Is the Glory Be in the Bible?

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Doxological connection: The direct scriptural source of the doxology's first clause. Christ's baptismal mandate established the Trinitarian formula — "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" — as the Church's definitive Name of God.

"O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! … For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen."

Doxological connection: Saint Paul's spontaneous doxological outburst in the middle of theological reflection mirrors the exact movement of the Glory Be: from contemplating divine mystery to bursting into praise. "To him be glory for ever" is the apostolic prototype.

"Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen."

Doxological connection: "To all generations, for ever and ever" is the New Testament equivalent of "world without end" (in saecula saeculorum). Saint Paul anchors the doxology's eternal scope in both the Church's communal prayer and in Christ Jesus.

"And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to sing: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

Doxological connection: "Who was and is and is to come" is the heavenly liturgy's articulation of God's eternal present — past, now, and future — that the doxology captures as "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be." The Glory Be is an earthly echo of the ceaseless angelic song.

"To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

Doxological connection: "The King of ages" (Greek: basilei tōn aiōnōn) is the God who transcends and governs all ages of history — the same eternal God praised in the doxology's final phrase "world without end" (in saecula saeculorum, "unto the ages of ages").

"Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come … I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

Doxological connection: The divine self-description "who is and who was and who is to come" is the Book of Revelation's thematic key, and directly parallels the doxology's temporal clauses. God's eternity spans all time — beginning, present, and endless future — in both.

"I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up … above him stood the seraphim … and one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."

Doxological connection: Isaiah's vision of the heavenly throne room — with seraphim ceaselessly crying "Holy, holy, holy" (the Trisagion) — is the Old Testament prototype of all Christian doxology. The Church sees this as a veiled Trinitarian revelation, and the Gloria Patri is its New Testament fulfillment.

"Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his exceeding greatness! … Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!"

Doxological connection: The final Psalm is the climax of the entire Psalter — a universal, all-encompassing doxology. In the Liturgy of the Hours, Psalm 150 and every other psalm is concluded with the Glory Be, fulfilling it as a Christian Trinitarian doxology.

"Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee … I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made."

Doxological connection: In His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus explicitly references "the glory which I had with thee before the world was made" — the same pre-creational glory asserted by the doxology's "as it was in the beginning." This is among the clearest New Testament testimonies to the Son's eternal, co-equal glory with the Father.

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible … all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

Doxological connection: Saint Paul's Christological hymn asserts the Son's pre-existence and primacy over all creation — the very claim the doxology makes by assigning equal glory to the Son alongside the Father "as it was in the beginning." Nothing was created before the Son; He is the eternal Word.

"Whoever renders service, as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

Doxological connection: "To him belong glory and dominion for ever and ever" is a doxological formula nearly identical to the closing of the Gloria Patri. Saint Peter's letter shows doxological prayer was standard practice in the earliest Christian communities.

"Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen."

Doxological connection: "Before all time and now and for ever" — this concluding doxology of Saint Jude's letter contains all three temporal dimensions of the Glory Be: past (before all time), present (now), and future (for ever). It is perhaps the closest scriptural parallel to the complete doxological structure of the Gloria Patri.