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PEACE.—From Latin pax, through French.—1. Except in Dan_8:25; Dan_11:21; Dan_11:24 (where RV [Note: Revised Version.] corrects to ‘security’), the OT ‘peace’ represents uniformly the Heb. shâlôm (Eastern salaam), the fundamental sense of which—always more or less distinctly implied—is welfare (as in Gen_43:27, Psa_73:3 etc.); of well-being, in the old turbulent times, peace was the prime condition. The word has the following specific religious uses: (1) it is the common formula of courteous well-wishing, employed both at meeting and at parting (see Gen_43:23, 1Sa_1:17, Psa_122:7 f.; cf. Mat_10:12 f.); (2) ‘peace’ constituted the most conspicuous blessing of the Messianic Kingdom of God (wh. see; cf. Psa_72:3; Psa_72:7, Isa_2:4; Isa_9:5-7; Isa_11:5-9, Hag_2:9, Zec_9:10); and (3) it signified a sound and settled understanding between J″ [Note: Jahweh.] and His people (Num_6:26, Psa_29:11; Psa_85:8 ff; Psa_122:6, Jer_16:5 etc.)—hence J″ [Note: Jahweh.] ’s ‘covenant of peace’ is lodged with His priests (Num_25:12, Mal_2:4 f.). In this last and richest use the word approximates to its subjective NT signification, implying tranquillity of heart, as in Psa_4:8; Psa_119:155, Isa_48:18; Isa_48:22.
2. The transition, from OT to NT usage strikingly illustrates the inwardness of Christianity. Out of some 90 NT instances of ‘peace’ there are not more than 8 or 9 which do not refer to heart-peace. The Greek eirçnç in its proper sense signified peace strictly, as the opposite of conflict; but it took over, first in the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] and then in the NT, the broader import of shâlôm, which is conspicuous in the (Hebraistic) Benedictions (see Mar_5:34, Luk_7:30; Luk_24:36, Joh_14:27, Jam_2:16 etc.) and in the epistolary Salutations. In the latter formulæ, ‘peace’ comprehends the sum of blessing experienced, as ‘grace’ the sum of blessing bestowed, from God in Christ. The Messianic peace (1 (2), above) reappears in Luk_1:79; Luk_2:14, Mat_10:34; and the peace of harmony with God (1 (3)) in Joh_16:33, Act_10:36, Rom_8:6; Rom_15:33, Php_4:7 etc. The uses just named are gathered up, with a deepened sense, into the specific NT doctrine of peace, of which Paul is the exponent, and Rom_5:1 the classical text (cf. v. 10, also 2Co_5:18-21, Eph_2:13-18, Col_1:20; see article on Justification): ‘peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ is the state and the experience of those who have been ‘reconciled’ to the Father through the sacrifice offered by the Son of His love, whose ‘trespasses’ are ‘forgiven’ and in whose heart ‘the spirit of adoption’ dwells. Reconciled to God, men are reconciled to life and the world; by His cross Christ ‘has slain’ at a blow ‘the enmity’ between God and man and between race and race (Eph_2:18). ‘Peace on earth’ is to flow from ‘the peace of Christ’ that ‘rules in’ Christian ‘hearts’ (Col_3:15).
G. G. Findlay.