The First Hymn (2025) Movie Script
We sing our hymn, amen.
Man, I love the energy.
When the vocals
start to layer,
particularly on that last
chorus, I think that's like,
Those guys are the hit
machine singer songwriters,
Chris Tomlin and Ben Fielding.
And that's not just any
song they're working on.
They're rearranging the
oldest Christian hymn
ever discovered, complete
with a nearly 2000 year old
lyric and melody.
It's ancient, it's in Greek,
and it's been buried
in Egypt a long time.
Our plan is to
bring it back to life.
We're on a historical
and musical journey
from the sands of Egypt
to America's music capital,
from Australian creative spaces
to English thinking spaces.
With the help of people who
know what they're talking about,
we'll be exploring sacred
songs and modern hits,
ancient history and
contemporary markets.
We'll learn from
time-honoured traditions
and state of the art production.
Our goal is to
give back to the world
a song the church hasn't
sung for almost two millennia.
This is The First Hymn project.
My name's John Dickson.
Now I'm a professor specialising
in the history of Christianity.
But before I was a nerd,
I was a wannabe musician,
touring and recording
full-time with my best mates
in a very 90s rock band.
You don't need the details.
All that to say,
I have both an academic
and a personal interest
in seeing this
ancient hymn resurrected.
Our story begins
in one of the most
ancient cities in the world.
Cairo is the modern-day
capital of Egypt.
It was officially founded
just a thousand years ago,
but at its edges are
the ruins of Memphis,
Egypt's ancient capital.
That part of the city
goes back 4,000 years
to the days of the pharaohs.
I love an old cafe and
this one takes the cake.
This is El-Fishawy in Cairo,
and it's been managed
by the same family since 1773.
That's when America was
still a British colony.
It's a small reminder of
just how old this country is.
The region has been
strategic for centuries,
partly because it's at the
juncture of the Nile Valley
and the Nile Delta.
That's upper Egypt in the south
and lower Egypt in the north,
where the mighty Nile River
concludes its 4,000 mile journey
at the Mediterranean Sea.
People have flocked here for
centuries, and they still do.
More than 20 million people
live in the
Cairo metro area today,
making it the Middle East's
demographic centre for Islam.
This is the Great
Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha,
a governor appointed
by the Ottoman Empire
to rule Egypt in
the early 19th century.
It's also called the Alabaster
Mosque, for obvious reasons.
Egypt has a long and
varied religious history,
but nowadays 90% of
the country is Muslim,
100 million worshippers.
But the country is also home
to one of the oldest
branches of Christianity.
Only about 10% of
Egyptians are Christians,
and most of them belong to the
very ancient Coptic Church.
St Mark's Cathedral is named
for St Mark the Evangelist,
the author of the Gospel of
Mark in the New Testament.
He was a companion of both
the Apostles Peter and Paul.
Church tradition says Mark
arrived in Alexandria from Rome
around the year 60 during
the reign of Emperor Nero,
who was no fan
of Christianity.
The oldest Christian school
or university that we know of
was established at least
as early as the year 180.
We even know the names and
still have some of the writings
of the heads of this school;
Pantanous, Clement and Origen.
These were all highly
trained philosophers
who converted to Christianity,
and in the face
of staunch opposition
from Roman authorities,
tried to demonstrate
that Jesus Christ
was the fulfilment
of everything
Greco-Roman
culture was longing for.
They had mixed success.
Roman authorities
found Christians in
this period really annoying,
not just because Christianity
was rapidly expanding,
but because Christians
refused to worship
the local Greek
and Roman gods,
and so they were
seen as culturally
subversive, even disloyal.
And sometimes this
annoyance spilled over
into actual violence.
We know of one
major riot here in Egypt
that resulted in the clubbing
to death of many Christians,
including the local
bishop named George.
They grabbed
George out of his church,
strapped him to a camel
and beat him to a pulp.
And then they set him on
fire, along with the camel.
Stories of early Christian
persecution and martyrdom
have sometimes been exaggerated,
but all historians agree
things reached a fever pitch
between Emperor Decius
in the year 250
and Emperor Diocletian in 303.
Many Christians,
both leaders and laypeople,
were executed in this period,
including here in Egypt.
One of Emperor Diocletian's
decrees targeted what he thought
was the key to Christian
growth: their writings,
"All Christian books",
he said,
"were to be seized and
destroyed".
This is an ancient
Christian codex,
the precursor to the book.
It's basically
papyrus leaves cut to
shape, sewn together,
and then bound in
something sturdy, like
these leather book covers.
The interesting thing is
we know that Christians
were the first to
popularise the book form
over the scrolls
we normally associate
with the ancient world.
And the reason
for this is that books
were far more transportable
than a box of scrolls.
And one thing we know about
Christians in this period,
they were constantly
on the move,
trying to transport
their faith and their
books to further lands.
And on one piece of
papyrus from this period,
we have a Christian hymn,
complete with musical notation.
We not only know
what Christians were
teaching in
these early centuries,
we know what
they were singing.
But for this,
we have to travel south.
Our destination is Oxyrhynchus,
about another 100 or
so kilometres from here.
And I don't deny,
I'm pretty excited.
For years, I've been
reading about this place
and the stuff they've found
there, and now I get to go.
It was a thriving
metropolis in Roman times,
but I'm preparing myself for
nothing but sun-baked ruins
and ancient rubbish dumps,
which I still quite like.
Oxyrhynchus has a long history,
stretching back to the
20th Pharaonic dynasty
of the New Kingdom
period, roughly 1100 BC.
The town was originally
known as Per-Medjed
At first, it was a
kind of military station
designed to protect
vital caravan routes.
Dr. Esther Pons
is the head of the
Department of
Egyptian Antiquities
and the Near East at Spain's
National Archaeological Museum.
Archaeologically speaking,
she's the boss here
and a wonderful host.
Alexander the Great
conquered Egypt in 332 BC.
It was a cultural
turning point,
transforming Egypt
and cities like this one
into thoroughly
Hellenistic or Greek domains.
Local Greek speakers call
this place Oxyrhynchopolis,
the city or polis of the
sharp-nosed fish,
the Oxyrhynchus.
And you can just make
out the little guy here.
Now, locals actually
worship this fish as a god,
and there are some
bizarre ancient myths
about what he got up to.
But it's not
exactly family-friendly,
so I'll leave
you to Google that.
The original city went
about two kilometres this way
and another two
kilometres that way.
Over 50,000
people once lived here,
making it the second-largest
city in Egypt at the time.
The population
enjoyed a fusion of
Greek language and learning,
combined with Egyptian
funeral rites and deities.
Sometime in the
second century,
Christians arrived here
with their strange notions,
not only that there's
just one god,
but that this god had entered
the world in a concrete way
in the life of a man from
Nazareth, 400 miles north.
And it remains one of the
mysteries of ancient history
that Christians without
any power or armies or wealth
were able to
persuade so many people
to abandon the
traditional gods,
Serapis, Osiris,
the long-nosed fish,
and worship Jesus Christ.
In the late Roman
Empire,
the so-called
Byzantine period,
a number of monasteries for
monks and nuns
were built
outside the city walls,
making Oxyrhynchus a
significant Christian centre.
All of that changed with
the Muslim conquest of Egypt
in the 640s AD.
It brought to an end
seven centuries of Roman rule.
Oxyrhynchus began to shrink,
and by the Middle Ages, it was
little more than a ruin.
The British
conquered Egypt in 1882,
partly motivated by
protecting their interests
in the shipping
lanes of the Suez Canal.
British control
paved the way for British
academics to research,
some would say to plunder,
Egypt's hidden treasures.
In 1897,
two Oxford scholars,
Bernard Grenfell
and Arthur Hunt,
decided to mount
an expedition to the
once great city
of Oxyrhynchus.
Grenfell and Hunt were
particularly interested
in finding papyri,
the basic writing material
of the Roman world.
So, the locals brought them
out here to the edge of town,
to the rubbish dumps.
Grenfell wasn't
super impressed.
In fact,
he wrote in his diary,
"My first impressions on
examining the site
were not very favourable.
"The rubbish mounds were
nothing but rubbish mounds."
He soon realised, though,
that he had chanced upon
the greatest discovery
of ancient texts ever.
Those first few scraps
of papyrus quickly revealed
an entire
discarded ancient archive.
"The flow of papyri soon became
a torrent," Grenfell wrote.
"Merely turning up the
soil with one's boot
would frequently
disclose a layer".
Hey, Siri,
what's the high today?
"The high temperature will
be 36 degrees Celsius today".
And it feels it.
This was the key to the
discovery of these documents.
Paper dies in the damp,
but it thrives in the
hot, dry conditions of Egypt.
I'm no fan of 100
degrees Fahrenheit,
but papyrus loves it.
Grenfell and
Hunt employed locals to
carefully store the papyri,
but they could hardly keep
pace with the rate of discovery,
and they were
running out of containers.
In the end,
they uncovered more than
half a million
scraps of papyri,
spanning the Greek,
Roman and Islamic periods.
This historical gold mine
included letters, contracts,
official records, plays,
poetry and philosophy,
as well as pages
of the New Testament.
It's impossible to overstate
how much the Oxyrhynchus papyri
have helped us understand
the ancient world.
Our focus is on just
one scrap of papyrus,
uncovered here in 1918.
It's not even a page, really,
it's just 30 centimetres
by 5 centimetres,
but it provides
amazing early evidence,
not only of the beliefs
and spread of Christianity,
but also of its music.
Oxyrhynchus is
the home of what we've
come to call The First Hymn,
the earliest Christian
song with musical notation.
Its Greek words
and melody sound strange
to our 21st century ear,
but the song
must have been popular
amongst Egypt's
early Christians.
It might have
been sung in people's
houses, in marketplaces
and, of course,
in churches like
this giant basilica,
built to hold 1,000 people.
The song hasn't been heard
around here for many centuries.
I thought I'd have a
go at bringing it home.
At the time,
Grenfell and Hunt
had little idea of
what they'd uncovered.
The fragment was
catalogued - number 1786 -
packed in a biscuit tin
alongside other papyri
and sent here to the
University of Oxford.
The University of
Oxford is one of the
oldest in the world.
It's been educating
English speakers
and Latin speakers before that
for over 900 years.
These lovely doorways were
once the actual entrances
to the various subjects
taught here at Oxford.
This, of course,
is the School of Logic.
And next door is the School
of Astronomy and Rhetoric,
which is a very weird
combination of subjects.
I love this
guy's face right here.
This is now the Bodleian
gift shop next time you're here.
And over here is the Schola
Musicae, the School of Music.
Now, Oxford's medieval
setting is our doorway
to something much,
much older,
to the first Christian
hymn with musical notation.
Scholars call
it Papyrus Oxyrhynchus,
catalog number 1786,
P. Oxy 1786.
Along with literally
thousands of other bits of paper
from the ancient
world, our P. Oxy 1786
is stored safely here
at the Sackler Library,
or more precisely, up in the
papyrology rooms of Level 1.
This is home to
the world's most
extensive collection
of ancient Greek papyri.
Although they recently
changed the name
to the Bodleian Art, Archaeology
and Ancient World Library,
because of
the billionaire Sackler
family's association with the
opioid crisis in the US.
The official
custodian of the papyri
is the
Egypt Exploration Society,
and their collections manager is
Dr. Stephanie Boonstra.
The fragments range from
about the late first century BC
up until the seventh century AD,
and we have information
about ancient cities,
about the people,
what they were doing,
but also of things
like their religion,
and it was a monastic city,
so we have this
Christian evidence as well.
And I think
I recognize this one.
Yes, yeah, this is one
that you'll probably know
a lot about as
well as your viewers.
So here we have
a few fragments of
New Testament fragments.
So here we have one that
was most recently published,
and it's a fragment
from the Gospel of Mark.
It's the opening
paragraph, isn't it?
Yes, yeah, it's Mark 1.
Pretty much a couple of
paragraphs.
Yeah, and so it's gotten a
lot of buzz in recent years.
It's one of the earliest
examples of a fragment
from the Gospel of Mark.
The New Testament
texts themselves,
some of which are among
the Oxyrhynchus papyri,
regularly refer to
the singing of songs.
The Gospels say Jesus and the
Apostles sang hymns together.
The letters of
Paul to the churches
urged the faithful to keep
singing and making music.
The words of P. Oxy 1786
provide a unique window
into the content of
ancient Christian singing.
And it wasn't all happy clappy.
This song is
actually a bit nerdy.
And what do we sing?
Patera, Huion, Hagion, Pneuma,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now, scholars often say
this line is of some interest,
and what
they mean is it's amazing.
This is the doctrine
of the Trinity,
the Christian
idea that the one God
is Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
And you sometimes
hear that that idea
was only invented much later,
say in 325 at
the Council of Nicaea
when Emperor Constantine
forced this
doctrine on the church.
But the thing is,
here's the idea in a song
from the previous century.
Eventually
as the church received
Israel's witness and Scripture,
and reflected
profoundly on the significance
of Jesus Christ,
his dying and rising,
his presence among us,
and the Spirit
poured out on all flesh,
they came to see that this
was the life of Trinity
turned toward the world.
Katherine Sonderegger
was educated
at Yale and Brown Universities,
and is now one of the
most celebrated names
in that strange
field known as Theology.
Okay, let's talk about Trinity.
Can you give me the dummies
guide to what is the Trinity?
Trinity is eternally
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
even if there were no cosmos,
a God would be the living God
who offers himself in the Word
and receives that
Word back in the Spirit.
That would be true of
God's life regardless.
Wouldn't it have been
simpler for the early Christians
just to go down
the Greco-Roman path
and say that the Trinity is
really three different gods,
or maybe three manifestations
of the one God?
It would be possible
to look at the relation
between the emperor
and the junior emperors,
and get an idea that there
is a high God, the Father,
and then these
subordinate Caesars,
but only a doctrine that
saw all of these elements
as one and as fully
God actually captured
what it means to say
God is the living God.
The New
Testament didn't begin
with an abstract
concept of deity,
or even the Greco-Roman deity,
and say Jesus is like that.
What they actually did
is say Jesus was like
the one God of Israel.
Esau McCaulley says the
first Jewish Christians
didn't see Jesus as another God,
but somehow as the
God of Israel in person.
And so what you see then
is not the Jewish Christians
saying, "Oh,
Jesus is like Zeus."
They're saying that somehow
within the one divine identity,
you have the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I can give you an example.
There's this passage in
1 Corinthians 8, verse 6,
where it has the Shema.
Shema is one of the most holy
passages for the Israelites.
"Hear, O Israel, the
Lord your God is one."
And you should worship
the Lord your God only.
And so, one God,
that was it.
But when Paul
quotes it, he says,
"You might have
many gods, but for us,
there's one God the Father
and one Lord Jesus Christ."
It's clear
Christians were
reflecting on the Trinity
and singing about it
long before the concepts
were formalized in
the famous Nicene Creed.
Here's how
the hymn in part puts it,
"Let all be silent,
shining stars not sound,
as we sing our hymn to the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
the only giver of all good
gifts. Amen."
But what adds to the
interest in P.Oxy 1786
is that it contains
more than words.
You can see these little
squiggles above the words.
That's ancient
Greek musical notation.
It tells us
the melody of the hymn.
And what's so fun about this
is that the tune
isn't the stodgy stuff
we often associate
with chanting monks.
It's pop music.
It's the kind of
melody you'd expect to hear
at an ancient Greek pub or at
some theater performance.
Whoever composed this song
was trying to take
serious Christian ideas
and give them to the masses.
This is not just theology,
it's public Christianity.
As far as we know,
there was music everywhere,
just as there
is in today's world.
The main musical
fragments that have survived
relate to such things
as music in theater,
so music of tragedy.
There's something
called a skolion,
which is a drinking song
with an epicurean theme,
"Live Now Because We All Die."
There's music from
performances
that might have taken place
in large-scale
open-air theaters,
but also stuff that might have
been sung in smaller venues.
Armand D'Angour
is a world authority
on the music, text, and
culture of ancient Greece.
Now you've had a chance
to look at our P.Oxy 1786.
How does it compare melodically
to other bits and pieces
of music we've found?
Interestingly, I think
it shows very clearly
the influence of
Greek musical tradition
going back all
the way to the earliest
document that we have.
And the Christian hymn
is a remarkable discovery
because it's the only
Christian piece of music
using the ancient
pagan notation.
More recently, scholars
have recognized that
it isn't really any different
from that earlier music
in terms of the way it
uses the melodic structures.
The writer of this
first hymn seems to have had
one eye on pagan,
that's Greco-Roman,
religion and culture.
One of the lines
contains not just a
straightforward piece
of Christian teaching,
but what looks
like a bold comparison
between Greek gods
and the Holy Trinity.
My favourite bit
is here at the end.
We sort of lose
the words over here,
so it's a bit of guesswork
knowing what was there.
And then we can just make
out the top of the words
to "the only giver
of all good gifts",
Panton Agathon.
God is described as
the great gift giver.
And with that theme,
the hymn ends in
good Christian fashion
with the words, "Amen, amen".
Which is a way of saying,
"we really believe this".
Experts have pointed out
the expression "giver of gifts"
was a stock description
of a god like Zeus,
the chief of the gods whom
the Romans called Jupiter.
Our Christian hymn
calls this into question.
The one true God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
is said to be the only
giver of all good gifts.
It's confident,
even a little cheeky.
Love it or hate it,
Jews and Christians
have always said
there's one God and he's Lord of
everywhere and everyone.
P.Oxy 1786 is a musical
rendition of this same idea.
So we've set
ourselves a challenge.
As interesting
as the history is,
our hope is to go
beyond the ancient,
to see if we can
replicate here and now
what those early Christians
were trying to achieve
through this song.
Well, if architecture is
for admiring,
food and wine for tasting,
songs are for singing.
We've talked to the ancient
experts about P.Oxy 1786,
but if we wanna resurrect
this hymn for a new audience,
we've gotta talk to a
couple of my friends,
some of the most accomplished
Christian songwriters
in the world today.
Our first stop is
my hometown of Sydney.
I managed to grab
some time with friend
and musician, Ben Fielding.
Ben and his co-writer,
Brooke Ligertwood,
won a Grammy for
their 2018 song
What a Beautiful Name.
If you've ventured into
a church in the last few years,
there's a pretty good chance
you've heard it.
Then there's the gold record
making song, This I Believe,
where Ben took
The Apostles' Creed,
an ancient statement of
Christian belief,
and turned it into
a cracking song.
Last time I checked, it had
more than 130 million plays
just on Spotify.
Ben didn't need much
convincing to help us bring
the first hymn back to life.
I fired off the lyrics
and some of my
singing to inspire him.
Hopefully.
It seems Ben was
sold on the project
without my powers
of persuasion.
Mate, this is such
an exciting project.
Anybody that I mention it to,
they're fascinated
by this idea that,
that firstly,
the hymn's been discovered,
and then the idea of
bringing it back to life.
I think, of course,
everybody always says,
"What happens if
the song's no good?"
I can't get away from that.
That's every single person.
But I think that
there's still just something
in the journey of
bringing this back to life.
Ben's been thinking his
way
through the original melody.
He reckons songwriters,
whether ancient or modern,
face similar challenges.
The melody
range is quite narrow.
Rhythmically, it's not
too complicated or complex.
You can imagine a lot of people.
What about the little
trills over the Amen's, though?
- Well, those are cool.
- They are so cool.
Yeah.
But I imagine
ancient congregations
trying to pull that off,
because you wouldn't
have that kind of trill
in a modern hymn.
Have you ever
put a trill like that?
I haven't.
I know that there's some
more elaborate melodies that,
and sometimes you gotta be
careful that you don't dumb down
a melody too much,
and you just
assume no one can sing it,
because I think if
it's well-structured
and it is memorable,
people go along to a
concert from
their favorite artist
and sing along to
stuff that's quite complex.
And I think if it's memorable,
that you can
get away with a lot.
Thankfully, Ben's
already brimming with ideas.
Let everything
that has breath
Come and praise Him
Praise Him
Praise to the Father
To the Son and the Spirit
Let everything
And then you could kind of
build off something like that.
It often happens
with writers,
whether composers or authors,
a passing thought
suddenly leaps out.
I'd love to find
an Egyptian singer.
Yeah.
Can you imagine if we
can find an Egyptian singer
who can do, like maybe,
a little, amen at
different points through.
It could be really haunting.
Well, and to get that
trill sounding authentic.
We'll come back
to that idea.
For now,
we need a collaborator.
Ben put me in touch with
American singer-songwriter,
Chris Tomlin.
I was excited.
Chris has sold
over 12 million records,
and he has over 7
billion streams to his name.
He's a Grammy winner
with over 30 top 10 hits.
It's estimated
that 30 million people
sing Chris's music in
churches every week.
Time magazine
described him as,
"potentially the most often
sung artist in the world".
I love the idea that you
might wanna be involved
with this, Chris.
I love it.
- Oh yeah.
I mean, Ben, you know,
I've known Ben a while,
and I just,
I really trust his writing,
and I trust his heart.
And when he
mentioned your name,
and then I remembered all
the songs you've written,
I thought, oh my goodness,
this could be
very, very special.
Yeah, what a moment.
What an opportunity.
Just incredible.
I am so honored to
be brought into this.
Thank you, Ben,
for reaching out.
Thank you, John, for saying,
"okay, let's do this",
because I love it.
If we can somehow,
sorry, let me correct myself.
If you guys can somehow
bring a beautiful melody
that honors this ancient melody,
and honors,
obviously, the words,
you know, some anonymous
theologian put together,
what a gift this will be to
the church to sing this again.
And that's kind of
what we're trying to do,
is go like, could
the people of God today
join the people of God
back in the, you know,
the second, third century,
in these really early
formative stages of the church?
Could we sing that same hymn?
I'd already sent Chris
an image of P. Oxy 1786,
with my translation of
the hymn. He had questions.
Is that the whole of the song,
or is that just
a piece that was found?
It's all we've got,
that's all we've got,
because, you know,
I sent you a photo of the
manuscript, right?
That is literally
all we've got.
Yeah, so sadly,
there's no more.
I mean, in terms
of songwriting,
you guys have to
honor these words,
but come up
with some other ones.
We can't just slap
an English translation
onto an ancient Greek tune.
With all due respect to
the original composer,
the melody is a little
weird to the modern ear.
We have to find
a fresh way forward.
John, is your vision that
we try to stay right
there with that,
so we're really singing like we
were 1800 years ago,
I don't know.
No way, no, I wanna
hear a song that's like,
the kind of anthemic
song you both have written,
that's got a pop sensibility
with a hymnic gravitas.
It's a balancing
act, a creative puzzle,
and we need both these musical
brains to make it happen.
I'm really open to
messing with whatever,
like I'll send
you what I've got,
and then we can start again.
Yeah, send me what you got.
I just think
there's anything in there.
I mean, I was
like looking around,
I was kind of
writing some things today,
as I was thinking about
this, just some thoughts down,
so I look forward to like
maybe hearing what you have
and see if it is kind of
matching what I was thinking.
It'd be interesting.
I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to go.
Ben, send that to me.
I'm ready, I'm ready to go.
Cool.
Ben and Chris have
their work cut out for them.
We'll leave them to it.
We have other puzzles to solve.
Musically,
the first hymn isn't what
we've come to expect
from sacred music.
Christian hymns like
this one have been sung
for a mere 280 years.
Do we know how far back
Christians were singing
and writing songs?
Well, that's probably one of
the easiest questions to answer
because we actually have songs,
to Jesus in the New Testament.
We have Philippians chapter 2,
verses 6-11, which is a hymn.
There's another one in
Colossians 1:15 - 20,
another hymn to Jesus.
And so the easiest way to
answer that question is,
we know there's a lot of
hymns that the Christians sung
because they're
hymns in the Bible,
the Christian that we have as
a part of our ongoing record.
Sadly, the musical notation
didn't also get passed down
with the manuscript.
Exactly. Anytime you
have a poem
or anything that's translated
into English, some of
the rhythm and the things
that mark it out as
poetry and as music are lost.
But it's pretty clear to
anyone who takes a close look
at those passages and
maybe 1 Corinthians 13,
it was poetic about love.
You have this reality,
the early Christians
were creating art
related to the person of
Jesus in particular,
and a praise and worship of him
that speaks a lot about
his divinity.
The first
Christians were all Jews,
and we know
Jews were monotheists.
- They believed in just one God.
- Yes
So my question is, were
the Christians departing
from their Jewish
roots in saying that
Jesus was somehow also God?
Well, I don't think so.
One of the things that
often you can
discover in a text
are the things
that people fought about.
And so you can tell
by reading the text of
the New Testament, there's
a lot of fights about the law.
Christians were
trying to figure out,
should I keep the Torah or
should I not keep the Torah?
There was a lot of fights
about the place of the Gentiles,
how the Gentiles
and Jews lived together.
There's a lot of fights, a lot
of discussion about ethics,
how do we live
together as Christians?
You know what you don't
see them fighting about
a lot in the New Testament?
The divinity of Jesus.
It actually seemed to be
something that, in other words,
you never hear Paul having to
argue Jesus is actually divine.
He usually assumes it for most
cases throughout his letters.
You see the exact same
thing by the time you get
to the Gospel of John,
they're not fighting about it.
You see it narrated
in the synoptics.
And so it seems to be the
case that pretty early on,
the Christians
began to think about Jesus
and the Spirit as divine.
So it shouldn't
surprise us that the Christians
behind P. Oxy 1786
would sing about God
as the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
It seems from the beginning,
the most important ideas
weren't just proclaimed and
written down, they were sung.
Our modern idea of the
Christian hymn has more to do
with early modern Europe
than the ancient Roman Empire.
During the 16th century,
the so-called Protestants,
who got their name from
protesting what they saw
as certain church excesses,
split from the Catholic church.
Whatever else we might
make of the tumultuous events
of this Reformation period,
it resulted in
a lot of new songs.
Some groups,
and I won't name names,
said we should only sing
the very words of scripture,
particularly the Old
Testament book of Psalms,
which was kind of the
ancient Israelite songbook.
Anything else they said was
unbiblical and unacceptable.
Other groups were a little
more relaxed and creative.
They said, so long
as our words reflect
the general truth
of the Bible,
we're free to explore the
joys of melody and creativity.
And the result was an
explosion of Christian hymns.
Wherever the
Christian faith is gone,
people are singing.
There's an organization called
Wycliffe Bible Translators
that has emphasized
in recent years,
ethno-musicology,
and have found that
when the Bible is
translated into a new language
that perhaps it had not
even been written before,
there is some interest, some
enthusiasm, some excitement.
But when that same
text, the Bible translated
into a new language,
is set to music,
there is much greater resonance
and much deeper appreciation.
And that worldwide phenomenon
has been true in the West.
So Western Christian
history is at the same time
a history of music and
a history of hymnody.
There's such a back catalog of
hymns through the centuries.
Do we need any more?
The answer is definitely yes,
with a couple of qualifications.
Hymns are designed
to express truths,
but also to ground
those truths in emotions,
to make them memorable.
If there are not
new hymns being written
that reflect the needs,
the desires, the outlook,
the standpoint of the
present, then the churches
will be antiquarian
and will have nothing
to say to
the world around them.
Chris and Ben
have been hard at work
creating a new first hymn
from the building
blocks of the original.
From these small beginnings,
Chris and Ben went into
their own creative wonderland.
Meanwhile, we've
come to Chicago
to talk to someone
I've admired ever since
I first came across
P. Oxy 1786.
The first hymn
uses a kind of music
that is very
familiar to Westerners.
It's diatonic music.
And all that means is it's
made out of the whole steps
and the half steps
that our music is made of.
When you go to a piano, if
you play keys on the piano
in a row, you're playing
whole steps and half steps.
And our scales are made out of
combinations of those.
Charles Cosgrove is a
kind of triple threat
of classical education,
expert linguist,
historian, and musician.
And he literally wrote
the book on P. Oxy 1786.
Perhaps strangely
to the modern ear,
the original
lyrics of the first hymn
tell all creation
to be silent.
The beginning of this is
the Greek cultic concern
that when a cultic
act was being performed,
someone might say an
inauspicious word
that offended the god.
And so there would
be a call to silence
or to watch your tongue.
And then that call to
silence would start the ritual.
So silence falls, and then
the ritual could begin
with prayers and maybe
a hymn and so forth.
And in the hymns,
it often announces
that the god is
approaching the temple.
And so "Fall Silent
as a God Approaches"
and then the boys
choir will sing the god.
It seems our ancient
Christian songwriter
knew his Greco-Roman
context well.
Was he trying to make his pagan
contemporaries comfortable
before offering his
controversial message?
My favorite
line is the last one,
that God is "the only
giver of all good gifts".
Am I right
that Zeus was actually
said to be the
giver of good gifts?
But here the author of
this song is saying that
God is the only
giver of all good gifts.
So what is
the songwriter doing?
Is this just copying?
Is he being critical?
Is he evangelizing or what?
Yes, well, the hymnwriter
is doing two things.
One is to speak
in a neoclassical way
by taking up the language
of a venerable tradition
and dignifying the hymn
and God with this language.
At the same time,
the hymnwriter is asserting
that Christian idea
that only one God
gives all the good things,
not many gods.
Ben and Chris
have been hard at work,
and the first hymn project
has made its way to Nashville.
Nashville is the
mecca of Christian music
to mix my religions.
It's home to
a baffling number of
Christian music
publishing houses,
record labels and
production companies.
This is where big names in
the Christian music industry,
like Amy Grant, Michael
W Smith, got their break.
But it's also the home
of more recent artists
like Lauren Daigle
and Anne Wilson.
And Nashville is the
home of the Dove Awards.
They're not quite
the Grammys,
but in the US,
a very big deal.
So this feels like
the perfect place to
try and revive P. Oxy 1786.
Chris Tomlin
invited us to The Barn,
his writing and rehearsal
space just outside Nashville.
The plan was to lock these
guys in a room for a few days
and let them hash
out their best ideas
for the new first hymn.
- John!
- I like this. Can I have one?
Can I have one?
- You can.
Hey, buddy.
Wow, nice to
meet you in the flesh.
- I know. Good to see you.
- And my friend. Wow.
Good to see you.
So this is happening?
- Yeah, it's happening.
- It's on.
Right.
Some pleasantries,
admiring their awesome
writing space,
and then it's
down to business.
How do you feel it's been going?
You should probably ask Chris.
I feel like
it's been going well,
but Chris might be
seething in the background.
How did I get into this?
No, absolutely. It's
been really beautiful.
I love working with Ben.
We've worked a little bit
together over the years.
And so, you know,
going back and forth
through from Australia to
Tennessee, it's been wonderful.
I really enjoyed it because
we'll just how about this idea
and send it and
then I'll wait for him to
wake up eight hours later.
And then by
the time I'm asleep,
I wake up and
there's something else,
you know, because
the time changes.
And so it's just been beautiful.
OK. And then it gives it's
been an interesting process
because it just kind of
gives me the day
to think through it and then.
And to delete
anything you don't like.
I shouldn't have said that.
- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And then I and
then I send back to him
and just us just talking about
how do we really capture this
in the best way we can.
These beautiful, beautiful
words and these ancient words.
And it's just such a
I feel such responsibility too.
- Yeah
- Massive.
I mean, this there's this
is not just another lyric.
This is so special.
And so I've
really, really loved it.
What's the difficulty
involved?
Like, what have
you found hard about it?
The only thing
I've found hard is
I just second guess myself.
Is this good enough?
Is this good enough?
Yeah, that's a
huge part of it.
You know, because it's your.
But is that the same
with every song you write?
No, but this feels
different because it's
like you're just you're holding
something that's
it's already been.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
It's already been sung.
It's already been.
And you're like,
I know you want to.
But obviously
you want to bring it into
this this time period and this
this generation.
And so you're like, am I do
are we doing are we
holding this the right way?
- And the responsibility to
try to capture what it was that
unified the church
way back then
and to be able to
take those elements,
but try to modernize them
and thinking about, well,
what would a chorus be like?
You know, would that ancient
hymn have even had a chorus?.
But I think in the modern
version of the hymn, it would.
So trying to work out where to
put emphasis in the song.
- Yes
- All of that
is just kind of like it -
it's the challenge of taking
something that was
and making it
something that is now.
But I couldn't think
of anybody I prefer to
be doing this with than Chris.
And when you got involved, just
the enthusiasm that just
got breathed into this
was just fantastic.
And so I was blown away.
Chris is like firing messages.
I'm trying to keep up
and like fire back.
It's like it was
a really sweet kind of
part of the process.
To kind of wake
up and find like,
you know, three or four
different kind of verses
and just keep that
creativity going on the song.
I think I think
it's been really special.
Now, you need to
understand that I had
no idea just how
much these guys had been
working together online.
So nothing prepared
me for what came next.
The question is,
how long 'till you think
you've got a full song?
- OK
- A complete song.
So we got we got a little
bit of a surprise for you.
And that is we think
we finished the song.
What?!
Yeah, it
happened so fast.
How did that happen?
I don't know. I mean, I've
written lots of songs,
Ben's written
lots of songs and rarely
do they just...
I think it was the lyric
was so much there that
just several times
back and forth,
like this feels
really, really special.
So we'd love to
play it for you.
Oh, man.
- Yeah.
- OK.
Now I've got shivers.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
The rushing rivers still
Let the mountains bow down
In awe and wonder
In reverence we come
Who is worthy of all
worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
All powers cry out
in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God, the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit
Amen
We sing, Amen
Let all be silent
I was stunned.
Not just because they
secretly finished the song,
but because even in
its raw form,
I could hear how masterfully
they'd revived the message
and the mood of the first hymn.
Wow, that is a gorgeous tune.
And the lyrics are virtually
the definition of classic.
But what makes
a good worship song?
A song designed to be
sung by millions of people
around the world in church?
I suppose it has to be
singable by regular humans.
And it also has to capture
the head and the heart.
But what would I know?
I wanted to find
out more about how this
mysterious world of contemporary
Christian music works.
A great worship song
is one that
articulates the heart
of every worshipper
and directs their
attention to God.
In 2024, Christian
contemporary music
was the fourth fastest
growing genre in the world,
up 60 percent over
the last five years.
Labels like
Capital CMG, Centricity,
Hillsong Worship and Integrity
preside over
a market that now accounts
for more internet
streams than jazz
and classical music combined.
The thing about
a song is that,
especially one you enter into,
it's one that you're
giving yourself over to and
you're participating in
the song and
what the song says.
And so the context
of the song and in the
direction that it
takes your heart
and your mind is really
important.
And so to have
an accurate theology,
a good understanding of
who God is, of the work of
Jesus on the cross,
all of these things,
they actually
actually do matter.
Do you think
Christian music has anything
to offer people who don't know
what to make of Christianity?
To the wider world?
- It certainly should.
But part of the issue,
the historic issue with
why it doesn't often is that
it isn't always believable.
We only tend to write in like
superlative and hyperbole
about God answering all of my
you know, answering all my
prayer, meeting all my needs.
And it's and that's a
really foreign concept
to somebody who
isn't a person of faith
or raised within the church.
The first hymn was
lost to the world for centuries
and rediscovered
100 years ago.
Experts have
studied its musical and
historical
significance for decades.
For the last
two years, we've been
working to give
it back to the world.
I don't know what
the original composer
would think of what
we're doing,
but it's time to lay this thing
down again for posterity.
Dark Horse Studios, nestled in
the countryside outside
beautiful Franklin, Tennessee.
This is where
songs by Hunter Hayes,
Keith Urban and
Taylor Swift were recorded.
Now it's the first hymn's turn.
Hey! It's been a long time.
And this is where
we meet Jonathan Smith,
the two time Grammy
multi Dove Award winning
songwriter and producer.
He'll be shepherding
us through this
crucial stage of
reviving the first hymn.
And then we don't
have to be bound by that.
Yeah.
Here. We. Go.
To the only
giver of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God
to the risen king
To the one
who died and rose again
Amen.
We sing Amen
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God
The Father, Son and
Holy Spirit
Amen, we sing Amen
So that's it.
Job done.
Save file, send to Spotify.
Not really.
The first hymn
project was never about
just resurrecting
an ancient song.
It's about giving
that song back to
a new generation of
believers and doubters.
And for that,
we need a lot more help.
Greek speaking Egyptians first
composed and sang this tribute
to the only giver of all
good gifts.
So it only seems right to ask
a descendant of these ancient
people to help us put the
finishing touches on the hymn.
This is Music City Walk of Fame.
It's pretty
cool, but it's not where
we're going to find
what I'm looking for.
From the beginning
of this project,
I had the crazy idea of
bringing the song full
circle by including
an Egyptian singer,
someone who can capture
the feel of the place
where this hymn
was first sung
and then lost
and then found again.
And you know what?
Nashville has
given us that as well.
The Coptic Orthodox Church
in America is
a branch of one of
the oldest continuously
existing churches in the world.
The first Copts,
as they're called,
arrived in the US in the 1940s.
They were foreign
students who brought
their ancient ways with them.
Today, there are
several hundred churches here
and all of them are committed
to preserving their heritage,
including their music.
Katy Fayck Eskander
is a native Egyptian
and the choir director
at St Mary's Coptic Church
in Nashville.
She's recorded five
studio albums and 25 singles.
And every week she helps keep
alive her ancient tradition.
- Hey, I'm John.
- Nice to meet you.
We are thrilled
to have you on board.
Thank you so much.
We've come to speak
with Katy on the morning of her
recording session for
the new first hymn.
I'm nervous.
I don't know how she's feeling.
What drew you to
sing worship songs,
not just performance music?
The first part was the
genetic part from my mom.
She has amazing voice.
And the second part was my dad.
When I was three years old,
he kept teaching me Coptic music
and Coptic songs
and recorded it.
Then he let me
listen to my voice.
"This is your voice. You have a
good voice. Keep doing it".
The magic word here
is the relationship
between you and God.
I feel like
this is a gift from God.
My voice is a gift from God.
And the only person
deserves it is Him.
So if I like to
enjoy that, the amazing gift,
I would enjoy it with him.
So I feel like
I'm praying in my way.
- Jonathan, how are you?
- I'm good. How's Australia?
It's beautiful.
It's always beautiful.
Chris and Ben have
already given Jonathan
a good idea of what they hope
Katy can bring to the song.
So what are you thinking?
I know we've
talked about maybe having
that sort of at
the top of the song.
Like, how are you hearing it?
I think starting the song
with that motif,
with her singing it
is what's going to
really set the tone that
this song isn't
like any normal song, right?
Like it's not,
it's going to instantly
sort of give it an ancient feel.
Western music usually
operates with just 12 notes.
C, C sharp, D,
D sharp, E, F and so on.
Middle Eastern music,
Arabic, Coptic and so on,
has 24 notes made up of
microtones.
Very subtle pitches between the
traditional Western notes.
The result is a melodic
wonderland rich in emotion.
It doesn't take long before Katy
transports us to another
time and another place
to centuries ago in Egypt.
- Wow.
- Yes, fantastic.
That "all powers
cry out in answer."
The line you do
there is like, wow.
And all be silent
Back when music
was pretty much my life,
I loved and hated
the recording studio.
I mean, when you play live,
little mistakes,
they don't matter so much.
A wrongly placed finger here,
a slightly off note there,
and you can just call it jazz
and hardly anyone notices.
But here it's different.
In the studio, your performance
over and over and over
eventually has to be perfect.
All the while
trying to maintain the
sense of creative energy.
And that's why
you need a good producer.
I think of producers a bit like
Michelangelo, you know,
technically precise
and artistically brilliant,
and they can often
see the finished product
from the beginning.
I mean, a good
producer can hear what
a song really
wants to sound like
even better than
the original composers.
I know what moves my spirit
and what moves me.
And that's really the only
compass that I know to have.
And so I do think
as you as you work
and as you get experience,
your instincts get honed in
and you know what
you tend to love.
You trust that
there's going to be
other people out there
that love it.
Producers know exactly
what each instrument can
bring to a piece
and how to bring out the
best in every musician.
They guide the arrangement
and the performance.
And once it's all
recorded, they select,
arrange and layer the
dozens and dozens of
individual tracks
to fashion a coherent whole.
What did you put in
there to make that happen?
So I added that same
guitar part right here.
With some effects on it
like these right here.
Some pretty wide stereo
reverbs and things like that.
And so that was that was
what I started with
and then even added
some what I would call
kind of a world
sounds and rhythms
like this right here
to go along with it.
Again, just to put,
I want those
musicians first time they
hear it to be OK, this is not,
this song did not
come out of Nashville.
I want them to know
this is a an ancient thing.
And so even these banging
on a banjo and guitar.
- Huh, Yeah
- Yeah.
- Oh, that's gorgeous.
- Yeah. And so you play this.
And then what they're
So they're thinking world
music?
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
And you know what
I'm telling them is, hey,
I want you to still do the
thing that you do and do well,
but I want you to feel sort of
the heartbeat of the
song and not be guessing.
Just picture it's
going to sound like this,
you know, when it's all done.
So sometimes I'll
start with those sort of
more stylized things first.
I'm in awe of the
way a producer like Jonathan
can snatch one of those layers,
move it to the front
of the soundscape and change
the whole mood of the song.
Oh, yeah, no, this is this
is one of my favorite bits.
- Yeah.
- This was I saw this happen.
Like I remember
thinking, oh, man, he's
just replicated
the ancient melody.
Yeah. So we had originally
we had him playing over
the very beginning of the song.
Because we knew we
wanted that melody, right?
And so we weren't
exactly sure in the moment,
you know, is it going
to be a guitar?
Is it a piano? Is it a vocal?
Let's just get it all down.
And then sort of in the
editing process, we will decide.
So I think this was kind of
the first thing he played.
Kind of played
through the whole song.
Just beautiful tone.
But I think the moment that it
really counts would be this
section between the second
chorus and the bridge.
- Yeah.
- I'll solo it.
We can kind of hear
what he's doing, but.
Yeah
- Yeah, this is basically
the "amen, amen".
And everything
altogether comes in.
Yeah, so that's so good.
It's very like
an arrival moment.
It's a hook we've heard from the
beginning, a softer version.
And then that's more
of a triumphant version.
And how are
you feeling about this song?
I feel the most
excited about it.
I just cannot wait for
people to hear this song.
And the final
destination for all this?
Well, it'll be on
Chris Tomlin's next album,
which might already be out by
the time you're watching this.
But stay with us
and you'll hear
all these layers come
together beautifully
in a new version
of the first hymn.
And while all
this has been going on,
we've been getting ready
for something very special.
You know, it's
interesting.
1860, the school was founded,
started with eight faculty
members.
And one of those was a
professor of sacred music.
So from the very beginning,
the humble beginnings
of the institution,
music at the at the heart of
things,
not that surprising.
When you think about the musical
propensity of human beings,
music found in
every known culture,
music ubiquitous in our world
and so important
to human flourishing.
People, it turns
out, want to make music.
Wheaton College
was established in 1860
by abolitionist church leaders.
It was a well-known stop on the
famous Underground Railway.
Its main mission
today is to provide a
classic liberal arts education,
integrating
science, music, history,
literature and
the Christian faith.
This is also where I teach
the history of Christianity
and what we can
learn from the good
and the bad of the past.
The first hymn is
definitely part of the good.
Why is Wheaton College involved
in this first hymn project?
I mean, apart from the fact
that I just wandered over
one day to your office
and sprung the idea on you?
Well, I'm sure
you recall we were both
very enthused
about the whole thing.
What a compelling
story that we would link
with this writer of this music
so, so many years ago,
that we would join hands
with those
who sang this first hymn.
And now, so many
years later,
resonating with
the message, the music.
When the team at
the conservatory heard
about the first hymn project,
they were keen to
see the song brought
back to life in
multiple musical formats.
I think this is
such a mysterious and honourable
project and
our students and faculty
have really seized this story.
Which is why
these guys are here.
They're working on a classical
rendition of the first hymn,
both the Tomlin/Fielding version
and the original Greek one.
I am honoured
to be a part of it.
I love surprises.
And this is a complete surprise.
So I count it a privilege.
Dr Tony Payne is the
creative mind
behind the new arrangement.
It's really
another worldly kind of
experience to reach back
into hymnody
that wasn't notated
like we notate
and didn't have the form and
structure
like we have today in
a typical hymn
or Christian song.
And so I struggled
with it a bit.
It's like a gift that
comes in a time capsule
and we're suddenly confronting
it for the first time.
And I find
it really captivating.
I had a go at
singing the Greek original
in the ruins of Oxyrhynchus.
It was special,
but I'm pretty sure
this is how it's
really meant to sound.
They say music
can transport the soul.
I reckon I just visited
Roman Egypt in the 200s.
How I wish we could now bring
the original composer here
to watch what we're about
to do to the first hymn.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
Rushing rivers.....
Tony is the kind
of musical scholar
that speaks multiple
musical languages.
He tells me
he just loves what Chris
and Ben's melody is saying.
You tend to
have thirds like this.
That's what our ear expects.
But in this newer
language that we're enjoying
and learning about.
So there it is just hanging.
And I don't think there
could be a more powerful use
of that suspended harmony
as the technical term for it.
Because normally we
might expect to hear this.
But that's not there.
But then you look at the text
and you realize it makes
all the sense in the world.
Let all be silent.
Shining stars not sound.
The thought of the stars
being silent is really powerful.
Amen we sing
Amen
Amen we sing
Amen
The big day approaches.
Chris and Ben have chosen Fort
Worth, Texas for the concert
that officially hands the first
hymn back to the world.
We've still got a bit of time.
And there's one more
person I wanted to speak to
about how this
whole project relates
to the broader
story of sacred music.
And I think
people remember
songs more than they
remember sermons.
And in that time, especially
when not everybody was reading,
there were not books everywhere.
So the words of the
songs would be some things
that will stay
deep in their memories.
We know from my own research,
how missionaries when they
arrive in different places,
new places, they were
very concerned
about publishing some kind of
collection of songs
because once they were gone,
until the next
preacher would come around,
the community could
hold on to those words
and remember what
they were by singing.
From the first
century to the 21st century,
Christians haven't just
preached their message
about the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
They've sung it,
inviting everyone,
whether believer or doubter,
whether in Oxyrhynchus or Texas,
to consider singing along.
I think so.
I think music is very powerful
and it moves
emotions and sometimes,
I think it's interesting.
We have eyelids,
but we don't have earlids.
So sometimes
we may hear something,
even if you are not
planning on, that's different.
We can always turn our
face and not see something,
but we can sometimes not take
a while for us not to listen.
And I think it's interesting.
I have heard stories of people
that they were just
attracted by the sound
and then they join in
and then they understand,
oh, this is what they're saying.
And people that have
told me in their own lives,
how they still remember
that was that one line
from that song
and they didn't understand
anything about doctrine,
about church, what's a
Protestant, what's a Baptist,
but that message of
the song spoke to me.
One reason thoughtful
people are put off
by this Christian message today
is the sheer
number of church brands.
With an estimated 3000
denominations worldwide,
it's no surprise that
people ask the question,
which version of Christianity?
That's what's so
special about the first hymn.
It was composed before
there were denominations.
It captures
the heart of Christianity
before there was Roman Catholic,
Greek Orthodox, or Protestant.
And Chris and Ben
have worked really hard
to highlight that core
so that all the brands
of Christianity today
can sing the new first hymn.
Well, it's now
time to test that idea.
And have we got
the crowd to do it.
There's over
10,000 people here tonight.
It's completely sold out.
When I was a musician, I
only ever played venues
about a 10th the size
of this on a good night,
but I remember
the feeling backstage
as the audience
filled the venue.
I wonder how Chris
and Ben are feeling.
Brings out both
new and old things
out of his treasure chest.
This is the climax of
an extraordinary journey.
We have traced the
rediscovery of P. Oxy 1786,
uncovered the significance of
the first hymn
with musical notation,
and witnessed master
musicians transform it
into a stunning
21st century anthem.
After two years of work,
we're ready to return the song
to its rightful place
on the lips of thousands.
The last time it was sung
was probably 1,800 years ago.
And we will sing it tonight
for the very first time.
And now, the
resurrected first hymn in full.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
The rushing rivers still
Let the mountains bow down
In awe and wonder
In reverence we come
Who is worthy
of all worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen, we sing amen.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
The rushing rivers still
The mountains bow down
In awe and wonder
In reverence we come
Who is worthy
of all worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
Who is worthy
of all worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen, we sing amen.
To the only
giver of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God
to the risen King
To the one who died
and rose again
Amen, we sing amen.
To the only
giver of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God
to the risen King
To the one
who died and rose again
Amen, we sing amen.
All power's
cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen, we sing amen
Amen.
Amen, we sing amen
Amen.
We sing our hymn, amen.
At the end
of all of this,
I just find myself thinking
about the original composer
of the first hymn and the
people who first sang it.
Here they were
trying to engage a culture
that was sometimes
trying to eradicate them.
They could never have imagined
what would become
of their song.
They could never have
predicted that their message
of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit
would one day cover the globe.
Although maybe that's wrong.
Given how
confident we know they were
in the only
giver of all good gifts,
maybe this is
exactly the sort of thing
they might have
dared to imagine.
To the only giver
of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God,
to the risen King
To the one
who died and rose again
Amen
We sing amen.
To the only giver
of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God,
to the risen King
To the one
who died and rose again
Amen
We sing amen.
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God, the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen
We sing amen.
To our God, the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen
We sing amen.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
Rushing rivers still
let mountains bow down
In awe and wonder
with reverence we come
Who is worth of all worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
All powers cry out
in answer.
All glory and praise forever
To our God, the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit
Amen
We sing, Amen
To the only giver
of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God,
to the risen King
To the one who died
and rose again
Amen. We sing Amen.
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God, the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit
Amen.
We sing Amen.
Man, I love the energy.
When the vocals
start to layer,
particularly on that last
chorus, I think that's like,
Those guys are the hit
machine singer songwriters,
Chris Tomlin and Ben Fielding.
And that's not just any
song they're working on.
They're rearranging the
oldest Christian hymn
ever discovered, complete
with a nearly 2000 year old
lyric and melody.
It's ancient, it's in Greek,
and it's been buried
in Egypt a long time.
Our plan is to
bring it back to life.
We're on a historical
and musical journey
from the sands of Egypt
to America's music capital,
from Australian creative spaces
to English thinking spaces.
With the help of people who
know what they're talking about,
we'll be exploring sacred
songs and modern hits,
ancient history and
contemporary markets.
We'll learn from
time-honoured traditions
and state of the art production.
Our goal is to
give back to the world
a song the church hasn't
sung for almost two millennia.
This is The First Hymn project.
My name's John Dickson.
Now I'm a professor specialising
in the history of Christianity.
But before I was a nerd,
I was a wannabe musician,
touring and recording
full-time with my best mates
in a very 90s rock band.
You don't need the details.
All that to say,
I have both an academic
and a personal interest
in seeing this
ancient hymn resurrected.
Our story begins
in one of the most
ancient cities in the world.
Cairo is the modern-day
capital of Egypt.
It was officially founded
just a thousand years ago,
but at its edges are
the ruins of Memphis,
Egypt's ancient capital.
That part of the city
goes back 4,000 years
to the days of the pharaohs.
I love an old cafe and
this one takes the cake.
This is El-Fishawy in Cairo,
and it's been managed
by the same family since 1773.
That's when America was
still a British colony.
It's a small reminder of
just how old this country is.
The region has been
strategic for centuries,
partly because it's at the
juncture of the Nile Valley
and the Nile Delta.
That's upper Egypt in the south
and lower Egypt in the north,
where the mighty Nile River
concludes its 4,000 mile journey
at the Mediterranean Sea.
People have flocked here for
centuries, and they still do.
More than 20 million people
live in the
Cairo metro area today,
making it the Middle East's
demographic centre for Islam.
This is the Great
Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha,
a governor appointed
by the Ottoman Empire
to rule Egypt in
the early 19th century.
It's also called the Alabaster
Mosque, for obvious reasons.
Egypt has a long and
varied religious history,
but nowadays 90% of
the country is Muslim,
100 million worshippers.
But the country is also home
to one of the oldest
branches of Christianity.
Only about 10% of
Egyptians are Christians,
and most of them belong to the
very ancient Coptic Church.
St Mark's Cathedral is named
for St Mark the Evangelist,
the author of the Gospel of
Mark in the New Testament.
He was a companion of both
the Apostles Peter and Paul.
Church tradition says Mark
arrived in Alexandria from Rome
around the year 60 during
the reign of Emperor Nero,
who was no fan
of Christianity.
The oldest Christian school
or university that we know of
was established at least
as early as the year 180.
We even know the names and
still have some of the writings
of the heads of this school;
Pantanous, Clement and Origen.
These were all highly
trained philosophers
who converted to Christianity,
and in the face
of staunch opposition
from Roman authorities,
tried to demonstrate
that Jesus Christ
was the fulfilment
of everything
Greco-Roman
culture was longing for.
They had mixed success.
Roman authorities
found Christians in
this period really annoying,
not just because Christianity
was rapidly expanding,
but because Christians
refused to worship
the local Greek
and Roman gods,
and so they were
seen as culturally
subversive, even disloyal.
And sometimes this
annoyance spilled over
into actual violence.
We know of one
major riot here in Egypt
that resulted in the clubbing
to death of many Christians,
including the local
bishop named George.
They grabbed
George out of his church,
strapped him to a camel
and beat him to a pulp.
And then they set him on
fire, along with the camel.
Stories of early Christian
persecution and martyrdom
have sometimes been exaggerated,
but all historians agree
things reached a fever pitch
between Emperor Decius
in the year 250
and Emperor Diocletian in 303.
Many Christians,
both leaders and laypeople,
were executed in this period,
including here in Egypt.
One of Emperor Diocletian's
decrees targeted what he thought
was the key to Christian
growth: their writings,
"All Christian books",
he said,
"were to be seized and
destroyed".
This is an ancient
Christian codex,
the precursor to the book.
It's basically
papyrus leaves cut to
shape, sewn together,
and then bound in
something sturdy, like
these leather book covers.
The interesting thing is
we know that Christians
were the first to
popularise the book form
over the scrolls
we normally associate
with the ancient world.
And the reason
for this is that books
were far more transportable
than a box of scrolls.
And one thing we know about
Christians in this period,
they were constantly
on the move,
trying to transport
their faith and their
books to further lands.
And on one piece of
papyrus from this period,
we have a Christian hymn,
complete with musical notation.
We not only know
what Christians were
teaching in
these early centuries,
we know what
they were singing.
But for this,
we have to travel south.
Our destination is Oxyrhynchus,
about another 100 or
so kilometres from here.
And I don't deny,
I'm pretty excited.
For years, I've been
reading about this place
and the stuff they've found
there, and now I get to go.
It was a thriving
metropolis in Roman times,
but I'm preparing myself for
nothing but sun-baked ruins
and ancient rubbish dumps,
which I still quite like.
Oxyrhynchus has a long history,
stretching back to the
20th Pharaonic dynasty
of the New Kingdom
period, roughly 1100 BC.
The town was originally
known as Per-Medjed
At first, it was a
kind of military station
designed to protect
vital caravan routes.
Dr. Esther Pons
is the head of the
Department of
Egyptian Antiquities
and the Near East at Spain's
National Archaeological Museum.
Archaeologically speaking,
she's the boss here
and a wonderful host.
Alexander the Great
conquered Egypt in 332 BC.
It was a cultural
turning point,
transforming Egypt
and cities like this one
into thoroughly
Hellenistic or Greek domains.
Local Greek speakers call
this place Oxyrhynchopolis,
the city or polis of the
sharp-nosed fish,
the Oxyrhynchus.
And you can just make
out the little guy here.
Now, locals actually
worship this fish as a god,
and there are some
bizarre ancient myths
about what he got up to.
But it's not
exactly family-friendly,
so I'll leave
you to Google that.
The original city went
about two kilometres this way
and another two
kilometres that way.
Over 50,000
people once lived here,
making it the second-largest
city in Egypt at the time.
The population
enjoyed a fusion of
Greek language and learning,
combined with Egyptian
funeral rites and deities.
Sometime in the
second century,
Christians arrived here
with their strange notions,
not only that there's
just one god,
but that this god had entered
the world in a concrete way
in the life of a man from
Nazareth, 400 miles north.
And it remains one of the
mysteries of ancient history
that Christians without
any power or armies or wealth
were able to
persuade so many people
to abandon the
traditional gods,
Serapis, Osiris,
the long-nosed fish,
and worship Jesus Christ.
In the late Roman
Empire,
the so-called
Byzantine period,
a number of monasteries for
monks and nuns
were built
outside the city walls,
making Oxyrhynchus a
significant Christian centre.
All of that changed with
the Muslim conquest of Egypt
in the 640s AD.
It brought to an end
seven centuries of Roman rule.
Oxyrhynchus began to shrink,
and by the Middle Ages, it was
little more than a ruin.
The British
conquered Egypt in 1882,
partly motivated by
protecting their interests
in the shipping
lanes of the Suez Canal.
British control
paved the way for British
academics to research,
some would say to plunder,
Egypt's hidden treasures.
In 1897,
two Oxford scholars,
Bernard Grenfell
and Arthur Hunt,
decided to mount
an expedition to the
once great city
of Oxyrhynchus.
Grenfell and Hunt were
particularly interested
in finding papyri,
the basic writing material
of the Roman world.
So, the locals brought them
out here to the edge of town,
to the rubbish dumps.
Grenfell wasn't
super impressed.
In fact,
he wrote in his diary,
"My first impressions on
examining the site
were not very favourable.
"The rubbish mounds were
nothing but rubbish mounds."
He soon realised, though,
that he had chanced upon
the greatest discovery
of ancient texts ever.
Those first few scraps
of papyrus quickly revealed
an entire
discarded ancient archive.
"The flow of papyri soon became
a torrent," Grenfell wrote.
"Merely turning up the
soil with one's boot
would frequently
disclose a layer".
Hey, Siri,
what's the high today?
"The high temperature will
be 36 degrees Celsius today".
And it feels it.
This was the key to the
discovery of these documents.
Paper dies in the damp,
but it thrives in the
hot, dry conditions of Egypt.
I'm no fan of 100
degrees Fahrenheit,
but papyrus loves it.
Grenfell and
Hunt employed locals to
carefully store the papyri,
but they could hardly keep
pace with the rate of discovery,
and they were
running out of containers.
In the end,
they uncovered more than
half a million
scraps of papyri,
spanning the Greek,
Roman and Islamic periods.
This historical gold mine
included letters, contracts,
official records, plays,
poetry and philosophy,
as well as pages
of the New Testament.
It's impossible to overstate
how much the Oxyrhynchus papyri
have helped us understand
the ancient world.
Our focus is on just
one scrap of papyrus,
uncovered here in 1918.
It's not even a page, really,
it's just 30 centimetres
by 5 centimetres,
but it provides
amazing early evidence,
not only of the beliefs
and spread of Christianity,
but also of its music.
Oxyrhynchus is
the home of what we've
come to call The First Hymn,
the earliest Christian
song with musical notation.
Its Greek words
and melody sound strange
to our 21st century ear,
but the song
must have been popular
amongst Egypt's
early Christians.
It might have
been sung in people's
houses, in marketplaces
and, of course,
in churches like
this giant basilica,
built to hold 1,000 people.
The song hasn't been heard
around here for many centuries.
I thought I'd have a
go at bringing it home.
At the time,
Grenfell and Hunt
had little idea of
what they'd uncovered.
The fragment was
catalogued - number 1786 -
packed in a biscuit tin
alongside other papyri
and sent here to the
University of Oxford.
The University of
Oxford is one of the
oldest in the world.
It's been educating
English speakers
and Latin speakers before that
for over 900 years.
These lovely doorways were
once the actual entrances
to the various subjects
taught here at Oxford.
This, of course,
is the School of Logic.
And next door is the School
of Astronomy and Rhetoric,
which is a very weird
combination of subjects.
I love this
guy's face right here.
This is now the Bodleian
gift shop next time you're here.
And over here is the Schola
Musicae, the School of Music.
Now, Oxford's medieval
setting is our doorway
to something much,
much older,
to the first Christian
hymn with musical notation.
Scholars call
it Papyrus Oxyrhynchus,
catalog number 1786,
P. Oxy 1786.
Along with literally
thousands of other bits of paper
from the ancient
world, our P. Oxy 1786
is stored safely here
at the Sackler Library,
or more precisely, up in the
papyrology rooms of Level 1.
This is home to
the world's most
extensive collection
of ancient Greek papyri.
Although they recently
changed the name
to the Bodleian Art, Archaeology
and Ancient World Library,
because of
the billionaire Sackler
family's association with the
opioid crisis in the US.
The official
custodian of the papyri
is the
Egypt Exploration Society,
and their collections manager is
Dr. Stephanie Boonstra.
The fragments range from
about the late first century BC
up until the seventh century AD,
and we have information
about ancient cities,
about the people,
what they were doing,
but also of things
like their religion,
and it was a monastic city,
so we have this
Christian evidence as well.
And I think
I recognize this one.
Yes, yeah, this is one
that you'll probably know
a lot about as
well as your viewers.
So here we have
a few fragments of
New Testament fragments.
So here we have one that
was most recently published,
and it's a fragment
from the Gospel of Mark.
It's the opening
paragraph, isn't it?
Yes, yeah, it's Mark 1.
Pretty much a couple of
paragraphs.
Yeah, and so it's gotten a
lot of buzz in recent years.
It's one of the earliest
examples of a fragment
from the Gospel of Mark.
The New Testament
texts themselves,
some of which are among
the Oxyrhynchus papyri,
regularly refer to
the singing of songs.
The Gospels say Jesus and the
Apostles sang hymns together.
The letters of
Paul to the churches
urged the faithful to keep
singing and making music.
The words of P. Oxy 1786
provide a unique window
into the content of
ancient Christian singing.
And it wasn't all happy clappy.
This song is
actually a bit nerdy.
And what do we sing?
Patera, Huion, Hagion, Pneuma,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now, scholars often say
this line is of some interest,
and what
they mean is it's amazing.
This is the doctrine
of the Trinity,
the Christian
idea that the one God
is Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
And you sometimes
hear that that idea
was only invented much later,
say in 325 at
the Council of Nicaea
when Emperor Constantine
forced this
doctrine on the church.
But the thing is,
here's the idea in a song
from the previous century.
Eventually
as the church received
Israel's witness and Scripture,
and reflected
profoundly on the significance
of Jesus Christ,
his dying and rising,
his presence among us,
and the Spirit
poured out on all flesh,
they came to see that this
was the life of Trinity
turned toward the world.
Katherine Sonderegger
was educated
at Yale and Brown Universities,
and is now one of the
most celebrated names
in that strange
field known as Theology.
Okay, let's talk about Trinity.
Can you give me the dummies
guide to what is the Trinity?
Trinity is eternally
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
even if there were no cosmos,
a God would be the living God
who offers himself in the Word
and receives that
Word back in the Spirit.
That would be true of
God's life regardless.
Wouldn't it have been
simpler for the early Christians
just to go down
the Greco-Roman path
and say that the Trinity is
really three different gods,
or maybe three manifestations
of the one God?
It would be possible
to look at the relation
between the emperor
and the junior emperors,
and get an idea that there
is a high God, the Father,
and then these
subordinate Caesars,
but only a doctrine that
saw all of these elements
as one and as fully
God actually captured
what it means to say
God is the living God.
The New
Testament didn't begin
with an abstract
concept of deity,
or even the Greco-Roman deity,
and say Jesus is like that.
What they actually did
is say Jesus was like
the one God of Israel.
Esau McCaulley says the
first Jewish Christians
didn't see Jesus as another God,
but somehow as the
God of Israel in person.
And so what you see then
is not the Jewish Christians
saying, "Oh,
Jesus is like Zeus."
They're saying that somehow
within the one divine identity,
you have the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I can give you an example.
There's this passage in
1 Corinthians 8, verse 6,
where it has the Shema.
Shema is one of the most holy
passages for the Israelites.
"Hear, O Israel, the
Lord your God is one."
And you should worship
the Lord your God only.
And so, one God,
that was it.
But when Paul
quotes it, he says,
"You might have
many gods, but for us,
there's one God the Father
and one Lord Jesus Christ."
It's clear
Christians were
reflecting on the Trinity
and singing about it
long before the concepts
were formalized in
the famous Nicene Creed.
Here's how
the hymn in part puts it,
"Let all be silent,
shining stars not sound,
as we sing our hymn to the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
the only giver of all good
gifts. Amen."
But what adds to the
interest in P.Oxy 1786
is that it contains
more than words.
You can see these little
squiggles above the words.
That's ancient
Greek musical notation.
It tells us
the melody of the hymn.
And what's so fun about this
is that the tune
isn't the stodgy stuff
we often associate
with chanting monks.
It's pop music.
It's the kind of
melody you'd expect to hear
at an ancient Greek pub or at
some theater performance.
Whoever composed this song
was trying to take
serious Christian ideas
and give them to the masses.
This is not just theology,
it's public Christianity.
As far as we know,
there was music everywhere,
just as there
is in today's world.
The main musical
fragments that have survived
relate to such things
as music in theater,
so music of tragedy.
There's something
called a skolion,
which is a drinking song
with an epicurean theme,
"Live Now Because We All Die."
There's music from
performances
that might have taken place
in large-scale
open-air theaters,
but also stuff that might have
been sung in smaller venues.
Armand D'Angour
is a world authority
on the music, text, and
culture of ancient Greece.
Now you've had a chance
to look at our P.Oxy 1786.
How does it compare melodically
to other bits and pieces
of music we've found?
Interestingly, I think
it shows very clearly
the influence of
Greek musical tradition
going back all
the way to the earliest
document that we have.
And the Christian hymn
is a remarkable discovery
because it's the only
Christian piece of music
using the ancient
pagan notation.
More recently, scholars
have recognized that
it isn't really any different
from that earlier music
in terms of the way it
uses the melodic structures.
The writer of this
first hymn seems to have had
one eye on pagan,
that's Greco-Roman,
religion and culture.
One of the lines
contains not just a
straightforward piece
of Christian teaching,
but what looks
like a bold comparison
between Greek gods
and the Holy Trinity.
My favourite bit
is here at the end.
We sort of lose
the words over here,
so it's a bit of guesswork
knowing what was there.
And then we can just make
out the top of the words
to "the only giver
of all good gifts",
Panton Agathon.
God is described as
the great gift giver.
And with that theme,
the hymn ends in
good Christian fashion
with the words, "Amen, amen".
Which is a way of saying,
"we really believe this".
Experts have pointed out
the expression "giver of gifts"
was a stock description
of a god like Zeus,
the chief of the gods whom
the Romans called Jupiter.
Our Christian hymn
calls this into question.
The one true God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
is said to be the only
giver of all good gifts.
It's confident,
even a little cheeky.
Love it or hate it,
Jews and Christians
have always said
there's one God and he's Lord of
everywhere and everyone.
P.Oxy 1786 is a musical
rendition of this same idea.
So we've set
ourselves a challenge.
As interesting
as the history is,
our hope is to go
beyond the ancient,
to see if we can
replicate here and now
what those early Christians
were trying to achieve
through this song.
Well, if architecture is
for admiring,
food and wine for tasting,
songs are for singing.
We've talked to the ancient
experts about P.Oxy 1786,
but if we wanna resurrect
this hymn for a new audience,
we've gotta talk to a
couple of my friends,
some of the most accomplished
Christian songwriters
in the world today.
Our first stop is
my hometown of Sydney.
I managed to grab
some time with friend
and musician, Ben Fielding.
Ben and his co-writer,
Brooke Ligertwood,
won a Grammy for
their 2018 song
What a Beautiful Name.
If you've ventured into
a church in the last few years,
there's a pretty good chance
you've heard it.
Then there's the gold record
making song, This I Believe,
where Ben took
The Apostles' Creed,
an ancient statement of
Christian belief,
and turned it into
a cracking song.
Last time I checked, it had
more than 130 million plays
just on Spotify.
Ben didn't need much
convincing to help us bring
the first hymn back to life.
I fired off the lyrics
and some of my
singing to inspire him.
Hopefully.
It seems Ben was
sold on the project
without my powers
of persuasion.
Mate, this is such
an exciting project.
Anybody that I mention it to,
they're fascinated
by this idea that,
that firstly,
the hymn's been discovered,
and then the idea of
bringing it back to life.
I think, of course,
everybody always says,
"What happens if
the song's no good?"
I can't get away from that.
That's every single person.
But I think that
there's still just something
in the journey of
bringing this back to life.
Ben's been thinking his
way
through the original melody.
He reckons songwriters,
whether ancient or modern,
face similar challenges.
The melody
range is quite narrow.
Rhythmically, it's not
too complicated or complex.
You can imagine a lot of people.
What about the little
trills over the Amen's, though?
- Well, those are cool.
- They are so cool.
Yeah.
But I imagine
ancient congregations
trying to pull that off,
because you wouldn't
have that kind of trill
in a modern hymn.
Have you ever
put a trill like that?
I haven't.
I know that there's some
more elaborate melodies that,
and sometimes you gotta be
careful that you don't dumb down
a melody too much,
and you just
assume no one can sing it,
because I think if
it's well-structured
and it is memorable,
people go along to a
concert from
their favorite artist
and sing along to
stuff that's quite complex.
And I think if it's memorable,
that you can
get away with a lot.
Thankfully, Ben's
already brimming with ideas.
Let everything
that has breath
Come and praise Him
Praise Him
Praise to the Father
To the Son and the Spirit
Let everything
And then you could kind of
build off something like that.
It often happens
with writers,
whether composers or authors,
a passing thought
suddenly leaps out.
I'd love to find
an Egyptian singer.
Yeah.
Can you imagine if we
can find an Egyptian singer
who can do, like maybe,
a little, amen at
different points through.
It could be really haunting.
Well, and to get that
trill sounding authentic.
We'll come back
to that idea.
For now,
we need a collaborator.
Ben put me in touch with
American singer-songwriter,
Chris Tomlin.
I was excited.
Chris has sold
over 12 million records,
and he has over 7
billion streams to his name.
He's a Grammy winner
with over 30 top 10 hits.
It's estimated
that 30 million people
sing Chris's music in
churches every week.
Time magazine
described him as,
"potentially the most often
sung artist in the world".
I love the idea that you
might wanna be involved
with this, Chris.
I love it.
- Oh yeah.
I mean, Ben, you know,
I've known Ben a while,
and I just,
I really trust his writing,
and I trust his heart.
And when he
mentioned your name,
and then I remembered all
the songs you've written,
I thought, oh my goodness,
this could be
very, very special.
Yeah, what a moment.
What an opportunity.
Just incredible.
I am so honored to
be brought into this.
Thank you, Ben,
for reaching out.
Thank you, John, for saying,
"okay, let's do this",
because I love it.
If we can somehow,
sorry, let me correct myself.
If you guys can somehow
bring a beautiful melody
that honors this ancient melody,
and honors,
obviously, the words,
you know, some anonymous
theologian put together,
what a gift this will be to
the church to sing this again.
And that's kind of
what we're trying to do,
is go like, could
the people of God today
join the people of God
back in the, you know,
the second, third century,
in these really early
formative stages of the church?
Could we sing that same hymn?
I'd already sent Chris
an image of P. Oxy 1786,
with my translation of
the hymn. He had questions.
Is that the whole of the song,
or is that just
a piece that was found?
It's all we've got,
that's all we've got,
because, you know,
I sent you a photo of the
manuscript, right?
That is literally
all we've got.
Yeah, so sadly,
there's no more.
I mean, in terms
of songwriting,
you guys have to
honor these words,
but come up
with some other ones.
We can't just slap
an English translation
onto an ancient Greek tune.
With all due respect to
the original composer,
the melody is a little
weird to the modern ear.
We have to find
a fresh way forward.
John, is your vision that
we try to stay right
there with that,
so we're really singing like we
were 1800 years ago,
I don't know.
No way, no, I wanna
hear a song that's like,
the kind of anthemic
song you both have written,
that's got a pop sensibility
with a hymnic gravitas.
It's a balancing
act, a creative puzzle,
and we need both these musical
brains to make it happen.
I'm really open to
messing with whatever,
like I'll send
you what I've got,
and then we can start again.
Yeah, send me what you got.
I just think
there's anything in there.
I mean, I was
like looking around,
I was kind of
writing some things today,
as I was thinking about
this, just some thoughts down,
so I look forward to like
maybe hearing what you have
and see if it is kind of
matching what I was thinking.
It'd be interesting.
I'm ready to go.
I'm ready to go.
Ben, send that to me.
I'm ready, I'm ready to go.
Cool.
Ben and Chris have
their work cut out for them.
We'll leave them to it.
We have other puzzles to solve.
Musically,
the first hymn isn't what
we've come to expect
from sacred music.
Christian hymns like
this one have been sung
for a mere 280 years.
Do we know how far back
Christians were singing
and writing songs?
Well, that's probably one of
the easiest questions to answer
because we actually have songs,
to Jesus in the New Testament.
We have Philippians chapter 2,
verses 6-11, which is a hymn.
There's another one in
Colossians 1:15 - 20,
another hymn to Jesus.
And so the easiest way to
answer that question is,
we know there's a lot of
hymns that the Christians sung
because they're
hymns in the Bible,
the Christian that we have as
a part of our ongoing record.
Sadly, the musical notation
didn't also get passed down
with the manuscript.
Exactly. Anytime you
have a poem
or anything that's translated
into English, some of
the rhythm and the things
that mark it out as
poetry and as music are lost.
But it's pretty clear to
anyone who takes a close look
at those passages and
maybe 1 Corinthians 13,
it was poetic about love.
You have this reality,
the early Christians
were creating art
related to the person of
Jesus in particular,
and a praise and worship of him
that speaks a lot about
his divinity.
The first
Christians were all Jews,
and we know
Jews were monotheists.
- They believed in just one God.
- Yes
So my question is, were
the Christians departing
from their Jewish
roots in saying that
Jesus was somehow also God?
Well, I don't think so.
One of the things that
often you can
discover in a text
are the things
that people fought about.
And so you can tell
by reading the text of
the New Testament, there's
a lot of fights about the law.
Christians were
trying to figure out,
should I keep the Torah or
should I not keep the Torah?
There was a lot of fights
about the place of the Gentiles,
how the Gentiles
and Jews lived together.
There's a lot of fights, a lot
of discussion about ethics,
how do we live
together as Christians?
You know what you don't
see them fighting about
a lot in the New Testament?
The divinity of Jesus.
It actually seemed to be
something that, in other words,
you never hear Paul having to
argue Jesus is actually divine.
He usually assumes it for most
cases throughout his letters.
You see the exact same
thing by the time you get
to the Gospel of John,
they're not fighting about it.
You see it narrated
in the synoptics.
And so it seems to be the
case that pretty early on,
the Christians
began to think about Jesus
and the Spirit as divine.
So it shouldn't
surprise us that the Christians
behind P. Oxy 1786
would sing about God
as the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
It seems from the beginning,
the most important ideas
weren't just proclaimed and
written down, they were sung.
Our modern idea of the
Christian hymn has more to do
with early modern Europe
than the ancient Roman Empire.
During the 16th century,
the so-called Protestants,
who got their name from
protesting what they saw
as certain church excesses,
split from the Catholic church.
Whatever else we might
make of the tumultuous events
of this Reformation period,
it resulted in
a lot of new songs.
Some groups,
and I won't name names,
said we should only sing
the very words of scripture,
particularly the Old
Testament book of Psalms,
which was kind of the
ancient Israelite songbook.
Anything else they said was
unbiblical and unacceptable.
Other groups were a little
more relaxed and creative.
They said, so long
as our words reflect
the general truth
of the Bible,
we're free to explore the
joys of melody and creativity.
And the result was an
explosion of Christian hymns.
Wherever the
Christian faith is gone,
people are singing.
There's an organization called
Wycliffe Bible Translators
that has emphasized
in recent years,
ethno-musicology,
and have found that
when the Bible is
translated into a new language
that perhaps it had not
even been written before,
there is some interest, some
enthusiasm, some excitement.
But when that same
text, the Bible translated
into a new language,
is set to music,
there is much greater resonance
and much deeper appreciation.
And that worldwide phenomenon
has been true in the West.
So Western Christian
history is at the same time
a history of music and
a history of hymnody.
There's such a back catalog of
hymns through the centuries.
Do we need any more?
The answer is definitely yes,
with a couple of qualifications.
Hymns are designed
to express truths,
but also to ground
those truths in emotions,
to make them memorable.
If there are not
new hymns being written
that reflect the needs,
the desires, the outlook,
the standpoint of the
present, then the churches
will be antiquarian
and will have nothing
to say to
the world around them.
Chris and Ben
have been hard at work
creating a new first hymn
from the building
blocks of the original.
From these small beginnings,
Chris and Ben went into
their own creative wonderland.
Meanwhile, we've
come to Chicago
to talk to someone
I've admired ever since
I first came across
P. Oxy 1786.
The first hymn
uses a kind of music
that is very
familiar to Westerners.
It's diatonic music.
And all that means is it's
made out of the whole steps
and the half steps
that our music is made of.
When you go to a piano, if
you play keys on the piano
in a row, you're playing
whole steps and half steps.
And our scales are made out of
combinations of those.
Charles Cosgrove is a
kind of triple threat
of classical education,
expert linguist,
historian, and musician.
And he literally wrote
the book on P. Oxy 1786.
Perhaps strangely
to the modern ear,
the original
lyrics of the first hymn
tell all creation
to be silent.
The beginning of this is
the Greek cultic concern
that when a cultic
act was being performed,
someone might say an
inauspicious word
that offended the god.
And so there would
be a call to silence
or to watch your tongue.
And then that call to
silence would start the ritual.
So silence falls, and then
the ritual could begin
with prayers and maybe
a hymn and so forth.
And in the hymns,
it often announces
that the god is
approaching the temple.
And so "Fall Silent
as a God Approaches"
and then the boys
choir will sing the god.
It seems our ancient
Christian songwriter
knew his Greco-Roman
context well.
Was he trying to make his pagan
contemporaries comfortable
before offering his
controversial message?
My favorite
line is the last one,
that God is "the only
giver of all good gifts".
Am I right
that Zeus was actually
said to be the
giver of good gifts?
But here the author of
this song is saying that
God is the only
giver of all good gifts.
So what is
the songwriter doing?
Is this just copying?
Is he being critical?
Is he evangelizing or what?
Yes, well, the hymnwriter
is doing two things.
One is to speak
in a neoclassical way
by taking up the language
of a venerable tradition
and dignifying the hymn
and God with this language.
At the same time,
the hymnwriter is asserting
that Christian idea
that only one God
gives all the good things,
not many gods.
Ben and Chris
have been hard at work,
and the first hymn project
has made its way to Nashville.
Nashville is the
mecca of Christian music
to mix my religions.
It's home to
a baffling number of
Christian music
publishing houses,
record labels and
production companies.
This is where big names in
the Christian music industry,
like Amy Grant, Michael
W Smith, got their break.
But it's also the home
of more recent artists
like Lauren Daigle
and Anne Wilson.
And Nashville is the
home of the Dove Awards.
They're not quite
the Grammys,
but in the US,
a very big deal.
So this feels like
the perfect place to
try and revive P. Oxy 1786.
Chris Tomlin
invited us to The Barn,
his writing and rehearsal
space just outside Nashville.
The plan was to lock these
guys in a room for a few days
and let them hash
out their best ideas
for the new first hymn.
- John!
- I like this. Can I have one?
Can I have one?
- You can.
Hey, buddy.
Wow, nice to
meet you in the flesh.
- I know. Good to see you.
- And my friend. Wow.
Good to see you.
So this is happening?
- Yeah, it's happening.
- It's on.
Right.
Some pleasantries,
admiring their awesome
writing space,
and then it's
down to business.
How do you feel it's been going?
You should probably ask Chris.
I feel like
it's been going well,
but Chris might be
seething in the background.
How did I get into this?
No, absolutely. It's
been really beautiful.
I love working with Ben.
We've worked a little bit
together over the years.
And so, you know,
going back and forth
through from Australia to
Tennessee, it's been wonderful.
I really enjoyed it because
we'll just how about this idea
and send it and
then I'll wait for him to
wake up eight hours later.
And then by
the time I'm asleep,
I wake up and
there's something else,
you know, because
the time changes.
And so it's just been beautiful.
OK. And then it gives it's
been an interesting process
because it just kind of
gives me the day
to think through it and then.
And to delete
anything you don't like.
I shouldn't have said that.
- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And then I and
then I send back to him
and just us just talking about
how do we really capture this
in the best way we can.
These beautiful, beautiful
words and these ancient words.
And it's just such a
I feel such responsibility too.
- Yeah
- Massive.
I mean, this there's this
is not just another lyric.
This is so special.
And so I've
really, really loved it.
What's the difficulty
involved?
Like, what have
you found hard about it?
The only thing
I've found hard is
I just second guess myself.
Is this good enough?
Is this good enough?
Yeah, that's a
huge part of it.
You know, because it's your.
But is that the same
with every song you write?
No, but this feels
different because it's
like you're just you're holding
something that's
it's already been.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
It's already been sung.
It's already been.
And you're like,
I know you want to.
But obviously
you want to bring it into
this this time period and this
this generation.
And so you're like, am I do
are we doing are we
holding this the right way?
- And the responsibility to
try to capture what it was that
unified the church
way back then
and to be able to
take those elements,
but try to modernize them
and thinking about, well,
what would a chorus be like?
You know, would that ancient
hymn have even had a chorus?.
But I think in the modern
version of the hymn, it would.
So trying to work out where to
put emphasis in the song.
- Yes
- All of that
is just kind of like it -
it's the challenge of taking
something that was
and making it
something that is now.
But I couldn't think
of anybody I prefer to
be doing this with than Chris.
And when you got involved, just
the enthusiasm that just
got breathed into this
was just fantastic.
And so I was blown away.
Chris is like firing messages.
I'm trying to keep up
and like fire back.
It's like it was
a really sweet kind of
part of the process.
To kind of wake
up and find like,
you know, three or four
different kind of verses
and just keep that
creativity going on the song.
I think I think
it's been really special.
Now, you need to
understand that I had
no idea just how
much these guys had been
working together online.
So nothing prepared
me for what came next.
The question is,
how long 'till you think
you've got a full song?
- OK
- A complete song.
So we got we got a little
bit of a surprise for you.
And that is we think
we finished the song.
What?!
Yeah, it
happened so fast.
How did that happen?
I don't know. I mean, I've
written lots of songs,
Ben's written
lots of songs and rarely
do they just...
I think it was the lyric
was so much there that
just several times
back and forth,
like this feels
really, really special.
So we'd love to
play it for you.
Oh, man.
- Yeah.
- OK.
Now I've got shivers.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
The rushing rivers still
Let the mountains bow down
In awe and wonder
In reverence we come
Who is worthy of all
worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
All powers cry out
in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God, the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit
Amen
We sing, Amen
Let all be silent
I was stunned.
Not just because they
secretly finished the song,
but because even in
its raw form,
I could hear how masterfully
they'd revived the message
and the mood of the first hymn.
Wow, that is a gorgeous tune.
And the lyrics are virtually
the definition of classic.
But what makes
a good worship song?
A song designed to be
sung by millions of people
around the world in church?
I suppose it has to be
singable by regular humans.
And it also has to capture
the head and the heart.
But what would I know?
I wanted to find
out more about how this
mysterious world of contemporary
Christian music works.
A great worship song
is one that
articulates the heart
of every worshipper
and directs their
attention to God.
In 2024, Christian
contemporary music
was the fourth fastest
growing genre in the world,
up 60 percent over
the last five years.
Labels like
Capital CMG, Centricity,
Hillsong Worship and Integrity
preside over
a market that now accounts
for more internet
streams than jazz
and classical music combined.
The thing about
a song is that,
especially one you enter into,
it's one that you're
giving yourself over to and
you're participating in
the song and
what the song says.
And so the context
of the song and in the
direction that it
takes your heart
and your mind is really
important.
And so to have
an accurate theology,
a good understanding of
who God is, of the work of
Jesus on the cross,
all of these things,
they actually
actually do matter.
Do you think
Christian music has anything
to offer people who don't know
what to make of Christianity?
To the wider world?
- It certainly should.
But part of the issue,
the historic issue with
why it doesn't often is that
it isn't always believable.
We only tend to write in like
superlative and hyperbole
about God answering all of my
you know, answering all my
prayer, meeting all my needs.
And it's and that's a
really foreign concept
to somebody who
isn't a person of faith
or raised within the church.
The first hymn was
lost to the world for centuries
and rediscovered
100 years ago.
Experts have
studied its musical and
historical
significance for decades.
For the last
two years, we've been
working to give
it back to the world.
I don't know what
the original composer
would think of what
we're doing,
but it's time to lay this thing
down again for posterity.
Dark Horse Studios, nestled in
the countryside outside
beautiful Franklin, Tennessee.
This is where
songs by Hunter Hayes,
Keith Urban and
Taylor Swift were recorded.
Now it's the first hymn's turn.
Hey! It's been a long time.
And this is where
we meet Jonathan Smith,
the two time Grammy
multi Dove Award winning
songwriter and producer.
He'll be shepherding
us through this
crucial stage of
reviving the first hymn.
And then we don't
have to be bound by that.
Yeah.
Here. We. Go.
To the only
giver of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God
to the risen king
To the one
who died and rose again
Amen.
We sing Amen
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God
The Father, Son and
Holy Spirit
Amen, we sing Amen
So that's it.
Job done.
Save file, send to Spotify.
Not really.
The first hymn
project was never about
just resurrecting
an ancient song.
It's about giving
that song back to
a new generation of
believers and doubters.
And for that,
we need a lot more help.
Greek speaking Egyptians first
composed and sang this tribute
to the only giver of all
good gifts.
So it only seems right to ask
a descendant of these ancient
people to help us put the
finishing touches on the hymn.
This is Music City Walk of Fame.
It's pretty
cool, but it's not where
we're going to find
what I'm looking for.
From the beginning
of this project,
I had the crazy idea of
bringing the song full
circle by including
an Egyptian singer,
someone who can capture
the feel of the place
where this hymn
was first sung
and then lost
and then found again.
And you know what?
Nashville has
given us that as well.
The Coptic Orthodox Church
in America is
a branch of one of
the oldest continuously
existing churches in the world.
The first Copts,
as they're called,
arrived in the US in the 1940s.
They were foreign
students who brought
their ancient ways with them.
Today, there are
several hundred churches here
and all of them are committed
to preserving their heritage,
including their music.
Katy Fayck Eskander
is a native Egyptian
and the choir director
at St Mary's Coptic Church
in Nashville.
She's recorded five
studio albums and 25 singles.
And every week she helps keep
alive her ancient tradition.
- Hey, I'm John.
- Nice to meet you.
We are thrilled
to have you on board.
Thank you so much.
We've come to speak
with Katy on the morning of her
recording session for
the new first hymn.
I'm nervous.
I don't know how she's feeling.
What drew you to
sing worship songs,
not just performance music?
The first part was the
genetic part from my mom.
She has amazing voice.
And the second part was my dad.
When I was three years old,
he kept teaching me Coptic music
and Coptic songs
and recorded it.
Then he let me
listen to my voice.
"This is your voice. You have a
good voice. Keep doing it".
The magic word here
is the relationship
between you and God.
I feel like
this is a gift from God.
My voice is a gift from God.
And the only person
deserves it is Him.
So if I like to
enjoy that, the amazing gift,
I would enjoy it with him.
So I feel like
I'm praying in my way.
- Jonathan, how are you?
- I'm good. How's Australia?
It's beautiful.
It's always beautiful.
Chris and Ben have
already given Jonathan
a good idea of what they hope
Katy can bring to the song.
So what are you thinking?
I know we've
talked about maybe having
that sort of at
the top of the song.
Like, how are you hearing it?
I think starting the song
with that motif,
with her singing it
is what's going to
really set the tone that
this song isn't
like any normal song, right?
Like it's not,
it's going to instantly
sort of give it an ancient feel.
Western music usually
operates with just 12 notes.
C, C sharp, D,
D sharp, E, F and so on.
Middle Eastern music,
Arabic, Coptic and so on,
has 24 notes made up of
microtones.
Very subtle pitches between the
traditional Western notes.
The result is a melodic
wonderland rich in emotion.
It doesn't take long before Katy
transports us to another
time and another place
to centuries ago in Egypt.
- Wow.
- Yes, fantastic.
That "all powers
cry out in answer."
The line you do
there is like, wow.
And all be silent
Back when music
was pretty much my life,
I loved and hated
the recording studio.
I mean, when you play live,
little mistakes,
they don't matter so much.
A wrongly placed finger here,
a slightly off note there,
and you can just call it jazz
and hardly anyone notices.
But here it's different.
In the studio, your performance
over and over and over
eventually has to be perfect.
All the while
trying to maintain the
sense of creative energy.
And that's why
you need a good producer.
I think of producers a bit like
Michelangelo, you know,
technically precise
and artistically brilliant,
and they can often
see the finished product
from the beginning.
I mean, a good
producer can hear what
a song really
wants to sound like
even better than
the original composers.
I know what moves my spirit
and what moves me.
And that's really the only
compass that I know to have.
And so I do think
as you as you work
and as you get experience,
your instincts get honed in
and you know what
you tend to love.
You trust that
there's going to be
other people out there
that love it.
Producers know exactly
what each instrument can
bring to a piece
and how to bring out the
best in every musician.
They guide the arrangement
and the performance.
And once it's all
recorded, they select,
arrange and layer the
dozens and dozens of
individual tracks
to fashion a coherent whole.
What did you put in
there to make that happen?
So I added that same
guitar part right here.
With some effects on it
like these right here.
Some pretty wide stereo
reverbs and things like that.
And so that was that was
what I started with
and then even added
some what I would call
kind of a world
sounds and rhythms
like this right here
to go along with it.
Again, just to put,
I want those
musicians first time they
hear it to be OK, this is not,
this song did not
come out of Nashville.
I want them to know
this is a an ancient thing.
And so even these banging
on a banjo and guitar.
- Huh, Yeah
- Yeah.
- Oh, that's gorgeous.
- Yeah. And so you play this.
And then what they're
So they're thinking world
music?
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
And you know what
I'm telling them is, hey,
I want you to still do the
thing that you do and do well,
but I want you to feel sort of
the heartbeat of the
song and not be guessing.
Just picture it's
going to sound like this,
you know, when it's all done.
So sometimes I'll
start with those sort of
more stylized things first.
I'm in awe of the
way a producer like Jonathan
can snatch one of those layers,
move it to the front
of the soundscape and change
the whole mood of the song.
Oh, yeah, no, this is this
is one of my favorite bits.
- Yeah.
- This was I saw this happen.
Like I remember
thinking, oh, man, he's
just replicated
the ancient melody.
Yeah. So we had originally
we had him playing over
the very beginning of the song.
Because we knew we
wanted that melody, right?
And so we weren't
exactly sure in the moment,
you know, is it going
to be a guitar?
Is it a piano? Is it a vocal?
Let's just get it all down.
And then sort of in the
editing process, we will decide.
So I think this was kind of
the first thing he played.
Kind of played
through the whole song.
Just beautiful tone.
But I think the moment that it
really counts would be this
section between the second
chorus and the bridge.
- Yeah.
- I'll solo it.
We can kind of hear
what he's doing, but.
Yeah
- Yeah, this is basically
the "amen, amen".
And everything
altogether comes in.
Yeah, so that's so good.
It's very like
an arrival moment.
It's a hook we've heard from the
beginning, a softer version.
And then that's more
of a triumphant version.
And how are
you feeling about this song?
I feel the most
excited about it.
I just cannot wait for
people to hear this song.
And the final
destination for all this?
Well, it'll be on
Chris Tomlin's next album,
which might already be out by
the time you're watching this.
But stay with us
and you'll hear
all these layers come
together beautifully
in a new version
of the first hymn.
And while all
this has been going on,
we've been getting ready
for something very special.
You know, it's
interesting.
1860, the school was founded,
started with eight faculty
members.
And one of those was a
professor of sacred music.
So from the very beginning,
the humble beginnings
of the institution,
music at the at the heart of
things,
not that surprising.
When you think about the musical
propensity of human beings,
music found in
every known culture,
music ubiquitous in our world
and so important
to human flourishing.
People, it turns
out, want to make music.
Wheaton College
was established in 1860
by abolitionist church leaders.
It was a well-known stop on the
famous Underground Railway.
Its main mission
today is to provide a
classic liberal arts education,
integrating
science, music, history,
literature and
the Christian faith.
This is also where I teach
the history of Christianity
and what we can
learn from the good
and the bad of the past.
The first hymn is
definitely part of the good.
Why is Wheaton College involved
in this first hymn project?
I mean, apart from the fact
that I just wandered over
one day to your office
and sprung the idea on you?
Well, I'm sure
you recall we were both
very enthused
about the whole thing.
What a compelling
story that we would link
with this writer of this music
so, so many years ago,
that we would join hands
with those
who sang this first hymn.
And now, so many
years later,
resonating with
the message, the music.
When the team at
the conservatory heard
about the first hymn project,
they were keen to
see the song brought
back to life in
multiple musical formats.
I think this is
such a mysterious and honourable
project and
our students and faculty
have really seized this story.
Which is why
these guys are here.
They're working on a classical
rendition of the first hymn,
both the Tomlin/Fielding version
and the original Greek one.
I am honoured
to be a part of it.
I love surprises.
And this is a complete surprise.
So I count it a privilege.
Dr Tony Payne is the
creative mind
behind the new arrangement.
It's really
another worldly kind of
experience to reach back
into hymnody
that wasn't notated
like we notate
and didn't have the form and
structure
like we have today in
a typical hymn
or Christian song.
And so I struggled
with it a bit.
It's like a gift that
comes in a time capsule
and we're suddenly confronting
it for the first time.
And I find
it really captivating.
I had a go at
singing the Greek original
in the ruins of Oxyrhynchus.
It was special,
but I'm pretty sure
this is how it's
really meant to sound.
They say music
can transport the soul.
I reckon I just visited
Roman Egypt in the 200s.
How I wish we could now bring
the original composer here
to watch what we're about
to do to the first hymn.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
Rushing rivers.....
Tony is the kind
of musical scholar
that speaks multiple
musical languages.
He tells me
he just loves what Chris
and Ben's melody is saying.
You tend to
have thirds like this.
That's what our ear expects.
But in this newer
language that we're enjoying
and learning about.
So there it is just hanging.
And I don't think there
could be a more powerful use
of that suspended harmony
as the technical term for it.
Because normally we
might expect to hear this.
But that's not there.
But then you look at the text
and you realize it makes
all the sense in the world.
Let all be silent.
Shining stars not sound.
The thought of the stars
being silent is really powerful.
Amen we sing
Amen
Amen we sing
Amen
The big day approaches.
Chris and Ben have chosen Fort
Worth, Texas for the concert
that officially hands the first
hymn back to the world.
We've still got a bit of time.
And there's one more
person I wanted to speak to
about how this
whole project relates
to the broader
story of sacred music.
And I think
people remember
songs more than they
remember sermons.
And in that time, especially
when not everybody was reading,
there were not books everywhere.
So the words of the
songs would be some things
that will stay
deep in their memories.
We know from my own research,
how missionaries when they
arrive in different places,
new places, they were
very concerned
about publishing some kind of
collection of songs
because once they were gone,
until the next
preacher would come around,
the community could
hold on to those words
and remember what
they were by singing.
From the first
century to the 21st century,
Christians haven't just
preached their message
about the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
They've sung it,
inviting everyone,
whether believer or doubter,
whether in Oxyrhynchus or Texas,
to consider singing along.
I think so.
I think music is very powerful
and it moves
emotions and sometimes,
I think it's interesting.
We have eyelids,
but we don't have earlids.
So sometimes
we may hear something,
even if you are not
planning on, that's different.
We can always turn our
face and not see something,
but we can sometimes not take
a while for us not to listen.
And I think it's interesting.
I have heard stories of people
that they were just
attracted by the sound
and then they join in
and then they understand,
oh, this is what they're saying.
And people that have
told me in their own lives,
how they still remember
that was that one line
from that song
and they didn't understand
anything about doctrine,
about church, what's a
Protestant, what's a Baptist,
but that message of
the song spoke to me.
One reason thoughtful
people are put off
by this Christian message today
is the sheer
number of church brands.
With an estimated 3000
denominations worldwide,
it's no surprise that
people ask the question,
which version of Christianity?
That's what's so
special about the first hymn.
It was composed before
there were denominations.
It captures
the heart of Christianity
before there was Roman Catholic,
Greek Orthodox, or Protestant.
And Chris and Ben
have worked really hard
to highlight that core
so that all the brands
of Christianity today
can sing the new first hymn.
Well, it's now
time to test that idea.
And have we got
the crowd to do it.
There's over
10,000 people here tonight.
It's completely sold out.
When I was a musician, I
only ever played venues
about a 10th the size
of this on a good night,
but I remember
the feeling backstage
as the audience
filled the venue.
I wonder how Chris
and Ben are feeling.
Brings out both
new and old things
out of his treasure chest.
This is the climax of
an extraordinary journey.
We have traced the
rediscovery of P. Oxy 1786,
uncovered the significance of
the first hymn
with musical notation,
and witnessed master
musicians transform it
into a stunning
21st century anthem.
After two years of work,
we're ready to return the song
to its rightful place
on the lips of thousands.
The last time it was sung
was probably 1,800 years ago.
And we will sing it tonight
for the very first time.
And now, the
resurrected first hymn in full.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
The rushing rivers still
Let the mountains bow down
In awe and wonder
In reverence we come
Who is worthy
of all worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen, we sing amen.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
The rushing rivers still
The mountains bow down
In awe and wonder
In reverence we come
Who is worthy
of all worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
Who is worthy
of all worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen, we sing amen.
To the only
giver of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God
to the risen King
To the one who died
and rose again
Amen, we sing amen.
To the only
giver of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God
to the risen King
To the one
who died and rose again
Amen, we sing amen.
All power's
cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen, we sing amen
Amen.
Amen, we sing amen
Amen.
We sing our hymn, amen.
At the end
of all of this,
I just find myself thinking
about the original composer
of the first hymn and the
people who first sang it.
Here they were
trying to engage a culture
that was sometimes
trying to eradicate them.
They could never have imagined
what would become
of their song.
They could never have
predicted that their message
of the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit
would one day cover the globe.
Although maybe that's wrong.
Given how
confident we know they were
in the only
giver of all good gifts,
maybe this is
exactly the sort of thing
they might have
dared to imagine.
To the only giver
of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God,
to the risen King
To the one
who died and rose again
Amen
We sing amen.
To the only giver
of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God,
to the risen King
To the one
who died and rose again
Amen
We sing amen.
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God, the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen
We sing amen.
To our God, the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen
We sing amen.
Let all be silent
The shining stars not sound
Rushing rivers still
let mountains bow down
In awe and wonder
with reverence we come
Who is worth of all worship?
Who is seated on the throne?
All powers cry out
in answer.
All glory and praise forever
To our God, the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit
Amen
We sing, Amen
To the only giver
of all good gifts
Amen
To the only one
who forgives our sins
Amen
To the only God,
to the risen King
To the one who died
and rose again
Amen. We sing Amen.
All powers cry out in answer
All glory and praise forever
To our God, the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit
Amen.
We sing Amen.