Core Glossary
08 — Core Glossary: 2 John
Curriculum: 2 John
Destination language: Persian (Farsi)
Source: Derived from 07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entirety of 2 John (1 chapter, vv. 1–13)
Baseline authority: All terms already present in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json are reused exactly, marked “(baseline reuse)” below. New terms are proposed here for addition to translation memory, pending Phase 1 Step 2+ ratification.
Risk tiers follow the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions exactly:
- Critical — mistranslation alters or destroys essential doctrine; human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — mistranslation creates significant theological confusion or syncretism risk; human theologian review required.
- Medium — mistranslation reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning; native speaker review recommended.
- Low — mistranslation causes minor misunderstanding; automated review sufficient.
Glossary Table
| English Term | Original (Greek) | Transliteration | Persian Rendering | Risk | Doctrine Link | Rationale / Collision Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | θεός | theos | خدا | Critical | (baseline reuse — God) | See baseline: khoda is native pre-Islamic Persian vocabulary; tawhid-vs-Trinity content risk remains. |
| Father | πατήρ | patēr | پدر | Critical | (baseline reuse — Father) | See baseline: tawhid-anthropomorphism objection to paternal God-language. |
| Jesus | Ἰησοῦς | Iēsous | عیسی | Critical | (baseline reuse — Jesus) | See baseline: settled Persian Christian usage; Quranic prophet-only narrative must be corrected at each occurrence, esp. v. 7. |
| Christ / Messiah | Χριστός | Christos | مسیح | Critical | (baseline reuse — Messiah) | See baseline: Mahdi-centered Shia eschatology risk; reinforced here by the antichrist term (see below). |
| Son (of God/the Father) | υἱός (τοῦ πατρός / τοῦ θεοῦ) | huios (tou patros) | پسر خدا | Critical | (baseline reuse — Son of God) / Sonship of Christ | 2 John 1:3 uses “Son of the Father” (equivalent affirmation); 1:9 uses “the Son” absolutely. Never soften; never substitute برگزیده خدا per baseline forbidden-substitution rule. |
| Grace | χάρις | charis | فیض | High | (baseline reuse — Grace) | See baseline: guard against Illuminationist/Sadraean “automatic emanation” reading. |
| Peace | εἰρήνη | eirēnē | سلام | Medium | (baseline reuse — Peace) | See baseline: never آرامش (secular wellness calm); note v. 10/13 also use سلام-root for ordinary greeting — keep doctrinal vs. conventional-greeting uses distinguishable in context. |
| Incarnation (coming in flesh) | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί | erchomenon en sarki | آمده در جسم / در جسم آمدن | Critical | Incarnation (2 John 1:7) | Compounds baseline’s تجسد Zoroastrian-emanation risk with a 2John-specific risk: the docetic error condemned here structurally parallels the Quranic denial of Christ’s real physical crucifixion (Surah 4:157, shubbiha lahum). Must state explicitly that 2 John argues for, not against, Christ’s real physical embodiment/suffering. |
| Mercy | ἔλεος | eleos | رحمت | High | Grace / Salvation (2 John 1:3) | رحمت is a central Islamic divine-attribute name (Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim); must be taught as mercy mediated specifically through Christ, not a generic, automatically-available divine trait. |
| Elder | πρεσβύτερος | presbyteros | پیر (کلیسا) | High | Apostleship / Church Office (2 John 1:1) | پیر is the central Persian Sufi title for a mystical master to whom a disciple submits; must be qualified (“کلیسا”) to prevent import of the guru-disciple mystical-submission framework onto ordinary pastoral eldership. |
| Elect / chosen (of a person) | ἐκλεκτή / ἐκλεκτῇ | eklektē | برگزیده | Medium | Election (adapted from baseline برگزیدگی خدا family) | Applied to an individual “lady” (1:1) and “sister” (1:13) in epistolary greeting; must not be over-read as carrying the full Romans 9 soteriological election argument. |
| Lady (form of address) | κυρίᾳ | kyria | بانو | Medium | (distinguish from Lord — baseline خداوند) | Feminine polite address, NOT the divine Lord title; must never render with خداوند. |
| Children (lit./fig.) | τέκνα | tekna | فرزندان | Medium | Church / family metaphor | Disambiguate literal offspring (1:13) from spiritual/pastoral “children” (1:1, 1:4); avoid implying legal-adoptive kinship claims (cf. baseline adoption entry). |
| Love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | agapē | محبت | High | Walking in Truth and Love | Chosen over عشق (Sufi ecstatic/romantic love register, e.g. Rumi); must be taught per John’s own v.6 definition — obedient, commandment-shaped love, not mystical feeling. |
| Truth | ἀλήθεια | alētheia | حقیقت | High | Walking in Truth and Love | Established Persian Bible usage (retained per consistency-with-tradition principle); collides with Sufism’s technical fourth-stage حقیقت (mystical Truth attained via spiritual path) — must be anchored to propositional, revealed truth about Christ (esp. 1:7), not mystical attainment. |
| Abide / remain | μένω | menō | ماندن | Medium–High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Plain verb, but doctrinally load-bearing in 1:9 where continuing in right teaching is the stated ground of possessing God — pair with baseline’s assurance_of_salvation caution. |
| Commandment | ἐντολή | entolē | فرمان | High | Walking in Truth and Love | فرمان (native Persian royal-decree vocabulary) chosen over حکم to avoid Islamic shari’a-ruling (احکام شرعی) collision, paralleling baseline’s ناموس-vs-شریعت logic for “law.” |
| Walk (conduct one’s life) | περιπατέω | peripateō | رفتار کردن | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | Must preserve durative, ongoing-lifestyle sense (present tense), not a single moral act. |
| From the beginning (original, unsuperseded teaching) | ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς | ap’ archēs | از ابتدا | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Directly collides with نسخ (naskh, abrogation) and خاتمالانبیاء (Seal of the Prophets) doctrines of superseding revelation; 2 John insists the original apostolic teaching is NOT superseded by any newer claim. |
| Deceiver | πλάνος | planos | گمراهکننده | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Shares root with Quranic ضلالت/گمراهی (going astray from Islam); must be anchored strictly to the specific test given in 1:7 (denial of the incarnation), not generalized religious deviance. |
| Antichrist | ἀντίχριστος | antichristos | ضدمسیح | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | CRITICAL forbidden-substitution case: NEVER render as دجّال (Dajjal), the Islamic eschatological arch-deceiver defeated by the Mahdi in Shia expectation — that substitution would subordinate Christ’s authority to the Mahdi-centered eschatological framework already flagged Critical in the baseline (messianic_promise, resurrection_of_christ). |
| Confess | ὁμολογέω | homologeō | اعتراف کردن | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Same verb family as the Romans 10:9 salvation confession; render consistently across curricula so the christological confession-test logic is recognizable. |
| World | κόσμος | kosmos | دنیا | Medium | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Compatible with, but not identical to, the Islamic donya-vs-akherat (this world/hereafter) contrast; teach the Johannine moral-spatial nuance distinctly. |
| Teaching of Christ / doctrine | διδαχή (τοῦ Χριστοῦ) | didachē (tou Christou) | تعلیم (مسیح) | Critical | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Whether one “has God” hinges directly on this (1:9b); must never be presented as one respected teaching-tradition among others — parallels finality/exclusivity risk already flagged for προάγω. |
| Go ahead / go beyond (claimed doctrinal progress) | προάγω | proagō | پیشی گرفتن | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Directly parallels and risks positive reinterpretation via the Islamic doctrine of progressive/superseding revelation (naskh, khatam al-anbiya); 2 John condemns, rather than commends, “going beyond” Christ’s original teaching. |
| Reward | μισθός | misthos | پاداش | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment / Perseverance | پاداش (native Persian) chosen over اَجر to avoid the Islamic deeds-earned-reward (mizan) theology already flagged in baseline salvation/righteousness/justification notes. |
| Receive into (one’s) house | λαμβάνειν εἰς οἰκίαν | lambanein eis oikian | به خانه پذیرفتن | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Practical-cultural collision: مهماننوازی (Persian hospitality) and تعارف norms make withholding hospitality feel like a severe social/moral breach; must be taught as withholding specific doctrinal/institutional endorsement, not authorizing general inhospitality — with added house-church security relevance. |
| Say “greetings” (formal welcome) | χαίρειν λέγειν | chairein legein | خوشآمد گفتن | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Greek epistolary greeting-idiom, not an emotional state; avoid literal “say rejoice”; avoid confusable overlap with the doctrinal سلام (peace) term. |
| Share / partake (in wrongdoing) | κοινωνέω | koinōneō | شریک شدن | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Same root as κοινωνία → مشارکت (baseline fellowship term) and شرک (shirk); here the negative context (complicity in evil) reduces — but does not eliminate — the need to flag the shared root in word-study materials. |
| Evil works | ἔργα πονηρά | erga ponēra | اعمال شریرانه | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Keep distinct from the general Islamic deeds-weighing (mizan) ledger; here names specifically the propagation of, and complicity with, false doctrine. |
| Joy | χαρά | chara | شادی | Low | (supporting — relational fullness) | Native, unloaded Persian term; low collision risk. |
| Sister (fellow believer / family) | ἀδελφή | adelphē | خواهر | Low | Church / family metaphor | Standard term; easily extended to spiritual-family sense as already practiced in Persian Christian usage. |
| Greet (epistolary closing) | ἀσπάζομαι | aspazomai | سلام میرساند / درود میفرستد | Low | (supporting — epistolary convention) | Standard closing convention; prefer درود میفرستد in formal register to avoid overlap with doctrinal سلام. |
| Face to face (idiom) | στόμα πρὸς στόμα | stoma pros stoma | رودررو | Low | (supporting — idiom handling) | Do not translate literally (“mouth to mouth”); render the intended meaning plainly per standard idiom-handling rule. |
| Paper and ink | χάρτης καὶ μέλας | chartēs kai melas | کاغذ و جوهر | Low | (supporting — descriptive detail) | No theological loading; literal, descriptive rendering. |
Risk Summary
| Risk Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 5 | Human theologian (every occurrence) |
| High | 12 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 9 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 5 | Automated review |
| Total terms tracked | 31 |
Notes for Phase 2 enforcement:
- All baseline-reused terms (خدا, پدر, عیسی, مسیح, پسر خدا, فیض, سلام) must be enforced exactly per
translation_memory.json; no deviation permitted regardless of 2 John’s distinct literary/epistolary context. - New Critical terms requiring immediate addition to translation memory before Phase 2 processing: ضدمسیح (antichrist), آمده در جسم / در جسم آمدن (coming in flesh), تعلیم مسیح (teaching of Christ).
- دجّال (Dajjal) is added to the forbidden-substitution list for ἀντίχριστος, joining the baseline’s existing forbidden list (برگزیده خدا, شریعت, پارسایی, سرپرستی, آرامش, عدالت کسبشده, امتها).
- حقیقت (truth) and محبت (love) are retained per established Persian Bible tradition despite documented Sufi-register collision risk (حقیقت/haqiqat mystical-stage risk; عشق/eshgh romantic-mystical register risk for love) — collision is to be managed through mandatory teaching annotation at each occurrence, not through departure from established usage.
- پیر (elder) requires the قدیمی qualifier (“کلیسا”) at first occurrence in every document to preempt the Sufi pir-murid reading.
This glossary extends, and does not contradict, the baseline Romans Language Package. All new terms are proposed for ratification and version-increment in translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json in the subsequent Phase 1 step.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: خدا
Transliteration: Khoda
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: الله
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: Khoda is native pre-Islamic Persian vocabulary used across Zoroastrian, Christian, and Muslim traditions alike; strict tawhid theology must be distinguished from the Trinitarian conception denoted by the same word. 2 John extension: in 2 John 1:9 the stakes are unusually explicit — ‘does not have God’ vs. ‘has both the Father and the Son’ — translators must ensure خدا here is read as the same triune God who is Father AND Son together, never a strictly unitarian deity who could be ‘had’ apart from the Son.
Father
Approved rendering: پدر
Transliteration: pedar
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: shares Arabic’s tawhid-anthropomorphism objection to Father-language for God. 2 John extension: in 2 John 1:3 and 1:9 the Father is named in the same breath and on equal footing as ‘the Son’ — this co-equal pairing must be rendered plainly, without any softening that would separate the Father’s status from the Son’s.
Jesus
Approved rendering: عیسی
Transliteration: Isa
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: settled, uncontroversial Persian Christian usage; risk is entirely in content, the Quranic prophet-only, non-crucified, non-divine narrative must be actively corrected at every occurrence. 2 John extension: the entire letter turns on affirming, against denial (1:7), that this Isa possessed real material flesh — correct the Quranic narrative actively at 1:7 specifically.
Messiah
Approved rendering: مسیح
Transliteration: Masih
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: carries the same pre-loaded Quranic content as Arabic’s al-Masih, with an added Shia Mahdi-displacement risk. 2 John extension: 2 John intensifies this risk by pairing مسیح directly with ضدمسیح (antichrist, 1:7) — the contrast must read as Christ vs. the spirit that denies him, never as an implicit setup for a Mahdi-vs-Dajjal eschatological drama.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: پسر خدا
Transliteration: pesar-e khoda
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: برگزیده خدا
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ πατρός / ὁ υἱός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: never soften to برگزیده خدا (the controversial Hezare No rendering); this package follows the established, non-diluted پسر خدا usage. 2 John extension: 2 John renders the affirmation both as ‘the Son of the Father’ (1:3) and absolutely as ‘the Son’ (1:9), always paired with ‘the Father’; in 1:9 possession of ‘the Son’ alongside ‘the Father’ is the stated condition for possessing God at all — among the highest-stakes single clauses in the letter, never to be softened or paraphrased.
Adoption
Approved rendering: فرزندخواندگی
Transliteration: farzand-khandegi
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: سرپرستی
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: سرپرستی (Iran’s weaker legal-custodianship term, reflecting Quran 33:4-5) is explicitly rejected; Romans 8’s full inheritance must be taught against this real legal default. 2 John extension: 2 John’s τέκνα (‘children,’ فرزندان) describing the addressee’s congregation (1:1, 1:4) evokes this same family theme but in a pastoral, not legal-adoptive, sense; the sarparasti/lineage concern documented here must not be triggered by this pastoral ‘spiritual children’ usage — see the new ‘children’ entry below.
Salvation
Approved rendering: نجات
Transliteration: nejat
Doctrine: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: Christ’s atoning death must be carefully distinguished from the Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-intercession framework of popular Shia piety. 2 John extension: 2 John 1:8’s پاداش (reward) for faithful perseverance must be read alongside this entry’s grace/works distinction, never as a merit-earning parallel to the Islamic deeds-weighing (mizan) framework — see the new ‘reward’ entry below.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: قیامت
Transliteration: qiyamat
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: shares the Quran’s crucifixion-denial problem (4:157); Shia eschatology’s Mahdi-centered expectation further subordinates Jesus’s resurrection and return. 2 John extension: 2 John 1:7’s ضدمسیح (antichrist) polemic against incarnation-denial is doctrinally adjacent to this resurrection entry’s Mahdi-displacement caution; both must guard against subordinating Christ’s unique authority to the Hidden Imam/Mahdi eschatological framework — see the new ‘antichrist’ entry below.
Lord
Approved rendering: خداوند
Transliteration: Khodavand
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: سرور
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: the tawhid objection is to ascribing supreme, exclusive Lordship to a human-born man, not to borrowed Quranic vocabulary. 2 John extension: 2 John’s κυρία (‘lady,’ the letter’s honorific address in 1:1, 1:5) is grammatically related to κύριος but must NEVER be rendered with خداوند — use بانو only (see the new ‘lady’ entry below). This entry (خداوند) remains reserved exclusively for the divine Lord title exactly as in the baseline.
Coming In Flesh
Approved rendering: آمده در جسم / در جسم آمدن
Transliteration: amade dar jesm / dar jesm amadan
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: تجسد یافته, به بدن انسانی آمده
Original: ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί
Category: Christology
New term introduced by 2 John 1:7 (ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί), the confessional core of the letter’s Incarnation doctrine. Compounds the baseline تجسد entry’s Zoroastrian-emanation risk with a risk specific to 2 John: the docetic error condemned here (Christ’s body as unreal or merely apparent) structurally parallels the mainstream Quranic account of the crucifixion (Surah an-Nisa 4:157, shubbiha lahum, ‘it was made to appear so to them’). A Muslim-background reader could mistakenly hear this condemnation of docetism as validating, rather than directly opposing, the Quranic denial of Christ’s real physical suffering. Every occurrence’s teaching material must state explicitly that 2 John argues FOR, not against, Christ’s full material embodiment.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: ضدمسیح
Transliteration: zedd-e Masih
Doctrine: Eschatological Identity of the Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: دجّال, مخالف مسیح
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: False Teaching
New term introduced by 2 John 1:7 (ἀντίχριστος), a transparent compound coinage (ضد + مسیح), NOT a transliteration. CRITICAL forbidden-substitution case: دجّال (Dajjal), the Sunni/Shia eschatological arch-deceiver defeated by the returning Imam Mahdi with ‘Isa in a subordinate assisting role, is FORBIDDEN — it would subordinate Christ’s own authority over this conflict to the Hidden Imam’s expected role, compounding the baseline’s Critical messianic_promise and resurrection_of_christ risks. ضدمسیح must be taught directly from 2 John’s own text: denial of the incarnation is already, presently, the antichrist spirit at work in many, not a single future figure defeated by another redeemer-figure.
Teaching Of Christ
Approved rendering: تعلیم مسیح
Transliteration: ta’lim-e Masih
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: آموزه مسیح, تعلیمات مسیح
Original: διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Doctrine
New term introduced by 2 John 1:9 (διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ). Whether one ‘has God’ is stated to hinge directly on continuing in this teaching — among the highest doctrinal stakes of any single phrase in the letter. Rendered singular (تعلیم, not تعلیمات) to preserve the sense of one unified, non-negotiable body of doctrine, not a fragmentable list. تعلیم is theologically neutral Persian vocabulary also used for Islamic religious instruction; translators must ensure ‘تعلیم مسیح’ is never read as one respected teaching-tradition among others.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: فیض
Transliteration: feyz
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: لطف
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: feyz’s Illuminationist/Sadraean ‘automatic emanation’ loading must always be corrected toward a freely willed, personal gift secured through Christ. 2 John extension: in 2 John 1:3 فیض is named as jointly sourced from ‘God the Father and… Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father’ — it must be read as personally and jointly given by the Father and the Son together, not an impersonal overflow.
Apostle
Approved rendering: رسول
Transliteration: rasul
Doctrine: Apostleship
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: collides with Muhammad’s rasul title, with an added Shia Imamate-succession dimension. 2 John extension: the author’s self-designation as πρεσβύτερος (‘elder,’ rendered پیر کلیسا) is doctrinally adjacent to, but distinct from, this apostolic office; teach پیر(کلیسا) as continuous with, not competing against, the apostolic authority documented here, and equally distinguished from both Muhammad’s rasul title and the Imamate succession claim — see the new ‘elder’ entry below.
Election
Approved rendering: برگزیدگی خدا
Transliteration: bargozidegi-ye khoda
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: Shia Imamate election doctrine can serve as an analogical bridge but risks importing lineage-based, ongoing-office content onto Romans 9’s election-to-salvation argument. 2 John extension: 2 John 1:1 and 1:13 use the adjectival ἐκλεκτή (‘elect,’ برگزیده) as an epistolary honorific for an individual/congregation, not this full election-to-salvation doctrine; do NOT import Romans 9-11’s complete soteriological argument onto the epistolary greeting term — see the narrower new ‘elect_person’ entry below.
Church
Approved rendering: کلیسا
Transliteration: kelisa
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: امت
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: teach kelisa with the underground house-church reality in view, not a physical-institution default. 2 John extension: 2 John 1:10-11’s hospitality instruction (admitting or excluding a traveling teacher) is a direct, concrete outworking of this church-as-God’s-people doctrine in that same lived underground house-church context; teach together with the new ‘receive_into_house’ entry below.
Mercy
Approved rendering: رحمت
Transliteration: rahmat
Doctrine: Trinitarian Source of Grace, Mercy, and Peace
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Salvation
New term introduced by 2 John 1:3 (ἔλεος), named alongside grace and peace in the tripartite apostolic greeting, sourced explicitly from ‘God the Father and… Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.’ رحمت is one of the two central divine attribute-names in Islamic theology (الرحمن، الرحیم, invoked at the head of nearly every Quranic surah); risks being heard as a generic, automatically-available divine trait rather than a mercy specifically secured and mediated through Christ. Every occurrence must be anchored to its stated dual source (Father and Son together), never treated as an unconditioned divine attribute available apart from Christ.
Elder
Approved rendering: پیر (کلیسا)
Transliteration: pir (-e kelisa)
Doctrine: Apostolic/Pastoral Authority
Rejected alternatives: پیر (بدون قید کلیسا)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church
New term introduced by 2 John 1:1 (πρεσβύτερος), the author’s self-designation denoting recognized pastoral office, not a private, informal note between friends. پیر is simultaneously the central title in Persian Sufi mysticism for a spiritual master to whom a مُراد (disciple) submits in mystical guidance (the Rumi/Shams-e Tabrizi paradigm) — an enormously resonant image in Persian religious imagination. Unqualified پیر is REJECTED; the qualifier کلیسا (‘of the church’) must be retained at first occurrence in every document to anchor the term to ordinary, accountable ecclesial eldership, not Sufi spiritual direction.
Love
Approved rendering: محبت
Transliteration: mohabbat
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: عشق, دوستی
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Ethics
New term introduced by 2 John (ἀγάπη — this term is not separately entried in the baseline Romans package). Defined by the letter itself (1:6) as ‘that we walk according to his commandments’ — obedience-shaped love, not sentiment. محبت is chosen over عشق, the passionate/mystical-union register central to Persian Sufi devotional poetry (Rumi, Hafez), where divine love is figured as ecstatic dissolution between Lover and Beloved; دوستی is too weak/casual, losing covenantal seriousness. Teaching material must repeatedly tie محبت back to 1:6’s own definition.
Truth
Approved rendering: حقیقت
Transliteration: haqiqat
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: راستی, صدق
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth
New term introduced by 2 John (ἀλήθεια — not separately entried in the baseline Romans package), the organizing theme of the letter (1:1, 2, 3, 4, 12). حقیقت is the established Persian Bible tradition rendering (e.g. John 14:6) and is retained, but is also the technical term for the third of four stages (شریعت، طریقت، حقیقت، معرفت) in classical Persian Sufi cosmology — an esoteric Truth attained through mystical progress under a پیر. Every occurrence must be anchored to the specific, revealed, propositional content about Christ’s real person (1:7), never left open to an experiential-mystical-attainment reading.
