Sacred Songs/Sacred Service

by

Sharon Clark Pearson

            "The Christian Church was born in song."[1] This significant observation is the conclusion of formal study of the liturgical traditions and hymnic deposits embedded in New Testament documents, a study whose results are now broadly recognized. One function these sacred songs perform is to reveal the content of the worship and teaching of the early Christian communities.  They are windows into the life of the church. These songs demonstrate what was identified as specifically Christian in the early churches. As traditions which predate the New Testament text, they indicate what was accepted as authoritative teaching, what was recognized as authoritative by an early community and what was passed on with assumed authority. 

            The songs incorporated into the New Testament perform another function as well. Study of the place they hold in the New Testament documents discloses their vital function of directing the exhortation and instruction in the texts themselves. The inspiration of the hymnic traditions creates the impetus for the rhetorical requirements the text makes on its readers. The Christolgies are never left in the realm of doctrinal propositions. The significance of the claims about the Christ is laid out in practical applications of what faith means in the community and in the world.

Songs and Early Christian Belief

            The Christology of the New Testament is "virtually contained in those passages most likely to be classified as early hymns of the church...."[2]  Song is the language of worship; song is the vehicle of praise bursting from the human heart. It is in song that the experiential and the analytical unite forces. From the beginning, the early church encapsulated its faith in song, its song in worship, and its worship in instruction, thereby creating a circle of inspiration, implication, and application. What began with the great act of God in Christ culminates in the human response of confession, adoration, and service. The center of Christian worship is Christ, a "word" about Christ (reading of Scripture, song, liturgy, and preaching), the sacrament of Christ, and then service in the name of Christ.

            What is distinctive about Christian worship is its Christology. Early Christian understandings of Christ were derived not only from reflection on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and not only in the available conceptual constructs of their cultures and time. The conviction of Jesus' identity did not flow first from philosophical speculation, but rather was apprehended in the experience of community worship, the experience of the living and reigning Lord in the midst of the believers. The exalted language of worship, received in traditional liturgical deposits, reflects both the glory of the resurrected Lord, present in and to the church, and the historical constructs in which that worship was expressed. The psalms of old now burst forth into fresh creations, hymns of the One sent from God and acknowledged as Messiah and Lord. The Christ event is so astounding that a plethora of images, old and new, are enlisted to communicate in exquisite form the significance of God's act in the Christ. Christ is exalted because he had performed a specific function. In him, God had accomplished something for each one who is worshipping and for all of them together.[3]

            Once the place of hymns in the early church is established by New Testament evidence, a related inquiry may be pursued. The inquiry is directed by a question: What role did hymnic materials fulfill in the production of the text of the New Testament? The question restated is, What service did the sacred songs of the church play in the development of the Scriptures of the church? The thesis presented here is that the songs of the early church performed the vital service of defining what was specifically Christian. They became the center of Christian worship and then they became the foundation for instruction that was incorporated into the New Testament. The songs now embedded in the New Testament texts functioned first in the service of worship and then as the authority for Christian exhortation, encouragement, and engagement in the life of the church and in the world. The song served in the making of the Christian community, then and now.  Song invites the worshiper into correct understanding and  experience.

            One of the more secure conclusions of studies of the New Testament is that, before those books were produced, collections of pre-formed liturgical (including song), catechetical, and parenetic material were in circulation in the church and were appealed to as authoritative sources. Such traditional deposits formed a common fund which was used in the production of the texts of the New Testament. The effectiveness of such traditional material is assumed by the authors who employed them to great effect as anchors and centers of understanding and prescribed action.

            In the early church, much of the interpretation of the Christ event was presented in the conceptual constructs of the Old Testament, reflecting the authority that the Old Testament canon held in the community. Many of the songs of the church were based on the language, the concepts, and often, even the form of Old Testament worship materials (parallelism).[4] A further conclusion reaching near consensus in New Testament studies is that the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament texts followed recognizable patterns, including the selection of whole blocks of writing, especially from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Psalms (in contrast to isolated proof-texts).[5]  For example, 1 Peter reflects the imagery and even the words of Deutero-Isaiah. Furthermore, in the hymns of 1 Peter the Christ event is presented in the concepts and even the explicit language of the "servant songs."

The Identification of Hymns

            Three passages in the New Testament refer to the occurrence of singing in worship: 1 Corinthians 14:26; Colossians 3:16; and Ephesians 5:19.[6] The identification of liturgical (creedal or hymnic) passages in the text of the New Testament, begun in the early 1900s, was based on grammatical and syntactical evidence. For example, E. Norden (1912) listed a number of  literary devices as indicative of such materials: parallelismus membrorum; a pronominal beginning; descriptive participles; and relative clauses.[7]  Since the earliest work on such material, many passages in the New Testament have been isolated and identified as hymnic in nature or genre.[8] The evidence considered by such investigations includes not only the internal structure (strophes or parallelisms) and poetic devices, but also contextual dislocation produced by the insertion of such material into the prose style of narrative or epistle. Traditionally, the psalms of Luke 1-2 and the doxologies of the Book of Revelation have been accepted as such pre-formed deposits. Other texts, well-established as "hymnic" by form criticism in the past few decades, are Philippians 2:6-11, Colossians 1:15-20, 1 Timothy 3:16, and John 1:1-18. A number of other passages have been isolated and identified as "hymnic," at least in some sense. First Peter, for example, has been the subject of much recent attention, particularly in terms of its Christological materials.

