Liturgical Use.
General.
There is, strange to say, no record of the Song's employment in this way amongst the Jews. Statements sometimes made to the contrary in works on the P.B., e.g. by W.G. Humphry, F. Procter, E. Daniel, and J.M. Fuller (S.P.C.K. Comm. "Introd. to the Song"), "in the later Jewish Church," all appear to have originated in a misunderstanding of an ambiguous sentence in Wheatley's Rational Illustration (1875, p. 143). He says that it "was an ancient hymn in the Jewish Church." But this does not necessarily imply that it formed any part of Jewish services. Nor did Wheatley probably intend to assert that it did. In point of fact no evidence of such use is forthcoming, though it certainly would not have been surprising if the Song had been so used, at least among the Hellenistic Jews. For as Rothstein says in Kautzsch's Apocrypha, like Ps. cxxxvi. it is "offenbar antiphonisch aufzufassen" and "litaneiartig."
Notwithstanding the previous neglect, as it would seem, of this Song in Jewish worship, its use by Christians dates from an early period. So Bp. Gray (O.T., p. 611) says, "It was sung in the service of the primitive Church;" and Ball, "the instinct of the Church, which early adopted the Benedicite for liturgical use, was right" (p. 307). Yet after it had come into high esteem with Christians its chances of Jewish acceptance would of course be largely diminished.
Early.
The liturgical use however was generally confined to the Song proper, commencing with v. 29, and not always extending to the whole even of that. In the Greek Church it is divided into two odes, said at Lauds on two different days, vv. 3-34 (A.V. verses) forming one, and the remainder of the Song the other (art. Canticle D.G.A.). In the Ambrosian rite the first part only of the Song is used as an invitatory before the Matin Psalms, under the title, somewhat confusing to us, of "Benedictus" (D.G.A. art. Benedictus).[[27]]
[27] In the Bk. of private Prayer (Lond. 1887, p. 32), approved by the Lower House of Canterbury Convocation, these six verses are employed as a separate canticle, under the title Benedictus es, probably suggested by the Ambrosian rite above mentioned. The same canticle had also appeared previously in An Additional Order for Evening Prayer, put forth by the same authority in 1873, for singing after the first lesson.
For some reason not easy to assign, the Song, whether divided or entire, has always been treated as a morning canticle, although there is nothing in its words to suggest any time of day as specially appropriate.
Rufinus, according to Dr. Salmon (Speaker's Comm. Introduction to Apocr. XXVIIb), speaks of the Song as "sung on Festivals in the Church of God." No reference is given to the passage quoted. But in Rufinus' Apol. in Hieron. II. 35 we find the words, "Omnis Ecclesia per orbem terrarum... quicunque Hymnum trium puerorum in Ecclesia Domini cecinerunt," etc. Whether this be the passage Dr. Salmon intends or not, it is at any rate sufficient to prove that the canticle was in use in and before Rufinus' time, who is believed to have died in the year 410.
Bishop Barry (Teacher's P.B.) notes that it was used at Lauds (τὸ ὄρθρον) in the East as well as in the West: and so Mr. Hotham in his art. Canticle in D.C.A. In his art. Psalmody, however, no mention is made of its Eastern use; but in the Western Church in the Gregorian and its derived rites, including the Roman and cognate Breviaries, he says, "Benedictiones sive canticum trium puerorum" comes in Sunday Lauds, and likewise in the Benedictine Psalter.