Core Glossary
James — Core Glossary
Phase 1, Step 1 — TRI Bible Study Translation Pipeline
Destination language: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Latin/Hawar script)
Curriculum: James, chapters 1–5
Status key: [BASELINE] = term and rendering reused exactly from the Romans translation_memory.json; no deviation permitted. [NEW] = term introduced by James, not present in the Romans baseline; rendering proposed here for theologian review and, upon approval, addition to translation memory in Phase 1 Step 2.
Risk tiers follow the baseline’s Critical/High/Medium/Low framework exactly (see doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions).
| # | English Term | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | Kurdish Rendering | Status | Risk | Doctrine | Chapter Refs | Key Risk Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Faith | πίστις | pistis | Îman | [BASELINE] | High | Faith and Works | 1:3, 1:6, 2:1, 2:5, 2:14–26, 5:15 | Baseline creedal-assent risk is doctrinally amplified in James 2:19, 2:24 where James himself critiques assent-only “faith.” |
| 2 | Works | ἔργα | erga | Kar | [NEW] | Critical | Faith and Works | 1:25, 2:14–26, 3:13 | ”Xebat” explicitly rejected — collides with Kurdish nationalist-struggle vocabulary, compounding with rizgarî’s own political resonance. |
| 3 | Justified / Justification | δικαιόω | dikaioō | Wek adil hatin hesibandin | [BASELINE] | Critical | Faith and Works | 2:21, 2:24, 2:25 | Same Kurdish compound as Romans’ forensic sense, but James uses the demonstrative/vindication sense — mandatory harmonization note required at every occurrence to prevent an apparent Paul/James contradiction. |
| 4 | Imputed righteousness | ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην | elogisthē autō eis dikaiosynēn | Adaleta ku tê hesibandin | [BASELINE] | Critical | Faith and Works | 2:23 | Direct quotation of Genesis 15:6, identical to Romans 4:3 — cross-document consistency with Romans rendering is mandatory. |
| 5 | Salvation / save | σωτηρία / σῴζω | sōtēria / sōzō | Rizgarî / rizgar kirin | [BASELINE] | Critical | Faith and Works; Prayer and Healing | 2:14, 4:12, 5:15, 5:20 | Dual save/heal semantic range in James 5:15 requires context to clarify physical-healing sense without diluting salvation’s Critical anchoring requirement. |
| 6 | Dead (of faith) | νεκρός | nekros | Mirî | [NEW] | Medium | Faith and Works | 2:17, 2:26 | Must convey total nullity (“not genuine faith at all”), not weakness or immaturity. |
| 7 | Perfect / complete / mature | τέλειος / τελειόω | teleios / teleioō | Temam / Bêkêmasî | [NEW] | Critical | Trials and the Testing of Faith; Faith and Works | 1:4, 1:17, 1:25, 2:22, 3:2 | ”Kamil” explicitly rejected — collides with Sufi al-insan al-kamil (“Perfect/Complete Human”) mystical-attainment doctrine. |
| 8 | Trial / temptation | πειρασμός | peirasmos | Ceribandin | [NEW] | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:2, 1:12–14 | Single term must carry both “external trial” and “internal temptation” senses to preserve James’s deliberate wordplay; splitting into two terms loses the argument. |
| 9 | Endurance / steadfastness | ὑπομονή | hypomonē | Berxwedan | [NEW] | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith; Patience and the Lord’s Return | 1:3, 1:4, 1:12, 5:11 | Strong contemporary association with Kurdish political/armed resistance (e.g. “Berxwedana Kobanê”); requires explicit spiritual (not political) anchoring, parallel to baseline’s rizgarî treatment. |
| 10 | Wisdom | σοφία | sophia | Hikmet | [NEW] | High | Wisdom from Above | 1:5, 3:13–18 | Regional term carries strong Sufi mystical-wisdom-literature associations (Naqshbandi heritage); James’s wisdom is a practical, morally-tested gift for any believer, not an esoteric attainment. |
| 11 | Wisdom from above / earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom | σοφία ἄνωθεν / ἐπίγειος, ψυχική, δαιμονιώδης | sophia anōthen / epigeios, psychikē, daimoniōdēs | Hikmeta ji jor / hikmeta dinyayî / hikmeta cinî | [NEW] | High | Wisdom from Above | 3:15, 3:17 | Compounds both the Hikmet risk (#10) and the Cin/demon risk (#20); recommend single theologian sign-off covering the full four-term contrast set. |
| 12 | Double-minded | δίψυχος | dipsychos | Du-dilî | [NEW] | Medium | Trials and the Testing of Faith; Prayer and Healing | 1:8, 4:8 | Transparent native compound; low collision risk. |
| 13 | Poor | πτωχός | ptōchos | Belengaz | [NEW] | Medium-High | Favoritism and the Poor | 1:9, 1:27, 2:2–6, 5:1–6 | ”Feqîr” explicitly rejected — denotes Qur’anic-madrasa student / Sufi mendicant with elevated religious-poverty status, not James’s plain socioeconomic sense. |
| 14 | Rich | πλούσιος | plousios | Dewlemend | [NEW] | Low | Favoritism and the Poor | 1:10–11, 2:6, 5:1 | Standard, low-risk native term. |
| 15 | Favoritism / partiality | προσωπολημψία | prosōpolēmpsia | Rûgirtina Kesan | [NEW] | Medium-High | Favoritism and the Poor | 2:1, 2:9 | ”Alîgirî” flagged as a less safe alternative — commonly denotes political factional bias in Kurdish usage; recommend the literal calque instead. |
| 16 | Tongue | γλῶσσα | glōssa | Ziman | [NEW] | Medium | Taming the Tongue | 3:1–12 | Also means “language”; carries Kurdish language-rights resonance. Context (bridle, fire, poison) disambiguates toward “organ of speech,” a cultural rather than doctrinal risk. |
| 17 | Bridle / bit | χαλινός / χαλιναγωγέω | chalinos / chalinagōgeō | Gem | [NEW] | Low | Taming the Tongue | 3:2–3 | Positive cultural asset given Kurdish equestrian tradition. |
| 18 | Blessing / curse | εὐλογία / κατάρα | eulogia / katara | Pesindan / Nifir | [NEW] | Medium-High | Taming the Tongue | 3:9–10 | ”Bereket” for blessing explicitly rejected — denotes transferable holy power (baraka) in regional folk-Islamic/Sufi usage, not verbal praise. |
| 19 | Demons / demonic | δαιμόνια / δαιμονιώδης | daimonia / daimoniōdēs | Cin (alt: Ruhên Xerab) | [NEW] | High | Faith and Works; Wisdom from Above | 2:19, 3:15 | ”Cin” imports Islamic jinn-cosmology (moral variability, possession/exorcism folk practice); “Ruhên Xerab” (evil spirits) recommended as the safer book-wide default. |
| 20 | God is one | εἷς θεός | heis theos | Xwedê yek e | [BASELINE root] | Critical | Faith and Works | 2:19 | Near-verbatim overlap with the Islamic shahada/tawhid affirmation; risk of being quoted as endorsing bare creedal monotheism, exactly opposite James’s rhetorical point. Mandatory theologian-reviewed teaching note at every occurrence. |