First Peter: A Case Study

            1 Peter is an epistolary form which incorporates a kaleidoscope of traditional deposits from the worship and teaching milieu of the early church, as well as quotations and allusions from the Old Testament. The dependence of 1 Peter on pre-formed materials, as well as numerous Old Testament citations and allusions (nearly 46 quotations and pointers), is so great that the document has been characterized as "the epistle of tradition."[9]  Schutter summarized the findings of source studies of 1 Peter (as well as his own study of the hermeneutic of the author) by describing the text as "[an] intricately woven texture, a nearly continuous synthesis of source-materials of one sort or another."[10] 

                As early as 1906, Alfred Seeberg made note of the use of formula-like material in this epistle.[11] The studies which followed were concerned with detecting such pre-formed deposits on the basis of lexical, stylistic, and contextual study. Over the last century, form-critical study has identified a number of types of traditional material and formal sources (beyond the Old Testament citations). These types have been classified as the following: topoi, ethical lists, kerygmatic and creedal statements, hymns or hymn fragments, catechetical instructions, doxologies and eulogies, household rules, testimonia and dominical sayings.[12] Such source materials are found throughout 1 Peter.

            The Christology of 1 Peter is advanced primarily by the use of traditional deposits which have been carefully integrated into the text. The epistle employs these traditional materials without attempting to expand on their doctrines (1 Peter is not a "theological treatise" as such).[13] Its essential Christological testimony occurs in 1:3-12, 1:18-21, 2:4-8, 2:21-25, and 3:18-22. Each of these passages contains traditional materials, whether from oral or literary sources. With the exception of 2:4-8, each passage has been identified by style and form as containing traditional liturgical fragments.[14] The conclusion that formal liturgical or "hymnic" materials are embedded in 1 Peter has been widely recognized since the early studies by Bo Reicke (1946), R. Bultmann (1949), J. Jeremias (1949), and H. Windisch (1951) who identified 1:3-12, 1:18-21, 2:21-25, and 3:18-22 as hymns.[15]  

The Christological Hymnic Material in 1 Peter

            The Christological pericope 1 Peter 1:3-12 is a distinct unit (composed of a single sentence) and a tightly woven declaration based on at least six varieties of formal materials exhibiting several accretions of tradition. The berakot form ("Blessed be...") which opens the pericope establishes the types of sources employed in the unit as a whole (verses 3-12) and also the intent of 1 Peter. The passage is created from language and forms of Christian worship and was for Christian worship.[16] Pre-formed traditional materials have been worked into a complex introduction to the whole of 1 Peter.[17]

            First Peter 1:3-12 portrays both literary and grammatical elements of a rhythmic style with hymnic features. It is not possible to produce evidence for reconstruction of a hymn or a hymnic fragment in 1 Peter 1:3-12, even in the most obvious verses 1:3-5. Yet, given the limitations admitted here, it is  possible to claim a "hymn-like" quality for at least 1 Peter 1:3-5, and probably even for the materials through verse nine. A Christological pattern of sufferings/glories, which appears in the liturgical forms behind this exquisite literary proem, creates the center of the unit 1 Peter 1:3-12 which, in its final form, is best identified as a formal, didactic ascription.[18]

            The pericope of 1 Peter 1:18-21 is a composite of formulary materials primarily determined by the Isaiah 53 tradition and deliberately reflecting a dynamic of the sufferings/glories. The descending clauses, in two couplets (with balanced antithesis) preserve, traces of the hymnic nature of the traditional sources. The participial phrase in verse 18 is used as a technical introduction to "standardized teaching" which follows.[19] The poetic forces of parallelism and assonance and the unusual liturgical language of the pericope (7 terms not found elsewhere in 1 Peter) create the authority that enforces the exhortation of 1:13-17 and is continued after 1:21, most often in the language and thought forms of Deutero-Isaiah.

            The next hymnic pericope, 1 Peter 2:21-25, exhibits a different linguistic usage, terminology, and style from its context. The arrangement of parallelisms together with strophes sets this unit off from the surrounding context.  Derived from a rearrangement of several lines of Isaiah 53, this hymnic piece is based primarily on the feature of parallelism original to the source.[20] The features that indicate the independence of this unit (contextual dislocation and linguistic usage) also give the unit the character of a traditional deposit (a pre-formed unit) and, more particularly, a hymn.[21] The pericope includes the ethical example of Christ as the archetypal righteous sufferer and the dominant theme of Christ's suffering as atonement. A sufferings/glories pattern is portrayed here in the language of Isaiah 53.

