Linguistic Gap Analysis: Ephesians (English → Thai)

Purpose and Scope

This document performs the linguistic gap analysis mandated by PRD Phase 1 Step 8 for the Ephesians curriculum, destination language Thai. It answers four questions for the whole letter (chapters 1–6), anchored theologically in the core passage Ephesians 2:1–10 but not scoped to it:

1. For each of the nine curriculum doctrines, what Thai vocabulary is available, what are its weaknesses, and what is the recommended strategy?
2. Where does Thai have no natural equivalent (missing vocabulary, requiring compound construction or explanatory apparatus) versus a crowded semantic neighborhood (too many competing native terms, requiring doctrinal fencing)?
3. Which terms should be transliterated versus paraphrased, and why?
4. What is the ranked list of this letter’s highest-risk ambiguities for a Thai audience?

Every chapter of Ephesians is reviewed below (§5), including chapters that contribute no new Critical/High vocabulary, per the full-book-coverage mandate.

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1. Doctrine Vocabulary Matrix

For each curriculum doctrine: the Thai terms already available (from the baseline or from 08_core_glossary.md/assets/bible_term_registry.json), the specific weaknesses of the available Thai vocabulary field, and the recommended strategy already adopted (confirmed here, not re-decided).

1.1 Salvation by Grace through Faith

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
พระคุณ (grace, baseline)	Directly competes with the operative logic of ordinary Thai religious life: บุญ (merit) and การสั่งสมบุญ (merit-accumulation) as the mechanism by which a person’s condition improves.	Retain พระคุณ exactly; every occurrence in a grace/works contrast (2:5, 8-9) must be paired with explicit negation of บุญ/กรรมดี/บารมี, per baseline.
ความเชื่อ (faith, baseline)	Its Buddhist cognate ศรัทธา is devotional confidence toward the Triple Gem, verifiable through practice, not trust in a person’s finished, external work.	Retain ความเชื่อ; anchor the object of faith explicitly to Christ at every occurrence, especially 2:8.
ความรอด (salvation, baseline)	Adjacent to การบรรลุนิพพาน (self-attained liberation) and การหลุดพ้น (escape from samsara) — both self-effort, gradualist, this-life-plus-many-lives concepts.	Retain ความรอด; the perfect-tense “already saved” sense of Eph 2:5, 8 (σεσωσμένοι) must be carried by the completive particle แล้ว since Thai verbs do not mark aspect — this is a translation mechanism gap, not a vocabulary gap (see §2.2).
การประพฤติ / กิจการ (works, new to Eph.)	Only one semantic step away from กรรมดี/บุญ; a translator reaching for natural-sounding Thai under time pressure could easily drift toward merit vocabulary.	Retain การประพฤติ/กิจการ exclusively; กรรมดี and บุญ remain absolutely forbidden per bible_term_registry.json.
การประพฤติดี/กิจการดี (good works, 2:10)	Structurally identical vocabulary to v.9’s forbidden “works,” creating a real risk that a Thai reader reharmonizes v.9’s prohibition and v.10’s affirmation into “wrong merit vs. right (Christian) merit.”	Sequencing must be made explicit through discourse markers (เพราะ…, มิใช่…, แต่); this is Ephesians’ single most delicate grace/works pairing (cf. §4, rank 1).

1.2 Election and Predestination in Christ

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
การทรงเลือก (election, baseline)	Adjacent to เวรกรรม (karmic destiny) and โชคชะตา/ดวง (astrological fate) — both impersonal, and both very high-frequency in ordinary Thai speech about why a person’s life turned out a certain way.	Retain การทรงเลือก; personal divine subject (พระเจ้า) must remain grammatically explicit, never passive-voice-flattened into an unattributed outcome.
ทรงกำหนดไว้ล่วงหน้า (predestined, new to Eph.)	No single native Thai word for “predestine” exists; the compound is transparent but risks being heard through the same lens as เวรกรรม/ดวง given their structural similarity (both describe a life-outcome fixed prior to the events themselves).	Retain the compound; require the personal, gracious agent (พระเจ้า, ทรง-) in the immediate clause at every occurrence (1:5, 11), never left implicit.
การทรงประทับตราด้วยพระวิญญาณบริสุทธิ์ / มัดจำ (seal/guarantee, new to Eph.)	Overlaps with Thai protective-marking practice — สักยันต์ (sacred tattoo), พกเครื่องราง (amulet-carrying) — where the mark/object itself, not a person, is believed to confer protection.	Retain the compound; the substance of the seal (the Holy Spirit himself, a Person) must never be replaced by a depersonalized “mark” gloss.
มรดก / ทายาท (inheritance/heir, baseline+new)	โชค (luck/chance) is the nearest short native word for an uncertain future good, wrong register entirely.	Retain มรดก/ทายาท; a certain, legally-guaranteed inheritance, not a chance outcome.

1.3 The Church as the Body of Christ

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
พระกายของพระคริสต์ (body of Christ, new to Eph.)	พระกาย (“sacred body”) risks activating the frame of relic veneration (พระบรมสารีริกธาตุ, the Buddha’s enshrined bodily relics) — a preserved physical remnant of a departed teacher, the opposite of a living, present, growing organism.	Never render “body” without the explicit possessive “of Christ” (ของพระคริสต์) attached in the same clause; never used in isolation.
ศีรษะ (ประมุข) (head, new to Eph.)	ประมุข alone reads as institutional/political headship (a head of state), understating the organic, life-giving, nourishing headship Paul intends (4:15-16).	Pair ศีรษะ/ประมุข consistently with growth-and-nourishment language from the same verse, not left as a bare title.
คริสตจักร (church, baseline)	วัด (forbidden) names a place; ecclesiological “body” language additionally risks being heard as merely organizational rather than organic-corporate.	Retain คริสตจักร; supplement with the body/head metaphor explicitly at each of 1:22-23; 4:15-16; 5:23, 30 rather than treating them as separable images.

1.4 Unity of Jews and Gentiles in One New Humanity

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
เอกภาพ (ฝ่ายพระวิญญาณ) (unity, new to Eph.)	ความสามัคคี is the everyday, high-frequency Thai word for “unity/harmony,” heavily used in Thai civic-nationalist discourse (national-unity campaigns, “ความสามัคคีคือพลัง”), risking a purely social/political reading.	Retain เอกภาพ + ฝ่ายพระวิญญาณ qualifier at all four occurrences (4:3, 13); never substitute the bare civic-register ความสามัคคี.
มนุษย์คนใหม่คนเดียว (one new man, new to Eph.)	Compounds two risks: the “new creation” forbidden-substitution risk (การเกิดใหม่) plus a corporate claim that could be misheard as each individual being separately reincarnated.	Retain the compound exactly; explicit corporate framing (“จากสองฝ่ายที่เคยแยกจากกัน… เป็นหนึ่งเดียว”) must accompany it, not left as a bare noun phrase.
ครอบครัวของพระเจ้า / ประชากรร่วมชาติ (household of God, new to Eph.)	No major weakness; low collision risk.	Retain as-is.
การเข้าสุหนัต (circumcision, baseline)	No Thai cultural equivalent exists at all (missing vocabulary, not crowded neighborhood — see §2.1).	Requires a short explanatory translator note on OT covenantal meaning at first occurrence (2:11).
กำแพงที่กั้นด้วยความเป็นศัตรู (dividing wall, new to Eph.)	Requires temple-architecture background unfamiliar to low-OT-literacy readers.	Short translator note recommended at 2:14.

1.5 The Mystery of Christ Revealed

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
ความล้ำลึก (mystery, new to Eph.)	Thai religious culture has fluent, normal vocabulary for restricted, initiate-only sacred knowledge: คาถา (incantations/spells transmitted only within closed ritual lineages), ตำราลับ (secret manuals). “Mystery” sounds native precisely because Thai already has a category for exactly this — closed esoteric knowledge — which is the opposite of Paul’s point.	Every occurrence (1:9; 3:3-9; 5:32; 6:19) must be accompanied, at least once per chapter, by explicit “now fully disclosed/made known” language (ได้ทรงสำแดง/เปิดเผยแล้ว) so the term is anchored against its natural but doctrinally false neighbor.
ความบริบูรณ์ (fullness, new to Eph.)	Historically loaded in later Gnostic systems as a technical term for graded divine emanations; secondary risk of drifting toward Thai prosperity-blessing connotations (ความอุดมสมบูรณ์ as material abundance).	Keep concretely and grammatically tied to “of Christ” / “of God” (ของพระคริสต์ / ของพระเจ้า) at every occurrence (1:23; 3:19; 4:13); never left as an unqualified abstract noun.
ความกล้าและโอกาสเข้าถึงพระเจ้า (boldness and access, new to Eph.)	Thai religious practice normally mediates access to the divine/spirit world through an intermediary — a monk, a spirit medium (ร่างทรง), or a shrine-vow (บนบานศาลกล่าว).	Direct, unmediated, Christ-alone access must be made explicit at 2:18 and 3:12, not left implicit in a bare noun phrase.

1.6 Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
เจ้าและนาย, ผู้มีอำนาจ, เจ้าโลกแห่งความมืดยุคนี้, เหล่าวิญญาณชั่วในย่านฟ้าอากาศ (rulers/authorities/cosmic powers, new to Eph.)	Thailand’s spirit hierarchy (ผีบรรพบุรุษ, เจ้าที่/พระภูมิ, ผีร้าย) is rich, normal, and — critically — negotiable: offerings and appeasement are the standard response to a threatening or displeased spirit. Ephesians commands resistance, never appeasement.	Consistent, non-negotiated “stand firm / resist” (ยืนหยัดต้านทาน) framing at every occurrence (1:21; 3:10; 6:12); never render in a way that invites an offering/appeasement response. Mandatory theologian review, per registry.
ยุทธภัณฑ์ของพระเจ้า (armor of God, new to Eph.)	Thai popular religion has a well-developed, normal system of protective sacred objects — พระเครื่อง (amulets), สักยันต์ (protective tattoos), สายสิญจน์ (blessed cords) — believed to confer protection through the object itself, obtained from a ritual specialist.	Consistently frame each armor piece (6:14-17) as a positional truth put on by faith, never as an object with inherent protective power; explicit “โดยความเชื่อ” framing recommended at first occurrence.
ยุคของโลกนี้ / ยุคต่าง ๆ ที่จะมาถึง (age/this world, new to Eph.)	Thai Buddhist-Brahmanic cosmology (กัป, kalpa) frames time as an endless cycle of ages without final resolution.	Must retain the linear, terminus-bound sense — a definite present age moving toward a definite future consummation in Christ, never a recurring wheel.

1.7 Household Codes and Christ-Centered Relationships

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
การยอมเชื่อฟัง / การยอมอยู่ใต้ (submission, new to Eph.)	Risk of being heard as one-directional coercive subjugation, especially given Thai social hierarchy’s strong status-consciousness (เกรงใจ, patron-client norms).	Must always be translated and taught alongside the husband’s parallel, weightier call to self-sacrificial love (5:25) in the same unit, never presented as a standalone directive to wives.
เชื่อฟัง / ให้เกียรติ (obey/honor parents, new to Eph.)	Low risk — Thai filial piety (กตัญญูกตเวที) is an existing, positive cultural bridge.	Retain; add explicit “ในองค์พระผู้เป็นเจ้า” (in the Lord) grounding so the command is not read as generic Confucian-Buddhist filial duty detached from Christ.
ทาส / นาย (slaves/masters, new to Eph.)	No live Thai social institution of chattel slavery for direct comparison; risk of anachronistic misreading either as an endorsement of slavery or as wholly irrelevant to modern life.	Explanatory translator note required distinguishing first-century household-slavery context from principled application to modern employer-employee relationships.
ไม่ทรงเห็นแก่หน้าใคร (impartiality, new to Eph.)	Directly confronts Thai patron-client and face-based (เกรงใจ, การเห็นแก่หน้า) social norms.	Retain as a direct, unsoftened challenge; do not domesticate into a vaguer “be fair.”

1.8 Gifts for Building Up the Church

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
ของประทานฝ่ายวิญญาณ (spiritual gifts, baseline)	Adjacent to ฤทธิ์อำนาจลึกลับ (occult/mysterious power), a term associated with amulets and folk-magic practitioners (ไสยศาสตร์).	Retain baseline term exactly; never substitute อำนาจลึกลับ vocabulary for any of the five gift-offices in 4:11.
อัครทูต, ผู้เผยพระวจนะ, ผู้ประกาศข่าวประเสริฐ, ศิษยาภิบาล, ผู้สอนพระวจนะ (the five offices)	The bare word อาจารย์ (“teacher”) carries the connotation of a permanent, reverential, lifelong guru-disciple bond (อาจารย์-ศิษย์) in Thai Buddhist tradition — one singular master, not one gift-office among several serving a shared body.	Never use bare อาจารย์; retain ผู้สอนพระวจนะ, which keeps the office plural, distributed, and Word-anchored.
การเสริมสร้างซึ่งกันและกัน (mutual edification, baseline)	Low risk.	Retain as-is.

1.9 Walking in Newness of Life

Available Thai terms	Weakness	Recommended strategy
ดำเนินชีวิต (walk, new to Eph.)	No inherent doctrinal weakness, but the term is a consistency-critical motif recurring at 2:2, 10; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15 forming a deliberate old-walk/new-walk literary inclusio.	Use the identical verb at every occurrence without stylistic variation; a translator’s natural instinct to vary vocabulary for elegance would destroy the letter’s structural argument.
มนุษย์เก่า / มนุษย์ใหม่; ถอด / สวม (old self/new self, new to Eph.)	Same forbidden-substitution risk as “new creation” (never การเกิดใหม่); garment verbs ถอด/สวม risk being read as a repeatable action (put off and on again) rather than a decisive, once-for-all change.	Reuse the baseline’s สวมพระคริสต์ (clothed with Christ) construction pattern exactly; frame ถอด/สวม as a definite past event with ongoing implications, not a recurring ritual cycle.
ได้รับการทรงเปลี่ยนใจและความคิดใหม่ (renewed mind, new to Eph.)	Adjacent to Buddhist mind-training vocabulary (การฝึกจิต, การเจริญภาวนา/การเจริญสติ) achieved through the practitioner’s own sustained meditative discipline.	Retain the ทรง- divine-agency marker without exception; this is the Spirit’s action upon the believer, not self-produced insight.
ผลของพระวิญญาณ / ผลแห่งความสว่าง (fruit of light, baseline pattern)	Adjacent to ผลบุญ/ผลกรรม (karmic fruit), the standard frame for how actions ripen into merit or demerit.	Retain baseline pattern exactly; never ผลบุญ/ผลกรรม.

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2. Missing Vocabulary vs. Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods

Two distinct problem types recur throughout Ephesians, and they require opposite mitigation strategies.

• Missing vocabulary = Thai has no native term or concept at all; the risk is incomprehension, requiring compound construction, explanatory notes, or careful coinage.
• Crowded semantic neighborhood = Thai has several fluent, natural-sounding native terms; the risk is false-friend substitution, requiring doctrinal fencing to keep the correct term from drifting toward a doctrinally incompatible neighbor.

2.1 Missing Vocabulary (requires construction, not fencing)

Concept	Passage	Why missing	Construction used
Circumcision as covenant sign	2:11	No parallel initiation rite in Thai Buddhist or folk-religious tradition.	การเข้าสุหนัต (transparent compound) + mandatory translator note on OT background.
Predestination (as a single verb concept)	1:5, 11	No single native Thai verb for “to determine beforehand” as a theological technical term.	ทรงกำหนดไว้ล่วงหน้า (compound: ทรง- + กำหนด + ไว้ล่วงหน้า).
The fourfold power stack (dynamis/energeia/kratos/ischys)	1:19	Thai lacks four distinct native nouns mapping one-to-one onto the Greek stack; a literal fourfold coinage would sound artificial.	Single term ฤทธิ์เดชของพระเจ้า intensified by modifiers (เหลือล้น, ยิ่งใหญ่, มหาศาล) rather than four invented nouns — a deliberate compression strategy, flagged for translator awareness, not concealment.
Household slavery as an institution needing modern re-application	6:5-9	No living Thai social institution offers a direct one-to-one comparison.	ทาส/นาย retained with mandatory explanatory note; no coinage possible or needed.
Dividing wall / temple architecture	2:14	Second-Temple architectural background unfamiliar to low-OT-literacy first-generation believers.	กำแพงที่กั้นด้วยความเป็นศัตรู + short note.
Seed-of-Abraham-style singular/plural argumentation	(Present in Galatians, absent as such in Ephesians — noted here only to confirm no analogous number-inflection gap arises in Ephesians’ own argument; Thai’s general number-neutrality does not create a comparable crisis point in this letter.)	—	No action needed; noted for completeness.

