This is the world’s first hymn ... and it’s been brought back to life!
- deansimpson7
- Jun 30
- 8 min read
It is a world first for music, faith and history – 1800 years in the making. Deep 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. Now, an Australian team of filmmakers have brought the ancient song back to life in a captivating must-see documentary, The First Hymn, released across Australia this week. Salvos Online journalist LERISSE SMITH spoke with the director and executive producer about the extraordinary journey from an ancient melody to a contemporary worship piece for the modern age.
It started with a simple coffee – and ended with a history-making project.
When long-time friends and documentary filmmakers Mark Hadley, a former Salvation Army magazine reviewer, and John Dickson sat down for a casual cuppa several years ago to chat about a great idea John was excited to share, little did they know it would lead into a journey far greater than they could have ever imagined – the making of The First Hymn film, with John as Executive Producer and Presenter, and Mark as Director, Co-Producer and Scriptwriter.
The spark of the idea had surfaced in a most unlikely moment – under a microscope.
John was conducting research at the Oxford University Library several years ago, studying ancient papyrus fragments for a project, when a fragment caught his eye – an ancient hymn, 30 by 5 centimetres in size, nearly two millennia old.
“I was looking down the microscope at the lettering and thinking about how amazing it is,” reflected John, who is an Australian historian.
“This is an 1800-year-old song, and in about 30 seconds, the whole idea came to me to see if it were possible to revive it and give it back to the world.”
Inspired by the moment, he shared the thought of first producing a song and then a documentary to track the song with acclaimed musician Ben Fielding, who responded with great enthusiasm.
“He was so excited, a spine-tingling response, that I thought, Wow! This might work,” John said. “And if I’ve got Ben Fielding on board, there’s every chance it’s going to work. And then, of course, when he got Chris Tomlin involved, it was supercharged!”
The conversation over a cuppa between Mark and John sealed the deal and became the catalyst for a full-scale film production on a song that has the Trinity – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and that God is the only giver of good gifts, at its core.
It was written during a period when Christians were severely persecuted by the Roman authorities, and yet the song is filled with joy and thanksgiving. The last line praises the ‘only giver of all good gifts.’
Hosted by John, the feature-length documentary chronicles the hymn’s journey from its desert origins to its modern resurrection, as acclaimed composers Chris and Ben transform the ancient melody into a contemporary worship piece, culminating in a live concert performance.
The manuscript itself was discovered 100 years ago, but has been sitting in the Oxford library ever since. Led by a team of leading historians, the discovery has provided insight into ancient music and early Christianity.
And now the film is taking centre stage across Australia, offering audiences a rare glimpse into how world-renowned worship music creators breathed new life into the ancient song.
Both Mark and John reflected on what they hope audiences will take away from the fascinating historical and musical journey of seeing a song come back to life.
Of key importance is that people come away with the understanding that the message of Jesus remains as powerful and relevant today as it was 1800 years ago.
“My greatest hope for that person is that they will be able to stand hands united with their brothers and sisters, connected by 1800 years of history and one song,” Mark said.
“That they will realise they are part of something bigger. It is not the local church on the corner. It isn’t even the big conference they might go to – it is much bigger than that. To paraphrase, as someone greater than me, C.S Lewis put it, ‘the church amazing and terrible with far-flung banners stretched across the universe’ – and we are part of that. That’s what I would like that first audience member to get.”
The filmmakers also aim to attract the curious outsider, history and music lovers alike, and those who wonder what the core of Christianity is all about – something intriguing to explore.
“The second audience member that I imagine sitting in the cinema is the sort of person who has no real commitment to Christianity,” Mark reflected.
“They are there out of an interest in history, or because they have been brought along by a friend, and they like the tale of what’s happened, something dug up, and that it has come all the way into the world. What I would like them to realise is that Christianity is the same yesterday as it is today.
“There is an unbroken link between what Christians believed back then, in Jesus, the Son of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Father. One Trinity, living in sacrificial unity, loving and teaching us to love, and that’s what Christianity is – and it’s still a song that’s being sung today. And I think that if they can walk away knowing the Christianity back then and the Christianity today are really one and the same thing, then that’s a game made.”
The journey to bring the song back to life was neither simple nor smooth. The team faced academic red tape, logistical nightmares, and geopolitical challenges over three years, particularly while filming on location in Egypt, where the hymn was discovered.
“Filming in Egypt was the Everest that we had to get over,” Mark reflected.
“And that was the hardest thing, but it was absolutely inconceivable that we would tell this story without going to the ruins of Oxyrhynchus … In terms of the production, it was a mammoth task to get access to this particular archive … Egypt is an extremely controlled country. We had the first trip to Egypt and barely came away with anything. We didn’t get anywhere near the ruins. It was heart-rending for all the work, time, and travel that had gone into getting ourselves there, only to be turned away was very, very difficult. But never say die!”
The team was not to be deterred – and returned six months later after gaining permission.
This time they made it to the ruins of Oxyrhynchus - the ancient city where the papyrus was originally found, unearthed in a rubbish dump. The song had been written on the back of a grain contract.
“You can imagine someone just going, ‘Anybody not using this? I will use this!’ I need to write the song down,” Mark exclaimed.
“Through difficult times, somebody writes a song about just how good God is. And that never ceases to grab me – that they sat down and they wrote this song. Now I wonder if they would ever have the faintest idea that this song, the better part of 2000 years ago, would be revived and sung all over the planet.”
There were more adventures to come.
Mark recalls climbing into the tomb vault in the ruins of Oxyrhynchus: “We were taken into chambers that would have made fantastic sets for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!” he said. “I kid you not, I had to climb down into the vault of the tomb, and what they said to me as I was going down was, ‘Be careful of the snakes!’”
One of the most moving moments for John was singing the ancient song alone deep in a crypt beneath the ruins of a vast forgotten church.
“I thought, how precious to be bringing this song back home,” he said. “This song hasn't been heard in this place for 2000 years nearly, and it was spine-tingling for me. That was, for me, a great moment.”
Back in the studio, Mark approached the film as an audio documentary first and then expanded into pictures. One of his main goals achieved was that the documentary is audibly beautiful.
And for Mark, it was also a labour of love as the production took three years, twice as long as his usual projects.
“When you start with a script, it’s really important to understand what the golden idea is,” he explained. “The golden spark. You have to actually keep this little light all the way from the beginning of the project to the end.”
And the final result? A documentary that captivated audiences.
At the worldwide launch in Los Angeles, viewers lined the block to come into the cinema.
“It was amazing and humbling,” Mark said.
“I think it’s going to be very, very hard to walk out of that film without feeling like you have seen something profound … it has deeply affected me ... to see this transposition of joy from the second century to the 21st century. I weep unashamedly when I hear the old song and the new song and realise they are the same song. God is not above teaching an old dog new tricks.”
But it was not just a film for Mark, who is a former reviewer for The Salvation Army’s Pipeline and Others magazines. It was an incredible faith odyssey for him, along with his wife, Maia, who is the film’s Co-Producer. Maia is a Web Content Coordinator for The Salvation Army.
Behind the scenes, he had two teams critical to the film’s success: the team he had gathered and the team God had gathered. Every challenge was met with prayer. Every closed door was answered with persistence and faith.
“It was a God-breathed project,” he said.
“There is no doubt in my mind that if God had not pushed this project along, it would never have seen the light of day. There were too many points, humanly speaking, with the decades of experience I have with producing, where it could have just ground to a halt.”
For John, watching Chris and Ben perform the revived piece at the film’s launch before a crowd of 10,000 people was overwhelming. The original singers 2000 years ago could never have imagined that all these years later, 10,000 people would be experiencing their song.
And now that Australian audiences can finally see the film, Mark has one final request for the audience: stay to the end!
“We have designed credits that people will sit through,” he said. “We have built amazing extra footage into the credits. I want people to stay to the credits, because every single name that comes up on the rather lengthy list is someone I want to thank God for – there is a ‘thank you God’ behind every name that comes up because this was a God breathed project and each person was used to his glory.”
For more information, watch the trailer, listen to the song live in concert, and discover the Australian release dates, click here
