Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming

[Ekklesian]

“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” is a familiar and beloved Advent hymn. The hymn’s origins may be traced back to the late 16th century in a manuscript found in St. Alban’s Carthusian monastery in Trier in the original German, “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen.” The original stanzas (sources list at least 19 and as many as 23) focused on the events of Luke 1 and 2 and Matthew 2.*​

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1 Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming​

From tender stem hath sprung!​

Of Jesse's lineage coming​

As men of old have sung.​

It came, a flower bright,​

Amid the cold of winter​

When half-gone was the night.​

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2 Isaiah 'twas foretold it,​

The Rose I have in mind:​

With Mary we behold it,​

The virgin mother kind.​

To show God's love aright​

She bore to men a Savior​

When half-gone was the night.​

3 This Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens every load​

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Baptist Hymnal 2008**​

*ht tps://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-hymn-presents-savior-as-rose-eer-blooming

**ht tps://hymnary.org/text/lo_how_a_rose_eer_blooming

 

[Ekklesian]

The origin of the image of the rose has been open to much speculation. For example, an apocryphal legend has it that on Christmas Eve, a monk in Trier found a blooming rose while walking in the woods, and then placed the rose in a vase on an altar to the Virgin Mary.​

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Some Catholic sources claim that the focus of the hymn was originally upon Mary, who is compared to the symbol of the “mystical rose” in Song of Solomon 2:1: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”​

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It has been suggested that at a later date Protestants took the hymn, altering its focus from Mary to Jesus. Citing Isaiah 11:1—“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”—some controversy arose as to the original German word in the first line of stanza one: Was it “Ros” (rose) or “Reis” (branch)?*​

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*ht tps://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-hymn-presents-savior-as-rose-eer-blooming

 

[Ekklesian]

A third passage from Isaiah 35:1 suggests a stronger biblical basis for the image: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”​

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The famous composer Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) helped the popularity of this tune immensely by harmonizing it in his collection Musae Sioniae (Zion’s Music) in 1609. His harmonization of this German tune, or adaptations of it, may be found in most hymnals.*​

This modern arrangement by Shawn Kirchner is noteworthy...

*ht tps://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-hymn-presents-savior-as-rose-eer-blooming