Good Christians All, Rejoice

Lyrics

Good Christian men, rejoice,
With heart, and soul, and voice;
Give ye heed to what we say:
News! News!
Jesus Christ is born to-day:
Ox and ass before Him bow,
And He is in the manger now.
Christ is born to-day! Christ is born to-day!

Good Christian men, rejoice,
With heart and soul and voice;
Now ye hear of endless bliss:
Joy! Joy!
Jesus Christ was born for this!
He hath opened heaven's door,
And man is blessed evermore.
Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!

Good Christian men, rejoice,
With heart, and soul, and voice;
Now ye need not fear the grave:
Peace! Peace!
Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one, and calls you all,
To gain His everlasting hall:
Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!

History

"Good Christians All, Rejoice" is the modernised title now used for John Mason Neale's carol "Good Christian Men, Rejoice", his English rendering of the medieval German-Latin macaronic carol In dulci jubilo. The carol dates from around the 14th century, with the earliest surviving manuscript from about 1400 in Leipzig; legend attributes it to the German mystic Heinrich Suso (Seuse, c. 1295-1366), said to have heard angels singing the words and joined their dance of worship. It was first printed in 1533 in Joseph Klug's Geistliche Lieder, its blend of German and Latin lines making it an unusually macaronic carol for its era.

John Mason Neale (1818-1866), the English hymnodist responsible for bringing many ancient and medieval hymns into English use, published his free paraphrase as "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" in Carols for Christmas-tide (London, 1853), produced with the church musician Thomas Helmore. Neale's version paraphrases rather than literally translates the Latin, keeping the carol's joyful call to rejoice "with heart, and soul, and voice" across three stanzas on Christ's birth, the opening of heaven, and salvation from the grave. The tune, IN DULCI JUBILO, was adapted by Helmore from Piae Cantiones (1582), a Swedish-Finnish collection of church and school songs; its triple-time dance rhythm is credited with the carol's lasting popularity. One curiosity of Neale's text - the exclamations "News! News!", "Joy! Joy!" and "Peace! Peace!" inserted mid-stanza - is traced by later scholarship to a transcription error Helmore made reading the tune's original mensural notation.

In the twentieth century, many hymnals softened Neale's "Good Christian men" to more inclusive language, giving "Good Christians all, rejoice" or "Good Christian friends, rejoice" while keeping his text otherwise intact. This should not be confused with a different hymn of similar title: Cyril Alington's 1931 Easter hymn, later renamed "Good Christian Men, Rejoice and Sing" to avoid confusion with Neale's older carol. Neale's carol remains a best-loved English-language Christmas hymn, still sung to the same In Dulci Jubilo tune.

Performance

This recording is a lyric video, titled on its channel "Good Christians All Rejoice | With Heart and Soul and Voice - Lyric Video", running 2 minutes 7 seconds and published to its channel in 2023. The subtitle phrase "With Heart and Soul and Voice" is the opening line of John Mason Neale's carol, confirming this recording sets Neale's text rather than the unrelated Alington hymn of similar title. No performer or arranger is named in the video facts available, so none is attributed here.

Sources: hymnary.org · hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikisource.org · blueletterbible.org