Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis — Acts 1–28 (English → Russian)
Purpose and Method
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Step 8 for the Acts curriculum. It builds directly on the Romans baseline translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json / doctrine_risk_registry.json (language authority, reused without contradiction) and on this curriculum’s own 07_semantic_analysis.md and 08_core_glossary.md. Its purpose is narrower than the glossary: rather than cataloguing every term, it diagnoses where the Russian language itself creates translation risk — through missing vocabulary, crowded semantic neighborhoods, or genuine transliteration/paraphrase tradeoffs — across the entire book of Acts, chapters 1–28, with the core passage (Acts 2:1–41, Pentecost) as theological anchor rather than scope boundary.
Full-book coverage confirmation: every chapter of Acts was reviewed for gap analysis purposes. Chapters that surface no new linguistic gap beyond terms already fixed in the baseline or fully documented in 08_core_glossary.md are listed in the Chapter Coverage Ledger (Section 5) as explicitly reviewed, not silently omitted.
Section 1 — Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each of the nine curriculum doctrines, this matrix records the available Russian term(s), their specific weaknesses for this doctrine, and the recommended translation strategy. This supersedes generic dictionary equivalence with a doctrine-aware strategy.
| # | Doctrine | Available Russian Term(s) | Weakness for This Doctrine | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Holy Spirit and Pentecost | Святой Дух; Пятидесятница; исполниться Духа Святого; (иные) языки | Пятидесятница is the exact name of both an Orthodox feast (Троица) and a Russian Protestant denomination (Пятидесятники); “иные языки” is a live Charismatic/Pentecostal identity marker in Russian religious discourse; “исполниться Духом” risks being read as either a one-time inaugural event or a repeatable personal experience depending on the reader’s tradition. | Anchor every occurrence explicitly to the historical, dateable Acts 2 event (“в тот день,” “впервые”). Do not silently resolve the repeatability question; narrate Spirit-fillings (2:4, 4:8, 4:31, 9:17, 13:9) as historical empowerments for specific tasks. Show tongues as real intelligible languages via the hearer-confirmation detail (2:6,8,11) before any doctrinal commentary. |
| 2 | The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles | язычники; Израиль; Бог нелицеприятен; нечистый | язычники over-imports a “pagan/idolater” sense onto Cornelius, a God-fearing monotheist; нелицеприятен is archaic and may be misread or skipped by less-literate readers; Израиль collides with the modern nation-state name. | Pair язычники consistently with an explicit “no partiality” framing (10:34-35) so the ethnic-religious gulf being bridged is clear rather than assumed. Gloss нелицеприятен on first use. Clarify Израиль’s covenant-people referent contextually wherever geopolitical confusion is plausible (esp. 1:6, 28:20). |
| 3 | Repentance and Baptism | покаяние/покаяться; крещение/крестить; во оставление грехов | покаяние collides with the Orthodox sacrament of confession (исповедь/таинство покаяния); крещение sits inside a live three-way doctrinal dispute (sacramental-regenerative / believer’s-testimony / baptism-as-causally-necessary); “во оставление грехов” (Synodal 2:38) can be read as teaching baptismal causality for forgiveness without further framing. | Explicitly state the curriculum’s own position on the repentance→baptism→forgiveness sequence at first occurrence (Acts 2:38) rather than letting either term default to a reader’s inherited tradition. Frame покаяние as direct, personal turning available to every hearer without priestly mediation, while not polemicizing against confession as a practice. |
