Core Glossary
08 — Core Glossary: 2 Thessalonians (Mandarin)
This glossary extends, and never contradicts, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json. Terms already pinned in the baseline are marked Reused and repeated here only for cross-reference completeness — their baseline rendering, risk tier, and rejected alternatives are authoritative and unchanged. Terms newly required by 2 Thessalonians are marked New and are proposed here for addition to the Language Package’s translation memory (pending Phase 1 Step-by-step ratification).
Risk tiers follow the baseline definitions exactly (Critical / High / Medium / Low).
A. Reused Terms (baseline rendering enforced exactly — no deviation permitted)
| English term | Greek | Mandarin | Risk | Doctrine link(s) | Key 2 Thess. refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | θεός | 神 | Critical | God’s Righteous Judgment; Man of Lawlessness (v.4) | 1:1-2; 2:4; 2:11 |
| Lord | κύριος | 主 | Critical | Day of the Lord; Man of Lawlessness | 1:1-2,7-9; 2:1-2,8,13; 3:1,3-5,16,18 |
| Jesus | Ἰησοῦς | 耶稣 | Critical | Day of the Lord | 1:1,7,8,12; 2:1,8,14,16; 3:6,12,18 |
| Christ | Χριστός | 基督 | Critical | Day of the Lord | throughout |
| Holy Spirit | πνεῦμα ἅγιον | 圣灵 | Critical | Standing Firm in the Traditions (2:13) | 2:13 |
| grace | χάρις | 恩典 | Critical | God’s Righteous Judgment; Perseverance | 1:2,12; 2:16; 3:18 |
| peace | εἰρήνη | 平安 | Medium | — | 1:2; 3:16 |
| faith | πίστις | 信心 | High | Perseverance; Man of Lawlessness (rejecting the truth) | 1:3-4,11; 2:13; 3:2 |
| church | ἐκκλησία | 教会 | Medium | — | 1:1,4 |
| glory | δόξα | 荣耀 | Medium | Day of the Lord; God’s Righteous Judgment | 1:9,12; 2:14; 3:18 (doxology, implied) |
| called/calling | καλέω / κλῆσις | 蒙召的 / 呼召 | High | Perseverance; God’s Righteous Judgment | 1:11; 2:14 |
| election | αἱρέομαι / ἐκλογή | 拣选 | High | Standing Firm in the Traditions | 2:13 |
| sanctification | ἁγιασμός | 成圣 | Critical | Standing Firm in the Traditions | 2:13 |
| righteousness | δικαιοσύνη | 义 | Critical | God’s Righteous Judgment (contrast term) | (implied contrast, 1:5-9; 2:10-12) |
| salvation | σωτηρία / σῴζω | 救恩 / 得救 | Critical | Man of Lawlessness (2:10); Day of the Lord | 2:10,13 |
| exhort/comfort | παρακαλέω | 劝勉 (exhort sense) / 安慰 (comfort sense, new context-specific note) | High | Standing Firm | 2:16-17 |
| power of God | δύναμις θεοῦ | 神的大能 | High | Man of Lawlessness — never apply to Satan’s counterfeit power (2:9) | contrast case, 2:9 |
| gospel | εὐαγγέλιον | 福音 | Medium | Man of Lawlessness (obedience to/rejection of); God’s Righteous Judgment | 1:8; 2:14 |
B. New Terms Proposed for This Curriculum
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
| English term | Greek (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Alternatives rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day of the Lord | ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου (hēmera tou kyriou) | 主的日子 | Critical | 末日 (secular “doomsday”), 末法时代 (Buddhist “age of Dharma decline”) | Must be taught as the Lord’s specific, personal, future intervention in history, not an impersonal cosmic decline or generic disaster-movie “end of the world.” |
| the (Second) Coming | παρουσία (parousia) | 降临 | Critical | 来 (used inconsistently by CUV for v.9), 转世/下凡 (already forbidden under baseline incarnation) | Same Mandarin word MUST be used for Christ’s true coming (2:1,8) and the lawless one’s counterfeit coming (2:9) to preserve Paul’s deliberate parody; vary only via added context clause, never via a different core term. |
| revealed / appearing | ἀποκαλύπτω / ἀποκάλυψις (apokalyptō / apokalypsis) | 显露 / 显现 | High | — | Word-cluster shared across the restrainer’s removal (2:6), the lawless one’s unveiling (2:3,8), and Christ’s own revelation (1:7). Keep visually consistent. |
| appearing of his coming | ἐπιφάνεια τῆς παρουσίας (epiphaneia tēs parousias) | 降临的荣光 | High | — | Compounded intensifier; must not be read as a mere repetition of 降临 but as its glorious, visible manifestation. |
| gathered together | ἐπισυναγωγή (episynagōgē) | 聚集 | Medium | — | Eschatological gathering to Christ at his parousia; distinct from ordinary 教会 assembly. |
| shaken / alarmed | σαλεύω / θροέω (saleuō / throeō) | 动心 / 惊慌 | Low | — | Emotional destabilization by false end-times claims. |
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
| English term | Greek (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Alternatives rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lawlessness | ἀνομία (anomia) | 不法 | Critical | 罪 alone (too generic; already reserved for ἁμαρτία), 失礼/违礼 (Confucian ritual-propriety failure) | Active, willful rejection of God’s own law, not mere social-etiquette breach. |
| man of lawlessness | ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἀνομίας (anthrōpos tēs anomias) | 那不法的人 | Critical | 大罪人 (historic CUV; loses lexical link to 2:7’s “mystery of lawlessness”), 反基督 (borrows Johannine “antichrist” vocabulary not present in this letter) | Recommended over CUV’s older phrase specifically to preserve the 不法 root across 2:3, 2:7, 2:8. |
| son of destruction/perdition | υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας (huios tēs apōleias) | 灭亡之子 | Critical | — | Semitic idiom naming certain final destiny, not present character alone; established CUV phrase, retained. |
| apostasy / rebellion | ἀποστασία (apostasia) | 离道反教的事 (also acceptable: 背道的事) | Critical | 叛乱/政变 (political-revolt framing, too narrow), generic “backsliding” | A definite, singular eschatological falling-away from the true faith, not vague political unrest nor casual religious lapse. |
| the restrainer | τὸ κατέχον / ὁ κατέχων (to katechon / ho katechōn) | 那拦阻的 | High | — | Mandarin’s gender-neutral 的-nominalization cannot reproduce the Greek’s neuter→masculine shift (2:6→2:7); requires supplementary theologian’s note on the possible personal referent. |
