Semantic Analysis: 2 Peter (Koine Greek → Maithili)

Curriculum: 2 Peter Core passage: 2 Peter 1:16–21 Destination language: Maithili (Devanagari script) Method: Full-book pass, every chapter first to last. The core passage receives verse-by-verse treatment of every load-bearing term. Every other chapter receives a chapter-level treatment of its load-bearing theological vocabulary. Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are reused exactly and marked [TM-REUSE]; new terms proposed for this curriculum are marked [NEW].

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PART 1 — CORE PASSAGE: 2 Peter 1:16–21 (Verse-by-Verse)

2 Peter 1:16

“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

οὐ γὰρ σεσοφισμένοις μύθοις ἐξακολουθήσαντες ἐγνωρίσαμεν ὑμῖν τὴν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δύναμιν καὶ παρουσίαν, ἀλλ’ ἐπόπται γενηθέντες τῆς ἐκείνου μεγαλειότητος.

• μῦθος (mythos) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: a tale, story, fable, legend.
  • Semantic range: from neutral “story” to a pejorative “fabricated/invented tale,” here intensified by σεσοφισμένοις (“cleverly devised, contrived”).
  • English variants: “myths” (ESV/NIV), “fables” (KJV), “cleverly invented stories” (NIV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Peter denies that the apostolic testimony to Christ’s power and coming rests on contrived religious legend; it rests on eyewitness fact.
  • Maithili rendering: गढ़ल गप्प (gaṛhal gapp, “a fabricated/invented tale”)
  • Risk tier: Critical
  • Risk rationale: The obvious, literal rendering “पौराणिक कथा” (Puranic tale/legend) must never be used. It would make the text read as the Bible itself pejoratively labeling the Puranas — a core scripture corpus of the Hindu tradition and the literary home of the very Ram/Krishna narratives already flagged throughout the Romans baseline — as “myths” in a derogatory sense. This would be read as a direct communal insult rather than a general epistemological claim about how the apostles came to know Christ, and would likely close off receptivity rather than build a bridge. गढ़ल गप्प keeps the “fabricated tale” sense without naming any local scripture genre.

• δύναμις (dynamis) [TM-REUSE — as “power_of_god”]

  • Literal meaning: power, might, capability.
  • Contextual theological meaning: here, Christ’s own divine power revealed at the Transfiguration, anticipating his παρουσία.
  • Maithili rendering: सामर्थ्य (sāmarthya) — reuse the Romans baseline term exactly; never शक्ति (Shakta-goddess associations).
  • Risk tier: High (elevated from the baseline’s High because it here attaches directly to the Certainty of Christ’s Return doctrine, not only to gospel proclamation).

• παρουσία (parousia) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “presence,” “arrival,” “coming” — in Hellenistic usage, often the state-visit of a king or dignitary.
  • Semantic range: physical presence; a formal, anticipated arrival; in NT usage becomes the technical term for Christ’s return.
  • English variants: “coming” (most versions), “advent,” “arrival.”
  • Contextual theological meaning: the second, visible, bodily coming of Christ — the anchor term for the doctrine “The Certainty of Christ’s Return.” Peter grounds it in eyewitness experience of the Transfiguration as a preview.
  • Maithili rendering: आगमन (āgaman, “coming/arrival”), glossed on first use in each lesson as “यीशु ख्रीष्टक फेर सँ आगमन” (Christ’s return-coming).
  • Risk tier: Critical
  • Risk rationale: Must be kept categorically distinct from the region’s cyclical avatar-descent expectation (a deity periodically returning to restore dharma each yuga) and from Puranic Kalki-avatar expectation (a widely known “future/final avatar” belief in North Indian Vaishnava tradition). Christ’s παρουσία is a single, unrepeated, historical return of the same incarnate Son, not a fresh avatar-descent in a new form. A translator note distinguishing this from Kalki-avatar expectation is required at every occurrence, parallel to the existing incarnation-vs-avatar note in the Romans package.

• ἐπόπτης (epoptēs) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “one who has seen with his own eyes”; in Greco-Roman religious usage, a technical term for an initiate admitted to the highest grade of a mystery religion, one who has personally “seen” the cultic revelation.
  • Semantic range: eyewitness/observer (general); privileged religious “seer” (technical, mystery-cult).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Peter repurposes a loaded pagan-mystery term to claim ordinary, empirical, first-hand testimony — the opposite of secret, initiate-only revelation. This directly reinforces his contrast with μῦθος.
  • Maithili rendering: प्रत्यक्षदर्शी (pratyakṣadarśī, “direct/eyewitness observer”)
  • Risk tier: Low–Medium
  • Risk rationale: Advantageous case: प्रत्यक्षदर्शी carries a neutral, empirical, courtroom-testimony connotation in Maithili (used of legal witnesses), which actually strengthens Peter’s own rhetorical point better than a religious-technical term would. Minor risk only in ensuring it is not read as “merely one opinion among witnesses” rather than authoritative testimony.

• μεγαλειότης (megaleiotēs) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: greatness, majesty, magnificence.
  • Contextual theological meaning: the visible splendor of Christ’s divine glory disclosed at the Transfiguration.
  • Maithili rendering: वैभव (vaibhav, “majesty/splendor”)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: Avoid प्रताप, which carries strong royal-dynastic overtones (used of historical kings); given Mithila’s own historic self-identity as the ancient kingdom of Raja Janak (already flagged for kingdom_of_god), वैभव is the safer, less politically-loaded choice for divine majesty.

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2 Peter 1:17

“For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and such a voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”

λαβὼν γὰρ παρὰ θεοῦ πατρὸς τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν φωνῆς ἐνεχθείσης αὐτῷ τοιᾶσδε ὑπὸ τῆς μεγαλοπρεποῦς δόξης, Ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός μου οὗτός ἐστιν εἰς ὃν ἐγὼ εὐδόκησα.

• τιμή (timē) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: honor, value, price paid.
  • Contextual meaning: the honor conferred on the Son by the Father, paired with δόξα.
  • Maithili rendering: सम्मान (sammān, “honor”)
  • Risk tier: Low.

• δόξα (doxa) [TM-REUSE — “glory” = महिमा]

  • Contextual meaning: the Father’s glory conferred on and displayed in the Son.
  • Risk tier: High, per baseline (Deity of Christ doctrine).

• μεγαλοπρεπὴς δόξα (megaloprepēs doxa, “the Majestic Glory”) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “magnificently-fitting glory” — a reverent circumlocution avoiding direct naming of God, in the manner of Jewish periphrastic reverence for the divine Name.
  • Contextual theological meaning: a title for God the Father himself, the source of the heavenly voice.
  • Maithili rendering: उच्च महिमावाला परमेश्वर (ucca mahimāvālā parameśvar, “God of exalted majesty”), built on the already-established महिमा and परमेश्वर.
  • Risk tier: Medium–High
  • Risk rationale: Translators unfamiliar with the reverent-circumlocution convention may flatten this to a mere descriptive phrase and lose its force as a divine title; a translator note explaining the periphrasis is required.

• υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός (huios mou ho agapētos, “my beloved Son”) [partially TM-REUSE]

  • υἱός element reuses son_of_god = परमेश्वरक पुत्र where the full title is in view; here it is the Father’s direct address, so render as “मोर प्रिय पुत्र” (my beloved son), preserving the Sonship doctrine’s Critical status.
  • ἀγαπητός (agapētos) [NEW]: literal “beloved, dearly loved.” Maithili: प्रिय (priya). Risk: Low, though always paired with पुत्र so as not to weaken the unique/eternal Sonship claim already flagged Critical in the baseline (sonship_of_christ doctrine).

• εὐδοκέω (eudokeō, “I am well pleased”) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: to be well-pleased, to take delight in.
  • Maithili rendering: प्रसन्न भेल छी (prasann bhel chī, “I am pleased”), honorific first-person divine speech.
  • Risk tier: Low.

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2 Peter 1:18

“We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”

καὶ ταύτην τὴν φωνὴν ἡμεῖς ἠκούσαμεν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ἐνεχθεῖσαν σὺν αὐτῷ ὄντες ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ ὄρει.

• τῷ ἁγίῳ ὄρει (tō hagiō orei, “the holy mountain”) — ἅγιος [TM-REUSE — “holy” = पवित्र]
  • Contextual meaning: the Mount of Transfiguration, made holy by the manifestation of divine glory there, not by any inherent sacred-geography status.
  • Maithili rendering: पवित्र पहाड़ (pavitra pahāṛ)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: Mithila’s religious landscape includes venerated sacred sites and pilgrimage mountains/hills tied to specific deity-manifestation narratives; a translator note should clarify that this mountain’s holiness derives from a one-time revelatory event witnessed by named historical persons, not from an enduring cultic shrine-status or a site of ongoing pilgrimage devotion.

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2 Peter 1:19

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

καὶ ἔχομεν βεβαιότερον τὸν προφητικὸν λόγον, ᾧ καλῶς ποιεῖτε προσέχοντες ὡς λύχνῳ φαίνοντι ἐν αὐχμηρῷ τόπῳ, ἕως οὗ ἡμέρα διαυγάσῃ καὶ φωσφόρος ἀνατείλῃ ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν.

• προφητικὸς λόγος (prophētikos logos, “the prophetic word”) [TM-REUSE root — “prophecy” = भविष्यवाणी]

  • Contextual meaning: the entire body of Old Testament prophetic Scripture, now confirmed by the eyewitnessed Transfiguration.
  • Maithili rendering: भविष्यवाणीक वचन (bhaviṣyavāṇīk vacan, “the prophetic word”)
  • Risk tier: High — anchors the “Reliability and Inspiration of Scripture” doctrine; must not be reduced to “prediction” in the astrological sense already excluded by the baseline’s भविष्यफल rejection.

• φωσφόρος (phōsphoros, “morning star,” lit. “light-bearer”) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: the light-bringer; in Greek usage, the technical name for the planet Venus as it appears before dawn.
  • Semantic range: astronomical Venus; messianic title (cf. Rev 22:16, “bright morning star,” of Christ).
  • Contextual theological meaning: the dawning assurance and personal presence of Christ in believers’ hearts as they wait for the παρουσία.
  • Maithili rendering: भोरक तारा (bhorak tārā, “the morning star”) — a generic descriptive astronomical phrase.
  • Risk tier: Medium–High
  • Risk rationale: NEVER render using शुक्र (Śukra), the Sanskrit-Hindi name for the planet Venus, because Śukra is also the name of an actively venerated planetary deity (Śukra Graha) in North Indian astrological-religious practice, with its own weekly (Friday) devotional observance. Naming the planet by its deity-name would import an astrological-worship association entirely absent from the text’s own imagery.

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2 Peter 1:20

“Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.”

τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες, ὅτι πᾶσα προφητεία γραφῆς ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως οὐ γίνεται·

• προφητεία (prophēteia) [TM-REUSE — “prophecy” = भविष्यवाणी]. Risk tier: Low, per baseline.

• γραφή (graphē, “Scripture,” lit. “a writing”) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: a writing, a document; in NT usage, the sacred, authoritative Writings (OT canon).
  • Semantic range: any written text (generic); the specific, divinely authoritative body of Scripture (technical/theological).
  • Contextual theological meaning: this Scripture did not originate in human interpretive invention — foundational to the “Reliability and Inspiration of Scripture” doctrine.
  • Maithili rendering: पवित्र शास्त्र (pavitra śāstra, “holy Scripture”) — always paired with पवित्र; never शास्त्र alone.
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: शास्त्र alone is the generic Sanskrit-Hindi term for any authoritative treatise — Dharmaśāstra, Nyāyaśāstra, Kāmaśāstra, and the Purāṇas are all “śāstra” in ordinary usage, and Mithila is a historic center of Sanskrit śāstric scholarship (the seat of the Navya-Nyāya school). Without the पवित्र qualifier, “śāstra” would place biblical Scripture as merely one authoritative treatise among the vast library the Maithil pandit tradition already reveres, rather than uniquely God-breathed. This choice is consistent with the baseline doctrine registry, which already names this doctrine “शास्त्रक प्रेरणा.”

• ἐπίλυσις (epilysis, “interpretation”) [NEW] — NT hapax legomenon.

  • Literal meaning: a releasing, an unloosing (of a difficulty); hence “interpretation, explanation.”
  • Contextual meaning: prophecy did not originate from a human prophet’s own private explanatory insight but from God.
  • Maithili rendering: निजी व्याख्या (nijī vyākhyā, “private/personal interpretation”)
  • Risk tier: Low.

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2 Peter 1:21

“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

οὐ γὰρ θελήματι ἀνθρώπου ἠνέχθη προφητεία ποτέ, ἀλλὰ ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι ἐλάλησαν ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι.

• θέλημα ἀνθρώπου (thelēma anthrōpou, “the will of man”) [NEW, minor]

  • Maithili rendering: मनुष्यक इच्छा (manuṣyak icchā)
  • Risk tier: Low.

