Core Glossary
Core Glossary: 1 Thessalonians
Section A — Baseline Terms Reused Exactly (No Deviation Permitted)
These terms occur in 1 Thessalonians and already carry a fixed, non-negotiable rendering from the baseline Romans Language Package. Per the AI Translation Requirements’ Glossary Enforcement Priority Order, these renderings must be used exactly as recorded with no substitution.
| English term | Persian rendering | Transliteration | Baseline risk | Key 1 Thessalonians occurrences | Note for this curriculum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gospel | انجیل | Injil | High | 1:5; 2:2,4,8,9; 3:2 | No new risk; reinforce NT-record-not-corrupted-predecessor framing per baseline. |
| Faith | ایمان | iman | High | 1:3,8; 3:2,5,6,7,10; 5:8 | Anchor as personal trust in Christ, esp. in 3:2-10’s “establish/comfort… in your faith.” |
| Grace | فیض | feyz | High | 1:1; 5:28 | Standard epistolary greeting/closing use; low independent new risk. |
| Salvation | نجات | nejat | Critical | 5:8,9 | Ties directly to “helmet of the hope of salvation” and “obtaining salvation” — reinforce baseline Karbala/martyrdom-intercession distinction. |
| Apostle | رسول | rasul | High | 2:6 | Reuse baseline Imamate-succession collision note. |
| Called / calling | دعوتشده / دعوت | da’vat-shode / da’vat | High/Medium | 2:12; 4:7; 5:24 | 4:7 “God has called you not for impurity but for holiness” — effectual calling to sanctified life; 5:24 “he who calls you is faithful.” |
| Holy | مقدس | moqaddas | Medium | throughout (e.g. 4:7 آنچه که خدا شما را برای آن دعوت کرده تقدیس است) | Relational/moral holiness, not ritual purity. |
| Saints | مقدسین | moqaddasin | High | 3:13 | ”with all his saints” at the Parousia; corporate body, not ascetic elite. |
| Sanctification | تقدیس | taqdis | High | 3:13; 4:3,4,7; 5:23 | 1 Thessalonians’ single densest doctrinal concentration of this term; flag every occurrence for human theologian review per baseline routing. |
| Resurrection | قیامت | qiyamat | Critical | 4:14,16 | Ground of the whole core passage; reinforce baseline’s Mahdi-subordination caution at every occurrence. |
| Lord | خداوند | Khodavand | Critical | throughout (1:1,3,6,8; 2:15,19; 3:8,11,12,13; 4:1,2,6,15,16,17; 5:2,9,12,23,27,28) | Extremely high-frequency term in this letter; every Parousia-adjacent occurrence (4:15-17, 5:23) carries compounded risk with the new παρουσία entry — flag jointly. |
| Son of God | پسر خدا | pesar-e khoda | Critical | 1:10 | ”to wait for his Son from heaven” — first occurrence of the letter’s Return-of-Christ theme; never substitute برگزیده خدا. |
| Peace | سلام | salam | Medium | 1:1; 5:3,13,23 | Never substitute آرامش, including in 5:3’s ironic “peace and security” (false peace preceding sudden destruction) and 5:13’s congregational peace. |
| Spiritual gifts | عطایای روحانی | ’ataya-ye ruhani | Medium | (implicit in 5:19-20 prophecy context) | No direct lexical occurrence, but the Spirit/prophecy cluster in 5:19-20 is doctrinally adjacent; keep terminology consistent if referenced in teaching notes. |
| Thanksgiving | شکرگزاری | shokr-gozari | Low | 1:2; 2:13; 3:9; 5:18 | High-frequency in this letter’s thanksgiving-heavy opening and closing; low risk throughout. |
| Fellowship | مشارکت | mosharekat | Medium | (implicit, 5:11 mutual building-up context) | No direct lexical occurrence; retained for consistency if used in teaching material. |
| Church | کلیسا | kelisa | High | 1:1 (implicit address); 2:14 | ”the churches of God in Judea” (2:14) — reuse baseline’s house-church-reality framing for the Thessalonian congregation’s own likely house-based, persecuted context. |
| Kingdom of God | ملکوت خدا | malakut-e khoda | Medium | 2:12 | ”walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” |
| Sin | گناه | gonah | High | (implicit background, 4:3-8 purity section) | No direct lexical occurrence of ἁμαρτία in the letter; πορνεία (new term, Section B) is the operative vocabulary instead. |
| Gentiles | غیریهودیان | gheyr-yahudian | Medium | 2:16; 4:5 | Never substitute امتها; 4:5’s “Gentiles who do not know God” is a moral-religious contrast, not an ethnic slur. |
| Glory | جلال | jalal | Medium | 2:12,20 | ”your glory” (2:20, of the Thessalonians as Paul’s crown) and “his own kingdom and glory” (2:12); note ties to the νεφέλαι (clouds/theophany) imagery at 4:17. |
| Power of God | قدرت خدا | qodrat-e khoda | Medium | 1:5 | ”our gospel came… in power” |
| Messiah / Christ | مسیح | Masih | Critical | throughout, paired with عیسی (e.g. “Jesus Christ,” 1:1,3; 2:14,19; 3:11,13; 4:1,2,14,16; 5:9,18,23,28) | Reuse baseline’s Mahdi-displacement caution at every Parousia-adjacent occurrence. |
| Prophecy | نبوت | nabovat | Low | 5:20 | ”do not despise prophecies” |
| Covenant | عهد | ’ahd | Medium | (implicit background only; no direct lexical occurrence) | Retained for consistency; not independently load-bearing in this letter. |
| Election | برگزیدگی خدا | bargozidegi-ye khoda | High | 1:4 | ”knowing… your election” — reuse baseline’s Imamate-lineage caution. |
| Providence | تدبیر الهی | tadbir-e elahi | Medium | (implicit, 5:9-10, 5:24 “he who calls you is faithful”) | Retained for teaching consistency around God’s faithful governance of the church’s future. |
| Mission | ماموریت | ma’muriyat | Medium | (implicit, 1:8 gospel spreading “everywhere”) | Retained for consistency; connects to the letter’s missionary self-references (Paul, Silas, Timothy). |
| David | داوود | Davud | Medium | (not directly named; background only) | No direct occurrence. |
| Israel | اسرائیل | Esra’il | High | (not directly named; background only via “the Jews,” 2:14-15) | 2:14-15’s reference to “the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus” requires the same careful pastoral framing as the baseline’s Israel entry, distinct from any contemporary political register. |
| Jesus | عیسی | Isa | Critical | throughout | Consistently paired with مسیح; every occurrence in the Parousia/resurrection passages (1:10; 4:14; 4:16; 5:23) carries compounded risk. |
| God | خدا | Khoda | Critical | throughout (extremely high frequency) | No new risk beyond baseline; reinforce Trinitarian distinction at every occurrence. |
| Holy Spirit | روحالقدس | Ruh-ol-Qods | Critical | 1:5,6; 4:8; 5:19 | 5:19’s “do not quench the Spirit” is the letter’s key personhood-reinforcing verse; reuse baseline’s Jibril-identification caution. |
| Father | پدر | pedar | Critical | 1:1,3; 3:11,13 | Standard epistolary “God our Father” address; reuse baseline’s tawhid-anthropomorphism caution. |
| Exhort | تشویق کردن | tashviq kardan | Low | 2:12; 4:1,10; 5:11,14 | Context-sensitive per baseline: comfort-sense in 4:18/5:11, admonish-sense in 5:14 (where νουθετέω, a distinct term, is also present — see Section B). |
| Imputed righteousness | عدالت محسوبشده | edalat-e mahsub-shode | Critical | (not directly present; no occurrence in 1 Thessalonians) | Retained for cross-curriculum consistency only. |
Section B — New Terms Introduced by 1 Thessalonians (Require Registry Extension)
These terms do not appear in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and must be added as new entries — following the same JSON schema, risk framework, and citation conventions as the baseline — before Phase 2 translation of this curriculum proceeds.
| English term | Greek / transliteration | Recommended Persian rendering | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | Rejected alternative(s) | Grounded reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return of Christ / Parousia | παρουσία / parousia | آمدن دوباره خداوند ما عیسی مسیح (compound); بازگشت مسیح (short form) | âmadan-e dobâre-ye Khodavand-e mâ Isâ Masih / bazgasht-e Masih | Critical | The Return of Christ | ظهور (zohur) | ظهور is the fixed Twelver Shia technical term for the Hidden Twelfth Imam’s (Mahdi’s) reappearance after occultation (غیبت); using it for Christ’s Parousia would graft the entire Mahdi-centered eschatological expectation onto Christ or subordinate him to it, directly compounding the baseline’s already-documented Messiah/Resurrection Mahdi-displacement risk. Occurs 1 Thess 1:10 (implicit), 2:19, 3:13, 4:15, 5:23 — lock one rendering across all five for cross-document consistency. |
| Day of the Lord | ἡμέρα κυρίου / hēmera kyriou | روز خداوند | ruz-e Khodavand | Critical | The Day of the Lord | روز قیامت (ruz-e Qiyamat); آخرت (akherat) | روز قیامت is the single most central phrase in Qur’anic and popular Islamic eschatology for the Day of Judgment/Resurrection, carrying its own detailed, independent sequence (Sur trumpet, mizan scales, sirat bridge). Using it here would erase the term’s Christ-specific identity; خداوند (already the baseline’s own locked rendering for κύριος) must be retained as the distinguishing element. Occurs 5:2,4. |
| Caught up (Rapture) | ἁρπάζω (ἁρπαγησόμεθα) / harpazō | ربوده شدن | robude shodan | Critical | The Return of Christ / Resurrection of Believers | معراجگونه بالا رفتن (an “mi’raj-like ascent,” self-directed) | Must preserve the passive, God-initiated sense (something done to believers) and must not be phrased as a self-achieved ascent, which would risk resonance with accounts of mystical/prophetic ascent (mi’raj) in Islamic tradition. Distinguish also from Isa’s own reported Qur’anic “raising” (رفع, a different root) — the two events must not be merged. Occurs 4:17. |
| Trumpet of God | σάλπιγξ θεοῦ / salpinx theou | شیپور خدا | shipur-e khoda | Critical | Resurrection of Believers | صور (sur) | صور is the fixed Qur’anic term (نفخ الصور) for Israfil’s two eschatological trumpet-blasts at Qiyamat; using it imports that entire specific sequence onto Paul’s text. شیپور is a generic, non-Qur’an-specific word for a trumpet/horn. Occurs 4:16. |
