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Core Glossary

Core Glossary: 1 John — English → Persian

This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, across all five chapters of 1 John. Terms marked [BASELINE REUSE] are drawn directly from the Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and MUST be rendered exactly as recorded there — no alternative permitted. New terms proprietary to 1 John are proposed here for addition to translation memory prior to Phase 2 processing, with the same risk-tier discipline the baseline established.

Baseline Terms Reused Exactly in 1 John

English TermPersianTransliterationRiskDoctrine (1 John)Occurrences (chapters)
GodخداKhodaCriticalGod is Light and God is Love1-5 (pervasive)
JesusعیسیIsaCriticalIncarnation and Antichrist; Assurance1-5
Son of Godپسر خداpesar-e khodaCriticalIncarnation; Antichrist; Assurance1:3,7; 2:22-24; 3:8,23; 4:9-10,14-15; 5:5,9-13,20
Holy Spiritروح‌القدسRuh-ol-QodsCriticalTesting the Spirits; Fellowship3:24; 4:2,13
FatherپدرpedarCriticalFellowship with God; Sonship1:2-3; 2:1,13-16,22-24; 3:1; 4:14
sinگناهgonahHighConfession and Forgiveness of Sin1:7-10; 2:1-2,12; 3:4-9; 4:10; 5:16-18
faithایمانimanHighOvercoming the World; Assurance5:1,4-5,10,13
fellowshipمشارکتmosharekatMediumFellowship with God and One Another1:3,6-7
gloryجلالjalalMedium(implicit, doxological framing)— (background register only)
intercessionشفاعتshafa’atCritical(conceptual background for “advocate,” 2:1)2:1 (conceptually)
lawناموسnamusCritical(background for “lawlessness,” 3:4)3:4 (conceptually)
salvationنجاتnejatCriticalAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life(conceptual background throughout)

