Core Glossary
Core Glossary: 1 John (English–Ndebele)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, across all five chapters of 1 John. Terms already established in the Romans baseline (translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json) are marked Reused and carry their baseline rendering and risk tier unchanged. Terms new to this curriculum are marked New and are proposed here for adoption into the language package’s translation memory going forward. Risk tiers follow the baseline’s four-tier framework (Critical / High / Medium / Low) as defined in doctrine_risk_registry.json.
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline
| English Term | Ndebele Rendering | Risk (baseline) | 1 John Doctrine(s) It Serves | First Occurrence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| god | uNkulunkulu | Critical | God is Light and God is Love; all doctrines | 1:5 |
| jesus | uJesu | Critical | Incarnation and Antichrist; Assurance | 1:3 |
| christ (messiah) | uKristu / uMesiya | Critical | Incarnation and Antichrist | 1:3 |
| son_of_god | iNdodana kaNkulunkulu | Critical | Incarnation and Antichrist; God is Love | 3:8; 4:9,15; 5:5 |
| holy_spirit | uMoya oNgcwele | Critical | Testing the Spirits; Fellowship | 3:24; 4:13 |
| sin | isono / izono | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:7-10 |
| faith | ukholo | High | Overcoming the World; Assurance | 5:4-5 |
| righteousness | ukulunga | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin (God’s justice in forgiving) | 1:9; 2:29; 3:7 |
| lord | iNkosi | Critical | (implicit; Christ’s lordship presumed throughout) | — |
| holy | -ngcwele | High | Fellowship with God (God’s holy nature, implicit in “light”) | — |
| intercession | ukuncengela | Critical | root shared with new term advocate (umncengeli) | 2:1 (cf.) |
| fellowship | ubudlelwano | Low (baseline) → elevated to Medium-High for this curriculum | Fellowship with God and One Another | 1:3,6-7 |
| prophet | umphrofethi | High | Testing the Spirits (extended with “false”) | 4:1 |
| father | uBaba | High | God is Love; Christian Identity | 1:2-3; 2:1,15-16; 3:1 |
| law | umthetho | High | kept distinct from new term commandment (umlayo) and lawlessness | 3:4 (contrast) |
| glory | udumo | High | (background; doxological register of the letter) | — |
| adoption | ukutholwa njengomntwana | High | kept distinct from new term children of God (born-image) | 3:1 (contrast) |
B. New Terms Introduced by 1 John
B.1 — Critical Risk
| English Term | Ndebele Rendering | Doctrine | Grounded Risk Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| love (noun) | uthando | God is Light and God is Love | The letter’s central claim, “God is love” (4:8,16), states an essence, not an activity. Ndebele cultural love-language is often structured around reciprocal kinship obligation (love/loyalty owed and returned within family, clan, or to a chief); the text’s insistence that God loved first, unconditionally, and while we were unlovable (4:10,19) must be protected from collapsing into a transactional, reciprocity-based framework resembling the do-ut-des logic of ancestral veneration. |
| love (verb) | ukuthanda | God is Light and God is Love; Love for the Brethren | Same rationale as above; verb form used throughout the love-command sections (2:10; 3:11,14,16-18,23; 4:7-21). |
| born of God | ukuzalwa nguNkulunkulu | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | Must be sharply distinguished from any notion of spiritual rebirth as reincarnation or as becoming an idlozi (ancestral spirit) after death — the dominant traditional Ndebele afterlife framework, already flagged Critical in the baseline for resurrection. New birth in 1 John is a present, this-life event producing observable love, not a post-mortem transition. |
| propitiation | inhlawulo yezono (zethu) | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; God is Light and God is Love | ”Inhlawulo” is the standard Ndebele customary-law term for a compensation payment made by a wrongdoer to satisfy an offended party. Using it here is linguistically apt but requires constant reinforcement that God himself, not the offending sinner, initiates and supplies the payment (4:10) — the reverse of the customary direction of inhlawulo, and a live risk of the doctrine being read as human-initiated appeasement. |
| advocate | umncengeli | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin (extends “Christ as Sole Mediator”) | Directly continues the baseline’s single most important doctrine for a Ndebele audience: Christ alone, not amadlozi, pleads the believer’s case before God (2:1). Deliberately built on the same root as baseline intercession (ukuncengela) to keep the two concepts visibly and doctrinally linked. |
| eternal life | ukuphila okuphakade | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Must not be conflated with the ongoing existence and communal influence of a deceased ancestor as an idlozi — a fundamentally different, relationally-distant kind of “continuing life” than the intimate, God-united eternal life in view here (5:11-13). |
| assurance / confidence | isibindi / isiqiniseko | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Confidence before God’s judgment (4:17) grounded in Christ’s finished work and God’s testimony (5:9-13), not in accumulated ritual merit, correct ancestral observance, or divinatory reassurance about one’s fate. |
| testing the spirits | ukuhlola imimoya | Testing the Spirits | The single highest cultural-collision risk term in the book. Spirit-testing is itself a prestigious, specialized existing practice in Ndebele traditional religion (performed by izangoma to identify which ancestral or other spirit is at work). 1 John commands every believer to test spirits by one fixed public criterion — the confession of Christ come in the flesh (4:2-3) — not by divinatory technique, trance, or consultation with a ritual specialist. This must be made explicit and repeated wherever this term occurs. |
| spirits (plural, non-Holy-Spirit) | imimoya | Testing the Spirits | Must never be allowed to reinforce belief in a populated, negotiable spirit-world to be consulted (as amadlozi are); always lowercase/plural and contrasted sharply with the singular, divine, capitalized uMoya oNgcwele. |
| confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh | ukuvuma ukuthi uJesu Kristu weza enyameni | The Incarnation and Antichrist; Testing the Spirits | The decisive doctrinal test of 4:2-3. Must never be rendered in a way that could describe temporary spirit-possession, a recognized and respected phenomenon in Ndebele traditional religious practice — this is precisely the category error the verse exists to prevent. |
| flesh (of the incarnation) | inyama | The Incarnation and Antichrist | Christ’s genuine, permanent, bodily humanity — the polar opposite of temporary spiritual visitation. |
| spirit of truth / spirit of error | umoya weqiniso / umoya wenkohliso | Testing the Spirits | Names the two ultimate sources behind all religious speech; risks the same specialist-discernment collision as “testing the spirits” above and must be taught as something every believer, not a spiritual specialist alone, can and must discern by the fixed apostolic standard. |
| antichrist | umphikukristu | The Incarnation and Antichrist | Established Nguni Bible loan-coinage (cf. Zulu umphikukristu); denotes anyone or any teaching that denies the Father and the Son together, or Christ’s genuine incarnation — sharpens the baseline’s incarnation caution into an explicit, nameable category. |
| anointing | ugcobo | Testing the Spirits; Assurance of Salvation | The Spirit-given discernment given to every ordinary believer (2:20,27), not a gift restricted to a religious specialist class — directly counters the cultural assumption (reinforced by izangoma/izinyanga practice) that spiritual discernment is a specialized, inherited, or professionally mediated gift. |
| children of God | abantwana bakaNkulunkulu | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth; Christian Identity in Christ | Must be kept distinct from baseline adoption (ukutholwa njengomntwana): 1 John’s image is organic new birth producing a shared divine nature, not (only) legal placement into a family. Conflating the two loses 1 John’s distinctive “born of God” argument (3:9; cf. 4:7). |
| overcome the world | ukunqoba umhlaba | Overcoming the World | Victory secured by faith in Christ (5:4-5) and by the greater Spirit within (4:4), not by ritual protection, protective charms, or successful appeasement of spiritual forces — a live alternative framework in the target culture for “overcoming” hostile spiritual powers. |
| world (ethical/negative sense) | umhlaba | Overcoming the World; The Incarnation and Antichrist | Same Ndebele word as the neutral/positive “world” sense (4:9,14) — context alone disambiguates; translators must ensure the negative, God-opposed-system sense (2:15-17; 4:5; 5:19) is not lost or flattened into merely “the physical earth.” |
| true God | uNkulunkulu weqiniso | God is Light and God is Love; Assurance | Distinguishes the one true God from any rival object of devotion in the letter’s closing exhortation (5:20-21). |
| idols | izithombe | (closing warning, 5:21; touches every doctrine by implication) | The letter’s final command, “keep yourselves from idols,” requires explicit pastoral extension for a Ndebele audience: the term itself denotes venerated images/objects, but the underlying principle of exclusive devotion to uNkulunkulu through Christ must be explicitly connected to the far more common local avenues of divided devotion — ancestral veneration and consultation of mediums — or the warning may be heard as addressing only literal carved images and nothing more. |
B.2 — High Risk
| English Term | Ndebele Rendering | Doctrine | Grounded Risk Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| light | ukukhanya | God is Light and God is Love | God’s own moral-spiritual nature (1:5) — must not be reduced to mere absence of physical darkness. |
| darkness | ubumnyama | God is Light and God is Love | Ndebele cultural association of witchcraft (ubuthakathi) with night/darkness can aid understanding but must not narrow “darkness” only to occult evil while missing its broader sense of any life estranged from God’s truth. |
| confess (sin) | ukuvuma | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | Must be taught as direct address to God (1:9), not conducted through a family elder, healer, or ancestral intermediary, as traditional confession-and-cleansing rites are typically structured. |
| forgive / forgiveness | ukuthethelela / intethelelo | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | God’s own gracious release of guilt on the basis of Christ’s work, distinct from restorative rituals or ancestral appeasement to regain favor. |
| cleanse | ukuhlambulula | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | Moral cleansing before God, not ritual purification administered by a traditional healer or performed toward ancestral spirits. |
| abide / remain | ukuhlala | Fellowship with God and One Another | A signature term recurring dozens of times throughout the letter (God’s abiding in believers, believers abiding in Christ, in the light, in the teaching, in love) — reinforces the direct-access-through-Christ theme already central to the baseline; must be rendered consistently across all five chapters. |
| commandment | umlayo | Love for the Brethren; general obedience texts | A specific, concrete instruction from Christ, deliberately kept distinct from baseline law (umthetho), which is reserved for the Mosaic Law as a body of legislation. |
| new commandment | umlayo omutsha | Love for the Brethren | The Christ-example-shaped love command, distinguished from ordinary reciprocal social duty. |
| lawlessness | ukwephula umthetho | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1 John 3:4 defines sin as lawlessness, a broader category (rebellion against God’s moral order) than the baseline’s narrower law; must not be collapsed into violation of customary law or ancestral taboo, which carry a different restitution logic. |
| Savior | uMsindisi | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Built on baseline root usindiso; Christ as the one who accomplishes salvation, not a protector from misfortune or physical harm alone. |
| brother | umzalwane | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | Fellow member of God’s family through new birth; distinct from ordinary clan/kinship brotherhood, though it may positively reinforce it when correctly taught. |
| hate | ukuzonda | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | The direct scriptural antithesis of ukuthanda; used repeatedly as the letter’s diagnostic test of true new birth. |
