For Jan. 14, 1725, the second Sunday after Epiphany (Epiphany), Bach wrote the cantata Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, based on Martin Moller's 1583 church song with the same name. Moller's song of eighteen stanzas is itself another adaptation of the pre-Reformation Latin hymn Jesu dulcis memoria. The song was sung in Bach's time to one of the two melodies used for O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht. Composed in his second season in Leipzig, BWV 3 belongs to Bach's year-long chorale cantatas begun in June 1724: text and music of the first and last chorale couplet underlie a large opening chorus and a short closing chorale, respectively, while a lyricist, perhaps the emeritus rector of the Thomasschule Andreas Stübel, paraphrased the intervening couplets into texts for two recitative/aria pairs. Only in part 2 does he combine his free verse work with the unchanged text of the second stanza.
When Bach composed the cantata BWV 58 two years later, it is given the same name because the opening chorale verse underlies the same chorale, but is not a chorale cantata because the rest of the text is not based on the chorale.