Nun legen wir den Leib ins Grab

Nun legen wir den Leib ins Grab. Michael Weisse* (ca. 1488-1534), one stanza by Martin Luther* (1483-1546), rewritten in 1978. Weisse’s funeral hymn, ‘Nun laßt uns den Leib begraben’ (‘Now let us bury the body’), was printed in Ein New Geseng buchlen (Jungbunzlau, 1631), entitled ‘Beym grabe’ (‘at the graveside’). It had seven stanzas. Two texts are printed in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied III.332-3. Wackernagel notes that a text from a Magdeburg Gesangbuch of 1540 contains many alterations from Weisse’s original, including a new stanza 7, ‘Das helff uns Christus unser trost’. EG uses this stanza, attributing it to Martin Luther* (as in 1545, see below). The hymn is one of great...