¹ John 20:19, a verse from the gospel portion chanted on the liturgical occasion for which this cantata was designed.

² This bit of biblical narrative starts with an adversative conjunction on account of the fact that it is contrasting Mary Magdalene’s having seen the resurrected Jesus (in the morning) with the disciples’ having seen the resurrected Jesus (later, in the evening of this same Sunday).

³ Depending on context, the underlying Greek New Testament word “sabbaton” could refer either to (1) “a [weekly] day of [religious observance and] rest [from work],” or to (2) “a week,” or to (3) “a [numbered] day of the week.” This latter sense was the one employed in the biblical phrase “te mia ton sabbaton” (“the first of the ‘sabbaths’ [sense 3] [within a ‘sabbath’ (sense 2)]”), an elaborate way of connoting “Sunday” (e.g., Luke 24:1, Acts 20:7). The Greek of John 20:19 is not fully rendered in Luther’s German translation (which is the verbatim text for movement 2 of Bach’s cantata). The standard Greek wording in John (which does correspond to the Greek of Luther’s source, Erasmus’s 1519 edition of the New Testament) reads “ouses oun opsias te hemera ekeine, te mia sabbaton” (hyperliterally, “It being, therefore, evening/late to the same ‘day,’ the first of the [seven] ‘sabbaths’ [in the week]”). The pre-nineteenth-century Luther Bibles, however, read, just like Bach’s cantata, “But in the evening of the same ‘sabbath’.” It is unclear whether Luther’s shorter and subtly different rendering was meant to conflate sense 1 and sense 3 of “sabbaton”—his translation may have been motivated in part by a desire to make John 20:19 project the belief that Sunday is the sabbath in sense 1, the proper day of godly rest and worship for Christians (but on a spiritual, not a legal, basis), superseding Saturday, the traditional (Jewish) sabbath in sense 1 (the laws about which were held by Luther and his followers—but notably not by the followers of Calvin—to have been eliminated with the advent of Christ). The Gospel of John, both in its original Greek and in Luther’s translation, does indeed say that Jesus was seen raised from the dead on the first Sunday (see fn. 4, below) after his crucifixion on the Friday in Passover, but Sunday’s becoming the Christian sabbath (“day of rest”) developed well after the Gospel of John was written.

⁴ Regarding the various biblical meanings of the word “sabbath,” see fn. 3 above. Contextually, the expression “that same sabbath” cannot be taken to connote “that same Saturday,” as is evident from Luther’s (albeit somewhat confusing) rendering of John 20:1, “An der Sabbather einem kommt Maria Magdalena frühe, da es noch finster war, zum Grabe, und siehet, dass der Stein vom Grabe hinweg war” (“Early [in the morning], when it was still dark, on [the ‘sabbath’/weekday that is reckoned as ordinal day number] one of the [seven] ‘sabbaths’/weekdays, Mary Magdalene came to the grave [of Jesus] and sees that the stone [that had sealed the tomb] was [taken] away from the grave”). If Mary sees Jesus on the morning of the first day in the week, then “the evening of that same ‘sabbath’/weekday” would be after sunset on a Sunday.

⁵ The reason for this “fear of the Jews” was stated in John 16:2 to be: “Sie werden euch in den Bann tun; es kömmt aber die Zeit, dass, wer euch tötet, wird meinen, er tue Gott einen Dienst daran” (“They [the Jews] will place you [followers of Jesus] under the ban; but the time is coming that whoever [of the Jews] kills you will suppose he thereby does God a service”).

⁶ This was given as “sei[e]n” (“may be”) in the text booklet distributed to Bach’s fellow congregants; this rhymes with the “ein” of “stellt sich ein” (“to make one’s appearance”) at the end of line 3. “Sind” is the wording in most Luther Bibles of Bach’s day, whereas “sein/seien” is used in others; see also fn. 8, below.

⁷ This was given as “In Jesu teuren Namen” (strictly speaking, either singular accusative “into Jesus’s precious name,” or plural dative “in Jesus’s precious names”) in the text booklet distributed to Bach’s fellow congregants.

⁸ Lines 1–3 of this movement were adapted from Matthew 18:20, where Jesus declares, “denn wo zwei oder drei versammelt sein [or, ‘sind’] in meinem Namen, da bin ich mitten unter ihnen” (“for where two or three may be [or, ‘are’] gathered in my name, I am there in the midst among them”).

