Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Book of James (Tiago)
Portuguese Language Package Extension
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, covering James chapters 1-5 in full. Terms marked BASELINE REUSE carry their Portuguese rendering, risk tier, and doctrine assignment forward exactly from the existing Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and must not be altered. Terms marked NEW are proposed additions to the Language Package’s translation memory, pending the same theologian/native-speaker review routing the baseline establishes (Critical/High → human theologian; Medium → native speaker; Low → automated).
Risk tiers use the identical Critical/High/Medium/Low framework defined in the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json.
Table 1 — Terms Reused Exactly from the Romans Baseline
| English Term | Portuguese Rendering | Risk | Doctrine (baseline) | James Occurrences | Notes for James Curriculum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| faith | fé | High | Faith | 1:3, 1:6, 2:1, 2:5, 2:14-26 (repeatedly), 5:15 | Core term of “Faith and Works.” Must never be softened to generic belief; James 2:19 explicitly denies that bare intellectual assent (what even demons have) qualifies as saving fé. |
| grace | graça | High | Grace | 4:6 | Must not be read as reward for the “merit” of humility; contrast with Kardecist merit-across-lifetimes framework applies exactly as in baseline. |
| righteousness | justiça | Critical | Salvation | 1:20, 2:23 (via imputed_righteousness quotation), 3:18, 5:16 | Reused in “fruto da justiça” (3:18) and “justo” (5:16, δίκαιος word-family). |
| justification / justified | justificação / justificado | Critical | Salvation | 2:21, 2:24, 2:25 | Highest-stakes term in the James curriculum. Every occurrence in 2:14-26 requires the harmonizing translator/teaching note distinguishing James’s evidentiary/vindicating sense from Paul’s forensic sense (see 07_semantic_analysis.md Part A, vv.21/24). |
| imputed righteousness | justiça imputada | Critical | Justification by Faith | 2:23 (ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην — identical phrase to Romans 4:3) | James 2:23 quotes the exact Genesis 15:6 text the baseline already anchors; render identically to the Romans occurrence for cross-document consistency. |
| salvation / save | salvação / salvar | Critical | Salvation | 1:21, 2:14, 4:12 (implied), 5:15 (healing sense), 5:20 | 5:15’s healing sense (σώζω) must be distinguished in teaching from the eternal-salvation sense elsewhere; see Table 2, “heal (save)” entry. |
| sin | pecado | Medium | Universal Human Accountability | 1:15, 2:9, 4:17, 5:15, 5:16, 5:20 | Reused throughout; 5:15’s “if he has committed sins” must not be taught as implying all sickness is caused by specific personal sin. |
| law | lei | High | Fulfillment of Prophecy (baseline); Law and Liberty (James) | 1:25, 2:8-12, 4:11 | James’s compound phrases “lei da liberdade” (1:25, 2:12) and “lei real” (2:8) build on this reused base term; must not be rendered with a term suggesting dharma-like impersonal cosmic order. |
| Lord | Senhor | Critical | Lordship of Christ | 1:1, 1:7, 2:1, 4:10, 4:15, 5:4, 5:7-8, 5:10-11, 5:14-15 | ”Senhor da glória” (2:1), “Senhor dos Exércitos” (5:4), “se o Senhor quiser” (4:15). Exclusive, supreme lordship sense must be preserved in every occurrence. |
| God | Deus | Critical | Deity of Christ / Monotheism | throughout | Unchanged from baseline. |
| Father | Pai | Critical | Adoption into God’s Family | 1:17, 1:27, 3:9 | ”Pai das luzes” (1:17); “Deus e Pai” (1:27). |
| glory | glória | Medium | Deity of Christ | 2:1 | ”Senhor da glória.” |
| called / calling | chamado | High | Divine Calling | 2:7, 2:23 | 2:23’s “foi chamado amigo de Deus” is a descriptive title, not the technical soteriological calling of Romans 8; flag for consistency review but lower practical risk than baseline’s Romans occurrences. |
| election / chosen | eleição / escolher | High | Effectual Calling | 2:5 | ”Did not God choose the poor…?” — unconditioned divine choice; must not be read as merit-earned status. |
| kingdom of God | reino de Deus | Medium | Kingdom Mission | 2:5 | ”Herdeiros do reino que prometeu.” |
| mercy | — (see Table 2, NEW) | — | — | — | Not present in the Romans TM; added fresh in Table 2 given its centrality to James. |
| peace | paz | Medium | Peace with God | 2:16, 3:18 | 2:16’s use is ironic (hollow verbal blessing); 3:18 is the positive “fruit of righteousness sown in peace.” |
| prophet | profeta | Low | Inspiration of Scripture | 5:10 | Standard reuse; prophets as models of patient suffering. |
Table 2 — New Terms Introduced by James (Proposed Additions to Translation Memory)
| English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Portuguese Rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Key Passages | Alternatives Rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| works | ἔργα (erga) | obras | High | Faith and Works | 2:14-26 | ”méritos” (merit, too strongly implies earning) | Collides with Tridentine meritorious-works and Kardecist merit-across-lifetimes (“caridade” accumulated over reincarnations) frameworks. Must be taught as the fruit/evidence of faith, never its ground. |
| trial / temptation | πειρασμός (peirasmos) | prova (external trial) / tentação (internal enticement) | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:2, 1:12-14 | ”carma” or any karma-adjacent gloss | Collision with Kardecist “provas e expiações” doctrine of karmic trials across reincarnations. Same word covers two senses in Greek; Portuguese requires context-sensitive disambiguation. |
| testing (genuineness) | δοκίμιον (dokimion) | prova / comprovação | Medium | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:3 | — | Proving process/result of genuine faith. |
| endurance / patience | ὑπομονή (hypomonē) | perseverança (primary) / paciência | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith; Patience and the Lord’s Return | 1:3-4, 1:12, 5:11 | ”resignação” (implies passive fatalism) | Must convey active, hope-filled perseverance, distinguished from Kardecist “resignação” to karmic process. |
| patience (awaiting the Lord) | μακροθυμέω (makrothymeō) | paciência / ser paciente | High | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:7-8 | ”resignação” | Distinct term-family from ὑπομονή; specifically patience oriented to Christ’s future, personal return. |
| perfect / mature / complete | τέλειος (teleios) | perfeito / maduro / completo | High | Trials and the Testing of Faith; Wisdom from Above | 1:4, 1:17, 1:25, 3:2 | ”perfeição cármica” | Collision with gradual, multi-life moral perfection in Kardecist doctrine; James’s teleios is Spirit-enabled maturity attainable in this life. |
