Core Glossary
Core Glossary — 3 John (English–Sanskrit)
This glossary extends the baseline Romans translation_memory.json for the 3 John curriculum. Terms marked [BASELINE REUSE] are fixed exactly as recorded in the baseline and must not be altered. All newly introduced terms follow the baseline’s risk-tier methodology (Critical/High/Medium/Low) and cite the specific classical Sanskrit doctrinal source generating the risk, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md. Doctrine risk routing follows the baseline’s review-routing convention: Critical/High → human theologian review; Medium → Sanskrit-philosophically-literate scholar review; Low → automated review.
Glossary Table
| English Term | Greek (transliteration) | Sanskrit Rendering | Transliteration | Risk | Doctrine | Baseline Status | Notes / Rejected Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| truth | ἀλήθεια (alētheia) | सत्यम् | satyam | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | Collides with Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1.1’s definition of Brahman as satyam jñānam anantam; Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.1.6 satyam eva jayate. Must be redefined at first occurrence per document: relational fidelity to God’s revealed reality in Christ, not the metaphysical ground of Brahman. Rejected: ऋतम् (ṛtam — even more tightly bound to Vedic cosmic-ritual order). |
| love (noun) | ἀγάπη (agapē) | प्रेम | prema | High | Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New term | Collides with Gauḑīya Vaiṣṇava prema-bhakti theology (Rūpa Gosvāmī, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu), where prema is the ecstatic culmination of passionate/romantic rasa devotion (Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa mādhurya-rasa). Must be distinguished as selfless, covenantal, others-directed love. Rejected: स्नेहः (too weak), अनुरागः (equally rasa-loaded). |
| beloved (adj.) | ἀγαπητός (agapētos) | प्रियः | priyaḥ | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | Lower risk than the noun प्रेम; still occasionally used as a bhakti epithet, but sufficiently disambiguated by addressee context. |
| elder | πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) | प्राचीनः | prācīnaḥ | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride | New term | Distinguish from a customary dharmaśāstra sabhā-elder or guru-paramparā lineage-holder. Rejected: वृद्धः (mere age, no office sense); स्थविरः (rejected — proper technical title of a senior monk in Theravāda Buddhism, “Sthaviravāda”). |
| brother | ἀδελφός (adelphos) | भ्राता | bhrātā | Low-Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New term | Fictive-kinship sense (fellow believer) must be established by context, not literal sibling. |
| church | ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) | मण्डली | maṇḍalī | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride; Truth and Christian Fellowship | [BASELINE REUSE, exact] | Never मन्दिरम् (temple) or मठः (guru-lineage monastic institution). |
| testimony / testify | μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω (martyria / martyreō) | साक्ष्यम् | sākṣyam | High | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | New term | Collides with the Sāṅkhya/Advaita technical category of sākṣin — the passive, changeless Witness-consciousness (puruṣa / sākṣī-caitanya) that observes without acting. Must be redefined: here, ordinary factual/evidentiary attestation about a person’s character, not the metaphysical Witness-Self. |
| true (adj.) | ἀληθής (alēthēs) | सत्यः | satyaḥ | High | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | New term | Same root and risk profile as सत्यम् (truth); deliberately reuses the root for cross-document consistency. |
| stranger / traveling minister | ξένος (xenos) | अतिथिः | atithiḥ | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New term | Collides with the dharmaśāstra pañca-mahāyajña category of atithi-yajña (Manusmṛti 3.69–70) and the Taittirīya Upaniṣad maxim “atithi devo bhava” (1.11.2). Must be distinguished from ritual householder-duty: this is free gospel-partnership hospitality flowing from love and truth (v.8), not merit-generating ritual obligation. |
| to receive/support (hospitably) | ὑπολαμβάνω (hypolambanō) | आतिथ्यकरणम् | ātithyakaraṇam | High | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New term | Same atithi-root caution as ξένος above; cross-reference required at every occurrence. |
| to send on one’s way | προπέμπω (propempō) | अग्रे प्रस्थापनम् | agre prasthāpanam | Low-Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New term | Descriptive compound; no major rival technical sense. |
