The composer oversaw versions and performances in both German and English within months of completing the music in early 1836.

The composer with pastor Julius Schubring, a childhood friend, compiled passages from the New Testament, chiefly the Acts of the Apostles, and the Old, as well as the texts of chorales and hymns, in a polyglot manner after Bach's model.

The work was premiered on 22 May 1836 (having been completed in April of that year[1]) at the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf.

The English premiere was in Liverpool on 3 October 1836 in a translation by Mendelssohn's friend, Karl Klingermann.

Today it is regularly performed in Germany and well disseminated in both of its original languages through an array of complete recordings.