Semantic Analysis — Gospel of John (Koine Greek → Sanskrit)

TRI Phase 1, Step 1

Curriculum: John 1–21 Core passage: John 3:1–21 (Nicodemus; the New Birth; God’s Love for the World) Baseline authority: Romans Language Package for Sanskrit (translation_memory.json, bible_term_registry.json, doctrine_risk_registry.json, 12_ai_translation_requirements.md). All terms already fixed there (सुसमाचारः, अनुग्रहः, विश्वासः, त्राणम्, पुनरुत्थानम्, प्रभुः, परमेश्वरस्य पुत्रः, देहधारणम्, महिमा, सर्वेश्वरः, पवित्र आत्मा, पिता, इत्यादि) are reused here without modification. This document extends, never overrides, that baseline.

Key observation governing this whole analysis: John’s Gospel is doctrinally denser than Romans in exactly the areas where Sanskrit’s philosophical vocabulary is most fully theorized — being (आत्मन्/ब्रह्मन्), non-dual identity (अद्वैत), self-luminosity (प्रकाश), the guṇas (सत्त्व-रजस्-तमस्), karma-phala, and the cosmic/emanationist language of avatāra and puruṣa. John’s own vocabulary — Word, I AM, light/darkness, born again, world, truth, one (Father/Son) — sits astride nearly every major fault line documented in the Romans baseline, several of them (Logos, “I am,” “born again,” “descended from heaven”) more severely than anything in Romans.

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PART 1 — Core Passage: John 3:1–21, Verse-by-Verse

John 3:1

Greek: Ἦν δὲ ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τῶν Φαρισαίων, Νικόδημος ὄνομα αὐτῷ, ἄρχων τῶν Ἰουδαίων.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
Φαρισαῖος	Pharisaios	Pharisee	A member of a specific Second Temple Jewish renewal/purity movement	Pharisee	Nicodemus’s religious identity — a teacher committed to Torah observance	Low. Transliterate as फरीशी; proper-noun sect name, no Sanskrit philosophical school shares this name.
ἄρχων	archōn	ruler, one who begins/leads	Civic or religious authority; here a member of the Sanhedrin	ruler, leader, member of the council	Establishes Nicodemus’s high social and religious standing, heightening the irony of his need to be taught	Low-Medium. अधिकारी or सभासदः (council-member); avoid अधिपतिः alone, too regal.

John 3:2

Greek: οὗτος ἦλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν νυκτὸς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Ῥαββί, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἐλήλυθας διδάσκαλος· οὐδεὶς γὰρ δύναται ταῦτα τὰ σημεῖα ποιεῖν ἃ σὺ ποιεῖς, ἐὰν μὴ ᾖ ὁ θεὸς μετ’ αὐτοῦ.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
Ῥαββί	Rabbi	”my great one,” teacher	Honorific address to a Torah teacher	Rabbi, Teacher, Master	Nicodemus’s respectful (if inadequate) opening address to Jesus	High. Do NOT render with गुरुः. गुरु invokes the entire guru-śiṣya-paramparā (teacher-disciple lineage transmission of authority), already rejected in the baseline for “apostle” on precisely this ground — and a guru is frequently treated as a locus of near-divine reverence (“गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुः…”), which would overstate Nicodemus’s (still-developing) view of Jesus at this point in the narrative. Recommended: आचार्यः (a teacher/instructor in the classical educational sense, without lineage-transmission theology) or transliterate रब्बी for the specific Jewish title.
διδάσκαλος	didaskalos	teacher	General instructor	teacher, master	Same term as Rabbi in Nicodemus’s usage	See above — आचार्यः, not गुरुः.
σημεῖον (pl. σημεῖα)	sēmeion / sēmeia	sign, mark	A miraculous act pointing beyond itself to a truth about Jesus’s identity	sign, miracle, wonder	Central Johannine category (distinct from Synoptic δύναμις/“mighty work” language) — signs reveal, they do not merely display power	Low. चिह्नम् is adequately neutral. Note for translators: John prefers σημεῖον almost exclusively over δύναμις; Sanskrit should preserve this distinction by reserving चिह्नम् for सign narratives and सामर्थ्यम् (baseline “power_of_god” term) only where capability/power is explicitly in view.

John 3:3

Greek: ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν, οὐ δύναται ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι	amēn amēn legō soi	”truly truly I say to you”	A solemn formula of divine authority unique to John (doubled “amen,” 25x in this Gospel; Synoptics use single “amen”)	verily verily / truly truly / I tell you the truth	Marks the following statement as an authoritative, non-negotiable pronouncement	Medium — consistency requirement, not doctrinal collision. Render consistently every occurrence as सत्यं सत्यं ते वदामि / युष्मभ्यं वदामि. Flag for cross-document consistency (parallel to the Romans “same rendering of 1:16-17” rule).
γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν	gennēthē anōthen	”be born from above / be born again”	ἄνωθεν is deliberately double-sensed in Greek: (1) “again,” (2) “from above” (spatial/source). Nicodemus hears only sense (1); John intends both, resolved toward (2) by v.5-8 (birth “of the Spirit,” a birth whose source is heaven)	born again, born from above, born anew	The New Birth — the doctrinal anchor of this whole curriculum: a sovereign, Spirit-wrought re-creation of the person, entered once, not a repeatable natural process	CRITICAL. This is the single most dangerous phrase in the entire John curriculum for Sanskrit. NEVER render with पुनर्जन्म — that compound is already forbidden in the baseline for “resurrection” as the precise technical term for transmigration (Sāṃkhya-Yoga’s karmāśaya/vāsanā and Vedānta’s liṅga-śarīra migrating at death). “Born again” collides with this doctrine even more directly than “resurrection” does, because it is birth-language, exactly the vocabulary of saṃsāra. Recommended rendering: ऊर्ध्वात् जन्म (ūrdhvāt janma, “birth from above/heaven”) as the primary gloss, deliberately resolving the Greek ambiguity toward the spatial/source sense rather than the repeatable-event sense, since that is the sense John’s own narrative (vv.5-8, 13) confirms. A mandatory translator note must state: this is a single, non-repeatable, Spirit-given re-creation of the person by grace, categorically different from punarjanma’s cyclical re-embodiment governed by karmic residue. Note also that the text ITSELF stages this misunderstanding and corrects it (Nicodemus literalizes “again” in v.4; Jesus corrects toward Spirit-origin in vv.5-8) — this internal correction should be preserved, not smoothed over, since it is doctrinally protective.
βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ	basileia tou theou	kingdom of God	God’s reign	kingdom of God, reign of God	The sphere/reality one enters only by new birth	Medium — reuse baseline kingdom_of_god: परमेश्वरस्य राज्यम्. No new risk.

John 3:4

Greek: λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ Νικόδημος· Πῶς δύναται ἄνθρωπος γεννηθῆναι γέρων ὤν; μὴ δύναται εἰς τὴν κοιλίαν τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ δεύτερον εἰσελθεῖν καὶ γεννηθῆναι;

Nicodemus’s misreading (a second physical birth) has no independent new theological term but is structurally important: it is the text’s own guardrail against a transmigration reading, and translators must preserve his confusion as confusion, not smooth it into something that sounds like a live philosophical option. δεύτερον (“a second time,” द्वितीयवारम्) — Low risk, plain numeral.

John 3:5

Greek: ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς· Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος, οὐ δύναται εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὕδωρ	hydōr	water	Physical water; here debated as baptismal water, amniotic/natural birth, or OT purification imagery (Ezek 36:25-27)	water	Instrumental sign accompanying Spirit-wrought new birth	Low-Medium. जलम् — plain, no major competing technical sense.
πνεῦμα (bare, no ἅγιον)	pneuma	spirit, wind, breath	Contextually the Holy Spirit, though the Greek word itself is unmarked here	Spirit, spirit	The Spirit as the true agent/source of the new birth	CRITICAL. Even though the Greek text omits ἅγιον (“holy”) here, the baseline rule (12_ai_translation_requirements.md, forbidden-substitution rule 6) is explicit: “NEVER let ‘spirit’ language elsewhere use आत्मा in a way that could reinforce an ātman-Brahman identity reading.” This verse must render πνεῦμα with the full fixed compound सending contextual force of पवित्र आत्मा, or at minimum आत्मा with a clear referential note identifying it as the Holy Spirit, never as a bare generic “spirit/self.” A translator note is mandatory here reaffirming the Spirit’s distinct personhood, per the baseline’s Holy Spirit rule, precisely because this passage’s water-and-Spirit birth-imagery is exactly the kind of “self is re-made/realized” context an Advaita-trained reader could misassimilate to ātman-realization.

John 3:6

Greek: τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστιν, καὶ τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστιν.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
σάρξ	sarx	flesh	Physical/creaturely human nature (not merely meat)	flesh, human nature	What natural birth produces: a merely natural, creaturely existence	Medium. Render शरीरम् or देहः (body/nature), not मांसम् (literal meat) which is too crude here. Distinguish from देहधारणम् (baseline “incarnation”), which names the Son’s unique assumption of this same nature — the two uses of “flesh” (Christ’s incarnation vs. ordinary human birth) must not be confused by reusing the same compound for both.
πνεῦμά ἐστιν	pneuma estin	”is spirit”	What Spirit-birth produces: a nature reoriented to/enlivened by God	is spirit, is spiritual	The believer’s new, Spirit-given nature	CRITICAL — the highest-stakes single clause in this whole document. A literal “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” invites an Advaita-trained reader to hear an equation of the reborn human’s essential nature with the divine Spirit itself — structurally identical in form to the mahāvākya “ayam ātmā brahma” (“this Self is Brahman,” Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 1.2) flagged as the single highest-stakes collision in the entire Romans baseline. Recommendation: do not translate this clause with a bare predicate noun आत्मा. Prefer an adjectival/qualitative rendering — “यत् आत्मनः जायते तत् आत्मिकं भवति” (“what is born of the Spirit becomes spiritual/of-the-Spirit’s-kind”) — using आत्मिकम् (an adjective, “belonging to/characterized by the Spirit,” already the baseline’s own strategy for “spiritual gifts” = आत्मिकं वरदानम्) rather than a second bare आत्मा noun that would read as a copula-identity statement. This must carry the mandatory Holy-Spirit personhood note at every occurrence: the believer is given a Spirit-derived nature by another (the Holy Spirit), not realizing a pre-existing identity with the Absolute.

