Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Marathi translation and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons — distinctively, Critical terms in this Language Package typically reject one Warkari-Hindu alternative AND one Buddhist alternative, since the two traditions do not share a vocabulary
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice, including caste-karma sensitivity where relevant
Governing principles
- Established usage over invention — where existing Marathi Bible translation already has a settled rendering (परमेश्वर, येशू, प्रभू, ख्रिस्त, शुभवर्तमान), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
- Explicit dual rejection, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why both the Warkari-Hindu word and the Buddhist word or concept-gap are wrong (see
alternatives_rejected), so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning for both risk axes. - Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters, including the caste-karma sensitivity notes unique to this Language Package.
Critical Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: पिता
Transliteration: Pitā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: निर्माता
God as personal Father; avoid abstract creator-titles that lack relational warmth.
God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वर
Transliteration: Parameśvar
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: देव, भगवान
CRITICAL: देव is the everyday Marathi word for any deity at all (Ganpati, Vitthal, a village deity), so it flattens monotheistic exclusivity if used alone for the God of Romans. परमेश्वर (Supreme Lord) is preferred for doctrinal precision.
Grace
Approved rendering: कृपा
Transliteration: kṛpā
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: कर्मफळ, पुण्य, स्वतःच्या प्रयत्नाने मिळवलेले
CRITICAL: कृपा already names devotional favor in Warkari bhakti (Vitthal’s कृपा on a devotee), so it reads as familiar — every occurrence must make explicit that this favor is unearned and given through Christ alone, not cultivated through bhakti devotion. Navayana Buddhist ethics, by contrast, has no grace concept at all: liberation there is entirely a matter of self-cultivation along the Eightfold Path, so for a Buddhist-background reader the concept needs to be built up, not merely corrected.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: पवित्र आत्मा
Transliteration: Pavitra Ātmā
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: परमात्मा, ब्रह्म
CRITICAL: never परमात्मा (Hindu Universal Self) or ब्रह्म (Brahman). पवित्र आत्मा is the personal Holy Spirit, third Person of the Trinity.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: आरोपित नीतिमत्त्व
Transliteration: āropit nītimattva
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: स्वकष्टार्जित नीतिमत्त्व
Credited righteousness from God, NOT self-labor-earned righteousness (स्वकष्टार्जित) — a phrase that names both the Hindu merit path and the self-cultivation emphasis of the Buddhist Eightfold Path, both explicitly rejected here.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: देहधारण
Transliteration: dehadhāraṇ
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: अवतार, बोधिसत्त्वाचा पुनर्जन्म
CRITICAL: NEVER अवतार (Vitthal/Krishna avatar-descent, central to Warkari devotional theology). Also guard against a subtler false-friend for readers shaped by Navayana Buddhism: the Bodhisattva ideal of repeatedly postponing one’s own liberation to be reborn for the sake of helping other beings, an image Ambedkar himself drew on. Christ’s incarnation is a one-time, unique act of the eternal, uncreated Son — not one more compassionate rebirth in a series.
Jesus
Approved rendering: येशू
Transliteration: Yeśū
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईसा
येशू is the Marathi Christian standard; ईसा is associated with Muslim/Urdu usage.
Justification
Approved rendering: नीतिमान ठरवणे
Transliteration: nītimān ṭharavaṇe
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: माफी मिळणे, पुण्य कमावणे
Compound phrase required; a forensic declaration of right standing, never abbreviated to a single word.
Lord
Approved rendering: प्रभू
Transliteration: prabhū
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: स्वामी, ईश्वर
CRITICAL: In Romans 10:9 the confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ = येशू प्रभू आहे. Must convey exclusive, supreme, presently-reigning Lordship — not one more beloved personal deity alongside Vitthal in the Warkari devotee’s devotional life, however sincere that devotion is.
Messiah
Approved rendering: मसीहा
Transliteration: Masīhā
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: अवतारी पुरुष
CRITICAL: transliterated term; the unique OT-promised deliverer, not one of many avatar-descents.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: पुनरुत्थान
Transliteration: punarutthān
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: पुनर्जन्म, पुनर्भव
CRITICAL: NEVER पुनर्जन्म (Hindu rebirth) or पुनर्भव (the Buddhist technical term for the arising of a new configuration of aggregates after death, explicitly not the survival of a continuous self). पुनरुत्थान is the bodily, historical, once-for-all raising of the same Jesus who died — a claim that needs positive explanation for readers shaped by either framework, not just a rejected word.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: नीतिमत्त्व
Transliteration: nītimattva
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: धर्म, पुण्य
CRITICAL: never धर्म. नीतिमत्त्व = right standing before God received through faith, not cosmic duty performed or merit accumulated.
Salvation
Approved rendering: तारण
Transliteration: tāraṇ
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: मोक्ष, मुक्ती, निर्वाण
CRITICAL: NEVER मोक्ष or मुक्ती (Warkari-Hindu liberation reached through bhakti devotion and Vitthal’s grace) and NEVER निर्वाण (the Buddhist extinguishing of craving and suffering — an impersonal cessation, not reconciliation with a personal God). तारण = deliverance given by God through Christ.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: देवाचा पुत्र
Transliteration: devācā putra
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: देवपुरुष, अवतारी पुरुष
CRITICAL: full phrase required. Never ‘godly man’ or ‘one of the avatar-figures’. Conveys eternal, unique Sonship within the Godhead.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: अब्बा
Transliteration: Abbā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15; kept as transliteration alongside पिता.
Adoption
Approved rendering: दत्तक पुत्रत्व
Transliteration: dattak putratva
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: दत्तक घेणे
Emphasizes full son-status and inheritance. Note also a distinct conceptual hurdle for readers formed by Navayana Buddhist teaching on anatta (no permanent, unchanging self): ‘who’ is adopted if there is no enduring self? This curriculum should make clear that adoption is God’s declaration over the whole person in relationship, not a claim requiring a particular metaphysics of the soul to be meaningful.
Called
Approved rendering: बोलावलेले
Transliteration: bolāvlele
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: आमंत्रित
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation.
Calling
Approved rendering: पाचारण
Transliteration: pācāraṇ
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: आवाहन
Noun form for the act/state of being called; pair with बोलावलेले for the participle.
Covenant
Approved rendering: करार
Transliteration: karār
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: वचन
करार conveys a binding relational bond; वचन alone (a promise/word) is weaker than the covenant concept requires.
Election
Approved rendering: देवाची निवड
Transliteration: devācī nivaḍ
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: नशीब, दैव, कर्मफळ
God’s sovereign, personal choice. Must never be phrased so as to echo the karma-birth explanation of social station that Ambedkarite Buddhist communities explicitly rejected; election is God’s gracious choosing of a person, not a cosmic ledger determining their standing.
Faith
Approved rendering: विश्वास
Transliteration: viśvāsa
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: श्रद्धा, भक्ति
Personal trust in a specific object (Christ); श्रद्धा and भक्ति both carry devotional-reverence connotations from Warkari and broader bhakti practice that do not require a specific, exclusive object of trust.
Glory
Approved rendering: गौरव
Transliteration: gaurav
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: तेज, प्रकाश
God’s radiant honor; avoid light-only imagery that could merge with devotional divine-light or enlightenment (bodhi) associations.
Gospel
Approved rendering: शुभवर्तमान
Transliteration: śubhavartamān
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: बातमी, खबर
Established Marathi Bible term (used as the traditional title for each of the four Gospels, e.g. योहनलिखित शुभवर्तमान). बातमी/खबर are generic ‘news’ and lack the technical sense of the one saving proclamation.
Holy
Approved rendering: पवित्र
Transliteration: pavitra
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: शुद्ध
Set apart for God and morally pure; शुद्ध leans toward ritual purity rather than relational holiness.
Law
Approved rendering: नियमशास्त्र
Transliteration: niyamśāstra
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: धर्म, धम्म
Torah/Mosaic law. NEVER धर्म (caste-linked Hindu dharma, the very framework Ambedkarite Buddhists formally renounced by converting) and never धम्म in Ambedkar’s specific reinterpreted sense (his ‘The Buddha and His Dhamma’ recasts Dhamma as a social ethic of liberty, equality, and fraternity) — both words carry a politically live, contested history in Marathi that Mosaic law does not share.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: विश्वासाचे आज्ञापालन
Transliteration: viśvāsāce āgnāpālan
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: धार्मिक कर्तव्य
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Obedience flowing from faith already granted, not धार्मिक कर्तव्य (religious duty), which reads as caste-dharma-style obligation.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: देवाचे सामर्थ्य
Transliteration: devāce sāmarthya
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: शक्ती
Use सामर्थ्य; never शक्ती — Maharashtra’s prominent Shakti/mother-goddess tradition (Tuljapur’s Tuljabhavani, family deity of Chhatrapati Shivaji) makes शक्ती read as a specific divine-feminine power distinct from the one God’s saving power.
Providence
Approved rendering: देवाचे विधान
Transliteration: devāce vidhān
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: नशीब, कर्माचा नियम
God’s personal, purposive governance. Romans 8:28 is politically sensitive here: it must not be rendered in a way that sounds like the karma-based explanation of misfortune or low status that this audience has specifically rejected.
Saints
Approved rendering: पवित्र जन
Transliteration: pavitra jan
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: संत, मुनी
संत is exceptionally loaded in Marathi: it names the revered Warkari poet-saints (Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdev, Eknath, and the Dalit sant Chokhamela), an elite spiritual-literary category, not the status of every believer. पवित्र जन keeps sainthood corporate.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: पवित्रीकरण
Transliteration: pavitrīkaraṇ
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: शुद्धीकरण
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy, distinct from ritual purification.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: दावीदाच्या वंशातून
Transliteration: Dāvīdācyā vaṃśātūn
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment.
Sin
Approved rendering: पाप
Transliteration: pāp
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: अधर्म
Moral transgression before a personal God. Handle with particular care in passages proclaiming universal sinfulness: Ambedkarite Buddhist communities explicitly and painfully rejected the caste-Hindu doctrine that low social birth reflects bad karma/sin from a past life. ‘All have sinned’ must be taught as universal moral accountability before God, never phrased in a way that echoes that rejected birth-karma framework.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: प्रेषित
Transliteration: preṣit
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: गुरू, संदेशवाहक
Established Marathi Christian term. Avoid गुरू, which implies a self-attained teaching authority rather than a delegated, sent commission.
Church
Approved rendering: मंडळी
Transliteration: maṇḍaḷī
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: देऊळ, मंदिर
Established Marathi Christian term for the congregation. Never देऊळ/मंदिर (Hindu temple).
David
Approved rendering: दावीद
Transliteration: Dāvīd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Established proper name form.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: अन्यजातीय
Transliteration: anyajātīya
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: विदेशी
Non-Jewish peoples; विदेशी (foreigners) is too narrowly national.
Intercession
Approved rendering: मध्यस्थी
Transliteration: madhyasthī
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Prayer on behalf of others; standard term.
Israel
Approved rendering: इस्राएल
Transliteration: Isrāel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; established form.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: देवाचे राज्य
Transliteration: devāce rājya
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वरी राष्ट्र
God’s sovereign reign, not a territorial or political kingdom.
Mission
Approved rendering: मिशन / सुवार्ता प्रसार
Transliteration: miśan / suvārtā prasār
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
सुवार्ता प्रसार is the descriptive Marathi phrase for spreading the good news; मिशन is retained with awareness of its colonial-era connotation.
Peace
Approved rendering: शांती
Transliteration: śāntī
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: मनःशांती
Relational peace with God through justification, not the inner calm (मनःशांती) sought through bhakti meditation or Buddhist mindfulness practice.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: आत्मिक कृपादान
Transliteration: ātmik kṛpādān
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: वरदान, सिद्धी
Always use the compound; वरदान alone (a deity’s boon) and सिद्धी (a yogic/ascetic attained power) both wrongly suggest a merit-earned or self-attained ability.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: उत्तेजन देणे
Transliteration: uttejan deṇe
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use विनंती for entreaty; उत्तेजन for encouragement/building up.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: सहभागिता
Transliteration: sahabhāgitā
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: मैत्री
Shared participation in Christ, not mere social friendship.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: भविष्यवाणी
Transliteration: bhaviṣyavāṇī
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: भविष्यफल
God-inspired declaration, distinct from astrological forecasting.
Prophet
Approved rendering: संदेष्टा
Transliteration: sandeṣṭā
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: ज्योतिषी
God’s spokesperson, not a fortune-teller/astrologer (ज्योतिषी).
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: उपकारस्तुती
Transliteration: upakārastutī
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term. No significant risk.
Referenced passages