| mystery of lawlessness | μυστήριον τῆς ἀνομίας (mystērion tēs anomias) | 不法的奥秘 (recommend standardizing on 奥秘 over CUV’s 隐意) | High | 隐意 (CUV’s specific but inconsistent choice), esoteric-initiate framing | God’s plan progressively disclosed, not an ongoing secret restricted to initiates (avoid Daoist inner-alchemy 道教奥秘 resonance). |
| opposes / self-exalts | ἀντικείμενος / ὑπεραίρομαι (antikeimenos / hyperairomai) | 抵挡 / 高抬自己 | High | — | Self-deifying usurpation echoing Isaiah 14/Daniel 11; the deliberate photo-negative of Christ’s true eternal deity. |
| Satan | Σατανᾶς (Satanas) | 撒但 | Critical | 鬼 (generic folk ghost/demon, too impersonal/diffuse) | Personal, malevolent chief adversary; must not be diffused into an impersonal evil-force concept. |
| working/activity (of Satan) | ἐνέργεια (energeia) | 运行 / 作为 | Medium-High | 运动 (CUV; now reads as “exercise” or “political movement” in modern Mandarin) | Flag for modernization per requirements doc’s “modern standard Mandarin” mandate. |
| power, signs, and wonders (false) | δύναμις, σημεῖα, τέρατα ψεύδους | 异能、神迹、和一切虚假的奇事 | Critical | 神的大能 for the power term (forbidden — reserved for God’s true power) | ψεύδους (of falsehood) qualifies all three nouns collectively; translation must not narrow the falsehood-qualifier to only the last item. |
| deception | ἀπάτη (apatē) | 诡诈 | Medium | — | Active, cunning trickery. |
| falsehood/lie | ψεῦδος (pseudos) | 虚谎 / 谎言 | Medium | — | The specific counterfeit content believed by the deceived (2:11). |
| unrighteousness | ἀδικία (adikia) | 不义 | Medium | — | Deliberate structural antonym of baseline’s 义; pair explicitly in teaching. |
| truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | 真理 | High | — | Anchor concretely to the gospel/person of Christ; avoid abstract secular or Daoist/Buddhist ultimate-reality readings (真如, 道). |
| delusion / error | πλάνη (planē), esp. ἐνέργεια πλάνης | 迷惑的作为 (recommend over CUV’s 生发错误的心) | High | 错误/错谬 alone (reads as a neutral, non-judicial “mistake”) | Judicial hardening sent by God as an act of righteous judgment; connect explicitly to Romans 1:24-28’s “God gave them over.” |
| perishing | ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi) | 灭亡的人 | High | — | Keep 灭亡 root consistent with 灭亡之子 (2:3) to preserve the lexical link. |
| temple | ναός (naos) | 殿 | Medium | — | Referent (physical/spiritual) is an exegetical question for theologian review, not primarily a lexical risk. |
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
| English term | Greek (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Alternatives rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God’s righteous judgment | δικαία κρίσις τοῦ θεοῦ (dikaia krisis tou theou) | 神公义的判断 | Critical | — | Names the doctrine directly (1:5); introduces 公义 distinct from baseline’s bare 义. |
| righteous (of God’s action) | δίκαιος (dikaios) | 公义 | Critical | 义 alone (reserved by baseline for forensic imputed righteousness) | Must never be substituted for the baseline’s justification-context 义, and vice versa; both flow from God’s one character but serve distinct doctrinal functions. |
| judgment / judge | κρίσις / κρίνω (krisis / krinō) | 判断 / 审判 / 被定罪 | High | — | 2:12’s κριθῶσιν names the judicial outcome of rejecting the truth. |
| vengeance / repay | ἐκδίκησις / ἀνταποδίδωμι (ekdikēsis / antapodidōmi) | 报应 | Critical | 天谴 (impersonal “heaven’s condemnation”), silence/omission | CUV precedent (also Rom 12:19) uses 报应 for God’s own personal act of just repayment — this directly collides with the baseline’s rejection of 报应 as Buddhist/folk karmic retribution under the sin entry. Requires a mandatory clarifying note on every occurrence: God’s repayment is personal and willed by a Judge, not an impersonal self-balancing cosmic ledger. |
| eternal destruction | ὄλεθρος αἰώνιος (olethros aiōnios) | 永远沉沦 | Critical | 轮回受苦 (rebirth-cycle suffering) | 沉沦 overlaps with the Buddhist idiom 苦海沉沦 (“sinking in the sea of suffering,” samsaric); must be taught as final, once-for-all exclusion from God’s presence, not an ongoing cyclical suffering-state. |
| penalty / punishment | δίκη (dikē) | 刑罚 | Medium | — | Explicitly judicial/legal framing; usefully avoids the karma-retribution risk of 报应 and may be paired with it in teaching. |
| condemned | κατακρίνω / κριθῶσι (katakrinō) | 被定罪 | High | — | See κρίσις above. |
| worthy (of calling) | ἀξιόω (axioō) | 配得 | High | — | God’s enabling gift of worthiness, not self-earned merit; ties directly to Grace doctrine’s anti-merit polemic already established in the baseline. |
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
| English term | Greek (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Alternatives rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| endurance / perseverance | ὑπομονή (hypomonē) | 忍耐 | High | 忍辱 (Buddhist “patience perfection,” one of the Six Pāramitās, a self-cultivated merit-earning virtue) | Must be taught as Spirit-sustained, hope-grounded perseverance flowing from grace, not a self-cultivated virtue accumulating merit toward liberation. |
| affliction / tribulation | θλῖψις (thlipsis) | 患难 | Medium | — | External hardship. |
| persecution | διωγμός (diōgmos) | 逼迫 | Low-Medium | — | Faith-motivated hostile pursuit, distinct from general θλῖψις. |
| deliver / rescue | ῥύομαι (rhyomai) | 脱离 | Medium | — | Safe for deliverance-from-persecution contexts; do not extend metaphor toward a “liberation from suffering-cycle” soteriological register. |
| guard / protect | φυλάσσω (phylassō) | 保护 | Low | — | Protective keeping “from the evil one.” |
| faithful (of the Lord) | πιστός (pistos) | 可信的 | Low | — | Reliability grounding assurance; same word-family as 信心. |
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
| English term | Greek (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Alternatives rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tradition | παράδοσις (paradosis) | 传统 | Critical | 教训 (CUV; loses “handed-down” nuance, risks colloquial “reprimand” misreading), 民间传统 framing | Every occurrence requires a Critical-tier note: this is authoritative apostolic teaching received from Paul, transmitted orally or in writing — not inherited ancestral custom, folk-religious practice, or generic cultural heritage. Fuller gloss option: 使徒的教导. |
| stand firm | στήκω (stēkō) | 站立得稳 | Medium | — | Firm, resolute posture; low collision risk itself but distinguish from Daoist/Buddhist meditative inner-stillness (定/如如不动) achieved through self-cultivation — biblical standing firm is grounded in received, revealed apostolic content, not internally cultivated equanimity. |
| hold fast | κρατέω (krateō) | 坚守 | High | — | Active, resolute retention of received teaching against pressure to abandon it. |
| establish / strengthen | στηρίζω (stērizō) | 坚固 | Medium | — | God’s own strengthening action toward believers’ hearts. |
| command / instruct | παραγγέλλω (paraggellō) | 吩咐 | Medium | — | Authoritative apostolic directive, appropriate register for church-discipline instruction. |
| disorderly / idle | ἀτάκτως (ataktōs) | 不按规矩而行 | Medium | 缺乏礼节 (Confucian ritual-propriety framing) | Specifically describes refusal to work while awaiting the Day of the Lord — directly links ch.3 ethics back to ch.2 eschatology; not a generic breach of social etiquette. |
| work / labor | ἐργάζομαι (ergazomai) | 做工 | Low | — | Ordinary daily labor, the positive counter-instruction to idleness. |
| busybody | περιεργάζομαι (periergazomai) | 专管闲事 | Low | — | Idiomatic; low doctrinal risk. |
| imitate | μιμέομαι (mimeomai) | 效法 | Medium | — | Guard against a Confucian sage-emulation/self-cultivation reading; this is imitation of a Spirit-empowered, gospel-shaped pattern of life. |
| admonish | νουθετέω (noutheteō) | 劝戒 | Low-Medium | — | Reuses the 劝 root already established in baseline’s 劝勉 (exhort); restorative, not punitive. |
| ashamed | ἐντρέπω (entrepō) | 羞愧 | Medium | — | Restorative inward shame producing repentance; distinguish from social face-loss (面子) dynamics flagged elsewhere in the baseline. |
C. Terms of Note — Low Doctrinal Risk, Included for Completeness
| English term | Greek (translit.) | Mandarin | Risk | Doctrine link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| brothers | ἀδελφοί (adelphoi) | 弟兄 | Low | Fellowship (Romans-family term) | Standard address; family-of-faith, not clan kinship. |
| angels | ἄγγελος (angelos) | 天使 | Low | Day of the Lord | Accompany Christ’s glorious return (1:7); no significant folk-religion collision in established usage. |
| remember | μνημονεύω (mnēmoneuō) | 记得 | Low | Standing Firm (thematic lead-in) | First appeal to Paul’s prior oral teaching (2:5), anticipating the 传统/traditions theme. |
| deceive | ἐξαπατάω (exapataō) | 迷惑 | Medium | Man of Lawlessness | Prefer 迷惑 (doctrinal deception) over 诱惑 (moral temptation) for 2:3. |
| destroy / bring to nothing | ἀναιρέω / καταργέω | 灭绝 / 废弃 | Medium | Man of Lawlessness | Christ’s decisive, effortless destruction of the lawless one (2:8). |
| appointed time | καιρός (kairos) | 时候 | Low-Medium | Providence (Romans-family doctrine) | God’s sovereign timetable governing even the lawless one’s emergence. |
| send | πέμπω (pempō) | 差(遣) / 给 | Medium | God’s Righteous Judgment | God’s active, judicial sending of delusion (2:11). |
| believe the lie | πιστεύω τῷ ψεύδει | 信从虚谎 | Medium | Man of Lawlessness | Tragic outcome of judicial hardening. |
| took pleasure in | εὐδοκέω (eudokeō) | 喜爱 | Medium | God’s Righteous Judgment | Preserves active moral responsibility alongside judicial hardening (2:12). |
Coverage Statement
All three chapters of 2 Thessalonians have been surveyed for load-bearing theological vocabulary:
- Chapter 1: fully covered — God’s Righteous Judgment, Perseverance under Persecution.
- Chapter 2: fully covered — vv.1-12 (core passage, verse-by-verse in
07_semantic_analysis.md), vv.13-17 (Standing Firm in the Traditions introduced). - Chapter 3: fully covered — Standing Firm in the Traditions (second occurrence), practical/ethical vocabulary tied back to Day-of-the-Lord teaching.
No chapter of the book was silently omitted.
Critical Risk Terms
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. CRITICAL: this Language Package standardizes on 神 (神版) rather than 上帝, and never 天/老天爷 (impersonal Heaven). In 2 Thessalonians, monotheism and personal governance must remain explicit in the judgment passages (1:5-10) and in 2:4, where the man of lawlessness falsely ‘displays himself as God’ — the contrast depends on 神 naming the one true, personal God, not a generic deity-slot the lawless one could occupy.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: zhǔ
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 主人, 老爷
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 Thessalonians, 主 anchors 主的日子 (the Day of the Lord) and every parousia reference (2:1,8; 3:1,3-5,16,18); must never soften toward 主人 (ordinary master) or 老爷 (feudal honorific).
Jesus
Approved rendering: 耶稣
Transliteration: Yēsū
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; established CUV form, unchanged throughout 2 Thessalonians (1:1,7,8,12; 2:1,8,14,16; 3:6,12,18).
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. In 2 Thessalonians, consistently paired with 主耶稣/主耶稣基督 as the title of the one whose 降临 (coming) is expected; must never be conflated with 弥勒 (Maitreya), which becomes a live risk precisely because this letter discusses a future, singular eschatological event.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: 圣灵
Transliteration: Shènglíng
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 祖灵, 灵
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 圣灵 is the agent of sanctification grounding election. CRITICAL EXTENSION for this letter: the false, claimed prophetic ‘spirit’ of 2:2 (a spurious claim that the Day of the Lord has already come) must be rendered plainly as a claimed utterance/message (e.g. 灵的指示, in a clause that does not use the bare character 灵 to suggest the Holy Spirit himself), and must NEVER be rendered as or confused with 圣灵 — the Holy Spirit did not authorize that false claim.
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. Opens and closes every chapter of 2 Thessalonians (1:2,12; 2:16; 3:18) as the ground of blessing and endurance; never 功德/阴德, per baseline.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: 成圣
Transliteration: chéngshèng
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 修身, 修炼
Original: ἁγιασμός
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. 2 Thessalonians 2:13, ‘sanctification of/by the Spirit’ — never presented as self-achieved sage-cultivation (cf. baseline’s Neo-Confucian self-cultivation caution).
Righteousness
Approved rendering: 义
Transliteration: yì
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 道德, 善行
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 Thessalonians, 义 functions primarily as the implied contrast term to ἀδικία/不义 (2:10,12), describing those who reject the truth. CRITICAL EXTENSION for this letter: 义 must be kept functionally distinct from the newly introduced 公义 (God’s own just governing/judging character, see righteous_of_god below) — 义 is forensic right standing credited to a believer by faith; 公义 is God’s just character and action in ruling and judging the world. Never substitute one for the other.
Salvation
Approved rendering: 救恩 / 得救
Transliteration: jiùēn / dé jiù
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 解脱, 超度, 得道
Original: σωτηρία / σῴζω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. 2 Thessalonians 2:10,13 — deliverance through belief in the truth, contrasted with the judgment of those who reject it; the verb form 得救 must equally avoid 解脱/超度 framings.
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: 主的日子
Transliteration: zhǔ de rìzi
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: 末日, 末法时代, 世界末日
Original: ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. NEVER use 末日/世界末日 (secular disaster-film ‘doomsday’, also the standard Mandarin rendering of the Islamic Last Day, creating unwanted comparative-religion crosstalk) or 末法时代 (Buddhist eschatological gradual Dharma-decline, an impersonal cosmic-decline narrative). Must be taught as the Lord’s specific, personal, future intervention in history (2 Thess 1:7,10; 2:1-2), not an impersonal cosmic winding-down. First occurrence per lesson should carry a brief clarifying gloss distinguishing it from 末日.
Parousia
Approved rendering: 降临
Transliteration: jiànglín
Doctrine: The True and Counterfeit Coming (Parousia)
Rejected alternatives: 来 (inconsistent CUV variant for 2:9), 转世, 下凡
Original: παρουσία
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. The SAME Mandarin rendering (降临) MUST be used for both Christ’s true coming (2:1,8) and the lawless one’s counterfeit coming (2:9) to preserve Paul’s deliberate literary parody; varying the term — as CUV itself does by shifting to 来 for v.9 — destroys this parallel and could make the counterfeit event read as a lesser but still legitimate divine happening. Distinguish the counterfeit instance only via a surrounding contextual clause (e.g. ‘那不法的人的降临，是照撒但的运行’), never by substituting a different core verb. Never 转世/下凡 (already forbidden under baseline incarnation).
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: 不法
Transliteration: bùfǎ
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: 规矩 (social-rule infraction), 失礼, 违礼 (Confucian ritual-propriety failure)
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. Active, willful rejection of God’s own law (2 Thess 2:3,7-8), the defining moral-spiritual character of the end-time rebellion and its embodiment. Never rendered with a term implying only social-etiquette breach.
Man Of Lawlessness
Approved rendering: 那不法的人
Transliteration: nà bùfǎ de rén
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: 大罪人 (older CUV; loses lexical link to 2:7), 反基督 (imports Johannine antichrist vocabulary absent from this letter)
Original: ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἀνομίας / ὁ ἄνομος
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. Preserves the 不法 root across 2:3, 2:7 (‘mystery of lawlessness’), and 2:8 (‘the lawless one’/ὁ ἄνομος uses the same phrase). A specific, future, singular human figure, destroyed by Christ at his coming; must never be historically pinned to any past or present ruler, nor mapped onto a specific contemporary political figure or movement.
Son Of Destruction
Approved rendering: 灭亡之子
Transliteration: mièwáng zhī zǐ
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum, established CUV phrase retained. Semitic idiom naming the man of lawlessness’s certain final destiny (2 Thess 2:3), not merely present wickedness. Keep the 灭亡 root consistent with 2:10’s ‘those who are perishing’ (灭亡的人) to preserve the lexical link.
Apostasy
Approved rendering: 离道反教的事
Transliteration: lídào fǎnjiào de shì
Doctrine: The Apostasy / The Falling Away
Rejected alternatives: 叛乱 / 政变 (political-revolt framing), 背道的事 (acceptable secondary alternative, not rejected but noted as modern-register option)
Original: ἀποστασία
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. A definite, singular, end-time falling-away from the true faith preceding the man of lawlessness’s revealing (2 Thess 2:3). Avoid 叛乱/政变, which risks resonance with Chinese dynastic-rebellion narratives and the cyclical order-chaos-order historiographical pattern already flagged in the baseline’s fulfillment_of_prophecy entry. 背道的事 is an acceptable modern-register alternative to 离道反教的事, not a rejected term.
Satan
Approved rendering: 撒但
Transliteration: Sādàn
Doctrine: Satan’s Counterfeit Power, Signs, and Wonders
Rejected alternatives: 鬼 (generic folk ghost/demon)
Original: Σατανᾶς
Category: Spiritual Warfare
New term for this curriculum, standard Chinese Christian transliteration. The personal, malevolent chief adversary empowering the lawless one’s deceptive display (2 Thess 2:9). Must remain a proper name for a personal being; must not be diffused into an impersonal ‘evil influence’ or folk-demon framing (鬼), which would flatten the specific spiritual-warfare theology of this verse.
False Power Signs Wonders
Approved rendering: 异能、神迹、和一切虚假的奇事
Transliteration: yìnéng, shénjī, hé yíqiè xūjiǎ de qíshì
Doctrine: Satan’s Counterfeit Power, Signs, and Wonders
Rejected alternatives: 神的大能 (for the power component — forbidden, reserved for God’s true power)
Original: δύναμις, σημεῖα, τέρατα ψεύδους
Category: Spiritual Warfare
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 — ψεύδους (of falsehood) grammatically qualifies ALL THREE nouns collectively, not merely the last; translation must make this explicit via 一切虚假的 governing the whole triad, not narrow the falsehood-qualifier to only ‘wonders’. NEVER render the δύναμις component with 神的大能 (reserved for God’s true salvific power, Romans 1:16); use 异能 to preserve the divine/demonic distinction even though the underlying Greek noun is identical.
Gods Righteous Judgment
Approved rendering: 神公义的判断
Transliteration: Shén gōngyì de pànduàn
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: δικαία κρίσις τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum, names the doctrine directly (2 Thess 1:5). Introduces 公义 as distinct from the baseline’s bare 义 (forensic imputed righteousness) — see righteous_of_god below.
Righteous Of God
Approved rendering: 公义
Transliteration: gōngyì
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Rejected alternatives: 义 alone (reserved by baseline for forensic imputed righteousness)
Original: δίκαιος
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. God’s just, fair governing/judging character, evidenced in his repayment of affliction to persecutors and vindication of the persecuted (2 Thess 1:5-6). Must never be substituted for the baseline’s justification-context 义, and vice versa; both flow from the same divine character but serve functionally distinct doctrinal roles. Every co-occurrence of 义 and 公义 in a lesson requires an explicit distinguishing clause.
Vengeance Repay
Approved rendering: 报应
Transliteration: bàoyìng
Doctrine: God’s Just Repayment (Vengeance) on Persecutors
Rejected alternatives: 天谴 (impersonal ‘heaven’s condemnation’), silence/omission
Original: ἀνταποδίδωμι / ἐκδίκησις
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum, CUV precedent (also Romans 12:19, within this curriculum family). HIGHEST-TENSION TERM IN THIS PACKAGE: CUV renders both ἀνταποδίδωμι (2 Thess 1:6) and ἐκδίκησις (1:8) with 报应, the very term the Romans baseline explicitly rejects under its sin entry for carrying Buddhist/folk connotations of impersonal karmic retribution across a person’s fortune or lineage. Retained here for CUV/Romans 12:19 continuity, but requires a MANDATORY clarifying note at every occurrence without exception: God’s repayment is the personal, willed act of a personal Judge repaying according to what people have actually done in response to the gospel — not an impersonal cosmic ledger that self-balances irrespective of a personal Judge’s will. 刑罚 (see penalty below) may be paired alongside it in teaching to reinforce the judicial, non-karmic frame.
Eternal Destruction
Approved rendering: 永远沉沦
Transliteration: yǒngyuǎn chénlún
Doctrine: Eternal Destruction
Rejected alternatives: 轮回受苦 (rebirth-cycle suffering)
Original: ὄλεθρος αἰώνιος
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 1:9 — final, everlasting exclusion from the presence of the Lord. 沉沦 overlaps with the common Chinese Buddhist idiom 苦海沉沦 (‘sinking in the sea of suffering’), an ongoing, cyclical samsaric image with the possibility of future escape or rebirth; must be taught as a final, once-for-all exclusion from God’s presence, not an ongoing cyclical suffering-state.
Tradition
Approved rendering: 传统
Transliteration: chuántǒng
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Rejected alternatives: 教训 (CUV; contemporary colloquial drift toward ‘a scolding/reprimand’), 遗训 / 祖训 (ancestor-instruction register; risks assimilating apostolic teaching into ancestor-veneration categories)
Original: παράδοσις
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum, names the fifth core doctrine directly. 传统 risks collision with Confucian ancestral/ritual tradition (传统礼教), generic Chinese folk-religious tradition (民间传统信仰), and secular cultural-heritage usage — any of which would dilute Paul’s specific claim to personal apostolic authority behind the content transmitted (2 Thess 2:15; 3:6). MANDATORY clarifying note at every occurrence: this is authoritative apostolic teaching received from Paul and the apostles, transmitted orally or in writing, not inherited ancestral custom or generic cultural heritage. Fuller gloss option, mandated at first occurrence per lesson unit: 使徒的教导 (‘apostolic teaching’).
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. In 2 Thessalonians, faith is trust in Christ and in the gospel truth specifically (1:3-4,11; 2:13; 3:2); the object (the truth, the gospel) must remain explicit, and functions as the safeguard against being deceived about the Day of the Lord (2:2-3) — those who reject this object of faith are the ones judicially hardened (2:10-12).
Called
Approved rendering: 蒙召的
Transliteration: méngzhào de
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 受命于天, 天命所归
Original: κλητός / καλέω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 Thessalonians 1:11 and 2:14, God’s personal summons to salvation and glory; never 天命所归.
Calling
Approved rendering: 呼召
Transliteration: hūzhào
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. 2 Thessalonians 1:11 ties 呼召 directly to 配得 (worthy) — a gift God grants, not a cosmic mandate; never 天命/命运.
Election
Approved rendering: 拣选
Transliteration: jiǎnxuǎn
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运, 缘分
Original: αἱρέομαι / ἐκλογή
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 — ‘God chose you from the beginning’ grounds assurance amid persecution and end-time deception; never 缘分/命运/天命.
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. CRITICAL EXTENSION for this letter: 神的大能 must NEVER be applied to the lawless one’s counterfeit δύναμις in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 — see false_power_signs_wonders below, which uses 异能 instead to preserve the divine/demonic distinction even though the underlying Greek noun is identical.
Father
Approved rendering: 父
Transliteration: fù
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: 祖先, 老天爷
Inherited from Romans package. 2 Thessalonians 1:1-2 and 2:16 address God as ‘our Father’; never 祖先 (ancestors) or 老天爷 (impersonal colloquial Heaven).
Saints
Approved rendering: 圣徒
Transliteration: shèngtú
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: 圣人, 高僧
Inherited from Romans package. 2 Thessalonians 1:10 — Christ ‘glorified in his saints’; never 圣人 (Confucian sage category) or 高僧 (eminent Buddhist monk).
Epiphaneia Of Parousia
Approved rendering: 降临的荣光
Transliteration: jiànglín de róngguāng
Doctrine: The True and Counterfeit Coming (Parousia)
Original: ἐπιφάνεια τῆς παρουσίας
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:8, doubled compound (ἐπιφάνεια τῆς παρουσίας) intensifying παρουσία — must be read as an intensification of 降临 (making it gloriously, undeniably visible), not a mere synonym-repetition; contrasts with the lawless one’s deceptive, non-glorious counterfeit coming (2:9).