            Whereas the pericope of 1 Peter 2:21-25 emphasizes the obedience of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, the last pericope to be considered, 1 Peter 3:18-22, moves immediately from the suffering of Christ to his vindication, exaltation, and triumphant reign in the present, which assures the future. First Peter 3:18-22 begins with a repetition of the language and structure of the introduction to the hymnic form in 2:21-25. The introductory "for" (gar), the "because" (oti), and the phrase "Christ also suffered for our sins" (2:21 and 3:17-18) are all parallels, as is the "in order that" clause expressing motivation.[22]

            The pericope opens with a primitive creedal statement and expands into a hymn fragment which frames verses 18c-22. Despite first appearances, the pericope is not a haphazard juxtaposition of disparate materials. The progression of thought in 3:18-22 is produced by a long series of qualifying statements or dependent clauses, each one specifying the preceding statement. Following the synthesis provided by Intertestamental literature, verses 20-21 offer a sort of midrash  developed on Enoch/Noah traditions.[23] Verse 3:22 returns to the resurrection inference of verse 18 in a resolution in which Christ has become the "Cosmocrat" and "judge of all history."[24] Each assertion of the pericope is a purposeful progression built on the authoritative base of a sufferings/glories scheme.

             Some of the evidences, identifying hymnic features in this pericope include the rhyming participles of verse 18b which are hapax legomena in 1 Peter. The third participle which occurs in verses 19 and 22 makes it even more likely that traditional material is being used. Another clear sign of creedal or hymnic material is the intentional antithesis with parallel clauses. Such criteria are found in verse 18b. The anaphoric style of 1:20 is repeated as well. Also, with the verb endings and noun endings the same, the rhetorical device of epiphora creates a certain assonance in these paired participial phrases.

            The final verse of the pericope also reflects a creedal or hymnic character. The connecting relative pronoun, the two participial verbs, and the anaphoric style are all signs of a traditional piece.[25] The "themes of enthronement, ascension to a heavenly realm, and domination or subjugation of the cosmic powers" are described in elevated style and language.[26] The content, which recalls the basic facts of Heilsgeschichte, again indicates poetic and hymnic character.  The phrase "who is at the right hand of God" is paralleled in Romans 8:34, including the relative pronoun (cf. Eph. 1:20; Heb. 1:3; 10:12; 12:2). The original source of this phrase is the LXX of Ps. 109 [110]:1.[27]

            The last line of the pericope consists of a participle and three nouns without definite articles: "with angels and powers and authorities subject to him." Assonance is produced by the rhyming endings. The defining nouns are similar to those found in 1 Corinthians 15:24, Ephesians 6:12, and Colossians 2:15, which again reveals their traditional nature.  

            First Peter 3:18c-22 is so clearly distinct from 3:18ab and parallel to 1 Timothy 3:16 that it suggests the theory of an underlying hymn. First Peter 3:18ab serves as a "superscript" for 3:18c-22 in the same way that 2:21 functions for 2:22-25.[28] After presenting a summary of the historical dialogue of the form-critical work on 1 Peter 3:18-22, Martin concluded that 1 Peter 3:18f, 22 is a "pre-formed early version of a hymnic formula of which 1 Timothy 3:16 is a more complete or refined version."[29] Schutter cautiously concurred with the proposal of an underlying hymn behind 3:18c-22. In fact, he explained Goppelt's rejection of a hymn fragment partly as "neglect" of the parallels which may be observed in 1 Timothy 3:16; he quoted Sanders' comparison of the sequence of 3:18c/19/22 and the order of 1 Tim. 3:16 in defense of an underlying tradition.[30]  

The Sufferings/Glories Pattern of the Hymnic Material

            In 1 Peter the Christological hymnic deposits have been selected and reworked in a fashion consistent enough to create an identifiable pattern. The Christological pattern or scheme of the four passages identified above (which contain traditional liturgical material: 1:1-12, 1:18-21, 2:21-25, and 3:18-22) introduces the primary focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is presented as constituting a unity. In 1 Peter, this unity is understood to reveal God's plan. The dynamic of the pairing of death/ resurrection is presented throughout 1 Peter in the scheme of "sufferings" and "glories" (1:11). That scheme presents the conviction that, in God's plan, righteous suffering is followed by vindication, exaltation, and "glories." The Christological materials of 1 Peter have been selected, correlated, and arranged by the scheme of sufferings/ glories so as to create a pattern. This suffering/glories pattern or scheme (hereafter referred to as the S/G pattern) is not only appealed to at significant junctures in 1 Peter; it has been made the model which guides the development of the text itself.

             Edward Lohse declared in 1954 the design behind the author's selection of the Christological pericope in 1 Peter: "The creedal and hymnic pieces used by 1 Peter center on the theme of Christ's sufferings and are cited precisely because of that content."[31] E. Richard and W. L. Schutter continued the direction anticipated by Lohse, each from a different angle. Richard isolated liturgical fragments he detected in 1 Peter and claimed to have discovered a "hymnic pattern or mythic structure" which "emphasize(d) two movements within [the] Christological progression: suffering/death and glory/right hand." He concluded his proposal with the statement: "For our author, Jesus is the image of suffering and glory." Richard made this thesis foundational to his understanding of the total document: "Indeed, the entire structure of 1 Peter is an appeal to authority. . .Christ's example, that is, his suffering and glory are the authority or model of Christian life in the world both as defense (3:15) and as life (2:21)."[32]

