So debatable is the subject of the Orphic hymns, both in respect to date and usage, that they offer little or no assistance to the student who is interested in a possible influence upon Christian hymnology.[50]
Sooner or later, one must turn to the land of Egypt, if one desires a complete picture of early Christian culture. The mystery of the Egyptian Isis, mentioned above, was one element in the background of the times, illustrative of the religious syncretism which had been fostered throughout the Ptolemaic period. The identification of the Egyptian Thot with the Greek Hermes is reflected in the Hermetic literature of which the Poimandres is the oldest known writing.[51] From this source a hymn of praise is derived:
By thy blessing my spirit is illumined,
and a thanksgiving hymn,
Holy is God, the Father of all the universe.[52]
Summarizing the Greek influence, both Hellenic and Graeco-oriental, upon Christian hymnology, it is difficult, if not impossible, to trace any connection between the classic Greek hymns or the hymns of mystery cults, and those of the new faith. If more sources were available, a valid conclusion might be reached. At present, a tentative conclusion involves the recognition of the vigorous protest and revolt against pagan ideas revealed in contemporary prose writings, in turn evoked by the actual pressure which was exerted upon Christianity by alien cults. The twentieth century has produced an impressive literature centered about the mystery religions and the problem of their influence upon Christianity; but in the field of hymnology there have been discovered only the faintest of traces. These are wholly stylistic. Christian hymns which reveal the characteristics of the repetition of direct address, or of relative clauses or predicates, previously mentioned, illustrate poetic forms which are, in the final analysis, oriental rather than Greek.[53]
It is a satisfaction to the classicist, who is interested in the history of this subject, that the classical meters, ignored at this period, were destined to be revived at a later date. They were used to some extent from the fourth century. It was reserved for the court poets of the Carolingian circle of the ninth century to restore the old lyric meters. The Sapphic meter in its Horatian form not only was a favorite among medieval Latin hymn writers, but also it has found an occasional imitator in the course of the centuries even to modern times.[54]
While hymn sources derived from oriental cults are extremely scanty, those originating in Gnosticism are much more numerous and suggestive in their relation to Christian hymnology. Gnosticism is not so much the name of a particular philosophy or definite system of belief, as it is a point of view, which sought to harmonize the speculative achievement of Greek thought with the oriental myths and with Christian teachings. The philosophical interpretation of pagan mythology was extended to Hebrew and Christian tradition. Thus, in accordance with the tenets of Neoplatonism, the primeval being has produced the universal mind and, in turn, mind has produced the soul which in contact with evil phases of matter has lost its original purity. Therefore, the soul must retrace its steps until it reaches the final stage of reunion with the origin of all being. It is easy to understand how a variety of meanings may be read into a simple statement like the above. It is also easy to understand that the possibilities of confusion arising in the first three centuries of Christian history were matters of the utmost concern to contemporary Christian writers and dogmatists. The period abounded in heresies and misunderstandings, to the discussion of which the ablest minds of the Church were devoted. Quotations from these authors furnish many of the extant hymns composed by Gnostics, either within or without the Christian fold. The range of literary excellence, of spiritual connotation and of intelligibility of subject matter in the so-called Gnostic hymns is so wide that it is difficult to evaluate them. To the modern reader they vary from the mere rigmarole to the genuinely inspiring hymn.
Perhaps the best known and certainly one of the loftiest expressions of Gnostic ideas is the Hymn of the Soul, which is found in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas. Dating from the first half of the third century, the Acts of Thomas recounts the missionary preaching of the Apostle Thomas in India. While in prison, he chants this hymn, beginning,
When I was an infant child in the palace of my father.[55]