Core Glossary
Core Glossary — Philippians (English → Russian)
Purpose
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md for Philippians chapters 1-4, citing terms from every chapter. Where a term is already recorded in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json, this glossary reuses that rendering exactly and marks it [Baseline — Reuse]. New terms introduced by Philippians are marked [New] and carry a full risk rationale for Phase 2 enforcement. Risk tiers follow the baseline’s four-tier framework (Critical / High / Medium / Low) and drive the same review routing conventions established in doctrine_risk_registry.json.
Glossary Table
| # | English Term | Greek (Translit.) | Russian Rendering | Status | Risk | Primary Passages | Risk Rationale (summary) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gospel | εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) | Евангелие | Baseline — Reuse | High | 1:5,7,12,27; 2:22; 4:3,15 | Per baseline: recognized as book/genre by secular Russians; must be restored as living proclamation, not assumed. |
| 2 | Grace | χάρις (charis) | благодать | Baseline — Reuse | Critical | 1:2,7; 4:23 | Per baseline: Orthodox theosis/uncreated-energies framework risk; “apart from works” sense must be explicit. |
| 3 | Faith | πίστις (pistis) | вера | Baseline — Reuse | High | 1:25,27; 2:17; 3:9 | Per baseline: risk of collapsing into “being Orthodox” rather than personal trust in Christ. |
| 4 | Righteousness | δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē) | праведность | Baseline — Reuse | Critical | 1:11; 3:6,9 | Per baseline: risk of reading as achieved virtue, not received forensic standing; directly engaged by ch.3’s autobiographical argument. |
| 5 | Justification / Imputed Righteousness | δικαιοσύνη ἐκ θεοῦ / ἐλογίσθη-type language | оправдание / вменённая праведность | Baseline — Reuse | Critical | 3:9 | Per baseline: no developed Orthodox forensic-declaration parallel; must be taught explicitly, never assumed as “forgiveness of sins” alone. |
| 6 | Law | νόμος (nomos) | закон | Baseline — Reuse | Medium/High | 3:5-6,9 | Per baseline: risk of importing only civil-law categories; here specifically Mosaic Torah-observance as false ground of confidence. |
| 7 | Salvation | σωτηρία (sōtēria) | спасение | Baseline — Reuse | Critical | 1:19,28; 2:12 | Per baseline: must anchor to Christ’s finished work; 2:12’s “work out your salvation” is a high-stakes verse requiring careful pairing with 2:13. |
| 8 | Savior | σωτήρ (sōtēr) | Спаситель | Baseline-adjacent — New entry (title form) | Low-Medium | 3:20 | Settled, doctrinally clear term; no false-friend risk. |
| 9 | Lord (Jesus is Lord) | κύριος (kyrios) | Господь | Baseline — Reuse | Critical/High | 2:11 | Per baseline lordship_of_christ: risk of sounding like recited creed line; here reinforced by the cosmic, universal scope of “every tongue.” |
| 10 | Son of God / Deity of Christ | (implicit, μορφῇ θεοῦ / ἴσα θεῷ) | Сын Божий / равный Богу | Baseline — Reuse (concept) | Medium (baseline) / Critical (Phil.-specific μορφή issue below) | 2:6 | Settled shared Nicene ground with Orthodoxy for the doctrine itself; Philippians’ specific μορφή vocabulary raises a distinct, new risk (#14 below). |
| 11 | Incarnation | (theological category; ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων, ἐν σαρκί elsewhere) | воплощение | Baseline — Reuse | Medium | 2:7 | Per baseline: аватар forbidden; Russian icon theology gives incarnation high cultural profile — asset, not hazard. |
| 12 | Holy / Saints | ἅγιος / ἅγιοι (hagios/hagioi) | святой / святые | Baseline — Reuse | High | 1:1; 4:21-22 | Per baseline: святые risks being read as a canonized elite, not the whole believing community — Philippians’ letter opening and closing both require inclusive framing. |
| 13 | Church leadership: Overseer / Deacon | ἐπίσκοπος / διάκονος (episkopos/diakonos) | епископ / диакон | New | Critical | 1:1 | These are the exact titles of Russian Orthodoxy’s own ordained, sacramentally-conferred hierarchy (bishop within apostolic succession; liturgical deacon). Using them for Paul’s local, comparatively informal congregational leaders risks importing an entire institutional ecclesiology (ordination as sacrament, three-tier hierarchy) foreign to the text. Requires theologian-level framing; directly continuous with baseline’s High church_as_gods_people entry. |
| 14 | Form (of God / of a servant) | μορφή (morphē) | образ | New | Critical | 2:6-7 | Образ is also the ordinary Russian word for a religious icon/image (икона/образ), risking readers importing icon-theology categories into Paul’s specific claim about Christ’s pre-incarnate essential divine nature. Must be sharply distinguished from ὁμοίωμα (“likeness,” подобие) and σχῆμα (“outward form,” вид) — Paul’s careful three-term distinction is exegetically load-bearing and must not be collapsed. |
| 15 | Kenosis / Self-emptying | ἐκένωσεν (ekenōsen, from κενόω) | уничижил Себя Самого (Synodal); technical term: кенозис | New | Critical | 2:7 | The single most theologically decisive verb in the core passage. Synodal’s “уничижил” (abased/humbled) does not literally mean “emptied” and partly merges with v.8’s ταπεινόω. The literal “emptying” sense and the named technical term кенозис (already current in Russian Orthodox theological writing, e.g. S. Bulgakov) must be supplied explicitly in exposition, never assumed from the Scripture quotation alone. This is the featured curriculum doctrine (“The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ”). |
| 16 | Grasped / Exploited (equality with God) | ἁρπαγμός (harpagmos) | хищение | New | High | 2:6 | Хищение is a modern Russian legal/criminal term (theft, embezzlement) — an unusual, easily-misheard juxtaposition with divine equality unless explicitly unpacked as “something to be selfishly seized/exploited for advantage,” not “a crime.” |
| 17 | Likeness / Outward form | ὁμοίωμα / σχῆμα (homoiōma/schēma) | подобие / вид | New | Medium | 2:7 | Must be taught alongside μορφή (образ) to preserve Paul’s careful three-term Christological distinction; well-supported by settled Orthodox anti-docetic Christology, so risk is expository precision, not doctrinal collision. |
| 18 | Humbled himself | ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτόν (etapeinōsen heauton) | смирил Себя | New | High | 2:8 | See humility entry (#19) — same asset/risk profile, applied here to Christ’s specific historical act of obedience unto death, not generic ascetic self-denial. |
| 19 | Humility | ταπεινοφροσύνη (tapeinophrosynē) | смиренномудрие | New | High | 2:3 | Deep positive resonance with Russian Orthodox monastic/eldership (старчество) spirituality (asset) creates risk of narrowing the virtue to ascetic specialists rather than Paul’s everyday congregational “one-another” ethic required of every believer. |
| 20 | Mindset / Disposition | φρονέω / φρόνημα (phroneō/phronēma) | [Synodal: чувствования]; teaching gloss: образ мыслей, расположение духа | New | High | 2:2,5; 3:15; 4:2,10 | The structural hinge-verb of the whole core passage. Synodal’s “чувствования” (feelings/sentiments) risks reducing a cognitive-volitional, deliberately chosen disposition to mere emotion — especially consequential at 2:5, introducing the kenotic hymn. |
| 21 | Exalted | ὑπερύψωσεν (hyperypsōsen) | превознес | New | Low-Medium | 2:9 | Compound intensive form; превознес’s пре- prefix adequately conveys the “super-exalted” sense. No false-friend risk. |
| 22 | Name above every name | τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα | имя выше всякого имени | New | Medium | 2:9 | Referent (κύριος, “Lord”) only becomes explicit at v.11; must be read forward, not left ambiguous. |
| 23 | Every knee shall bow | πᾶν γόνυ κάμψῃ | преклонится всякое колено | New | Medium-High | 2:10 | Alludes to Isaiah 45:23 (YHWH-language applied to Christ) — a load-bearing exegetical point for Christ’s deity easily missed without an explicit named cross-reference. |
| 24 | Confess | ἐξομολογήσηται (exomologēsētai) | исповедал | New | Medium | 2:11 | Исповедь/исповедовать carries strong Orthodox sacramental-confession-of-sin resonance; must be distinguished from the sense here (public acknowledgment/proclamation of Christ’s lordship). |
| 25 | Glory | δόξα (doxa) | слава | Baseline — Reuse | Medium | 2:3 (κενοδοξία), 11; 3:19,21; 4:19-20 | Per baseline: registerial flattening risk into casual exclamation; here reinforced by the deliberate literary inclusio between “empty glory” (κενοδοξία, v.3) and “glory of God the Father” (v.11) — worth surfacing pedagogically. |
| 26 | Joy / Rejoice | χαρά / χαίρω (chara/chairō) | радость / радоваться | New | Medium | 1:4,18,25; 2:2,17-18,28-29; 3:1; 4:1,4,10 | The letter’s keynote theme (curriculum doctrine “Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment”). Deep existing cultural/devotional resonance (“радость о Господе”) is an asset; risk is readers defaulting to circumstantial happiness rather than grasping the letter’s central paradox of joy sustained from within imprisonment and suffering. |
| 27 | Suffering | πάθημα / πάσχω (pathēma/paschō) | страдание | New | High | 1:29-30; 2:17 (σπένδομαι imagery); 3:10 | Suffering “for Christ’s sake” is explicitly described as granted (ἐχαρίσθη, cognate of χάρις/grace) — an etymological grace-suffering link with no automatic surface in the plain Russian noun, requiring deliberate teaching; directly reinforces baseline’s Critical grace entry. |
| 28 | Bonds / Imprisonment | δεσμός/δεσμά (desmos) | узы | New | Medium | 1:7,13,14,17 | Somewhat literary/softened register risks losing the concrete severity of literal Roman imperial imprisonment. |
| 29 | Partnership / Fellowship in the Gospel | κοινωνία (koinōnia) | общение (2:1) / участие (1:5; 3:10; 4:14-15) | Baseline term, new consistency risk | High | 1:5; 2:1; 3:10; 4:14-15 | Baseline records κοινωνία → общение (fellowship, Low risk in Romans). Philippians’ Synodal tradition splits the SAME Greek word across общение and участие depending on context, even within adjacent verses (4:14-15). Directly implicates the named curriculum doctrine “Partnership in the Gospel” — exposition must explicitly unify these renderings as one Greek concept of active, shared participation. |
| 30 | Advance/Progress (of the gospel) | προκοπή (prokopē) | успех / преуспевание | New | Low-Medium | 1:12,25 | Straightforward; minor register note only. |
| 31 | Citizenship (in Heaven) | πολίτευμα / πολιτεύεσθε (politeuma/politeuesthe) | жительство (3:20, Synodal); πολιτεύεσθε at 1:27 rendered plainly as “живите достойно” (metaphor lost) | New | High | 1:27; 3:20 | Named curriculum doctrine (“Citizenship in Heaven”). Synodal’s “жительство” (residence/dwelling) evokes bureaucratic residency-permit registration (сf. “вид на жительство,” historical “прописка”) rather than active civic identity/allegiance; the parallel metaphor at 1:27 is entirely lost in Synodal translation and must be reconnected explicitly in teaching material. Recommend modern clarifying gloss “гражданство” alongside Scripture quotation. |
| 32 | Contentment | αὐτάρκεια / αὐταρκεῖν (autarkeia/autarkein) | довольство / [научился] быть довольным | New | Medium | 4:11-12 | Named curriculum doctrine (“Contentment in All Circumstances”). Risk of reading as passive resignation/fatalistic endurance rather than active, Christ-empowered stability across both abundance and want; sensitive given genuine post-Soviet economic-hardship associations. |
| 33 | Pressing on toward the Goal | διώκω / ἐπεκτείνομαι / βραβεῖον / σκοπός (diōkō, etc.) | стремлюсь / простираясь вперед / почесть / цель | New | Low-Medium | 3:12-14 | Named curriculum doctrine (“Pressing on toward the Goal in Christ”). Vivid, well-preserved athletic-race imagery; minor register note on почесть’s more static “honor” sense versus the Greek’s dynamic “prize” image. |
| 34 | Perfect / Mature | τέλειος / τετελείωμαι (teleios/teteleiōmai) | совершенный | New | High | 3:12,15 | Совершенный resonates strongly with Orthodox theosis/progressive-perfection categories (baseline’s Critical sanctification entry); Paul’s intentional tension (denying perfection at v.12, addressing “the perfect/mature” at v.15) requires explicit exposition so τέλειος at v.15 is read as relative maturity, not completed deification or sinless perfection. |
| 35 | Confidence in the Flesh | πεποιθέναι ἐν σαρκί (pepoithenai en sarki) | надежда на плоть | New | High | 3:3-4 | Directly engages baseline’s Critical righteousness/justification doctrines; Paul’s autobiographical rejection of ethnic/legal/performance credentials as grounds of standing before God. |
| 36 | Rubbish / Dung | σκύβαλα (skybala) | уметы | New | Medium-High | 3:8 | Archaic, largely unknown Russian word defusing Paul’s deliberately crude, shocking force; requires explicit modern gloss (мусор/нечистоты/отбросы) in teaching text. |
| 37 | Servant / Slave | δοῦλος (doulos) | раб | New | Medium | 1:1; 2:7 | Asset: “раб Божий” is an established, positive Orthodox devotional self-designation. Risk: heavy historical associations (serfdom, Soviet forced labor) may color the term negatively unless voluntary, Christ-modeled, honored belonging is made explicit — especially significant since the same word describes both Paul (1:1) and Christ himself (2:7). |
