Jesu, to thee my heart I bow

Jesu, to thee my heart I bow. Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf* (1700-1760), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791). Zinzendorf’s hymn began’Reiner Bräutgam meiner seelen’. It was an early hymn, written in 1721 (JJ, p. 1304), Wesley would have found it in Das Gesang-Buch der Gemeinde von Herrnhut (1735) on the voyage to Georgia in 1735-36. He translated stanzas 1, 10-12, 16 and 17 of Zinzendorf’s 19 stanzas. His translation was included in his first hymnbook, the Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Charlestown, 1737), where it was entitled ‘From the German’. It was then printed in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739), in six stanzas, with the heading ‘Subjection to Christ. From the German’; but Wesley...

If you have a valid subscription to Dictionary of Hymnology, please log in to view this content. If you require a subscription, please click here.

Cite this article