Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Matthew 1:23
"....A little less than a hundred and fifty years later, the poem came to the attention of Anglican priest and hymn writer John Mason Neale (1818-1866).
Prevented from serving in a parish by lung disease, Neale.... In his spare time, he set out to translate for his fellow Anglicans the great early and medieval Greek and Latin hymns for all the feasts and fasts of the Christian year.
Among Neale’s many, many hymnal collections were titles such as Hymns of the Eastern Church and Hymns, Chiefly Medieval, on the Joys and Glories of Paradise. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel appeared in Medieval Hymns and Sequences (1851), headed by his notation: “This Advent hymn is little more than a versification of some of the Christmas antiphons commonly called the O’s.”
Neale’s translation of the hymn made it into the Church of England’s official hymnal in 1861 and spread from there throughout Protestantism. Along the way, various other translators kept tinkering with the text; the version most commonly used today combines Neale with alterations made for the Episcopal Hymnal 1940 and stanzas on Christ as Wisdom and Desire (King) of Nations translated by Presbyterian preacher Henry Sloane Coffin (1877-1954).
In Neale’s day, hymnals for congregations were often published in
sizes small enough to carry to church in a pocket or bag. This meant the tunes were omitted from most hymnals; only occasionally did editions with tunes appear. In Neale’s tune collection The Hymnal, Noted (1854) he copied the melody, using it only for the first stanza and refrain, from “French sources.”
For many years no one knew quite what Neale’s “French sources” were, and though to this day no one still knows how Neale came in contact with the melody, its origin was eventually traced to a 15th -century processional funeral hymn for French Franciscan nuns, found in a manuscript in the National Library of Paris.
An odd origin, perhaps, but his matching of tune and text seems inspired today; it is difficult to imagine the words set to any other music—especially when the verses are sung in a contemplative unison and the “Rejoice!” bursts forth in sudden, amazing harmony."
ChristianHistoryInstitute
Matthew 1:23
O come, O come, Emmanuel by The Piano Guys
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O come, O come, Emmanuel by Fountainview SDA Academy
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"....A little less than a hundred and fifty years later, the poem came to the attention of Anglican priest and hymn writer John Mason Neale (1818-1866).
Prevented from serving in a parish by lung disease, Neale.... In his spare time, he set out to translate for his fellow Anglicans the great early and medieval Greek and Latin hymns for all the feasts and fasts of the Christian year.
Among Neale’s many, many hymnal collections were titles such as Hymns of the Eastern Church and Hymns, Chiefly Medieval, on the Joys and Glories of Paradise. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel appeared in Medieval Hymns and Sequences (1851), headed by his notation: “This Advent hymn is little more than a versification of some of the Christmas antiphons commonly called the O’s.”
Neale’s translation of the hymn made it into the Church of England’s official hymnal in 1861 and spread from there throughout Protestantism. Along the way, various other translators kept tinkering with the text; the version most commonly used today combines Neale with alterations made for the Episcopal Hymnal 1940 and stanzas on Christ as Wisdom and Desire (King) of Nations translated by Presbyterian preacher Henry Sloane Coffin (1877-1954).
In Neale’s day, hymnals for congregations were often published in
For many years no one knew quite what Neale’s “French sources” were, and though to this day no one still knows how Neale came in contact with the melody, its origin was eventually traced to a 15th -century processional funeral hymn for French Franciscan nuns, found in a manuscript in the National Library of Paris.
An odd origin, perhaps, but his matching of tune and text seems inspired today; it is difficult to imagine the words set to any other music—especially when the verses are sung in a contemplative unison and the “Rejoice!” bursts forth in sudden, amazing harmony."
ChristianHistoryInstitute
