Höchster Priester, der du dich. J. Scheffler. [Self-Dedication .] Appeared as No. 176 in Book v. of his Heilige Seelenlust, Breslau, 1668, p. 643 (Werke, 1862, i. p. 318), in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. Included in Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, 1704, and recently as No. 687 in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, edition 1863. The hymn is founded on Romans xii. 1, and carries out the figure somewhat in detail. To a number of the orthodox Lutherans of the 18th century, stanzas iii., iv., gave great offence, and were accused of false mysticism, &c. Translated as:—
Great High-Priest, who deigndst to be, a good and full translation by Miss Winkworth in her Lyra Germanica first Ser., 1855, p. 32, and her Chorale Book for England , 1863, No. 129. It is repeated in full in the Hymnal for St. John's, Aberdeen, 1865-70, and the Evangelical Hymnal, N.Y., 1880; and abridged in the Harrow School Hymn Book, 1866; English Presbyterian Psalms & Hymns, 1867, &c. A considerably altered version, beginning, "Jesus, who upon the tree," in which stanzas iv., v. are condensed as iv., was included in the American Sabbath Hymn Book, 1858, and repeated in the Baptist Hymn Book, Philadelphia. 1871.
Other translations are:—
(1) “Greatest High-priest, Saviour Christ” by J. C. Jacobi, 1725, p. 39 (1732, p. 130); repeated in the Moravian Hymn Book , 1754, pt. i., No. 459. (2) "Grant, most gracious Lamb of God," as No. 273 in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789 (1886, No. 351). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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