Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — Matthew (English → Polish)
Purpose and Methodology
This document is the full doctrine matrix for the Matthew curriculum, produced under PRD Phase 1 Step 4. It is fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json: every doctrine name, risk tier, and review-routing assignment below matches that registry exactly. This document extends the registry with (a) a Translation Risk column giving a one-line, translator-facing statement of the specific rendering hazard, and (b) a Full Chapter Coverage Checklist (Section C) demonstrating that every chapter of Matthew, first to last, has been reviewed — including chapters that contribute no new doctrine, which are explicitly marked as reviewed rather than silently omitted, per the PRD’s full-book coverage mandate.
The core passage, Matthew 5:1–12 (the Beatitudes), is the theological anchor of the curriculum and is treated in Section A under “The Kingdom of Heaven” and “Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees,” but it does not define the scope of this analysis — the matrix below spans the entire book.
Doctrines are grouped under the nine curriculum Bible Doctrines specified in the curriculum parameters. Each group may contain more than one registry entry, since several curriculum doctrines resolve into multiple distinct translation-risk clusters in the registry.
Section A: Full Doctrine Matrix
1. The Kingdom of Heaven
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The Kingdom of Heaven (kingdom_of_heaven) | 3:2; 4:17; 5:3, 10, 19-20; 13 (parables); 18:1-4; 19:14, 23-24 | High | ”Królestwo niebieskie” risks being heard as an exclusively post-mortem destination (“pójść do nieba”), obscuring Matthew’s present, in-breaking reign of God; must be taught as synonymous with baseline kingdom_of_god (Medium), not a second, separate kingdom. | Human theologian |
Kingdom Parables and Mysteries (kingdom_parables_and_mysteries) | 13:1-52 | High | ”Tajemnica” carries sacramental overtones (tajemnice wiary) in Catholic usage; risks displacing the parables’ specific “already/not yet” teaching with a generic devotional-mystery sense. | Human theologian |
2. Jesus as the Promised Messiah and Son of David
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Messianic Promise and Son of David (messianic_promise_and_son_of_david) | 1:1; 1:16-17; 9:27; 12:23; 16:16; 21:9; 22:41-45 | Critical | ”Chrystus” inside the fixed name “Jezus Chrystus” risks being heard as a surname rather than a title; “Syn Dawida” risks being heard as bare genealogical trivia rather than a dynastic-messianic claim. | Human theologian |
Davidic Covenant Background (davidic_covenant) | 1:1-17; 9:27; 22:41-45 | Medium | Requires explicit 2 Samuel 7 background with no Polish cultural analogue; the covenant grounding of Jesus’ kingship can be lost without deliberate teaching. | Native speaker review |
Incarnation and the Virgin Birth (incarnation_and_virgin_birth) | 1:18-25 | Critical | Poland’s strong Christmas devotional culture (szopka) risks narrowing this doctrine to sentimental nativity imagery rather than the full “Bóg z nami” ontological claim. | Human theologian |
Humanity of Christ (humanity_of_christ) | 1:1-17; 8:20; 26:38 | Medium | Low intrinsic risk, but must be taught explicitly alongside deity of Christ to avoid an unbalanced emphasis on either nature. | Native speaker review |
Deity of Christ (deity_of_christ) | 3:17; 9:2-6; 14:33; 16:16; 17:1-8; 26:63-64; 27:54 | Critical | Risk of assimilating Jesus’ unique divine nature into the elevated-holy-man/canonized-saint category prominent in Polish devotional culture. | Human theologian |
Sonship of Christ (sonship_of_christ) | 3:17; 14:33; 16:16; 17:5; 27:54 | Critical | Identical Polish vocabulary (“syn/synowie Boży”) for Christ’s eternal Sonship and believers’ adoptive sonship (5:9, 45) creates a genuine collision requiring case-by-case disambiguation. | Human theologian |
Son of Man (son_of_man) | 8:20; 9:6; 12:8; 16:13, 27-28; 17:9, 22; 19:28; 20:18, 28; 24:27-44; 25:31; 26:2, 24, 45, 64 | Critical | ”Syn Człowieczy” may be heard as merely “a human being,” losing the Daniel 7 exaltation overtone, or conversely collapsed into a duplicate of “Syn Boży,” losing its distinct emphasis on humble humanity. | Human theologian |
Worship of Christ (worship_of_christ) | 2:11; 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 28:9, 17 | High | προσκυνέω ranges from court homage to full worship; collapsing all instances into either extreme misrepresents the narrative’s Christological progression. | Human theologian |
Temptation and Testing of Christ (temptation_and_testing) | 4:1-11; 6:13; 16:1; 22:18, 35 | Medium | The same root recurs in the Lord’s Prayer; requires consistent rendering across neutral-testing and morally-loaded-temptation senses. | Native speaker review |
3. Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy (fulfillment_of_old_testament_prophecy) | 1:22-23; 2:15, 17, 23; 4:14-16; 8:17; 12:17-21, 39-41; 13:35; 21:4-5, 42; 27:9-10 | High | The ~12-times-repeated citation formula requires OT background many culturally Catholic but non-catechized Polish readers lack; risk of the formula reading as decorative rather than load-bearing. | Human theologian |
4. The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching (authority_of_jesus_teaching) | 5:2; 7:28-29; 9:6, 8; 10:1; 21:23-27; 28:18 | High | Risk of conflating Jesus’ inherent, self-authenticating authority with later institutional-ecclesial authority claims, or diminishing it to rabbinic skill/personal charisma. | Human theologian |
Human Tradition versus the Command of God (tradition_vs_command_of_god) | 15:1-9; 23:1-4 | Critical | Must be distinguished from capitalized Sacred Tradition (Tradycja), co-authoritative with Scripture in Catholic theology, without flattening the passage’s genuine critique of tradition-over-command. | Human theologian |
Fulfillment (Not Abolition) of the Law (law_fulfilled) | 5:17-20; 7:12; 22:36-40 | High | Fine line between “abolition” and “unchanged legal code” misreadings; central to Jewish-Christian continuity questions and requires non-generic teaching. | Human theologian |
5. Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees (righteousness_exceeding_the_pharisees) | 5:20; 6:1-18; 15:1-20; 23:1-39 | Critical | The same Polish word “sprawiedliwość” used for Paul’s forensic/imputed righteousness must here carry Matthew’s ethical, heart-level sense exceeding external religious performance — requires explicit dual-register teaching note. | Human theologian |
The Beatitudes and Kingdom Ethics (beatitudes_and_kingdom_ethics) — CORE PASSAGE | 5:1-12 | High | ”Błogosławieni” risks being heard as a ritual/priestly blessing formula rather than God’s eschatological verdict of favor; “cisi” and “ubodzy w duchu” carry passivity/literal-poverty connotations foreign to the text’s sense. | Human theologian |
Repentance (repentance) | 3:2, 8; 4:17; 11:20-21; 12:41 | Critical | ”Czynić pokutę” strongly denotes the ritual penance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, risking collapse of whole-life reorientation into a single sacramental act. | Human theologian |
Faith and Little Faith (faith_and_little_faith) | 8:10, 26; 9:2, 22, 29; 14:31; 15:28; 17:20; 21:21 | High | ”Małej wiary” must be taught as gentle correction of wavering faith, distinct from unbelief (“niewiara”); risk of a Polish reader hearing rebuke rather than encouragement. | Human theologian |
6. The Church and Church Discipline
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The Church’s Foundation and the Petrine-Primacy Question (church_foundation_and_petrine_primacy) | 16:13-20 | Critical | The Πέτρος/πέτρα wordplay underlies Catholic Petrine primacy — of exceptional cultural weight in Poland via John Paul II; must present the text’s own wordplay and the range of legitimate historic readings without silently assuming or suppressing the papal-succession interpretation. | Human theologian |
The Keys of the Kingdom and Binding/Loosing (keys_and_binding_loosing) | 16:19; 18:18 | Critical | Underlies the papal “power of the keys” (władza kluczy) and sacramental absolution; must not default exclusively to either the institutional-papal or the individual-confessional reading, since Matthew 18 applies the same authority congregationally. | Human theologian |
The Church and Church Discipline (church_discipline) | 18:6-9; 18:15-20; 18:21-22 | Critical | Congregational correction/restoration collides structurally with the individual, priest-mediated Sacrament of Reconciliation dominant in Polish Catholic practice; requires explicit non-competing distinction. | Human theologian |
7. The Great Commission
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The Great Commission (great_commission) | 28:16-20 | Critical | ἔθνη must render as “narody,” never “poganie”; baptism must follow (not substitute for) disciple-making, guarding against the baseline’s warning that “zbawienie” can be assumed automatic through sacramental/national belonging. | Human theologian |
Mission to All Nations (mission_to_all_nations) | 4:19; 9:37-38; 10:5-6; 28:19 | High | Israel-first-then-nations sequencing must be taught as intentional narrative progression, not a permanent ethnic restriction later reversed. | Native speaker review |
Universal Scope of the Gospel (universal_scope_of_the_gospel) | 2:1-12; 8:5-13; 15:21-28; 28:19 | High | Gentile exemplars of faith must not be read as exceptional curiosities but as deliberate foreshadowing of 28:19’s universal scope; retain unqualified universal language against implicit Polish-Catholic-national gospel ownership. | Human theologian |
Baptism (baptism) | 3:6, 11, 13-17; 28:19 | Critical | Given near-universal Polish infant baptism, must be taught within its sequence (disciple-making → baptism → obedience-teaching), not as an isolated automatically salvific rite. | Human theologian |
The Lord’s Supper / Words of Institution (lords_supper_words_of_institution) | 26:26-29 | Critical | Underlies the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist/transubstantiation, the central act of Polish Catholic worship, and competing Protestant memorial/spiritual-presence views; teach the text’s own words without foreclosing a denominational sacramental doctrine. | Human theologian |
8. Judgment and the End of the Age
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Judgment and the End of the Age (judgment_and_end_of_age) | 13:39-43, 49-50; 24:1-51; 25:31-46 | Critical | Colloquial Polish “koniec świata” (used hyperbolically for any disaster or pop-apocalypse) risks trivializing the sober, specific eschatological claim. | Human theologian |
The Parousia / Second Coming (parousia_second_coming) | 24:3, 27, 30, 37-44; 26:64 | High | Transliterated “paruzja” is largely inaccessible; “przyjście” alone risks losing the definite, future, visible-return sense without anchoring teaching. | Human theologian |
False Messiahs and False Prophets (false_messiahs_and_prophets) | 7:15-23; 24:5, 11, 23-24 | High | By association with the baseline’s Critical “messiah” doctrine, must retain full exclusivity force, not read as a generic warning about “bad religious people.” | Human theologian |
The Great Tribulation (great_tribulation) | 24:15-22 | Medium | Standard vocabulary; moderate risk of vague or sensationalized popular reading. | Native speaker review |
The Sheep and the Goats: Final Judgment (sheep_and_goats_final_judgment) | 25:31-46 | Critical | Must not be softened into a general humanitarian ethic divorced from relationship to Christ, nor into a merit-earned salvation contradicting the baseline’s grace-by-faith framework. | Human theologian |
Eternal Punishment and Eternal Life (eternal_destinies) | 25:46 | Critical | Polish pastoral tendency (reinforced by the purgatorial framework, czyściec) risks affirming eternal life confidently while hedging on eternal punishment, a softening the text’s symmetrical grammar does not support. | Human theologian |
Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit (blasphemy_against_the_holy_spirit) | 12:22-32 | Critical | Requires an explicit pastoral note that genuine repentant fear of having committed this sin is itself evidence one has not, to avoid inducing false despair. | Human theologian |
9. Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus (discipleship_and_cost_of_following) | 4:18-22; 8:18-22; 9:9; 10:37-39; 16:24-26; 19:16-30 | Critical | ἀκολουθέω demands active, costly, life-reordering allegiance; Polish “uczeń” risks narrowing to a school/catechesis-pupil sense unless explicitly taught. | Human theologian |
Cross-Bearing (cross_bearing) | 10:38; 16:24-25 | Critical | ”Nosić swój krzyż” is a fully secularized Polish idiom for enduring any life burden, entirely detached from Christ — the single most pervasive idiom-collision risk in the curriculum. | Human theologian |
Divorce and the Exception Clause (divorce_and_remarriage) | 5:31-32; 19:3-9 | Critical | Major pastoral collision between Catholic indissolubility/annulment doctrine and Protestant divorce-remarriage readings of πορνεία; present the range of major traditions without silently resolving the debate. | Human theologian |
Ransom and Atonement (ransom_and_atonement) | 20:28; 26:28 | Critical | Must not be flattened into vague general helpfulness nor over-literalized into the historic, rejected “ransom-paid-to-Satan” theory. | Human theologian |
Stewardship and Reward (stewardship_and_reward) | 5:12; 6:1-6; 20:1-16; 25:14-30 | Medium | Reward is God’s gracious response to Spirit-enabled endurance, not a strict merit-earned wage; modern Polish “talent” (innate skill) risks an anachronistic reading of the talents parable. | Native speaker review |
Resurrection of Christ (resurrection_of_christ) | 12:39-40; 17:9, 22-23; 27:62-66; 28:1-20 | Critical | Bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection vindicating every prior Christological claim; Easter’s devotional familiarity (lesser cultural weight than Christmas in Poland) must yield doctrinal precision, not sentimental generality. | Human theologian |
The Greatest Commandment (love_commandment) | 22:34-40 | Medium | Well-known text with moderate risk of reduction to generic ethical sentiment divorced from the Law and Authority of Jesus’ Teaching doctrine. | Native speaker review |
Additional Low-Risk / Structural Doctrines (all curriculum-relevant)
| Doctrine (registry key) | Supporting Passages (Matthew) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Apostleship of the Twelve (apostleship_of_the_twelve) | 10:1-4 | Low | Standard, unambiguous term; ensure delegated authority (exousia) is not confused with later institutional claims. | Automated review |
Genealogy and Proper Names (proper_names_and_genealogy) | 1:1-17 | Low | Standard transliterated forms; genealogy’s framing as a “new Genesis” (biblos geneseōs) benefits from a brief teaching note. | Automated review |
Thanksgiving and Gratitude (thanksgiving_and_gratitude) | 14:19; 15:36; 26:26-27 | Low | Standard term shared across Polish Bible traditions; minimal risk. | Automated review |
Prophets and Prophecy as an Office (prophets_and_prophecy_as_office) | 5:12; 11:9-13; 13:57; 23:29-37 | Low | Standard, unambiguous term, distinct from the separately tracked false-prophet warnings. | Automated review |
Section B: Doctrine-Cluster Cross-Reference to Curriculum Bible Doctrines
| Curriculum Bible Doctrine | Registry Doctrines Mapped |
|---|---|
| The Kingdom of Heaven | kingdom_of_heaven, kingdom_parables_and_mysteries |
| Jesus as the Promised Messiah and Son of David | messianic_promise_and_son_of_david, davidic_covenant, incarnation_and_virgin_birth, humanity_of_christ, deity_of_christ, sonship_of_christ, son_of_man, worship_of_christ, temptation_and_testing |
| Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy | fulfillment_of_old_testament_prophecy |
| The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching | authority_of_jesus_teaching, tradition_vs_command_of_god, law_fulfilled |
| Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees | righteousness_exceeding_the_pharisees, beatitudes_and_kingdom_ethics, repentance, faith_and_little_faith |
| The Church and Church Discipline | church_foundation_and_petrine_primacy, keys_and_binding_loosing, church_discipline |
| The Great Commission | great_commission, mission_to_all_nations, universal_scope_of_the_gospel, baptism, lords_supper_words_of_institution |
| Judgment and the End of the Age | judgment_and_end_of_age, parousia_second_coming, false_messiahs_and_prophets, great_tribulation, sheep_and_goats_final_judgment, eternal_destinies, blasphemy_against_the_holy_spirit |
| Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus | discipleship_and_cost_of_following, cross_bearing, divorce_and_remarriage, ransom_and_atonement, stewardship_and_reward, resurrection_of_christ, love_commandment |
| (Structural / Low-risk, all doctrines) | apostleship_of_the_twelve, proper_names_and_genealogy, thanksgiving_and_gratitude, prophets_and_prophecy_as_office |
Section C: Full Chapter Coverage Checklist (Matthew 1–28)
Every chapter is reviewed below. Chapters that carry primarily continuity/narrative material rather than new doctrinal load are explicitly marked “reviewed — no new doctrine” rather than omitted.
| Ch. | Primary Content | Doctrines Present | Coverage Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genealogy; virginal conception; naming of Jesus | proper_names_and_genealogy, messianic_promise_and_son_of_david, davidic_covenant, incarnation_and_virgin_birth, fulfillment_of_old_testament_prophecy | Reviewed — foundational load-bearing chapter |
| 2 | Magi; flight to Egypt; Herod’s massacre; return to Nazareth | fulfillment_of_old_testament_prophecy, worship_of_christ, universal_scope_of_the_gospel, messianic_promise_and_son_of_david | Reviewed |
| 3 | John the Baptist; Jesus’ baptism | repentance, baptism, sonship_of_christ, kingdom_of_heaven | Reviewed |
| 4 | Temptation; call of first disciples; early ministry | temptation_and_testing, kingdom_of_heaven, discipleship_and_cost_of_following, mission_to_all_nations | Reviewed |
| 5 | Beatitudes; Law fulfilled; antitheses; divorce | beatitudes_and_kingdom_ethics (core passage, 5:1-12), kingdom_of_heaven, law_fulfilled, righteousness_exceeding_the_pharisees, divorce_and_remarriage | Reviewed — contains curriculum core passage |
| 6 | Lord’s Prayer; almsgiving/fasting; treasures | righteousness_exceeding_the_pharisees, kingdom_of_heaven, stewardship_and_reward | Reviewed |
| 7 | Judging others; false prophets; authority of teaching | authority_of_jesus_teaching, false_messiahs_and_prophets | Reviewed |
| 8 | Healings; centurion’s faith; storm calmed | faith_and_little_faith, son_of_man, worship_of_christ, discipleship_and_cost_of_following | Reviewed |
| 9 | Call of Matthew; forgiveness of sins; new wine | discipleship_and_cost_of_following, authority_of_jesus_teaching, faith_and_little_faith | Reviewed |
| 10 | Sending of the Twelve | apostleship_of_the_twelve, mission_to_all_nations, cross_bearing, discipleship_and_cost_of_following | Reviewed |
| 11 | John’s question; woes on unrepentant towns | prophets_and_prophecy_as_office, repentance, messianic_promise_and_son_of_david | Reviewed |
| 12 | Sabbath controversies; blasphemy against the Spirit; sign of Jonah | blasphemy_against_the_holy_spirit, tradition_vs_command_of_god, son_of_man, fulfillment_of_old_testament_prophecy, resurrection_of_christ (sign of Jonah) | Reviewed |
| 13 | Kingdom parables | kingdom_parables_and_mysteries, judgment_and_end_of_age (weeds) | Reviewed |
| 14 | Feeding of 5,000; walking on water | faith_and_little_faith, worship_of_christ, thanksgiving_and_gratitude | Reviewed — no new doctrine beyond reinforcement |
| 15 | Tradition vs. command; Canaanite woman’s faith | tradition_vs_command_of_god, universal_scope_of_the_gospel, faith_and_little_faith | Reviewed |
| 16 | Peter’s confession; church foundation; first passion prediction | church_foundation_and_petrine_primacy, keys_and_binding_loosing, messianic_promise_and_son_of_david, cross_bearing, false_messiahs_and_prophets | Reviewed — high-sensitivity chapter |
| 17 | Transfiguration; second passion prediction | deity_of_christ, sonship_of_christ, faith_and_little_faith | Reviewed |
| 18 | Church discipline; binding/loosing; unlimited forgiveness | church_discipline, keys_and_binding_loosing, kingdom_of_heaven | Reviewed |
| 19 | Divorce teaching; rich young man; cost of following | divorce_and_remarriage, discipleship_and_cost_of_following, stewardship_and_reward (palingenesia) | Reviewed |
| 20 | Laborers in the vineyard; third passion prediction; ransom saying | ransom_and_atonement, stewardship_and_reward, messianic_promise_and_son_of_david (Son of David healing) | Reviewed |
| 21 | Triumphal entry; temple cleansing; authority questioned; parable of the tenants | messianic_promise_and_son_of_david, fulfillment_of_old_testament_prophecy, authority_of_jesus_teaching | Reviewed |
| 22 | Marriage feast parable; tribute to Caesar; resurrection debate; greatest commandment; Lord of David | love_commandment, resurrection_of_christ (Sadducees debate), messianic_promise_and_son_of_david | Reviewed |
| 23 | Woes against Pharisees and scribes | tradition_vs_command_of_god, righteousness_exceeding_the_pharisees, false_messiahs_and_prophets (persecution of prophets) | Reviewed — no new doctrine beyond intensified application |
| 24 | Signs of the end; the parousia | judgment_and_end_of_age, parousia_second_coming, false_messiahs_and_prophets, great_tribulation | Reviewed |
| 25 | Ten virgins; talents; sheep and goats | stewardship_and_reward, sheep_and_goats_final_judgment, eternal_destinies, kingdom_of_heaven | Reviewed |
| 26 | Last Supper; Gethsemane; betrayal; arrest | lords_supper_words_of_institution, ransom_and_atonement (blood of the covenant), discipleship_and_cost_of_following (Peter’s denial foreshadowed) | Reviewed |
| 27 | Trial; crucifixion; death; burial | fulfillment_of_old_testament_prophecy, deity_of_christ (centurion’s confession), resurrection_of_christ (guard at tomb, anticipatory) | Reviewed |
| 28 | Resurrection; Great Commission | resurrection_of_christ, great_commission, worship_of_christ, authority_of_jesus_teaching (all authority) | Reviewed — climactic chapter |
Coverage confirmation: All 28 chapters of Matthew have been reviewed. No chapter is silently omitted; chapters 14 and 23 are explicitly marked as reinforcing existing doctrine without introducing new translation-risk terms.
Section D: Risk Tier Summary (Doctrine-Level, Matching Registry)
| Risk Tier | Count of Doctrines | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 23 | Human theologian (mandatory every occurrence) |
| High | 12 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 6 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 4 | Automated review |
| Total | 45 | — |
This matches doctrine_risk_registry.json at the level of individual doctrine-tier assignments. (Note: the registry’s own risk_summary block records a rounded Medium count of 7 and a total of 46; the doctrine-by-doctrine tier assignments in the registry body — which are authoritative per this project’s hard rules — yield 6 Medium and 45 total, as tabulated above. No doctrine name or tier assignment has been altered from the registry.)
Highest-sensitivity collision points requiring mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence (carried forward unchanged from the registry):
church_foundation_and_petrine_primacy(Matt 16:13-20)keys_and_binding_loosing(Matt 16:19; 18:18)church_discipline(Matt 18:15-20)divorce_and_remarriage(Matt 5:31-32; 19:3-9)lords_supper_words_of_institution(Matt 26:26-29)repentance(Matt 3:2; 4:17)cross_bearing(Matt 10:38; 16:24)ransom_and_atonement(Matt 20:28)eternal_destinies(Matt 25:46)son_of_man(throughout)blasphemy_against_the_holy_spirit(Matt 12:22-32)great_commission/baptism(Matt 28:16-20)
This document feeds directly into Phase 1 Step 5’s comparative theology analysis (04_comparative_theology.md) and into Phase 2’s segment-level review routing.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Jesus as the Promised Messiah and Son of David
Polish name: obietnica mesjańska i Syn Dawida
Key terms: messiah, christ_title, son_of_david, lord_ps110
Review routing: Human theologian
The unique, OT-promised Anointed One and rightful Davidic heir fulfilled exclusively in Jesus. Risk that ‘Chrystus’ functioning inside the fixed name ‘Jezus Chrystus’ is heard as a mere surname, losing its title-force, and that ‘Syn Dawida’ is heard as bare genealogical trivia rather than a dynastic-messianic claim.
Incarnation and the Virgin Birth
Polish name: wcielenie i dziewicze narodzenie
Key terms: incarnation, parthenos, emmanuel
Review routing: Human theologian
The eternal Son’s permanent assumption of human nature through miraculous virginal conception. Polish Catholic culture’s strong Christmas devotional tradition (szopka, Boże Narodzenie carrying comparatively greater cultural weight than Easter) risks narrowing this doctrine to sentimental nativity imagery rather than the full ontological claim of ‘Bóg z nami.‘
Deity of Christ
Polish name: bóstwo Chrystusa
Key terms: son_of_god, proskyneo, transfiguration
Review routing: Human theologian
Co-equal divine nature; must not be softened to ‘a divine man’ or the greatest of the saints. The Polish cultural veneration of canonized saints (John Paul II’s record canonizations) creates a risk of assimilating Jesus’ unique deity into an elevated-holy-man category rather than the unique Godhead.
Sonship of Christ
Polish name: synostwo Boże Chrystusa
Key terms: son_of_god, huioi_theou_beatitude
Review routing: Human theologian
Eternal, unique Sonship, not the adoptive ‘synowie Boży’ sense Matthew 5:9, 45 applies to believers. The identical Polish vocabulary for both senses (‘syn/synowie Boży’) creates a genuine collision risk requiring case-by-case disambiguation.
Son of Man
Polish name: Syn Człowieczy
Key terms: son_of_man, parousia
Review routing: Human theologian
Polish readers may hear ‘Syn Człowieczy’ as simply ‘a human being,’ losing the Daniel 7 exaltation-and-authority overtone; conversely the title must not be collapsed into a duplicate of ‘Syn Boży,’ losing its distinct emphasis on Jesus’ identification with humble, suffering humanity.
Human Tradition versus the Command of God
Polish name: tradycja ludzka a przykazanie Boże
Key terms: paradosis_ton_presbyteron
Review routing: Human theologian
Jesus critiques a specific human, rabbinic tradition that had supplanted God’s actual command. This must be explicitly distinguished from the capitalized Sacred Tradition (Tradycja) held as co-authoritative with Scripture in Catholic theology; the passage is not a general biblical argument against the concept of church Tradition, yet its genuine critique of tradition-over-command must not be flattened to avoid the collision.
Righteousness Exceeding the Pharisees
Polish name: sprawiedliwość przewyższająca faryzeuszów
Key terms: righteousness, hypocrites, perfect_teleios, me_krinete
Review routing: Human theologian
The same Polish word ‘sprawiedliwość’ used for Paul’s forensic/imputed righteousness in the baseline Romans package must here carry Matthew’s ethical, heart-level, kingdom-conduct sense exceeding external religious performance — a direct critique of merit-and-observance religion. Requires an explicit dual-register teaching note so the two valid biblical senses of the same Polish word are not confused or seen as contradictory.
Repentance
Polish name: nawrócenie
Key terms: metanoia
Review routing: Human theologian
John’s and Jesus’ inaugural call to whole-person reorientation. ‘Czynić pokutę’ — the natural-sounding Polish rendering — strongly denotes the ritual penance assigned within the Sacrament of Reconciliation, risking collapse of total life-reorientation into a single sacramental act rather than ongoing, comprehensive conversion.
The Church’s Foundation and the Petrine-Primacy Question
Polish name: fundament Kościoła i kwestia prymatu Piotra
Key terms: church_on_the_rock, church
Review routing: Human theologian
The wordplay between Πέτρος and πέτρα underlies the Catholic doctrine of Petrine primacy and papal succession — of exceptional cultural importance in Poland given the historic role of Pope John Paul II. The curriculum must present the text’s own wordplay and the range of legitimate historic interpretations without silently assuming the papal-succession reading as the only correct one, nor suppressing the debate to avoid controversy.
The Keys of the Kingdom and Binding/Loosing
Polish name: klucze królestwa i związywanie/rozwiązywanie
Key terms: keys_of_the_kingdom, bind_and_loose
Review routing: Human theologian
Directly underlies the papal ‘power of the keys’ (władza kluczy) on the Vatican coat of arms and the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation’s sacramental absolution. Must not default exclusively to either the institutional-papal reading or an exclusively individual-sacramental-confession reading; Matthew 18 applies the same authority congregationally.
The Church and Church Discipline
Polish name: Kościół i dyscyplina kościelna
Key terms: church_discipline, cause_to_stumble, gathered_in_my_name, unlimited_forgiveness
Review routing: Human theologian
Correction and restoration of sin as the responsibility of the gathered congregation, a significant structural collision with the individual, priest-mediated Sacrament of Reconciliation that is the dominant Polish Catholic model for addressing sin. Requires explicit teaching distinguishing the two, non-competing but structurally different, models.
The Great Commission
Polish name: Wielkie Posłanie
Key terms: great_commission, make_disciples, baptize, all_authority
Review routing: Human theologian
Grounded entirely in Christ’s universal authority (28:18), the Commission’s ἔθνη must render as ‘narody,’ never ‘poganie,’ and baptism must follow (not substitute for) disciple-making and ongoing obedience-teaching, guarding against the baseline’s Critical warning that ‘zbawienie’ can be assumed automatic through sacramental participation or national-religious belonging.
Baptism
Polish name: chrzest
Key terms: baptize
Review routing: Human theologian
Given the baseline’s Critical warning that ‘zbawienie’ risks being assumed automatic through sacramental participation (especially infant baptism, near-universal in Polish Catholic culture), baptism in Matthew 28:19 must be taught within its sequence — following disciple-making, preceding ongoing obedience-teaching — not as an isolated, automatically salvific rite.
The Lord’s Supper / Words of Institution
Polish name: Wieczerza Pańska / słowa ustanowienia
Key terms: words_of_institution, covenant, sin
Review routing: Human theologian
Underlies the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist and transubstantiation, the central act of Polish Catholic worship, as well as the range of Protestant memorial/spiritual-presence views. Teach the institution narrative’s own words and covenantal/atonement significance without presupposing or foreclosing a specific denominational sacramental doctrine.
Judgment and the End of the Age
Polish name: sąd i koniec czasów
Key terms: synteleia_tou_aionos, parousia, sheep_and_goats, eternal_punishment_life
Review routing: Human theologian
Colloquial Polish ‘koniec świata’ (used hyperbolically for any disaster or pop-culture apocalypse) risks trivializing or sensationalizing the sober, specific eschatological claim of the consummation of the present age followed by definite, symmetrical eternal destinies.
The Sheep and the Goats: Final Judgment
Polish name: owce i kozły: sąd ostateczny
Key terms: sheep_and_goats
Review routing: Human theologian
The Gospel’s climactic judgment scene, separating humanity by evidenced response to Christ shown in treatment of ‘the least of these’; must not be softened into a general humanitarian ethic divorced from relationship to Christ, nor into a merit-earned salvation contradicting the baseline’s grace-by-faith framework.
Eternal Punishment and Eternal Life
Polish name: kara wieczna i życie wieczne
Key terms: eternal_punishment_life
Review routing: Human theologian
The same Greek adjective modifies both destinies symmetrically; Polish pastoral tendency (reinforced by the purgatorial framework, czyściec, which softens finality-language generally) risks affirming eternal life confidently while hedging on eternal punishment, a softening the text’s own grammar does not support.
Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
Polish name: bluźnierstwo przeciw Duchowi Świętemu
Key terms: blasphemy_against_spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
One of Scripture’s most pastorally sensitive statements — willful, hardened attribution of the Spirit’s works to Satan. Requires an explicit pastoral note that genuine repentant fear of having committed this sin is itself evidence one has not, to avoid inducing false despair in troubled consciences.
Discipleship and the Cost of Following Jesus
Polish name: uczniostwo i koszt naśladowania Jezusa
Key terms: follow_akoloutheo, deny_himself, lose_find_life, disciple
Review routing: Human theologian
The central discipleship verb ἀκολουθέω demands active, costly, life-reordering allegiance, not passive admiration; Polish ‘uczeń’ risks narrowing to a school/catechesis pupil sense that loses this costliness unless explicitly taught.
Cross-Bearing
Polish name: branie/noszenie swojego krzyża
Key terms: cross_bearing
Review routing: Human theologian
In Polish culture ‘nosić swój krzyż’ is a fully secularized idiom for enduring any life burden (illness, difficult marriage, poverty), entirely detached from Christ. This is a direct and pervasive idiom-collision risk requiring the saying to be explicitly re-anchored to costly, Christ-specific, potentially fatal allegiance.
Divorce and the Exception Clause
Polish name: rozwód i klauzula wyjątku
Key terms: divorce_exception_clause
Review routing: Human theologian
Major pastoral/doctrinal collision: Catholic doctrine holds sacramental marriage strictly indissoluble, addressing hardship through annulment on a different theological basis, while many Protestant traditions read the πορνεία exception as permitting divorce and remarriage. The curriculum must present the text’s wording and the range of major traditions’ readings without silently resolving the debate, given the pastoral weight for a divorced/remarried or annulment-seeking Polish audience.
Ransom and Atonement
Polish name: okup i odkupienie
Key terms: ransom
Review routing: Human theologian
The clearest atonement statement in Matthew: a costly, substitutionary payment ‘in place of many.’ Must not be flattened into vague general helpfulness, nor over-literalized into the ancient, rejected ‘ransom-paid-to-Satan’ theory; distinct Greek vocabulary (λύτρον) from the baseline Romans package’s atonement terms requires its own careful teaching.
Resurrection of Christ
Polish name: zmartwychwstanie Chrystusa
Key terms: resurrection, sign_of_jonah
Review routing: Human theologian
Bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection vindicating every prior Christological claim in the book. Easter’s devotional familiarity in Polish culture (though carrying comparatively less cultural weight than Christmas) must translate into doctrinal precision rather than sentimental generality.
High Risk Doctrines
The Kingdom of Heaven
Polish name: królestwo niebieskie
Key terms: kingdom_of_heaven, kingdom_of_god
Review routing: Human theologian
Matthew’s signature phrase (~32 occurrences) is synonymous with ‘królestwo Boże,’ not a separate kingdom. Polish popular piety hears ‘niebo’ chiefly as the post-mortem destination (‘pójść do nieba’), which risks obscuring the present, in-breaking, this-worldly dimension of God’s reign that Jesus proclaims as already active.
Kingdom Parables and Mysteries
Polish name: przypowieści i tajemnice królestwa
Key terms: mysteries_of_the_kingdom, synteleia_tou_aionos
Review routing: Human theologian
‘Tajemnica’ also denotes sacramental mystery in Catholic usage (tajemnice wiary); while broadly compatible, this distinct sense must not displace the parables’ specific ‘already/not yet’ teaching about the kingdom’s present-hidden, future-consummated nature.
Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy
Polish name: wypełnienie proroctwa Starego Testamentu
Key terms: fulfillment_formula, sign_of_jonah, rejected_stone, prophet, prophecy
Review routing: Human theologian
Matthew’s structural, ~12-times-repeated citation formula argues that Jesus’ life fulfills the OT storyline exactly. Requires OT background many culturally Catholic but non-catechized Polish readers may lack; elevated above the baseline’s Medium rating given the formula’s load-bearing frequency across the whole book.
Worship of Christ
Polish name: uwielbienie/kult Chrystusa
Key terms: proskyneo
Review routing: Human theologian
προσκυνέω ranges from formal court homage to full religious worship; each occurrence must be individually assessed for whether homage or worship is intended, since collapsing all instances into either extreme misrepresents the narrative’s Christological progression toward unambiguous worship of the risen, divine Christ.
The Authority of Jesus’ Teaching
Polish name: autorytet nauki Jezusa
Key terms: exousia, authoritative_teaching, all_authority
Review routing: Human theologian
Jesus’ inherent, self-authenticating authority over teaching, forgiveness, and the Law itself, climaxing in the universal authority of 28:18. Risk of conflating this Christ-derived authority with later institutional-ecclesial authority claims, or diminishing it to mere personal charisma or rabbinic skill.
Fulfillment (Not Abolition) of the Law
Polish name: wypełnienie Prawa
Key terms: law, plerosai_ton_nomon
Review routing: Human theologian
Jesus fulfills and fully reveals the Law’s intent rather than abolishing or merely reaffirming an unchanged legal code; the fine line between these two misreadings requires careful, non-generic teaching given the term’s centrality to Jewish-Christian continuity questions.
The Beatitudes and Kingdom Ethics
Polish name: błogosławieństwa i etyka królestwa
Key terms: makarioi, ptochoi_to_pneumati, praeis, eirenopoioi, persecuted_for_righteousness, heneken_emou, misthos
Review routing: Human theologian
The curriculum’s core passage. ‘Błogosławieni’ risks being heard as a ritual/priestly blessing formula rather than God’s own eschatological verdict of favor; several beatitudes name virtues (‘cisi,’ ‘ubodzy w duchu’) that in Polish carry passivity or literal-poverty connotations foreign to the text’s sense of restrained strength and spiritual dependence on grace.
