Doctrine Analysis
11 — Doctrine Analysis: Genesis (English → Mandarin)
Curriculum: Genesis 1–50
Core passage: Genesis 1:1–2:3
Destination language: Mandarin Chinese (Simplified script, CUV Shen-edition register)
Generated for: TRI Phase 1, Steps 4–5
Consistency statement: This document is fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (Genesis). Doctrine names, risk tiers, and review routing below are reproduced exactly from that registry; this document adds the full-book chapter-by-chapter coverage mandate and expands each entry’s translation-risk rationale for translator use.
Purpose
This document provides the complete doctrine matrix for the Genesis curriculum, covering all 23 doctrines tracked in doctrine_risk_registry.json — the 8 doctrines named explicitly in the curriculum parameters plus 15 supporting/derived doctrines identified during semantic analysis that carry independent translation risk. It then walks the entire book, chapter by chapter, Genesis 1–50, so that no chapter is silently skipped. Chapters that introduce no new doctrine or load-bearing term are explicitly marked “Reviewed — no new doctrinal or lexical load” rather than omitted.
Part A: Full Doctrine Matrix
| # | Doctrine | Mandarin doctrine name | Risk | Key supporting passages (Genesis) | Translation risk (Mandarin-specific) | Review routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Creation Ex Nihilo | 从无造有的创造 | Critical | 1:1, 1:21, 1:27, 2:3 | 创造 (bara) vs. 造 (asah/yatsar) collapse is the single greatest lexical risk in the book; 空虚混沌 (tohu vavohu, 1:2) risks a Pangu-myth (盘古开天) or Daoist self-generating-chaos reading unless annotated as already-created, God-governed material. | Human theologian |
| 2 | The Image of God | 神的形像 | Critical | 1:26–27, 5:1, 5:3, 9:6 | 形像 risks conflation with cultic idol-statues (神像/佛像); 样式 risks an ontological-identity/sagehood-attainment misreading given the live Neo-Confucian tradition. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Divine Blessing and Its Universal Scope | 神的赐福 | Critical | 1:22, 1:28, 2:3, 9:1, 12:2–3, 17:16–20, 22:17, 27:27–29, 48:13–20, 49:1–28 | 福 shares the same character-field as folk fortune-seeking vocabulary (祈福, 求福); must be taught as sovereign personal gift, never impersonal fortune, and 12:3’s universal scope must never narrow to Abraham’s ethnic line. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Sabbath Rest and the Origin of Holiness | 安息与分别为圣 | High | 2:1–3 | 安息 must be distinguished from Daoist/Buddhist 清净 (meditative-withdrawal stillness); 分别为圣 is Scripture’s first holiness declaration, applied to time itself as God’s sovereign act, not self-generated ritual purity. | Human theologian |
| 5 | The Fall and the Origin of Sin | 人的堕落与罪的起源 | Critical | 2:16–17, 3:1–24 | 罪 (reused from baseline) must resist collapse into 报应 (impersonal karmic retribution across a lineage); the prohibition/violation is a crisis of trust and usurped moral authority, not a fatalistic karmic event. | Human theologian |
| 6 | Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace | 罪的后果与普遍的恩典 | High | 3:14–19, 4:11–16, 8:20–22, 9:8–17 | 咒诅 (sovereign judicial pronouncement) must never be confused with 下咒 (folk/Daoist ritual curse-casting); the mark of Cain (记号) and continued provision (8:21–22) must be taught as restraining divine mercy toward the guilty (common grace), not folk stigma or 贵人相助-style luck. | Human theologian |
| 7 | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise | 亚伯拉罕之约与应许 | Critical | 12:1–3, 12:7, 13:14–17, 15:1–21, 17:1–21, 22:15–18 | 约 (reused) must remain a unilateral, relational divine promise, never softened toward 合同/契约 (negotiated commercial contract); 后裔 (reused) must render identically at every occurrence of the seed-thread from 3:15 through 49:10. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Justification by Faith (Genesis 15:6) | 因信被算为义 | Critical | 15:6 | 算为义 is a MANDATORY exact reuse of the baseline imputed_righteousness entry — the direct OT source-text for Romans 4:3; must never be read through 修成正果 (Buddhist/Daoist attainment) or Confucian-virtue 义 achieved by effort. | Human theologian |
| 9 | Providence and the Sovereignty of God | 神的护理与主权 | Critical | 18:14, 45:5–8, 50:20 | Must resist collapse into impersonal, fatalistic 天意/命运; 45:8 and 50:20 hold real human guilt and God’s personal good purpose together — a compatibilist claim a flattened “fated” rendering would erase. | Human theologian |
| 10 | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations | 历代蒙保守的约中信实 | High | 5:22–24, 6:9, 24:12–27, 26:2–5, 28:13–15, 35:9–12 | 慈爱和诚实 must be distinguished from Confucian 仁 (cultivated hierarchical virtue); 与神同行 must be distinguished from Daoist 循道/得道 (impersonal-principle attainment). | Human theologian |
| 11 | Divine Calling (Abram’s Summons) | 神对亚伯兰的呼召 | High | 12:1 | Must not evoke 天命所归 (Mandate of Heaven conferred on a worthy ruler) — this is a personal, relational summons to one individual, extending the baseline’s Divine Calling doctrine to its OT paradigm case. | Human theologian |
| 12 | Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering | 约瑟的苦难与神的护理 | Critical | 37:5–11, 39:2, 39:21, 39:23, 41:38–39, 45:5–8, 50:20 | 耶和华与约瑟同在 must never soften into folk 贵人相助 (“a fortunate benefactor helped him”); asserts continuous personal presence amid ongoing injustice. 45:8/50:20 must hold guilt and sovereign good together without collapsing into 命运/天意. | Human theologian |
| 13 | The Noahic Covenant | 挪亚之约 | High | 6:18, 9:8–17 | 永远的约 must be taught as unconditional and perpetual, explicitly contrasted with the revocable 天命 (Mandate of Heaven); first covenant extended to all humanity and creatures, grounding common grace. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Melchizedek’s Priesthood and Typology | 麦基洗德的祭司职分 | Medium | 14:18–20 | 祭司 must be distinguished from 和尚 (Buddhist monastic) or 道士 (Daoist priest) titles; recognized by 至高的神, the same one true God as Abram’s, reinforcing monotheism across cultural lines. | Native speaker review |
| 15 | The Messianic Seed Promise (Protoevangelium and its Development) | 弥赛亚后裔的应许 | Critical | 3:15, 12:3, 22:18, 49:8–12 | 后裔 requires absolute consistency across every occurrence of this thread (3:15 → 49:10) so learners can trace the single promised line into Christ; 细罗 (Shiloh) has genuinely disputed etymology and must be flagged for theologian review rather than resolved automatically. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Marriage and Human Complementarity | 婚姻与男女的相助 | Medium | 2:18–25 | 帮助者/配偶 must not carry the subordinate-servant connotations of 婢/仆; the same Hebrew root elsewhere describes God as Israel’s helper, so essential partnership, not inferior utility, must be conveyed. | Native speaker review |
| 17 | Circumcision as Covenant Sign | 割礼作为约的记号 | High | 17:9–14 | 割礼 must be taught as a responsive sign of an already-given promise (17:1–8 precedes 17:9–14), not a meritorious precondition — a corrective parallel to the baseline’s warnings against 功德-style earned favor. | Human theologian |
| 18 | Dreams as a Vehicle of Divine Revelation | 梦作为神启示的方式 | Medium | 37:5–11, 40:8, 41:15–16, 41:25 | 梦/解梦 must be distinguished from folk dream-divination (占梦) using fixed symbolic dream-books; Joseph explicitly attributes both dream and interpretation to God alone, not to divinatory craft. | Native speaker review |
| 19 | Sovereign Election in the Flow of Blessing | 神在赐福中的拣选 | High | 25:23, 25:29–34, 27:1–40, 48:13–20 | Connects directly to the baseline’s Critical-tier 拣选 entry; must avoid 命运 (impersonal fate), 缘分 (karma-linked destiny), or 天命 (Mandate of Heaven) — God’s personal, gracious choice operating within family history, not cosmic assignment. | Human theologian |
| 20 | Worship and Offering | 敬拜与献祭 | Medium | 4:3–7, 8:20–21, 12:7–8, 22:1–14 | 供物 must be distinguished from transactional folk-temple offerings (祈福/还愿); acceptance hinges on the offerer’s heart/faith, not gift-mechanics. 馨香之气 must not be read as literal divine appeasement/nourishment, echoing some folk ancestor-offering conceptions. | Native speaker review |
| 21 | Anthropomorphic Language and God’s Unchanging Purpose | 神的性情描写与祂不变的旨意 | High | 6:6–7 | 后悔/忧心 must not imply divine capriciousness or a change in God’s fundamental purposes, which would undercut Providence doctrine elsewhere (18:14; 50:20); classic anthropomorphic-language treatment required. | Human theologian |
| 22 | Universal Scope of the Abrahamic Promise | 应许及于万国万民 | Medium | 12:3, 18:18, 22:18, 26:4 | 外邦人 (reused) must never shift toward 夷人 (Hua-Yi civilized-insider/barbarian-outsider distinction); “all the families of the earth” (12:3) is the OT root of the baseline’s Universal Scope of the Gospel doctrine and must retain unqualified universality from first appearance. | Native speaker review |
| 23 | The Faithful Worship Lineage | 求告耶和华名的信实谱系 | Low | 4:26, 5:22–24, 6:9, 26:25 | Standard, low-collision vocabulary marking the intergenerational worshiping line contrasted with Cain’s line; minor risk of a generic secular reading without reference to the covenant God specifically. | Automated review |
Risk summary (must match doctrine_risk_registry.json exactly): Critical: 9 | High: 8 | Medium: 5 | Low: 1 | Total: 23 | Requiring theologian review: 17 | Requiring native speaker review: 5 | Automated only: 1
Part B: Full-Book Chapter Coverage (Genesis 1–50)
Every chapter of Genesis is reviewed below. Chapters that carry no new doctrine or load-bearing term beyond what is already documented are marked explicitly as reviewed, never silently omitted.
| Chapter(s) | Active doctrines (from Part A) | Coverage note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Creation Ex Nihilo; The Image of God (1:26–27); Divine Blessing (1:22, 28) | Core creation account; anchors 创造/造 distinction and 形像/样式 pairing. |
| 2 | Creation Ex Nihilo (2:3); Sabbath Rest and Holiness (2:1–3); The Image of God (2:7, נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה); Marriage and Human Complementarity (2:18–25) | Core passage boundary (1:1–2:3) plus the Eden narrative extending Image-of-God and marriage doctrines. |
| 3 | The Fall and the Origin of Sin; The Messianic Seed Promise (3:15); Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace (3:14–19) | Foundational Fall narrative; introduces the seed-of-promise thread and the first divine curse-pronouncement. |
| 4 | Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace (Cain, mark 4:15); Worship and Offering (4:3–7); The Faithful Worship Lineage (4:26) | Introduces 供物 and 记号 vocabulary; first split between faithful and unfaithful worship lines. |
| 5 | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations (Enoch, 5:22–24); The Image of God (5:1, 3, genealogical reaffirmation) | Genealogy chapter; reaffirms image-bearing across generations and introduces 与神同行. |
| 6 | Providence and the Sovereignty of God (anthropomorphic grief, 6:6–7); Anthropomorphic Language and God’s Unchanging Purpose; The Noahic Covenant (6:18); Covenant Faithfulness (6:9) | Sets up the flood narrative and first explicit “covenant” (ברית) reference in Genesis. |
| 7 | Providence and the Sovereignty of God (flood execution) | Reviewed — narrative fulfillment of ch.6; no new doctrinal terms beyond providence already documented. |
| 8 | Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace (8:20–22, pleasing aroma); Worship and Offering | Introduces 馨香之气; God’s continued forbearance toward sinful humanity. |
| 9 | The Noahic Covenant (9:8–17); Divine Blessing (9:1); Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace (9:25, Ham/Canaan) | Establishes the first universal, unconditional covenant sign (虹). |
| 10 | Universal Scope of the Abrahamic Promise (background, table of nations) | Reviewed — genealogical background for later “nations” (万国) vocabulary; no new critical terms. |
| 11 | Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace (Babel judgment/dispersion) | Reviewed — supports common-grace/judgment theme; transitions genealogically to Abram, setting up Divine Calling. |
| 12 | Divine Calling (12:1); The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise (12:2–3, 7); Universal Scope of the Abrahamic Promise (12:3) | Core covenant-initiation chapter; anchors 呼召 and 约 in their OT paradigm case. |
| 13 | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise (13:14–17) | Reviewed — land-promise reaffirmation; no new terms beyond covenant vocabulary already logged. |
| 14 | Melchizedek’s Priesthood and Typology (14:18–20) | Introduces 祭司 and 至高的神; monotheism-across-cultures affirmation. |
| 15 | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise (15:1–21); Justification by Faith (15:6) | Highest cross-curriculum priority chapter: 算为义 must match the baseline’s Romans 4:3 rendering exactly. |
| 16 | Sovereign Election in the Flow of Blessing (background, Hagar/Ishmael) | Reviewed — sets up later election-in-blessing tension; no new critical terms in this chapter itself. |
| 17 | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise (17:1–21); Circumcision as Covenant Sign (17:9–14) | Introduces 割礼 and 全能的神 (El Shaddai); covenant sign given after promise, not before. |
| 18 | Providence and the Sovereignty of God (18:14); Universal Scope of the Abrahamic Promise (18:18) | Introduces the confident-trust formula “耶和华岂有难成的事吗.” |
| 19 | Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace (Sodom judgment) | Reviewed — supports judgment/common-grace theme; no new critical lexical items beyond 咒诅 already logged. |
| 20 | (none new) | Reviewed — Abimelech narrative; no new doctrinal terms; backdrop continuity for covenant faithfulness. |
| 21 | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise (Isaac’s birth); Divine Blessing | Reviewed — covenant-promise fulfillment narrative; terms already established. |
| 22 | The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise (22:15–18); The Messianic Seed Promise (22:18); Worship and Offering (22:1–14) | Introduces 试验 and 耶和华以勒; pivotal substitutionary-provision typology chapter. |
| 23 | (none new) | Reviewed — Sarah’s burial and land-purchase narrative; supports covenant-land theme with no new critical terms. |
| 24 | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations (24:12–27) | Introduces 慈爱和诚实 pairing distinct from חֵן. |
| 25 | Sovereign Election in the Flow of Blessing (25:23, 29–34) | Birthright/election tension introduced; anchors 拣选-adjacent vocabulary in family narrative. |
| 26 | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations (26:2–5); The Faithful Worship Lineage (26:25); Universal Scope of the Abrahamic Promise (26:4) | Covenant promise repeated verbatim to Isaac; second generation of the faithful worship lineage. |
| 27 | Sovereign Election in the Flow of Blessing (27:1–40) | Blessing-transfer narrative; reinforces 拣选/赐福 distinction from natural birth-order entitlement. |
| 28 | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations (28:13–15) | Covenant promise renewed a third time, to Jacob at Bethel. |
| 29–31 | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations (narrative continuity) | Reviewed — Jacob’s marriages, family, and departure from Laban; no new doctrinal terms beyond those already logged; supports covenant-faithfulness narrative arc. |
| 32 | Providence and the Sovereignty of God (Jacob renamed Israel, 32:28) | Reviewed against baseline israel entry; identity transformation through costly covenant encounter, not combat between equals. |
| 33–34 | Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace (echo, Dinah narrative) | Reviewed — reconciliation with Esau and the Dinah incident; no new critical doctrinal terms beyond sin’s-consequences vocabulary already logged. |
| 35 | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations (35:9–12) | Covenant renewed and Israel-name confirmed at Bethel. |
| 36 | (none new) | Reviewed — Esau’s genealogy; no new doctrinal terms. |
| 37 | Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering (37:5–11); Dreams as a Vehicle of Divine Revelation | Opens the Joseph narrative; introduces prophetic dream vocabulary (梦). |
