Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Pashto translation and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice, including where a term requires honor-shame cultural bridging rather than a straightforward doctrinal substitution risk
Governing principles
- Native Pashto vocabulary where available, over Arabic loanwords carrying inherited risk — this glossary prefers خدای, خداوند, ملګرتیا, and similar native terms over Arabic-derived alternatives that carry collisions (like the shirk-root resonance) inherited from Arabic’s own linguistic history.
- Honor-restoration bridging alongside forensic accuracy — because Pashtun culture runs on honor-shame rather than guilt-innocence logic, several entries pair the technically correct forensic term with supplementary honor-restoration framing rather than relying on the bare term alone.
- Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary, even where correctly chosen, still requires deliberate cultural and theological framing for a Pashto-speaking reader.
Critical Risk Terms
Adoption
Approved rendering: زوی نیول
Transliteration: zoy neyol
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
CRITICAL: beyond the shared Quranic restriction on adoption (33:4-5), Pashtun identity and inheritance are organized around an unusually rigid patrilineal tribal genealogy (qawm/khel descent, traced to named common ancestors). A non-blood-descended person receiving full inheritance-equivalent status is an even sharper departure from social norms here than in more urban Arab or Persian contexts; Romans 8’s full inheritance must be taught explicitly against this default.
Church
Approved rendering: کلیسا
Transliteration: kalisa
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: امت
CRITICAL: امت carries the loaded pan-Islamic community sense and must never substitute. In much of the Pashto-speaking world, especially under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, there is essentially no legal or public space for an identifiable ‘church’ building at all; this doctrine must be taught with a persecuted, dispersed, often secret community in view.
Father
Approved rendering: پلار
Transliteration: plar
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
CRITICAL: shares the tawhid-anthropomorphism objection with Arabic and Persian. Beyond that shared theological risk, ‘plar’ in Pashtun patriarchal tribal culture carries extremely strong connotations of stern authority and control over the family; without care, ‘God as Father’ could default to emphasizing authority rather than Romans 8’s intimate warmth and fearless acceptance.
God
Approved rendering: خدای
Transliteration: Khudai
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: الله
CRITICAL: Khudai is a native word from the same Old Iranian root as Persian’s Khoda (Pashto being an Eastern Iranian language), not exclusively an Arabic/Quranic term - a genuine linguistic asset. الله is also used, especially in more formal religious registers, but Khudai is preferred for everyday Pashto Christian usage. The risk remains entirely in content: strict tawhid theology must be distinguished from the Trinitarian conception denoted by the same word.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: روح القدس
Transliteration: Rooh-ul-Qudus
Doctrine: Sanctification
CRITICAL: identical Quranic phrase and identical mainstream tafsir identification with the angel Jibril (Gabriel) as in Arabic and Persian - the created-being-versus-divine-Person distinction must be made explicit at every occurrence.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: محسوبه شوی صداقت
Transliteration: mahsuba shway sadaqat
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: لاسته راوړی صداقت
CRITICAL: ‘لاسته راوړی صداقت’ (‘earned/achieved righteousness’) is the exact opposite of Paul’s argument and is explicitly rejected; the compound must retain ‘credited/reckoned,’ never ‘earned.‘
Incarnation
Approved rendering: تجسد
Transliteration: tajassud
Doctrine: Incarnation
CRITICAL: shares the tawhid objection with Arabic and Persian, but Pashto’s Christian and Bible-translation tradition is the youngest and thinnest in this batch, with the least settled precedent for this term. A periphrastic rendering (‘God became a man’) alongside the technical noun is recommended rather than relying on the noun alone.
Jesus
Approved rendering: عیسی
Transliteration: Isa
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
CRITICAL: as in Persian, the small Pashto Christian community has settled on ‘Isa’ with no competing ‘Yeshua’-style alternative, since the Pashto-speaking region never had a comparable pre-Islamic native Christian community the way the Fertile Crescent did. The risk is entirely in content: ‘Isa’ still carries the Quranic prophet-only, non-crucified, non-divine narrative that must be actively corrected.
Justification
Approved rendering: صادق ګڼل کیدل
Transliteration: sadiq ganal kedal
Doctrine: Salvation
CRITICAL: compound phrase required. Framing justification as God’s own restoration of honor to the believer (adoption into his household) makes the forensic declaration more culturally resonant without losing its legal content.
Law
Approved rendering: ناموس
Transliteration: namus
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: شریعت
CRITICAL: unlike Arabic and Persian, Pashtun society lives under two parallel, sometimes competing normative systems - formal Islamic shari’a and customary Pashtunwali tribal law. ‘The law’ in Romans must be clearly distinguished from both, not just from shari’a; ناموس (a Greek loanword, following the Arabic strategy) avoids collision with either.
Lord
Approved rendering: خداوند
Transliteration: Khudawand
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: مالک
CRITICAL: مالک (malik, owner/master) is too transactional and undershoots the claim. Applying supreme Lordship to Jesus (Romans 10:9) is the deity claim itself and must not be softened.
