Executive Summary — 1 Peter (English → Polish)

Curriculum: 1 Peter 1–5 | Core passage: 1 Peter 1:3–9 | Destination: Polish (85–90% culturally Roman Catholic)

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Why it matters

1 Peter is lexically well-served by Polish — every core term has a settled rendering — but the letter introduces the sharpest false-cognate and doctrinal-collision risk profile encountered in this pipeline so far. Three Greek terms in a single five-verse span (5:1–6) map onto live, hierarchically-loaded Catholic clerical vocabulary (prezbiter, biskup, kler) such that a fluent, grammatically correct mistranslation could invert the text’s meaning without triggering any obvious red flag. A second passage (3:18–22) intersects a clause recited by virtually every Polish Catholic at every Mass (“zstąpił do piekieł”), making silence or a default rendering equivalent to an undocumented theological ruling. This package extends, and never contradicts, the Romans baseline Language Package.

Key findings

• 48 of the term registry’s ~63 entries (25 Critical + 23 High) require theologian-level or high-priority scrutiny — a higher concentration than the Romans baseline, driven by the priesthood/eldership cluster and the pervasive suffering vocabulary.
• 12 Critical and 6 High doctrines (18 of 24 total) require mandatory human theologian review; the remaining 6 require native speaker review. Zero doctrines clear on automated review alone — a stricter profile than Romans’ comparable registry.
• The suffering vocabulary family (πάθημα/πάσχω/δοκίμιον/πύρωσις) recurs in every chapter and collides directly with Polish folk-Catholic redemptive-suffering piety, intensified nationally by John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris.
• The priesthood/eldership/oversight cluster (ἱεράτευμα, πρεσβύτερος, ἐπίσκοπος, κλῆρος) is a new risk category with no Romans-baseline precedent, requiring three permanent, documented false-cognate prohibitions.
• 1 Peter 3:18–20 / 4:6 is flagged as the single highest-priority open item in the entire curriculum: no Phase 2 translation may proceed without a named theologian’s documented determination on file.

Risks

1. Silent false-cognate error (highest probability): κλῆρος → “kler” would grammatically invert 5:3’s warning against domineering elders into nonsense about dominating the clergy. ἐπίσκοπος → any “biskup”-rooted noun would falsely elevate elders/Christ to the modern episcopal office. πρεσβύτερος → “prezbiter” would import sacramental-ordination theology into a functional, plural eldership text.
2. Silent doctrinal resolution by omission: abbreviating 3:21’s baptism qualifying clause, or translating 3:18–20 without a documented theological ruling, would resolve genuinely disputed debates (baptismal regeneration; the Creed’s “descended into hell”) by default rather than by decision.
3. Reception-level (not lexical) risk: “cierpienie” is the correct word for suffering, but readers will supply a merit-currency frame from popular piety unless every Critical-tier occurrence carries an explicit contrastive note.
4. Institutional flattening or dismissal: “kapłaństwo” for the universal priesthood of all believers (2:5,9) risks being heard as either “everyone is basically a parish priest” or a powerless metaphor, absent the mandatory Vatican II cross-reference note.
5. Household-ethics misuse: 3:1’s wives’ submission, if isolated from 3:7’s mutual-honor pairing, risks becoming license for domestic domination rather than the mutual, voluntary framework the text requires.

Opportunities

• Poland’s intense Divine Mercy devotional culture (Miłosierdzie Boże) offers a genuine, text-groundable asset for teaching 1:3’s ἔλεος, provided materials stay text-anchored rather than importing devotional accretions.
• The Creed’s “zstąpił do piekieł” familiarity, rather than only a risk, is a rare catechetical opening: 1 Peter 3:18–22 is not an obscure crux for this audience but an already-recognized text, if the curriculum names the connection explicitly.
• Polish powołanie vocabulary’s genuine resonance with costly, sacrificial commitment can reinforce (not just risk-manage) 1 Peter’s striking “called to suffer” (2:21) / “called to glory” (5:10) pairing, if carefully unnarrowed from clergy-only usage.
• The liturgical familiarity of “Baranek Boży” (Lamb of God) at every Mass is a ready-made bridge for 1:19’s substitutionary lamb imagery.

Recommended actions

1. Commission a named theologian’s documented ruling on 1 Peter 3:18–20 / 4:6 before any Phase 2 segment translation touching those verses begins; treat as a hard release gate, not a routine flag.
2. Configure automated back-translation QA to hard-fail (not merely flag) any segment where κλῆρος, ἐπίσκοπος-family terms, or πρεσβύτερος surface as “kler,” a “biskup”-rooted noun, or “prezbiter,” respectively.
3. Attach the mandatory explanatory note to every occurrence of “kapłaństwo” (2:5,9) and every Critical-tier suffering passage before those segments can clear review.
4. Route 5:1–6 and 3:18–22 to a dedicated human-theologian queue, excluded from unattended parallel batch processing in Phase 2 Step 16.
5. Verify, at Phase 2 Step 17, that the 1:3–9 core-passage rendering (especially “żywa nadzieja”) is verbatim-identical everywhere it is quoted or echoed across all curriculum documents.