Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/267

 IX] GREEK CHRISTIAN POETRY 249 voiced, and with fervor and universality. The first Christians were Jews, and the Christian communities took from the synagogue the custom of singing God's praises, as well as the songs in which to sing them. For three centuries the Psalms constituted the main body of Christian devotional song. It was a paschal psalm that Christ and his disciples sang on the night of his betrayal.^ The apostle Paul bids his hearers be filled with the Spirit, speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (i/^aX/mots koI v/xvot? Koi aJSai? irvev/AaTiKats), singing and making melody (aSovre^ kol j/^oAAovtcs) in your heart to the Lord.* Here the " psalms " mean psalms of David or psalms derived from them ; * the " hymns " are songs of praise; the " spiritual songs " (cantica spiritualia in the Latin version) are more specifically songs directly inspired by the Spirit. But the exhortation " be filled with the Spirit," and speak or sing, applies to all these utterances, and indicates that, just as the brother might be moved to sing an Old Testament psalm, so in the singing he might be moved to vary from it, or voice his feelings in new-formed utterances, probably consisting mainly of combinations of Biblical phrases. Canonical examples of these Christian hymns are Mary's Magnificat, and Zachariah's song of praise,* both of which consist largely of Old Testament phrases. The angel's song, Glory to God in the high- est and on earth peace, good will to men,' was enlarged iMat. zxvi. 30; Mk. xiy. 26. See Thayer's New Teatament Lexicon ; Ederaheim, Li/e of Christ, Bk. V, Chap. 12. a Eph. V. 19, 20 ; Col. ill. 16. • Cf. 1 Cor. xlv. 15, 26.
 * Luke i. 46, etc., and 67, etc. • Luke U. 14.