Executive Summary: Ephesians — English → Punjabi Language Package

Why it matters

Ephesians pushes the Romans-baseline Punjabi Language Package into new theological and cultural territory. Its core passage (2:1–10, “by grace you have been saved through faith… not a result of works”) sits directly on top of Punjab’s most sophisticated religious vocabulary collision: karma-merit theology. Beyond the core passage, the letter’s teaching on the church as Christ’s body, the mystery of Gentile inclusion, spiritual warfare, and Christ-centered household relationships each intersect specific, living Punjabi religious and social structures — Khalsa martial identity, Sikh mystery-theology, caste and bonded-labor memory, and patriarchal marriage expectation — in ways Romans did not require this package to address. Getting this curriculum right in Punjabi is not a matter of finding equivalent words; it is a matter of actively fencing off several fluent, tempting, and doctrinally incompatible near-neighbors.

Key findings

• 95 new theological terms were identified across the full text of Ephesians 1–6 and added to translation memory, alongside 41 terms inherited exactly from the Romans baseline.
• 10 doctrines are Critical risk and 14 are High risk (24 of 32 total doctrines, 75%) — all requiring mandatory human theologian review, per doctrine_risk_registry.json.
• At the term level, 15 new Critical-risk terms and 28 new High-risk terms (43 of 95 new terms, 45%) require the same mandatory theologian-review tier.
• Two brand-new forbidden substitutions were identified beyond the Romans baseline: ਕਰਮ must never render “works” (Eph 2:9), and no ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼-rooted noun may render “revelation” (Eph 3:3,5).
• One new mandatory Sikh article-of-faith exclusion: ਕਿਰਪਾਨ must never render “sword” in the armor of God (Eph 6:17).
• Two new mandatory-clarifying-gloss terms, on the model of the Romans baseline’s ਮੁਕਤੀ gloss: ਭੇਤ (mystery) and ਅੱਗੋਂ ਹੀ ਠਹਿਰਾਉਣਾ (predestine).
• Three passages require mandatory unit-level segmentation so doctrinally load-bearing verses are never translated or reviewed in isolation: 2:8–10 (grace/works sequencing), 5:21–33 (mutual submission before husband’s self-giving), and 6:5–9 (bondservant obedience before “no partiality”).

Risks

• Highest risk in the entire curriculum: the whole armor of God (Eph 6:10–18). ਸ਼ਸਤਰ sits inside living Khalsa Sant-Sipahi identity, the Five Ks (kirpan), and Dasam Granth weapon-veneration theology; a careless rendering could be heard as endorsing martial-political identity rather than exclusively spiritual, defensive equipment.
• Grace/works antithesis (Eph 2:8–10). The default Punjabi word for “works,” ਕਰਮ, is the load-bearing term of the pan-Indic karma-merit system; using it would invert Paul’s argument for a karma-literate reader.
• Household codes (Eph 5:21–6:9). Both the marriage code and the bondservant/master code risk reinforcing, rather than subverting, existing Punjabi patriarchal and caste-adjacent social defaults if segmented or taught out of their counterbalancing context.
• “Teacher” as a named church office (Eph 4:11). ਗੁਰੂ is the single most fluent, natural Punjabi word for “teacher” and the single most likely point of translator drift away from doctrinal discipline, since it is reserved exclusively for the Ten Gurus and the Guru Granth Sahib.
• Mystery vocabulary (ਭੇਤ, recurring 7 times). Gurbani’s own mystery-language assumes a progressively, meditatively approached hiddenness; Paul’s mystery is the opposite — a completed, publicly proclaimed plan — and the distinction is easy to omit under batch-processing pressure.

Opportunities

• ਵਿਚਕਾਰਲੀ ਕੰਧ (dividing wall) and ਇੱਕ ਨਵਾਂ ਮਨੁੱਖ (one new humanity) (Eph 2:11-22) map with unusual force onto living caste and qaum-based separation in Punjab, giving this doctrine a rare positive vocabulary fit rather than a collision risk — the risk here is under-application, not mistranslation.
• ਕਿਰਤ (honest labor, Eph 4:28) echoes the Sikh “Kirat Karo” ethical pillar with no doctrinal collision.
• ਦਿਖਾਵੇ ਦੀ ਸੇਵਾ / ਦਿਲੋਂ (eye-service vs. heart-service, Eph 6:6-7) genuinely affirms, rather than contradicts, the Sikh seva ideal of unshowy service.
• ਸੰਗਤ (fellowship), already a proven bridge term from the Romans baseline, extends naturally into Ephesians’ body-of-Christ and unity material.

Recommended actions

1. Add the two new forbidden substitutions (ਕਰਮ, ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼-rooted nouns) and the one new Sikh article-of-faith exclusion (ਕਿਰਪਾਨ) to the enforced Phase 2 system prompt immediately; these carry Critical-tier consequences if missed.
2. Configure Phase 2 batch segmentation so that 2:8–10, 5:21–33, and 6:5–9 are never split across separate translation or review assignments.
3. Route every occurrence of the whole armor of God (6:10–18) for mandatory theologian review with no exceptions, given its unmatched cultural-collision profile.
4. Apply the mandatory clarifying-gloss discipline already proven for ਮੁਕਤੀ to the two new terms ਭੇਤ and ਅੱਗੋਂ ਹੀ ਠਹਿਰਾਉਣਾ from the first lesson onward, not retrofitted later.
5. Brief all translators explicitly on the ਗੁਰੂ exclusion as it applies to Ephesians 4:11’s “teacher” office — flag this as the single most likely undetected error in this curriculum given its everyday fluency.

Review routing totals (from doctrine_risk_registry.json): Human theologian: 24 doctrines · Native speaker: 6 doctrines · Automated only: 2 doctrines.