Since February, we have kept before you a “Make it a Million” matching gift offer made possible by a small group of generous contributors who have pledged $500,000 to match—dollar-for-dollar—gifts made before May 31, 2026, to The Serious Joy Scholarship at Bethlehem College and Seminary. By the grace of the One whose name is matchless, we stand now within close reach of claiming all $500,000 of these funds. Soli Deo Gloria.
“The matchless name of Jesus” is an expression inspired by God’s holy Word. Paul writes of Christ to the Philippians, concluding, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”—Philippians 2:9-11 (ESV).
Luke emphasizes this same matchlessness when he writes, “And there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 ESV
But the actual, oft-cited expression “the matchless name of Jesus” doesn’t itself appear in the Scriptures. For this etymology we must turn to hymnody—the songs of the saints.
Perhaps the earliest known appearance of this phrase appeared in the prolific work of Elisha A. Hoffman (1839–1929), composer of over 2,000 hymns and editor of over 50 song books. A Union veteran of the American Civil War, ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1873, widowed at 36 leaving him the single parent of three sons, Hoffman cultivated a passion for sacred music and a conviction that song was “as natural a function of the soul as breathing was a function of the body.”
In 1897, Hoffman wrote “The Matchless Name,” often remembered by its opening and repeating lyric:
Blessed Savior, we adore thee;
We thy love and grace proclaim.
Thou art mighty, thou art holy.
Glorious is thy matchless name! [Emphasis added]
Glorious, glorious,
Glorious is thy name, O Lord!
Glorious, glorious,
Glorious, is thy name, O Lord!
For almost 130 years, the phrase “the matchless name” has since appeared in several generations of worship music.
Credit Matt Boswell and Matt Papa with the 2024 hymn “The Matchless Name of Jesus,” which proclaims:
Praise to the matchless name of Jesus
Sing of His grace forevermore
Raise now an endless hallelujah
To the matchless name of Jesus Christ the Lord
We sing the name of Jesus
The matchless name of Jesus
We hymn the name the angels long adore
From age to age, one chorus rings forevermore
The matchless name of Jesus Christ the Lord.
This “Make it a Million Match” has been, since its inception, utterly dependent on the one whose name is matchless. We have sought only to stir the affections of his people for his work among the students and faculty of Bethlehem College and Seminary. This is his school. They are his students and his teachers. They are his pulpits being filled, his ministries staffed, his nations reached, his Christian K–12 school faculties supplied, his workplaces influenced, and his theological academy seasoned with passion for his supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples through him. “Raise now an endless hallelujah to the matchless name of Jesus Christ the Lord.”
As we now enter the final week of this campaign, please pray that your love for him might overflow in some greater measure to complete this act of grace. Please consider a campaign-concluding gift of any amount to The Serious Joy Scholarship, such that our students can receive a Bible-saturated, academically rigorous education and be enabled to launch into life and ministry without an encumbering burden of federal student loan debt.
Rick Segal is Vice President of Advancement and Lecturer of History and Political Philosophy at Bethlehem College and Seminary.