Core Glossary
08 — Core Glossary: 2 John (English–Sanskrit)
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, covering the entire book of 2 John (its single chapter, all 13 verses). Terms marked REUSED duplicate a baseline Romans translation_memory.json entry and MUST use that exact rendering. Terms marked NEW are proposed for this curriculum, assigned a risk tier under the same framework as the baseline doctrine_risk_registry.json, and should be added to translation_memory.json at Phase 2 with version increment per the Language Package’s own update procedure.
Risk Tier Key
- Critical — Mistranslation destroys essential doctrine; human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — Significant syncretism risk via collision with a named, textually-sourced classical philosophical doctrine; human theologian review required.
- Medium — Reduces clarity but preserves essential meaning; Sanskrit-philosophically-literate scholar review recommended.
- Low — Minor imprecision risk; automated review sufficient.
Glossary Table
| # | English Term | Greek (Transliteration) | Sanskrit Rendering (Transliteration) | Status | Risk | Doctrine Link | Key Reasoning / Alternatives Rejected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | सत्यम् (satyam) | NEW | Critical | Walking in Truth and Love | Direct predicate of Brahman itself in Vedānta (“satyaṁ jñānam anantaṁ brahma,” Taittirīya Up. 2.1.1); paired with “know” (v.1) it echoes jñāna-mārga’s liberating-knowledge formula. Unavoidable (matches likely Serampore-tradition precedent) but requires mandatory explicit redefinition at every occurrence. Alternatives rejected: ऋतम् (even more Vedically loaded, “cosmic order-truth”). |
| 2 | know (the truth) | γινώσκω (ginōskō) | जानाति (jānāti) | NEW | High | Walking in Truth and Love | जानाति (ordinary verb) preferred over any ज्ञानम्-derived noun, which would name the jñāna-mārga path itself. |
| 3 | love | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω (agapē/agapaō) | प्रेम (prema) | NEW | High | Walking in Truth and Love | Central term of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava prema-bhakti theology (Rūpa Gosvāmī’s rasa-theory); risks being heard as a cultivated devotional attainment rather than God’s commanded, given character. Alternatives rejected: भक्तिः (names an entire soteriological path, doubly so here), स्नेहः (too weak — familial affection only). |
| 4 | commandment | ἐντολή (entolē) | आज्ञा (ājñā) | NEW | Medium | Walking in Truth and Love | Shares root with baseline obedience_of_faith compound (विश्वासस्य आज्ञापालनम्); risk of sounding like arbitrary order rather than relational charge. |
| 5 | walk (conduct) | περιπατέω (peripateō) | आचरणम् (ācaraṇam) | NEW | High | Walking in Truth and Love | Must not collapse into धर्माचरणम् (“duty-conduct”), already rejected in baseline obedience_of_faith entry for reframing Christian life as varṇāśrama duty-performance. |
| 6 | deceiver | πλάνος (planos) | वञ्चकः (vañcakaḥ) | NEW | Medium | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Common cheat/trickster term, no darśana attachment; must retain doctrinal seriousness in context, not merely petty-fraud register. |
| 7 | the world (moral sphere) | κόσμος (kosmos) | लोकः (lokaḥ) | NEW | High | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | जगत् rejected: in Advaita, jagat is characterized as mithyā (illusory), which would undercut the real moral seriousness of deceivers’ activity. लोकः avoids this but is itself a live cosmological plurality (14 lokas) requiring contextual fixing. |
| 8 | confess | ὁμολογέω (homologeō) | अङ्गीकरणम् / अङ्गीकरोति (aṅgīkaraṇam/aṅgīkaroti) | NEW | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Same Greek verb as Romans 10:9’s salvation confession, not previously isolated as its own TM entry; now fixed for consistent reuse across the Johannine corpus. Must convey public, binding, authoritative acknowledgment. |
| 9 | Jesus Christ | Ἰησοῦς Χριστός | यीशुः ख्रीष्टः (yīśuḥ khrīṣṭaḥ) | REUSED | Critical | Lordship/Deity of Christ | यीशुः from baseline TM; ख्रीष्टः per the transliteration standard fixed in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md. |
| 10 | coming in the flesh (incarnation) | ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί (erchomenon en sarki) | देहधारणम् (dehadhāraṇam) | REUSED | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Baseline incarnation entry. Never अवतारः. Mandatory Bhagavad Gītā 4.7–8 contrast note at every occurrence. Also activates baseline humanity_of_christ entry: the flesh is real, not illusory/apparent. |
| 11 | antichrist | ἀντίχριστος (antichristos) | ख्रीष्टविरोधी (khrīṣṭavirodhī); alt. transliteration अन्तीख्रीष्टः | NEW | Critical | Warning against Deceivers Denying the Incarnation | Must name a specific personal opponent of the one true Christ, not a generic evil figure or one rival among many avatāra/deity claimants. Transliteration retained in parallel for cross-reference with future 1 John/Revelation curricula. |
| 12 | watch yourselves | βλέπετε ἑαυτούς (blepete heautous) | सावधानाः भवत (sāvadhānāḥ bhavata) | NEW | Low | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Plain exhortation; no doctrinal collision. |
| 13 | work/labor (v.8) | ἐργάζομαι (ergazomai) | परिश्रमः (pariśramaḥ) | NEW | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | कर्म forbidden here. Paired in-context with “reward,” sitting directly on the grace-vs-works fault line the baseline grace entry guards; कर्म would imply automatic karma-phala causation. |