Faith and Little Faith
Polish name: wiara i małość wiary
Key terms: faith, faith_little_faith, apistia
Review routing: Human theologian
‘Małej wiary’ must be taught as gentle correction of wavering, immature faith, distinct from unbelief (‘niewiara’); risk of a Polish reader hearing rebuke rather than pastoral encouragement in Jesus’ address to his own disciples.
Mission to All Nations
Polish name: misja do wszystkich narodów
Key terms: mission, lost_sheep_of_israel, fishers_of_men, harvest_and_workers
Review routing: Native speaker review
Salvation-historical sequencing (mission to Israel first, then all nations) must be taught as intentional narrative progression, not a permanent ethnic restriction later reversed; Poland’s own strong missionary-sending tradition (reinforced by John Paul II’s papacy) is a helpful cultural asset here.
Universal Scope of the Gospel
Polish name: powszechny zasięg Ewangelii
Key terms: gospel_of_the_kingdom, great_commission, gentiles
Review routing: Human theologian
No ethnic or national barrier to the gospel; retain unqualified universal language rather than implying the gospel belongs distinctively to a Catholic Polish nation. Gentile exemplars of faith (the magi, the centurion, the Canaanite woman) must not be read as exceptional curiosities but as deliberate foreshadowing of Matthew 28’s universal scope.
The Parousia / Second Coming
Polish name: przyjście Syna Człowieczego (paruzja)
Key terms: parousia, son_of_man
Review routing: Human theologian
The transliterated technical term ‘paruzja’ is largely inaccessible to general Polish readers, while ‘przyjście’ alone risks losing the definite, future, visible-return sense if not anchored by explicit teaching distinguishing it from a vague ongoing spiritual ‘presence.‘
False Messiahs and False Prophets
Polish name: fałszywi mesjasze i fałszywi prorocy
Key terms: false_christs_prophets
Review routing: Human theologian
By direct association with the baseline’s Critical ‘messiah’ doctrine, warnings against rival claimants must retain full exclusivity force; Polish readers should not read this as a general warning about ‘bad religious people’ divorced from the specific claim to Christ’s unique identity.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Davidic Covenant Background
Polish name: przymierze Dawidowe
Key terms: david, son_of_david, covenant
Review routing: Native speaker review
Requires explicit Old Testament background (2 Samuel 7); no analogous concept assumed in general Polish culture, and the Davidic-covenant grounding of Jesus’ kingship can be lost without deliberate teaching.
Humanity of Christ
Polish name: człowieczeństwo Chrystusa
Key terms: son_of_man, parthenos
Review routing: Native speaker review
Real physical human nature and lineage; low intrinsic risk in Polish Catholic culture, though should be taught explicitly alongside deity of Christ to avoid an unbalanced emphasis on either nature alone.
Temptation and Testing of Christ
Polish name: kuszenie i doświadczanie Chrystusa
Key terms: peirazo, diabolos
Review routing: Native speaker review
Jesus recapitulates and reverses Israel’s wilderness failures as the obedient, true Israel/Son; the same root recurs in the Lord’s Prayer, requiring consistent rendering across contexts ranging from neutral testing to morally-loaded temptation.
The Great Tribulation
Polish name: wielki ucisk
Key terms: great_tribulation
Review routing: Native speaker review
Intense, unprecedented distress preceding the end; believers are warned to expect, not be surprised by, severe hardship — standard vocabulary with moderate risk of vague or sensationalized popular reading.
Stewardship and Reward
Polish name: wierne zarządzanie i nagroda
Key terms: misthos, talanta
Review routing: Native speaker review
Reward for faithful stewardship is God’s gracious response to Spirit-enabled endurance, not a strict merit-earned wage. Modern Polish ‘talent’ (innate personal skill) risks an anachronistic reading of the talents parable that displaces its actual point of entrusted responsibility and accountability.
The Greatest Commandment
Polish name: największe przykazanie
Key terms: love_commandment
Review routing: Native speaker review
Summarizes the whole Law and Prophets in love for God and neighbor; well-known text with moderate risk of being reduced to generic ethical sentiment divorced from its rootedness in the Law and the Authority of Jesus’ Teaching doctrine.
Low Risk Doctrines
Apostleship of the Twelve
Polish name: apostolstwo Dwunastu
Key terms: apostle, exousia
Review routing: Automated review
Standard, unambiguous term across Polish Christian traditions; low risk beyond ensuring the delegated authority (exousia) given to the Twelve is not confused with later institutional claims addressed elsewhere in this registry.
Genealogy and Proper Names
Polish name: rodowód i imiona własne
Key terms: david, israel, jesus, pharisees_scribes
Review routing: Automated review
Standard transliterated proper names and group nouns following established Polish Bible-translation convention; minimal doctrinal risk, though the genealogy’s framing as a ‘new Genesis’ (biblos geneseōs) benefits from a brief teaching note.
Thanksgiving and Gratitude
Polish name: dziękczynienie
Key terms: thanksgiving
Review routing: Automated review
Standard term shared across Polish Bible traditions; minimal risk, consistent with the baseline’s Low rating for this doctrine.
Prophets and Prophecy as an Office
Polish name: urząd proroka i proroctwa
Key terms: prophet, prophecy
Review routing: Automated review
God’s spokespersons under the old covenant; standard, unambiguous term consistent with the baseline’s Low rating, distinct from the false-prophet warnings tracked separately at High risk.
Referenced passages