Core Glossary
08 — Core Glossary: 1 Kings
A. Reused Terms (Baseline Romans Translation Memory — MUST match exactly)
| English Term | Mandarin | Transliteration | Risk | Status | Key 1 Kings Passages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | 神 | Shén | Critical | REUSE | throughout | Baseline god entry applies unchanged. Monotheism must be made explicit; 神 is also the folk generic noun for any deity. |
| covenant | 约 | yuē | High | REUSE | 8:23; 9:4-9; 11:11; 15:19; 20:34 | Both divine (Davidic, Sinaitic) and secular/political (5:12, Solomon-Hiram) uses occur; the secular use is Medium-risk in itself but must not dilute the term’s theological weight elsewhere. |
| sin | 罪 | zuì | High | REUSE | 8:31-50; 11:1-13; 14:16; 15:26,34; 16:19 | Moral offense against the personal covenant God, not karmic infraction; central to every regnal evaluation formula. |
| glory (of the LORD) | 荣耀 | róngyào | High (elevated from baseline Medium in this context) | REUSE | 8:11 | Names an actual singular manifestation-event (glory-cloud filling the Temple); must not be softened toward 面子 (social face) or a generic “aura” concept. |
| law / Law of Moses | 律法 | lǜfǎ | High | REUSE | 2:3; 8:9 | Anchors the statute/commandment/rule/testimony cluster (see below); never equate with Confucian 礼. |
| foreigner / Gentiles | 外邦人 | wàibāngrén | High (elevated from baseline Medium given doctrinal load) | REUSE | 8:41-43; 11:1 (note contrast) | Major positive continuity point: Solomon’s prayer anticipates Romans’ Jew-Gentile unity theology. NEVER 夷人. |
| prophet | 先知 | xiānzhī | Low | REUSE | 13:1ff; 14:2ff; 18:4ff (Elijah); 22:6ff | Distinguish from 算命先生 (fortune-teller); false-prophet contexts (ch.22) use the modifier 假, not a different root term. |
| Israel | 以色列 | Yǐsèliè | Medium | REUSE | throughout | Proper name, unchanged from baseline. |
| David | 大卫 | Dàwèi | Medium | REUSE | 1:1ff; 2:1ff; 8:15ff | Proper name, unchanged from baseline; central to the Davidic covenant theme. |
| election (theological concept, applied to Israel/Jerusalem) | 拣选 | jiǎnxuǎn | High | REUSE | 8:16,44,53 (city/people chosen) | Baseline election caution against 天命/命运/缘分 applies equally to “the city I have chosen” language (8:16,44). |
B. New Terms Proposed for This Curriculum
| English Term | Original (Hebrew) | Transliteration | Mandarin Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Key Passages | Alternatives Rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LORD (YHWH, the divine Name) | יהוה | YHWH | 耶和华 | Critical | Divine Name / Temple Dwelling | throughout, esp. 8:22-61 | 上帝, 天, 老天爷 (folk/impersonal) | Kept rigorously distinct from 主 (baseline’s rendering of κύριος/“Lord” for Christ). 耶和华 is the OT proper covenant Name; 主 is the NT title. Never conflate the two Chinese terms as interchangeable synonyms. |
| dwell / God’s dwelling | יָשַׁב / שָׁכַן | yashav / shakan | 住 / 居所 / 住处 | Critical | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 8:12-13, 27, 30, 39, 43, 49 | 附身 (spirit possession), any phrasing implying ritual invocation of a spirit into an object | Must be taught against the backdrop of Chinese idol-consecration ritual (开光) and ancestor-tablet indwelling (神主牌) — God’s presence is self-given and sovereign, not ritually manufactured. |
| Name (of the LORD, dwelling theology) | שֵׁם | shem | 名 | Critical | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 8:16-20, 29, 33, 35, 41-44, 48 | treating 名 as a mere label without theological weight | Distinguish from ancestor spirit-tablets (神主牌) where a name anchors a venerated spirit for descendant-initiated ritual care — direction of initiative is reversed in biblical Name theology. |
| other gods | אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים | elohim acherim | 别神 / 别的神 | Critical | Idolatry and Its Consequences | 9:6; 11:4,10; 14:9; 16:31 | 别的信仰 (softened to “other beliefs”) | Direct opposite pole to exclusive covenant loyalty; must never be rendered euphemistically. |
| golden calf | עֵגֶל זָהָב | egel zahav | 金牛犊 | Critical | Idolatry and Its Consequences | 12:28-29 | 金牛像 (loses direct Exodus 32 echo) | Must match any Exodus-curriculum rendering exactly to preserve the deliberate intertextual echo. |
| Baal | בַּעַל | Ba’al | 巴力 | Critical | Elijah and the Contest with Baal | 16:31-32; 18:17-40; 19:18 | generic 假神/偶像 (loses the specific named-rival-deity force) | The Carmel contest’s entire force depends on Baal being a specific, named, historically real rival claimant to lordship, not a generic idol category. |
| lying spirit | רוּח שֶׁקֶר | ruach sheqer | 说谎的灵 | Critical | Prophetic Confrontation of Kings | 22:21-23 | 圣灵 (forbidden — categorically different referent), bare 灵 without qualification | A created, subordinate spirit-being operating within God’s sovereign heavenly court; never to be confused with the Holy Spirit or read as an autonomous folk-cosmology spirit (狐仙, 野鬼). |
| limping between two opinions (syncretism idiom) | פֹּסְחִים עַל־שְׁתֵּי הַסְּעִפִּים | poschim al-shtei ha-se’ifim | 心持两意 | Critical | Elijah and the Contest with Baal | 18:21 | 犹豫不决 (too weak; loses religious-allegiance specificity) | Directly confronts the culturally normal pattern of religious syncretism (三教合一) in the destination culture; must not be softened into mere indecision. |
| wisdom | חָכְמָה | chokmah | 智慧 | High | Solomon’s Wisdom and Its Limits | 3:9-12,28; 4:29-34; 5:12; 10:1-24 | none rejected outright, but must be distinguished from Confucian 智 | Gifted by God to a humble request, not self-cultivated; the narrative itself (ch.11) shows the gift did not guarantee sustained faithfulness — the doctrine’s “limits.” |
| understanding heart | לֵב שֹׁמֵעַ / לֵב חָכָם וְנָבוֹן | lev shome’a / lev chakham venavon | 智慧聪明的心 | Medium | Solomon’s Wisdom and Its Limits | 3:9,12 | — | Capacity for moral discernment in service of others, not self-aggrandizing cleverness. |
| temple / house of the LORD | בַּיִת / הֵיכָל | bayit / heikhal | 殿 (耶和华的殿) | High | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 6:1-38; 7:13-51; 8:1-66; 9:1-9 | 庙, 寺, 道观 (per baseline church entry’s cautions, extended here) | Must not be assimilated to generic temple-hall vocabulary shared with Buddhist/Daoist/imperial usage (大雄宝殿, 太和殿) without doctrinal framing. |
| Holy of Holies / inner sanctuary | דְּבִיר / קֹדֶש הַקֳּדָשִׁים | devir / qodesh haqqodashim | 至圣所 / 内殿 | Medium | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 6:16-31; 8:6 | — | Builds on baseline 圣 root (圣洁/圣徒/成圣); the “speaking-place” etymology (דָבַר) ties presence to revelation. |
| cherubim | כְּרוּבִים | keruvim | 基路伯 | Low | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 6:23-29; 8:6-7 | — | Minor risk of conflation with folk guardian-spirit statuary (门神) if left unglossed. |
| ark of the covenant | אֲרוֹן הַבְּרִית | aron habb’rit | 约柜 | Medium | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 8:1-9 | — | Covenant’s visible sign, not a manipulable talismanic power-object (cf. 1 Samuel 4-6 misuse pattern as cautionary cross-reference). |
| high place | בָּמָה | bamah | 邱坛 | High | Idolatry and Its Consequences; Divided Kingdom | 11:7; 12:31-32; 14:23; 15:14; 22:43 | 神坛 (too neutral) | Recurs constantly from ch.11 onward as virtual shorthand for covenant unfaithfulness; distinguish from ongoing Daoist/folk ritual altars (坛) in contemporary use. |
| Asherah (cultic pole/goddess) | אֲשֵׁרָה | asherah | 亚舍拉 | Medium | Idolatry and Its Consequences | 14:15,23; 15:13; 16:33; 18:19 | — | Transliterated proper noun/object per CUV convention. |
| abomination | תּוֹעֵבָה | to’evah | 可憎的(神/事) | High | Idolatry and Its Consequences | 11:5-7 | 禁忌 (too weak; ritual-taboo register rather than covenant-moral register) | Strongest available covenant-vocabulary term for idolatrous worship; a moral-relational, not merely ceremonial, category. |
| throne (Davidic) | כִּסֵּא | kisse | 位 / 国位 / 王位 | High | The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness | 1:13,20,27,30,35,37,48; 2:4,12,24,33,45; 8:20,25; 9:5 | — | Must not be assimilated to the Chinese Mandate of Heaven (天命), which is revocable and transferable across dynasties; the Davidic covenant is unconditional to David’s line even amid conditional historical discipline (see baseline davidic_covenant note). |
| anoint / anointed | מָשַׁח | mashach | 膏 / 受膏 | High | The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness | 1:34,39,45; 19:15-16 | — | Historical-typological seed of the fuller Messiah/基督 title (baseline messiah entry); do not imply every anointed king is himself the Messiah in the full NT sense. |
| statute / commandment / rule / testimony (covenant-law cluster) | חֻקָּה / מִצְוָה / מִשְׁפָּט / עֵדוּת | choq / mitzvah / mishpat / edut | 律例 / 诫命 / 典章 / 法度 | Medium | The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness | 2:3; 6:12; 8:58,61; 9:4,6 | 礼 (Confucian ritual propriety) | Covenant stipulations from a personal God, not a social-conformity code; extends the baseline law entry’s caution to this fuller Deuteronomic vocabulary cluster. |
| did what was right/evil in the eyes of the LORD (regnal formula) | עָשָׂה הַיָּשָׁר / הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה | asah hayashar / hara be’einei YHWH | 耶和华眼中看为正 / 看为恶 | Medium | The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness | 11:6; 14:22; 15:5,11,26,34; 16:19,25,30; 21:20,25; 22:52 | 社会看为正 (socially validated correctness) | God’s own personal moral evaluation, not Confucian social/ritual correctness (礼). Governs the whole book’s structure. |
| man of God | אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים | ish ha-elohim | 神人 | High | Prophetic Confrontation of Kings | 13:1-31; 20:28 | — | CRITICAL cross-curriculum caution: this is the correct OT idiom for “prophet,” but the Romans baseline explicitly rejects the same two characters (神人) for “Son of God” as implying mere deified humanity. Requires an explicit disambiguating teacher’s note wherever both curricula are used together. |
| steadfast love / covenant loyalty (chesed) | חֶסֶד | chesed | 慈爱 | High | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People; Divided Kingdom | 8:23 | 仁 (Confucian benevolence virtue) | Structurally parallels the baseline’s 义/righteousness caution: God’s own covenant-bound faithfulness, not a generic cultivated virtue radiating from a moral exemplar. |
| turn / return (repentance) | שׁוּב | shuv | 回转 | High | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 8:33,35,47,48 | 改运 (folk “changing one’s luck”) | Wholehearted covenant reorientation toward the personal God, not ritual fortune-reversal. |
| forgive | סָלַח | salach | 赦免 | High | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 8:30,34,36,39,50 | 报应的抵消 (cancelling karmic retribution) | Pardon granted by a personal covenant God, not discharge of a karmic ledger. |
| captivity / exile | שְׁבִי | shevi | 被掳 | Medium | The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness | 8:46-50 | 解脱式的苦难观 (Buddhist impermanence framing) | Specific covenant consequence within a personal relationship with God, carrying restoration hope — not an impersonal cosmic cycle of suffering. |
| inheritance / heritage (covenant land) | נַחֲלָה | nachalah | 产业 | Medium (High in 21:3 narrative context) | The Temple as God’s Dwelling; Prophetic Confrontation of Kings | 8:51,53; 21:3 | 祖产 (clan-property framing without covenant grounding) | God’s own land-gift held in generational trust, not simply negotiable royal-market property (Naboth’s vineyard). |
| congregation / assembly | קָהָל | qahal | 会众 | Low-Medium | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 8:1-5,14,22,55 | 教会 (reserved for the baseline’s NT ekklesia term) | The OT gathered covenant community at a specific event; historically prior to, and distinct from, the NT church. |
| living God / as the LORD lives | חֵי־יְהוָה | chai-YHWH | 永生的耶和华 | High | Elijah and the Contest with Baal | 17:1; 18:15 | — | Polemical contrast with lifeless idols requiring ritual “activation” (开光); God’s aliveness and active historical agency are the premise of the whole Elijah narrative. |
| angel | מַלְאָךְ | malakh | 天使 | Medium | Elijah and the Contest with Baal | 19:5-7 | 仙 (Daoist immortal, implies independent agency) | Commissioned agent of God’s will, not an autonomously acting spirit-being. |
| fire from heaven | אֵש (יְהוָה) | esh (YHWH) | 从天降下的火 | Medium | Elijah and the Contest with Baal | 18:38 | — | Climactic proof-event of YHWH’s exclusive lordship over the domain Baal claimed. |
| still small voice / a low whisper | קוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה | qol demamah daqqah | 微小的声音 | High | Elijah and the Contest with Baal | 19:12-13 | 清净 (Daoist/Buddhist meditative stillness attainment) | God’s sovereign, personal choice of address to a specific discouraged prophet — not endorsement of quietistic technique as a superior path to divine encounter. |
| heavenly host | צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם | tzeva hashamayim | 天上的万军 | Medium-High | Prophetic Confrontation of Kings | 22:19 | — | Context-sensitive: obedient created beings worshiping/serving God here, sharply distinct from the same phrase’s use elsewhere for wrongly-worshiped astral bodies. |
| you shall know that I am the LORD (recognition formula) | וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי־אֲנִי יְהוָה | vida’tem ki-ani YHWH | 你就知道我是耶和华 | Medium | Prophetic Confrontation of Kings | 20:13,28 | 悟 (Buddhist self-attained enlightenment) | Relational knowledge of God granted through his historical acts, not independently achieved insight. |
| word of the LORD | דְּבַר־יְהוָה | devar-YHWH | 耶和华的话 | Medium | Prophetic Confrontation of Kings | 22:14 | — | Track for consistency with future prophetic-literature curricula. |
| false prophet(s) | נְבִיאֵי שֶׁקֶר | nevi’ei sheqer | 假先知 | Medium | Prophetic Confrontation of Kings | 22:6,12 | 算命先生 (fortune-teller — different category, per baseline prophet entry) | Claimants to the same prophetic office as true prophets; falseness is a matter of covenant fidelity, not a different craft. |
| cut off (dynastic judgment) | כָּרַת | karat | 剪除 | Medium | The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness | 14:10,14 | — | Ironic echo (same root as “cut a covenant”) not directly reproducible in Chinese; explain rather than force-mirror. |
| tear (the kingdom) | קָרַע | qara | 撕裂 / 夺去 | Medium | The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness | 11:11,30-31; 12:1-24 | — | Judgment-image echoing Samuel’s earlier word to Saul (1 Samuel 15:28). |
| ruin heap | תֵּל | tel | 荒场 / 废墟 | Medium | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 9:8 | — | Temple’s holiness is conditional on covenant faithfulness, not automatically protective. |
| glory-cloud / thick darkness (theophany pair) | כָּבוֹד / עָנָן / עֲרָפֶל | kavod / anan / araphel | 荣耀 / 云 / 幽暗 | High | The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | 8:10-13 | — | God’s presence simultaneously gloriously manifest and appropriately hidden; resist reduction to pure visible spectacle. |
C. Proper Nouns Requiring Consistent Transliteration
| English | Mandarin | Transliteration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solomon | 所罗门 | Suǒluómén | Established CUV form |
| Rehoboam | 罗波安 | Luóbōān | Established CUV form |
| Jeroboam | 耶罗波安 | Yēluóbōān | Established CUV form |
| Elijah | 以利亚 | Yǐlìyà | Established CUV form |
| Ahab | 亚哈 | Yàhā | Established CUV form |
| Jezebel | 耶洗别 | Yēxǐbié | Carries heavy narrative-theological weight; see 07_semantic_analysis.md §2.15 |
| Ben-Hadad | 便哈达 | Biàn Hādá | Established CUV form |
| Micaiah | 米该雅 | Mǐgāiyǎ | Established CUV form |
| Ahijah | 亚希雅 | Yàxīyǎ | Established CUV form |
| Naboth | 拿伯 | Nábó | Established CUV form |
| Hiram | 希兰 | Xīlán | Established CUV form |
| 1 Kings (book name) | 列王纪上 | Liè Wáng Jì Shàng | Required for all Mandarin Scripture citations in this curriculum |
D. Cross-Reference to Baseline Doctrine Risk Registry Structure
Per the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json conventions, the following review-routing recommendations apply to the new doctrines introduced by this curriculum (to be formalized in a companion doctrine_risk_registry.json extension in a later Phase 1 step):
| Doctrine (this curriculum) | Recommended Risk | Recommended Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Solomon’s Wisdom and Its Limits | High | Human theologian |
| The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People | Critical | Human theologian |
| The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness | High | Human theologian |
| Idolatry and Its Consequences | Critical | Human theologian |
| Elijah and the Contest with Baal | Critical | Human theologian |
| Prophetic Confrontation of Kings | High | Human theologian |
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: Shén
Doctrine: Deity of God / The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Rejected alternatives: 上帝, 天, 老天爷
Original: אֱלֹהִים
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). This package standardizes on 神 (CUV ‘Shen edition’) per the Romans baseline’s rationale. In 1 Kings, monotheism must be made explicit at every occurrence, since 神 is also the folk generic noun for any deity, idol, or spirit (city god, kitchen god). Central to the ‘other gods’ (别神) contrast running through the whole book.
Yhwh Lord
Approved rendering: 耶和华
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá
Doctrine: The Divine Name Dwelling in the Temple
Rejected alternatives: 上帝, 天, 老天爷, 主 (as a substitute rather than complement)
Original: יהוה
Category: God
NEW term for this curriculum. The proper covenant Name of Israel’s God (Exodus 3:14), distinct from the generic 神 (Elohim). Must be kept rigorously distinct from 主 (the Romans baseline’s rendering of kyrios/Adonai applied to Christ, e.g. 耶稣是主). 耶和华 is the OT proper Name; 主 is the NT title. Never treat the two Chinese terms as interchangeable synonyms, even though they name the same God, to preserve the deliberate OT-to-NT typological arc across the full TRI curriculum.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: zhǔ
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ (cross-curriculum contrast term)
Rejected alternatives: 主人, 老爷
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Included in this Language Package specifically to anchor the required distinction from 耶和华 (see yhwh_lord entry above). Do not use 主 for YHWH in OT narrative voice; do not use 耶和华 for the NT confession ‘Jesus is Lord.‘
Messiah
Approved rendering: 基督
Transliteration: Jīdū
Doctrine: Anointing and the Royal Office (typological anchor term)
Rejected alternatives: 弥勒, 救世主式泛称
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Included here to anchor the required typological distinction for 膏/受膏 (anoint): 1 Kings’ anointed kings anticipate but are not equated with 基督.
Name Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 名
Transliteration: Míng
Doctrine: The Divine Name Dwelling in the Temple
Original: שֵׁם
Category: Temple
NEW — CRITICAL, central to this curriculum’s core doctrine. Fixed phrase 我的名必在那里 (‘my Name shall be there,’ 8:16-20,29,33,35,41-44,48). Major collision risk with Chinese ancestor spirit-tablets (神主牌), in which a deceased ancestor’s inscribed name is believed to house/anchor their spirit for descendant-initiated ritual feeding and honor. God’s Name-theology reverses this direction of initiative: God himself sovereignly commits his Name to be present for his people’s access to him in prayer, not a human-initiated ritual object requiring ongoing appeasement.
Dwell
Approved rendering: 住/居所
Transliteration: Zhù/Jūsuǒ
Doctrine: The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Rejected alternatives: 附身
Original: יָשַׁב / שָׁכַן
Category: Temple
NEW — CRITICAL, central to this curriculum’s core doctrine. Solomon’s question (‘will God indeed dwell on the earth?’ 8:27,30,39,43,49) voices the paradox of divine transcendence and localized presence. Must be taught against Chinese idol-consecration ritual (开光, ‘opening the light,’ the ceremony believed to invoke a spirit’s residence in a carved image). Solomon’s own words are already a polemic against a ‘God confined to an object’ reading; this polemic must be preserved, not softened, in translation.
Other Gods
Approved rendering: 别神
Transliteration: Biéshén
Doctrine: Idolatry and Its Consequences
Rejected alternatives: 别的信仰
Original: אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים
Category: Idolatry
NEW — CRITICAL term. Any deity besides the LORD; the First Commandment’s central prohibition, the specific charge against Solomon (11:4) and a recurring covenant-violation formula (9:6; 14:9; 16:31). Must never be rendered euphemistically (e.g. as merely ‘other beliefs’); every occurrence must reinforce, not blur, the total incompatibility between covenant loyalty to 神/耶和华 and worship of any 别神.
Golden Calf
Approved rendering: 金牛犊
Transliteration: Jīn Niúdú
Doctrine: The Golden Calf and Its Sinai Echo
Rejected alternatives: 金牛像
Original: עֵגֶל זָהָב
Category: Idolatry
NEW — CRITICAL term. Jeroboam’s two golden calf-images at Bethel and Dan (12:28-29), a deliberate echo of Aaron’s golden calf at Sinai (Exodus 32). Must match any Exodus-curriculum rendering exactly; the text’s rhetorical force depends entirely on readers recognizing the repeated idolatry, and any cross-curriculum inconsistency would obscure this deliberate echo.
Baal
Approved rendering: 巴力
Transliteration: Bālì
Doctrine: Elijah and the Contest with Baal
Rejected alternatives: 假神, 偶像 (generic substitution forbidden)
Original: בַּעַל
Category: Idolatry
NEW — CRITICAL term. The chief Canaanite storm-and-fertility deity, believed by his worshipers to control rain, fertility, and agricultural prosperity (16:31-32; 18:17-40; 19:18). The entire theological argument of chapters 17-19 depends on Baal being understood as a genuine, named rival claimant to lordship; never soften into a generic idol-category term.
Limping Between Two Opinions
Approved rendering: 心持两意
Transliteration: Xīn Chí Liǎngyì
Doctrine: Elijah and the Contest with Baal
Rejected alternatives: 犹豫不决
Original: פֹּסְחִים עַל־שְׁתֵּי הַסְּעִפִּים
Category: Idolatry
NEW — CRITICAL coined idiom. Elijah’s diagnosis of Israel’s fundamental problem as wavering, divided religious allegiance between YHWH and Baal (18:21). Names precisely the temptation most relevant to a destination culture where religious syncretism across Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, and ancestral-veneration practice (三教合一) is socially normal rather than a marked exception. Must not be softened into mere indecision (犹豫不决 is too weak).
Lying Spirit
Approved rendering: 说谎的灵
Transliteration: Shuōhuǎng de Líng
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over the Lying Spirit
Rejected alternatives: 圣灵 (forbidden), 灵 (bare, unqualified)
Original: רוּח שֶׁקֶר
Category: Prophecy
NEW — CRITICAL term. A created, subordinate spirit-being permitted within God’s sovereign heavenly court to entice Ahab (22:21-23). NEVER use 圣灵 or allow bare, unqualified 灵 — folk-religious readers could otherwise assimilate this being into the wider Chinese cosmology of ambiguous, morally mixed spirits (狐仙, 野鬼) rather than understanding it as strictly subordinate to the one true God’s court. Must not be taught as compromising God’s own truthfulness: the spirit volunteers (22:21), and Ahab is judged for an independently deserved pattern of rebellion (22:8).
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: 圣灵
Transliteration: Shènglíng
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over the Lying Spirit (cross-reference fencing term)
Rejected alternatives: 祖灵, 灵
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Included here specifically to anchor the required fence against confusing the ‘lying spirit’ (说谎的灵, 22:21-23) with the Holy Spirit. Always use the compound 圣灵; never bare 灵.
High Risk Terms
Living God
Approved rendering: 永生的耶和华
Transliteration: Yǒngshēng de Yēhéhuá
Doctrine: Elijah and the Contest with Baal
Original: חֵי־יְהוָה
Category: God
NEW term. Elijah’s oath formula (‘as the LORD lives,’ 17:1; 18:15) asserting God’s genuine, active existence and agency. Polemical contrast with lifeless idols requiring ritual ‘activation’ (开光, kāiguāng) before a spirit is believed to reside in them. Foundational premise of the whole Elijah cycle.
Covenant
Approved rendering: 约
Transliteration: yuē
Doctrine: The Davidic Covenant and Dynastic Promise
Rejected alternatives: 合同, 契约
Original: בְּרִית
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). In 1 Kings covers both the divine Davidic/Sinaitic covenant (8:23; 9:4-9; 11:11) and an ordinary political treaty (5:12, Solomon-Hiram, Medium risk in that specific secular use). The secular use must not dilute the term’s theological weight in its many divine-covenant occurrences.
Chesed
Approved rendering: 慈爱
Transliteration: Cí’ài
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty (Chesed)
Rejected alternatives: 仁
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Covenant
NEW term. God’s loyal, covenant-bound love and faithfulness toward his covenant partners (8:23, paired with 约). Must be distinguished from 仁 (rén), one of the Confucian Five Constant Virtues — a benevolence a moral exemplar cultivates and radiates generally. Chesed is not a cultivated virtue but God’s own specific, covenant-bound faithfulness, structurally parallel to the baseline’s caution that 义 (righteousness) must not be read as the Confucian virtue of the same name.
Law
Approved rendering: 律法
Transliteration: lǜfǎ
Doctrine: Covenant Law and Torah Fidelity
Rejected alternatives: 礼, 道德规范, 法律
Original: תּוֹרָה
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Anchors the Deuteronomic covenant-law cluster (律例/诫命/典章/法度) in 1 Kings (2:3; 8:9; 8:58,61; 9:4,6). Never equate with Confucian 礼.
Election
Approved rendering: 拣选
Transliteration: jiǎnxuǎn
Doctrine: The Election of Israel and Jerusalem
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运, 缘分
Original: בָּחַר
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). In 1 Kings applied not only to Israel as a people but to Jerusalem/the Temple as ‘the city I have chosen’ (8:16,44,53). Never render with 天命 (Mandate of Heaven), 命运 (impersonal fate), or 缘分 (predestined folk-Buddhist connection).
Davidic Throne
Approved rendering: 位/国位/王位
Transliteration: Wèi/Guówèi/Wángwèi
Doctrine: The Davidic Covenant and Dynastic Promise
Original: כִּסֵּא
Category: Kingship
NEW term. ‘The throne of Israel’ invokes the Davidic covenant’s promise of an enduring dynasty (2 Samuel 7), conditioned in 1 Kings 8:25 on covenant faithfulness. Must not be read through the Chinese Mandate of Heaven (天命) lens, a revocable legitimacy transferable to an entirely different lineage — David’s dynasty is unconditional to his own line even amid conditional historical discipline; one tribe is explicitly preserved for David’s sake (11:13,32,36).
Anoint
Approved rendering: 膏/受膏
Transliteration: Gāo/Shòugāo
Doctrine: Anointing and the Royal Office
Original: מָשַׁח
Category: Kingship
NEW term. Ritual consecration by oil installing a king in covenant office (1:34,39,45; 19:15-16). Historical-typological seed of the fuller 基督 (Messiah/Christ) title, already Critical in the Romans baseline. Must flag this typological link without implying every anointed king (Davidic or otherwise) is himself the Messiah in the full NT sense — the office anticipates but is not identical to its ultimate fulfillment.
House Temple
Approved rendering: 殿
Transliteration: Diàn
Doctrine: The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Rejected alternatives: 庙, 寺, 道观
Original: בַּיִת / הֵיכָל
Category: Temple
NEW — central term for this curriculum. God’s dwelling-place among his people, repeatedly called simply ‘the house’ (of the LORD, 耶和华的殿). Must be distinguished from generic use of 殿 for imperial palace halls (太和殿) or Buddhist temple main halls (大雄宝殿) by consistent doctrinal framing: this is the unique, God-ordained dwelling for his Name, not one temple-hall among comparable religious structures.
Glory
Approved rendering: 荣耀
Transliteration: róngyào
Doctrine: Temple Dedication and Divine Acceptance
Rejected alternatives: 面子, 光宗耀祖, 灵气
Original: כָּבוֹד
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, risk ELEVATED from the baseline’s Medium to High for this curriculum: in 1 Kings 8:11 this names one singular, historically located theophany-event (the cloud/glory filling the newly dedicated Temple), not a general divine attribute. Must not be softened toward 面子 (social ‘face’) or conflated with a generalized folk/Daoist ‘spiritual aura’ (灵气) concept.
Sin
Approved rendering: 罪
Transliteration: zuì
Doctrine: Idolatry and Its Consequences
Rejected alternatives: 报应, 罪犯式的罪
Original: חָטָא
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Central to every regnal evaluation formula and to Solomon’s sevenfold dedicatory petitions (8:31-50). Moral offense against the personal covenant God, not karmic infraction.
Abomination
Approved rendering: 可憎的
Transliteration: Kězēng de
Doctrine: Idolatry and Its Consequences
Rejected alternatives: 禁忌
Original: תּוֹעֵבָה
Category: Idolatry
NEW term. Used of Milcom and Chemosh (11:5-7), the strongest available covenant-vocabulary term for idolatrous worship. Must be distinguished from ritual-impurity taboo concepts (禁忌) common in folk practice — this is a moral-relational, not merely ceremonial, category.
High Place
Approved rendering: 邱坛
Transliteration: Qiūtán
Doctrine: Idolatry and Its Consequences
Rejected alternatives: 神坛
Original: בָּמָה
Category: Idolatry
NEW — recurring term across many chapters. A raised cultic platform for sacrifice, becoming from Solomon’s reign onward virtually synonymous with covenant unfaithfulness (11:7; 12:31-32; 14:23; 15:14; 22:43). Must be distinguished from Daoist/folk ritual altars/platforms (坛) still active in contemporary Chinese religious life; readers could otherwise read it as an ordinary neutral ritual site rather than a specifically prohibited rival to the one legitimate Temple.
Foreign Wives
Approved rendering: 外邦的妃嫔
Transliteration: Wàibāng de Fēipín
Doctrine: Idolatry and Its Consequences
Original: נָשִׁים נָכְרִיּוֹת
Category: Idolatry
NEW term. Wives from nations outside Israel’s covenant people whose religious influence ‘turned away’ Solomon’s heart to idolatry (11:1-8). Must be distinguished from the core passage’s welcome of the believing foreigner (8:41-43): the concern here is idolatrous religious influence and covenant unfaithfulness, not the mere presence of non-Israelites, which Solomon’s own prayer explicitly blesses when directed toward the LORD.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: 外邦人
Transliteration: wàibāngrén
Doctrine: The Universal Scope of Prayer and the Inclusion of the Foreigner
Rejected alternatives: 夷人, 外国人
Inherited from Romans package, risk ELEVATED from the baseline’s Medium to High for this curriculum: Solomon explicitly envisions and welcomes the prayers of non-Israelites at the Temple (8:41-43,60), a striking early anticipation of the Romans Jew-Gentile unity doctrine. NEVER use 夷人 (the classical Hua-Yi 华夷 ‘barbarian’ category); this verse’s entire rhetorical point is to dismantle exactly such an insider/outsider hierarchy.
Man Of God
Approved rendering: 神人
Transliteration: Shénrén
Doctrine: Prophetic Confrontation of Kings
Original: אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים
Category: Prophecy
NEW term. A technical prophetic-office title for one authorized to speak and act for God (13:1-31; 20:28). CRITICAL cross-curriculum caution: the Romans baseline explicitly rejects the identical two characters (神人) as a rendering for ‘Son of God’ (implying mere deified humanity), while here it is the correct, standard OT idiom for a prophet with no claim to deity. Requires a mandatory disambiguating teacher’s note wherever both curricula are used together.
Forgive
Approved rendering: 赦免
Transliteration: Shèmiǎn
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: 报应的抵消, 功德式的赦免
Original: סָלַח
Category: Repentance
NEW term. God’s pardon of sin, the hinge of every petition in Solomon’s dedicatory prayer (8:30,34,36,39,50). Must be taught as pardon granted by a personal covenant God on the basis of his own character — not the discharge of a karmic debt (报应) nor a ritual cancelling of retribution achievable through merit (功德) or vicarious ritual offerings.
Turn Return
Approved rendering: 回转
Transliteration: Huízhuǎn
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Repentance
Rejected alternatives: 改运
Original: שׁוּב
Category: Repentance
NEW term. The pivot-word of the dedicatory prayer’s petition structure (8:33,35,47,48), describing the people’s repentant reorientation to the LORD that precedes and enables God’s forgiving response. Must be taught as wholehearted covenant reorientation, not a change of external behavior or fortune-reversal achieved through ritual means (改运, ‘changing one’s luck’).
Wisdom
Approved rendering: 智慧
Transliteration: Zhìhuì
Doctrine: Solomon’s Wisdom and Its Limits
Original: חָכְמָה
Category: Wisdom
NEW term. Practical, God-given skill for living and governing, granted to Solomon at Gibeon (3:9-12) in response to a humble request, not achieved through self-cultivation. Must be distinguished from 智 (zhì), one of the Confucian Five Constant Virtues cultivated through learning and moral discipline toward sagehood. Chapter 11 shows this gift did not guarantee sustained covenant faithfulness — a deliberate corrective against any self-cultivation-guarantees-virtue framework.
Still Small Voice
Approved rendering: 微小的声音
Transliteration: Wēixiǎo de Shēngyīn
Doctrine: God’s Quiet Self-Revelation to Elijah
Rejected alternatives: 清净
Original: קוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה
Category: God
NEW term. God’s quiet mode of address to Elijah at Horeb (19:12-13), deliberately contrasted with preceding wind, earthquake, and fire. Risk of misreading through a Daoist quietist lens as validating meditative stillness (静坐) or the baseline’s already-rejected 清净 as a superior spiritual technique. Must be taught as God’s sovereign, personal choice of address to a specific discouraged prophet, not endorsement of quietistic technique.
Heavenly Host
Approved rendering: 天上的万军
Transliteration: Tiānshàng de Wànjūn
Doctrine: God’s Sovereignty over the Lying Spirit
Original: צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם
Category: God
NEW term. The assembly of angelic beings surrounding God’s throne in Micaiah’s vision (22:19). Context-sensitive: the identical Hebrew phrase elsewhere in the canon denotes astral bodies wrongly worshiped by pagan nations; here it denotes obedient created beings serving God, the opposite posture. Translators must ensure surrounding context does not read as endorsing astrological devotion.
Jezebel
Approved rendering: 耶洗别
Transliteration: Yēxǐbié
Doctrine: Idolatry and Its Consequences
Original: אִיזֶבֶל
Category: Idolatry
NEW proper noun with heavy narrative-theological weight. Ahab’s Phoenician queen, chief patron and enforcer of Baal worship in Israel and persecutor of YHWH’s prophets. Established CUV transliteration. Functions as the narrative embodiment of foreign-imported, state-sponsored idolatry; teachers should flag her narrative function directly rather than let the name pass as a neutral historical detail.
Medium Risk Terms
Covenant Law Cluster
Approved rendering: 律例/诫命/典章/法度
Transliteration: Lǜlì/Jièmìng/Diǎnzhāng/Fǎdù
Doctrine: Covenant Law and Torah Fidelity
Rejected alternatives: 礼
Original: חֻקָּה / מִצְוָה / מִשְׁפָּט / עֵדוּת
Category: Covenant
NEW term cluster. The fourfold Deuteronomic vocabulary for covenant stipulations (2:3; 6:12; 8:58,61; 9:4,6), used alongside the baseline’s established 律法. Must not be flattened into Confucian 礼 (ritual propriety/social etiquette) — these are covenant stipulations from a personal God binding king and people alike, not a social-conformity code.
Separate Set Apart
Approved rendering: 分别出来
Transliteration: Fēnbié Chūlái
Doctrine: The Election of Israel and Jerusalem
Original: בָּדַל (הִבְדַּלְתָּם)
Category: Covenant
NEW term. God’s sovereign act of separating Israel from among all peoples to be his own heritage (8:53), the same root later reflected in ‘holy’ (qadosh) as ‘set apart.’ Consistent with the baseline’s caution (under separation_unto_gods_service) that biblical set-apartness is active covenant devotion, not withdrawal for ritual purity as in Daoist/Buddhist asceticism.
Tear The Kingdom
Approved rendering: 撕裂/夺去
Transliteration: Sīliè/Duóqù
Doctrine: The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: קָרַע
Category: Kingship
NEW term. God’s judgment, ‘I will surely tear the kingdom from you’ (11:11; 11:30-31; 12:1-24), echoing Samuel’s earlier word to Saul (1 Samuel 15:28). Judgment-image, not to be conflated with a Mandate-of-Heaven-style transfer of ultimate legitimacy to an unrelated house.
Cut Off Dynasty
Approved rendering: 剪除
Transliteration: Jiǎnchú
Doctrine: The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: כָּרַת
Category: Kingship
NEW term. Dynastic judgment against Jeroboam’s house (14:10,14). The same Hebrew root also underlies the idiom ‘to cut a covenant’ (making a covenant) — this wordplay cannot be directly mirrored in Chinese and should be explained to teachers rather than force-translated.
Regnal Evaluation Formula
Approved rendering: 耶和华眼中看为正/看为恶
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá Yǎnzhōng Kànwéi Zhèng/Kànwéi È
Doctrine: Royal Accountability under the Regnal Formula
Rejected alternatives: 社会看为正
Original: עָשָׂה הַיָּשָׁר / הָרַע בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה
Category: Kingship
NEW term. The book’s recurring formula evaluating every king’s reign (first fully established 15:5,11,26,34; recurring through 22:52). Must be taught as God’s own personal moral evaluation, not socially/ritually validated correctness (礼/正 in the Confucian sense) — the evaluating ‘eyes’ are God’s, not the community’s.
Altar
Approved rendering: 祭坛
Transliteration: Jìtán
Doctrine: The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Rejected alternatives: 坛 (bare, unqualified)
Original: מִזְבֵּח
Category: Temple
NEW term. The structure for offering sacrifice, used of both the single legitimate Temple altar (8:22) and illegitimate rival altars (e.g. Jeroboam’s at Bethel, ch.13). Must be distinguished from generic Daoist/folk ritual platforms (坛, as in 天坛); teaching must state God himself, not a human ritual specialist, mediates atonement at this altar.
Holy Of Holies
Approved rendering: 至圣所
Transliteration: Zhìshèngsuǒ
Doctrine: The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Original: דְּבִיר / קֹדֶש הַקֳּדָשִׁים
Category: Temple
NEW term. The innermost chamber housing the ark (6:16-31; 8:6), whose Hebrew name devir (‘speaking-place’) ties presence to revelation. Builds on the baseline’s established 圣 root (圣洁/圣徒/成圣).
Ark Of Covenant
Approved rendering: 约柜
Transliteration: Yuēguì
Doctrine: Temple Dedication and Divine Acceptance
Original: אֲרוֹן (הַבְּרִית)
Category: Temple
NEW term. The sacred chest containing the covenant tablets, placed under the cherubim’s wings in the Temple (8:1-9). Must be taught as the covenant’s visible sign, not a magically potent talisman manipulable for power apart from covenant obedience (cf. 1 Samuel 4-6’s cautionary misuse pattern).
Bronze Sea
Approved rendering: 铜海
Transliteration: Tónghǎi
Doctrine: The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Original: יָם (מוּצָק)
Category: Temple
NEW term. The great bronze water basin for priestly washing (ch.7). Introduce simply as a functional basin; handle the ANE mythological ‘cosmic sea tamed’ subtext only in deeper teaching notes.
Jachin And Boaz
Approved rendering: 雅斤/波阿斯
Transliteration: Yǎjīn/Bōāsī
Doctrine: The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Original: יָכִין / בֹּעַז
Category: Temple
NEW term. Proper names (‘He will establish’ / ‘In him is strength’) of the two bronze pillars at the Temple’s entrance (ch.7). A translator’s note on the embedded Hebrew meaning is required, since bare transliteration otherwise loses theologically relevant content entirely.
Heaven Heavens
Approved rendering: 天上
Transliteration: Tiānshàng
Doctrine: Divine Transcendence and Immanence
Rejected alternatives: 天 (bare, unqualified)
Original: שָׁמַיִם
Category: Temple
NEW term. Render 天上, never bare 天 — extending the baseline’s god entry caution against 天 alone standing in for God, here applied to his dwelling-place vocabulary, which must not collapse into the impersonal ‘Heaven’ of folk fatalism (天意, 老天爷).
Contain
Approved rendering: 容纳
Transliteration: Róngnà
Doctrine: Divine Transcendence and Immanence
Original: לֹא יְכַלְכְּלוּךָ
Category: Temple
NEW term. ‘Cannot contain you’ (8:27) asserts divine transcendence. Low collision risk in itself, but the theological point is high-value and must never be trimmed or softened, since it is the Bible’s own corrective against a static, idol-housing misreading of Temple theology.
Cloud
Approved rendering: 云
Transliteration: Yún
Doctrine: Temple Dedication and Divine Acceptance
Original: עָנָן
Category: Temple
NEW term. Fixed phrase 荣耀云彩充满了殿 (‘the cloud/glory filled the house,’ 8:10-11), echoing the wilderness tabernacle theophany (Exodus 40:34-35). Ties Solomon’s Temple to prior theophanies, establishing continuity of God’s presence across covenant history.
Thick Darkness
Approved rendering: 幽暗
Transliteration: Yōu’àn
Doctrine: Temple Dedication and Divine Acceptance
Original: עֲרָפֶל
Category: Temple
NEW term. God’s own word that he chose to ‘dwell in thick darkness’ (8:12), a paradox alongside the glory-cloud imagery. Should be taught alongside glory (v.11) as two sides of the same theophany, resisting reduction of God’s presence to pure visible spectacle.
Congregation Assembly
Approved rendering: 会众
Transliteration: Huìzhòng
Doctrine: The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Rejected alternatives: 教会 (reserved for the NT ekklesia term)
Original: קָהָל
Category: Temple
NEW term. The gathered community of Israel assembled by Solomon for the Temple’s dedication (8:1-5,14,22,55). Must be kept distinct from 教会 (the baseline’s established NT ‘church’ term) — qahal denotes the OT assembly of ethnic/covenant Israel gathered at a specific event, historically prior to the NT ekklesia.
Ruin Heap
Approved rendering: 荒场
Transliteration: Huāngchǎng
Doctrine: Conditional Blessing and Judgment on the Temple
Rejected alternatives: 废墟 (acceptable secondary gloss)
Original: תֵּל
Category: Temple
NEW term. God’s warning that the Temple itself could become ‘a heap of ruins’ if Israel turns to other gods (9:8). Reinforces that the Temple’s holiness does not make it immune to judgment — a corrective against treating consecrated space as inherently, unconditionally protective, analogous to folk-religious confidence in a temple/shrine’s protective power (求平安) regardless of moral-covenantal standing.
Asherah
Approved rendering: 亚舍拉
Transliteration: Yàshělā
Doctrine: Idolatry and Its Consequences
Original: אֲשֵׁרָה
Category: Idolatry
NEW term. A wooden cultic pole/pillar (and/or the Canaanite goddess of that name), set up in Judah as well as the north (14:15,23; 15:13; 16:33; 18:19). Transliterated proper name/object per CUV convention.
False Prophet
Approved rendering: 假先知
Transliteration: Jiǎ Xiānzhī
Doctrine: Prophetic Confrontation of Kings
Rejected alternatives: 算命先生 (different category)
Original: נְבִיאֵי שֶׁקֶר
Category: Prophecy
NEW term. Prophets who speak words not actually from the LORD (22:6,12), built on the baseline’s established 先知 with the negating modifier 假. Distinguish from 算命先生 (fortune-teller, per the baseline’s prophet entry) — false prophets claim the very same prophetic office, making their falseness a matter of covenant fidelity, not a different craft.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: 预言
Transliteration: yùyán
Doctrine: Prophetic Confrontation of Kings
Rejected alternatives: 算卦, 占卜
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Relevant to Ahijah’s and Micaiah’s prophetic oracles. Distinguish from 算卦/占卜 (divination).
Recognition Formula
Approved rendering: 你就知道我是耶和华
Transliteration: Nǐ Jiù Zhīdào Wǒ Shì Yēhéhuá
Doctrine: Recognition of YHWH through His Historical Acts
Rejected alternatives: 悟 (Buddhist self-attained enlightenment, forbidden as an equivalence)
Original: וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי־אֲנִי יְהוָה
Category: Prophecy
NEW term. A prophetic formula (20:13,28) in which God’s decisive historical action produces personal, relational knowledge of who he is. Distinguish from Buddhist 悟 (sudden enlightenment attained through one’s own meditative practice) — the source and mechanism of ‘knowing’ differ entirely.
Zeal
Approved rendering: 热心
Transliteration: Rèxīn
Doctrine: Zeal for the LORD
Original: קִנְאָה
Category: Prophecy
NEW term. Elijah’s self-description of passionate, exclusive covenant loyalty (19:10,14). Should be taught with content-specificity — zeal for the LORD specifically, not generic religious fervor — echoing the baseline’s caution under faith about 虔诚 (generic piety) needing a stated object.
Acknowledge The Name
Approved rendering: 承认
Transliteration: Chéngrèn
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Repentance
Original: יָדָה (הוֹדוּ)
Category: Repentance
NEW term. To confess/acknowledge God’s Name and character (8:33,35), the verbal counterpart to repentance after covenant unfaithfulness.
Judge
Approved rendering: 审判
Transliteration: Shěnpàn
Doctrine: Divine Omniscience and Personal Judgment
Rejected alternatives: 报应 (impersonal karmic accounting, forbidden as an equivalence)
Original: שָׁפַט
Category: Repentance
NEW term. God is petitioned to judge oaths sworn at his altar (8:31-32) and to render to each according to his ways (8:39). Must be distinguished from an impersonal karmic ‘moral accounting’ (报应) — judgment here is personal, exercised by a covenant God who knows the heart, not a self-executing cosmic mechanism.
Inheritance Heritage
Approved rendering: 产业
Transliteration: Chǎnyè
Doctrine: Covenant Land and Inheritance / Naboth’s Vineyard
Rejected alternatives: 祖产
Original: נַחֲלָה
Category: Covenant Community
NEW term. Israel’s land inheritance and, by extension, Israel itself as God’s own possession (8:51,53); recurs with sharpened force (elevated to High risk in that narrative context) in Naboth’s vineyard (21:3). Distinguish from Chinese clan-property inheritance customs (祖产), which concern transmissible family wealth/land without the same theological grounding in a specific divine land-gift held in generational trust.
Captivity Exile
Approved rendering: 被掳
Transliteration: Bèilǔ
Doctrine: Exile and the Hope of Restoration
Rejected alternatives: 解脱式的苦难观
Original: שְׁבִי
Category: Covenant Community
NEW term. Forced deportation/exile as covenant consequence, anticipated in Solomon’s prayer (8:46-50). Must be distinguished from a generic notion of displacement or from Buddhist teaching on impermanence/suffering (苦) as an impersonal feature of existence; this exile is a specific covenant consequence carrying the built-in possibility of restoration through repentance.
Blood Guilt
Approved rendering: 血
Transliteration: Xuè
Doctrine: Naboth’s Vineyard: Covenant Land Ethics and Royal Accountability
Original: דָּם
Category: Covenant Community
NEW term. Invokes the wider biblical principle that innocent bloodshed cries out for justice, in Elijah’s oracle against Ahab (21:19). Royal power does not exempt a king from this reckoning.
Understanding Heart
Approved rendering: 智慧聪明的心
Transliteration: Zhìhuì Cōngmíng de Xīn
Doctrine: Solomon’s Wisdom and Its Limits
Original: לֵב שֹׁמֵעַ / לֵב חָכָם וְנָבוֹן
Category: Wisdom
NEW term. Solomon’s specific request (3:9) for the capacity to judge God’s people rightly, reframing wisdom’s purpose as service, not self-aggrandizement.
