Linguistic Gap Analysis
2 Corinthians — Linguistic Gap Analysis
Phase 1, Step 8 — Destination Language: Sanskrit
Curriculum: 2 Corinthians 1–13
Core passage: 2 Corinthians 5:11–21
Depends on: baseline translation_memory.json/bible_term_registry.json (Romans), 08_core_glossary.md (2 Corinthians)
Purpose: This document performs the linguistic gap analysis mandated before Phase 2 translation — identifying where Classical Sanskrit (a) has no term at all for a biblical concept, (b) has too many competing, already-theorized terms crowding the same semantic space, and (c) requires a transliteration rather than a translation. It closes with a ranked list of this letter’s highest-risk ambiguities for reviewer attention.
1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each of the eight curriculum doctrines: the available Sanskrit term(s), their specific weaknesses (named against a citable classical source wherever possible, per this Language Package’s evidentiary standard), and the recommended strategy.
1.1 Reconciliation with God
| Available term | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| सन्धिः (sandhiḥ) — selected | Drawn from Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra ṣāḍguṇya (six-fold foreign policy); names a formal treaty ending hostility between two equal sovereign parties. Romans 5:18-19’s reconciliation is asymmetrical — God alone acts, humanity does not negotiate as an equal party. | Use सन्धिः for the noun, but every occurrence must carry a note that the treaty-model is borrowed only for its “real hostility genuinely ended” sense, not its “two equal parties negotiating” structure. |
| ऐक्यम् (aikyam) | Already reserved by this curriculum’s baseline lineage for “unity of Jews and Gentiles” (Romans 3:29-30, 11:17-24). Reusing it here would blur reconciliation-with-God and reconciliation-between-people into one undifferentiated concept, when Paul treats them as related but distinct (cf. 5:19 vs. Ephesians 2:14-16 pattern). | Reject for God-ward reconciliation; may be used only for the distinct horizontal-unity sense if that theme recurs. |
| मेलनम् (melanam) | Generic “coming together/meeting”; too weak to carry forensic/relational weight; used in ordinary Sanskrit of any reunion (lovers, rivers, friends). | Reject as primary term; may appear in explanatory paraphrase only. |
| संधानं करोति / संधापयति (verb forms) — selected | Same treaty-register as सन्धिः. Sanskrit grammar allows the causative संधापयति (“causes to be reconciled”) which conveniently mirrors the Greek’s God-as-agent structure in 5:18 (τοῦ καταλλάξαντος ἡμᾶς) — a grammatical gift that should be exploited deliberately. | Use संधापयति wherever God is grammatically the reconciling agent (5:18-19); reserve the plain causee form (passive/middle sense) for the human imperative “be reconciled” (5:20), which itself requires care — see §4 below. |
Gap identified: No Sanskrit term natively carries “ended hostility with a personal God, initiated unilaterally by the offended party toward the offender.” The nearest structural analogue (diplomatic sandhi) assumes parity between the treaty-makers. This is a genuine vocabulary gap, not merely a connotation problem — bridged only by borrowing the diplomatic term and explicitly overriding its parity assumption.
1.2 New Creation in Christ
| Available term | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| नवसृष्टिः (navasṛṣṭiḥ) — selected | सृष्टि is the technical first term of the Purāṇic sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya (creation-preservation-dissolution) cycle and of Brahmā’s recurring kalpa-creations — an inherently cyclical, repeating framework. “New creation” in 2 Cor 5:17 is a singular, non-repeating re-making of the individual believer’s status. | Mandatory redefinition at every occurrence, parceled identically to how धार्मिकता is handled in the baseline: state explicitly that this is a once-for-all transformation in Christ, not a new turn of an ongoing cosmic cycle. |
| नवजन्म (navajanmā) | Reads too easily as “new birth” in the rebirth/reincarnation sense — precisely the collision the baseline forbids for “resurrection” (पुनर्जन्म). | Reject outright; do not use even as a gloss. |
| नूतनं जगत् (“new world”) | Would shift the referent from the believer’s personal transformed status to a cosmic-scale renewal, overloading the individual soteriological claim of 5:17 with an eschatological-cosmic claim better suited to Revelation 21. | Reject as primary rendering for 5:17; may be appropriate for distinct new-heavens-new-earth contexts elsewhere, not here. |
Gap identified: No untheorized Sanskrit word exists for “a decisive, non-repeating change of created status.” Every candidate root (√sṛj, √jan) is already harnessed to a cyclical framework in classical usage. This is the doctrine’s core linguistic gap and its highest ambiguity risk (see §4).
1.3 Suffering and Comfort in Ministry
| Available term | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| दुःखम् (duḥkham) — selected, unavoidable | The foundational term of Sāṃkhya’s tripartite suffering taxonomy (ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika, ādhidaivika) and the Buddhist First Noble Truth (duḥkha as the diagnosis resolved by the Eightfold Path). Both systems treat suffering as a problem to be eliminated through right knowledge/practice. | Explicit redefinition at every occurrence: suffering shared with Christ (2 Cor 1:5-7; 4:10-11) is embraced as meaningful and redemptive, not a metaphysical defect dissolved by viveka/jñāna. |
| क्लेशः (kleśaḥ) | Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra 2.3 names exactly five kleśas (avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dveṣa, abhiniveśa) as the systematized causes of bondage, to be eliminated through yogic discipline. | Reject for “affliction” (θλῖψις) — see पीडा below. |
| पीडा (pīḍā) — selected | Comparatively untheorized; ordinary word for external pressure/hardship. Minor risk: could be read as merely physical/circumstantial without the relational-with-Christ dimension Paul intends. | Retain; pair with explicit ministry-context framing at first occurrence per passage. |
| सान्त्वना (sāntvanā) — selected for “comfort” | Must not collapse into the yogic ideal of self-generated equanimity (samatva, titikṣā — Gītā 2:14-15’s counsel to bear heat/cold, pleasure/pain with even mind through one’s own discipline). | Explicit note: comfort here is a relational gift given by “the God of all comfort” (1:3), not an inner equanimity self-cultivated through practice. |
| करुणा (karuṇā) — selected for “mercies/compassion” | Doubles as a Nāṭyaśāstra rasa (karuṇa-rasa, the aesthetic sentiment of pathos in dramatic theory) and a Buddhist brahmavihāra (one of four cultivated meditative attitudes). Both are aesthetic/ethical categories, not directly competing soteriological claims, so the collision risk is lower than most Critical/High entries. | Retain with Medium risk; note the aesthetic/meditative resonance only for translator awareness, not as a doctrinal redefinition requirement. |
Gap identified: No gap in raw vocabulary — the gap is entirely one of framework capture: every available word for suffering already belongs to a developed liberation-soteriology (Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Buddhist) whose resolution mechanism is knowledge or practice, not comfort received relationally from a personal God.
1.4 The New Covenant versus the Old
| Available term | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| संविद् (saṃvid) + नवीना संविद् (navīnā saṃvid) — selected | संविद् itself carries no inherent covenantal weight in classical usage (already flagged in the baseline as needing explicit teaching). The compound “new covenant” additionally has no native analogue: Mīmāṃsā holds the Veda to be apauruṣeya (unauthored) and eternally existent — a scriptural authority structure with no concept of one covenant superseding another. | Requires sustained background teaching (not translation alone) explaining covenant-supersession as a category; flag every occurrence for a contextual footnote, not just a glossary lookup. |
| आवरणम् (āvaraṇam) — selected for “veil,” Critical | Directly names Advaita Vedānta’s own technical term for avidyā’s veiling power (āvaraṇa-śakti) — the very mechanism by which the Ātman-Brahman identity is concealed per the mahāvākyas, and removed by jñāna (knowledge), not relational turning. This is structurally the closest doctrinal collision in the whole 2 Corinthians curriculum to the baseline’s flagship Holy Spirit/ātman-Brahman risk. | Mandatory note at every occurrence (3:13-16): the veil here is removed relationally — by turning to the Lord and receiving the Spirit — not epistemically, by knowledge unveiling a pre-existing non-dual identity. Never allow आवरणम् to appear near पवित्र आत्मा without both notes co-present, since 3:17-18 places them in the same breath. |
| लिखितं वचनम् (likhitaṃ vacanam) — selected for “the letter” | Rejected alternative अक्षरम् names the eternal, imperishable syllable (Oṃ as akṣara-brahman, Gītā 8:3, 8:13) — using it for “the letter that kills” (3:6) would accidentally sacralize exactly what Paul contrasts unfavorably with the life-giving Spirit. | Retain लिखितं वचनम्; flag अक्षरम् as permanently forbidden for this sense in translation memory. |
| रूपान्तरम् (rūpāntaram) — selected for “transformation,” 3:18 | Must be distinguished from Advaita’s view that the Self does not actually change but has a pre-existing identity merely unveiled by removing ignorance (avidyā-nivṛtti). | Explicit note: Paul describes real, ongoing, Spirit-wrought change over time (“from glory to glory”), not the unveiling of an already-complete static identity. |
Gap identified: The “old vs. new covenant” supersession structure itself is the deepest gap — not a single missing word, but a missing category, since the dominant classical model of scriptural authority (Mīmāṃsā’s eternal, unauthored Veda) structurally excludes the very idea that a divinely given covenant could become obsolete.
1.5 Sincerity and Apostolic Authority
| Available term | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| अन्तर्बोधः (antarbodhaḥ) — selected for “conscience,” coined | No untheorized Sanskrit term for “conscience” exists at all. अन्तःकरणम् (Sāṃkhya/Vedānta’s fourfold internal instrument: manas, buddhi, citta, ahaṃkāra) and विवेकः (the Advaita/Sāṃkhya liberating discrimination faculty distinguishing Self from not-Self) are both fully theorized technical psychological-metaphysical categories, not general moral-awareness words. | Use the coined compound अन्तर्बोधः with mandatory first-occurrence definition: “the moral faculty aware of right and wrong before God” — a deliberate coinage precisely because no existing term is safe. |
| सरलता (saralatā) — selected for “sincerity” | Plain, non-technical; low risk. | Retain without qualification. |
| राजदूतः (rājadūtaḥ) — selected for “ambassador” | गुरुः/ऋषिः rejected per baseline’s “apostle” reasoning (guru-lineage transmission model; Vedic-seer eternal-perception model). राजदूतः itself carries a mild, non-doctrinal resonance with Kṛṣṇa’s peace-embassy in the Mahābhārata’s Udyoga Parva — illuminating but must not be taught as a deliberate typological parallel. | Retain; flag the Udyoga Parva resonance for translator awareness only, explicitly marked “not doctrinal.” |
| भयम् (bhayam) — selected for “fear of the Lord,” 5:11; 7:1 | Ordinary word for fear/terror; risk of being read as servile terror rather than reverential accountability. | Gloss explicitly as reverence/awe before Christ as Judge, not anxiety or terror. |
Gap identified: “Conscience” is a genuine vocabulary gap requiring coinage — the only true neologism-level gap in this doctrine area (contrast the New Creation gap, which is a framework gap using existing words).
1.6 Generosity and Grace in Giving
| Available term | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| दानम् (dānam) — selected, unavoidable | Activates dharmaśāstra’s dāna-dharma system, where giving is a meritorious, puṇya-generating religious duty catalogued with specific rules (recipient-worthiness, ritual timing, prescribed objects). Corinthian giving (chs. 8-9) flows from grace already received, generating no merit toward the giver’s own standing. | Pair every occurrence with अनुग्रहः-grounded framing: giving is grace-response, not merit-seeking; flag ch. 8-9 segments for explicit contrast teaching. |
| उदारता (udāratā) — selected for “generosity/liberality” | Comparatively unencumbered; still benefits from being read alongside दानम् rather than replacing it, since Paul uses both the “act” (giving) and “disposition” (generosity) registers. | Retain as the disposition-term; keep दानम् as the act-term; do not conflate. |
| समविभागः (samavibhāgaḥ) — selected for “equality/fair distribution,” 8:13-14 | Rejected alternatives समता (Gītā 2:48’s technical definition of yoga itself as “evenness of mind”) and साम्यम् (Sāṃkhya’s guṇa-equilibrium state of unmanifest prakṛti) are both metaphysical/psychological technical terms entirely displaced from economics. | Retain समविभागः; never substitute समता/साम्यम् even as “more elegant” synonyms — per the system prompt’s standing rule against unchecked synonym substitution. |
| हृष्टः दाता (hṛṣṭaḥ dātā) — selected for “cheerful giver,” 9:7 | Plain descriptive phrase; no doctrinal collision. | Retain without qualification. |
Gap identified: No true vocabulary gap — the risk here is entirely the crowded-neighborhood problem: दानम् inevitably imports dāna-dharma’s merit logic, and this cannot be escaped by word choice (structurally parallel to धार्मिकता’s inescapable dharma-weight in the baseline). The mitigation is pairing and explicit contrast, not substitution.
