Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 1 Corinthians
English → Russian | Term-by-Term Translation Risk Reference
Curriculum: 1 Corinthians 1–16
Core passage: 1 Corinthians 15:1–11
Baseline dependency: All terms marked BASELINE below are already recorded in the Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json and MUST be reused exactly as recorded there. Terms marked NEW are introduced by this curriculum and require registry entries to be created before Phase 2 translation.
Citation format follows the established convention: 1 Кор. (e.g., 1 Кор. 15:3).
Section A — Baseline Terms Reused from Romans (No Changes Permitted)
| English term | Russian rendering | Risk (baseline) | 1 Corinthians occurrences (representative) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gospel | Евангелие | Medium | 1 Кор. 1:17; 4:15; 9:12-18; 15:1 |
| Grace | благодать | Critical | 1 Кор. 1:3-4; 3:10; 15:10; 16:23 |
| Faith | вера | High | 1 Кор. 2:5; 12:9; 13:2,13; 15:2,11,14,17 |
| Righteousness | праведность | High | 1 Кор. 1:30 |
| Justification | оправдание | Critical | 1 Кор. 6:11 |
| Salvation | спасение | Critical | 1 Кор. 1:18,21; 3:15; 5:5; 15:2 |
| Apostle | апостол | Medium | 1 Кор. 1:1; 4:9; 9:1-5; 12:28-29; 15:5,7,9 |
| Called / Calling | призванный / призвание | High | 1 Кор. 1:1-2,9,24,26; 7:15,17-24; 15:9 |
| Holy | святой | High | 1 Кор. 1:2; 3:17; 6:19; 7:14 |
| Saints | святые | High | 1 Кор. 1:2; 6:1-2; 16:1,15 |
| Sanctification | освящение | Critical | 1 Кор. 1:2,30; 6:11 |
| Resurrection | воскресение | Critical | 1 Кор. 15:1-58 (throughout) |
| Lord | Господь | Critical | 1 Кор. 1:2-3,8-9,31; 8:6; 11:20,23,26-27,32; 15:57-58; 16:22-23 |
| Son of God | Сын Божий | Critical | 1 Кор. 1:9; 15:28 (implicit, “the Son”) |
| Peace | мир | Medium | 1 Кор. 1:3; 7:15; 14:33; 16:11 |
| Spiritual gifts | духовные дары | Medium | 1 Кор. 1:7; 12:1,4,9,28,30-31; 14:1,12 |
| Thanksgiving | благодарение | Low | 1 Кор. 1:4; 14:16-18; 15:57 |
| Fellowship | общение | Low | 1 Кор. 1:9; 10:16 |
| Church | церковь | High | 1 Кор. 1:2; 3:16-17(temple, ext.); 4:17; 5:12; 6:4; 10:32; 11:18,22; 12:28; 14:4-5,12,19,23,28,33-35; 15:9; 16:1,19 |
| Kingdom of God | Царство Божие | Medium | 1 Кор. 4:20; 6:9-10; 15:24,50 |
| Law | закон | Medium | 1 Кор. 9:8-9,20; 14:34; 15:56 (implicit) |
| Sin | грех | High | 1 Кор. 6:18; 7:28,36; 15:3,17,34,56 |
| Gentiles | язычники | Medium | 1 Кор. 1:23; 5:1; 10:20,32; 12:2 |
| Glory | слава | Medium | 1 Кор. 2:7-8; 10:31; 11:7,15; 15:40-43 |
| Power of God | сила Божия | Medium | 1 Кор. 1:18,24; 2:5; 6:14 |
| Messiah / Christ | Мессия / Христос | High | 1 Кор. 1:1ff. (throughout); 15:3,12-17,20,22-23 |
| Prophet | пророк | Low | 1 Кор. 12:28-29; 14:29,32,37 |
| Prophecy | пророчество | Low | 1 Кор. 12:10; 13:2,8-9; 14:1-40 |
| Covenant | завет | Medium | 1 Кор. 11:25 |
| Election (God’s choice) | избрание / избрал | High | 1 Кор. 1:27-28 |
| David | Давид | Low | (indirect, via covenant/OT background references) |
| Israel | Израиль | Low | 1 Кор. 10:18 |
| Jesus | Иисус | Critical | 1 Кор. 1:1ff. (throughout); 15:1ff. |
| God | Бог | Critical | throughout |
| Holy Spirit | Святой Дух | Critical | 1 Кор. 2:10-14; 3:16; 6:19; 12:3-13 |
| Father | Отец | High | 1 Кор. 1:3; 8:6; 15:24 |
| Exhort | увещевать | Low | 1 Кор. 1:10; 4:16; 16:15 |
| Mission / Evangelize | миссия / благовестие | Medium | 1 Кор. 1:17; 9:16-18,23; 15:1 |
Section B — New Terms Introduced in 1 Corinthians (Require New Registry Entries)
| English term | Greek (translit.) | Russian rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Key chapters | Alternatives rejected | Grounded reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisdom (of God / of the world) | σοφία (sophia) | мудрость (Бога/мира) | Critical | The Cross as Wisdom and Power | 1–3 | Премудрость (reserve only for explicit Sophiology discussion) | Премудрость risks pulling the text into Russia’s own controversial Sophiology tradition (Bulgakov, condemned 1935); a quasi-hypostatic Divine Wisdom is a specifically Russian theological controversy unrelated to Paul’s argument. |
| Foolishness (of the cross) | μωρία (mōria) | юродство (glossed) | High | The Cross as Wisdom and Power | 1, 3 | безумие (too flat, loses paradox) | Collides productively but riskily with the venerated “holy fool” (юродивый) ascetic tradition; must be explicitly distinguished from that specific practice while drawing on its positive resonance. |
| Cross / Crucified | σταυρός / ἐσταυρωμένος (stauros / estaurōmenos) | крест / распятый | Medium | The Cross as Wisdom and Power | 1–2 | — | Must retain 1st-century shame/scandal force, not only devotional-symbol familiarity. |
| Division / Schism | σχίσμα (schisma) | разделения | High | Christian Unity versus Factionalism | 1, 11, 12 | раскол (forbidden except for genuine structural/historical schism) | раскол evokes the 17th-century Old Believer Raskol and the 1054 East-West Schism; using it for ordinary congregational quarrels overstates the rupture Paul describes. |
| Strife / Quarreling | ἔρις (eris) | распри | Medium | Christian Unity versus Factionalism | 1, 3 | — | Standard Synodal term; lower register than σχίσμα. |
| Temple of God | ναός θεοῦ (naos theou) | храм Божий | High | Church Discipline and Holiness / Church as God’s People | 3, 6 | — | храм defaults to a physical Orthodox church building in ordinary usage; must be explicitly framed as the corporate church (3:16-17) and the individual believer’s body (6:19), not architecture. |
| Refining fire (at judgment) | πῦρ (δοκιμάσει) (pyr) | огонь испытает | High | Church Discipline and Holiness | 3 | — | Risks assimilation into the Russian Orthodox popular devotional tradition of мытарства (aerial toll-houses); Paul’s point (ministers’ works tested, not a post-mortem ordeal for the person) must be stated explicitly. |
| Sexual immorality | πορνεία (porneia) | блуд | Medium | Church Discipline and Holiness / Marriage and Singleness | 5–7, 10 | — | Risk of post-Soviet secularized/joking register flattening, parallel to baseline’s грех caution. |
| Deliver to Satan | παραδοῦναι τῷ σατανᾷ (paradounai tō satana) | предать сатане | High | Church Discipline and Holiness | 5 | — | Risk of folk-superstitious “curse” (проклятие) misreading; must be framed as corrective, restoration-aimed church discipline. |
| Washed, Sanctified, Justified (triad) | ἀπελούσασθε, ἡγιάσθητε, ἐδικαιώθητε | омыты, освящены, оправданы | Critical | Church Discipline and Holiness / Salvation | 6 | — | Compresses three baseline Critical/High terms into one verse; requires explicit forensic (justification) and transformative (sanctification) distinction per baseline rules. |
| Bought with a price | ἠγοράσθητε τιμῆς (ēgorasthēte timēs) | куплены дорогою ценою | Medium | Church Discipline and Holiness | 6–7 | — | Reuse fixed Synodal phrase for consistency. |
| Slave / Free | δοῦλος / ἐλεύθερος (doulos / eleutheros) | раб / свободный | Medium–High | Marriage and Singleness / Christian Liberty | 6–9, 12 | — | раб carries dual resonance: negative (historical serfdom/slavery) and positive (devotional “раб Божий”); draw on the positive sense explicitly. |
| Marriage | γάμος (gamos) | брак | Low | Marriage and Singleness | 7 | — | Standard term. |
| Virgin / Unmarried person | παρθένος (parthenos) | девственница/девственник | High | Marriage and Singleness | 7 | — | Risk of over-elevating celibacy given Russian Orthodox monastic prestige; Paul’s balanced “each has his own gift” (7:7) must not be lost. |
| Separation / Divorce | χωρίζω (chōrizō) | разлучаться / разводиться | Medium | Marriage and Singleness | 7 | — | Standard, contextual clarity required. |
| Calling (life-situation sense) | κλῆσις (klēsis) | призвание | High | Marriage and Singleness / Divine Calling (extends baseline) | 7 | судьба, предназначение (forbidden, per baseline pattern) | A fourth sense of “calling” beyond the three baseline senses (apostleship, sainthood, salvation); same anti-fatalism caution applies. |
| Food offered to idols | εἰδωλόθυτον (eidōlothyton) | идоложертвенное | Medium | Christian Liberty and Idol Meat | 8, 10 | — | No live cultural referent in modern Russia; requires explicit contemporary-analogy application. |
| Conscience | συνείδησις (syneidēsis) | совесть | Medium | Christian Liberty and Idol Meat | 8, 10 | — | Risk of purely secular-psychological reading; theological grounding (accountable to God) must be stated. |
| Right / Liberty (to act) | ἐξουσία (exousia) | свобода (право) | High | Christian Liberty and Idol Meat | 8–9 | власть (misleading — implies power over others) | Synodal’s “власть” (8:9) skews toward authority-over-others rather than personal freedom-to-act; must be disambiguated from ἐλευθερία. |
| Freedom / Free status | ἐλευθερία / ἐλεύθερος (eleutheria) | свобода | High | Christian Liberty and Idol Meat | 9 | — | Distinct from ἐξουσία (right to act); heavy secular-political resonance in Russian must be kept separate from theological sense. |
| Stumbling block | σκάνδαλον / πρόσκομμα (skandalon / proskomma) | соблазн / претыкание | Medium | Christian Liberty and Idol Meat | 8 | — | Standard theological vocabulary. |
| Idolatry | εἰδωλολατρία (eidōlolatria) | идолослужение | Medium | Christian Liberty and Idol Meat | 10 | — | Bridge to contemporary functional idols (materialism, nationalism) recommended. |
| Table of the Lord / Table of demons | τράπεζα κυρίου / δαιμονίων | трапеза Господня / трапеза бесовская | High | The Lord’s Supper / Christian Liberty | 10 | — | δαιμόνιον → бес risks folk-superstitious register; демон preferred in expository text. |
| Head (authority/source) | κεφαλή (kephalē) | глава | High | Order in Worship | 11 | — | Same interpretive stakes as any authority/gender-order passage; requires careful, non-abusive framing. |
| Head covering | κατακαλύπτω (katakalyptō) | покров, покрывать голову | High | Order in Worship | 11 | — | Uniquely, this is a living Russian Orthodox practice (платок); must not default to either “timeless universal command” or “merely describes what Orthodox women already do” without engaging Paul’s stated reasoning. |
| The Lord’s Supper | κυριακὸν δεῖπνον (kyriakon deipnon) | Вечеря Господня | Critical | The Lord’s Supper | 10–11 | Евхаристия/Причастие (name explicitly, don’t silently substitute) | The single sharpest East-West sacramental collision in the curriculum; signals confessional alignment. Must state the real-presence-vs-memorial question explicitly rather than let the term alone resolve it. |
| Remembrance | ἀνάμνησις (anamnēsis) | воспоминание | High | The Lord’s Supper | 11 | — | Orthodox liturgical ἀνάμνησις is “thicker” (active re-presentation) than ordinary Russian воспоминание (mental recall); note the depth explicitly. |
| Body and blood (of the Lord) | σῶμα καὶ αἷμα (sōma kai haima) | тело и кровь (Господа) | Critical | The Lord’s Supper | 11 | — | Overlaps with the literal liturgical Communion formula “Тело Христово”; three senses (Eucharistic, historical-crucified, ecclesial-metaphorical) must be disambiguated by context every time. |
| Unworthily | ἀναξίως (anaxiōs) | недостойно | High | The Lord’s Supper | 11 | — | Risk of folk-superstition “curse” reading vs. corrective fatherly discipline; note convergence with Orthodox pre-Communion self-examination practice as an asset. |
| Discerning (the body) | διακρίνω (to sōma) (diakrinō) | различать (Тело) | Medium | The Lord’s Supper | 11 | — | Connects to self-examination (δοκιμάζω). |
| Discernment of spirits | διάκρισις πνευμάτων (diakrisis pneumatōn) | различение духов | High | Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ | 12 | — | Must be distinguished from post-Soviet folk-occult “extrasensy” and from the specific Orthodox rite of отчитка (exorcistic prayer). |
| Body of Christ | σῶμα Χριστοῦ (sōma Christou) | Тело Христово | High | Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ | 12 (extends 11) | — | Direct terminological overlap with the literal Eucharistic-elements phrase; name both connection and distinction explicitly. |
| Member (of the body) | μέλος (melos) | член (Тела) | Medium | Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ | 12 | — | член risks a bureaucratic/institutional register echo (“член партии”); keep organic-body sense vivid. |
| Tongues | γλῶσσα(ι) (glōssai) | иные языки | Medium | Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ / Order in Worship | 12, 14 | — | Contested practice among Russian Protestants; folk-shamanic and psychiatric-pathology associations both live risks. |
| Love | ἀγάπη (agapē) | любовь | Medium | Love as the Greater Way | 13 | — | Broad Russian любовь is an asset (Dostoevsky’s “деятельная любовь” scaffolding) but must be distinguished from romantic ἔρως by context. |
| Order / Properly (in worship) | τάξις / εὐσχημόνως (taxis / euschēmonōs) | порядок / благопристойно | Medium | Order in Worship | 14 | чин (avoid — rank/bureaucratic register); благочинно (avoid — collides with the clerical title “благочинный,” a deanery overseer) | Both natural-seeming choices carry unwanted institutional/clerical-office collisions. |
| Firstfruits | ἀπαρχή (aparchē) | начаток | Medium | The Resurrection of Christ and Believers | 15 | — | Agrarian metaphor needs a brief gloss for urban readers. |
| Perishable / Imperishable | φθαρτός / ἄφθαρτος (phthartos / aphthartos) | тленный / нетленный | High | The Resurrection of Christ and Believers | 9, 15 | — | Direct overlap with “нетленные мощи” (incorrupt relics) devotional category; Paul’s future universal transformed body must be distinguished from present-tense relic non-decomposition. |
| Spiritual body / Natural body | σῶμα πνευματικόν / ψυχικόν | духовное тело / душевное тело | High | The Resurrection of Christ and Believers | 15 | — | Risk of ghost-like/immaterial misreading; positive Transfiguration/glorification resonance available if named explicitly. |
| Baptism for the dead | βαπτιζόμενοι ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν | крещение за мёртвых | High | The Resurrection of Christ and Believers | 15 | — | Directly cited by LDS/Mormon theology for proxy baptism; teaching text should preempt this specific sectarian misreading. |
| Received (fixed tradition) | παραλαμβάνω (paralambanō) | приняли | Medium | The Resurrection of Christ and Believers | 15 | — | Technical “received authoritative tradition” register, not casual acceptance. |
| Delivered (fixed tradition) | παραδίδωμι (paredōka) | передал | Medium | The Resurrection of Christ and Believers | 15 | — | Pairs with παραλαμβάνω; together evidence a pre-Pauline creedal formula. |
| As one born abnormally | ἔκτρωμα (ektrōma) | (Synodal: изверг — glossed as недоношенный) | Medium | The Resurrection of Christ and Believers | 15 | — | Synodal’s “изверг” has drifted in modern Russian to mean “monster/brute”; requires an explanatory gloss to preserve Paul’s self-abasing sense. |
| Anathema (accursed) | ἀνάθεμα (anathema) | анафема | High | (closing formula) | 16 | — | Carries the full historical weight of Russian Orthodox anathema pronouncements (e.g., Tolstoy, 1901; the annual Rite of Orthodoxy); must be framed as Paul’s brief epistolary closing, not invoked ecclesiastical procedure. |
| Maranatha | μαρὰν ἀθά (maran atha) | Маран-афа (Господь наш, гряди!) | Low | (closing formula) | 16 | — | Untranslated Aramaic acclamation, transliterated per established Synodal pattern (parallel to Авва). |
| Collection | λογία (logia) | сбор пожертвований | Low | (practical instruction) | 16 | — | Standard stewardship term. |
| Holy kiss | φίλημα ἅγιον (philēma hagion) | святое целование | Low | (closing greeting) | 16 | — | Positive resonance with the Orthodox Paschal greeting-kiss custom. |
| Mystery | μυστήριον (mystērion) | тайна | Medium | (multiple) | 2, 4, 13, 14, 15 | Таинство (avoid outside sacramental contexts) | Таинство is specifically “Sacrament” in Orthodox usage; use тайна for Paul’s “previously hidden, now revealed truth” sense to avoid over-sacramentalizing every occurrence. |
| Steward | οἰκονόμος (oikonomos) | домостроитель / распорядитель | Medium | Christ-Centered Ministry (extends baseline) | 4 | — | Accountability-to-God register, not autonomous ministry celebrity. |
| Natural man / Spiritual man | ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος / πνευματικὸς ἄνθρωπος | душевный человек / духовный человек | Medium | The Cross as Wisdom and Power | 2, 15 | — | Avoid implying a settled tripartite-anthropology (body-soul-spirit) debate; keep functional (without/with the Spirit’s illumination). |
Section C — Risk Summary for 1 Corinthians-Specific Terms
| Risk Tier | Count (new terms) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 4 | Human theologian (mandatory, every occurrence) |
| High | 19 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 17 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 6 | Automated review |
Note: This glossary must be merged into translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json (version-incremented per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md’s procedure) before any Phase 2 segment translation of 1 Corinthians begins. The four Critical-tier new terms — σοφία/Wisdom (Sophiology collision), κυριακὸν δεῖπνον/Lord’s Supper, σῶμα καὶ αἷμα/body and blood, and the compressed washed-sanctified-justified triad (6:11) — require the same mandatory human-theologian escalation and explicit “state it, don’t silently resolve it” framing that the baseline Romans package established for grace, salvation, sanctification, and justification.
This glossary supplements, and does not override, translation_memory.json. Where a term also appears in the Romans baseline (Section A above), the baseline rendering is authoritative and unconditionally binding.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: благодать
Transliteration: blagodat’
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: милость, дар, везение, удача
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. CRITICAL: Russian Orthodox theology (following Palamas) understands благодать as uncreated divine energies that really transform and deify the believer, not primarily an unmerited legal pardon. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:3-4; 3:10; 15:10; 16:23 — 15:10 (‘not I, but the grace of God with me’) is a key teaching anchor where grace’s unmerited causal priority and Paul’s own real, effortful labor must both be affirmed without letting либо collapse into the other.
Justification
Approved rendering: оправдание
Transliteration: opravdaniye
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: прощение грехов, искупление
Original: δικαίωσις / ἐδικαιώθητε
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. CRITICAL: no developed forensic-declaration doctrine analogous to Reformation justification exists in Russian Orthodox theology. 1 Corinthians occurrence: 6:11, where оправдание is named alongside washing and sanctification in a single compressed verse (see washed_sanctified_justified below); must not resolve into прощение грехов alone.
Salvation
Approved rendering: спасение
Transliteration: spaseniye
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: избавление (acceptable narrowly for ‘deliverance’), освобождение
Original: σωτηρία / σῴζεσθε
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. CRITICAL: must be anchored to Christ’s death and resurrection as a decisive, received event, not left to default into an open-ended theosis process. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:18,21; 3:15; 5:5; 15:2 — 15:2 presents salvation as a present, ongoing reality grounded in a fixed past gospel event, a prime anchoring passage.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: освящение
Transliteration: osvyashcheniye
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: обожение (reserve for explicit theosis discussion only), очищение
Original: ἁγιασμός / ἡγιάσθητε
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. CRITICAL: closely linked in Orthodox theology to обожение (theosis) via sacramental participation. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:2,30; 6:11 — 6:11’s compressed triad (see washed_sanctified_justified) requires освящение to be taught as distinct from, though connected to, оправдание, not blended into a single undifferentiated transformative process.
Wisdom Of God
Approved rendering: мудрость (Бога / мира)
Transliteration: mudrost’ (Boga / mira)
Doctrine: The Wisdom of God versus the Wisdom of the World
Rejected alternatives: Премудрость (reserve strictly for explicit, named comparative discussion of Russian Sophiology)
Original: σοφία (τοῦ θεοῦ / τοῦ κόσμου)
Category: Wisdom
NEW. God’s paradoxical wisdom, embodied in the crucified Christ, contrasted with human cleverness; central theme of chapters 1-3. CRITICAL: the elevated liturgical/theological register Премудрость risks pulling the text into Russia’s own historically controversial Sophiology tradition (Solovyov, Florensky, Bulgakov — condemned by Moscow Patriarchate decree in 1935 and by ROCOR), in which Divine Sophia is treated as a quasi-hypostatic mediating principle between God and creation. Use ordinary мудрость throughout; name Sophiology explicitly only if a deliberate comparison is intended, per the same ‘name it, don’t blend it’ principle the baseline established for theosis.
Washed Sanctified Justified
Approved rendering: омыты, освящены, оправданы
Transliteration: omyty, osvyashcheny, opravdany
Doctrine: The Washed-Sanctified-Justified Triad
Original: ἀπελούσασθε, ἡγιάσθητε, ἐδικαιώθητε
Category: Salvation
NEW, converges with baseline Critical terms. A compressed conversion triad naming three distinct divine acts: washing (baptismal echo), sanctification, and justification (6:11). Compresses освящение and оправдание into a single verse; state each as a distinct-but-connected act. Do not let оправдание resolve into forgiveness alone. Escalate to human theologian review every occurrence.
Lords Supper
Approved rendering: Вечеря Господня
Transliteration: Vecherya Gospodnya
Doctrine: The Lord’s Supper
Rejected alternatives: Евхаристия / Причастие (name explicitly for comparative clarity; do NOT use as the primary rendering)
Original: κυριακὸν δεῖπνον
Category: Ordinances
NEW. The church’s shared meal of remembrance instituted by Christ (11:20). The single sharpest East-West sacramental collision in the curriculum. Russian Orthodox theology names this rite Евхаристия/Причастие, a Mystery (Таинство) with real-presence/theosis significance. Use Вечеря Господня as the primary rendering (matching the curriculum’s Protestant/Evangelical theological framework), but name Евхаристия/Причастие explicitly in teaching text and address the real-presence-vs-memorial question directly rather than letting the term alone resolve it. Escalate every occurrence to human theologian review.
Body And Blood
Approved rendering: тело и кровь (Господа)
Transliteration: telo i krov’ (Gospoda)
Doctrine: The Lord’s Supper
Original: σῶμα καὶ αἷμα (τοῦ κυρίου)
Category: Ordinances
NEW. The Supper’s elements, identified with Christ’s body and blood, given in the institution narrative (11:24-27). Same real-presence-vs-memorial stakes as lords_supper. Direct terminological overlap with ‘Тело Христово,’ the literal liturgical phrase at Orthodox Communion distribution, and with the metaphorical ‘body of Christ’ = the church (12:27). Three distinct senses converge on the same Russian phrase and must be disambiguated by context every time. Escalate to human theologian review.
