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Bach was not the first to try his hand at telling the story of Christ's suffering and death in musical form; such settings of the Gospel accounts were common from the Middle Ages onward. Yet Bach's settings of the Passion story endured because of their ability to place the listener at the foot of the cross—and some of the hymns he used became famous in the process.

Bach's Passions present both the onward march of the biblical narrative toward the cross and devotional commentary on that narrative. A soloist representing the Gospel writer (e.g. Matthew or John) narrates the biblical text, while the choir sings the part of the crowd. Other solos and chorally sung hymns, usually in the first person, apply the Scripture story to the life of the individual believer. To drive this application home, Bach used hymns familiar to churchgoers of his day—including two 17th-century texts still sung today, Paul Gerhardt's "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" and Johann Heermann's "Ah, Holy Jesus."

Luther built a strong tradition of congregational hymn singing characterized, in his hands, by hymns like "A Mighty Fortress" (termed by one music historian "that triumphant war-cry of the Reformation"). But violent theological controversy in the 16th century between two strands of Protestantism (the Lutherans and the Reformed), the devastation of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), and periodic outbreaks of the plague prompted later German hymn writers to focus more deeply on the inner spiritual life of the believer. Both Heermann and Gerhardt were part of this transformation. They were also no strangers to personal suffering.

Born in Silesia (at the time part of Germany, but now in Poland), Johann Heermann (1585-1647) was the only surviving child of five and was in poor health throughout his life. After an eye infection ended his brief teaching career, in 1611 he became deacon and then pastor of the Lutheran church in Köben near his hometown.

The Thirty Years' War was hard on Köben, which was burned, plundered, and ravaged by the plague over the next several decades. Heermann lost all his possessions more than once, and was nearly killed or forced to flee several times. In 1634 a throat problem brought an end to his preaching, and he retired from the ministry in 1638.

Heermann published three collections of hymns. His hymn "Ah, Holy Jesus" was loosely based on a Latin poem attributed to St. Augustine in his day but now thought to have been the work of medieval monk-theologian Jean de Fécamp. Composer Johann Crüger soon united the hymn with a tune inspired by the Genevan Psalter.

Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) was born in Saxony, part of modern-day Germany. Like Heermann, he grew up in the shadow of the Thirty Years' War. While he was studying theology at the University of Wittenburg, Swedish soldiers set a fire in his hometown of Gräfenhainichen that destroyed over 400 buildings, including the Gerhardt family home.

Ordained in 1651, Gerhardt pastored several Lutheran churches in and around Berlin. Here he came into conflict with Elector Frederick Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia, a follower of the Reformed faith. In 1662 the Elector issued an edict forbidding preachers to mention the theological differences between the Lutherans and the Reformed in their sermons. Gerhardt refused to abide by this rule and lost his job in 1666. By this time, all but one of his six children had died in infancy, and his wife Anna Maria died in 1668, leaving him a widower with a young son. He obtained another church position in Lübben at the age of 63 and died there seven years later, reportedly with a stanza from one of his hymns on his lips. The motto on his official portrait read, "A theologian sifted in Satan's sieve."

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