Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 2 John | English → Polish
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md across the whole of 2 John (a single 13-verse chapter). Terms are grouped into (A) terms reused exactly from the baseline Romans translation_memory.json, and (B) new terms proposed for addition to translation memory as this curriculum’s Language Package is built out. Risk tiers follow the baseline’s Critical/High/Medium/Low framework exactly.
Table A — Baseline Terms Reused Exactly (No Deviation Permitted)
| Term (EN) | Greek / Transliteration | Polish Rendering | Risk Tier | Doctrine Link (this curriculum) | 2 John Occurrence(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| grace | χάρις / charis | łaska | High | Salutation greeting-triad | 1:3 |
| peace | εἰρήνη / eirēnē | pokój | Medium | Salutation greeting-triad | 1:3 |
| god | θεός / theos | Bóg | Critical | Deity of Christ (v.9, “does not have God”) | 1:3, 1:9 |
| father | πατήρ / patēr | Ojciec | Critical | Adoption/Fatherhood; Sonship of Christ | 1:3, 1:4, 1:9 |
| jesus | Ἰησοῦς / Iēsous | Jezus | Critical | Lordship/Incarnation of Christ | 1:3, 1:7 |
| son_of_god (doctrine framework) | υἱός (τοῦ θεοῦ/τοῦ πατρός) / huios | Syn (Boży) | Critical | Sonship of Christ | 1:3, 1:9 |
| incarnation (doctrine framework) | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί / erchomenon en sarki | wcielenie (doctrine); “przyszedł w ciele” (phrase-level) | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 |
| fellowship (root) | κοινωνία / koinōnia | wspólnota (positive sense; contrast with κοινωνέω negative sense in Table B) | Low (baseline positive sense) | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment (contrast case) | cf. 1:11 |
Note: “Christ” follows the established Polish Bible-translation proper-name form “Chrystus” per the baseline system prompt; not a standalone glossary entry but confirmed here for consistency.
Table B — New Terms Introduced by 2 John
| Term (EN) | Greek / Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Polish Rendering | Risk Tier | Doctrine Link | 2 John Occurrence(s) | Risk Rationale (Grounded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| truth | ἀλήθεια / alētheia | truth, reality | prawda | High | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 | Contemporary relativistic usage risks reading “prawda” as subjective personal conviction rather than the fixed apostolic content about Christ that 2 John treats as received “from the beginning” and inseparable from love. |
| love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω / agapē / agapaō | covenantal, self-giving love | miłość; kochać / miłować | High | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:1, 1:3, 1:5, 1:6 | Popular usage flattens “miłość” toward romantic/sentimental affection; 2 John insists love is inseparable from and defined by obedience to truth, directly excluding a “loving tolerance” of the incarnation-denying teaching of v.7. |
| commandment | ἐντολή / entolē | injunction, directive | przykazanie | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 | Polish catechetical instinct ties “przykazanie” to the Decalogue; must be taught here as the singular relational love-commandment “from the beginning,” not an addition to the Ten Commandments. |
| walk (conduct of life) | περιπατέω / peripateō | to walk, to conduct oneself | postępować (alt. attested: chodzić) | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:4, 1:6 | Idiom-handling risk: must convey ongoing, durative lifestyle conduct, not a single completed act; choose one rendering and apply consistently across the curriculum. |
| beginning (apostolic origin) | ἀρχή / archē | beginning, origin | początek | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:5, 1:6 | Risk of readers assuming a creation/Genesis referent (“na początku,” Rodzaju 1:1) rather than the origin of apostolic gospel proclamation to these specific readers. |
| new (contrasted with original) | καινός / kainos | new in kind | nowy | Low | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:5 | Minor; must be paired consistently with “początek” to preserve the “not new but original” contrast. |
| one another | ἀλλήλους / allēlous | reciprocal object | jedni drugich / wzajemnie | Low | Walking in Truth and Love | 1:5 | Minimal risk; standard reciprocal construction. |
| deceiver | πλάνος / planos | wanderer, impostor | zwodziciel | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | Must remain a doctrinally specific category (denier of Christ’s real incarnation), not a generic label for any disagreeable opponent. |
| world (Johannine sense) | κόσμος / kosmos | ordered system; humanity estranged from God | świat | Medium | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | Johannine usage often carries a negative theological charge (humanity/society hostile to God), distinct from a neutral geographic sense; must be flagged in teaching notes. |
| confess / acknowledge | ὁμολογέω / homologeō | to confess formally | wyznawać | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | The letter’s diagnostic verb: refusal to formally confess Christ’s real incarnation is the mark of the deceiver/antichrist. Must not be softened toward mere opinion or private belief; parallels the Romans 10:9 confession pattern (“wyznawać,” “Jezus jest Panem”). |
| antichrist | ἀντίχριστος / antichristos | against-Christ; denier/counterfeiter of Christ | antychryst | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | 1:7 | (1) Historic Reformation-era polemic identifying the papacy as “the Antichrist” must not color this curriculum’s teaching, which follows John’s own definition strictly (denial of the incarnation), not anti-institutional polemic. (2) Popular apocalyptic fiction has narrowed “antychryst” to a single sensational future supervillain; John’s usage as a present, recurring category of false teacher must be explicitly taught against this narrowing. |
| reward / wage | μισθός / misthos | wage, reward | zapłata | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment; Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:8 | Direct point of contact with the baseline’s documented Polish Catholic merit-cooperation tension (cf. baseline grace notes); must be taught as reward for faithful ministry/perseverance, not as the ground of justification or salvation itself. |
| teaching / doctrine (of Christ) | διδαχή (τοῦ Χριστοῦ) / didachē (tou Christou) | teaching, instruction | nauka (Chrystusa) | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9, 1:10 | Polish “nauka” also means “science/scholarship” in secular register; must be glossed explicitly as “apostolic teaching/doctrine” for less catechized readers. Denial of this teaching (i.e., of the incarnation) is functionally denial of Christ himself. |
| abide / remain | μένω / menō | to remain, dwell, persist | trwać | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:2, 1:9 | Must be linked to the baseline assurance_of_salvation doctrine note: relational fidelity to apostolic teaching evidences genuine possession of God, avoiding both anxious self-doubt and doctrinal drift mislabeled as “growth.” |
| go ahead / progress beyond | προάγω / proagō | to advance beyond, go before | wybiegać (zbytnio) naprzód | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:9 | Names any claim to “advanced,” “deeper,” or “progressive” revelation moving past the received apostolic teaching about Christ (ancient Gnostic or modern esoteric/syncretistic) as loss of God, not spiritual maturity — a distinction that must be made explicit for learners. |
| elder | πρεσβύτερος / presbyteros | elder, senior | starszy | High | Author’s self-identification; Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | 1:1 | Must NOT be rendered “prezbiter,” which in modern Polish denotes ordained sacramental clergy within Catholic/Orthodox ecclesiology; standard Polish Bible tradition (Biblia Tysiąclecia) correctly uses “Starszy,” which must be followed exactly. |
| elect / chosen (adj., addressee) | ἐκλεκτή / eklektē | chosen, select | wybrana | Medium-High | Christian Fellowship; adjacent to baseline election doctrine | 1:1, 1:13 | Preserve the letter’s deliberate referent ambiguity (individual woman vs. personified congregation) rather than resolving it in translation; avoid importing the full soteriological weight of the baseline election/“wybranie” doctrine into what is primarily an epistolary honorific, while noting the shared root. |
| lady (address) | κυρία / kyria | lady, mistress of a household | Pani | Medium | Christian Fellowship (referent debate) | 1:1, 1:5 | Grammatically and semantically unrelated to κύριος (“Lord,” baseline Critical-risk lord = “Pan”); teaching materials must not imply κυρία is a feminine form of the divine title “Lord.” |
| children | τέκνα / tekna | children | dzieci | Medium | Christian Fellowship (referent debate) | 1:1, 1:4, 1:13 | Deliberately ambiguous referent (literal children vs. spiritual children/congregation members); translation should not force a single reading. |
| sister | ἀδελφή / adelphē | sister | siostra | Medium | Christian Fellowship (referent debate) | 1:13 | Same referent ambiguity as κυρία/τέκνα (literal sister vs. sister congregation); preserve rather than resolve. |
| mercy | ἔλεος / eleos | mercy, covenant compassion | miłosierdzie | High | Salutation greeting-triad; adjacent to Grace doctrine | 1:3 | GROUNDED RISK: Poland is the epicenter of the modern Divine Mercy devotion (Boże Miłosierdzie), rooted in St. Faustyna Kowalska’s visions, reinforced by John Paul II’s institution of Divine Mercy Sunday and the ubiquitous “Jezu, ufam Tobie” image/chaplet. “Miłosierdzie” here is the general apostolic-greeting term for God’s covenant compassion and must not be read through this specific 20th-century devotional apparatus. |
| house / household (hospitality) | οἰκία / oikia | house, household | dom | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:10 | GROUNDED RISK: Poland’s proverbial hospitality ethic (“Gość w dom, Bóg w dom” — “a guest in the house is God in the house”) may lead learners to read the command to withhold house-reception as a general license for inhospitality, contradicting a deeply held cultural value. Must be taught as narrowly scoped: withholding endorsement of a specific false-teaching itinerant minister, not revoking hospitality as a general virtue. |
| greeting (formal salutation) | χαίρειν / chairein | ”to rejoice” (idiomatic greeting formula) | pozdrawiać / pozdrowienie | High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:10, 1:11 | Must be distinguished from ordinary joy (χαρά, v.12) and from general personal courtesy; this is a technical, socially loaded act of public doctrinal endorsement within the itinerant-ministry system of the early church, not a blanket command against civility. |
| share in / participate in (negative sense) | κοινωνέω / koinōneō | to become a partner/participant in | mieć udział (w) / stawać się współuczestnikiem | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:11 | Verb form of the same root as the baseline’s positive fellowship = “wspólnota”; here used of complicity in evil. Must not be confused with, or allowed to soften, the baseline’s positive ecclesial sense of the root. |
| evil deeds / wicked works | ἔργα πονηρά / erga ponēra | wicked actions | złe uczynki | Low-Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | 1:11 | Concrete outworking of the baseline sin (grzech) doctrine; ensure it reads as concrete deeds, not an abstract category. |
| joy | χαρά / chara | gladness, rejoicing | radość | Low | Christian Fellowship | 1:12 | Must be distinguished in teaching notes from the technical greeting-formula sense of the same root (χαίρειν, v.10–11) to avoid learner confusion between two senses of one root. |
Cross-Reference Notes for Phase 2 Preparation
- Truth + Love pairing (1:1, 3, 4, 5, 6): “prawda” and “miłość” must always be taught as mutually defining in this letter — love never functions as an excuse to tolerate false teaching about Christ’s incarnation.
- Confession verb consistency: “wyznawać” (ὁμολογέω, v.7) should be cross-referenced against the baseline’s Romans 10:9 confession pattern (“Jezus jest Panem”) for curriculum-wide consistency in how “confession” language is taught.
- Reward vs. merit: “zapłata” (μισθός, v.8) requires the same doctrinal care the baseline documents for “łaska” (grace) — faithful service is rewarded, but salvation itself is never earned.
- Elder vs. Priest: “starszy” (πρεσβύτερος, v.1) must never drift toward “prezbiter” in any Phase 2 output; this is a hard constraint given Polish ecclesiological vocabulary.
- Antichrist framing: “antychryst” (v.7) must be taught strictly per John’s own definition (denial of Christ’s incarnation), explicitly avoiding both historic anti-Catholic polemical association and modern sensationalist end-times fiction framing.
- Mercy and hospitality collisions: “miłosierdzie” (v.3) and “dom”/hospitality (v.10) are the two most culturally loaded terms in this letter for a Polish audience (Divine Mercy devotion; “Gość w dom, Bóg w dom” proverb, respectively) and require the most explicit catechetical framing in Phase 2 lesson content.
- Referent ambiguity terms (κυρία, τέκνα, ἀδελφή, ἐκλεκτή): translators must preserve, not resolve, the letter’s deliberate ambiguity between an individual addressee and a personified congregation.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Bóg
Transliteration: theos
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. 2 John 1:9 states flatly that one who abandons the teaching of Christ ‘nie ma Boga’ — the term must retain its full personal, relational weight here, not a diluted or metaphorical sense; do not soften this into a merely relative or partial loss.
Father
Approved rendering: Ojciec
Transliteration: patēr
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. God as personal Father; standard and unambiguous. In 2 John 1:3 and 1:9, ‘Ojciec’ names the Father in relation to ‘the Son’ (Sonship of Christ), not the adoptive believer-sonship sense Romans 8 documents; both senses must be kept distinct in teaching materials.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jezus
Transliteration: Iēsous
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς / Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Standard across all Polish Bible traditions; no variant-form risk. Paired with ‘Chrystus’ (established Polish Bible-translation form) in 2 John 1:3 and the letter’s central confessional test at 1:7, ‘Jezus Chrystus, który przyszedł w ciele.‘
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Syn Boży
Transliteration: huios theou
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: syn Boży w sensie ogólnym, stosowanym do każdego wierzącego
Original: υἱός τοῦ θεοῦ / τοῦ πατρός / ὁ υἱός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Full phrase required; unique, eternal, co-equal divine Sonship, distinct from adoptive ‘dzieci Boże’ language. 2 John 1:3 renders this as ‘Syn Ojca’; 1:9 uses the bare ‘τὸν υἱόν’ (‘Syn’) without the explicit ‘τοῦ θεοῦ’ — this contextual shorthand must still carry the full Critical-risk, non-adoptive doctrinal weight documented here.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: wcielenie
Transliteration: erchomenon en sarki (cf. ho logos sarx egeneto)
Doctrine: Incarnation
Original: ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, WITH RISK TIER ELEVATED from baseline High to Critical for this curriculum: 2 John 1:7 sharpens this doctrine into the letter’s defining polemic — denial of Christ’s real, ongoing physical humanity (‘ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί,’ rendered ‘przyszedł w ciele’ / ‘przychodzącego w ciele’) is functionally denial of Christ himself and marks the denier as ‘zwodziciel’ and ‘antychryst.’ σάρξ must render as ‘ciało’ (real physical human flesh), never a term implying mere appearance or a phantom body. Popular catechetical narrowing of ‘wcielenie’ to the Christmas nativity scene (szopka) must be explicitly corrected in this curriculum. This elevation extends, and does not contradict, the baseline.
Lord
Approved rendering: Pan
Transliteration: kyrios
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Inherited from Romans package for cross-reference and doctrinal fencing purposes only; the word ‘Pan’ does not itself occur as a translation of any term within 2 John’s Greek text. It is included here because κυρία (‘lady,’ rendered ‘Pani’ at 2 John 1:1, 1:5) is grammatically and semantically unrelated to κύριος (‘Lord’); curriculum materials must never imply that the address ‘Pani’ is a feminine form of this divine title. Baseline Critical risk retained.
Confess
Approved rendering: wyznawać
Transliteration: homologeō
Doctrine: Confession of Christ
Rejected alternatives: wyznawać w sensie prywatnego, wewnętrznego przekonania, wyznawać w wąskim sensie sakramentalnej spowiedzi grzechów
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Christology
NEW TERM. The letter’s diagnostic verb (1:7): refusal to formally, publicly confess Christ’s real incarnation — not mere private disagreement — marks the deceiver/antichrist. Must be cross-referenced to the baseline’s Romans 10:9 confession pattern (‘wyznawać,’ ‘Jezus jest Panem’) for curriculum-wide consistency; never softened toward private piety or the sacrament of confession’s devotional register.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: antychryst
Transliteration: antichristos
Doctrine: Doctrine of the Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: antychryst jako polemiczne określenie papiestwa (reformacyjna polemika antykatolicka), antychryst jako pojedyncza, sensacyjna postać z fikcji apokaliptycznej/filmowej
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
NEW TERM. CRITICAL for two distinct, grounded reasons: (1) Reformation-era Protestant polemic historically identified the papacy as ‘the Antichrist’ — this association must not color this curriculum for an ecumenically mixed Polish Catholic-Protestant readership; John’s own definition (denial of the incarnation, 1:7) must govern strictly. (2) Polish popular apocalyptic fiction/film narrows ‘antychryst’ to a single sensational future supervillain; John’s usage as a present, recurring category of false teacher must be explicitly taught against this narrowing.
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: łaska
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: Grace
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: unmerited favor received by faith, not merit accumulated through sacramental cooperation. In 2 John 1:3, ‘łaska’ opens the salutation’s grace-mercy-peace triad (paralleling the Pastoral Epistles rather than Paul’s usual grace-and-peace pairing); the same forensic/merit-free sense must be preserved here as in Romans.
Election
Approved rendering: wybranie
Transliteration: eklogē
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: przeznaczenie, los
Inherited from Romans package for cross-reference purposes. God’s sovereign personal choice; avoid fatalistic ‘przeznaczenie/los’ framing. 2 John 1:1 and 1:13 use the related adjective ἐκλεκτή (‘wybrana,’ see the ‘elect’ entry below) as an epistolary honorific for the letter’s addressee, sharing this root; teaching materials should note the shared root for curriculum coherence but must NOT import the full Romans 9 soteriological weight of this doctrine into what is primarily an epistolary honorific.
Truth
Approved rendering: prawda
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: prawda jako subiektywne przekonanie osobiste (‘moja prawda’), prawda odczytywana wyłącznie jako wartość polityczno-historyczna (np. retoryka antykomunistyczna/‘Solidarności’)
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Faith
NEW TERM. Contemporary relativistic usage risks reading ‘prawda’ as personal conviction rather than the fixed apostolic content about Christ received ‘from the beginning’ (1:1-6). Poland’s national-memory association of ‘prawda’ with anti-communist/Solidarity-era rhetoric is a further, distinct drift risk to be explicitly guarded against. Must be taught inseparably paired with ‘miłość’ (love) and with ‘nauka Chrystusa’ (teaching of Christ) as its doctrinal content.
Love
Approved rendering: miłość
Transliteration: agapē / agapaō
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: miłość jako uczucie romantyczne lub sentymentalne, ‘miłująca tolerancja’ fałszywej nauki o wcieleniu
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Faith
NEW TERM. Popular usage flattens ‘miłość’ toward romantic/sentimental affection; 2 John 1:5-6 defines love as obedient walking according to Christ’s commandments, deliberately excluding any ‘loving tolerance’ of the incarnation-denying teaching of 1:7. Must always be taught as inseparable from ‘prawda.‘
Deceiver
Approved rendering: zwodziciel
Transliteration: planos
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: zwodziciel jako ogólne określenie każdego przeciwnika teologicznego lub osoby niesympatycznej
Original: πλάνος
Category: Christology
NEW TERM. Must remain a doctrinally specific category — one who denies Christ’s real incarnation (1:7) — never a generic label for any disagreeable theological opponent.
