GENERAL NOTE: Movements 1 and 6 take their texts verbatim from the outer stanzas of the hymn “Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ.” Movement 2 quotes stanza 2 and adds interspersed commentary. The remaining movements paraphrase the content of the inner stanzas.

¹ Angels are depicted as rejoicing at Jesus’s birth in Luke 2:13 (which is within the gospel portion chanted at the liturgical occasion that this cantata was designed for).

² Modern printings of the libretto here read “höchsten” (“highest”), but in Bach’s own score this word is spelled with a capital “H.” The line is thus clearly speaking not of “the highest glory” but of “the glory of the Most High [God].”

³ See fn. 2, above.

⁴ Lines 1–2 derive their sense from Hebrews 1:3, “er ist der Glanz seiner Herrlichkeit und das Ebenbild seines Wesens” (“he [Jesus] is the radiance of his [God the father’s] glory and the very image of his [the father’s] essence”).

⁵ As expressed in Galatians 4:2.

⁶ This expression is adapted from the trinitarian expression “Gottes einigen Sohn” (“God’s one-and-only son”) in the Nicene Creed; see fn. 8, below.

⁷ The word “geboren” can be somewhat ambiguous, in the same ways that the various biblical terms underlying it are ambiguous: they all can mean “born” (i.e., by the woman who gives birth) or “begotten” (of the human couple, or of the woman, or of the human male). Thus, English translators have traditionally rendered the biblical terms behind Luther’s various grammatical forms of “gebären” as “to beget” when a male progenitor is the subject, and as “to bear” or “to give birth to” when a female progenitor is the subject. As God’s “only-begotten son,” Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, is singular in his manner of existence: in traditional Christian doctrine, he is proclaimed as eternally “begotten” of God the father, not temporally made or created.

⁸ The sense of this line is derived from the Nicene Creed, the beginning of whose second paragraph reads, in the Lutheran liturgical books of Bach’s day (as translated by Luther), “Ich glaube … an einen einigen Herrn Jesum Christum, Gottes einigen Sohn, der vom Vater geboren ist vor der ganzen Welt, Gott von Gott, Licht von Licht” (“I believe in a one-and-only Lord Jesus Christ, God’s one-and-only son, who was begotten from [God] the father before the entire [existence of the] world, God [begotten] from God, light [begotten] from light”).

⁹ As depicted in Luke 2:7-16.

¹⁰ “Das ewige Gut” is a technical expression, from the Latin “aeternum bonum” (“eternal good”), referring to a spiritual gift of grace that conveys eternal salvation.

¹¹ The direct antecedent for the neuter “es” (“it”) would be “das ewige Gut” (“the eternal good”; about which, see fn. 10, above), but the “it” could also take in any combination of “das Ebenbild” (“the very image [of God]”), “das einigs Kind, in der Krippe” (“the only [begotten] child [of God], in the [lowly] manger”), and “das Licht von Licht” (“the light [begotten] from light”). All of these expressions are applied to Jesus, the savior. The least likely of these to be thought of, on the face of it, as a “blessing” would be the child in the manger, and this is perhaps what motivated the inclusion in this line of the word “ja” (“indeed”).

¹² This use of the word “auserkoren” (“chosen”) derives its sense from Lutheran christological interpretation of Luther’s idiosyncratic rendering of Song of Songs 5:10, “Mein Freund ist weiss und rot, auserkoren unter vielen Tausenden” (“My beloved one [understood as a foreshadowing of God’s messiah, Jesus] is white and ruddy, chosen [by God from] among many thousands”). Jesus is explicitly described as having been “selected/chosen” (Luther: “erwählt”) by God, as his servant, in Matthew 12:18.

¹³ “Erden Kreis” does not mean “earth’s orbit”; it is a synonym for “Erdkugel” (“terrestial/earthly globe”).

¹⁴ The word “fassen” here is employed in the sense of “to hold,” not as “to grasp/fathom” but “to contain/encompass.”

¹⁵ In Isaiah 60:19-20 it is proclaimed that “der HERR wird dein ewiges Licht sein” (“the LORD [in Christian interpretation, Jesus,] will be your eternal light”).

¹⁶ In the New Testament, the followers of Jesus are called “children of light” (e.g., in John 12:36, Ephesians 5:9, and 1 Thessalonians 5:5).

¹⁷ This is sometimes, erroneously, given as “die” (“them”) in modern printings of the libretto.

¹⁸ It is declared in Colossians 1:16 that all things were created through God’s son, Jesus.

¹⁹ This line probably derives its sense from Jeremiah 14:8, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “warum stellest du dich, als wärest du ein Gast im Lande” (“why do you [God] present yourself as if you were a guest in the land [of Israel]?” The cantata text apparently appropriates Jeremiah’s negative language to speak in a positive manner of God’s earthly sojourn as “contained” in the human body of Jesus.

²⁰ As declared in Revelation 3:20-21.

²¹ A 1728 printed book of cantata librettos gives this word as “euch” (“[plural] you”).

²² A 1728 printed book of cantata librettos and Bach’s earlier version of the aria give this word as “von” (here, likewise “of”).

²³ This idea comes from Luke 20:36, “sie sind den Engeln gleich” (“they [those who will be made worthy of obtaining the age to come] are equal to the angels”). “Engelsherrlichkeiten” apparently does not mean “angels’ splendors/glories,” however, not least because the word “Herrlichkeit” in the sense of “glory” and “splendor” was very rarely employed in the plural. “Herrlichkeiten” seems to be used here as a collective noun (like “a pride of lions,” “a murder of crows,” “a glory of bananaquits,” etc.), namely as a synonym for “Herrschaften” in its sense of “lordships/dominions,” such that “Engelsherrlichkeiten” is an alternative for the more common expression “Herrschaften der Engel” (“lordships/dominions of angels”); the biblical phrase “Herrschaften in dem Himmel” (Ephesians 3:10) was understood in the Lutheranism of Bach’s day to mean “lordships/dominions [of angels] in heaven.”

²⁴ A 1728 printed book of cantata librettos gives this line as “Dies alles hat er uns getan” (which also means “All this he has done for us”).

²⁵ “Des” here is employed here in its sense of “deshalb” (“thus”).