Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Mandarin translation and Hanyu Pinyin transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons tied to the specific tradition (Buddhist, Confucian, or imperial-political) each rejected term is drawn from
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Established usage over invention — where the Chinese Union Version already has a settled rendering (神, 耶稣, 主, 基督), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
- Explicit rejection, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why the tempting alternative is wrong and which tradition it comes from, so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule.
- Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: 神
Transliteration: Shén
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 上帝, 天, 老天爷
CRITICAL: this Language Package standardizes on 神 (the CUV ‘Shen edition’ reading) rather than 上帝 (Shàngdì) to avoid the specific historical association of 上帝 with the pre-Christian Shang/Zhou dynasty high god who was the object of the emperor’s exclusive state border sacrifice — a term some 19th-century missionaries favored precisely for continuity with that royal cult. Either term is used across legitimate Chinese Bible editions (this is the unresolved 19th-century ‘Term Question’ / 译名之争), but this package requires 神 for consistency and flags 上帝 as a rejected-for-this-package alternative, not as heretical. NEVER use 天 (tiān, impersonal Heaven) or 老天爷 (colloquial ‘Old Man Heaven’) alone, both generic folk terms for an impersonal cosmic force. Note 神 is also the common noun for any deity/spirit (folk city gods, kitchen god, etc.); doctrinal contexts must make monotheism explicit rather than assume it.
Grace
Approved rendering: 恩典
Transliteration: ēndiǎn
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: 功德, 造化, 福气, 阴德
CRITICAL: NEVER use 功德 (gōngdé) — Buddhist accumulated merit earned through good deeds, transferable and quantifiable. NEVER use 阴德 (hidden merit that secretly accrues to descendants). 恩典 must be taught as unearned favor given apart from merit-accounting, directly countering the merit-ledger worldview common in Chinese folk Buddhism.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: 圣灵
Transliteration: Shènglíng
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 祖灵, 灵
CRITICAL: always use the compound 圣灵; NEVER use 灵 (líng, ‘spirit’) alone, which in folk usage covers ancestral spirits (祖灵), nature spirits, and ghosts, and is invoked in ancestor-veneration ritual. NEVER use 祖灵 (ancestral spirit). 圣灵 is the personal third Person of the Trinity, not one spirit-being among the folk-religious spirit world.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: 算为义
Transliteration: suàn wéi yì
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: 修成正果的义, 自义
CRITICAL: CUV Romans 4 phrase, ‘reckoned/credited as righteous’ — righteousness credited by God, NOT earned through moral cultivation (修成正果, see justification note) or self-righteousness (自义, zìyì). Must always retain the forensic ‘reckoned’ sense, resisting collapse into the Confucian-virtue reading of 义 flagged under righteousness.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: 道成肉身
Transliteration: dào chéng ròushēn
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: 化身, 转世, 下凡
CRITICAL: established Chinese Christian phrase (‘the Dao/Word became flesh’, echoing John 1:14) is itself carefully chosen but requires ongoing vigilance: 道 (dào) also names the impersonal cosmic principle of Daoist metaphysics, so the phrase must always be taught as the personal, eternal divine Word taking flesh, not an impersonal cosmic Way manifesting. NEVER use 化身 (huàshēn) or 下凡 (xiàfán, ‘descending to the mortal world’) — both describe a bodhisattva or deity’s temporary, repeatable manifestation, not a permanent, unique incarnation. NEVER use 转世 (reincarnation into a new body).
Jesus
Approved rendering: 耶稣
Transliteration: Yēsū
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
CUV standard transliteration, used uniformly across all Chinese Bible traditions.
Justification
Approved rendering: 称义
Transliteration: chēngyì
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 修成正果, 赎罪
CRITICAL: established CUV compound, literally ‘called/reckoned righteous’ — a forensic declaration, not a process. NEVER use 修成正果 (xiūchéng zhèngguǒ, ‘cultivating to attain the true fruit/result’) — a stock Buddhist/Daoist phrase for achieving enlightenment or immortality through spiritual practice; it imports an earned-attainment framework exactly opposite to justification by faith.
Lord
Approved rendering: 主
Transliteration: zhǔ
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 主人, 老爷
Established term. In Romans 10:9 the confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ = 耶稣是主. Must not be softened toward 主人 (zhǔrén, an ordinary master/owner) or 老爷 (lǎoye, a feudal-era honorific for a landlord or official), which reduce exclusive divine Lordship to a social-hierarchy title.
