Core Glossary
08 Core Glossary — 1 Thessalonians
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, drawn from all five chapters of 1 Thessalonians. Terms already fixed in the Romans baseline translation_memory.json are marked Reused and MUST use the exact recorded Mandarin rendering; any deviation is a defect. Terms new to this curriculum are marked New and are proposed here for addition to translation memory at the indicated risk tier, pending theologian confirmation for all Critical/High entries per the baseline escalation rules.
Risk tiers follow the baseline’s doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions exactly: Critical (theologian review, every occurrence), High (theologian review), Medium (native speaker review), Low (automated review).
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline Translation Memory
| Term | Mandarin | Transliteration | Risk | Key 1 Thessalonians Passages | Doctrine Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gospel | 福音 | fúyīn | Medium | 1:5; 2:2,4,8,9; 3:2 | Gospel |
| grace | 恩典 | ēndiǎn | Critical | 1:1; 5:28 | Grace |
| faith | 信心 | xìnxīn | High | 1:3,8; 3:2,5-10; 5:8 | Faith |
| holy | 圣洁 | shèngjié | High | 3:13; 4:3-7 | Sanctification |
| saints | 圣徒 | shèngtú | High | 3:13 | Sainthood |
| sanctification | 成圣 | chéngshèng | Critical | 4:3,4,7; 5:23 | Sanctification |
| resurrection | 复活 | fùhuó | Critical | 4:14,16 | Resurrection of Believers |
| lord | 主 | zhǔ | Critical | throughout (1:1; 4:15-17; 5:2,9,23) | Return of Christ / Lordship of Christ |
| son_of_god | 神的儿子 | Shén de érzi | Critical | 1:10 | Sonship of Christ |
| peace | 平安 | píng’ān | Medium | 1:1; 5:3,13,23 | Peace with God |
| thanksgiving | 感恩 | gǎn’ēn | Low | 1:2; 2:13; 3:9; 5:18 | Thanksgiving |
| fellowship (concept) | 团契 | tuánqì | Low | (background — church-community sense) | Christian Fellowship |
| church | 教会 | jiàohuì | Medium | 1:1 | Church as God’s People |
| kingdom_of_god (concept) | 神的国 | Shén de guó | Medium | 2:12 (“his own kingdom”) | Kingdom Mission |
| election | 拣选 | jiǎnxuǎn | High | 1:4 | Effectual Calling |
| gentiles | 外邦人 | wàibāngrén | Medium | 4:5 | Unity of Jews and Gentiles |
| glory | 荣耀 | róngyào | Medium | 2:6,12,20 | Deity of Christ |
| father | 父 | fù | High | 1:1,3; 3:11,13 | Adoption / Fatherhood of God |
| holy_spirit | 圣灵 | Shènglíng | Critical | 1:5,6; 4:8; 5:19 | Sanctification |
| calling / called | 呼召 / 蒙召的 | hūzhào / méngzhào de | High | 2:12; 4:7; 5:24 | Divine Calling / Effectual Calling |
| exhort (sense: urge to duty) | 劝勉 | quànmiǎn | Low | 4:1,10; 5:14 | Mutual Edification |
| apostle | 使徒 | shǐtú | Low | 2:6 | Apostleship |
| messiah/christ | 基督 | Jīdū | Critical | throughout | Messianic Promise |
| prophecy | 预言 | yùyán | Medium | 5:20 | Fulfillment of Prophecy |
| jesus | 耶稣 | Yēsū | Critical | throughout | Lordship of Christ |
| god | 神 | Shén | Critical | throughout | Deity of Christ |
| salvation | 救恩 | jiùēn | Critical | 5:8,9 | Salvation |
| power_of_god (concept) | 神的大能 | Shén de dà néng | High | 1:5 (δύναμις) | Power of God for Salvation |
B. New Terms Required for This Curriculum
| Term | Original Greek | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Mandarin Rendering | Risk | Key Passages | Doctrine Link | Rendering Risk Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| parousia / coming of Christ | παρουσία | parousia | presence, official/royal arrival | 降临 (jiànglín) | Critical | 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23 | Return of Christ | Must never be conflated with Maitreya’s future descent (弥勒下生/弥勒降世), the Chinese Buddhist eschatological figure historically invoked by folk millenarian movements. Must not be softened toward repeatable-descent language already forbidden for incarnation (化身/下凡/转世). One singular, historical, personal, bodily return. |
| rapture / caught up | ἁρπάζω (ἁρπαγησόμεθα) | harpazō | to seize, snatch by force | 被提 (bèi tí) | Critical | 4:17 | Return of Christ / Resurrection of Believers | Must be distinguished from Daoist self-cultivated immortal ascension (羽化登仙, merit-earned), from 升天 as a generic colloquial death euphemism, and from Buddhist karma-earned rebirth into a heavenly deva-realm (天道). This is a sovereign, grace-given, corporate, bodily, sudden divine act — never a merit-earned attainment. |
| sleep (death euphemism) | κοιμάομαι | koimaomai | to sleep | 睡了(的人) (shuì le [de rén]) | Medium | 4:13,14,15; 5:10 | Resurrection of Believers / Hope in Grief | Must be taught as a hope-bearing metaphor for the body awaiting resurrection, not a claim about post-mortem consciousness, and not absorbed into folk beliefs about a wandering soul needing ritual guidance. |
| the dead in Christ | νεκροὶ ἐν Χριστῷ | nekroi en Christō | the dead ones in Christ | 在基督里死了的人 | High | 4:16 | Resurrection of Believers / Christian Identity in Christ | Death does not sever union with Christ; identity is secured “in Christ,” not maintained through ancestor-ritual status maintenance (祭祖). |
| Day of the Lord | ἡμέρα κυρίου | hēmera kyriou | day of the Lord | 主的日子 | High | 5:2 | The Day of the Lord | Must be distinguished from the Buddhist-Daoist 末劫 (catastrophic kalpa-close within an endlessly repeating cosmic cycle) and from the cyclical dynastic-collapse pattern (治乱循环) flagged in the Romans baseline. Linear, final, unrepeated. |
| hope | ἐλπίς | elpis | hope, confident expectation | 盼望 (pànwàng) | High | 1:3; 4:13; 5:8 | Hope in Grief | Must be distinguished from generic, uncertain 希望 (“hope so”) and from folk-religious hope tied to fate-adjustment or merit (缘分, 祈福). Biblical hope is certainty grounded in Christ’s resurrection and God’s promise. |
| word of the Lord | λόγος κυρίου | logos kyriou | word of the Lord | 主的话 | High | 1:8; 4:15 | Inspiration of Scripture | Distinguish direct divine revelation from sage-transmitted classical wisdom (经). |
| idols | εἴδωλα | eidōla | images of false gods | 偶像 | High | 1:9 | Universal Human Accountability / conversion narrative | Directly confronts household ancestor tablets, city-god/kitchen-god statues, and temple images; requires pastoral care given real family/relational cost of conversion narratives built on this term. |
| living and true God | θεῷ ζῶντι καὶ ἀληθινῷ | theō zōnti kai alēthinō | living and true God | 又真又活的神 | High | 1:9 | Deity of Christ / monotheism | Polemical contrast with lifeless idols; must make monotheism explicit since 神 is also a generic folk-deity noun (per Romans baseline note). |
| wrath | ὀργή | orgē | settled judicial anger | 忿怒 | High | 1:10; 2:16; 5:9 | The Day of the Lord / Salvation | Must be God’s personal, judicial response to sin, not impersonal karmic retribution (报应, already flagged under “sin” in Romans baseline). |
| sons of light / sons of darkness | υἱοὶ φωτός / υἱοὶ σκότους (νυκτός) | huioi phōtos / huioi skotous (nyktos) | children of light / of darkness (night) | 光明之子/白昼之子 vs. 属黑夜的/属幽暗的 | High | 5:5 | The Day of the Lord | Must not be read as Chinese Manichaean (明教) dualism of two co-eternal cosmic principles; this is a moral/covenantal identity distinction under one sovereign God. |
| human spirit, soul, body | πνεῦμα, ψυχή, σῶμα | pneuma, psychē, sōma | spirit, soul (inner life), body | 灵、魂、身子 | Critical | 5:23 | Sanctification / Return of Christ | 灵 here denotes the human spirit and must be explicitly disambiguated from 圣灵 at every occurrence. 魂 collides with the folk hún-pò dual-soul anthropology and ancestor soul-ritual practice (招魂/安魂); must be taught as one integrated component of the single person God keeps blameless, not a ritually-managed wandering soul. |
| do not quench the Spirit | πνεῦμα μὴ σβέννυτε | pneuma mē sbennyte | do not extinguish the Spirit | 不要消灭圣灵的感动 | High | 5:19 | Sanctification | Preserve CUV’s addition of “的感动” (his promptings) so the Spirit’s activity, not his Person, is described as extinguishable — guards against an impersonal-force (气-like) reading of 圣灵. |
| brotherly love | φιλαδελφία | philadelphia | love among brothers | 弟兄相爱 | Medium | 4:9 | Christian Fellowship | Distinguish from clan kinship obligation and sworn-brotherhood ritual bonding (结拜, flagged under “fellowship” in Romans baseline). |
| grief | λύπη (λυπῆσθε) | lypē (lypēsthe) | grief, sorrow | 忧伤 | Medium | 4:13 | Hope in Grief | Preserve the contrastive structure (grief unlike those without hope); avoid implying Christians should feel no sorrow at death. |
| affliction/tribulation | θλῖψις | thlipsis | pressure, distress | 患难 | Medium | 1:6; 2:14; 3:3-4 | (background to all doctrines) | Must not be read through a karmic-retribution (报应) lens. |
| the will of God | θέλημα θεοῦ | thelēma theou | God’s will/desire | 神的旨意 | Medium | 5:18 | Providence | Distinguish from impersonal fatalistic 天意 (Romans baseline “providence” caution). |
| destruction / labor pains | ὄλεθρος / ὠδίν | olethros / ōdin | sudden ruin / birth pangs | 灭亡 / 生产的疼痛 | Medium | 5:3 | The Day of the Lord | Outcome of God’s judgment on unbelief, not impersonal disaster or karmic payback. |
| meet the Lord (royal welcome) | ἀπάντησις | apantēsis | ceremonial welcome-procession | 迎见主 / 与主相遇 | Medium | 4:17 | Return of Christ | Frames the rapture as joyful royal welcome, not evacuation/abandonment of creation. |
| clouds (theophany) | νεφέλαι | nephelai | clouds | 云里 | Medium | 4:17 | Return of Christ | Distinguish from Daoist immortals’ cloud-riding (乘云) as a self-attained mark of transcendence. |
| holy kiss | φίλημα ἅγιον | philēma hagion | holy kiss (greeting) | 圣洁的亲嘴问安 | Medium (cultural, not doctrinal) | 5:26 | Christian Fellowship | Public kissing is not customary Chinese greeting practice; flag for cultural-adaptation, not theological, review. |
| trumpet of God / shout of command | σάλπιγξ θεοῦ / κέλευσμα | salpinx theou / keleusma | God’s trumpet / a shout of command | 神的号(筒) / 呼叫的声音 | Medium | 4:16 | Return of Christ / Resurrection of Believers | Avoid assimilation to folk soul-summoning ritual (招魂) or underworld-court judgment imagery; God’s own singular eschatological signal. |
| God-taught | θεοδίδακτοι | theodidaktoi | taught by God | 蒙神所教 | Medium | 4:9 | Sanctification / Christian Fellowship | Contrast with Confucian sage-lineage oral transmission of wisdom; direct inward divine teaching. |
| own vessel / body | σκεῦος | skeuos | vessel, implement | 身体 | Medium (translation-ambiguity flag) | 4:4 | Sanctification | Genuine exegetical ambiguity (body vs. wife); follow CUV’s “body” reading; record “wife” as alternative considered. |
| endurance/steadfastness (of hope) | ὑπομονή | hypomonē | patient endurance | 忍耐 | Medium | 1:3 | Hope in Grief | Distinguish biblical endurance (anchored to a certain hoped-for object) from stoic/Buddhist detachment cultivated without reference to a personal hope-object. |
| love | ἀγάπη | agapē | selfless love | 爱心 / 爱 | Low-Medium | 1:3; 3:6,12; 4:9; 5:8,13 | (undergirds all doctrines) | Standard term; teach as distinct from transactional or clan-loyalty love. |
| imitators | μιμηταί | mimētai | imitators | 效法 | Low | 1:6; 2:14 | Mutual Edification | Standard, no collision. |
| thief (metaphor) | κλέπτης | kleptēs | thief | 贼 | Low | 5:2 | The Day of the Lord | Suddenness metaphor only. |
| be sober / watchful | νήφω | nēphō | be sober-minded | 谨守 / 警醒 | Low-Medium | 5:6,8 | The Day of the Lord | Ethical alertness, standard vocabulary. |
| breastplate / helmet | θώραξ / περικεφαλαία | thōrax / perikephalaia | chest armor / helmet | 护心镜 / 头盔 | Low | 5:8 | The Day of the Lord | Positive cultural-equivalence precedent (护心镜 is authentic historical East Asian armor terminology); no collision. |
| build up one another | οἰκοδομέω | oikodomeō | build, build up | 互相建立 | Low | 5:11 | Mutual Edification | Reuses the Romans baseline’s mutual_edification concept. |
| church leadership terms | προΐστημι / νουθετέω | proistēmi / noutheteō | to lead / to admonish | 治理 / 劝戒 | Low-Medium | 5:12,14 | Church as God’s People | Ordinary church-polity vocabulary. |
| test/examine | δοκιμάζω | dokimazō | to test, examine | 察验 | Low | 5:21 | Fulfillment of Prophecy | Discernment, distinct from divination (算卦/占卜). |
| Satan / the tempter | Σατανᾶς / ὁ πειράζων | Satanas / ho peirazōn | adversary / the one who tempts | 撒但 / 那试探人的 | Low-Medium | 2:18; 3:5 | (background) | Standard transliteration; distinguish from folk ghost-appeasement concepts (鬼). |
| exhort (sense: comfort in grief) | παρακαλέω (comfort sense) | parakaleō | to call to one’s side; comfort | 劝慰 | Medium (contextual-variant flag) | 4:18; 5:11,14 | Hope in Grief | Same Greek verb as the Romans baseline’s “exhort” (劝勉) entry, but this and 5:11/5:14 require the comfort/console sense (劝慰) rather than exhort-to-duty; record both renderings in translation memory with disambiguation guidance so Phase 2 workers select correctly per occurrence. |
C. Chapters Confirmed Reviewed with No Additional New Terms
- No chapter in 1 Thessalonians introduces zero load-bearing theological vocabulary; all five chapters (1–5) contributed new or reused terms as tabulated above. This statement is recorded explicitly per the full-book-coverage mandate, confirming every chapter was reviewed rather than silently skipped.
D. Cross-Reference to Curriculum Doctrines
| Curriculum Doctrine | Primary Terms | Primary Passages |
|---|---|---|
| The Return of Christ | 降临 (parousia), 主的话, 与主相遇, 云里, 神的号/呼叫的声音 | 2:19; 3:13; 4:15-17; 5:23 |
| Resurrection of Believers | 复活, 睡了(的人), 在基督里死了的人, 被提 | 4:13-17 |
| Sanctification | 成圣, 圣洁, 灵、魂、身子, 不要消灭圣灵的感动, 淫乱/身体 | 3:13; 4:3-8; 5:19,23 |
| Hope in Grief | 盼望, 忧伤, 劝慰, 忍耐, 我们就要和主永远同在 | 1:3; 4:13,18; 5:10 |
| The Day of the Lord | 主的日子, 贼, 光明之子/属黑夜的, 忿怒, 灭亡 | 5:1-9 |
This glossary is a direct extension of, and does not contradict, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json. All Section A terms must be enforced exactly. Section B terms are proposed for addition to translation memory prior to Phase 2 translation of 1 Thessalonians, with Critical/High entries requiring theologian confirmation per the baseline escalation rules.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: 恩典
Transliteration: ēndiǎn
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: 功德, 造化, 福气, 阴德
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:1; 5:28). Even in formulaic epistolary greeting/closing, 恩典 must not soften into a fortune-wish or be read against the Buddhist merit-accounting worldview; it frames the entire letter’s comfort as unearned.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: 成圣
Transliteration: chéngshèng
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 修身, 修炼
Original: ἁγιασμός
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (4:3,4,7; 5:23). This letter is the curriculum’s densest concentration of the term, defined concretely via sexual purity (4:3-8) and climaxing in the ‘sanctify you wholly’ benediction (5:23). Every occurrence requires the standard note that this is the Spirit’s ongoing work in an already-justified believer, not self-achieved moral perfection — intensified here because the concrete behavioral command (self-control) is precisely where a self-effort misreading is most culturally plausible.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: 复活
Transliteration: fùhuó
Doctrine: Resurrection of Believers
Rejected alternatives: 轮回, 投胎, 还魂
Original: ἀνάστασις (ἀνέστη, ἀναστήσονται)
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (4:14,16). Extends from Christ’s own past resurrection (established in Romans) to the future, bodily, once-for-all resurrection of ‘the dead in Christ’ — the doctrinal hinge of the entire core passage (4:13-18). NEVER 轮回/投胎/还魂.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: zhǔ
Doctrine: Return of Christ / Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 主人, 老爷
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly throughout (1:1; 4:15-17; 5:2,9,23). 4:16’s ‘the Lord himself’ (αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος) emphasizes Christ’s own direct, unmediated action at his return — never softened toward 主人/老爷.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: 神的儿子
Transliteration: Shén de érzi
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 天子, 神人
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ (υἱὸς αὐτοῦ)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:10). Combines Sonship, resurrection, and the awaited parousia in a single verse, previewing the whole letter’s themes. NEVER 天子.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: 圣灵
Transliteration: Shènglíng
Doctrine: Sanctification / Work of the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: 祖灵, 灵
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:5,6; 4:8; 5:19). NEVER 灵 alone or 祖灵. 5:19’s CUV rendering adds ‘的感动’ so that the Spirit’s activity, not his Person, is the grammatical object of ‘do not extinguish’ — see the new quench_the_spirit entry below.
Messiah
Approved rendering: 基督
Transliteration: Jīdū
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: 弥勒, 救世主式泛称
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly throughout. Collision risk with 弥勒 (Maitreya) is sharply intensified in this curriculum because the letter’s central topic is Christ’s still-future return — exactly the point at which a Maitreya-descent framing is most tempting to import. See the new parousia entry below.
Jesus
Approved rendering: 耶稣
Transliteration: Yēsū
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly throughout, including 4:14’s foundational statement ‘Jesus died and rose again.‘
God
Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: Shén
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 上帝, 天, 老天爷
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged, Shen edition standard). Reused exactly throughout. 1:9’s ‘living and true God’ contrast with idols is this letter’s sharpest monotheistic statement; doctrinal context must make monotheism explicit given 神’s generic folk-deity usage (city gods, kitchen god).
Salvation
Approved rendering: 救恩
Transliteration: jiùēn
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 解脱, 超度, 得道
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (5:8,9). 5:9’s wrath-versus-salvation pairing restates the Romans baseline pattern: deliverance is God’s act toward the living believer in this life, not a posthumous rite or self-achieved liberation.
Parousia
Approved rendering: 降临
Transliteration: jiànglín
Doctrine: Return of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 化身, 下凡, 转世, 弥勒下生, 弥勒降世
Original: παρουσία
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The letter’s structuring theme, repeated three times (2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23). Grounded collision: Chinese Buddhist eschatology anticipates Maitreya’s future descent (弥勒下生/弥勒降世), historically the basis of real millenarian folk movements (e.g. the White Lotus Society’s ‘Maitreya’s descent to save the age’). 降临 must never be softened toward the repeatable-descent verbs already forbidden for incarnation (化身/下凡/转世) in the Romans baseline. Christ’s return is his own single, promised, historical, bodily return — not a repeatable manifestation or one of several anticipated future world-saviors. Always pair with an anchoring modifier (e.g. 主耶稣的降临) rather than leaving 降临 as a bare, generic ‘arrival’ verb. Mandatory theologian-reviewed note at every occurrence.
Rapture
Approved rendering: 被提
Transliteration: bèi tí
Doctrine: Return of Christ / Resurrection of Believers
Rejected alternatives: 羽化登仙, 升天, 天道式转生
Original: ἁρπάζω (ἁρπαγησόμεθα)
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Established CUV rendering of ἁρπαγησόμεθα (4:17). Grounded collisions: (1) Daoist 羽化登仙 (‘feathering and ascending to become an immortal’), an ascent earned through lifelong self-cultivation — opposite of a sudden, sovereign, grace-given seizure; (2) 升天 as a generic colloquial death euphemism, risking flattening into a mere synonym for dying; (3) Buddhist karma-earned rebirth into a heavenly deva-realm (天道). This is a sovereign, grace-given, corporate, bodily, sudden divine act uniting living and just-resurrected believers — never a merit-earned personal attainment. The passive construction (被) grammatically signals God as the acting agent.
Spirit Soul Body
Approved rendering: 灵、魂、身子
Transliteration: líng, hún, shēnzi
Doctrine: Sanctification / Anthropology of the Whole Person
Rejected alternatives: 单独使用的灵 (bare 灵, conflatable with 圣灵), 招魂/安魂式魂魄框架
Original: πνεῦμα, ψυχή, σῶμα
Category: Sanctification
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The whole human person that God sanctifies and keeps blameless until Christ’s coming (5:23). Two grounded collisions: (1) 灵 here denotes the human spirit, not the Holy Spirit; the Romans baseline forbids 灵 alone precisely because folk usage covers ancestral spirits, nature spirits, and ghosts — every occurrence requires an explicit disambiguating note from 圣灵. (2) 魂 is half of the traditional hún-pò dual-soul anthropology embedded in ancestor-veneration practice, where the 魂-soul can wander after death and must be ritually summoned or settled (招魂/安魂). Must be taught as one integrated person whom God himself keeps whole, never a folk-anthropological wandering soul requiring ritual management. Mandatory theologian-review flag at every occurrence, parallel to the baseline’s treatment of 灵 under holy_spirit.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: 信心
Transliteration: xìnxīn
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: 虔诚, 迷信, 信仰
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:3,8; 3:2,5-10; 4:14; 5:8). The object of faith (God’s word; Christ’s death and resurrection, explicit at 4:14) must remain recoverable from context, not generic religious devoutness (虔诚).
Holy
Approved rendering: 圣洁
Transliteration: shèngjié
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 清净, 圣人般的
Original: ἅγιος / ἁγιωσύνη
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (3:13; 4:3-7). 3:13 explicitly ties holiness to the parousia (‘blameless in holiness … at the coming of our Lord Jesus’), reinforcing the sanctification-return linkage central to this curriculum.
Saints
Approved rendering: 圣徒
Transliteration: shèngtú
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: 圣人, 高僧
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (3:13, ‘with all his saints’). Corporate designation for all ordinary believers, living and dead, accompanying Christ at his return — never the elevated, tiny-class Confucian 圣人 category.
Election
Approved rendering: 拣选
Transliteration: jiǎnxuǎn
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运, 缘分
Original: ἐκλογή
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:4). God’s personal, gracious choice grounding Paul’s opening thanksgiving, never an impersonal cosmic assignment of destiny.
Father
Approved rendering: 父
Transliteration: fù
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family / Fatherhood of God
Rejected alternatives: 祖先, 老天爷
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:1,3; 3:11,13). NEVER 祖先/老天爷; distinguish from ancestor-veneration’s inverted care-direction.
Calling
Approved rendering: 呼召
Transliteration: hūzhào
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运
Original: κλῆσις / κλητός (καλέω)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (2:12; 5:24). NEVER 天命 alone.
Called
Approved rendering: 蒙召的
Transliteration: méngzhào de
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 受命于天, 天命所归
Original: κλητός
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (4:7; 5:24, ‘he who calls you is faithful’). NEVER 天命所归.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: 神的大能
Transliteration: Shén de dà néng
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 气, 法力
Original: δύναμις (θεοῦ)
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:5, gospel ‘not only in word, but also in power’). NEVER 气/法力.
Dead In Christ
Approved rendering: 在基督里死了的人
Transliteration: zài Jīdū lǐ sǐ le de rén
Doctrine: Resurrection of Believers / Christian Identity in Christ
Rejected alternatives: 死了的人 (truncated, drops the doctrinally load-bearing ‘in Christ’ qualifier)
Original: νεκροὶ ἐν Χριστῷ
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Deceased believers whose union with Christ persists through death and who ‘will rise first’ at his return (4:16). Never truncate the phrase; a believer’s standing is secured ‘in Christ,’ not maintained or improved through family ancestor-ritual (祭祖).
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 主的日子
Transliteration: Zhǔ de rìzi
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: 末劫式框架, 治乱循环式框架
Original: ἡμέρα κυρίου
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The single, future, sudden day of divine reckoning arriving ‘like a thief in the night’ (5:2). Grounded collisions: (1) the Buddhist-Daoist 末劫, the catastrophic close of a cosmic era within an endlessly repeating cycle; (2) the cyclical dynastic-collapse-and-renewal pattern (治乱循环, flagged in the Romans baseline under fulfillment_of_prophecy). Linear and final; not a repeating feature of cosmic or historical time. Reinforce with suddenness vocabulary (忽然/突然) and a one-time-only clause rather than relying on lexical substitution alone.
Hope
Approved rendering: 盼望
Transliteration: pànwàng
Doctrine: Hope in Grief
Rejected alternatives: 希望, 缘分, 祈福
Original: ἐλπίς
Category: Faith
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Confident, certain expectation grounded in Christ’s resurrection and God’s promise (1:3; 4:13; 5:8). Must never default to 希望 (the everyday, uncertain ‘hope so’ register) nor be assimilated to folk-religious hope tied to fate-adjustment (缘分) or merit-based fortune-seeking (祈福). Anchors the Hope in Grief doctrine across the whole curriculum.
Word Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 主的话
Transliteration: Zhǔ de huà
Doctrine: Inspiration of the Word of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: 经 (jīng, classical sage-canon register)
Original: λόγος κυρίου
Category: Covenant
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Authoritative divine revelation grounding the resurrection/rapture teaching (4:15) and the gospel’s initial reception (1:8; cf. 2:13). Must be distinguished from the authority of a sage’s teaching or classical canon (经), per the Romans baseline’s inspiration_of_scripture note — revelation received from a personal God, not wisdom accumulated through sagely insight.
Idols
Approved rendering: 偶像
Transliteration: ǒuxiàng
Doctrine: Conversion from Idolatry to the Living God
Original: εἴδωλα
Category: Sin
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. False objects of worship from which the Thessalonians turned in conversion (1:9). Directly names household ancestor tablets, city-god and kitchen-god statues, and temple images integrated into many Chinese families’ domestic and social life. Requires pastoral care for the real relational/family cost of this conversion language while preserving doctrinal clarity that the true God tolerates no rival images.
Living True God
Approved rendering: 又真又活的神
Transliteration: yòu zhēn yòu huó de Shén
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεὸς ζῶν καὶ ἀληθινός
Category: God
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. God as personally active and genuinely existent, contrasted with lifeless, manufactured idols (1:9). Since 神 is also a generic noun for any deity/spirit (per the Romans baseline note), this doctrinal context must make monotheism and the living/dead contrast with idols fully explicit.
Wrath
Approved rendering: 忿怒
Transliteration: fènnù
Doctrine: Wrath and Judgment
Rejected alternatives: 报应
Original: ὀργή
Category: God
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. God’s settled, judicial anger toward sin, from which Jesus delivers believers (1:10) and to which unbelievers remain destined (2:16; 5:9). Must be taught as God’s personal, judicial response to sin — not impersonal karmic retribution (报应, already flagged under ‘sin’ in the Romans baseline) or a mechanical cosmic consequence. Always pair with 神 as grammatical subject; never leave as an unattributed impersonal force.
Sons Of Light Darkness
Approved rendering: 光明之子/白昼之子 vs. 属黑夜的/属幽暗的
Transliteration: guāngmíng zhī zǐ / báizhòu zhī zǐ — shǔ hēiyè de / shǔ yōu’àn de
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: 明教式二元论框架 (Manichaean dualism framing)
Original: υἱοὶ φωτός / ἡμέρας — υἱοὶ σκότους / νυκτός
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The moral-eschatological identity of believers as belonging to the coming Day and its light, versus the unprepared world’s darkness (5:5). Grounded collision: Chinese Manichaeism (明教, active Tang-Ming, influential on folk-religious/rebel movements) teaches a metaphysical dualism of two co-eternal opposing cosmic principles. Must be taught as a moral and covenantal identity distinction under one sovereign God, never as two equally ultimate metaphysical powers in cosmic conflict.
Quench The Spirit
Approved rendering: 不要消灭圣灵的感动
Transliteration: bùyào xiāomiè Shènglíng de gǎndòng
Doctrine: Sanctification / Work of the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: 不要消灭圣灵 (drops 的感动, implies the divine Person himself can be extinguished)
Original: πνεῦμα μὴ σβέννυτε
Category: Sanctification
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The command not to suppress the Holy Spirit’s ongoing activity and promptings (5:19). Preserve CUV’s addition of ‘的感动’ so the Spirit’s activity, not his Person, is the grammatical object of ‘do not extinguish’ — since 圣灵 (a divine Person, Critical per the Romans baseline) cannot literally be extinguished like a flame, guarding against an impersonal-force (气-like) reading. Any Phase 2 output of this verse lacking ‘的感动’ must be auto-flagged and rejected.
Always With The Lord
Approved rendering: 我们就要和主永远同在
Transliteration: wǒmen jiù yào hé Zhǔ yǒngyuǎn tóngzài
Doctrine: Hope in Grief
Rejected alternatives: any qualified or compressed rendering that softens 永远 (forever)
Original: πάντοτε σὺν κυρίῳ ἐσόμεθα
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The unqualified, permanent promise of unbroken fellowship with Christ, the climactic comfort of the core passage (4:17). Consistent with the baseline’s universality-preservation rule, 永远 must be rendered without qualification — the doctrinal capstone of Hope in Grief; lock as verbatim-required, no paraphrase permitted.
Medium Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: 福音
Transliteration: fúyīn
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: 好消息, 喜讯
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly in 1 Thessalonians (1:5; 2:2,4,8,9; 3:2). Root 福 (fortune/blessing) still risks folk-fortune association; 1:5’s pairing with power and the Holy Spirit must reinforce authoritative saving news, not persuasive rhetoric or a luck-omen.
Peace
Approved rendering: 平安
Transliteration: píng’ān
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: 安宁, 平安符式的平安
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:1; 5:3,13,23). 5:3’s ironic ‘peace and safety’ preceding sudden destruction must not collapse into the amulet-style well-being sense; this is precisely the false security the Day of the Lord doctrine exposes.
Church
Approved rendering: 教会
Transliteration: jiàohuì
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: 庙, 寺, 道观
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:1, ‘the church of the Thessalonians’). NEVER 庙/寺/道观.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: 神的国
Transliteration: Shén de guó
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: 天下, 王朝
Original: βασιλεία (τοῦ θεοῦ)
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (2:12, ‘his own kingdom and glory’). Avoid 天下/王朝.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: 外邦人
Transliteration: wàibāngrén
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: 夷人, 外国人
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (4:5, descriptive of Gentiles ‘who do not know God’). NEVER 夷人.
Glory
Approved rendering: 荣耀
Transliteration: róngyào
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 面子, 光宗耀祖
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (2:6,12,20). Avoid 面子/光宗耀祖.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: 预言
Transliteration: yùyán
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: 算卦, 占卜
Original: προφητεία
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (5:20, ‘do not despise prophecies’). Distinct from 算卦/占卜.
Sleep Death Euphemism
Approved rendering: 睡了的人
Transliteration: shuì le de rén
Doctrine: Resurrection of Believers / Hope in Grief
Rejected alternatives: 死了 (bare, loses the hope-bearing euphemistic nuance)
Original: κοιμάομαι (κοιμωμένων, κοιμηθέντας)
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The NT euphemism for the death of believers as a temporary rest of the body awaiting resurrection (4:13,14,15; 5:10). Must always use the fuller phrase, never a bare verb; must be taught as describing the body, not a claim about post-mortem consciousness, and must not be absorbed into folk beliefs of a wandering soul requiring ritual guidance (see spirit_soul_body entry).
Brotherly Love
Approved rendering: 弟兄相爱
Transliteration: dìxiōng xiāng’ài
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 结拜
Original: φιλαδελφία
Category: Church
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Love among fellow believers, described as directly taught by God (4:9). Must be distinguished from clan-based kinship obligation and from ritualized sworn-brotherhood bonding (结拜, already flagged under ‘fellowship’ in the Romans baseline) — Spirit-taught love regardless of blood or lineage.
