THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
«96
Among Men of Good Will
A Christmas Meditation By Clarence E. Mason, Jr.
rendering, using the familiar words of the Authorized Version in reversed order for easy comparison and con trast. But it would be worth our while to examine this phrase which I translate “among men of good will.” The Revised Version translates the passage, “And on earth peace among men in whom he [God] is well- pleased” (margin—“men of good pleasure” ). The Cen tenary Version renders it, “peace among men who please him.” Weymouth reads, “ peace among men in whom He is well pleased!” Souter’s Lexicon (out standing authority based upon archaeological findings concerning first century A.D. Greek) states that the words are a technical phrase which we now know to mean: “men with whom God is well-pleased.” It is evident, therefore, that the angels-were* not say ing that because of Christ’s coming there would be peace among the nations, because men would have good will toward men, but rather that, in the very gift of His Son, God was showing His good w ill toward men, those men with whom He was well-pleased because they were men whose hearts were waiting for the Saviour to come— hearts ready to believe and receive His Son as their peace! Thus, not political peace of the world, but spiritual peace in individual hearts through trusting the incar nate Saviour, is the message the angels were heralding to the shepherds that night many long years ago. And with this new translation all Scripture is in agreement. Indeed, “He is: our peace:. ; . so making P“ ?ce . . . He came and preached peace” (Eph. 2:14, 15,17)! “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1), “Now the God of peace be with you all” (Rom. 15:33; 16:20).
T T T Q r p what did the angels really say that night-to ** ^ -*- the amazed shepherds in the fields outside lit tle Bethlehem of Judea? As rendered by our Authorized (King James) Version, one of the best known and most widely quoted passages of the Bible reads: “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” However, since 1611, when the King James Version was translated, in the providence of God, a vast quan tity of ancient texts of the New Testament have come to light, many of them earlier than any available in 1611. This has made possible a recheck of the entire New Tes tament text, providing a surer basis than ever that we now have, in every essential particular, the text as origin ally inspired of God. Fortunately, so carefully were the texts copied, that there is very little variation of impor tance between the texts available in 1611 and now. How ever, occasionally, we come across a passage where the sense is materially changed by the new reading. This passage in Luke 2:14 is one such place. Although only the Greek letter “s” is involved, the whole construction aqd sense of the verse is changed. And instead of the angels saying “ . . . on earth peace, good will toward men,” they really said . . on earth peace among men of good w ill!” Not Political, but Personal Peace Even the most casual reader can immediately see a wide difference in meaning. I have given the literal
Made with FlippingBook HTML5