A Boy Is Born In Bethlehem

Representative Text

1 A Boy is born in Bethlehem,
Joy bringing to Jerusalem.
He lieth in a manger poor
Whose kingdom shall for aye endure.

2 The ox and ass knew and adored
The Infant that was Christ the Lord.
The kings of Saba came to bring
Gold, myrrh and incense to their king.

3 The offspring He of virgin bright,
Made mother by high Heaven’s might.
One after one the cot forlorn
Entering, they hail their prince new born.

4 The serpent’s venom knew Him not,
Though of our blood He chose His lot:
Made like to us in human kin,
Unlike us in respect of sin.

5 That like Him He might make us be,
And with Himself and God agree.
In this birth’s joy let all accord,
And bless for ever Christ the Lord.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #8373

Translator: H. I. D. Ryder

Ryder, Henry Ignatius Dudley, s. of the Rev. G. D. Ryder, who in 1836 became Rector of Easton, Hants, was born Jan. 12, 1837. On Dec. 8, 1856, he became a member of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri at Birmingham. He died Oct. 7, 1907. His hymns and translations are in his own Poems Original and Translated, 1882, in O. Shipley's Annus Sanctus, 1884, and in the Birmingham Oratory Hymn Book, 1906. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)  Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: A Boy is born in Bethlehem, glad tidings for Jerusalem
Title: A Boy Is Born In Bethlehem
Latin Title: Puer natus in Bethlehem
Translator: H. I. D. Ryder
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Source: Tr.: Annus Sanctus (Vol. 1) by Orby Shipley (London and New York: Burns & Oates, 1884); 14th Century Benedictine processional
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

PUER NOBIS NASCITUR

PUER NOBIS is a melody from a fifteenth-century manuscript from Trier. However, the tune probably dates from an earlier time and may even have folk roots. PUER NOBIS was altered in Spangenberg's Christliches GesangbUchlein (1568), in Petri's famous Piae Cantiones (1582), and again in Praetorius's (P…

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[A Boy is born in Bethlehem] (13457)


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The Cyber Hymnal #8373

Include 2 pre-1979 instances
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