Lefebvre has made known to us quite a series of gospel quotations in his Fragments Grecs des Evangiles sur Ostraka. This publication alone enables us to fill an empty page in the history of the New Testament. It gives us the text of 20 Greek ostraca, large and small, inscribed with portions of our gospels. . . . Thanks to the editor’s kindness I am able to give here a (reduced) facsimile of ostracon no. 16, containing Luke xxii. 70-71 (Figure 6).

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 57-58.

It will be admitted that our knowledge of Christian antiquity has been very considerably enriched by these literary and non-literary Christian papyri from Egypt. Our subject, however, is chiefly concerned with the non-Christian texts and the great indirect value that they possess for Bible students.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 48.

The papyri are almost invariably non-literary in character. For instance, they include legal documents of all possible kinds: leases, bills and receipts, marriage-contracts, bills of divorce, wills, decrees issued by authority, denunciations, suings [sic] for the punishment of wrong-doers, minutes of judicial proceedings, tax-papers in great numbers. Then there are letters and notes, schoolboys’ exercise-books, magical texts, horoscopes, diaries, etc. As regards their contents these non-literary documents are as many-sided as life itself.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 36.

Despite their unassuming simplicity the papyri have infused new blood into the veins of learning. Legal history in the first place, but afterwards the general history of culture, and notably the history of language, have benefited thereby. And here, paradoxical as it will seem to many, let me say that the non-literary papyri are of greater value to the historical inquirer than are the literary. We rejoice by all means when ancient books, or fragments of them, are recovered from the soil of Egypt, especially when they are lost literary treasures. But scientifically speaking the real treasure hidden in the field of Egypt is not so much of ancient art and literature as there lies buried, but all the ancient life, actual and tangible, that is waiting to be given to the world once more.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 39.

In several ways these texts yield a respectable harvest to the student of the New Testament. I am not thinking now of the additions to our store of New Testament and other early Christian MSS. by the discovery of early Christian papyrus and parchment fragments, and ostraca, although in this direct way the value of the new documents is considerable. I mean rather the indirect value which the non-Christian, non-literary texts possess for the student of Primitive Christianity. This is of three kings:

(1) They teach us to put a right estimate philologically upon the New Testament and, with it, Primitive Christianity.

(2) They point to the right literary appreciation of the New Testament.

(3) They give us important information on points in the history of religion and culture, helping us to understand both the contact and contrast between Primitive Christianity and the ancient world.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 10.

But theology, as an historical science, has a vital interest in the discovery of the historical setting, the historical background.

The ancient world, in the widest sense of that term, forms the historical background to Primitive Christianity.

Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World, trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan, 2.

It will not do to see the Psalter as merely predictive of Christ or as messianic in a few notable cases, such as Psalm 2 or Psalm 22. Far different is the true situation. In brief, Jesus Christ is the tuning fork by which we pitch the Psalms correctly. We will find Him in them in various ways, not just in a few psalms, but in all the psalms. The believer’s union with Christ, the true David, is the key to unlocking the treasures of the Psalter. It is also the reason that these songs have a special place in the New Testament church and are so frequently quoted.

“Psalm Singing and Scripture” by Rowland S. Ward in Sing a New Song: Recovering Psalm Singing for the Twenty-First Century, Loc. 1821.

The Holy Spirit gave the Psalter as a complete collection whose strength is collective: laments not isolated from praise, imprecations not isolated from confessions of sin, but all together. The whole gospel of the whole Christ is found in the whole Psalter.

Terry Johnson, “The History of Psalm Singing in the Christian Church” in Sing a New Song: Recovering Psalm Singing for the Twenty-First Century, Loc. 1109.

From The Whole psalmes in foure partes, published by John Day . . . The admirably drawn frontispiece to the book shows us the father of a family instructing his household in singing. He is using the device of the ‘Guidonian Hand’ (dating from about A.D. 1030, and long taught to every choir-boy throughout Europe). This, the invention of Guido d’Arezzo (c. 995-c. 1050), made use of the hand as a sort of Music Map. The present Sol-fa syllables are a relic of the Guidonian hexachordal system. The particular gesture the artist has represented indicates, as near as we can put it today, ‘G = Doh’.

Percy A. Scholes, The Puritans and Music in England and New England: A Contribution to the Cultural History of Two Nations, 272.

As late as the eighteen-eighties there was an organized anti-hymn party in the Presbyterian Church in the United States and elsewhere. It issued a monthly journal with eleven editions (!), these representing pure psalm-singing churches in the United States, the British Isles, and Holland, and also the Waldensian Church.

Perry A. Scholes, The Puritans and Music in England and New England: A contribution to the Cultural History of Two Nations, 253.

Calvin felt so strongly about psalm singing that early on he introduced it into his Geneva school. Students were required at the Academy of Geneva to “exercise themselves in singing psalms” every day after the noon meal. Calvin’s goal was to enable children to sing psalms at school, church, and home so that they could help their parents learn to sing them also. Calvin wrote, “If some children, whom someone has practiced beforehand in some modest church song, sing in a loud and distinct voice, the people listening with complete attention and following in their hearts what is sung by mouth, little by little each one will become accustomed to sing with the others.”

“PSALM SINGING IN CALVIN AND THE PURITANS” BY JOEL R. BEEKE IN SING A NEW SONG: RECOVERING PSALM SINGING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, LOC. 496.