The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance,

that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross,

so that we, free from sins, might live for righteousness;

by his wounds we have been healed.

—from 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Peter 2:24, NRSV

Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the cross,

so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness;

by his wounds you have been healed.

—from 1 Peter 2:24, NRSV

Lord Jesus Christ, you are God from God, light from light, and yet a friend of sinners. You are both shepherd and lamb, prince and slave, savior and sacrifice. But most of all, you are our hope and heart’s desire. And so we give you thanks that you fill us with your blessed presence. Amen.

Although manuscript copies do not appear until the eleventh century, the Latin source for this Ascension text ('Jesu, nostra redemptio, amor et desiderium") is thought to date from the seventh or eighth century. A five-stanza English translation by John Chandler was published in his Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837), and a doxology stanza was added later. Of those stanzas, 1-3 and 5 are included with a few word changes.

 

This short but comprehensive text honors Christ as creator of the world (st. 1); meditates on his love, which led to his atoning death (st. 2); voices our worship to the ascended Christ for his victory over death (st. 3); offers our prayer to keep Christ central in our lives (st. 4); and concludes with a Trinitatian doxology (st. 5).

 

MANOAH was first published in Henry W. Greatorex's Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1851). This anthology (later editions had alternate titles) contained one of the best tune collections of its era and included thirty-seven original compositions and arrangements by compiler Greatorex as well as melodies by his father, Thomas, and grandfather Anthony. Because no other source has been traced, it is believed that Greatorex composed MANOAH.

 

The composer gave arbitrary names to his tunes: Manoah was the father of Samson in the Old Testament. This well-crafted common-meter tune features some repetition of melodic motives and a harmonization that invites part singing. Sing in harmony in two long lines rather than four short phrases. 

John Chandler (b. Widey, Godalming, Surrey, England, 1806; d. Putney, Surrey, 1876) spent most of his life in Widey, where his father was the vicar. After theological studies at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, England, he assumed his father's position in Widey in 1837. Noting that many of the prayers of the Anglican Church were English translations of early Latin prayers, Chandler decided that the church should sing hymns from that era as well. Because he did not find many suitable English translations, he made his own and published them in The Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837) and, with revisions, in The Hymns of the Church, mostly Primitive (1841). Some of the Latin hymns he translated, however, were not as ancient as the words "Primitive Church" might suggest; he also included translations of hymns from the Paris Breviary (1736).