Cantata no. 86: Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch, BWV.86

Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch (Truly, truly I say to you), BWV 86, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for Rogate, the fifth Sunday after Easter, and first performed it on 14 May 1724.

An unknown poet began the text with a quotation from the Farewell Discourse of Jesus. He used a stanza of Georg Grünwald's hymn "Kommt her zu mir, spricht Gottes Sohn" in movement 3 and as the closing chorale a stanza from "Es ist das Heil uns kommen her" by Paul Speratus (1524). Bach structured the cantata in six movements, a gospel quotation in the beginning, chorales as movements 3 and 6, otherwise recitatives and arias. He scored it for three vocal soloists, a four-part choir and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of two oboes d'amore, strings and continuo.