Thrivent's Choice: No Longer Pro-Life

Thrivent just published what they are calling a "Neutrality Policy" with regard to giving funds to particular groups.

Until last November Thrivent chose to support pro-life groups.

They last December 2013 then chose to support Planned Parenthood and NARAL. (ouline of those events here)

Members complained about the support of a pro-abortion group.

Thrivent claimed they only listed the groups suggested by local chapters, but had not actually sent money to Planned Parenthood.

But according to their actual records they had.

Now they claim they are taking a "Neutral" position by refusing to fund pro-abortion groups and pro-life groups.

This is not neutral.

Previously they chose not to support abortion, then they chose to. And only in the controversy did they withdraw support for abortion providers.

Previously they chose to support the plight of the unborn. Now they refuse.

Thrivent's new "Neutrality Policy" states:

Under this policy, certain organizations are not eligible to receive outreach support or funding. This includes, but is not limited to, organizations with a primary purpose of providing services for or advocating positions either supporting or opposing certain social, politically partisan, or health and human services causes and issues, such as abortion, sexual orientation, or guns. Decisions regarding the application of this policy and the eligibility of specific organizations to receive outreach funding or support are made at the sole discretion of Thrivent's management team and are subject to change.

These are all funds for something Thrivent calls "Thrivent Choice" funds.

They have made their choice. They have made a choice against defending the unborn. They still want money from Lutherans and still call themselves "Thrivent Financial for Lutherans." But now that it comes to it, Thrivent has made a clear choice that what Luther's Small Catechism teaches about the Fifth and Sixth Commandments has no place in their organization.

Redeeming Holy Days--Protestant Sources

This is a resource page and contents may change

Protestant Writings against the Medieval Church and Liturgical Days

These resources ar highly biased and very inaccurate regarding the origins of the Medieval Church liturgical season and days.


Thomas Becon

     1563 The Reliques of Rome
        [available with an account]














Joshua Stopford's
     1675 Pagano-Papismus
        [in this online edition of Stopford ]



Increase Mather

     1687   A TESTIMONY Against several Prophane and Superstitious CUSTOMS, Now Practised by some in New-England, The Evil whereof is evinced from the Holy Scriptures, and from the Writings both of Ancient and Modern Divines. 
        [web page at covenanter.org]
        This is from the Reformed Presbyterian Church (Covenanted)

Increase Mather was a rabidly anti-Catholic Puritan responsible for burning witches in Massachusetts.

American Puritan Increase Mather's 1687 A Testimony.. ch 3 section 4 claims "Incarnation of Christ, was in the seventh month." The argument he makes is against a Dec 25th Christmas. By "incarnation" Increase Mather seems to mean "birth" rather than "conception."



Alexander Hislop

    1858  The Two Babylons or The Papal Worship Proved to be The Worship of Nimrod and His Wife, The Mark of the Beast Revealed, Fourth Edition edited by R.H. A&B Publishers Group, Brooklyn, New York.
        [at the internet archive]
       [ at philologos webpage version described as a Messianic Christian group emphasizing what they think is significant about what they believe is Jesus' Jewish background]

Redeeming Holy Days-Candlemas/Presentation

Candlemas is February 2nd, forty days after the birth of Christ it is the Festival of the Purification of Mary. The Gospel Lesson for this festival is Luke 2:22-40.

Perhaps this particular festival does not loom as large in significance to many Christian readers. Even more unfortunately, it seems to be overlooked in Lutheranism today. The theological importance of Christ's presentation at the Temple, Mary's fulfillment of the Law of Purification, the meeting with Simeon and Anna, and the words of Simeon to Mary and the Nunc Dimittis are essential to appreciating the Humiliation of the Son of God when He became man to fulfill the Law and suffer for us.


But this particular Holy Day has also been under assult from the time of the radical Protestants began rejecting all liturgical practices of the medieval Church. Today the assult is twofold: radical Protestants continue this assult, and non-Christians use some of the same arguments in an attempt to discredit Christianity as a whole by attempting to discredit each of the practices of Christianity. For the most part their arguments fall into the categories of proof by intimidation (argumentum verbosium), obscurantism, and what South Park calls "The Chewbacca Defense" (irrelevant conclusion).

A Note from the Author of this series:
What we hope to do in these articles is present the basic information about each Holy Day, and the claims made against them in a clear order. In doing this we present quotations or links to the actual historical writings of the people involved, or the earliest possible references known. We do use modern historians also, for two reasons: 1) to understand the nature of their claims, and 2) to check on their sources to see if they are valid and support their claims.

The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and the Purification of the Virgin Mary is widely observed today in Confessional Lutheranism. The Gospel lesson relates the events that took place forty days after the birth of Christ, including Simeon's singing of the Nunc Dimittis, and the visit of Anna the Prophetess.

It has become popular today to claim that Christianity stole/baptized/or subverted pagan holidays for our own purposes. This claim is widely accepted as factual simply because it is considered common knowledge. Neopaganism and Wiccans have made particular claims about this Church Holy Day.

 A quite common form of this claim is cited here:

“'Candlemas' is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course. The older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc. 'Imbolc' means, literally, 'in the belly' (of the Mother). For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings. The seed that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows. 'Oimelc' means 'milk of ewes', for it is also lambing season.

      The holiday is also called 'Brigit's Day', in honor of the great Irish Goddess Brigit. At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol of Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor. She was considered a goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing (especially the healing touch of midwifery). This tripartite symbolism was occasionally expressed by saying that Brigit had two sisters, also named Brigit. (Incidentally, another form of the name Brigit is Bride, and it is thus She bestows her special patronage on any woman about to be married or handfasted, the woman being called 'bride' in her honor.)

      The Roman Catholic Church could not very easily call the Great Goddess of Ireland a demon, so they canonized her instead. Henceforth, she would be 'Saint' Brigit, patron saint of smithcraft, poetry, and healing. They 'explained' this by telling the Irish peasants that Brigit was 'really' an early Christian missionary sent to the Emerald Isle, and that the miracles she performed there 'misled' the common people into believing that she was a goddess. For some reason, the Irish swallowed this. (There is no limit to what the Irish imagination can convince itself of. For example, they also came to believe that Brigit was the 'foster-mother' of Jesus, giving no thought to the implausibility of Jesus having spent his boyhood in Ireland!)” (Mike Nichols his web page at witchessabbats.com at sacredtexts.org or http://deoxy.org/time/sabbats/02-04.htm)

For the most part descriptions like this are anachronistic and impossible. The concept of an overall pagan "Mother Earth" "Earth Mother" "Gaia" "Mother Goddess" was not ancient, but an innovative amalgam of the Romantic period. The first formulation of an generalized overall Mother Earth goddess came from Eduard Gerhard's 1849 Uber Metroen und Gotter-Mutter (Ronald Hutton The Triumph of the Moon 1999:36-7, 420n16). And it wasn't until the 20th century that the notion of a great Earth Mother goddess was behind all of European paganism (Edmund Chambers, 1903 The Medieval Stage, in Hutton 1999:36, 420n26)

The basic claims about this Holy Day are:
1) February 2nd originally was originally a pagan holy day.
2) That pagan holy day was from the Celtic tradition of celebrating Imbolc.
3) The pagan goddess Brigid is older than the Christian Holy Day
4) The Irish Christian St. Brigit (feast day Feb. 1) is really a christianization of pagan goddess Brigid.

In short, the argument would have to claim that the 2nd century Christians (in Asia Minor, Egypt, and Rome) who established the dates of Christmas at Dec. 25/Jan 6 chose those dates because they knew that some Irish Celtic writers 800 years later would call February 2nd Imbolc.

So let us start with the documented history of Candlemas.

The Origins of Candlemas

Candlemas is the Festival of the Purification of Mary, also called The Festival of the Presentation of Christ. This ritual of purification was to take place forty days after the birth of a male child. When this time was fulfilled the mother was to make a sacrifice for her own impurity and for the sake of the child. This was prescribed by the ceremonial Law which God gave to the children of Abraham at Mt. Sinai. Leviticus 12:2-8:

² “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. ³ And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. ⁴ She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.
⁵ ‘But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.
⁶ ‘When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁷ Then he shall offer it before the Lord, and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female.
⁸ ‘And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’”

Because Jesus was Mary's firstborn, an additional part of the Old Covenant applied--called the Law of the Firstborn. This was a reminder of the cost in the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt who did not have the blood of the Passover Lamb marking them for rescue. Exodus 13 says:

¹¹ “And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, ¹² that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the Lord’s. ¹³ But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. ¹⁴ So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹⁵ And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶ It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
(see also Numbers 18:15-18)

For some liturgical traditions the Festival of the Purification/Presentation marks the end of the Christmas/Epiphany season: thus we have "The Forty Days of Christmas." Historically there has been some variation in some regional churches as to whether the day is observed 40 days after Christmas, or 40 days after Epiphany. So we will find some ancient sermons commemorating this festival as The Fortieth Day of Epiphany.

The Ancients Observed Christmas Dec. 25/Jan. 6

We have already demonstrated from Hippolytus of Rome and Clement of Alexandria that the December 25th/January 6th dates for the Nativity of Christ were already widely established throughout both the Eastern and Western Church by the end of the 2nd century A.D. This is well before the time of Constantine and the Nicean Council (Article on The Annunciation, Article on Christmas).

This means that the date for the celebration of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Christ would not be a consequence of trying to somehow sanctify a pagan holiday. The date is a simple matter of counting from that date according to the ceremonial law set down by God through Moses in the 15th century B.C.

I trust that the reader can check the other articles linked above to see the documentary evidence for the early observance of Christmas. From those documents we can proceed with these two basic facts:

1. By the end of the 2nd century A.D. the Post-Apostolic and Ante-Nicean Church established these dates for Christmas on the basis of their own Biblical exegetical readings.
2. The documents show that the choice of these dates had nothing to do with any so-called "Celtic" worship or gods, nor even with any Roman, Greek, Egyptian or Mesopotamian pagan practices.

When did Christians Start Observing the Festival?

Very often the claim is made that the date of the Purification of Mary was not fixed in the Church calendar until the time of Justinian--who reigned A.D. 527-565. The old Catholic Encyclopedia claimed that Justinian introduced the feast to the Eastern Church. And this is often misquoted or misrepresented as if Justinian invented the liturgical feast.
[Holweck, F. (1908). Candlemas. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved January 28, 2014 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03245b.htm]

However, it is ironic that many of the same people who maintain that Justinian introduced this feast also try to maintain (contrary to the facts) that Constantine (who reigned A.D. 306-337) fixed Christmas to December 25. But if they wish to think Constantine established those dates in the early 4th century, then by their own argument the date for the Purification of Mary would have been fixed at that time too. It is not a matter of the Church having to invent new holidays, it is an issue of teaching the life and work of Christ through the year using what is known of the dates from the Gospels.

But when did the Church actually start commemorating this day with special sermons, prayers, or liturgies?

The earliest documents show that this holiday was observed well before Justinian, and also before Constantine:

We have sermons about this feast day that show it was observed in the Church before the death of Methodius of Patara in A.D. 311 (south-western coastal Turkey near modern Gelemiş, in Antalya Province)

One of Methodius' surviving sermons for this festival is titled De Symeone et Anna; quo die Domino in templo occurrerunt. "On Simeon and Anna: the day on which the Lord was met in the Temple" (A Latin Copy of the Sermon) (Various sources for the sermon can be found here)

It is also enlightening to see the complexity of the liturgical practice surrounding this festival before the end of the fourth century. The travel-log of Egeria (St. Silvia of Aquitain) contains her description of the festival in Jerusalem in about A.D. 384:

“But certainly the Feast of the Purification is celebrated here with the greatest honour. On this day there is a procession to the Anastasis; all go in procession, and all things are done in order with great joy, just as at Easter. All the priests preach, and also the bishop, always treating of that passage of the Gospel where, on the fortieth day, Joseph and Mary brought the Lord into the Temple, and Simeon and Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Famuhel, saw Him, and of the words which they said when they saw the Lord, and of the offerings which the parents presented. And when all things have been celebrated in order as is customary, the sacrament is administered, and so the people are dismissed.”
(The Pilgrimage of S. Silvia of Aquitania to the Holy Places)

St. Ephrem the Syrian (A.D. 306-373), who wrote many hymns celebrating Christmas, observed Christmas on December 25th (Nativity Hymn III):

This day is the first-born feast, which, being born the first, overcomes all feasts.  In the winter which strips the fruit of the branches off from the barren vine, Fruit sprang up unto us; in the cold that bares all the trees, a shoot was green for us of the house of Jesse.  In December when the seed is hidden in the earth, there sprouted forth from the Womb the Ear of Life. (NPNF II:13:p. 230)

In Ephrem's Nativity Hymn IX recites a list of liturgical commemorations centered on the date of Christmas. The thirteenth verse confesses the observance of the Feast of the Presentation of Christ and the Purification of Mary as an annual liturgical event:

13. The All-Purifier Firstborn in the day of His purifying,—purified the purification of the firstborn and was offered in the Temple:—the Lord of offering needed offerings,—to make offering of birds.—In His Birth were fulfilled the types,—in His purification and circumcision the allegories.—He came and paid over debts in His coming down;—in His Resurrection He went up and sent down treasures. (NPNF II:13: p. 262)

Notice also the focus in the Gelasian Sacramentary (oldest Manuscripts we have from A.D. 750)

VIII
Orat in Purificatione sanctae Mariae
iv Nonas Februarias
Deus cui in hodierna die Unigenitus tuus in nostra carne, quam assumpsit pro nobis, in templo est praesentatus, praesta ut quem redemptorem nostrum laeti suscipimus venientem quoque iudicem securi videamus.
Per eundem Dominum nostrum.

VIII. Prayer for the Purification of St. Mary
February 2nd

O God, Thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, which He assumed for us; May He now be present so that we might joyfully welcome His coming as our Redeemer, and in the same way welcome Him when we shall see Him in authority as the Judge;
By the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Even though this last document is so much later than the others, it is included here to demonstrate a couple of very important points.

First: The documented liturgical celebration of this particular festival is continuous, widespread, and not dependent upon non-Christian festivals in any of the various areas in which it was celebrated.

Second: The actual documentation for this liturgical festival is older than any documentation that exists for the Celtic holiday that Presentation is supposed to replace.

What Do We See So Far?

