Christian David

David was born on 17 February 1692 in Ženklava. His mother was Czech and his father was German. He was raised in the Catholic Church. He worked as a carpenter and a soldier. He was impressed by the pietist movement and converted in 1714.^[1] In 1722, he helped refugees from Moravia to escape the Counter-Reformation to Saxony. There, he was a co-founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine,^[1] working closely with of Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf.^[2] David went as a missionary of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine to Greenland and to Native Americans, among other places.^[3] On a mission to Greenland, he cofounded in 1733 the settlement Neu-Herrnhut, with Matthias Stach and Christian Stach.^[4][5]

David wrote a hymn "Seyd gegrüßt, zu tausendmahl" (Be welcome, a thousand times), published in 1728.^[6] Two centuries later, Otto Riethmüller chose two of its stanzas for the hymn "Sonne der Gerechtigkeit", published first in 1932 in a song book for young people, Ein neues Lied (A new song), and later in many hymnals.^[3] An additional stanza was added to the hymn in an ecumenical version in 1971.^[6]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Christian David.

• Ackermann, Andrea (2015). "262/263 Sonne der Gerechtigkeit". In Evang, Martin; Alpermann, Ilsabe (eds.). Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch (in German). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 51–57. ISBN 9783647503448.
• Brown, William (1816). "Greenland". The History of Missions: Or, Of the Propagation of Christianity Among the Heathen, Since the Reformation. B. Coles V.D.M. pp. 290–295.
• Eckert, Eugen (2007). ""Sonne der Gerechtigkeit" / Predigtmeditation zu einem ökumenischen Missionslied" (in German). Der evangelische Rundfunkbeauftragte beim WDR. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
• Kißkalt, Michael (2007). ""Sonne der Gerechtigkeit" / Predigtmeditation zu einem ökumenischen Missionslied" (PDF) (in German). Theologisches Seminar Elstal. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
• Lüdecke, Cornelia (2005). "East Meets West: Meteorological observations of the Moravians in Greenland and Labrador since the 18th century" (PDF). History of Meteorology. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
• Nüssel, Friederike (22 June 2008). "Predigt Prof. Dr. Friederike Nüssel über EG 262" (in German). Heidelberg University. Retrieved 21 October 2017.