There have been some additional translated versions of that verse that scan slightly better. Here's the one we sing every year with our church:
True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal
Lo, He shuns not the Virgin’s womb
Son of the Father, begotten, not created
Diving in with Hymnary's text comparison tool, there's some tracing that can be done to see roughly when some of these textual changes were first published, but it's hard to ascertain who specifically made each contribution as hymnals tend to consistently word the translation attribution something like, "Frederick Oakeley & others." To be transparent, I wasn't aware of the true but clunky earliest version, nor did I realize that other churches were leaving out perhaps the best verse of the song!
My now late Dad, having experienced an adult conversion to Christ when I was 4-5 years of age, we attended and my early faith formation occurred in a Southern Baptist church. I was raised on “No book but the Bible and no creed but Christ.”
I was in my 20s when I first attended a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in a Roman Catholic church. By then I had become a reader of Early Church history and had become familiar with the Creeds.
Imagine my delight when we sang that theologically rich verse that also sports such awkward prosody.
I would go on to spend 25 years of my life in the record business and music publishing business. So I labored long with many songwriters getting them to achieve appropriate prosody between their texts and melodies.
Even with that predilection, I believe Adeste Fidelis is one of the rare times that breaking the rule of prosody works in the overall context of the balance of the song lyric. It gives all the rest a theological anchor that for me, at least, enriches and enhances the song.
I’m so glad for the emphasis on biblical and doctrinal soundness seen in the modern Hymn movement of the last 25–30 years. But we fail our congregations if our hymn-writing is too far removed from basic songwriting principles like the one you’ve elucidated here. Good job, Dr. W. Also, that Harland quote is worth the whole article!
There have been some additional translated versions of that verse that scan slightly better. Here's the one we sing every year with our church:
True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal
Lo, He shuns not the Virgin’s womb
Son of the Father, begotten, not created
Diving in with Hymnary's text comparison tool, there's some tracing that can be done to see roughly when some of these textual changes were first published, but it's hard to ascertain who specifically made each contribution as hymnals tend to consistently word the translation attribution something like, "Frederick Oakeley & others." To be transparent, I wasn't aware of the true but clunky earliest version, nor did I realize that other churches were leaving out perhaps the best verse of the song!
My now late Dad, having experienced an adult conversion to Christ when I was 4-5 years of age, we attended and my early faith formation occurred in a Southern Baptist church. I was raised on “No book but the Bible and no creed but Christ.”
I was in my 20s when I first attended a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in a Roman Catholic church. By then I had become a reader of Early Church history and had become familiar with the Creeds.
Imagine my delight when we sang that theologically rich verse that also sports such awkward prosody.
I would go on to spend 25 years of my life in the record business and music publishing business. So I labored long with many songwriters getting them to achieve appropriate prosody between their texts and melodies.
Even with that predilection, I believe Adeste Fidelis is one of the rare times that breaking the rule of prosody works in the overall context of the balance of the song lyric. It gives all the rest a theological anchor that for me, at least, enriches and enhances the song.
Respectfully,
Darrell A. Harris
I’m so glad for the emphasis on biblical and doctrinal soundness seen in the modern Hymn movement of the last 25–30 years. But we fail our congregations if our hymn-writing is too far removed from basic songwriting principles like the one you’ve elucidated here. Good job, Dr. W. Also, that Harland quote is worth the whole article!
Good to see you here, Matthew. I have been writing and reading for about 5 months.
I was thinking about Sovereign Grace’s adaptation of the verse to make it not clunky.