Semantic Analysis: 1 Corinthians (Full Book) — English → Persian

Methodology Note

This document analyzes 1 Corinthians in the original Koine Greek, chapter by chapter, for every load-bearing theological term. Terms already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json are marked [REUSE — baseline TM] and their Persian rendering is carried forward unchanged, with no re-argued risk rationale unless 1 Corinthians introduces a new contextual nuance requiring comment. Terms new to this curriculum receive full treatment: original word, transliteration, literal meaning, semantic range, English variants, contextual theological meaning, and destination-language (Persian) rendering risk, with a specific grounded reason tied to Iranian Shia Islamic, folk-Islamic, Zoroastrian, or Sufi-mystical cultural collision where relevant, in keeping with the baseline’s documented risk methodology.

Risk tiers (Critical/High/Medium/Low) and review routing follow the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions exactly.

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PART A: CORE PASSAGE — 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (Verse-by-Verse)

15:1 — “Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand”

γνωρίζω (gnōrizō)

• Transliteration: gnōrizō
• Literal meaning: “to make known, to cause to know”
• Semantic range: formal disclosure of a fact; introducing/re-introducing settled information; used elsewhere by Paul for doctrinal reminders (Gal 1:11)
• English variants: “make known,” “declare,” “remind you”
• Contextual theological meaning: Paul signals he is restating foundational, already-received apostolic tradition, not introducing new teaching — establishing 15:3-7 as fixed creedal content.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. Render اعلام می‌کنم / بیان می‌کنم. No collision; standard declarative verb.

εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) — “gospel” [REUSE — baseline TM: انجیل / Injil, High risk]

• Contextual note for 1 Cor 15: here εὐαγγέλιον is defined explicitly by its content-clause in vv.3-5 (Christ died, was buried, was raised, appeared) — this verse functions as the fullest single-sentence definition of “gospel” content anywhere in Paul. Reinforce the baseline’s caution that انجیل must be taught as the apostolic record itself (not a corrupted predecessor to a lost original), with 15:1-11 as the primary proof text that the gospel content is a fixed, apostolically transmitted core, resistant to the tahrif (corruption) narrative.

παραλαμβάνω (paralambanō) — “received”

• Transliteration: paralambanō
• Literal meaning: “to receive/take alongside,” the technical term for receiving a formal tradition from a teacher
• Semantic range: rabbinic/Hellenistic technical pair with παραδίδωμι (“deliver/hand down,” v.3) for formal transmission of authoritative tradition
• English variants: “received,” “were given,” “were handed”
• Contextual theological meaning: establishes the Corinthians as recipients of a fixed, pre-formed apostolic tradition, not an evolving oral legend — critical for the passage’s function as the earliest written creed of the resurrection.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. Render دریافت کردید. Risk is not lexical but structural: without explicit teaching, the paralambanō/paradidōmi transmission-chain concept (received-from/handed-to a fixed tradition) may not register for readers accustomed to the Islamic hadith transmission-chain (isnad) concept, which could either help (a structurally familiar category: chain of trustworthy transmission) or risk importing isnad-style scrutiny of transmitter reliability onto the text in a way Paul does not argue for himself. Flag for native speaker review to ensure the analogy, if used pastorally, does not overclaim.

ἑστήκατε (hestēkate) — “you stand”

• Transliteration: hestēkate
• Literal meaning: perfect tense of ἵστημι, “to stand,” here “you have taken your stand and continue standing”
• Semantic range: firm, settled position; also used for standing in grace (Rom 5:2)
• English variants: “stand,” “now stand,” “are standing firm”
• Contextual theological meaning: the Corinthians’ present stability is grounded in the fixed gospel content, not their own religious performance.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. استوار هستید / ایستاده‌اید.

15:2 — “and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain”

σῴζω (sōzō) — “saved” [REUSE — baseline TM: نجات / nejat, Critical risk]

• Contextual note: the present passive σῴζεσθε (“are being saved”) frames salvation as an ongoing, present-tense state anchored to continued adherence to this specific gospel content — reinforce against the Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-intercession collision documented in the baseline; here the anchor is explicitly Christ’s own death-burial-resurrection (vv.3-4), not identification with a suffering holy figure through ritual mourning.

κατέχω (katechō) — “hold fast”

• Transliteration: katechō
• Literal meaning: “to hold down/hold firmly,” to retain possession of something
• Semantic range: to retain, to keep possession of, to suppress (cf. Rom 1:18 “suppress the truth”)
• English variants: “hold fast,” “hold firmly,” “retain”
• Contextual theological meaning: continued saving benefit is tied to continued grip on the received gospel content, not a one-time transaction disconnected from ongoing faith.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. محکم نگه داشتن / پایبند ماندن به.

εἰκῆ ἐπιστεύσατε (eikē episteusate) — “believed in vain”

• πιστεύω (pisteuō) [REUSE — baseline TM root: faith / ایمان, High risk]
• εἰκῆ: “without cause, in vain, for nothing”
• Contextual theological meaning: Paul raises the hypothetical that faith detached from the historical facts of vv.3-8 would be empty — faith’s validity depends on the reality of the resurrection, not merely the sincerity of believing.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. عبث ایمان آوردید / بی‌فایده ایمان آوردید. Risk: must not be softened to imply doubt about the Corinthians’ present salvation status; Paul’s point is conditional/rhetorical, underscoring the historical anchor of faith, not threatening assurance. Flag for theologian review given proximity to Assurance of Salvation doctrine.

15:3 — “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures”

παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) — “delivered”

• Transliteration: paradidōmi
• Literal meaning: “to hand over, to hand down”
• Semantic range: paired technical term with παραλαμβάνω for formal tradition transmission; also used for betrayal (different sense) elsewhere in the NT
• English variants: “delivered,” “passed on,” “handed down”
• Contextual theological meaning: Paul is transmitting fixed, pre-Pauline apostolic tradition — this is among the earliest attested Christian creedal material, predating Paul’s own writing.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. تسلیم کردم / سپردم / انتقال دادم. See paralambanō note above regarding the isnad-transmission-chain resonance; here the risk is symmetric — ensure “delivered” does not read as Paul’s personal innovation, but as his own reception-and-passing-on of a prior, wider apostolic consensus (v.11, “whether I or they”).

ἐν πρώτοις (en prōtois) — “as of first importance”

• Literal meaning: “among the first things,” i.e., of primary rank
• Semantic range: can mean chronological first or rank-first; context (creedal content following) favors rank-first
• English variants: “as of first importance,” “first of all,” “as the most important thing”
• Contextual theological meaning: marks vv.3-5 as the irreducible doctrinal core of the gospel — not one teaching among many but the load-bearing center.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. به عنوان مهم‌ترین چیز / در درجه اول.

ἀπέθανεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν (apethanen hyper tōn hamartiōn hēmōn) — “died for our sins”

• ἁμαρτία [REUSE — baseline TM: sin / گناه, High risk]
• ὑπέρ: “on behalf of, for the sake of” — substitutionary/representative preposition
• Contextual theological meaning: this is the earliest and most concise Pauline statement of the substitutionary atonement, structurally identical to Romans’ argument but compressed into a creedal formula. The baseline’s caution on گناه (Zoroastrian Chinvat Bridge deeds-weighing, Islamic fitrah) applies with full force; additionally, “died for” (ὑπέρ) must retain a substitutionary, not merely exemplary or sympathetic, sense — a risk sharpened by comparison to the Karbala martyrdom framework, where a holy figure’s suffering is understood to move God to mercy toward mourners rather than to satisfy justice on their behalf.
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. Render برای گناهان ما مرد. Must be flagged for human theologian review every occurrence; see doctrine entry “the_cross_as_wisdom_and_power” and “salvation” below.

κατὰ τὰς γραφάς (kata tas graphas) — “according to the Scriptures” [connects to REUSE — baseline TM: fulfillment_of_prophecy doctrine]

• Contextual theological meaning: grounds Christ’s death in OT prophetic fulfillment (esp. Isaiah 53), directly engaging the baseline’s naskh (abrogation)-doctrine caution — Paul’s claim is fulfillment, not replacement/supersession by a later, different revelation.
• Persian rendering risk: High (per baseline fulfillment_of_prophecy entry). مطابق کتب مقدس.

15:4 — “that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”

ἐτάφη (etaphē) — “he was buried”

• Transliteration: etaphē
• Literal meaning: aorist passive of θάπτω, “to bury”
• Semantic range: straightforward burial notice; here functions as historical/forensic evidence of a real death (not apparent death or a substitution)
• English variants: “was buried,” “was entombed”
• Contextual theological meaning: burial confirms the reality and completeness of Christ’s death, directly engaging the baseline’s crucifixion-denial concern (Quran 4:157, “they did not kill him… it was made to appear so to them”) — burial is incompatible with any docetic or substitution-swap account of the crucifixion.
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. دفن شد. Must be paired pastorally with the humanity_of_christ doctrine entry from the baseline; flag every occurrence for theologian review, since this verse is direct textual counter-evidence to shubbiha lahum (“it was made to appear so”).

ἐγήγερται (egēgertai) — “he was raised” [REUSE — baseline TM: resurrection / قیامت, Critical risk]

• Contextual note for 1 Cor 15: the perfect tense ἐγήγερται (“has been raised,” with continuing effect) is the grammatical backbone of the entire chapter (repeated 15:12-20). This is the single most theologically load-bearing verb in 1 Corinthians. Reinforce the baseline’s Mahdi-displacement caution at maximum strength here: 15:12-58 as a whole is the fullest NT argument that Christ’s own bodily resurrection, already accomplished and historically evidenced (vv.5-8), is the guarantee and pattern of believers’ future resurrection — a claim structurally incompatible with subordinating Christ’s role to a still-future, primarily Mahdi-centered eschatological event.

τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρ�ᾳ (tē tritē hēmera) — “on the third day”

• Literal meaning: dative of time, “on the third day”
• Semantic range: specific, falsifiable historical time-marker, not a symbolic or mythic time-frame
• English variants: “on the third day,” “the third day”
• Contextual theological meaning: anchors the resurrection as a specific, dateable, historical event fulfilling OT pattern (Hos 6:2, Jonah’s sign).
• Persian rendering risk: Low. در روز سوم.

15:5 — “and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve”

ὤφθη (ōphthē) — “he appeared”

• Transliteration: ōphthē
• Literal meaning: aorist passive of ὁράω, “to be seen, to appear”
• Semantic range: used in LXX for theophanic appearances (e.g., God appearing to Abraham); here denotes objective, verifiable post-resurrection sightings, not subjective vision or inward spiritual experience alone
• English variants: “appeared,” “was seen by,” “showed himself to”
• Contextual theological meaning: the repeated ὤφθη (vv.5,6,7,8) builds a forensic list of named, checkable eyewitnesses — Paul’s argument strategy is evidential, not merely testimonial-devotional.
• Persian rendering risk: High. ظاهر شد / خود را نشان داد. Risk: must not be rendered in a way that reduces to a vision/dream category (خواب دیدن, رؤیا) — Islamic tradition is highly receptive to prophetic dream-visions as a valid revelatory category, and ὤφθη could be assimilated into that category rather than retained as bodily, physical, multiply-attested appearance. Flag for theologian review; pair explicitly with the physical burial (v.4) and later “handling” language elsewhere in NT resurrection accounts.

Κηφᾷ (Kēpha) — “Cephas” [proper name; parallel to REUSE — baseline convention for apostle names]

• Persian rendering: کیفا (Kifa) or the established Persian NT form پطرس (Petros/Peter) may be used depending on which name Paul uses; retain Aramaic “Cephas” as کیفا where the Greek text specifically preserves Κηφᾶς, consistent with the baseline’s preservation of Aramaic terms (e.g., Abba). Low risk; note for translator consistency only.

τοῖς δώδεκα (tois dōdeka) — “the twelve”

• Literal meaning: “the twelve [apostles]”
• Semantic range: the fixed, closed group of Christ’s twelve chosen apostles (cf. baseline note on حواری/havari for the Twelve specifically, vs. رسول for the broader apostolic office)
• English variants: “the Twelve,” “the twelve apostles”
• Contextual theological meaning: names a specific, bounded, known group as eyewitnesses — reinforcing the historical verifiability of the claim.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. دوازده حواری / آن دوازده تن. Use حواری per baseline note distinguishing the Twelve from the broader رسول office.

15:6 — “Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep”

ἀδελφοῖς (adelphois) — “brothers”

• Transliteration: adelphois
• Literal meaning: “brothers,” here inclusive of the whole believing community (brothers and sisters)
• Semantic range: biological siblings; extended to fellow believers as a family metaphor for the church
• English variants: “brothers,” “brothers and sisters,” “believers”
• Contextual theological meaning: names a large, specific, still-living body of eyewitnesses (v.6b) — an explicit invitation to independent verification.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. برادران (with inclusive sense understood contextually as برادران و خواهران in exposition where appropriate).

ἐκοιμήθησαν (ekoimēthēsan) — “have fallen asleep”

• Transliteration: ekoimēthēsan
• Literal meaning: aorist passive of κοιμάομαι, “to sleep”; euphemism for death
• Semantic range: standard NT euphemism for the death of believers, implying a temporary state prior to resurrection awakening (directly reinforced later in the chapter, vv.18, 20, 51)
• English variants: “fallen asleep,” “died,” “passed away”
• Contextual theological meaning: the sleep-metaphor presupposes bodily resurrection as a future “waking” — must not be flattened into a generic euphemism that loses this resurrection-hope content.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. خوابیده‌اند / در خواب [مرگ] رفته‌اند. Risk: Persian already has its own euphemistic idiom for death (e.g., “به خواب ابدی رفت,” “to eternal sleep”) which can either aid (culturally available euphemism) or flatten (implying permanent unconsciousness with no resurrection expectation, closer to a folk-fatalistic finality) the specific NT theological content. Flag for native speaker review to ensure the resurrection-hope entailment is taught alongside the idiom, not assumed from it.

15:7 — “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles”

Ἰακώβῳ (Iakōbō) — “James”

• Proper name; established Persian Bible form یعقوب (Ya’qub) is used for the patriarch Jacob, but for James (the Lord’s brother/apostle) Persian Christian tradition uses یعقوب as well, disambiguated by title (e.g., یعقوب رسول). Low risk; note only for translator consistency — do not confuse with the patriarch Jacob (یعقوب) in cross-references; add explanatory apposition where needed.

τοῖς ἀποστόλοις πᾶσιν (tois apostolois pasin) — “all the apostles” [REUSE — baseline TM: apostle / رسول, High risk]

• Contextual note: “all the apostles” here is broader than “the Twelve” (v.5) — consistent with the baseline’s note that رسول covers the wider NT apostolic office including Paul himself (v.9), while حواری is reserved for the Twelve specifically.

15:8 — “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me”

ἔσχατον δὲ πάντων (eschaton de pantōn) — “last of all”

• Literal meaning: “last of all [these appearances]”
• Semantic range: closes the list of resurrection appearances with Paul’s own encounter (cf. Acts 9), presented as the final entry in a chronological, evidential sequence
• English variants: “last of all,” “and last”
• Contextual theological meaning: places Paul’s own apostleship on the same evidential foundation as the other apostles’ — his call rests on an objective encounter with the risen Christ, not subjective religious experience alone.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. سرانجام / آخر از همه.

ὥσπερ τῷ ἐκτρώματι (hōsper tō ektrōmati) — “as to one untimely born”

• Transliteration: ektrōma
• Literal meaning: “miscarriage, stillbirth, one born prematurely/abnormally”
• Semantic range: a rare, vivid, self-deprecating term; likely refers to the abnormal, sudden, violent manner of Paul’s conversion (as a persecutor struck down on the Damascus road) rather than to unworthiness alone
• English variants: “one born out of due time,” “untimely born,” “abnormally born,” “stillborn”
• Contextual theological meaning: expresses Paul’s sense that his apostolic calling came in an irregular, grace-driven manner utterly disconnected from his own merit or preparation — reinforcing v.9-10’s grace argument.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. مانند کودکی نارس به دنیا آمده / همچون کسی که ناهنگام زاده شده. Risk: this is a difficult idiom to render naturally; a literal rendering may confuse more than illuminate. Prefer a descriptive phrase over a single-word coinage, per the system prompt’s general idiom-handling instruction (find natural equivalents; where none exists, translate the meaning plainly). Flag for native speaker review for naturalness, not doctrinal risk.

15:9 — “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God”

ἐλάχιστος (elachistos) — “the least”

• Transliteration: elachistos
• Literal meaning: superlative of “small,” “the smallest/least”
• Semantic range: self-deprecating superlative, consistent with Paul’s self-description elsewhere (Eph 3:8, “less than the least of all the saints”)
• English variants: “least,” “smallest,” “lowest”
• Contextual theological meaning: sets up the grace argument of v.10 — apostolic status is unearned.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. کوچک‌ترین.

διώκω (diōkō) — “persecuted”

• Transliteration: ediōxa (aorist)
• Literal meaning: “to pursue, to persecute”
• Semantic range: hostile pursuit, active persecution (of the church, prior to Paul’s conversion)
• English variants: “persecuted,” “pursued,” “hunted”
• Contextual theological meaning: Paul’s own biography becomes evidence of grace’s transforming, unmerited power — directly relevant to the grace doctrine’s core distinction from merit.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. آزار رساندم / تعقیب کردم.

τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ (tēn ekklēsian tou theou) — “the church of God” [REUSE — baseline TM: church / کلیسا, High risk]

• Contextual note: here the church is the direct object of persecution by a future apostle — a powerful reminder, in the underground house-church context, that the church has always existed under threat, and that its founding apostle himself was once its persecutor. Pastorally significant but requires no new rendering decision beyond the baseline’s established کلیسا.

15:10 — “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me”

χάριτι θεοῦ (chariti theou) — “by the grace of God” [REUSE — baseline TM: grace / فیض, High risk]

• Contextual note: this verse is one of the clearest single-verse statements in the NT of the grace/merit distinction (see baseline system prompt rule 5: “Grace ≠ merit… ensure the Persian rendering preserves the contrast”). Must be flagged for theologian review per the escalation rule “any segment where grace is being contrasted with works/merit.” The Persian philosophical “emanation” risk documented in the baseline is especially live here: Paul’s grace is personally, causally responsible for his specific apostolic labor (“it was not I, but the grace of God”), not an impersonal ontological overflow that merely accompanies his effort.

κοπιάω (kopiaō) — “worked harder”

• Transliteration: ekopiasa (aorist)
• Literal meaning: “to labor to the point of weariness, to toil”
• Semantic range: physical/manual exhausting labor, extended to strenuous ministry effort
• English variants: “labored,” “worked hard,” “toiled”
• Contextual theological meaning: Paul’s intense labor is real and commendable, yet entirely a fruit and expression of grace, not its precondition or cause — the labor is grace’s effect, not its earning mechanism.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. زحمت کشیدم / تلاش کردم. Risk: must be worded so that the following clause (“though it was not I, but the grace of God”) is not read as diminishing the reality/value of the labor, but as correctly assigning its ultimate source. Flag alongside the grace-merit escalation rule.

15:11 — “Whether then it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed”

κηρύσσω (kēryssō) — “preach”

• Transliteration: kēryssō
• Literal meaning: “to herald, to proclaim publicly as a herald would”
• Semantic range: authoritative public proclamation, distinct from private teaching or discussion
• English variants: “preach,” “proclaim,” “herald”
• Contextual theological meaning: closes the unit by affirming the unity and consistency of apostolic proclamation across all the apostles named in vv.5-9 — one gospel, multiply attested, not competing versions.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. اعلام می‌کنیم / بشارت می‌دهیم. See doctrine entry “evangelism” (baseline) regarding the real safety stakes of open proclamation for underground house-church readers; flag for native speaker review on tone, not on lexical content.

πιστεύω (episteusate) — “believed” [REUSE — baseline TM: faith / ایمان, High risk]

• Contextual note: closes the loop opened in v.2 (“unless you believed in vain”) — the chapter’s entire argument (vv.12-58) will now proceed to demonstrate why this specific, historically-anchored belief is not in vain.

