"GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TO MEN" (LUKE 2:14)

We have all heard these familiar words words from the King James Version before, especially at Christmas time. Even those who have never read the Bible will recognize them from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. They appear to express the comfortable thought that God gave His Son to the earth so that everyone would be at peace and receive God's blessings. But that isn't exactly what has happened, which is understandable since the above words were not at all what Luke or the angels had in mind.

Let's jump ahead several hundred years and see what more modern translations have to say:

    “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (NASB, RSV, TEV)

    “Glory to God in the highest Heaven! Peace upon earth among men of goodwill!” (J.B. Phillips)

This second group of translations narrows the scope of God's blessings down to just those who do what God approves of. That could easily be understood to say that we need to earn salvation by our deeds. So consider lastly this third category of renderings below:

    “Glory to God in highest heaven, and on earth his peace for men on whom his favor rests.” (NEB, NIV)

    “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (NRSV)

    “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favour.” (JB)

Here we have three translations that appear to teach the concept of salvation by God's grace alone. So who is correct?

It turns out that there are actually two issues to consider here: one is textual and the other is a matter of translation. In dealing with the textual question (i.e. which Greek text to use in the first place as the basis of translation), I always turn first to the standard work on this subject, Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament. He discusses this issue in some depth, beginning with the observation that the different readings depend on whether the last word in this song of praise is eudokia (as reflected in KJV) or eudokias (as in most other translations). In the ancient manuscripts, the final “s” in the second word would have appeared as a very tiny sign little bigger than a dot. Thus, it could have been easily overlooked by copyists over the years.

So one next needs to consider how many manuscripts in our knowledge have which reading and the relative age of those manuscripts, considering that the earliest set of manuscripts are more likely to be correct. It turns out that the five earliest copies of Luke's Gospel have the “s” present, and this reading is also supported by the Latin Vulgate and citations from the early Church Fathers. (Fitzmyer)

That leaves us with the last two groups of translations to chose between. Metzger clearly opts for the final interpretation: “The meaning seems to be, not that divine peace can be bestowed only where human good will is already present, but that at the birth of the Saviour God's peace rests on those whom he has chosen in accord with his good pleasure.” Originally, the concept of “God's good pleasure” was rejected since it did not appear to be a valid Hebrew expression. Since that time, however, the phrase “of his [God's] good pleasure” or its equivalent has been recognized in the hymns of the Dead Sea community, Luke's own phrase in 10:21, and the Septuagint version of Psalm 51:18. (Fitzmyer)

Most other commentators come to the same conclusion, as attested by the following:

    “The important point is that the NT usage indicates that the good will originates from God and not from men.” (Porter)

    “God's peace is not given to men because they deserve it, but to the undeserving whom He has freely and graciously chosen to favour.” (Marshall)

    “The meaning is that peace on earth will in the highest instance become a reality among those who are blessed by the good-will and gracious favour of God, those redeemed in Christ, those ordained to full salvation as children of God.” (Geldenhuys)

So even if we cannot contemplate the universal salvation of all humanity as a surety, we can rest on the assured fact that we are not the ones ultimately responsible for earning our places in heaven.