Linguistic Gap Analysis
Linguistic Gap Analysis — Acts (Full Book)
Purpose
This document executes Phase 1 Step 8 of the TRI pipeline for the Acts curriculum: a systematic gap analysis of Somali theological vocabulary against the nine doctrine areas assigned to this curriculum (Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Gospel to Jews and Gentiles; Repentance and Baptism; Church as Community; Apostolic Authority and Miracles; Persecution and Bold Witness; Conversion of Paul; Justification apart from the Law; Great Commission Fulfilled). It builds directly on 07_semantic_analysis.md and 08_core_glossary.md, and it does not reopen any term already fixed in the baseline translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json — those are load-bearing and non-negotiable. Its purpose is to name, precisely and with evidence, where Somali vocabulary is missing (no ready term exists) versus where Somali vocabulary is crowded (a ready term exists but is already claimed by a competing Islamic, Sufi, or clan-cultural framework) and to make explicit transliteration-versus-paraphrase decisions and a ranked risk list for Phase 2 routing.
The core passage, Acts 2:1-41 (Pentecost), is the theological anchor of this analysis but not its scope boundary; all 28 chapters are reviewed below.
Section 1: Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix
For each doctrine: the Somali terms currently available (reused from baseline or newly proposed in 08_core_glossary.md), the specific weaknesses/gaps in those terms, and the recommended translation strategy.
1.1 The Holy Spirit and Pentecost
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Ruuxa Quduuska ah (REUSED, Critical) | Shares surface form with Islamic “Ruh al-Qudus,” commonly glossed in Islamic commentary as the archangel Jibriil — already flagged Critical in baseline | Retain exactly; reinforce personal-divine-Person teaching at every first occurrence per lesson, as baseline requires |
| Bentekoste (NEW, Medium) | No festival-calendar equivalent in Somali religious life; the word itself is opaque without explanation | Transliterate + mandatory explanatory gloss on first use per lesson (Jewish harvest feast, now marking the Spirit’s outpouring) |
| way ka buuxsameen Ruuxa Quduuska ah (“filled with the Spirit,” NEW, High) | Somali/Horn-of-Africa folk religion has an entrenched involuntary spirit-possession category (saar/qorriin, jinn), often requiring exorcistic ritual and construed negatively | Explicit teaching frame required at every first occurrence: God’s own Spirit indwelling and empowering the believer’s own will and speech — voluntary, not involuntary possession to be placated |
| afaf kale (“other tongues,” NEW, Medium) | Risk of being heard as ecstatic/trance speech, reinforcing the possession-risk above rather than being read as real, known, unlearned human language | Anchor every occurrence to Acts 2:6, 8, 11 (“each in his own language”); avoid any phrasing suggesting unintelligible utterance |
| Hadiyadda Ruuxa Quduuska ah (“gift of the Holy Spirit,” NEW, High) | Risk of collapsing into Hadiyado Ruuxa ah (plural spiritual gifts, Medium, reused from Romans) | Keep singular/definite form strictly distinct; teach as the Spirit’s own person given once, not one enablement among several |
Gap assessment: Vocabulary exists but is entirely borrowed/compound; no false-friend Islamic term directly competes for “Pentecost” itself (a genuine missing-vocabulary case), while “filled with the Spirit” sits inside an actively crowded neighborhood (folk possession).