| 14 | reward | μισθός (misthos) | पुरस्कारः (puraskāraḥ) | NEW | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | कर्मफलम् explicitly rejected, per the reasoning in baseline providence entry: reward here is personally, relationally granted by God, not an automatic impersonal fruit of action. |
| 15 | go on ahead (beyond doctrine) | προάγω (proagō) | अतिक्रमति (atikramati) | NEW | Low-Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Plain verb; theological weight carried by contrast with “abide,” not by this word alone. |
| 16 | abide/remain | μένω (menō) | तिष्ठति / स्थिरता (tiṣṭhati/sthiratā) | NEW | Medium | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | Faint, largely positive resonance with Yoga’s sthiti/Gītā’s sthitaprajña; must be anchored relationally (“abiding in the teaching of Christ”), not a self-achieved meditative state. |
| 17 | teaching/doctrine of Christ | διδαχή (didachē) τοῦ Χριστοῦ | उपदेशः (upadeśaḥ), qualified ख्रीष्टस्य उपदेशः | NEW | High | Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ | उपदेश carries guru-śiṣya personal-instruction associations (cf. baseline apostle entry’s rejection of गुरुः for the same reason); must be glossed as fixed, once-given apostolic doctrine, not evolving guru-lineage instruction. Alternatives rejected: शिक्षा (a Vedāṅga — Vedic phonetics — technical term), शास्त्रम् (too tied to dharmaśāstra genre, per baseline law entry). |
| 18 | God / Father / Son | θεός / πατήρ / υἱός | सर्वेश्वरः / पिता / परमेश्वरस्य पुत्रः | REUSED | Critical | Deity/Sonship of Christ | All fixed baseline entries; no deviation permitted. |
| 19 | house (hospitality) | οἰκία (oikia) | गृहम् (gṛham) | NEW | Low | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Plain word, no doctrinal weight. |
| 20 | receive (into house) | λαμβάνω (lambanō) | स्वीकरणम् (svīkaraṇam), गृहे स्वीकरणम् | NEW | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Reuses baseline adoption root (पुत्रत्वेन स्वीकरणम्); must be disambiguated in context from that unrelated legal-adoption sense. Names doctrinal endorsement-through-hospitality. |
| 21 | greeting (formal salutation, χαίρειν) | χαίρειν (chairein) | अभिवादनम् (abhivādanam) | NEW | Medium-High | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Manusmṛti 2.120–125 prescribes abhivādana as hierarchical junior-to-elder ritual etiquette; risks reframing the verse as an etiquette matter rather than deliberate doctrinal non-endorsement. |
| 22 | share/take part in (v.11) | κοινωνέω (koinōneō) | सहभागी भवति (sahabhāgī bhavati) | NEW | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Reuses baseline fellowship root (सहभागिता) in an ironic negative sense (complicity in evil); context must override the root’s normally positive baseline association. |
| 23 | evil works | ἔργα πονηρά (erga ponēra) | पापकर्माणि (pāpakarmāṇi) | NEW | Medium | Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment | Combines baseline sin term (पापम्) with ordinary (non-technical) कर्म = “deed.” Lower risk than term #13 since not paired with reward-language, but same general कर्म-caution applies. |
| 24 | grace | χάρις (charis) | अनुग्रहः (anugrahaḥ) | REUSED | High | Greeting frame (v.3) | Baseline grace entry; unchanged. |
| 25 | mercy | ἔλεος (eleos) | कृपा (kṛpā) | NEW | Medium | Greeting frame (v.3) | Note: this is the very term baseline grace rejected as a substitute for grace; here it fills the genuinely distinct “mercy” slot. Must be explicitly distinguished from अनुग्रहः at every co-occurrence (v.3 places them side by side). |
| 26 | peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | शान्तिः (śāntiḥ) | REUSED | Medium | Greeting frame (v.3) | Baseline peace entry; unchanged. |
| 27 | elder (author’s title) | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | प्राचीनः (prācīnaḥ) | NEW | Medium | (Authorship/office) | Avoids गुरुः (guru-lineage authority, rejected in baseline apostle entry) and ऋषिः (Vedic seer, rejected in baseline apostle/prophet entries). |
| 28 | elect lady | ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᳳ (eklektē kyria) | वृता आर्या (vṛtā āryā) | NEW | Medium | (Address/audience) | वृता shares root with baseline election (परमेश्वरस्य वरणम्). देवी and स्वामिनी explicitly rejected for goddess/divine-consort associations. Proper-name ambiguity (Electa/Kyria) flagged for exegetical note, not silently resolved. |
| 29 | children | τέκνα (tekna) | सन्तानाः (santānāḥ) | NEW | Low | (Address/audience) | Literal or figurative (congregation); low doctrinal risk either way. |
| 30 | sister | ἀδελφή (adelphē) | भगिनी (bhaginī) | NEW | Low | (Closing, v.13) | Literal or figurative (sister congregation); low doctrinal risk. |
| 31 | joy | χαρά (chara) | हर्षः (harṣaḥ) | NEW | Medium | (vv.4, 12) | आनन्दः explicitly rejected: names Brahman’s own bliss-nature in Advaita’s sat-cit-ānanda (Taittirīya Up. 2.1.1); हर्षः keeps ordinary relational gladness free of that metaphysical weight. |
| 32 | ordinary greeting (ἀσπάζεταί, v.13) | ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai) | अभिवन्दते (abhivandate) | NEW | Low | (Closing, v.13) | Ordinary usage, contrasted with the doctrinally-loaded χαίρειν of vv.10–11 (#21 above). |
Risk Summary
| Tier | Count | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 7 | truth (as combined with “know”), confess, Jesus Christ, coming in the flesh/incarnation, antichrist, God/Father/Son (grouped) — reflects direct collision with named classical doctrines (Brahman-as-satya, avatāra, jñāna-mārga) |
| High | 8 | love, walk, the world, work/labor (v.8), reward, teaching of Christ, know, grace (reused) |
| Medium | 12 | commandment, deceiver, abide, receive, greeting (χαίρειν), share/take part in, evil works, mercy, peace (reused), elder, elect lady, joy |
| Low | 8 | new commandment, from the beginning, watch yourselves, go on ahead, house, children, sister, ordinary greeting (ἀσπάζεταί) |
Total requiring Human Theologian review (Critical + High): 15 Total requiring Sanskrit-philosophically-literate scholar review (Medium): 12 Total requiring Automated review only (Low): 8
Notes for Phase 2:
- Terms #1, #3, #8, #17 (truth, love, confess, teaching of Christ) are the highest-priority new entries to add to
translation_memory.json, given their Critical/High status and their centrality to all four curriculum doctrines. - Term #25 (mercy, कृपा) requires a standing cross-reference note to the baseline
graceentry to prevent future translators from treating अनुग्रहः and कृपा as interchangeable. - Term #8 (confess, अङ्गीकरणम्) should be back-filled as a formal addition to
translation_memory.jsoneven though Romans 10:9 already uses the same Greek verb, since the baseline never isolated it as a standalone entry — this closes that gap for consistency across the whole Pauline-Johannine curriculum set.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: सर्वेश्वरः
Transliteration: sarveśvaraḥ
Doctrine: Deity of Christ / Godhead
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वरः, ब्रह्मन्, भगवान्, देवः
Original: θεός
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] CRITICAL: follows the de Nobili precedent (Sarvēśvara, ‘Lord of all,’ over Dēva) to close off any ‘one god among many’ reading. In 2 John 1:9, God is possessed only by those who abide in the teaching of Christ — this term must retain its exclusive, sovereign force in that verse.
Father
Approved rendering: पिता
Transliteration: pitā
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family / Godhead
Rejected alternatives: ब्रह्मा, प्रजापतिः
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] God as personal Father. Never ब्रह्मा or प्रजापतिः. In 2 John 1:3-4 and 1:9, the Father is named alongside the Son as the object of the commandment’s source and as jointly possessed by those who abide in true doctrine.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: परमेश्वरस्य पुत्रः
Transliteration: parameśvarasya putraḥ
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वरांशः, देवपुरुषः
Original: ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ πατρός
Category: Christology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Full phrase required. In 2 John 1:3 rendered contextually as ‘पितुः पुत्रः’ (‘the Father’s Son’) to match the Greek’s genitive phrasing (τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ πατρός), while retaining the full baseline phrase at first occurrence or wherever ambiguity is possible.
Jesus
Approved rendering: यीशुः
Transliteration: yīśuḥ
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ / Confession of Christ’s True Nature
Original: Ἰησοῦς / יֵשׁוּעַ
Category: Christology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Follows the Serampore Sanskrit New Testament (1808) precedent. Central to 2 John 1:7’s confession clause: the deceivers do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.
Lord
Approved rendering: प्रभुः
Transliteration: prabhuḥ
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वरः, स्वामी
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Not textually present as a title in 2 John itself, but retained here because the letter’s confession-of-Christ language (1:7) and antichrist warning presuppose the same exclusive Lordship claim anchored by Romans 10:9’s यीशुः प्रभुः अस्ति. Never ईश्वरः, per the baseline’s Advaita-subordination reasoning.
Messiah
Approved rendering: मसीहः
Transliteration: masīhaḥ
Doctrine: Identity of the Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: अवतारपुरुषः
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Retained here because 2 John’s antichrist doctrine directly presupposes messianic exclusivity: an antichrist is a false claimant against the one already-fulfilled Messiah, not one contender among several avatāra figures, echoing the baseline’s Kalki-parallel warning.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: देहधारणम्
Transliteration: dehadhāraṇam
Doctrine: Denial of the Incarnation (the Deceivers’ Error)
Rejected alternatives: अवतारः
Original: ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί
Category: Christology
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] CRITICAL: never अवतारः. Renders ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί in 2 John 1:7. Every occurrence must carry or reference the mandatory Bhagavad Gītā 4.7-8 contrast note. In 2 John, this doctrine carries an additional layer beyond Romans: because the deceivers specifically DENY real flesh was assumed, any softness in phrasing risks accidentally reproducing the very māyā-style ‘merely apparent body’ error the verse condemns. देहधारणम्’s insistence on genuine embodiment must be foregrounded, not merely asserted.