Grief
Approved rendering: 忧伤
Transliteration: yōushāng
Doctrine: Hope in Grief
Original: λύπη (λυπῆσθε)
Category: Faith
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Sorrow at the death of fellow believers, which Paul does not forbid but distinguishes from hopeless grief (4:13). Must preserve the contrastive structure (‘grief unlike those without hope’) exactly; avoid the over-correction that Christians should feel no sorrow at death — the linchpin of the Hope in Grief doctrine.
Affliction
Approved rendering: 患难
Transliteration: huànnàn
Doctrine: Affliction and Suffering
Original: θλῖψις
Category: Faith
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. External pressure and distress accompanying gospel reception (1:6; 2:14) and appointed for believers (3:3-4). Must not be read through a 报应 (karmic retribution) lens as evidence of divine displeasure or bad fortune.
Will Of God
Approved rendering: 神的旨意
Transliteration: Shén de zhǐyì
Doctrine: Providence and the Will of God
Rejected alternatives: 天意
Original: θέλημα θεοῦ
Category: God
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. God’s personal, purposive desire for his people, applied concretely to rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks (5:18). Must be distinguished from the impersonal fatalistic 天意 (‘heaven’s intention’) of everyday speech, per the Romans baseline’s providence caution.
Destruction Labor Pains
Approved rendering: 灭亡 / 生产的疼痛
Transliteration: mièwáng / shēngchǎn de téngtòng
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: ὄλεθρος / ὠδίν
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Sudden ruin coming inescapably upon those who say ‘peace and safety,’ compared to labor pains upon a pregnant woman (5:3). 灭亡 must be kept grammatically tied to unbelief/false security as its stated cause, taught as the outcome of God’s judgment, not an impersonal cosmic disaster or karmic payback.
Meet The Lord
Approved rendering: 迎见主
Transliteration: yíng jiàn Zhǔ
Doctrine: Return of Christ
Original: ἀπάντησις (τοῦ κυρίου)
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The ceremonial welcome-procession imagery (ἀπάντησις) of believers going out to meet the arriving Lord (4:17). Should be taught with its royal-welcome background to counter any misreading of the rapture as escape from a doomed world rather than the church’s triumphant, honor-filled reception of its returning King.
Clouds
Approved rendering: 云里
Transliteration: yún lǐ
Doctrine: Return of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 乘云 (Daoist self-attained cloud-riding transcendence framing)
Original: νεφέλαι
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The visible sign of divine glory-presence in which believers are gathered at Christ’s return (4:17). Chinese art and legend commonly depict Daoist immortals (仙人) riding clouds (乘云) as a mark of self-attained transcendence; believers do not ride clouds as self-attained immortals but are gathered by God’s action into his theophanic glory-cloud.
Holy Kiss
Approved rendering: 圣洁的亲嘴问安
Transliteration: shèngjié de qīnzuǐ wèn’ān
Doctrine: Christian Greeting Customs
Original: φίλημα ἅγιον
Category: Church
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. A first-century Mediterranean greeting custom qualified as appropriate to the believing community (5:26). Cultural-practical rather than doctrinal risk: public kissing between non-family members is not customary in mainstream Chinese social contexts; flag for native-speaker cultural-adaptation review (substitute handshake, bow, or verbal greeting while explaining the custom’s meaning), not theologian review.
Trumpet Shout Of Command
Approved rendering: 神的号筒 / 呼叫的声音
Transliteration: Shén de hàotǒng / hūjiào de shēngyīn
Doctrine: Return of Christ / Resurrection of Believers
Rejected alternatives: 招魂式框架
Original: σάλπιγξ θεοῦ / κέλευσμα
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. God’s own singular eschatological signal accompanying Christ’s descent and the resurrection of the dead (4:16). Must not be assimilated to folk/Daoist soul-summoning ritual (招魂) or underworld-court judgment-summons imagery; Christ’s own sovereign, one-time signal of victory and resurrection, not a ritual specialist’s technique.
God Taught
Approved rendering: 蒙神所教
Transliteration: méng Shén suǒ jiào
Doctrine: Sanctification / Brotherly Love as God-Taught
Original: θεοδίδακτοι
Category: Sanctification
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Direct, inward instruction from God enabling brotherly love, without need of a human teacher (4:9). Contrast with the Confucian master-disciple model of oral transmission of wisdom through a sage-lineage; this love is planted directly by God, not transmitted through a human teaching lineage.
Own Vessel Body
Approved rendering: 身体
Transliteration: shēntǐ
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 妻子 (recorded as alternative considered per genuine Greek ambiguity, not adopted)
Original: σκεῦος
Category: Sanctification
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. One’s own body/self, to be possessed and controlled ‘in holiness and honor’ (4:4), following CUV’s interpretive resolution of a genuine Greek ambiguity (σκεῦος = body vs. ‘wife’). Record ‘wife’ as an alternative considered per the ambiguity-handling rule; the doctrinal point is self-mastery in holiness, not lust-driven behavior.
Endurance
Approved rendering: 忍耐
Transliteration: rěnnài
Doctrine: Hope in Grief
Original: ὑπομονή
Category: Faith
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Patient, hope-anchored perseverance, part of the letter’s faith/love/hope triad (1:3). Must be distinguished from stoic or Buddhist equanimity/detachment cultivated without reference to a personal object of hope; biblical endurance has a definite hoped-for object (Christ’s return).
