Core Glossary
Core Glossary — English → Spanish | 1 John 1–5
Purpose
This glossary consolidates every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md across all five chapters of 1 John, with risk tier, doctrine category, primary passages, and translation notes. It extends — and never contradicts — the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. Terms already established in the baseline are marked (baseline reuse) and carried forward exactly. New terms introduced by 1 John are marked (new) and are candidates for addition to translation memory in the next Phase 1 step.
Risk tiers follow the baseline’s doctrine_risk_registry.json definitions:
- Critical — Human theologian review required for every occurrence.
- High — Human theologian review required.
- Medium — Native speaker review recommended.
- Low — Automated review sufficient.
Part A — Baseline Terms Reused Exactly in 1 John
| English term | Spanish rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Primary 1 John passages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Dios | Critical | God | throughout | Baseline reuse, unchanged |
| Jesus | Jesús | Critical | Lordship of Christ | throughout | Baseline reuse, unchanged |
| Christ | Cristo | Critical | Christology | throughout | Established proper-name form per baseline AI requirements; standard across traditions |
| Son of God | Hijo de Dios | Critical | Sonship of Christ | 3:8, 4:15, 5:5, 5:10-13, 5:20 | Baseline reuse, unchanged; never applied to believers (see “children of God,” Part B) |
| Holy Spirit / Spirit | Espíritu Santo | Critical | God / Sanctification | 3:24, 4:2, 4:6, 4:13, 5:6-8 | Baseline reuse; must remain personal, divine third Person, not an impersonal force or ancestral/guide spirit (Espiritismo, Santería) |
| Father | Padre | Critical | Adoption / God | 1:2-3, 2:1, 2:13-16, 2:22-24, 3:1, 4:14 | Baseline reuse, unchanged |
| Sin | pecado | Medium | Universal Human Accountability | 1:7-10, 2:2, 3:4-9, 4:10, 5:16-18 | Baseline reuse; never soften to “falta” — especially critical in 1 John, whose entire argument (1:8-10, 3:4-9) confronts minimization of sin |
| Faith / believe | fe / creer | High | Faith | 3:23, 4:16, 5:1, 5:4-5, 5:10, 5:13 | Baseline reuse; personal trust in Christ, not inherited religiosity |
| Righteousness / righteous | justicia / justo | Critical / High | Salvation | 2:1, 2:29, 3:7, 3:10 | Baseline reuse; forensic/moral rightness from God, not self-achieved merit |
| Fellowship | compañerismo (contextual: comunión) | Low | Christian Fellowship | 1:3, 1:6-7 | Baseline reuse; avoid the specific Catholic creedal phrase “la comunión de los santos” |
| Sanctification / purify (family) | santificación (family with ἁγνίζω, “purifica”) | High | Sanctification | 3:3 | Baseline reuse of the santificación doctrine family; avoid penitential/self-purification-through-works framing |
| Advocate/Intercession (doctrine family) | (see “Advocate,” Part B, for the specific new term) | Critical | Prayer and Intercession | 2:1 | 1 John 2:1 intensifies the baseline’s Critical “intercession” caution with a direct lexical collision (see below) |
| World (kingdom/mission doctrine family cross-reference) | mundo | Medium-High | Overcoming the World | 2:15-17, 4:1-5, 5:4-5, 5:19 | Not itself a baseline TM entry, but conceptually adjacent to baseline’s “kingdom_of_god”; context-sensitive, see Part B |
Part B — New Terms Introduced by 1 John
| English term | Original (Greek) | Spanish rendering | Risk | Doctrine | Primary passages | Alternatives rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word of life | ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς | el Verbo de vida | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 1:1 | ”la Palabra de vida” (modern-version variant, rejected here to preserve Reina-Valera continuity with John 1:1’s “el Verbo”) | Personal, incarnate divine Logos; anti-docetic grounding for the whole letter |
| Life | ζωή | vida | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 1:1-2, 3:14, 5:11-13 | — | Ranges from physical to spiritual/eternal life; disambiguate by context |
| Eternal life | ζωὴ αἰώνιος | vida eterna | Critical | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 1:2, 2:25, 3:15, 5:11-13, 5:20 | ”salvación futura incierta ganada por mérito” | Present possession secured by faith now (5:13), not a future uncertain reward earned through sacraments/penance |
| Light | φῶς | luz | High | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5, 1:7, 2:8-10 | ”energía/luz interior” (new-age gloss) | God’s holy, self-revealing, morally pure nature; parallel ontological claim to “God is love” |
| Darkness | σκοτία / σκότος | tinieblas | Medium | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5-6, 2:8-11 | — | The sphere of sin/falsehood; keep within 1 John’s ethical framework, distinct from spiritist light/darkness language |
| Walk (conduct) | περιπατέω | andar / caminar | Low | Fellowship with God and One Another | 1:6-7, 2:6, 2:11 | — | Standard biblical idiom for lifestyle |
| Cleanse | καθαρίζω | limpia / purifica | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:7, 1:9 | — | Immediate, complete cleansing upon confession; avoid penitential/sacramental-mediation framing |
| Confess (sin) | ὁμολογέω | confesamos / confiesa | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9 | — | Direct confession to God; must not default to sacramental confession to a priest |
| Confess (Christ’s identity) | ὁμολογέω | confiesa | Critical | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 2:23, 4:2-3, 4:15 | — | Public profession of Christ’s identity; parallel weight to Romans 10:9’s baseline-Critical confession |
| Forgive | ἀφίημι | perdona | Medium-High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9, 2:12 | — | Decisive, complete judicial release, not probationary pardon |
| Unrighteousness | ἀδικία | injusticia | Low-Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9, 5:17 | — | Antonym pairing with “justicia” |
| Blood (of Jesus) | αἷμα | sangre | High | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 1:7, 5:6, 5:8 | — | Anti-docetic, historical-physical atoning death; not exclusively Eucharistic reference |
| Advocate | παράκλητος | abogado | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 2:1 | ”intercesor” alone (insufficiently specific); never allow “abogado” to default to a patron saint or the Virgin | Extreme collision risk: patron saints/Virgin popularly titled “abogado/abogada” in Hispanic Catholic piety; Christ alone holds this role before the Father |
| Propitiation | ἱλασμός | propiciación / sacrificio expiatorio | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin / The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:2, 4:10 | ”gesto de amor/solidaridad” (subjective-only reading, rejected) | Objective, wrath-satisfying, God-ward sacrifice; completed, once-for-all act (cf. Romans 3:25 “propiciación,” baseline-adjacent) |
| Flesh | σάρξ | carne | High | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:16, 4:2 | — | Context-sensitive: sinful desire (2:16) vs. real incarnate humanity of Christ (4:2) — disambiguate per occurrence |
| Desire/lust | ἐπιθυμία | deseo / codicia | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:16 | — | Disordered craving characterizing “the world” |
| Pride of life | ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου | la vanagloria de la vida | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:16 | — | Ostentatious boasting in possessions/status; gloss recommended |
| Antichrist | ἀντίχριστος | anticristo | High | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:18, 2:22, 4:3 | — | 1 John’s own sense: present doctrinal denial of Christ’s incarnation, not only a single future figure; correct popular apocalyptic-conspiracy default |
| Anointing | χρῖσμα | unción | High | Testing the Spirits | 2:20, 2:27 | — | Every believer’s Spirit-given teaching presence; not priestly-sacramental nor a special charismatic elite experience |
| Lie (falsehood) | ψεῦδος | mentira | Low-Medium | Testing the Spirits | 2:21, 2:27 | — | The content of the antichrists’ denial |
| Truth | ἀλήθεια | verdad | Medium | Testing the Spirits | 2:21, 3:19, 4:6, 5:6 | — | Objective, revealed apostolic truth about Christ, not subjective “mi verdad” |
| Little children (address) | τεκνία / παιδία | hijitos | Low-Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another | 2:1, 2:12-14, 2:18, 2:28, 3:7, 3:18 | — | Affectionate address to the whole congregation |
| Children of God | τέκνα θεοῦ | hijos de Dios | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:1-2, 3:10, 5:2 | — | Organic new-birth sonship (plural, of believers); distinct from baseline’s legal “adopción” and from the unique, capitalized “Hijo de Dios” |
| Born of God / new birth | γεννάω (ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ) | nacido de Dios / ha nacido de Dios | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:29, 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 5:4, 5:18 | ”convertido” (too generic); “regenerado sacramentalmente por el bautismo” (rejected as sole cause) | Decisive, God-wrought new birth; must not be reduced to baptismal regeneration ex opere operato nor to generic “conversion” |
| Lawlessness | ἀνομία | iniquidad / transgresión de la ley | Medium-High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 3:4 | ”falta” (rejected, per baseline’s sin caution) | Sin’s essential definition as rebellion against God, not a discrete infraction list |
| Devil | διάβολος | diablo | Low | Overcoming the World | 3:8, 3:10 | — | Concrete moral-spiritual paternity opposite to “children of God” |
| Seed (divine) | σπέρμα | simiente | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:9 | — | The implanted new nature; gloss recommended |
| Murderer | φονεύς | asesino / homicida | Low | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:15 | — | Hatred of a brother morally equated with murder |
| Passed from death to life | μεταβεβήκαμεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν | hemos pasado de muerte a vida | Medium-High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 3:14 | — | Decisive, already-accomplished transition, not a gradual/uncertain journey |
| Life/soul (self) | ψυχή | vida | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:16 | ”alma” (rejected — skews toward disembodied “soul,” obscuring whole-person self-giving) | Christ’s model of self-giving love |
| Compassion/heart | σπλάγχνα | compasión | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:17 | — | Vivid Greek “bowels” imagery necessarily lost in Spanish |
| Heart | καρδία | corazón | Low-Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 3:19-21 | — | Seat of conscience; God’s knowledge can correct a condemning conscience |
| Name (of the Son) | ὄνομα | nombre | Low | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 3:23, 5:13 | — | Standard biblical idiom for believing “in the name of” |
| Abide/remain | μένω | permanece | High | Fellowship with God and One Another | throughout (1 John’s signature verb, ~24x) | “mora,” “queda,” “se queda” (rejected as inconsistent alternates) | Must be rendered consistently across the whole letter and all lesson materials to preserve the recurring Johannine motif |
| Love (noun/verb) | ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω | amor / amar | High | God is Light and God is Love | throughout (esp. ch. 4) | — | Must be taught against Spanish pop-culture’s romantic saturation of “amor”; God-originated, self-giving, not sentimental |
| Perfect/complete | τέλειος / τελειόω | perfecto / perfeccionado / completo | High | God is Light and God is Love | 2:5, 4:12, 4:17-18 | — | “Perfecto” implies flawlessness in everyday Spanish; must teach goal-reaching completeness, not moral inerrancy |
| Fear | φόβος | temor | Medium-High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:18 | — | Distinguish servile dread of punishment (4:18) from reverential “temor de Dios” praised elsewhere |
| Punishment | κόλασις | castigo | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:18 | — | Avoid folk purgatorial-punishment framing; assurance removes this dread entirely |
| Confidence/boldness | παρρησία | confianza | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 2:28, 3:21, 4:17, 5:14 | — | Confident boldness before God’s judgment, not casual self-confidence; distinguish from merit/purgatory-based uncertainty |
| Day of judgment | ἡμέρα τῆς κρίσεως | día del juicio | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:17 | — | Standard eschatological term; link to present assurance |
| Commandment | ἐντολή | mandamiento | Medium-High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | throughout (esp. 2:3-8, 3:22-24, 4:21) | — | Distinguish from catechetical “los diez mandamientos”; tie to the “new commandment”/royal law tradition |
| Brother | ἀδελφός | hermano | Medium-High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:9-11, 3:10-17, 4:20-21 | — | Fellow believer, not merely fellow parishioner or biological kin |
| Hate | μισέω | odia / aborrece | Low-Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:9-11, 3:15, 4:20 | — | Full moral weight of active enmity/neglect, not casual dislike |
| Liar | ψεύστης | mentiroso | Low-Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 1:10, 2:4, 2:22, 4:20 | — | Preserve severity: false love-claim is a lie about one’s spiritual state |
| World | κόσμος | mundo | Medium-High | Overcoming the World | 2:15-17, 3:1, 3:13, 4:1-5, 4:9, 4:14, 4:17, 5:4-5, 5:19 | — | Context-sensitive across the letter: neutral/mission-object sense (4:9,14) vs. hostile opposing-system sense (2:15-17, 5:19); disambiguate per occurrence |
| Test the spirits | δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα | probad los espíritus | High | Testing the Spirits | 4:1 | ”discernir espíritus” (acceptable synonym with same caution) | Acute Espiritismo/Santería collision risk; must be tied to the specific doctrinal (christological) test, not a general spirit-discernment method |
| False prophet | ψευδοπροφήτης | falso profeta | Medium-High | Testing the Spirits | 4:1 | — | Defined by christological denial, not failed prediction/moral scandal |
| Come in the flesh | ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα | que ha venido en carne | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 4:2-3 | — | Central anti-docetic formula; denial is named “the spirit of antichrist” |
| Spirit of truth / spirit of error | πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης | espíritu de verdad / espíritu de error | High | Testing the Spirits | 4:6 | — | Binary apostolic-doctrinal antithesis, not a spiritist good/bad-spirit taxonomy |
| Overcome/victory | νικάω / νίκη | vencer / victoria | Medium-High | Overcoming the World | 2:13-14, 4:4, 5:4-5 | — | Victory secured through Christ and faith, not self-generated triumphalism or prosperity framing |
| Savior | σωτήρ | Salvador | Critical | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:14 | ”co-salvador/mediador junto a los santos o la Virgen” | Exclusive, sufficient Savior; ties to baseline’s Critical “salvación” |
| Testimony/witness | μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω | testimonio / testificar / dar testimonio | Medium-High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 1:2, 4:14, 5:6-11 | — | Forensic, God-given objective evidence, not the subjective personal-experience “testimonio” genre |
| Water, blood, Spirit | ὕδωρ, αἷμα, πνεῦμα | agua, sangre y Espíritu | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 5:6-8 | — | Historical-evidentiary witnesses to Christ’s identity; teach the letter’s own argument before layering sacramental application |
| Keep oneself | τηρέω ἑαυτόν / φυλάσσω | se guarda / guardaos | Medium-High | Overcoming the World | 5:18, 5:21 | — | Hold divine preservation and human vigilance together |
| The evil one | ὁ πονηρός | el maligno | Low-Medium | Overcoming the World | 5:18-19 | — | Standard title for Satan |
| Idol | εἴδωλον | ídolos | High | Overcoming the World | 5:21 | — | Sensitive collision with Catholic devotional image veneration; teach the verse’s scope of exclusive ultimate loyalty without polemicizing against a specific tradition’s practice |
| Sin unto death | ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον | pecado de muerte | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 5:16 | ”pecado mortal” (explicitly rejected as an equivalence — this is NOT the source of the later Catholic mortal/venial sin category) | Debated referent (likely obstinate, unrepentant apostasy); must not be mapped onto the Catholic mortal/venial sin framework |
Risk Tier Summary for 1 John New Terms
| Risk | Count | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 9 | Word of life, Eternal life, Confess (sin), Confess (Christ’s identity), Advocate, Propitiation, Come in the flesh, Born of God, Savior, Sin unto death |
| High | 15 | Light, Cleanse, Blood, Flesh, Antichrist, Anointing, Children of God, Abide/remain, Love, Perfect/complete, Confidence/boldness, World, Test the spirits, Spirit of truth/error, Water-blood-Spirit, Idol |
| Medium-High | 9 | Forgive, Lawlessness, Passed from death to life, Fear, Commandment, Brother, False prophet, Overcome/victory, Testimony, Keep oneself |
| Medium | 10 | Life, Darkness, Desire/lust, Pride of life, Truth, Seed, Compassion, Punishment, Day of judgment, Confidence-adjacent terms |
| Low / Low-Medium | 9 | Walk, Unrighteousness, Little children, Devil, Murderer, Heart, Name, Hate, Liar, The evil one |
Note: Counts reflect the primary tier assigned in Part B; several terms carry a Medium-High designation reflecting genuine tier ambiguity and are counted once at their assigned tier. All Critical and High tier terms require human theologian review per baseline routing convention; Medium tier terms require native speaker review; Low tier terms require automated review only.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Dios
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: θεός
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Universally standard; no rival deity-name confusion in mainstream Hispanic Christian usage. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: grounds the letter’s two ontological predications ‘Dios es luz’ (1:5) and ‘Dios es amor’ (4:8,16); must remain the personal, triune God in both statements, never abstracted into an impersonal principle.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesús
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Universally standard across all Spanish Bible traditions. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: the proper name whose real incarnate humanity (‘ha venido en carne,’ 4:2) and continuing identity as ‘el Cristo’ (2:22) are the letter’s central doctrinal test.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Hijo de Dios
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: hijo de Dios en el sentido genérico aplicado a todo creyente
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christology
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Full phrase required; unique, eternal, divine Sonship. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: must never be diluted toward or confused with the plural, organic ‘hijos de Dios’ (children of God, 3:1-2, 5:2) applied to believers; the capitalization-only distinction is invisible in speech and requires explicit spoken qualifiers in oral/audio delivery.
