Then dawned Sunday, the first day of the week,
When into the garden silently came
Troubled women to anoint the body of the Lord,
Who–Friday on a cross–had been slain.
These women had endured his trial; these women watched him die.
They wept as they saw his body torn by pain.
But they never stopped to think–they never realized–
That what he had told them was true:
That they’d see him in the flesh, alive again.
These women approached the tomb in the stillness of the dawn,
When they saw that the rock was gone from the door.
“Fear not,” an angel said, “the one you seek is not dead,
But has risen and lives today;
Go to Galilee; there you’ll see the resurrected Lord.”
Then dawned Sunday, the first day of the week,
When out from the garden joyously ran
Shouting women to proclaim that one who had been slain
Had lived, died, and arisen as God and man.
About this Song:
This is one of my oldest songs–thirty to forty years. I used rhymes a lot in the early days of my song writing; although I seldom bother with them now, look at “Days, Hours, Moments” here to see a drastic exception.
This song also better reflects the folk sound that has played such an important part in my guitar playing and song writing than many of my more recent songs.
Because the Gospels differ in their details about Resurrection Morning, I had to make two decisions: Would one woman go to the tomb initially or several? And would there be one angel at the tomb or two?
I don’t consider the differences between the biblical accounts to be significant; two truthful witnesses may see or experience the same event personally and still describe the details differently. If you doubt that, ask someone who’s close to you to relay something that happened to both of you and see if you don’t start correcting one another almost immediately.
One thing I didn’t like about the original lyrics was I had the angel saying Jesus’s “spirit will live with you evermore” as the last line in the third stanza. I’d done that to make a rhyme, but–unfortunately–that’s not what the angel told the women.
Jesus appeared to His disciples later. When He breathed on them, He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” But that had nothing to do with what the angel had said.
Poetic license is one thing, but purposely misquoting the Bible is something else. For years I wanted to rewrite that line, but the change was slow in coming. I was limited by the fact that the last word had to rhyme with “door.”
A few years ago the line shown in the lyrics above came to mind after I’d already settled on a different new line. I don’t think most people will even notice that it uses a “false” rhyme (door/Lord).
Although this song still doesn’t include everything the angel says, at least it’s biblically correct now. I hope you’ll find this recording to be a blessing. Listen here. A free lead sheet is available here.
I hope you have a blessed Easter.
I’ll be back again a week from Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.
Best regards,
Roger
Links you might be interested in:
As I Come Singing. . . 