| 38 | Work out (salvation) | κατεργάζεσθε (katergazesthe) | совершайте | New | Critical | 2:12 | Isolated from its immediate context (2:13, God’s own enabling work) risks sounding works-based, directly colliding with baseline’s Critical grace/salvation doctrines; requires the same synergism-vs.-forensic-grace care baseline mandates for Romans. |
| 39 | God at work in you | ἐνεργέω (energeō) | производит | New | Medium | 2:13 | Must not be rendered with энергия, which carries a specialized Palamite/Orthodox technical sense (uncreated divine energies) that would import an unrelated theological debate; Synodal’s “производит” correctly avoids this and must be retained. |
| 40 | Fear and Trembling | φόβος καὶ τρόμος (phobos kai tromos) | страх и трепет | New | Low-Medium | 2:12 | Reverent seriousness, not craven terror; standard Bible-register idiom. |
| 41 | Poured out (as a libation) | σπένδομαι (spendomai) | изливаюсь [как жертва] | New | Medium | 2:17 | Cultic sacrificial-libation imagery culturally remote for modern readers; needs brief explanation, not assumption. |
| 42 | Knowledge of Christ | γνῶσις Χριστοῦ (gnōsis Christou) | познание Христа | New | Low-Medium | 3:8,10 | Personal, relational knowledge; standard vocabulary, no false-friend risk in Russian context. |
| 43 | Power of the Resurrection | δύναμις τῆς ἀναστάσεως (dynamis tēs anastaseōs) | сила воскресения | Baseline — Reuse (сила / воскресение) | Medium | 3:10 | Per baseline resurrection/power_of_god entries; no new risk beyond established notes. |
| 44 | Peace of God | εἰρήνη τοῦ θεοῦ (eirēnē tou theou) | мир Божий | Baseline — Reuse | Medium | 4:6-7 | Per baseline peace entry: distinguish from “the world” and political-peace senses; here specifically pastoral/experiential, distinct from (though related to) the forensic peace-with-God of Romans 5:1. |
| 45 | Will guard (hearts) | φρουρήσει (phrourēsei) | соблюдет | New | Low-Medium | 4:7 | Softens the Greek’s vivid military-garrison/sentry imagery; worth restoring in exposition. |
| 46 | Think on / Consider | λογίζεσθε (logizesthe) | помышляйте | New | Low | 4:8 | Shares a verb-root with the forensic “reckoning” of imputed righteousness (Rom 4:3) but used here in a non-forensic, ethical sense; interesting cross-reference, not a doctrinal risk. |
| 47 | Giving and Receiving | δόσις καὶ λῆψις (dosis kai lēpsis) | в расходе и в приходе | New | Low | 4:15 | Commercial bookkeeping idiom, well-preserved in Russian; no risk. |
| 48 | Acceptable Sacrifice | θυσία δεκτή, εὐάρεστος τῷ θεῷ | жертва благоприятная, благоугодная Богу | New | Low-Medium | 4:18 | Standard sacrificial vocabulary applied to material generosity; no false-friend risk. |
| 49 | Overseer/Deacon (see #13) | — | — | — | — | — | (Cross-reference; see entry #13.) |
| 50 | Zeal / Envy | ζῆλος (zēlos) | зависть (1:15) / ревность (3:6, positive sense) | New | Low | 1:15; 3:6 | Context-sensitive: negative “envy/rivalry” (1:15) versus intense but misguided “zeal” (3:6, of Paul’s pre-conversion persecuting zeal); ensure the correct valence is selected per occurrence. |
Terms Reused Exactly from Baseline Romans Package (Summary List)
The following terms, appearing in Philippians, MUST use the exact baseline-recorded Russian rendering with no deviation, per the hard rule that established term renderings must be reused exactly. Full risk rationale is recorded in the baseline translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json / doctrine_risk_registry.json and is not restated in full here:
- Gospel → Евангелие (High)
- Grace → благодать (Critical)
- Faith → вера (High)
- Righteousness → праведность (Critical)
- Justification / Imputed Righteousness → оправдание / вменённая праведность (Critical)
- Salvation → спасение (Critical)
- Law → закон (High)
- Sin → грех (High) (cf. Phil 3:6’s persecuting zeal against the church as sin-adjacent context, though not separately treated above as no new nuance arises)
- Holy / Saints → святой / святые (High)
- Lord → Господь (Critical/High)
- Glory → слава (Medium)
- Incarnation (category) → воплощение (Medium)
- Church → церковь (High) (applies to Philippians’ assumed ecclesial community, though the word ἐκκλησία itself is not used in Philippians’ body text; the doctrine applies to the “saints” and congregational language throughout)
- Fellowship (base sense) → общение (Low, baseline) — see glossary entry #29 above for the Philippians-specific consistency risk this creates with участие
- Power of God → сила Божия (Medium)
- Resurrection → воскресение (Medium)
- Calling → призвание / Called → призванный (Medium)
- Apostle → апостол (Medium)
- Holy Spirit → Святой Дух (Medium)
- Father → Отец (Medium)
- God → Бог (Medium)
- Jesus → Иисус (Medium) — never Исус
- Christ / Messiah → Христос / Мессия (High)
- Peace → мир (Medium)
- Thanksgiving → благодарение (Low)
Risk Summary for Philippians-Specific New Terms
| Risk Tier | Count of New/Escalated Terms | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 4 (Overseer/Deacon; Form/μορφή; Kenosis/ἐκένωσεν; Work out salvation/κατεργάζεσθε) | Human theologian |
| High | 11 (ἁρπαγμός; Humbled himself; Humility; Mindset/φρονέω; Suffering; Partnership-in-gospel κοινωνία consistency; Citizenship; Perfect/Mature; Confidence in the flesh; Confidence-related law/righteousness overlap; Bonds/imprisonment escalated by doctrine emphasis) | Human theologian |
| Medium | ~20 | Native speaker review |
| Low | ~10 | Automated review |
This glossary is the authoritative Phase 1 term inventory for Philippians and must be merged into translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json before Phase 2 segment translation begins, per the Pre-flight Checklist in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
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. Philippians 1:29 extends grace-logic to suffering itself (ἐχαρίσθη, ‘it was granted’ — same root as χάρις): this etymological link is invisible in the plain Russian noun страдание and must be taught explicitly alongside this entry.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: праведность
Transliteration: pravednost’
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: справедливость, честность
Original: δικαιοσύνη
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:6,9 makes Paul’s own autobiography the clearest case study of праведность’s risk of being read as achieved virtue rather than received forensic standing.
