Hugh J. Schonfield (THE ORIGINAL NEW TESTAMENT) translates Luke 2:14 as:
Glory be to God on high and on earth:
Peace be to men who please him.
with the footnote: In the Temple liturgy the KEDUSHAH (Sanctification)
expressed the song of the heavenly host in the words of Isa 6:3 and Ezek
3:12. In the Jewish liturgy we find: "He who makes peace in his high
places, may he bestow peace on us and on all Israel" (see KADDISH
prayer, AJP p 78).
He says in his introduction (p. xxx): ...consulting Jewish liturgical
sources, we should never have had the expression "and on earth pace" in
the angelic doxology in Luke 2:14 had this been done by previous
translators. The "glory" is to God above and below, in the highest and
on earth, the "peace" is to men of good will, or better, to men who
please him.
Since the comments about the DSS show Schonfield to be wrong about the
"men who please him" translation, he could be wrong about the rest of
his translation, too, and I don't think it fits the Greek too well - but
it's additional food for thought.
Re: the question asked in the previous thread on this verse about the
phrase "the third heaven," I am still struck by the fact that in The
Book of the Secrets of Enoch (IV Enoch? II Enoch?) - this is NOT the I
Enoch which Jude quotes - which hasn't yet, to my knowledge, been dated
as pre- or post-Christian, it was when Enoch came to the Third Heaven
(there are 10 in all) that he was shown a place resemblng the paradise
of Revelation 22, wherein he also saw the eternal inheritance of the
righteous and the eternal inheritance of the wicked. (FYI, the second
heaven is where he saw the wicked angels bound for judgment, and the
fourth heaven is where he saw the courses of the sun and the moon.) It's
cheaply available in THE LOST BOOKS OF THE BIBLE AND THE FORGOTTEN BOOKS
OF EDEN or in more modern translations. So far I haven't come across any
articles that try to link Paul's phrase with this book, but I haven't
looked too hard, either.
-- "Eric S. Weiss" http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm