The readings for the feast of the Epiphany are from the Book of Isaiah, "Arise, shine for thy light is come. " O Jesu Christe, wahres Licht" addresses Jesus as the true light, and prays to enlighten the heathen, or gentiles. Text īy all Your Church in earth and heav'n. It is also part of other hymnals and songbooks. It is part of the German Catholic hymnal Gotteslob of 2013, as GL 485 in the section Ökumene ( Ecumenism), omitting the second stanza. The hymn is part of the German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch as EG 72.
Other hymns sung to the same tune include "Jesus, thy blood and righteousness" and "Jesus, thy church with longing eyes", and "Volk Gottes, zünde Lichter an" (GL 374) by Peter Gerloff, a song for Purification ( Darstellung des Herrn). Catherine Winkworth translated the hymn to "O Christ, our true and only Light", published in her Lyra Germanica in 1858. Ball in 1836, which entered the Robinson's Church Psalter & Hymn Book in 1860, and other hymnals. The first of several translations to English was made of the first two stanzas, "O Thou, the true and only Light", by W. In Heermann's time, a sermon for Epiphany would recall the narration of the Three Kings but also call for the enlightenment of the heathen, the hymn's topic. Īlthough " O Jesu Christe, wahres Licht" was written as a "song of tears" for difficult times, it can be understood as a song for Epiphany. distinguished by great depth and tenderness of feeling, by an intense love of the Saviour, and earnest but not self-conscious humility". Heermann's hymns have been described as "the first in which the correct and elegant versification of Opitz was applied to religious subjects. The collection also contained " Herzliebster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen", which Johann Sebastian Bach chose as the first chorale in his St Matthew Passion. " O Jesu Christe, wahres Licht" appears among "Songs of Tears" in a section "In the Time of the Persecution and Distress of Pious Christians". Nonetheless, in 1630 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), Silesia, he published a volume of hymns, Devoti musica cordis, Hauss-und Herz-Musica (Latin, German: "music for a devout heart, house and heart music"), including Was willst du dich betrüben. He and his congregation also suffered under the Counter-Reformation.
Several times, he lost his possessions and had to flee for his life. Heermann lived in Köben, Silesia, when he wrote the hymn, an area which suffered under the war. The Lutheran theologian and pastor Johann Heermann, the hymn's poet, was influenced by the tract Buch von der deutschen Poeterey (Book of the German poetry) by Martin Opitz's, published in 1624, which defended German poetry and set guidelines on how German poetry should be composed.
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