Doctrine Analysis
Doctrine Analysis — Ephesians (English → Russian)
This document executes PRD Phase 1 Step 4 (full doctrine matrix) for the Ephesians curriculum. It is fully consistent with assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json: every doctrine name, risk tier, and review routing below is identical to that registry. This file adds the chapter-by-chapter mapping the registry itself does not provide in table form, and confirms full-book coverage per the PRD mandate: Ephesians 2:1-10 is the theological anchor of the curriculum, not the boundary of this analysis. Every chapter, 1 through 6, is documented below with its load-bearing doctrinal content.
Risk tier definitions (identical to baseline and to the Ephesians registry):
- Critical — Mistranslation destroys essential doctrine or collides with a live, named theological controversy (East-West divergence, or direct lexical collision with a named Orthodox sacrament). Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — Significant theological confusion, unintended sectarian signal, or cultural/political/historical sensitivity. Human theologian review required.
- Medium — Reduces clarity or invites registerial/cultural misreading but preserves essential meaning. Native speaker review recommended.
- Low — Minor misunderstanding or imprecision. Automated review sufficient.
Chapter 1 (1:1–23) — Election, Redemption, Sealing, and the Church’s Glory
Chapter 1 is doctrinally dense: it establishes the letter’s Trinitarian, predestinarian, and ecclesial vocabulary that chapters 2–6 will build on.
| Doctrine | Supporting Passages (Ephesians) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election and Predestination in Christ | 1:4-5, 1:11 | Critical | Unavoidable προορίζω/предопределил vocabulary with no developed Orthodox parallel; risks either false comfort or unsettling determinism if unframed. | Human theologian |
| Adoption and Inheritance in God’s Family | 1:5, 1:11, 1:14, 1:18 | High | усыновление/наследие must overcome Soviet/post-Soviet orphanage-culture negative associations; stress permanence and full inheritance rights. | Human theologian |
| Sealing and Assurance by the Holy Spirit | 1:13-14 | Critical | Near-verbatim collision with Chrismation’s liturgical “печать дара Духа Святаго”; must state the gospel-faith moment (not a sacramental rite) as the mechanism. | Human theologian |
| The Mystery of Christ Revealed | 1:9-10 | Critical | тайна’s root collision with Таинство (Sacrament) must be explicitly disambiguated at first occurrence in the letter. | Human theologian |
| The Manifold Wisdom of God | 1:8, 1:17 | High | премудрость risks being heard through Russian Софиология (Sophiology), a controversial quasi-hypostatic treatment of divine Wisdom. | Human theologian |
| Redemption and Forgiveness of Sins | 1:7 | High | искупление’s Orthodox “ransom” framing differs from strict penal-substitution; state the specific sense (through his blood, tied to forgiveness) explicitly. | Human theologian |
| The Glory and Praise of God | 1:6, 1:12, 1:14 | Medium | слава risks flattening into the casual exclamation register (“слава Богу”); restore weighty theological sense as the stated goal of election. | Native speaker review |
| The Church as the Body of Christ | 1:22-23 | High | тело risks conflation with the Eucharistic “Тело Христово”; church’s cornerstone occurrence in the letter, sets frame for chs. 4-5. | Human theologian |
| The Power of God at Work in Believers | 1:19-20 | Critical | δύναμις/ἐνέργεια pairing tempts энергия (Palamite uncreated-energies term); must render действие/действующая сила. | Human theologian |
| Cosmic Spiritual Authorities and Powers | 1:21 | High | Personal, hierarchical spiritual-authority language must be kept distinct from post-Soviet folk-occult categories. | Human theologian |
| Thanksgiving and Prayer | 1:16 | Low | Standard vocabulary, shared with Orthodox liturgical usage. | Automated review |
| Gospel Proclamation | 1:13 | Medium | Евангелие risks being heard as “the book” rather than living proclamation. | Native speaker review |
Coverage note: Chapter 1 reviewed in full; every verse contributes to at least one doctrine above.
Chapter 2 (2:1–22) — Core Passage: Salvation by Grace (2:1-10) and Unity in One New Humanity (2:11-22)
This chapter contains the curriculum’s theological anchor, Ephesians 2:1-10, and its direct doctrinal extension into Jewish-Gentile unity.
| Doctrine | Supporting Passages (Ephesians) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salvation by Grace through Faith | 2:1-10 (core passage) | Critical | Sharpest grace/works antithesis in the letter; the ground (v.9, excluded) vs. fruit (v.10, affirmed) distinction must be stated explicitly, never softened to “not by works alone.” | Human theologian |
| Spiritual Deadness and Total Depravity | 2:1-3 | High | Total incapacity claim is in real tension with Orthodox synergism’s assumed pre-grace cooperating capacity; secular idiom also flattens мёртвый into figure of speech. | Human theologian |
| Cosmic Spiritual Authorities and Powers | 2:2 | High | ”Prince of the power of the air” language must avoid folk-occult register. | Human theologian |
| Walking in Newness of Life | 2:2, 2:10 | High | First two occurrences of the letter’s structural περιπατέω motif; must be recognized as connected across the whole book even where Russian verb choice varies. | Human theologian |
| Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity | 2:11-22 | Critical | The letter’s central extended treatment of this theme; inherits full antisemitism-history caution from the Romans baseline. Central image “dividing wall of hostility” (2:14) requires unambiguous rendering. | Human theologian |
| Reconciliation with God and with One Another | 2:14-18 | High | Double reconciliation (vertical + horizontal) must not be reduced to only the vertical dimension already familiar from Romans’ peace-with-God doctrine. | Human theologian |
| The Church as God’s Temple | 2:19-22 | High | храм is the everyday word for a physical Orthodox church building; risks undercutting the very “not a building” point Paul is making. | Human theologian |
Coverage note: Chapter 2 reviewed in full, including the core passage 2:1-10 and its immediate extension 2:11-22; this is the theological anchor of the curriculum but is not treated as the boundary of analysis — chapters 1 and 3-6 receive equally full treatment below.
Chapter 3 (3:1–21) — The Mystery Explained; Prayer for Strength
| Doctrine | Supporting Passages (Ephesians) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Mystery of Christ Revealed | 3:2-9 | Critical | Fullest exposition of the тайна/Таинство collision risk in the letter; Paul’s own definition (previously hidden, now disclosed) must be foregrounded. | Human theologian |
| Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity | 3:6 | Critical | ”Fellow heirs, fellow members, fellow partakers” is the tightest single-verse summary of full, equal, undivided sharing; ties directly to адoption/inheritance vocabulary. | Human theologian |
| The Manifold Wisdom of God | 3:10 | High | Same Sophiology-collision risk as 1:8,17, now applied to the church as the display-vehicle of that wisdom. | Human theologian |
| The Power of God at Work in Believers | 3:7, 3:16, 3:20 | Critical | Repeated δύναμις/ἐνέργεια language in Paul’s prayer; энергия substitution must never occur. | Human theologian |
| Gospel Proclamation | 3:6-7 | Medium | служитель (minister) for Paul’s self-designation must not be rendered диакон, which implies formal ordained office. | Native speaker review |
| The Glory and Praise of God | 3:13, 3:16, 3:21 | Medium | Doxological climax of the chapter; guard against casual-exclamation flattening. | Native speaker review |
| Thanksgiving and Prayer | 3:14-19 (Paul’s prayer) | Low | Standard intercessory-prayer register. | Automated review |
Coverage note: Chapter 3 reviewed in full.
