Hymns in the Early Church

Milford Charles Murray

Peace and Joy to my Brothers and Sisters on the Logos Forums on this beautiful and very, very warm Saturday afternoon.

  Enchiladas for supper this evening!

              I was reading Raymond Brown's An Introduction to the New Testament and came across his list of possible and/or likely hymns in the Early Church.

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               Am wondering whether any of you have come across similar lists in other resources in your Logos Libraries???

I think I would like to spend a little time this evening studying and comparing possibilities and likelihoods!       *smile*

MJ. Smith

3. Classification and Function of the Hymns.
In light of the above discussions, the following is an attempt to classify the Pauline material which is germane. Apart from some specimens which have been identified as drawn from the synagogues of hellenistic Judaism (e.g., Rom 11:33–36), distinctively Christian compositions may be subdivided as follows:
3.1. Sacramental. Here parts of Ephesians (Eph 2:12–19: on this see Martin 1992, 167–76) and the Pastorals (Tit 3:4–7) have been designated as baptismal (see Baptism). Ephesians 5:14, the clearest illustration of a NT hymn, also falls in this grouping. It divides naturally into three lines on grounds of style and finds its obvious Sitz im Leben in a baptismal setting. The convert is summoned to moral endeavor and promised divine aid to live a life worthy of one’s profession. In the context of the letter it challenges the view of an indifferent moral attitude—a wrong-headed notion which was plaguing the Asia minor churches (so Eph 4:17–23; see Martin 1968).
3.2. Meditative. Ephesians 1:3–14 is a good example of a Christian rhapsody on the themes of trinitarian faith and redemption. It is possible that a Jewish pattern drawn from the synagogue in which God is blessed (hence the term berakah) lies in the background, but if so it has been dramatically christianized by impressive Christian concepts of election, salvation and adoption (Lincoln; Martin 1992, ad loc.).
3.3. Confessional. The nature of the Christian life comes to vivid expression when believers are called upon to attest their faith in time of trial. Passages of the Pastorals (e.g., 2 Tim 2:11–13) read like hymns of the martyrs’ confession and illustrate the strenuous quality of Christian living which was expected in the early church in its incipient conflict with the persecuting state.
3.4. Christological. Here we touch the heart of the matter, for as we have seen, the NT teaching on the person of Christ is virtually contained in its hymns (see Christology). Outstanding specimens in Pauline literature are Philippians 2:6–11, Colossians 1:15–20 and 1 Timothy 3:16. All these texts have been the subject of in-depth studies in recent times and collectively are discussed in detail by Sanders, Deichgräber and Fowl, with individual treatments on Philippians 2:6–11 (Martin, Rissi), Colossians 1:15–20 (Gabathuler) and 1 Timothy 3:16 (Gundry).
Let it suffice to extract a modicum of common teaching. The Christians’ Lord is depicted in a cosmological role in the double sense of that adjective. First, his pre-existence and pretemporal activity in creation are made the frontispiece of the hymns, and from the divine order in which he eternally exists, he “comes down” as the incarnate one in an epiphany. Second, at the conclusion of his earthly life he takes his place in God’s presence by receiving the universal homage and acclamation of the cosmic spirit powers (see Principalities and Powers), which confess his lordship and so are forced to abandon their title of control over human destiny. His saving work is seen as that of bringing together the two orders of existence (the celestial and terrestrial), and his reconciliation is described in a cosmic setting. The hymns are essentially soteriological in their purpose, and set forth the person of Christ in relation to his world as reconciler and world ruler. But inasmuch, as he accomplished what God alone could do—the pacification (see Triumph) of the hostile powers of the universe and the enthronement (see Exaltation and Enthronement) of a true lordship, in particular—and has received from the Father’s hands the right to rule human life and to be the judge of history, it was but a short step for the early Christians to set him on a level with God in their cultic worship. Hymnology and Christology thus merge in praise of the one Lord (see Hengel), soon to be hailed after the close of the NT canon as worthy of hymns “as to God” (Pliny’s report of Bithynian Christians’ worship, A.D. 112).
3.5. Ethical/Paraenetic. Much recent discussion has centered on the role Pauline hymns played in illustrating and enforcing his ethical appeals (see Ethics). The chief crux interpretum has been Philippians 2:5–11 in which the introductory verse 5 paves the way for a recital of the (preformed and self-contained) hymn in Philippians 2:6–11. Interpretations have to wrestle with some basic issues on the correct or most likely way to translate Paul’s elliptical Greek, which lacks a verb in Philippians 2:5b, and thereby to identify the kind of appeal that is made by the subsequent citation of the stately “hymn to Christ.” (A brief review of exegetical possibilities for rendering verse 5 is offered in Martin 1976, with some expanded comment in Martin 1983 in response to, e.g., Hurtado: see now Fee.)
