Alphabet of the Bible, The

DESCRIPTION: Alphabet song with mostly New Testament references. At least two different choruses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Recording, Royal Harmony Singers)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious Jesus wordplay | alphabet
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Royal Harmony Singers(The Florida Boys), "The Alphabet of the Bible" (Decca 8628, 1941)
Ella Mae Wilson, Lillie B. Williams, and Richard Williams, "He's a Battle Axe" (on USFlorida01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bible Alphabet (The Bible A-B-C)" (subject)
NOTES [1945 words]: From Blaine Waide, "Recent Traditions and New Recordings: African American Sacred Music in Florida," USFlorida01 liner notes:
"A for almighty, that is true"
"B, He was a baby like me or you"
"C for Christ, the son of God"
"D, He was a doctor and a man of war"
"E, He's an eagle with the watchful eyes"
"F is for the fire that Elijah tried" (Royal Harmony Singers have "F, He was the fire that Elijah tried"; see 1 Kings 18:36-38 and 2 Kings 1:10-11, where Elijah asks God to prove to others that he, Elijah, is a man of God by consuming some thing or some ones with fire.) [The first refers to the contest on Mount Carmel, 1 Kings 18:20-40, where Elijah could summon fire and the priests of Baal could not; the second refers to 2 Kings 1:2-16, where Ahaziah King of Israel was trying to summon Elijah, and sent platoons to do so, and Elijah, who didn't want to come, called fire from heaven to burn them up. - RBW]
"G is for God, everybody knows"
"H is for the healing of the dying soul"
"I, He's intelligent, very wise"
"J, He's Jehovah, and He cannot lie" ["Jehovah" is the King James mis-vocalization of the Hebrew consonants YHWH in Exodus 16:9; for background, see the notes to "Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah." - RBW]
"K is for king, I'm compelled" (Royal Harmony Singers have "K is for king which I'm compelled to say")
"L, He's a lawyer, He will plead your case" [Contrast to this Luke 11:45, "And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers." Jesus pretty definitely was not a lawyer, although he certainly was called a Rabbi. - RBW]
"M, He's the master of the world"
"N, He's a noble, and He can be heard"
"O, He's the author of the first and last." (Royal Harmony Singers have "O, He's omega, the first and last") [King James Rev. 22:23, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last"; Rev. 1:8, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." See also Rev. 21:6, referring to Alpha and Omega; Rev. 1:17, Isa. 44:6, 48:12, about being the first and the last. - RBW]
"P, He's a prophet, just hold Him fast"
"Q, He's quick, He is slow"
"R, He rides where no man know"
"S, He's the Savior, the son of man"
"T, He can talk and you can understand"
"U, He is useful, take His time" (Royal Harmony Singers have "U, he is useful, He takes his time")
"V, He's a strong and a running vine"
"W for water, He knows all streams"
"X, He can save you in your extreme"
"Y is for you, He is for me"
"Z is for the son of Zebedee" (Royal Harmony Singers have "Z, He was the son of Zebedee," a strange error: apostles James and John are the sons of Zebedee (Matthew 4.21, Mark 1.19, Luke 5.10) [Not necessarily an error; James son of Zebedee was one of the first apostles to be killed, being executed by Herod Agrippa I I Acts 12:2, but John -- who is particularly associated with Peter -- is nowhere described as dying; tradition makes him the Beloved Disciple who was responsible for the Gospel of John, and also considers him the author of the Letters of John and even, in some accounts, the Apocalypse. (Although any half-decent student of Greek can see that the Gospel and Apocalypse of John are by two different authors.) Tradition has him living to extreme age and dying in peace after the persecution of Domitian; it was not until long after James's death that John is considered to have written his books. Thus the reference could be to John son of Zebedee in his role as author, in which James took no part. - RBW]
The USFlorida01 chorus is "He's a battle axe in the time of battle (3x), Shelter in a mighty storm.". The Royal Harmony Singers's chorus is "Who's that writing? John the Revelator (3x), Writing in the book of the seven seals." [The seven seals being referred to in Rev. 5:1 and after.] Both versions have the same tune as Blind Willie Johnson's "John the Revelator" (AAFM2). - BS
It should perhaps be noted that devotional poems built around the letters of the alphabet in English go back at least to Chaucer's "An ABC," in which each stanza starts with a different letter of the alphabet -- although it is not an illustration of the alphabet but simply an acrostic religious poem. The Hebrew Bible does not have a glossed alphabet such as this, but it has many acrostics, including Psalm 119 and the poems in the Lamentations.
Jim Dixon points out to me a number of other poetic alphabets. Some appear to be this, or related, some appear to be "The Bible Alphabet (The Bible A-B-C)"; some are probably independent. I am going to list them all here, with indications of what they resemble.
-- From 1777: (no author listed), The New-England Primer: Improved For the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English (Boston: John Boyle, 1777), available on Google Books. Opens "A: In Adam's Fall We sinned all; B: Heaven to find, The Bible Mind." I really doubt this one was sung, but if it was, it's of the "Alphabet of the Bible" type if it's anything.
-- From 1827: (no author listed), The Child's First Alphabet of Bible Names (Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union, 1827), available on Google Books. Opens "A is for Adam who was the first man. B is for Balaam, Who to curse Israel did plan." Singable to the standard "alphabet" tune. I note that the "B" verse is wrong; Balaam did *not* plan to curse Israel. Balak King of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel (Numbers 22:1-6), but Balaam refused to do anything except what YHWH ordered. Eventually Balaam came to Moab, but he blessed Israel, at YHWH's orders (Numbers 23:7, etc.). The Israelites later killed him, which was patently unjust. Maybe you should put "Balak" in for "Balaam." That's the only actual error in this particular list, but it's really strange. Note that the Bilby/Ridgway version below gets it right. This is a "Bible Alphapbet" type.
-- from 1832: Eli Meeker, The Infantile Instructer: Being a Series of Questions and Answers… (New York, J. & W. Day, 1832), available on Google Books, page 10ff: "A is for Adam, who was the first man; He broke God's command and then sin began. B is Bartimeus, who as Jesus passed by, For mercy and sight did earnestly cry. This is interesting, because it seems to derive most of its entries from the preceding (it changes Balaam to Bartimaeus, Haman to Hannah, Jonah to Joseph, Queen to Quail, Uzziah to Uzzah, Zacceus to Zoar, but that still leaves twenty identical references, which can hardly be coincidence!). But it converts all the single lines of the 1827 version to couplets. It can still be sung, with some effort, to the "Bible Alphabet" tune, but I doubt that was the intent.
-- from 1835: T. Bilby and R. B. Ridgway, The Infant Teacher's Assistant, for the Use of Schools, and Private Families... ([London?]: T. Bilby & R. B. Ridgway, 1835), available on Google Books. This has three different ones, to the tune of "Portugal New" -- all of which can be sung to the "Bible Alphabet" tune:
---- p. 22: "A is for Angel, that praises the Lord. B is for Bible, God's most holy word."
---- pp. 22-23: "A stands for Adam, of mankind the first. B stands for Balak, who would Israel curse." (Note that this correctly has Balak, not Balaam!)
---- pp. 23: "A is for Athens, a place where Paul went. B is for Bethlehem, where the Wise Men were sent." (This is basically a list of place names, although Q, X, and Y gave trouble; "Quicksands" are mentioned in the King James Bible in Acts 27:27, but this is treating a proper name as a common noun; almost all modern editions render "Syrtis" or "the Syrtis"; the lack of "X" is correct as there is no word in the entire KJV that starts with X (!), and "Yesterday" is obviously not a place name; there are no "Y" place names in the King James Bible although, ironically, every "J" at the start of a name should be pronounced "Y." This alphabet, unlike the preceding two, was clearly an independent construction made without reference to an earlier version, although it might have existed before Bilby and Ridgway; all we can say about the date is that it is effectively certain that it was compiled after Cruden's Concordance was published in 1737, allowing the author to be certain about the lack of "X" words and "Y" places.)
-- from 1855?: Darton's Scripture Alphabet(London: Darton and Co., [no date, but catalogued at Oxford as 1855]); cover calls it The Child's Indestructible Scripture Alphabet; available on Google Books. Opens "A, is for Adam, who was the first man, He broke God's command, and thus sin began! B, is the Book, which to guide us is given; Though wrote upon earth, the words came from heaven." This is another one that clearly derives one of the earlier texts of the "Bible Alphabet" type. It has been somewhat modified -- and introduces an error. The entry for Y is "Y, is the Youth, who, killed by a fall, By a miracle wrought was recovered by Paul." This is a reference to the story of Eutychus in Acts 20:7-12. The boy was listening as Paul droned on, fell asleep, and fell to the ground. The text says he was "picked up dead," but Paul said he was alive. Note that Acts does *not* say that Paul revived him, only that Paul detected that he was alive. Nothing to see here, folks, except how boring Paul was to some listeners.
-- from 1882: (no author listed), The Penny Post, Vol. 32 (London: Parker and Co., 1882), available on Google Books. Contains four alphabets:
---- pp. 251-252, begins: "A stands for Angel, who praises the Lord." Fits the "Bible Alphabet" tune, and is probably influenced by one or another older versions, but has a number of new lines (e.g. one for Vashti, the old queen in Esther); it also has a new error ("W is for whale"; the King James version correctly translated the Hebrew word as "fish" although the interpretation "whale" goes all the way back to the LXX translation of around the second century B.C.E.)
---- p. 252, begins "A is for Adam, who was the first man. B is for Balaam, who to curse Israel did plan." It is nearly identical to the 1827 Child's First Alphabet version.
---- p. 304, begins "is for Adam, who was the first man; He broke God's command and then sin began. B is Bartimeus...." It is nearly identical to the 1832 Infantile Instructor version.
---- pp. 329-330, begins "A is for Adam, who in Eden did live; To all birds and beasts their name he did give." This shows very little relation to any earlier version.
-- from 1882: Marshall W. Taylor, A Collection of Revival Hymns and Plantation Melodies (Cincinnati: Marshall W. Taylor and W. C. Echols, 1882), available on Google Books. P. 23 has "Gim' Me De Wings," attributed to Rev. William Johnson. Begins, "A is for Adam, no knowledge to win, By Eve and the serpent was tempted to sin," with chorus, "And O, good Lord, gim' me de wings (x3), Git up in de Chariot and trabel along." Each letter has a whole stanza and as printed, it lacks H, I, J, K. It looks to me as if it has some familiarity with the earlier versions but is idiosyncratic and clearly rewritten. It also uses some strange inversions (e.g. "F is for Felix, whom Paul sent away." Felix was not sent away by Paul; Felix sent Paul to prison.)
-- from 1908: Isabel C. Byrum, Our Darlings' A B C Book (Anderson, Indiana: Gospel Trumpet Co., 1908), available on Google Books. Starting on p. 4 we have alternating couplets and pages of interpretation, beginning "A is for Aaron with wonderful rod, Who proved to the heathen that he was of God." This can be sung to the alphabet tune, but is otherwise completely independent. - JD (research), RBW (analysis)
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