Semantic Analysis

07 Semantic Analysis — Matthew 1–28 (English → Mandarin)

Methodology

This analysis follows the PRD Phase 1 Step 1 mandate: full-book coverage of Matthew in the original Koine Greek, chapter by chapter, first to last. The core passage, Matthew 5:1-12 (the Beatitudes), receives verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter receives a chapter section covering its load-bearing theological terms using the same fields: original word, transliteration, literal meaning, semantic range, English variants, contextual theological meaning, and destination-language (Mandarin) rendering risk.

Baseline reuse rule. Any term already fixed in the Romans translation_memory.json is REUSED EXACTLY and is marked “[REUSE — Romans TM]” below, with only the Matthew-specific contextual note added. New terms are marked “[NEW]” and are proposed here for the first time, following Chinese Union Version (CUV, 和合本, Shen edition 神版) register wherever an established CUV rendering exists, consistent with the baseline Language Package.

First-occurrence principle. To avoid repetition across 28 chapters, each new term receives its full definition at its first theologically load-bearing occurrence in the reading order used in this document — which is: core passage (5:1-12) first, then Matthew 1 through 28 in canonical order. Later chapters that reuse an already-defined term cross-reference back to that definition rather than repeating it.

PART A — Core Passage: Matthew 5:1-12 (The Beatitudes), Verse by Verse

Matthew 5:1

Greek: Ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ὄχλους ἀνέβη εἰς τὸ ὄρος, καὶ καθίσαντος αὐτοῦ προσῆλθαν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ.

ὄρος (oros) — “mountain” [NEW]

Literal meaning: mountain, hill.
Semantic range: any elevated landform; in Jewish narrative convention, a location of divine revelation (cf. Sinai).
English variants: mountain, mountainside, hill.
Contextual theological meaning: Matthew stages Jesus’ first major discourse on a mountain, structurally echoing Moses receiving the Law at Sinai — Jesus as the greater lawgiver/authoritative teacher, not a repeat of Sinai but its fulfillment.
Mandarin rendering: 山 (shān). Risk: Low. Note: must not be taught through the lens of Chinese sacred-mountain pilgrimage tradition (e.g. the Five Great Mountains 五岳, or Daoist mountain retreats associated with attaining the Dao through seclusion) — the mountain is a narrative setting for revelation given by a person (Jesus), not a place possessing inherent spiritual power.

μαθηταί (mathētai) — “disciples” [NEW]

Literal meaning: learners, students.
Semantic range: one who follows and learns from a teacher; in the Gospels, technical term for Jesus’ committed followers, later including “the Twelve.”
English variants: disciples, followers, students.
Contextual theological meaning: those who have left prior commitments to follow Jesus and be shaped by his teaching and person; the immediate audience of the Sermon on the Mount.
Mandarin rendering: 门徒 (méntú). Risk: Medium. Established CUV term. Note: 门徒 also names a martial-arts or Daoist master’s disciple within a lineage school (师门), which implies technique-transmission and rank-advancement toward mastery. Biblical discipleship must be taught as a relationship of trust, obedience, and identity with Christ himself, not the acquisition of esoteric technique or gradual advancement to a master’s rank — the same caution the baseline package records for 使徒/apostle regarding 宗师/大师.

Matthew 5:2

Greek: καὶ ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ ἐδίδασκεν αὐτοὺς λέγων·

No new load-bearing term. “Taught” (ἐδίδασκεν) anticipates the authority-of-teaching doctrine formally introduced at 7:28-29 (see Ch. 7 below).

Matthew 5:3

Greek: Μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

μακάριος (makarios) — “blessed” [NEW]

Literal meaning: happy, fortunate, flourishing.
Semantic range: a pronouncement of objective, favored standing/well-being — not a subjective feeling but a declared state; used of God himself (1 Tim 1:11) and of those who belong to him.
English variants: blessed, happy, fortunate.
Contextual theological meaning: an eschatological pronouncement that reverses ordinary human evaluations of “fortunate” — the poor, mourning, meek, and persecuted are declared flourishing before God because of their present relationship to the coming kingdom, not because of any worldly advantage.
Mandarin rendering: 有福 (yǒufú), in the fixed CUV formula ”…的人有福了” (“the … person has fú”). Risk: Critical. This is the single highest-stakes term in the passage. 福 (fú, fortune/blessing) sits at the center of Chinese folk-religious and popular-cultural vocabulary for earned or fate-given prosperity — e.g. 福气 (good fortune), 五福临门 (“five blessings arrive at the door,” a New Year’s saying naming longevity, wealth, health, virtue, and a peaceful death), and 福禄寿 (the Three Star Gods of fortune, rank, and longevity). The entire rhetorical force of the Beatitudes depends on subverting exactly this everyday notion of fú — declaring “blessed” precisely those whom folk-fortune categories would call unfortunate (poor, grieving, persecuted). If taught without this contrast made explicit, 有福 risks being heard as a promise of worldly luck or prosperity for right religious behavior — the same collision flagged for 福音/gospel in the baseline package, but here structurally load-bearing across all nine beatitudes. Every occurrence (vv. 3-11) requires the teaching note: this is God’s eschatological favor on kingdom-citizens, the reversal of fortune-telling categories, not folk fú.

πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι — “poor in spirit” [NEW]

Literal meaning: πτωχός = economically destitute, having nothing (stronger than πένης, “working poor”); τῷ πνεύματι = “in/with respect to the spirit.”
Semantic range: one who recognizes complete spiritual bankruptcy and total dependence on God, as opposed to one who is merely temperamentally modest.
English variants: poor in spirit, spiritually poor, humble in spirit.
Contextual theological meaning: the entry requirement for the kingdom — recognized spiritual destitution apart from God, not an achievement or virtue in itself.
Mandarin rendering: 虚心 (xūxīn), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. In contemporary secular Mandarin, 虚心 primarily means “open-minded, teachable, willing to accept correction” (e.g. 虚心接受意见, “humbly accept feedback”) — a disposition one cultivates as a virtue. This risks readers hearing v. 3 as “the person with a teachable attitude is fortunate,” missing the much stronger sense of recognized spiritual poverty and utter need before God that πτωχὸς conveys. Teaching must clarify this is a status recognized (destitution before God), not merely an attitude practiced.

βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν — “kingdom of heaven” [NEW]

Literal meaning: βασιλεία = kingship, royal rule, reign (the activity of ruling, not primarily a territory); τῶν οὐρανῶν = “of the heavens.”
Semantic range: God’s sovereign reign, inaugurated in Christ’s ministry, consummated at his return; “heaven” here functions as a reverential Jewish circumlocution for God himself (avoiding direct use of the divine name), not a separate location from “kingdom of God.”
English variants: kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, God’s reign, God’s kingdom.
Contextual theological meaning: Matthew’s characteristic phrase (used ~32 times, vs. the parallel “kingdom of God” used occasionally, e.g. 6:33; 12:28; 19:24; 21:31, 43) for God’s present-and-coming reign, inaugurated by Jesus and belonging, paradoxically, to the poor in spirit and the persecuted (5:3, 10) — bookending the Beatitudes as an inclusio.
Mandarin rendering: 天国 (tiānguó), established CUV rendering. Risk: Critical. This is one of the highest-stakes terms in the entire curriculum, given the “Kingdom of Heaven” is a named core doctrine. 天 (tiān, “Heaven”) carries deep pre-Christian Chinese theological freight: (1) 天命 (“Mandate of Heaven”), the classical political-legitimacy doctrine by which an impersonal cosmic principle authorizes a ruler’s dynasty (already flagged Critical in the baseline package under “calling” and “election”); (2) the impersonal, non-personal “Heaven” of folk fatalism (天意, “Heaven’s intention,” flagged High under “providence” in the baseline); (3) the mythological “Heavenly Court” (天庭) of Chinese popular religion (e.g. the Jade Emperor’s court in Journey to the West), a bureaucratic pantheon of deities. Without explicit teaching, 天国 risks being absorbed into any of these three frameworks — an impersonal cosmic mandate, a fatalistic destiny, or a mythological deity-bureaucracy — rather than being understood as the personal reign of the one true God (神), inaugurated by his Son. Cross-reference note: Matthew’s occasional use of “kingdom of God” (神的国, already fixed in the Romans baseline TM) refers to the identical reality as 天国 — Matthew’s preference for “heaven” language is a stylistic/reverential variation, not two different kingdoms. This equivalence must be explicitly taught wherever both phrases occur (see Ch. 6, 12, 19, 21 below) to prevent readers from imagining a “kingdom of heaven” distinct from a “kingdom of God.”

Matthew 5:4

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται.

πενθοῦντες (penthountes) — “those who mourn” [NEW]

Literal meaning: to grieve, lament, mourn (often over loss or sin).
Semantic range: deep, often visible sorrow — over personal loss, sin, or the brokenness of the world.
English variants: mourn, grieve, lament.
Contextual theological meaning: godly sorrow over sin and the fallen condition of the world, which God himself will personally comfort.
Mandarin rendering: 哀恸 (āitòng). Risk: Medium. Note: distinguish from the Buddhist ideal of transcending grief through non-attachment (detaching from desire/loss as the path out of suffering) — biblical mourning is not something to be spiritually dissolved through detachment but a valid, even necessary, response that God himself meets and heals.

παρακληθήσονται (paraklēthēsontai) — “shall be comforted” [context-sensitive; NOT the same TM sense as “exhort”]

Literal meaning: to be called alongside, comforted, consoled.
Semantic range: the same root (παρακαλέω) as the baseline term “exhort” (劝勉), but here carrying its comfort/consolation sense rather than the exhortation/encouragement sense recorded in Romans TM.
English variants: comforted, consoled.
Contextual theological meaning: personal divine consolation given directly by God to the grieving, in contrast to human self-soothing.
Mandarin rendering: 得安慰 (dé ānwèi). Risk: Low. Note for consistency: this is a distinct Mandarin rendering from the baseline “exhort” (劝勉) entry — same Greek root, different sense; do not conflate the two renderings across documents.

Matthew 5:5

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πραεῖς, ὅτι αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσι τὴν γῆν.

πραεῖς (praeis) — “meek” [NEW]

Literal meaning: gentle, mild; restrained strength rather than weakness.
Semantic range: describes Moses (Num 12:3, LXX) and Jesus himself (Matt 11:29; 21:5) — a posture of strength submitted to God, not passivity or lack of capability.
English variants: meek, gentle, humble.
Contextual theological meaning: a disposition of strength held under God’s control, trusting him rather than asserting one’s own claims by force.
Mandarin rendering: 温柔 (wēnróu), established CUV rendering. Risk: Medium. In modern Mandarin, 温柔 is most commonly used of a soft, gentle temperament (often gendered toward women, “gentle and soft”), which risks reducing this beatitude to a personality trait rather than the active, God-trusting restraint of one’s own power and rights that the biblical term conveys.

κληρονομήσουσι τὴν γῆν — “shall inherit the earth” [NEW]

Literal meaning: κληρονομέω = to receive as an heir, inherit; γῆ = land, earth.
Semantic range: echoes the OT land promise (Ps 37:11) now extended, in the NT, to the whole renewed creation inherited by God’s people.
English variants: inherit the earth, inherit the land.
Contextual theological meaning: a future, certain possession granted by God to the meek, not seized by force — anticipating the new creation.
Mandarin rendering: 承受地土 (chéngshòu dìtǔ), established CUV phrase. Risk: Medium. Note: must not be read through the lens of feng shui land-fortune concepts (地运, auspicious land bringing prosperity to descendants) or as a promise of literal real-estate gain in this present life; this is an eschatological inheritance of the renewed creation.

Matthew 5:6

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην, ὅτι αὐτοὶ χορτασθήσονται.

πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην — “hunger and thirst for righteousness” [NEW compound; δικαιοσύνη = REUSE — Romans TM]

Literal meaning: πεινάω/διψάω = to hunger/to thirst (physical appetite verbs used metaphorically); δικαιοσύνη = righteousness (see baseline entry, Critical).
Semantic range: an intense, all-consuming desire, as urgent as bodily hunger and thirst, directed at righteousness.
English variants: hunger and thirst for righteousness, long for righteousness.
Contextual theological meaning: a deep, God-given craving for right standing with and conformity to God’s character — reusing the baseline’s Critical-risk term 义 (yì), which must again be distinguished here from the Confucian virtue of the same name (仁义礼智信) achieved by moral cultivation. In this beatitude the craving itself, not achievement, is declared blessed.
Mandarin rendering: 饥渴慕义 (jī kě mù yì), established CUV four-character phrase. Risk: Medium (compound expression) carrying the underlying Critical risk of 义 itself — every occurrence must retain the baseline distinguishing note.
“shall be satisfied” (χορτασθήσονται) = 得饱足 (dé bǎozú). Risk: Low.

Matthew 5:7

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται.

ἐλεήμονες / ἐλεηθήσονται (eleēmones / eleēthēsontai) — “merciful / shall receive mercy” [NEW]

Literal meaning: ἔλεος = mercy, compassion shown to those in need or distress; ἐλεήμων = merciful, an adjective describing one who habitually shows such mercy.
Semantic range: active compassion expressed in concrete help toward the suffering, modeled on and flowing from God’s own character.
English variants: merciful, compassionate; mercy, compassion.
Contextual theological meaning: the merciful will themselves receive mercy from God — mercy shown becomes a mark of belonging to God’s kingdom people, reflecting his own mercy already received.
Mandarin rendering: 怜恤 (liánxù), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. Chinese religious culture has an extremely prominent devotional figure of compassion: Guanyin (观音, Avalokiteśvara), venerated as the Bodhisattva/Goddess of Mercy (慈悲, cíbēi), one of the most widely worshipped figures in Chinese folk Buddhism. There is significant risk that 怜恤/慈悲 language will be absorbed into this devotional framework — mercy as a cosmic compassion-principle embodied in a semi-divine intercessory figure, or as merit-generating compassionate action (functionally overlapping with 功德, already flagged Critical under the baseline’s grace entry). Teaching must make clear that biblical mercy flows from and mirrors the one true God’s own character revealed in Christ, and that receiving mercy is not a reward transaction but a kingdom-family resemblance.

Matthew 5:8

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ, ὅτι αὐτοὶ τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται.

καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ — “pure in heart” [NEW]

Literal meaning: καθαρός = clean, pure, unmixed; καρδία = heart, the seat of will, thought, and moral orientation.
Semantic range: undivided moral and relational integrity before God, as opposed to ritual/ceremonial cleanness.
English variants: pure in heart, clean of heart.
Contextual theological meaning: singleness of devotion toward God, free of hidden divided loyalties or hypocrisy, which qualifies one for future direct communion with God.
Mandarin rendering: 清心 (qīngxīn), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. 清心 is also half of the well-known Daoist self-cultivation phrase 清心寡欲 (“purify the heart, minimize desires”), describing an ascetic meditative technique for attaining inner stillness and detachment from worldly desire. This risks reframing the beatitude as a call to a spiritual-discipline technique for achieving mental tranquility, rather than moral/relational singleness of heart toward the personal God — echoing the same self-cultivation collision the baseline flags for 成圣/sanctification.

τὸν θεὸν ὄψονται — “shall see God” [NEW; θεός = REUSE — Romans TM]

Literal meaning: ὁράω = to see, perceive, behold; here of a future, direct visual/relational encounter with God (θεός, baseline Critical).
Semantic range: the beatific vision — full, unmediated relational communion with God in the age to come.
English variants: see God, behold God.
Contextual theological meaning: the ultimate promised reward of the pure in heart — personal, relational, future communion with the one true God, not a mystical insight-experience.
Mandarin rendering: 得见神 (dé jiàn shén). Risk: Critical. Must not be diluted into a generic mystical “seeing/insight” experience such as Daoist “perceiving the Dao” (见道) or Buddhist enlightenment-insight (悟, “awakening”), both of which describe a state of consciousness attained through practice rather than a future, personal, relational encounter with the one true God granted by grace.

Matthew 5:9

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί, ὅτι αὐτοὶ υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθήσονται.

εἰρηνοποιοί (eirēnopoioi) — “peacemakers” [NEW; related but distinct from baseline “peace” εἰρήνη]

Literal meaning: εἰρήνη (peace) + ποιέω (to make) — one who actively makes/creates peace between others.
Semantic range: distinct nuance from the baseline “peace” entry (εἰρήνη = relational peace with God through justification, Romans 5:1); here the focus is interpersonal reconciliation among people, an active practice, not a status received.
English variants: peacemakers, those who make peace.
Contextual theological meaning: kingdom citizens actively pursue reconciliation between estranged parties as an expression of their new identity, reflecting God’s own reconciling character.
Mandarin rendering: 使人和睦的人 (shǐ rén hémù de rén), established CUV phrase. Risk: Medium. 和睦/和谐 (harmony) is a deeply positive value in Chinese culture (a core Confucian-social ideal), which can be a helpful bridge — but also risks reducing “peacemaking” to surface-level conflict-avoidance or face-preserving social harmony (维持面子和气) rather than costly, gospel-rooted reconciliation that sometimes requires naming wrong before restoring relationship.

υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθήσονται — “shall be called sons of God” [NEW; distinct from baseline “son_of_god” 神的儿子, which is reserved for Christ]

Literal meaning: υἱός = son; θεοῦ = of God; κληθήσονται = will be called/named.
Semantic range: a plural, corporate, adoptive designation given to all peacemaking believers — grammatically identical wording to, but theologically distinct from, Christ’s unique, eternal, singular Sonship.
English variants: sons of God, children of God.
Contextual theological meaning: believers are given the family status and title of God’s children as a mark of kingdom belonging; this is the adoption doctrine (cf. baseline “adoption,” 儿子的名分) applied specifically to peacemakers.
Mandarin rendering: 称为神的儿子 (chēng wéi Shén de érzi). Risk: Critical. Because the baseline package fixes 神的儿子 as a Critical term reserved exclusively for Christ’s unique, eternal, co-equal Sonship (never to be diluted toward “an especially exalted human”), every use of this phrase for believers in Matthew 5:9 requires an explicit clarifying note: peacemakers receive adoptive, plural, derivative sonship as God’s children through grace, which is categorically different from — and dependent upon — Christ’s unique, eternal, underived divine Sonship. Never let this verse imply ontological parity between believers and Christ.

Matthew 5:10

Greek: μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης — “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” [NEW; δικαιοσύνη = REUSE — Romans TM]

Literal meaning: διώκω = to pursue, chase, persecute; ἕνεκεν = for the sake of, because of; δικαιοσύνη = righteousness (baseline Critical, 义).
Semantic range: suffering hostility specifically because of one’s righteous, kingdom-aligned life and witness, not persecution for unrelated reasons.
English variants: persecuted for righteousness’ sake, persecuted for doing right.
Contextual theological meaning: suffering that comes because of genuine righteousness (not merit-based self-righteousness) marks a person as a kingdom citizen — bookending the Beatitudes with v. 3 by repeating “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (天国, see 5:3 above, full definition, reused here).
Mandarin rendering: 为义受逼迫 (wéi yì shòu bīpò). Risk: Medium (compound), carrying the underlying Critical risk of 义 which must retain its forensic, not Confucian-virtue, sense even in this ethical-living context.
“persecuted” (διωγμένοι) = 逼迫 (bīpò). Risk: Medium. Distinguish from generic hardship or misfortune (报应-flavored bad luck); this is hostility incurred specifically for allegiance to Christ and his righteousness.

Matthew 5:11

Greek: μακάριοί ἐστε ὅταν ὀνειδίσωσιν ὑμᾶς καὶ διώξωσιν καὶ εἴπωσιν πᾶν πονηρὸν καθ᾿ ὑμῶν ψευδόμενοι ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ.

ὀνειδίσωσιν (oneidisōsin) — “revile” [NEW]

Literal meaning: to reproach, insult, heap verbal abuse upon.
Semantic range: public verbal shaming/insult, often intended to humiliate or dishonor.
English variants: revile, insult, mock.
Contextual theological meaning: direct verbal hostility endured specifically “on my account” (ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ) — for allegiance to Jesus personally, sharpening v. 10’s “for righteousness’ sake” into explicit Christ-centered persecution.
Mandarin rendering: 辱骂 (rùmà). Risk: Low.

ψευδόμενοι (pseudomenoi) — “falsely” [NEW]

Literal meaning: lying, speaking falsely.
Semantic range: fabricated accusation, slander without factual basis.
English variants: falsely, slanderously, by lying.
Contextual theological meaning: the persecution in view is unjust — the accusations against the disciple are fabricated, reinforcing that suffering here is not deserved punishment but unjust hostility for Christ’s sake.
Mandarin rendering: 捏造 (niēzào, “fabricate,” as in CUV’s “捏造各样坏话毁谤你们”). Risk: Low.

Matthew 5:12

Greek: χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, ὅτι ὁ μισθὸς ὑμῶν πολὺς ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· οὕτως γὰρ ἐδίωξαν τοὺς προφήτας τοὺς πρὸ ὑμῶν.

χαίρετε καὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε (chairete kai agalliasthe) — “rejoice and be glad” [NEW]

Literal meaning: χαίρω = to rejoice; ἀγαλλιάω = to exult, be exceedingly glad — a stronger, more exuberant term than χαίρω alone.
Semantic range: joyful response commanded even amid persecution, grounded not in circumstance but in eschatological hope.
English variants: rejoice and be glad, rejoice and exult.
Contextual theological meaning: the appropriate response to persecution is not resignation or despair but active, commanded joy, because of the certainty of the reward described next.
Mandarin rendering: 应当欢喜快乐 (yīngdāng huānxǐ kuàilè), established CUV phrase. Risk: Low.

μισθὸς πολὺς ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς — “great reward in heaven” [NEW]

Literal meaning: μισθός = wages, pay, reward (a term drawn from the world of hired labor); πολύς = great, much; ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς = in the heavens.
Semantic range: a gracious eschatological reward given by God to those who suffer for him — not a transactional wage earned in strict proportion to merit.
English variants: reward, recompense.
Contextual theological meaning: God himself guarantees a future reward for present suffering endured for Christ’s sake; must be held together with the baseline’s Critical grace doctrine — this reward is a further gift given within the framework of grace to those already God’s kingdom-children, not the basis on which one is accepted by God.
Mandarin rendering: 赏赐 (shǎngcì). Risk: Medium. Distinguish from a merit-ledger transaction (功德/报应, already Critical/High-flagged in the baseline) where good deeds mechanically produce proportional good outcomes; this reward is God’s gracious response to those already his by faith, given generously rather than earned strictly.

προφήτας (prophētas) — “prophets” [REUSE — Romans TM]

Mandarin rendering: 先知 (xiānzhī), baseline Low risk. Contextual note for Matthew: the disciples’ persecution places them in continuity with the OT prophets, reinforcing Matthew’s fulfillment-of-prophecy theme (see doctrine note under Ch. 1-2 below) — persecution as a mark of prophetic authenticity, not divine disfavor.

PART B — Chapter-by-Chapter Study of the Whole Book

Matthew 1 — Genealogy and Birth of Jesus

υἱὸς Δαυίδ (huios Dauid) — “Son of David” [NEW]

Literal meaning: son/descendant of David.
Semantic range: distinct from the baseline’s “seed_of_david” (大卫的后裔, used for the physical lineage claim in Romans 1:3); in Matthew this phrase functions repeatedly (1:1; 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9, 15; 22:42) as a messianic royal title — an address/confession of Jesus as the promised Davidic king, not merely a genealogical note.
English variants: Son of David.
Contextual theological meaning: Matthew opens by naming Jesus “son of David, son of Abraham” (1:1), establishing his qualification as the promised royal Messiah in fulfillment of the Davidic covenant (cf. baseline “davidic_covenant” doctrine, High risk) before any miracle is narrated.
Mandarin rendering: 大卫的子孙 (Dàwèi de zǐsūn). Risk: High. Distinct rendering from baseline’s 大卫的后裔 (seed_of_david) — 子孙 here functions as a title of confession/address, not merely a lineage descriptor. Risk: Chinese ancestor-veneration culture uses 子孙 heavily in the context of descendants who owe ritual duties to forebears (祭祖, ancestral rites); teaching must clarify that “Son of David” here is a forward-looking royal-messianic title fulfilling God’s covenant promise, not a claim about Jesus’ ritual obligations to an ancestor.

παρθένος (parthenos) — “virgin” [NEW]

Literal meaning: a virgin, an unmarried woman who has not had sexual relations.
Semantic range: technical, unambiguous term for virginity, cited from Isaiah 7:14 (LXX) as the sign of fulfilled prophecy in 1:23.
English variants: virgin.
Contextual theological meaning: Mary’s virginal conception is the sign that this birth is uniquely God’s own supernatural act, directly grounding the Incarnation and Deity of Christ doctrines (both baseline Critical).
Mandarin rendering: 童女 (tóngnǚ), established CUV rendering. Risk: Critical. Any softening to a generic “young woman” (少女/女子) would sever the virgin birth from its role as a sign of divine action and destroy the doctrinal claim; must always be paired with the Incarnation clarifying note already required by the baseline (道成肉身).

Ἐμμανουήλ (Emmanouēl) — “Immanuel” [NEW]

Literal meaning: Hebrew עִמָּנוּ אֵל, “God (is) with us.”
Semantic range: a proper name functioning as a theological title, cited in fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14.
English variants: Immanuel, “God with us.”
Contextual theological meaning: names the theological significance of the incarnation directly — God himself, not merely God’s representative, has come to dwell with his people in the person of Jesus.
Mandarin rendering: 以马内利 (Yǐmǎnèilì), transliteration, with gloss 神与我们同在 (“God with us”), established CUV form. Risk: Critical. Directly ties to Incarnation and Deity of Christ (both baseline Critical) — must not be taught as a mere honorific title implying God’s favor upon a specially chosen man, but as identifying Jesus himself as God present in the flesh.

Note: this chapter also reuses, without modification: 耶稣 (Jesus), 基督 (Christ/Messiah, first occurrence 1:1, 1:16-18), 圣灵 (Holy Spirit, 1:18, 20), 大卫 (David), 亚伯拉罕 (Abraham). “He will save his people from their sins” (1:21) anticipates but does not yet formally introduce the salvation doctrine (救恩), fully treated at its first didactic occurrence in Ch. 3 (repentance) and later at the thesis-level passages.

Matthew 2 — The Magi, Flight to Egypt, Return to Nazareth

μάγοι (magoi) — “magi / wise men” [NEW]

Literal meaning: Persian/Babylonian priest-astrologers; scholars trained in astronomical/astrological observation.
Semantic range: a specific historical class of Gentile court advisers, not a general term for “wise men” in the abstract.
English variants: wise men, magi, astrologers.
Contextual theological meaning: Gentile outsiders are drawn by revelation (a star) to worship the newborn King, foreshadowing the gospel’s reach to all nations (cf. baseline “gentiles” 外邦人 and “universal_scope_of_gospel” doctrine).
Mandarin rendering: 博士 (bóshì), established CUV rendering. Risk: Medium. Modern 博士 primarily means “PhD/doctor” in secular usage, which can obscure the historical astrologer-priest role; separately, care is needed not to conflate the magi with Chinese folk astrologer-diviners (算命先生, already flagged Low-risk in the baseline “prophet” entry) — the magi are Gentile seekers who rightly recognize and worship the true King through revelation, not diviners practicing a technique.

προσκυνέω (proskyneō) — “worship” [NEW]

Literal meaning: to fall down before, prostrate oneself, do homage to.
Semantic range: ranges from ordinary respectful prostration before a social superior (e.g. a king) to full religious worship of deity, depending on the object; Matthew consistently uses it of Jesus (2:2, 8, 11; 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 20:20; 28:9, 17) in a way that escalates toward full divine worship.
English variants: worship, bow down, do homage to, prostrate oneself before.
Contextual theological meaning: the magi’s act of worship (2:11) begins a pattern, climaxing in 28:17 (“they worshipped him”), that identifies Jesus as rightly receiving the worship due to God alone.
Mandarin rendering: 拜 (bài) or, in more formal doctrinal contexts, 敬拜 (jìngbài). Risk: Critical. This is a major cross-cultural collision point: 拜 is the exact same verb used throughout Chinese religious life for bowing to ancestors (拜祖先), bowing before idols in a temple (拜佛, 拜神), and honoring a wide range of venerated figures, without implying that the object is the one true, exclusive deity. Every occurrence in Matthew where Jesus is the object of 拜/敬拜 must be explicitly taught as the worship due to God alone (directly reinforcing the baseline’s Critical “Deity of Christ” doctrine) — not as one more instance of the broad, non-exclusive veneration that 拜 covers in ordinary Chinese religious practice.

βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων (basileus tōn Ioudaiōn) — “King of the Jews” [NEW]

Literal meaning: king of the Jewish people.
Semantic range: a royal-messianic title, used by the magi in earnest inquiry (2:2) and later mockingly by Pilate/soldiers at the crucifixion (27:11, 29, 37) — an inclusio bracketing the entire Gospel with kingship claims.
English variants: King of the Jews.
Contextual theological meaning: identifies Jesus’ kingship in specifically Davidic-messianic terms, recognized in worship by Gentiles at birth and mocked by both Jew and Gentile at his death, only to be vindicated at the resurrection.
Mandarin rendering: 犹太人的王 (Yóutàirén de wáng). Risk: High. Related to but distinct from the “Lord” (主) and “Son of God” (神的儿子) titles — must be taught as a genuine royal-messianic claim (not diminished as ironic or merely political), while also not being confused with a this-worldly, nationalist political kingship (cf. baseline’s “kingdom_of_god” note on avoiding 天下/dynastic framing).

πληρωθῇ (plērōthē) — “that it might be fulfilled” [NEW]

Literal meaning: πληρόω = to fill up, complete, fulfill.
Semantic range: Matthew’s recurring formula (“this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet…”) used at least 12 times across the Gospel (1:22; 2:15, 17, 23; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21:4; 26:56; 27:9; cf. 5:17) to mark specific OT texts as finding their intended, linear historical completion in Jesus.
English variants: fulfilled, was fulfilled, so that it might be fulfilled.
Contextual theological meaning: the technical vocabulary of Matthew’s central “Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy” doctrine — a one-time, linear, historical realization of a specific prior divine promise, not a repeatable pattern.
Mandarin rendering: 应验 (yìngyàn), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. Must be taught against the backdrop of the Chinese historiographical intuition of cyclical dynastic rise-and-fall (治乱循环, already flagged High in the baseline’s “fulfillment_of_prophecy” doctrine entry) — 应验 here names a linear, one-time, unrepeatable divine fulfillment of specific covenant promises, not a recurring pattern that could apply again to some future figure. This term recurs constantly through the whole Gospel and anchors the entire “Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy” curriculum doctrine.

Reuses without modification: 耶稣, 先知 (prophet), 以色列.

Matthew 3 — John the Baptist; Jesus’ Baptism

μετανοέω / μετάνοια (metanoeō / metanoia) — “repent / repentance” [NEW]

Literal meaning: μετά (change) + νοέω (to think/perceive) — a change of mind/heart resulting in a change of direction.
Semantic range: a decisive, God-ward reorientation of the whole person — mind, will, and life — in view of God’s coming kingdom and judgment; not mere regret or a single ritual act.
English variants: repent, repentance, turn from sin.
Contextual theological meaning: John’s foundational message (3:2, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”) and Jesus’ own inaugural preaching (4:17) — repentance is the necessary human response to the announced nearness of God’s reign.
Mandarin rendering: 悔改 (huǐgǎi), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. Must be distinguished from the Buddhist ritual-confession practice of 忏悔 (chànhuǐ), a formal rite performed (often before a monk, an image, or in community liturgy) to purify accumulated karma from past wrongdoing. Biblical repentance in Matthew is a relational turning toward the personal God in view of his kingdom, received through faith and grace, not a ritual technique that reduces the weight of a karmic ledger (연결 to the baseline’s Critical “grace” caution against 功德/阴德).

βαπτίζω / βάπτισμα (baptizō / baptisma) — “baptize / baptism” [NEW]

Literal meaning: to dip, immerse, wash.
Semantic range: John’s baptism = a one-time, public sign of repentance in view of the coming kingdom; Jesus’ own baptism = an act of righteous identification with sinners and public inauguration of his ministry, marked by the Father’s voice and the Spirit’s descent (3:16-17).
English variants: baptize, baptism, immerse.
Contextual theological meaning: baptism publicly marks repentance and, at Jesus’ own baptism, becomes the occasion of trinitarian revelation — Father (voice), Son (Jesus), and Spirit (dove) together — anticipating the baptismal formula of the Great Commission (28:19).
Mandarin rendering: 施洗 (verb, shīxǐ) / 洗礼 (noun, xǐlǐ) / 受洗 (to be baptized, shòuxǐ), all established CUV terms. Risk: Medium. Distinguish from ritual purification washing found in Daoist and folk-religious practice (e.g. purification rites before temple worship) or Buddhist ritual bathing of Buddha images (浴佛) — baptism here is a once-for-all sign of repentance and identification with Christ’s death and resurrection (cf. baseline “resurrection,” Critical), not a repeatable purification ritual removing accumulated impurity.

Φαρισαῖοι / Σαδδουκαῖοι (Pharisaioi / Saddoukaioi) — “Pharisees / Sadducees” [NEW]

Literal meaning: proper names of two distinct first-century Jewish religious/political parties.
Semantic range: Pharisees emphasized strict observance of the Law and oral tradition (see Ch. 15, 23); Sadducees were a smaller priestly-aristocratic party who rejected the resurrection and much of the oral tradition Pharisees held.
English variants: Pharisees, Sadducees.
Contextual theological meaning: both groups come under John’s warning (3:7) and later Jesus’ repeated confrontation; the Pharisees in particular become the foil for the curriculum’s “Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees” doctrine (developed fully in Ch. 5, 15, 23).
Mandarin rendering: 法利赛人 (Fǎlìsàirén) / 撒都该人 (Sādūgāirén), established CUV transliterations. Risk: Medium (Pharisees) / Low (Sadducees). Note for Pharisees: risk is not primarily a folk-religion collision but a catechetical one — if taught only as flat villains or “hypocrites” without historical nuance (see Ch. 23’s 假冒为善的人), students may miss that the Pharisees were sincere, respected law-keepers, making Jesus’ critique of surpassing their righteousness (5:20) a substantive and demanding standard rather than a simple contrast with obvious wrongdoers.

Kingdom of heaven (天国, 3:2) reused; see 5:3 above for full definition.

Matthew 4 — Temptation of Jesus; Beginning of Ministry

πειρασμός (peirasmos) — “temptation” [NEW]

Literal meaning: a testing, trial, temptation.
Semantic range: ranges from a neutral “trial/test” to the specific sense of enticement to sin; here Satan’s deliberate attempt to induce Jesus to sin and abandon his mission.
English variants: temptation, testing, trial.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus, as the true and faithful Son (echoing Israel’s wilderness testing), successfully resists every temptation by Scripture-grounded obedience, establishing his qualification as the sinless representative and inaugurating the pattern of Scripture-based resistance to evil.
Mandarin rendering: 试探 (shìtàn), established CUV rendering. Risk: Medium. Low folk-religion collision risk; primary teaching need is simply clarity that this is a genuine, real testing of Jesus’ obedience, not a mere literary device.

διάβολος (diabolos) — “the devil” [NEW]; Σατανᾶς (Satanas) — “Satan” [NEW]

Literal meaning: διάβολος = slanderer, accuser; Σατανᾶς = transliteration of Hebrew/Aramaic “adversary.”
Semantic range: the personal, malevolent spiritual being who opposes God and his purposes; the same figure named by both terms throughout the NT.
English variants: the devil, Satan, the tempter, the evil one.
Contextual theological meaning: a real, personal spiritual adversary directly confronts Jesus, who overcomes him through Scripture and obedience — establishing the reality of spiritual conflict that continues through the Gospel (e.g. 13:39, “the enemy… is the devil”).
Mandarin rendering: 魔鬼 (móguǐ) / 撒但 (Sādàn), established CUV terms. Risk: High. 魔鬼 contains the character 鬼 (guǐ, “ghost”), which in Chinese folk religion denotes wandering, often morally neutral or pitiable, spirits of the dead (as distinct from ancestral spirits properly venerated, or malevolent spirits requiring ritual appeasement/exorcism by a folk practitioner). Teaching must clarify that the biblical devil is not a wandering ghost, a hungry ghost (饿鬼) requiring ritual placation, or one spirit among many in a folk spirit-world, but a specific, personal, powerful, and already-doomed created being in active rebellion against the one true God — best kept anchored to the transliteration 撒但 in doctrinally weighty contexts to avoid the 鬼-associations of 魔鬼 alone.

Kingdom of heaven (天国) reused. “Fishers of men” (4:19) — evangelistic metaphor, low risk, no separate entry required.

Matthew 5 (13-48) — Salt, Light, and the Antitheses (continuing from the core passage above)

Verses 1-12 receive full verse-by-verse treatment in Part A above. This section covers 5:13-48.

πληρῶσαι (plērōsai, of the Law, 5:17) — “fulfill” [same root as 应验 above, applied to Jesus’ relationship to the Law rather than to a specific predictive text]

Contextual theological meaning: Jesus does not abolish the Law and Prophets (律法, baseline High risk) but fulfills them — completing their intent and trajectory in his person and teaching. Reuses 应验/成全 word-family; render as 成全 (chéngquán, “to complete/fulfill”) in this specific verse per CUV convention, distinct from the prophecy-fulfillment formula 应验 used for predictive texts. Risk: High, since conflating “fulfill the Law” with “abolish the Law” (a real interpretive temptation) would undercut both the authority of the OT Law (baseline High) and Jesus’ unique authority to complete it.

τέλειος (teleios) — “perfect” [NEW, 5:48]

Literal meaning: complete, whole, mature, having reached its intended goal.
Semantic range: not primarily “flawless performance” but “wholeness/completeness” of character corresponding to its intended end — here, likeness to the Father’s own perfect character (5:45-48).
English variants: perfect, complete, mature.
Contextual theological meaning: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” caps the antitheses, calling disciples to a righteousness patterned after God’s own indiscriminate love (5:44-45), fulfilling rather than replacing the Law’s intent.
Mandarin rendering: 完全 (wánquán), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. This command sits directly beside the same collision the baseline flags Critical for 成圣 (sanctification): 完全 could easily be absorbed into the Neo-Confucian ideal of self-cultivated moral perfection (a process of personal effort toward sagehood) rather than being taught as a Spirit-enabled, grace-grounded reflection of the Father’s character already given to those in the kingdom (5:3-10) — this command must never be presented as a merit-earning path to divine favor, but as the fruit of already-received kingdom identity.

ἀγαπάω / ἀγάπη (agapaō / agapē) — “love” [NEW, 5:44, developed further at 22:37-39]

Literal meaning: to love, to value and act for the good of another; the corresponding noun for such love.
Semantic range: in Matthew this ranges from God’s own indiscriminate, self-giving love (“love your enemies,” 5:44; “he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good,” 5:45) to the Great Commandment’s command to love God with the whole self and to love neighbor “as yourself” (22:37-39).
English variants: love, charity (older usage).
Contextual theological meaning: the defining ethic of kingdom righteousness — not natural affection or reciprocal loyalty, but deliberate, costly good-will extended even to enemies, patterned after God’s own character.
Mandarin rendering: 爱 (ài). Risk: High. Ordinary Mandarin 爱 covers an extremely broad semantic range — romantic love, parental affection, generic fondness for objects or activities (我爱吃面 “I love eating noodles”) — with none of the specificity of ἀγάπη’s deliberate, self-giving, even enemy-directed sense. Every doctrinally load-bearing occurrence (5:44; 22:37-39) requires context that makes clear this is not sentiment or attraction but a decisive commitment to seek another’s good, modeled on God’s own character, extended even to those who cannot or will not reciprocate.

Reuses: 律法 (Law, High). “Salt of the earth”/“light of the world” (5:13-16) are vivid metaphors with low doctrinal-collision risk; no separate glossary entry required beyond noting their function as calls to visible, distinctive kingdom living.

Matthew 6 — The Lord’s Prayer; Piety; Anxiety

ὑποκριτής (hypokritēs) — “hypocrite” [NEW]

Literal meaning: originally a stage actor, one who plays a role/wears a mask; by extension, one who feigns a virtue or identity they do not possess.
Semantic range: a person whose outward religious performance (almsgiving, prayer, fasting) is calculated for human approval rather than flowing from genuine devotion to God.
English variants: hypocrite, pretender, actor.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus repeatedly warns against practicing righteousness “to be seen by others” (6:1-18) — genuine righteousness is oriented toward God, who sees in secret, not toward public reputation.
Mandarin rendering: 假冒为善的人 (jiǎmào wéishàn de rén), established CUV phrase (literally “one who fakes goodness”). Risk: Medium. Note connection to 面子 (miànzi, “face”/social reputation), already flagged in the baseline under “glory” — hypocrisy in Matthew 6 is precisely the substitution of face-preservation for genuine devotion to God, a live cultural dynamic worth naming explicitly rather than leaving implicit.

Μαμωνᾶς (Mamōnas) — “mammon” [NEW]

Literal meaning: Aramaic term for wealth, riches, property.
Semantic range: personified in 6:24 as a rival master (“You cannot serve God and mammon”) — wealth treated as a functional god demanding total allegiance.
English variants: mammon, money, wealth (as a rival master).
Contextual theological meaning: wealth is presented not as neutral but as a personified rival claimant on ultimate loyalty, competing directly with God for a disciple’s heart.
Mandarin rendering: 玛门 (Mǎmén), established CUV transliteration. Risk: High. This confronts a genuine devotional reality in Chinese folk religion: 财神 (Cáishén, the God of Wealth) is one of the most widely and enthusiastically venerated folk deities, especially around the Lunar New Year, with dedicated temples, home altars, and specific worship rituals for securing prosperity. Teaching Matthew 6:24 in this context is not an abstract warning against greed in general but a direct confrontation with an active devotional practice familiar to many Mandarin-speaking readers; care must be taken neither to trivialize this collision nor to imply that all desire for provision is sinful (cf. 6:11, “give us this day our daily bread,” reusing 父/Father).

ἀφίημι (aphiēmi) — “forgive” [NEW, 6:12, 14-15]

Literal meaning: to let go, release, send away; used of releasing a debt or an offense.
Semantic range: relational release of a wrong committed against oneself, modeled directly on and made conditional upon receiving God’s own forgiveness (“forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who are in debt to us,” 6:12).
English variants: forgive, release, remit (a debt).
Contextual theological meaning: forgiveness is reciprocal and relational — disciples who have received God’s forgiveness are expected to extend it to others; developed further in the church-discipline context of Ch. 18.
Mandarin rendering: 饶恕 (ráoshù) / in the sin-specific noun form 赦免 (shèmiǎn), established CUV terms. Risk: Medium. Distinguish from the karmic-debt-cancellation intuition where “debt” language could be absorbed into a merit-ledger framework (报应/功德, already flagged in the baseline); biblical forgiveness is a relational, personal release grounded in God’s own prior grace, not a mechanical cancellation of accumulated cosmic debt.

Reuses: 父 (Father, 6:6, 9), the Lord’s Prayer’s “kingdom” reference (6:10, 天国 reused); 6:33 “seek first the kingdom of God” uses βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ — this is the baseline’s REUSE term 神的国 (Medium risk) — cross-reference the note under 5:3 above: 天国 and 神的国 in Matthew name the identical divine reign.

Matthew 7 — Judging Others; the Narrow Gate; Authority of Teaching

ἐξουσία (exousia) — “authority” [NEW, formally marked at 7:29 but present implicitly through the ch. 5 antitheses]

Literal meaning: the right, warrant, or freedom to act; delegated or inherent power to command.
Semantic range: distinct from δύναμις (“power/ability,” cf. baseline “power_of_god” 神的大能), ἐξουσία denotes the right to act or command, not merely the capacity. Used throughout Matthew of Jesus’ teaching (7:29), his authority to forgive and heal (9:6, 8), his authority over demons delegated to the Twelve (10:1), his authority challenged by chief priests (21:23-27), and climactically, his universal authority given at the resurrection (28:18, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”).
English variants: authority, power, right.
Contextual theological meaning: the narrator’s editorial comment at 7:28-29 — “the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” — names precisely the curriculum’s “Authority of Jesus’ Teaching” doctrine: Jesus teaches with an inherent, self-authenticating authority that does not derive from citing prior rabbinic tradition (unlike the scribes, who taught by appeal to accumulated precedent).
Mandarin rendering: 权柄 (quánbǐng), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. Must be kept distinct from raw coercive power (权力, secular/political force) and from the forbidden supernatural-power terms already flagged Critical in the baseline (气, 法力, 神通) — Jesus’ ἐξουσία is a unique, inherent divine right to teach, forgive, heal, and ultimately govern, not a mystical force or a delegated political mandate analogous to the Mandate of Heaven (already flagged Critical under baseline “called”/“election”). Every occurrence in a Christological context (7:29; 9:6; 21:23-27; 28:18) should be flagged for review given its direct bearing on the Deity of Christ and Authority-of-Teaching doctrines.

γραμματεῖς (grammateis) — “scribes” [NEW, first formally contrasted with Jesus at 7:29]

Literal meaning: professional copyists/experts in the Law, scholars trained in interpreting and applying the Torah and its oral tradition.
Semantic range: a recognized teaching class whose authority derived from training and citation of accumulated tradition (see also Ch. 15, 23).
English variants: scribes, teachers of the law, lawyers.
Contextual theological meaning: the scribes’ derivative, tradition-based teaching authority is the foil against which Jesus’ inherent authority (ἐξουσία) is measured and found categorically different.
Mandarin rendering: 文士 (wénshì), established CUV rendering. Risk: Low.

Reuses: 先知 (prophets, “false prophets” 7:15).

Matthew 8 — Healing Miracles; the Son of Man; Following Jesus

υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (huios tou anthrōpou) — “Son of Man” [NEW, first occurrence 8:20]

Literal meaning: a Semitic idiom that can mean simply “a human being,” but in Daniel 7:13-14 names a specific figure “coming with the clouds of heaven” who is given everlasting dominion, glory, and a kingdom by God.
Semantic range: Jesus’ most frequent self-designation in the Gospels (used ~30 times in Matthew), deliberately drawing on the Daniel 7 figure to claim divine authority and future glory while remaining genuinely human and, in his earthly ministry, one who has “nowhere to lay his head” (8:20) and must suffer (16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 26:2).
English variants: Son of Man.
Contextual theological meaning: a paradoxical title uniting genuine humanity (weakness, homelessness, suffering, death) with the Daniel 7 claim to receive universal, everlasting dominion and glory from God — climactically claimed at the Sanhedrin trial (26:64) and the Great Commission (28:18-20, “all authority… has been given to me”).
Mandarin rendering: 人子 (rénzǐ), established CUV rendering. Risk: Critical. The single greatest risk here is under-translation of significance: 人子 could easily be heard as simply “a human being” or a humble self-reference emphasizing Jesus’ ordinariness, entirely missing the Daniel 7 background in which “one like a son of man” is a heavenly, authoritative, dominion-receiving figure. It must also not be confused with the Confucian ideal of 君子 (“the noble/exemplary man,” a moral achievement category) — 人子 is a specific apocalyptic-messianic title claiming divine authority and coming glory, held in tension with genuine, humble humanity, not a moral-exemplar title earned by virtue.

κλαυθμὸς καὶ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων (klauthmos kai brygmos tōn odontōn) — “weeping and gnashing of teeth” [NEW, first occurrence 8:12]

Literal meaning: κλαυθμός = weeping, wailing; βρυγμός τῶν ὀδόντων = grinding/gnashing of the teeth.
Semantic range: a fixed idiom (recurring at 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30) for the anguish and rage of final, decisive exclusion from the kingdom feast, spoken specifically of “the sons of the kingdom” who are cast out (8:12) — a sobering warning against presumed covenant privilege.
English variants: weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Contextual theological meaning: vivid, embodied imagery of final, conscious, remorseful exclusion from God’s kingdom — an early and recurring marker of the “Judgment and the End of the Age” doctrine.
Mandarin rendering: 哀哭切齿 (āikū qièchǐ), established CUV phrase. Risk: Medium. Must be taught as a real, future, final state of judgment (see “eternal punishment,” Ch. 25 below) and not softened into a merely rhetorical or this-worldly image of temporary regret.

Reuses: 信心 (faith, “little faith” throughout 8:26 etc.); Son of David reused at 9:27.

Matthew 9 — Calling of Matthew; Further Healings

No genuinely new load-bearing theological term beyond the reuse of previously defined vocabulary: authority (权柄, 9:6, 8, forgiving sins), faith (信心), Son of David (大卫的子孙, 9:27), and forgiveness of sins (anticipating the fuller treatment at 26:28). The “harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few” (9:37-38) is a mission-mobilization metaphor of low doctrinal-collision risk, thematically anticipating the Great Commission (Ch. 28) but not introducing new load-bearing vocabulary.

Matthew 10 — Sending of the Twelve

σταυρός (stauros) — “cross” [NEW, first occurrence 10:38]

Literal meaning: an upright wooden execution stake/beam on which the Roman state executed criminals and rebels.
Semantic range: from a literal instrument of Roman capital punishment to, by extension, the entire complex of shame, suffering, and death associated with it — used by Jesus metaphorically for the cost of discipleship well before his own crucifixion is narrated (10:38; 16:24), and literally at the crucifixion itself (Ch. 27).
English variants: cross.
Contextual theological meaning: “whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (10:38) — establishes the “Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus” doctrine in the sharpest possible terms: identification with Jesus may cost one’s social standing, family relationships, and even life itself, prefiguring Jesus’ own path to Calvary.
Mandarin rendering: 十字架 (shízìjià), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. Must retain its specific referent — a shameful, state-sanctioned instrument of execution voluntarily taken up — and not be flattened into a generic metaphor for “life’s burdens” (人生的负担) detached from its connection to actual suffering, social cost, and Jesus’ own atoning death (Ch. 27, 20:28).

ψυχή (psychē) — “life/soul” [NEW, first occurrence 10:39; reused 16:25-26]

Literal meaning: soul, life, self — the whole living person, not merely a detachable “spirit-part.”
Semantic range: in 10:39 and 16:25-26, ψυχή denotes one’s whole life/self, staked either on self-preservation or on losing it for Christ’s sake and thereby truly finding/keeping it.
English variants: life, soul, self.
Contextual theological meaning: “whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (10:39) — the paradox of discipleship: self-preservation is self-destruction, while self-surrender to Christ is true self-preservation.
Mandarin rendering: 生命 (shēngmìng), established CUV rendering in this context (rather than 灵魂, “soul” as a detachable spirit-substance). Risk: Medium. Distinguish from the Daoist/folk concept of a detachable soul-substance (灵魂, or the folk-Daoist “three hun and seven po” 三魂七魄) that can wander, be lost, or reincarnate — ψυχή here names one’s whole life/self at stake before God, not a metaphysical soul-substance undergoing transmigration (cf. baseline’s Critical caution against 轮回/投胎 under “resurrection”).

Reuses: 使徒 (apostle, 10:2), 天国 (kingdom of heaven, 10:7).

Matthew 11 — John the Baptist’s Question; Jesus’ Invitation

ζυγός (zygos) — “yoke” [NEW]

Literal meaning: the wooden crosspiece binding a pair of draft animals (typically oxen) together for plowing.
Semantic range: metaphorically, a burden of obligation or teaching under which one lives/labors — in Jewish usage, “the yoke of the Torah” or “the yoke of the kingdom” for a rabbi’s system of interpretation and demand.
English variants: yoke, burden of teaching.
Contextual theological meaning: “Take my yoke upon you… for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (11:29-30) — contrasts the crushing weight of Pharisaic tradition (developed in Ch. 15, 23) with the relationally light demand of following Jesus himself.
Mandarin rendering: 轭 (è), established CUV rendering. Risk: Medium. Primarily a comprehension challenge (agricultural imagery unfamiliar to many urban readers) rather than a syncretism risk; teaching should supply the plowing-imagery background explicitly.

ἀνάπαυσις (anapausis) — “rest” [NEW]

Literal meaning: rest, respite, cessation from labor.
Semantic range: relational, personal rest found specifically “for your souls” (ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν, reusing 生命/soul concept above) by coming to Jesus and submitting to his yoke.
English variants: rest, relief.
Contextual theological meaning: rest is not the absence of all obligation but a relational reality found in and through submission to Christ’s easy yoke — a distinctly Christ-centered, relational rest.
Mandarin rendering: 安息 (ānxī), established CUV rendering. Risk: Medium. Distinguish from the Daoist ideal of effortless non-striving (无为, wúwéi) or the Buddhist goal of extinguishing craving to reach a cessation of suffering (nirvana-adjacent concepts) — the rest Jesus offers is relational communion with a person under his teaching authority (权柄, Ch. 7), not the dissolution of desire or self through a spiritual technique.

Reuses: 基督/Messiah language implicit in “the one who is to come” (11:3).

Matthew 12 — Sabbath Controversies; the Unforgivable Sin

βλασφημία (blasphēmia) — “blasphemy [against the Holy Spirit]” [NEW]

Literal meaning: slanderous, defaming speech, especially against God.
Semantic range: ranges from ordinary slander to the specific, unforgivable “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” (12:31-32) — attributing the Spirit’s manifestly good, God-glorifying work to an evil source, a settled, willful rejection of the Spirit’s testimony to Jesus.
English variants: blasphemy, slander against God.
Contextual theological meaning: the one sin Jesus names as categorically unforgivable — not because God’s grace has a limit, but because such a person has hardened themselves against the very Spirit-given means by which anyone repents and believes.
Mandarin rendering: 亵渎 (xièdú), established CUV rendering, paired with 圣灵 (baseline Critical reuse). Risk: Critical. This is a weighty and pastorally sensitive doctrine — mistranslation or under-explanation risks either (a) inducing needless despair in troubled consciences who fear they have committed this sin merely by doubting, or (b) trivializing a genuine, categorical warning. Must always be taught precisely: settled, willful, Spirit-resistant rejection of Jesus’ identity as attested by the Spirit’s own work, not momentary doubt or ordinary sin.

Reuses: 天国 (kingdom of God/heaven, 12:28, using βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ — reuse baseline 神的国, cross-referencing the equivalence note under 5:3), 圣灵 (Holy Spirit), Son of Man (人子, 12:8, “lord of the sabbath”), sign of Jonah anticipates resurrection (复活, Ch. 12:40, reuse baseline Critical term).

Matthew 13 — Parables of the Kingdom

παραβολή (parabolē) — “parable” [NEW]

Literal meaning: a placing of one thing beside another; a comparison, illustrative story.
Semantic range: in Matthew, Jesus’ characteristic teaching form for kingdom truths — stories that simultaneously reveal truth to receptive hearers and conceal it from the hard-hearted (13:10-17, citing Isaiah 6:9-10).
English variants: parable.
Contextual theological meaning: parables are Jesus’ chosen vehicle for teaching kingdom-of-heaven truths (13:24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, etc.) in ways that require spiritually receptive hearing, not mere intellectual cleverness.
Mandarin rendering: 比喻 (bǐyù), established CUV rendering. Risk: Low. Note distinguish from a generic fable (寓言) whose point is a self-evident, universally accessible moral lesson; biblical parables carry revelatory, kingdom-specific content that requires spiritual receptivity to understand (13:11-13), not merely literary cleverness to decode.

μυστήριον (mystērion) — “mystery” [NEW, 13:11, 35]

Literal meaning: a secret, something hidden and only known to the initiated.
Semantic range: in biblical usage, truth formerly hidden in God’s purposes but now disclosed by God’s own revelatory act — “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (13:11) given to the disciples specifically.
English variants: mystery, secret, hidden truth (now revealed).
Contextual theological meaning: the parables disclose previously hidden aspects of God’s kingdom purposes, given by grace to those with “ears to hear,” not deduced by human speculation.
Mandarin rendering: 奥秘 (àomì), established CUV rendering. Risk: Medium. Distinguish from esoteric occult “secret knowledge” traditions — e.g., Daoist inner-alchemy secrets (丹道秘诀) transmitted only to advanced initiates through technique and lineage — biblical mystery is a truth God himself graciously discloses through revelation, not a technique-gated secret reserved for spiritual elites who have earned advanced initiation.

συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος (synteleia tou aiōnos) — “end of the age” [NEW, first occurrence 13:39-40, 49; reused throughout Ch. 24-25, 28]

Literal meaning: συντέλεια = completion, consummation; αἰών = age, era.
Semantic range: the final, decisive consummation of the present age at Christ’s return, when the kingdom parables’ harvest imagery (wheat and tares, 13:24-30, 36-43) resolves into final separation and judgment.
English variants: end of the age, consummation of the age, close of the age.
Contextual theological meaning: names the terminus of history as Matthew’s curriculum understands it — a single, final, linear event, not one of an endless series of cosmic-age cycles.
Mandarin rendering: 世界的末了 (shìjiè de mòliǎo), established CUV phrase. Risk: High. Must be distinguished from the Buddhist concept of a kalpa (劫, jié) — an immense cosmic age that ends and is followed by another cosmic age in an endless cycle — and from the cyclical dynastic-historiography pattern (治乱循环) already flagged High under the baseline’s “fulfillment_of_prophecy” doctrine. Biblical “end of the age” is final and singular: history moves toward one decisive consummation under God’s judgment and the establishment of the new creation, not an endless wheel of ages.

Reuses: 哀哭切齿 (weeping and gnashing of teeth, 13:42, 50).

Matthew 14 — Death of John the Baptist; Feeding of the 5,000; Walking on Water

No new load-bearing theological vocabulary; this chapter reuses previously established terms: Son of God (神的儿子, 14:33, “truly you are the Son of God”), worship (拜/敬拜, 14:33), faith/little faith (信心, 14:31), kingdom themes implicit in the feeding miracle’s echo of God’s provision. Reviewed and confirmed: no new terms requiring separate entries.

Matthew 15 — Tradition vs. Commandment; the Canaanite Woman

παράδοσις τῶν πρεσβυτέρων (paradosis tōn presbyterōn) — “tradition of the elders” [NEW]

Literal meaning: παράδοσις = that which is handed down, transmitted teaching; πρεσβύτεροι = elders.
Semantic range: the accumulated body of oral interpretive tradition surrounding the written Torah, treated by the Pharisees as binding.
English variants: tradition of the elders, human tradition.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for elevating human tradition to a level that can actually nullify God’s own commandment (15:3-6) — a direct component of the “Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees” doctrine: true righteousness obeys God’s actual word, not merely accumulated human custom presented as equally authoritative.
Mandarin rendering: 古人的遗传 (gǔrén de yíchuán), established CUV phrase. Risk: Medium. Requires careful cultural handling: Chinese culture places very strong positive value on ancestral tradition and filial deference to elders (孝, xiào) as core moral virtues. Teaching this passage must be precise that Jesus critiques specific traditions that nullify God’s commandment, not reverence for elders or tradition as such — an imprecise rendering or under-explained teaching could be heard as a blanket rejection of respect for ancestors and inherited wisdom, provoking unnecessary offense or, conversely, licensing a wholesale dismissal of all tradition that goes beyond the text’s actual claim.

κοινός (koinos, “common/defiled,” 15:11) — “unclean/defiled” [NEW]

Literal meaning: common, ordinary; by extension, ritually unclean/defiled.
Semantic range: Jesus relocates the source of defilement from external ritual/dietary categories to the internal condition of the heart (15:11, 18-20) — “what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a person,” not what is eaten.
English variants: unclean, defiled, common.
Contextual theological meaning: redefines ritual purity categories in moral-relational terms, anticipating the fuller NT teaching (developed elsewhere in the canon) that ceremonial food laws do not determine standing before God — moral/heart purity does.
Mandarin rendering: 污秽 (wūhuì). Risk: Medium. Must be distinguished from ritual/geomantic impurity concepts in Chinese folk practice (e.g., inauspicious objects, feng shui pollution, or ritual impurity requiring a cleansing rite) — biblical defilement here is a moral-relational category located in the heart, not a ritual or cosmic-energetic contamination requiring a purification technique.

Reuses: 信心 (faith, “great is your faith,” 15:28), 法利赛人 (Pharisees).

Matthew 16 — Peter’s Confession; the Church; the First Passion Prediction

κλεῖς τῆς βασιλείας (kleis tēs basileias) — “keys of the kingdom” [NEW]

Literal meaning: κλεῖς = key(s); τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν = of the kingdom of heaven.
Semantic range: a figure of delegated administrative/stewardship authority (cf. Isaiah 22:22), granted here to Peter (and, by extension in Ch. 18, to the gathered church) to open/declare the terms of entry into the kingdom through gospel proclamation.
English variants: keys of the kingdom.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus grants Peter (representatively, the apostolic church) authority to declare, on Christ’s authority, who enters the kingdom through the gospel he confesses (16:16-19) — foundational to the curriculum’s “Church and Church Discipline” doctrine.
Mandarin rendering: 天国的钥匙 (tiānguó de yàoshi). Risk: High. Risk of conflation with folk-Buddhist/folk-religious imagery of gatekeepers controlling access to the afterlife (e.g., the judges and gatekeepers of the underworld courts, 阎王/地府 imagery, in Chinese folk-Buddhist eschatology) or with a magical/ritual “key” that a religious specialist wields to control blessing on behalf of petitioners. Must be taught as declarative, gospel-proclaiming authority exercised under and derived entirely from Christ’s own authority (ἐξουσία, Ch. 7), not independent priestly power to admit or bar people from heaven by ritual means.

δέω / λύω (deō / lyō, “bind/loose,” 16:19; reused 18:18) — “bind / loose” [NEW]

Literal meaning: δέω = to bind, tie; λύω = to loose, release, untie.
Semantic range: a rabbinic idiom for authoritative teaching decisions — declaring an act forbidden (“bound”) or permitted (“loosed”) according to God’s law, here extended to the church’s authority regarding admission to and discipline within the covenant community.
English variants: bind and loose.
Contextual theological meaning: the church, under Christ’s authority, exercises real, heaven-ratified authority in doctrine and discipline (developed fully in Ch. 18’s church-discipline procedure) — declaring on earth what heaven has already determined, not inventing new terms independently.
Mandarin rendering: 捆绑 (kǔnbǎng) / 释放 (shìfàng), established CUV terms. Risk: High. Must not be read through the lens of Daoist/folk-religious ritual binding practices — e.g. talismanic binding-spells (符咒) used by Daoist or folk-religious practitioners to bind or release spirits, curses, or fates through ritual technique. Biblical “binding and loosing” is the church’s Spirit-guided, Scripture-grounded declaration of what God has already determined regarding sin, forgiveness, and covenant membership — corporate, derivative, accountable authority, not individual magical/ritual power.

ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) — “church” [REUSE — Romans TM, 教会, baseline Medium risk; first Gospel occurrence, 16:18]

Contextual note for Matthew: “I will build my church” (16:18) — Jesus himself announces the founding of this new community upon the apostolic confession of his identity as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16, reusing baseline Critical terms 基督 and 神的儿子). Cross-reference the baseline’s caution against 庙/寺/道观 (temple terminology): Jesus’ church is a people, not a building, gathered around confession of his identity, actively opposed by “the gates of Hades” yet guaranteed to prevail.

Reuses: 复活 (resurrection, first Passion prediction, 16:21), 十字架 (cross, 16:24), 生命 (soul/life, 16:25-26, “what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul/生命”), Son of Man (人子, 16:13, 27-28).

Matthew 17 — The Transfiguration

No fundamentally new theological term. Reuses: 荣耀 (glory, 17:2, 5 — baseline Medium risk, reinforced here as visible divine radiance confirming Jesus’ Sonship), 神的儿子 (Son of God, 17:5, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him”), 信心 (faith, 17:20, “faith like a mustard seed”). Reviewed; no new glossary entries required.

Matthew 18 — Church Discipline; Forgiveness

ἀδελφός (adelphos) — “brother [in the technical church-discipline sense]” [NEW technical sense of an ordinary word]

Literal meaning: brother (biological or, by extension, close kinship/clan relation).
Semantic range: in 18:15-17, ἀδελφός shifts from a general kinship term to a technical designation for a fellow member of the covenant community — “if your brother sins against you,” “if he refuses to listen… tell it to the church.”
English variants: brother, fellow believer.
Contextual theological meaning: establishes the relational category within which church discipline operates — a graduated process (private confrontation, then two or three witnesses, then the whole church) aimed at restoration, grounded in genuine covenant-family relationship, not mere social or clan obligation.
Mandarin rendering: 兄弟 (xiōngdì). Risk: Medium. In this technical sense, must be distinguished from Chinese clan-based sworn-brotherhood bonds (结拜, already flagged in the baseline under “fellowship” as a ritualized brotherhood pact, e.g. the Peach Garden oath) and from biological/lineage brotherhood carrying inheritance and ancestor-rite obligations — “brother” here names a Spirit-given relationship within the confessing church community, the proper locus for the loving, restorative discipline process this chapter describes, reusing 教会/church (16:17-18) and 捆绑/释放 (bind/loose, 18:18, reused exactly from Ch. 16).

Reuses: 饶恕/赦免 (forgive, developed further in the parable of the unforgiving servant, 18:21-35), 教会 (church).

Matthew 19 — Marriage, Divorce, and the Rich Young Man

ζωὴ αἰώνιος (zōē aiōnios) — “eternal life” [NEW, first occurrence 19:16]

Literal meaning: ζωή = life; αἰώνιος = age-lasting, pertaining to the age (to come), everlasting.
Semantic range: not merely unending temporal duration but the fullness of resurrection life in the age to come, in restored relationship with God — the object of the rich young man’s question, and the promised outcome of following Jesus at whatever cost (19:29).
English variants: eternal life, everlasting life, life of the age to come.
Contextual theological meaning: the ultimate hope held out to genuine disciples, received not through merit-earning obedience to a checklist (as the rich young man assumed) but through following Jesus in costly, total allegiance — directly tied to the curriculum’s “Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus” doctrine.
Mandarin rendering: 永生 (yǒngshēng), established CUV rendering. Risk: Critical. This term collides directly with one of the most prominent themes in Chinese religious and literary culture: the Daoist/folk quest for physical immortality and eternal youth (长生不老, chángshēng bùlǎo, “long life without aging”), pursued through alchemy, elixirs, breathing techniques (气功), and legendary quests (e.g. the First Emperor’s search for the elixir of immortality) — a major motif across Chinese mythology, literature, and folk religion. Biblical 永生 must be taught as resurrection life in restored relationship with God through Christ, received by grace-empowered faith and costly discipleship, categorically different from the extension of present biological life through human technique or substance.

Reuses: no other new terms; “what God has joined together” (19:6) and the rich young man narrative reuse established categories (律法/commandments, implicit 罪).

Matthew 20 — Laborers in the Vineyard; the Third Passion Prediction

λύτρον (lytron) — “ransom” [NEW, 20:28]

Literal meaning: the price paid to redeem/release a slave or captive; a ransom-price.
Semantic range: in 20:28, “the Son of Man came… to give his life as a ransom for many” — Jesus’ death is presented as the price paid to secure the release of many from bondage (implicitly, bondage to sin and its consequences).
English variants: ransom, redemption price.
Contextual theological meaning: one of Matthew’s most concentrated atonement statements — Christ’s death is substitutionary and price-paying, securing release for “many,” directly undergirding the curriculum’s doctrines of the Kingdom, Messiah, and (via the broader Romans-anchored curriculum) Salvation and Grace.
Mandarin rendering: 赎价 (shújià), established CUV rendering. Risk: Critical. A specific and significant collision risk exists with the Chinese Buddhist folk-merit practice of 放生 (fàngshēng, “releasing life”) — purchasing captive animals (birds, fish, turtles) and releasing them as a meritorious ritual act, sometimes explicitly described as “redeeming a life” (赎命) to accrue merit or offset bad karma. This practice shares surface vocabulary (赎, redeem) with the biblical ransom concept while operating on an entirely different logic: a human ritual generating merit for the practitioner, rather than Christ’s own once-for-all substitutionary death paying the price for others’ sin, received by faith apart from merit (reinforcing the baseline’s Critical grace/merit distinction). This must be explicitly and carefully taught, not merely assumed.

Reuses: Son of David (大卫的子孙, 20:30-31).

Matthew 21 — Triumphal Entry; Cleansing the Temple; Parable of the Tenants

κεφαλὴ γωνίας (kephalē gōnias) — “cornerstone” [NEW, 21:42, citing Psalm 118:22]

Literal meaning: “head of the corner” — the principal foundation stone at the corner of a building, upon which the structural integrity of the whole depends.
Semantic range: a messianic image applied to Jesus, the stone rejected by human builders (Israel’s leaders) who becomes, by God’s own action, the indispensable foundation of the new building (the church).
English variants: cornerstone, chief stone, head of the corner.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus’ rejection by the religious authorities does not thwart but paradoxically fulfills God’s own building plan — a key image tying together the Messianic Promise and Church doctrines.
Mandarin rendering: 房角石 (fángjiǎoshí), established CUV rendering. Risk: Medium. Primarily a comprehension-support term (architectural background needed for full clarity); moderate risk that readers might read it as a generic “important/foundational” metaphor without grasping the specific messianic-rejection-then-vindication narrative behind it.

Reuses: 大卫的子孙 (Son of David, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” 21:9, 15), 天国/神的国 (kingdom of heaven/God, 21:31, 43, reusing both established terms and their equivalence note).

Matthew 22 — Parable of the Wedding Feast; the Greatest Commandment

ἐκλεκτός (eklektos) — “chosen / elect” [NEW, 22:14; reused at 24:22, 24, 31]

Literal meaning: chosen out, selected.
Semantic range: the adjectival form corresponding to the baseline’s noun “election” (ἐκλογή, 拣选); “many are called (κλητοί, reuse baseline 蒙召的) but few are chosen (ἐκλεκτοί)” (22:14) — distinguishes a general invitation from the smaller number who are effectually, savingly chosen.
English variants: chosen, elect.
Contextual theological meaning: God’s sovereign, personal choice determines final membership among those who respond genuinely to the kingdom invitation, distinct from those who receive the outward call but do not respond in genuine faith (illustrated by the wedding guest improperly dressed, 22:11-13).
Mandarin rendering: 蒙拣选的 (méng jiǎnxuǎn de), built directly on the baseline’s fixed root 拣选 (jiǎnxuǎn, election, High risk) for consistency across the whole curriculum. Risk: High, matching the baseline’s risk tier for the “election” doctrine — must not be rendered with any term suggesting impersonal fate, luck, or a karma-determined outcome (baseline’s rejected alternatives 天命/命运/缘分 apply equally here).

Reuses: 蒙召的 (called, 22:14), 爱 (love, in the Great Commandment, 22:37-39, reusing the full risk-note from Ch. 5), 神的国 (kingdom of God, implicit in the broader discourse).

Matthew 23 — Woes to the Pharisees and Scribes

οὐαί (ouai) — “woe” [NEW]

Literal meaning: an interjection of lament/pronounced judgment — “woe,” “alas.”
Semantic range: a prophetic pronouncement of coming judgment upon a specific party for specific sins, distinct from a curse invoked by a practitioner.
English variants: woe, alas.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus’ repeated “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (23:13ff.) functions as a solemn prophetic indictment, continuing the OT prophetic tradition (reusing 先知/prophet) of pronouncing God’s judgment on covenant-breaking leaders.
Mandarin rendering: 祸 (huò), established CUV rendering. Risk: Medium. Distinguish from a folk-religious curse (咒, zhòu) invoked ritually by a practitioner to bring misfortune upon a target; “woe” here is a prophetic, God-authorized pronouncement of coming judgment based on actual sin, not a magical incantation.

Reuses: 假冒为善的人 (hypocrites, Ch. 6), 法利赛人 (Pharisees, Ch. 3), 文士 (scribes, Ch. 7), 天国 (kingdom of heaven, 23:13, “you shut the kingdom of heaven against people”). This chapter intensifies but does not introduce new doctrinal vocabulary beyond 祸/woe; reviewed in full.