Messiah
Approved rendering: 基督
Transliteration: Jīdū
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: 弥勒, 救世主式泛称
CRITICAL: 基督 (transliteration of ‘Christos’) is the CUV standard, used far more than the direct transliteration 弥赛亚 (mísàiyà). NEVER conflate with 弥勒 (Mílè, Maitreya) — the future Buddha of Chinese Buddhist eschatology expected to appear in a future age to save the world, historically invoked by Chinese folk millenarian movements. Christ is the one Messiah who has already come, fulfilling specific Jewish covenant promises, not one of several expected future world-saviors.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: 复活
Transliteration: fùhuó
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 轮回, 投胎, 还魂
CRITICAL: NEVER use 轮回 (lúnhuí, the cycle of reincarnation) or 投胎 (tóutāi, being reborn into a new womb) — both are Buddhist rebirth concepts describing an ongoing cycle, the opposite of a once-for-all bodily resurrection. Avoid 还魂 (huánhún), a folk/Daoist trope of a spirit returning to reanimate a corpse (associated with ghost stories), which trivializes the doctrine into folklore.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: 义
Transliteration: yì
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 道德, 善行
CRITICAL: 义 is also one of the Confucian Five Constant Virtues (仁义礼智信) — a social-ethical duty of rightness owed within relationships, cultivated by moral effort. Biblical righteousness (义) in Romans is a right standing before God received through faith, not a Confucian virtue achieved by moral cultivation. Every use in a justification context requires a distinguishing note; never let 义 stand alone as if it were self-evidently the Confucian virtue.
Salvation
Approved rendering: 救恩
Transliteration: jiùēn
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 解脱, 超度, 得道
CRITICAL: NEVER use 解脱 (jiětuō) — Buddhist liberation from the cycle of samsara/suffering, the rough functional equivalent of Hindu moksha. NEVER use 超度 (chāodù) — a Buddhist/Daoist ritual rite performed by monks to release a dead person’s soul from suffering in the underworld; salvation in Romans is God’s act toward the living believer, not a posthumous rite. 救恩 = deliverance from sin’s guilt and God’s wrath through Christ, received by faith in this life.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: 成圣
Transliteration: chéngshèng
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 修身, 修炼
CRITICAL: 成圣 (‘becoming a sage/holy one’) is itself a technical term in Neo-Confucian philosophy (Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming) for the process of self-cultivation by which a person perfects their innate moral nature into sagehood through personal effort. The Christian term is a direct borrowing of this phrase. Every occurrence requires a clarifying note: biblical sanctification is the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work in a believer already justified by faith, not self-achieved moral perfection (修身, ‘cultivating the self’) attained by discipline or technique (修炼, associated with Daoist/qigong practice).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: 神的儿子
Transliteration: Shén de érzi
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 天子, 神人
CRITICAL: NEVER use 天子 (‘Son of Heaven’) — the historic title of the Chinese emperor, whose legitimacy rested on the Mandate of Heaven, a political-religious office rather than eternal deity. Rendering Christ as a kind of 天子 would reduce his unique, eternal Sonship to an especially favored ruler. Full phrase 神的儿子 required; never abbreviate to 神人 (‘divine man’), which suggests a deified human rather than the eternal Son.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: 阿爸
Transliteration: Ābà
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15 (阿爸父). Keep the transliteration alongside 父 to convey filial closeness that the formal 父 alone may not carry.
Adoption
Approved rendering: 儿子的名分
Transliteration: érzi de míngfèn
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: 过继, 收养
CUV renders Romans 8:15 as receiving ‘the status of sonship’ rather than a single adoption noun. 过继 (guòjì) is the traditional Chinese practice of transferring a son (often within the clan) specifically to continue a family’s ancestor-worship line and inheritance — historically an instrumental, lineage-continuation arrangement. Clarify that believers are adopted into full relational sonship and inheritance, not installed as a ritual heir to maintain ancestor rites.
Called
Approved rendering: 蒙召的
Transliteration: méngzhào de
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 受命于天, 天命所归
NEVER use 天命所归 (‘the one to whom the Mandate of Heaven has returned’) — classical Chinese political-legitimacy language for a ruler chosen by an impersonal cosmic mandate. God’s call in Romans 1:1, 1:7, and 8:28-30 is a personal, relational summons, not an impersonal cosmic endorsement of status or destiny.
Calling
Approved rendering: 呼召
Transliteration: hūzhào
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运
NEVER use 天命 (tiānmìng, Mandate of Heaven) alone for the noun form — it carries a specific, loaded political-theological history (the basis for imperial legitimacy in classical Chinese political thought) that turns a personal divine summons into an impersonal cosmic entitlement.