New Terms Proprietary to 1 John — Proposed for Translation Memory

English TermPersianTransliterationGreek OriginalRiskDoctrineOccurrencesAlternatives RejectedKey Rationale
love (agape)محبتmohabbatἀγάπη / ἀγαπάωCriticalGod is Light and God is Love2:5,10,15; 3:1,10-18; 4:7-21 (pervasive); 5:1-3عشق (eshgh)عشق carries Sufi mystical-poetic (Rumi, Hafez) romantic/ecstatic divine-love loading tied to wahdat al-wujud pantheistic union; محبت preserves willed, covenantal, self-giving love as a personal moral act, not an emanationist longing.
lightنورnurφῶςCriticalGod is Light and God is Love1:5,7; 2:8-10(none viable — نور is the only natural Persian word)Collides with Twelver Shia Nur Muhammadi/Fourteen Lights Imamate doctrine and Illuminationist (hikmat al-ishraq)/Mulla Sadra emanationist metaphysics (parallel to باseline’s فیض caution). Must be taught as moral-relational purity/truthfulness, not ongoing Imamate self-disclosure or metaphysical emanation.
darknessتاریکیtarikiσκοτία / σκότοςHighGod is Light and God is Love1:5-6; 2:8-11Paired risk with “light”; retain moral-relational sense.
Word of life / Wordکلمه‌ی حیات / کلمهkalame-ye hayat / kalamehὁ λόγος (τῆς ζωῆς)CriticalIncarnation and Antichrist1:1Collides with Islamic Kalam Allah (the Quran as God’s eternal, uncreated Speech/Word); must be taught as a distinct, personal, incarnate divine Son, not an eternal utterance/text.
manifested / made manifestآشکار شد / ظاهر شدashkar shod / zaher shodφανερόωHighIncarnation and Antichrist1:2; 3:2,5,8; 4:9Must convey historical, bodily, once-for-all disclosure against emanationist/recurring-appearance readings.
confessاعتراف کردنe’teraf kardanὁμολογέωHighConfession and Forgiveness of Sin; Incarnation and Antichrist1:9; 4:2-3,15Risk of assimilation to Islamic shahada as fixed recitation-formula rather than costly, Spirit-enabled personal declaration; real apostasy-law danger for house-church confessors.
forgiveبخشیدن / بخششbakhshidan / bakhsheshἀφίημιHighConfession and Forgiveness of Sin1:9; 2:12آمرزش (amurzesh) as sole optionMust retain explicit causal link to Christ’s blood (1:7), not repentance-alone per Islamic maghfirah/deeds-weighing default.
cleanseپاک کردنpak kardanκαθαρίζωHighConfession and Forgiveness of Sin1:7,9تطهیر (tat-hir)تطهیر invites ritual-ablution (wudu/ghusl) reading; پاک کردن keeps sense moral/relational.
blood [of Jesus]خونkhunαἷμαCriticalConfession and Forgiveness of Sin; God is Light and God is Love1:7; 4:10 (via ἱλασμός); 5:6,8Collides with Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-blood devotional framework already Critical in baseline salvation/intercession entries; must be taught as unique legal propitiation, not martyrdom-intercession.
unrighteousnessبی‌عدالتیbi-‘edalatiἀδικίαMediumConfession and Forgiveness of Sin1:9Built on baseline عدالت root; keep forensic sense.
advocateشفیعshafi’παράκλητοςCriticalAssurance of Salvation; (Prayer and Intercession, cross-curriculum)2:1مدافع (modafe’, neutral legal “defender”)Directly extends baseline’s Critical شفاعت entry; must be taught as exclusive, sufficient, ongoing advocacy, engaging the Imams’-intercession devotional category directly, per baseline’s Romans 8 methodology.
propitiation / atoning sacrificeکفّارهkaffarehἱλασμόςCriticalConfession and Forgiveness of Sin; God is Light and God is Love2:2; 4:10کفّاره is Islamic legal-ritual per-violation human-performed expiation (fasting/feeding poor/etc.); must be corrected toward God’s own unilateral, sufficient, substitutionary provision, distinct also from Karbala martyrdom-merit framework.
commandment(s)حکم / احکامhokm / ahkamἐντολή / ἐντολαίHighLove for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth2:3-11; 3:22-24; 4:21; 5:2-3فرمان (farman) considered, retained as secondary optionOverlaps with ahkam al-shari’a legal-code register; teach as fruit of love received (4:19), never a merit-earning code.
keep [commandments]نگاه داشتن / رعایت کردنnegah dashtanτηρέωMediumLove for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth2:3-5; 3:22,24; 5:2-3,18Continuous, loving observance, not external legal compliance.
world (negative/ethical sense)دنیاdonyaκόσμοςHighOvercoming the World2:15-17; 4:4-5; 5:4-5,19Existing donya/akhirat polarity is a partial bridge but not identical; John’s κόσμος is an active, God-opposed moral system, not merely “the transient.”
world (neutral/created sense)جهانjahanκόσμοςMediumGod is Light and God is Love (mission sense)2:2; 4:1,3,9,14,17Context-sensitive alongside دنیا; disambiguate per-occurrence, same discipline as baseline’s “called.”
lust of the flesh / eyes; pride of lifeهوس جسم، هوس چشم، غرور زندگیhavas-e jesm, havas-e cheshm, ghorur-e zendegiἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός/ὀφθαλμῶν; ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίουMediumOvercoming the World2:16Threefold anatomy of worldliness; standard idiomatic transfer.
antichristضدمسیحzedd-e MasihἀντίχριστοςCriticalThe Incarnation and Antichrist2:18,22; 4:3دجال (Dajjal)Dajjal imports the full Sunni/Shia single-figure end-times deceiver narrative tied to Mahdi’s return; John’s usage is plural, present, defined by denial of the incarnate Christ.
anointingمسحmashχρῖσμαHighTesting the Spirits2:20,27Root-shares with مسیح; must distinguish believers’ Spirit-given discernment from Christ’s own unique messianic anointing; avoid sacramental-oil-ritual reading.
truthحقیقت / راستیhaqiqat / rastiἀλήθειαMediumTesting the Spirits2:21,27; 3:19; 4:6; 5:6Standard; low independent risk beyond context.
lie / liarدروغ / دروغگوdorogh / doroghguψεῦδος / ψεύστηςMediumTesting the Spirits; Incarnation and Antichrist1:10; 2:4,21-22,27; 4:20; 5:10Blunt Johannine diagnostic force must be retained.
little children (address)فرزندان من / ای فرزندانfarzandan-e manτεκνία / παιδίαLowLove for the Brethren (pastoral tone)2:1,12-13,18,28; 3:2,7,18; 4:4; 5:21Warm pastoral address; low risk.
abide / remainماندنmandanμένωHighFellowship with God and One Another2:6,10,14,17,19,24,27-28; 3:6,9,14-15,17,24; 4:12-13,15-16Risk of collapse into Sufi wahdat al-wujud ontological-merger mysticism; must retain personal, relational, mutual-but-distinct indwelling.
his coming / appearing (parousia)بازگشتbazgashtπαρουσίαCriticalAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life2:28ظهور (zohur)ظهور is the precise Twelver Shia technical term for the Hidden Imam’s awaited reappearance (zuhur-e Imam-e Zaman); بازگشت avoids Mahdi-displacement risk already documented in baseline for resurrection/messiah/lord.
born of God / new birthاز خدا مولود شدن / تولد تازهaz khoda molud shodan / tavallod-e tazehγεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦCriticalLove for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18No Islamic-theology equivalent; fitrah doctrine (innate purity at birth) makes regeneration a genuinely novel, need-presupposing concept requiring explicit teaching, not assumed background.