| liar | umqambimanga | Love for the Brethren; God is Light and God is Love | A claimed love for God or claimed sinlessness that is contradicted by conduct exposes the speaker as a liar — a recurring diagnostic category (1:6,10; 2:4,22; 4:20). |
| deny | ukuphika | The Incarnation and Antichrist | The antichrist’s defining act — denying the Father and the Son together, or Christ’s genuine humanity. |
| word of life | iLizwi lokuphila | (foundational to Assurance and the Incarnation) | The apostolic eyewitness testimony about the person of Christ, grounding the letter’s claims in verifiable history rather than private spiritual revelation. |
| touched / handled | ukuthinta | The Incarnation and Antichrist | Insists on Christ’s genuine physical body against docetic denial. |
| devil | udiyabhola | The Incarnation and Antichrist; Overcoming the World | A single, defeated, uniformly hostile personal enemy — distinct from the diffuse, sometimes appeasable, negotiable spirit-world of amadlozi. |
| the evil one | omubi | Overcoming the World | Parallel title for the devil (5:18-19); same distinction from the negotiable ancestral spirit-world applies. |
| testimony / testify | ubufakazi / ukufakaza | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Grounds assurance in objective, layered testimony (Spirit, water, blood, God’s own witness), not subjective feeling or divinatory confirmation. |
| water and blood | amanzi legazi | The Incarnation and Antichrist; Assurance | Historical, bodily events (Christ’s baptism and death) attesting the truth of the incarnation and atonement, continuing the letter’s anti-docetic emphasis. |
| confidence (parrēsia, general) | isibindi | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Confident approach to God grounded in Christ’s work and a clean conscience, not in accumulated merit or self-assessment. |
| seed (of God) | imbewu (yakhe) | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | Deliberately rendered with a botanical-seed word, distinct from baseline inzalo (used for physical/genealogical descent, e.g. seed_of_David), to avoid confusing the divine generative principle abiding in the believer with human lineage. |
| lust of the flesh | inkanuko yenyama | Overcoming the World | Disordered desire; “flesh” here in its morally negative sense, distinct from the neutral “flesh” of the incarnation confession. |
| false prophet(s) | umphrofethi wamanga / abaphrofethi bamanga | Testing the Spirits | Extends baseline prophet; must remain distinct in kind (not merely degree) from izangoma or izinyanga. |
| manifested | -bonakaliswa (e.g. wabonakaliswa) | The Incarnation and Antichrist; God is Light and God is Love | God’s love and Christ’s purposes made historically visible — a real disclosure event, not an ongoing mystical or repeatable manifestation. |
| sin unto death | isono esiya ekufeni | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | A pastorally sensitive, debated category referring to final apostasy; must not be taught in a way that imports fear of ancestral curses or inherited/generational guilt. |
| fear | ukwesaba | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | The dread of judgment displaced by mature love (4:18); distinct from a healthy reverent “fear of the Lord” tradition elsewhere in Scripture. |
| day of judgment | usuku lokwahlulela | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Final judgment before uNkulunkulu directly, not mediated through ancestral intercessors or determined through divination about one’s fate. |
B.3 — Medium Risk
| English Term | Ndebele Rendering | Doctrine | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| walk | ukuhamba | God is Light and God is Love | One’s whole manner of life, in light or in darkness. |
| truth | iqiniso | God is Light and God is Love; Confession of Sin | Living in line with God’s own reality, opposite of self-deceiving denial. |
| little children (address) | bantwanyana bami | (pastoral framing throughout) | Endearing pastoral address; resonates positively with Ndebele family/elder values. |
| pride of life | ukuzigqaja ngempilo | Overcoming the World | Self-exalting arrogance regarding status/possessions. |
| last hour | ihola yokucina | The Incarnation and Antichrist | Eschatological urgency marked by the appearance of antichrists. |
| like him (future likeness) | njengaye | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | Future Christlikeness at Christ’s appearing. |
| purify himself | uyazihlambulula | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | Believer’s active moral response to hope, complementing (not replacing) God’s sanctifying work. |
| love in deed and truth | ngesenzo langeqiniso | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | Practical, verifiable love, not sentiment or speech alone. |
| ought / owe | kufanele / silomlandu | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | Moral obligation flowing from having received God’s love, not a repayment generating merit. |
| first (God loved first) | kuqala | God is Light and God is Love | Guards against reading love for God as repayment. |
| Cain | uKhayini | Love for the Brethren (negative example) | Proper name; standard transliteration. |
| lust of the eyes | inkanuko yamehlo | Overcoming the World | Covetous desire triggered by sight. |
| know (relational) | ukwazi / uyamazi | Fellowship with God and One Another | Intimate, relational knowledge of God evidenced by love and obedience, not mere factual awareness. |
| from the beginning | kusukela ekuqaleni | (historical/eyewitness framing) | Establishes the non-speculative, historical basis of apostolic teaching. |
| overcome (general) | ukunqoba | Overcoming the World | Believers’ victory over false teaching/spirits, secured by the greater Spirit within. |
| sent | ukuthuma | God is Light and God is Love (the Father sending the Son) | Distinct from the noun apostle (umphostoli) though sharing a root; the verb of divine sending. |
| only Son / only-begotten | iNdodana yakhe ekuphela kwayo | God is Light and God is Love; Incarnation | Extends baseline iNdodana kaNkulunkulu with the uniqueness qualifier “ekuphela kwayo” (one-and-only). |
| perfect love | uthando olupheleleyo | God is Light and God is Love | Mature, complete love, not flawless performance; displaces dread of judgment. |
