Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis: 1 Corinthians — English → Marathi
Purpose and Scope
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Step 8. It identifies where Marathi’s existing theological vocabulary is missing (no ready term exists), where it is crowded (a ready term exists but is already claimed by Warkari bhakti, wider Hindu devotional practice, or Navayana Buddhist teaching in ways that create false-friend risk), and where a transliteration vs. paraphrase decision must be made. It also ranks this letter’s highest-risk ambiguities for Phase 2 review routing.
This analysis extends, and never contradicts, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json, and builds directly on analysis/08_core_glossary.md for this curriculum. All risk tiers (Critical/High/Medium/Low) follow the doctrine_risk_registry.json conventions. The core passage, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, is the theological anchor for this analysis, not its scope boundary — coverage below spans all sixteen chapters.
Section 1 — Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each of the ten curriculum doctrines, this matrix records the available Marathi term(s), the specific weakness(es) of the existing lexical stock, and the recommended handling strategy for Phase 2.
1.1 The Resurrection of Christ and Believers
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | पुनरुत्थान (established, Critical, reused from Romans baseline) |
| Weaknesses | The lexical decision is already fenced at the word level (never पुनर्जन्म/पुनर्भव), but 1 Corinthians 15 pushes further than Romans into bodily continuity and transformation — नैसर्गिक शरीर/आत्मिक शरीर (natural/spiritual body) and नाशवंत/अविनाशी (perishable/imperishable) have no ready Marathi equivalents that avoid sounding like an eternal-soul-escapes-the-body doctrine (Hindu ātman) or a rebirth-into-new-aggregates doctrine (Buddhist punarbhava). |
| Recommended strategy | Retain पुनरुत्थान without variation. For 15:35-54, require compound paraphrase with mandatory positive teaching content (not just word substitution): the same body is transformed, not discarded for a soul, and not reconstituted as a new impermanent aggregate. Flag every 15:35-54 segment for theologian review regardless of whether a Critical/High term triggers escalation automatically. |
1.2 Christian Unity versus Factionalism
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | फूट (schism/division), सहकारी (fellow workers), ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर (body of Christ) |
| Weaknesses | फूट is linguistically adequate but doctrinally under-determined: Maharashtra readers will readily map “factions around Paul/Apollos/Cephas” onto lived experience of caste-sect and political-party factionalism, which risks either (a) normalizing faction loyalty as an acceptable social pattern the text merely regulates, or (b) reading 1 Corinthians 1-4 as attacking legitimate caste-community solidarity rather than sub-Christian rivalry around human leaders. |
| Recommended strategy | Use फूट consistently but require an explanatory frame every occurrence in chs. 1-4 and 11:18 clarifying the object of rebuke is loyalty to human teachers instead of Christ’s singular Lordship, not communal identity or solidarity as such. Pair regularly with ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर (12:12-27) as the positive counter-image. |
1.3 The Cross as Wisdom and Power
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | क्रूस (cross, loanword), ज्ञान (wisdom/knowledge — single lexeme), मूर्खपणा (foolishness), देवाचे सामर्थ्य (power of God, reused Critical/High from Romans), रहस्य (mystery) |
| Weaknesses | This is the single most lexically constrained doctrine in the letter. Marathi has no word for “wisdom” distinct from “knowledge” — both collapse to ज्ञान, which is also the term for the Bhagavad Gita’s jñāna-mārga (self-attained liberating insight through discernment) and for Buddhist prajñā (wisdom arising from meditative cultivation). Both source concepts are self-attained; Paul’s ज्ञान/σοφία in 1:18-2:16 is the reverse — a wisdom disclosed, not discovered, appearing as मूर्खपणा by every human standard. रहस्य (mystery) risks reading as an esoteric teaching for initiates (tantric/occult “secret knowledge”), the opposite of Paul’s point that this μυστήριον is now openly proclaimed. |
