Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Russian translation and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Synodal precedent over invention — where the Synodal Bible already has a settled rendering (Бог, Иисус, Господь, Святой Дух, завет), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
- Explicit statement of theological position, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why an East-West doctrinal divergence exists and how this curriculum resolves it (see
alternatives_rejectedandnotes), so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule. - Precision through disambiguation, not new coinages — where a Russian term (e.g. благодать, вера, церковь) carries a broader or differently-loaded semantic range than intended, the glossary keeps the natural, recognized term and adds explanatory context rather than inventing an artificial replacement.
- Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters, and for Russian specifically, why the risk often lies in theological nuance between two Christian traditions rather than in confusion with a non-Christian religious concept.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: благодать
Transliteration: blagodat’
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: милость, дар, везение, удача
CRITICAL: благодать is the correct Synodal term, but Russian Orthodox theology (following Palamas) understands it as uncreated divine energies that really transform and deify the believer, not primarily an unmerited legal pardon. Romans’ forensic ‘apart from works’ sense must be made explicit in surrounding text so the term is not silently absorbed into a sacramental/theosis framework. милость (mercy/kindness) is too weak and used for ordinary human kindness; удача/везение (luck) must never be used.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: вменённая праведность
Transliteration: vmenyonnaya pravednost’
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: заслуженная праведность, дарованная святость (too vague)
CRITICAL: ‘Credited/reckoned’ righteousness (вменённая, from вменить, ‘to reckon/count as’) translates Paul’s forensic-accounting language in Romans 4 reasonably well, but this entire imputation framework is a specifically Western/Reformation theological category with no developed parallel in Orthodox soteriology, which prefers participatory/transformative categories (theosis) over legal ones. This compound must be explicitly taught, not assumed as background knowledge, and заслуженная (‘earned’) is explicitly rejected as its exact opposite.
Justification
Approved rendering: оправдание
Transliteration: opravdaniye
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: прощение грехов, искупление
CRITICAL: оправдание is the standard Synodal rendering, but Russian Orthodox theology has no developed forensic-declaration doctrine analogous to Reformation justification; salvation is more commonly framed as a synergistic, lifelong process of theosis (обожение) cooperating with grace rather than a one-time legal verdict. Romans’ ‘declared righteous’ sense (a Protestant-shaped reading) must be explained rather than assumed; do not let оправдание quietly resolve into ‘forgiveness of sins’ (прощение грехов), which loses the forensic declaration entirely.
Salvation
Approved rendering: спасение
Transliteration: spaseniye
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: избавление (acceptable narrowly for ‘deliverance’), освобождение
CRITICAL: спасение is the correct and only viable term, but it must be anchored to Christ’s death and resurrection as a decisive, received event (Romans 10:9-10), not left to default into the Orthodox theosis framework of salvation as an open-ended lifelong process of deification requiring ongoing sacramental participation. Both are compatible in careful theology, but an unqualified use of спасение in a Protestant-authored curriculum risks either being misread through an Orthodox synergistic lens or sounding like an attack on it; frame pastorally, not polemically.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: освящение
Transliteration: osvyashcheniye
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: обожение (reserve for explicit theosis discussion only), очищение
CRITICAL: освящение is correct, but Russian Orthodox theology closely links sanctification to обожение (theosis/deification) achieved through sacramental participation (Eucharist, chrismation) rather than primarily the Spirit’s ongoing moral transformation of the believer described in Romans 6-8. Do not substitute обожение as a synonym; if theosis needs to be referenced comparatively, name it explicitly rather than blending the concepts silently.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: Авва
Transliteration: Avva
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved untranslated in the Synodal text of Romans 8:15 itself (‘Авва, Отче!’), so this Language Package simply follows established Bible usage. Keep the transliteration paired with Отче to match reader expectation from the existing Russian Bible text exactly.
Adoption
Approved rendering: усыновление
Transliteration: usynovleniye
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: принятие в семью
усыновление is the standard legal/family term for adoption and works well; ensure the accompanying text stresses full inheritance rights (Romans 8:17), since Soviet-era and post-Soviet orphanage culture carries strong negative associations with adoption as institutional charity for the unwanted rather than full family incorporation.
Church
Approved rendering: церковь
Transliteration: tserkov’
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: храм, собрание (acceptable for local congregation emphasis)
церковь is the only viable term but in Russian usage overwhelmingly denotes either the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution or a physical building (храм). Romans’ sense of church as the gathered people of God, especially in Protestant/Evangelical minority congregations, needs explicit framing so readers do not default to ‘the [Orthodox] Church’ as the only referent. собрание (assembly/gathering) is acceptable as a clarifying synonym for the local congregation.
Election
Approved rendering: избрание
Transliteration: izbraniye
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: судьба, рок, предопределение (use only with careful qualification)
God’s sovereign personal choice. судьба/рок (fate/doom) are strongly present in Russian folk and literary fatalism and must never substitute. предопределение (predestination) is a legitimate theological term but carries loaded associations with Reformed/Calvinist debates largely foreign to Orthodox soteriology; use избрание as the primary term and introduce предопределение only with explicit definition where the text requires it.
Faith
Approved rendering: вера
Transliteration: vera
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: доверие, убеждение
вера is the standard, unambiguous term, but in Russian Orthodox usage ‘faith’ is often assumed to include sacramental participation and church membership (вера = being Orthodox) rather than personal trust in Christ alone. Context must clarify Romans’ sense of individual, Christ-directed trust, especially in justification passages (3:22-28, 4:1-25).
Lord
Approved rendering: Господь
Transliteration: Gospod’
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: хозяин, владыка (reserve for liturgical/poetic register only)
Established Synodal and liturgical term. In Romans 10:9 the confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ = Иисус есть Господь. Risk is registerial: Господь is heavily associated with formal liturgical address, which can make the confession sound like a recited creed line rather than a personal, decisive confession of allegiance; surrounding text should restore the personal force.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Мессия
Transliteration: Messiya
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: спаситель мира (as a stand-alone substitute)
Мессия is transliterated and used alongside Христос (Christ, itself originally a title meaning ‘Anointed One’ but functioning as a proper name in everyday Russian). In Romans 1:3 and 9:5, note for readers that Христос is not merely Jesus’ surname but carries this messianic-fulfillment meaning, since ordinary usage has worn that meaning smooth.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: послушание вере
Transliteration: poslushaniye vere
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: религиозный долг, соблюдение обрядов
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Compound phrase required to keep obedience as the fruit and expression of faith, not a separate meritorious duty (религиозный долг, ‘religious duty’) stacked alongside it, and not reduced to ritual observance (соблюдение обрядов), which risks collapsing into an Orthodox-praxis-only reading of Christian life.
Providence
Approved rendering: промысел Божий
Transliteration: promysel Bozhiy
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: судьба, случай, карма (never use)
промысел Божий is the established theological term (shared with Orthodox usage). Must be clearly distinguished from судьба/случай (fate/chance), both live folk categories in Russian, and from карма, an increasingly familiar but foreign loanword from contemporary New-Age/yoga culture that must never be used for Romans 8:28’s personal, purposive divine care.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: праведность
Transliteration: pravednost’
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: справедливость, честность
праведность is correct and established, but its everyday register (a ‘righteous/upright person’, праведник) evokes an Orthodox saint or morally exemplary elder, biasing readers toward righteousness-as-achieved-virtue rather than righteousness-as-gift received by faith. справедливость (justice/fairness) is a false friend and must not be substituted.
Saints
Approved rendering: святые
Transliteration: svyatyye
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: праведники
святые in ordinary Russian religious usage refers to a formally canonized, venerated minority (icons, intercessory prayer, feast days), not to ordinary living believers. Romans 1:7’s address to ‘all God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints’ must be rendered so it is unmistakably corporate and inclusive of every believer, not read as address to an elite venerated class.
Sin
Approved rendering: грех
Transliteration: grekh
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: ошибка, проступок
грех is well established, including in secular Russian idiom, but seven decades of state atheism have partly flattened it into a folk-moral or even joking register (‘грех жаловаться’ = ‘it’d be a sin/shame to complain’), and secular readers may hear it as outdated moralism rather than a serious category of guilt before a personal God. Romans 1:18-3:20’s weight must be restored explicitly, not assumed from the word alone.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: апостол
Transliteration: apostol
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: посланник, проповедник
Transliterated loanword, fully established since the earliest Church Slavonic translations. Risk is mainly that Russian Orthodox usage strongly associates ‘apostle’ with the twelve plus Paul as a closed, unrepeatable historical office venerated in icons and feast days, not with a category still relevant to a Protestant-style curriculum’s argument about authority.
Called
Approved rendering: призванный
Transliteration: prizvannyy
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: приглашённый
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation. приглашённый (invited) is too weak and must not be used, as it implies an optional RSVP rather than a divine summons.
Calling
Approved rendering: призвание
Transliteration: prizvaniye
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: предназначение
Noun form. предназначение (destiny/predetermined purpose) is close in everyday secular Russian usage but drifts toward fatalism (судьба); призвание keeps the personal, relational sense of being summoned by God rather than assigned an impersonal fate.
Covenant
Approved rendering: завет
Transliteration: zavet
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: договор, соглашение
завет is the deeply established term (it names the two Testaments themselves: Ветхий/Новый Завет). Relational covenant bond, not a mere legal контракт/договор; the term’s centrality to the very names of the biblical canon in Russian is an asset here.