• φέρω (pherō, “carried along,” passive participle φερόμενοι) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: to bear, to carry; the passive here pictures a ship carried along by the wind (a live nautical metaphor Peter reuses elsewhere, cf. 2 Pet 1:17–18 setting, and 2 Pet 2:17).
  • Semantic range: physical carrying/bearing; being moved/impelled by an outside force.
  • Contextual theological meaning: the key verb for verbal-plenary inspiration — human authors spoke, but were moved, borne along, by the Spirit’s own initiative, not merely “inspired” in the weaker sense of “creatively stirred.”
  • Maithili rendering: (पवित्र आत्माक द्वारा) चलाओल गेल (calāol gel, “were moved/driven [by the Holy Spirit]”)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: This is the doctrinal center of “Reliability and Inspiration of Scripture.” Must be distinguished both from a generic “guided” or “influenced” sense (too weak — would allow room for human-only authorship with divine encouragement) and from imagery resembling deity-possession/trance-oracle phenomena found in regional folk-religious practice (e.g., oracular possession at some Devi shrines); the meaning is Spirit-directed human authorship producing exactly what God intended, not ecstatic loss of the author’s own faculties.

• πνεῦμα ἅγιον (pneuma hagion) [TM-REUSE — “holy_spirit” = पवित्र आत्मा]. Risk tier: Critical, per baseline; never ब्रह्म or परमात्मा.

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PART 2 — CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER STUDY OF THE WHOLE BOOK

Chapter 1 (full chapter, vv. 1–15; vv. 16–21 treated above)

1:1 — Σίμων Πέτρος δοῦλος καὶ ἀπόστολος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστιν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

• δοῦλος (doulos, “slave/bondservant”) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: a slave, one owned by a master, with no legal autonomy.
  • Contextual theological meaning: Peter’s self-designation of total ownership by and submission to Christ — a term of honor in the apostolic writings, not shame.
  • Maithili rendering: दास (dās)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: दास is standard and well understood, but must not be softened to “helper” or “servant-by-choice” (सेवक), since the doctrinal point is total ownership, later contrasted sharply in 2:19 (“slaves of corruption”) — the deliberate wordplay between glad bond-service to Christ and shameful slavery to corruption must survive translation.

• ἀπόστολος [TM-REUSE = प्रेरित]. Risk: Medium, per baseline.

• ἰσότιμος (isotimos, “of equal value/standing”) [NEW, minor]

  • Maithili rendering: बराबर मोलक (barābar molak, “of equal worth”). Risk: Low.

• λαγχάνω (lanchanō, “obtained/received by lot”) [NEW, minor] — describes faith as a gift received, not achieved.

  • Maithili rendering: पाओल (pāol, “received/obtained”). Risk: Low, but reinforces the Grace doctrine (faith itself is received, not earned) — flag alongside अनुग्रह passages.

• πίστις [TM-REUSE = विश्वास]. δικαιοσύνη [TM-REUSE = धार्मिकता], Critical per baseline.

• σωτήρ (sōtēr, “Savior”) [NEW — appears at 1:1, 1:11, 2:20, 3:2, 3:18]

  • Literal meaning: one who saves, delivers, rescues.
  • Contextual theological meaning: a divine title for Jesus, repeated as the fixed formula “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (κύριος καὶ σωτήρ), tying directly into both the Salvation doctrine and the Lordship of Christ doctrine.
  • Maithili rendering: उद्धारकर्ता (uddhārkartā, “the one who accomplishes उद्धार/deliverance”) — built directly on the already-fixed उद्धार root for “salvation,” ensuring full consistency with the Romans baseline.
  • Risk tier: Critical
  • Risk rationale: Must never be rendered with a term built on मुक्ति/मोक्ष roots (e.g. मुक्तिदाता, “liberator [from rebirth]”), for the same reason उद्धार itself was chosen in the Romans package — this would reframe Christ’s saving work as release from the karmic rebirth cycle rather than reconciliation with a personal God.

1:2 — χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη … ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ

• ἐπίγνωσις (epignōsis, “full/precise knowledge”) [NEW — appears 1:2, 1:3, 1:8, 2:20; distinct from γνῶσις below]

  • Literal meaning: knowledge-upon-knowledge; thorough, personal, experiential recognition (intensified compound of γνῶσις).
  • Semantic range: precise, complete cognition; personal acquaintance; (in some Hellenistic religious usage) the culminating experiential knowledge sought in mystery cults or philosophical schools.
  • Contextual theological meaning: the deepening, relational knowledge of God and Christ that grounds Christian growth, godliness, and escape from corruption — a central, repeated term in this short letter.
  • Maithili rendering: पूर्ण ज्ञान (pūrṇa jñān, “complete/full knowledge”)
  • Risk tier: Critical
  • Risk rationale: ज्ञान (jñāna) is not a neutral word in this cultural setting. It is the technical term for the “path of knowledge” (jñāna-mārga) in classical Hindu soteriology — especially prominent in Advaita Vedānta, where jñāna names the liberating realization that the self (ātman) is identical with the ultimate reality (Brahman). Mithila is historically one of North India’s great centers of Sanskrit philosophical scholarship (home of the Navya-Nyāya school and its Vedānta-literate pandit tradition), so this term carries unusually strong technical weight for the educated Maithili audience this curriculum names as primary. Every occurrence of ἐπίγνωσις/γνῶσις must be anchored to its object — “knowledge of God/of our Lord Jesus Christ” — and must never stand alone in a way that could be heard as jñāna in the Vedantic liberating-self-realization sense. This is relational, revealed, received knowledge of a personal God, not self-realization of one’s own inherent divinity.

• γνῶσις (gnōsis, “knowledge”) [NEW — appears 1:5–6, 3:18, as one virtue among several]

  • Same root risk as ἐπίγνωσις above but the simple, non-intensified form.
  • Maithili rendering: ज्ञान (jñān), always in context as one Christian virtue growing out of faith, never presented as a stand-alone path to salvation.
  • Risk tier: High

1:3 — τῆς θείας δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ εὐσέβειαν δεδωρημένης, διὰ τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως τοῦ καλέσαντος ἡμᾶς ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ καὶ ἀρετῇ

• θεῖος (theios, “divine”) [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: pertaining to God, divine, godly.
  • Maithili rendering: दिव्य (divya)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: दिव्य is widely used in Puranic/epic narrative for the divine radiance or divine form (divya rūp) a deity or avatar reveals — e.g. Krishna’s divya rūp in the Bhagavad Gītā, or a deity’s divya darśan. When applied to “his divine power” it should read unambiguously as God’s own attribute, not as one more instance of a deity briefly manifesting divine splendor within an ongoing avatar-narrative pattern.