John 3:7

Greek: μὴ θαυμάσῃς ὅτι εἶπόν σοι· δεῖ ὑμᾶς γεννηθῆναι ἄνωθεν. Repeats v.3’s ἄνωθεν term; no new vocabulary. Render consistently with v.3.

John 3:8

Greek: τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ, καὶ τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ ἀκούεις, ἀλλ’ οὐκ οἶδας πόθεν ἔρχεται καὶ ποῦ ὑπάγει· οὕτως ἐστὶν πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
πνεῦμα (wind/Spirit wordplay)	pneuma	wind; spirit	Greek πνεῦμα covers both “wind” and “Spirit” — the verse trades on this single-word overlap	wind, Spirit	The Spirit’s sovereign, untraceable freedom of operation in the new birth	High. Sanskrit has no single word spanning both senses the way Greek πνεῦμα (or Hebrew rûaḥ) does — वायुः (wind) and पवित्र आत्मा (Holy Spirit) are lexically unrelated in Sanskrit. The wordplay is not reproducible and must be explained in a translator note rather than forced into a single term. Do not attempt to use आत्मा for “wind” to preserve the pun — this would multiply, not solve, the ātman-collision risk. Use वायुः for wind and पवित्र आत्मा (with personhood note) for Spirit, and gloss the lost pun explicitly.

John 3:9–10

Νικόδημος’s continued incomprehension (Πῶς δύναται ταῦτα γενέσθαι, “how can these things be?”) and Jesus’s rebuke (“Σὺ εἶ ὁ διδάσκαλος τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ…” — reuse διδάσκαλος/आचार्यः and Ἰσραήλ/इस्राएलः per baseline). No new terms.

John 3:11

Greek: ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι ὅτι ὃ οἴδαμεν λαλοῦμεν καὶ ὃ ἑωράκαμεν μαρτυροῦμεν, καὶ τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἡμῶν οὐ λαμβάνετε.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω	martyria / martyreō	testimony, witness / to testify	Eyewitness attestation; a central Johannine forensic category (John the Baptist’s testimony, the Father’s testimony, the Spirit’s testimony, the works’ testimony)	testimony, witness, evidence	Truth-claims grounded in first-hand encounter, offered for belief	Medium. साक्ष्यम् (testimony) / साक्षी (witness) are appropriate and widely attested. Note for reviewers: साक्षिन् is also the Sāṃkhya-Yoga technical term for puruṣa as the silent, uninvolved “witness-consciousness” observing prakṛti’s activity — a metaphysical, passive-consciousness sense quite different from John’s active, verbal, forensic testimony-bearing. Keep साक्ष्यम् anchored to concrete verbal/eyewitness testimony throughout (as in legal usage), not to the passive metaphysical witness-self.

John 3:12

Greek: εἰ τὰ ἐπίγεια εἶπον ὑμῖν καὶ οὐ πιστεύετε, πῶς ἐὰν εἴπω ὑμῖν τὰ ἐπουράνια πιστεύσετε; ἐπίγεια/ἐπουράνια (“earthly things”/“heavenly things”) — पार्थिवानि / स्वर्गीयानि. Low-Medium, a plain contrast pair, no significant collision.

John 3:13

Greek: καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀναβέβηκεν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν εἰ μὴ ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου	ho huios tou anthrōpou	”the Son of Man”	Daniel 7:13’s exalted apocalyptic figure who receives everlasting dominion; John’s favorite self-designation for Jesus (13x), combining humility (real humanity) and future glory (exaltation, judgment authority)	Son of Man	A specific, historically-rooted messianic title — not a generic phrase for “a human being”	CRITICAL. मनुष्यपुत्रः is the natural compound, but this title sits directly beside two major Sanskrit cosmological categories that must be kept apart: (1) Puruṣa of the Ṛgveda’s Puruṣa Sūkta (10.90), the cosmic Man from whose sacrificed body the universe and the four varṇas emerge; (2) Puruṣa as the passive consciousness-principle of Sāṃkhya-Yoga metaphysics, paired with Prakṛti. “Son of Man” must never be rendered with पुरुषः or पुरुषपुत्रः, and मनुष्यपुत्रः must carry an explicit translator note at first occurrence: this is Daniel 7’s specific historical-eschatological figure who is given everlasting dominion by the Ancient of Days, not the cosmic Puruṣa whose dismemberment generates the world or grounds social hierarchy, and not Sāṃkhya’s inert witness-consciousness.
καταβάς (ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβαίνω)	katabas / katabainō	having descended (from heaven)	Movement from heaven to earth	descended, came down	The Son’s heavenly origin and movement to earth — the incarnational motion this verse and John 6 build on repeatedly	CRITICAL — new finding, not covered by the Romans baseline’s “incarnation” entry. The baseline forbids the noun अवतारः for incarnation, but John’s Gospel repeatedly uses the verb “descended from heaven” (esp. John 6:33,38,41,42,50,51,58 — “the bread that comes down from heaven,” “I have come down from heaven”), and the ordinary Sanskrit verb for “descend” built on the root √tṛ with ava- (avatarati, “he descends”) is the very verbal root from which अवतार is formed. Using अवतरति/अवतीर्णः for “descended from heaven” would smuggle the avatāra concept back in through the verb even while correctly avoiding the noun. Mandatory rule: never use अवतरण-family verbs (अवतरति, अवतीर्णः, अवतारः) for Christ’s coming from heaven anywhere in John. Recommended alternative: स्वर्गात् आगतः (“[he/it] has come from heaven,” from आ+गम्, a semantically neutral verb of arrival) or ऊर्ध्वलोकात् प्राप्तः. Every occurrence must carry the same Gītā 4.7-8 distinguishing note already mandated for देहधारणम्: this is a unique, permanent, once-for-all coming, not a periodic, repeatable, dharma-restoring descent with named prior and future instances.

John 3:14

Greek: καὶ καθὼς Μωϋσῆς ὕψωσεν τὸν ὄφιν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, οὕτως ὑψωθῆναι δεῖ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου,

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὄφις	ophis	serpent	The bronze serpent of Numbers 21:4-9, raised on a pole so that those bitten by venomous snakes could look and live	serpent, snake	A typological foreshadowing of Christ’s crucifixion — looking to the lifted-up one brings healing/life	Medium. Requires an explicit narrative gloss of the Numbers 21 background, since Sanskrit-literate readers lack the Old Testament context. Note of interest, not primarily a collision risk: serpents (nāga) carry markedly positive religious associations in classical Indian tradition (Śeṣa/Ananta upholding Viṣṇu, Vāsuki in the samudra-manthana, nāga-worship traditions) quite unlike the serpent’s usual negative valence in Genesis 3 — but here in Numbers/John 3 the serpent functions positively too (a healing-through-looking sign), so this is a case where the target culture’s positive serpent associations do not actually create doctrinal risk, though the specific Numbers narrative must still be supplied since it cannot be assumed as background knowledge.
ὑψωθῆναι (ὑψόω)	hypsōthēnai / hypsoō	to be lifted up, exalted	Double sense throughout John (explicit in 8:28, 12:32-34): physically lifted up on the cross AND exalted/glorified — the cross itself is, in John’s theology, the moment of glorification	lifted up, exalted, raised up	The crucifixion understood simultaneously as humiliation and glorification — a distinctively Johannine theological compression	High. No single Sanskrit verb naturally carries both “hoisted up physically” and “exalted in honor” the way ὑψόω does. Recommend ऊर्ध्वं स्थापयितव्यः / उत्थापनम् with a mandatory translator note explaining the deliberate double sense (crucifixion = exaltation), cross-referenced to John 12:32-34 where the crowd’s own confusion about this double meaning is narrated. Do not resolve the ambiguity by choosing only “raised on a cross” (losing the glory dimension) or only “exalted” (losing the passion dimension).

John 3:15

Greek: ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ἐν αὐτῷ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
πιστεύων (πιστεύω)	pisteuōn / pisteuō	believing / to believe	Trust, reliance, allegiance placed in a person	believing, believer, trusting	John’s central verb (used ~98 times in this Gospel — remarkably, John never once uses the noun πίστις that Romans relies on so heavily)	High, but already resolved by baseline. Use विश्वासः-root verbal forms (विश्वसिति, विश्वस्तवान्) consistently with the baseline noun विश्वासः, applying the same reasoning (avoid श्रद्धा’s guṇa-classified threefold psychology and भक्तिः’s soteriological-path status). Scholarly note for translators: because John uses only the verb, never the noun, Sanskrit translation must supply consistent verbal forms of √विश्वस् throughout rather than nominalizing awkwardly; this is a stylistic, not doctrinal, adjustment.
ζωὴν αἰώνιον	zōēn aiōnion	eternal life, life of the age (to come)	Life belonging to God’s own eternal order, received now and continuing forever — not merely unending duration but a quality of life in relationship with God (cf. John 17:3)	eternal life, everlasting life	John’s central soteriological category, functionally parallel to Paul’s “salvation” and “righteousness” combined, but framed relationally (“this is eternal life, that they know you,” 17:3) rather than forensically	CRITICAL. NEVER मोक्षः, मुक्तिः, or निर्वाणम् — the same forbidden list as the baseline’s “salvation” entry applies with full force, since ζωὴ αἰώνιος names substantially the same reality Paul calls σωτηρία (salvation). Additionally and specifically for John: NEVER अमृतत्वम् (“deathlessness/immortality”), the precise technical Upaniṣadic term for the state attained through Self-knowledge (cf. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 6.14-15, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.14, “he who knows this becomes immortal here”), since this is a Self-achieved cognitive-metaphysical attainment, not a relationally-given gift. Recommended rendering: अनन्तजीवनम् (ananta-jīvanam, “unending life”), an old-root but non-technical compound, always paired with the explicit gloss (esp. at John 3:15-16 and 17:3): a relational, gift-given, Christ-mediated life beginning now and continuing eternally through union with a personal God — not a Self-realized escape from the rebirth cycle, and not a cognitively-attained deathlessness of the ātman.

John 3:16

Greek: Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ’ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.