Covenant
Approved rendering: 约
Transliteration: yuē
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: 合同, 契约
Relational, divinely initiated covenant bond. Avoid 合同/契约 (ordinary commercial contract terms), which suggest a negotiated agreement between equal parties rather than a gracious promise God initiates and keeps.
Election
Approved rendering: 拣选
Transliteration: jiǎnxuǎn
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: 天命, 命运, 缘分
NEVER use 天命 (Mandate of Heaven) or 命运 (mìngyùn, impersonal fate) or 缘分 (yuánfèn, predestined fortuitous connection, a common folk-Buddhist concept). God’s election is a personal, gracious choice, not an impersonal cosmic assignment of destiny.
Faith
Approved rendering: 信心
Transliteration: xìnxīn
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: 虔诚, 迷信, 信仰
Personal trust placed in Christ specifically; object of faith must be stated in context. 虔诚 (qiánchéng, generic piety/devoutness) describes an attitude toward any deity and is too broad. 信仰 (xìnyǎng, ‘a belief system/religion’) is acceptable as a noun for ‘the faith’ but not as the verb-like trust described in Romans 4 and 10.
Father
Approved rendering: 父
Transliteration: fù
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: 祖先, 老天爷
God as personal, caring Father (Abba). Distinguish carefully from ancestor veneration (祭祖, jìzǔ): venerated ancestors are cared for and appeased by their living descendants through ritual offerings, an inverted direction of care from the biblical Father who cares for his children. NEVER use 祖先 (ancestors) or 老天爷 (colloquial impersonal Heaven) for God the Father.
Holy
Approved rendering: 圣洁
Transliteration: shèngjié
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: 清净, 圣人般的
圣洁 = set apart for God and morally pure. Avoid 清净 (qīngjìng), a Daoist/Buddhist term for ritual or meditative purity/stillness achieved through practice. Avoid glossing as ‘sage-like’ (圣人般的) — see 成圣/sanctification note on Neo-Confucian self-cultivation.
Law
Approved rendering: 律法
Transliteration: lǜfǎ
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: 礼, 道德规范, 法律
The Mosaic Law. NEVER equate with 礼 (lǐ), the Confucian system of ritual propriety and social etiquette that governs relationships and status — doing so would reduce God’s covenant law to a social-conformity code. NEVER use 法律 (fǎlǜ, secular/civil law).
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: 因信而生的顺服
Transliteration: yīn xìn ér shēng de shùnfú
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: 孝顺, 礼法遵从
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Obedience that flows from faith already given, not obedience-as-merit. Distinguish carefully from 孝顺 (xiàoshùn, filial obedience owed to parents/ancestors as a moral duty) — biblical obedience of faith is a fruit of grace, not a debt discharged.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: 神的大能
Transliteration: Shén de dà néng
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: 气, 法力
NEVER use 气 (qì, the vital life-energy of Chinese medicine, qigong, and martial-arts/Daoist cosmology) or 法力 (ritual/magical power of a folk practitioner). 大能 is the specific, established Christian term for God’s saving power in Romans 1:16.
Providence
Approved rendering: 神的护理
Transliteration: Shén de hùlǐ
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: 天意, 命运
NEVER use 天意 (‘heaven’s intention/will’) alone — a common, impersonal fatalistic phrase in everyday Chinese speech. God’s providence is his personal, purposive governance of all things for his people’s good (Romans 8:28), not an impersonal cosmic will.
Saints
Approved rendering: 圣徒
Transliteration: shèngtú
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: 圣人, 高僧
圣人 (shèngrén, ‘sage’) is a specific, elevated Confucian category — Confucius himself is styled 至圣 (‘the Utmost Sage’) — reserved for a tiny number of morally perfected figures. 圣徒 must be used for all ordinary believers corporately (Romans 1:7), not implying they have attained sage-level moral achievement.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: 大卫的后裔
Transliteration: Dàwèi de hòuyì
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment.
Sin
Approved rendering: 罪
Transliteration: zuì
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: 报应, 罪犯式的罪
罪 also means criminal guilt (as in 罪犯, ‘criminal’) and, in folk usage, is linked to 报应 (bàoyìng, karmic retribution for wrongdoing across a person’s fortune/lineage). Clarify sin in Romans as a moral offense against a personal God requiring atonement, not merely a legal infraction or a cause of bad karmic consequences.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: 教会
Transliteration: jiàohuì
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: 庙, 寺, 道观
Established term. NEVER use 庙 (folk temple), 寺 (Buddhist temple), or 道观 (Daoist temple). 教会 is specific enough in modern usage but must be introduced clearly for readers whose only religious-building vocabulary is temple-based.
David
Approved rendering: 大卫
Transliteration: Dàwèi
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
CUV standard proper name form.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: 外邦人
Transliteration: wàibāngrén
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: 夷人, 外国人
NEVER use 夷人 (yírén, historically ‘barbarian’ in the classical Hua-Yi [华夷] distinction between civilized Chinese and outside peoples) — using it would ironically import the very insider/outsider hierarchy Romans ‘no distinction’ language dismantles. 外邦人 = non-Jewish nations generically.
Glory
Approved rendering: 荣耀
Transliteration: róngyào
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: 面子, 光宗耀祖
Avoid collapsing into 面子 (miànzi, ‘face’/social reputation) or 光宗耀祖 (bringing honor to one’s ancestors and lineage) — both reduce God’s radiant divine glory to human social status and family honor.
Gospel
Approved rendering: 福音
Transliteration: fúyīn
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: 好消息, 喜讯
Established CUV term, literally ‘blessing-news’. Because 福 (fú, fortune/blessing) is the same root used in folk fortune-seeking language (see 恩典/grace notes on 祈福文化), teaching must make explicit that 福音 announces salvation through Christ, not an omen of coming luck. 好消息/喜讯 are generic and lose the technical theological weight.
Intercession
Approved rendering: 代求
Transliteration: dàiqiú
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: 求签, 问卜
Prayer on behalf of others addressed to God directly. Distinguish from 求签 (qiúqiān, drawing a temple fortune-stick) or 问卜 (consulting a diviner).
Israel
Approved rendering: 以色列
Transliteration: Yǐsèliè
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; CUV established form.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: 神的国
Transliteration: Shén de guó
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: 天下, 王朝
Avoid 天下 (‘all under heaven’), the classical term for the unified earthly realm under a single legitimate ruler — it risks framing God’s kingdom as a this-worldly political/dynastic order rather than God’s sovereign spiritual reign. Avoid 王朝 (wángcháo, ‘dynasty’).
Mission
Approved rendering: 宣教
Transliteration: xuānjiào
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: 洋教传播
Historically, Christianity in China was labeled 洋教 (yángjiào, ‘foreign/Western religion’), a term carrying colonial-era and anti-imperialist connotations from the 19th-20th centuries. 宣教 is the standard modern Chinese Christian term; avoid framing that reinforces the ‘foreign import’ stigma.
Peace
Approved rendering: 平安
Transliteration: píng’ān
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: 安宁, 平安符式的平安
平安 is also the everyday greeting/blessing word (e.g. on 平安符 protective amulets) for general safety and well-being. In Romans 5:1, clarify this is relational peace with God secured through justification, not a wish for good fortune or protection from harm.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: 预言
Transliteration: yùyán
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: 算卦, 占卜
God-inspired declaration of what he will do; distinguish from 算卦/占卜 (divination, e.g. I Ching hexagram-casting), a widely practiced Chinese predictive-fortune tradition. Biblical prophecy is revelation from a personal God, not a technique for reading fate.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: 属灵恩赐
Transliteration: shǔlíng ēncì
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: 法力, 神通
Always use the compound 属灵恩赐, never 恩赐 alone. NEVER use 神通 (shéntōng) — supernatural powers attained through Buddhist/Daoist spiritual cultivation (e.g. clairvoyance, levitation) — or 法力 (fǎlì, a Daoist/folk-religion practitioner’s ritual power). Spirit-given enablements for building up the church, not merit-earned supernatural abilities.
Low Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: 使徒
Transliteration: shǐtú
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: 宗师, 大师
Established CUV term; no significant folk-religion collision. Avoid 宗师/大师 (grandmaster/master), which suggest a martial-arts or Daoist-master lineage rather than an authorized, sent-out apostolic office.
Exhort
Approved rendering: 劝勉
Transliteration: quànmiǎn
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Standard term for encouraging/urging fellow believers. No significant risk.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: 团契
Transliteration: tuánqì
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: 交情, 结拜
团契 is a Chinese Christian coinage for shared participation in Christ. Avoid 结拜 (jiébài, sworn-brotherhood bonding, e.g. the Peach Garden oath in Romance of the Three Kingdoms), which implies a ritualized brotherhood pact rather than Spirit-given union.
Prophet
Approved rendering: 先知
Transliteration: xiānzhī
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: 算命先生
God’s spokesperson; distinguish from 算命先生 (suànmìng xiānsheng, a fortune-teller).
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: 感恩
Transliteration: gǎn’ēn
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term. No significant risk.
Referenced passages