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2025

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The First Hymn

2025

Action / Documentary / History / Music

The First Hymn

2025

Action / Documentary / History / Music

Available in: 720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
WEB: same quality as BluRay

96% AUDIENCE · 50 ratings

6.3/10 · 59

720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
WEB: same quality as BluRay

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Plot summary

In the ancient ruins of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, archaeologists unearthed a papyrus scrap containing the earliest known Christian hymn, complete with both its lyrics and musical notation. Analyzed at Oxford University, this discovery challenges traditional views of church history by revealing the rich musical practices of early believers. Hosted by Australian historian John Dickson, the feature-length documentary “The First Hymn” chronicles the hymn’s journey from its desert origins to its modern resurrection, as acclaimed composers Chris Tomlin and Ben Fielding transform the ancient melody into a contemporary worship piece, culminating in a live concert performance.

Director

Mark Hadley

Top cast

John Dickson as Self

Chris Tomlin as Self

Ben Fielding as Self

Tech specs

720p.WEB 1080p.WEB

796.8 MB

1280*720

English 2.0

25 fps

1 hr 26 min

Seeds ...

1.6 GB

1920*1080

English 5.1

25 fps

1 hr 26 min

Seeds 5

Comments 3

liudahlj 301 days ago

Christianity movie? Not thanks. Next.

pastor_jimrankin 302 days ago

The Evolution of Superstition: Dear Tooth Fairy, Dear Easter Bunny, Dear Santa, Dear God

Kierkegaard 302 days ago

The First Hymen would've put more bums on seats.

Showing 3 of 3 threads

IMDb reviews

From IMDb

John Dickson is quite an engaging host here

CinemaSerf

John Dickson is quite an engaging host here, but I was still pretty disappointed with this documentary. It centres around a scrap of papyrus discovered by a…

John Dickson is quite an engaging host here, but I was still pretty disappointed with this documentary. It centres around a scrap of papyrus discovered by a couple of British Egyptologists just over a century ago that depicts not only a Greek lyric to a Christian song, but also an early form of musical notation. The task? Well that is to try and recreate the hymn so we can listen to it again after almost two millennia. What we get, though, isn’t quite that. After a fairly perfunctory history lesson via Egypt and the University of Oxford, we are introduced to acclaimed songwriters Chris Tomlin and Ben Fielding who then proceed to craft a piece of music that is certainly celebratory, but any connection with the original Oxyrhynchus document seems tangential at best. I would have liked to have had some linguistics experts explain just what the writings actually said and then, more interestingly for me, an explanation of just how these latter day equivalents of crotchets and minims were decoded to give us some sort of idea as to how they provided a soundtrack to the words. Instead, we head to Nashville for an admittedly celebratory song, but one that had nothing of the sounds of the original upon which is was supposedly based. There is an effort to draft in an American-Egyptian singer to give it some semblance of authenticity, but we never get to hear the completed work with her contributions included so are really only presented at the end with a rousing anthem for ten thousand committed Christians in Fort Worth who could be singing along to just about any of Tomlin’s compositions. From what I know of the complete original text, it also looks like they have been fairly selective about the phrases they have chosen to interpret and so have essentially ensured that these are used to illustrate the message Dickson et al had determined to convey right from the start. It’s far too long and had it lost half an hour, perhaps even more as there is a fair degree of repetition amidst the increasingly evangelical commentary, then it might have worked better as a short-form film. As it is, I felt the story of P. Oxy 1786 rather neglected. Was it restored to something akin to it’s third century self here or was it simply hijacked? Hmmm…!

1 / 10

Clueless Christians.

snagssharkteeth-23785

Over 500000 fragments have been found at the site that this song was found and not all are found. Over 80 large volumes have been published from the oxyrhyncus…

6 / 10

The authenticity of Christianity across time

JoshuaL-245

The First Hymn is the latest Dickson/Hadley film presentation of the Christian faith, after The Christ Files (2007), The Life of Jesus (2008) and For the Love…

The First Hymn is the latest Dickson/Hadley film presentation of the Christian faith, after The Christ Files (2007), The Life of Jesus (2008) and For the Love of God (produced with the Centre for Public Christianity, 2018). This film follows Dr John Dickson from Egypt to provide the context of Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and of one fragment of papyri includes a fragments of a trinitarian hymn with words and notation dating from the 3rd century; earlier than the Apostles and Nicene creeds shared by christian denominations today. Dickson then commissions Ben Fielding and Chris Thomlin to write a contemporary worship song based upon the lyrics.I went into this film expecting a presentation on early christian music and worship, then comparing this to a modern rendition. What instead I got was the best defense of Contemporary Christian Music today; how it links historically to the church and how it functions as a creative endeavor.It is a nerdy documentary for sure, but it is set at an introductory tone. There is much further to be explored of the original hymn than what is presented. For example, we don't hear the original hymn performed until close to the end of the film, and not within its historical context. This might look like the way it could be performed in the Egyptian church or tavern in the 3rd Century. Other early trinitarian hymns such as "Hail Gladenning Light" could have been explored to compare and contrast with this hymn.I also have to comment on the films choice on There are some choices made in this doco which do detract from viewing the film. Some photographs taken during the discovery of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri were 'enhanced' using AI by turning them into video and other stock footage. The output, rather than being 'enhanced,' looked smeared and inauthentic, taking me out of the story. When the team produced "For the Love of God," the team was able to gain the full size licenses for the images they were using, creating a very crisp and authentic image there.

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