This is the thesis verse of the entire Gospel and must, per the Romans baseline’s cross-document consistency principle (applied there to Romans 1:16-17/8:28/10:9-10), be rendered identically every time it is quoted anywhere in this curriculum’s materials.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἠγάπησεν (ἀγαπάω)	ēgapēsen / agapaō	he loved	Deliberate, self-giving love, directed toward an object regardless of its worthiness	loved	God’s initiating, sacrificial love toward a fallen, undeserving world — the ground of the gospel itself	High. Recommended rendering: प्रेम (prema), the best-attested and most natural Sanskrit love-term, already implicit in earlier Christian Sanskrit usage. Required caution: प्रेम is also the fully theorized culminating category of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava bhakti theology (Caitanya tradition’s rati → bhāva → prema soteriological progression, elaborated at length in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta), where prema is the devotee’s ecstatic love achieved through progressive bhakti practice directed at a chosen personal deity (Kṛṣṇa). John 3:16’s love moves in the opposite direction — from God toward an unworthy, sinful world, prior to and apart from any devotional achievement on the world’s part. A translator note must state this explicitly: God’s प्रेम here is unilateral, initiating, and unmerited (paralleling अनुग्रहः, “grace,” in the Romans baseline), not the devotee’s cultivated, ascending bhakti-attainment.
τὸν κόσμον	ton kosmon	the world	The created universe; frequently in John, humanity in its fallen, God-opposing state, yet still the object of God’s love	the world, the whole world	The comprehensive object of God’s saving love and the arena of the incarnation	High/Critical. जगत् is the natural rendering (a common, totalizing term for “world/universe,” well suited to κόσμος’s comprehensive scope), but it is also the direct subject of Advaita Vedānta’s most famous single formula: “brahma satyam jagat mithyā” (“Brahman is real, the world is unreal/illusory”). Rendering “God so loved the world” with जगत् risks being heard, by an Advaita-trained reader, against the background assumption that jagat is itself an illusory, provisionally-real appearance rather than a genuinely existing object of real divine love and real, costly self-giving. Mandatory translator note: the जगत् of John 3:16 is the real, God-created, valuable (if fallen) world that God actually loves and for which the Son was actually, historically given — not the mithyā (illusory) phenomenal appearance superimposed on Brahman by ignorance (avidyā) in Advaita metaphysics.
τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ	ton huion ton monogenē	the only-begotten/unique Son	The one-of-a-kind Son, without peer or parallel	only begotten Son, only Son, one and only Son	Christ’s unique, non-generic Sonship — combines with son_of_god (baseline: परमेश्वरस्य पुत्रः)	CRITICAL. Builds directly on the baseline’s Critical “son_of_god” entry. Recommended: परमेश्वरस्य एकजातः पुत्रः (“the uniquely-born Son of God”) — do NOT use अद्वितीयः (“without a second”) for “only,” despite its apparent aptness, because अद्वितीयः is the precise adjective of Advaita’s own foundational formula for Brahman’s uniqueness — “ekam evādvitīyam” (“one only, without a second,” Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.2.1). Using it here would make Christ’s unique Sonship sound like a christological transposition of Brahman’s non-dual uniqueness, rather than the claim actually being made: that this Son, and no other, stands in an eternal Father-Son relationship with God. एकजातः (ekajātaḥ, “uniquely born/of one kind”) avoids this collision while preserving “one-of-a-kind” sense.
μὴ ἀπόληται	mē apolētai	might not perish	Destruction, ruin, loss	perish, be lost, be destroyed	The negative outcome faith in Christ averts	Low-Medium. विनश्येत् — plain, adequate.

John 3:17

Greek: οὐ γὰρ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν υἱὸν εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἵνα κρίνῃ τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλ’ ἵνα σωθῇ ὁ κόσμος δι’ αὐτοῦ.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἀπέστειλεν (ἀποστέλλω)	apesteilen / apostellō	he sent	Commissioned, dispatched with authority and purpose	sent	The Father’s sending of the Son — the root of John’s entire “sending” Christology (used ~27x of the Father sending the Son)	Medium. Reuse the प्रेष्-root already established in the baseline for apostle (प्रेषितः, “one sent”). Render as प्रेषितवान्. No new risk, but flag for consistency: John’s sending-theology (“as the Father sent me, I also send you,” 20:21) should use the same root throughout for thematic coherence.
κρίνῃ / σωθῇ	krinē / sōthē	might judge / might be saved	Condemnatory verdict vs. rescue	judge, condemn / save, rescue	The purpose-contrast at the heart of the incarnation: not condemnation but rescue	κρίνῃ: see Judgment entry below (John 3:19). σωθῇ: reuse baseline salvation (त्राणम्) verb-root त्रा-, e.g. त्रायेत. No new risk.

John 3:18

Greek: ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν οὐ κρίνεται· ὁ δὲ μὴ πιστεύων ἤδη κέκριται, ὅτι μὴ πεπίστευκεν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ. Reuses πιστεύω/विश्वासः-root, κρίνω/judgment vocabulary (below), and μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ (v.16 above). ὄνομα (“name,” नाम) — Low risk, plain; note theological weight of “believing in the name” as trusting the person and identity revealed, not a magical formula.

John 3:19

Greek: αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ἡ κρίσις ὅτι τὸ φῶς ἐλήλυθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον καὶ ἠγάπησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι μᾶλλον τὸ σκότος ἢ τὸ φῶς· ἦν γὰρ αὐτῶν πονηρὰ τὰ ἔργα.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
κρίσις	krisis	judgment, verdict, decision	The act or basis of a decisive judicial determination	judgment, condemnation, verdict	Here specifically: the basis of condemnation — that light came and people preferred darkness	High. न्यायः is already forbidden by the baseline (rejected for “righteousness” as the proper name of the entire Nyāya darśana). विचारः is available as a comparatively less school-bound word (it names deliberation/consideration/examination broadly, including judicial trial contexts, without being itself a school’s proper name) but carries its own weight as the central Vedāntic method-word (tattva-vicāra, “inquiry into reality,” the reflective stage of śravaṇa-manana-nididhyāsana). Recommended: विचारः, with mandatory note distinguishing God’s forensic verdict on human response to revealed light from the Vedāntic vicāra of guided self-inquiry into Brahman. Consistent with the baseline’s precedent of repurposing Mīmāṃsā/Nyāya method-vocabulary for “justification” (धर्मीति निर्णयः), this reuse is judged the least-encumbered available option, not a neutral one.
φῶς / σκότος	phōs / skotos	light / darkness	Moral-spiritual categories: revelation and truth vs. concealment, rejection, evil	light / darkness	The characteristic Johannine dualism: response to the light (Christ) as the ground of judgment	φῶς: Medium-High. Prefer प्रकाशः over ज्योतिः. ज्योतिः is avoidable because of its strong association with ज्योतिष (jyotiṣa), the Vedāṅga of astrology/astronomy, which would misdirect toward calendrical/omen associations. प्रकाशः still carries some Advaita weight (the self-luminosity, svayam-prakāśa, of ātman/Brahman) but is less specifically school-bound; use with a note that Christ as light is a distinct, personal, revealing presence, not the impersonal self-luminous ground of consciousness. σκότος: High. NEVER तमस्. तमस् is one of the three guṇas (सत्त्व-रजस्-तमस्) of Sāṃkhya cosmology — the same guṇa-theory already flagged in the baseline’s “faith” entry regarding Bhagavad Gītā 17’s threefold śraddhā. Using तमस् for moral/spiritual darkness would frame evil as a metaphysical constituent-quality of prakṛti rather than a personal, culpable rejection of revealed light. Recommended: अन्धकारः (plain darkness/absence of light), which lacks guṇa-theory baggage.
τὰ ἔργα (πονηρὰ ἔργα)	ta erga / ponēra erga	works, deeds (evil deeds)	Human moral action, evaluated by God	works, deeds, actions	Deeds as the observable fruit revealing whether one has come to the light or fled it	CRITICAL — new entry not addressed in the Romans baseline, and unavoidable in the same way धर्मः/धार्मिकता is unavoidable there. कर्मन् (कर्म) is the plain, ordinary Sanskrit word for “deed, action, work” — and simultaneously the organizing term of the entire karma-phala causal system (the impersonal law by which moral/ritual action automatically yields its own fruit across lifetimes), already flagged in the baseline’s “providence” entry as a rejected rendering of God’s personal governance. There is no fully unencumbered Sanskrit word for “deeds/works” any more than there is for “law” or “righteousness.” Recommended: कर्माणि remains necessary and unavoidable, but must carry the same mandatory-redefinition treatment the baseline gives धार्मिकता: at every load-bearing occurrence (esp. John 3:19-21; also relevant at John 5:29, 6:28-29, 9:3-4), an explicit note must state that these “works” are morally evaluated in relation to a personal God’s revealed light and the response of faith/unbelief in Christ — not units of merit/demerit automatically generating impersonal karmaphala across future rebirths.

John 3:20–21

Greek: πᾶς γὰρ ὁ φαῦλα πράσσων μισεῖ τὸ φῶς καὶ οὐκ ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸ φῶς, ἵνα μὴ ἐλεγχθῇ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ· ὁ δὲ ποιῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸ φῶς, ἵνα φανερωθῇ αὐτοῦ τὰ ἔργα ὅτι ἐν θεῷ ἐστιν εἰργασμένα.

