* Translating ἀργία, literally ‘want of employment.’ Much of the prayer is summed up in St Paul’s warning to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:13, which there concerns young widows who enter community life and then abandon it, but clearly is applicable much more widely.

* Translating περιέργεια, an idea which in the AV is connected with busy-bodying, filling idle hours by meddling in other people’s lives: see 2 Thessalonians 3:11. It can also refer to the ‘curious arts’ practised by pagans, such as astrology, which converts were required to give up: see Acts 19:19.

* Translating ἀργολογία, which does not occur in the New Testament but the idea is found at Matthew 12:36. At 2 Peter 1:8 the word for ‘idle’ is translated ‘barren.’ In the Gerontikon we read: “One man reckons he is silent, but in his heart he condemns others; he is always ‘talking.’ Another talks from morning to evening, but keeps silence inasmuch as he does not say anything he ought not to say.”

* Translating σωφροσύνη, in e.g. 1 Timothy 2:9. It implies a sound mind, and therefore self-control.

* Translating ἀγάπη, translated in the AV as ‘charity’ in e.g. 1 Peter 4:8, and also as ‘love’ in e.g. 1 Thessalonians 3:12. The disadvantage of ‘charity’ is the modern association with handouts; the disadvantage of ‘love’ is the modern association with the youthful lusts that St Paul explicitly contrasts with love in 2 Timothy 2:22. For the true meaning of the word, which is essentially selfless, see 1 Corinthians 13. Compare what Elizabeth Bennet said to Mr Darcy: “The letter, perhaps, began in bitterness, but it did not end so. The adieu is charity itself.”

* See Matthew 7:1-5. ‘Judging’ is perhaps better translated as ‘sitting in judgment’, pronouncing sentence. We are still required to exercise discernment over right and wrong, but gently, helping others to carry the burden of temptation and repentance as if it were our own: see Galatians 6:1-5.