| Recommended strategy | Retain ज्ञान for both wisdom and knowledge (no viable alternative exists), but require a mandatory contrastive gloss/footnote at every doctrinally load-bearing occurrence in chs. 1-3, 8, 12-13 distinguishing “wisdom disclosed in the cross” from “wisdom attained through inquiry or practice.” Retain रहस्य but pair with explicit “now openly made known” framing at each occurrence (2:1, 7; 4:1; 13:2; 14:2; 15:51). Retain क्रूस as an established loanword; the risk here is under-teaching the wisdom/power paradox, not lexical substitution. |
1.4 Church Discipline and Holiness
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | पवित्र/पवित्रीकरण (reused Critical/High), व्यभिचार (sexual immorality), सैतानाच्या स्वाधीन करणे (deliver to Satan), मंदिर (temple), न्याय करणे (judge/judgment), खमीर (leaven) |
| Weaknesses | मंदिर is the everyday Marathi word for a Hindu temple/shrine housing a मूर्ती (idol) approached for दर्शन; Paul’s temple metaphor (3:16-17; 6:19) needs the opposite association — God’s personal indwelling presence through the Spirit, not a site one visits to view a venerated image. सैतानाच्या स्वाधीन करणे risks folk-exorcism/curse-removal (jādū-ṭonā) associations if not explicitly framed as restorative discipline. |
| Recommended strategy | Retain मंदिर (no better lexical option exists in common usage) but require explicit teaching-note framing at 3:16-17 and 6:19 distinguishing indwelling presence from image-housing shrine. Retain सैतानाच्या स्वाधीन करणे with mandatory restorative-intent framing at 5:5, contrasted explicitly with folk curse practice. |
1.5 Marriage and Singleness
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | विवाह (marriage), कुमारी (virgin), अविवाहित (unmarried/singleness), वेगळे होणे/घटस्फोट (divorce/separation), संयम (self-control) |
| Weaknesses | अविवाहित carries a live social-status stigma in contemporary Maharashtra (an unmarried adult, especially a woman, is often read as socially deficient or unfulfilled); Paul’s commendation of singleness as a valid, even advantageous, calling for undivided devotion (7:7-8, 32-35) cuts directly against this cultural default and needs positive framing, not just accurate translation. संयम is adequate but must be kept distinct from इंद्रियदमन (ascetic self-mortification/tapasya), which would import merit-generating renunciation theology foreign to Paul’s argument. |
| Recommended strategy | Retain अविवाहित but require a positive-framing teaching note at 7:7-8, 25-35 to counter the cultural stigma. Retain संयम; explicitly reject इंद्रियदमन at every occurrence per the glossary’s established alternatives_rejected. |
1.6 Christian Liberty and Idol Meat
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | मूर्तींना अर्पिलेले अन्न (food sacrificed to idols), मूर्ती (idol), मूर्तिपूजा (idolatry), ज्ञान (knowledge — shared lexeme risk, see 1.3), सद्सद्विवेकबुद्धी (conscience), अडखळण (stumbling block), भूत (demon) |
| Weaknesses | This is the doctrine with the highest concentration of Critical-risk terms in the curriculum. मूर्ती and मूर्तिपूजा are the exact same words Marathi Hindu neighbors use for their own devotional practice — not slurs, not foreign concepts, but literal descriptive vocabulary shared with the target religious community. भूत is the everyday rural term for a malevolent folk ghost-spirit with its own appeasement/exorcism ritual framework (bhūt-pisāch belief), which risks recasting Paul’s δαιμόνιον teaching (real spiritual powers behind idol worship, to be fled from) as folk-spirit management (to be ritually placated). |
| Recommended strategy | Retain मूर्ती, मूर्तिपूजा, and मूर्तींना अर्पिलेले अन्न exactly as established in the core glossary — these are theologically correct and already the standard Marathi Bible vocabulary — but require contextual framing at every occurrence (8:1-13; 10:1-33) that these name a real but false object of worship, not neutral art or sculpture. Retain भूत but pair every occurrence (10:20-21) with explicit “flee from, do not appease” framing to distinguish from folk exorcism practice. NEVER use नैवेद्य or प्रसाद for “food sacrificed to idols” — these are positively-loaded terms for blessed devotional food returned from a deity, which would reverse the passage’s ethical logic. |