| 21 | Friend of God | φίλος θεοῦ | philos theou | Hevalê Xwedê | [NEW, built on BASELINE hevaltî root] | Medium | Faith and Works | 2:23 | Asset: Abraham/Ibrahim already carries the honorific “Khalil Allah” (Friend of God) in Islamic tradition; teach extension of this intimacy to all who believe, not reserved to one patriarch. |
| 22 | Abraham | Ἀβραάμ | Abraam | Îbrahîm | [BASELINE] | Medium | Faith and Works | 2:21–23 | Shared, revered figure; but 2:21’s “Isaac” (not Ishmael) is a Critical, specific point of divergence from the Islamic Eid al-Adha narrative — address directly, do not obscure. |
| 23 | Rahab the prostitute | Ῥαάβ ἡ πόρνη | Rhaab hē pornē | Rahab a leşfiroş | [NEW] | Medium | Faith and Works; Favoritism and the Poor | 2:25 | Retain moral scandal without euphemism to preserve James’s point; register sensitivity in oral teaching, not doctrinal syncretism risk. |
| 24 | Law of liberty | νόμος ἐλευθερίας | nomos eleutherias | Şerîeta Azadiyê | [NEW, built on BASELINE Şerîeta Mûsa root] | Critical | Faith and Works | 1:25, 2:12 | Combines the mandatory “Şerîeta” root with azadî, the exact companion nationalist term flagged in the baseline alongside rizgarî; requires explicit personal/spiritual anchoring at every occurrence. |
| 25 | Royal law | νόμος βασιλικός | nomos basilikos | Şerîeta Padîşahî | [NEW, echoes BASELINE Padîşahiya Xwedê] | High | Faith and Works | 2:8 | Echoes the Critical Kingdom-of-God term; must not be heard as endorsing political statehood framing. |
| 26 | Religion (pure and undefiled) | θρησκεία | thrēskeia | Dîn | [NEW] | High | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 1:26–27 | ”Dîn” often functions regionally as shorthand for Islam specifically; risks importing a whole religious-legal-social system where James intends a narrower practice-focused sense. |
| 27 | World | κόσμος | kosmos | Dinya / Cîhan | [NEW] | Medium-High | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 1:27, 3:6, 4:4 | ”Dinya” taps the existing Islamic dinya/axiret (this-world/afterlife) dualism — a partial asset but risks importing the full Islamic eschatological framework rather than James’s narrower ethical contrast. |
| 28 | Friendship with the world / friend of God (contrast) | φιλία τοῦ κόσμου | philia tou kosmou | Hevaltiya Dinyayê | [NEW, built on BASELINE hevaltî root] | High | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 4:4 | Baseline’s heval/“comrade” political resonance risks the doctrine being misheard as caution against political solidarity rather than the broader biblical category of worldliness. |
| 29 | Humble / humble yourselves | ταπεινός / ταπεινόω | tapeinos / tapeinoō | Xwe-nizmkirin | [NEW] | Medium | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 1:9, 4:6, 4:10 | ”Nefsbiçûk” (built on “nefs”) rejected — imports Sufi ascetic nafs-mortification discipline rather than plain relational lowliness. |
| 30 | Devil | διάβολος | diabolos | Şeytan | [NEW, shared regional root] | Medium | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 4:7 | Shared Christian/Islamic vocabulary; regional piety often frames satanic activity as waswas warded off ritually — James calls for active resistance, a more agentive posture. |
| 31 | ”If the Lord wills” | ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ | ean ho kyrios thelēsē | eger Xwedê bixwaze | [NEW, built on BASELINE Xwedê] | Medium | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 4:15 | Asset: near-identical to the ubiquitous colloquial “înşALLAH”; risk of semantic bleaching — teach the God-dependent posture, not just rely on the familiar phrase. |
| 32 | Peace (everyday blessing, not doctrinal) | εἰρήνη | eirēnē | Aştî | [BASELINE] | Medium | Faith and Works | 2:16 | Must be distinguished from the Romans 5:1 doctrinal “peace with God” sense; here it is an empty conventional farewell exposed by James’s irony. |
| 33 | Mercy / judgment | ἔλεος / κρίσις | eleos / krisis | Dilovanî / dadgerî | [NEW] | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | 2:13 | Keep “dilovanî” (compassionate mercy) conceptually distinct from baseline “Kerem” (saving grace) — related but not identical concepts. |
| 34 | Wars / fights | πόλεμος / μάχη | polemos / machē | Şer / pevçûn | [NEW] | Medium | Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 4:1 | Heavy lived resonance given regional conflict history; pastoral sensitivity required, not primarily a doctrinal-distortion risk. |
| 35 | Lord of Sabaoth / Hosts | κύριος Σαβαώθ | kyrios Sabaōth | Xudanê Hêzên Ezmanî | [NEW, built on BASELINE Xudan root] | High | Favoritism and the Poor; Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:4 | Rare OT military-royal divine title; must be taught as God’s sovereign moral authority, never as endorsement of or comparison to any earthly military-political struggle. |
| 36 | Coming of the Lord (Parousia) | παρουσία | parousia | Hatina Xudan | [NEW, built on BASELINE Xudan root] | Critical | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:7, 5:8 | Collides with a specific, well-developed mainstream Sunni doctrine of the return of Jesus as a subordinate, non-divine prophet under Islamic eschatological authority; must be taught explicitly against this existing detailed alternative narrative. |
| 37 | Patience / longsuffering | μακροθυμία | makrothymia | Bihnfirehî | [NEW] | Medium | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:7, 5:8, 5:10 | Native idiom preferred over the Arabic loanword “sebir” to reduce (though not eliminate) overlap with the major Islamic patience-virtue concept. |
| 38 | Job | Ἰώβ | Iōb | Eyûb | [NEW] | Low-Medium | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:11 | Positive shared-figure asset; Ayyub is a respected Qur’anic prophet-figure noted for patience under suffering. |
| 39 | Oath | ὅρκος | horkos | Sond | [NEW] | Medium | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:12 | Resonant with Kurdish tribal (aşîret) honor-bound oath customs; ensure James’s actual point (truthful speech makes oaths unnecessary) is not lost. |
| 40 | Elders | πρεσβύτεροι | presbyteroi | Rihspî | [NEW] | High | Confession and Restoration | 5:14 | Maps NT pastoral eldership onto the tribal “white-beard” institution, risking import of hereditary status and customary clan-mediation authority not present in the NT office; recommend qualifying “rihspiyên dêr.” |
