LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

SAAR: EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN HYMNARY REVIEW 89
hymn successfully manages to accomplish this. The final phrases of the
second stanza,
becomes
Wir folgen all
zum Freudensaal
und halten mit das Abendmahl
We enter all,
the marriage hall,
To eat the Supper at Your call.
In the last stanza where the hymn writer concludes in an ecstatic Latin full
of the praises of God in heaven,
Des sind wir froh,
Io Io!
Ewig in dulci jubilo
the translation in ELH more than any other captures the jubilant note of the
original,
Blessed, will we,
sweet jubilee,
Sing “Gloria” eternally.
ELH offers one more example of fine hymn translation in the Lord’s Supper
hymn “Lord Jesus Christ, You Have Bestowed”. The graphic phrases of this
hymn stand in contrast to the popular Zwinglian conceptions of the Holy
Supper all around us. Stanzas three and four proclaim:
Still You are here, as says Your Word,
With us, Your congregation,
With now Your flesh and bones, O Lord,
Not bound to one location.
Your Word stands as a tower sure,
None can o’erthrow its trust secure,
Be he most shrewd and subtle.
“This is My body,” thus You say,
“Eat orally, so take Me;
All drink My blood; by you I stay,
And you shall not forsake Me.”
Thus You have spoken, so ’tis true;
Naught is impossible with You,
For You, Lord, are almighty.
Once again, the beautiful sacramental piety characteristic of the period of
Orthodoxy is highlighted in stanzas six and eight. Stanza six confesses: