Semantic Analysis

Semantic Analysis — Mark 1–16 (Koine Greek → Persian)

Scope and Method

This analysis follows the baseline Romans Language Package conventions for Persian. Any term already established in translation_memory.json (Romans) is reused exactly and only cross-referenced here, not re-argued. New terms specific to Mark’s narrative-Gospel genre (Suffering Servant Christology, kingdom-breaking-in, exorcism/healing authority, the Messianic Secret, the necessity of the cross, servanthood, and the ransom saying) are analyzed in full, with the same fields used in the baseline: original word, transliteration, literal meaning, semantic range, English variants, contextual theological meaning, and destination-language (Persian) rendering risk.

Part 1 treats the core passage (Mark 10:35–45) verse by verse. Part 2 surveys every chapter of Mark, first to last, noting new load-bearing terms and explicitly flagging reused vocabulary.

PART 1 — Core Passage: Mark 10:35–45 (Verse-by-Verse)

Mark 10:35

Greek: Καὶ προσπορεύονται αὐτῷ Ἰάκωβος καὶ Ἰωάννης οἱ υἱοὶ Ζεβεδαίου λέγοντες αὐτῷ, Διδάσκαλε, θέλομεν ἵνα ὃ ἐὰν αἰτήσωμέν σε ποιήσῃς ἡμῖν.

Load-bearing term: Διδάσκαλε (Didaskale, vocative of διδάσκαλος)

Literal meaning: “Teacher,” one who instructs.
Semantic range: Formal address to a recognized religious instructor; in the Gospels frequently interchangeable with the transliterated Aramaic/Hebrew “Rabbi” (cf. Mark 9:5; 11:21; 14:45, where Mark preserves “Rabbi” untranslated).
English variants: Teacher, Master, Rabbi.
Contextual theological meaning: James and John address Jesus with an honorific normally reserved for a respected instructor, yet proceed to ask for something no mere teacher could grant (places of glory). The address itself understates who they are speaking to — an early instance of the gap between title used and identity possessed that runs through Mark.
Persian rendering & risk: استاد (ostad) — the standard respectful address for a teacher/master in Persian, including religious teachers and Sufi masters. Risk: Medium. Ostad is also the honorific for a Sufi pir/master, so hearers may default to a “wise teacher” reading; the surrounding context and fuller titles (Lord, Son of Man, Christ) must be allowed to correct this. Where the underlying Greek/Aramaic is “Rabbi” (9:5; 11:21; 14:45), retain the transliteration ربی (rabbi) as in established Persian Bible practice, glossed with استاد.

Mark 10:36

Greek: ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Τί θέλετέ με ποιήσω ὑμῖν;

Load-bearing term: θέλω (thelō)

Literal meaning: “to will, wish, want.”
Semantic range: Ranges from casual preference to determined intention; here used twice in the exchange (v.35–36), foregrounding human desire as the driving force of the request, about to be contrasted with the Father’s will in v.40 and Jesus’s own submission in 14:36.
English variants: want, wish, desire, will.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus’s counter-question exposes the disciples’ request as self-willed ambition rather than submitted desire — the same verb (θέλω) will recur throughout the passage (vv.35, 36, 43, 44) tracing a contrast between wanting “greatness” (self-will) and Jesus’s own will to serve.
Persian rendering & risk: خواستن / می‌خواهید (mikhahid). Risk: Low. Ordinary vocabulary; no special collision, but translators should preserve the verbal repetition across vv.35–44 so the “want/will” theme is visible in Persian as it is in Greek.

Mark 10:37

Greek: οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, Δὸς ἡμῖν ἵνα εἷς σου ἐκ δεξιῶν καὶ εἷς ἐξ ἀριστερῶν καθίσωμεν ἐν τῇ δόξῃ σου.

Load-bearing term: δόξα (doxa)

Literal meaning: “glory, splendor, honor.”
Semantic range: In the LXX and NT, ranges from human honor/reputation to the radiant, visible manifestation of God’s own presence and majesty; already established in the baseline as the term for God’s/Christ’s manifest glory (cf. Romans deity-of-Christ entries).
English variants: glory, splendor, majesty, honor.
Contextual theological meaning: James and John envision Jesus’s “glory” as an imminent, visible, triumphant enthronement (echoing Jewish messianic-kingdom hope) in which they will hold the seats of highest honor. Mark will later tie δόξα explicitly to the Son of Man’s future coming (8:38; 13:26), so this request, though selfishly motivated, correctly anticipates real future glory — just not the path (suffering first) by which it comes.
Persian rendering & risk: جلال (jalal) — reuse baseline term exactly. Risk: Medium (per baseline note on jalal’s Sufi-poetic resonance with jamal). Here the specific risk is narrative rather than lexical: translators must ensure “your glory” is not read as already present but as future/eschatological, since the very next verses (38–39) reroute this glory through suffering.
Secondary note (right hand/left hand): ἐκ δεξιῶν … ἐξ ἀριστερῶν — “at your right hand … at your left” — royal-court/enthronement idiom for positions of highest honor (cf. Psalm 110:1, already active in Mark’s Christology; note ἀριστερός here vs. the near-synonym εὐώνυμος in v.40 — a stylistic variation with no theological difference). Persian: در سمت راست / در سمت چپ (dar samt-e rast / dar samt-e chap) — Low risk, transparent idiom.

Mark 10:38

Greek: ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Οὐκ οἴδατε τί αἰτεῖσθε. δύνασθε πιεῖν τὸ ποτήριον ὃ ἐγὼ πίνω, ἢ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθῆναι;

Load-bearing term: ποτήριον (potērion)

Literal meaning: “cup, drinking vessel.”
Semantic range: Literal cup; figuratively, in OT prophetic idiom, “the cup” one is given to drink is God’s judgment, wrath, or an assigned lot of suffering (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17, 22; Jer 25:15–29; cf. Mark 14:36). Jesus applies the same figure to himself here and at Gethsemane.
English variants: cup, lot, portion (of suffering/wrath).
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus reframes “glory” (v.37) as inseparable from a cup of suffering he alone can fully drink — a direct anticipation of Gethsemane (14:36) and the necessity of the cross. James and John cannot yet grasp that shared “glory” requires shared suffering.
Persian rendering & risk: جام (jaam). Risk: High. Persian classical and Sufi poetry (esp. Hafez) uses جام extensively for the “cup of wine” symbolizing mystical intoxication, union with the Beloved, and ecstatic divine encounter (jām-e mey, sāghi). A Persian reader steeped in this literary register risks hearing “drink my cup” as an invitation to mystical ecstasy rather than the OT background of a cup of divinely-ordained suffering/wrath. Must be anchored explicitly, in teaching notes, to the OT judgment-cup background and to Gethsemane (14:36), never left to stand alone as a poetic image. Alternative پیاله (piyaleh) carries the same risk and offers no improvement; جام is retained as the more transparent, widely used Bible-translation term, with mandatory contextual glossing.

Load-bearing term: βάπτισμα / βαπτίζω (baptisma / baptizō)

Literal meaning: “immersion, washing”; verb “to dip, immerse, overwhelm.”
Semantic range: Literal ritual immersion (John’s baptism, Christian baptism); figuratively, being “immersed” or overwhelmed by an experience — here, suffering and death (cf. Luke 12:50; the same figurative extension Jesus makes for his own coming death).
English variants: baptism, washing, immersion; figuratively: being overwhelmed.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus pairs “cup” and “baptism” as two images for the same reality — his coming suffering and death — which he will undergo fully and which James and John, in a lesser but real sense, will also share (martyrdom/suffering, not atonement).
Persian rendering & risk: تعمید (ta’mid) — established Persian Christian term for baptism, distinct from Islamic ritual washing (غسل ghusl, وضو wudu). Risk: Medium. Because ta’mid is a specifically Christian coinage, it does not collide with Islamic purification law the way a generic washing-word would, but Persian hearers may still default to thinking of ritual water-baptism only; the figurative sense here (“baptism of suffering,” distinct from water baptism) must be explicitly taught, since Persian has no established idiom for “baptized into suffering.”

