As Jonah, Issuing From His Three Days' Tomb

σπλαγχνων Ιωναν.

Ode VI, Canon for Christmas Day

St. Cosmas of Jerusalem, the Melodist (A. D. 760)

Source: Rev. John Mason Neale, D.D., Hymns of the Eastern Church. First Edition. (London: J. T. Hayes, 1862)

Meter: 10,10,10,10,10,10

As Jonah, issuing from his three days’ tomb,
        At length was cast, uninjured, on the earth;
So, from the Virgin’s unpolluted womb
        The Incarnate WORD, That dwelt there, had His Birth:
For He, Who knew no taint of mortal stain,
Willed that His Mother spotless should remain.

CHRIST comes, Incarnate GOD, amongst us now,
        Begotten of the FATHER ere the day:
And He, to Whom the sinless legions bow,
        Lies cradled, ‘midst unconscious beasts on hay:
And, by His homely swaddling-bands girt in,
Looses the many fetters of our sin.

Now the New Child of Adam’s race draws nigh,
    To us, the faithful, given: This, this is He
That shall the Father of Eternity,
    The Angel of the Mighty Counsel, be:
This the eternal GOD, by Whose strong hands
The fabric of the world supported stands.

Sheet Music from Rev. John Mason Neale, D.D., Hymns of the Eastern Church. Fourth Edition. (London: J. T. Hayes, 1882), edited by Very Rev. Stephen Georgeson Hatherly, Mus. B., Archpriest of the Patriarchal Æcumenical Throne.

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