“Mom, Nerds Aren’t a Bad Thing Anymore”

About a week ago, I stumbled across something that stopped me mid-scroll: a project called The First Hymn. It is about an ancient piece of papyrus found in Egypt that contains what scholars believe to be the earliest known Christian hymn written with both words and musical notes (The First Hymn Movie n.d.).

That alone is amazing. But what caught my attention was not just that someone had preserved the music, it was what the words said. This hymn, dated to the third century, praises Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is the full Trinity, clearly expressed nearly a hundred years before the Nicene Creed was written (Undeceptions 2024).

To understand why that is so extraordinary, it helps to remember what the church was facing in that time. As John Dickson explains, this was long before Christianity held any social power and believers were still being persecuted for what the Romans considered strange new beliefs (Belling 2024). Among the Oxyrhynchus papyri were documents like an arrest warrant for a Christian, a record mentioning a destroyed church, and a certificate showing that someone had offered a public pagan sacrifice to prove loyalty to Rome (Belling 2024). Even in that atmosphere of fear and persecution, The First Hymn does not sound like something written only for private gatherings. Its tone and style suggest it was meant to be heard more widely, maybe even beyond the early church community itself (Belling 2024).

The song was written in the popular musical style of the time, the same melodic patterns used in theaters and social gathering places (Belling 2024). Dickson describes it as “public Christianity,” music meant to engage ordinary people and turn their attention from local gods toward what believers called the one true Lord of the universe (Belling 2024). Former professor Charles Cosgrove notes that early Christians often said “Praise the Father through the Son” or “Through the Son and the Spirit,” but this hymn uses the direct formula “Praise Father, Son, and Spirit,” placing all three on equal ground (Belling 2024). That makes it one of the earliest musical examples of a Trinitarian confession, written centuries before church councils defined it in creeds (Belling 2024).

For someone who loves the historical side of faith, that is goosebump worthy. It made me think of a section in Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ, where he interviews Dr. Gary Habermas about the earliest eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ resurrection (Strobel 2016). Strobel writes not as a believer but as an investigative journalist who began his journey as a skeptic. He asks the hard questions many of us think but rarely voice out loud.

As he follows the evidence, Strobel first notes something both obvious and profound: no one actually saw Jesus rise from the dead (Strobel 2016, 248). The resurrection itself had no human witnesses, Habermas explains, but that does not weaken the claim; “No, this doesn’t hurt our case one iota, because science is all about causes and effects”(Strobel 2016, 248). What matters historically is not the unseen moment in the tomb but that a man publicly executed was later seen alive by many. As Strobel summarizes Habermas’s argument, the fact that Jesus’ followers later encountered Him alive after His verified death is what compels serious historical consideration. As Strobel puts it, “dead people don’t do that” (Strobel 2016, 248).

Continuing on, Habermas points to one of the earliest Christian creeds recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, which lists those who saw the risen Jesus, including the “five hundred” witnesses Paul refers to (Strobel 2016, 249-252). Scholars have long recognized this passage as an early creed, and Habermas explains that it can be traced back to its formulation as tradition within months of Jesus’ death (Strobel 2016, 250-251). Strobel emphasizes that many of those eyewitnesses were still alive when Paul wrote these words, a detail that gives the account historical weight (Strobel 2016, 252-253). He concludes, “All in all, I was forced to agree that he was right. The weight of the evidence clearly and convincingly supports the creed as being powerful evidence for Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances” (Strobel 2016, 254).

For a modern skeptic to follow that trail of evidence and come to that conclusion says something remarkable. It shows that faith is not blind. It can stand up to investigation, even when the questions feel uncomfortable.

When I started telling my daughter about the hymn and what it means for early Christian history, I said, “Okay, I am going to nerd out on the historical side of this for a second.” She looked right at me, smiled, and said, “Mom, nerds are not considered a bad thing anymore. It means you are really smart. So nerd away.”

I laughed, but I also loved that moment. Because that is what I want for my kids, and really for anyone learning about faith today: that curiosity is seen as strength, not doubt. That asking questions early does not pull you away from belief but can actually lead you deeper into it.

It took me back to a conversation I had years ago while writing my thesis. A classmate said to me, “Ashley, I am nervous that pointing out these objections could do the opposite of what you want. What if someone turns away from Christ because you mentioned something they had not thought of before?”

Oof. That is a scary thought?

But I had to come to peace with the truth that I am not the first to wrestle with these questions, and I will not be the last. My professor was kindly on my side and reminded me that intellectual answers still require a heart component. The goal was never to win an argument but to model that faith can hold up under honest curiosity.

So yes, I am nerding out over a hymn fragment found in a 1,700-year-old Egyptian dump site. But maybe there is something beautiful about that too, the reminder that truth does not fear time, and that a song once meant for ordinary people in everyday places still carries the same melody of faith today (Belling 2024).

Belling, Alasdair. 2024. “The First Hymn: Part 1.” Undeceptions, December 20, 2024. Adapted from the Undeceptions episode “First Hymn.” https://undeceptions.com/articles/the-significance-of-the-first-hymn-papyrus/

Strobel, Lee. 2016. The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The First Hymn Movie. n.d. The First Hymn – A Documentary by John Dickson with Ben Fielding and Chris Tomlin. Accessed October 22, 2025. https://www.thefirsthymnmovie.com/