Linguistic Gap Analysis
06 Linguistic Gap Analysis — Luke 1–24
Purpose and Scope
This document performs the Phase 1 Step 8 gap analysis for the Luke curriculum: it identifies where the existing Romans-baseline Manipuri Language Package already supplies adequate vocabulary, where genuinely new vocabulary must be coined, and where existing Meitei religious vocabulary is crowded — i.e., already occupied by a live Sanamahi or Gaudiya Vaishnava sense that would distort the biblical meaning if borrowed carelessly. It also records transliteration-vs-paraphrase decisions and produces a ranked list of this curriculum’s highest-risk ambiguities.
This analysis covers all 24 chapters of Luke, first to last, per the full-book coverage mandate. The core passage (Luke 4:16-21) is the theological anchor for the curriculum’s eight doctrines, not the boundary of the analysis. Chapters that surface no new load-bearing vocabulary are noted explicitly below as reviewed.
Part 1 — Chapter-by-Chapter Coverage Log
| Ch. | Load-bearing content surfaced | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Incarnation/annunciation, Holy Spirit’s role, Davidic covenant, holiness, righteousness, mercy/compassion, humility-exaltation reversal (Magnificat), horn of salvation, redemption, prophecy/John’s calling | New/baseline terms attested |
| 2 | Savior, glory, peace, gentiles/light to the Gentiles, poor (shepherds), law (temple presentation), redemption (Simeon/Anna), consolation, widow (Anna) | New/baseline terms attested |
| 3 | Repentance, baptism, wrath to come, seed of David/genealogy, Son of God (baptism voice) | New terms attested |
| 4 | Core passage. Anointed, gospel, poor, captives, blind, oppressed, acceptable year of the Lord, fulfilled, today, synagogue, prophet, temptation, unclean spirit, kingdom of God, power of God | New/baseline terms attested — anchor chapter |
| 5 | Calling of disciples, fellowship/table roots, leprosy, forgiveness of sins, authority (exousia), tax collector, Pharisees | New/baseline terms attested |
| 6 | Blessed/woe (reversal ethic), agape love of enemies, apostle (naming of Twelve), Sabbath, disciple | New terms attested — includes highest-priority new doctrine (love/agapē) |
| 7 | Faith crossing ethnic boundary (centurion), mercy/compassion (widow of Nain), resurrection-sign (temporary), forgiveness + love (sinful woman), table fellowship | New/baseline terms attested |
| 8 | Word of God (parable of sower), unclean spirit (Gerasene demoniac), faith, resurrection-sign miracles (Jairus’ daughter) | Baseline terms reapplied; no new terms |
| 9 | Apostle/mission, kingdom of God, Son of Man (suffering predictions), glory/Son of God (transfiguration), election/chosen one, cost of discipleship (cross daily) | New/baseline terms attested |
| 10 | Mission (Seventy), harvest, agape love + neighbor (Good Samaritan), Samaritan boundary-crossing | New/baseline terms attested |
| 11 | Prayer, daily bread, kingdom of God present, unclean spirit/power of God (Beelzebul), blasphemy note anticipated, scribe/lawyer woes | New/baseline terms attested |
| 12 | Covetousness, anxiety, faithful steward, watch and pray, blasphemy against Holy Spirit | New terms attested — Critical term (blasphemy against Holy Spirit) |
| 13 | Repentance call, kingdom of God (mustard seed/leaven), narrow door, Sabbath healing | Baseline + new terms reapplied |
| 14 | Great banquet (poor invited), cost of discipleship (hate father/mother idiom), Sabbath healing | New terms attested |
| 15 | Lost (sheep/coin/son), repentance, joy, agape/mercy (father’s compassion), sinner/table-fellowship theme culminates | New/baseline terms attested — doctrinal center of gravity for two curriculum doctrines |
| 16 | Mammon, rich/poor reversal, Hades (Rich Man and Lazarus), law and prophets fulfillment | New terms attested |
| 17 | Forgiveness (seventy times seven), faith, ten lepers/Samaritan/thanksgiving, kingdom of God “within/among” | Baseline + new terms reapplied |
| 18 | Justice/vindication (persistent widow), justification (Pharisee and tax collector), inherit eternal life (rich ruler), Son of David/faith (blind beggar) | New/baseline terms attested — includes justification case study central to Luke’s version of the doctrine |
| 19 | Lost/salvation (Zacchaeus), kingdom of God (parable of minas), triumphal entry (kingdom/blessed), weeping over Jerusalem | Baseline + new terms reapplied |
| 20 | Authority, cornerstone, resurrection debate, Son of David/Lord (messianic riddle), scribes | New/baseline terms attested |
| 21 | Widow (mite), redemption (final eschatological sense), watch and pray, kingdom of God near | Baseline terms reapplied with sense-distinction note |
| 22 | New covenant, body/blood, remembrance, Passover, Son of Man/Son of God (trial) | New terms attested — Critical atonement-tier vocabulary |
| 23 | Trial (Pilate/Herod/Barabbas), cross/crucifixion, paradise, human spirit of Jesus (distinct from Holy Spirit) | New terms attested — Critical disambiguation required |
| 24 | Resurrection (definitive), fulfilled prophecy, repentance/forgiveness proclaimed to all nations, witnesses, ascension | New/baseline terms attested — closing commissioning chapter |
No chapter of Luke was found to contribute zero load-bearing content; even chapters reusing baseline terms (8, 13, 17, 19, 21) surface important sense-distinctions (e.g., resurrection-sign miracles vs. the definitive resurrection of ch. 24; historical vs. eschatological redemption) that must be carried into translator notes.
