Semantic Analysis — Acts (Full Book) — English → Ukrainian

Scope and Method

This document analyzes the entire book of Acts in the original Koine Greek, chapter 1 through chapter 28, in service of the Ukrainian-language Acts curriculum. The core passage, Acts 2:1–41 (Pentecost and Peter’s sermon), receives full verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter receives a chapter-level section identifying its load-bearing theological terms with the same analytical fields. Where a chapter introduces no new theological vocabulary beyond terms already treated, this is stated explicitly rather than the chapter being silently omitted.

Governing rule: Any term already recorded in the baseline Romans/Galatians translation_memory.json MUST be reused with its exact recorded Ukrainian rendering. This document flags every such reuse explicitly (marked [TM]) and introduces new entries only for terms genuinely new to the Acts curriculum (marked [NEW]). New terms are risk-tiered using the same Critical/High/Medium/Low framework as the baseline, grounded in Ukraine’s specific religious landscape: the coexistence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), the historically Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), and a Protestant/Evangelical minority with its own distinct history (including a historic underground Pentecostal and Baptist movement under Soviet persecution) — set against the acute wartime political context since 2022.

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PART 1 — Core Passage Verse-by-Verse: Acts 2:1–41

Acts 2:1

Greek: Καὶ ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς πεντηκοστῆς ἦσαν πάντες ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό.

• Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē) — [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “fiftieth [day].”
  • Semantic range: The Jewish Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), celebrated fifty days after Passover, originally a harvest festival later associated with the giving of the Law at Sinai.
  • English variants: Pentecost (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The divinely appointed feast day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out, marking the birth of the church and (in Luke’s narrative logic) a new-covenant counterpart to Sinai’s giving of the Law.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: П’ятдесятниця (Pyatdesyatnytsya). Risk: Critical. П’ятдесятниця is the correct and established biblical term, but in Ukrainian Orthodox and Greek Catholic popular piety this feast is known and celebrated primarily as Трійця (Troyitsya, “Trinity Sunday”), a major folk-religious holiday with its own beloved customs (decorating homes and churches with fresh greenery/branches, visiting graves, a distinct place in the liturgical-agricultural calendar). This is structurally the same risk pattern the baseline already documents for Great Feasts (Easter/Voskresinnya): the cultural weight of the folk observance can silently substitute for Acts 2’s specific narrative content (the descent of the Spirit, tongues, Peter’s sermon, mass conversion) unless the text explicitly anchors Пятдесятниця/Трійця to this narrative rather than assuming readers already associate the feast-day name with these particular events.

• ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό (homou epi to auto) — [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “together, in the same place.”
  • Semantic range: Physical togetherness; by extension, unity of purpose (cf. Acts 1:14’s “with one accord,” ὁμοθυμαδόν).
  • English variants: “all together in one place” (ESV), “all together” (NIV), “all with one accord in one place” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The gathered, expectant unity of the earliest believers immediately prior to the Spirit’s coming — narrative preparation, not yet a doctrine in its own right.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: разом, в одному місці. Risk: Low. Plain descriptive phrase; no significant collision.

Acts 2:2

Greek: καὶ ἐγένετο ἄφνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἦχος ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν ὅλον τὸν οἶκον οὗ ἦσαν καθήμενοι.

• πνοή (pnoē) — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “breath, blast, wind.”
  • Semantic range: Related to but distinct from πνεῦμα (spirit/wind); Luke’s choice of πνοή here, immediately before πνεῦμα ἅγιον in v.4, creates a deliberate wordplay in Greek between “wind/breath” and “Spirit” that Ukrainian, like most target languages, cannot fully reproduce with a single word pair.
  • English variants: “a sound like a mighty rushing wind” (ESV), “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind” (NIV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The auditory sign accompanying the Spirit’s arrival, evoking OT wind/breath-as-Spirit imagery (Ezekiel 37; Genesis 2:7; John 3:8).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: вітер, повів (viter, poviv). Risk: Medium. The Ukrainian pair вітер (wind) / Дух (Spirit) does not carry the Greek’s audible wordplay; expository text should note the connection explicitly rather than expect it to be heard in translation, especially since [TM] Святий Дух must never be confused with a generic “spirit” term per the baseline’s existing caution about дух alone (cf. “бойовий дух”).

Acts 2:3

Greek: καὶ ὤφθησαν αὐτοῖς διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρός, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐφ’ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν.

• γλῶσσα (glōssa) — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “tongue” (the bodily organ); by extension “language.”
  • Semantic range: (1) the physical tongue; (2) a spoken human language; (3) in this vision, a flame-shaped visual sign resting individually on each believer.
  • English variants: “divided tongues as of fire” (ESV/KJV), “tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (NIV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: A visible, individualized sign that the Spirit rests on each believer personally, prefiguring the immediately following miracle of speech (v.4) in actual human languages.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: язики немов вогонь / огненні язики (yazyky nemov vohon’ / ohnenni yazyky). Risk: High. Ukrainian язик, like Greek γλῶσσα, means both “tongue” (organ) and “language” — an asset here, since it preserves Luke’s own wordplay between the fire-shaped “tongues” of v.3 and the language-miracle “tongues” of v.4. The risk is doctrinal rather than lexical: this image is foundational to the modern global Pentecostal/Charismatic movement (including Ukraine’s own historic underground Pentecostal congregations, persecuted under Soviet rule as unregistered “sектанти”) and its distinct doctrine of glossolalia (ecstatic, non-linguistic “tongues,” debated separately in 1 Corinthians 14). Acts 2’s tongues are explicitly known human languages (see v.6, v.8, διάλεκτος), not ecstatic speech; this distinction must be made explicit rather than assumed, given the live and sometimes contested status of tongues-speech in Ukrainian Protestant and Pentecostal circles today.

Acts 2:4

Greek: καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες πνεύματος ἁγίου, καὶ ἤρξαντο λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις καθὼς τὸ πνεῦμα ἐδίδου ἀποφθέγγεσθαι αὐτοῖς.

• πίμπλημι (pimplēmi), “filled” — [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “to fill completely.”
  • Semantic range: Used throughout Acts (2:4; 4:8, 31; 9:17; 13:9, 52) for a decisive, often repeatable, Spirit-empowering filling distinct from the once-for-all indwelling described elsewhere in the NT.
  • English variants: “filled with the Holy Spirit” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The defining Pentecost event — the promised Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8) takes decisive possession of the gathered believers, empowering their witness.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: [TM extended] наповнені Святим Духом (napovneni Svyatym Dukhom), building on the baseline’s established Святий Дух. Risk: Critical. Acts uses “filled with the Holy Spirit” repeatedly and in varying contexts (a single decisive event at Pentecost, but also repeated fillings for particular acts of boldness — see 4:8, 31). This raises, more sharply than anywhere in Romans or Galatians, the live pastoral-theological question — debated between Ukraine’s historic Pentecostal/Charismatic minority and other Protestant, Orthodox, and Greek Catholic traditions alike — of whether “filling” names a subsequent, separable experience (“baptism in the Spirit”) distinct from conversion, or the same Spirit’s ongoing empowering work in an already-indwelt believer. This curriculum must state its own framing explicitly per occurrence rather than let it default silently to any one Ukrainian ecclesial tradition’s settled answer.

• ἑτέραις γλώσσαις (heterais glōssais), “other tongues” — [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “other/different languages.”
  • Semantic range: Distinguishes actual, existing human languages (confirmed by the hearers’ astonishment in vv.6–11) from the believers’ native Galilean Aramaic.
  • English variants: “other tongues” (ESV/KJV), “other languages” (NIV, disambiguating explicitly).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The miracle is one of cross-cultural, intelligible communication of “the mighty works of God” (v.11), not private ecstatic speech — the reversal-of-Babel motif many interpreters see in this narrative.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: іншими мовами (inshymy movamy), following the Ohienko translation’s own established wording. Risk: High (see γλῶσσα entry above); мова unambiguously means “language” and is the safer choice here than язик for reducing charismatic/ecstatic-speech ambiguity, though both terms appear across Ukrainian Bible tradition and must not be treated as fully interchangeable without comment.

Acts 2:5–6

Greek: …Ἰουδαῖοι, ἄνδρες εὐλαβεῖς ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν… ἤκουον εἷς ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν.

• διάλεκτος (dialektos) — [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “manner of speech, dialect, language.”
  • Semantic range: One’s own native tongue/dialect, as distinct from a shared trade or liturgical language.
  • English variants: “his own language” (ESV/NIV), “his own language” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Emphasizes that each hearer received the message in their own mother tongue, not merely a lingua franca (Greek or Aramaic) — the gospel addresses every people group in its own native speech, foundational for the doctrine of “The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles.”
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: власна мова / рідна мова (vlasna mova / ridna mova). Risk: Medium. No significant collision, but ridna mova (“native/mother tongue”) carries strong emotional resonance in Ukraine’s own linguistic-national history (the long struggle for the Ukrainian language itself against Russification, the same history noted in the baseline’s account of the Ohienko translation as an act of linguistic self-assertion). This resonance can be affirmed as a fitting parallel — Pentecost dignifies every mother tongue — without letting the doctrinal point be reduced only to a statement about Ukrainian-language pride.

• ἔθνος (ethnos), here “nation” — [TM] See baseline gentiles entry (ukrainian_term: “погани” for the ethnē/Gentiles-as-a-category sense; here in the neutral “nation/people” sense, use народи per the baseline’s own guidance to prefer народи over погани wherever погани’s modern derogatory drift would mislead). Risk: High, inherited directly from baseline.

Acts 2:7–8, 11 (grouped)

Greek: …Γαλιλαῖοι… τὰ μεγαλεῖα τοῦ θεοῦ.

• τὰ μεγαλεῖα τοῦ θεοῦ (ta megaleia tou theou) — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “the great/mighty things of God.”
  • Semantic range: God’s great deeds, His mighty acts in salvation history — related to but distinct from δόξα (glory, [TM] слава).
  • English variants: “the mighty works of God” (ESV), “the wonders of God” (NIV), “the wonderful works of God” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: What the crowd hears proclaimed in their own languages is not abstract doctrine but a recital of God’s saving acts — continuous with the whole biblical pattern of praising God’s redemptive deeds.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: великі діла Божі (velyki dila Bozhi). Risk: Low. Straightforward; care only to keep this distinct from [TM] слава (glory), which carries its own High-risk patriotic-resonance caution in the baseline (“Слава Україні”).

(Verses 9–10 list nations and regions — Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya/Cyrene, Rome, Crete, Arabia — standard geographic proper nouns; no theological load-bearing term beyond the ἔθνος/народи point already noted above. Render using standard Ukrainian historical-geographic forms.)*

Acts 2:12–13

• διαπορέω (diaporeō), “perplexed”, and γλεῦκος (gleukos), “new/sweet wine” — [NEW, Low risk]
  • Literal/semantic notes: γλεῦκος is unfermented or newly fermented sweet wine, the mockers’ explanation (“they’re drunk on new wine”) — narratively ironic since new wine ferments slowly and this early hour (v.15) makes the accusation implausible even on its own terms.
  • English variants: “perplexed” / “amazed and perplexed”; “new wine” (all versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Sets up Peter’s rebuttal (v.15) and the sermon’s need to explain a genuinely new, Spirit-caused phenomenon.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: розгублені (perplexed); молоде вино / нове вино (new wine). Risk: Low.

Acts 2:14–15

• ἀποφθέγγομαι / ἀποκρίνομαι, ἀπεφθέγξατο (Peter “addressed” / “lifted up his voice”) — Low risk, narrative framing only; standard verbs of public speech, закликати/звертатися, consistent with the baseline’s context-sensitive treatment of [TM] закликати (exhort).

Acts 2:16–18

Greek (LXX Joel 2:28-29 quotation): …ἐκχεῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός μου ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα…

• ἐκχέω (ekcheō), “pour out” — [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “to pour out, spill.”
  • Semantic range: Used of liquids poured out; metaphorically, of God’s Spirit given abundantly and without measure (also v.33 below).
  • English variants: “pour out” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The defining OT prophecy Peter cites as being fulfilled at this moment — a decisively new, abundant, universal (v.17: sons and daughters, young and old, even servants) distribution of the Spirit, not confined to prophets, priests, and kings as under the old covenant.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: вилити / вилив (vylyty/vylyv). Risk: Medium. Vivid, standard Ukrainian verb; no lexical collision, but the sweeping “on all flesh” universality (πᾶσαν σάρκα) must be preserved with full force per the baseline’s existing rule for universality claims (Romans 3:23; 10:12–13) — do not narrow “all flesh” to only the apostles or only Jews present.

• προφητεύσουσιν, “shall prophesy” / ἐνυπνιάζομαι, “dream dreams” / ὁράσεις, “visions” — [TM/NEW hybrid] [TM] пророцтво/пророк already established at Low risk in the baseline; here extend to the verb form пророкуватимуть (they will prophesy). Risk: Low, inheriting the baseline’s existing caution to distinguish from ворожіння/гороскоп (fortune-telling/horoscope).

• σημεῖα (sēmeia), “signs” in the heavens (v.19) — see signs and wonders entry under Acts 2:22 below; treated jointly there as a recurring pair.

Acts 2:20–21

• ἡμέρα Κυρίου (hēmera Kyriou), “the day of the Lord” — [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “day of the Lord.”
  • Semantic range: The OT prophetic day of divine judgment and vindication, here the “great and magnificent” eschatological Day.
  • English variants: “the day of the Lord” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Frames Pentecost as the beginning of the last-days era that will culminate in that final Day; ties directly to [TM] Господь.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: день Господній (den’ Hospodniy). Risk: Medium, inheriting the baseline’s [TM] Господь caution about liturgical over-familiarity blunting personal force; here the eschatological force (future, climactic) must also not be flattened into a routine liturgical phrase.

• ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου, “calls upon the name of the Lord” — [NEW, but must match Romans 10:13 exactly]

  • Literal meaning: “to call upon/invoke the name.”
  • Semantic range: A decisive act of personal appeal/confession, not casual mention of a name.
  • English variants: “calls on the name of the Lord” (ESV/NIV), “shall call on the name of the Lord” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: This exact Joel quotation is also cited in Romans 10:13, already flagged in the baseline under universal_scope_of_gospel (High risk) and subject to the baseline’s cross-document consistency rule. Cross-reference requirement: this Acts 2:21 clause must be rendered identically to however Romans 10:13 renders it in this Language Package, since both quote the same LXX Joel text.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: кожен, хто покличе ім’я Господнє, буде спасенний (using [TM] Господь and [TM] спасіння/спасенний). Risk: High, inherited directly from the baseline’s universal_scope_of_gospel doctrine; also connects the sermon’s climax (v.21) forward to its imperative climax (v.38, “repent… for the forgiveness… you will receive”).

Acts 2:22

• δυνάμεσι καὶ τέρασι καὶ σημείοις (dynamesi kai terasi kai sēmeiois), “mighty works, wonders, and signs” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: δύναμις = power/mighty deed; τέρας = wonder/portent; σημεῖον = sign/token.
  • Semantic range: A stock triad throughout Acts (also 2:43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; 14:3; 15:12) for God’s authenticating, attesting acts through Jesus and later the apostles.
  • English variants: “mighty works and wonders and signs” (ESV), “miracles, wonders and signs” (NIV), “miracles and wonders and signs” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Establishes divine attestation — these acts are God’s own certification of Jesus (and later, of the apostles’ message), a key strand of the “Apostolic Authority and Miracles” doctrine running through the whole book.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: [TM extend, building on baseline power_of_god/сила Божа] — знамення і чудеса, [та] сили (znamennya i chudesa, [ta] syly). Risk: High. Ukraine’s persistent post-Soviet folk-occult culture (екстрасенси, ворожки, already flagged Medium risk under the baseline’s spiritual_gifts and prophet entries) makes “чудо/чудеса” (miracle/miracles) a word also used loosely in secular media for any striking or lucky occurrence; the text must keep these firmly anchored as God’s own attesting acts through Christ and the apostles, not generic marvels, luck, or paranormal ability.

Acts 2:23

• τῇ ὡρισμένῃ βουλῇ καὶ προγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ (tē hōrismenē boulē kai prognōsei tou theou), “the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: βουλή = plan/counsel/decision; πρόγνωσις = foreknowledge.
  • Semantic range: God’s sovereign, pre-determined purpose, not a reactive or improvised response to human betrayal.
  • English variants: “definite plan and foreknowledge” (ESV), “God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge” (NIV), “determinate counsel and foreknowledge” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The cross was not a tragic accident overtaking God’s plan but its very fulfillment — closely related to [TM] провидіння Боже (providence) and [TM] обрання (election).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: визначений задум і провидіння Боже (vyznachenyy zadum i providinnya Bozhe), reusing [TM] провидіння Боже. Risk: High, inheriting the baseline’s providence caution against доля/випадок (fate/chance) — especially salient here since Peter’s very next clause (“you crucified… by the hands of lawless men,” ἀνόμων) holds human moral responsibility fully intact alongside divine sovereignty; this both/and must not collapse into either pure fatalism or an evasion of human guilt.

Acts 2:24

• λύσας τὰς ὠδῖνας τοῦ θανάτου (lysas tas ōdinas tou thanatou), “loosing the pangs/cords of death” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: ὠδίν = birth pang/labor pain (also used for eschatological travail); the image is of death’s grip being loosed as one is released from labor pains.
  • Semantic range: Death pictured as a binding, gripping force from which Christ is released.
  • English variants: “loosing the pangs of death” (ESV), “freeing him from death’s agony” (NIV), “having loosed the pains of death” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: God’s decisive victory over death in Christ’s [TM] воскресіння (resurrection).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: розв’язавши узи смерті / звільнивши від мук смерті. Risk: Medium. Vivid and unambiguous; ensure this feeds directly and explicitly into [TM] воскресіння, not a vague “victory” without the specific bodily-resurrection referent the baseline requires (distinguishing from reincarnation-adjacent readings, per the baseline’s existing caution).

Acts 2:25–28

Quotation of Psalm 16:8–11 (LXX). Key term:

• Ἅδης (Hadēs) — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: The Greek name for the realm/personification of the dead, used in the LXX to translate Hebrew Sheol.
  • Semantic range: The abode of the dead generally, not (as later popular usage narrowed it) a place of punishment specifically — that latter sense belongs to γέεννα (Gehenna/hell) elsewhere in the NT.
  • English variants: “Hades” (ESV/NIV), “hell” (KJV — a now-misleading rendering, since KJV’s “hell” here does not mean the place of final punishment).
  • Contextual theological meaning: David’s psalm, read by Peter as prophetically pointing beyond David (who did die and remains buried, v.29) to the Messiah, whose body would not remain in the realm of the dead.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: ад (ad) or transliterated Гадес with a gloss. Risk: Medium. Ukrainian ад, like English “hell,” has drifted toward meaning specifically the place of final punishment/torment in popular usage; a footnote clarifying that Ἅδης here means simply “the realm of the dead” (not final judgment) is needed to keep Peter’s argument (a matter of resurrection from death, not rescue from damnation) clear.

