Esther Grünbeck › Recommendations

Grünbeck, Esther, née Magdalene Augusta Naveroffsky, was born at Gotha, Oct. 21, 1717, of a Polish-Jewish family who had become Christians. In 1734 she married Michael Grünbeck, a sculptor in Gotha, and in 1738 with him became a Moravian; entering the Widows' Choir after his death in 1742. Marrying in 1746 David Kirchhof, a baptized Jew, she engaged with him for some time in mission work among the Jews in Prussia and Poland. After his death she became leader of the Widows' Choir at Zeist, near Utrecht, and died there Oct. 13, 1796.
In the Historische Nachricht to the Brüder Gesang-Buch,1778 (ed. 1851, p. 205), 8 hymns and part of a ninth in that collection are ascribed to her. Those in English use outside the Moravian hymn-books are:—
i. Dem blut'gen Lamme. Self Dedication. Founded on Rom. vi., 13. First pub. 1739, as No. 1365 in the Supplement to the 8th Appendix to the Herrnhut Gesang-Buch, 1735; in 10 stanzas of 6 lines, repeated as No. 753 in the Berlin Geistlicher Lieder-Schatz ed. 1863. The only translation in common use is:—
To the Lamb stain'd with Blood, translated in full by C. Kinchen as No. 155 in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1742. Four forms are in use:—
1. "Unto the Lamb of God," in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789, No. 263 (1886, No. 335), altered, and omitting stanzas viii., ix.
2. "To Christ the Lamb of God," st. i., iv., vii. altered in J. A. Latrobe's Collection, 1841, No. 313.
3. "Lord! bring me to resign," a cento from st. vii., viii., as No. 437 in Dr. Martineau's Hymns, 1840 (1873, No. 288), and as No. 668 in the American Baptist Psalmist, 1843.
4. "To Thee I wholly give." A cento beginning with stanza ii. in Lady Huntingdon's Selection, 1780. It was subsequently changed to “To Thee, my Lord, I give."
ii. Gnade ist ein schönes Wort. Forgiveness of Sins. First pub. 1739 as No. 1293 in the 8th Appendix to the Herrnhut Gesang-Buch, 1735, in 8 stanzas of 8 lines. The only translation is:
Grace! Grace! 0 that's a charming sound in full, by C. Kinchen, as No. 32, in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1742, altered and abridged in later ed. (1886, No. 319). A cento in 8 stanzas of CM. from st. ii., iii., v.-viii., and beginning "Grace, how exceeding sweet to those," was included in the 1780 ed. of Lady Huntingdon's Selection, No. 85; and reduced to 5 stanzas in Campbell's Comprehensive Hymn Book, 1837, and to 3 stanzas in C. H. Bateman's Congregational Psalmist, 1846. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology