The Text of Luke 2:14, Calvinism, and "Peace, Good Will Toward Men

Luke 2:14 is a classic case where both textual and grammatical decisions shape theology. The King James Version reads:

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Many modern translations read something like:

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased."

The difference arises from a single letter in the underlying Greek and what that implies for the grammatical form.

1. The textual difference

The King James follows the text with the noun in the nominative form: eudokia ("good will"). Modern critical texts follow a different reading, eudokias (genitive), based heavily on Codex Sinaiticus and related witnesses.

• King James / Textus Receptus: eudokia (nominative)---"good will."
• Critical text / modern versions: eudokias (genitive)---"of good pleasure" / "of good will."

The nominative eudokia stands parallel to "peace" (eirēnē), both functioning as subject-complements joined to "on earth" and directed "toward men." The sense is:

• On earth: peace and good will toward men.

The genitive reading eudokias changes the sense. It tends to be taken as a qualifier of "men," yielding something like:

• Peace among men of [God's] good pleasure---or "among those with whom he is pleased."

This narrower sense coheres well with a Calvinistic emphasis on a limited, selective favor.

1. . setcounterenumi1
2. The grammatical issue

Even apart from the text-critical question, the key is recognizing that in the King James / Textus Receptus reading:

• "Peace" (eirēnē) and "good will" (eudokia) are both nominative.
• "Men" (anthrōpois) is in the dative, functioning as the indirect object ("toward men").

So the structure is:

• Glory to God in the highest,
• and on earth peace [nominative], good will [nominative] toward men [dative].

"Peace" and "good will" are grammatically parallel. They both describe what is being announced "on earth" and what is directed "toward men." Just as you might say, "On the table, bread and water for guests," the grammar yields two coordinate blessings: peace and good will, both for men.

When the genitive eudokias is adopted, interpreters often reconfigure the grammar so that "men of good pleasure" becomes the group receiving peace. That effectively shifts "good pleasure" from being a blessing given to men to a qualifier restricting which men are in view.

But in the nominative reading:

• You do not have "men of good pleasure;"
• You have "peace and good will toward men."

1. . setcounterenumi2
2. Why the King James reading is to be preferred

1. Textual support The note often found in critical apparatuses will say something like "most witnesses" support eudokia, yet they still prefer eudokias on the grounds that it is "the more difficult reading" or supposedly better reflects an earlier text form. In practice, this often means that one or a few favored manuscripts (especially Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus) are treated as trump cards over the vast majority of manuscripts and over the textual tradition used by believers for centuries.
2. Grammatical and theological coherence The nominative reading fits naturally with the angelic announcement as broad, gracious blessing at the incarnation:

• Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will extended toward mankind.

The genitive reading tends to narrow the blessing: peace only among those men who are particularly the objects of God's selective pleasure. That narrowing aligns comfortably with a certain theological bias, but it is not demanded by the broader manuscript tradition and depends on favoring a very limited textual base.

1. . setcounterenumi2
2. Consistency in handling the grammar With eudokia as nominative, the most straightforward reading is that "peace" and "good will" stand in parallel as two nouns describing what has come to earth in connection with Christ's birth. To change "good will" into a genitive descriptor of "men" (making it "men of [God's] good pleasure") requires following a different text and then building theology on that slender basis.

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2. Young's Literal and word order

Young's Literal Translation tries to preserve Greek word order more rigidly. It reads:

"Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace among men --- good will."

Young's Literal is following the nominative eudokia. Its word order can look unusual in English, but the basic structure is in harmony with the King James: peace and good will connected with "men."

Word order in Greek is more flexible than in English; what matters is case endings. In the nominative reading, peace and good will share the same case and function. Dative "men" marks those toward whom these blessings are directed.

1. . setcounterenumi4
2. The Calvinist connection

When Calvinistic interpreters prefer and defend the genitive eudokias, they end up with a text that reads more like:

• "Peace among men with whom he is pleased."

That phrase fits neatly into a framework emphasizing a restricted group upon whom God's favor rests. The concern is not merely grammatical; it is that a highly debatable textual choice---relying on a small set of manuscripts whose status is often accepted without rigorous challenge---is then used to support a theological system, and that system in turn is used to justify the textual preference.

In contrast, the King James reading, based on the Textus Receptus, supported by the majority of witnesses, and grammatically straightforward, presents the angelic song as a broad proclamation:

• Glory to God in the highest,
• and on earth, peace and good will directed toward men.

On that basis, the King James rendering reflects both the stronger textual footing and the more natural grammatical sense of the passage.

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