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PART B: CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER STUDY OF THE WHOLE BOOK

Chapter 1 — Christian Unity versus Factionalism; The Cross as Wisdom and Power (introduction)

σοφία (sophia) — “wisdom”

• Transliteration: sophia
• Literal meaning: “wisdom, skill, expertise”
• Semantic range: in Greek philosophical usage, rational/philosophical insight and rhetorical sophistication; in LXX/Jewish usage, God’s own wisdom personified (Proverbs 8) and practical, God-fearing skill for living
• English variants: “wisdom,” “cleverness,” “philosophy”
• Contextual theological meaning: Paul contrasts worldly σοφία (Greco-Roman rhetorical/philosophical sophistication, prized by Corinthian factions) with the paradoxical “wisdom of God” revealed in the crucified Christ (1:18-25) — true wisdom is located in what the world calls foolishness.
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. Standard rendering: حکمت (hekmat). This is a major new risk not present in the Romans baseline: حکمت is the central term of Iran’s own indigenous and highly prestigious philosophical-mystical tradition — Illuminationist philosophy (hekmat al-ishraq, Sohravardi) and, especially, Mulla Sadra’s “Transcendent Theosophy” (hekmat-e mota’aliyeh), which remains a living, seminary-taught tradition in Iran today. In that tradition, hekmat denotes attainable rational-mystical insight into ultimate reality achieved through philosophical ascent and illumination — precisely the kind of humanly-achieved, elite, “wisdom of this age” (1 Cor 2:6) category Paul is arguing against. There is a serious risk that “the wisdom of God” in Christ crucified will be assimilated into this prestigious philosophical category as one more (impressive) hekmat system, exactly inverting Paul’s point that God’s wisdom is disclosed in an event the wise of this age regard as foolish. Every occurrence must be flagged for theologian review with an explicit teaching note distinguishing Pauline “wisdom of God” from philosophical hekmat achievement.

σταυρός (stauros) — “cross”

• Transliteration: stauros
• Literal meaning: “an upright stake,” specifically the Roman execution instrument
• Semantic range: the physical execution device; by metonymy, the event/message of Christ’s crucifixion; by further extension, the whole scandal-and-power paradox of that event
• English variants: “cross,” “crucifixion”
• Contextual theological meaning: 1:18 “the message of the cross” (ὁ λόγος ὁ τοῦ σταυροῦ) is Paul’s shorthand for the entire gospel message centered on a crucified Messiah — foolishness to Greeks, a stumbling block to Jews, but the power and wisdom of God to those being saved.
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. Standard rendering: صلیب (salib). This directly and unavoidably engages the Quran’s crucifixion-denial verse (4:157, “wa mā qatalūhu wa mā ṣalabūhu… wa lākin shubbiha lahum” — “they did not kill him, nor crucify him… it was made to appear so to them”), the same collision documented in the baseline for “resurrection.” 1 Corinthians 1 is arguably the single most concentrated NT passage asserting that the crucifixion, precisely as a real, scandalous, historical execution, is the very content and power of the gospel — making avoidance or softening of صلیب doctrinally catastrophic for this book specifically. Every occurrence requires theologian review; teaching must directly and respectfully engage, not sidestep, the Quranic denial.

μωρία (mōria) — “foolishness”

• Transliteration: mōria
• Literal meaning: “folly, foolishness”
• Semantic range: the opposite of σοφία; in this context, ironic — what appears foolish by worldly standards but is in fact divine wisdom
• English variants: “foolishness,” “folly,” “absurdity”
• Contextual theological meaning: 1:18-25’s central paradox: the cross is μωρία to those perishing but δύναμις θεοῦ (power of God) to those being saved.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. جهالت or حماقت. جهالت risks a specific secondary resonance with the Islamic historical category “Jahiliyyah” (the pre-Islamic “Age of Ignorance”), which could either usefully reinforce Paul’s ironic reversal (what looks like the ignorance of a bygone unenlightened age is in fact wisdom) or confusingly imply the gospel itself belongs to a superseded, pre-revelation era. Prefer حماقت (plain “foolishness/absurdity”) as the safer default rendering unless a specific homiletical use of the Jahiliyyah resonance is intended and clearly framed. Native speaker review recommended.

σχίσμα (schisma) — “division/schism”

• Transliteration: schisma
• Literal meaning: “a tear, a rent” (from cloth); by extension, a faction or split
• Semantic range: physical tearing (Mark 2:21); factional division within a community
• English variants: “division,” “schism,” “quarrels,” “factions”
• Contextual theological meaning: 1:10-13 names the Corinthian church’s party loyalties (“I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” “I follow Christ”) as σχίσματα — a direct threat to the church’s unity in Christ, the organizing doctrine of this letter’s opening chapters.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. تفرقه / شقاق / انشعاب. تفرقه is the standard, widely understood term. Risk is primarily pastoral rather than lexical: Iranian house-church networks are already fragmented by necessity (small, dispersed, security-driven cell structure) — teaching against “division” must be carefully distinguished from the necessary, security-driven decentralization of underground fellowship, which is not the sinful factionalism Paul condemns. Native speaker review recommended for pastoral framing.

ἐκλέγομαι (eklegomai) — “God chose” [connects to REUSE — baseline TM: election / برگزیدگی خدا, High risk]

• Contextual note: 1:27-28 “God chose (ἐξελέξατο) what is foolish… what is weak… what is low and despised” — applies the baseline’s election entry to a specific new argument: God’s electing pattern itself favors the socially insignificant, directly undercutting any status-based factionalism in the Corinthian church. No new rendering; reuse برگزیدگی خدا / برگزید per baseline.

δύναμις θεοῦ (dynamis theou) — “power of God” [REUSE — baseline TM: power_of_god / قدرت خدا, Medium risk]

• Contextual note: here paired specifically with the cross (1:18, 24) rather than with “the gospel” generally as in Romans 1:16 — reinforce that God’s power is located precisely in the crucifixion event, the paradox central to this chapter’s argument.

καύχησις (kauchēsis) — “boasting”

• Transliteration: kauchēsis
• Literal meaning: “boasting, glorying”
• Semantic range: pride in one’s own status, achievement, wisdom, or party affiliation
• English variants: “boasting,” “pride,” “bragging”
• Contextual theological meaning: 1:29,31 “so that no one may boast before God… let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” — grace and election eliminate any ground for self-congratulation, redirecting all boasting to God alone.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. فخر کردن / به خود بالیدن.

Chapter 2 — The Cross as Wisdom and Power (continued); Spiritual Discernment

μυστήριον (mystērion) — “mystery”

• Transliteration: mystērion
• Literal meaning: “a secret, a hidden thing now disclosed”
• Semantic range: in Hellenistic mystery-religion usage, esoteric secrets known only to initiates; in Pauline usage, God’s redemptive plan, formerly hidden, now openly revealed in the gospel to all who believe
• English variants: “mystery,” “secret,” “hidden wisdom”
• Contextual theological meaning: 2:1,7 “the mystery of God… God’s wisdom, hidden and now revealed” — Paul’s μυστήριον is emphatically disclosed and public, the opposite of an exclusive esoteric secret reserved for a spiritual elite.
• Persian rendering risk: High. راز / سرّ. Iranian Shia religious culture carries a strong, structurally similar-sounding but doctrinally opposite category: the Twelver doctrine of ʿilm al-bāṭin (esoteric/inner knowledge) and the “asrār” (secrets) of the Imams, transmitted only to qualified initiates through the Imamate’s unique spiritual authority — closely paralleling the baseline’s “election” entry’s concern about importing Imamate succession-content. There is a real risk that Paul’s “mystery,” precisely because it sounds structurally like a hidden-esoteric-knowledge category, gets absorbed into this framework of privileged, hierarchically-transmitted secret knowledge, rather than being taught as God’s plan now openly and fully disclosed to all believers with no privileged intermediary class. Flag for theologian review.

ψυχικός ἄνθρωπος (psychikos anthrōpos) — “the natural person”

• Transliteration: psychikos anthrōpos
• Literal meaning: “the soul-ish/natural person,” from ψυχή (soul, natural life)
• Semantic range: the unregenerate person, operating by unaided human faculties, as opposed to πνευματικός (Spirit-indwelt)
• English variants: “natural man,” “unspiritual person,” “person without the Spirit”
• Contextual theological meaning: 2:14 “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God… they are folly to him” — establishes a categorical, Spirit-dependent distinction in spiritual perception, foreshadowing the “natural body/spiritual body” distinction of ch.15.
• Persian rendering risk: High. انسان نفسانی / انسان طبیعی. نفسانی carries a specific pre-existing weight in Islamic and Sufi ethical vocabulary — “nafs” (نفس) is the technical term for the lower self/ego that must be disciplined or subdued (jihad al-nafs, the “greater struggle”) in Islamic spiritual formation. This can usefully bridge (a familiar category: the unredeemed self needing transformation) but also risks reframing Paul’s Spirit/no-Spirit ontological distinction as a matter of degree of nafs-discipline achievable through spiritual effort, rather than a binary regenerate/unregenerate state given by the Spirit. Flag for theologian review.

πνευματικός (pneumatikos) — “spiritual”

• Transliteration: pneumatikos
• Literal meaning: “of the Spirit, pertaining to the Spirit”
• Semantic range: Spirit-indwelt, Spirit-given, Spirit-discerned; contrasted with ψυχικός and σαρκικός
• English variants: “spiritual,” “Spirit-given,” “spiritually minded”
• Contextual theological meaning: 2:13,15 “spiritual truths… the spiritual person discerns all things” — the capacity for right theological and moral discernment is a Spirit-given gift, not an achievement of natural intellect or ascetic effort.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. روحانی. Broadly consistent with baseline’s spiritual_gifts entry (عطایای روحانی); risk is primarily that روحانی in general Persian religious usage (also used for Islamic clerics, “ruhani” as a title for a mullah/cleric) could be read as denoting a special clerical class rather than every Spirit-indwelt believer. Native speaker review recommended.

ἀνακρίνω (anakrinō) — “discern/examine”

• Transliteration: anakrinō
• Literal meaning: “to examine thoroughly, to judge by close scrutiny”
• Semantic range: judicial examination/cross-examination; spiritual discernment
• English variants: “discern,” “examine,” “judge”
• Contextual theological meaning: 2:14-15 “these things are… discerned only through the Spirit… the spiritual person discerns all things but is himself discerned by no one” — right spiritual judgment requires the Spirit as its instrument.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. تشخیص دادن / بررسی کردن.

