Luke 2:14 "good will toward men" or the Vatican Versions?
Luke 2:14 "good will toward men" or "among those with whom He is pleased"? - Is your "bible" a Vatican Version?
Luke 2:14 KJB, NKJV - "on earth peace, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN."
NASB, RSV, ESV, NET - "on earth peace AMONG THOSE WITH WHOM HE IS PLEASED."
NIV, Catholic St. Joseph New American Bible 1970 - "peace on earth TO THOSE ON WHOM HIS FAVOR RESTS."
Catholic Douay Version, Jehovah Witness NWT - "peace among MEN OF GOOD WILL."
International Standard Version - "and peace on earth to PEOPLE WHO ENJOY HIS FAVOR!”
Weymouth 1912 - "on earth peace AMONG MEN WHO PLEASE HIM!"
God's First Truth 1999 - "and peace on the earth: and UNTO MEN REJOICING."
Concordant Version 2006 (another goofy Critical text version) - "And on earth peace, AMONG MEN, DELIGHT!"
Holman Standard 2009, Catholic New Jerusalem bible 1985 (both critical text) - "and peace on earth TO PEOPLE HE FAVORS."
Names of God Bible 2011 (critical text) - "and on earth peace TO THOSE WHO HAVE HIS GOOD WILL!"
The Voice 2012 (critical text version) - “And on earth, peace AMONG ALL PEOPLE WHO BRING PLEASURE TO GOD!”
Tree of Life Version 2015 (Critical text version) - "and on earth shalom to MEN OF GOOD WILL.”
At a Bible club I belong to a multiversionist, bible agnostic (he doesn't know for sure what God said in His Book) posted the following objection to the King James reading.
"Which is correct at Luke 2:14...?
KJV: and on earth peace, good will toward men.
NIV: on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.
The difference is a single letter in the manuscripts, whether "good will" is in the genitive (NIV) or nominative (KJV) case. The old manuscripts support the NIV of course, including B, Aleph, A, D, W, 28, old Latin, Jerome's Vulgate, the Gothic, the Sahidic, Irenaeus, Cyril of Jerusalem, and the Latin fathers.
At this point the KJV has contributed to the apostasy with the common Christmas slogan ringing out "peace on earth, good will to all men", when in fact there is no peace for all men, but only peace for believers who are the ones of God's good pleasure. Shame on the KJV." [end of objection]
Let's examine this person's objections to the KJB reading to see if they are accurate and valid.
First of all it should be noted that "good will toward men" (εν ανθρωποις ευδοκια - en anthropois eudokia) as found in the KJB is the reading of the Majority of all remaining Greek manuscripts we have today.
Our opponent mentioned B (Vaticanus) and Aleph (Sinaiticus) as supporting his view. Vaticanus and Sinaiticus mss. are the ones from which most modern versions are translated. They originally read "MEN OF GOOD WILL" (εν ανθρωποις ευδοκιας) rather than "good will to or among men", but it should be noted that BOTH Sinaiticus and Vaticanus were corrected to read as does the KJB = "GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN".
It is primarily A and D that read "to men of good will" as well as the Latin Vulgate which reads "gloria in altissimis Deo et in terra pax in hominibus bonze voluntaries" = "peace to men OF GOOD WILL."
Wycliffe 1395 as well as the Catholic Douay-Rheims were both translated from the Latin Vulgate and say "peace TO MEN OF GOOD WILL." If nothing else, at least they gave a literal reading of their incorrect text.
Most modern versions like the ESV, NIV, NASB, NET, Holman etc. that follow this corrupt reading all radically paraphrase it so as to conceal what their wrong text actually says. - "peace to men of good will."
Not only do the Majority of all existing Greek manuscripts read as does the KJB - "good will to men" - but so also do mss. E, G, H, K, L, M, P, S, U, V, Gamma, Delta, Theta, Lambda, Xi, Psi, Y, Omega and many others.
It is also the reading found in the Coptic Boharic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Georgian and Slavonic ancient versions as well as the Syriac Harclean and Sinaitic. The Syriac Peshitta is messed up here and reads "good HOPE to men", and so reads Lamsa's translation of the Syriac Peshitta.
It is quoted as "good will to men" by such early church writers as Eusebius, Basil, Gregory-Nazianzus, Didymus, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Severian, Cyril, Procius, Theodotus and Theodoret.