| 41 | Anointing with oil | ἐλαίῳ ἀλείψαντες | elaiō aleipsantes | bi zeytê şeht kirin | [NEW] | Medium | Prayer and Healing | 5:14 | Risk of assimilation to Sufi/Yazidi shrine-oil barakah healing practice; teach as accompanying sign of faith-filled prayer, not a healing substance itself. |
| 42 | Prayer of faith / save the sick | εὐχή τῆς πίστεως / σῴζω τὸν κάμνοντα | euchē tēs pisteōs / sōzō ton kamnonta | Dua ya bi îman / rizgar kirin (birîndar/nexweş) | [NEW, built on BASELINE Rizgarî] | Medium-High | Prayer and Healing | 5:15 | Dual save/heal sense of sōzō; guard against formulaic over-promising readings that could create false expectation or spiritual crisis. |
| 43 | Confess (sins to one another) | ἐξομολογέομαι | exomologeomai | Îtîraf kirin | [NEW] | High | Confession and Restoration | 5:16 | Risk of assimilation to formal priest-administered sacramental confession familiar from regional Assyrian/Chaldean liturgical tradition; James envisions mutual, peer-to-peer confession. |
| 44 | Turn back one who wanders | ἐπιστρέφω / πλανάω | epistrephō / planaō | rêderketî vegerandin | [NEW] | Low-Medium | Confession and Restoration | 5:19–20 | Positive resonance with regional “straight path” moral-religious imagery; anchor explicitly to Christ and gospel truth, not left as generic path metaphor. |
| 45 | Scripture | γραφή | graphē | Nivîsara Pîroz | [BASELINE-adjacent, via Îlhama Nivîsara Pîroz doctrine] | High | Faith and Works | 2:8, 2:23 | Reuse the baseline’s Inspiration-of-Scripture doctrine vocabulary; James 2:23 directly quotes the same Genesis 15:6 text expounded in Romans 4. |
| 46 | Grace | χάρις | charis | Kerem | [BASELINE] | High | (implicit, undergirds Faith and Works, Wisdom from Above) | 4:6 (“God gives grace to the humble”) | Reuse baseline exactly; keep distinct from the newly introduced “Dilovanî” (mercy) and “Bereket” (rejected, for blessing) to avoid three overlapping Kurdish terms collapsing into one undifferentiated concept. |
| 47 | Sin | ἁμαρτία | hamartia | Guneh | [BASELINE] | High | Confession and Restoration | 1:15, 2:9, 4:17, 5:15, 5:16, 5:20 | Reuse baseline exactly; no new James-specific risk beyond the baseline’s fitrah-innate-purity caution. |
| 48 | Lord | κύριος | kyrios | Xudan | [BASELINE] | Critical | Patience and the Lord’s Return; Favoritism and the Poor | 1:1, 5:4, 5:7, 5:8, 5:11, 5:14, 5:15 | Reuse baseline exactly; root term for both new compounds #35 and #36 above. |
| 49 | God | θεός | theos | Xwedê | [BASELINE] | Critical | (all doctrines) | throughout | Reuse baseline exactly. |
| 50 | Jesus Christ | Ἰησοῦς Χριστός | Iēsous Christos | Îsa Mesîh | [BASELINE] | Critical | (implicit throughout) | 1:1, 2:1 | Reuse baseline exactly; note James’s own address (1:1, 2:1) already pairs the two baseline Critical terms directly. |
Chapters Reviewed with No New Load-Bearing Terms
No chapter in James introduces zero new theological vocabulary — every chapter contributes at least one term requiring fresh risk assessment, as reflected in Part B of 07_semantic_analysis.md. This is noted explicitly here to confirm full-book coverage was verified chapter by chapter rather than assumed.
Recommended Priority Order for Theologian Review (Phase 1 Step 2 handoff)
- δικαιόω / “justified” cluster — James 2:21, 2:24, 2:25 (Critical; core-passage harmonization with Romans)
- εἷς θεός / “God is one” — James 2:19 (Critical; tawhid-overlap teaching note)
- παρουσία / “coming of the Lord” — James 5:7–8 (Critical; Islamic Second-Coming-of-Isa distinction)
- ἔργα / “works” — Kar vs. rejected Xebat (Critical; nationalist-vocabulary avoidance)
- τέλειος/τελειόω / “perfect, complete” — Temam vs. rejected Kamil (Critical; Sufi al-insan al-kamil avoidance)
- νόμος ἐλευθερίας / “law of liberty” — Şerîeta Azadiyê (Critical; nationalist-vocabulary anchoring)
- All remaining High-risk entries above (#2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 19, 25, 26, 28, 35, 40, 43), in any order, prior to Phase 2 segment translation.
Critical Risk Terms
Justification
Approved rendering: Wek adil hatin hesibandin
Transliteration: wek adil hatin hesibandin
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: δικαιόω
Category: Faith and Works
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim and MANDATORY — no deviation permitted. Baseline note: forensic declaration, not a process of becoming righteous. James note: James 2:21, 2:24, 2:25 use this identical Greek verb (dikaioō) in its demonstrative/vindication sense (faith shown genuine by works), not Romans’ forensic-declaration sense. The Kurdish phrase does not change; every James occurrence requires a mandatory theologian-authored harmonization note distinguishing ‘declared righteous before God’ (Romans) from ‘shown to be genuinely righteous before others’ (James), to prevent an apparent contradiction of Romans 3:28.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: Adaleta ku tê hesibandin
Transliteration: adaleta ku tê hesibandin
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Adaleta ku tê bidestxistin
Original: ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην
Category: Faith and Works
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim and MANDATORY. Baseline note: ‘earned righteousness’ rejected as the exact opposite of the doctrine. James note: James 2:23 directly quotes the identical Genesis 15:6 text Paul quotes in Romans 4:3; zero deviation between the two curricula’s renderings is required, since any divergence would itself manufacture an apparent contradiction the source text does not contain.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Rizgarî
Transliteration: rizgarî
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: σωτηρία / σῴζω
Category: Faith and Works
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: rizgarî is the defining vocabulary of Kurdish political nationalism; must always be anchored to personal, spiritual deliverance. James note: James 2:14’s rhetorical question (‘can that faith save/rizgar bike him?’) sits directly beside ‘Kar’ (works, see below) — using the rejected ‘Xebat’ for works there would create nationalist-slogan syntax. James 5:15 and 5:20 add sōzō’s dual save/heal sense, requiring context to establish physical healing without diluting the term’s Critical spiritual anchoring.
