You Came, God's Loving Wisdom, From On High
For Christmas
Words:
Veni, Veni, Emanuel (the "O" Antiphons),
Authorship
Unknown, 8th Century Latin;
Published As A Hymn in Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, 7th Edition, Köln, 1710.
Translated from Latin to English by John Mason Neale,
Draw Nigh, Draw Nigh, Emmanuel
in Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, 1851.
Adapted by
Dr. Steve H. Hakes © 2015; Used
with permission.
Music: "Veni Emmanuel," Based on a 15th Century French Processional,
Arranged by Rev. Thomas
Helmore and harmonized by Rev. S. S. Greatheed in
Hymnal Noted, Part II
(London: 1856)
and
Accompanying
Harmonies to the
Hymnal Noted-Part II (London: 1858)
MIDI /
Noteworthy
Composer /
PDF /
XML
Melody Only: MIDI /
Noteworthy Composer
/ PDF /
XML
Meter: 88 88 88
Source:
O Come, O Come,
Emmanuel,
Dr. Steve H. Hakes,
Lyricology Hub: Christian Songs
for Life
Compare:
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
See:
Notes
on Veni, Veni, Emmanuel
1.
You came God’s loving wisdom from on high
with him you did make earth
and sea and sky
creating man from just dust and clay
now you
have made a new and living way
Refrain
We now, rejoice, our lord Emmanuel
you came to save your Israel.
2.
You came in truth to save us Adonai
who to the tribes on height
of Sinai
in ancient times gave Moses your law
in cloud
and majesty and holy awe.
3.
You came of ancient royal line to free
the slaves from Satan’s pitch
black tyranny
from depth of hell lost people to save
and give
them victory beyond the grave.
4.
You came to give us all a royal throne
to open up your heavens for
our home
to make the way that has set us free
and close the path to
death’s dark misery.
5.
You came as radiance to replace our night
and cheered us by the bright
dawn of your light
dispersed the gloom and clouds of our night
our
futile shadows you have put to flight.
6.
You came O glorious prince of peace, in you
man’s hopes of peace
were by death born anew
and we who have bowed down to your call
are
better than we were before the Fall.
7.
You came you came, our lord Emmanuel
to ransom once held captive
Israel
that mourned alone in dark exile here
until to set us free you
did appear.
Notes by Dr. Hakes:
The substructure, as Veni, veni Emmanuel, seems to date from the 12th century or earlier. It was translated into English in the 19th century.01 It was written as a pre-Christmas Advent reflection, sung in the persona of Ethnic Israel awaiting her messiah, yet doubling for Christians awaiting the
Parousia. It asks Jesus about Jesus [and himself!] returning, specifically, returning to save his lost people. Visualisation is patchy, and if unexplained, some might sing with the idea that it's to encourage pre-messianic Ethnic Israel to await the Second Advent, as a shared hope with Christians. It confuses singer with vision. If we are singing as pre-incarnation Israel, then it's not [Rod of Jesse ... give them victory], but [Rod of Jesse ... give us victory]: let their shoes become ours - we are thy people, bless them? Unless we are singing to Jesus about another Jesus, then not [come, Emmanuel ... Israel... mourns ... Until the Son of God appear], but [come, Emmanuel ... we Israel ... mourn ... Until you Son of God [do] appear] or some such. The song loses the focus.In my book Israel's Gone Global, I have argued that Israel is a term with many layers, including the messianic community as the NT church, and that at least some terms analogous to Ethnic Israel may be applied to it. For example, we are the true diaspora, the true church of the wilderness, as well as in another sense the true church in the Promised Land. In Christ, we have entered the Promised Land vis-a-vis our prior captivity and wanderings. Yet vis-à-vis the ultimate dimension of eternal life, we are but wanderers still awaiting the Promised Land. In other words, Promised Land has layers of reality. This is likely to have been the original approach behind the song, which seems to have been a later paraphrase of earlier advent antiphonies.02 In its Latin original, there were 7 stanzas, one for each successive day from Dec. 17 through Dec. 23. Each had a supposed Isaianic title of Christ, and when you arrived at the stanza for Dec. 23, you could take the first letter from each of the titles of Christ reading backwards to the 17th, and see that they were ERO CRAS, which is a Latin phrase for "I will come tomorrow." A touch of genius, lost in translation. I would change its tardisial
03 nature, and sing it as fait accompli - the redeemer has come. Hence Vinit, venit, Emmanual.Footnote by Dr. Hakes
1. Lyrics to O Come, O Come Emmanuel from The Center for Church Music - Songs & Hymns. <http://songsandhymns.org/hymns/lyrics/o-come-o-come-emmanuel>.
2. Hymn detail to O Come, O Come Emmanuel from The Center for Church Music - Songs & Hymns. <http://songsandhymns.org/hymns/detail/o-come-o-come-emmanuel>
3. By which I mean it can travel in time, whether to the Birth or 10,000 years forward when "we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun". Return
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