“Gloria, in altissimis Deo”
(A visit with St. Jerome)
“Gloria in altissimis Deo et in terra pax in hominibus bonae voluntatis”
(Luke 2:14; Latin Vulgate)
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!”
(Luke 2:14; KJV)
A Christmas Eve meditation by Siegfried S. Johnson on December 24, 2013
(Volume 3 Number 22)
St. James United Methodist Church, 321 Pleasant Valley Drive, Little Rock, AR 72212
I’ve printed Luke 2:14 for you in both the words of the KJV, reaching back 500 years to
1611 and, reaching back in time a bit further, to the 4th century and St. Jerome’s Latin
translation known as the Vulgate.
What just not right about this Latin translation? If you don’t know already, you will in a
few minutes when we close this mediation by singing the beloved Christmas hymn,
Angels We Have Heard on High. In singing the refrain (Gloria, in excelsis Deo) you will
know in an instant what’s not right about St. Jerome’s Gloria, in altissimis Deo.
Excelcis Deo! Not, Altissimis Deo. Jerome, where in the world did this Altissimis come
from? What were you thinking? Adding that extra syllable really, really messes up the
meter of a great hymn, reducing its sing-a-bility. We can’t hear the word excelsis without
thinking of Christmas! Don’t take it away from us. It’s part of our Christmas, enshrined
in our most cherished sacred and spiritual moments. We don’t like altissimis, sir, and
feel you owe us an explanation!
We’ll ask Jerome to come back and explain in a moment, but first, let’s let him collect his
thoughts as we review the biblical background to this story. The setting for this angelic
“Gloria” is an area known as the Shepherd’s Fields around Bethlehem. Perhaps in no
other biblical passage than the 23rd Psalm is the language of the King James so well
known and loved. “Fear not, for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ, the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
I’ve known since April that I wanted to spend this Christmas Eve with this passage. In
the many trips I’ve been blessed to lead to the Holy Land and to Bethlehem, this year’s
pilgrim band of 56 from here at St. James is the very first group I’ve ever taken to the
Shepherd’s Fields, as well as the nearby prominent, conical shaped mountain, King
Herod’s famous fortress and palace, Herodium, built about 15 years prior to Jesus’ birth.
Herod’s paranoia led him to direct the slaughter of the infants of the village when he
heard a rumor of a king being born. King Herod would be buried here (according to
Josephus) only a few years later, his tomb likely discovered only a few years ago by
archaeologist Ehud Netzer. It was with news of Herod’s death that Joseph and Mary
would bring the boy Jesus back from exile in Egypt to Nazareth.
We gathered at an outdoor pavilion overlooking the Shepherd’s Fields, there
remembering the role these fields played in the biblical story of redemption, reaching
back over a thousand years before Jesus was born. We remembered how a woman from
Moab, Ruth, widowed and arriving in Bethlehem in poverty with her mother-in-law
Naomi, fell in love with a wealthy landowner, Boaz as she gleaned what his harvesters
left in the fields. Ruth and Boaz marry in a story filled with drama and romance, and
become the great-parents of King David.
Then we recalled how David was in these very fields tending the sheep when Samuel
came to Bethlehem to anoint a king. All of David’s older brothers were marched before
the prophet, but at last David was called and Samuel heard the Lord say, “Do not look at
the outward appearance . . . the Lord looks not upon the outward appearance, but on the
heart.” In these fields David spent many quiet hours, inspired toward the writing of
many of the psalms as he communed with God in the silence of these fields, perhaps even
the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”
Then we remembered Luke’s nativity story, how Joseph and Mary make their way to this
City of David and, finding no place to stay, find shelter and settle in a cave, shared with
the animals. There Mary gives birth to the child, wraps him, and lays him in a manger, a
feeding trough for the animals.
That’s the moment Luke when Luke shifts our attention from the manger to the
Shepherd’s Fields, describing the angel’s visit: “Fear not, for, behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people. For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord.”
