Glory to God in the Highest...
English grammar question—
What is the "highest" here? I never really knew. Is it referring to "Glory" in the highest, skipping the prepositional phrase? Or "to God," the highest God of gods? So I went to it check out, and I found that some translations of Luke 2:14 read, "Glory to God in the highest [heaven]." That's a third option for the English interpretation!
I kept digging into the original Greek and found that the best object for the modifying adjective "highest" is neither quantitative highest praise/glory nor qualitative highest God. The concept implied in the words "in the highest" (the Greek is plural), is that the extolling (exalting) is heard in the very Heaven of heavens—in the highest regions of the universe; the Supreme Heavens. The most fitting meaning in the Greek is actually geographical, extending to all Creation—and that it was occurring in a continuing-tense that doesn't exist in English; the angelic armies didn't simply "announce" Glory to God in the Highest, but were announcing, announcing, announcing it.
Some commentaries went on to say that all three interpretations were possible. None are totally "wrong." Highest praise. Highest God. Highest extent of Creation. But what comes through in the original language is that the message was meant for All the World.
