Core Glossary
Core Glossary: 2 John (English → Pashto)
Reused Baseline Terms (from Romans translation_memory.json — MUST match exactly)
| Term | Greek | Pashto | Transliteration | Risk | 2 John occurrence(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| grace | χάρις | فضل | fazal | High | 1:3 |
| peace | εἰρήνη | سوله | sola | Medium | 1:3 |
| father | πατήρ | پلار | plar | Critical | 1:3, 1:4, 1:9 |
| son_of_god | υἱός (τοῦ θεοῦ/τοῦ πατρός) | د خدای زوی / زوی | da Khudai zoy / zoy | Critical | 1:3, 1:9 |
| jesus | Ἰησοῦς | عیسی | Isa | Critical | 1:3, 1:7 |
| messiah | Χριστός | مسیح | Masih | Critical | 1:3, 1:7, 1:9 |
| god | θεός | خدای | Khudai | Critical | 1:9 |
| election (doctrinal caution only — see “chosen” below) | ἐκλεκτός (doctrinal sense) | غوره کول | ghwara kawul | High | (referenced as contrast, see “chosen”) |
| fellowship (noun root, cf. new verb “share/partake” below) | κοινωνία (root) | ملګرتیا | malgartia | Low | (root for 1:11 verb form) |
| incarnation (doctrine name) | (theological name for ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί) | تجسد | tajassud | Critical | 1:7 |
New Terms Introduced by 2 John (proposed additions to translation memory)
| Term | Greek | Transliteration | Literal meaning | Pashto rendering | Risk | Category/Doctrine | Rationale / Collision notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| truth | ἀλήθεια | alētheia | un-hiddenness, disclosed reality | رښتیا (rishtia) | High | Walking in Truth and Love | Prefer native رښتیا over Arabic loan حقیقت, which is associated with al-Ḥaqq, a divine name in Islamic theology; must retain the personal/relational Johannine sense (truth as Christ’s revealed reality), not mere factual correctness. |
| love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | agapē / agapaō | willed, self-giving love | مینه (mina) | High | Walking in Truth and Love | Must be distinguished from Pashtunwali honor-code (nang) loyalty and from reciprocity-generating hospitality (melmastia); this is freely willed love creating no honor-debt, paralleling the Grace entry’s caution. |
| commandment | ἐντολή | entolē | command, charge | حکم (hukm) | High | Walking in Truth and Love | Standard term, but حکم also denotes a Shari’a legal ruling; must be anchored to the Father’s relational charge to love (vv. 5-6), not heard as an independent legal ordinance. |
| walk / conduct oneself | περιπατέω | peripateō | to walk about | چلند کول (chaland kawul) | High | Walking in Truth and Love | Governing metaphor of the whole letter’s first doctrine; literal “walking” (ګرځېدل) will not automatically convey “manner of life” without explicit teaching. |
| deceiver | πλάνος | planos | one who leads astray | ګمراه کوونکی (gumrah kawunkay) | High | Warning against Deceivers | Sits inside the Islamic hidayah/misguidance (ḍalāl) framework; must be anchored specifically to denial of the incarnation (v. 7b), not left as a generic “false religion” charge. |
| antichrist | ἀντίχριστος | antichristos | against/instead-of Christ | ضد مسیح (zid-e-Masih) | Critical | Warning against Deceivers | NEVER default to الدجال (Dajjal); doing so imports the full Sunni end-times apocalyptic scheme uncontrolled. زد مسیح keeps the term anchored to مسیح directly. Human theologian review mandatory on every occurrence. |
| confess | ὁμολογέω | homologeō | to say the same, acknowledge | اقرار کول (iqrar kawul) | High | Warning against Deceivers | Risks resonance with the Islamic shahada confession structure (cf. baseline “lord” note); must be taught as confession of specific incarnational content, not a ritual formula. |
| coming in the flesh | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί | erchomenon en sarki | coming in physical/human nature | په غوښه راتلل (pa ghwakha ratlal), paired with تجسد | Critical | Incarnation (reuse baseline doctrine) | Direct Christological parallel to Romans 1:3’s “seed of David according to the flesh”; the single highest-stakes phrase in the book given Pashto’s thin precedent for incarnational vocabulary. Periphrastic rendering required alongside the technical noun per baseline guidance. |
| teaching / doctrine | διδαχή | didachē | that which is taught | تعلیم (ta’lim) | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Standard word also used for Islamic religious/madrasa instruction; every occurrence must retain the qualifier “د مسیح تعلیم” (the teaching of Christ) to preserve Christocentric specificity. |
| abide / remain | μένω | menō | to stay, remain | قايم پاتې کیدل (qaim pate kedal) | Medium-High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Captures settled relational persistence (Johannine “abide”) rather than mere physical staying. |
| goes ahead / transgresses | προάγω | proagō | to go before/forward | له تعلیم نه مخکې تلل (le ta’lim na makhke tlal) | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Must carry an explicit negative qualifier; unqualified “goes ahead” (مخکې تلل) risks sounding like commendable spiritual progress rather than doctrinal departure. |
