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Welcome back to another

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episode of Five Minutes in Church History. On

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this episode, we are going to do some

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Sherlock Holmes detective work on

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a hymn. We're going to look at the beloved hymn,

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Be Thou My Vision, and see

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if we can figure out when

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and where the lyrics

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for this hymn come from. If

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we go to the third stanza, we see lots

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of clues. First, we see the expression,

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battle shield, and then we see the expression,

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high tower. Well, that all sounds

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rather medieval to me. And then

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we see the word dignity. Now in our

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moment, dignity means the worth

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and value of every human being. Every

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person is created in the image of God and therefore

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every person has dignity. But

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back in the ancient and medieval world, dignity

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ascribed status or even nobility

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to a person, much akin

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to our word dignitary.

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So we put some of those clues together and we begin

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to see the when. But

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what about the where? Well, that clue

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comes in the fourth stanza

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and in a phrase that is repeated at the

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beginning of the fifth stanza, and it's this phrase,

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the high King of heaven.

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Now, if you were to search scripture, you would find

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the expression, King of heaven in Daniel 4.37.

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And Nebuchadnezzar, after his humiliation,

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praises and honors the King

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of heaven, but not this

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expression, high King of heaven.

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It is certainly in concert

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with the biblical teaching of God, but we don't

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find this exact expression in the Bible.

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So where does high King

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come from? And if you guessed Ireland,

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you'd be right. Coming back to the sixth

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and perhaps even the fifth century, the

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term was used for a king among

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the kings of the lands of Ireland

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to be indeed

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the High King of

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Ireland. So now we

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have teased out our clues and

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we have arrived at the conclusion that

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this beloved hymn is based on

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a sixth century Irish

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poem. And further, this

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hymn is attributed to Dallin

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Forgow. He hails from

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modern day County Caven up

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in the northwest corner of the Emerald Isle.

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And legend has it that he descended from

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one of those very high kings that

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used the expression for his poem. He

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wrote a poem on Columbia, the

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Irish missionary who took Christianity to

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Scotland in the 500s. And a number

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of other poems are attributed to him, including

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the poem Rope to Mobolé, which

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being translated means, be

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thou my vision. The

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earliest extent manuscript

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we have of this poem is

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a 12th century text, which

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is housed rather appropriately in

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the National Library in

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Ireland. Now we have to fast

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forward all the way to 1905. Mary

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Elizabeth Byrne translated

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this ancient Irish poem into

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English. And since then it

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has made its way into most hymnals.

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Now hymns not only have lyrics, they also have

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tunes. So let's take a look at

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the tune for Be Thou My Vision. The

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bottom of the hymnal, you'll see the word

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slain. Slain

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was originally an old Irish

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folk tune. And it first accompanied

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a folk song entitled With

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My Love On The Road. So

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there you have it. It was a tune

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for a road trip ballad, Celebrating

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Love. But then

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David Enns made some modifications

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to the tune Slain. And

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he put it together with the lyrics

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that Mary Byrne translated. and

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so we have, Be Thou

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My Vision. So we know

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about the tune and we know about the

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English translation and we know about

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the ancient Irish poem.

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There was a book written about hymnody

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entitled, Sing with Understanding,

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and it's very helpful for us as we sing these

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hymns and we love these hymns to

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do a little digging into the history

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of these hymns. It gives us that

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level of understanding and appreciation

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and so we have, Be Thou My Vision,

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a truly beautiful hymn so

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theologically rich, so

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poetic, and on top of all

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of that a fascinating historical

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tale. That's Rope to

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Mo'Bole, or as we sing,

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Be Thou My Vision. And I'm Steve Nichols.

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Thanks for listening to Five Minutes in

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Church History.