Abide
Approved rendering: ماندن
Transliteration: mandan
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: باقی ماندن, پایدار ماندن
Original: μένω
Category: Perseverance
New term introduced by 2 John 1:9 (μένω). Linguistically plain in isolation, but doctrinally load-bearing here: continuing right belief about Christ (not merely initial profession) is the stated condition for presently possessing both the Father and the Son. Directly parallels the baseline’s Critical assurance_of_salvation risk, since mainstream Islamic piety generally regards confident assurance of one’s own standing before God as presumptuous; must be taught with the verb’s durative force intact, not softened into mere hopefulness.
Commandment
Approved rendering: فرمان
Transliteration: farman
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: حکم, امر
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Ethics
New term introduced by 2 John (ἐντολή, occurring five times: 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 [×2]). فرمان (native Persian royal-decree vocabulary, e.g. the Cyrus فرمان) is chosen over حکم, the standard term for a shari’a legal ruling (احکام شرعی), which would risk making the Father’s relational, love-defining command sound like one more entry in an Islamic legal-ruling system — the same category of risk the baseline documents for ناموس vs. شریعت. Use فرمان at every occurrence.
From The Beginning
Approved rendering: از ابتدا
Transliteration: az ebteda
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: از آغاز, از اول
Original: ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς
Category: Doctrine
New term introduced by 2 John 1:5-6 (ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς), the original, unchanging apostolic teaching, contrasted with any claimed ‘new commandment.’ Runs directly counter to the widely held Sunni-and-Shia doctrine of نسخ (naskh, abrogation) and Muhammad’s title خاتمالانبیاء (Seal of the Prophets), under which later revelation supersedes earlier revelation. 2 John argues the ORIGINAL apostolic teaching must never be superseded by any newer claim — the opposite direction from the baseline’s fulfillment_of_prophecy risk.
Deceiver
Approved rendering: گمراهکننده
Transliteration: gomrah-konande
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: فریبکار, منحرفکننده
Original: πλάνος
Category: False Teaching
New term introduced by 2 John 1:7 (πλάνος). Shares its root (گمراه، ضلالت) with core Quranic vocabulary for those who have strayed from the straight path (cf. Surah al-Fatiha). Muslim-background readers may reflexively map this onto the Islamic in-group/out-group category of deviance from Islam itself, rather than John’s specific, narrow charge. Every occurrence must be anchored tightly to the propositional test given in the same verse: denial of Christ’s real coming in flesh, never a generalized charge of religious error.
Confess
Approved rendering: اعتراف کردن
Transliteration: e’teraf kardan
Doctrine: Confessional Test of True Faith
Rejected alternatives: اقرار کردن, شهادت دادن
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Faith
New term introduced by 2 John 1:7 (ὁμολογέω), the verbal doctrinal test distinguishing true teachers from deceivers. Standard neutral Persian verb, also used for legal/criminal confession, so context must clarify a positive doctrinal affirmation is intended. Same verb family as the Romans 10:9 salvation confession (‘Jesus is Lord’); render consistently across curricula so the confessional-test logic is recognizable to learners moving between Romans and 2 John materials. Must never be satisfied by a vague affirmation of respect for Jesus as a prophet.
Go Ahead
Approved rendering: پیشی گرفتن
Transliteration: pishi gereftan
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: فراتر رفتن, جلوتر رفتن
Original: προάγω
Category: Doctrine
New term introduced by 2 John 1:9 (προάγω), the false teachers’ posture of claimed doctrinal progress beyond the received apostolic teaching. Runs directly parallel to the Islamic doctrine that Muhammad’s revelation, as خاتمالانبیاء, supersedes and completes all prior revelation, including that of Isa; a Muslim-background reader’s inherited instinct treats ‘going beyond’ earlier teaching as praiseworthy (per نسخ, naskh) — the reverse of John’s meaning. پیشی گرفتن (‘to get ahead of / outrun’) carries the negative, presumptuous connotation needed; فراتر رفتن was rejected for its more neutral-to-positive ‘progress’ connotation in ordinary Persian usage.
Reward
Approved rendering: پاداش
Transliteration: padash
Doctrine: Reward for Faithful Perseverance
Rejected alternatives: اجر, مزد
Original: μισθὸς πλήρης
Category: Perseverance
New term introduced by 2 John 1:8 (μισθὸς πλήρης), the ‘full reward’ of shared apostolic missionary labor preserved through the readers’ continued faithfulness — not individually merited salvation. اجر (ajr) is FORBIDDEN: it is the term shared with Arabic deeply embedded in Islamic theology as reward earned from Allah for specific religious performance within the deeds-weighing (mizan) framework. مزد (a secular wage term) was rejected as too transactional. پاداش keeps the reference anchored to shared missionary labor and communal perseverance, not merit accounting toward final salvation.