            Schutter recognized this sufferings/glories pattern and its centrality in 1 Peter. He found this scheme to be so foundational in 1 Peter that he made the claim that the S/G "has operated as an organizing principle in the way the author has read the Scriptures..."[33] In his analysis of five passages in 1 Peter, where the Old Testament controlled the task of composition, Schutter found that each one reflected the S/G scheme of 1:11.[34] Therefore, he concluded that the sufferings/glories scheme in 1:10-12 is the definitive statement of the hermeneutical method of 1 Peter. That scheme is understood by the author/s of 1 Peter to be the core of the message of the prophets. According to Schutter, the sufferings/glories motif is derived from the humiliation/vindication theme of the Servant Songs of Deutero-Isaiah, especially Isaiah 53.[35] In particular, he found that the source behind the Christological material in 1:18-22, 2:21-25, 3:18-22, and 4:13-14 was Isaiah 53: 

. . .no OT context makes itself felt as strongly in this respect. . .as that of Is. 53. The three explicit allusions to it already identified in 2.22, 24, and 25 make three more in 2.23-4 likely, so that vv. 4-14 in Is. 53 are spanned. Thus other possible allusions to Is. 53 at 1.19 (53.7) and 3:18 (53.11 LXX) become likely. So, by virtue of the allusion to 52.3 at 1.18, a block of Isaiah comes into view, helping the prospects for another allusion at 1.21....[36]

            The presentations of these two scholars only begin to do justice to the fact that the sufferings/glories motif appears throughout 1 Peter (as a pattern, sixteen times). Their work prepares the way for the conclusion that in 1 Peter, the S/G pattern, derived from and couched in traditional deposits, has become not only the message, but also the method of the document.

Summary of Findings

            What becomes apparent in this brief case study is that pre-formed traditional deposits, originally carefully crafted, are painstakingly incorporated into the text of 1 Peter. From the opening proem to the closing affirmation of the triumphant cosmocrator, these traditional materials are appealed to as authoritative presentations of the Christ which are presumed then to require a certain response from the congregation. In content and in form, these songs contain the inspiration to move the church to worship and service.

            The importance of the four Christological passages (1:1-12, 1:18-21, 2:21-25, and 3:18-22-and also 2:4-8) studied above is that they form the conceptual unity for the document. They provide a foundation for the central motif of 1 Peter: sufferings/glories.[37] The suffering and the glorification of Christ are made the foundation for the encouragement and exhortation offered to the suffering communities of northern Asia Minor.

            Many scholars (including Goppelt, for example) have noted that the three Christological formulas (1:18ff.; 2:21-25; and 3:18-22) in 1 Peter furnished the parenesis (ethical material) with a Christological foundation.[38] The layout of material creates a pattern of indicatives (givens or facts) which guide the imperatives (resulting commands). First Peter 1:3-12 introduces this pattern with a broad-based indicative. The Christological traditions are then employed throughout the text as the authority on which the imperatives rest. 

            The formal source material of 1 Peter, especially the liturgical texts which originally had been created in the realm of worship, are re-enlisted and directed to a worshipping community.  The author(s) of 1 Peter draws on these authoritative statements of the faith (whether the sources are Scriptures, Christian forms developed from Scripture, or Christian liturgy) in a great variety and number of forms, all of which are used for the purpose of heightening the effect of encouragement and instruction in the worship experience offered by the text.  

            The Christology of the five major traditional pericopae of 1 Peter (1:3-12, 1:18-21, 2:4-8, 2:21-25, and 3:18-22) controls both the soteriological assurances and also reveals and responds to the sociological realities of the recipient community. These pericopae function as the rationale, the assurance, the requirement of the community of faith, and as a theodicy that both promises vindication and justifies God's action/inaction. The songs of 1 Peter provide a sacred service in the document and presumably in the worship life of the communities that received the inspired word about Christ.

            This case study of 1 Peter demonstrates that the hymns of the early church which lie behind the text not only functioned as worship material for the recipient community, but also served as the authority for the exhortation of the text. Further, the song material embedded in 1 Peter actually guides the method and the logic of the text: sufferings/glories. Christ, the innocent  suffered unjustly. God vindicated the suffering of the Christ and exalted him. You suffer (innocently). You will also be vindicated by God. These sacred songs perform a sacred service first in the worship of the early church and then in the function they play in the sacred texts of the church (such as 1 Peter). 

            From the above brief perusal of the phenomena of hymnic deposits in the New Testament, it seems that the Christologies of the early churches reflected therein were presented in the forms and language of worship, and not in extended philosophical discourse or rhetoric. Whereas the early songs portrayed a unity in the worship of the Christ (though in diverse concepts), later philosophical reflection on the Christologies of the hymns created great diversity and even division in the church of the early theologians ("fathers"). It seems that only the form of experience and expression called "song" is able to proclaim adequately the truth about the Christ and the "indescribable and glorious joy" of loving Christ (1 Peter 1:8).

Implications and Applications

            The major theses of this article are: (1) the Christology of the New Testament is located almost exclusively in the hymnic material of the early church; (2) these songs of the early church performed the vital service of defining what was specifically Christian; (3) the Christological hymns/hymnic fragments functioned as authority for Christian exhortation, encouragement, and engagement in the life of the church and in the world; (4) such songs invite the worshipper into both correct understanding and experience; and (5) these traditional materials are now a part of what is identified as the received traditions, the authoritative literature of the church, Scripture.

