Quick Definition
ὕμνος, ου, ὁ n.m. a hymn, sacred song
Strong's Definition
probably akin to G103 (ᾄδω); compare H05667); a "hymn" or religious ode (one of the Psalms)
Derivation: apparently from a simpler (obsolete) form of (to celebrate;
KJV Usage: hymn
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament
UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
ὕμνος, -ov, 6, in Grk. writ. fr. Hom. down, @ song in praise of gods, heroes, conquerors, [cf. Trench as below, p- 297], but in the Scriptures of God; a sacred song, hymn: plur., Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16. (1 Mace. iv. 33; 2 Mace. i. 30; x. 7; [Jud. xvi. 13], ete.; of the Psalms of David, Joseph. antt. 7, 12, 3; for nbn, Ps. xxxix. (xl.) 4; lxiv. (Ixv.) 2; for Vw, Is. xlii. 10.)
Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary
ὕμνος hymnos 2x
a song; a hymn, song of praise to God, Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16*
Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon
ὕμνος, -ου, ὁ
[in LXX for תְּהִלָּה, נְגִינָה, שִׁיר, etc. ;]
a hymn; in cl. a festal song in praise of gods or heroes;
in LXX and NT a song of praise addressed to God: Eph 5:19, Col 3:16.†
SYN.: ψαλμός, that which is sung to a musical accompaniment; ᾠδή, the generic term for song (cf. Tr., Syn., § lxxviii, Lft. on Col 3:16)
Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament
Aut these words occur together at Ephes. v. 19, and again δ΄. Col. iii. 16; both times in the same order, and in passages which very nearly repeat one another ; cf. Ps. Ixvi. 1. When some expositors refuse even to attempt to distinguish between them, urging that St. Paul had certainly no intention of classifying the different forms of Christian poetry, this statement, no doubt, is quite true; but neither, on the other hand, would he have used, where there is evidently no temptation to rhetorical amplification, three words, if one would have equally served his turn. It may fairly be questioned whether we can trace very accurately the lines of demarcation between the ‘“ psalms and hymns and spiritual songs’ of which the Apostle makes mention, or whether he traced these lines for himself with a perfect accuracy. Still each must have had a meaning which belonged to it more, and by a better right, than it belonged to either of the others ; and this it may be possible to seize, even while it is quite impossible with perfect strictness to distribute under these three heads Christian poetry as it existed in the Apostolic age. ἾΑσμα, it may be here observed, a word of not unfrequent occurrence in the Septuagint, does not occur in the 1s ed be The Psalms of the O. T. remarkably enough have no §Lxxvil SYWVONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 277 single, well recognized, universally accepted name by which they are designated in the Hebrew Scriptures (Delitzsch, Comm. tb. den Psalter, vol. ii. p. 871; Herzog, RealLincyclop. vol. xii. p. 269). They first obtained such in the Septuagint. Wadyds, from Yaw, properly a touching, and then a touching of the harp or other stringed instruments with the finger or with the plectrum (ψαλμοὶ τόξων, Euripides, Ion, 174; cf. Bacch. 740, are the twangings of the bowstrings), was next the instrument itself, and last of all the song sung with this musical accompaniment. It is in this latest stage of its meaning that we find the word adopted in the Septuagint ; and to this agree the ecclesiastical definitions of it; thus in the Lexicon ascribed to Cyril of Alexandria : λόγος μουσικός, ὅταν εὐρύθμως κατὰ τοὺς ἁρμονικοὺς λόγους τό ὄργανον κρούηται : cf. Clement of Alexandria (Pedag. ii. 4): ὃ ψαλμός, ἐμμελής ἐστιν εὐλογία kat σώφρων : and Basil the Great, who brings out with still greater emphasis what differences the ‘psalm’ and the ode or ‘spiritual song’ (Hom. in Ps. 44): δὴ γάρ ἐστι, καὶ οὐχὶ ψαλμός * διότι γυμνῇ φωνῇ, μὴ συνηχοῦντος αὐτῇ τοῦ ὀργάνου, per’ ἐμμελοῦς τῆς ἐκφωνήσεως, παρεδίδοτο : compare in Psal. xxix.1; to which Gregory of Nyssa, in Psal. ο. ὃ, agrees. In all probability the ψαλμοί of Kphes. v. 19, Col. iii. 16, are the inspired psalms of the Hebrew Canon. The word certainly designates these on all other occasions when it is met in the N. T., with the one possible exception of 1 Cor. xiv. 26; and probably refers to them there; nor can I doubt that the ‘psalms’ which the Apostle would have the faithful to sing to one another, are psalms of David, of Asaph, or of some other of the sweet singers of Israel; above all, seeing that the word seems limited and restricted to its narrowest use by the nearly synonymous words with which it is grouped. But while the ‘psalm’ by the right of primogeniture, as being at once the oldest and most venerable, thus occupies the foremost place, the Church of Christ does not restrict herself to such, but claims the freedom of bringing new things as well as old out of her treasure-house. She will produce 278 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT § LXXVill “hymns and spiritual songs” of her own, as well as inherit psalms bequeathed to her by the Jewish Church ; a new salvation demanding a new song (Rev. v. 9), as Augustine delights so often to remind us. It was of the essence of a Greek ὕμνος that it should be addressed to, or be otherwise in praise of, a god, or of a hero, that is, in the strictest sense of that word, of a deified man ; as Callisthenes reminded Alexander; who, claiming hymns for himself, or suffering them to be addressed to him, implicitly accepted not human honours but divine (ὕμνοι μὲν ἐς τοὺς θεοὺς ποιοῦνται, ἔπαινοι δὲ ἐς ἀνθρώπους, Arrian, iv. 11). In the gradual breaking down of the distinction between human and divine, which marked the fallen days of Greece and Rome, with the usurping on the part of men of divine honours, the ὕμνος came more and more to be applied to men ; although this not without observation and remonstrance (Athenzus, vi. 62; xv. 21, 22). When the word was assumed into the language of the Church, this essential distinction clung to it still. A ‘psalm’ might be a De profundis, the story of man’s deliverance, or a commemoration of mercies which he had received; and of a “ spiritual song”? much the same could be said: a ‘hymn’ must always be more or less of a Magnificat, a direct address of praise and glory to God. Thus Jerome (in E'phes. v. 19) : ‘Breviter hymnos esse dicendum, qui fortitudinem et majestatem predicant Dei, et ejusdem semper vel beneficia, vel facta, mirantur.’ Compare Origen, Con. Cels. viil. 67 ; and a precious fragment, probably of the Presbyter Caius, preserved by Eusebius (H. ΕἸ. v. 28): ψαλμοὶ δὲ ὅσοι καὶ δαὶ ἀδελφῶν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς ὑπὸ πιστῶν γραφεῖσαι, τὸν Λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν Χριστὸν ὑμνοῦσι θεολογοῦντες. Compare further Gregory of Nyssa (in Psalm. 6. 8): ὕμνος, ἡ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὑπάρχουσιν ἡμῖν ἀγαθοῖς ἀνατιθεμένη τῷ Θεῷ εὐφημία: the whole chapter is interesting. Augustine in more places than one states the notes of what in his mind are the essentials of a hymn— which are three: 1. It must be sung; 2. It must be praise ; 3. It must be to God. Thus Enarr. in Ps. \xxii. 1: ‘Hymni §Lxxvil SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 279 laudes sunt Dei cum cantico: hymni cantus sunt continentes laudes Dei. Si sit laus, et non sit Dei, non est hymnus: si sit laus, et Dei laus, et non cantetur, non est hymnus. Oportet ergo ut, si sit hymnus, habeat hee tria, et laudem, et Dei, et canticum.’ So, too, Hnarr. in Ps. exlvi. 14: ‘Hymnus scitis quid est? Cantus est cum laude Dei. Si laudas Deum, et non cantas, non dicis hymnum ; si cantas, et non laudas Deum, non dicis hymnum; si laudas aliud quod non pertinet ad laudem Dei, etsi cantando laudes non dicis hymnum. Hymnus ergo tria ista habet, et cantum, et laudem, et Dei.’! Compare Gregory Nazianzene : ἔπαινός ἐστιν εὖ TL τῶν ἐμῶν φράσαι, αἶνος δ᾽ ἔπαινος εἰς Θεὸν σεβάσμιος, ὃ δ᾽ ὕμνος, αἶνος ἐμμελής, ws οἴομαι. But though, as appears from these quotations, ὕμνος in the fourth century was a word freely adopted in the Church, this was by no means the case at an earlier day. Notwithstanding the authority which St. Paul’s employment of it might seem to have lent it, ὕμνος nowhere occurs in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, nor in those of Justin Martyr, nor in the Apostolic Constitutions; and only once in Tertullian (ad Uxor. ii. 8). It is at least a plausible explanation of this that ὕμνος was for the early Christians so steeped in heathenism, 50 linked with profane associations, and desecrated by them, there were so many hymns to Zeus, to Hermes, to Aphrodite, and to the other deities of the heathen pantheon, that the early Christians shrunk instinctively from the word. If we ask ourselves of what character were the ‘hymns,’ which St. Paul desired that the faithful should sing among themselves, we may confidently assume that these observed the law to which other hymns were submitted, and were direct addresses of praise to God. Inspired specimens of the 1 It is not very easy to follow Augustine in his distinction between a ‘psalm’ and a ‘canticle.’ Indeed, he acknowledges himself that he has not arrived at any clearness on this matter; thus see Enarr. m Ps. lxvii, 1; where, however, these words occur, ‘in psalmo est sonoritas, in cantico letitia’: cf. in Ps.iv.1; and Hilary, Prol. in Lib. Psalm. $§ 19-21. 280 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT §.xxvitl ὕμνος we meet at Luke i. 46-55; 68-79; Acts iv. 24; such also probably was that which Paul and Silas made to be heard from the depth of their Philippian dungeon (ὕμνουν τὸν Θεόν, Acts xvi. 25). How noble, how magnificent, uninspired hymns could prove we have signal evidence in the Te Deum, in the Veni Creator Spiritus, and in many a later possession for ever which the Church has acquired. That the Church, brought when St. Paul wrote into a new and marvellous world of heavenly realities, would be rich in these we might be sure, even if no evidence existed to this effect. Of sueh evidence, however, there is abundance, more than one fragment of a hymn being probably embedded in St. Paul’s own Epistles (Ephes. v. 14; 1 Tim. iii. 16; 2 Tim. ii. 11-14; οἵ. Rambach, Anthologie, vol. i. p. 88; and Neale, Hssays on Liturgiology, pp. 418, 424). And as it was quite impossible that the Christian Church, mightily releasing itself, though with no revolutionary violence, from the Jewish synagogue, should fall into that mistake into which some of the Reformed Churches afterwards fell, we may be sure that it adopted into liturgic use, not ‘psalms’ only, but also ‘ hymns,’ singing hymns to Christ as to God (Pliny, Hp. x. 96); though this, as we may conclude, more largely in Churches gathered out of the heathen world than in those wherein a strong Jewish element existed. On ὕμνος from an etymological point of view Pott, Etymol. Forsch. vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 612, may be consulted. δή (Ξεάοιδη) is the only word of this group which the Apocalypse knows (v. 9; xiv. 3; xv. 3). St. Paul, on the two occasions when he employs it, adds πνευματική to it; and this, no doubt, because δή by itself might mean any kind of song, as of