ANONYMOUS. FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.
This was till recently a favorite in the Lutheran churches of Germany. Like most of the other hymns in this collection, it has often been translated; as by Schaff in his Christ in Song. The oldest text known is as early as the fourteenth century.
The subject is the birth of Christ. Cf. Matthew 2. 1. Bethlehem: indeclinable, like most proper names of Hebrew origin. 5, 6. The ox and ass were believed to have occupied the stable with Christ on the combined authority of the Septuagint reading of Hahakkuk 3. 2: 'Between two animals shalt thou be known'; and of Isaiah 1. 3: 'The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib.' quod: that. 7. Reges: Isaiah 60. 3; Psalms 72. 10, 15. Saba: Psalms 72. 10, 15. 11. Sine serpentis vulnere: without 'original sin.' Cf. Genesis 3. 14, 15; 1 John 3. 5.