One of my favorite quotes from The Princess Bride is from Inigo Montoya—but it’s probably not the one you’re thinking. Vizzini’s signature line is “Inconceivable!” He says it whenever something unexpected happens. After several of these exclamations, Inigo Montoya finally says to him, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Vizzini is not alone—we are often guilty of similar misuses when we apply English definitions to biblical Hebrew and Greek terms.

The Meaning of “Peace”

One of my pet peeves is how we translate the Hebrew word shalom (שׁלום) into English. The common English translation of shalom is peace. In English, peace is generally defined as tranquility, quiet, or the absence of war or violence. However, the Hebrew word has a MUCH wider range of meaning. The meaning of shalom has its roots in well-being, health, wholeness, intactness, completeness, and reconciliation. In modern Hebrew, to ask someone how they are, you say, “Ma shlomcha?” (to a man) or “Ma shlomech?” (to a woman). Literally, “How is your peace?” Shalom is more concerned with well-being and wholeness than with tranquility or the absence of war.

Shalom encompasses more than personal well-being. It also reflects the state of a community. A community in shalom benefits all its members. Shalom means the entire community prospers (physically and spiritually). People look out for one another, and justice prevails. In other words, shalom describes a condition in which everything functions as God intended. Indeed, “peace” in our English sense is part of that shalom, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough to describe the desired state for the community.

Shalom is a prominent theme in the Gospels, yet it is easy to overlook. According to Matthew 4, Jesus begins his Galilee ministry upon hearing of John the Baptist’s imprisonment. The Gospel writer presents Jesus’s Galilee ministry as a fulfillment of Isaiah 9:

The people who walked in darkness
     have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
     on them light has shined. (Isa 9:2, MT 9:1, NRSV)

Darkness in this passage has a double meaning. The primary building material in the Galilee was basalt—a black stone. Literally, the people in the Galilee lived in homes made of black rock (darkness). At the same time, the Isaiah passage portrays darkness as a life of oppression under foreign rule, devoid of shalom, as verses 3–5 describe.

Prince of Shalom

By citing the beginning of Isaiah 9, the Gospel writer employs a literary device that invites the reader to consider the broader context of the passage. In other words, he recites the first verse of the Isaiah text, assuming his readers will know what follows. The connection to shalom becomes clear in the following verses:

For a child has been born for us,
     a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
     and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
     Everlasting Father, Prince of Shalom.

His authority shall grow continually,
     and there shall be endless shalom
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
     He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
     from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (Isa 9:6–7, MT 9:5–6)

Do you see the title Isaiah gives to this ruling figure? Among other things, he is the “Prince of Shalom.” According to Isaiah, he is a prince whose kingdom is marked by endless shalom (literally “shalom without end”). This shalom is characterized by justice and righteousness.

The author of the Gospel of Matthew identifies Jesus as the promised Jewish messiah, aligning him with Isaiah’s prophecy, which envisions enduring personal and communal shalom for God’s people. In other words, the central purpose of God sending Jesus was to establish a community of God’s people that is whole, complete, and functioning as it should for all its members. A community in shalom in which everyone prospers, and justice prevails—as God intended.

You see, according to the Gospels, God’s purpose in sending Jesus (and raising him from the dead) is far more significant than the forgiveness of sins alone. God’s ultimate purpose is the restoration of all things. In other words, God is restoring shalom to a world plagued by injustice, oppression, sickness, death, and sin. It’s a world where God’s justice reigns supreme, not the self-interested forces of worldly empires—the world as God intended it to be. In fact, one can read all of Jesus’s ministry—his miracles and teachings—as demonstrations of God’s shalom, restoring God’s intended order to people suffering from sickness, death, oppression, and injustice. The Gospels’ code word for this shalom is the Kingdom of God/Heaven. 

If we are disciples of this Prince of Shalom, we have obligations as well. We are commanded to continue this mission of shalom until this Messiah returns to establish God’s Kingdom once and for all. In other words, we are to live out God’s shalom in this world. As God’s people, we are called to show the world what God’s shalom looks like through how we treat others. In its simplest form, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves—and the Gospels make it clear that “neighbor” includes everyone. I also like how the prophet Micah puts it:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
     and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
     and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, this Prince of Shalom, may we consider how he calls us to be agents of that shalom to a world that desperately needs it from God’s people.