Reward
Approved rendering: zapłata
Transliteration: misthos
Doctrine: Reward for Faithful Ministry
Rejected alternatives: zapłata jako zasługa warunkująca lub uzupełniająca zbawienie
Original: μισθός
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. Direct point of contact with the baseline’s documented Polish Catholic merit-cooperation tension around ‘łaska’ (grace). ‘Zapłata’ (1:8) is reward for faithful perseverance and ministry investment, never the ground of justification or salvation itself, which is received by grace through faith alone per the baseline framework.
Teaching
Approved rendering: nauka (Chrystusa)
Transliteration: didachē (tou Christou)
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: nauka w sensie świeckiej wiedzy/nauki (science, scholarship)
Original: διδαχή (τοῦ Χριστοῦ)
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. Polish ‘nauka’ also carries the secular sense ‘science/scholarship’; must be glossed on first occurrence per lesson unit as ‘nauka apostolska o Chrystusie’ to prevent this drift. Denying this teaching (i.e., the incarnation, 1:7) is functionally denying Christ himself (1:9, 1:10).
Abide
Approved rendering: trwać
Transliteration: menō
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: trwanie jako formuła niepokoju egzystencjalnego o zbawienie, dryf doktrynalny relabelowany jako ‘duchowy wzrost’
Original: μένω
Category: Sanctification
NEW TERM. Must be linked to the baseline’s assurance-of-salvation doctrine note: relational fidelity to apostolic teaching evidences genuine possession of God (1:2, 1:9), avoiding both anxious self-doubt and doctrinal drift mislabeled as spiritual growth.
Go Ahead
Approved rendering: wybiegać (zbytnio) naprzód
Transliteration: proagō
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: postęp/inicjatywa w sensie neutralnie pozytywnym (‘prowadzić naprzód’)
Original: προάγω
Category: Sanctification
NEW TERM, fixed multi-word idiom requiring the bracketed object ‘poza naukę Chrystusa’ every occurrence. Names any claim to ‘advanced,’ ‘deeper,’ or ‘progressive’ revelation moving past the received apostolic teaching about Christ (ancient Gnostic or modern esoteric/syncretistic) as loss of God, not spiritual maturity (1:9).
Elder
Approved rendering: Starszy
Transliteration: presbyteros
Doctrine: Elder as Apostolic Authority
Rejected alternatives: prezbiter (sugerujące sakramentalne wyświęcenie duchowieństwa katolickiego/prawosławnego)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Must NOT be rendered ‘prezbiter,’ the modern Polish technical term for ordained sacramental clergy within Catholic/Orthodox ecclesiology; standard Polish Bible tradition (Biblia Tysiąclecia) uses ‘Starszy,’ which must be followed exactly for the author’s simple self-designation of respected apostolic-pastoral seniority (1:1).
Elect
Approved rendering: wybrana
Transliteration: eklektē
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Referent Ambiguity
Rejected alternatives: pełne soteriologiczne odniesienie do doktryny wybrania (Rzymian 9) importowane w epistolarny honoryfikatyw
Original: ἐκλεκτή
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Chosen/select, an honorific descriptor of the letter’s addressee (1:1, 1:13). Preserve the letter’s deliberate referent ambiguity (individual woman vs. personified congregation) rather than resolving it; shares a root with baseline ‘wybranie’ (election) but functions primarily as an epistolary honorific — avoid importing the full Romans 9 soteriological weight.
House
Approved rendering: dom
Transliteration: oikia
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: dom jako ogólna zasada gościnności obejmująca każdego gościa, nieznajomego lub osobę w potrzebie
Original: οἰκία
Category: Church
NEW TERM. GROUNDED RISK: Poland’s proverbial hospitality ethic (‘Gość w dom, Bóg w dom’) frames hospitality as an almost sacred, near-unconditional virtue; learners may misread 1:10 as licensing general inhospitality toward outsiders. Must be taught as narrowly scoped: withholding endorsement of a specific incarnation-denying itinerant teacher, not revoking the broader biblical and cultural mandate of hospitality.
