Semantic Analysis

07 Semantic Analysis

English → Vietnamese | James 1–5 | Original Koine Greek Study

Method: Core passage (James 2:14–26) receives full verse-by-verse treatment. Every other chapter of James receives a chapter-level study of its load-bearing theological vocabulary, using the same fields: original word, transliteration, literal meaning, semantic range, English variants, contextual theological meaning in James, and destination-language (Vietnamese) rendering risk. Terms already fixed in the baseline Romans translation_memory.json are marked [BASELINE REUSE] and the recorded Vietnamese rendering is reused exactly, without deviation. New terms are proposed with a risk tier using the same Critical/High/Medium/Low framework as the baseline.

James is a densely paraenetic (exhortational) letter with comparatively low narrative content and a high concentration of imperatives, making its wisdom, ethical, and community vocabulary the primary translation load — in contrast to Romans, whose load is concentrated in soteriological and Christological vocabulary. Several James terms directly intersect the baseline’s existing Critical-risk terms (works/justification/faith, salvation/healing, grace), so this analysis pays special attention to points of continuity and apparent tension with the Romans package.

PART A — Core Passage: James 2:14–26 (Verse-by-Verse)

This is the letter’s central argument: a faith that produces no works is not saving faith. It sits in deliberate tension with — and, rightly taught, in full harmony with — Paul’s teaching in Romans that justification is by faith apart from works of the law (Romans 3:28; 4:1–5). James is not answering “how is a sinner declared righteous before God” but “what kind of faith is genuine.” Both letters use the same Greek verb δικαιόω/δικαιοῦμαι, and the same Vietnamese rendering must be used in both, with a harmonization note attached wherever the two are taught side by side.

James 2:14

Greek: Τί τὸ ὄφελος, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐὰν πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν, ἔργα δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ; μὴ δύναται ἡ πίστις σῶσαι αὐτόν;

πίστις (pistis) — “faith, trust.” [BASELINE REUSE: đức tin, Medium]. Semantic range: trust/reliance on a person, or, negatively here, a mere verbal claim to trust (“says he has faith”). English variants: faith, belief. Contextual theological meaning: James isolates claimed faith (πίστιν λέγῃ τις ἔχειν, “says he has faith”) from genuine faith — the entire pericope turns on this distinction. Rendering risk: Medium (per baseline), but flag this specific verse for High-risk contextual review because a careless rendering could imply that “đức tin” itself, not merely a false claim to it, is in question.
ἔργα (erga) — “works, deeds.” Literal meaning: things done, deeds, actions. Semantic range: everyday deeds; in Paul, “works of the law” (occasionally negative, self-achieved merit); in James, concrete acts of obedience/love that are the necessary fruit of real faith (positive). English variants: works, deeds, actions, good works. Contextual theological meaning: the pivot term of the whole passage and of the doctrine “Faith and Works.” Proposed Vietnamese rendering: việc làm. Risk: Critical. Rationale: (1) direct collision risk with Buddhist công đức (accumulated merit that improves karmic standing) — “việc làm” must never be taught as merit that earns salvation; (2) apparent tension with Romans’ “not by works” (Rô-ma 3:28, using công việc in some renderings of “works of the law”) requires an explicit harmonization note distinguishing “works of the law” (Romans, rejected as a basis of justification) from “works that are the fruit of genuine faith” (James, required as the evidence of justification). Do not use “công đức.”
σῶσαι (sōsai, from σώζω sōzō) — “to save.” Literal meaning: to rescue, deliver, save. Semantic range: eternal salvation (dominant NT sense) or physical rescue/healing (context-dependent, cf. James 5:15). English variants: save, deliver, rescue. Contextual theological meaning: James asks rhetorically whether mere profession — without works — can save; the implied answer is no, not because works earn salvation, but because false, workless “faith” was never saving faith to begin with. Rendering: cứu (verb form of baseline [BASELINE REUSE: sự cứu rỗi, Critical]). Risk: Critical. Rationale: must not be rendered in a way that implies works are the saving instrument, nor in a way that softens James’s challenge to false profession; needs a translator’s note distinguishing this from sự giải thoát (Buddhist liberation) per baseline forbidden-substitution rule.

James 2:15

Greek: ἐὰν ἀδελφὸς ἢ ἀδελφὴ γυμνοὶ ὑπάρχωσιν καὶ λειπόμενοι τῆς ἐφημέρου τροφῆς

γυμνός (gymnos) — “naked.” Literal meaning: unclothed, or by extension, poorly/inadequately clothed. Semantic range: literal nakedness; destitution. English variants: naked, without clothing, poorly clothed. Contextual theological meaning: concrete material need as the test case for “works.” Rendering: trần trụi / thiếu áo mặc. Risk: Low.
ἐφήμερος τροφή (ephēmeros trophē) — “daily food.” Literal meaning: food for the day. Semantic range: daily sustenance, subsistence. Contextual theological meaning: everyday, ordinary material need — deliberately unglamorous, to keep the illustration concrete and repeatable. Rendering: thức ăn hằng ngày. Risk: Low.

James 2:16

Greek: εἴπῃ δέ τις αὐτοῖς ἐξ ὑμῶν, Ὑπάγετε ἐν εἰρήνῃ, θερμαίνεσθε καὶ χορτάζεσθε, μὴ δῷ δὲ αὐτοῖς τὰ ἐπιτήδεια τοῦ σώματος, τί τὸ ὄφελος;

εἰρήνη (eirēnē) — “peace.” [BASELINE REUSE: sự bình an, Medium]. Contextual meaning here: a hollow social pleasantry (“go in peace”) offered instead of concrete aid — an ironic, empty use of the term that must not be confused with the rich relational sense of peace-with-God in Romans 5:1. Risk: Medium — flag for a translator’s note that this occurrence is a conventional farewell, not the doctrinal “peace with God.”
τὰ ἐπιτήδεια τοῦ σώματος (ta epitēdeia tou sōmatos) — “the things needful for the body.” Literal meaning: necessary provisions for the body. Semantic range: material necessities (food, clothing, shelter). Contextual theological meaning: the concrete content that words alone (mere blessing/well-wishing) cannot supply — the whole illustration’s point. Rendering: những điều cần dùng cho thân thể. Risk: Low.

James 2:17

Greek: οὕτως καὶ ἡ πίστις, ἐὰν μὴ ἔχῃ ἔργα, νεκρά ἐστιν καθ’ ἑαυτήν.