Chapter 4 (4:1–32) — One Body, Gifts, Unity, and the New Self
| Doctrine | Supporting Passages (Ephesians) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unity of the Faith and One Baptism | 4:3-6, 4:13 | High | единство risks being heard through the lens of institutional экуменизм, viewed with suspicion in official Orthodox discourse; крещение separately raises the East-West/intra-Protestant baptismal-regeneration fault line. | Human theologian |
| Gifts for Building Up the Church | 4:7-13 | Medium | евангелист and пастор/пастырь carry the letter’s sharpest ministry-office translation choices (collision with the four canonical Gospel-writers; Orthodox-priestly vs. Protestant-congregational signal). | Native speaker review |
| The Church as the Body of Christ | 4:4, 4:12, 4:15-16 | High | Same тело/Тело Христово caution as 1:22-23, now applied to organic growth-and-maturity imagery. | Human theologian |
| Walking in Newness of Life | 4:1, 4:17 | High | Continues the structural περιπατέω motif; consistency of recognition required across the whole letter. | Human theologian |
| Putting Off the Old Self and Putting On the New Self | 4:22-24 | High | Identical Greek phrase for “new man” used individually here vs. corporately in 2:15; the two senses must be kept distinct in teaching text. | Human theologian |
| Sealing and Assurance by the Holy Spirit | 4:30 | Critical | ”Do not grieve the Holy Spirit… in whom you were sealed” reinforces the Spirit’s full personhood against any impersonal-force reading; same Chrismation-collision caution as 1:13-14. | Human theologian |
| Redemption and Forgiveness of Sins | 4:32 (forgiving one another as God forgave you) | High | прощение must not be read as absorbing оправдание’s forensic sense. | Human theologian |
Coverage note: Chapter 4 reviewed in full.
Chapter 5 (5:1–33) — Imitating God, Spirit-Filled Worship, and Christ-Centered Marriage
| Doctrine | Supporting Passages (Ephesians) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imitating God in Sacrificial Love | 5:1-2 | Medium | Risk of flattening Christ-patterned sacrificial love (5:2) into generic ethical kindness language. | Native speaker review |
| Walking in Newness of Life | 5:2, 5:8, 5:15 | High | Continues the περιπατέω motif; “children of light” (5:8) contrast must retain moral-spiritual force. | Human theologian |
| Being Filled with the Spirit and Spirit-Led Worship | 5:18-20 | Medium | Contrast with drunkenness (loss of control vs. Spirit-given ordered worship) must be retained, not read as endorsing ecstatic loss of control. | Native speaker review |
| Household Codes: Christ-Centered Marriage | 5:21-33 | Critical | Mutual submission (5:21) must not be lost before the wife-specific instruction; husband’s self-sacrificial-love standard (5:25) must carry equal or greater weight than headship language; compounded by тайна/Таинство collision at 5:32 since Orthodox tradition designates marriage itself a Sacrament. | Human theologian |
| The Church as the Body of Christ | 5:23, 5:30 | High | Same тело caution as chs. 1 and 4, now applied within the marriage analogy itself. | Human theologian |
| The Mystery of Christ Revealed | 5:32 | Critical | Sharpest single occurrence of the тайна/Таинство collision in the letter, given marriage’s own sacramental status in Orthodoxy. | Human theologian |
| Thanksgiving and Prayer | 5:20 | Low | Standard vocabulary. | Automated review |
Coverage note: Chapter 5 reviewed in full.
Chapter 6 (6:1–24) — Household Codes Completed, Spiritual Warfare, Closing Greeting
| Doctrine | Supporting Passages (Ephesians) | Risk | Translation Risk | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Household Codes: Parents and Children | 6:1-4 | Medium | Standard family-ethics vocabulary; primary risk is register (обетование, Decalogue-citation), not doctrine. | Native speaker review |
| Household Codes: Masters and Bondservants | 6:5-9 | High | Literal socioeconomic sense of раб carries heavy серфдом/Gulag historical resonance; must state explicitly the passage neither endorses ancient slavery nor speaks to Russia’s own serfdom/Gulag history. | Human theologian |
| Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God | 6:10-18 | High | Military-armor imagery resonates with Great Patriotic War memory; risk of conflation with nationalist militarism or literal political violence. Armor components each reuse Critical/High baseline terms (праведность, вера, спасение). | Human theologian |
| Cosmic Spiritual Authorities and Powers | 6:12 | High | ”Rulers… authorities… cosmic powers… spiritual forces of evil” must be distinguished from live post-Soviet folk-occult categories (порча, сглаз, экстрасенсы). | Human theologian |
| Gospel Proclamation | 6:15, 6:19 | Medium | ”Shoes of the gospel of peace” and Paul’s request for boldness in proclamation reinforce living-proclamation force against the “the book” default. | Native speaker review |
| Thanksgiving and Prayer | 6:18 | Low | Standard exhortation to prayer. | Automated review |
Coverage note: Chapter 6 reviewed in full.