| 4 | The Church as Community | церковь; общение; преломление хлеба; имели всё общее; присоединяться | церковь defaults to “the [Orthodox] Church” institutionally or a building; преломление хлеба is ambiguous between ordinary shared meals and formal Eucharist and carries strong liturgical-Eucharistic weight in Orthodox usage; “имели всё общее” collides head-on with Soviet collectivization rhetoric. | Frame церковь explicitly as the gathered local community of believers at first occurrence in this curriculum (2:47, 5:11). Leave преломление хлеба’s meal/Eucharist scope unresolved rather than narrowing it by translation choice; state explicitly in exposition. Frame “всё общее” as voluntary, love-motivated generosity, never state-mandated collectivization — avoid both unintended endorsement and unintended attack on that history. |
| 5 | Apostolic Authority and Miracles | апостол; знамения и чудеса; сила Божия; возложение рук | знамения и чудеса risks blending with post-Soviet television-psychic/“чудесное исцеление” culture; возложение рук risks narrowing by default into the Orthodox ordination (хиротония) rite specifically. | Present signs/wonders explicitly as divine attestation of the specific redemptive act in Christ, distinct from folk-healer or psychic “wonders.” Show возложение рук’s varied functional range in Acts (commissioning, healing, Spirit-impartation) rather than assuming a single fixed sacramental sense. |
| 6 | Persecution and Bold Witness | дерзновение; свидетель/мученик; синедрион | дерзновение’s devotional/liturgical familiarity (also from Hebrews) risks flattening into pious cliché disconnected from real arrest/flogging/death stakes; свидетель→мученик semantic shift must be tracked precisely across the book to avoid premature or retrospectively-missing use. | Restore дерзновение’s real-risk stakes in exposition at each major occurrence (4:13,29,31; 5:41; 14:3; 28:31). Apply мученик only from 22:20 onward (retrospective of Stephen); свидетель exclusively before that point. |
| 7 | Conversion of Paul | обратиться/обращение; избранный сосуд; Путь; Назорей | Путь risks blending into contemporary New Age “духовный путь” spiritual-marketplace language; Назорей is doubly dangerous — it names both Jesus-of-Nazareth language and the wholly unrelated Nazirite vow of ch. 21, in confusingly similar Synodal forms. | Anchor Путь explicitly to the specific, exclusive, apostolic-doctrine-bound early movement (9:2, 24:14) each time it is introduced. Gloss every occurrence of Назорей/назорейство to disambiguate “one from Nazareth” (2:22, 24:5) from “one under a Numbers 6 vow” (21:23). |
| 8 | Justification apart from the Law | оправдание; благодать; закон; обрезание; ярмо | закон defaults toward modern civil-law associations rather than Mosaic Torah; ярмо’s near-synonym иго is loaded with unrelated Mongol/Tatar-Yoke national trauma; оправдание risks collapsing into прощение грехов (mere forgiveness), losing the forensic sense. | State the forensic “declared righteous” sense of оправдание explicitly at Acts 13:39, distinct from прощение грехов. Use ярмо, never иго, for Peter’s burden-metaphor at 15:10. Keep закон’s OT/Mosaic referent explicit against default civil-law reading throughout chs. 13, 15, 21. |
| 9 | The Great Commission Fulfilled | миссия/благовестие; надежда; беспрепятственно | миссионерство carries live legal/cultural suspicion (2016 “Yarovaya law” restrictions on unregistered evangelistic activity); беспрепятственно’s triumphant force sits in poignant tension with that same contemporary restriction. | Prefer благовестие over миссия/миссионерство in most exposition to reduce legal/cultural loading. Preserve беспрепятственно’s full triumphant force per doctrinal-preservation rules, framed pastorally (a statement about God’s sovereign freedom to work, not a claim about guaranteed present legal freedom) rather than defiantly. |
Section 2 — Missing Vocabulary (Genuine Lexical Gaps)
These are concepts for which no single existing Russian word cleanly covers the intended sense, requiring periphrasis, compounding, or a chosen “least-bad” option with mandatory glossing. Distinct from Section 3 (where a word exists but is dangerously crowded).
| Concept | Greek | Gap Description | Recommended Rendering | Gap-Closing Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Author/Pioneer of Life | ἀρχηγός | No Russian word carries “originator/founder/pioneer” without either a mundane bureaucratic sense (Начальник = “boss”) or a totalitarian cult-of-personality sense (Вождь = Stalin/Lenin epithet). | Начальник жизни with mandatory theological gloss, OR periphrastic Родоначальник жизни / Основатель жизни | Never leave unglossed. First occurrence (3:15) must carry an explanatory clause; 5:31 (“Начальник и Спаситель”) must repeat the gloss, not assume retention. |
| The Servant (Isaiah’s παῖς) | παῖς (τοῦ θεοῦ) | Синодал “Отрок” is archaic to the point of being misread by secular/younger readers as simply “the boy/child Jesus,” entirely losing the Isaianic Servant title. | Отрок (retain Synodal register for Scripture citation) + explicit gloss “Отрок — здесь: Слуга/Раб Божий, ср. Ис. 53” in expository text | Gloss at every occurrence (3:13, 3:26, 4:27, 4:30), not only the first, since the misreading risk is high and recurring. |
| Chosen Instrument/Vessel | σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς | No single Russian noun holds both “sovereignly selected” and “a tool/vessel used instrumentally, not honored for itself” simultaneously. | избранный сосуд (compound, retained) | Keep as a fixed compound; do not split into separate sentences that lose either half of the image. |
| Overseer/Bishop (non-hierarchical) | ἐπίσκοπος | No neutral Russian word for a local, plural, non-sacerdotal overseer exists that isn’t either colorless (управляющий) or loaded (епископ = Orthodox top-tier hierarch). | блюститель | Explicit note wherever used that Acts 20 treats ἐπίσκοπος/πρεσβύτερος as the same plural office, not a distinct higher rank. |
| Sect (as accusatory label) | αἵρεσις | секта is available but semantically overshoots αἵρεσις’s relatively neutral Koine sense; no neutral Russian equivalent for “a distinguishable religious party/school” exists that also carries any of αἵρεσις’s later pejorative shading. | толк / учение, with секта permissible only inside an explicit editorial framing note about Tertullus’s rhetorical intent (24:5) | Never let секта stand unflagged; treat every occurrence (5:17, 15:5, 24:5,14, 26:5, 28:22) as requiring a translator’s framing note distinguishing neutral party-language from later Russian legal/pejorative usage. |
| Nazirite vow (Numbers 6, distinct from “Nazarene”) | εὐχή / ἁγνίζω (implied Nazirite practice) | No distinct Russian lexeme separates this from Ναζωραῖος (“of Nazareth”); Synodal tradition uses confusingly overlapping Назорей/назорейство forms for both. | Назорей retained but with disambiguating gloss every occurrence, e.g., “обет назорейства (Чис. 6) — не путать с прозвищем ‘Назорей’ = ‘из Назарета‘“ | Treat as a standing translator’s-note requirement at both 21:23 and every prior “Jesus of Nazareth” occurrence in the same document. |
| God-fearer (technical historical category) | φοβούμενος τὸν θεόν | No single Russian word names this intermediate Gentile-sympathizer-with-Judaism status distinct from either “believer” or “pagan.” | боящийся Бога / чтущий Бога + brief historical gloss | Gloss at first occurrence (10:2) as a defined pre-conversion historical category, not an ordinary devotional phrase. |
| Whole Counsel of God | πᾶσα ἡ βουλή | совет (the most literal cognate) means “advice/committee” in ordinary modern Russian, losing “authoritative purposive will” entirely. | вся воля Божия (not “весь совет Божий”) | No further gloss needed once воля is fixed as the noun of choice; flag any drafted deviation back to совет as an error. |
Section 3 — Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Fencing
These are cases where a Russian word already exists and is the correct, established choice, but occupies a semantic space crowded by a rival religious, political, cultural, or denominational referent. “Fencing” here means the specific textual/expository technique required to keep the term inside Acts’ intended sense.
