Executive Summary: Ezekiel Portuguese Language Package

Why it matters

Ezekiel is being translated into Portuguese for a market — overwhelmingly Brazilian — that is home to the world’s largest self-identified Spiritist population, plus large Afro-Brazilian Candomblé/Umbanda and folk-Catholic communities and a fast-growing Evangelical/Pentecostal majority within Protestantism. Ezekiel’s core passage (37:1-14, the valley of dry bones) and its doctrine of individual responsibility (ch. 18) sit closer to, and in sharper direct tension with, mainstream Kardecist doctrine (reincarnation, karmic self-purification) than almost any other passage in the wider curriculum. This is not a fringe-belief risk profile like most language packages in this pipeline — it is a live, textually codified, organized rival theology held or culturally influential for tens of millions of readers.

Key findings

• Zero low-risk doctrines. Unlike the Romans baseline (4 automated-only doctrines), Ezekiel’s doctrine risk registry assigns Critical: 5, High: 13, Medium: 7, Low: 0 — every one of the 25 doctrines tabulated requires at minimum native speaker review; 18 require mandatory human theologian review.
• 43 new Ezekiel-specific terms were added to the extended bible_term_registry.json, of which 13 are Critical risk and 16 are High risk — 29 terms (67% of all new entries) require theologian-level enforcement, on top of 19 inherited baseline Romans terms already carrying Critical/High status (lord, god, holy_spirit, glory, resurrection, sanctification, grace, salvation, righteousness, covenant, law).
• A wholly new typographic convention (SENHOR / Senhor DEUS for the ~400+ occurrences of the Tetragrammaton and ~217 occurrences of its compound title) had no precedent in the Romans-only baseline and must now be enforced with zero exceptions across 48 chapters.
• The single highest-value doctrinal contrast in the entire two-curriculum pipeline is Ezekiel 37:1-14 itself: a one-time, definitive, same-body restoration versus Kardecism’s cyclical reincarnation into new, unrelated bodies. This contrast must never be left implicit when the passage is taught.
• A distinctly Brazilian syncretism unique to this book: the home-grown new religious movement Vale do Amanhecer has popularly reinterpreted Ezekiel 1’s throne-chariot vision as extraterrestrial contact — a risk absent from Romans entirely.

Risks

• Critical: Ezekiel 37 (dry bones) and Ezekiel 18/33 (individual responsibility) read as compatible with reincarnation or karmic multi-life accountability if teaching notes are omitted or diluted.
• Critical: Any lapse in Tetragrammaton typographic discipline (reverting to lowercase “senhor” or generic “Deus”) anywhere in 48 chapters erodes the cumulative rhetorical force underlying “The Glory and Sovereignty of God.”
• High: “A mão do SENHOR” (hand of the LORD) and Ezekiel’s ecstatic prophetic experiences risk assimilation to mainstream Kardecist/Umbanda mediumistic trance and incorporação if not explicitly fenced.
• High: “Vigia” must never regress to the more literal-sounding “sentinela,” which collides with the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ publication “A Sentinela.”
• High: “Pastor” (David-shepherd language, chs. 34/37) risks anachronistic flattening to the everyday contemporary Evangelical clergy title, losing its messianic trajectory.
• Medium: Low Old Testament literacy among culturally Christian Brazilian readers (covenant, exile, divided monarchy, temple background) requires more scaffolding than the Romans baseline needed.

Opportunities

• Ezekiel’s vivid, embodied prophetic genre (sign-acts, throne-vision, dry bones, temple architecture) offers unusually strong teaching material for directly confronting — rather than merely avoiding — Brazil’s most consequential rival religious framework, turning a translation risk into a discipleship opportunity.
• The book’s own recognition formula (“e sabereis/saberão que eu sou o SENHOR,” 70+ occurrences) and its presence-departing-and-returning narrative arc (chs. 1, 8-11, 43, 48) give the curriculum a built-in, repeatable teaching hook for God’s personal sovereignty against impersonal karmic/“lei de causa e efeito” framings.
• Full reuse of the baseline Romans glossary (aliança, santo, pecado, justiça, Espírito Santo, Israel, Davi, reino de Deus, profeta/profecia, gentios) preserves cross-curriculum vocabulary consistency for learners moving between the two books.

Recommended actions

1. Load the Ezekiel-extended translation_memory.json (81 total entries: 19 inherited + 62 new) before any Phase 2 segment processing begins; never partially load inherited or new sets.
2. Route all 18 Critical/High doctrines and all Critical/High terms to mandatory human theologian review per assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json and the extended bible_term_registry.json; route the remaining 7 Medium doctrines to native speaker review. Zero doctrines qualify for automated-only review in this book.
3. Enforce the non-negotiable Tetragrammaton convention (SENHOR / Senhor DEUS) and the standing anti-reincarnation translator’s note at every Ezekiel 37 and Ezekiel 18 occurrence, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md v1.28.
4. Budget theologian review capacity above Romans-baseline levels: Ezekiel’s risk profile (0 automated-only doctrines vs. Romans’ 4) implies a materially higher per-segment human-review load for this book.