Passage
Romans 3
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Doctrine
Faith
Risk that 'having faith' defaults to general religious affiliation or identity rather than Romans' sense of personal, saving trust in Christ specifically; the object of faith must always be made explicit.
ROM.3.22-28
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Glossary Term
Faith
ukholo is standard and well established.
ROM.3.22-28
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Doctrine
Fulfillment of Prophecy
Linear historical fulfillment (OT to NT) is not in tension with any competing native cosmology; main risk is treating OT prophecy as generic ancestral wisdom rather than a specific, historically anchored promise.
ROM.3.21
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Glossary Term
Gentiles
abezizwe ('people of other nations') is the standard, non-racialized rendering.
ROM.3.29-30
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Doctrine
Grace
CRITICAL: umusa is also the everyday word for kindness within ubuntu, the deeply held ethic of reciprocal communal obligation, in which kindness shown is typically understood within a web of mutual expectation.
ROM.3.24
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Glossary Term
Grace
CRITICAL: umusa is the correct and established term, but is also the everyday word for kindness, graciousness, and generosity within ubuntu, the deeply held Zulu and broader Southern African ethic of reciprocal communal obligation ('umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu' — a person is a person through other persons).
ROM.3.24
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Glossary Term
Israel
Standard proper name; note the modern nation-state of Israel shares the identical Zulu name, so context should clarify when the biblical people/covenant referent, not the contemporary state, is meant.
ROM.3.29-30
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Glossary Term
Law
umthetho is the standard term for the Mosaic Law/Torah and for civil law generally.
ROM.3.21
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Glossary Term
Prophecy
isiprofetho is God-inspired declaration; must be distinguished from ukubhula (divination, casting bones or reading signs to determine ancestral will or foretell events), a live traditional practice.
ROM.3.21
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Glossary Term
Sin
isono is well established.
ROM.3.23
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Doctrine
Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Given South Africa's own recent history of legally enforced racial separation, Romans' argument for the abolition of ethnic/covenantal division in Christ carries acute, current social resonance and should be translated with unambiguous clarity, avoiding racially-loaded vocabulary (see 'gentiles' in translation_memory.json).
ROM.3.29-30
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Doctrine
Universal Human Accountability
Universal guilt before God should be stated plainly and applied to every reader personally, not narrowed to describe only especially notorious wrongdoing or ritual defilement.
ROM.3.23