Passage

Romans 15

• Doctrine

  Christ-Centered Ministry

  Ministry done in Christ's name and power, not humanitarian or social work divorced from the gospel, and not merely institutional church service (церковное служение) understood as formal religious duty.

  ROM.15.17-21

• Doctrine

  Christian Fellowship

  Shared participation in Christ; avoid коллектив, the Soviet-era term for a work/social collective, which flattens fellowship into an organizational unit.

  ROM.15.24

• Glossary Term

  Church

  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).

  ROM.15.26

• Doctrine

  Church as God's People

  церковь overwhelmingly denotes the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution or a physical building in ordinary usage; readers must be given an explicit frame for church as the gathered people of God so they do not assume the text can only be describing Orthodoxy itself, especially relevant for the many Evangelical and Protestant minority congregations this curriculum also serves.

  ROM.15.26

• Glossary Term

  Covenant

  завет is the deeply established term (it names the two Testaments themselves: Ветхий/Новый Завет).

  ROM.15.12

• Glossary Term

  David

  Synodal standard proper name form.

  ROM.15.12

• Doctrine

  Davidic Covenant

  Requires OT narrative background explanation for readers whose primary Bible exposure has been liturgical excerpts (Psalter, Gospel/Epistle lectionary readings) rather than continuous OT narrative reading.

  ROM.15.12

• Doctrine

  Evangelism

  Legally and culturally sensitive: public evangelism outside registered religious buildings is restricted under current Russian law, and evangelistic activity by non-Orthodox groups is sometimes framed in public discourse as foreign or sectarian; use language of proclamation and personal witness rather than public campaign language.

  ROM.15.20

• Glossary Term

  Exhort

  Context-sensitive: use просить/умолять (entreaty) for beseeching; увещевать/ободрять (encourage, build up) for edification contexts.

  ROM.15.2

• Glossary Term

  Fellowship

  общение conveys shared communion/participation well.

  ROM.15.24

• Doctrine

  Fulfillment of Prophecy

  Linear historical fulfillment (OT to NT) is not in tension with any competing native Russian cosmology, unlike in some other cultures; main risk is treating OT prophecy as generic religious literature rather than a specific, historically anchored promise.

  ROM.15.8-12

• Glossary Term

  Gentiles

  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.

  ROM.15.7-12

• Doctrine

  Gospel

  Евангелие is universally recognized, including by secular Russians, but chiefly as the name of a book or historical text rather than a living proclamation demanding response; the curriculum must restore the sense of an active announcement, not assume it from the word alone.

  ROM.15.19-20

• Glossary Term

  Gospel

  Established Synodal Bible term, already a loanword from Greek euangelion via Church Slavonic.

  ROM.15.19-20

• Glossary Term

  Holy

  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).

  ROM.15.16

• Glossary Term

  Holy Spirit

  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).

  ROM.15.16

• Doctrine

  Inspiration of Scripture

  Orthodox theology holds Scripture as authoritative within Holy Tradition (Предание) — councils, patristic interpretation, and liturgy jointly with the biblical text — rather than a stand-alone final authority (sola scriptura).

  ROM.15.4

• Glossary Term

  Intercession

  ходатайство is the correct general term for prayer on behalf of others (Romans 8:26-27).

  ROM.15.30-32

• Glossary Term

  Israel

  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).

  ROM.15.7-12

• Doctrine

  Kingdom Mission

  God's reign advancing through the gospel must be distinguished from nostalgia for Russia's own historical tsardom/imperial 'Third Rome' framing, given how politically resonant 'царство' language remains.

  ROM.15.12, ROM.15.18-21

• Glossary Term

  Kingdom Of God

  Established term from the Synodal tradition.

  ROM.15.12, ROM.15.18-21

• Glossary Term

  Law

  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.

  ROM.15.8-12

• Glossary Term

  Messiah

  Мессия is transliterated and used alongside Христос (Christ, itself originally a title meaning 'Anointed One' but functioning as a proper name in everyday Russian).

  ROM.15.8-12

• Doctrine

  Messianic Promise

  Христос functions as Jesus' effective surname in everyday Russian usage, and the original 'Anointed One' / promise-fulfillment sense has worn smooth through overuse; the curriculum should explicitly re-surface the title's Jewish messianic-fulfillment meaning rather than assume readers still hear it.

  ROM.15.8-12

• Glossary Term

  Mission

  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.

  ROM.15.15-24

• Doctrine

  Mission to the Nations

  Russian law (notably the 2016 'Yarovaya law' amendments) restricts evangelistic 'missionary activity' outside registered religious premises, and post-Soviet public discourse often treats Western-funded миссионерство with suspicion; use благовестие where a less legally and culturally loaded term is preferable.

  ROM.15.15-24

• Doctrine

  Mutual Edification

  Building one another up in faith; no significant doctrinal risk.

  ROM.15.2

• Doctrine

  Prayer and Intercession

  Distinguish Christ's and the Spirit's unique intercessory role in Romans 8 from заступничество, the term almost exclusively used in Russian Orthodox devotion for the intercession of the saints and the Theotokos, to avoid importing that specific devotional practice into the text's meaning.

  ROM.15.30-32

• Glossary Term

  Prophecy

  God-inspired declaration; distinguish from horoscope/astrology-style prediction (гороскоп, предсказание), which remains a widespread cultural practice in secular post-Soviet media.

  ROM.15.8-12

• Glossary Term

  Prophet

  пророк is standard and well understood via both the Orthodox Old Testament canon and general literary culture (Pushkin's 'Пророк').

  ROM.15.4

• Doctrine

  Sanctification

  CRITICAL: Russian Orthodox theology closely links sanctification to обожение (theosis/deification) mediated through sacramental participation (Eucharist, chrismation), rather than primarily the Spirit's ongoing moral transformation of the believer described in Romans 6-8.

  ROM.15.16

• Glossary Term

  Sanctification

  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.

  ROM.15.16

• Glossary Term

  Seed Of David

  Romans 1:3; the archaic Synodal phrasing 'от семени Давидова' is the recognized Bible-register form.

  ROM.15.12

• Doctrine

  Separation unto God's Service

  Must not be read as a call to formal monasticism (монашество) or ascetic withdrawal, a real and historically prestigious path in Russian Orthodox spirituality (monks, elders/старцы).

  ROM.15.16

• Doctrine

  Unity of Jews and Gentiles

  Given the historical weight of state and popular antisemitism in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, Romans 9-11's argument for Jewish-Gentile unity and God's ongoing faithfulness to Israel needs careful, unambiguous translation rather than vague or minimizing paraphrase.

  ROM.15.7-12