Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis — Luke 1–24 (English → Pashto)
Purpose
This document executes Phase 1 Step 8 of the TRI pipeline for the Luke curriculum. It identifies where established Pashto Bible/theological vocabulary is (a) genuinely missing, (b) present but occupying a crowded semantic neighborhood that must be fenced against a wrong-but-adjacent term, or (c) available but requiring a transliteration vs. paraphrase judgment call. It closes with a ranked list of Luke’s highest-risk lexical ambiguities for Phase 2 translator attention. All renderings below are consistent with, and never override, the Romans baseline translation_memory.json and the Luke-specific additions already fixed in 08_core_glossary.md and bible_term_registry.json.
The core passage, Luke 4:16-21 (Jesus’s Nazareth synagogue reading of Isaiah 61), anchors this analysis theologically, but coverage below spans the full Gospel, chapter by chapter, per the PRD’s full-book mandate.
1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each of the eight assigned curriculum doctrines: the available Pashto term(s), the specific weakness/collision each carries in the Pashto-speaking Islamicate and Pashtunwali cultural context, and the recommended handling strategy.
1.1 Jesus as Savior for All Nations and All People (Jew and Gentile, Rich and Poor)
| Available Pashto Term(s) | Weakness | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| نجات ورکوونکی (savior, 2:11) | Risks softening to “helper” or “great teacher” if not tied to baseline Critical نجات | Always gloss on first use per lesson: “the one and only one who saves” (يوازینی نجات ورکوونکی), reinforcing exclusivity against a pluralistic “one savior among many holy men” reading |
| غیر یهودیان (Gentiles) | Descriptive, avoids Ummah-root, but still requires explicit teaching that God’s saving purpose was never Jew-only | Pair every occurrence with explicit “Jew and Gentile together” framing (cf. 2:32, 24:47), never left to stand alone |
| غریب (poor) / صادق سړی (righteous person, of the centurion, 23:47) | Risk of hearing “for the poor” and “for the rich/Gentile centurion” as two separate, competing gospels rather than one universal offer | Cross-teach 4:18 (poor) with 23:47 (Gentile centurion’s confession) and 19:1-10 (rich tax collector) as three deliberate boundary-crossings of the same salvation |
| اسرائیل (Israel) | Politically live term; risk of collapsing Luke’s “light to the Gentiles” (2:32) into a supersessionist replacement reading | Teach as fulfillment-through-expansion, not replacement, consistent with baseline’s Romans 9-11 pastoral framing |
Recommended overall strategy: No single Pashto term carries “for all nations and all people” as one lexical unit; this doctrine must be built compositionally from نجات ورکوونکی + غیر یهودیان + غریب/صادق سړی pairs taught together, since the Pashto lexicon offers the pieces but not a ready-made universal-salvation idiom.
1.2 The Holy Spirit’s Work in Salvation History
| Available Pashto Term(s) | Weakness | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| روح القدس (Holy Spirit) | Identical Quranic phrase, mainstream tafsir identifies it with the angel Jibril | Explicit created-being-vs-divine-Person distinction at every Lukan occurrence, especially ch. 1 where Gabriel (فرشته/جبرائیل) and the Spirit appear in the same scene — do not let vocabulary proximity blur the ontological gap |
| د خداوند روح (Spirit of the Lord, 4:18) | Compounds two already-Critical terms; risk of being heard as a generic “spirit of God’s favor/blessing” idiom | Teach as the same divine Person named elsewhere, resting uniquely on the Messiah in a commissioning act, not a poetic figure of speech |
| د لوړ ځای نه قدرت (power from on high, 24:49) | Low independent collision, but must not be detached from روح القدس | Always teach 24:49 as the same Spirit promised earlier in the Gospel, anticipating Pentecost |
| مسح کړی (anointed, 4:18) | Shares root with مسیح but the verb form’s wordplay can be lost if translated too flatly (“chosen” or “blessed”) | Preserve the verb-noun root connection explicitly in teaching notes so hearers can recover “God has made me Masih” |
Recommended overall strategy: This doctrine is well-served lexically (no true gaps) but is a high fencing-need area: every Spirit-related term sits immediately adjacent to Islamic angelology and must be actively distinguished, not merely translated.
1.3 Good News to the Poor and Marginalized
| Available Pashto Term(s) | Weakness | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| غریب (poor) | Correctly avoids فقیر’s Sufi-mendicant/zakat-category sacralization of poverty | Reinforce that poverty is not itself meritorious; the good news is God’s initiative toward the powerless, not a spiritual status the poor already possess |
| بندیان (captives) | Positive lived-experience resonance (war/imprisonment) is an asset, but risks staying only literal | Explicit double-teaching: literal captivity resonance plus the spiritual liberation Isaiah 61/Luke 4 intends |
| ړوند (blind) | Same double-sense risk as captives — medical vs. spiritual blindness | Retain both senses in teaching; do not let healing narratives (7:22, 18:35-43) eclipse the figurative unbelief sense used elsewhere in Luke |
| له ظلم لاندې مات شوي خلک (oppressed/crushed) | Multi-word descriptive phrase; risk of translators shortening it to a single softer word (“سخته” - difficulty) in casual paraphrase, losing the violence/injury nuance | Lock the full phrase in translation memory; forbid single-word substitutes |
| ټیټوالی / ټیټ کول (lowliness/reversal) | Available and resonant with Magnificat theme, but easily confused with مسکینتیا (destitution as pitiable state, not exaltable status) | Teach explicitly as the kingdom-reversal motif (Magnificat 1:48,52 → banquet parable 14:11 → tax collector 18:14), not mere social description |
| د خداوند د منلو کال (acceptable year of the Lord / Jubilee) | No native lexical equivalent for the Levitical Jubilee institution; Pashtun customary tribal amnesty/debt-forgiveness practice is a partial, imperfect bridge | Use the descriptive compound with mandatory explanatory teaching note; do not assume comprehension from the phrase alone |
Recommended overall strategy: Vocabulary exists but is scattered across several partially-overlapping words (غریب, بندیان, ړوند, ټیټوالی) that must be taught as one integrated Isaiah-61 manifesto (4:18-19), not four separate topics.
1.4 Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins
| Available Pashto Term(s) | Weakness | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| توبه (repentance) | Deeply embedded Islamic tawba category operating inside a deeds-weighing, repayment-oriented framework | Every occurrence must be explicitly re-taught as Spirit-enabled turning that receives Christ’s accomplished forgiveness, never repayment or offsetting |
| د ګناهانو بخښنه (forgiveness of sins) | Built cleanly on baseline ګناه; risk is mainly cross-reference confusion with the captivity sense of the same Greek lexeme | See §2 fencing note below (ἄφεσις split) |
| خوشې کول / ازادي (release from captivity, same Greek root as forgiveness) | No single Pashto word carries both senses of ἄφεσις; genuine two-word gap | See ranked ambiguity #1 below |
| ورک شوی (lost) | Adequate as the structuring metaphor for ch. 15, but risks sounding passive (“misplaced object”) rather than an active condition God pursues | Teach with emphasis on God’s initiative in seeking (15:4-6, 8-9), consistent with باseline’s “election” caution against passivity |
| خوشحالي (joy) | Low risk; shared Islamic virtue category (shukr-adjacent joy) | Tie explicitly to heaven’s specific response to repentance (15:7,10,32), not generic happiness |
Recommended overall strategy: This doctrine’s single greatest gap is the split rendering required for ἄφεσις (see ranked list); otherwise vocabulary is adequate but every توبه occurrence carries an active re-teaching burden against the Islamic deeds-weighing default.
1.5 Prayer and Dependence on God
| Available Pashto Term(s) | Weakness | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| دعا (prayer) | Shared, broadly compatible Islamic devotional vocabulary | Anchor consistently to address of the Father through the Son (11:2, 22:42), not generic ritual supplication |
| منځګړیتوب (intercession) | Baseline nanawatai cultural bridge applies with special force at the cross (23:34) and for Peter (22:32) | Calibrate carefully — nanawatai still requires the guilty party’s own submission act, an imperfect analogy that must not be overstated |
| د خدای تدبیر (providence) | Risk of collapsing into folk qadar fatalism | Keep personal, purposive governance language distinct from impersonal fate throughout the sparrows/anxiety teaching (12:6-7, 22-31) |
| ازموینه (testing/temptation) | Same word covers both God’s testing/permitting and the devil’s tempting-to-sin; genuine ambiguity requiring context-based disambiguation | Flag every occurrence (4:1-13 devil’s sense; 11:4, 22:28,40,46 mixed senses) for translator judgment call, not automatic default |
Recommended overall strategy: Adequate native vocabulary; the main risk is register drift toward generic Islamic devotional dua rather than the specifically Trinitarian, Father-Son-Spirit address Luke’s prayer scenes model.
1.6 The Kingdom of God Present and Future
| Available Pashto Term(s) | Weakness | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| د خدای پاچاهي (Kingdom of God) | Risk of collision with contemporary “Islamic Emirate” political-religious sovereignty claims in the region’s recent history | Explicit contrast: God’s spiritual reign, not a competing territorial-political state claim |
| نن (today, eschatological “now”) | Under-translation risk — a bare “today” can read as mere calendar reference, losing the “inaugurated fulfillment” force | Supplement in teaching contexts with “همدا اوس” (right now, this very moment) to reinforce the theological weight |
| بشپړ شوی (fulfilled) | Risk of being heard through the lens of naskh (abrogation) — later revelation cancels/supersedes earlier | Teach fulfillment as completion of the same promise, not replacement of a prior one |
| تمثیل (parable) | Standard genre word; low collision on its own but flattens Luke’s kingdom-mystery content if narrated plainly | Preserve the “mystery revealed to some, hidden from others” tension (8:10) rather than treating parables as simple morality tales |
| پیریان (demon/unclean spirit, kingdom-conflict motif) | High syncretism risk with folk-Islamic exorcism practice (amulets, Ruqyah, mullah-performed rituals) | Teach Jesus’s sovereign, unmediated command over evil spirits as categorically distinct from ritual exorcism practice |
Recommended overall strategy: The temporal tension (“already/not yet”) is the hardest linguistic challenge here — Pashto has no dedicated inaugurated-eschatology marker, so نن and بشپړ شوی must be taught together as a matched pair at 4:21, with the pairing repeated at every subsequent kingdom-present-and-future passage.
1.7 The Cost and Joy of Discipleship
| Available Pashto Term(s) | Weakness | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| شاګرد (disciple) | Correctly avoids مرید’s Sufi pir-murid tariqa-lineage, initiation-rite, and baraka-transmission framework | Reinforce that following Jesus requires no human intermediary or initiation lineage — grace-based, open discipleship |
| پیروي کول (follow) | Risk of softening to casual admiration if the cost sayings (9:57-62, 14:26-27) are paraphrased gently | Preserve Jesus’s own harsh cost-language (“let the dead bury their dead”) rather than smoothing it for comfort |
| صلیب / صلیب کول (cross/crucify, as discipleship metaphor) | Doubly at risk: depends on hearers accepting a historicity the Quran denies (4:157), compounding the metaphor’s difficulty | Requires the same oral/narrative apologetic handling recommended for the historical resurrection/crucifixion narrative itself |
| مامونا (مال و دولت) (mammon) | Risk of flattening to a neutral money-word if not personified | Preserve wealth-as-rival-master personification (16:9,11,13) |
| خوشحالي (joy, discipleship’s flip side) | Same low-risk term as under Repentance; here applied to the resurrection/ascension response (24:41,52) | Tie explicitly to the cost sayings so joy is not read as contradicting or erasing the cost |
Recommended overall strategy: Vocabulary is adequate; the central risk is tonal softening — Pashto’s respectful, indirect discourse conventions can blunt Jesus’s deliberately hard sayings unless translators are explicitly instructed to preserve their force.
