Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis — 1 John | English → Polish
1. Purpose and Scope
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Step 8 for the 1 John curriculum. It identifies where standard literary Polish (anchored to Biblia Tysiąclecia usage, with awareness of Biblia Gdańska/Warszawska equivalents, per the baseline Romans Language Package) lacks precise vocabulary for this letter’s doctrines, where existing Polish religious vocabulary is “crowded” by competing senses from Polish Catholic devotional and sacramental culture, and where transliteration, coinage, or paraphrase is the safer strategy than a single-word rendering.
Full-book coverage confirmation: All five chapters of 1 John have been reviewed for this analysis, not merely the core passage (4:7–21). Chapters 1–2 (light/darkness, fellowship, confession, commandment, antichrist), chapter 3 (new birth, love of the brethren, lawlessness), chapter 4 (God is love, testing the spirits, the core passage), and chapter 5 (faith, eternal life, the threefold witness, idols) are all represented in the vocabulary matrix and risk rankings below. No chapter is silently omitted; where a chapter contributes only reinforcement of already-analyzed terms rather than new load-bearing vocabulary, this is noted explicitly in Section 2.
Citation convention: Following Biblia Tysiąclecia practice, this and all downstream 1 John documents cite the letter as 1 J (e.g., “1 J 4:8”), consistent with the baseline’s citation-format rule of using established Polish Bible abbreviations rather than transliterated English book names.
2. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
| Doctrine | Chapters | Available Polish terms | Weaknesses / collision risk | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| God is Light and God is Love (GL) | 1, 4 (core) | Bóg jest światłością; Bóg jest miłością; ciemność (mrok) | “Światłość” risks a rationalist/gnostic “enlightenment” reading; “miłość” risks collapsing into romantic, sentimental, or Polak-katolik national-devotional registers; risk of a pantheistic reversal (“love is God”) in casual reception of 4:8/4:16 | Always render as full predicative clauses (“Bóg jest światłością,” “Bóg jest miłością”), never as isolated abstract nouns; pair every first occurrence with a teaching note anchoring “miłość” to Christ’s cross-shaped self-giving (4:10) and “światłość” to moral purity/self-revelation, not intellectual insight |
| Fellowship with God and One Another (FEL) | 1 (stated purpose, 1:3-4); reinforced 2–4 | wspólnota; chodzić / postępować; trwać / mieszkać | ”Wspólnota” alone under-signals that this is koinōnia with the Father and Son personally, not primarily institutional Church membership; risk of drift toward “świętych obcowanie” (communion of saints) creedal sense | Retain baseline’s “wspólnota” but require the qualifying phrase “wspólnota z Ojcem i Jego Synem” at first occurrence (1:3) to fix the relational referent before the term is used unqualified later |
| Confession and Forgiveness of Sin (CFS) | 1–2, 4–5 | grzech; wyznawać (grzechy); oczyszczać/oczyścić; krew (Jezusa); wierny i sprawiedliwy; Orędownik; ofiara przebłagalna; grzech ku śmierci | ”Wyznawać” collides lexically with sacramental spowiedź; “ofiara przebłagalna” risks assimilation to the Mass’s re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice; “grzech ku śmierci” risks conflation with grzech śmiertelny | Disambiguate “wyznawać” by sense at every occurrence (sin vs. Christ’s identity); state explicitly that “ofiara przebłagalna” (2:2, 4:10) names a completed, unrepeatable historical event, distinct from the Mass’s liturgical re-presentation; gloss “grzech ku śmierci” as likely apostate rejection of Christ, not the mortal/venial taxonomy |
| Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth (LNB) | 3–4 (core term ἀγάπη), reinforced 2, 5 | miłość/miłować; brat; narodzony/zrodzony z Boga; dzieci Boże; oddał (za nas) życie; serce (idiomatycznie) | “Narodzony z Boga” collides with baptismal-regeneration catechesis (infant chrzest as automatic “nowe narodzenie”); “dzieci Boże” risks flattening into the baseline’s distinct legal-adoption “usynowienie” image | Teach “narodzony z Boga” as evidenced by an ongoing life-pattern of love and righteousness (2:29; 3:9-10; 4:7), not secured by the rite alone independent of that pattern; keep “dzieci Boże” and “usynowienie” lexically distinct across curricula |
| The Incarnation and Antichrist (INA) | 1–2, 4 (core diagnostic test) | Słowo życia; wcielenie; wyznaje, że Jezus Chrystus przyszedł w ciele; antychryst | Sensory-verification language (heard/seen/touched, 1:1-3) risks softening into devotional imagery; popular “antychryst” carries end-times tyrant/numerology associations absent from 1 John’s present-tense denial-test | Preserve literal sensory verbs in 1:1-3 without figurative softening; anchor every occurrence of “antychryst” explicitly to the confession-test of 2:22-23 and 4:2-3, not to eschatological tyrant speculation |
| Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life (ASE) | 2–5 (stated purpose, 5:13) | ufność; życie wieczne; przeszliśmy ze śmierci do życia; dzień sądu | ”Ufność” and “życie wieczne” both collide with the Catholic devotional framework in which final standing is genuinely uncertain pending purgatorial purification (czyściec) and merit; “dzień sądu” risks assimilation to particular-judgment/purgatory teaching | Render 5:13 with unambiguous present-tense possession language (“wiecie, że macie życie wieczne,” never “abyście mieli nadzieję na życie wieczne”); ground “ufność” and “dzień sądu” explicitly in Christ’s finished, perfected love (4:17-18), not merit-accounting |
| Overcoming the World (OTW) | 2, 4–5 (core term) | świat; zwyciężać/zwyciężyć; pożądliwość ciała, pożądliwość oczu, pycha życia | ”Świat” is multivalent (loved-and-savable humanity, 4:9, vs. God-opposed moral order to resist, 2:15-17); “zwyciężać” risks a merely aspirational future reading if tense is flattened | Disambiguate “świat” per occurrence with a bracketed sense-note where needed; retain the perfect/present tense force of “zwyciężać/zwyciężyć” (“już zwyciężyliście,” 4:4) as an accomplished status, not a future hope |
| Testing the Spirits (TTS) | 2, 4 (core) | duch/duchy; badajcie duchy; Duch Święty; namaszczenie; fałszywy prorok | Lowercase “duch/duchy” collides both with capitalized “Duch Święty” and with Slavic folk-Catholic ghost/spirit lore; “namaszczenie” collides with the sacraments of Confirmation (bierzmowanie) and Anointing of the Sick | Enforce strict, consistent capitalization discipline (Duch Święty vs. duch/duchy) as a load-bearing orthographic rule, not a stylistic option; gloss “namaszczenie” (2:20, 2:27) explicitly as the Spirit’s universal indwelling given to every believer at conversion, not a specific sacramental rite administered once by a bishop |
Chapter-by-chapter reinforcement note: Chapters 2 and 3 introduce the largest share of new load-bearing terms (commandment, abide, world, antichrist, anointing in ch. 2; new birth, seed of God, lawlessness, laid-down-life love in ch. 3). Chapter 5, beyond eternal life and the threefold witness, primarily reinforces belief/overcoming vocabulary already fixed in chapters 4–5 and introduces only one genuinely new term, idols (5:21), reviewed below. No chapter of 1 John was found to contribute zero new terms; all five are represented above.
3. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
3.1 Missing Vocabulary (no natural single-word Polish equivalent; requires paraphrase or fixed phrase)
These concepts have no ready-made Polish theological vocabulary and must be rendered as fixed multi-word phrases, consistently repeated across all curriculum materials to function as stable technical terms:
| English concept | Gap | Recommended fixed phrase | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Propitiation (ἱλασμός) | No single Polish noun captures “atoning sacrifice that satisfies divine justice” without either legal coldness or sacrificial-cultic obscurity | ofiara przebłagalna | Already the best available compound; must always appear as a fixed two-word unit, never abbreviated to “ofiara” alone (too generic) or “przebłaganie” alone (too abstract) |
| Seed of God (σπέρμα, 3:9) | No natural Polish metaphor for God’s implanted generative nature/life in the believer | zarodek Boży, glossed at first use as “zasiane w wierzącym życie/natura Boża, nie substancja biologiczna” | The metaphor is opaque in Greek too; Polish “zarodek” (embryo/seed) is the closest available image but requires an explanatory gloss to avoid a literal-biological misreading |
| Passed from death to life (3:14) | No idiomatic Polish equivalent conveys the completed, perfect-tense transfer without sounding like a translated calque | przeszliśmy ze śmierci do życia (fixed clause, not varied) | Any variation (“przenieśliśmy się,” “przeszliśmy z ciemności do życia”) would obscure the decisive completed sense; lock the wording |
| Laid down his life (3:16) | Polish lacks a single verb for this sacrificial idiom; “umarł” (died) loses the voluntary self-giving sense | oddał (za nas) życie | Retains the voluntary, substitutionary force better than a bare verb for “died”; must not be reduced to “poświęcił się” (a weaker, generalized “sacrificed himself”) |
| Perfected love (τελειόω, 4:12, 17-18) | Polish “doskonała miłość” risks a flawless-performance reading; no existing term conveys “reaching intended maturity/completion” without that risk | miłość dopełniona / dopełniająca się used alongside, or instead of, “doskonała,” with a mandatory gloss distinguishing maturity-in-process-reaching-fullness from flawless moral achievement | This is the single highest paraphrase-decision risk in the letter (see ranked list, §5, rank 2) |
| Confidence/boldness before God (παρρησία) | Polish devotional vocabulary defaults to hope/uncertainty language (“nadzieja,” “ufamy, że”) rather than assured confidence | ufność (retained per baseline direction) reinforced by explanatory clauses grounding it in Christ’s finished work, never left as a bare noun in assurance passages | Bare “ufność” alone is too weak to resist the devotional pull toward purgatorial uncertainty; requires grounding clauses at every occurrence in chs. 2–4 |
| Sin unto death / not unto death (5:16-17) | No Polish phrase maps cleanly without triggering the mortal/venial sin taxonomy | grzech ku śmierci / grzech, który nie jest ku śmierci (fixed contrastive pair), glossed as likely referring to decisive apostasy, not the sacramental mortal/venial distinction | Must be taught, not merely translated; the phrase alone cannot bear the disambiguation |
3.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing
These are cases where an adequate Polish word already exists but is heavily occupied by Polish Catholic sacramental, devotional, or cultural usage, creating a strong pull toward an unintended reading. Each requires an explicit “fence” — a consistent qualifying phrase, capitalization rule, or teaching note — to keep the 1 John sense distinct.
| Polish term | Competing occupant of the semantic space | Fence required |
|---|---|---|
| wyznawać | Sacramental confession (spowiedź, “wyznanie grzechów” before a priest) | Distinguish sense per occurrence: confessing sin to God directly (1:9) vs. confessing Christ’s identity publicly (4:2-3, 4:15); note that 1:9 does not depend on priestly mediation as a precondition, without polemicizing against the sacrament itself |
| namaszczenie | Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick; chrismation at Baptism/Confirmation (bierzmowanie) | Explicit gloss at first occurrence (2:20): the Spirit’s universal teaching-indwelling given to every believer at conversion, not a rite administered once by a bishop to a subset of the faithful |
| przykazanie | The Decalogue (Dziesięć Przykazań) as an external legal code | Anchor every occurrence to its relational, Christ-derived, love-generating source (“nowe przykazanie,” “przykazanie miłości”), never presented as bare rule-keeping |
| Orędownik | Marian and saintly intercession (Częstochowa/Jasna Góra shrine devotion, “Totus Tuus”) | State explicitly at 2:1 that Christ alone holds this office before the Father in this letter; does not need to argue against praying for/with others, but must not let the term default to Mary or the saints as the necessary advocate |
| grzech (esp. paired with confession/forgiveness) | Mortal/venial sin taxonomy (grzech śmiertelny/powszedni) and its penitential apparatus | Teach 1 John’s own internal tension (1:8-10’s universal sinfulness vs. 3:6-9’s “does not sin” new-birth pattern) as the letter’s own framework, not mapped onto the mortal/venial grid |
| narodzony/zrodzony z Boga | Baptismal regeneration theology (infant chrzest as automatic “nowe narodzenie”) | Teach as evidenced by an ongoing, observable life-pattern of love and righteousness, not secured by the rite alone irrespective of that pattern |
| sprawiedliwość / sprawiedliwy | Merit-based righteousness through religious practice (per baseline caution) | Retain forensic/character sense applied to God (1:9), Christ (2:1, 2:29, 3:7), and the believer’s evidenced righteousness (3:7,10), consistent with the baseline’s Romans usage |
| miłość | Romantic/sentimental register; national-patriotic-devotional register (Polak-katolik fusion, per baseline “faith” caution) | Anchor to Christ’s cross-shaped, self-giving, prior love (4:10, 4:19) at every doctrinally load-bearing occurrence, especially 4:7-21 |
| duch / duchy | Slavic folk-Catholic ghost/spirit lore; generic New Age “duchowość” | Enforce the capitalization fence (Duch Święty vs. duch/duchy) as non-negotiable orthography, reinforced by explicit teaching that “testing the spirits” (4:1) concerns claims to inspired speech, not folkloric hauntings |
| świat | Missional/positive theological usage of “świat” in broader Catholic teaching (e.g., “świat” as the object of God’s saving love in conciliar documents) | Disambiguate per occurrence between the loved-and-savable-humanity sense (4:9) and the God-opposed moral-order sense to be resisted (2:15-17; 5:4-5) |
| ufność and dzień sądu | Purgatorial uncertainty (czyściec) about final standing before God | Ground both terms explicitly in Christ’s already-perfected love (4:17-18), never left to stand as bare assurance-language open to reinterpretation through the merit-accounting framework |
| życie wieczne | Devotional framing of eternal life as suspended pending purgatorial purification and final merit-accounting | Render 5:13 with unambiguous present-tense possession (“macie życie wieczne”), never softened to hope-language |
| bożki | Catholic theology of sacred images/statues (Christ, Mary, saints), carefully self-differentiated by that tradition from idolatry | Render faithfully as a warning against any rival object of ultimate trust (5:21); flag for non-polemical teacher handling rather than adjudicating Catholic image-theology within the curriculum itself |
| antychryst | Popular apocalyptic/tyrant-figure and numerology associations (film, sensationalist literature) | Anchor every occurrence to the letter’s own present-tense, Christological-denial definition (2:22-23; 4:2-3) |
4. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Source term | Decision | Rendering | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ἀββά (Abba) — not present in 1 John itself, but cross-referenced from baseline Romans usage | N/A for this letter | — | Noted only to confirm no conflicting decision is needed; 1 John does not use this term |
| παράκλητος (paraklētos) | Paraphrase, not transliteration | Orędownik | A transliterated “Parakletos” would be opaque to lay readers and would forfeit the term’s forensic-legal “advocate/defense counsel” resonance, which is precisely what must be taught against Marian-mediation defaults |
| ἱλασμός (hilasmos) | Paraphrase (fixed compound phrase), not transliteration or single word | ofiara przebłagalna | A transliteration (“hilasmos”) would be meaningless to a Polish reader; a single noun (“przebłaganie” alone, or “ofiara” alone) loses either the propitiatory or the sacrificial half of the concept |
| ἀντίχριστος (antichristos) | Transliteration (already lexicalized) | antychryst | Already a fully naturalized Polish loanword; the risk is not the transliteration itself but its popular cultural over-freight (see §3.2); no better native coinage exists or is needed |
| χρῖσμα (chrisma) | Native paraphrase, not transliteration | namaszczenie | A transliteration (“chrisma”) is unattested and would create a new false-technical term; “namaszczenie” is correct but requires the sacramental fence in §3.2 rather than avoidance |
| κοινωνία (koinōnia) | Native paraphrase (baseline-established), not transliteration | wspólnota | Baseline precedent from Romans; transliteration (“koinonia”) is sometimes used in English evangelical subculture but has no equivalent naturalized status in Polish and would read as foreign jargon |
| λόγος τῆς ζωῆς (logos tēs zōēs) | Full native phrase, not transliteration of logos | Słowo życia | ”Logos” transliterated would strip the term of its Johannine “Word” resonance already established in Polish Gospel-of-John tradition (Biblia Tysiąclecia’s “Słowo”); must match that precedent exactly |
| μονογενής (monogenēs) | Native compound, not transliteration | jednorodzony (Syn) | Standard, already-lexicalized Polish theological compound; no transliteration option was ever viable |
| παρρησία (parrēsia) | Native paraphrase, not transliteration | ufność | Transliteration is not attested in any Polish Bible tradition; “ufność” is the closest native term but is weak alone and requires the grounding-clause fence in §3.2 |
| χρίσμα-adjacent term “Χριστός” itself (Christos) | Established transliteration (already fixed in baseline) | Chrystus | No decision required; fully inherited from baseline Romans Language Package |
| δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē) | Native term (baseline-established), not transliteration | sprawiedliwość | Inherited from baseline; no change |
| Comma Johanneum textual variant (5:7 longer reading) | Editorial decision, not a translation/transliteration question per se, but flagged here for consistency | Follow the current Biblia Tysiąclecia critical-text base (shorter reading: “woda i krew,” with a footnote on the longer Trinitarian reading’s manuscript history) rather than the historic Wujek/Vulgate longer reading | Ensures consistency with the register/script anchor the baseline specifies (Biblia Tysiąclecia for widely shared vocabulary) while transparently flagging the divergence from the historic Wujek tradition for teacher awareness |
General principle applied: Transliteration is reserved for terms already fully naturalized in Polish Bible-reading culture (antychryst, Chrystus, Amen, Alleluja per baseline). All other Greek theological terms in 1 John are rendered natively, because 1 John’s polemical target (docetism, proto-gnostic elitism) is best countered by plain, accessible, non-technical Polish vocabulary — introducing new transliterated jargon would ironically recreate the kind of insider “special knowledge” register the letter itself opposes (2:20, 2:27; contrast with gnōsis-claiming opponents).
5. Ranked List of This Letter’s Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined doctrinal severity and cultural-collision probability. All Critical and High items require human theologian review routing per baseline convention; this ranking will inform priority ordering in the forthcoming doctrine risk registry extension.
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“Born of God” / new birth (γεννάω) vs. baptismal regeneration. Critical. The single highest-probability misreading in the letter: nearly every Polish reader has undergone infant chrzest framed catechetically as “nowe narodzenie.” 1 John ties this new birth to an observable, ongoing life-pattern of love and righteousness (2:29; 3:9-10; 4:7; 5:1,4,18), which the sacramental-automatic reading can silently erase.
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“Perfected love” (τελειόω) — moralistic-perfectionism misreading. High. “Doskonała miłość” risks either despair (I can never be flawless) or false confidence (I have achieved moral perfection), inverting the text’s actual claim that love reaches settled maturity through abiding, not flawless performance.
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“Eternal life” as present possession (5:13) vs. purgatorial suspension. Critical. The letter’s own stated purpose verse is the passage most vulnerable to devotional softening (“so that you may hope you have eternal life” instead of “so that you may know you have it now”), directly colliding with the Catholic devotional framework of uncertain final standing pending purgatorial purification.
