John1: 19-23– [And] This is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?
And he confessed and denied not, and said plainly, I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, What art thou then? Art thou Elias? And he said, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No.
Then said they unto him, What art thou? that we may give an answer unto them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
And he said, I am the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.
Saint John the Baptist, painting by Bernardo Zenale (d. 1526) kept at the Grenoble museum. Translation of “Ego vox clamantis” is “I am the voice of one crying…”
John 1: 1–2, 4–5 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. In him was life, and that life was the light of all. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
The beginning of the Gospel of St John in the “Coronation Gospels” (Cotton MS. Tiberius A. II, f. 162r). From British Library via Wikimedia Commons.
***
“In the Beginning Was the Word” Op. 161, for SATB and organ, composed by Carson Cooman (b. 1982) in 1999 and revised in 2003.
Song of Solomon4:7,11; 2:11-13; 4:8 [Latin] – You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.
Your lips distil nectar; honey and milk are under your tongue; the scent of your perfumes is beyond all spices.
For now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
The flowers have appeared; the flowering vines have given forth their fragrance, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land.
Arise, my love, my fair one; come from Lebanon, Come, you will be crowned.
Original Latin:
Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula non est in te;
favus distillans labia tua; mel et lac sub lingua tua;
odor unguentorum tuorum super omnia aromata:
jam enim hiems transiit, imber abiit et recessit.
Flores apparuerunt;
vineae florentes odorem dederunt,
et vox turturis audita est in terra nostra:
surge, propera, amica mea:
veni de Libano, veni, coronaberis.
Illustration of King Solomon (via Wikimedia Commons)
Philipians2: 7-8 –But [he] made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The 17th-century painting Christ Crucified by Diego Velázquez
***
“He made Himself of no reputation,” recitative from The Crucifixion (1887), an oratorio for SATB choir and organ composed by Sir John Stainer (1840-1901)
7. He made himself of no reputation - The Crucifixion - Stainer
.jpg)