In the early celebration of the Feast of the Presentation of Christ and the Purification of the Virgin Mary there is no reference to pagan days or worship. Rather, what we see is a desire to continue an annual commemoration based upon the dating of Christ's birth on December 25th. And, this dating to December 24th occurred before the end of the second century A.D. and was based upon the festival of Passover in the Pentateuch.

The choice of February 2nd is not arbitrary, but based upon the ceremonial law regarding the purification of women after the birth of a son and the redemption of the firstborn. These ceremonial laws are from the Pentateuch and unrelated to any European notions of ceremonial pagan festival dates.

The Feast of the Presentation of Christ is documented early; it is documented in widespread areas; and it is documented continuously. Plus, the documentation that exists for the Feast of the Presentation is older than the earliest documents about Celtic practices that are claimed as the source for the Christian Holy Day.

Has the church ever adopted pagan times or institutions? Yes. The Old Testament is full of examples and the consequences, and church history is full of all kinds of examples.

Did the church do so on this occasion? While the claims that such is the case proliferate throughout the Internet and in printed publications, the evidence does not support the claim. Another line of evidence against this claim is that the church fathers were never really shy in writing against adopting non-Christian practices and doctrine. [In formal logic this is called Evidence of Absence, not Absence of Evidence.]

While the church fathers have often been selectively misquoted to support such claims--in particular against Christmas, we have shown in a previous article why it is necessary to read them in context.

Why Candles? (Hint: The Nunc Dimittis)

Bede records in his Reckoning of Time (A.D. 725) the use of candles at the Feast of Purification was common in his day.  (Latin Text)

[O]n the feast of St Mary, the whole populace with the priests and ministers goes on procession through the churches and the city neighbourhoods, all singing devout hymns, and carrying in their hands burning candles given them by the bishop. As this good custom grew, it provided a model for the conduct of other feasts of the blessed Mother and perpetual Virgin as well, not in the five-year lustration of a worldly empire, but in the everlasting memory of the heavenly kingdom where, according to the parable of the wise virgins, all the elect shall go out to meet the Bridegroom, their King, with the lamps of their good deeds alight, and then shall enter into the heavenly city with Him. (Bede, The Reckoning of Time, Translation by Faith Wallis, Liverpool University Press, 1999 p. 49)

Here we have documented both an established and widespread liturgical observance with candles as well as Bede's understanding of the reason for the candles.

Rondald Hutton observed that the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2 gives ample reason for candles when the Christ child "was recognized there, according to the tale, by an old man called Simeon, who hailed him as the messiah of Israel and a Light to lighten the Gentiles." (The Stations of the Sun, 1999:139)

None of the pagan Roman feasts of February employed candles as part of the ritual. But early Protestant writers "tried to defame the medieval ritual by declaring that it had been taken directly from a pagan Roman festival of lights upon the same date." (ibid. 140) And this was taken up as a refrain by the early folklorists.

The Protestant writers to which Hutton refers are:

• Thomas Becon's 1563 The Reliques of Rome, fos. 158-78.
  [available with an account]
• Joshua Stopford's 1675 Pagano-Papismus, p. 237-43.
  [in this online edition of Stopford starting at p. 210]

An example from Stopford:

And the learned Beatus Rhenanus writes thus: "Truly it cannot be denied, that the ceremonies of burning candles, which Christians carry about on the day dedicated to the purification of the Virgin mary, have had their beginning from the Februalia, or cleansing sacrifices of the romans." --In lib. v. Tertul. cont. Marcion. (Pagano-Papismus, p. 211)

Beatus Rhenanus' unnamed work was probably just as inaccesible to the original readers as it is today. The quotation pretends to derive authority from Tertullian's writing Against Marcion book 5. The implication is that the candles and the particular date originate in pagan Rome and that Tertullian explicitly describes them as such.

But Tertullian does not.

Actually, there is no record of a Roman festival on February 2. Februalia was the 13th to 15th of the month.

There were no candles in the non-Christian Roman rituals. Instead, there were rituals on behalf of the dead during the mid-February Roman festival which Tertullian used as an example parallel to the lustration/washing of Baptism to teach the distinction between their vague bodiless eternity and the resurrection of the dead by faith in Christ.

Here are Tertullian's actual words:

Let us now return to the resurrection, to the defence of which against heretics of all sorts we have given indeed sufficient attention in another work of ours. But we will not be wanting (in some defence of the doctrine) even here, in consideration of such persons as are ignorant of that little treatise. “What,” asks he, “shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not?” Now, never mind that practice, (whatever it may have been.)  The Februarian lustrations will perhaps answer him (quite as well), by praying for the dead. Do not then suppose that the apostle here indicates some new god as the author and advocate of this (baptism for the dead.  His only aim in alluding to it was) that he might all the more firmly insist upon the resurrection of the body, in proportion as they who were vainly baptized for the dead resorted to the practice from their belief of such a resurrection. We have the apostle in another passage defining “but one baptism.” (chapter 10 of book 5)

This misuse of sources and misrepresentation of information can be shown in almost every example Stopford gives. This tactic, and often the very ordering and wording of these feigned sources was repeated by many of the radical Protestants in their rejection of the practices and teaching of the medieval Church. We see this in 1853 with Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons, and in the various groups adopting his work both in Presbyterianism and in the descendants of Millerism.

Roman paganism doesn't work as a source.

What about Celtic Origins?

Neopagans and Wiccans make frequent appeals to Celtic origins for Christian festivals. We have dealt with some foundational problems with those claims in Part 3 of the article on St. John's Day.

These were, briefly: the historical/geographic origin of the festival in question; the megalithic monuments as evidence; actual documentation about Celts from various periods; and actual ancient Celtic calendars.

But the Feast of Purification happens to fall close to a Celtic day concerning which much has been written in the last 100 years.

Imbolc/Oimelc

Wheel of the Year,
invented in the 20th century
is not an ancient pagan
calendar.

Imbolc/Oimelc is not found in the old Celtic calendars, like the Coligny Calendar.

It is not until the middle ages that there is written evidence of such an event. And it wasn't until the 20th century that the "Wheel of the Year" was invented.

The earliest documents which mention Imbolc/Oimelc include:

• Tochmarc Emire "The Wooing of Emer by the hero Cu Chulainn," composed in the 10th or 11th century A.D. The maiden, Emer, sets one test for her suitor, to go sleepless for a year. In this test she names the main parts of the Irish calendar. (par 55, p. 232) But there is no mention of any pagan festival associated with this point on the calendar. Nor is there any comprable date listed on the Roman/Julian Calendar.
• Sanas Cormaic (Cormac's Glossary early 10th century) under "Oi" refers to "oimelc" as the milking of lambs at that time of year, but no pagan festivals.

The etymologies of Imbolc and Oimelc suggest a season or point of the year which was marked by an event in animal husbandry: lambing. There is the possibility that this date was marked by religious ritual or festival. Whether it was observed by Christians or non-Christians is not known,

but there is absolutely no direct testimony as to its early nature, or concerning any rites which might have been employed then. There is, in fact, no sign that any of the medieval Irish writers who referred to it preserved a memory of them, and some evidence that they no longer understood the meaning of the name [of the day] itself."
(Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun 1996:134)

Let us recall where we are with actual documentation. We have a 2nd century date for placing the liturgical observance of Christmas on December 25th. This is known from separate authors in Asia Minor, Egypt, and Rome who wrote in that period.

