In Reply to: Re: True meaning of "Peace on Earth, good will towards humans" posted by Sam AJemian on July 30, 2003 at 19:44:09:
The Hebrew word rasón (sometimes written ratsón or ratsóhn) is most often translated eudokía in the Septuagint.
Using the Strong's number, 7522, I checked my Englishman's Hebrew Concordance of the Old Testament and found 56 occurrences of the word in Hebrew. Here are some examples of how it is translated into English:
Gen. 49:6 "self will"
Lev. 1:3 "of his own voluntary will"
19:5 "at your own will"
20 "acceptable
21 "to be accepted"
Deut. 33:16 "good will"
23 "favour"
2 Ch. 15:15 "desire"
Ezra 10:11 "pleasure"
Neh. 9:24 "as they would"
Est. 1:8 "pleasure"
9:5 "what they would"
Ps. 51:18 (20) "good pleasure"
Pr. 11:1, 20 "delight"
...Etc., etc. That's not all 56, but you get the idea.
Something you might be surprised about, Sam (I was), is that the word "eudokía" does not occur in classical Greek. Kittel says that the first time it is used is in the Greek Bible.