Linguistic Gap Analysis — 1 Peter (English → Polish)

Curriculum: 1 Peter 1–5 Core passage: 1 Peter 1:3-9 (theological anchor, not scope boundary) Named doctrines: The Living Hope of the Resurrection · Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake · The Church as a Holy and Royal Priesthood · Submission to Authority and Christlike Endurance · Christ’s Substitutionary Suffering · Holiness in Conduct · Elders and Humility · Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits (3:18-22)

Authority chain: This document extends, and must never contradict, the Romans baseline translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json, and is consistent with 08_core_glossary.md and the curriculum-specific bible_term_registry.json entries already produced for this letter. Where a term is marked [BASELINE] below, its rendering is fixed and non-negotiable.

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Purpose

This analysis identifies, for every doctrine named in this curriculum, (1) what Polish vocabulary is actually available, (2) where that vocabulary is structurally weak, ambiguous, or dangerously overloaded by Polish Catholic devotional and institutional usage, and (3) the recommended translation strategy carried forward into the Core Glossary (08) and AI Translation Requirements (12). It also produces the ranked ambiguity list that Phase 2 review routing (Step 17) will use to prioritize human theologian attention.

1 Peter presents a distinct linguistic-gap profile from Romans: fewer forensic-soteriological terms, far more household/social-order vocabulary (submission, authority, honor-shame), pastoral-office vocabulary with severe false-cognate risk in Polish (kler, prezbiter, biskup), and one passage (3:18-22) that collides directly with a clause recited by every Polish Catholic at every Mass (the Creed’s “zstąpił do piekieł”).

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Section 1: Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix

For each named doctrine: available Polish terms, structural/cultural weaknesses of those terms, and the recommended fencing/teaching strategy.

1.1 The Living Hope of the Resurrection (core passage: 1:3-9)

Element	Detail
Available terms	nadzieja (hope); żywa nadzieja (living hope, [NEW]); zmartwychwstanie (resurrection, [BASELINE], Critical); dziedzictwo (inheritance, [NEW]); zbawienie (salvation, [BASELINE], Critical); wiara (faith, [BASELINE], Critical)
Weaknesses	Colloquial Polish “mieć nadzieję” functions as a soft, uncertain wish (“mam nadzieję, ale kto wie” — “I hope so, but who knows”), the near-opposite of ἐλπίς’s settled certainty grounded in a completed past event. “Nadzieja” alone, unqualified, invites this weaker reading. There is no single Polish lexeme that inherently carries “hope + alive/vital” the way ζῶσα does; “żywa” must be supplied as a modifier every time, and translators may be tempted to drop it for stylistic economy.
Recommended strategy	Never render ἐλπίς unqualified in 1:3 as bare “nadzieja” — always “żywa nadzieja” at the anchor verse, and pair first occurrence with an explicit teaching note distinguishing this certainty-hope from colloquial wishful “nadzieja.” Consistently ground the hope in the completed resurrection event (1:3), not future uncertainty. Since Romans 1:16-17, 8:28, and 10:9-10 already have mandated cross-document consistency in the baseline, extend the same “verbatim consistency” rule to 1 Peter 1:3 as this curriculum’s own thesis verse.

1.2 Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake (1:6-7; 2:19-21,23; 3:14,17-18; 4:1,12-19)

Element	Detail
Available terms	cierpienie / cierpieć (suffering/to suffer, [NEW], Critical); sprawiedliwość (righteousness, [BASELINE], Critical); różnorodne próby (various trials, [NEW]); ogniowa próba (fiery ordeal, [NEW]); wytrwałość (endurance, [NEW])
Weaknesses	This is the single deepest semantic-collision zone in the entire curriculum. Polish folk-Catholic piety has a robust, positively-valued vocabulary of “offering up” personal suffering (ofiarować swoje cierpienie) for souls in purgatory, for indulgences, or “in union with” the sufferings of Christ — a devotional pattern intensified nationally by John Paul II’s 1984 apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris (“Redemptive Suffering”), widely taught in Polish catechesis. 1 Peter’s “cierpienie” for righteousness’ sake will be heard by many readers through this existing frame, in which suffering functions as a form of merit or currency, transferable to others’ benefit.
Recommended strategy	Retain “cierpienie/cierpieć” without euphemism (no softened alternatives permitted), but mandate an explicit teaching note at first occurrence and at every Critical-tier passage clarifying: 1 Peter’s suffering is (a) innocent, undeserved, provoked by righteous conduct itself, not chosen ascetic self-denial; (b) participatory in Christ’s own sufferings (4:13, κοινωνέω) and glory-anticipating, not merit-generating; (c) never described as transferable “for” the benefit of a third party’s soul. Do not attempt to avoid or minimize the genuine linguistic overlap with Salvifici Doloris vocabulary — name it directly in teaching notes so learners can distinguish rather than unconsciously import it.

1.3 The Church as a Holy and Royal Priesthood (2:4-10)

Element	Detail
Available terms	święte kapłaństwo / królewskie kapłaństwo (holy/royal priesthood, [NEW], Critical); duchowe ofiary (spiritual sacrifices, [NEW], High); żywy kamień (living stone, [NEW]); duchowy dom (spiritual house, [NEW]); wybrany naród, święty lud, lud na własność (chosen race/holy nation/God’s possession, [NEW], High)
Weaknesses	”Kapłaństwo” in ordinary Polish religious usage refers almost exclusively to the sacramental, ordained ministerial priesthood (kapłan, sakrament kapłaństwa — one of the seven sacraments). There is no competing lay vocabulary for “priesthood” in general Polish usage; the word itself is institutionally loaded before any sentence is even formed. “Duchowe ofiary” risks conflation with “Ofiara Mszy świętej” (the Sacrifice of the Mass), the central act of Catholic worship.
Recommended strategy	Do not avoid “kapłaństwo” — a softened paraphrase would lose the text’s deliberately weighty claim and its Exodus 19:6 background. Instead, mandate an explanatory note at every occurrence distinguishing this corporate, universal priesthood (belonging to every believer through union with Christ the cornerstone) from the ordained ministerial priesthood, and relate it — without simply equating it — to the Vatican II common-priesthood/ministerial-priesthood distinction (Lumen Gentium §10), which gives Catholic readers an existing conceptual bridge rather than a flat contradiction. “Duchowe ofiary” must always be glossed as praise, obedience, and good works — not a sacramental re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice.

1.4 Submission to Authority and Christlike Endurance (2:13-3:7; 3:22; 5:5)

Element	Detail
Available terms	poddać się / być poddanym (submit/be submitted, [NEW], Critical); wytrwałość / znosić (endurance/to endure, [NEW], High); pokora (humility, [NEW], High)
Weaknesses	Polish has only one primary verb family (ὑποτάσσω → poddać się) covering five structurally distinct application-contexts in this letter: civil authority (2:13), servants under harsh masters (2:18), wives under husbands (3:1), Christ’s own submission-in-exaltation over cosmic powers (3:22), and younger believers under elders (5:5). A single blanket rendering risks either (a) absolutizing submission into endorsement of unjust authority, silencing legitimate resistance, or (b) being read so loosely it loses the genuine call to voluntary, non-retaliatory submission modeled on Christ. Polish historical experience (partitions, Nazi occupation, communist rule) also makes “submission to authority” a text Polish readers may bring strong pre-existing political reflexes to, in either direction.
Recommended strategy	Use “poddać się / być poddanym” consistently at the lexical level, but require a distinct contextual teaching note at each of the five occurrences — this term must never receive a single blanket doctrinal ruling. Each note must clarify that submission here is voluntary and Christlike, modeled on 2:21-23’s innocent, non-retaliatory endurance, not a general political theology of unconditional obedience to unjust power. Flag every occurrence for human theologian review (already established in the term registry) rather than native-speaker review alone.

1.5 Christ’s Substitutionary Suffering (1:18-19; 2:22-25; 3:18)

Element	Detail
Available terms	sam wziął nasze grzechy w swoim ciele na drzewo (bore our sins…, [NEW], Critical); sprawiedliwy za niesprawiedliwych (the righteous for the unrighteous, [NEW], Critical); jego ranami zostaliście uzdrowieni (by his wounds you have been healed, [NEW], High); baranek nieskazitelny i bez wady (lamb without blemish, [NEW], Medium); odkupienie/odkupieni (redeemed/redemption, [NEW], High); raz na zawsze (once for all, [NEW], High)
Weaknesses	Polish vocabulary for substitutionary atonement is theologically adequate but requires that the preposition ὑπέρ (“for, on behalf of, in place of”) retain its full substitutionary force in “za” — Polish “za” can slide toward a merely representative or exemplary sense (“on behalf of” in a weaker advocacy sense) if not anchored by context. “Raz na zawsze” (ἅπαξ) sits near, but is not in direct contradiction with, Catholic Eucharistic theology’s teaching that the Mass re-presents (rather than repeats) Christ’s one sacrifice — a nuance easy to flatten in either direction. “Baranek” carries strong positive liturgical resonance (Baranek Boży at every Mass) that is an asset if the costly/substitutionary sense is retained, but a liability if it collapses into a merely decorative gentleness association.
Recommended strategy	Retain full vicarious/penal-substitutionary force in “sprawiedliwy za niesprawiedliwych” and the 2:24 bore-our-sins clause; reject any paraphrase implying mere moral solidarity or example alone (hold this in tension with, but never instead of, the exemplary ὑπογραμμός sense at 2:21). For “raz na zawsze,” include a catechetical (not corrective) note affirming the historical singularity of Christ’s sacrifice without staging the passage as a refutation of Catholic Eucharistic theology. Leverage “baranek” imagery’s positive resonance explicitly while re-anchoring it every time to the costly, blood-price sacrificial sense (1:19).

1.6 Holiness in Conduct (1:14-16; 2:12; 3:1-16)

Element	Detail
Available terms	święty (holy, [BASELINE], Critical in this context); postępowanie / sposób życia (conduct/way of life, [NEW], Medium); daremny sposób życia przekazany przez ojców (futile ancestral tradition, [NEW], Critical)
Weaknesses	”Święty” already carries the baseline’s documented risk of narrowing to canonized/venerated figures rather than every believer’s calling; 1 Peter 1:15-16’s direct Leviticus quotation (“bądźcie świętymi, bo Ja jestem świętym”) intensifies this risk by making holiness an explicit imperative addressed to ordinary believers, inviting an ascetic-elite misreading (“holiness is for religious specialists”) as well as a ritual-purity misreading. Separately, 1:18’s “πατρικὴ παράδοσις” (“futile way of life handed down from your fathers”) poses a severe false-friend risk: capitalized “Tradycja” in Polish Catholic theology names Sacred Tradition, a revered co-source of revelation alongside Scripture — the exact opposite referent of this verse’s empty ancestral/pagan custom.
Recommended strategy	Ground “święty” explicitly in God’s own character and daily conduct (not ritual or ascetic-elite status) at every occurrence in this section, extending but not repeating verbatim the baseline’s saints caution. For 1:18, permanently reject any capitalized “Tradycja” rendering; use the full descriptive phrase “daremny sposób życia przekazany przez ojców” and mandate an explanatory note that this verse does not address, and must never be cited against, the Catholic doctrine of Sacred Tradition, which is a wholly different referent.

1.7 Elders and Humility (5:1-5)

Element	Detail
Available terms	starszy (elder, [NEW], Critical); sprawować nadzór / czuwać nad (exercising oversight, [NEW], Critical); powierzone [wam] owce/dusze (those allotted to your charge, [NEW], Critical); panować władczo nad (domineering, [NEW], High); pokora (humility, [NEW], High); pasterz / Najwyższy Pasterz (shepherd / Chief Shepherd, [NEW], High)
Weaknesses	This is the single highest-density false-cognate cluster in the curriculum. Three Greek terms in five verses (πρεσβύτερος, ἐπίσκοπος/ἐπισκοπέω, κλῆρος) each have a Polish descendant or near-cognate that names a specific, hierarchically elevated Catholic clerical office or category: prezbiter (an ordained priest, one of three holy orders), biskup (bishop, the highest clerical office), and kler (clergy, the collective priestly class). Using any of these cognates would not merely weaken the text but actively invert or falsify its meaning — most severely with κλῆρος/kler, where the verse’s warning against elders dominating the congregation would become nonsensical “domination of the clergy” if mistranslated.
Recommended strategy	Permanently and explicitly reject prezbiter, biskup-based nouns, and kler as renderings, with each rejection documented in translation memory as a standing prohibition, not merely a stylistic preference. Render πρεσβύτερος as “starszy” (matching established Polish ecumenical Bible-translation precedent), ἐπισκοπέω as a functional verb phrase (“sprawować nadzór,” never an office-noun), and κλῆρος descriptively (“powierzone wam owce/dusze,” never a single-word cognate). Flag the κλῆρος/kler pairing specifically for automated back-translation QA in every Phase 2 pass, since the false-cognate is visually and phonetically close enough to be introduced silently by an unattentive translator or model.

1.8 Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits (3:18-22)

Element	Detail
Available terms	duchy w więzieniu…głosił (spirits in prison…he proclaimed, [NEW], Critical); chrzest…zbawia (baptism…now saves you, [NEW], Critical); zstąpił do piekieł (Apostles’ Creed phrase, “descended into hell/the underworld” — existing liturgical vocabulary, not a translation candidate but an unavoidable reference point)
Weaknesses	This is the single most consequential open item in the whole curriculum. Every Polish Catholic hearer recites “zstąpił do piekieł” at every Mass (Apostles’ Creed); many will reflexively map 3:19-20’s “spirits in prison” onto that creedal clause, regardless of which of the several competing scholarly interpretations (proclamation to fallen angels/Noah’s contemporaries at the time of the flood; a proclamation of judgment, not a second chance at salvation; Christ’s proclamation through Noah in the Spirit before the incarnation, etc.) the curriculum ultimately adopts. Silence on this collision, or an unglossed literal rendering, will not avoid the issue — it will simply let the Creed’s traditional association resolve the exegetical question by default, without any theological determination having actually been made. The adjoining 3:21 baptism clause sits at the historic Catholic/Protestant baptismal-regeneration fault line and must not be resolved by selective omission of the verse’s own qualifying clause.
Recommended strategy	No rendering of 3:19-20 may be finalized without a named theologian’s documented determination of which exegetical option is being taught, explicitly stating its relationship (agreement, distinction, or non-relationship) to the Creed’s “zstąpił do piekieł” clause. Treat 3:19-20 and 4:6 as a linked interpretive pair, resolved together, never independently. For 3:21, always render the full verse including its qualifying clause (“nie jako obmycie z brudu ciała, lecz jako prośba do Boga o czyste sumienie” or equivalent), so the translation itself — not just an accompanying note — preserves the historic debate rather than silently resolving it. Both items require mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence, with no Phase 2 automated-only path permitted.

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Section 2: Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods

2.1 Missing Vocabulary (no ready-made single Polish term; requires paraphrase or compound construction)

Concept	Gap	Resolution
living hope (ἐλπὶς ζῶσα)	No single lexeme fuses “hope” + “possessing resurrection-vitality”	Compound “żywa nadzieja,” never abbreviated to “nadzieja” alone at anchor occurrences
tested genuineness (δοκίμιον)	No Polish noun captures the metallurgical refining-and-proving sense in one word	Paired phrase “wypróbowanie / autentyczność wiary,” with note that testing reveals, not produces, genuineness
sojourners/resident aliens (παρεπίδημος/πάροικος)	Polish “cudzoziemiec” (foreigner) captures only the legal-status sense, losing the spiritual-pilgrim self-understanding	Compound “przybysze i wygnańcy,” taught as the letter’s whole-book corporate self-identity, not ethnic diaspora terminology
example-pattern (ὑπογραμμός, the child’s copy-line for tracing letters)	No Polish word preserves the specific writing-instruction image	Render functionally as “przykład / wzór” (example/pattern), with the underlying metaphor explained in a teaching note rather than reproduced lexically
fiery ordeal (πύρωσις)	Polish “pożar/spalenie” would import a literal-fire, disaster-report register foreign to the metallurgical-testing metaphor family	”Ogniowa próba,” deliberately built to echo 1:7’s “próba” vocabulary rather than a literal-conflagration register
ancestral tradition, empty sense (πατρικὴ παράδοσις)	Polish has no word for “empty/futile inherited custom” that isn’t also the word for capital-T Sacred Tradition	Full descriptive phrase “daremny sposób życia przekazany przez ojców” — deliberately avoiding any single-word “tradycja” rendering
Chief Shepherd distinct from ordinary shepherd (ἀρχιποίμην)	Polish “pasterz” alone does not mark the “chief/head” distinction morphologically	Compound “Najwyższy Pasterz,” reserved exclusively for Christ, never applied to human elders

