Structurally, the song falls into two parts, as the καί (“and”) demonstrates. It suits the Jewish
style of prayer that the second is the longer part. Glory (A), highest (B),
earth (B’), and peace (A’) are juxtaposed chiastically. Symmetrically, God
stands at the end of the first part, and humanity at the end of the second. The
beauty of the song emerges from this “braided” composition.
Byzantine manuscripts, ancient translations, and some church fathers
read ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκία (“among people, good pleasure”) and thus
presuppose a tripartite composition. But the most ancient Greek manuscripts and
the Latin tradition read ἐν
ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας (“among people of good pleasure”), which
is original, since the other variants attempt to improve on the ambiguous εὐδοκίας (if they cannot be explained
palaeographically).
Supported by the imprecise Latin translation hominibus bonae voluntatis and the moralization of Christian faith
in late antiquity, εὐδοκία
(“good pleasure”) was understood anthropologically: God’s peace is for people
of goodwill.
In Luke εὐδοκία
and εὐδοκέω (“to be well
pleased”) otherwise always denote the divine will to save. In 1QH 4.32–33 we
find the corroborating expression, “the abundance of His mercies towards all
the sons of His grace.” Like רָצוֹן,
εὐδοκία is, in Luke 2:14,
God’s good pleasure. C. H. Dodd has analyzed this concept thoroughly in the New
Testament and notes its aspect of divine resolve and choice: “Essentially it is
an act of will, not an expression of feeling,” and “then εὐδοκία would indicate, not so much gratification
or approval, but divine action, and the action in question is,
characteristically, the predestinating act of grace which is the ultimate
ground of our salvation.”
In Luke, at least, one should not play the will against the emotions.
His concept of God is strongly affective. So he has in mind less a resolution
than a loving movement of the entire person, which awaits love in return. Εὐδοκία thus has a relational quality; perhaps
for this reason, there is no intensive pronoun (“his,” αὐτοῦ): the εὐδοκία of God sets in motion the εὐδοκία of people and waits impatiently for it.
This is not synergism in the dogmatic sense, but rather mutual love and
recognition.
The angels do not speak Jesus’ name, but their prayer (v. 14) comments
on his birth (vv. 6–7) and supplements the interpretation of his messianic
function (vv. 10–11). Only this eschatological event, interpreted by the Word
of God, makes possible the pure joy of the angels and the harmony between
heavenly liturgy and earthly peace.
The angels sing their praise without a trace of jealousy, and they
admit their own inability and feebleness. Their function is to help humans (Heb
1:14), but only deliverance through Jesus can bring salvation to humanity.
(François Bovon, Luke 1: A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 1:1–9:50
[trans. Christine M. Thomas; Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on
the Bible [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002], 90-91)
