1 Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbtmenschlich Natur und Wesen;dasselb Gift ist auf uns geerbt,daß wir nicht mochten g'nesenohn Gottes Trost,der uns erlösthat von dem großen Schaden,darein die SchlangHevam bezwang,Gotts Zorn auf sich zu laden.2 Weil denn die Schlang Hevam hat bracht,daß sie ist abgefallenvon Gottes Wort, welchs sie veracht,dadurch sie in uns allenbracht hat den Tod,so war je Noth,daß uns auch Gott sollt gebensein lieben Sohn,der Gnaden Thron,in dem wir möchten leben.3 Wie uns nun hat ein fremde Schuldin Adam all verhöhnet,also hat uns ein fremde Huldin Christo all versöhnet,und wie wir alldurch Adams Fallsind ewigs Tods gestorben,also hat Gottdurch Christus Todverneut, das war verdorben.4 So er uns denn sein Sohn hat g'schenkt,da wir sein Feind noch waren,der für uns ist ans Kreuz gehängt,getödt, gen Himmel g'fahren,dadurch wir seinvon Tod und Peinerlöst, so wir vertrauenin diesen Hort,des Vaters Wort:wem wollt fürm Sterben grauen?5 Er ist der Weg, das Licht, die Pfort,die Wahrheit und das Leben,des Vaters Rath und ewges Wort,den er uns hat gegebenzu einem Schutz,daß wir mit Trutzand ihn fest sollen glauben,darum uns baldkein Macht noch G'waltaus seiner Hand wird rauben.6 Der Mensch ist gottlos und verrucht,sein Heil ist auch noch ferren,der Trost bei einem Menschen suchtund nicht bei Gott dem Herren;denn wer ihm willein ander Zielohn diesen Tröster stecken,den mag gar balddes Teufels G'waltmit seiner List erschrecken.7 Wer hofft in Gott und dem Vertraut,der wird nimmer zu Schanden;denn wer auf diesen Felsen baut,ab ihm gleich geht zu Handenviel Unfalls hie,hab ich doch nieden Menschen sehen fallen,der sich verläßtauf Gottes Trost,er hilft sein Gläubgen allen.8 Ich bitt, o Herr, aus Herzensgrund,du wollst nicht von mir nehmendein heiligs Wort aus meinem Mund,so wird mich nicht beschämenmein Sünd und Schuld,denn in dein Huldsetz ich all mein Vertrauen,wer sich nun fest darauf verläßt,der wird den Tod nicht schauen.9 Mein Füßen ist dein heilig Wortein brennende Lucerne,ein Licht, das mir den Weg weist fort;so dieser Morgensternein uns aufgeht,so bald verstehtder Mensch die hohen Gaben,die Gottes Geistden'n g'wiß verheißt,die Hoffnung darein haben.Lazarus Spengler, 1525.
My prose translation:
1 Through Adam's fall are
Human nature and being completely corrupted;
The same poison is come into us
So that we cannot recover
Without the comfort of God,
Who has redeemed us
From the great damage
In which the serpent
Defeated [Hevam],
To invite God's wrath upon himself.
2 Because the serpent has brought [Hevam]
So that it is broken away from God's word,
Which it despises,
Through it, it has to us all
Brought death,
Such was ever distress,
So that even God should give to us
His dear Son,
The Throne of mercy,
In Whom we can live.
3 Just as a foreign guilt
In Adam mocked us all now,
So has a foreign grace
In Christ reconciled us all,
And just as we all
Through Adam's fall
Have died an eternal death,
So has God
Through the death of Christ
Renewed that which was corrupted.
4 So then He has given us His Son
While we were yet His enemy,
[His Son] Who was hung on the cross for us,
Killed, [and] ascended to Heaven,
Through Whom we are
Redeemed
From death and suffering,
So we trust in this refuge,
This Word of the Father:
Who will dread death?
5 He is the Way, the Light, the Gate,
The Truth, and the Life,
The Counsel of the Father and eternal Word,
Whom He has given to us
As a protection
So that with defense we
Should firmly believe in Him;
Therefore
No power nor violence
Will soon snatch us out of His hand.
6 Man is godless and wicked;
His salvation is also still [ferren],
Who seeks comfort with other people
And not with God the Lord;
For he who wants
To set a different goal for himself
Without this Comforter,
May quite soon
Be shocked by
The violence of the devil, with his cunning.
7 He who hopes in God and trusts in Him
Will never come to shame;
For he who builds on this rock
While many accidents may occur
To him here
Yet have I never
Seen the man fall
Who relies
On God's comfort;
He helps all His faithful ones.
8 I ask, O Lord, from the bottom of my heart
That You will not take
Your holy Word out of my mouth
So that my sin and guilt
Will not shame me,
For in Your grace
Do I put all my trust
He who firmly
Relies upon it
Will not look upon death.
9 To my feet is Your holy Word
A burning lantern,
A light that continously shows me the way;
Thus as soon as this Morning Star
Arises in us,
People understand
The high gifts
That God's Spirit
Certainly promises them,
In which they have hope.
Lazarus Spengler, 1525.
I couldn't find a translation for "Hevam" in the first two verses.
The third verse has the same basic structure as 1 Corinthians 15:21-22: "21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."
Part of the fourth verse seems to reference Romans 5:8: "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The phrase "gen Himmel g'fahren" is literally just "gone to Heaven," but I translated it as "ascended to Heaven."
The fifth verse contains multiple allusions to John. The titles Way, Truth, and Life are from 14:6, Gate from 10:7, and Light from 8:12. The image of not being snatched out of God's hand also appears in John 10:28.
The first line of the sixth verse bears some resemblance to Psalms 14 and 53. I couldn't find a translation for "ferren." I flipt the last couple lines from active to passive voice to avoid a pleonasm ("He who wants to set a different goal for himself, the violence of the devil may quite soon shock him") and to fit English syntax better.
The image of a man building on a rock in the seventh verse seems to come from Matthew 7:24. I translated the lines "ab ihm gleich geht zu Handen / viel Unfalls hie" as "While many accidents may occur / To him here" more according to the general meaning than by the constituent words since I couldn't make sense of how some of them go together. I shuffled some elements here, too.
There's some resemblance between "du wollst nicht von mir nehmen / dein heiligs Wort aus meinem" Mund" "That You will not take / Your holy Word out of my mouth" in the eighth verse and part of Psalm 51:11: "take not your Holy Spirit from me." (It's Psalm 51:13 in German: "nimm deinen heiligen Geist nicht von mir.") I shuffled a couple lines in the middle of the verse for better English syntax.
I couldn't find a translation for "Lucerne" at the beginning of the ninth verse, but I'm pretty certain it means something along the lines of "lantern." The lines allude to Psalm 119:105 ("Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path"), and the word itself seems to be related to the Latin lux (gen. lucis), which means light.
I'm not certain, but this hymn may appear as "All Mankind Fell in Adam's Fall" in The Lutheran Hymnal (#369), Lutheran Worship (#363), and The Lutheran Service Book (#562). Lazarus Spengler is credited as the author, and the TLH version lists the same first line ("Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt"). The versions in these hymnals are shorter than what's above, however (in terms of both number of verses and the length of each verse - four lines instead of ten). The hymnals all pair the text with "Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein," but according to the Gesangbuch, the text is sung to "its own tune."
Here are two arrangements from Telemann's Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch: