Sunday Hymn: O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

O for a thou­sand tongues to sing
My great Re­deem­er’s praise,
The glo­ries of my God and king,
The tri­umphs of His grace!

My gra­cious mas­ter and my God,
Assist me to pro­claim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The hon­ors of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sor­rows cease;
’Tis mu­sic in the sin­ner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the pow­er of can­celed sin,
He sets the pri­son­er free;
His blood can make the foul­est clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, list­en­ing to His voice,
New life the dead re­ceive,
The mourn­ful, brok­en hearts re­joice,
The hum­ble poor be­lieve.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loos­ened tongues em­ploy;
Ye blind, be­hold your Sav­ior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ev­er, ev­er giv­en,
By saints be­low and saints above,
The church in earth and Hea­ven.

—Charles Wesley

Sunday Hymn: All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name

All hail the pow­er of Je­sus’ name!
Let an­gels pros­trate fall;
Bring forth the roy­al dia­dem,
And crown Him Lord of all.
Bring forth the roy­al dia­dem,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Let high­born ser­aphs tune the lyre,
And as they tune it, fall
Before His face who tunes their choir,
And crown Him Lord of all.
Before His face who tunes their choir,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Crown Him, ye morn­ing stars of light,
Who fixed this float­ing ball;
Now hail the strength of Is­ra­el’s might,
And crown Him Lord of all.
Now hail the strength of Is­ra­el’s might,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Crown Him, ye mar­tyrs of your God,
Who from His al­tar call;
Extol the Stem of Jes­se’s rod,
And crown Him Lord of all.
Extol the Stem of Jes­se’s rod,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Ye seed of Is­ra­el’s chos­en race,
Ye ran­somed from the fall,
Hail Him who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all.
Hail Him who saves you by His grace,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Hail Him, ye heirs of Da­vid’s line,
Whom Da­vid Lord did call,
The God in­car­nate, Man di­vine,
And crown Him Lord of all,
The God in­car­nate, Man di­vine,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Sinners, whose love can ne’er for­get
The worm­wood and the gall,
Go spread your tro­phies at His feet,
And crown Him Lord of all.
Go spread your tro­phies at His feet,
And crown Him Lord of all.

Let ev­ery tribe and ev­ery tongue
Before Him pros­trate fall
And shout in uni­ver­sal song
The crown­èd Lord of all.
And shout in uni­ver­sal song
The crown­èd Lord of all.

—Ed­ward Per­ro­net

Theological Term of the Week: Codex

codex

An ancient book “created by taking a stack of papyrus or parchment leaves, folding them in half, and binding them at the spine”;1 plural: codices.

• From scripture:

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. (2 Timothy 4:13 ESV)

• From Canon Revisited by Michael Kruger, pages 251-253:

Understanding the early Christian preference for the codex may … provide some illumination about an interesting passage from 2 Timothy where Paul says to Timothy “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.” Paul makes a curious distinction here between “the books” and “the parchments,” suggesting they are two different kinds of writings.  Scholars widely regard [the books] as a reference to books of the Old Testament, most likely on scrolls. We do not know how many of these Old Testament books Paul had in mind, but it must have been limited to a reasonable number that Timothy could have borne during his travels.

But what is Paul referring to when he mentions “the parchments”? The term membranas [parchments] is significant because it is not a Greek word, but a loan word transliterated from the Latin membrana. The history of this term in the first century makes it clear that it is a reference to a parchment codex… .

As for the content of the codices which Paul mentions in 2 Tim 4:13, a number of suggestions have been made over the years.  Given that Paul distinguishes these codices from the Old Testament writings, many scholars have rightly argued that they likely contained some sort of Christian writings. This may have included a variety of things such as excerpts of Jesus’ teachings or early Christian testimonia (Old Testament proof texts supporting Messianic claims about Jesus)… . However, one of the most compelling possibilities is that these notebooks contained (among other things) copies of Paul’s own letters. 

If these “parchments” in 2 Tim 4:13 contained copies of Paul’s letters in a codex, then this opens up fresh insights the development of the New Testament canon.  … [T]his scenario provides a compelling explanation for why some letters of Paul were preserved for the church and some letters were ultimately lost (1 Cor 5:9). The answer appears to be that some letters were lost because Paul, for whatever reasons, did not make a personal copy of them before sending them out. Thus, they were not available when Paul’s completed letter collection was circulating more broadly to the churches.

Learn more:

1. Reading the Papyri: What is a codex?
2. Wikipedia: Codex

Related terms:

• autographa
• canon of scripture
• manuscripts
• New Testament apocrypha

Filed under Scripture

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