1.2 The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Quruumaha (REUSED, Medium) | Ethnically neutral, but Acts intensifies the doctrine into concrete narrative test-cases (food, table fellowship, circumcision) beyond Romans’ more abstract treatment | Retain; supplement teaching notes with Acts-specific narrative anchors (10:1-11:18; 15:1-29) |
| wasakh / aan daahirin (“common/unclean,” NEW, Critical) | Somali readers, coming from an active xalaal/xaraan dietary framework, may map this onto an ongoing food-law debate and miss the food-to-person extension | Must explicitly render the metaphorical extension (10:28) as applying to people, not merely diet; never use xalaal/xaraan vocabulary |
| Ilaah ma kala eexdo (“God shows no partiality,” NEW, High) | None lexically; risk is entirely at the application level (qabiil/clan hierarchy) | Cross-reference explicitly with baseline’s unity_of_jews_and_gentiles doctrine |
| kuwa Ilaah ka cabsada / kuwii diinta Yuhuudda soo galay (God-fearer / proselyte, NEW, Medium) | No Somali cultural equivalent categories; Islam lacks an intermediate “attached but not fully converted” status | Provide explanatory gloss distinguishing the two categories on first use |
| Badbaado kuma jirto qof kale, magaca Ciise Masiixa mooyaane (“salvation in no other name,” NEW, Critical) | Absolute exclusivity claim vulnerable to softening toward pluralism in a religiously plural rendering culture | Never qualify; mandatory theologian review |
Gap assessment: This doctrine is the most narratively concentrated in Acts (chs. 10-11, 15) and carries the single highest concentration of crowded-neighborhood risk in the entire book (xalaal/xaraan collision) alongside one missing-vocabulary case (proselyte/God-fearer).
1.3 Repentance and Baptism
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Toobadkeenid (NEW, High) | Shares the Arabic-loan root with Islamic tawba, which operates within a deeds-earn-forgiveness framework assessed at Judgment Day | Teach explicitly as Spirit-enabled turning that receives, not earns, forgiveness through Christ’s finished work |
| soo noqosho (“turning back,” NEW, High) | Risk of being reduced to a one-time formulaic utterance if used alone | Always pair with Toobadkeenid; frame as ongoing reorientation |
| Baabtiis (NEW, High) | Lexically clean (distinct from wadaraysi/ghusl ablution) — a genuine linguistic advantage over some other target languages | Still must teach the doctrinal content (union with Christ’s death/resurrection, reception of the Spirit) so it is not flattened to generic ritual washing or treated as meritorious apart from faith |
| cafiga dembiyada (“forgiveness of sins,” NEW, High) | Risk of being heard as the entirety of salvation, eclipsing the fuller forensic doctrine already fixed as Xaq lagu caddeeyay in the baseline | Present as one distinct benefit within, not a substitute for, the full doctrine of justification |
Gap assessment: No missing vocabulary here — every needed term exists — but this doctrine sits inside the most heavily crowded semantic neighborhood in the whole curriculum (toobad/tawba), because the lexical overlap with Islamic vocabulary is near-total while the underlying soteriological mechanism differs sharply.
1.4 The Church as Community
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Kiniisadda (REUSED, Medium) | None new; already established distinct from masjid | Retain |
| hantida wadaagga (“community of goods,” NEW, Medium) | Genuine positive resonance with Somali qaraan (clan mutual-aid) custom — an asset, not primarily a risk | Teach as voluntary Spirit-motivated generosity across clan lines, not enforced collectivism or a redirection of existing clan obligations |
| kibis-jajabinta (“breaking of bread,” NEW, Low/Medium) | Dual register (ordinary meal vs. commemorative) risks flattening to one sense only | Preserve both senses per context |
| Waayeel (“elder,” NEW, High) | Deeply established Somali clan-elder (waayeel/oday) institution carries its own qualification criteria (age, lineage, negotiated representation) | Explicitly distinguish spiritual qualification (sound teaching, godly character) from clan-elder qualification, while retaining the positive “trusted leader” resonance |
| Ilaaliye (“overseer,” NEW, Medium); Adeeg/Adeegayaal (“deacon,” NEW, Medium) | Adeeg risks conflation with the ubiquitous Somali NGO/humanitarian-aid-worker vocabulary | Frame explicitly as a recognized Spirit-qualified church office, not secular relief work |
Gap assessment: Mostly a crowded-neighborhood problem (elder/clan-elder; community of goods/qaraan; deacon/NGO-worker) rather than missing vocabulary — Somali’s rich communal-institution vocabulary is an asset here, provided every borrowed frame is explicitly fenced from its native referent.