Yes, from these Shepherd’s Fields around Bethlehem emerge some of the most beloved
stories of our faith, our very own spiritual geography. And I take such care to describe it
today, because I want you to feel, as best you can through my words, the texture and
contours of this place. As best I can, I want to move this story from Luke’s gospel into
actual spatial dimensions so that you may feel the grittiness of the nativity as did the
shepherds .
Now, let’s bring St. Jerome back in and ask why he chose Altissimis?” “Why not the
word that we cherish, Excelsis? Excelsis, by the way, Jerome, is an older Latin
translation. You surely knew this. You grew up with Excelsis. So, why did you change
to Altissimis?”
I sub-titled this meditation, A Visit with St. Jerome, since I want now to offer you what
might be his reply:
“Dear friends, fellow Christians. It was in the year 382 that Pope Damascus 1
commissioned me to translate the scriptures from Hebrew and Greek into our common,
(vulgar) language, hence, the Vulgate. Honored by such an opportunity, I determined to
do this as I experienced the spaces, the places where these events occurred. So I went to
the Holy Land and lived there for 30 years, most of that time in Bethlehem, translating in
a room made from a cave near the Church of the Nativity.
“Ah, it was a young church then, barely 50 years old, not unlike your St. James United
Methodist Church, which I hear is 44 years old. Hard to believe my church is now 1700
years old! May God so bless your church, as well, with long life touching generations to
come! Many of you have visited my cave, but did you know that while in Bethlehem I
also established a free school and a hospice for pilgrims like yourself, "so that," as my
benefactor, Paula, said, "should Mary and Joseph ever visit Bethlehem again, they would
have a place to stay."
“Why Altissimis instead of Excelsis? Well, they are both wonderful words. The reason I
chose Altissimis over the older Latin translation was because I wanted you, with me, to
feel that space! Let me explain. As Excelsis has crossed the thresholds of time into your
language (which you call, English) it has become the word excellent, which is to say
“high” or “exalted” in the sense of eminence and worth. In other words, one needs no
physical dimensions, no space, to speak of excellence.
“The angels, however, I believe, were referring to actual space when they sang, Glory to
God in the highest! Taking the word “highest” literally I chose Altissimis, which over the
centuries has become your word, altitude. See now, Latin isn’t so difficult, is it?
“I understand you have a city in your Arkansas called Altus, meaning “high.” When the
Iron Mountain Railroad laid rails up the Arkansas River Valley in the 1870s from your
home in Little Rock to a city far to the northwest called Fort Smith, there was a place in
the Boston Mountain range that was the highest point on the track, so, it was named,
guess what? Altus. (I know this, BTW, through your marvel of Wikipedia, which I must
say would really would have made my work easier in the 4th century!) Altus, Arkansas.
Imagine that! In Arkansas, a form of Altissimis, Highest! Gloria in altissimus, Deo.
“Altissimis, you see, means “high” in a very real, physical way. When you say it, I want
you to feel, as best you can, the space itself, to feel the earthy grittiness of this natal
wonder!
“So, that’s my story and I’m . . . well, you in the south know how that saying goes, I’m
sticking to it! But now, as you prepare to sing these words of Luke 2:14, I give you
permission to sing Excelsis (for the sake of meter, you understand).
“But before I leave, let me say one more, very important thing, about this verse.
Altissimis speaks of, shall I say, a vertical relationship with God. There is also a
horizontal aspect to this verse which you didn’t ask me to comment upon. Et in terra
pax. And on earth, peace. In hominibus bonae voluntatis. Good will toward men.
“As we gather at this table of Holy Communion, we indeed rejoice in the vertical aspect
to the table, that (as my friend John wrote in another gospel) “The Word became flesh.”
Jesus’ flesh is symbolized in the bread and the wine. Ah, but let us also remember that
there is also a horizontal aspect to the table, that this Good News reaches outward to all
the world. That’s why Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, both lifted the bread and the
wine toward God for blessing (vertical) and extended the bread and the wine to the
disciples for sharing (horizontal).
“This message is to you, and to those far beyond you, both in space and in time. Gloria,
in altissimis Deo!