Term	Transliteration	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὁ ποιῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν	ho poiōn tēn alētheian	”the one doing the truth”	A Hebraic idiom (cf. 1 John 1:6) meaning to live/act faithfully and honestly, not merely to hold correct propositions	he who does the truth, he who lives by the truth	Genuine faith expressed in a life that welcomes exposure to the light	CRITICAL (compounding two already-Critical terms). ἀλήθεια/Truth — see the dedicated Truth entry below (John 1:14, 14:6, 17:17). Rendering “doing the truth” risks sounding, in Sanskrit, like a claim about enacting or realizing Brahman-as-Truth (cf. Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1’s “satyaṁ jñānam anantaṁ brahma,” “Brahman is truth, knowledge, infinity” — the definitional Upaniṣadic identification of Truth with the Absolute itself). Must be explicitly glossed: living faithfully in light of God’s revealed truth in Christ, not attaining or manifesting identity with an impersonal metaphysical Absolute called Satya/Brahman.
ἐλεγχθῇ (ἐλέγχω)	elenchthē / elenchō	might be exposed, convicted, reproved	Exposure/reproof, often judicial	exposed, convicted, reproved	Anticipates the Spirit’s convicting work in John 16:8-11 (same root, ἐλέγχω)	Medium. निन्दा/प्रकटीकरणम् (exposure/reproof) — flag for cross-reference with John 16:8’s identical vocabulary of the Spirit convicting the world “concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
ἐν θεῷ ἐστιν εἰργασμένα	en theō estin eirgasmena	”have been worked/wrought in God”	Good works as God-enabled, not self-generated	wrought in God, done through/in God	Guards against any reading of “doing the truth” as self-achieved moral merit	High — directly reinforces the कर्म-caution above: good works, per this verse, are enabled “in God,” paralleling the grace/karmaphala contrast already mandated in the baseline for Romans 4 and 11:5-6. This verse should be cross-referenced wherever कर्माणि appears in John’s soteriological vocabulary.

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PART 2 — Chapter-by-Chapter Study of the Whole Book

Chapter 1 — Prologue, the Word, John the Baptist’s Testimony, First Disciples

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὁ λόγος	ho logos	the word, speech, discourse, reason	In Greek philosophy, the rational principle ordering the cosmos (Stoicism); in John, the eternal, personal, pre-existent Word who is God and becomes flesh	the Word	The pre-existent, divine, personal Logos — foundation of “the Deity and Pre-existence of Christ” doctrine named in this curriculum	CRITICAL — the single most important new term in this entire curriculum. Two live Sanskrit dangers must both be avoided: (1) शब्दः, the technical Mīmāṃsā/grammarian term for eternal, uncreated Vedic sound, foundational to the śabda-brahman doctrine (the Veda’s very sound-form held to be eternal); (2) वाच्/वाक् (Vāc), the Ṛgvedic hypostasized goddess-principle of Speech (already flagged as a rejected covenant-rendering in the Romans baseline for precisely this reason). Both would import a fully theorized rival doctrine of an eternal, impersonal (or differently-personified) cosmic sound/speech-principle prior to, and independent of, the specific claim John 1:1-3 makes: a personal divine Being, distinct-yet-one with God, through whom all things were made. Recommended: वचनम् (vacanam, “an utterance, a word/statement”), following the historic Serampore Sanskrit New Testament precedent — a comparatively untheorized, common noun built on the same √vac root but without śabda-brahman’s or Vāc’s specific doctrinal apparatus. Mandatory translator note at every occurrence in ch.1: this वचनम् is not the eternal, impersonal Vedic sound-principle of Mīmāṃsā, nor the goddess Vāc, but the personal, pre-existent Son of God, who was “with God” (distinct) and “was God” (co-equal) — John 1:1’s own two-part claim must be preserved intact, not resolved toward either pure identity or pure subordination.
πρὸς τὸν θεόν	pros ton theon	”with/toward God”	Face-to-face personal relation, distinction-in-relationship	with God	The Word’s distinct personhood alongside God the Father	High. सर्वेश्वरेण सह (baseline सर्वेश्वरः + instrumental “with”). Preserve the relational preposition; do not collapse into identity language.
θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος	theos ēn ho logos	”God was the Word” / “the Word was God”	Predicate nominative without the article on θεός — a grammatical nuance (qualitative, “was fully divine,” not “was a god” nor simply “was identical to the Father”)	the Word was God	Full, undiminished deity of the Word, while remaining distinct from “the God” (ὁ θεός) just named	CRITICAL. Must render with सर्वेश्वरः (baseline), not a bare देवः/ईश्वरः, preserving both distinction (the Word is not simply identical with, i.e. is not the same person as, “God” in the preceding clause) and full deity (the Word truly is God). This is the same delicate two-part claim as देहधारणम् must serve in v.14.
μονογενής	monogenēs	only-begotten, unique, one-of-a-kind	See John 3:16 entry above	only begotten, one and only	Christ’s unique divine Sonship, “full of grace and truth”	Critical — see John 3:16 entry. First appears here (1:14, 1:18).
χάρις καὶ ἀλήθεια	charis kai alētheia	grace and truth	Echoes the OT’s ḥesed weʾĕmet (steadfast love and faithfulness, e.g. Exodus 34:6)	grace and truth, full of grace and truth	Christ as the perfect embodiment/revelation of God’s covenant character	High. χάρις: reuse baseline grace = अनुग्रहः exactly. ἀλήθεια: see dedicated Truth entry. Together, this phrase should be rendered अनुग्रहेण सत्येन च पूर्णः, with a note connecting it to the OT ḥesed-weʾĕmet background (not obvious from the Sanskrit alone).
τέκνα θεοῦ	tekna theou	children of God	Not Paul’s legal υἱοθεσία (“adoption”) vocabulary, but a simpler kinship/birth term — those who “believed in his name” and were “born… of God” (1:12-13)	children of God	Believers’ new familial identity, grounded in new birth, not ethnic descent or human will	High. New term, related to but distinct from the baseline’s “adoption” (पुत्रत्वेन स्वीकरणम्). Recommend परमेश्वरस्य सन्तानाः (parameśvarasya santānāḥ, “children/offspring of God”) for John’s τέκνα-language specifically, reserving पुत्रत्वेन स्वीकरणम् for explicit legal-adoption contexts (which John’s Gospel itself does not use — this vocabulary belongs to Paul). Flag for consistency: do not interchange the two compounds; they render two different Greek words (τέκνον vs. υἱοθεσία) with different legal/relational nuances.
ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ	ho amnos tou theou	the Lamb of God	Sacrificial imagery drawing on Passover lamb (Exodus 12) and/or Isaiah 53’s suffering servant “led like a lamb to slaughter”	Lamb of God	Christ’s substitutionary, sacrificial death that removes sin — anchors “Christ’s Substitutionary Death” doctrine	High. Recommended: परमेश्वरस्य मेषशावकः. Note of caution: Vedic religion has its own extensively theorized animal-sacrifice tradition (paśu-yajña) as part of the śrauta ritual system; translators must guard against this phrase being heard as “a Vedic-style sacrificial victim offered to appease/nourish a deity” rather than the unique, once-for-all, substitutionary removal of sin’s guilt by a willing, divine victim. A note distinguishing the two sacrificial logics (repeatable ritual maintenance vs. a single, final, substitutionary atonement) is required at first occurrence (1:29).
ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου	ho huios tou anthrōpou	Son of Man	See John 3:13 entry	Son of Man	First occurrence in ch.1:51	Critical — see John 3:13 entry above; same caution against पुरुष-family renderings applies at every occurrence throughout the book.
Μεσσίας (transliterated Hebrew, unique to John)	Messias	Messiah	John alone among the four Gospels directly transliterates the Aramaic/Hebrew term (1:41, 4:25) rather than only using the Greek translation Χριστός	Messiah	Andrew’s and the Samaritan woman’s direct recognition-statement	Critical — reuse baseline messiah = मसीहः exactly; this is in fact the very verse-pair that most directly grounds transliteration as the correct strategy, since John’s own Greek text transliterates rather than translates.
Ῥαββί	Rabbi	teacher	See John 3:2 entry	Rabbi, Teacher	Disciples’ address to Jesus (1:38, 1:49)	High — see John 3:2 entry; avoid गुरुः, use आचार्यः or transliterate रब्बी.

Chapter 2 — Cana, Temple Cleansing

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὁ ναός	ho naos	temple (the sanctuary building itself)	The Jerusalem Temple; in 2:19-21 reapplied by Jesus to “the temple of his body”	temple	The literal Jerusalem Temple, and typologically Christ’s own body as the new locus of God’s presence	Medium. Here मन्दिरम् is the correct and necessary rendering, since this is literally a building — this differs from the baseline’s caution against मन्दिरम् for church (which is never a building). Translators must keep these two uses distinct: मन्दिरम् = the literal Jerusalem Temple / Christ’s body as its typological replacement; मण्डली (baseline) = the church as assembled people, never a building. Flag for cross-reference to prevent confusion between the two compounds’ distinct referents.
σημεῖον	sēmeion	sign	See John 3:2 entry	sign	The Cana miracle explicitly called Jesus’s “first sign” (2:11), establishing σημεῖον as John’s structuring category for the “Book of Signs” (chs. 1-12)	Low — reuse चिह्नम्.

Chapter 3 — Core Passage (treated fully above) plus remainder of chapter (vv.22-36)

Verses 22-36 (John the Baptist’s continuing testimony, “he must increase, I must decrease,” “the Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand,” “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him”) introduce:

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ	orgē tou theou	the wrath of God	God’s settled, righteous opposition to sin	wrath of God	The negative counterpart to eternal life for unbelief (3:36) — pairs with judgment/κρίσις vocabulary above	High. परमेश्वरस्य कोपः/क्रोधः — plain terms for anger exist and are adequate, but must be qualified as God’s righteous, personal, moral response to sin and unbelief, not an impersonal cosmic disequilibrium (cf. the baseline’s caution, under “providence,” against impersonal karmaphala/daiva readings) nor a transient emotional loss of equanimity such as classical texts sometimes attribute to devas.

Chapter 4 — The Samaritan Woman; Worship in Spirit and Truth

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὕδωρ ζῶν	hydōr zōn	living water	Flowing/fresh water; metaphorically the Spirit’s life-giving satisfaction (cf. 7:37-39)	living water	The Spirit-given satisfaction only Christ can supply, contrasted with wells that must be drawn from repeatedly	Medium. जीवनजलम् — a plain compound, adequately conveys sense; no major rival technical sense.
προσκυνέω	proskyneō	to worship, prostrate before	Reverent worship/homage, here specifically the proper worship of God “in spirit and truth,” contrasted with place-bound (Gerizim vs. Jerusalem) worship	worship	True worship is not tied to a sacred location but is a matter of the worshiper’s spirit and truthfulness before God	High. Do not use पूजा as the primary rendering. पूजा is the major technical term for Hindu ritual image-worship (mūrti-pūjā — invocation, bathing, adorning, and offering to a consecrated image, with the offered substance returned as prasāda), a specific ritual structure John 4:21-24 is arguably relativizing (worship no longer tied to a place, and by extension not tied to a specific ritual apparatus). Recommended: आराधना (ārādhanā, reverent worship/devotion), a comparatively less ritually-specific term.
ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ	en pneumati kai alētheia	”in spirit and truth”	Worship enabled by the (Holy) Spirit and grounded in (God’s revealed) truth, not confined to a shrine	in spirit and truth	The definitive statement on the nature of true worship in the New Covenant	CRITICAL — a double compound risk. This phrase simultaneously invokes the ātman-collision risk of πνεῦμα/आत्मा (per the baseline’s Holy Spirit rule) and the Brahman-as-Truth collision risk of ἀλήθεια/सत्यम् (see Truth entry below). Recommended: पवित्रे आत्मनि सत्ये च (in the Holy Spirit and in truth), explicitly including the पवित्र qualifier even though the Greek’s bare πνεύματι is ambiguous, since context (and John’s larger theology) requires the Holy Spirit’s enabling, not a general “spiritual disposition.” Mandatory dual note: this worship is Spirit-enabled devotion to a real, personal God’s revealed truth in Christ, not (a) meditative self-realization of ātman’s identity with Brahman, nor (b) worship grounded in impersonal metaphysical Truth/Satya as an object in itself.
ἡ σωτηρία ἐκ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐστίν	hē sōtēria ek tōn Ioudaiōn estin	”salvation is from the Jews”	The only occurrence of the noun σωτηρία in John’s Gospel	salvation is from the Jews	Affirms the Jewish, historical rootedness of God’s saving plan, fulfilled in the Jewish Messiah	Medium — reuse baseline salvation = त्राणम् exactly. Scholarly note: this is John’s sole use of the σωτηρία noun; the Gospel otherwise prefers ζωὴ αἰώνιος (eternal life) as its dominant soteriological term.

Chapter 5 — Bethesda Healing; Equality with the Father

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἴσος τῷ θεῷ (ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ θεῷ)	ison tō theō	”equal to God”	Full ontological equality of nature, not mere similarity or delegated status	equal with God, making himself equal to God	The Jewish leaders’ correct perception (though hostile in intent) that Jesus’s claim entails full deity	Critical. समः सर्वेश्वरेण / सर्वेश्वरतुल्यः — this directly serves the “Deity of Christ” and “Unity of Father and Son” doctrines. Must be rendered so as to preserve, not soften, the claim to full equality of nature — see also the दedicated “Unity of Father and Son” entry at John 10:30 below.
ἡ κρίσις (judgment given to the Son)	hē krisis	judgment	The Father has granted the Son authority to judge (5:22, 27), and “an hour is coming when… those who have done good [will rise] to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (5:28-29)	judgment	The Son’s delegated divine authority to judge all humanity — a sign of full deity, not a subordinate office	High — reuse विचारः (see John 3:19 entry) and पुनरुत्थानम् (baseline). Note: “resurrection of judgment” (ἀνάστασις κρίσεως) vs. “resurrection of life” (ἀνάστασις ζωῆς) is a distinctive Johannine double-resurrection structure — flag for careful, parallel rendering: पुनरुत्थानं जीवनार्थम् / पुनरुत्थानं विचारार्थम्.

Chapter 6 — Bread of Life Discourse

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς	egō eimi ho artos tēs zōēs	”I am the bread of life”	The first of the seven formal “I am + predicate” statements (see dedicated section below)	I am the bread of life	Christ as the sole, sufficient source of spiritual sustenance/eternal life, contrasted with manna	Critical — see “Seven I Am Statements” section below.
καταβαίνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (repeated 6x: vv.33,38,41,42,50,51,58)	katabainō ek tou ouranou	”come/descend from heaven”	See John 3:13 entry	come down from heaven	Repeated emphasis on Christ’s heavenly origin — the incarnation’s spatial/directional language	CRITICAL — same rule as John 3:13: never use अवतरण-family verbs; use स्वर्गात् आगतः consistently across all six occurrences in this chapter. This chapter is the single densest concentration of this risk in the whole Gospel and requires special reviewer attention.
φάγητε τὴν σάρκα… πίητε αὐτοῦ τὸ αἷμα	phagēte tēn sarka… piēte to haima	”eat [my] flesh… drink [his] blood”	Sacramental/symbolic participation in Christ’s atoning death (anticipating the Lord’s Supper), not literal cannibalism	eat my flesh, drink my blood	Union with Christ through participatory faith in his substitutionary death	High. शरीरं भक्षयेत्… रक्तं पिबेत् — must be explicitly flagged as symbolic-sacramental language, not to be assimilated to प्रसादः (already rejected in the Romans baseline for “grace,” on the ground that it names a concrete ritual food-offering-and-return exchange). This is participatory identification with Christ’s atoning death, received by faith, not a ritual transaction producing sanctified food. A note distinguishing this from prasāda’s specific offer-and-return structure is required at every occurrence (6:53-58).

Chapter 7 — Feast of Tabernacles; Rivers of Living Water

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ποταμοὶ ὕδατος ζῶντος	potamoi hydatos zōntos	rivers of living water	Spirit-given abundance flowing from the believer, explicitly glossed by the narrator as referring to the (not-yet-given) Holy Spirit (7:39)	rivers of living water	Anticipates Pentecost; the Spirit not yet given because Jesus “was not yet glorified”	Medium — reuse जीवनजलम् (ch.4) and पवित्र आत्मा (baseline, with mandatory personhood note). No new risk beyond those already flagged.

Chapter 8 — Light of the World; “Before Abraham Was, I Am”

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου	egō eimi to phōs tou kosmou	”I am the light of the world”	Second of the seven “I am” statements	I am the light of the world	Christ as the sole source of spiritual illumination, dispelling moral/spiritual darkness	Critical — see “Seven I Am Statements” section; combines light/darkness (ch.3) and jagat/कोsmos (ch.3) risks.
ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς	hē alētheia eleutherōsei hymas	”the truth will set you free”	Knowledge of/abiding in Christ’s word brings liberation from sin’s bondage	the truth will set you free	Freedom is relational — abiding in Christ’s word — not a metaphysical liberation achieved by insight alone	Critical (compounds two flagged terms: Truth and freedom). See Truth entry. ἐλευθερόω (to free/liberate) risks being heard alongside मोक्षः/मुक्तिः (“liberation,” the baseline’s forbidden salvation-terms) precisely because both concern “freedom from bondage.” Recommend a verb built on मुच्-/त्रा- roots (मोचयति, “sets free,” used verbally rather than as the noun मोक्ष) with an explicit note: this freedom is freedom from the power and guilt of sin, granted through continuing in Christ’s word (8:31-32), not mokṣa’s Self-realized liberation from the saṃsāra cycle.
πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί	prin Abraam genesthai egō eimi	”before Abraham came to be, I AM”	The absolute, unpredicated ἐγώ εἰμι, echoing the LXX’s ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν (Exodus 3:14, God’s self-revelation to Moses at the burning bush)	before Abraham was, I am	The most direct claim to eternal pre-existence and divine identity in the whole Gospel — the Jewish hearers’ response (picking up stones, 8:59) shows they understood it as a claim to deity	CRITICAL — see the dedicated “Seven I Am Statements / Absolute I Am” section below. This is the single sharpest textual collision with the mahāvākya “ahaṁ brahmāsmi” (“I am Brahman,” Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10) in the entire Gospel and demands the most extensive translator note in this curriculum.

Chapter 9 — Man Born Blind

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
τίς ἥμαρτεν, οὗτος ἢ οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ	tis hēmarten, houtos ē hoi goneis autou	”who sinned, this man or his parents?”	The disciples’ assumption that suffering (blindness) must be traced to a specific prior sin	who sinned…?	Jesus’s answer (“neither… but that the works of God might be displayed,” 9:3) explicitly rejects a strict act-consequence (sin-causes-suffering) reading	High — an important apologetic opportunity, not merely a risk. The disciples’ question and Jesus’s correction directly engage a question structurally similar to karma-phala reasoning (suffering as the automatic fruit of a prior moral fault, possibly in a former existence). Jesus’s answer relocates the meaning of suffering away from retributive cause-tracing and toward the display of God’s works/glory. This should be flagged as a passage requiring explicit theological commentary contrasting Jesus’s answer with a karma-based explanation of suffering, since the parallel is close enough that translators must not let पापम् (baseline “sin”) and its causal logic here be read as endorsing a karma-phala account before Jesus’s correcting statement is reached.
προσεκύνησεν αὐτῷ	prosekynēsen autō	”he worshiped him”	The healed man’s worship of Jesus (9:38)	he worshiped him	Recognition of Jesus’s divine identity, worthy of worship	High — reuse आराधना (see ch.4 entry); flag as a Critical-adjacent moment since worship offered to Jesus specifically (not merely reverence to a teacher) is itself an implicit deity-of-Christ claim.