| wisdom | σοφία (sophia) | sabedoria | High | Wisdom from Above | 1:5, 3:13-17 | ”sabedoria espírita,” “conhecimento oculto” | Must be tied explicitly to God the Father as sole source (1:5, 17), given via prayer, not mediumistic channeling. |
| wisdom from above | σοφία ἄνωθεν (sophia anōthen) | sabedoria do alto | HIGH | Wisdom from Above | 3:17 | ”sabedoria dos espíritos guias/mentores” | See baseline holy_spirit caution; direct parallel risk. |
| earthly / unspiritual / demonic (wisdom) | ἐπίγειος / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης | terrena / da alma (carnal) / demoníaca | CRITICAL | Wisdom from Above | 3:15 | ”sabedoria natural neutra” | ψυχική (“of the soul”) is especially hazardous given Kardecist “alma”-centered cosmology; must not be read as benign. |
| doubt / waver | διακρίνομαι (diakrinomai) | duvidar / vacilar | Medium | Wisdom from Above | 1:6 | — | Distinguish from διακρίνω (favoritism sense, 2:4) and from δίψυχος. |
| double-minded | δίψυχος (dipsychos) | de espírito duvidoso / instável | CRITICAL | Trials and the Testing of Faith; Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 1:8, 4:8 | ”de duas almas” (too literal; risks affirming a literal second indwelling entity) | Literal “two-souled/two-spirited.” Distinctive, high-severity Brazilian collision with Kardecist/Umbanda concepts of spirit attachment (“obsessão,” “encosto”). Requires standing clarifying note at every occurrence. |
| poor | πτωχός (ptōchos) | pobre | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | 1:9, 2:2-6 | — | Anchors social-justice content; avoid reducing to purely socio-political program divorced from the letter’s theological grounding (God’s electing choice, 2:5). |
| rich | πλούσιος (plousios) | rico | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | 1:10-11, 2:2-6, 5:1-6 | — | Frequently associated with pride and coming judgment. |
| blessed | μακάριος (makarios) | bem-aventurado / feliz | Low | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:12 | — | — |
| crown of life | στέφανος τῆς ζωῆς (stephanos tēs zōēs) | coroa da vida | Medium | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:12 | — | Eschatological reward imagery; decisive, once-given, not incrementally earned across lives. |
| desire / lust | ἐπιθυμία (epithymia) | desejo / concupiscência | Medium | Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:14-15 | — | Internal origin of sin; birth-metaphor for sin’s “offspring” (death). |
| brought forth / gave birth (regeneration) | ἀπεκύησεν (apekyēsen) | gerou-nos / deu-nos à luz | HIGH | Wisdom from Above (source of the “word of truth”) | 1:18 | any phrase implying repeated or cyclical birth | Must be taught as a single, decisive, once-for-all spiritual begetting, not a stage in a cycle of embodiments. |
| firstfruits | ἀπαρχή (aparchē) | primícias | Low | — | 1:18 | — | — |
| implanted word | ἔμφυτος λόγος (emphytos logos) | palavra implantada | Medium | Wisdom from Above | 1:21 | — | Connect to “soul” caution at 5:20 (“able to save your souls”). |
| religion | θρησκεία (thrēskeia) | religião | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor (pure religion redefined as active mercy) | 1:26-27 | — | Resist merely institutional/ritual readings dominant in Luso-Brazilian usage. |
| law of liberty | νόμος τῆς ἐλευθερίας (nomos tēs eleutherias) | lei da liberdade | Medium | Faith and Works (implicit); ethical law generally | 1:25, 2:12 | ”liberdade” alone (risks purely socio-political reading) | Liberating fulfillment of the law, not antinomian license nor a purely liberationist-political “liberdade.” |
| favoritism / partiality | προσωπολημψία (prosōpolēmpsia) | parcialidade (primary) / acepção de pessoas (Almeida-traditional) | High | Favoritism and the Poor | 2:1, 2:9 | — | Direct social weight given Brazil’s history of racial/socioeconomic stratification; parallels baseline’s unity_of_jews_and_gentiles (High). |
| royal law | νόμος βασιλικός (nomos basilikos) | lei real | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor | 2:8 | — | The love-command as supreme summary of the law. |
| mercy | ἔλεος (eleos) | misericórdia | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor; Confession and Restoration | 2:13, 3:17 | — | Ties treatment of the poor and merciless directly to eschatological accountability (2:13). |
| tongue | γλῶσσα (glōssa) | língua | High | Taming the Tongue | 3:1-12 | — | Distinguish the singular organ/everyday-speech sense from the plural charismatic gift of “línguas” (glossolalia) prominent in Brazilian Pentecostalism. |
| fire / hell (Gehenna) | πῦρ / γέεννα (pyr / geenna) | fogo / inferno (footnote: geena) | Medium | Taming the Tongue | 3:6 | — | Genuinely infernal source of corrupt speech, not merely figurative. |
| wisdom from above / demonic wisdom (see also above) | σοφία ἄνωθεν / δαιμονιώδης | sabedoria do alto / demoníaca | CRITICAL | Wisdom from Above | 3:15-17 | — | See fuller entry above. |
| demons | δαιμόνια (daimonia) | demônios | CRITICAL | Faith and Works | 2:19 | ”espíritos atrasados” (Kardecist term implying eventual redeemability) | New Critical term unparalleled in Romans baseline. Kardecism denies a fixed class of eternally condemned evil spirits; James assumes real, personal, currently hostile spirits with correct belief but no saving hope. |
| devil | διάβολος (diabolos) | diabo | HIGH | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:7 | ”energia negativa,” “espírito atrasado” | Assumes a real, personal, resistible spiritual enemy — contra Kardecist reinterpretation as symbolic or as one of many evolving spirits. |
| friendship with the world | φιλία τοῦ κόσμου (philia tou kosmou) | amizade com o mundo | High | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:4 | — | Ultimate loyalty/love, not mere social contact; contrasted with “amigo de Deus” (2:23). |
| adulteresses (covenant-unfaithfulness metaphor) | μοιχαλίδες (moichalides) | adúlteros / adúlteras | Medium | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:4 | — | Prophetic covenant-fidelity metaphor; risk of overly literal reading. |
| submit / resist (the devil) | ὑποτάγητε / ἀνθίστημι | submetei-vos / resisti | Low | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:7 | — | — |
| vapor / mist | ἀτμίς (atmis) | vapor / fumaça | Low | Patience and the Lord’s Return (implicit humility about the future) | 4:14 | — | — |
| coming (parousia) | παρουσία (parousia) | vinda (footnote: parousia) | HIGH | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:7-8 | ”evolução espiritual contínua” | Specific, personal, bodily, historical future event — not a symbolic or gradual “coming.” |
| Lord of hosts | κύριος Σαβαώθ (kyrios Sabaōth) | Senhor dos Exércitos | Medium | Favoritism and the Poor (vindication of the oppressed) | 5:4 | — | Transliterated Hebrew title retained in Greek; BASELINE Senhor applies. |
