Core Glossary
Core Glossary: 1 John (English–Malay)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, covering all five chapters of 1 John. Terms marked [REUSED] carry an exact, non-negotiable rendering already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and must not be altered. Terms marked [NEW] are introduced by this curriculum and must be added to translation memory (with incrementing version number) before Phase 2 translation proceeds, per the 12_ai_translation_requirements.md protocol.
Risk tiers follow the baseline’s doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions: Critical (human theologian review, every occurrence), High (human theologian review), Medium (native speaker review recommended), Low (automated review sufficient).
A. Reused Terms from Romans Baseline (exact rendering enforced)
| Term | Original | Malay Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | 1 John Passages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | θεός | Allah | Critical | God | Throughout (1:5; 4:8,16; etc.) | No change; single most legally/politically sensitive term in Malaysia (baseline note applies unaltered). |
| Jesus | Ἰησοῦς | Yesus | Critical | Lordship of Christ | 1:3,7; 2:1,22; 4:2-3,15; 5:1,5-6,20 | Never Isa. |
| Christ | Χριστός | Kristus | Critical | Messianic Promise | 1:3; 2:1,22; 4:2; 5:1,6,20 | Never Al-Masih. |
| Lord | κύριος | Tuhan | Critical | Lordship of Christ | Rare in 1 John itself but must remain consistent with Romans 10:9 usage when cross-referenced | Reserve Tuhan for this sense only. |
| Son of God | υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ | Anak Allah | Critical | Sonship/Deity of Christ | 1:3,7; 3:8,23; 4:9-10,15; 5:5,9-13,20 | The letter’s single most-repeated christological title; never softened. |
| Father | πατήρ | Bapa | Critical | Adoption into God’s Family | 1:2-3; 2:1,13-16,22-24; 3:1; 4:14 | Same tawhid-adjacent caution as baseline; reinforced here by tekna theou / gennaō terms (see New Terms). |
| Holy Spirit | πνεῦμα (ἅγιον implied) | Roh Kudus | Critical | Sanctification / Testing the Spirits | 3:24; 4:2,6,13; 5:6-8 | Animist roh risk sharply intensified in 1 John 4:1-6’s “test the spirits” command; see New Terms below. |
| Incarnation | (theological category; cf. “come in the flesh,” 4:2) | Penjelmaan | Critical | Incarnation | 1:1-3 (Word of Life, seen/touched); 4:2-3 | 1 John 4:2-3 is this curriculum’s most explicit incarnation test-text; reuse baseline term and forbidden-substitution rules exactly. |
| Righteousness | δικαιοσύνη / δίκαιος | Kebenaran | Critical | Salvation | 1:9; 2:1,29; 3:7,10 | Same ambiguity risk (truth vs. moral righteousness) now compounded by the new alētheia (“truth”) term below sharing the same Malay word. |
| Sin | ἁμαρτία | Dosa | High | Universal Human Accountability | 1:7-10; 2:1-2,12; 3:4-9; 4:10; 5:16-17 | Reuse exactly; note 1 John’s added definition “sin is lawlessness” (3:4, new term below). |
| Faith | πίστις | Iman | High | Faith | 5:1,4-5 | Object of faith (Jesus is the Son of God) must always be stated explicitly, per baseline guidance. |
| Fellowship | κοινωνία | Persekutuan | Low | Christian Fellowship | 1:3,6-7 | Explicitly Trinitarian and horizontal in 1 John; no new risk. |
| Holy | ἅγιος (implied, “the Holy One,” 2:20) | Kudus | High | Sanctification | 2:20 | ”The Holy One” (Christ) as source of the anointing (new term below); reuse exactly. |
| Salvation (conceptual background) | σωτηρία (cf. σωτήρ, “Savior,” 4:14) | Keselamatan | Critical | Salvation | 4:14 (Savior of the world); background to eternal life (ch. 5) | Reuse exactly; must not be diluted to hoped-for future outcome. |
B. New Terms Introduced by 1 John (to be added to translation memory)
| Term | Original | Transliteration | Malay Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Key Passages | Alternatives Rejected & Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Love (noun/verb) | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | agapē / agapaō | Kasih / Mengasihi | High | God is Light and God is Love | Throughout, esp. 4:7-21 (over 50 occurrences in the letter) | Kasih sayang (rejected as primary gloss) risks reducing sacrificial, willed love to sentimental affection. Must be kept visibly distinct from Kasih kurnia (Grace, baseline) despite shared root, so students do not conflate “love” and “grace” as one concept. |
| Beloved (address) | ἀγαπητοί | agapētoi | Yang dikasihi | Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another | 1 John 2:7; 3:2,21; 4:1,7,11 | Kekasih (bare noun) rejected: standard contemporary Malay usage denotes a romantic partner/boyfriend-girlfriend, which would import an inappropriate romantic register into pastoral address. |
| God is Love | ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν | ho theos agapē estin | Allah adalah kasih | High | God is Light and God is Love | 4:8, 16 | Allah itu pengasih (God is merciful/loving, an attribute-adjective) rejected: reduces an ontological essence-claim to one divine attribute among many (cf. Islamic Ar-Rahman/Ar-Rahim as one of 99 names), losing the parallel force with “God is light” (1:5). |
| God is Light | ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν | ho theos phōs estin | Allah adalah terang | High | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5 | Nur (rejected): the Arabic-loan term evoking the pre-existent light of Muhammad in historic Malay Sufi devotional tradition (Hamzah Fansuri and successors), already flagged in the baseline under Glory; this collision is intensified here since 1:5 is this letter’s own foundational ontological claim about God. |
| Light / Darkness | φῶς / σκοτία | phōs / skotia | Terang / Kegelapan | High | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5-7; 2:8-11 | Same nur collision as above applies to terang; kegelapan carries comparatively low independent risk as the contrast term. |
| Walk (conduct) | περιπατέω | peripateō | Berjalan / hidup | Low-Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another | 1:6-7; 2:6,11 | No major rejected alternative; ensure metaphorical (not literal ambulatory) sense is retained. |
| Blood of Jesus | αἷμα Ἰησοῦ | haima Iēsou | Darah Yesus | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:7 | Presupposes real historical death (Qur’an 4:157 tension, cf. baseline Resurrection); must not be presented as symbolic only. |
| Cleanse | καθαρίζω | katharizō | Menyucikan | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:7,9 | Shares root with suci, already rejected by the baseline as a rendering for Holy due to wudu’-ablution associations; here the established action-verb rendering is retained but must be explicitly taught as a once-for-all moral-judicial cleansing, not repeatable ritual washing. |
| Confess (sin / Christ) | ὁμολογέω | homologeō | Mengaku / mengakui | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Assurance of Salvation | 1:9; 2:23; 4:2-3,15 | Must be taught in explicit parallel with the Romans 10:9 salvation confession (Yesus adalah Tuhan) for cross-curriculum consistency; must not be confused with the Islamic syahadah confession formula despite both being public identity-defining professions. |
