Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all
creatures here me low.
Okay, technically that’s not exactly how the lyrics go. But,
hearing it as a child, that’s what I thought it said. In fact, since I thought I knew the words, I kept
singing it that way. No one around me
noticed. It wasn’t until some point in
college that I happened to actually look down and read “all creatures here
below.”
Oops.
But, when we learn something first by hearing it instead of reading it, of course we hear whatever we think we hear. This is especially true if you grow up in church.
The results can be interesting...
Like that great old praise song about “Gladly, the Cross-eyed Bear.”
Or let’s all raise our voice in that classic Wallace and
Gromit favorite: “Bringing in the cheese!
Bringing in the cheese! We shall
come with joy, see! Bringing in the
cheese.” I wouldn’t mind a bit of Wensleydale,
if you’d be so kind.
So, this whole line of thought brings me to poor Elvina. Mrs. Elvina Mable Hall, to be exact. She is known to us only through a single
poem, “Jesus Paid it All.” When added to
music written by John Grape, it has remained a favorite Protestant hymn for
almost 150 years.
The thing is, since Elvina grew up in church, she had one of those “hear-me-low” moments. Except, in this case, the "oops" is written right into the lyrics. So, we keep right on singing
the mistake. Most people don't notice. In fact, someone would have to
be some kind of an insanely over-the-top Bible trivia addict who insists on making
mountains out of molehills to even notice it (my wife’s somewhat unfair take on
my perfectly normal desire to be faithful to scripture).
So, where is the mistake?
It’s in the fourth verse of the hymn.
Here’s how it reads:
Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.
Where is it? Look at line three. Now, use any Bible software (concordance, if
you want to be quaint) and look up “leper’s spots.” Guess what? No matter how much you look, you
won’t find anything. In fact, although it can be given as a punishment by God, the Bible
does not use ever leprosy as something that illustrates sin (to be ceremonially
unclean was not about being sinful).
Now, look up “leopard’s spots.” Voila!
Jeremiah 13:23 “Can Ethiopians change their skin or leopards their spots? Then also you can
do good who are accustomed to do evil.”
In pointed sarcasm the prophet announces the sinful nation of Judah can
change its ways and do good. Sure it can
-- just as easily as a leopard can change its spots. (The “hearts of stone” reflects an image from
Jeremiah chapters 17-19 and is also implied in 2 Corinthians 3:3)
The phrase she heard in church in sermons about our ingrained sinfulness was
“leopard’s spots.”
Oops.
Sure, since most people are surprised the Bible makes any mention at all of
leopards, we keep singing the oops. And,
we all get the idea. Maybe it isn’t
worth even a blog post.
But, if you happen to feel either hyper-biblical or just a little
rebellious, then the next time you sing Jesus
Paid it All, then go ahead and boldly sing out, “leopard’s spots.” Trust me.
No one around you will notice the difference. After all, we only hear what we think we
hear.
4 comments:
This is great insight, and I had never realized that the word was mistakenly used. We recently discussed in our choir the appropriateness of using the word leper, since in the dictionary it is said to be a word used to define an outcast, or to degrade someone. "Leprosy" is not even the correct name of the disease, and the name "leprosy" comes from the root of being outcast and defiled. Our children's missions teachers have done a half a year of study and fundraising to help treat modern-day leprosy, better named as Hanson's Disease. The children were taught that it is kinder and less ostracizing to say Hanson's disease instead of leprosy or calling someone a leper. We decided that to be consistent in our teachings, we would consider not using the word leper. Now, we can use leopard and be Biblical about it!! :) Thanks for sharing this.
I have always use the word leopard in that song! I know it's because I saw that verse in Jeremiah many years ago when I was a kid. I didn't not know that it was written with word leper. Well, I guess it's not as bad as when my new Christian dad was standing next to me at Moody church and singing, "Jesus never saves!" Instead of Jesus never fails! :-)
Thank you. That verse has bugged me for years. I wondered if it was meant to refer to Jeremiah 13:23, but there it is, in black and white, in ALL my hymnals! I have cringed when singing it because it doesn’t actually make sense and seems disrespectful to refer to someone’s skin disease as “spots”. I’ve even sung it “leopard” at times. Now I will feel free to change Elvira’s lyrics!
This is so good and so true. We should be insistent on getting the words right, because words matter. Sadly it is one of those songs that has somehow stood the test of time carrying this error all along.
It is not a trivial topic because as you point out leopard and leper mean different things in the Bible. And if the composer wants to use biblical illustrations, they should be faithful to how the Bible presents them. But as users of music, when we sing, we should be faithful to what the composer has written. (It's not fair to the composer to change their words). In this instance it leaves me with little choice but to not choose to sing this song... although I'll join in if someone else chooses the song- i won't die on this hill!
Another one to look at is the "son of righteousness" which is sometimes used in Hark the Herald instead of the "sun of righteousness"
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