Father
Approved rendering: Padre
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. God as personal Father; standard and unambiguous. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: the one before whom Christ alone serves as Advocate (2:1) and who sent the Son as the world’s Savior (4:14).
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justicia / justo
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: rectitud moral autónoma, mérito acumulado
Original: δικαιοσύνη / δίκαιος
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Right standing/conduct from God, not self-achieved merit. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: in 2:29, 3:7, 3:10, righteous conduct is the fruit and evidence of new birth (born of God), never its cause.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvación
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: salvarse por buenas obras, merecer el cielo mediante sacramentos y penitencia
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. A decisive reconciliation received by faith, not a lifelong uncertain merit-and-mediation outcome. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: grounds the Critical ‘eternal_life’ and ‘savior’ entries below (4:9,14; 5:11-13); 1 John presents salvation/eternal life as a present, known possession (5:13), sharpening the baseline’s caution against folk-Catholic future-uncertain framing.
Intercession
Approved rendering: intercesión
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: intercesión de los santos o de la Virgen como mediadores necesarios ante Dios
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Direct divine intercession (Spirit, Christ), not saint/Marian mediation. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: 1 John 2:1 intensifies this caution with a direct lexical collision — see the new ‘advocate’ entry below, which names Christ’s own intercessory role with a word (‘abogado’) that is also the routine popular title of patron saints and the Virgin.
Christ
Approved rendering: Cristo
Transliteration: Christos
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
New term for this curriculum (not a separate baseline TM entry, though used throughout Romans as part of ‘Jesucristo’). Standard, unambiguous proper-name form. In 1 John the confession ‘Jesús es el Cristo’ (2:22, 5:1) is a fixed, non-negotiable identity claim whose denial marks a person as antichrist; must never be treated as one honorific title among several a teacher might adjust.
Word Of Life
Approved rendering: el Verbo de vida
Transliteration: ho logos tēs zōēs
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: la Palabra de vida (modern-version variant, rejected to preserve Reina-Valera continuity with John 1:1’s ‘el Verbo’)
Original: ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
1 John 1:1. Personal, incarnate divine Logos, seen/heard/touched by apostolic eyewitnesses; anti-docetic anchor for the whole letter. Must not soften to an abstract ‘message about life’ divorced from its personal, incarnate referent.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: vida eterna
Transliteration: zōē aiōnios
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: salvación futura incierta ganada por mérito
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Salvation
1 John 1:2, 2:25, 3:15, 5:11-13, 5:20. Present possession secured by faith now (5:13: ‘para que sepáis que tenéis vida eterna’), not a future, uncertain reward pursued through sacraments, penance, and merit — the dominant folk-Catholic framework in much of Latin America.
Confess Sin
Approved rendering: confesamos
Transliteration: homologeō
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Sin
1 John 1:9. Direct confession to God as the condition for forgiveness and cleansing; must not default to sacramental confession to a priest, the dominant cultural association of ‘confesarse’ in Catholic-majority Spanish-speaking contexts.
Confess Christ
Approved rendering: confiesa
Transliteration: homologeō
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Christology
1 John 2:23, 4:2-3, 4:15. Public, binding profession that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh and the Son of God; structurally parallel to the baseline’s Critical Romans 10:9 confession (‘Jesús es el Señor’) and must carry equivalent doctrinal weight.
Advocate
Approved rendering: abogado
Transliteration: paraklētos
Doctrine: Propitiation and Advocacy of Christ
Rejected alternatives: intercesor (too generic, lacks forensic specificity), paráclito (obscure transliteration, collides with the Holy Spirit’s distinct title in John 14-16)
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Salvation
1 John 2:1. Extreme syncretism risk: patron saints and the Virgin are routinely titled ‘abogado/abogada’ of specific causes in Hispanic Catholic popular piety (‘San Judas Tadeo, abogado de las causas difíciles’; ‘Abogada nuestra’). 1 John 2:1 assigns this exact role to Christ alone before the Father; requires an explicit clarifying note at every occurrence.