⁹ It is probably not God’s concern with his ethical or ritual “laws” and “decrees” but rather with his true commitment, despite anomalies, to his created “natural order” that is being referred to here. The apparent twin unnaturalness of Jesus’s rising from the dead and his placing himself into a locked room is not to be taken as a transgression of God’s divinely-created order, declares this cantata poetry, as God’s love for the followers of Jesus can transcend the laws of nature. These aria lines may be partly drawing on 1 Corinthians 14:33, “Denn Gott ist nicht ein Gott der Unordnung, sondern des Friedes, wie in allen Gemeinen der Heiligen” (“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as [he is] in all congregations of the saints”), which is part of an extended passage about orderly Christian worship (1 Corinthians 14:26-40).

¹⁰ This was given as “ob gleich,” i.e., “obgleich” (“although”) in the text booklet distributed to Bach’s fellow congregants, and as “obgl.” (i.e., “obgleich”) in Bach’s own score, but as “obschon” (which also means “although”) in Bach’s original performing parts.

¹¹ The first stanza of this hymn.

¹² This use of the word “Häuflein” (“tiny little band”) is drawing on the sense of the biblical expression “ihr armer Haufe Israel” (“you wretched/poor band, Israel”) in Isaiah 41:14. In traditional Christian interpretation, the name of the people of God here, “Israel,” was understood to mean “Christians,” “the church.”

¹³ This line draws on the language of Psalm 27:12, “Gib mich nicht in den Willen meiner Feinde” (“Do not give me [over] unto the will of my enemies”).

¹⁴ In modern German, “verstören” means “to disturb” or “to unsettle,” but in older German, especially in the Luther Bibles, “verstören” was often employed as a synonym for “zerstören” (“to crush,” “to destroy”).

¹⁵ This was given as “Im finstern Schatten” (singular dative; strictly speaking, “In the dark shadow”) in the text booklet distributed to Bach’s fellow congregants.

¹⁶ “In finstern Schatten” is presumably to be understood here as plural dative, “In den finstern Schatten” (“in the dark shadows”); not as singular accusative, “In den finstern Schatten” (“into the dark shadow”); nor as plural accusative, “In die finstern Schatten” (“into the dark shadows”). See also fn. 15, above.

¹⁷ “Denen” is used here as an old-fashioned alternative form of “den” (“the”). With regard to the followers of Jesus fearing the Jews, see fn. 5, above.

¹⁸ Bach’s own score and the text booklet distributed to his fellow congregants reads “güldnen” (“gilded”), but his separate performing part reads “schönen” (“beautiful/splendid”).

¹⁹ With regard to Jesus as not only a “shield” but also a “sun” (line 3), see fn. 20, below.

²⁰ The sense of this line is derived from Psalm 84:12, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Gott der HERR ist Sonn and Schild” (“God the LORD [i.e., in Christian reading, both God the father and God the son] is [a] sun and shield”).

²¹ This was given as “Gib unserm Fürsten” (“Give our prince”) in the text booklet distributed to Bach’s fellow congregants.

²² This movement is not underlaid with its hymn text in Bach’s own score. In his original soprano, tenor, and bass performing parts, line 4 of the second stanza gives the word “geruhlich” (“tranquil”), the minority reading in 1 Timothy 2:2 in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day (see its quotation in fn. 25, below), whereas the alto part and the text booklet distributed to Bach’s fellow congregants gives “geruhig” (which likewise means “tranquil”), the majority reading in 1 Timothy 2:2 in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day and the wording that is given in modern editions of the cantata.

²³ Martin Luther’s versification of the antiphon “Da pacem Domine,” with an additional stanza added shortly after his lifetime.

²⁴ These lines draw on the language of Luther’s idiosyncratic rendering of Sirach 50:25-26, “Er [Gott] verleihe immerdar Friede zu unser Zeit in Israel, und dass seine Gnade stets bei uns bleibe” (“May he [God] in our time grant peace in Israel forever, and [may God also grant] that his mercy/grace might ever abide with us”).

²⁵ These lines draw extensively on 1 Timothy 2:1-2, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “für die Könige und für alle Obrigkeit, auf dass wir ein geruhiges [or, ‘geruhliches’] und stilles Leben führen mögen in aller Gottseligkeit und Ehrbarkeit” (“[Make prayers and give thanks] for the kings and for all [secular] authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and honorability”). In older English, the equivalent of the German word “Ehrbarkeit” was “honesty,” but in this case the word “honesty” was understood not in its sense of “truthfulness” but of “respectability/honorability.”