The issue turns on whether Paul is moving at verse 5 from a statement of pastoral problems at Philippi in Philippians 2:1–4 to a display of ethical qualities seen in the incarnate and exalted Lord, notably his humility and selflessness (see Servant), with a view to providing a pattern for imitation. Or, as a rival view, Paul is basing his pastoral call to have done with pride and self-centeredness (in Phil 2:1–4) on the Christians’ way of life “in Christ” (see NEB at Phil 2:5), that is, as members of his church, and more pointedly on their adherence to his lordship (expressed in Phil 2:9–11). There are refinements offered to both alternatives (Hurtado for the first; in part Fowl for the second, but in danger of losing the basic insight that the “center” of the hymn is in Phil 2:9–11, noted by Käsemann). Above all, recent discussion in the commentaries (Hawthorne, Silva) largely passes over the possibility that the christological emphasis in Philippians 2:6–11 may have had an independent function prior to its being taken over and incorporated into a pastoral letter and that, in taking it over, Paul may well have redacted it (by inserting v. 8c) to bring it into line with his purpose.
If this theory of a two-stage development is so, it may offer a path of agreement which will unite the soteriological and exemplary functions of the present hymn. In its pristine form the hymn will have celebrated the cosmic authority of the exalted Lord; in adapting it to meet a pastoral situation at Philippi (see Philippians) Paul has brought out more clearly the elements of utter humiliation and atonement (since his death was on a cross, Phil 2:8c; see Death of Christ), and so the language of his lowly condescension in Philippians 2:6–8 matches the need seen in a tension-racked community in Philippians 2:1–4, and provides an additional basis for Paul’s ethical/paraenetic appeal. The call is to accept Christ’s lordly authority as an antidote to disfigurements in the church with the reminder that Christ came to his throne only along the road of obedience to God (hence Phil 2:12), self-sacrifice and giving of himself in atoning death. Lordship and the “theology of the cross” (see Cross, Theology of the) thus merge to form a unified plea for “being conformed” to his way (cf. Phil 3:10).
See also CREEDS; LITURGICAL ELEMENTS; WORSHIP.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. J. L. Bailey and L. D. Vander Broek, Literary Forms in the New Testament (Louisville: John Knox/Westminster, 1992) 76–82; P. Bradshaw, The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship (London: SPCK, 1992) 42–45; R. Bultmann, “Bekenntnis- und Liedfragmente in ersten Petrusbrief,” Coniectanea Neotestamentica 11 (1947) 1–4; R. Deichgräber, Gotteshymnus und Christushymnus in der frühen Christenheit (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967); G. Delling, Worship in the New Testament (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1962); G. D. Fee, “Philippians 2:5–11: Hymn or Exalted Pauline Prose?” BBR 2 (1992) 29–46; A. J. Festugière, Personal Religion Among the Greeks (Berkeley: University of California, 1954); S. E. Fowl, The Story of Christ in the Ethics of Paul (Sheffield: Academic, 1990); H.-J. Gabathuler, Jesus Christus: Haupt der Kirche—Haupt der Welt (Zurich: Zwingli, 1965); W. H. Gloer, “Homologies and Hymns in the New Testament: Form, Content and Criteria for Identification,” PRS 11 (1984) 115–32; R. H. Gundry, “Form, Meaning and Background of the Hymn Quoted in 1 Timothy 3:16,” in Apostolic History and the Gospel, ed W. W. Gasque and R. P. Martin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970) 203–22; G. F. Hawthorne, Philippians (WBC 43; Waco, TX: Word, 1983); M. Hengel, “Hymn and Christology,” in Studia Biblica 1978 III: Papers on Paul and Other New Testament Authors, ed. E. A. Livingstone (JSNTSup 3; Sheffield: Academic, 1980) 173–97 [= idem, Between Jesus and Paul (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983) 78–96]); L. Hurtado, “Jesus as Lordly Example in Phil 2:5–11,” in From Jesus to Paul: Studies in Honour of Francis Wright Beare, ed. J. C. Hurd and G. P. Richardson (Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1984) 113–26; E. Käsemann, “A Critical Analysis of Phil 2:5–11,” in God and Christ: Existence and Providence, ed. R. W. Funk (New York: Harper and Row, 1968) 45–88; A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC 42; Dallas: Word, 1990); R. P. Martin, Carmen Christi: Phil.2:5–11 (rev. ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983); idem, Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon (Int; Louisville: Westminster, 1992); idem, “An Epistle in Search of a Life Setting,” ExpT 79 (1968) 296–302; idem, “Hymns in the New Testament: An Evolving Pattern of Worship Responses,” Ex Auditu 8 (1992) 33–44; idem, Philippians (NCB; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976); idem, Reconciliation: A Study of Paul’s Theology (rev. ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990); idem, “Some Reflections on New Testament Hymns,” in Christ the Lord, ed. H. H. Rowdon (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1982) 37–49; E. Norden, Agnostos Theos (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1956); M. Rissi, “Der Christushymnus in Phil 2, 6–11,” ANRW II.25.4 (1987) 3314–26; L. Ryken, The New Testament in Literary Criticism (New York: Ungar, 1984) 142–46; J. T. Sanders, The New Testament Christological Hymns (SNTSMS 15; Cambridge: University Press, 1971); M. Silva, Philippians (WEC; Chicago: Moody, 1989); E. Stauffer, New Testament Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1956); D. V. Way, The Lordship of Christ: Ernst Käsemann’s Interpretation of Paul’s Theology (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991) esp. 88–100.
R. P. Martin


Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin and Daniel G. Reid, Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, 421-22 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993).

To which one must add the Lukan hymns ...