| 38 | The Messianic Seed Promise (background, Judah/Tamar) | Reviewed — supports the Judah-line thread toward 49:10, but introduces no new critical terms beyond 后裔 already logged. |
| 39 | Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering (39:2, 21, 23) | Establishes the recurring 耶和华与约瑟同在 formula amid injustice. |
| 40 | Dreams as a Vehicle of Divine Revelation (40:8) | Joseph explicitly attributes interpretation to God, not human skill. |
| 41 | Dreams as a Vehicle of Divine Revelation (41:15–16, 25, 38–39) | Confirms divine, not divinatory, source of dream-interpretation; introduces 神的灵 (ruach Elohim) typological echo (41:38). |
| 42–44 | Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering (narrative continuity) | Reviewed — testing and reconciliation narrative; supports the providence doctrine narratively with no new critical lexical items. |
| 45 | Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering (45:5–8); Providence and the Sovereignty of God | Introduces the first full doctrinal statement: 不是你们打发我到这里来，是神. |
| 46–47 | Covenant Faithfulness across Generations (continuity, settlement in Egypt) | Reviewed — family’s move to Egypt; no new doctrinal terms beyond covenant-faithfulness continuity already logged. |
| 48 | Sovereign Election in the Flow of Blessing (48:13–20) | Blessing transferred by sovereign choice, not birth order, to Jacob’s grandsons. |
| 49 | The Messianic Seed Promise (49:8–12); Divine Blessing (49:1–28) | Scepter/Shiloh prophecy; culmination of the seed-of-promise thread pointing toward the Davidic/messianic line. |
| 50 | Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering (50:20); Providence and the Sovereignty of God; Covenant Faithfulness across Generations (burial promises) | Closing thesis-statement verse of the book: 你们的意思是要害我，但神的意思原是好的 — fixed, cross-document-consistent rendering required, comparable to Romans 8:28. |
Notes for Phase 2
- Doctrines flagged “Human theologian” above require review at every occurrence, not merely on first introduction, per the baseline’s escalation rules.
- Genesis 15:6 and Genesis 50:20 are the two highest-priority fixed-rendering verses in this curriculum, functioning respectively as the Genesis-side counterpart to Romans 4:3 and Romans 8:28.
- All doctrine names, risk tiers, and review routing in Part A are reproduced verbatim from
assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json; any future update to that registry must be mirrored here in the same Phase 2 version-increment step described in the baseline’s Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions.
See analysis/08_core_glossary.md for the term-level glossary supporting every doctrine above.
See analysis/04_comparative_theology.md for cross-tradition interpretive comparison of the 8 primary curriculum doctrines.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Creation Ex Nihilo
Mandarin name: 从无造有的创造
Key terms: create, bara, 创造, 空虚混沌
Review routing: Human theologian
创造 (bara) must be kept distinct from 造 (asah/yatsar, forming from existing material, e.g. 2:7); Mandarin routinely collapses this distinction, which is the single greatest lexical risk to teaching creation from nothing rather than assembly from pre-existing matter. Genesis 1:2’s 空虚混沌 rendering of tohu vavohu additionally risks a Pangu-myth reading (盘古开天, self-generating chaos) unless every occurrence carries a note that this is already-created, God-governed material, not an eternal, self-organizing source of order.
The Image of God
Mandarin name: 神的形像
Key terms: image, likeness, tselem, demut, 形像, 样式
Review routing: Human theologian
形像 must never be read through the lens of 神像/佛像 (venerated cultic idol-statues) — Genesis teaches humanity itself as God’s living representative, not a carved or worshiped object. 样式 (demut) additionally risks an ontological-identity misreading given the live Neo-Confucian sagehood-attainment tradition (cf. baseline’s 成圣 note) — humanity resembles God’s character and represents his rule but does not become divine.
Divine Blessing and Its Universal Scope
Mandarin name: 神的赐福
Key terms: bless, blessing, 祝福, 赐福, 福
Review routing: Human theologian
福 sits inside the identical semantic field the baseline already flags under ‘gospel’ (福音) as folk fortune-seeking vocabulary (祈福, 求福, temple fú-charms). Every occurrence must be taught as God’s sovereign, personal gift of favor and fruitfulness, not an impersonal, ritually-obtainable fortune. Genesis 12:3’s universal downstream scope (‘all the families of the earth’) must never be narrowed to Abraham’s ethnic line alone, or the direct theological pipeline into Romans’ Jew/Gentile inclusion is severed at its Genesis root.
The Fall and the Origin of Sin
Mandarin name: 人的堕落与罪的起源
Key terms: fall, sin, tree of knowledge, 罪, 分别善恶树
Review routing: Human theologian
The prohibition and its violation must be taught as a crisis of trust and usurped moral authority (דַּעַת, ‘knowing,’ is relational/experiential, a claim to self-determination, not neutral information), not a fatalistic karmic event. 罪 (reused exactly from the baseline) must retain its sense of moral offense against a personal God requiring atonement, resisting collapse into 报应 (impersonal karmic retribution accruing across a lineage), a live folk-Buddhist misreading risk for this founding narrative of human sinfulness.
The Abrahamic Covenant and Promise
Mandarin name: 亚伯拉罕之约与应许
Key terms: covenant, seed, blessing, 约, 后裔
Review routing: Human theologian
约 (reused exactly from the baseline) must be kept as a relational, unilaterally-initiated divine promise, never softened toward 合同/契约 (a negotiated commercial contract between equal parties) — the covenant ceremony of Genesis 15 explicitly puts Abram to sleep so that God alone binds himself. 后裔 (reused exactly) must be rendered identically at every occurrence across the entire seed-of-promise trajectory (3:15 through 49:10) so learners can trace a single unbroken promise-line into its New Testament fulfillment.
Justification by Faith (Genesis 15:6)
Mandarin name: 因信被算为义
Key terms: believed, credited as righteousness, 信, 算为义
Review routing: Human theologian
算为义 is a MANDATORY exact reuse of the baseline’s imputed_righteousness entry: Genesis 15:6 is the direct Old Testament text Paul cites in Romans 4:3, making this the single most important intertextual link between the two curricula. As in the baseline, this forensic crediting must never be taught through the lens of 修成正果 (Buddhist/Daoist attainment through spiritual cultivation) or as the Confucian virtue of 义 achieved by moral effort — Abram’s righteousness is credited on the basis of trust in God’s specific promise, prior to and apart from any accomplishment.
Providence and the Sovereignty of God
Mandarin name: 神的护理与主权
Key terms: is anything too hard for the LORD, God meant it for good, 神的护理
Review routing: Human theologian
Every occurrence must resist collapse into the impersonal, fatalistic 天意/命运 register of everyday Chinese speech (already flagged under the baseline’s providence entry) — Genesis 45:8 and 50:20 specifically affirm real, culpable human evil intent (רָעָה) alongside God’s simultaneous, personal, purposive good intention (טוֹבָה), a compatibilist claim that a generic ‘it was fated/meant to be’ rendering would flatten into an amoral cosmic balancing act, erasing both human guilt and God’s personal character.
Joseph and God’s Providence in Suffering
Mandarin name: 约瑟的苦难与神的护理
Key terms: the LORD was with him, it was not you, but God, 耶和华与约瑟同在
Review routing: Human theologian
The recurring formula 耶和华与约瑟同在 must never be softened into an impersonal good-luck idiom resembling folk 贵人相助 (‘a fortunate benefactor helped him’) — the text asserts continuous, personal divine presence precisely amid ongoing slavery, false imprisonment, and injustice, not only after deliverance. Joseph’s own theological summary (45:8; 50:20) must hold real human guilt and God’s sovereign good purpose together without contradiction; a flattened 命运/天意 rendering would erase the brothers’ culpability entirely.