• εὐσέβεια (eusebeia, “godliness”) [NEW — appears 1:3, 1:6, 1:7, 3:11]

  • Literal meaning: reverence, piety, devout conduct toward God.
  • Contextual theological meaning: consistent, reverent, obedient orientation of life toward God — central to “Growing in Christian Virtue.”
  • Maithili rendering: परमेश्वरपरायणता (parameśvar-parāyaṇtā, “devotedness/orientation toward Parameshvar”) — a coined compound built on the already-fixed परमेश्वर term plus the neutral Sanskrit compounding element -परायण (“intent upon, devoted to”).
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: भक्ति is explicitly rejected as an alternative, for the same reason the Romans baseline rejects it for “faith” — भक्ति carries the full weight of Mithila’s Ram-Sita and Krishna-Radha devotional tradition (celebrated regionally through Vidyapati’s poetry) and would reframe godliness as devotional sentiment toward a chosen personal deity (iṣṭadevatā) among many, rather than exclusive reverence toward the one true God already named परमेश्वर.

• καλέω [TM-REUSE — “called” = बजाओल]. Risk: High, per baseline (Divine Calling doctrine).

• δόξα [TM-REUSE = महिमा].

• ἀρετή (aretē, “virtue, excellence”) [NEW — appears 1:3 (God’s own excellence) and 1:5 (a virtue believers add to faith); central to “Growing in Christian Virtue”]

  • Literal meaning: excellence, moral virtue, praiseworthy quality.
  • Maithili rendering: सद्गुण (sadguṇ, “good quality/virtue”)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: गुण alone is a loaded technical term in the Sāṃkhya philosophical tradition (the त्रिगुण — sattva, rajas, tamas — the three fundamental qualities of material nature/prakṛti), a tradition well known within Mithila’s Sanskrit scholarly circles alongside its Nyāya heritage. सद्गुण (“good quality”) narrows the sense to ordinary moral virtue and reduces (without eliminating) this risk; translator notes should avoid explaining this term by reference to the triguṇa framework.

1:4 — τὰ τίμια καὶ μέγιστα ἡμῖν ἐπαγγέλματα δεδώρηται, ἵνα … γένησθε θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως, ἀποφυγόντες τῆς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ φθορᾶς

• ἐπάγγελμα / ἐπαγγελία (epangelma/epangelia, “promise”) [NEW — cf. also 3:4, 3:9, 3:13]

  • Maithili rendering: प्रतिज्ञा (pratijñā, “promise”)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: प्रतिज्ञा is also the standard word for a heroic personal vow in North Indian epic tradition (e.g., the celebrated pratijñā of Bhīṣma in the Mahābhārata). Context must always make clear this is God’s own sovereign guarantee to his people, not a self-imposed vow undertaken by human resolve.

• κοινωνός (koinōnos, “partaker, sharer”) [TM-REUSE root — related to “fellowship” = सङ्गति]

  • Maithili rendering: भागी (bhāgī, “sharer/partaker”), consistent with सङ्गति’s participatory sense.
  • Risk tier: High, elevated here because of what follows.

• θεία φύσις (theia physis, “divine nature”) [NEW — 1:4 only, but this book’s single highest-stakes phrase]

  • Literal meaning: God’s own nature/essential character.
  • Semantic range: could denote (a) ontological identity/absorption into deity, or (b) a granted share in God’s moral character (incorruptibility, holiness, love) without loss of creaturely identity. The letter’s own argument (escaping corruption, verses 5–7’s virtue list) makes clear (b) is intended: moral transformation and incorruptibility, not metaphysical merger.
  • Maithili rendering: दैवीय स्वभावक भागी (daivīya svabhāvak bhāgī, “a partaker/sharer in the divine character/disposition”) — deliberately using स्वभाव (“character, disposition, nature-as-quality”) rather than a word implying shared being or essence (सत्ता), and भागी (“sharer/partaker”) rather than any verb of merging.
  • Risk tier: Critical
  • Risk rationale: This is arguably the single most theologically dangerous phrase in 2 Peter for this audience. Mithila’s Sanskrit scholarly tradition includes serious Vedānta study alongside its famous Nyāya school; the Advaita Vedānta doctrine that the individual self (jīvātman) is not merely given a share of the divine but is, at its deepest level, already identical with Brahman, is intellectually live in this setting — not only as popular bhakti sentiment (as with avatar/incarnation) but as formal philosophical teaching. NEVER use लीन होयब (“to become absorbed/dissolved [into the divine]”), the standard Hindi-Sanskrit term for mystical merger into Brahman, nor a construction implying that believers’ own being (सत्ता/अस्तित्व) becomes identical with God’s. A mandatory translator note must state: believers receive, by grace, a share in God’s moral character (incorruptibility, holiness, love) worked in them by the Spirit; they never become ontologically identical with God, and they remain, eternally, creatures in relationship with their Creator.

• ἐπιθυμία (epithymia, “desire, lust”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: वासना (vāsanā) or अभिलाषा; note वासना is also a Sanskrit philosophical term (latent karmic impressions in Yoga/Sāṃkhya psychology) — prefer कामवासना or simple दुष्ट इच्छा (evil desire) in doctrinal contexts to avoid that overlay. Risk: Medium.

• φθορά (phthora, “corruption, decay”) [NEW — 1:4; 2:12; 2:19; central to “Divine Nature and Escaping Corruption”]

  • Maithili rendering: भ्रष्टता (bhraṣṭatā, “corruption/depravity”)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: Must be kept a moral-relational category (corruption of character, alienation from God) and not drift toward a physical/ritual-purity register already reserved for अशुद्धता in the baseline.

1:5–7 (the virtue chain) — πίστις (विश्वास) → ἀρετή (सद्गुण) → γνῶσις (ज्ञान) → ἐγκράτεια → ὑπομονή → εὐσέβεια (परमेश्वरपरायणता) → φιλαδελφία → ἀγάπη

• ἐγκράτεια (enkrateia, “self-control”) [NEW]

  • Maithili rendering: संयम (sanyam)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: संयम is also a specific technical stage in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras (the combined discipline of dhāraṇā-dhyāna-samādhi); in ordinary Maithili usage it simply means self-restraint, so risk is moderate and mainly relevant for philosophically literate audiences — a brief gloss (“मन आ इच्छापर काबू,” control over mind and desire) is recommended on first use.

• ὑπομονή (hypomonē, “steadfastness, endurance”) [NEW]

  • Maithili rendering: धीरज (dhīraj)
  • Risk tier: Medium — must be kept distinct from μακροθυμία (below, ch. 3), which needs its own separate rendering.