Angel
Approved rendering: 天使
Transliteration: Tiānshǐ
Doctrine: Elijah and the Contest with Baal
Rejected alternatives: 仙
Original: מַלְאָךְ
Category: Angelology
NEW term. A heavenly messenger sent by God, providing for Elijah in the wilderness (19:5-7). Must be distinguished from Chinese folk-cosmology guardian spirits or Daoist immortals (仙), who typically act with independent agency; biblical angels act strictly as commissioned agents of God’s will.
Fire From Heaven
Approved rendering: 从天降下的火
Transliteration: Cóng Tiān Jiàngxià de Huǒ
Doctrine: Elijah and the Contest with Baal
Original: אֵש (יְהוָה)
Category: God
NEW term. Fire consuming Elijah’s sacrifice at Carmel (18:38), the climactic proof-event vindicating YHWH’s exclusive lordship over the domain (storm/fire) Baal’s prophets claimed. Must be kept attributively linked to YHWH’s direct action.
Word Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 耶和华的话
Transliteration: Yēhéhuá de Huà
Doctrine: Prophetic Confrontation of Kings
Original: דְּבַר־יְהוָה
Category: God
NEW term. God’s own spoken communication delivered through a prophet (22:14), the standard by which authentic prophecy is measured. Track for consistency with future prophetic-literature curricula (Isaiah, Jeremiah).
Israel
Approved rendering: 以色列
Transliteration: Yǐsèliè
Doctrine: The Election of Israel and Jerusalem
Original: יִשְׂרָאֵל
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Proper name, subject of the united and later divided kingdom narrative throughout 1 Kings.
David
Approved rendering: 大卫
Transliteration: Dàwèi
Doctrine: The Davidic Covenant and Dynastic Promise
Original: דָּוִד
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). King David, the covenant recipient whose dynasty and faithfulness are the standard invoked throughout 1 Kings (1:1ff; 2:1ff; 8:15ff).
Walk Before
Approved rendering: 行在…面前
Transliteration: Xíng Zài…Miànqián
Doctrine: The Davidic Covenant and Dynastic Promise
Original: הָלַךְ לְפָנֶיךָ
Category: Covenant
NEW term. To live one’s life consciously in God’s presence and under his authority; the condition attached to the perpetuity of David’s line (8:25). Risk of being read as mere external ritual propriety (echoing Confucian 礼 performed for social/ancestral observers) rather than sincere, relational fidelity before a personal God who sees the heart.
Heart
Approved rendering: 心
Transliteration: Xīn
Doctrine: Solomon’s Wisdom and Its Limits / Covenant Loyalty
Original: לֵבָב
Category: Covenant
NEW term. The seat of will, mind, and intention; ‘with all their heart’ describes total, undivided covenant devotion, the standard against which every king is measured (8:23). Pair with 尽心 (‘with the whole heart’) in wholehearted-devotion contexts to avoid a reading of merely dutiful, partial compliance.
Hear
Approved rendering: 听
Transliteration: Tīng
Doctrine: Temple Dedication and Divine Acceptance
Original: שָׁמַע
Category: Covenant
NEW term. The refrain ‘hear in heaven’ (8:30-49) frames the entire dedicatory prayer as a request for God’s responsive attention. Consistency of the fixed phrase 求你在天上你的居所垂听 across the whole prayer is essential for the prayer’s rhetorical structure.
Low Risk Terms
Tribe
Approved rendering: 支派
Transliteration: Zhīpài
Doctrine: The Divided Kingdom and Covenant Unfaithfulness
Original: שֵׁבֶט
Category: Kingship
NEW term. The standard CUV term for one of the twelve tribal divisions of Israel, divided between Jeroboam and Rehoboam (ch.12). No significant collision risk.
Cherubim
Approved rendering: 基路伯
Transliteration: Jīlùbó
Doctrine: The Temple as God’s Dwelling among His People
Original: כְּרוּבִים
Category: Temple
NEW term. Composite winged guardian-creatures overshadowing the ark (6:23-29; 8:6-7). Established CUV transliteration. Minor risk of conflation with generic Chinese guardian-spirit statuary (门神) if left unglossed; a brief explanatory note suffices.
Prophet
Approved rendering: 先知
Transliteration: xiānzhī
Doctrine: Prophetic Confrontation of Kings
Rejected alternatives: 算命先生
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Applies throughout 1 Kings (13:1ff; 14:2ff; 18:4ff Elijah; 22:6ff). Distinguish from 算命先生 (fortune-teller); false-prophet contexts use the modifier 假, not a different root term.
Sign
Approved rendering: 证据
Transliteration: Zhèngjù
Doctrine: Prophetic Confrontation of Kings
Original: אוֹת
Category: Prophecy
NEW term. A miraculous or symbolic act confirming a prophetic word’s authenticity, e.g. the altar’s splitting (13:3,5).
Iron Furnace
Approved rendering: 铁炉
Transliteration: Tiělú
Doctrine: Exile and the Hope of Restoration
Original: כּוּר הַבַּרְזֶל
Category: Covenant Community
NEW term. A fixed idiom for Egyptian bondage (cf. Deuteronomy 4:20), recalling the Exodus as the paradigmatic act of redemption (8:51). Should be cross-referenced with any Exodus-curriculum rendering for consistency.
Far Be It From Me
Approved rendering: 万不可
Transliteration: Wàn Bùkě
Doctrine: Naboth’s Vineyard: Covenant Land Ethics and Royal Accountability
Original: חָלִילָה
Category: Covenant Community
NEW term. Naboth’s emphatic religious-conviction refusal to sell ancestral covenant land (21:3).
Plague
Approved rendering: 瘟疫
Transliteration: Wēnyì
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Repentance (covenant curses cluster)
Original: דֶּבֶר
Category: Covenant Curses
NEW term. Epidemic disease as covenant judgment, recalled in Solomon’s prayer (8:37).
Famine
Approved rendering: 饥荒
Transliteration: Jīhuang
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Repentance (covenant curses cluster)
Original: רָעָב
Category: Covenant Curses
NEW term. Covenant curse (8:37) recalled in the Elijah narrative’s drought (chs.17-18).
Locust
Approved rendering: 蝗虫
Transliteration: Huángchóng
Doctrine: Forgiveness and Repentance (covenant curses cluster)
Original: אַרְבֶּה
Category: Covenant Curses
NEW term. Covenant curse imagery of agricultural devastation (8:37; cf. Deuteronomy 28:38).
Horeb
Approved rendering: 何烈山
Transliteration: Hélièshān
Doctrine: God’s Quiet Self-Revelation to Elijah
Original: חֹרֵב
Category: Prophecy
NEW proper noun. An alternate name for Mount Sinai (19:8), established CUV form. Places Elijah deliberately in Moses’ footsteps.
Servant
Approved rendering: 仆人
Transliteration: Púrén
Doctrine: Covenant Loyalty (Chesed)
Original: עֶבֶד
Category: Covenant
NEW term. A position of covenant honor when applied to David, Solomon, or Moses as ‘servant of the LORD.’ Standard usage across Chinese Bible tradition; no significant collision.
Referenced passages