Justification
Approved rendering: оправдание
Transliteration: opravdaniye
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: прощение грехов, искупление
Original: δικαιοσύνη ἐκ θεοῦ (Phil 3:9, cf. δικαίωσις-type forensic language)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:9 must not let оправдание quietly resolve into прощение грехов (mere forgiveness), exactly as baseline warns for Romans.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: вменённая праведность
Transliteration: vmenyonnaya pravednost’
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: заслуженная праведность, дарованная святость (too vague)
Original: δικαιοσύνη… διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:4-9 supplies a vivid autobiographical illustration (Paul’s rejected ethnic/legal/performance credentials) that should be taught alongside this term to make the ‘credited, not earned’ contrast concrete; заслуженная праведность remains explicitly forbidden.
Salvation
Approved rendering: спасение
Transliteration: spaseniye
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: избавление (acceptable narrowly for ‘deliverance’), освобождение
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 1:19,28 carries a this-life deliverance/vindication nuance tied to Paul’s trial; Philippians 2:12’s ‘work out your own salvation’ is a new high-stakes usage requiring mandatory pairing with 2:13 — see work_out_salvation entry below.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: освящение
Transliteration: osvyashcheniye
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: обожение (reserve for explicit theosis discussion only), очищение
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 1:6 (‘he who began a good work will complete it’) must not be allowed to default unqualified into the Orthodox theosis framework of open-ended process without anchoring completion to Christ.
Form Of God And Servant
Approved rendering: образ
Transliteration: obraz
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis)
Rejected alternatives: подобие (reserve for ὁμοίωμα), вид (reserve for σχῆμα), икона (never substitute)
Original: μορφή (μορφῇ θεοῦ, v.6; μορφὴν δούλου, v.7)
Category: Christology
NEW — CRITICAL. Renders μορφή (μορφῇ θεοῦ v.6; μορφὴν δούλου v.7). Образ is also the ordinary Russian word for a religious icon/image, risking readers importing Orthodox icon-theology categories into Paul’s claim about Christ’s pre-incarnate essential divine nature rather than his visible appearance. Must be sharply distinguished from ὁμοίωμα (подобие) and σχῆμα (вид) at v.7 — Paul’s careful three-term distinction (true divine essence / genuinely assumed human nature / observed outward fashion) is exegetically load-bearing and must never be collapsed in exposition.
Kenosis
Approved rendering: уничижил Себя Самого (Scripture quotation); кенозис (technical term, teaching only)
Transliteration: unichizhil Sebya Samogo; kenozis
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Self-Emptying of Christ (Kenosis)
Rejected alternatives: истощил Себя (accurate but non-Synodal — teaching gloss only, never substitute into Scripture quotation), опустошил Себя (same caution)
Original: ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν (from κενόω)
Category: Christology
NEW — CRITICAL, the single most consequential translation choice in Philippians. Synodal renders ἐκένωσεν (2:7) not literally (‘emptied’) but as ‘уничижил Себя Самого’ (‘abased/humbled himself’), which merges v.7’s κενόω with v.8’s distinct ταπεινόω (‘humbled,’ смирил), blurring Paul’s two-step descent, and loses the ‘emptying/pouring out’ imagery from which ‘kenosis’ derives its name. RETAIN ‘уничижил Себя Самого’ for direct Scripture quotation; MANDATE that all teaching/expository text supply the literal ‘emptied himself’ sense explicitly and may introduce the transliterated technical term кенозис (already current in Russian Orthodox theological writing, e.g. S. Bulgakov’s kenotic theology) as a named, explicit technical term — never silently assumed.
Overseer
Approved rendering: епископ
Transliteration: yepiskop
Doctrine: Church Leadership: Overseers and Deacons
Rejected alternatives: наблюдатель (unattested, would break Synodal precedent), старший (too vague)
Original: ἐπίσκοπος
Category: Church
NEW — CRITICAL. Renders ἐπίσκοπος (1:1). Епископ is the exact title of the Russian Orthodox Church’s own sacramentally-ordained bishop within apostolic succession. Using this established loanword for Paul’s comparatively informal, early house-church leader risks importing an entire institutional ecclesiology (ordination as sacrament, three-tier hierarchy) foreign to the text. This is the established, unavoidable translation choice; requires explicit theologian-reviewed framing on every occurrence that Paul’s usage describes a functional local-church role, not an assertion for or against any later church-government system.
Deacon
Approved rendering: диакон
Transliteration: diakon
Doctrine: Church Leadership: Overseers and Deacons
Rejected alternatives: служитель (would break Synodal precedent)
Original: διάκονος
Category: Church
NEW — CRITICAL. Renders διάκονος (1:1). Диакон is the exact title of an ordained liturgical assistant to the priest in the Orthodox Divine Liturgy. As with епископ, this risks importing Orthodox sacramental-ordination categories into Paul’s description of a young church’s practical servant-leaders; requires the same theologian-level framing on every occurrence.
Work Out Salvation
Approved rendering: совершайте
Transliteration: sovershayte
Doctrine: Working Out Salvation (Sanctification-in-Process)
Original: κατεργάζεσθε
Category: Salvation
NEW — CRITICAL. Renders κατεργάζεσθε (2:12), ‘work out your own salvation.’ Read in isolation, sounds works-based, colliding with the Critical grace/salvation entries above. The immediately following verse (2:13, ἐνεργέω/производит, God’s own prior enabling work) is the essential corrective and MUST NEVER be separated from 2:12 across a lesson boundary. Because Russian Orthodox soteriology already emphasizes a synergistic, cooperative process of salvation (theosis), this verse pair could be read either as confirming synergism without qualification or, if mistranslated toward pure passivity, as seeming to contradict it — requires theologian-level framing.
High 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. Philippians repeatedly frames the gospel as actively ‘defended and confirmed’ (1:7) and ‘advancing’ (1:12) even from prison; expository text must restore the sense of a contested, living proclamation, not a settled book/genre.
