The fresh utterances of Christian inspiration often fell into an exalted and poetic form of ex- pression which make it ditlicult to draw the line between prose and poetry. Thus the enthusiastic acclamation of the crowd (Mt 21" = Mk 11", Lk 19"), the thanksgiving of the Church on the release of the apostles (.\c 4^'°), the hymn of the love of man (1 Co 13) and of the love of God (Ito S"'"*"), the praise of God's blessings in Eph P" with the triple refrain ih (iraivav t^s SiJ?;? oiJtou (»• "• ") ; even the Lord's Prayer itself, in the more elaborate form given by Mt 6"" ' with its invoca- tion, its first triplet of single clauses with one common burden expressed after the third but implied with all, and its second triplet of double clauses variously antithetical in form and sense ' (see \VH, ii. pp. 319, 320), — all these have a quasi- rhythmical structure which only just fails short of the level of poetic hymn.
In other passages we have probably fragments from hymns already in use in tlie Church, e.g. Eph 5" (perhaps a baptismal hymn addressed to the new convert), 1 Ti 3'", which should be arranged in two strophes, each containing three lines ; per- haps 1 Co 2', and the half-stereotyped doxologies of 1 Ti 1" 6'«, 2 Ti 4", Kev 4"- " 5"- "■ " 7'"-'" U"- n. 18 \o\a-vi 15s. 4 191. a. m finally, the most elabor- ate structure Lb to be found in the Evangelical Canticles given by St. Luke, viz.: —
(a) l*"-". The Magnificat, based very largely npon the language of the OT, cspeeiafly of the Song of Hannah (1 S 2'-"'), and fulling naturally into four strophes (i.) «•", (ii.) «••»', (iii.) "», (iv.) •*• " (Plummer, ad loe.).
(6) l**-". T/U He.ncdictus, modelled upon the language of the OT prophets and upon the eighteen Benedictions used in the Temide service. This falls into two halves (""• "■"), the first half con- taining three strophes (««-«»■ '"■'■•'■ "■■■»), and the second only two ""• ""'• (Plummer, ad loe. ; Edersheim. Jestis the Messiah, i. p. 158).
(r) 2'*. The Glnrin in Exrel.iis. In this the clauses are carefully halanclsil, whether arranged in a double or triple form. It was early used in the Church as a morning hymn {A/wst. Const. vii. 47), and is found in a coflection of hymns at the end of the Psalter in Codex Alex, of the LXX. It was also incorporated in the Latin Liturgies;
but from very early times it existed in a double form ; for while the morning hymn seems always to have read fi'Soxia, the text of St. Luke and the translation of the Latin Liturgies support tcSoKlat (Plummer, ad loe.; WH, ii. App. 52-56).
(rf) •'■^■^■. The A'unc Dimittis : falling into three strophes ^- *>•"• '", and early (Apost. Const, vii. 48) used as an evening hymn (Plummer, ad loe.).
Eor the later development of Christian hymns see Pliny, Ep. 97 ; Ignat. Eph. 4, Jloin. 2 ; Martyr. {Ant. Act.) 7; Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 13; Ter- tullian, Apol. 39 ; Duchesne, Origines du Culte Clirftien, iv. § 3 ; Kay.ser, Bcitrage zur altesten Kirclicn-hymnen ; Christ und Paranika.s, Artiho- Ionia Grwca Carminum Christiayiorum ; Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus ; Julian, Du:t. of Hymn- ology ; art. Hymn in Encycl. Brit. ; and art. Verse-Writers in Smith, Diet. Chr. Biog.
W. Lock.
HYPOCRITE The iroKpi-Hit is primarily 'one
who answers,' OwoKpiferai ; and hence (1) 'an inter- preter,' and (2) 'an actor.' This is the commonest meaning in classical Greek (.\ristoph. Plat. Xen. etc.). The use of the word for 'a pretender,' •hypocrite,' is not cla.ssical. On the other hand, the word is never found in biblical Gr. of an iictor on the stage. It means either 'one who acts a false part in life,' i.e. one who pretends to be pious when he is not, or (even worse than this) ' one who is utterly bad,' whether he acts a part or not. In Job it is twice used in the general sense of ' impious ' ; ^a(ri\evutv &if&puvov vwoKpir-qv awb bvffKO- Xfas \a.ou (34""*) ; and uTroKpiTal Kapdiq. Td^ouffiif $vp.6v (30"). In Pr U» and Is 33'* Ac^^. Sj-m. and Theod. have i/To/tpiToI, where in the L.\X we have aat^fh. The same is true of Aq. and Theod. in Job 15", where in the LXX we have d<rf^^s ; and A(j. has it Job 20', where irapdi-o/ios is the tr. in LXX. In AV of OT ' hypocrite' occurs in Job 8" 13'" l,->" 17' 20'>27"34»"36'-', Prll», Is9"33", and 'hypocritical' in Ps 35'°, Is 10* — in all these instances as a mis- rendering of ■]?? '"odless' or ' profane,' the render- ing of RV. So also ' hypocrisy ' in AV of Is 32" is correctly rendered by KV ' prufaneness' dJ").
In Nr, although the meaning of 'pretendinj' to be religious aiid devout' prevails (Mt 6'^- '• '' 7» 15' 23'^", Mk 7", Lk 6" 13"), yet the more general meaning sometimes occurs. In Mt 24" 'shall cut him asunder and appoint his portion with the impious ' makes better sense than ' with the hypocrites ' ; and here Lk has ' with the un- faithful,' ficriL Tuy airlrruv (12"), instead of furi Tiii- uTTOKpiTuf. In Lk I'i" this general meaning is perhaps as suitable as the other. Conip. Slk 12" with Mt 22" and Lk '20^; where Mk has vTTi}Kpiuiv, Mt TrovT]piav, and Lk irafoi'^mi', which does not prove that the three terms are equivalent, hut is some evidence that L'T6/cp«ns may mean 'wickedness' (Ilat«h, Bihlical Greek, p. 92). The term includes ilissimidatio (Gal 2") as well a.s simulatiu ; and concealment of convictions wa.s common among opponents of the gospel.