Canticles of the Bible

[Pavel Mosko]

A thread about all the various parts of the Old and New Testaments that were either: 1) constructed as poems and hymns at the time of the writing of the old and New Testament,

The Inspiration of the thread came from a conversation with @The Liturgist where we conversed and spoke about how Philippians 2:6-11 is considered by many Church Historians to be the "Oldest Hymn in Christianity" (see below link). But I got other stuff to say, from the Syriac and Aramaic heritage where scholars believe that some of Jesus' preaching and sayings were using poetic devices from Hebrew and Aramaic poetry etc.


A Hymn to Christ? (Philippians 2:6-11)

 

[GOD Shines Forth!]

A thread about all the various parts of the New Testament that were either: 1) constructed as poems and hymns at the time of the writing of the New Testament, or 2) Were made into music centuries later by ancient Christians in the ancient Liturgies, by Medieval Christians, or more modern folks.

(A canticle by the way, is simply using a piece of scripture as the lyrics of a song, in the same way the book of Psalms was used by the ancient Hebrews)

The Inspiration of the thread came from a conversation with @The Liturgist where we conversed and spoke about how Philippians 2:6-11 is considered by many Church Historians to be the "Oldest Hymn in Christianity" (see below link). But I got other stuff to say, from the Syriac and Aramaic heritage where scholars believe that some of Jesus' preaching and sayings were using poetic devices from Hebrew and Aramaic poetry etc.


A Hymn to Christ? (Philippians 2:6-11)

Does this qualify?

"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
received up into glory."

—1 Timothy 3:16

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Does this qualify?

Not sure. I could imagine someone doing something with that like a modern song writer hymnographer etc. but ideally you would have someone in mind and cite the source etc.

 

[The Liturgist]

A thread about all the various parts of the New Testament that were either: 1) constructed as poems and hymns at the time of the writing of the New Testament, or 2) Were made into music centuries later by ancient Christians in the ancient Liturgies, by Medieval Christians, or more modern folks. A canticle by the way, is simply using a piece of scripture as the lyrics of a song, in the same way the book of Psalms is treated.

The Inspiration of the thread came from a conversation with @The Liturgist where he conversed and spoke about how Philippians 2: 6-11 is considered by many Church Historians to be the "Oldest Hymn in Christianity" (see below link). But I got other stuff to say, from the Syriac and Aramaic heritage where scholars believe that some of Jesus' preaching and sayings were using poetic devices from Hebrew and Aramaic poetry etc.


A Hymn to Christ? (Philippians 2:6-11)

Well, I myself would be very interested in everyone’s opinion about what all of the Scriptural Canticles are, in both the Old and New Testaments, and in the Deuterocanonical books, (an example of Old Testament canticles would be the Songs of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, or the entire Song of Solomon, and many other things, and examples of New Testament canticles everyone knows are the Benedicite, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimitis in Luke ch. 1 and 2, the celebrated Evangelical Canticles, and an example of a Deuterocanonical canticle would be the Song of the Three Children in the furnace, Benedicite Omni Opera, or Wisdom chapter 2. Basically, in this context, a canticle is any poem, hymn or song in Scripture outside of the Psalter (the Book of Psalms).

Some early Christian hymns like Te Deum Laudamus and Phos Hilarion are also commonly called canticles, and there is some apocryphal material as well, such as the Odes of Solomon, which are heterodox or heretical psuedepigrapha. If anyone, for the sake of completness, wanted to provide a list of those as well, it would be appreciated.

This assumes, of course, that @Pavel Mosko is OK with my piggy-backing on his thread to try to get such a list of canticles.

 

[The Liturgist]

Does this qualify?

"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
received up into glory."

—1 Timothy 3:16

Actually I have seen that set to music as a canticle. So I am going to say yes, because it looks very much like a creedal hymn, like Ho Monogenes or Te Deum Laudamus.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

sure its OK I can edit the OP.

I love the Nunc Dimintis, that was one of the few parts of my old Lutheran liturgy that I thought was really pretty.

 

[Abaxvahl]

A thread about all the various parts of the New Testament that were either: 1) constructed as poems and hymns at the time of the writing of the New Testament, or 2) Were made into music centuries later by ancient Christians in the ancient Liturgies, by Medieval Christians, or more modern folks.

