A moderate rather than an extreme position, however, upon the identity of
hymn sources in the New Testament seems more likely to be productive of a
genuine appreciation of the style, subject matter and number of primitive
Christian hymns.
Traces of poetic improvisation, which is so closely allied to hymnody,
must be seriously considered at this point. The art of improvisation
belongs to no one age or country. It happens that the Greeks had
practiced it for centuries and that illustrations exist from the time of
Homer. To the Hellenized orient it was familiar. "The Greeks of Cilicia
and of the region about Antioch and Tarsus," as Dr. George Dwight Kellogg
reminds us, "seem to have cultivated the art and become famous." He also
suggests that the "gift of tongues" refers to this art and that Paul
himself possessed the poetic talent in no small degree.[16] It is only
natural to assume that, among the early Christians, certain individuals
would react to the influence of heightened emotion in outbursts of poetic
expression. Passages in the _Book of Acts_ may refer to the use of such
hymns, for example, in the case of the Gentiles at Caesarea, who "speak
with tongues and magnify God" (_Acts 10:45-46_), or the Ephesians who
"spake with tongues, and prophesied" (_Acts 19:6_), or perhaps the
disciples on the Day of Pentecost (_Acts 2:4_). Irenaeus, a second
century father of the Church and bishop of Lyons, referring to the scene
at Pentecost, mentions the singing of a hymn on that occasion.[17] The
nature of improvisations is fugitive. They arise from individual
inspiration and, even if expressed in familiar phrases, are not
remembered or recorded by the singer or hearer. To whatever degree
improvisation played a part in early Christian hymnody, to that same
degree we lack corresponding literary survivals. Possibly this is one
explanation of the dearth of sources which we now deplore.
On the whole, the hymnic evidence found in the New Testament points to a
predominant Hebrew influence. Both in the use of psalms and other Old
Testament hymns and in the phraseology of new hymns, the Christians found
themselves more at home in the traditional forms of expression. Features
of style, such as parallelism, uniformity and the repetition of words or
word order, were not necessarily restricted to Hebrew poetry but might be
found in other oriental sources--a consideration to which further
attention will be given later.[18] Still we may assume that the influence
of Judaism in form as well as subject matter was supreme.