The story of bringing The First Hymn back to life opens in cinemas on July 31. The feature-length documentary tells the story of a scrap of papyrus from Oxyrhynchus in Egypt that specialists in Oxford found contained an ancient hymn, complete with a musical notation. It is the earliest Christian hymn ever discovered with its musical setting, and is believed to have beeen composed in the third century. A project, led by author and academic John Dickson has made the hymn available for Christians to sing once again.
Let all be silent, the shining stars not sound forth,
All rushing rivers be stilled
As we sing our hymn to the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit,
As all powers cry out in answer:
Amen, Amen, might, praise, and glory forever
To our God, the only giver of all good gifts.
Amen. Amen.
Listen to the hymn https://christomlin.lnk.to/firsthymn
The lyrics to the new version https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/67bffc613e5f1a358ca0680f/67e5f10681036240621a7a3b_The%20First%20Hymn%20Lyrics.pdf
John Dickson, once a rock musician and now a historian and author, had the perfect set of interests to pursue the project of bringing the first hymn back to life. Dickson, who hosts Australia’s top religion podcast, Undeceptions, and holds the Jean Kvamme Distinguished Chair of Biblical Evangelism at Wheaton College, reached out to musicians to perform the hymn.
It may be that Chris Tomlin will have another top ten hit with the first hymn, adding to a career that includes seven billion streams and an estimated 30 million people singing his work in Churches each week. He was joined on the project by Ben Fielding, who is the only songwriter to have four songs reach #1 on CCLI as the most sung songs in the global Church: Goodness Of God, What A Beautiful Name, Who You Say I Am and Mighty To Save. Earlier, Fielding took on a challenge from Dickson to make the Apostle’s Creed a song, working with Matt Crocker, coming up with This I Believe (The Creed).
“The early church took the Greek word “orthodoxy”—originally meaning “right opinion”—and repurposed it to mean ‘right belief,’” the Gospel Coalition’s Trewin Wax wrote in a response to the First Hymn. “For the church fathers, right belief mattered because of its connection to right worship. The earliest Christians didn’t see theology and doxology as separate spheres. What they believed about God shaped how they worshipped God, and how they worshipped God reinforced what they believed about God…
“’This is the century before the Council of Nicaea,’ John [Dickson] reminds [Wax]. ‘This is before Arius, the heretic who denied the full divinity of Jesus. We know Arius wrote hymns to try and spread his ideas. He came from the same region as the ‘first hymn’—Roman Egypt. Was he trying to counter the power of this sung piece of orthodox theology? The Trinitarianism of the hymn is exciting.’”
A day conference at Morling College
Morling College and john Dickson have announced a day conference to dig deeper into the theology and musicology of the first hymn on August 16.
“Join us on our Sydney campus on August 16 for The First Hymn Conference — a one-day event exploring the origins, theology, and musical reconstruction of the oldest known Christian hymn with both music and lyrics,” the College writes.
“Hear from John Dickson and other renowned scholars and ministry leaders as they unpack this unique glimpse into early Christian devotion.
“Whether you’re passionate about worship, church history, or theology, this is a day not to miss.”
Register for the conference here: https://loom.ly/4Y0fHW0
Book Movie tickets: https://www.thefirsthymnmovie.com/map