good pleasure: a freely chosen, gracious will or heartfelt desire directed toward what is good
This word names what someone gladly and freely wants for the good of another. Its center of gravity is not a passing feeling but a settled, favorable choice. When God is the one who has it, the word carries the weight of his sovereign, gracious decision to set his favor on people and to accomplish his saving purpose. When a person has it, the same word softens into goodwill toward others or the deep longing of the heart.
The word was essentially made for the Bible. It is almost unknown in ordinary Greek writing outside Jewish and Christian texts. The translators of the Greek Old Testament appear to have coined it to carry the Hebrew idea of favor and acceptance (רצון), especially God's favor toward his people, and the New Testament inherits that weighty, theological sense.
Because one word bridges God's electing will and a person's warm desire, it does not so much change meaning as shift its emphasis depending on who has it. That is why English Bibles reach for so many different words: "good pleasure", "kind intention", "purpose", "goodwill", "desire". Each captures one side and drops another.
Nuances
Whether God's good pleasure in Ephesians 1:5 is primarily his sovereign decree or his affectionate, gracious generosity.
- contestedIt denotes God's sovereign resolve or purpose, since the parallel phrase in verse 11 places the deliberate counsel of his will in the same slot.; A. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC 42, 1990); E. Best, Ephesians (ICC, 1998)
- contestedIt characterizes election as joyful, affectionate generosity: a smiling Father, not a grim overseer of a fixed plan.; M. Barth, Ephesians 1-3 (Anchor Bible 34, 1974)
- contestedIt holds both together: the word adds a gracious, benevolent quality to God's will, so election is neither a bare decree nor a mere feeling.; H. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Baker, 2002); P. T. O'Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians (PNTC, 1999)
The original text and meaning of the angels' song at Luke 2:14: whether it announces peace to those God has favored, or goodwill toward humanity in general.
- majorityThe original reading points to peace resting on people of God's favor, his chosen ones; the parallel phrase sons of his good pleasure found among the Dead Sea Scrolls confirms this as a genuine Jewish idiom.; B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (UBS, 1994), 111; J. A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX (Anchor Bible 28, 1981), 409-17; I. H. Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (NIGTC, 1978), 111-12
- minorityThe traditional reading gives a graceful three-line song announcing goodwill toward all people; the Dead Sea Scrolls parallel always includes a possessive that Luke's wording lacks, so the match is imperfect and this reading remains grammatically possible.; J. M. Ropes, Good Will Toward Men (Luke 2:14), HTR 10 (1917): 52-56; R. S. Kilpatrick, The Greek Syntax of Luke 2.14, NTS 34 (1988): 472-75
Whether the good pleasure in 2 Thessalonians 1:11 is God's, worked out in believers, or the believers' own resolve toward goodness.
- majorityIt is the believers' resolve or desire for goodness, since it stands alongside their work of faith, which is plainly their activity that God brings to completion.; C. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians (NIGTC, 1990); A. Malherbe, Thessalonians (Anchor Bible 32B, 2000); F. F. Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians (WBC 45, 1982)
- minorityIt is God's own good pleasure, his gracious purpose accomplished in the Thessalonians.; G. Schrenk, TDNT 2 (1964), 738-751