Chapter 10 — The Good Shepherd; “I and the Father Are One”

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ θύρα	egō eimi hē thyra	”I am the door/gate”	Third “I am” statement	I am the door	Christ as the sole legitimate means of access to salvation and the fold	Critical — see “Seven I Am Statements” section. Sanskrit: द्वारम्, Low-Medium lexically, but the exclusivity claim (“I am THE door,” no other) must be preserved per the “I am” section’s general note.
ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός	egō eimi ho poimēn ho kalos	”I am the good shepherd”	Fourth “I am” statement	I am the good shepherd	Christ’s sacrificial, personal care for his sheep, “laying down his life for the sheep”	Critical — with a specific new collision risk. Shepherd/pastoral imagery for a deity is not neutral pastoral background in the Indian context: Kṛṣṇa as Govinda/Gopāla (“cowherd,” “protector of cows”) is one of the most iconic and textually elaborated divine identities in Vaiṣṇava devotional literature (Bhāgavata Purāṇa Book 10, Gīta Govinda), complete with its own extensive pastoral theology of intimate divine-devotee relationship in Vraja. Recommended: सत्पालकः or उत्तमः पालकः (“the good protector/keeper,” from √pāl, “to protect/tend,” a term broader than herding-specific vocabulary). Avoid गोपालः/गोपः specifically (the Kṛṣṇa-specific cowherd titles). A translator note distinguishing Christ’s shepherd-identity (rooted in Ezekiel 34 and Psalm 23’s covenantal shepherd-king imagery, and in his unique substitutionary self-sacrifice “for the sheep”) from Govinda/Gopāla’s distinct narrative and theological context is recommended at first occurrence.
ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν	egō kai ho patēr hen esmen	”I and the Father are one [thing/reality]“	ἕν is neuter (“one thing/reality”), not εἷς masculine (“one person”) — the Greek grammar itself distinguishes unity of nature/will from identity of person	I and the Father are one	Central proof-text for “Unity of the Father and the Son” — full unity of essence and purpose between two distinct persons	CRITICAL — requires its own extended treatment, and this is one of the most theologically delicate renderings in the whole curriculum. Recommended: अहं पिता च एकम् स्वः (using the neuter एकम्, deliberately matching the Greek’s neuter ἕν rather than masculine एकः, to signal unity of nature/being rather than a claim to be literally one identical person). The mandatory translator note must state: this affirms an unbreakable unity of divine will, purpose, and essence between two eternally distinct persons (the Father and the Son) — it does not assert numerical identity of person, and it must not be read through Advaita Vedānta’s “advaita” (non-duality) framework, in which ultimate unity dissolves apparent multiplicity into illusion (māyā) at the level of Brahman-as-such. The Trinity’s unity is relational and personal; Advaita’s unity is a metaphysical claim that plurality is not ultimately real. These are structurally different kinds of “oneness” and must not be conflated. This note should also be cross-referenced at John 17:11, 21-22, where the same “may they be one as we are one” language extends this unity-in-distinction to believers as well.
οὐδεὶς ἁρπάσει αὐτὰ ἐκ τῆς χειρός μου	oudeis harpasei auta ek tēs cheiros mou	”no one will snatch them out of my hand”	Assurance of the security of Christ’s sheep	no one can snatch them out of my hand	Perseverance/assurance of salvation, paired with the Father’s hand also (10:29)	High — reuse baseline assurance_of_salvation doctrine framing (त्राणस्य निश्चयः); no new lexical risk.

Chapter 11 — Lazarus Raised; “I Am the Resurrection and the Life”

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀνάστασις καὶ ἡ ζωή	egō eimi hē anastasis kai hē zōē	”I am the resurrection and the life”	Fifth “I am” statement	I am the resurrection and the life	Christ himself, not merely a future event, is the ground and agent of resurrection and life — anticipates his own resurrection	Critical — see “Seven I Am Statements” section. Combines baseline resurrection (पुनरुत्थानम्, never पुनर्जन्म) with eternal life (अनन्तजीवनम्). Both forbidden-term rules apply simultaneously here; this is a high-priority verse for reviewer attention.
Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ	sy ei ho Christos ho huios tou theou	”You are the Christ, the Son of God”	Martha’s confession	You are the Christ, the Son of God	A creedal, climactic confession, paralleling Peter’s confession in the Synoptics	Critical — reuse messiah (मसीहः) and son_of_god (परमेश्वरस्य पुत्रः) exactly per baseline. No new risk, but flag for consistency: this confession should be rendered identically to its parallel confession at John 20:31 (“that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”).

Chapter 12 — Triumphal Entry; Greeks Seek Jesus; the Ruler of This World

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου	ho archōn tou kosmou toutou	”the ruler of this world”	Satan’s limited, temporary usurped authority over the fallen world-system	the ruler of this world, the prince of this world	Christ’s death and exaltation judge and cast out this usurping ruler (12:31)	Medium. Recommended: अस्य जगतः अधिपतिः. Must be explicitly identified as Satan, a personal, defeated, and temporary usurper — not as an impersonal cosmic principle governing the world’s illusory or bound nature (avoid any conflation with Māyā as an operating principle, or with Prakṛti’s inherent tendency toward bondage in Sāṃkhya-Yoga, both of which are impersonal metaphysical categories rather than a personal, morally culpable, judged antagonist).
ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου	ho kokkos tou sitou	the grain of wheat	”Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (12:24)	grain of wheat	A parable of Christ’s death producing resurrection life and fruitfulness, and paradigmatic for discipleship (12:25-26)	Low-Medium — गोधूमबीजम्, a plain agricultural image requiring no special doctrinal caution.
δοξάσθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου	doxasthē ho huios tou anthrōpou	”the Son of Man [is/should be] glorified”	The “hour” of Christ’s glorification, identified with his death (12:23, 27-28)	glorified	Confirms that “lifted up” (ch.3 above) and “glorified” name the same event: the cross	High — reuse महिमा (baseline glory) and मनुष्यपुत्रः (see John 3:13); cross-reference the “lifted up” double-sense entry above.

Chapter 13 — Foot Washing; New Commandment; Betrayal Foretold

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἐντολὴν καινὴν	entolēn kainēn	a new commandment	”That you love one another, as I have loved you” (13:34)	new commandment	Mutual, Christlike, self-giving love as the distinguishing mark of discipleship	Medium. नूतना आज्ञा — plain; combine with प्रेम (see John 3:16 entry) and its bhakti-prema caution.
τὸ πάσχα	to pascha	Passover	The Jewish festival commemorating the Exodus; John frames Jesus’s death within Passover week, with Jesus himself as the true Passover lamb (cf. 19:36, “not one of his bones will be broken,” echoing the Passover lamb regulation, Exodus 12:46)	Passover	Establishes the typological frame for Christ’s substitutionary death	Low-Medium. Recommend transliteration फास्खा or the descriptive निस्तारपर्व (“festival of the passing-over/deliverance”), consistent with baseline transliteration practice for proper festival/covenant names (cf. दाविद्, इस्राएलः).
ἀπόστολος (only occurrence in John, generic sense)	apostolos	one sent	Used here (13:16) generically — “a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent [ἀπόστολος] greater than he who sent him” — NOT as the technical office-title “Apostle” that Paul and the baseline’s apostle entry describe	one who is sent, messenger	A general statement about sent messengers and their masters, not a claim about apostolic office	Medium. Reuse baseline प्रेषितः is acceptable here since the underlying sense (one commissioned/sent) is shared, but flag for reviewers: this is John’s only use of ἀπόστολος, and it is generic, not a reference to the office of “Apostle” as in Romans 1:1. Translators should not import the fuller apostolic-office connotations into this verse.

Chapter 14 — “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”; the Paraclete Introduced

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή	egō eimi hē hodos kai hē alētheia kai hē zōē	”I am the way, and the truth, and the life”	Sixth “I am” statement — a triple predicate	I am the way, the truth, and the life	Christ as the exclusive means, content, and goal of access to the Father (“no one comes to the Father except through me,” 14:6b)	CRITICAL — the densest single collision-point in the entire curriculum outside the “I am” formula itself. ὁδός (“way,” मार्गः): directly parallel to, and in exclusivist tension with, the classical Indian doctrine of multiple mārgas (jñāna-mārga, bhakti-mārga, karma-mārga — the three paths of Bhagavad Gītā chs. 9-12, already flagged in the baseline’s “faith” entry). Rendering “the Way” with मार्गः risks being heard as “one path among the three/many recognized mārgas” rather than John’s exclusive claim (“the way… no one comes… except through me”). ἀλήθεια (“truth,” सत्यम्): see dedicated Truth entry. ζωή (“life,” reuse अनन्तजीवनम्/जीवनम् per baseline pattern). This verse requires the single most extensive mandatory translator note in the whole document: मार्गः here must be explicitly qualified as the one and exclusive way (not one mārga among several equally valid ones), सत्यम् as the personal truth embodied in Christ (not the impersonal metaphysical Absolute of Vedānta), and जीवनम् as the relationally-given eternal life (not mokṣa or ātman-realization). All three terms are simultaneously Critical.
ὁ παράκλητος	ho paraklētos	one called alongside [to help]; advocate, counselor, comforter	A legal-forensic term (one summoned to give aid, e.g. in court) repurposed by John for the Holy Spirit’s role after Christ’s departure (14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7)	Counselor, Advocate, Comforter, Helper	The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father (and the Son) to continue Christ’s teaching and presence with believers	High (compounding the baseline’s Critical Holy Spirit risk). Recommended: सहायकः (“helper, one who assists/comes alongside”) as the primary rendering — plain, non-technical, and free of a specific rival philosophical-school meaning, comparable in spirit to the baseline’s choice of विश्वासः for “faith” as “the least philosophically-encumbered available option.” Every occurrence must still carry (or reference) the baseline’s mandatory Holy Spirit personhood note: this सहायकः/पवित्र आत्मा is a distinct, personal, divine Helper who teaches and testifies (14:26; 15:26), not an impersonal universal force, and must never be reduced to bare आत्मा.
μοναὶ πολλαί	monai pollai	”many dwelling places/rooms"	"In my Father’s house are many rooms” (14:2) — a place prepared for believers	many mansions, many rooms, many dwelling places	The Father’s house as the believers’ secure future dwelling with Christ	Low-Medium. निवासस्थानानि — plain, no significant doctrinal collision.

Chapter 15 — “I Am the True Vine”; Abiding; the Spirit of Truth

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή	egō eimi hē ampelos hē alēthinē	”I am the true vine”	Seventh and final “I am” statement	I am the true vine	Christ as the sole life-source for fruitful discipleship; believers as branches who must abide in him	Critical — see “Seven I Am Statements” section. द्राक्षालता (grapevine) — Low-Medium lexically; the exclusivity (“the TRUE vine,” ἀληθινή) again touches the Truth-family vocabulary.
μείνατε ἐν ἐμοί	meinate en emoi	”abide/remain in me”	Continuing, vital, dependent union with Christ	abide in me, remain in me	Union with Christ as the source of spiritual fruitfulness — reinforces “Christian Identity in Christ” (Romans doctrine, reused here)	High — reuse the baseline’s christian_identity_in_christ doctrine framing; no new lexical risk, though note the same caution against ātman-Brahman identity readings applies whenever “abiding/union” language risks sounding like metaphysical merger rather than personal, relational communion.
τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας	to pneuma tēs alētheias	the Spirit of truth	The Paraclete, further identified (15:26, 16:13)	the Spirit of truth	The Holy Spirit’s role in testifying to and guiding believers into truth	Critical — a double-flagged compound: πνεῦμα (Holy Spirit/ātman risk) + ἀλήθεια (Truth/Brahman risk) together in a single genitive phrase. Recommended: सत्यस्य पवित्र आत्मा, with both the Holy-Spirit-personhood note and the Truth-is-personal note applied simultaneously.
μείζονα ταύτης ἀγάπην οὐδεὶς ἔχει, ἵνα τις τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ θῇ ὑπὲρ τῶν φίλων αὐτοῦ	meizona tautēs agapēn oudeis echei…	“no one has greater love than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”	Sacrificial, substitutionary self-giving as the definition of greatest love	greater love has no one than this	Directly names the doctrinal significance of Christ’s substitutionary death	High. τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν (“lay down [one’s] life”): recommend जीवनत्यागः or verbally प्राणान् त्यजति, but with caution: प्राण (vital breath) is itself a major Upaniṣadic term sometimes directly identified with Brahman (e.g. Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad 3.2, “prāṇa is Brahman”). Where possible prefer जीवनम्-based phrasing (“gives up his life”) over प्राण-based phrasing to minimize this additional collision; where प्राण is used for idiomatic naturalness, add a brief note that this is ordinary “life/breath” language, not an invocation of prāṇa-vidyā’s Brahman-identification.

Chapter 16 — The Spirit’s Convicting Work; Sorrow Turned to Joy; “I Have Overcome the World”

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἐλέγξει τὸν κόσμον περὶ ἁμαρτίας καὶ περὶ δικαιοσύνης καὶ περὶ κρίσεως	elenxei ton kosmon peri hamartias kai peri dikaiosynēs kai peri kriseōs	”he will convict/expose the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment”	The Paraclete’s threefold convicting ministry — the only occurrence of δικαιοσύνη (“righteousness”) in the whole Gospel of John	he will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment	The Holy Spirit’s ministry of exposing the world’s true moral-spiritual condition in light of Christ	Critical (triple compound). Reuse baseline sin (पापम्), righteousness (धार्मिकता, with its baseline-mandated redefinition note), and judgment (विचारः, see John 3:19 entry) together with the Holy Spirit’s convicting activity (cf. John 3:20’s ἐλέγχω). Scholarly note: this is the only place John’s Gospel uses δικαιοσύνη at all — righteousness is overwhelmingly a Pauline/Romans category, not a Johannine one, so translators should not expect to need धार्मिकता elsewhere in John outside this verse and should apply the baseline’s Critical-risk redefinition rule specifically here.
ἐγὼ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον	egō nenikēka ton kosmon	”I have overcome/conquered the world”	Christ’s victory, already accomplished, over the hostile κόσμος-system	I have overcome the world	Assurance grounded in Christ’s finished victory, source of the disciples’ peace amid tribulation	High. जगत् जितवान् अहम् — reuse जगत् (with its ch.3 mithyā-caution) and a verb of conquest (जि-); note this is a real, historical victory over a real, opposing world-system, not detachment from an illusory appearance (again guarding against a mithyā-flavored misreading in which “overcoming the world” could be heard as merely transcending illusion rather than defeating a real, opposing spiritual-moral order).

Chapter 17 — The High Priestly Prayer

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
δόξασόν σου τὸν υἱόν… τῇ δόξῃ ᾗ εἶχον πρὸ τοῦ τὸν κόσμον εἶναι	doxason sou ton huion… tē doxē hē eichon pro tou ton kosmon einai	”glorify your Son… with the glory I had with you before the world existed”	Explicit claim to a shared divine glory pre-dating creation itself	glorify your Son… with the glory I had with you before the world was	The clearest single pre-existence/pre-temporal-glory statement in the Gospel — anchors “Deity and Pre-existence of Christ”	Critical. Reuse baseline महिमा (glory); the theological weight here is not in the lexical choice (महिमा is adequate and already established) but in the temporal claim (πρὸ τοῦ τὸν κόσμον εἶναι, “before the world existed”) — this must be rendered with unambiguous chronological priority (जगतः पूर्वम्, “before the world,” or जगदुत्पत्तेः पूर्वम्, “before the world’s origination”) so as not to be softened into a merely honorific or timeless-but-not-really-prior sense.
αὕτη δέ ἐστιν ἡ αἰώνιος ζωή, ἵνα γινώσκωσιν σὲ τὸν μόνον ἀληθινὸν θεὸν καὶ ὃν ἀπέστειλας Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν	hautē de estin hē aiōnios zōē, hina ginōskōsin se ton monon alēthinon theon…	“this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”	John’s own explicit definition of “eternal life” — relational knowledge of the Father and the Son	this is eternal life, that they know you…	The Gospel’s own definition of its central soteriological term, in relational rather than merely durational terms	CRITICAL — cross-reference this directly with the John 3:15 अनन्तजीवनम् entry. τὸν μόνον ἀληθινὸν θεόν (“the only true God”): reuse सर्वेश्वरः (baseline) plus an explicit uniqueness qualifier (एकमेव सत्यं सर्वेश्वरम्, “the one, true God alone”), guarding again against any “one god among many” reading per the baseline’s original सर्वेश्वरः rationale (de Nobili’s argument against देवः). γινώσκωσιν (“that they may know,” from γινώσκω): must be rendered as personal, relational knowing (जानीयुः/परिचिनुयुः — knowing a person), not जानीयुः in the sense of Advaita’s jñāna (liberating cognitive realization of ātman-Brahman identity, the jñāna-mārga’s technical goal). A note is required distinguishing relational knowledge-of-a-person from jñāna as Self-realizing metaphysical insight.
ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν καθὼς ἡμεῖς	hina ōsin hen kathōs hēmeis	”that they may be one, even as we are one”	Extends the Father-Son unity (John 10:30’s ἕν) to believers’ unity with one another and with God	that they may be one as we are one	Believers’ relational unity, patterned on (not identical to) the Father-Son unity	Critical — direct extension of the John 10:30 entry above. Same एकम् (neuter) rendering and the same mandatory anti-Advaita note apply: this is a unity of love, will, and mission among distinct persons (Father, Son, and many believers), never a claim that the believers’ multiplicity is unreal or that individual personal identity dissolves into a single undifferentiated reality.
ἁγίασον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ	hagiason autous en tē alētheia	”sanctify them in/by the truth”	The Spirit’s/Father’s ongoing sanctifying work, grounded in God’s revealed truth/word (17:17, “your word is truth”)	sanctify them in the truth	Reuses baseline sanctification (पवित्रीकरणम्) together with the Truth-family vocabulary	High — reuse पवित्रीकरणम् (baseline) + सत्यम् (Critical, see Truth entry); “your word [λόγος] is truth” (17:17b) intriguingly reuses λόγος (though in the lowercase, non-Christological sense of “message/word” here, not the capital-W Word of ch.1) — flag for translators to distinguish this ordinary use of λόγος/वचनम् from the Christological Λόγος of John 1:1, since both may be rendered वचनम् but only the latter carries the full weight of the Prologue’s doctrine.

Chapter 18 — Arrest and Trial; “My Kingdom Is Not of This World”

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
ἡ βασιλεία ἡ ἐμὴ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου	hē basileia hē emē ouk estin ek tou kosmou toutou	”my kingdom is not of this world”	Christ’s kingdom is not a political/territorial kingdom competing with Rome, though it is real and has a king	my kingdom is not of this world	Clarifies the nature of Christ’s kingship before Pilate — reuses kingdom_of_god (baseline) and κόσμος (ch.3 caution)	Medium — reuse परमेश्वरस्य राज्यम् framework; note this is Christ’s own kingdom-language, distinct from but related to the baseline’s kingdom_of_god entry — recommend मम राज्यम् with the same जगत्-caution applied to “of this world.”
εἰς τοῦτο γεγέννημαι καὶ εἰς τοῦτο ἐλήλυθα εἰς τὸν κόσμον, ἵνα μαρτυρήσω τῇ ἀληθείᾳ	eis touto gegennēmai… hina martyrēsō tē alētheia	”for this I was born and came into the world, to bear witness to the truth”	Christ’s stated purpose in coming — connects incarnation, testimony, and Truth vocabulary	to testify to the truth	Purpose-statement of the incarnation itself	Critical — reuses देहधारणम्-adjacent “born”/“came into the world” language (apply the same स्वर्गात् आगतः-family caution as ch.3/6, though here γεγέννημαι, “was born,” refers to Christ’s human birth specifically and may use ordinary जनि-root वocabulary, e.g. जातः, without triggering the अवतरण caution, since “born” ≠ “descended”), साक्ष्यम् (testimony, see John 3:11), and सत्यम् (Truth, Critical).
τί ἐστιν ἀλήθεια;	ti estin alētheia?	”What is truth?”	Pilate’s famous, likely cynical, rhetorical question	What is truth?	Dramatic irony: Truth himself (John 14:6) stands before Pilate as he asks the question	Critical — see Truth entry; no new lexical content but maximal dramatic/theological weight; flag for translator note preserving the irony.

Chapter 19 — Crucifixion

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
τετέλεσται	tetelestai	”it is finished / it has been accomplished/completed”	Perfect tense — a completed action with continuing results; a commercial/legal term for a debt fully paid or a task fully completed	it is finished, it is accomplished, it is completed	Christ’s final word from the cross, declaring his atoning, substitutionary work fully and finally accomplished	High. Recommended: समाप्तम् or, to better capture the sense of a task brought to completion/fulfillment (not merely “ended”), निष्पन्नम् (accomplished, brought to fruition) or साधितम्. Must be distinguished from any sense of a repeatable ritual action’s completion (as in the completion of a single yajña performance, which is itself repeatable on future occasions) — this is a note-worthy, once-for-all, unrepeatable completion of the atoning work itself, directly supporting “Christ’s Substitutionary Death” as a finished, non-repeatable act (paralleling the baseline’s insistence that देहधारणम् itself is unique and non-repeatable).
αἷμα καὶ ὕδωρ	haima kai hydōr	blood and water	Flowing from Christ’s pierced side (19:34)	blood and water	Confirms the reality of Christ’s physical death (against later docetic denial) and is theologically read (esp. in later tradition) as signifying cleansing/sacramental realities	Low-Medium — रक्तं जलं च, plain; the main doctrinal point (real, physical death — see “Humanity of Christ,” reused from the Romans baseline) is textual/narrative, not lexical.
ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων	ho basileus tōn Ioudaiōn	”the King of the Jews”	Pilate’s inscription (19:19-22), intended as mockery but, per John’s irony, a true title	King of the Jews	Ironic proclamation of Christ’s true kingship at the moment of his apparent defeat	Medium — यहूदीयानां राजा; no special collision, but preserve the narrative irony in translator notes.

