Christian Music
in Sacred Worship During
the Apostolic Ages*

*By George Papadopoulos, the Grand Magistrate of the Great Church of Christ, Director of the Music School of the Ecclesiastical Association of Constantinople. Translation by Nicholas Pantelopoulos

Music was considered the liveliest expression of religious emotion always and everywhere, and consequently, the most pleasing and well-received offering to God. Thus, it was used in ancient Greek celebrations and festivities, as well as in Jewish ceremonies by the Church of the Old Testament. For the Churches of Christ since their establishment had ordained music for praising and glorifying God, except for prayers and supplications, in which the beauty of the melody touches the heart most, and succeeds in awakening and supporting the necessary piety and attention during the performance of sacred worship.

For it was He, the founder of the faith, who set the example at the Last Supper, which was sealed with sacred hymns (Matt. 26:30). Even the divine Chrysostom, wanting to demonstrate that the basis for the use of hymnody of the entire Church of the New Testament, was Jesus Christ,  says, "The Saviour praised just as we praise alike." 

The Apostles, based upon the example of our Lord, occupy first place in the history of Christian psalmody, were raised to be composers and hymnologists as Luke the Evangelist testifies, "And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (Luke 24:53). 

That music was in use in Christian dwellings of prayer since the Apostolic age and that the Apostles mastered in it is confirmed in the Apostolic Ordinances (Diatagai) and by Apostle Paul, who says, "...hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Coloss. 3:16). Even elsewhere, the same Apostle urges the faithful, "speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Ephes. 5:18-19)

We encounter in the Apostolic Acts that the Apostles would gather to psalmodize and pray on Tuesday, the sixth and ninth hour, and in the night hour, as Apostles Paul and Silas, who would pray to God in the midnight hour in hymnody. The Apostles would perform burial rites for the dead with hymns and prayers. In the Apostolic Ordinances, it is defined that the burial of Christians is performed with hymns and prayers. At the dormition of the Theotokos, funeral hymns were sung, just as in the case of the funeral of the First Martyr Archdeacon Steven.

Even after the Apostolic age the Christian Church firmly preserved the tradition of the Apostolic period, which is why the Lord was glorified in sacred worship using venerable music. Thus, as our ecclesiastical history recounts, according to the example set by the Apostles, Christians gathered together for prayer in humble and self-styled churches, sometimes in caves and openings in the ground, on account of the known persecutions, chanted, read the Scriptures, and listened to the divine word.

(PAPADOPOULOS, George, "A historical overview of Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music from the Apostolic Age until our times" - Ἱστορικὴ ἐπισκόπισις τῆς βυζαντινῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς μουσικῆς ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποστολικῶν χρόνων μέχρι τῶν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς (1 - 1900 μ.Χ), Typois Praxitelous, Odos Ermou, ATHENS, 1904. pages 8-9.)