| fellow worker | συνεργός (synergos) | सहकारी | sahakārī | Low-Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers; Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | Transparent compound; low ambiguity. |
| gentiles / outsiders (pagan) | ἐθνικός (ethnikos) | अन्यजातीयाः | anyajātīyāḥ | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | [BASELINE REUSE] with nuance flag | In Romans, ethnic non-Jews within a Jew-Gentile unity narrative; here, a moral-religious “outsider/unbeliever” nuance. Flag the semantic shift at each occurrence though the rendering is reused for consistency. |
| loves to be first / preeminence-seeking | φιλοπρωτεύω (philoprōteuō) | अग्रिमपदप्रियता | agrimapadapriyatā | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New term | Descriptive coinage naming Diotrephes’ precise vice; see also “pride” doctrine-support term below. |
| to receive/welcome | ἐπιδέχομαι (epidechomai) | अङ्गीकरणम् | aṅgīkaraṇam | Low-Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New term | Plain acceptance/reception term. |
| malicious/false words | λόγοις πονηροῖς φλυαρῶν (logois ponērois phlyarōn) | दुर्वचनैः अपवादः | durvacanaiḥ apavādaḥ | Low-Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New term | Descriptive; no major rival technical sense. |
| to hinder/forbid | κωλύω (kōlyō) | निवारयति | nivārayati | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New term | Plain verb. |
| to expel / cast out | ἐκβάλλω (ekballō) | बहिष्करणम् | bahiṣkaraṇam | Medium-High | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New term | Must be distinguished from dharmaśāstra patita (caste-fallen) status-loss (cf. Manusmṛti’s patita-sāvarga discussions) — this is an abusive congregational-discipline act, not a caste-purity mechanism. |
| to imitate | μιμέομαι (mimeomai) | अनुकरणम् | anukaraṇam | Low-Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New term | Minor adjacent association with Nāṭyaśāstra dramatic-mimesis theory (anukaraṇa); not a doctrinal collision, translator awareness only. |
| evil (the evil) | κακόν (kakon) | दुष्टम् | duṣṭam | Low-Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New term | Rejected: पापम् (reserved by baseline for “sin,” a distinct Greek lexeme — avoid TM conflict); असत् (rejected — Vedāntic ontological “non-being,” cf. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad’s asato mā sad gamaya, a metaphysical category mismatch with moral evil). |
| good (the good) | ἀγαθόν (agathon) | उत्तमम् | uttamam | Low-Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New term | Rejected: कल्याणम्/शुभम् (auspicious/ritually-favorable connotations, same reasoning baseline used to reject शुभ for “gospel”); पुण्यम् (karmic merit, already rejected by baseline for “grace”); साधु (ambiguous with the ascetic-holy-man noun-title). |
| to do good / to do evil | ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω (agathopoieō / kakopoieō) | उत्तमकर्म करोति / दुष्कर्म करोति | uttamakarma karoti / duṣkarma karoti | Low-Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New term | Transparent compounds built on the terms directly above. |
| to see (has seen God) | ὁράω / ἑώρακεν (horaō / heōraken) | दृष्टवान् | dṣṭavān | Medium | Imitating Good rather than Evil | New term | Verb form only; avoid nominalizing to दर्शनम् (darśanam), the central technical term of Hindu image-worship “seeing/being-seen” theology and also the standard term for a philosophical “school” (ṣaḍ-darśana). |
| God | θεός (theos) | सर्वेश्वरः | sarveśvaraḥ | Critical | Imitating Good rather than Evil; Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | [BASELINE REUSE, exact] | Never bare ईश्वरः, ब्रह्मन्, भगवान्, or देवः. |
| pride (doctrine-support term; not a single Greek lexeme in 3 John) | — (shown through φιλοπρωτεύων, v.9, and Diotrephes’ conduct, v.10) | गर्वः | garvaḥ | Medium | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New term | अहंकारः explicitly rejected as primary rendering: the technical Sāṅkhya “I-principle” (third of 24 tattvas, Sāṅkhya Kārikā 22; cf. Bhagavad Gītā 3.27’s “ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā”) would import an entire cosmological psychology not intended by the simple moral vice of self-promotion. |
| soul / self | ψυχή (psychē) | जीवः | jīvaḥ | High | (supports Truth and Christian Fellowship, v.2 wellbeing wish) | New term | Must never be rendered आत्मा — baseline reserves आत्मा exclusively for Holy Spirit, with mandatory personhood notes, precisely to contain the ātman-Brahman mahāvākya collision; using it again here for a different Greek word (ψυχή ≠ πνεῦμα) would multiply that risk. जीवः is the best alternative but still activates the jīva–Brahman identity/difference debate central to Advaita vs. Viśiṣṭādvaita/Dvaita Vedānta; redefine at first occurrence as “whole inner well-being,” not a position in that debate. |
