Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural and theological risks identified in Culture Analysis and Comparative Theology. Every term entry records:
- The approved Turkish translation and a phonetic pronunciation guide
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons, including where a term is shared with but narrower than its Islamic theological usage
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Established usage over invention — where Kitabı Mukaddes already has a settled rendering (Tanrı, İsa Mesih, Rab, Kutsal Ruh), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
- Explicit naming, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records the specific Islamic theological claim it stands in tension with (see
alternatives_rejectedandnotes), so a translator or reviewer understands why softening the term would misrepresent the source text, not just that a rule exists. - Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters, including the specific Qur’anic or folk-Islamic concept each Critical or High risk term must be kept distinct from.
Critical Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: Baba
Transliteration: bah-BAH
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: Yaratıcı (Creator, as a substitute to avoid relational language)
CRITICAL: Calling God ‘Father’ can register as anthropomorphic or as implying literal offspring, which tawhid explicitly forbids — this makes ‘Baba’ one of the most relationally rich but potentially jarring terms in the whole package. Do not retreat to the safer but flatter Yaratıcı; teach the relational, adoptive sense directly rather than avoiding the term.
God
Approved rendering: Tanrı
Transliteration: tahn-RUH
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Allah (theologically usable but politically/socially contested for Christian texts in some contexts)
Tanrı is the term used consistently across modern Turkish Bible translations (Kitabı Mukaddes), functioning as the generic word for deity without directly invoking the specifically Qur’anic Allah in a Christian text. Allah is understood by all Turkish speakers and is not doctrinally wrong, but Tanrı is the settled convention this Language Package follows for consistency.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Kutsal Ruh
Transliteration: koot-SAHL ROOH
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: Cebrail (the archangel Gabriel)
CRITICAL: In Qur’anic usage, ‘Ruh al-Qudus’ (the same phrase, Kutsal Ruh) is widely understood by Muslim commentators to refer to the archangel Gabriel aiding Jesus, not a co-equal divine Person. This curriculum must explicitly teach that the Holy Spirit is God himself, the third Person of the Trinity, not an angel, wherever the term first appears in a lesson.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: Sayılan doğruluk
Transliteration: sah-yuh-LAHN doh-roo-LOOK
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: kazanılmış doğruluk (earned righteousness)
Righteousness credited/reckoned to a believer’s account by faith, not achieved through salih amel (righteous deeds). Kazanılmış doğruluk (‘earned righteousness’) is explicitly rejected — it reintroduces the deeds-ledger framework Paul is arguing against.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: Beden alma
Transliteration: beh-DEN ahl-MAH
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: Tanrı’nın insan kılığına girmesi (God disguising himself as a human), tecessüm (bare philosophical term without doctrinal framing)
CRITICAL: The eternal Son permanently taking on true human nature, not a temporary disguise or appearance (tajassum is theologically forbidden in Islamic doctrine, so this term will read as inherently transgressive; that is a feature to explain, not to soften away). Never imply a mere appearance of humanity.
Jesus
Approved rendering: İsa
Transliteration: ee-SAH
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘İsa Peygamber’ (Prophet Jesus, without Mesih)
CRITICAL: İsa is the shared Turkish/Qur’anic name for Jesus, so it alone signals only the Qur’anic prophet-Jesus to most readers. This curriculum must consistently pair İsa with Mesih (İsa Mesih) rather than using İsa alone, precisely to keep the fuller Christian identity in view rather than letting the name default to its Qur’anic referent.
Justification
Approved rendering: Aklanma
Transliteration: ahk-lahn-MAH
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: günahların affı (forgiveness of sins, alone), temize çıkma (colloquial ‘being cleared’)
Aklanma is a forensic-legal term (to be acquitted/declared innocent) already used in Turkish legal registers, which makes it a strong fit for Paul’s courtroom metaphor. Do not collapse it into simple forgiveness (günahların affı); justification is a positive declaration of righteousness, not merely a pardon.
Lord
Approved rendering: Rab
Transliteration: RAHB
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: efendi (master, non-divine), üstat (teacher/master)
Established Turkish Bible term (also renders the divine name YHWH as RAB in small caps in OT usage). In Romans 10:9 the confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ = İsa Rab’dir. Efendi is used for a human master/employer and must not be substituted; it strips the confession of its exclusive divine claim.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Mesih
Transliteration: meh-SEEH
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: sadece bir peygamber (merely a prophet)
CRITICAL: Mesih is transliterated and shared with the Qur’anic al-Masih title given to Isa, but the Qur’an empties the title of its Old-Testament content (anointed king-priest-savior fulfilling David’s line) and treats it as an honorific with no salvific weight. Every use of Mesih in this curriculum must be paired with the full OT-fulfillment content Paul assumes, not left as a bare, familiar-sounding label.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: Diriliş
Transliteration: dee-ree-LEESH
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: göğe yükseliş (ascension, alone), ruhsal diriliş (spiritual-only revival)
CRITICAL: Must affirm a real bodily death followed by bodily resurrection. The Qur’an (4:157) denies that Jesus was actually killed or crucified, teaching instead that he was raised (göğe yükseliş) without dying. Diriliş must never be softened into or conflated with a no-death ascension narrative; the historical death is as doctrinally load-bearing as the resurrection itself.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: Doğruluk
Transliteration: doh-roo-LOOK
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: salih amel (righteous deeds), adalet (justice, generic)
CRITICAL: Never render as salih amel, the Islamic category of righteous works that (together with Allah’s mercy) determine a believer’s standing on Judgment Day. Doğruluk in Romans is a right standing granted through faith, not a deeds-ledger outcome.
Salvation
Approved rendering: Kurtuluş
Transliteration: koor-too-LOOSH
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: cennete girmek (entering paradise, as the whole content), necat (Ottoman/Arabic register)
CRITICAL: Kurtuluş is the established Turkish Christian term (deliverance through Christ’s death and resurrection, received now, not merely a hoped-for outcome decided at Judgment Day). Do not let it be read as a synonym for ‘entering cennet [paradise]’ in the Islamic sense, where the outcome remains uncertain until Allah’s final judgment; Romans grounds present assurance in Christ’s finished work.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Tanrı’nın Oğlu
Transliteration: tahn-RUH-nuhn oh-LOO
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Tanrı’nın sevgili kulu (God’s beloved servant), kutsal kişi (holy person)
CRITICAL: Full phrase required, never softened. The Qur’an states directly that Allah ‘neither begets nor is begotten’ (112:3), making this the single most theologically confrontational phrase in the whole curriculum. Do not substitute a servant/prophet euphemism to reduce offense — doctrinal content must be preserved, with pastoral framing handled in surrounding teaching material, not by changing the term itself.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Transliteration: AH-bah
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved untranslated in Romans 8:15, as in the source text. Retain the transliteration; it conveys a childlike intimacy that even Baba alone may not fully carry for a reader encountering filial address to God for the first time.
Adoption
Approved rendering: Evlatlığa alınma
Transliteration: ev-laht-luh-AH ah-luhn-MAH
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: evlat edinme (bare, without doctrinal qualifier)
Full legal-standing sonship with inheritance rights, not a lesser or symbolic status. Note carefully in teaching material that this is a legal-relational adoption, not a claim that God ‘has children’ in the ontological sense the Qur’an denies (112:3) — the referent is believers’ new status, not God’s nature.
Called
Approved rendering: Çağrılmış
Transliteration: chah-ruhl-MUSH
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: davet edilmiş (invited)
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation. Davet edilmiş (‘invited’) is too weak and suggests a call one may freely decline without consequence to God’s purpose.
Calling
Approved rendering: Çağrı
Transliteration: chah-RUH
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: davet
Noun form for the act/state of being called by God. Distinguish from davet (a general invitation), which does not carry the sovereign, effectual weight Paul intends.
Election
Approved rendering: Tanrı’nın seçimi
Transliteration: tahn-RUH-nuhn seh-chee-MEE
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: kader (fate/predestination in the qadar sense), kısmet
God’s sovereign, personal choice of individuals for salvation. Kader carries strong Islamic qadar (divine decree) connotations that read as impersonal, deterministic fate rather than a personal, relational choosing; kısmet similarly implies fortune/luck. Tanrı’nın seçimi keeps the relational, purposive sense.
Faith
Approved rendering: İman
Transliteration: ee-MAHN
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: inanç (generic belief)
İman is an Arabic loanword shared with Islamic vocabulary, where it denotes assent to the six pillars (Allah, angels, books, prophets, last day, qadar). Romans’ iman is personal trust in Christ specifically; the object of faith must always be stated explicitly in context, not left implicit as in generic Islamic usage.
Glory
Approved rendering: Yücelik
Transliteration: yoo-jeh-LEEK
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: nur (divine light, heavily loaded in Islamic and Sufi mysticism as Muhammad’s pre-existent light)
God’s radiant honor and majesty. Avoid nur, which in Turkish Islamic and Sufi usage specifically evokes Nur Muhammad, the pre-existent ‘light of Muhammad’ tradition — an entirely different and competing pre-existence claim.
Gospel
Approved rendering: Müjde
Transliteration: MYUZH-deh
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: İncil (bare, unqualified), iyi haber (generic)
Müjde (‘good news’) is the established Turkish Bible term. Avoid using bare İncil for ‘gospel-as-message’ since İncil primarily names the book/collection and, in the Quranic frame, the (allegedly corrupted) revelation given to Isa; Müjde keeps the living-proclamation sense distinct from that loaded association.
Grace
Approved rendering: Lütuf
Transliteration: lyoo-TOOF
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: rahmet, keramet, bağış
Lütuf conveys unearned favor given apart from merit. Rahmet (‘mercy’) is the standard Islamic-vocabulary term for God’s mercy but is compatible with a merit-and-mercy salvation framework, not grace apart from works; keep the two distinct in teaching notes.
Holy
Approved rendering: Kutsal
Transliteration: koot-SAHL
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: temiz (ritually clean), mübarek (blessed)
Kutsal = set apart for God, morally pure. Temiz carries ritual-cleanliness connotations (wudu-adjacent); mübarek is closer to ‘blessed/auspicious.’ Kutsal is the established, doctrinally precise Turkish Bible term.
Intercession
Approved rendering: Aracılık
Transliteration: ah-rah-juh-LUHK
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: şefaat (Islamic intercession, associated with Muhammad’s role on Judgment Day)
Prayer on behalf of others, or Christ’s/the Spirit’s mediating work. Şefaat specifically names the Islamic doctrine of Muhammad’s future intercession for his community on Judgment Day; using it for Christ’s intercession risks presenting Christ as filling a Muhammad-shaped role rather than his own unique mediatorial one.
Law
Approved rendering: Kutsal Yasa
Transliteration: koot-SAHL yah-SAH
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: şeriat (Islamic religious law), Tevrat Yasası (bare ‘Torah law’)
Refers to the Mosaic law. NEVER use şeriat, which specifically denotes Islamic religious law as a comprehensive legal-social system and would import an entirely different framework of law-and-society into Paul’s argument.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: İmanın getirdiği itaat
Transliteration: ee-mahn-UHN geh-teer-DEE-ee ee-tah-AHT
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: İslam’a (teslimiyet) benzer itaat (submission modeled on Islamic surrender)
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Itaat (‘obedience/submission’) is also the semantic root of islam (‘submission’) itself, so this phrase risks being heard as ‘faith produces submission just like Islam teaches.’ The Turkish must make clear the obedience flows from a faith relationship already secured by grace, not a submission that itself earns standing.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: Tanrı’nın gücü
Transliteration: tahn-RUH-nuhn goo-JOO
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Tanrı’nın kudreti (used, but often paired with fatalistic qadar language)
Güç is the plain, doctrinally clean term. Kudret is common in Islamic devotional Turkish (Allah’ın kudreti) and tends to appear alongside qadar/fate framing; güç keeps Romans 1:16’s saving power distinct from a generic divine-omnipotence-and-fate frame.
Prophet
Approved rendering: Peygamber
Transliteration: pay-gahm-BEHR
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: kahin (soothsayer/fortune-teller)
Peygamber is the standard, shared Islamic-Turkish term for a prophet, which is precisely the risk: it is also exactly the (exclusive) category into which Islamic theology places Jesus himself. When peygamber is used of OT prophets pointing to Christ, ensure surrounding text makes clear their role differs from Jesus’ own identity, which the curriculum will present as more than prophetic.
Providence
Approved rendering: Tanrı’nın yönetimi
Transliteration: tahn-RUH-nuhn yur-neh-tee-MEE
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: kader (qadar/fatalistic decree), alın yazısı (predetermined fate written on the forehead)
God’s personal, purposive care for his people, especially Romans 8:28. Kader and alın yazısı both carry strong Islamic/folk fatalism connotations (an impersonal decree one cannot know or influence); providence in Romans is the personal governance of a Father who works all things for the good of those who love him.
Saints
Approved rendering: Kutsallar
Transliteration: koot-sahl-LAHR
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: evliyalar (Sufi-tradition holy/saintly figures), azizler (venerated holy figures)
Kutsallar = all believers, corporately, set apart in Christ. Evliyalar carries strong Sufi-folk-Islam connotations of specially graced holy men with shrines and intercessory power; azizler carries similar venerated-figure overtones. Neither should be used for the ordinary corporate ‘saints’ of Romans 1:7.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: Kutsallaşma
Transliteration: koot-sahl-lahsh-MAH
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: arınma (ritual purification)
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy. Arınma leans toward ritual/ceremonial purification (closer to Islamic tahara); Kutsallaşma keeps the moral-relational, Spirit-worked sense.
