and take to you immortal life.
8. And they condemned me when I rose up,
me who had not been condemned.
9. And they divided my spoil
though nothing was due to them.[70]
Forty-two in number, the Odes reveal a true inspiration, novel and significant from the religious and the literary standpoint. They preserve the tradition of the Old Testament hymns, yet breathe the spiritual life of the new revelation. Their chief interest lies in the possibility that they illustrate a valid Christian poetry of a very early date. If it is true, as the editors suggest, that the Odes emanate from Antioch,[71] we have further evidence of the spirit of worship in that city with which early Christian liturgical forms are so closely associated.
The tradition of Syriac hymnody, of which these illustrations alone may be given from the early period, did not come to an end as Christianity moved westward. It was continued through thirteen centuries and is preserved in the Nestorian and other branches of the Syrian Christian Church.
Before the main stream of hymnody in the Greek language is traced, two sources from the second century will serve as an introduction. The first of these is the Epistle to Diognetus, by an unknown author, possibly a catechumen of the Pauline group.[72] It contains four selections, biblical in their phraseology, the first three of which express the redemptive mission of the Son of God:
As a king sends his son who is also a king, so sent He Him,
He did not regard us with hatred nor thrust us away,