"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
Isaiah 9:6
In a conversation with a friend I was taking apart the titles, Wonderful, Counsellor, and analyzing them apart from each other. She offered another suggestion which made me think. She asked that I not discount the beauty of the Parallelism in Hebrew poetry. Even in the English translation the syllables of these words add rhythm and texture to the concepts which are ever growing in magnitude. Which is why the libretto, written by Charles Jennens, based on the King James version of the Bible, worked so well for George Frederic Handel. The words are music. And, the music teaches the grandeur of these names of Jesus Christ.
It is quite well known that when Handel got to the Hallelujah chorus, his assistant/servant found him in tears saying, “I did think I saw heaven open, and saw the very face of God."
Here are twenty-four names of Christ and twenty-four days until Christmas. Check back here to find the contents page of this series.
No comments:
Post a Comment
What do you think?