Mark 10:39

Greek: οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, Δυνάμεθα. ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Τὸ ποτήριον ὃ ἐγὼ πίνω πίεσθε, καὶ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐγὼ βαπτίζομαι βαπτισθήσεσθε·

Load-bearing term: δύναμαι (dynamai, “we are able”)

Literal meaning: “to be able, to have power/capacity.”
Semantic range: Same root as δύναμις (power) already established in the baseline (power_of_god). Here a confident, overconfident human claim of capability.
English variants: we are able, we can.
Contextual theological meaning: The disciples’ glib “we are able” (repeating unbroken confidence even after Jesus’s warning) exemplifies the recurring Markan theme of faith and discipleship amid fear — bold words offered before the test, contrasted later with actual failure (14:50, Peter’s denial). Jesus’s confirming reply (“you will drink… you will be baptized”) is not praise of their strength but a sober prediction that they too will suffer (James’s martyrdom, Acts 12:2; John’s exile/persecution tradition), though their suffering does not carry the atoning force of Christ’s own cup (v.45).
Persian rendering & risk: می‌توانیم (mitavanim). Risk: Low. Straightforward; the pastoral point (confident words vs. costly reality) must be carried by context, not the lexical choice itself.

Mark 10:40

Greek: τὸ δὲ καθίσαι ἐκ δεξιῶν μου ἢ ἐξ εὐωνύμων οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμὸν δοῦναι, ἀλλ᾽ οἷς ἡτοίμασται.

Load-bearing term: οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμὸν δοῦναι (“it is not mine to give”)

Literal meaning: “it is not mine to give.”
Semantic range: A statement of role-ordered limitation within the divine economy, not a statement of ontological deficiency.
English variants: it is not for me to grant / it is not mine to give.
Contextual theological meaning: Critical interpretive point. Jesus here submits the assignment of final honors to the Father’s sovereign will (“but for those for whom it has been prepared,” ἡτοίμασται — a divine-passive verb implying God the Father as the unstated agent; cf. baseline entry providence/تدبیر الهی). This reflects the voluntary economic submission of the Son to the Father’s will (cf. Philippians 2, John 5:19), not a denial of co-equal divine nature. This must be flagged: in a tawhid-shaped hearing, this verse could be seized upon as evidence that Jesus himself disclaims divine authority, thereby undermining the deity_of_christ and sonship_of_christ doctrines already flagged Critical in the baseline Romans package. Teaching notes must make the Trinitarian economic-submission distinction explicit every time this verse is handled.
Persian rendering & risk: این کار از من نیست که … بلکه از آنِ کسانی است که برایشان آماده شده است. Risk: Critical. Must be paired with a teaching note preventing an anti-Trinitarian misreading; never rendered so as to suggest Jesus lacks divine authority in an absolute sense — only that the Father’s sovereign plan, not the disciples’ request, determines the outcome.

Secondary note: εὐωνύμων (euōnymos, literally “well-named,” a euphemism for “left,” distinct from ἀριστερός in v.37) — purely stylistic Markan variation; Persian سمت چپ (samt-e chap) suffices for both; no theological difference. Risk: Low.

Mark 10:41

Greek: Καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ δέκα ἤρξαντο ἀγανακτεῖν περὶ Ἰακώβου καὶ Ἰωάννου.

Load-bearing term: ἀγανακτέω (aganakteō)

Literal meaning: “to be indignant, greatly displeased, angry.”
Semantic range: Strong resentful anger/indignation, not mild irritation; used elsewhere in Mark of Jesus’s own righteous indignation (10:14, toward the disciples hindering children) — here of sinful indignation rooted in jealousy/rivalry.
English variants: were indignant, angry, resentful.
Contextual theological meaning: The ten disciples’ anger is not righteous concern for justice but wounded ambition — they too want the same honor James and John sought. This sets up Jesus’s teaching on servanthood versus worldly greatness (vv.42–45) as a corrective to the whole group, not just two individuals.
Persian rendering & risk: خشمگین شدند / آزرده‌خاطر شدند (khashmgin shodand). Risk: Low. Ordinary emotional vocabulary; ensure it reads as jealous indignation, not principled objection.

Mark 10:42

Greek: καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτοὺς ὁ Ἰησοῦς λέγει αὐτοῖς, Οἴδατε ὅτι οἱ δοκοῦντες ἄρχειν τῶν ἐθνῶν κατακυριεύουσιν αὐτῶν καὶ οἱ μεγάλοι αὐτῶν κατεξουσιάζουσιν αὐτῶν.

Load-bearing term: τῶν ἐθνῶν (tōn ethnōn, “of the nations”)

Literal meaning: “the nations, the peoples.”
Semantic range: Here a general political-sociological sense — “the [Gentile/pagan] nations” and their customary rulers — distinct from the Pauline theological Jew/Gentile inclusion category already established in the baseline (Gentiles/غیریهودیان).
English variants: nations, Gentiles, pagans (in the political sense).
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus contrasts worldly political rule (“the nations”) with the pattern he requires of his own community. This is not a statement about Jew-Gentile soteriological inclusion (as in Romans) but about worldly power structures as a negative model.
Persian rendering & risk: ملت‌ها (mellat-ha, “the nations/peoples”) preferred over غیریهودیان in this specific political-sense occurrence, and never امت‌ها (rejected per baseline). Risk: Medium. Translators must recognize this is a distinct sense of “nations/Gentiles” from the Romans theological category and not force the baseline’s غیریهودیان rendering onto a verse where the point is about political rulership, not ethnic-religious inclusion.

Load-bearing term: κατακυριεύω (katakyrieuō)

Literal meaning: “to lord over, dominate, exercise mastery over” (κατά + κύριος root — intensified/domineering form of “lord”).
Semantic range: Always negative in NT usage — oppressive, self-serving domination, contrasted with the servant-leadership Jesus requires (cf. 1 Peter 5:3).
English variants: lord it over, dominate, tyrannize.
Contextual theological meaning: Though built on the same κύριος root rendered “Lord” for Christ’s exclusive lordship in the baseline (خداوند), this compound verb describes an abusive counterfeit of lordship that Jesus explicitly rejects as a model for his followers — a deliberate contrast, not an extension, of true Lordship.
Persian rendering & risk: بر آنان سروری/فرمانروایی می‌کنند (sarvari/farmanravayi mikonand), with a connotation of domineering control. Risk: Medium. Persian does not share the Greek’s exact κύριος/κατακυριεύω root-play, so the wordplay is not reproducible; the contrast must instead be carried by explicit content — worldly domineering “lordship” versus Christ’s own servant-shaped exercise of true Lordship (خداوندی مسیح, per baseline).

Load-bearing term: ἐξουσία (exousia, via κατεξουσιάζω)

Literal meaning: “authority, right, delegated power to act.”
Semantic range: Distinct from δύναμις (raw power/might, baseline power_of_god); ἐξουσία denotes rightful or asserted authority — the very term Mark uses repeatedly for Jesus’s own authority over teaching, demons, sickness, sin, and nature (1:22, 27; 2:10; 3:15; 6:7; 11:28–33). Here (κατεξουσιάζω, intensified form) it denotes the abusive imposition of that authority by worldly “great ones.”
English variants: authority, power, jurisdiction, dominion.
Contextual theological meaning: This is a Mark-wide theological keyword (see Chapter 1 below for its foundational introduction) that Jesus deliberately contrasts with his own model of authority exercised through service, climaxing in v.45’s “ransom for many.” The same word that describes Jesus’s unique divine authority over sickness, sin, and nature is here shown corrupted in worldly rulers — a direct rhetorical pairing the Persian rendering must preserve.
Persian rendering & risk: اقتدار (eqtedar). Risk: High. اقتدار is also the term used in Iranian state and clerical political rhetoric (e.g., “اقتدار نظام,” the authority/might of the Islamic Republic system, and “اقتدار ولایت فقیه”). Using the same word for both Jesus’s unique divine authority (a positive, central Markan theme) and worldly domineering rule (the negative contrast in this verse) requires very careful contextual framing so Persian hearers do not either (a) flatten Jesus’s authority into a political-power category resembling state “eqtedar,” or (b) miss that v.42 is a deliberately negative example. Teaching notes must state explicitly which sense (divine, life-giving authority vs. corrupted worldly domination) is active in each occurrence.

Secondary term: οἱ μεγάλοι (hoi megaloi, “the great ones”) — بزرگان (bozorgan), Low risk, transparent.

Mark 10:43

Greek: οὐχ οὕτως δέ ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν· ἀλλ᾽ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ μέγας γενέσθαι ἐν ὑμῖν, ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος,

Load-bearing term: διάκονος (diakonos)

Literal meaning: “one who serves, waits at table, attends to another’s needs.”
Semantic range: From menial table-service to the later specialized “deacon” office (not in view here); in Mark it denotes voluntary, lowly, others-oriented service, the polar opposite of “the great ones” of v.42.
English variants: servant, minister, attendant, deacon.
Contextual theological meaning: This term supplies the positive counter-model to κατακυριεύω/κατεξουσιάζω (v.42): true greatness in Jesus’s community is measured by service rendered, not authority exercised over others — the central content of the “Servanthood versus Worldly Greatness” doctrine, embodied supremely in Jesus himself (v.45).
Persian rendering & risk: خادم (khadem). Risk: High. خادم is a long-established honorific in Persian/Islamic political and religious rhetoric (“خادم مردم,” servant of the people, populist self-designation of officials; historically “خادم الحرمین,” Custodian/Servant of the Two Holy Places, a royal Saudi title). This creates a real risk that “servant” here is heard as a dignified honorific title rather than genuine, costly, lowly service. Teaching notes must stress that Jesus means literal, practiced service — not a rhetorical honorific worn by the powerful.

Mark 10:44

Greek: καὶ ὃς ἂν θέλῃ ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι πρῶτος, ἔσται πάντων δοῦλος·

Load-bearing term: δοῦλος (doulos)

Literal meaning: “slave, bondservant” — one owned by and wholly obligated to a master, with no legal autonomy.
Semantic range: The strongest servitude term available in Koine Greek, intensifying διάκονος (v.43); used by Paul of himself in relation to Christ (δοῦλος Χριστοῦ, e.g., Romans 1:1).
English variants: slave, bondservant, servant (in a stronger sense than diakonos).
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus escalates from “servant of you” (διάκονος, v.43) to “slave of all” (δοῦλος πάντων, v.44) — total, unqualified self-giving service to everyone, without the master-status hierarchy the disciples were seeking. This intensification is essential to the passage’s rhetorical structure and must be visible in Persian.
Persian rendering & risk: غلام (gholam). Risk: Medium. غلام is the historically established Persian Bible rendering for δοῦλος (distinct from خادم/diakonos), preserving the escalation from “servant” to “slave.” Risk lies in غلام’s historical association with literal chattel slavery, which may read as archaic or uncomfortable, but this is preferable to بنده (bandeh), which is rejected here: بنده is the primary everyday Persian/Islamic self-designation of a human before God (“bandeh-ye khoda,” a polite first-person self-reference), carrying a vertical human-to-God submission sense (parallel to Arabic ‘abd) rather than the horizontal, radical other-to-other servitude Jesus commands in this verse. غلام is retained to preserve both the doctrinal escalation (servant → slave) and the horizontal direction of the command.

Mark 10:45

Greek: καὶ γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἦλθεν διακονηθῆναι ἀλλὰ διακονῆσαι, καὶ δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν.

Load-bearing term: ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (ho huios tou anthrōpou, “the Son of Man”)

Literal meaning: “the son of man/humanity” (a Semitic idiom that can mean simply “a human being,” but here functions as a fixed title).
Semantic range: (1) Generic Semitic idiom for “a human”; (2) Christ’s own preferred self-designation across all four Gospels, drawing specifically on Daniel 7:13–14, where “one like a son of man” comes with the clouds of heaven and receives everlasting dominion, glory, and a kingdom from the Ancient of Days — a figure of heavenly authority, not mere humanity; (3) in Mark specifically, the title bears the full paradox of humiliation (suffering, death, service — 8:31; 9:12; 9:31; 10:33–34, 45) and future glory/authority (2:10, forgiving sins; 2:28, lord of the Sabbath; 13:26; 14:62, coming with the clouds of heaven, echoing Daniel).
English variants: Son of Man, the Human One, the Son of Humanity.
Contextual theological meaning: Critical. This is Mark’s central Christological title and the hinge of the “Messianic Secret” motif: it discloses Jesus’s unique divine authority while veiling it in ordinary-sounding, humble language until the trial scene (14:62), where Jesus openly claims it before the Sanhedrin. Verse 45 fuses both poles of the title in a single sentence — the one with Daniel’s cosmic authority “came not to be served but to serve,” and to give his life as a ransom. Persian hearers, shaped by an Islamic Christology that affirms Jesus’s full humanity and prophetic status but denies his deity, risk collapsing “Son of Man” into “merely a human being, which is what Islam already teaches” — precisely inverting Mark’s intent. The Danielic authority-and-glory half of the title must be actively taught alongside every occurrence of this term, not left implicit.
Persian rendering & risk: پسر انسان (pesar-e ensan). Risk: Critical. Because پسر خدا (Son of God, per baseline) is reserved for explicit divine sonship, پسر انسان could be read by a Muslim-background hearer as confirming (rather than complicating) the “merely human prophet” Christology already native to their background. Every occurrence requires paired teaching on the Daniel 7 background (heavenly authority, worship, everlasting dominion) so the title’s full paradox — humble suffering AND divine authority — is preserved, not flattened into humanity alone.

Load-bearing term: διακονηθῆναι / διακονῆσαι (diakonēthēnai / diakonēsai)

Literal meaning: “to be served” / “to serve” (passive and active infinitives of διακονέω, same root as διάκονος, v.43).
Semantic range: See διάκονος above.
English variants: to be served / to serve.
Contextual theological meaning: Jesus states his own life’s purpose in these terms, making himself the model and ground of the servant-ethic just taught (vv.43–44) — not an abstract ideal but Christ’s own lived pattern culminating in the cross.
Persian rendering & risk: خدمت کردن / خدمت شدن (khedmat kardan / khedmat shodan), sharing the same root as خادم (v.43). Risk: Medium — see خادم note above; must not collapse into a mere honorific.

Load-bearing term: δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ (dounai tēn psychēn autou, “to give his life/soul”)

Literal meaning: “to give his soul/life.”
Semantic range: ψυχή (psychē) in Semitic-influenced NT usage denotes the whole living self (following Hebrew nephesh), not a Greek dualistic “soul” separable from and superior to the body; “to give one’s psychē” means to lay down one’s whole life, voluntarily and completely.
English variants: life, soul, self.
Contextual theological meaning: This is a deliberate, voluntary self-offering — the necessity of the cross (δεῖ, ch.8) expressed here as Jesus’s own chosen self-gift, not merely something inflicted on him.
Persian rendering & risk: جان خود را دادن (jan-e khod ra dadan). Risk: Low-Medium. جان (jan) correctly conveys the whole-life/whole-self sense; ensure it is not read through a Greek soul/body dualism that would separate an immaterial “soul” from the true self given up.

Load-bearing term: λύτρον (lytron)

Literal meaning: “ransom, price of release” — the price paid to redeem a slave, captive, or prisoner from bondage.
Semantic range: A commercial/legal term for the payment securing someone’s freedom (manumission price, prisoner ransom); in the LXX and NT background it carries forward Isaiah 53’s Suffering Servant, who “bore the sin of many” (Isa 53:11–12 LXX, πολλῶν) and whose life is given as a guilt-offering.
English variants: ransom, redemption price, payment for release.
Contextual theological meaning: Critical. This is the single most theologically load-bearing word in the core passage: it names the substitutionary, price-paying character of Christ’s death, fulfilling Isaiah 53’s Servant, and grounds the doctrine of “The Ransom for Many.” It must communicate a costly, personal, sacrificial payment that liberates people from bondage to sin, not a legal technicality or a symbolic gesture.
Persian rendering & risk: فدیه (fedyeh). Risk: Critical. فدیه is an Arabic-derived term already active in Islamic law as a compensatory payment or substitute performance (e.g., the fedyeh owed for a missed Ramadan fast, or the fedyeh/ransom motif in the Quranic account of the ram substituted for Ismail, Q37:107) — a legal-ritual compensation category, not a costly personal atonement securing rescue from sin’s bondage and God’s judgment. A second, distinct risk layer: the همریشه (cognate) verb فدا کردن (“to sacrifice, to give up for”) is deeply embedded in modern Iranian political-religious rhetoric — “fedā-ye vatan” (sacrifice for the homeland), and especially “فدائیان” (fedayeen, self-sacrificing partisans/militants, the name of actual revolutionary and Islamic Republic-era organizations) — risking a nationalist-martyrdom political reading. A third risk layer connects directly to the baseline’s flagged salvation entry: popular Shia devotion already frames Imam Hussein’s suffering at Karbala in ransom/intercession-adjacent language (“his blood ransoms/intercedes for his mourners”). All three layers must be actively distinguished in teaching: Christ’s λύτρον is a unique, sufficient, historical payment securing liberation from sin and God’s judgment — not a legal fine, not a nationalist self-sacrifice, and not analogous to Hussein’s martyrdom-intercession. No adequate alternative exists (a descriptive compound like بهای رهایی, “price of release,” loses the term’s established weight in Persian Christian usage); فدیه is retained with mandatory theologian-reviewed contextual glossing at every occurrence.

Load-bearing term: ἀντί (anti)

Literal meaning: “in place of, instead of, in exchange for.”
Semantic range: A substitutionary preposition (distinct from ὑπέρ, “on behalf of/for the benefit of,” used elsewhere in the NT); ἀντί specifically indicates one thing given in exchange for, or in the place of, another.
English variants: for, in place of, instead of, in exchange for.
Contextual theological meaning: This small preposition carries large doctrinal weight: it specifies that Christ’s life is given as a substitute in the place of “the many,” not merely as a benefit conferred alongside them — the grammatical seed of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
Persian rendering & risk: به‌جای / در عوض (be-jaye / dar avaz, “in place of / in exchange for”). Risk: Medium. Must be rendered with the substitutionary preposition (به‌جای), not merely a general-benefit preposition (برای, “for the benefit of”), or the substitutionary force of the ransom saying will be lost.

Load-bearing term: πολλῶν (pollōn, “of many”)

Literal meaning: “of many, for many.”
Semantic range: Directly echoes Isaiah 53:11–12 LXX, where the Servant “bears the sin of many” (πολλῶν) and “was numbered among the many” — establishing Mark 10:45 as a deliberate fulfillment-echo of the Suffering Servant song.
English variants: many, the many, a multitude.
Contextual theological meaning: “Many” signals the Isaiah 53 background essential to the “Suffering Servant” doctrine and should not be read as a numerical limitation contradicting the gospel’s universal offer (cf. baseline’s universal_scope_of_gospel entry) but as the fulfillment-language of the specific OT prophecy being cited.
Persian rendering & risk: بسیاری (besyari). Risk: Low-Medium. Low as a standalone word; Medium in that its Isaiah 53 background (which most Muslim-background readers will not recognize, since Isaiah is not part of the shared Quranic prophetic corpus in the same way) needs explicit teaching to be recognized as a fulfillment-citation rather than an arbitrary scope-limiting word.

PART 2 — Chapter-by-Chapter Study of Mark 1–16

Mark 1

Foundational chapter, introducing the book’s title vocabulary and Jesus’s authoritative ministry pattern.

εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion, “gospel”) — 1:1, 14–15. Reuse baseline انجیل exactly. New nuance: Mark opens his entire book with this word as its own title/genre-label (“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God”), a literary use beyond Romans’ epistolary usage; teach as the authoritative narrative record of God’s saving action, not folklore.
υἱὸς θεοῦ (huios theou, “Son of God”) — 1:1 (widely attested; some manuscripts omit, textual note for translators). Reuse baseline پسر خدا exactly; foundational for the whole Gospel’s Christology (see also 1:11; 3:11; 5:7; 9:7; 15:39).
μετάνοια / μετανοέω (metanoia / metanoeō, “repentance/repent”) — 1:4, 15. New term. Literal meaning: “a change of mind,” turning the whole direction of one’s life. English variants: repent, turn, change one’s mind. Contextual theological meaning: John’s and Jesus’s opening summons; repentance here is inseparable from faith in the in-breaking kingdom (“repent and believe the gospel,” 1:15), not a self-sufficient act securing forgiveness on its own. Persian rendering: توبه (towbeh). Risk: High. Towbeh is a major, well-developed Islamic soteriological category (tawba): sincere regret, verbal confession, and resolve to reform are widely held to be sufficient in themselves to secure God’s forgiveness, without any need for a mediating atonement. Mark’s call to repent must be taught as inseparably joined to faith in Christ and his coming death/resurrection (the ransom, 10:45), not as a self-contained transaction complete in itself.
πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον / δαιμόνιον (pneuma akatharton / daimonion, “unclean spirit/demon”) — 1:23–27, 32–34, 39. New term. Literal meaning: “unclean/impure spirit”; “demon, evil spirit-being.” Semantic range: personal, malevolent spirit-beings in active opposition to God, subject to Jesus’s direct command. Contextual theological meaning: foundational to “Jesus’ Authority over Sickness, Sin, and Nature” — Jesus’s power over unclean spirits is presented as self-evidently astonishing, prompting the crowd’s question about his ἐξουσία (below). Persian rendering: روح پلید (ruh-e palid) / دیو (div). Risk: High. Iranian popular culture retains a very active folk belief in جن (jinn) and possession/exorcism practice (جن‌گیری, jinn-giri, performed by mullahs or folk healers); Mark’s demon narratives risk being assimilated into this folk-exorcism framework rather than taught as evidence of Jesus’s unique divine authority over the spiritual realm.
ἐξουσία (exousia, “authority”) — 1:22, 27. New term, foundational for the whole book (see full discussion at Mark 10:42 above, and recurring at 2:10; 3:15; 6:7; 11:28–33; 13:34). Persian rendering: اقتدار (eqtedar). Risk: High (see 10:42 note on collision with Iranian state/clerical political rhetoric). First introduced here as the crowd’s own astonished verdict on Jesus’s teaching and exorcism (“he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”) — establish from this first occurrence that ἐξουσία in Mark is a positive marker of Jesus’s unique divine authority, so that its later negative use for worldly rulers (10:42) reads as a deliberate contrast, not a contradiction.
λέπρα / λεπρός (lepra / lepros, “leprosy/leper”) — 1:40–45. New, minor term tied to the healing/authority theme; Persian: جذام / مبتلا به جذام. Risk: Low, mainly requiring cultural note that leprosy carried severe ritual-exclusion consequences in the first-century Jewish setting, paralleling (but not identical to) purity concerns addressed more fully in Mark 7.

Mark 2

ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, “to forgive/release [sins]”) — 2:5–10. New term. Literal meaning: “to let go, release, forgive [a debt].” Contextual theological meaning: Critical. Jesus’s claim to forgive sins directly (“your sins are forgiven”) provokes the scribes’ objection, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” — Mark’s narrative itself identifies forgiveness of sins as an exclusively divine prerogative, making this a direct deity-of-Christ claim reinforced by the following Son of Man / healing demonstration (2:10–12). Persian rendering: آمرزیدن / بخشیدن (amorzidan / bakhshidan). Risk: Critical. Islamic theology (maghferat, forgiveness) holds that God alone forgives sin directly upon sincere towbeh, with no mediating figure; Jesus’s claim to forgive sins in his own authority (not merely by prayerful intercession) is the specific point of collision and must be preserved undiluted, not softened to “Jesus prayed for God to forgive them.”
ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (Son of Man) — 2:10, 28: first narrative occurrences. See full treatment at Mark 10:45 above. New nuance introduced here: the Son of Man’s authority extends to forgiving sins (2:10) and to lordship over the Sabbath (2:28) — both, in the immediate Jewish context, exclusively divine prerogatives.
σάββατον (sabbaton, “Sabbath”) — 2:23–28. New term. Literal meaning: the seventh-day rest commanded in the Mosaic law (ناموس, per baseline). Semantic range: weekly cessation from labor, deeply embedded in Jewish covenant identity; no direct equivalent in Islamic practice (Friday/جمعه is a congregational prayer day, not a rest-Sabbath), so the concept itself requires introduction. Contextual theological meaning: Jesus’s declaration “the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (2:28) is a direct claim to authority over an institution given by God himself in the Law — connecting to the baseline’s Lordship of Christ (خداوند) entry. Persian rendering: سبت (sabt). Risk: Medium-High. Requires background teaching (the concept and its covenantal weight are unfamiliar) plus careful framing so Jesus’s “lordship” claim over the Sabbath registers as a deity claim, not merely situational ethical flexibility.

Mark 3

ἐπιτιμάω / φιμόω (epitimaō / phimoō, “to rebuke/silence”) — 3:11–12 (unclean spirits confessing “You are the Son of God,” Jesus silencing them); recurring throughout the book (1:25, 34; 3:12; 8:30; 9:9) as the primary verbs of the Messianic Secret motif. New term-cluster. Literal meaning: “to charge sternly, command silence, muzzle.” Contextual theological meaning: Jesus repeatedly suppresses premature public disclosure of his full identity, a distinctly Markan narrative strategy building toward the open self-disclosure at the trial (14:62). Persian rendering: ساکت کردن / منع کردن از گفتن (saket kardan / man’ kardan az goftan). Risk: High. Must be taught as a deliberate literary-theological strategy (controlling the timing and shape of revelation, tied to the necessity of the cross preceding recognition of glory), not as evidence that Jesus’s divine identity is uncertain, hidden permanently, or merely a later invention of the church — an argument sometimes advanced in polemical contexts questioning the historical reliability of NT Christology.
βλασφημία (blasphēmia, “blasphemy”) — 3:28–29, the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit. New term. Literal meaning: “slanderous or defiant speech against God.” Contextual theological meaning: attributing the Spirit’s work in Jesus to Satan constitutes a uniquely serious, unforgivable rejection of the Spirit’s testimony to Christ. Persian rendering: Critical — recommend توهین به روح‌القدس (tohin be Ruh-ol-Qods, “an affront/insult to the Holy Spirit”) rather than the single word کفر (kofr). Risk: Critical. کفر (kofr) is an extremely weighted Islamic legal-theological category (denial of the faith, apostasy/unbelief, subject to takfīr accusations and, in Iran’s legal context, real apostasy-law danger for underground house-church believers). Rendering “blasphemy” as kofr risks importing this entire legal-danger category into a pastoral teaching text and could functionally accuse hearers themselves of kofr in a context where such accusations carry real legal jeopardy. The more specific compound (تهین به روح‌القدس) keeps the sin narrowly and correctly defined (a specific act of attributing Christ’s Spirit-empowered ministry to Satan) without triggering the broader apostasy-law association.
Βεελζεβούλ (Beelzeboul, “Beelzebul”) — 3:22, proper name for the prince of demons; Persian transliteration بعل‌زبول, Low risk, background note only.

Mark 4

παραβολή (parabolē, “parable”) — 4:2 and throughout. New term. Literal meaning: “a placing beside,” a comparison/illustrative story. Semantic range: covers proverb, riddle, and extended illustrative narrative; in Mark, parables both reveal and conceal kingdom truth depending on the hearer’s receptivity (4:11–12). Persian rendering: مثل (masal). Risk: Low-Medium. Established, everyday Persian word for illustrative story/proverb; ensure the double function (revealing to disciples, concealing from outsiders) is taught, since Persian “masal” carries no inherent connotation of selective revelation.
μυστήριον (mystērion, “mystery”) — 4:11, “the mystery of the kingdom of God.” New term. Literal meaning: “a secret, previously hidden thing now disclosed.” Contextual theological meaning: God’s redemptive plan, formerly hidden, now unveiled in Jesus’s kingdom-proclamation to those given ears to hear. Persian rendering: راز (raaz). Risk: High. Persian mystical (Sufi) literature uses راز/اسرار (asrar) extensively for esoteric spiritual knowledge accessible only to an initiated spiritual elite through a mystical path (a Gnostic-adjacent framework). Mark’s μυστήριον must be taught as God’s plan now openly proclaimed in the gospel to all who have ears to hear (not restricted to a spiritual elite through esoteric technique), correcting the Sufi-gnosis default.
βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ (kingdom of God) — 4:11, 26, 30 (parables of the sower, growing seed, mustard seed). Reuse baseline ملکوت خدا exactly; new narrative nuance: the kingdom “breaking in” gradually, organically, and often invisibly at first — central to the “Kingdom of God Breaking In” doctrine.
4:35–41 (calming the storm): no new lexical term, but a critical theological moment: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Τίς ἄρα οὗτός ἐστιν) directly invokes the OT theme that only God commands the sea (Ps 89:9; 107:29), an implicit deity-of-Christ claim tied to “Jesus’ Authority over Nature.” Persian rendering of the rhetorical question (این کیست که…) should be left as an open, unresolved question in the text itself, matching the disciples’ own unresolved wonder — the teaching material, not the translation, should supply the theological answer.

Mark 5

σῴζω (sōzō, “to save/heal”) — 5:23, 28, 34 (“your faith has saved/healed you”). Reuse baseline نجات root but flag new nuance: in Mark’s healing narratives σῴζω regularly denotes physical healing/wholeness as well as (and sometimes instead of) eternal salvation — a dual sense not fully carried by نجات’s predominantly soteriological usage in Persian Christian usage inherited from Romans. Risk: Medium-High. Translators must determine per-occurrence whether physical healing, spiritual salvation, or both are intended, and may need a contextual gloss (“شفا و نجات,” healing and salvation) where the dual sense is theologically significant (e.g., 5:34; 10:52).
Λεγιών (Legiōn, “Legion”) — 5:9, the demoniac’s self-identification; continues ch.1’s unclean-spirit/authority theme (روح پلید, اقتدار), no new base term but intensifies the scale of Jesus’s authority over massed demonic forces.
Ταλιθα κουμ (Talitha koum, preserved Aramaic, “little girl, arise”) — 5:41. Transliteration preserved as in the Greek text (a Markan pattern also seen at 7:34 Ephphatha and 14:36 Abba, 15:34 Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani). New note: this resuscitation (ἀνέστη, “she arose/got up”) is distinct from the final, unrepeatable eschatological ἀνάστασις (resurrection, reuse baseline قیامت) — the girl will die again; Christ’s own resurrection in ch.16 is categorically different and final. Persian: transliterate طالیتا قوم with translation “دخترک، برخیز,” and flag distinction from قیامت explicitly in teaching notes.

Mark 6

σπλαγχνίζομαι (splanchnizomai, “to have compassion”) — 6:34 (“he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”). New term. Literal meaning: to be moved in one’s inward parts/viscera; visceral, gut-level compassion. Contextual theological meaning: draws on OT shepherd-king imagery (Ezek 34; Ps 23) applied to Jesus, tying compassion to messianic shepherd identity. Persian rendering: دلسوزی / ترحم کردن (delsuzi / tarahom kardan). Risk: Medium. Broadly compatible emotional vocabulary; ensure the shepherd-messiah background (not merely generic pity) is taught.
ἐγώ εἰμι (egō eimi, “It is I” / “I am”) — 6:50, walking on water. New term-note. Literal meaning: “I am.” Semantic range: on the surface, a simple self-identification (“it’s me”), but possibly echoing the divine self-disclosure formula (LXX Exodus 3:14, ἐγώ εἰμι, “I AM”) within a nature-miracle context. Contextual theological meaning: a subtle but significant deity-of-Christ signal that should not be flattened into a merely reassuring “don’t worry, it’s just me.” Persian rendering: من هستم (man hastam), preferred over the more casual منم (manam) at this specific point, to preserve the possible echo of the divine Name. Risk: High. Requires a teaching note drawing out the possible Exodus 3:14 resonance, since Persian “man hastam” alone will not automatically signal this to the reader without explicit instruction.
6:30–44 (feeding of the 5,000): εὐλογέω (bless/give thanks) and κατακλάω (break [bread]) anticipate the Last Supper vocabulary of Mark 14; no new independent glossary term required, but flag the intertextual link for translators to preserve consistent vocabulary between 6:41 and 14:22.

Mark 7

καθαρός / ἀκάθαρτος (katharos / akathartos, “clean/unclean”) — 7:1–23, the handwashing controversy. New term. Literal meaning: ritually clean/pure vs. impure. Contextual theological meaning: Jesus relativizes the entire external ritual-purity system (“nothing outside a person can defile him… it is what comes out of a person that defiles,” 7:15, 20–23), redirecting purity to the moral condition of the heart. Persian rendering: پاک / ناپاک (pak / napak). Risk: Critical. Ritual purity (تطهیر, طهارت — tahara) is an enormous, actively practiced category in Islamic law (najis/pak binary governing food, washing, prayer-readiness); Jesus’s teaching here directly relativizes a purity framework structurally similar to (and potentially heard as a direct challenge to) the shared najis/pak system still governing daily religious practice for Muslim-background hearers. This must be taught with pastoral care as a redirection toward heart-purity in Christ, not merely presented as abolishing purity codes, which could otherwise read as dismissive of practices central to a hearer’s whole prior religious formation.
παράδοσις (paradosis, “tradition”) — 7:3, 5, 8, 9, 13, “the tradition of the elders” / “your tradition” set against “the commandment of God.” New term. Critical risk. Literal meaning: “that which is handed down.” The most natural Persian rendering, سنت (sonnat), is the exact technical term for the Sunnah — the normative body of the Prophet Muhammad’s words and practice, second in Islamic legal authority only to the Quran, and foundational to Sunni self-identity (Ahl al-Sunnah). Rendering the Pharisees’ human “tradition” (which Jesus contrasts unfavorably with God’s own command) as سنت risks being heard as a direct critique of the Islamic Sunnah category itself — an extremely sensitive and potentially inflammatory association. Recommended departure from the most literal option: render as رسوم انسانی (rosum-e ensani, “human customs/practices”) rather than سنت, preserving Jesus’s contrast between human custom and divine command while avoiding a direct terminological collision with the Sunnah. This is a deliberate Language Package decision requiring theologian sign-off, parallel to the baseline’s law/ناموس departure from شریعت.
Ἐφφαθά (Ephphatha, “be opened”) — 7:34, preserved Aramaic; transliterate افاتا with translation “باز شو.” Low risk, background note only.
κυνάρια (kynaria, “little dogs”) — 7:24–30, the Syrophoenician woman; continues the Gentile-inclusion theme (reuse غیریهودیان); no new base glossary term, but note the boundary-crossing significance for “Kingdom of God Breaking In” and universal_scope_of_gospel (baseline).

Mark 8

8:1–10: second feeding miracle; reuses ch.6 vocabulary, no new terms.
Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστός (8:29, “You are the Christ”): reuse baseline مسیح exactly; Peter’s confession is the narrative turning point toward the passion predictions.
δεῖ (dei, “it is necessary/must”) — 8:31 (“the Son of Man must suffer many things”), repeated in the second and third passion predictions (9:31; 10:33–34). New term, the key grammatical marker of “The Necessity of the Cross” doctrine. Literal meaning: an impersonal verb expressing binding necessity, obligation, or divinely-ordained inevitability — not mere possibility or advisability. Persian rendering: باید (bayad). Risk: High. Persian باید is flexible enough to express anything from light obligation (“I should”) to strong necessity; translators must select intensifying constructions (حتماً باید, “it is absolutely necessary that”) so the divine-necessity force — the cross as God’s determined plan, not an unfortunate accident or a merely possible outcome — is unmistakable, directly supporting the doctrine that the cross was necessary, not incidental.
πάσχω (paschō, “to suffer”) — 8:31 and throughout the passion predictions. New term. Persian rendering: رنج کشیدن / متحمل شدن (ranj keshidan). Risk: Medium. Straightforward; ensure paired consistently with باید so necessity and suffering are held together.
Σατανᾶς (Satanas, “Satan”) — 8:33, Jesus rebukes Peter: “Get behind me, Satan.” New term. Persian rendering: شیطان (sheytan), the shared Quranic/Islamic term for Satan/Iblis. Risk: Medium. Broadly compatible concept; ensure it is not conflated with the folk-jinn categories noted at ch.1, and that Peter’s well-meaning but satanically-aligned resistance to the necessity of the cross is understood as a serious rebuke, not hyperbole.
σταυρός / σταυρόω (stauros / stauroō, “cross/to crucify”) — 8:34, “take up his cross,” first occurrence; fully realized at 15:24–25. New term. Critical. Literal meaning: the Roman execution instrument; verb “to crucify.” Contextual theological meaning: directly and unavoidably invokes the Quran’s crucifixion-denial (Q4:157, “they did not kill him, nor crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them” — shubbiha lahum), the single sharpest point of doctrinal collision in the entire book of Mark for a Muslim-background audience. Persian rendering: صلیب (salib, noun) / مصلوب کردن (maslub kardan, verb). Risk: Critical. Must always be rendered as a real, historical, physical event — Jesus was actually, bodily crucified and died — with zero hedging language that could be read as compatible with an “it only appeared so” substitution theory. Every occurrence (8:34; 10:21 [absent]; 15:13–32) requires theologian review per the baseline’s existing escalation rules for resurrection/humanity_of_christ, extended here to its own dedicated Critical entry given Mark’s structural emphasis on the necessity of the cross as the narrative’s central destination.
μαθητής (mathētēs, “disciple”) — used throughout but thematically emphasized from 8:34 onward (“if anyone would come after me…”). New foundational term. Literal meaning: apprentice, student, committed follower. Persian rendering: شاگرد (shagerd), the everyday Persian word for an apprentice/student under a master craftsman or teacher. Risk: Low-Medium. Natural, well-established fit; ensure it communicates costly, total-life commitment (the discipleship doctrine’s “amid fear” dimension), not casual pupil-teacher association.

Mark 9

μεταμορφόω (metamorphoō, “to be transfigured”) — 9:2–8. New term. Literal meaning: to be changed in form/appearance. Contextual theological meaning: a momentary, historical unveiling of Christ’s pre-existent divine glory to three witnesses, confirmed by the Father’s voice (“This is my beloved Son; listen to him”), directly supporting “Jesus as… Son of God.” Persian rendering: تجلی (tajalli) or, more descriptively, دگرگون شدن چهره او (change in his appearance/form). Risk: Critical. تجلی is a major, technical term in Persian Sufi mysticism (Ibn Arabi’s doctrine of divine self-manifestation, tajalli, through creation or through the perfected mystic’s heart) — a framework that can tend toward pantheistic or panentheistic readings of divine presence diffused through creation generally. Mark’s transfiguration must be taught as a unique, historical, bodily event revealing the specific, unrepeatable glory of the incarnate Son to named eyewitnesses (cf. 2 Peter 1:16–18) — not a generalizable mystical theophany available to any sufficiently purified seeker.
ἀγαπητός (agapētos, “beloved”) — 9:7 (also 1:11), the Father’s declaration over the Son. New term, connects directly to the baseline’s existing note (under father/abba) on Persian mystical poetry’s Beloved/lover register (Rumi, Hafez). Persian rendering: محبوب (mahbub) — “پسر محبوب من” (my beloved Son). Risk: High. As per the baseline’s existing caution, the rich devotional resonance of “the Beloved” in Sufi love-mysticism (ma’shuq/mahbub) must not be allowed to substitute the Father-Son covenantal/familial relationship (adoption doctrine, baseline) with the very different erotic-mystical union metaphor of the lover and the Divine Beloved.
ἀπιστία (apistia, “unbelief”) — 9:24, “I believe; help my unbelief” (πιστεύω, βοήθει τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ μου). New term, direct antonym of faith (ایمان, baseline). Persian rendering: بی‌ایمانی (bi-imani). Risk: High. Central, pastorally vital verse for “Faith and Discipleship amid Fear” — this father’s honest admission that faith and doubt coexist runs against an Islamic devotional culture in which doubt is often treated as spiritually shameful to voice; teach this verse as modeling honest, imperfect faith that Christ still honors, not as evidence of insufficient faith disqualifying the request.
παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi, “to hand over/betray/deliver up”) — 9:31 (second passion prediction: “the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men”), recurring through the betrayal and trial narratives (14:10–11, 18, 21, 41–44). New term. Persian rendering options: تسلیم شدن/کردن (taslim shodan/kardan) or به دست … سپردن (be-dast… sepordan, “to hand over into the hands of”). Risk: High. تسلیم shares its root (س‌ل‌م, s-l-m) with اسلام itself (Islam = submission), creating an unintended and potentially confusing resonance between “Jesus was handed over/betrayed” and the very different concept of righteous submission central to Islam’s name and self-understanding. Recommendation: prefer به دست … سپردن or به دست دشمنان افتاد (“fell/was handed into enemies’ hands”) over تسلیم-rooted vocabulary wherever the sense is betrayal/handing-over to hostile parties, reserving تسلیم only where a genuinely positive, voluntary “yielding” sense is intended (e.g., possibly Gethsemane’s submission of will, 14:36, which should itself be reviewed for the same root-collision).
γέεννα (geenna, “Gehenna/hell”) — 9:43–48. New term. Persian rendering: جهنم (jahannam), the standard shared Quranic term for hell. Risk: Medium-High. Broadly compatible concept of final punishment, but connects to the baseline’s flagged salvation entry: Islamic Jahannam theology includes a deeds-weighing framework (mizan) and, in some traditions, the possibility of intercession reducing or ending a sentence — this must not be assumed to map directly onto the biblical framework of final judgment resting on one’s relationship to Christ.

Mark 10

Core passage chapter (see Part 1 for 10:35–45). Additional load-bearing terms elsewhere in the chapter:

10:2–12 (divorce controversy): reuses ναموس (Law, Moses) from baseline; no new base term.
παιδίον / βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ (10:13–16, “let the children come… to such belongs the kingdom of God”): reuse ملکوت خدا; new nuance — receiving the kingdom “as a little child,” i.e., in trusting dependence, not achievement — supports the faith/discipleship doctrine; no new base term required.
ζωὴ αἰώνιος (zōē aiōnios, “eternal life”) — 10:17, 30 (the rich young man: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”). New term. Literal meaning: life of the age to come, unending life in God’s presence. Persian rendering: حیات ابدی / زندگی ابدی (hayat-e abadi). Risk: Medium. Broadly compatible with an Islamic akhirat (afterlife) framework, but must be distinguished from a deeds-weighing (mizan) basis for attaining it — Jesus’s answer in this very passage (10:21–27, “with man this is impossible, but not with God”) subverts a works-based inheritance model, tying directly into the baseline’s justification/imputed_righteousness entries.
υἱὲ Δαυίδ (huie Dauid, “Son of David”) — 10:47–48, Bartimaeus’s cry, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” New term, distinct from the baseline’s seed_of_david (نسل داوود, physical lineage in 1:3-style contexts): here υἱὸς Δαυίδ functions as a direct messianic title of address/confession. Persian rendering: پسر داوود (pesar-e Davud). Risk: High. Connects directly to the baseline’s messianic_promise and davidic_covenant entries (David/داوود as a positively-regarded but non-messianic Quranic king-prophet); Bartimaeus’s confession that this specific title belongs to Jesus, with power to grant sight/mercy, must be taught as a direct messianic identification, not a generic honorific for a descendant of a revered king.
ἐλεέω (eleeō, “to have mercy”) — 10:47–48, ἐλέησόν με (“have mercy on me”). New term. Persian rendering: رحم کن (rahm kon) / رحمت (rahmat, noun). Risk: Medium. رحمت/mercy is a central, constantly-invoked divine attribute in Islamic devotion (Bismillah’s ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim), broadly compatible in concept, but the specifically Christ-mediated, personal dimension of mercy sought and granted here (mercy secured through direct address to Jesus as Son of David/Messiah) must be retained rather than dissolved into generic pious divine-attribute recitation.

Mark 11

Ὡσαννά (Hōsanna, “Hosanna”) — 11:9–10, preserved Hebrew transliteration; retain as هوشیعنا (or established Persian Bible transliteration) with a gloss (“save now” / an acclamation of praise). Low risk, background note.
Εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου (11:9, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”) — quotation of Psalm 118:26; reuses baseline خداوند (Lord); new nuance — this is a direct messianic acclamation applied to Jesus at his triumphal entry, in deliberate fulfillment of prophecy (per baseline’s fulfillment_of_prophecy entry).
ἱερόν / ναός (hieron / naos, “temple”) — 11:11, 15–17, 27; 13:1–2 (temple cleansing and prediction of destruction). New term. Persian rendering: هیکل (heykal, established Persian Bible term for the Jerusalem Temple) or معبد (ma’bad, more generic “temple/shrine”). Risk: Medium. Ensure translators use هیکل specifically for the Jerusalem Temple to avoid confusion with generic religious-shrine vocabulary (معبد could suggest any temple, including pre-Islamic Zoroastrian fire-temples, آتشکده, a distinct and unrelated cultural referent); teach the temple-cleansing/replacement typology (Jesus as fulfilling and superseding temple worship) as likely unfamiliar background for most readers.
ἐξουσία (11:27–33, “by what authority do you do these things?”): direct reuse of the ch.1 term (اقتدار); the temple authorities’ challenge to Jesus’s authority ties this chapter’s controversy directly back to the book’s central authority theme.

Mark 12

ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω (agapē / agapaō, “love”) — 12:30–31, the greatest commandment (“love the Lord your God… love your neighbor as yourself”). New foundational term (not yet needed by name in earlier chapters, though enacted throughout). Persian rendering: محبت (mohabbat). Risk: Low-Medium. Broadly compatible, established vocabulary; ensure the double command (God and neighbor) is retained as a single, unified command, per Jesus’s own framing, not read as two separable religious duties of differing priority as in some legal-casuistic traditions.
ἀνάστασις (anastasis, “resurrection”) — 12:18–27, the Sadducees’ resurrection question, “he is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Reuse baseline قیامت exactly; good positive proof-text for the resurrection doctrine ahead of Mark 16.
Καίσαρος (Kaisaros, “Caesar”) — 12:13–17, “render to Caesar…”; civic-authority teaching, connects thematically to Romans 13’s government section already referenced in the baseline requirements; no new theological glossary term needed beyond noting the parallel.