| swear / oath | ὀμνύω (omnyō) | jurar | Medium | Taming the Tongue | 5:12 | — | Point is integrity of ordinary speech; note debated scope regarding formal legal oaths. |
| elders | πρεσβύτεροι (presbyteroi) | anciãos (primary) / presbíteros | High | Prayer and Healing | 5:14 | ”sacerdotes/padres” | Recognized congregational leaders, not a sacramental priesthood with exclusive mediating authority. |
| anoint (with oil) | ἀλείφω / ἔλαιον (aleiphō / elaion) | ungir / óleo | CRITICAL | Prayer and Healing | 5:14 | — | Collides simultaneously with Catholic sacramental Anointing of the Sick, Pentecostal near-sacramental oil practice, and Umbanda/Candomblé ritual oil use. Requires explicit three-way distinguishing note. |
| prayer of faith | εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως (euchē tēs pisteōs) | a oração da fé | High | Prayer and Healing | 5:15 | — | Not a guaranteed mechanism; not “cura espiritual” mediated by an entity/medium. |
| heal / save (physical) | σώζω / ἰάομαι (sōzō / iaomai) | salvar/curar (saúde) / ser curado | CRITICAL | Prayer and Healing | 5:15-16 | — | Distinguish sharply from the eternal-salvation sense of salvação; avoid prosperity-gospel guarantee framing and Kardecist/Umbanda “cura espiritual” conflation. |
| raise up | ἐγείρω (egeirō) | levantar | Medium | Prayer and Healing | 5:15 | — | Restoration to health in this life; distinguish from ressurreição (baseline, Critical). |
| confess | ἐξομολογέω (exomologeō) | confessar | CRITICAL | Confession and Restoration | 5:16 | — | Mutual, horizontal confession among believers, not sacramental confession to a priest. Standing translator/teaching note required at every occurrence. |
| effective (prayer) | ἐνεργουμένη (energoumenē) | eficaz | Medium | Prayer and Healing | 5:16 | — | — |
| turn back / convert (restore a straying believer) | ἐπιστρέφω (epistrephō) | converter / restaurar | Medium | Confession and Restoration | 5:19-20 | — | Restoration of a straying believer, distinct from initial conversion. |
| soul | ψυχή (psychē) | alma | CRITICAL | Confession and Restoration | 5:20 (also 1:21) | “espírito em evolução” | The single most anthropologically loaded term in Brazilian Portuguese given Kardecist cosmology; requires the same weight of caution as baseline resurrection/salvation. |
| death (spiritual) | θάνατος (thanatos) | morte | Medium | Confession and Restoration | 1:15, 5:20 | — | Echoes 1:15’s sin-to-death progression. |
| cover (a multitude of sins) | καλύπτω (kalyptō) | cobrir | Medium | Confession and Restoration | 5:20 | — | Gracious result of restoration, not a human meritorious work. |
| servant | δοῦλος (doulos) | servo | Low | — | 1:1 | — | — |
| dispersion | διασπορά (diaspora) | dispersão | Low | — | 1:1 | — | — |
| teacher | διδάσκαλος (didaskalos) | mestre | Low | Taming the Tongue | 3:1 | — | — |
| judge / lawgiver | κριτής / νομοθέτης | juiz / legislador | Low | Worldliness vs. Friendship with God | 4:11-12 | — | — |
| arrogance / boasting | ἀλαζονεία (alazoneia) | arrogância / soberba | Low | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 4:16 | — | — |
| Job | Ἰώβ (Iōb) | Jó | Low | Patience and the Lord’s Return | 5:11 | — | Standard proper name. |
| Elijah | Ἠλίας (Ēlias) | Elias | Low | Prayer and Healing | 5:17-18 | — | Standard established form; consistent with baseline proper-name conventions (Davi, Moisés, Isaías). |
Table 3 — Doctrine-to-Term Cross-Reference (James curriculum)
| Doctrine | Primary Passages | Load-Bearing Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Faith and Works | 2:14-26 | fé, obras, justificação, justiça imputada, salvar, morta, demônios |
| Trials and the Testing of Faith | 1:2-4, 1:12-15 | prova, tentação, perseverança, perfeito, bem-aventurado, coroa da vida, desejo, pecado |
| Wisdom from Above | 1:5-8, 3:13-18 | sabedoria, sabedoria do alto, terrena/da alma/demoníaca, duvidar, de espírito duvidoso |
| Favoritism and the Poor | 1:9-11, 1:26-27, 2:1-13, 5:1-6 | parcialidade, pobre, rico, lei real, misericórdia, religião, Senhor dos Exércitos |
| Taming the Tongue | 3:1-12, 4:11, 5:12 | língua, fogo/inferno, domar, jurar, falar mal |
| Worldliness versus Friendship with God | 4:1-17 | amizade com o mundo, adúlteros, diabo, submetei-vos, graça, humilhai-vos |
| Prayer and Healing | 5:13-18 | anciãos, ungir, óleo, oração da fé, salvar/curar, levantar, eficaz, Elias |
| Patience and the Lord’s Return | 1:12, 5:7-11 | perseverança, paciência, vinda (parousia), exemplo, Jó |
| Confession and Restoration | 5:16, 5:19-20 | confessar, curado, converter/restaurar, alma, morte, cobrir |
Review Routing Summary (per baseline convention)
| Risk Tier | Count (new + reused occurrences flagged for James) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 11 (obras* borderline High/Critical treated as High below; justificação, justiça imputada, salvação/salvar, demônios, δίψυχος, ψυχική/δαιμονιώδης wisdom, ungir/óleo, salvar/curar physical, confessar, alma, Senhor, Deus, Pai — baseline Criticals reused) | Human theologian |
| High | obras, prova/tentação, perseverança, paciência, sabedoria, sabedoria do alto, gerou-nos, língua, diabo, amizade com o mundo, vinda (parousia), anciãos, oração da fé, ser curado, elders-adjacent terms, parcialidade, fé, graça, lei | Human theologian |
| Medium | crown of life, desejo, palavra implantada, religião, lei da liberdade, royal law, mercy/misericórdia, fire/hell, adulteresses, Lord of hosts, oath, raise up, effective prayer, converter/restaurar, death, cover sins, poor, rich | Native speaker review |
| Low | servant, dispersion, teacher, judge/lawgiver, boasting, Job, Elijah, blessed, doer/hearer, mirror | Automated review |
*Note: “obras” (works) is assigned High rather than Critical to align with the baseline’s calibration (Critical reserved for core Christological/soteriological titles and forensic terms such as justificação, salvação, righteousness); however, its combination with justificação in 2:14-26 elevates the passage (not the isolated term) to mandatory theologian review in every instance, per the escalation rule already established in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
This glossary extends the baseline Romans translation memory for the James curriculum. All baseline-reused terms (Table 1) must be enforced exactly as recorded in translation_memory.json. All new terms (Table 2) are proposed for addition to translation memory prior to Phase 2 segment translation, with risk-appropriate review routing as summarized above. See analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md for the full verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter argumentation behind each entry.
Critical Risk Terms
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justiça
Transliteration: dikaiosynē
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: mérito conquistado por esforço moral próprio
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (justiça, Critical). Appears in James in ‘fruto da justiça’ (3:18, the peaceable result sown by peacemakers) and the δίκαιος word-family (5:16, ‘a oração do justo’). Must not collapse into dutiful conduct or moral achievement in either context.
Justification
Approved rendering: justificação
Transliteration: dikaiōsis / edikaiōthē / dikaioutai
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: progresso espiritual gradual, vindicação puramente social sem base na graça
Original: δικαιόω
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (justificação, Critical) and REQUIRED for cross-document consistency with Romans, but James 2:21, 2:24, 2:25 use the term in an evidentiary/vindicating sense (a faith already present is publicly shown/proved genuine), not Paul’s forensic declaration sense. This is the single highest-stakes translation decision in the James curriculum. Every occurrence in 2:14-26 REQUIRES a harmonizing translator/teaching note distinguishing James’s sense from Paul’s, explicitly foreclosing both a Tridentine meritorious-works reading and the Kardecist maxim ‘fora da caridade não há salvação’ (merit accumulated across reincarnations).
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: justiça imputada
Transliteration: elogisthē autō eis dikaiosynēn
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: justiça conquistada por mérito próprio ao longo de vidas sucessivas, justiça infundida (categoria tridentina)
Original: ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (justiça imputada, Critical). James 2:23 quotes the identical Greek phrase behind the Romans 4:3 anchor (Genesis 15:6). MUST be rendered identically to the Romans occurrence. Teaching must make clear James is citing back to this prior crediting-by-faith, not describing a later, works-based justification superseding it.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvação / salvar
Transliteration: sōtēria / sōzō
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: evolução espiritual através de reencarnações sucessivas
Original: σῴζω / σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package (salvação, Critical). James also uses σῴζω in a physical-healing sense (5:15) alongside its eternal sense (1:21, 2:14, 4:12). The healing sense MUST be clearly distinguished in teaching from the eternal sense; see new term ‘heal_save_physical’ below for the dedicated Critical-risk healing entry.
Lord
Approved rendering: Senhor
Transliteration: kyrios
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Senhor apenas em sentido devocional, sem reivindicação de senhorio total
Inherited from Romans package (Senhor, Critical). Occurs throughout James (1:1, 1:7, 2:1, 4:10, 4:15, 5:4, 5:7-8, 5:10-11, 5:14-15) including in the compound titles ‘Senhor da glória’ (2:1) and ‘Senhor dos Exércitos’ (5:4). Exclusive, supreme lordship sense must be preserved in every occurrence.
God
Approved rendering: Deus
Transliteration: theos
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package (Deus, Critical). Unchanged for James. Pastoral awareness note carried forward regarding Afro-Brazilian syncretism of orixás with Catholic saints remains relevant background.
Father
Approved rendering: Pai
Transliteration: patēr
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Inherited from Romans package (Pai, Critical). Occurs in James at 1:17 (‘Pai das luzes’), 1:27 (‘Deus e Pai’), and 3:9. See new compound entry ‘father_of_lights’ below.
Demons
Approved rendering: demônios
Transliteration: daimonia
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: espíritos atrasados (Kardecist term implying eventual redeemability)
Original: δαιμόνια
Category: Faith and Works
NEW CRITICAL TERM, unparalleled in the Romans baseline. Kardecist Spiritism explicitly denies a fixed class of eternally condemned evil spirits, teaching instead that all spirits, however ‘atrasados’ (backward), remain capable of eventual moral progress; Candomblé/Umbanda likewise frame spiritual beings as morally ambiguous or ritually workable entities (‘exus,’ ‘encantados’). James 2:19’s point — demônios hold correct monotheistic belief yet have no saving relationship and no hope — must be taught with explicit contrast to both frameworks at every occurrence.
Double Minded
Approved rendering: de espírito duvidoso / instável
Transliteration: dipsychos
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Rejected alternatives: de duas almas (too literal; risks affirming a literal second indwelling entity)
Original: δίψυχος
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW CRITICAL TERM, unparalleled in the Romans baseline. Literally ‘two-souled/two-spirited.’ The traditional Portuguese rendering explicitly retains ‘espírito.’ This lies dangerously close to mainstream Kardecist/Umbanda concepts of ‘obsessão espiritual’ or ‘encosto’ (a person influenced or inhabited by another discarnate spirit). James’s term describes ONE person’s internally divided loyalty and volition, never a literal second indwelling spirit. Requires an explicit clarifying note at every occurrence (1:8, 4:8).
Earthly Demonic Wisdom
Approved rendering: terrena / da alma (carnal) / demoníaca
Transliteration: epigeios / psychikē / daimoniōdēs
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Rejected alternatives: sabedoria natural neutra
Original: ἐπίγειος / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW CRITICAL TERM. A tri-part negative contrast to wisdom from above (James 3:14-16). The middle term (‘da alma,’ from ψυχή) is especially hazardous in Brazilian Portuguese, where a soul-derived category of wisdom could be heard as validating any wisdom attributed to ‘espíritos’ (souls of the departed) as at least benign, when James places it in a negative triad alongside ‘terrena’ and ‘demoníaca.’ Must be taught as exposing a source hostile to God, evidenced by envy, strife, and disorder.
Lord Of Glory
Approved rendering: Senhor da glória
Transliteration: kyrios tēs doxēs
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: κύριος τῆς δόξης
Category: Christology
NEW compound combining baseline Critical ‘Senhor’ and Medium ‘glória.’ James 2:1. Identifies Jesus with the very glory/presence of God, establishing the incongruity of showing favoritism while professing faith in the glorious, exalted Christ.
Anoint
Approved rendering: ungir
Transliteration: aleiphō / elaion
Doctrine: Anointing with Oil
Original: ἀλείφω / ἔλαιον
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW CRITICAL TERM. James 5:14. This verse sits at the intersection of three live Brazilian religious frameworks: (1) the Roman Catholic sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick (‘Unção dos Enfermos’), administered exclusively by an ordained priest; (2) widespread Pentecostal/Charismatic near-sacramental use of anointing oil; (3) Umbanda/Candomblé ritual use of consecrated oils in healing/spiritual-cleansing rites. James’s instruction is a simple, congregational, prayer-centered, faith-conditioned act, not a guaranteed or mechanically effective ritual reserved to an ordained mediator. Requires an explicit three-way distinguishing note at every occurrence.