| joy | χαρά (chara) | हर्षः | harṣaḥ | Medium-High | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | आनन्दः explicitly rejected: the third term of Advaita’s sat-cit-ānanda description of Brahman’s own nature (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.7). हर्षः names ordinary relational delight without this metaphysical freight. |
| children (spiritual) | τέκνα (tekna) | सन्तानाः | santānāḥ | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | शिष्याः (disciples) rejected — imports guru-śiṣya-paramparā lineage framework (cf. baseline’s रejection of गुरुः for “apostle”); आत्मजाः avoided as an unnecessary further exposure of the आत्मा root. |
| faithful (adj., of an act) | πιστός (pistos) | विश्वस्तम् | viśvastam | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New term | Deliberately built on the established विश्वासः (“faith”) root for cross-document lexical consistency per baseline’s “same root across documents” principle. |
| hope | ἐλπίζω (elpizō) | आशा करोति | āśāṃ karoti | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | Must be distinguished from आशा/तृष्णा as the desire-attachment targeted for renunciation (vairāgya) in Yoga/Vedānta soteriology; here, confident relational expectation, not craving to be transcended. |
| peace | εἰρήνη (eirēnē) | शान्तिः | śāntiḥ | Medium | (epistolary closing) | [BASELINE REUSE, exact] | Same Yoga Sūtra 1.2 (citta-vṛtti-nirodha) caution as in Romans applies to any occurrence. |
| to greet | ἀσπάζομαι (aspazomai) | अभिवादनम् | abhivādanam | Medium | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | नमस्कारः rejected as default — carries an obeisance/reverential-salutation register (used toward deities, images, gurus, elders) that overstates an ordinary peer greeting. |
| friend | φίλος (philos) | मित्रम् | mitram | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | Plain term; note the ἀδελφός→φίλος shift in v.14 for exposition (Johannine friendship theology, cf. John 15:14–15), though the term itself is low-risk. |
| name (for the Name’s sake) | ὄνομα (onoma) | नाम | nāma | Low-Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New term | Standard NT idiom; referent (Christ) must be recoverable from context. |
| obligation/duty (ought) | ὀφείλω (opheilō) | कर्तव्यम् | kartavyam | Medium | Hospitality to Traveling Ministers | New term | Must be paired with explicit teaching that this is gospel-partnership obligation, not varṇāśrama-dharma social duty (cf. baseline caution on धर्माचरणम् under “obedience of faith”). |
| ink | μέλαν (melan) | मषी | masī | Low | (material culture) | New term | No doctrinal risk. |
| pen/reed | κάλαμος (kalamos) | लेखनी | lekhanī | Low | (material culture) | New term | No doctrinal risk. |
| Demetrius (proper name) | Δημήτριος (Dēmētrios) | देमेत्रियः | dēmetriyaḥ | Low | Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius) | New term | Transliterated proper name. |
| Diotrephes (proper name) | Διοτρέφης (Diotrephēs) | दियोत्रेफः | diyotrephaḥ | Low | Church Leadership and Pride (Diotrephes) | New term | Transliterated proper name. |
| Gaius (proper name) | Γάϊος (Gaios) | गायः | gāyaḥ | Low | (epistolary addressee) | New term | Transliterated proper name. |
| face to face (idiom) | στόμα πρὸς στόμα (stoma pros stoma) | सम्मुखम् | sammukham | Low | Truth and Christian Fellowship | New term | Semitic-influenced idiom rendered by meaning, not literally (“mouth to mouth”), per idiom-handling rules. |
Risk Summary for 3 John
| Risk Tier | Count | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 1 (God — baseline reuse) | Human theologian |
| High | 8 (truth, love, testimony, true, stranger/traveling minister, receive-support-hospitably, soul, joy) | Human theologian |
| Medium | 14 | Sanskrit-philosophically-literate scholar |
| Low / Low-Medium | 13 | Automated / light review |
Cross-cutting observation for Phase 2 planning: Three of this book’s highest-risk new terms (सत्यम् for truth, प्रेम for love, साक्ष्यम् for testimony) are the three terms load-bearing across every doctrine in this curriculum — they are not confined to a single passage or theme but recur throughout vv.1–12. Phase 2 segment translation should treat every occurrence of these three terms as requiring the mandatory redefinition note specified in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md, not only their first occurrence in the document, given how densely they recur in this short epistle.