2.2 Crowded Semantic Neighborhoods (requires fencing, not construction)

Thai term/field already fluent in the culture	Competing biblical concept(s)	Fencing strategy
บุญ, กรรมดี, บารมี (merit / good karma / accumulated charisma)	grace, works, good works, gift of salvation	Absolute prohibition (Critical, per baseline and registry); explicit negation language required at every grace/works contrast.
ตัณหา (Pali taṇhā, craving — root of dukkha)	desires of the flesh (2:3)	Forbidden as primary gloss; ความปรารถนาของเนื้อหนัง required, keeping the term outside Buddhist technical vocabulary entirely.
กิเลส (defilements)	flesh (σάρξ), technical sense	Forbidden as primary gloss (inherited from Galatians baseline); เนื้อหนัง required precisely because it is not already a loaded Buddhist technical term.
การเกิดใหม่ / การกลับชาติมาเกิด (rebirth/reincarnation)	resurrection, made alive with Christ, raised/seated with Christ, new creation, one new man, old self/new self	Forbidden across the board; ทรง- divine-agency marker and explicit “with Christ” union formula required at every occurrence — this is the single most-repeated fencing requirement in the letter (occurs at no fewer than seven distinct doctrinal points).
เวรกรรม, โชคชะตา, ดวง (karmic destiny / astrological fate)	election, predestination, providence	Forbidden; personal divine agent must remain grammatically explicit.
หลุดพ้น, วิมุตติ, การบรรลุนิพพาน	salvation, freedom (inherited from Romans/Galatians baseline, not independently re-triggered by new Ephesians vocabulary but present via the shared “salvation” term at 1:13; 2:5, 8; 6:17)	Forbidden per baseline; no new Ephesians-specific instance but must be re-confirmed for this curriculum’s translators, who may not have translated Romans/Galatians.
ผี, เจ้าที่/พระภูมิ, ผีบรรพบุรุษ (spirit categories, generally negotiable/appeasable)	devil, rulers/authorities/cosmic powers, ruler of the power of the air	Fenced by consistent “resist, do not appease” framing; never rendered in a way that invites an offering-response.
สวรรค์ (heaven, incl. temporary deva-realms)	heavenly places (ἐπουράνιος)	Fenced by explicit “in Christ” / union-with-the-risen-Christ qualifiers at each occurrence (2:6; 3:10; 6:12), distinguishing permanent positional union from a temporary pleasant rebirth-realm.
เข้าทรง, ผีเข้า/ถูกผีสิง (spirit-medium trance possession)	filled with the Spirit (5:18)	Fenced by framing as the Spirit’s sanctifying, self-controlled influence, explicitly not loss of self-control to a displacing entity; mandatory theologian review.
คาถา, ตำราลับ (secret incantations/restricted ritual knowledge)	mystery (μυστήριον)	Fenced by mandatory “now fully disclosed” language accompanying every occurrence.
พระเครื่อง, สักยันต์, สายสิญจน์ (amulets, protective tattoos, blessed cords)	armor of God	Fenced by “put on by faith” framing, never object-inherent protective power.
ความสามัคคี (civic-nationalist social harmony)	unity (Spirit-wrought, 4:3, 13)	Fenced by mandatory ฝ่ายพระวิญญาณ qualifier; never left as the bare civic term.
พระบรมสารีริกธาตุ (Buddha’s bodily relics)	body of Christ	Fenced by mandatory explicit possessive “ของพระคริสต์” attached to พระกาย at every occurrence.
อาจารย์-ศิษย์ (permanent guru-disciple bond)	teacher (one of five gift-offices, 4:11); also guardian (Galatians baseline, recurring principle)	Fenced by avoiding the bare อาจารย์; ผู้สอนพระวจนะ required.
กราบไหว้ (devotional prostration toward a Buddha image or senior monk)	idolatry (5:5)	Fenced by careful pastoral framing distinguishing exclusive worship (forbidden toward any image) from ordinary cultural gestures of respect; requires theologian-level nuance, not a blanket condemnation of all such gestures without qualification.
พร (a boon sought/earned through devotional practice)	promise, blessing, gift of salvation	Fenced by the พระ- honorific (พระพร, พระสัญญา) and by ของประทาน for the specific “gift” of 2:8, distinguishing divinely bestowed, unearned gifts from sought/earned boons.
เครื่องบูชา ongoing devotional offerings (to spirit-houses, monks, shrines)	sacrifice/offering (5:2)	Fenced by “once-for-all, unrepeatable” framing of Christ’s self-offering, contrasted with an ongoing devotional pattern.
กฎแห่งกรรม / ทำดีได้ดีทำชั่วได้ชั่ว (already fenced in the Galatians baseline; recurs by extension through shared “works” logic in Eph 2:9-10, though Ephesians does not use Galatians’ sowing/reaping figure directly)	works, good works	Cross-referenced fencing; the Galatians baseline’s fencing strategy for sowing/reaping is the template for the analogous risk in Eph 2:9-10, even though the specific proverb collision is slightly less acute here.

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3. Transliteration vs. Paraphrase Decisions

3.1 Established Transliterations (reused from baseline, unchanged)

Term	Thai form	Basis
Jesus	พระเยซู	Baseline
Christ	พระคริสต์	Baseline
Paul	เปาโล	Baseline requirements doc
Abraham, David, Israel, Moses, Isaiah	(established forms)	Baseline requirements doc
Amen, Hallelujah	อาเมน, ฮาเลลูยาห์	Baseline requirements doc
Abba	อับบา (retained alongside พระบิดา)	Baseline
Messiah	พระเมสสิยาห์	Baseline (never พระศรีอริยเมตไตรย)

3.2 New Proper Nouns Introduced by Ephesians (Transliteration Decisions)

Term	Original	Decision	Thai form	Rationale
Ephesus	Ἔφεσος	Transliterate	เอเฟซัส	Established Thai Bible Society place-name form; no paraphrase possible for a proper noun.
Tychicus	Τυχικός	Transliterate	ทีคิกัส	Proper noun; established Thai Bible form.

3.3 Terms Decided Against Transliteration (Paraphrase/Compound Required Instead)

Term	Why transliteration was rejected	Paraphrase adopted
mystery (μυστήριον)	A transliterated “มิสเตอรีออน” would be doctrinally opaque to readers and would forfeit the deliberate confrontation with Thai’s own “secret knowledge” vocabulary (คาถา) that the correct paraphrase must engage and correct.	ความล้ำลึก + mandatory “now disclosed” framing (see §2.2).
armor of God (πανοπλία)	A transliteration would sound like a foreign military loanword disconnected from any spiritual meaning; a native compound is required to convey “God’s own military equipment” as a coherent image.	ยุทธภัณฑ์ของพระเจ้า.
fullness (πλήρωμα)	No natural transliteration target exists in Thai theological usage; a compound native term is required and is already well-attested in Thai Christian usage.	ความบริบูรณ์.
predestined (προορίζω)	A borrowed English/Greek-derived coinage would be unintelligible to the target reading level (secondary-school literacy).	ทรงกำหนดไว้ล่วงหน้า.
gift (δῶρον, 2:8)	Transliteration entirely inappropriate for a common noun with rich existing Thai vocabulary (พร, ของขวัญ, ของประทาน); the doctrinal work is choosing among native options, not importing a foreign one.	ของประทาน (never พร).

General rule confirmed for Ephesians: transliteration is reserved for proper nouns and a small closed set of already-established liturgical exclamations (Amen, Hallelujah, Abba). Every common theological noun or verb — however abstract — receives a native Thai compound or an established Thai Christian rendering, never a fresh transliteration, consistent with the baseline’s “prefer terms already established in Thai Christian usage over inventing new coinages” instruction.

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4. Ranked List of Ephesians’ Highest-Risk Ambiguities

Ranked by combined severity (doctrinal centrality of the passage × probability of cultural/religious-vocabulary collision in Thai). All items ranked High or above require mandatory human theologian review per doctrine_risk_registry.json conventions; this ranking sets relative priority for Phase 2 QA sequencing within that population.

1. Grace excludes works, yet works remain the necessary fruit (2:8-10). The letter’s — and arguably the whole curriculum’s — highest-stakes sentence for a Thai audience. The near-identical surface vocabulary of the prohibition (v.9) and the affirmation (v.10) creates a live risk of “different, Christian kind of merit-making” reharmonization. Mitigation: explicit sequencing discourse markers; mandatory theologian sign-off on every translated instance of this passage across all Ephesians materials.

2. Made alive / raised / seated with Christ (2:5-6). Higher surface-similarity risk to rebirth/reincarnation than “resurrection” itself, since “made alive” reads even more naturally as “a new birth” in Thai. Mitigation: mandatory ทรง- divine-agency marker and explicit “ร่วมกับพระคริสต์” union formula at every occurrence; never rendered with a bare verb of becoming-alive.

3. Rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces of evil (1:21; 3:10; 6:12). The richest, most normal, most negotiable spirit-taxonomy of any Thai-culture collision point in the letter. Getting this wrong either strips the powers of their personal reality or invites an appeasement response Paul explicitly forecloses. Mitigation: consistent “resist, do not appease” framing; mandatory theologian review at all three occurrences.

4. Predestined / election (1:4-5, 11). Directly structurally opposite to the two dominant Thai folk explanatory frameworks for life-outcome (karma, astrology), both extremely high-frequency in ordinary speech. Mitigation: explicit personal divine subject at every occurrence.

5. Filled with the Spirit (5:18). Collision with spirit-possession vocabulary and practice (เข้าทรง) is unusually vivid and behaviorally observable (trance phenomena are a live part of Thai popular religious practice), raising real risk of syncretistic charismatic-practice confusion in application, not just translation. Mitigation: explicit self-controlled, sanctifying-influence framing; mandatory theologian review.

6. Desires of the flesh (2:3). The single most tempting “natural-sounding” mistranslation in the whole letter: ตัณหา is not a vague folk word but the precise, canonical Second-Noble-Truth technical term, taught from childhood. A translator working quickly, without this analysis in view, would very plausibly reach for it. Mitigation: explicit forbidden-term flag in Phase 2 tooling; ความปรารถนาของเนื้อหนัง required.

7. Mystery (1:9; 3:3-9; 5:32; 6:19). Thai’s own vocabulary for restricted esoteric knowledge (คาถา) makes ความล้ำลึก sound more, not less, natural if the “now disclosed” correction is omitted — an unusual case where doctrinal safety requires an active correction rather than mere lexical caution. Mitigation: “now disclosed” language mandatory at least once per occurrence-cluster.

8. Armor of God (6:11-17). Thai protective-object culture (amulets, tattoos, cords) is materially normal and non-stigmatized, creating risk not of incomprehension but of a too-comfortable, magically-inflected misreading. Mitigation: “put on by faith” framing at first occurrence and reinforced at each armor-piece.

9. Idolatry (5:5). The most pastorally delicate item in the ranked list: getting this wrong in either direction (softening it into nothing, or over-applying it to brand ordinary cultural gestures as sin) both cause real harm. Mitigation: theologian-level framing distinguishing exclusive worship from cultural respect; not resolvable by lexical choice alone.

10. One new man / body of Christ / old self–new self (2:15; 1:22-23; 4:22-24). Three separate but related applications of the “new creation” forbidden-substitution rule, compounded by relic-veneration risk for “body.” Mitigation: consistent application of the baseline’s new_creation fencing rule across all three; explicit possessive “of Christ” for body language.

11. Heavenly places (2:6; 3:10; 6:12). สวรรค์’s deva-realm associations create a “nice but impermanent rebirth-destination” misreading risk, lower stakes than items above because the surrounding “in Christ” language in each occurrence already does significant fencing work. Mitigation: translator note recommended at each occurrence; not mandatory theologian escalation on its own unless paired with another Critical term in the same segment.

12. Unity (4:3, 13) vs. civic ความสามัคคี. Real risk of doctrinal flattening into a social-harmony slogan, but the doctrinal content is easier to recover from context (explicit “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” anchor in the same passage) than items 1-9. Mitigation: mandatory ฝ่ายพระวิญญาณ qualifier.

13. Submission and household codes (5:21-6:9). Primarily a balance risk (one-directional reading) rather than a false-friend vocabulary risk; Thai’s existing status-consciousness makes the imbalance more likely to go unnoticed by a reviewer who is not specifically watching for it. Mitigation: mandatory co-translation of 5:25 wherever 5:22-24 appears.