Greeting
Approved rendering: pozdrawiać / pozdrowienie
Transliteration: chairein
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: pozdrowienie jako zwykła uprzejmość towarzyska, pozdrowienie utożsamione z radością (χαρά, 1:12)
Original: χαίρειν
Category: Church
NEW TERM. The conventional Greek greeting formula, functioning in 1:10-11 as public, formal endorsement of a traveling teacher’s ministry within the house-church network — a technical, socially loaded act of doctrinal endorsement, not a blanket command against basic civility toward those with whom one disagrees. Must be glossed on first occurrence and kept distinct from ordinary joy (χαρά, 1:12, see ‘joy’ entry).
Mercy
Approved rendering: miłosierdzie
Transliteration: eleos
Doctrine: Grace, Mercy, and Peace in the Apostolic Greeting
Rejected alternatives: miłosierdzie odczytywane wyłącznie przez nabożeństwo do Bożego Miłosierdzia (św. Faustyna, Niedziela Miłosierdzia Bożego, obraz i koronka ‘Jezu, ufam Tobie’)
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Salvation
NEW TERM. GROUNDED RISK: Poland is the epicenter of the modern Divine Mercy devotion (Boże Miłosierdzie), rooted in St. Faustyna Kowalska’s visions and reinforced by John Paul II’s institution of Divine Mercy Sunday. ‘Miłosierdzie’ in 2 John 1:3 is the general apostolic-greeting term for God’s covenant compassion, part of the grace-mercy-peace triad, and must not be read through this specific twentieth-century devotional apparatus, its images, chaplet, or associated indulgences.
Medium Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: pokój
Transliteration: eirēnē
Doctrine: Peace with God
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Baseline note: relational, covenantal peace through justification, not mere inner calm. Third member of the 2 John 1:3 greeting triad.
Sin
Approved rendering: grzech
Transliteration: hamartia
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: drobne przewinienie (minimizing euphemism)
Inherited from Romans package for cross-reference purposes. Moral transgression before a personal God. 2 John 1:11 names ‘ἔργα πονηρά’ (‘złe uczynki,’ evil deeds — see entry below) as the concrete outworking of complicity in a deceiver’s false teaching; this baseline doctrine underlies that concrete term.
Commandment
Approved rendering: przykazanie
Transliteration: entolē
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: przykazanie utożsamione z jednym z Dziesięciu Przykazań
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. Polish catechetical instinct ties ‘przykazanie’ tightly to the Decalogue; must be glossed on first occurrence as ‘przykazanie miłości, znane od początku’ to make clear the referent is the singular relational love-command ‘from the beginning’ (1:4-6), not an addition to the Ten Commandments.
Walk
Approved rendering: postępować
Transliteration: peripateō
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Rejected alternatives: chodzić (attested alternative in some Protestant Polish Bible traditions, rejected here for curriculum-wide consistency)
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Sanctification
NEW TERM. Metaphor for habitual, ongoing lifestyle conduct, not a single completed act. ‘Postępować’ is fixed as the sole rendering of περιπατέω across this curriculum (1:4, 1:6); ‘chodzić’ is registered as the rejected alternative to prevent Phase 2 improvisation drift.
Beginning
Approved rendering: początek
Transliteration: archē
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: czysto kosmologiczne ‘na początku’ (Rodzaju 1:1) bez odniesienia do nauki apostolskiej
Original: ἀρχή
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. Refers to the origin of apostolic gospel proclamation to these specific readers, not the creation of the world. Risk that readers supply a Genesis referent (‘na początku,’ Rodzaju 1:1) instead; a contextual gloss is required in teaching materials (1:5, 1:6).
World
Approved rendering: świat
Transliteration: kosmos
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: świat w neutralnym sensie geograficznym
Original: κόσμος
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. Johannine dualistic sense: humanity/society organized in estrangement from or hostility to God’s truth, the sphere into which the deceivers of 1:7 have gone (cf. John 15:18-19) — not neutral geography.
