Latest update April 16th, 2026 12:40 AM
Christmas is not “goodwill to all men”
Dear Editor,
Reflecting on some thoughts after the season of Christmas I think I find it appropriate to have this article published since the Guyanese nation must have had a wonderful Holiday season I would assume.
There are phrases associated with Christmas, most of which are derived from the Bible and the story of Jesus, that are said to be noble.
One such example is the phrase we constantly hear “goodwill to all men”. I was reading through the Chronicle Newspaper on Christmas Day and noticed there were a few Christmas messages from the political parties as well as other public and private agencies that mentioned the phrase of “goodwill to all men”.
In particular, the AFC’s Christmas message titled “T’is the season of goodwill to all men”. No doubt, this message of “goodwill to all men” is held as one of the ultimate moral nobility of Christianity. I doubt these politicians actually know what this message means. But my challenge is to ask: is it really that noble?
It should be noted that the message of “goodwill to all men” was derived directly from the New Testament book of Luke from the Bible. In the King James Bible at Luke 2:14 we read: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, good will toward men”. But there is a problem with this verse.
New Testament scholars tell us that it was not until recent times was it discovered that a scribe long ago had failed to record a single letter (a sigma “s”, which is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and carries the ‘S’ sound.) at the end of this line.
The Latin Vulgate Bible which was translated in the late fourth century, copied from a correct edition and thus has also preserved the original meaning, which is now correctly reconstructed in more recent Bible translations: “peace on earth toward men of goodwill”, which is not as noble – since it does not wish peace on anyone else – and it is perhaps even less noble still, since the same phrase more likely means “peace on earth toward men [who enjoy God’s] goodwill”, in other words peace only for those whom God likes. All of this because of a mistake of one letter.
Fernando Pedro
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