• φιλαδελφία (philadelphia, “brotherly love/affection”) [NEW]

  • Maithili rendering: भाईचारा (bhāīcārā, “brotherhood”)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: In a caste-and-lineage-conscious social setting (cf. the Panjikaran concerns already flagged in the baseline), “brotherhood” must be clearly marked as spiritual kinship among all believers in Christ, not biological/caste/community solidarity.

• ἀγάπη (agapē, “love”) [NEW]

  • Maithili rendering: प्रेम (prem)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: प्रेम is the central word of Mithila’s own devotional literary heritage — Vidyapati’s celebrated Maithili poetry of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa prem is a defining regional cultural treasure, saturating प्रेम with romantic/erotic bhakti-devotional connotations (śṛṅgāra rasa). Agapē here is committed, selfless, others-directed covenant love, capping the virtue chain — not romantic longing for a deity. Where clarity requires it, pair with a qualifier such as निःस्वार्थ प्रेम (selfless love).

1:8–9 — μὴ … ἀργοὺς … εἰς τὴν … ἐπίγνωσιν … λήθην λαβὼν τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ τῶν πάλαι αὐτοῦ ἁμαρτημάτων

• ἁμάρτημα (hamartēma, “sin[s]”) [TM-REUSE root — “sin” = पाप]. Risk: High, per baseline.
• καθαρισμός (katharismos, “cleansing”) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: पापसँ धोयल जाएब (pāpsã̃ dhoyal jāeb, “being washed from sin”) — a verbal-phrase rendering deliberately avoiding शुद्धिकरण (already recorded in the baseline as a rejected alternative for “sanctification”) and avoiding शुद्ध-root ritual-purity vocabulary generally.
  • Risk tier: Medium–High
  • Risk rationale: Must not be confused with the region’s संस्कार life-cycle purification rites or with Panjikaran-linked lineage-purity concerns, exactly as already flagged for “sanctification” in the baseline.

1:10–11 — σπουδάσατε βεβαίαν ὑμῶν τὴν κλῆσιν καὶ ἐκλογὴν ποιεῖσθαι … εἰς τὴν αἰώνιον βασιλείαν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος

• κλῆσις/κλητός [TM-REUSE — बजाओल जाएब]. ἐκλογή [TM-REUSE — “election” = परमेश्वरक चुनाव]. Both Critical/High per baseline (Effectual Calling doctrine).
• αἰώνιος (aiōnios, “eternal”) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: अनन्त (ananta, “endless/eternal”)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: NEVER सनातन. सनातन is the self-designating term of “Sanātana Dharma,” Hinduism’s own name for itself as “the eternal religion/order.” Using सनातन for “eternal kingdom” would risk equating the eternal kingdom of Christ with Hinduism’s foundational self-identity claim. अनन्त is the safer, religiously unmarked Sanskrit-Hindi term for “without end.”
• βασιλεία [TM-REUSE — “kingdom_of_god” = परमेश्वरक राज्य]. Combine as परमेश्वरक अनन्त राज्य. Risk: Medium, per baseline (Kingdom Mission doctrine), sensitized further by Mithila’s own Janak-kingdom historical identity.

1:12–15 — reminder ministry; Peter’s approaching death.

• σκήνωμα (skēnōma, “tent, tabernacle” = body) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: नश्वर देह (naśvar deh, “mortal/perishable body”), glossing the tent-metaphor rather than translating “tent” literally, since nomadic tent-dwelling is not a native Mithila image.
  • Risk tier: Low.
• ἔξοδος (exodos, “departure”) [NEW] — a deliberate echo of the Exodus narrative, used euphemistically for death.
  • Maithili rendering: प्रस्थान (prasthān, “departure”)
  • Risk tier: Low, but a translator note may point out the Exodus resonance for teaching purposes.

(1:16–21: see Part 1 above.)

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Chapter 2 — False Teachers and Their Judgment

2:1 — ἐγένοντο δὲ καὶ ψευδοπροφῆται ἐν τῷ λαῷ, ὡς καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν ἔσονται ψευδοδιδάσκαλοι, οἵτινες παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας, καὶ τὸν ἀγοράσαντα αὐτοὺς δεσπότην ἀρνούμενοι, ἐπάγοντες ἑαυτοῖς ταχινὴν ἀπώλειαν.

• ψευδοδιδάσκαλος / ψευδοπροφήτης (pseudodidaskalos/pseudoprophētēs, “false teacher/false prophet”) [NEW]

  • Maithili rendering: झूठा शिक्षक (jhūṭhā śikṣak) / झूठा भविष्यद्वक्ता (jhūṭhā bhaviṣyadvaktā) — built on the neutral educational word शिक्षक (teacher) and the already-fixed भविष्यद्वक्ता, deliberately NOT गुरु.
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: गुरु carries immense, near-inviolable reverential weight in North Indian religious culture, including specific guru-disciple lineage (paramparā) authority structures well established among Mithila’s own pandit lineages. Labeling a गुरु “false” would be read as an extraordinarily severe, almost unthinkable claim, and could also wrongly imply that the category of guru-authority itself, rather than the content of a specific teacher’s false doctrine, is what is condemned. शिक्षक keeps the claim focused and textually grounded without importing that entire cultural-authority structure.

• αἵρεσις (hairesis, “heresy,” lit. “a choosing,” “a sect/faction”) [NEW]

  • Maithili rendering: विनाशकारी मत (vināśkārī mat, “a destructive opinion/teaching”)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: Avoid पाषण्ड, the traditional Sanskrit-Hindi term historically applied by orthodox Brahminical tradition to groups (e.g., Buddhists, Jains, Cārvākas) judged heterodox relative to Vedic orthodoxy — that word imports a specific Vedic-orthodoxy insider/outsider framework foreign to the text’s own point, which is fidelity to apostolic teaching about Christ.

• δεσπότης (despotēs, “Master, absolute owner”) [NEW] — distinct from κύριος.

  • Literal meaning: master of a household/slaves; one exercising absolute ownership-authority.
  • Maithili rendering: स्वामी (svāmī)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: Note carefully: स्वामी was explicitly rejected in the Romans baseline as a rendering for κύριος (“lord”) because it under-conveys प्रभु’s exclusive supreme lordship in that context. Here, δεσπότης is a genuinely different Greek word denoting the specific master-slave ownership relation (echoing δοῦλος in 1:1 and the false teachers’ “denial” of this very ownership); स्वामी is therefore reintroduced deliberately for this distinct term, not as a substitute for प्रभु. Translators must not conflate the two Maithili words or treat them as interchangeable across the book.

• ἀγοράζω (agorazō, “bought, purchased”) [NEW]

  • Maithili rendering: मोल लेल (mol lel, “purchased/bought at a price”)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: Preserves the redemption-purchase imagery (consistent with the baseline’s note that छुटकारा may be used for redemption in rescue-narrative contexts); must not be softened to a vague “provided for” that loses the price-paid sense.

• ἀπώλεια (apōleia, “destruction, perdition”) [NEW — recurring throughout ch. 2 and 3:7,16]

  • Maithili rendering: विनाश (vināś, “destruction/ruin”)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: This is the negative pole of the “Day of the Lord and Final Judgment” doctrine — final, eschatological ruin, not a this-worldly setback nor a stage within a larger cycle of cosmic destruction-and-recreation (see κτίσις/pralaya concern in ch. 3 below).

2:2–3 — ἀσελγείαις … ἡ ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας βλασφημηθήσεται … πλαστοῖς λόγοις … πλεονεξίᾳ … τὸ κρίμα … ἡ ἀπώλεια

• ἀσέλγεια (aselgeia, “sensuality, licentiousness”) [NEW] — Maithili: लम्पटता (lampaṭtā). Risk: Medium.
• ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας (hodos tēs alētheias, “the way of truth”) [NEW; also cf. 2:21 “the way of righteousness”]
  • Maithili rendering: सत्यक मार्ग (satyak mārg, “the way/path of truth”)
  • Risk tier: Medium–High
  • Risk rationale: मार्ग (“path, way”) is the standard word used across Hindu soteriology for the several recognized “paths” to liberation (jñāna-mārga, bhakti-mārga, karma-mārga in the Bhagavad Gītā’s teaching), and popular idiom often affirms that “all paths lead to the same destination” (sarva dharma sama bhāv). 2 Peter’s own argument is emphatically the opposite — a single, exclusive, true way, contrasted with the false teachers’ destructive alternative way. Translator notes must make the exclusivity explicit rather than letting मार्ग read as one path among several equally valid ones.
• βλασφημέω (blasphēmeō, “to blaspheme, slander”) [NEW] — Maithili: निन्दा करब (nindā karab). Risk: Low–Medium.
• πλεονεξία (pleonexia, “greed”) [NEW] — Maithili: लोभ (lobh). Risk: Low.
• κρίμα / κρίσις (krima/krisis, “judgment, condemnation”) [NEW — recurring 2:3,4,9; 3:7]
  • Maithili rendering: न्याय (nyāy, “justice/judgment”) / दण्ड (daṇḍa, “punishment”) depending on context (verdict vs. penalty).
  • Risk tier: Medium–High
  • Risk rationale: न्याय is also the name of the Nyāya school of classical Hindu logic and epistemology, a discipline for which Mithila (especially Darbhanga/Mithilā’s Navya-Nyāya tradition, associated with scholars such as Gaṅgeśa Upādhyāya) is the historic intellectual capital of North India. For most everyday speakers न्याय simply means “justice” without any philosophical overtone, but for the educated pandit-tradition audience this curriculum specifically names as primary, care is needed to ensure “the day of judgment” reads as God’s moral-legal verdict on humanity, not an allusion to the logical-epistemological Nyāya darśana.

2:4 — εἰ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων οὐκ ἐφείσατο, ἀλλὰ σειραῖς ζόφου ταρταρώσας παρέδωκεν εἰς κρίσιν τηρουμένους

• ταρταρόω (tartaroō, “to cast into Tartarus”) [NEW] — NT hapax legomenon.
  • Literal meaning: to consign to Tartarus, the deepest infernal abyss of Greek mythology, the place of confinement for divine rebels (the Titans).
  • Semantic range: in this context, the place/state of confinement for fallen angels awaiting final judgment.
  • Maithili rendering: अन्धकारमय गड्ढा (गहींर गर्तमे बन्न कएल गेल) — “confined in a dark pit/abyss” — a descriptive phrase rather than a named location.
  • Risk tier: Critical
  • Risk rationale: NEVER render with नरक (Naraka) or पाताल (Pātāla), the named infernal/nether realms of Hindu cosmology. नरक carries the entire karma-and-rebirth theological apparatus (temporary punishment followed by another rebirth, administered by Yama and his agents according to accumulated karma); पाताल is one of the seven mythological nether-worlds, home of the nāgas in Puranic cosmology. Both would import a full alternative cosmology utterly foreign to the text’s own point — namely, that fallen angels are held in confinement awaiting a single, final, historical judgment, not cycling through karmic consequence. A generic descriptive phrase avoids naming any local infernal-realm concept.

2:5–9 — Noah, “a herald of righteousness” (δικαιοσύνης κήρυκα); Sodom and Gomorrah, “an example” (ὑπόδειγμα) to the ἀσεβεῖς (ungodly); Lot ῥυσθέντα (rescued) from πειρασμοῦ (trial), the ἀδίκους kept under κολαζομένους (punishment).

• κῆρυξ (kēryx, “herald, preacher”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: प्रचारक (pracārak). Risk: Low.
• ὑπόδειγμα (hypodeigma, “example, pattern”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: उदाहरण (udāharaṇ). Risk: Low.
• ἀσεβής (asebēs, “ungodly”) [NEW — the opposite of εὐσέβεια]
  • Maithili rendering: परमेश्वरहीन (parameśvarhīn, “without/lacking Parameshvar”) — a coined compound deliberately avoiding अधर्मी (which uses the धर्म root already excluded across the baseline for law/righteousness terms).
  • Risk tier: Medium–High, consistent with the baseline’s general avoidance of धर्म-based vocabulary.
• ῥύομαι (rhyomai, “to rescue, deliver”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: छोड़ाएब/बचाएब (choṛāeb/bacāeb). Risk: Low–Medium.
• πειρασμός (peirasmos, “trial, temptation”) [NEW] — Maithili: परीक्षा (parīkṣā). Risk: Medium (परीक्षा is also the ordinary word for an academic examination; context will normally disambiguate, but pastoral clarity should be checked).
• κολάζω (kolazō, “to punish”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: दण्ड देब (daṇḍa deb). Risk: Low.

2:10–16 — flesh, defiling passion, despising κυριότητος (dominion/authority); “irrational animals”; Balaam; μισθὸν ἀδικίας (wages of wrongdoing).

• κυριότης (kyriotēs, “dominion, lordship-authority”) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: प्रभुत्व/अधिकार (prabhutva/adhikār) — प्रभुत्व built consistently on the established प्रभु root.
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: refers here to a governing authority structure the false teachers arrogantly despise (likely angelic/divine order); keep distinct from προφή-related terms and from κύριος itself.
• μισθός (misthos, “wage, reward”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: मजदूरी/प्रतिफल (majdūrī/pratiphal). Risk: Low.

2:17–19 — waterless springs; “gloom of utter darkness reserved”; promising ἐλευθερίαν (freedom) while being δοῦλοι (slaves) of φθορᾶς (corruption).

• ἐλευθερία (eleutheria, “freedom, liberty”) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: स्वतंत्रता (svatantratā)
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: Must be distinguished from spiritual/salvific freedom (उद्धार-consequent freedom from sin’s dominion, Rom 6-8 territory); here it names the false teachers’ counterfeit promise of libertine freedom that in fact enslaves.
• δοῦλος [reuse of 1:1 term = दास], applied here negatively (“slaves of corruption”) — the deliberate contrast with Peter’s own glad self-designation as Christ’s दास in 1:1 must be preserved.
• φθορά [reuse from 1:4 = भ्रष्टता].

2:20–22 — escaping the μιάσματα (defilements) of the world through ἐπίγνωσις; entangled again, worse than before; “the way of righteousness”; proverbs of the dog and the sow.

• μιασμός/μίασμα (miasmos/miasma, “defilement”) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: अपवित्रता (apavitratā, “impurity/uncleanness”), built as the direct opposite of the fixed पवित्र.
  • Risk tier: Medium
  • Risk rationale: Keep as moral defilement (worldly corruption reasserting itself in a professed believer’s life), not ritual/ceremonial impurity in the region’s संस्कार sense.

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Chapter 3 — The Day of the Lord, Patience of God, Certainty of Christ’s Return

3:1–2 — reminder of the words of the ἁγίων προφητῶν (holy prophets) and the ἐντολῆς (commandment) of the Lord and Savior.

• ἐντολή (entolē, “commandment”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: आज्ञा (ājñā). Risk: Low–Medium, distinguish from व्यवस्था (the fixed “law” term) — ἐντολή here names a specific apostolic instruction, not the Mosaic Law corpus.

3:3–4 — ἐν ἐμπαιγμονῇ ἐμπαῖκται … ποῦ ἐστιν ἡ ἐπαγγελία τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ; … ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς κτίσεως

• ἐμπαίκτης (empaiktēs, “scoffer, mocker”) [NEW] — Maithili: उपहास करएबाला (upahās karaebālā, “one who mocks”). Risk: Low.
• παρουσία [reuse from 1:16 = आगमन], Critical, per Part 1 above — appears here as the specific target of the scoffers’ denial, directly serving “The Certainty of Christ’s Return.”
• κτίσις (ktisis, “creation”) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: सृष्टि (sṛṣṭi)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: सृष्टि is deeply embedded in Hindu cosmology as one phase of a repeating cosmic cycle — सृष्टि (creation), स्थिति (preservation), and प्रलय (dissolution) performed cyclically, traditionally associated with Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva, and repeating across successive kalpas. The scoffers’ own argument in this passage (“all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation”) is itself a claim about an unchanging, ongoing order — which Peter refutes by insisting on a real, singular past judgment (the Flood) and a real, singular future judgment (final fire). Translators must ensure सृष्टि here reads as God’s one historical act of origination, not as one iteration within an impersonal or repeating creation-dissolution cycle; this concern directly parallels the “Day of the Lord” concern immediately below.

3:5–7 — the world ἀπώλετο (perished) by water; the present heavens and earth stored up for πυρὶ (fire), kept for the ἡμέραν κρίσεως καὶ ἀπωλείας of the ungodly.

• ἀπώλεια/ἀπόλλυμι [reuse — विनाश]. πῦρ (fire): Maithili आगि (āgi), Low risk, standard.

3:8–9 — with the Lord one day as a thousand years; the Lord is not βραδύνει (slow) but μακροθυμεῖ (is patient), not wishing any to ἀπολέσθαι (perish), but all to reach μετάνοιαν (repentance).

• μακροθυμία/μακροθυμέω (makrothymia/makrothymeō, “patience, longsuffering”) [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “long-temperedness”; forbearance that delays deserved response.
  • Maithili rendering: सहनशीलता (sahanśīltā, “forbearance/longsuffering”) — deliberately distinct from धीरज (used for ὑπομονή in ch. 1), preserving two separate Maithili terms for two separate Greek concepts.
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: This is the central term for “Patience of God’s Timing.” It must be rendered as God’s own active, purposive forbearance — giving opportunity for repentance — not confused with the fatalistic, passive-waiting idiom common in everyday Maithili speech around karma/destiny (e.g., popular sayings about “der hai par andher nahī,” roughly “there is delay but no injustice,” which frames delay as an impersonal cosmic-moral balancing rather than a personal Being’s deliberate mercy). A translator note distinguishing divine patience from प्रारब्ध/fate-based delay (already a flagged risk pattern in the baseline’s “providence” and “election” entries) is recommended.
• βραδύνω (bradynō, “to be slow, delay”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: ढील करब (ḍhīl karab). Risk: Low.
• μετάνοια (metanoia, “repentance”) [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: a change of mind; a turning-around of one’s whole orientation.
  • Maithili rendering: पश्चाताप (paścātāp), always contextualized as a decisive turning to God, not mere emotional remorse.
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: NEVER प्रायश्चित्त (prāyaścitta), the standard Sanskrit-Hindu term for ritual expiation — a prescribed rite or penance performed to remove the karmic effect of a specific transgression. That term reframes repentance as a merit-generating ritual act rather than a Spirit-wrought reorientation of the heart received by grace, directly undermining the Grace doctrine already Critical in the baseline.

3:10–13 — ἥξει δὲ ἡμέρα κυρίου ὡς κλέπτης, ἐν ᾗ οἱ οὐρανοὶ … παρελεύσονται, στοιχεῖα δὲ καυσούμενα λυθήσεται … καινοὺς οὐρανοὺς καὶ γῆν καινὴν … ἐν οἷς δικαιοσύνη κατοικεῖ.