1.7 The Lord’s Supper
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | प्रभूभोजन (Lord’s Supper), प्रभूचा प्याला/भुतांचा प्याला (cup of the Lord/demons), प्रभूचे मेज/भुतांचे मेज (table of the Lord/demons), अयोग्य रीतीने (unworthy manner), शरीर ओळखणे (discerning the body), करार (covenant, reused High from Romans) |
| Weaknesses | प्रभूभोजन is an established compound with no direct lexical collision risk, but the practice of a shared sacred meal risks assimilation to Hindu prasad-sharing (food ritually offered and distributed as blessing) if not distinguished doctrinally. शरीर ओळखणे carries a genuinely dense dual referent (Christ’s given body / the church as his corporate body, echoing ch. 12) that the single Marathi phrase cannot disambiguate without added context. |
| Recommended strategy | Retain प्रभूभोजन; require an explicit doctrinal distinction from prasad-sharing at 11:17-34 (this meal proclaims a unique, once-for-all death, not a repeatable devotional offering-and-return cycle). Retain शरीर ओळखणे but flag 11:29 for mandatory theologian review to resolve/preserve the dual referent per context. |
1.8 Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | आत्मिक कृपादान (spiritual gifts, reused Medium from Romans), ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर (body of Christ), अवयव (members), अन्यभाषा (tongues), भाषांतराचे दान (interpretation of tongues), रोगमुक्तीचे दान (gifts of healing), ज्ञानाचे वचन (word of wisdom/knowledge) |
| Weaknesses | रोगमुक्तीचे दान must avoid सिद्धी (yogic/ascetic attained supernatural power) — already fenced per the Romans baseline spiritual_gifts precedent, and 1 Corinthians 12 reinforces this fence by explicitly grounding all gifts in undeserved Spirit-distribution (12:11), not attainment. ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर carries the single highest positive theological payoff in this curriculum for a caste-stratified social context (12:22-26’s argument that “less honorable” members receive greater honor directly subverts caste-hierarchy logic) — this must not be under-translated or softened. |
| Recommended strategy | Retain आत्मिक कृपादान and रोगमुक्तीचे दान; never सिद्धी. Retain ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर with a mandatory teaching note at 12:12-27 drawing out the anti-hierarchy argument explicitly for both Hindu-caste-background and Ambedkarite-Buddhist-background readers, the latter of whom converted specifically to escape caste stratification. |
1.9 Love as the Greater Way
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | प्रीती (love, ἀγάπη — Critical), प्रेम (romantic/general affection, rejected), भक्ति (devotee-to-deity reverence, rejected) |
| Weaknesses | This is the single sharpest three-way lexical fork in the curriculum. प्रेम is the default modern Marathi word for love in nearly all registers (romantic, familial, general affection) and would read ch. 13 as a meditation on sentiment. भक्ति names the devotee’s reverential love toward a deity (Vitthal in Warkari practice) — directionally backward from ἀγάπη, which in ch. 13 describes God’s own committed, self-giving love reproduced in believers toward one another, not devotional feeling directed upward toward a deity. |
| Recommended strategy | Fix प्रीती as the sole rendering of ἀγάπη throughout chs. 8, 13-14, 16 with zero exceptions; this must be the single most rigorously enforced lexical choice in the entire curriculum, given ch. 13’s centrality to the letter and to Christian teaching generally. Require a theologian-reviewed teaching note at 13:1-13 explaining precisely why प्रीती (not प्रेम, not भक्ति) was chosen. |
1.10 Order in Worship
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | सुव्यवस्था (order), उन्नती/बांधणी (edification), शीर्ष/मस्तक (head/headship), मौन धारण करावे (women keep silent), परंपरा (tradition) |