Acts 2:29–31

• πατριάρχης (patriarchēs), “patriarch” — Standard term, Low risk; Ukrainian патріарх. (Note: this word is also the title of the head bishop of several Ukrainian and Orthodox church bodies today — e.g., the Ecumenical Patriarch, or historically claimed patriarchal titles — a live and jurisdictionally sensitive title in the contemporary Ukrainian church landscape. Here it refers only to David as ancestral forefather; translators should ensure context makes this historical, non-ecclesiastical sense unmistakable.) Risk: Medium, elevated from a purely lexical Low risk by this contemporary-title collision.

• σπέρμα (sperma), “descendant/seed” — [TM] Reuse the baseline’s established pattern from seed_of_david (“з насіння Давидового”). Risk: Medium, inherited.

• ἀνάστασις (anastasis), “resurrection” — [TM] воскресіння. Risk: Critical, inherited directly from the baseline (bodily, historical, once-for-all; never reincarnation-adjacent). Note for Acts specifically: this term will recur with unusual frequency and centrality throughout the book (see chapters 4, 17, 23, 24, 26 below), since the resurrection of Christ — and the general resurrection it guarantees — becomes a primary point of both Jewish and Gentile controversy that the apostles repeatedly proclaim and defend.

Acts 2:32–33

• μάρτυς (martys), “witness” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “one who testifies, a witness” (in a legal or observational sense).
  • Semantic range: In classical and NT Greek, a witness who testifies to something personally seen or known; the same root later gives rise to the specialized sense “martyr” (one who testifies even at the cost of life) — a semantic development already underway within the NT itself (see Acts 22:20 of Stephen; Revelation 2:13; 17:6).
  • English variants: “witnesses” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The apostles’ entire authority and message rest on personal, eyewitness testimony to the risen Christ (cf. Acts 1:8, 22; 1 Corinthians 15:5–8) — foundational for the doctrine of “Apostolic Authority and Miracles” and for “Persecution and Bold Witness.”
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: свідок (svidok), plural свідки. Risk: High. Ukrainian, unlike Greek, uses two distinct words for “witness” (свідок) and “martyr” (мученик, from a different root, see Acts 7 and 22 below) — Luke’s own wordplay (a witness who becomes, through faithful testimony, a martyr) is not reproducible lexically in Ukrainian and must be carried by explicit exposition, especially at Stephen’s death (7:58–60; 22:20, where Greek μάρτυς is used of Stephen even as he is being killed for his testimony). Additionally, свідок carries acute contemporary resonance in wartime Ukraine, where “свідчення” (testimony/witness statements) is closely associated with the ongoing documentation of war crimes and human-rights violations — a resonance that can illuminate the weight and cost of Christian witness in Acts, but must not be allowed to replace the specifically evangelistic, resurrection-testifying sense Luke intends.

Acts 2:34–36

• Κύριος καὶ Χριστός (Kyrios kai Christos), “Lord and Christ” — [TM] Reuse [TM] Господь and Христос (established proper-name form per the baseline’s transliteration standards). Risk: High, inherited directly from the baseline’s lordship_of_christ doctrine (Господство Христа). This verse is the sermon’s climactic double confession and should be handled with the same care the baseline requires for Romans 10:9 — restoring personal, decisive force rather than allowing it to read as a recited creedal formula, especially given that v.36’s “let all the house of Israel know for certain” (ἀσφαλῶς) demands confident, unqualified assertion.

Acts 2:37

• κατενύγησαν τὴν καρδίαν (katenygēsan tēn kardian), “cut/pierced to the heart” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: κατανύσσομαι = to be pierced, stabbed, stung.
  • Semantic range: A vivid image of sudden, sharp inward conviction — distinct from mere emotional distress.
  • English variants: “cut to the heart” (ESV/NIV), “pricked in their heart” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The Spirit-produced conviction of sin that precedes and produces genuine repentance (see v.38) — foundational for the doctrine of “Repentance and Baptism.”
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: вражені в серце / до глибини серця (vrazheni v sertse). Risk: Medium. Vivid, natural Ukrainian idiom available; care that it reads as Spirit-produced conviction, not mere guilt-feeling or social shame (an honor/shame dynamic already flagged for native-speaker review elsewhere in this Language Package’s parent Romans instructions).

Acts 2:38 — The Doctrinal Center of the Passage

Greek: Πέτρος δὲ ἔφη πρὸς αὐτούς· Μετανοήσατε, [φησίν,] καὶ βαπτισθήτω ἕκαστος ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν, καὶ λήμψεσθε τὴν δωρεὰν τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος.

• μετανοέω / μετάνοια (metanoeō / metanoia), “repent / repentance” — [NEW, Critical]

  • Literal meaning: μετά (“change”) + νοέω (“think, perceive”) — literally “a change of mind.”
  • Semantic range: Not mere regret or remorse (Greek has a separate word, μεταμέλομαι, for that), but a decisive reorientation of the whole person — mind, will, allegiance — toward God, turning away from sin.
  • English variants: “repent” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The first, non-negotiable response Peter demands to the sermon’s revelation that the crucified Jesus is Lord and Christ; the doorway into the promised forgiveness and Spirit-gift, and the anchor term for the whole doctrine of “Repentance and Baptism.”
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: покаятися / покаяння (pokayatysya / pokayannya). Risk: Critical. покаяння is the correct, universally established Ukrainian Bible term. The Critical risk is structural rather than lexical: покаяння is also the name of one of the seven sacraments/mysteries in both the Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions — Таїнство Покаяння (“the Sacrament/Mystery of Penance,” i.e., sacramental confession to a priest). This is a direct structural parallel to the baseline’s existing Critical flag on освячення (which doubles as the everyday term for ritual object-blessing) and справедливість-type false-friend risks: readers formed by either majority tradition may hear “покайтеся” primarily as an instruction to go to sacramental confession, rather than (as Peter means) a personal, inward turning to God that precedes and is logically distinct from any subsequent church rite. This must be explicitly taught, not assumed.

• βαπτίζω / βάπτισμα (baptizō / baptisma), “baptize / baptism” — [NEW, Critical]

  • Literal meaning: “to dip, immerse, submerge.”
  • Semantic range: A ritual washing; in the NT, the specific rite of Christian initiation marking public identification with Christ’s death and resurrection (cf. Romans 6:3–4, already in this Language Package’s parent curriculum) and entrance into the believing community.
  • English variants: “baptize / be baptized” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The public, decisive act of response commanded alongside repentance, resulting in the forgiveness of sins and reception of the Spirit’s gift.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: хреститися / хрещення (khrestytysya / khreshchennya). Risk: Critical. This is among the single most historically loaded words available in Ukrainian religious vocabulary: Хрещення Руси (“the Baptism of Rus’,” traditionally dated 988 AD under Prince/Saint Volodymyr) is a foundational event in Ukrainian (and, contested with Russia, in the wider East Slavic) national-religious self-understanding, commemorated annually and invoked heavily in both church and state discourse, including as a point of national-identity contestation with Russia. Хрещення is also, in ordinary contemporary usage, near-universally an infant rite in the Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions, performed within weeks of birth, quite unlike Acts 2’s scene of adult believers responding personally to a sermon. Two distinct risks compound here: (1) the term’s civilizational-historical weight (Volodymyr’s baptism of a nation) could unintentionally color a passage about individual, responsive faith-baptism; (2) the practically universal Ukrainian association of baptism with infancy, family tradition, and godparents (a beloved and socially significant institution, кум/кума) sits in real tension with Acts 2:38’s picture of baptism following personal repentance and reception of the word (v.41, “those who received his word were baptized”). This curriculum must state its credobaptist (believer’s-response) reading of this specific text explicitly as this text’s own portrayal, without either attacking infant baptism as practiced by the majority traditions or allowing Acts 2:38 to be silently reinterpreted through that different, and much later-developed, practice. Human theologian review mandatory for every occurrence in this passage.

• εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν (eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn hymōn), “for the forgiveness of your sins” — [NEW, extends TM]

  • Literal meaning: ἄφεσις = “release, letting-go, dismissal” (also used of releasing captives/debts); ἁμαρτία = [TM] гріх.
  • Semantic range: The cancellation/release of the debt and guilt of sin.
  • English variants: “for the forgiveness of your sins” (ESV/NIV), “for the remission of sins” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The immediate, promised result of repentant, baptismal response — closely related to, but (per the baseline’s own justification entry) not fully identical with, the fuller forensic category of [TM] виправдання (justification).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: прощення гріхів (proshchennya hrikhiv), reusing [TM] гріх. Risk: High. The baseline’s own justification entry explicitly warns that виправдання “must not quietly resolve into ‘forgiveness of sins’ (прощення гріхів) alone, which loses the declarative sense.” Acts 2:38 itself uses only ἄφεσις (forgiveness/release), not the forensic δικαίωσις vocabulary Paul later uses (which Acts does use in 13:39, see below) — so this verse should be translated and taught on its own terms as ἄφεσις, forgiveness/release of sins, while the curriculum’s broader doctrinal apparatus should note (not blur) its relationship to the fuller justification doctrine developed elsewhere.

• δωρεὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος (dōrea tou hagiou pneumatos), “the gift of the Holy Spirit” — [NEW, Critical]

  • Literal meaning: δωρεά = “a free gift, given without payment” (from δίδωμι, to give); distinct from χάρισμα (charisma), the baseline’s already-established [TM] духовні дари (“spiritual gifts,” the plural enablements of Romans 12/1 Corinthians 12).
  • Semantic range: Here, the singular gift is the Holy Spirit himself, given to the believer, not a particular enablement given by the Spirit.
  • English variants: “the gift of the Holy Spirit” (ESV/NIV/KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The promised, personal indwelling of the Spirit (cf. v.33) now extended to “everyone” who repents and is baptized (v.39) — the fulfillment of Joel’s promise (vv.17–18) applied to the individual believer.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: дар Святого Духа (dar Svyatoho Dukha). Risk: Critical. This phrase must be kept lexically and doctrinally distinct from [TM] духовні дари (the baseline’s established rendering for χαρίσματα/spiritual gifts, Medium risk in the baseline). Conflating them would blur the single, once-for-all gift of the Spirit’s own indwelling presence with the subsequent, various, distributed enablements described elsewhere — a distinction of considerable importance given the live and sometimes contested Ukrainian Pentecostal/Charismatic-versus-other-traditions debate (see γλῶσσα entry above) over whether receiving “the gift of the Spirit” is identical with conversion or a subsequent, separable experience often called “Spirit baptism.” This curriculum’s own position (that the gift of the Spirit belongs to every person who repents and is baptized, per v.38–39’s “everyone”) should be stated explicitly. Human theologian review mandatory.

Acts 2:39

• ἐπαγγελία (epangelia), “promise” — [TM] обітниця, reused exactly from the Galatians extension of the baseline. Risk: High, inherited.

• τοῖς εἰς μακράν, “those far off” — [NEW]

  • Literal meaning: “those at a distance.”
  • Semantic range: Geographically and/or covenantally distant — likely both diaspora Jews and, proleptically, Gentiles (cf. Ephesians 2:13, 17, which uses the identical phrase of Gentiles explicitly).
  • English variants: “all who are far off” (ESV/NIV), “all that are afar off” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Widens the promise’s horizon beyond the immediate Jerusalem crowd — an early signal of the book’s larger trajectory toward “The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles” and “The Great Commission Fulfilled” (cf. Acts 1:8, “to the end of the earth”).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: тим, що далеко (tym, shcho daleko). Risk: Medium. Preserve the ambiguity/breadth rather than narrowing it prematurely to only “future generations” — the term’s later Gentile application (chs. 10–15) should not be foreclosed by an overly narrow rendering here.

Acts 2:40

• γενεᾶς τῆς σκολιᾶς (geneas tēs skolias), “this crooked generation” — [NEW, Low/Medium]
  • Literal meaning: σκολιός = “crooked, bent, perverse” (an OT echo, e.g., Deuteronomy 32:5).
  • English variants: “this crooked generation” (ESV), “this corrupt generation” (NIV), “this untoward generation” (KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: A call to decisive separation from prevailing unbelief — related to but not identical with [TM] святий/освячення (holiness/set-apartness).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: це розбещене/лукаве покоління (tse rozbeshchene/lukave pokolinnya). Risk: Low. Standard; avoid any wording that could be misheard as a comment on a specific contemporary Ukrainian generation or political faction rather than Peter’s own first-century audience.

Acts 2:41

• ἀποδέχομαι, “received” and προστίθημι, “were added” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: ἀποδέχομαι = “to receive, welcome, accept” (a message); προστίθημι = “to add to, increase.”
  • Semantic range: προστίθημι recurs in Acts as the book’s characteristic term for numerical church growth (2:41, 47; 5:14; 11:24).
  • English variants: “received his word” / “were added” (ESV/NIV/KJV all similar).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The tangible, countable result of gospel proclamation and Spirit-given repentance — three thousand souls entering the newly Spirit-constituted community, launching the doctrine of “The Church as Community.”
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: прийняли слово… і додалося (pryynyaly slovo… i dodalosya). Risk: Low. Straightforward; no significant collision, though translators should avoid a bureaucratic/institutional-membership register (which could evoke Soviet-era organizational “reporting” idiom) in favor of a warmer, communal register consistent with this Language Package’s general tone requirements.

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PART 2 — Chapter-by-Chapter Study of the Whole Book

Acts 1 — Ascension, Promise of the Spirit, Apostolic Restoration

• μάρτυς, “witnesses” — [NEW] (1:8, “you will be my witnesses… to the end of the earth”). See full treatment under Acts 2:32 above; first occurrence here, programmatic for the whole book. Risk: High.
• ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς, “to the end/ends of the earth” — [NEW]
  • Literal/semantic: ἔσχατος = “last, outermost, extreme”; the phrase echoes Isaiah 49:6.
  • English variants: “to the end of the earth” (ESV), “to the ends of the earth” (NIV/KJV).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Acts 1:8’s programmatic statement of the book’s entire geographic and missional arc (Jerusalem → Judea/Samaria → the world), directly grounding the doctrine “The Great Commission Fulfilled.”
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: аж до краю землі (azh do krayu zemli). Risk: Medium. Reuse [TM] місія / благовістя in surrounding exposition; be sensitive, per the baseline’s mission entry, to the current wartime prominence of chaplaincy and displaced-persons ministry as this era’s own “ends of the earth” frontier.
• ἀνελήμφθη, “was taken up” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “was taken up, lifted up” (ascension).
  • Semantic range: A bodily, visible, historical departure — distinct from mythological ascent/apotheosis narratives.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: [TM: none directly in Romans/Galatians baseline] вознесіння / був узятий (voznesinnya / buv uzyatyy). Risk: Medium. Shared, uncontested doctrine (Вознесіння/Ascension) across Orthodox, Greek Catholic, and Protestant calendars alike, celebrated as a major feast in the two majority traditions; low collision risk, an asset similar to the baseline’s note on resurrection’s cultural centrality.
• κλῆρος, “lot” (1:26, casting lots for Judas’s replacement) — [NEW, Low/Medium]
  • Semantic range: A lot cast to determine God’s choice, distinct from [TM] обрання (election) as a theological category, though related.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: жереб (zhereb). Risk: Medium. Must not be read through the lens of Ukrainian folk fortune-telling/chance-divination practices (ворожіння) already flagged in the baseline; frame explicitly as a means by which the apostles sought, and trusted God to reveal, His sovereign choice — an act of prayerful submission (v.24), not superstition.
• κύριος, βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ — [TM] reused exactly (Господь; Царство Боже), 1:3, 1:6-7.

Acts 2:42–47 (remainder of the core-passage chapter, beyond v.41)

• κοινωνία, “fellowship” — [TM] спілкування, reused exactly. Risk: Low, inherited.
• κλάσις τοῦ ἄρτου, “the breaking of bread” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: The act of breaking a loaf to share it.
  • Semantic range: Ordinary shared meals; also, by the early church’s practice, freighted with eucharistic/Lord’s-Supper significance.
  • Contextual theological meaning: One of the four marks of the earliest Christian community (2:42), alongside apostolic teaching, fellowship, and prayer.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: ламання хліба (lamannya khliba). Risk: High. All three majority Ukrainian traditions hold a developed, sacramental theology of the Eucharist (Божественна Літургія / Свята Тайна Євхаристії); this phrase in Acts 2:42 is deliberately simple and communal in Luke’s own narrative and should not be over-loaded with full-blown sacramental theology not yet developed at this early narrative point, nor stripped of all sacred significance either. Native speaker and theologian review recommended to strike this balance.
• προσευχαί, “the prayers” — Standard; [TM] extend baseline’s Low-risk treatment of prayer-adjacent vocabulary (cf. intercession/клопотання entry). Risk: Low.
• ἅπαντα κοινά, “had all things in common” — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: Voluntary, sacrificial economic sharing among believers (repeated 4:32–35).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: усе спільне (use spil’ne). Risk: Medium. Must be carefully distinguished from Soviet-era forced collectivization and the state-mandated колектив already flagged as an actively rejected association in the baseline’s fellowship entry; this is voluntary, Spirit-motivated generosity, not an economic system or ideology, and should be framed to avoid any inadvertent echo of that rejected past.
• φόβος, “fear/awe” (2:43) — see Acts 5 entry below for full treatment (first occurrence here).

Acts 3 — Healing of the Lame Man; Peter’s Temple Sermon

• ὄνομα Ἰησοῦ, “the name of Jesus” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “name.”
  • Semantic range: In Acts, “the name” functions as shorthand for Jesus’s full authority, character, and saving power invoked in prayer, healing, and baptism (cf. 3:6, 16; 4:7, 10, 12, 17-18, 30; 5:28, 40-41; 9:14-16, 27-28; 10:43; 16:18; 19:5, 13, 17; 22:16; 26:9).
  • English variants: “in the name of Jesus Christ” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Healing, forgiveness, and salvation are granted not through a formula but through personal appeal to and dependence upon Christ’s own person and authority (cf. 4:12, “there is salvation in no one else”).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: ім’я Ісуса [Христа] (imya Isusa [Khrysta]), reusing [TM] Ісус. Risk: High. Guard against a magical-incantation misreading (invoking a “name” as a power-formula), a real risk given the post-Soviet folk-occult backdrop (spells, charms, ворожіння) already flagged repeatedly in the baseline; “the name” must be taught as shorthand for personal trust in and appeal to Christ himself, never a phrase with independent power apart from him.
• μετάνοια, “repentance” — [NEW, Critical], see Acts 2:38 full treatment; recurs here at 3:19 (“repent… and turn again”).
• ἀποκατάστασις, “restoration” (3:21, “the time for restoring all the things”) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: A future, comprehensive setting-right of creation; related to but broader than [TM] спасіння.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: відновлення всього (vidnovlennya vsyoho). Risk: Medium. Eschatological hope language; keep distinct from merely political/national restoration hopes, an important distinction in a context where “restoration” (of territory, sovereignty) is a live and urgent contemporary Ukrainian aspiration that must not silently substitute for this text’s cosmic-eschatological referent.
• παῖς [θεοῦ], “servant [of God]” (3:13, 26, of Jesus) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: Echoes Isaiah’s Servant of the LORD; distinct emphasis from [TM] Син Божий (Son of God) though not contradictory to it.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: Слуга [Божий] (Sluha [Bozhyy]). Risk: Medium. Requires OT Isaianic-Servant background to be supplied; low collision risk otherwise.
• προφήτης (3:22-23, “a prophet like Moses”) — [TM] пророк, reused. Risk: Low, inherited.

