Glory to God in the Highest…

The Gloria, among other names supplied in the comparison below, is often called a liturgical hymn, but I feel this discounts both its being imbued in the Scriptures and how ancient of a prayer it is. Orthodox prayers are infused with the spirit (or should I say Spirit) of the Scriptures and beautifully interweaves the biblical texts with the theology of the Church. The Gloria is attested to as early as AD 120s-130s being mentioned by the eighth bishop of Rome Telesphorus¹ (meaning it was already in use prior). A version/variant of the text is in the Apostolic Constitutions Book VII.47 (dated to around AD 375-380) with interesting characteristics but is not in the comparison study, to not be too excessive. (Suffice to say it is a happy medium of the LXX and Gloria columns in the study and that VII.48 contains a piece almost verbatim to the final box of the Doxology.) Dated to the 5^th century, the Codex Alexandrinus, one of the three so-called great uncials (the oldest surviving compilations of Old Testament and New Testament scriptures, along with some other texts² at times), includes following the book of Psalms what is called the book of Odes, about which I have written in the past.³ In short, the book of Odes is a collection of biblical and liturgical prayers that were used liturgically and is often put at the end of psalters. The text in Codex Alexandrinus is the basis of this study and all the comparative texts are in reference to this text. Below compares the Byzantine, Coptic, and Latin liturgical texts to the 5^th c. text to find not only the similarities but even differences unique to each tradition.

The Byzantine text has two columns because they have two variants chanted/read on different days. The Coptic text has two columns because they compare a 13th and 18th c. text with the current liturgical text.

A noncomprehensive list of interesting findings with the Coptic text:

• It somehow is a combination of the Great Doxology, the Doxology, and the Gloria, along with unique factors
  • It follows the general shape of the Doxology, which slightly reorders the contents of the Great Doxology (colored in green) and has its own content (colored in blue). Where the Doxology moves parts of the Great Doxology, the Coptic moves it to between the two unique (Lesser) Doxology pieces.Where the Doxology placed the Great Doxology contents is replaced with different, “Coptic-unique” biblical prayers from Isaiah and the Psalms from as early as the 13th c. (All Coptic-only biblical additions are colored in magenta.)
  • In the “You alone…” section, the Greek texts mentions the Son and the Father. The Latin and Coptic incorporate the Trinity, by adding “with the Holy Spirit” In the same section the Latin and the Coptic have “You alone are Most High,” where the Greek lacks this.
  • Another unique psalmic verse was not present in the 13^th c. psalter, but was present in the 18^th c. script as well as a 14^th c. psalmody manuscript (Bodl.Hunt.256).
  • Bodl.Hunt.256 also includes the opening ⲙⲁⲣⲉⲛϩⲱⲥ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲛⲓⲁⲅⲅⲉⲗⲟⲥ ϫⲉ before beginning the prayer, but this is not present in psalters even up to the 18^th c. This can possibly be due to a few things, including but not limited to a slight variant text between psalter and psalmody for this prayer, slight variants being used concurrently, and/or this opening being an introduction similar to how before the Lord’s Prayer it is common to say “ⲁⲣⲓⲧⲉⲛ ⲛⲉⲙⲡϣⲁ ⲛϫⲟⲥ ϧⲉⲛ ⲟⲩϣⲉⲡϩⲙⲟⲧ” but no one would say this is part of the prayer per se and when writing the Lord’s Prayer it might be left out—similarly before Glory to God… it might have been common to open it with “Let us praise with the angels saying…” but it was not part of the prayer itself. Another possible similar thing in common practice is when reciting the Creed in Arabic, it is common to start with “truly” although it is not in the text itself, but is actually the final word of the deacon’s introduction to the congregation reciting the Creed.
• Up to at least the 18^th c. the Gloria and “Graciously accord, O Lord,” were one prayer, as is still the practice in the Byzantine rite. Arguably, the trisagion is also part of this one prayer, which is also the case with the Great Doxology. This is not only the case is psalter manuscripts but also in psalmody manuscripts, such as Bodl.Hunt.256.
  • The 13^th c. has a much shorter trisagion prayer beginning the same as current practice but ending with “O Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. (x3) O Thrice-Holy [One], Lord, have mercy. (x3)”
  • Bodl.Hunt.256’s text of the trisagion is very similar to what we have today, meaning either the 13^th c. Vat.copt.5 left things out, the prayer developed to such an extent over the next century, there were different variants of the prayers (one for psalmody, one for psalter for example), among other theories.
• The Coptic tended to include synonyms or double translations of certain terms, including doublings for “worship”, “give thanks”, and “Only-Begotten”, to mention a few.

Below is the comparison of these 6 texts with their English translations with footnotes showing where Scripture is used, among other notes. (When “cf.” is used, that means the reference is more loosely related. When “cf.” is not mentioned it is (pretty much) verbatim.) The English translation of the 13th and 18th c. Coptic text is by me. Afterwards are relevant pages from the Coptic manuscripts Vat.copt.5 and BYU COP2-1.

1. “et natalem Domini noctu missas celebrarentur […] et ante sacrificium hymnus diceretur angelicus, hoc est: «Gloria in excelsis Deo»” L’Abbé Louis Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis, vol. I, Paris 1886, p. 129.
   “and let the Masses of the Nativity of the Lord be celebrated at night […] and before the sacrifice may the angelic hymn be said, that is ‘Glory to God in the highest'” ↩︎
2. Making books was very expensive before the printing press, so adding things was thrifty, as it were. ↩︎
3. ⲛⲓϩⲱⲇⲏ ⲛⲧⲉ ⲛⲓⲡⲣⲟⲫⲏⲧⲏⲥ The Odes of The Prophets: https://www.academia.edu/107950195/ⲛⲓϩⲱⲇⲏⲛⲧⲉⲛⲓⲡⲣⲟⲫⲏⲧⲏⲥ_The_Odes_of_The_Prophets ↩︎