Faith
Approved rendering: вера
Transliteration: vera
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: доверие, убеждение
Original: πίστις
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:9’s ‘righteousness… through faith in Christ’ makes the risk of вера collapsing into ‘being Orthodox’ rather than personal trust in Christ especially acute, given the passage’s autobiographical contrast with law-observance.
Holy
Approved rendering: святой
Transliteration: svyatoy
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: чистый, непорочный
Original: ἅγιος
Category: Sanctification
Inherited from Romans package (risk escalated to High per Philippians registry, consistent with the corporate ‘saints’ usage that frames both the letter’s opening and closing).
Saints
Approved rendering: святые
Transliteration: svyatyye
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: праведники
Original: ἅγιοι
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians uses this term to address the ENTIRE congregation at both the letter’s opening (1:1) and closing (4:21-22), making the inclusive-corporate framing especially load-bearing: every recipient, not a canonized elite, is святые.
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. Philippians 2:11’s cosmic confession (‘Иисус Христос — Господь,’ answered by ‘every knee’ and ‘every tongue’) reinforces baseline’s caution that Господь risks sounding like a recited creed line rather than the letter’s climactic, personal, universal proclamation; must not be read as Russian Orthodoxy’s exclusive national possession.
Church
Approved rendering: церковь
Transliteration: tserkov’
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: храм, собрание (acceptable for local congregation emphasis)
Original: (implicit; ἐκκλησία not used in Philippians’ body text, but the congregation of ‘saints’ is its referent throughout)
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians describes a small, comparatively informal house-church community (implicit ἐκκλησία referent, addressed as ‘saints’ with overseers and deacons, 1:1); readers must not default to reading ‘church’ language here as necessarily describing (or excluding) later institutional forms.
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 (risk escalated to High per Philippians registry). Philippians 3:5-6,9 narrows закон to specifically Torah-observance as Paul’s rejected false ground of confidence — should be taught as continuous with, not separate from, Romans’ law-versus-grace argument.
Sin
Approved rendering: грех
Transliteration: grekh
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: ошибка, проступок
Original: ἁμαρτία (implicit; cf. Paul’s persecuting ζῆλος, 3:6)
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:6’s confession of former persecuting zeal against the church provides a strong concrete illustration that can help restore weight to грех against post-Soviet folk-moral flattening.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Мессия
Transliteration: Messiya
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: спаситель мира (as a stand-alone substitute)
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:7-9’s ‘gain of Christ’/‘righteousness through faith in Christ’ passages should re-surface Христос’s worn-smooth messianic-fulfillment meaning explicitly, per baseline’s caution.
Providence
Approved rendering: промысел Божий
Transliteration: promysel Bozhiy
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: судьба, случай, карма (never use)
Inherited from Romans package. Referenced adjacently in Philippians’ Contentment doctrine (4:11-13): Russian Orthodox ascetic resonance with providence/nestyazhanie (non-acquisitiveveness) is a real asset but must not collapse contentment into судьба-driven fatalistic resignation.
Grasped Or Exploited
Approved rendering: хищение
Transliteration: khishcheniye
Doctrine: Christ’s Pre-Existent Deity and Equality with God
Rejected alternatives: самовольное присвоение (rejected departure from Synodal wording)
Original: ἁρπαγμός
Category: Christology
NEW. Renders ἁρπαγμός (2:6). Хищение is a modern Russian legal/criminal term for theft/embezzlement (Russian Criminal Code) — an unusual, potentially trivializing juxtaposition with divine equality unless explicitly unpacked: not ‘Christ considered equality with God to be a crime,’ but ‘Christ did not treat his rightful equality with God as something to be selfishly exploited for advantage.’ Retain хищение for Scripture quotation per Synodal convention; explicit unpacking is mandatory in teaching text.
Humbled Himself
Approved rendering: смирил Себя
Transliteration: smiril Sebya
Doctrine: The Humiliation and Obedient Death of Christ
Original: ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτόν
Category: Christology
NEW. Renders ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτόν (2:8), Christ’s specific historical act of obedience unto death. Shares the asset/risk profile of humility (смиренномудрие) below: deep positive resonance with Orthodox смирение spirituality, but risk that this unrepeatable, once-for-all saving act is read as generic ascetic self-denial rather than the ground of the believer’s own ethic (2:3).
Humility
Approved rendering: смиренномудрие
Transliteration: smirennomudriye
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Original: ταπεινοφροσύνη
Category: Sanctification
NEW. Renders ταπεινοφροσύνη (2:3). Deeply cherished in Russian Orthodox monastic/eldership (старчество) spirituality — a genuine cultural asset giving the term immediate gravity. Risk: this association may narrow the concept to ascetic self-abasement by spiritual specialists rather than Paul’s point — an everyday relational posture required of every ordinary believer (2:3-4; 4:2-3’s Euodia/Syntyche conflict). Teaching text must affirm the Orthodox intuition while explicitly broadening scope.
Mindset
Approved rendering: чувствования (Scripture, Synodal); образ мыслей / расположение духа (teaching gloss)
Transliteration: chuvstvovaniya; obraz mysley / raspolozheniye dukha
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Original: φρονέω / φρόνημα
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders φρονέω/φρόνημα (2:2, 2:5; 3:15; 4:2,10) — the structural hinge-verb of the whole core passage. Synodal’s ‘чувствования’ (‘feelings/sentiments’) risks reducing a deliberate, chosen, cognitive-volitional disposition to mere emotion, most consequentially at 2:5, which introduces the kenotic hymn as GROUND for the command. Teaching text must state plainly that Paul commands adopting Christ’s deliberate mental disposition and choice, using the modern gloss alongside the Synodal Scripture quotation.
Every Knee Shall Bow
Approved rendering: преклонится всякое колено
Transliteration: preklonitsya vsyakoye koleno
Doctrine: The Exaltation and Universal Lordship of Christ
Original: πᾶν γόνυ κάμψῃ
Category: Christology
NEW. Renders πᾶν γόνυ κάμψῃ (2:10), alluding to Isaiah 45:23 (LXX) — YHWH-language deliberately applied to Christ, a load-bearing exegetical point for full deity. Easily missed by readers whose primary Bible exposure is liturgical excerpts rather than continuous OT narrative; the OT cross-reference must be named explicitly, consistent with baseline’s fulfillment_of_prophecy caution.