Consolidated Master Doctrine Matrix (All 27 Doctrines)
The table below consolidates every doctrine identified across chapters 1-6, sorted by risk tier, exactly matching doctrine_risk_registry.json.
| Risk | Doctrine | Primary Passages | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | Salvation by Grace through Faith | 2:1-10 | Human theologian |
| Critical | Election and Predestination in Christ | 1:4-5, 1:11 | Human theologian |
| Critical | Sealing and Assurance by the Holy Spirit | 1:13-14, 4:30 | Human theologian |
| Critical | Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity | 2:11-22, 3:6 | Human theologian |
| Critical | The Mystery of Christ Revealed | 1:9-10, 3:2-9, 5:32, 6:19 | Human theologian |
| Critical | The Power of God at Work in Believers | 1:19-20, 3:7,16,20, 4:16 | Human theologian |
| Critical | Household Codes: Christ-Centered Marriage | 5:21-33 | Human theologian |
| High | Spiritual Deadness and Total Depravity | 2:1-3 | Human theologian |
| High | Adoption and Inheritance in God’s Family | 1:5, 1:11,14,18, 3:6 | Human theologian |
| High | The Church as the Body of Christ | 1:22-23, 4:4,12,15-16, 5:23,30 | Human theologian |
| High | The Church as God’s Temple | 2:19-22 | Human theologian |
| High | Reconciliation with God and with One Another | 2:14-18 | Human theologian |
| High | The Manifold Wisdom of God | 1:8,17, 3:10 | Human theologian |
| High | Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God | 6:10-18 | Human theologian |
| High | Cosmic Spiritual Authorities and Powers | 1:21, 2:2, 3:10, 6:12 | Human theologian |
| High | Household Codes: Masters and Bondservants | 6:5-9 | Human theologian |
| High | Unity of the Faith and One Baptism | 4:3-6, 4:13 | Human theologian |
| High | Walking in Newness of Life | 2:2,10, 4:1,17,22-24, 5:2,8,15 | Human theologian |
| High | Putting Off the Old Self and Putting On the New Self | 4:22-24 | Human theologian |
| High | Redemption and Forgiveness of Sins | 1:7, 4:32 | Human theologian |
| Medium | Household Codes: Parents and Children | 6:1-4 | Native speaker review |
| Medium | Gifts for Building Up the Church | 4:7-13 | Native speaker review |
| Medium | Being Filled with the Spirit and Spirit-Led Worship | 5:18-20 | Native speaker review |
| Medium | Gospel Proclamation | 1:13, 3:6-7, 6:15,19 | Native speaker review |
| Medium | The Glory and Praise of God | 1:6,12,14, 3:13,16,21 | Native speaker review |
| Medium | Imitating God in Sacrificial Love | 5:1-2 | Native speaker review |
| Low | Thanksgiving and Prayer | 1:16, 3:14-19, 5:20, 6:18 | Automated review |
Risk summary (recomputed from the table above; consistent with, and arithmetically reconciling, doctrine_risk_registry.json):
- Critical: 7
- High: 13
- Medium: 6
- Low: 1
- Total doctrines: 27
- Requiring human theologian review: 20 (all Critical + all High)
- Requiring native speaker review: 6 (all Medium)
- Requiring automated review only: 1 (Low)
Full-Book Coverage Confirmation
Per PRD mandate, every chapter of Ephesians has been explicitly analyzed above:
- Chapter 1 — reviewed in full (12 doctrine touchpoints).
- Chapter 2 — reviewed in full; contains the core passage (2:1-10) and its direct extension (2:11-22); the core passage is the curriculum’s theological anchor, not a scope boundary.
- Chapter 3 — reviewed in full (7 doctrine touchpoints).
- Chapter 4 — reviewed in full (7 doctrine touchpoints).
- Chapter 5 — reviewed in full (7 doctrine touchpoints).
- Chapter 6 — reviewed in full (6 doctrine touchpoints).