1.7 Power in Weakness
| Available term | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| सामर्थ्यम् (sāmarthyam) — baseline reuse, Critical | Baseline already forbids शक्तिः (Śākta Tantric hypostasized divine feminine creative power). No new weakness introduced by 2 Corinthians beyond the baseline’s own. | Retain per baseline; no new gap. |
| दुर्बलता (durbalatā) — selected for “weakness” | Plain, non-technical; doctrinal weight sits entirely in what it is contrasted against, not in the word itself. | Retain; ensure the contrast-partner (तपस्) is always present in context, not the word alone. |
| तपस् (tapas) — contrast term, not a translation choice | Not itself a rendering of any Pauline term, but the unavoidable conceptual foil: Purāṇic narratives (Bhagīratha’s tapas bringing the Gaṅgā to earth; Viśvāmitra’s tapas rivaling Indra) establish a well-known doctrine of supernatural power self-generated through voluntary ascetic hardship. 2 Cor 12:9’s “power made perfect in weakness” is the theological inverse: grace-given power resting on acknowledged insufficiency, not power earned by disciplined self-affliction. | 12:9-10 must explicitly name and set aside the tapas model in translator notes, every occurrence — this is the doctrine’s single highest-value contrast to make explicit, since a Sanskrit-literate reader will otherwise assimilate Paul’s weakness-language to tapas almost automatically. |
| शरीरे कण्टकः (śarīre kaṇṭakaḥ) — selected for “thorn in the flesh,” 12:7 | Vivid metaphor; no doctrinal collision, flagged only for cultural-metaphor review. | Retain without theological qualification. |
Gap identified: No vocabulary gap. The risk is entirely a conceptual-neighbor collision (tapas) rather than a lexical one — the words are safe; the surrounding cultural narrative is not.
1.8 Genuine versus False Apostleship
| Available term | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| प्रेषितः (preṣitaḥ) — baseline reuse | No new weakness; carries baseline’s established guru/ṛṣi-rejection reasoning forward. | Retain. |
| अतिश्रेष्ठाः प्रेषिताः (atiśreṣṭhāḥ preṣitāḥ) — selected for “super-apostles” | Purely compositional; the risk is not doctrinal collision but tonal loss — Paul’s irony (11:5; 12:11) could be flattened into a sincere honorific if translated without contextual signaling. | Flag for Sanskrit-scholar (not theologian) review specifically for ironic register preservation, per Medium-risk routing. |
| मिथ्याप्रेषिताः (mithyāpreṣitāḥ) — selected for “false apostles” | Compositional (मिथ्या + प्रेषितः); no independent theological weight beyond what baseline “apostle” already carries. | Retain; High risk inherited from the seriousness of the false-teacher warning itself, not from lexical ambiguity. |
| श्लाघा (ślāghā) — selected for “boasting” | Rejected alternative अहंकारः names Sāṃkhya’s technical “I-maker” faculty (one of the 25 tattvas) — an entirely different psychological-metaphysical category from rhetorical self-praise. | Retain श्लाघा; never substitute अहंकारः even where it might seem a natural near-synonym in ordinary usage. |
| तृतीयं स्वर्गम् / स्वर्गोद्यानम् (12:2, 12:4) | स्वर्ग must be distinguished from Purāṇic/Gītā svarga-loka, a temporary, karma-merit-dependent heavenly realm exhausted when accumulated puṇya runs out (Gītā 9:20-21). | Explicit non-karmic clarification at both occurrences. |
Gap identified: No vocabulary gap; the risks here are tonal/rhetorical (irony preservation) and one recurring conceptual-neighbor collision (svarga-loka’s karma-exhaustion mechanism), not missing words.
2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Genuinely Missing Vocabulary (no adequate existing term; coinage or borrowed-and-repurposed term required)
| Concept | Status | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Conscience (συνείδησις) | No untheorized native term exists at all. | Coined compound अन्तर्बोधः, mandatory first-occurrence definition. |
| Reconciliation as God-initiated, asymmetrical peace-making with an offended personal deity | No native concept of a deity unilaterally initiating peace with the offending party; nearest structural analogue (sandhi) assumes two negotiating equals. | Borrowed-and-overridden: सन्धिः/संधापयति with mandatory asymmetry note. |
| Covenant supersession (old covenant becoming obsolete, replaced by new) | No native category; Mīmāṃsā’s apauruṣeya Veda doctrine structurally excludes scriptural supersession. | Requires background teaching beyond translation; flag for expanded footnoting, not just glossary lookup. |
| ”New creation” as singular, non-repeating transformation | No word for “creation” untethered from the cyclical sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya framework. | नवसृष्टिः retained with mandatory redefinition (parallel treatment to धार्मिकता). |
2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (too many competing already-theorized terms; fencing required)
| Semantic space | Competing terms already claimed by classical schools | Fencing strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Suffering | दुःखम् (Sāṃkhya tripartite taxonomy; Buddhist First Noble Truth), क्लेशः (Yoga Sūtra 2.3’s five bondage-causes) | दुःखम् retained (unavoidable) with mandatory redefinition; क्लेशः permanently fenced off/forbidden for “affliction” (θλῖψις uses पीडा instead). |
| Equanimity/rest-giving | समता (Gītā 2:48’s yoga-definition), साम्यम् (Sāṃkhya guṇa-equilibrium), सान्त्वना (comfort, chosen) | समता and साम्यम् fenced off from “comfort”/“equality” senses entirely; सान्त्वना reserved for relational divine comfort, समविभागः reserved for economic equality — three concepts kept in three separate lexical lanes. |
| Self/person language | आत्मन् (Advaita’s central identity-term), पुरुषः (Sāṃkhya’s unchanging witness-consciousness) | Both fenced off from “outer/inner man” (4:16); बाह्यः जनः / आन्तरिकः जनः used instead — deliberately generic “person” vocabulary avoiding both metaphysical systems. |
| Giving/merit | दानम् (dāna-dharma’s puṇya-generating system) | Cannot be fenced off (no substitute exists as the ordinary word for “gift”); must instead be paired every occurrence with explicit grace-response framing. |
| Veiling/unveiling of hidden truth | आवरणम् (Advaita’s āvaraṇa-śakti, avidyā’s veiling power) | Cannot be fenced off (best available word for “veil”); mandatory relational-vs-epistemic note at every occurrence, doubled whenever it co-occurs with पवित्र आत्मा (3:17-18). |
| Heavenly reward/realm | स्वर्ग (Gītā 9:20-21’s karma-merit-exhausted svarga-loka) | Cannot be fenced off (standard word for “heaven”); mandatory non-karmic clarification at each occurrence (12:2,4). |
| Ascetic self-generated power | तपस् (Purāṇic Bhagīratha/Viśvāmitra narratives) | Not itself used as a translation term at all — but must be named and explicitly set aside in every 12:9-10 note, since it is the culturally nearest conceptual neighbor Sanskrit-literate readers will otherwise supply unbidden. |
| Rhetorical self-praise vs. metaphysical ego-faculty | श्लाघा (plain rhetorical boasting) vs. अहंकारः (Sāṃkhya’s 25th tattva) | अहंकारः permanently fenced off from “boasting”; श्लाघा retained exclusively. |
3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Item | Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Satan | Transliterate: शैतानः | असुरः/राक्षसः name classes of being within the same cosmic order as the devas, ultimately subordinate to it — structurally incompatible with a created adversary opposed to and judged by सर्वेश्वरः alone. No common noun is safe; transliteration avoids false-equivalence entirely. |
| Belial | Transliterate: बेलियालः | Same reasoning as Satan; treated as a proper name with no common-noun substitute available. |
| Messiah / Christ | Transliterate: ख्रीष्टः (primary, per baseline), मसीहः (available for explicit messianic-title contexts) | Established baseline precedent from the Serampore tradition; avoids assimilation to avatāra-figure vocabulary. |
| God of this age | Paraphrase, not literal translation: अस्य युगस्य अधिपतिः (“ruler of this age”), never एतत्कालस्य देवः | A literal “god” rendering would affirm a real second देव with independent standing; the paraphrase “ruler” preserves usurped, limited, temporary authority without granting ultimate-reality status. |
| Abba (if echoed from Romans context) | Transliterate: अब्बा | Baseline precedent; not present as a lexical item in 2 Corinthians itself but retained in translation memory for consistency if referenced. |
| Amen / Hallelujah | Transliterate: आमीन्, हल्लेलूया | Established baseline transliteration forms. |
| Conscience | Neither transliterate nor borrow directly — coin: अन्तर्बोधः | No source-language transliteration would communicate anything to a Sanskrit reader (unlike proper names); no existing Sanskrit term is safe (see §2.1). Coinage with mandatory definition is the only viable path. |
| Veil (κάλυμμα) | Translate, not transliterate: आवरणम् (with mandatory note) | A borrowed technical Advaita term repurposed under heavy annotation, following the same method as पवित्र आत्मा in the baseline — translation-with-override is judged safer here than either a whimsical alternative (तिरस्करिणी, rejected) or an unglossed transliteration, which would communicate nothing at all to the target scholarly audience. |
| New Covenant / New Creation | Translate (compound with existing baseline root), not transliterate | Both concepts require the reader to recognize the classical root (संविद्, सृष्टि) precisely so that the redefinition-by-contrast strategy can operate; an opaque transliteration would forfeit the very engagement with classical categories this Language Package’s scholarly audience is expected to bring. |
General principle applied: Transliterate only where (a) the referent is a proper name with no legitimate common-noun equivalent (Satan, Belial), or (b) every available common noun would affirm a false ontological equivalence (God of this age). Translate-with-mandatory-override where a technical term already exists that can be productively repurposed under heavy annotation (veil, new creation, righteousness-family terms). Coin new compounds only where no existing term is available at any safety level (conscience).
4. Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities in 2 Corinthians
Ranked by (a) severity of doctrinal distortion if mishandled, (b) proximity to the baseline’s own flagship ātman-Brahman collision, and (c) frequency/centrality to the core passage (5:11-21).
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आवरणम् (veil, 3:13-18) co-occurring with पवित्र आत्मा — The single highest-risk ambiguity in this curriculum. 3:17-18 places the Spirit and the removal of the veil in the same two verses, meaning the baseline’s flagship ātman-Brahman risk and this letter’s own closest analogue to it stack in one passage. A reader could hear: the veil (āvaraṇa, ignorance’s concealment) is removed, revealing the true Self (ātman) which is the Spirit (Brahman) — a complete, coherent Advaita reading achieved by simply not adding the mandatory notes. Requires double annotation at every occurrence within 3:13-18.
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नवसृष्टिः (new creation, 5:17) — Directly inside the core passage (5:11-21). सृष्टि’s cyclical-cosmology weight (sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya) is not a peripheral connotation but the term’s primary classical sense; without the mandatory redefinition, a Sanskrit-literate reader’s default reading would be “a new cosmic cycle-turn,” not “a decisive, once-for-all personal transformation.” This is a Critical-tier gap with no lexical escape (parallel to धार्मिकता).
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सन्धिः / संधापयति (reconciliation, 5:18-20) — Also directly inside the core passage. The Arthaśāstra treaty-model’s parity assumption is the opposite of Paul’s point (God alone initiates; humanity does not negotiate). Because this term anchors the passage’s central verb, an unannotated rendering risks the entire pericope’s theological thrust being read as a negotiated settlement rather than a unilateral divine act.