children of Godفرزندان خداfarzandan-e khodaτέκνα θεοῦHighLove for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth3:1-2,10; 5:2Birth-metaphor (τέκνα/γεννάω), distinct from but doctrinally complementary to baseline’s legal adoption-metaphor (فرزندخواندگی); both resist Iranian civil-legal سرپرستی’s weaker status.
lawlessnessعصیان [از ناموس خدا]osyan [az namus-e khoda]ἀνομίαCriticalConfession and Forgiveness of Sin3:4بی‌ناموسی⚠ بی‌ناموسی/بی‌ناموس is a severe, unrelated colloquial insult (dishonor/unchastity accusation involving family honor) in everyday Persian — never to be used; render as two separate words, عصیان (rebellion) against God’s ناموس.
practices sin / practices righteousness(به گناه/عدالت) عادت داشتن، عمل کردن’adat dashtan, ‘amal kardanποιῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν / δικαιοσύνηνHighLove for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth3:4-10Must preserve durative/habitual Greek present-tense aspect distinct from a single lapse (contrast 2:1), to avoid both perfectionism and license misreadings.
seed [of God, regenerating]بذر الهیbazr-e elahiσπέρμαMediumLove for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth3:9Disambiguate from baseline’s نسل داوود (seed of David, physical lineage) — different referent/metaphor.
lay down [one’s] lifeجان خود را فدا کردنjan-e khod ra feda kardanτίθημι τὴν ψυχήνHighLove for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth3:16“فدا کردن” resonates with Shia martyrdom/fedaiyan vocabulary; teach believers’ imitation-pattern as distinct in kind from Christ’s own unique atoning death.
heartدلdelκαρδίαLowAssurance of Salvation3:19-21Standard; low risk.
confidence / boldnessاطمینان / دلیریetminan / daliriπαρρησίαHighAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life2:28; 3:21; 4:17; 5:14Confronts mainstream Islamic default of judgment-day uncertainty (per baseline’s Critical Assurance entry); must render with unambiguous confident force.
test [the spirits]روح‌ها را بیازماییدruh-ha ra biyazmayidδοκιμάζετεHighTesting the Spirits4:1Anchor exclusively to the christological test (4:2-3), not folk-Islamic jinn-discernment/exorcism practice.
flesh (incarnation context)جسمjesmσάρξCriticalThe Incarnation and Antichrist4:2 (also 2:16)Linchpin confessional term; must retain full, unambiguous physical-bodily force against Quranic crucifixion-denial/docetic-illusion readings.
spirit of error / of truthروح گمراهی / روح راستیruh-e gomrahi / ruh-e rastiπνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης / ἀληθείαςMediumTesting the Spirits4:6گمراهی parallels the Quranic hidayah/dalalah polarity — a genuinely useful, lower-risk bridge concept.
propitiation (repeat)کفّارهkaffarehἱλασμόςCriticalGod is Light and God is Love4:10See ch. 2 entry above.
manifested (repeat, God’s love)آشکار شدashkar shodφανερόωHighGod is Light and God is Love4:9See ch. 1 entry above.
only [Son] / uniqueیگانهyeganehμονογενήςCriticalThe Incarnation and Antichrist4:9Extends baseline’s Sonship of Christ Critical entry; never soften to the rejected Hezare No alternative.
sentفرستادferestadἀποστέλλωMediumThe Incarnation and Antichrist4:9-10,14Standard; commissioning sense.
testimony / witness / testifyگواهی / گواهی دادنgovahi / govahi dadanμαρτυρία / μαρτυρέωCriticalAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life4:14; 5:6-11 (concentrated)شهادت (shahadat)شهادت double-collides with Shia shahada creed-formula and shahadat-martyrdom categories; گواهی is the safer, neutral forensic term — a deliberate departure parallel to baseline’s law/ناموس precedent.
Savior of the worldنجات‌دهنده جهانnejat-dahande-ye jahanσωτήρ (τοῦ κόσμου)CriticalAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life4:14Confronts Twelver Shia Mahdi-as-awaited-world-deliverer expectation; must assert Christ’s own primary, sufficient, already-accomplished saving office.
confess [Jesus as Son of God]اعتراف کندe’teraf konadὁμολογέωHighThe Incarnation and Antichrist; Assurance4:15See ch. 1 confess entry; here specifically the costly christological confession.
God is love / God is lightخدا محبت است / خدا نور استKhoda mohabbat ast / Khoda nur astὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη/φῶς ἐστίνCriticalGod is Light and God is Love1:5; 4:8,16Predicate-identity statements (God IS love/light, not merely “loving/full of light”); must not collapse into Sufi pantheistic Love/Light-principle identification; syntax preserving identity-force is essential.
perfected / perfectکامل شده / کاملkamel shode / kamelτελειόω / τέλειοςMediumGod is Light and God is Love; Assurance2:5; 4:12,17-18Convey completeness/full realization of a goal, not sinless flawlessness.
fearترسtarsφόβοςHighAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life4:18Specifically servile dread of punishment, not reverential awe; clarify against Persian religious culture’s positive خداترسی virtue-category.
punishment / tormentمجازاتmojazatκόλασιςMediumAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life4:18عذاب (azab)عذاب imports heavier Quranic hellfire-torment apocalyptic freight than John’s general statement warrants; مجازات keeps the simple dread/punishment contrast intact.
overcomeغلبه کردنghalabe kardanνικάωMediumOvercoming the World4:4; 5:4-5Victory over the false-spirit/world system; grounded in “he who is in you is greater.”
eternal lifeحیات ابدیhayat-e abadiζωὴ αἰώνιοςCriticalAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life5:11-13,20 (also 1:2; 2:25; 3:14-15)زندگی جاوید (considered, retained as poetic variant)Linchpin term for present, knowable possession of salvation (5:13) against Islamic deeds-weighed future-Paradise-only default; enforce with same priority as baseline’s Romans 8:28/10:9-10 consistency rule.
water and blood [and Spirit]آب و خون [و روح]ab va khunὕδωρ καὶ αἷμα / πνεῦμαMediumAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life5:6-8Debated referent; avoid resolving ambiguity with an unwarranted interpretive gloss; flag for theologian review.
sin unto deathگناهی که به مرگ می‌انجامدgonahi ke be marg mi’anjamadἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατονHighConfession and Forgiveness of Sin5:16-17Must not be equated with Quranic shirk-as-unforgivable-sin category; genuinely debated passage requiring theologian review.
idolsبت‌هاbot-haεἴδωλαMediumOvercoming the World; Testing the Spirits5:21Useful shared condemnation-category with Islamic širk/idol-worship, but teach broader scope (false christs/spirits) per the letter’s overall argument.
know (relational)شناختنshenakhtanγινώσκωMediumFellowship with God and One Another2:3-4,13-14,29; 3:1,6,16,19-20,24; 4:2,6-8,13,16Relational/experiential knowing; distinguish from propositional دانستن.
know (settled/propositional)دانستنdanestanεἰδέω / οἶδαMediumAssurance of Salvation and Eternal Life2:11,20-21,29; 3:2,5,14-15; 5:13,15,18-20Propositional, settled certainty; dominant in ch. 5’s climactic assurance-formulas — render consistently to preserve John’s rhetorical certainty-effect.
walk (conduct of life)رفتار کردن / راه رفتنraftar kardanπεριπατέωMediumFellowship with God and One Another1:6-7; 2:6,11Whole-lifestyle idiom; transfers reasonably well via existing “path/sirat” religious register.

Risk Summary (1 John New Terms)

Risk TierCountReview Routing
Critical15Human theologian (mandatory, every occurrence)
High13Human theologian
Medium15Native speaker review
Low2Automated review

Total new terms proposed for translation memory: 45, in addition to 12 baseline terms reused exactly without modification.

Notes on Methodology Consistency with Baseline

  1. Every rendering decision above follows the same doctrine-collision analytical framework the baseline translation_memory.json established: Twelver Shia popular piety (Karbala/Hussein intercession-martyrdom, Imamate succession, Mahdi-centered eschatology, Nur-Imamate doctrine), Zoroastrian/Illuminationist emanationism, Sufi mystical-poetic vocabulary (love, light, indwelling/union), Quranic tahrif/naskh assumptions, Iranian civil-legal and state-political structures, and the real safety stakes of the underground house-church context.
  2. Three new terms follow the same deliberate-departure-from-a-more-common-but-riskier-rendering methodology the baseline used for law/ناموس: advocate → شفیع (not left untranslated as a mere transliteration), antichrist → ضدمسیح (never دجال), his coming → بازگشت (not ظهور), and testimony/witness → گواهی (not شهادت).
  3. One term requires a specific, explicit forbidden-compound warning beyond the baseline’s existing forbidden-substitution list: lawlessness must never be rendered as a fused بی‌ناموسی compound, due to that compound’s unrelated and offensive colloquial meaning in everyday Persian (family sexual honor/dishonor), a risk category not previously documented in the baseline and specific to this book’s use of ἀνομία against the namus/law root.
  4. All 12 baseline-reused terms above must load from translation_memory.json unchanged; this glossary does not redefine them, only cites their occurrences within 1 John for Phase 2 segment-flagging purposes.

See analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md for full verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter argumentation behind each entry above.


Critical Risk Terms

God

Approved rendering: خدا
Transliteration: Khoda
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: الله

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Khoda is native pre-Islamic Persian vocabulary shared across Zoroastrian, Christian, and Muslim Persian tradition; risk is entirely in content. In 1 John this term carries the letter’s two predicate-identity theses (‘خدا نور است’ 1:5, ‘خدا محبت است’ 4:8,16); strict tawhid theology must be distinguished from the Trinitarian conception these statements assume.


Jesus

Approved rendering: عیسی
Transliteration: Isa
Doctrine: Sonship and Deity of Christ

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] No naming controversy in Persian; the risk is entirely in content — the Quranic prophet-only, non-crucified, non-divine narrative must be actively corrected, most acutely at 1 John 4:2-3’s incarnation test and 5:1,5,20’s identity statements.


Son Of God

Approved rendering: پسر خدا
Transliteration: pesar-e khoda
Doctrine: Sonship and Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: برگزیده خدا

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Never softened to the rejected Hezare No ‘برگزیده خدا’. 1 John repeats and intensifies this doctrine as the very test of a true confessing spirit (4:15) and the explicit ground of assurance (‘این است خدای حقیقی’, 5:20).


Holy Spirit

Approved rendering: روح‌القدس
Transliteration: Ruh-ol-Qods
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Must retain the created-being-versus-divine-Person distinction against the Quranic Jibril identification. In 1 John also functions as the criterion for Testing the Spirits (4:1-6) and the ground of mutual indwelling (3:24, 4:13).


Father

Approved rendering: پدر
Transliteration: pedar
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Shares Arabic’s tawhid-anthropomorphism objection; Persian Sufi intimate-address tradition uses the Beloved/lover metaphor, not the paternal-filial one. 1 John grounds believers’ present filial identity explicitly on this term (3:1).


Intercession

Approved rendering: شفاعت
Transliteration: shafa’at
Doctrine: Christ’s Advocacy and Intercession

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Conceptual basis for the new proprietary term ‘advocate’ (شفیع) at 2:1. Twelver Shia devotion’s Imam-intercession (shafa’at) category is engaged even more acutely here than in Romans 8, since 2:1 names a specific, ongoing, present-tense advocate role.


Law

Approved rendering: ناموس
Transliteration: namus
Doctrine: Lawlessness as the Nature of Sin
Rejected alternatives: شریعت

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Reused exactly as the conceptual root of ‘lawlessness’ (ἀνομία, 3:4). CRITICAL COMPOUND WARNING: never fuse with بی‌ناموسی — see the ‘lawlessness’ entry below for the severe, unrelated colloquial-insult risk this fused compound creates.


Salvation

Approved rendering: نجات
Transliteration: nejat
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Underlies ‘Savior of the world’ (نجات‌دهنده جهان, 4:14) and ‘eternal life’ (حیات ابدی, 5:11-13). The Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-intercession distinction applies with added force given 1 John’s own explicit blood/propitiation vocabulary (1:7; 4:10).


Righteousness

Approved rendering: عدالت
Transliteration: edalat
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: پارسایی

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] عدالت root underlies both ‘the righteous one’ (Christ’s title as advocate, 2:1) and the new proprietary term ‘unrighteousness’ (بی‌عدالتی, 1:9). Must retain the forensic sense; پارسایی’s Zoroastrian-inflected virtue-achievement connotation remains rejected.


Love

Approved rendering: محبت
Transliteration: mohabbat
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: عشق

The defining term of the core passage (4:7-21) and the whole letter (2:5,10,15; 3:1,10-18; 5:1-3). NEVER render عشق: Persian Sufi mystical-poetic tradition (Rumi, Hafez) loads عشق with passionate, ecstatic divine-human union tied to wahdat al-wujud pantheism. محبت preserves willed, covenantal, self-giving love as a personal moral act, not an emanationist longing or ecstatic absorption into the Divine.


