How Great Thou Art lyric changes

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Digitonomy

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I noticed in my hymnal Sunday a note that the composer’s original lyrics had been “mighty thunder” rather than “rolling thunder,” and “Consider all the works thy hands have made” rather than “the worlds thy hands have made.”

The same changes were noted in a Methodist hymnal at a wedding I attended a few months ago.

Why the change?
 
According to a book that I have “Hymns of Faith and Inspiration” this hymn was originally written by Rev. Carl Boberg in Sweden. In 1907 a German, Manfred von Glehn saw the hymn and translated it into his native language. It was then translated into Russian by Rev. Ivan S. Prokhanoff. An English couple serving as missionaries in the Ukraine, Mr. & Mrs. Stuart K. Hine, used the Russian version in their ministry and Stuart Hine decided on an English translation. He used many of the same phrases written by Boberg but also included impressionms of God’s grandeur from his excursions in the Carpathian mountains, where he had witnessed “all the works”. With his thoughts in mind he wrote the English translation of the first three verses. 🙂
 
pigtown said:
According to a book that I have “Hymns of Faith and Inspiration” this hymn was originally written by Rev. Carl Boberg in Sweden. In 1907 a German, Manfred von Glehn saw the hymn and translated it into his native language. It was then translated into Russian by Rev. Ivan S. Prokhanoff. An English couple serving as missionaries in the Ukraine, Mr. & Mrs. Stuart K. Hine, used the Russian version in their ministry and Stuart Hine decided on an English translation. He used many of the same phrases written by Boberg but also included impressionms of God’s grandeur from his excursions in the Carpathian mountains, where he had witnessed “all the works”. With his thoughts in mind he wrote the English translation of the first three verses. 🙂
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So the original Swedish was “worlds” and “rolling,” but Hine first wrote “works” and “mighty”?
 
Digitonomy said:
So the original Swedish was “worlds” and “rolling,” but Hine first wrote “works” and “mighty”?
Click to expand...
Yes, that’s what it looks like. Interesting how many different translations there were.
 
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