Hark, the what?
I read this week that the opening line of “Hark, the herald angels sing” was originally “Hark, how all the welkin rings”. No, I hadn’t heard of a welkin either, but my dictionary tells me it means “sky, upper air.” Well, at least that makes sense. I understand that it was the preacher George Whitefield who altered the original version penned by the great hymn writer Charles Wesley, brother of John; he also cut several verses. Apparently, there were later attempts to revive the original version, but they failed because the changes were too well established. I, for one, am grateful.
I also read that Whitefield removed “the baffling couplet “Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed, Bruise in us the serpent’s head.”” What baffled me is that it should be baffling. It seems that the writer doesn’t know his Bible as Wesley did. The couplet is a combination of two verses: Genesis 3:15, where God tells the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel”; and Romans 16:20, where Paul promises that, “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (both King James Version). It is a promise that Christ, the offspring (“seed”) of the woman, will ultimately conquer Satan, and so deliver us from his deceptions. It is the promise of a salvation that is cosmic, and not only personal. Now, I wouldn’t mind re-introducing those lines…