Working Hard To Deny The Obvious

Many have worked hard to make Paul's "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16) to mean "songs in addition to" the inspired Psalms. Here's an example of this I recently came across. The first few paragraphs reveal the good-intentioned, I am sure, author's dilemma:

"Christian Hymns of the First Three Centuries"

There is no part of the general field of Christian hymnology so baffling to the student or so full of difficulties as the one under consideration in this paper [i.e., the non-Psalm hymnody of the early church]... This is due, first of all, to the unexpected scarcity of original sources. When one views the rise of Christianity from its inception to the period of the Council of Nicaea, 325, its numerical growth from a handful of original adherents to millions of followers at the time of the Edict of Milan, 313, its literary development from early scattered records to the works of the great Greek and Latin fathers, one cannot help inquiring, “What has become of their hymns?”

No wonder finding information on the supposed hymnody sung by millions in the first three centuries of the early church proves baffling and full of difficulties!  This difficulty in finding hymn texts is due to "the unexpected scarcity of original sources." In other words, when researchers go looking for the supposed non-Psalm hymns of the early church they come up empty-handed, and this doesn't make sense to them, considering the otherwise tremendous body of writings that has come down to us from that period. This leads researchers to scratch their heads and wonder, "What has become of their hymns?" The article continues:

Let us abandon at once our contemporary connotation of the word 'hymn'...In the pre-Ambrosian period, Christian hymns were largely of the psalm type, to be chanted in rhythmic periods without rhyme. Not only should the word hymn be conceived in terms of ancient thought, but also the futile attempt to differentiate among psalms, hymns and canticles should be avoided. (Italics and quotes mine)

The researcher admits freely that our contemporary understanding of the word 'hymn' is unhelpful in determining what the early church sang, as their hymns were "largely of the Psalm type." In fact, of course, they were the Psalms, and the article all but admits it when it says that the "futile attempt to differentiate among psalms, hymns and canticles [again, Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16] should be avoided." The author continues:

Specialists in liturgical matters testify to the confusion existing among ancient writers in the use of these words and to the uncertainty of definition which results.

Surely this isn't in reference to Paul when the writer speaks of the "confusion existing among ancient writers?" The apostle was not confused about what the church was to sing or confused in his choice of words. Neither was the ancient church confused about what to sing, or confused about Paul's choice of words. Paul's "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" were all nouns from the Greek Old Testament in use by the church in that day, and were commonly understood to be terms that described the Old Testament Psalms.

It is better not to multiply difficulties but to hold fast to the actual texts which we know were used in Christian worship. In this study, the extant hymnic sources will be presented objectively. Groups of hymns will be used to illustrate the types current in the period. 

The article speaks confidently of "actual texts which we know were used in Christian worship," of "extant hymn sources," and of "groups of hymns used to illustrate the types current in the period." But then what follows is an attempt to force various early documents, including some New Testament passages, to yield hymn texts,*  but this is all based purely on conjecture, and is anything but objective, solid reporting. The fact is that the only texts that are known to have been used in Christian worship were the Psalms. There is no record that uninspired songs were used in the public worship of the church in its first centuries.

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It makes one wonder! Why the ongoing, relentless effort to deny the fact that the early church sang the Psalms exclusively (just as the Old Testament church had done)?

*On the supposed hymn fragments contained in the NT epistles, see here.