Bach wrote the cantata for
Pentecost Sunday. The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the
Acts of the Apostles, the
Holy Spirit (), and from the
Gospel of John, Jesus announcing in his
Farewell Discourse the Spirit who will teach (). The cantata is based on a text of
Erdmann Neumeister, published in 1714. Bach composed only four
movements of the seven of the poetry. The cantata begins with the first verse of the gospel, which Bach had set already as a
recitative for bass in his cantata for Pentecost , composed in Weimar in 1714 on a text of
Salomon Franck. In the second
movement, the poet praises the great love of God. The third movement is the first
stanza of
Martin Luther's
hymn for Pentecost, "", asking for the coming of the Holy Spirit. In an unusual closing
aria, the poet deals with the expected greater bliss in heaven. Bach certainly performed the cantata on 28 May 1724, which may have been the first performance. The score dates from around 1718, but the parts were written in 1724. Pentecost of 1723 occurred before Bach officially started his tenure as in Leipzig on the first Sunday after
Trinity. The possibility of a performance already on 16 May 1723, perhaps in a service of the university, as
Arnold Schering suggested, has been discussed. Bach used and expanded parts of the cantata in , for Pentecost of 1725. == Scoring and structure ==