"Deep" Meaning of "Gloria in excelsis Deo"

Question

Sorry if the question is not very deep, please edit the question if it is not accurate in meaning.

According to Wikipedia (and common understanding of people who sang Gloria), the meaning is stated as "Glory to God in the highest".

However, recently one of my friends told me that the meaning should be "May there be a lot of glory to God".

Two differences in this 2 translations would be:

1. Certainty (a claim versus "May"), and
2. "God in the highest" versus "'glory to God' in the highest sense (to the extreme)".

My friend explained to me:

1. The verb-to-be "sit" is missing from the sentence, showing uncertainty.
2. excelsis is "masculine, plural, dative" while Deo is "masculine, singular, dative". So the adverb phrase "In excelsis" is describing the sentence as a whole but not God.

I understand that "Gloria in excelsis Deo" is in nominative case instead of vocative case. However when people sing (or say it), usually they are "claiming" that Glory to the highest God. So... I would like to know how "correct" is my friend's explanation, and whether I should sound like "claiming a fact" or "expressing a wish" with the phrase "Gloria in excelsis Deo".

Answer 1

If there is an implicit sit, it does not show uncertainty. The conjunctive mood can show uncertainty, but it has other functions. One of them is wishes (sometimes called optative), like sit Deus tibi benignus, "may the God be benign to you". The English "may" does not imply uncertainty either, unless I'm mistaken. "There may be" is uncertain by "may there be" is a wish.

It is not clear to me if a sit should be understood in that line. Perhaps some form of esse should be understood. One option is indeed sit for a wish. Another one is esto, which also expresses a wish. I am not aware of a significant difference in nuance between these in this context, although one is present conjunctive and the other is future imperative. (Both are in third person. Latin has third person future imperatives.)

Yet another option is simply est. Perhaps there simply is glory to the God, and a fact is being stated. In this case one can read the dative Deo possessively, rendering gloria Deo est as "God has glory".

The line can express a fact or a wish. (But I can't parse it as an uncertain statement, especially in this context.) Without a verb it's hard to judge, since both readings make sense. Perhaps the expression was borrowed from somewhere else and the context in that other place is clearer. But read in isolation — it does make sense in isolation too — it is ambiguous.

The adverb(ial phrase) in excelsis can be interpreted in several ways. Perhaps "in high" or "in Heaven" would be most appropriate. It is not stated whether it is the God or the glory that is in Heaven, but it eventually makes little difference. Your friend seems to read this adverb as "excessively". This is not completely unrealistic, but does strike me as odd. It seems far more likely that it refers to location way up high.

But again, the line does not explain itself precisely, and it is open to interpretations. The differences between the interpretations seem to be mostly grammatical, though, and I cannot see big differences in meaning.

Answer 2

Luke ch2 v13

et subito facta est cum angelo multitudo militiae caelestis laudantium Deum et dicentium

14 gloria in altissimis Deo :: et in terra pax in hominibus bonae voluntatis

Background:
It is the song of the army of the angels.
it describes a two-tier universe.

The angel army (multitudo militiae) are praising and saying (laudantium et dicentem).
You can get a pretty good idea of the *Gloria to God," part if you can understand the easy half of the quote which describes

"the multitude of the heavenly militia praising and saying [ ... and ] on earth (et in terra) peace (pax) to men of good will.(hominibus bonae voluntatis)

Answer 3

Gloria in altissimis Deo :: et in terra pax in hominibus bonae voluntatis.

There is a contrast between "in altissimis" (or "in excelsis") and "in hominibus". That suggests to me that "in excelsis" means "among those who are most high" as opposed to "among men".