νεκρά (nekra, from νεκρός nekros) — “dead.” Literal meaning: lifeless, without life. Semantic range: physically dead; metaphorically inert, ineffective, without vital force. English variants: dead, lifeless, ineffective. Contextual theological meaning: the letter’s central verdict on workless faith — not merely “weak” or “incomplete” but dead, i.e., not actually functioning as saving faith at all. Rendering: chết. Risk: High. Rationale: must be sharply distinguished from the literal-body resurrection vocabulary already fixed in the baseline (sự sống lại) — this is a metaphorical death of a professed faith, not a claim about the afterlife or reincarnation; a careless rendering near baseline resurrection language could create confusion. Also must not be softened to “yếu” (weak) or “chưa hoàn hảo” (imperfect), which would blunt James’s point.
καθ’ ἑαυτήν (kath’ heautēn) — “by itself, in itself.” Contextual meaning: emphasizes that faith isolated from works, considered strictly on its own, has no life. Rendering: tự nó / tự mình. Risk: Low.

James 2:18

Greek: Ἀλλ’ ἐρεῖ τις, Σὺ πίστιν ἔχεις κἀγὼ ἔργα ἔχω· δεῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων, κἀγὼ σοι δείξω ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν.

δεῖξόν (deixon, from δείκνυμι deiknymi) — “show, demonstrate, prove.” Semantic range: to make visible, to give evidence of. Contextual theological meaning: faith is not merely an interior disposition to be asserted, but a reality that necessarily becomes visible through action; works are the demonstration, not the cause, of faith. Rendering: hãy chỉ ra / hãy tỏ ra. Risk: Medium — must convey “give evidence of,” not “produce/manufacture,” to avoid implying works generate faith.
χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων (chōris tōn ergōn) — “apart from works, without works.” Note this exact phrase recurs at 2:20 and 2:26 as a refrain. Rendering: mà không có việc làm. Risk tied to ἔργα above (Critical).

James 2:19

Greek: σὺ πιστεύεις ὅτι εἷς θεός ἐστιν. καλῶς ποιεῖς· καὶ τὰ δαιμόνια πιστεύουσιν καὶ φρίσσουσιν.

πιστεύεις / πιστεύουσιν (pisteueis / pisteuousin, from πιστεύω pisteuō) — “believe.” Semantic range: mere intellectual assent to a proposition (this occurrence) versus saving trust in a person (the letter’s fuller sense elsewhere and in Romans). Contextual theological meaning: James deliberately shows that bare doctrinal assent — even correct monotheistic assent, εἷς θεός, “God is one,” echoing the Shema — is shared even by demons, and therefore cannot by itself be saving faith. Rendering: tin. Risk: High. Rationale: this verse is the sharpest place in the NT distinguishing mere intellectual belief from saving faith (đức tin); needs a translator’s note so “tin” here is not mistaken for the full saving sense of đức tin used elsewhere in the passage.
δαιμόνια (daimonia) — “demons.” Semantic range: evil spirits, in NT usage always malevolent, subordinate to Satan; must not be rendered with a term from the broad Vietnamese folk category of spirits in general. Rendering: các quỉ / ma quỉ. Risk: Medium — keep distinct from generic thần linh (folk-spirit category), which the baseline already forbids for Holy Spirit and should likewise be avoided as an unmarked default for demonic beings.
φρίσσουσιν (phrissousin) — “shudder, tremble with fear/horror.” Rendering: rùng mình khiếp sợ. Risk: Low.

James 2:20

Greek: Θέλεις δὲ γνῶναι, ὦ ἄνθρωπε κενέ, ὅτι ἡ πίστις χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων ἀργή ἐστιν;

κενέ (kene, from κενός kenos) — “empty, foolish, vain.” Literal meaning: empty, hollow. Semantic range: empty of content; by extension, senseless, foolish. Contextual theological meaning: a direct rebuke addressed to the imagined objector who separates faith from works. Rendering: hỡi người dại dột / hỡi người rỗng tuếch. Risk: Low-Medium; keep the rhetorical force of direct address.
ἀργή (argē, from ἀργός argos) — “useless, idle, unproductive” (a well-attested textual variant to νεκρά in 2:17/2:26; some manuscripts read νεκρά here too). Literal meaning: without work/ergon — “workless.” Semantic range: idle, inactive, barren, useless. Contextual theological meaning: reinforces the same verdict as νεκρά (2:17) — faith cut off from works produces nothing. Rendering: vô dụng / không sanh ra ích gì. Risk: Medium. Note textual variation for translator awareness; either reading supports the same doctrinal point.

James 2:21

Greek: Ἀβραὰμ ὁ πατὴρ ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων ἐδικαιώθη, ἀνενέγκας Ἰσαὰκ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον;

ἐδικαιώθη (edikaiōthē, aorist passive of δικαιόω dikaioō) — “was justified, was declared/shown righteous.” [BASELINE REUSE root: sự xưng công bình / được xưng công bình, Critical]. Literal meaning: to be declared/shown to be righteous, or to be vindicated/demonstrated as righteous by evidence. Semantic range: (a) forensic declaration of righteous status before God (Paul’s dominant sense, e.g. Romans 3–4); (b) public vindication/demonstration of a righteousness already possessed (James’s sense here, referring to an event roughly forty years after Genesis 15:6’s declaration). English variants: justified, declared righteous, shown righteous, vindicated. Contextual theological meaning: this is the passage’s single highest-stakes theological term. James is not contradicting Paul: Abraham was already reckoned righteous by faith in Genesis 15:6 (quoted next verse, 2:23); the offering of Isaac in Genesis 22 vindicated before others the reality of that faith. Rendering: reuse được xưng công bình exactly. Risk: Critical. Rationale: any teaching material using this verse MUST carry a harmonization note distinguishing James’s vindicating/evidential sense from Paul’s forensic-declarative sense in Romans, using the same Vietnamese phrase for both so learners recognize the verbal link, while the accompanying commentary carries the distinction. Never render James’s use with a different term than Romans’ use, and never let the difference in emphasis be silently lost by translating them differently — the connection must be visible, then explained.
ἀνενέγκας (anenegkas, from ἀναφέρω anapherō) — “having offered up, having brought up.” Semantic range: to bring up (as to an altar), to offer (a sacrifice). Rendering: đã dâng. Risk: Low.
θυσιαστήριον (thysiastērion) — “altar.” Semantic range: a place of sacrifice. Rendering: bàn thờ / nơi dâng tế lễ. Risk: Medium — must not be rendered with a term specific to Vietnamese ancestor-veneration altars (bàn thờ gia tiên) without clarifying context, since bàn thờ is the identical word used for a family ancestor altar; context here (Abraham offering Isaac to God) should make the referent clear, but a footnote is advisable given the strength of the domestic-altar association in Vietnamese religious life.

James 2:22

Greek: βλέπεις ὅτι ἡ πίστις συνήργει τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἔργων ἡ πίστις ἐτελειώθη;

συνήργει (synērgei, from συνεργέω synergeō) — “worked together with, cooperated with.” Literal meaning: worked alongside. Semantic range: cooperation, joint working. Contextual theological meaning: faith and works are not rivals but partners — faith is the root, works the necessary, cooperating expression; this is not a 50/50 “faith plus works” formula for salvation but a description of how genuine faith operates. Rendering: cùng làm việc với / hợp tác với. Risk: High. Rationale: must not be read as “faith and works together earn salvation” (a synergistic-merit reading close to the rejected công đức framework); the cooperation described is faith working itself out, not two independent contributions to a salvation ledger.
ἐτελειώθη (eteleiōthē, from τελειόω teleioō) — “was made complete, was perfected, reached its intended goal.” Literal meaning: brought to completion/maturity. Semantic range: to complete, finish, mature, bring to its proper end. Contextual theological meaning: works do not create faith but bring it to its mature, intended expression — faith reaches its goal, its full-formed shape, through action. Rendering: được làm cho trọn vẹn / đạt đến sự trọn vẹn. Risk: High — avoid any wording implying faith was deficient/incomplete in its saving validity before the works occurred; the sense is maturation/fulfillment of purpose, not repair of a defect.

James 2:23

Greek: καὶ ἐπληρώθη ἡ γραφὴ ἡ λέγουσα, Ἐπίστευσεν δὲ Ἀβραὰμ τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην, καὶ φίλος θεοῦ ἐκλήθη.

ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην (elogisthē autō eis dikaiosynēn) — “it was credited/reckoned to him for righteousness.” [BASELINE REUSE: sự công bình được kể cho, Critical]. This is the identical Greek phrase (quoting Genesis 15:6, LXX) already fixed in the Romans baseline at Romans 4:3. Contextual theological meaning: this citation is the theological anchor showing that Abraham’s justification was, at root, by faith credited to him — exactly the doctrine Paul expounds in Romans 4. Its appearance here, inside James’s argument for the necessity of works, is what makes verse 21 require careful harmonization: James affirms the same crediting-by-faith doctrine as Paul, then argues that the faith so credited inevitably produces works (v. 22, 24). Rendering: reuse the baseline phrase sự công bình được kể cho exactly, without variation. Risk: Critical. Rationale: consistency with Romans is doctrinally essential here — this is the strongest textual bridge between the two books’ faith/works teaching, and inconsistent rendering would obscure that Paul and James are expounding the same event and doctrine from different angles.
φίλος θεοῦ (philos theou) — “friend of God.” Literal meaning: a friend belonging to God / God’s friend. Semantic range: intimate, trusted companion (not a subordinate or servant relationship). Contextual theological meaning: the relational reward and description of a life of faith working itself out — intimacy with God as the fruit of persevering, active faith. Rendering: bạn của Đức Chúa Trời. Risk: Medium — worth a note that this intimacy is the fruit of God’s initiative and grace (cf. baseline note on adoption/fatherhood: relationship grounded in grace, not hierarchical merit accumulated by Abraham).
ἐκλήθη (eklēthē, from καλέω kaleō) — “was called, was named.” [Cross-reference to BASELINE: được kêu gọi / sự kêu gọi]. Here in the weaker sense “was named/designated” rather than the soteriological “effectual calling” sense in Romans 8:28–30; context-sensitive per the baseline’s own note on this term family. Risk: Medium.

James 2:24

Greek: ὁρᾶτε ὅτι ἐξ ἔργων δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος καὶ οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως μόνον.

δικαιοῦται (dikaioutai, present passive of δικαιόω) — “is justified.” Same term family as v. 21; here stated as the letter’s thesis sentence. Contextual theological meaning: the summary verdict — visible, vindicating justification (before people, by evidence of works) requires works, in addition to the inward reality of faith; this is not a statement about the ground of standing before God (which for both Paul and James is God’s grace received by faith) but about what demonstrates that standing is real. Rendering: reuse được xưng công bình exactly, as in v. 21. Risk: Critical. Rationale: this is the single verse most likely to be quoted in isolation to suggest James contradicts Romans 3:28’s “justified by faith apart from works of the law.” Any teaching material presenting this verse requires an explicit theologian-reviewed harmonization note.
μόνον (monon) — “alone, only.” Contextual theological meaning: James does not say “not by faith” but “not by faith alone” — i.e., not by a bare, workless, merely professed faith. Rendering: mà thôi / mà không (as part of “không phải chỉ bởi đức tin mà thôi”). Risk: High — the placement and force of “alone” is doctrinally load-bearing and must not be lost or blurred in translation.

James 2:25

Greek: ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Ῥαὰβ ἡ πόρνη οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων ἐδικαιώθη, ὑποδεξαμένη τοὺς ἀγγέλους καὶ ἑτέρᾳ ὁδῷ ἐκβαλοῦσα;

πόρνη (pornē) — “prostitute.” Literal/semantic range: a woman who sells sex; used here as a stock, unambiguous identification of Rahab consistent with Joshua 2 and Hebrews 11:31. Rendering: kỵ nữ (established Vietnamese Bible convention for Rahab) or gái mãi dâm. Risk: Low — a plain historical designation; no syncretism risk, but pastoral sensitivity in oral teaching contexts is worth noting.
ἀγγέλους (angelous) — “messengers.” Literal meaning: messengers, envoys — NOT “angels” in this context; these are the human spies sent by Joshua (Joshua 2:1). Rendering: những kẻ do thám / các thám tử (“the spies”), never thiên sứ (“angels”). Risk: Medium. Rationale: ἄγγελος is the same Greek root used elsewhere in the NT for heavenly angels (thiên sứ); a literal or careless rendering risks implying Rahab hid heavenly beings rather than human military scouts, a real and specific mistranslation risk given the word’s dual usage.
ἐδικαιώθη (edikaiōthē) — “was justified.” Same term as v. 21, applied to Rahab as a second illustration (a Gentile, a woman, a person of disreputable social status — deliberately paired with the patriarch Abraham to show the doctrine crosses every social boundary). Rendering: reuse được xưng công bình. Risk: Critical (as above).

James 2:26

Greek: ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ σῶμα χωρὶς πνεύματος νεκρόν ἐστιν, οὕτως καὶ ἡ πίστις χωρὶς ἔργων νεκρά ἐστιν.

σῶμα (sōma) — “body.” Semantic range: the physical body. Rendering: thân thể. Risk: Low.
πνεῦμα (pneuma) — “spirit, breath.” Here in its generic, non-titular sense: the human life-breath/spirit that animates the body, NOT the Holy Spirit. Semantic range: wind, breath, the human spirit, or (capitalized in context) the Holy Spirit. Contextual theological meaning: the illustration’s force depends on the ordinary observation that a body without its animating spirit/breath is a corpse — used to illustrate that faith without works is likewise lifeless. Rendering: linh hồn (generic human spirit) or hơi sống. Risk: Medium. Rationale: must be clearly distinguished in translation and any accompanying notes from Đức Thánh Linh (the baseline’s fixed, Critical-risk term for the Holy Spirit) — this is common human πνεῦμα, not the divine Person; a capitalization or bare-term confusion here would be a serious doctrinal error if it suggested the Holy Spirit’s presence or absence determines salvation status.
νεκρά / νεκρόν (nekra / nekron) — “dead.” As in v. 17 (Risk: High), the letter’s refrain and closing verdict on the whole passage. Rendering: chết.

PART B — Chapter-by-Chapter Survey of James 1–5

Chapter 1

James 1 introduces nearly all the letter’s major vocabulary clusters, several of which recur and are expanded in later chapters (marked below).

δοῦλος (doulos) — “servant, slave.” Literal: bondservant. Semantic range: a slave; in salutations, a term of honored, total belonging to a master. English variants: servant, slave, bondservant. Contextual meaning: James identifies himself (1:1) as belonging wholly to God and the Lord Jesus Christ, framing the letter’s authority. Rendering: đầy tớ (established Vietnamese Protestant convention, cf. “tôi tớ của Đức Chúa Trời”). Risk: Low-Medium; keep distinct from the more neutral “worker/hireling” senses.
πειρασμός (peirasmos) — “trial” or “temptation” (same root, two senses). Literal: a testing, trial. Semantic range: (a) an external difficulty/hardship that tests faith (James 1:2, positive/neutral, from God’s permissive providence); (b) an internal enticement to sin (James 1:13–14, always evil, never from God). English variants: trial, test, temptation. Contextual theological meaning: central to the doctrine “Trials and the Testing of Faith”; James 1:13 explicitly denies God is the source of the tempting-to-sin sense while 1:2–4 affirms trials of the testing sense produce endurance. Rendering: context-sensitive — sự thử thách (trial, vv.2,12) vs. sự cám dỗ (temptation to sin, vv.13-14). Risk: High. Rationale: a single undifferentiated Vietnamese rendering across both senses would flatten James’s careful distinction and could imply God both sends and refrains from sending the same kind of testing — every occurrence needs sense-checking before rendering.
δοκίμιον / δόκιμος (dokimion / dokimos) — “testing, proven genuineness.” Semantic range: the process of testing (as of metal by fire) that proves genuineness. Rendering: sự thử nghiệm / sự rèn luyện đức tin. Risk: Medium.
ὑπομονή (hypomonē) — “endurance, steadfastness, patience under pressure.” Literal: remaining under. Semantic range: active, patient endurance (not passive resignation). English variants: patience, endurance, perseverance, steadfastness. Contextual theological meaning: the intended fruit of trials (1:3–4); recurs in 5:11 (Job’s endurance) linking to the doctrine “Patience and the Lord’s Return.” Rendering: sự nhịn nhục or sự kiên trì. Risk: Medium; distinguish from the related but distinct μακροθυμία in chapter 5 (see below) — hypomonē is endurance under pressure, makrothymia is patience toward someone/something, especially in waiting.
τέλειος (teleios) — “perfect, complete, mature.” Semantic range: reaching intended maturity/wholeness, not sinless perfection in an absolute sense. English variants: perfect, complete, mature, full-grown. Contextual meaning: the goal of endurance (1:4) and the standard of the law of liberty (1:25); recurs of the “perfect gift” (1:17) and of controlled speech (3:2). Rendering: trọn vẹn. Risk: Medium — must not be read as flawless moral perfection achievable by human effort in a merit-accumulation sense; convey “complete/mature,” consistent with maturing-in-Christ teaching elsewhere.
σοφία (sophia) — “wisdom.” Central to the doctrine “Wisdom from Above,” introduced here (1:5, ask God for wisdom) and developed fully in chapter 3. See chapter 3 entry for full treatment. Rendering: sự khôn ngoan. Risk: High (see ch. 3).
δίψυχος (dipsychos) — “double-souled, double-minded.” Literal: two-souled. Semantic range: wavering, inwardly divided, unstable in commitment. Contextual theological meaning: the opposite of the single-minded faith required to receive wisdom from God (1:6–8); recurs 4:8. Rendering: kẻ hai lòng. Risk: Medium.
πλούσιος / πτωχός (plousios / ptōchos) — “rich / poor.” Introduced 1:9–11 (the rich man’s fading glory), foundational to the doctrine “Favoritism and the Poor,” fully developed in chapter 2. See chapter 2 entry. Risk: Medium-High.
ἐπιθυμία (epithymia) — “desire, lust, craving.” Literal: a strong desire. Semantic range: neutral desire in some NT contexts, but here (1:14–15) specifically disordered desire that conceives and gives birth to sin. English variants: desire, lust, craving. Contextual theological meaning: James traces the genealogy of sin — desire entices, conceives, gives birth to sin, which brings forth death (1:15) — deliberately excluding any possibility that God is the source of temptation to sin (1:13). Rendering: tư dục / lòng ham muốn xấu. Risk: High. Rationale: must be clearly distinguished from nghiệp xấu (bad karma, the baseline’s rejected term for “sin” as impersonal cause-and-effect) — James’s account is personal and moral (desire → choice → sin → death), not an impersonal law of consequence; the vocabulary must preserve personal moral agency at each step.
λόγος ἔμφυτος (logos emphytos) — “the implanted word.” Literal: the word planted/rooted in. Semantic range: the gospel message received and internalized, as a seed takes root. Contextual meaning: 1:21, the word that is able to save souls when received with meekness; connects to the “hearer/doer” contrast in 1:22–25. Rendering: lời đã được trồng trong lòng. Risk: Medium.
ἀκροατής / ποιητής (akroatēs / poiētēs) — “hearer / doer.” Literal: one who hears / one who does. Semantic range: a passive audience member vs. an active practitioner. Contextual theological meaning: central image for the doctrine “Faith and Works” — hearing the word without doing it is self-deception (1:22–25), directly anticipating chapter 2’s fuller argument. Rendering: kẻ nghe / kẻ làm theo. Risk: High. Rationale: shares the same doctrinal weight and collision risk as ἔργα in chapter 2 — must not be taught as “doing” earning merit, but as the necessary, evidencing response to a word already received by grace.
νόμος τέλειος τῆς ἐλευθερίας (nomos teleios tēs eleutherias) — “the perfect law of liberty/freedom.” Literal: the complete law of freedom. Contextual meaning: the moral law as fulfilled/perfected in Christ, which liberates rather than merely constrains (1:25; cf. 2:12). Rendering: luật pháp trọn vẹn, là luật pháp về sự tự do. Risk: Medium — pairs the baseline’s luật pháp (law, reused) with sự tự do (liberty); ensure “liberty” here is not read as license to disregard the law’s content, since James immediately ties it to concrete ethical demands.
θρησκεία (thrēskeia) — “religion, religious practice/observance.” Semantic range: the outward, observable practice of a religion (a relatively neutral term in Koine Greek, sometimes even negative — cf. Colossians 2:18’s misuse). Contextual meaning: 1:26–27 redefines “pure and undefiled” religious observance as caring for orphans and widows and keeping oneself unstained by the world — a deliberate contrast between ritual observance and lived ethical practice. Rendering: sự thờ phượng thật / đạo thật. Risk: Medium — avoid a term implying institutional ritual only (which would blunt James’s redefinition toward ethical practice).
κόσμος (kosmos) — “world.” Semantic range: (a) the created physical order (neutral); (b) the system of human society organized in opposition to God (negative, dominant sense in James 1:27 and especially 4:4). Contextual theological meaning: foundational to the doctrine “Worldliness versus Friendship with God,” introduced here and made explicit in chapter 4. Rendering: thế gian. Risk: High. Rationale: needs consistent, careful handling across the letter to keep the negative, culture-system sense distinct from a neutral “the created world” sense elsewhere in Scripture; new entry, not currently in the Romans baseline — recommend adding to the shared translation memory for this curriculum.
ὀρφανός / χήρα (orphanos / chēra) — “orphan / widow.” Standard, low-risk Bible vocabulary; the paired phrase names those most vulnerable and without social protection or patronage in the ancient world. Rendering: kẻ mồ côi / người đàn bà góa. Risk: Low.