14. Fullness (1:23; 3:19; 4:13). Lower risk than the items above because the Gnostic-emanation collision is a specialist theological risk unlikely to be independently reconstructed by an ordinary Thai reader, and the prosperity-blessing collision is mild. Mitigation: possessive-anchoring is sufficient; native-speaker review adequate rather than mandatory theologian escalation on its own.

15. Sacrifice/offering (5:2). Real but comparatively contained risk, since Christ’s uniqueness is already reinforced elsewhere in the letter (e.g., the “once for all” logic implicit in 2:8-10’s completed-salvation grammar). Mitigation: “once-for-all, unrepeatable” framing at first occurrence.

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5. Full-Book Chapter Coverage Confirmation

Per the PRD Phase 1 full-book-coverage mandate, every chapter of Ephesians has been reviewed for linguistic-gap content, not only the core passage (2:1-10).

Chapter	New/extended gap-analysis content	Status
1	Election, predestination, seal/guarantee, blessing, inheritance, fourfold power-stack compression, fullness, supremacy-of-Christ vocabulary. High new-term density.	Reviewed — substantial new content (§1.2, §1.5, §2.1)
2	Core passage (2:1-10): dead/trespasses/desires of the flesh/wrath/children of wrath/made alive/raised-seated with Christ/gift/works/good works/prepared beforehand/walk; plus 2:11-22: circumcision, strangers/aliens, dividing wall, reconciliation, one new man, household of God, cornerstone, temple/dwelling place. Highest new-term density of any chapter.	Reviewed — anchor chapter, full analysis throughout §1.1, §1.4, §2.1, §2.2, §4
3	Mystery, stewardship, fellow heirs, manifold wisdom, boldness and access, fullness (recurrence), supremacy-of-Christ (recurrence).	Reviewed — substantial new content (§1.5)
4	Unity, calling (recurrence), gift-offices (apostle/prophet/evangelist/pastor/teacher), equipping, body/head, old self/new self, renewed mind, grieve the Holy Spirit, walk (recurrence).	Reviewed — substantial new content (§1.3, §1.8, §1.9)
5	Imitators of God, sacrifice/offering, idolatry, kingdom of God (recurrence), fruit of light, filled with the Spirit, submission, one flesh/marriage mystery. No new terms beyond those already logged; confirmed no additional gaps beyond §1.6/§1.7/§1.9 entries.	Reviewed — no residual gaps beyond logged terms
6	Obey/honor parents, slaves/masters, impartiality, devil, rulers/authorities/cosmic powers (recurrence), armor of God, word of God (rhema), ambassador in chains, age/this world (recurrence). Closing greetings (6:21-24) contain only baseline terms (grace, peace, love, faith) already fully covered; confirmed no residual gaps.	Reviewed — substantial new content through 6:20; closing greeting explicitly checked and found to contribute no new terms

No chapter of Ephesians was omitted from this analysis. Chapters 5 (past v.18) and 6 (past v.20) are explicitly noted as contributing no additional load-bearing vocabulary beyond what is already logged in §1–§4, rather than being silently passed over.

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6. Summary of Required Downstream Actions

1. All fencing rules in §2.2 must be encoded as automated validation checks in Phase 2 tooling, extending the existing 12_ai_translation_requirements.md forbidden-substitution list.
2. The ranked list in §4 should determine QA review sequencing priority within the Critical/High theologian-review queue, not review inclusion (inclusion is already determined by doctrine_risk_registry.json).
3. The compression strategy adopted for the fourfold power-stack (§2.1) should be flagged to Phase 2 translators as a deliberate, reviewed decision, not an oversight, to prevent a well-meaning translator from “fixing” it by inventing four new nouns.
4. Chapter 5 and chapter 6 closing-greeting findings (§5) should be recorded in the doctrine risk registry’s Ephesians extension as “reviewed, no new terms” rather than left unaddressed.

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Cross-reference: analysis/08_core_glossary.md (full term inventory and doctrine grouping); assets/bible_term_registry.json (Ephesians-extended term registry); baseline translation_memory.json v2, bible_term_registry.json, doctrine_risk_registry.json v1 (Romans/Galatians, authoritative and unmodified); 12_ai_translation_requirements.md v1.2 (Phase 2 enforcement instructions, to be further extended with the Ephesians additions implied by this analysis).