NOEL (Christ Has Come)

from Hymncharts arranger Don Chapman:

My new Hymns Reborn take on The First Noel is a little different then my typical rewrites. I’ve reworked the lyrics quite a bit (and slipped in a few of my own) to make this beautiful but, ahem, theologically shaky carol a bit more accurate!

I’ve always been drawn to the cozy, storybook-Christmas vibe of The First Noel. But wow, once you start looking closely, some of those verses really go off the rails:

• In verse two, who exactly are we talking about – shepherds or Wise Men? (It seems to be the Wise Men, but they don’t actually show up until verse three!)
• Scripture never tells us there were three Wise Men.
• The Bible doesn’t say the star hovered over the “northwest.” It was seen “in the east.”
• The carol basically mashes two separate events into one scene. The star doesn’t stop over the manger. The Wise Men arrive later and come into a house, not a stable: “when they were come into the house, they saw the young child” (Matt 2:11).

So, I rolled up my sleeves to clean up the theology and tighten the story line… and somewhere along the way, a new melody decided to show up too.

Keeping (and Honoring) the Classic Opening

I left the first verse alone. I considered changing “cold” to “long,” but that opening is so iconic. And, to be fair, some scholars allow that the shepherds may have still been in the fields late into the fall, when a “cold winter’s night” isn’t too far-fetched.

The first noel, the angel did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep

A New, Theologically Tidier Second Verse

Next, I built a kind of Frankenstein second verse, stitching together pieces from the traditional text and reshaping them into something that lines up better with the biblical account:

The Wise Men came from country afar
Shining east in the heavens, they sighted His star
To seek the King, their only intent
So they followed the star wher’er it went

This lets the Wise Men be who they are, when they are, without confusing them with the shepherds or the manger scene.

The Chorus: Same Heart, New Shape

I kept the core but expanded it to fit the new melody:

Noel Noel
Born is the king of Israel
Noel Noel
Jesus the holy One
Noel Noel
Glory to God Emmanuel
Noel the Christ has come

I especially love the line “the Christ has come.” It carries that same weight as Simon Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ” (Matt 16:16; Mark 8:29), but set in a way we can declare it together in worship.

The Final Verse and a Small Tweak

The closing verse (which historically was added later) already works beautifully for modern worship. I just nudged the wording a bit so it would flow with my new bridge:

So now let us all with one accord
Sing our praises to the Lord
For He hath made heav’n and earth of naught
With His blood mankind hath bought

Why I Did All This

My hope with this Hymns Reborn version is simple: that we can sing The First Noel with fresh wonder and cleaner theology. If these tweaks help lift your eyes to Jesus and deepen your worship of the Christ who has come, then every lyric edit and melodic experiment was worth it!

Noel: the Christ has come!

Download NOEL (Christ Has Come)

Get this arrangement of NOEL (Christ Has Come) only at Hymncharts.com and Worshiphymns.com – you won’t find this fresh take anywhere else! As the arranger, I’m offering this new version exclusively on my sites.