Cross-Reference Analysis
Cross-Reference and Theme Analysis — 1 John (English → Nepali)
Method and Scope
This document catalogs every Old Testament quotation and allusion, every messianic reference and typological pattern, and every significant parallel to the existing Romans Language Package, across all five chapters of 1 John. 1 John contains no formal introductory-formula OT quotations (no “as it is written” citations of the kind common in Romans); its scriptural engagement is instead allusive — echoing Genesis, the Torah’s love command, Levitical sacrifice, and Danielic/apocalyptic opponent-figure language — and its heaviest intertextual gravity is toward the Gospel of John and toward Paul’s letters, especially Romans, which this curriculum’s language package must remain doctrinally and terminologically consistent with. All citations below use the normalizable “Book Chapter:Verse” format (e.g., “Genesis 15:6”, “Romans 3:25”) regardless of destination-language display conventions, which are addressed separately below.
Citation Normalization Convention
Per the baseline’s Cross-Reference Preservation Rules, citations must remain normalizable across formats. This curriculum introduces the following additional book-name mappings (Nepali Bible standard names) not already listed in the baseline document 12_ai_translation_requirements.md:
| English Book Name | Nepali Standard Name | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 John | १ यूहन्ना | Curriculum book. Never confuse with यूहन्ना (John’s Gospel) in citation without the numeral. |
| John (Gospel) | यूहन्ना | Heaviest intertextual partner of 1 John; same author tradition. |
| Genesis | उत्पत्ति | Baseline-established. |
| Exodus | प्रस्थान | New for this curriculum. |
| Leviticus | लेवी | New for this curriculum. |
| Numbers | गन्ती | New for this curriculum. |
| Deuteronomy | व्यवस्था | CAUTION: this Nepali Bible book-name is identical in form to the baseline’s fixed doctrinal term व्यवस्था (law/nomos). When citing this book, always cite with chapter:verse attached (व्यवस्था ६:४, i.e., Deuteronomy 6:4) so the book-name and the doctrinal-term usage are never ambiguous in running text. |
| 1 Samuel | १ शमूएल | New. |
| 2 Samuel | २ शमूएल | New. |
| Psalms | भजनसंग्रह | Baseline-established. |
| Proverbs | हितोपदेश | New. |
| Isaiah | यशैया | Baseline-established. |
| Daniel | दानिएल | New. |
| Malachi | मलाकी | New. |
| Matthew | मत्ती | New. |
| Hebrews | हिब्रू | New. |
| Jude | यहूदा | New. |
| Acts | प्रेरितहरू | New. |
| 1 Corinthians | १ कोरिन्थी | New. |
| 2 Thessalonians | २ थेसलोनिकी | New. |
| Ephesians | एफिसी | New. |
| Revelation | प्रकाश | New; relevant to the eschatological trajectory of “Overcoming the World” and “Idols.” |
All English-side citations in this document and downstream artifacts should be normalizable to this table without loss.
