Core Glossary
08 Core Glossary — 1 John
English → Vietnamese Term Table (Whole Book, Chapters 1-5)
A. Baseline Terms Reused Exactly (No Change Permitted)
| Term | Vietnamese (baseline) | Risk | 1 John Occurrences | Reuse Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| God | Đức Chúa Trời | Critical | Throughout | Same personal, covenant-making God; guard against Ông Trời drift, esp. in “God is love/light” identity statements (1:5; 4:8,16) |
| Jesus | Đức Chúa Giê-xu | Critical | 1:3; 2:1; 4:15; 5:1 etc. | Standard 1926 Protestant form |
| Christ (title) | Đấng Christ | High | 1:3; 2:22; 4:2; 5:1,6 | Per transliteration standard in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md; central to Antichrist doctrine (denial that Jesus is “the Christ”) |
| Son of God | Con Đức Chúa Trời | Critical | 3:8; 4:15; 5:5,10-13,20 | Extend with “Con một” (monogenēs) at 4:9 |
| Holy Spirit | Đức Thánh Linh | Critical | 3:24; 4:2,6,13; 5:6-8 | Never bare “thần linh”; distinguish from “spirit of error” (new term below) |
| Father | Cha | High | 1:2-3; 2:1,13-16,22-24; 3:1; 4:14 | Grace/intimacy framing, not hierarchical obligation |
| Fellowship | sự thông công | Medium | 1:3,6,7 | Grounded in fellowship with Father/Son first, then with one another |
| Sin | tội lỗi | High (elevated from baseline Medium for this curriculum given Confession/Forgiveness doctrine weight) | 1:7-10; 2:1-2,12; 3:4-9; 4:10; 5:16-17 | Never nghiệp xấu (karma) |
| Righteousness | sự công bình | High | 2:29; 3:7,10 | Right standing/character, not achieved virtue |
| Faith / believe | đức tin / tin | Medium | 3:23; 4:16; 5:1,4-5,10,13 | Object of faith always specified: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God |
| Intercession (Advocate) | sự cầu thay / Đấng cầu thay | Critical | 2:1 | Christ’s advocacy before the Father; never modeled on cầu xin tổ tiên |
| Salvation / Savior root | sự cứu rỗi | Critical | 4:14 (Savior, new compound below) | Universal scope (“Savior of the world”) retained |
| Messiah (OT concept) | Đấng Mê-si-a (concept) / Đấng Christ (title in running text) | High/Critical | 2:22; 5:1 | Denial “Jesus is not the Christ” = the defining mark of antichrist |
| Incarnation | Ngôi Lời trở nên xác thịt | Critical | 1:1-3 (Word of Life); 4:2 (came in the flesh) | Same doctrine as Romans 1:3; never hóa thân |
| Resurrection (contrast concept) | sự sống lại | Critical | (implicit background to “life,” 1:1-2; 5:11-13) | Guards against luân hồi drift also relevant to “born of God” and “eternal life” below |
| Law | luật pháp | Medium | 3:4 (background to “lawlessness”) | General moral law sense, not specifically Mosaic ceremonial code |
| Adoption | sự làm con nuôi | High | (background contrast to “children of God,” 3:1-2) | Complementary, not identical, to τέκνα θεοῦ; teach both together |
B. New Terms Proposed for Translation Memory (1 John)
| Term (English) | Greek / Transliteration | Vietnamese Translation | Doctrine Risk | Doctrine Category (Curriculum) | Key Passages | Alternatives Rejected | Notes / Collision Avoided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| love (noun) | ἀγάπη / agapē | sự yêu thương | High | God is Light and God is Love; Love for the Brethren | 2:5,15; 3:1,16-18; 4:7-21 | tình yêu (romantic connotation); lòng từ bi (Buddhist compassion, self-generated) | Willed, self-giving, God-originated love; God’s essential nature (4:8,16), not an attribute or sentiment |
| love (verb) | ἀγαπάω / agapaō | yêu thương | High | Same as above | Throughout | yêu (alone, ambiguous register) | Pair consistently with sự yêu thương (noun) |
| light | φῶς / phōs | sự sáng | High | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5,7; 2:8-10 | ánh sáng giác ngộ framing | God’s moral purity and self-revelation, not a self-achieved enlightenment state |
| darkness | σκότος, σκοτία / skotos, skotia | sự tối tăm | Medium | God is Light and God is Love | 1:5-6; 2:9,11 | — | Moral/relational separation from God, not merely absence of information |
| Word of Life | ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς / ho logos tēs zōēs | Lời của sự sống (Ngôi Lời) | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 1:1 | — | Same Logos-Incarnation doctrine as baseline; use Ngôi Lời consistently with Christological usage elsewhere |
| only begotten / only Son | μονογενής / monogenēs | Con một | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 4:9 | ”a son,” “an only child” (generic) | Unique, unrepeatable divine Sonship; pairs with baseline Con Đức Chúa Trời |
| propitiation / atoning sacrifice | ἱλασμός / hilasmos | của lễ chuộc tội | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 2:2; 4:10 | cúng tổ tiên-style appeasement offering; công đức merit-transfer offering | Unrepeatable, sufficient, God-initiated satisfaction of judgment, not a repeatable ritual appeasement |
| confess (sin / Christ) | ὁμολογέω / homologeō | xưng tội (of sin) / xưng nhận (of Christ) | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9; 4:2,15 | mô hình xưng tội qua linh mục (Catholic priest-mediated confession) | Direct, unmediated confession to God; no priestly intermediary in view |