Messiah
Approved rendering: مسیح
Transliteration: Masih
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
CRITICAL: carries the same pre-loaded Quranic content as Arabic’s al-Masih (honored prophet, not divine, not crucified). Sunni end-times tradition also includes a Mahdi and Dajjal apocalyptic scheme, though less institutionally central than Twelver Shia’s version; every occurrence must actively assert Christ’s unique redemptive sufficiency.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: بیا راژوندي کیدل
Transliteration: bya rajwandi kedal
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
CRITICAL: shares the Quran’s crucifixion-denial (4:157) with Arabic and Persian. Given lower baseline literacy and a strongly oral culture in many Pashto-speaking regions, this doctrine benefits from oral/narrative apologetic explanation of the historical crucifixion, not only written doctrinal argument.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: صداقت
Transliteration: sadaqat
Doctrine: Salvation
CRITICAL: the deeper risk is not a wrong word but a framework mismatch - Pashtun culture is a strong honor-shame culture, not a guilt-innocence culture. ‘Right legal standing before God’ is a less intuitive category than ‘honor restored’; this Language Package deliberately bridges the two rather than assuming the forensic sense is self-evident.
Salvation
Approved rendering: نجات
Transliteration: nejat
Doctrine: Salvation
CRITICAL: beyond the shared Islamic deeds-weighing framework, Pashtunwali’s badal (revenge) code operates on a cyclical debt-for-debt logic that could suggest a wrong must be repaid by punishing the wrongdoer directly. The customary practice of nanawatai (a guilty party’s ritual submission accepted in place of retaliation) is a positive, real cultural bridge for substitutionary satisfaction and should be invoked explicitly, not assumed.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: د خدای زوی
Transliteration: da Khudai zoy
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
CRITICAL: the same Quranic denial (112:3, 19:35) applies with full force. Unlike Arabic or Persian, Pashto has no documented Muslim-Idiom-Translation controversy of its own to learn from, since its Bible translation tradition is much younger and thinner - translators must proactively apply the lessons of those other controversies rather than relying on a tested local precedent.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: ابا
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic intimacy-term preserved as in Romans 8:15. Contrasts doubly here - against both Islamic transcendence and Pashtun patriarchal-authority family culture (see ‘father’) - making its informal warmth worth deliberately surfacing, not softening.
Apostle
Approved rendering: رسول
Transliteration: rasul
Doctrine: Apostleship
Same collision with Muhammad’s defining title as in Arabic and Persian, since Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims sharing the same shahada.
Called
Approved rendering: بلل شوی
Transliteration: balal shaway
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation.
Covenant
Approved rendering: تړون
Transliteration: tarun
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
A native Pashto word for a solemn pact, resonant with Pashtunwali’s own serious customary treaty-making between feuding parties. The risk: such pacts are typically negotiated between relative equals and can be revoked under certain conditions, whereas the biblical covenant is unilaterally initiated and graciously given by a sovereign God, not negotiated - this distinction must be taught explicitly.
Election
Approved rendering: غوره کول
Transliteration: ghwara kawul
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Beyond the shared Sunni qadar doctrine, Pashtun tribal culture’s emphasis on lineage-based status and honor could color ‘chosenness’ as tied to bloodline or tribal prestige; Romans 9’s election is God’s free redemptive choice unrelated to lineage or tribal standing.
Faith
Approved rendering: ایمان
Transliteration: iman
Doctrine: Faith
Shares the shared Islamic six-pillars creedal structure, but Pashtun listeners also measure loyalty against Pashtunwali’s own honor code (nang), a parallel authoritative system that predates and sometimes competes with formal Islamic practice. Faith here means personal trust in Christ, not loyalty to either code.
Gospel
Approved rendering: انجیل
Transliteration: Injil
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: زیری
Shares the same tahrif (corruption) assumption found across the Islamicate world; must be taught as the NT record itself, not a lost predecessor text.
Grace
Approved rendering: فضل
Transliteration: fazal
Doctrine: Grace
Pashtunwali’s hospitality code (melmastia) treats gift-giving as reciprocity-creating - a gift typically obligates the receiver to repay in honor. Fazal must be taught as a one-directional gift that creates no repayment obligation, directly against this cultural default.
Israel
Approved rendering: اسرائیل
Transliteration: Esra’il
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Carries general pan-Islamic solidarity-based negative sentiment, though it is a less centrally charged first-order national issue in Afghanistan/Pakistan than in Iran or the Arab world given the absence of direct territorial proximity or conflict. Still requires deliberate pastoral framing for Romans 9-11.
Mission
Approved rendering: ماموریت
Transliteration: ma’muriyat
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Open evangelism carries severe, potentially life-threatening legal and social risk for converts from Islam in much of the Pashto-speaking world, especially Taliban-controlled Afghanistan - among the most acute safety contexts in this pipeline.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: د ایمان اطاعت
Transliteration: da iman ita’at
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Beyond the shared Islamic submission-as-core-category risk, Pashtun listeners may also hear ‘obedience’ as a question of loyalty to Pashtunwali’s own competing code (nang, tribal-elder authority), which can conflict with formal Islamic law itself. This doctrine must clarify obedience as faith’s fruit, not allegiance to either code.
Prophet
Approved rendering: پیغمبر
Transliteration: peghambar
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Same finality-of-prophethood risk as Arabic’s nabi (Muhammad as khatam al-anbiya); must be paired with fuller Christological titles so ‘prophet’ is not read as Jesus’s complete or final identity.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: تقدیس
Transliteration: taqdis
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: پاکوالی
پاکوالی (pakawali, plain ‘cleanliness/purity’) risks reading as ritual purification (wudu-style cleanliness) rather than the Spirit’s ongoing moral transformation; تقدیس keeps the specific theological sense.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: د داود نسل
Transliteration: da Dawud nasl
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment. See ‘david’ for the Quranic-figure caveat.
Sin
Approved rendering: ګناه
Transliteration: gunah
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Beyond Islam’s fitrah doctrine shared with Arabic and Persian, Pashtunwali’s honor-shame ethics primarily track violations of nang (honor) and tribal code, not transgression against a personal God. Sin in Romans’ sense needs bridging from an honor-shame-primary framework to a guilt-before-God framework.
Medium Risk Terms
Calling
Approved rendering: بلنه
Transliteration: balana
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Generally everyday invitation-vocabulary rather than a uniquely religious-missionary term; the direction of address (God calling a person) still needs to be made explicit.
David
Approved rendering: داود
Transliteration: Dawud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Shared, positively-regarded Quranic prophet-king figure; supply the covenant-king typology pointing to Messiah explicitly.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: غیر یهودیان
Transliteration: gheyr yahudian
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: امتونه
امتونه shares the loaded Ummah root; the descriptive غیر یهودیان (‘non-Jews’) avoids that association.
Glory
Approved rendering: جلال
Transliteration: jalal
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Pashto has its own rich Sufi poetic tradition (Rahman Baba, Khushal Khan Khattak) using jalal-adjacent vocabulary for divine majesty; helpful for devotional weight but must be anchored to Christ’s specific historical glory, not left as generalized mystical splendor.
Holy
Approved rendering: مقدس
Transliteration: moqaddas
Doctrine: Sanctification
Shared vocabulary across the region; needs the relational, Spirit-wrought sense reinforced over ritual-observance holiness.
Intercession
Approved rendering: منځګړیتوب
Transliteration: manzgaritob
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
A genuine positive resource: Pashtunwali’s institutionalized mediation practice (nanawatai), where a respected mediator or the offending party’s own ritual submission ends a blood feud and secures reconciliation, is a rich cultural bridge for Christ’s unique mediating intercession (Romans 8:34; compare 1 Timothy 2:5). The analogy is not perfect - nanawatai still requires the guilty party’s own submission act - so it must be calibrated carefully, not treated as an exact equivalent.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: د خدای پاچاهي
Transliteration: da Khudai pachahi
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Distinguish God’s spiritual reign from competing claims to political-religious sovereignty in the region’s recent history, including explicit ‘Islamic Emirate’ state framing.
Peace
Approved rendering: سوله
Transliteration: sola
Doctrine: Peace with God
An asset here rather than primarily a risk: ‘sola’ is the everyday word for war-ending peace negotiations and settlements (sola jirga), a live and urgent concept for populations that have lived through decades of conflict. This makes ‘peace with God’ as an actual end to hostility a resonant frame - but the specific connection to justification must still be made explicit, not assumed.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: د خدای قدرت
Transliteration: da Khudai qodrat
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Broadly compatible concept, low collision risk beyond standard care.
Providence
Approved rendering: د خدای تدبیر
Transliteration: da Khudai tadbir
Doctrine: Providence
God’s personal, purposive care; keep distinct from folk qadar fatalism.
Saints
Approved rendering: مقدسان
Transliteration: moqaddasan
Doctrine: Sainthood
Corporate sense for all believers in Romans 1:7, not an ascetic or elite class.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: روحاني ورکړې
Transliteration: rohani warkane
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Always retain روحاني (spiritual) so the phrase is not read as ordinary talent.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: هڅول
Transliteration: hakol
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: نصیحت کول (nasihat kawul, to admonish) for beseeching; هڅول (to encourage) for building up.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: ملګرتیا
Transliteration: malgartia
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: شراکت
شراکت shares the same ش-ر-ک root as shirk (idolatrous partnership) found in Arabic and Persian; ملګرتیا is a native Pashto word (from ‘malgeri,’ companion) that avoids this resonance entirely.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: نبوت
Transliteration: nabuwat
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Low independent risk beyond the prophet entry’s own note.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: شکر
Transliteration: shukr
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Shukr is also a major Islamic virtue; broadly compatible, low risk.
Referenced passages