The Messianic Seed Promise (Protoevangelium and its Development)
Mandarin name: 弥赛亚后裔的应许
Key terms: seed of the woman, seed, scepter, Shiloh, 后裔, 权杖, 细罗
Review routing: Human theologian
Genesis 3:15 is Scripture’s first messianic promise (the protoevangelium) and must use 后裔 with absolute consistency across every occurrence of this thread through 49:10, since any variation breaks the reader’s ability to trace the single promised-line into its New Testament fulfillment in Christ (cf. baseline’s Messianic Promise entry, which already guards against conflating Christ with Maitreya/弥勒). 细罗 (Shiloh) carries genuinely disputed etymology and must be flagged for theologian review on annotation approach rather than resolved unilaterally by an automated process.
High Risk Doctrines
Sabbath Rest and the Origin of Holiness
Mandarin name: 安息与分别为圣
Key terms: rest, sanctify, holy, 安息, 分别为圣
Review routing: Human theologian
God’s rest (安息) must be distinguished from Daoist/Buddhist 清净 (meditative stillness attained through ascetic withdrawal or technique) — this is the contented completion of purposeful, good work, not an escape from active engagement with the world. This is also Scripture’s first occurrence of the holiness category (分别为圣), applied to time itself as God’s own sovereign declarative act, not a self-generated ritual-purity attainment — the point of origin for the baseline’s 圣洁/成圣 collision warnings.
Sin’s Consequences and Common Grace
Mandarin name: 罪的后果与普遍的恩典
Key terms: cursed, mark of Cain, pleasing aroma, rainbow, 咒诅, 记号
Review routing: Human theologian
咒诅 (God’s judicial pronouncement) must never be confused with 下咒 (folk/Daoist ritual curse-casting performed by a human practitioner) — judgment here is the Creator’s sovereign verdict on the created order, not magic. Conversely, the mark given to guilty Cain (记号, 4:15) and God’s continued provision for a still-sinful humanity (8:21-22) must be taught as restraining divine mercy extended even to the unrepentant — the doctrine of common grace — and not mistaken for a folk-superstitious stigma-mark or impersonal 贵人相助-style luck language.
Covenant Faithfulness across Generations
Mandarin name: 历代蒙保守的约中信实
Key terms: steadfast love and faithfulness, walked with God, 慈爱和诚实, 与神同行
Review routing: Human theologian
慈爱和诚实 (chesed ve’emet) must be distinguished from the Confucian virtue of 仁 (rén, benevolence cultivated and owed within a properly ordered social hierarchy) — biblical covenant loyalty flows from God’s own prior, self-obligating promise repeated unchanged across three patriarchal generations regardless of the recipients’ moral failures (e.g., Jacob’s deception, ch.28), not from cultivated ethical duty. 与神同行 must likewise be distinguished from Daoist 循道/得道 (attainment-through-alignment-with-an-impersonal-principle) language.
Divine Calling (Abram’s Summons)
Mandarin name: 神对亚伯兰的呼召
Key terms: go from your country, calling, 蒙召的, 呼召
Review routing: Human theologian
Directly extends the baseline’s Divine Calling doctrine to its Old Testament paradigm case: Abram’s whole-life reorientation in response to God’s summons must not be rendered with language evoking 天命所归 (the Mandate of Heaven being conferred on a worthy ruler) — this is a personal, relational summons addressed to one individual, not an impersonal cosmic endorsement of status or destiny.
The Noahic Covenant
Mandarin name: 挪亚之约
Key terms: covenant, everlasting covenant, rainbow, 约, 永远的约
Review routing: Human theologian
永远的约 must be taught as unconditional and perpetual in scope — explicitly contrasted with the revocable Chinese dynastic Mandate of Heaven (天命), which can be withdrawn from an unworthy ruler. This is the first covenant extended to all humanity and all creatures universally, grounding common grace as distinct from the later particular covenant with Abraham.
Circumcision as Covenant Sign
Mandarin name: 割礼作为约的记号
Key terms: circumcision, covenant of circumcision, 割礼
Review routing: Human theologian
割礼 must be taught as a responsive sign of an already-given promise (the covenant and promise precede the command: 17:1-8 before 17:9-14), not a meritorious precondition earning covenant membership — an important corrective against importing a merit-based works framework parallel to the baseline’s warnings against 功德-style earned favor.
