Hallelujah! Jesus lebt (supplement)

Here is my supplement to Emmanuel Cronenwett’s’ 1880 translation of the Easter hymn, “Hallelujah! Jesus lebt” (Benjamin Schmolck, 1731), “Hallelujah! Lo, He wakes! / Lives! O’er death and hell victorious”—not to be confused with the Borthwick translation of Garve’s hymn: “Hallelujah, Jesus lives / He is now the living One.” Neither should this be confused for the various versions or revisions by Danneil, Hiller, et al. Cronenwett omits stanza 4, which I attempt below (as well as altering lines 1 and 3 in his first stanza). His translation appears with a different alteration (by J. T. Mueller) of the first stanza in Selah Gesangbuch as “Hallelujah! Jesus Lives / Over death and hell victorious.” Here, curiously, stanza 4 is given in the German instead of 5 in the English cento. Miss Anna Warner, in Hymns of the Church Militant, p. 486, gives a translation “Hallelujah! Jesus lives! Life, immortal . . .” but it is not in the original meter. Though a newer melody was written which calls for a repetition of the last line, our present hymnal appoints “Jesus, meine Zuversicht.”

 

HALLELUJAH! Jesus lives!
O’er the foe and death victorious;
Earth, all trembling, passage gives
As the Hero rises glorious;
He who died on Golgotha,
Jesus lives, Hallelujah!

2 Hallelujah! See the tomb,
Ye who o'er His death are pining;
Dry your tears, to joy give room,
While the radiant sun is shining.
Hear the angels' Gloria;
Jesus lives, Hallelujah!

3 Hallelujah! Why seek ye
Yet among the dead the living?
Christ is ris'n in majesty!
Hence away with gloomy grieving,
Join with her of Magdala:
Jesus lives, Hallelujah!

4 Hallelujah! Here’s a word
To revive the soul like thunder!
Though life may no chance afford
On that tomb to look with wonder,
Yet faith sees it from afar:
Jesus lives! Hallelujah!

5 Hallelujah! then I cry;
Christ too will from death restore me,
Take me to His throne on high,
Whither He has gone before me.
Faith exults: Victoria!
Jesus lives, Hallelujah!

Translation sts. 1–3, 5, E. Cronenwett 1880, alt.
Translation st. 4 © 2022 Matthew Carver.

GERMAN

1 Hallelujah! Jesus lebt!
Tod und Teufel sind bezwungen,
Gruft und Kluft und Erde bebt,
da der Held hindurchgedrungen.
Geht nicht mehr nach Golgatha!
Jesus lebt, Hallelujah!

2 Hallelujah! seht das Grab,
die ihr weinen Tod beweinet;
wischet eure Thränen ab,
weil die helle Sonne scheinet.
Euer Heiland ist nicht da.
Jesus lebt, Hallelujah!

3 Hallelujah! suchet nicht
den Lebendigen bei Toten;
glaubet aber dem Bericht
der verklärten Osterboten,
diese wissen, was geschah;
Jesus lebt, Hallelujah!

4 Hallelujah! dieses Wort
soll mich wiederum beleben;
kann ich gleich nicht an den Ort
seines Grabes mich begeben;
gnug, daß es meine Glaube sah;
Jesus lebt, Hallelujah!

5 Hallelujah! er wird mir
Leben in dem Tode geben;
also sterb ich freudig hier,
Christi Tod ist nun mein Leben.
Nur getrost, ich glaube ja:
Jesus lebt, Hallelujah!