Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis: Luke (English → Sanskrit)
PRD Phase 1, Step 8 Curriculum: Luke 1–24 Core passage (theological anchor, not scope boundary): Luke 4:16-21 Governing doctrines: Jesus as Savior for All Nations and All People (Jew and Gentile, Rich and Poor); The Holy Spirit’s Work in Salvation History; Good News to the Poor and Marginalized; Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins; Prayer and Dependence on God; The Kingdom of God Present and Future; The Cost and Joy of Discipleship; Jesus’ Compassion and Table Fellowship with Sinners
This document extends the Romans baseline’s linguistic-gap methodology (baseline 06_linguistic_gap_analysis.md, referenced but not reproduced here) to the Luke curriculum. It presupposes and does not repeat the baseline’s general framing note: Sanskrit is a classical/liturgical language addressed to a scholarly, liturgical, and inter-religious dialogue audience already trained in the technical vocabulary of Vedānta, Mīmāṃsā, Nyāya, Yoga, and Purāṇic theology. Every gap identified below is therefore a gap between two theorized systems, not between a developed theology and a vague cultural background.
All term renderings below are drawn from, and must remain identical to, analysis/08_core_glossary.md and assets/bible_term_registry.json as already established for this curriculum. This document analyzes why those choices were necessary; it does not introduce new renderings.
Part 1 — Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each of the eight curriculum doctrines: the available Sanskrit term(s), their weaknesses, and the recommended mitigation strategy.
1.1 Jesus as Savior for All Nations and All People (Jew and Gentile, Rich and Poor)
| Available term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| त्राता (savior, agent noun on √trā) | Low weakness in isolation, but readers may supply a मोक्षदाता (“liberation-giver”) frame by analogy with guru/avatāra figures who “grant liberation” | Always pair त्राता with त्राणम् in the same passage/footnote so the rescue-by-another sense (not Self-realization) is reinforced |
| अन्यजातीयाः (Gentiles) | None significant; established and deliberately de-pejorized in baseline (rejecting म्लेच्छाः) | Reuse exactly; no new mitigation needed |
| दरिद्रः (poor) | Risk of being read through a karmaphala lens: poverty as the just, deserved fruit of past-life demerit (a live, systematized doctrine, not folk belief — cf. Manusmṛti and Gītā 2:47 discussions of karma-fruit) | Explicit footnote at every occurrence in Jubilee/Beatitude-cluster passages (4:18; 6:20; 14:13,21; 16:19-31) stating the gospel’s offer to the poor is unconditioned by, not validating, their present station |
| सामरितीयः, अन्यजातीयाः, करसंग्राहकः | Each names a specific marginalized/outsider group; no single Sanskrit word covers “people of every social station” generically | Retain specific terms per occurrence rather than forcing a generic universal noun; let the accumulation of specific named categories (Samaritan, Gentile, tax collector, poor) carry Luke’s universalizing argument, as it does in the Greek |
| युष्मन्मध्ये (“kingdom among you,” Lk 17:21) | See §1.6 | See §1.6 |
Risk tier: High. No Critical-tier forbidden substitution exists here, but the cumulative argument (that salvation extends without varṇa-like qualification) directly confronts Mīmāṃsā-linked premises about who possesses ritual/spiritual competence (adhikāra) — flagged already in the Romans baseline’s universal_scope_of_gospel doctrine and now sharpened by Luke’s explicit narrative examples (Samaritans, tax collectors, a penitent criminal).
1.2 The Holy Spirit’s Work in Salvation History
| Available term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| पवित्र आत्मा (Holy Spirit) | CRITICAL, per baseline: आत्मन् is the operative term of the Upaniṣadic mahāvākyas (tat tvam asi, ayam ātmā brahma, ahaṃ brahmāsmi). Luke’s density of Spirit-references (1:15,35,41,67; 2:25-27; 3:16,22; 4:1,14,18; 10:21; 11:13; 12:10,12; 24:49) is far higher than in Romans, multiplying the exposure surface for an Advaita-collapse reading | Mandatory personhood footnote at every occurrence, not merely first occurrence, given Luke’s density (this exceeds the baseline’s “first occurrence” minimum and should be treated as a Luke-specific escalation) |
| भूतः (demon/unclean spirit) | Deliberately non-आत्मा-rooted | Maintain the fence: never let दुष्टात्मा or any आत्मा-compound appear for hostile spirits, since this would normalize आत्मा as a bare “spirit” carrier-word elsewhere, weakening the Holy Spirit fence by association |
| प्राणान् (Christ’s own spirit at death, 23:46) | Must not be confused with पवित्र आत्मा or bare आत्मा | Reuse exactly; flag every occurrence (only one in Luke, but Critical) |
| अभिषिक्तः (anointed, 4:18) | Names the Spirit’s specific act of commissioning Jesus; risk is under-specifying this as ordinary royal/priestly abhiṣeka ritual rather than the unique Trinitarian act it names | Footnote distinguishing from repeatable rājyābhiṣeka rites |
Risk tier: Critical. This is the single highest-density doctrinal exposure in the entire Luke curriculum — higher than in Romans — because Luke structures the Spirit’s activity as a narrative throughline from conception (1:35) to Pentecost anticipation (24:49), multiplying occurrences where the ātman-Brahman collision could occur.