Citizenship
Approved rendering: жительство (Scripture, 3:20); гражданство (teaching gloss)
Transliteration: zhitel’stvo; grazhdanstvo
Doctrine: Citizenship in Heaven
Original: πολίτευμα / πολιτεύεσθε
Category: Church
NEW. Renders πολίτευμα (3:20) and πολιτεύεσθε (1:27). Synodal’s жительство (literally ‘residence/dwelling’) evokes modern bureaucratic residency-permit registration (‘вид на жительство’) and historically the Soviet ‘прописка’ system, flattening Paul’s vivid, active civic-identity-and-allegiance metaphor into passive administrative ‘address.’ Synodal ALSO entirely loses the parallel metaphor at 1:27 (πολιτεύεσθε rendered generically as ‘живите достойно,’ ‘live worthily’). Teaching material must supply the modern clarifying gloss гражданство alongside the Synodal Scripture quotation at 3:20 and explicitly reconnect it to 1:27 as one sustained metaphor.
Suffering
Approved rendering: страдание
Transliteration: stradaniye
Doctrine: Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment
Original: πάθημα / πάσχω
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders πάθημα/πάσχω (1:29-30; 2:17; 3:10). Suffering for Christ’s sake is explicitly said to be GRANTED (ἐχαρίσθη, cognate of χάρις/grace, 1:29), not merely endured — a link invisible in the plain noun страдание and requiring deliberate teaching tied to the grace entry above.
Confidence In The Flesh
Approved rendering: надежда на плоть
Transliteration: nadezhda na plot’
Doctrine: Confidence in the Flesh versus Confidence in Christ
Original: πεποιθέναι ἐν σαρκί
Category: Salvation
NEW. Renders πεποιθέναι ἐν σαρκί (3:3-4). Reliance on ethnic, legal, and performance-based credentials as grounds of standing before God — Paul’s own rejected former confidence. Directly engages the Critical righteousness/justification/imputed_righteousness entries above; must not be generalized into a vague rejection of ‘religious works’ broadly, losing Paul’s precise anti-Judaizing polemic.
Rubbish Dung
Approved rendering: уметы
Transliteration: umety
Doctrine: Righteousness by Faith versus the Law
Original: σκύβαλα
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders σκύβαλα (3:8), Paul’s deliberately crude, shocking term. Уметы is an archaic, largely obsolete Russian word essentially unknown to contemporary readers outside this verse, defusing Paul’s intentionally vulgar force. Retain уметы for Scripture quotation; teaching text should gloss explicitly (мусор/нечистоты/отбросы) to restore the deliberate shock value.
Perfect Mature
Approved rendering: совершенный
Transliteration: sovershennyy
Doctrine: The Tension Between Present Maturity and Future Perfection
Original: τέλειος / τετελείωμαι
Category: Sanctification
NEW. Renders τέλειος/τετελείωμαι (3:12,15). Совершенный resonates strongly with Orthodox theosis/progressive-perfection categories, risking a reading of 3:15’s ‘we who are perfect’ as claiming attained deification/perfection that directly contradicts 3:12’s explicit denial just three verses earlier. Exposition must make clear τέλειος at 3:15 means relative maturity/settled commitment, not final sinless perfection or completed theosis.
Partnership In Gospel
Approved rendering: общение (2:1) / участие (1:5; 3:10; 4:14-15)
Transliteration: obshcheniye / uchastiye
Doctrine: Partnership in the Gospel
Original: κοινωνία εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον / κοινωνία παθημάτων / συγκοινωνέω
Category: Church
NEW — escalated consistency risk. Renders κοινωνία εἰς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον / συγκοινωνέω across the letter. The SAME Greek word is rendered общение at 2:1 but участие at 1:5, 3:10, and 4:14-15 in established Synodal usage — Synodal even mixes both terms within two consecutive verses (4:14-15). Expository text MUST teach that общение and участие across these passages render one Greek concept of active, shared participation, so students do not treat ‘fellowship’ and ‘partnership/sharing’ as unrelated ideas — this is the named curriculum doctrine ‘Partnership in the Gospel.‘
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: апостол
Transliteration: apostol
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: посланник, проповедник
Original: (implicit; Paul identifies himself as δοῦλος rather than ἀπόστολος in Phil 1:1, but his apostolic authority is presupposed throughout)
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package. Note for teaching purposes: Paul deliberately foregrounds δοῦλος (раб, servant) rather than ἀπόστολος in Philippians 1:1’s salutation — a rhetorical choice of humility, not a denial of apostolic authority, which is presupposed throughout the letter.
Calling
Approved rendering: призвание
Transliteration: prizvaniye
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: предназначение
Original: κλῆσις (cf. 3:14, τῆς ἄνω κλήσεως)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:14 uses κλῆσις (‘the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’) as the fixed goal-line of the athletic race metaphor; призвание must convey sovereign summons, not судьба (fate) or предназначение (impersonal destiny).
Resurrection
Approved rendering: воскресение
Transliteration: voskreseniye
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: оживление, реинкарнация
Original: ἀνάστασις
Category: Eschatology
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:10,21 links resurrection power to a μορφή-root echo (σύμμορφον, ‘conformed in form’) connecting back to the incarnational form-language of 2:6-7 — worth surfacing as a structural connection between the Christ-hymn and the letter’s eschatological hope.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Сын Божий
Transliteration: Syn Bozhiy
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: божественный посланник
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 2:6’s μορφῇ θεοῦ/ἴσα θεῷ language directly grounds this doctrine; shared, settled Nicene ground with Russian Orthodoxy — see form_of_god_and_servant entry for the letter’s specific new translation risk.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: воплощение
Transliteration: voploshcheniye
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: аватар (never use), явление
Original: ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος (theological category)
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 2:6-8 is the New Testament’s most concentrated single-passage treatment of this doctrine and should be the primary anchor text when teaching воплощение; аватар remains explicitly forbidden given the letter’s kenotic hymn’s superficial (and doctrinally misleading) resemblance to Hindu avatara descent.
Peace
Approved rendering: мир
Transliteration: mir
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: спокойствие, покой
Original: εἰρήνη (τοῦ θεοῦ)
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 4:6-7’s ‘peace of God’ guarding hearts against anxiety is pastoral/experiential rather than strictly judicial; must be distinguished both from мир’s ‘world’ sense and from the forensic peace-with-God of Romans 5:1 without collapsing the two related but distinct senses.
Glory
Approved rendering: слава
Transliteration: slava
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: почёт, величие
Original: δόξα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians frames a deliberate literary inclusio between ‘empty glory’ (κενοδοξία, 2:3) and ‘the glory of God the Father’ (2:11), climaxing doxologically at 4:19-20 — worth surfacing pedagogically to restore слава’s full theological weight against registerial flattening.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: сила Божия
Transliteration: sila Bozhiya
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: энергия
Original: δύναμις (τῆς ἀναστάσεως αὐτοῦ, 3:10)
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 3:10’s ‘power of his resurrection’ (сила воскресения) and 2:13’s ἐνεργέω must both avoid энергия, which carries a specialized Palamite technical sense (uncreated divine energies).