Acts 4 — Peter and John Before the Council; Prayer for Boldness

• παρρησία, “boldness” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “freedom/openness of speech,” from πᾶν (“all”) + ῥῆσις (“speech”) — frank, unrestrained, confident speech, especially before authorities who might be expected to intimidate.
  • Semantic range: Recurs as a keyword throughout Acts (4:13, 29, 31; 9:27-28; 13:46; 14:3; 18:26; 19:8; 26:26; 28:31) and grounds the doctrine “Persecution and Bold Witness.”
  • English variants: “boldness” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: The Spirit’s characteristic gift to those who witness under threat — not natural courage but Spirit-given confidence rooted in the truth and authority of the message.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: сміливість / відвага (smilyvist’ / vidvaha). Risk: High. No lexical ambiguity, but acute contemporary resonance: courage under threat is a defining, currently lived Ukrainian wartime narrative (military and civilian alike), which can illuminate this doctrine powerfully but must remain anchored to Spirit-given gospel boldness specifically, not generalized patriotic or military courage, echoing the baseline’s caution about слава’s patriotic resonance needing to stay distinct from God’s own glory.
• σωτηρία, οὐδενὶ ἄλλῳ, “salvation… in no one else” (4:12) — [TM] спасіння, reused, at Critical risk per the baseline, here reinforced with maximal exclusivity language (“no other name”) that must be preserved with full force per the baseline’s universality-claims rule.
• ὁμοθυμαδόν, “with one accord” (4:24, cf. 1:14; 2:46; 5:12) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: United, harmonious action, especially in prayer.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: однодушно (odnodushno). Risk: Low. Positive resonance with the baseline’s спілкування entry; avoid the rejected Soviet колектив association.
• χάρις μεγάλη, “great grace” (4:33) — [TM] благодать, reused exactly. Risk: Critical, inherited directly from the baseline’s grace entry; here in a narrative-descriptive rather than didactic mode (grace resting visibly on the whole community), which should still be explicitly anchored to unmerited divine favor rather than left to default toward any one tradition’s fuller theological system.

Acts 5 — Ananias and Sapphira; Continued Signs and Persecution

• φόβος [μέγας], “[great] fear” (5:5, 11; cf. 2:43; 19:17) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: Awe/reverential dread before a manifestation of God’s holiness and judgment, not ordinary anxiety.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: [великий] страх ([velykyy] strakh). Risk: Medium. Ensure this reads as appropriate reverence before God’s holiness (cf. [TM] святий), not superstitious dread or a generalized “fear of God” divorced from His character as revealed in the gospel.
• ψεύδομαι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, “lie to the Holy Spirit” (5:3) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: Deceiving the church is treated as, in fact, deceiving/testing God himself, present among His people by the Spirit.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: обманути Святого Духа (obmanuty Svyatoho Dukha), reusing [TM] Святий Дух. Risk: High. Must preserve the personal, divine referent of Дух (per the baseline’s existing warning against бойовий дух-style secular drift); the gravity of the sin (deceiving God, not merely the community) must not be softened.
• σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα — [NEW], see full treatment under Acts 2:22; recurs 5:12.
• ἐπιτίθημι τὰς χεῖρας, “laying on of hands” — see full treatment under Acts 8 below (first extended occurrence there).
• χαίροντες…ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος, “rejoicing… for the Name” (5:41) — Reuse [NEW] ὄνομα treatment above; ties suffering explicitly to honor, not shame, for bearing Christ’s name — foundational to “Persecution and Bold Witness.”

Acts 6 — The Seven Chosen; Stephen Accused

• διακονία, “service/ministry” and διάκονος-pattern (though the noun “deacon” is not yet used as a fixed title in ch. 6) — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: διακονία = “service, waiting on, ministry.”
  • Semantic range: Ranges from literal table-service/food distribution (6:1-2) to the “ministry of the word” (6:4) — Luke deliberately uses the same root for both, framing practical care and gospel proclamation as two forms of the same Spirit-filled service.
  • English variants: “distribution”/“daily serving” (6:1) and “ministry of the word” (6:4).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Establishes an early, practical form of church order responsive to real community need — foundational for later, more formalized diaconal office (referenced explicitly as διάκονος in 1 Timothy 3, outside Acts) and for “The Church as Community.”
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: служіння (sluzhinnya); the office that later develops is диякон (diyakon). Risk: Medium. Ukrainian диякон is an existing, active ordained office in all three majority traditions with defined liturgical duties; care that Acts 6’s informal, ad hoc “seven” (chosen for a specific practical crisis) is not read back into the fully developed institutional diaconate familiar to contemporary readers.
• πνεύματος καὶ σοφίας, “[full of the] Spirit and wisdom” (6:3) — Combines [TM] Святий Дух with a new pairing; Risk: Medium, standard qualification-for-service language.
• μάρτυρες ψευδεῖς, “false witnesses” (6:13) — extends [NEW] μάρτυς (see Acts 2:32); sets up ch. 7.

Acts 7 — Stephen’s Speech and Martyrdom

• ἀντιπίπτετε τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ, “you always resist the Holy Spirit” (7:51) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: Active, willful opposition to the Spirit’s testimony and conviction across covenant history — echoes Isaiah 63:10.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: противитеся Святому Духові (protyvytesya Svyatomu Dukhovi), reusing [TM] Святий Дух. Risk: High. Must be read as Stephen’s specific historical indictment of his own generation’s rejection pattern (echoing Israel’s history), not weaponized rhetorically against any specific contemporary Ukrainian church body or individual.
• λιθοβολέω, “to stone” and, crucially, μάρτυς used explicitly of Stephen at the moment of death (implied by later 22:20’s “your witness [μάρτυς] Stephen”) — full development of the witness→martyr semantic arc flagged already at Acts 2:32. Risk: High.
• μάρτυρας (martyras) giving rise to μάρτυς → мученик, “martyr” — [NEW]
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: мученик (muchenyk). Risk: High. Carries deep, positive Ukrainian religious-historical resonance: the 20th-century martyrdom of Greek Catholic and Orthodox clergy and laity under Soviet religious persecution (including the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s forced underground existence from 1946–1989) is a living, honored memory in both church communities, and the ongoing war has produced its own recent martyr-narratives (chaplains, believers killed in the conflict). This resonance is a genuine asset for teaching Stephen’s story with emotional and historical weight, but the curriculum should keep Stephen’s specific narrative (faithful gospel witness provoking violent religious opposition) as the primary referent, letting the contemporary resonance illuminate rather than override the text.
• διαθήκη (7:8, covenant with Abraham) and νόμος (7:38, 53, the Law given by angels) — [TM] reused exactly (завіт; закон). Risk: Medium/High, inherited.

Acts 8 — Philip in Samaria; Simon Magus; the Ethiopian Eunuch

• μαγεία / μαγεύω, “magic/sorcery” (Simon Magus, 8:9-24) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: Occult power-manipulation for personal gain or status, sharply distinguished throughout the passage from the Spirit’s freely given power.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: чарівництво / чаклунство (charivnytstvo/chaklunstvo). Risk: High. Direct collision with Ukraine’s persistent post-Soviet folk-occult culture (екстрасенси, ворожки, чаклуни/чаклунки), already flagged repeatedly in the baseline; Simon’s specific sin (attempting to buy/commodify the Spirit’s power, 8:18-19) should be highlighted as the passage’s actual point, useful as a sharp, biblically-grounded corrective to that persistent cultural pattern rather than a merely historical curiosity.
• ἐπιθεῖσα τὰς χεῖρας, “laying on of hands” (8:17-19) — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: Physical gesture of blessing/commissioning/impartation.
  • Semantic range: Used in Acts for commissioning (6:6; 13:3), healing (9:12, 17; 28:8), and here for the impartation of the Holy Spirit to already-baptized believers.
  • Contextual theological meaning: In this specific narrative, the Samaritans had already been baptized (8:12) yet had not yet received the Spirit until the apostles’ hands were laid on them (8:14-17) — a sequence that varies notably across Acts (compare 2:38, where baptism and the Spirit’s gift are addressed together, and 10:44-48, where the Spirit falls on Cornelius’s household before baptism).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: покладання рук (pokladannya ruk). Risk: Critical. This gesture maps with unusual closeness onto Миропомазання (Chrismation), the sacrament administered immediately after baptism in both the Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions specifically to impart the Holy Spirit (functionally, their sacramental “reception of the Spirit” rite). Acts’ own narrative variation across chapters 2, 8, 10, and 19 — sometimes Spirit-reception coincides with baptism, sometimes follows apostolic hands, sometimes (10:44-48) precedes baptism entirely — resists being flattened into any single fixed liturgical sequence, including the majority traditions’ own settled sacramental order. This must be taught as Luke’s own varied historical narration of the Spirit’s sovereign freedom (cf. John 3:8) rather than read as prescribing, or as contradicting, any specific tradition’s sacramental theology. Human theologian review mandatory for every occurrence.
• δωρεὰν τοῦ θεοῦ, “the gift of God” (8:20, Peter’s rebuke of Simon) — extends [NEW] δωρεά (see Acts 2:38); Risk: High, inherited, sharpened here by the explicit warning against commodifying it.
• γραφή, “Scripture” (8:32-35, the eunuch and Isaiah) — [TM] extend baseline’s inspiration_of_scripture doctrine (богонатхненність Писання, High risk); reuse framing that Scripture is authoritative and requires explanation “beginning with this Scripture” (8:35) — consistent with the doctrine “The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles” reaching even a Gentile-adjacent eunuch, an outsider by both ethnicity and physical status under OT law (Deuteronomy 23:1).

