Blessed art Thou, O Lord of our fathers,
is the familiar Benedictus es, Domine; and the second part,
O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord,
is the Benedicite, omnia opera.
The term canticle, mentioned above, has been applied in a general sense to such lyrics from the Old Testament and also from the New. “In practice,” says James Mearns, “it means those Songs of Holy Scripture which have been selected for ecclesiastical use and are appended to, or incorporated with, the Psalter or other parts of the Divine Office.”[7] Both Eastern and Western Churches early made official use of the Old Testament canticles,[8] while the Greek Church elaborated upon them in formal metrical compositions, called canons, or groups of odes based upon an acrostic structure, a distinctive feature of Greek hymnody from the seventh century.[9]
It was only natural that the hymnody of the Old Testament should have exerted a marked influence upon Christian practice. The Old Testament tradition was very strong. Familiar phraseology was ready at hand for the composition of new canticles which were often mere centos from the Psalms or other portions of the Hebrew scriptures. It should be recalled that Christianity not only arose in the Semitic environment but also was for some years localized chiefly in the oriental sections of the Roman Empire, and that it was affected by oriental ideas and modes of expression. Even after Greek and Roman influences were strongly felt, hymnology retained this traditional Semitic character and pagan lyrics were held in suspicion.
III. New Testament Hymns
The transition, therefore, to the canticles of the New Testament was easy and perhaps inevitable. The Benedictus,
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel (Luke 1:68-79),
spoken by Zacharias, the Nunc dimittis,