Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis: Ephesians (English → Marathi)
1. Purpose and Scope
This document provides the full doctrine matrix for the Ephesians curriculum, covering every chapter (1–6) from first to last. Ephesians 2:1-10 is the curriculum’s theological anchor (grace-through-faith-not-works, the clearest single statement of Salvation by Grace through Faith in the letter), but doctrinal coverage below spans the entire book, consistent with the PRD’s full-book-coverage mandate. No chapter is silently omitted; each is explicitly confirmed as reviewed below, whether or not it introduces new doctrine beyond what is carried forward from earlier chapters or the Romans baseline.
All doctrine names, risk tiers, and review routing below are identical to assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (Ephesians). This document does not alter or re-tier any doctrine already fixed there; it adds the chapter-by-chapter mapping and passage-level detail needed for Phase 2 segment routing.
2. Full Doctrine Matrix — Ephesians-Specific and Ephesians-Intensified Doctrines
| # | Doctrine | Risk | Supporting Passages (Ephesians) | Translation Risk / Notes | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salvation by Grace through Faith | Critical | 2:1-10; 2:8-9 | The curriculum’s central doctrine and core passage. Grace-through-faith-not-works must resist collapse into both the Hindu/Buddhist karma-merit economy (कर्म) and the Navayana Buddhist Eightfold Path’s self-cultivation ethic. ἔργα → कामे, never कर्म. कृपा must be reinforced each occurrence as unearned, Christ-specific favor, distinct from Warkari bhakti’s own devotional grace-vocabulary and from Buddhist self-effort. | Human theologian |
| 2 | Total Spiritual Deadness Apart from Christ | High | 2:1-3 | ”Dead in trespasses,” “children of wrath” must be taught as a universal condition equally shared by every person “by nature” (2:3) — never phrased to echo the caste-Hindu birth-karma doctrine that low social/moral condition reflects past-life sin, a doctrine Ambedkarite Buddhist communities explicitly rejected. | Human theologian |
| 3 | Election and Predestination in Christ | Critical | 1:4-5; 1:11 | ”Before the foundation of the world” (1:4) grounds election in God’s eternal, personal, relational choice. पूर्वनियोजन/देवाची निवड must never render as नशीब, दैव, or कर्मफळ — impersonal fate/destiny/karmic-ledger language, precisely the framework rejected by Ambedkarite Buddhist converts. | Human theologian |
| 4 | Adoption and Inheritance in Christ | High | 1:5; 1:11-14; 3:6 | Full son-status and inheritance-right (वतन) given equally to Jew and Gentile. Poses a conceptual hurdle for readers formed by Buddhist anatta teaching — present adoption as God’s relational declaration over the whole person, not resting on a particular prior metaphysics of the soul. | Human theologian |
| 5 | The Church as the Body of Christ | High | 1:22-23; 4:15-16; 5:23 | शरीर (body) must remain visually/lexically distinct from मंडळी (church = assembly); the two terms should typically appear paired (“मंडळी, जी ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर आहे”) so the organic-union metaphor is not collapsed into institutional-gathering sense alone. | Human theologian |
| 6 | Christ’s Headship over the Church | High | 1:22; 4:15; 5:23 | मस्तक must never flatten to डोके (physical skull) — this is supreme, self-sacrificial authority patterned on 5:25’s Christ-and-church analogy, not mere social dominance. | Human theologian |
| 7 | The Fullness of Christ in the Church | High | 1:23; 3:19; 4:13 | परिपूर्णता recurs across chs. 1, 3, 4 and must render consistently. Guard against resonance with Vedantic monistic “all-pervading fullness of Brahman” language; this fullness is relational/christological, never implying the church supplies something Christ lacks. | Human theologian |
| 8 | Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity | High | 2:11-22; 3:6 | Unusually direct positive resonance in Maharashtra given the historic breaking of caste-linked social dividing walls in living memory (1956 Ambedkarite Buddhist mass conversion). Retain full force without softening; distinguish this as Christ’s own accomplished, once-for-all reconciling act — not merely an ongoing human social-reform project. | Human theologian |
| 9 | The Mystery of Christ Revealed | High | 1:9; 3:3-6; 3:9; 5:32; 6:19 | रहस्य risks assimilation to esoteric/initiatory “hidden knowledge” traditions (tantric गूढ ज्ञान). Must be taught as a secret God has now fully and openly disclosed to every believer through the gospel — the opposite emphasis from teaching reserved for spiritual elites. | Human theologian |
| 10 | Reconciliation through the Cross | High | 2:14-18 | Both horizontal (Jew–Gentile) and vertical (humanity–God) reconciliation must be retained together; do not reduce to social peace-making alone, or the doctrine loses its vertical, God-ward dimension. | Human theologian |
| 11 | The Church as God’s Temple and Dwelling Place | Critical | 2:19-22 | मंदिर is elsewhere forbidden for “church” (to avoid Hindu-temple conflation), but here Paul deliberately invokes OT Jerusalem Temple imagery, for which मंदिर is the correct, established term. Requires an explicit translator note distinguishing this specific OT-Temple metaphor from both a literal shrine-building and Hindu temple ritual practice. | Human theologian |
| 12 | Gifts for Building Up the Church | Medium | 4:7-13 | Christ-apportioned enablements for corporate growth, not merit-earned powers or yogic/ascetic siddhi. Maturity (पूर्णता/प्रौढता) must be distinguished from the Buddhist self-attained pāramitā ideal of solitary self-cultivation. | Native speaker review |
| 13 | Unity of the Spirit | High | 4:3-6 | Spirit-given unity to be maintained, not manufactured by human organizational effort. The sevenfold formula (4:4-6) must be rendered as a fixed, memorable, identically-repeated formula throughout the curriculum, on the same consistency principle applied to Romans 8:28 and 10:9-10. | Human theologian |
| 14 | Walking in Newness of Life | High | 2:2, 10; 4:17-24; 5:8-18 | Old-self/new-self contrast is a decisive, once-for-all reorientation of the same continuous person in Christ — not Buddhist anatta’s momentarily-arising, never-fixed self, nor Hindu successive-rebirth of an enduring self. “Filled with the Spirit” must be distinguished from folk-religious trance/possession phenomena (“अंगात येणे”) in Maharashtra devotional practice. | Human theologian |
| 15 | Household Codes: Marriage as Christ-Centered Relationship | High | 5:21-33 | Must retain the governing mutual-submission principle (5:21) and the husband’s extraordinary sacrificial-love obligation (5:25) as structural qualifications on the wife’s submission instruction (5:22), so the passage is not read as endorsing generic patriarchal subordination detached from its explicit Christ-and-church pattern. | Human theologian |
| 16 | Household Codes: Parents and Children | Medium | 6:1-4 | Obedience/honor framed explicitly “in the Lord”; fathers instructed toward gentle, Christ-centered formation rather than harsh domination. Low doctrinal-collision risk beyond ensuring this framing is retained. | Native speaker review |
| 17 | Household Codes: Slaves and Masters | High | 6:5-9 | दास carries painful, real associations with caste-linked servitude (दास्यत्व) explicitly rejected by Ambedkarite Buddhist communities through the 1956 mass conversion. Requires an explicit note that Paul pastorally redirects (not endorses) an existing first-century social institution, and that its climax (6:9, God’s own impartiality) undercuts any hierarchy of inherent human worth. | Human theologian |
| 18 | Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God | High | 6:10-18 | Metaphorical spiritual equipment for resisting temptation and standing firm — never literal weaponry, political militancy, or ritual protective objects paralleling Maharashtra folk-exorcism practice (talismans, mantrik charms). | Human theologian |
| 19 | The Reality of Cosmic Spiritual Powers | High | 2:2; 6:12 | Serious risk of assimilation into existing Maharashtra folk-religious frameworks: territorial/village spirits (ग्रामदेवता), malevolent affliction (भूतबाधा), black-magic/counter-magic practice (करणी, addressed by bhagat/mantrik ritual specialists). The believer’s biblical response (truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, Scripture, prayer) must be explicitly distinguished from folk exorcism or protective-charm practice. | Human theologian |
