Oxyrhynchus hymn

XV 1786) is the earliest known manuscript of a Christian Greek hymn to contain both lyrics and musical notation.

[1] It is on Papyrus 1786 of the Oxyrhynchus papyri, now kept at the Papyrology Rooms of the Sackler Library, Oxford.

[7] The Oxyrhynchus hymn is the only surviving fragment of notated Christian Greek music from the first four hundred years of the Christian period,[8] although historian and musician Kenneth Levy has argued that the Sanctus melody best preserved in the Western medieval Requiem mass dates from around the fourth century.

[9] Modern recordings of the hymn have been included on a number of releases of Ancient Greek music.

The Phos Hilaron and the Oxyrhynchus hymn constitute the earliest extant Christian Greek hymn texts reasonably certain to have been used in Christian worship, but are neither drawn from the Bible nor modeled on Biblical passages.