Chapter 20 — Resurrection; “My Lord and My God!”

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
Ὁ κύριός μου καὶ ὁ θεός μου	ho kyrios mou kai ho theos mou	”My Lord and my God!”	Thomas’s climactic confession upon seeing the risen Christ	My Lord and my God!	The single most explicit, unambiguous confession of Christ’s full deity in the entire Gospel — the narrative and theological climax the Prologue’s claims (1:1, 1:18) have been building toward	CRITICAL — the doctrinal high point of the whole book. Must render with baseline terms exactly and in combination: मम प्रभुः मम च सर्वेश्वरः. Both κύριος/प्रभुः (never ईश्वरः, per the baseline’s Advaita-subordination caution) and θεός/सर्वेश्वरः (never देवः/ईश्वरः/ब्रह्मन्/भगवान्, per the baseline’s God entry) must appear exactly as fixed in translation memory, applied here to Jesus personally and directly by name, not evasively softened toward “a lord” or “a divine one.” This verse should be flagged for mandatory human theologian review under the escalation rule for any segment containing “Deity of Christ.”
ἔλαβον πνεῦμα ἅγιον (John’s account of receiving the Spirit, 20:22, “he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit”)	enephysēsen… labete pneuma hagion	”he breathed [into them]… receive [the] Holy Spirit”	The verb ἐμφυσάω echoes the LXX of Genesis 2:7, where God “breathed [ἐνεφύσησεν] into [Adam’s] nostrils the breath of life”	he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit	A deliberate re-creation motif: the risen Christ imparting the Spirit as a new-creation act, echoing the first creation	Critical. Reuse baseline पवित्र आत्मा exactly (with mandatory personhood note). The Genesis 2:7 echo (नि:श्वासं दत्तवान्/तस्मिन् आधमत्) should be flagged with a cross-reference note, since Sanskrit readers may separately associate the “breath of life” motif with प्राण (vital breath) theology in the Upaniṣads (see John 15’s प्राण-caution above) — the note should clarify this is a new-creation echo of Genesis, not an invocation of prāṇa-vidyā’s Brahman-identified vital breath.
ταῦτα δὲ γέγραπται ἵνα πιστεύ[σ]ητε ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ ἵνα πιστεύοντες ζωὴν ἔχητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ	tauta de gegraptai hina pisteusēte…	“these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name”	John’s own stated purpose for writing the entire Gospel	that you may believe… and have life in his name	The Gospel’s explicit thesis statement/purpose clause — functionally analogous to Romans 1:16-17 as this curriculum’s “thesis verse”	Critical — flag for the same mandatory cross-document identical-rendering rule the baseline applies to Romans 1:16-17/8:28/10:9-10. Reuses messiah (मसीहः), son_of_god (परमेश्वरस्य पुत्रः), faith/believe (विश्वासः-root), and eternal life family (जीवनम्/अनन्तजीवनम्) — no new lexical items, but this verse (20:31) and John 3:16 together should be treated as this curriculum’s twin thesis statements requiring identical, fixed renderings across every document.

Chapter 21 — Epilogue; Peter’s Restoration

Term	Greek/translit.	Literal meaning	Semantic range	English variants	Contextual theological meaning	Sanskrit rendering risk
Βόσκε τὰ ἀρνία μου / Ποίμαινε τὰ πρόβατά μου	boske ta arnia mou / poimaine ta probata mou	”Feed my lambs” / “Shepherd/tend my sheep”	Christ’s threefold commissioning of Peter, restoring him after his threefold denial	feed my lambs, tend my sheep	Pastoral ministry entrusted by the Good Shepherd himself to an under-shepherd	Medium — reuse the “shepherd” vocabulary established at John 10 (सत्पालकः/पालकः family) with the same Govinda/Gopāla caution noted there; this is Peter’s derivative, entrusted shepherding, not a claim to Christ’s own unique Good-Shepherd identity, and should be distinguished in translator notes accordingly.

Chapter 21 introduces no theologically new load-bearing vocabulary beyond the shepherd-family terms already established in Chapter 10; it reuses them in a derivative, non-Christological (Peter-directed) sense.

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PART 3 — Cross-Chapter Thematic Sections (Curriculum Doctrine Focus)

The Seven “I Am” Statements (ἐγώ εἰμι + predicate) and the Absolute “I Am”

#	Reference	Greek predicate	Sanskrit rendering	Risk
1	6:35, 6:48, 6:51	ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς (the bread of life)	अहम् जीवनस्य अन्नम् अस्मि	Critical
2	8:12, 9:5	τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου (the light of the world)	अहम् जगतः प्रकाशः अस्मि	Critical
3	10:7, 10:9	ἡ θύρα (the door)	अहम् द्वारम् अस्मि	Critical
4	10:11, 10:14	ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός (the good shepherd)	अहम् सत्पालकः अस्मि	Critical
5	11:25	ἡ ἀνάστασις καὶ ἡ ζωή (the resurrection and the life)	अहम् पुनरुत्थानम् जीवनं च अस्मि	Critical
6	14:6	ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή (the way, the truth, and the life)	अहम् मार्गः सत्यं जीवनं च अस्मि	Critical
7	15:1, 15:5	ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή (the true vine)	अहम् सत्या द्राक्षालता अस्मि	Critical
—	8:24, 8:28, 8:58, 13:19, 18:5-6,8	ἐγώ εἰμι (absolute, no predicate)	अहम् अस्मि	Critical — highest priority

Governing risk note (applies to every row above): The formula ἐγώ εἰμι, especially in its absolute (unpredicated) form, deliberately echoes the LXX’s rendering of God’s self-revelation to Moses, Exodus 3:14, ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν (“I AM WHO I AM” / “I AM THE ONE WHO IS”). Rendered into Sanskrit as अहम् अस्मि, this formula stands in direct, textually explicit tension with the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad’s mahāvākya “अहं ब्रह्मास्मि” (ahaṁ brahmāsmi, “I am Brahman,” Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10) — already identified in the Romans baseline (under the Holy Spirit entry) as the single highest-stakes doctrinal collision available in classical Sanskrit religious literature. The parallel here is unusually exact: both are first-person declarative self-identifications using the same grammatical form (अहम् + अस्मि). But the theological claims are opposite in kind: Bṛhadāraṇyaka’s mahāvākya asserts that any individual self (ātman), upon realizing its true nature, may truthfully say “I am Brahman” — a repeatable, universally available realization. John’s ἐγώ εἰμι is the opposite: a unique, unrepeatable divine self-identification made by one specific person (Jesus of Nazareth), directly continuous with YHWH’s own unique, unrepeatable self-naming to Moses, and is treated by John’s own narrative as such (the crowd’s violent reaction in 8:59 and 18:6, “they drew back and fell to the ground,” show it was heard as an exclusive, not a universally shareable, claim). Every occurrence of ἐγώ εἰμι, predicated or absolute, must carry or reference a translator note making this distinction explicit and must be escalated to mandatory human theologian review, per the same escalation logic the baseline already applies to Holy Spirit language.

The Term “Truth” (ἀλήθεια / सत्यम्) — A Cross-Cutting Critical Term

ἀλήθεια occurs far more densely in John (25x) than in Romans, and functions christologically (John 14:6, “I am… the truth”) and pneumatologically (“the Spirit of truth,” 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) in ways Romans’ usage does not. Because सत्यम् is the term used in Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1’s definitional formula for Brahman itself (“satyaṁ jñānam anantaṁ brahma,” “Brahman is truth, knowledge, infinity”), every Johannine occurrence of “truth” carries a live risk of being heard as a claim about the impersonal metaphysical Absolute rather than about a personal God’s self-disclosure in and as Christ. This risk is assessed Critical throughout John (elevated from the Medium/unlisted status truth-vocabulary holds in the Romans baseline, where it barely appears) and requires the same treatment given ātman-Brahman risk: an explicit personhood/particularity note wherever it is theologically load-bearing (esp. 1:14,17; 4:23-24; 8:32,44-46; 14:6,17; 15:26; 16:13; 17:17,19; 18:37-38).

”Descended from Heaven” / “Came Down” — A New Critical Term Family Not Covered by the Romans Baseline

The Romans baseline’s Critical incarnation entry (देहधारणम्) forbids only the noun अवतारः. John’s Gospel, however, is saturated with the verbal language of heavenly descent (καταβαίνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ: 3:13; 6:33,38,41,42,50,51,58) in a way Romans never requires translators to render. Because the ordinary Sanskrit verb of “descent” (अवतरति, from ava+√tṛ) is the direct verbal root of अवतार itself, this document establishes a new, equally strict rule for the John curriculum: never render “descended/came down from heaven” with any अवतरण-family form; use स्वर्गात् आगतः (or equivalent आ+गम्-root phrasing) throughout, with the Gītā 4.7-8 distinguishing note applied at every occurrence exactly as required for देहधारणम् itself.

Terms Confirmed Absent or Reused Without New Risk (Scholarly Notes)

For completeness and to demonstrate full-book coverage: John’s Gospel never uses ἐκκλησία (church), διαθήκη (covenant) as a noun, or the noun πίστις (faith) — using only the cognate verb πιστεύω throughout. It uses ἀπόστολος only once, generically (13:16). It uses δικαιοσύνη only once (16:8, in the Paraclete’s convicting work). It never cites David by name and never uses χάρισμα (“spiritual gift”). Where these Romans-baseline terms are needed elsewhere in this curriculum’s supporting materials (e.g., in introductions or cross-references), they should be reused exactly as fixed in translation_memory.json; no John-specific adjustment is required for them, since John’s own text supplies no occurrences that would test or extend those renderings.

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This document should be read together with analysis/08_core_glossary.md, which consolidates every term identified above (reused and new) into a single per-term risk table, and must be loaded alongside the Romans baseline package before any Phase 2 segment translation begins.