1.3 Good News to the Poor and Marginalized
| Available term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| दरिद्रः (poor) | See §1.1 | See §1.1 |
| धन्यः (blessed, 6:20-22) | Adjacent to भाग्यम्/दैवम् (fortune/fate), both already rejected in the Romans baseline’s election/providence entries | Footnote clarifying this is a divine performative pronouncement of favor, not an observation of good fortune |
| करसंग्राहकः (tax collector), पापी (sinner) | Plain descriptive compounds; risk is not lexical but social — Sanskrit readers trained in dharmaśāstra literature may map these onto the caṇḍāla/mleccha ritual-impurity category by cultural reflex even though the words themselves do not carry that weight | Explicit note at first occurrence per document distinguishing moral-relational stigma (which Jesus crosses) from ritual-caste impurity (a different category entirely) |
| नष्टः (the lost, 15:4-32; 19:10) | Low lexical risk; “lost” is a plain participial adjective | None needed beyond consistency |
| सुसमाचारः + दरिद्रः construction at 4:18/7:22 | The single most doctrinally loaded collocation in this doctrine cluster | Fixed-rendering requirement (see Part 4 below); must match verbatim across all curriculum documents |
Risk tier: High.
1.4 Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins
| Available term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| मनःपरिवर्तनम् (repentance) | Coined compound, not a live technical term in classical philosophy, which is precisely its virtue (avoids प्रायश्चित्तम्’s ritual-penance baggage) | No further mitigation needed beyond first-occurrence gloss |
| क्षमा (forgiveness) | Double duty as an ordinary ethical virtue-word (patience/forbearance, e.g. in the Bhagavad Gītā’s lists of sattvic qualities, 16:1-3) risks under-specifying God’s judicial pardon as a merely dispositional virtue exercised by the sinner rather than an act performed by God/Christ toward the sinner | Explicit grammatical/contextual marking (genitive/instrumental construction naming God or Christ as agent) at every occurrence; do not rely on क्षमा alone to convey directionality |
| बन्दिमोक्षः (release of captives, 4:18) | Built on the मोक्ष root — the single most doctrinally dangerous root in the entire Sanskrit theological lexicon per the Romans baseline’s forbidden-substitution list | MUST carry an explicit disambiguating note at every occurrence distinguishing “ordinary release from bondage” from “the fourth puruṣārtha”; this is the highest-risk root-level collision in this whole document (see Part 5, rank #1) |
| ऋणम् (sin as debt) | Vedic “three debts” (deva-ṛṇa, ṛṣi-ṛṇa, pitṛ-ṛṇa) framework is a real, textually cited doctrine (Taittirīya Saṃhitā, Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa) of debts discharged through ritual/progeny/study | Footnote at Luke 11:4 (Lord’s Prayer) distinguishing grace-based cancellation from ritual/generational discharge |
| पवित्रात्मनिन्दा (blasphemy against the Spirit, 12:10) | Compounds two Critical-tier risk zones (पवित्र आत्मा + a named unforgivable sin) | Mandatory human theologian review, every occurrence, no exception |
Risk tier: High, with one Critical sub-term (blasphemy against the Spirit) and one High-severity root-collision term (बन्दिमोक्षः) requiring escalated footnoting beyond the doctrine’s own baseline High tier.