| Fallen asleep (death euphemism) | κοιμάομαι (κοιμωμένων / κοιμηθέντας) / koimaomai | خوابیدگان (nominal) / در خواب بودن (verbal) | khabidegan / dar khab budan | High | Resurrection of Believers / Hope in Grief | — (no rejected alternative; risk is in under-qualification, not substitution) | Must always be anchored with “in Jesus” (4:14) so as not to collapse into the generic Islamic barzakh intermediate-state framework, which lacks this passage’s specific ground of union with Christ. Occurs 4:13,14,15 (also 5:10 implicitly via ζῶμεν/καθεύδωμεν contrast). |
| Archangel | ἀρχάγγελος / archangelos | فرشتهٔ اعظم / رئیسفرشته | fereshte-ye a’zam / ra’is-fereshte | High | The Return of Christ | (do not name as Jibril, Mika’il, or Israfil) | Must not be identified with any specific named angel from Islamic angelology (esp. Israfil, given the co-occurring trumpet in the same verse); teach as depicting scale/authority only, since the text itself does not name the angel. Occurs 4:16. |
| Imitators | μιμηταί / mimētai | سرمشق گرفتن (از) / الگو قرار دادن | sarmashq gereftan (az) | High | Sanctification | تقلید کردن / مقلد (taqlid / moqallid) | تقلید is the fixed Twelver Shia juridical term for a lay believer’s obligatory following of a marja’/mujtahid in religious law; using it for “imitating the Lord/apostles” imports an entire clerical-authority structure foreign to the text’s meaning. Occurs 1:6; (conceptually echoed 2:14’s “imitators of the churches of Judea”). |
| Quench the Spirit | σβέννυμι (μὴ σβέννυτε) / sbennumi | روح را خاموش نکنید | ruh ra khamush nakonid | High | Sanctification (Holy Spirit’s personhood) | — | Reinforces the baseline’s Critical-risk holy_spirit personhood note: “quenching” language implies a personal, relational presence who can be resisted/suppressed by the community, not an impersonal force or energy. Occurs 5:19. |
| Hope | ἐλπίς / elpis | امید | omid | Medium-High | Hope in Grief | — | No baseline entry exists; new to this curriculum. Risk: flattening into generic optimism/fatalistic qadar-resignation, or absorption into Shia hope-patterns characteristically bound to Imam-intercession, rather than a certain expectation grounded specifically in Christ’s own accomplished resurrection and promised return. Occurs 1:3; 4:13; 5:8. |
| Grief / sorrow | λύπη (λυπῆσθε) / lypē | غم / اندوه | gham / andouh | Medium-High | Hope in Grief | — | Must be rendered so Paul’s qualifier (“as others who have no hope”) contrasts presence/absence of hope, not Persian mourning customs generally; sensitive to the devotionally central role of ritualized, visible grief in Iranian culture, especially Muharram/Karbala lamentation practice. Occurs 4:13. |
| Meeting [the Lord] | ἀπάντησις / apantēsis | استقبال / به دیدار [خداوند] رفتن | esteqbal / be didar-e [Khodavand] raftan | Medium-High | The Return of Christ | — | Requires a cultural-background teaching note (Hellenistic civic ceremony of a city’s leading citizens formally welcoming/escorting an arriving dignitary) so the scene is not read as a static, passive rendezvous or merged with generic Islamic imagery of souls meeting angels at death. Occurs 4:17. |
| Sons of light / darkness | υἱοὶ φωτός / υἱοὶ σκότους / huioi phōtos / huioi skotous | فرزندان نور / فرزندان تاریکی | farzandan-e nur / farzandan-e tariki | Medium-High | The Day of the Lord | — | Must be taught as an ethical-covenantal metaphor within strict monotheism, not conflated with Zoroastrianism’s own metaphysically co-eternal light/darkness (Ahura Mazda/Ahriman) dualism, in which darkness is an independent, eternal cosmic principle rather than a defeated, non-eternal moral condition under one sovereign God. Occurs 5:5. |
| Wrath | ὀργή / orgē | خشم [الهی] / غضب | khashm-e elahi / ghazab | Medium | The Day of the Lord | — | Personal, judicial divine displeasure culminating at a future day; broadly compatible in outline with Islamic ghadab but must be anchored to Christ specifically as the one who rescues believers from it (1:10; 5:9), not merely a coming figure who warns of it. Occurs 1:10; 2:16; 5:9. |
| Word of the Lord | λόγος κυρίου / logos kyriou | کلام خداوند | kalam-e Khodavand | Medium | Inspiration of Scripture (cross-reference to baseline) | — | Claims direct divine authority for the apostolic teaching that follows; teach consistently with baseline’s inspiration doctrine (God moving an apostle to speak, not verbatim wahy-style dictation), and not as an independent new revelation superseding the Gospels/OT. Occurs 4:15. |
| Sexual immorality | πορνεία / porneia | بیعفتی جنسی / روابط نامشروع | bi-effati-ye jensi / ravabet-e namashru’ | Medium | Sanctification | زنا (zena, as sole/primary rendering) | زنا carries Iran’s specific, narrower hadd-punishable criminal-legal connotation (adultery specifically); a broader compound is needed to cover Paul’s full category without invoking that specific legal framework. Occurs 4:3. |
| Spirit, soul, body | πνεῦμα, ψυχή, σῶμα / pneuma, psychē, sōma | روح، نفس/جان، بدن | ruh, nafs/jan, badan | Medium | Sanctification / Resurrection of Believers | — | Do not map onto the graded Sufi nafs-hierarchy (nafs al-ammara, al-lawwama, al-mutma’inna), which describes stages of moral development rather than constituent parts of a person preserved for the Day of the Lord. Occurs 5:23. |
