Beyond the wicked [holy] city walls. Cecil F. Alexander. [Good Friday.] First published in her Narrative Hymns for Village Schools, 1859, No. 17, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines and headed, “Where they crucified Him." It is sometimes given as, "Beyond the holy city walls." This alteration destroys all the point and meaning of the hymn.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)