Johann Sebastian Bach Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe

Jesus calling then the Twelve to him, said:
Come now, we go up hence to Jerusalem
and thuswise all things will happen,
all things be thus accomplished
which where prophesied of the Son of man.
But they understood not his meaning,
Nor did they know what things he spoke to them.

My Saviour take me, take thou me,
I would away with thee today
and in Jerusalem would share thy cross with thee.
Ah me! ‘twere well I know the price
that thou hast paid, thy sacrifice,
to gain me paradise,
ah! this were well for me.

Lord Jesus, bid me go, and I will hasten,
tho’ flesh and blood cannot well apprehend,
as thy disciples then, all that thy words portend.

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Ulrich Leisinger

Translation: John Coombs

The cantata Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe (“Jesus took unto him the twelve”), BWV 22, is one of the two test pieces which Johann Sebastian Bach submitted in February 1723 when applying for the position of Kantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig. Comparison between the texts and those of the test pieces submitted by Christoph Graupner, who had completed his examination for the same post a few weeks earlier, suggests that the texts to be set by the candidates for the position of successor to Johann Kuhnau had been selected by the Leipzig clergy, so that the conditions would be the same for each candidate. Bach’s cantata Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe was intend ed for use on the Sunday Estomihi, the last Sunday before Lent, which in 1723 fell on the 7th February. It was suit able as the principal music performed before the sermon, where as the cantata Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn, BWV 23, was probably sung after the sermon, during the Communion. A publication of the texts of the church music used at Leipzig shows that BWV 22 was performed again on the corresponding Sunday of the following year, the 20th February 1724.

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