| Word of Life | ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς | ho logos tēs zōēs | Firman Hidup | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 1:1 | Must be taught alongside Penjelmaan (baseline Critical); guards against both the tawhid denial of true incarnation and the Hindu-Buddhist-derived penjelmaan dewa (avatar) misreading. |
| Advocate | παράκλητος | paraklētos | Pembela | Critical | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 2:1 | Syafaat-adjacent framing rejected outright: this role is structurally very close to the formally-taught Sunni doctrine of Muhammad’s Judgment-Day intercession; must be explicitly distinguished as Christ’s own unique, sufficient advocacy, never named with or equated to syafaat. Reinforces baseline Intercession (Perantaraan) entry. |
| Propitiation | ἱλασμός | hilasmos | Korban pendamaian | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:2; 4:10 | No equivalent concept in Islamic theology (direct forgiveness through repentance/mercy without mediating sacrificial death); must not be equated with qurban (Eid al-Adha sacrifice, an act of obedience/remembrance, not sin-bearing atonement). New Critical entry, not previously in Romans baseline. |
| Commandment | ἐντολή | entolē | Perintah | Medium-High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:3-8; 3:22-24; 4:21; 5:2-3 | Must be kept distinct from baseline Hukum Taurat (Mosaic Law) and taught as fruit of, not means to, relationship with God — resisting a ketaatan agama-style meritorious-duty framework already flagged in the baseline under Obedience of Faith. |
| Know (relational) | γινώσκω | ginōskō | Mengenal | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 2:3-4,13-14; 3:1,6; 4:6-8 | Distinguished from tahu (factual knowledge, rendering οἶδα); consistency required across the whole letter given the letter’s assurance-epistemology structure. |
| Abide / Remain | μένω | menō | Tinggal (di dalam) | Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another | 2:6,10,14,17,24,27-28; 3:6,9,14-15,17,24; 4:12-13,15-16 | Must convey continuous relational union, not incidental physical residence; the letter’s single most frequent structural term (20+ occurrences). |
| Lust of flesh/eyes; pride of life | ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός / τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν; ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου | epithymia… alazoneia… | Hawa nafsu (kedagingan/mata); kesombongan hidup | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:16 | Genuine cultural resonance point (hawa nafsu is an established Islamic-Malay concept); ensure all three components are rendered distinctly, not collapsed into one term. |
| Antichrist | ἀντίχριστος | antichristos | Antikristus | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:18,22; 4:3 | Strong risk of conflation with the extensively developed Sunni eschatological figure al-Masih ad-Dajjal (“Dajjal”), a formally taught doctrine with specific extrabiblical narrative detail; must be explicitly distinguished — 1 John’s “many antichrists” (present, plural, doctrinal deniers) versus the singular future cosmic-deceiver figure of Dajjal tradition. |
| Anointing | χρῖσμα | chrisma | Urapan | Medium-High | Testing the Spirits | 2:20,27 | Every believer’s shared possession (the Spirit’s teaching ministry), not a mark of religious-elite status or independent revelation displacing Scripture; connects to baseline caution under Apostle. |
| Last hour | ἐσχάτη ὥρα | eschatē hōra | Waktu/saat yang terakhir | Low-Medium | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:18 | Some helpful resonance with Islamic akhir zaman concepts; low independent risk. |
| Children of God | τέκνα θεοῦ | tekna theou | Anak-anak Allah | Critical | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 3:1-2,10; 5:2 | Intensifies the tawhid (Qur’an 112:3) collision beyond even the baseline’s Adoption entry, since tekna (offspring/children) reads more directly as literal kinship than a legal-adoption metaphor; must connect explicitly to baseline Adoption/Father clarifications. |
| Born of God / Begotten | γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ | gennaō ek tou theou | Diperanakkan oleh Allah / lahir daripada Allah | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:29; 3:9(x2); 4:7; 5:1(x2),4,18(x2) | The letter’s single sharpest doctrinal collision: standard Malay Qur’an translations render 112:3 as Allah tidak beranak dan tiada diperanakkan using the identical verb root; must be explicitly and repeatedly taught as spiritual regeneration, never physical/biological begetting. |
| Seed of God | σπέρμα (αὐτοῦ) | sperma (autou) | Benih Allah / benih-Nya | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:9 | Same collision family as gennaō/tekna theou; the reproductive-biological metaphor sharpens rather than softens the risk. |
| Lawlessness | ἀνομία | anomia | Pelanggaran hukum / kederhakaan | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 3:4 | Distinct from baseline Hukum Taurat (Mosaic law code specifically); denotes the broader principle of rebellion against God’s moral order. |
| Devil | διάβολος | diabolos | Iblis | Medium | Overcoming the World | 3:8,10 | Genuine resonance with the Islamic Iblis figure (a named, personal rebellious being); teaching material should note shared ground while clarifying the NT’s specific claims about the devil’s defeat through Christ’s incarnation and work. |
| Truth (deed and truth) | ἀλήθεια | alētheia | Kebenaran | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Testing the Spirits | 1:6; 3:18-19; 4:6; 5:6 | Shares the identical Malay word already assigned to righteousness (dikaiosynē, baseline Critical); a distinct Greek concept collapsing into the same Malay term as another Critical-risk doctrine. Context and, where needed, supplementary phrasing must keep the two concepts distinguishable for readers. |
| Confidence / Boldness | παρρησία | parrēsia | Keyakinan | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 3:21; 4:17; 5:14 | Must denote settled present confidence, not probabilistic hope; must not be softened to harapan (hope), given the direct contrast with Islamic eschatology’s typically withheld certainty of final standing. |
| Test the Spirits | δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα | dokimazete ta pneumata | Ujilah roh-roh itu | Critical | Testing the Spirits | 4:1 | Sits directly on the baseline’s animist roh fault line (ancestor/nature/jinn spirits recognized in traditional Malay folk belief beneath official Islam); must be taught as discernment of true versus false teaching about Christ against a single objective criterion (4:2-3), not engagement with multiple competing spirit-beings. |
