In Bethlehem is He Born

Representative Text

In Bethlehem is He born,
Maker of all things, everlasting GOD!
He opens Eden’s gate,
Monarch of Ages! Thence the fiery sword
Gives glorious passage; thence

That severing mid-wall overthrown, the Powers
Of earth and Heav’n are one:
Angels and men renew their ancient league,
The pure rejoin the pure
In happy union! Now the Virgin-womb,
Like some cherubic throne,
Containeth Him, the Uncontainable:
Bears Him, Who while they bear

The Seraphs tremble: bears Him, as He comes
To shower upon the world
The fulness of His everlasting love.



Source: Hymns of the Eastern Church (5th ed.) #E2

Translator: J. M. Neale

John M. Neale's life is a study in contrasts: born into an evangelical home, he had sympathies toward Rome; in perpetual ill health, he was incredibly productive; of scholarly tem­perament, he devoted much time to improving social conditions in his area; often ignored or despised by his contemporaries, he is lauded today for his contributions to the church and hymnody. Neale's gifts came to expression early–he won the Seatonian prize for religious poetry eleven times while a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1842, but ill health and his strong support of the Oxford Movement kept him from ordinary parish ministry. So Neale spent the years between 1846 and 1866 as a warden of Sackvi… Go to person page >

Author: St. Anatolius, of Constantinople

Anatolius, one of the Greek hymn-writers. No details are known of him. From the fact that he celebrates martyrs who died in the 6th and early part of the 7th century, it is certain that he is not to be identified (as by Neale) with the patriarch who succeeded Flavian in 449, and afterward procured the enactment of the famous canon of the Council of Chalcedon, which raised Constantinople to the second place among the patriarchal sees (Dict. of Ch. Biog., i. p. 110). A letter is said to exist showing that he was a pupil of Theodore of the Studium (759-826). More than a hundred hymns, all of them short ones, are found in the Mensea and Octoechus. From this account, derived from Anth. Graec. Garm. Christ, p. xli, it will be seen that his poems… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: In Bethlehem is he born
Title: In Bethlehem is He Born
Author: St. Anatolius, of Constantinople (c. 458)
Translator: J. M. Neale
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

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Hymns and Poetry of the Eastern Church #104

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Hymns of the Eastern Church (5th ed.) #E2

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