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31/07/2025 Documentary 1h 27m
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Overview

In the ancient ruins of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, archaeologists unearthed a papyrus scrap containing the earliest known Christian hymn, complete with both its lyrics and musical notation. Analyzed at Oxford University, this discovery challenges traditional views of church history by revealing the rich musical practices of early believers. Hosted by Australian historian John Dickson, the feature-length documentary “The First Hymn” chronicles the hymn’s journey from its desert origins to its modern resurrection, as acclaimed composers Chris Tomlin and Ben Fielding transform the ancient melody into a contemporary worship piece, culminating in a live concert performance.

  1. John Dickson

    Director

  2. Mark Hadley

    Director, Writer

Top billed cast

  1. John Dickson

  2. Chris Tomlin

  3. Ben Fielding

  4. Stephanie Boonstra

  5. View more

Full Cast & Crew

Reviews

A review by CinemaSerf
Written by CinemaSerf on 2026-03-27
John Dickson is quite an engaging host here, but I was still pretty disappointed with this documentary. It centres around a scrap of papyrus discovered by a couple of British Egyptologists just over a century ago that depicts not only a Greek lyric to a Christian song, but also an early form of musical notation. The task? Well that is to try and recreate the hymn so we can listen to it again after almost two millennia. What we get, though, isn’t quite that. After a fairly perfunctory history lesson via Egypt and the University of Oxford, we are introduced to acclaimed songwriters Chris Tomli...read the rest
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Status
Released

Original Language
English

Budget
$0.00

Revenue
$0.00

Keywords