            What are the implications of such a study? How does this study inform the church today in its theory and practice of worship? At the very least, and first, worship and instruction in the church ought to proceed from its Christology. What defines the worship of the church as "Christian"? The worship of the One whose plan of salvation is revealed in Christ Jesus. What kinds of affirmations may be made?  Those that are declarative of the One worshipped and those which express the experience of the worshipper ("you love him. . .and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy-1 Peter 1:8). 

            What difference does this study make for the planning and practice of the worship of the church of today? How important are the songs of the church? How important is the text of the songs of the church? Are assembled Christians today singing all or even the core of what they believe? Do the songs of the church have the breadth that preaching and teaching does? Are they as instructive as they are inspirational or are they just "odd little tidbits" of theology or Christian experience?[39] Is the church making full use of the opportunity to sing all that needs to be sung if, in fact, song is both powerful in experience and memorable in impact? As conservators of the traditions of the church, how adequate are the songs selected for the only service of worship many congregants will participate in per week?[40] 

            In most Christian communities, song is a vital part of worship. Many traditions boast multiple resources of considerable breadth to support this exercise. Most hymnals "contain hymns from almost twenty centuries and liturgical pieces that go back to the earliest church...."[41] Along with this age-old heritage, many of the great reformations of the church have been accompanied by an outburst of song. "Both Luther and Wesley wrote new music to supplement the musical heritage they already had, a faith tradition passed on from one generation to another."[42] Focus on the Wesleyan tradition reveals a rich heritage of vibrant music, deliberate theology and songs of experience. John Wesley compiled selections from some 6,500 songs of his brother Charles Wesley in The Collection of Psalms and Hymns .[43] This hymn book became "very much a part of Wesley's educational and evangelical ministry."[44] Hymn-singing was found to be:

[a] powerful instrument of both evangelism and Christian worship. . .by means of the hymns the Methodist people were not only brought to religious convictions: they came to understand their Bibles better, a secure foundation of evangelical theology was laid in their minds, and they were built up in the Christian faith.... Methodists everywhere became well-known for their singing.[45]         

John Wesley designed the hymnal with the concern that it be "large enough to contain all the important truths of our most holy religion" and judged it unique in providing ". . .so distinct and full an account of scriptural Christianity."[46] Charles Wesley's deep knowledge of Scripture, exhibited in his natural and capable paraphrase which highlighted themes rather than precise vocabulary, demonstrates a conscious commitment to the truth of Scripture as well as to the Wesleyan concern for religious experience.[47]

            It is typical of reforming movements to complain of the weaknesses of the worship traditions of parent bodies. In some cases the accusation has been that the songs are staid and empty of inspiration.[48] Note:  

It is a fact well known, and felt by the saints, that the hymns of the past fail to express the glorious Light and Liberty, Grace, Truth and Power, the Free and Holy Church has attained in this blessed evening light. Hence the Lord has marvelously given us these NEW SONGS [his emphasis] that we may sing more fully the Joy and Victory we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.[49]

A later church historian of this particular reforming group (Church of God, Anderson) agreed that such new songs "lyricized the theology and the spirit of the movement in such a way that it became even more joyful, inspiring, and contagious than it had ever been before."[50]  Another participant of this movement went farther, crediting the music for the reformation: ". . .it was their inspired music which had so much to do with bringing to birth a new spirit of reformation among the people."[51]

            Part of the genius of the Wesleyan tradition is experience-oriented worship (demonstrative). "Emotion is a response, an accompaniment, and a confirmation" of the saving activity of God in the individual and the church.[52] This powerful affirmation of the value of experience in worship is offered by a songwriter whose theology is deeply steeped in the traditions of Scripture:

We sing of him whose wondrous name

Fills all our hearts with song;

Our highest praise to him we'll raise

Throughout the ages long.

Jesus Christ is the Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ is the Lord,

Let ev'ry tongue proclaim.

Name above all names

Ev'ry knee should bow before him

Savior, Lord and King,

Forevermore the same.[53]

            It is true that Scripture is full of stories of personal encounters with God: Abraham, Moses, Mary, Martha, and Paul were confronted by the God who willed to be revealed. Personal and corporate testimony of that experience is the natural outcome. Theological reflection is the attempt to understand and explain that experience. But, for the Christian, reflection on experience does not happen in a vacuum. It is defined in the realm of the Christ-event, God's fullest self-disclosure, prophesied and fulfilled according to the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments.      

            But, what does the the emphasis on the authority of Scripture imply when it comes to the question of songs in the church? If Scripture carries a special authority, what does the study of 1 Peter suggest to the church? The case study of 1 Peter is informative, not only for the particular emphases of the Weslyan tradition, but also for the church in her myriad traditions and expressions. The ascription of praise, 1 Peter 1:3-12, which functions to introduce the themes of 1 Peter, is instructive. It covers a remarkably broad range of theology: the doctrine of Christ, the trinity, salvation history, the church as the people of God though aliens and sojourners in the world, those who "love" and "exult" "without having seen," eschatology with the comfort of hope, and a rich theodicy for those who "suffer." What God has accomplished in Christ for salvation (about to be revealed) is the center of the assurance and exhortation of this epistle. While not every song will cover vast theological territory, songs of a given worship event ought to be definitive expressions of Christian doctrine and experience. So, for example, the church can sing knowingly of salvation with Charles Wesley, "O for a Thousand Tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise,"[54] or with Fanny Crosby, "To God be the Glory, great things he has done, So loved he the world that he gave us his Son."[55] Such songs lead the worshipper into correct understanding and experience. They are based on the authority of the testimony of Scripture as well as personal experience of God's saving presence.

