Now come, the Gentile Savior

Printed in the Erfurt Enchiridion of sacred chants

Now come on, the Gentile Savior is an Advent song by Martin Luther (1483–1546), which goes back to the early church hymn Veni redemptor gentium by Ambrosius of Milan (339–397).

The hymn of Ambrose

The text of Ambrose is part of his extensive liturgical hymns and comprises eight stanzas, each with four eight-syllable lines. The Trinitarian doxology was not added until the Middle Ages, while the original opening stanza Intende qui regis Israel ( Psalm 80 ) was dropped.

Ambrose emphasizes the divine-human dual nature of the Redeemer, which manifests itself in the birth of the Virgin right at the beginning of his earthly path , in ever new turns and with numerous psalm quotations .

Transfers

Even before Luther there were German translations of the well-known Ambrosian hymn, for example by Heinrich Laufenberg ( "Kum Har, Erlöser Volkes Schar" , 1418) or by Thomas Müntzer (1524). A later Germanization by Johann Franck ( "Come, Heidenheiland, ransom" ) also found a certain distribution.

With his complete rhyming translation of the Veni redemptor, Luther strictly followed the original, occasionally, for example in verses 2 and 6, at the expense of comprehensibility. In this way he expressed his respect for the authoritative old church text , in deliberate opposition to “ enthusiasm ”. He deviated from the Ambrosian meter by reducing it by one syllable per line. The song was first published in 1524 in Erfurt and in Wittenberg. Verses 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are now linguistically revised in the Evangelical Hymnal (EG 4).

The praise of God contains under number 227 ( GL ^old 108) a new translation of the Ambrosius text without rhymes (verses 1, 2, 4, 7 and 8) by Markus Jenny ( “Come, you Savior of the whole world” , 1971).

For centuries, the Luther chorale was the main Lutheran song of the Advent season and, especially during the Baroque period, was arranged countless times for organ, choir and other ensembles. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the choral cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62 , about the chorale in 1724 , and used the first stanza for Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61 as early as 1714 . There are also various chorale arrangements by him for organ:

• Bach Works Directory 599 in A minor
• Bach Works Directory 659 in G minor
• Bach Works Directory 660 (Trio super) in G minor
• Bach Works Directory 661 in G minor

melody

Ambrose probably left at least four melodies for this hymn. The melody sung today, however, goes back to a handwriting of the Benedictine monastery Einsiedeln from the year 1120, which possibly originates from the musical heyday of the monastery of St. Gallen around 900 and was composed in the first church tone . The municipal version published in Erfurt in 1524 was probably created by Martin Luther himself for his text. Like the latter, it reduces the meter by the first syllable of each line. This German version is a counterfactor .

A well-known four-part choral setting of the song comes from Lucas Osiander the Elder .

content

The song initially formulates the request for the final appearance of the Savior, it looks at his incarnation (from ... the royal hall ... his course came from the Father ... ) and the history of salvation associated with the death of the cross ( Christ's descent into hell ) and the resurrection . Ultimately, it leads to the affirmation of trust in the light in the manger. A trinitarian praise (a medieval addition to the Ambrose text) closes the song.

Ambrose	Luther	today
Veni, redemptor gentium; Ostend partum virginis; Miretur omne saeculum. Talis decet partus deodorant. Non ex virili semine, Sed mystico spiramine Verbum Dei factum est caro, Fructusque ventris floruit. Alvus tumescit virginis. Claustrum pudoris permanent; Vexilla virtutum micant, Versatur in templo Deus. Procedit e thalamo suo, Pudoris aula regia, Geminae gigans substantiae Alacris ut currat viam. Egressus eius a Patre, Regressus eius ad Patrem; Excursus usque ad inferos Recursus ad sedem Dei. Aequalis aeterno Patri, Carnis tropaeo accingere, Infirma nostri corporis Virtute firmans perpeti. Praesepe iam fulget tuum, Lumenque nox spirat novum, Quod nulla nox interpolet Fideque iugi luceat. Gloria tibi, Domine, Qui natus es de virgine, Cum Patre et Sancto Spiritu, In sempiterna saecula.	Now come the Heyden heyland / the yungfrawen kynd recognizing. The sych wunnder all world / God such gepurt yhm ordered. Not from Man's blood nor from flesh / only from the holy geyst / Has God's word become a man / and blossom a fruit woman's flesh. The yungfraw body got pregnant / but stay chaste reyn beward light already has many virtues / God there was yn his throne. He walked out of the kamer seyn / the royal hall so reyn. God of the kind and man eyn brightens / be away he eyllt to run. Seyn walks came from the father / and keret against to the father. For backwards to the bright / and against to God's stool. You are the same as your father / for hynnaus den syeg ym flesh / that your eternal gots violence / ynn vnns contains the sick fleysch. Your crypt shines bright and clear / the night gybt a new liecht / tunckel does not have to come dreyn / the belief remains ymer ym scheyn. Praise be god to the father thon / Praise be got seym eyngen son. Praise be got to the holy geyst / ymer vnnd ynn eternalkeyt.	1. Now come, the Gentile Savior, the virgin child recognized that all the world is miraculous, God orders such birth for him. 2. He went out of the chamber to be, the royal hall so pure, God of kind and man, a hero; his' way he hurries to run. 3. His course came from the Father and returns to the Father, descended to hell and back to God's chair. 4. Your cribs shine brightly and clearly, the night provides a new light. Darkness does not have to come in, faith always remains in the light. 5. Praise be to God g'tan the Father; Praise be to God be in one son, praise be to God the Holy Spirit always and forever.

literature

• Johannes Kulp (edited by Arno Büchner and Siegfried Fornaçon): The songs of our church. A handout for the Protestant church hymn book ; Handbook for the Evangelical Church Hymnal. Special tape. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958, pp. 7-12
• Andreas Marti : 4 - Now come, the Gentile Savior . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 12 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-50335-0 , p. 3–11 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
• Alexander Zerfass: Mysterium mirabile. Poetry, theology and liturgy in the hymns of Ambrose of Milan for the Christ feasts of the church year . Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7720-8271-9 , pp. 9-148 ( limited preview in Google book search)

Web links

Commons : Come on now, the Gentile Savior  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Nu kom der Heyden heyland  - sources and full texts

Wikibooks: Songbook / Come on, the Gentile Savior  - sheet music for the song

• Hymnological Analysis (Joachim Grabinski)
• Fritz Wagner: "Veni redemptor gentium" - A Christmas hymn by Ambrosius of Milan . In: Pegasus , 3/2002, 1.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Markus Bautsch: On counterfactures of Gregorian repertoire - Veni redemptor gentium . Retrieved December 3, 2014
2. ↑ In Kurt Aland's orthographically adapted edition, the line reads: “shines out some virtue already” ( Luther Deutsch , Volume 6, Göttingen, 3rd edition 1983, p. 248).