(A canticle by the way, is simply using a piece of scripture as the lyrics of a song, in the same way the book of Psalms was used by the ancient Hebrews)

The Inspiration of the thread came from a conversation with @The Liturgist where we conversed and spoke about how Philippians 2:6-11 is considered by many Church Historians to be the "Oldest Hymn in Christianity" (see below link). But I got other stuff to say, from the Syriac and Aramaic heritage where scholars believe that some of Jesus' preaching and sayings were using poetic devices from Hebrew and Aramaic poetry etc.


A Hymn to Christ? (Philippians 2:6-11)

Just listing the ones I know of:

1) Canticle of Mary (Magnificat), "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord..."
2) Canticle of Zechariah, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel..."
3) Canticle of Simeon, "Now you dismiss your servant in peace..."
4) The Hymn of the Logos (John 1:1-14), "In the beginning was the Word..."
5) Ephesians 1:3-10 Canticle, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..."
6) 2 Timothy 2:11-13, "For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him..."
7) Several from Revelation including 15:3-4, "Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God All-Powerful..."

And of course the Philippians one you mentioned.

 

[The Liturgist]

So, here is a list that looks very complete, from liturgies.net, which might be helpful, although it does not have everything we have discussed:


Canticles
The following canticles are mostly collected from the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours and the 1979 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Not included are the Psalms which are used as Canticles (Psalms 95, 100, 67, 24). Those can be found in the Invitatory Psalms
Cantemus Domino - The Song of Moses
God's kindness to his people - Deuteronomy 32:1-12
The Song of Hannah - 1 Samuel 2:1-10
David's Song of Thanks -1 Chronicles 16:8-14, 23-27,36
The Song of David - 1 Chronicles 29
Ecce Deus - The First Song of Isaiah
Hymn After Victory - Isaiah 26:1b-4,7-9,12
God's Flawless Judgment - Isaiah 33:13-16
A Song of the Wilderness - Isaiah 35:1,2b-4a,4c-6,10
The Song of Hezekiah- Isaiah 38:10-14, 17-20
The Good Shepherd- Isaiah 40:10-17
God Victor and Savior- Isaiah 42:10-16
Vere tu es Deus- Isaiah 45:15-25
Quaerite Dominum - Isaiah 55:6-11
Surge, illuminare - Isaiah 60:1-3, 11a, 14c, 18-19
A New Jerusalem - Isaiah 61:10-62:5
Joys of heaven - Isaiah 66:10-14a
Lament in Time of War and Famine - Jeremiah 14:17-21
The Song of Jeremiah - Jeremiah 31:10-14
A Song of Lamentation - Lamentations 1:12,16; 3:19,22-24,26
The Lord Will Renew His People - Ezekiel 36:24-28
A Song of Hosea - Hosea 6:1-3
A Song of Jonah - Jonah 2:2-7,9
The Canticle of Habakkuk - -Habakkuk 3:1-19
The Prayer of Azariah - Daniel 3: 26,27, 29, 34-41

Deuterocanonical Canticles:

Song of the Three Young Men - Benedicite, omnia opera Domini
Song of the Three Young Men II - Benedictus es, Domine
The Song of Tobit - Tobit 13:1b-8
Thanksgiving for the people's deliverance - Tobit 13:8-11,13-15
The Song of Judith - Judith 16:1,13-15
The Souls of the Righteous - Wisdom 3: 1-8
Prayer for Wisdom - Wisdom 9:1-6,9-11
Song of Wisdom - Sirach 14:20; 15:3-6
Prayer for Jerusalem - Sirach 36:1-5,10-13
Kyrie Pantokrator - Prayer of Manasseh

