"Bekennen will ich seinen Namen" BWV 200
  • Annotated text as pdf
  • Simple text for programs
  • QR code link to this page
  • JSON

    • Bekennen will ich seinen Namen,
    Er ist der Herr, er ist der Christ,
    In welchem aller Völker Samen
    Gesegnet und erlöset ist.
    Kein Tod raubt mir die Zuversicht:
    Der Herr ist meines Lebens Licht.    		 I will acknowledge his name;
    He is the Lord, he is the Christ,1
    In whom the seed of all peoples
    Is blessed and redeemed.
    No death robs me of my confidence:
    The Lord is the light of my life.
    (transl. Michael Marissen & Daniel R. Melamed)

    GENERAL NOTE: BWV 200 is Bach’s substantial musical reworking, in the 1740s, with new text, of the aria “Dein Kreuz, o Bräutgam meiner Seelen” from Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel’s passion oratorio Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld, which was performed on Good Friday in 1734 at the Thomas Church in Leipzig.

    1 “Christ” is typically used of Jesus as if it were a sort of last name, “Jesus Christ.” The phrase “he is the Christ,” however, has the very same meaning as “he is the messiah [of God]” or “he is the anointed one [of God].”