Revealed Appearing
Approved rendering: 显露 / 显现
Transliteration: xiǎnlù / xiǎnxiàn
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: ἀποκαλύπτω / ἀποκάλυψις
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. Word-cluster shared across the lawless one’s unveiling (2:3,8), the restrainer’s removal (2:6-7), and Christ’s own revelation (1:7). Keep visually consistent across all three referents. Reserve strictly for the disclosure of what God has determined and is already true, not a deity’s optional, repeatable self-manifestation (cf. baseline’s 化身/下凡 fence under incarnation).
Restrainer
Approved rendering: 那拦阻的
Transliteration: nà lánzǔ de
Doctrine: The Restrainer Holding Back Lawlessness
Original: τὸ κατέχον / ὁ κατέχων
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. Mandarin’s gender-neutral 的-nominalization cannot reproduce the Greek’s neuter-to-masculine shift between τὸ κατέχον (2:6) and ὁ κατέχων (2:7), a grammatical clue many interpreters treat as significant for identifying a personal restraining agent (candidates: the Holy Spirit, an angel, civil government, apostolic proclamation). No lexical fix exists; requires a mandatory supplementary theologian’s note rather than an in-text resolution. The translation itself must remain as non-committal as the source — never insert a specific identification into the rendered text.
Mystery Of Lawlessness
Approved rendering: 不法的奥秘
Transliteration: bùfǎ de àomì
Doctrine: The Mystery of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: 隐意 (CUV’s inconsistent 2 Thess-specific rendering)
Original: μυστήριον τῆς ἀνομίας
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. Recommend standardizing on 奥秘 across the curriculum rather than CUV’s inconsistent 隐意. 奥秘 also appears in Daoist esoteric/inner-alchemy contexts (道教奥秘) implying restricted, initiate-only knowledge; must be taught as God’s redemptive plan progressively disclosed in history, with lawlessness already secretly operative (2 Thess 2:7) before its public unveiling — never an ongoing secret accessible only through special spiritual practice or technique.
Opposes Self Exalts
Approved rendering: 抵挡 / 高抬自己
Transliteration: dǐdǎng / gāotái zìjǐ
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: ἀντικείμενος / ὑπεραίρομαι
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 — active hostility to God and self-exalting usurpation of divine worship, echoing Isaiah 14/Daniel 11. This figure is the deliberate photo-negative of Christ’s true, eternal deity already distinguished in the baseline’s deity_of_christ/sonship_of_christ doctrines from the Chinese emperor’s Mandate-of-Heaven-derived quasi-divine status; teach as a future, singular eschatological figure, not merely another instance of historical emperor-worship.
Energeia Working
Approved rendering: 运行 / 作为
Transliteration: yùnxíng / zuòwéi
Doctrine: Satan’s Counterfeit Power, Signs, and Wonders
Rejected alternatives: 运动 (CUV; has drifted in modern Mandarin to mean ‘exercise’ or ‘(political/social) movement’)
Original: ἐνέργεια
Category: Spiritual Warfare
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 — Satan’s active, effectual empowerment of the lawless one’s deceptive display. CUV’s 运动 risks reading as ‘Satan’s exercise routine’ or ‘Satan’s movement’ to a contemporary reader; use 运行 or 作为 for this modern-register curriculum instead.
Truth
Approved rendering: 真理
Transliteration: zhēnlǐ
Doctrine: Faith
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum. The gospel truth, embodied in Christ, whose rejection (2 Thess 2:10) leaves a person vulnerable to Satan’s lie. 真理 is heavily used in secular/scientific/philosophical Mandarin registers as abstract propositional truth; must be anchored concretely to the revealed gospel and the person of Christ, not merely ‘correct information’ nor an impersonal Daoist/Buddhist ultimate-reality notion (真如, 道).
Belief In The Truth
Approved rendering: 信真理的心
Transliteration: xìn zhēnlǐ de xīn
Doctrine: Assurance through Election and Sanctification
Original: πίστις ἀληθείας
Category: Faith
New term for this curriculum, combining established 信心-root and 真理. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 — trust placed specifically in the gospel truth, the positive counterpart to those who rejected it in 2:10-12.
Delusion
Approved rendering: 迷惑的作为
Transliteration: míhuò de zuòwéi
Doctrine: God’s Judicial Hardening of Those Who Reject the Truth
Rejected alternatives: 生发错误的心 (CUV; reads as an internally-arising cognitive fault, opposite of the text’s claim), 错误 / 错谬 alone (reads as a neutral, non-judicial ‘mistake’)
Original: ἐνέργεια πλάνης
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 — God’s active, judicially-sent deluding influence on those who rejected the truth, as an act of righteous judgment. Must keep grammatical agency with the sender (God), not the deceived person’s own cognitive failure. Connect explicitly to Romans 1:24-28’s ‘God gave them over’ pattern already established in the baseline Romans curriculum. Treat as a Critical-tier enforcement item in Phase 2 validation, parallel to the baseline’s forbidden-substitution list.
Perishing
Approved rendering: 灭亡的人
Transliteration: mièwáng de rén
Doctrine: God’s Judicial Hardening of Those Who Reject the Truth
Original: ἀπόλλυμι
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:10 — the ongoing state of those heading toward final ruin, sharing the same root as the man of lawlessness’s own destiny (2:3, 灭亡之子). Keep the 灭亡 root consistent to preserve the lexical link.
Judgment Krisis
Approved rendering: 判断 / 审判 / 被定罪
Transliteration: pànduàn / shěnpàn / bèi dìngzuì
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: κρίσις / κρίνω
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:12’s κριθῶσιν names the judicial outcome of rejecting the truth; connects directly to 1:5’s δικαία κρίσις. See also the separate condemned entry for 被定罪 specifically.
Condemned
Approved rendering: 被定罪
Transliteration: bèi dìngzuì
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: κατακρίνω / κριθῶσι
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:12 — the judicial outcome of rejecting the truth; central to the God’s Righteous Judgment doctrine.
Worthy
Approved rendering: 配得
Transliteration: pèidé
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: ἀξιόω
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 1:11 — God’s act of enabling worthiness of his calling, not human self-earned merit; ties directly to the baseline Grace doctrine’s anti-merit polemic (功德/阴德 already rejected).
Endurance
Approved rendering: 忍耐
Transliteration: rěnnài
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
Rejected alternatives: 忍辱 (Buddhist ‘perfection of patience’, one of the Six Pāramitās, a self-cultivated merit-earning virtue)
Original: ὑπομονή
Category: Perseverance
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 1:4 — active, hope-sustained perseverance under affliction and persecution, grounded in the hope of Christ’s return; must not be conflated with 忍辱. Every occurrence should be syntactically bound to its source (e.g. 神所赐的忍耐) or its object of hope (因盼望主再来而有的忍耐), never left as an isolated, source-unspecified virtue-noun.
Hold Fast
Approved rendering: 坚守
Transliteration: jiānshǒu
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: κρατέω
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 — active, resolute retention of the received apostolic traditions against pressure to abandon them; core term for the Standing Firm doctrine.
Comfort Parakaleo
Approved rendering: 安慰
Transliteration: ānwèi
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Rejected alternatives: 劝勉 (reserved for the exhort/urge sense; would blunt the pastoral warmth intended here)
New term for this curriculum, a context-specific sense of παρακαλέω distinct from the baseline’s 劝勉. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 — ‘eternal comfort and good hope’ — leans toward the comfort sense rather than the exhort sense already pinned in the baseline. Risk elevated to High specifically because misapplying the exhort-only rendering 劝勉 to this passage would blunt the pastoral warmth Paul intends immediately after describing the horror of the man of lawlessness. Never substitute 劝勉 here; never substitute 安慰 for genuine exhort-sense occurrences of παρακαλέω elsewhere in the letter.
Medium Risk Terms
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. Appears in the letter’s opening and closing greetings (1:2; 3:16); clarify as relational peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, not a generic well-wishing or amulet-style blessing.
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. The Thessalonian congregation addressed ‘in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’ (1:1,4); never 庙/寺/道观.
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. Christ’s radiant divine honor, shared with believers (1:9,12; 2:14); never 面子 (social face) or 光宗耀祖 (ancestral honor). Keep visually distinct from the new compound 降临的荣光 (2:8), which intensifies 降临 rather than merely repeating 荣耀.
Gospel
Approved rendering: 福音
Transliteration: fúyīn
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: 好消息, 喜讯
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. In 2 Thessalonians, obeyed or disobeyed (1:8) and the means of glory-sharing (2:14).
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: 神的国
Transliteration: Shén de guó
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: 天下, 王朝
Inherited from Romans package. 2 Thessalonians 1:5 — believers suffer ‘for the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering’; never 天下 (this-worldly unified realm) or 王朝 (dynasty).
Gathered Together
Approved rendering: 聚集
Transliteration: jùjí
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: ἐπισυναγωγή
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:1, the end-time gathering of all believers to Christ at his parousia; must be distinguished in teaching from routine 教会 assembly — this is a unique, one-time eschatological event.
Unrighteousness
Approved rendering: 不义
Transliteration: bùyì
Doctrine: God’s Judicial Hardening of Those Who Reject the Truth
Original: ἀδικία
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. Deliberate structural antonym-pairing with the baseline’s Critical term 义 (righteousness); teaching should explicitly pair 不义 with 义 (2 Thess 2:10,12) to reinforce the justification-doctrine contrast already trained in the Romans curriculum.
Deception
Approved rendering: 诡诈
Transliteration: guǐzhà
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: ἀπάτη
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:10, active cunning deception instrumental to the lawless one’s work against those who reject the truth.
Falsehood
Approved rendering: 虚谎 / 谎言
Transliteration: xūhuǎng / huǎngyán
Doctrine: God’s Judicial Hardening of Those Who Reject the Truth
Original: ψεῦδος
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:11, the specific counterfeit content believed by the judicially hardened.
Temple
Approved rendering: 殿
Transliteration: diàn
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Original: ναός
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum, established Chinese Bible usage. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 — the sanctuary in which the lawless one enthrones himself. The referent (physical rebuilt Jerusalem temple vs. the church as God’s temple vs. symbolic) is primarily an exegetical question for theologian review, not a lexical translation risk.
Penalty
Approved rendering: 刑罚
Transliteration: xíngfá
Doctrine: God’s Righteous Judgment
Original: δίκη
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 1:9 — the judicial/legal punishment itself, framed in explicitly legal terms. Usefully avoids the karma-retribution risk of 报应 and may be paired with it in teaching to sharpen the personal/impersonal distinction.
Affliction
Approved rendering: 患难
Transliteration: huànnàn
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
Original: θλῖψις
Category: Perseverance
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 1:4,6 — external hardships the church is enduring.
Persecution
Approved rendering: 逼迫
Transliteration: bīpò
Doctrine: Perseverance under Persecution
Original: διωγμός
Category: Perseverance
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 1:4 — active, faith-motivated hostile pursuit/harassment, distinct from generalized 患难.
Deliver Rescue
Approved rendering: 脱离
Transliteration: tuōlí
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness and Protection of the Persecuted
Original: ῥύομαι
Category: Perseverance
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:2 — deliverance from wicked and evil men. Safe for deliverance-from-persecution contexts, but must not be extended by loose metaphorical drift toward a soteriological ‘liberation from a suffering-cycle’ register, a caution the baseline already applies around 解脱 under salvation (though 脱离 itself is not forbidden).
Stand Firm
Approved rendering: 站立得稳
Transliteration: zhànlì dé wěn
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: στήκω
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 — the specific imperative launching the traditions instruction. Distinguish from Daoist/Buddhist meditative inner-stillness (定/如如不动) achieved through self-cultivation; biblical standing firm is grounded in received, revealed apostolic content, not internally cultivated equanimity.
Establish Strengthen
Approved rendering: 坚固
Transliteration: jiāngù
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: στηρίζω
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:17 — God’s own strengthening action toward believers’ hearts in every good work and word.
Command Instruct
Approved rendering: 吩咐
Transliteration: fēnfù
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: παραγγέλλω
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:4,6,10,12 — Paul’s repeated authoritative apostolic directives regarding conduct.
Disorderly Idle
Approved rendering: 不按规矩而行
Transliteration: bù àn guījǔ ér xíng
Doctrine: Church Discipline toward the Idle/Disorderly
Rejected alternatives: 缺乏礼节 (Confucian ritual-propriety framing)
Original: ἀτάκτως
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:6,7,11 — refusal to work while claiming to await the Day of the Lord, directly linking chapter 3’s practical ethics back to chapter 2’s eschatology. Must not be read as a generic breach of social etiquette.
