Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary currently holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Ukrainian translation and transliteration
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Ohienko precedent over invention — where the Ohienko translation already has a settled rendering (Бог, Ісус, Господь, Святий Дух, завіт), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative.
- Ukrainian-specific forms over Russian cognates — wherever a genuine Ukrainian-specific spelling or word exists alongside a Russian-influenced alternative (Ісус not Иисус; виправдання not оправдання), this glossary always enforces the Ukrainian-specific form.
- Explicit statement of theological position, not silent avoidance — every Critical-risk term records why a doctrinal or political tension exists and how this curriculum resolves it (see
alternatives_rejectedandnotes), so a translator or reviewer understands the reasoning rather than just following a rule. - Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document (see the AI Translation Requirements’ Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions).
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters, and for Ukrainian specifically, why the highest risks often lie at the intersection of theology, national identity, and current wartime politics rather than in confusion with a non-Christian religious concept.
Critical Risk Terms
Church
Approved rendering: церква
Transliteration: tserkva
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: храм, громада (acceptable for local congregation emphasis)
CRITICAL: церква is the only viable term but is an acutely live, politically contested word in contemporary Ukraine, not merely a default-institutional-reading risk as in more religiously homogeneous contexts. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, the historically Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has faced intense public distrust and legal scrutiny, while the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU, granted its tomos in 2019) and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) are widely seen as aligned with Ukrainian national identity. Romans’ sense of church as the universal people of God, not any one institution or jurisdiction, must be framed with particular care; громада (local assembly/community) is a useful clarifying synonym that sidesteps jurisdictional questions entirely.
Grace
Approved rendering: благодать
Transliteration: blahodat’
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: милість, талан, щастя
CRITICAL: благодать is correct across all three major Ukrainian Christian traditions, but each understands it differently: Orthodox theology (OCU and UOC alike) follows Palamite uncreated-energies theology; Greek Catholic theology, in communion with Rome, has historically leaned toward the Western scholastic category of created, infused grace; Protestant/Evangelical usage (the primary frame for this curriculum) means unmerited favor apart from works. Romans’ ‘apart from works’ contrast (4:4-5, 11:5-6) must be stated explicitly rather than assumed to align automatically with any one of these three frameworks.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: зарахована праведність
Transliteration: zarakhovana pravednist’
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: заслужена праведність, дарована святість (too vague)
CRITICAL: ‘Credited/reckoned’ righteousness (зарахована, from зарахувати, ‘to count/credit toward’) translates Paul’s forensic-accounting language in Romans 4. This entire imputation framework is a specifically Western/Reformation theological category absent from Orthodox and Greek Catholic soteriology alike, which prefer participatory/transformative categories; this compound must be explicitly taught, not assumed, and заслужена (‘earned’) is explicitly rejected as its exact opposite.
Justification
Approved rendering: виправдання
Transliteration: vypravdannya
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: прощення гріхів, оправдання (Russian-influenced spelling, avoid)
CRITICAL: виправдання is the Ohienko translation’s own term and must be used in this exact Ukrainian spelling rather than the Russian-cognate оправдання, which would read as a Russicism in a curriculum meant to serve Ukrainian-identifying readers. As in the wider Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions, there is no developed forensic-declaration doctrine analogous to Reformation justification; this must be explained rather than assumed, and виправдання must not quietly resolve into ‘forgiveness of sins’ (прощення гріхів) alone, which loses the declarative sense.
Salvation
Approved rendering: спасіння
Transliteration: spasinnya
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: визволення, рятування (too generic, ‘rescue’)
CRITICAL: спасіння is the only viable and well-established term across all Ukrainian Christian traditions. Must be anchored to Christ’s death and resurrection as a decisive, received event (Romans 10:9-10), not left to default into any one tradition’s fuller theological system (theosis for Orthodox and Greek Catholic readers, sacramental grace for Greek Catholic readers) without explicit framing.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: освячення
Transliteration: osvyachennya
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: обоження (reserve for explicit theosis discussion only), очищення
CRITICAL: освячення is correct, but both the Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions closely link sanctification to обоження (theosis/deification) through sacramental participation, and additionally освячення is the everyday word for the blessing/consecration of objects, homes, and Easter baskets (свячення паски) — a beloved and highly visible Ukrainian folk-religious practice. This everyday ritual-blessing sense must not be allowed to substitute for Romans 6-8’s sense of the Spirit’s ongoing moral transformation of the believer.
High Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: Авва
Transliteration: Avva
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved untranslated in the Ohienko text of Romans 8:15 itself (‘Авва, Отче!’), so this Language Package simply follows established Bible usage. Keep the transliteration paired with Отче to match reader expectation from the existing Ukrainian Bible text exactly.
Adoption
Approved rendering: усиновлення
Transliteration: usynovlennya
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: прийняття в сім’ю
усиновлення is the standard legal/family term. Given the large number of Ukrainian children orphaned or displaced by the ongoing war, this term carries acute, current emotional weight; ensure the accompanying text stresses full inheritance rights and permanent family belonging (Romans 8:17) rather than temporary institutional care, a distinction that matters more urgently here than in a peacetime context.
Election
Approved rendering: обрання
Transliteration: obrannya
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: доля, фатум, приречення (use only with careful qualification)
God’s sovereign personal choice. доля/фатум (fate/doom) are present in Ukrainian folk and literary fatalism, intensified in recent years by public discourse about wartime fate and survival, and must never substitute. приречення (predestination) is a legitimate theological term but should be introduced only with explicit definition, since Reformed predestination categories have no developed parallel in Orthodox or Greek Catholic soteriology.
Faith
Approved rendering: віра
Transliteration: vira
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: довіра, переконання
віра is standard and unambiguous, but as in other historically state-church contexts, ‘faith’ can default to confessional/institutional identity (яка у нього віра? = ‘what is his faith/confession?’) rather than Romans’ sense of personal trust in Christ. This is complicated in Ukraine by the added question of which confession, given the OCU/UOC/Greek Catholic/Protestant landscape; context must make clear Romans means personal trust, not confessional affiliation.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: погани
Transliteration: pohany
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: чужинці
погани is the Ohienko translation’s term but in modern Ukrainian its primary everyday meaning has shifted to ‘bad/wicked people’ (a false-friend homograph with the older ‘pagans/heathens’ sense), a much sharper drift than the Russian cognate’s milder ‘pagan’ association. Use народи (nations/peoples) in mission-scope and comparative contexts to avoid readers hearing an unintended moral insult where Paul means simply ‘non-Jewish nations.‘
Gospel
Approved rendering: Євангеліє
Transliteration: Yevanheliye
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: добра звістка (acceptable as an explanatory gloss only)
Established term across all Ukrainian Christian traditions (Orthodox, Greek Catholic, and Protestant) and the Ohienko translation. Risk is the same book-title flattening noted in other languages, but Ukraine’s recent religious revival (accelerating since 2014 and again since 2022) means the term may carry more active devotional weight for many readers than in more secularized contexts.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Царство Боже
Transliteration: Tsarstvo Bozhe
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
Rejected alternatives: держава Божа
Established term from the Ohienko translation. ‘Царство’ (kingdom/tsardom) carries loaded historical resonance with the Russian Empire that ruled and Russified much of Ukraine for centuries; text should make plain this is God’s sovereign spiritual reign, not any echo of imperial rule, a distinction with particular weight for Ukrainian readers.
Lord
Approved rendering: Господь
Transliteration: Hospod’
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: хазяїн, владика (reserve for liturgical/poetic register only)
Established Ohienko and liturgical term across all traditions. In Romans 10:9 the confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ = Ісус є Господь. As in related traditions, risk is registerial: Господь’s heavy liturgical association can make the confession sound like a recited creed line rather than a personal, decisive confession; context should restore personal force.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Месія
Transliteration: Mesiya
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: рятівник світу (as a stand-alone substitute)
Месія is transliterated and used alongside Христос (Christ), which functions as Jesus’ effective surname in everyday Ukrainian as in related languages. In Romans 1:3 and 9:5, explicitly re-surface the title’s Jewish messianic-fulfillment meaning rather than assume readers still hear it in ordinary usage.
Mission
Approved rendering: місія / благовістя
Transliteration: misiya / blahovistya
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Rejected alternatives: пропаганда (never use)
місія retains the term directly; благовістя (‘good-news-telling’) is the native theological description. Elevated risk in the current Ukrainian context: chaplaincy and mission work tied to the military and to displaced/refugee populations is a highly visible, current form of Christian mission, and ‘mission’ language should be sensitive to this wartime reality rather than assume only a peacetime cross-cultural-missions framing.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: послух віри
Transliteration: poslukh viry
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: релігійний обов’язок, дотримання обрядів
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Compound phrase required to keep obedience as the fruit and expression of faith, not a separate meritorious duty (релігійний обов’язок) or reduced to ritual observance (дотримання обрядів), which risks a praxis-only reading of Christian life common to both majority liturgical traditions.
Peace
Approved rendering: мир
Transliteration: myr
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: спокій, затишшя
мир is the standard term, but since 2022 the word carries exceptionally heavy, immediate real-world weight in Ukraine as the opposite of the ongoing war, dominating news and daily conversation. Romans 5:1’s relational, judicial peace with God through justification must be carefully distinguished in context from both the ordinary sense of ‘the world’ (мир, a homograph) and the urgent political sense of ‘peace’ (ceasefire/end of war) that readers will inevitably bring to the word.
Providence
Approved rendering: провидіння Боже
Transliteration: providinnya Bozhe
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: доля, випадок, карма (never use)
провидіння Боже is the established theological term shared across traditions. Must be clearly distinguished from доля/випадок (fate/chance), especially salient given widespread public reflection on fate, survival, and chance in wartime Ukraine, and from карма, a foreign New-Age loanword that must never be used for Romans 8:28’s personal, purposive divine care.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: праведність
Transliteration: pravednist’
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: справедливість, чесність
праведність is correct and established in the Ohienko translation. справедливість (justice/fairness) is a false friend, as in related Slavic languages, and must not be substituted. Register note: праведник (a righteous/upright person) evokes an Orthodox or Greek Catholic saintly elder, biasing toward achieved virtue rather than a gift received by faith.
Saints
Approved rendering: святі
Transliteration: svyati
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: праведники
святі in ordinary Ukrainian religious usage (Orthodox and Greek Catholic alike) refers to a formally canonized, venerated minority, not to ordinary living believers. Romans 1:7’s address to ‘all God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints’ must be rendered so it is unmistakably corporate and inclusive of every believer, not the venerated few.
Sin
Approved rendering: гріх
Transliteration: hrikh
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: помилка, провина
гріх is well established and, unlike in more secularized post-Soviet contexts, retains fuller devotional and moral weight for much of the Ukrainian audience amid the wartime religious revival; the risk here runs the other direction from Russian’s flattening risk — care is needed that гріх in wartime moral discourse (e.g. around justified defense, enemy conduct) is not narrowed to only mean ‘atrocity’ rather than Romans’ universal category applying to every person, including the reader.
Medium Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: апостол
Transliteration: apostol
Doctrine: Apostleship
Rejected alternatives: посланець, проповідник
Transliterated loanword, fully established since the earliest Church Slavonic and Ohienko translations. Shared, uncontested term across all Ukrainian Christian traditions.
Called
Approved rendering: покликаний
Transliteration: poklykanyy
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: запрошений
Context-sensitive: in 1:1 = called to apostleship; in 1:7 = called to be saints; in 8:28-30 = effectual calling to salvation. запрошений (invited) is too weak and must not be used.
Calling
Approved rendering: покликання
Transliteration: poklykannya
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: призначення
Noun form; покликання also carries the modern secular sense of ‘vocation’ (finding one’s calling in life/career), which is a helpful bridge concept for readers but must be anchored explicitly to God’s initiative in Romans rather than left as generic self-actualization language.
Covenant
Approved rendering: завіт
Transliteration: zavit
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: договір, угода
завіт is the deeply established term (it names the two Testaments themselves: Старий/Новий Завіт). Relational covenant bond, not a mere legal угода/договір; the term’s centrality to the canon’s own name in Ukrainian is an asset here.
Father
Approved rendering: Отець
Transliteration: Otets’
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: батюшка (reserve exclusively for addressing an Orthodox priest, and is itself a Russicism increasingly avoided)
Отець (capitalized) for God as Father is standard and doctrinally clear across traditions (paired with Батько in less formal register). батюшка, the everyday Russian-derived form of address for a priest, is both theologically inappropriate here and increasingly avoided as a Russicism in contemporary Ukrainian usage in favor of панотець or отче; it must never be used for God the Father.
Glory
Approved rendering: слава
Transliteration: slava
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: шана, велич
слава is standard, but is also the first word of the widely used national and patriotic greeting ‘Слава Україні’ (‘Glory to Ukraine’), especially prominent since 2014 and further since 2022. This gives слава strong, current patriotic resonance that must not be allowed to blur with or substitute for God’s own glory in theological passages (1:23, 9:5); context should keep the divine referent clear and undiluted.
God
Approved rendering: Бог
Transliteration: Boh
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Всевишній (acceptable poetic synonym only)
Бог is the standard, universally recognized term across all Ukrainian Christian traditions and secular usage alike; no competing polytheistic default sense exists. Risk is mainly registerial familiarity flattening the term in casual idiom (‘слава Богу’, ‘дай Боже’), which the wartime religious revival has, if anything, partly reversed compared to more secularized neighboring contexts.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Святий Дух
Transliteration: Svyatyy Dukh
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: дух (never use alone), енергія
Святий Дух is the settled Trinitarian term shared across all traditions. дух alone (without Святий) must never stand in for the Holy Spirit, since дух alone is used broadly for ‘spirit/mood/ghost’ in secular Ukrainian, as in ‘дух часу’ (zeitgeist) or ‘бойовий дух’ (fighting spirit/morale), the latter especially prominent in current wartime usage.
Holy
Approved rendering: святий
Transliteration: svyatyy
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: чистий, непорочний
святий is the only viable term and is deeply established across Orthodox, Greek Catholic, and Protestant usage alike. Strong association with canonized saints and holy objects/icons in the two majority traditions requires clarifying that all believers, not only canonized figures, are called holy (see saints).
Incarnation
Approved rendering: втілення
Transliteration: vtilennya
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: аватар (never use), явлення
втілення is the settled and doctrinally precise term across all Ukrainian Christian traditions; icon theology (shared by both Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities) gives incarnation strong cultural rooting, since icons are doctrinally justified by God having taken a visible human body. аватар must still be explicitly flagged as forbidden given growing exposure to imported New-Age and pop-spirituality vocabulary among younger, urban, and diaspora-connected readers.
Intercession
Approved rendering: клопотання
Transliteration: klopotannya
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: заступництво (reserve for saints’/Theotokos intercession contexts)
клопотання is the correct general term for prayer on behalf of others (Romans 8:26-27). заступництво is the term used almost exclusively in Orthodox and Greek Catholic devotion for the intercession of the saints and the Mother of God (Богородиця); using it here would blur Christ’s and the Spirit’s unique intercessory role in Romans 8 with that specific devotional practice.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Ісус
Transliteration: Isus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Иисус (Russian spelling, never use)
Ісус (single і) is the standard modern Ukrainian spelling across the Ohienko translation and all major traditions — distinct from the Russian double-vowel Иисус. Using the Russian spelling would read as a Russicism and is explicitly rejected, a live concern given the post-2022 push to distinguish Ukrainian usage from Russian influence in every domain, including religious vocabulary.
Law
Approved rendering: закон
Transliteration: zakon
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: правило, заповідь (reserve for individual commandments)
закон is the standard Ohienko term for the Mosaic Law/Torah and the ordinary word for civil law, helpful for Paul’s legal-metaphor argument in Romans 2-7. No significant Ukraine-specific risk beyond ensuring readers distinguish biblical Law from contemporary civil law.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: сила Божа
Transliteration: syla Bozha
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Rejected alternatives: енергія
сила Божа is standard and clear. енергія should be avoided as a substitute given its specialized meaning in Orthodox Palamite theology (uncreated divine energies), which would import an unrelated technical debate into Romans 1:16’s plain sense.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: воскресіння
Transliteration: voskresinnya
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: оживлення, реінкарнація
воскресіння is unambiguous and central to Ukrainian religious and cultural identity (Великдень/Easter, including its distinctive folk customs like pysanky, is the paramount feast across all Ukrainian Christian traditions). No competing native reincarnation concept exists; the doctrine’s cultural centrality is an asset for teaching Romans 6:4-5.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: з насіння Давидового
Transliteration: z nasinnya Davydovoho
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: нащадок Давида (acceptable modern-register gloss)
Romans 1:3; the Ohienko translation’s phrasing ‘з насіння Давидового’ is the recognized Bible-register form. нащадок Давида (‘descendant of David’) is an acceptable plain-language gloss for lower-literacy or youth contexts but should not fully replace the established Bible phrase.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Син Божий
Transliteration: Syn Bozhyy
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: божественний посланець
Fully settled Nicene-heritage term shared across Orthodox, Greek Catholic, and Protestant confessions alike (the Nicene Creed is prayed in the Divine Liturgy of both the OCU/UOC and the Greek Catholic Church). Low risk of syncretistic confusion; the task is precision, not defense against a rival framework.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: духовні дари
Transliteration: dukhovni dary
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: екстрасенсорні здібності (never use), таланти
духовні дари is standard evangelical Ukrainian usage. Post-Soviet folk-psychic culture (екстрасенси, fortune-tellers) persists in Ukraine as it does across the former Soviet space and must never be used or implied. таланти (natural talents) is too weak, missing the Spirit-given, grace-based origin.
Low Risk Terms
David
Approved rendering: Давид
Transliteration: Davyd
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Ohienko translation standard proper name form.
Exhort
Approved rendering: закликати
Transliteration: zaklykaty
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Context-sensitive: use благати/просити (entreaty) for beseeching; закликати/підбадьорювати (encourage, build up) for edification contexts.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: спілкування
Transliteration: spilkuvannya
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: дружба, колектив (avoid Soviet-collective connotation)
спілкування conveys shared communion/participation well. колектив (the Soviet-era term for a work/social collective) must be avoided; it flattens fellowship into an organizational unit rather than shared life in Christ, and carries negative associations with the Soviet period many Ukrainians actively reject as part of a rejected imposed past.
Israel
Approved rendering: Ізраїль
Transliteration: Izrayil’
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Standard proper name; note the modern nation-state of Israel shares the identical Ukrainian name, so context should clarify when the biblical people/covenant referent, not the contemporary state, is meant.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: пророцтво
Transliteration: prorotstvo
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: ворожіння, гороскоп
God-inspired declaration; distinguish from horoscope/fortune-telling (ворожіння, гороскоп), still a widespread cultural practice in secular media.
Prophet
Approved rendering: пророк
Transliteration: prorok
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: ворожбит, екстрасенс
пророк is standard and well understood. ворожбит/екстрасенс (fortune-teller/psychic) must not be used, given the same post-Soviet folk-psychic culture noted under spiritual gifts.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: подяка
Transliteration: podyaka
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term across all traditions. No significant risk.
Referenced passages