Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 3 John (English–Polish)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md. Terms marked “Reused (baseline)” carry over the exact Polish rendering and risk tier already recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and MUST NOT be altered. All other terms are new entries proposed for this curriculum, extending — never contradicting — the baseline Language Package.
| # | English Term | Greek (translit.) | Polish Rendering | Risk Tier | Doctrine | Baseline Status | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elder | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | starszy | Medium | N/A (authorial self-designation) | New | Rejected: “prezbiter” (implies specific modern Catholic ordained office), “starszy zboru” (implies fixed Protestant congregational office) — this is John’s personal pastoral self-designation |
| 2 | Beloved | ἀγαπητός (agapētos) | umiłowany | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Standard, warm term of address |
| 3 | Truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | prawda | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Must be taught against the secular/political sense of “prawda” (e.g., IPN historical-truth discourse); this is gospel-truth as the ground of Christian life and relationship |
| 4 | Love (agape) | ἀγάπη (agapē) | miłość | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality | New | Distinguish from φίλοι/φιλία (#33); do not use “miłość” for both Greek word-families |
| 5 | Joy | χαρά (chara) | radość | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Standard |
| 6 | Walk / conduct of life | περιπατέω (peripateō) | postępować | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Idiomatic; not literal locomotion |
| 7 | Faithful (act/conduct) | πιστός (pistos) | wierny / wiernie czynić | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Shares root with Critical-risk “wiara” (faith, baseline); must not be conflated with the personal-trust-in-Christ doctrine — this describes trustworthy hospitality-conduct |
| 8 | Stranger / traveling minister | ξένος (xenos) | nieznajomi | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Rejected: “cudzoziemcy” (implies national foreignness not present in the Greek); must not collapse into generic Polish social hospitality custom or institutional clergy-support models |
| 9 | Send forward / provide for journey | προπέμπω (propempō) | wyprawić w drogę | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Must convey concrete material/logistical support, not a verbal farewell alone |
| 10 | Worthily | ἀξίως (axiōs) | godnie / w sposób godny Boga | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Standard |
| 11 | The Name (of Christ) | ὄνομα (onoma) | imię [Jego] | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Reverential, title-like absolute use; not a mere personal label |
| 12 | Gentiles / outsiders | ἐθνικός (ethnikos) | poganie | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | Reused (baseline) | Baseline notes the term’s inherent negative charge can overstate a neutral sense elsewhere in Romans; in 3 John 7 the negative, non-believing-outsider sense is the textually correct one — flag as the one exception context |
| 13 | Ought / obligated | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | powinniśmy | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Standard moral-obligation term |
| 14 | Receive / support (materially) | ὑπολαμβάνω (hypolambanō) | przyjmować / wspierać | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New | Must convey material support, not only polite social welcome |
| 15 | Fellow worker | συνεργός (synergos) | współpracownik | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Standard |
| 16 | Church (local assembly) | ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) | kościół | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride | Reused (baseline) | Distinguish local gathered congregation from capitalized institutional “Kościół” per baseline note |
| 17 | Love of preeminence | φιλοπρωτεύω (philoprōteuō) | pragnący być pierwszym / lubiący przewodzić dla własnej chwały | Critical | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New | NEVER render using the root “prymat” — collides with the revered Polish ecclesiastical title Prymas Polski (esp. Cardinal Wyszyński, “Prymas Tysiąclecia”); this is the single highest-risk term in this curriculum |
| 18 | Receive / welcome (a person) | ἐπιδέχομαι (epidechomai) | przyjmować | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New | Distinguish from ὑπολαμβάνω (#14) — personal/relational welcome, not material support |
| 19 | Works / deeds (behavioral) | ἔργα (erga) | uczynki / czyny | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New | Must not be conflated with the Pauline soteriological “works of the law” grace-versus-works doctrine; this is everyday moral conduct |
| 20 | Slander | καταλαλέω (katalaleō) | obmawiać / mówić źle o kimś | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New | Standard |
| 21 | Forbid / prevent | κωλύω (kōlyō) | zabraniać | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New | Standard |
| 22 | Cast out / expel | ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) | wyrzucać z kościoła | High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New | Rejected: “ekskomunikować” (implies legitimate canonical/hierarchical authority; Diotrephes’ act is illegitimate and self-appointed) |
| 23 | Imitate | μιμέομαι (mimeomai) | naśladować | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New | Positive resonance with Polish Imitatio Christi devotional tradition, but must not narrow to imitating only Christ/canonized saints — here the objects are ordinary named believers (Demetrius vs. Diotrephes) |
| 24 | Evil | κακός (kakos) | zło | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New | Standard |
| 25 | Good | ἀγαθός (agathos) | dobro | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New | Standard |
| 26 | Doing good | ἀγαθοποιέω (agathopoieō) | czyniący dobro | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New | Standard |
| 27 | Doing evil | κακοποιέω (kakopoieō) | czyniący zło | Low | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New | Standard |
| 28 | Testimony | μαρτυρία (martyria) | świadectwo | High | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | New | Must be explicitly taught as verifiable character-commendation, not martyrdom-testimony (męczeństwo), despite the strong cultural association with Polish martyr-figures (Kolbe, Popiełuszko) |
| 29 | True | ἀληθής (alēthēs) | prawdziwy | Low | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius); Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Standard |
| 30 | Ink | μέλας (melas) | atrament | Low | (concrete, non-doctrinal) | New | No doctrinal risk |
| 31 | Pen / reed | κάλαμος (kalamos) | pióro / trzcina | Low | (concrete, non-doctrinal) | New | No doctrinal risk |
| 32 | Peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | pokój | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | Reused (baseline) | Closing benediction use; lower doctrinal weight here than Romans 5:1’s “peace with God,” but rendering consistency with baseline is still required |
| 33 | Friends | φίλος (philos) | przyjaciele | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Distinguish from ἀγάπη/miłość (#4) — different Greek word-family (φιλία), keep distinct in Polish |
| 34 | Brothers | ἀδελφός (adelphos) | bracia | Low | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Church Leadership and Pride | New | Standard for fellow believers |
| 35 | Prosper / be in good health | εὐοδόω / ὑγιαίνω (euodoō / hygiainō) | aby ci się dobrze powodziło / abyś był zdrowy | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Risk of prosperity-gospel misreading in some charismatic/evangelical circles; teach as a conventional epistolary greeting, subordinated to spiritual well-being (see #36) |
| 36 | Soul | ψυχή (psychē) | dusza | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New | Standard; benchmark of true well-being in v.2 |
Risk Summary for 3 John
| Tier | Count | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 1 | φιλοπρωτεύω (#17) |
| High | 4 | ἀλήθεια (#3), ξένος (#8), ἐκβάλλω (#22), μαρτυρία (#28) |
| Medium | 15 | #1, #4, #7, #9, #11, #12, #14, #16, #18, #19, #23, #32, #35 (and #6 fold-in cases noted in prose above) |
| Low | 16 | remaining terms |
Review routing (per baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json conventions):
- Critical/High terms (#3, #8, #17, #22, #28) require human theologian review for every occurrence.
- Medium terms require native speaker review.
- Low terms require automated review only.
Baseline terms reused without modification: kościół (church), poganie (Gentiles/outsiders), pokój (peace), Bóg (God, implied throughout via θεός references in vv.9,11). No baseline rendering has been altered or contradicted by this glossary.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Bóg
Transliteration: theos
Doctrine: Deity of God as Standard of Worthy Conduct
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Standard and unambiguous (3 Jana 1:6, 1:11); referenced as the standard of worthy hospitality (v.6) and as the one whose sight Diotrephes’ evil conduct shows he has not attained (v.11).
Love Of Preeminence
Approved rendering: pragnący być pierwszym / lubiący przewodzić dla własnej chwały
Transliteration: philoprōteuōn
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: pragnienie prymatu, prymat (any form)
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership
CRITICAL: New Testament hapax legomenon (3 Jana 1:9) describing Diotrephes’ self-exalting ambition. NEVER render using any form of the root ‘prymat’ — this collides with the revered Polish ecclesiastical title ‘Prymas Polski’ (Primate of Poland), especially Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, venerated as ‘Prymas Tysiąclecia’ (‘Primate of the Millennium’) for leading the Church’s moral resistance to communist rule. This is the single highest-risk term in this curriculum.
High Risk Terms
Truth
Approved rendering: prawda
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: prawda historyczna / IPN-style historical-truth discourse, sincerity or authenticity divorced from gospel content
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Fellowship
Governing term of the letter (vv.1, 3, 3, 4, 8, 12). Must be taught as Johannine gospel-reality grounding and bounding genuine Christian fellowship, distinguishing true fellowship (Gaius, Demetrius) from its counterfeit (Diotrephes) — not the modern secular/political sense of Polish ‘prawda’ associated with historical-truth commission (IPN) discourse.
Stranger Traveling Minister
Approved rendering: nieznajomi
Transliteration: xenos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: cudzoziemcy (implies national foreignness absent from the Greek)
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality
Anchor term of the Hospitality doctrine (3 Jana 1:5). Must not collapse into the generic Polish folk-hospitality custom (‘Gość w dom, Bóg w dom’) or the institutional Catholic model of parish/clergy support (kolęda visits, diocesan collections); this is personal, relational, materially costly support of unknown itinerant gospel workers.
Cast Out
Approved rendering: wyrzucać z kościoła
Transliteration: ekballei
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: ekskomunikować / ekskomunika (implies legitimate, canonically authorized hierarchical action)
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership
Illegitimate, self-appointed expulsion of fellow believers (3 Jana 1:10); must not imply the formal, legitimate authority of Catholic excommunication (‘ekskomunika’), exercised through recognized hierarchical authority.
Testimony
Approved rendering: świadectwo
Transliteration: martyria
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Rejected alternatives: męczeństwo-framed / martyrdom-register testimony
Original: μαρτυρία
Category: Witness
Verifiable, converging character-commendation (3 Jana 1:12), attested by the whole community, the truth itself, and John personally. Must be taught as ordinary character-commendation, not martyrdom-testimony, despite the strong Polish cultural association of ‘świadek/świadectwo wiary’ with martyr-figures such as Maksymilian Kolbe and ks. Jerzy Popiełuszko. Same disambiguation applies to the verb forms at 3 Jana 1:3, 1:6.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: kościół
Transliteration: ekklēsia
Doctrine: Church as God’s People / Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: Kościół jako jedyna prawowita instytucja hierarchiczna
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Local gathered congregation before whom Gaius’s love was testified (3 Jana 1:6) and from which Diotrephes illegitimately expels others (3 Jana 1:10); distinguish from the capitalized institutional ‘Kościół’ central to Polish Catholic ecclesiology.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: poganie
Transliteration: ethnikōn
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἐθνικός
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. In 3 Jana 1:7 the negative, non-believing-outsider sense is the textually correct one — the one exception context in this curriculum where the baseline’s general caution against overstating the term’s negative charge does NOT apply; here the negative charge must not be softened.
Peace
Approved rendering: pokój
Transliteration: eirēnē
Doctrine: Peace and Relational Closing Greeting
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Closing personal benediction (‘Pokój tobie!’, 3 Jana 1:14); lower doctrinal weight here than Romans 5:1’s ‘peace with God,’ but rendering consistency with the baseline must still be maintained.
Elder
Approved rendering: starszy
Transliteration: presbyteros
Doctrine: Pastoral Authority and Apostolic Self-Designation
Rejected alternatives: prezbiter (modern Catholic ordained office), starszy zboru (fixed Protestant congregational office)
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
John’s personal, self-effacing pastoral self-designation (3 Jana 1:1); not a claim to a specific institutional ecclesiastical rank.
Love Agape
Approved rendering: miłość
Transliteration: agapē
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: using ‘miłość’ to also render φίλοι/φιλία in v.14
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Fellowship
Self-giving covenantal love, publicly testified before the church (3 Jana 1:6); must remain lexically distinct from ‘przyjaciele’ (φιλία, v.14) — do not use the same Polish word for both Greek word-families.