Part 1 — Chapter-by-Chapter Cross-Reference Matrix
Chapter 1
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 1:1 | Word of Life / Incarnation | Christ (the Logos) | Genesis 1:1 (creation “in the beginning”); John 1:1-14 (the Word became flesh) | Critical — वचन must denote the personal, eternal Son, not Vedic वाक्/शब्द ब्रह्म. |
| 1 John 1:2 | Eternal Life manifested | Christ; the apostolic eyewitnesses | John 1:14; John 20:30-31 | Critical — अनन्त जीवन anchor verse; ties to Romans 6:23. |
| 1 John 1:5 | God is Light | God | Genesis 1:3 (“let there be light”); Psalm 27:1; Isaiah 60:19-20; John 1:4-9; John 8:12 | High — avoid conflation with meditative “enlightenment” attained by practice. |
| 1 John 1:6-7 | Fellowship contingent on walking in light; cleansing blood | Christ (blood) | Leviticus 16 (Day of Atonement blood ritual); Hebrews 9:22 | Critical — parallels Romans 3:25 propitiation typology (see Part 3). |
| 1 John 1:8-10 | Universal sinfulness; confession | — | Psalm 32:5; Proverbs 28:13 | High — direct doctrinal parallel to Romans 3:10, 3:23 (Universal Human Accountability); must not soften “no sin” claim’s exposure as self-deception. |
| 1 John 1:9 | God’s faithful and righteous character | God | Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 145:17 | Medium — धर्मी root, consistent with baseline’s justification-adjacent usage. |
Chapter 2
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 2:1-2 | Advocate; Propitiation “for the whole world” | Christ (Advocate); the Father | Leviticus 16; Isaiah 53:4-6 (substitutionary suffering); Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 9:24; Romans 3:25 | Critical — collides with Mahayana bodhisattva-intercessor concept; direct rendering-consistency link to Romans 3:25 (see Part 3). |
| 1 John 2:3-6 | Knowing God through obedience | — | Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (Shema); Jeremiah 31:33-34 (new covenant knowledge of the Lord) | High — anti-Gnostic; parallels Romans’ obedience_of_faith doctrine. |
| 1 John 2:7-11 | Old/new commandment; love of brother | — | Leviticus 19:18 (“love your neighbor”); John 13:34; Romans 13:8-10 (love fulfills the law) | Medium — commandment flows from grace, not independent legal merit. |
| 1 John 2:12-14 | Sins forgiven “for his name’s sake” | — | Acts 4:12 | Medium. |
| 1 John 2:15-17 | Do not love the world | — | (Contrast: Genesis 1:31, created world declared “good”); James 4:4; Romans 12:2 | High — संसार/saṃsāra collision; Romans 12:2 uses a different Greek term (αἰών, “age”) for a related but distinct concept — see Part 3 note. |
| 1 John 2:18-23 | Antichrist; denial of Father and Son | Antichrist(s) | Daniel 7:25; Daniel 11:36; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 (“man of lawlessness”); Matthew 24:24 (false christs) | Critical — must remain a specific Christological heresy-figure, not generic evil or indigenous demonology. |
| 1 John 2:20, 2:27 | Anointing given to all believers | Believers; (background: the Messiah) | Exodus 30:30 (priestly anointing); 1 Samuel 16:13 (Davidic anointing); Isaiah 61:1 (Spirit’s anointing of the Messiah) | High/Critical — collides with Hindu deity-consecration ritual and former royal Shah-dynasty coronation-anointing; stress universality of the gift. |
| 1 John 2:22 | Denial that Jesus is the Christ | Antichrist(s); (positively: Jesus the Christ) | Isaiah 9:6-7; Psalm 2:2; Daniel 9:25-26 (messianic promise fulfilled) | Critical — direct confessional parallel to Romans 10:9 (see Part 3). |
| 1 John 2:28-29 | Confidence at his coming; practicing righteousness | Christ (at his return) | Malachi 3:1-2 (day of the Lord); Romans 8:19; 1 Thessalonians 2:19 | High. |
Chapter 3
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 3:1-2 | Children of God; future likeness to Christ | Believers; Christ | Romans 8:14-17 (adoption, sons of God); Romans 8:29 (“conformed to the image of his Son”) | High — coordinate with, do not conflate with, Romans’ adoption doctrine (see Part 3). |
| 1 John 3:5 | Christ appeared sinless to take away sins | Christ | Isaiah 53:9 (the Servant “had done no violence, no deceit”); 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15 | Critical — sinlessness of Christ as ground of the incarnation doctrine. |