1.5 Prayer and Dependence on God
| Available term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| प्रार्थना (prayer) | Comparatively untheorized as a technical term (an asset, per the same logic that favors विश्वासः over श्रद्धा) but risks being read through the lens of Vedic āhvāna/homa, where ritual efficacy depends on precise mantra performance | Footnote at first major prayer text (11:1-13, Lord’s Prayer) distinguishing relational petition to a personal Father from mechanically efficacious ritual invocation |
| अब्बा / पिता (Abba/Father) | NOTE: unlike Romans, Luke’s Gethsemane account (22:42) uses Πάτερ alone, not the Aramaic Abba (which appears only in Mark 14:36 and Romans 8:15) — confirmed absent from Luke per the glossary’s Section A note | Do NOT introduce अब्बा into Luke translations where the Greek text itself reads only πάτερ; maintain source-fidelity over cross-Gospel harmonization |
| मध्यस्थता (intercession) | None significant | Reuse exactly for 22:32; 23:34 |
Risk tier: Medium, per baseline’s own routing (native speaker/Sanskrit-scholar review), though the Lord’s Prayer passage (11:1-13) merits elevated attention given its liturgical centrality and its overlap with the ऋणम् (debt) sub-issue above.
1.6 The Kingdom of God Present and Future
| Available term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| परमेश्वरस्य राज्यम् (kingdom of God) | Pervasive (30+ occurrences); low lexical risk as a genitive-noun construction, but individual passages carry sharper risk (see below) | Standard reuse; escalate only flagged sub-passages |
| युष्मन्मध्ये (kingdom “within/among you,” 17:21) | CRITICAL: this is the single most theologically loaded translation decision point (not just term) in the whole doctrine, because the English “within you” is itself ambiguous, and Sanskrit’s own philosophical vocabulary happens to possess an extremely well-developed technical apparatus for exactly the individualist-immanence reading (ātman as already, always, latently present within, to be realized rather than received) | The corporate/relational rendering (युष्मन्मध्ये, “in your midst”) rather than an individual-interiority rendering (rejected: युष्मदन्तः) is mandatory; must carry a note explaining the rejected alternative and why, matching the Holy Spirit mahāvākya caution |
| नित्यजीवनम् (eternal life) | Adjacent to अमृतत्वम् (amṛtatva), the Upaniṣadic goal of Self-knowledge (Bṛhad. Up. 1.3.28) | Footnote at 10:25; 18:18,30; 20:34-36 |
| विमोचनम् (redemption) | Adjacent to मुक्तिः | Footnote per baseline forbidden-substitution logic |
| स्वर्गारोहणम् (ascension) | Adjacent to the Mahābhārata’s Svargārohaṇa Parva, a named epic narrative of merit-earned heavenly ascent | Footnote at 24:50-53 distinguishing grace/glorification from merit-earned apotheosis |
Risk tier: Medium overall per baseline routing, but with one embedded Critical decision point (17:21) that should be treated with Critical-tier review procedures regardless of the doctrine’s overall Medium classification.
1.7 The Cost and Joy of Discipleship
| Available term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| अनुयायी (disciple) | Deliberately avoids शिष्यः’s guru-paramparā baggage; residual weakness is that अनुयायी is a comparatively generic “follower” word that could describe a political or philosophical partisan as easily as a religious follower | Rely on context (proper name यीशुः, discourse content) rather than the word alone to carry the religious-commitment weight |
| स्नेहः (love/agape) | Deliberately avoids प्रेम (Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava prema-bhakti’s summit term); residual weakness is that स्नेहः’s ordinary register (affection, especially of family/friend bonds) may under-convey the volitional, cross-enemy-lines quality of ἀγάπη at 6:27,32,35 | Footnote at 6:27-36 specifically calling out love-of-enemies as exceeding स्नेहः’s ordinary affectionate range |
| हर्षः (joy) | Deliberately avoids आनन्दः (Brahman’s own essential nature in सच्चिदानन्द) | Footnote at first occurrence (1:14) sufficient; the term itself is otherwise low-risk once fenced |
| क्रूशः (cross) | Transliteration avoids शूल/triśūla collision; residual weakness is a total lack of native resonance, requiring more explanatory apparatus than a native term would | Accept the added explanatory burden as the necessary cost of avoiding the Śiva-triśūla collision |
| शैतानः (devil) | Transliteration avoids मार (Buddhist tempter) collision | Same reasoning as क्रूशः |
| उपवासः (fasting) | Adjacent to a live, systematically theorized vrata category generating independently accruing merit (puṇya) | Footnote at 5:33-35; 18:12 |
Risk tier: High, concentrated in the love/agape and cross/discipleship-cost material (9:23; 14:27).
1.8 Jesus’ Compassion and Table Fellowship with Sinners
| Available term(s) | Weakness | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| करुणा (compassion) | Adjacent to two distinct rival systems: Buddhist brahmavihāra karuṇā (impartial, insight/no-self-based) and Nāṭyaśāstra karuṇa-rasa (an aesthetic sentiment evoked in drama, not a moral-active disposition) | Footnote at 7:13; 15:20 distinguishing Jesus’s personal, embodied compassion for a specific sufferer from both the impartial-detached and the aesthetic-spectator senses |
| दया (mercy) | Lower risk; complementary to करुणा | Standard reuse |
| सहभोजनम् (table fellowship) | Direct, explicit collision with dharmaśāstra’s inter-dining/commensality restrictions across varṇa and jāti — one of the most socially load-bearing rules in the entire classical Hindu legal-ritual corpus | This is not a lexical gap but a doctrinal confrontation the text itself intends; must not be softened. Footnote should make the confrontation explicit rather than euphemizing it |
| पापी / पापिनी (sinner) | Risk of collapse into a caṇḍāla-like ritual-outcaste reading | See §1.3 |
Risk tier: High, and arguably the doctrine most likely to be culturally (rather than merely lexically) resisted by a classically-trained Sanskrit readership, since सहभोजनम् at 5:29-30; 7:36-50; 15:1-2; 19:5-7 asks the reader to affirm a social practice the reader’s own received tradition structurally forbids.
Part 2 — Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Missing Vocabulary (no existing Sanskrit term; coinage or compound required)
These concepts have no pre-existing lexical slot in classical Sanskrit and require either descriptive compounding or transliteration, because the underlying institution or event has no classical Indian counterpart:
| Concept | Why no native term exists | Strategy adopted |
|---|---|---|
| Sabbath (as covenant memorial rest, not a vow) | Classical India’s closest календar practice, ekādaśī, is a lunar fasting-vow (vrata) generating merit, not a creation-memorial rest day tied to a historical covenant | Transliteration: शब्बातदिनम् |
| Jubilee year (Lk 4:19) | No classical Indian institution parallels a periodic universal debt-cancellation/slave-release/land-return tied to divine favor | Descriptive compound built on the already-established अनुग्रहः: प्रभोः अनुग्रहवत्सरः |
| Synagogue (as lay assembly for scripture reading, non-image-centered) | Classical India’s religious-assembly institutions (mandira, maṭha) are either image-centered or guru-lineage-centered; no non-image, text-centered lay assembly-house category exists | Descriptive compound: सभागृहम् |
| Baptism (as one-time repentance-marking water rite, non-repeatable, non-merit-generating) | Closest analogues (dīkṣā, tīrtha-snāna) are either guru-lineage initiation or repeatable ritual purification believed effective through the act itself | Transliteration: बाप्तिस्मः |
| Tax collector as social pariah class defined by collaboration with a foreign occupying power | No exact classical social category combines economic function + political-collaboration stigma in this specific configuration | Plain descriptive compound (करसंग्राहकः) plus mandatory social-context footnote, since the word alone cannot carry the stigma |
| Mammon as personified rival-master wealth-power | धनम् (wealth) is a plain economic noun with no personification tradition in classical Sanskrit comparable to the Aramaic מָמוֹנָא’s quasi-deified status | Transliteration: मम्मोनः |
| Hades as neutral, intermediate holding-state (not a punishment-tier) | Classical Sanskrit’s afterlife vocabulary (naraka, pātāla) is exclusively organized around karmic desert and further transmigration; there is no neutral “waiting” category | Transliteration: हादेस् |
| Paradise as permanent, grace-given, non-merit-based blessed presence immediately after death | स्वर्ग is explicitly temporary and merit-exhaustible (Gītā 9:21) | Transliteration: पारदैसः |
Analysis note: every “missing vocabulary” item above was resolved by transliteration rather than coinage, because in each case the nearest available Sanskrit compound would import an incompatible structural feature (temporariness, merit-basis, ritual-mechanical efficacy, or karmic-tier logic) rather than merely lacking precision. This is a stronger justification for transliteration than mere absence of a word — see Part 3.