Sovereign Election in the Flow of Blessing
Mandarin name: 神在赐福中的拣选
Key terms: birthright, the older shall serve the younger, election, 长子的名分, 拣选
Review routing: Human theologian
The recurring pattern of covenant blessing flowing by God’s sovereign choice rather than natural birth-order entitlement (25:23; 48:13-20) connects directly to the baseline’s Critical-tier 拣选 (election) entry and must likewise avoid any rendering suggesting impersonal fate (命运), karma-linked destiny (缘分), or the Mandate of Heaven (天命) — this is God’s personal, gracious choice operating within family history, not an impersonal cosmic assignment.
Anthropomorphic Language and God’s Unchanging Purpose
Mandarin name: 神的性情描写与祂不变的旨意
Key terms: grieved, relented, 后悔, 忧心
Review routing: Human theologian
后悔/忧心 (God’s grief before the flood) must not be read as implying divine capriciousness, fallibility, or a change in God’s fundamental purposes, which would undercut the Providence and Sovereignty doctrine elsewhere in the book (18:14; 50:20) — classic theological treatment reads this as anthropomorphic language conveying real relational grief consistent with God’s unchanging character and purpose.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Melchizedek’s Priesthood and Typology
Mandarin name: 麦基洗德的祭司职分
Key terms: priest, God Most High, 祭司, 至高的神
Review routing: Native speaker review
祭司 must be distinguished from Buddhist monastic clergy (和尚) or Daoist priests (道士) — this is a specific mediatorial office recognized by the one true God (至高的神, explicitly identified with Abram’s own God, reinforcing monotheism across cultural lines), not a generic ‘religious professional’ title transferable to any tradition’s clergy.
Marriage and Human Complementarity
Mandarin name: 婚姻与男女的相助
Key terms: helper corresponding to him, bone of my bones, 帮助者, 配偶
Review routing: Native speaker review
帮助者/配偶 (ezer k’negdo) must not carry the subordinate-servant connotations of 婢/仆 (handmaid/servant) — the same Hebrew root elsewhere describes God himself as Israel’s helper, so the woman’s role must be rendered as essential partnership, not inferior utility.
Dreams as a Vehicle of Divine Revelation
Mandarin name: 梦作为神启示的方式
Key terms: dream, interpretation, 梦, 解梦
Review routing: Native speaker review
梦/解梦 must be distinguished from folk dream-divination practice (占梦), which decodes dreams as omens through a fixed symbolic system (e.g., traditional Chinese dream-books/梦书) — Joseph explicitly and repeatedly attributes both the dreams and their interpretation to God alone (40:8; 41:16), not to a learned divinatory craft or innate human skill.
Worship and Offering
Mandarin name: 敬拜与献祭
Key terms: offering, pleasing aroma, 供物, 馨香之气
Review routing: Native speaker review
供物 must be distinguished from transactional folk-temple offerings aimed at securing favor or averting misfortune (祈福/还愿) — acceptance in Genesis hinges on the offerer’s heart and faith (cf. Hebrews 11:4 on Abel), not on the mechanics of the gift. 馨香之气 must not be read as literal divine appeasement or nourishment through sacrificial smoke, a risk echoed in some folk ancestor-offering conceptions where food offerings sustain the spirit.
Universal Scope of the Abrahamic Promise
Mandarin name: 应许及于万国万民
Key terms: all the families of the earth, nations, 外邦人, 万国
Review routing: Native speaker review
外邦人 (reused exactly from the baseline) must never shift toward 夷人 (the classical Hua-Yi civilized-insider/barbarian-outsider distinction) — Genesis 12:3’s promise that ‘all the families of the earth’ will be blessed through Abraham is the Old Testament root of the baseline’s Universal Scope of the Gospel and Unity of Jews and Gentiles doctrines and must retain unqualified universal scope from its first appearance.
Low Risk Doctrines
The Faithful Worship Lineage
Mandarin name: 求告耶和华名的信实谱系
Key terms: called on the name of the LORD, walked with God, 求告耶和华的名, 与神同行
Review routing: Automated review
Standard, low-collision vocabulary marking the intergenerational worshiping line contrasted with Cain’s line; minor risk only of a generic secular reading without reference to the covenant God specifically.
Referenced passages