New Testament Canticles

The Beatitudes
Magnificat - The Song of Mary
Benedictus - The Song of Zechariah
Nunc Dimittis - The Song of Simeon
God Our Saviour - Ephesians 1:3-10
The Firstborn of all Creation - Colossians 1:12-20
A Song of Faith - 1 Peter 1:3-4,18-21
A Song of Christ the Servant - 1 Peter 2:21b-25
A Song of Repentance - 1 John 1:5-9
Dignus es - The Song of the Lamb
The Great Multitude - Revelation 7:9-10, 12, 15-17
The Judgment of God - Revelation 11:17-18; 12:10b-12a
Magna et mirabilia - Song of the Redeemed
New Heaven and New Earth - Revelation 21:1-5
The Heavenly City - Revelation 21:22-26; 22:1-4; 5:13

Early Christian Hymns:

Gloria in excelsis - Glory to God
The Nicene Creed
The Apostles' Creed
Te Deum Laudamus - You are God
The Angelus
Phos hilaron - O Gracious Light
Pascha nostrum - Christ our Passover

 

[The Liturgist]

Does this qualify?

"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
received up into glory."

—1 Timothy 3:16

So we should revise the above list to include this, Phillipians 2:6-11, any missing items from the list posted by @Abaxvahl and the Songs of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah and Wisdom Chapter 2.

I have the texts for Psalms 152-155, which exist only in Syriac apocrypha (the deuterocanonical Psalm 151 is more well known), and that might also be of interest.

 

[The Liturgist]

And here, the Wikipedia article has a complete list of Canticles by Denomination, including the Nine Odes of the Byzantine Rite (the Byzantine hymn known as a Canon is composed by taking at least two of these odes and writing new hymns that combine them with the liturgical theme of the day, and these are used in Matins and in other contexts, such as at the start of the Holy Unction liturgy (annointing the sick, or at least once a year, at the end of Lent or on Holy Wednesday, the entire congregation, with Holy Oil); the Canon also was adopted into the Syriac Orthodox and West Syriac (Maronite, and the lost Syriac Rite of the Antiochian Orthodox Church) liturgical tradition, with many Byzantine canons translated into Syriac, other Syriac canons composed in the Byzantine style, and still others composed in a distinctive Syriac style. I have a copy of the ordinary of the Syriac Orthodox divine office, the Shimo, and portions of the Fanqitho, the alternative offices used on Holy Days, during Lent, Holy Week, Christmas, and other feasts throughout the year, akin to the Triodion, Pentecostarion and Menaion in the Eastern Orthodox liturgy.

The Copts also have the concept of Odes, or Psalis, which they then compose thematic variants on, in the Psalmody, which is the most elaborate of the three components of their Divine Liturgy. And I believe the Assyrian Church of the East does something similiar with the Psalms.

Of course, we can’t enumerate all of the variations of the Odes in use by the Eastern Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and other churches, but we should make sure we add the canticles and psalms they do use as a base for the Canons and also the liturgical Antiphons (this is where the Beatitudes are used, as the third antiphon, in the Eastern Orthodox liturgy, using the older Sabaite Typikon, which is the custom on Mount Athos and in the Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian and Georgian Orthodox churches.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

So, here is a list that looks very complete, from liturgies.net, which might be helpful, although it does not have everything we have discussed:

I was going to mention the Aaronic Blessing that was done in the old Latin liturgy copied/ modified by Lutherans and Anglicans, but since that is not usually chanted maybe it doesn't count.

 

[The Liturgist]

I was going to mention the Aaronic Blessing that was done in the old Latin liturgy copied/ modified by Lutherans and Anglicans, but since that is not usually chanted maybe it doesn't count.

On the contrary, it is frequently sung or chanted, both in the original Judaic context and in the Lutheran and Anglican context. So, let’s add that.

And remember the criteria: any song or poem, that was sung or recited, or that could hypothetically be sung, spoken in the manner of an Anglican said service, or read responsorially.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

On the contrary, it is frequently sung or chanted, both in the original Judaic context and in the Lutheran and Anglican context. So, let’s add that.

And remember the criteria: any song or poem, that was sung or recited, or that could hypothetically be sung, spoken in the manner of an Anglican said service, or read responsorially.

OK yeah that does give me flashbacks being a little boy and hearing it that way, but boy that was like 1980 or so since maybe the last time I heard someone venture into chanting it.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Christ's Words as Hebrew Poetry


Aramaic Herald: Jesus the Poet: Christ’s Words as Hebrew Poetry By Stephen Andrew Missick