# Silent Night: lyrics with the Bible verses behind them

Silent Night is not in the Bible, but almost every picture in it is: the virgin mother and child, the shepherds afraid at the sight, the glory from heaven, and “Christ the Savior is born” from Luke 2. What it adds is the mood. Luke never says the night was silent or calm.

Words: Joseph Mohr, 1816 (German). English by John Freeman Young, 1859. Music: Franz Xaver Gruber, 1818. The words are in the public domain. The 3 verses sung in English. Mohr wrote 6 in German.

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/christmas/carols/silent-night. Scripture quotations are from the Lumin Translation.

## The words, line by line

### Verse 1

- Silent night, holy night Beyond the Bible: Luke does not say the night was silent. He tells of a crowd of angels praising God.
- All is calm, all is bright ([Luke 2:9](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/2#9): “Then an angel of the Lord stood over them, the Lord’s glory shone all around them, and they were struck with great fear.”) Beyond the Bible: The light is in Luke. The calm is not: the shepherds were terrified.
- Round yon virgin mother and child ([Matthew 1:23](https://www.lumin.faith/read/matthew/1#23): “Look, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.”)
- Holy infant so tender and mild ([Luke 1:35](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/1#35): “The angel replied, The Holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. That is why the holy child to be born will be called Son of God.”)
- Sleep in heavenly peace ([Luke 2:14](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/2#14): “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people in whom he delights!”) Beyond the Bible: The peace is the angels’ word. The Gospels do not say the baby slept.
- Sleep in heavenly peace

### Verse 2

- Silent night, holy night
- Shepherds quake at the sight ([Luke 2:9](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/2#9))
- Glories stream from heaven afar ([Luke 2:9](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/2#9))
- Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia ([Luke 2:13](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/2#13): “All at once there was with the angel a vast crowd of heaven’s army, praising God and saying,”) Beyond the Bible: Luke says the host was “praising God and saying.” He does not say they sang.
- Christ the Savior is born ([Luke 2:11](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/2#11): “this very day in David’s city a Savior has been born for you. He is the Messiah, the Lord.”)
- Christ the Savior is born

### Verse 3

- Silent night, holy night
- Son of God, love’s pure light ([John 1:9](https://www.lumin.faith/read/john/1#9): “The true light that shines on every person was coming into the world.”)
- Radiant beams from thy holy face ([2 Corinthians 4:6](https://www.lumin.faith/read/2-corinthians/4#6): “For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”)
- With the dawn of redeeming grace ([Luke 1:78](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/1#78): “because of the heartfelt mercy of our God, by which the rising light from on high will visit us”)
- Jesus, Lord, at thy birth ([Luke 2:11](https://www.lumin.faith/read/luke/2#11))
- Jesus, Lord, at thy birth

## Where it goes beyond the Bible

- Luke never says the night was silent, calm, or bright. The quiet is the carol’s picture.
- Luke says the angels were “praising God and saying.” He does not say they sang.
- Nothing in the Gospels says the baby slept. That is the carol’s tender guess.

## The story of the carol

Joseph Mohr, a young Catholic priest in Austria, wrote “Stille Nacht” as a poem in 1816. Two years later, in the village of Oberndorf, he asked his friend Franz Xaver Gruber, a schoolteacher and organist, to set it to music for two voices and a guitar.

They sang it together at the end of Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1818. A story says the church organ was broken that night. No one knows if that is true.

Travelling singers carried it across Europe. John Freeman Young, an Episcopal priest in New York, made the English words most people sing in 1859. Soldiers on both sides are said to have sung it during the Christmas truce of 1914.