| Spirit of Truth / Spirit of Error | πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / τῆς πλάνης | pneuma tēs alētheias / tēs planēs | Roh kebenaran / roh kesesatan | Critical | Testing the Spirits | 4:6 | Same animist-roh risk as “Test the Spirits” above, compounded by the alētheia/“kebenaran” collision noted above. |
| Come in the Flesh (confession) | ὁμολογεῖ…ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα | homologei…en sarki elēlythota | Mengaku bahawa Yesus Kristus telah datang dalam rupa manusia | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 4:2-3 | Reuses and directly applies baseline Incarnation (Penjelmaan); 1 John’s own explicit doctrinal test-text for the incarnation; guards against both tawhid denial and Hindu-Buddhist avatar misreading. |
| Overcome | νικάω | nikaō | Mengalahkan / menang (atas) | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5 | Connects to baseline Power of God (against occult/animist kuasa ghaib misreadings); victory is grounded in “he who is in you,” not human strength or ritual power. |
| World (Johannine sense) | κόσμος | kosmos | Dunia | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:15-17; 4:1-5,14,17; 5:4-5,19 | Everyday sense (physical globe) risks flattening the specific Johannine sense of an organized moral-spiritual system opposed to God; context must disambiguate “the world God loved and sent his Son to save” from “the world system believers must not love.” |
| Savior (of the world) | σωτήρ | sōtēr | Juruselamat | Medium | God is Light and God is Love | 4:14 | Standard, well-established Malay Christian term; must be taught alongside Keselamatan (baseline Critical) to avoid a generic “helper” misreading. |
| Judgment / Day of Judgment | κρίσις / ἡμέρα τῆς κρίσεως | krisis / hēmera tēs kriseōs | Penghakiman / Hari penghakiman | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:17 | Genuine structural resonance with Islamic Hari Kiamat; 1 John’s distinctive claim of present confidence facing that day (not uncertain hope) must be preserved despite the resonance. |
| Fear (of punishment) | φόβος | phobos | Ketakutan | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:18 | Must be distinguished from the positive, reverential “fear of the Lord” concept found elsewhere in Scripture and in Islamic taqwa; this verse addresses servile dread of condemnation specifically. |
| Punishment / Torment | κόλασις | kolasis | Seksaan / hukuman | Low-Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:18 | Some helpful resonance with Islamic azab (torment) imagery; low independent risk. |
| Perfect / Complete (love) | τέλειος / τελειόω | teleios / teleioō | Sempurna / disempurnakan | Medium | God is Light and God is Love | 4:12,17-18 | Convey dynamic maturity/completeness of expression, not static moral flawlessness. |
| Liar | ψεύστης | pseustēs | Pendusta | Low-Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:10; 2:4,22; 4:20 | Preserve John’s characteristically blunt diagnostic register; standard term, low ambiguity. |
| Brother | ἀδελφός | adelphos | Saudara | Low | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:9-11; 3:10-17; 4:20-21 | Specify referent as fellow believers in Christ, distinct from ethnic/national saudara-se-bangsa usage. |
| Only Begotten / One and Only (Son) | μονογενής | monogenēs | Tunggal (in “Anak-Nya yang tunggal”) | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 4:9 | Reinforces baseline Son of God (Critical); must never be softened with a euphemistic substitute per baseline’s explicit forbidden-substitution rule. |
| Faithful and Just | πιστός καὶ δίκαιος | pistos kai dikaios | Setia dan adil | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9 | Connect God’s justice explicitly to the propitiation of 2:2/4:10 so forgiveness is not misread as God overlooking sin. |
| Eternal Life | ζωὴ αἰώνιος | zōē aiōnios | Hidup yang kekal | Critical | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11-13,20 | The letter’s explicit closing thesis (5:13); must never be softened into a hoped-for future outcome pending Judgment Day — the text claims believers may know (settled, factual knowledge) they possess it now. |
| Testimony / Witness | μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω | martyria / martyreō | Kesaksian / bersaksi | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 1:2; 4:14; 5:6-11 | Standard term; reinforces the letter’s repeated appeal to reliable given testimony as the ground of assurance. |
| Water and Blood (triad with Spirit) | τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα | to hydōr kai to haima | Air dan darah | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 5:6-8 | Doctrinally complex (multiple valid historic interpretations); flag for native speaker/theologian review of interpretive framing rather than treat as a syncretism risk primarily. |
| Sin unto Death / Not unto Death | ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον / οὐ πρὸς θάνατον | hamartia pros thanaton | Dosa yang membawa maut / dosa yang tidak membawa maut | Medium-High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 5:16-17 | Guard against readers mapping this onto a Catholic mortal/venial taxonomy or an Islamic major/minor sin gradation (dosa besar/kecil) not actually intended by the text. |
| Idols | εἴδωλα | eidōla | Berhala | Medium | Overcoming the World | 5:21 | Genuine resonance with Islamic prohibition of syirik; ensure the broader Johannine referent (anything substituted for the true God/Christ) is taught alongside the literal sense. |
C. Risk Summary for 1 John New Terms
| Risk Tier | Count of New Terms | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 12 | Human theologian (every occurrence) |
| High | 8 | Human theologian |
| Medium-High | 2 | Human theologian / Native speaker (dual flag) |
| Medium | 15 | Native speaker review recommended |
| Low-Medium | 3 | Native speaker review recommended |
| Low | 2 | Automated review sufficient |
Total new terms requiring human theologian review: 20 Total new terms requiring native speaker review: 20 Total new terms requiring automated review only: 2
Note the unusually high concentration of Critical-risk new terms in this curriculum compared to the Romans baseline, driven by three recurring, distinct collision families specific to 1 John:
- The “born of/children of/seed of God” family (gennaō, tekna theou, sperma) — a direct, repeated textual echo of the Qur’anic negation in Sura 112:3, sharper than the baseline’s Adoption entry because it uses begetting/kinship vocabulary directly rather than a legal-adoption metaphor.
- The “testing the spirits” family (dokimazete ta pneumata, pneuma tēs alētheias/planēs) — direct contact with traditional Malay folk-animist belief in multiple roh (spirit) categories, amplifying a risk the baseline had already flagged for Holy Spirit but which 1 John raises to a central, chapter-length doctrinal theme (Testing the Spirits).
- The “Advocate/Antichrist” family (paraklētos, antichristos) — direct structural overlap with two specific, formally-taught mainstream Sunni doctrines (syafaat Nabi Muhammad and al-Masih ad-Dajjal), each requiring explicit differentiation rather than avoidance.
