LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

88 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW IX
congregational singing for the next two centuries. ELH has 37 of these core
hymns of the Lutheran faith. By comparison, the Evangelical-Lutheran
Hymn Book (ELHB, the predecessor to TLH) has 32, TLH has 30, LW has
31, and LBW has only 25. When the temptation today is to bring
congregational singing to the level of Vacation Bible School songs, it is a
bold and brave move to embrace what many would put aside as culturally
obsolete and too difficult to sing. At the same time, ELH has not neglected
other fruitful periods of hymnody within the Church. It has included metric
versions of the five medieval sequence hymns: Victimi paschali, Stabat
mater, Lauda Sion, Dies irae, and Veni Sancte Spiritus, along with a
Praetorius setting of a Latin hymn, Paul Gerhardt’s endearing cradle hymn,
“I Stand Beside Thy Manger Here”, and a number of 20 th century hymns,
including one by a member of the ELS. Nor should it be assumed that the
volume is full of German hymns. While it is true that Paul Gerhardt and
Martin Luther are given a fair representation, over 10% of the hymns are of
a Norwegian or Scandinavian background. The famous Danish bard and
bishop, Thomas Kingo, has 15 hymns included, many unfamiliar to those of
Germanic origins. Nor have the riches of English language hymnody been
neglected, with 21 hymns by Isaac Watts and 13 by Charles Wesley. One
would have to search high and low to find a hymnal as comprehensive.
A third area where ELH is strong is in its hymn translations. One such
instance worthy of note is Luther’s baptismal hymn, “To Jordan Came Our
Lord”. Where LBW and LW have used the Elizabeth Quitmeyer translation
of this hymn, ELH has opted for its own translation. The result is that the
catechetical nuances of this hymn are much clearer. In the second stanza for
example, the Quitmeyer translation pales in comparison:
Lutheran Worship
Our Lord here with his Word endows
Pure water, freely flowing.
God’s Holy Spirit here avows
Our kinship while bestowing
The baptism of his blessing.
Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary
That water at the font be used
Is surely His good pleasure,
Not water only, but the Word
And Spirit without measure—
He is the true Baptizer.
Likewise, the reference to the command and promise of Baptism is clearly
enunciated in the ELH translation, whereas these catechetical citations are
not spelled out as well in the translation of Quitmeyer. Such clear teaching
and singing about Holy Baptism as in the ELH composite translation gives
new life to this hymn and makes the effort to learn it worthwhile. ELH has
probably the best English translation available of “Wake Awake”. This is a
superior translation because the implications of the Lord’s Supper in the
original text are made plain in English. No other English translation of this