Mark 13

ψευδόχριστος / ψευδοπροφήτης (pseudochristos / pseudoprophētēs, “false messiah/false prophet”) — 13:22. New term. Persian rendering: مسیح دروغین (masih-e doroghin) / پیامبر دروغین (payambar-e doroghin). Risk: Medium-High. Connects to the baseline’s messianic_promise entry; worth a cultural-historical note that various historical Mahdist claimants within Shia history illustrate the same phenomenon of false-messianic movements Jesus warns against, without directly equating the Mahdi expectation itself with a “false messiah” polemically in the teaching material (a distinction requiring careful, non-inflammatory pastoral framing).
ἐκλεκτός (eklektos, “elect, chosen”) — 13:20, 22, 27. Reuse baseline election concept (برگزیدگی خدا); plural noun form here: برگزیدگان (bargozidegan, “the elect ones”). No new base term; connects to baseline’s effectual_calling entry.
γρηγορέω (grēgoreō, “to be watchful/stay awake”) — 13:33–37. New term. Persian rendering: بیدار باشید / هوشیار باشید (bidar bashid). Risk: Low-Medium. Ties eschatological readiness to the “Faith and Discipleship amid Fear” doctrine — watchfulness as the alternative to both complacency and fear.
ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐρχόμενος ἐν νεφέλαις (13:26, “the Son of Man coming in the clouds”): direct reuse/development of the Son of Man title (see Mark 10:45 and 14:62), here made explicit as the Daniel 7 apocalyptic-glory pole of the title’s paradox, balancing its suffering-servant pole in 10:45. Cross-reference required in teaching notes.

Mark 14

σῶμα (sōma, “body”) and αἷμα (haima, “blood”) — 14:22–24, the Last Supper (“this is my body… this is my blood of the covenant”). New terms. Persian rendering: بدن (badan) and خون (khun). Risk: Critical (as a compound with διαθήκη, below).
αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης (haima tēs diathēkēs, “blood of the covenant”) — 14:24, echoing Exodus 24:8 and Jeremiah 31:31 (new covenant); reuses baseline عهد (covenant) exactly, combined with خون. Contextual theological meaning: identifies Jesus’s death as the sacrificial, covenant-sealing act inaugurating the new covenant — the theological core of “The Necessity of the Cross” and “The Ransom for Many” doctrines given liturgical, communal form. Risk: Critical. This directly engages two collision points already flagged in the baseline: (1) Islam retains commemorative animal sacrifice (Eid al-Adha) but explicitly denies any atoning, sin-covering function to sacrificial blood — sacrifice there is commemorative/charitable, not soteriological, so “blood of the covenant” as an atoning reality requires active teaching, not assumption of a shared category; (2) Shia Muharram devotion’s own intense blood-symbolism (mourning processions, symbolic blood-shedding for Hussein) risks an unintended visual/devotional overlap that must be explicitly distinguished — Christ’s blood secures a new covenant once for all; it is not analogous to ritual mourning-blood offered in devotion to a martyred intercessor.
τὸ ποτήριον (14:23, 36, “the cup”): direct reuse of the term already fully analyzed at Mark 10:38 above — note the narrative payoff: the “cup” Jesus asked James and John whether they could drink (10:38) is here identified concretely as this cup of the new covenant and, at Gethsemane, the cup of the Father’s will. Persian: جام (jaam), same High-risk profile as noted at 10:38.
Ἀββά ὁ πατήρ (14:36, “Abba, Father”): direct reuse of baseline ابا / پدر exactly, in the passage of Jesus’s submission of will (“not what I will, but what you will”) — connects necessity of the cross to the Son’s voluntary obedience, not merely imposed suffering.
ἐγώ εἰμι (14:62, “I am”): reuse of the term introduced at 6:50, now used unambiguously and climactically — in response to the high priest’s direct question (“Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”), Jesus answers Ἐγώ εἰμι, “I am,” immediately followed by the Daniel 7 Son of Man/clouds-of-heaven language. Critical narrative-theological note: this is the moment the Messianic Secret is deliberately and finally broken — Jesus’s clearest, most direct self-disclosure in the entire book, given at the cost of his life (immediately triggering the βλασφημία/blasphemy charge, reusing the term flagged at 3:28–29, now turned — with deliberate Markan irony — against Jesus himself). Persian rendering must be equally unambiguous: من هستم (man hastam) / آری، من هستم, with zero softening or hedging.

Mark 15

σταυρόω (stauroō, “to crucify”) — 15:13–15, 20–27, direct verb reuse from 8:34; now the historical event itself, not a discipleship metaphor. Risk: Critical, per the full discussion at Mark 8:34 above — render as an unambiguous, actual, historical crucifixion (او را بر صلیب کشیدند / مصلوب کردند), with no hedging language admitting an “appeared to be crucified” reading, directly and necessarily countering Quran 4:157.
Ἐλωΐ Ἐλωΐ, λαμὰ σαβαχθανι; (15:34, preserved Aramaic, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”): quotation of Psalm 22:1. New term-note. Contextual theological meaning: the cry of dereliction — real experienced abandonment by the incarnate Son at the moment of bearing sin’s judgment. This is theologically demanding for any audience but especially so where tawhid sensibilities make the very idea of God’s own being forsaken by God difficult to conceptualize; requires careful catechesis distinguishing the Son’s experienced abandonment (in his human nature, bearing judgment) from any division within the eternal Godhead. Persian: preserve the Aramaic transliteration ایلی ایلی لما سبقتنی with the Persian translation “خدای من، خدای من، چرا مرا واگذاردی؟” Risk: Critical.
καταπέτασμα (katapetasma, “the veil [of the temple]”) — 15:38, torn in two at Jesus’s death. New term. Persian rendering: پرده (parde, “the veil/curtain”). Risk: Medium. Symbolizes the opening of direct access to God secured by Christ’s death; requires typological teaching (unfamiliar to most readers) connecting the temple veil’s function (separating the Holy of Holies) to the access now granted through Christ.
Ἀληθῶς οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος υἱὸς θεοῦ ἦν (15:39, “Truly this man was the Son of God”): the centurion’s confession; direct reuse of baseline پسر خدا exactly. Contextual theological note of high significance: the first fully unqualified human confession of Jesus’s divine sonship in Mark’s narrative comes not from a disciple but from a Gentile Roman soldier at the foot of the cross — the Messianic Secret’s climactic public disclosure, recognized first by an outsider, tying together deity_of_christ, sonship_of_christ, and universal_scope_of_gospel.

Mark 16

Predominantly reuses established resurrection and gospel/mission vocabulary already introduced.

ἠγέρθη (ēgerthē, “he has risen”) — 16:6, direct verbal cognate of the baseline’s ἀνάστασις/قیامت entry; no new base term, but this is the narrative fulfillment toward which the necessity-of-the-cross (δεῖ, ch.8) and ransom (10:45) sayings have been driving throughout the book. Render with full confidence and clarity: او برخاسته است (“he has risen”), with no hedging.
16:9–20 (the longer ending): New textual note only, not a doctrinal-term note: this passage is textually disputed (absent from the earliest and best manuscripts, bracketed or footnoted in most critical editions and modern translations). Recommend following established Persian Bible practice (bracketing or footnoting per the destination platform’s house style) rather than presenting it as textually uncontested; content itself (commissioning to preach the gospel, εὐαγγέλιον, reuse انجیل) introduces no new theological vocabulary beyond what earlier chapters have already established.

End of Semantic Analysis. See analysis/08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated glossary table of all new terms identified above, cross-referenced with translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json.

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