Light

Approved rendering: نور
Transliteration: nur
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love

No viable Persian alternative exists; the risk is entirely in required teaching. نور collides with Twelver Shia Nur Muhammadi/‘Fourteen Lights’ Imamate doctrine (ongoing divine self-disclosure through the Imams) and with Suhrawardi’s Illuminationist philosophy/Mulla Sadra’s Transcendent Theosophy, where nur is the technical vocabulary of metaphysical emanation (parallel to baseline’s فیض caution). Must be taught as moral-relational purity/truthfulness (1:6-7’s ethical outworking), not Imamate succession-light or impersonal emanation.


God Is Love Light

Approved rendering: خدا محبت است / خدا نور است
Transliteration: Khoda mohabbat ast / Khoda nur ast
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love
Rejected alternatives: خدا با محبت است (attribute-only softening)

Predicate-identity statements naming God’s very essence, not merely an attribute among others (1:5; 4:8,16). Persian syntax preserving the direct identity-force (‘خدا محبت است,’ never ‘خدا با محبت است’) is theologically essential, paralleling the Deity-of-Christ predicate-force baseline already guards. Must be taught against collapse into a pantheistic Sufi identification of God with an impersonal cosmic Love/Light-principle.


Word Of Life

Approved rendering: کلمه‌ی حیات
Transliteration: kalame-ye hayat
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist

Opens the letter (1:1). کلمه/کلام is also Islamic theology’s technical term for Kalam Allah — the Quran itself as God’s eternal, uncreated Speech. Using کلمه risks hearers analogizing Christ to an eternal divine utterance/text rather than a distinct, personal, incarnate Son made manifest bodily and historically (heard/seen/touched, 1:1-2). Teach the distinction explicitly at first occurrence.


Blood

Approved rendering: خون
Transliteration: khun
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin

Persian Shia popular piety has an extraordinarily developed devotional vocabulary around the shed blood of martyrs, above all Imam Hussein at Karbala (Ashura mourning, sineh-zani, rowzeh), in which an innocent holy figure’s blood is believed to secure intercessory benefit for mourners. Christ’s blood in 1 John (1:7; 4:10 via ἱλασμός; 5:6,8) must be taught as a categorically distinct, once-for-all, sufficient legal propitiation — never a superior instance of the same martyrdom-intercession pattern.


Advocate

Approved rendering: شفیع
Transliteration: shafi’
Doctrine: Christ’s Advocacy and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: مدافع

Directly extends baseline’s Critical شفاعت entry. Twelver Shia devotional life centers heavily on seeking the Imams’ — especially Hussein’s — shafa’at at the resurrection via Muharram mourning and shrine pilgrimage. Christ’s advocacy at 2:1 must be taught as exclusive, sufficient, and continuously ongoing (present tense), directly engaging rather than sidestepping this popularly central devotional category. مدافع rejected as too weak/neutral to carry the intercessory office.


Propitiation

Approved rendering: کفّاره
Transliteration: kaffareh
Doctrine: Propitiation and Atonement

کفّاره is the established Islamic legal-ritual term for a human-performed, per-violation compensatory act (e.g. fasting extra days, feeding the poor, or freeing a slave to offset breaking a Ramadan fast) — a works-based transaction initiated by the sinner. 1 John’s ἱλασμός (2:2; 4:10) is God’s own unilateral, sufficient, substitutionary provision; must be corrected accordingly and distinguished from the Karbala martyrdom-merit framework. 2:2’s universal scope (‘the whole world’) must be preserved without qualification.


Antichrist

Approved rendering: ضدمسیح
Transliteration: zedd-e Masih
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: دجال

NEVER render دجال (Dajjal): the shared Sunni/Shia single-figure end-times deceiver, defeated by the returning Mahdi’s hand — a fully developed single-future-figure apocalyptic scheme John does not intend. John speaks of ‘many antichrists’ (2:18,22; 4:3), plural and already present in his own day, defined specifically by denial of the incarnate Christ, not primarily a future world-deceiver.


Parousia

Approved rendering: بازگشت
Transliteration: bazgasht
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: ظهور

ظهور is rejected: it is the precise Twelver Shia technical term for the Hidden Twelfth Imam’s awaited reappearance (zuhur-e Imam-e Zaman), the central object of Shia eschatological hope (intezar-e zuhur). Using it for Christ’s return at 2:28 risks the same Mahdi-displacement collision baseline documents for resurrection, messiah, and lord. بازگشت is the safer, fully adequate rendering.


Born Of God

Approved rendering: از خدا مولود شدن
Transliteration: az khoda molud shodan
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth

Genuinely missing vocabulary, not merely crowded: Islamic fitrah doctrine holds every child is born spiritually pure by nature; there is no existing Persian religious concept of a second, adult, God-given re-birth that changes one’s fundamental nature. Must be taught with explicit input at every occurrence (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18), not assumed background.


Lawlessness

Approved rendering: عصیان [از ناموس خدا]
Transliteration: osyan [az namus-e khoda]
Doctrine: Lawlessness as the Nature of Sin
Rejected alternatives: بی‌ناموسی (FORBIDDEN — severe unrelated colloquial insult)

SPECIAL SAFETY FLAG (3:4): a fused compound off ناموس — بی‌ناموسی — is a severe, unrelated colloquial insult in everyday Persian, meaning ‘dishonorable,’ specifically implying failure to protect the sexual honor/chastity of one’s female relatives. This is not a doctrinal collision but a social-register landmine; using it would be offensive and doctrinally absurd, not merely imprecise. Render ONLY as two separate words: عصیان (rebellion/defiance) against God’s ناموس. Never as a fused compound, under any circumstances.


Flesh Incarnation

Approved rendering: جسم
Transliteration: jesm
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist

This is the letter’s single most theologically load-bearing word choice. The christological test of 4:2 stands or falls on جسم carrying full, unambiguous, non-illusory physical-bodily force, directly confronting the Quranic crucifixion-denial framework (shubbiha lahum, Q4:157) already Critical in baseline’s Humanity/Resurrection of Christ entries, now anchored specifically at the point of Incarnation itself. Any softening toward an ‘appearance’ or ‘form’ reading must trigger immediate escalation.


Only Unique Son

Approved rendering: یگانه
Transliteration: yeganeh
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist

Extends baseline’s Critical Sonship-of-Christ entry (4:9: ‘پسر یگانه او’). Must retain یگانه (‘unique/one-of-a-kind’) and never default toward the rejected Hezare No softening. 4:9 combines Sonship, sending, and manifestation in one clause and requires the same enforcement priority as baseline’s پسر خدا.


Testimony Witness

Approved rendering: گواهی / گواهی دادن
Transliteration: govahi / govahi dadan
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: شهادت

شهادت is double-loaded in Twelver Shia usage: (1) the technical word for the shahada creedal testimony formula, and (2) the standard word for martyrdom (shahid), central to Karbala/Hussein piety. Using شهادت risks either reducing apostolic testimony to a recitable creedal formula or confusing it with martyr-death. گواهی/گواهی دادن is the neutral forensic term required instead — a deliberate departure parallel to baseline’s law/ناموس precedent. Concentrated six times at 5:6-11, the book’s heaviest term-density risk (also 4:14).


Savior Of The World

Approved rendering: نجات‌دهنده جهان
Transliteration: nejat-dahande-ye jahan
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life

Twelver Shia eschatology awaits Imam Mahdi as al-Muntazar, the promised end-time deliverer who will ‘fill the earth with justice,’ with Isa returning in a supporting role. ‘Savior of the world’ applied to Christ (4:14) must actively assert his own primary, sufficient, already-accomplished saving work, not one deliverer-candidate among others pending a still-future Mahdi-centered fulfillment.


Eternal Life

Approved rendering: حیات ابدی
Transliteration: hayat-e abadi
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: زندگی جاوید (considered, retained only as a poetic variant)

Islamic eschatology frames entry to Paradise as a future, deeds-weighed (mizan) outcome determined only at death/judgment, never a present, knowable possession. 1 John 5:13’s explicit purpose statement is the single most direct biblical assertion of present assurance in the NT and must be rendered with full, unhedged present-tense confidence — the linchpin verse for this book’s Assurance doctrine, warranting the same cross-document enforcement priority baseline gives Romans 8:28 and 10:9-10 (1:2; 2:25; 3:14-15; 5:11-13,20).


High Risk Terms

Sin

Approved rendering: گناه
Transliteration: gonah
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Fitrah and Chinvat-Bridge deeds-weighing defaults apply equally here; 1 John additionally requires holding together ongoing honest confession (1:8-10) with genuine victory over sin’s dominion (3:6-9) without collapsing into perfectionism or license.


Faith

Approved rendering: ایمان
Transliteration: iman
Doctrine: Overcoming the World

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Must be anchored as personal trust in Christ, not creedal assent to a succession doctrine. 1 John 5:4-5 makes faith the explicit, sole instrument of overcoming the world.


Darkness

Approved rendering: تاریکی
Transliteration: tariki
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love

Paired risk with ‘light’; must retain the moral-relational sense (unconfessed sin and estrangement), not merely physical or epistemic darkness (1:5-6; 2:8-11).


Manifested

Approved rendering: آشکار شد / ظاهر شد
Transliteration: ashkar shod / zaher shod
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist

Must convey a concrete, historical, once-for-all disclosure (1:2; 3:2,5,8; 4:9), guarding against the Zoroastrian-emanationist habit of imagining recurring or partial divine self-disclosures, parallel to baseline’s incarnation caution.


Confess

Approved rendering: اعتراف کردن
Transliteration: e’teraf kardan
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin

Risk of assimilation to the Islamic shahada as a fixed, recitable creedal formula rather than a costly, Spirit-enabled personal declaration. At 1:9 must be confession of sin directly to God, not a human intermediary/confessor. At 4:2-3,15 this confession of Christ carries real apostasy-law danger for underground house-church confessors and must retain that costly, personal force.


Forgive

Approved rendering: بخشیدن / بخشش
Transliteration: bakhshidan / bakhshesh
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: آمرزش

Islamic maghfirah/آمرزش is generally weighed against deeds and sincere tawba (repentance) without a mediating substitutionary sacrifice. The causal link ‘blood of Jesus → cleansing/forgiveness’ (1:7,9) must be made explicit at every occurrence, not left implicit as though forgiveness follows from repentance alone.


Cleanse

Approved rendering: پاک کردن
Transliteration: pak kardan
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: تطهیر

تطهیر is rejected: too closely tied to ritual ablution (wudu/ghusl) purity categories. پاک کردن keeps the sense moral and relational (1:7,9).


Commandment

Approved rendering: حکم / احکام
Transliteration: hokm / ahkam
Doctrine: Obedience and Commandments as Fruit of Love
Rejected alternatives: فرمان (considered, retained only as a secondary option)

احکام especially risks direct terminological overlap with ahkam al-shari’a (shari’a legal rulings), reproducing baseline’s law/grace collision. Must be taught consistently as the outflow of love received (4:19) and new birth (2:29-3:1), never as a merit-earning legal code (2:3-11; 3:22-24; 4:21; 5:2-3).