2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing (Polish already has a strong, well-established meaning that will intrude unless actively fenced off)

Polish term/root	Existing dominant meaning in Polish religious culture	Collision with 1 Peter’s sense	Fencing strategy
kapłaństwo	The sacramental, ordained ministerial priesthood (kapłan; sakrament kapłaństwa)	1 Peter 2:5,9’s corporate, universal priesthood of every believer	Mandatory explanatory note at every occurrence; relate (not equate) to Vatican II’s common/ministerial priesthood distinction
kler	Modern collective noun for “the clergy”	κλῆρος in 5:3 = the congregation entrusted to elders, the opposite referent	Permanent, documented rejection of “kler” as a rendering; automated back-translation QA flag
prezbiter	Official canonical/liturgical term for an ordained Catholic priest	πρεσβύτερος = a functional, plural, locally accountable congregational elder	Permanent rejection; use “starszy” exclusively
biskup / -related noun forms	The highest Catholic clerical office (episcopal authority, apostolic succession)	ἐπίσκοπος/ἐπισκοπέω describes a shepherding function, applied both to Christ (2:25) and to elders (5:2), not a separate superior office	Render only as a verb phrase (“sprawować nadzór,” “czuwać nad”), never as an office-noun
cierpienie (redemptive-suffering piety)	“Offering up” personal suffering for souls/indulgences; reinforced nationally by Salvifici Doloris	Innocent suffering for righteousness’ sake, participatory in Christ, non-meritorious, non-transferable	Explicit contrastive teaching note at every Critical-tier occurrence (see 1.2 above)
Tradycja (capitalized)	Sacred Tradition, a revered co-source of revelation alongside Scripture	1:18’s empty, futile ancestral/pagan custom — the opposite referent	Never use capitalized “Tradycja”; use full descriptive phrase; explicit disclaiming note
miłość	Dominant everyday association is romantic/erotic love (pop culture, love songs)	ἀγάπη’s committed, self-giving, covenantal love (1:8,22; 2:17; 3:8; 4:8; 5:14)	Explicit distinguishing note at first occurrence; consider supplementary phrase “miłość braterska/ofiarna” in teaching material (not the base text) where romantic misreading risk is highest (e.g., 4:8)
powołanie	Overwhelmingly a call to priesthood/consecrated religious life, intensified by John Paul II’s public vocations emphasis (per baseline)	The universal call of every believer, including the striking new nuance of being “called to suffer” (2:21) alongside “called to glory” (5:10)	Always pair with explicit context per occurrence per baseline convention; the suffering-vocation nuance is a genuine resonance opportunity but must not narrow to clergy/religious life
miłosierdzie	Intense positive devotional resonance: Divine Mercy (Miłosierdzie Boże), St. Faustyna Kowalska, Divine Mercy Sunday	ἔλεος’s OT covenantal-mercy background (1:3; 2:10)	Leverage the positive resonance but keep strictly text-grounded; do not import devotional accretions (the Chaplet, specific imagery) absent from the passage
dusza	Strong body/soul dualism in popular piety (Masses for “duszę,” purgatorial concern for “dusze w czyśćcu”)	ψυχή’s Hebraic sense of the whole living self, not a detachable immortal substance	Teach alongside 1:3’s bodily/historical resurrection to prevent an implicit soul/body split
pasterz	Colloquially extended in Polish usage to parish priests generally	Elders are accountable under-shepherds; Christ alone is ἀρχιποίμην	Reserve “Najwyższy Pasterz” exclusively for Christ; never elevate a human “pasterz” to that unique status in teaching material
pokora	Can be culturally coded as passive self-abasement or doormat-virtue	ταπεινοφροσύνη as the active antidote to domineering leadership (5:3,5-6), addressed mutually to the whole community, not a submission tactic imposed on the less powerful	Note explicitly that humility here disciplines the powerful (elders) as much as it forms ordinary believers; not a tool for entrenching domineering leadership