Lord
Approved rendering: Xudan
Transliteration: Xudan
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: must convey exclusive, supreme Lordship, never softened to a merely respectful title. James note: root term for two new James-specific Critical/High compounds — ‘Xudanê Hêzên Ezmanî’ (Lord of Sabaoth, 5:4) and ‘Hatina Xudan’ (coming of the Lord, 5:7-8) — plus bare occurrences at 1:1, 5:11, 5:14-15; consistent enforcement across all these compounds is essential.
God
Approved rendering: Xwedê
Transliteration: Xwedê
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Allah
Original: θεός
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: native Iranian-root word; strict tawhid theology must be distinguished from the Trinitarian conception denoted by the same word. James note: this baseline caution is especially acute at James 2:19’s ‘Xwedê yek e’ (God is one), the letter’s most direct tawhid-overlap verse.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Îsa
Transliteration: Îsa
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: the settled, uncontroversial Kurdish Christian usage; the risk is entirely in content (Quranic prophet-only, non-crucified, non-divine narrative). James note: paired with Mesîh at the letter’s opening and center (1:1, 2:1); the Quranic narrative is directly relevant to, and must be actively corrected against, James 5:7-8’s parousia doctrine.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Mesîh
Transliteration: Mesîh
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: carries the same pre-loaded Quranic content as Arabic’s al-Masih; Alevi/Yarsani communities add a further comparison layer. James note: occurs at 1:1 and 2:1, paired directly with Îsa.
Father
Approved rendering: Bav
Transliteration: Bav
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: native word sharing the region’s tawhid-anthropomorphism objection; Sufi poetry offers a lover/beloved register as a possible warmth resource. James note: James 1:17’s ‘Father of lights’ (see ‘father_of_lights’ entry below) is a cosmic Creator-Giver Fatherhood, a distinct register from Romans 8’s intimate adoptive Abba-Bav; curriculum material must not flatten the two senses together.
Law
Approved rendering: Şerîeta Mûsa
Transliteration: Şerîeta Mûsa
Doctrine: The Law of Liberty and the Royal Law
Rejected alternatives: Namûs
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim and MANDATORY; Namûs remains permanently forbidden (narrowed regionally to family/female honor). James note: root term for two new James-specific compounds — ‘Şerîeta Azadiyê’ (law of liberty, 1:25, 2:12) and ‘Şerîeta Padîşahî’ (royal law, 2:8) — and also occurs bare at 2:10 (‘the whole Law’) and in the lawgiver/judge material of 4:11-12.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Padîşahiya Xwedê
Transliteration: padîşahiya Xwedê
Doctrine: The Law of Liberty and the Royal Law
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: risk of being heard as validating Kurdish political statehood aspiration. James note: echoed (not directly quoted) by the new James term ‘Şerîeta Padîşahî’ (royal law, James 2:8); the same political-statehood caution applies by direct association.
Works
Approved rendering: Kar
Transliteration: kar
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Xebat
Original: ἔργα
Category: Faith and Works
NEW TERM. The natural everyday Kurdish word for ‘work,’ Xebat, is PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for this term: it is the defining vocabulary of the Kurdish national liberation movement (the historic newspaper Xebat; ‘xebata rizgariya Kurdistanê’). Paired in the same passage with ‘Rizgarî’ (already Critical for the identical nationalist reason), an Xebat rendering risks the whole faith-and-works passage being misheard as ‘political struggle earns national liberation.’ Use plain ‘Kar’ (deed/labor, ideologically unloaded) at every occurrence: 1:25, 2:14-26, 3:13.
Perfect Complete
Approved rendering: Temam / Bêkêmasî
Transliteration: temam / bêkêmasî
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: Kamil
Original: τέλειος / τελειόω
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
NEW TERM. ‘Kamil’ is PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN: it is the term for al-insan al-kamil (‘the Perfect/Complete Human’), a major Sufi mystical-anthropology concept (Kurdistan’s Naqshbandi heritage) describing a saint who has attained divine-attribute manifestation through mystical discipline. Using Kamil for James’s teleios/teleioō risks reframing faith’s maturing-through-trial as mystical self-perfection attainment. Use ‘Temam’ or ‘Bêkêmasî’ at every occurrence: 1:4, 1:17, 1:25, 2:22, 3:2.
God Is One
Approved rendering: Xwedê yek e
Transliteration: Xwedê yek e
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: εἷς θεός
Category: Faith and Works
NEW TERM. James 2:19a is a near-verbatim overlap with the shahada’s core content and the region’s central tawhid affirmation, shared in various forms across Sunni, Alevi, Yarsani, and Yazidi frameworks. Left unframed, this verse could be quoted approvingly and out of context as Scripture endorsing bare creedal monotheism as sufficient religion — the exact opposite of James’s point that even demons hold this correct belief without saving benefit. Translate literally and unsoftened; the fencing belongs in a mandatory theologian-authored teaching note at every occurrence, never in the verse wording itself.
Law Of Liberty
Approved rendering: Şerîeta Azadiyê
Transliteration: şerîeta azadiyê
Doctrine: The Law of Liberty and the Royal Law
Original: νόμος ἐλευθερίας
Category: Faith and Works
NEW TERM, built on the mandatory baseline ‘Şerîeta Mûsa’ root. Combines that root with ‘azadî,’ the exact companion term the baseline already flags alongside ‘rizgarî’ as one half of Kurdish nationalism’s defining vocabulary pair — lexically among the most nationalist-vocabulary-dense phrases in the whole letter. Requires the same explicit personal/spiritual anchoring the baseline mandates for rizgarî, at every occurrence: 1:25, 2:12.
Coming Of The Lord
Approved rendering: Hatina Xudan
Transliteration: Hatina Xudan
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: παρουσία
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW TERM, built on the mandatory baseline Xudan root. James 5:7-8: the personal, glorious, authoritative return of the divine Lord as Judge. Mainstream Sunni Islamic eschatology holds a specific, widely taught doctrine of Jesus (Isa)‘s return as a subordinate, non-divine prophet who defeats al-Dajjal, prays behind the Mahdi, and eventually dies a natural death before the general resurrection. A Kurdish Muslim-background reader may already hold this as their working model for ‘the return of Jesus’; James’s parousia must be taught explicitly against this existing, detailed alternative narrative at every occurrence, paired with the baseline’s lordship_of_christ and messianic_promise doctrine notes.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: Îman
Transliteration: îman
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith and Works
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: shares the region’s Sunni six-pillars creedal structure; must be anchored as personal trust in Christ, not creedal assent to a list of propositions. James note: James 2:19 and 2:24 themselves critique assent-only ‘faith’ as insufficient and dead — this is the baseline risk being doctrinally amplified, not merely repeated; the critique must land in Kurdish exactly as sharply as in Greek, never softened to protect the term’s dignity.