Truth
Approved rendering: सत्यम्
Transliteration: satyam
Doctrine: Walking in Truth
Rejected alternatives: ऋतम्, यथार्थम्
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth and Love
NEW. CRITICAL AND UNAVOIDABLE: सत्यम् is the direct predicate of Brahman itself in Vedānta’s central self-definition — ‘satyaṁ jñānam anantaṁ brahma’ (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1.1). Compounded in 2 John 1:1 by pairing with ‘know’ (γινώσκοντες τὴν ἀλήθειαν), risking a jñāna-mārga liberating-Self-knowledge reading (ātman = Brahman = Satya) rather than fidelity to the apostolic gospel about the historical, incarnate, risen Christ. ऋतम् is even more heavily Vedically theorized (cosmic-order-truth); यथार्थम् is safer but breaks with the likely Serampore-tradition precedent and is too thin for a term this letter uses as a virtual proper noun. No lexical substitution escapes this weight. Must NEVER appear undefined: every occurrence requires an explicit gloss — ‘the revealed reality of who Christ is and what the apostles have taught concerning him, received and held in relationship with a personal God, not identity of the self with an impersonal Absolute.‘
Confess
Approved rendering: अङ्गीकरणम्
Transliteration: aṅgīkaraṇam
Doctrine: Confession of Christ’s True Nature
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Christology
NEW — but renders the SAME Greek verb (ὁμολογέω) embedded only in the baseline’s fixed Romans 10:9 formula (यीशुः प्रभुः अस्ति) rather than isolated as its own translation-memory entry there. This package now fixes अङ्गीकरणम्/अङ्गीकरोति as the standing Sanskrit equivalent for the verb itself, for consistent reuse across the whole Johannine corpus (1 John, Revelation). Because the confession content here (2 John 1:7) concerns the Incarnation (Critical), this term inherits Critical status: it must convey binding, public, authoritative acknowledgment, not private opinion or mere intellectual assent. Negation (‘does not confess’) should use अस्वीकरणम् or निषेधः, explicitly glossed as public, binding denial, not private doubt.
Christ
Approved rendering: ख्रीष्टः
Transliteration: khrīṣṭaḥ
Doctrine: Confession of Christ’s True Nature / Identity of the Antichrist
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
NEW as a standalone translation-memory entry (the baseline embedded यीशुः but never isolated ख्रीष्टः as its own record). Transliterated per the standard already fixed in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md, following the Serampore Sanskrit New Testament tradition. Functions in 2 John as the anchor of the baseline messiah doctrine (मसीहः): the unique, historically fulfilled Jewish messianic promise, denied by the deceivers (1:7) and named directly in ‘antichrist’ (ख्रीष्टविरोधी, see below).
Antichrist
Approved rendering: ख्रीष्टविरोधी
Transliteration: khrīṣṭavirodhī
Doctrine: Identity of the Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: अन्तीख्रीष्टः (primary), प्रतिख्रीष्टः
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
NEW — a deliberate coinage (ख्रीष्ट + विरोधी, ‘opponent/adversary of Christ’), since no inherited Sanskrit term fits: Sanskrit has rich vocabulary for cosmic adversaries within a PLURALISTIC mythological frame (asuras contesting devas, rākṣasas) but no ready-made category for a false claimant to a position this letter insists has exactly one legitimate holder. अन्तीख्रीष्टः (bare transliteration) risks being read as a proper-name rival deity-title, normalizing antichrist as one contestant among many (compounded by the still-awaited Kalki parallel flagged in the baseline messianic_promise entry); it is retained ONLY as a secondary, parallel gloss for cross-reference with future 1 John/Revelation curricula, never as primary. प्रतिख्रीष्टः (‘counter-Christ’) is rejected for sounding like a legitimate mirror-counterpart rather than a false claimant. ख्रीष्टविरोधी must convey a specific, personal opponent of the one true, exclusive Christ (2 John 1:7).
High Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: अनुग्रहः
Transliteration: anugrahaḥ
Doctrine: Grace, Mercy, and Peace from the Father and the Son
Rejected alternatives: कृपा, प्रसादः, पुण्यम्
Original: χάρις
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] 2 John 1:3 places grace (अनुग्रहः) directly beside mercy (कृपा, see the new ‘mercy’ entry below); the two must remain visibly distinct categories, not synonyms, per the baseline’s explicit rejection of कृपा as a grace-substitute.
Faith
Approved rendering: विश्वासः
Transliteration: viśvāsaḥ
Doctrine: (Cross-reference: Command to Love One Another)
Rejected alternatives: श्रद्धा, भक्तिः
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Not used directly in 2 John’s text, but its rejection of भक्तिः (an entire soteriological path, not a general disposition) is the direct precedent for this curriculum’s parallel rejection of भक्तिः as a candidate for ‘love’ (see the new ‘love’ entry below).
Law
Approved rendering: विधिः
Transliteration: vidhiḥ
Doctrine: (Cross-reference: Command to Love One Another)
Rejected alternatives: धर्मः, धर्मशास्त्रम्
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Reserved for Torah/Mosaic-Law weight and NOT used for ‘commandment’ (ἐντολή) in 2 John, precisely to avoid wrongly equating John’s relational, Christ-mediated charge with the Mosaic Law’s formal Mīmāṃsā-vidhi category. Retained here as a boundary marker for the new ‘commandment’ entry below.
Sin
Approved rendering: पापम्
Transliteration: pāpam
Doctrine: Complicity in False Teaching through Endorsement
Rejected alternatives: अधर्मः
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Used as a component of this curriculum’s new compound पापकर्माणि (‘evil works,’ 2 John 1:11). Moral transgression before a personal God, not ritual impurity resolved by prescribed prāyaścitta penance.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: विश्वासस्य आज्ञापालनम्
Transliteration: viśvāsasya ājñāpālanam
Doctrine: (Cross-reference: Walking in Truth / Command to Love One Another)
Rejected alternatives: धर्माचरणम्
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Not textually present in 2 John, but its rejection of धर्माचरणम् (‘conduct according to dharma,’ reframing obedience as varṇāśrama duty-performance) is the direct precedent this curriculum reuses to forbid धर्माचरणम् for ‘walking’ (περιπατέω) throughout 2 John.
Adoption
Approved rendering: पुत्रत्वेन स्वीकरणम्
Transliteration: putratvena svīkaraṇam
Doctrine: (Cross-reference: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment)
Rejected alternatives: दत्तकग्रहणम्
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Its स्वीकरणम् root is reused in this curriculum’s new ‘receive_into_house’ entry (गृहे स्वीकरणम्, 2 John 1:10). Context must distinguish doctrinal-endorsement-through-hospitality from this entry’s unrelated legal full-heirship sense.
Election
Approved rendering: परमेश्वरस्य वरणम्
Transliteration: parameśvarasya varaṇam
Doctrine: Election of the Addressee and Her Household
Rejected alternatives: भाग्यम्, दैवम्
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Its वृ root underlies this curriculum’s new ‘elect_lady’ entry (वृता आर्या, 2 John 1:1, 1:13), preserving continuity of God’s sovereign-choice vocabulary.
Providence
Approved rendering: परमेश्वरस्य विधानम्
Transliteration: parameśvarasya vidhānam
Doctrine: (Cross-reference: Reward for Faithful Gospel Labor)
Rejected alternatives: भाग्यम्, दैवम्, कर्मफलम्
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Its explicit rejection of कर्मफलम् (the automatic, impersonal fruit of action within karma-mīmāṃsā) is the direct precedent this curriculum reuses to forbid कर्मफलम् for ‘reward’ (μισθός) in 2 John 1:8.
Know
Approved rendering: जानाति
Transliteration: jānāti
Doctrine: Walking in Truth
Rejected alternatives: ज्ञानम् (nominal form)
Original: γινώσκω
Category: Truth and Love
NEW. जानाति (the ordinary cognitive/relational verb) is required over any ज्ञानम्-derived nominal form, since ज्ञानम् is the technical noun naming the jñāna-mārga path itself — the liberating-knowledge soteriology that would collide directly with ‘know the truth’ (2 John 1:1) if a noun form of ज्ञान were substituted.
Love
Approved rendering: प्रेम
Transliteration: prema
Doctrine: Command to Love One Another
Rejected alternatives: भक्तिः, स्नेहः
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Truth and Love
NEW. प्रेम is the operative technical term of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava (Caitanya) prema-bhakti theology, systematically theorized (e.g. Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu) as the cultivated, rasa-classified ecstatic fruit of bhakti-practice — risking a reading of ἀγάπη as an elite devotional attainment rather than God’s own commanded character given to every ordinary believer. भक्तिः is rejected as naming an entire soteriological path (per the baseline ‘faith’ entry’s precedent, doubly unsuitable here). स्नेहः is too weak, naming only familial/friendly affection. Retained per Serampore-tradition precedent but must carry an explicit gloss at every occurrence distinguishing it from cultivated rasa-attainment. 2 John 1:5-6 defines love AS obedient walking, not sentiment; translators must preserve this definitional direction, not invert it toward prema-as-fruit-of-bhakti-practice.
Walk
Approved rendering: आचरणम्
Transliteration: ācaraṇam
Doctrine: Walking in Truth / Command to Love One Another
Rejected alternatives: धर्माचरणम्, वृत्तिः
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Truth and Love
NEW. Must not collapse into धर्माचरणम् (‘conduct according to dharma’), already rejected in the baseline obedience_of_faith entry precisely because it reframes Christian conduct as varṇāśrama duty-performance. वृत्तिः is avoided for its Yoga Sūtra 1.2 citta-vṛtti (mental modification) technical sense. ‘Walking in truth/love’ (2 John 1:4, 1:6) must be taught as a life shaped by relational fidelity to Christ’s teaching, not ritual or social duty fulfillment.
World
Approved rendering: लोकः
Transliteration: lokaḥ
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers
Rejected alternatives: जगत्, संसारः
Original: κόσμος
Category: Warning against False Teaching
NEW. जगत् is explicitly rejected: in strict Advaita cosmology jagat is characterized as mithyā (ultimately unreal/illusory), which would badly undercut the moral seriousness of ‘deceivers have gone out into the world’ (2 John 1:7) — this is a statement about real, consequential human activity, not commentary on the world’s ultimate ontological status. संसारः is rejected as the Sāṃkhya-Yoga-Vedānta technical term for the transmigration cycle, an entirely wrong register. लोकः avoids both but is itself a live cosmological plurality (the Purāṇic fourteen lokas) requiring a contextual fixing note: ‘human society,’ not a specific cosmic plane. This is a genuine missing-vocabulary gap; लोकः is the least-damaging available compromise, not a clean equivalent.
Labor
Approved rendering: परिश्रमः
Transliteration: pariśramaḥ
Doctrine: Reward for Faithful Gospel Labor
Rejected alternatives: कर्म, प्रयत्नः
Original: ἐργάζομαι (ἃ εἰργασάμεθα)
Category: Perseverance
NEW. कर्म is FORBIDDEN here: paired in the same verse (2 John 1:8) with ‘reward,’ कर्म would trigger the automatic karma-mīmāṃsā causal structure (action mechanically yields its own fruit), sitting directly on the grace-versus-works fault line the baseline grace/providence entries guard throughout. प्रयत्नः is acceptable but too generic/weak for the missionary-labor sense. परिश्रमः (toil/exertion) names effort without invoking that causal doctrine.
Reward
Approved rendering: पुरस्कारः
Transliteration: puraskāraḥ
Doctrine: Reward for Faithful Gospel Labor
Rejected alternatives: कर्मफलम्, फलम्, प्रतिफलम्
Original: μισθὸς πλήρης
Category: Perseverance
NEW. कर्मफलम् and bare फलम् are both FORBIDDEN, per the direct precedent of the baseline providence entry: both name the automatic, impersonal fruit of action within the karma-mīmāṃsā causal system, not a reward personally granted by a relational God. प्रतिफलम् (‘return-fruit’) sits close enough to the फल-family to risk the same reading by association and is likewise rejected. पुरस्कारः, qualified पूर्णः पुरस्कारः (‘full reward,’ 2 John 1:8), names a personally, relationally bestowed prize with no फल-family root at all.
Teaching Of Christ
Approved rendering: उपदेशः
Transliteration: upadeśaḥ
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: शिक्षा, शास्त्रम्, आगमः
Original: ἡ διδαχὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ
Category: Perseverance
NEW, qualified ख्रीष्टस्य उपदेशः. शिक्षा is rejected: it is technically one of the six Vedāṅgas, the auxiliary science of Vedic phonetics/pronunciation, an entirely unrelated technical category. शास्त्रम् is rejected: too tied to the dharmaśāstra legal-ritual genre, per the baseline law entry’s reasoning. आगमः is rejected: names an entire class of typically Tantric/Āgamic revealed scripture with its own independent (sometimes rival) transmission theory, importing a whole separate scriptural-authority system. उपदेशः itself carries a strong association with a guru’s personal, evolving instruction to a disciple within a guru-śiṣya-paramparā — the identical lineage-transmission risk the baseline already flagged in rejecting गुरुः for ‘apostle.’ Every occurrence (2 John 1:9) must be glossed: fixed, once-given apostolic doctrine about Christ, received and guarded unchanged, not evolving personal instruction varying by guru or lineage.
Medium Risk Terms
Peace
Approved rendering: शान्तिः
Transliteration: śāntiḥ
Doctrine: Grace, Mercy, and Peace from the Father and the Son
Rejected alternatives: निर्वृत्तिः
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Salvation
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] 2 John 1:3’s triadic greeting (grace, mercy, peace). Distinguish from yogic citta-vṛtti-nirodha (Yoga Sūtra 1.2).
Apostle
Approved rendering: प्रेषितः
Transliteration: preṣitaḥ
Doctrine: (Cross-reference: The Elder’s Pastoral Authority; Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ)
Rejected alternatives: गुरुः, ऋषिः
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Not textually present in 2 John (the author calls himself ‘the elder,’ प्राचीनः, not प्रेषितः), but its rejection of गुरुः (guru-śiṣya-paramparā lineage authority) and ऋषिः (Vedic seer) is the direct precedent this curriculum reuses for both ‘the elder’ and ‘teaching of Christ’ (उपदेशः), which face the identical guru-lineage collision risk.
Church
Approved rendering: मण्डली
Transliteration: maṇḍalī
Doctrine: Election of the Addressee and Her Household
Rejected alternatives: मन्दिरम्, मठः
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Relevant because ‘the elect lady’ and ‘her children’ (1:1) are, per most commentators, a personification of a local congregation; this baseline term underlies that reading without being itself the rendering chosen for ‘elect lady’ (see new entry below).
Commandment
Approved rendering: आज्ञा
Transliteration: ājñā
Doctrine: Command to Love One Another
Rejected alternatives: विधिः, नियमः
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Truth and Love
NEW. Shares its root with the baseline obedience_of_faith compound (विश्वासस्य आज्ञापालनम्), preserving consistency. विधिः is reserved for Torah/Mosaic-Law weight (see baseline law entry) and must not be imported here. नियमः is reserved for ‘covenant’ in the baseline (rejected there for its Yoga Sūtra niyama sense) and likewise must not be imported. Risk: आज्ञा alone can sound like an arbitrary order rather than a loving charge flowing from relationship with the Father; must be paired with relational framing at first use (2 John 1:4-5).
Deceiver
Approved rendering: वञ्चकः
Transliteration: vañcakaḥ
Doctrine: Warning against Deceivers
Rejected alternatives: मायावी, कुहकः
Original: πλάνος
Category: Warning against False Teaching
NEW. मायावी (‘illusion-worker, possessor of māyā’) is explicitly rejected: it would ironically invoke the very māyā-doctrine this letter’s anti-Docetic incarnation teaching stands against, confusingly aligning the deceiver-word with the deceiver’s own false Docetic content. कुहकः is archaic/rare, risking obscurity. वञ्चकः is a common cheat/impostor register with no darśana attachment; must retain doctrinal seriousness in context (2 John 1:7), not read as petty commercial fraud.
Abide
Approved rendering: तिष्ठति
Transliteration: tiṣṭhati
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Rejected alternatives: स्थितिः (unqualified)
Original: μένω
Category: Perseverance
NEW. May faintly echo Yoga’s sthiti and the Bhagavad Gītā’s sthitaprajña (2.55-72, the sage of steady wisdom) — here a broadly helpful, not damaging, resonance (steadfastness is a shared positive value), but must still be anchored relationally: abiding IN the teaching of Christ (2 John 1:9), not a self-achieved meditative equilibrium independent of doctrinal content.
Receive Into House
Approved rendering: गृहे स्वीकरणम्
Transliteration: gṛhe svīkaraṇam
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: आतिथ्यम्, अतिथिसत्कारः
Original: λαμβάνετε … εἰς οἰκίαν
Category: Hospitality
NEW. आतिथ्यम्/अतिथिसत्कारः (the classical dharmaśāstra ‘guest-honoring’ duty — atithi devo bhava, ‘the guest is [as] God,’ rooted in Taittirīya Upaniṣad’s śikṣāvallī and elaborated across dharmaśāstra) is EXPLICITLY FORBIDDEN: it names a near-unconditional social-religious duty to honor any guest, which would directly contradict 2 John 1:10’s point that hospitality to a false teacher must be withheld. Reuses the स्वीकरणम् root already fixed in the baseline adoption entry; because that root already carries doctrinal weight (adoption, confession) elsewhere in this package’s term family, context must make clear this occurrence names doctrinal endorsement-through-hospitality, not the unrelated legal-adoption sense.
Greeting Formal
Approved rendering: अभिवादनम्
Transliteration: abhivādanam
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Rejected alternatives: नमस्कारः, वन्दनम्
Original: χαίρειν
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Requires unusual care: Manusmṛti 2.120-125 prescribes abhivādana as formal, hierarchically-structured etiquette — a junior person’s ritualized respectful salutation of an elder, teacher, or Brahmin, often including reciting one’s own name and lineage. Using this term risks importing that social-hierarchy etiquette system, making 2 John 1:10-11’s withheld greeting sound like a breach of proper varṇa-conscious manners rather than a deliberate, principled withholding of doctrinal legitimation from a false teacher. नमस्कारः/वन्दनम् are rejected as too devotionally loaded (used toward deities/gurus in worship contexts), which would overstate the greeting’s ordinariness and risk making its withholding sound like withholding worship rather than withholding public doctrinal endorsement. Must be explicitly taught in context as an act of discernment, not an etiquette violation and not a worship-refusal.
Share Take Part
Approved rendering: सहभागी भवति
Transliteration: sahabhāgī bhavati
Doctrine: Complicity in False Teaching through Endorsement
Rejected alternatives: सहयोगः, संलिप्तता
Original: κοινωνέω
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Reuses the baseline fellowship root (सहभागिता) but INVERTS its valence: 2 John 1:11 uses κοινωνέω ironically in a negative sense — hospitality toward a false teacher constitutes shared complicity in his doctrinal error, not benign social fellowship. सहयोगः (‘cooperation’) is rejected as too weak/neutral, missing the moral-complicity sense. संलिप्तता (‘being smeared/implicated’) captures complicity but severs the deliberate wordplay with the positive fellowship term-family that a scholarly reader is meant to notice. Context must make the negative/ironic sense unmistakable.
Evil Works
Approved rendering: पापकर्माणि
Transliteration: pāpakarmāṇi
Doctrine: Complicity in False Teaching through Endorsement
Original: τὰ ἔργα τὰ πονηρά
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Combines the baseline sin term (पापम्) with कर्म in the ordinary, non-technical sense of ‘deed’ (2 John 1:11), not the full karma-phala causal doctrine. Lower risk than ‘labor’/‘reward’ (v.8) since not paired with reward-language, but translators must remain alert to कर्म’s doctrinal loading throughout this book.
Mercy
Approved rendering: कृपा
Transliteration: kṛpā
Doctrine: Grace, Mercy, and Peace from the Father and the Son
Original: ἔλεος
Category: Salvation
NEW. कृपा is precisely the term the baseline grace entry lists among its rejected alternatives FOR GRACE ITSELF — but ‘mercy’ (ἔλεος) names a genuinely distinct theological category from ‘grace’ (χάρις): mercy is compassion toward the miserable/undeserving, distinct from grace’s sense of unmerited favor establishing standing. कृपा is appropriate for THIS distinct slot, but every occurrence (2 John 1:3) must carry a note distinguishing it sharply from अनुग्रहः so translators never treat the two as interchangeable, especially since v.3 places them side by side.
