1 Peter → Punjabi: Phase 1 Executive Summary

Why it matters

Punjab’s Bible translation tradition already carries one live syncretism risk into every Christian document written for it: ਮੁਕਤੀ (mukti) is also the Sikh word for liberation from rebirth. 1 Peter multiplies that single inherited risk into a cluster of five, because its core theology — new birth, suffering, priesthood, eldership, and Christ’s disputed proclamation to “spirits in prison” — sits directly on top of Punjab’s most emotionally resonant devotional vocabulary (rebirth, dukkha, Sant authority, Amrit Sanskar, Guru Granth Sahib liturgy). Getting this curriculum’s terminology right is not a stylistic preference; it is the difference between teaching the resurrection-grounded hope of 1 Peter 1:3-9 and accidentally teaching a Punjabi reader that they’ve already heard this from their own tradition.

Key findings

• 32 doctrines mapped across all 5 chapters of 1 Peter, anchored in the core passage (1 Peter 1:3-9); no chapter or verse-range was silently skipped — sections contributing no new vocabulary (e.g., 3:8-12, 4:1, 5:13) are explicitly logged as reviewed.
• 106 glossary terms now sit in translation_memory.json: 29 terms inherited exactly from the Romans baseline (God, Jesus, salvation, faith, righteousness, grace, resurrection, etc.) plus 77 new terms this book introduces for the first time.
• 7 Critical-tier doctrines — The Living Hope of the Resurrection, Regeneration/New Birth, Resurrection of Christ, Salvation, Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake, Christ’s Substitutionary Suffering, and Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits — concentrate in chapters 1 and 3, 1 Peter’s dual theological center of gravity.
• The single largest NEW risk this book adds beyond the Romans baseline is ਦੁੱਖ (suffering): an ordinary, unavoidable Punjabi word that is simultaneously the master category of Hindu/Sikh/Buddhist religious anthropology (dukkha). No vocabulary substitute exists; the risk must be managed entirely through mandatory framing notes, not word choice.

Risks

• 22 of 32 doctrines (69%) require mandatory human theologian review (7 Critical + 15 High); 7 more require native speaker review; only 3 are automated-only — a notably heavier theologian-review load than the Romans baseline.
• 67 of 97 book-specific glossary terms (69%) carry Critical or High risk, driven by this letter’s sustained suffering theology and its unique priesthood/elder/spirits-in-prison vocabulary — a higher concentration than Romans.
• Three genuinely new forbidden substitutions are introduced for this book and must be enforced from day one of Phase 2: ਪਰਕਾਸ਼ (never for “revelation/appearing” — reserved for Guru Granth Sahib installation liturgy), ਪੁਰੋਹਿਤ (never for “priesthood” — Hindu Brahmanical caste-priest term), and ਦਰਸ਼ਣ (never for devotional “visitation/beholding” language).
• The 1 Peter 3:18-22 “spirits in prison” passage is the single highest-risk unit in the book: it compounds a genuine, unresolved exegetical dispute (even among English-language theologians) with a live Punjabi collision risk (ਆਤਮੇ vs. ਪਵਿੱਤਰ ਆਤਮਾ). Every occurrence is routed to mandatory theologian review with no exceptions.
• Two Critical terms appear together in the core passage itself (1 Peter 1:3): ਨਵਾਂ ਜਨਮ (new birth) and ਪੁਨਰ-ਉਥਾਨ (resurrection) sit one linguistic step from forbidden rebirth-cycle vocabulary (ਪੁਨਰ-ਜਨਮ/ਆਵਾਗਵਣ); any drift here corrupts the curriculum’s own theological anchor text.

Opportunities

• ਪਵਿੱਤਰ / ਨਿਰਮਲ (holy/undefiled) are genuine bridge terms: both are living Gurbani vocabulary for sacred purity with no contradictory competing theology, the strongest positive-overlap category in the whole letter.
• ਪਰਦੇਸੀ (sojourner/exile) taps the deep emotional resonance of Punjab’s own diaspora experience as a natural way into 1 Peter’s “elect exiles” self-understanding.
• Sikhism’s own historic rejection of a mediating Brahmanical priesthood gives “The Church as a Holy and Royal Priesthood” (1 Peter 2:4-10) an unusually strong, ready-made point of positive contact — provided the positive half of the claim (every believer IS a priest through Christ) is taught alongside the negative anti-caste parallel, not instead of it.
• ਨਿਮਰਤਾ (humility) and ਸੇਵਾ (service) both carry deeply positive resonance with core Sikh virtues (Guru Nanak’s nimrata; selfless communal service), giving “Elders and Humility” (1 Peter 5:1-6) a natural teaching bridge, provided both terms stay explicitly anchored to Christ and grace rather than treated as free-floating ethical ideals.

Recommended actions

1. Merge all 106 translation_memory.json entries before any Phase 2 segment translation begins; do not allow segment translation against a partial glossary.
2. Enforce the three mandatory clarifying glosses (ਮੁਕਤੀ, ਨਵਾਂ ਜਨਮ, ਦੁੱਖ) as machine-checked validation gates, not reviewer-optional suggestions — see the updated validation checklist in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
3. Route 100% of segments touching 1 Peter 3:18-22, 2:21-25, and 1:3-9 to human theologian review before any automated-only sign-off, regardless of individual sentence-level risk scoring.
4. Brief native-speaker reviewers specifically on the ਹਾਕਮ/ਹੁਕਮ visual-similarity risk and the ਇੱਜ਼ਤ-vs-ਆਦਰ honor/shame distinction before Phase 2 begins, since both are easy to miss in a fast review pass.
5. Carry forward the Romans baseline’s forbidden-substitution list unchanged and add this book’s three new entries (ਪਰਕਾਸ਼, ਪੁਰੋਹਿਤ, ਦਰਸ਼ਣ) to every reviewer’s quick-reference checklist.