Chapter 3 — Christian Unity versus Factionalism (continued); the Church as God’s Temple

σαρκικός (sarkikos) — “carnal/fleshly”

• Transliteration: sarkikos
• Literal meaning: “of the flesh, fleshly”
• Semantic range: behaving according to unredeemed human nature rather than the Spirit, despite being a believer (distinct from ψυχικός, the wholly unregenerate)
• English variants: “carnal,” “fleshly,” “worldly,” “immature”
• Contextual theological meaning: 3:1,3 “I fed you with milk… for you were not ready… you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh?” — the Corinthians’ factionalism (ch.1-3) is diagnosed specifically as immature, fleshly living, not unbelief.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. نفسانی / جسمانی. Same نفسانی collision noted at 2:14 applies; here the risk is milder since Paul is diagnosing believers, not contrasting regenerate/unregenerate categorically. Native speaker review recommended.

οἰκοδομή (oikodomē) — “building”

• Transliteration: oikodomē
• Literal meaning: “a building, construction, edification”
• Semantic range: literal building/construction; metaphorical spiritual “building up”
• English variants: “building,” “structure,” “edification”
• Contextual theological meaning: 3:9-15 the church as God’s building, each minister’s work tested by fire — reinforces that ministry contributions will be judged by quality, not faction loyalty.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. بنا / ساختمان.

ναός (naos) — “temple”

• Transliteration: naos
• Literal meaning: the inner sanctuary of a temple, the dwelling place of a deity (distinct from the broader temple precincts, ἱερόν)
• Semantic range: the literal Jerusalem Temple’s holy of holies; pagan temple sanctuaries; by metaphorical extension in Paul, the church (corporately, 3:16-17) and the individual believer’s body (6:19) as God’s dwelling place through the Spirit
• English variants: “temple,” “sanctuary,” “dwelling place of God”
• Contextual theological meaning: 3:16-17 “you [plural, corporate] are God’s temple, and God’s Spirit dwells in you… if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him” — a severe warning against factionalism precisely because division desecrates the very sanctuary where God’s Spirit dwells.
• Persian rendering risk: High. هیکل (haykal, the established Persian Bible term for the Jerusalem Temple, e.g., “هیکل سلیمان,” Solomon’s Temple) or معبد (a more generic “place of worship,” also used for pagan shrines and Zoroastrian fire-temples). Prefer هیکل for doctrinal precision. The collision risk is specific to Iran’s exceptionally developed Shia shrine-veneration culture (imamzadeh shrines, the Karbala shrine complex of Imam Hussein, widespread ziyarat/pilgrimage practice) — there is a real risk that “you are God’s temple” will be imaginatively assimilated into the familiar category of a physical, geographically fixed, pilgrimage-worthy holy site, rather than taught as the corporate church and the individual believer’s own body as the Spirit’s dwelling, requiring no physical location or pilgrimage at all. This is a distinct and significant new collision not present in the Romans baseline. Flag for theologian review.

Chapter 4 — Apostolic Ministry; Church Discipline (introduction)

οἰκονόμος (oikonomos) — “steward”

• Transliteration: oikonomos
• Literal meaning: “household manager, steward”
• Semantic range: a trusted servant managing another’s household/estate/resources, accountable to the master
• English variants: “steward,” “manager,” “servant”
• Contextual theological meaning: 4:1-2 “regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God… a steward must be found trustworthy” — apostolic ministry is accountable service, not independent authority or personality-cult leadership (reinforcing ch.1-3’s anti-factionalism).
• Persian rendering risk: Low. ناظر / وکیل / امانتدار.

κρίνω (krinō) — “judge”

• Transliteration: krinō
• Literal meaning: “to judge, to decide, to evaluate”
• Semantic range: judicial verdict-rendering; personal evaluation/criticism; final divine judgment
• English variants: “judge,” “evaluate,” “condemn,” “criticize”
• Contextual theological meaning: 4:3-5 “it is the Lord who judges me… do not pronounce judgment before the time” — introduces the book’s recurring judge/judgment theme (developed further in chs. 5-6 for church discipline and lawsuits), establishing that ultimate judgment belongs to Christ, not human factional criticism.
• Persian rendering risk: High. قضاوت کردن / داوری کردن. This term recurs across chs. 4, 5, 6, and 11 with distinct but related senses (personal criticism, church discipline, civil lawsuits, self-examination before the Lord’s Supper) and requires context-sensitive handling similar to the baseline’s “called” entry. The collision risk, most acute in chs. 5-6 (see below), is Iran’s operative shari’a-based judicial system: “judging” language in a church-discipline or lawsuit context risks being read through the lens of formal legal/criminal adjudication (qadi courts, hadd punishments) rather than Paul’s intended sense of internal, restorative, spiritual-community accountability. Flag for theologian review at each occurrence in chs. 5-6.

Chapter 5 — Church Discipline and Holiness

πορνεία (porneia) — “sexual immorality”

• Transliteration: porneia
• Literal meaning: “fornication, sexual immorality” (from πόρνη, “prostitute”)
• Semantic range: broad NT category covering sexual sin outside the bounds of biblical marriage, including here specifically incest (5:1, a man with his father’s wife)
• English variants: “sexual immorality,” “fornication,” “sexual sin”
• Contextual theological meaning: 5:1-13 the case study driving the church discipline doctrine — a specific, named, unrepented sin tolerated by the church community, requiring formal removal (“hand this man over to Satan,” “purge the leaven,” “do not associate with,” v.5,7,11) for the sake of the church’s holiness and ultimately the offender’s own restoration (v.5, “so that his spirit may be saved”).
• Persian rendering risk: High. زنا. This is a major new collision specific to 1 Corinthians and to this doctrine. زنا is not a neutral descriptive term in Iranian Persian — it is a formally defined shari’a criminal offense (hadd), historically carrying severe corporal/capital punishment under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, and is understood by Persian speakers primarily through that state-criminal-legal lens rather than as a matter of internal church accountability. There is a serious risk that Paul’s church discipline (spiritual, relational, restorative, aimed at repentance and eventual restoration, administered by the believing community itself with no civil force) will be assimilated to or confused with Iran’s actual, currently enforced criminal-legal apparatus for the same named sin — a conflation with life-and-death stakes for Persian-speaking house-church communities who must clearly distinguish “the church disciplines its own members spiritually” from “the state punishes this crime legally.” Flag for theologian review at every occurrence; this is arguably the highest-stakes new collision introduced by this curriculum’s church discipline doctrine.

ζύμη (zymē) — “leaven”

• Transliteration: zymē
• Literal meaning: “leaven, yeast”
• Semantic range: literal fermenting agent; metaphorically, a corrupting influence that spreads through a whole community (echoing Passover unleavened-bread imagery)
• English variants: “leaven,” “yeast”
• Contextual theological meaning: 5:6-8 “do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven… let us celebrate the festival… with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” — tolerated sin, like leaven, spreads through and corrupts the whole community if not removed.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. خمیرمایه. Primarily a clarity/education issue for readers unfamiliar with Passover bread customs, not a doctrinal collision. Low risk, native speaker review for clarity of the metaphor only.

πάσχα (pascha) — “Passover” (“Christ our Passover lamb”)

• Transliteration: pascha
• Literal meaning: “Passover” (from Hebrew Pesach)
• Semantic range: the Jewish festival commemorating the Exodus and the sacrificial Passover lamb whose blood spared Israel’s firstborn (Exodus 12); by typological extension, Christ himself as the true Passover sacrifice
• English variants: “Passover,” “Passover lamb”
• Contextual theological meaning: 5:7 “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” — grounds the call to purge sin (leaven) in Christ’s own completed, once-for-all sacrificial death, of which the OT Passover was a type.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. فصح (transliterated Eid-e Fesh) or پِسَح. No direct Islamic doctrinal collision (Passover is not an Islamic festival category), but the term will be entirely unfamiliar to Muslim-background readers without OT background teaching — risk is primarily a comprehension gap requiring supplementary explanation (linking to Exodus 12) rather than a syncretism risk. Native speaker review for whether the transliteration or a short explanatory gloss is preferred in-text.

Chapter 6 — Lawsuits Among Believers; the Body as God’s Temple; Holiness

κρίνω / κρίμα (krinō / krima) — “judge / lawsuit” [continues Ch.4 entry — High risk]

• Contextual note: 6:1-8 “when one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?… I say this to your shame” — Paul’s specific concern is believers taking internal disputes to secular civil courts. This sharpens the Ch.4 risk considerably: in Iran, “secular” civil courts are themselves shari’a courts, and a Muslim-background believer’s only available civil recourse for a grievance against a fellow believer is the Islamic judicial system — meaning Paul’s contrast (church arbitration vs. “unrighteous” outside courts) maps onto a genuinely fraught, real-world legal landscape for Iranian house-church members in a way it did not for Corinthian believers under Roman civil law. Teach with awareness of this asymmetry; flag for theologian review, cross-reference doctrine “church_discipline_and_holiness.”

σῶμα (sōma) — “body”

• Transliteration: sōma
• Literal meaning: “body,” the physical body
• Semantic range: in 1 Corinthians alone, σῶμα carries at least four distinct theological senses requiring context-sensitive handling: (1) the individual believer’s physical body as the Holy Spirit’s temple (6:19); (2) the corporate “body of Christ,” the church (12:12-27); (3) the literal bread of the Lord’s Supper, Christ’s body (11:24-29); (4) the future resurrection body, transformed yet continuous with the present body (15:35-44)
• English variants: “body”
• Contextual theological meaning: 6:13-20 “the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord… your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit… glorify God in your body” — grounds sexual ethics in the doctrine that the individual believer’s own physical body is Spirit-indwelt and destined for resurrection, not a morally neutral shell to be discarded or a spirit-vs-body dualism to be transcended.
• Persian rendering risk: High. بدن. Context-sensitivity across the four senses above (individual/corporate/eucharistic/resurrection) must be tracked explicitly per the baseline’s model for “called,” since a single default rendering risks flattening distinct doctrines together. The specific new risk in ch.6: Iranian Islamic and folk piety generally affirms the goodness and eventual bodily resurrection of the physical body (compatible with Paul here) but may not readily connect ordinary sexual ethics to the Spirit’s present indwelling of that same body — risk of treating 6:19-20 as a general purity-code statement (echoing ritual purity/tahara concerns) rather than the specific Spirit-indwelling, temple-of-God argument Paul makes. Flag for theologian review; cross-reference “temple” (ch.3) and “sanctification” (baseline).

