Passage

Romans 1

• Glossary Term

  Apostle

  Same collision with Muhammad's defining title as in Arabic and Persian, since Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims sharing the same shahada.

  ROM.1.1

• Doctrine

  Apostleship

  Collides with Muhammad's rasul title as in Arabic and Persian, since Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims sharing the same shahada.

  ROM.1.1

• Glossary Term

  Called

  Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Glossary Term

  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.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Doctrine

  Christian Fellowship

  Shared participation in Christ; native ملګرتیا avoids the shirk-root resonance that Arabic and Persian equivalents carry.

  ROM.1.12

• Glossary Term

  Covenant

  A native Pashto word for a solemn pact, resonant with Pashtunwali's own serious customary treaty-making between feuding parties.

  ROM.1.3

• Glossary Term

  David

  Shared, positively-regarded Quranic prophet-king figure; supply the covenant-king typology pointing to Messiah explicitly.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Davidic Covenant

  Dawud is a shared, positively-regarded Quranic prophet-king, but without the covenant-king typology pointing forward to a promised messianic heir; this background must be taught, not assumed.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Deity of Christ

  CRITICAL: co-equal divine nature, the paradigm case of shirk from a tawhid standpoint.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Divine Calling

  Generally everyday invitation-vocabulary; still needs the direction of address (God calling a person) made explicit.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.6-7

• Glossary Term

  Exhort

  Context-sensitive: نصیحت کول (nasihat kawul, to admonish) for beseeching; هڅول (to encourage) for building up.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Faith

  Measured against both Islamic creedal iman and Pashtunwali's own honor-code loyalty (nang); faith here is personal trust in Christ, not loyalty to either system.

  ROM.1.17

• Glossary Term

  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.

  ROM.1.17

• Glossary Term

  Fellowship

  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.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Fulfillment of Prophecy

  Naskh (abrogation) doctrine treats later revelation as superseding earlier revelation; Romans' fulfillment argument needs deliberate framing against this default.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Glory

  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.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  God

  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.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Gospel

  Must be taught as the NT record itself, not conceded as a corrupted successor to a lost original revelation, per the tahrif assumption shared across the Islamicate world.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Gospel

  Shares the same tahrif (corruption) assumption found across the Islamicate world; must be taught as the NT record itself, not a lost predecessor text.

  ROM.1.1, ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Humanity of Christ

  Real, physical human nature, not an illusion.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Incarnation

  CRITICAL: shares the tawhid objection with Arabic and Persian, compounded by Pashto's especially thin Christian theological tradition, which offers the least settled precedent for this term of any language in this pipeline.

  ROM.1.3

• Glossary Term

  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.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Inspiration of Scripture

  Islamic wahy denotes verbatim divine dictation; biblical inspiration is God moving human authors to write in their own voice.

  ROM.1.2

• Glossary Term

  Jesus

  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.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Justification

  CRITICAL: compound phrase required.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Law

  CRITICAL: unlike Arabic and Persian, Pashtun society lives under two parallel, sometimes competing normative systems - formal Islamic shari'a and customary Pashtunwali tribal law.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Lord

  CRITICAL: مالک (malik, owner/master) is too transactional and undershoots the claim.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Lordship of Christ

  CRITICAL: applying supreme Lordship to Jesus (Romans 10:9) is the deity claim itself and must never be softened to mere leadership or ownership.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Messiah

  CRITICAL: carries the same pre-loaded Quranic content as Arabic's al-Masih (honored prophet, not divine, not crucified).

  ROM.1.3-4

• Doctrine

  Messianic Promise

  CRITICAL: Masih carries the same pre-loaded Quranic content as in Arabic - honored prophet, not divine, not crucified, not risen.

  ROM.1.3-4

• Glossary Term

  Mission

  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.

  ROM.1.5, ROM.1.13-14

• Doctrine

  Mission to the Nations

  CRITICAL: open evangelism and mission activity carry severe, potentially life-threatening legal and social risk in much of the Pashto-speaking world, especially Taliban-controlled Afghanistan - among the most acute safety contexts in this entire pipeline.

  ROM.1.5, ROM.1.13-14

• Doctrine

  Mutual Edification

  Building one another up in faith; no significant doctrinal risk.

  ROM.1.12

• Doctrine

  Obedience of Faith

  CRITICAL: submission is the defining category of the surrounding Islamic religious culture, compounded by Pashtunwali's own competing code of loyalty and obedience to tribal elders and the honor code (nang).

  ROM.1.5

• Glossary Term

  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.

  ROM.1.5

• Glossary Term

  Power Of God

  Broadly compatible concept, low collision risk beyond standard care.

  ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Power of God for Salvation

  Broadly compatible concept; low independent collision risk beyond standard care.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Prophecy

  Low independent risk beyond the prophet entry's own note.

  ROM.1.2-4

• Glossary Term

  Prophet

  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.

  ROM.1.2

• Glossary Term

  Resurrection

  CRITICAL: shares the Quran's crucifixion-denial (4:157) with Arabic and Persian.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Resurrection of Christ

  CRITICAL: shares the Quran's crucifixion-denial (4:157) with Arabic and Persian; oral, narrative apologetic explanation is especially important given lower baseline literacy in many Pashto-speaking regions.

  ROM.1.4

• Glossary Term

  Righteousness

  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.

  ROM.1.16

• Doctrine

  Sainthood (Called to be Holy)

  Corporate sense for all believers, not an ascetic or elite class.

  ROM.1.7

• Doctrine

  Salvation

  CRITICAL: beyond the shared deeds-weighing framework, Pashtunwali's badal (revenge) code suggests wrongs are repaid by punishing the wrongdoer; the customary institution of nanawatai (accepted ritual submission in place of retaliation) is a real, positive cultural bridge for substitutionary atonement and should be invoked explicitly.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  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.

  ROM.1.16

• Glossary Term

  Seed Of David

  Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment.

  ROM.1.3

• Doctrine

  Separation unto God's Service

  Must not be confused with Sufi withdrawal-from-the-world practices found in regional mystical tradition; biblical separation is devoted engagement with the world, not withdrawal from it.

  ROM.1.1

• Glossary Term

  Sin

  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.

  ROM.1.18

• Glossary Term

  Son Of God

  CRITICAL: the same Quranic denial (112:3, 19:35) applies with full force.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Sonship of Christ

  CRITICAL: the same Quranic denial (112:3, 19:35) applies with full force; Pashto's young translation tradition has no tested local precedent controversy to draw lessons from, unlike Arabic and Persian.

  ROM.1.4

• Doctrine

  Spiritual Gifts

  Must retain the 'spiritual' qualifier so it is not read as ordinary talent.

  ROM.1.11

• Glossary Term

  Spiritual Gifts

  Always retain روحاني (spiritual) so the phrase is not read as ordinary talent.

  ROM.1.11

• Doctrine

  Thanksgiving

  Shukr is also a major Islamic virtue; broadly compatible, low risk.

  ROM.1.8, ROM.1.21

• Glossary Term

  Thanksgiving

  Shukr is also a major Islamic virtue; broadly compatible, low risk.

  ROM.1.8, ROM.1.21

• Doctrine

  Universal Human Accountability

  Islamic fitrah doctrine and Pashtunwali's honor-shame-primary ethics both need to be engaged; sin against God is a distinct category from either innate purity or dishonoring the tribal code, and must be taught as such.

  ROM.1.18

• Doctrine

  Universal Scope of the Gospel

  Must be framed so as not to be heard as religious pluralism, while retaining the full inclusive force of the text and challenging tribal/genealogical spiritual hierarchy.

  ROM.1.16