Bach’s Passiontide Cantatas do not exist in a vacuum but rather were created in a context that has long been under appreciated. Since Passion motifs appear throughout Bach’s own library, found in the sermons, hymnals and commentaries he seemed to value so greatly, they, (among other contemporary devotional materials) offer a great wealth of information. These sources demonstrate a culture rich in Passion motifs, a realm of information virtually untouched in the the Bach research world. They also identify two distinct types of Passion meditation that Bach seems to have appreciated. It becomes evident that Bach not only adopted but also adapted these Passions themes through the musical out workings of the Passion texts he set. Thus the liturgical and rhetorical interplay between Cantatas and the Passion tradition at large proves to be a catalyst, unlocking not only a deeper understanding of Bach's compositional choices, but the future of a new type of research, that of inter-genre contextualization. Through a textual/rhetorical analysis of representative Passiontide Cantatas in partnership with a contextual analysis of contemporary literary sources, Bach’s Cantatas find their own place at the peak of a Passion tradition and as musical monuments in their own right. By locating Bach’s Passions within a constellation, his musical choices, liturgical placement, and development as a composer and individual become a bit clearer.