2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (too many existing terms, each carrying incompatible technical baggage)
These are concepts where Sanskrit’s problem is not scarcity but an oversupply of precisely theorized, textually-anchored rival terms, each of which would import a specific incompatible doctrine if chosen carelessly:
| English concept | Crowded neighborhood | Terms present and rejected | Term selected and fencing strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salvation / release / redemption | मोक्षः, मुक्तिः, निर्वाणम्, विमोचनम्-adjacent risk | मोक्षः/मुक्तिः (4th puruṣārtha, Self-realization via jñāna/bhakti/karma-mārga per every darśana); निर्वाणम् (Buddhist extinguishing of craving) | त्राणम् / त्राता / विमोचनम्, all built on √trā (“rescue by another”); बन्दिमोक्षः is the sole exception permitted to retain a मोक्ष-root, and only under mandatory disambiguating footnote (Luke 4:18) |
| Divine descent / bodily birth of the Son | अवतारः | Named, textually cited doctrine: Gītā 4:7-8, daśāvatāra list including the still-awaited Kalki | देहधारणम्, with mandatory Gītā 4:7-8 contrast note at every occurrence in chs. 1-2 |
| Spirit / self / soul-language of any kind | आत्मन् | Upaniṣadic mahāvākyas: tat tvam asi, ayam ātmā brahma, ahaṃ brahmāsmi | पवित्र आत्मा (fixed compound, mandatory personhood note); प्राणान् for Christ’s own human spirit (23:46); भूतः for hostile spirits (never आत्मा-rooted) |
| Love | प्रेम, भक्तिः, अनुरागः | प्रेम (Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava prema-bhakti’s summit soteriological category); भक्तिः (a named mārga per baseline’s faith entry) | स्नेहः, least philosophically encumbered, per the same principle already applied to विश्वासः |
| Joy / bliss | आनन्दः | Brahman’s own essential nature in सच्चिदानन्द (Taittirīya Up. 2.1, 3.6.1) | हर्षः |
| Kingdom’s mode of presence (“within/among you”) | अन्तः (individual interiority) vs. मध्ये (corporate midst) | अन्तः reading collides with ātman-immanence doctrine | युष्मन्मध्ये |
| Compassion | करुणा (itself crowded: Buddhist brahmavihāra sense; Nāṭyaśāstra rasa sense) | Both rejected as primary frames, though the word itself is retained | करुणा retained but fenced with a footnote naming and excluding both rival senses, since no less-crowded alternative exists that still carries adequate emotional register |
| Anointing / consecration | अभिषेकः | Repeatable royal/priestly consecration rite (rājyābhiṣeka) | अभिषिक्तः retained (there is no unencumbered alternative) but fenced as unique and unrepeatable |
| Virgin | कुमारी vs. कन्या | कुमारी doubles as the title of the living-goddess Kumārī Devī cult (Nepalese Newar tradition) | कुमारी retained (कन्या is less precise on virginity specifically) but fenced with an explicit “fully human, never a goddess-manifestation” note at every occurrence |
| Fasting | उपवासः | A major, independently merit-generating vrata category in both Hindu and Jain systematized ethics | उपवासः retained (no unencumbered alternative exists) but fenced against merit-accumulation reading |
| Wrath | कोपः vs. क्रोधः | क्रोधः is closer to a kleśa (moral defect to be transcended per Yoga/Vedānta/Buddhist ethics) than to righteous judicial anger | कोपः selected as the less philosophically loaded option |
| Ascension | स्वर्गारोहणम् | Named epic parallel: Mahābhārata’s Svargārohaṇa Parva (merit-earned heavenly ascent of the Pāṇḍavas) | स्वर्गारोहणम् retained (no unencumbered alternative exists for “ascent to heaven” as a compound) but fenced against the merit-earned-apotheosis reading |
Structural observation: Luke’s curriculum doubles the crowded-neighborhood problem relative to Romans in exactly two areas — Spirit-language (because of Luke’s narrative density of Holy Spirit references) and compassion/social-reversal language (because Luke, uniquely among the Gospels for this curriculum’s purposes, foregrounds poverty, table fellowship, and social outcasts as a structural theme, not an occasional topic).
Part 3 — Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
3.1 Governing principle (inherited from baseline, applied to Luke)
Transliterate when: (a) the concept names a specific historical institution/practice/place with no functional Sanskrit equivalent (proper nouns, rites, places), OR (b) every available native-Sanskrit candidate carries doctrinally incompatible technical baggage from a named, citable classical source, such that paraphrase would create a worse error than a semantically “empty” loanword.
Paraphrase/coin a descriptive compound when a plain, non-technical Sanskrit compound can be built from ordinary roots without invoking a rival school’s proprietary vocabulary.
