1That this describes Lucifer before his fall into sin can be seen by the whole context of verses 12-16 which describes him as being “the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty… You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you” and then verse 17 describes that iniquity.↩

2TWOT says, “The noun תֹּף is a general term for tambourines and small drums (the most common instruments of percussion in ancient times)…” Dictionaries point out that these tambourines were played by both women (Ex. 15:20; Judg. 11:34; 1 Sam. 18:6; Jer. 31:4; etc.) and men (Ps. 81:3; 149:3; 150:4; etc.).↩

3Though there is debate on the precise meaning of this term, the older rendering of “pipes” fits the musical parallel of “tambourines.” It also best accounts for its connection with musical instruments elsewhere. Daphna Arbel says, “Callender, for instance, has recently interpreted the Hebrew term נֶקֶב as a synonym for חליל, a “flute pipe” or a “drilled thing.” As he asserts, the common term for “flute” in the Hebrew Bible is חָלִיל, a word semantically generated from the root חלל, indicating “to bore” or “to pierce.” The word נְקָבֶיךָ is, most reasonably, taken from the root נקב, which in Semitic languages carries the sense “to dig,” “to tunnel,” or “to pierce.” Thus, נֶקֶב, like חָלִיל, denotes a “drilled thing” or a “flute pipe.” Textual evidence in support of this translation includes passages that place the articles תֹּף and חָלִיל together in the context of a list of musical instruments (e.g. 1 Sam. 10:5; Isa. 5:12)” (Daphna Arbel, “Articles,” in JBL 124 (2005): 647).↩

4As we will see later in this book, in the fourth century and beyond there were church fathers that were influenced heavily by Greek philosophy, and they treated all instrumentation as evil. Though they were not successful in stamping out instrumental music everywhere, their Greek asceticism resulted not only in abuse of the body, celibacy, escapism, etc., but led to most churches abandoning instrumentation and even abandoning the “tritone” interval that is common to the melodies of the Psalms. The Council of Trent actually banned the tritone. Dennis McCorkle believes that in addition to embracing Greek asceticism, many in the fourth century avoided both instruments and the tritone interval as a way of distancing themselves from Judaism (Dennis McCorkle, The Davidic Cipher, (Denver, CO: Outskirts Press, Inc., 2010), 19).↩

5Later in the book I will seek to demonstrate that synagogue worship was normatively characterized by instrumental accompaniment. It was not simply a temple ceremonial law.↩

6Roger Beckwith says, “There are 36 references to singing in Books I-III of the Psalter, and the same number in Books IV-V. Musical instruments are referred to nine times in Books I-III (four or five different instruments being mentioned) and ten times in Books IV-V (five or six different instruments being mentioned)” (Roger T. Beckwith, “THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE PSALTER.” TynBul 46 (1995): 27).↩

7See footnotes 13 and 16 in chapter 3 for the definitions of the various terms for “psalm,” all of which point to words accompanied by instrumental music.↩

8See footnotes 2, 8, 12, 14, and 16 in chapter 3 for the definitions of the Greek terms.↩

9The references in the English Bible (the Hebrew is sometimes off by one verse) are: Ps. 3:2; Ps. 3:4; Ps. 3:8; Ps. 4:2; Ps. 4:4; Ps. 7:5; Ps. 9:16; Ps. 9:20; Ps. 20:3; Ps. 21:2; Ps. 24:6; Ps. 24:10; Ps. 32:4; Ps. 32:5; Ps. 32:7; Ps. 39:5; Ps. 39:11; Ps. 44:8; Ps. 46:3; Ps. 46:7; Ps. 46:11; Ps. 47:4; Ps. 48:8; Ps. 49:13; Ps. 49:15; Ps. 50:6; Ps. 52:3; Ps. 52:5; Ps. 54:3; Ps. 55:7; Ps. 55:19; Ps. 57:3; Ps. 57:6; Ps. 59:5; Ps. 59:13; Ps. 60:4; Ps. 61:4; Ps. 62:4; Ps. 62:8; Ps. 66:4; Ps. 66:7; Ps. 66:15; Ps. 67:1; Ps. 67:4; Ps. 68:7; Ps. 68:19; Ps. 68:32; Ps. 75:3; Ps. 76:3; Ps. 76:9; Ps. 77:3; Ps. 77:9; Ps. 77:15; Ps. 81:7; Ps. 82:2; Ps. 83:8; Ps. 84:4; Ps. 84:8; Ps. 85:2; Ps. 87:3; Ps. 87:6; Ps. 88:7; Ps. 88:10; Ps. 89:4; Ps. 89:37; Ps. 89:45; Ps. 89:48; Ps. 140:3; Ps. 140:5; Ps. 140:8; Ps. 143:6; Hab. 3:3; Hab. 3:9; Hab. 3:13.↩