World Negative

Approved rendering: دنیا
Transliteration: donya
Doctrine: Worldliness: Love Not the World

The existing donya/akhirat (‘this transient world’ vs. the hereafter) polarity is a helpful partial bridge but not identical: John’s κόσμος here (2:15-17; 4:4-5; 5:4-5,19) is a moral-spiritual system in active rebellion against God, organized around lust and pride and ruled by the evil one — not merely ‘temporal/passing’ in donya’s neutral sense. Must be disambiguated per-occurrence from the neutral world_neutral entry below.


Anointing

Approved rendering: مسح
Transliteration: mash
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits

مسح shares its root with مسیح (Masih), risking either (a) the impression that every believer becomes a ‘little messiah’ sharing Christ’s unique office, or (b) confusion with ritual chrismation/anointing-with-oil sacramental practice. Must be taught as the Spirit’s given capacity for discernment (2:20,27), tied to Testing the Spirits, distinct from Christ’s own unique messianic anointing.


Abide

Approved rendering: ماندن
Transliteration: mandan
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another

Very high-frequency term (2:6,10,14,17,19,24,27-28; 3:6,9,14-15,17,24; 4:12-13,15-16). Persian Sufi tradition has developed vocabulary for divine indwelling/union — hulul (حلول) and especially wahdat al-wujud (‘unity of being,’ Ibn Arabi’s school) describing the seeker’s ontological dissolution into the Divine. John’s μένω is relational mutual indwelling of two distinct persons (God and believer), NOT ontological merging or loss of personal identity into an impersonal Absolute; this distinction must be made explicit at every occurrence given the term’s frequency.


Children Of God

Approved rendering: فرزندان خدا
Transliteration: farzandan-e khoda
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth

This birth-metaphor (τέκνα/γεννάω, 3:1-2,10; 5:2) is a related but distinct Greek category from Romans’ legal adoption-metaphor (υἱοθεσία, باseline فرزندخواندگی). Both must be taught as conveying full, undiminished filial standing against Iranian civil law’s weaker سرپرستی (custodianship) default; 1 John’s emphasis is on actual spiritual generation/new nature, complementing rather than duplicating Romans’ legal-declaration emphasis.


Practices Sin Righteousness

Approved rendering: (به گناه/عدالت) عادت داشتن، عمل کردن
Transliteration: ‘adat dashtan, ‘amal kardan
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth

The durative Greek present tense (3:4-10) is theologically load-bearing: must render as habitual, patterned conduct, not a single act, or readers may wrongly conclude either sinless perfection is required for genuine new birth (contradicting 1:8-10, 2:1) or that ongoing, unrepentant sin is compatible with new birth (contradicting 3:9).


Lay Down Life

Approved rendering: جان خود را فدا کردن
Transliteration: jan-e khod ra feda kardan
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth

‘فدا کردن’ resonates strongly with Shia martyrdom-devotional vocabulary (fedaiyan, self-sacrifice for the Imam or cause; the Karbala ethos of Hussein’s self-giving). Teach 3:16’s believer-to-believer imitation pattern as categorically distinct in kind from Christ’s own unique, singular atoning death (4:10’s ἱλασμός), not two instances of the same self-sacrifice category.


Confidence

Approved rendering: اطمینان / دلیری
Transliteration: etminan / daliri
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life

Mainstream Islamic piety generally treats certainty of one’s own final verdict as presumptuous, given the deeds-weighing (mizan) framework. 1 John 3:21, 4:17, and 5:14 directly confront this default and must be translated with unambiguous confident force, not hedged into mere hopefulness.


Test The Spirits

Approved rendering: روح‌ها را بیازمایید
Transliteration: ruh-ha ra biyazmayid
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits

Risk of assimilation into folk-Islamic/popular discernment practices around jinn (spirits), exorcism, and divination widely present in Iranian popular religion. Must be anchored specifically and exclusively to the christological test John gives at 4:2-3, never treated as a general spiritual-discernment or exorcistic technique.


Fear

Approved rendering: ترس
Transliteration: tars
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life

Persian religious culture positively commends خداترسی (‘God-fearing-ness’) as a piety virtue; must clarify that 4:18 addresses specifically servile dread of punishment, not reverence, or hearers may wrongly conclude loving God requires abandoning all reverence.


Sin Unto Death

Approved rendering: گناهی که به مرگ می‌انجامد
Transliteration: gonahi ke be marg mi’anjamad
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin

Must NOT be taught as equivalent to the Quranic category of shirk as the one unforgivable sin (Quran 4:48,116) — a superficially similar ‘one unforgivable category’ structure that is not John’s actual point (5:16-17; likely persistent, unrepentant apostasy/rejection of Christ within a believing community, not primarily idolatry as such). Genuinely debated; flag for theologian review at every occurrence.


Medium Risk Terms

Fellowship

Approved rendering: مشارکت
Transliteration: mosharekat
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Shirk-root resonance caution applies equally; 1:3,6-7 makes fellowship (with God and with one another) the letter’s own stated purpose.


Glory

Approved rendering: جلال
Transliteration: jalal
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love

[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE] Present only as background doxological register in 1 John; the acute, book-specific version of this same devotional-poetic caution is documented under the new ‘light’ entry below.


Unrighteousness

Approved rendering: بی‌عدالتی
Transliteration: bi-‘edalati
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin

Built on baseline’s عدالت root (1:9); keep the forensic sense consistent with baseline’s righteousness/justification entries.


Keep Commandments

Approved rendering: نگاه داشتن / رعایت کردن
Transliteration: negah dashtan / re’ayat kardan
Doctrine: Obedience and Commandments as Fruit of Love

Must convey continuous, loving observance (2:3-5; 3:22,24; 5:2-3,18), not mere external legal compliance.