| 20 | Prayer and Intercession | Medium | 3:12; 6:18-20 | Direct, confident access to a personal, listening God through the Spirit; distinguish from bhakti puja/kirtan directed toward Vitthal and from Buddhist chanting/meditation practice. | Native speaker review |
| 21 | Sanctification and Renewal of the Mind | High | 4:23-24; 4:30; 5:26 | Ongoing renewal is the Holy Spirit’s work in the believer, not a self-directed contemplative technique; must not be assimilated to Hindu chitta-śuddhi (yogic mental purification) or Buddhist mindfulness/meditative self-training. | Human theologian |
| 22 | Redemption through Christ’s Blood | Critical | 1:7 | Redemption is a ransom-price paid by Christ and received by the believer; must never suggest मोक्ष/मुक्ती-style self-attained liberation through devotional or ascetic effort, and must be kept conceptually distinct from तारण (the resulting saved state). | Human theologian |
| 23 | Grace Contrasted with Works | Critical | 2:8-9 | The sharpest single grace-vs-works contrast in the NT. ἔργα must NEVER render as कर्म (the technical karma-doctrine term), always कामे; देणगी (gift) is preferred over दान (which carries meritorious-giving connotations in Hindu devotional practice) so that salvation does not sound like a pious transaction. | Human theologian |
| 24 | Assurance of Salvation (Sealed by the Spirit) | High | 1:13-14; 4:30 | The Spirit’s seal and guarantee ground assurance in God’s own unchanging pledge, not a karmic ledger of merit or ritual performance. As with the Romans baseline’s assurance doctrine, teach relationally rather than resting on a particular prior metaphysics of a continuous self, given the Buddhist anatta framework some readers bring. | Human theologian |
This matrix is identical in doctrine names, risk tiers, and review routing to assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (Ephesians). No re-tiering has occurred.
3. Baseline (Romans) Doctrines Recurring in Ephesians — Cross-Referenced, Not Restated
The following doctrines are already fully specified in the Romans baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json and translation_memory.json. They recur throughout Ephesians and retain their baseline risk tier and rendering; they are not re-decided here except where noted.
| Doctrine (baseline name) | Baseline Risk | Ephesians Chapters | Cross-Reference Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grace | High (Critical per translation_memory term “grace”/कृपा) | 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 | Intensified in Ephesians via “Grace Contrasted with Works” (Critical, new doctrine #23 above), specific to 2:8-9. |
| Faith | High | 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 | No new risk beyond baseline; object of faith (Christ) must remain recoverable from context throughout. |
| Salvation | Critical | 1, 2, 6 | तारण per baseline; never मोक्ष/मुक्ती/निर्वाण. Distinguish from “Redemption” (new doctrine #22), which is the ransom-act, not the resulting state. |
| Divine Calling / Effectual Calling | High | 1, 4 | 1:4, 1:18, 4:1, 4:4 use “called”/“calling” language; baseline context-sensitivity rules apply. |
| Election | High (subsumed into “Election and Predestination in Christ,” Critical, above) | 1 | Ephesians 1:4-5, 1:11 intensify the baseline Romans election doctrine to Critical given the added predestination language; see doctrine #3 above. |
| Adoption | High (subsumed into “Adoption and Inheritance in Christ,” High, above) | 1 | See doctrine #4 above. |
| Sanctification | High (subsumed into “Sanctification and Renewal of the Mind,” High, above) | 5 | See doctrine #21 above. |
| Sainthood (Called to be Holy) | High | 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 | पवित्र जन throughout; never संत. |
| Peace with God | High | 2, 4, 6 | शांती per baseline; in Ephesians 2:14-18 this doctrine merges with “Reconciliation through the Cross” (doctrine #10 above). |
| Universal Human Accountability | High | 2 | Ephesians 2:1-3 restates this via “Total Spiritual Deadness Apart from Christ” (doctrine #2 above), which is the Ephesians-specific intensification. |
| Universal Scope of the Gospel / Unity of Jews and Gentiles | High | 2, 3 | Directly continued and intensified as “Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity” (doctrine #8 above). |
| Church as God’s People | Medium | 1, 3, 4, 5 | Continued and intensified as “The Church as the Body of Christ” (doctrine #5) and “The Church as God’s Temple and Dwelling Place” (doctrine #11). |
| Power of God for Salvation | High | 1, 3, 6 | देवाचे सामर्थ्य per baseline; never शक्ती. Present in 1:19-20 (resurrection power) and 3:20 (power at work within us) and 6:10 (armor of God). |
| Spiritual Gifts | Medium | 4 | Continued and intensified as “Gifts for Building Up the Church” (doctrine #12). |
| Apostleship | Medium | 1, 2, 3, 4 | प्रेषित per baseline; Paul’s self-designation (1:1, 3:1) and the “apostles and prophets” foundation (2:20, 3:5, 4:11). |
| Inspiration of Scripture / Prophet | Low | 2, 3, 4 | संदेष्टा per baseline; no new risk. |
| Covenant | High | 2 | करार per baseline; 2:12 “covenants of promise.” |
| Prayer and Intercession (Romans doctrine) | Medium | 3, 6 | Continued as “Prayer and Intercession” (doctrine #20 above), Ephesians-specific passages. |
| Kingdom of God | Medium | 5 | देवाचे राज्य per baseline; 5:5. |
| Thanksgiving | Low | 1, 5 | उपकारस्तुती per baseline; no new risk. |
| Mutual Edification / Christian Fellowship | Low | 4, 5 | No new risk; consistent with baseline. |
4. Chapter-by-Chapter Doctrine Coverage (Full Book, Chapters 1–6)
Ephesians 1 — Election, Adoption, Redemption, the Mystery, the Church’s Fullness
Doctrines active: Election and Predestination in Christ (Critical); Adoption and Inheritance in Christ (High); Redemption through Christ’s Blood (Critical); The Mystery of Christ Revealed (High); The Church as the Body of Christ (High); Christ’s Headship over the Church (High); The Fullness of Christ in the Church (High); Assurance of Salvation / Sealed by the Spirit (High); baseline Grace, Faith, Calling, Power of God, Apostleship, Thanksgiving. Key passages: 1:3-6 (election/predestination/adoption), 1:7 (redemption), 1:9-10 (mystery), 1:11-14 (inheritance, sealing), 1:15-19 (thanksgiving, power), 1:19-23 (resurrection power, headship, body, fullness). Notes: The densest doctrinal chapter in the book; nearly every Critical-tier doctrine in the registry has its primary grounding text here. Full theologian review required across this chapter.
Ephesians 2 — Grace through Faith, Spiritual Deadness, Unity of Jews and Gentiles, Temple
Doctrines active: Salvation by Grace through Faith (Critical) — core passage 2:1-10; Total Spiritual Deadness Apart from Christ (High); Grace Contrasted with Works (Critical); Walking in Newness of Life (High, 2:2, 2:10); The Reality of Cosmic Spiritual Powers (High, 2:2 “prince of the power of the air”); Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity (High); Reconciliation through the Cross (High); The Church as God’s Temple and Dwelling Place (Critical); baseline Sin, Law, Gentiles, Covenant. Key passages: 2:1-3 (deadness/wrath), 2:4-7 (grace/mercy/love), 2:8-10 (grace-faith-not-works, workmanship), 2:11-13 (former alienation), 2:14-18 (dividing wall broken, reconciliation), 2:19-22 (household of God, temple, dwelling place). Notes: This chapter contains the curriculum’s core passage and the single heaviest concentration of Critical-tier doctrine in the book (three Critical doctrines: Salvation by Grace through Faith, Grace Contrasted with Works, Church as Temple). Every segment in this chapter should be routed to human theologian review by default.
Ephesians 3 — The Mystery Revealed, Fullness, Boldness in Prayer
Doctrines active: The Mystery of Christ Revealed (High); The Fullness of Christ in the Church (High); Adoption and Inheritance in Christ (High, “fellow heirs,” 3:6); Prayer and Intercession (Medium); baseline Gospel, Grace, Power of God, Gentiles. Key passages: 3:1-6 (mystery, fellow heirs), 3:7-13 (Paul’s ministry of the mystery), 3:14-19 (prayer for strengthening, fullness), 3:20-21 (doxology, power at work within). Notes: Continues and deepens ch.1’s mystery/fullness vocabulary; must render रहस्य and परिपूर्णता identically to their ch.1 renderings for cross-chapter consistency.
Ephesians 4 — Unity of the Spirit, Gifts, Old Self/New Self
Doctrines active: Unity of the Spirit (High, sevenfold formula 4:4-6); Gifts for Building Up the Church (Medium); The Church as the Body of Christ / Christ’s Headship (High, 4:15-16); The Fullness of Christ (High, 4:13); Walking in Newness of Life (High, old self/new self, 4:17-24); Sanctification and Renewal of the Mind (High, 4:23-24, 4:30); baseline Apostleship, Prophet, Calling, Spiritual Gifts, Exhort. Key passages: 4:1-6 (calling, sevenfold unity), 4:7-13 (gifts, offices, maturity), 4:14-16 (headship, body, growth), 4:17-24 (old self/new self, renewal of mind), 4:25-32 (practical exhortations, grieving the Spirit). Notes: The sevenfold unity formula (4:4-6) must be fixed as an identical, memorable phrase across the entire curriculum on the same principle as Romans 8:28/10:9-10 consistency. Old-self/new-self language here directly supplies the theological content for “Walking in Newness of Life,” whose full doctrinal statement spans chs. 2, 4, and 5.
Ephesians 5 — Walking in Light, Sanctification, Household Codes: Marriage
Doctrines active: Walking in Newness of Life (High, “children of light,” “filled with the Spirit,” 5:8-18); Sanctification and Renewal of the Mind (High, 5:26, “washing of water with the word”); The Mystery of Christ Revealed (High, 5:32, applied to marriage); The Church as the Body of Christ / Christ’s Headship (High, 5:23-30); Household Codes: Marriage as Christ-Centered Relationship (High, 5:21-33); baseline Holiness, Kingdom of God, Fellowship. Key passages: 5:1-7 (imitate God, avoid covetousness/idolatry), 5:8-14 (children of light), 5:15-20 (filled with the Spirit, thanksgiving), 5:21-33 (mutual submission, wives/husbands, one flesh, mystery of Christ and church). Notes: The household-codes marriage passage (5:21-33) is the chapter’s dominant doctrinal unit and must retain the mutual-submission frame (5:21) and the husband’s sacrificial-love obligation (5:25) as controlling context for 5:22’s wife-submission instruction. “Filled with the Spirit” (5:18) requires explicit distinction from folk-trance phenomena.
Ephesians 6 — Household Codes: Children/Parents and Slaves/Masters, Spiritual Warfare
Doctrines active: Household Codes: Parents and Children (Medium, 6:1-4); Household Codes: Slaves and Masters (High, 6:5-9); Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God (High, 6:10-18); The Reality of Cosmic Spiritual Powers (High, 6:12); Prayer and Intercession (Medium, 6:18-20); baseline Gospel, Salvation, Righteousness (as armor components), Faith (as armor component). Key passages: 6:1-4 (children/parents), 6:5-9 (slaves/masters, impartiality), 6:10-18 (full armor of God, each piece compounding a baseline Critical/High term), 6:19-20 (boldness in the mystery), 6:21-24 (closing greetings). Notes: The armor-of-God unit (6:10-18) compounds five baseline Critical/High terms (नीतिमत्त्व, विश्वास, तारण, शुभवर्तमान, पवित्र आत्मा) within a single extended metaphor and must render each piece consistently with its established baseline root term. The slaves/masters passage (6:5-9) carries the book’s most acute socio-doctrinal collision risk given caste-servitude associations and requires a mandatory translator note per doctrine #17 above.
Full-book coverage confirmation: Chapters 1 through 6 have each been reviewed above with explicit doctrine mapping, key passages, and translation-risk notes. No chapter is silently omitted; every chapter carries load-bearing theological content (there is no chapter in Ephesians that contributes only reused baseline vocabulary without its own doctrinal weight).
5. Risk Summary (Consistent with doctrine_risk_registry.json)
| Risk Tier | Count (Ephesians-specific/intensified doctrines) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 5 | Human theologian — every occurrence |
| High | 16 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 3 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 0 | — |
| Total requiring theologian review | 21 | |
| Total requiring native speaker review | 3 | |
| Total automated-only | 0 |
This summary is identical to the risk_summary block in assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json (Ephesians). Baseline Romans doctrines that recur in Ephesians (Section 3 above) retain their own baseline risk tiers and are not double-counted here.
6. Review Routing Rules for Phase 2
- Any segment falling within the primary passages of a Critical doctrine (Ephesians 1:4-7, 2:1-10, 2:19-22) must be routed to human theologian review with no exceptions, consistent with the escalation rules in
12_ai_translation_requirements.md. - Any segment containing a High doctrine’s key terms (see Section 2 matrix) must be routed to human theologian review.
- Any segment containing only Medium-tier doctrine content (Gifts for Building Up the Church, Household Codes: Parents and Children, Prayer and Intercession) may be routed to native speaker review unless it also intersects a Critical/High passage above.
- Where a chapter’s content intersects multiple doctrines of differing tiers (e.g., Ephesians 5:21-33 intersects Household Codes: Marriage [High] and The Mystery of Christ Revealed [High]), route at the highest applicable tier.
- All routing determinations above are consistent with, and do not override, the routing recorded in
assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Salvation by Grace through Faith
Marathi name: कृपेने विश्वासाद्वारे तारण
Key terms: grace, faith, salvation, works, gift
Review routing: Human theologian
The core passage’s grace-through-faith-not-works structure directly collides with two dominant frameworks in Maharashtra: the Hindu/Buddhist karma-merit economy (कर्म) and the Navayana Buddhist Eightfold Path’s self-cultivation ethic. ἔργα must render as कामे, never कर्म, and grace (कृपा) must be taught as unearned favor distinct from both Warkari bhakti’s own devotional grace-vocabulary and Buddhist self-effort. This is the single most theologically load-bearing doctrine in the curriculum.
Election and Predestination in Christ
Marathi name: ख्रिस्तात देवाची निवड आणि पूर्वनियोजन
Key terms: election, predestination, chosen, adoption, inheritance
Review routing: Human theologian
Ephesians 1:4-5 grounds election and predestination ‘before the foundation of the world’ — this must never be rendered with नशीब, दैव, or कर्मफळ, which would reduce God’s personal, relational choosing of individuals he loves to an impersonal fate or karmic ledger, precisely the framework rejected by Ambedkarite Buddhist converts.
The Church as God’s Temple and Dwelling Place
Marathi name: देवाचे मंदिर आणि निवासस्थान म्हणून मंडळी
Key terms: holy temple, dwelling place, cornerstone, foundation
Review routing: Human theologian
मंदिर is the forbidden rendering for ‘church’ generally (to avoid Hindu-temple conflation), yet here Paul intentionally invokes OT Jerusalem Temple imagery, for which मंदिर is the correct, established Marathi Bible term. This deliberate tension requires an explicit translator note distinguishing this specific metaphorical OT-Temple image from both a literal shrine-building and Hindu temple ritual practice, so readers do not conclude the church itself is a physical building to be visited.
Redemption through Christ’s Blood
Marathi name: ख्रिस्ताच्या रक्ताद्वारे उद्धार
Key terms: redemption, forgiveness, blood
Review routing: Human theologian
Redemption is a ransom-price paid by Christ and received by the believer; must never be rendered so as to suggest मोक्ष/मुक्ती-style self-attained liberation reached through devotional or ascetic effort, and must be kept conceptually distinct from तारण (the resulting saved state).
Grace Contrasted with Works
Marathi name: कृपा आणि कर्मे यांतील फरक
Key terms: grace, works, boast, gift
Review routing: Human theologian
Ephesians 2:8-9 stages the grace-vs-works contrast more explicitly and concentratedly than almost any other NT passage; ἔργα (works) must NEVER be rendered कर्म (the technical Hindu/Buddhist karma-doctrine term) but always कामे, and देणगी (gift) is preferred over दान (which carries meritorious-giving connotations in Hindu devotional practice) to prevent salvation from sounding like a pious transaction.
High Risk Doctrines
Total Spiritual Deadness Apart from Christ
Marathi name: ख्रिस्ताविना पूर्ण आत्मिक मृत्यू
Key terms: dead in trespasses, trespasses, sin, children of wrath
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be taught as total, universal human incapacity shared equally by every person ‘by nature’ — never phrased so as to echo the caste-Hindu birth-karma doctrine that low social status or moral condition reflects a past-life sin, a doctrine Ambedkarite Buddhist communities explicitly and painfully rejected by converting away from caste Hinduism.
Adoption and Inheritance in Christ
Marathi name: ख्रिस्तात दत्तक पुत्रत्व आणि वतन
Key terms: adoption, inheritance, fellow heir, guarantee
Review routing: Human theologian
Full son-status and inheritance-right given to Jew and Gentile alike; this doctrine also poses a conceptual hurdle for readers formed by Buddhist anatta (no-self) teaching — adoption should be presented as God’s relational declaration over the whole person, not resting on a particular prior metaphysics of the soul.
The Church as the Body of Christ
Marathi name: ख्रिस्ताचे शरीर म्हणून मंडळी
Key terms: body, head, church, fullness
Review routing: Human theologian
शरीर (body) must be kept visually and lexically distinct from मंडळी (church = assembly) so that the organic union metaphor is not collapsed into the institutional-gathering sense alone; the two terms should typically appear paired.
Christ’s Headship over the Church
Marathi name: मंडळीवर ख्रिस्ताचे मस्तकत्व
Key terms: head, body, authority
Review routing: Human theologian
मस्तक must never be flattened to डोके (the physical skull), which loses the authority-and-source sense; this headship is a supreme, self-sacrificial authority patterned on 5:25’s Christ-and-church analogy, not mere social dominance.
The Fullness of Christ in the Church
Marathi name: मंडळीत ख्रिस्ताची परिपूर्णता
Key terms: fullness
Review routing: Human theologian
परिपूर्णता recurs across chapters 1, 3, and 4 and must be rendered consistently; guard against resonance with Vedantic monistic language of an impersonal ‘all-pervading fullness of Brahman’ — this fullness is relational and christological, and never implies the church supplies something Christ lacks.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Marathi name: यहूदी आणि अन्यजातीय यांची एका नव्या मानवतेत एकता
Key terms: dividing wall, one new man, reconcile, gentiles, circumcision
Review routing: Human theologian
This doctrine has unusually direct positive resonance in Maharashtra given the historic breaking of caste-linked social dividing walls in living memory (the 1956 Ambedkarite Buddhist mass conversion); the full force of Christ’s abolition of every dividing wall between peoples must be retained and not softened, while being carefully distinguished from a purely social-reform movement — this is Christ’s own accomplished, once-for-all reconciling act, not an ongoing human social project.
The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Marathi name: ख्रिस्ताचे प्रकट झालेले रहस्य
Key terms: mystery, fellow heir, revealed
Review routing: Human theologian
रहस्य risks assimilation to esoteric traditions of secret/initiatory knowledge (गूढ ज्ञान; tantric ‘hidden knowledge’ traditions); must be taught throughout as a secret God has now fully and openly disclosed to every believer through the gospel — the opposite emphasis from esoteric teaching reserved for spiritual elites.
Reconciliation through the Cross
Marathi name: वधस्तंभाद्वारे समेट
Key terms: reconcile, enmity, peace, cross
Review routing: Human theologian
Both horizontal (Jew-Gentile) and vertical (humanity-God) reconciliation must be retained together; do not reduce to social peace-making alone or the doctrine loses its vertical, God-ward dimension.
Unity of the Spirit
Marathi name: आत्म्याचे ऐक्य
Key terms: unity of the Spirit, sevenfold unity formula, bond of peace
Review routing: Human theologian
This Spirit-given unity is to be maintained, not manufactured by human organizational effort; the sevenfold formula (4:4-6) must be rendered as a fixed, memorable, identically-repeated formula throughout the curriculum, on the same consistency principle applied to Romans 8:28 and 10:9-10.
Walking in Newness of Life
Marathi name: नवजीवनात आचरण
Key terms: walk, old self, new self, renewed mind, children of light, filled with the Spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
The old-self/new-self contrast must be taught as a decisive, once-for-all reorientation of the same continuous person in Christ — not the Buddhist anatta framework of a momentarily-arising, never-fixed self, nor a Hindu doctrine of successive rebirths of an enduring self; and ‘filled with the Spirit’ must be distinguished from folk-religious trance/possession phenomena (‘अंगात येणे’) found in Maharashtra devotional practice.
Household Codes: Marriage as Christ-Centered Relationship
Marathi name: घरगुती संहिता: ख्रिस्तकेंद्रित वैवाहिक नाते
Key terms: submitting to one another, wives submit, husbands love wives, one flesh, washing of water with the word, mystery…Christ and church
Review routing: Human theologian
Must retain the governing mutual-submission principle (5:21) and the husband’s own extraordinary sacrificial-love obligation (5:25) as structural qualifications on the wife’s submission instruction (5:22), so the passage is not read as endorsing generic patriarchal subordination detached from its explicit Christ-and-church pattern.
Household Codes: Slaves and Masters
Marathi name: घरगुती संहिता: दास व धनी
Key terms: bondservants/slaves and masters, partiality, eye-service, goodwill
Review routing: Human theologian
दास carries painful, real associations with caste-linked servitude (दास्यत्व) explicitly rejected by Ambedkarite Buddhist communities through mass conversion in 1956. This passage must be taught with an explicit note that Paul is pastorally redirecting (not endorsing) an existing first-century social institution, and that its climax (6:9, God’s own impartiality toward slave and master alike) actively undercuts any hierarchy of inherent human worth.
Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Marathi name: आत्मिक युद्ध आणि देवाचे शस्त्रसामग्री
Key terms: full armor of God, belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit, schemes of the devil
Review routing: Human theologian
Must be taught as metaphorical spiritual equipment for resisting temptation and standing firm in truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation-assurance, and Scripture — never as literal weaponry, political militancy, or ritual protective objects paralleling Maharashtra folk-exorcism practice (talismans, mantrik charms).
The Reality of Cosmic Spiritual Powers
Marathi name: विश्वव्यापी आत्मिक दुष्ट शक्तींचे वास्तव
Key terms: prince of the power of the air, rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil
Review routing: Human theologian
Serious risk of assimilation into existing Maharashtra folk-religious frameworks: territorial/village spirits (ग्रामदेवता), malevolent affliction (भूतबाधा), and black-magic/counter-magic practice (करणी, addressed by bhagat/mantrik ritual specialists). The believer’s biblical response (truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, Scripture, prayer) must be explicitly distinguished from folk exorcism, protective charms, or professional exorcist mediation.
Sanctification and Renewal of the Mind
Marathi name: पवित्रीकरण आणि मनाचे नवीकरण
Key terms: renewed mind, sanctification, grieve the Holy Spirit, holy
Review routing: Human theologian
This ongoing renewal is the Holy Spirit’s work in the believer, not a self-directed contemplative technique; must not be assimilated to Hindu chitta-śuddhi (yogic mental purification) or Buddhist mindfulness/meditative self-training.
Assurance of Salvation (Sealed by the Spirit)
Marathi name: आत्म्याद्वारे शिक्का मारलेली तारणाची खात्री
Key terms: seal of the Spirit, guarantee, inheritance
Review routing: Human theologian
The Spirit’s seal and guarantee ground assurance in God’s own unchanging pledge, not in a karmic ledger of accumulated merit or ritual performance; as with the baseline’s assurance doctrine, this should be taught relationally rather than resting on a particular prior metaphysics of a continuous self, given the Buddhist anatta framework some readers bring.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Gifts for Building Up the Church
Marathi name: मंडळीच्या उभारणीसाठी कृपादाने
Key terms: spiritual gifts, measure of Christ’s gift, evangelist, pastor, teacher, equipping, maturity
Review routing: Native speaker review
Gifts are Christ-apportioned enablements for corporate growth, not merit-earned powers or yogic/ascetic siddhi; maturity (पूर्णता/प्रौढता) must be distinguished from the Buddhist self-attained pāramitā ideal of solitary self-cultivation.
Household Codes: Parents and Children
Marathi name: घरगुती संहिता: पालक व मुले
Key terms: obey your parents, honor father and mother, discipline and instruction of the Lord
Review routing: Native speaker review
Obedience and honor are framed explicitly ‘in the Lord,’ and fathers are instructed toward gentle, Christ-centered formation rather than harsh domination; low doctrinal-collision risk beyond ensuring this framing is retained.
Prayer and Intercession
Marathi name: प्रार्थना आणि मध्यस्थी
Key terms: praying in the Spirit, boldness, access
Review routing: Native speaker review
Direct, confident access to a personal, listening God through the Spirit; distinguish from bhakti puja/kirtan directed toward Vitthal and from Buddhist chanting/meditation practice.
Referenced passages