Matthew 24 — The Olivet Discourse (Part 1): Signs of the End

παρουσία (parousia) — “coming” [NEW, 24:3, 27, 37, 39]

Literal meaning: presence, arrival; in Hellenistic usage, the formal, ceremonial arrival/visit of a king or dignitary.
Semantic range: the future, visible, glorious, singular return of Christ at the end of the age — distinct from any of his prior comings (incarnation, resurrection appearances) and from any repeatable pattern.
English variants: coming, arrival, advent, second coming.
Contextual theological meaning: the disciples’ question, “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (24:3, reusing 世界的末了 from Ch. 13) frames the entire discourse — Christ’s return will be sudden, visible to all “like lightning” (24:27), and unmistakable, in contrast to false claims of secret or localized comings (24:23-26).
Mandarin rendering: 降临 (jiànglín), established CUV rendering. Risk: Critical. Must not be assimilated to the pattern the baseline already flags Critical under “incarnation” — a bodhisattva’s or deity’s temporary, repeatable descent to the mortal world (下凡, already forbidden for incarnation) — the parousia is a singular, final, visible, glorious event ending the present age, not one of a series of periodic divine visitations as found in Chinese popular deity-mythology (e.g. recurring stories of gods or immortals descending to intervene in human affairs and then withdrawing again).

βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως (bdelygma tēs erēmōseōs) — “abomination of desolation” [NEW, 24:15, citing Daniel]

Literal meaning: a detestable, defiling object or act causing desolation, specifically of the temple.
Semantic range: a specific, historically-anchored apocalyptic sign drawn from Daniel, marking acute covenant crisis and coming judgment.
English variants: abomination of desolation, the desolating sacrilege.
Contextual theological meaning: functions within Matthew’s fulfillment-of-prophecy framework (reusing 应验) as a concrete historical sign validating the reliability of God’s prophetic word even amid unprecedented crisis.
Mandarin rendering: 那行毁坏可憎的 (nà xíng huǐhuài kězēng de), following CUV’s descriptive rendering. Risk: Medium. Primary difficulty is background comprehension (OT/Danielic literacy) rather than folk-religious syncretism; teaching should supply the Daniel background explicitly rather than leaving the phrase as an isolated apocalyptic idiom.

Reuses: 蒙拣选的 (elect, 24:22, 24, 31), 世界的末了 (end of the age, 24:3), 先知 (“false prophets,” 24:11, 24), Son of Man (人子, 24:27, 30, 37, 39, 44).

Matthew 25 — The Olivet Discourse (Part 2): Parables of Judgment

κρίσις (krisis) — “judgment” [NEW formal treatment, though implicit throughout the Gospel]

Literal meaning: a decision, a judicial verdict, a separating/deciding process.
Semantic range: God’s (via the Son of Man, 25:31-32) final, forensic, personal separation of all people into two eternal destinies, based on the genuineness of their faith as evidenced in concrete action (“as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,” 25:40).
English variants: judgment, judgement, the judgment.
Contextual theological meaning: the climactic scene of the “Judgment and the End of the Age” doctrine — a single, universal, personal, and final courtroom-style verdict rendered by Christ himself.
Mandarin rendering: 审判 (shěnpàn), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. Must be distinguished from the impersonal karmic retribution mechanism (报应, already flagged High risk in the baseline’s “sin” entry) that operates automatically across a person’s fortune or across reincarnated lives — biblical judgment is a personal, forensic, one-time verdict rendered directly by Christ as judge, not an impersonal cause-and-effect cosmic process.

κόλασις αἰώνιος (kolasis aiōnios) — “eternal punishment” [NEW, 25:46]

Literal meaning: κόλασις = punishment, chastisement; αἰώνιος = eternal, everlasting.
Semantic range: contrasted directly with ζωὴ αἰώνιος (eternal life, Ch. 19 above) in the same verse — “these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (25:46) — a fixed, unending, conscious state of just judgment, not a temporary process.
English variants: eternal punishment, everlasting punishment.
Contextual theological meaning: the final, permanent destiny of those who failed to show genuine faith-evidencing love — a sobering counterpart to eternal life, both described with the identical word αἰώνιος to underscore that both destinies are equally permanent.
Mandarin rendering: 永刑 (yǒngxíng), established CUV rendering. Risk: High. Must be distinguished from Chinese folk-Buddhist hell imagery (十八层地狱, the “eighteen levels of hell”), which is typically depicted as a temporary, purificatory ordeal preceding eventual rebirth (轮回, already flagged Critical in the baseline “resurrection” entry) rather than a final, unending state. A rendering or teaching that implies eventual release or reincarnation after 永刑 would directly contradict the finality this term is built, in the same breath, to guarantee alongside 永生/eternal life.

Reuses: 永生 (eternal life, 25:46), 兄弟 (brother, technical sense, 25:40, reusing Ch. 18’s note).

Matthew 26 — The Last Supper, Gethsemane, Betrayal, and Trial

ἄφεσις ἁμαρτιῶν (aphesis hamartiōn) — “forgiveness of sins” [NEW compound, 26:28; ἁμαρτία = REUSE — Romans TM (罪, High risk)]

Literal meaning: ἄφεσις = release, sending away, letting go; ἁμαρτίαι = sins.
Semantic range: the specific benefit secured by Christ’s shed blood — the release of the guilt and consequence of sin, offered through the new covenant he inaugurates at the Last Supper.
English variants: forgiveness of sins, remission of sins.
Contextual theological meaning: “This is my blood of the covenant (reusing baseline 约, High risk), which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (26:28) — directly ties Christ’s death to covenant-inauguration and to the atonement/ransom theme already introduced at 20:28 (赎价).
Mandarin rendering: 罪的赦免 (zuì de shèmiǎn), combining the reused baseline term 罪 with the established forgiveness term 赦免 (introduced at 6:12 above). Risk: High. Must retain the specific, once-for-all, covenant-sealing, blood-secured nature of this forgiveness (reinforcing both the baseline’s Critical “grace” and “salvation” doctrines) rather than reducing it to a general moral-reform concept or a repeatable ritual remedy.

Reuses: 约 (covenant, “blood of the covenant,” 26:28), 亵渎 (blasphemy, 26:65, the charge brought against Jesus at trial), Son of Man (人子, 26:64, “seated at the right hand of Power,” echoing Daniel 7).

Matthew 27 — Crucifixion and Burial

καταπέτασμα (katapetasma) — “the curtain/veil [of the temple]” [NEW, 27:51]

Literal meaning: the heavy curtain separating the temple’s Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, where God’s presence was understood to dwell, access to which was restricted to the high priest alone, once a year.
Semantic range: a specific architectural/ritual object whose tearing “from top to bottom” at the moment of Jesus’ death signifies a decisive change in the terms of access to God’s presence.
English variants: the curtain, the veil.
Contextual theological meaning: the temple veil’s tearing at the moment of Christ’s death signals that his death itself accomplishes what the old sacrificial system’s restricted access pointed toward — direct access to God now opened through Christ’s atoning death (reusing 赎价/ransom, 20:28, and 罪的赦免/forgiveness of sins, 26:28).
Mandarin rendering: 殿里的幔子 (diàn lǐ de mànzi), established CUV descriptive phrase. Risk: Medium. Primary need is background explanation (the temple’s architecture and restricted-access system) rather than a folk-religious collision; without that background the sign’s significance (opened access to God) can be missed entirely.

Reuses: 十字架/crucify (verb form σταυρόω, sharing the root of 十字架 established at 10:38), 犹太人的王 (King of the Jews, Ch. 2, now used mockingly by Roman soldiers and inscribed on the cross, 27:29, 37), 神的儿子 (Son of God, the centurion’s confession, 27:54), 复活 (resurrection, anticipated at the tomb, 27:62-66).

Matthew 28 — The Resurrection and the Great Commission

μαθητεύω (mathēteuō) — “make disciples” [NEW, 28:19; μαθητής = REUSE, first defined at 5:1 above]

Literal meaning: a verb formed from μαθητής (disciple) — to cause someone to become a disciple, to disciple.
Semantic range: the central command of the Great Commission — not merely converting or informing, but forming genuine, obedient, baptized followers of Jesus among “all nations.”
English variants: make disciples, disciple (verb).
Contextual theological meaning: the church’s ongoing mission, grounded in Christ’s own universal authority (28:18, ἐξουσία, reusing Ch. 7), is to make genuine disciples — people who are baptized (reusing 洗礼, Ch. 3) into the triune name and taught to obey everything Christ commanded — not simply to gain adherents or transmit information.
Mandarin rendering: 使…作门徒 (shǐ…zuò méntú), CUV rendering (“使万民作我的门徒,” “make all nations my disciples”), built directly on the established 门徒/disciple term (5:1 above). Risk: Medium. Same underlying risk as 门徒 itself (Ch. 5:1) — must be taught as forming Christ-following, obedient identity through relationship and Spirit-empowered transformation, not transmitting an esoteric technique or advancing students through a martial-arts/Daoist-style lineage school (师门) toward mastery status.

πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (panta ta ethnē) — “all nations” [NEW; distinct nuance from baseline “gentiles” ἔθνη = 外邦人]

Literal meaning: all the nations, all the peoples.
Semantic range: while baseline’s “gentiles” (外邦人) specifically denotes non-Jewish peoples in contrast to Israel, the Great Commission’s πάντα τὰ ἔθνη is comprehensively inclusive of every people group without exception — Jew and Gentile alike, “all” without remainder.
English variants: all nations, all peoples, every nation.
Contextual theological meaning: the church’s mission scope is comprehensively universal, directly extending the curriculum’s “Great Commission” doctrine and connecting to the baseline’s “universal_scope_of_gospel” and “unity_of_jews_and_gentiles” doctrines (both High risk) — no ethnic, civilizational, or national boundary limits the reach of the gospel commission.
Mandarin rendering: 万民 (wànmín), established CUV rendering — deliberately distinct from 外邦人 (gentiles) to preserve this comprehensively inclusive sense. Risk: Medium. Teaching must make explicit that 万民 here is not synonymous with 外邦人 (which specifically excludes Israel/Jews) — the Great Commission’s scope includes every people without exception, and any rendering that suggested a Gentile-only mission field would understate the doctrine’s full universality.

Reuses (climactic convergence at the close of the book): 复活 (resurrection), 拜/敬拜 (worship, 28:9, 17), 权柄 (authority, 28:18, “all authority in heaven and on earth”), 父/圣灵 (Father, Holy Spirit, within the baptismal formula “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” 28:19 — a foundational trinitarian formula requiring a note that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are named together as equally the object of a single baptismal “name,” reinforcing rather than dividing the doctrine of the Trinity already safeguarded by the baseline’s Critical entries for 神, 耶稣/神的儿子, and 圣灵), 世界的末了 (end of the age, 28:20, “I am with you always, to the end of the age”).

End of Part B. All 28 chapters of Matthew have been reviewed. See 08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated per-term glossary table covering every term introduced above, cross-referenced by chapter, doctrine, and risk tier.

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