            Until recently, theologians and ministers wrote the songs of the church. Many of the contemporary choruses are written by biblically and theologically illiterate laypeople (usually musicians). Wrong-headed theology and uncertain esoteric experience can and does mislead the church in grave ways. Part of the problem is the lack of awareness or understanding of Scriptural revelation.  Another part of the problem is historical ignorance. Two thousand years of church music can be a blessing as easily as a "curse." Unfortunately, most "contemporary" services "seem to slice out only a few recent years [of music] and thereby deprive their participants of their rightful place in that larger picture."[56] Ignorance of what has gone before is a grave handicap; a crippled church cannot be effective in a world that needs all her gifts!

            Marva Dawn challenges the church: "What kind of character is being formed by certain styles of worship?"[57] "Shallow music forms shallow people."[58] Warning against "dumbing down" the church in a misguided and misinformed attempt to be culturally relevant, Dawn encourages the church to reject music that is theologically misleading, inadequate, sub-Christian, or shallow.[59] In his theology of worship text, Ralph Martin offers four helpful criteria by which to test hymns and songs of the church. A song ought to:

(1) "articulate the praise of God the Father in whom his creation lives...; (2) "celebrate God's activity in history. . . and [Christ's] continuing reality in every age including our own; (3)"register sensitivity to personal experience of God's saving and renewing grace in Christ and in the Spirit, leading to encouragement...to rise to full stature in Christ; and (4) contain understandable language and application of truth at the social level.[60]

            Let us reach out in the church and to the world with the best music we can offer from the church's entire history, from the distant past to the present. Let us offer our praise out of the depth and the breadth of God's love at work among us, as recorded in Scripture and testified to by the saints. Let the church always and ever "sing a new song. . .because God is present in our midst in new ways."[61] 

            As in the days that 1 Peter circulated among the congregations of Asia Minor, now as then, song with its great affect and effect becomes a primary tool for the induction, instruction, inspiration, and increase of Christian faith and life. Song is one of the more powerful tools for the edification of the worshipping community. What is best remembered? Sermon or song? Lesson or hymn? Proclamation or praise? What best creates and sustains a "word about Christ"? That which draws both heart and mind into the presence of God and into an experience of the Christ "for us." May we not waste such a precious and rich inheritance of song which is a birthright of our great salvation! May we employ the sacred songs of the church to the sacred services  of the church in service  to the church! And may the church, with the saints and angels above, sing a "new song" with full voice:

Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered

to receive power and wealth

and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing![62]

Endnotes:

                ^[1]This article is dedicated to Dr. Ralph P. Martin whose inspiration has touched my life; but far beyond that he has challenged the Church to embrace its rich heritage to the full. Ralph P. Martin, Worship in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), 39. With the artistry of a songwriter,  Martin opens his Chapter 4, "Hymns and Spiritual Songs." This sentence provides the quintessence of this article.

            [2]Ralph P. Martin, The Worship of God (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982), 52. This is particularly the case with 1 Peter, which will be the focus of this study.

            [3]This is a summary of the thinking of Larry Hurtado in One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988).

            [4]Martin, The Worship of God, 54.

            [5]For a summary of these findings, see Ralph P. Martin, New Testament Foundations, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), 248-256.

            [6]James 5:13. "Songs of praise" could refer to private or public worship.

            [7]As summarized by Martin Hengel, "Hymn and Christology," Studia Biblica III, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement Series 3 (Sheffield, 1980), 186. See Hengel, Studies in Early Christianity, 1995.

            [8]Reinhard Deichgräber has prepared a through historical summary and analysis of the study of early Christian hymnic materials in his work Gotteshymnus und Christushymnus in der frühen Christenheit: Untersuchungen zu Form, Sprache, und Stil der frühchristlichen Hymnen, Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments, 5 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1967). Various critical methods developed by literary and form criticism are used to identify traditional deposits. Recent work on Christological hymns and hymn fragments have attempted more precise distinctions and delineation of the provenance of each classification. 

            [9]Ceslas Spicq, Les Épîtres de Saint Pierre, Sources Bibliques (Paris: Libraire le Coffre, 1966), 15. Clark Lyndon Palmer asserts that 1 Peter includes more traditional material for its length than any other epistle ("The Use of Traditional Materials in Hebrews, James, and 1 Peter," Ph.D. dissertation, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1985, 201).

            [10]William L. Schutter, Hermeneutic and Composition in 1 Peter (WUNT 2nd series, 30, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1989), 49 (hereafter cited as Schutter, Hermeneutic and Composition.  Selwyn said as much in 1947: "Its synthetic character is evident in the use freely made of liturgical and teaching forms current in the Church of the day, and in the close and compact interweaving of its theology and ethics..."  (The First Epistle of St. Peter, 2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 198, 1). The difference in the two works is not only that Schutter's work reflects the further development of understanding of the forms behind 1 Peter since Selwyn's study, but also the fact that Schutter completes the analysis that, comparatively, Selwyn only began, including the complex and coherent use of the Old Testament in 1 Peter.

            [11]Alfred Seeberg, Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit (Leipzig: A. Deichertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1903), 86-96. Seeburg was first to discuss the "formula-like" material in 1 Peter. See also Rudolf Bultmann, "Bekenntnis und Liedfragmente im 1 Petrusbrief," Coniectanea Neotestamentica XI (1947): 1-14 (hereafter cited as Bultmann, "Bekenntnis und Liedfragmente").

            [12]Schutter, Hermeneutic and Composition, 33. Schutter offers an extensive list of these occurrences, as well as the scholars who have developed the study of each type.

            [13]F. W. Beare, The First Epistle of Peter (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1958), 31. This is not to say that 1 Peter is not theocentric. Ralph P. Martin asserts: "Probably no other document in the New Testament is so theological as 1 Peter" (New Testament Foundations, vol. 2, 344). But, Beare correctly makes the point that it is not a philosophical discussion of doctrine.

            [14]Selwynn argued that 1 Peter 2:6-8 was based on a hymn (the same hymn that he saw reflected in Romans 9:33). However, there is little support for his thesis that the material is "hymnic." Selwyn, The First Epistle of St. Peter, 277.

            [15]Bo Reicke, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism: A Study of 1 Peter 3:19 and Its Context (Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1946). R. Bultmann, "Bekenntnis und Liedfragmente"; Joachim Jeremias, "Zwischen Karfreitag und Osten," Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 42 (1949): 194-201. H. Windisch, Die katholischen Briefe.

            [16]The berakot form is derived from the prayers of the Jewish synagogue. It is Chrisitanized with the addition "[Father] of our Lord Jesus Christ." See also Ephesians 1:3 and 2 Cor. 1:3. 

            [17]David Kendall argues that the pericope "provides the foundation for all  of the authors subsequent remarks." This is an overstatement if all specifics are meant. However, the general concerns of the text and the Christology of the ascription are certainly guiding the following presentation. "The Literary and Theological Function of 1 Peter 1:3-12" in Perspectives on First Peter, NABPR Studies Series,  Number 9, Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 106. 

            [18]Detailed evidence and historical dialogue on each of the hymnic passages investigated in this article may be found in my Dissertation, The Christological Hymnic Pattern of 1 Peter (Ann Arbor Michigan: UMI), 1993.

            [19]See the same participial expression in Rom. 5:3,, 1 Cor. 15:58, 2 Cor. 1:7. J.N.D. Kelly, A Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and Jude (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1969), 72.

            [20]First Peter 2:22________ Isaiah 53:9b

                                 2:23________ 53:7, 9

                                 2:24________ 53:4, 11, 12

                                 2:24b_______ 53:5

                                 2:25________ 53:6

            [21]All of the general stylistic criteria listed by Shimada apply to this hymn. Shimada lists 6 general stylistic criteria: (1) elevated prose style; (2) rhythm; (3) correspondence between words and phrases; (4) combination of parallelism, rhythm and poetic beauty; (5) differences in linguistic features, terminology and style in a given context; and (6) repetition of creed-like contents in different passages. Under the designation of structure, Shimada lists another five criteria. Shimada then moves to the level of minute detail in his listing of 12 particular stylistic criteria (e.g., grammatical features such as the relative construction or participial construction). K. Shimada, "Formulary Materials," 102-4.  Even those who are hesitant to list this passage as a hymn must discuss it as an option given the force of the findings. In his new commentary (1 Peter, Hermeneia-A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996,, 192-3),  Paul Achtemeier allows that this text may be hymnic in origin. However, after he lists the evidence, he then disputes the list point by point. His conclusion is basically a statement of uncertainty, but his line of argumentation does not recognize that the evidence he disputes is that which is common to liturgical deposits in 1 Peter. Achtemeier's hesitancy to recognize hymnic material seems to arise out of his not seeing the larger patterns of 1 Peter and its use of source materials throughout. See my dissertation for an overview of the use of liturical deposits in 1 Peter: The Christological Hymnic Pattern of 1 Peter. Leonhard Goppelt, A Commentary on 1 Peter , ed. Ferdinand Hahn, trans. John E. Alsup, 1st English ed. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1993), 208.

            [22]William J. Dalton, Christ's Proclamation to the Spirits: A Study of 1 Peter 3:18-4:6 (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1965, 1989), 110. Dalton accepted Reicke's conclusion that the theology of Christ's suffering is introduced in the same way in both passages.

            [23]Michaels' thought is based on the principle (attributed to Jesus ) that "as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man" (Luke 17:26; cf. Matthew 24:3). 1 Peter, Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 49 (Waco, Texas: Word Books Publ., 1988), 200. "A rationale has been presented for the conflation of the Noah and Enoch traditions from 1 Enoch.  Isaiah 54:9-10 is the inspiration for the Christological assertions of 1 Peter 3:19-22. Christ takes on the roles of the Suffering Servant, the Son of Man, the Messiah and even the typology of Enoch and Noah. As the new Enoch, the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Righteous One (3:18-22) has pronounced judgment and thereby salvation. That salvation is shared symbolically in Christian baptism which is a sign of the turning point in salvation history. The Christ is vindicated and exalted, so assuring the vindication of his followers.

