A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

Luke 2:14

Luke 2:14 evn avnqrw,poij euvdoki,aj {A}

The difference between the AV, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” and the RSV,

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!”

is not merely a matter of exegesis of the meaning of the Greek, but is first of all one of text criticism. Does the Angelic Hymn close with euvdoki,a or euvdoki,aj?

The genitive case, which is the more difficult reading, is supported by the oldest representatives of the Alexandrian and the Western groups of witnesses. The rise of the nominative reading can be explained either as an amelioration of the sense or as a palaeographical oversight (at the end of a line euvdoki,aj would differ from euvdoki,a only by the presence of the smallest possible lunar sigma, little more than a point, for which it might have been taken — thus eudokia^c).

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. ⁴ Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls it was sometimes argued that “men of [God’s] good pleasure” is an unusual, if not impossible, expression in Hebrew. Now, however, that equivalent expressions have turned up in Hebrew ⁵ in several Qumran Hymns (“the sons of his [God’s] good pleasure,” 1 QH iv:32f.; xi:9; and “the elect of his [God’s] good pleasure,” viii:6), it can be regarded as a genuinely Semitic construction in a section of Luke (chaps. Luke 1:1 and Luke 2:1) characterized by Semitizing constructions.

⁴ It should be noted that the Sahidic version employs the possessive pronoun, “And peace upon earth among men of his desire [pleasure].”

⁵ According to J. A. Fitzmyer, S.J. (Theological Studies, XIX [1958], pp. 225—227) the expression “among men of [his] good pleasure” has been found also in an Aramaic fragment from Qumran.

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A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

Luke 2:14

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