Merriam-Webster’s ‘Which Child Is This?’ Edit of Christmas Hymn Draws Backlash
A whimsical social media post this week by Merriam-Webster attempting to correct the grammar of a Christmas hymn quickly turned into a heated theological deletion – and ended with the post quietly disappearing.
The now-deleted X/Twitter post tried to correct the title and lyrics of the 1871 song “What Child Is This?” to “Which Child Is This?”
The first verse of the famous song, along with the chorus, reads: “What Child is this, Who, laid to rest; on Mary's lap, is sleeping?; Whom angels greet with anthems sweet; while shepherds watch are keeping?; this, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and angels sing; haste, haste to bring Him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary.”
Such lyrics, the song’s defenders noted, are theologically incoherent if it’s “which child.”
Wrong.
— Justin Taylor (@between2worlds) December 11, 2025
"What child is this?" = "What [kind of] child is this?"
"Which Child is this, who, laid to rest . . . This is . . . " doesn't make sense.
The writer was steeped in the KJV and is echoing its language:
“What manner of man is this?” (Matt. 8:27) https://t.co/Ublz2fGqns
“Wrong,” writer Justin Taylor wrote in a post addressing Merriam-Webster.
“‘What child is this?’ = ‘What [kind of] child is this?’
“‘Which Child is this, who, laid to rest . . . This is . . . ’ doesn't make sense.”
The author of the song, William Chatterton Dix, “was steeped in the KJV and is echoing its language,” Taylor added, citing the King James language of Matthew 8:27 when the followers of Jesus react in awe, saying, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”
Jake Rainwater, assistant professor of theology at Corban University, also spoke out.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. The hymn is asking an ontological question, “What kind of child is this?”
— Jake Rainwater (@JakeRainwater) December 9, 2025
The hymn answers, “This is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.”
The identity of the child broaches his very nature as the God-Man, not merely his human identity. https://t.co/l1mF1EWJNQ
“Wrong, wrong, wrong,” Rainwater wrote. “The hymn is asking an ontological question, ‘What kind of child is this?’ The hymn answers, ‘This is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.’ The identity of the child broaches his very nature as the God-Man, not merely his human identity.”
Merriam-Webster eventually deleted the post.
Dix was a 19th-century English poet and hymn writer who wrote the words to What Child Is This? in 1865, during a period of serious illness that led him into extended reflection on the person of Christ. The lyrics were later paired with the much older English melody Greensleeves and published in 1871.
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Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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Originally published December 12, 2025.