Propitiation
Approved rendering: propiciación / sacrificio expiatorio
Transliteration: hilasmos
Doctrine: Propitiation and Advocacy of Christ
Rejected alternatives: gesto de amor/solidaridad (subjective-only reading)
Original: ἱλασμός
Category: Salvation
1 John 2:2, 4:10. Objective, wrath-satisfying, God-ward sacrifice, sufficient for the whole world; a completed, once-for-all act, not an ongoing sacrificial or penitential system. Matches baseline’s Romans 3:25 ‘propiciación’ usage.
Born Of God
Approved rendering: nacido de Dios / ha nacido de Dios
Transliteration: gennaō (ek tou theou)
Doctrine: New Birth (Born of God)
Rejected alternatives: convertido (too generic), regenerado sacramentalmente por el bautismo (rejected as sole cause)
Original: γεννάω (ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ)
Category: Salvation
1 John 2:29, 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 5:4, 5:18. Decisive, God-wrought new birth evidenced by righteousness, love, and victory over habitual sin; must not be confused with baptismal regeneration ex opere operato or reduced to generic ‘conversión.‘
Come In The Flesh
Approved rendering: que ha venido en carne
Transliteration: en sarki elēlythota
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα
Category: Christology
1 John 4:2-3. Christ’s real, permanent, historical assumption of human physical nature; the letter’s central anti-docetic doctrinal test. Denial is explicitly named ‘the spirit of antichrist’ (4:3). Render as the full clause; do not compress to a single noun.
Savior
Approved rendering: Salvador
Transliteration: sōtēr
Doctrine: Christ as Sole Savior
Rejected alternatives: co-salvador/mediador junto a los santos o la Virgen
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Salvation
1 John 4:14. Jesus as the unique, sufficient Savior sent by the Father for the world’s salvation; never one savior-figure alongside mediating saints or quasi-salvific regional Marian titles that popular devotion can treat as such.
Sin Unto Death
Approved rendering: pecado de muerte
Transliteration: hamartia pros thanaton
Doctrine: Sin unto Death
Rejected alternatives: pecado mortal (explicitly rejected as an equivalence — this is NOT the source of the later Catholic mortal/venial sin category)
Original: ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον
Category: Sin
1 John 5:16-17. Extremely high collision risk with the Catholic moral-theological mortal/venial sin distinction; the referent is debated (likely obstinate, unrepentant apostasy in the letter’s polemical context) and must not be presented as the biblical basis for that later category.
High Risk Terms
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Espíritu Santo
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: una fuerza impersonal, un espíritu guía o ancestral
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον / πνεῦμα
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Personal, divine third Person, not an impersonal force or ancestral/guide spirit. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: 1 John’s repeated plural ‘espíritus’ language (test the spirits, spirit of truth/error) creates acute additional collision risk with Espiritismo and Santería’s technical use of ‘espíritus’ for ancestral/guide spirits contacted through mediums; every occurrence must keep the Holy Spirit categorically distinct from that framework.
Faith
Approved rendering: fe
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: devoción religiosa general, creencia cultural heredada
Original: πίστις / πιστεύω
Category: Faith
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Personal trust in Christ, not inherited cultural religiosity. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: 5:4-5 identifies faith itself as the victorious power that overcomes the world; must be taught with Christ as its explicit object (v.5), not as generic positive belief.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: santificación
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: purificación penitencial, vía purgativa
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy, not a penitential/purgatorial framework. ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: forms the doctrine family behind 3:3’s ‘purifica/se purifica’ (hagnizō); the hope of Christ’s return produces present moral purification, not self-directed religious-works purification.
Light
Approved rendering: luz
Transliteration: phōs
Doctrine: God is Light
Rejected alternatives: energía/luz interior (New Age gloss)
Original: φῶς
Category: God
1 John 1:5, 1:7, 2:8-10. Ontological statement of God’s holy, self-revealing nature, parallel to ‘Dios es amor.’ Risk of flattening into New Age ‘luz interior/energía’ or devotional candle-lighting associations (‘prender una luz’); must be anchored to God’s moral purity and self-disclosure.
Cleanse
Approved rendering: limpia / purifica
Transliteration: katharizō
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: καθαρίζω
Category: Sin
1 John 1:7, 1:9. Immediate, complete cleansing upon confession, on the basis of Christ’s blood alone; must not collide with the Catholic sacramental system of ongoing penitential/purgatorial purification.
Blood
Approved rendering: sangre
Transliteration: haima
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: αἷμα
Category: Christology
1 John 1:7, 5:6, 5:8. Christ’s real, historical, atoning death; must retain anti-docetic, historical-physical force and not be narrowed to an exclusively Eucharistic reference, especially in 5:6-8’s evidentiary argument.
Flesh
Approved rendering: carne
Transliteration: sarx
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: σάρξ
Category: Christology
Context-sensitive: 2:16 (sinful, disordered desire) versus 4:2 (Christ’s real physical human nature, anti-docetic). Must disambiguate per occurrence; conflating the two senses blurs the incarnation doctrine.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: anticristo
Transliteration: antichristos
Doctrine: The Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
1 John 2:18, 2:22, 4:3. Any present person/teaching denying Christ’s incarnation, not merely a single future figure. Strong risk of defaulting to a future political/religious figure via film and conspiracy-linked prophecy teaching; must foreground 1 John’s own present-tense, plural, doctrinal-denial emphasis (‘muchos anticristos’).
Anointing
Approved rendering: unción
Transliteration: chrisma
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: crisma (narrower, purely sacramental-object term; explicitly rejected as a substitute)
Original: χρῖσμα
Category: Sanctification
1 John 2:20, 2:27. The Spirit’s teaching presence given to every ordinary believer. Double collision risk: (1) Catholic sacramental ‘unción’ (Anointing of the Sick, chrismation) implying priestly mediation; (2) Pentecostal/charismatic usage implying special empowerment for gifted individuals. Both defaults must be corrected.
Children Of God
Approved rendering: hijos de Dios
Transliteration: tekna theou
Doctrine: Children of God versus Children of the Devil
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: Salvation
1 John 3:1-2, 3:10, 5:2. Organic, birth-based (gennaō) identity of believers as God’s offspring; distinct from the baseline’s legal ‘adopción’ (Romans 8) and must never borrow the unique, singular, capitalized ‘Hijo de Dios’ reserved for Christ. Capitalization-only distinction is invisible in speech — require explicit spoken qualifiers in audio delivery.
Abide
Approved rendering: permanece
Transliteration: menō
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Rejected alternatives: mora, queda, se queda (rejected as inconsistent alternates)
Original: μένω
Category: Sanctification
1 John’s signature recurring verb (~24 occurrences), grounding mutual, permanent indwelling between God and the believer and the letter’s assurance/fellowship argument. Must be rendered consistently throughout the whole letter and all related lesson materials — never varied — so learners can track this key recurring Johannine motif.
Love
Approved rendering: amor / amar
Transliteration: agapē / agapaō
Doctrine: God is Love
Rejected alternatives: caridad (imports Tridentine merit-cooperation theological-virtue framing; rejected), ágape (unfamiliar bare loanword; rejected as primary rendering)
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: Christian Life
Self-giving, covenantal love, God’s essential character (4:8,16) and the defining evidence of new birth (4:7). Must be explicitly taught against Spanish pop-culture’s romantic saturation of ‘amor’ (telenovelas, popular music); this is God-originated, self-giving love demonstrated concretely (3:16-18), not sentiment.
Perfect
Approved rendering: perfecto / perfeccionado / completo
Transliteration: teleios / teleioō
Doctrine: God is Love
Original: τέλειος / τελειόω
Category: Sanctification
1 John 2:5, 4:12, 4:17-18. Goal-reaching completeness/maturity, not flawless execution. Everyday Spanish ‘perfecto’ connotes flawlessness; must be taught explicitly as maturity in expressed love, avoiding both despair over imperfection and presumption of sinlessness.
Confidence
Approved rendering: confianza
Transliteration: parrēsia
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: osadía / atrevimiento (sound presumptuous or reckless in everyday Spanish)
Original: παρρησία
Category: Faith
1 John 2:28, 3:21, 4:17, 5:14. Confident, unashamed boldness before God’s judgment seat, grounded in present union with Christ; distinguish from casual self-confidence and from the uncertainty about final standing fostered by folk-Catholic merit/purgatory emphasis.
World
Approved rendering: mundo
Transliteration: kosmos
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: κόσμος
Category: Kingdom
Context-sensitive throughout: (a) humanity as object of God’s redemptive love (4:9,14); (b) the hostile system opposed to God (2:15-17, 5:19). Must be disambiguated per occurrence via teaching notes (not by altering the translated verse text itself).
Test The Spirits
Approved rendering: probad los espíritus
Transliteration: dokimazete ta pneumata
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: discernir espíritus (acceptable synonym with the same caution)
Original: δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα
Category: Discernment
1 John 4:1. Acute collision risk in regions with active Espiritismo and Santería, where ‘espíritus’ is a live technical term for ancestral/guide spirits contacted via mediums. Must be tied explicitly to the specific doctrinal (christological) test of 4:2, never assimilated into a spiritist discernment framework.
Spirit Of Truth Error
Approved rendering: espíritu de verdad / espíritu de error
Transliteration: pneuma tēs alētheias / pneuma tēs planēs
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης
Category: Discernment
1 John 4:6. Binary apostolic-doctrinal antithesis grounded in confession of Christ, never assimilated into a folk-spiritist taxonomy of good/bad spirits discerned by intuition or ritual.
Water Blood Spirit
Approved rendering: agua, sangre y Espíritu
Transliteration: hydōr, haima, pneuma
Doctrine: The Three Witnesses: Water, Blood, and Spirit
Original: ὕδωρ, αἷμα, πνεῦμα
Category: Christology
1 John 5:6-8. Three corroborating historical-evidentiary witnesses to Christ’s identity; strong risk of ‘agua’ and ‘sangre’ being read as direct, exclusive references to Baptism and the Eucharist, overriding the passage’s own argument. Teach the letter’s own argument before any sacramental application.
Idol
Approved rendering: ídolos
Transliteration: eidōlon
Doctrine: Idolatry and Exclusive Loyalty to God
Original: εἴδωλον
Category: Kingdom
1 John 5:21. Significant cultural sensitivity: official Catholic teaching distinguishes devotional image veneration from idolatry, though the two are popularly equated in some Protestant polemical material. Teach the verse’s own scope of exclusive ultimate loyalty (which may include money, status, nationalism) without confessional polemic against a specific tradition’s devotional practice.