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Section 3: Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions

Term	Decision	Rationale
Abba (8:15, referenced by baseline; not in 1 Peter itself but relevant methodology precedent)	Transliterate, paired with “Ojcze”	Established Polish Bible-translation precedent; not directly at issue in 1 Peter but the same untranslated-intimacy-term methodology should be considered if any comparable Aramaic/Hebrew term arises in 1 Peter’s text-critical apparatus (none currently identified)
Babylon (= Rome, 5:13)	Transliterate as “Babilon,” with an explanatory footnote (historical-cultural, not doctrinal)	The cipher reference to Rome is a historical-literary fact, not a doctrinal claim; a footnote suffices rather than a paraphrase like “Rzym” in the base text, which would erase Peter’s deliberate coded language. Worth noting the historical irony for a Roman Catholic-majority audience, flagged as cultural-note only.
Christianos (4:16)	Standard established Polish term “chrześcijanin,” no transliteration needed	Fully naturalized loanword in Polish for many centuries; no ambiguity risk
kyrios / Pan	No transliteration; use established “Pan” [BASELINE]	Consistent with baseline; transliterating “kyrios” would break curriculum-wide consistency with Romans
hierateuma / kapłaństwo	No transliteration; paraphrase-with-note strategy (see 1.3, 2.2 above)	A transliterated “hierateuma” would be unintelligible to lay Polish readers and would abandon the text’s deliberate connection to the Exodus 19:6 Hebrew Bible background, which must remain visible in translation, not hidden behind a foreign loanword
klēros / kler	No transliteration under any circumstances	Transliteration is precisely the trap to avoid here — “kler” already exists in Polish as a false-cognate transliteration-by-historical-accident; the correct move is the opposite, a full descriptive paraphrase (“powierzone wam owce/dusze”) that deliberately does NOT resemble the Greek root
presbyteros / starszy	No transliteration; use existing Polish word “starszy,” not a Greek-derived loanword	”Prezbiter,” the closest transliteration-adjacent option, is already claimed by Catholic canon law for a different referent; the ecumenical Bible-translation solution of using the plain Polish word “starszy” avoids the trap entirely
episkopos / biskup-family	No transliteration or near-cognate; functional verb-phrase paraphrase only	Any noun built on the Greek root would phonetically converge with “biskup,” an office this text is not describing; paraphrase is the only safe path
hades / underworld language implicit in 3:19’s “spirits in prison” and the Creed’s “piekła”	Do not introduce “piekło” (hell) as a default gloss; retain the text’s own image “duchy w więzieniu” (spirits in prison) rather than substituting the Creed’s vocabulary	Substituting “piekło” would silently import the Creed’s traditional referent before the mandated theological determination is made (see 1.8); the text’s own carceral image must be preserved intact pending that determination
Amen, Alleluja (methodological precedent from baseline, relevant if these occur in 1 Peter’s closing doxologies, e.g. 4:11; 5:11)	Transliterate per established form	Consistent with baseline convention; both are fully naturalized in Polish liturgical and Bible-translation usage

General principle: transliteration is reserved for (a) proper names and established liturgical exclamations with zero ambiguity risk, and (b) cases where a foreign-sounding term is actually safer than any available native word (none identified for 1 Peter’s Critical-risk terms). For every Critical-risk ecclesial-office term in this letter, paraphrase is systematically preferred over both transliteration and cognate-formation, because the existing Polish cognates are not neutral loanwords but words already claimed by a specific, incompatible referent (ordained clergy, episcopal office, clerical class).

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Section 4: Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities

Ranked by combined severity of doctrinal consequence and probability of silent mistranslation (i.e., a plausible-sounding but wrong rendering that would pass casual review).

1. κλῆρος → “kler” false-cognate trap (5:3). Highest-probability silent-error risk in the entire curriculum: the wrong rendering is phonetically and etymologically the closest, most tempting option, and produces a fluent, grammatical, entirely inverted sentence. Mandatory automated back-translation QA plus human theologian review at this single verse.

2. 1 Peter 3:19-20 / 4:6 “spirits in prison” ↔ the Creed’s “zstąpił do piekieł.” Highest doctrinal stakes: an unresolved or silently-resolved rendering will let Poland’s near-universal liturgical familiarity with the Creed decide a genuinely disputed exegetical question by default, with no theologian ever having made an explicit determination. No Phase 2 processing of either verse without a documented, named theologian’s ruling.

3. Suffering vocabulary (πάθημα/πάσχω) vs. Polish redemptive-suffering/Salvifici Doloris piety. Broadest surface area of any risk in this letter (occurs in nearly every chapter); the collision is not a mistranslation risk at the lexical level (the correct word is obvious) but a reception risk — readers will supply the wrong theological frame onto a correctly translated word unless every Critical occurrence carries an explicit contrastive note.

4. ἐπίσκοπος/ἐπισκοπέω → “biskup” cognate-formation risk (2:25; 5:2). Second-highest silent-error probability after κλῆρος; a translator reaching for a natural-sounding noun form under time pressure could easily produce a “biskup”-rooted word without intending to invoke the Catholic office, since the lexical relationship is direct and the English “oversight/overseer” vocabulary pushes toward a noun form.

5. ἱεράτευμα → “kapłaństwo” without the mandatory explanatory note (2:5,9). The word itself is correct and unavoidable; the risk is omission of the required note under Phase 2 time/volume pressure, which would let the term default to the Catholic ministerial-priesthood referent by cultural gravity alone.

6. βάπτισμα…σῴζει with the qualifying clause silently dropped or abbreviated (3:21). A shortened or paraphrased rendering that omits “not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience” would resolve the historic baptismal-regeneration debate by omission rather than by explicit theological determination.

7. ὑποτάσσω applied uniformly across all five contexts without contextual differentiation (2:13,18; 3:1,22; 5:5). Risk is not mistranslation of the verb itself but flattening five theologically distinct submission-relationships into one undifferentiated blanket command, either over-absolutizing or evacuating the term depending on which direction the flattening goes.

8. πατρικὴ παράδοσις → capitalized “Tradycja” (1:18). Lower probability than items 1-4 (the correct lowercase, descriptive rendering is not a tempting shortcut the way “kler” is), but the doctrinal consequence of the error — appearing to have Scripture repudiate Sacred Tradition itself — would be severe and reputation-damaging if it occurred.

9. ἀγάπη → unglossed “miłość” at 4:8 (“love covers a multitude of sins”). Combination of the crowded-neighborhood romantic connotation with a second collision risk (indulgence-adjacent merit misreading of “covers sins”); two overlapping risks in a single short clause raise its priority above other ἀγάπη occurrences.

10. ἐλπὶς ζῶσα abbreviated to bare “nadzieja” at 1:3, the curriculum’s own anchor verse. Doctrinally consequential (loses the certainty/vitality distinctive of this letter’s central theme) but lower silent-error probability than items 1-6, since the abbreviation would be a stylistic simplification rather than a false-cognate trap; ranked here primarily because of the verse’s structural centrality to the whole curriculum.

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Cross-Reference Notes

1. This analysis assumes and does not repeat the full term-by-term rationale already documented in 08_core_glossary.md and the curriculum bible_term_registry.json; it exists to surface the systemic gap patterns (crowded neighborhoods, missing vocabulary, transliteration policy, ranked risk) that individual term entries address one at a time.
2. Items 1, 2, and 4 above (κλῆρος, spirits-in-prison, ἐπίσκοπος) should be treated as the three non-negotiable theologian-review gates in Phase 2 Step 17; no automated-only or native-speaker-only path may clear a segment containing any of these three.
3. This document’s ranked ambiguity list should be reconciled against the final doctrine_risk_registry.json for this curriculum (Phase 1 Step 9) to confirm risk-tier and review-routing alignment before Phase 2 begins.