This glossary must be loaded alongside translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json before any Phase 2 segment translation of 1 John begins. All new terms above must be formally added to translation memory (incrementing version number) prior to translation, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md’s Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Allah
Transliteration: ahl-LAHH
Doctrine: God
Rejected alternatives: Tuhan (used for ‘Lord’ in this Language Package; reserving Allah for ‘God’ keeps the two terms distinct as Alkitab does)
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Malay Christians have used Allah for God since the earliest Malay Bible translations (1629), and its use by non-Muslims has been the subject of significant, ongoing legal and political contest in Malaysia (2013 Court of Appeal ruling, 2021 Kuching High Court ruling). 1 John context: ‘God is Light’ (1:5) and ‘God is Love’ (4:8,16) make Allah the letter’s central ontological subject; no change to baseline sensitivity notes, only intensified centrality.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Yesus
Transliteration: YEH-soos
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Isa (the Qur’anic name, deliberately avoided by established Alkitab convention)
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). The Alkitab deliberately uses Yesus rather than the Qur’anic Isa. 1 John context: 1 John 4:2-3 makes confessing ‘Yesus Kristus telah datang dalam rupa manusia’ (Jesus Christ come in the flesh) the letter’s own explicit doctrinal test; 4:15 and 5:1,5 make ‘Yesus’ the fixed subject of the letter’s salvation confessions.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Kristus
Transliteration: KRIS-toos
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: Al-Masih (the Qur’anic title, deliberately avoided in favor of the Greek-derived Alkitab convention)
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Established Alkitab usage (Yesus Kristus) deliberately avoids the Qur’anic Al-Masih. 1 John context: central to the confession tests of 2:22-23 and 4:2-3, and to 5:1’s definition of saving faith (‘everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ’).
Lord
Approved rendering: Tuhan
Transliteration: TOO-hahn
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: tuan (master/sir, non-divine)
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Established Alkitab term (Tuhan Yesus); reserved for this exclusive-divine-authority sense only. 1 John context: 1 John itself rarely uses kyrios directly, but the term must remain reserved for this sense wherever cross-referenced with the Romans 10:9 confession (‘Yesus adalah Tuhan’).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Anak Allah
Transliteration: AH-nahk ahl-LAHH
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: kekasih Allah (God’s beloved one), wakil Allah (God’s representative)
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Full phrase required, never softened; this Language Package explicitly forbids euphemistic substitution. 1 John context: the letter’s single most-repeated christological title (1:3,7; 3:8,23; 4:9-10,15; 5:5,9-13,20); the 4:15 confession ‘Yesus ialah Anak Allah’ structurally parallels Romans 10:9 and must be rendered with the same non-negotiable weight.
Father
Approved rendering: Bapa
Transliteration: BAH-pah
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: Pencipta (Creator, as a substitute to avoid relational language)
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Calling God ‘Father’ can register as implying literal offspring, which tawhid forbids; teach the relational, adoptive sense directly. 1 John context: this caution is sharply reinforced by the new ‘children of God’/‘born of God’/‘seed of God’ kinship-language family (see Section B), which reads more literally as physical offspring than the baseline’s Adoption metaphor alone.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Roh Kudus
Transliteration: ROHKH KOO-doos
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: Jibril (the archangel Gabriel), roh halus (a generic nature/subtle spirit in traditional Malay animist belief)
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Two distinct risks converge: the archangel-Jibril misreading and the animist multiple-roh risk. 1 John context: sharply intensified by 1 John 4:1-6’s command to ‘test the spirits’ (plural, see test_the_spirits below); teaching material must clarify this addresses discernment between one Spirit of God and one spirit of error, not engagement with multiple competing spirit-beings.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: Penjelmaan
Transliteration: pen-jel-MAHN
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: Tuhan yang menyamar sebagai manusia (God disguising himself as a human)
Original: ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο (cf. 1 John 4:2’s ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Shares its root with penjelmaan dewa, an avatar-like Hindu-Buddhist-derived concept; must be taught as the eternal Son permanently taking on true human nature. 1 John context: 1 John 4:2-3 is this curriculum’s own explicit incarnation test-text, and 1:1-3’s ‘Word of Life… heard, seen, looked upon, touched’ reinforces a real, tangible, historical incarnation.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: Kebenaran
Transliteration: keh-beh-NAH-rahn
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: amal soleh (righteous deeds, as the ground itself)
Original: δικαιοσύνη / δίκαιος
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Context must make clear this is right standing before God, not merely factual accuracy. 1 John context: 1:9’s ‘faithful and just (dikaios)’ and 3:7’s ‘he who practices righteousness’ reuse this term; ambiguity risk is compounded in this book by the new term aletheia (‘truth’, 3:18) sharing the identical Malay word — see truth_aletheia below and the ‘Kebenaran’ fencing note in the requirements document.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Keselamatan
Transliteration: keh-seh-lah-MAH-tahn
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: masuk syurga (entering paradise, as the whole content)
Original: σωτηρία (cf. σωτήρ, 4:14)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Must not be diluted into a synonym for hoping to enter syurga, an outcome Islamic theology leaves undetermined until Judgment Day. 1 John context: background to 4:14’s ‘Savior of the world’ (see savior below) and the whole letter’s climactic eternal-life assurance in chapter 5 (see eternal_life below).
Resurrection
Approved rendering: Kebangkitan
Transliteration: keh-bahng-KIT-ahn
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: diangkat naik ke syurga (being raised up to heaven, without dying)
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Must affirm real bodily death followed by bodily resurrection; Qur’an 4:157 denies Isa actually died. 1 John context: 1 John does not use this term directly but the doctrine is presupposed by ‘the blood of Jesus’ (1:7, see blood_of_jesus below), which requires a real, historical death as its precondition.
Word Of Life
Approved rendering: Firman Hidup
Transliteration: FEER-mahn HEE-doop
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: a disembodied revelation-message reading without tangible incarnation
Original: ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
New term for 1 John. Builds on the already-established Alkitab term Firman (Word, used for logos, e.g. Yohanes 1:1). 1:1’s eyewitness claim (heard, seen, looked upon, touched) must be taught alongside Penjelmaan: the eternal Son truly handled in real human flesh, not a temporary avatar-style appearance nor a disembodied message alone.
Advocate
Approved rendering: Pembela
Transliteration: pem-BEH-lah
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: syafaat (the mainstream Sunni doctrine of the Prophet Muhammad’s Judgment-Day intercession, formally taught in Malaysian Islamic education), peguam/wakil (flat secular legal-representative register, no theological weight)
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Christology
New term for 1 John. 2:1’s ‘we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’ This role-structure sits extremely close to syafaat Nabi Muhammad — not a fringe folk belief but a standard, formally taught article of mainstream Sunni eschatology in Malaysia. Must be taught as Christ’s own unique, sufficient, once-for-all advocacy grounded in his own righteousness and atoning death (2:2), never rendered with or equated to syafaat.
Propitiation
Approved rendering: Korban pendamaian
Transliteration: KOR-bahn pen-dah-MAI-ahn
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: qurban (the Eid al-Adha sacrifice, an act of obedience/remembrance, not sin-bearing atonement)
Original: ἱλασμός
Category: Salvation
New Critical entry, not present in the Romans baseline. No equivalent concept exists in Islamic theology, which teaches direct divine forgiveness through repentance and mercy (taubat, rahmat) without any mediating sacrificial death, and denies Jesus’ death occurred (Qur’an 4:157). Must be taught explicitly as a substitutionary, wrath-averting sacrifice provided by God himself (2:2; 4:10).
Antichrist
Approved rendering: Antikristus
Transliteration: an-tee-KRIS-toos
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: penentang Kristus (paraphrase, ‘opponent of Christ’; rejected in favor of textual fidelity, per this Language Package’s general rule against softening doctrinal content to reduce offense)
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Eschatology
New Critical entry. Strong risk of conflation with the extensively developed Sunni eschatological figure al-Masih ad-Dajjal (‘Dajjal’), formally taught with specific extrabiblical narrative detail. Must explicitly distinguish 1 John’s ‘many antichrists’ (present, plural, doctrinal deniers, 2:18-23; 4:3) from the single future cosmic-deceiver figure of Dajjal tradition.
Children Of God
Approved rendering: Anak-anak Allah
Transliteration: AH-nahk AH-nahk ahl-LAHH
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: euphemistic softening of the kinship language to avoid the tawhid collision
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
New Critical entry. Believers’ present, actual familial identity (3:1-2,10; 5:2). Compounds the risk flagged for gennaō/born_of_god: tekna (offspring/children) reads more directly as literal kinship than the baseline’s legal-relational Adoption framing, intensifying the Qur’an 112:3 tawhid collision. Must connect explicitly to the baseline Adoption and Father clarifications.
Born Of God
Approved rendering: Diperanakkan oleh Allah / lahir daripada Allah
Transliteration: dee-per-AH-nahk-kahn oh-leh ahl-LAHH / LAH-heer dah-ree-pah-dah ahl-LAHH
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: diangkat sebagai anak alone (would lose the letter’s own direct begetting-vocabulary emphasis, substituting only the softer adoption metaphor)
Original: γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
New Critical entry. The letter’s single sharpest doctrinal collision: standard Malay Qur’an translations render Sura 112:3 as Allah ‘tidak beranak dan tiada diperanakkan’ (does not beget and is not begotten), using the identical verb root. Every occurrence (2:29; 3:9(x2); 4:7; 5:1(x2),4,18(x2)) must be explicitly taught as spiritual regeneration, never physical/biological begetting. Never substitute a euphemism to avoid the collision, per the baseline’s forbidden-substitution precedent for Son of God.
Seed Of God
Approved rendering: Benih Allah / benih-Nya
Transliteration: BEH-nih ahl-LAHH / BEH-nih-nyah
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: σπέρμα (αὐτοῦ)
Category: Salvation
New Critical entry. The regenerating divine principle/nature implanted in the believer (3:9). Same collision family as gennaō/tekna theou; the reproductive-biological metaphor sharpens rather than softens the tawhid risk and requires the same explicit teaching safeguard as born_of_god.
Test The Spirits
Approved rendering: Ujilah roh-roh itu
Transliteration: oo-JEE-lah roh-roh EE-too
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: ajaran-only paraphrase, e.g. rendering ‘spirits’ simply as ‘teachings’ (rejected; would lose the text’s own deliberate personal-spiritual-agency language and constitute doctrinal softening)
Original: δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα
Category: Church
New Critical entry. 4:1’s command to examine spiritual claims for genuineness. Traditional Malay folk belief recognizes many kinds of roh (ancestor spirits, nature spirits, jinn); this command’s plural ‘spirits’ risks being heard through that animist framework rather than John’s own binary criterion (Spirit of God vs. spirit of antichrist/error, v.2-3,6). Must be taught as discernment of true versus false teaching about Christ, not engagement with multiple spirit-beings.
Spirit Of Truth Error
Approved rendering: Roh kebenaran / roh kesesatan
Transliteration: rohkh keh-beh-NAH-rahn / rohkh keh-seh-SAH-tahn
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / τῆς πλάνης
Category: Church
New Critical entry. 4:6’s ultimate criterion distinguishing true from false teachers/teaching. Same animist-roh risk as test_the_spirits applies; additionally compounds the aletheia/kebenaran collision noted at truth_aletheia above, since ‘roh kebenaran’ uses the same Malay word already carrying righteousness-doctrine weight.
Come In The Flesh
Approved rendering: Mengaku bahawa Yesus Kristus telah datang dalam rupa manusia
Transliteration: meng-AH-koo bah-HAH-wah YEH-soos KRIS-toos teh-lah dah-TAHNG dah-lahm ROO-pah mah-NOO-see-ah
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: disguise or episodic-appearance renderings
Original: ὁμολογεῖ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα
Category: Christology
New Critical entry. 4:2-3’s diagnostic test for the Spirit of God: this specific confession, not any confession of Jesus generally. Reuses and directly applies the baseline’s Incarnation (Penjelmaan) entry as the letter’s own explicit doctrinal test; guards against both tawhid denial and Hindu-Buddhist-style avatar misreading.
Only Begotten Monogenes
Approved rendering: Tunggal (within “Anak-Nya yang tunggal”)
Transliteration: TOONG-gahl
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: istimewa (special, too weak), satu-satunya (sounds merely numerical rather than categorical uniqueness)
Original: μονογενής
Category: Christology
New Critical entry. 4:9’s monogenēs, reinforcing the baseline’s Son of God entry. Reuses the established Alkitab phrase Anak-Nya yang tunggal (cf. Yohanes 3:16) for cross-textual consistency. Must never be softened with a euphemistic substitute, since monogenēs underlines the very exclusivity tawhid contests.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: Hidup yang kekal
Transliteration: HEE-doop yahng keh-KAHL
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: a hoped-for future outcome framing pending Judgment Day
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Salvation
New Critical entry. The letter’s explicit closing thesis (5:13, ‘that you may know you have eternal life’); also 1:2; 2:25; 5:11-12,20. Must never be softened into a hoped-for future outcome; the text claims believers may know (settled, factual knowledge) they possess it now.
High Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: Dosa
Transliteration: DOH-sah
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: kesilapan (mistake/error)
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Islamic anthropology (fitrah, humans born sinless) resists inherited universal sinfulness. 1 John context: the letter adds an explicit definition, ‘sin is lawlessness’ (3:4, see lawlessness below), and introduces the difficult ‘sin unto death’ distinction (5:16-17, see sin_unto_death below), neither present in Romans.
Faith
Approved rendering: Iman
Transliteration: ee-MAHN
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: kepercayaan (generic belief/trust)
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). The object of faith must always be stated in context. 1 John context: 5:1,4-5 make ‘Jesus is the Son of God’ the explicit, named object of saving faith; must never be presented as generic Islamic iman in the pillars of belief.
Holy
Approved rendering: Kudus
Transliteration: KOO-doos
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: suci (ritually/physically clean)
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Kudus = set apart for God, morally pure, shared with the divine attribute Al-Quddus. 1 John context: 2:20 applies this to Christ himself (‘the Holy One’) as the source of believers’ anointing (see anointing below).
Grace
Approved rendering: Kasih kurnia
Transliteration: KAH-sih KOOR-nee-ah
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: rahmat (mercy, an Arabic-loan term operating within a deeds-and-mercy Islamic judgment framework)
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Kasih kurnia conveys unearned favor apart from merit, distinct from rahmat. 1 John context: this compound must be kept visibly distinct from the new bare term Kasih (agapē love, see love below), despite the shared root, so students moving between Romans and 1 John lessons do not conflate ‘grace’ and ‘love’ as one undifferentiated concept.
Adoption
Approved rendering: Pengangkatan sebagai anak
Transliteration: peng-ahng-KAH-tahn seh-BAH-gai AH-nahk
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: anak angkat (bare, without doctrinal qualifier)
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Describes believers’ legal-relational status with full inheritance rights, not literal divine offspring. 1 John context: 1 John’s new ‘children of God’ (Anak-anak Allah) and ‘born of God’ (diperanakkan oleh Allah) kinship-language family (see below) intensifies the tawhid collision beyond this baseline Adoption entry, since it reads more directly as literal kinship than the legal-adoption metaphor; teaching material must connect the two families explicitly.
Law
Approved rendering: Hukum Taurat
Transliteration: HOO-koom tow-RAHT
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: Syariah / Hukum Syariat (Islamic religious law, an operative parallel legal system in Malaysia)
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). NEVER use Syariah. 1 John context: 1 John’s new term entolē (‘commandment,’ see commandment below) and anomia (‘lawlessness,’ see lawlessness below) must both be kept explicitly distinct from Hukum Taurat, since neither denotes the Mosaic law code specifically.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: Kuasa Allah
Transliteration: KOO-ah-sah ahl-LAHH
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: kuasa ghaib (occult/supernatural power, associated with traditional Malay bomoh shamanic practice and animistic belief in semangat, life-force)
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Kuasa Allah is the plain, doctrinally clean term for God’s sovereign power. 1 John context: reinforces the letter’s ‘overcome’ vocabulary (see overcome below), where victory over the world is grounded explicitly in ‘he who is in you’ (4:4), not human strength or occult ritual power.
Love
Approved rendering: Kasih / Mengasihi
Transliteration: KAH-sih / meng-ah-SEE-hee
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: kasih sayang (sentimental/familial/romantic affection, risks reducing willed, sacrificial love to mere warm feeling)
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: God
New term for 1 John. The letter’s dominant term, over 50 occurrences (esp. 4:7-21). Must be kept visibly distinct from Kasih kurnia (Grace, baseline High) despite the shared kasih root, so ‘love’ and ‘grace’ are not treated as interchangeable. Ordinary kasih sayang risks flattening agapē into sentiment rather than the willed, sacrificial love that sent the Son to die (4:10).
God Is Love
Approved rendering: Allah adalah kasih
Transliteration: AHL-lahh AH-dah-lah KAH-sih
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: Allah itu pengasih/penyayang (an attribute-adjective, closer to the Islamic divine names Ar-Rahman/Ar-Rahim as one name among ninety-nine)
Original: ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν
Category: God
New term for 1 John. An ontological identity-claim, not an attribute description; parallels ‘God is light’ (1:5). Repeated as an inclusio at 4:8 and 4:16 — this is the single most theologically central statement of the curriculum’s core passage and must render identically at both occurrences.
God Is Light
Approved rendering: Allah adalah terang
Transliteration: AHL-lahh AH-dah-lah TEH-rahng
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: nur (Arabic-loan term evoking the pre-existent Nur Muhammad tradition in historic Malay Sufi devotional literature, e.g. Hamzah Fansuri)
Original: ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν
Category: God
New term for 1 John. 1:5’s foundational ontological claim about God’s nature, parallel in weight to ‘God is love’ (4:8,16). Never gloss or explain with nur, even in teaching/explanatory material adjacent to the term.
Light Darkness
Approved rendering: Terang / Kegelapan
Transliteration: TEH-rahng / keh-geh-LAH-pahn
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: nur (same collision as god_is_light applies to terang throughout 1:5-7 and 2:8-11)
Original: φῶς / σκοτία
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. Light: moral purity, truth, God’s own nature. Darkness: moral corruption, falsehood, separation from God (1:5-7; 2:8-11). Kegelapan carries comparatively low independent risk as the contrast term.
Blood Of Jesus
Approved rendering: Darah Yesus
Transliteration: DAH-rah YEH-soos
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: symbolic-only reading (rejected; presupposes a real, historical death, directly contested by Qur’an 4:157)
Original: αἷμα Ἰησοῦ
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John. Christ’s actual, historically shed blood, understood sacrificially (1:7). Must never be taught as symbolic or non-literal; presupposes the baseline’s Critical-risk Resurrection doctrine’s prior requirement of a real death.