| reward | μισθός | misthos | wage, recompense | اجر (ajr) | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Sits inside the Islamic deeds-weighing (ajr) soteriological framework, paralleling the Critical risk already flagged for “salvation” and “imputed_righteousness” in the baseline; must be taught as fruit of perseverance, never the basis of standing before God. |
| receive (into the house) | λαμβάνω (εἰς οἰκίαν) | lambanō (eis oikian) | to take, welcome | کور ته منل / راوستل (kor ta manal / rawustal) | Critical | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Runs directly against Pashtunwali’s melmastia hospitality code, which treats receiving any guest as a near-sacred honor-bound duty; must be taught with explicit doctrinal reasoning, not as a blanket anti-hospitality command. |
| house / household | οἰκία | oikia | dwelling, household | کور (kor) | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Given the absence of public church buildings in much of the Pashto-speaking world, “the house” often is the church; refusal has real security implications for a covert house-church, not merely private domestic ones. |
| greet / greeting formula | χαίρειν | chairein | ”Rejoice!” (greeting) | (contextual paraphrase — see notes; NOT سلام) | Critical | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Must NOT be rendered with سلام, whose withholding among Pashtuns signals excommunication/enmity and could endanger a Muslim-background believer if generalized beyond this narrow doctrinal-fellowship context. Requires explicit translator/teacher note distinguishing this signal from the everyday social obligation to exchange salam. Human theologian review mandatory. |
| share in / partake of (negative sense) | κοινωνέω | koinōneō | to share, participate | ملګری کیدل (malgari kedal) | Medium-High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Verb form built on the same native root as the baseline’s ملګرتیا; must NOT default to شریکول, which shares the shirk-root risk the baseline already forbids for the noun “fellowship.” |
| evil works/deeds | ἔργα πονηρά | erga ponēra | wicked deeds | بد عملونه (bad amalona) | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Amal is a major Islamic deeds-weighing term; keep descriptive (the deceiver’s harmful activity), not imported into a salvation-merit framework. |
| world | κόσμος | kosmos | the ordered universe; fallen humanity’s sphere | دنیا (dunya) | Medium | Warning against Deceivers | Dunya carries the Islamic dunya/ākhirah dichotomy; ensure the Johannine sense (a moral sphere opposed to God) is retained, not flattened to “worldly life.” |
| mercy | ἔλεος | eleos | compassion shown to the needy/undeserving | رحمت (rahmat) | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love (salutation) | Positive resonance with Islamic rahmah piety (Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim) is a genuine asset, but must be anchored jointly to the Father and Christ (v. 3), not left as a generic divine-attribute claim. |
| elder (self-designation) | πρεσβύτερος | presbyteros | senior, elder | مشر (mashar) | Medium | (author’s identity) | Resonant, positive parallel to jirga elder authority in Pashtunwali; must be anchored to apostolic-pastoral authority, not conflated with tribal-political authority. |
| chosen / elect (honorific address) | ἐκλεκτή | eklektē | chosen, selected | ګرانه (grana, “dear/esteemed”) — NOT غوره کول | Medium | (salutation address; contrast with Election doctrine) | Must be kept visibly distinct from the baseline’s soteriological “election” entry (غوره کول) to avoid implying personal predestination or lineage-based chosenness for a named individual/congregation. |
| new (commandment) | καινός | kainos | new in kind | نوی (nawe) | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | Lexically simple; theological risk is that the “not new” claim collides with the Islamic doctrine of naskh (abrogation) — later revelation must not appear to supersede what was “from the beginning.” |
| beginning | ἀρχή | archē | origin, first point | پیل (pel) | Low-Medium | Walking in Truth and Love / Perseverance | Anchors the apostolic teaching to a fixed historical starting point, not evolving revelation. |
| joy | χαρά | chara | gladness | خوشحالي (khushhali) | Low | (frame, vv. 4, 12) | No significant collision risk. |
| face to face (idiom) | στόμα πρὸς στόμα | stoma pros stoma | ”mouth to mouth” | له مخ مخ (le makh makh) | Low | (closing) | Idiom must be translated for meaning, not literally, per idiom-handling rules; literal rendering risks an inappropriate physical connotation. |
| sister / children (closing greeting) | ἀδελφή / τέκνα | adelphē / tekna | sister / children | خور / ماشومان (khor / mashuman) | Low | (closing) | Standard vocabulary; possible figurative “sister church” sense may need a brief teaching note only. |
| lady (honorific address) | κυρία | kyria | lady, madam | ګرانې خور (grane khor) or similar honorific — NOT خداوند | Low (word) / Critical (disambiguation) | (salutation address) | Feminine of κύριος but purely an address here; must never be confused with, or use, the baseline’s reserved Christological title خداوند (Lord). |
Glossary Enforcement Notes for Phase 2
- All “Reused Baseline Terms” above must be validated against
translation_memory.jsonat load time exactly as in the Romans pipeline; no deviation permitted. - All “New Terms” above are proposed additions and must be written into
translation_memory.json(with version increment) upon approval, per the procedure in12_ai_translation_requirements.md§“Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions.” - The two Critical new terms — antichrist (ضد مسیح, not دجال) and greet/greeting formula (explicitly not سلام) — must be added to the Critical Forbidden Substitutions list for this curriculum, extending the existing Romans forbidden-substitution list (شریعت, امت/امتونه, شراکت, پاکوالی, لاسته راوړی صداقت, امتونه).
- کوینونео (κοινωνέω, v. 11 verb form) must be checked at validation the same way the baseline checks the noun fellowship: flag any occurrence of شریکول/شراکت as a forbidden-substitution violation.
- Every occurrence of حکم (commandment) and تعلیم (teaching) must retain its Christ-anchoring qualifier (“د مسیح تعلیم,” “د پلار حکم”) per the verse-level notes in
07_semantic_analysis.md; bare occurrences without the qualifier should be flagged for native-speaker review.
Critical Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: پلار
Transliteration: plar
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Carries strong stern-authority connotations in Pashtun patriarchal culture; must be taught with relational warmth, not only authority. 2 John 1:4’s ‘commandment from the Father’ and 1:9’s ‘has the Father’ both require this relational-warmth emphasis, and 1:9 makes possession of the Father a binary salvation test alongside the Son.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: د خدای زوی
Transliteration: da Khudai zoy
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: υἱός (τοῦ πατρός)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Must not read as metaphorical, adoptive, or honorary sonship, per the Quranic denial (112:3, 19:35). In 2 John 1:9, ‘zoy’ (Son) is used in a bare form paired with ‘plar’ (Father) as an indivisible unit; must not be translated as separable or independently satisfiable claims.
Jesus
Approved rendering: عیسی
Transliteration: Isa
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. ‘Isa’ still carries the Quranic prophet-only, non-crucified, non-divine narrative. In 2 John 1:7 this name appears directly inside the verse denying his coming in the flesh and must be actively defended, not merely stated.
Messiah
Approved rendering: مسیح
Transliteration: Masih
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Carries pre-loaded Quranic content (honored prophet, not divine, not incarnate, not crucified). Every 2 John occurrence (1:3, 1:7, 1:9) must actively assert the specific incarnational claim under attack in this letter; also the root of the new compound term ‘antichrist’ (ضد مسیح) below.
God
Approved rendering: خدای
Transliteration: Khudai
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: الله
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Native Old Iranian root, genuine linguistic asset; strict tawhid theology must be distinguished from the Trinitarian sense. 2 John 1:9 directly ties possession of God to remaining in Christ’s teaching.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: تجسد
Transliteration: tajassud
Doctrine: Incarnation
Original: (theological name for ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. A periphrastic rendering must always accompany the technical noun given Pashto’s thin precedent. 2 John 1:7 is the single highest-stakes occurrence of this doctrine in either curriculum; see new term ‘coming_in_flesh’ below, which is mandatory to pair with this noun at every occurrence.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: ضد مسیح
Transliteration: zid-e-Masih
Doctrine: The Spirit of Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: الدجال
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Eschatology
New term. NEVER render with الدجال (Dajjal); doing so imports the entire Sunni end-times apocalyptic scheme (Mahdi, Dajjal, Isa’s return to defeat Dajjal) uncontrolled, relocating ‘antichrist’ inside a narrative that itself denies Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, and deity. ضد مسیح keeps the term anchored directly to مسیح. Mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence (1:7).
Coming In Flesh
Approved rendering: په غوښه راتلل
Transliteration: pa ghwakha ratlal
Doctrine: Denial of the Incarnation
Original: ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί
Category: Christology
New term. The single highest-stakes phrase in the letter: shares the Qur’an’s tawhid objection to God taking human form, compounded by mainstream Islamic Christology’s explicit denial of exactly this claim, further compounded by Pashto’s thinnest Christian theological precedent in this pipeline. MANDATORY: always render together with the doctrinal noun تجسد (incarnation); never render the noun alone. Mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence (1:7).
Receive Into House
Approved rendering: کور ته منل / راوستل
Transliteration: kor ta manal / rawustal
Doctrine: Refusing House Reception to False Teachers
Original: λαμβάνω (εἰς οἰκίαν)
Category: Church
New term. Runs directly against Pashtunwali’s melmastia hospitality code, which treats receiving any traveler or guest into one’s home as a near-sacred, honor-bound duty extended even to strangers and enemies. The command to withhold this specific reception (1:10) must be taught with explicit doctrinal reasoning, never as a blanket anti-hospitality command.
Greet Greeting Formula
Approved rendering: د هرکلي/ښه راغلاست کلام (متن پورې تړلی؛ هیڅکله ‘سلام’ نه)
Transliteration: da harkalay/kha raghlast kalam (context-bound; never ‘salam’)
Doctrine: Withholding the Doctrinal Greeting
Rejected alternatives: سلام
Original: χαίρειν
Category: Church
New term. MUST NEVER be rendered with سلام: withholding salam among Pashtuns can signal excommunication, blood feud, or irreversible enmity, and reciprocal refusal could expose a Muslim-background believer as an apostate at real personal risk. Render as a narrow, contextual doctrinal-fellowship signal tied only to 1:10a-1:11, with a mandatory translator’s/teacher’s note distinguishing it from the everyday social obligation to exchange salam. Mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: فضل
Transliteration: fazal
Doctrine: Grace
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Pashtunwali’s hospitality code (melmastia) treats gift-giving as reciprocity-creating; fazal must be taught as a one-directional gift creating no repayment obligation. In 2 John 1:3, grace is paired with mercy and peace flowing jointly from the Father and the Son and must retain this one-directional, non-reciprocal sense.
Election
Approved rendering: غوره کول
Transliteration: ghwara kawul
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Original: ἐκλογή (doctrinal sense, contrasted with ἐκλεκτή in 1:1)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package for cross-reference purposes only. MUST NOT be used to translate the honorific ‘elect lady’ of 2 John 1:1 (see ‘chosen_honorific’ below); reserved exclusively for God’s sovereign, non-lineage-based redemptive choice as taught in Romans 9.
Truth
Approved rendering: رښتیا
Transliteration: rishtia
Doctrine: Walking in Truth
Rejected alternatives: حقیقت
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Faith
New term. Native رښتیا preferred over the Arabic loan حقیقت, which is closely associated with al-Ḥaqq, a divine name in regional Islamic piety, risking collapse of Johannine personal, Christ-revealed truth into a generic divine-attribute claim. Occurs 2 John 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4.
Love
Approved rendering: مینه
Transliteration: mina
Doctrine: Love as the Father’s Commandment
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Ethics
New term. Standard مینه has no built-in distinction for ἀγάπη’s willed, non-reciprocal character; Pashtunwali’s honor code (nang) frames love/loyalty as reciprocal honor-debt. Must be explicitly taught as creating no such debt, paralleling the grace/melmastia caution. Occurs 2 John 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:6.
Commandment
Approved rendering: حکم
Transliteration: hukm
Doctrine: Love as the Father’s Commandment
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Ethics
New term. Standard Pashto Bible-tradition term, but حکم also denotes a Shari’a legal ruling. Every occurrence must be anchored with the qualifier ‘د پلار حکم’ (the Father’s commandment) to the relational charge to love (1:4-6), never left as an independent legal ordinance parallel to Islamic hukm.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: چلند کول
Transliteration: chaland kawul
Doctrine: Walking in Truth
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Ethics
New term. Governing metaphor of the letter’s first doctrine. Literal Pashto walking-vocabulary (ګرځېدل) will not automatically convey ‘manner of life’; pair چلند کول with the literal walking image on first occurrence (1:4) to teach the metaphor explicitly.
