The text of the hymn has it origins in an 8th-century hymn, Urbs beata Jerusalem. It was translated in 1851 by the English clergyman and scholar, John Mason Neale as "Blessed City, heavenly Salem". In his Mediæval hymns and sequences (1863), Neale notes that the hymn was rewritten as Cœlestis Urbs Jerusalem under the reforms of the Roman Breviary by Pope Urban VIII – a reworking he considered inferior to the original – and again in a later Paris Breviary as Urbs beata, vera pacis. Neale records that, while Richard Chenevix Trench believed that the entire text was of one date of origin, the hymnologistHermann Adalbert Daniel[de] thought the eighth stanza was a later addition.[1]
In the Breviary, the Latin hymn was divided after the fourth stanza into two parts, a division which was retained in the Sarum Hymnal (1868). Neale notes that his translation of this second part, "Christ is made the sure Foundation", had become adopted with "much general favour" as a standalone hymn for the dedication of churches.[1][2]
While originally an unaccompanied plainsong melody, both "Blessed City, heavenly Salem" and "Christ is made the sure Foundation" are now commonly sung to either the tune of "Westminster Abbey", adapted from the final section of Henry Purcell's anthem "O God, Thou Art My God'" Z35; or the tune of "Regent Square", composed by Henry Smart.[2][3]
The hymn celebrates the relationship of the Christian Church to God through metaphors of a city and a building. The "blessed city" mentioned in the first stanza of the hymn is the New Jerusalem, a reference to the visionary city described in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament (Revelation 11). This "Heavenly Salem is a symbol in Christianity for Heaven, and the hymn goes on to evoke a sense of longing for the poetic Jerusalem as a place of peace and love.[4][5]
In the fifth stanza, the city metaphor is extended to that of a building, of which Jesus Christ is said to be both the foundation and the cornerstone. Among Biblical sources for the original text are Ephesians 2:20–22, which refers to Jesus Christ as "the chief cornerstone" of a building that grows into a holy temple; and 1 Peter 2:4–7, which describes both Jesus and his followers as "living stones".[2]
The texts of modern versions of the hymns often vary from Neale's original translations.[2][3] Notably, in the final doxology verse, Neale used the phrase "consubstantial, co-eternal" to describe the concept of the Trinity; more recent publications tend to replace this with "one in might and one in glory" or "one in love and one in splendour", as the words may be considered archaic or too theologically specialised.[6]
Neale's translation of the hymn has been published in various forms in a number of popular hymnals, including The Church Hymnary (4th ed, 2005) and Hymns Ancient and Modern (1874).[3] In The New English Hymnal (1986), the two parts of the hymn are included separately,[12] while in Hymns and Psalms (1983), it appears as one hymn, with verse 1 beginning "Blessèd city…" and verse 2 as "Christ is made…".[13]
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