Lady
Approved rendering: Pani
Transliteration: kyria
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Referent Ambiguity
Rejected alternatives: forma przypominająca żeńską odmianę tytułu ‘Pan’ wywodzoną od κύριος
Original: κυρία
Category: Church
NEW TERM. A polite honorific address (1:1, 1:5), possibly a proper name or a personification of a local church. Grammatically and semantically unrelated to κύριος (‘Lord,’ baseline Critical term ‘Pan’); teaching materials must not imply ‘Pani’ is a feminine form of that divine title. Preserve referent ambiguity rather than resolving it.
Children
Approved rendering: dzieci
Transliteration: tekna
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Referent Ambiguity
Rejected alternatives: wymuszenie jednoznacznego rozstrzygnięcia (dzieci biologiczne wyłącznie lub członkowie zboru wyłącznie)
Original: τέκνα
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Deliberately ambiguous referent — literal children of the addressee or members of a congregation she represents (1:1, 1:4, 1:13); translation must not force a single reading.
Sister
Approved rendering: siostra
Transliteration: adelphē
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship and Referent Ambiguity
Rejected alternatives: wymuszenie jednoznacznego rozstrzygnięcia (siostra biologiczna wyłącznie lub zbór siostrzany wyłącznie)
Original: ἀδελφή
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Parallels the referent ambiguity of κυρία/τέκνα (literal sister vs. sister congregation); preserve rather than resolve (1:13).
Share In
Approved rendering: mieć udział (w) / stawać się współuczestnikiem
Transliteration: koinōneō
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: mieć udział w sensie pozytywnej wspólnoty (κοινωνία), pomieszane ze współuczestnictwem w złu
Original: κοινωνέω
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Verb form of the same root as baseline positive ‘wspólnota’ (fellowship); here (1:11) describes complicity in wicked works, not positive ecclesial participation. A translator’s note distinguishing the two senses is recommended wherever both occur in the same curriculum unit.
Evil Deeds
Approved rendering: złe uczynki
Transliteration: erga ponēra
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: złe uczynki jako abstrakcyjna kategoria moralna bez konkretnych czynów
Original: ἔργα πονηρά
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. The concrete moral consequence of formally endorsing a teacher who denies the incarnation (1:11); connects to baseline ‘grzech’ as its concrete outworking. Ensure the rendering reads as concrete deeds, not an abstract category.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: wspólnota
Transliteration: koinōnia
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: świętych obcowanie (specific creedal formula)
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Use ‘wspólnota’ for the general, positive ecclesial sense. In 2 John 1:11 the verb form κοινωνέω (see ‘share_in’ below) describes the same root’s negative, complicity-in-evil sense; the two senses of one root must not be conflated in teaching materials.
New
Approved rendering: nowy
Transliteration: kainos
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Original: καινός
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. New in kind/quality, contrasted with the original apostolic command; must be paired consistently with ‘początek’ to preserve the letter’s ‘not new but original’ contrast (1:5).
One Another
Approved rendering: jedni drugich / wzajemnie
Transliteration: allēlous
Doctrine: Walking in Truth and Love
Original: ἀλλήλους
Category: Church
NEW TERM. Standard reciprocal construction for the object of the mutual love-command (1:5); minimal risk.
Joy
Approved rendering: radość
Transliteration: chara
Doctrine: Joy and Restored Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: radość utożsamiona z formułą pozdrowienia (χαίρειν, 1:10-11)
Original: χαρά
Category: Faith
NEW TERM. Gladness at restored, embodied personal fellowship (1:12), echoing 1 John 1:4. Lexically related to the greeting-formula root χαίρειν but functions here as ordinary joy; must be clearly distinguished in teaching notes so learners do not conflate the two senses of one Greek root.
Referenced passages