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Amazing Grace — Hymn, not Scripture

Paraphrased Music 1772

Hymn, not Scripture. The famous lines are direct allusions to two specific Gospel passages but are not quotations.

Context — what the work shows

"Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognised Christian songs in English. Its most famous lines are frequently quoted as if biblical.

Claimed reference

Often cited as if the lines "I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see" were biblical.

Actual reference

Written by John Newton (1725–1807), an Anglican clergyman and former slave-trader. First published in *Olney Hymns* (1779). The famous lines allude to Luke 15:24 ("was lost, and is found") and John 9:25 ("though I was blind, now I see").

What the text actually says

Luke 15:24 (BSB): "For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." John 9:25 (BSB): "He answered, 'Whether He is a sinner or not, I do not know. There is one thing I do know: I was blind, but now I see!'"

Verdict

The hymn is not in the Bible — it was written by John Newton in 1772 and published in 1779. Its most-quoted lines are direct allusions to Luke 15 (the parable of the Prodigal Son: "was lost, and is found") and John 9 (the man born blind whose sight Jesus restores: "Though I was blind, now I see"). Newton was writing inside the biblical tradition rather than quoting it.

The author and date

Amazing Grace was written by John Newton (1725–1807), an English Anglican clergyman. Before his ordination Newton had spent years in the Atlantic slave trade, first as a slaver and eventually as a captain of slave ships. He underwent a religious conversion in 1748 during a storm at sea, gradually left the slave trade, and was ordained in 1764.

The hymn was written around 1772 for a New Year’s Day sermon (1 January 1773) in Olney, Buckinghamshire. It was first published in Olney Hymns (1779), a hymnal Newton edited jointly with the poet William Cowper.

The famous lines and their biblical sources

The hymn’s most-quoted couplet —

“I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see”

— alludes directly to two specific Gospel passages.

Luke 15:24 (BSB): “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” The parable of the Prodigal Son. The father’s declaration on the son’s return is the source-text behind “lost… found.”

John 9:25 (BSB): “He answered, ‘Whether He is a sinner or not, I do not know. There is one thing I do know: I was blind, but now I see!’” The man born blind, healed by Jesus, defending the fact of his healing before the Pharisees. The source-text behind “blind… see.”

Newton is not quoting either passage word-for-word. He is writing in the biblical idiom, drawing the imagery into his own hymn structure.

Other biblical resonance in the hymn

The hymn’s opening — “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me” — draws on Pauline language about grace and salvation (e.g., Ephesians 2:5–8, 1 Timothy 1:15 — “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst”).

The final verse traditionally sung — “When we’ve been there ten thousand years” — was added later, possibly first appearing in print in 1829 in The Olney Hymns expanded edition or in subsequent American collections. Newton wrote six verses; some modern hymn-books print four or five.

Newton, the slave trade, and the hymn

Newton continued for years after his conversion in the slave trade before fully leaving it. Late in his life he became an active abolitionist and wrote Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade (1788). He lived to see the Slave Trade Act of 1807 pass through Parliament — the legislation William Wilberforce championed and Newton publicly supported. The biographical context is sometimes read into the hymn’s “wretch like me,” though the hymn does not name slavery specifically.

What this entry records

The hymn is biblically saturated and was written by a Christian clergyman. It is not Scripture. Its most-famous lines are direct allusions to specific Gospel passages but are not direct quotations of them.