This glossary must be merged into translation_memory.json before Phase 2 translation of 3 John begins, per the New-Term Discovery Protocol in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md. All baseline-reused terms above are enforced exactly as recorded in the Romans Language Package; all new terms above are proposed at the risk tiers indicated pending theologian/scholar review confirmation per doctrine_risk_registry.json’s review-routing convention.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: सर्वेश्वरः
Transliteration: sarveśvaraḥ
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: ईश्वरः, ब्रह्मन्, भगवान्, देवः
Original: θεός
Category: God
CRITICAL: this glossary follows the historical precedent set by the 17th-century Jesuit missionary Roberto de Nobili, who deliberately chose ‘Sarvesvara’ (Lord OF ALL) over ‘Deva’ specifically because Deva is heard as one deity among the many devah of Vedic and Puranic religion. देवः is rejected for exactly de Nobili’s reason. भगवान् is rejected because it is the common devotional honorific applied to any personally worshipped chosen deity (ishta-devata). ब्रह्मन् is rejected as the impersonal Absolute. Bare ईश्वरः is rejected for its Advaitic subordination-to-maya risk. सर्वेश्वरः (‘Lord of all’) most forcefully closes off the ‘one god among many’ reading. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly for 3 John 1:6 (the standard hospitality is measured against) and 1:11 (has not seen God).]
High Risk Terms
Faith
Approved rendering: विश्वासः
Transliteration: viśvāsaḥ
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: श्रद्धा, भक्तिः
Shraddha is rejected as the fully-theorized threefold (sattviki/rajasi/tamasi) Bhagavad Gita 17 category; bhaktih names an entire soteriological marga. Vishvasah is comparatively untheorized and safer. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE. In 3 John this root does not itself recur, but it is the deliberate base for this book’s new term ‘faithful_act’ (pistos, v.5, rendered vishvastam) — see that entry for the cross-document consistency rationale.]
Truth
Approved rendering: सत्यम्
Transliteration: satyam
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: ऋतम्
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Truth and Fellowship
Collides with Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1.1’s definition of Brahman itself as satyam jnanam anantam brahma, and Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6’s satyam eva jayate, rooting satya in the Vedic rita-satya cosmic-ritual-order nexus. No safer classical alternative exists: ritam is even more tightly bound to that same order and is rejected for that reason. Must be redefined at EVERY occurrence in this document (3 John 1:1, 1:3, 1:4, 1:6, 1:8, 1:12), not only the first, given this letter’s unusually high density of this term — relational fidelity to God’s revealed reality in Christ, expressed in love and right conduct, not Brahman’s own ontological nature.
Love
Approved rendering: प्रेम
Transliteration: prema
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: स्नेहः, अनुरागः
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Fellowship
Collides with Gaudiya Vaishnava prema-bhakti theology: Rupa Gosvami’s Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu catalogues prema as the mature, ecstatic culmination of bhakti-rasa, paradigmatically the passionate romantic (madhurya-rasa) devotion between Radha and Krishna — a fully worked-out devotional-aesthetic theology, not vague cultural background. Snehah (mere affection) is too weak; anuragah (‘passionate attachment’) is equally rasa-loaded. Must be redefined at EVERY occurrence (3 John 1:1, 1:6), not only the first, as selfless, others-directed, covenantal love expressed concretely in hospitality and material support, not ecstatic romantic rasa-devotion.
Testimony
Approved rendering: साक्ष्यम्
Transliteration: sākṣyam
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω
Category: Witness
Collides with the Sankhya/Advaita technical category of sakshin — the passive, changeless Witness-consciousness (purusha / sakshi-caitanya) that impassively observes the mind’s activity without itself acting, foundational to distinguishing the liberated Self from active prakriti. Structurally analogous to the atman-Brahman risk flagged for the Holy Spirit in the baseline. Must be redefined at EVERY occurrence (3 John 1:3, 1:6, 1:12), especially the personified claim ‘the truth itself testifies’ in 1:12, as an ordinary, historically-situated factual attestation about a person’s observed character, never the impersonal metaphysical Witness-consciousness of Sankhya/Advaita epistemology.
True
Approved rendering: सत्यः
Transliteration: satyaḥ
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: ἀληθής
Category: Witness
Shares the same root and risk profile as ‘truth’ (satyam), reused deliberately for cross-document consistency and carrying the same Taittiriya/Mundaka Upanishad redefinition requirement at every occurrence (3 John 1:12, describing the reliability of John’s own testimony about Demetrius).