battle, of harvest, or festal, or hymeneal, while ψαλμός, from its Hebrew use, and ὕμνος from its Greek, did not require any such qualifying adjective. This epithet thus applied to these ‘songs’ does not affirm that they were divinely inspired, any more than the ἀνὴρ πνευματικός is an inspired man (1 Cor. iii. 1; Gal. vi. 1); but only that they were such as were composed by spiritual men, and moved in the sphere of spiritual things. How, it may be asked, are §LxxIx SYMVONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 281 we to distinguish these “ spiritual songs ᾽᾿ from the ‘ psalms ’ and ‘hymns’ with which they are associated by St. Paul? If the ‘psalms’ represent the heritage of sacred song which the Christian Church derived from the Jewish, the ‘hymns’ and “spiritual songs’’ will between them cover what further in the same kind it produced out of its bosom; but with a difference. What the hymns were, we have already seen ; but Christian thought and feeling will soon have expanded into a wider range of poetic utterances than those in which there is a direct address to the Deity. If we turn, for instance, to Herbert’s Temple, or Vaughan’s Silex Scintillans, or Keble’s Christian Year, in all of these there are many poems, which, as certainly they are not ‘psalms,’ so as little do they possess the characteristics of ‘hymns.’ “Spiritual songs” these might most fitly be called; even as in almost all our collections of so called ‘hymns’ at the present day, there are not a few which by much juster title would bear this name. Calvin, it will be seen, only agrees in part with the distinctions which I have here sought to trace: ‘ Sub his tribus nominibus complexus est [Paulus] omne genus canticorum ; que ita vulgo distinguuntur, ut psalmus sit in quo concinendo adhibetur musicum aliquod instrumentum preter linguam : hymnus proprie sit laudis canticum, sive assd voce, sive aliter canatur ; oda non laudes tantum contineat, sed parzneses, et alia argumenta.’ Compare in Vollbeding’s Thesaurus, vol. li. p. 27 sqq., a treatise by J. Z. Hillger, De Psalmorum, Hymnorum, et Odarum discrimine; Palmer in Herzog’s Reallincyclopddie, vol. v. p. 100 sqq.; Deyling, Obss. Sac. vol. iii. p. 480; Lightfoot, On Colossians, 111. 16 ; and the art. Hymns in Dr. Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. ὃ xxix. ἀγράμματος, ἰδιώτης.
Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT
ὕμνος, “a Ἡγιηη ᾿᾿: OG/S 56° (B.c. 238) ots ἂν ὕμνους οἱ tepoypapparets γράψαντες δῶσιν τῶι ὠιδοδιδασκάλωι, P and P Oxy I. 13074 (vi/A.D.) ὕμνους ἀθανάτους ἀναπέμψω τῷ δεσπότῃ Χριστῷ. For the compound ὑμνῳδός, “singer of hymns,” cf. Perg 52319 ὑμνῳδ]οῦ θεοῦ Αἰγούστου, and 16. 374% ὑμνῳδοὶ θεοῦ Σεβαστοῦ καὶ θεᾶς Ρώμης with Frankel’s commentary ad /. on the functions of the ὑμνῳδός. See also Deissmann 24 Z?, Pp: 349.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon
ὕμνος (humnos) — hymn. ὕμνος, ὁ, hymn, ode, in praise of gods or heroes (καί τι ἦν εἶδος ῳδῆς εὐχαὶ πρὸς θεούς, ὄνομα δὲ ὕμνοι ἐπεκαλοῦντο [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ὕμνῳ νικήσαντα φέρειν τρίποδ᾽ [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ὕμνοι θεῶν to or in honour of the gods, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ὕμνοι Δαυείδ psalms of [NT+6th c.AD+]: in Trag. also of mournful songs, addressed to gods or heroes, τὸν δυσκέλαδον ὕ. Ἐρινύος [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ὕ. Ἅιδου, of one whose songs are death, [Refs 2nd c.AD+] —On ὕμνοι of various kinds see Men.Rh.p.333 [Refs 5th c.BC+]. [Most commonly ῡ, but only by position; ῠ proved by εὔῠμνος (which see), ῠμνῳδεῖ [Refs 5th c.BC+]
STEPBible — Tyndale Abridged Greek Lexicon
📖 Greek Word Study — In-Depth Study from Precept Austin
Hymns (5215) humnos