δικαιόω (edikaiōthēte) — “you were justified” [REUSE — baseline TM: justification / عادل شمرده شدن, Critical risk]

• Contextual note: 6:11 “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” — a compressed three-verb salvation formula (washing/cleansing, sanctification, justification) applied specifically to a list of serious sins (6:9-10) from which the Corinthians were delivered; reinforce with baseline’s established عادل شمرده شدن (forensic declaration, not gradual moral improvement).

Chapter 7 — Marriage and Singleness

γάμος (gamos) — “marriage”

• Transliteration: gamos
• Literal meaning: “marriage, wedding”
• Semantic range: the marriage relationship/institution; a wedding celebration
• English variants: “marriage,” “matrimony”
• Contextual theological meaning: 7:1-16 Paul’s extended teaching on marriage, sexual duty within marriage, mixed marriages, and divorce — marriage is good and its obligations (7:3-5) are mutual and binding, but not obligatory for every believer.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. ازدواج. No direct doctrinal collision (marriage is highly, positively regarded in Islamic culture as in the Bible); the risk is asymmetric with the next entry — see “singleness” below for the more significant collision. Native speaker review for register/formality only.

παρθένος (parthenos) — “virgin” / ἄγαμος (agamos) — “unmarried”

• Transliteration: parthenos / agamos
• Literal meaning: “virgin” / “unmarried, without a spouse”
• Semantic range: παρθένος specifically an unmarried virgin (7:25-38, Paul’s advice to the “virgins” of the Corinthian church); ἄγαμος more broadly any unmarried person, including widows/widowers (7:8,11,32,34)
• English variants: “virgin,” “unmarried,” “single”
• Contextual theological meaning: 7:7-8,25-38 Paul commends singleness as a valid, even advantageous, calling (“I wish that all were as I myself am,” v.7; “it is good for them to remain single,” v.8) for undivided devotion to the Lord — not a lesser, incomplete, or provisional state pending marriage.
• Persian rendering risk: High. باکره (virgin) / مجرد (unmarried/single). This doctrine — singleness as a legitimate, even commendable, calling equal in dignity to marriage — collides with a strong Islamic cultural and juridical default: mainstream Sunni and Shia tradition alike discourages permanent celibacy, famously summarized in the hadith tradition “there is no rahbaniyyah (monasticism) in Islam,” and Iranian Shia culture places very heavy social and familial expectation on marriage, with unmarried adult status (especially for women) often carrying real social stigma. There is a serious risk that Paul’s teaching here will be read either as incomprehensible (why would God call someone away from marriage?) or, worse, assimilated into a vaguely “monastic” category understood as spiritually second-rate or socially deviant by the surrounding culture, exactly inverting Paul’s argument that it can be the wiser and more devoted path (7:32-35). Flag for theologian review; this is a distinct, curriculum-specific doctrinal collision not addressed anywhere in the Romans baseline.

χωρίζω (chōrizō) — “separate / divorce”

• Transliteration: chōrizō
• Literal meaning: “to separate, to divide”
• Semantic range: marital separation/divorce; general separation
• English variants: “separate,” “divorce,” “leave”
• Contextual theological meaning: 7:10-15 instructions on believers not divorcing, and on the “Pauline privilege” permitting separation if an unbelieving spouse departs — pastoral realism about mixed marriages within the persecuted early church.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. جدا شدن / طلاق گرفتن. Given Islamic family law’s own detailed divorce provisions (talaq), there is potential for conflating the biblical pastoral-case exception with the shari’a legal mechanism of divorce; native speaker review recommended, not primarily doctrinal.

ἁγιάζω (hēgiastai) — “sanctified” [REUSE — baseline TM: sanctification / تقدیس, High risk]

• Contextual note: 7:14 “the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife… otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy” — a distinct, debated sense (a relational/covenantal “set-apartness” conferred on a household through one believing spouse, not personal salvation) requiring careful footnoting to avoid implying automatic salvation of an unbelieving spouse or children. Flag for theologian review due to potential for misreading as a doctrine of household/infant salvation-by-association.

Chapter 8 — Christian Liberty and Idol Meat (introduction)

εἴδωλον (eidōlon) — “idol”

• Transliteration: eidōlon
• Literal meaning: “an image, likeness; an idol”
• Semantic range: a physical cult image/statue representing a false god; by extension, the false god itself, or anything wrongly given ultimate devotion
• English variants: “idol,” “image”
• Contextual theological meaning: 8:4-6 “we know that ‘an idol has no real existence’… yet for us there is one God, the Father… and one Lord, Jesus Christ” — idols have no actual divine reality, but the social practice of idol-associated meals is a real pastoral problem for weaker believers.
• Persian rendering risk: High. بت (bot). Shared vocabulary with Islamic tradition, where بت‌پرستی (bot-parasti, idolatry) is the paradigmatic category of shirk, the gravest sin in Islamic theology. This shared category can serve as a genuine bridge — Persian Muslim-background readers already have a strong, negatively-charged concept of idolatry — but the risk is that Paul’s specific argument (idols have no real existence; the issue is not the meat’s metaphysical contamination but its effect on a weaker brother’s conscience) may be assimilated into a purely legal/ritual-avoidance framework (comparable to avoiding contact with something religiously impure, najis) rather than Paul’s liberty-and-conscience framework. Flag for theologian review; cross-reference “idol meat” below.

εἰδωλόθυτον (eidōlothyton) — “food sacrificed to idols”

• Transliteration: eidōlothyton
• Literal meaning: “that which has been sacrificed to an idol”
• Semantic range: meat from animals ritually offered to a pagan deity, subsequently sold in the marketplace or served at social/temple meals
• English variants: “food sacrificed to idols,” “idol meat,” “meat offered to idols”
• Contextual theological meaning: 8:1-13; 10:23-33 the practical case study for the doctrine of Christian liberty — the meat itself is religiously neutral (an idol is nothing), so a mature believer may eat it in good conscience, but must voluntarily forgo that liberty rather than cause a weaker believer to stumble back into actual idol worship.
• Persian rendering risk: High. گوشت قربانی بت‌ها (lit. “meat sacrificed to idols”) — no single-word equivalent exists; a descriptive phrase is required, consistent with the system prompt’s instruction to prefer an established compound over a novel coinage. The Iranian audience does have a ready-made structural analogy: Islamic dietary law’s halal/haram framework and the specific category of meat improperly slaughtered or dedicated (comparable underlying concern about food’s religious “status”). This analogy is a double-edged risk: it can aid initial comprehension, but risks collapsing Paul’s conscience-and-liberty argument (the meat has no inherent contamination; the issue is relational/pastoral) into a legal purity-code framework (the meat is inherently haram/impure) — precisely the view Paul rejects in 8:4 and 10:25-27, where he permits eating without inquiry in most circumstances. Flag for theologian review with an explicit teaching note distinguishing the two frameworks.

συνείδησις (syneidēsis) — “conscience”

• Transliteration: syneidēsis
• Literal meaning: “co-knowledge, moral awareness”
• Semantic range: the inner faculty of moral self-judgment, evaluating one’s own actions against a perceived standard of right and wrong; can be “weak” (overly scrupulous, easily wounded) or “seared”/corrupted
• English variants: “conscience,” “moral awareness”
• Contextual theological meaning: 8:7,10,12 “since their conscience is weak, it is defiled… you sin against Christ” — the “weaker brother” argument is built entirely on protecting a fellow believer’s conscience, even when the mature believer’s own conscience is genuinely free.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. وجدان (vejdan). This is now a largely secularized, psychological-ethical term in contemporary Persian (used in law, journalism, everyday moral discourse) with no strong religious-doctrinal collision, but for that same reason risks being read as a generic secular-humanist “inner moral sense” detached from its specifically Spirit-informed, Christ-oriented biblical content (8:12, “you sin against Christ,” not merely against an abstract ethical principle). Native speaker review recommended to ensure the theological grounding is made explicit in surrounding teaching.

ἐξουσία (exousia) — “right/authority” / ἐλευθερία (eleutheria) — “freedom/liberty”

• Transliteration: exousia / eleutheria
• Literal meaning: exousia, “authority, right, permission”; eleutheria, “freedom, liberty”
• Semantic range: exousia ranges from governmental authority (Rom 13) to personal right/permission (as here, 8:9; 9:4-18); eleutheria denotes freedom from constraint, here specifically Christian freedom from ceremonial/legal restriction
• English variants: “right,” “authority,” “liberty,” “freedom”
• Contextual theological meaning: 8:9; 9:1,19; 10:29 “take care that this right (exousia) of yours does not become a stumbling block”; ch.9 Paul’s own voluntary forgoing of his apostolic exousia as a model — genuine Christian liberty is real but voluntarily self-limited in love.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. اختیار (right/authority) / آزادی (freedom). آزادی is an especially high-salience, politically loaded term in the contemporary Iranian context (a central slogan of the 1979 revolution’s own rhetoric, subsequent reformist and protest movements, and the name of Tehran’s central Azadi Square) — there is a real risk that “Christian liberty” will be unconsciously imported into or read through the lens of contemporary Iranian political-freedom discourse rather than Paul’s specific theological category of freedom from ceremonial obligation, self-limited in love for others. Native speaker review recommended for tone; theologian review recommended where the term intersects directly with doctrine (chs. 8-10).

γνῶσις (gnōsis) — “knowledge”

• Transliteration: gnōsis
• Literal meaning: “knowledge”
• Semantic range: intellectual/doctrinal knowledge; in this context, specifically the correct theological knowledge that “idols are nothing”
• English variants: “knowledge”
• Contextual theological meaning: 8:1-2 “we know that ‘we all possess knowledge.’ But knowledge puffs up, while love builds up… if anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know” — correct knowledge, without love, produces pride and spiritual harm rather than edification; anticipates the “love as the greater way” argument of ch.13.
• Persian rendering risk: High. معرفت / شناخت. معرفت is not a neutral term in Persian religious culture — it is the technical term of Islamic and especially Sufi mysticism (erfan, معرفت-گرایی) for experiential, mystical gnosis of God, a formal discipline of spiritual attainment taught in Iranian seminaries and widely present in popular devotional culture through Sufi poetry. There is a serious risk that Paul’s plain, almost dismissive use of γνῶσις (correct but potentially prideful doctrinal knowledge, inferior to love) will instead be elevated into this prestigious mystical-attainment category, again inverting Paul’s rhetorical point (much as with hekmat/wisdom in ch.1-2). Prefer شناخت (more neutral cognitive “knowing/awareness”) over معرفت where this specific rhetorical contrast with love is in view. Flag for theologian review.

Chapter 9 — Apostolic Rights Voluntarily Forgone; Christian Liberty (continued)

• No major new theological terms; chapter reuses and develops ἐξουσία (right/authority, ch.8 entry), apostle [REUSE — baseline TM], and gospel [REUSE — baseline TM] in the specific argument of Paul voluntarily forgoing his own apostolic financial and personal rights as a model of self-limited liberty in love, anticipating ch.13.
• Minor supporting vocabulary (ἀγών “race/contest,” ἐγκράτεια “self-control,” ἀδόκιμος “disqualified,” 9:24-27): Low risk athletic-contest imagery; render with natural Persian equivalents (مسابقه, ضبط نفس/خودداری, رد شده) — primarily an imagery-comprehension matter, not a doctrinal collision.

Chapter 10 — Christian Liberty and Idol Meat (continued); the Lord’s Supper (introduction)

θυσία (thysia) — “sacrifice”

• Transliteration: thysia
• Literal meaning: “sacrifice, offering”
• Semantic range: any ritual offering to a deity, whether OT sacrificial system or pagan cultic sacrifice
• English variants: “sacrifice,” “offering”
• Contextual theological meaning: 10:18-20 “consider the people of Israel… are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?… what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons” — establishes that participation in a sacrificial meal constitutes real spiritual participation (κοινωνία) with whatever/whoever is behind the sacrifice, laying groundwork for the Lord’s Supper argument.
• Persian rendering risk: Low-Medium. قربانی. Broadly compatible with Islamic sacrificial vocabulary (qorbani, the Eid al-Adha sacrifice); risk is primarily ensuring the “real spiritual participation” argument is not lost, rather than a direct doctrinal collision. Native speaker review recommended.

τράπεζα κυρίου (trapeza kyriou) — “the Lord’s table” / ποτήριον κυρίου (potērion kyriou) — “the cup of the Lord”

• Transliteration: trapeza kyriou / potērion kyriou
• Literal meaning: “table of the Lord” / “cup of the Lord”
• Semantic range: the Lord’s Supper meal itself, contrasted directly with “the table of demons” (pagan sacrificial banquets)
• English variants: “the Lord’s table,” “the cup of the Lord”
• Contextual theological meaning: 10:16-21 “the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation (koinōnia) in the blood of Christ?… You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons”— introduces the Lord’s Supper doctrine as real spiritual participation in Christ, categorically incompatible with any other cultic table-fellowship.
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. سفره خداوند / میز خداوند. This is a major new collision specific to 1 Corinthians. Twelver Shia popular piety centers heavily on ritual communal meals commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein at Karbala — the sofreh-ye nazri (votive/vow meal spread) and similar Muharram-season food distributions, understood by participants as acts of devotion that connect the eater, through shared participation in remembering the martyr’s suffering, to the spiritual benefit (intercession, blessing) of that suffering. This is structurally close enough to Paul’s own argument here — a ritual meal that constitutes real spiritual participation (κοινωνία) in the benefits of a sacrificial death — that the Lord’s Supper risks being read as one more instance of this familiar devotional-meal category, syncretistically absorbing Christ’s unique, sufficient, once-for-all atoning death into the same interpretive framework as Hussein’s martyrdom-intercession, exactly the danger the baseline flags for “salvation” and “intercession” but now made concrete in an actual recurring ritual practice. This must be flagged for mandatory theologian review at every occurrence in chs. 10-11, with explicit teaching distinguishing the Lord’s Supper as participation in Christ’s unique, sufficient, historically singular atonement — not a devotional practice analogous to, or continuous with, martyrdom-commemoration meals.

κοινωνία (koinōnia) — “participation/fellowship” [REUSE — baseline TM: fellowship / مشارکت, Low risk in baseline]

• Contextual note: 10:16 “is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? … participation in the body of Christ?” — 1 Corinthians uses κοινωνία for something considerably more theologically weighty than the baseline’s Romans-context “shared participation in Christ and with other believers”: here it denotes real sacramental participation in the atoning benefits of Christ’s death through the Lord’s Supper specifically. Escalate the risk tier for this specific eucharistic sense to High for this curriculum, while the general “Christian fellowship” sense retains the baseline’s Medium tier. Flag eucharistic occurrences (10:16; 11:23-26) for theologian review given the direct link to the Critical “Lord’s Supper” entry above.

Chapter 11 — Order in Worship (head covering); the Lord’s Supper (full institution)

κεφαλή (kephalē) — “head”

• Transliteration: kephalē
• Literal meaning: “head” (the body part); by extension, “source” or “authority over”
• Semantic range: literal anatomical head; metaphorical “head” as source/origin (as a river’s “head”) or as one having authority/priority over another (as in a hierarchical or ordered relationship)
• English variants: “head,” “source,” “authority over”
• Contextual theological meaning: 11:3 “the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God” — establishes a chain of ordered relationship (not a chain of ontological inferiority: Christ’s headship under God does not diminish his co-equal deity, per the baseline’s deity_of_christ entry) as the theological basis for the head-covering instructions that follow.
• Persian rendering risk: High. سر. The direct rendering is straightforward, but the doctrine built on it requires careful handling: the phrase “the head of Christ is God” must never be taught in a way that implies ontological subordination or lesser deity, which would directly undermine the baseline’s Critical deity_of_christ and sonship_of_christ entries. Flag for theologian review whenever 11:3 is taught, cross-referencing those baseline entries explicitly.

κατακαλύπτω (katakalyptō) — “to cover” (head covering)

• Transliteration: katakalyptō
• Literal meaning: “to cover fully, to veil”
• Semantic range: the practice of a woman covering her head (with a veil or garment) during public worship/prophecy, as a first-century culturally-coded symbol of the headship relationship just described
• English variants: “cover,” “veil,” “have her head covered”
• Contextual theological meaning: 11:4-16 Paul’s instructions on head coverings during prayer/prophecy, grounded in the headship order of v.3 and framed as a matter of propriety (“what is proper,” v.13) tied to the surrounding culture’s honor/shame symbolism.
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. پوشاندن سر. This term carries an exceptionally acute, currently live political-social collision specific to Iran that has no real parallel elsewhere in the baseline or in most other destination languages: mandatory hijab (head/hair covering) enforcement under Iranian law has been, and remains, one of the single most contested and consequential social-political flashpoints in the country, generating sustained public protest movements (most visibly the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” / “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi” movement following the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in morality-police custody), state “morality police” enforcement, and severe personal legal risk for women who decline to comply. Teaching 1 Corinthians 11’s head-covering passage to a Persian-speaking audience without extremely careful, explicit framing risks the text being heard as either (a) direct commentary on, or endorsement of, Iran’s compulsory hijab law, or (b) a target for politically-charged appropriation in either direction — neither of which reflects Paul’s actual first-century argument about a voluntary, culturally-coded worship practice grounded in headship theology, not state-enforced law. This must be flagged for mandatory theologian review, with explicit pastoral guidance distinguishing the passage’s original cultural-theological argument from Iran’s contemporary, state-enforced, and highly politicized hijab context, and handled with particular sensitivity for the safety of the underground house-church audience for whom this is not a merely academic question.

κυριακὸν δεῖπνον (kyriakon deipnon) — “the Lord’s Supper”

• Transliteration: kyriakon deipnon
• Literal meaning: “the Lord’s dinner/supper”
• Semantic range: the specific communal meal instituted by Christ (11:23-26) in remembrance of his body and blood, distinct from an ordinary shared meal or from the “table of demons” imagery of ch.10
• English variants: “the Lord’s Supper,” “Communion,” “the Eucharist”
• Contextual theological meaning: 11:23-26 the institution narrative itself (“This is my body… this is my blood… do this in remembrance of me… you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”) — the fullest NT liturgical account of the Supper outside the Gospels, directly linked to the “table of the Lord” argument of ch.10.
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. عشای ربانی (the established Persian Christian term, an Arabic-Persian compound meaning roughly “the Lord’s evening meal/banquet”) is the standard rendering in Persian Christian usage (Tarjome Ghadeem, Mojdeh) and should be retained per the baseline’s preference for established Persian Christian theological compounds over novel coinages. See the Ch.10 “table of the Lord” entry for the full grounded rationale (Karbala/nazri ritual-meal collision) — apply that same Critical rationale here at the institution narrative itself, since 11:23-26 is the passage from which the whole doctrine derives. Flag every occurrence for mandatory theologian review.

σῶμα καὶ αἷμα (sōma kai haima) — “body and blood” [σῶμα see Ch.6 entry above; αἷμα new]

• αἷμα (haima): Transliteration haima; literal “blood”; semantic range: literal human blood; sacrificial/covenantal blood (echoing Passover blood, 5:7, and new covenant language, 11:25); English variants “blood.”
• Contextual theological meaning: 11:24-25 “This is my body, which is for you… this cup is the new covenant in my blood” — directly identifies the bread and cup with Christ’s own sacrificed body and shed blood, the basis of the new covenant [connects to REUSE — baseline TM: covenant / عهد, Medium risk, here specifically “new covenant,” καινή διαθήκη].
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. بدن و خون. Compounding the general Critical risk of the Lord’s Supper entry above, “blood” specifically intersects with dietary/purity categories in Islamic law (the prohibition on consuming blood, comparable to kosher law) — there is a secondary risk that “drinking [the cup as] Christ’s blood” language could evoke a visceral, literalistic revulsion rooted in Islamic dietary purity categories (comparable to a similar, well-documented difficulty in other Islamicate-context Bible translation, e.g., with “Lamb of God… take away… blood” language) unless the memorial/covenantal, not literal-cannibalistic, nature of the language is clearly taught alongside the words of institution. Flag for theologian review; teach alongside explicit clarification of the meal’s memorial and covenantal (not literal, physical) character.