| Weaknesses | शीर्ष/मस्तक sits on a live, contested complementarian/egalitarian interpretive fault line that Marathi word choice cannot resolve on its own; over-translating toward “authority over” or “source” pre-resolves an exegetical debate. परंपरा risks conflation with guru-paramparā — an open, evolving oral-teaching lineage — whereas Paul’s παράδοσις (11:2) is a fixed, closed apostolic deposit. मौन धारण करावे (14:34-35) sits in tension with 11:5 (which assumes women pray/prophesy aloud) and must not be resolved unilaterally by translation choice. |
| Recommended strategy | Render शीर्ष/मस्तक literally without interpretive gloss; flag every occurrence (11:3-10) for mandatory theologian review. Render परंपरा but require an explicit “closed apostolic deposit, not evolving guru-lineage” framing note at 11:2. Render 14:34-35 literally and flag for mandatory theologian review alongside 11:5 as a linked pair, never translated in isolation. |
1.11 Core Passage Doctrine — The Gospel as Fixed Apostolic Deposit (15:1-11)
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Available terms | शुभवर्तमान (gospel, reused Critical/High), सोपवले/स्वीकारले (delivered/received), शास्त्रानुसार (according to the Scriptures), प्रकट झाला/दिसला (appeared/was seen), झोपी गेले (fell asleep) |
| Weaknesses | सोपवले/स्वीकारले (παρέδωκα/παρέλαβον) risks conflation with guru-paramparā’s open oral-transmission model. प्रकट झाला/दिसला must never become दर्शन दिले — दर्शन is the heavily loaded Warkari devotional term for a deity graciously allowing itself to be seen (Vitthal’s darshan at Pandharpur), which would recast eyewitness historical testimony as a devotional visionary experience. |
| Recommended strategy | Retain all core-glossary Part 3 renderings exactly. Flag the entire 15:1-11 passage as a single theologian-review unit given its density of Critical terms and its role as curriculum anchor; do not review individual verses in isolation from the whole unit’s argument (fixed deposit → died/buried/raised/appeared → apostolic eyewitness chain). |
Section 2 — Missing Vocabulary (No Ready Marathi Equivalent)
These concepts have no existing single Marathi term; Phase 2 must use compound phrases or paraphrase, and these compounds should be locked into translation memory rather than re-derived per occurrence.
| Concept | Gap description | Recommended compound |
|---|---|---|
| Spiritual body (σῶμα πνευματικόν) | No Marathi term distinguishes a transformed physical body from a disembodied spirit-state; आत्मिक शरीर is a coined compound with no independent currency. | आत्मिक शरीर, always paired with explicit “still a true body, not a ghost/spirit-state” teaching note (15:44). |
| Imperishable body (as opposed to eternal soul) | अविनाशी alone defaults to the Hindu ātman-imperishability concept (soul survives, body discarded); no existing Marathi phrase isolates “the body itself made imperishable.” | अविनाशी शरीर with mandatory clarifying gloss at every occurrence in 15:42, 50-54. |
| Firstfruits (ἀπαρχή) as resurrection guarantee | प्रथमफळ exists as an agricultural term but has no established theological extension in common Marathi usage; OT harvest-offering background (Lev. 23) is unknown to most readers. | प्रथमफळ + mandatory OT background footnote at 15:20, 23. |
| Discerning the body (dual referent) | No single Marathi phrase captures both “recognizing Christ’s body given in the meal” and “recognizing the church as his body” simultaneously. | शरीर ओळखणे + theologian-authored disambiguating footnote at 11:29. |
| Anathema as covenantal exclusion (not folk curse) | No Marathi term names a solemn covenantal exclusion formula tied to love for the Lord that is distinct from जादू-टोणा style folk cursing. | शापित + explicit contrastive framing note at 16:22. |
| Headship (κεφαλή, source vs. authority) | Marathi शीर्ष/मस्तक carry only the literal “head” sense; neither captures the Greek’s contested figurative range without pre-resolving the debate. | Literal rendering only, no interpretive gloss; theologian review mandatory. |
| Christ our Passover (typological fulfillment) | No existing Marathi phrase links Χριστός to the Passover lamb without a full OT Exodus explanation, since OT narrative literacy is assumed low across this curriculum. | ख्रिस्त आपले वल्हांडणाचे कोकरू + mandatory Exodus/Passover background note at 5:7. |