| 1 John 3:8 | The devil has sinned “from the beginning” | The devil | Genesis 3:1-15 (the serpent; protoevangelium, Genesis 3:15); John 8:44 | High — single personal fallen being, not one of many Hindu/Buddhist demon-classes. |
| 1 John 3:9 | Seed of God | Believers (new-born) | (Contrast/complement: Genesis 3:15 “seed of the woman”; Genesis 12:7, 15:5 “seed of Abraham”; 2 Samuel 7:12-16 “seed of David”) | High — coordinate carefully with Romans’ “seed of David” typology; see Part 3 rendering rule. |
| 1 John 3:10-12 | Children of God vs. children of the devil; Cain and Abel | Cain; Abel | Genesis 4:1-16 (direct narrative allusion — the closest 1 John comes to an explicit OT reference); Matthew 13:38 (wheat and weeds); Hebrews 11:4; Jude 11 | Medium — Cain as archetype of hatred toward a brother; typological warning, not a call to caste- or clan-based blood-kinship reading of “brother.” |
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| 1 John 3:13 | The world’s hatred of believers | — | John 15:18-19 | Low-Medium. |
| 1 John 3:16 | Laying down one’s life in love | Christ (pattern) | Isaiah 53:12 (“poured out his life”); John 10:11; John 15:13; Romans 5:8 | High — substitutionary pattern must remain the explicit referent. |
| 1 John 3:17 | Compassion toward a brother in need | — | Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (open hand to the poor brother) | Medium. |
| 1 John 3:20-22 | God greater than the heart; confidence before God | — | Romans 8:1 (no condemnation); Romans 8:33-34 (who shall condemn?) | High — assurance parallel. |
| 1 John 3:23-24 | Commandment to believe and love; Spirit given as evidence | Christ (commandment’s source) | Romans 8:9-11 (Spirit dwelling in believers); Romans 8:16 (Spirit bears witness) | High. |
Chapter 4
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 4:1-3 | Testing the spirits; spirit of antichrist | False prophets; the Spirit of God | Deuteronomy 13:1-5; Deuteronomy 18:20-22; Jeremiah 23:16-22 (testing false prophets); Matthew 7:15-20; 1 Corinthians 12:3 (confession-test: “no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit”); 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 | Critical — collides with jhankri/dhami spirit-testing practice; John’s test is doctrinal/Christological, echoed by the confession-test structure of Romans 10:9 and 1 Corinthians 12:3. |
| 1 John 4:2-3 | Confession: Jesus Christ come in the flesh | Christ | Romans 1:3-4 (“descended from David according to the flesh… declared Son of God”); John 1:14 | Critical — direct incarnation-doctrine parallel to Romans 1:3-4; both must use देहधारण root. |
| 1 John 4:4 | Overcoming false spirits | Believers | John 16:33 (“I have overcome the world”); 1 John 5:4-5 (fuller statement) | High. |
| 1 John 4:7-21 | God is Love; propitiation; abiding; perfected love; confession; brotherly love (CORE PASSAGE) | God; Christ; believers | Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18; Genesis 3:15 (background to propitiation typology); Isaiah 53 (substitution); John 3:16 (direct verbal/thematic parallel — “God so loved… gave his only Son,” sharing μονογενής with 1 John 4:9); Romans 5:8; Romans 8:35-39; Romans 10:9 | Critical (multiple terms) — see full verse-by-verse treatment in 07_semantic_analysis.md Part 1; this is the doctrinal and terminological anchor for the whole curriculum. |
| 1 John 4:19 | God’s initiating love | God | Romans 5:8 (“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”) | High — grace/love-precedes-response parallel; see Part 3. |
Chapter 5
| Passage | Theme | Related Character | OT/NT Connection | Translation Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 John 5:1 | Believing Jesus is the Christ; born of God | Believers | Romans 10:9-10 (confession); Romans 8:16-17 (born/children) | Critical — messianic confession parallel. |
| 1 John 5:4-5 | Overcoming the world by faith | Believers; Christ | John 16:33; Romans 8:37 (“more than conquerors”) | High — faith-union victory, not self-achieved yogic/Buddhist conquest of desire. |