Medium Risk Terms
Sin
Approved rendering: pecado
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: falta (minimizing euphemism common in pastoral speech)
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Avoid the softening euphemism ‘falta.’ ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: the letter’s own argument (1:8-10) names the claim ‘no tengo pecado’ as self-deception and calling God a liar; 1 John 3:4 defines sin as anomia (rebellion), reinforcing rather than relaxing the baseline caution against minimization.
Adoption
Approved rendering: adopción
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Full son-status, legal placement with inheritance rights (huiothesia). ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: must be kept distinct from 1 John’s own ‘hijos de Dios’ (tekna theou, organic new-birth sonship via gennaō); the two are complementary NT pictures, not synonyms, and neither borrows the unique singular sense reserved for Christ’s ‘Hijo de Dios.‘
Life
Approved rendering: vida
Transliteration: zōē
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ζωή
Category: Salvation
1 John 1:1-2, 3:14. Ranges from physical to spiritual/eternal life; disambiguate by context, especially where it approaches zōē aiōnios.
Darkness
Approved rendering: tinieblas
Transliteration: skotia / skotos
Doctrine: God is Light
Rejected alternatives: oscuridad (flatter, everyday register)
Original: σκοτία / σκότος
Category: Sin
1 John 1:5-6, 2:8-11. The sphere of sin/falsehood opposed to walking with God; keep within 1 John’s own ethical framework, distinct from spiritist light/darkness taxonomies.
Forgive
Approved rendering: perdona
Transliteration: aphiēmi
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀφίημι
Category: Sin
1 John 1:9, 2:12. A decisive, complete judicial release, not a partial or probationary pardon requiring further satisfaction through penance or purgatorial suffering.
Desire
Approved rendering: deseo / codicia
Transliteration: epithymia
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἐπιθυμία
Category: Christian Life
1 John 2:16. Disordered craving characterizing ‘the world’; standard term, low ambiguity given clear negative context.
Pride Of Life
Approved rendering: la vanagloria de la vida
Transliteration: alazoneia tou biou
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου
Category: Christian Life
1 John 2:16. Ostentatious boasting about possessions/status; no single Spanish word equivalent exists — gloss recommended (‘la ostentación orgullosa de lo que se tiene o se aparenta ser’) at first occurrence.
Truth
Approved rendering: verdad
Transliteration: alētheia
Doctrine: False Teaching and False Prophets
Original: ἀλήθεια
Category: Faith
1 John 2:21, 3:19, 4:6, 5:6. Objective, revealed apostolic truth about Christ, not the popular therapeutic ‘mi verdad’ (subjective personal authenticity).
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: iniquidad / transgresión de la ley
Transliteration: anomia
Doctrine: Universal Sinfulness and the Definition of Sin
Rejected alternatives: falta (rejected per baseline’s sin caution)
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Sin
1 John 3:4. Sin’s essential definition as rebellion against God, not merely a discrete infraction list; reinforces, does not soften, the baseline’s insistence on ‘pecado.‘
Seed
Approved rendering: simiente
Transliteration: sperma
Doctrine: New Birth (Born of God)
Original: σπέρμα
Category: Salvation
1 John 3:9. The implanted new nature inclining the believer away from habitual sin; literary/agricultural term, gloss recommended for urban readers.
Passed From Death To Life
Approved rendering: hemos pasado de muerte a vida
Transliteration: metabebēkamen ek tou thanatou eis tēn zōēn
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: μεταβεβήκαμεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν
Category: Salvation
1 John 3:14. A decisive, already-accomplished transition, evidenced by love for the brethren; preserve the definitive perfect-tense character against a gradualist framework.
Life Soul
Approved rendering: vida
Transliteration: psychē
Doctrine: Compassion and Practical Love
Rejected alternatives: alma (rejected — skews toward disembodied ‘soul,’ obscuring the concrete, whole-person self-giving in view)
Original: ψυχή
Category: Christian Life
1 John 3:16. The whole living person/self; Christ’s model of self-giving love as the pattern for believers laying down ‘our lives’ for the brethren.
Compassion
Approved rendering: compasión
Transliteration: splanchna
Doctrine: Compassion and Practical Love
Original: σπλάγχνα
Category: Christian Life
1 John 3:17. Deep, gut-level compassion; withholding it from a needy brother contradicts a claim to have God’s love abiding. The Greek’s vivid ‘bowels of compassion’ imagery is necessarily lost — the moral force is carried entirely by teaching emphasis.
Fear
Approved rendering: temor
Transliteration: phobos
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: φόβος
Category: Eschatology
1 John 4:18. Servile dread of punishment, which perfected love casts out; must be distinguished from the positive ‘temor de Dios’ (reverential awe) valued elsewhere in Hispanic popular piety.
Punishment
Approved rendering: castigo
Transliteration: kolasis
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: κόλασις
Category: Eschatology
1 John 4:18. Penal chastisement, the object of the servile fear perfected love removes; avoid a folk purgatorial-punishment framing — assurance removes this dread entirely, not merely lessens it.
