Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Persian translation and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons — including, distinctively for Persian, both shared-Islamic and Shia-specific and philosophical/mystical rejected alternatives
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Established pre-Hezare-No Persian Christian usage over softened contextualized alternatives — where the Tarjome Ghadeem/Mojdeh tradition already has a settled rendering (خدا، عیسی، خداوند، پسر خدا), this glossary follows it rather than adopting a Hezare-No-style alternative designed to reduce offense.
- Address both layers of risk explicitly — because Persian’s risk landscape has two centers (shared tawhid objections and Shia-specific popular devotion), this glossary documents both where relevant, rather than treating Persian as a simple variant of the Arabic risk profile.
- Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary, despite often being correct and even native to Persian, still requires deliberate theological handling.
Critical Risk Terms
Adoption
Approved rendering: فرزندخواندگی
Transliteration: farzand-khandegi
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: سرپرستی
CRITICAL: Iranian civil law itself uses سرپرستی (sarparasti, custodianship/guardianship) rather than full adoption terminology specifically because Shia fiqh, like Sunni fiqh, follows the Quranic principle (33:4-5) that an adopted child does not take the adoptive father’s lineage or full inheritance rights. سرپرستی is explicitly rejected here as even weaker than فرزندخواندگی; Romans 8’s full inheritance must be taught against this real, current legal-religious default.
Father
Approved rendering: پدر
Transliteration: pedar
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
CRITICAL: shares Arabic’s tawhid-anthropomorphism objection to Father-language for God. Notably, Persian mystical poetry (Rumi, Hafez) does cultivate intimate divine address, but through the Beloved/lover metaphor of Sufi devotional verse, not the paternal-filial metaphor, which remains theologically avoided for the same reasons as in Arabic.
God
Approved rendering: خدا
Transliteration: Khoda
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: الله
CRITICAL: unlike Arabic’s total dependence on Allah, Khoda is a native pre-Islamic Persian word (from Middle Persian ‘khwatay’) used across Zoroastrian, Christian, and Muslim Persian traditions alike - a genuine linguistic asset. الله (Allah) is used in more formal or Arabic-influenced religious registers but Khoda is preferred for Persian Christian usage. The risk remains entirely in content: strict tawhid theology must be distinguished from the Trinitarian conception denoted by the same word.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: روحالقدس
Transliteration: Ruh-ol-Qods
Doctrine: Sanctification
CRITICAL: identical Quranic phrase and identical mainstream tafsir identification with the angel Jibril (Gabriel) as in Arabic - the same created-being-versus-divine-Person distinction must be made explicit at every occurrence.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: عدالت محسوبشده
Transliteration: edalat-e mahsub-shode
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: عدالت کسبشده
CRITICAL: عدالت کسبشده (‘earned/acquired righteousness’) is the exact opposite of Paul’s argument and is explicitly rejected; the compound must retain ‘credited/reckoned,’ never ‘earned.‘
Incarnation
Approved rendering: تجسد
Transliteration: tajassod
Doctrine: Incarnation
CRITICAL: shares Arabic’s tawhid-denial problem. Persia’s own pre-Islamic Zoroastrian cosmology (Ahura Mazda engaging creation through intermediary emanations, the Amesha Spentas) offers a subtler secondary risk: ‘incarnation’ could be imaginatively absorbed as one more intermediary-being emanation rather than the full, unique, singular assumption of human nature by the eternal Son.
Intercession
Approved rendering: شفاعت
Transliteration: shafa’at
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
CRITICAL: shafa’at is far more developed and popularly central in Twelver Shia piety than in Sunni Arabic contexts - entire annual Muharram mourning rituals and shrine pilgrimage practices are built around seeking the Imams’, especially Hussein’s, intercession. Christ’s intercession (Romans 8:26-27, 34) must be taught as exclusive and complete, engaging rather than sidestepping this popularly central category.
Jesus
Approved rendering: عیسی
Transliteration: Isa
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
CRITICAL, but for a different reason than Arabic: unlike Arabic, Persian Christian Bible tradition itself (Tarjome Ghadeem, Mojdeh) has always used ‘Isa Masih,’ with no live, competing ‘Yeshua’-style alternative in circulation - there is no naming controversy in Persian the way there is in Arabic. The risk here is entirely in content: ‘Isa’ still carries the Quranic prophet-only, non-crucified, non-divine narrative that must be actively corrected at every occurrence.
Justification
Approved rendering: عادل شمرده شدن
Transliteration: adel shomorde shodan
Doctrine: Salvation
CRITICAL: compound phrase required to convey the forensic declaration - ‘to be counted/reckoned as righteous’ - rather than a process of becoming righteous through deeds.
Law
Approved rendering: ناموس
Transliteration: namus
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: شریعت
CRITICAL: some existing Persian Bible translations (Tarjome Ghadeem, Mojdeh) do use شریعت (shari’at) for the Mosaic Law, unlike Arabic Bible tradition’s deliberate avoidance of the shari’a-cognate word. This Language Package departs from that precedent and prefers ناموس, because Iran’s status as a state actually governed by shari’a-based law makes the collision risk even more acute than in most Arabic-speaking contexts - shari’at here would make Paul’s law-versus-grace argument sound like a direct challenge to Iran’s own legal system.
Lord
Approved rendering: خداوند
Transliteration: Khodavand
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: سرور
CRITICAL: unlike Arabic’s al-Rabb, Khodavand derives from a native pre-Islamic Persian word (Middle Persian ‘khwatay’) rather than a specific Quranic title, so the collision here is less about ‘borrowing the Quran’s own word’ and more about the underlying tawhid objection to ascribing supreme, exclusive Lordship to a human-born man. سرور (chief/leader) is too weak and rejected.
Messiah
Approved rendering: مسیح
Transliteration: Masih
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
CRITICAL: carries the same pre-loaded Quranic content as Arabic’s al-Masih, with an added Shia displacement: popular messianic expectation centers primarily on the Hidden Twelfth Imam (Mahdi) as the awaited deliverer, with Isa al-Masih in a secondary, supporting role at his return. Every occurrence must actively assert Christ’s own primary, sufficient redemptive role, not merely his honored status.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: قیامت
Transliteration: qiyamat
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
CRITICAL: shares the Quran’s crucifixion-denial problem (4:157) with Arabic. Shia eschatology adds a further complication: popular expectation centers on the return of the Hidden Twelfth Imam (Mahdi), with Jesus (‘Isa) returning in a supporting role, praying behind the Mahdi - Jesus’s own unique resurrection and future return risk being absorbed into or subordinated to this Mahdi-centered eschatological expectation.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: عدالت
Transliteration: edalat
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: پارسایی
CRITICAL: پارسایی (parsa’i, piety/virtue) carries a Zoroastrian-inflected ethical-purity connotation, tied to Zoroastrianism’s own good-thoughts/good-words/good-deeds ethical triad - an achievement-of-virtue framework. عدالت keeps the forensic, credited sense Paul intends in Romans 1:17.
Salvation
Approved rendering: نجات
Transliteration: nejat
Doctrine: Salvation
CRITICAL: beyond the shared Islamic deeds-weighing (mizan) framework, Persian/Shia popular piety has an especially developed doctrine of intercession through the martyred Imam Hussein’s suffering at Karbala (widely believed to secure forgiveness for those who properly mourn him). Christ’s atoning death for salvation risks being syncretistically read alongside, rather than as categorically distinct from, this martyrdom-intercession framework - both must be carefully distinguished, not merely contrasted with the deeds-weighing framework alone.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: پسر خدا
Transliteration: pesar-e khoda
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: برگزیده خدا
CRITICAL: ‘برگزیده خدا’ (‘God’s Chosen One’) is the actual softened rendering used by the controversial Hezare No (New Millennium) Persian NT translation to reduce offense; it provoked significant backlash within the Iranian Protestant and house-church community, most of which continued using the literal پسر خدا from the older Tarjome Ghadeem and Mojdeh translations. This Language Package follows that established, non-diluted usage.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: ابا
Transliteration: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic intimacy-term preserved as in Romans 8:15. Stands in sharp contrast to the transcendent majesty (jalal) emphasis of Persian Islamic piety, even though Persian mystical poetry does have its own register of intimate divine address (see ‘father’).
Apostle
Approved rendering: رسول
Transliteration: rasul
Doctrine: Apostleship
Same collision with Muhammad’s title as in Arabic, with an added Shia layer: the Imamate’s claim to unique ongoing authoritative succession after Muhammad can implicitly compete with any claim to authoritative apostolic office. Older Persian Christian usage (Tarjome Ghadeem) also uses حواری (havari) specifically for the Twelve; رسول is used for the broader NT apostolic office including Paul.
Called
Approved rendering: دعوتشده
Transliteration: da’vat-shode
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation.
Church
Approved rendering: کلیسا
Transliteration: kelisa
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: امت
امت (ommat) is the loaded pan-Islamic community term and must never substitute. Because Persian-language congregational worship for Muslim-background believers is heavily restricted in Iran, the lived reality of ‘church’ for most Persian speakers today is the underground house-church network, not a building - teach kelisa with that reality in view, not a physical-institution default.
Election
Approved rendering: برگزیدگی خدا
Transliteration: bargozidegi-ye khoda
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Unlike Sunni qadar-fatalism, Shia Islam has its own robust doctrine of specific divine election - God appointing Ali and his descendants as the Imamate’s infallible successors. This can serve as an analogical bridge (the concept of God specifically choosing particular individuals is already familiar) but risks importing the Imamate’s specific lineage-based, ongoing-office content onto Romans 9’s different argument about election to salvation through faith.
Faith
Approved rendering: ایمان
Transliteration: iman
Doctrine: Faith
Shares the same six-pillars creedal-assent structure as Arabic iman, with a further Shia-specific layer: belief in the Imamate (the divinely-appointed succession beginning with Ali) is itself a core article of Shia iman. Must be anchored as personal trust in Christ, not creedal assent to a list of propositions or successors.
Gospel
Approved rendering: انجیل
Transliteration: Injil
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: مژده
Injil is shared Quranic vocabulary (the revelation given to ‘Isa); the same tahrif (corruption) assumption found across the Islamicate world applies in Iran. Must be taught as the NT record itself, not a lost predecessor text.
Grace
Approved rendering: فیض
Transliteration: feyz
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: لطف
Feyz carries a distinct Persian philosophical loading: in Illuminationist and Mulla Sadra’s Transcendent Theosophy, ‘feyz’ denotes divine emanation - being automatically overflowing from God into creation, a metaphysical process rather than a freely willed, unmerited gift. لطف (kindness/favor) is too weak to carry the full doctrinal weight and is rejected as a substitute, but feyz must always be qualified as a specific, personal gift secured through Christ, not an automatic ontological overflow.
Israel
Approved rendering: اسرائیل
Transliteration: Esra’il
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Iran’s state ideology maintains an unusually intense, officially propagandized anti-Israel stance as a pillar of foreign policy, arguably even more totalizing for an Iranian audience than the general Arab-world association. Romans 9-11’s argument about ethnic Israel’s place in God’s plan needs deliberate pastoral framing distinct from this state-driven political register.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: اطاعت ایمانی
Transliteration: eta’at-e imani
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
As in Arabic, submission/obedience is the defining category of the surrounding Islamic religious culture; must be taught as faith’s fruit, never its ground.
Prophet
Approved rendering: پیامبر
Transliteration: payambar
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
A native Persian compound (‘message’ + ‘bearer’), not an Arabic loanword. Same finality-of-prophethood risk as Arabic’s nabi (Muhammad as khatam al-anbiya applies equally in Shia Islam) - must be paired with fuller Christological titles so ‘prophet’ is not read as Jesus’s complete or final identity.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: تقدیس
Transliteration: taqdis
Doctrine: Sanctification
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy, not ritual purification.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: نسل داوود
Transliteration: nasl-e Davud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment. See ‘david’ for the Quranic-figure caveat.