Dean Burgon cited 17 early patristic writers whose manuscripts of Luke 2:14 supported eudokia. The supporters of the reading eudokia include:
Eusebius (c. 320, in Caesarea),
Aphrahat (330’s, in Syria),
Titus of Bostra (c. 350, in Syria),
Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 360, in central Turkey and then Constantinople),
Epiphanius of Salamis (375, on Cyprus),
Philo of Carpasia (late 300’s, on Cyprus),
Didymus (380, in Egypt),
Apostolic Constitutions 380
Chrysostom (c. 400, in Antioch and then Constantinople),
Cyril of Alexandria (c. 420, in northern Egypt),
Theodotus of Ancyra (c. 430, in central Turkey), and
Marcus Eremita (435, in Israel).
Let's take a brief look at how the ESV, NASB, NET with their "peace AMONG THOSE WITH WHOM HE IS PLEASED". They get all this from ειρηνη εν ανθρωποις ευδοκιας.
First of all there are NO words here for "with whom" nor "he" nor "is pleased". Aside from these few, pesky technicalities, it is a fine translation;-)
These total paraphrases did not translate the word "men" and they made the noun in the genitive case - "of good will" into a verb and made God the subject of this non-existent verb.
The NIV did basically the same thing with its "peace on earth TO THOSE ON WHOM HIS FAVOR RESTS."
The NIV did not translate the word "men"; there is no Greek word for "his" and no word for "rests", and again they made God the subject of "his favor rests" when this simply is not in the text at all. It is a TOTAL paraphrase, and actually ends up teaching more what the King James Bible has said all along = "good will toward men".
"peace on earth, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN"
Also agreeing with the King James Bible reading: "peace on earth, good will toward men" are the following English Bible translations: Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535, the Bishops' Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1587, the Beza N.T. 1599, the Bill Bible 1671, Wesley's translation 1755, the Worsley Version 1770, Webster's Bible 1833, the Living Oracles 1835, the Pickering N.T. 1840 - "good will towards men", the Hussey N.T. 1845, the Morgan N.T. 1848, The Boothroyd Bible 1853, Sawyer N.T. 1858, The Revised N.T. 1862, The Revised English Bible 1877, Young's 1898, Godbey N.T. 1902, the Clarke N. T. 1913, the NKJV 1982, KJV 21st Century Version 1994, J.P. Green's literal translation, Third Millennium Bible 1998, the Complete Apostle's Bible 2005, the 2012 Natural Israelite Bible "And on earth, peace. GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN!", the Hebrew Names Version 2014.
Other English Bibles that follow the correct text and read "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN." are The Word of Yah 1993, The World English Bible 2000 - "good will toward men", The Tomson N.T. 2002, The Evidence Bible 2003, The Resurrection Life New Testament 2005 (Vince Garcia), the Pickering New Testament 2005 - "good will toward mankind", the Bond Slave Version 2009, The English Majority Text Version 2009 (Paul Esposito) - "good will toward men", Hebraic Transliteration Scripture 2010, the World English Bible 2012, and The Modern English Version 2014 - "and on earth peace, and GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN."
Foreign Language Bibles
Many foreign language Bibles follow the same texts and have the same meaning as that found in the King James Bible. Among these are the following: The Spanish Reina Valera 1909, 1960, 1995, Reina Valera Gómez 2010 - "Gloria en las alturas á Dios, Y en la tierra paz, BUENA VOLUNTAD PARA CON LOS HOMBRES.", The French Martin 1744, French Ostervald 1996 - " LA BONNE VOLONTE DANS LES HOMMES!", Luther's German bible 1545 - "Friede auf Erden und den Menschen ein Wohlgefallen!" = "Peace on earth, Good will toward men!", The Italian Diodati 1649 and the New Diodati 1991 "Benivoglienza inverso vli uomini" = "Good will toward men", the Portuguese A Sagrada Biblia and the Almeida Corrigida 2009 - "Glria a Deus nas alturas, paz na terra, BOA VONTADE PARA COM OS HOMENS!", the Russian Synodal Version 1876 - "и на земле мир, в человеках благоволение!" = "and on earth peace, good will toward men!"
and the Modern Greek New Testament used throughout the worldwide Greek Orthodox churches - "Δοξα εν υψιστοις Θεω και επι γης ειρηνη, εν ανθρωποις ευδοκια."
Our opponent says the Old Latin, Jerome, Gothic, Sahidic versions agree with the NIV, NASB. On the other hand, it should be noted that agreeing with the KJB reading are the two Syriac versions - the Sinaitic and the Harclean, all 25 Coptic manuscripts, the Armenian, Geogian, Ethiopic, Slavonic and Arabian versions - plus every known Greek lectionary and the manuscripts of the Greek speaking churches to this day.
Our opponent says Iranaeus, Cyril and Latin fathers are on his side. It should be pointed out that several church fathers were rather loose with their references to various scriptures and often you will find them quoting any number of ways.
Dean Burgon, who defends the KJB reading in his book The Revision Revised, mentions among those who quote Luke 2:14 as it stands in the KJB none other than Iranaeus and lists his writings where this is found. This is then followed by Origen, who goes both ways, Eusebius, Didymus, Cyril of Jerusalem (again both ways), Gregory of Nissa, Epiphanius, Philo, Chrysostom in 9 places, Cyril of Alexandria, Theodoret, Basil and several others through the early history of the church who quoted the verse as it stands in the KJB. In fact, Dean Burgon lists 29 church fathers who quoted the verse as it is in the KJB and he lists the places so quoted in their writings.
On page 41 of the Revision Revised, Dean Burgon remarks: "A more grievous perversion of the truth of Scripture is scarcely to be found than occurs in the proposed revised exhibition of S. Luke 2:14, in the Greek and English alike; for indeed not only is the proposed Greek text (en anthropois eudokiaS) impossible, but the English of the Revisionists "peace among men IN WHOM HE IS WELL PLEASED" CAN BE ARRIVED AT, as Dr. Scrivener stated, "ONLY THROUGH SOME PROCESS WHICH WOULD MAKE ANY PHRASE BEAR ALMOST ANY MEANING THE TRANSLATOR MIGHT LIKE TO PUT UPON IT."
I will now address the last comment by this multiversionist Bible corrector. He says: "At this point the KJV has contributed to the apostasy with the common Christmas slogan ringing out "peace on earth, good will to all men", when in fact there is no peace for all men, but only peace for believers who are the ones of God's good pleasure. Shame on the KJV."
This shows his typical misunderstanding of what the text says and avoids the fact that the NASB, NIV, ISV, RSV etc. have mistranslated what their corrupted text actually reads. The text followed by these modern versions who follow Westcott-Hort literally says just what the NWT and Catholic versions have: "peace to men of good will".
First of all, there are by nature no "men of good will". We are all rebels by birth, haters of God who are dead in our sins and trespasses. "There is none that doeth good, no, not one", "There is none that seeketh after God", "There is none righteous, no, not one" - Romans chapter three.
Secondly, he misquoted the KJB. It does not say good will to all men, but good will toward men. God's good will is extended toward men in that He provided a Saviour from sin and hell, and for those who receive Him there is peace right now on this earth even in the midst of all the turmoil and difficulties.
"For He is our peace...so making peace...and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh." Ephesians 2:14-17.
"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27.
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1.
The King James Bible is correct - as always. This person who objects to the KJB ignores the fact that the NASB, NIV, ISV, ESV, NET all had to totally paraphrase the text they were following in order to avoid the obvious theological error it promotes. Then he criticizes the KJB text in spite of the fact that the evidence for it being the correct text is simply overwhelming, and even his favorite Sinaiticus/Vaticanus copies were seen to be deficient and corrected by scribes.
The person who posted this objection himself has no final authority. He doesn't believe any bible is the infallible words of God and will correct his own NIV when it doesn't agree with his personal understanding. These are the interesting times in which we now find ourselves.
Undeniable Proof the ESV, NIV, NASB, Holman Standard, NET, Jehovah Witness NWT etc. are the new "Vatican Versions"
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http://brandplucked.webs.com/realcatholicbibles.htm
Undeniable Proof the ESV, NIV, Holman Standard, NET, NASBs, Jehovah Witness NWT are the new "Vatican Versions" Part TWO, which shows the whole verses, phrases and word omissions common to them all.
http://brandplucked.webs.com/esvcatholicpart2.htm
All of grace, believing the Book.
Will Kinney
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