Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Luke 2:14 - Part 1

In the KJV, the second half of Luke 2:14 reads, “and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The new English Standard Version (ESV) reads, “and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.” The NIV reads, “and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” The older version suggests the idea of a general benevolence toward mankind, while the two more recent versions suggest benevolence toward a select portion of mankind. Given the fact that the KJV was based on the TR while the other two versions are based on the eclectic text, the reader might assume that the difference is due to a difference between the underlying Greek text. That, however, is not so. The underlying Greek text is the same in both the older and the newer versions.

Instead, the difference in reading lies ultimately in the discovery of an Aramaic expression for which the Greek of Luke 2:14 is a translation. The discovery of this expression is due to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Indeed, the discovery of the Aramaic expression was preceded by the discovery of a related Hebrew phrase that first suggested the more accurate understanding of the Greek expression.

Before moving on to those discoveries, though, it should be noted that another interpretation of the verse had long been suggested. That is, to read it as, “on earth peace among men of good will.” That rendering is certainly possible given only the Greek, and has been suggested, for example, in the margin of the New American Standard Bible (NASB). However, perhaps sensing a Semitic expression behind the Greek, Bible translators and Bible scholars in general have preferred the idea that the “good will” is that of God, rather than men.

In the early 1950’s, however, a Dr. Hunzinger, who was working on some of the Dead Sea Scrolls material, discovered in one of the texts a Hebrew phrase that translates as “sons of his good pleasure.” Noting that the text was roughly contemporary to the New Testament material, Dr. Hunzinger surmised that this might be equivalent to the expression “men of good will” in the Luke text. The difficulty, however, is that the Hebrew text uses “sons” rather than “men,” and the text of Luke has no equivalent for the possessive pronoun “his” that the Hebrew text has. The first difficulty is more apparent than real, however, as Hebrew frequently uses the noun “son” to indicate a person of a particular class. Thus in 2 Kings 4:1 the phrase “the sons of the prophets” does not refer to those whose fathers are prophets, but rather to those belonging to the class of prophets who have gathered around Elisha.

The second problem was more difficult, but Dr. Hunzinger and others pointed out that in Sirach 15:15; 39:18, the Hebrew phrase “his good pleasure” is translated into Greek simply as “good will.” In addition, the Coptic version of the New Testament translates as, “peace upon the earth among men of his good will.” It includes the possessive pronoun indicator for “his” that is absent in the Greek. While this is, of course, not determinative with regard to the Greek, it does indicate that at a very early stage the Greek was understood to speak specifically of the good will of God rather than the good will of men.

We must leave the investigation at this point for this week. We will conclude the story (and the explanation) in next week’s column.

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