The Announcement by the Angelic Host

When I was growing up, the Christmas story was an integral part of the holiday season. One part of the Christmas story that always baffled me was the announcement by the multitude of angels. They cried out to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Most of you probably recognize this from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. For myself, the second half of this announcement did not make sense. It sounded like a generic, feel-good greeting, and I found it difficult to relate it to the birth of Jesus.

After I became a Christian, as an eighteen-year-old, I started reading the New American Standard Bible (NAS) Bible and the angelic announcement read, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." Later, I found other translations were similar to the NAS version. The second half of the announcement now made more sense to me, because it stated things differently from the KJV.

Why is there a difference between the KJV and other translations of the Luke 2: 14? In the original language of the New Testament (Koine Greek), adding one letter at the end of one of the words in the passage made all the difference in how that word was used in the announcement. The word in question is translated as “good will” (KJV) or “pleased” (NAS) or “good pleasure”.

A literal translation from the Greek text of the 2: 14b states, “…and on earth, peace, among men, of good pleasure” or to smooth it out, “…and peace on earth, among men, of good pleasure.” Even though it is not obvious in this literal translation, in the Greek text the word for “good pleasure” has a possessive sense (genitive case). In other words, whose “good pleasure” is being given to man? Clearly, in the context of the announcement, God is the source of this good pleasure. With that in mind, we could say for the sake of clarity, “…and peace on earth among men, of [God’s] good pleasure.”

“In other words, the peace that the angels proclaimed belonged to the earth as a result of the birth of Christ. It is not a generic, worldwide peace for all humankind, but a peace limited to those who obtain favor with God by believing in his Son Jesus” (Verbrugge, from Mounce, p. 45). Hendriksen reinforces this thought by stating, “True and lasting peace is the portion of those, and only of those, whom God has graciously chosen” (p. 156). In the context of the passage, this peace and good pleasure was being communicated directly to the shepherds. For us, as followers of Christ, this Christmas season reminds us that this message is also for us.  May you experience the peace that God has to offer through His Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 5: 1).

How does the addition of an extra letter impact the difference in translation between the KJV and NAS? This is a Greek question, and for those interested, please go to my website, faithisamiracle.com for more details.

As mentioned above, the addition of one letter impacts how Luke 2: 14b is translated. The word in question is εὐδοκία (eudokίa), which means “good pleasure”. This noun is in the nominative case and is found in the Greek texts used by the King James translators. In the Greek texts, used by the NAS translators, the word in question is εὐδοκίας (eudokίas). It is the same noun, but in the genitive case. As you can see, the sigma was added to the end of the word.

In the context of Luke 2: 14b, εὐδοκία (eudokίa) in the nominative case is the subject of the phrase and is translated, “and peace on earth, good pleasure among men.” With εὐδοκίας (eudokίas) being in the genitive case, it is translated as showing possession. As Mounce directs (p. 45), when translating a genitive, put “of” in front of the word. In this case, we would translate 2: 14b, “…and peace on earth, among men of good pleasure.” As stated above, the context tells us this is God’s good pleasure.

Which translation should we rely upon for this passage? That depends on which Greek texts are the most reliable for translating the passage. I would assert that the Greek texts used by the NAS translators are more reliable. I make this assertion for two reasons, 1) the texts used for the NAS are older (closer to the time when the NT was written) and 2) the genitive use of εὐδοκία (eudokίa) is the more difficult reading with the addition of the sigma at the end. Hendriksen states, “…since the genitive case is, on the surface harder to grasp, change to the nominative is understandable. The opposite process- changing from the nominative to the genitive- would be unnatural” (p. 161). It makes sense on both counts that the Greek texts used by the NAS translators are more reliable.