I will not leave my Jesus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I won't leave my Jesus with the melody by Johann Ulich ( DEG )

I will not leave my Jesus is an evangelical hymn. It is about the unconditional trust of Christians in Jesus Christ . Christian Keimann wrote the text in 1658. Johann Ulich composed the melody commonly used today in 1674. In the Evangelical Hymn book it has number 402, rubric “Faith - Love - Hope. Secure in God's love ”.

Emergence

Christian Keimann (1607–1662), a fruitful pedagogical and religious author, had been the high school rector in Zittau since 1638 and had already received the imperial honorary title Poeta laureatus in 1651 when he wrote My Jesus I don't let me . The song can be found for the first time in Andreas Hammerschmidt's choir book Fest-, Buß- und Danklieder from 1658 and should not have been written much earlier. The occasion was the death of the Saxon Elector Johann Georg I on October 8, 1656. On his deathbed, in conversation with his pastor Jakob Weller, he repeated the confessional sentence that became the title and central theme of Keimann's song. The first letters of the last stanza J – G – C – Z – S result in the initials of "Johann Georg Churfürst zu Sachsen".

content

Keimann conceived the song completely based on the core sentence, firstly as the opening line, secondly through the opening words of stanzas 1–5 ( acrostic , cf. Befiehl du seinewege ), thirdly as the final line of all six stanzas, fourth, modified, as the beginning of the second and second the last stanza.

The sentence is not a direct quotation from the Bible, but in Jakob Weller's funeral sermons for the elector it is referred in detail to Jacob's nocturnal fight with the angel who represents God himself ( Gen. 32,27 LUT ), i.e.  to a radical conflict situation of trust in God. Keimann's development - according to the initial sentence in the first-person form, without reference to the community of believers - begins with Jesus' gift of himself on the cross, which demands and brings about a “ clingy ” attachment of the person for whom Jesus died. The second stanza relates this attachment to the shaping of “earthly life”, the third to suffering and agony, the fourth anticipates its completion in the blessed vision of God. The fifth stanza formulates the longing for Jesus, the "light", which makes all other wishes appear null and void, and again refers to Jesus' act of reconciliation before the last stanza sums it all up.

Text in the Evangelical Hymnal

I will not leave my Jesus ,
Praxis Pietatis Melica 1693

1. I will not leave my Jesus
because he gave himself up for me,
so my duty requires me
to live steadfastly for him.
He is the light of my life;
I will not leave my Jesus.

2. I will never leave Jesus
here in this earthly life;
I confidently give him
what I am and what I have.
Everything is judged on him;
I will not leave my Jesus.

3. Let the face pass,
hearing, tasting and feeling give way,
let the last daylight reach
me in this world:
if the thread of life breaks,
I will not let my Jesus.

4. I will not let him either,
if I now come to
where
my fathers' faith shines in front of him.
I am pleased with his face;
I will not leave my Jesus.

5. Not for the world, for heaven not
my soul wants and longs,
Jesus wants and his light,
atonement of me was with God,
I deliver him by the court;
I will not leave my Jesus.

6. I will not leave Jesus,
walk by his side forever;
Christ lets me
lead to the brook of life for and for .
Blessed is he who speaks to me like this:
I will not leave my Jesus.

Melodies and musical arrangements

Johann Sebastian Bach, opening chorus of cantata 124, unison stop tone of the lower voices on "stick to him"

In the first publication, the song is assigned a melody by Andreas Hammerschmidt, which was still in use in the 18th century. It forms the basis of the numerous arrangements by Johann Sebastian Bach : individual movements in cantatas 70 , 154 , 157 and at the end of the first part of the early version of the St. Matthew Passion , but above all the chorale cantata 124 .

In the 19th century, Johann Crüger's melody Jesus, my confidence, was still the melody for Keimann's text.

The melody today - at least since the German Evangelical Hymnbook  - do I not leave exclusively associated with My Jesus ? / i was composed by Johann Ulich in 1674. It gives the text a "tender" sound , primarily through the emphasis on thirds in the two opening lines. Max Reger based his late romantic chant cantata Meinen Jesum ich nicht (1906). Audio file / audio sample

literature

Web links

Commons : I will not leave my Jesus  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Weller referred to this several times in his memorial sermons for the Elector, for example on October 16, 1656 in Dresden ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ occupies z. B. 1787 and 1843 ; this explains the change from "Jesus" (line 1) to "Christ" (line 3).
  3. ↑ Verse 1, line 4, original version. - Jakob Weller reports in his memorial sermon from October 1656 that the mother of the deceased elector said on her deathbed (1622): "I want to cling to the skirt of the Mercy of Jesus Christ like a burdock" ( digital copy ).
  4. ↑ 1693: “Jesus”; see. Jesus - Declination
  5. ↑ 1693: "to stick to it like a velcro"
  6. ↑ 1693: “because I am to live on earth”; the temporal use of “because” (= “meanwhile”) is incomprehensible today.
  7. ↑ 1693: "the last thread"
  8. ↑ Keimann wrote "my parents' faith emblazoned" and thus made the dying elector directly the lyrical self of the song. The later changes to this passage take into account the fact that some singers of the song still have living parents and others perhaps unbelievers (1693: "pious Christian").
  9. ↑ cf. Ps 73,25  LUT
  10. ↑ 1693: "the"
  11. ↑ text line changed in today's hymn books
  12. ^ Goltz, 1843