| forgive / forgiveness | ἀφίημι, ἄφεσις / aphiēmi, aphesis | tha thứ / sự tha thứ | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:9 | — | Grounded in God’s character and Christ’s atoning work, not merit |
| cleanse | καθαρίζω / katharizō | làm cho sạch | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 1:7,9 | tẩy uế nghi lễ (ritual purification by rite/medium) | Moral cleansing by God via Christ’s blood, not a ritual act performed by the believer |
| blood (of Jesus) | αἷμα / haima | huyết | High | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin; Incarnation | 1:7; 5:6-8 | máu (clinical register, loses sacrificial connotation) | Once-for-all atoning sacrifice, not an ongoing ritual blood-offering |
| advocate | παράκλητος / paraklētos | Đấng cầu thay | Critical | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 2:1 | cầu xin tổ tiên model | Christ’s present advocacy before the Father grounded in his finished work; not ancestor petition |
| antichrist | ἀντίχριστος / antichristos | kẻ địch lại Đấng Christ | Critical | The Incarnation and Antichrist | 2:18,22; 4:3 | ma quỷ (generic demon); mythological demon-king figure | Doctrinal denial that Jesus is the Christ/Son of God come in the flesh; present and ongoing, not only future |
| spirit of truth / spirit of error | πνεῦμα ἀληθείας / πλάνης / pneuma alētheias/planēs | Thần Lẽ Thật / thần sai lạc | High | Testing the Spirits | 4:6 | thần linh (bare folk category) | Categories of spiritual source behind teaching, tested by doctrinal confession, not folk spirit taxonomy |
| test the spirits | δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα / dokimazete ta pneumata | thử các thần | Critical | Testing the Spirits | 4:1 | gọi hồn, cầu cơ, hầu đồng-style spirit consultation | Doctrinal, Scripture-based discernment by the ordinary believer, not ritual mediumship |
| abide / remain | μένω / menō | ở trong / cứ ở trong | High | Fellowship with God and One Another | 2:24,27-28; 3:6,24; 4:12-16 | an trú (Buddhist meditative self-cultivated dwelling) | Relational, mutual, other-initiated indwelling between God and believer |
| born of God / new birth | γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ / gennaō ek tou theou | được sinh bởi Đức Chúa Trời / sự sinh lại | Critical | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18 | đầu thai, luân hồi (reincarnation/rebirth cycle) | One-time, non-repeatable spiritual begetting producing a new, permanent identity |
| children of God | τέκνα θεοῦ / tekna theou | con cái Đức Chúa Trời | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:1-2,10; 5:2 | — | Organic new-birth family relationship; complements (does not replace) baseline adoption doctrine |
| seed of God | σπέρμα αὐτοῦ / sperma autou | hạt giống của Ngài | Medium | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:9 | dòng dõi (physical lineage sense, as in baseline “seed of David”) | Divine generative nature implanted at spiritual birth, not a bloodline claim |
| lawlessness | ἀνομία / anomia | sự trái luật pháp | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 3:4 | — | General moral transgression, extending baseline “law” concept |
| the devil | διάβολος / diabolos | ma quỷ | Medium | The Incarnation and Antichrist (background); Overcoming the World | 3:8,10 | generic thần linh/spirit taxonomy | Singular personal adversary of God, not one of many folk spirit-types |
| Savior | σωτήρ / sōtēr | Cứu Chúa | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:14 | generic hero-rescuer figure | Universal scope (“Savior of the world”); built on baseline salvation root |
| confidence / assurance / boldness | παρρησία / parrēsia | sự dạn dĩ | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 3:21; 4:17; 5:14 | confidence based on accumulated merit/karma | Grounded in Christ’s finished work and God’s love, not self-performance |
| fear (dread of judgment) | φόβος / phobos | sự sợ hãi | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 4:18 | kính sợ Đức Chúa Trời (reverent fear — must stay distinguishable) | Servile dread of punishment displaced by mature love; not reverence |
| overcome / conquer | νικάω / nikaō | thắng / sự đắc thắng | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5 | — | Decisive victory grounded in faith and new birth, not self-effort |
| world (kósmos, dual sense) | κόσμος / kosmos | thế gian | Medium-High | Overcoming the World | 2:15-17; 3:1,13; 4:1-5,9,14,17; 5:4-5,19 | — | Two senses (humanity as object of God’s love vs. opposing value-system) must be disambiguated by context at every occurrence |
| lust of the flesh / eyes; pride of life | ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός / τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν; ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου | sự mê tham của xác thịt / của mắt; sự kiêu ngạo về đời | Medium | Overcoming the World | 2:16 | — | Descriptive triad of worldly desire |
| anointing | χρῖσμα / chrisma | sự xức dầu | High | Testing the Spirits | 2:20,27 | anointing as elite-leader marker only | Universal Spirit-given teaching presence for every believer, not a special class |
| testimony / witness | μαρτυρία, μαρτυρέω / martyria, martyreō | sự làm chứng / lời chứng | Medium | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 1:2; 4:14; 5:6-11 | — | Formal eyewitness/divine testimony, not casual opinion |
| eternal life | ζωὴ αἰώνιος / zōē aiōnios | sự sống đời đời | High | Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life | 2:25; 3:15; 5:11-13,20 | giải thoát/luân hồi-adjacent afterlife framing; merit-earned afterlife reward | Present, personal, relational possession now in the Son, not a future merit-earned reward or rebirth-cycle escape |
| sin unto death | ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον / hamartia pros thanaton | tội đến nỗi chết | Medium | Confession and Forgiveness of Sin | 5:16-17 | — | Debated phrase; flag for theologian review, do not over-specify beyond the text |
| idols | εἴδωλα / eidōla | hình tượng | High | God is Light and God is Love (closing summary); pastoral cross-cutting | 5:21 | — | Doctrinal warning against rival objects of worship; application to ancestor-veneration practice (bàn thờ gia tiên) requires human theologian input, not a lexical decision |
| water and blood (with the Spirit) | τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα / to hydōr kai to haima | nước, huyết (cùng với Thánh Linh) | High | The Incarnation and Antichrist; Assurance of Salvation | 5:6-8 | reducing to later sacramental ritual only | Multiple converging testimonies to Christ’s true incarnate identity, not primarily a sacrament reference |
| brother (fellow believer) | ἀδελφός / adelphos | anh em | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 2:9-11; 3:10-17; 4:20-21 | limiting to biological/clan kin only | New covenant family bond extending beyond, without dishonoring, biological family loyalty |
| know (relational) | γινώσκω / ginōskō | biết | Medium | Fellowship with God and One Another; Testing the Spirits | 2:3-5,13-14; 3:1,6,16,19-20,24; 4:6-8,13,16 | esoteric/secret gnosis | Relational, ethical knowledge of a personal God, not intellectual gnosis detached from love/obedience |
| perfected / made complete | τελειόω / teleioō | được trọn vẹn / nên trọn vẹn | Medium | God is Light and God is Love; Love for the Brethren | 2:5; 4:12,17-18 | tu thân (self-cultivated moral perfection) | Passive result of receiving/expressing God’s love, not a self-achieved moral attainment |
| ought (moral obligation) | ὀφείλω / opheilō | nên / phải (yêu thương) | High | Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth | 3:16; 4:11 | phrasing built on “nợ” (debt) risking ơn nghĩa framing | Grateful moral response to received love, not a reciprocal debt-repayment |
C. Risk Summary for 1 John Curriculum
| Risk Tier | Count (New Terms) | Review Routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 8 | Human theologian (every occurrence) |
| High | 12 | Human theologian |
| Medium | 11 | Native speaker review |
| Low | (see semantic analysis for minor terms: ἀγαπητοί, θεάομαι, δίδωμι, μισέω, ψεύστης-adjacent minor items) | Automated review |
Total new terms proposed for translation memory: 31 (in addition to 17 baseline terms reused exactly from Romans without modification).
This glossary must be merged into translation_memory.json as version increments before Phase 2 segment translation of any 1 John material begins, per the Translation Memory Load and Enforcement Instructions in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md.
Critical Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Đức Chúa Trời
Transliteration: Duc Chua Troi
Doctrine: God Is Light / God Is Love
Rejected alternatives: Ông Trời
Original: θεός
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. In 1 John, grounds the two essential-nature statements ‘God is light’ (1:5) and ‘God is love’ (4:8,16); every occurrence must be taught as naming a personal, covenant-making God, not the impersonal, fate-dispensing Ông Trời of everyday folk speech.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Đức Chúa Giê-xu
Transliteration: Duc Chua Gie-xu
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: Ἰησοῦς
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Standard 1926 Protestant Bible form. In 1 John, the confession that this is the same person who is ‘the Christ’ and has ‘come in the flesh’ is the letter’s defining doctrinal test (2:22; 4:2-3).
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Con Đức Chúa Trời
Transliteration: Con Duc Chua Troi
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. In 1 John 4:9, extended with the new modifier ‘Con một’ (only_begotten, see Section B) to mark unrepeatable, unique Sonship; never a title a deified ancestor or folk-hero spirit could also claim.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Đức Thánh Linh
Transliteration: Duc Thanh Linh
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: thần linh
Original: πνεῦμα ἅγιον / τὸ πνεῦμα
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Never bare ‘thần linh’. In 1 John, must remain visibly distinct from the new terms ‘spirit_of_truth_and_error’ (Section B) so that the contrast at 4:6 reads as a contrast of doctrinal source, not folk spirit-taxonomy.