1.8 Jesus’ Compassion and Table Fellowship with Sinners
| Available Pashto Term(s) | Weakness | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| خواخوږي درلودل (visceral compassion) | Native term correctly avoids a generic Arabic-root رحم synonym, but its low frequency in everyday register risks under-recognition as a technical term | First-use gloss recommended: “ډېره زیاته خواخوږي” (very deep, gut-level compassion) to signal the intensity beyond ordinary politeness |
| له ګناهکارانو سره خوراک کول (table fellowship with sinners) | Multi-word descriptive phrase; risk of flattening to generic hospitality if melmastia-code framing is not invoked | Explicitly parallel to baseline’s melmastia/grace caution: Jesus’s meals are a scandalous, boundary-crossing honor-shame act, not ordinary guest-hosting |
| ګناهکار (sinner) | Low risk, but must not carry a permanently fixed social label that Jesus’s welcome itself overturns | Teach the narrative arc (welcome → repentance → restored honor), not a static social category |
| محصول اخیستونکی (tax collector) | Adequate, conveys social-outcast/collaborator connotation | Retain the collaborator stigma so the scandal of Jesus dining with Levi/Zacchaeus lands with its original social weight |
| سامری (Samaritan) | Genuine cultural bridge for crossing tribal/ethnic boundaries (qawm/khel dynamics) | Teach with the specific ancient Jewish-Samaritan hostility in view, not flattened to “a helpful stranger” |
Recommended overall strategy: This doctrine is well-resourced but entirely dependent on honor-shame framing being made explicit; a literal, culturally neutral translation of the meal scenes will fail to convey why they were scandalous at all.
2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Genuine Vocabulary Gaps (no adequate single Pashto term exists)
| Concept | Gap Description | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| ἄφεσις split sense (release from captivity vs. forgiveness of sins) | No single Pashto lexeme spans both the Jubilee/captivity-release sense (4:18-19) and the sin-forgiveness sense (1:77, 3:3, 5:20-24, 11:4, 24:47) that the one Greek word covers | Two fixed renderings required: د ګناهانو بخښنه (forgiveness of sins) and خوشې کول / ازادي (release/liberty); teaching notes must surface the underlying lexical unity even though the Bible text renders them separately |
| σῴζω wordplay (heal = save) | Pashto’s default medical term روغ شوی (healed) and its default soteriological term نجات (saved) do not naturally overlap the way the Greek does | Prefer a نجات-rooted verb form (نجات موندلی) wherever grammatically possible, reserving روغ شوی only where the healing sense is exclusively physical and the wordplay is not in view |
| ἐνιαυτὸς Κυρίου δεκτός (Jubilee “acceptable year”) | Leviticus 25’s institutional background (land rest, debt cancellation, slave release on a fixed cycle) has no Pashtun or Islamic institutional parallel of the same shape | Descriptive compound (د خداوند د منلو کال) plus mandatory explanatory teaching note; Pashtun tribal amnesty custom offers only a partial, non-institutional echo |
| τεθραυσμένος (the specific violence/injury nuance of “crushed/oppressed”) | No single Pashto word combines both the physical-injury and abuse-of-power senses | Retain the multi-word descriptive phrase (له ظلم لاندې مات شوي خلک) rather than reducing to a single softer word |
| Inaugurated eschatology marker for σήμερον (“today,” Luke 4:21) | Pashto نن is temporally flat; it does not itself signal “prophecy-fulfilled-now-in-my-person” | Compositional solution only: نن + بشپړ شوی taught as a fixed pair, never نن alone |
2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing
These are cases where Pashto offers multiple plausible terms, and the wrong choice (or unfenced ambiguity) would import a competing framework. Each requires an explicit forbidden-alternative rule, following the pattern the baseline already establishes for شریعت/امت/شراکت/پاکوالی/لاسته راوړی صداقت/امتونه.