3.2 Terms transliterated in the Luke curriculum
| Term | Sanskrit | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Jesus | यीशुः | Established Serampore NT precedent (baseline) |
| Christ | ख्रीष्टः | Established precedent; avoids assimilation to अवतार-sequence naming |
| Messiah | मसीहः | Baseline; avoids अवतारपुरुषः |
| David | दाविद् | Proper name |
| Israel | इस्राएलः | Proper name |
| Nazareth | नासरत् | Proper name; new to Luke (4:16) |
| Samaritan | सामरितीयः | Proper ethnonym |
| Abba (where it occurs — NOT in Luke; see §1.5) | अब्बा | Baseline convention; not applicable in Luke per source-text fidelity |
| Sabbath | शब्बातदिनम् | See Part 2.1 — no native term escapes the ekādaśī-vrata collision |
| Baptism | बाप्तिस्मः | See Part 2.1 — dīkṣā/snāna both import incompatible frameworks |
| Mammon | मम्मोनः | See Part 2.1 — preserves personification lost in धनम् |
| Devil/Satan | शैतानः | Avoids मार (Buddhist tempter) collision |
| Cross | क्रूशः | Avoids शूल/triśūla (Śiva’s weapon) collision |
| Hades | हादेस् | See Part 2.1 — नरक/पाताल both import karmic-tier logic |
| Paradise | पारदैसः | See Part 2.1 — स्वर्ग imports merit-exhaustibility (Gītā 9:21) |
| Amen, Hallelujah (where they occur) | आमीन्, हल्लेलूया | Baseline convention |
3.3 Terms rendered by descriptive compound/paraphrase (not transliterated)
| Term | Sanskrit | Rationale for paraphrase over transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| Gospel | सुसमाचारः | Long-established coined compound (Serampore, 1808); reuse required |
| Salvation / Savior | त्राणम् / त्राता | Native root (√trā) with no rival system’s proprietary claim on it, unlike मोक्ष-family roots |
| Incarnation | देहधारणम् | Deliberately native (“taking on a body”) precisely to avoid transliterating अवतार, which would import the very doctrine being fenced against |
| Repentance | मनःपरिवर्तनम् | Coined compound; deliberately avoids the live technical term प्रायश्चित्तम् |
| Justification | धर्मीति निर्णयः | Repurposed Mīमांसā/Nyāya argumentative-conclusion vocabulary; baseline requires exact reuse |
| Son of Man | मनुष्यपुत्रः | Transparent compound; no rival Sanskrit technical term occupies this space |
| Son of David | दाविदस्य पुत्रः | Transparent genitive construction |
| Kingdom of God | परमेश्वरस्य राज्यम् | Transparent genitive construction |
| Kingdom within/among you | युष्मन्मध्ये | Deliberate paraphrase choice between two possible Sanskrit constructions (अन्तः vs. मध्ये), not a transliteration question — see Part 2.2 |
| Release of captives | बन्दिमोक्षः | Retains a मोक्ष-root paraphrase (rather than transliterating a loanword) because “release from physical captivity” is a plain, non-technical sense the root can still carry when fenced |
| Table fellowship | सहभोजनम् | Transparent descriptive compound; the doctrinal weight is carried by the footnote, not by opacity |
| Ascension | स्वर्गारोहणम् | Existing Sanskrit compound (rather than a coinage or transliteration) because “ascent to heaven” is compositionally transparent even though it happens to collide with a named epic parallel — fenced rather than avoided |
3.4 Decision principle for borderline cases
Two terms deserved explicit deliberation and are recorded here for reviewer transparency:
- Anoint / अभिषिक्तः: considered for transliteration (e.g., a loanword) but rejected because अभिषेक’s root sense (consecration by pouring) is doctrinally correct as far as it goes — the problem is repeatability, not meaning — so fencing via footnote was judged sufficient without sacrificing the term’s real semantic accuracy.
- Virgin / कुमारी: considered for replacement with कन्या to sidestep the Kumārī Devī cult collision, but rejected because कन्या under-specifies virginity (it can simply mean “unmarried girl”) in a passage (1:27,34) where the virginal conception is precisely the point at issue; the more precise but more encumbered term was retained and fenced rather than the less precise but “safer” one substituted — consistent with the baseline’s instruction never to “resolve a genuine tension with classical philosophy by quietly picking a softer rendering.”