Grace
Approved rendering: Kerem
Transliteration: kerem
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: χάρις
Category: Faith and Works
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: Sufi ‘keramet’ cognate risks an elite, hierarchical favor reading rather than grace freely given to all. James note: occurs at James 4:6 (God gives grace to the humble, quoting Proverbs 3:34); keep conceptually distinct in Kurdish from the new James term ‘Dilovanî’ (mercy) and the rejected ‘Bereket’ (blessing/baraka) so the three do not collapse into one undifferentiated concept.
Sin
Approved rendering: Guneh
Transliteration: guneh
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: shares the region’s Islamic fitrah (innate purity) doctrine. James note: no new James-specific risk beyond the baseline caution; recurs at 1:15 (desire produces sin), 2:9, 4:17, and the confession/restoration passages 5:15-16, 5:20.
Church
Approved rendering: Dêr
Transliteration: dêr
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: established word for a church building; ‘Civata Mesîhî’ needed for the gathered-people sense; region-aware framing required given varying religious freedom across the four host states. James note: James 5:14’s ‘elders of the church’ (ekklēsia) is the letter’s one direct occurrence of this Greek term; pair consistently with the new term ‘Rihspiyên Dêr’ for elders.
Trial Temptation
Approved rendering: Ceribandin
Transliteration: ceribandin
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: πειρασμός
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
NEW TERM. A single Greek root (peirasmos) covers both God-permitted external trial (1:2-4, purposive) and internally-generated temptation to sin (1:13-14, never from God). A single Kurdish term must carry both senses to preserve James’s own deliberate wordplay; splitting into two separate Kurdish words would destroy the argument that trial and temptation share vocabulary but differ in source. Requires an explicit dual-sense teaching note at 1:2-4 and 1:13-14.
Endurance
Approved rendering: Berxwedan
Transliteration: berxwedan
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: ὑπομονή
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
NEW TERM. ‘Berxwedan’ is deeply and specifically associated in contemporary Kurdish with organized political/armed resistance (e.g. ‘Berxwedana Kobanê’), paralleling the baseline’s rizgarî/azadî nationalist-vocabulary caution — arguably even more emotionally loaded given its connection to a specific, recent, widely-covered military event. Requires an explicit spiritual-not-political anchoring note at every occurrence: 1:3, 1:4, 1:12, 5:11.
Wisdom
Approved rendering: Hikmet
Transliteration: hikmet
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: σοφία
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW TERM. ‘Hikmet’ (cognate of Arabic hikma) is the standard regional wisdom term but carries strong existing associations with Sufi mystical-wisdom literature and gnosis attributed to saints, resonant given Kurdistan’s Naqshbandi heritage. James’s wisdom (1:5) is a practical, morally-tested gift freely available to any believer who simply asks, not an esoteric attainment of advanced spiritual masters. Requires an explicit distinguishing note at first introduction (1:5).
Wisdom Contrast
Approved rendering: Hikmeta ji jor / Hikmeta dinyayî / Hikmeta ji ruhên xerab
Transliteration: hikmeta ji jor / hikmeta dinyayî / hikmeta ji ruhên xerab
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: σοφία ἄνωθεν / ἐπίγειος, ψυχική, δαιμονιώδης
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW TERM. James 3:15, 3:17’s four-way contrast (wisdom from above vs. earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom) compounds both the ‘wisdom’ Sufi-association risk and the ‘demons’/Cin jinn-cosmology risk (see ‘demons’ below), since all qualifiers modify the same contested noun. Recommend a single theologian sign-off covering the entire four-term contrast set.
Poor
Approved rendering: Belengaz
Transliteration: belengaz
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Rejected alternatives: Feqîr
Original: πτωχός
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW TERM. ‘Feqîr’ is PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for James’s plain socioeconomic sense: in Kurdish (from Arabic faqih/faqir) it denotes a Qur’anic-madrasa student or Sufi mendicant/dervish pursuing holy poverty as an elevated spiritual station — the opposite of James’s meaning. Use ‘Belengaz’ at every occurrence: 1:9, 1:27, 2:2-6, 5:1-6.
Favoritism
Approved rendering: Rûgirtina Kesan
Transliteration: rûgirtina kesan
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Rejected alternatives: Alîgirî
Original: προσωπολημψία
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW TERM. ‘Alîgirî,’ the more idiomatic word for favoritism/partiality, is PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN: it commonly denotes political partisanship/factional bias in a region famous for sharp inter-party rivalry (e.g. KDP/PUK divisions), risking the passage being heard as commentary on political factionalism rather than favoring the rich over the poor within the church. Use the literal calque ‘Rûgirtina Kesan’ (‘the taking of persons’ faces’) at every occurrence: 2:1, 2:9.
Blessing And Curse
Approved rendering: Pesindan / Nifir
Transliteration: pesindan / nifir
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Rejected alternatives: Bereket
Original: εὐλογία / κατάρα
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW TERM. ‘Bereket’ for blessing is PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN: in regional folk-Islamic and Sufi usage it denotes a quasi-substantive transferable spiritual power (baraka) flowing through holy persons, objects, or shrines — a different concept from James’s plain point (3:9-10) about blessing and cursing coming from the same mouth. Use ‘Pesindan’ (a praise/blessing utterance, built on the baseline’s Spasî-adjacent register) instead.
Demons
Approved rendering: Ruhên Xerab
Transliteration: ruhên xerab
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: Cin
Original: δαιμόνια / δαιμονιώδης
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW TERM. ‘Cin’ is PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for NT ‘demons’: it imports the specific Islamic cosmological category of jinn — beings with folk beliefs about variable moral status, possession, and exorcism practice, some of whom are held to be believers — a different category from the NT’s uniformly malevolent fallen spirits. Use ‘Ruhên Xerab’ (evil spirits) as the single book-wide convention at both occurrences: 2:19, 3:15.
Abraham
Approved rendering: Îbrahîm
Transliteration: Îbrahîm
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: Ἀβραάμ
Category: Covenant
NEW ENTRY for James (transliteration reuses the baseline form exactly). James 2:21-23, 2:25: the patriarch whose faith, credited as righteousness, was later demonstrated genuine through works. Generally an asset as a shared, revered figure across Sunni Islam, Alevism, and Yarsanism, but 2:21’s naming of Isaac as the near-sacrificed son creates a Critical, specific collision: mainstream Islamic tradition (Qur’an 37:99-113) identifies the son as Ishmael, commemorated annually at Eid al-Adha across Kurdistan. Requires explicit theologian-guided teaching addressing this divergence directly, never silently harmonized away.
Royal Law
Approved rendering: Şerîeta Padîşahî
Transliteration: şerîeta padîşahî
Doctrine: The Law of Liberty and the Royal Law
Original: νόμος βασιλικός
Category: Faith and Works
NEW TERM. James 2:8: the law of loving one’s neighbor, so called because it flows from God’s kingly reign. Deliberately echoes the baseline’s Critical ‘Padîşahiya Xwedê’ (Kingdom of God) term; while James intends a positive resonance, the same caution applies — must not be heard as endorsing any political-statehood framing given proximity to Kurdish nationalist aspiration language.