Heal Save Physical
Approved rendering: salvará (a saúde) / será curado
Transliteration: sōzō
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: σῴζω
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW CRITICAL TERM. James 5:15. Physical restoration to health through the prayer of faith, using the same verb as the letter’s soteriological ‘save.’ Portuguese ‘salvar,’ like σῴζω, covers both senses. An unclarified rendering risks (a) implying physical healing is guaranteed for every believing prayer, and (b) conflating this healing with the Critical-risk soteriological ‘salvação’ term. A clarifying gloss is REQUIRED at first occurrence.
Confess
Approved rendering: confessar
Transliteration: exomologeō
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἐξομολογέω
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW CRITICAL TERM. James 5:16. Mutual, horizontal confession of sins among believers (‘uns aos outros’), for the purpose of prayer and healing. Direct, high-visibility collision with the Roman Catholic sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation, made privately to an ordained priest who alone pronounces absolution. James commands mutual confession among believers generally, with no priestly intermediary in view. Every occurrence requires an explicit note that this is not equivalent to sacramental auricular confession.
Soul
Approved rendering: alma
Transliteration: psychē
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Rejected alternatives: espírito em evolução
Original: ψυχή
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW CRITICAL TERM. James 5:20 (also 1:21). The whole person’s life, viewed as the object of rescue from death — NOT a technical statement about a discarnate, evolving spiritual entity. ‘Alma’ is arguably the single most loaded anthropological term in Brazilian Portuguese, given Kardecism’s entire cosmology being built around the ‘alma’/‘espírito’ as an eternal, pre-existent, progressively evolving entity passing through successive bodily incarnations. Must be taught as concerning the rescue of a straying believer’s whole life/person, secured through Christ, not the soul’s multi-life journey. Same class of collision as baseline resurrection/salvation, now at the anthropological level.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: fé
Transliteration: pistis
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: convicção espírita, confiança na própria evolução espiritual
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith and Works
Inherited from Romans package (fé, High). James 2:19 sharpens the baseline caution: even demônios ‘crêem’ in bare monotheistic fact without saving trust. Teaching must keep this bare-assent sense (crer) distinct from the personal, saving fé James commends elsewhere in the letter, especially across 2:14-26.
Grace
Approved rendering: graça
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: mérito espiritual acumulado ao longo de vidas sucessivas
Original: χάρις
Category: Grace
Inherited from Romans package (graça, High). James 4:6, citing Proverbs 3:34 (‘Deus dá graça aos humildes’), must not be read as a reward for the ‘merit’ of humility itself, nor collapsed into the Kardecist merit-across-lifetimes framework the baseline already excludes.
Law
Approved rendering: lei
Transliteration: nomos
Doctrine: Law and Ethics
Original: νόμος
Category: Law and Ethics
Inherited from Romans package (lei, High). James builds two compound phrases on this base: ‘lei da liberdade’ (1:25, 2:12) and ‘lei real’ (2:8). Must not be rendered with a term suggesting a dharma-like impersonal cosmic order.
Calling
Approved rendering: chamado
Transliteration: klēsis
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: vocação (narrow sense of a call to priesthood or religious life)
Inherited from Romans package (chamado, High). James 2:7 references ‘o bom nome que foi invocado sobre vós’ — the name of Christ called over believers. Retain ‘chamado’-family vocabulary; avoid ‘vocação,’ which narrows to priesthood/religious life in Luso-Brazilian usage.
Election
Approved rendering: eleição
Transliteration: eklogē / eklegomai
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: mérito conquistado ao longo de reencarnações
Inherited from Romans package (eleição, High). James 2:5’s verb form ‘escolher’ (‘Não escolheu Deus os pobres…?’) corresponds to this baseline noun family. See dedicated new entry ‘election_of_the_poor’ for James’s specific application.
Works
Approved rendering: obras
Transliteration: erga
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: méritos (implies earning too strongly)
Original: ἔργα
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. Collides directly with (a) the Tridentine Catholic category of meritorious works contributing to justification and (b) the Kardecist doctrine that a spirit’s ‘obras de caridade’ accumulate merit across successive reincarnations toward salvação/evolução espiritual. Must be taught as the fruit and evidence of a faith already given by grace, never as the ground of standing before God. Central to James 2:14-26.
Dead Faith
Approved rendering: morta
Transliteration: nekra
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: fraca (weak, too soft), incompleta (incomplete, too soft)
Original: νεκρά
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. Describes a professed faith that produces no works (James 2:17, 2:26). Must not be softened to ‘fraca’ or ‘incompleta,’ which would imply a merely deficient faith rather than James’s stronger claim that such ‘faith’ is wholly inoperative — essential for resisting a faith-plus-merit misreading among Catholic and Kardecist-influenced readers alike.
Faith Works Cooperation
Approved rendering: cooperava / atuava junto
Transliteration: synērgei
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: trabalhava em conjunto para produzir a justificação (implies synergistic ground of justification)
NEW. James 2:22: faith ‘worked together with’ Abraham’s works — cooperation, not two independent causes of the same effect. A poor rendering could imply faith and works are equal partners jointly producing justification, functionally restating a synergistic soteriology. Must be paired with the same harmonizing note required for ‘justificação.‘
Faith Perfected
Approved rendering: foi aperfeiçoada
Transliteration: eteleiōthē
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Rejected alternatives: foi criada (was created — implies works generate faith), atingiu a perfeição cármica
Original: ἐτελειώθη
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:22: faith ‘was brought to completeness/maturity’ through works, not created by them. Must not be rendered as ‘foi criada.’ Parallels the baseline’s sanctification caution against the Kardecist doctrine of gradual moral perfection achieved by a spirit’s own effort, potentially across lives.
Trial Temptation
Approved rendering: prova / tentação
Transliteration: peirasmos
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: carma ou qualquer glosa relacionada ao carma
Original: πειρασμός
Category: Trials and Testing of Faith
NEW. Same Greek word covers external trial (1:2-4, 1:12, rendered ‘prova’) and internal enticement to sin (1:13-14, rendered ‘tentação’); Portuguese requires context-sensitive disambiguation at every occurrence. Collision with Kardecist ‘provas e expiações,’ the doctrine that hardships atone for faults from past incarnations. James’s trials produce a specific, non-repeating maturity within this life through a personal God, not karmic progress across lives.
Endurance Perseverance
Approved rendering: perseverança
Transliteration: hypomonē
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: resignação (implies passive fatalism)
Original: ὑπομονή
Category: Trials and Testing of Faith
NEW. James 1:3-4, 1:12. Active, hopeful perseverance under pressure, not passive resignation. Must be distinguished from the Kardecist virtue of ‘resignação,’ a passive, fatalistic acceptance of suffering as karmic payment.
Patience Awaiting Lord
Approved rendering: paciência
Transliteration: makrothymeō
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Rejected alternatives: resignação
Original: μακροθυμέω
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW. James 5:7-8. Distinct term-family from hypomonē; patience specifically oriented toward waiting for the Lord’s coming, modeled on a farmer awaiting harvest. Must convey expectant hope fixed on a specific, personal, future event, not passive endurance within an indefinite karmic cycle.
Teleios Maturity
Approved rendering: perfeito / maduro / completo
Transliteration: teleios
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Rejected alternatives: perfeição cármica
Original: τέλειος
Category: Trials and Testing of Faith
NEW. James 1:4, 1:17, 1:25, 3:2. Moral/spiritual maturity, not sinless perfectionism. Collides with the Kardecist doctrine of gradual moral perfection (‘aperfeiçoamento espiritual’) achieved incrementally across successive reincarnations. James’s teleios describes Spirit-enabled maturity attainable within this present life.
Wisdom
Approved rendering: sabedoria
Transliteration: sophia
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Rejected alternatives: sabedoria espírita, conhecimento oculto
Original: σοφία
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW. James 1:5, 3:13-17. Practical, God-given skill for righteous living, not mere cleverness or esoteric/occult knowledge. Must be tied explicitly to God the Father as sole source (1:5, 17), received through prayer, not mediumistic channeling.
Wisdom From Above
Approved rendering: sabedoria do alto
Transliteration: sophia anōthen
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Rejected alternatives: sabedoria dos espíritos guias/mentores
Original: σοφία ἄνωθεν
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW. James 3:17. Wisdom whose source is heavenly/divine, contrasted with wisdom that is merely human or worse. Must be sharply distinguished from claims to special spiritual insight mediated by ‘espíritos guias,’ Kardecist psicografia, or Candomblé/Umbanda channeled counsel from orixás/entities, paralleling the baseline’s Holy Spirit caution.
New Birth
Approved rendering: gerou-nos / deu-nos à luz
Transliteration: apekyēsen
Doctrine: Regeneration and the New Birth
Rejected alternatives: qualquer frase que implique nascimento repetido ou cíclico
Original: ἀπεκύησεν
Category: Regeneration
NEW. James 1:18. A vivid maternal-birth metaphor for God bringing forth believers through ‘a palavra da verdade’ — a decisive, one-time act. In a culture where ‘nascer de novo’ already sits in tension with the world’s largest self-identified Spiritist population, this must be taught as a single, decisive, once-for-all spiritual begetting, not a stage in a cycle of embodiments.
Favoritism
Approved rendering: parcialidade
Transliteration: prosōpolēmpsia
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Rejected alternatives: acepção de pessoas (Almeida-traditional; acceptable secondary form for teaching contexts, not a rejection)
Original: προσωπολημψία
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW. James 2:1, 2:9. Judging by external appearance or status rather than character. Brazil’s own history of entrenched racial and socioeconomic stratification, rooted in the largest slaveholding system in the Americas, gives this term direct, unavoidable social weight, paralleling the baseline’s treatment of unity_of_jews_and_gentiles. Must not be domesticated into a vague etiquette concern.
Election Of The Poor
Approved rendering: escolher
Transliteration: eklegomai
Doctrine: Divine Election of the Poor
Rejected alternatives: mérito conquistado ao longo de reencarnações
Original: ἐκλέγομαι
Category: Divine Calling
NEW verb form corresponding to the baseline noun family ‘eleição.’ James 2:5: ‘Não escolheu Deus os pobres…?’ God’s unconditioned, sovereign choice; must not be read through a merit-based lens implying the poor ‘earn’ divine favor.
Tongue
Approved rendering: língua
Transliteration: glōssa
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: γλῶσσα
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW. James 3:1-12. The singular organ of speech, personified as a small member with disproportionate destructive power. Brazilian Pentecostalism gives major doctrinal prominence to ‘o dom de línguas’ (plural, charismatic gift of glossolalia); the singular, everyday-speech sense of James 3 must never be confused with this technical, plural doctrinal category.
Friendship With World
Approved rendering: amizade com o mundo
Transliteration: philia tou kosmou
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: φιλία τοῦ κόσμου
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:4. Deep, chosen alignment of loyalty and affection with values opposed to God, not merely social contact with unbelievers. Must be taught as ultimate loyalty and love, not physical withdrawal from society, and contrasted explicitly with 2:23’s ‘amigo de Deus.’ Ensure identical Portuguese phrasing across all lesson materials given the doctrine’s centrality.
Devil
Approved rendering: diabo
Transliteration: diabolos
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Rejected alternatives: energia negativa, espírito atrasado
Original: διάβολος
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:7. The personal, singular adversary of God and humanity; a real, specific, resistible enemy who ‘flees’ when resisted. Kardecist doctrine denies a personal, singular, eternally opposed Satan figure, reinterpreting ‘the devil’ as a symbol for humanity’s lower moral tendencies or as one of many ‘espíritos atrasados’ capable of eventual redemption. This assumption must be taught explicitly, not left implicit.
Parousia
Approved rendering: vinda
Transliteration: parousia
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Rejected alternatives: evolução espiritual contínua
Original: παρουσία
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW. James 5:7-8. Christ’s promised, visible, personal, future return — a decisive, one-time historical event. Render as ‘vinda’ with footnoted transliteration ‘(parousia)’ at first occurrence per curriculum document. In a religious landscape shaped by Kardecism’s doctrine of the spirit’s ongoing, gradual evolution without any single decisive future divine intervention, this must be taught as a specific, personal, bodily, historical return of Christ.
Elders
Approved rendering: anciãos
Transliteration: presbyteroi
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Rejected alternatives: sacerdotes / padres (drifts toward exclusive sacramental clerical office), presbíteros (more formal cognate, secondary acceptable form)
Original: πρεσβύτεροι
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW. James 5:14. Recognized, functional pastoral leaders of the local congregation, called to pray over and anoint the sick. Risk of conflation with the Catholic ordained priesthood, which in popular understanding holds unique sacramental authority. James’s elders are recognized congregational leaders, not sacramentally ordained mediators with exclusive healing/absolving power.
Prayer Of Faith
Approved rendering: a oração da fé
Transliteration: euchē tēs pisteōs
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW. James 5:15. Prayer offered in genuine trust in God, the instrument through which the Lord acts to heal. Must not be taught as a guarantee mechanism (‘name it and claim it,’ a live risk in parts of Brazilian Pentecostalism) nor assimilated to Kardecist/Umbanda ‘cura espiritual’ practices attributing efficacy to a medium’s or entity’s power.
