
| Walk (conduct) | περιπατέω | peripateō | meşîn | Low-Medium | God is Light and God is Love | 1:6-7; 2:6,11 | Standard lifestyle/conduct metaphor |
C. Forbidden Substitutions — Kurdish Package Addendum (1 John)
The following must be added to the destination-language forbidden-substitution list (extending the baseline’s existing list for Romans):
- Commandment (ἐντολή): NEVER render as “Ferman.” Always use “Emir” (or a compound retaining emir). Ferman carries an active, specific Yazidi genocide-memory association (“the 74 Fermans”) that would be gravely misleading and potentially painful in this context.
- Propitiation (ἱλασμός): NEVER render as a bare, unqualified “Kefaret” without explicit anchoring to Christ’s own substitutionary act. Left unanchored, Kefaret defaults to the Islamic kaffārah sense of a self-performed compensatory work by the sinner — the opposite of Paul’s/John’s meaning.
- Overcome (νικάω): NEVER leave “Serkeftin” unanchored to faith in the Son of God (5:4-5) — always pair with explicit spiritual framing to prevent default association with Kurdish political/nationalist liberation-struggle victory rhetoric.
- Savior (σωτήρ): NEVER leave “Rizgarkar” unanchored — same discipline as baseline’s Rizgarî requirement.
- Eternal Life (ζωὴ αἰώνιος): NEVER soften the present-tense assurance of 5:13 into a merely future/hoped-for rendering — must preserve “you may know that you have eternal life” as a settled present possession.
This glossary extends, and must never contradict, translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. All new entries above require theologian review (Critical/High) or native-speaker review (Medium) before being merged into translation memory ahead of Phase 2 processing, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md’s Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Xwedê
Transliteration: Xwedê
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Allah
Original: θεός
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Native Old Iranian-root word, preferred over Allah for everyday Kurdish Christian usage. In 1 John, underlies both essence-statements ‘God is Light’ (1:5) and ‘God is Love’ (4:8,16), which must be rendered with equal grammatical copula-of-identity weight.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Îsa
Transliteration: Îsa
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. In 1 John, ‘Îsa’ still carries the regional Quranic prophet-only, non-crucified, non-divine narrative that the letter’s touchstone confession ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ (4:15) and its anti-docetic opening (1:1-3) must actively correct.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Mesîh
Transliteration: Mesîh
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. 1 John 2:22 makes denial that ‘Jesus is the Christ’ the defining mark of antichrist; full, exclusive weight must be preserved against Alevi/Yarsani divinely-guided-figure frameworks as well as mainstream Sunni ones.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Kurê Xwedê
Transliteration: Kurê Xwedê
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Must guard against both mainstream Sunni tawhid denial and the inverted risk of Sufi wahdat al-wujud / Yazidi successive-manifestation belief assimilating this into a mystical-union framework (4:15; 5:5,10-13,20). See also new term ‘only_begotten’ for the qualified compound required at 4:9.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Ruhê Pîroz
Transliteration: Ruhê Pîroz
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Created-being-versus-divine-Person distinction (against regional tafsir identification with Jibril) must be explicit at 3:24; 4:2,13, and in the Spirit of truth/error contrast of 4:6.
Father
Approved rendering: Bav
Transliteration: Bav
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Must be coordinated with, but not collapsed into, new terms ‘born_of_god’ and ‘children_of_god’: 1 John grounds Fatherhood in the organic reality of new birth (3:1-2) alongside the legal-adoption sense the baseline developed from Romans 8.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Rizgarî
Transliteration: rizgarî
Doctrine: Salvation
Original: σωτηρία (conceptual root of σωτήρ, 4:14)
Category: Salvation
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Conceptual root underlying new term ‘savior’ (Rizgarkar, 4:14) and ‘passed_from_death_to_life’ (3:14); same nationalist-political anchoring discipline applies throughout 1 John.
Law
Approved rendering: Şerîeta Mûsa
Transliteration: Şerîeta Mûsa
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: Namûs
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Background referent only in 1 John; must NEVER be used for 3:4’s broader ‘anomia’ (lawlessness) sense — see new term ‘lawlessness’ below, which is a distinct, broader concept requiring its own rendering.