The date for the Festival of the Presentation is the result of the Biblical text's mandate of 40 days for the purification ceremony. The festival was celebrated before the 4th century and shows very detailed liturgical observance in texts from the Middle East, Africa, and Southern Europe before the end of the 4th century.

We have records in the British Isles demonstrating that the festival was observed as Candlemas by the beginning of the 8th century A.D.

Imbolc/Oimelc is not known until documents from the 10th century A.D.  And those documents come from Ireland.

Even if we were to grant the possibility that those documents may preserve historical names that go back to the 7th or 8th century, the names are still without any description of festival observance. And they still come long after (and have no ritual relation to) the Festival of the Presentation of Christ.

We also have documents from the 16th and 17th centuries and later demonstrating that there was a campaign of writing undertaken by Protestants, particularly in England, who were rabidly anti-Roman Catholic and set against anything or ritual that came from the medieval Church. An examination of their writings shows they were not hesitant to misrepresent their sources in order to defame medieval Church practices.

And the early folklorists of the 18th and especially 19th to early 20th centuries adopted some of the unreliable positions put forth by the radical Protestants.

But there is another historical item that is closely related to the folklorists, Neopagan, and Wiccan claims about Candlemas/Presentation. It is that February 1 is St. Brigit's Day. As can be seen in the initial quotation about this holiday, more concern is placed on Brigit than on Candlemas or Imbolc.

The "Wheel of the Year" is an invention of the 20th century, specifically, of the last half of the 20th century.

Brigit/Brigid/Bride?

Let us repeat the larger part of the Wiccan quotation at the beginning of the article:

The holiday is also called 'Brigit's Day', in honor of the great Irish Goddess Brigit. At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol of Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor. She was considered a goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing (especially the healing touch of midwifery). This tripartite symbolism was occasionally expressed by saying that Brigit had two sisters, also named Brigit. (Incidentally, another form of the name Brigit is Bride, and it is thus She bestows her special patronage on any woman about to be married or handfasted, the woman being called 'bride' in her honor.)
      The Roman Catholic Church could not very easily call the Great Goddess of Ireland a demon, so they canonized her instead. Henceforth, she would be 'Saint' Brigit, patron saint of smithcraft, poetry, and healing. They 'explained' this by telling the Irish peasants that Brigit was 'really' an early Christian missionary sent to the Emerald Isle, and that the miracles she performed there 'misled' the common people into believing that she was a goddess. For some reason, the Irish swallowed this. (There is no limit to what the Irish imagination can convince itself of. For example, they also came to believe that Brigit was the 'foster-mother' of Jesus, giving no thought to the implausibility of Jesus having spent his boyhood in Ireland!)”
(Mike Nichols his web page at witchessabbats.com at sacredtexts.org or http://deoxy.org/time/sabbats/02-04.htm)

 Because I am not Irish, and because I am not Roman Catholic, I did not grow up knowing anything about Brigit of Ireland, either Saint or goddess. Where I first learned of a Brigit was through the Neopagan and Wiccan sources. Most of it was similar or the same as what Mick Nichols wrote in the above quotation.

Who Was St. Brigit of Ireland?

There are the two most widely honored Saints of Ireland: Patrick, and Brigit--the Patron Saint and the Matron Saint. Patrick's day is March 17th, Brigit's day is February 1.

According to her biographers she was just a little younger than and contemporary with St. Patrick. She is called Saint Brigit of Kildare (c. 439/452–c. 524/526) the matron saint of Kildare.

With Patrick we have some of his own writings. But we don't have any writings from Brigit. The earliest biographers are Cogitosus of Kildare, and the unknown authors of Vita Prima and Bethu Brigte. These come from about 100 years after Brigit's death.

The documents are:

Vita prima sanctae Brigitae possibly mid-7th century. (van Hammel link)

Cogitosus of Kildare Vita sanctae Brigitae, earlier than A.D. 675. (van Hammel link)

Bethu Brigte. a 9th century document,

She receives a listing in Sanas Cormaic possibly 9th century, texts exist only from the 12th century and later.

Sanct Brigit i.e. St. Brigit this.

O. W. san-bregit Lib. Land. 42,264. Sant Brett ib. 225, 251 : Z. 162. Lan- Sanfreit ibid. 263, now lAsfo-San-ffraid. — Ed. Maire ocas aanetbriait, Broccan's hymn, 1. 106.— O'D.
(Sanas Chormaic. Cormac's glossary, translated by John O'Donovan annotated
by Whitley Stokes(Calcutta: Printed by O.T. Cutter, 1868, p. 148)

The Chronicon Scotorum, probably from the mid 12th century, though the earliest surviving copy was made in 1640. (Chronicon Scotorum. in English Translation Gearóid Mac Niocaill)

Gerald of Wales A.D. 1187 records witnessing the fires kept by nuns in memory of St. Brigit. He also provides a few observations about their ritual and rules. ( Giraldus Cambrensis, The Topography of Ireland, tr. Thomas Forester, rev. Thomas Wright (400K PDF), In Parentheses Publications, Medieval Latin Series, Cambridge, Ontario 2000, p. 53-4)

The Annals of Tigernach survive in manuscript parts from the 12th century to the 14th century.  (Annals of Tigernach in English Translation Gearóid Mac Niocail)

As far as documentary support, Brigit's earliest biographers who's manuscripts survive to our day were written within 100 years of her death. Those biographies are also filled with descriptions of miracles both during her life and after her death. There are many direct parallels in her biographies with events surrounding the prophets of Israel, the Virgin Mary, and the Apostles.

Whether one accepts these parallels as fact or as fanciful expansions of St. Brigit's biography, there can be very little doubt that the parallels are drawn from the Bible: even Cogitosus' ch. 26:2-3 where Brigit stays with a poor woman who gives up her last food to feed Brigit. Then, her food does not run out. This directly parallels Elijah (I Kings 17) and the similar miracle for Elisha (II Kings 4).

Such parallels between Saints and the Prophets, Mary, and the Apostles are found in the writings about the lives of many of the Saints.

Did you notice, however, that there is nothing in these writings demonstrating a relationship between St. Brigit and Imbolc or the Festival of the Presentation? They are next to each other on the calendar, but at this early date, they are considered separatly.

But even if Brigit's day were to have been on Candlemas, would that mean that Candlemas/Presentation were based on the St. Brigit's feast? Of course not.

Who Was the Goddess Brigit in Irish Mythology?

 The earliest reference to a goddess named Bigit is found in the possibly 9th century Sanas Cormaic (Cormaic's Glossary).

Brigit i.e. a poetess, daughter of the Dagda. This is Brigit the female sage, or woman of wisdom, i.e. Brigit the goddess whom poets adored, because very great and very famous was her protecting care. It is therefore they call her goddess of poets by this name. Whose sisters were Brigit the female physician [woman of leechcraft,] Brigit the female smith [woman of smithwork] ; from whose names with all Irishmen a goddess was called Brigit. Brigit, then, breo-aigit, breo-shaigit 'a fiery arrow'.