| Russian Term | Doctrine/Context | Crowding Neighbor(s) | Fencing Technique |
|---|---|---|---|
| покаяние | Repentance | Orthodox sacrament of confession (таинство покаяния/исповедь) | State explicitly, every major occurrence (2:38, 3:19, 17:30, 20:21, 26:20), that this is a direct, personal turning available to every hearer without required priestly mediation — without polemicizing against confession as a valid practice elsewhere in church life. |
| крещение | Baptism | (a) Orthodox sacramental/infant regenerative baptism; (b) Evangelical/Baptist testimony-baptism; (c) Restorationist baptism-necessary-for-forgiveness reading | State the curriculum’s own reading of the 2:38 repentance→baptism→forgiveness sequence explicitly once, near first occurrence, rather than leaving it to silently resolve toward whichever tradition the reader already holds. |
| Пятидесятница | Pentecost | (a) Orthodox feast of Пятидесятница/Троица; (b) Russian Pentecostal denomination self-name (Пятидесятники) | Anchor every occurrence to the specific historical, dateable Acts 2 narrative event (“в день Пятидесятницы, когда…”), not the recurring liturgical feast or the denominational identity. |
| (иные) языки | Tongues | Contemporary Russian Charismatic/Pentecostal identity marker (“говорение на языках”) | Show as real, known human languages confirmed by hearers’ own native tongues (2:6,8,11) before any doctrinal commentary; avoid taking an implicit denominational side on modern glossolalia practice. |
| волхв | Sorcery (Simon, Elymas) | The reverent Magi of Matthew 2 (also волхвы in Russian Nativity tradition/iconography) | Explicit contextual gloss each occurrence (8:9, 13:6,8) clarifying this is condemned occult sorcery, unrelated to the revered Nativity figures of the same Russian word. |
| Назорей | Nazarene title | Unrelated Nazirite vow (ch. 21) sharing near-identical Synodal forms | See Section 2 entry; disambiguating gloss required at every occurrence of either sense. |
| секта | ”Sect” accusation | Modern Russian legal/anti-extremism category, frequently applied polemically to minority Evangelical/Protestant groups today | Avoid unless inside explicit editorial framing; prefer толк/учение. See Section 2. |
| пресвитер | Elder | Orthodox ordained-priest rank (middle tier of three-tier hierarchy) | Explicit clarifying context every occurrence: Acts describes a plural, congregationally-accountable team, not a sacramentally distinct priestly caste. |
| епископ (avoided) | Overseer | Highest-ranking Orthodox hierarch, apostolic succession in an episcopal-hierarchical sense | Do not use unqualified; use блюститель (Section 2). |
| диакон | Deacon/service | Orthodox ordained clerical rank (lowest tier of three-tier hierarchy) | Reserve диакон for later, explicitly developed-office contexts; use служение for Acts 6’s ad hoc, functional appointment. |
| иго (avoided) | Yoke metaphor | ”Татаро-монгольское иго” — major Russian national-trauma reference (13th–15th c.) | Use ярмо instead; never иго, to avoid importing an unrelated historical-political resonance into Peter’s metaphor (15:10). |
| имели всё общее | Common possessions | Soviet Marxist-Leninist collectivization rhetoric (“всё общее,” collectivized property) | Frame explicitly as voluntary, Spirit-motivated generosity, never state-mandated; address the parallel directly rather than hoping readers won’t notice it. |
| начальник / вождь | Author of Life | начальник = mundane “workplace boss”; вождь = Stalin/Lenin cult-of-personality title | See Section 2; mandatory gloss, prefer periphrastic alternatives where space allows. |
| благодать (baseline-inherited) | Grace | Orthodox Palamite theosis/uncreated-energies framework | Reinforced in Acts by 15:11’s direct law/grace ruling; state the “apart from works” contrast explicitly at this verse as the clearest Acts parallel to Romans. |
| освящение (baseline-inherited) | Sanctification | обожение (theosis), sacramentally mediated | If theosis is referenced comparatively at 20:32/26:18, name it explicitly; never blend silently. |
| оправдание (baseline-inherited) | Justification | Absence of a developed Orthodox forensic-declaration category; risk of collapse into прощение грехов | Acts 13:39 must state the forensic sense explicitly and distinguish it from ch. 2’s forgiveness-of-sins language. |
| церковь (baseline-inherited) | Church | Institutional/building default (Russian Orthodox Church) | Frame explicitly as the gathered local community at first Acts occurrence (2:47); reinforce at 20:17-28’s local-elder narrative. |
| идол/идолослужение | Idolatry | Orthodox icon veneration (a live, sensitive inter-Christian question) | Present strictly as condemnation of pagan image-worship (17:16, 19:23-41); never extend by implication to icon practice. |
| дух прорицания | Spirit of divination | Post-Soviet folk-occult culture (экстрасенсы, гадалки, ясновидящие) | Show as explicitly demonic and exorcised (16:16-18), not a neutral “gift” — reinforces baseline’s caution against экстрасенсорные способности. |
Section 4 — Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
Acts introduces several terms where the choice between (a) transliterating/retaining a loanword, (b) using an established Synodal periphrasis, or (c) coining a new descriptive phrase carries real doctrinal or cultural weight. This table records the decision and rationale for each borderline case.
| Term | Option A: Transliterate/Loanword | Option B: Established Synodal Periphrasis | Option C: New Descriptive Phrase | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pentecost | Пентекост (unused, unfamiliar) | Пятидесятница | — | B | Пятидесятница is the deeply established Synodal/Orthodox/Protestant term; a transliteration would be unrecognizable and would forfeit the existing cultural anchor entirely. Manage the risk (feast/denomination crowding) via fencing (Section 3), not by avoiding the word. |
| Messiah | Мессия (retained per baseline) | Христос alone | — | A + reuse baseline pairing | Baseline already fixes Мессия/Христос as a paired rendering; Acts reuses this exactly, resurfacing the fulfillment sense explicitly at 2:36, 9:22, 17:3, 18:5,28. |
| Sanhedrin | синедрион | ”Верховный совет,” “судебный совет” | — | A | синедрион is lexically established and unambiguous; a periphrasis would sacrifice precision without reducing the real risk (antisemitism-sensitivity), which is handled by expository framing, not word choice. |
| The Way (ἡ ὁδός) | — | Путь (capitalized) | “движение последователей Иисуса” | B, with mandatory anchoring clause | Capitalized Путь is the natural Synodal-register choice and preserves the text’s own self-designation; the New Age crowding risk (Section 3) is fenced by an explicit anchoring clause at each occurrence, not solved by switching to an awkward descriptive phrase that would itself need explaining. |
| Author/Pioneer of Life (ἀρχηγός) | — | Начальник жизни (archaic Synodal) | Родоначальник/Основатель жизни | C preferred where space allows; B with mandatory gloss otherwise | Neither existing Russian option is safe unglossed (Section 2); a periphrastic coinage reduces the бюрократ/вождь collision risk more reliably than retaining the archaic Synodal noun, but the Synodal form should still appear in direct Scripture citation with a gloss for continuity with the wider Russian Bible tradition. |
| Overseer (ἐπίσκοπος) | епископ | — | блюститель | C | See Section 2/3; a functional coinage is required specifically to avoid both overstating early-church structure toward Orthodox hierarchy and understating the Orthodox episcopate by flattening comparison. |
| Sect (αἵρεσις, accusatory sense) | секта | толк / учение | — | B, with C-style editorial framing note where секта’s absence would lose Tertullus’s rhetorical intent | Establishing толк/учение as the default avoids importing modern legal/pejorative weight; a framing note (not a lexical choice) carries the residual “this was intended as an insult” information at 24:5,14; 28:22. |
| The Servant (παῖς) | — | Отрок | ”Слуга/Раб Божий” | B, always paired with a gloss | Retaining Синодал’s Отрок preserves continuity with the existing Russian Bible text (important for cross-reference and memorization), but it cannot stand alone given the high misreading risk (Section 2); the gloss functions as the necessary paraphrase companion rather than a replacement. |
| Nazirite vow / Nazarene (Ναζωραῖος / nazir) | — | Назорей (retained, both senses) | Separate descriptive terms for each sense | B, with disambiguating gloss rather than C | Introducing two different Russian words where Synodal tradition uses one would create inconsistency with the wider existing Russian Bible text that most readers already know; disambiguation by gloss is safer than lexical innovation here. |
| Yoke (ζυγός) | — | ярмо | — | B (specific lexical choice within the periphrasis family) | Between the two native Russian options for “yoke,” ярмо is chosen specifically over иго to avoid the Mongol/Tatar-Yoke historical collision (Section 3); no transliteration option exists or is needed. |
| God-fearer (φοβούμενος τὸν θεόν) | — | боящийся Бога / чтущий Бога | ”сочувствующий иудаизму” | B, with historical gloss | The literal Synodal-style periphrasis is intelligible and dignified; a fully descriptive coinage risks sounding like a modern sociological label rather than Scripture text. |
Section 5 — Chapter Coverage Ledger (Full-Book Confirmation)
Per the full-book coverage mandate, every chapter of Acts was reviewed for linguistic-gap purposes. Chapters not separately itemized above surface no new lexical gap or crowded-neighborhood risk beyond what is already fixed in the baseline Romans package or fully documented in 08_core_glossary.md; they are recorded here as explicitly reviewed.
| Chapter(s) | Gap-Analysis Status |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reviewed in full — see ascension (вознесение), lot/жребий, office/служение entries above and in glossary; no additional gaps beyond baseline “power of God,” “kingdom of God.” |
| 2 | Core passage; fully treated in Sections 1–4 (Pentecost, tongues, repentance, baptism, forgiveness of sins, fellowship, breaking of bread, common possessions, “those being saved”). |
| 3 | Reviewed — “Holy and Righteous One,” “the Servant,” “Author of Life,” “times of ignorance” fully treated above; no further gaps. |
| 4 | Reviewed — “no other name,” boldness, all-things-in-common (parallel to ch. 2); no new gaps beyond those already documented. |
| 5 | Reviewed — lying to the Spirit, obey-God-rather-than-men, sect (neutral use); fully treated above. |
| 6 | Reviewed — deacon/service distinction fully treated; stiff-necked forward-reference to ch. 7 noted, no additional gap. |
| 7 | Reviewed — stiff-necked, covenant background, witness→martyr narrative event (retrospectively named only at 22:20); no additional lexical gap at this chapter itself. |
| 8 | Reviewed — sorcery/волхв (Simon) fully treated; no additional gaps. |
| 9 | Reviewed — chosen instrument, the Way, saints (9:13); fully treated above. |
| 10–11 | Reviewed — unclean/common, God shows no partiality, God-fearer, Gentiles inclusion; fully treated above. |
| 12 | Reviewed — no new load-bearing terms beyond baseline persecution/church vocabulary already covered. |
| 13 | Reviewed — justification (13:39), set apart for ministry, ordained to eternal life, sorcery (Elymas); fully treated above. |
| 14 | Reviewed — elder appointment (14:23) forward-referencing ch. 15/20 gap already treated; no new standalone gap. |
| 15 | Reviewed — circumcision, yoke, grace (15:11), apostolic decree, sect (neutral use); fully treated above. |
| 16 | Reviewed — Roman citizen, spirit of divination, John’s baptism forward-reference; fully treated above. |
| 17 | Reviewed — unknown god, idolatry, times of ignorance (17:30 parallel to 3:17); fully treated above. |
| 18 | Reviewed — John’s baptism (18:25) fully treated; Christian name forward-reference to 11:26 already covered. |
| 19 | Reviewed — John’s baptism, tongues (19:6), sorcery/magic culture (19:19), idolatry (Artemis riot); fully treated above. |
| 20 | Reviewed — overseer/bishop, elder, shepherd/flock, whole counsel of God, purchased-with-blood; fully treated above — highest concentration of new gaps outside ch. 2–3. |
| 21 | Reviewed — Nazirite vow/Назорей disambiguation, circumcision controversy continuation; fully treated above. |
| 22 | Reviewed — witness→martyr transition (22:20), calling on the name of the Lord, the Way; fully treated above. |
| 23 | Reviewed — resurrection as pre-existing Pharisee/Sadducee dispute (apologetic note only, no new lexical gap); hope (23:6) forward-referenced. |
| 24 | Reviewed — sect (accusatory use, 24:5,14), hope (24:15); fully treated above. |
| 25 | Reviewed — Roman citizen/appeal-to-Caesar continuation; no new standalone gap. |
| 26 | Reviewed — power of Satan/kingdom dualism, hope (26:6-7), sect (26:5, neutral use); fully treated above. |
| 27 | Reviewed — faith/crisis-confidence use (27:25), breaking of bread (27:35), hope (27:20); no new standalone gap beyond those already treated under faith/breaking of bread. |
| 28 | Reviewed — sect (28:22, accusatory use), hope (28:20), without hindrance (28:31, book’s closing word); fully treated above. |
Section 6 — Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined doctrinal weight and likelihood of silent misreading, drawing on Sections 1–4 above. This ranking is intended to drive Phase 2 review-routing priority alongside doctrine_risk_registry.json.
- крещение (Baptism, Acts 2:38) — Three live, mutually exclusive Russian doctrinal traditions collide at the curriculum’s single most-quoted verse. Highest risk: silent doctrinal drift in either sacramental-causal or purely-symbolic direction. Human theologian review mandatory.
- покаяние (Repentance) — Direct collision with the Orthodox sacrament of confession; risk of readers assuming priest-mediated ritual is required where Luke describes direct, personal turning. Human theologian review mandatory.
- оправдание vs. прощение грехов (Justification vs. Forgiveness of Sins, Acts 13:39 vs. 2:38) — Real risk that the two Acts passages get flattened into a single undifferentiated “forgiveness” concept, losing Acts 13:39’s specifically forensic parallel to Romans. Human theologian review mandatory.
- Назорей (Nazarene/Nazirite collision, chs. 2, 21, 24) — A structural translation-tradition problem (Synodal form overlap) rather than a single mistranslation; every occurrence of either sense requires active disambiguation, and the risk compounds silently if any single occurrence is missed. Human theologian review mandatory.
- начальник/вождь (Author of Life, 3:15, 5:31) — Both available native options are actively misleading (bureaucratic vs. totalitarian-cult register); the gap can only be closed by consistent, repeated glossing, which is easy to omit inconsistently across a multi-lesson curriculum. Human theologian review mandatory.
- епископ/пресвитер/диакон (Church office terms, chs. 6, 14, 20) — Risk of importing a fully developed three-tier Orthodox ordained hierarchy onto Acts’ plural, functional, early-stage leadership structure; errors here shape readers’ entire ecclesiology, not just a single doctrine. Human theologian review mandatory (per baseline overseer_bishop entry).
- секта (Sect, chs. 5, 15, 24, 26, 28) — Contemporary Russian legal/anti-extremism weight is far heavier than Koine αἵρεσις; mishandling this term risks the curriculum unintentionally reinforcing, rather than critiquing, a live pattern of polemical labeling against minority Evangelical/Protestant groups. Human theologian review mandatory.
- всё общее (All things in common, 2:44-45, 4:32-35) — Direct verbal overlap with Marxist-Leninist collectivization rhetoric; risk of the passage being read as either covert political endorsement or, defensively, being under-taught to avoid the association, losing genuine content. Native speaker + theologian review recommended.
- (иные) языки / Пятидесятница (Tongues/Pentecost, ch. 2) — Both terms are simultaneously correct, established, and denominationally load-bearing in contemporary Russian religious identity politics (Пятидесятники); risk of the curriculum being read as taking an implicit side in a live intra-Protestant debate. Native speaker review, theologian consult recommended.
- преломление хлеба (Breaking of bread, 2:42,46; 20:7,11; 27:35) — Genuine textual ambiguity (ordinary meal vs. Eucharist) compounded by a Russian phrase with strong independent liturgical-Eucharistic weight; silent narrowing in either direction changes readers’ sacramental expectations. Native speaker review recommended.
- волхв (Sorcery vs. Magi, chs. 8, 13, 19) — Lower doctrinal stakes than items above, but a vivid, concrete confusion risk (condemned sorcerer vs. revered Nativity figures) that could produce a jarring or comic misreading if unglossed. Native speaker review recommended.
- иго avoidance for ярмо (Yoke, 15:10) — Narrow, single-verse risk, but a wrong choice here would import an entirely unrelated national-trauma narrative into Peter’s argument at the Jerusalem Council. Automated/native-speaker validation sufficient once the ярмо rule is fixed in translation memory.
Summary for Phase 2 Handoff
This gap analysis identifies 7 genuine lexical gaps (Section 2), 18 crowded semantic neighborhoods requiring active fencing (Section 3), 10 transliteration/paraphrase decision points (Section 4), and a 12-item ranked ambiguity list (Section 6) to drive review routing. All recommendations here are consistent with and subordinate to the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and this curriculum’s own bible_term_registry.json / doctrine_risk_registry.json; none of the strategies above authorize any deviation from a term already fixed in those files. New terms proposed here for the first time (e.g., блюститель, ярмо-over-иго, Родоначальник жизни as a C-option) must be written into translation memory before Phase 2 segment translation begins, per the Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
See 07_semantic_analysis.md for full verse-by-verse reasoning and 08_core_glossary.md for the complete term inventory underlying this analysis.