The Spanish language original of this hymn began “Bendito Rey que viene en el nombre del Senor!” (“Blessed is the king that comes in the name of the Lord”). The hymn is based on the account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem found in Mark 11:9, 10. The central thought of the translation by Fred Pratt Green (1903-    ; see Biographies) is the humility of Jesus—not robed in royal splendor, but riding on a lowly donkey.

Federico Jose N. Pagura was born at Arroyo Seco, Santa Fe, Argentina, on February 9, 1923. In 1940 he graduated from the Normal School at Rosario, and in 1946 received his B.TH.at Evangelical Faculty of Theology, Buenos Aires. Graduate degrees were earned at Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1949; and at Claremont School of Theology, California, 1969. Ordained a Methodist minister in Argentina in 1950, he served 19 years as a pastor and district superintendent, then for four years as bishop of the Methodist Church in Costa Rica and Panama. Positions of responsibility have included president of the Latin American Council of Churches; copresident of the Ecuminical Movement of Human Rights in Argentina; and membership on the Board of World Mission and Evangelism, World Council of Churches. In addition to articles and booklets, he authored the ABC of Biblical Doctrine and has written and translated many hymns. In 1983 DePauw University   in Indiana awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities. Since 1977 Pagura has been bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina.

STOKESAY CASTLE was originally composed for another text to be printed in Novello’s Sunday School Leaflet series in 1923, but the author’s widow refused permission, and it was set to “Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus.” The first hymnbook to include the tune was Congregational Praise, 1953, for which Thiman was chairman of the music committee and furnished 16 original hymns tunes and eight descants. Born in Ashford, Kent, England, on September 12, 1900, Eric Harding Thiman went to Caterham School and the Guildhall School of Music. At age 21 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and at 27 he earned the D. Mus. Degree from the University of London. For most of his life he was professor of harmony at the Royal Academy of Music; in addition, beginning in 1922 he served as organist at the Congregationalist Park Chapel, Crouch End London. He was much in demand as a recitalist and respected as an adjudicator at music festivals. He was appointed examiner in music for the University of London in 1952, and in 1956 dean of the faculty there. From 1957 to 1975 he was organist at the City Temple, London.

Publications include a large volume of anthems, part-songs, cantatas and organ works, including Varied Harmonies to Thirty-Four Well-known Hymn Tunes (Oxford University Press). In 1953 he was the only non-Anglican on the Council of the Royal College of Organists. Eric Thiman was the first prominent composer among English Congregationalists. His work in the Free Church Choir Union (those outside the Church of England) was very influential in upgrading the quality of church music in these communions. His music is always well-crafted, using conventional materials with a dash here and there of adventuresome harmony. He died in Camden, London, on February 13, 1975.

from Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White