Liturgical Variations: Understanding Liturgical Worship, Part IV (c)

What about English versions of the Gloria? There are some issues with modern translations of the text into English.
If you are singing from an older Anglican or English Lutheran hymnbook, or your translation contains words like "Thee" and "Thou," chances are you have a good translation.

It probably reads something like this...

Glory be to God on high.
And in earth peace goodwill towards men.
We praise Thee.
We bless Thee.
We worship Thee.
We glorify Thee.
We give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory.
O Lord God, heavenly King
God the Father almighty.
O Lord, the only-begotten Son Jesus Christ.
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy upon us.
Thou that takest away the sins of the world,
receive our prayer.
Thou that sittest at the right of the Father,
have mercy upon us.
For Thou only art Holy.
Thou only art the Lord.
Thou only, O Christ,
with the Holy Ghost,
art Most High in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

This is very close to Iggy's Literal Translation, with the exception of today's "you" and "your" instead of "thou" and "thine." Please ask permission before borrowing this translation.

Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men of goodwill.
We praise You;
We bless You;
We worship You;
We glorify You;
We give thanks to You
for Your great glory.
Lord God, Heavenly King
God the Father Almighty.
Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ;
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
Who takes away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us;
Who takes away the sin of the world,
receive our prayers;
Who sits at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.
For You alone are holy,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit
in the glory of God the Father.
Amen

The International Counsel on English Texts (ICET) took some liberties with the translation, and used almost a paraphrase of the Latin.

To begin with, while the literal translation is "men" the application is "people" so I won't get hung up on that one. However, what happened to "goodwill?"

Latin
Gloria in excelsis Deo
Et in terra pax hominibus voluntatis

Iggy
Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace goodwill toward men.

ICET
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to His people on earth.

On another note, the current trend is to change the word "His" to "God's" in the second phrase of the ICET text. Curiously enough, if they had been faithful to the original text, there would be no pronoun there to begin with. That being said, pronouns keep us from being too repetitive with names, so the use of "His" is not only theologically correct, it is also grammatically correct.

The ICET text also loses the repetition in the beginning. In the ICET text we only worship, give thanks, and praise. We do not bless or glorify. The original text builds and builds and builds, heaping one form of praise upon the other. The ICET text is truncated at best, condensing five clauses into three.

Latin
laudamus te
benedicimus te
adoramus te
glorificamus te
gratias agimus tibi
propter magnam gloriam tuam

Iggy
We praise You;
We bless You;
We worship You;
We glorify You;
We give thanks to You
for Your great glory.

ICET
We worship You,
We give You thanks,
We praise You for your glory.

Another thing that is lost is the allusion to the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) that will appear later in the Divine Service, just before we receive communion. This echo reminds us that we are preparing to partake in the Holy Supper and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord, as Scripture states, "given...and shed for the forgiveness of sins."

Latin
Dómine Deus Agnus Dei Fílius Patris
qui tollis peccáta mundi
miserére nobis
Qui tollis peccáta mundi
súscipe deprecatiónem nostram
Qui sedes ad déxteram Patris
miserére nobis

Iggy
Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father,
Who takes away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us;
Who takes away the sin of the world,
receive our prayers;
Who sits at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.

ICET
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.

Note to hymnal committees around the world: if you would never consider The Living Bible or The Message for corporate worship, then perhaps the ICET text is not for you, either. Let's take a more literal approach to the Gloria, something along the lines of the English Stander Version instead of The Living Bible.

At any rate, here is a setting of the ICET text. This one takes the first full line of text as the refrain.

And here is the Healey Willan setting of the historic translation. I believe this one was commissioned by Concordia Publishing House for use with children. When you hear "children" in this sense, think about a classic music education for middle grade children, as opposed to songs for younger children, such as "Jesus Loves Me" or "I Am Jesus' Little Lamb."

This is the third post of four in a series about the Kyrie and Gloria in the Divine Service based on a post by Micah at Liturgical Variations.  Next in this series, the "other" hymn of praise, "This Is the Feast."

Check out all of Micah's posts over at Liturgical Variations.  Micah is a student at Concordia University Texas.