We first proclaim some aspect of Christ’s victory over death, and then add our emotional response to this victory. These stanzas appear in most modern hymnals, though some, such as the Presbyterian Hymnal and the United Methodist Hymnal, leave out the fourth verse, which begins, “He closed the yawning gates of hell,” or, “He broke the age-bound chains of hell.” Other phrases or words are slightly varied between hymnals the first verse in the Psalter Hymnal reads, “the victory of life is won,” whereas that same line in Worship and Rejoice is, “now is the victor’s triumph won.” These are all simply matters of prose, and don’t alter the meaning of the text in a significant way.Įach verse follows a similar pattern. They were translated by Francis Pott in 1859, and published in five stanzas. These anonymous words first appeared in the Jesuit collection, Symphonia Sirenum Selectarum in 1695.
![finita iam sunt proelia palestrina finita iam sunt proelia palestrina](http://www.hymntime.com/tch/img/p/a/l/e/palestrina_gpd.jpg)
It is the realization that we are continually being made new, that Creation in continually being restored, and that every day we are called to life anew with Christ. Christ rose and brought new life, and in so doing, through his declaration, “It is finished,” was also saying, “It has all just begun!” The finality of this text is the finality of newness. This is proved by the fact that Christ did not stay dead” ( The Gospel in Hymns, 278). “It is finished.” Albert Bailey writes, “The words present the theological statement that the Crucifixion was a contest between Christ and the devil’s legions, in which Christ won. There is, in this text, a sense of finality. Although hymnologist Austin Lovelace describes this as “a poor hymn which has ridden to success on the coattails of a fine tune” ( The Anatomy of Hymnody, 52), there is also something very profound and triumphant about the text which Lovelace seems to miss.