Deceiver
Approved rendering: ګمراه کوونکی
Transliteration: gumrah kawunkay
Doctrine: Warning Against Deceivers
Original: πλάνος
Category: False Teaching
New term. Sits inside the Islamic guidance/misguidance (hidayah/ḍalāl) framework, where corrective authority is ultimately the Qur’an and Sunnah. Every occurrence (1:7) must be anchored specifically to denial of Christ’s incarnation, never left as a generic ‘false religion’ charge that could be redirected onto the Christian message itself.
Confess
Approved rendering: اقرار کول
Transliteration: iqrar kawul
Doctrine: Denial of the Incarnation
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Christology
New term. Risks resonance with the Islamic shahada confession-formula structure. Must be taught as confession of specific historical-theological content (Christ’s coming in the flesh, 1:7), never a ritual formula analogous to the shahada.
Teaching Doctrine
Approved rendering: تعلیم
Transliteration: ta’lim
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Original: διδαχή
Category: Doctrine
New term. Ordinary word for Islamic religious/madrasa instruction generally. Every occurrence in this letter (1:9, 1:10) must retain the qualifying phrase ‘د مسیح تعلیم’ (the teaching of Christ) rather than standing alone, or the specifically Christocentric content is lost.
Abide Remain
Approved rendering: قايم پاتې کیدل
Transliteration: qaim pate kedal
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: پاتې کیدل
Original: μένω
Category: Doctrine
New term. A bare ‘to stay’ (پاتې کیدل) risks reading as mere physical remaining in one place rather than the Johannine settled, relational persistence required by 1:9’s condition for possessing the Father and the Son.
Goes Ahead
Approved rendering: له تعلیم نه مخکې تلل
Transliteration: le ta’lim na makhke tlal
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: مخکې تلل
Original: προάγω
Category: Doctrine
New term. Unqualified مخکې تلل (‘goes ahead/forward’) sounds positive (progress, advancement) exactly where the Greek intends irony and warning; must carry an explicit negative qualifier so doctrinal departure (1:9) is never mistaken for spiritual maturity.
Reward
Approved rendering: اجر
Transliteration: ajr
Doctrine: Reward of Faithfulness in Doctrine
Original: μισθός
Category: Salvation
New term. Standard Pashto/Islamic term for divine recompense within a deeds-weighing soteriological framework foundational to Sunni piety, directly paralleling the Critical risk already flagged for ‘salvation’ and ‘imputed_righteousness’ in the Romans baseline. Every occurrence (1:8) must make clear this reward is the fruit of remaining in Christ’s teaching, never the basis of standing before God, which rests on فضل (grace) alone.
House
Approved rendering: کور
Transliteration: kor
Doctrine: Refusing House Reception to False Teachers
Original: οἰκία
Category: Church
New term. In much of the Pashto-speaking world there is no public church building and ‘the house’ often IS the covert house-church; refusing entry (1:10) carries real, sometimes dangerous, security implications, directly intersecting the baseline’s Critical ‘Church as God’s People’ doctrine.
Share In
Approved rendering: ملګری کیدل
Transliteration: malgari kedal
Doctrine: Complicity in False Teaching Through Hospitality
Rejected alternatives: شریکول
Original: κοινωνέω
Category: Church
New term. Must use a verb built on the established native root ملګرتیا; must NOT default to شریکول, which shares the ش-ر-ک root with shirk (idolatrous partnership) — a substitution already forbidden for the noun ‘fellowship’ in the baseline and equally forbidden here for the verb form (1:11).
Lady Address
Approved rendering: ګرانې خور
Transliteration: grane khor
Doctrine: Honorific Address vs. Doctrine of Election
Rejected alternatives: خداوند
Original: κυρία
Category: Church
New term. Though lexically simple, the risk of confusion with the baseline’s reserved Christological title خداوند (Lord, exclusive to Christ per Romans 10:9) is severe. Must use a plain honorific such as ګرانې خور and never خداوند, with an explicit translator’s note distinguishing the two (1:1, 1:5).
Medium Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: سوله
Transliteration: sola
Doctrine: Peace with God
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. ‘Sola’ resonates with lived experience of war-ending negotiation (sola jirga), a positive asset. In 2 John 1:3 it must be anchored jointly to the Father and Christ, not read as a generic wish for calm.
