The First Christian Hymnal: The Songs of the Ancient Jerusalem Church: Parallel Georgian-English Texts [Hardcover]

This collection offers the first English translation of the oldest known Christian hymnal, a book of hymns which was compiled in Jerusalem during the later 4th or early 5th century.The First Christian Hymnaloffers an unmatched resource for understanding the development of early Christian worship and piety, as well as the transmission of Christian doctrine to the unlettered. For too long, this invaluable collection has been almost completely ignored by scholars of early Christianity, having survived only in an Old Georgian translation.

Stephen J. Shoemakeris a specialist on the history of Christianity and the beginnings of Islam. His primary interests lie in the ancient and early medieval Christian traditions, more specifically in early Byzantine and Near Eastern Christianity. His research focuses on early devotion to the Virgin Mary, Christian apocryphal literature, and Islamic origins.