"Of the Father's Love Begotten" (Trinity Hymnal 162)

Hymn of the Month, December 2015
Researched and written by Shelby Breedlove and Rev. Nicholas Davelaar
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Many of the hymns we sing are gems of wisdom, guidance, and admonition, drawn from God’s Word and set to music so that the word of Christ might dwell in us richly. Let’s take some time to dig into another of these this month, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.”
 
History
 
This is one of the oldest hymns that we sing, and consequently it has a long, rich history. The author of the Latin text, M.A.C. Prudentius, was born in Spain in 348 A.D. He was trained as a lawyer and became an influential judge. At the age of 57, Prudentius had what we might call a midlife crisis. At the height of his power and prestige, he determined his life had been a waste. He retired from the world, withdrew to a monastery, and committed his life to praying and writing hymns and poems for the church. He wrote some of the most beautiful hymns of his day, and his poetry continued to be treasured throughout the Middle Ages. His best-known hymn was and still is “Corde Natus Ex Parentis” (“Of the Father's Love Begotten”).
 
Albert Bailey calls this hymn a “fighting hymn.” During the fourth century, orthodox theology was being attacked by heresies. One of the most prominent of these heresies was advanced by Arius (c. 250-336), who taught that God the Father and the Son did not co-exist throughout eternity. Arius believed Jesus was created by God and did not exist through all time. His contention was that Jesus was a “created being” and not equal to the Father (though still divine). The Council of Nicaea rejected this teaching as heresy, and about 80 years later Prudentius applied his legal skills to advance through poetry the orthodox understanding of the Trinity. Throughout “Of the Father's Love Begotten,” Prudentius set forth the argument that the Son has always, is always, and will always existed with God the Father.
 
This Latin hymn would be lost to us if not for two talented translators. The first of these—a 19th-century translator of classic Greek and Latin poetry, John Mason Neale (1818-1866)—translated the hymn into English. He then shaped Prudentius' poetry into six stanzas and added the refrain “evermore and evermore” at the conclusion of each stanza to emphasize that the existence of God with the Son and the Spirit have been, are, and will be co-eternal.
 
The second translator, Henry Williams Baker, was born May 27, 1821, in London. After graduating from Trinity College at Cambridge in 1844, Baker took holy orders as the vicar (parish priest) of the Anglican Church in Monkland, Herefordshire. Baker served there for the rest of his life. His name is well-known in the world of hymnody, but he did not write many hymns himself. His contribution to “Of the Father's Love Begotten” was to revise some Catholic-sounding language. He is better known for writing “Angels We Have Heard on High.”
 
Our hymn was not originally sung to the tune Divinum Mysterium. The melody we sing comes from a 12th-century plainsong with different words. Charles Winfred Douglas added the harmony in 1916.
 
C. Michael Hawn summarizes the long, rich history of this hymn with these words: “By the time this hymn comes to us in our hymnal, it has traveled an amazing journey through 17 centuries and at least four countries: a Latin poem from a Catholic Spanish poet in the fourth century, a tune from Italy in the 11th century, a translation from an Anglican in 19th-century England and a harmonization in the 20th century by an American Episcopal musician.”
 
This is truly a hymn for all times and ages!
 
History drawn from C. Michael Hawn (umcdiscipleship.org), hymnary.org, Kevin DeYoung (gospelcoalition.org), Richard Niell Donovan (lectionary.org), and hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com.
 
Overview
 
Unlike “Silent Night” or “Joy to the World,” we might never hear this month’s hymn on the radio or from the mouths of carolers. In fact, we may not even sing it all that often ourselves. Some of us perhaps have never heard it at all! That is understandable given its somewhat mysterious-sounding tune (at least to our ears), but its Christ-exalting lyrics make it well worth our attention this month. Few Christmas songs lead us in expressing who Christ is so richly, and yet, at the same time, so straightforwardly. The tune may be difficult to get used to, but the words we sing both of Christ and to Christ need little explanation given how simply they convey the glorious testimony of God’s Word.
 
Verse 1
Of the Father's love 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!

The hymn begins by leading us to profess the truth of John 1, namely that Jesus Christ, in his divinity, has neither beginning nor end. As we’ll acknowledge in the next verse, there was a specific time in human history when he became man, but far be it from us to think of that as the beginning of his existence. According to John 1, not only was he with God the Father before the creation of the world, but all things were created through him: “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” In the words of our hymn, he is the Source and Ending of all things, or in the words of Revelation 21:6, the Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet). That is who he was, is, and will be evermore and evermore; “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 12:8).
 
Verse 2
O that birth forever blessed,
when the Virgin, full of grace,
by the Holy Ghost conceiving,
bore the Savior of our race;
and the babe, the world's Redeemer,
first revealed his sacred face,
evermore and evermore!
 
In this verse we sing of Christ’s incarnation, the Son of God becoming man. On that day he first revealed his sacred face, sacred not only then, but evermore and evermore, as illustrated by the fact that we sing of his glory and grace yet today, more than two thousand years later!
 
Verse 3
This is he whom heav'n-taught singers
sang of old with one accord,
whom the Scriptures of the prophets
promised in their faithful word;
now he shines, the long-expected;
let creation praise its Lord, 
evermore and evermore!
 
Here we go on to sing of the angels and their joyful announcement of the coming of the long-promised Messiah. They announced his coming and called for “glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14). Now we join them, echoing the words of the psalmist (Ps 98:4-9): let all creation praise its Lord, evermore and evermore!”
 
Verse 4
O ye heights of heav'n, adore him;
angel hosts, his praises sing;
all dominions, bow before him,
and extol our God and King;
let no tongue on earth be silent,
ev'ry voice in concert ring, 
evermore and evermore!
 
Verse 4 picks up where the previous verse left off, but the scope of our call to praise is even broader. In the view of Jesus’ later work, we call for “every knee [to] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11). Jesus is worthy of this praise, and will receive it, evermore and evermore, because he willingly humbled himself even to the point of death on a cross in obedience to the Father, that we sinners might be reconciled to God.
 
Verse 5
Christ, to thee, with God the Father,
and, O Holy Ghost, to thee,
hymn, and chant, and high thanksgiving,
and unwearied praises be,
honor, glory, and dominion,
and eternal victory,
evermore and evermore!
 
We close by singing directly to Jesus Christ, expressing the praise of Revelation 7:12: “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Is this your praise? Is this your song to Jesus as we celebrate again his first coming, and continue to look forward to his second coming?