Luke 2

4 songs checked against Luke 2. Each proof shows the passage, what the song does with it, and whether you can sing it. Read the whole chapter: Bible Gateway ↗ · Bible Hub ↗

Luke 2:8-14 · “Silent Night” · Joseph Mohr, tr. John Freeman Young (recorded live by The Petersens)

NOT A QUOTE “Silent Night” Joseph Mohr, tr. John Freeman Young (recorded live by The Petersens) Luke 2:8-14 Sing it. The carol quotes nothing and never says it is scripture. Just know that the quiet, the calm and the light around the child are the carol's own. Luke reports an angel, a sign and a praising host.

✓ The carol presents nothing as scripture. It names no book, chapter or verse, and no line in it is offered as the words of Luke.

⚠ The quiet and the calm are the carol's own. Luke 2:8-14 says nothing about how the night sounded. What he reports is an angel, then a multitude.

Luke 2:13-14 · “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” · Choir of King's College, Cambridge

NOT A QUOTE “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” Choir of King's College, Cambridge Luke 2:13-14 Sing it. It quotes nothing and never says it is scripture. Just know that the famous opening line is a later editor's, and that the words it puts in the angels' mouths are not the words Luke reports them saying.

✓ Compresses more checkable doctrine into three stanzas than most Christmas songs manage: incarnation, virgin birth, deity in flesh, reconciliation, and new birth, each with an address in scripture

⚠ The opening reports the angels singing. Luke 2:13 has the host praising God and saying, in the BSB and the KJV alike, and Luke 2:14 gives the words. They begin with glory to God in the highest, not with glory to a newborn king

Luke 2:15-16 · “O Come All Ye Faithful” · Reawaken Hymns

NOT A QUOTE “O Come All Ye Faithful” Reawaken Hymns Luke 2:15-16 Sing it. Nothing here is offered as a quotation. It puts the shepherds' errand in your mouth as an invitation to worship, which is a fair use of the scene rather than a report of it.

✓ Never says it is quoting at all: no verse number, no scripture framing, nothing presented as the Bible's own words

⚠ The stanza that actually tells the shepherds' story is missing twice over. It is not Wade's, and this recording does not include it

Luke 2:17-18 · “Go Tell It On The Mountain” · Keith & Kristyn Getty

NOT A QUOTE “Go Tell It On The Mountain” Keith & Kristyn Getty Luke 2:17-18 Sing it. Nothing here is offered as a quotation, and the nativity it narrates is the one Luke reports. Just know that the refrain is older than the verses and came from somewhere else.

✓ Never says it is quoting, anywhere: no chapter and verse, no translation named, nothing framed as scripture

⚠ The refrain and the stanzas have separate origins, and hymnal credit lines that read only "traditional" or only "John W. Work Jr." collapse the two

Browse every song →