| perfected / made complete | -phelele (e.g. iphelele) | God is Light and God is Love | Reaching intended completeness, not sinless moral perfection. |
B.4 — Low Risk
| English Term | Ndebele Rendering | Doctrine | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| beloved (address) | bathandekayo | (pastoral framing) | Affectionate direct address; low ambiguity. |
| believe / believed | -kholwa (e.g. sesikholiwe) | Assurance of Salvation | Verb form of baseline ukholo; low additional risk beyond the baseline term itself. |
| testify (general) | -fakaza (e.g. siyafakaza) | Assurance of Salvation | Standard, low-ambiguity witness-bearing vocabulary. |
C. Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference (for Phase 2 routing)
| Curriculum Doctrine | Primary New Terms | Primary Reused Baseline Terms | Overall Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| God is Light and God is Love | uthando, ukuthanda, ukukhanya, ubumnyama, uNkulunkulu uluthando | uNkulunkulu, ukulunga | Critical |
| Fellowship with God and One Another | ukuhlala (abide), ubudlelwano (elevated) | ubudlelwano, uBaba | High |
| Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | ukuvuma, ukuthethelela, ukuhlambulula, inhlawulo yezono, umlayo (contrast umthetho) | isono, ukulunga | Critical |
| Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | ukuzalwa nguNkulunkulu, abantwana bakaNkulunkulu, umzalwane, ukuzonda, imbewu | isono, ukutholwa njengomntwana (contrast) | Critical |
| The Incarnation and Antichrist | ukuvuma ukuthi uJesu Kristu weza enyameni, inyama, umphikukristu, ukuphika | iNdodana kaNkulunkulu, uJesu, uKristu | Critical |
| Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | ukuphila okuphakade, isibindi, ubufakazi, uMsindisi, usuku lokwahlulela | usindiso (Romans concept, term newly needed here), ukholo | Critical |
| Overcoming the World | ukunqoba umhlaba, umhlaba, inkanuko yenyama, inkanuko yamehlo | ukholo | High |
| Testing the Spirits | ukuhlola imimoya, imimoya, umoya weqiniso/wenkohliso, ugcobo, umphrofethi wamanga | uMoya oNgcwele, umphrofethi | Critical |
See 07_semantic_analysis.md for full verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter argumentation behind every entry above.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: uNkulunkulu
Transliteration: uNkulunkulu
Doctrine: Sovereignty of God
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL: the established Nguni term for the Supreme Being. 1 John states God’s own essence directly as light (1:5) and love (4:8,16); teaching must keep uNkulunkulu personally near and self-revealing through Christ, not remote and reached only through amadlozi.
Jesus
Approved rendering: uJesu
Transliteration: uJesu
Doctrine: Lordship of Jesus Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Standard, well-established Nguni Bible transliteration, retained unchanged for this curriculum, whose repeated confession formulas (4:2-3,15;5:1,5) center on this name.
Messiah
Approved rendering: uMesiya
Transliteration: uMesiya
Doctrine: Lordship of Jesus Christ
Inherited from Romans package. ‘uKristu’ is used interchangeably in 1 John’s confession formulas (2:22;4:2-3;5:1); the denial that Jesus is the Christ is the defining mark of antichrist (2:22).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: iNdodana kaNkulunkulu
Transliteration: iNdodana kaNkulunkulu
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Confessing Jesus as Son of God (4:15;5:5) is the ground of abiding fellowship with God; must never read as one divine son or spirit-being among others. Extended in this curriculum by the new term ‘only_son’ (see Section B).
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: uMoya oNgcwele
Transliteration: uMoya oNgcwele
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifting
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον / τὸ πνεῦμα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Given to believers as proof of mutual indwelling with God (3:24;4:13); must be sharply distinguished from the plural, lowercase ‘spirits’ (imimoya) tested in 4:1-6, and never conflated with an ancestral or possessing spirit associated with izangoma.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: ukulunga
Transliteration: ukulunga
Doctrine: Righteousness of God
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. In 1 John applied both to God’s own character, guaranteeing forgiveness of confessed sin (1:9), and to the practical righteousness expected of the new-born believer (2:29;3:7); must not collapse into ritual correctness toward uNkulunkulu or the ancestors in either sense.
Lord
Approved rendering: iNkosi
Transliteration: iNkosi
Doctrine: Lordship of Jesus Christ
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Less frequent in 1 John than in Romans, but Christ’s supreme, exclusive authority underlies every confession formula in the letter and must still be taught as exceeding the historical royal/chieftaincy title.
Intercession
Approved rendering: ukuncengela
Transliteration: ukuncengela
Doctrine: Prayer
Original: cf. ἐντυγχάνω-family / παράκλητος (1 John 2:1)
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL: retained specifically because the new term ‘advocate’ (umncengeli, 1 John 2:1) is deliberately built on this same root, keeping the Christ-alone-mediator doctrine visibly continuous between Romans 8:34 and 1 John 2:1.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: ukuba ngumuntu
Transliteration: ukuba ngumuntu
Doctrine: Incarnation
Inherited from Romans package. The theological name for God the Son becoming permanently human; 1 John sharpens this into an explicit, repeatable confession test (see new term ‘incarnation_confession’, 4:2-3) and the named category ‘antichrist’ for its denial. Must never be rendered with language suggesting temporary spirit-possession.
Love
Approved rendering: uthando (noun) / ukuthanda (verb)
Transliteration: uthando / ukuthanda
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Love
New for this curriculum. God’s own essential nature and self-giving, unearned love (4:8,16), and the love commanded among believers (4:7,11,19-21). Ndebele cultural love-language is often structured around reciprocal kinship/clan obligation; must be protected from collapsing into transactional reciprocity resembling ancestral veneration’s logic, paralleling the baseline’s caution on umusa (grace).
God Is Love
Approved rendering: uNkulunkulu uluthando
Transliteration: uNkulunkulu uluthando
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: uNkulunkulu uyathanda (God loves/is loving) - rejected, reduces essence-statement to a mere activity/attribute
Original: ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν
Category: God
New for this curriculum. States God’s very essence (4:8,16), not merely an activity or one attribute among many; must never be reversed into ‘love is God’ or softened.
Born Of God
Approved rendering: ukuzalwa nguNkulunkulu
Transliteration: ukuzalwa nguNkulunkulu
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: ukuba idlozi - rejected, describes a post-mortem transition to ancestral-spirit status, not this-life new birth
Original: γεγέννηται ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
New for this curriculum. A present, this-life spiritual birth producing observable love (2:29;3:9;4:7;5:1,4,18); must be sharply distinguished from the traditional Ndebele understanding of joining the amadlozi after death.
Children Of God
Approved rendering: abantwana bakaNkulunkulu
Transliteration: abantwana bakaNkulunkulu
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: ukutholwa njengomntwana (baseline adoption) - rejected as sole equivalent; kept distinct to preserve the organic new-birth image
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
New for this curriculum. Those born of God, sharing his nature and family identity (3:1-2,10); deliberately kept distinct from baseline ‘adoption’.
Propitiation
Approved rendering: inhlawulo yezono (zethu)
Transliteration: inhlawulo yezono
Doctrine: Christ as Sole Mediator and Advocate
Original: ἱλασμός
Category: Salvation
New for this curriculum. Christ himself as the means by which God’s own righteous response to sin is satisfied (2:2;4:10). Ndebele customary law uses ‘inhlawulo’ for a wrongdoer’s compensation payment to an offended party; every occurrence must make explicit that God himself sends and provides it — the reverse of the customary direction.
Advocate
Approved rendering: umncengeli
Transliteration: umncengeli
Doctrine: Christ as Sole Mediator and Advocate
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum, built deliberately on the same root as baseline/inherited ‘intercession’ (ukuncengela). Christ’s ongoing heavenly role pleading the believer’s case before the Father (2:1); continues the single most important doctrine for this audience: Christ alone, not amadlozi, mediates.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: ukuphila okuphakade
Transliteration: ukuphila okuphakade
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Eschatology
New for this curriculum. Resurrection-quality life beginning now and continuing forever, given through the Son (5:11-13,20). Must not be conflated with the traditional Ndebele hope of continued existence as an idlozi, a relationally distant continuation rather than relational union with God.
Testing The Spirits
Approved rendering: ukuhlola imimoya
Transliteration: ukuhlola imimoya
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα
Category: Discernment
New for this curriculum. The command to evaluate every spiritual claim against the fixed, public standard of confessing Christ come in the flesh (4:1). Near-identical vocabulary to the existing prestigious izangoma practice of spirit-discernment; must never appear without the confession-criterion (4:2-3) stated in the same breath.
Spirits
Approved rendering: imimoya
Transliteration: imimoya
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: τὰ πνεύματα
Category: Discernment
New for this curriculum. Spiritual influences/teachers, both true and false (4:1-6), explicitly not the Holy Spirit. Always lowercase/plural, sharply contrasted with singular capitalized uMoya oNgcwele.
Incarnation Confession
Approved rendering: ukuvuma ukuthi uJesu Kristu weza enyameni
Transliteration: ukuvuma ukuthi uJesu Kristu weza enyameni
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ὁμολογεῖ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. The decisive confession test distinguishing the Spirit of God from the spirit of antichrist (4:2-3). Must never be rendered in a way describable as temporary spirit-possession, a recognized phenomenon in Ndebele traditional religious practice; pair with permanence language every occurrence.
Flesh
Approved rendering: inyama
Transliteration: inyama
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: σάρξ
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. Christ’s genuine, permanent physical humanity (4:2; cf. 1:1). Must be kept distinct from the same word’s negative ethical sense (‘lust of the flesh’, 2:16).
Spirit Of Truth Error
Approved rendering: umoya weqiniso / umoya wenkohliso
Transliteration: umoya weqiniso / umoya wenkohliso
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης
Category: Discernment
New for this curriculum. The two ultimate opposed spiritual sources behind all religious speech (4:6); must be taught as discernible by every believer via the fixed apostolic standard, not izangoma-style consultation.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: umphikukristu
Transliteration: umphikukristu
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum; established Nguni Bible loan-coinage (cf. Zulu umphikukristu). Anyone or any teaching denying the Father and the Son together, or Christ’s genuine incarnation (2:18-22;4:3).
Anointing
Approved rendering: ugcobo
Transliteration: ugcobo
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: χρῖσμα
Category: Sanctification
New for this curriculum. The Spirit’s abiding, teaching presence given to every believer (2:20,27), directly countering the cultural assumption that spiritual discernment is a specialized or inherited gift, as with izangoma/izinyanga.
Abide
Approved rendering: ukuhlala
Transliteration: ukuhlala
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: μένω
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. Continual, settled indwelling, occurring dozens of times throughout the letter (e.g. 2:6,10,24,27-28;3:6,9,14-15,17,24;4:12-13,15-16). Must be rendered with a single consistent Ndebele verb throughout all five chapters.
Light
Approved rendering: ukukhanya
Transliteration: ukukhanya
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: φῶς
Category: God
New for this curriculum. God’s own moral-spiritual essence (1:5), a definitional predicate parallel to ‘God is love’. Must not be reduced to absence of physical darkness or generic religious enlightenment.
Confess Sin
Approved rendering: ukuvuma
Transliteration: ukuvuma
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ὁμολογῶμεν (τὰς ἁμαρτίας)
Category: Sin
New for this curriculum. Direct, personal, verbal acknowledgment of one’s own sin before God as the condition for forgiveness (1:9); must always be construed explicitly with ‘kuNkulunkulu’ (to/before God), never left implicit or mediated through a family elder or healer.
Savior
Approved rendering: uMsindisi
Transliteration: uMsindisi
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Salvation
New for this curriculum, built on baseline root ‘usindiso’. Christ as the one sent by the Father to accomplish salvation for the world (4:14); must not be reduced to a protector from misfortune alone.
Only Son
Approved rendering: iNdodana yakhe ekuphela kwayo
Transliteration: iNdodana yakhe ekuphela kwayo
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum, extending inherited ‘son_of_god’ with an explicit uniqueness qualifier (4:9); must not read as one of several divine sons or spirit-beings.
Overcome The World
Approved rendering: ukunqoba umhlaba
Transliteration: ukunqoba umhlaba
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: νικᾷ τὸν κόσμον
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. Victory over the God-opposed world-system, secured by faith in Christ and the greater Spirit within (4:4;5:4-5); every occurrence must specify the means of victory as faith, never left as a bare victory claim readers could fill with traditional protective practice.
World Negative
Approved rendering: umhlaba
Transliteration: umhlaba
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ὁ κόσμος
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. The organized, God-opposed system of values (2:15-17;4:5;5:19), sharing the identical Ndebele word used positively/neutrally elsewhere (4:9,14); negative-sense occurrences require an explicit qualifying phrase every time.
True God
Approved rendering: uNkulunkulu weqiniso
Transliteration: uNkulunkulu weqiniso
Doctrine: Warning Against Idolatry
Original: ὁ ἀληθινός θεός
Category: God
New for this curriculum. The one true, genuine God, distinguished from any rival object of devotion (5:20).
Idols
Approved rendering: izithombe
Transliteration: izithombe
Doctrine: Warning Against Idolatry
Original: τὰ εἴδωλα
Category: God
New for this curriculum. Venerated images/objects in place of the true God (5:21); requires explicit pastoral extension connecting the narrow term to the far more common local avenues of divided devotion — ancestral veneration and consultation of mediums.
High Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: isono / izono
Transliteration: isono
Doctrine: Humanity’s Sinfulness
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. 1 John insists believers still commit sin needing ongoing confession (1:8-10), while also defining sin as lawlessness (3:4, see new term ‘lawlessness’).
Faith
Approved rendering: ukholo
Transliteration: ukholo
Doctrine: Faith
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Named as ‘the victory that has overcome the world’ (5:4-5); the object of faith (Jesus as Son of God) must remain unambiguous.
Holy
Approved rendering: -ngcwele
Transliteration: ngcwele
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. Distinguish from ritual purity required before approaching ancestral spirits.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: ubudlelwano
Transliteration: ubudlelwano
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, WHERE RATED LOW (fellowship among believers only). Risk elevated to High for this curriculum with grounded reason: 1 John 1:3 uniquely claims direct fellowship with the Father and the Son themselves, not only among believers, which collides directly with the traditional expectation that uNkulunkulu is approached only through amadlozi as intermediaries. This elevation matches assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json and assets/bible_term_registry.json already established for this curriculum.
Prophet
Approved rendering: umphrofethi
Transliteration: umphrofethi
Doctrine: Authority of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: isangoma
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Extended in this curriculum by the qualifier ‘false’ (see new term ‘false_prophet’, 1 John 4:1); must remain distinct in kind, not merely degree, from izangoma or izinyanga.
Father
Approved rendering: uBaba
Transliteration: uBaba
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. 1 John’s family language (2:1,15-16;3:1) leans positively into Ndebele kinship values but must remain anchored to the Father-Son relationship within the Godhead, not a generic ancestral-elder figure.
Law
Approved rendering: umthetho
Transliteration: umthetho
Doctrine: Righteousness of God
Original: νόμος (implied contrast)
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. Kept carefully distinct in this curriculum from the new terms ‘commandment’ (umlayo) and ‘lawlessness’ (ukwephula umthetho); reserved exclusively for the Mosaic Law as a body of legislation.
Glory
Approved rendering: udumo
Transliteration: udumo
Doctrine: Sovereignty of God
Rejected alternatives: inkazimulo
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Present in the doxological background register of 1 John’s confession and worship language.
Adoption
Approved rendering: ukutholwa njengomntwana
Transliteration: ukutholwa njengomntwana
Doctrine: Christian Identity in Christ
Original: υἱοθεσία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Kept deliberately distinct in this curriculum from the new term ‘children_of_god’ (abantwana bakaNkulunkulu): 1 John’s image is organic new birth producing a shared divine nature, not (only) legal placement into a family; conflating the two loses 1 John’s distinctive ‘born of God’ argument.
Darkness
Approved rendering: ubumnyama
Transliteration: ubumnyama
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: σκοτία
Category: Sin
New for this curriculum. Moral-spiritual estrangement from God (1:6;2:9,11). Ndebele cultural association of witchcraft (ubuthakathi) with night/darkness can aid understanding but must not narrow the term only to occult evil.
Forgive
Approved rendering: ukuthethelela
Transliteration: ukuthethelela
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀφῇ
Category: Sin
New for this curriculum. God’s own act of releasing a confessed sin’s guilt on the basis of Christ’s finished work (1:9;2:12).