Cleanse
Approved rendering: Menyucikan
Transliteration: meh-nyoo-CHEE-kahn
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: repeatable-ritual-washing reading analogous to wudu’ (rejected as the primary sense)
Original: καθαρίζω
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John. Shares its root with suci, already rejected by the baseline as a rendering for Holy due to wudu’ ablution associations. Here the established Alkitab action-verb rendering is retained (1:7,9) but must be taught as a once-for-all, complete moral-judicial cleansing, not repeatable ritual purification.
Confess
Approved rendering: Mengaku / Mengakui
Transliteration: meng-AH-koo / meng-ah-KOO-ee
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Assurance of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: treating as structurally equivalent to the Islamic syahadah confession formula (a one-time public identity declaration)
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Faith
New term for 1 John. To publicly agree with/acknowledge — one’s own sin (1:9) or a specific truth about Christ (2:23; 4:2-3,15). Must be taught in explicit parallel with the Romans 10:9 salvation confession (Yesus adalah Tuhan); 1:9’s confession of sin is a repeatable pattern of ongoing acknowledgment, unlike syahadah’s one-time character.
Commandment
Approved rendering: Perintah
Transliteration: per-EEN-tahh
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: equating with Hukum Taurat (reserved for the Mosaic law code specifically)
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. Christ’s own specific ethical commands to believers, especially the command to love (2:3-8; 3:22-24; 4:21; 5:2-3). Must be taught as the fruit of, not the means to, an already-secured relationship with God (5:3, ‘his commandments are not burdensome’), resisting a ketaatan agama-style meritorious-duty framework already flagged in the baseline’s Obedience of Faith entry.
Truth Aletheia
Approved rendering: Kebenaran
Transliteration: keh-beh-NAH-rahn
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: a separate Malay coinage to avoid word-collision with righteousness (rejected; established Alkitab usage retains kebenaran for both aletheia and dikaiosynē, managed instead via context and supplementary phrasing)
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John, sharing an identical Malay word with the baseline’s Critical-risk righteousness entry. Genuineness/reality, paired with concrete action (3:18) as the opposite of empty words; also appears at 1:6; 4:6; 5:6. Context and, where needed, supplementary phrasing (e.g. pairing with ikhlas or an explanatory gloss) must keep the two Greek concepts distinguishable for readers.
Confidence Parrhesia
Approved rendering: Keyakinan
Transliteration: keh-yah-KEE-nahn
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: harapan (hope; reintroduces exactly the probabilistic uncertainty John is refuting)
Original: παρρησία
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John. Settled boldness and freedom from fear or shame before God, especially facing final judgment (3:21; 4:17; 5:14). Must never be softened to harapan, given the contrast with mainstream Islamic eschatology’s typically withheld certainty of final standing.
Sin Unto Death
Approved rendering: Dosa yang membawa maut / dosa yang tidak membawa maut
Transliteration: DOH-sah yahng mem-BAH-wah mah-OOT
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: a Catholic-style mortal/venial sin taxonomy, the Islamic dosa besar/dosa kecil (major/minor sin) gradation
Original: ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον / οὐ πρὸς θάνατον
Category: Sin
New term for 1 John. 5:16-17’s notoriously difficult interpretive distinction. Guard against readers mapping this onto taxonomies foreign to the Malay Protestant tradition this Language Package targets, or onto Islamic sin-severity gradation, neither of which the text itself specifies.
Medium Risk Terms
Beloved
Approved rendering: Yang dikasihi
Transliteration: yahng dee-KAH-see-hee
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Rejected alternatives: kekasih (bare noun; standard contemporary Malay for a romantic partner/boyfriend-girlfriend)
Original: ἀγαπητοί
Category: Church
New term for 1 John. Term of pastoral address (2:7; 3:2,21; 4:1,7,11). Never render with the bare noun kekasih, which would import an inappropriate romantic register into pastoral address; use the participial phrase, optionally paired with saudara-saudara.
Know Relational
Approved rendering: Mengenal
Transliteration: meng-EH-nahl
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: tahu (factual/propositional knowledge, reserved for oida, not ginōskō)
Original: γινώσκω
Category: Faith
New term for 1 John. To know by experience and relationship (2:3-4,13-14; 3:1,6; 4:6-8). Consistency required across the whole letter, since John’s assurance-epistemology argument depends on preserving this relational sense against mere factual awareness.
Abide Remain
Approved rendering: Tinggal (di dalam)
Transliteration: TING-gahl (dee DAH-lahm)
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: μένω
Category: Church
New term for 1 John. The letter’s single most frequent structural term (20+ occurrences: 2:6,10,14,17,24,27-28; 3:6,9,14-15,17,24; 4:12-13,15-16). Ordinary Malay tinggal usually means residing at a physical address; teaching material must clarify continuous, living, relational indwelling, not incidental cohabitation.
Lust Pride Of Life
Approved rendering: Hawa nafsu (kedagingan/mata); kesombongan hidup
Transliteration: HAH-wah NAHF-soo; keh-som-BONG-ahn HEE-doop
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: collapsing all three components into hawa nafsu alone, which would lose ‘pride of life’ as a distinct element
Original: ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός / τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν; ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. The threefold anatomy of worldly desire (2:16). Hawa nafsu is a well-established Islamic-Malay concept, giving genuine cultural resonance; ensure all three components (flesh, eyes, pride of life) are rendered distinctly.
Anointing
Approved rendering: Urapan
Transliteration: oo-RAH-pahn
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: χρῖσμα
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. The endowment received through the Spirit’s anointing (2:20,27), enabling discernment of true from false teaching. Must be taught as every believer’s shared possession, not a mark of a spiritual elite or a source of independent revelation displacing Scripture; connects to the baseline’s caution under Apostle.
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: Pelanggaran hukum / kederhakaan
Transliteration: peh-lahng-GAH-rahn HOO-koom / keh-der-hah-KAH-ahn
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: framing tied to Malaysia’s operative civil or Syariah court categories
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Sin
New term for 1 John. 3:4’s definition, ‘sin is lawlessness’ — rebellion against God’s moral order as such. Distinct from the baseline’s Hukum Taurat (the Mosaic law code specifically).
Devil
Approved rendering: Iblis
Transliteration: IB-lees
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: διάβολος
Category: Sin
New term for 1 John. The proper title of Satan, source and pattern of sin from the beginning (3:8,10). Genuine resonance with the Islamic Iblis figure (a named, personal rebellious being); teaching material should note shared ground while clarifying the NT’s specific claim that the Son of God was manifested to destroy the devil’s works, tying the doctrine to the Incarnation.
Overcome
Approved rendering: Mengalahkan / menang (atas)
Transliteration: meng-ah-LAH-kahn / meh-NAHNG (AH-tahs)
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: a kuasa ghaib-adjacent occult/martial-power framing
Original: νικάω
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. Victory achieved and continuing in its result over false teaching and the world’s moral-spiritual system (2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5). Connects to the baseline’s Power of God doctrine; victory is grounded explicitly in ‘he who is in you,’ not human strength or ritual power.
World Kosmos
Approved rendering: Dunia
Transliteration: DOO-nee-ah
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: κόσμος
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. Either humanity in general or, more often in 1 John, the fallen moral-spiritual system opposed to God (2:15-17; 4:1-5,14,17; 5:4-5,19). Everyday Malay sense (the physical globe) risks flattening this specific Johannine sense; context must disambiguate ‘the world God loved and sent his Son to save’ from ‘the world system believers must not love.‘
Savior
Approved rendering: Juruselamat
Transliteration: joo-roo-seh-lah-MAHT
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: a generic ‘penolong’ (helper) framing
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John. 4:14’s ‘Savior of the world.’ Standard, well-established Malay Christian term, distinct from Islamic usage, which has no exact parallel rescuing-mediator role. Must be taught alongside Keselamatan to avoid a generic ‘helper’ misreading.
Judgment Day
Approved rendering: Penghakiman / Hari penghakiman
Transliteration: peng-hah-KEE-mahn / HAH-ree peng-hah-KEE-mahn
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ἡμέρα τῆς κρίσεως
Category: Eschatology
New term for 1 John. The future, final eschatological day of divine reckoning (4:17). Genuine structural resonance with Islamic Hari Kiamat/Hari Pembalasan; 1 John’s distinctive claim of present confidence facing that day, rather than uncertain hope, must be preserved despite the resonance.
Fear Of Punishment
Approved rendering: Ketakutan
Transliteration: keh-tah-KOO-tahn
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: conflating with the positive, reverential ‘fear of the Lord’/taqwa concept
Original: φόβος
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John. Servile dread/terror of coming punishment, displaced by mature love (4:18). Must be distinguished from reverential fear-of-God concepts and from Islamic taqwa; this verse specifically addresses dread of condemnation, not reverence itself.
Perfect Complete Love
Approved rendering: Sempurna / disempurnakan
Transliteration: sem-POOR-nah / dee-sem-poor-NAH-kahn
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: a static-flawlessness-only reading
Original: τέλειος / τελειόω
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. Love that has reached its intended fullness/maturity of expression (4:12,17-18), not static moral flawlessness. Ordinary Malay sempurna commonly connotes flawlessness; teaching material must clarify the dynamic sense.
Faithful And Just
Approved rendering: Setia dan adil
Transliteration: SEH-tee-ah dahn AH-dil
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: πιστός καὶ δίκαιος
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John. God’s own reliable, righteous character guaranteeing the forgiveness and cleansing promised in 1:9. Teaching material should connect God’s justice explicitly to the propitiation of 2:2/4:10 so forgiveness is not misread as God overlooking sin.
Testimony
Approved rendering: Kesaksian / bersaksi
Transliteration: keh-SAHK-see-ahn / ber-SAHK-see
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω
Category: Faith
New term for 1 John. Legal/judicial evidence and attestation; God’s own testimony concerning his Son (1:2; 4:14; 5:6-11). Reinforces the letter’s repeated appeal to reliable given testimony as the ground of assurance, rather than subjective feeling alone.
Water And Blood
Approved rendering: Air dan darah
Transliteration: AH-eer dahn DAH-rah
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John. Two (with the Spirit, three) converging witnesses confirming the truth about who Jesus is (5:6-8). Doctrinally complex given multiple valid historic interpretations; the accompanying Roh (Spirit) in this triad must remain clearly understood as Roh Kudus, not a lesser sense of spirit.
Idols
Approved rendering: Berhala
Transliteration: ber-HAH-lah
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: εἴδωλα
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. 5:21’s closing exhortation; physical images/objects of false worship, and by extension anything substituted for the true God. Genuine resonance with the Islamic prohibition of syirik; teaching material should note both the literal referent and the broader Johannine sense (false teaching, false christs, worldly desire) so the warning is not narrowed only to physical statues.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: Persekutuan
Transliteration: per-seh-koo-TOO-ahn
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: persaudaraan (brotherhood, generic/ethnic)
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (unaltered). Established, well-understood Malay Christian term for shared participation in Christ. 1 John context: 1:3,6-7 make this term explicitly Trinitarian (fellowship with the Father AND the Son) as well as horizontal (with one another); risk is elevated slightly from the Romans baseline’s Low tier for this dual-directional structure — see ‘Fellowship with God and One Another’ doctrine (registered Medium in doctrine_risk_registry.json).
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: Berjalan / Hidup
Transliteration: ber-JAH-lahn / HEE-doop
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Sanctification
New term for 1 John. Metaphorical: to conduct one’s life (1:6-7; 2:6,11). Ensure the verb is understood as ongoing moral/relational conduct, not literal ambulation.
Last Hour
Approved rendering: Waktu/saat yang terakhir
Transliteration: WAHK-too/saht yahng teh-RAH-kheer
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἐσχάτη ὥρα
Category: Eschatology
New term for 1 John. The final period of history before Christ’s return (2:18). Some helpful resonance with Islamic akhir zaman (end times) concepts; low independent syncretism risk.
Punishment Kolasis
Approved rendering: Seksaan / hukuman
Transliteration: sek-SAH-ahn / hoo-KOO-mahn
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: κόλασις
Category: Salvation
New term for 1 John. Punishment, retribution, torment — the object of the dread described in 4:18. Some helpful resonance with Islamic azab (torment) imagery; low independent syncretism risk.
Liar
Approved rendering: Pendusta
Transliteration: pen-DOOS-tah
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ψεύστης
Category: Sin
New term for 1 John. One who speaks falsehood; a strong, blunt moral verdict used repeatedly (1:10; 2:4,22; 4:20) against false claims of relationship with God. Translators should preserve John’s characteristically blunt register.
Brother
Approved rendering: Saudara
Transliteration: sow-DAH-rah
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: reading as the ethnic/national saudara-se-bangsa sense
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Church
New term for 1 John. Fellow believer, member of the same spiritual family — the concrete test-case for love of the invisible God (2:9-11; 3:10-17; 4:20-21). Teaching material should specify the referent as fellow believers in Christ specifically.
Referenced passages