Adoption
Approved rendering: Kurxwendin
Transliteration: kurxwendin
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: υἱοθεσία (background; cf. Rom 8:15,23)
Category: Salvation
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Conveys the legal facet (full inheritance rights) of the same salvation reality that new terms ‘born_of_god’ and ‘children_of_god’ convey organically; must be taught as complementary, not redundant, facets, both countering Kurdish aşîret lineage-based membership defaults.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: Tecessud
Transliteration: tecessud
Doctrine: Incarnation
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Directly underlies new terms ‘word_of_life’ (1:1-3) and ‘confess_christ_incarnate’ (4:2-3), the letter’s own anti-docetic apologetic and antichrist test; guard against both tawhid denial and Yazidi/Sufi manifestation-cycle over-assimilation at every occurrence.
Light
Approved rendering: Ronahî
Transliteration: ronahî
Doctrine: God is Light
Original: φῶς
Category: God
CRITICAL: Kurdistan’s pre-Islamic Zoroastrian heritage and the living Yazidi faith (solar/fire veneration at Newroz and Lalish) carry an indigenous light-versus-darkness cosmic dualism of two co-existing, competing eternal principles. ‘God is Light’ (1:5) must be taught as ethical-relational, not ontological dualism: darkness has no independent power of its own. A distinctly Kurdish risk absent from Arabic/Persian equivalents.
Love
Approved rendering: Evîn
Transliteration: evîn
Doctrine: God is Love
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Love
CRITICAL: Kurdish classical Sufi poetry (Melayê Cizîrî, Ehmedê Xanî) cultivates an intense mystical lover/beloved register using this cognate for divine-human union. ‘God is love’ (4:8,16) risks being absorbed into a wahdat al-wujud mystical-merging framework rather than John’s point: a personal, morally active God whose love is historically demonstrated in sending His Son (4:9-10). Every occurrence must anchor to that concrete, historical act.
Love One Another
Approved rendering: hez kirin
Transliteration: hez kirin
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀγαπάω / ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους
Category: Love
Verb form paired with ‘Evîn’; same Sufi mystical-union anchoring discipline applies. Additional risk that the repeated imperative (‘love one another,’ 4:7-8,11,19-21; 3:11,14,18,23) is heard as one devotional exercise rather than John’s decisive evidentiary test of new birth.
Word Of Life
Approved rendering: Peyva Jiyanê
Transliteration: peyva jiyanê
Doctrine: Incarnation of Christ
Original: ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
CRITICAL: 1:1-3’s sensory-verb chain (‘heard…seen…looked upon…touched’) is the letter’s own opening anti-docetic argument, directly paralleling baseline Tecessud. Must retain the full sensory-verb list uncompressed; must be taught with the same dual caution as Incarnation generally (tawhid denial vs. Yazidi/Sufi manifestation-cycle over-assimilation).
Only Begotten
Approved rendering: Kurê Xwedê yê Yekta
Transliteration: Kurê Xwedê yê Yekta
Doctrine: Sonship and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Kurê Xwedê (bare, unqualified)
Original: μονογενής
Category: Christology
CRITICAL: qualifies 4:9’s monogenēs. No single Kurdish word captures ‘uniquely/singularly begotten’; must always be rendered as this full qualified compound, never abbreviated to bare ‘Kurê Xwedê,’ to preserve the singularity claim against both tawhid denial and Sufi/Yazidi over-assimilation into a repeated-manifestation pattern.
Confess Christ Incarnate
Approved rendering: Îsa Mesîh ku bi laş hatiye eşkere/îtîraf kirin
Transliteration: Îsa Mesîh ku bi laş hatiye eşkere/îtîraf kirin
Doctrine: Incarnation of Christ
Original: ὁμολογεῖ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα
Category: Christology
CRITICAL: 4:2-3’s positive doctrinal test, direct application of baseline Tecessud; the letter’s doctrinal center of gravity for ‘The Incarnation and Antichrist.’ Must apply the full dual-direction caution — guard against tawhid-based denial AND Sufi/Yazidi manifestation-cycle over-assimilation — at every occurrence.