Religion
Approved rendering: Dîn
Transliteration: dîn
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: θρησκεία
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
NEW TERM. James 1:26-27: pure, undefiled religious practice, defined narrowly by James as caring for orphans/widows and moral self-restraint. ‘Dîn’ regionally often functions as shorthand for Islam specifically (as in the set phrase ‘dîn û îman’), not a generic category of ‘a religion.’ Never use bare; pair with a qualifying phrase such as ‘perestina rast’ (true worship/devotion) pending final theologian decision.
World
Approved rendering: Dinya / Cîhan
Transliteration: dinya / cîhan
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: κόσμος
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
NEW TERM. James 1:27, 3:6, 4:4: the system of values and desires opposed to God, distinct from the physical creation. ‘Dinya’ taps the existing Islamic dinya/axiret (this-world/afterlife) dualism — a partial asset for conveying transience, but risks importing the full Islamic eschatological framework rather than James’s narrower ethical contrast.
Friendship With The World
Approved rendering: Hevaltiya Dinyayê
Transliteration: hevaltiya dinyayê
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: φιλία τοῦ κόσμου
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
NEW TERM, built on the baseline’s hevaltî root. James 4:4, echoing 2:23’s ‘friend of God.’ Inherits the baseline’s secular political-movement ‘comrade’ resonance (heval as the standard leftist/nationalist address); risks worldliness being misheard as a caution against political solidarity/activism specifically rather than the far broader biblical category of worldly desire. This doctrine is named explicitly in the curriculum and requires close review at every occurrence.
Lord Of Sabaoth
Approved rendering: Xudanê Hêzên Ezmanî
Transliteration: Xudanê Hêzên Ezmanî
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: κύριος Σαβαώθ
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW TERM, built on the mandatory baseline Xudan root. James 5:4: the rare OT military-royal divine title (‘Lord of Hosts/Armies’), invoked to vindicate exploited laborers against oppressive wealthy landowners. Sits uncomfortably close to real regional armed conflict and the Kurdish liberation struggle’s own martial vocabulary (berxwedan, şer, xebat, rizgarî/azadî). Must be taught explicitly as God’s sovereign moral authority in this specific economic context, never as endorsement of or comparison to any earthly military-political struggle.
Elders
Approved rendering: Rihspiyên Dêr
Transliteration: rihspiyên dêr
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: Rihspî (bare, unqualified)
Original: πρεσβύτεροι
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW TERM. James 5:14: the church’s spiritually-qualified pastoral office, called to pray over the sick. Bare ‘Rihspî’ (lit. ‘white-beard’), the standing Kurdish term for a tribal/village elder with hereditary status and customary clan-mediation authority, is FORBIDDEN UNQUALIFIED: mapping the NT’s non-hereditary, spiritually-qualified pastoral office directly onto this institution risks importing hereditary status and informal judicial power not part of the biblical office. Always use the qualified form ‘Rihspiyên Dêr’ (elders of the church).
Prayer Of Faith And Healing
Approved rendering: Dua ya bi Îman / Rizgar Kirin
Transliteration: dua ya bi îman / rizgar kirin
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: εὐχή τῆς πίστεως / σῴζω τὸν κάμνοντα
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW TERM, built in part on the mandatory baseline Rizgarî root. James 5:15: prayer offered in faith for physical healing, and its promised effect. Another occurrence of sōzō’s dual save/heal semantic range (cf. James 2:14). Curriculum material must clarify physical healing is in view here, distinct from — though sharing vocabulary with — spiritual salvation, and must guard against an over-promising, formulaic reading that could create false expectation or spiritual crisis when healing does not occur.
Confession Of Sin
Approved rendering: Îtîraf Kirin
Transliteration: îtîraf kirin
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἐξομολογέομαι
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW TERM. James 5:16: mutual, peer-to-peer confession of sins among believers for the purpose of prayer and healing. ‘Îtîraf’ is the standard modern word for confession generally, including legal/criminal confession and — given the region’s ancient Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac Christian heritage — formal, priest-administered sacramental confession in liturgical traditions present in parts of the region. Requires an explicit teaching note distinguishing James’s mutual-confession model from any priestly-absolution model the audience may already associate with the vocabulary.
Scripture
Approved rendering: Nivîsara Pîroz
Transliteration: nivîsara pîroz
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: γραφή
Category: Inspiration of Scripture
NEW TERM, built on the baseline’s Inspiration-of-Scripture doctrine vocabulary. James 2:8, 2:23: the authoritative written OT text James quotes and treats as fulfilled. James 2:23 directly quotes the same Genesis 15:6 text Paul expounds in Romans 4, requiring cross-document consistency in how both curricula frame biblical inspiration against the region’s wahy (verbatim dictation) assumption and tahrif (corruption) claim.
Medium Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: Aştî
Transliteration: aştî
Doctrine: Faith and Works
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: resonant with regional peace-process vocabulary, an asset once anchored to justification. James note: James 2:16’s ‘go in peace’ is an ironic, hollow conventional farewell exposing empty piety — the opposite of the Romans 5:1 doctrinal sense. A translator note distinguishing the two occurrences is required at James 2:16 (see ‘peace_everyday_blessing’ entry below for the dedicated James-specific record).
Providence
Approved rendering: Rêveberiya Xwedê
Transliteration: rêveberiya Xwedê
Doctrine: Divine Providence and Human Planning
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: God’s personal, purposive governance, distinct from folk qadar fatalism. James note: conceptually parallels the new James term ‘eger Xwedê bixwaze’ (if the Lord wills, James 4:13-17), tracked separately below given its distinct înşallah-idiom semantic-bleaching risk.
Intercession
Approved rendering: Navbeynkarî
Transliteration: navbeynkarî
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, verbatim. Baseline note: transparent native compound; shares the region’s shafa’at-adjacent complexity, with a modest aşîret reconciliation-custom parallel. James note: directly relevant to James 5:16’s ‘pray for one another’ within the mutual-confession-and-healing doctrine of 5:14-16.
Dead Faith
Approved rendering: Mirî
Transliteration: mirî
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: νεκρός
Category: Faith and Works
NEW TERM. James 2:17, 2:26: a claimed faith producing no works is total nullity — not genuine faith at all — not merely weak or immature faith. ‘Mirî’ itself is unambiguous, but translators/commentary writers may be tempted to soften the metaphor’s finality (e.g. toward ‘îmanek qels,’ weak faith); flag for theologian review to confirm finality is preserved.
