Nun lasst uns den Leib begraben

Nun lasst uns den Leib begraben

Author: Michael Weisse
Tune: NUN LASST UNS DEN LEIB
Published in 71 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 Nun laßt uns den Leib begraben;
daran wir kein Zweifel haben,
er wird am jüngsten Tag aufstehn
und unverweslich hervorgehn.

2 Erd ist er und von der Erden,
wird auch zur Erd wieder werden
und von der Erd wieder aufstehn,
wenn Gottes Posaun wird angehn.

3 Sein seele lebt ewig in Gott
der sie allhier aus lauter Gnad,
von aller Sünd und Missethat,
durch seinen Sohn erlöset hat.

4 Sein Jammer, Trübsal und Elend
ist kommen zu ein'm selgen End,
er hat getragen Christi Joch,
ist gestorben und lebet noch.

5 Die Seele lebt ohn alle Klag,
der Leib schläft bis am jüngsten Tag,
an welchem Gott ihn verklären
und ewger Freud wird gewähren.

6 Hier ist er in Angst gewesen,
dort aber wird er genesen,
in ewiger Freud und Wonne
leuchten, als die helle Sonne.

7 Nun lassen wir ihn hie schlafen
und gehn all heim unsre Straßen,
schicken uns auch mit allem Fleiß;
denn der Tod kommt uns gleicher Weis.

8 Das helf uns Christus, unser Trost,
der uns durch sein Blut hat erlößt
von's Teufels G'walt und ewger Pein,
ihm sei Lob, Preis und Ehr allein.

Source: Evang.-Lutherisches Gesangbuch #658

Author: Michael Weisse

Michael Weiss was born at Neisse, in Silesia. He was a pastor among the Bohemian Brethren, and a contemporary with Luther. His hymns have received commendation. He died in 1540. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Nun lasst uns den Leib begraben
Author: Michael Weisse
Language: German
Notes: Polish translation: See "Pochowajmy ciała w grobie"
Copyright: Public Domain

English

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German

Notes

Suggested tune: NUN LASST UNS DEN LEIB
====================
Nun lasst uns den Leib begraben. M. Weisse. [Burial of the Dead.] First published in Ein New Geseng buchlen, Jung Bunzlau, 1531, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and thence in Wackernagel, iii. p. 332. This has been called a translation from the Latin of A. C. Prudentius , but has really very little resemblance to it. Mr. Müller is of opinion that it is an expansion of a Bohemian hymn by Lucas of Prag which seems to have been in-cluded in the lost Brethren's Hymn Bookof 1519, and is in the Utraquist Hymn Book of 1559. The hymn by Lucas has only 4 stanzas, but is of the same tenor as Weisse's, has the same title, and is in the same metre. In the Magdeburg Gesang-Buch of 1540 it is considerably altered, and an 8th stanza added. This form (sometimes ascribed to M. Luther) passed, with alterations, into V. Babst's Gesang-Buch, Leipzig, 1545, and is found in Porst's Gesang-Buch, edition 1855, No. 874.

In L. Erk's Choral-Bach, 1863, No. 199, the tune generally set to it is given from G. Rhau's Newe Deudsche geistliche Gesenge , Wittenberg, 1544. This tune is in the Bohemian Hymn Book of 1560, but not in the edition of 1541, nor in the New Geseng buchlen of 1531. In Allon's Congregational Psalmist it is named Bohemia. The hymn is not in the Riga Gesang-Buch. of 1530, but is added in the edition of 1548.

Translation in common use:—
Now lay we calmly in the grave. A good and full translation by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858, p. 117, and her Chorale Book for England , 1863, No. 96. Repeated in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, and in the 1884 Appendix to the Scottish Hymnal.
Other translations are:—
“Our brother let us put in grave," in the Gude and Godly Ballates, edition 1568, folio 83 (1868, p. 143). (2) "Let us this present corpse inter," in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754, pt. i., No. 295. (3) "We give this body to the dust," by Dr. H. Mills, 1845 (1856, p. 267). (4) “The corpse we now inter, and give," by Dr. G. Walker, 1860, p. 111. (5) "We lay this body in the grave," by Dr. H. Harbaugh, in the (German Reformed) Guardian, Nov., 1863, p. 351. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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The Cyber Hymnal #13537

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