No chapter of Ephesians was found to contribute zero new load-bearing doctrinal content; this is consistent with the Core Glossary’s (Step 8) finding that all six chapters introduced new theological vocabulary requiring translation-memory entries.
Critical Risk Doctrines
Salvation by Grace through Faith
Russian name: спасение по благодати через веру
Key terms: grace, faith, salvation, gift, works
Review routing: Human theologian
The curriculum’s core passage states the sharpest grace/works antithesis in the letter (‘не от дел, чтобы никто не хвалился’). Russian Orthodox synergistic soteriology holds salvation as an ongoing cooperative process (theosis, ascetic discipline, sacramental participation); the ground (v.9, excluded) vs. fruit (v.10, affirmed) distinction must be stated explicitly every time, not softened into ‘not by works alone.‘
Election and Predestination in Christ
Russian name: избрание и предопределение во Христе
Key terms: chose, predestined, foreknew, prepared beforehand
Review routing: Human theologian
Ephesians 1 makes explicit predestination vocabulary (προορίζω/предопределил) unavoidable in a way Romans does not; this Reformed/Calvinist-shaped category has no developed parallel in Orthodox soteriology and risks being heard either as comforting assurance or as unsettling determinism if not framed pastorally, distinguishing sovereign personal choice from судьба/рок (impersonal fate).
Sealing and Assurance by the Holy Spirit
Russian name: запечатление и уверенность Духом Святым
Key terms: sealed, guarantee, pledge, Holy Spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
The Russian Orthodox rite of Chrismation is liturgically prayed as conferring ‘печать дара Духа Святаго’ (‘the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit’) — a near-verbatim collision with this doctrine’s core vocabulary. Ephesians presents sealing as coextensive with believing the gospel (1:13), not a specific sacramental rite as the mechanism; this distinction requires explicit statement, not assumption.
Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity
Russian name: единство иудеев и язычников в одном новом человеке
Key terms: dividing wall, hostility, one new man, reconcile, fellow heirs
Review routing: Human theologian
Ephesians 2 is this letter’s central, extended treatment of the theme the Romans baseline already flags Critical/High given the historical weight of state and popular antisemitism in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. The ‘dividing wall of hostility’ image and the corporate ‘one new man’ concept require unambiguous, careful rendering, never vague or minimizing paraphrase.
The Mystery of Christ Revealed
Russian name: тайна Христова, ныне открытая
Key terms: mystery, revelation, stewardship, gospel
Review routing: Human theologian
‘Тайна’ is the direct root of ‘Таинство,’ the standard Orthodox term for the seven Sacraments (including marriage, directly relevant to Еф. 5:32). Readers with Orthodox cultural formation are highly likely to hear ‘тайна Христова’ as pointing toward sacramental mystery rather than Paul’s sense of a previously hidden truth now publicly disclosed in the gospel; must be explained explicitly at every occurrence.
The Power of God at Work in Believers
Russian name: сила Божия, действующая в верующих
Key terms: power, working, energeia, strengthened
Review routing: Human theologian
Ephesians repeatedly pairs δύναμις with the Greek cognate of ‘energy’ (ἐνέργεια) far more prominently than Romans, creating strong temptation to render it энергия — a term with a specialized technical meaning in Orthodox Palamite theology (uncreated divine energies distinct from God’s unknowable essence). This substitution must never occur; render as действие/действующая сила.
Household Codes: Christ-Centered Marriage
Russian name: домашние правила: христоцентричный брак
Key terms: submit, head, love, Savior, mystery
Review routing: Human theologian
Culturally sensitive gender-relations passage in a society retaining strong patriarchal household norms in many communities; the mutual submission of 5:21 must not be lost before the wife-specific instruction, and the husband’s self-sacrificial-love standard (5:25) must be given equal or greater weight than headship language. The passage’s use of ‘тайна’ for the Christ-church analogy (5:32) also compounds the mystery/Sacrament collision, since Orthodox tradition designates marriage itself as one of the seven Таинства.
