Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam

Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam. Martin Luther* (1483-1546). This is one of the later hymns of Luther, dating probably from 1541. It is printed in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied III. 25, from Geistliche Lieder (1544), although a Low German version had appeared in a Magdeburg Gesang Buch in 1542. It was entitled ‘Ein Geistlich Lied, Von unser heiligen Tauffe, Darin sein kurtz gefasset, Was sie sey? Wer sie gestifftet habe? Was sie nütze? etc.’ (‘A hymn on our Holy Baptism, in which it is briefly set out, what it is? who instituted it? what is its use?’). It had seven 9-line stanzas (Jenny, Luthers geistliche Lieder, no 36, pp. 299-301). It is found complete in EG in the section for...