Peace on Earth, good will toward men.

KJV Bible, Luke Chapter 2 verses 7-14

[Northern Yankee]

Silent Night, Holy Night.

All is calm, all is bright.

Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.

Holy Infant so tender and mild.

Sleep in Heavenly peace. Sleep in Heavenly peace.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

The only problem with that translation, FRiend, is that there is only one person in the Bible with whom God was "well pleased". That would be Jesus Himself.

I think that God is "pleased" with all people of good will. "Well pleased" is an altogether higher standard.

It's the only place where he expressed it to others. Do you think he has been well pleased with Mother Teresa? I would think he was well pleased with Paul's post conversion life.

He has been well pleased with many a man who has lived since then whenever one is saved.

My Father has been well pleased with me at times. And dissappointed as well. I am his child. A parent is well pleased with their children when they do something excellent, not just pleased. Pleased as punch!

[solargecko]

But the text was not originally written in Latin, it was written in Greek. The Greek is ‘Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας. Epi ges: on earth eirene: peace en anthropois: to people (in the dative, for the preposition) eudokias: good will (accusative) The translation that makes the most sense is, in fact, "good will to men". If you had wanted to say "peace to men of good will", then "good will" would modify "men", and thus it would be in the dative to agree with anthropois. But it's not in the dative. It's in the accusative.

[elcid1970]

Your reply most interesting. Then how did the koine Greek version of the angels’ salutation become “et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis” as Latin replaced Greek as the lingua franca of Europe, and the Vulgate Bible made Scripture readable to a much larger population?

My view is that the nonuniversalistic greeting in Latin may have been a response to the violent spread of Islam 700-1100 A.D. by large numbers of men clearly not of good will toward their fellow human beings. Wasn’t the Vulgate approved by Rome at about the same point in history?

As for me: love me, love my Savior.