Getting Luke 2:14 as Glorious Wordplay

Dr. Jim West is concerned about getting it right. He's posted on "getting Luke 2:14 right" in translation. He gives Luke's Greek. And, in issuing a translation challenge to readers, West makes clear that getting it right is to translate "so as to make it sensible and yet retain its meaning." The strong implication is that not getting it right means its opposite: getting it wrong. So West observes "the KJV misses the boat ... translating ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας erroneously." He likes "the Douay-Rheims go at it" as "[f]ar better," saying, "however, I translate ‘Glory to the highest God; and on earth, peace to men of good will.’

What West leaves readers to presume is that a chorus of angels is dancing in the sky and is singing in Greek or that Luke is translating the angelic song and dance into Greek. In either case, Luke's writing is a transposition of something fantastic. There is wordplay here that West, in getting his translation right, doesn't engage. And his own rendering of ἀνθρώποις as ‘men’ makes us wonder if he's working to get his "right" position clear on gendered language. I think we will do well to return to the chorus to listen. Here's Luke's Greek again:

δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας.

Now, even if you don't know Greek you can see some play in the language. And by play, I mean both fun playfulness and interpretive wiggle room. Look and listen again:

δόξα and εὐδοκίας are bookends. They mean different things (as West tries to get it right) and they mean the same thing too. Let's come back to that in a minute.

ἐν ὑψίστοις and ἐν ἀνθρώποις are rhymes. They're different but they sound similar.

And if you know a bit of Greek, then you know that καὶ often conjoins phrases but often contrasts phrases. And Luke's chorus of angels is doing both at the same time.

Now if you know a good bit more of Greek, then you hear these angels talking like the sophist Isocrates. One of his favorite things to do was to play with the difference and the similarity of δόξα and εὐδοκίας. I don't have time to show you, but if you ask in comments, I'll give some examples from Panegyricus, Plataicus, Nicocles, To Philip, Panathenaicus, and Antidosis, if you like.

What we should take time to do is to listen now to the chorus in Euripides's play Heracleidae and to compare that with the chorus in Luke's gospel. I don't have time to translate it, but David Kovacs's translation is fine. Here are a few lines in English and then in Greek:

But do not fall prostrate and lament the gods' dispensation, do not grieve overly in your heart. For the unhappy girl has a death-portion that is glorious, a death on behalf of her brothers and the land, and the renown that will await her on the lips of mortals is one of great honor. Heroic goodness involves itself ever in toil. Her deeds were worthy of her father, worthy of her noble lineage. If you show reverence to the death of the brave, in this I am your partner.

ἀλλὰ σὺ μὴ προπίτνων τὰ θεῶν φέρε,
μηδ’ ὑπεράλγει φροντίδα λύπᾳ·
εὐδόκιμον γὰρ ἔχει θανάτου μέρος
ἁ μελέα πρό τ’ ἀδελφῶν καὶ γᾶς·
οὐδ’ ἀκλεής νιν
δόξα πρὸς ἀνθρώπων ὑποδέξεται·
ἁ δ’ ἀρετὰ βαίνει διὰ μόχθων.
ἄξια μὲν πατρός, ἄξια δ’ εὐγενίας τάδε γίγνεται·
εἰ δὲ σέβεις θανάτους ἀγαθῶν, μετέχω σοι

Now, let's hear again Luke's chorus, with some of the same words bolded.  Then we'll try a translation into English.

δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας.

Brilliant renown to god in the highest places and on the ground peace in blessed honor to mortals.

See how I'm trying to run with some of the playful renderings of Kovacs?   See how Luke's Greek-singing angels sound like Euripides's chorus?   If and when there's more time, maybe we'd play with the chorus a bit differently; but it'd be some the same too.