Semantic Analysis

Semantic Analysis — Epistle of James (Ukrainian)

Scope and Method

This analysis covers the entire Epistle of James, chapters 1–5, in the original Koine Greek. The core passage, James 2:14–26 (Faith and Works), receives verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter receives a chapter-level study of its load-bearing theological terms using the same five fields: original word, transliteration, literal meaning, semantic range / English variants, contextual theological meaning, and destination-language (Ukrainian) rendering risk.

Every term already established in the baseline Romans/Galatians Language Package (translation_memory.json, bible_term_registry.json) is reused exactly as recorded there; this is marked [Baseline TM] at first occurrence. New terms are assigned provisional risk tiers using the same Critical/High/Medium/Low framework as the baseline’s doctrine_risk_registry.json, for formal incorporation in Phase 1 Steps 2–4.

James introduces load-bearing vocabulary in every chapter; no chapter of this book is vocabulary-neutral. Chapter 2 is split: verses 1–13 (favoritism) are treated in Part 2 below; verses 14–26 (the core passage) are treated in Part 1.

PART 1 — Core Passage: James 2:14–26, Verse by Verse

James 2:14

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”

ὄφελος (ophelos) — Lit. “benefit, profit, use.” Range: practical advantage, gain. English variants: “good,” “profit,” “use.” Contextual meaning: opens James’s diagnostic question — a claimed faith with no observable fruit yields nothing. Rendering: користь. Risk: Low; concrete and unambiguous.
ἀδελφοί (adelphoi) — Lit. “brothers.” Range: biological siblings; extended to the whole community of believers, male and female. English variants: “brothers,” “brethren,” “brothers and sisters.” Contextual meaning: James’s characteristic warm, direct pastoral address (used 19 times in the letter). Rendering: брати (з розширеним значенням “брати і сестри” за потреби контексту). Risk: Low-Medium; standard, but modern inclusive-address conventions should be noted for teaching contexts.
πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν (pistin legē tis echein) — Lit. “someone says [he] has faith.” Contextual meaning: James distinguishes verbal claim to faith from faith’s living reality — the entire passage’s rhetorical engine. Rendering: віра [Baseline TM: віра, High risk]. Risk carried forward from baseline: віра can default to confessional-identity claim (“what is his faith/confession?”) rather than the vital, personal trust James has in view; here that risk is amplified because James is explicitly interrogating a merely notional or verbally-claimed faith.
ἔργα (erga) — Lit. “works, deeds, actions.” Range: any human action; here, concrete deeds of love and mercy that give evidence of genuine faith. English variants: “works,” “deeds,” “actions.” Contextual meaning: This is the single most important cross-curriculum terminological decision in the James package. James’s plain ἔργα (deeds demonstrating living faith) is a different category from the baseline’s Galatians term діла закону (“works of the Law,” Torah-boundary markers such as circumcision, food laws, calendar observance, rejected as a basis of justification in Galatians 2:16). James is not contradicting Paul’s rejection of діла закону; he is addressing a different question (does genuine faith produce visible fruit?), using unqualified ἔργα. Rendering: діла (never “діла закону”). Risk: Critical — if translators or teachers allow діла here to be heard as the same category Paul rejects in Galatians, the whole letter appears to contradict the Pauline gospel. This distinction must be stated explicitly in every lesson touching this passage, not left to context alone.
σῶσαι (sōsai, from σώζω) — Lit. “to save, rescue, deliver.” Contextual meaning: rhetorical question — can a faith with no works actually save? Connects directly to спасіння [Baseline TM: спасіння, Critical]. Rendering: спасти. Risk: Critical (inherited) — must not be read as implying works cause salvation; the question is whether dead faith (defined in v.17, 26) was ever real, saving faith at all.

James 2:15–16

“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

γυμνός (gymnos) — Lit. “naked, bare.” Range: literally unclothed or (as here) inadequately/poorly clothed. Rendering: без належного одягу / погано одягнений. Risk: Low.
ἐφήμερος τροφή (ephēmeros trophē) — Lit. “daily food, food for the day.” Rendering: щоденна їжа. Risk: Low. Note: this concrete poverty scenario has acute lived resonance in wartime Ukraine (displaced persons, front-line communities) — an asset for vivid application, not a translation risk per se.
ὑπάγετε ἐν εἰρήνῃ (hypagete en eirēnē) — Lit. “go in peace.” Uses εἰρήνη = мир [Baseline TM: мир, High risk]. Contextual meaning: James deliberately puts a pious, formulaic blessing in the speaker’s mouth — precisely the kind of empty religious talk he is exposing. Rendering: ідіть з миром. Risk: High — this is the one place in the curriculum where мир’s established devotional/liturgical formula is being critiqued by the text itself as hollow unless matched by action. Given мир’s exceptionally heavy current wartime resonance (peace as the opposite of the ongoing war), teaching material must make clear James is not devaluing peace-language itself but exposing words unaccompanied by material compassion — a point that lands with unusual force for readers for whom “peace” is a daily, urgent longing.
θερμαίνεσθε καὶ χορτάζεσθε (thermainesthe kai chortazesthe) — Lit. “be warmed and be filled/satisfied.” Rendering: зігрійтеся й наїжтеся. Risk: Low.
τὰ ἐπιτήδεια τοῦ σώματος (ta epitēdeia tou sōmatos) — Lit. “the things necessary/fitting for the body.” σῶμα here is the neutral physical body. Rendering: потрібне для тіла. Risk: Medium — тіло here is unambiguously the neutral σῶμα sense (body’s physical needs), not the ethical σάρξ (“flesh”) sense already flagged as Critical in the Galatians baseline (5:13–24). This verse is a useful, low-risk anchor point for teaching the σῶμα/σάρξ distinction precisely because it has no ethical-flesh overtones at all.