Part 4 — Full-Book Chapter Coverage Note
Every chapter of Luke has been reviewed for terminology and doctrine impact. Chapters not separately discussed above introduce no new terms beyond those already catalogued in 08_core_glossary.md and are noted here explicitly per the full-book coverage mandate:
| Chapter(s) | Coverage status |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Load-bearing: incarnation, virgin, Holy Spirit density, Most High, Benedictus/Magnificat reversal vocabulary (humility, mercy), Savior, covenant. Fully treated above. |
| 3 | Load-bearing: baptism, repentance, wrath, genealogy (seed of David/lineage vocabulary, reused from baseline). Treated above. |
| 4 | Core passage (4:16-21) plus temptation narrative (devil, cross-referenced authority). Fully treated above and in glossary. |
| 5 | Load-bearing: calling of sinners, table fellowship, fasting, forgiveness/authority (5:24). Treated above. |
| 6 | Load-bearing: Beatitudes (blessed, poor), love of enemies (agape), Sabbath controversy. Treated above. |
| 7 | Load-bearing: compassion (widow of Nain), faith (centurion), sinner/forgiveness (sinful woman), tax collectors, John the Baptist/prophet material. Treated above. |
| 8 | Reviewed — no new terms; reinforces faith, demon, word of God (sower parable) already catalogued. |
| 9 | Load-bearing: apostle sending, Son of Man predictions, transfiguration (glory), cross/discipleship cost, Chosen One (election). Treated above. |
| 10 | Load-bearing: mission (Seventy), neighbor (Good Samaritan), eternal life, Holy Spirit (10:21), prayer background. Treated above. |
| 11 | Load-bearing: Lord’s Prayer (prayer, debt-as-sin, Father), demon/Beelzebul controversy, hypocrisy (woes), blasphemy against the Spirit (12:10 chapter boundary noted; core term catalogued under ch. 12). Treated above. |
| 12 | Load-bearing: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, providence (sparrows), mammon-adjacent anxiety teaching, kingdom (12:32). Treated above. |
| 13 | Reviewed — no new terms; reinforces repentance, Sabbath-healing controversy, kingdom parables already catalogued. |
| 14 | Load-bearing: humility/reversal motif (14:11), cost of discipleship (cross-bearing, 14:27), poor/marginalized guest-list parable. Treated above. |
| 15 | Load-bearing: the lost, compassion (running father), joy, sinner. Treated above. |
| 16 | Load-bearing: mammon, poor (rich man and Lazarus), Hades. Treated above. |
| 17 | Load-bearing: kingdom within/among you (17:21) — Critical decision point. Also faith (17:19), Samaritan (17:16), thanksgiving. Treated above. |
| 18 | Load-bearing: justification (18:14, key anchor), humility, faith, Son of David (18:38-39), eternal life. Treated above. |
| 19 | Load-bearing: salvation (Zacchaeus, 19:9-10), the lost (19:10), peace/glory (triumphal entry), redemption-adjacent eschatology (19:11-27 parable). Reviewed; no new terms beyond those catalogued. |
| 20 | Load-bearing: resurrection debate (Sadducees), adoption (“sons of the resurrection,” 20:36), Son of David/Lord (Psalm 110 citation, 20:41-44), law, authority. Treated above. |
| 21 | Load-bearing: providence (21:18), glory (Son of Man’s return, 21:27), gentiles (21:24), redemption (21:28). Reviewed; no new terms beyond those catalogued. |
| 22 | Load-bearing: new covenant (Last Supper, 22:20), thanksgiving, intercession (22:32), temptation, Son of Man (22:69), cross-anticipation. Treated above. |
| 23 | Load-bearing: righteous/righteousness (centurion’s confession, 23:47), Hades/paradise (23:43), intercession (23:34), spirit of Christ at death (23:46), Sabbath (23:56). Treated above. |
| 24 | Load-bearing: resurrection (throughout), scripture/fulfilled/word-of-God (24:27,32,44-45), breaking of bread, flesh-and-bones (bodily resurrection safeguard), gentiles/great commission (24:47), ascension, worship of Christ, joy (24:52). Fully treated above. |
No chapter of Luke has been silently omitted; chapters 8, 13, 19, and 21 are explicitly noted as reviewed with no terminology beyond the already-catalogued glossary.
Part 5 — Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities for This Curriculum
Ranked by combined severity (doctrinal centrality × collision specificity × frequency of occurrence in Luke):
- पवित्र आत्मा / Holy Spirit personhood vs. ātman-Brahman identity (1:15,35,41,67; 2:25-27; 3:16,22; 4:1,14,18; 10:21; 11:13; 12:10,12; 24:49). Highest-frequency Critical term in the curriculum; the mahāvākya collision is textually explicit (three named Upaniṣadic proof-texts) and Luke’s narrative structure maximizes exposure.
- बन्दिमोक्षः / release of captives at the core passage (4:18), because it is the one place in the entire Luke curriculum where a मोक्ष-rooted term is deliberately retained rather than avoided, at the single most theologically load-bearing verse in the curriculum (the Nazareth manifesto). Any drift in footnoting discipline here risks reintroducing the forbidden salvation-family confusion at the curriculum’s own anchor text.
- देहधारणम् / incarnation vs. अवतार (Gītā 4:7-8) across chs. 1-2, given the sheer narrative volume of the birth material relative to Romans’ comparatively brief incarnation references.
- युष्मन्मध्ये / kingdom “within/among you” (17:21) — a single-verse but maximally sensitive translation decision, structurally identical in collision-shape to the Holy Spirit risk but occurring in ordinary kingdom-teaching material where reviewers might not expect Critical-tier scrutiny.