ἀναξίως (anaxiōs) — “in an unworthy manner”

• Transliteration: anaxiōs
• Literal meaning: “unworthily, in a manner not fitting”
• Semantic range: participating in the Supper without proper self-examination, discernment of the body, or right relationship with fellow believers (the specific Corinthian problem being factional, self-indulgent Supper practices, 11:17-22)
• English variants: “in an unworthy manner,” “unworthily”
• Contextual theological meaning: 11:27-29 “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner… eats and drinks judgment on himself” — a serious warning requiring self-examination, not a statement about personal moral perfection as a precondition for participation.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. به نحوی ناشایست / ناسزاوار. Risk is primarily that “unworthy” could be misread as requiring sinless perfection before participation (inducing scrupulosity or, conversely, habitual self-exclusion) rather than Paul’s actual concern (self-examination, discerning the body, right relationship with the church community). Native speaker review recommended; pair with clear teaching on 11:28’s positive instruction (“let a person examine himself”).

διακρίνω τὸ σῶμα (diakrinō to sōma) — “discern the body”

• Transliteration: diakrinō to sōma
• Literal meaning: “to discern/distinguish the body”
• Semantic range: recognizing the true nature and significance of the Lord’s Supper elements/community as Christ’s body, as opposed to treating it as an ordinary, self-indulgent meal
• English variants: “discern the body,” “recognize the body”
• Contextual theological meaning: 11:29 “for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself” — likely refers both to the sacramental elements and to the gathered church community itself as Christ’s body (connecting back to ch.10 and forward to ch.12), failing to honor either.
• Persian rendering risk: High. تشخیص دادن بدن [مسیح]. Same rationale as the Lord’s Supper/body-and-blood entries above; flag for theologian review.

Chapter 12 — Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ

σῶμα Χριστοῦ (sōma Christou) — “the body of Christ”

• Transliteration: sōma Christou
• Literal meaning: “the body of Christ”
• Semantic range: the corporate metaphor for the church — many distinct members, one organic, Spirit-unified body, with Christ as head (cf. ch.11 kephalē)
• English variants: “the body of Christ,” “one body”
• Contextual theological meaning: 12:12-27 “for just as the body is one and has many members… so it is with Christ… you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” — grounds the doctrine of unity-in-diversity: differing spiritual gifts (12:4-11) do not create hierarchy or division but mutual, interdependent function within one organic whole.
• Persian rendering risk: High. بدن مسیح. This is the central ecclesiological metaphor for the curriculum’s “Christian Unity versus Factionalism” and “Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ” doctrines. The specific new risk: Persian mystical (Sufi) tradition, deeply influential in Iranian religious culture through Rumi, Hafez, and the broader Ibn Arabi-influenced school of “wahdat al-wujud” (“unity of being”), teaches a metaphysical unity in which all multiplicity is ultimately absorbed into, or is an illusory manifestation of, a single divine Reality — a monistic unity-of-being quite different from Paul’s organic-but-genuinely-distinct-members ecclesiology, in which real personal and functional differences (12:14-26) are preserved and honored, not dissolved, within the unity. There is a risk that “one body, many members” will be assimilated into this familiar mystical unity-of-being category rather than taught as Paul’s specific, differentiated, functional interdependence model. Flag for theologian review.

χάρισμα (charisma) — “spiritual gift” [REUSE — baseline TM: spiritual_gifts / عطایای روحانی, Medium risk]

• Contextual note: 1 Corinthians 12 is the fullest NT enumeration of specific χαρίσματα (word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, 12:8-10) and is therefore the primary passage for this doctrine’s full development, more extensively than any single passage in Romans. Reuse عطایای روحانی for the general category; individual gift-names below are new sub-terms requiring their own brief treatment.

γλῶσσαι (glōssai) — “tongues” (as a spiritual gift)

• Transliteration: glōssai
• Literal meaning: “tongues, languages”
• Semantic range: a Spirit-given gift of speaking in languages not naturally known to the speaker, requiring interpretation for corporate edification (developed fully in ch.14)
• English variants: “tongues,” “other languages,” “unknown languages”
• Contextual theological meaning: 12:10,28,30 listed among the χαρίσματα; the gift’s proper, orderly use (vs. disorderly display) is the specific concern of ch.14.
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. زبان‌ها / زبان‌های غیر. The primary risk is phenomenological rather than strictly doctrinal: various Iranian folk-religious and Sufi devotional practices (certain dhikr rituals, ecstatic trance states in some Sufi orders, and pre-Islamic shamanistic residue in some regional folk practice) involve altered-state vocalization that could be superficially conflated with the NT gift of tongues, potentially either validating uncontrolled ecstatic display as spiritually authoritative or, conversely, causing the biblical gift to be dismissed as culturally suspect syncretism. Native speaker and theologian review recommended, cross-referencing ch.14’s explicit order-and-edification constraints.

διάκρισις πνευμάτων (diakrisis pneumatōn) — “distinguishing of spirits”

• Transliteration: diakrisis pneumatōn
• Literal meaning: “discernment/distinguishing of spirits”
• Semantic range: a Spirit-given gift enabling discernment between genuine Spirit-inspired utterance and false/deceptive spiritual influence
• English variants: “distinguishing of spirits,” “discernment of spirits”
• Contextual theological meaning: 12:10 listed among the χαρίσματα, particularly relevant for evaluating prophetic and tongues utterances (cf. ch.14).
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. تشخیص روح‌ها / تمییز روح‌ها. Relevant given widespread folk-Islamic and Zoroastrian-residue belief in jinn, evil spirits, and the practice of rammaali/fortune-telling in parts of Iranian folk culture — this gift can be taught as directly relevant and needed, but risk exists of conflating it with folk-magical spirit-detection practices rather than a Spirit-given, church-community discernment gift. Native speaker review recommended.

βαπτίζω (baptizō) — “baptize” (Spirit baptism)

• Transliteration: baptizō
• Literal meaning: “to dip, immerse”
• Semantic range: ritual water baptism; here (12:13) metaphorical/spiritual “baptism… into one body” by the one Spirit
• English variants: “baptize,” “baptized”
• Contextual theological meaning: 12:13 “for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body… and all made to drink of one Spirit” — grounds the unity of the diverse church in a single, shared Spirit-baptism experience common to every believer regardless of background (Jew/Greek, slave/free).
• Persian rendering risk: Medium. تعمید. Established Persian Christian term (used for water baptism throughout Persian NT tradition); the specific new risk here is ensuring the metaphorical, Spirit-baptism sense (not physical water immersion) is clearly distinguished in context, since تعمید’s primary association for readers will be the physical rite. Native speaker review recommended.

Chapter 13 — Love as the Greater Way

ἀγάπη (agapē) — “love”

• Transliteration: agapē
• Literal meaning: “love,” specifically a form denoting selfless, willed, others-directed love (as distinct from ἔρως, romantic/desiring love, and φιλία, friendship-affection)
• Semantic range: God’s own self-giving love, and the corresponding love required of believers toward one another — patient, kind, not envious or boastful, not self-seeking, not easily angered, bearing and enduring all things (13:4-7)
• English variants: “love,” “charity” (older English usage)
• Contextual theological meaning: 13:1-13 “if I… have not love, I am nothing… love never ends… the greatest of these is love” — presented as superior to and the necessary animating context for every spiritual gift discussed in chs.12 and 14; without it, even the most impressive gifts are worthless.
• Persian rendering risk: High. محبت (mohabbat) is the established Persian Christian term for ἀγάπη (not عشق, ishq, which denotes passionate/romantic or mystical desiring-love). This is one of the most theologically weighty and pastorally central terms in the entire curriculum, given the doctrine “Love as the Greater Way.” The specific new risk is the reverse of most other entries in this document: rather than an absent or hostile category, Persian religious-devotional culture has an unusually rich, deeply cherished vocabulary for love of the Divine, most famously through the Sufi mystical-poetic tradition (Rumi’s ishq, the Beloved-lover metaphor pervasive in Hafez and the broader Persian ghazal tradition, already flagged in the baseline’s “glory” and “abba/father” entries). This can be a genuine homiletical asset — real devotional register already exists — but risks two distinct errors: (1) collapsing Paul’s specific ethical-relational content (how believers concretely treat one another, 13:4-7’s behavioral list) into a generalized mystical sentiment or aesthetic-devotional feeling toward God, losing the interpersonal, church-community ethic Paul is actually describing; and (2) conflating ἀγάπη with عشق’s connotations of passionate, self-losing romantic union, which is a different category from ἀγάπη’s willed, self-giving, others-serving character. محبت is the correct and necessary rendering (not عشق), but must be taught with explicit attention to 13:4-7’s concrete, behavioral content, not left to absorb generic devotional-poetic connotations. Flag for theologian review given the doctrine’s centrality and this term’s exceptional cultural resonance.

Chapter 14 — Order in Worship (prophecy, tongues, and edification)

ἑρμηνεία (hermēneia) — “interpretation”

• Transliteration: hermēneia
• Literal meaning: “interpretation, translation”
• Semantic range: the Spirit-given companion gift to tongues, rendering an unknown-tongue utterance intelligible to the gathered church
• English variants: “interpretation”
• Contextual theological meaning: 14:5,13,26-28 tongues without interpretation do not edify the church and should be restrained in public worship; the pairing of tongues-with-interpretation is Paul’s specific order-in-worship instruction.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. تفسیر / ترجمه.

οἰκοδομέω (oikodomeō) — “build up / edify”

• Transliteration: oikodomeō
• Literal meaning: “to build, to construct” (verb form of οἰκοδομή, ch.3)
• Semantic range: literal construction; metaphorical spiritual strengthening/benefit of the church community [connects to REUSE — baseline TM doctrine: mutual_edification, Low risk]
• English variants: “build up,” “edify,” “strengthen”
• Contextual theological meaning: 14:3-5,12,17,26 the controlling criterion for all worship practices in this chapter: “let all things be done for building up” — every gift and practice is evaluated by whether it edifies the gathered church, not by its impressiveness.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. بنا کردن / تقویت کردن. Consistent with baseline’s مطابق mutual_edification entry.

τάξις (taxis) — “order”

• Transliteration: taxis
• Literal meaning: “order, arrangement, sequence”
• Semantic range: proper, orderly sequence as opposed to chaos/confusion
• English variants: “order,” “orderly manner”
• Contextual theological meaning: 14:33,40 “for God is not a God of confusion but of peace… but all things should be done decently and in order” — the chapter’s summarizing principle governing tongues, prophecy, and the participation of women in worship.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. نظم / ترتیب.

γυναῖκες σιγάτωσαν (gynaikes sigatōsan) — “let the women be silent” [contextual note, not a single lexical term]

• Contextual theological meaning: 14:34-35 is one of the most exegetically debated passages in the letter (its relationship to ch.11’s assumption that women do pray and prophesy in the assembly, and to the specific local Corinthian disorder being addressed, is disputed among evangelical scholars).
• Persian rendering risk: Critical (flagged as a pastoral-handling risk rather than a lexical-collision risk). Given Iran’s own extremely high-salience, currently contested public discourse over women’s public role, dress, and voice (see the ch.11 head-covering entry above), this passage carries a serious risk of being either weaponized to justify broader restriction of women’s roles in the underground house-church beyond what the text itself establishes, or dismissed/suppressed as an embarrassment, in a cultural environment already saturated with intense, live debate over women’s public participation. Flag for mandatory theologian review with explicit exegetical care (distinguishing this local, disputed instruction from ch.11’s assumption of women praying/prophesying, and from ch.12’s gift-distribution “each one” language) and pastoral sensitivity to the current Iranian social context.

Chapter 15 (vv.12-58) — The Resurrection of Christ and Believers (continued from core passage)

ἀπαρχή (aparchē) — “firstfruits”

• Transliteration: aparchē
• Literal meaning: “the first portion, the first part of a harvest offered to God”
• Semantic range: OT agricultural/sacrificial term for the initial portion of a harvest, offered as consecrated to God and guaranteeing/representing the full harvest to come
• English variants: “firstfruits,” “first portion”
• Contextual theological meaning: 15:20,23 “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep… Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” — Christ’s own resurrection is not merely the first chronological instance but the guarantee and pattern of the full future “harvest” of believers’ resurrection.
• Persian rendering risk: Low-Medium. نوبر / نخستین محصول. Primarily an agricultural-imagery comprehension issue rather than doctrinal collision; native speaker review for clarity of metaphor.

ὁ ἔσχατος Ἀδάμ (ho eschatos Adam) — “the last Adam”

• Transliteration: ho eschatos Adam
• Literal meaning: “the last/final Adam”
• Semantic range: Christ as the second, greater federal head of a new humanity, contrasted with the first Adam as federal head of fallen humanity (echoing Romans 5’s argument, already flagged as Critical in the baseline)
• English variants: “the last Adam,” “the second Adam”
• Contextual theological meaning: 15:21-22,45-49 “for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead… for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive… the first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” — grounds bodily resurrection hope in the same federal-headship logic Paul uses in Romans 5 for sin’s entry, now applied to resurrection life’s entry.
• Persian rendering risk: High. آدم آخر / آدم ثانی. آدم (Adam) is a shared, positively-regarded Quranic figure (as in the baseline’s “david” entry pattern), but Quranic Adam theology has no federal-headship doctrine (no concept that Adam’s sin is federally imputed to, or structurally determines the fate of, all his descendants) — this is the same collision the baseline documents for “sin” (Islamic fitrah/innate-purity doctrine and Zoroastrian Chinvat Bridge individual deeds-weighing both independently resist federal-headship logic). 1 Corinthians 15 intensifies this because it builds the entire resurrection-hope argument, not just the sin argument, on this same federal-headship structure — so getting the “last Adam” argument right is now directly load-bearing for the resurrection doctrine as well as the sin doctrine. Flag for theologian review.

φθαρτός / ἄφθαρτος (phthartos / aphthartos) — “perishable / imperishable”; ψυχικός / πνευματικός (psychikos / pneumatikos) — “natural / spiritual” (body)

• Transliteration: phthartos / aphthartos; sōma psychikon / sōma pneumatikon
• Literal meaning: “subject to decay / not subject to decay”; “soul-ish body / Spirit-empowered body”
• Semantic range: describes the transformation of the resurrection body — genuinely continuous with, yet qualitatively transformed beyond, the present mortal body; not a different, immaterial substitute
• English variants: “perishable/imperishable,” “natural body/spiritual body”
• Contextual theological meaning: 15:42-44,53-54 “it is sown perishable, it is raised imperishable… it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” — the resurrection body is a real, physical, transformed body (continuity), not the shedding of the body for a purely non-physical spiritual existence (discontinuity/gnostic dualism), and not a simple resumption of the exact same mortal body without transformation (mere repetition).
• Persian rendering risk: High. فسادپذیر/فسادناپذیر؛ نفسانی/روحانی. The risk runs in two directions simultaneously and must be navigated carefully: (1) mainstream Islamic eschatology (shared broadly across Sunni and Shia tradition) affirms a fairly literal, unqualified bodily resurrection at Qiyamah, which could cause “spiritual body” (σῶμα πνευματικόν) to be read as denying real physicality (an error Paul does not intend — he affirms real continuity of the body); (2) conversely, some popular Persian mystical/philosophical currents (certain Sufi and Illuminationist strands) emphasize the soul’s post-mortem ascent/liberation from the body as a lesser, confining vessel, which could cause “imperishable… spiritual body” to be read as the soul finally escaping bodily existence altogether — the opposite error. Paul’s actual position (real, transformed, imperishable bodily existence — neither unchanged repetition nor bodiless escape) must be taught with precision against both defaults. Flag for theologian review; reuse نفسانی cautiously per the ch.2/ch.3 note on its Sufi/Islamic “nafs” resonance, ensuring here it denotes “belonging to natural, pre-resurrection existence,” not a pejorative ethical category.

κέντρον (kentron) — “sting” / νῖκος (nikos) — “victory”

• Transliteration: kentron / nikos
• Literal meaning: “sting, goad” / “victory”
• Semantic range: kentron, a sharp point (as of a scorpion or goad), here metaphorical for death’s power to harm; nikos, triumphant victory
• English variants: “sting,” “victory”
• Contextual theological meaning: 15:54-57 “death is swallowed up in victory. ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’… thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” — the chapter’s triumphant climax; death’s power (rooted, per v.56, in sin and the law [REUSE — baseline TM: sin/گناه, law/ناموس]) is decisively and finally broken by Christ’s resurrection.
• Persian rendering risk: Low-Medium. نیش [مرگ] / پیروزی / غلبه. No major independent doctrinal collision; reinforce connection to the baseline’s Critical resurrection entry (قیامت) for the theological weight, but the specific vocabulary here (sting/victory) is Low-Medium risk in itself.

Chapter 16 — The Collection for the Saints; Closing Instructions

λογεία (logeia) — “collection”

• Transliteration: logeia
• Literal meaning: “a collection [of money]”
• Semantic range: a specific charitable financial collection for the Jerusalem church’s poor
• English variants: “collection,” “offering”
• Contextual theological meaning: 16:1-4 practical instructions for a systematic, regular giving practice for the relief of needy believers elsewhere — an expression of the “one body” unity doctrine (ch.12) in concrete financial terms across congregations.
• Persian rendering risk: Low. اعانه / جمع‌آوری کمک مالی. No doctrinal collision; note the real practical/security sensitivity of organized financial collection among underground house-churches, a native speaker/practical concern rather than a translation-risk concern.

μαρανα θα (marana tha) — “Maranatha,” “Our Lord, come!”

• Transliteration: marana tha (Aramaic, preserved untranslated in the Greek text itself, as with “Abba” in Romans 8:15)
• Literal meaning: “Our Lord, come!”
• Semantic range: an early, liturgically fixed Aramaic invocation/prayer for Christ’s return, evidently so established in the earliest (Aramaic-speaking) church that Paul preserves it untranslated even writing in Greek to a Greek-speaking congregation
• English variants: “Maranatha,” “Our Lord, come!,” “Come, Lord!”
• Contextual theological meaning: 16:22 closes the letter with this ancient invocation, expressing urgent longing for Christ’s promised return (parousia) — an eschatological cry of hope directly tied to the resurrection argument of ch.15 (the resurrection secures, and Christ’s return will consummate, the believer’s hope).
• Persian rendering risk: Critical. مارانا ثا (preserved Aramaic transliteration, consistent with the baseline’s precedent of preserving “Abba” untranslated at Romans 8:15) with a gloss “خداوندا، بیا!” (Lord, come!) provided in accompanying notes. The specific new collision: this urgent liturgical cry of longing for the Lord’s imminent return has a strikingly direct structural and devotional parallel in Twelver Shia piety’s own intense “entezar” (انتظار, awaiting) devotion for the return/reappearance of the Hidden Twelfth Imam (Mahdi) — expressed in widely-recited prayers such as the Dua Faraj (“O God, hasten the relief [reappearance] of our master, the Awaited One…”), a living, emotionally central devotional practice for Iranian Shia Muslims. There is a serious risk that “Maranatha,” precisely because it fills the same structural-devotional role (an urgent cry for an awaited holy figure’s return), gets absorbed into or read as parallel/equivalent to this Mahdi-centered entezar devotion, directly extending the baseline’s documented Mahdi-displacement concern (already flagged for “resurrection,” “messiah,” and “lord”) into the specific devotional-practice register of prayer and liturgical longing. Flag for mandatory theologian review; teach with explicit distinction from entezar devotion, emphasizing that the “Lord” who is awaited has already come once, historically, bodily, and verifiably (per the whole argument of ch.15), and it is this same, already-identified Lord — not a yet-unidentified, hidden figure — whose return is awaited.

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Summary of Chapters with No New Load-Bearing Terms

• Chapter 9 (beyond the ἐξουσία/apostle development noted above) introduces no new Critical/High risk terms beyond what is treated in its chapter section.
• Chapter 16 (beyond λογεία and μαρανα θα treated above) otherwise reuses established terms: grace (فیض), church (کلیسا), holy kiss (بوسه مقدس — Low risk, minor greeting convention, no doctrinal collision).

No chapter of 1 Corinthians is without at least one load-bearing theological term; every chapter 1–16 is accounted for above, either with new-term treatment or explicit reuse notes pointing to the baseline Romans Language Package.

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This document feeds directly into analysis/08_core_glossary.md (per-term glossary with translation risk) and must be loaded alongside the baseline translation_memory.json, bible_term_registry.json, and doctrine_risk_registry.json before Phase 2 processing begins.