A Boy is born in Bethlehem
Merry Christmas!
A Boy is born in Bethlehem ◊ 112 ELS Hymnal, thanks to the hard work of Mark DeGarmeaux and the worship committe of Bethany Lutheran College.
\\(Latin and German text)
1. Et Barn er født i Bethlehem,
Thi glæde sig Jerusalem!
Halleluja! Halleluja!
2. En fattig Jomfru sad i Løn,
Og fødte Himlens Konge-Søn!
3. Han lagdes i et Krybbe-Rum,
Guds Engle sang med Fryd derom:
4. Og Østens Vise offred der,
Guld, Røgelse og Myrrha skiær!
5. Forsvundet er nu al vor Nød,
Os er i Dag en Frelser fød!
6. I Kiød og Blod blev Han os lig,
Og giør os til Guds Børn med sig!
7. Guds kiære Børn vi blev paany,
Skal lege Jul i Himmel-By!
8. Paa Stjerne-Tepper lyseblaae,
Skal glade vi til Kirke gaae!
9. Guds Engle der os lære brat,
At sjunge, som de sang inat:
10. Da vorde Engle vi som de,
Gud-Faders Ansigt vi skal see,
11. For Frelser bold og Broder blid,
Vi synge da til evig Tid:
This Christmas hymn was especially popular during the ancient period. Its author is unknown. The oldest Latin text found so far is contained in a Benedictine book dating from the beginning of the fourteenth century. This copy belonged to the Cloister of St. George, near Olmütz, but is now kept in the university library of Prague. It was printed in 1886, in G. M. Dreves’ Cantiones Bohemicae. It contains nine stanzas with an added doxology from a 1420 Cantionale. This text with ten stanzas is also found in a Hereford Breviary of 1505. The Latin text, which is found in many different redactions ranging from six to twelve stanzas, has, very likely, been composed by several authors. Consequently, it has undergone many changes due to omissions, revisions, and additions. “Puer natus” was translated into German in 1439 by Heinrich von Laufenberg. Later on a number of German versions appeared. In the old German, Danish, and Swedish hymnals a translation in the vernacular was inserted immediately after each Latin stanza. It has been surmised that the choir sang the Latin and the congregation sang translations of the same. The German rendering most extensively used was that found in Val. Babst’s Gesangbuch, 1545: “Ein Kind geboren zu Bethlehem.” This contains ten stanzas with the German translation inserted after each stanza except the second. Other Protestant and Catholic hymnals published the hymn in various forms, but all have the same beginning. The first Danish translation appeared in the Supplement to Hans Tausen’s Hymn Book, circa 1553. This is written in four-lined stanzas without the “Hallelujah,” and it has not been included in the later Danish hymnals. The first Danish version which follows the old form, ten two-lined stanzas with the “Hallelujah,” is found in Thomissøn’s Hymn Book of 1569. This version has also been used in Kingo’s and Pontoppidan’s editions. Grundtvig revised the hymn, and his beautiful rendering is used now in Denmark. Landstad has followed Thomissøn’s edition, but has to some extent modernized the language. The English version included in The Lutheran Hymnary was made by Philip Schaff and was printed in his Christ in Song, 1869. There areat least eleven other English translations.
In regard to the third stanza, Skaar quotes from the hymnological works of Daniel: “On many early medieval paintings representing the nativity of Christ, as well as in Christmas hymns, are found an ox and an ass. This practice has been ascribed to a faulty rendering of the passage, Hab. 3:2: ‘In the midst of beasts make known’; for ‘In the midst of the years make it known.’ They concluded from Is. 1:3 that the two ‘beasts’ referred to were the ox and the ass: ‘The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib.’ These passages are taken to be the Biblical basis for the old Christmas stanza: ‘Cognovit bos et asinus, quod puer erat Dominus, Halleluja’ (The ox and the ass knew that the Child was the Lord).” Nutzhorn claims that the expression is rather. an “innocent desire for free poetic representation of the circumstances surrounding the nativity of Christ.” [Dahle, Library of Christians Hymns]
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