Core Glossary
Core Glossary: Joshua (Portuguese Language Package)
Curriculum: Joshua
Destination language: Portuguese
Core passage: Joshua 24:14-15
Generated: Phase 1, Step 1
Reuse policy: Every term already recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json is reused here with its exact rendering and risk tier. New terms introduced by Joshua are proposed for addition to translation memory in a later phase, using the same schema and risk framework.
Section A — Terms Reused Exactly from the Baseline Romans Translation Memory
| # | English term | Portuguese rendering | Doctrine (baseline) | Risk | Joshua occurrence(s) | Notes for Joshua context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | God | Deus | Deity of Christ | Critical | throughout | Reserved exclusively for YHWH/the true God; never for “elohim” when referring to foreign gods (see Section B). |
| 2 | Lord (title) | Senhor | Lordship of Christ | Critical | rare, Adonai sense only | Distinguished typographically from “SENHOR” = YHWH (see Section B, new convention). |
| 3 | faith | fé | Faith | High | 2:9-11 (Rahab, implicit); retrospectively Hebrews 11:31 | Applied by NT canon retrospectively to Rahab’s confession; base OT text uses “yada” (know/acknowledge), not an explicit faith-term — teaching notes must supply the canonical link. |
| 4 | covenant | aliança | Davidic Covenant / Covenant | High | 3:3,6,8,11,14; 7:11; 9:6-16; 23:16; 24 (throughout) | Used both of the divine-Israel covenant and of the secular Gibeonite treaty (ch.9) — same Portuguese word, context determines register. |
| 5 | holy / consecrate | santo / santificar-se | Sanctification | High | 3:5; 5:15; 7:13 | Ritual and moral set-apartness for divine encounter; reuse baseline caution against ritual-purity-only readings. |
| 6 | sanctification | santificação | Sanctification | High | 3:5 (hitqadeshu) | Same doctrine as baseline; Kardecist “gradual purification across lives” contrast remains directly relevant. |
| 7 | law | lei | Fulfillment of Prophecy / Law | High | 1:7-8; 8:31-35; 22:5; 23:6; 24:26 | The Mosaic Torah; recurring refrain “book of the law.” |
| 8 | obedience | obediência (root; “obediência da fé” pattern) | Obedience of Faith | High | 1:16-18 (“just as we obeyed Moses…”); refrain “as the LORD commanded Moses” throughout | Joshua’s obedience-refrain is the OT narrative ground for the NT’s “obediência da fé” category. |
| 9 | sin | pecado | Universal Human Accountability | Medium | 7:11, 7:20 (Achan) | Broader category than the more specific ma'al (see Section B). |
| 10 | election / choose (divine) | eleição | Effectual Calling | High | conceptually background to 24:15’s human “bachar/escolher” | Directional contrast noted: in Joshua 24, humans are commanded to choose; God’s own prior choosing of Israel is presupposed, not the verb in view — flag for teaching, not for lexical substitution. |
| 11 | servant | servo | (n/a in baseline; general usage) | Low | 1:1-2, 1:7 (Moses); 24:29 (Joshua) | Consistent, low-risk usage. |
| 12 | rest (general peace concept, cf. “paz”) | (see also new entry “descanso,” Section B) | Peace with God | Medium | contextually related to 21:44; 22:4; 23:1 | ”Paz” (baseline) and “descanso” (new) are related but distinct; do not conflate — “paz” is relational standing, “descanso” is the specific settled-inheritance/rest doctrine. |
Section B — New Terms Introduced by Joshua (Proposed Additions to Translation Memory)
| # | English term | Portuguese rendering | Original (Hebrew/Aramaic; LXX Greek gloss where relevant) | Transliteration | Doctrine | Risk | Alternatives rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | YHWH (the covenant name) | SENHOR (small caps/full caps per house style) | יְהוָה (LXX: Κύριος) | YHWH | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise; Covenant Renewal at Shechem | Critical | ”Senhor” (standard case, unmarked) | Must be typographically distinguished from “Senhor” (Adonai/master) and from generic “Deus,” per Almeida-tradition convention. Loss of this distinction is Critical because the core passage’s rhetorical force depends on repeated recognition of the specific covenant name. |
| 14 | gods (foreign/false, generic) | deuses (lowercase) | אֱלֹהִים (elohim, plural/generic use) (LXX: θεοί) | elohim | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | High | ”Deus” (capitalized, reserved for the true God) | Risk of visual/typographic collapse with “Deus”; also risk of readers mapping onto ancestral orixá veneration in Afro-Brazilian tradition — address directly rather than avoid. |
| 15 | devoted to destruction / the ban | destinado ao extermínio / consagrado à destruição | חֵרֶם (LXX: ἀνάθεμα) | cherem | Holy War and Divine Judgment | Critical | ”extermínio” (bare, unqualified); “limpeza étnica” (anachronistic modern political term) | Requires mandatory theologian review at every occurrence; must always be accompanied by explanatory framing distinguishing this unique, bounded, divinely commanded judgment from any transferable ethic of violence. Sharp collision risk with Brazil’s own colonial-violence history. |
| 16 | rest (in the land) | descanso / repouso | נוּחַ / מְנוּחָה (LXX: κατάπαυσις) | nuach / menuchah | Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest | Critical | ”descanso” used without qualification/teaching note | Direct collision risk with Kardecist “repouso do espírito” between incarnations and Afro-Brazilian ancestral-spirit “repouso” concepts. Must always be taught as the once-for-all, decisive settling in God’s promise, typologically fulfilled in Christ (cf. Hebrews 4), not an intermediate stage of an ongoing cycle. |
| 17 | inheritance | herança | נַחֲלָה (LXX: κληρονομία) | nachalah | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | High | ”propriedade” (flattens covenantal/relational sense to mere real estate) | Continuity with, but conceptual distinction from, the NT’s spiritualized inheritance language (Romans 8:17); avoid collapsing either into the other prematurely. |
| 18 | lot (casting of) | sorte (contextualized: “por sorteio”) | גּוֹרָל (LXX: κλῆρος) | goral | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | High | ”sorte” used unqualified (risks a chance/fate reading) | Parallel risk to baseline’s “providência” vs. “lei de causa e efeito” caution; every occurrence should imply/teach divine sovereignty behind the lot’s outcome (cf. Proverbs 16:33), not randomness. |
| 19 | avenger of blood | vingador do sangue | גֹּאֵל הַדָּם (LXX: ὁ ἀγχιστεύων τὸ αἷμα) | go’el ha-dam | Obedience and the Conquest (justice provisions) | High | any rendering using a “redenção/Redentor” root | Same Hebrew root (go’el) as “kinsman-redeemer” elsewhere in the OT; must be sharply distinguished in Portuguese from redemption/salvation vocabulary to avoid doctrinal confusion. |
| 20 | cities of refuge | cidades de refúgio | עָרֵי מִקְלָט (LXX: πόλεις φυγαδευτήρια) | arei miklat | Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest (typological) | Medium | none | Legitimate typological link to refuge in Christ must be marked as devotional extension, not textual assertion. |
| 21 | harlot (Rahab) | prostituta | זוֹנָה (LXX: πόρνη) | zonah | Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith | High | euphemisms (“hospedeira,” “estalajadeira”) | The term’s bluntness is deliberately retained by Scripture itself (Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25); softening blunts the doctrine of grace reaching the least likely candidate. |
| 22 | covenant kindness / “deal kindly” | benevolência / lealdade (contextual) | חֶסֶד (LXX: ἔλεος) | chesed | Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith | High | ”bondade” (too generic, loses covenantal weight) | Richest OT relational-loyalty term; no single Portuguese word fully captures it — teach with cross-reference to God’s own chesed toward Israel. |
| 23 | be strong and courageous | sê forte e corajoso | חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ (LXX: ἴσχυε καὶ ἀνδρίζου) | chazaq ve’amats | Courage through God’s Presence | Medium | ”tenha confiança” (secularizes; loses the causal grounding in God’s presence) | Must retain explicit grounding in “pois o SENHOR, teu Deus, é contigo” (1:9); not generic self-confidence coaching. |
| 24 | as the LORD commanded Moses | como o SENHOR ordenara a Moisés | כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה | ka’asher tsivvah YHWH et-Mosheh | Obedience and the Conquest | Medium | free paraphrase varying by chapter | Recurring structural refrain (15+ occurrences); consistency of rendering across all instances is required for the reader to perceive the deliberate refrain. |
| 25 | the LORD fought | o SENHOR lutou/combateu | יְהוָה נִלְחָם (LXX: κύριος ἐπολέμησεν) | YHWH nilcham | Holy War and Divine Judgment | High | any phrasing implying Israel’s army as the effective agent of victory | Must retain divine agency as decisive; guard against nationalist/militarist misapplication. |
| 26 | the LORD hardened their hearts | o SENHOR endureceu o seu coração | חִזַּק אֶת־לִבָּם (of kings, 11:20) | chizzeq et-libbam | Holy War and Divine Judgment / Providence | High | presenting as arbitrary/unjust without the text’s own judicial framing | Parallels Exodus-Pharaoh hardening motif; cross-reference Romans 9:17-18 (already High risk in baseline under providence/election). |
| 27 | choose (human covenant decision) | escolher | בָּחַר (LXX: αἱρέομαι) | bachar | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | High | framing as autonomous, uncaused self-determination | Response to God’s prior gracious acts (24:1-13), not independent moral achievement; guard against a merit-based misreading. |
| 28 | serve (cultic/covenantal) | servir | עָבַד (LXX: λατρεύω/δουλεύω) | avad | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | High | ”servir” read as generic helpfulness | Exclusive, total covenantal worship-allegiance; the chapter’s key verb (8 occurrences in 24:14-24). |
| 29 | fear (the LORD) | temer | יָרֵא (LXX: φοβέομαι) | yare | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | Medium | fear reduced to servile dread only | Reverential covenant-loyalty posture, always paired with “serve” in context. |
| 30 | sincerity and faithfulness | integridade e fidelidade | תָּמִים / אֱמֶת | tamim / emet | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | Medium | ”verdade” alone (intellectualizes into propositional truth) | Undivided, wholehearted, trustworthy devotion — not correct doctrine merely assented to. |
| 31 | put away (idols) | lançar fora / remover | סוּר (hiphil: hasir) | sur / hasir | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | Medium | ”deixar de lado” (too passive) | Decisive, active renunciation, not gradual de-prioritization. |
| 32 | ark of the covenant | arca da aliança | אֲרוֹן הַבְּרִית (LXX: ἡ κιβωτὸς τῆς διαθήκης) | aron ha-berit | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | Medium | none | Distinguish from “Arca de Noé” (different Hebrew word, tevah); footnote recommended. |
| 33 | commander of the LORD’s army | príncipe do exército do SENHOR | שַׂר־צְבָא־יְהוָה | sar-tseva-YHWH | Courage through God’s Presence (theophany caution) | High | asserting definite pre-incarnate Christ identification in the base text; using “encarnação” language of this figure | Momentary theophanic appearance; must not be confused with baseline’s Critical-risk encarnação doctrine. |