B. omits the absurd etymology of Brigit, which name is certainly (as Siegfried thought) connected with the O.Celtic goddess-name Brigantia and possibly with the Skr. Brhaspati and O.Norse Bragi. The name of the Dagda (as to whom see infra b.v. Ruadrofessa) Siegfried thought was borrowed from Lat. doctus, as augtor from auctor, legtóir from lector. But why not then Dogda? I would rather regard it as a genuine Celtic part. pass, meaning doctus, but to be connected with the root DAGH in δι-δαχη, δε-δι-δαχ-α. --Ed.
(Sanas Chormaic. Cormac's glossary, translated by John O'Donovan annotated by Whitley Stokes(Calcutta: Printed by O.T. Cutter, 1868, p. 23)

Note that Stokes, the editor, dismisses the etymology found in the later editions of the Glossary. While Stokes may be correct, the etymology found in these latter editions is used today as an identifying characteristic in the popular conception of Brigit.

Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is a 11th century collection of a variety of literary types that were put together as if they were a history of Ireland.

The critical edition of Lebor Gabála Érenn bridges two periods, that of the manuscripts, and that of the folklorists. Direct mention of Brigit is found in volume 4 of R.A.S. Macalaster's 1941 edition on pages 92, 102, 104, 133, 159, 197, 308. In this textualcritical edition only pages 133, 159, 197 actually represent text versions of the Lebor Gabála Érenn. And these three versions represent the same two paragraphs of text. Those two paragraphs are all that it actually known about Brigit from these manuscripts. The rest of the references (92-104, 308) are all Macalastar's mythopoeic and folkloric conjectures about Brigit.

The text from the final edition on pl 197 is this:

Brigid the poetess, daughter of the Dagda, it is she who had Fe and Menn, the two royal oxen, of whom is Femen, that is two oxen of Dil of whom is Mag Femen named. And with them was Torc Triath, king of the boars of Ireland, of whom is Mag Triathairne named. With them were heard the three demon cries in Ireland after ravaging--whistling, and wailing, and outcry.

There are no other old Irish references that I could find. Cusack, and Ó Catháin, defenders of the goddess Brigit=> St. Brigit line of thought bring no other ancient Irish texts to bear either.

And before we go to Britain, did you notice anything in these texts that would point to February 1, to Imbolc, or to the Presentation of Christ and Purification of Mary?  There was nothing.


British References

Brigantia, (wikipedia) was a female goddess (or objectification of a female ideal) of a group of Celtis called Brigantes who lived around Hadrian's wall in the north of England to the midlands of Scotland. Strabo (64 B.C. - A.D. 24  mentions another tribe called Brigantii (Geographia Book IV Chap. 6). 

It is uncertain whether the name for the group meant "highlanders" or if it was metaphorical as in "noble/high ones." There are seven known inscriptions to Brigantia ("the highland babe"? "the highland goddess"?). All of the inscriptions were found in Britain (e.g.: Birrens, Scotland; three from Yorkshire; one at Corbridge on Hadrian's Wall; all listed below in resources). And the inscriptions demonstrate that they lived there from Strabo's time to at least A.D. 208.

Linguists have conjectured that the name Brigantia comes from what they believe could possibly have been a word in a conjectured common source language (labled by them as Proto-Indo-European), and that word means "High". But that does not mean that all the places that stick up and were called "high" must necessarily be a reference to Brigantia.

It has been conjectured that Brigantia and Brigit are the same (at least as early as R.A.S. Macalaster and J. Frazer--that is from after the 1880s). But the main charactaristics and the heritage of these two goddesses are different.

And there is no archaeological and no literary overlap. 

Even if such an overlap could be established by objective evidence, this still has no bearing on the establishing of the Feast of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Christ. There is nothing here of even Imbolc or a reference to a time of year.

So how did all of these tightly interwoven relationships between all these diverse historical issues come into existence? Some can be laid a the feet of the Romantic writers, even the Gothic movement. (See Ronald Hutton 1999, The Triumph of the Moon, chapters 1-3) But it was professionals who put their seal upon the mix and made it official.


The Folklorists

It is not until after 1860 that more information is put in writing on Brigit.  In that year Alexander Carmichael began his gathering of folklore, presenting papers and then publishing his first collection in 1891 as Idylls of the Isles. Later came the first full volume of the collection in 1900 titled Carmina Gadelica. Reprinted and a bit expanded in 1928, vol. I, the chapter on Brigit's day is entitled "Sloinntireached Bhride" p. 164-177.

There are several aspects of this collection that render it useless for actual folklore or historical research. 1) almost none of the textual/oral traditions he relates are sourced. No one could ever go back in his day or later to see how stable or changeable the folklore was. 2) the folklore is presented in an interpreted manner that prevents the folklore from being read without Carmichael's interprative opinion. 3) indeed much of the folklore was reworked for such an effect. (compare Robertson, Hamish, "Studies in Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica." In ScoGS 12/2 (Autumn 1976), pp. 220–262.) 

James Frazer (The Golden Bough vol. 4, 1922, 242) expands upon the description of the fires made by Gerald of Wales and places it in a wider mythical context of his own mythopoeic construction. The actual documents from the middle ages have not changed. Nor has any other ancient information been uncovered.
[It is also important in Frazer to note how much overflow of conjecture he gives, and how little actual sources he gives. Oh, he lists a lot of refernces, but very few are actual sources. Most are just references to others who have expressed opinions similar to his own.]

Much, much more could be written, there are many examples just with this particular Holy Day. But hopefully you have enough actual evidence before you to see where Candlemas really came from and how the ideas of paganism have actually interacted with this Christian observance.

Other Resources

Judith S. Antonelli, 1997 "Debunking the Goddess Myth The 'golden age' of female divinities was a bad time for women" from On the Issues, The Utne Reader November-December.

Alexander Carmichael, "Sloinntireached Bhride" in Carmina Gadelica, 1928, vol. I, p. 164-177.

Carole M Cusack, 2007 "Brigit: Goddess, Saint, ‘Holy Woman’, and Bone of Contention" in Victoria Barker and Frances di Lauro (eds) On A Panegyrical Note: Studies in Honour of Garry W. Trompf, Sydney Studies in Religion 6, Sydney, 2007, pp. 75-97.
Miranda Green, 1995 The Celtic World Psychology Press.
[pp. 435-436 on Brigit is an uncritical summary of Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica which adds the modern Neolithic Mother Goddess myth into the account.]

Ronald Hutton, 1997 "The Neolithic great goddess: a study in modern tradition" The Free Library (March, 1), http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The Neolithic great goddess: a study in modern tradition.-a019353214 (accessed January 30 2014)


Lebor Gabála Érenn, "The Book of Invasions of Ireland" from 11th century with original text edited and translated by R A Stewart Macalister"

• Part I: Irish Texts Society, Volume 34, London 1938.
• Part II: Irish Texts Society, Volume 35, London 1939.
• Part III: Irish Texts Society, Volume 39, London 1940.
• Part IV: Irish Texts Society, Volume 41, London 1941.
• Part V: Irish Texts Society, Volume 44, London 1956.

Séamas Ó Catháin 1999 The festival of Brigit the Holy Woman in Celtica 23:231-260.

Pádraig Ó Riain (ed.), 1994 Beatha Bharra: Saint Finnbarr of Cork: The complete Life, Irish Texts Society 57, London: Irish Texts Societ.
[text of Vita Sanctae Brigitae:  Life of St. Brigid by Cogitosus at Kildare]



Sites and Societies Providing Original Celtic/Irish Literature

Corpus of Electronic Texts (CElT) Celtic Digital Initiative
Early Irish Glossaries Database
*selgā for manuscripts and bibliographic references

 Celtic Literature Collective links to old texts on St. Brigit:

Ropadh maith lem	The Heavenly Banquet of St. Bridget
Works about St. Brigit
Brigit bé bithmaith	Ultan's Hymn
Nicar Brigit buadach bith	Broccan's Hymn
Cid maith áine is irnaigthe
Vita I Sanctae Brigide	The First Life of St. Brigit
Vita II Sanctae Brigide - Cogitos	Cogitosus' Life of St. Brigit
Vita III Sanctae Brigitae - Metrica (Donatus Scottus?)
Vita IV Sanctae Brigitae - Animoso/Animchado (Anmchad)
Vita V Sanctae Brigitae - Laurentio Dunelmensi
Vita VI Sanctae Brigitae - Coelan/Chilieno Monaco
Bipartita Vita Sanctae Brigitae - Anonymous
Vita Prima S. Brigitae: Triadis Thaumaturgae Vita
Bethu Brigte: Rawlinson B 512	The Shorter Life of St. Brigit
Betha Bhrighdi: Leabhar Breac version	The Life of St. Brigit
Slán seiss, a Brigit co mbúaid	Hail Brigit

The Brigantia Inscriptions:

From: Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby EDCS in collaboration with Anne Kolb

Publication: CIL 03, 05468 (p 1837) = ILLPRON 01254 = RIS 00119 = AEA 2001/02, +00046
EDCS-ID: EDCS-14500777
Province: Noricum          
Place: Kobenz
Vibius (H)elvisiani / et At(tia?) Brigantia / con(iux) an(norum) XXXX et / Boniata con(iux) / et Vibiano f(ilio) an(norum) XX

Publication: CIL 07, 00200 = RIB-01, 00627 = D 04719 = CSIR-GB-01-03, 00033
EDCS-ID: EDCS-07800910
Province: Britannia          
Place: Greetland
D(eae) Vict(oriae) Brig(antiae) / et num(inibus) AAuugg(ustorum) / T(itus) Aur(elius) Aurelian/us d(onum) d(edit) pro se / et suis s(e) mag(istro) s(acrorum) // Antonin[o] III / et Geta [II] / co(n)ss(ulibus)

Publication: CIL 07, 00203 = RIB-01, 00630
EDCS-ID: EDCS-07800913
Province: Britannia      
Place: Adel
Deae / Brigan(tiae) / d(onum) Cinge/tissa p(osuit)

Publication: CIL 07, 00875 = RIB-01, 02066 = D 09317
EDCS-ID: EDCS-07900876
Province: Britannia          
Place: Brampton
Deae Nymphae Brig(antiae) / quod [vo]verat pro / sal[ute et incolumitate] / dom(ini) nostr(i) Invic(ti) / Imp(eratoris) M(arci) Aurel(i) Severi / Antonini Pii Felic[i]s / Aug(usti) totiusque do/mus divinae eius / M(arcus) Cocceius Nigrinus / [pr]oc(urator) Aug(usti) n(ostri) devo/[tissim]us num[ini] / [maies]tatique eius v(otum) [s(olvit)] l(aetus) l(ibens) m(erito)

Publication: CIL 07, 01062 = RIB-01, 02091 = D 04718 = CSIR-GB-01-04, 00012
EDCS-ID: EDCS-07900901
Province: Britannia          
Place: Birrens / Blatobulgium
Brigantiae s(acrum) Amandus / arc(h)itectus ex imperio imp(eratum) [f(ecit)]

Publication: EE-09, 01120 = RIB-01, 00628 = D 04720 = AE 1892, 00098
EDCS-ID: EDCS-07800911
Province: Britannia     
Place: Castleford / Lagentium
Deae Vic/toriae / Brigant(iae) / a(ram) d(edit) Aur(elius) S/enopianus

Publication: EE-09, 01138 = RIB-01, 01053 = D 04717 = CSIR-GB-01-01, 00233 = AE 1896, 00016
EDCS-ID: EDCS-07801344
Province: Britannia      
Place: South Shields / Arbeia
Deae Bri/gantiae / sacrum / Congenn(i)c/cus v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito)

Publication: RIB-01, 01131 = CCID 00565 = D 09318 = CSIR-GB-01-01, 00051 = AE 1911, 00215 = AE 1912, +00006 = AE 1912, +00117 = AE 1947, 00122 
EDCS-ID: EDCS-07801420
Province: Britannia          
Place: Corbridge / Corstopitum
Iovi Aeterno / Dolicheno / et Caelesti / Brigantiae / et Saluti / C(aius) Iulius Ap/ol(l)inaris / |(centurio) leg(ionis) VI iuss(u) dei

O Emmanuel: December 23rd, The “O Antiphons”

 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Hymn Verse:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Latin Text:

O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,
expectratio gentium, et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos,
Domines, Deus noster.

English Translation:

O Emmanuel, Our King and Lawgiver,
The Desire of the nations, and their Savior:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.

LSB ”O Antiphons” under Hymn 357 and in Treasury of Daily Prayer p. 1046:

O Emmanuel, our king and our Lord,
the anointed for the nations and
their | Savior: *
Come and save us, O | Lord our God.

Emmanuel is the Hebrew עִמָּנוּאֵל “God With Us.” This title for Christ refers Him as the Restoration of fallen sinful humanity to the presence of God. Drawing on Isaiah 7:14 this title is explicitly incarnational, that is, it refers to the fact of God taking upon Himself human flesh. This final antiphon summarizes the relationship God would have with us through His Son in all the antiphons leading up to this confession on the day before the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ. He is the θεανθρωπος “God Man.”

Study on O Emmanuel

God walked with us in the garden in Eden. He would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. There was nothing that came between God and His people. And there was nothing that came between one person and another. This fact is drawn out in two passages:

Genesis 1:31

³¹ Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.

Genesis 2:25:

²⁵ And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

The point of this verse in context is the contrast between relationships before the fall into sin with the same relationships after the fall into sin.

The summary of the Law of God: Love God above all, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:29-31). Adam and Eve were living in perfect love with God and each other. No cause for shame existed.

The relationship of love between Adam and Eve was broken when they broke God’s Word. They stole the one thing that God had reserved for Himself in the whole of this new world:

⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Genesis 3)

The relationship they had with God was broken:

⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3)

So many false teaching surround the fall into sin. The basic issue is that they did not trust God’s Word above all other speech. They chose another love than the love of God above all. Intimately related to that failure to love God was their failure to love each other. They did not protect each other by relying on God’s Word above all else.

They could no longer exist in the presence of the Pure and Holy God. God had every right to destroy the world He had made right there. But He loved Adam and Eve. And He loved all the children that would be conceived into this world through them.

As we saw in the study for yesterday’s antiphon (O Rex Gentium) He promised to destroy the works of Satan (Genesis 3:15) to restore not just Adam and Eve, but all their children. So that by this Promise, all could again live in the presence of God without shame.

O Emmanuel is the confession that God fulfilled His Promise of restoration in the Son conceived in the virgin Mary.

Adam and Eve were separated from God’s direct glorious presence. They were placed out of the garden of Eden away from the Tree of Life so that they could never grab from that tree, eat, and live eternally separated from God.

Throughout the O Antiphons we have confessed several of the ways in which God manifested His gracious presence among fallen humanity. O Emmanuel focuses on the actual manifestation of God’s presence in human flesh as promised in Genesis 3:15. Isaiah repeated that promise:

¹⁰ Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”
¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”
¹³ Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7)

According to God’s Word through Isaiah, it would happen some time after the Northern Kingdom was destroyed, some time after Judah was desolate for a season and then restored. But the the Promise would be fulfilled.

The Messiah would be God and Man, Emmanuel, “God With Us.”

This is the ancient confession that became known to the Greek speaking Church as Χριστος ο Θεανθρωπος “Christos ho Theanthropos” “Christ the God-Man.”

Luke 1

²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.”
³⁸ Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Matthew 1

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. ²⁰ But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
²² So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
²⁴ Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, ²⁵ and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.

John writes about the fulfillment of this specific prophecy in in the first chapter of his Gospel with these words:

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. …
¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word translated “dwelt” in verse 14 means literally “he made his tent among ours.” It is a reference to the Incarnation of the Son of God Who is also the Angel of the Lord that dwelt in the tent of meeting among the Israelites who were the guardians of this Promise.

This first advent marks the self-humiliation of the Son of God to take upon Himself the burden we owed in fulfilling the Law of God to love God above all and to love our neighbor as ourself (His Active Obedience). His humiliation included also His suffering at the hands of sinful mankind, from His own people, from all Gentiles; but especially His suffering under the wrath of the Heavenly Father against all sin-inherited or committed by every human conceived as a child of Adam in this world (His Passive Obedience).

³ Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. ⁴ But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” (Galatians 4)

The humiliation of the Son of God began with His conception and ended with His death on the cross.

⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. ⁹ Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2)

When His work of humble substitution was done, He was raised from the dead and seated at His own throne on High. Now the God-Man, Jesus Christ, waits for the full number of the church to be conceived in this world–just as he waited patiently in the time of Abraham before giving Canaan to his children (Genesis 15:12-16)

Paul warns:

⁸ Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; ¹⁰ and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
¹¹ In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹² buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. ¹³ And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, ¹⁴ having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵ Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
¹⁶ So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, ¹⁷ which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. ¹⁸ Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, ¹⁹ and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

The antiphon O Emmanuel is the confession that we belong dwelling with God, not by any right of our own working, but by the working of the Son of God for us.

Hebrews 8:

¹¹ But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. ¹² Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ¹⁵ And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

The heavenly tabernacle, the dwelling place of the Most High is now with men.

Revelation 21:3

² Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

Prayer:
O Lord Jesus Christ, You were foretold as the King in whom God would manifest His presence, Who should reign in righteousness, bringing peace and happiness to all peoples; You are indeed Emmanuel, the very Son and Word of God made man:
Come, we pray You, by Your grace, and reign over us, so saving us from our spiritual enemies of Satan, sin and death, and from the hand of all that hate us, that we may serve You without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life, and at last, by Your grace, through Your Word and Sacrament, we may be kept in faith in You until You return to this world to take us to make Your dwelling place with us and all believers forever. Amen.

O Come, All Ye Faithful

1 O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels;

Refrain:
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

2 God of God, Light of Light,
Lo! He comes forth from the Virgin’s womb:
Our very God, begotten, not created, [Refrain]

3 Sing, choirs of angels; sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heav’n above;
Glory to God, all glory in the highest; [Refrain]

4 Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be glory giv’n;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing; [Refrain]

O Rex Gentium: December 22nd, The “O Antiphons”

Come, Desire Of Nations

Hymn Verse:

O Come, Desire of nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.

 Latin Text:

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.

English Translation:

O King of the Gentiles, and their Desire,
The Corner-stone, Who madest both one:
Come and save man,
Whom You have formed out of the dust of the earth.

LSB ”O Antiphons” under Hymn 357 and in Treasury of Daily Prayer p. 1042:

O King of the nations, the ruler
they long for, the cornerstone
uniting all | people: *
Come and save us all,
whom You formed | out of clay.

Rex Gentium means King of Nations, based primarily on Isaiah 10:11, though the title for Christ is used in many other passages. This antiphon is a confession that the Christ is the Savior of all nations. The petition is based on the fact that all humanity is descended from Adam, whom God formed out of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). Their fall into sin was the fall of all nations from God. The Promise of in the curse on Satan is the Promise to all nations. All nations were driven from the garden. All nations were protected from eating of the Tree of Life and living forever apart from God.

All mankind fell in Adam’s fall,
One common sin infects them all;
From sire to son the bane descends,
And over all the curse impends.
(ELH 491:1)

 

Study on O Rex Gentium

O Rex Gentium is based primarily on the wording of Isaiah 11:10.

“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”

Here the royal authority of the Christ is emphasized both with the reference to Christ bing the source of the royal line of Jesse and to Christ as a banner: that is, a royal banner. The gentiles will flow to Him.

He owns the title as King of the Nations simply by virtue of creation. He is the only true God of all Nations. For He is the Creator of humanity. He is the One who gave the commission to our first parents to have children, populate the world, and rule it with Him.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

But All Nations fell into sin when Adam and Eve fell into sin. Before the fall into sin God dwelt with humanity. But Adam and Eve had broken away from loving God above all things. They hid from Him. They were ashamed. All nations would descend from them. And because of their sin, all nations would be born into this world estranged from God. (Genesis 3)

“This hereditary sin is such a deep corruption of nature that no reason can understand it. Rather, it must be believed from the revelation of Scripture. (See Psalm 51:5; Romans 6:12-13; Exodus 33:3; Genesis 3:7-19)”
Smalcald Articles III:I:3

But even before God sent them out of His presence He made a declaration to Satan that stands as the Promise to All Nations.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”

The Promise is that Satan and his work would be conquered.

Satan tempted Adam and Eve away from the Word of God and brought separation between God and Man. This is described in Scripture as Sin: actual sins in the former case, and inherited (or Original) sin in the later case. The result is separation from God and death: Spiritual death and physical death.

Satan would be conquered by the Seed of the woman. The conqueror would be fully human. But the promise is not made to Adam that he would be the father. This coming child would not be of natural conception.

The Promise that God would conquer Satan and his works of sin and death itself is the Promise to All Nations. This includes all sinners who were begotten before the Flood, and all conceived in sin after the Flood even to the end of the world.

If this were the only time God had recorded His Promise, it would have been enough. But we are stiff-necked and hard of head and dead in our hearts. This Promise reverberates throughout Scripture.

By Abraham’s time this Promise had become a refrain. The Promise was made to the Gentiles that through Abraham’s Seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. At the destruction of the unbelieving Gentiles of Sodom and Gomorrah God repeated the refrain that even with the destruction of these nations ALL nations would still be blessed through Abraham’s Seed:

¹⁷ And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, ¹⁸ since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? (Genesis 18:18)

God sang the refrain of the Promise again when He demonstrated the nature and cost of the sacrifice by which He would atone for the sin of the world. Isaac, the only and beloved son of Isaac, was spared. The only and beloved Son of God would not be spared:

¹⁵ Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, ¹⁶ and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— ¹⁷ blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. ¹⁸ In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (Genesis 22:18)

The refrain of this Promise of salvation for All Nations through the Seed of Abraham was repeated to Isaac (Genesis 26:21). And when God brought the people out of Egypt to settle in the Land where He would accomplish this the refrain was sung again as the final verse of Moses’ last song.

⁴³ “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people;
For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries;
He will provide atonement for His land and His people.” (Deut 32:43)

The Lord used events of the Kingship of David, the words of David, and his royal line in singing this Promise for All Nations again and again. At David’s deliverance from Saul:

⁴⁴ “You have also delivered me from the strivings of my people;
You have kept me as the head of the nations.
A people I have not known shall serve me.
⁴⁵ The foreigners submit to me;
As soon as they hear, they obey me.
⁴⁶ The foreigners fade away,
And come frightened from their hideouts.
⁴⁷ “The Lord lives!
Blessed be my Rock!
Let God be exalted,
The Rock of my salvation!
⁴⁸ It is God who avenges me,
And subdues the peoples under me;
⁴⁹ He delivers me from my enemies.
You also lift me up above those who rise against me;
You have delivered me from the violent man.
⁵⁰ Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles,
And sing praises to Your name.
⁵¹ “He is the tower of salvation to His king,
And shows mercy to His anointed,
To David and his Seed forevermore.” (2 Sam 22, esp. 50-51 Compare Psalm 18)

The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, refers to verses 50-51 writing in Romans 15:9. For this reason the word Seed is translated literally in this study rather than as with reference to generic descendants.

The Promise to All Nations is a refrain the echoes throughout the Psalms as God is declared the King and Savior of the Nations (see for example: Psalm 18, Psalm 47, Psam 113, Psalm 117)

As King of Nations God used the Gentile Nations to discipline the Church for the purpose of Keeping the Promise. All the while the Promise of forgiveness was held out by God through the very captives the Gentile Kings conquered and took into their own courts.  The predictions, events, songs, and histories of the destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the exile of the Southern Kingdom bear witness to this (See for example, Isaiah 45 about Cyrus, who was predicted 200 year before his birth and the fulfillment in Ezra and Nehemiah).

And the Promise of the King of Nations is sung again through the generations until it was fulfilled:

42 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
² He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
³ A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
⁴ He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” (Isaiah 42)

Even to the last book of the Old Testament:

¹¹ For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down,
My name shall be great among the Gentiles;
In every place incense shall be offered to My name,
And a pure offering;
For My name shall be great among the nations,”
Says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 1:11)

The Gospels bear witness to the fulfillment that Christ’s birth was not only for the people of the Mosaic Covenant but for all the Nations.

Mary’s Magnificat recalls the words of Promise to Abraham and to his Seed (Luke 1:55)

Matthew 2 records the visit and worship of foreign wise men.

Simeon holds the Son of God in his arms and sings the refrain:

²⁹ “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation
³¹ Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
³² A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.” (Luke 2)

It was not just for the biological descendants of Abraham that Jesus preached. Gentiles from Tyre, Sidon (Mark 3:8), Sychar (John 4). Roman officials (Matthew 8), etc.

The Promise that He would redeem the World from sin (Genesis 3:15) was restated by John

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3)

For this reason Christ stated that He would be crucified before Jews, Gentiles, and the Father

¹⁸ “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, ¹⁹ and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” (Matthew 20:19, Mark 10:33, Luke 18:32)

And as Isaiah foretold:

¹³ Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently;
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
¹⁴ Just as many were astonished at you,
So His visage was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men;
¹⁵ So shall He sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
For what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider.

Not only kings, but the gentiles at the cross confessed Jesus as God (Mark 15:38).

Christ commanded that His Word be preached to the Gentiles. The desciples went out by Christ’s commission in Matthew 28:18-20 to build the Church through Word and Sacrament. The testimony went to the Gentiles (Acts 4:27, Acts 9:15, Acts 10, etc.).

All are now equal under the Law and the Gospel. The civil and ceremonial law have been completed. The moral is fulfilled. Sin atoned for. Is there now any real difference between the descendants of Abraham and the rest of the nations?

Romans 3

⁹ What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
¹⁰ As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
¹¹ There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
¹² They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”^[b]
13 “Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; ^[c]
“The poison of asps is under their lips”; ^[d]
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”^[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways;
¹⁷ And the way of peace they have not known.”^[f]
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”^[g]

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, ²⁶ to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 15:12

⁸ Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, ⁹ and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written:

“For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles,
And sing to Your name.”

¹⁰ And again he says:
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!”

¹¹ And again:
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles!
Laud Him, all you peoples!”

¹² And again, Isaiah says:
“There shall be a root of Jesse;
And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles,
In Him the Gentiles shall hope.”

¹³ Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 2:14, 20

¹¹ Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— ¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵ having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. ¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
¹⁹ Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Christ’s title as “Cornerstone” comes from Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28:16, and Matthew 21:42 (among many other passages). The picutre God draws with this is that the Church is built of the individuals who are united with Christ through faith. Christ Himself is the foundation block, or Cornerstone. That is to say, the Person and Nature of Christ and of His saving work as revealed in His Scripture is the foundation for true faith. When sinful humans build try to build without the Biblical faith they reject the Cornerstone, making a false church. In false churches there is no true unity between God and mankind so there can be no true unity between on human and another. But where Christ is the foundation there is real unity between God and humans and, as a consequence of this, there is also true unity between humans. The earthly tabernacle/Temple would be destroyed (Mark 13). But the new Tabernacle not made with hands would take its place. Made of saints from all nations.

Revelation 7

⁹ After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying:
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”
¹³ Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
¹⁴ And I said to him, “Sir,you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. ¹⁶ They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; ¹⁷ for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 14

⁶ Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people— ⁷ saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

Revelation 21

²² But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³ The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. ²⁴ And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. ²⁵ Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). ²⁶ And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. ²⁷ But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

A Prayer:
O Lord Jesu Christ, for Whom all peoples yearn, even though they do not know whom they seek; You made of one blood all nations to dwell on the face of the whole earth; and You bind together Jew and Gentile in the one body of Your Holy Christian Church:
Come, we pray You, and by Your truth and grace raise man whom You made out of the dust of the earth, from his low condition of alienation from You by reason of sin, and set him in Your Holy Church with the princes, even with the princes of Your people.
Amen.

 Savior of the Nations, Come

1 Savior of the nations, come,
Virgin’s son, make here Thy home!
Marvel now, O heav’n and earth,
That the Lord chose such a birth.

2 Not by human flesh and blood
By the Spirit of our God
Was the Word of God made flesh–
Woman’s Offspring, pure and fresh.

3 Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child
Of the Virgin undefiled!
Though by all the world disowned,
Still to be in heav’n enthroned.

4 From the Father forth He came
And returneth to the same,
Captive leading death and hell–
High the song of triumph swell!

5 Christ laid down his majesty,
passed through dark Gethsemane.
Though he left his Father’s home,
Christ now sits on God’s own throne.

6 Thou the Father’s only Son,
Hast o’er sin the vict’ry won.
Boundless shall Thy kingdom be;
When shall we its glories see?

7 Brightly doth Thy manger shine,
Glorious is its light divine.
Let not sin o’ercloud this light;
Ever be our faith thus bright.

8 Praise to God the Father sing,
Praise to God the Son, our King,
Praise to God the Spirit be
Ever and eternally.

Savior of the Nations, Come
Veni, Redemptor gentium
Ambrose of Milan, 340-386
M. Luther, 1483-1546
W. M. Reynolds, 1812-76
NUN KOMM, DER HEIDEN HEILAND
J. Walther, 1496-1570
Geistliche Gesangbüchlein, 1524