10A very helpful article that logically and systematically rules out all alternative theories of what is meant by the term, Selah, is B. B. Edwards, “STUDIES IN HEBREW POETRY,” in Biblicotheca Sacra 5 (1848): 68. Imagine two groups of instrumentalists, the priests with trumpets and the Levites with the instruments of normal accompaniment. At the points in the Psalm where the Selah occurs the trumpets would be introduced and the other musicians would play more loudly (forte) to emphasize those portions of the singing. Where Higgaion refers to piano (very soft playing), Selah refers to forte (very loud playing). That it cannot refer to a pause in singing (as some have supposed) is demonstrated by the fact that the word occurs both in the middle of sentences and at the end of a psalm.

Nor can it mean “repeat.” Prof B. B. Edwards explains:

But supposing that the Hebrews were acquainted with this musical repetition—which is improbable— the word occurs in the midst of sentences, between the Protasis and Apodosis, yea even after the first words of a psalm, where a repetition would be absolutely inadmissible.

While Merrill Tenney correctly sees the forte (“lifting up”) nature of Selah, he unfortunately sees it as occurring during an interlude or postlude. While it does occur at times as a postlude, it frequently occurs in the middle of a sentence and therefore cannot be an interlude (Merrill C. Tenney, ed., Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 324). At the end of his long discussion, Edwards summarizes:

Now if we suppose that the significant tones of the trumpet fell in with and marked the words where the psalmist would present before God the leading desires of his heart, his most ardent hopes and convictions and assure himself of being heard, then certainly these are the points or passages where we should find סֶלָה subjoined. Here therefore is seen the office or use of the trumpets, and here Selah also appears. It is placed by the poet at the passages, where in the temple-song, the choir of priest, standing opposite to that of the Levites, sounded the trumpets (סלל), and, with the powerful tones of this instrument, the words just spoken were marked and borne upwards to Jehovah’s ear. This intercessory music of the priests was probably sustained on the part of the Levites by the vigorous tones of the psaltery and harp; hence the Greek term διάψαλμα. The same appears further from the full phrase הִגָּיוֹן סֶלָה”pan, Ps. 9:16, the first word denoting the sound of the stringed instruments, Ps. 92:3; the latter, the blast of the trumpets, both of which would here sound together. The less important word, הגּיוֹן, disappeared when the expression was abbreviated, and סֶלָה alone remained.

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11See Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary (TOTC 15; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 52.↩

12Suzanne Haik-Vantoura, The Music of the Bible Revealed (San Francisco: King David’s Harp, 1991).↩

13Here are some of the many commands to lead with skill:

“Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.” (Psalm 33:3)

“So the number of them…who were instructed in the songs of the LORD, all who were skillful, was two hundred and eighty-eight. And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student.” (1 Chron. 25:7-8)

“Keniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.” (1 Chron. 15:22)

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14There are many character qualifications for musicians. Here are a few:

“I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” (Isa. 1:13)

“Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (Amos 5:23)

“Praise from the upright is beautiful.” (Ps. 33:1)

“…singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3:16)

“I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” (1 Cor. 14:15)

“But to the wicked God says: ‘What right have you to declare My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth.’” (Ps. 50:16)