| 34 | treachery / sacrilegious appropriation | transgressão / ato de infidelidade | מַעַל (LXX: παρέβη) | ma’al | Holy War and Divine Judgment (Achan) | High | flattening to generic “pecado” | Specific sacrilege against what is devoted to God; involves corporate solidarity distinct from Romans’ individual-accountability emphasis. |
| 35 | witness (covenant) | testemunha | עֵד (LXX: μαρτύς) | ed | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | Medium | none | Standard ANE treaty-form term (historical prologue + stipulations + witnesses + sanctions); 24:22 and 24:27. |
| 36 | memorial | memorial | זִכָּרוֹן (LXX: μνημόσυνον) | zikkaron | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | Low | none | Pedagogical, historically anchored remembrance device (twelve stones, ch.4). |
| 37 | blessing / curse | bênção / maldição | בְּרָכָה / קְלָלָה | berakhah / qelalah | Obedience and the Conquest | Medium | impersonal fate-categories | Covenant-relational consequence categories, not magical or karmic causation. |
| 38 | reproach of Egypt | opróbrio do Egito | חֶרְפַּת מִצְרַיִם | cherpat Mitsrayim | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | Medium | forcing the Gilgal wordplay into the translated text | Wordplay (Gilgal = “roll”) preserved via footnote, not literal translation. |
| 39 | circumcision | circuncisão | מוּל | mul | Obedience and the Conquest | Medium | none | Covenant-identity sign; forward link to Romans 2:28-29. |
| 40 | cling to / hold fast | apegar-se | דָּבַק | davaq | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | Medium | mere procedural loyalty | Marital-covenant-intimacy register; warmth within formal register. |
| 41 | snare / trap | laço / armadilha | פַּח / מוֹקֵשׁ | pach / moqesh | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | Medium | over-abstraction losing concrete referents (intermarriage, idolatry) | Concrete social dangers must remain visible in teaching. |
| 42 | Amorites | amorreus | אֱמֹרִי | Emori | Covenant Renewal at Shechem | Low | none | Standard ethnonym transliteration. |
| 43 | border / territory | território / termo | גְּבוּל | gevul | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | Low | summarizing/abbreviating boundary lists | Specificity is part of the theological point (a fulfilled, itemized promise). |
| 44 | trumpets | trombetas | שׁוֹפָרוֹת | shofarot | Holy War and Divine Judgment | Low | none | Ritual/military signaling instrument. |
| 45 | shout | clamor / grito | תְּרוּעָה | teruah | Holy War and Divine Judgment | Medium | pure battlefield noise (losing liturgical resonance) | Victory-shout functions as worship-act, not mere tactic. |
| 46 | Valley of Achor | vale de Acor | עֵמֶק עָכוֹר | Emeq Akhor | Holy War and Divine Judgment | Low | none | Wordplay (akhar, “trouble”) noted via footnote. |
| 47 | sign / token | sinal | אוֹת | ot | Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith | Medium | inserting blood-atonement language not present in the Hebrew | Scarlet cord as covenantal token; Passover typology belongs in teaching notes, not base text. |
| 48 | meditate | meditar | הָגָה | hagah | Courage through God’s Presence | Low | over-intellectualized silent reflection only | Includes audible/murmured recitation in original practice. |
| 49 | prosper / succeed | prosperar | צָלַח / שָׂכַל | tsalach / sakal | Obedience and the Conquest | Medium | prosperity-gospel (health-and-wealth) framing | Anchored to obedience-to-Scripture, not an independent material-blessing promise. |
| 50 | cross over | atravessar / passar | עָבַר | avar | Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest | Medium | purely logistical/geographic reading | New-Exodus typological resonance (Jordan crossing echoing Red Sea). |
| 51 | the land | a terra | אֶרֶץ | eretz | God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise | Medium | premature spiritualization/metaphorization | Specific, bounded, historically promised territory; not generic geography. |
Section C — Risk Summary for Joshua-Specific Additions
| Risk Tier | Count (new terms, Section B) | Review routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 3 (SENHOR/YHWH convention; cherem; rest/descanso) | Human theologian, mandatory, every occurrence |
| High | 15 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 15 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 8 | Automated review |
| Total new terms | 41 | — |
Combined with Section A (15 reused baseline terms), this glossary documents 56 load-bearing terms spanning all 24 chapters of Joshua.
Section D — Chapters Confirmed as Introducing No New Theological Vocabulary
- Chapter 4: No new terms beyond Chapter 3’s
aron ha-berit/“arca da aliança” andYarden/“Jordão,” aside from the low-risk “memorial” (listed in Section B, #36). - Chapter 12: Summary catalogue; reuses
melekh(“king”),eretz(“terra”), andcherem-adjacent conquest vocabulary already fully treated in chapters 6, 8, 10-11. No new glossary entries required. - Chapter 21: Reuses
nachalah/“herança” (chs. 13-19) in an extended application (Levitical cities); no new glossary entry, only a deepening doctrinal note (the LORD himself as the Levites’ portion, per Numbers 18:20 background).
These chapters were fully reviewed per the full-book coverage mandate and are explicitly noted here rather than silently omitted.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Deus
Transliteration: Elohim (Hebrew); theos (Greek NT parallel)
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / The Divine Name and Exclusive Worship
Original: אֱלֹהִים
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. In Joshua, reserved exclusively for YHWH; never used, even lowercase, of foreign deities (see ‘foreign_gods’). Candomblé/Umbanda syncretism of orixás with Catholic saints makes strict reservation of ‘Deus’ for the true God pastorally important throughout the conquest and covenant-renewal narratives.
