The way the early church understood it, however, would have been more like this: just as the architectural structure of the Temple followed the patterns of the heavenly sanctuary, so the hymns of the Temple followed the pattern of the angelic worship. The hymns of Revelation are more nearly like the heavenly worship. John heard the heavenly worship more clearly than either David or Isaiah. He understood that the song of Moses was in reality the song of the Lamb. For this reason the canticles, reworked in a Christian manner, became increasingly important in the worship of the church.