1.5 Apostolic Authority and Miracles
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Diray (REUSED, Medium/High) | Already fenced from Rasuul in the baseline | Retain |
| Calaamooyin iyo Yaabab (“signs and wonders,” NEW, High) | Must avoid mucjiso (Qur’anic prophet-proof miracle) and karaamad (Sufi saint miracle, already rejected in baseline) | Teach as Spirit-empowered confirmation of the corporate apostolic gospel message, not individual spiritual rank |
| Shuqullada Awoodda (“mighty works,” NEW, Medium) | Adjacent to sixir (sorcery) in narrative contrast passages | Reinforce the works-of-power-vs-sorcery contrast the text itself makes (Acts 8, 13, 19) |
| Gacmo-saarid (“laying on of hands,” NEW, High) | Adjacent to barako (already-rejected Sufi blessing-transmission concept) and folk-healing touch | Teach as a sign of commissioning under the Spirit’s sovereign action, not mechanical potency transfer located in a holy person’s hands or lineage |
| Sixir (“sorcery,” NEW, High) | Genuine moral agreement with Islamic condemnation of sorcery, which is an asset | Use the narrative’s own correction of Simon (Acts 8) to reinforce grace-cannot-be-bought, already established in baseline |
Gap assessment: No missing vocabulary; this is entirely a fencing problem against three distinct crowded categories (mucjiso, karaamad, barako/sixir) that must each be kept separate from genuine apostolic signs.
1.6 Persecution and Bold Witness
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Markhaati (“witness,” NEW, High) | Genuine advantage: avoids shahaado (Islamic creedal confession) entirely, using a neutral legal/eyewitness term | Retain consistently across all occurrences; do not vary vocabulary for stylistic reasons |
| kii dhintay isagoo aaminsan markhaatinimadiisa (“martyrdom,” NEW, Critical) | shahiid carries specific jihad/armed-struggle and guaranteed-reward associations entirely foreign to Luke’s account | Never use the single-noun shahiid; retain the descriptive phrase; mandatory theologian review |
| Dhiirranaan (“boldness,” NEW, Medium) | Concept itself is culturally admired (Somali oral/poetic tradition); risk is at the application layer (proclaiming Christ’s exclusive name) | Flag application content, not the term itself, for safety review |
| Dhagxin (“stoning,” NEW, Critical/High) | Stoning (rajm) remains a live punishment category invoked by some armed extremist authorities in parts of present-day Somalia | Mandatory theologian review for both accuracy and pastoral/physical-safety framing |
Gap assessment: The single greatest missing-vocabulary success in this curriculum is Markhaati (a genuine non-collision term); the single greatest fencing failure risk is martyrdom/shahiid, which must never be conflated.
1.7 Conversion of Paul
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| qalab loo doortay (“chosen instrument,” NEW, High) | None lexically; reuses Doorashada Ilaah (already fenced from qaddar/nasiib in baseline) | Retain; anchor to the existing election doctrine |
| Aqoonta Hore ee Ilaah / Qorsheaha Go’an ee Ilaah (“foreknowledge”/“determined plan,” NEW, High) | Both at risk of collapsing into qaddar-style fatalism that would erase human moral responsibility | Teach as personal, purposive, Father-hearted (paralleling Rom 8:28’s Daryeelka Ilaah), holding divine sovereignty and Paul’s/the Sanhedrin’s real culpability together |
| Shaydaan (“Satan,” NEW, Medium/High) | Shared recognition with Islamic Shaydaan/Iblis is a genuine bridge, but Islamic narrative material about him does not align with the NT’s cosmic-conflict resolution (a defeated enemy) | Draw on shared recognition; present the specifically Christian resolution rather than assuming full narrative equivalence |
Gap assessment: No missing vocabulary; risk is concentrated in fatalism-avoidance, an already-established baseline caution extended to new terms.