Lord
Approved rendering: Senhor
Transliteration: kyrios (Greek NT); cf. Adonai (Hebrew)
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Senhor apenas em sentido devocional, sem reivindicação de senhorio total
Inherited from Romans package. Joshua requires this ordinary-case rendering to remain visually and doctrinally distinct from the new ‘SENHOR’ (YHWH) entry below; see ‘lord_adonai’ for the Hebrew Adonai/master sense specific to this book.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvação
Transliteration: sōtēria (Greek NT)
Doctrine: Salvation / Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest
Rejected alternatives: evolução espiritual através de reencarnações sucessivas
Inherited from Romans package. Not a lexical feature of the Joshua Hebrew text itself, but essential cross-reference vocabulary: Joshua’s land-rest doctrine is named and taught as a historical type of this very Critical-risk category, and must never collapse into Kardecist gradual spiritual evolution across reincarnations.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: ressurreição
Transliteration: anastasis (Greek NT)
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: reencarnação
Inherited from Romans package. NEVER reencarnação. Not present as a lexical item in Joshua, but required cross-reference vocabulary for teaching the typological trajectory of ‘rest’ (Joshua to Hebrews 3-4) without allowing ‘descanso’ to be misread through a reincarnation-adjacent lens.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: encarnação
Transliteration: ho logos sarx egeneto (Greek NT, John 1:14)
Doctrine: Incarnation / Theophany and the Commander of the LORD’s Army
Rejected alternatives: encarnação como uma entre muitas vidas sucessivas de um espírito (sentido espírita)
Inherited from Romans package. CRITICAL EXTENSION FOR JOSHUA: this vocabulary must NEVER be used, in either direction, of the ‘commander of the LORD’s army’ theophany (Joshua 5:13-15). That momentary appearance must not be labeled ‘encarnação’ (which in Brazilian Portuguese is the everyday Kardecist term for a spirit’s routine embodiment across successive lives) — doing so in either an affirming or denying sense would create serious doctrinal confusion distinct from, but structurally identical to, the baseline’s core caution.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Filho de Deus
Transliteration: huios theou (Greek NT)
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ / Theophany and the Commander of the LORD’s Army
Rejected alternatives: filho de Deus no sentido genérico aplicado a todo crente
Inherited from Romans package. Relevant only as teaching-layer cross-reference for the traditional (patristic/typological) reading of the ‘commander of the LORD’s army’ (Joshua 5:13-15) as a possible christophany. This identification must never be asserted as textual certainty in the base translation itself, only noted as traditional reading in teaching materials.
Yhwh Covenant Name
Approved rendering: SENHOR
Transliteration: YHWH
Doctrine: The Divine Name and Exclusive Worship / God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Rejected alternatives: Senhor (ordinary case, collapses with Adonai/master), Jeová / Iavé (breaks with established Almeida-tradition typographic convention and isolates Joshua’s vocabulary from the rest of the curriculum)
Original: יְהוָה
Category: God
NEW TERM. Occurs roughly 200 times in Joshua, seven times in the core passage (24:14-15). Must be rendered in small caps/full caps per Almeida-tradition convention, typographically distinct from ordinary-case ‘Senhor.’ Flattening this distinction erases the reader’s ability to recognize the covenant-name pattern anchoring the land-promise and Shechem covenant-renewal doctrines. Mandatory validation check at every occurrence.
Cherem
Approved rendering: destinado ao extermínio / consagrado à destruição
Transliteration: cherem
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Rejected alternatives: extermínio (bare, unqualified), limpeza étnica (anachronistic modern political term)
Original: חֵרֶם
Category: Holy War and Judgment
NEW TERM. Highest-risk newly introduced term in this Language Package. Requires mandatory theologian review at every occurrence with standing teaching framing: (a) bounded within God’s unique judicial prerogative over entrenched covenant-breaking evil (Genesis 15:16), (b) a non-repeatable episode bound to that redemptive-historical moment, (c) never invoked to justify contemporary violence. Sharp collision risk with Brazil’s own colonial-violence history against indigenous peoples.
Rest
Approved rendering: descanso / repouso
Transliteration: nuach / menuchah
Doctrine: Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest
Rejected alternatives: descanso used without qualification/teaching note
Original: נוּחַ / מְנוּחָה
Category: Land Promise / Rest
NEW TERM. Direct collision risk with Kardecist ‘repouso do espírito’ between incarnations and Afro-Brazilian ancestral-spirit ‘repouso’ — mainstream, organized frameworks, not marginal folk notions. Must always be taught as God’s once-for-all, decisive historical settling of His people, typologically fulfilled in Christ’s finished salvation-rest (Hebrews 3-4), never an intermediate stage in an ongoing cycle. Mandatory theologian review at every occurrence (1:13,15; 21:44; 22:4; 23:1), matching the weight given ‘salvação’ and ‘ressurreição’ in the baseline.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: fé
Transliteration: pistis (Greek NT); cf. aman/emunah (Hebrew, not used of Rahab)
Doctrine: Faith / Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Rejected alternatives: convicção espírita, fé genérica em forças espirituais
Inherited from Romans package. Applied by NT canon (Hebrews 11:31) retrospectively to Rahab’s confession (Joshua 2:9-11), even though the Hebrew base text uses ‘yada’ (know/acknowledge), not an explicit faith-root word. Keep ‘fé’ strictly in the teaching layer for Joshua 2; base translation renders ‘eu sei,’ never ‘eu creio.’ See ‘faith_yada’ below.
Covenant
Approved rendering: aliança
Transliteration: diathēkē (Greek NT); berit (Hebrew)
Doctrine: Covenant / Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: contrato legal
Original: בְּרִית
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package. In Joshua the same Portuguese word covers both the divine Sinai/Shechem covenant and berit’s secular/political-treaty register (ch. 9, the Gibeonite treaty); teaching must clarify which sense is active in a given passage rather than introducing a separate lexical item.