Chapter 1 summary: introduces trial/temptation, wisdom, rich/poor, desire, the implanted word, hearer/doer, the perfect law of liberty, religion, and world — nearly the letter’s entire vocabulary map in miniature.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 divides into two units: favoritism toward the rich (2:1–13) and the faith-and-works argument (2:14–26, treated verse-by-verse in Part A above). This section covers the new terms in 2:1–13 only, plus terms shared with the core passage.

προσωπολημψία (prosōpolēmpsia) — “favoritism, partiality, respect of persons.” Literal: receiving/taking the face (i.e., judging by outward appearance/status). Semantic range: showing favor based on external status rather than intrinsic worth. English variants: favoritism, partiality, prejudice. Contextual theological meaning: the sin explicitly named and forbidden in 2:1, illustrated by preferential seating for a rich visitor over a poor one (2:2–4); foundational to the doctrine “Favoritism and the Poor.” Rendering: sự tây vị (established Vietnamese Bible idiom, “tây vị người ta”). Risk: High. Rationale: must retain the sense of sinful discrimination against the vulnerable, not merely “preference” in a neutral sense; James roots the prohibition explicitly in the character of God (who chose the poor, 2:5) and in the royal law of love (2:8).
πτωχός (ptōchos) — “poor.” Semantic range: materially poor, often with the connotation of social powerlessness, not merely modest means. Contextual theological meaning: 2:5, God’s deliberate choice of the poor to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom — echoing the doctrine “Favoritism and the Poor.” Rendering: người nghèo. Risk: Medium-High — avoid any rendering that carries a connotation of moral inferiority or karmic consequence for poverty (a live risk given some folk-Buddhist framings of poverty as the fruit of bad karma from a past life); poverty here is a social-economic condition, and James insists it carries no lesser standing before God.
κληρονόμος (klēronomos) — “heir.” [Cross-reference to Romans doctrine “Adoption,” not a fixed baseline term itself but closely tied to it]. Semantic range: one who receives an inheritance, especially by virtue of family membership. Contextual meaning: 2:5, the poor as heirs of the kingdom promised to those who love God — inheritance status is by God’s choice and promise, not by social or economic standing. Rendering: kẻ kế tự. Risk: Medium.
βασιλεία (basileia) — “kingdom.” [Cross-reference to BASELINE: Nước Đức Chúa Trời, Medium]. Contextual meaning: 2:5, “heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him” — reuse the baseline rendering pattern. Risk: Medium.
νόμος βασιλικός (nomos basilikos) — “the royal law.” Literal: the kingly/royal law. Semantic range: the law that befits or belongs to a king — here, the love command (Leviticus 19:18, quoted in 2:8) understood as supreme/sovereign over all other commands. Contextual meaning: partiality is shown to violate this supreme law of neighbor-love. Rendering: luật pháp cao trọng nhất (“the most exalted/sovereign law”) or luật pháp của Vua. Risk: Medium — needs a translator’s note that “royal” here means “supreme/sovereign in authority,” not a law specifically about earthly kingship.
ἐλευθερία (eleutheria) — “liberty, freedom.” [Cross-reference to ch.1’s νόμος τέλειος τῆς ἐλευθερίας]. Recurs at 2:12, “the law of liberty.” Rendering: sự tự do. Risk: Medium.
ἔλεος (eleos) — “mercy.” Literal: compassionate kindness shown toward someone in need or distress, especially where judgment would otherwise be deserved. Semantic range: pity, compassion, kindness that withholds deserved judgment. English variants: mercy, compassion. Contextual theological meaning: 2:13, “judgment without mercy” awaits the one who shows no mercy; “mercy triumphs over judgment.” Rendering: sự thương xót. Risk: High. Rationale: not currently in the Romans baseline (new addition recommended); must be kept distinct from Buddhist từ bi (compassion), a broader ethical-emotional virtue not necessarily tied to a personal God’s righteous judgment being withheld — biblical mercy here is relational and forensic (a personal God choosing not to render deserved judgment), not a generalized compassionate disposition cultivated as a virtue in its own right.
ἔργα, πίστις, δικαιόω/δικαιοῦμαι, νεκρά, ἐλογίσθη εἰς δικαιοσύνην, φίλος θεο�ῦ, πνεῦμα, σῶμα — see Part A (verse-by-verse) above for full treatment; these are the chapter’s — and the letter’s — highest-stakes terms.

