Concept-Language Inventory

Once the Hybrid Interlinears for all twenty-seven New Testament books exist, a diagnostic stage runs before the English translations and commentaries begin. The Concept-Language Inventory is a comprehensive, structured catalogue of how key Greek words, theological concepts, and interpretive idioms are handled across the corpus.

It is not itself a publication. It is a shared reference and quality-assurance map that all later stages can consult silently.

Place in the pipeline

flowchart LR A["Hybrid Interlinears
+ Master YAMLs"] --> B["Concept-Language
Inventory"] B --> C["English Translation"] B --> D["Commentary"] B --> E["Cross-Book Analysis"] B --> F["Meta-Analysis"]

The Inventory collects data from every Hybrid and Master YAML, and then supplies that data onward to every later stage.

What the Inventory tracks

For each significant concept, the Inventory records:

  • the Greek term or phrase in its lexical form
  • the English gloss(es) used, with the books and verses where each gloss appears
  • the conceptual category the term belongs to
  • how the term aligns with each book's Master YAML decisions

For example, the Inventory records that προσκυνέω is glossed as “do obeisance” when directed to Jesus in the Gospels, but as “worship” when directed to the Father in John 4. It logs which books use which sense and notes that this pattern matches the Handbook's lexical constraints. It does not force uniformity; it maps actual usage, making differences visible.

Domains covered

mindmap root((Inventory domains)) Christological titles χριστός · κύριος υἱὸς θεοῦ · υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου λόγος · εἰκών πρωτότοκος · μονογενής Creation & cosmology κτίζω · γίνομαι καινός · παλιγγενεσία Cultic transference ναός · ἱερόν θυσία · ἱλαστήριον Exodus & Passover πάσχα · ἀμνός ἀρνίον · λύτρον Corporate solidarity ἐν Χριστῷ σύν- verbs Patronage & allegiance χάρις · πίστις Imperial subversion εὐαγγέλιον · σωτήρ παρουσία · ἐπιφάνεια Divine identity markers articular vs anarthrous θεός προσκυνέω vs λατρεύω Eschatological age-order αἰών and related phrases Adversarial figures σατανᾶς · διάβολος Hermeneutical idioms personification agency-investiture name-theology ideal pre-existence creation-language two-ages framework

The Inventory notes not simply the bare gloss but the alignment with each Master YAML. Later stages can see at a glance whether two books handle the same contested passage the same way, and if not, what the nature of the divergence is.

Detecting conflicts

One of the Inventory's most important functions is flagging inconsistencies across the corpus.

Check What it flags
Capitalisation violations A title that should be lowercase (e.g., "lord" for Jesus) with a capital letter
προσκυνέω / worship violations προσκυνέω directed to Jesus glossed as "worship" rather than "do obeisance"
Creation-language overrides A creation verb applied to the Son or believers rendered as original physical creation
Broken catchword chains A Greek root that should receive the same English gloss, translated with a synonym
Flattened idioms A term with imperial or cultic weight (παρουσία, ναός) smoothed into a generic religious term
Inconsistent hermeneutical idioms One book treating a Wisdom-personification text one way, another using a different frame

Each conflict is assigned a severity level (critical, high, medium, low) and a suggested resolution.

flowchart TB A["Merge book data into Inventory"] --> B{"Run conflict checks"} B --> C[Capitalisation] B --> D[προσκυνέω / worship] B --> E[Creation-language] B --> F[Catchword chains] B --> G[Flattened idioms] B --> H[Hermeneutical idioms] C & D & E & F & G & H --> I{"Any conflicts?"} I -->|Yes| J["Assign severity + suggested resolution"] I -->|No| K["Cartalog remains clean"] J --> L["Diagnostic report for user review"] K --> M["Continue to next book"]

The Inventory does not change any translation automatically. It produces a diagnostic report for the user to review and act on.

A growing reference

The Inventory is built incrementally. The first Hybrid generates the Inventory from scratch; each new book is merged in, expanding the catalogue and re-running the conflict checks.

flowchart LR A["Book 1
Hybrid + YAML"] --> B["Inventory v1"] B --> C["Book 2
Hybrid + YAML"] C --> D["Inventory v2"] D --> E["Book 3
Hybrid + YAML"] E --> F["Inventory v3"] F -.-> G["... until all 27 books"]

The final Inventory serves two purposes:

  1. Quality assurance: confirms that the whole translation project is internally consistent and that deliberate divergences are documented.
  2. Ready-made conceptual map: gives the cross-book and meta-analysis stages immediate access to which books attest a gloss, how they handle contested verses, and where tensions lie.

How it is used by later stages

Stage Use
English translation Silent consultation for cross-book alignment
Commentary Checking how a contested crux was handled in other books
Cross-book analysis Baseline data for every module
Meta-analysis Reference library for the final synthesis

The Inventory functions as a shared institutional memory: a single, audited record of the project's lexical and conceptual decisions.

Suggested reading order, (and >where< you are): begin at the Home page, then follow the chapters in order: Understanding the Approach → Hybrid Interlinear → >Concept‑Language Inventory< → English Translation → Commentary → Annotated Hybrid & Cross‑Book Analysis → Meta‑Analysis & Summary → Quick Reference.