Receive Into House
Approved rendering: به خانه پذیرفتن
Transliteration: be khane paziroftan
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: میزبانی کردن, راه دادن
Original: λαμβάνειν εἰς οἰκίαν
Category: Hospitality
New term introduced by 2 John 1:10 (λαμβάνειν εἰς οἰκίαν), forbidding a specific act of institutional endorsement toward a denier of the incarnation. مهماننوازی (hospitality) and تعارف social norms are among the most deeply held Persian cultural values; refusing hospitality is experienced as a severe social/moral breach, not a neutral act. Teaching material must make explicit that John forbids a specific act of doctrinal/institutional endorsement of a named error, not a general breach of hospitality norms — with additional real-world weight in the underground Iranian house-church context, where admission to a gathering is also a matter of physical security.
Medium Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: سلام
Transliteration: salam
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: آرامش
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: never render with آرامش (secular wellness/self-help ‘inner calm’). 2 John extension: 2 John also contains an ordinary epistolary greeting formula in 1:10 (χαίρειν) and a closing greeting in 1:13 (ἀσπάζομαι); سلام must be reserved EXCLUSIVELY for the doctrinal triad of 1:3 (grace, mercy, peace) and never used to render the letter’s other, non-doctrinal greeting occurrences — see the new ‘say_greetings’ and ‘greet_closing’ entries below.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: مشارکت
Transliteration: mosharekat
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: shares the ش-ر-ک root with shirk (idolatrous partnership); term is established and context disambiguates. 2 John extension: 2 John 1:11’s κοινωνέω (‘share/partake in wrongdoing,’ شریک شدن) uses the identical Greek root in a negative, complicity sense; teach the shared root (κοινωνέω/κοινωνία) explicitly in word-study material alongside this positive-sense fellowship entry — see the new ‘share_in_wrongdoing’ entry below.
Elect Person
Approved rendering: برگزیده
Transliteration: bargozide
Doctrine: Election and Family of Believers
Original: ἐκλεκτή / ἐκλεκτῇ
Category: Church
New term introduced by 2 John 1:1 and 1:13 (ἐκλεκτή), applied as an epistolary form of address to an individual woman/congregation and to a fellow believer’s sister. Draws on the same election-family root as the baseline’s برگزیدگی خدا (Romans 9-11) but is applied here as a personal/congregational greeting term, not a full soteriological argument. Teaching notes must clarify that this usage does not carry the complete weight of the Romans 9 election-to-salvation doctrine, even though it uses the same theological root vocabulary.
Lady
Approved rendering: بانو
Transliteration: banu
Doctrine: Election and Family of Believers
Rejected alternatives: خداوند
Original: κυρίᾳ
Category: Church
New term introduced by 2 John 1:1, 1:5 (κυρίᾳ), a polite feminine form of address (‘lady,’ ‘madam’), the feminine form of κύριος but functioning here as an honorific, not a divine title. MUST NEVER be rendered with خداوند, the baseline’s reserved term for the divine Lord (κύριος); use the ordinary honorific بانو so no reader could construe any claim of lordship for the letter’s addressee.
Children
Approved rendering: فرزندان
Transliteration: farzandan
Doctrine: Election and Family of Believers
Original: τέκνα
Category: Church
New term introduced by 2 John (τέκνα), denoting offspring by birth (literal sense, 1:13) or, by pastoral extension, members of a congregation under spiritual care (1:1, 1:4). فرزندان naturally carries this double sense in Persian, but the pastoral/spiritual usage must not be read as a claim to biological or legal-adoptive kinship, which would activate the same sarparasti/lineage concerns documented for فرزندخواندگی (adoption) in the baseline package. Disambiguate by context at each occurrence.
Walk
Approved rendering: رفتار کردن
Transliteration: raftar kardan
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: راه رفتن, زندگی کردن
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Ethics
New term introduced by 2 John (περιπατέω, 1:4, 1:6), a Semitic-influenced NT idiom for habitual conduct. Must preserve the durative, ongoing-lifestyle sense (present tense in Greek), not collapse into a single moral act, which would understate the perseverance emphasis of ‘Walking in Truth and Love.’ Pair consistently with a durative marker across occurrences.