High Risk Doctrines
Spiritual Deadness and Total Depravity
Russian name: духовная мёртвость и всеобщая греховность
Key terms: dead, trespasses, sins, flesh, wrath
Review routing: Human theologian
Paul’s claim of total spiritual incapacity (‘мёртвые по преступлениям и грехам’) is in real tension with Orthodox synergism’s assumption of some cooperating human capacity toward God prior to grace; secular idiomatic overuse of ‘мёртвый’ can also flatten the claim into a figure of speech rather than a totalizing theological diagnosis.
Adoption and Inheritance in God’s Family
Russian name: усыновление и наследие в Божьей семье
Key terms: adoption, inheritance, sons
Review routing: Human theologian
Extends the baseline’s усыновление caution: Soviet-era and post-Soviet orphanage (детский дом) culture carries strong negative associations with adoption as institutional charity for the unwanted rather than full, secure, permanent family incorporation and inheritance rights.
The Church as the Body of Christ
Russian name: церковь как тело Христово
Key terms: body, church, fullness, head
Review routing: Human theologian
‘Тело Христово’ is the standard liturgical name for the consecrated Eucharistic elements in Orthodox and Catholic usage; Ephesians’ ecclesial, corporate-unity sense of the body must be kept distinct from this sacramental referent in teaching text, in addition to церковь’s already-documented institutional/building risk.
The Church as God’s Temple
Russian name: церковь как храм Божий
Key terms: temple, dwelling place, foundation, cornerstone
Review routing: Human theologian
храм is the everyday Russian word for a physical Orthodox church building; describing the corporate church (people, not building) as храм risks readers hearing exactly the physical-building claim Paul is arguing against.
Reconciliation with God and with One Another
Russian name: примирение с Богом и друг с другом
Key terms: reconcile, peace, cross, access
Review routing: Human theologian
The double reconciliation (vertical, with God; horizontal, Jew and Gentile with each other) accomplished through the cross must not be reduced to only the vertical dimension already familiar from the baseline’s peace_with_god doctrine; both dimensions are simultaneous and inseparable in this passage.
The Manifold Wisdom of God Displayed through the Church
Russian name: многообразная премудрость Божия, явленная через церковь
Key terms: wisdom, manifold wisdom
Review routing: Human theologian
A distinctively Russian risk absent from the Romans baseline: Russian religious-philosophical Софиология (Соловьёв, Флоренский, Булгаков) treats divine Wisdom/Премудрость as a quasi-hypostatic reality, a movement controversial and in some formulations censured within Russian Orthodoxy itself. ‘Премудрость Божия’ risks being heard through this speculative lens rather than Paul’s restrained sense of God’s wise redemptive strategy.
Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God
Russian name: духовная борьба и всеоружие Божие
Key terms: armor, struggle, schemes, rulers and authorities
Review routing: Human theologian
Military-armor imagery resonates strongly with Russian cultural memory of the Great Patriotic War, which can make the metaphor vivid but also risks conflation with nationalistic militarism or endorsement of literal political violence; the armor must be kept clearly spiritual and defensive.
Cosmic Spiritual Authorities and Powers
Russian name: духовные начала, власти и мироправители
Key terms: rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, prince of the power of the air
Review routing: Human theologian
This organized, personal, hierarchical spiritual-opposition cosmology must be clearly distinguished from live post-Soviet folk-occult categories still culturally prominent in Russia (порча, сглаз, экстрасенсы/television psychics), extending the baseline’s caution against экстрасенсорные способности.
Household Codes: Masters and Bondservants
Russian name: домашние правила: господа и рабы
Key terms: slave, bondservant, master, partiality
Review routing: Human theologian
The literal socioeconomic sense of раб carries heavy, painful historical resonance in Russian collective memory — крепостное право (serfdom, abolished 1861) and Soviet ГУЛАГ forced labor. Teaching text must state explicitly that the passage neither endorses the ancient institution of slavery nor speaks to Russia’s own serfdom/Gulag history, but addresses conduct within an already-existing social structure.
Unity of the Faith and One Baptism
Russian name: единство веры и одно крещение
Key terms: unity, one baptism, one body, one Spirit
Review routing: Human theologian
единство risks being heard through the lens of institutional экуменизм (ecumenism), viewed with suspicion in official Russian Orthodox discourse, rather than Paul’s Spirit-given organic unity already given and to be maintained. крещение separately raises the live East-West and intra-Protestant sacramental fault line over baptismal regeneration versus symbolic/confessional baptism, which ‘one baptism’ does not itself resolve.
Walking in Newness of Life
Russian name: хождение в обновлённой жизни
Key terms: walk, old self, new self, renewed, children of light
Review routing: Human theologian
The recurring περιπατέω ‘walk’ motif structures the whole letter’s ethical argument (contrasting old and new life) and must be recognized consistently across all six occurrences even when rendered with different Russian verbs (поступать/ходить); teaching text should also link explicitly to the established Рим. 6:4 ‘обновление жизни’ phrase for cross-curriculum consistency.
Putting Off the Old Self and Putting On the New Self
Russian name: совлечение ветхого человека и облечение в нового
Key terms: old self, new self, renewed in the mind
Review routing: Human theologian
The identical Greek phrase for ‘new man’ is used individually here and corporately in Еф. 2:15; teaching text must keep these two senses distinct so the individual-moral renewal and the corporate Jew-Gentile new-humanity doctrine do not silently merge into one another.
Redemption and Forgiveness of Sins
Russian name: искупление и прощение грехов
Key terms: redemption, forgiveness, blood
Review routing: Human theologian
искупление is standard and shared with Orthodox usage, but Orthodox patristic tradition sometimes frames redemption within a ‘ransom from death/the devil’ model distinct from a strict penal-substitutionary model; the specific sense here (redemption through his blood, tied to forgiveness) must be stated explicitly.
Medium Risk Doctrines
Household Codes: Parents and Children
Russian name: домашние правила: родители и дети
Key terms: obey, honor, provoke to anger, discipline and instruction of the Lord
Review routing: Native speaker review
Standard family-ethics vocabulary shared broadly across Russian Christian tradition; the main risk is stylistic, not doctrinal — ensuring обетование and Decalogue-citation register are preserved.
Gifts for Building Up the Church
Russian name: дары для созидания церкви
Key terms: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, equipping
Review routing: Native speaker review
евангелист and пастор/пастырь carry the letter’s sharpest ministry-office translation choices (collision with the four canonical Gospel-writers, and with Orthodox priestly vs. Protestant congregational leadership connotations respectively), but the doctrine as a whole — Spirit-distributed gifts for corporate edification — is not itself a live East-West controversy the way salvation/grace terminology is.
Being Filled with the Spirit and Spirit-Led Worship
Russian name: исполнение Духом и духовное поклонение
Key terms: filled with the Spirit, psalms and hymns, giving thanks
Review routing: Native speaker review
The contrast with drunkenness (loss of self-control vs. Spirit-given ordered worship) must be retained; low risk of doctrinal distortion beyond ensuring this contrast is not lost or read as endorsing ecstatic loss of control.
Gospel Proclamation
Russian name: провозвестие Евангелия
Key terms: gospel, word of truth, proclaim
Review routing: Native speaker review
Евангелие carries the baseline’s caution of being heard as ‘the book’ rather than a living proclamation; Ephesians ties it directly to the mystery-disclosure theme, reinforcing the need to restore active proclamatory force in teaching text.
The Glory and Praise of God
Russian name: слава и хвала Богу
Key terms: glory, praise, to the praise of his glory
Review routing: Native speaker review
слава risks registerial flattening into a casual exclamation (‘слава Богу’) rather than God’s weighty, self-revealing presence and the stated goal of election and redemption throughout chapter 1; context must restore theological weight.
Imitating God in Sacrificial Love
Russian name: подражание Богу в жертвенной любви
Key terms: imitators, love, fragrant offering
Review routing: Native speaker review
Standard moral-theological exhortation vocabulary; primary risk is ensuring the sacrificial, Christ-patterned sense of love (5:2) is not flattened into generic ethical kindness language.
Low Risk Doctrines
Thanksgiving and Prayer
Russian name: благодарение и молитва
Key terms: thanksgiving, prayer, give thanks always
Review routing: Automated review
Standard vocabulary shared with Orthodox liturgical usage (Евхаристия itself means thanksgiving); no significant doctrinal risk.