Nunc Dimittis (1928 BCP)
Nunc Dimittis (1928 BCP) is the Song of Simeon, Luke 2:29–32, appointed after the New Testament Lesson in Daily Evening Prayer in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. Its Latin title means “Now dismiss.” Having received the promised sight of the Lord's Christ, Simeon blesses God for salvation present in the child Jesus: salvation prepared publicly, light for the Gentiles, and glory for Israel.
In the sequence of Evensong, the canticle is not a general meditation on death detached from the Gospel. The New Testament is read, and the congregation then takes Simeon's words upon its lips. His peaceful readiness to depart rests on God's fulfilled word and on the sight of Christ. The same Christ is universal light and Israel's glory, so the song holds promise, incarnation, mission, and Christian hope together.
Text in the 1928 Prayer Book
The complete canticle in the 1928 Standard Book is:
LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, * according to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen * thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared * before the face of all people;
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, * and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
The asterisks divide the verses for responsive recitation or chant. They are not omissions. The Prayer Book permits the Gloria Patri after the Nunc Dimittis, as it does after the other Evening Canticles.[2] That optional doxology receives Simeon's praise within the Church's confession of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Place after the New Testament Lesson
The Prayer Book fixes the canticle's ordinary position:
Then a Lesson of the New Testament, as it is appointed. And after that shall be sung or said the Hymn called Nunc dimittis, as followeth.
The normal movement is therefore psalmody, First Lesson, Magnificat, Second Lesson, and Nunc Dimittis. Deus misereatur and Benedic anima mea are printed as alternatives after the Song of Simeon. The 1928 book also allows the minister to omit one lesson at discretion, but requires that the lesson read be followed by one of the Evening Canticles.[4]
W. K. Lowther Clarke explained the theological logic of the normal sequence:
With our minds fixed on Christ and all He means to us, we join the aged Simeon in his hymn of praise.
The congregation does not merely recall that Simeon once saw Christ. After hearing the apostolic witness in the Second Lesson, it confesses with Simeon that God's salvation has been made visible.
Simeon, the Spirit, and the promised Christ
Luke introduces Simeon as a righteous and devout Israelite whose hope and action are governed by the Holy Ghost:
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,
Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God.
“According to thy word” refers first to this Spirit-given promise. Simeon had not been promised freedom from death, but that he would see the Lord's Christ before death. His peace therefore rests on divine faithfulness. The “consolation of Israel” for which he waits is not an abstraction: he receives the child Jesus and identifies him as God's salvation.
The narrative is also Trinitarian without forcing later terminology into Luke's scene. The Holy Ghost rests upon Simeon and leads him; the “Lord” keeps his word; Jesus is “the Lord's Christ.” When the Church sings the canticle and may add the Gloria Patri, it praises the one saving work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Departure in peace and the sight of salvation
The opening petition is sometimes used as if Simeon simply desired death. Luke is more precise. The word has been fulfilled, his eyes have seen salvation, and therefore the servant may be dismissed in peace. Scripture does not narrate Simeon's immediate death. The canticle teaches readiness to depart, not speculation about when he died.
Conrad A. M. Stewart made the canticle's identification with Simeon concrete:
As we recite the Nunc Dimittis we can picture ourselves with Christ in our arms as the aged Simeon.
Stewart's image interprets the pronouns of the song: Simeon's “mine eyes” becomes the Church's repeated confession because the Gospel presents the same Christ. This does not make liturgical recitation a new incarnation or a substitute for faith. It means that the worshipper hears the biblical witness, receives Christ through that witness, and answers God's promise with praise.
The canticle consequently belongs naturally to evening prayer. At the close of day, Christians entrust unfinished work, mortality, and the coming night to God, but their peace is grounded in Christ rather than in the absence of danger. The Nunc Dimittis can console the dying because it first proclaims the Saviour whom Simeon saw.
Light for the Gentiles and glory for Israel
Simeon's language echoes the Servant prophecy in Isaiah:
It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
The parallel guards against setting Israel and the nations against one another. The servant raises Jacob and is also given as light to the Gentiles. Likewise, Simeon calls Christ both the Gentiles' light and Israel's glory. Universal salvation is the fulfilment of Israel's hope, not its erasure.
Acts shows Paul and Barnabas applying Isaiah's missionary language to apostolic proclamation:
For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord.
The Church's evening song therefore has missionary force. Those enlightened by Christ pray and labour for the same Gospel to be proclaimed to all peoples. Stewart drew that pastoral inference directly:
Just this sentence in the Nunc Dimittis can be made a real Missionary Prayer as it passes.
The song also resists contempt for the Jewish people. Jesus is Israel's Messiah, born under the law and brought to the temple; Simeon is waiting for Israel's consolation. Christians cannot confess the universality of Christ's light while despising the people whose Scriptures and promises give the confession its words.
Salvation and contradiction
The Nunc Dimittis is full of peace and light, but Luke immediately records a darker prophecy:
Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
The salvation prepared before all people does not mean universal approval of Jesus. He is opposed, exposes hearts, and brings both falling and rising. The sword foretold to Mary points the reader toward the conflict and suffering that culminate at the cross. Peace is therefore not achieved by avoiding judgment or contradiction; it is received through the Christ whose saving work reveals and overcomes sin.
This context also prevents the canticle from becoming vague evening serenity. The child in Simeon's arms is the crucified and risen Lord proclaimed in the New Testament Lesson. Christian departure in peace depends upon him.
Liturgical history
The Nunc Dimittis was not invented for the English Reformation. William Palmer traced it from the older evening offices into Prayer Book Evensong:
The song of Simeon followed the lesson of compline, which I have noticed in the last section.
Palmer further notes older use at Vespers and in Eastern evening prayer. In the English offices available to the Prayer Book revisers, however, the song's place after the Compline lesson supplied the pattern that survives in Evensong. Cranmer's office joined the Magnificat inherited from Vespers to the Nunc Dimittis inherited from Compline. The resulting sequence moves from Mary's praise before Christ's birth to Simeon's praise after receiving him, and from the Old Testament Lesson to the New.
American omission and restoration
The first authorized American Prayer Book of 1789 omitted both Gospel canticles from Evening Prayer. The 1892 revision restored them, and the 1928 revision retained the restored order. Arthur Whipple Jenks described the omission critically:
Some vague dread of Mariolatry led to the omission of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from the canticles at Evening Prayer.
The Nunc Dimittis itself contains no invocation of Mary. Restoring it recovered Luke's inspired song, its proclamation of Christ to Israel and the Gentiles, and the historic Vespers-Compline architecture of Evensong.
Anglican use
The 1928 Prayer Book permits alternatives, so using the Nunc Dimittis is not the only lawful way to complete the canticle sequence. Nevertheless, Anglican writers have valued regular use of the Gospel canticles because they make the incarnation and fulfilment of Scripture explicit. Latta Griswold's pastoral judgment was direct:
The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis should invariably be used as the canticles.
Griswold's “should” is advice, not a replacement for the Prayer Book rubric. It identifies what is gained by the normal sequence: the congregation hears the two Lessons and answers them with two Gospel songs. Whether said plainly, sung to Anglican chant, or set for choir, the Nunc Dimittis remains the Church's scriptural confession that peace is found in the promised Christ, God's salvation is public, the nations are called into his light, and Israel's hope finds its glory in him.
See Also
References
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, Standard Book accepted by the General Convention of October 1928 and printed for the Commission (1930), “The Order for Daily Evening Prayer,” “Nunc dimittis. St. Luke ii. 29,” printed p. 28. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Daily Evening Prayer; 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF p. 34. The text was compared word for word with
sources/justus1928/EP.htm, lines 378–392, and with the facsimile; small-cap divine names and line wrapping were normalized without changing the wording. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” rubric governing the Gloria Patri, printed p. 25. 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF p. 32.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” rubrics before the Nunc Dimittis, printed p. 28. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Daily Evening Prayer.
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book (1930), “Daily Evening Prayer,” note following the First Lesson rubric, printed p. 26. 1928 Standard Book facsimile, PDF p. 33.
- ↑ W. K. Lowther Clarke, Evensong Explained, with Notes on Matins and the Litany (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1922), “The Spirit of the Service,” discussion of the Second Lesson and Nunc Dimittis. Evensong Explained, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Luke 2:25–28. Luke 2:25–35, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ Conrad A. M. Stewart, How to Make Mattins and Evensong Real: Some Practical Suggestions, Little Books on Religion, no. 40 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1926), “The Nunc Dimittis.” How to Make Mattins and Evensong Real, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Isaiah 49:6. Isaiah 49:5–6, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Acts 13:47–48; the quotation ends before the final clause of verse 48. Acts 13:46–48, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ Conrad A. M. Stewart, How to Make Mattins and Evensong Real: Some Practical Suggestions, Little Books on Religion, no. 40 (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1926), “The Nunc Dimittis,” interpretation of “A Light to lighten the Gentiles.” How to Make Mattins and Evensong Real, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Authorized Version (Oxford: Oxford University Press, standard text), Luke 2:34–35. Luke 2:34–35, King James Version, Bible Gateway.
- ↑ William Palmer, Origines Liturgicæ; or, Antiquities of the English Ritual, and a Dissertation on Primitive Liturgies, vol. I, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1839), chapter I, part II, section VII, “Nunc Dimittis,” p. 257. Origines Liturgicæ, Evening Prayer, Project Canterbury.
- ↑ Arthur Whipple Jenks, The American Episcopal Church Interpreted for English Churchmen (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York: Macmillan, 1919), chapter IV, “The American Prayer Book,” discussion of the 1789 omission and the 1892 restoration. The American Prayer Book, Project Canterbury. Jenks continues by stating that the canticles were restored in the revision of 1892.
- ↑ Latta Griswold, The Middle Way: Suggestions for a Practicable Ceremonial (Milwaukee: Morehouse, 1928), chapter III, “Evening Prayer or Evensong.” The Middle Way, chapter III, Project Canterbury.