| 1 John 5:6-8 | Threefold testimony: Spirit, water, blood | Christ; the Spirit | Exodus 12 (Passover blood typology, background); Numbers 19 (water of purification, background); John 19:34-35 (water and blood from Christ’s side); Deuteronomy 19:15 (two or three witnesses — legal-testimony pattern) | Medium — keep concrete/historical, not abstracted into generic “signs.” |
| 1 John 5:9-12 | Testimony of God greater than testimony of men | God | Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15 (witness law) | Medium. |
| 1 John 5:11-13 | Eternal life; assurance | God; Christ | John 3:16; John 20:31; Romans 6:23 (“the gift of God is eternal life”) | Critical — direct rendering-consistency requirement with Romans 6:23 (see Part 3). |
| 1 John 5:14-15 | Confidence in prayer | — | 1 Kings 8:28-30 (Solomon’s prayer, God hears); Romans 8:26-27 (Spirit’s intercession); Hebrews 4:16 | Medium. |
| 1 John 5:16-17 | Sin unto death / not unto death | — | Numbers 15:22-31 (unintentional vs. presumptuous/high-handed sin); Hebrews 6:4-6; Hebrews 10:26-29 (deliberate apostasy) | Medium — primarily an exegetical/pastoral difficulty; flag for theologian interpretive review, not a terminology issue. |
| 1 John 5:18-19 | Kept by God; the whole world under the evil one’s power | The evil one (devil) | Job 1:1–2:10 (Satan’s limited, permitted dominion — background typology); John 12:31; Ephesians 2:2; Romans 8:38-39 | High. |
| 1 John 5:20 | The Son of God is the true God; eternal life | Christ | Romans 9:5 (“Christ, who is God over all”) | Critical — Deity of Christ; no shared fixed Nepali rendering yet exists between the two curricula for this precise construction; flag for theologian coordination (see Part 3). |
| 1 John 5:21 | Keep yourselves from idols | — | Exodus 20:3-4; Deuteronomy 5:8-9; Isaiah 44:9-20 (idol polemic); Psalm 115:4-8; 1 Corinthians 10:14; Acts 15:29; Romans 1:23 (exchanging the glory of God for images) | High — direct parallel to Romans 1:23’s idol polemic; concrete, highly visible referent (मूर्ति) in Nepali daily religious life. |
Part 2 — Messianic References and Typology
1 John contains no direct messianic-prophecy citation formulas (unlike Romans 1:2-4’s explicit appeal to “the prophets” and 15:8-12’s chain of OT quotations), but it presupposes and reinforces the same messianic and typological structure Romans establishes:
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Seed typology. 1 John 3:9’s “seed of God” (परमेश्वरको बीज) stands in a typological family with Genesis 3:15’s “seed of the woman” (the protoevangelium), Genesis 12:7/15:5’s “seed of Abraham,” 2 Samuel 7:12-16’s Davidic seed-promise, and Romans 1:3/4:13/9:7-8’s “seed of David”/“seed of Abraham.” These are related but must be kept terminologically distinct in Nepali (बीज for the new-birth life-principle in believers; वंश for physical/dynastic lineage) — see rendering rule in Part 3.
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Anointed One typology. 1 John 2:20, 27’s “anointing” (अभिषेक) given to all believers is a derivative extension of the OT anointing pattern applied to priests (Exodus 30:30), kings (1 Samuel 16:13), and pre-eminently to the Messiah himself (Isaiah 61:1; Psalm 2:2; Daniel 9:25-26, “Anointed One” = מָשִׁיחַ, Mashiach = Χριστός, Christos = मसीह). Christ’s unique Messianic anointing must be kept conceptually prior to and distinct from the derivative anointing every believer now shares (see baseline messianic_promise doctrine, Critical).
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Day of Atonement typology. 1 John 2:2 and 4:10’s ἱλασμός (propitiation) draws directly on Leviticus 16’s Day of Atonement sacrificial pattern, in which blood was presented before God to atone for the people’s sin. Christ fulfills this typology once for all (cf. Hebrews 9:24-26), paralleling Romans 3:25’s ἱλαστήριον.
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Suffering Servant typology. 1 John 3:5’s sinless Christ “appeared to take away sins” and 3:16’s “laid down his life” both echo Isaiah 53’s Servant who bears sin without deceit and pours out his life — foundational Old Testament typology behind the whole New Testament’s substitutionary-atonement vocabulary, shared identically by Romans (e.g., Romans 4:25; 5:6-8).
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Serpent-crusher typology (protoevangelism reversal). 1 John 3:8’s statement that “the devil has sinned from the beginning” and that the Son of God appeared to destroy the devil’s works directly answers Genesis 3:1-15’s account of the serpent’s deception and God’s promise that the woman’s seed would ultimately crush the serpent (Genesis 3:15) — Christ’s incarnation and victory (1 John 3:8; 5:4-5) is this promise’s fulfillment.
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Antichrist as counter-typology. 1 John 2:18, 2:22, 4:3’s “antichrist” figure functions as a deliberate photographic-negative of the Messiah, drawing on Daniel’s eschatological-opponent figures (Daniel 7:25; 11:36) and paralleling Paul’s “man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. This typological opposite-of-Christ figure must never be collapsed into indigenous Nepali demonological or epic-literature figures (see
07_semantic_analysis.mdChapter 2 notes).
Part 3 — Parallels to the Romans Language Package and Rendering-Consistency Rules
Because 1 John and Romans will circulate within the same Nepali-language curriculum ecosystem, the following shared-theme parallels require explicit rendering-consistency rules to prevent learners from encountering contradictory or destabilized vocabulary when moving between the two books.
| 1 John Passage(s) | Shared Theme | Romans Passage(s) | Shared/Related Nepali Term(s) | Rendering-Consistency Rule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4:2-3 | Incarnation — real humanity of Christ | 1:3-4 | देहधारण | Both must render “come/descended in the flesh” using the देहधारण root. Never अवतार in either curriculum. |
| 4:15; 5:1; 5:5 | Confession as the ground of salvation/fellowship | 10:9-10 | स्वीकार गर्नु / अंगाल्नु; येशू प्रभु हुनुहुन्छ | Treat 1 John’s confessions (“Jesus is the Son of God,” “Jesus is the Christ”) as parallel, complementary confessional formulas alongside Romans 10:9’s “Jesus is Lord.” Use स्वीकार गर्नु/अंगाल्नु consistently for ὁμολογέω across both books. Never soften or qualify any of the three confession-objects (Lord / Son of God / Christ). |
| 4:9-10, 19 | God’s initiating, unmerited love | 5:8 | प्रेम; अनुग्रह | Keep प्रेम (agapē) and अनुग्रह (charis) distinct-but-coordinated: both describe God’s unearned initiative and must never be rendered with terms implying human merit precedes divine action, in either book. |
| 2:2; 4:10 | Propitiation | 3:25 | प्रायश्चित्तको बलिदान | Coverage gap flagged for theologian review: the baseline Romans package contains no fixed rendering for ἱλαστήριον at Romans 3:25. Recommend Romans 3:25 be retroactively aligned to प्रायश्चित्तको बलिदान (or an equivalent compound anchored in बलिदान) for full cross-curriculum consistency, since both Greek terms (ἱλασμός, ἱλαστήριον) describe the same theological reality and the same collision risk (self-performed Hindu प्रायश्चित्त penance) applies to both. |
| 3:1-2, 9-10 | Sonship / adoption / family of God | 8:14-17, 8:29 | दत्तक पुत्रता (adoption) vs परमेश्वरका सन्तान (children of God) | Keep both terms distinct and complementary. Romans’ legal-adoption emphasis (दत्तक पुत्रता — inheritance rights, forensic transaction) and 1 John’s new-birth/family-likeness emphasis (परमेश्वरका सन्तान, परमेश्वरको बीज — shared divine nature by birth) describe the same reality from two angles. Do not conflate or substitute one term for the other; both may appear together in the same lesson without contradiction. |
| 3:21-22; 4:17-18 | Assurance of Salvation | 8:1, 8:31-39 | निर्धक्कता/साहस; अनन्त जीवन | Coordinate 1 John’s “confidence”/“perfect love casts out fear” language with Romans 8’s “no condemnation”/“nothing can separate” language as two expressions of one doctrine. Both must reject the anxious, uncertain, multi-lifetime karma-merit framework as a matter of consistent teaching across both books. |