Imitate
Approved rendering: 效法
Transliteration: xiàofǎ
Doctrine: Imitation of the Apostolic Example
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:7,9 — following Paul’s own modeled pattern of diligent labor. 效法 carries classical/Confucian resonance (‘imitating the ancient sage-kings,’ 效法先王); must be taught as imitation of a Spirit-empowered, gospel-shaped life, not independent Confucian moral self-cultivation of an exemplar’s virtue.
Admonish
Approved rendering: 劝戒
Transliteration: quànjiè
Doctrine: Church Discipline toward the Idle/Disorderly
Original: νουθετέω
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum, reuses the 劝 root already established in the baseline’s 劝勉 (exhort). 2 Thessalonians 3:15 — corrective, relationally warm instruction, ‘warn him as a brother,’ within a restorative, not punitive, discipline framework.
Ashamed
Approved rendering: 羞愧
Transliteration: xiūkuì
Doctrine: Church Discipline toward the Idle/Disorderly
Original: ἐντρέπω
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:14 — inward, restorative shame intended to produce repentance and reconciliation. Must be clearly distinguished from social face-loss (面子) dynamics already flagged as a translation risk in the baseline’s glory entry.
Deceive
Approved rendering: 迷惑
Transliteration: míhuò
Doctrine: The Man of Lawlessness
Rejected alternatives: 诱惑 (leans toward moral temptation rather than doctrinal deception)
Original: ἐξαπατάω
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 — thorough deception regarding the timing of the Day of the Lord; this verse concerns being misled on doctrine/facts, not tempted to sin.
Destroy Nullify
Approved rendering: 灭绝 / 废弃
Transliteration: mièjué / fèiqì
Doctrine: The True and Counterfeit Coming (Parousia)
Original: ἀναιρέω / καταργέω
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 — Christ’s decisive, effortless destruction and nullification of the lawless one at his coming. Textual variant ἀνελεῖ (‘slay’) vs. καταναλώσει (‘consume/burn up’) both convey decisive total destruction; no major doctrinal risk either way.
Appointed Time
Approved rendering: 时候
Transliteration: shíhou
Doctrine: The Restrainer Holding Back Lawlessness
Original: καιρός
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:6 — God’s divinely fixed moment governing even the lawless one’s emergence. Connects to the baseline providence doctrine (神的护理); reinforces that lawlessness operates under God’s sovereign schedule, not outside it.
Send
Approved rendering: 差(遣) / 给
Transliteration: chāi(qiǎn) / gěi
Doctrine: God’s Judicial Hardening of Those Who Reject the Truth
Original: πέμπω
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 — God’s own active, judicial dispatching of the deluding influence; emphasizes active judicial action, not merely permissive allowance.
Believe The Lie
Approved rendering: 信从虚谎
Transliteration: xìncóng xūhuǎng
Doctrine: God’s Judicial Hardening of Those Who Reject the Truth
Original: πιστεύω τῷ ψεύδει
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 — the tragic outcome of judicial hardening, belief redirected from the truth to the lie.
Took Pleasure In
Approved rendering: 喜爱
Transliteration: xǐ’ài
Doctrine: God’s Judicial Hardening of Those Who Reject the Truth
Original: εὐδοκέω
Category: Judgment
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:12 — active, willing delight in unrighteousness over truth, preserving moral responsibility even under judicial hardening; must convey active delight/choice, not passive drifting.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: 劝勉
Transliteration: quànmiǎn
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package for the exhort/urge sense of παρακαλέω. Retained unmodified for that sense. See the separate new entry comfort_parakaleo below for the context-specific comfort sense this curriculum requires at 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, which must NOT be rendered with 劝勉.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: 感恩
Transliteration: gǎn’ēn
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Inherited from Romans package. 2 Thessalonians 1:3 opens with obligatory thanksgiving to God; minor risk of generic secular gratitude without explicit reference to God as the object of thanks.
Shaken Alarmed
Approved rendering: 动心 / 惊慌
Transliteration: dòngxīn / jīnghuāng
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: σαλεύω / θροέω
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:2, emotional/doctrinal destabilization by false claims about the Day of the Lord’s timing.
Guard Protect
Approved rendering: 保护
Transliteration: bǎohù
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness and Protection of the Persecuted
Original: φυλάσσω
Category: Perseverance
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 — the Lord’s protective keeping of believers from the evil one.
Faithful Of Lord
Approved rendering: 可信的
Transliteration: kě xìn de
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness and Protection of the Persecuted
Original: πιστός
Category: Perseverance
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 — the Lord’s own reliable, trustworthy character, grounding believers’ assurance; same word-family as 信心.
Work Labor
Approved rendering: 做工
Transliteration: zuògōng
Doctrine: Church Discipline toward the Idle/Disorderly
Original: ἐργάζομαι
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 — ‘If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat,’ the positive counter-instruction to idleness.
Busybody
Approved rendering: 专管闲事
Transliteration: zhuān guǎn xiánshì
Doctrine: Church Discipline toward the Idle/Disorderly
Original: περιεργάζομαι
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 3:11 — meddling in others’ affairs instead of one’s own productive work, the practical result of idleness.
Brothers
Approved rendering: 弟兄
Transliteration: dìxiōng
Doctrine: Thanksgiving and Fellowship among Believers
Original: ἀδελφοί
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. Paul’s standard address to the whole church throughout the letter; family-of-faith address, not biological or clan kinship.
Angels
Approved rendering: 天使
Transliteration: tiānshǐ
Doctrine: Christ’s Angelic Accompaniment at His Return
Original: ἄγγελος
Category: Eschatology
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 1:7 — heavenly messengers accompanying Christ’s glorious return; standard, established term with no significant folk-religion collision in this context.
Remember
Approved rendering: 记得
Transliteration: jìdé
Doctrine: Standing Firm in the Traditions
Original: μνημονεύω
Category: Church
New term for this curriculum. 2 Thessalonians 2:5 — recollection of Paul’s prior oral teaching; the first appeal to previously-delivered apostolic instruction, anticipating the traditions theme resumed at 2:15 and 3:6.
Referenced passages