Day Of Judgment
Approved rendering: día del juicio
Transliteration: hēmera tēs kriseōs
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ἡμέρα τῆς κρίσεως
Category: Eschatology
1 John 4:17. Standard eschatological term; keep explicitly linked to this passage’s present-assurance argument.
Commandment
Approved rendering: mandamiento
Transliteration: entolē
Doctrine: The New Commandment to Love
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Christian Life
Throughout, esp. 2:3-8, 3:22-24, 4:21. Risk of collision with catechetical ‘los diez mandamientos’ (the Decalogue); must be tied explicitly to Christ’s own ‘new commandment’ (cf. John 13:34) and the royal-law tradition, not assumed automatically distinct without explanation.
Brother
Approved rendering: hermano
Transliteration: adelphos
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Church
2:9-11, 3:10-17, 4:20-21. Fellow believer within the whole regenerate family, not merely fellow parishioners of one’s own congregation/denomination or biological kin — a real sectarian narrowing risk in Hispanic evangelical contexts.
False Prophet
Approved rendering: falso profeta
Transliteration: pseudoprophētēs
Doctrine: False Teaching and False Prophets
Original: ψευδοπροφήτης
Category: Discernment
1 John 4:1. Defined by christological denial (denying the incarnation), not by a failed prediction or moral scandal, the popular default association.
Overcome
Approved rendering: vencer / victoria
Transliteration: nikaō / nikē
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: νικάω / νίκη
Category: Kingdom
2:13-14, 4:4, 5:4-5. Victory secured through Christ and received by faith (5:4-5), not self-generated triumphalism or the prosperity-gospel ‘victoria’ language current in some Spanish-speaking charismatic media.
Testimony
Approved rendering: testimonio / testificar / dar testimonio
Transliteration: martyria / martyreō
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω
Category: Faith
1:2, 4:14, 5:6-11. God’s own authoritative, forensic testimony concerning the Son; must not be flattened to the popular evangelical genre of subjective personal-experience ‘dar mi testimonio.‘
Keep Oneself
Approved rendering: se guarda / guardaos
Transliteration: tēreō heauton / phylassō
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: τηρέω ἑαυτόν / φυλάσσω
Category: Christian Life
5:18, 5:21. Spirit-enabled vigilance against sin and idolatry, held together with God’s own preserving of the believer; avoid both fatalistic passivity and anxious self-effort.
Low Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: compañerismo (contextual: comunión)
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: comunión de los santos (specific Catholic liturgical formula)
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Church
Inherited from Romans package, unchanged. Avoid conflating with the specific Catholic creedal phrase ‘la comunión de los santos.’ ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR 1 JOHN: grounds the letter’s opening purpose clause (1:3) and is conditioned on walking in the light and confessing sin (1:6-7), not mere social cordiality.
Walk
Approved rendering: andar / caminar
Transliteration: peripateō
Doctrine: Walking in the Light
Original: περιπατέω
Category: Christian Life
1 John 1:6-7, 2:6, 2:11. Standard, well-established biblical idiom for lifestyle/conduct.
Unrighteousness
Approved rendering: injusticia
Transliteration: adikia
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀδικία
Category: Sin
1 John 1:9, 5:17. Standard antonym pairing with ‘justicia’; minimal ambiguity risk.
Lie
Approved rendering: mentira
Transliteration: pseudos
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Original: ψεῦδος
Category: Christian Life
1 John 2:21, 2:27. Falsehood as a category, opposed to truth; the content of the antichrists’ denial.
Little Children
Approved rendering: hijitos
Transliteration: teknia / paidia
Doctrine: Pastoral Address to the Whole Congregation
Original: τεκνία / παιδία
Category: Church
1 John 2:1, 2:12-14, 2:18, 2:28, 3:7, 3:18. Affectionate address to the whole congregation, not literal children or a subgroup; tone must not become so infantilizing it undercuts apostolic authority.
Devil
Approved rendering: diablo
Transliteration: diabolos
Doctrine: Children of God versus Children of the Devil
Original: διάβολος
Category: Sin
1 John 3:8, 3:10. Concrete moral-spiritual paternity opposite to ‘children of God’; teach as real allegiance, not folkloric devil-imagery.
Murderer
Approved rendering: asesino / homicida
Transliteration: phoneus
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: φονεύς
Category: Christian Life
1 John 3:15. Hatred of a brother morally equated with murder; preserve the full severity of the equation.
Heart
Approved rendering: corazón
Transliteration: kardia
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: καρδία
Category: Faith
1 John 3:19-21. Seat of conscience and self-assessment, which God’s knowledge exceeds and can correct when it condemns.
Name
Approved rendering: nombre
Transliteration: onoma
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: ὄνομα
Category: Salvation
1 John 3:23, 5:13. Stands for the whole person and authority of the Son; standard biblical idiom for believing ‘in his name.‘
Hate
Approved rendering: odia / aborrece
Transliteration: miseō
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: μισέω
Category: Christian Life
2:9-11, 3:15, 4:20. Full moral weight of active enmity or neglect, not casual dislike; casual Spanish ‘odiar’ can be hyperbolic/weakened and must be taught at full force here.
Liar
Approved rendering: mentiroso
Transliteration: pseustēs
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ψεύστης
Category: Christian Life
1:10, 2:4, 2:22, 4:20. A false love-claim exposes a lie about one’s actual spiritual state, not mere inconsistency; preserve the severity.
Evil One
Approved rendering: el maligno
Transliteration: ho ponēros
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ὁ πονηρός
Category: Kingdom
5:18-19. Standard title for Satan, from whom the believer is kept and preserved.
Referenced passages