| 2:15-17; 5:4-5 | Overcoming / not being conformed to the world | 12:2 | संसार; जित्नु | संसार is retained per baseline for κόσμος. Romans 12:2’s “this world” translates a different Greek term (αἰών, “age”), not κόσμος. When both curricula are taught together, clarify for reviewers that these are related-but-distinct Greek terms so that Nepali संसार is not silently over-extended to cover both without distinction. |
| 1:8-10 | Universal sinfulness | 3:10, 3:23 | पाप | Consistent, unqualified rendering of universal-sin claims in both books; do not soften “no one is righteous” / “if we say we have no sin” language in either curriculum. |
| 3:9 | Seed/lineage typology | 1:3; 4:13; 9:7-8 | परमेश्वरको बीज (seed of God) vs दाऊदको वंश (seed of David) | Keep दाऊदको वंश (physical/dynastic lineage) and परमेश्वरको बीज (new-birth divine life-principle) terminologically distinct. Both translate “seed” imagery in the source languages but must never share a Nepali root, to avoid implying physical descent where spiritual regeneration is meant. |
| 2:20, 27 | Anointing / Messianic root | 1:1-4 (messianic/Davidic background); baseline messiah entry | अभिषेक; मसीह | मसीह (“Anointed One”) and अभिषेक (“anointing”) share the same conceptual root. This connection may be used pedagogically (every believer’s derivative anointing flows from union with the one, unique Anointed One) but must never blur Christ’s unique Messianic identity with the anointing given to ordinary believers. |
| 5:20 | Deity of Christ | 9:5 | — | Coverage gap flagged for theologian review: no shared fixed Nepali rendering yet exists between the two curricula for the “God over all” / “true God” construction (Romans 9:5’s Χριστός … ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεός and 1 John 5:20’s οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀληθινὸς θεός). Both must be reviewed together and rendered with matching theological force before Phase 2 translation of either passage proceeds. |
| 5:11-13 | Eternal life terminology | 6:23; 2:7; 5:21 | अनन्त जीवन | Coverage gap flagged: the baseline Romans translation memory fixes उद्धार for σωτηρία but has no separate fixed entry for ζωὴ αἰώνιος (“eternal life”), which also occurs in Romans (6:23; 2:7; 5:21; 6:22). 1 John’s अनन्त जीवन should be adopted retroactively as the standard rendering everywhere ζωὴ αἰώνιος occurs in Romans as well, for full cross-curriculum consistency. |
| 3:8 vs. 5:12-21 (Romans) | Origin/spread of sin | 5:12-21 | पाप; दियाबल/शैतान | Romans traces sin’s entry into the human race through Adam (5:12); 1 John traces its ultimate spiritual origin to the devil (3:8). These are complementary, not contradictory, explanatory frameworks (federal-historical vs. cosmic-spiritual origin) and should be taught together as two facets of one doctrine, never presented as competing accounts. |
| 2:7-11; 4:21 | Love fulfilling command | 13:8-10 | आज्ञा; प्रेम | Coordinate 1 John’s ἐντολή (Christ’s relational charge, आज्ञा) with Romans 13:8-10’s teaching that love fulfills the Mosaic व्यवस्था (law). Distinguish: 1 John’s commandment is not the Mosaic law itself but Christ’s own charge to his own, though both converge on Leviticus 19:18’s love-of-neighbor command. |
Summary Note on Full-Book Coverage
All five chapters of 1 John have been cross-referenced. No chapter was found without at least one OT allusion, messianic/typological connection, or Romans-curriculum parallel; each is recorded above. Two specific coverage gaps in the existing baseline Romans package (ἱλαστήριον at Romans 3:25, and ζωὴ αἰώνιος generally) have been flagged for theologian review and retroactive alignment, since 1 John’s terminology decisions for the same or closely related Greek concepts should govern both curricula consistently rather than being fixed independently.