1.8 Justification apart from the Law
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Xaqnimo / Xaq lagu caddeeyay (REUSED, Critical) | Already fenced from camal wanaagsan in baseline; Acts 13:38-39 is a direct preview of the Romans argument | Retain exactly |
| Qaanuunka Muuse (REUSED, High) | Already fenced from Sharciga | Central to the Acts 15 Jerusalem Council narrative; retain |
| Gudniinka (“circumcision,” NEW, High) | Nearly universal, religiously significant Somali practice; risk is that readers hear the passage as condemning the practice rather than its role as a salvation requirement | Teach precisely as an argument about the ground of salvation (faith vs. law-works), not a critique of the cultural/religious practice itself |
| Harqoodka (“yoke,” NEW, Medium) | None lexically; reinforces existing law/grace contrast metaphorically | Retain as a clean reinforcing metaphor |
Gap assessment: Acts intensifies rather than introduces new risk for this doctrine; the one genuinely new pressure point is circumcision, where the risk is entirely about scope of the doctrinal claim, not vocabulary.
1.9 The Great Commission Fulfilled
| Available Somali terms | Weaknesses | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Warka wanaagsan faafinta (REUSED, Critical) | Already fenced from wacdinta in baseline; Acts 1:8 is the book’s programmatic structuring verse | Retain; extend safety-review routing to every derived Acts application passage |
| Boqortooyada Ilaah (REUSED, Medium) | Already fenced from dawladda | Acts 1:6 shows disciples initially misreading this politically; 28:31 closes the book with it |
| Jidka (“the Way,” NEW, Medium) | Resonance with, but real distinctness from, Islamic “the [right] path” (as-Sirāt al-Mustaqīm) terminology | Track as a consistent proper-noun-like title; supply Christ-specific content rather than assuming the shared image carries it automatically |
| Samaariyiinta (“Samaritans,” NEW, Medium) | No Somali cultural equivalent; opaque without background | Gloss on first use as the second concentric circle of Acts 1:8’s outline |
| Ilaaha aan la aqoon (“unknown god,” NEW, Medium) | A contextualization model, not itself doctrinal content | Keep evangelism-safety caution attached to any derived application material |
Gap assessment: Vocabulary is largely adequate; the main new gap is the missing cultural referent for Samaritans and the fencing task for “the Way” against Islamic path-language.
Section 2: Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods
2.1 Missing Vocabulary (no ready Somali term/category exists — genuine lexical gaps)
These require new coinage, transliteration, or descriptive phrasing rather than fencing an existing term:
- Pentecost — no festival-calendar referent; solved by transliteration + gloss (Bentekoste).
- Sanhedrin — no equivalent legal-religious institution; solved by descriptive phrase + gloss (Golaha Sare ee Yuhuudda).
- Samaritans — no equivalent intermediate ethnic-religious category; solved by transliteration + gloss (Samaariyiinta).
- God-fearer / Proselyte — Islam has no parallel “attached but not fully converted” intermediate status; both solved by descriptive phrase.
- Hades/She’ool — Somali eschatological vocabulary (Naar/Jahannam) names only a place of punishment; the neutral “abode of the dead awaiting judgment” category is missing and must be freshly introduced (She’ool) and explicitly distinguished from Naar.
- Tongues as real unlearned human language — the concept itself (Spirit-given fluency in a language never studied) has no ready Somali descriptive shorthand; solved by the plain phrase afaf kale, anchored tightly to 2:6-11.
- Deacon as a distinct recognized church office — Somali has abundant vocabulary for informal helping/serving but no established office category distinct from either elder or generic aid work; partially a missing-vocabulary, partially a crowded-neighborhood problem (see 2.2).
