What Does Luke 2:14 Mean?
Weight to God in the highest, and on earth wholeness, among people of good pleasure.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.THE KEY
The song’s startling claim is that God’s weight in the highest becomes wholeness on earth, among people.
THE MEANING
The verse holds heaven and earth together: God’s weight is honored in the highest, while wholeness and favor reach human life here. It speaks now as an announcement that divine good pleasure reaches people as peace.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s glory belongs only to heaven while human life is left without peace.
THE ROOT
εἰρήνη
eirēnē
GROWS FROM
ειρην-
eirēn-
Peace as wholeness and settled relation.
English “peace” can sound like a quiet feeling or a ceasefire; εἰρήνη can name a wider wholeness in which relations are set right. Here it is the earthly counterpart to God’s weight above, so divine glory appears as shared human wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
eirēneuō: To live in peace or keep peace.
εἰρηνεύω
It shows peace as a lived condition, not only a hopeful word.
eirēnopoieō: To make or establish peace.
εἰρηνοποιέω
It shows wholeness taking form between people.
δόξα
doxa
GROWS FROM
δοκ-
dok-
Regard or reputation; in this verse, honor and weight.
English “glory” can sound like praise directed upward; δόξα names God’s honor, with the sense of weight that makes the highest consequential for earth. The verse holds that divine weight beside human peace.
ALSO GROWS
dokeō: To think, consider, or regard something as being a certain way.
δοκέω
It reveals the family’s connection to how someone is regarded.
doxazō: To honor or give glory.
δοξάζω
It carries δόξα into the act of recognizing someone’s honor.
εὐδοκία
eudokia
GROWS FROM
εὐδοκ-
eudok-
Good pleasure or favorable regard.
“among people of good pleasure” in this verse is eudokia. “Good will” carries the flavor of good pleasure or favorable regard, not only a vague wish that people fare well. It places human peace within a movement of divine favor.
ALSO GROWS
eudokeō: To take pleasure in or be favorably disposed toward.
εὐδοκέω
It brings out the delight and favorable regard within “good will.”
dokeō: To think, consider, or regard.
δοκέω
This underlying word connects favorable pleasure with the act of regarding someone.
THE PATTERN
When God’s presence is honored, its earthly expression is wholeness shared among people.
Faithful love and truth meet; alignment and wholeness kiss.For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; the governance shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father of the Ages, Prince of Wholeness.Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.THE THREAD
Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.The same word, εἰρήνη (eirēnē), names the peace in both verses. Luke places this wholeness on earth; John shows it as a gift that reaches the heart.
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