            [24]Martin, Foundations, Vol. 2, 267.

            [25]Michaels, 1 Peter, allowed that there are "two traditional statements about Christ's exaltation here," but negated the idea that the relative clause "who is..." is a part of any traditional formula. He explained that the phrase found here and in Romans 8:34 is the author's "ad hoc construction." On the basis of the surrounding evidence (such as the use of participles) and the fact that such a clause is common to traditional and hymnic material, the phrase is considered here to be an integral part of the hymnic piece.

            [26]Earl Richard, "The Functional Christology of 1 Peter," in Perspectives on 1 Peter,  Special Studies Series, no. 9, NABPR, 1986, 129.

            [27]Hengel identified 1 Peter 3:18, 22 as a hymn fragment. "Hymn and Christology," Studia Biblica (1978). He sees the influence of Psalm 110 on this hymn as well as on the hymn fragments he locates in Ephesians 1:20-22 and Romans 8:34.

            ^[28]Schutter, Hermeneutic and Composition in 1 Peter, 68-9. Schutter's analysis is accepted at this point.

            [29]Martin, "Peter, First," ISBE, III, 812.

            [30]Schuttter, Hermeneutic and Composition in 1 Peter, 69.

            [31]Eduard Lohse, "Parenesis and Kerygma in 1 Peter." Translated by John Seely. In Perspectives on 1 Peter, NABPR Special Series, no. 9 (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1986), 59.

            [32]Earl Richard, "The Functional Christology in 1 Peter,"  passim.

            [33]Schutter, Hermeneutic and Composition in 1 Peter, 123. Schutter identifies the sufferings/glories scheme with the abbreviation S/G.

            [34]Ibid., 168, 170.

            [35]Ibid., 106, 108-109, 168, 170.

            [36]Ibid., 38.

            [37]The unity of the letter and its design reflect the unity of the source materials portraying the humiliation/ vindication motif or sufferings/glories scheme from Isaiah 53.  These findings are consistent with the observation that much of the language and themes of 1 Peter can be traced to Deutero-Isaiah. This includes the finding that there are few liturgical/hymnic lines in 1 Peter in which there are no references to the themes or language of Deutero-Isaiah.

            [38]Leonhard Goppelt, A Commentary on 1 Peter.

            [39]A negative criticism by Marvin McKissick, Associate Professor of Music at Azusa Pacific University (31 years) in a dialogue in which he graciously responded to this article. Professor McKissick has evaluated much of the theology of the songs of the church as inadequate. His partial explanation for this phenomena is that the music of the past was written by ministers and theologians.  Recent songs have been written primarily by musicians who are often woefully illiterate, biblically and theologically.

            [40]McKissick suggests such "so what" questions as contained in this paragraph.  Such questions (my paraphrase) should be asked by those who plan or teach worship.  

            [41]Marva Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down  (Grand Rapids, MI:  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 182.

            [42]Ibid., 185.

            [43]Very few of his own songs were included. However, while the collection is almost completely Charles' songs, most of them bear the marks of John's editing, which in some cases was considerable. Franz Hildebrandt and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 7 (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1983), 58.

            [44]Ibid., 55.

            [45]Ibid., 61-62.

            [46]Ibid., 55.

            [47]Ibid., 49.

            [48]Just recently, a young student of mine complained that our home congregation was missing the great reformation in the church. His proof? The reluctance of the church to replace hymns with new choruses.

            [49]J. C. Fisher, Songs of Victory (Williamstown, MI: Gospel Trumpet Co., 1885).  Preface. Fisher was an early participant in the Church of God Reformation Movement now identified with Anderson, Indiana.

            [50]John W. V. Smith's analysis in his book The Quest for Holiness and Unity, (Anderson, IN: Warner Press, Inc., 1980), 66.

            [51]"Our Church Musicians" by W. Dale Oldham, in A Time to Remember: Teachings, The Church of God Heritage Series, editor Barry L. Callen (Anderson, IN: Warner Press, Inc., 1978), 24 (264).

            [52]Frederick G. Shackleton, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Philosophy, Azusa Pacific University. Member of the General Hymnal Committee which produced the 1953 and the 1971 Hymnals of the Church of God, Anderson, Indiana. Interview, May 26 and June 1, 1997.

            [53]"Jesus Christ is Lord" by Frederick G. Shackleton, in the Hymnal of the Church of God, Hymn # 51 (Anderson, IN: Warner Press, 1971).

            [54]"O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" by Charles Wesley in the Hymnal of the Church of God, Hymn #65 (Anderson, IN: Warner Press, 1971).

            [55]The song continues: "who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the lifegate that all may go in." "To God be the Glory" by Fanny Crosby in the Hymnal of the Church of God, Hymn # 5 (Anderson, IN: Warner Press, 1971).

            [56]Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, 182.

            [57]Ibid., 167.

            [58]Ibid., 165.

            [59]Ibid., 166, 170-174.

            [60]Martin, The Worship of God, 59.

            [61]Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, 204.

            [62]Revelation 5:9, 12, NRSV. Martin identifies this passage as a "hymnic form" containing "distinctively Christian versicles." Foundations, II, 262.

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