For our final Bible drill of the year, let’s turn our attention to the biblical truth illustrated in one of my all-time favorite Christmas carols, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” The lyrics for this beloved song were penned by Charles Wesley in 1739….
Jewel’s rendition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUqtKJ13eH4
Duke’s Christian glee club version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLZlWmpDMTY
A very sweet version with children dancing to it in a Vietnamese church:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rid5rcLMy_4
Merry Christmas to all
My favorite of our Christmas hymns. It struck me last night how the Christmas hymns, despite our overfamiliarity with them as muzak and jingles, are just packed with solid, Biblical theology. Would really be a blast to take people through them as a Christian ed. exercise.
Thanks for posting this.
robroy, I noticed the Vietnamese church sang “offspring of the favored one” instead of “offspring of the Virgin’s womb”. Never heard that before, but apparently it is a common version. While it is biblically correct, I wonder why not use the original words. Anybody familiar with the background behind the alternate wording?
Charles Wesley’s original opening verse was “Hark! how all the welkin rings/Glory to the King of Kings”.
An urban legend has Charles Wesley upset at George Whitfield for changing it to the beloved verse we all know…for the angel did not sing, the angel spoke…and Charles wanted the hymn to accurately reflect the biblical text.
But then again, the vault of heaven (the welkin) did not ring for that matter.
Still, it conveys the extraordinary Christmas message. On Christmas Eve, the entire congregation sang it vigorously with each member ringing bells they brought from home (my daughter tinkling my keys as the altar party processed out). Wonderful !
It really irritates me when editors change the lyrics of hymns. In the 1984 Hymnal, the second verse reads “pleased as man with us to dwell/Jesus our Emmanuel” instead of “pleased as man with man to dwell/Jesus our Emmanuel.” If you don’t like the words of another author’s song, write your own, but please don’t change the lyrics and poetry of another author’s work!
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
#5 Philip, Boy have you got that right. I think there are those that try to compose hymns complete with a musical score so that they are politically correct. Ugh!!
I agree with #5. The “PC” crowd butchered many great hymns in the name of “political correctness”, but this is one change that really galls me. I always sing the version from the old hymnal.
Nos 5,6 &7;- I agree!
Ditto to #s 5 and on! I make it a point to sing the original words, much to the dismay of those around me.
The Catholic hymnal [i]Worship[/i] sometimes partakes of the politically correct neutral pronouns when referring to humans (not God, thank you) and sometimes they are just eliminating archaic language forms. With not much tradition of singing in English, cradle Catholics don’t catch on, but I, unfortunately, do. Sometimes you can’t really tell why they do something. For some reason, “Fairest Lord Jesus” became “Beautiful Savior”. “Humbly we adore thee, verity unseen” becomes “Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,”. This drives me nuts and I have left instructions that the REAL words are to be used at my funeral. 🙂