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: вера
Transliteration: vera
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: доверие, убеждение
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. вера is standard and unambiguous but in Russian Orthodox usage often assumed to include sacramental participation and church membership rather than personal trust in Christ. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 2:5; 12:9; 13:2,13; 15:2,11,14,17 — 15:2’s warning about a possible ‘vain faith’ is a prime passage for restoring the sense of trust in the specific, fixed gospel content just quoted, not generalized religious identity.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: праведность
Transliteration: pravednost’
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: справедливость, честность
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Everyday register evokes an Orthodox saint or morally exemplary elder, biasing readers toward righteousness-as-achieved-virtue. 1 Corinthians occurrence: 1:30, where Christ himself is identified as ‘our righteousness’ — received, not achieved.
Saints
Approved rendering: святые
Transliteration: svyatyye
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: праведники
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. In ordinary Russian usage refers to a formally canonized, venerated minority, not ordinary believers. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:2; 6:1-2; 16:1,15 — 1:2’s address to the whole quarreling, imperfect Corinthian congregation must be rendered unmistakably corporate and inclusive.
Lord
Approved rendering: Господь
Transliteration: Gospod’
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: хозяин, владыка (reserve for liturgical/poetic register only)
Original: κύριος
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Risk is registerial: heavily associated with formal liturgical address. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:2-3,8-9,31; 8:6; 11:20,23,26-27,32; 15:57-58; 16:22-23 — dense in the Lord’s Supper institution narrative (ch.11) and the closing benediction (16:22-23), where personal, decisive force must be restored around the confession.
Church
Approved rendering: церковь
Transliteration: tserkov’
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: храм, собрание (acceptable for local congregation emphasis)
Original: ἐκκλησία / ἐκκλησία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Overwhelmingly denotes the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution or a building in ordinary usage. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:2; 4:17; 5:12; 6:4; 10:32; 11:18,22; 12:28; 14:4-5,12,19,23,28,33-35; 15:9; 16:1,19 — the letter’s central pastoral subject (a divided local congregation); first occurrence (1:2) should be explicitly framed as God’s gathered people, not the Orthodox institution or a building.
Sin
Approved rendering: грех
Transliteration: grekh
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: ошибка, проступок
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Seven decades of state atheism have partly flattened грех into a folk-moral or joking register. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 6:18; 7:28,36; 15:3,17,34,56 — 15:3’s creedal use (‘Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures’) is a key place to restore the weight of this term (see died_for_our_sins below).
Messiah
Approved rendering: Мессия
Transliteration: Messiya
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: спаситель мира (as a stand-alone substitute)
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Used alongside Христос, which functions as an effective surname in everyday Russian, its original meaning worn smooth. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:1ff. throughout; 15:3,12-17,20,22-23 — 15:3-4’s creedal, title-bearing use is a good place to re-surface the ‘Anointed One’ force.
Election
Approved rendering: избрание
Transliteration: izbraniye
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: судьба, рок, предопределение (use only with careful qualification)
Original: ἐκλέγομαι / ἐξελέξατο
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. судьба/рок must never substitute. 1 Corinthians occurrence: 1:27-28, God’s paradoxical choice of the foolish, weak, and lowly — a distinct emphasis from Romans 9’s individual predestination debates; teaching text should distinguish the two applications without contradiction.
Foolishness Of The Cross
Approved rendering: юродство
Transliteration: yurodstvo
Doctrine: The Foolishness of the Cross
Rejected alternatives: безумие (too flat, loses paradox)
Original: μωρία
Category: Wisdom
NEW. The world’s judgment that the message of a crucified Messiah is absurd; Paul’s paradoxical embrace of this ‘foolishness’ (1:18,21,23,25,27; 3:19; 4:10). Synodal юродство is inseparable in Russian religious culture from юродство Христа ради, the venerated ascetic tradition of the ‘holy fool’ (юродивый, e.g. St. Basil the Blessed). Draw on this resonance while explicitly distinguishing Paul’s rhetorical point (worldly wisdom will always find the cross offensive) from the specific historical ascetic practice of feigned madness/extreme self-abasement.
Division Schism
Approved rendering: разделения
Transliteration: razdeleniya
Doctrine: Christian Unity versus Factionalism
Rejected alternatives: раскол (forbidden — reserve only for genuine comparative discussion of actual historical/structural schism)
Original: σχίσμα
Category: Church
NEW. Paul’s term for the factional divisions plaguing the Corinthian congregation (1:10; 11:18; 12:25). Раскол names the specific 17th-century Old Believer schism (Великий раскол) and the 1054 East-West Great Schism in Russian historical memory — an ecclesiastical rupture of far greater magnitude than local congregational quarrels. Use разделения exclusively for this context.
Temple Of God
Approved rendering: храм Божий
Transliteration: khram Bozhiy
Doctrine: The Church and the Believer’s Body as God’s Temple
Original: ναός θεοῦ
Category: Church
NEW. God’s dwelling place, applied to the church corporately (3:16-17) and to the individual believer’s body (6:19-20). храм overwhelmingly denotes a physical Orthodox church building in ordinary Russian usage. Both occurrences require explicit framing so readers do not hear a claim about architecture: 3:16-17 is about the gathered church, 6:19-20 reverses the direction to the believer’s ordinary body as God’s dwelling.
Refining Fire Judgment
Approved rendering: огонь испытает
Transliteration: ogon’ ispytayet
Doctrine: The Testing of a Minister’s Works by Fire
Original: πῦρ (δοκιμάσει)
Category: Eschatology
NEW. The fire that will test a minister’s works at judgment (3:13-15), with the minister’s own salvation explicitly secured regardless. Risks assimilation into the widespread Russian Orthodox devotional tradition of мытарства (the ‘aerial toll-houses,’ Life of St. Basil the New), a staged post-mortem ordeal for the soul. Paul’s actual point is a single Christ-centered evaluation of a minister’s works, not a post-mortem ordeal for the person; state this contrast explicitly.
Deliver To Satan
Approved rendering: предать сатане
Transliteration: predat’ satane
Doctrine: Church Discipline and Holiness
Original: παραδοῦναι τῷ σατανᾷ
Category: Church
NEW. Formal exclusion of an unrepentant professing believer from the church’s protective fellowship, for the corrective purpose of eventual restoration (5:5). Risk of folk-superstitious ‘curse’ (проклятие) misreading, a live category in Russian popular religion. Must be framed explicitly as corrective, restoration-aimed discipline (‘that his spirit may be saved’), not damnation or a curse formula.
Slave Of Christ
Approved rendering: раб (Христов)
Transliteration: rab (Khristov)
Doctrine: Redemption and Belonging to Christ
Original: δοῦλος (Χριστοῦ) / ἐλεύθερος
Category: Church
NEW. Complete ownership by and belonging to Christ, developed from 6:20’s implicit ‘bought’ language through 7:21-23; 9:19; 12:13. раб carries dual, opposite-valence resonance: negatively, historical serfdom (крепостное право) and modern trafficking; positively, ‘раб Божий’ is the standard, dignified Orthodox liturgical self-designation of every believer in prayer. Draw on the positive devotional resonance explicitly.
Virgin Unmarried
Approved rendering: девственница / девственник
Transliteration: devstvennitsa / devstvennik
Doctrine: Marriage and Singleness
Original: παρθένος
Category: Marriage
NEW. An unmarried person, the subject of Paul’s extended, situational counsel in 7:25-38. Russian Orthodox tradition places extraordinarily high honor on virginity/celibacy as a ‘higher path’ (monasticism, veneration of the Theotokos as Ever-Virgin, Приснодева). Guard against over-elevating Paul’s practical, situational counsel (7:26, ‘because of the present distress’) into a timeless ranking of celibacy as categorically holier than marriage, against Paul’s own even-handed framing (7:7, ‘each has his own gift from God’).