Acts 9 — Saul’s Conversion; Peter’s Ministry (Tabitha, Aeneas)

• ἐπιστροφή / verb ἐπιστρέφω, “conversion/turning” — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: “a turning, a turning back/around.”
  • Semantic range: Not used as a noun of Saul specifically in ch. 9 (Luke narrates the event rather than naming it), but the verb and cognate noun occur elsewhere for Gentile conversion (11:21; 15:3, 19) and this chapter is the paradigm case throughout church history.
  • English variants: “conversion” (used as a chapter-summary term across translations and commentary tradition, though not a single fixed Greek word in ch. 9 itself).
  • Contextual theological meaning: A sovereign, dramatic, Christ-initiated reversal — grounding the doctrine “Conversion of Paul” and, by extension, the pattern of radical transformation available to any person, however opposed to the gospel.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: навернення (navernennya). Risk: Medium. Standard, well-established Ukrainian religious term for personal conversion across all traditions; low collision risk, though should be distinguished from навернення’s occasional secular-metaphorical usage (“converted” to a cause or opinion) to keep the specifically Christ-initiated, gospel-content sense clear.
• σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς, “a chosen instrument/vessel” (9:15) — [TM extend]
  • Semantic range: Ties directly to [TM] обрання (election, already High risk in the baseline).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: обраний [Богом] інструмент/посудина (obranyy [Bohom] instrument/posudyna), reusing [TM] обрання. Risk: High, inherited; must not collapse into доля/фатум per the baseline’s existing caution — Saul’s calling is personal, purposive divine choice, not blind fate overtaking a persecutor.
• βαπτίζω — [NEW, Critical], see Acts 2:38; recurs 9:18 (Saul’s own baptism).
• ἀνάστασις-adjacent: Tabitha’s raising (9:36-42) uses ἀνίστημι (“raised up”) in a resuscitation sense distinct from Christ’s unique, permanent, eschatologically decisive [TM] воскресіння. Risk: Medium. Flag explicitly: Tabitha’s raising is a temporary restoration to ordinary mortal life (she will die again), unlike Christ’s resurrection to permanent, glorified life — the same word family must not blur this crucial distinction, echoing the baseline’s insistence that воскресіння never be flattened or generalized without care.

Acts 10 — Cornelius; the Gospel Extended to Gentiles

• κοινός / καθαρός, “common/unclean” and “clean” (10:14-15, 28) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: OT ritual purity categories (kosher food laws) applied by Peter’s vision metaphorically to the reception of Gentiles.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: нечисте / чисте (nechyste/chyste). Risk: Medium. Requires explicit OT dietary-law background; low native collision risk in Ukraine (no competing purity-taboo system to confuse it with), but the metaphorical extension (people-groups, not food, are the real point) must be made explicit.
• οὐ προσωπολήπτης [ὁ θεός], “God shows no partiality” (10:34) — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: πρόσωπον (“face”) + λαμβάνω (“take/receive”) — “to take/receive by face,” i.e., to judge or favor based on external appearance/status.
  • Semantic range: Impartial, status-blind divine acceptance.
  • Contextual theological meaning: The theological hinge of the entire Cornelius narrative and, arguably, of the doctrine “The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles” — God’s acceptance of persons is not mediated by ethnicity, status, or ritual boundary-markers.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: Бог не звертає уваги на обличчя / не проявляє упередженості. Risk: High. Directly parallel to the baseline’s unity_of_jews_and_gentiles doctrine (already High risk given Ukraine’s history of antisemitic violence); this verse should be taught with the same care, affirming full, unqualified impartiality per the baseline’s universality-claims rule.
• πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπέπεσεν, “the Holy Spirit fell on” (10:44) — [TM] reuse Святий Дух; note the sequence (Spirit given before baptism, 10:44-48) as directly relevant to the ch. 8 laying-on-of-hands Critical flag above. Risk: Critical, inherited from that entry.
• ἔθνη — [TM] погани/народи, reused per baseline guidance (prefer народи in this mission-scope context). Risk: High, inherited.

Acts 11 — Jerusalem’s Response; the Name “Christian” at Antioch

• [TM extend] “God has granted repentance that leads to life” (11:18) — reuses [NEW] μετάνοια (Acts 2:38) applied explicitly, for the first time, to Gentiles — a doctrinally load-bearing extension the curriculum should flag: repentance is not a Jewish-only category but the same gift extended to “even to the Gentiles” (καὶ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν). Risk: High.
• Χριστιανός, “Christian” (11:26, first NT occurrence of the term) — [NEW]
  • Literal meaning: A Latinate/Greek formation, “belonging to/follower of Christ [Χριστός],” likely coined originally by outsiders as a nickname (possibly with a slightly mocking edge, on the pattern of “Herodian,” Ἡρωδιανός).
  • Semantic range: Becomes the settled self-designation of the movement.
  • English variants: “Christian(s)” (all major versions).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Marks the movement’s emerging distinct identity, no longer understood (even by outside observers) as merely a Jewish sect.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: християнин / християни (khrystyanyn/khrystyany). Risk: Low. Fully established, shared, and uncontested across all Ukrainian Christian traditions and secular usage alike; no collision risk beyond ensuring the term’s origin story (an outsider label later embraced) is not lost.

Acts 12 — Peter’s Imprisonment and Deliverance; James’s Martyrdom

• ἄγγελος Κυρίου, “angel of the Lord” (12:7, 23) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: A recurring OT/NT figure of direct divine intervention and deliverance (also judgment, v.23, of Herod).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: ангел Господній (anhel Hospodniy), reusing [TM] Господь. Risk: Low. Shared, uncontested across all traditions; strong devotional resonance (Guardian Angel piety is significant in both Orthodox and Greek Catholic popular devotion) which can be affirmed without collision.
• μάρτυς-adjacent: James’s death “by the sword” (12:2) — extends the witness/martyr theme (Acts 2:32, 7) without the Greek term μάρτυς itself being used here; note this explicitly so the doctrine of “Persecution and Bold Witness” is not thought to require the specific vocabulary word to be present.
• ἐκκλησία, “church” (12:5, praying for Peter) — [TM] церква, reused exactly. Risk: Critical, inherited directly from the baseline’s church_as_gods_people doctrine; here in its most basic, uncontested sense (the gathered local community praying), a good anchor point for teaching церква’s proper universal-community meaning before the term’s later, more institutionally complex usages (see Acts 15, 20 below).

Acts 13 — Antioch Commissioning; First Missionary Journey; Justification Preached

• τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον εἶπεν, “the Holy Spirit said… sent them” (13:2, 4) — [TM] Святий Дух, reused; ties the doctrine “The Great Commission Fulfilled” explicitly to the Spirit’s own initiative, not merely human missionary strategy. Risk: Critical, inherited.
• δικαιοῦται, “is justified” (13:39, “everyone who believes is justified [δικαιοῦται] from everything the law of Moses could not justify him from”) — [TM] виправдання, reused exactly. Risk: Critical, inherited directly from the baseline’s justification and justification_by_faith doctrines (the latter already flagged Critical in the Galatians extension). This is the first explicit forensic-justification vocabulary in Acts (distinct from the ἄφεσις/“forgiveness” language of 2:38) and should be flagged for mandatory theologian review consistent with the baseline’s existing rule; ensure identical terminology to Romans/Galatians occurrences per the cross-document consistency rule.
• φῶς ἐθνῶν, “a light for the Gentiles” (13:47, quoting Isaiah 49:6) — [NEW]
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: світло для народів (svitlo dlya narodiv), reusing [TM] погани/народи guidance (народи preferred here). Risk: High, inherited from the baseline’s mission_to_nations and unity_of_jews_and_gentiles doctrines; recurs verbatim in 26:23, requiring consistent rendering across both occurrences.

Acts 14 — Continued Mission; Persecution at Lystra; Elders Appointed

• διὰ πολλῶν θλίψεων εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (14:22) — [TM] Царство Боже, reused exactly. Risk: High, inherited from the baseline’s kingdom_mission doctrine; here explicitly paired with suffering, a pastorally significant pairing for a wartime readership that should be affirmed carefully (suffering as the ordinary path to the kingdom, not evidence of divine abandonment) rather than either minimized or turned into triumphalism.
• πρεσβύτεροι, “elders” (14:23, first appearance of the appointed-elder pattern) — [NEW], see full treatment under Acts 20 below, where the term recurs alongside ἐπίσκοπος and receives its fullest doctrinal development.
• No other new theological vocabulary beyond terms already introduced in chapters 1–13; reuses [TM] гроза/persecution-adjacent vocabulary and [NEW] σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα (14:3).