New Commandment
Approved rendering: نوی
Transliteration: nawe
Doctrine: Continuity of the Commandment (Not a New Revelation)
Original: καινός (ἐντολὴν καινήν)
Category: Doctrine
New term. Lexically simple, but the doctrinal point that true teaching is NOT a newer revelation superseding what was given from the start collides directly with the Islamic doctrine of naskh (abrogation); must be taught explicitly against this default (1:5).
Beginning
Approved rendering: پیل
Transliteration: pel
Doctrine: Continuity of the Commandment (Not a New Revelation)
Original: ἀρχή
Category: Doctrine
New term. Plain rendering adequate lexically; anchors the letter’s anti-naskh argument that true teaching does not evolve or get superseded over time (1:5-6, echoed by ‘teaching of Christ’ in 1:9).
World
Approved rendering: دنیا
Transliteration: dunya
Doctrine: Warning Against Deceivers
Original: κόσμος
Category: Ethics
New term. Carries the Islamic dunya/ākhirah (this-world/next-world) ethical dichotomy, not identical to John’s usage. Ensure the phrase retains the sense of a moral sphere opposed to God’s truth (1:7), not flattened to ‘worldly [non-religious] life’.
Evil Works
Approved rendering: بد عملونه
Transliteration: bad amalona
Doctrine: Complicity in False Teaching Through Hospitality
Original: ἔργα πονηρά
Category: Ethics
New term. عمل (amal) is a major Islamic theological term denoting deeds recorded and weighed for final judgment; keep بد عملونه descriptive of the deceiver’s harmful activity (1:11) only, not imported into a deeds-weighing salvation-merit framework.
Mercy
Approved rendering: رحمت
Transliteration: rahmat
Doctrine: Grace, Mercy, and Peace from the Father and the Son
Original: ἔλεος
Category: God
New term. Genuine cultural asset given the prominence of divine mercy (Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim) in regional Islamic piety, but exactly because of that resonance, every occurrence (1:3) must be anchored jointly to the Father and Christ so it is not heard as a generic, religiously-neutral divine-attribute claim detached from the Son.
Elder Office
Approved rendering: مشر
Transliteration: mashar
Doctrine: Apostolic-Pastoral Authority of the Elder
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church
New term. Same term used for a jirga (tribal council) elder in Pashtunwali — a genuine, positively-regarded cultural bridge — but must be clearly anchored to the apostolic-pastoral authority of the church (1:1), not conflated with tribal-political jirga authority.
Chosen Honorific
Approved rendering: ګرانه
Transliteration: grana
Doctrine: Honorific Address vs. Doctrine of Election
Rejected alternatives: غوره کول
Original: ἐκλεκτή
Category: Church
New term. Must be kept visibly distinct from the baseline’s soteriological election doctrine (غوره کول, Romans 9’s non-lineage-based redemptive choice); use a simple honorific so a reader does not conclude 1:1/1:13 teach personal predestination or tribal/lineage-based chosenness for a named individual or congregation.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: ملګرتیا
Transliteration: malgartia
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: شراکت
Original: κοινωνία (root)
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Native word avoiding the shirk-root resonance of شراکت. Serves as the root for the new negative verb form ‘share_in’ (ملګری کیدل) required at 2 John 1:11; the forbidden-substitution rule against شراکت/شریکول extends to that verb form.
Joy
Approved rendering: خوشحالي
Transliteration: khushhali
Doctrine: Joy in the Fellowship of Truth
Original: χαρά
Category: Faith
New term. Standard word with بشپړ/بشپړه (complete/full) is adequate; no significant collision risk (1:4, 1:12).
Face To Face
Approved rendering: له مخ مخ
Transliteration: le makh makh
Doctrine: Joy in the Fellowship of Truth
Rejected alternatives: خوله پر خوله
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Church
New term. A literal rendering of ‘mouth to mouth’ risks an unintended and inappropriate physical connotation; use the natural Pashto idiom له مخ مخ per standard idiom-handling rules (1:12).
Sister Children
Approved rendering: خور / ماشومان
Transliteration: khor / mashuman
Doctrine: Honorific Address vs. Doctrine of Election
Original: ἀδελφή / τέκνα
Category: Church
New term. Standard vocabulary for the closing family greeting (1:13); a brief teaching note is sufficient if the figurative ‘sister church’ sense needs clarifying, rather than a dedicated glossary term.
Referenced passages