Double Minded
Approved rendering: Du-dilî
Transliteration: du-dilî
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: δίψυχος
Category: Trials and the Testing of Faith
NEW TERM. James 1:8, 4:8: split in purpose, wavering between trust in God and doubt. A transparent native compound (‘two-hearted’) with low collision risk.
Tongue
Approved rendering: Ziman
Transliteration: ziman
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: γλῶσσα
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW TERM. ‘Ziman’ also means ‘language’ and carries strong resonance with the decades-long Kurdish language-rights struggle across Turkey, Syria, and Iran. Surrounding context (bit, bridle, fire, poison, 3:2-8) reliably disambiguates toward ‘organ of speech’ — a cultural-emotional undertone for curriculum writers to note, not a doctrinal distortion risk.
Friend Of God
Approved rendering: Hevalê Xwedê
Transliteration: hevalê Xwedê
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: φίλος θεοῦ
Category: Faith and Works
NEW TERM, built on the baseline’s hevaltî root. James 2:23: Abraham’s title marking the personal, relational culmination of his faith. Notable asset: Abraham/Ibrahim already bears the honorific ‘Khalil Allah’ (Friend/Intimate of God) in mainstream Islamic tradition. The risk runs opposite most collisions in this book: Islamic tradition does not extend this status to ordinary believers by faith as James does; teaching should add that this intimacy is now offered to all who believe as Abraham believed, not subtract from the existing honorific.
Rahab
Approved rendering: Rahab a Leşfiroş
Transliteration: Rahab a leşfiroş
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: Ῥαάβ ἡ πόρνη
Category: Faith and Works
NEW TERM. James 2:25: the second example James chooses to prove works demonstrate genuine faith, deliberately a woman of low social/moral standing. Render plainly, without euphemism, to preserve James’s intended moral force. Rahab carries no significant pre-existing status in regional Islamic tradition, so the risk here is register/sensitivity in oral teaching, not doctrinal syncretism.
Humility
Approved rendering: Xwe-nizmkirin
Transliteration: xwe-nizmkirin
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Rejected alternatives: Nefsbiçûk
Original: ταπεινός / ταπεινόω
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
NEW TERM. A compound built on the Arabic/Islamic loan root ‘nefs’ (‘Nefsbiçûk’) is PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN: nefs carries the specific weight of Islamic/Sufi spiritual anthropology (the ascetic ‘struggle against the nafs’), risking a reframing of biblical humility as a Sufi mortification-of-self discipline. Use the native compound ‘Xwe-nizmkirin’ at every occurrence: 1:9, 4:6, 4:10.
Devil
Approved rendering: Şeytan
Transliteration: Şeytan
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: διάβολος
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
NEW TERM, shared regional Christian/Islamic vocabulary. James 4:7: ‘resist the devil and he will flee.’ Mainstream regional Islamic piety often frames satanic activity as waswas (whispered temptation) warded off through ritual/protective formulas, a more passive-defensive posture than James’s call to active spiritual resistance, which assumes the believer’s agency and the devil’s real retreat in response. A teaching note distinguishing the two postures is recommended.
If The Lord Wills
Approved rendering: eger Xwedê bixwaze
Transliteration: eger Xwedê bixwaze
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
NEW TERM, built on the baseline Xwedê root. James 4:15: a call to humble dependence on God’s providence over prideful self-sufficient planning. Notable asset: near-verbatim identical to the ubiquitous everyday expression ‘înşALLAH,’ used reflexively across all four host states regardless of speaker’s religious background — a genuine cultural bridge. The corresponding risk is semantic bleaching: habitual, reflexive use can drain it of the genuinely God-dependent posture James calls for; teach the phrase’s meaning, not merely rely on its familiar sound.
Peace Everyday Blessing
Approved rendering: Aştî
Transliteration: aştî
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Faith and Works
NEW JAMES-SPECIFIC USAGE RECORD (Kurdish rendering identical to the inherited baseline ‘peace’ term — see that entry above). James 2:16’s ‘go in peace, be warmed and filled’ is a hollow, ironic conventional farewell exposing empty piety, used to contrast empty words with concrete material help — NOT the Romans 5:1 doctrinal ‘peace with God’ sense. A translator note distinguishing the two senses is required at this verse specifically.
Mercy And Judgment
Approved rendering: Dilovanî / Dadgerî
Transliteration: dilovanî / dadgerî
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: ἔλεος / κρίσις
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW TERM. James 2:13: ‘mercy triumphs over judgment’ — compassionate forbearance overriding strict legal verdict. ‘Dilovanî’ (compassionate mercy) must be kept conceptually distinct from the baseline’s ‘Kerem’ (unmerited saving grace) — related but not identical concepts; conflating the two would blur two theologically distinct ideas.
Wars And Fights
Approved rendering: Şer / Pevçûn
Transliteration: şer / pevçûn
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: πόλεμος / μάχη
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
NEW TERM. James 4:1: interpersonal conflict within the community, traced to unchecked desire. ‘Şer’ (‘war’) carries heavy lived weight for a Kurdish audience with direct experience of the Turkish-PKK conflict, the Iran-Iraq war, the Syrian civil war, and the war against ISIS. Rhetorically appropriate to James’s own strong language, but requires pastoral sensitivity in teaching delivery; primarily a pastoral rather than doctrinal risk.
Patience Longsuffering
Approved rendering: Bihnfirehî
Transliteration: bihnfirehî
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Rejected alternatives: Sebir
Original: μακροθυμία
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW TERM. James 5:7, 5:8, 5:10: active, hope-filled waiting for a specific promised future event (the Lord’s return), distinct from hypomonē’s endurance under present pressure. The Arabic loanword ‘Sebir,’ the major Islamic patience-virtue term, is disfavored (though not absolutely forbidden, given the conceptual overlap cannot be fully eliminated); prefer the native idiom ‘Bihnfirehî’ (lit. ‘breadth of breath’) to reduce overlap with general pious submission-to-fate.
Oath
Approved rendering: Sond
Transliteration: sond
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: ὅρκος
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW TERM. James 5:12: ‘let your yes be yes’ — truthful speech should make formal oaths unnecessary. ‘Sond’ resonates with Kurdish tribal (aşîret) customary oath-taking and honor-bound word, an asset for teaching the weight of truthful speech, provided James’s actual point (integrity renders oath-taking itself unnecessary) is not lost beneath the cultural weight of formal oath-taking.
Anointing With Oil
Approved rendering: Bi Zeytê Şeht Kirin
Transliteration: bi zeytê şeht kirin
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: ἐλαίῳ ἀλείψαντες
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW TERM. James 5:14: the physical accompanying sign of faith-filled prayer for the sick. Kurdish Sufi and Yazidi shrine culture includes practices of blessed oil or water used for healing at shrines, understood as a vehicle of transferable baraka. Must be taught as an accompanying sign of faith-filled prayer, not a quasi-magical healing substance in itself — the healing is attributed to ‘the prayer of faith’ (5:15), not the oil.
