{"id":188,"date":"2009-12-13T21:44:33","date_gmt":"2009-12-13T10:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/?p=188"},"modified":"2009-12-20T22:41:28","modified_gmt":"2009-12-20T11:41:28","slug":"luke-214","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/?p=188","title":{"rendered":"luke 2:14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim West has posed a yuletide quest to uncover the “right” translation of Luke 2:14<\/a> (does anyone else get a Google ad inserted into that page for the “United Church of God”?). So here I’ll get into the spirit and have a go!<\/p>\n

First, for reference, Jim suggests the following:<\/p>\n

Glory to the highest God; and on earth, peace to men of good will.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Greek text reads as follows:<\/p>\n

\u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u03b1 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f51\u03c8\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c1\u03ae\u03bd\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is one significant textual issue in the verse, where some manuscripts read \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1 rather than \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2, that is a nominative (although dative is distinguished from nominative only by the iota subscript and so would also have been indistinguishable in uncial MSS) rather than genitive.<\/p>\n

A close parallel exists in the LXX in the Odes 14:1-3 which reads:<\/p>\n

\u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u03b1 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f51\u03c8\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c1\u03ae\u03bd\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is probably sourced from Luke 2:14, although it further attests to the nominative (or possibly dative) reading of the word \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1. This all means that a faithful translation (as far as such is ever possible) is going to be more difficult because there will remain some question over the precise text.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of the discussion, I’ll go with the genitive \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2.<\/p>\n

The first clause, \u03b4\u03cc\u03be\u03b1 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f51\u03c8\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff7 sets up a contrast with the second clause \u2014\u00a0\u1f10\u03bd \u1f51\u03c8\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 “in the highest places” vs. \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 “on Earth.” As such, I think Jim’s rendering “the highest God” is perhaps not the best we could achieve (I’d be happy with that were the Greek \u1f10\u03bd \u1f51\u03c8\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u1ff3 \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff7; cf. Gen 14:19\u201322). So I’ll go with “Glory in the high heavens to God” for that clause.<\/p>\n

That leaves the remainder, \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c1\u03ae\u03bd\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2. Perhaps the most interesting part is the final part, in particular how the genitive \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 relates to “among people.” I think it reasonable to read \u03b5\u1f50\u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 as adjectival, thus restricting the people upon whom peace is wished. So I would go with “on Earth, peace on favoured people.”<\/p>\n

So, putting it all together:<\/p>\n

“Glory in the high heavens to God, and on Earth peace with favoured people.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim West has posed a yuletide quest to uncover the “right” translation of Luke 2:14 (does anyone else get a Google ad inserted into that page for the “United Church of God”?). So here I’ll get into the spirit and have a go! First, for reference, Jim suggests the following: Glory to the highest God;…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-new-testament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}