Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Messiah: No. 22 Behold the Lamb of God

The text is from John 1:29:  "The next day he [John] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'"

One of the instances of "away" splits the two syllables into the interval of a fifth, which helps to underscore the completeness or the distance to which "the sin of the world" is taken away.