| Bought with a price (slave-market redemption) | किंमत मोजून विकत घेतलेले is accurate but the underlying slave-market purchase custom is unfamiliar to most modern Marathi readers; risk of reading as generic “paid for,” losing the costly-substitution force. | Retain compound + brief cultural-background note at 6:20; 7:23. |
Section 3 — Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Needing Fencing
Unlike the missing-vocabulary gaps above, these concepts have a ready Marathi word — but that word is already occupied by a live devotional or philosophical meaning in Warkari bhakti, wider Hindu practice, or Navayana Buddhist teaching. Each requires active “fencing”: explicit contrastive framing at every occurrence, not silent substitution.
| Marathi term | Occupied by | Biblical sense required | Fencing strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| ज्ञान (wisdom/knowledge) | Bhagavad Gita jñāna-mārga (self-attained liberating knowledge); Buddhist prajñā (meditative insight) | Wisdom disclosed in the crucified Christ, appearing foolish by human standards (1:18-2:16; 12:8) | Mandatory contrastive teaching note at every doctrinally load-bearing occurrence; never let ज्ञान stand unglossed in chs. 1-3, 8, 12-13. |
| मूर्ती / मूर्तिपूजा (idol/idolatry) | Exact descriptive vocabulary Hindu neighbors use for their own devotional images and practice | A real but false object of worship, spiritually dangerous, to be fled (8:4-13; 10:7, 14) | Contextual framing at every occurrence; faithful, non-euphemistic, but not gratuitously polemical. |
| भूत (demon) | Rural bhūt-pisāch folk-spirit belief with its own appeasement/exorcism ritual framework | Real malevolent spiritual power behind false worship, to be fled from, never ritually managed (10:20-21) | Pair every occurrence with explicit “flee, do not appease” framing. |
| मंदिर (temple) | Hindu shrine housing a मूर्ती, visited for दर्शन | God’s personal indwelling presence in the church/believer’s body through the Spirit (3:16-17; 6:19) | Explicit indwelling-presence framing at every occurrence; never associate with an image-housing shrine. |
| दर्शन (would-be rendering for “appeared/was seen”) | Warkari/Hindu devotional term for a deity graciously allowing itself to be viewed by a devotee | Real, bodily, historically-witnessed resurrection appearances to named individuals (15:5-8) | FORBIDDEN. Use प्रकट झाला/दिसला exclusively; flag any back-translation returning दर्शन for immediate escalation. |
| प्रेम / भक्ति (candidate renderings for love) | प्रेम = romantic/general affection; भक्ति = devotee-to-deity reverential love (already fenced under Romans’ grace entry re: Warkari devotion to Vitthal) | Committed, self-giving ἀγάπη, modeled on God’s own love, directed toward other believers (ch. 13) | FORBIDDEN both. Use प्रीती exclusively; single most rigorously enforced lexical fence in the curriculum. |
| परंपरा (tradition) | Guru-paramparā: an open, evolving oral-teaching lineage passed from a living teacher to disciples | A fixed, closed apostolic deposit, not subject to ongoing reinterpretation (11:2; cf. 15:1-3) | Explicit “closed apostolic deposit” framing note at every occurrence. |
| सोपवले/स्वीकारले (delivered/received) | Same guru-paramparā transmission-model risk as परंपरा above | Technical terms for a fixed, eyewitness-traceable creedal deposit (15:1, 3) | Pair with the same closed-deposit framing note used for परंपरा. |
| अविनाशी (imperishable) | Hindu ātman — an eternal, imperishable soul that escapes a discarded, perishable body | The body itself, transformed, made imperishable — not a soul escaping a body (15:42, 50-54) | Mandatory clarifying gloss distinguishing bodily transformation from soul-escape at every occurrence. |
| सिद्धी (candidate rendering for gifts of healing / spiritual power) | Yogic/ascetic self-attained supernatural power | Spirit-given enablement, distributed by grace, not attained (12:9-11) | FORBIDDEN. Use रोगमुक्तीचे दान / आत्मिक कृपादान exclusively. |
