The Fatal Flaw of the ESV, and Why You Should Correct It at Christmas
In 2001, Crossways Bibles published the English Standard Version, and it quickly became a favorite translation even among Lutherans. It is the preferred translation of Concordia Publishing House, used for the Concordia Study Bible. It is among the best of English translations in many respects, although we might quibble over such things as the impoverished lilt of language in the poetic books of the Old Testament that is common among English translations. When it comes to the difficult matter of translating Hebrew poetry into English, accuracy of meaning is not the only thing to consider. This is a major reason why, in my opinion, the King James Version is still preferred. But that discussion is for another day.
Today’s item is this: the translation has a fatal flaw, which becomes glaringly evident at Christmas. THe ESV translation of Luke 2:14, the song of the angels, is this:
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!
Translating this verse is admittedly tricky, because of the fact that there are two Greek manuscript groups which have equal weight of reliability. The key is the term eudokia, which means “good will.” The Byzantine group of manuscripts, in which this term is found, is highly reliable, and forms the basis of the King James Version from which we get the familiar
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, good will toward men.
But the other manuscript group, the Hesychian group, which is also considered highly reliable, renders eudokia with a sigma at the end, thus: eudokias. This makes it genitive, or roughly “of good will.” Thus we would have, rather woodenly,
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, among men of good will.
However, the ESV has evidently acknowledged, rightly, that eudokia ( or eudokias) is never used to refer to man’s good will, but only to God’s good will, and thus to be accurate the interpretation would have to add an implied word:
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, good will toward men of [God’s] good will.
Or one could take the rendering of the Revised Standard Version, which, if one does choose the Hesychian eudokias (as both RSV and ESV have done), has it right:
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.
But here is the problem for anyone who prefers the Hesychian translation (eudokias). The context of the angelic announcement provides us with unmistakable clues about how we are to interpret this phrase. To wit, this is the announcement of the birth of the Savior of the world. And this is, therefore, the occasion for the angelic tidings, on the highest magnitude, of glory to God, tidings which, we hasten to note, came from a multitude of angels, a clear heavenly highlight of the news, on the greatest order. This is not, in short, a proclamation which is meant merely for a select group of people, but for “earth.” The peace that is here announced is not a heavenly wish, but a proclamation of a heavenly truth. It is not, that is, angels desiring that there should be peace on earth, but angels bellowing out a grand truth, than which none could be greater: there is peace on earth. Clearly, this is a reference to the peace of God that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7), the same peace that is echoed by a multitude of disciples at Jesus’ triumphal entry, but rephrased as peace in heaven and glory in the highest (Luke 19:38). The parallelism between Luke 2 and Luke 19 should not be missed. In both cases there is a multitude, and in both places they pronounce peace. In Luke 2 heavenly angels pronounce peace on earth, and in Luke 19 earthly disciples pronounce peace in heaven.
Which brings us back to eudokia, good will. If the Hesychian rendering is preferred, it must be rendered in a way that makes it contextually clear. The heavenly good will here proclaimed is not, could not be intended for part of the earth, or part of mankind. Only a Calvinist could make that false claim. And, as it happens, Crossways Bibles is a group with an unmistakably Calvinist view.
What is most maddening about the ESV’s rendition (which, incidentally, is similar to the Calvinist New International Version which makes the same error here), is that the term “those” (Greek ekeinoi) appears nowhere, and may not legitimately be implied. The term is anthropoi , which is “men” or “people” or even “mankind.” It hearkens back to the creation of mankind (ton anthropon, in the Septuagint translation of Genesis 1:27). More importantly, there is no hint of a partial subset of anthropoi in view in the angelic announcement, especially in light of the previous qualifier “on earth.”
How, then, ought the phrase be properly understood? With the addition of a simple comma, which is allowable since no Greek manuscripts have any punctuation marks at all, not anywhere in the entire Bible, leaving all translators to provide their own. So what happens if we add a helpful comma to the RSV, thus?:
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men, with whom he is pleased.
This rendition gives us a contextual congruence: it matches the first part of the phrase with the second part, so that in effect we have this:
Glory to God in the highest:
There is peace on earth, because God is pleased with men.
Of course the problem many be more easily settled by use of the Byzantine eudokia of the King James Version, viz., “good will toward men.”
Hence it is my strong recommendation for anyone whose church uses the ESV that the reading of the Christmas Gospel be altered, thus:
Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men, with whom he is pleased!
After all, no good Lutheran would want to espouse false doctrine on Christmas Eve, right?