Heal Relational
Approved rendering: ser curado / ser sarado
Transliteration: iaomai
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἰάομαι
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW. James 5:16. Healing resulting from mutual confession and prayer within the community. Shares the healing-related cautions of σῴζω regarding faith-healing overreading and Kardecist/Umbanda ‘cura espiritual’ conflation.
Spirit Life Breath
Approved rendering: espírito
Transliteration: pneuma
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: πνεῦμα
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:26. Breath, wind, the animating life-principle of the body used analogically (‘o corpo sem o espírito é morto’) — not the Holy Spirit and not a technical statement about the soul’s nature. Although minor and non-technical, ‘espírito’ is extremely loaded in Brazilian Portuguese given its centrality to Kardecist anthropology (every person IS fundamentally an ‘espírito’ temporarily incarnated). A brief clarifying note is recommended so this is not read as affirming the Kardecist body/spirit dualism framework.
Medium Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: pecado
Transliteration: hamartia
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: erro a ser corrigido em vidas futuras (leitura espírita)
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package (pecado, Medium). James 5:15’s ‘se houver cometido pecados’ must not be taught as implying all sickness is caused by specific personal sin, a reading uncomfortably close to the Kardecist ‘lei de causa e efeito’ karmic causation framework the baseline flags under providence.
Glory
Approved rendering: glória
Transliteration: doxa
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Inherited from Romans package (glória, Medium). James 2:1 uses the compound title ‘Senhor da glória,’ which elevates the practical review requirement of that specific occurrence to Critical (see ‘lord_of_glory’ entry).
Called
Approved rendering: chamado
Transliteration: klētos / eklēthē
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: convocado (bureaucratic register)
Inherited from Romans package (chamado, Medium-High context-dependent). James 2:23’s ‘foi chamado amigo de Deus’ is a descriptive title (Abraham’s relational status), not the technical soteriological calling of Romans 8. Flag for cross-document consistency review but treat as lower practical risk than the Romans occurrences.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: reino de Deus
Transliteration: basileia tou theou
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Inherited from Romans package (reino de Deus, Medium). James 2:5 refers to the ‘reino que prometeu aos que o amam,’ inherited by the poor believer as heir.
Peace
Approved rendering: paz
Transliteration: eirēnē
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: tranquilidade emocional
Inherited from Romans package (paz, Medium). James 2:16 uses the term ironically (a hollow verbal blessing, ‘vá em paz,’ substituting for concrete help); James 3:18 uses it positively (‘fruto da justiça semeado em paz’). Irony must survive translation at 2:16.
Friend Of God
Approved rendering: amigo de Deus
Transliteration: philos theou
Doctrine: Faith and Works
Original: φίλος θεοῦ
Category: Faith and Works
NEW. James 2:23. The relational outcome of Abraham’s faith-and-obedience; covenantal intimacy and loyalty with God. Should be taught in explicit contrast with 4:4’s negative counterpart, ‘amizade com o mundo.‘
Testing Genuineness
Approved rendering: prova / comprovação
Transliteration: dokimion
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: δοκίμιον
Category: Trials and Testing of Faith
NEW. James 1:3. The proving process itself, or its proven result (genuineness of faith). Should convey the proving of authentic faith, not a karmic purification process.
Doubt Waver
Approved rendering: duvidar / vacilar
Transliteration: diakrinomai
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: διακρίνομαι
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW. James 1:6. To be divided in judgment, to waver in asking God for wisdom. Distinguish from the related transitive verb διακρίνω (favoritism sense, 2:4) and from δίψυχος.
Implanted Word
Approved rendering: palavra implantada
Transliteration: emphytos logos
Doctrine: Regeneration and the New Birth
Original: ἔμφυτος λόγος
Category: Regeneration
NEW. James 1:21. The gospel word received and taking root internally, able to save the soul. Connect to the ‘soul’ caution at 5:20 when teaching this verse.
Pure Religion
Approved rendering: religião
Transliteration: thrēskeia
Doctrine: True Religion and Pure Devotion
Original: θρησκεία
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW. James 1:26-27. ‘Religião’ strongly connotes institutional, ritual, or denominational identity in Luso-Brazilian culture (católico, evangélico, espírita, umbandista as social categories) rather than a lived ethic. James’s redefinition as active mercy toward orphans/widows and moral purity must resist any merely institutional or ritual reading, regardless of tradition.
Law Of Liberty
Approved rendering: lei da liberdade
Transliteration: nomos teleios tēs eleutherias
Doctrine: Law and Ethics
Rejected alternatives: liberdade sozinha (risks a purely socio-political reading)
Original: νόμος τέλειος τῆς ἐλευθερίας
Category: Law and Ethics
NEW compound built on baseline ‘lei.’ James 1:25, 2:12. The moral law in its fulfilled, liberating gospel form. Must not be read as license (antinomianism) nor collapsed into a purely socio-political ‘liberdade,’ a live risk given contemporary liberationist theological currents in some Brazilian churches.
Royal Law
Approved rendering: lei real
Transliteration: nomos basilikos
Doctrine: Law and Ethics
Original: νόμος βασιλικός
Category: Law and Ethics
NEW compound built on baseline ‘lei.’ James 2:8. The love-command understood as supreme among the commandments, summarizing the whole law.
Mercy
Approved rendering: misericórdia
Transliteration: eleos
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Favoritism and the Poor
NEW. James 2:13, 3:17. Active compassion shown to those in need or distress; the standard God applies in judgment to the merciless. Ties treatment of the poor directly to eschatological accountability.
Fire Hell
Approved rendering: fogo / inferno
Transliteration: pyr / geenna
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: πῦρ / γέεννα
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW. James 3:6. Literal fire; Gehenna as the NT designation for the place of final judgment. A footnoted transliteration ‘geena’ is recommended for precision. James intends a genuinely infernal source for corrupt speech, not merely figurative destructive potential.
Fruit Of Righteousness
Approved rendering: fruto da justiça
Transliteration: karpos dikaiosynēs
Doctrine: Wisdom from Above
Original: καρπὸς δικαιοσύνης
Category: Wisdom from Above
NEW compound built on baseline ‘justiça.’ James 3:18. The peaceable result sown by peacemakers; recalls the baseline’s peace/righteousness pairing.
Adulteresses Metaphor
Approved rendering: adúlteros / adúlteras
Transliteration: moichalides
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: μοιχαλίδες
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:4. Feminine plural echoing OT prophetic marriage-covenant imagery for covenant unfaithfulness to God. Risk of being read too literally as a marital-infidelity accusation rather than as prophetic covenant-unfaithfulness imagery; a brief clarifying note is advisable.
If Lord Wills
Approved rendering: se o Senhor quiser
Transliteration: ean ho kyrios thelēsē
Doctrine: Providence
Original: ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ
Category: Providence
NEW compound built on baseline ‘Senhor.’ James 4:15. A conditional formula of submission to God’s sovereign will over one’s plans. Echoes the baseline’s providence caution against a ‘lei de causa e efeito’ (karmic law of cause and effect) reading of God’s governance.
Lord Of Hosts
Approved rendering: Senhor dos Exércitos
Transliteration: kyrios Sabaōth
Doctrine: Favoritism and the Poor
Original: κύριος Σαβαώθ
Category: Christology
NEW compound built on baseline ‘Senhor,’ following established Almeida-tradition practice of translating ‘Sabaoth’ as ‘dos Exércitos.’ James 5:4. Emphasizes God’s sovereign power to vindicate the oppressed.
Oath
Approved rendering: jurar
Transliteration: omnyō
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: ὀμνύω
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW. James 5:12. Prohibition of oaths as guarantees of truthfulness. Culturally resonant given common Brazilian oath-expressions (‘juro por Deus’); teaching should clarify the point is integrity of ordinary speech, not necessarily a blanket prohibition on formal legal oaths, a debated point across Christian traditions.
Raise Up
Approved rendering: levantará
Transliteration: egeirō
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: ἐγείρω
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW. James 5:15. To raise the sick from a sickbed to restored health. Shares a verb family with ‘ressurreição’ (baseline, Critical, NEVER ‘reencarnação’); must be distinguished contextually as restoration to health in this life, not resurrection from death.
Effective Prayer
Approved rendering: eficaz
Transliteration: energoumenē
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: ἐνεργουμένη
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW. James 5:16. Describes prayer’s genuine efficacy when offered by a righteous person, illustrated by Elijah. Standard usage grounding confidence in prayer’s real effect.
Turn Back Convert
Approved rendering: converter / restaurar
Transliteration: epistrephō
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: ἐπιστρέφω
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW. James 5:19-20. The restorative return of a straying believer to the right path, through another believer’s intervention. Should be distinguished from initial conversion (first coming to faith).
Death Spiritual
Approved rendering: morte
Transliteration: thanatos
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: θάνατος
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW. James 1:15, 5:20. Spiritual/eternal death as the consequence of unrepentant straying. The negative outcome from which restoration rescues the wandering believer.
Cover Sins
Approved rendering: cobrirá
Transliteration: kalyptō
Doctrine: Confession and Restoration
Original: καλύπτω
Category: Confession and Restoration
NEW. James 5:20. The gracious result of successful restoration; sins are ‘covered,’ echoing Proverbs 10:12 and Psalm 32:1. Should not be read as a human work that itself atones for sin.
Desire Lust
Approved rendering: desejo / concupiscência
Transliteration: epithymia
Doctrine: Sin, Temptation, and Death
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Sin
NEW. James 1:14-15. Disordered desire that, personified via a birth metaphor, conceives and gives birth to sin. The internal, personal origin of sin, not an external karmic or fate-driven cause.
Crown Of Life
Approved rendering: coroa da vida
Transliteration: stephanos tēs zōēs
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: στέφανος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Trials and Testing of Faith
NEW. James 1:12. Eschatological reward imagery (victor’s wreath), promised to the one who endures trial out of love for God. Should be taught as a decisive, once-given eschatological reward secured by Christ, not a status incrementally earned across a series of lives.
Father Of Lights
Approved rendering: Pai das luzes
Transliteration: patēr tōn phōtōn
Doctrine: God
Original: πατὴρ τῶν φώτων
Category: God
NEW compound built on baseline ‘Pai’ (Critical). James 1:17. A title for God as Creator and source of every good, unchanging gift, in contrast to shifting created lights.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: profeta
Transliteration: prophētēs
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: médium (channeler of spirit messages)
Inherited from Romans package (profeta, Low). James 5:10 holds up the prophets as models of patient suffering. Not a Kardecist medium channeling messages from discarnate spirits.
Tame
Approved rendering: domar
Transliteration: damazō
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: δαμάζω
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW. James 3:7-8. Standard usage; low doctrinal risk.
Bless Curse
Approved rendering: bendizer / maldizer
Transliteration: eulogeō / kataraomai
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: εὐλογέω / καταράομαι
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW. James 3:9-10. Low doctrinal ambiguity beyond standard usage.
Draw Near
Approved rendering: aproximai-vos
Transliteration: eggizō
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: ἐγγίζω
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:8. Relational nearness to God, reciprocal. Standard usage; low risk.
Vapor Mist
Approved rendering: vapor / fumaça
Transliteration: atmis
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: ἀτμίς
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW. James 4:14. Metaphor for the brevity and insubstantiality of human life/plans. Standard metaphor; low risk.
Blessed
Approved rendering: bem-aventurado / feliz
Transliteration: makarios
Doctrine: Trials and the Testing of Faith
Original: μακάριος
Category: Trials and Testing of Faith
NEW. James 1:12. Divine commendation and flourishing, not mere emotional happiness. Standard usage; low risk.
Servant
Approved rendering: servo
Transliteration: doulos
Doctrine: Church
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Church
NEW. James 1:1. Bondservant; James identifies himself by total submission to God and Christ. Standard, unambiguous term.
Dispersion
Approved rendering: dispersão
Transliteration: diaspora
Doctrine: Church
Original: διασπορά
Category: Church
NEW. James 1:1. Believers scattered among the nations. Standard term; low risk.
Teacher
Approved rendering: mestre
Transliteration: didaskalos
Doctrine: Taming the Tongue
Original: διδάσκαλος
Category: Taming the Tongue
NEW. James 3:1. A recognized instructional office, carrying greater accountability. Standard term; low risk.
Judge Lawgiver
Approved rendering: juiz / legislador
Transliteration: kritēs / nomothetēs
Doctrine: Worldliness versus Friendship with God
Original: κριτής / νομοθέτης
Category: Worldliness
NEW. James 4:11-12. Titles proper to God alone, grounding the prohibition on slandering a fellow believer. Standard usage; low risk.
Arrogance Boasting
Approved rendering: arrogância / soberba
Transliteration: alazoneia
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: ἀλαζονεία
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW. James 4:16. Empty, self-exalting speech about the future, opposed to humble submission to God’s will. Standard usage; low risk.
Job
Approved rendering: Jó
Transliteration: Iōb
Doctrine: Patience and the Lord’s Return
Original: Ἰώβ
Category: Patience and the Lord’s Return
NEW. James 5:11. The Old Testament figure held up as the paradigm of endurance rewarded. Standard established proper name.
Elijah
Approved rendering: Elias
Transliteration: Ēlias
Doctrine: Prayer and Healing
Original: Ἠλίας
Category: Prayer and Healing
NEW. James 5:17-18. The Old Testament prophet illustrating the principle that a righteous person’s prayer is powerfully effective. Standard established form, consistent with baseline conventions (Davi, Moisés, Isaías).
Referenced passages