| इंद्रियदमन (candidate rendering for self-control) | Ascetic self-mortification/tapasya, spiritually meritorious renunciation | Ordinary marital self-restraint within a valued institution, not renunciation-as-merit (7:5, 9) | FORBIDDEN. Use संयम exclusively. |
| नैवेद्य / प्रसाद (candidate renderings for food sacrificed to idols) | Positively-loaded devotional food ritually offered to, and returned as blessing from, a deity | Spiritually neutral-but-idol-associated food whose consumption is an ethical liberty question, not a devotional blessing (8:1-13; 10:19-28) | FORBIDDEN. Use मूर्तींना अर्पिलेले अन्न exclusively; a devotional loanword would reverse the passage’s own ethical logic. |
| दानधर्म (candidate rendering for the collection) | Merit-generating religious almsgiving, karma-adjacent | Grace-motivated, unity-building generosity among churches, not a merit-accumulating duty (16:1-3) | FORBIDDEN. Use वर्गणी/देणगी exclusively. |
Section 4 — Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Term | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Cross (σταυρός) | Transliterate/loanword: क्रूस | Already an established Marathi Christian loanword; no native paraphrase is needed, and the doctrinal risk lies in under-teaching the wisdom/power paradox, not in word choice. |
| Maranatha (μαρὰν ἀθά) | Transliterate: मारान अथा | Preserved per the established Abba precedent (Romans 8:15); an Aramaic liturgical acclamation retains its force better transliterated than paraphrased, glossed with meaning at first occurrence. |
| Anathema (ἀνάθεμα) | Translate, not transliterate: शापित | Unlike Maranatha, this concept has a Marathi word that (with fencing) conveys solemn exclusion without needing to import a foreign loanword; paired with mandatory contrastive framing against folk-curse practice (Section 3). |
| Amen / Hallelujah (background, established) | Transliterate: आमेन / हालेलूया | Per baseline transliteration standards; retained as established liturgical loanwords. |
| Christos (Χριστός) | Transliterate as proper title: ख्रिस्त | Per bible_term_registry.json entry; distinct from मसीहा (reserved for the specific OT-promised-deliverer doctrinal sense). Low ambiguity once fixed. |
| Passover (πάσχα) | Use established Marathi Bible term: वल्हांडण सण | Existing OT-translation-tradition term; paraphrase would lose its fixed liturgical/canonical recognizability. Requires background footnote regardless (Section 2). |
| Tongues (γλῶσσαι) | Translate literally, not transliterate/gloss denominationally: अन्यभाषा | A transliteration (“glossolalia”) would be opaque to Marathi readers; a denominational paraphrase (e.g., “ecstatic utterance” or “prayer language”) would prejudge a contested doctrinal position. Literal “other-tongues” preserves neutrality. |
| Mystery (μυστήριον) | Translate: रहस्य, never transliterate | A Greek transliteration would be needlessly opaque; रहस्य is intelligible but requires fencing (Section 3) rather than a coined neologism, since coining a new term would create an unfamiliar word with no independent doctrinal advantage. |
| Idol-food (εἰδωλόθυτα) | Paraphrase, not single-word loan: मूर्तींना अर्पिलेले अन्न | No single Marathi word exists; compounding avoids reaching for the devotionally-loaded नैवेद्य/प्रसाद (forbidden, Section 3). |
| Body of Christ (σῶμα Χριστοῦ) | Translate as fixed compound: ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर | No transliteration option is sensible for a metaphor; compound must be locked identically across all occurrences (12:12-27) for doctrinal consistency and cross-lesson recognizability. |
| Abba (already fixed in Romans baseline) | Transliterate: अब्बा | Not reintroduced in 1 Corinthians directly but retained as precedent governing Maranatha’s transliteration above. |
General principle derived: transliterate only (a) established liturgical acclamations/exclamations with no native semantic content to paraphrase (Maranatha, Amen, Hallelujah, Abba) and (b) proper names/titles with fixed forms (Christ, Jesus, David, Israel). Paraphrase or translate everything else, even at the cost of a longer compound, rather than import a Greek loanword that would be doctrinally opaque to a first-time Marathi reader.