| Concept | Competing Terms | Correct Choice | Fencing Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poor | غریب vs. فقیر | غریب | فقیر imports Sufi mendicant/holy-beggar status and zakat-category merit logic; already fixed in Step 1 core glossary — reaffirmed here as a forbidden substitution candidate for Phase 2 |
| Disciple | شاګرد vs. مرید | شاګرد | مرید imports the tariqa pir-murid initiation/lineage/baraka-transmission system entirely foreign to grace-based NT discipleship |
| Blessed | بختور vs. مبارک | بختور | مبارک functions as a generic festive greeting and loses the Beatitudes’ paradoxical kingdom-reversal force |
| Paradise | فردوس vs. جنت | فردوس (with grace-contrast note) | جنت carries the full weight of Islam’s deeds-weighing eternal-reward system; using it at 23:43 (a guilty, dying criminal’s undeserved entry) would undercut the very point of the verse |
| Fellowship | ملګرتیا vs. شراکت | ملګرتیا | شراکت shares the ش-ر-ک root with shirk (idolatrous partnership); already fixed in the Romans baseline, reaffirmed for Luke’s table-fellowship material |
| Sanctification/holiness of life | تقدیس vs. پاکوالی | تقدیس | پاکوالی reads as ritual/wudu-style cleanliness rather than the Spirit’s ongoing moral transformation; already fixed in the Romans baseline |
| Law | ناموس vs. شریعت | ناموس | شریعت collides with both formal Islamic shari’a and, distinctly, could also be misheard as endorsing Pashtunwali customary law if left unqualified; already fixed in the Romans baseline, reaffirmed for Luke 2:22-27, 39; 10:26; 16:16-17 |
| Church (anticipatory; not yet load-bearing in Luke’s own text but referenced in teaching material) | کلیسا vs. امت | کلیسا | امت carries the loaded pan-Islamic Ummah sense; already fixed in the Romans baseline |
| Repentance | توبه (only viable option) | توبه, with mandatory re-teaching | Not a multi-term neighborhood but a single crowded concept — the word itself is fully occupied by the Islamic tawba deeds-weighing framework and cannot be avoided (no viable native or loanword alternative exists), so the fencing must happen entirely at the teaching-note level, not the lexical level |
| Circumcision | سنت (only viable option) | سنت, explicitly scoped | سنت also names the Prophet’s broader normative example (Sunnah); must be explicitly limited to the physical Mosaic rite at 2:21 and nowhere allowed to expand into the wider Islamic normative-practice sense |
| Demon/spirit-world vocabulary | پیریان vs. folk-exorcism-associated terms | پیریان, with explicit non-equivalence teaching | Real cultural asset (widespread jinn belief) but requires active dissociation from Ruqyah/amulet/mullah-exorcism ritual practice |
3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Term | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| ابا (Abba) | Transliterate | Preserves Aramaic filial-intimacy force the formal پلار alone cannot carry; cross-document consistency with Romans 8:15 baseline |
| مسح کړی (anointed, verb) | Paraphrase (compound verb), not a loanword | A single transliterated loanword would sever the essential root-connection to مسیح; the descriptive verb form recovers Jesus’s implicit self-identification as Messiah |
| فردوس (Paradise, 23:43) | Loanword retained, but the less saturated Quranic option chosen over the more saturated جنت | Both are technically loanwords from the same Perso-Arabic religious vocabulary pool; the choice is about which loanword carries less deeds-weighing baggage, not transliteration vs. native coinage |
| جبرائیل (Gabriel) | Transliterate, using the shared Islamic form | Positive bridge point — no benefit to inventing a distinct Christian-only form when the referent (a created angel) is genuinely the same figure in both traditions |
| مامونا (مال و دولت) (Mammon) | Transliterate the Aramaic loanword, with an obligatory native gloss in parentheses | The bare transliteration alone would be opaque to readers with no Aramaic exposure; the gloss anchors comprehension without losing the personification |