Elder
Approved rendering: प्राचीनः
Transliteration: prācīnaḥ
Doctrine: The Elder’s Pastoral Authority
Rejected alternatives: गुरुः, ऋषिः
Original: ὁ πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church
NEW. Deliberately avoids गुरुः (guru-lineage authority, already rejected in the baseline apostle entry) and ऋषिः (Vedic seer, rejected in the baseline apostle/prophet entries). प्राचीनः names functional church-office seniority without importing either system, though context must establish this as a functional church-office title (2 John 1:1), not mere old age or Vedic-lineage transmission of eternal truths.
Elect Lady
Approved rendering: वृता आर्या
Transliteration: vṛtā āryā
Doctrine: Election of the Addressee and Her Household
Rejected alternatives: देवी, स्वामिनी
Original: ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᳳ
Category: Church
NEW. वृता shares its root वृ with the baseline election term (परमेश्वरस्य वरणम्), preserving continuity with the package’s existing election vocabulary. देवी (‘goddess’) and स्वामिनी (which in Śākta contexts can carry divine-consort/sovereign-mistress connotations) are explicitly rejected. The proper-name ambiguity (Electa/Kyria, 2 John 1:1) should be flagged in translator notes as an open exegetical question, not silently resolved.
Joy
Approved rendering: हर्षः
Transliteration: harṣaḥ
Doctrine: Relational Joy in Shared Faith
Rejected alternatives: आनन्दः
Original: χαρά / χαίρω
Category: Faith
NEW. आनन्दः is explicitly rejected: in Advaita Vedānta ānanda is one-third of Brahman’s own nature (sat-cit-ānanda, Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1.1), the bliss of Self-realization, not relational gladness at another’s faithfulness. हर्षः (2 John 1:4, 1:12) carries no such metaphysical freight and names ordinary pastoral, relational gladness.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: भविष्यद्वक्ता
Transliteration: bhaviṣyadvaktā
Doctrine: (Cross-reference: The Elder’s Pastoral Authority)
Rejected alternatives: ऋषिः
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Not textually present in 2 John, retained here solely because its rejection of ऋषिः (a Vedic seer who perceives eternal, uncreated mantras, not a historically situated messenger) is directly reused in this curriculum’s reasoning for ‘the elder’ (प्राचीनः).
Fellowship
Approved rendering: सहभागिता
Transliteration: sahabhāgitā
Doctrine: Complicity in False Teaching through Endorsement
Rejected alternatives: सत्सङ्गः
[INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged.] Its root is reused, deliberately inverted to a NEGATIVE sense, in this curriculum’s new ‘share_take_part’ entry (सहभागी भवति, 2 John 1:11) — shared complicity in a false teacher’s evil works, not positive shared participation in Christ. Context must carry this reversal; the root itself carries no inherent moral valence.
New Commandment
Approved rendering: नवीना आज्ञा
Transliteration: navīnā ājñā
Doctrine: Continuity of the Apostolic Command
Original: ἐντολὴ καινή
Category: Truth and Love
NEW. Combines नवीन (‘new’) with आज्ञा. Minimal doctrinal risk; primarily a consistency note distinguishing doctrinal continuity (2 John 1:5) from innovation.
From The Beginning
Approved rendering: आदितः
Transliteration: āditaḥ
Doctrine: Continuity of the Apostolic Command
Rejected alternatives: प्रारम्भात्
Original: ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς
Category: Truth and Love
NEW. Standard temporal phrase anchoring the commandment in apostolic origin (2 John 1:5-6); no doctrinal collision.
Watch Yourselves
Approved rendering: सावधानाः भवत
Transliteration: sāvadhānāḥ bhavata
Doctrine: Reward for Faithful Gospel Labor
Original: βλέπετε ἑαυτούς
Category: Perseverance
NEW. Plain exhortation to vigilance (2 John 1:8) against doctrinal compromise; no doctrinal collision.
Go On Ahead
Approved rendering: अतिक्रमति
Transliteration: atikramati
Doctrine: Perseverance in the Teaching of Christ
Original: προάγω
Category: Perseverance
NEW. Plain verb (‘transgresses/goes beyond,’ 2 John 1:9); the theological weight of the verse is carried by contrast with ‘abide,’ not by this word alone.
House
Approved rendering: गृहम्
Transliteration: gṛham
Doctrine: Hospitality and Doctrinal Discernment
Original: οἰκία
Category: Hospitality
NEW. Plain word (2 John 1:10) with no theological weight of its own.
Children
Approved rendering: सन्तानाः
Transliteration: santānāḥ
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting Conventions
Original: τέκνα
Category: Church
NEW. Standard familial term (2 John 1:1); the literal-children/figurative-congregation-members ambiguity carries no doctrinal-collision risk.
Sister
Approved rendering: भगिनी
Transliteration: bhaginī
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting Conventions
Original: ἀδελφή
Category: Church
NEW. Standard familial term (2 John 1:13); literal-sister/figurative-sister-congregation ambiguity, paralleling ‘elect lady,’ is not doctrinally consequential.
Ordinary Greeting
Approved rendering: अभिवन्दते
Transliteration: abhivandate
Doctrine: Epistolary Greeting Conventions
Original: ἀσπάζομαι
Category: Church
NEW. An ordinary, positive greeting (2 John 1:13), distinct from the doctrinally-loaded χαίρειν of vv.10-11 (see greeting_formal); low risk in this ordinary-usage context precisely because it does not function as public doctrinal endorsement.
Referenced passages