Scripture Verse

Behold, a greater than Jonah is here. Matthew 12:41

Introduction

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John M. Neale (1818–1866)
Wikipedia

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Words: Cos­mas the Me­lo­dist, 8th Cen­tu­ry (Σπλάγχ­νων ’Ιωνᾶν). Trans­lat­ed from Greek to Eng­lish by John M. Neale, Hymns of the East­ern Church, 1862.

Music: York­shire John Wain­right, 1750 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Wain­right (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

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Cosmas the Melodist

Lyrics

As Jo­nah, is­su­ing from his three days’ tomb,
At length was cast, un­in­jured, on the earth;
So, from the vir­gin’s un­pol­lut­ed womb
Th’in­car­nate Word, that dwelt there, had His birth:
For He, who knew no taint of mor­tal stain,
Willed that His mo­ther spot­less should re­main.

Christ comes, in­car­nate God, amongst us now,
Begotten of the Fa­ther ere the day:
And He, to whom the sin­less le­gions bow,
Lies cra­dled, ’midst un­con­scious beasts on hay:
And, by His home­ly swad­dling-bands girt in,
Looses the many fet­ters of our sin.

Now the new Child of Ad­am’s race draws nigh,
To us, the faith­ful, giv’n: This, this is He
That shall the Fa­ther of eter­ni­ty,
The An­gel of the Migh­ty Coun­sel, be:
This the eter­nal God, by whose strong hands
The fab­ric of the world sup­port­ed stands.