| کنیسه (Synagogue) | Loanword retained (Arabic-derived but not Quranic-loaded) | Necessary to keep sharply distinct from کلیسا (church) and مسجد/جومات (mosque); inventing a native coinage risks obscuring the historical Jewish setting rather than clarifying it |
| سامری (Samaritan) | Transliterate the proper ethnonym | No native equivalent exists for a specific historical ethnic-religious group; transliteration is the only option, paired with mandatory historical-hostility teaching |
| اسرائیل / داود / موسی / اشعیا (proper names) | Transliterate per established Pashto Bible convention (per baseline) | Consistency rule already fixed; no deviation permitted |
| د خداوند د منلو کال (Acceptable Year of the Lord) | Paraphrase (full descriptive compound), reject any single-word loan | No single Pashto or loanword equivalent for the Jubilee institution exists; paraphrase is the only viable path, with mandatory teaching note |
| له ظلم لاندې مات شوي خلک (oppressed/crushed) | Paraphrase (descriptive phrase), reject single-word rendering | Preserves the violence/injury nuance a single word (e.g., “خفه,” sad) would erase |
| بختور (Blessed) | Native coinage, reject the loanword مبارک as primary | مبارک’s generic festive-greeting function in everyday Pashto usage disqualifies it from carrying the Beatitudes’ paradoxical reversal force |
General principle applied throughout: transliteration is preferred only where (a) the referent is a genuine proper name/place with no translatable content, or (b) an existing loanword’s connotation is judged less doctrinally distorting than the available native alternative. Paraphrase is preferred wherever the underlying concept (Jubilee, visceral compassion, crushed-by-oppression, table fellowship with sinners) has no single-word equivalent in either the native or loanword Pashto lexicon.
4. Ranked List of Luke’s Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined severity (doctrinal weight × likelihood of mistranslation × frequency/prominence in the curriculum’s core passage and assigned doctrines):
-
ἄφεσις split rendering (Luke 4:18-19) — Critical. The single highest-risk ambiguity in the entire curriculum because it occurs within the core passage itself: the same Greek word is rendered خوشې کول/ازادي (captivity release) in 4:18 and د ګناهانو بخښنه (forgiveness of sins) elsewhere in Luke. A translator defaulting to one rendering throughout would either flatten the Jubilee-liberation dimension of Jesus’s manifesto or erase its sin-forgiveness dimension. Mandatory per-occurrence context check.
-
σῴζω heal/save wordplay — Critical. Luke deliberately uses one Greek verb across bodily healing and spiritual salvation narratives (7:50, 8:48, 17:19, 18:42, 19:10); a translator defaulting to روغ شوی throughout would sever the connection Luke intends readers to notice, undermining the doctrine of Jesus as Savior for all people (body and soul, rich and poor alike).
-
υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (Son of Man) — Critical. د انسان زوی is simultaneously the correct literal rendering and a live, everyday Pashto/Islamic idiom for “a mere human” (cf. بني آدم). Every one of Luke’s ~25 occurrences risks being heard as Jesus denying his own divine authority rather than veiling a Daniel 7 claim to it.
-
توبه (repentance) deeds-weighing default — High-Critical. Not an ambiguity of which word to choose (only one viable word exists) but an ambiguity of theological framework smuggled in by the only available word; every occurrence risks silently importing a repayment/merit logic Luke’s own narrative (e.g., 15:11-32, the father runs to the son before any repayment is possible) directly contradicts.
-
μακάριος (Blessed) vs. مبارک festive-greeting collision — High. The Beatitudes (6:20-22) are the paradigmatic “Good News to the Poor” text; if translators or readers default to مبارک’s greeting-card register, the paradoxical reversal (“blessed are the poor… the hungry… those who weep”) collapses into a cheerful platitude.
-
πτωχός (Poor) vs. فقیر Sufi-mendicant collision — High. Directly touches the assigned doctrine of Good News to the Poor; فقیر risks re-sacralizing poverty as a merit-bearing spiritual state rather than the object of God’s unearned initiative.
-
μαθητής (Disciple) vs. مرید tariqa collision — High. Touches the Cost and Joy of Discipleship doctrine; مرید would import an entire hierarchical initiation-and-lineage system (pir-murid, baraka transmission) foreign to Luke’s open, grace-based call.
-
παράδεισος (Paradise, 23:43) vs. جنت deeds-weighing collision — Critical, low-frequency but maximal doctrinal density. This single verse is arguably Luke’s sharpest illustration of grace overturning a deeds-weighing framework (a guilty, dying criminal granted immediate entry on Christ’s word alone); the wrong word choice here would neutralize the verse’s entire theological point.
-
σήμερον/πληρόω pairing (Luke 4:21, inaugurated eschatology) — High. Central to the core passage and to the Kingdom of God Present and Future doctrine; نن alone under-translates “now, in fulfillment, in my very person,” risking a reading of mere future prediction rather than present accomplishment.
-
ἐνιαυτὸς Κυρίου δεκτός (Acceptable Year/Jubilee, 4:19) — High. Also within the core passage; the greatest single background-knowledge gap in the whole Gospel, since Leviticus 25’s institutional shape has no ready cultural analogue and risks being skipped over as decorative Old Testament color rather than taught as substantive content Jesus claims to be fulfilling.
-
τεθραυσμένος (oppressed/crushed, 4:18) — Medium-High. Also within the core passage; risk of translators softening the descriptive phrase to a single generic word under time pressure, losing the violence/abuse-of-power nuance central to the doctrine of Good News to the Poor and Marginalized.
-
δαιμόνιον/πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον (demon) vs. folk-exorcism practice overlap — High. Recurs across the Kingdom-conflict narrative (4:33-36, 8:26-39, 11:14-26); real risk of readers assimilating Jesus’s unique sovereign authority into familiar Ruqyah/amulet exorcism categories.
-
κηρύσσω vs. εὐαγγελίζομαι (preach/proclaim vs. announce-good-news) — Medium. Both occur in the core passage (4:18-19, 43) with overlapping but distinct emphases (authoritative herald vs. glad-announcement); careless synonym-swapping across the Gospel would blur Luke’s own terminological texture without necessarily causing doctrinal harm on its own, but compounds risk when layered onto the other ambiguities above.
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δίκαιος/δικαιοσύνη honor-restoration bridge consistency (23:47 centurion; 18:14 tax collector) — Medium-High. Already flagged Critical at the term level in the baseline, but Luke’s specific narrative embodiments (a Gentile soldier’s confession; a repentant tax collector’s prayer) require the honor-restoration bridging language to be applied consistently across both scenes, not reinvented ad hoc per lesson.
5. Full-Book Chapter Coverage Confirmation
Every chapter of Luke has been reviewed for load-bearing vocabulary relevant to this gap analysis. The table below confirms coverage and flags chapters contributing no terms beyond those already fixed above.