World
Approved rendering: دنیا
Transliteration: donya
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Original: κόσμος
Category: False Teaching
New term introduced by 2 John 1:7 (κόσμος), the sphere into which ‘many deceivers have gone out.’ دنیا already carries a well-established Islamic theological contrast with آخرت (akherat, the hereafter); broadly compatible with, but not identical to, the Johannine moral-spatial sense. Teach the specific missionary-geographic sense of 1:7 alongside, but distinct from, the donya/akherat contrast.
Say Greetings
Approved rendering: خوشآمد گفتن
Transliteration: khosh-amad goftan
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: سلام کردن, درود گفتن
Original: χαίρειν λέγειν
Category: Hospitality
New term introduced by 2 John 1:10-11 (χαίρειν λέγειν), the conventional formal Greek greeting formula functioning as public endorsement of a teacher’s ministry, withheld here as deliberate doctrinal non-endorsement. A bare سلام rendering is REJECTED to avoid a surface-level echo of the doctrinal سلام (peace) of 1:3, which would risk ‘do not give him peace’ being misheard as touching the letter’s doctrinal peace term. خوشآمد گفتن (‘to say welcome’) keeps clear lexical distance.
Share In Wrongdoing
Approved rendering: شریک شدن
Transliteration: sharik shodan
Doctrine: Complicity with False Teaching
Rejected alternatives: همدست شدن, سهیم شدن
Original: κοινωνέω
Category: Hospitality
New term introduced by 2 John 1:11 (κοινωνέω), negative complicity in a false teacher’s evil works through hospitality/endorsement. Shares its Arabic-derived root (ش-ر-ک) with شرک (shirk, idolatrous partnership with God) — the same root-resonance the baseline flags for κοινωνία → مشارکت in the positive fellowship sense. The negative context here reduces (but does not eliminate) the need to flag the shared root explicitly in word-study material, teaching learners to recognize the same Greek root used in both a positive (fellowship) and negative (complicity) sense.
Evil Works
Approved rendering: اعمال شریرانه
Transliteration: a’mal-e sharurane
Doctrine: Complicity with False Teaching
Original: ἔργα πονηρά
Category: Sin
New term introduced by 2 John 1:11 (ἔργα πονηρά), specifically naming the propagation of and complicity with false doctrine about Christ. Keep اعمال (works) here from being absorbed into the general Islamic deeds-weighing (mizan) framework that evaluates eternal standing by a ledger of good and bad deeds (cf. baseline universal_human_accountability note) — this phrase names a specific doctrinal offense, not a general moral ledger entry.
Low Risk Terms
Joy
Approved rendering: شادی
Transliteration: shadi
Doctrine: Joy in Christian Fellowship
Original: χαρά (πεπληρωμένη)
Category: Fellowship
New term introduced by 2 John 1:12 (χαρὰ πεπληρωμένη), gladness made complete through genuine face-to-face fellowship in the truth (cf. John 15:11; 16:24). شادی is native, unloaded Persian vocabulary with no significant collision with Islamic or Zoroastrian religious categories; low risk.
Sister
Approved rendering: خواهر
Transliteration: khahar
Doctrine: Election and Family of Believers
Original: ἀδελφή
Category: Church
New term introduced by 2 John 1:13 (ἀδελφή), a female sibling, extended by NT usage to a fellow female believer. Standard family term with an easily-taught extended spiritual sense, paralleling برادر/خواهر already used generally for fellow believers in Persian Christian usage; low risk.
Greet Closing
Approved rendering: درود میفرستد
Transliteration: dorud mi-ferestad
Doctrine: Joy in Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: سلام میرساند
Original: ἀσπάζομαι
Category: Church
New term introduced by 2 John 1:13 (ἀσπάζομαι), the standard epistolary closing convention. درود میفرستد is preferred over سلام میرساند specifically to keep maximal lexical distance from the doctrinal سلام (peace) of 1:3, per this curriculum’s fencing rule.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: رودررو
Transliteration: ru-dar-ru
Doctrine: Joy in Christian Fellowship
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Fellowship
New term introduced by 2 John 1:12 (στόμα πρὸς στόμα, literally ‘mouth to mouth’), a Hebraic/Semitic idiom for direct, personal, oral speech. Per standard idiom-handling practice, the literal body-part idiom is never translated word-for-word (it would sound strange in Persian); render the intended meaning plainly as رودررو (‘face to face’) or حضوری (‘in person’).
Paper And Ink
Approved rendering: کاغذ و جوهر
Transliteration: kaghaz-o jowhar
Doctrine: (descriptive — no doctrine link)
Original: χάρτης καὶ μέλας
Category: Descriptive
New term introduced by 2 John 1:12 (χάρτης καὶ μέλας), the literal writing materials of the day. Purely descriptive detail with no theological loading; render literally and plainly, with no figurative expansion.
Referenced passages