Selig sind die Toten is a line from the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 frequently used in funeral music of German-speaking composers.

The text begins in Revelation

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

 14:13, in the Luther Bible

Luther Bible

The Luther Bible is a German Bible translation by Martin Luther, first printed with both testaments in 1534. This translation became a force in shaping the Modern High German language. The project absorbed Luther's later years. The new translation was very widely disseminated thanks to the printing...

 Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herrn sterben von nun an, in English begins Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord, from henceforth.

The most famous settings are by Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

 in the final movement of A German Requiem, and by Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...

 in his collection Musikalische Exequien

Musikalische Exequien

Musikalische exequien Op.7, SWV279-281 is a sacred work by Heinrich Schutz; it was written about in 1635/6, for the funeral services of the Count Heinrich Posthumus Reuss, who had died on December 3, 1635. It comprises the following sections:* John Eliot Gardiner, Archiv Produktion...

. It is a favourite of amateur choirs.

Other settings include those by Johann Schein

Johann Schein

Johann Hermann Schein was a German composer of the early Baroque era. He was born in Grünhain and died in Leipzig...

, Gottfried Scheidt

Gottfried Scheidt

Gottfried Scheidt was a German composer and organist.Born in Halle, he moved to Amsterdam in 1611 to study with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, returning home in 1615 to further study with his older brother Samuel Scheidt and others. He was appointed organist to the Altenburg court in 1617, and held...

, Karl Piutti

Karl Piutti

Karl Piutti was a German composer and organist.Piutti studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. He taught at his alma mater from 1875 onwards, and also became the organist at the Thomaskirche after 1880....

, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

right|250pxCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach...

, Georg Philipp Telemann

Georg Philipp Telemann

Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually...

 and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (op. 115 n. 1)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 used the words in a recitative of his cantata

Bach cantata

Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....

 O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort , BWV 60, is a church cantata written by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig for the 24th Sunday after Trinity, first performed on 7 November 1723.-History and words:...

.