James 2:17

“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

νεκρά (nekra, from νεκρός) — Lit. “dead, lifeless.” Range: literal corpse-death; figurative for anything inert, non-functioning, without vital force. English variants: “dead,” “lifeless,” “barren.” Contextual meaning: James’s thesis statement for the whole unit — faith with no accompanying deeds is not weak faith but no living faith at all. Rendering: мертва. Risk: High — the theological weight rests entirely on how strongly this is taught: мертва must be understood as “not alive / never was alive,” not merely “deficient” or “in need of supplementing.” Teaching material should make explicit that James is diagnosing whether faith is real, not adding works as a second requirement alongside faith.
καθ’ ἑαυτήν (kath’ heautēn) — Lit. “by itself, in itself, alone.” Rendering: сама по собі / сама в собі. Risk: Low, but structurally important — modifies “faith,” isolating the hypothetical case of faith with zero accompanying works.

James 2:18

“But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

δεῖξόν (deixon, from δείκνυμι) — Lit. “show, demonstrate, exhibit.” Rendering: покажи. Risk: Low.
χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων (chōris tōn ergōn) — Lit. “apart from, without the works.” Contextual meaning: this phrase echoes the baseline’s grace-doctrine language (“apart from works,” Romans 4:4–5; 11:5–6) but functions in the opposite direction: there, “apart from works” describes the ground of justification (grace excludes works as a basis of standing before God); here, “apart from works” describes the impossibility of demonstrating genuine faith without accompanying deeds. Rendering: без діл. Risk: Critical — precisely because the phrase-shape matches the baseline’s grace vocabulary, this is a prime location for readers to import the wrong doctrinal frame. Teaching material must distinguish: Romans/Galatians — “apart from works” = the basis of justification (grace excludes it); James 2:18 — “apart from works” = the observable evidence of justification (faith without it cannot be shown to be real).
δείξω ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν (deixō ek tōn ergōn mou tēn pistin) — Lit. “I will show my faith from/by my works.” Rendering: я покажу свою віру ділами. Risk: Medium; reinforces that works are the evidence, not the basis, of faith.

James 2:19

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

εἷς θεός (heis theos) — Lit. “one God.” Uses θεός = Бог [Baseline TM: Бог, Critical]. Contextual meaning: quotes the Shema-adjacent monotheistic confession (cf. Deut 6:4) as the minimum content of orthodox belief — insufficient by itself. Rendering: один Бог. Risk: Low-Medium; the doctrinal point (bare correct doctrine ≠ saving faith) needs explicit exposition.
δαιμόνια (daimonia) — Lit. “demons, evil spirits.” Range: New Testament usage for malevolent spiritual beings subordinate to Satan. English variants: “demons,” “devils” (older translations). Rendering: демони. Risk: Low-Medium — post-Soviet folk-occult culture (see baseline’s spiritual-gifts and prophecy entries: екстрасенси, ворожбити) remains present in Ukraine; this verse’s negative example (even demons hold correct theology, yet remain condemned) should not be allowed to blur with folk-spiritual categories, but the term itself is standard and unambiguous.
φρίσσουσιν (phrissousin, from φρίσσω) — Lit. “to shudder, bristle (as with fear or cold).” Range: a vivid physical/emotional term for terror. Rendering: тремтять (від жаху). Risk: Low; vivid, concrete, no collision risk.

James 2:20

“Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?”

ἄνθρωπε κενέ (anthrōpe kene) — Lit. “O empty/foolish person!” (vocative address). Range: κενός = empty, vain, without substance; applied to a person, “empty-headed, senseless.” Rendering: легковажна людино / нерозумна людино (following Ohienko’s register: “нерозумна/марна людино”). Risk: Low; a rhetorical rebuke, register-sensitive but doctrinally uncomplicated.
χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων νεκρά — repeats v.17’s thesis; see above.

James 2:21

“Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?”

Ἀβραάμ (Abraam) — Авраам [Baseline TM proper name]. Risk: Low (established form).
ἐδικαιώθη (edikaiōthē, aorist passive of δικαιόω) — Lit. “was justified, was declared/shown righteous.” Uses the verb form of δικαίωσις = виправдання [Baseline TM: justification, Critical]. This is the single most theologically fraught verse in the entire Epistle for cross-curriculum consistency. Semantic range: δικαιόω can mean (a) to declare righteous in a forensic sense (Paul’s dominant Romans/Galatians usage) or (b) to vindicate, demonstrate, or show to be righteous by evidence (a live sense in Koine usage and clearly James’s meaning here, referring to Genesis 22, after Genesis 15:6’s faith-reckoning already cited in v.23). Contextual theological meaning: James is not describing the ground of Abraham’s initial acceptance before God (already secured by faith, Genesis 15:6, quoted in the next verse) but Abraham’s vindication/demonstration as righteous through the later test of Genesis 22 — a public, evidentiary justification building on, not replacing, the prior forensic one. Rendering: виправдався (реквізиція дієслівної форми від baseline “виправдання”). Risk: Critical. Human theologian review mandatory for every occurrence of this verb in this passage. The reconciliation with Romans 4 (Abraham justified by faith, apart from works, citing the same Genesis 15:6 text quoted in James 2:23) must be taught explicitly: James 2:21 describes a later, demonstrative/vindicating justification that presupposes and confirms the prior, forensic justification by faith alone — not two competing doctrines of justification.
ἀνενέγκας (anenegkas, from ἀναφέρω) — Lit. “having brought up, having offered up.” Rendering: принісши (в жертву). Risk: Low.
θυσιαστήριον (thysiastērion) — Lit. “altar, place of sacrifice.” Rendering: жертовник. Risk: Low; concrete narrative term, well established across all Ukrainian Bible traditions.

James 2:22

“You see that faith was working together with his works, and faith was completed by his works.”

συνήργει (synērgei, from συνεργέω) — Lit. “was working together with, was cooperating with.” Range: cognate with “synergy.” Contextual meaning: faith and works are not rivals but organically joined — faith is active, works flow from and express it. Rendering: діяла разом (з ділами) / співпрацювала. Risk: Medium — must not be rendered in a way that suggests works supplement or add to faith as co-causes of salvation; the cooperation described is faith’s own living activity expressing itself, not two independent contributing forces.
ἐτελειώθη (eteleiōthē, from τελειόω) — Lit. “was completed, was brought to maturity/perfection, reached its intended end.” Shares the root of τέλειος (see Ch.1 below). Range: not “became sinless” but “reached its intended completeness/goal.” English variants: “was made perfect,” “was completed,” “reached maturity.” Contextual meaning: works are the maturation, not the origin, of faith. Rendering: досягла звершення / була вдосконалена (у сенсі “дійшла до повноти,” не “стала безгрішною”). Risk: High — досконалий/вдосконалення risks being heard in a moralistic, achievement-based sense (works perfecting a person’s standing) rather than James’s organic-growth sense (works as faith’s natural, completed expression). Explicit glossing required on first use.

James 2:23

“and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God.”

ἐπληρώθη (eplērōthē) — Lit. “was fulfilled.” Rendering: здійснилося / сповнилося. Risk: Low-Medium; connects to the baseline’s “fulfillment of prophecy” doctrine (Medium risk).
ἐπίστευσεν… τῷ θεῷ (episteusen tō theō) — Lit. “believed God.” Uses πιστεύω, verb cognate of πίστις = віра. Rendering: повірив Богові. Risk: Medium (inherited from faith entry).
ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην (elogisthē autō eis dikaiosynēn) — Lit. “it was credited/reckoned to him for/as righteousness.” This is the exact Genesis 15:6 quotation already governed by the baseline’s Critical term imputed_righteousness: “зарахована праведність” [Baseline TM: imputed_righteousness, Critical]. The rendering here must match the baseline’s established Romans 4:3 treatment exactly (“залічено/зараховано йому в праведність” or the baseline’s fixed noun phrase where citing the doctrine). Contextual meaning: this is the forensic, credited righteousness — the antecedent event James’s v.21 “justified by works” both presupposes and later publicly vindicates. Risk: Critical. This verse is the linchpin proving James 2:14–26 is not a rival doctrine to Romans 4 but a complementary argument about the same Abraham narrative, at two different narrative moments (Genesis 15 vs. Genesis 22). Must be cross-referenced explicitly in every lesson.
φίλος θεοῦ ἐκλήθη (philos theou eklēthē) — Lit. “was called a friend of God.” κλήθη shares the root of κλητός/κλῆσις = покликаний/покликання [Baseline TM: called/calling, Medium/High], though the sense here (being named/designated “friend”) is looser than the baseline’s technical calling-to-salvation sense. Rendering: був названий другом Божим. Risk: Medium — a rich relational category (echoing John 15:14–15) that should be taught as the fruit of Abraham’s faith-and-works pattern, not confused with the technical doctrine of effectual calling.

James 2:24

“You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

ὁρᾶτε (horate) — Lit. “you see, you observe.” Rendering: ви бачите. Risk: Low.
δικαιοῦται (dikaioutai, present passive of δικαιόω) — See v.21 analysis of the same root. Rendering: виправдовується. Risk: Critical — this is the letter’s thesis statement and the single verse most likely to be quoted (in isolation) as contradicting Romans 3:28/Galatians 2:16. Mandatory theologian-reviewed teaching note required wherever this verse appears: James’s ἔργα is evidentiary/demonstrative fruit of living faith (see v.14, v.18 above), addressing a different question (is this professed faith real and alive?) than Paul’s ἔργα νόμου (see v.14 above; is Torah-observance a basis for right standing before God at all?). Neither writer contradicts the other; they answer different questions using the shared word “works” in different senses.
ἐξ ἔργων… καὶ οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως μόνον (ex ergōn… kai ouk ek pisteōs monon) — Lit. “by/from works… and not by/from faith alone.” Rendering: ділами, а не тільки вірою. Risk: Critical, same rationale as above. The word “тільки” (alone/only) must be retained precisely — James is not denying that faith justifies, but denying that a bare, fruitless, merely-verbal claim to faith (the ἄνθρωπε κενέ of v.20) can do so.

James 2:25

“And in the same way was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”

Ῥαὰβ ἡ πόρνη (Rhaab hē pornē) — Lit. “Rahab the prostitute/harlot.” Rendering: Рахав, блудниця. Risk: Low-Medium; a deliberately provocative second example (a Gentile woman of disreputable profession, alongside the patriarch Abraham) reinforcing that this pattern of living faith is not limited by ethnicity, gender, or social respectability — an asset for teaching the letter’s radically inclusive logic, paralleling the baseline’s “neither Jew nor Greek” universality principle from Galatians 3:28.
ἐδικαιώθη — see v.21. Same Critical rendering and reconciliation note applies.
ὑποδεξαμένη τοὺς ἀγγέλους (hypodexamenē tous angelous) — Lit. “having received/welcomed the messengers.” ἄγγελος here means human messengers/scouts (the two Israelite spies of Joshua 2), not angels. Rendering: прийнявши розвідників / посланців — explicitly not “ангелів.” Risk: Medium-High — a concrete factual-accuracy risk distinct from any doctrinal-collision risk elsewhere in this analysis: translators or readers may default to “ангели” (angels) since ἄγγελος is the same word rendered “angel” elsewhere in Scripture, producing a narrative error (Joshua’s human scouts, not celestial beings, entered Rahab’s house). This must be flagged explicitly in any translator-facing note.
ἐκβαλοῦσα (ekbalousa, from ἐκβάλλω) — Lit. “having sent/cast out.” Rendering: вивівши (іншим шляхом). Risk: Low.

James 2:26

“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

τὸ σῶμα χωρὶς πνεύματος νεκρόν (to sōma chōris pneumatos nekron) — Lit. “the body without spirit/breath [is] dead.” σῶμα = тіло (neutral physical body, as in v.16 above). πνεῦμα here means the human spirit/breath of life, not the Holy Spirit — a straightforward, non-theological usage (a corpse lacks life-breath). Rendering: тіло без духа — lowercase дух, correctly, since this is the one context in the whole curriculum where bare πνεῦμα is not the Holy Spirit. Risk: Critical (precision flag, not doctrinal-collision flag) — this verse must be explicitly contrasted with the baseline’s Galatians warning that bare πνεῦμα (5:16–25) must always be capitalized as Дух because it is the Holy Spirit there. Here the correct choice is the opposite: lowercase дух, because context (a dead body) makes plain this is the ordinary human spirit/life-breath, not a divine Person. Translators must not mechanically capitalize every bare “spirit” occurrence across the whole curriculum; each occurrence requires contextual judgment, and this verse is the clearest possible teaching example of the “wrong” (non-Holy-Spirit) case.
νεκρά — closes the unit, repeating and sealing the thesis of v.17 and v.20. Rendering: мертва.

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

Chapter 1

δοῦλος (doulos) — Lit. “slave, bondservant.” Range: involuntary slave; also a voluntary, honorific self-designation of total devotion to a master (as here, of James toward God and Christ). English variants: “servant,” “bondservant,” “slave.” Contextual meaning: James’s opening self-identification (1:1), following the Pauline pattern already established for Romans 1:1 (Ohienko: “раб Ісуса Христа”). Rendering: раб [reuse Ohienko/Romans pattern]. Risk: Medium — раб (slave) could evoke Ukraine’s own historical experience of serfdom and Soviet-era forced labor rather than the honorific, voluntary sense intended; brief contextual framing is advisable, paralleling the baseline’s caution around “yoke of slavery” imagery in Galatians.

πειρασμός (peirasmos) — Lit. “trial, testing.” Range: a positive-sense testing of faith that produces endurance (1:2–3, 1:12) and a negative-sense enticement to sin (1:13–14, where the cognate verb πειράζω is used). English variants: “trial,” “test,” “temptation.” Contextual meaning: this single word-family carries James’s entire opening argument, and its two senses must be rendered differently in Ukrainian to preserve James’s own careful distinction (he insists God tests, in the positive sense, but never tempts to sin, in the negative sense — 1:13). Rendering: випробування (positive, trial/testing) vs. спокуса/спокушати (negative, temptation to sin). Risk: High — this is a structural translation decision, not a lexical error risk: Greek uses one word-family for both senses; Ukrainian must use two, and James 1:12–15’s argument (God tests but does not tempt) depends on readers correctly tracking the shift. Explicit exposition required at 1:13.

ὑπομονή (hypomonē) — Lit. “endurance, steadfastness, patient perseverance under pressure.” Range: active, sustained endurance (contrast with μακροθυμία, patience/forbearance toward people or circumstances, at 5:7–11 below — Ukrainian’s терпіння word-family does not naturally distinguish these two Greek concepts, a structural risk paralleling the baseline’s note on насіння’s singular/plural collapse in Galatians 3:16). Rendering: витривалість / терпеливість. Risk: Medium-High; the ὑπομονή/μακροθυμία distinction must be carried by explicit exposition, not lexical form alone.

τέλειος (teleios) — Lit. “complete, mature, whole, having reached its intended end.” Range: NOT “sinlessly perfect” but “fully developed, mature, complete in character.” English variants: “perfect,” “mature,” “complete.” Contextual meaning: 1:4 (“that you may be perfect and complete”), 1:17 (“every perfect gift”), 1:25 (“perfect law”). Rendering: досконалий. Risk: Medium — Ukrainian досконалий carries strong connotations of flawless/sinless perfection (reinforced by hagiographic language for canonized saints, already flagged in the baseline under “saints”/“holy”); James’s maturity/completeness sense must be explicitly distinguished from moral sinlessness on first occurrence.

διακρίνω / δισταγμός (diakrinō / distagmos, 1:6) — Lit. “to doubt, waver, be divided in judgment.” Rendering: сумніватися. Risk: Low.

δίψυχος (dipsychos, 1:8) — Lit. “two-souled, double-minded.” Range: inner division, wavering loyalty. Rendering: двоєдушний. Risk: Low-Medium; must not be heard in any post-Soviet folk-psychic “two souls/possession” sense — it denotes wavering commitment, not a literal spiritual condition.

ἐπιθυμία (epithymia, 1:14–15) — Lit. “desire, craving, lust.” Range: neutral “desire” in some NT contexts; here the negative, personified source of temptation that “gives birth” to sin. English variants: “desire,” “lust,” “craving.” Contextual meaning: parallel to the Galatians baseline’s ἐπιθυμία σαρκός (“desires of the flesh,” Gal 5:16), here personified as a generative force (conceives → gives birth to sin → sin, full-grown, brings forth death). Rendering: пожадливість. Risk: Medium; must retain the vivid gestation/birth metaphor (conceiving/народжує) rather than flattening to abstract “bad desire.”

πατὴρ τῶν φώτων (patēr tōn phōtōn, 1:17) — Lit. “Father of lights.” Uses πατήρ = Отець [Baseline TM: father, High]. Rendering: Отець світил. Risk: Low; poetic title, no collision risk in Ukrainian’s light/darkness imagery.

ἀπαρχή (aparchē, 1:18) — Lit. “firstfruits.” Rendering: первісток. Risk: Low; established Bible-register term.

λόγος ἀληθείας / ἔμφυτος λόγος (logos alētheias / emphytos logos, 1:18, 21) — Lit. “word of truth” / “implanted word.” Rendering: слово істини / всаджене слово (Ohienko’s own established phrase). Risk: Low-Medium; requires brief exposition that “the word” here is the gospel message received and taking root, connecting to Євангеліє [Baseline TM: gospel, High] without being a synonym for it.

πραΰτης (prautēs, 1:21) — Lit. “meekness, gentleness.” Rendering: лагідність. Risk: Low.

ποιητὴς λόγου / ἀκροατὴς λόγου (poiētēs logou / akroatēs logou, 1:22–25) — Lit. “doer of the word” / “hearer of the word [only].” Contextual meaning: James’s foundational statement of the Faith and Works doctrine, before the core passage develops it fully. Rendering: виконавець слова / слухач слова (лише). Risk: High — the doctrinal balance struck here (hearing must issue in doing) anticipates 2:14–26’s full argument and must be taught consistently with it; premature or isolated exposition risks sounding like works-righteousness before the fuller faith-works relationship is established in chapter 2.

νόμος τέλειος τῆς ἐλευθερίας (nomos teleios tēs eleutherias, 1:25) — Lit. “the perfect law of liberty/freedom.” Uses ἐλευθερία, the Galatians baseline’s Critical term (свобода/воля [Baseline TM: freedom, Critical]). Rendering: закон волі (Scripture citation, matching Ohienko and the established register-split convention) / закон свободи (exposition). Risk: Critical — inherits the full weight of the Galatians baseline note: свобода/воля’s exceptionally heavy Ukrainian national-political resonance must not be allowed to silently replace the theological referent (the gospel’s liberating “law,” in contrast to bondage under sin). Human theologian review required, as per the Galatians baseline convention.

θρησκεία (thrēskeia, 1:26–27) — Lit. “religion, religious observance/cultic practice.” Range: the external, observable form of devotion (ritual, practice), as distinct from inward piety. English variants: “religion,” “religious observance.” Contextual meaning: James contrasts empty θρησκεία with θρησκεία that is “pure and undefiled” — demonstrated in caring for orphans and widows. Rendering: релігія / побожність. Risk: High — релігія risks defaulting to confessional-institutional identity (which church/tradition is “my religion” — OCU, UOC, Greek Catholic, Protestant), the same collision risk already flagged for віра in the baseline; James’s own point (that true religion is inward devotion proven by outward compassion, not the external form itself) can be lost if релігія is read as a synonym for jurisdictional/confessional belonging.

ὀρφανός, χήρα (orphanos, chēra, 1:27) — Lit. “orphan,” “widow.” Rendering: сирота, вдова. Risk: High — inherits and intensifies the baseline’s already-flagged wartime sensitivity around orphaned/displaced children (see baseline “adoption” entry). James 1:27’s call to “visit orphans and widows in their affliction” lands with extraordinary, immediate, lived force for a readership including large numbers of war widows and displaced or orphaned children; this doctrinal point (Favoritism and the Poor doctrine’s companion command) should be handled with pastoral seriousness rather than as an abstract ethical illustration.

κόσμος (kosmos, 1:27) — Lit. “world, world-order, world-system.” Range: the created physical world (neutral); the fallen human order in rebellion against God (negative, dominant Pauline/Jamesian sense). English variants: “world,” “the world,” “worldly system.” Rendering: світ — never мир. Risk: High — the baseline’s peace entry already flags a documented Ukrainian homograph risk between мир (“peace”) and an older/dialectal sense of “world”; James’s frequent negative use of κόσμος (1:27; 2:5; 3:6; 4:4 [×2]; 4:9) must consistently use світ, keeping it lexically and conceptually distinct from мир [Baseline TM: peace, High] throughout this curriculum.

Chapter 2 (verses 1–13; verses 14–26 treated in Part 1 above)

προσωπολημψία / λαμβάνειν πρόσωπον (prosōpolēmpsia / lambanein prosōpon, 2:1, 9) — Lit. “receiving of face,” i.e., partiality based on outward appearance/status. English variants: “favoritism,” “partiality,” “respect of persons.” Contextual meaning: the doctrine of Favoritism and the Poor turns on this term — showing deference to the wealthy/socially prominent while dishonoring the poor within the gathered community. Rendering: упередженість / зважання на обличчя (лицеприйняття as an older calque, avoid). Risk: High — a concrete, historically apolitical concept in Greek that nonetheless intersects with real, current Ukrainian social fault lines (wealth disparity intensified by war, treatment of internally displaced persons within congregations); must be taught with specific, contemporary application, not left as an abstract ancient-context illustration.

δόξα (doxa, 2:1, “the Lord of glory”) — [Baseline TM: glory, Medium] слава. Risk inherited: слава’s strong patriotic resonance (“Слава Україні”) must not blur with Christ’s own glory here; context keeps the divine referent clear.

συναγωγή (synagōgē, 2:2) — Lit. “synagogue, assembly, gathering.” Range: in James, the ordinary word for the Christian gathering (reflecting the letter’s early Jewish-Christian audience), not necessarily a Jewish synagogue building. Rendering: зібрання. Risk: Medium — connects to the baseline’s Critical “church as God’s people” doctrine; зібрання is deliberately chosen (following the baseline’s громада convention) to avoid any appearance of endorsing one Ukrainian ecclesiastical jurisdiction’s polity while still conveying a concrete, local gathered assembly.

πτωχός / πλούσιος (ptōchos / plousios, 2:2–6) — Lit. “poor” / “rich.” Rendering: бідний / багатий. Risk: High — grounded reason: wartime economic disruption, displacement, and loss of livelihood have sharply intensified visible economic disparity within Ukrainian congregations and communities since 2022; James’s rebuke of favoritism toward the wealthy carries acute, current pastoral weight, not merely historical-critical interest.

κληρονόμος / βασιλεία (klēronomos / basileia, 2:5) — “heir” / “kingdom.” Uses βασιλεία = Царство Боже [Baseline TM: kingdom_of_god, High]. Rendering: спадкоємці Царства Божого. Risk: High (inherited) — Царство’s loaded Russian-imperial historical resonance must be explicitly distinguished from any echo of earthly monarchy; here reinforced by the immediately following term below.

νόμος βασιλικός (nomos basilikos, 2:8) — Lit. “royal law,” i.e., the supreme law given by the King (God). Rendering: царський закон. Risk: High — grounded, Ukraine-specific reason: царський shares the root of царство already flagged in the baseline doctrine registry (kingdom_mission, High) for its historical resonance with Russian imperial rule and centuries of Russification; translators should consider “найвищий закон” (supreme law) as an alternative exposition gloss alongside царський закон in Scripture citation, with explicit framing that this is God’s own sovereign law, not an echo of any earthly tsardom or empire.

ἔλεος (eleos, 2:13) — Lit. “mercy, compassion shown to the undeserving/needy.” Range: distinct from χάρις (grace, благодать) — mercy is compassion shown especially toward suffering or need, while grace is unmerited favor toward the guilty; the two overlap but are not synonyms. English variants: “mercy,” “compassion.” Contextual meaning: “judgment without mercy… mercy triumphs over judgment” — a vivid picture of final judgment tempered for those who have themselves shown mercy. Rendering: милосердя. Risk: High — new term for this curriculum; must be kept clearly distinct from благодать (already Critical in the baseline) to avoid readers collapsing two related-but-distinct biblical concepts into one; милість is available as a secondary gloss but should be used cautiously given the baseline’s explicit rejection of милість as an alternative rendering for grace (the two words must not become interchangeable in the reader’s mind).

Chapter 3

γλῶσσα (glōssa) — Lit. “tongue,” also (as elsewhere in the NT) “language.” Here exclusively the physical organ of speech, as a symbol for controlled/uncontrolled speech. Rendering: язик. Risk: Low; concrete and unambiguous.

δαμάζω (damazō, 3:7–8) — Lit. “to tame, subdue” (used of wild animals). Rendering: приборкати. Risk: Low; vivid animal-taming imagery translates directly.

διδάσκαλος (didaskalos, 3:1) — Lit. “teacher.” Rendering: учитель. Risk: Low-Medium; James’s warning that teachers face stricter judgment has practical resonance for any congregation’s leadership structure, without a specific Ukraine-collision risk.

σοφία (sophia, 3:13, 15, 17) — Lit. “wisdom.” Range: practical, God-given skill for righteous living (Jamesian sense) versus merely intellectual cleverness or, in some ancient contexts, occult/esoteric “wisdom.” English variants: “wisdom.” Rendering: мудрість. Risk: Medium — should be explicitly distinguished from any New Age or “sophiological” association and from post-Soviet folk-occult “wisdom-keeper” figures (ворожки, екстрасенси), already flagged as a recurring collision category in the baseline (spiritual gifts, prophecy entries).

σοφία ἄνωθεν / ἐπίγειος / ψυχική / δαιμονιώδης (sophia anōthen / epigeios / psychikē / daimoniōdēs, 3:15, 17) — Lit. “wisdom from above” vs. “earthly,” “soulish/natural,” “demonic.” Contextual meaning: the letter’s core Wisdom from Above doctrine, contrasting Spirit-sourced wisdom with three descending grades of counterfeit wisdom. Rendering: мудрість звище (or “з неба”) / земна / душевна / демонічна. Risk: High — specific, grounded flag: душевна (rendering ψυχική, “soulish,” i.e., merely natural, unaided by the Spirit) is a false friend in modern Ukrainian, where душевний ordinarily carries a strongly positive connotation (“warm-hearted, sincere, kind”). Here Paul’s/James’s use is negative — merely natural, unspiritual — the opposite valence of the everyday word’s normal meaning. This collision must be explicitly flagged and glossed on first occurrence; an alternative such as “тваринна” (animalistic/instinctual) or explicit exposition (“мудрість, позбавлена Духа”) may be preferable to душевна alone.

ζῆλος / ἐριθεία (zēlos / eritheia, 3:14, 16) — Lit. “jealousy/zeal” / “selfish ambition, rivalry.” Rendering: заздрість / суперництво (егоїстичні амбіції). Risk: Low-Medium.

εἰρηνική / ἐπιεικής (eirēnikē / epieikēs, 3:17) — “peaceable” / “gentle, yielding, reasonable.” Uses εἰρήνη = мир [Baseline TM: peace, High] as its root. Rendering: мирна / поступлива. Risk: Medium (inherited from мир’s wartime resonance) — here the sense is interpersonal/relational peaceableness of character, a helpful, positive teaching application of мир’s root distinct from its geopolitical sense, but the distinction should be made explicit for clarity.

καρπὸς δικαιοσύνης (karpos dikaiosynēs, 3:18) — Lit. “fruit of righteousness.” Uses δικαιοσύνη = праведність [Baseline TM: righteousness, Critical]. Rendering: плід праведності — singular плід, following the established Galatians convention for плід Духа (fruit of the Spirit, deliberately singular, not pluralized). Risk: Medium; maintaining singular плід preserves the same unity-of-character point already established for Galatians 5:22–23.

Chapter 4

φιλία τοῦ κόσμου / ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ (philia tou kosmou / echthra tou theou, 4:4) — Lit. “friendship of/with the world” / “enmity with God.” Uses κόσμος = світ (see Ch.1 above). Contextual meaning: the letter’s core Worldliness versus Friendship with God doctrine — an either/or allegiance, echoing the Galatians baseline’s law/grace and flesh/Spirit either-or patterns. Rendering: дружба зі світом / ворожнеча з Богом. Risk: High; must consistently use світ, never мир, to avoid the homograph collision already flagged.

πόλεμοι / μάχαι (polemoi / machai, 4:1) — Lit. “wars” / “fights, quarrels, conflicts.” Range: here used metaphorically/rhetorically for interpersonal and communal strife within the congregation, not literal armed conflict. Rendering: війни (переносно) / суперечки, чвари. Risk: High — grounded, Ukraine-specific reason: James’s rhetorical use of “wars” for interpersonal quarrels requires unusually careful framing in a context where literal war is a present, daily reality; teaching material must make explicit that James’s imagery is metaphorical for interpersonal conflict, without either trivializing the real war by association or losing James’s rhetorical force by over-explaining it away. Consider glossing the first occurrence explicitly as “чвари, подібні до війни” (strife likened to war) rather than a bare “війни.”

μοιχαλίδες (moichalides, 4:4, vocative in some textual traditions) — Lit. “adulteresses.” Range: figurative for spiritual unfaithfulness to God, echoing OT prophetic marriage-covenant imagery (cf. Hosea). Rendering: (духовні) зрадниці / перелюбні. Risk: Medium; requires brief exposition of the OT covenant-marriage background for readers without continuous OT exposure (a gap already flagged in the baseline for covenant-background terms generally).

χάρις (charis, 4:6) — [Baseline TM: grace, Critical] благодать. “God gives grace to the humble” (quoting Proverbs 3:34). Risk inherited in full; the three-tradition grace-framework caution applies here as everywhere.

ταπεινός / ταπεινόω (tapeinos / tapeinoō, 4:6, 10) — Lit. “humble” / “to humble (oneself).” Rendering: смиренний / смирення. Risk: Medium-High — смирення carries strong positive resonance in Orthodox and Greek Catholic spirituality (a core ascetic and monastic virtue, смиренномудріє), which can be a genuine asset for this doctrine, but risks over-coding humility as an achieved ascetic state rather than James’s simple posture of dependent submission before God that any believer, in any state of life, can immediately adopt.

ὑποτάσσω / ἀντίστητε τῷ διαβόλῳ (hypotassō / antistēte tō diabolō, 4:7) — “submit” / “resist the devil.” διάβολος = диявол — standard, established term. Rendering: підкоритися (Богові) / чинити опір дияволу. Risk: Low-Medium.

ἐγγίζω (engizō, 4:8) — Lit. “to draw near, approach.” Rendering: наблизитися. Risk: Low.

κρίνω / νομοθέτης καὶ κριτής (krinō / nomothetēs kai kritēs, 4:11–12) — “judge” / “lawgiver and judge.” Rendering: судити / Законодавець і Суддя. Risk: Medium; concerns speaking evil of a fellow believer, a practical-ethics application with no significant Ukraine-specific collision.

Ἐὰν ὁ κύριος θελήσῃ (Ean ho kyrios thelēsē, 4:15) — Lit. “if the Lord wills/wishes.” Uses κύριος = Господь [Baseline TM: lord, Critical]. Rendering: якщо Господь захоче. Risk: Low-Medium; a universal biblical piety expression (not a culturally-borrowed one), teaching against presumptuous planning.

ἀτμίς (atmis, 4:14) — Lit. “vapor, mist, steam.” Rendering: пара / туман. Risk: Low; vivid life-is-brief imagery, no collision.

Chapter 5

πλοῦτος / πλούσιος (ploutos / plousios, 5:1–6) — “riches” / “rich [people].” Continues Ch.2’s Favoritism and the Poor doctrine into a direct prophetic indictment of the oppressive wealthy. Rendering: багатство / багатий. Risk: High (inherited from Ch.2), intensified here by James’s harshest language in the letter.

σητόβρωτος / κατιωμένος (sētobrōtos / katiōmenos, 5:2–3) — “moth-eaten” / “rusted, corroded.” Rendering: поїдене міллю / вкрите ржею (зотліле). Risk: Low; vivid, concrete images of wealth’s ultimate worthlessness.

κύριος Σαβαώθ (kyrios Sabaōth, 5:4) — “Lord of hosts/armies.” Σαβαώθ is a transliterated Hebrew title already established in Ukrainian Bible tradition. Rendering: Господь Саваот. Risk: Low; standard, well-established term.

τρυφάω (tryphaō, 5:5) — Lit. “to live in luxury, self-indulgence.” Rendering: розкошувати. Risk: Low.

μακροθυμέω / μακροθυμία (makrothymeō / makrothymia, 5:7–8, 10) — Lit. “to be patient, long-suffering” / “patience, forbearance.” Contextual meaning: the Patience and the Lord’s Return doctrine’s core term, distinct from but overlapping in Ukrainian with ὑπομονή (Ch.1 above, endurance under trial). Standard Ukrainian rendering (терпеливість, довготерпіння) shares the same word-family as ὑπομονή’s rendering, collapsing a distinction Greek maintains between actively enduring pressure (ὑπομονή) and patiently awaiting an outcome without retaliating (μακροθυμία). Rendering: довготерпіння / терпеливість. Risk: Medium-High — a structural, language-grounded risk (not a doctrinal-collision risk): explicit exposition is required to preserve James’s own distinction between these two related-but-different Greek concepts, since Ukrainian’s single терпіння/терпеливість word-family does not naturally distinguish them, paralleling the baseline’s precedent for насіння’s singular/plural collapse in Galatians 3:16.

παρουσία (parousia, 5:7–8) — Lit. “arrival, presence, coming.” Range: technical NT term for Christ’s promised return. English variants: “coming,” “arrival,” “advent,” “second coming.” Contextual meaning: the anchor term of the Patience and the Lord’s Return doctrine. Rendering: прихід Господа. Risk: Medium-High (new Critical-adjacent term for this curriculum) — must NOT be rendered явлення, since the baseline has already explicitly forbidden явлення as a substitute for втілення (incarnation); using it here for the second coming risks conflating first-coming (incarnation) and second-coming (parousia) vocabulary, exactly the confusion the baseline’s incarnation entry warns against in a different direction. Recommend “прихід Господа” or, where a technical gloss is useful, transliterated “парусія” with explanation.

ὑπομονὴ Ἰώβ (hypomonē Iōb, 5:11) — “the patience/endurance of Job.” Ἰώβ = Йов (new proper name; standard Ukrainian Bible form). Rendering: терпеливість Йова. Risk: Low-Medium (inherits ὑπομονή’s Medium-High note above).

ὄμνυμι (omnymi, 5:12) — Lit. “to swear (an oath).” Rendering: клястися. Risk: Low; James’s instruction (“let your yes be yes”) is a straightforward call to integrity of speech, with mild contemporary resonance around military and civic oaths (військова присяга) but no significant collision risk.

κακοπαθέω / εὐθυμέω (kakopatheō / euthymeō, 5:13) — “suffer, endure hardship” / “be cheerful, be of good courage.” Rendering: страждати (зазнавати лиха) / радіти (веселитися духом). Risk: Low.

ἀσθενέω / κάμνω (astheneō / kamnō, 5:14–15) — “be sick, be weak” / “be weary, be sick/worn out.” Rendering: хворіти / знемагати. Risk: Low-Medium.

πρεσβύτεροι (presbyteroi, 5:14) — Lit. “elders.” Range: an OT synagogue/community-leadership term adopted by the earliest church for local congregational leaders. English variants: “elders.” Rendering: старійшини (Scripture-register, following synagogue/OT pattern) / пресвітери (a term already familiar and current within Ukrainian Protestant/Baptist congregational polity). Risk: High — grounded reason: this term intersects directly with the baseline’s Critical “church as God’s people” jurisdictional caution. Orthodox and Greek Catholic church structure is organized around a bishop-priest-deacon hierarchy (єпископ-священник-диякон), with no functional equivalent to a congregationally-elected “elder” body; Protestant readers will recognize пресвітери immediately from their own polity, while Orthodox/Greek Catholic readers may find the concept unfamiliar or may (incorrectly) map it onto ordained clergy generally. Teaching material must frame James’s “elders” as a functional, local, care-and-prayer role (5:14–15), not as a claim about any one tradition’s ordained office or jurisdictional structure.

ἀλείφω ἐλαίῳ (aleiphō elaiō, 5:14) — Lit. “to anoint with oil.” Range: in James, a simple, practical act accompanying prayer for the sick, performed by elders — distinct from a sacramental rite. English variants: “anoint with oil.” Rendering: помазати оливою. Risk: Critical — grounded, specific reason: both the Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions have a formal sacramental rite, Єлеосвячення (Holy Unction/Anointing of the Sick), one of the seven Mysteries, performed exclusively by an ordained priest with consecrated oil in a liturgical setting. Ukrainian readers from these majority traditions will very likely map James 5:14’s practice directly onto this sacrament. Teaching material must explicitly address the relationship and the difference: James describes a simple, non-sacramental (or at most proto-sacramental) act of elder-led prayer accompanied by oil, without prescribing the developed liturgical rite of later church history. This must not be silently assumed to be identical to, nor dismissively distinguished from, Єлеосвячення; the connection and distinction both need explicit, careful statement. Human theologian review mandatory for every occurrence.

εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως (euchē tēs pisteōs, 5:15) — Lit. “the prayer of faith.” Uses πίστις = віра [Baseline TM]. Rendering: молитва віри. Risk: Medium (inherited from віра’s confessional-identity caution).

ἐγερεῖ αὐτὸν ὁ κύριος (egerei auton ho kyrios, 5:15) — Lit. “the Lord will raise him up.” Range: here means physical recovery from illness, NOT resurrection from the dead. Rendering: підніме його / поставить на ноги — must NOT use воскресіння vocabulary. Risk: Medium-High — grounded reason: ἐγείρω shares its root with resurrection language, but here denotes ordinary physical healing/recovery; using воскресіння [Baseline TM: resurrection, Medium] or its verb forms here would wrongly suggest the sick person had died, creating a serious narrative and doctrinal confusion. This distinction must be flagged explicitly.

ἀφίημι (aphiēmi, 5:15) — Lit. “to forgive, release, let go.” Rendering: буде прощено (йому). Risk: Low-Medium.

ἐξομολογέομαι (exomologeomai, 5:16) — Lit. “to confess, acknowledge openly.” Range: mutual, peer-level confession of sin “to one another,” among believers generally — explicitly not confession to a priest as a distinct ordained office. Contextual meaning: the anchor term of the Confession and Restoration doctrine. Rendering: визнавайте один одному (свої гріхи). Risk: Critical — grounded, specific reason: both Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions have a formal sacramental rite, Сповідь (Confession), one of the seven Mysteries, heard by an ordained priest with sacramental authority to pronounce absolution. James 5:16 describes something structurally different: mutual, horizontal confession among believers (“to one another”), with no priestly office mentioned. This is likely to read, to readers formed in the majority traditions, as either a startling departure from familiar practice or an implicit critique of it — neither of which is James’s point. Teaching material must explicitly distinguish James’s peer-level, mutual-accountability practice from the sacrament of Сповідь without either endorsing or criticizing that sacrament; the goal is to present James’s own instruction clearly on its own terms. Human theologian review mandatory for every occurrence, paralleling the baseline’s anathema-review requirement.

δέησις δικαίου ἐνεργουμένη (deēsis dikaiou energoumenē, 5:16) — Lit. “the working/effective prayer of a righteous person.” Uses δίκαιος, cognate of δικαιοσύνη = праведність [Baseline TM]. Rendering: дієва молитва праведного. Risk: Medium; connects prayer’s effectiveness to righteous character without implying prayer must be earned by merit — requires careful framing against a performance-based reading.

Ἠλίας (Ēlias, 5:17–18) — “Elijah.” Rendering: Ілля (established Ukrainian Bible form). Risk: Low. Note: Ілля carries strong folk-calendar resonance in Ukraine (Іллі́н день, a traditional agrarian feast day associated with storms/rain, echoing this very narrative of Elijah and rain) — a genuine cultural asset for teaching this passage, not a risk.

πλανάω / ἐπιστρέφω (planaō / epistrephō, 5:19–20) — “to wander, go astray” / “to turn back, convert, bring back.” Range: ἐπιστρέφω is also the standard word for religious conversion generally (converting to a faith or confession). Rendering: заблудити (від істини) / навернути (грішника). Risk: Medium — навернення/навернути is frequently used in Ukrainian religious discourse for confessional conversion (e.g., converting from one tradition to another, or to faith generally); context must make clear James means restoring a straying believer back to the truth within the community, not a first-time conversion or a change of confessional allegiance.

σῴζω ψυχὴν ἐκ θανάτου / καλύψει πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν (sōzō psychēn ek thanatou / kalypsei plēthos hamartiōn, 5:20) — “will save a soul from death” / “will cover a multitude of sins.” Uses σῴζω = спасти [Baseline TM: salvation, Critical] and ἁμαρτία = гріх [Baseline TM: sin, High]. Rendering: спасе душу від смерті / покриє багато грiхів. Risk: High (inherited); closes the letter’s Confession and Restoration doctrine with full salvation-vocabulary weight, requiring the same care as every other спасіння occurrence in this curriculum.

This document is Phase 1 Step 1 output. See 08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated per-term glossary table drawing on this analysis. All terms marked [Baseline TM] must be enforced exactly per translation_memory.json; no deviation is permitted.

Library content is free and openly licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — share and adapt it for non-commercial use, with attribution to tri-bible.ai.