Love
Approved rendering: 爱心
Transliteration: àixīn
Doctrine: Christian Love
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Faith
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Selfless love, part of the faith/love/hope triad (1:3) and named repeatedly among the community’s marks (3:6,12; 4:9; 5:8,13). Standard term; teach as distinct from transactional relational obligation or clan-loyalty love.
Sexual Immorality
Approved rendering: 淫乱
Transliteration: yínluàn
Doctrine: Sexual Purity as Sanctification
Original: πορνεία
Category: Sanctification
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Illicit sexual activity, named as the specific behavior from which sanctification requires abstention (4:3). Standard CUV term; primary risk is pastoral/cultural sensitivity for a secular-leaning audience, feeding directly into the Critical-risk sanctification doctrine.
Lustful Passion
Approved rendering: 私欲
Transliteration: sīyù
Doctrine: Sexual Purity as Sanctification
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Sanctification
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Uncontrolled sexual desire, contrasted with sanctified self-control (4:5), attributed to ‘the Gentiles who do not know God.’ Standard term contrasting with sanctified self-control.
Church Leadership
Approved rendering: 治理 / 劝戒
Transliteration: zhìlǐ / quànjiè
Doctrine: Church Order and Leadership
Original: προΐστημι / νουθετέω
Category: Church
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Ordinary church-polity vocabulary for those who lead and admonish the congregation (5:12,14). Minor risk of over-formalizing into a hierarchical civic-office register if handled carelessly.
Satan Tempter
Approved rendering: 撒但 / 那试探人的
Transliteration: Sādàn / nà shìtàn rén de
Doctrine: Spiritual Opposition
Original: Σατανᾶς / ὁ πειράζων
Category: Sin
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The personal, defeated-yet-active spiritual enemy who hindered Paul’s return visit and threatened the Thessalonians’ faith (2:18; 3:5). Standard transliteration across the Chinese Bible tradition. Should be briefly distinguished from folk concepts of malevolent wandering ghosts (鬼) appeased through ritual offering — a defeated personal enemy to resist through Christ, not a spirit to be placated.
Exhort Comfort
Approved rendering: 劝慰
Transliteration: quànwèi
Doctrine: Hope in Grief
Original: παρακαλέω (comfort sense)
Category: Faith
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Same Greek verb (παρακαλέω) as the Romans baseline’s ‘exhort’ entry (劝勉), but here the sense is decisively comfort-in-grief, not exhortation-to-duty (4:18; 5:11; 5:14 console clause). Record both renderings with explicit per-occurrence disambiguation guidance so Phase 2 workers select 劝勉 vs. 劝慰 correctly — central to the Hope in Grief doctrine, since a wrong selection at 4:18 would turn the passage’s pastoral climax into a moral exhortation.
Low Risk Terms
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: 感恩
Transliteration: gǎn’ēn
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστία (εὐχαριστεῖτε)
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (1:2; 2:13; 3:9; 5:18). No significant risk.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: 团契
Transliteration: tuánqì
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 交情, 结拜
Original: κοινωνία (concept)
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused as the background concept underlying the letter’s community instructions. Avoid 结拜 (ritualized sworn-brotherhood bonding), directly relevant to the new brotherly_love term at 4:9.
Exhort
Approved rendering: 劝勉
Transliteration: quànmiǎn
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: παρακαλέω (exhort sense)
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly for the exhort-to-duty sense of παρακαλέω (4:1,10; 5:14 admonish clause). See the new exhort_comfort entry (劝慰) below for the same Greek verb’s distinct comfort-in-grief sense at 4:18; 5:11; 5:14 console clause — disambiguate strictly by context, never default to only one rendering.
Apostle
Approved rendering: 使徒
Transliteration: shǐtú
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: 宗师, 大师
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (unchanged). Reused exactly (2:6, in contrast with seeking human glory).
Imitators
Approved rendering: 效法
Transliteration: xiàofǎ
Doctrine: Church / Discipleship
Original: μιμηταί
Category: Church
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Those who model their conduct on another, describing the Thessalonians’ patterned discipleship (1:6; 2:14). Standard vocabulary; no collision.
Thief
Approved rendering: 贼
Transliteration: zéi
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: κλέπτης
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. The image of the Day of the Lord’s sudden, unexpected arrival (5:2). Simple suddenness metaphor; no moral characterization of Christ implied.
Sober Watchful
Approved rendering: 谨守 / 警醒
Transliteration: jǐnshǒu / jǐngxǐng
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: νήφω
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Ethical alertness appropriate to those who belong to the day, contrasted with sleep and drunkenness (5:6-8). Standard vocabulary for spiritual alertness.
Armor Breastplate Helmet
Approved rendering: 护心镜 / 头盔
Transliteration: hùxīnjìng / tóukuī
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: θώραξ / περικεφαλαία
Category: Eschatology
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Protective armor imagery for faith, love, and the hope of salvation (5:8). 护心镜 is a felicitous existing CUV cultural equivalence drawn from historical East Asian chest-armor terminology, carrying no folk-religious collision — a positive precedent.
Build Up One Another
Approved rendering: 互相建立
Transliteration: hùxiāng jiànlì
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: οἰκοδομέω
Category: Church
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Mutual encouragement and strengthening among believers (5:11), reusing the concept underlying the Romans baseline’s mutual_edification doctrine.
Test Examine
Approved rendering: 察验
Transliteration: cháyàn
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: 算卦, 占卜
Original: δοκιμάζω
Category: Covenant
NEW for 1 Thessalonians. Discerning testing of prophetic claims and all things (5:21). Distinct from divination (算卦/占卜), already flagged under ‘prophecy’ in the Romans baseline.
Referenced passages