Propitiation
Approved rendering: Kefaret
Transliteration: kefaret
Doctrine: Propitiation / Atonement
Original: ἱλασμός
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL FORBIDDEN-UNANCHORED-USE TERM: Kefaret is the standard Kurdish/regional loanword for Islamic kaffārah — a legal, self-performed compensatory act (fasting, alms) undertaken BY THE SINNER. 1 John’s hilasmos (2:2; 4:10) is the opposite mechanism: God Himself, in the Son, provides and bears the atoning sacrifice. MUST NEVER appear as a bare, unqualified noun — always explicitly anchored to Christ’s own substitutionary death in the same clause or sentence.
Commandment
Approved rendering: Emir
Transliteration: emir
Doctrine: Obedience to God’s Commandments
Rejected alternatives: Ferman
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Love
CRITICAL FORBIDDEN SUBSTITUTION: NEVER render as ‘Ferman.’ Among the Yazidi community, Ferman is the standing term for historic waves of persecution and massacre (‘the 74 Fermans,’ including the 2014 Sinjar genocide) — an active, painful communal-memory association entirely distinct from, and incompatible with, John’s warm relational sense of God’s charge to love (2:3-11; 3:22-24; 4:21; 5:2-3). ‘Emir’ is a religiously-neutral, everyday word for order/command and is required throughout.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: Dijî-Mesîh
Transliteration: dijî-Mesîh
Doctrine: Antichrist / Denial of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Dajjal
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Eschatology
CRITICAL: regional Sunni eschatology’s al-Masîh ad-Dajjal (‘Dajjal’) is a genuine structural parallel, but importing Dajjal’s extra-biblical narrative details (physical appearance, one eye, forty-day reign) would distort the text. Must be defined strictly by 1 John’s own criterion: denying the Father and the Son (2:22), and denying Christ’s coming in the flesh (4:2-3) — a related-but-distinct concept, never conflated with the Dajjal narrative.
Born Of God
Approved rendering: ji Xwedê hatin zayîn
Transliteration: ji Xwedê hatin zayîn
Doctrine: New Birth (Regeneration)
Original: γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL: the organic reality of spiritual new birth by God’s own act (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18). Regional Islamic fitrah doctrine holds innate purity, not a category of new birth; must be taught as a genuinely new supernatural event, coordinated with (not collapsed into) inherited ‘Kurxwendin’ (Adoption).
Seed Of God
Approved rendering: tovê Xwedê
Transliteration: tovê Xwedê
Doctrine: New Birth (Regeneration)
Original: σπέρμα
Category: Salvation
God’s abiding ‘seed’ in the believer producing a settled inability to continue in unrepentant sin (3:9). Requires careful framing as a settled pattern-break, not sinless perfection (already ruled out by 1:8-10); flagged for theologian review given both internal-consistency and fitrah-collision concerns.
Children Of God
Approved rendering: zarokên Xwedê
Transliteration: zarokên Xwedê
Doctrine: Children of God vs. Children of the Devil
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL: organic family membership in God’s family by new birth (3:1-2,10; 5:2). Kurdish tribal (aşîret) identity is fundamentally birth/blood-lineage based; real risk this is heard as extending a familiar blood-category rather than a supernatural new-birth family identity transcending tribal lines. Must be taught alongside, without collapsing into, inherited ‘Kurxwendin’ (Adoption).
Savior
Approved rendering: Rizgarkar
Transliteration: rizgarkar
Doctrine: Salvation
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL: built on inherited ‘Rizgarî’; Christ as sent by the Father to save the world (4:14). Inherits the full nationalist-political anchoring discipline — ‘Rizgarkar’ risks being heard as a claim about a political liberator of Kurdistan rather than the personal, spiritual Savior of individual sinners. Must never stand unanchored to personal deliverance from sin.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: jiyana herheyî
Transliteration: jiyana herheyî
Doctrine: Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: hêviya jiyana herheyî (hoped-for future life, rejected softening)
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Eschatology
CRITICAL: a quality and duration of life belonging to the age to come, already possessed by believers now (5:11-13,20). Regional Islamic eschatology presents Paradise entry as the outcome of a final divine weighing of deeds, not a settled present possession claimable before death. 5:13’s present-tense ‘that you may know that you have eternal life’ must never be softened into a future hope.
High Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: Guneh
Transliteration: guneh
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. 1 John 1:8,10 confronts the regional fitrah (innate purity) default more sharply than Romans, branding the denial of one’s own sinfulness a lie.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: Adalet
Transliteration: adalet
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Rastî
Original: δικαιοσύνη / δίκαιος
Category: Salvation
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. 1:9’s ‘faithful and just to forgive’ (2:1,29; 3:7,10) must be taught as God’s justice satisfied by Christ’s atonement, not overlooked out of mere leniency.