Stranger Traveling Minister
Approved rendering: अतिथिः
Transliteration: atithiḥ
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: प्रवासी
Original: ξένος
Category: Hospitality
Collides with the dharmashastra pancha-mahayajna category of atithi-yajna, one of the five great daily sacrifices prescribed for the householder (Manusmriti 3.69-70), and the Taittiriya Upanishad maxim popularized as ‘atithi devo bhava’ (1.11.2). Pravasi (‘traveler’) is rejected as losing the sacred-guest resonance without escaping the underlying frame. Must be explicitly distinguished at first occurrence (3 John 1:5) from ritual householder-duty: this is free gospel-partnership hospitality flowing from love and truth (1:8), not a merit-generating ritual obligation.
Receive Support Hospitably
Approved rendering: आतिथ्यकरणम्
Transliteration: ātithyakaraṇam
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὑπολαμβάνω
Category: Hospitality
Built on the atithi root and carries the same pancha-mahayajna/atithi-satkara caution as ‘stranger_traveling_minister’ above (3 John 1:8); cross-reference required at every occurrence.
Love Of Preeminence
Approved rendering: अग्रिमपदप्रियता
Transliteration: agrimapadapriyatā
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: मानः, स्पर्धा
Original: φιλοπρωτεύω
Category: Church Leadership
Descriptive coinage naming Diotrephes’ precise vice (philoprōteuō, 3 John 1:9): self-promoting desire for primacy/status within the church. No single classical lexeme isolates this precise vice. Manah (‘honor/pride’) and spardha (‘rivalry’) are rejected as too broad, losing Paul’s precise diagnosis that this is disordered desire for primacy, not doctrinal error. Must be kept distinct from ahankarah — see the ‘pride’ doctrine-support entry.
Expel Cast Out
Approved rendering: बहिष्करणम्
Transliteration: bahiṣkaraṇam
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ἐκβάλλω
Category: Church Leadership
Renders ekballo (3 John 1:10). Must be distinguished from the dharmashastra category of patita — one who has permanently ‘fallen’ from caste/varna status through transgression (Manusmriti’s patita-savarga provisions), a hereditary, socially catastrophic status-loss with its own prescribed prayashcitta (penance) procedure. Diotrephes’ act is abusive congregational discipline by one man, not a codified purity mechanism; this distinction must be flagged at every occurrence.
Soul Self
Approved rendering: जीवः
Transliteration: jīvaḥ
Doctrine: Spiritual and Physical Well-Being
Rejected alternatives: आत्मा
Original: ψυχή
Category: Fellowship
Renders psyche (3 John 1:2). Must NEVER be rendered atma, which the baseline reserves exclusively, and only with mandatory personhood notes, for the Holy Spirit — precisely to contain the atman-Brahman mahavakya collision (Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 ‘tat tvam asi’; Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 ‘aham brahmasmi’). Psyche is a different Greek word from pneuma and must never share atma’s rendering, which would multiply the very collision risk the baseline works to contain. Jivah is the best available alternative but still activates the jiva-Brahman identity/difference debate central to Advaita versus Vishishtadvaita/Dvaita Vedanta; redefine at first occurrence as the believer’s whole inner well-being before God, not a position in that classical metaphysical debate.
Joy
Approved rendering: हर्षः
Transliteration: harṣaḥ
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: आनन्दः
Original: χαρά / χαίρω
Category: Fellowship
Renders chara/chairo (3 John 1:3-4). Anandah is explicitly rejected: in Advaita Vedanta ananda is the third term of sat-cit-ananda, the classical threefold description of Brahman’s own nature (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.7, ‘raso vai sah… anandam brahma’). Harshah names ordinary relational/emotional delight without this metaphysical freight.
Medium Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: मण्डली
Transliteration: maṇḍalī
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: मन्दिरम्, मठः
Original: ἐκκλησία
Category: Church
Never मन्दिरम् (temple, image-centered) or मठः (a monastic institution organizationally tied to a guru-lineage, e.g. Sankara’s four cardinal mathas). मण्डली names the assembled congregation. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly for 3 John 1:6, 1:9, 1:10 — the local congregation caught between John’s authority and Diotrephes’ self-promotion.]
Peace
Approved rendering: शान्तिः
Transliteration: śāntiḥ
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: निर्वृत्तिः
Original: εἰρήνη
Category: Epistolary
Relational, forensic peace with God through justification — at risk of being heard as the meditative citta-vritti-nirodha (Yoga Sutra 1.2) sought through yogic discipline. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly for 3 John 1:14, where it functions in its ordinary conventional epistolary-blessing sense rather than Romans 5:1’s forensic sense; the same Yoga Sutra 1.2 caution still applies to any occurrence of this term.]
Gentiles
Approved rendering: अन्यजातीयाः
Transliteration: anyajātīyāḥ
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: म्लेच्छाः
म्लेच्छाः is explicitly rejected: in classical Sanskrit usage this term for ‘foreigner/outsider’ carries a ritual-impurity and cultural-contempt connotation far more pejorative than the neutral sense intended. [INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, reused exactly for the rendering at 3 John 1:7, but see the companion entry ‘gentiles_outsiders’ below for the book-specific semantic-shift flag: in 3 John the underlying Greek is ethnikos, not ethne, carrying a moral-religious ‘outsider/unbeliever’ nuance rather than Romans’ ethnic non-Jew-within-Jew-Gentile-unity sense.]
Gentiles Outsiders
Approved rendering: अन्यजातीयाः
Transliteration: anyajātīyāḥ
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ἐθνικός
Category: Hospitality
Identical Sanskrit rendering to the inherited baseline ‘gentiles’ entry above, reused for lexical consistency. Renders ethnikos (3 John 1:7), which carries a moral-religious ‘outsider/unbeliever’ nuance — those from whom traveling missionaries deliberately decline material support — rather than Romans’ ethnic non-Jew category within a hoped-for Jew-Gentile unity narrative. Flag this semantic shift at each occurrence.
Beloved
Approved rendering: प्रियः
Transliteration: priyaḥ
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀγαπητός
Category: Fellowship
Common classical adjective of affectionate esteem. Occasionally functions as an epithet for Krishna’s devotees/beloveds in bhakti literature, but the addressee context (a named Christian believer, 3 John 1:1) sufficiently disambiguates. Lower risk than the noun prema.
Elder
Approved rendering: प्राचीनः
Transliteration: prācīnaḥ
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: वृद्धः, स्थविरः
Original: πρεσβύτερος
Category: Church Leadership
Renders presbyteros, the author’s self-designation by pastoral office/seniority rather than personal name (3 John 1:1), in deliberate contrast to Diotrephes’ self-promotion. Sthavirah is rejected as the specific technical title of a senior monk in Theravada Buddhism (‘Sthaviravada’ being the very name of that school) — an unwanted cross-tradition collision. Vriddhah is rejected as purely age-based, losing the office sense. Must still be distinguished from a customary dharmashastra village/caste sabha-elder role or a guru-parampara lineage-holder; flag as a functional pastoral office grounded in truth and love, not inherited social or lineage authority.
Has Seen God
Approved rendering: दृष्टवान्
Transliteration: dṣṭavān
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: दर्शनम्
Original: ὁράω (perfect ἑώρακεν)
Category: Christian Character
Renders horao/heoraken (3 John 1:11), a Johannine idiom for genuine relational knowledge of God. Keep to the VERB form only; never nominalize to darshanam, the central technical term of Hindu image-worship theology (the reciprocal ‘seeing and being seen’ of a deity’s iconic form) and also the standard word for a philosophical ‘school’ (shad-darshana, the six orthodox schools). Hard constraint, structurally parallel to the baseline’s atma-containment rule.
Pride
Approved rendering: गर्वः
Transliteration: garvaḥ
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Rejected alternatives: अहंकारः
Original: (no single lexeme in 3 John; the vice is shown through φιλοπρωτεύων, v.9, and Diotrephes’ conduct, v.10)
Category: Church Leadership
Doctrine-support term; not a single Greek lexeme in 3 John — the vice is shown through philoproteuon (1:9) and Diotrephes’ conduct (1:10). Ahankarah is explicitly rejected as the primary exposition-term: the technical Sankhya ‘I-principle,’ third of the twenty-four tattvas evolving from prakriti (Sankhya Karika 22; recurring in Bhagavad Gita 3.27’s ahankara-vimudhatma), which would import an entire cosmological psychology not intended by this simple moral vice of self-promotion.
Children Spiritual
Approved rendering: सन्तानाः
Transliteration: santānāḥ
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: शिष्याः, आत्मजाः
Original: τέκνα
Category: Fellowship
Renders tekna (3 John 1:4) — believers John led to or nurtured in the faith, not biological children. Shishyah (‘disciples’) is rejected as importing the guru-shishya-parampara lineage-transmission framework, the same reasoning the baseline uses to reject guruh for ‘apostle’. Atmajah is avoided to prevent additional exposure of the atma root beyond the baseline’s strict Holy-Spirit containment.
Faithful Act
Approved rendering: विश्वस्तम्
Transliteration: viśvastam
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: πιστός
Category: Hospitality
Renders pistos (3 John 1:5), describing Gaius’s hospitable conduct. Deliberately built on the established vishvasah (‘faith’) root for cross-document lexical consistency, per the baseline’s principle of reusing the same root for the same concept-family across documents.
Hope
Approved rendering: आशा करोति
Transliteration: āśāṃ karoti
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἐλπίζω
Category: Fellowship
Renders elpizo (3 John 1:14) — confident relational expectation of a future personal visit. Must be distinguished from asha/trishna as ordinary craving-desire, which classical Yoga (vairagya, cultivated dispassion) and Vedanta soteriology generally counsel renouncing rather than cultivating. Here names confident relational expectation of reunion, not the desire-attachment targeted for renunciation in moksha-oriented literature.
Greet
Approved rendering: अभिवादनम्
Transliteration: abhivādanam
Doctrine: Christian Greeting and Peace
Rejected alternatives: नमस्कारः
Original: ἀσπάζομαι
Category: Epistolary
Renders aspazomai (3 John 1:14). Namaskarah is rejected as the default rendering: it ordinarily carries an obeisance/reverential-salutation register (used toward deities, images, elders, and gurus), which would overstate the register of an ordinary peer-to-peer epistolary greeting. Abhivadanam (also attested in dharmashastra younger-to-elder greeting protocol) is a closer functional match, though it still carries a mild hierarchical connotation worth flagging.
Duty Obligation
Approved rendering: कर्तव्यम्
Transliteration: kartavyam
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Rejected alternatives: धर्माचरणम्
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Hospitality
Renders opheilo (3 John 1:8). Must be paired with explicit teaching that this is a gospel-partnership obligation, not a varnashrama-dharma social duty. Dharmacharanam is rejected on the same grounds the baseline rejects it under ‘obedience of faith’: it would reframe this as duty-based religious performance within the varnashrama system rather than obligation flowing from gospel partnership already given.
Low Risk Terms
Brother
Approved rendering: भ्राता
Transliteration: bhrātā
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Fellowship
Fictive-kinship term for a fellow believer (3 John 1:3, 1:5, 1:10), especially applied to traveling ministers. Context must establish the fellow-believer sense rather than literal sibling; low residual risk once context is established.
Send On Ones Way
Approved rendering: अग्रे प्रस्थापनम्
Transliteration: agre prasthāpanam
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: προπέμπω
Category: Hospitality
Descriptive compound for propempo, providing practical logistical/material assistance for a departing traveler (3 John 1:6). No major rival technical sense.
Fellow Worker
Approved rendering: सहकारी
Transliteration: sahakārī
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: συνεργός
Category: Hospitality
Transparent compound for synergos (3 John 1:8), naming hospitality as active gospel partnership rather than passive charity. Low ambiguity.
Receive Welcome
Approved rendering: अङ्गीकरणम्
Transliteration: aṅgīkaraṇam
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: ἐπιδέχομαι
Category: Church Leadership
Plain formal reception/acceptance term for epidechomai (3 John 1:9, 1:10) — Diotrephes’ refusal to receive John’s authority/emissaries. Low ambiguity.
Malicious Words
Approved rendering: दुर्वचनैः अपवादः
Transliteration: durvacanaiḥ apavādaḥ
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: λόγοις πονηροῖς φλυαρῶν
Category: Church Leadership
Descriptive rendering of logois ponerois phlyaron (3 John 1:10) — Diotrephes’ baseless, malicious verbal attacks on the apostolic delegation. No major rival technical sense.
Hinder Forbid
Approved rendering: निवारयति
Transliteration: nivārayati
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: κωλύω
Category: Church Leadership
Plain verb for kolyo (3 John 1:10) — Diotrephes actively obstructing others’ hospitable actions. No doctrinal risk.
Imitate
Approved rendering: अनुकरणम्
Transliteration: anukaraṇam
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: μιμέομαι
Category: Christian Character
Renders mimeomai (3 John 1:11). Minor adjacent association with Bharata’s Natyashastra dramatic-mimesis theory (anukarana as the technical term for an actor’s mimetic representation) — an aesthetic-theory usage in a different register, not a doctrinal collision; translator awareness only.
