Old Spiritual: Were You There (with lyrics)

I love and miss hymns! So I renewed my mission to play all the hymns I can remember (yes, I’m printing sheet music but like to add my own style). I’m loving playing the piano again.

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Take care – and God loves you!

There is no known composer for the tune or writer of the lyrics.
An African-American spiritual that probably predates the Civil War, this hymn was first published in William Barton's Old Plantation Hymns (1899). The spiritual's earlier roots include a white spiritual known in Tennessee as “Have you heard how they crucified my Lord?” Additional stanzas are available from oral and written tradition:
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Just as modern Jews identify with the Hebrew slaves in Egypt at their Passover Seder (“When I was in Egypt”), we are encouraged in this text to identify with the witnesses to Christ's death and resurrection. With distances of geography and time removed, we become part of that great body of people who come trembling to the cross of Christ for salvation.
Click here to read more about this hymn:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Were_Yo...

And many thanks to both https://hymnary.org/ and Wikipedia for their wealth of information!

Image by David Yonatan González Aburto from Pixabay.

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