| Blameless | ἄμεμπτος / amemptos | بیعیب | bi-eyb | Medium | Sanctification | — | Teach as a kept/preserved status secured by God’s faithfulness (5:24), consistent with the baseline’s forensic, gift-based framing of righteousness/justification, not a self-achieved moral perfection. Occurs 5:23. |
| Admonish | νουθετέω / noutheteō | نصیحت کردن | nasihat kardan | Low | Mutual Edification | — | Distinct from the comfort-sense of παρακαλέω/تشویق کردن; supplies a dedicated term for the corrective/warning register. Occurs 5:14. |
| Affliction / tribulation | θλῖψις / thlipsis | رنج / سختی | ranj / sakhti | Low-Medium | (cross-references Christian suffering broadly; no dedicated baseline doctrine entry) | — | Connects to real, present persecution risk for underground Iranian house-church believers; teach with that lived reality in view. Occurs 1:6; 3:3,7. |
| Idols | εἴδωλον / eidōlon | بت | bot | Low-Medium | (background to Gospel/God doctrines) | — | Low ambiguity; teach the object of exclusive worship (the living and true God, known through his Son) as the operative distinction, not a generalized anti-idolatry theme. Occurs 1:9. |
| Holy kiss | φίλημα ἁγίῳ / philēma hagiō | بوسه مقدس | buse-ye moqaddas | Low | Christian Fellowship | — | Flag for native-speaker cultural-adaptation review (greeting customs vary by gender/context in contemporary Iranian house-church practice); teach intent (warm, pure, familial greeting), not literalistic practice. Occurs 5:26. |
Doctrine Coverage Cross-Check (Full Book)
| Curriculum doctrine | Chapters engaged | Core new terms | Baseline terms reused |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Return of Christ | 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15-17; 5:23 | Parousia, Caught up, Meeting the Lord, Archangel, Trumpet of God | Lord, Son of God, Jesus, Messiah, Glory |
| Resurrection of Believers | 4:13-18 (core); 1:10 (background) | Fallen asleep, Trumpet of God, Caught up | Resurrection (قیامت), Faith |
| Sanctification | 3:13; 4:1-12; 5:23 | Sexual immorality, Imitators, Spirit/soul/body, Blameless, Quench the Spirit | Sanctification (تقدیس), Holy, Holy Spirit, Called |
| Hope in Grief | 1:3; 4:13,18; 5:8 | Hope, Grief/sorrow | Faith, Salvation |
| The Day of the Lord | 5:1-11 | Day of the Lord, Sons of light/darkness, Wrath | Peace, Salvation, Prophecy |
Chapters Confirmed Reviewed with No Additional New Vocabulary Beyond What Is Recorded Above
All five chapters of 1 Thessalonians (1-5) have been reviewed in full; no chapter was found to introduce theological vocabulary outside what is captured in Section A (reused baseline terms) and Section B (new terms) above. No chapter is silently omitted.
Critical Risk Terms
Salvation
Approved rendering: نجات
Transliteration: nejat
Doctrine: Salvation
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Must be distinguished from the Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-intercession pattern and from the deeds-weighing (mizan) framework. Occurs 1 Thess 5:8,9, explicitly contrasted with coming wrath (ὀργή).
Resurrection
Approved rendering: قیامت
Transliteration: qiyamat
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Original: ἀνάστασις / ἀνίστημι
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs 1 Thess 4:14 (Christ’s own resurrection, the argument’s foundation) and 4:16 (‘the dead in Christ will rise first’). Every occurrence in 4:13-18 must carry an explicit ‘in Christ’ anchor distinguishing this church-specific resurrection from the generic, universal-simultaneous Qiyamat sequence (Sur trumpet, mizan, sirat).
Lord
Approved rendering: خداوند
Transliteration: Khodavand
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: سرور
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Extremely high-frequency in this letter (e.g. 1:1,3,6,8; 2:15,19; 3:8,11-13; 4:1,2,6,15-17; 5:2,9,12,23,27,28). Every Parousia-adjacent occurrence (4:15-17; 5:23) and the ‘Day of the Lord’ phrase (5:2) compounds this term’s risk with return_of_christ and day_of_the_lord below; flag jointly for human theologian review.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: پسر خدا
Transliteration: pesar-e khoda
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: برگزیده خدا
Original: υἱὸς αὐτοῦ (θεοῦ)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Never substitute برگزیده خدا (rejected Hezare No rendering). Occurs 1 Thess 1:10, ‘to wait for his Son from heaven’ — the letter’s opening statement of the Return-of-Christ theme.
Messiah
Approved rendering: مسیح
Transliteration: Masih
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs throughout, consistently paired with عیسی. Reuse the Mahdi-displacement caution at every Parousia-adjacent occurrence (1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:14,16; 5:9,23).
Jesus
Approved rendering: عیسی
Transliteration: Isa
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs throughout; every occurrence in the Parousia/resurrection passages (1:10; 4:14,16; 5:23) carries compounded risk with return_of_christ, resurrection, and caught_up_rapture below.
God
Approved rendering: خدا
Transliteration: Khoda
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: الله
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Extremely high frequency throughout; reinforce the Trinitarian conception distinct from strict tawhid theology, especially where God raises Jesus (1:10) and brings the dead ‘through Jesus’ (4:14).
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: روحالقدس
Transliteration: Ruh-ol-Qods
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs 1:5,6; 4:8; 5:19. The 5:19 command ‘do not quench the Spirit’ (see quench_the_spirit below) is this letter’s key personhood-reinforcing verse; reuse the Jibril-identification caution.
Father
Approved rendering: پدر
Transliteration: pedar
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Standard epistolary address ‘God our Father’ (1:1,3; 3:11,13); reuse the tawhid-anthropomorphism caution.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: عدالت محسوبشده
Transliteration: edalat-e mahsub-shode
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: عدالت کسبشده
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). No direct occurrence in 1 Thessalonians; retained for cross-curriculum consistency only.
Return Of Christ
Approved rendering: بازگشت مسیح
Transliteration: bazgasht-e Masih
Doctrine: The Return of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ظهور, رجعت, قیام قائم
Original: παρουσία
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Full/thesis form آمدن دوباره خداوند ما عیسی مسیح (âmadan-e dobâre-ye Khodavand-e mâ Isâ Masih) should be used at first/central occurrences (1:10; 4:15-17); short form بازگشت مسیح for subsequent references. ظهور is the fixed Twelver Shia technical term for the Hidden Twelfth Imam’s reappearance after occultation (غیبت) and would graft Mahdi-centered expectation onto Christ or subordinate him to it; رجعت (the Shia doctrine of certain deceased Imams’/believers’ return before the Resurrection) and قیام قائم (the Mahdi’s eschatological rising) are equally rejected. Always pair with خداوند and/or مسیح so the event remains unmistakably Christ-owned. Occurs (all five must share this locked rendering) 1:10 (implicit); 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23. Every occurrence requires human theologian review.
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: روز خداوند
Transliteration: ruz-e Khodavand
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Rejected alternatives: روز قیامت, آخرت, روز آخر, قیام قائم
Original: ἡμέρα κυρίου
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. روز قیامت is the single most central Qur’anic phrase for the Day of Judgment/Resurrection, carrying its own detailed, independent sequence (Sur trumpet, mizan scales, sirat bridge) that would erase this term’s Christ-specific identity; آخرت/روز آخر carry the same generic Islamic apocalyptic loading. خداوند (already locked for κύριος) must always be present and untruncated — never shortened to a bare ‘that day.’ Occurs 5:2,4. Add a standing validation-rule check against silent ‘auto-correction’ back to روز قیامت during editing passes.
Caught Up Rapture
Approved rendering: ربوده شدن
Transliteration: robude shodan
Doctrine: The Catching Up (Rapture) of Believers
Rejected alternatives: معراجگونه بالا رفتن (mi’raj-echoing self-directed ascent), صعود روحانی خودخواسته
Original: ἁρπάζω (ἁρπαγησόμεθα)
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Must preserve passive, God-initiated grammar (something done TO believers), never a self-directed or gradual ascent, which would risk resonance with the Islamic mi’raj (a prophet’s night-journey ascent through the heavens). Must also be kept distinct from Isa’s own reported Qur’anic ‘raising’ (رفع, raf’a — a different root, load-bearing for the Islamic crucifixion-denial). Occurs 4:17. Verify passive voice is grammatically unambiguous in the finished Persian sentence, not only in this glossary entry.
Trumpet Of God
Approved rendering: شیپور خدا
Transliteration: shipur-e khoda
Doctrine: Resurrection of Believers
Rejected alternatives: صور, نفخ الصور
Original: σάλπιγξ θεοῦ
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. صور (نفخ الصور) is the fixed Qur’anic term for the angel Israfil’s two eschatological trumpet-blasts at Qiyamat; using it would import that entire specific sequence onto Paul’s text. شیپور خدا is a generic, non-Qur’an-specific word for a divine-origin trumpet/horn. Occurs 4:16, in the same verse as archangel and resurrection — flag all three terms jointly, not independently, for human theologian review.
High Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: انجیل
Transliteration: Injil
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: مژده
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Injil is shared Quranic vocabulary (the revelation given to ‘Isa); the same tahrif (corruption) assumption found across the Islamicate world applies in Iran. Must be taught as the NT record itself, not a lost predecessor text. Occurs 1 Thess 1:5; 2:2,4,8,9; 3:2.
Grace
Approved rendering: فیض
Transliteration: feyz
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: لطف
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Feyz carries a distinct Persian philosophical loading (Illuminationist/Mulla Sadra ‘emanation’); must always be qualified as a freely willed, personal gift secured through Christ, not an automatic ontological overflow. Occurs 1 Thess 1:1; 5:28 (epistolary greeting/closing).
Faith
Approved rendering: ایمان
Transliteration: iman
Doctrine: Faith
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Shares the six-pillars creedal-assent structure with a Shia-specific Imamate layer; must be anchored as personal trust in Christ. Occurs 1 Thess 1:3,8; 3:2,5,6,7,10; 5:8 — Timothy sent specifically to establish/comfort the church ‘in your faith’ amid affliction.
Apostle
Approved rendering: رسول
Transliteration: rasul
Doctrine: Apostleship
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Collides with Muhammad’s rasul title, with an added Shia Imamate-succession dimension. Occurs 1 Thess 2:6, ‘apostles of Christ’ (Paul, Silvanus, Timothy).
Called
Approved rendering: دعوتشده
Transliteration: da’vat-shode
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Original: κλητός / καλέω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Context-sensitive across ministry-calling, sainthood, and effectual-calling senses. Occurs 1 Thess 2:12 (‘calls you into his own kingdom’); 4:7 (‘called… not for impurity but for holiness’ — ties to Sanctification); 5:24 (‘he who calls you is faithful’).
Sanctification
Approved rendering: تقدیس
Transliteration: taqdis
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: ἁγιασμός
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). This letter’s single densest doctrinal concentration of this term: occurs 3:13; 4:3,4,7; 5:23. Never use طهارت (ritual purity), زهد (ascetic renunciation), or تقوا (self-cultivated piety) as substitutes or unglossed synonyms; flag every occurrence for human theologian review.
Church
Approved rendering: کلیسا
Transliteration: kelisa
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: امت
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Never substitute امت. Occurs 1:1 (‘to the church of the Thessalonians’) and 2:14 (‘the churches of God in Judea’); reinforce the underground house-church framing — the Thessalonian congregation’s own persecuted, informally-gathered context mirrors Persian-speaking congregations today.
Sin
Approved rendering: گناه
Transliteration: gonah
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). No direct lexical occurrence of ἁμαρτία in 1 Thessalonians; πορνεία (see sexual_immorality below) is the operative vocabulary in the letter’s purity section instead. Retained for cross-curriculum consistency.
Election
Approved rendering: برگزیدگی خدا
Transliteration: bargozidegi-ye khoda
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Original: ἐκλογή
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs 1 Thess 1:4, ‘knowing… your election.’ Corporate, faith-based church election; do not import the Imamate’s lineage-based, ongoing-office content.
Israel
Approved rendering: اسرائیل
Transliteration: Esra’il
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Not directly named, but 2:14-15’s reference to ‘the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus’ requires the same careful pastoral framing as the baseline Israel entry, given Iran’s officially propagandized anti-Israel state stance; distinct from contemporary political register.
Fallen Asleep
Approved rendering: خوابیدگان
Transliteration: khabidegan
Doctrine: Resurrection of Believers
Rejected alternatives: برزخ (barzakh, generic Islamic intermediate state), خفتگان (heavier classical/Islamic elegiac association)
Original: κοιμάομαι (κοιμωμένων / κοιμηθέντας)
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Euphemism for the death of believers implying a temporary, reversible state ended by resurrection. Must always be anchored with ‘in Jesus/through Jesus’ (4:14) so as not to collapse into the generic barzakh intermediate-state framework, which lacks this passage’s specific ground of union with Christ. Occurs 4:13,14,15 (conceptually 5:10).
Archangel
Approved rendering: فرشتهٔ اعظم
Transliteration: fereshte-ye a’zam
Doctrine: The Return of Christ
Rejected alternatives: اسرافیل (Israfil), جبرئیل (Jibril), میکائیل (Mika’il)
Original: ἀρχάγγελος
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Must not be identified with any specific named angel from Islamic angelology, especially Israfil given the co-occurring trumpet in the same verse (4:16); the text itself withholds the name, and the translation must too — teach scale/authority only.
Imitators
Approved rendering: سرمشق گرفتن (از)
Transliteration: sarmashq gereftan (az)
Doctrine: Christian Imitation and Discipleship
Rejected alternatives: تقلید کردن, مقلد
Original: μιμηταί
Category: Sanctification
NEW TERM for this curriculum. تقلید/مقلد is the fixed Twelver Shia juridical term for a lay believer’s obligatory following of a qualified marja’/mujtahid in religious law; using it for ‘imitating the Lord/apostles’ imports an entire clerical-authority structure foreign to the text. Occurs 1:6 (conceptually echoed 2:14). Add to the automated forbidden-term validation pass given high drift risk — تقلید/مقلد are fluent, natural-sounding default choices.
Quench The Spirit
Approved rendering: روح را خاموش نکنید
Transliteration: ruh ra khamush nakonid
Doctrine: Holy Spirit’s Personhood and Work
Original: τὸ πνεῦμα μὴ σβέννυτε
Category: God
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Reinforces the baseline’s Critical-risk holy_spirit personhood note: ‘quenching’ language implies a personal, relational presence who can be resisted/suppressed, not an impersonal force or animistic spirit. Preserve the fire/flame extinguish-imagery of خاموش کردن; do not paraphrase into abstract cessation language (‘stop the Spirit’s work’). Occurs 5:19.
