Ask ye what great thing I know

Ask ye what great thing I know.  Johann Christoph Schwedler* (1672-1730), translated by Benjamin Hall Kennedy* (1804-1889). Schwedler’s hymn, beginning ‘Wollt ihr wissen was mein Preis?’, has the response at the end of each stanza, ‘Jesu, der Gekreuzigte’ (‘Jesus the crucified’): Wollt ihr wissen, was mein Preis? Wollt ihr wissen, was ich weiß? Wollt ihr sehn mein Eigentum? Wollt ihr hören, was mein Ruhm?   Jesus, der Gekreuzigte,   Jesus, der Gekreuzigte. The hymn was published after his death in the Hirschberger Gesangbuch (1741). It was based on 1 Corinthians 2:2 and Galatians 6:14. Kennedy’s translation was printed in his Hymnologia Christiana, or Psalms and Hymns Selected and...

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