A Little Oops

Every year, when we swing around to celebrate the Baptism of our Lord, it is such a joy to sing Dr. Luther’s great text: “To Jordan Came the Christ Our Lord.” LSB supplies two tunes for it, but surely the modern tune pales in comparison to Dr. Luther’s own sturdy and memorable one. He packs so much great theology into this hymn that one scarcely knows where to begin, let alone end, in extolling it. But there is one very funny part. You see, the accounts of Our Lord’s Baptism and the Transfiguration are remarkably similar, and it appears that Luther in the hymn conflates them, perhaps without realizing he did so. For it was NOT at the Baptism, but at the Transfiguration, that the words were added: “Listen to Him.” Luther lifts them from the Transfiguration and inserts them into the Baptism in the hymn, stanza 3:

These truths on Jordan’s bank were shown
By mighty word and wonder.
The Father’s voice from heav’n came down,
Which we do well to ponder:
”This Man is My beloved Son
In whom my heart has pleasure.
Him you must hear and Him alone
And trust in fullest measure
The word that He has spoken.” LSB 406:3