World Neutral

Approved rendering: جهان
Transliteration: jahan
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love

Context-sensitive counterpart to world_negative, used for the created/inhabited world as the object of God’s saving mission (2:2; 4:1,3,9,14,17). Misapplying the negative دنیا sense at 4:9,14 would make God’s mission-target sound like the very thing he opposes — apply the same per-occurrence discipline baseline uses for ‘called.‘


Lust Pride Triad

Approved rendering: هوس جسم، هوس چشم، غرور زندگی
Transliteration: havas-e jesm, havas-e cheshm, ghorur-e zendegi
Doctrine: Worldliness: Love Not the World

The threefold anatomy of worldliness (2:16): disordered bodily appetite, visual covetousness, status-boasting. Standard idiomatic transfer; low independent risk beyond the parent world_negative entry.


Truth

Approved rendering: حقیقت / راستی
Transliteration: haqiqat / rasti
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits

The criterion distinguishing the Spirit’s teaching from the antichrists’ error (2:21,27; 3:19; 4:6; 5:6). Standard vocabulary; low independent risk beyond context.


Lie Liar

Approved rendering: دروغ / دروغگو
Transliteration: dorogh / doroghgu
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits

Blunt Johannine diagnostic force must be retained (1:10; 2:4,21-22,27; 4:20; 5:10) — denial of Christ, or false claims of fellowship/love without obedience.


Seed Of God

Approved rendering: بذر الهی
Transliteration: bazr-e elahi
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth

The internal, given, regenerating divine nature (3:9) that makes continued lawlessness incompatible with new birth. Must be disambiguated from baseline’s نسل داوود (seed of David, physical lineage) — a different referent and metaphor; recommend an explanatory gloss rather than بذر alone.


Spirit Of Error Truth

Approved rendering: روح گمراهی / روح راستی
Transliteration: ruh-e gomrahi / ruh-e rasti
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits

The two source-categories summarizing the Testing the Spirits criterion (4:6). گمراهی productively parallels the Quranic hidayah/dalalah (guidance/misguidance) polarity — a genuinely useful, lower-risk bridge concept; flag as an opportunity in teaching materials, not merely a caution.


Sent

Approved rendering: فرستاد
Transliteration: ferestad
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist

God as the initiating, commissioning agent of the Son’s mission (4:9-10,14); distinguishes the Incarnation as a purposeful sending, not a self-generated appearance.


Perfected

Approved rendering: کامل شده / کامل
Transliteration: kamel shode / kamel
Doctrine: God is Light and God is Love

Must convey ‘brought to its full intended expression/goal’ (2:5; 4:12,17-18), not ‘made flawless/sinless’ — an important nuance given the Islamic deeds-perfection framework baseline already flags around righteousness/justification.


Punishment

Approved rendering: مجازات
Transliteration: mojazat
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: عذاب

عذاب is rejected: it imports the heavier Quranic hellfire-torment apocalyptic register (azab-e qabr, azab-e jahannam) than John’s simple statement (4:18) warrants. مجازات keeps the verse’s basic dread/punishment contrast intact.


Overcome

Approved rendering: غلبه کردن
Transliteration: ghalabe kardan
Doctrine: Overcoming the World

Victory over the false-spirit/world system (4:4; 5:4-5), grounded in ‘he who is in you is greater.’ Must keep faith (ایمان) as the explicit, sole instrument of victory (5:4), not effort, asceticism, or ritual observance — a point of contact with, but also correction of, Sufi zuhd (world-renunciation).


Water And Blood

Approved rendering: آب و خون [و روح]
Transliteration: ab va khun [va ruh]
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life

A genuinely debated, difficult passage (5:6-8; possible referents: Christ’s baptism and crucifixion, or ongoing sacramental/experiential witness). Do not resolve the ambiguity with an interpretive gloss not present in the Greek; flag for theologian review rather than importing a single settled reading.


Idols

Approved rendering: بت‌ها
Transliteration: bot-ha
Doctrine: Overcoming the World

بت‌پرستی (idol-worship) is a shared, positively-agreed Quranic condemnation category (shirk in its literal sense) — a useful point of agreement, but teach that John’s closing warning (5:21) likely extends beyond literal images to any false christ/spirit/rival loyalty addressed throughout the letter (2:18-23; 4:1-6), not narrowly cult statuary.


Know Relational

Approved rendering: شناختن
Transliteration: shenakhtan
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another

Relational, experiential knowledge of a person (God/Christ), as opposed to propositional fact-knowledge. Should be consistently preferred over دانستن at 2:3-4,13-14,29; 3:1,6,16,19-20,24; 4:2,6-8,13,16 to preserve John’s relational epistemology.


Know Propositional

Approved rendering: دانستن
Transliteration: danestan
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life

Settled, confident, propositional knowledge — dominant in ch. 5’s climactic assurance-formulas (5:13,15,18,19,20, also 2:11,20-21,29; 3:2,5,14-15). Render consistently to preserve John’s rhetorical certainty-effect built through repetition; reserve شناختن for relational knowing statements.


Walk

Approved rendering: رفتار کردن / راه رفتن
Transliteration: raftar kardan
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another

The Hebraic idiom for one’s whole manner of life, not physical movement (1:6-7; 2:6,11). Transfers reasonably well via the existing religious register of ‘path/sirat,’ but must retain ‘manner of life’ force.


Low Risk Terms

Little Children Address

Approved rendering: فرزندان من / ای فرزندان
Transliteration: farzandan-e man
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth

John’s warm pastoral address to his readers (2:1,12-13,18,28; 3:2,7,18; 4:4; 5:21); low independent risk.


Heart

Approved rendering: دل
Transliteration: del
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life

The seat of moral, emotional, and volitional life (3:19-21). Standard; low independent risk.

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