HYMN

A religious canticle, song, or psalm, Eph 5:19 Col 3:16. Paul requires Christians to edify one another with "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." Matthew says that Christ and his disciples, having supped, sung a hymn, and went out. They probably chanted a part of the psalms which the Jews used to sing after the Passover, which they called the Halal; that is, the Hallelujah psalms. These are Ps 113:1-118:29, of which the first two are supposed to have been chanted before the Passover was eaten, and the others afterwards.

---

Hymn. Hymn
Occurs only Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16. The verb to “sing an hymn” occurs Matt. 26:30 and Mark 14:26. The same Greek word is rendered to “sing praises” Acts 16:25 (R.V., “sing hymns”) and Heb. 2:12. The “hymn” which our Lord sang with his disciples at the last Supper is generally supposed to have been the latter part of the Hallel, comprehending Ps. 113-118. It was thus a name given to a number of psalms taken together and forming a devotional exercise.

The noun hymn is used only with reference to the services of the Greeks, and was distinguished from the psalm. The Greek tunes required Greek hymns. Our information regarding the hymnology of the early Christians is very limited.

---

HYMN. → See PSALMS → See SONG

---

hymn. Hymn, v.t. to praise in songs of adoration, to sing

---

Hymn (hĭm), n. [[OE. hympne, ympne, F. hymne, OF. also ymne, L. hymnus, Gr. �; perh. akin to � web, � to weave, and so to E. weave.]] An ode or song of praise or adoration; especially, a religious ode, a sacred lyric; a song of praise or thanksgiving intended to be used in religious service; as, the Homeric hymns; Watts' hymns. Admonishing one another in psalms and hymns. Col. iii. 16. Where angels first should practice hymns, and string Their tuneful harps. Dryden. Hymn book, a book containing a collection of hymns, as for use in churches; a hymnal.