Belfast organist Billy Adair writes on a well known Christmas carol
One of my favourite T.V. programmes is the “Antiques Road Show” which continually unearths such interesting items, upon which the experts expound. I love antiques, (I‘m one of them myself!) and that is why I was attracted to write on the most antique Christmas hymn in Church Hymnal 5, “Of the Father‘s heart begotten”(175).
In many hymn books this begins “Of the Father‘s love begotten”, but the substitution of “heart” for “love” is in accord with the original Latin, “Corde natus ex Parentis.”
This hymn is taken from a long poem of about forty verses, and was the work of the Romano-Spanish poet Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (AD348-413). Selected verses were sung in the monasteries at Marian Festivals and during the Christmas Season.
In the 4th century the Church was under severe pressure by the Arian heresy, which denied the Godhead of Christ and was supported by the Emperor Julian the Apostate (AD360-363), so in his poem Prudentius emphasised the Divinity of Christ, the Only Begotten Son of the Father.
The translation from the Latin into English was made by J.M. Neale and H.W. Baker in the 19th Century.
v1 “Of the Father‘s heart begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore.”
In this verse Prudentius states that Christ is God, and was with God from the very beginning, the Alpha and the Omega, and his means of emphasizing this is by using the important word “begotten.”
In one of his essays C.S. Lewis defines “begotten” this way. A man takes a piece of wood and carves it into the shape of a bird, and in doing so he has “made” something. But when a bird hatches an egg it “begets” another bird like itself. Similarly, only God can beget God, so in the Nicene Creed we proclaim Christ as God‘s Son, “begotten, not made.”
v2 “At His word they were created;
He commanded; it was done:
Heaven and earth and depths of ocean
In their threefold order one;
All that grows beneath the shining
Of the light of moon or sun,
Evermore and evermore.”
Here we have the Genesis interpretation of the Creation story – when God spake and chaos was transformed into order, and darkness was turned into light.
v3 “O that birth for ever blessed,
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Spirit‘s power conceiving,
Bore the Saviour of our race;
And the Babe, the world‘s Redeemer
First revealed His sacred face,
Evermore and evermore.”
v4 “This is He whom seers and sages
Sang of old with one accord,
When the writings of the prophets
Presumed in their faithful word:
Now He shines, the long expected;
Let creation praise its Lord,
Evermore and evermore.”
Now we come to the Christmas Story, the most important event in the history of the world, when in the fullness of time God came down to earth in the person of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The Saviour had been promised by the Prophets, written about and waited for, and at Christmas we celebrate His coming with praise and thanks giving. Much of this depended on the “Fiat” of a teenage girl. Did you ever ask yourself what might have been the outcome had Mary said “No”?
v5 “Let the heights of heaven adore Him;
Angel hosts His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him.
And extol our God and King;
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every note in concert ring,
Evermore and evermore.”
An additional doxology was added by H.W. Baker in 1854, but with this original verse of universal praise to Christ the King a further doxology is hardly necessary.
So there we have this grand hymn of praise from the 4th Century, the oldest Christmas hymn in our current hymnal, – a real antique.
From “The Lion” – the magazine of St Mark’s, Dundela