Truth Sent From Above, The

DESCRIPTION: "This is the truth sent from above, The truth of God, the God of love." The singer tells how God created man, then woman, and set them in Paradise. But they ate from the tree (of knowledge), and now all suffer their punishment
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible punishment food carol
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Leather-FolkLoreOfHerefordshire, p. 196, "The Truth Sent From Above" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dearmer/VaughnWilliams/Shaw-OxfordBookOfCarols 68, "The Truth From Above" (1 text, 1 tune with two arrangements)
SongsOfAllTime, p. 40, "This Is the Truth" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, W. Amos Abrams, "Horton Barker: Folk Singer Supreme," Vol. XXII, No. 4 (Nov 1974), p. 149-150, "The Truth Sent from Above" (1 text)
DT, TRUABOVE*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #86, "This Is the Truth Sent From Above" (1 text)
Roud #2109
NOTES [204 words]: The story of the Fall is, of course, found in Genesis chapter 3. The version of creation in which man preceded woman (as opposed to both being created at the same time) is in Genesis 2:4-23.
There is a strange and ironic parallel her to chapter 3 of the Gospel of John. In John 3:3, Jesus says to Nicodemus, "Truly, truly I say to you, if you are not born from above, you will not be able to see the Kingdom of God." "Truly, truly" is "αμην, αμην," "amen, amen," the Hebrew for "truly, truly"; "from above" is ανωθεν, anothen, a Greek word meaning both "from above" and "again," but Greek has another word for "again," which is much more common and unequivocal. There really isn't much question but that John intended the meaning that I gave above -- and also intended Nicodemus to misunderstand what was said. Thus this song is almost a citation of John 3:3 in its actual meaning (with references to what is true and to one being sent "from above") -- but the author of this, whoever it was, cannot have known it, because the King James Bible completely botched the translation and missed the whole point, giving us instead "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."- RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Leath196

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