Faith
Approved rendering: Îman
Transliteration: iman
Doctrine: Faith
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. 1 John 5:4-5 explicitly names faith as ‘the victory that has overcome the world’ — reinforce trust/reliance sense against creedal-assent-only reading and against a works-based ‘striving’ misreading of the faith-overcome pairing.
Intercession
Approved rendering: Navbeynkarî
Transliteration: navbeynkarî
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged, as the general background term for intercessory prayer. 1 John 2:1’s paraklētos is a distinct, more specific forensic-advocate image — see new term ‘advocate_paraklete’ below; the two must not be conflated in teaching.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: Teqdîs
Transliteration: teqdîs
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: Pakkirin
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Must be kept distinct from new term ‘cleanse’ (paqij kirin, 1:7,9): cleansing is the immediate judicial removal of guilt upon confession (an event), while Teqdîs is the Spirit’s ongoing transformative process; conflating the two blurs a forgiveness event with a lifelong process.
Holy One
Approved rendering: Pîroz
Transliteration: Pîroz
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
NEW sense of the baseline ‘holy’ term: used in 2:20 as a Christological title (‘the Holy One,’ referring to Christ), not merely a generic quality. Because Pîroz is also used of Yazidi sacred sites and figures (e.g. Lalish), translators must ensure Christ is the unambiguous referent from context.
Darkness
Approved rendering: Tarî
Transliteration: tarî
Doctrine: God is Light
Original: σκοτία
Category: Sin
Companion term to ‘Ronahî’ (1:5-7; 2:8-11); same Zoroastrian/Yazidi cosmic-dualism caution applies. Must be taught as the mere absence of God’s moral purity, not a co-equal competing force.
Confess Sin
Approved rendering: îtîraf kirin / eşkere kirin
Transliteration: îtîraf kirin / eşkere kirin
Doctrine: Confession of Sin
Original: ὁμολογέω (of sin)
Category: Sin
Kurdish Sufi tariqa practice includes structured murīd (disciple) disclosure of inner states to a pîr/sheikh. 1:9’s confession is direct, unmediated confession to God Himself on the basis of Christ’s finished atoning work, not confession routed through a human spiritual intermediary; must be taught explicitly.
Forgiveness
Approved rendering: lêbihûrandin
Transliteration: lêbihûrandin
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Cleansing from Sin
Original: ἀφίημι / ἄφεσις
Category: Sin
Must never stand unanchored (1:9; 2:12): always paired with explicit reference to Christ’s propitiatory death (‘propitiation’ term below) as its basis, so it is not heard as unconditioned leniency apart from a satisfied legal basis.
Advocate Paraklete
Approved rendering: Parêzvan
Transliteration: parêzvan
Doctrine: Christ’s Advocacy / Intercession
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Salvation
2:1’s specific legal-defense-counsel image of Christ before the Father, distinct from inherited ‘Navbeynkarî’ (general intercession). Must be taught as exclusive to Christ’s unique high-priestly, propitiation-based advocacy, not assimilated into the region’s shafa’at-adjacent framework of living or departed holy figures interceding.
World Negative
Approved rendering: dinya
Transliteration: dinya
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: κόσμος (negative sense)
Category: Sin
The organized system of human life alienated from God (2:15-17; 4:1,5; 5:19). Regional Islamic dunya/ākhirah (this-world/hereafter) framework is temporal; John’s sense is a moral-allegiance system opposed to God, not merely ‘temporary versus eternal.’ Fixed to ‘dinya’ specifically for this negative sense as a systematic disambiguation convention against ‘world_positive’ below.
Anointing
Approved rendering: Rûnkirin
Transliteration: rûnkirin
Doctrine: Anointing of the Holy Spirit
Original: χρῖσμα
Category: Sanctification
The Holy Spirit’s abiding, teaching presence given to all believers without exception (2:20,27). Kurdish Sufi tariqa structure transmits esoteric spiritual knowledge hierarchically through a silsila (chain of authority) from sheikh/pîr to murīd, reserved for advanced initiates; this doctrine teaches the opposite and must be taught explicitly against the tariqa-hierarchy default.
Test The Spirits
Approved rendering: ruhan biceribînin
Transliteration: ruhan biceribînin
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα
Category: Faith
The command of 4:1. Kurdistan’s religious landscape includes widespread folk-Islamic belief in cin (jinn) requiring discernment/exorcism, Yazidi veneration practices, and Sufi discernment under a pîr’s guidance. Must be taught as a narrow, specific Christological-confession test (4:2-3), never assimilated into general folk spiritual-discernment or exorcism practice.
Spirit Of Truth Error
Approved rendering: Ruhê Rastiyê / Ruhê Şaşîtiyê
Transliteration: Ruhê Rastiyê / Ruhê Şaşîtiyê
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης
Category: God
4:6’s opposing spiritual realities. Must be taught as clearly opposing spiritual realities — one divine, one deceptive — not merely differing human viewpoints or teachings, preserving the doctrinal weight of the antichrist test.
Abide Remain
Approved rendering: dimîne / man
Transliteration: dimîne / man
Doctrine: Fellowship with God (vertical)
Original: μένω
Category: Church
The letter’s signature recurring verb (2:6,24,27-28; 3:6,24; 4:12-16), used of mutual indwelling between God and the believer. Must be rendered with a single consistent Kurdish verb throughout, per the baseline’s cross-document consistency principle for high-use terms; a generic ‘to be with’ would flatten the mutual, settled-indwelling sense.
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: neqanûnî
Transliteration: neqanûnî
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: Şerîet (bare)
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Sin
Sin defined as rebellion against God’s moral order as such (3:4). Must be carefully distinguished from inherited ‘Şerîeta Mûsa’ (Mosaic Law) — this is a broader definition, not a technical Mosaic-code violation. Using bare ‘Şerîet’ here would risk conflation with Islamic sharia-violation categories; already forbidden at the baseline level.
Brother
Approved rendering: bira
Transliteration: bira
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Church
A fellow believer, member of the spiritual family transcending natural kinship (2:9-11; 3:10-17; 4:20-21). Must be distinguished from aşîret tribal-fraternity bonds and from the secular ‘heval’ (comrade) political-solidarity echo already flagged for Hevaltî; grounded in shared new birth, not blood, tribe, or political movement.
Passed From Death To Life
Approved rendering: derbas bûn ji mirinê ber bi jiyanê ve
Transliteration: derbas bûn ji mirinê ber bi jiyanê ve
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation
Original: μεταβέβηκα ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν
Category: Salvation
The decisive, already-accomplished transfer from spiritual death to life (3:14). Must retain the decisive, completed-transfer sense — not a gradual moral improvement — using completed-aspect grammar.
Boldness Confidence
Approved rendering: wêrekî / cesaret
Transliteration: wêrekî / cesaret
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation
Original: παρρησία
Category: Salvation
Confident, unashamed boldness before God, especially regarding future judgment (2:28; 3:21; 4:17; 5:14). Mainstream regional Sunni piety treats confident certainty about final standing before God as presumptuous; must be grounded in already-perfected love and Christ’s own standing, not human merit.
Overcome
Approved rendering: serkeftin
Transliteration: serkeftin
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: νικάω
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL FORBIDDEN-UNANCHORED-USE TERM: serkeftin is the standard modern Kurdish word for political, military, and revolutionary victory (e.g. serkeftina şoreşê, ‘victory of the revolution’). ‘Overcoming the world’ (2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5) must never be left unanchored to faith in the Son of God, to prevent default association with Kurdish nationalist/leftist liberation-struggle rhetoric.
Sin Unto Death
Approved rendering: guneha ber bi mirinê
Transliteration: guneha ber bi mirinê
Doctrine: Sin unto Death
Original: ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον
Category: Sin
A famously difficult interpretive crux (5:16-17). Requires theologian review regardless of destination language; must not silently import the regional concept of shirk as THE unforgivable sin without explicit teaching-note support, since that is at most a partial parallel.
