Hymn 720 - Oh, Wondrous Type, Oh, Vision Fair

Epiphany is an often overlooked season of the church year. It is sandwiched between Christmas and Lent, two of the most familiar seasons of the church year. Epiphany concludes with the Transfiguration of Jesus, which we will be celebrating this weekend. This is fitting, first because the Transfiguration is a magnificent proof that Jesus is the Son of God, and second because we are told that following the Transfiguration, Jesus begins to “set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). In other words, Transfiguration Sunday is an appropriate “bridge” connecting Epiphany to the season of Lent. 

Little is known about the hymn “Oh, Wondrous Type! Oh, Vision Fair” other than it was originally composed in Latin and used in the Old Sarum Rite from Salisbury, England in 1495. It was translated from Latin into English by John Mason Neale, the prolific 19th-century translator of Greek and Latin hymns. Sadly, only four stanzas of this hymn are included in Worship Supplement 2000. We will include a fifth stanza (found in other hymnals) which is a fitting doxology to the reminder that Jesus is True God and the Savior of all people.

This hymn reminds us that the glory which was revealed in Jesus on the mountain is a glory that those who believe in Him will also share when Jesus returns on the last day. Because of the work which Jesus came to accomplish for sinful mankind, we will, by God's grace, experience that glory when we see Him face to face in heaven. This truth causes us, God's people, to raise our voices in joyful strains of prayer and praise in worship. Thanks be to God!

Join us as we study this hymn about the revelation of Jesus as true God, and the assurance of being partakers of that glory in heaven because of Jesus life and death as our substitute.