• ἡμέρα κυρίου (hēmera kyriou, “the Day of the Lord”) [NEW — the anchor phrase for “The Day of the Lord and Final Judgment”]
  • Maithili rendering: प्रभुक दिन (prabhuk din) — built directly on the fixed प्रभु.
  • Risk tier: Critical
  • Risk rationale: This must be understood as a single, final, historical day of divine reckoning and cosmic renewal — not प्रलय (pralaya), the cyclical cosmic dissolution that in Hindu cosmology recurs at the close of every kalpa, to be followed by a fresh cycle of सृष्टि. Where “the Day of the Lord” is described as bringing the destruction of the present heavens and earth followed by “new heavens and a new earth,” translators must guard against readers hearing this as one more turn of an endless creation-dissolution wheel; a translator note contrasting the linear, once-for-all, morally decisive Day of the Lord with the cyclical, impersonal, recurring pralaya/kalpa framework is required, structurally parallel to the incarnation-vs-avatar note already mandated in the baseline.
• κλέπτης (kleptēs, “thief”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: चोर (cor), standard metaphor for suddenness/unpredictability. Risk: Low.
• στοιχεῖον (stoicheion, “element, [heavenly body]”) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: आकाशीय पिण्ड (ākāśīya piṇḍa, “celestial body”) for the astronomical sense; avoid unqualified तत्त्व.
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: तत्त्व alone is heavily loaded in Sāṃkhya and Vedānta cosmology, where it denotes the fundamental categories/principles of reality (the 24–25 tattvas of classical Sāṃkhya); in a Mithila scholarly setting this technical resonance is a live risk, so a descriptive astronomical phrase is preferred over the bare philosophical term.
• καινός (kainos, “new [in kind/quality]”) [NEW] — Maithili: नव्य/नूतन (navya/nūtan), conveying qualitative newness (a new order of creation), not merely “another one” (नयका). Risk: Medium.
• κατοικέω (katoikeō, “to dwell”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: बसब (basab). Risk: Low.

3:14 — σπουδάσατε ἄσπιλοι καὶ ἀμώμητοι αὐτῷ εὑρεθῆναι ἐν εἰρήνῃ

• ἄσπιλος/ἄμωμος (aspilos/amōmos, “spotless/blameless”) [NEW] — sacrificial-purity background language.
  • Maithili rendering: निष्कलंक (niṣkalaṅk, “spotless/unblemished”)
  • Risk tier: Low–Medium
  • Risk rationale: Use निष्कलंक/निर्दोष rather than शुद्ध, keeping the sense a moral-relational standing before God rather than ritual purity.
• εἰρήνη [TM-REUSE — “peace” = शान्ति]. Risk: Medium, per baseline.

3:15–16 — the Lord’s μακροθυμίαν as salvation; Paul’s letters, δυσνόητα (hard to understand), which the ignorant στρεβλοῦσιν (twist), as they do the other γραφάς (Scriptures).

• γραφή [reuse from 1:20 = पवित्र शास्त्र], High, same rationale.

3:17–18 — beware being carried away by the πλάνῃ (error) of ἀθέσμων (lawless people), losing your στηριγμοῦ (stability); but αὐξάνετε (grow) in the grace and γνώσει of our Lord and Savior. To him be the δόξα both now and εἰς ἡμέραν αἰῶνος.

• πλάνη (planē, “error, deception, wandering”) [NEW]
  • Maithili rendering: भ्रम (bhram, “confusion/error”)
  • Risk tier: High
  • Risk rationale: NEVER माया. माया is the central Advaita Vedānta term for the cosmic illusion by which the phenomenal world appears distinct from the one underlying reality (Brahman) — a specific and celebrated metaphysical doctrine, not a synonym for moral/doctrinal error. Using माया would smuggle in an entire competing cosmology where भ्रम simply names being led astray from sound apostolic teaching into false doctrine and immoral living.
• στηριγμός (stērigmos, “firmness, stability”) [NEW, minor] — Maithili: स्थिरता (sthirtā). Risk: Low.
• αὐξάνω (auxanō, “to grow”) [NEW — the key verb for “Growing in Christian Virtue,” closing the letter as it opened the virtue-chain theme in ch. 1]
  • Maithili rendering: बढ़ब (baṛhab, “to grow”)
  • Risk tier: Low–Medium
  • Risk rationale: Low intrinsic risk, but pastorally important — ensure it reads as ongoing, Spirit-enabled growth in relationship and character (paired with grace and knowledge of Christ), not self-effort achievement disconnected from grace, echoing the grace-versus-merit concern already Critical in the baseline.
• δόξα [reuse = महिमा]; the closing doxology “to the day of eternity” (ἡμέραν αἰῶνος) reuses अनन्त (see 1:11 above): अनन्तकालतक (anantakāl-tak).

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Summary of Full-Book Coverage

Chapter	Coverage status
1:1–15	New load-bearing terms treated: δοῦλος, σωτήρ, ἐπίγνωσις, γνῶσις, θεῖος, εὐσέβεια, ἀρετή, ἐπάγγελμα, κοινωνός, θεία φύσις (Critical), ἐπιθυμία, φθορά, ἐγκράτεια, ὑπομονή, φιλαδελφία, ἀγάπη, καθαρισμός, αἰώνιος, σκήνωμα, ἔξοδος. Reused TM terms: ἀπόστολος, πίστις, δικαιοσύνη, καλέω, δόξα, κλῆσις, ἐκλογή, βασιλεία.
1:16–21 (core)	Full verse-by-verse treatment above: μῦθος, δύναμις, παρουσία, ἐπόπτης, μεγαλειότης, τιμή, μεγαλοπρεπὴς δόξα, ἀγαπητός, εὐδοκέω, ἅγιον ὄρος, προφητικὸς λόγος, φωσφόρος, προφητεία, γραφή, ἐπίλυσις, θέλημα ἀνθρώπου, φέρω, πνεῦμα ἅγιον.
2	New load-bearing terms treated: ψευδοδιδάσκαλος/ψευδοπροφήτης, αἵρεσις, δεσπότης, ἀγοράζω, ἀπώλεια, ἀσέλγεια, ὁδὸς τῆς ἀληθείας, βλασφημέω, πλεονεξία, κρίμα/κρίσις, ταρταρόω (Critical), κῆρυξ, ὑπόδειγμα, ἀσεβής, ῥύομαι, πειρασμός, κολάζω, κυριότης, μισθός, ἐλευθερία, μιασμός. Reused: δοῦλος, φθορά, ἐπίγνωσις.
3	New load-bearing terms treated: ἐντολή, ἐμπαίκτης, κτίσις, μακροθυμία (High), βραδύνω, μετάνοια (High), ἡμέρα κυρίου (Critical), κλέπτης, στοιχεῖον, καινός, κατοικέω, ἄσπιλος/ἄμωμος, πλάνη (High), στηριγμός, αὐξάνω. Reused: παρουσία, γραφή, δόξα, εἰρήνη, αἰώνιος.

No chapter of 2 Peter is without new or reused load-bearing theological vocabulary; every chapter is explicitly accounted for above.

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Cross-reference: analysis/08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated per-term glossary table with risk tiers and citations. All Critical/High terms above require Human Theologian review per the routing conventions established in the Romans baseline’s doctrine_risk_registry.json.