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Lutheran Church Year: LCY - Explanation | LCY 2000-2005 | LCY 2006-2010 | LCY 2011-2015 | Readings from the Epistles and the Gospels for each Event | Discussions: Events in the Lutheran Church Year: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Readings from the Bible

Lutheran Church Year
Readings

This section of the Bach Cantatas Website (BCW) contains the readings for all the Sundays and feast days of the Lutheran Church Year for which Bach wrote cantatas. The German text is that of the 1545 edition of Luther's translation; the English is the King James (Authorised) Version (1611). Informative discussions of how the texts and music of the cantatas relate to the readings can usually be found in Alfred Dürr's book on the cantatas.
If you have any corrections and suggestions for improvement of the Readings pages, please send them to us in accordance with the guidelines at: How to contribute.

Event

Epistle

Gospel

Bach Works

Lutheran Church Year

1^st Sunday in Advent

Romans 13: 11-14

Matthew 21: 1-9

61, 62, 36

2^nd Sunday in Advent

Romans 15: 4-13

Luke 21: 25-36

(70a)

3^rd Sunday in Advent

1 Corinthians 4: 1-5

Matthew 11: 2-10

(186a), 141

4^th Sunday in Advent

Philippians 4: 4-7

John 1: 19-28

132, (147a)

Christmas Day

Titus 2: 11-14
Isaiah 9: 2-7

Luke 2: 1-14

63, 91, 110, 191, 248/1, (197a), 142

2^nd Day of Christmas [St. Stefanus Day]

Titus. 3: 4-7
Acts 6: 8-15 & 7: 55-60

Matthew 23: 35-39
Luke 2: 15-20

40, 121, 57, 248/2

3^rd Day of Christmas [St John's Day]

Hebrews 1: 1-14
Ecclesiastical Letters 15: 1-8

John 1: 1-14

64, 133, 151, 248/3

1^st Sunday after Christmas Day

Galatians 4: 1-7

Luke 2: 33-40

152, 122, 28

New Year's Day

Galatians 3: 23-29

Luke 2: 21

190, 41, 16, 171, 143, 248/4, 134a

Sunday after New Year

1 Peter 4: 12-19

Matthew 2: 13-23

153, 58, 248/5

Feast of Epiphany

Isaah 60: 1-6

Matthew 2: 1-12

65, 123, 248/6

1^st Sunday after Epiphany

Romans 12: 1-6

Luke 2: 41-52

154, 124, 32, 217

2^nd Sunday after Epiphany

Romans 12: 6-16

John 2: 1-11

155, 3, 13

3^rd Sunday after Epiphany

Romans 12: 17-21

Matthew 8: 1-13

73, 111, 72, 156

4^th Sunday after Epiphany

Romans 13: 8-10

Matthew 8: 23-27

81, 14

5^th Sunday after Epiphany

-

6^th Sunday after Epiphany

-

Septuagesima Sunday

1 Corinthians 9: 24 - 10: 5

Matthew 20: 1-16

144, 92, 84

Sexagesima Sunday

2 Corinthians 11: 19 - 12: 9

Luke 8: 4-15

18, 181, 126

Quinquagesima Sunday [Estomihi]

1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

Luke 18: 31-43

22, 23, 127, 159

Invocavit [1^st Sunday in Lent]

-

Reminiscere [2^nd Sunday in Lent]

-

Oculi [3^rd Sunday in Lent]

Ephesians 5: 1-9

Luke 11: 14-28

54, (80a)

Laetare (4^th Sunday in Lent)

-

Judica (5^th Sunday in Lent)

-

Palm Sunday

Philippians. 2: 5-11
1 Corinthians 11: 23-32

Matthew 21: 1-9

182

Good Friday

-

Easter Sunday

1 Corinthians 5: 6-8

Mark 16: 1-8

4, 31, 249, 15, 160

2^nd day of Easter (Easter Monday)

Acts 10: 34-43

Luke 24: 13-35

66, 6, Anh 190

3^rd day of Easter (Easter Tuesday)

Acts 13: 26-33

Luke 24: 36-47

134, 145, 158

Quasimodogeniti (1^st Sunday after Easter)

1 John 5: 4-10

John 20: 19-31

67, 42

Misericordas Domini (2^nd Sunday after Easter)

1 Peter 2: 21-25

John 10: 12-16

104, 85, 112

Jubilate (3^rd Sunday after Easter)

1 Peter 2: 11-20

John 16: 16-23

12, 103, 146 (224)

Cantate (4^th Sunday after Easter)

James 1: 17-21

John 16: 5-15

166, 108

Rogate (5^th Sunday after Easter)

James 1: 22-27

John 16: 23-30

86, 87

Ascension Day

Acts 1: 1-11

Mark 16: 14-20

37, 128, 43, 11

Exaudi (Sunday after Ascension)

1 Peter 4: 8-11

John 15: 26 - 16: 4

44, 183

Whit Sunday (1^st Day of Pentecost)

Acts 2: 1-13

John 14: 23-31

172, 59, 74, 34, 218

Whit Monday (2^nd Day of Pentecost)

Acts 10: 42-48

John 3: 16-21

173, 68, 174

Whit Tuesday (3^rd Day of Pentecost)

Acts 8: 14-17

John 10: 1-10

184, 175

Trinity Sunday

Romans 11: 33-36

John 3: 1-15

165, 194, 176, 129

1^st Sunday after Trinity

1 John 4: 16-21

Luke 16: 19-31

75, 20, 39

2^nd Sunday after Trinity

1 John 3: 13-18

Luke 14: 16-24

76, 2

3^rd Sunday after Trinity

1 Peter 5: 6-11

Luke 15: 1-10

21, 135

4^th Sunday after Trinity

Romans 8: 18-23

Luke 6: 36-42

185, 24, 177

5^th Sunday after Trinity

1 Peter 3: 8-15

Luke 5: 1-11

93, 88

6^th Sunday after Trinity

Romans 6: 3-11

Matthew 5: 20-26

170, 9

7^th Sunday after Trinity

Romans 6: 19-23

Mark 8: 1-9

186, 107, 187, Anh 1, Anh 209

8^th Sunday after Trinity

Romans 8: 12-17

Matthew 7: 15-23

136, 178, 45

9^th Sunday after Trinity

1 Corinthians 10: 6-13

Luke 16: 1-9

105, 94, 168

10^th Sunday after Trinity

1 Corinthians 12: 1-11

Luke 19: 41-48

46, 101, 102

11^th Sunday after Trinity

1 Corinthians 15: 1-10

Luke 18: 9-14

199, 179, 113

12^th Sunday after Trinity

2 Corinthians 3: 4-11

Mark 7: 31-37

69a, 137, 35

13^th Sunday after Trinity

Galatians 3: 15-22

Luke 10: 23-37

77, 33, 164

14^th Sunday after Trinity

Galatians 5: 16-24

Luke 17: 11-19

25, 78, 17

15^th Sunday after Trinity

Galatians 5: 25 - 6: 10

Matthew 6: 23-34

138, 99, 51, 100

16^th Sunday after Trinity

Ephesians 3: 13-21

Luke 7: 11-17

161, 95, 8, 27

17^th Sunday after Trinity

Ephesians 4: 1-6

Luke 14: 1-11

114, 148, 47

18^th Sunday after Trinity

1 Corinthians 1: 4-8

Matthew 22: 34-46

96, 169

19^th Sunday after Trinity

Ephesians 4: 22-28

Matthew 9: 1-8

48, 5, 56, BWV Anh 2

20^th Sunday after Trinity

Ephesians 5: 15-21

Matthew 22: 1-14

162, 180, 49

21^st Sunday after Trinity

Ephesians 6: 10-17

John 4: 46-54

109, 38, 98, 188

22^nd Sunday after Trinity

Philippians 1: 3-11

Matthew 18: 23-35

89, 115, 55

23^rd Sunday after Trinity

Philippians 3: 17-21

Matthew 22: 15-22

163, 139, 52

24^th Sunday after Trinity

Colossians 1: 9-14

Matthew 9: 18-26

60, 26

25^th Sunday after Trinity

1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

Matthew 24: 15-28

90, 116

26^th Sunday after Trinity

2 Peter 3: 3-13

Matthew 25: 31-46

70

27^th Sunday after Trinity

2 Corinthians 5: 1-10
1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11

Matthew 25: 1-13

140

Events with fixed date

Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Malachi 3: 1-4

Luke 2: 22-32

83, 125, 82, 157, 158, 200, 161, Anh 157

Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Isaiah 7: 10-16

Luke 1: 26-38

1, 182, Anh 156, BWV Anh 199

Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Isaiah 40: 1-5

Luke 1: 57-80

167, 7, 30, 220

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mar

Isaiah 11: 1-5

Luke 1: 39-56

147, 10, 189

Feast of St Michael and All Angels

Revelations 12: 7-12

Matthew 18: 1-11

130, 19, 149, 50, 219, Anh 198

Feast of the Reformation

2 Thessalonians 2: 3-8

Revelations 14: 6-8

80, 80b, 79, 129 (?), 192

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Prepared by Francis Browne & Aryeh Oron (December 2004 - November 2008)