Cleanse
Approved rendering: ukuhlambulula
Transliteration: ukuhlambulula
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: καθαρίσῃ
Category: Sin
New for this curriculum. Moral cleansing before God (1:9); must be paired with ‘ngegazi likaJesu’ (by the blood of Jesus) so the agent and means are never left implicit, distinguishing it from ritual cleansing administered by an inyanga.
Commandment
Approved rendering: umlayo
Transliteration: umlayo
Doctrine: Obedience to God’s Commandments
Rejected alternatives: umthetho (inherited ‘law’) - rejected, reserved exclusively for the Mosaic Law
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. A specific, concrete instruction of Christ, evidence of genuinely knowing him (2:3-4;3:22-24;5:2-3).
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: ukwephula umthetho
Transliteration: ukwephula umthetho
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Sin
New for this curriculum. Sin defined as rebellion against God’s moral order as such (3:4); must not be collapsed into violation of customary law or ancestral taboo, which carry a different restitution logic.
Brother
Approved rendering: umzalwane
Transliteration: umzalwane
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. A fellow believer through new birth, not necessarily a biological or clan sibling (2:9-11;3:10-17;4:20-21).
Hate
Approved rendering: ukuzonda
Transliteration: ukuzonda
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: μισέω
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. Hostile antipathy toward a brother, the direct antithesis of love and a repeated diagnostic test of new birth (2:9-11;3:15;4:20).
Liar
Approved rendering: umqambimanga
Transliteration: umqambimanga
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: ψεύστης
Category: Sin
New for this curriculum. One characterized by falsehood, exposed by claimed love for God or claimed sinlessness contradicted by conduct (1:6,10;2:4,22;4:20).
Deny
Approved rendering: ukuphika
Transliteration: ukuphika
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἀρνέομαι
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. The antichrist’s defining act: denying that Jesus is the Christ, or denying the Father and the Son together (2:22-23).
Word Of Life
Approved rendering: iLizwi lokuphila
Transliteration: iLizwi lokuphila
Doctrine: Apostolic Testimony and Certainty
Original: ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. The apostolic eyewitness message about, and by echo of John 1:1, the person of, Christ (1:1).
Touched
Approved rendering: ukuthinta
Transliteration: ukuthinta
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἐψηλάφησαν
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. Physical, tactile contact with Christ’s genuine body (1:1); insists on Christ’s genuine physical body against docetic denial.
Devil
Approved rendering: udiyabhola
Transliteration: udiyabhola
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ὁ διάβολος
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. The single, personal, God-opposed spiritual being already defeated by Christ (3:8); distinct from the diffuse, negotiable spirit-world of amadlozi.
Evil One
Approved rendering: omubi
Transliteration: omubi
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ὁ πονηρός
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. A parallel title for the devil; the one who ‘does not touch’ the person born of God (5:18-19).
Testimony
Approved rendering: ubufakazi
Transliteration: ubufakazi
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: μαρτυρία
Category: Assurance
New for this curriculum. The layered testimony (Spirit, water, blood, God’s own witness) establishing certainty about the Son (5:6-11).
Water And Blood
Approved rendering: amanzi legazi
Transliteration: amanzi legazi
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. Christ’s baptism and death, historical bodily events attesting the truth of the incarnation and atonement (5:6,8).
Confidence
Approved rendering: isibindi
Transliteration: isibindi
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: παρρησία
Category: Assurance
New for this curriculum. Confident approach to God grounded in Christ’s work and a clean conscience (3:21;4:17;5:14); must not be confused with self-confidence or divinatory reassurance about one’s fate.
Seed Of God
Approved rendering: imbewu (yakhe)
Transliteration: imbewu
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: inzalo (baseline lineage/descent term, e.g. seed_of_david) - rejected, would confuse divine spiritual generation with human genealogical descent
Original: σπέρμα αὐτοῦ
Category: Salvation
New for this curriculum. The divine, generative principle abiding in the one born of God (3:9); deliberately distinct from baseline ‘inzalo’.
Lust Of The Flesh
Approved rendering: inkanuko yenyama
Transliteration: inkanuko yenyama
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. Disordered bodily/sensual desire, one expression of worldliness (2:16); distinct from the neutral ‘flesh’ of the incarnation confession.
False Prophet
Approved rendering: umphrofethi wamanga / abaphrofethi bamanga
Transliteration: umphrofethi wamanga
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: ψευδοπροφῆται
Category: Discernment
New for this curriculum, extending inherited ‘prophet’. Those falsely claiming divine inspiration, tested and rejected by the confession standard of 4:2-3 (4:1).
Manifested
Approved rendering: -bonakaliswa
Transliteration: bonakaliswa
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἐφανερώθη
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. God’s love and Christ’s saving purposes made historically visible (3:5,8;4:9); a real, historical disclosure event, not an ongoing mystical manifestation.
Sin Unto Death
Approved rendering: isono esiya ekufeni
Transliteration: isono esiya ekufeni
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον
Category: Sin
New for this curriculum. A disputed, pastorally sensitive category, likely referring to decisive final rejection of Christ (5:16-17); must not import fear of ancestral curses or generational sin-transfer concepts.
Fear
Approved rendering: ukwesaba
Transliteration: ukwesaba
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: φόβος
Category: Assurance
New for this curriculum. The dread of judgment/punishment that mature, secure love displaces (4:18); distinct from healthy reverent ‘fear of the Lord’ and from fear of ancestral displeasure.
Day Of Judgment
Approved rendering: usuku lokwahlulela
Transliteration: usuku lokwahlulela
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ἡμέρα τῆς κρίσεως
Category: Eschatology
New for this curriculum. The final, eschatological day of divine reckoning (4:17), directly before uNkulunkulu, not mediated through ancestral intercessors or divination.
Medium Risk Terms
New Commandment
Approved rendering: umlayo omutsha
Transliteration: umlayo omutsha
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἐντολὴ καινή
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. The love command grounded in Christ’s own self-giving example (2:7-8); distinguishes gospel-shaped love from reciprocal social duty.
Truth
Approved rendering: iqiniso
Transliteration: iqiniso
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: God
New for this curriculum. Living in line with God’s own self-revealing reality, opposite of self-deceiving denial of sin (1:8).
Walk
Approved rendering: ukuhamba
Transliteration: ukuhamba
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. One’s entire manner of life, either in fellowship with God’s light or estranged in darkness (1:6-7;2:6).
Purify Himself
Approved rendering: uyazihlambulula
Transliteration: uyazihlambulula
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἁγνίζει ἑαυτόν
Category: Sanctification
New for this curriculum. The believer’s active moral self-purification in light of future hope (3:3); complements, but must not replace, God’s own sanctifying work.
Love In Deed And Truth
Approved rendering: ngesenzo langeqiniso
Transliteration: ngesenzo langeqiniso
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. Active, practical love verified by concrete action, not mere verbal profession (3:18).
Commandment Obligation
Approved rendering: kufanele / silomlandu
Transliteration: kufanele
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ὀφείλομεν
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. Moral obligation to love one another, flowing from having received God’s love, not a repayment generating merit (3:16;4:11).
Pride Of Life
Approved rendering: ukuzigqaja ngempilo
Transliteration: ukuzigqaja ngempilo
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. Self-exalting arrogance regarding possessions or status (2:16); relevant to teaching on humility within Ndebele communal and status-conscious social structures.
Last Hour
Approved rendering: ihola yokucina
Transliteration: ihola yokucina
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἐσχάτη ὥρα
Category: Eschatology
New for this curriculum. The final period before Christ’s return, marked by the rise of antichrists (2:18).
Like Him
Approved rendering: njengaye
Transliteration: njengaye
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ
Category: Eschatology
New for this curriculum. The believer’s future moral/glorified likeness to Christ at his appearing (3:2).
Know Relationally
Approved rendering: ukwazi / uyamazi
Transliteration: ukwazi
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: γινώσκω
Category: Faith
New for this curriculum. Intimate, relational knowledge of God, evidenced by love and obedience, not mere factual awareness (2:3-4;4:6-8).
From The Beginning
Approved rendering: kusukela ekuqaleni
Transliteration: kusukela ekuqaleni
Doctrine: Apostolic Testimony and Certainty
Original: ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. The non-speculative, historical starting point of apostolic teaching about Christ (1:1;2:7,24;3:11).
Sent
Approved rendering: ukuthuma
Transliteration: ukuthuma
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: ἀπέστειλεν
Category: Christology
New for this curriculum. God’s own initiative in sending the Son into the world (4:9-10,14); distinct from the noun ‘apostle’ (umphostoli) though sharing a root.
Overcome General
Approved rendering: ukunqoba
Transliteration: ukunqoba
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: νικάω
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. General victory over false teaching or spirits, secured by the greater Spirit within (2:13-14;4:4).
Perfect Love
Approved rendering: uthando olupheleleyo
Transliteration: uthando olupheleleyo
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: ἡ τελεία ἀγάπη
Category: Love
New for this curriculum. Mature, complete love, secure in God’s acceptance, that removes dread of judgment (4:18).
Perfected
Approved rendering: -phelele
Transliteration: phelele
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: τετελειωμένη / τετελείωται
Category: Love
New for this curriculum. God’s love reaching its intended, visible completeness in the mutual love of believers (4:12,17-18); maturity, not sinless moral perfection.
First Priority
Approved rendering: kuqala
Transliteration: kuqala
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Original: πρῶτος
Category: Love
New for this curriculum. God’s love as the unearned, initiating cause of all believers’ love (4:19); guards against reading love for God as a repayment generating merit.
Low Risk Terms
Lust Of The Eyes
Approved rendering: inkanuko yamehlo
Transliteration: inkanuko yamehlo
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἐπιθυμία τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. Covetous desire triggered by sight, one expression of worldliness (2:16).
Little Children Address
Approved rendering: bantwanyana bami
Transliteration: bantwanyana bami
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: τεκνία
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. John’s pastoral, affectionate address to the whole congregation (2:1,12,28;3:18;4:4;5:21).
Beloved Address
Approved rendering: bathandekayo
Transliteration: bathandekayo
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: ἀγαπητοί
Category: Church
New for this curriculum. Affectionate direct address to fellow believers (2:7;3:2,21;4:1,7,11).
Believe
Approved rendering: -kholwa
Transliteration: kholwa
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: πιστεύω
Category: Faith
New for this curriculum, verb form of inherited root ‘ukholo’. Trust in God’s love and in Jesus as the Son of God (3:23;4:16;5:1,5,10,13).
Testify General
Approved rendering: -fakaza
Transliteration: fakaza
Doctrine: Apostolic Testimony and Certainty
Original: μαρτυρέω
Category: Assurance
New for this curriculum. General eyewitness declaration underlying the letter’s claims (1:2;4:14).
Cain
Approved rendering: uKhayini
Transliteration: uKhayini
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: Κάϊν
Category: Ethics
New for this curriculum. Old Testament figure used as the negative model of hatred toward a brother (3:12); proper name, standard transliteration.