ah, holy Jesus

“Ah, Holy Jesus” [Jesu]
by Johann Heermann, trans. Robert Bridges
United Methodist Hymnal, 289

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
that we to judge thee have in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

STORY:

[Another source mentioned that the first lyrics were in Latin, from the 300s. Later they were added to by the Polish lyricist who wrote in German. And still later they were translated into English by Bridges. The music was written by a German Cruger but was made better by Bach. )

Rarely does a single hymn involve the confluence of so many held in such high regard in their respective eras: St. Augustine (North Africa, 4th–5th centuries), Johann Heermann (Poland, 17th century), Johann Crüger (Germany, 17th century), J.S. Bach (Germany, 18th century), and Robert Bridges (England, 19th–20th centuries).

In many ways, “Ah, holy Jesus” is a seventeenth-century companion to the African American Spiritual, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” In both cases, the persistent use of the first-person perspective places the singer at the foot of the cross, pondering the meaning of Christ's suffering. “Were You There?” meditates on the crucifixion through a series of rhetorical questions. “Ah, Holy Jesus” meditates on the events leading to the crucifixion and asks who is personally responsible for the death of the Savior

THE MUSIC: HERZLIEBSTER JESU

The melody is inseparable from the tune HERZLIEBSTER JESU, first appearing in Neues volkömliches Gesangbuch: Augburgischer Confession. . . (Berlin, 1640) by Johann Crüger (1598–1662).

Herzliebster jesu 72px

The first phrase from Crüger’s collection is in four-part harmony—Cantus (melody), Altus, Tenor, Bassus. Crüger was one of the most significant proponents of Heermann’s texts. The melody appears to have adapted a tune set to Psalm 23 in the Genevan Psalter (1543). J. S. Bach (1685–1750) made the melody famous by incorporating it three times in the St. Matthew Passion and twice in the St. John Passion.