Father
Approved rendering: Отец
Transliteration: Otets
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: батюшка (reserve exclusively for addressing an Orthodox priest)
Отец (capitalized) for God as Father is standard and doctrinally clear. батюшка (‘little father’) is the everyday Russian form of address for an Orthodox parish priest and must never be used for God the Father, to avoid confusing the two referents for readers from an Orthodox background.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: язычники
Transliteration: yazychniki
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: иноземцы, неевреи
язычники is the standard Synodal term but in modern Russian carries a stronger sense of ‘pagans’ (practitioners of a non-monotheistic religion) than the more neutral ‘non-Jewish nations’ sense Paul intends; use народы (nations/peoples) in mission-scope contexts (see mission) to avoid an unintended slur-adjacent tone.
Glory
Approved rendering: слава
Transliteration: slava
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: почёт, величие
слава is standard and well established (also the root of ‘Slavic’ cultural pride, e.g. ‘слава Богу’). Risk is registerial flattening into a casual exclamation of relief (‘thank God’) rather than God’s weighty, radiant, self-revealing presence; context must restore theological weight in key passages (1:23, 9:5).
God
Approved rendering: Бог
Transliteration: Bog
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Всевышний (acceptable poetic synonym only)
Бог is the standard, universally recognized term across Orthodox, Protestant, and secular Russian usage; unlike Hindi’s ‘भगवान’, there is no competing polytheistic default sense to guard against. Main risk is registerial: decades of official atheism mean Бог can appear in casual secular idiom (‘слава Богу’, ‘дай Бог’) emptied of personal referent, so passages proclaiming God’s personal action (e.g. 1:19-20) should keep the referent vivid and specific.
Gospel
Approved rendering: Евангелие
Transliteration: Yevangeliye
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: благая весть (informal gloss only), хорошая новость
Established Synodal Bible term, already a loanword from Greek euangelion via Church Slavonic. Universally recognized even by secular Russians as ‘the Gospel [book]’; risk is that it is heard as the name of a book/genre rather than as a living proclamation, given widespread cultural but not personal familiarity with Orthodoxy.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Святой Дух
Transliteration: Svyatoy Dukh
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: дух (never use alone), энергия
Святой Дух is the settled Trinitarian term shared with Orthodoxy; unlike Hindi, there is no rival pantheistic ‘universal spirit’ concept to guard against by default, but дух alone (without Святой) must never stand in for the Holy Spirit, since дух alone is used broadly for ‘spirit/mood/ghost’ in secular Russian (as in ‘дух времени’, zeitgeist).
Holy
Approved rendering: святой
Transliteration: svyatoy
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: чистый, непорочный
святой is the only viable term and is deeply established, but it carries strong Orthodox associations with canonized saints (святые) and holy objects/icons/relics (святыни). For a Protestant curriculum this is mostly an asset (the concept of ‘set apart for God’ is culturally intuitive) but requires clarifying that all believers, not only canonized figures, are called holy (see saints).
Incarnation
Approved rendering: воплощение
Transliteration: voploshcheniye
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: аватар (never use), явление
воплощение is the settled and doctrinally precise Orthodox and Protestant term alike; Orthodox icon theology in fact gives incarnation an unusually high cultural profile in Russia (the icon is theologically justified because God took a visible human body). Risk is low for confusion with a rival concept, but аватар must still be explicitly flagged as forbidden given increasing exposure to Hindu/New-Age terminology in contemporary Russian pop-spirituality.
Intercession
Approved rendering: ходатайство
Transliteration: khodataystvo
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: заступничество (reserve for saints’/Mary’s intercession contexts)
ходатайство is the correct general term for prayer on behalf of others (Romans 8:26-27). заступничество is the term almost exclusively used in Russian Orthodox devotion for the intercession of the saints and the Theotokos; using it here would blur Christ’s and the Spirit’s unique intercessory role in Romans 8 with Orthodox saint-intercession practice.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Иисус
Transliteration: Iisus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Исус (Old Believer spelling, avoid)
Standard modern Russian Orthodox and Synodal spelling Иисус (with double и). The single-и spelling Исус is associated with Old Believer (старообрядцы) liturgical tradition, a distinct and historically persecuted minority; using it would send an unintended sectarian signal, so Иисус is required throughout.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Царство Божие
Transliteration: Tsarstvo Bozhiye
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: государство Божие
Established term from the Synodal tradition. Historical note: Russia’s own imperial ‘tsardom’ history and later Soviet state-power framing make ‘kingdom/царство’ politically resonant; ensure the text is clear this is God’s sovereign spiritual reign, not a this-worldly political order or nostalgia for monarchy.
Law
Approved rendering: закон
Transliteration: zakon
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: правило, заповедь (reserve for individual commandments)
закон is the standard Synodal term for the Mosaic Law/Torah and also the ordinary word for civil law, which is helpful for Paul’s legal-metaphor argument in Romans 2-7 but requires context to keep readers from assuming only Russian/Soviet civil-law categories are in view.
Mission
Approved rendering: миссия / благовестие
Transliteration: missiya / blagovestiye
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: пропаганда (never use)
миссия retains the term directly; благовестие (‘good-news-telling’) is the more native theological description and avoids the connotation, present in some post-Soviet contexts, of Western-funded religious ‘миссионерство’ as a suspect foreign import. пропаганда must never be used given its loaded Soviet/post-Soviet political meaning.
Peace
Approved rendering: мир
Transliteration: mir
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: спокойствие, покой
мир is the standard term, but is also the ordinary word for ‘the world’ and for ‘political peace/absence of war’ (a historically loaded concept in Russian, given 20th-century war memory). Romans 5:1’s relational, judicial peace with God through justification must be distinguished in context from both senses; покой/спокойствие (calm, tranquility) are too passive/psychological and must not substitute.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: сила Божия
Transliteration: sila Bozhiya
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: энергия
сила Божия is standard. Note for theological precision: Orthodox Palamite theology distinguishes God’s unknowable essence from his knowable, uncreated ‘energies’ (энергии), a term sometimes used interchangeably with ‘grace’ and ‘power’ in Orthodox devotional writing; энергия should not be substituted here, to keep Romans 1:16’s plain sense (God’s saving power at work through the gospel) free of that specialized technical debate.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: воскресение
Transliteration: voskreseniye
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: оживление, реинкарнация
воскресение is unambiguous, doctrinally settled, and central to Russian Orthodox liturgical identity (Easter/Пасха is the paramount feast, celebrated even by secular Russians culturally). Lower risk than in non-Christian-heritage languages because there is no competing native reincarnation concept; main risk is over-familiarity flattening the doctrine into a cultural/calendar event rather than a personally appropriated truth (Romans 6:4-5).
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: от семени Давидова
Transliteration: ot semeni Davidova
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: потомок Давида (acceptable modern-register gloss)
Romans 1:3; the archaic Synodal phrasing ‘от семени Давидова’ is the recognized Bible-register form. потомок Давида (‘descendant of David’) is an acceptable plain-language gloss for lower-literacy or youth contexts but should not fully replace the established Bible phrase.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Сын Божий
Transliteration: Syn Bozhiy
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: божественный посланник
Fully settled Nicene-heritage term shared with Russian Orthodoxy’s own confession (Nicene Creed is used in the Orthodox liturgy itself, in Church Slavonic and modern Russian). Lower risk than in non-creedal-heritage languages because there is no competing cultural concept to smuggle in error; the main task is precision, not defense against syncretism.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: духовные дары
Transliteration: dukhovnyye dary
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: экстрасенсорные способности (never use), таланты
духовные дары is standard evangelical Russian usage. экстрасенсорные способности (psychic/paranormal abilities) is a live cultural category in post-Soviet Russia (extrasenсы, folk healers, and television psychics remain culturally prominent) and must never be used or implied. таланты (talents/natural gifts) is too weak, missing the Spirit-given, grace-based origin.
Low Risk Terms
David
Approved rendering: Давид
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Synodal standard proper name form.
Exhort
Approved rendering: увещевать
Transliteration: uveshchevat’
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use просить/умолять (entreaty) for beseeching; увещевать/ободрять (encourage, build up) for edification contexts.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: общение
Transliteration: obshcheniye
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: дружба, коллектив (avoid Soviet-collective connotation)
общение conveys shared communion/participation well. коллектив (the Soviet-era term for a work/social collective) must be avoided; it carries state-collectivist connotations that flatten fellowship into an organizational unit rather than shared life in Christ.
Israel
Approved rendering: Израиль
Transliteration: Izrail’
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Standard proper name; note the modern nation-state of Israel shares the identical Russian name, so context should clarify when the biblical people/covenant referent, not the contemporary state, is meant (relevant given contemporary geopolitical sensitivity).
Prophecy
Approved rendering: пророчество
Transliteration: prorochestvo
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: предсказание, гороскоп
God-inspired declaration; distinguish from horoscope/astrology-style prediction (гороскоп, предсказание), which remains a widespread cultural practice in secular post-Soviet media.
Prophet
Approved rendering: пророк
Transliteration: prorok
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: предсказатель, экстрасенс
пророк is standard and well understood via both the Orthodox Old Testament canon and general literary culture (Pushkin’s ‘Пророк’). экстрасенс/предсказатель (psychic/fortune-teller) must not be used, given the same live post-Soviet folk-psychic culture noted under spiritual gifts.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: благодарение
Transliteration: blagodareniye
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term shared across Orthodox liturgy (the Eucharist itself is called Евхаристия/благодарение) and everyday Russian. No significant risk; minor note that the term’s liturgical resonance is a mild asset, not a hazard.
Referenced passages