Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Mark 1–16 (Persian)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the full book of Mark, chapter 1 through 16. Terms already established in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [Reused from baseline] and must be rendered exactly as recorded there; no alternative is permitted. New terms specific to Mark are proposed here for addition to translation memory upon theologian/native-speaker review, following the same risk-tier conventions (Critical / High / Medium / Low) as the baseline.
Section A — Baseline Terms Reused in Mark (No New Rendering)
| English Term | Persian (Reused) | Risk (baseline) | Key Mark Occurrences | Note on Mark-specific usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gospel | انجیل (Injil) | High | 1:1, 1:14-15, 8:35, 10:29, 13:10, 14:9, 16:15 | Used by Mark as his book’s own title/genre label, not only epistolary content |
| Jesus | عیسی (Isa) | Critical | throughout | Same critical content-risk as baseline (Quranic prophet-only narrative) |
| Christ / Messiah | مسیح (Masih) | Critical | 1:1, 8:29, 9:41, 12:35, 13:21, 14:61 | Peter’s confession (8:29) and trial confession (14:61-62) are climactic occurrences |
| Son of God | پسر خدا (pesar-e khoda) | Critical | 1:1, 1:11, 3:11, 5:7, 9:7, 15:39 | Centurion’s confession (15:39) is the narrative climax of this title |
| God | خدا (Khoda) | Critical | throughout | — |
| Holy Spirit | روحالقدس (Ruh-ol-Qods) | Critical | 1:8, 1:10, 1:12, 3:29, 12:36, 13:11 | 3:29 ties directly to the new “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” entry (Section B) |
| Father | پدر (pedar) | Critical | 8:38, 11:25, 13:32, 14:36 | 14:36 paired with Abba |
| Abba | ابا (Abba) | High | 14:36 | Gethsemane; submission of the Son’s will |
| Faith | ایمان (iman) | High | 2:5, 4:40, 5:34, 9:23-24, 10:52, 11:22-24 | 9:24’s “help my unbelief” pairs faith with its new antonym (Section B) |
| Kingdom of God | ملکوت خدا (malakut-e khoda) | Medium | 1:15, 4:11, 4:26, 4:30, 9:1, 10:14-15, 12:34, 14:25 | Central to “Kingdom of God Breaking In” doctrine throughout |
| Law (Mosaic) | ناموس (namus) | Critical | 1:44, 7:10, 10:3-5, 12:19-31 | Never شریعت, per baseline departure |
| Sin | گناه (gonah) | High | 1:5, 2:5-10, 3:28 | — |
| Gentiles / nations (theological sense) | غیریهودیان (gheyr-yahudian) | Medium | 7:26-27 (Syrophoenician), 13:10 | Distinguish from the political-sense ἐθνῶν in 10:42 (see Section B) |
| Glory | جلال (jalal) | Medium | 8:38, 10:37, 13:26 | Sufi jalal/jamal resonance caution applies; future/eschatological glory, not present triumph |
| Messianic Promise / Prophet | پیامبر (payambar) / نبوت (nabovat) | High / Low | 6:4, 6:15, 8:28, 9:11-13 | Elijah/John the Baptist prophetic identity questions |
| Covenant | عهد (ahd) | Medium | 14:24 | Combined with “blood” — see Section B |
| Election | برگزیدگی خدا (bargozidegi-ye khoda) | High | 13:20, 13:22, 13:27 | Plural: برگزیدگان (bargozidegan) |
| David | داوود (Davud) | Medium | 2:25, 10:47-48, 11:10, 12:35-37 | Base for new “Son of David” title entry (Section B) |
| Israel | اسرائیل (Esra’il) | High | (implicit throughout; explicit reference minimal) | Same political-sensitivity caution as baseline |
| Apostle | رسول (rasul) | High | 3:14, 6:30 | The Twelve |
| Lord | خداوند (Khodavand) | Critical | 1:3, 2:28, 5:19, 7:28, 11:3, 11:9, 12:29-37, 13:35 | 2:28 “Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” is a key deity-claim occurrence |
| Resurrection | قیامت (qiyamat) | Critical | 6:14, 9:9-10, 12:18-27, 16:6 | 16:6 is the book’s climactic fulfillment |
| Salvation | نجات (nejat) | Critical | 8:35, 10:26, 13:13, 13:20 | See also new dual-sense σῴζω entry, Section B |
| Providence | تدبیر الهی (tadbir-e elahi) | Medium | 10:40 (“prepared”) | Ties to the Father’s sovereign assignment of honors |
Section B — New Mark-Specific Terms (Proposed for Translation Memory)
| English Term | Original (Greek) | Persian | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | Key Occurrences | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teacher / Rabbi | διδάσκαλος / ῥαββί | استاد / ربی | ostad / rabbi | Medium | Discipleship | 4:38; 9:5; 9:38; 10:17; 10:35; 10:51; 11:21; 12:14; 12:19; 13:1; 14:14; 14:45 | ostad also = Sufi master honorific; must be corrected by fuller titles (Lord, Christ, Son of Man) in context |
| Cup (of suffering) | ποτήριον | جام | jaam | High | Necessity of the Cross | 10:38-39; 14:23, 36 | Hafez/Sufi wine-cup (jam-e mey) mystical-ecstasy resonance; must anchor to OT judgment-cup background (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15) |
| Baptism / to baptize | βάπτισμα / βαπτίζω | تعمید | ta’mid | Medium | Necessity of the Cross; Repentance | 1:4-9; 10:38-39; 16:16 | Distinct from Islamic ghusl/wudu; figurative “baptism of suffering” (10:38-39) has no established Persian idiom, needs explicit teaching |
| Authority | ἐξουσία | اقتدار | eqtedar | High | Jesus’ Authority over Sickness, Sin, and Nature; Servanthood vs. Greatness | 1:22, 27; 2:10; 3:15; 6:7; 10:42; 11:28-33; 13:34 | Collides with Iranian state/clerical political rhetoric (“اقتدار نظام”); must distinguish Jesus’s unique divine authority (positive) from worldly domineering authority (negative, 10:42) |
| Servant (one who serves) | διάκονος | خادم | khadem | High | Servanthood vs. Worldly Greatness | 9:35; 10:43, 45 | Collides with political-honorific usage (“خادم مردم,” “خادم الحرمین”); must denote genuine lowly service, not a dignifying title |
| Slave / bondservant | δοῦλος | غلام | gholam | Medium | Servanthood vs. Worldly Greatness | 10:44 | Rejected alternative: بنده (bandeh) — too strongly tied to the vertical human-before-God Islamic self-designation (‘abd Allah); غلام preserves the servant→slave escalation and horizontal direction of the command |
| Son of Man | υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου | پسر انسان | pesar-e ensan | Critical | Suffering Servant and Son of God; Messianic Secret | 2:10, 28; 8:31, 38; 9:9, 12, 31; 10:33-34, 45; 13:26; 14:21, 41, 62 | Must always be paired with Daniel 7:13-14 teaching (heavenly authority/dominion), or risks confirming a “merely human prophet” Christology already native to Muslim-background hearing |
| Ransom | λύτρον | فدیه | fedyeh | Critical | The Ransom for Many | 10:45 | Collides with (1) Islamic legal fedyeh (compensatory payment/fine), (2) Iranian political-revolutionary “fedayeen” self-sacrifice rhetoric, (3) Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-intercession devotion (baseline salvation entry); no adequate alternative exists — retain with mandatory theologian-reviewed glossing every occurrence |
| In place of / instead of | ἀντί | بهجای / در عوض | be-jaye / dar avaz | Medium | The Ransom for Many | 10:45 | Must render with substitutionary force, not a general-benefit preposition (avoid برای alone) |
| Many (Isaiah 53 echo) | πολλῶν | بسیاری | besyari | Low-Medium | The Ransom for Many; Suffering Servant | 10:45; 14:24 | Requires explicit Isaiah 53 background teaching; not a scope-limiting word contradicting universal gospel offer |
| Life / soul (whole self) | ψυχή | جان | jan | Low-Medium | Necessity of the Cross | 8:35-37; 10:45 | Avoid Greek soul/body dualism; retain Hebrew-influenced whole-self sense |
| Repentance / repent | μετάνοια / μετανοέω | توبه | towbeh | High | Faith and Discipleship | 1:4, 15; 6:12 | Major Islamic soteriological category (tawba) treated as self-sufficient for forgiveness; must be taught as inseparable from faith in Christ’s death/resurrection |
| Unclean spirit / demon | πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον / δαιμόνιον | روح پلید / دیو | ruh-e palid / div | High | Jesus’ Authority over Sickness, Sin, and Nature | 1:23-27, 32-34; 3:11, 22; 5:1-13; 6:7, 13; 7:25-30; 9:17-29 | Risk of assimilation into active Iranian jinn/jinn-giri folk-exorcism framework rather than unique divine authority |
| Forgiveness of sins | ἀφίημι (sins) | آمرزیدن / بخشیدن | amorzidan / bakhshidan | Critical | Suffering Servant and Son of God | 2:5-10; 3:28-29; 4:12; 11:25 | Must preserve Jesus forgiving sin in his own authority, not merely interceding in prayer for God’s forgiveness |
| Sabbath | σάββατον | سبت | sabt | Medium-High | Jesus’ Authority; Kingdom Breaking In | 1:21; 2:23-28; 3:1-4; 6:2; 16:1-2 | No direct Islamic equivalent (Friday ≠ Sabbath-rest); “lord of the Sabbath” (2:28) ties to Lordship of Christ |
| Blasphemy (against the Spirit) | βλασφημία | توهین به روحالقدس | tohin be Ruh-ol-Qods | Critical | Jesus’ Authority over Sin; Messianic Secret | 3:28-29; 14:64; 15:29 | Deliberately avoid کفر (kofr) — carries real apostasy-law danger in Iranian legal context for house-church readers; narrow, specific compound preferred |
| Parable | παραβολή | مثل | masal | Low-Medium | Kingdom Breaking In | 3:23; 4:2-34; 7:17; 12:1-12; 13:28 | Must teach the dual reveal/conceal function (4:11-12), not inherent to the Persian word alone |
| Mystery | μυστήριον | راز | raaz | High | Kingdom Breaking In | 4:11 | Sufi اسرار (asrar)/esoteric-gnosis resonance; must be openly proclaimed gospel content, not elite mystical knowledge |
| Faith healing / salvation (dual sense) | σῴζω | نجات / شفا (context-dependent) | nejat / shafa | Medium-High | Faith and Discipleship; Authority over Sickness | 5:23, 28, 34; 6:56; 10:52 | Persian نجات (baseline) leans exclusively soteriological; Mark’s usage often means physical healing/wholeness as well — determine per occurrence, gloss dual sense where significant |
| Compassion | σπλαγχνίζομαι | دلسوزی / ترحم | delsuzi / tarahom | Medium | Suffering Servant and Son of God | 1:41; 6:34; 8:2; 9:22 | Shepherd-messiah background (Ezek 34) should be taught alongside |
| ”I am” (divine self-disclosure echo) | ἐγώ εἰμι | من هستم | man hastam | High | Suffering Servant and Son of God; Messianic Secret | 6:50; 13:6; 14:62 | Possible Exodus 3:14 LXX echo; prefer over casual منم; unambiguous at 14:62 |
| Clean / unclean (ritual purity) | καθαρός / ἀκάθαρτος | پاک / ناپاک | pak / napak | Critical | Jesus’ Authority over Sin | 1:40-44; 7:1-23 | Directly relativizes the shared najis/pak Islamic purity system central to hearers’ prior formation; teach with pastoral care, not as blanket dismissal |
| Tradition (human) | παράδοσις | رسوم انسانی | rosum-e ensani | Critical | Jesus’ Authority; Kingdom Breaking In | 7:3, 5, 8, 9, 13 | Deliberately avoid سنت (sonnat) — exact technical term for the Islamic Sunnah; requires theologian sign-off, parallel to baseline’s law/namus departure from shari’at |
| Divine necessity (“must”) | δεῖ | باید (intensified) | bayad | High | The Necessity of the Cross | 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34; 13:7, 10 | Must use intensifying construction (حتماً باید) to convey binding divine necessity, not casual obligation |
| To suffer | πάσχω | رنج کشیدن | ranj keshidan | Medium | The Necessity of the Cross | 8:31; 9:12 | Pair consistently with باید |
| Satan | Σατανᾶς | شیطان | sheytan | Medium | The Necessity of the Cross | 1:13; 3:23-26; 4:15; 8:33 | Shared Quranic/Islamic term; distinguish from folk-jinn categories |
| Cross / crucify | σταυρός / σταυρόω | صلیب / مصلوب کردن | salib / maslub kardan | Critical | The Necessity of the Cross | 8:34; 10:21 (implied); 15:13-32 | Direct collision with Quran 4:157 crucifixion-denial; render as real historical event with zero hedging |
| Disciple | μαθητής | شاگرد | shagerd | Low-Medium | Faith and Discipleship | throughout, esp. 8:34-38 | Natural fit; ensure costly-commitment sense, not casual pupil association |
| Transfiguration | μεταμορφόω | تجلی | tajalli | Critical | Suffering Servant and Son of God | 9:2-8 | Sufi tajalli (divine self-manifestation) resonance risks pantheistic reading; teach as unique historical event, not generalizable mystical theophany |
| Beloved | ἀγαπητός | محبوب | mahbub | High | Suffering Servant and Son of God | 1:11; 9:7; 12:6 | Sufi Beloved/lover (ma’shuq) resonance; must not substitute covenantal Father-Son relationship with erotic-mystical union metaphor |
| Unbelief | ἀπιστία | بیایمانی | bi-imani | High | Faith and Discipleship amid Fear | 9:24; 16:14 | Models honest coexistence of faith and doubt; counter to a devotional culture where doubt is often treated as shameful to voice |
| To hand over / betray | παραδίδωμι | به دست … سپردن | be-dast… sepordan | High | The Necessity of the Cross; Messianic Secret | 9:31; 10:33; 14:10-11, 18, 21, 41-44; 15:1, 10, 15 | Avoid تسلیم-rooted vocabulary (shares root س-ل-م with اسلام/Islam) for betrayal contexts; reserve تسلیم only for genuinely positive voluntary yielding |
| Gehenna / hell | γέεννα | جهنم | jahannam | Medium-High | Jesus’ Authority over Sin | 9:43-48 | Shared Quranic term; do not assume identical mizan-based/intercession-mitigated framework |
| Eternal life | ζωὴ αἰώνιος | حیات ابدی | hayat-e abadi | Medium | Faith and Discipleship; Suffering Servant | 10:17, 30 | Distinguish from deeds-weighing (mizan) basis for attaining it |
| Son of David (title of address) | υἱὸς Δαυίδ | پسر داوود | pesar-e Davud | High | Suffering Servant and Son of God | 10:47-48; 12:35-37 | Distinct from “seed of David” (lineage); direct messianic confession-title, not generic royal-descent honorific |
| Mercy | ἐλεέω / ἔλεος | رحم / رحمت | rahm / rahmat | Medium | Faith and Discipleship | 5:19; 10:47-48 | Compatible with Islamic ar-Rahman/ar-Rahim devotion in concept; retain the specifically Christ-mediated, personal dimension |
| Temple | ἱερόν / ναός | هیکل | heykal | Medium | Jesus’ Authority; Necessity of the Cross | 11:11, 15-17, 27; 13:1-2; 14:58; 15:29, 38 | Use هیکل specifically for the Jerusalem Temple, avoid confusion with generic معبد or Zoroastrian آتشکده associations |
| Love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | محبت | mohabbat | Low-Medium | Faith and Discipleship | 12:30-31 | Retain as one unified double-command (God and neighbor), not two separable duties |
| False messiah / false prophet | ψευδόχριστος / ψευδοπροφήτης | مسیح دروغین / پیامبر دروغین | masih-e doroghin / payambar-e doroghin | Medium-High | Messianic Secret; Messianic Promise | 13:22 | Historical-Mahdist-claimant parallel useful for teaching; avoid inflammatory direct equation with contemporary Mahdi expectation itself |
| Watchfulness | γρηγορέω | بیدار باشید / هوشیار باشید | bidar bashid | Low-Medium | Faith and Discipleship amid Fear | 13:33-37; 14:34, 37-38 | Alternative to both complacency and fear |
| Body | σῶμα | بدن | badan | Critical (as compound) | Necessity of the Cross; Ransom for Many | 14:22 | See “Blood of the covenant” compound entry |
| Blood | αἷμα | خون | khun | Critical (as compound) | Necessity of the Cross; Ransom for Many | 14:24 | See “Blood of the covenant” compound entry |
| Blood of the covenant | αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης | خون عهد | khun-e ahd | Critical | The Necessity of the Cross; The Ransom for Many | 14:24 | Islam denies atoning function to sacrificial blood (Eid al-Adha is commemorative, not soteriological); distinguish from Muharram ritual blood-symbolism honoring Hussein’s martyrdom |
| The Veil (temple curtain) | καταπέτασμα | پرده | parde | Medium | Necessity of the Cross | 15:38 | Requires typological teaching on access to God secured through Christ’s death |
| Cry of dereliction | Ἐλωΐ Ἐλωΐ, λαμὰ σαβαχθανι | ایلی ایلی لما سبقتنی / خدای من، خدای من، چرا مرا واگذاردی؟ | Eli Eli lama sabachthani | Critical | The Necessity of the Cross; Suffering Servant | 15:34 | Real experienced abandonment in the Son’s human nature bearing judgment; requires careful catechesis against a tawhid-shaped intuition that this is theologically impossible |
| Rebuke / command to silence | ἐπιτιμάω / φιμόω | ساکت کردن / منع کردن | saket kardan / man’ kardan | High | Messianic Secret | 1:25, 34; 3:12; 8:30; 9:9 | Deliberate narrative strategy controlling timing/shape of revelation; not evidence of uncertain or fabricated identity |
Section C — Preserved Aramaic/Hebrew Transliterations (Untranslated in Mark)
| Term | Occurrence | Persian Transliteration | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boanerges | 3:17 | بوانرگس | ”Sons of Thunder” |
| Talitha koum | 5:41 | طالیتا قوم | ”Little girl, arise” |
| Korban | 7:11 | قربان | ”a gift devoted to God” (note: NOT the same as Islamic قربانی/qorbani sacrificial offering — flag as a false-friend risk, Medium) |
| Ephphatha | 7:34 | افاتا | ”Be opened” |
| Hosanna | 11:9-10 | هوشیعنا | ”Save now” (acclamation) |
| Abba | 14:36 | ابا | [Reused from baseline] “Father” (intimate) |
| Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani | 15:34 | ایلی ایلی لما سبقتنی | ”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” |
Note on Korban (7:11): پرهیز از قربانی — Persian قربانی is the standard word for Islamic ritual sacrifice (esp. Eid al-Adha); the Markan Korban is a Pharisaic legal-vow term with a different function (declaring an asset “devoted” so as to withhold it from supporting one’s parents). Retain the transliterated قربان with a clarifying gloss to avoid false identification with Eid sacrifice.
This glossary must be merged into translation_memory.json as new entries upon Phase 1 Step 2+ theologian review, following the version-increment and escalation procedures defined in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md. All Critical and High risk entries above require human theologian review before Phase 2 translation begins; Medium risk entries require native speaker review; Low risk entries require automated review only, per the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json conventions.
Critical Risk Terms
Resurrection
Approved rendering: قیامت
Transliteration: qiyamat
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Original: ἀνάστασις
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 16:6 is the book’s climactic fulfillment of the necessity-of-the-cross and ransom sayings; render with full, unhedged confidence, never subordinated to the Mahdi-centered eschatological framework. Occurrences: 6:14; 9:9-10, 31; 10:34; 12:18-27; 16:6.
Lord
Approved rendering: خداوند
Transliteration: Khodavand
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: سرور
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 2:28 (‘the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath’) is a key deity-claim occurrence distinct in kind from Romans’ primary occurrences and must register as such.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: پسر خدا
Transliteration: pesar-e khoda
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: برگزیده خدا
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged, NEVER برگزیده خدا. Mark-specific: the Roman centurion’s confession (15:39) is the narrative’s climactic, outsider-spoken, fully unqualified occurrence of this title and must be rendered with full, undiluted force. Occurrences: 1:1, 1:11, 3:11, 5:7, 9:7, 15:39.
Messiah
Approved rendering: مسیح
Transliteration: Masih
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: Peter’s confession (8:29) and the trial confession (14:61-62) are the pivotal occurrences where the Shia Mahdi-centered messianic-displacement risk is most acute and must be actively countered by asserting Christ’s own primary, sufficient redemptive role.
Jesus
Approved rendering: عیسی
Transliteration: Isa
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: the crucifixion-centered narrative must actively correct, at every turn, the Quranic prophet-only, non-crucified, non-divine portrait of ‘Isa already held by most Persian-speaking readers.
God
Approved rendering: خدا
Transliteration: Khoda
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: الله
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: the same tawhid-vs-Trinity content risk applies identically throughout Mark’s narrative use of this term.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: روحالقدس
Transliteration: Ruh-ol-Qods
Doctrine: Sanctification
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 3:29’s teaching on blasphemy against the Spirit depends on the Spirit’s full divine personhood being clear, directly opposing the mainstream Quranic identification of ruh al-qudus with the created angel Jibril.
Father
Approved rendering: پدر
Transliteration: pedar
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 14:36 (Gethsemane) is the key Markan occurrence, paired directly with the preserved Aramaic ابا.
Law
Approved rendering: ناموس
Transliteration: namus
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: شریعت
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged, NEVER شریعت. Mark-specific: 1:44; 7:10; 10:3-5; 12:19-31 (divorce, Sabbath, and Law-summary controversies).
Salvation
Approved rendering: نجات
Transliteration: nejat
Doctrine: Salvation
Original: σωτηρία / σῴζω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: see the new dual-sense entry faith_healing_sozo below; must be distinguished from the Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-intercession framework of popular Shia piety. Occurrences: 8:35; 10:26; 13:13, 20.
Son Of Man
Approved rendering: پسر انسان
Transliteration: pesar-e ensan
Doctrine: Jesus as the Suffering Servant and Son of God; The Messianic Secret
Original: ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου
Category: Christology
CRITICAL: face-value Persian reads as simple confirmation of the ‘merely human prophet’ Christology already native to Muslim-background hearers. Must be paired with Daniel 7:13-14 catechesis (heavenly authority, everlasting dominion, worship) at EVERY occurrence, or the title’s deliberate paradox (humility fused with hidden divine authority) collapses into humanity alone. No viable alternative rendering or transliteration exists; this is Mark’s central, repeated, fixed Christological title. Occurrences: 2:10, 28; 8:31, 38; 9:9, 12, 31; 10:33-34, 45; 13:26; 14:21, 41, 62.
Ransom
Approved rendering: فدیه
Transliteration: fedyeh
Doctrine: The Ransom for Many
Rejected alternatives: بهای رهایی
Original: λύτρον
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL, highest-priority term in the curriculum: فدیه collides simultaneously with (1) Islamic legal fedyeh (a compensatory payment/substitute ritual performance, e.g. for a missed fast, or the Q37:107 ram-substitution motif); (2) the cognate فدائیان (fedayeen) Iranian political-revolutionary self-sacrifice rhetoric; (3) popular Shia Karbala/Hussein martyrdom-intercession devotion, which already frames a righteous figure’s suffering as benefiting mourners in ransom-adjacent language. No adequate alternative exists — بهای رهایی (‘price of release’) was considered and rejected as a descriptive compound that loses the term’s established weight in Persian Christian usage. Retain فدیه with MANDATORY theologian-reviewed contextual glossing at every occurrence, actively distinguishing all three senses above. Occurrences: 10:45; 14:24 (conceptually, via blood_of_the_covenant).
Forgiveness Of Sins
Approved rendering: آمرزیدن / بخشیدن
Transliteration: amorzidan / bakhshidan
Doctrine: Jesus’ Authority over Sin
Original: ἀφίημι (of ἁμαρτίαι)
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL: Mark’s own narrative identifies forgiving sin directly (not merely praying for it) as an exclusively divine prerogative (‘who can forgive sins but God alone?’, 2:7). Islamic maghferat theology holds that God alone forgives sin directly upon sincere towbeh, with no mediating figure; this claim must be preserved undiluted, never softened to ‘Jesus asked God to forgive them.’ Occurrences: 2:1-12; 3:28-29 (contrast); 4:12; 11:25.
Blasphemy Against The Spirit
Approved rendering: توهین به روحالقدس
Transliteration: tohin be Ruh-ol-Qods
Doctrine: Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
Rejected alternatives: کفر
Original: βλασφημία
Category: Sin
CRITICAL: deliberately avoid کفر (kofr), an extremely weighted Islamic legal-theological category (denial of the faith, apostasy) carrying real, active apostasy-law danger for underground Iranian house-church believers. The specific, narrow act in view (attributing Christ’s Spirit-empowered ministry to Satan) must render with this narrower compound to avoid importing that legal-jeopardy association. Occurrences: 3:28-30; 14:64; 15:29 (contrast).
Clean Unclean
Approved rendering: پاک / ناپاک
Transliteration: pak / napak
Doctrine: Purity of Heart versus Ritual Purity
Original: καθαρός / ἀκάθαρτος
Category: Sin
CRITICAL: directly parallels the shared najis/pak ritual-purity binary still governing daily Islamic religious practice (food, washing, prayer-readiness) for Muslim-background hearers. Jesus’s teaching relativizes external purity codes toward heart-purity; must be taught with pastoral care as redirection, never as a blanket dismissal of practices central to a hearer’s prior religious formation. Occurrences: 1:40-44; 7:1-23.
Tradition
Approved rendering: رسوم انسانی
Transliteration: rosum-e ensani
Doctrine: Purity of Heart versus Ritual Purity
Rejected alternatives: سنت
Original: παράδοσις
Category: Sin
CRITICAL, deliberate Language Package departure requiring theologian sign-off, parallel to the baseline’s law/ناموس departure from شریعت: NEVER render as سنت, the exact technical term for the normative Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, second only to the Quran in Islamic legal authority. Use رسوم انسانی (‘human customs/practices’) to preserve Jesus’s contrast between human custom and divine command without a direct terminological collision with the Sunnah. Occurrences: 7:3, 5, 8, 9, 13.
Cross Crucify
Approved rendering: صلیب / مصلوب کردن
Transliteration: salib / maslub kardan
Doctrine: The Historical Reality of the Crucifixion
Original: σταυρός / σταυρόω
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL: the single sharpest point of doctrinal collision in the entire book. Directly and unavoidably invokes Quran 4:157’s crucifixion-denial (shubbiha lahum, ‘it was made to appear so to them’). Must always be rendered as a real, historical, physical event — Jesus was actually, bodily crucified and died — with zero hedging language at every occurrence. Occurrences: 8:34 (discipleship metaphor, retains full historical weight); 15:13-32 (the historical event itself).
Transfiguration
Approved rendering: تجلی
Transliteration: tajalli
Doctrine: The Transfiguration and Divine Glory
Original: μεταμορφόω
Category: Christology
CRITICAL: تجلی is a major technical term in Persian Sufi mysticism (Ibn Arabi’s doctrine of divine self-manifestation through creation or the purified mystic’s heart), tending toward pantheistic/panentheistic readings. Must be taught as a unique, unrepeatable, bodily historical event revealing Christ’s specific glory to three named eyewitnesses, not a generalizable mystical theophany available to any sufficiently purified seeker. Occurrence: 9:2-8.
Body Soma
Approved rendering: بدن
Transliteration: badan
Doctrine: The New Covenant in Christ’s Blood
Original: σῶμα
Category: Salvation
Part of the body/blood Last Supper compound (14:22-24); requires explicit sacrificial-death teaching since Persian has no independent ritual category combining body-and-blood elements outside a Christian frame. See blood_of_the_covenant.
Blood Haima
Approved rendering: خون
Transliteration: khun
Doctrine: The New Covenant in Christ’s Blood
Original: αἷμα
Category: Salvation
Christ’s blood poured out for many, sealing the new covenant; see blood_of_the_covenant entry for the full compound risk profile. Occurrence: 14:24.
Blood Of The Covenant
Approved rendering: خون عهد
Transliteration: khun-e ahd
Doctrine: The New Covenant in Christ’s Blood; The Ransom for Many
Original: αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης
Category: Salvation
CRITICAL compound: Islam retains commemorative animal sacrifice (Eid al-Adha) but explicitly denies any atoning, sin-covering function to sacrificial blood; Shia Muharram devotion’s own intense ritual blood-symbolism surrounding Hussein’s martyrdom risks unintended devotional overlap. Both must be explicitly and actively distinguished from Christ’s unique, once-for-all, atoning and covenant-sealing death. Occurrence: 14:24, echoing Exodus 24:8 and Jeremiah 31:31.
Cry Of Dereliction
Approved rendering: ایلی ایلی لما سبقتنی (خدای من، خدای من، چرا مرا واگذاردی؟)
Transliteration: Eli Eli lama sabachthani
Doctrine: The Cry of Dereliction and the Suffering of the Son
Original: Ἐλωΐ Ἐλωΐ, λαμὰ σαβαχθανι
Category: Christology
Quotation of Psalm 22:1; the Son’s real, experienced abandonment while bearing sin’s judgment. Requires careful catechesis distinguishing the Son’s experienced abandonment in his human nature from any division within the eternal Godhead, since a tawhid-shaped intuition may treat this as either impossible or evidence against, rather than for, the depth of Christ’s substitutionary suffering. Preserve the Aramaic transliteration with the full Persian gloss. Occurrence: 15:34.
High Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: انجیل
Transliteration: Injil
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: مژده
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: Mark 1:1 uses this word as the title/genre-label of the entire book, not only a preached message; teach as the authoritative narrative record of God’s saving action, not a lost or corrupted (tahrif) predecessor text. Occurrences: 1:1, 1:14-15, 8:35, 10:29, 13:10, 14:9, 16:15.
Faith
Approved rendering: ایمان
Transliteration: iman
Doctrine: Faith
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: healing narratives (5:34; 10:52) and 9:24’s ‘help my unbelief’ give faith an experiential, sometimes fragile texture distinct from Romans’ more propositional usage; anchor as personal trust in Jesus specifically.
Prophet
Approved rendering: پیامبر
Transliteration: payambar
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: applied to John the Baptist and questioned of Jesus himself (6:4, 15; 8:28); must be paired with fuller Christological titles so ‘prophet’ is never read as Jesus’s complete identity, given the shared finality-of-prophethood risk (khatam al-anbiya).
Election
Approved rendering: برگزیدگی خدا
Transliteration: bargozidegi-ye khoda
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Original: ἐκλεκτός
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: ‘the elect’ preserved through coming tribulation (13:20, 22, 27); plural form برگزیدگان. Shia Imamate doctrine’s lineage-based succession content must not be imported onto this election-of-believers sense.
Israel
Approved rendering: اسرائیل
Transliteration: Esra’il
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: Ἰσραήλ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: same political-sensitivity caution as baseline applies to any explicit teaching reference in Mark’s largely implicit background use.
Abba
Approved rendering: ابا
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: אַבָּא
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 14:36, in the passage of the Son’s submission of will (‘not what I will, but what you will’), grounding the necessity of the cross in voluntary obedience, not merely imposed suffering.
Apostle
Approved rendering: رسول
Transliteration: rasul
Doctrine: Apostleship
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: the Twelve, named and sent (3:14; 6:30); same collision with Muhammad’s title and the Imamate’s competing succession claim applies.
Sin
Approved rendering: گناه
Transliteration: gonah
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 2:1-12’s forgiveness narrative and 3:28-29’s blasphemy teaching both depend on گناه carrying full moral weight before a personal, offended God, not ritual impurity or impersonal karma.
Cup Of Suffering
Approved rendering: جام
Transliteration: jaam
Doctrine: The Necessity of the Cross
Rejected alternatives: پیاله
Original: ποτήριον
Category: Salvation
Hafez/Sufi wine-cup mystical-ecstasy resonance (جام مِی، ساقی) risks reading ‘drink my cup’ as an invitation to mystical union rather than the OT judgment-cup background (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17, 22; Jer 25:15-29); must be anchored explicitly to that background and to Gethsemane (14:36) at every occurrence. پیاله rejected as offering no improvement over جام. Occurrences: 10:38-39; 14:23, 36.
Authority
Approved rendering: اقتدار
Transliteration: eqtedar
Doctrine: Jesus’ Authority over Sickness, Sin, and Nature
Original: ἐξουσία
Category: Authority
CRITICAL FENCE: اقتدار collides with Iranian state and clerical political rhetoric (‘اقتدار نظام,’ ‘اقتدار ولایت فقیه’). Applied to Jesus (1:22, 27; 2:10; nature miracles) = unique, positive, divine authority. Applied to Gentile rulers (10:42) = the explicitly REJECTED worldly model. Never let the same word imply Jesus endorses or resembles either pattern; the two senses must be actively distinguished in teaching at every occurrence. Occurrences: 1:22, 27; 2:10; 3:15; 6:7; 10:42; 11:28-33; 13:34.
Servant Diakonos
Approved rendering: خادم
Transliteration: khadem
Doctrine: Servanthood versus Worldly Greatness
Original: διάκονος
Category: Discipleship
خادم is a long-established honorific in Persian political and religious rhetoric (‘خادم مردم,’ ‘خادم الحرمین’); must denote genuine, costly, lowly service, never a dignifying title worn by the powerful. Occurrences: 9:35; 10:43, 45.
Repentance
Approved rendering: توبه
Transliteration: towbeh
Doctrine: Faith and Discipleship amid Fear
Original: μετάνοια / μετανοέω
Category: Faith
توبه (tawba) is a major, well-developed, self-sufficient Islamic soteriological category (sincere regret, confession, and resolve to reform, held sufficient in themselves to secure God’s forgiveness apart from mediating atonement). Mark’s call to repent must be taught as inseparably joined to faith in Christ’s coming death and resurrection, never as a self-contained transaction. Occurrences: 1:4, 15; 6:12.
Unclean Spirit Demon
Approved rendering: روح پلید / دیو
Transliteration: ruh-e palid / div
Doctrine: Jesus’ Authority over Sickness, Sin, and Nature
Original: πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον / δαιμόνιον
Category: Authority
Iranian popular culture retains a very active folk belief in جن (jinn) and possession/exorcism practice (جنگیری, performed by mullahs or folk healers); Mark’s exorcism narratives risk assimilation into this familiar folk-exorcism framework rather than being taught as unique evidence of Jesus’s own singular divine authority (no incantation, ritual, or negotiated bargain — a unilateral command). Occurrences: 1:23-27, 32-34; 3:11, 22; 5:1-20; 6:7, 13; 7:25-30; 9:14-29.
Sabbath
Approved rendering: سبت
Transliteration: sabt
Doctrine: Christ’s Lordship over the Sabbath
Original: σάββατον
Category: Covenant
No direct Islamic equivalent institution (جمعه is a congregational prayer day, not a rest-Sabbath); requires background teaching before ‘lord of the Sabbath’ (2:28) can register as the deity-claim it is, rather than mere situational ethical flexibility. Occurrences: 1:21; 2:23-28; 3:1-4; 6:2; 16:1-2.
Mystery
Approved rendering: راز
Transliteration: raaz
Doctrine: The Kingdom of God Breaking In
Original: μυστήριον
Category: Kingdom
Persian mystical (Sufi) literature uses راز/اسرار extensively for esoteric spiritual knowledge accessible only to an initiated elite through a mystical path; must be taught as God’s plan now openly proclaimed in the gospel to all who have ears to hear, not restricted gnosis. Occurrence: 4:11.
Faith Healing Sozo
Approved rendering: نجات / شفا
Transliteration: nejat / shafa
Doctrine: Mercy and Healing Faith
Original: σῴζω
Category: Salvation
Baseline نجات leans predominantly soteriological; Mark’s healing narratives (5:23, 28, 34; 10:52) often mean physical healing/wholeness as well as, or instead of, eternal salvation. Determine the intended sense per occurrence and gloss the dual sense (شفا و نجات) where theologically significant, e.g. 5:34; 10:52. Occurrences: 5:23, 28, 34; 6:56; 10:52.
Ego Eimi
Approved rendering: من هستم
Transliteration: man hastam
Doctrine: Jesus as the Suffering Servant and Son of God; The Messianic Secret
Rejected alternatives: منم
Original: ἐγώ εἰμι
Category: Christology
من هستم preferred over the casual منم precisely because it is slightly marked/formal, preserving the possible Exodus 3:14 LXX divine self-disclosure echo (6:50). Unambiguous and climactic at 14:62, in response to the high priest’s direct question; must be rendered there with zero softening.
Divine Necessity Dei
Approved rendering: باید (حتماً باید)
Transliteration: bayad (hatman bayad)
Doctrine: The Necessity of the Cross
Original: δεῖ
Category: Salvation
Ordinary Persian باید is flexible enough to express mere advisability; translators must use an intensifying construction (حتماً باید) so the cross registers as God’s determined, binding plan, not an unfortunate accident befalling a righteous prophet. Mandatory at all three passion predictions. Occurrences: 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34; 13:7, 10.
Beloved
Approved rendering: محبوب
Transliteration: mahbub
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Christology
Connects to the baseline’s existing father/abba caution on Persian mystical poetry’s Beloved/lover register (Rumi, Hafez). Must not substitute the covenantal Father-Son relationship (adoption doctrine) with the erotic-mystical union metaphor of Sufi love-mysticism. Occurrences: 1:11; 9:7; 12:6.
Unbelief
Approved rendering: بیایمانی
Transliteration: bi-imani
Doctrine: Faith and Discipleship amid Fear
Original: ἀπιστία
Category: Faith
Direct antonym of ایمان. 9:24’s honest ‘I believe; help my unbelief’ models faith and doubt coexisting, running against a devotional culture, shared with Persian Islamic piety, in which voicing doubt is often treated as spiritually shameful; must be taught as modeling honest, imperfect faith Christ still honors, not disqualifying weakness. Occurrences: 9:24; 16:14.
Betray Hand Over
Approved rendering: به دست … سپردن
Transliteration: be-dast… sepordan
Doctrine: The Necessity of the Cross; The Messianic Secret
Rejected alternatives: تسلیم کردن/شدن
Original: παραδίδωμι
Category: Christology
Avoid تسلیم-rooted vocabulary in hostile ‘handed over’ contexts, since its root (س-ل-م) is shared with اسلام (‘Islam,’ submission), creating unintended and confusing resonance; prefer به دست … سپردن or به دست … افتاد, reserving تسلیم only for a genuinely positive, voluntary yielding sense. Occurrences: 9:31; 10:33; 14:10-11, 18, 21, 41-44; 15:1, 10, 15.
Gehenna Hell
Approved rendering: جهنم
Transliteration: jahannam
Doctrine: Jesus’ Authority over Sin
Original: γέεννα
Category: Sin
Shared Quranic term; broadly compatible concept of final punishment, but Islamic Jahannam theology’s deeds-weighing (mizan) framework, and traditions of possible intercession reducing or ending a sentence, must not be assumed to map directly onto the biblical framework of judgment resting on one’s relationship to Christ. Occurrences: 9:43-48.
Son Of David
Approved rendering: پسر داوود
Transliteration: pesar-e Davud
Doctrine: Jesus as the Suffering Servant and Son of God
Original: υἱὸς Δαυίδ
Category: Christology
Distinct from ‘seed of David’ (physical lineage, baseline seed_of_david); this is a direct messianic title of address/confession. Bartimaeus’s confession (10:47-48) and the 12:35-37 debate must be taught as a direct messianic identification, not a generic honorific for a descendant of a revered king, given David’s status as a positively-regarded but non-messianic Quranic figure.
False Messiah Prophet
Approved rendering: مسیح دروغین / پیامبر دروغین
Transliteration: masih-e doroghin / payambar-e doroghin
Doctrine: The Messianic Secret
Original: ψευδόχριστος / ψευδοπροφήτης
Category: Eschatology
Connects to the baseline messianic_promise entry. A careful, non-inflammatory historical-cultural note that various Mahdist claimant movements within Shia history illustrate the same phenomenon Jesus warns against is permitted for teaching; direct polemical equation with the Twelfth Imam expectation itself is NOT permitted. Occurrence: 13:22.
Rebuke Silence
Approved rendering: ساکت کردن / منع کردن از گفتن
Transliteration: saket kardan / man’ kardan az goftan
Doctrine: The Messianic Secret
Original: ἐπιτιμάω / φιμόω
Category: Christology
The primary verbs of the Messianic Secret motif. Must be taught as a deliberate literary-theological strategy controlling the timing and shape of revelation, climaxing at the unhedged 14:62 confession — not as evidence that Jesus’s divine identity was uncertain, permanently hidden, or a later invention, an argument sometimes advanced in polemical contexts questioning NT reliability. Occurrences: 1:25, 34; 1:44; 3:12; 5:43; 7:36; 8:30; 9:9.
Medium Risk Terms
Covenant
Approved rendering: عهد
Transliteration: ‘ahd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 14:24’s ‘blood of the covenant’ is the key Markan occurrence; see new compound entry blood_of_the_covenant below.
David
Approved rendering: داوود
Transliteration: Davud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Original: Δαυίδ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: base for the new ‘Son of David’ messianic title entry (see son_of_david below); occurrences 2:25, 10:47-48, 11:10, 12:35-37.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: ملکوت خدا
Transliteration: malakut-e khoda
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: central to ‘Kingdom of God Breaking In’ throughout (1:15; 4:11, 26, 30; 9:1; 10:14-15; 12:34; 14:25); reinforce gradual, hidden in-breaking through surrounding verb choice, distinct from Iran’s own religious-political state structure (Velayat-e Faqih).
Gentiles
Approved rendering: غیریهودیان
Transliteration: gheyr-yahudian
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: امتها
Original: ἔθνη
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: theological Jew/Gentile inclusion sense (7:24-30 Syrophoenician woman; 13:10). Distinct from the political-sense ‘nations’ at 10:42; see gentiles_political below.
Glory
Approved rendering: جلال
Transliteration: jalal
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 8:38, 10:37, 13:26 apply جلال to Christ’s future/eschatological glory, not present triumphal display; Sufi jalal/jamal pairing caution (Rumi) applies equally.
Providence
Approved rendering: تدبیر الهی
Transliteration: tadbir-e elahi
Doctrine: Providence
Original: (cf. Mark 10:40’s ἡτοίμασται, divine passive)
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: 10:40 (‘it has been prepared’, a divine passive) ties the assignment of final honors to the Father’s sovereign will, reflecting the Son’s voluntary economic submission, not a denial of co-equal divine nature; must be paired with explicit Trinitarian teaching to prevent misreading.
Teacher Rabbi
Approved rendering: استاد / ربی
Transliteration: ostad / rabbi
Doctrine: Faith and Discipleship amid Fear
Original: διδάσκαλος / ῥαββί
Category: Discipleship
استاد is also the honorific for a Sufi pir/master; must be corrected by fuller titles (Lord, Son of Man, Christ) in surrounding context. Where the underlying text is ‘Rabbi’ (9:5; 11:21; 14:45), retain the transliteration ربی. Occurrences: 4:38; 9:5; 9:38; 10:17; 10:35; 10:51; 11:21; 12:14, 19; 13:1; 14:14, 45.
Baptism
Approved rendering: تعمید
Transliteration: ta’mid
Doctrine: The Necessity of the Cross
Original: βάπτισμα / βαπτίζω
Category: Salvation
A specifically Christian coinage, distinct from Islamic ritual washing (غسل، وضو). The figurative ‘baptism of suffering’ (10:38-39) has no established Persian idiom and must be explicitly taught, not assumed transparent. Occurrences: 1:4-9; 10:38-39; 16:16.
Slave Doulos
Approved rendering: غلام
Transliteration: gholam
Doctrine: Servanthood versus Worldly Greatness
Rejected alternatives: بنده
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Discipleship
Preserves the servant→slave escalation (διάκονος → δοῦλος, v.43→44) and the horizontal, other-to-other direction of Jesus’s command. بنده rejected as too strongly tied to the vertical human-before-God Islamic self-designation (‘abd Allah). Occurrence: 10:44.
Substitution Anti
Approved rendering: بهجای / در عوض
Transliteration: be-jaye / dar avaz
Doctrine: The Ransom for Many
Rejected alternatives: برای (alone)
Original: ἀντί
Category: Salvation
Must render with the substitutionary preposition بهجای/در عوض, never the general-benefit preposition برای alone, or the substitutionary force of the ransom saying (10:45) is lost. Occurrence: 10:45.
Many Pollon
Approved rendering: بسیاری
Transliteration: besyari
Doctrine: The Ransom for Many
Original: πολλῶν
Category: Salvation
Directly echoes Isaiah 53:11-12 LXX’s Suffering Servant who bears the sin of ‘the many’; requires explicit Isaiah 53 background teaching, since Isaiah’s servant songs are not part of the shared Quranic prophetic corpus most Muslim-background readers know. Must be recognized as fulfillment-language, not a scope-limiting word contradicting the gospel’s universal offer. Occurrences: 10:45; 14:24.
Life Soul Psyche
Approved rendering: جان
Transliteration: jan
Doctrine: The Necessity of the Cross
Original: ψυχή
Category: Salvation
جان correctly conveys the whole-living-self sense (following Hebrew nephesh); guard against a Greek soul/body dualism that would separate an immaterial ‘soul’ from the true self Christ gives up. Occurrences: 8:35-37; 10:45.
Parable
Approved rendering: مثل
Transliteration: masal
Doctrine: The Kingdom of God Breaking In
Original: παραβολή
Category: Kingdom
Everyday, transparent Persian word carrying no inherent connotation of selective revelation; the dual reveal/conceal function of the kingdom parables (4:11-12) must be taught explicitly, not assumed from the word itself. Occurrences: 3:23; 4:2-34; 7:17; 12:1-12; 13:28.
Compassion
Approved rendering: دلسوزی / ترحم
Transliteration: delsuzi / tarahom
Doctrine: Jesus as the Suffering Servant and Son of God
Original: σπλαγχνίζομαι
Category: Christology
Broadly compatible emotional vocabulary; the OT shepherd-king background (Ezek 34; Ps 23) applied to Jesus should be taught alongside so compassion is tied to messianic-shepherd identity, not read as generic pity. Occurrences: 1:41; 6:34; 8:2; 9:22.
Korban
Approved rendering: قربان
Transliteration: qorban
Doctrine: Purity of Heart versus Ritual Purity
Original: κορβάν
Category: Sin
False-friend risk: Persian قربانی is the standard word for Islamic ritual sacrifice (Eid al-Adha). The Markan Korban is a distinct Pharisaic legal-vow term (declaring an asset ‘devoted’ so as to withhold it from supporting one’s parents, 7:11). Retain the transliteration قربان with a mandatory clarifying gloss to avoid false identification with Eid sacrifice.
Suffer Pascho
Approved rendering: رنج کشیدن
Transliteration: ranj keshidan
Doctrine: The Necessity of the Cross
Original: πάσχω
Category: Salvation
Neutral suffering vocabulary; must stay consistently paired with باید so necessity and suffering are never separated across the three passion predictions. Occurrences: 8:31; 9:12.
Satan
Approved rendering: شیطان
Transliteration: sheytan
Doctrine: The Necessity of the Cross
Original: Σατανᾶς
Category: Sin
Shared Quranic/Islamic term for Satan/Iblis; broadly compatible concept. Must be distinguished from the folk-jinn categories active in Iranian popular belief (see unclean_spirit_demon), and Peter’s well-meaning but satanically-aligned resistance to the necessity of the cross (8:33) must be understood as a serious rebuke, not hyperbole. Occurrences: 1:13; 3:23-26; 4:15; 8:33.
Disciple
Approved rendering: شاگرد
Transliteration: shagerd
Doctrine: Faith and Discipleship amid Fear
Original: μαθητής
Category: Discipleship
Natural, well-established Persian word for an apprentice/student under a master craftsman or teacher; must communicate costly, total-life commitment (8:34-38), not casual pupil-teacher association. Occurrences: throughout, esp. 8:34-38.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: حیات ابدی
Transliteration: hayat-e abadi
Doctrine: Faith and Discipleship amid Fear
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Salvation
Broadly compatible with an Islamic akhirat framework but must be distinguished from a deeds-weighing (mizan) basis for attaining it; Jesus’s own answer to the rich young man (10:21-27, ‘with man this is impossible, but not with God’) subverts a works-based inheritance model. Occurrences: 10:17, 30.
Mercy
Approved rendering: رحم / رحمت
Transliteration: rahm / rahmat
Doctrine: Mercy and Healing Faith
Original: ἐλεέω / ἔλεος
Category: Faith
رحمت/رحم is broadly compatible with Islamic ar-Rahman/ar-Rahim devotion in concept, but the specifically Christ-mediated, personal dimension of mercy sought through direct address to Jesus as Son of David/Messiah (10:47-48) must be retained, not dissolved into generic pious divine-attribute recitation. Occurrences: 5:19; 10:47-48.
Temple
Approved rendering: هیکل
Transliteration: heykal
Doctrine: Temple Fulfillment and Access to God
Rejected alternatives: معبد
Original: ἱερόν / ναός
Category: Covenant
Use هیکل specifically for the Jerusalem Temple to avoid confusion with generic معبد (any shrine) or the unrelated pre-Islamic Zoroastrian fire-temple (آتشکده). The temple-cleansing/replacement typology is likely unfamiliar background requiring active teaching. Occurrences: 11:11, 15-17, 27; 13:1-2; 14:58; 15:29, 38.
Watchfulness
Approved rendering: بیدار باشید / هوشیار باشید
Transliteration: bidar bashid / hoshyar bashid
Doctrine: Eschatological Watchfulness
Original: γρηγορέω
Category: Discipleship
Ties eschatological readiness to ‘Faith and Discipleship amid Fear’ — the alternative to both complacency and fear; must be distinguished from the emotionally charged Iranian popular apocalyptic expectation of the Hidden Twelfth Imam’s occultation and reappearance. Occurrences: 13:33-37; 14:34, 37-38.
Veil
Approved rendering: پرده
Transliteration: parde
Doctrine: Temple Fulfillment and Access to God
Original: καταπέτασμα
Category: Salvation
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. Occurrence: 15:38.
Gentiles Political
Approved rendering: ملتها
Transliteration: mellat-ha
Doctrine: Servanthood versus Worldly Greatness
Rejected alternatives: امتها, غیریهودیان
Original: τῶν ἐθνῶν
Category: Ministry
The general political-sociological sense of ‘the nations’ and their customary rulers (10:42) — distinct from the theological Jew/Gentile inclusion category (see gentiles above). Never امتها (rejected per baseline) and never force the theological غیریهودیان rendering onto this verse, which is about worldly political rulership, not ethnic-religious inclusion. Occurrence: 10:42.
Love
Approved rendering: محبت
Transliteration: mohabbat
Doctrine: The Greatest Commandment
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Faith
Broadly compatible, established vocabulary; ensure the double command (God and neighbor, 12:30-31) is retained as a single, unified command, not two separable religious duties of differing priority. Occurrences: 12:30-31.
Low Risk Terms
Prophecy
Approved rendering: نبوت
Transliteration: nabovat
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: προφητεία
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; rendering and risk tier unchanged. Mark-specific: Mark opens with a direct fulfillment-citation (1:2-3) and continues the pattern at 7:6-7; 9:12-13; 14:27, 49.
Fear
Approved rendering: ترس / نترسید
Transliteration: tars / natarsid
Doctrine: Faith and Discipleship amid Fear
Newly tracked (per Step 8 gap analysis) for consistency: structurally central to ‘Faith and Discipleship amid Fear’ (the disciples’ fear at sea, at the transfiguration, at the empty tomb). No doctrinal correction needed; track for lesson-vocabulary consistency. Occurrences: 4:40; 5:36; 6:50; 9:6; 16:8.
Greatness
Approved rendering: بزرگ / بزرگی
Transliteration: bozorg / bozorgi
Doctrine: Servanthood versus Worldly Greatness
Newly tracked for consistency: structurally load-bearing to the core contrast of 10:42-44 (‘whoever wishes to become great among you’). Ensure the same Persian word is used across all occurrences so the rhetorical structure of the passage survives translation.
Boanerges
Approved rendering: بوانرگس
Transliteration: Boanerges
Doctrine: N/A (proper nickname)
Transliterate with gloss (‘Sons of Thunder’); proper nickname with no independent translation value. Occurrence: 3:17.
Talitha Koum
Approved rendering: طالیتا قوم
Transliteration: Talitha koum
Doctrine: N/A (preserved Aramaic)
Transliterate with gloss (‘little girl, arise’); distinguish this resuscitation (she will die again) from the final, unrepeatable eschatological قیامت — flag the distinction explicitly in teaching notes. Occurrence: 5:41.
Ephphatha
Approved rendering: افاتا
Transliteration: Ephphatha
Doctrine: N/A (preserved Aramaic)
Transliterate with gloss (‘be opened’). Occurrence: 7:34.
Hosanna
Approved rendering: هوشیعنا
Transliteration: Hosanna
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Established loanword in Christian liturgical Persian; retain transliteration with gloss (‘save now,’ an acclamation), rather than paraphrasing as a plain imperative, to preserve its liturgical-acclamation register. Direct messianic acclamation applying Psalm 118:26 to Jesus. Occurrences: 11:9-10.
Referenced passages