HOTC #3: LSB 333, Once He Came In Blessing

Not perhaps among the most well-known Advent hymns, this hymn is ripped straight out of the Reformation, and is (among other things) one of the few hymns that seeks to pair Advent’s meditation on the Incarnation with the eucharistic presence. Advent past, present, and future - we explore that and more, below.

The Author(s)?

This Advent text has been attributed to both Johann Horn, and Michael Weisse, and while Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns declines to give definitive credit to either man, other sources credit Horn exclusively. Both men were leaders among the Unitas Fratrum, the spiritual descendants of the Bohemian proto-reformer Jan Hus, and the spirital ancestors of today’s Moravian Bretheren.

Horn (that was the name he went by in German; his Czech name was “Roh,” and when writing in Latin he went by “Cornu”) had no formal theological education, but became a preacher amongst the Brethren in 1518. By 1532 he had become a bishop, and would go on to be one of the leading bishops among the Brethren at this time. He had been among a deputation of Brethren who met with Luther in 1522, and Horn had particularly sympathized with Luther’s assertions regarding the Lord’s Supper. This affection is clear in the second verse of the hymn we are considering today, as well as in other of his works. While this is the only text of Horn’s included in Lutheran Service Book, he is also credited with the composition of the hymntune GAUDEAMUS PARITER, which appears in LSB #487, “Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain.”

Michael Weisse was the editor of the hymnal in which this hymn first appeared in 1544, which goes some way to explaining the confusion over its authorship. It is quite likely, but not proven, that Weisse is at least the arranger or composer of the tune. He had become a priest among the Brethren at the same synod that had made Horn a bishop, and was among the party who had gone to Wittenberg with Horn to meet with Luther. He produced the first German-language hymnal for use among the Brethren, and it was the second edition of this work in which our hymn today made its debut. Luther himself referred to Weisse as “…a good poet, with somewhat erroneous views on the Sacrament,” but (after having several of his hymns edited by Horn [again, a possible source of the confusion cited above], with whom Luther agreed on the Lord’s Supper more closely) included twelve of his hymns in the Babst Hymnal in 1545. His only other textual contribution to Lutheran Service Book is LSB #759, “This Body in the Grave We Lay.”

The translation appearing in our hymnal relies heavily on the work of Catherine Winkworth, whose first and fourth verses are taken almost verbatim, with very few editorial changes. The middle two verses are translations by the hymnal’s editors, relying heavily on Winkworth’s work. Winkworth’s The Chorale Book for England was one of the first compendiums of German-language hymnary translated into English, and we shall encounter her several more times in the course of our travels through Lutheran Service Book.

The Text

Verb tense is an important aspect of Advent hymns, reflecting the dual nature of Advent: both a retrospective observance of the Incarnation (generally past tense) and a prospective yearning for the Second Coming (generally present or future tense). While this trope - of Advent hymns slowly or suddenly changing verb tense in order to allude to different aspects of Advent - is quite common, this hymn accomplishes a sort of trifecta, by bringing in a sturdier theme in the present tense: the presence of Christ among us here and now, in the Lord’s Supper.

The hymn opens, as Advent hymns often do, in the past tense - this verse is retrospective, addressing the Incarnation, and includes some commentary on the two natures of Christ in the third and fourth phrases before dwelling again (as it does in the second phrase) on the work of Christ in redeeming the world.

The second verse is the novel one here. It refers to the here and now - to the present - and with not-so-subtle allusions to the Lords Supper: “With Himself He feeds us / Precious food from heaven, / Pledge of peace here given, / Manna that will nourish / Souls that they may flourish.” This is perhaps the strongest reference to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in the entire Advent section of the hymnal, and it is not uncommon to see this hymn used as a distribution hymn even in years that it is not explicitly called for in the lectionary.

In the third verse, we’ve moved on to the future, and the hymn speaks of the promised Second Coming. In contrast to the first verse’s “Came in likeness lowly,” here we get “Christ will come in spendor / And will judgment render.”

The fourth and final (the Bohemian original had nine verses, but Luther and other editors removed several owing to theological differences) verse expresses the yearning of the Christian for the return of Christ and asking Him to keep us in faith. The middle section of this verse (“Keep our hearts believing, / That we, grace receiving”) can be read as an oblique allusion to the Reformation’s bedrock in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, but the gift of God.”

The Tune

Weisse (above) is given credit for this tune in its present form, however it has some seriously similar (usually only varying by the addition of a note or two in the final pair of phrases) in Bohemian sources going back as far as 1410. Due in part to the association between Horn and Luther, as well as the editing that Horn put in at Luther’s request (see above), the hymn became quite popular in German Lutheran circles. It was clearly known in Central Germany in J.S. Bach’s time, as Bach set it twice: once in the Orgelbuchlein (BWV600), where it follows last week’s setting of NUN KOMM DER HEIDEN HEILAND (BWV 599), and is a small but complex canon between bass and soprano voices (both carrying the hymn tune) with free counterpoint in between; and again in a small fughetta, BWV 703.

J.S. Bach’s manuscript of BWV 600, “Gott Durch deine gute oder Gottes Sohn ist kommen”

Bach’s treatment of the hymntune in a canonic or fugal manner - where one voice leads and another (or the others, if plural) voice(s) follow - can be seen as a clear allusion to the verb tenses referred to in the earlier textual analysis; just as Christ comes to humanity multiple times (each one following the next), so the entries of the hymntune follow each other. Interestingly, both of Bach’s organ settings for this tune are in F - a whole step higher than the present Eb in Lutheran Service Book, and his sole surviving four-part chorale setting of the tune is in G, a major third higher than our hymnal - the highest note in the latter is G atop the treble clef!

Other settings include one by Johann Pachelbel’s amusingly-named student Johann Heinrich Buttstedt (recording here), and a short one by Bach’s cousin Johann Gottfried Walther. More recent contributions have come from the Dutch composer Jan Bender.