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“Confidence/boldness” (παρρησία) and “day of judgment” — assurance vs. merit-accounting. Critical. Closely tied to #3; if “ufność” and “dzień sądu” are left ungrounded, readers will default to a merit-and-purification framework rather than confidence grounded in Christ’s finished, perfected love (4:17-18).
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Confession — “wyznawać” (sin) vs. “wyznać” (Christ’s identity) vs. sacramental spowiedź. Critical. Same verb root across three distinct referents (personal confession of sin to God, 1:9; public confession of Christ’s identity, 4:2-3,15; and the culturally dominant sacramental sense) creates high potential for silent conflation if sense is not disambiguated at every single occurrence.
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Advocate/Paraclete (παράκλητος) vs. Marian/saintly intercession. Critical. Poland’s Marian devotional intensity (Częstochowa, “Totus Tuus”) is a direct and pervasive counter-pressure to 2:1’s claim that Christ alone holds this office, paralleling the baseline’s existing “wstawiennictwo” caution but now attached to a distinct term and office (advocacy before the Father, not general intercessory prayer).
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Propitiation (ἱλασμός) vs. the Mass’s re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice. Critical. “Ofiara przebłagalna” must convey a completed, historically unrepeatable act (2:2; 4:10); left unglossed, it risks being absorbed into (not necessarily contradicted by, but blurred with) the liturgical framework of the Eucharistic sacrifice.
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Anointing (χρῖσμα) vs. sacramental anointing/chrismation. High. “Namaszczenie” is lexically correct but occupies space heavily used for Confirmation (bierzmowanie) and Anointing of the Sick; without the fence in §3.2, readers will assume 2:20/2:27 describes a rite they received once from a bishop rather than the Spirit’s universal indwelling teaching-function given to every believer.
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Sin unto death (5:16-17) vs. mortal/venial sin taxonomy. High. A near-automatic cross-mapping onto grzech śmiertelny/powszedni is likely without explicit teaching that 1 John’s distinction is probably about decisive apostasy, not a sacramental-penitential category.
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“Duch/duchy” (generic/testable spirits) vs. “Duch Święty” (capitalized) vs. Slavic folk-spirit lore. High. Three-way collision: doctrinal (must not blur Holy Spirit with deceiving spirits), typographic (capitalization is the only visual signal in running text), and cultural (folk-Catholic ghost/superstition associations with lowercase “duchy”).
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“Antychryst” vs. popular apocalyptic tyrant-figure speculation. High. Strong pull toward numerology and single-climactic-villain readings (reinforced by film and popular literature) rather than the letter’s present-tense, denial-of-the-incarnation test (2:22-23; 4:2-3).
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“Fear” (φόβος, 4:18) vs. positive reverential “bojaźń Boża.” High. Risk that learners conclude all reverence for God is abolished by love, when the text specifically targets servile, punitive dread, not the positive reverential fear affirmed elsewhere in the devotional tradition Poland shares across confessions.
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“Świat” (κόσμος) — dual sense within the same short letter. High. 4:9’s loved-and-savable humanity and 2:15-17/5:4-5’s God-opposed moral order use the identical Polish word; absent per-occurrence disambiguation, the two senses can cancel each other out in a learner’s mind (“does God love the world or not?”).
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Idols (5:21) vs. Catholic theology of sacred images. High. Lowest-probability but real risk of the closing verse being received as an implicit polemic against Catholic devotional images/statues if handled without the non-polemical teacher note specified in §3.2.
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Comma Johanneum (5:7) textual basis. Medium-High (editorial, not strictly doctrinal-lexical, but consequential for consistency). Divergence between the historic Wujek/Vulgate longer Trinitarian reading and the modern critical-text shorter reading used by current Biblia Tysiąclecia requires an explicit, consistently-applied editorial decision (§4) to avoid inconsistency across curriculum materials.
This document depends on and must remain consistent with 08_core_glossary.md and the 1 John extension of bible_term_registry.json. Any term-level change made in Phase 2 must be reconciled back into this gap analysis before the doctrine risk registry extension is finalized.