Selig ist der Mann in G minor, BWV 57 ""Blessed is the man""

Bach wrote the cantata in his third year in Leipzig for the Second Day of Christmas. That year, as every other year in Leipzig, the day was the feast of the martyr St. Stephanus (Stephen). The prescribed readings for the day are from the Acts, the Martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 6:8–7,22, Acts 7:51–59), and from the Gospel of Matthew, Jerusalem killing her prophets (Matthew 23:35–39). The cantata text was written by Georg Christian Lehms, who drew on all the readings and connected them to more biblical allusions. The first line is taken from James 1:12, the crown mentioned is in Greek "stephanos". Lehms set the development as a dialogue of "Jesus" and the Soul ("Anima"). He intended to use as a closing chorale a verse from Johann Heermann's "Gott Lob, die Stund ist kommen", but Bach instead chose the 6th verse of Ahasverus Fritsch's "Hast du denn, Jesus, dein Angesicht gänzlich verborgen", called Seelengespräch mit Christus (Talk of the soul with Christ), in order to continue the dialogue.