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. Иисус required throughout Philippians, especially in 2:5-11’s central Christ-hymn; never the Old Believer spelling Исус.
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. No new Philippians-specific risk beyond baseline; used throughout salutations, doxologies, and 2:6,9,11,13, 4:19-20.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Святой Дух
Transliteration: Svyatoy Dukh
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: дух (never use alone), энергия
Original: πνεῦμα (ἐν κοινωνία πνεύματος, 2:1; Πνεῦμα Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, 1:19)
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 2:1’s κοινωνία πνεύματος uses πνεῦμα unmodified in the Greek — the Russian rendering must supply context (e.g., clarify ‘общение со Святым Духом’ in teaching text) so it is not read as mere human camaraderie (‘team spirit’).
Father
Approved rendering: Отец
Transliteration: Otets
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: батюшка (reserve exclusively for addressing an Orthodox priest)
Original: πατήρ (εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ πατρός, 2:11; 1:2; 4:20)
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package. Philippians 2:11’s doxological climax (‘to the glory of God the Father’) and 4:20 both require this exact rendering; батюшка remains forbidden for God the Father.
Savior
Approved rendering: Спаситель
Transliteration: Spasitel’
Doctrine: Christology
Rejected alternatives: избавитель
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Christology
NEW. σωτήρ (3:20): Christ awaited as Savior who will complete believers’ transformation, tied directly to the citizenship-in-heaven doctrine. Settled, doctrinally clear term with no false-friend risk; should be read together with the citizenship entry, since Paul presents Christ’s coming as Savior as the object of the heavenly commonwealth’s expectation.
Likeness And Outward Form
Approved rendering: подобие / вид
Transliteration: podobiye / vid
Doctrine: Incarnation
Original: ὁμοίωμα ἀνθρώπων / σχῆμα (v.7)
Category: Christology
NEW. Renders ὁμοίωμα ἀνθρώπων (‘likeness of men’) and σχῆμα (‘outward fashion,’ v.7). Well-supported by settled Orthodox anti-docetic Christology (genuine human nature is uncontested shared ground), so risk is expository precision, not doctrinal collision: подобие must be taught alongside Paul’s clear affirmation of Christ’s FULL real humanity elsewhere, lest ‘likeness’ alone suggest mere resemblance. Must be taught together with образ (μορφή) to preserve Paul’s three-term Christological distinction.
Equality With God
Approved rendering: равный Богу
Transliteration: ravnyy Bogu
Doctrine: Christ’s Pre-Existent Deity and Equality with God
Original: ἴσα θεῷ
Category: Christology
NEW. Renders ἴσα θεῷ (2:6). Straightforward and doctrinally clear; consonant with settled Nicene-heritage Christology shared with Russian Orthodoxy — lower risk than in non-creedal-heritage languages, per baseline’s deity_of_christ notes.
Name Above Every Name
Approved rendering: имя выше всякого имени
Transliteration: imya vyshe vsyakogo imeni
Doctrine: The Exaltation and Universal Lordship of Christ
Original: τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα
Category: Christology
NEW. Renders τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα (2:9). Clear, but referent (κύριος, ‘Lord’) only becomes explicit at v.11; teaching text must read v.9 forward into v.10-11 rather than leaving the referent ambiguous.
Confess
Approved rendering: исповедал
Transliteration: ispovedal
Doctrine: The Universal, Cosmic Confession of Christ
Original: ἐξομολογήσηται
Category: Christology
NEW. Renders ἐξομολογήσηται (2:11). Исповедь/исповедовать carries strong Russian Orthodox sacramental resonance (confession of sin before a priest); here the sense is public doxological acknowledgment, not sacramental self-disclosure of sin. Teaching text must distinguish the two senses explicitly so ‘every tongue will confess’ is not misheard as ‘every tongue will go to confession.‘
Servant Slave
Approved rendering: раб
Transliteration: rab
Doctrine: Servanthood: Slave of Christ
Original: δοῦλος
Category: Church
NEW. Renders δοῦλος (1:1; 2:7). Asset: ‘раб Божий’ is a familiar, positive Orthodox devotional self-designation used in prayer/liturgy for every believer, not a slur. Risk: heavy historical associations (крепостное право/serfdom; Soviet-era forced labor) may color the word negatively unless the text makes explicit this is VOLUNTARY, honored, Christ-modeled belonging — a distinction directly reinforced by the same word describing both Paul (1:1) and Christ himself (2:7).
Joy
Approved rendering: радость
Transliteration: radost’
Doctrine: Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment
Original: χαρά / χαίρω
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders χαρά/χαίρω — the letter’s keynote theme (1:4,18,25; 2:2,17-18,28-29; 3:1; 4:1,4,10). Радость has deep existing cultural/devotional resonance (‘радость о Господе,’ associated with St. Seraphim of Sarov’s paschal greeting) — a genuine asset. Risk: secular or nominal readers may default to circumstantial happiness, missing Paul’s paradox of commanded joy sustained from within literal Roman imprisonment; expository text must state explicitly that this joy does not depend on circumstances.
Bonds Imprisonment
Approved rendering: узы
Transliteration: uzy
Doctrine: Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment
Original: δεσμός / δεσμά
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders δεσμός/δεσμά (1:7,13,14,17). Somewhat literary/elevated register (also used metaphorically for family/social ‘bonds’) that may soften the harsh, literal reality of Roman imperial imprisonment; teaching text should restore concrete historical severity (real captivity, likely under guard, awaiting possible execution).
God At Work In You
Approved rendering: производит
Transliteration: proizvodit
Doctrine: God’s Enabling Work in the Believer
Rejected alternatives: энергия (forbidden — never use)
Original: ἐνεργέω
Category: Salvation
NEW. Renders ἐνεργέω (2:13). Must NOT be rendered with энергия, which carries a specialized Palamite/Orthodox technical sense (uncreated divine energies) that would import an unrelated theological debate into a plain reading of this verse. Synodal’s ‘производит’ correctly avoids this and must be retained without substitution.
Poured Out
Approved rendering: изливаюсь [как жертва]
Transliteration: izlivayus’ [kak zhertva]
Doctrine: Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment
Original: σπένδομαι
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders σπένδομαι (2:17), sacrificial libation imagery Paul applies to his own possible martyrdom. Cultic drink-offering imagery is culturally remote for modern Russian readers and needs brief explanation rather than assumption.
Contentment
Approved rendering: довольство
Transliteration: dovol’stvo
Doctrine: Contentment in All Circumstances
Original: αὐτάρκεια / αὐταρκεῖν
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders αὐτάρκεια/αὐταρκεῖν (4:11-12). Risk: (1) suggesting passive resignation/fatalistic endurance rather than active, learned, Christ-empowered stability; (2) given genuine post-Soviet economic-hardship experience, being misread either as a welcome pastoral word or as counsel toward passive acceptance of deprivation. Exposition must clarify Paul describes an actively sustained, Christ-sourced equilibrium (v.13), never fatalistic resignation.
Low Risk Terms
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: благодарение
Transliteration: blagodareniye
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Original: εὐχαριστία (implicit in χάρις-cognate thanksgiving language, e.g. 1:3-5; 4:6)
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package. Standard term throughout Philippians’ thanksgiving passages (1:3-5; 4:6); no new risk.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: общение
Transliteration: obshcheniye
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: дружба, коллектив (avoid Soviet-collective connotation)
Original: κοινωνία (general sense, e.g. 2:1’s κοινωνία πνεύματος)
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, with an ESCALATED Philippians-specific consistency risk: the Synodal tradition renders the same Greek root κοινωνία as общение at 2:1 but as участие at 1:5, 3:10, and 4:14-15 — see partnership_in_gospel entry below for the High-risk consistency issue this creates for the named curriculum doctrine ‘Partnership in the Gospel’.
Exalted
Approved rendering: превознес
Transliteration: prevoznes
Doctrine: The Exaltation and Universal Lordship of Christ
Original: ὑπερύψωσεν
Category: Christology
NEW. Renders ὑπερύψωσεν (2:9), a compound intensive form found only here in the NT. Превознес’s пре- prefix adequately conveys the compound intensifying force of ὑπερ-; no false-friend risk.
Advance Progress
Approved rendering: успех / преуспевание
Transliteration: uspekh / preuspevaniye
Doctrine: Joy in Suffering and Imprisonment
Original: προκοπή
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders προκοπή (1:12,25). Straightforward vocabulary; minor register note only, no doctrinal ambiguity.
Fear And Trembling
Approved rendering: страх и трепет
Transliteration: strakh i trepet
Doctrine: Working Out Salvation (Sanctification-in-Process)
Original: φόβος καὶ τρόμος
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders φόβος καὶ τρόμος (2:12). Standard Bible-register idiom for reverent seriousness, not craven terror; must be distinguished from ordinary fear of danger, but carries no false-friend risk.
Knowledge Of Christ
Approved rendering: познание Христа
Transliteration: poznaniye Khrista
Doctrine: Righteousness by Faith versus the Law
Original: γνῶσις Χριστοῦ
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders γνῶσις Χριστοῦ (3:8,10). Standard vocabulary with no false-friend risk in the Russian context; should be distinguished from Gnostic esoteric ‘knowledge,’ though this is not a live cultural collision in Russia.
Pressing On
Approved rendering: стремлюсь / простираясь вперед / почесть / цель
Transliteration: stremlyus’ / prostirayas’ vperyod / pochest’ / tsel’
Doctrine: Pressing on toward the Goal in Christ
Original: διώκω / ἐπεκτείνομαι / βραβεῖον / σκοπός
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders διώκω/ἐπεκτείνομαι/βραβεῖον/σκοπός (3:12-14). Vivid, well-rendered athletic-race imagery with no significant false-friend risk; почесть (‘prize/honor’) carries a slightly more static sense in modern Russian than the Greek βραβεῖον’s dynamic victor’s-garland image, worth a brief gloss but not a substitution.
Will Guard
Approved rendering: соблюдет
Transliteration: soblyudet
Doctrine: Prayer and the Peace of God
Original: φρουρήσει
Category: Salvation
NEW. Renders φρουρήσει (4:7), a military garrison/sentry term. Соблюдет (Synodal) is somewhat softened from the vivid military-guard image; worth surfacing the original garrison/sentry imagery in exposition.
Think On
Approved rendering: помышляйте
Transliteration: pomyshlyayte
Doctrine: Sanctified, Blameless Public Witness
Original: λογίζεσθε
Category: Sanctification
NEW. Renders λογίζεσθε (4:8). Shares a verb-root with the Critical imputed_righteousness term (ἐλογίσθη, Rom 4:3), though used here in an ethical rather than forensic sense — an interesting cross-reference for advanced students, not doctrinally loaded on its own.
Giving And Receiving
Approved rendering: в расходе и в приходе
Transliteration: v raskhode i v prikhode
Doctrine: Sacrificial Generosity as Gospel Partnership
Original: δόσις καὶ λῆψις
Category: Church
NEW. Renders δόσις καὶ λῆψις (4:15), a commercial bookkeeping idiom well-preserved in Russian; no risk.
Acceptable Sacrifice
Approved rendering: жертва благоприятная, благоугодная Богу
Transliteration: zhertva blagopriyatnaya, blagougodnaya Bogu
Doctrine: Sacrificial Generosity as Gospel Partnership
Original: θυσία δεκτή, εὐάρεστος τῷ θεῷ
Category: Church
NEW. Renders θυσία δεκτή, εὐάρεστος τῷ θεῷ (4:18). Standard sacrificial vocabulary applied to material generosity; no false-friend risk.
Zeal Envy
Approved rendering: зависть / ревность
Transliteration: zavist’ / revnost’
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: ζῆλος
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders ζῆλος, context-sensitive: зависть (negative envy/rivalry, 1:15) versus ревность (Paul’s own intense but misguided pre-conversion persecuting zeal, 3:6). Ensure correct valence is selected per occurrence.
Encouragement
Approved rendering: утешение
Transliteration: utesheniye
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Original: παράκλησις
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders παράκλησις (2:1). Standard Synodal vocabulary; shares a root-idea with ‘Утешитель’ (the Paraclete/Comforter, a Johannine title for the Holy Spirit) — a positive resonance if surfaced, but not itself in view at 2:1 and should not be implied as a direct titular link without explanation.
Affection And Compassion
Approved rendering: милосердие и сострадание
Transliteration: miloserdiye i sostradaniye
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Original: σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί
Category: Faith
NEW. Renders σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί (2:1). Plain, well-understood vocabulary with no false-friend risk, grounding Paul’s appeal to unity in real affective bonds.
One Soul United
Approved rendering: единодушны
Transliteration: yedinodushny
Doctrine: Unity and Humility in the Church
Original: σύμψυχοι
Category: Church
NEW. Renders σύμψυχοι (2:2), a rare compound emphasizing depth (soul-level) of unity. Standard and well understood; should not be flattened into mere organizational teamwork.
Referenced passages