|
"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL I suppose that many of you are in churches that sang (or will sing) the great Advent hymn "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." There are seven stanzas to the full text, but in the original version (12th century Latin), the seven verses were meant to be sung at different services on the seven days prior to Christmas Eve, and "our" first verse (O come. O come Emmanuel) was the last one. In Latin, these are known as the GREAT ANTIPHONS or "O" ANTIPHONS, because each one started with the word "O." But wait there's more. The poet (or poets) who put this together, did an amazing job of weaving in the most delightful hidden message (sort of like playing the record backwards to get hidden meanings). Here are the beginnings of the verses: 1. O Sapientia (Wisdom from on high) - December 17 2. O Adonai (Lord) - December 18 3. O Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse) - December 19 4. O Clavis David (Key of David) - December 20 5. O Oriens (Dayspring, Light from the East) - December 21 6. O Rex Gentium (King of the Nations) - December 22 7. O Emmanuel (Emmanuel, God with Us) - December 23 What's so special about that? We'll, there is a wonderful acrostic message build into the structure of the verses. If you take just the first letter of the words that follow the "O" of each verse, you get SARCORE, which means nothing. But if you turn the letters around, you get, "ERO CRAS," which means "I am tomorrow." In other words, on December 23, the long-expected Jesus is saying "Tomorrow's my birthday." The various prophetic names used in the text (Key of David, Wisdon from on High, etc.) were selected and ordered in such a way that they pointed to the coming of Messiah. WOW! Have a great day! Chip |