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The Church Fathers · c. 280–300
The Oxyrhynchus Hymn
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1786
Anonymous
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What it is
The tail of a hymn to the Trinity on the back of a grain account, written with Greek vocal notation above the words — let all the powers cry amen, amen, might and praise to the only giver of all good things.
Why it lasted
The earliest Christian music that can actually be performed, and the only surviving piece of Christian melody from before Constantine. The papyrus was recovered from a rubbish mound at Oxyrhynchus in 1918.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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