2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods Requiring Explicit Fencing
These are cases where a ready, fluent Somali term exists but is already occupied by a competing framework and must be actively fenced off, term by term:
| Somali term/space | Competing occupant | What must be fenced | Existing baseline precedent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toobadkeenid (repentance) | Islamic tawba (merit-earning, deeds-assessed) | Receiving vs. earning forgiveness | New — first fully crowded term introduced in Acts curriculum |
| way ka buuxsameen Ruuxa Quduuska ah (filled with the Spirit) | saar/qorriin folk possession (jinn) | Voluntary divine indwelling vs. involuntary alien possession | New |
| Markhaati / martyrdom phrase | shahaado / shahiid (creedal confession / jihad-martyrdom) | Legal eyewitness testimony vs. creedal confession and armed-struggle death | Extends baseline’s apostle/Rasuul fencing logic |
| wasakh/aan daahirin (common/unclean) | xalaal/xaraan (Islamic dietary law) | Food-to-person metaphorical extension vs. an ongoing dietary-law debate | New; Critical |
| Gudniinka (circumcision) | sunnah religious practice, near-universal | Ground-of-salvation argument vs. condemnation of the practice | New |
| Soon (fasting) | siyaam/Ramadan, a Pillar of Islam | Voluntary occasion-specific discipline vs. obligatory merit-earning pillar | New |
| Waayeel (elder) | clan elder (waayeel/oday) authority structure | Spiritual qualification vs. age/lineage/clan-representation qualification | New |
| Gacmo-saarid (laying on of hands) | barako (Sufi blessing transmission) and folk-healing touch | Commissioning sign under Spirit’s sovereignty vs. transferable spiritual potency | Extends baseline’s grace/barako fencing logic |
| Sixir (sorcery, contrastively) | genuine Islamic condemnation of sorcery (an asset, not purely a risk) | Confirm agreement without collapsing the distinct positive category of Spirit-given power into the same purchasable plane | New |
| Nidar (vow) | Islamic nadhr | Dated first-century Jewish-Christian ritual practice vs. ongoing devotional obligation | New |
| Sanamyo (idols) | shirk/tawhid anti-idolatry theology | Genuine agreement on idols does NOT extend to resolving the sharper Christ’s-deity collision (itself classified as shirk in Islamic theology) | New; must not blur |
| Jidka (the Way) | as-Sirāt al-Mustaqīm (“the [right] path”) | Shared path-imagery must receive explicitly Christ-specific content | New |
| Malaa’igta Rabbiga (angel of the Lord) | Malaa’ig/Jibriil shared Islamic angelology | Angels are created beings, categorically distinct from Ruuxa Quduuska ah | Extends baseline’s Holy Spirit/Jibriil fencing logic |
| Shaydaan (Satan) | Islamic Shaydaan/Iblis narrative tradition | Shared recognition, but NT’s specific cosmic-conflict resolution (a decisively defeated enemy) must not be assumed to align with Islamic narrative material | New |
| Masiixi/Masiixiyiin (Christian) | qabiil-based identity and its associated protection/security functions | Historic origin of a costly identity-label many Somali believers weigh today | Extends baseline’s christian_identity_in_christ doctrine |
Observation: Acts crowds far more semantic neighborhoods than Romans did, because Acts is narrative and enacts doctrine through concrete cultural collision-points (food laws, circumcision, fasting, elder authority, possession phenomena, sorcery, vows) rather than Romans’ more abstract argumentation. Phase 2 instruction sets must therefore carry a substantially longer forbidden-substitution list than the Romans baseline.
Section 3: Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions
| Term | Decision | Somali form | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pentecost | Transliterate + gloss | Bentekoste | No native referent; transliteration preserves the proper-noun/festival character while the gloss supplies content |
| Sanhedrin | Descriptive phrase (not transliteration) | Golaha Sare ee Yuhuudda | A transliterated “Sanhedrin” would be opaque; a descriptive institutional phrase is more legible aloud, consistent with the oral-register requirement in the baseline system prompt |
| Samaritans | Transliterate + gloss | Samaariyiinta | Standard proper-noun/ethnonym transliteration; gloss required for background |
| Martyrdom | Paraphrase (reject transliteration/loanword shahiid) | kii dhintay isagoo aaminsan markhaatinimadiisa | The Arabic loanword shahiid is already fully naturalized in Somali with a specific, incompatible doctrinal payload; a Markhaati-root descriptive phrase avoids the collision entirely |
| Witness (martys) | Established plain-Somali term, not a religious loanword | Markhaati | Deliberately avoids the available Islamic loanword shahaado in favor of a neutral legal/eyewitness register term |
| Common/unclean | Paraphrase | wasakh / aan daahirin | Avoids importing the Islamic legal-dietary loanword pair xalaal/xaraan |
| Made Lord and Christ | Paraphrase (compound clause, not single term) | si xaqiiqa ah wuxuu Ilaah ka dhigay Rabbi iyo Masiix | A single-word rendering cannot carry the “declarative enthronement of eternal truth, not adoptionist origination” distinction; requires a full clause and mandatory translator note |
| Salvation in no other name | Paraphrase built from existing fixed terms | Badbaado kuma jirto qof kale, magaca Ciise Masiixa mooyaane | Reuses Badbaado and magaca Ciise Masiixa rather than coining anything new; preserves absolute exclusivity without inventing new vocabulary |
| Son of Man | Literal compound translation (not transliteration, not merged with Son of God) | Wiilka Aadanaha | Must remain lexically distinct from Wiilka Ilaah; a literal, transparent compound best preserves that distinction for readers |
| Tongues (glōssai) | Paraphrase, plain descriptive | afaf kale | Avoids any technical/mystical-sounding coinage that could suggest ecstatic utterance |
| Angel (angelos) | Established Somali/Islamic shared loanword, retained (not replaced) | Malaa’ig(ta Rabbiga) | No viable substitute exists and angels are genuine biblical figures; risk is managed by mandatory paired teaching note, not by avoiding the term |
| Hades | Transliterate the Hebrew/OT-tradition equivalent rather than paraphrase | She’ool | Using Naar/Jahannam (paraphrase toward an existing Somali-Islamic term) would wrongly imply punitive fire; a transliterated, unfamiliar term correctly signals “this is a different category,” forcing the needed explanatory gloss |
| Proper nouns (Bawlos, Barnabas, Isteefanos, Filibos, Korneliyos, etc.) | Transliterate per established Somali Bible convention | (as listed in Section C of 08_core_glossary.md) | Standard low-risk practice; consistency with existing Somali Bible tradition |
| Pentecost-adjacent OT quotations (Joel 2:32 in Acts 2:21) | Paraphrase using already-fixed terms, not fresh coinage | ku dhawaaqa magaca Rabbiga | Must match register/force of the Romans 10:9-13 confession per baseline cross-document consistency rule |
General principle applied throughout: transliteration is preferred for proper nouns and named entities with no native referent where the unfamiliarity itself is doctrinally useful (Pentecost, She’ool, Samaritans); paraphrase/descriptive compounding is preferred wherever a single-word transliteration or an available loanword would import an incompatible doctrinal framework (martyrdom, common/unclean, witness).
Section 4: Ranked List of Highest-Risk Ambiguities
Ranked by combined severity (doctrinal centrality × collision likelihood × frequency in Acts):
-
Common/unclean (koinos/akathartos) — Critical. The single highest-risk ambiguity in the book: a Somali reader’s dietary xalaal/xaraan framework is fully primed to misread Acts 10 as being about food rules rather than Gentile personhood. Mandatory theologian review; the 10:28 extension must be made unmistakably explicit in every rendering.
-
Martyrdom / shahiid collision — Critical. The available Somali loanword carries jihad and guaranteed-reward associations that could actively mislead readers about the nature and meaning of Stephen’s and James’s deaths. The forbidden-substitution rule here must be as absolute as apostle/Rasuul in the baseline.
-
Filled with the Spirit vs. folk spirit-possession (saar/qorriin) — High, but pastorally urgent. Unlike most Critical items, this risk is not primarily about a single verse but about the interpretive lens readers bring to the entire Pentecost narrative (the curriculum’s core passage); mishandling it colors the reading of Acts 2 as a whole.
-
Toobadkeenid / tawba merit-framework collision — High, pervasive. Nearly every gospel-summary speech in Acts (2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 11:18; 17:30; 26:20) uses this term; the earning-vs-receiving distinction must be reinforced repeatedly, not taught once and assumed to stick.
