Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Luke 2:14 - Part 2

The majority of the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Hebrew, but some are in Aramaic. During the 1950’s the work on the scrolls progressed, including the study of some of the Aramaic material. In the course of the study of some of those Aramaic fragments a text was found that included the Aramaic phrase “men of his good pleasure.” However, because of the fragmentary nature of the text, it must be omitted that the possessive pronoun “his” does not actually exist on the fragment that remains. That it was included is probable, based on the consideration of the size of the fragment (if the full page were available, there would have been enough room on it for the pronoun) and the appearance of the pronoun in the parallel line. The particularly helpful element of this text, however, is the appearance of the word “men” (which also appear in the Greek of Luke 2:14) rather than the Hebrew “sons.” In addition, the Aramaic word translated “good pleasure” is the regular Aramaic cognate for the Hebrew word “pleasure” found in the other Qumran text. Thus, the Aramaic phrase is the exact equivalent of the Greek phrase in Luke 2:14 “men of good will.”

On the basis of the Hebrew and Aramaic discoveries among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the following things may be said with confidence. First, the Greek of Luke 2:14 should be translated “among men of his good will (or pleasure).” Second, the absence of the possessive pronoun from the Greek is not a real difficulty here, since in at least two other places the Greek has translated a Hebrew text that included the pronoun, and the pronoun is absent in the Greek. Third, while the equivalent Hebrew phrase uses the noun “sons,” the Aramaic uses the noun “men” just as the Greek does. Fourth, in the Dead Seas Scrolls material, the Hebrew frequently interchanges “sons” and “men,” so that it might well be the case that “men of his good pleasure” occurred in Hebrew as well as in Aramaic. We simply have not discovered a text in which that is the case.

On the basis of these conclusions, the text of Luke 2:14 should be understood as teaching that the angels in their doxology are proclaiming peace to men on whom God has set his good pleasure or will. It is not the expression of a general benevolence toward mankind as a whole (as the KJV translation might seem to indicate) but rather God’s specific benevolence toward his people. In this, the verse has some parallel in Exodus 19:5, where God says to Israel, “You shall be my treasured possession among all peoples.

As an afterthought to this treatment, one additional point may be made. There are some scholars who hold that the material that lies behind the first two chapters of Luke was a Hebrew composition. Luke is specific in his opening statement that he made use of other sources in compiling his gospel, and it should be considered that some of those sources may well have been Hebrew or Aramaic compositions. In conjunction with this it should be noted that the Magnificat (the Song of Mary, Luke 1:46-55) has strong parallels with the Song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Also the prophesy of Zechariah in Luke 1:68-79 has strong parallels with a number of Old Testament prophetic passages. An examination of the parallels cited in a cross-reference Bible should be sufficient to indicate this even to the reader who has no knowledge of the original languages of the Bible.

Author’s Note: The material presented on Luke 2:14 is essentially a condensation of the article by Joseph Fitzmyer, originally published in Theological Studies 19 (1958), 225-27 (reprinted in The Semitic Background of the New Testament, 101-04), with consideration also of the article by A. Wolters in the Journal of Biblical Literature 113 (1994), 291-92.

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