Sin
Approved rendering: Günah
Transliteration: goo-NAH
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: hata (mistake/error), kusur (flaw/defect)
Günah is the standard shared term, but Islamic theology holds humans are born sinless (fitrah) and only become accountable at the age of reason through individual bad deeds; Romans’ doctrine of universal, inherited sinfulness (5:12-19) needs explicit teaching support, since günah alone will not automatically carry that inherited dimension for a reader from this background.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: Elçi
Transliteration: el-CHEE
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: resul / peygamber (prophet-messenger)
Elçi (‘one sent’) is the established Turkish Bible term. Guard against collapsing it into resul/peygamber, the Islamic category of a prophet-messenger who receives new revelation for a nation; an apostle is a Spirit-authorized witness to Christ’s resurrection, not a new-scripture-bearing prophet.
Church
Approved rendering: Kilise
Transliteration: kee-lee-SEH
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: cemaat (religious congregation/community, loaded in Turkish political usage)
Kilise is the established, unambiguous Turkish word for the Christian church building and body. Cemaat is usable for ‘local gathering’ in some contexts but carries heavy contemporary political connotations in Turkish (religious movements/sects); prefer kilise for the body of Christ generally.
Covenant
Approved rendering: Antlaşma
Transliteration: ahnt-lahsh-MAH
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: sözleşme (bare contract)
Antlaşma (also used for ‘Old/New Testament’ as Eski/Yeni Antlaşma) is the established relational-covenant term. Sözleşme reads as a bare commercial/legal contract and loses the relational-promise dimension.
David
Approved rendering: Davut
Transliteration: dah-VOOT
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Established Turkish Bible proper name form; also recognizable from the Qur’anic Dawud, though the Qur’an presents him primarily as a prophet-king without the messianic covenant content Romans assumes.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: Uluslar
Transliteration: oo-loos-LAHR
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: kafirler (unbelievers/infidels, an Islamic religious-legal category)
Uluslar (‘nations,’ i.e. non-Jews) is the established, ethnically neutral Bible term. Never use kafirler, an Islamic theological category for non-Muslims that would import an entirely different, religiously charged boundary line than Paul’s Jew/Gentile distinction.
Israel
Approved rendering: İsrail
Transliteration: ees-rah-EEL
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Proper name; established Turkish Bible form. Handle with pastoral awareness given contemporary geopolitical sensitivities around the modern state of the same name in Turkish public discourse.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Tanrı’nın Egemenliği
Transliteration: tahn-RUH-nuhn eh-geh-men-lee-EE
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: Tanrı’nın devleti (God’s state/nation)
God’s sovereign reign, not a political state. Devlet (‘state’) would suggest a literal nation-state, an especially loaded idea in a country with a strong secular-state/religion separation history.
Mission
Approved rendering: Müjdeleme görevi
Transliteration: myooj-deh-leh-MEH gur-eh-VEE
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: misyonerlik (loaded with 19th-20th c. Western-missionary and, in Turkish nationalist discourse, conspiratorial connotations)
Müjdeleme görevi (‘task of proclaiming good news’) avoids misyonerlik, a term that in Turkish public discourse is frequently associated with foreign political agendas and historical suspicion rather than simple gospel proclamation.
Peace
Approved rendering: Esenlik
Transliteration: eh-sen-LEEK
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: huzur (inner calm), barış (political/interpersonal peace)
In Romans 5:1, esenlik is relational peace with God secured through justification, not psychological calm (huzur) or a cessation of conflict between parties (barış, used for peace treaties).
Prophecy
Approved rendering: Peygamberlik sözü
Transliteration: pay-gahm-behr-LEEK soh-ZOO
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: kehanet (fortune-telling/divination)
God-inspired declaration pointing to Christ. Kehanet carries occult/divination connotations and must be avoided.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: Davut’un soyundan
Transliteration: dah-voo-TOON soy-oon-DAHN
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and fulfillment of the Davidic covenant promise, a background largely unfamiliar to readers without OT exposure.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: Ruhsal armağanlar
Transliteration: rooh-SAHL ahr-mah-AHN-lahr
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: keramet (Sufi-tradition miraculous gift of a saint)
Always pair ruhsal with armağan; armağan alone is a generic gift/present. Keramet carries strong Sufi-Islamic connotations of a saint’s miraculous endowment and should never be used.
Low Risk Terms
Exhort
Approved rendering: Teşvik etmek
Transliteration: tesh-VEEK et-MEK
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use rica etmek (entreat/beseech) for pleading; teşvik etmek (encourage/urge on) for building up.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: Paydaşlık
Transliteration: pie-dahsh-LUHK
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: kardeşlik (brotherhood, too generic/political)
Shared participation in Christ. Kardeşlik is common in both secular Turkish nationalist and Islamic ümmet (community) rhetoric and risks importing those associations rather than the specifically Christ-centered sense.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: Şükran
Transliteration: shook-RAHN
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term, shares a root with Islamic şükür (gratitude to Allah). Low doctrinal risk; the shared vocabulary is a genuine point of contact, not a hazard.
Referenced passages