Section 5 — Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined severity (doctrinal centrality × collision risk × frequency), highest first:
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ज्ञान for both “wisdom” and “knowledge” (chs. 1-3, 8, 12-13). The single lexeme collapses two distinct Greek terms (σοφία/γνῶσις) into one Marathi word already carrying strong self-attained-insight associations from both Hindu jñāna-mārga and Buddhist prajñā. No lexical fix exists; only contrastive teaching notes at every occurrence can manage this. Ranked #1 because it recurs across the letter’s opening theological argument (the cross as wisdom/power) and its climax on love (“knowledge puffs up,” 8:1; 13:2, 8).
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प्रीती vs. प्रेम vs. भक्ति for ἀγάπη (ch. 13 and throughout). A three-way fork where two of the three natural Marathi candidates point in wrong directions (romantic sentiment; devotee-to-deity reverence). Ranked #2 for its centrality to the letter’s most quoted chapter and its direct exposure to the baseline’s already-documented Warkari bhakti collision (Romans grace entry).
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अविनाशी / अविनाशी शरीर risk of collapsing into Hindu ātman-immortality (15:42-54). The entire resurrection-body argument can be silently reversed (soul survives vs. body transformed) by a single unglossed word choice. Ranked #3 given the doctrinal weight of bodily resurrection as this curriculum’s core passage anchor doctrine.
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दर्शन as a forbidden false-friend for “appeared/was seen” (15:5-8). A single wrong word choice would recast the entire eyewitness-testimony argument of the resurrection chapter as a devotional visionary experience. Ranked #4 (lower than #1-3 only because the correct alternative, प्रकट झाला/दिसला, is already fixed and the risk is enforcement, not derivation).
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मूर्ती / मूर्तिपूजा / भूत — shared vocabulary with the target audience’s own religious neighbors (chs. 8, 10). Unlike collisions with abstract doctrine, this is a collision with lived social relationships; mistranslation risk here is less about doctrinal confusion and more about unintended offense or unintended softening. Ranked #5 given its Critical designation and high frequency (chs. 8 and 10 together).
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शीर्ष/मस्तक (headship, 11:3-10) intersecting with मौन धारण करावे (14:34-35). Two separate but textually linked interpretive cruxes on gender and worship order; translation choice risks pre-resolving a live exegetical debate the source text itself leaves open in places. Ranked #6 for its live, contested status among reviewing theologians, not for collision with non-Christian religious vocabulary.
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मंदिर for ναός (3:16-17; 6:19). Ranked #7: the word choice itself is correct (no better option exists), but the everyday shrine/idol-housing association is strong enough that omission of the teaching note would produce quiet syncretism.
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परंपरा / सोपवले-स्वीकारले and guru-paramparā collision (11:2; 15:1, 3). Ranked #8: real risk, but more easily fenced than #1-3 because a single consistent framing note (“closed apostolic deposit, not open lineage”) suffices across both terms.
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शरीर ओळखणे’s dual referent (11:29). Ranked #9: a genuine translation puzzle but confined to a single verse, unlike the recurring risks above.
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फूट reinforcing rather than critiquing caste/faction identity (chs. 1-4, 11:18). Ranked #10: real pastoral-cultural risk but the word itself is not doctrinally miscoded; the risk is one of application emphasis, manageable through the standard teaching-note apparatus.
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इंद्रियदमन / सिद्धी / नैवेद्य-प्रसाद / दानधर्म — the “forbidden alternatives” cluster (chs. 7, 8, 12, 16). Ranked #11 as a cluster: each is individually lower-frequency than items above, but collectively represents the largest set of words that must be actively avoided across the letter, requiring vigilant Phase 2 validation-rule enforcement (cf.
12_ai_translation_requirements.mdforbidden-substitution mechanism, to be extended for this curriculum). -
वल्हांडण सण / “Christ our Passover” OT background dependency (5:7). Ranked #12: lower doctrinal collision risk than items above, but a real comprehension gap given assumed low OT narrative literacy across this audience.
Section 6 — Full-Book Chapter Coverage Confirmation
Per the PRD’s full-book coverage mandate, every chapter of 1 Corinthians has been reviewed for linguistic gap content. Chapters not separately itemized in Sections 1-5 above contributed no new load-bearing terms beyond those already captured and are explicitly confirmed reviewed below:
| Chapter | Gap-analysis status |
|---|---|
| 1 | Covered — schism/division, wisdom/foolishness, election (1.2, 1.3). |
| 2 | Covered — wisdom, mystery, natural/spiritual man, demonstration of the Spirit (1.3). |
| 3 | Covered — wisdom/foolishness continued, temple, foundation, fellow workers (1.3, 1.4). |
| 4 | Covered — steward, spiritual fatherhood, apostleship register (1.4; no new gap terms beyond core glossary Part 2). |
| 5 | Covered — sexual immorality, leaven, Christ our Passover, deliver to Satan (1.4). |
| 6 | Covered — judge/judgment, bought with a price, temple (body), justification background (1.4, 1.6; sanctification reused from Romans). |
| 7 | Covered — marriage, virgin, singleness, divorce/separation, self-control, calling (1.5). |
| 8 | Covered — food sacrificed to idols, idol, knowledge, conscience, stumbling block, love (first occurrence) (1.6, 1.9). |
| 9 | Covered — right/authority, imperishable crown; reviewed, no Critical/High gap terms beyond core glossary Part 2. |
| 10 | Covered — idolatry, testing/temptation, cup/table of the Lord and demons, demon, fellowship (1.6, 1.7). |
| 11 | Covered — headship, tradition, Lord’s Supper, unworthy manner, discerning the body (1.7, 1.10). |
| 12 | Covered — body of Christ, members, spiritual gifts, tongues, interpretation, healing, word of wisdom/knowledge (1.3, 1.8). |
| 13 | Covered — love, patient/kind, perfect/complete (1.9). |
| 14 | Covered — tongues continued, edification, order, women keep silent, prophecy (1.10). |
| 15 | Covered in depth — resurrection, firstfruits, last enemy, perishable/imperishable, natural/spiritual body, victory, sting, and full core-passage terms (1.1, 1.11; Sections 2-5 throughout). |
| 16 | Covered — collection, anathema, Maranatha, holy kiss (1.9, 1.10; Sections 4-5). |
No chapter was silently omitted. Chapters 4, 6, and 9 contributed comparatively fewer new Critical/High gap terms and are noted above as reviewed with lighter incremental findings, consistent with the mandate to keep per-chapter coverage focused on load-bearing content.
This analysis extends, and must never contradict, the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json, and the 1 Corinthians analysis/08_core_glossary.md and assets/bible_term_registry.json entries it builds upon. All Critical and High risk items identified here require theologian sign-off before Phase 2 translation begins, per the escalation rules in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.