Wheel in a Wheel, A

DESCRIPTION: "A wheel in a wheel, Oh my Lord (x2), Going to take a ride on the chariot wheel." "It runs by love ...." "It runs by faith ...." "Chariot's a-coming ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 184, "A Wheel in a Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 110 in the 1901 edition)
Roud #15241
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" (theme)
NOTES [141 words]: Ezekiel's vision of the four creatures with a wheel at one side is not easy to picture, perhaps especially in King James, where the appearance of each wheel is "a wheel in the middle of a wheel" (Ezekiel 1:16). The wheel could be seen as acting like a chariot wheel that was never separated from its creature, even when the creature was "lifted up from earth" (Ezekiel 1:19). So, in this hymn, the singer is "going to take a ride" on that chariot wheel. In "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel," "the big wheel runs by faith, The little wheel runs by the grace of God"; here the wheels run by "love" and "faith." I don't know where to find those attributes cited. - BS
There is no connection between those attributes and Ezekiel's wheel, but "faith, hope, and love" are the three key virtues in 1 Corinthians 13; I would assume that is the basis for the link. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Dett184

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