Hope
Approved rendering: امید
Transliteration: omid
Doctrine: Hope in Grief
Rejected alternatives: آرزو (ârezu, mere wish/desire), صبر (sabr, patient endurance — a distinct category from hope’s grounds)
Original: ἐλπίς
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this curriculum; no prior baseline entry. Risk: Persian omid can flatten into general optimism or fatalistic qadar-resignation rather than a specific, certain expectation; Shia piety’s own hope-language is characteristically bound to Imam-intercession and the still-future Hidden Imam’s return — both patterns must be distinguished from hope grounded specifically in Christ’s own accomplished resurrection (4:14) and promised return. Occurs 1:3; 4:13; 5:8.
Grief
Approved rendering: غم
Transliteration: gham
Doctrine: Hope in Grief
Original: λύπη (λυπῆσθε)
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Must be rendered so Paul’s qualifier (‘as others who have no hope’) contrasts presence/absence of hope, not Persian mourning customs generally — sensitive to the devotionally central, ritualized, visible role of grief in Iranian culture, especially Muharram/Karbala lamentation, where mourning-intensity is itself devotionally meritorious. اندوه is an acceptable descriptive synonym in surrounding prose but غم is the locked headword. Occurs 4:13.
Sons Of Light Darkness
Approved rendering: فرزندان نور و فرزندان تاریکی
Transliteration: farzandan-e nur va farzandan-e tariki
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord
Original: υἱοὶ φωτός / υἱοὶ σκότους
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Ethical-eschatological dualism describing belonging to the Lord’s realm or to the present age’s ignorance/judgment. Must be taught as an ethical-covenantal metaphor within strict monotheism, never conflated with Zoroastrianism’s own metaphysically co-eternal light/darkness (Ahura Mazda/Ahriman) cosmology, in which darkness is an independent, eternal cosmic principle rather than a defeated, non-eternal moral condition under one sovereign God. Occurs 5:5.
Medium Risk Terms
Calling
Approved rendering: دعوت
Transliteration: da’vat
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Retained for cross-curriculum teaching consistency; no independent nominal occurrence in 1 Thessalonians beyond the verbal forms under ‘called’.
Holy
Approved rendering: مقدس
Transliteration: moqaddas
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Relational, Spirit-wrought sense over ritual-observance holiness. Occurs throughout, e.g. 4:7-8 (‘not impurity but holiness’); 5:26 (‘holy kiss’).
Saints
Approved rendering: مقدسین
Transliteration: moqaddasin
Doctrine: Sainthood
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Corporate body of all believers, not an ascetic or shrine-venerated elite. Occurs 1 Thess 3:13, ‘with all his saints’ accompanying Christ at his coming.
Peace
Approved rendering: سلام
Transliteration: salam
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: آرامش
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Never substitute آرامش. Occurs 1 Thess 1:1 (greeting); 5:3 (ironic ‘peace and security’ preceding sudden destruction — a false, complacent peace, not to be confused with 5:23’s secured relational peace); 5:13 (congregational peace); 5:23 (benediction).
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: عطایای روحانی
Transliteration: ‘ataya-ye ruhani
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). No direct lexical occurrence in 1 Thessalonians; retained for teaching consistency adjacent to the 5:19-20 Spirit/prophecy cluster.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: مشارکت
Transliteration: mosharekat
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). No direct lexical occurrence; retained for consistency in teaching material referencing 5:11’s mutual-building-up context.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: ملکوت خدا
Transliteration: malakut-e khoda
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Original: βασιλεία (ἑαυτοῦ θεός)
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs 1 Thess 2:12, ‘who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.’ Distinguish from Iran’s own explicitly religious-political governing system (Velayat-e Faqih).
Gentiles
Approved rendering: غیریهودیان
Transliteration: gheyr-yahudian
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: امتها
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Never substitute امتها. Occurs 1 Thess 2:16 and 4:5, ‘the Gentiles who do not know God’ — a moral-religious contrast, not an ethnic slur.
Glory
Approved rendering: جلال
Transliteration: jalal
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs 1 Thess 2:12 (‘his own kingdom and glory’) and 2:20 (the Thessalonians as Paul’s crown). Connects to the νεφέλαι/theophany imagery of 4:17; keep Christ’s specific historical glory distinct from generalized Sufi jalal/jamal categories.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: قدرت خدا
Transliteration: qodrat-e khoda
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Original: δύναμις
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs 1 Thess 1:5, ‘our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power.‘
Covenant
Approved rendering: عهد
Transliteration: ‘ahd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). No direct lexical occurrence in 1 Thessalonians; retained for cross-curriculum consistency.
Providence
Approved rendering: تدبیر الهی
Transliteration: tadbir-e elahi
Doctrine: Providence
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Retained for teaching consistency around 5:9-10, 5:24’s grounding of God’s faithful governance of the church’s future; keep distinct from folk qadar fatalism.
Mission
Approved rendering: ماموریت
Transliteration: ma’muriyat
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: رسالت
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Retained for consistency; connects to the letter’s missionary self-references (Paul, Silas, Timothy) and 1:8’s gospel spreading ‘everywhere.‘
David
Approved rendering: داوود
Transliteration: Davud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Not directly named in 1 Thessalonians; retained for cross-curriculum consistency.
Meeting The Lord
Approved rendering: استقبال
Transliteration: esteqbal
Doctrine: The Return of Christ
Original: ἀπάντησις
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Renders ἀπάντησις, the Hellenistic civic-ceremony term for a city’s leading citizens formally going out to welcome and escort an arriving sovereign. Requires a mandatory cultural-background teaching note (the escort-ceremony background) so ‘meeting the Lord in the air’ is not read as a static rendezvous or merged with generic Islamic imagery of souls meeting angels at death. Occurs 4:17. Flagged for cultural-background explanation, not primarily doctrinal collision.