Calling Life Situation
Approved rendering: призвание
Transliteration: prizvaniye
Doctrine: Calling in One’s Life Situation
Rejected alternatives: судьба (forbidden), предназначение (forbidden)
Original: κλῆσις (7:17-24 sense)
Category: Salvation
NEW, extends baseline divine_calling. One’s God-given social, marital, or vocational station at the time of conversion, in which one is to remain as a context for serving God (7:17-24). A fourth sense of ‘calling’ beyond apostleship, sainthood, and salvation already tracked in the baseline registry; risk of absorption into судьба/предназначение, the exact substitution the baseline forbids for the other three senses — the same prohibition applies here with equal force.
Right To Act
Approved rendering: свобода (право)
Transliteration: svoboda (pravo)
Doctrine: Christian Liberty and Idol Meat
Rejected alternatives: власть (misleading — implies power over others, forbidden for this sense)
Original: ἐξουσία
Category: Liberty
NEW. The right or freedom to act, e.g. to eat food offered to idols (8:9) or receive material support as an apostle (9:4-6,12,18). Distinct from ἐλευθερία (freedom_status). Synodal renders 8:9 as власть, which in ordinary Russian skews toward ‘power/authority over others’ — a serious risk exactly where Paul warns against exercising a right carelessly toward a weaker believer. Use свобода (право), never власть.
Freedom Status
Approved rendering: свобода
Transliteration: svoboda
Doctrine: Christian Liberty and Idol Meat
Original: ἐλευθερία / ἐλεύθερος
Category: Liberty
NEW. The status of a free person, voluntarily surrendered by Paul in self-limiting love for the gospel’s sake (9:1,19). Distinct from ἐξουσία (right_to_act). Given 20th-century Russian political history (revolutionary and Soviet-era ‘свобода’ rhetoric and its later disillusionment), keep the theological sense sharply distinguished from secular-political liberty associations.
Table Of The Lord
Approved rendering: трапеза Господня / трапеза бесовская
Transliteration: trapeza Gospodnya / trapeza besovskaya
Doctrine: The Lord’s Supper
Rejected alternatives: бес (prefer демон in expository/teaching-text register; бес acceptable only within direct Scripture-quotation fidelity)
Original: τράπεζα κυρίου / τράπεζα δαιμονίων
Category: Ordinances
NEW. Exclusive covenantal allegiance framed as an either/or choice between participation with the Lord and with demons (10:21). δαιμόνιον rendered бес risks a folk-superstitious register (домовые/бесовщина narratives); демон is a more neutral theological-register alternative worth using in expository text.
Head Authority
Approved rendering: глава
Transliteration: glava
Doctrine: Order in Worship
Original: κεφαλή
Category: Order
NEW. Head, denoting either source or authority (debated in scholarship); Paul’s ordered chain in 11:3: God, Christ, man, woman. глава is the only viable Russian rendering and carries the same headship-authority interpretive stakes as English ‘head’; handle with the same care as any authority/gender-sensitive passage.
Head Covering
Approved rendering: покров / покрывать голову
Transliteration: pokrov / pokryvat’ golovu
Doctrine: Order in Worship
Original: κατακαλύπτω / ἀκατακάλυπτος
Category: Order
NEW. The practice of women covering their heads while praying or prophesying (11:5-7,13). Unlike most target cultures, this is a living, highly visible, ongoing Russian Orthodox practice (платок). Must not default to either ‘timeless universal command’ or ‘merely describes what Orthodox women already do’ — engage Paul’s own stated reasoning (creation order, propriety, angels, ‘nature itself,’ 11:13-15) explicitly. Flag for human theologian and native-speaker review together.
Remembrance
Approved rendering: воспоминание
Transliteration: vospominaniye
Doctrine: The Lord’s Supper
Original: ἀνάμνησις
Category: Ordinances
NEW. Memorial recollection commanded at the Supper’s institution (11:24-25, ‘do this in remembrance of me’). Orthodox liturgical ἀνάμνησις (used in the Divine Liturgy’s anaphora) is ‘thicker’ — an active re-presentation — than ordinary Russian воспоминание suggests on its own. Note this semantic depth explicitly rather than letting воспоминание default to a purely psychological, memory-only reading.
Unworthily
Approved rendering: недостойно
Transliteration: nedostoyno
Doctrine: The Lord’s Supper
Original: ἀναξίως
Category: Ordinances
NEW. Participating in the Supper in an inappropriate, careless manner, with sobering consequences (11:27,29-30). Risk of a folk-superstitious ‘curse’ (проклятие) misreading rather than fatherly corrective discipline. Note the real convergence with Orthodox pre-Communion self-examination/confession practice as an asset that can be drawn on explicitly.
Discernment Of Spirits
Approved rendering: различение духов
Transliteration: razlicheniye dukhov
Doctrine: Discernment of Spirits
Rejected alternatives: экстрасенсорные способности (forbidden per baseline), отчитка (forbidden — this is a specific Orthodox exorcistic rite, not Paul’s gift)
Original: διάκρισις πνευμάτων
Category: Spiritual Gifts
NEW. A Spirit-given ability to distinguish true from false spiritual activity, exercised within the ordered life of the local church (12:10). Must be sharply distinguished from the live post-Soviet folk-occult category of экстрасенсы (psychic/energy-sensing healers) and from отчитка, a specific Orthodox exorcistic-prayer rite still sought out by some believers today.
Body Of Christ
Approved rendering: Тело Христово
Transliteration: Telo Khristovo
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ
Original: σῶμα Χριστοῦ
Category: Church
NEW. The church as a unified, interdependent organism, the central metaphor of chapter 12 (12:12-27). ‘Тело Христово’ is also the literal liturgical designation of the Eucharistic elements in Orthodox practice; readers must not conflate Paul’s ecclesiological metaphor with the sacramental Body received at Communion, though the two are legitimately connected (10:16-17) and should not be treated as wholly unrelated either. Name both connection and distinction explicitly.
Perishable Imperishable
Approved rendering: тленный / нетленный
Transliteration: tlennyy / netlennyy
Doctrine: The Believer’s Bodily Transformation into Imperishability
Original: φθαρτός / ἄφθαρτος
Category: Eschatology
NEW. Subject to decay versus not; describes the contrast between the present mortal body and the future resurrection body (15:42,50,52-54). Standard тленный/нетленный rendering creates direct overlap with нетленные мощи (‘incorrupt relics’), a widely known Russian Orthodox devotional category of certain canonized saints’ bodily non-decomposition. Distinguish explicitly from Paul’s actual point — a future, universal, transformed resurrection body, not present-tense corpse preservation. Escalate to human theologian review.
Spiritual Natural Body
Approved rendering: душевное тело / духовное тело
Transliteration: dushevnoye telo / dukhovnoye telo
Doctrine: The Believer’s Bodily Transformation into Imperishability
Original: σῶμα ψυχικόν / σῶμα πνευματικόν
Category: Eschatology
NEW. The present mortal body versus the future resurrection body (15:44-46), both genuinely bodily, not the latter immaterial. ‘Spiritual body’ could misread as ghost-like given popular spiritist/occult categories; Paul’s actual claim is a real, transformed, Spirit-empowered physical body. Positive Transfiguration/glorification iconography can be drawn on as an asset if named explicitly rather than blended silently.
Baptism For The Dead
Approved rendering: крещение за мёртвых
Transliteration: kreshcheniye za myortvykh
Doctrine: Prevention of a Baptism-for-the-Dead Sectarian Misreading
Original: βαπτιζόμενοι ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν
Category: Ordinances
NEW. A disputed local Corinthian practice Paul references in passing without endorsing (15:29), one of the most exegetically disputed verses in the letter. Directly and prominently cited by the LDS/Mormon church to justify proxy baptism for deceased ancestors, foreign to Orthodox and mainstream Protestant sacramentology. Given LDS missionary literature circulating in Russia, teaching text must explicitly note mainstream Christian interpretation does not support this doctrine. Escalate to human theologian review.
Anathema
Approved rendering: анафема
Transliteration: anafema
Doctrine: Anathema in the Letter’s Closing Exhortation
Original: ἀνάθεμα
Category: Church
NEW. A formal curse/exclusion formula, used by Paul as a brief, solemn epistolary closing warning (16:22). Анафема carries exceptional historical and cultural weight in Russia from its formal, public use by the Russian Orthodox Church — most famously the 1901 anathematization of Leo Tolstoy, and the annual Чин Православия (Rite of Orthodoxy) pronouncement of anathemas against named heresies. Frame explicitly as Paul’s brief closing formula, not invoked ecclesiastical procedure.
Died For Our Sins
Approved rendering: умер за грехи наши
Transliteration: umer za grekhi nashi
Doctrine: Christ’s Substitutionary Death for Sin
Rejected alternatives: умер из-за грехов наших (weakens ὑπέρ’s substitutionary force to a merely causal sense, forbidden)
Original: Χριστὸς ἀπέθανεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν
Category: Salvation
NEW. The creedal, substitutionary confession that Christ died on believers’ behalf for their sins, according to the Scriptures (15:3). ὑπέρ’s substitutionary/representative force must be preserved in за (which carries substitutionary sense in Russian, e.g. ‘умереть за друга’), never weakened to из-за. Orthodox atonement theology, while fully affirming Christ’s death for sin, has historically emphasized recapitulation and victory-over-death motifs somewhat more than a fully forensic penal-substitution framework; teach this creedal formula as a discrete, foundational claim.
Redemption
Approved rendering: искупление
Transliteration: iskupleniye
Doctrine: Redemption and Belonging to Christ
Original: ἀπολύτρωσις
Category: Salvation
NEW. Christ identified as believers’ redemption (1:30), connecting to the ‘bought with a price’ theme of chapters 6-7. Standard искупление; connect explicitly to the раб/свобода ownership theme so the purchase-price metaphor’s real weight is not lost.
Medium Risk Terms
Gospel
Approved rendering: Евангелие
Transliteration: Yevangeliye
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: благая весть (informal gloss only), хорошая новость
Original: εὐαγγέλιον
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Established Synodal Bible term, already a loanword from Greek euangelion via Church Slavonic. Universally recognized even by secular Russians as ‘the Gospel [book]’; risk is that it is heard as the name of a book/genre rather than as a living proclamation. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:17; 4:15; 9:12-18; 15:1 — 15:1’s presentation of the gospel as fixed, received/delivered creedal content (see received_tradition, delivered_tradition below) makes restoring the ‘living proclamation’ sense especially important here.
Apostle
Approved rendering: апостол
Transliteration: apostol
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: посланник, проповедник
Original: ἀπόστολος
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Russian Orthodox usage treats ‘apostle’ as a closed, historically unrepeatable office tied to icons and feast days. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:1; 4:9; 9:1-5; 12:28-29; 15:5,7,9 — 15:5,7’s list of ‘the Twelve’ and ‘all the apostles’ is a good place to restore the sense of a contested, argued, living authority claim rather than settled hagiography.
Called
Approved rendering: призванный
Transliteration: prizvannyy
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: приглашённый
Original: κλητός / καλεῖσθαι
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. приглашённый (invited) must never be used. 1 Corinthians extends the baseline’s tracked senses (apostleship 1:1; sainthood 1:2; salvation 1:9,26) with a fourth, titular/office sense at 15:9 (‘not worthy to be called an apostle’).
Calling
Approved rendering: призвание
Transliteration: prizvaniye
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: предназначение
Original: κλῆσις
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. предназначение drifts toward fatalism (судьба); призвание keeps the personal, relational sense. 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 introduces a further life-situation application; see calling_life_situation entry below for the extended new-context caution, which applies this same forbidden-substitution rule with equal force.
Holy
Approved rendering: святой
Transliteration: svyatoy
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: чистый, непорочный
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Carries strong Orthodox associations with canonized saints and holy objects. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:2; 3:17; 6:19; 7:14 — 7:14’s sanctifying influence of a believing spouse requires care not to imply a magical/ritual transfer of holiness.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: воскресение
Transliteration: voskreseniye
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: оживление, реинкарнация
Original: ἀνάστασις / ἐγήγερται
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Central to Russian Orthodox liturgical identity (Пасха); main risk is over-familiarity flattening the doctrine into a calendrical event. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 15:1-58 throughout — chapter 15 is the chapter-length anchor against this flattening and the anchor of the entire curriculum’s core passage.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Сын Божий
Transliteration: Syn Bozhiy
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: божественный посланник
Original: υἱὸς θεοῦ / ὁ υἱός
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Fully settled Nicene-heritage term shared with Orthodoxy. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:9 (implicit, ‘fellowship of his Son’); 15:28 — 15:28’s future subjection of the Son to the Father requires framing as economic/functional, not ontological, subordination, so as not to be misread as denying co-equal deity.
Peace
Approved rendering: мир
Transliteration: mir
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: спокойствие, покой
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Also the ordinary word for ‘the world’ and for political peace. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:3; 7:15; 14:33; 16:11 — 14:33 contrasts God’s relational, orderly character with confusion (ἀκαταστασία); distinguish from мир as ‘the world’ or political peace in this context.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: духовные дары
Transliteration: dukhovnyye dary
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: экстрасенсорные способности (never use), таланты
Original: χαρίσματα / πνευματικά
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. экстрасенсорные способности must never be used or implied. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:7; 12:1,4,9,28,30-31; 14:1,12 — the chapter-length enumerated gift list (12:8-10: healing, miracles, tongues, prophecy, discernment) makes this caution especially acute; each specific gift needs its own explicit disambiguation from post-Soviet folk-psychic categories (see discernment_of_spirits, tongues below).
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Царство Божие
Transliteration: Tsarstvo Bozhiye
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: государство Божие
Original: βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 4:20; 6:9-10; 15:24,50 — chiefly exclusion-warning (6:9-10) and eschatological-consummation (15:24,50) contexts; keep distinguished from any this-worldly political/imperial ‘царство’ resonance.
Law
Approved rendering: закон
Transliteration: zakon
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: правило, заповедь (reserve for individual commandments)
Original: νόμος
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 9:8-9,20; 14:34; 15:56 (implicit) — used in Paul’s argument for ministerial support (9:8-9) and church order (14:34).
Gentiles
Approved rendering: язычники
Transliteration: yazychniki
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: иноземцы, неевреи
Original: ἔθνη / ἔλληνες
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Carries a stronger sense of ‘pagans’ than the neutral ‘non-Jewish nations’ Paul often intends. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:23; 5:1; 10:20,32; 12:2 — 12:2’s retrospective ‘when you were язычники’ usefully reinforces the pagan/idol-worshiper sense already dominant in the term.
Glory
Approved rendering: слава
Transliteration: slava
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: почёт, величие
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Risk is registerial flattening into a casual exclamation. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 2:7-8; 10:31; 11:7,15; 15:40-43 — 11:7,15 use the term in a relational-honor sense that must be disambiguated from God’s own radiant glory elsewhere in the letter; 15:40-43’s resurrection-body glory has a positive Transfiguration-adjacent resonance available if named explicitly.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: сила Божия
Transliteration: sila Bozhiya
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: энергия
Original: δύναμις θεοῦ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. энергия must never be substituted, given its specialized meaning in Orthodox Palamite theology. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:18,24; 2:5; 6:14 — 1:18,24 set the cross itself as the locus of God’s power against the cleverness of worldly wisdom.
Covenant
Approved rendering: завет
Transliteration: zavet
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: договор, соглашение
Original: διαθήκη
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. 1 Corinthians occurrence: 11:25, ‘the new covenant in my blood’ at the Lord’s Supper institution — reinforces the meal’s covenantal, not merely commemorative, character alongside the Critical-risk Lord’s Supper terms below.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Иисус
Transliteration: Iisus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Исус (Old Believer spelling, avoid)
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Never the Old Believer spelling Исус. Used throughout 1 Corinthians; central to the confession and gospel formula of chapter 15.
God
Approved rendering: Бог
Transliteration: Bog
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Всевышний (acceptable poetic synonym only)
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Referenced constantly throughout the letter as the source of wisdom, gifts, order, and resurrection power; keep the personal referent vivid.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Святой Дух
Transliteration: Svyatoy Dukh
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: дух (never use alone), энергия
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον / τὸ πνεῦμα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. дух alone must never stand in for the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 2:10-14; 3:16; 6:19; 12:3-13 — especially important in the dense ‘spirit’ vocabulary of the gifts chapters (12-14).
Father
Approved rendering: Отец
Transliteration: Otets
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: батюшка (reserve exclusively for addressing an Orthodox priest)
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Never батюшка. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:3; 8:6; 15:24.
Mission
Approved rendering: миссия / благовестие
Transliteration: missiya / blagovestiye
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: пропаганда (never use)
Original: εὐαγγελίζομαι / κηρύσσω
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. пропаганда must never be used. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:17; 9:16-18,23; 15:1,11 — unusually dense proclamation-language concentration in chapter 9 and 15:11 (‘so we preach… so you believed’).
Cross Crucified
Approved rendering: крест / распятый
Transliteration: krest / raspyatyy
Doctrine: The Cross as Wisdom and Power
Original: σταυρός / ἐσταυρωμένος
Category: Christology
NEW. The cross as instrument of execution and the crucified Christ (1:17-18,23; 2:2). Deep, positive existing resonance in Orthodox visual/liturgical culture (крест, крестное знамение); ensure ‘the cross’ retains its first-century shame/scandal force, not only its familiar devotional-symbol sense.
Strife Quarreling
Approved rendering: распри
Transliteration: raspri
Doctrine: Christian Unity versus Factionalism
Original: ἔρις
Category: Church
NEW. Interpersonal quarreling and rivalry (1:11; 3:3), distinct from the more structural rupture of σχίσμα/division_schism. Standard Synodal term, lower register than разделения.
Sexual Immorality
Approved rendering: блуд
Transliteration: blud
Doctrine: Church Discipline and Holiness
Original: πορνεία
Category: Sin
NEW. Illicit sexual union, the sin requiring church discipline in chapter 5 and warned against repeatedly (6:13,18; 7:2; 10:8). Standard Synodal блуд. Post-Soviet secularization can flatten this into dated moralism, parallel to the baseline’s грех caution; restore seriousness without a merely censorious tone.
Bought With A Price
Approved rendering: куплены дорогою ценою
Transliteration: kupleny dorogoyu tsenoyu
Doctrine: Redemption and Belonging to Christ
Original: ἠγοράσθητε τιμῆς
Category: Salvation
NEW. Believers were purchased/redeemed at a price (6:20; 7:23), connecting to 1:30’s redemption theme. Reuse the fixed Synodal phrase verbatim for consistency across occurrences.
Separation Divorce
Approved rendering: разлучаться / разводиться
Transliteration: razluchat’sya / razvodit’sya
Doctrine: Marriage and Singleness
Original: χωρίζω
Category: Marriage
NEW. Marital separation or divorce, addressed in 7:10-15. Standard term; context must clarify believer/unbeliever-spouse scenarios distinctly.
Food Offered To Idols
Approved rendering: идоложертвенное
Transliteration: idolozhertvennoye
Doctrine: Christian Liberty and Idol Meat
Original: εἰδωλόθυτον
Category: Liberty
NEW. Food ritually offered to a pagan deity, the practical test case for Christian liberty and conscience (chs. 8, 10). Standard Synodal идоложертвенное. With no live idol-meat marketplace in contemporary Russia, this can read as antiquarian; draw the explicit principle-level analogy to contemporary functional idols in teaching text.
Conscience
Approved rendering: совесть
Transliteration: sovest’
Doctrine: Christian Liberty and Idol Meat
Original: συνείδησις
Category: Liberty
NEW. Moral self-awareness, especially of a ‘weaker’ believer vulnerable to being wounded by another’s exercise of liberty (8:7,10,12; 10:25-29). Standard совесть, but risk of a purely secular-psychological reading; state explicitly that this is a moral faculty accountable to God, formed/malformed by knowledge of him.
Stumbling Block
Approved rendering: соблазн / претыкание
Transliteration: soblazn / pretykaniye
Doctrine: Christian Liberty and Idol Meat
Original: σκάνδαλον / πρόσκομμα
Category: Liberty
NEW. A cause of another believer’s fall into sin through the careless exercise of liberty (8:9,13). Standard theological vocabulary.
Idolatry
Approved rendering: идолослужение
Transliteration: idolosluzheniye
Doctrine: Idolatry and Functional Idols
Original: εἰδωλολατρία / εἰδωλολάτρης
Category: Liberty
NEW. Idol-worship, warned against as a real spiritual danger, not merely an ancient practice (10:7,14). Connects to the baseline’s язычники caution; useful bridge to contemporary functional idols (materialism, nationalism) as application.
Discerning The Body
Approved rendering: различать (Тело)
Transliteration: razlichat’ (Telo)
Doctrine: The Lord’s Supper
Original: διακρίνων τὸ σῶμα
Category: Ordinances
NEW. Careful self-examination and recognition of the Supper’s significance before participating (11:29,31). Connects to δοκιμάζω (self-examination, v.28).
Member Of Body
Approved rendering: член (Тела)
Transliteration: chlen (Tela)
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ
Original: μέλος
Category: Church
NEW. An individual part of the body-organism metaphor, each necessary and interdependent (12:12-27). член can sound clinically institutional in modern Russian (echoing ‘член партии,’ a residual Soviet-era association, parallel to the baseline’s коллектив caution); keep the organic, living-body sense vivid.
Tongues
Approved rendering: иные языки
Transliteration: inyye yazyki
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts and the Body of Christ
Original: γλῶσσα(ι)
Category: Spiritual Gifts
NEW. Spirit-given ecstatic/unknown-language speech, discussed extensively in chapters 12 and 14. Contested practice among Russian Protestant communities themselves; secular/psychiatric framing sometimes treats such phenomena as pathological, and folk-shamanic trance associations are a further live risk in some regions. Use standard Synodal иные языки and let chapter 14’s teaching text carry the necessary doctrinal precision.
Love Agape
Approved rendering: любовь
Transliteration: lyubov’
Doctrine: Love as the Greater Way
Original: ἀγάπη
Category: Love
NEW. Self-giving, covenantal love, distinct from romantic ἔρως/φιλία, described as ‘the greater way’ surpassing gifts (13:1-13). Ordinary Russian любовь spans the same broad range as English ‘love’; an asset given the Russian literary tradition’s own category of Dostoevsky’s ‘деятельная любовь’ (active, costly love), but любовь alone does not automatically specify agapē over romantic love — context must disambiguate.
Order Properly
Approved rendering: порядок / благопристойно
Transliteration: poryadok / blagopristoyno
Doctrine: Order in Worship
Rejected alternatives: чин (bureaucratic-rank register, avoid), благочинно (collides with благочинный, the specific Orthodox clerical office of deanery overseer, avoid)
Original: τάξις / εὐσχημόνως
Category: Order
NEW. Orderly, fitting conduct in corporate worship: ‘let all things be done decently and in order’ (14:33,40). Both natural-seeming Russian choices carry unwanted institutional/clerical-office collisions; use порядок/благопристойно.
Firstfruits
Approved rendering: начаток
Transliteration: nachatok
Doctrine: The Resurrection of Christ and Believers
Original: ἀπαρχή
Category: Eschatology
NEW. The first portion of a harvest, guaranteeing the rest; Christ’s resurrection as the guarantee-pledge of believers’ future resurrection (15:20,23). Agrarian metaphor needing a brief gloss for urban readers, parallel to the milk/solid-food metaphor of chapter 3.
Received Tradition
Approved rendering: приняли
Transliteration: prinyali
Doctrine: The Gospel as Fixed Apostolic Tradition
Original: παραλαμβάνω / παρελάβετε
Category: Faith
NEW. Technical term for receiving a fixed tradition handed down (15:1,3), paired with delivered_tradition, evidencing an early creedal formula. Must be distinguished from casual ‘accepted an idea’; relevant to (but distinct from) the Orthodox category of Предание (Holy Tradition).
Delivered Tradition
Approved rendering: передал
Transliteration: peredal
Doctrine: The Gospel as Fixed Apostolic Tradition
Original: παραδίδωμι / παρέδωκα
Category: Faith
NEW. Technical term for handing down a fixed tradition (15:3), paired with received_tradition. Together they form the strongest textual evidence of a pre-Pauline creedal formula, a key apologetic point that must not be flattened into ‘I told you.‘
Ektroma Born Abnormally
Approved rendering: изверг (glossed: недоношенный)
Transliteration: izverg (nedonoshennyy)
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority
Original: ἔκτρωμα
Category: Church
NEW. Literally ‘one miscarried, a stillborn’; Paul’s self-abasing metaphor for his unworthy, ‘untimely’ inclusion among the apostles (15:8). Synodal изверг has drifted in modern Russian to mean ‘monster/brute,’ with no remaining sense of ‘prematurely/abnormally born.’ Retaining it unglossed communicates near-moral-monstrousness, not Paul’s meaning. Quote Synodal for Scripture-citation fidelity but include an explanatory gloss (недоношенный / рождённый не в срок) in expository text every time this verse is taught.
Mystery
Approved rendering: тайна
Transliteration: tayna
Doctrine: Revealed Mystery
Rejected alternatives: Таинство (avoid outside explicit sacramental discussion of the Lord’s Supper itself)
Original: μυστήριον
Category: Faith
NEW. A previously hidden truth now disclosed by revelation, used of apostolic ministry (4:1), tongues (14:2), and the resurrection transformation (15:51). Таинство specifically denotes ‘Sacrament’ in Orthodox usage and would over-sacramentalize occurrences that are simply Paul’s category of previously-hidden-now-revealed truth. Use тайна throughout.
Steward
Approved rendering: домостроитель / распорядитель
Transliteration: domostroitel’ / rasporyaditel’
Doctrine: Apostolic Authority
Original: οἰκονόμος
Category: Church
NEW. A household manager accountable to his master; Paul’s self-description as accountable steward of God’s mysteries, not an autonomous ministry celebrity (4:1-2). Emphasize accountability-to-God register.
Natural Spiritual Man
Approved rendering: душевный человек / духовный человек
Transliteration: dushevnyy chelovek / dukhovnyy chelovek
Doctrine: The Wisdom of God versus the Wisdom of the World
Original: ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος / πνευματικὸς ἄνθρωπος
Category: Wisdom
NEW. The unregenerate person lacking the Spirit’s illumination, contrasted with the Spirit-taught believer (2:14-3:4); the same contrast reapplied to the resurrection body (15:44-46). Avoid implying a settled tripartite-anthropology (body-soul-spirit) metaphysical debate; keep the contrast functional (without/with the Spirit’s illumination).
According To Scriptures
Approved rendering: по Писанию
Transliteration: po Pisaniyu
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Original: κατὰ τὰς γραφάς
Category: Covenant
NEW. Ties Christ’s death and resurrection to specific Old Testament prophecy, repeated twice in the creedal formula (15:3-4). Must not be read as generic ‘religious literature’ but as a specific, historically anchored promise-fulfillment claim.
Resurrection Appearance
Approved rendering: явился
Transliteration: yavilsya
Doctrine: The Resurrection of Christ
Original: ὤφθη
Category: Eschatology
NEW. The technical verb for a genuine, verifiable resurrection appearance, repeated for each named witness (15:5-8). Care is needed that явился reads as a real, bodily, witnessed appearance, not the language of a mystical vision or apparition (a live category in Russian Orthodox devotional literature — явление иконы, явление святого); teaching text should state explicitly that this is bodily appearance continuous with the empty tomb, not a private vision.
Fallen Asleep Death Euphemism
Approved rendering: усопший / почил
Transliteration: usopshiy / pochil
Doctrine: The Resurrection of Believers
Original: κοιμάομαι / ἐκοιμήθησαν
Category: Eschatology
NEW. A euphemism for the death of believers, presupposing a future resurrection-awakening, used repeatedly in chapter 15 (15:6,18,20,51). Усопший is a live, positive liturgical term in Russian Orthodox funeral and memorial prayers (‘о упокоении усопших’), an asset for the sleep-awaiting-resurrection sense; care must be taken not to import an unintended ‘soul sleep’ doctrinal claim beyond what the euphemism itself implies.
Last Adam
Approved rendering: последний Адам
Transliteration: posledniy Adam
Doctrine: The Resurrection of Believers
Original: ὁ ἔσχατος Ἀδάμ
Category: Christology
NEW. Christ as the second/final representative man, undoing Adam’s death-bringing headship (15:45). Federal-headship theology requiring OT (Genesis) narrative background for readers with limited continuous OT exposure outside liturgical excerpts.
Rulers Of This Age
Approved rendering: властители века сего
Transliteration: vlastiteli veka sego
Doctrine: The Wisdom of God versus the Wisdom of the World
Original: ἄρχοντες τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου
Category: Wisdom
NEW. Earthly and/or spiritual powers who, in ignorance, crucified the Lord of glory (2:6,8). Standard rendering; low ambiguity beyond the wisdom/foolishness theme it supports.
Low Risk Terms
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: благодарение
Transliteration: blagodareniye
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστία / εὐχαριστῶ
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Standard term shared across Orthodox liturgy and everyday Russian. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:4; 14:16-18; 15:57.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: общение
Transliteration: obshcheniye
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: дружба, коллектив (avoid Soviet-collective connotation)
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. коллектив must be avoided. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:9; 10:16 — 10:16 extends общение to sacramental participation in the body and blood of Christ, a sense treated separately under the Lord’s Supper Critical-risk terms below; do not let общение alone carry that additional sacramental weight without the surrounding Lord’s Supper framing.
Prophet
Approved rendering: пророк
Transliteration: prorok
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: предсказатель, экстрасенс
Original: προφήτης
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 12:28-29; 14:29,32,37 — a specific spiritual gift and church office in the corporate worship chapters.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: пророчество
Transliteration: prorochestvo
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: предсказание, гороскоп
Original: προφητεία
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 12:10; 13:2,8-9; 14:1-40 — the most highly valued spiritual gift for corporate edification, contrasted with uninterpreted tongues.
David
Approved rendering: Давид
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Original: Δαυίδ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. Background figure for OT narrative referenced indirectly in 1 Corinthians’ typological arguments (ch.10).
Israel
Approved rendering: Израиль
Transliteration: Izrail’
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Original: Ἰσραήλ
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. 1 Corinthians occurrence: 10:18, ‘Israel according to the flesh’ in the wilderness-example argument; same contemporary nation-state sensitivity as the Romans baseline applies.
Exhort
Approved rendering: увещевать
Transliteration: uveshchevat’
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Original: παρακαλέω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package; unchanged. 1 Corinthians occurrences: 1:10; 4:16; 16:15 — opens the unity appeal and closes the letter’s instructions.
Marriage
Approved rendering: брак
Transliteration: brak
Doctrine: Marriage and Singleness
Original: γάμος
Category: Marriage
NEW. The marital union/institution, addressed extensively in chapter 7. Standard term, low ambiguity.
Maranatha
Approved rendering: Маран-афа (Господь наш, гряди!)
Transliteration: Maran-afa
Doctrine: Closing Benediction and Christ’s Return
Original: μαρὰν ἀθά
Category: Church
NEW. Aramaic liturgical acclamation, ‘Our Lord, come!’ preserved untranslated in the Greek text (16:22). Transliterate as Маран-афа per Synodal, paired with a Russian gloss, matching the baseline’s established pattern for untranslated Aramaic address terms (cf. Авва).
Collection
Approved rendering: сбор пожертвований
Transliteration: sbor pozhertvovaniy
Doctrine: Christian Stewardship and Giving
Original: λογία
Category: Church
NEW. The gathered offering for the Jerusalem believers (16:1-2). Practical stewardship term, low doctrinal risk.
Holy Kiss
Approved rendering: святое целование
Transliteration: svyatoye tselovaniye
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Original: φίλημα ἅγιον
Category: Church
NEW. A ritual greeting of peace among believers (16:20). Positive resonance with the living Orthodox Paschal greeting-and-kiss custom (‘Христос воскресе!’ / ‘Воистину воскресе!’) as an asset for making the practice intuitive.