The First Hymn might have sounded melodically similar to something a Westerner would hear today. However, finding pieces of ancient music like this is not entirely unusual. What set The First Hymn apart was its theological message: that one true Lord proclaims this hymn — is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This mention of the Trinity is significant because it’s evidence that the notion of a triune God was believed by Christians centuries before the official church councils of the 4th and 5th centuries.

In 2023, John Dickson stood in the vault of a ruined basilica in the deserts of Egypt, where he sang a song that hadn’t been heard there for nearly 18 hundred years.

The location was the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, and the song was a Christian hymn composed by believers sometime in the third century AD (the 200s).

It’s also the song at the centre of a documentary Undeceptions is releasing early next year, called The First Hymn Project.

‘First’ because it’s the oldest Christian hymn yet discovered with both lyrics and musical notation – (meaning we know what to sing and how to sing it) – all recorded on a scrap of ancient papyrus.

Two Oxford scholars found it in the mounds of an ancient rubbish dump on the edge of Oxyrhynchus in 1897.

Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt had decided to mount an expedition to what was once the second-largest city in ancient Egypt (after the port city of Alexandria).

Grenfell and Hunt, pictured here at Oxyrhynchus

Together, they uncovered an incredible horde of half a million papyrus fragments – a literal goldmine in archaeological terms.

For the discipline of ancient history, it’s one of the most important finds of all time, rivalling the famed Dead Sea Scrolls because of the sheer breadth of documents.

Grenfell and Hunt were only partly aware of the value of their discovery–it was just too much for two people to assess and understand.

The pair packed this treasure trove into biscuit tins and shipped them back to Oxford, where they’ve been lovingly cared for, catalogued, and analysed for the last century.

Inside one of those biscuit tins was Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1-7-8-6 – P.Oxy 17-86, our First Hymn.

100 years later, Undeceptions is bringing the hymn back to life; two of the world’s best songwriters have re-written and professionally recorded it (we’ve titled it The First Hymn), and we were there with a camera to capture the whole process.

The song itself will be released next year, alongside the documentary.

In this, the first of a three-part article series leading up to the release (alongside three Undeceptions episodes), we’ll look at why this hymn has captured the attention of scholars – and musicians – worldwide.

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