Turning Back The Wanderer
Approved rendering: Rêderketî Vegerandin
Transliteration: rêderketî vegerandin
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἐπιστρέφω / πλανάω
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW TERM. James 5:19-20, the letter’s closing image: bringing back a believer who has strayed from the truth. A genuine positive resonance: ‘the straight path’ (comparable to the Islamic sirat al-mustaqim) is a deeply familiar regional image for right conduct and its loss through wandering. Anchor explicitly to Christ and the gospel’s truth; do not leave as a generic moral-path metaphor.
Desire Lust
Approved rendering: Hewes / Xwesteka Xerab
Transliteration: hewes / xwesteka xerab
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. James 1:14-15, 4:1-3: internal, morally negative craving, the root of both temptation and interpersonal conflict. Context reliably disambiguates this as morally negative craving rather than neutral desire.
Hearer And Doer Of The Word
Approved rendering: Bihîstek / Kiryarek
Transliteration: bihîstek / kiryarek
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: ἀκροατής / ποιητής λόγου
Category: Faith and Works
NEW TERM. James 1:22-25: the contrast between merely hearing and actually doing what the word requires, directly anticipating the faith-and-works argument of chapter 2. Render so the thematic echo with the chapter 2 argument remains recoverable across the two chapters in Kurdish.
Father Of Lights
Approved rendering: Bavê Ronahiyan
Transliteration: bavê ronahiyan
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: πατήρ τῶν φώτων
Category: God
NEW TERM, built on the inherited baseline Bav root. James 1:17: God as Creator and unchanging Giver of every good gift — a cosmic, creative Fatherhood, a distinct register from the intimate adoptive Fatherhood of Romans 8’s Abba, Bav. Curriculum material should note the difference in emphasis so as not to flatten this cosmic-giver sense into only the adoption-intimacy sense.
Spiritual Adultery
Approved rendering: Jinên Zînakar
Transliteration: jinên zînakar
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: μοιχαλίς
Category: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
NEW TERM. James 4:4: a figurative rebuke (‘adulteresses’) for spiritual unfaithfulness to God through worldly desire. The figurative, spiritual sense must be clear from context, not read as a literal accusation; medium risk is register/clarity, not doctrinal collision.
Assembly Synagogue
Approved rendering: Civîna Wan
Transliteration: civîna wan
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: sînagog (bare transliteration)
Original: συναγωγή
Category: Church
NEW TERM. James 2:2: the gathered Jewish-Christian congregation James addresses. A bare transliteration (‘sînagog’) is disfavored, as it could wrongly suggest a literal, distinct Jewish institution rather than James’s own Jewish-Christian congregation; use the descriptive ‘Civîna Wan’ with a note on James’s original audience.
Low Risk Terms
Rich
Approved rendering: Dewlemend
Transliteration: dewlemend
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: πλούσιος
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW TERM. Standard, low-risk native term for wealth; occurs at 1:10-11, 2:6, 5:1.
Bridle
Approved rendering: Gem
Transliteration: gem
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: χαλινός / χαλιναγωγέω
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW TERM. Standard Kurdish equestrian vocabulary (3:2-3); a genuine cultural asset given Kurdistan’s historical equestrian culture — the metaphor of a small bit controlling a powerful animal translates naturally and vividly.
Job
Approved rendering: Eyûb
Transliteration: Eyûb
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: Ἰώβ
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW TERM. James 5:11: the exemplar of patient endurance under suffering. A positive shared-figure asset comparable to the baseline’s treatment of David: Ayyub is a well-known, respected Qur’anic prophet-figure specifically noted for patience under suffering (Qur’an 21:83-84; 38:41-44).
Brothers And Sisters
Approved rendering: Birayên min (û Xwişkên min)
Transliteration: birayên min (û xwişkên min)
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: ἀδελφοί
Category: Church
NEW TERM. James’s repeated familial address to the whole congregation, inclusive of women. Standard vocative address; low risk. Kurdish grammatical gender does not require a separate ‘and sisters’ form, but where James’s audience clearly includes women (e.g. 2:15’s ‘brother or sister’), supply ‘xwişk’ explicitly rather than assuming inclusivity is understood by default.
Implanted Word
Approved rendering: Peyva ku Hatiye Çandin
Transliteration: peyva ku hatiye çandin
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: λόγος ἔμφυτος
Category: Inspiration of Scripture
NEW TERM. James 1:21: the gospel word planted/rooted within the believer, received with humility. A positive agricultural metaphor with good resonance in Kurdish rural life; low risk.
Widow And Orphan
Approved rendering: Jinebî / Sêwî
Transliteration: jinebî / sêwî
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: χήρα / ὀρφανός
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW TERM. James 1:27: the concrete objects of ‘pure and undefiled religion’ — practical, hands-on care for society’s most vulnerable. Strong positive resonance with existing Kurdish tribal (aşîret) customary obligations toward widows and orphans; a genuine asset.
Lawgiver And Judge
Approved rendering: Danerê Şerîetê / Dadger
Transliteration: danerê şerîetê / dadger
Doctrine: The Law of Liberty and the Royal Law
Original: νομοθέτης / κριτής
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. James 4:12: God’s sole authority to give law and to judge, invoked against believers judging one another. Straightforward native vocabulary; low risk beyond standard care.
Riches Wages Harvest
Approved rendering: Dewlemendî / Heq / Dirûn
Transliteration: dewlemendî / heq / dirûn
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: πλοῦτος / μισθός / θερισμός
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW TERM. James 5:1-4: the economic vocabulary of James’s rebuke of exploitative landowners who withhold laborers’ wages. Agrarian-economic vocabulary with strong positive resonance in Kurdish rural life.
Fruit Of Righteousness
Approved rendering: Berhemê Adaletê
Transliteration: berhemê adaletê
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: καρπός δικαιοσύνης
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW TERM, built compositionally on the baseline’s mandatory Adalet (righteousness) root. James 3:18: the peaceable harvest produced by those who sow in peace.
Wisdom Virtues
Approved rendering: Aştîxwaz / Nerm / Bêriyakar
Transliteration: aştîxwaz / nerm / bêriyakar
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: εἰρηνικός / ἐπιεικής / ἀνυπόκριτος
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW TERM. James 3:17: the character marks of wisdom from above (peaceable, gentle, without hypocrisy). ‘Aştîxwaz’ links positively to the baseline’s aştî asset (regional peace-process resonance), a positive connection worth preserving in teaching.
Fire
Approved rendering: Agir
Transliteration: agir
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: πῦρ
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW TERM. James 3:5-6: the tongue’s destructive potential, likened to a small spark setting a great fire. Standard, low-risk native term.
Referenced passages