Medium Risk Terms
Holy
Approved rendering: Pîroz
Transliteration: pîroz
Doctrine: Sanctification
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged, for the generic adjectival sense of ‘holy/set apart.’ See separate new term ‘holy_one’ below for 2:20’s distinct use as a Christological title, which carries elevated risk.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: Hevaltî
Transliteration: hevaltî
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged at the term level. 1 John 1:3,6-7 uniquely requires the same word to carry BOTH a vertical sense (fellowship with the Father and the Son) and a horizontal sense (with one another) in close proximity, a dual load Romans did not require; doctrine-level risk is elevated to High (vertical) / Medium (horizontal) per doctrine_risk_registry.json, though the term rendering itself is unchanged. Distinguish from the secular ‘heval’ (comrade) political-solidarity echo at every occurrence.
Manifested
Approved rendering: hate xuyakirin
Transliteration: hate xuyakirin
Doctrine: Incarnation of Christ
Original: φανερόω
Category: Christology
Used of God’s love (4:9) and Christ’s appearing (3:5,8). Must retain the historical, once-for-all sense of a datable event; avoid a verb suggesting ongoing mystical self-disclosure (a Sufi tajallî/theophany register).
Sent By Father
Approved rendering: şandin
Transliteration: şandin
Doctrine: Incarnation of Christ
Original: ἀποστέλλω
Category: Christology
The Father’s act of sending the Son (4:9-10,14). Must not be read as sending a mere prophet/messenger — a category regional Sunni Islam readily accepts — rather than the unique sending of God’s own only-begotten Son; pair with ‘only_begotten’ or explicit Sonship language in the same sentence.
Cleanse
Approved rendering: paqij kirin
Transliteration: paqij kirin
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Cleansing from Sin
Original: καθαρίζω
Category: Sin
The immediate judicial removal of guilt upon confession (1:7,9). Must be kept distinct from inherited ‘Teqdîs’ (Sanctification, High) — a decisive forgiveness event, not the Spirit’s ongoing transformative process.
World Positive
Approved rendering: cîhan
Transliteration: cîhan
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: κόσμος (neutral/comprehensive sense)
Category: Salvation
All humanity as the object of God’s saving intent (4:9,14,17). Must be disambiguated from ‘world_negative’ (dinya) at each occurrence by fixed root-split convention, not left to case-by-case judgment alone.
Worldly Desires
Approved rendering: xwestekên laş, xwestekên çavan, û pesindayîna jiyanê
Transliteration: xwestekên laş, xwestekên çavan, û pesindayîna jiyanê
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός / τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν, ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου
Category: Sin
The 2:16 triad (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life). Broadly compatible with regional ascetic/moral vocabulary — Sufi teaching on the nafs (lower self) offers a genuine point of contact — provided the remedy is anchored in new birth/abiding in Christ (2:24-29) rather than ascetic self-discipline alone.
Perfected Love
Approved rendering: bi tevahî pêk hatiye
Transliteration: bi tevahî pêk hatiye
Doctrine: God is Love
Original: τελειόω
Category: Love
Love reaching its intended goal/maturity (2:5; 4:12,17-18). Must be distinguished from Sufi ascetic-attainment/fana perfection-through-stages concepts; here perfection is God’s love reaching full expression in the community by His initiative, not a mystical achievement of the individual soul.
Liar
Approved rendering: derewîn
Transliteration: derewîn
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: şaş (mistaken, rejected softening)
Original: ψεύστης
Category: Sin
A direct moral accusation (1:10; 2:4,22; 4:20; 5:10). Kurdish honor-culture social conventions treat this as a serious, face-threatening accusation; oral-teaching pressure may soften it to ‘mistaken’ — John’s either/or logic depends on preserving its blunt force, so this softening is explicitly rejected.
Devil
Approved rendering: Şeytan
Transliteration: Şeytan
Doctrine: Origin of Sin and the Devil
Original: διάβολος
Category: Sin
The slanderer/accuser, source of sin from the beginning (3:8,10). Shared antagonist-figure vocabulary across Islamic, Yazidi (distinct cosmology centered on Melek Taus), and folk traditions — largely an asset — teach with awareness of differing regional fall/role narratives.
Fear Of Judgment
Approved rendering: tirs
Transliteration: tirs
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation
Original: φόβος
Category: Salvation
Servile dread of punishment, cast out by perfected love (4:18). Must be clarified as dread-of-judgment, not reverent awe of God generally, to avoid an apparent contradiction with Scripture’s elsewhere-commended reverent fear.