Evil
Approved rendering: दुष्टम्
Transliteration: duṣṭam
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: पापम्, असत्
Original: κακόν
Category: Christian Character
Renders to kakon (3 John 1:11). Papam is reserved by baseline translation memory for ‘sin’ (a distinct Greek lexeme, hamartia), preventing translation-memory conflict. Asat is rejected as the metaphysical non-being pole of the Vedantic sat/asat ontological binary (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad’s ‘asato ma sad gamaya’), a category mismatch with moral evil.
Good
Approved rendering: उत्तमम्
Transliteration: uttamam
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Rejected alternatives: कल्याणम्, शुभम्, पुण्यम्, साधु
Original: ἀγαθόν
Category: Christian Character
Renders to agathon (3 John 1:11). Kalyanam/shubham rejected for auspicious/ritually-favorable connotations (same reasoning the baseline used to reject shubha for ‘gospel’); punyam rejected as accumulated karmic merit (already rejected by baseline for ‘grace’); sadhu rejected as ambiguous with the ascetic-holy-man noun-title.
Do Good Do Evil
Approved rendering: उत्तमकर्म करोति / दुष्कर्म करोति
Transliteration: uttamakarma karoti / duṣkarma karoti
Doctrine: Imitating Good rather than Evil
Original: ἀγαθοποιέω / κακοποιέω
Category: Christian Character
Transparent compounds for agathopoieo/kakopoieo (3 John 1:11), built consistently on the ‘good’/‘evil’ terms above — the criterion distinguishing those who are ‘from God’ from those who have not seen God.
Friend
Approved rendering: मित्रम्
Transliteration: mitram
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: φίλος
Category: Fellowship
Renders philos (3 John 1:14), a personal affectionate relationship distinct from adelphos (‘brother’). Plain term with minimal technical baggage. Note the adelphos-to-philos shift from ‘the brothers’ (1:3,1:5,1:10) to ‘the friends’ (1:14), echoing Johannine friendship theology (cf. John 15:14-15).
Name For The Names Sake
Approved rendering: नाम
Transliteration: nāma
Doctrine: Hospitality to Traveling Ministers
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Hospitality
Renders onoma (3 John 1:7) in the standard NT idiom ‘for the Name’s sake’ — shorthand for Christ’s person and gospel mission. The referent (Christ) must be recoverable from context, per general idiom-handling rules.
Ink
Approved rendering: मषी
Transliteration: masī
Doctrine: Christian Greeting and Peace
Original: μέλαν
Category: Epistolary
Renders melan (3 John 1:13). Material-culture reference; no doctrinal content.
Pen Reed
Approved rendering: लेखनी
Transliteration: lekhanī
Doctrine: Christian Greeting and Peace
Original: κάλαμος
Category: Epistolary
Renders kalamos (3 John 1:13). Material-culture reference; no doctrinal content.
Demetrius
Approved rendering: देमेत्रियः
Transliteration: dēmetriyaḥ
Doctrine: Commendation of Faithful Witness (Demetrius)
Original: Δημήτριος
Category: Witness
Transliterated proper name (3 John 1:12), following Serampore-tradition conventions for Greek proper names. The positive counterpart to Diotrephes, publicly attested by all and by the truth itself.
Diotrephes
Approved rendering: दियोत्रेफः
Transliteration: diyotrephaḥ
Doctrine: Church Leadership and Pride
Original: Διοτρέφης
Category: Church Leadership
Transliterated proper name (3 John 1:9), following Serampore-tradition conventions for Greek proper names. Named individual whose self-promoting conduct is condemned as a negative example.
Gaius
Approved rendering: गायः
Transliteration: gāyaḥ
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: Γάϊος
Category: Epistolary
Transliterated proper name (3 John 1:1), the letter’s addressee. Note potential visual ambiguity with common-noun declensions related to the go- (‘cow’) root in Devanagari, since the script has no capitalization marker equivalent for proper names; disambiguated only by sentence position/context — flag for Phase 2 QA.
Face To Face
Approved rendering: सम्मुखम्
Transliteration: sammukham
Doctrine: Truth and Christian Fellowship
Original: στόμα πρὸς στόμα
Category: Epistolary
Renders the Semitic-influenced idiom stoma pros stoma (‘mouth to mouth’, 3 John 1:14) by meaning (‘face to face’) rather than literally, per standard idiom-handling rules — a literal rendering would read as a bizarre or indecorous physical image in Sanskrit with no idiomatic sanction.