Sin
Approved rendering: گناه
Transliteration: gonah
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Native pre-Islamic Persian word. Beyond Islam’s fitrah (innate purity) doctrine shared with Arabic, Zoroastrianism’s own Chinvat Bridge judgment - the soul’s deeds weighed, the bridge wide for the righteous and blade-narrow for the wicked - independently reinforces a deeds-weighing intuition in Persian culture from a second, older indigenous source. Romans 5’s federal-headship argument runs against both defaults at once.
Medium Risk Terms
Calling
Approved rendering: دعوت
Transliteration: da’vat
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Unlike Arabic da’wah, Persian da’vat is genuinely everyday vocabulary (inviting someone to dinner or a wedding) and carries less exclusively religious-missionary weight; still needs the direction of address (God calling a person, not a person inviting others) made explicit.
Covenant
Approved rendering: عهد
Transliteration: ‘ahd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Also covers generic pledges and treaties in everyday Persian; retain the relational, unilaterally-initiated biblical covenant sense.
David
Approved rendering: داوود
Transliteration: Davud
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Shared, positively-regarded Quranic prophet-king figure; supply the covenant-king typology pointing to Messiah explicitly, since the Quranic portrayal does not include it.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: مشارکت
Transliteration: mosharekat
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Shares the same ش-ر-ک root as shirk (idolatrous partnership) inherited into Persian via Arabic; the resonance is uncomfortable but the term is established and context disambiguates.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: غیریهودیان
Transliteration: gheyr-yahudian
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: امتها
امتها (ommat-ha) shares the loaded Ummah root; the more neutral descriptive غیریهودیان (‘non-Jews’) avoids that association.
Glory
Approved rendering: جلال
Transliteration: jalal
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Jalal carries deep devotional-poetic resonance in Persian mystical (Sufi) literature (e.g. Rumi, whose own name means ‘Splendor of the Faith’), paired in that tradition with jamal (beauty) as complementary divine attributes. This can help (real devotional weight already attached) or risk conflating Christ’s specific historical glory with generalized Sufi mystical-aesthetic categories of divine splendor.
Holy
Approved rendering: مقدس
Transliteration: moqaddas
Doctrine: Sanctification
Shared root with Arabic; generally safe vocabulary, needs the relational, Spirit-wrought sense reinforced over ritual-observance holiness.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: ملکوت خدا
Transliteration: malakut-e khoda
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Distinguish God’s present spiritual reign from any political state, given Iran’s own explicitly religious-political governing system (Velayat-e Faqih).
Mission
Approved rendering: ماموریت
Transliteration: ma’muriyat
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: رسالت
رسالت (resalat) echoes the prophetic-commission vocabulary of Muhammad’s own resalat; ماموریت is a more neutral general-purpose word for mission/assignment.
Peace
Approved rendering: سلام
Transliteration: salam
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: آرامش
آرامش (aramesh) is the word Iran’s popular wellness/self-help culture uses heavily for secular inner calm and stress relief; using it here risks reading Romans 5:1’s relational, legal peace as a mindfulness/therapeutic state rather than a standing secured through justification.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: قدرت خدا
Transliteration: qodrat-e khoda
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Broadly compatible concept, low collision risk beyond standard care.
Providence
Approved rendering: تدبیر الهی
Transliteration: tadbir-e elahi
Doctrine: Providence
Leans toward wise divine governance rather than raw fatalistic decree; still keep distinct from folk qadar-style fatalism.
Saints
Approved rendering: مقدسین
Transliteration: moqaddasin
Doctrine: Sainthood
Corporate sense for all believers in Romans 1:7, not an elevated ascetic or shrine-venerated class.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: عطایای روحانی
Transliteration: ‘ataya-ye ruhani
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Always pair with روحانی so the phrase is not read as ordinary talent.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: تشویق کردن
Transliteration: tashviq kardan
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: نصیحت کردن (nasihat kardan, to admonish) for beseeching; تشویق کردن (to encourage) for building up.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: نبوت
Transliteration: nabovat
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Low independent risk beyond the prophet entry’s own note.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: شکرگزاری
Transliteration: shokr-gozari
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Shukr is also a major Islamic virtue category; broadly compatible, low risk.
Referenced passages