Intercession
Approved rendering: sự cầu thay
Transliteration: su cau thay
Doctrine: Christ’s Advocacy and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: cầu xin tổ tiên
Original: ὑπερεντυγχάνει (cf. Rom 8:26) / ἔντευξις
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged (Critical). Never modeled on cầu xin tổ tiên. In 1 John this general concept is sharpened into the specific ‘advocate’ (Đấng cầu thay, Section B) term at 2:1, which carries the same Critical designation and must be taught alongside it, not as a lesser background term.
Salvation
Approved rendering: sự cứu rỗi
Transliteration: su cuu roi
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: sự giải thoát
Original: σωτηρία
Category: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Never sự giải thoát. In 1 John, underlies both ‘Savior’ (Cứu Chúa, Section B) at 4:14 and ‘eternal life’ (sự sống đời đời, Section B) throughout.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: Ngôi Lời trở nên xác thịt
Transliteration: Ngoi Loi tro nen xac thit
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: hóa thân
Original: ἐν σαρκὶ ἐρχόμενον / ἐγένετο
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Never hóa thân alone. In 1 John 4:2-3, confessing that ‘Jesus Christ has come in the flesh’ is the very test of true versus false spirits, elevating the collision risk beyond Romans’ single occurrence; also underlies the new ‘word_of_life’ term (Section B) at 1:1-3.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: sự sống lại
Transliteration: su song lai
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: sự đầu thai, luân hồi
Original: ἀνάστασις (implicit; cf. ‘life,’ 1:1-2; 5:11-13)
Category: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Never đầu thai/luân hồi. Serves as background doctrine informing 1 John’s confidence about present and future life in Christ; directly relevant to guarding the new ‘born_of_god’ and ‘eternal_life’ terms (Section B) against the same reincarnation-adjacent misreading.
Christ Title
Approved rendering: Đấng Christ
Transliteration: Dang Christ
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: một vị thầy vĩ đại (a great teacher, honorific reduction)
Original: Χριστός
Category: Christology
NEW KEY for this translation memory, though the rendering itself follows the transliteration standard already fixed in the Romans baseline’s 12_ai_translation_requirements.md (‘Christ = Đấng Christ’), distinct from the OT-concept term Đấng Mê-si-a. 1 John’s confession/denial structure (2:22-23; 4:15; 5:1) requires this title to remain visually and doctrinally fixed at every occurrence, never softened into a generic honorific.
Word Of Life
Approved rendering: Lời của sự sống (Ngôi Lời)
Transliteration: Loi cua su song (Ngoi Loi)
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς
Category: Christology
NEW TERM. 1 John 1:1’s own incarnation-and-eyewitness prologue, echoing John 1:1,14. Extends the baseline Incarnation doctrine (Ngôi Lời trở nên xác thịt); must use identical Christological vocabulary to the Gospel tradition and Romans already fixed in translation memory, never reduced to an abstract teaching or message.
Only Begotten
Approved rendering: Con một
Transliteration: Con mot
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: một người con (a son, generic)
Original: μονογενής
Category: Christology
NEW TERM. Renders μονογενής (4:9), paired with ‘Con Đức Chúa Trời’. Must never be softened to suggest Jesus is merely one son among many, or an honorary title also claimed by a deified ancestor or folk-hero spirit. Requires a teaching note clarifying uniqueness-of-kind, not merely numerical absence of siblings.
Propitiation
Approved rendering: của lễ chuộc tội
Transliteration: cua le chuoc toi
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: cúng tổ tiên-style appeasement offering, công đức tích lũy / hồi hướng công đức merit-transfer offering
Original: ἱλασμός
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
NEW TERM, single highest-need teaching-note term in this curriculum. Requires the same Critical handling given to atonement/propitiation language in the baseline’s escalation rules. Must be explicitly distinguished from repeated ritual offerings made to appease ancestor spirits or local deities (cúng tổ tiên, cúng cô hồn) and from Buddhist merit-transfer offerings (làm phước, hồi hướng công đức); this is God’s own initiative to satisfy his own justice, not a human-initiated appeasement transaction (2:2; 4:10).
Advocate
Approved rendering: Đấng cầu thay
Transliteration: Dang cau thay
Doctrine: Christ’s Advocacy and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: cầu xin tổ tiên model, Đấng Yên Ủi (reserved for the Spirit’s role elsewhere, not used here)
Original: παράκλητος
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
NEW TERM. Renders παράκλητος at 2:1 (Christ’s advocacy before the Father). Carries forward the baseline’s Critical flag on intercession exactly: must never be modeled on cầu xin tổ tiên (petitioning a deceased ancestor for blessing/protection at the family altar), a central and frequent Vietnamese practice. Every occurrence needs a teaching note distinguishing Christ’s finished-work-based advocacy from ancestor petition.
Antichrist
Approved rendering: kẻ địch lại Đấng Christ
Transliteration: ke dich lai Dang Christ
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: ma quỷ (generic demon), mythological demon-king figure
Original: ἀντίχριστος
Category: Christology
NEW TERM. Established BDTT descriptive phrase. Must not be flattened into a generic evil spirit/demon or a mythological demon-king figure from folk cosmology; the specific doctrinal content — denial that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God come in the flesh — must remain explicit at every occurrence (2:18-23; 4:1-3).
Test The Spirits
Approved rendering: thử các thần
Transliteration: thu cac than
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: gọi hồn, cầu cơ, hầu đồng, đồng bóng-style spirit consultation
Original: δοκιμάζετε τὰ πνεύματα
Category: Testing the Spirits
NEW TERM (4:1). Single highest collision-risk doctrine in the book for this destination language. Serious collision risk with Vietnamese folk-religious practice of consulting spirits through mediums (đồng bóng, hầu đồng) or calling ancestral/other spirits (gọi hồn, cầu cơ). 1 John’s instruction is the opposite: a doctrinal, Scripture- and confession-based discernment exercise performed by the ordinary believer, never ritual spirit-consultation. Flag for human theologian review at every occurrence.
Born Of God
Approved rendering: được sinh bởi Đức Chúa Trời / sự sinh lại
Transliteration: duoc sinh boi Duc Chua Troi / su sinh lai
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: đầu thai, luân hồi
Original: γεννάω ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
NEW TERM. Recurs at 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18 — directly inside the core passage’s opening premise (4:7). Vietnamese readers from a Buddhist background may hear ‘born of/begotten of’ through the lens of luân hồi (reincarnation). Must be explicitly taught as a one-time, non-repeatable spiritual begetting by a personal God producing a permanently new identity, doctrinally parallel to the baseline’s Critical guard on resurrection.
High Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: Cha
Transliteration: Cha
Doctrine: Sonship and the Family of God
Original: πατήρ
Category: God
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. In 1 John 3:1 (‘what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us’), teaching should emphasize grace and intimacy over Confucian filial-duty hierarchy (đạo hiếu), consistent with the baseline’s adoption note.
Sin
Approved rendering: tội lỗi
Transliteration: toi loi
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: nghiệp xấu
Original: ἁμαρτία
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE (baseline doctrine_risk: Medium); ELEVATED to High for the 1 John curriculum per the extended bible_term_registry.json and doctrine_risk_registry.json, given the weight the Confession and Forgiveness of Sin doctrine carries across 1:7-10, 2:1-2, 3:4-9, 4:10, 5:16-17. Never nghiệp xấu (impersonal bad karma).
Righteousness
Approved rendering: sự công bình
Transliteration: su cong binh
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: đức hạnh
Original: δικαιοσύνη / δίκαιος
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged risk tier. In 1 John 2:29 and 3:7,10 names both God’s own character and the corresponding right standing/character of the one born of him; never đức hạnh (Confucian cultivated moral virtue).
Faith
Approved rendering: đức tin / tin
Transliteration: duc tin / tin
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: πίστις / πιστεύω
Category: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE (baseline doctrine_risk: Medium); ELEVATED to High for the 1 John curriculum per the extended bible_term_registry.json, reflecting how tightly 1 John fuses faith with relational knowledge and assurance (3:23; 4:16; 5:1,4-5,10,13). Object of faith must always be specified: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Đấng Mê-si-a
Transliteration: Dang Me-si-a
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Original: Χριστός / מָשִׁיחַ
Category: Christology
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Names the OT-promise concept fulfilled exclusively in Jesus; in 1 John, the title form in running text is ‘Đấng Christ’ (see christ_title, Section B) and the two must be taught as naming the same exclusively-fulfilled figure, since denial that ‘Jesus is the Christ’ (2:22) is the defining mark of antichrist.
Law
Approved rendering: luật pháp
Transliteration: luat phap
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: νόμος
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE (baseline translation_memory.json doctrine_risk: Medium; baseline bible_term_registry.json risk: High). Standardized at High for the 1 John curriculum, consistent with the extended bible_term_registry.json. In 1 John the sense is the general moral order rather than specifically the Mosaic ceremonial code; background to the new ‘lawlessness’ term (Section B) at 3:4.
Adoption
Approved rendering: sự làm con nuôi
Transliteration: su lam con nuoi
Doctrine: Sonship and the Family of God
Original: υἱοθεσία
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged. Full legal son-status with inheritance rights. In 1 John, must be taught alongside, not conflated with, the new ‘children_of_god’ term (Section B, 3:1-2): Romans emphasizes legal standing and inheritance, 1 John emphasizes the organic new-birth basis of sonship.
Love
Approved rendering: sự yêu thương (danh từ) / yêu thương (động từ)
Transliteration: su yeu thuong / yeu thuong
Doctrine: God Is Light / God Is Love
Rejected alternatives: tình yêu, lòng từ bi
Original: ἀγάπη / ἀγαπάω
Category: God is Light and God is Love
NEW TERM. Never tình yêu (romantic-register love) or lòng từ bi (Buddhist compassion, self-generated through contemplating suffering rather than received from a personal God). Must be taught as willed, self-giving, God-originated love; God’s essential nature (4:8,16), not an attribute or sentiment. Extremely high frequency in the core passage (4:7-21, ~18 occurrences) — consistency must be checked across the whole passage as a unit, not segment-by-segment.
Light
Approved rendering: sự sáng
Transliteration: su sang
Doctrine: God Is Light / God Is Love
Rejected alternatives: ánh sáng giác ngộ (framing)
Original: φῶς
Category: God is Light and God is Love
NEW TERM. Collides with Buddhist ‘ánh sáng giác ngộ’ (light of enlightenment attained through practice and insight) and folk esoteric light-attainment traditions. Must be taught as God’s own unchanging moral nature revealed to humanity (1:5,7), not an inner enlightenment state a person achieves.
Confess
Approved rendering: xưng tội (of sin) / xưng nhận (of Christ)
Transliteration: xung toi / xung nhan
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: xưng tội qua linh mục (Catholic priest-mediated confession)
Original: ὁμολογέω
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
NEW TERM. ‘Xưng tội’ carries strong Vietnamese association with the Catholic sacrament of confession performed through a priest in a confessional booth (tòa giải tội). 1 John’s ὁμολογέω, whether of sin (1:9) or of Christ (4:2,15), is a direct, unmediated act between the believer and God. Use ‘xưng tội’ for confession of sin and ‘xưng nhận’ for confession of Christ to keep the two senses distinguishable.
Blood
Approved rendering: huyết
Transliteration: huyet
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: máu (clinical register, loses sacrificial connotation)
Original: αἷμα
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
NEW TERM. Christ’s sacrificial blood, the objective ground of ongoing cleansing and fellowship (1:7) and one of the three converging witnesses to his identity (5:6-8). Retain the established sacrificial-register ‘huyết’; teach as a once-for-all atoning sacrifice, not an ongoing ritual blood-offering paralleling ancestral or folk sacrificial practice.
Spirit Of Truth And Error
Approved rendering: Thần Lẽ Thật / thần sai lạc
Transliteration: Than Le That / than sai lac
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: thần linh (bare folk category)
Original: πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας / τῆς πλάνης
Category: God
NEW TERM (4:6). Must be kept distinct from the general folk category of thần linh, already forbidden bare for Holy Spirit in the baseline. ‘Spirit of truth’ relates closely to, but must not be flatly identified with, the Holy Spirit named elsewhere without a clarifying teaching note.
Abide
Approved rendering: ở trong / cứ ở trong
Transliteration: o trong / cu o trong
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Rejected alternatives: an trú (Buddhist meditative self-cultivated dwelling)
Original: μένω
Category: Fellowship with God and One Another
NEW TERM. Renders μένω, used ~24 times in 1 John, densest in 4:12-16 (inside the core passage). Describes an ongoing, relational, mutual, other-initiated indwelling between God and the believer, not a self-cultivated meditative condition.
Savior
Approved rendering: Cứu Chúa
Transliteration: Cuu Chua
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: generic hero-rescuer figure
Original: σωτήρ
Category: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
NEW TERM (4:14, ‘Savior of the world’), built on the baseline salvation root (sự cứu rỗi). Must retain universal scope, not one ethnic or ancestral lineage group, and must not be confused with a generic legendary hero-liberator figure.
Confidence Boldness
Approved rendering: sự dạn dĩ
Transliteration: su dan di
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: confidence grounded in accumulated merit/karma
Original: παρρησία
Category: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
NEW TERM (3:21; 4:17, inside the core passage; 5:14). Must be grounded explicitly in Christ’s finished work and God’s love, never implying self-generated confidence from accumulated good deeds (colliding with Buddhist merit-accumulation thinking) or an uncertain hope contingent on an ongoing karmic ledger.
World
Approved rendering: thế gian
Transliteration: the gian
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: κόσμος
Category: Overcoming the World
NEW TERM. Carries at least two senses that a single Vietnamese word must silently distinguish by context: (a) humanity as the object of God’s saving love (4:9,14); (b) the organized system of values in rebellion against the Father (2:15-17; 4:4-5; 5:19). Flag disambiguation at every occurrence; used 12+ times across the letter, including three times inside the core passage.
Anointing
Approved rendering: sự xức dầu
Transliteration: su xuc dau
Doctrine: Testing the Spirits
Rejected alternatives: anointing as elite-leader marker only, folk-ritual anointing performed by a medium/shaman
Original: χρῖσμα
Category: Testing the Spirits
NEW TERM (2:20,27). Vietnamese charismatic/Pentecostal usage sometimes applies ‘được xức dầu’ to a special class of especially gifted or authoritative leaders; 1 John’s usage is the opposite — universal possession of every believer via the Spirit, not a mark of a spiritual elite.
Eternal Life
Approved rendering: sự sống đời đời
Transliteration: su song doi doi
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Rejected alternatives: giải thoát/luân hồi-adjacent afterlife framing, merit-earned afterlife reward
Original: ζωὴ αἰώνιος
Category: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
NEW TERM (2:25; 3:15; 5:11-13,20). A present, personal, relational possession now in the Son (‘he who has the Son has life,’ 5:12), not a future merit-earned reward or a rebirth-cycle escape — the opposite orientation from the Buddhist soteriological goal of giải thoát.
Idols
Approved rendering: hình tượng
Transliteration: hinh tuong
Doctrine: God Is Light / God Is Love (closing summary)
Original: εἴδωλα
Category: God is Light and God is Love (closing summary)
NEW TERM (5:21, closing exhortation). Requires pastoral sensitivity: many Vietnamese households maintain ancestor altars (bàn thờ gia tiên) understood by families as honoring deceased parents rather than worshipping a rival god. The doctrinal content must be preserved without the translation team unilaterally resolving, inside a lexical gloss, how it applies to ancestor-veneration practice; flag every occurrence for human theologian review at the application layer.
Water And Blood
Approved rendering: nước, huyết (cùng với Thánh Linh)
Transliteration: nuoc, huyet (cung voi Thanh Linh)
Doctrine: Incarnation and Antichrist
Rejected alternatives: reducing to a later sacramental (baptism/communion) reading alone
Original: τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὸ αἷμα (μετὰ τοῦ πνεύματος)
Category: The Incarnation and Antichrist
NEW TERM (5:6-9). Multiple converging witnesses to the true, fully human and fully divine identity of Jesus Christ against docetic-leaning denial. Requires a teaching note at first occurrence so it is not prematurely reduced to a sacramental reference alone.
Brother
Approved rendering: anh em
Transliteration: anh em
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: limiting to biological/clan kin only
Original: ἀδελφός
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
NEW TERM (2:9-11; 3:10-17; 4:20-21, climaxing the core passage). In a culture where family/lineage bonds (huyết thống, dòng họ) carry very strong obligation, must be taught as the new covenant family bond among all believers in Christ, an extension/fulfillment of family-bond language, not a replacement dishonoring biological family loyalty.
Ought
Approved rendering: nên / phải (yêu thương)
Transliteration: nen / phai (yeu thuong)
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: phrasing built on “nợ” (debt) risking ơn nghĩa framing
Original: ὀφείλω
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
NEW TERM (3:16; 4:11, inside the core passage). Direct collision risk with Confucian ơn nghĩa (a favor creating a reciprocal obligation to repay), the same collision already flagged for grace in the baseline. Must convey a grateful moral ‘ought,’ not a transactional repayment; avoid phrasing built on ‘nợ’ (debt).
Medium Risk Terms
Fellowship
Approved rendering: sự thông công
Transliteration: su thong cong
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Original: κοινωνία
Category: Fellowship with God and One Another
INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, unchanged risk tier. 1 John 1:3 makes this the letter’s own programmatic purpose statement: horizontal fellowship among believers is grounded in, and flows from, prior vertical fellowship with the Father and the Son. Do not flatten into generic social community-building language.
Darkness
Approved rendering: sự tối tăm
Transliteration: su toi tam
Doctrine: God Is Light / God Is Love
Original: σκότος / σκοτία
Category: God is Light and God is Love
NEW TERM. The moral/relational opposite of light: sin, falsehood, and separation from God (1:5-6; 2:9,11). Comparatively low direct-collision risk; must retain moral/relational separation from a personal God, not mere absence of information.
Forgive
Approved rendering: tha thứ / được tha
Transliteration: tha thu / duoc tha
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀφίημι / ἄφεσις
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
NEW TERM. God’s judicial release of the believer’s sin-debt upon confession (1:9), grounded in his faithfulness and righteousness and Christ’s atoning work, not merit or ritual performance.
Cleanse
Approved rendering: làm cho sạch
Transliteration: lam cho sach
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Rejected alternatives: tẩy uế nghi lễ (ritual purification by rite/medium)
Original: καθαρίζω
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
NEW TERM. Moral cleansing by God via Christ’s blood, received through confession (1:7,9), not achieved through a ritual act performed by the believer.
Children Of God
Approved rendering: con cái Đức Chúa Trời
Transliteration: con cai Duc Chua Troi
Doctrine: Sonship and the Family of God
Original: τέκνα θεοῦ
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
NEW TERM (3:1-2,10; 5:2). Emphasizes the organic, birth-based family relationship. Complements, but must not be conflated with, the baseline’s legal-adoption doctrine (sự làm con nuôi); teach both together.
Seed Of God
Approved rendering: hạt giống của Ngài
Transliteration: hat giong cua Ngai
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Rejected alternatives: dòng dõi (physical-lineage sense, as in baseline seed of David)
Original: σπέρμα αὐτοῦ
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
NEW TERM (3:9). The divine generative nature implanted in the believer at new birth, producing a settled inability to continue in habitual sin. Must be distinguished from the baseline’s ‘seed of David’ (dòng dõi Đa-vít, physical lineage).
Lawlessness
Approved rendering: sự trái luật pháp
Transliteration: su trai luat phap
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἀνομία
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
NEW TERM (3:4, ‘sin is lawlessness’). Extends the baseline ‘law’ (luật pháp) concept to the general moral order rather than specifically the Mosaic ceremonial code.
Devil
Approved rendering: ma quỷ
Transliteration: ma quy
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Rejected alternatives: generic thần linh/spirit taxonomy
Original: διάβολος
Category: Overcoming the World
NEW TERM (3:8,10). Must be taught as a singular personal adversary of God, not folded into the broad Vietnamese folk taxonomy of many spirit-types (thần linh, ma, hồn) that may be locally benign, malicious, or ancestral.
Fear
Approved rendering: sự sợ hãi
Transliteration: su so hai
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: φόβος
Category: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
NEW TERM (4:18, inside the core passage). Anxious dread of condemnation displaced by mature love. Must remain distinguishable from ‘kính sợ Đức Chúa Trời’ (reverent fear of God commended elsewhere in Scripture), which is not being negated.
Overcome
Approved rendering: thắng / sự đắc thắng
Transliteration: thang / su dac thang
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: νικάω
Category: Overcoming the World
NEW TERM (2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5). Decisive victory grounded in faith and new birth, not human willpower or self-cultivated moral discipline (tu thân/tu tập).
Lust Pride Triad
Approved rendering: sự mê tham của xác thịt / của mắt; sự kiêu ngạo về đời
Transliteration: su me tham cua xac thit / cua mat; su kieu ngao ve doi
Doctrine: Overcoming the World
Original: ἐπιθυμία τῆς σαρκός / τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν, ἀλαζονεία τοῦ βίου
Category: Overcoming the World
NEW TERM (2:16). Descriptive triad of worldly desire; retain the moral-desire sense of ἐπιθυμία, not merely sensory temptation.
Testimony
Approved rendering: sự làm chứng / lời chứng
Transliteration: su lam chung / loi chung
Doctrine: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
Original: μαρτυρία / μαρτυρέω
Category: Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
NEW TERM (1:2; 4:14; 5:6-11). Formal, eyewitness or divine testimony grounding the letter’s claims about Christ; must retain the weight of formal testimony, not casual personal opinion or report.
Sin Unto Death
Approved rendering: tội đến nỗi chết
Transliteration: toi den noi chet
Doctrine: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
Original: ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον
Category: Confession and Forgiveness of Sin
NEW TERM (5:16-17). A genuinely difficult, debated phrase; flag for native speaker/theologian review with a note that multiple interpretive options exist (e.g., a settled, final apostasy). Do not resolve the ambiguity by inventing a more specific doctrine than the source text states.
Perfected
Approved rendering: được trọn vẹn / nên trọn vẹn
Transliteration: duoc tron ven / nen tron ven
Doctrine: God Is Light / God Is Love
Rejected alternatives: tu thân (Confucian self-cultivated moral perfection)
Original: τελειόω
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
NEW TERM (2:5; 4:12,17-18, inside the core passage). Moral completion/maturity, not sinlessness; a passive result of receiving and expressing God’s love, not a self-achieved attainment.
Know Relational
Approved rendering: biết
Transliteration: biet
Doctrine: Fellowship with God and One Another
Rejected alternatives: esoteric/secret gnosis
Original: γινώσκω
Category: Fellowship with God and One Another
NEW TERM (2:3-5,13-14; 3:1,6,16,19-20,24; 4:6-8,13,16). Relational, ethical knowledge of a personal God, countering a possible early-Gnostic-style claim to secret gnōsis detached from ethical love; not abstract or esoteric knowledge acquired by a spiritual elite.
Low Risk Terms
Commandment
Approved rendering: điều răn
Transliteration: dieu ran
Doctrine: The Commandment to Love
Original: ἐντολή
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
NEW TERM (2:3-8; 3:22-24; 4:21). Standard, established Vietnamese Bible vocabulary (as in ‘Mười Điều Răn’); low collision risk but should not be reduced to a mere ethical suggestion.
Beloved
Approved rendering: Hỡi kẻ rất yêu dấu
Transliteration: Hoi ke rat yeu dau
Doctrine: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
Original: ἀγαπητοί
Category: Love for the Brethren as Evidence of New Birth
NEW TERM (2:7; 3:2,21; 4:1,7,11, opening the core passage). Established BDTT vocative form; identifies readers as objects of God’s and the author’s love before commanding them to love.
Referenced passages