Holy
Approved rendering: santo
Transliteration: hagios (Greek NT); qadash (Hebrew, hitpael hitqadeshu)
Doctrine: Sanctification / Sanctification and Consecration before Divine Encounter
Rejected alternatives: puro em sentido ritual
Inherited from Romans package (baseline risk tier for this book’s usage is elevated to High given repeated ritual-preparation contexts). Joshua 3:5, 5:15, 7:13 command ‘santificai-vos’ before specific historical divine acts; retain the relational/moral set-apartness sense, not a purely ritual-purity-only reading, and not the Kardecist doctrine of gradual purification across successive incarnations.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: santificação
Transliteration: hagiasmos (Greek NT); qadash root (Hebrew)
Doctrine: Sanctification and Consecration before Divine Encounter
Rejected alternatives: purificação cármica ao longo de reencarnações (leitura espírita)
Original: הִתְקַדָּשׁוּ (root קָדַשׁ)
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package. Joshua 3:5’s ‘hitqadeshu’ is Israel’s one-time, historically bounded moral-relational preparation for a specific divine act (the Jordan crossing), not an installment in an ongoing multi-life purification process.
Law
Approved rendering: lei
Transliteration: nomos (Greek NT); torah / sefer ha-torah (Hebrew)
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy / Obedience and the Conquest
Original: סֵפֶר הַתּוֹרָה / תּוֹרָה
Category: Covenant and Law
Inherited from Romans package. In Joshua, ‘o livro da lei’ (1:7-8; 8:31-35; 22:5; 23:6; 24:26) is the Mosaic Torah underlying the conquest’s obedience refrain; must not be read as a cosmic moral order or dharma-like principle.
Election
Approved rendering: eleição
Transliteration: eklogē (Greek NT); bachar (Hebrew, divine subject)
Doctrine: Effectual Calling / Divine Warfare and God as the True Combatant (background)
Rejected alternatives: mérito conquistado ao longo de reencarnações
Inherited from Romans package. Presupposed background to Joshua 24:15: God’s own prior sovereign choosing of Israel/the patriarchs is distinct from, though prior to, the human ‘choose’ Joshua commands in 24:15. Do not substitute this term for ‘choose’ below; teach the directional contrast instead.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: obediência da fé
Transliteration: hypakoē pisteōs (Greek NT)
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: cumprimento de preceitos religiosos, disciplina moral espírita de autoaperfeiçoamento
Inherited from Romans package. Joshua’s own obedience refrain (‘como o SENHOR ordenara a Moisés,’ see below) functions as the OT narrative ground for this NT category: obedience flowing from covenant relationship and a promise already graciously given (1:2-6 precedes 1:7-9), not works-based compliance or Kardecist ethical self-improvement across lifetimes.
Grace
Approved rendering: graça
Transliteration: charis (Greek NT)
Doctrine: Grace / Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Rejected alternatives: mérito espiritual acumulado ao longo de vidas sucessivas
Inherited from Romans package. Cross-referenced (not a lexical feature of the Joshua Hebrew text) when teaching Rahab’s inclusion and the Gibeonites’ treaty: both Catholic merit-oriented piety and Kardecist merit-across-lifetimes doctrine independently suggest inclusion must be earned; Joshua’s narrative logic of unearned inclusion by trust directly confronts both.
Providence
Approved rendering: providência
Transliteration: pronoia (Greek NT, cf. Romans 8:28)
Doctrine: Providence / Divine Hardening and Providence in Judgment / Inheritance and Providential Allotment
Rejected alternatives: lei de causa e efeito espírita (regência cármica das reencarnações)
Inherited from Romans package. Directly relevant cross-reference vocabulary for Joshua 11:20 (divine hardening) and the ‘goral’/lot allotment chapters (13-19): God’s personal, purposive governance must not be flattened into an impersonal karma-like mechanism, exactly the baseline’s caution, now extended to the sacred-lot and hardening texts.
Foreign Gods
Approved rendering: deuses
Transliteration: elohim (generic/plural use)
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem / The Divine Name and Exclusive Worship
Rejected alternatives: Deus (capitalized, reserved exclusively for the true God)
Original: אֱלֹהִים (elohim, generic/plural use)
Category: God
NEW TERM. Must be lowercase to prevent visual/typographic collapse with ‘Deus.’ Risks being mapped onto ancestral orixá veneration passed through family lines (Candomblé/Umbanda); the passage’s own logic — choose decisively, do not merely inherit ancestral religion — should be preached directly into that association, not softened around it.
The Lord Fought
Approved rendering: o SENHOR lutou / combateu
Transliteration: YHWH nilcham
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment / Divine Warfare and God as the True Combatant
Rejected alternatives: phrasing that foregrounds Israel’s army as the effective agent of victory
Original: יְהוָה נִלְחָם
Category: Holy War and Judgment
NEW TERM. Must retain divine agency as decisive; guard against nationalist or militarist appropriation, a live concern given Brazil’s own military-historical memory.
Divine Hardening
Approved rendering: o SENHOR endureceu o seu coração
Transliteration: chizzeq et-libbam
Doctrine: Divine Hardening and Providence in Judgment
Rejected alternatives: presenting as arbitrary/unjust without the text’s own judicial framing
Original: חִזַּק אֶת־לִבָּם
Category: Holy War and Judgment
NEW TERM. Joshua 11:20 parallels the Exodus-Pharaoh hardening motif later engaged by Romans 9:17-18 (already High risk in the baseline). Must retain the stated judicial frame (judgment on entrenched evil), not arbitrary predetermination, and must not be assimilated to the Kardecist ‘lei de causa e efeito’ as an impersonal mechanism.
Ma Al Treachery
Approved rendering: transgressão / ato de infidelidade
Transliteration: ma’al
Doctrine: Corporate Solidarity in Sin (Achan)
Rejected alternatives: pecado (flattens the sacrilege-specific and corporate-solidarity senses)
Original: מַעַל
Category: Sin
NEW TERM. Achan’s misappropriation of cherem-devoted goods is covenant treachery affecting the whole camp’s standing before YHWH — a corporate-solidarity structure distinct from Romans’ individual forensic-accountability emphasis; teach the distinction, do not collapse it.
Inheritance
Approved rendering: herança
Transliteration: nachalah
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise / Inheritance and Providential Allotment
Rejected alternatives: propriedade (flattens the covenantal/relational sense to mere real estate)
Original: נַחֲלָה
Category: Land Promise
NEW TERM. Must be taught in continuity with, but distinction from, the NT’s spiritualized inheritance language (Romans 8:17, Ephesians 1:11-14); must not be so quickly spiritualized in the base translation itself that the concrete, historical, land-specific meaning of chs. 13-21 is erased.
Lot
Approved rendering: sorte (por sorteio)
Transliteration: goral
Doctrine: Inheritance and Providential Allotment / God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Rejected alternatives: sorte used unqualified (invites a chance/fate reading)
Original: גּוֹרָל
Category: Land Promise
NEW TERM. Brazilian Portuguese ‘sorte’ carries strong luck/chance connotations reinforced by the cultural prevalence of games of chance and folk fatalism. Every occurrence must be anchored by teaching that the lot’s outcome is governed by YHWH’s sovereign will (cf. Proverbs 16:33), directly parallel to the baseline’s ‘providência’ vs. ‘lei de causa e efeito’ caution.
Avenger Of Blood
Approved rendering: vingador do sangue
Transliteration: go’el ha-dam
Doctrine: Cities of Refuge: Justice and Mercy
Rejected alternatives: any rendering using a redenção/Redentor root
Original: גֹּאֵל הַדָּם
Category: Justice
NEW TERM. The Hebrew root (go’el) elsewhere means ‘kinsman-redeemer’ (Ruth, Job 19:25). Any Portuguese rendering using ‘redenção/Redentor’ here would collapse a legal-avenger role into salvific redemption vocabulary, creating serious doctrinal confusion; keep sharply distinct from Christ’s redemptive work.
Harlot Rahab
Approved rendering: prostituta
Transliteration: zonah
Doctrine: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Rejected alternatives: hospedeira, estalajadeira (euphemisms)
Original: זוֹנָה
Category: Faith
NEW TERM. Rahab’s disreputable social status is retained without euphemism by the Hebrew text itself and by NT citations (Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25, Matthew 1:5). Softening the term blunts the doctrine of grace reaching the least likely candidate.
Chesed
Approved rendering: benevolência / lealdade
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Rejected alternatives: bondade (too generic; loses covenantal weight)
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Faith
NEW TERM. No single Portuguese word fully carries chesed’s covenantal-loyalty weight; teach with cross-reference to God’s own chesed toward Israel, showing that this Gentile outsider is drawn into the same covenant-shaped mercy.
Faith Yada
Approved rendering: fé (cross-referenced; base text: ‘eu sei’)
Transliteration: yada / yadati
Doctrine: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Rejected alternatives: eu creio (would falsely import explicit faith-vocabulary absent from the Hebrew)
Original: יָדַעְתִּי
Category: Faith
NEW TERM. Rahab’s confession (2:9-11) uses a knowledge-root (‘I know’), not a faith-root word; the doctrinal label ‘faith’ is a later canonical inference (Hebrews 11:31) that must be supplied only in the teaching layer, never inserted into the base translation.
Obedience
Approved rendering: obediência
Transliteration: shama’ (root of hearing/obeying)
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Original: שָׁמַע (root of obedience/hearing) — cf. refrain vocabulary throughout
Category: Obedience and Law
NEW TERM. Israel’s covenant obedience to Joshua, and through him to the LORD’s commands (1:16-18), is the OT narrative ground for the baseline’s ‘obediência da fé’ category.
Theophany Commander
Approved rendering: príncipe do exército do SENHOR
Transliteration: sar-tseva-YHWH
Doctrine: Theophany and the Commander of the LORD’s Army
Rejected alternatives: asserting definite pre-incarnate Christ identification in the base text, any use of encarnação-family vocabulary
Original: שַׂר־צְבָא־יְהוָה
Category: Theophany
NEW TERM. Joshua falls in worship before this figure (5:14). Present as a momentary theophanic appearance; traditional christophany reading belongs strictly in teaching notes. Never label with ‘encarnação’ terminology in either direction.
Choose
Approved rendering: escolher
Transliteration: bachar
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: framing as autonomous, uncaused self-determination
Original: בָּחַר
Category: Covenant Renewal
NEW TERM. The hinge-verb of the book’s climax (24:15). Must be taught as covenant response to God’s prior gracious acts (24:1-13), not independent moral achievement — guarding against a moralistic misreading unusually available given Brazil’s large religious self-help/individual-empowerment market.
Serve
Approved rendering: servir
Transliteration: avad
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: servir read as generic helpfulness or civic duty
Original: עָבַד
Category: Covenant Renewal
NEW TERM. The chapter’s key verb (eight occurrences in 24:14-24). Must retain the cultic-covenantal, exclusive-worship-allegiance sense so 24:15’s climax reads as total religious commitment, not a sentimental household motto or lifestyle preference.
Medium Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: pecado
Transliteration: hamartia (Greek NT); chata (Hebrew)
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability / Corporate Solidarity in Sin (Achan)
Rejected alternatives: erro a ser corrigido em vidas futuras (leitura espírita)
Original: חָטָא
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. In Joshua 7:11,20 (Achan), this broader category must be kept distinct from the more specific ‘ma_al_treachery’ term below, which carries the sacrilege-specific and corporate-solidarity dimensions Romans’ individual forensic-accountability framework does not foreground.