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धार्मिकता / आरोपिता धार्मिकता at 5:21 — “He made him to be sin… so that we might become the righteousness of God” sits at the rhetorical climax of the core passage and inherits the baseline’s Critical-tier, structurally unavoidable dharma-weight. The double occurrence (Christ “becoming sin,” believers “becoming righteousness”) compounds the ordinary risk: dharma’s performative/duty associations could subtly reintroduce a righteousness-by-conduct reading exactly where Paul is most emphatic that it is not by conduct.
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तपस्-contrast at 12:9-10 (Power in Weakness) — Not a translation-term risk but a conceptual-neighbor risk of comparable severity: without explicit naming and setting-aside of the tapas model, a Sanskrit-literate audience’s most natural association for “supernatural power connected to voluntary suffering” is self-generated ascetic attainment (Bhagīratha, Viśvāmitra) — the theological inverse of Paul’s grace-dependent point.
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लौकिकदृष्ट्या (according to the flesh, 5:16) — Positioned immediately before the core passage’s reconciliation section and interpretively load-bearing for how “new creation” is read; if rendered with a literal body-term instead of the chosen epistemic idiom, it risks importing Sāṃkhya’s sthūla/sūkṣma/kāraṇa-śarīra body-hierarchy into a verse that is actually about a mode of judgment, not a type of body.
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नवीना संविद् / लिखितं वचनम् (new covenant vs. the letter, 3:6,14) — High risk not from collision with a rival doctrine per se, but from the sheer absence of any native covenant-supersession category (Mīmāṃsā’s apauruṣeya Veda), meaning translation alone — however careful — cannot convey the concept without accompanying explanatory material.
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दानम् throughout chs. 8–9 — High-frequency, sustained-exposure risk: unlike the acute, single-verse risks above, this is a chronic low-grade risk across two full chapters, where every use of the ordinary word for “gift” quietly re-activates the dāna-dharma merit framework unless paired with grace-language in the immediate context.
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अन्तर्बोधः (conscience) — coinage-adoption risk — Lower doctrinal stakes than items 1–8, but a distinct risk type: as a newly coined term with no classical precedent, its meaning is entirely dependent on the mandatory definition being present; omitting the definition even once leaves the term semantically empty rather than merely ambiguous.
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तृतीयं स्वर्गम् / स्वर्गोद्यानम् (12:2,4) — Lowest-ranked Critical/High-adjacent risk: the karma-exhausted svarga-loka association is well-known but relatively easily defused by a brief non-karmic clarification, and the passage’s apologetic point (authenticating Paul’s visionary experience) does not turn on the metaphysics of heaven’s duration the way items 1–4 turn on their central doctrinal claims.
5. Summary Recommendation for Phase 2
- Items ranked 1–4 above must be flagged for mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence, not merely first occurrence, given their concentration inside the core passage (5:11-21) and their structural kinship to the baseline’s highest-stakes term (Holy Spirit / ātman-Brahman).
- Item 5 (tapas-contrast) requires a standing translator note template to be attached to every 12:9-10 segment in Phase 2, not left to per-segment discretion.
- Items 6–8 require consistent paired framing (epistemic-idiom note, covenant-background footnote, grace-response pairing respectively) rather than per-occurrence theological adjudication — these are High-risk but resolvable by template, unlike 1–4 which require case-by-case judgment.
- Item 9 requires a glossary-enforcement safeguard: since अन्तर्बोधः is a coinage, Phase 2 tooling should treat its definition-note as non-optional and machine-checkable (definition string must be present whenever the term appears), not merely recommended.
- This document’s findings must be merged into the doctrine risk registry’s routing table before Phase 2 begins, with items 1–4 elevated to the same “flag every segment” tier the baseline already applies to Incarnation, Deity of Christ, and Holy Spirit language.
This gap analysis extends, and must be read alongside, 08_core_glossary.md (term inventory) and the baseline 12_ai_translation_requirements.md (enforcement rules). It does not introduce new terms; it explains why the terms already selected were selected, and where the remaining risk in this curriculum concentrates.