| Chapter(s) | Coverage Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reviewed — major contributor | Incarnation cluster (پیغله, پوښل, مریم, جبرائیل), covenant/Israel language, mercy/lowliness reversal motif (Magnificat), holy/prophet vocabulary |
| 2 | Reviewed — major contributor | نجات ورکوونکی (Savior title), circumcision (سنت), redemption (خلاصون), glory (جلال), Gentiles (غیر یهودیان), Israel |
| 3 | Reviewed — major contributor | Repentance (توبه), forgiveness of sins (د ګناهانو بخښنه), tax collectors introduced, baptism/Spirit at 3:21-22 |
| 4 | Reviewed — core passage chapter | Full Isaiah 61 cluster: مسح کړی, د خداوند روح, خوشې کول/ازادي, د خداوند د منلو کال, غریب, بندیان, ړوند, له ظلم لاندې مات شوي خلک, نن, بشپړ شوی; also testing/temptation (ازموینه), demon vocabulary (پیریان), synagogue (کنیسه) |
| 5 | Reviewed — major contributor | Sin/forgiveness (paralytic), disciple call (شاګرد, پیروي کول), tax collector Levi, leper (د خوري ناروغ), save/heal wordplay begins |
| 6 | Reviewed — major contributor | Apostles named (رسول), Beatitudes (بختور), kingdom of God, mercy command |
| 7 | Reviewed — major contributor | Compassion (خواخوږي درلودل, widow of Nain), sinful woman/table fellowship, faith commendation, John the Baptist/prophet |
| 8 | Reviewed | Parable of the sower, save/heal wordplay (سیوینو موخه), Kingdom of God secrets, demon-possessed man (Legion) |
| 9 | Reviewed | Transfiguration (glory), Son of Man passion predictions, disciple cost sayings (9:57-62), sending of the Twelve, Samaritan village rejection |
| 10 | Reviewed — major contributor | Sending of the Seventy(-two) (mission), Good Samaritan parable (سامری, ګاونډی, compassion), Mary/Martha |
| 11 | Reviewed — major contributor | Lord’s Prayer (دعا), testing/temptation, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (12:10 anticipated theme begins here contextually), demon vocabulary |
| 12 | Reviewed — major contributor | Providence (12:6-7, 22-31), blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (12:10), Son of Man |
| 13 | Reviewed | Repentance urgency (13:3-5), prophet rejection (13:33-34), Kingdom parables (mustard seed, leaven) |
| 14 | Reviewed — major contributor | Banquet reversal parable (lowliness, poor/marginalized invited), cost of discipleship (14:26-27) |
| 15 | Reviewed — major contributor | Lost sheep/coin/son (ورک شوی, election theme, joy خوشحالي), sinner/tax collector table fellowship motif culminates |
| 16 | Reviewed — major contributor | Mammon (مامونا), rich man and Lazarus (Hades/دوزخ) |
| 17 | Reviewed | Ten lepers (thanksgiving), faith, save/heal wordplay (17:19), kingdom present/future (17:20-21) |
| 18 | Reviewed — major contributor | Persistent widow (prayer, کونډه), Pharisee and tax collector (justification/righteousness narrative embodiment), Son of David cry (blind beggar), rich young ruler |
| 19 | Reviewed — major contributor | Zacchaeus (save/heal, table fellowship, tax collector), triumphal entry, Kingdom parable of the talents |
| 20 | Reviewed | Son of David/Lord of David debate, resurrection debate with Sadducees, parable of the vineyard |
| 21 | Reviewed — no new terms beyond those already fixed | Reuses Kingdom of God, widow, Son of Man vocabulary already established; explicitly noted per core glossary as requiring no additional entries |
| 22 | Reviewed — major contributor | Last Supper (new covenant نوی تړون, body/blood بدن/وینه, thanksgiving), Gethsemane prayer/testing, Peter’s intercession, Son of Man confession before Sanhedrin |
| 23 | Reviewed — major contributor | Crucifixion (صلیب/صلیب کول), Paradise (فردوس), righteous centurion confession (صادق سړی), intercession from the cross |
| 24 | Reviewed — major contributor | Resurrection narrative, Scripture/fulfillment (مقدسه لیکنه, بشپړ شوی, د پوهې پرانیستل), Great Commission (repentance/forgiveness to all nations), power from on high, ascension (پورته بوتللی شو) |
Coverage confirmation: All 24 chapters of Luke have been reviewed for this gap analysis. No chapter was silently omitted; Chapter 21 is explicitly noted as contributing no vocabulary beyond terms already fixed in earlier chapters.
This document extends, and does not contradict, the Romans baseline translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. All risk-tier conventions, forbidden-substitution rules, and script/register standards follow the baseline exactly. See analysis/08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated term list this analysis supports.