-
Made Lord and Christ (2:36) — Critical, narrow but acute. A single verse with maximal adoptionism risk; requires the mandatory translator note and cannot be handled by glossary enforcement alone — needs active theologian sign-off each occurrence.
-
Circumcision as salvation-requirement argument — High. Given circumcision’s near-universal, sunnah-linked status in Somali culture, the risk is not lexical but scope: readers may hear condemnation of the practice rather than of its wrongful use as a salvation-requirement. Misreading here could produce needless offense disconnected from Paul’s actual argument.
-
Elder (Waayeel) / clan-elder authority conflation — High. Because waayeel/oday is a live, high-stakes social category in Somali life (including physical protection functions), readers may import clan-elder qualification criteria (age, lineage, negotiated representation) onto church leadership, or conversely resist church elders who lack clan standing.
-
Salvation in no other name (4:12) — Critical, exclusivity-softening risk. In a rendering culture where religious pluralism is often diplomatically assumed in cross-community speech, there is real risk of unconscious softening toward “a valid path among several”; must be flagged for theologian review every occurrence.
-
Laying on of hands vs. barako transmission — High. Sits directly adjacent to an already-established baseline fencing concern (grace vs. barako); Acts narrates Simon’s wrong assumption explicitly (ch. 8), which should be actively used as the corrective teaching anchor.
-
Stoning (Dhagxin) — High/Critical, physical-safety dimension. Beyond translation accuracy, this item carries a live contemporary safety dimension given stoning’s continued invocation by some armed authorities in parts of Somalia; requires the same dual (accuracy + pastoral-safety) review track as the baseline’s evangelism doctrine.
-
Son of Man vs. Son of God distinction (7:56) — Critical, narrow. Low frequency (a single key occurrence) but high doctrinal density; risk is that translators or readers collapse the two titles into one, either flattening Christ’s humanity-in-authority (Son of Man) or His deity (Son of God).
-
Christian identity-label (Masiixi) cost — High. Not a translation-accuracy risk so much as a pastoral-application risk inherited directly from the baseline’s christian_identity_in_christ doctrine; every occurrence of 11:26/26:28 should be flagged for the same identity-cost teaching care already established for Romans.
-
Fasting (Soon) vs. Pillar-of-Islam merit framework — Medium, but recurring. Lower doctrinal centrality than repentance’s parallel collision, but the same earning/voluntary-discipline distinction applies and should not be assumed automatically transferred from the repentance teaching.
-
Household salvation (16:31-34) vs. clan-based collective salvation — High. Given the exceptional weight Somali culture places on family/clan solidarity, this passage risks being heard as promising automatic salvation by household or clan association rather than each person’s individual response (explicitly narrated in 16:32-34).
-
The Way (Jidka) vs. as-Sirāt al-Mustaqīm — Medium. Lower urgency than the items above because the risk is diffuseness of resonance rather than active doctrinal collision, but it recurs often enough (five occurrences) to warrant consistent tracking rather than ad hoc translation.
Summary
Acts substantially raises the fencing burden relative to the Romans baseline: where Romans required protecting roughly a dozen terms from Islamic-theological false friends, Acts adds an equally long list of narrative collision points (food law, circumcision, fasting, spirit-possession, sorcery, clan-elder authority, martyrdom, stoning) because its genre enacts doctrine through concrete cultural episodes rather than abstract argument. Missing vocabulary is comparatively rare and low-risk (Pentecost, Sanhedrin, Samaritans, God-fearer/proselyte, She’ool) and is adequately resolved by transliteration-plus-gloss or descriptive phrasing. The dominant challenge for Phase 2 is not finding words but fencing them: nearly every High/Critical item above pairs a perfectly fluent, already-available Somali term with a doctrinally incompatible existing referent that must be actively distinguished at first use in every lesson, not assumed to be self-evident from context.
This document extends 07_semantic_analysis.md and must be read alongside 08_core_glossary.md before Phase 1 Step 2 (translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json extension) and before drafting the Acts-specific extension of 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.