Wrath
Approved rendering: خشم الهی
Transliteration: khashm-e elahi
Doctrine: Divine Wrath and Judgment
Original: ὀργή
Category: Eschatology
NEW TERM for this curriculum. God’s settled, personal, judicial displeasure against sin, culminating at a future day. Broadly compatible in outline with the Islamic concept of Allah’s ghadab (غضب), but must be anchored specifically to Christ as the one who delivers believers from it (1:10; 5:9), not a generic disconnected coming judgment. Occurs 1:10; 2:16; 5:9.
Word Of The Lord
Approved rendering: کلام خداوند
Transliteration: kalam-e Khodavand
Doctrine: Inspiration of the Word of God
Original: λόγος κυρίου
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM for this curriculum. A claim to authoritative divine revelation grounding a specific apostolic teaching. Teach consistently with the baseline inspiration_of_scripture doctrine note: God moving an apostle to speak with authority, not mechanical wahy-style verbatim dictation, and not an independent new revelation superseding the Gospels/OT. Occurs 4:15.
Sexual Immorality
Approved rendering: بیعفتی جنسی
Transliteration: bi-effati-ye jensi
Doctrine: Sexual Purity
Rejected alternatives: زنا (zena, as sole/primary rendering)
Original: πορνεία
Category: Sanctification
NEW TERM for this curriculum. πορνεία is a broad category (any sexual activity outside the biblical marriage bond); زنا carries Iran’s specific, narrower hadd-punishable criminal-legal connotation (adultery specifically) and may appear only as one illustrative example within the broader compound, never as the sole rendering. Occurs 4:3.
Spirit Soul Body
Approved rendering: روح، نفس و بدن
Transliteration: ruh, nafs va badan
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: نفس اماره / نفس لوامه / نفس مطمئنه (Sufi nafs-hierarchy grading)
Original: πνεῦμα, ψυχή, σῶμα
Category: Sanctification
NEW TERM for this curriculum. A tripartite description of the whole person, preserved blameless for the Day of the Lord. Must not be mapped onto the graded Sufi nafs-hierarchy, which describes stages of moral development rather than constituent parts of a person; use a flat, unqualified نفس/جان without developmental-stage adjectives. Occurs 5:23; must not be segmented apart from 5:24 in Phase 2 processing.
Blameless
Approved rendering: بیعیب
Transliteration: bi-eyb
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: ἄμεμπτος
Category: Sanctification
NEW TERM for this curriculum. A kept/preserved status secured by God’s own faithfulness (5:24), consistent with the baseline’s forensic, gift-based framing of righteousness/justification — never an independently self-achieved moral perfection. Occurs 5:23 (cf. 3:13).
Affliction Tribulation
Approved rendering: رنج
Transliteration: ranj
Doctrine: Christian Suffering and Persecution
Original: θλῖψις
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Pressure/persecution/suffering accompanying faithful gospel life. Connects to real, present persecution risk for underground Iranian house-church believers; teach with that lived reality directly in view, not as an abstract historical category. Occurs 1:6; 3:3,7.
Low Risk Terms
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: شکرگزاری
Transliteration: shokr-gozari
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστία / εὐχαριστέω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). High-frequency in this letter’s thanksgiving-heavy opening and closing: occurs 1:2; 2:13; 3:9; 5:18.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: نبوت
Transliteration: nabovat
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: προφητεία
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Occurs 1 Thess 5:20, ‘do not despise prophecies.‘
Exhort
Approved rendering: تشویق کردن
Transliteration: tashviq kardan
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package (no changes). Context-sensitive: comfort/console sense governs 4:18 and 5:11 (grief context of 4:13); the distinct verb νουθετέω (see admonish below) carries the admonish/urge sense at 5:14. Occurs 2:12; 4:1,10,18; 5:11,14.
Admonish
Approved rendering: نصیحت کردن
Transliteration: nasihat kardan
Doctrine: Brotherly Love and Mutual Edification
Original: νουθετέω
Category: Faith
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Distinct from the comfort-sense of παρακαλέω/تشویق کردن; supplies a dedicated term for the corrective/warning register. Occurs 5:14.
Idols
Approved rendering: بتها
Transliteration: bot-ha
Doctrine: Turning from Idols to the Living God
Original: εἴδωλα
Category: God
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Low ambiguity vocabulary; teach the specific object of exclusive worship (the living and true God, known through his Son awaited from heaven, 1:10) as the operative distinction, not a generalized anti-idolatry theme shared uncontroversially with the Islamic self-narrative of idol-smashing. Occurs 1:9.
Holy Kiss
Approved rendering: بوسه مقدس
Transliteration: buse-ye moqaddas
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Greeting
Original: φίλημα ἁγίῳ
Category: Church
NEW TERM for this curriculum. Flag for native-speaker cultural-adaptation review only; physical greeting customs vary by gender-context in contemporary Iranian house-church practice — teach the intent (warm, pure, familial greeting), not a literalistic kiss-greeting mandate. Occurs 5:26.
Referenced passages