{"id":89875,"date":"2026-04-14T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=89875"},"modified":"2026-04-14T07:18:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:18:42","slug":"the-first-hymn-with-its-ancient-greek-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2026\/04\/the-first-hymn-with-its-ancient-greek-music\/","title":{"rendered":"The Earliest Hymn with Its Ancient Greek Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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I randomly came across an article<\/a> about Contemporary Christian Music artist Chris Tomlin\u2019s interest in an 1,800 year old hymn, the subject of a documentary entitled The First Hymn.<\/a><\/p>\n

Back in 1918, archaeologists discovered a fragment of papyrus in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, dated sometime in the late 200\u2019s A.D.\u00a0 It turned out to be, in the words of its Wikipedia entry<\/a>, \u201cthe earliest known manuscript of a\u00a0Christian\u00a0Greek\u00a0hymn to contain both lyrics\u00a0and\u00a0musical notation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I didn\u2019t even know that the ancient Greeks had a written system of musical notation!\u00a0 Here is the Wikipedia entry on that<\/a>.\u00a0 (I can\u2019t make heads or tails of it.\u00a0 If you can, please explain in the comments.)<\/p>\n

This means that we can not only read the lyrics of this ancient Christian text, we can hear the music!\u00a0 We can sing it!<\/p>\n

The Wikipedia entry also says this:<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Phos Hilaron<\/a>\u00a0and the Oxyrhynchus hymn constitute the earliest extant Christian Greek hymn texts reasonably certain to have been used in Christian worship that are neither drawn from the Bible nor modeled on Biblical passages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To this day, liturgical churches sing the Phos Hilaron<\/em> (\u201cJoyous Light\u201d).\u00a0 We Lutherans chant it as part of the service of Evening Prayer (Lutheran Service Book<\/em>, p. 244).\u00a0 It dates from around the same time, though we don\u2019t seem to have the original music, as we do with the Oxyrhynchus Hymn.<\/p>\n

Here are the words.\u00a0 As you can see from the photo of the manuscript, above, what we have is not complete and various words are missing.\u00a0 The words in brackets below are reconstructions based on extant letters from the original.\u00a0 Wikipedia also gives the original Greek, which makes the basis of the reconstructions clearer.\u00a0 Again, from Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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  1. . . . together all the eminent ones of God. . .<\/li>\n
  2. . . . night] nor day (?) Let it\/them be silent. Let the luminous stars not [. . .],<\/li>\n
  3. . . . [Let the rushings of winds, the sources] of all surging rivers [cease]. While we hymn<\/li>\n
  4. Father and Son and Holy Spirit, let all the powers answer, \u201cAmen, amen, Strength, praise,<\/li>\n
  5. [and glory forever to God], the sole giver of all good things. Amen, amen.\u201d<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Notice that the hymn praises \u201cFather and Son and Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 The Council of Nicaea would take place in 325 A.D.\u00a0 \u00a0So no, that council did not invent the doctrine of the Trinity.\u00a0 As this hymn proves, in the previous century, in the very first hymn that we have, Christians were already worshiping the Holy Trinity.<\/p>\n

    Now here are the words sung to the music.\u00a0 (Look carefully at the manuscript, above, and you can see what the Greek musical notation, written above the lines of text, looked like.)\u00a0 From John Hilton III, at YouTube<\/a>:<\/p>\n