Almost everyone looks forward to the end of the year when our worship services are filled with Christmas songs. Singing about the incarnation and birth of Jesus is a long tradition in the
history of the church, and nativity songs are some of our oldest existing
hymns. Indeed, the angels announced the birth to the shepherds by singing about it (Luke 2:14). In addition, ideas about how Christ was both God and human filled the church's discourses for at least five centuries. No wonder that these important theological ideas would dominate the songs used in worship.
At the birth of the Son a
great clamor
took place in Bethlehem,
for watchers descended
to give praise there, a
great thunder
were their voices. With
this voice of praise
the silent ones came to
give praise to the Son.
Refrain: Blessed is the
Babe by whom Adam and Eve grew young again.
Here is how another hymn
of Ephrem’s interprets the account of Joseph:
Joseph caressed the Son
As a babe. He served Him
As God. He rejoiced in Him
As in a blessing, and he
was attentive to him
As to the Just One – a great
paradox!
Refrain: Praise to you,
fair Child of the Virgin.
“Who has given me the Son
of the Most High
to be a son to me? I was
jealous of your mother
and wanted to divorce
her. I did not know
That in her womb was a
great treasure
That would suddenly
enrich my poverty.”
Romanos, a hymn-writer
who composed in the Greek language, prepared this Nativity hymn:
Today the Virgin gives
birth to the Heavenly One
And today the earth
shelters the Unapproachable One,
Angels and shepherds sing
His praise;
Led by the star, wise men
make their way.
For unto us is born
A new born boy, from
before all time God.
These
translations are taken from Robert Louis Wilken’s The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity, Yale
University Press, 2012.
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