I have reflected on the angelic phrase, “Peace on earth,” often over the last year. I have watched people appeal to the angelic proclamation in their cries for peace, amid the tension and chaos of our world. But I find myself drawn back to the words of Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Language represents a culture. People convey their hopes, history, ideas, and beliefs through language. To study a people means to study its language(s). To study a language leads to the discovery of a people, its culture and history. We import our modern definitions of words when we read the past. We assume they imagined the world the same way we do, with the same hopes, ideas, and beliefs. We perform this transference most easily with religious words, especially if we are religious people and these are our sacred scriptures. But the world of the New Testament belongs to ancient Judaism not our modern world, and for certain, not our modern Western world.
Western culture rests upon Judeo-Christian values and ways of viewing and critiquing the world. We do not recognize it any more than we recognize the air we breathe. We breathe. Within the West, even the most secular person breathes the air of Judeo-Christianity. So too, the most religious person breathes the air of the secular-individualism of the West. We live in a world founded upon Judeo-Christian values refracted through the Enlightenment. Biblical words appear in our modern secular discourse, yet because they occur in the Bible, Bible readers import the modern definitions of these words into their appearance in the Bible. The word “peace” is an example.
The Bible defined words like love, liberty, and peace vis-à-vis God and his relationship with humanity. For example, ideas of liberty within the Bible and ancient Judaism interlace notions of God’s kingship, Israel’s election, and the sense of God freeing Israel to serve him. One could not extricate the relational aspect between God and Israel from the meanings of liberty within the Bible and ancient Judaism. Greeks and Romans expressed their ideas in more abstract ways. While religion penetrated every sphere of life, words like love, liberty, and peace existed outside of the gods. They meant something on their own. We conceptualize these words within our world in a similar manner as the Greeks and Romans. Peace embodies the absence of conflict, the brotherhood of all humanity, a transcendent idea which spans nationalities, races, creeds—a universal value. Or so we tell ourselves. A society defines words through cultural ideas, so we can certainly possess different ideals and value structures than the people of the past. We do whether we want to or not. But the problem comes when we try to import our modern ideals and values into ancient texts, like the Bible, because we use similar language.
The angelic proclamation, “Peace on earth,” did not reflect a universal value which brought together the people of the world in solidarity. It did not even herald the absence of conflict. Quite the contrary. The shepherds would have understood the threefold angelic announcement of God’s glory, peace, and will as proclaiming the good news (see Luke 2:10) of God’s redemption of Jerusalem, the national redemption of Israel, which meant eventual peace for the people of God, but destruction upon his enemies. When we read the Gospel story within ancient Jewish sources, this becomes clear.
The words of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, captured the essence of Jewish redemptive hopes:
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus, he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:68-75; emphasis added).
Israel’s political freedom enabled them to worship God as he desired. This idea framed the core of Jewish hopes of redemption, regardless of the debates on how redemption would occur. Jewish authors identified the hoped for redemption as a period of peace because Jews, now free from the threat of enemies, can serve God without fear. Peace describes the situation from the perspective of the righteous people of God. They live at peace, no longer threatened, and can serve God as he desires. For the wicked, however, this is not a period of peace, but of judgement and punishment. Thus, peace possessed an inherent moral quality within ancient Judaism.
The Community Rule (1QS) discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran describes the annual covenant renewal ceremony in which the priests bless those who belong to God’s lot, “who walk perfectly in all his ways.” The priestly blessings depend upon the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24-26. The priests of the community said over the righteous: “May he bless you will all good and keep you from all evil; may he enlighten your heart with insight for living; may he favor you with eternal knowledge. May he lift up his merciful countenance toward you for eternal peace” (1QS 2:2-4; emphasis added). God’s favor (see Luke 2:14) brings eternal peace for those of his lot. Within the same ceremony, the Levites will curse those of the Lot of Belial (the wicked). Against them they say,
“Cursed be you in all your guilty and wicked works. May God give you up to terror through all the avengers. May he visit upon you destruction through all those who take revenge. Cursed be you without compassion in accordance with the darkness of your works. Damned be you in everlasting murky fire. May God not be compassionate unto you when you cry out. May he not forgive you by covering over your iniquity. May he lift up his angry countenance to wreak his vengeance upon you. May there be no peace for you according to all who hold fast to the fathers” (1QS 2:5-9; emphasis added).
The peace for those walking in all God’s ways contrasts with the vengeance, punishment, and lack of peace desired for the wicked.
The War Scroll (1QM), also discovered at Qumran, describes the final eschatological battle between the forces of light and darkness. The war concludes with the redemption of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked, a time described as “Peace and blessing to the lot of God” (1QM 17:7). God’s glory appears throughout the world in his redemption of his lot and the destruction of the wicked: “At the appointed time of God, his exalted greatness shall shine to all the ends of […] for peace and blessing, glory, joy, and long life for all the Sons of Light. On the day of the Kittim’s fall, there shall be clash and fierce carnage before the God of Israel for this is the day he has appointed long ago for a destructive war against the Sons of Darkness” (1QM 1:8-10; emphasis added). The scroll describes the trumpets used by the forces of light in their battle: “On the trumpets of the camps they shall write ‘Peace of God in the camps of his holy ones.’ On the trumpets for breaking them they shall write ‘Mighty deeds of God to scatter the enemy and to put to flight all those who hate righteousness’” (1QM 3:4-6). The peace of God did not mean the absence of violence for this author. Peace referred to God’s redemption of the righteous which included the punishment of the wicked, violently. The author proclaims this as part of a blessing of God, “As for us, in your truthful lot, let us rejoice for your mighty hand, exult for your deliverance, and be glad for [your] hel[p and for] your peace. Who is like you according to power, O God of Israel” (1QM 13:12-13).
A similar view of the eschatological judgment of the world appears at the beginning of 1 Enoch:
“And there shall be a judgment upon all, (including) the righteous. And to all the righteous he will grant peace. He will preserve the elect, and kindness shall be upon them. They shall all belong to God, and they shall prosper and be blessed; and the light of God shall shine upon them. Behold, he will arrive with ten million of the holy ones in order to execute judgment upon all. He will destroy the wicked one and censure all flesh on account of everything that they have done, that which the sinners and the wicked ones committed against him…But too the elect there shall be light, joy, and peace, and they shall inherit the earth. To you, wicked ones, on the contrary, there will be a curse” (1 Enoch 1:7-9; 5:7; see also 102:1-5).
Peace for the elect who inherit the earth, and punishment for the wicked. The proclamation of eschatological redemption carried the hope of peace and the promise of judgment.
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs describe the eschatological period of redemption as a messianic era of peace. The Testament of Levi mentions the arrival of a messianic priest in the final period.
“And then the Lord will raise up a new priest to whom all the words of the Lord will be revealed. He shall effect the judgment of truth over the earth for many days…This one will shine forth like the sun in the earth; he shall take away all darkness from under heaven, and there shall be peace in all the earth. The heavens shall greatly rejoice in his days and the earth shall be glad; the clouds will be filled with joy and the knowledge of the Lord will be poured out on the earth like the water of the seas” (Testament of Levi 18:2-5).
The Testament of Dan refers to Israel’s bondage in Egypt but uses it to speak to the future hopes of redemption.
“Accordingly, you will be led off with them into captivity; there you will receive all the plagues of Egypt, and all the evils of the gentiles. Therefore, when you turn back to the Lord, you will receive mercy, and he will lead you into his holy place, proclaiming peace to you. And there shall arise for you from the tribe of Judah and (the tribe of) Levi the Lord’s salvation. He will make war against Beliar; he will grant the vengeance of victory as our goal. And he shall take from Beliar the captives, the souls of the saints; and he shall turn the hearts of the disobedient ones to the Lord and grant eternal peace to those who call upon him. And the saints shall refresh themselves in Eden; the righteous shall rejoice in the New Jerusalem, which shall be eternally for the glorification of God. And Jerusalem shall no longer undergo desolation, nor shall Israel be led into captivity,
because the Lord will be in her midst. The Holy One of Israel will rule over them in humility and poverty, and he who trusts in him shall reign in truth in the heavens” (Testament of Dan 5:8-13; emphasis added).
The eschatological redemption not only affects the righteous, but it also brings the redemption of Jerusalem (see Luke 2:25, 38). The hoped for peace possesses a moral quality, as seen in other Jewish sources. The proclamation of peace reminds of Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” God’s reign coincides with peace and salvation for Jerusalem and the people of God.
Returning to the Dead Sea Scrolls, a manuscript discovered in Cave 11 at Qumran (11Q13) describes the author’s expectations of the period of redemption which would occur in the tenth Jubilee. He characterized the end of the tenth Jubilee, which will occur on Yom Kippur, as a time of judgment for the Belial and his lot and redemption for the Children of Light. The author plays with the dualistic idea of the end—a period of judgement for the wicked and peace for the righteous—in his outline of the end of the tenth Jubilee.
“Its interpretation concerns Belial and the spirits of his lot wh[o -- ] when [th]ey tur[ned] away from the statutes of God to [do evil]. And Melchizedek will execute the vengeance of Go[d’s] judgments [and on that day he will deliv]er [them from the hand of] Belial and from the hand of all the sp[irits of his lot.] And with the help of all the “oaks of [righteousness,” and th]is is wh[at it says, “The days of punishment have come” for] all the sons of God. And this pu[nishment] is the day of [peace a]s [God] says [concerning it by the hand of Isai]ah the prophet who said, [‘How] beautiful on the mountains are the feet [of] the messeng[er an]nouncing peace, the mes[senger of good announcing salvati]on [sa]ying to Zion, “Your God [reigns”’]” (11Q13 2:12-16; emphasis added).
The day of punishment for the wicked serves as the day of peace for the righteous.
When we view the angelic proclamation—Peace on earth—through the lens of ancient Judaism, we see how the world of Jesus interlaced the idea of peace with the redemption and salvation of Israel. From the standpoint of the righteous, the salvation of Jerusalem brought peace because it meant Jews could worship God as he desired without fear of foreign interference. But the time of peace also meant a time of judgment for the wicked. For this reason, the idea of peace, as heralded by the angels, possessed a moral quality to it, and one’s participation in the era of peace depended upon one’s obedience to the commandments of the God of Israel. Modern Western society can define peace however it chooses: the absence of conflict, the brotherhood of all humanity. Each culture and generation provide meaning to words. But we cannot claim our meaning of peace for the angelic message. For that, we must step into the world of Jesus’ faith, which, at times, is at odds with our own.