Chapter 2 is fully covered: 2:1–13 above; 2:14–26 in Part A.

Chapter 3

γλῶσσα (glōssa) — “tongue.” Literal: the physical tongue; by metonymy, speech itself. Semantic range: the organ of speech; speech/language as a whole. English variants: tongue, speech. Contextual theological meaning: the central image of the doctrine “Taming the Tongue” (3:1–12) — the tongue is small but powerful, capable of great good or great destruction, “a fire,” “full of deadly poison,” used to both bless God and curse people made in God’s image. Rendering: cái lưỡi / lưỡi. Risk: Low as a bare lexical item, but flag High at the doctrinal level: the surrounding teaching (blessing and cursing from the same mouth, 3:9–10) must be rendered with full force, since Vietnamese cultural norms of indirect speech and face-preservation could tempt a softened rendering of James’s blunt language.
χαλιναγωγέω (chalinagōgeō) — “to bridle, to control as with a horse’s bit.” Literal: to lead by a bridle. Semantic range: to restrain, control, hold in check. Contextual meaning: 1:26 and 3:2–3, controlling the tongue as the mark of a mature, “perfect” (teleios) person. Rendering: cầm giữ (lưỡi mình). Risk: Medium.
πηδάλιον / χαλινός (pēdalion / chalinos) — “rudder / bit (of a horse).” Illustrative vocabulary (ships, horses) for the disproportionate power of a small controlling instrument. Rendering: bánh lái / hàm thiếc. Risk: Low.
πῦρ (pyr) — “fire.” Contextual meaning: 3:5–6, the tongue compared to a small fire capable of setting a great forest ablaze, and said to be “set on fire by hell” (γεέννης). Rendering: lửa. Risk: Medium — the phrase “set on fire by Gehenna/hell” (φλογιζομένη ὑπὸ τῆς γεέννης) should retain its full force as naming a source of moral corruption, not be reduced to a generic metaphor for anger.
εἰκών (eikōn) [of θεός] — “image [of God].” Contextual meaning: 3:9, human beings are made “according to the likeness of God” (καθ’ ὁμοίωσιν θεοῦ, echoing Genesis 1:26–27) — the theological ground for why cursing a person with the tongue is a grave contradiction, since the same mouth blesses God and curses those bearing God’s image. Rendering: hình ảnh của Đức Chúa Trời. Risk: High — this grounds human dignity theologically; must not be diluted to a generic “everyone deserves respect” without the explicit imago Dei grounding, which is the actual force of James’s argument.
σοφία (sophia) — “wisdom” (full treatment; introduced ch. 1). Semantic range in ch. 3: two competing kinds of wisdom are contrasted — “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” wisdom (characterized by jealousy, selfish ambition, disorder) versus wisdom “from above” (characterized by purity, peaceableness, gentleness, mercy, good fruit, impartiality, sincerity). Rendering: sự khôn ngoan. Risk: High. Rationale: central to the doctrine “Wisdom from Above”; must be clearly distinguished from Buddhist trí tuệ/tuệ giác (insight/enlightened wisdom attained through meditative practice and self-cultivation) — James’s wisdom from above is a gift requested from and given by God (echoing 1:5), evidenced by relational and ethical fruit (peaceableness, mercy, sincerity), not an interior enlightenment attained through contemplative practice.
ἄνωθεν (anōthen) — “from above.” Literal: from a higher place, from above. Semantic range: spatial (from a higher place) or, as here, theological (of heavenly/divine origin). Contextual meaning: 3:17, “the wisdom that is from above” — the source-marker distinguishing godly wisdom from the earthly/demonic kind. Rendering: từ trên [Đức Chúa Trời] mà xuống. Risk: High — tie explicitly to divine origin, not simply “elevated” or “superior.”
ἐπίγειος / ψυχικός / δαιμονιώδης (epigeios / psychikos / daimoniōdēs) — “earthly / natural(unspiritual) / demonic.” Literal: earthly, of the ψυχή (soul/natural life, as opposed to πνεῦμα-given), demon-originated. Semantic range: ψυχικός especially requires care — it does not mean “soul” in a positive devotional sense but “merely natural, unregenerate, unspiritual.” Contextual meaning: 3:15, the source-description of the false wisdom that produces jealousy and disorder. Rendering: thuộc về đất / thuộc về xác thịt (chưa được biến đổi) / thuộc về ma quỉ. Risk: High. Rationale: ψυχικός in particular risks confusion with linh hồn (soul) used positively elsewhere (e.g., James 5:20, “save a soul from death”) — the negative sense here (merely natural, self-sourced, unregenerate) must be clearly marked as distinct from the neutral/positive uses of soul-vocabulary elsewhere in the letter.
εἰρήνη, δικαιοσύνη, καρπός (eirēnē, dikaiosynē, karpos) — “peace, righteousness, fruit.” [BASELINE REUSE: sự bình an, Medium; sự công bình, Critical]. Contextual meaning: 3:18, “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” — reuse baseline renderings exactly. New term: καρπός (karpos), “fruit” — literal agricultural metaphor for the result/outcome of an action or character. Rendering: bông trái / trái. Risk: Low.

Chapter 3 fully covered.

Chapter 4

πόλεμος / μάχη (polemos / machē) — “wars / fights, quarrels.” Contextual meaning: 4:1, the source of interpersonal conflict traced to inner desires at war within a person. Rendering: sự tranh chiến / sự cãi lẫy. Risk: Low.
ἐπιθυμέω / ἐπιθυμία (epithymeō / epithymia) — “to desire/covet; desire.” [Cross-reference to ch.1’s ἐπιθυμία, High]. Recurs 4:1–2 as the root of conflict and unanswered prayer (“you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions,” v. 3). Risk: High (as ch. 1).
φιλία τοῦ κόσμου (philia tou kosmou) — “friendship with the world.” Literal: friendship/love-relationship with the world(-system). Semantic range: an intimate, allegiance-defining relationship of affection and loyalty (not casual acquaintance). Contextual theological meaning: the defining term of the doctrine “Worldliness versus Friendship with God” — 4:4, “friendship with the world is enmity with God”; the choice is exclusive and binary, not a matter of degree. Rendering: làm bạn với thế gian. Risk: Critical. Rationale: this is the sharpest either/or statement in the letter and must retain its full exclusivity in translation — no rendering may soften it into “excessive attachment to worldly things” as a matter of degree; James frames it as a rival, exclusive allegiance analogous to spiritual adultery (he immediately calls his readers μοιχαλίδες, “adulteresses,” in the same verse).
ἔχθρα τοῦ θεοῦ (echthra tou theou) — “enmity with God.” Literal: hostility, hatred, active opposition toward God. Contextual meaning: the necessary corollary of worldly friendship — there is no neutral third position. Rendering: sự nghịch cùng Đức Chúa Trời (established idiom pattern, “kẻ nghịch cùng Đức Chúa Trời”). Risk: High.
χάρις (charis) — “grace.” [BASELINE REUSE: ân điển, High]. Contextual meaning: 4:6, quoting Proverbs 3:34, “God gives grace to the humble” (ὁ δὲ δίδωσιν χάρις τοῖς ταπεινοῖς), directly opposed to pride. Rendering: reuse ân điển exactly. Risk: High — reinforce the baseline’s existing note that grace is a gift, never merit or a reciprocal-debt favor (ơn nghĩa) or accumulated merit (công đức/phước đức); James’s contrast between grace and pride/self-sufficiency strongly supports this existing baseline guardrail and should be cross-referenced with Romans teaching on grace when both curricula are studied together.
ταπεινός / ὑπερήφανος (tapeinos / hyperēphanos) — “humble / proud.” Contextual meaning: 4:6,10, the posture God opposes (pride) versus the posture God exalts (humility); “humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” Rendering: khiêm nhường / kiêu ngạo. Risk: Medium.
διάβολος (diabolos) — “devil.” Semantic range: the personal, singular tempter/accuser, distinct from the broader daimonia (demons, plural) category. Contextual meaning: 4:7, “resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Rendering: ma quỉ. Risk: High. Rationale: must be rendered as a personal, singular adversarial being consistently with broader NT usage, not conflated with the impersonal or generalized folk category of malevolent spirits (a similar concern to the baseline’s caution on thần linh for the Holy Spirit, applied here to make sure the devil is not flattened into an impersonal force either).
δίψυχος (dipsychos) — “double-minded.” [Cross-reference to ch.1, Medium]. Recurs 4:8, “purify your hearts, you double-minded.” Risk: Medium.
νομοθέτης (nomothetēs) — “lawgiver.” Contextual meaning: 4:12, God as the one lawgiver and judge, grounding the prohibition against judging one’s neighbor (4:11–12). Rendering: Đấng lập luật pháp / Đấng ban luật pháp. Risk: Medium.

Chapter 4 fully covered.