Part 2 — Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
| Doctrine | Available Manipuri terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jesus as Savior for All Nations and All People | অহানবিবা (savior, built on baseline অহানবা root); অতোপ্পা ফুরুপ (gentiles); মাংঙাল (light, for “light to the Gentiles”); নুংঙাইবগী পাউগী মপুংফাবা য়ামলবা (universal scope, baseline) | No existing Meitei title for “universal savior” that isn’t already claimed by a Vaishnava deliverer-figure (Krishna as savior of devotees) or by Sanamahi household protection framing (Sanamahi as protector of the lineage/house, not of “all nations”); “rich and poor” reversal has no ready proverbial equivalent | Build অহানবিবা explicitly on the already-fenced অহানবা root (never মোক্ষ); pair with explicit universal-scope teaching notes at 2:32, 3:6, 4:25-27, 24:47 stressing that this savior is for Jew and Gentile, rich and poor alike, without collapsing into a bhakti-devotee’s personal deliverer |
| The Holy Spirit’s Work in Salvation History | থাওয়াই অসেংবা (baseline, Critical, must always appear in full) | Luke’s narrative gives the Spirit far more active, personal, historically-unfolding agency (conception, anointing at baptism, driving into wilderness, empowering Nazareth sermon, promised at ascension) than Romans’ more didactic treatment; risk that ordinary readers hear থাওয়াই অসেংবা as one more benevolent spirit alongside Umang Lai nature-deities or Apokpa ancestral spirits, especially in narrative (not epistolary) genre where personal spirit-agents are culturally expected characters | Reinforce personal-agency framing at every Lukan Spirit-narrative beat (1:35, 3:22, 4:1, 4:14, 4:18, 24:49) with explicit narrator-level notes distinguishing this from Sanamahi’s populated, largely benevolent spirit-world; never shorten to bare থাওয়াই except at the one deliberately marked exception (Jesus’ own human spirit, 23:46) |
| Good News to the Poor and Marginalized | মথৌ তাবা (poor); ফদবা মীওই (captive); মিত্তাবা (blind); ফৎতবা ওইরিবা মীওইশিং (oppressed); য়াইফবা (blessed)/ফত্তবা ৱারোল (woe); নোল্লাকপা/ৱাংথোকপা (humility/exaltation) | This is Luke’s most textured doctrine and the baseline offers no direct precedent; risk of over-spiritualizing “poor” into a metaphor only, or of assimilating Jesus’ concern for the poor into Vaishnava dana (almsgiving as devotional merit-building) or a generic South Asian charity ethic | Retain full socio-economic force at every occurrence (4:18, 6:20, 7:22, 14:13, 16:19-31, 18:22, 21:1-4); use the reversal-pair য়াইফবা/ফত্তবা ৱারোল consistently across 6:20-26 without softening either pole; flag dana-adjacent almsgiving passages (e.g., 12:33, 19:8) for explicit contrast notes |
| Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins | পুক্নিং হোংবা (repentance); পাপ কোকপা (forgiveness of sins); থাদোকপা (release, ch. 4 only) | Manipuri has an active ritual-purification vocabulary (prayaschitta-adjacent atonement rites in Vaishnava practice; purification before Lai Haraoba) that could be reached for by translators seeking a “natural” equivalent; the shared Greek root ἄφεσις across “release to captives” (4:18) and “forgiveness of sins” (elsewhere) has no single Manipuri word spanning both senses | Maintain the standing cross-reference note (see Part 3 below) linking থাদোকপা and পাপ কোকপা; never substitute ritual-purification vocabulary for either; repentance must always be taught as personal moral reorientation toward the God of Israel, not ritual atonement performance |
| Prayer and Dependence on God | হায়জবা (prayer); ঙসিগী চাক (daily bread); থমোই ৱাংবা (anxiety, contrast term); য়েংশিনবা (watch and pray) | Meitei religious life has two live, well-developed prayer/petition systems running in parallel — maibi/maiba intercession to the Umang Lai, and Vaishnava japa/kirtan devotional recitation — either of which an untrained translator could unconsciously echo in register or form | Model Jesus’ own prayer practice (3:21, 5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 9:28-29, 11:1-13, 22:39-46) as direct, filial, unmediated access to the Father, explicitly distinct from both mediated petition-through-a-specialist and repetitive devotional recitation |
| The Kingdom of God Present and Future | তেংবাং মপুগী লৈপাক (baseline) | Baseline already flags the historic Meitei kingship’s own Pakhangba-descent royal-divine framing as a collision risk; Luke intensifies this by repeatedly using explicitly political/royal imagery (throne, kingdom divided against itself, triumphal entry as king, “kingdom” language paired with taxation in ch. 20) that could be misheard as endorsing or displacing a this-worldly royal-lineage claim | Teach both the “already” (11:20, 17:21) and “not yet” (13:29, 21:31, 22:18) dimensions explicitly at each occurrence; keep firm separation from any implied claim about the historic Meitei ningthou/Pakhangba lineage, without appearing to comment on contemporary Manipur politics |
| The Cost and Joy of Discipleship | তমজবা (disciple); ক্রুস (cross); নুংঙাইবা (joy) | শিষ্য (the Vaishnava guru-shishya devotional-disciple term) is the ready cultural reach for “disciple” and must be actively resisted; “hate father and mother” (14:26) is a Semitic idiom requiring careful non-literal handling; Ras Lila/Lai Haraoba festival joy is a live competing sense for নুংঙাইবা | Use তমজবা consistently, never শিষ্য; render 14:26 by comparative-priority meaning (“love Christ even above closest family”), not literal hatred; anchor joy-passages (15:7, 15:10, 15:32) explicitly to God’s own joy over the repentant, distinct from calendrical festival gladness |
| Jesus’ Compassion and Table Fellowship with Sinners | চানবিবা (mercy/compassion); কর খোমজবা (tax collector); পাপ্পা মীওই (sinner); লোইনা চাক চাবা (table fellowship) | Meitei commensality carries its own clan (yumnak) boundary logic, and historically Vaishnava-influenced dining custom in the Imphal Valley carries ritual-purity-adjacent food-boundary rules; both could cause “table fellowship” to be read as a merely social nicety rather than a deliberate, costly reversal of religious exclusion | Teach 5:29-32, 7:36-50, 15:1-2, 19:1-10 as Jesus’ deliberate boundary-crossing act, explicitly contrasted with both clan-dining custom and ritual-purity dining rules, not softened into generic hospitality |
Part 3 — Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
3.1 Missing Vocabulary (no natural Meitei equivalent — new descriptive compounds required)
These concepts have no existing word or fixed phrase in Meitei religious vocabulary and must be built from ordinary morphemes, following the baseline’s own established pattern for terms like grace and imputed_righteousness:
| Concept | Gap description | Provisional strategy |
|---|---|---|
| agapē love (self-giving, enemy-inclusive) | No devotional-register word exists that is not প্রেম (Radha-Krishna erotic-devotional love); Meitei has ordinary affection vocabulary but no established theological term for unconditional, enemy-inclusive love | নুংশিবা (plain affection word), explicitly fenced against প্রেম — treat as new Critical-risk doctrine, parallel to baseline’s grace/কৃপা treatment |
| Son of Man (as Christological title) | No Meitei category combines “true humanity + divine authority + foretold suffering + eschatological glory” in one term; a literal gloss reads as mere “a human person’s son” | মীওইগী মচানুপা, always taught with explanatory apparatus (Daniel 7 background), never left to stand alone as ordinary human-sonship language |
| aphesis’s dual sense (release/forgiveness) | Manipuri has no single noun spanning both “freedom from bondage” and “forgiveness of sin guilt” the way Greek ἄφεσις does | Retain two Manipuri words (থাদোকপা / পাপ কোকপা) with a standing cross-reference translator note at every occurrence of either, so the underlying doctrinal unity (Luke 4:18 as programmatic for the whole Gospel) is not lost |
| ”Acceptable year of the Lord” (Jubilee echo) | No Meitei festival or calendrical concept carries the “unrepeatable epochal announcement” sense; existing festival vocabulary (Lai Haraoba, Ras Lila calendar) is inherently repeatable/seasonal | মপু ইবুংগোগী চাউথোকপা চাহি, taught explicitly as a one-time salvation-historical announcement, not a repeatable observance |
| New covenant / body-and-blood (Last Supper) | No indigenous concept of a once-for-all substitutionary covenant meal; nearest cultural neighbors are indigenous sacrificial-offering logic and Vaishnava prasad (blessed food) logic, both structurally different | অনৌবা ৱারেপ্পা / হক্চাং-ঈ, escalated per the baseline’s atonement/propitiation review rule at every occurrence, with explicit contrast notes distinguishing from both indigenous sacrifice and prasad |
| Paradise (immediate post-death state distinct from final resurrection) | Meitei eschatology (via Sanamahi ancestral-realm belief and Vaishnava Vaikuntha/Goloka/Swarga) has no exact structural equivalent to a temporary-yet-conscious intermediate state distinct from final bodily resurrection | পারাদিস (transliteration), taught with explicit note distinguishing it from both the final resurrection state and from Vaikuntha/Goloka/Swarga |
3.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (existing terms already claimed by a live tradition — require fencing, not borrowing)
| Meitei term/concept already in active use | Claimed by | Biblical concept at risk of collision | Fencing strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| প্রেম (prema) | Gaudiya Vaishnavism — Radha-Krishna devotional/romantic love, center of Ras Lila | agapē love (Luke 6:27-36, 10:27, 15:20) | NEVER use; use নুংশিবা exclusively; add explicit forbidden-substitution entry to doctrine risk registry |
| শিষ্য (shishya) | Vaishnavism — devotee-disciple in an ongoing guru-lineage transmission | disciple (μαθητής) | NEVER use; use তমজবা exclusively |
| শাস্ত্রী (shastri) | Vaishnavism — religious scholar/pandit title | scribe/lawyer (γραμματεύς/νομικός) | NEVER use; use য়াথাং ওজা |
| অবতার (avatar) | Vaishnavism — Krishna’s repeatable divine descent, celebrated in Ras Lila | incarnation, Son of Man, Son of God | Already forbidden by baseline; reinforced for Luke’s Son of Man material |
| ঠাকুর (Thakur) | Vaishnavism — devotional title for Krishna | Lord (κύριος), including Luke’s mammon “master” wordplay (16:13) | NEVER use for Christ’s Lordship; disambiguation note required so Luke 16:13’s ordinary “master” sense is not read as implying ঠাকুর either |
| শক্তি (shakti) | Sanamahism — maibi’s oracular trance-power; regional Shakta-goddess overlap | power of God, horn of salvation | Already forbidden by baseline; reinforced for Luke 1:69, 4:14, 24:49 |
| উমাং লাই / থাওয়াই (bare) | Sanamahism — Umang Lai nature-deities, Apokpa ancestral spirits | unclean/evil spirit, Holy Spirit | Bare থাওয়াই forbidden except the single marked exception (23:46); unclean spirits (4:33-36, 8:26-39, 11:14-26) must be framed as hostile personal beings distinct from Sanamahi’s largely benevolent populated spirit-world |
| প্রায়শ্চিত্ত (prayaschitta)-adjacent ritual atonement | Vaishnavism/regional Hindu practice | repentance, new covenant, body/blood | Never substitute ritual-atonement vocabulary for personal repentance or Christ’s unique atoning death |
| স্বর্গ (swarga) | Cross-tradition (Vaishnava Vaikuntha/Goloka; Hindu Swarga) | heaven | Retain as an established South Asian Christian loanword but require explicit theologian sign-off per occurrence in doctrinally sensitive passages; consider the disambiguating compound তেংবাং মপুগী মফম where risk is highest (e.g., 10:20, 15:7) |
| দান (dana)-style merit-almsgiving | Vaishnavism | good news to the poor, almsgiving passages (12:33, 19:8) | Contrast explicitly: biblical concern for the poor flows from grace and compassion, not devotional merit-accumulation |
| Vaishnava temple ritual consecration (abhisheka) / historic Pakhangba royal anointing | Vaishnavism / historic Meitei kingship | anointing of Jesus (4:18, root of ক্রিস্তো) | Already forbidden by baseline logic (see incarnation entry); reinforced here as Luke 4:18 is this curriculum’s core passage |
Part 4 — Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
4.1 Transliterate (proper nouns, institutional loanwords, or terms with no theological content requiring disambiguation)
| Term | Manipuri form | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Jesus, Christ/Messiah | জিসু, ক্রিস্তো | Established Bible-translation convention; already in baseline |
| David, Israel | দাউদ, ইস্রায়েল | Established proper names; already in baseline |
| Isaiah | যিশাইয়া | Standard proper-name transliteration; confirm against printed Manipuri Bible |
| Pilate, Herod, Barabbas | পীলাত, হেরোদ, বারাব্বা | Historical proper names, no theological content at stake |
| Sabbath | সাব্বাথ | Institutional loanword; disambiguated by context from Lai Haraoba/Vaishnava observance calendars via translator note, not by coining a new word |
| Synagogue | সিনাগগ | Institutional loanword; deliberately NOT translated as কলিসিয়া, মন্দির, or Umang Lai grove terminology, to keep the four worship-site categories distinct |
| Passover | পাস্খা | Confirm against printed Manipuri Bible; retains Old Testament covenant-deliverance background better as a loanword than as a paraphrase |
| Pharisee, Sadducee | ফরীশী, সদ্দূকী | Standard historical-group transliterations, low collision risk |
| Baptism | বাপ্তিস্মা | Loanword preferred over a paraphrase that might accidentally invoke Lai Haraoba ritual purification or Vaishnava snana (ceremonial bathing) |
| Mammon | মম্মোন | Preserved as a proper name/personification (Luke 16:13) rather than translated as generic “wealth,” to keep it distinct from a common noun and avoid implying ঠাকুর via the surrounding “master” language |
| Paradise | পারাদিস | Transliterated specifically to avoid reaching for Vaikuntha/Goloka/Swarga vocabulary |
| Amen, Hallelujah (where they occur) | Per baseline convention | Established regional Christian transliteration forms |
4.2 Paraphrase (descriptive compounds required — no safe loanword or existing term available)
| Term | Manipuri form | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Grace, righteousness, justification, salvation, incarnation, son_of_god, resurrection, holy_spirit | Reused exactly from baseline | Already established as safe, doctrinally precise compounds; no deviation permitted |
| agapē love | নুংশিবা | Paraphrase (plain word, not a devotional-register coinage) deliberately chosen over any প্রেম-adjacent construction |
| disciple | তমজবা | Paraphrase deliberately chosen over শিষ্য |
| Son of Man | মীওইগী মচানুপা | Compound built transparently from existing morphemes (human + son), avoiding a borrowed title that might import outside associations |
| anointed/anointing (of Jesus, 4:18) | থাওয়াইনা চাংইনবা | Descriptive compound (“filled/set apart by the Spirit”) deliberately avoiding abhisheka-adjacent ritual-consecration vocabulary |
| poor, captive, blind, oppressed | মথৌ তাবা / ফদবা মীওই / মিত্তাবা / ফৎতবা ওইরিবা মীওইশিং | Plain descriptive vocabulary retaining full socio-economic force, avoiding both spiritualizing and merit-based (dana) framing |
| new covenant, body/blood | অনৌবা ৱারেপ্পা / হক্চাং-ঈ | Descriptive compounds required; no Meitei loanword exists that would not risk assimilation into indigenous sacrificial or Vaishnava prasad logic |
| Son of David / seed of David | দাউদগী চা-চাহি (baseline, reused) | Descriptive lineage-phrase retained; requires explicit Old Testament covenant-background teaching each time |
| scribe/lawyer | য়াথাং ওজা | Compound built on য়াথাং (baseline’s “law” term) plus “teacher,” deliberately avoiding শাস্ত্রী |
| acceptable year of the Lord | মপু ইবুংগোগী চাউথোকপা চাহি | Full descriptive phrase; no single-word Jubilee equivalent exists |
General principle governing this split: transliterate where the source item is (a) a proper name, (b) an institution/practice with no equivalent risk of doctrinal collision, or (c) a term whose only safe alternative would accidentally invoke a live competing tradition’s vocabulary. Paraphrase wherever a doctrinally load-bearing concept requires precision that no existing single Meitei word can supply without importing an unwanted association.
Part 5 — Ranked List of This Curriculum’s Highest-Risk Ambiguities
- agapē love vs. প্রেম (Ras Lila devotional love) — Highest-priority new risk surfaced by Luke, absent from the Romans baseline entirely. Luke 6:27-36, 10:27, and 15:20 make self-giving, enemy-inclusive love a load-bearing doctrine for the first time in this Language Package. Recommend immediate Critical-tier doctrine registry entry.
- “Today” (4:21) and “fulfilled” (πληρόω) softened into vague timelessness — The core passage’s decisive claim (“today this scripture is fulfilled”) is uniquely vulnerable to being reheard as an ongoing, repeatable process rather than a historical, once-for-all inaugurating event, especially given Vaishnavism’s cyclical avatar-descent framework in which further fulfillments remain conceptually open.
- Anointing of Jesus (4:18, root of ক্রিস্তো) vs. abhisheka / historic Pakhangba royal anointing — The core passage’s self-disclosure moment is Manipur’s single highest-salience collision point for messianic identity, paralleling the baseline’s অবতার caution but newly activated by Luke’s narrative form.
- ἄφεσις split across থাদোকপা (release) and পাপ কোকপা (forgiveness) — Luke 4:18 uses one Greek word Manipuri cannot express with one word; losing the cross-reference risks readers missing that social liberation and forgiveness of sins are one integrated announcement in Luke’s programmatic text.
- Son of Man vs. avatar’s temporary human appearance — Recurs across nine chapters (5, 6, 9, 12, 17, 19, 21, 22, and by implication throughout); requires sustained reinforcement, not a single footnote, given its frequency.
- Poor (πτωχός) spiritualized away, or absorbed into dana merit-logic — Central to the curriculum’s namesake doctrine; the temptation to read “poor in spirit only” is a known cross-tradition risk, compounded here by Vaishnava almsgiving’s devotional-merit framing.
- Table fellowship vs. clan-dining custom / ritual-purity-adjacent dining rules — Luke 5, 7, 15, and 19 all hinge on this being read as a deliberate reversal, not generic hospitality; Meitei commensality carries real social-boundary weight that could flatten the point.
- Heaven (স্বর্গ) vs. Vaikuntha/Goloka/Swarga — A widely used, comfortable loanword whose very familiarity is the risk; recommend theologian sign-off per sensitive occurrence rather than blanket avoidance.
- Disciple (তমজবা) vs. শিষ্য (guru-shishya lineage) — Constant low-level pressure across the entire Gospel; a single lapse into শিষ্য in any lesson would re-frame Christian discipleship as one more guru-lineage tradition.
- New covenant / body-and-blood vs. indigenous sacrificial and Vaishnava prasad logic — Luke 22’s Last Supper narrative is uniquely concentrated Critical-tier atonement vocabulary requiring theologian review at every occurrence, per the baseline’s standing rule.
- Scribe/lawyer (য়াথাং ওজা) vs. শাস্ত্রী — A recurring social-religious-group label (7 chapters) where a single mistranslation would systematically misplace Jesus’ interlocutors inside the Vaishnava teaching hierarchy throughout the Gospel’s controversy narratives.
- Mammon’s “master” (16:13) vs. ঠাকুর/মপু ইবুংগো — A narrow but sharp risk: the ordinary-master sense in this one verse must not bleed into or be read alongside Christ’s exclusive Lordship title.
- Repentance (পুক্নিং হোংবা) vs. ritual purification (prayaschitta, Lai Haraoba purification) — Recurs at both John the Baptist’s preaching (ch. 3) and the Great Commission’s closing summary (24:47), bookending the entire Gospel.
- Kingdom of God vs. historic Pakhangba-lineage political kingship — Heightened in Luke relative to Romans by explicit royal/throne imagery (1:32-33, 19:38, 23:2-3); requires care not to appear to comment on either historic or contemporary Manipur political structures.
- Savior title (অহানবিবা) vs. a bhakti-devotee’s personal deliverer — A new baseline-adjacent coinage (built on the fenced অহানবা root) introduced at the birth narrative (2:11); low independent risk given its root is already fenced, but worth monitoring as the term’s first standalone use in this Language Package.
This gap analysis extends but does not alter the Romans baseline Language Package. It must be read together with 07_semantic_analysis.md and 08_core_glossary.md, and its Critical/High findings must be reflected in the Luke-curriculum update to doctrine_risk_registry.json before Phase 2 translation work begins.