Faithful Conduct
Approved rendering: wierny / wiernie czynić
Transliteration: pistos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: conflating with ‘wiara’ (baseline Critical-risk saving faith term)
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality
Trustworthy hospitality-conduct (3 Jana 1:5); shares its root with the baseline Critical-risk term ‘wiara’ (faith). Must not be conflated with personal saving trust in Christ; describes Gaius’s reliable action toward traveling ministers.
Send Forward
Approved rendering: wyprawić w drogę
Transliteration: propempō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: a verbal farewell only, without material provisioning
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality
Concrete material and logistical provisioning for travel (3 Jana 1:6), not a mere verbal send-off.
Name Of Christ
Approved rendering: imię
Transliteration: onoma
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: a mere personal label
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Christology
Reverential, absolute, title-like use (‘dla imienia Jego’, 3 Jana 1:7); must not be read as a generic personal name.
Receive Support
Approved rendering: przyjmować / wspierać
Transliteration: hypolambanein
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: polite social welcome without material support
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality
Material and relational support (3 Jana 1:8); distinguish from ἐπιδέχομαι (‘receive_welcome’), which concerns personal welcome of a person (vv.9-10).
Receive Welcome
Approved rendering: przyjmować
Transliteration: epidechomai
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership
Personal/relational welcome of a person (3 Jana 1:9-10); distinguish from ὑπολαμβάνω (‘receive_support’), which concerns material provision.
Works Behavioral
Approved rendering: uczynki / czyny
Transliteration: erga
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Rejected alternatives: uczynki in the Pauline grace-versus-works soteriological sense
Original: ἔργα
Category: Church Leadership
Diotrephes’ pattern of self-serving, harmful behavior (3 Jana 1:10); everyday-conduct sense, must not be conflated with the Romans grace-versus-works doctrine (‘nie z uczynków’).
Imitate
Approved rendering: naśladować
Transliteration: mimou
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: naśladowanie narrowed exclusively to Christ or to canonized saints
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Ethics
Concrete, situational instruction to imitate the demonstrated good conduct of a named ordinary believer (Demetrius) rather than the demonstrated evil of another (Diotrephes) (3 Jana 1:11). Poland’s devotional tradition of ‘Imitatio Christi’ (Tomasz à Kempis) creates a narrowing risk requiring an explicit teaching note naming the actual referents.
Prosper Health
Approved rendering: aby ci się dobrze powodziło / abyś był zdrowy
Transliteration: euodousthai / hygiainein
Doctrine: Spiritual Well-Being over Material Prosperity
Rejected alternatives: an independent promise of material/physical blessing
Original: εὐοδόω / ὑγιαίνω
Category: Fellowship
Conventional epistolary well-wish (3 Jana 1:2), explicitly subordinated to the flourishing of the soul. Must not be read as a prosperity-gospel promise in Polish charismatic/evangelical circles influenced by Word-of-Faith teaching.
Low Risk Terms
Beloved
Approved rendering: umiłowany
Transliteration: agapētos
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Fellowship
Standard, warm term of address used repeatedly (3 Jana 1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 1:11).
Joy
Approved rendering: radość
Transliteration: chara
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: χαρά
Category: Fellowship
Deep, settled gladness (3 Jana 1:3, 1:4) rooted in confirmed reports of another believer’s fidelity to gospel-truth.
Walk Conduct
Approved rendering: postępować
Transliteration: peripateō
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Ethics
Habitual conduct of life (3 Jana 1:3, 1:4); idiomatic, must not be read as literal locomotion.
Worthily
Approved rendering: godnie
Transliteration: axiōs
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἀξίως
Category: Hospitality
God’s own character as the standard for hospitality (3 Jana 1:6), not mere social convention.
Ought
Approved rendering: powinniśmy
Transliteration: opheilō
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality
Moral obligation, not optional generosity (3 Jana 1:8).
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: współpracownik
Transliteration: synergos
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: συνεργός
Category: Hospitality
Hospitality makes the host an active participant in the gospel mission (3 Jana 1:8), not a passive bystander.
Slander
Approved rendering: obmawiać
Transliteration: katalaleō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: καταλαλέω
Category: Church Leadership
Malicious, false, or unjust speech used to discredit apostolic authority (3 Jana 1:10).
Forbid
Approved rendering: zabraniać
Transliteration: kōlyō
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership
Obstructing others’ legitimate desire to show hospitality (3 Jana 1:10).
Evil
Approved rendering: zło
Transliteration: kakon
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακός
Category: Ethics
3 Jana 1:11.
Good
Approved rendering: dobro
Transliteration: agathon
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθός
Category: Ethics
3 Jana 1:11.
Doing Good
Approved rendering: czyniący dobro
Transliteration: agathopoiōn
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθοποιέω
Category: Ethics
Habitual moral action presented as evidence of one’s relationship to God (3 Jana 1:11); a Johannine ethical-evidentiary marker, distinct from the Pauline justification-by-faith framework.
Doing Evil
Approved rendering: czyniący zło
Transliteration: kakopoiōn
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: κακοποιέω
Category: Ethics
3 Jana 1:11.
True
Approved rendering: prawdziwy
Transliteration: alēthēs
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius); Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Witness
John underwrites his own commendation of Demetrius with a claim to personal truthfulness (3 Jana 1:12).
Ink
Approved rendering: atrament
Transliteration: melanos
Doctrine: N/A (concrete, non-doctrinal detail)
Original: μέλας
Category: Other
3 Jana 1:13; no doctrinal risk.
Pen
Approved rendering: pióro / trzcina
Transliteration: kalamou
Doctrine: N/A (concrete, non-doctrinal detail)
Original: κάλαμος
Category: Other
3 Jana 1:13; no doctrinal risk.
Friends
Approved rendering: przyjaciele
Transliteration: philoi
Doctrine: Peace and Relational Closing Greeting; Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: miłość (used instead for the distinct φιλία word-family)
Original: φίλος
Category: Fellowship
3 Jana 1:14; must remain distinct from ‘miłość’ (ἀγάπη, see love_agape) — different Greek word-family (φιλία).
Brothers
Approved rendering: bracia
Transliteration: adelphōn
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Fellowship
Fellow believers functioning as a network of mutual accountability among traveling ministers (3 Jana 1:3, 1:5, 1:10).
Soul
Approved rendering: dusza
Transliteration: psychē
Doctrine: Spiritual Well-Being over Material Prosperity; Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ψυχή
Category: Fellowship
Benchmark of true well-being (3 Jana 1:2), against which outward circumstantial prosperity is measured.
Children
Approved rendering: dzieci
Transliteration: tekna
Doctrine: Spiritual Paternity and Discipleship
Rejected alternatives: conflation with ‘usynowienie’ (baseline doctrine of divine adoption, God’s act)
John’s spiritual children — those he has discipled (3 Jana 1:4). Must not be conflated with the baseline Romans doctrine of adoption (‘usynowienie’), which describes God’s adoption of believers, a distinct relationship from a pastor’s spiritual fatherhood over converts.
Gaius
Approved rendering: Gajusz
Transliteration: Gaios
Doctrine: N/A (proper name)
Established Polish Bible proper-name form (Biblia Tysiąclecia, Biblia Warszawska); the letter’s addressee, commended for hospitality (3 Jana 1:1).
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: Diotrefes
Transliteration: Diotrephēs
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes)
Established Polish Bible proper-name form; the self-exalting leader rebuked in 3 Jana 1:9-10.
Demetrius
Approved rendering: Demetriusz
Transliteration: Dēmētrios
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Established Polish Bible proper-name form; commended for faithful witness in 3 Jana 1:12.
John Author
Approved rendering: Jan
Transliteration: Iōannēs
Doctrine: Pastoral Authority and Apostolic Self-Designation
Traditional author identification, used in teaching material outside the text itself; the letter’s own self-designation is ‘starszy’ (elder), not the proper name, consistent with the letter’s personal, self-effacing tone.