Executive Summary

Why it matters

Romans is the theological backbone of the New Testament, and Mandarin carries a distinctive doctrinal-translation risk: rather than one dominant religious substrate (as with Hindi’s Hindu vocabulary), Mandarin’s highest-risk terms are pulled in three different directions at once — Buddhist merit-and-liberation vocabulary (功德, 解脱, 超度, 轮回), Neo-Confucian self-cultivation vocabulary (成圣 for sanctification is itself a Confucian technical term for becoming a sage), and classical imperial-political vocabulary (天子, 天命 for Sonship, calling, and providence). A single glossary has to police all three fronts at once.

Key findings

• The registry tracks 40 doctrines across Romans 1-16; 27 require mandatory human theologian review before any translated segment ships (9 Critical, 18 High).
• The unresolved 19th-century “Term Question” (译名之争) over 神 vs. 上帝 for “God” is still live in Chinese Bible publishing today; this package standardizes on 神 and documents the rationale rather than silently picking a side.
• Sanctification (成圣) is Critical-risk for an unusual reason: the Chinese Christian term for it is a direct borrowing of the Neo-Confucian philosophical term for self-cultivation into sagehood — the exact same two characters describe a self-achieved moral attainment in Confucian philosophy and a Spirit-wrought process in Romans 6.
• Only 4 of 40 doctrines (Apostleship, Thanksgiving, Mutual Edification, Christian Fellowship) are Low-risk and clear for automated review alone.

Risks

• Buddhist substitution risk: 解脱 for salvation, 轮回/投胎 for resurrection, and 化身 for incarnation each sound natural but import a liberation-from-suffering/rebirth-cycle framework the doctrine is written against.
• Confucian substitution risk: 义 for righteousness and 成圣 for sanctification both double as existing Confucian ethical-cultivation vocabulary; teaching must explicitly distinguish earned virtue from grace-given standing.
• Imperial-political substitution risk: 天子 (“Son of Heaven”) for Son of God and 天命 (Mandate of Heaven) for calling/election both risk reducing a unique, eternal relationship to a revocable political office.

Opportunities

• The Chinese Union Version’s already-settled phrase 道成肉身 for the incarnation is a strong asset once the ongoing 道/Dao clarification is taught alongside it, since it also directly echoes John 1:14’s “the Word.”
• Two established, distinct words already exist for 罪 (moral sin before God) and legal criminal guilt is a separate compound, giving this curriculum a clean starting point that some other Sinosphere languages lack.

Recommended actions

• Route every Critical and High risk segment (27 of 40 doctrines) through human theologian review before publication; do not allow automated-only review to touch these terms.
• Brief native-speaker reviewers specifically on the 洋教 (“foreign religion”) stigma around mission/evangelism language, which automated glossary enforcement alone cannot catch.
• Reuse this Language Package’s translation_memory.json for every Romans lesson in Mandarin rather than re-deriving terms per document, per the two-phase pipeline design.