Hieromonk Savatie Baştovoi
`Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men` or:
`Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men`
Correct is the first variant. Here we are told that glory is up above, at God (it is not a glory among the creatures from above separated of the glory from below)and good will is towards men, not among men, meaning that it is not people who offer each other good will from their own power, being kinder(as it is understood) but God shows good will towards men today by HIs Birth. That there was no good will among people on the Night of Nativity it is proven by the birth in the manger and by the persecution that followed until the killing of the babies by Herod.
Thus today the glory is God`s glory in the highest and never reached by human mind because He showed good will towards men becoming like one of them, taking flesh from the Virgin by the birth without seed, coming from the Holy Spirit.
There is no separation between those from above and those from below, there are not two worlds which celebrate and serve in a different way, it is an unification of the skies with the earth in such a way that the glory from above shows good will towards men, as the words from the kontakion of Nativity express it explicitly:
`The angels praise with the shepherds` meaning that the angels and the shepherds become equal in their knowledge and sing to God from the same stage, as God was born on earth.
`Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men`