Acts 15 — The Jerusalem Council

• [NEW, Critical] The Jerusalem “council” itself (15:6, συνέρχομαι/συνάγω, the apostles and elders “gathered together”)
  • Literal meaning: No single fixed Greek noun for “council” is used in the narrative (Luke describes the event, later church tradition names it “the Apostolic Council/Synod”); the closest formal term, σύνοδος (“synod, council”), is not itself used in Acts 15, though the event is universally referred to as such in later usage, including in Ukrainian church-historical tradition.
  • Contextual theological meaning: The founding pattern of collective apostolic discernment resolving the church’s first major doctrinal crisis (must Gentile believers be circumcised and keep the Law to be saved?) — explicitly attributed to the Holy Spirit’s own guidance (15:28, “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: [NEW] Собор [апостолів] / Апостольський Собор (Sobor [apostoliv] / Apostol’s’kyy Sobor) is the term used in Ukrainian church-historical tradition for this event, paralleling Собор’s use for the later Ecumenical Councils. Risk: Critical. Собор carries an extremely specific and painful additional referent in modern Ukrainian ecclesiastical memory: the 1946 “Lviv Sobor” (Львівський собор), a Soviet-orchestrated pseudo-council that forcibly “reunified” the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into the Russian Orthodox Church, an act widely regarded by the UGCC (and by many historians) as an illegitimate, coerced sham lacking any of the free, Spirit-led deliberation Acts 15 actually depicts — accompanied by the arrest, imprisonment, or martyrdom of bishops and priests who refused to comply, and the UGCC’s subsequent survival only as an underground church until 1989. Using “Собор” for Acts 15 without comment risks either (a) unintentionally evoking this specific historical trauma for UGCC-formed readers, or (b) conversely, offering a genuinely illuminating and pastorally powerful contrast — Acts 15’s true, free, Spirit-guided council against the 1946 event’s coerced falsification of the very same word. This must be handled deliberately rather than by accident. Human theologian review mandatory for every occurrence of this term in the Acts 15 material.
• [TM] χάρις (grace, 15:11), [TM] διάκαιωσις-adjacent πίστις (faith, 15:9), [TM] обрізання (circumcision, 15:1, 5), [TM] νόμος/діла закону (the Law, 15:5, 10-11, 24, echoing the Galatians works_of_the_law entry exactly) — all reused exactly per the baseline; this chapter is the Acts-narrative counterpart to the doctrine “Justification apart from the Law” and should be cross-referenced explicitly with the Galatians material in this same Language Package. Risk: Critical throughout, inherited.
• ἔδοξεν τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ καὶ ἡμῖν, “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (15:28) — [TM] Святий Дух + провидіння Боже (providence), combined; Risk: Critical. Models a pattern of Spirit-guided, yet genuinely human and collective, decision-making — a delicate balance (divine guidance without erasing human deliberation) worth making explicit given the baseline’s existing caution about providence collapsing into either fatalism or a purely human-agency reading.

Acts 16 — Lydia; the Philippian Jailer; Household Conversions

• οἶκος [σου] σωθήσῃ, “you and your household will be saved” (16:31, to the jailer) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: The household (οἶκος) as a unit addressed alongside the individual — recurs with Lydia (16:15) and Cornelius (10:2, 24, 44) and Crispus (18:8).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Reflects the ancient household’s corporate social structure while still requiring personal faith-response from each member (cf. 16:32, “he spoke the word… to all who were in his house,” and 16:34, “having believed in God” — plural, personal).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: дім/домашні [спасуться] (dim/domashni [spasutsya]), reusing [TM] спасіння. Risk: High. This intersects directly with the paedobaptist/credobaptist tension already flagged as Critical under Acts 2:38’s хрещення entry: household salvation-and-baptism narratives (16:15, 33) are sometimes invoked to support infant baptism (the near-universal practice of the Orthodox and Greek Catholic majority) and sometimes read, by credobaptist traditions, as implying only that each capable household member believed individually. The text itself does not resolve this debate explicitly, and this curriculum should present the narrative on its own terms (a whole household responding together to the gospel) without overclaiming it as decisive evidence for either position, given the doctrinal weight already carried by хрещення elsewhere in the baseline.
• τὸ πνεῦμα Ἰησοῦ οὐκ εἴασεν, “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow” (16:7) — [TM] Святий Дух, reused; models Spirit-directed missionary guidance, tying to [TM] провидіння Боже. Risk: High, inherited.
• βαπτίζω — [NEW, Critical], recurs 16:15, 33; see Acts 2:38.

Acts 17 — Athens; the Areopagus Speech

• Ἄρειος Πάγος, “Areopagus” and ἄγνωστος θεός, “unknown god” (17:23) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: A specific altar inscription Paul uses as a rhetorical bridge to proclaim the true God who had been, until now, unknown to his Athenian hearers.
  • Contextual theological meaning: Models cross-cultural apologetic proclamation that takes a culture’s own religious impulses seriously as a bridge to the gospel, without endorsing polytheism itself.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: Ареопаг; невідомий бог (Areopah; nevidomyy boh). Risk: Medium. Low native-cultural collision (no equivalent “unknown god” altar tradition in Ukraine), but the passage’s broader apologetic strategy (respectfully engaging a culture’s existing religious search) is a useful pattern for a curriculum serving readers “newly engaging with faith amid wartime searching for meaning,” per this Language Package’s parent tone requirements.
• εἴδωλα, “idols” (17:16, 29) — [TM extend]
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: ідоли (idoly). Risk: Low. No significant native idol-worship collision in contemporary Ukraine; teach as a historical-cultural reality of Paul’s setting, with only a light, careful bridge to modern “idolatry of the heart” (misplaced ultimate trust/devotion) if the curriculum wishes to make that application, done so explicitly rather than assumed.
• ἀνάστασις (17:18, 31-32, Athenian mockery of the resurrection) — [TM] воскресіння, reused; Risk: Critical, inherited. Note the Athenians’ specific objection (a bodily resurrection sounded absurd to Greek philosophical ears) as a useful contrast: this is a doctrine with strong positive cultural rooting in Ukraine (per the baseline’s own note on Easter’s centrality), unlike in Paul’s original Athenian setting — an asset worth naming explicitly.

Acts 18 — Corinth Ministry

No major new theological vocabulary; reuses established terms: [TM] Святий Дух-directed ministry (implicit throughout), [NEW] παρρησία (18:26, Apollos speaking boldly), [TM] Χριστός/Ἰησοῦς (18:5, 28, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ, tying to [TM] Месія and the baseline’s messianic_promise doctrine). Chapter reviewed; no new entries required beyond noting the recurrence of established terms.

Acts 19 — Ephesus; John’s Baptism vs. Spirit-Baptism; Sons of Sceva; Riot

• βάπτισμα Ἰωάννου vs. πνεῦμα ἅγιον (19:1-7) — [NEW, extends Critical baptism/Spirit entries]
  • Contextual theological meaning: Twelve disciples who had received only John’s preparatory, repentance-oriented baptism are baptized again “in the name of the Lord Jesus” and receive the Spirit with attendant tongues and prophecy upon Paul’s laying on of hands — a narrative that explicitly distinguishes a merely preparatory rite from full Christian baptism/Spirit-reception.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: Reuse [NEW, Critical] хрещення and [Critical] дар Святого Духа/покладання рук exactly as flagged at Acts 2:38 and Acts 8. Risk: Critical, compounding both entries; this passage is a key proof-text in debates (again, live in Ukrainian Pentecostal/Charismatic circles) over “Spirit baptism” as separable from water baptism, and must be handled with the same mandatory theologian review already required for those entries.
• μαγικά [βιβλία], “books of magic” (19:19, burned publicly) — extends [NEW] μαγεία (see Acts 8); Risk: High, inherited, with added narrative force (public, costly renunciation) useful for addressing lingering post-Soviet occult practice directly and pastorally.
• γλῶσσαι and προφητεύω (19:6) — [NEW], reuse treatment from Acts 2:4 and 2:17-18 respectively; Risk: High, inherited.

Acts 20 — Paul’s Farewell at Miletus

• πρεσβύτεροι / ἐπίσκοποι, “elders / overseers” (20:17, 28) — [NEW, Critical]
  • Literal meaning: πρεσβύτερος = “elder, older man”; ἐπίσκοπος = “overseer, one who watches over” (from ἐπί + σκοπέω, “to look upon/watch”).
  • Semantic range: Used interchangeably by Luke/Paul here for the same office (the Ephesian “elders” of v.17 are charged, v.28, to “be overseers” of the flock) — an important textual datum, since later church history developed πρεσβύτερος (“priest,” through a long linguistic chain) and ἐπίσκοπος (“bishop”) into two distinct, hierarchically ranked offices.
  • English variants: “elders” / “overseers” (ESV/NIV); “elders” / “overseers” (KJV: “elders”/“overseers”, though KJV elsewhere sometimes renders ἐπίσκοπος as “bishop,” e.g., 1 Timothy 3:1, Philippians 1:1 — not in this exact passage but relevant to reader expectation).
  • Contextual theological meaning: Establishes local congregational pastoral oversight (“shepherd the church of God,” ποιμαίνειν, v.28) as this office’s core content — care of souls, doctrinal guarding (v.29-30), not primarily jurisdictional or institutional authority in the later, fully developed sense.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: старійшини / єпископи (наглядачі) (stariyshyny / yepyskopy [nahlyadachi]). Risk: Critical. This is one of the sharpest institutional-collision points in the entire Acts curriculum. Ukrainian єпископ (bishop) today denotes a specific, high-ranking office within a fully developed, jurisdictionally significant episcopal hierarchy (metropolitans, patriarchs/heads of church, eparchies) across the Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions — the very same jurisdictional landscape (OCU/UOC/UGCC) already flagged Critical in the baseline’s church_as_gods_people doctrine. Rendering ἐπίσκοπος here as єпископ risks importing that entire contemporary institutional-jurisdictional weight into Paul’s much simpler, local, single-congregation pastoral-care context; rendering it only as наглядач (“overseer/supervisor,” a secular-management-sounding alternative) risks losing the term’s genuine ecclesial content and its historical connection to the later office. This curriculum should use старійшини as the primary rendering (matching πρεσβύτεροι, v.17, the term Luke actually uses to introduce these men) and gloss ἐπίσκοπος/наглядач as a description of their function (shepherding oversight) rather than a title naming a jurisdictional rank, explicitly noting that the fully developed episcopal office of later church history should not be read back into this text. Human theologian review mandatory for every occurrence.
• ποιμήν / ποιμαίνω, “shepherd” (20:28-29) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: Pastoral care imagery, drawing on OT shepherd-leader tradition (Ezekiel 34; Psalm 23) and Jesus’s own self-designation (John 10).
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: пастир / пасти (pastyr/pasty). Risk: Medium. Warm, well-established pastoral image across all traditions (пастир is also the term for a parish priest’s pastoral role); low collision risk, a genuine asset for this doctrine.
• τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς χάριτος τοῦ θεοῦ, “the gospel of the grace of God” (20:24) — [TM] reused exactly (Євангеліє; благодать). Risk: Critical, inherited, doubly so as a compound of two already-Critical baseline terms.
• ἀναίτιος τοῦ αἵματος, “innocent of the blood” (20:26, idiom) — [NEW, Low]
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: чистий від крові (chystyy vid krovi), an idiom requiring plain-meaning handling per the baseline’s idiom-handling rule (preserve theological meaning — faithful proclamation absolves the messenger of responsibility for hearers’ unbelief — over idiomatic literalism).

Acts 21 — Paul’s Journey to Jerusalem; Arrest

• προφητεύω (Agabus’s prophecy, 21:10-11) — [TM] пророцтво, reused. Risk: Low, inherited.
• εὐχὴ [Ναζιραίου], “Nazirite vow” (21:23-26) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: A specific OT vow of temporary consecration (Numbers 6), involving abstention from wine and hair-cutting.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: обітниця назорея (obitnytsya nazoreya). Risk: Low. Requires OT background explanation; no significant Ukraine-specific collision. Note connection to [TM] обітниця (promise/vow) already established from the Galatians extension.
• [TM] ἔθνη (21:11, 19, 21, 25, Gentiles) — reused; Risk: High, inherited.

Acts 22 — Paul’s Defense Before the Crowd

• Retelling of Acts 9’s conversion narrative; reuses [NEW] μετάνοια/ἐπιστροφή-adjacent vocabulary and [NEW] μάρτυς (22:15, 20, Paul as witness, and explicitly of Stephen as μάρτυς, “your witness,” confirming the witness→martyr semantic development flagged at Acts 2:32 and Acts 7).
• ὁ θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν, “the God of our fathers” (22:14; cf. 24:14) — [NEW, Low]
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: Бог наших батьків (Boh nashykh bat’kiv). Risk: Low. Standard covenant-continuity language; ties to [TM] Ізраїль/завіт.
• No other genuinely new theological vocabulary beyond terms already treated; chapter reviewed.

Acts 23 — The Sanhedrin; the Plot Against Paul

• ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν and the Pharisee-Sadducee dispute (23:6-8) — [TM] воскресіння, reused; Risk: Critical, inherited. Note the internal Jewish theological division over this doctrine as historically significant background (Sadducees denied bodily resurrection; Pharisees affirmed it), useful for teaching the doctrine’s own contested history rather than assuming universal ancient agreement.
• συνέδριον, “Sanhedrin/council” (23:1, 6, 15, 20, 28) — [NEW, distinguish from Acts 15’s Собор]
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: Синедріон (Synedrion), a transliterated proper-noun-like term for the specific Jewish ruling council, kept lexically and orthographically distinct from Собор (used for the Acts 15 apostolic council). Risk: Medium. Low risk in itself, but the deliberate distinction from Собор should be maintained precisely because of Собор’s Critical-risk flag at Acts 15 — using two different, non-overlapping Ukrainian words for two different institutions avoids compounding that risk unnecessarily here.

Acts 24 — Trial Before Felix

• δικαιοσύνη, ἐγκράτεια, καὶ τὸ κρίμα τὸ μέλλον, “righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come” (24:25) — [TM] праведність, reused exactly for δικαιοσύνη; [NEW] ἐγκράτεια, стриманість (strymanist’, self-control, Low risk, shared virtue-vocabulary across traditions); [NEW] κρίμα μέλλον, майбутній суд (maybutniy sud, the coming/final judgment, Medium risk — must be kept eschatologically future and personal, not reduced to a vague moralism).
• ἡ ὁδός, “the Way” (24:14, 22; cf. 9:2; 19:9, 23) — [NEW]
  • Semantic range: The early Christian movement’s self-designation as “the Way” — a path/manner of life, not merely a set of beliefs.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: Шлях (Shlyakh). Risk: Medium. No significant lexical collision, but “шлях” is also used as a name/slogan by various secular political and civic movements in Ukraine historically and currently; context should make clear this is the early church’s own self-designation, not an allusion to any modern movement bearing a similar name.

Acts 25 — Trial Before Festus; Appeal to Caesar

• ἐπικαλέσατο Καίσαρα, “appealed to Caesar” (25:11-12) — [NEW, Low/Medium]
  • Semantic range: Paul’s exercise of his Roman legal right of appeal to the emperor’s own tribunal.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: звернувся до Кесаря / подав апеляцію до Кесаря. Risk: Low. Historical-legal background term; low collision risk, though this section (like Romans 13, already flagged for native-speaker review in the baseline given acute wartime sensitivity around government/authority) touches questions of civil authority and legal appeal that should be handled with the same care.
• No other genuinely new theological vocabulary; reuses [TM] апостол, [NEW] ἀνάστασις (25:19, again raised by Festus as the substance of the dispute).

Acts 26 — Paul’s Testimony Before Agrippa

• οὐρανίῳ ὀπτασίᾳ, “the heavenly vision” (26:19, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”) — [NEW, Low/Medium]
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: небесне видіння (nebesne vydinnya). Risk: Medium. Positive, low-collision term; care to distinguish from the post-Soviet folk-occult vision/prophecy-adjacent practices already flagged repeatedly (ворожіння), by keeping this explicitly as Paul’s own Christ-given commissioning vision (echoing ch. 9), not a generic paranormal experience.
• ἐπιστρέψαι ἀπὸ τοῦ σκότους εἰς φῶς, “to turn from darkness to light” (26:18) — [NEW], extends the [NEW] ἐπιστροφή (conversion) entry from Acts 9 with vivid light/darkness imagery.
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: навернутися від темряви до світла. Risk: Medium. Strong, positive, universally accessible metaphor across traditions; low collision risk.
• κλῆρον ἐν τοῖς ἡγιασμένοις, “an inheritance among those sanctified” (26:18) — [TM] ties directly to the baseline’s освячення (sanctification, Critical risk) and усиновлення (adoption, High risk, with its acute wartime-orphans resonance) entries. Risk: Critical, inherited from освячення; the “inheritance” language should be explicitly connected to the baseline’s adoption doctrine’s emphasis on full, permanent inheritance rights, a resonance of particular pastoral weight for Ukrainian readers given the war’s impact on family and inheritance realities.
• φῶς ἐθνῶν (26:23) — [NEW], verbatim recurrence of 13:47; must render identically per the cross-document consistency principle.

Acts 27 — The Storm and Shipwreck

• μὴ φοβοῦ, “do not be afraid” (27:24, the angel’s message to Paul) — [NEW, ties to TM providence]
  • Ukrainian rendering & risk: не бійся (ne biysya). Risk: Medium. Ties directly to the baseline’s провидіння Боже (providence, High risk) and its caution against доля/випадок (fate/chance); this narrative of God’s sovereign, purposive preservation of Paul and all aboard through mortal danger carries acute, immediate pastoral resonance for readers currently living through wartime danger and displacement, echoing the baseline’s assurance_of_salvation doctrine’s caution to keep such assurance anchored to God’s purposes rather than a blanket promise of physical safety in every circumstance.
• No other new theological vocabulary; narrative chapter, reviewed.

Acts 28 — Malta; Arrival in Rome

• σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα-adjacent: the viper bite and healings at Malta (28:3-9) — [NEW], reuse treatment from Acts 2:22; Risk: High, inherited.
• κηρύσσων τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ… μετὰ πάσης παρρησίας ἀκωλύτως, “proclaiming the kingdom of God… with all boldness and without hindrance” (28:31, the book’s closing words) — [TM + NEW]
  • [TM] Царство Боже and [NEW] παρρησία, reused exactly as established at Acts 4 and the baseline.
  • ἀκωλύτως, “without hindrance/unhindered” — [NEW]
    • Semantic range: Unimpeded, freely — Luke’s deliberately open-ended, triumphant closing note, even as Paul remains, narratively, under guard in Rome.
    • Ukrainian rendering & risk: безперешкодно (bezpereshkodno). Risk: Medium. A fitting, hope-affirming closing note for “The Great Commission Fulfilled” doctrine — the gospel’s advance is not, finally, contained even by imprisonment or empire — that should be allowed to land with its full, deliberately open-ended force, consistent with this Language Package’s warmth and hope-affirming tone requirements for a wartime readership.

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This document, together with analysis/08_core_glossary.md, extends the baseline Romans/Galatians Language Package to the Acts curriculum without contradicting any of its established renderings, risk tiers, or forbidden-substitution rules.