Chapter 5

πλούσιος (plousios) — “rich.” [Cross-reference to ch.1 and ch.2, Medium]. 5:1–6 pronounces judgment on the rich who have hoarded wealth and defrauded laborers — an intensification, not a new usage. Risk: Medium.
μακροθυμέω / μακροθυμία (makrothymeō / makrothymia) — “to be patient/longsuffering; patience.” Literal: to have a long temper/spirit, i.e., to be slow to react. Semantic range: patient forbearance, especially in waiting for something or someone, or in bearing with people; distinct from ὑπομονή (endurance under pressure/adversity, ch. 1) though the two are related and sometimes overlap. Contextual theological meaning: 5:7–8, “be patient… until the coming of the Lord,” illustrated by a farmer waiting for the early and late rains — central to the doctrine “Patience and the Lord’s Return.” Rendering: sự nhịn nhục / sự kiên nhẫn (trông đợi). Risk: Medium. Rationale: worth a translator’s note distinguishing this waiting-patience from ch. 1’s endurance-under-trial (hypomonē), even though Vietnamese may use overlapping vocabulary for both — the semantic emphasis (active waiting in hope vs. enduring pressure) should be recoverable from context in each passage.
παρουσία (parousia) — “coming, arrival, presence.” Literal: a coming/arrival, especially the official/ceremonial arrival of a dignitary. Semantic range: in Christian eschatological usage, the technical term for Christ’s return in glory at the end of the age. Contextual theological meaning: 5:7–8, the object of the patience James commands — the certain, future, personal return of the Lord. Rendering: sự đến của Chúa (established descriptive rendering pattern consistent with baseline’s treatment of κύριος as Chúa). Risk: High. Rationale: low direct syncretism risk (Vietnamese religious tradition has no rival “return of a divine figure” concept comparable to this), but high catechetical importance — must be clearly taught as Christ’s own personal, future, bodily return, not a vague “spiritual coming” or an impersonal cosmic culmination; comparable in kind to the baseline’s treatment of “Messianic Promise” as a background-teaching risk rather than a syncretism risk.
κριτής (kritēs) — “judge.” Contextual meaning: 5:9, “the Judge is standing at the door” — reinforces the imminence and certainty of final judgment tied to the parousia. Rendering: Đấng xét đoán / quan xét. Risk: Medium.
προφήτης (prophētēs) — “prophet.” [BASELINE REUSE: tiên tri, Low]. 5:10, the prophets as examples of patient suffering. Risk: Low.
ὀμνύω / ὅρκος (omnyō / horkos) — “to swear / an oath.” Contextual meaning: 5:12, “do not swear… but let your yes be yes and your no be no” — a call to simple truthfulness that needs no oath to back it, echoing Matthew 5:34–37. Rendering: thề / lời thề. Risk: Low.
προσεύχομαι / εὔχομαι / δέησις (proseuchomai / euchomai / deēsis) — “to pray; prayer/petition.” Semantic range: general address to God in petition, praise, or intercession. Contextual theological meaning: 5:13–18, the dense concentration of prayer vocabulary anchoring the doctrine “Prayer and Healing” — prayer in suffering, prayer in joy (song/psalm), the prayer of faith for the sick, and Elijah’s effective prayer as the model. Rendering: cầu nguyện / lời cầu nguyện. Risk: High. Rationale: not currently a standalone baseline entry (the baseline fixes only the narrower sự cầu thay, “intercession,” Critical risk, for prayer offered specifically on behalf of others); recommend adding cầu nguyện as a general-prayer term to the shared glossary, and ensure it is never modeled on cầu xin tổ tiên (petitioning deceased ancestors at the family altar) — the same guardrail the baseline already applies to intercession applies with equal force to James 5’s prayer-for-healing instructions, since elders praying over the sick could otherwise be visually and functionally assimilated to ancestor-veneration ritual in a Vietnamese setting if not carefully taught.
πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros) — “elder.” Contextual meaning: 5:14, “call for the elders of the church.” Semantic range: an office-holder with recognized spiritual authority in the local congregation. Rendering: các trưởng lão (của Hội Thánh) — reuse baseline pattern for Hội Thánh. Risk: Medium. Rationale: distinguish this ecclesial office from the general Confucian-influenced social respect owed to elders by age (kính lão) — the James 5 “elders” are a recognized congregational office with a specific prayer ministry, not simply “older/respected people.”
ἀλείφω ἐλαίῳ (aleiphō elaiō) — “to anoint with oil.” Literal: to rub/smear with oil. Semantic range: a common ancient practical/medicinal application of oil, here combined with prayer. Contextual meaning: 5:14, part of the elders’ response to the sick. Rendering: xức dầu. Risk: High. Rationale: xức dầu is also the established Vietnamese Catholic term for the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick (Bí Tích Xức Dầu Bệnh Nhân), a priestly sacrament administered specifically for those near death, with a distinct sacramental theology (last rites). James 5:14–15 describes elders praying in faith for healing, not a sacramental rite administered by ordained clergy as a means of grace for the dying. Teaching material must explicitly distinguish these two practices sharing the same Vietnamese term, to prevent Protestant learners — especially those from Catholic-influenced family backgrounds — from assimilating this passage to the Catholic sacrament.
εὐχὴ τῆς πίστεως (euchē tēs pisteōs) — “the prayer of faith.” [Cross-reference to BASELINE: đức tin, Medium]. Contextual meaning: 5:15, the prayer that God has bound to healing/restoration in this context. Rendering: lời cầu nguyện bởi đức tin. Risk: High (compounding the risks of both πίστις and the healing/salvation terms below).
σῴζω (sōzō, in a physical-healing sense) / ἰάομαι (iaomai) — “to save / to heal.” Semantic range: σῴζω spans physical rescue/healing and eternal salvation (see Part A, James 2:14); ἰάομαι is the more specifically medical “heal.” Contextual theological meaning: 5:15, “the prayer of faith will save (σώσει) the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” — the verse deliberately layers physical restoration and forgiveness of sins in a single sentence, without fully separating them. Rendering: được lành (bệnh) for the physical-healing sense; reserve được cứu / sự cứu rỗi for the eternal-salvation sense elsewhere [BASELINE REUSE for the latter: Critical]. Risk: Critical. Rationale: this is a genuine double-sense passage; teaching material must neither (a) collapse it into a promise of guaranteed physical healing for every prayer of faith (a prosperity-gospel risk) nor (b) strip out the physical-healing sense entirely in favor of a purely spiritual reading — both distortions are live risks, and the passage requires theologian-level review before being finalized in any lesson material.
ἐξομολογέω (exomologeō) — “to confess, to acknowledge openly.” Literal: to speak out fully/openly, to acknowledge. Semantic range: open, verbal acknowledgment, here specifically of sins, in a mutual, reciprocal context (“confess your sins to one another,” 5:16). Contextual theological meaning: central to the doctrine “Confession and Restoration” — mutual, horizontal confession among believers for the sake of healing/restoration, paired with mutual intercessory prayer. Rendering: xưng ra (tội lỗi mình) cho nhau. Risk: Critical. Rationale: the natural Vietnamese rendering xưng tội is the identical, well-established term for the Catholic sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation (Bí Tích Giải Tội / Xưng Tội), administered privately to an ordained priest who alone pronounces absolution. James 5:16 describes something structurally different: mutual, reciprocal confession “to one another” among ordinary believers, with no priestly office or sacramental absolution in view, tied to praying for one another rather than receiving priestly pardon. Any teaching material using this passage requires an explicit note distinguishing James’s mutual, non-sacramental practice from the Catholic sacrament sharing the same Vietnamese vocabulary — a collision of the same grounded, structural kind as the baseline’s flag on cầu xin tổ tiên for intercession.
ἐπιστρέφω (epistrephō) — “to turn back, to turn again, to convert.” Literal: to turn around, return. Semantic range: a physical turning-around; by extension, moral/spiritual turning back from error. Contextual theological meaning: 5:19–20, “if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back… he will save his soul from death” — completes the doctrine “Confession and Restoration” with a communal, restorative act (bringing back a wandering believer), distinct from initial conversion. Rendering: trở lại / đem trở lại. Risk: High. Rationale: distinguish this restorative “turning back” of an erring believer from the initial “turning to God” of conversion/first faith, and from any notion of returning to ancestral religious practice (a possible false-friend association given “trở lại” can colloquially describe returning to a former way of life, including a family’s traditional religion) — context should make clear this is restoration to the truth of the gospel, not a return to family religious tradition.
πλανάω (planaō) — “to wander, go astray, err.” Contextual meaning: 5:19, the state of the erring believer needing restoration. Rendering: lầm lạc / lạc đường. Risk: Medium.
ψυχή (psychē) — “soul.” Semantic range: the inner, non-physical life of a person; here in the positive, standard sense of “life” or “soul” preserved from death — contrast with the negative ψυχικός (“merely natural/unspiritual”) in 3:15. Contextual meaning: 5:20, “will save his soul from death.” Rendering: linh hồn. Risk: Medium — as noted in ch. 3, ensure the positive sense here is not confused with the negative ψυχικός sense earlier in the letter; both use the same root but with different values.
Ἠλίας (Ēlias) — “Elijah.” Proper name; established Vietnamese Bible form. Rendering: Ê-li. Risk: Low.

Chapter 5 fully covered.

Summary of New Terms Recommended for Addition to the Shared Translation Memory

The following James-specific terms are not currently present in the Romans baseline translation_memory.json and are recommended for formal addition (with full risk documentation) before Phase 2 translation begins: ἔργα (việc làm, Critical), κόσμος in its negative sense (thế gian, High), ἔλεος (sự thương xót, High), πειρασμός (sự thử thách / sự cám dỗ, High), σοφία (sự khôn ngoan, High), προσωπολημψία (sự tây vị, High), γλῶσσα-teaching complex (cái lưỡi, doctrinal High), φιλία τοῦ κόσμου (làm bạn với thế gian, Critical), παρουσία (sự đến của Chúa, High), προσεύχομαι/general prayer (cầu nguyện, High), ἀλείφω ἐλαίῳ (xức dầu, High), ἐξομολογέω (xưng ra / xưng tội, Critical). See 08_core_glossary.md for the consolidated table.

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