- धर्मीति निर्णयः / justification (18:14) — the Gospel’s single clearest justification-by-faith narrative; must match the Romans baseline’s identical compound exactly for cross-curriculum consistency, and the Pharisee/tax-collector contrast is easily flattened into a generic “humility is good” moral lesson that loses the forensic-declaration content.
- सहभोजनम् / table fellowship (5:29-30; 7:36-50; 15:1-2; 19:5-7) — the doctrine most likely to meet cultural resistance rather than mere lexical imprecision, since it asks the reader to affirm a practice their own received social-legal tradition (varṇa/jāti commensality rules) structurally forbids.
- दरिद्रः / poor read through karmaphala (4:18; 6:20; 7:22; 14:13,21; 16:19-31) — risk of the gospel’s address to the poor being heard as incidental rather than as a direct challenge to a deserved-suffering framework.
- कुमारी / virgin and the Kumārī Devī cult collision (1:27,34) — a proper-noun-adjacent collision unique to South Asian Christian Sanskrit usage, with no equivalent risk in the Romans baseline.
- पारदैसः / paradise vs. स्वर्ग’s merit-exhaustibility (Gītā 9:21) (23:43) — a single verse but doctrinally load-bearing (grace to a man with zero merit, at the moment of death, spoken by the dying Christ himself).
- हादेस् / Hades vs. नरक’s karmic-tier logic (10:15; 16:23) — compounds with #9 in the same discourse unit (ch. 16’s Rich Man and Lazarus).
- पवित्रात्मनिन्दा / blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (12:10) — compounds two Critical risk-zones (Spirit personhood + an unforgivable-sin doctrine with no classical analogue).
- मनुष्यपुत्रः / Son of Man under-translation risk (dense throughout, e.g. 5:24; 9:22,26,44,58; 12:8,40; 18:8,31; 19:10; 21:27,36; 22:22,48,69; 24:7) — risk is not a rival-doctrine collision but semantic flattening toward “merely a human being,” losing the Daniel 7:13-14 authority-to-judge component; ranked here for its sheer frequency multiplying the cumulative risk of under-teaching it even once.
- स्नेहः / love vs. प्रेम (Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava prema-bhakti) (6:27,32,35; 7:47) — especially acute at 6:27-36’s love-of-enemies teaching, where स्नेहः’s ordinary affectionate register may under-convey the volitional demand.
- करुणा / compassion vs. Buddhist brahmavihāra and Nāṭyaśāstra rasa senses (7:13; 15:20) — a genuine crowded-neighborhood problem with no unencumbered native alternative, requiring sustained footnote discipline rather than a one-time fix.
- स्वर्गारोहणम् / ascension vs. the Mahābhārata’s Svargārohaṇa Parva (24:50-53) — lower frequency (single pericope) but occurs at the Gospel’s climactic closing scene, where doctrinal precision is especially visible to a scholarly readership likely to recognize the epic parallel immediately.
Part 6 — Summary for Phase 2 Handoff
- Total new terms introduced by this curriculum beyond the Romans baseline: 50 (see
08_core_glossary.md, Section B). - Terms requiring mandatory human theologian review at every occurrence (Critical tier, per
bible_term_registry.json): गॉस्पेल-family core terms carried from baseline, plus new Luke-specific Critical terms — मनुष्यपुत्रः, दाविदस्य पुत्रः, कुमारी, हादेस्, पारदैसः, पवित्रात्मनिन्दा, युष्मन्मध्ये, प्राणान्, त्राता, फुल्फिल्ड (पूर्णा जाता / सिद्धा, 4:21). - Highest-density Critical-tier exposure surface: Holy Spirit language (§1.2, rank #1 above) — exceeds Romans’ already-Critical baseline treatment in sheer frequency and therefore warrants the Luke-specific escalation noted in §1.2 (footnote at every occurrence, not merely first occurrence per document).
- No forbidden-substitution term (मोक्षः, मुक्तिः, निर्वाणम्, पुनर्जन्म, अवतारः, bare ईश्वरः/ब्रह्मन्/भगवान्/देवः, शक्तिः) is introduced anywhere in this curriculum’s new vocabulary; the one मोक्ष-root retained (बन्दिमोक्षः) is a deliberate, fenced exception at a single verse (4:18), not a substitution for a forbidden term.
- This document should be loaded alongside
08_core_glossary.md,assets/bible_term_registry.json, andassets/doctrine_risk_registry.json(Luke extension) before Phase 2 segment translation begins.