Peace
Approved rendering: paz
Transliteration: eirēnē (Greek NT)
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: tranquilidade emocional
Inherited from Romans package. Related to, but must not be conflated with, the new Joshua-specific ‘rest’ entry below: ‘paz’ names relational standing with God; ‘descanso/repouso’ names the specific historical land-rest doctrine. Do not interchange the two Portuguese terms.
Lord Adonai
Approved rendering: Senhor
Transliteration: Adonai / adon
Doctrine: The Divine Name and Exclusive Worship
Rejected alternatives: SENHOR (would falsely equate the ordinary master/lord sense with the personal covenant name)
Original: אֲדֹנָי / אָדוֹן
Category: God
NEW TERM. Rare in Joshua compared to YHWH. Rendered ordinary-case ‘Senhor,’ consistent with the baseline’s Christological ‘Senhor,’ but must remain visually and contextually distinguishable from ‘SENHOR’ (YHWH).
Shout
Approved rendering: clamor / grito
Transliteration: teruah
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Rejected alternatives: pure battlefield noise framing that loses liturgical resonance
Original: תְּרוּעָה
Category: Holy War and Judgment
NEW TERM. The Jericho shout functions as both battle-cry and worship-acclamation; victory is received through obedience, not achieved by tactic.
The Land
Approved rendering: a terra
Transliteration: eretz
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Rejected alternatives: premature spiritualization/metaphorization into a purely symbolic promise
Original: אֶרֶץ
Category: Land Promise
NEW TERM. Must retain definite covenantal specificity (‘a terra que jurei a Moisés,’ 1:3) rather than reading as generic geography, until Hebrews-style typological teaching is explicitly introduced in the teaching layer.
Cities Of Refuge
Approved rendering: cidades de refúgio
Transliteration: arei miklat
Doctrine: Cities of Refuge: Justice and Mercy
Original: עָרֵי מִקְלָט
Category: Justice
NEW TERM. Legal-theological provision protecting the unintentional manslayer from private vengeance. The typological ‘refuge in Christ’ link is a legitimate devotional application but must be marked as typological extension, not asserted as the text’s own claim.
Sign Token
Approved rendering: sinal
Transliteration: ot
Doctrine: Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Rejected alternatives: inserting blood-atonement language not present in the Hebrew
Original: אוֹת
Category: Faith
NEW TERM. The scarlet cord functions as a covenantal token guaranteeing deliverance. Any Passover-blood typological connection belongs in teaching notes, not the base translated text.
Be Strong And Courageous
Approved rendering: sê forte e corajoso
Transliteration: chazaq ve’amats
Doctrine: Courage through God’s Presence
Rejected alternatives: tenha confiança (secularizes; loses causal grounding in God’s presence)
Original: חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ
Category: Courage
NEW TERM. Must never be rendered as free-standing self-confidence coaching; must retain explicit causal grounding in ‘pois o SENHOR, teu Deus, é contigo’ (1:9), guarding against Brazilian neo-Pentecostal prosperity-gospel absorption.
Prosper
Approved rendering: prosperar
Transliteration: tsalach / sakal
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Rejected alternatives: prosperity-gospel (health-and-wealth) framing detached from obedience-to-Scripture
Original: צָלַח / שָׂכַל
Category: Obedience and Law
NEW TERM. Never let this term appear without its explicit textual anchor to obedience to the law (1:7-8); flag for native-speaker review whenever it appears in a stand-alone pull-quote.
As Lord Commanded Moses
Approved rendering: como o SENHOR ordenara a Moisés
Transliteration: ka’asher tsivvah YHWH et-Mosheh
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Rejected alternatives: free paraphrase varying by chapter
Original: כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֶת־מֹשֶׁה
Category: Obedience and Law
NEW TERM. Recurring structural refrain (15+ occurrences: chs. 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 14, etc.). Verbatim-pattern consistency is required so the reader perceives the deliberate refrain, exactly as required for Romans 8:28 and 10:9-10 in the baseline.
Cross Over
Approved rendering: atravessar / passar
Transliteration: avar
Doctrine: Rest in the Promised Land as a Type of Salvation Rest
Rejected alternatives: purely logistical/geographic reading
Original: עָבַר
Category: Land Promise / Typology
NEW TERM. The Jordan crossing (3:14-17; 4:22-23) is a new-Exodus act paralleling the Red Sea and prefiguring entry into rest; preserve this typological resonance.
Covenant Treaty Gibeon
Approved rendering: aliança
Transliteration: berit (secular/political register)
Doctrine: Covenant Treaty and Oath Integrity (the Gibeonites)
Original: בְּרִית (secular/political register)
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. The oath sworn to the Gibeonites under deception is honored anyway (9:19), an early instance of Gentile inclusion anticipating, but not to be conflated with, Rahab’s faith-based inclusion. Same Portuguese word as the divine covenant; clarify register contextually in teaching.
Ark Of Covenant
Approved rendering: arca da aliança
Transliteration: aron ha-berit
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Original: אֲרוֹן הַבְּרִית
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. Standard, well-established rendering across all Portuguese Bible traditions. Must not be confused colloquially with ‘Arca de Noé’ (Noah’s ark, a different Hebrew word, tevah); a footnote distinguishing the two is advisable.
Witness Covenant
Approved rendering: testemunha
Transliteration: ed
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: עֵד
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. Legal-forensic covenant witness (the assembled people, 24:22; the great stone, 24:27) within the Ancient Near Eastern treaty form (historical prologue + stipulations + witnesses + sanctions).
Blessing Curse
Approved rendering: bênção / maldição
Transliteration: berakhah / qelalah
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Rejected alternatives: impersonal fate-categories
Original: בְּרָכָה / קְלָלָה
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. Covenant-relational consequence categories read aloud at Shechem/Ebal (8:34), not magical or karmic causation — paralleling the baseline’s caution against ‘lei de causa e efeito’ readings of providence.
Circumcision
Approved rendering: circuncisão
Transliteration: mul
Doctrine: Circumcision and Covenant Identity Renewal
Original: מוּל
Category: Covenant
NEW TERM. Renewal of the Abrahamic covenant sign for the wilderness-born generation (ch. 5). Teach as covenant-identity marker, not mere hygienic ritual, with a forward link to Romans 2:28-29 reserved for the teaching layer.
Reproach Of Egypt
Approved rendering: opróbrio do Egito
Transliteration: cherpat Mitsrayim
Doctrine: Memorial and Historical Remembrance
Rejected alternatives: forcing the Gilgal wordplay into the translated text
Original: חֶרְפַּת מִצְרַיִם
Category: Historical Memory
NEW TERM. The Hebrew wordplay with ‘Gilgal’ (roll) is untranslatable directly into Portuguese; preserve via translator’s footnote.
Fear The Lord
Approved rendering: temer
Transliteration: yare’
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: fear reduced to servile dread only
Original: יָרֵא
Category: Covenant Renewal
NEW TERM. Always paired with ‘serve’ in 24:14; retain the compound sense of reverent, loyal awe producing obedience, not anxious dread.
Sincerity And Faithfulness
Approved rendering: integridade e fidelidade
Transliteration: tamim / emet
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: verdade alone (intellectualizes into propositional correctness)
Original: תָּמִים וֶאֱמֶת
Category: Covenant Renewal
NEW TERM. Undivided, wholehearted, trustworthy devotion demanded in 24:14 — the opposite of the syncretistic partial allegiance the chapter exposes.
Put Away Idols
Approved rendering: lançar fora / remover
Transliteration: sur / hasiru
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: deixar de lado (too passive; suggests de-prioritization rather than renunciation)
Original: סוּר (hiphil: הָסִירוּ)
Category: Covenant Renewal
NEW TERM. The decisive, active removal of ancestral and Egyptian idols commanded in 24:14; the imperative force must be retained.
Cling To
Approved rendering: apegar-se
Transliteration: davaq
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: mere procedural loyalty
Original: דָּבַק
Category: Covenant Renewal
NEW TERM. Strong relational-attachment verb (23:8), notably used of marital union (Genesis 2:24); should retain relational warmth, paralleling the baseline’s instruction for Romans 8’s ‘Abba, Pai’ material.
Snare Trap
Approved rendering: laço / armadilha
Transliteration: pach / moqesh
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Rejected alternatives: over-abstraction losing the concrete referents (intermarriage, idolatry)
Original: פַּח / מוֹקֵשׁ
Category: Covenant Renewal
NEW TERM. Hunting-trap imagery applied to the danger of intermarriage and syncretism with remaining Canaanite peoples (23:13).
Low Risk Terms
Gentiles
Approved rendering: gentios
Transliteration: ethnē (Greek NT)
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles / Rahab and the Inclusion of the Nations by Faith
Rejected alternatives: pagãos (pejorative)
Inherited from Romans package. Relevant cross-reference for Rahab (ch. 2) and the Gibeonites (ch. 9) as early, textually concrete instances of Gentile inclusion anticipating this doctrine’s fuller NT development.
Trumpets
Approved rendering: trombetas
Transliteration: shofarot
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment
Rejected alternatives: shofar (untranslated loanword; niche register inconsistent with target reading level)
Original: שׁוֹפָרוֹת
Category: Holy War and Judgment
NEW TERM. Standard functional term marking the Jericho conquest as a liturgical, worship-shaped act.
Valley Of Achor
Approved rendering: vale de Acor
Transliteration: Emeq Akhor
Doctrine: Holy War and Divine Judgment / Memorial and Historical Remembrance
Original: עֵמֶק עָכוֹר
Category: Holy War and Judgment
NEW TERM. Standard proper-name transliteration. The underlying Hebrew wordplay (‘akhar,’ to trouble) is untranslatable and should be preserved via footnote, not forced into the text.
Border Territory
Approved rendering: território / termo
Transliteration: gevul
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Rejected alternatives: summarizing/abbreviating the boundary lists
Original: גְּבוּל
Category: Land Promise
NEW TERM. The meticulous, chapter-length boundary lists (chs. 13-19) testify to fulfilled promise in concrete, verifiable, historical specificity; translators should resist abbreviating them.
Meditate
Approved rendering: meditar
Transliteration: hagah
Doctrine: Courage through God’s Presence
Original: הָגָה
Category: Obedience and Law
NEW TERM. Includes audible/murmured recitation in original practice, not only silent reflection.
Jordan
Approved rendering: Jordão
Transliteration: ha-Yarden
Doctrine: God’s Faithfulness to the Land Promise
Original: הַיַּרְדֵּן
Category: Land Promise / Geography
NEW TERM. Standard, unambiguous proper name across all Portuguese Bible traditions.
Memorial
Approved rendering: memorial
Transliteration: zikkaron
Doctrine: Memorial and Historical Remembrance
Original: זִכָּרוֹן
Category: Historical Memory
NEW TERM. The twelve memorial stones (ch. 4) function as a perpetual pedagogical witness to YHWH’s specific historical act, reinforcing that God’s faithfulness is historically grounded, not mythic.
Amorites
Approved rendering: amorreus
Transliteration: Emori
Doctrine: Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Original: אֱמֹרִי
Category: Geography and Proper Names
NEW TERM. Standard ethnonym transliteration, consistent across Portuguese Bible traditions.
Servant
Approved rendering: servo
Transliteration: eved
Doctrine: Obedience and the Conquest
Original: עֶבֶד
Category: Ministry
NEW TERM. Honorific covenantal title (‘Moses my servant,’ 1:1-2; also Joshua, 24:29), not a menial or degrading designation; anticipates NT usage of ‘servant of Christ.’
Referenced passages