Punishment Torment
Approved rendering: ceza
Transliteration: ceza
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation
Original: κόλασις
Category: Eschatology
Eschatological punishment/torment, the object of the fear perfected love removes (4:18). Shares vocabulary with the regional Islamic ‘adhāb concept; the point that perfected love removes this dread for believers now must be made explicit, against the regional expectation that such dread persists until final judgment.
Testify Witness Verb
Approved rendering: şahidî dan
Transliteration: şahidî dan
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation
Original: μαρτυρέω
Category: Faith
Legal/eyewitness testimony (4:14; 5:6-10), not mere personal opinion. Must be rendered consistently with the noun form ‘witness_testimony_noun’ below so the letter’s forensic-witness argument reads as a coherent whole.
Witness Testimony Noun
Approved rendering: şahidî
Transliteration: şahidî
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation
Original: μαρτυρία
Category: Faith
The forensic testimony of the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and of God concerning His Son (5:9-11). Must match the verb form ‘testify_witness_verb’ (4:14) for consistency.
Water And Blood
Approved rendering: av û xwîn
Transliteration: av û xwîn
Doctrine: Testimony of the Spirit, Water, and Blood
Original: τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα
Category: Salvation
Two of the three witnesses to Christ, alongside the Spirit (5:6-8). Genuinely ambiguous referent in scholarship; teaching materials must avoid over-specifying a single interpretation as though textually certain.
Idols
Approved rendering: pût
Transliteration: pût
Doctrine: Avoidance of Idolatry
Original: εἴδωλα
Category: Sin
The letter’s abrupt closing warning (5:21). A point of strong agreement with regional Islamic tawhid conviction — an asset — but has sometimes been used pejoratively toward Yazidi shrine/sacred-site veneration (e.g. Lalish); teaching applications must not weaponize this shared conviction against a specific minority Kurdish religious community.
Know Experiential
Approved rendering: nasîn
Transliteration: nasîn
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: γινώσκω
Category: Faith
Experiential, relational knowledge of God, evidenced by obedience and love (2:3-5,13-14; 3:1,6,16,19-20,24; 4:6-8,13,16). Must be distinguished from mere factual/reflective knowledge, paralleling the baseline’s concern that ‘Îman’ not be reduced to creedal-assent-only religion.
Faithful God
Approved rendering: dilsoz
Transliteration: dilsoz
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Cleansing from Sin
Original: πιστός (of God)
Category: God
God’s own faithfulness/reliability as the basis for forgiving confessed sin (1:9). A distinct nuance from believer-directed ‘Îman’ (faith); should be rendered so as not to be confused with that separate term.
Message
Approved rendering: peyam
Transliteration: peyam
Doctrine: Gospel
Original: ἀγγελία
Category: Faith
The apostolic proclamation heard from the beginning: that God is light (1:5) and that believers should love one another (3:11). A distinct Greek word (angelia) from euangelion (Mizgînî, gospel); should not be conflated with it. Must retain the sense of an authoritative, received apostolic report.
Low Risk Terms
Hate
Approved rendering: nefret kirin
Transliteration: nefret kirin
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: μισέω
Category: Sin
The opposite of love, marking one who does not know God (2:9,11; 3:15; 4:20). Standard vocabulary; low independent risk beyond the paired love terms’ anchoring discipline.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: meşîn
Transliteration: meşîn
Doctrine: Walking in the Light (Practical Conduct)
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Sanctification
The letter’s standard metaphor for lived conduct/lifestyle (1:6-7; 2:6,11). Standard lifestyle metaphor; low independent risk beyond the underlying ‘light’/‘darkness’ terms it is paired with.
Obligation To Love
Approved rendering: deyndar bûn
Transliteration: deyndar bûn
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Love
A debt-obligation verb: believers ‘owe’ love because God loved them first (4:11). Culturally resonant with Kurdish tribal reciprocity/hospitality-obligation custom — a genuine asset, provided it is not confused with earning God’s favor, contrary to baseline ‘Kerem’ (grace).
Truth
Approved rendering: rastî
Transliteration: rastî
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Faith
Truth, especially as the standard for genuine love (‘in deed and in truth,’ 3:18) versus mere talk. The baseline rejected ‘Rastî’ for the separate concept of forensic ‘righteousness,’ but it is appropriate and standard here for plain ‘truth’; also used of the Spirit of truth (4:6).
Referenced passages