Translations
There are two translations commonly sung today; one by John Mason Neale and Henry W. Baker and another by Roby Furley Davis.
Neale's original translation began "Of the Father sole begotten," in his Hymnal Noted (London, 1851), and contained only six stanzas. It was Neale's music editor, Thomas Helmore, who paired this hymn with the Latin plainsong. Neale's translation was later edited and extended by Henry W. Baker for Hymns Ancient and Modern (London, 1861; below).
Dissatisfied with Neale's translation, Roby Furley Davis (1866–1937), a scholar at St. John's College, Cambridge, wrote a new version for the English Hymnal of 1906. Davis was assistant master at Weymouth College and a scholar of the works of Tacitus, especially his book on Agricola. This is the text preferred by cathedral choirs, and was the version used in the popular Carols for Choirs series by David Willcocks.
Read more about this topic: Of The Father's Heart Begotten
Famous quotes containing the word translations:
“Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 18:7.
Other translations use “temptations.”