“The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with wicked intent!” (Prov. 21:27)

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15Howard Vos notes,

Musical instruments were for the purpose of accompanying singers, and not for the sake of orchestras as such. The expression k’le shire (Neh. 12:36; 1 Chron. 16:42; 2 Chron. 5:13, etc.), ‘instruments of song,’ which occurs in several passages of the Old Testament as a general term for all kinds of musical instruments, shows plainly that the ancient Hebrews used instrumental music solely to accompany singing” (Howard Vos, “THE MUSIC OF ISRAEL: PART 2,” in Biblioteca Sacra 107 (1950): 66).

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16Some a cappella legalists use much stronger language, calling the use of instrumentation Papism, idolatry, Judaizing, rebellion, sin, a denial of the simplicity of the Gospel, and heresy. For example, John Girardeau says,

It is heresy in the sphere of worship… The ministers who are opposed to the unscriptural movement are, many of them at least, indisposed to throw themselves into opposition to its onward rush. They are unwilling to make an issue with their people upon this question. They are reluctant to characterize the employment of instrumental music in public worship as a sin. But a sin it is, if there be any force in the argument which opposes it. The people ought to be taught that in using it they rebel against the law of Christ, their King. (John L. Girardeau, Instrumental Music in Public Worship (Havertown, PA: New Covenant Publication Society, 1983 [first published 1888]), 179, 206-207).

See also the comments of Robert Nevin, Instrumental Music in Christian Worship (Londonderry: Bible and Colportage Society, 1873; Reprinted by Still Waters Revival).↩

17This long and distinguished history is documented quite well by the following two authors: 1) John L. Girardeau, Instrumental Music in Public Worship (Havertown, PA: New Covenant Publication Society, 1983 [first published 1888]), and 2) John Price, Old Light on New Worship (Avinger, TX: Simpson Publishing Company, 2007). Another compendium of essays that is quite helpful on this subject was published by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America Synod’s Committee on Worship, and is called The Biblical Doctrine of Worship: A Symposium (RPCNA: 1974). I have also found it helpful to read the following books: Donald Weilersbacher, My Praise Shall Be Of Thee (Self-Published by author; Minister in the RPCNA). Robert J. Breckenridge’s “Protest Against the Use of Instrumental Music in the State Worship of God on the Lord’s Day.” Hugh Brown, “Discourse Against the Use of Instrumental Music in Worship.” Robert Johnson, “A Discourse On Instrumental Music in Public Worship” unpublished, 1871. Brian Schwertley, “Musical Instruments in the Public Worship of God” (Southfield: Reformed Witness, 1999).↩

18Far from there being a command for a cappella singing, there is not even a clear example of it, though it no doubt happened frequently. (This is the problem of arguing from silence as the no-instrumentation position frequently does.) James Jordan correctly notes:

There is no example of a cappella singing (singing without instruments) in the Bible. We are told on occasion that people sang, and instruments are not mentioned, but never are we told that people sang without instruments. (From www.BiblicalHorizons.com (1999) “Additional Notes on Musical Instruments,” appended to an article by Peter Leithart, “Death and Resurrection of the Tabernacle.”)

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19As we will see, every command to sing “psalms” is a command to sing something accompanied by instruments. Likewise, numerous Psalm titles command us to use instruments. Here are some additional commands: “Sing to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm, with trumpets and the sound of a horn” (Ps. 98:5-6). “Sing praises on the harp to our God” (Ps. 147:7); “Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp” (Ps. 149:3); “play skillfully” (Ps. 33:3); See also Ps. 68:24-25; 98:4-6; 149:3; 150:1-6. The term “Selah” occurs 74 times in the Old Testament, and is thought to mean, “the lifting up of instrumental music in an interlude or postlude.” See Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, p. 324. We will examine the New Testament command to use instruments later in the book.↩

20This is illustrated in Matthew 15:1-20, Mark 7:1-23, Galatians 5-6, and other passages. The Pharisees described in these passages were not merely “laying aside the commandment of God” (Mark 7:8) but they also added “many” traditions (Mark 7:8-13). Man cannot live without law, so antinomianism always leads to some form of legalism.↩

21The Regulative Principle of Worship argues that Christian worship is to be offered in accordance with Scriptural norms and ordinances to the exclusion of all forms of worship not warranted by the teaching of Scripture. See Westminster Confession of Faith chapters 20-21 for a detailed discussion. See also Larger Catechism questions 108 & 109. The regulative principle of worship can be found in the following sampling of Scriptures: General principle - Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18-19; Prov. 30:5-6; Is. 8:20. Other Scriptures - Gen. 4:3-5; Lev. 10:1-3 (16:12); Numb. 16; 20:1-13; Deut. 12:28-32; 1 Sam. 13:8-14; 1 Chron. 13:9-14 (15:11-15; 2 Sam. 6:6f; Numb. 4:15; 1 Chron. 15:13-15); 2 Chron. 26:16-21; 29:25-30; Ex. 20:3-6; Ezra 3:10-11; John 5:19; 8:29 (12:49f; 14:31); John 4:24; Mark 7:7-13 (11:15-17; Matt. 15:6-9; 21:12-13; John 2:14-17); Col. 2:20-23; Matt. 28:19ff. The regulative principle of worship does not mean that God cannot change the way we are to worship Him. He no longer allows animal sacrifices now that Christ the final sacrifice has come. He no longer mandates the crucial distinctions of clean and unclean now that Christ has made all things clean and holy to the Lord (cf. Zech. 14:20-21), and there have been other changes. The point is, though God has His reasons for regulating worship differently in any given era, He does continue to regulate worship.↩

22Kevin Reed, Biblical Worship (Dallas: Presbyterian Heritage, 1995), pp. 62,65. Many such quotes from older authors could be given. John Calvin said,

The Levites, under the law, were justified in making use of instrumental music in the worship of God; it having been his will to train his people, while they were yet tender and like children, by such rudiments, until the coming of Christ. But now, when the clear light of the gospel has dissipated the shadows of the law and taught us that God is to be served in a simpler form, it would be to act a foolish and mistaken part to imitate that which the prophet enjoined only upon those of his own time. (On Psalm 81:3)

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23This is strengthened in the minds of some with two passages (Numbers 10:10 and 2 Chronicles 29:25-30), where musical instruments were used when the sacrifices were offered up to God. Their conclusion is that this was the purpose of such instruments. However, there is a big difference between saying that musical instruments accompanied certain sacrifices and saying that this was their only purpose.↩

24Hebrews, Colossians, and Galatians are all cited as abolishing the Old Testament ceremonial law. However, two points are often missed in this discussion: 1) Though there is explicit mention made in the New Testament about sacrifices, foods, and Old Testament calendar no longer being binding on the church, the New Testament nowhere says that God abolished musical instruments. 2) Hebrews does not say that ceremonial law was abolished. It says that it has been changed: “priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law” (Heb. 7:12). We will have more to say about this below.↩

25Girardeau says,

The instrumental music of temple-worship was typical of the joy and triumph of God’s believing people to result from the plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost in New Testament times… [I]t pleased God to typify the spiritual joy to spring from a richer possession of the Holy Spirit through the sensuous rapture engendered by the passionate melody of stringed instruments and the clash of cymbals, by the blare of trumpets and the ringing of harps. It was the instruction of his children in a lower school, preparing them for a higher. (Girardeau, pp. 60-63)

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26http://www.reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/music.htm Emphasis his.↩

27When verse 28 says “So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the LORD,” the only antecedent for the “they” is Jehoshaphat and the men who had won the battle in the previous verse.↩

28It is clear that the instruments had been brought to the place that they “assembled in the Valley of Berachah” (v. 26) where “they blessed the LORD” in worship (v. 26) because they had them in their possession after the worship service when “they returned… to go back to Jerusalem” (v. 27). I do not see how the conclusion can be avoided that instruments were deliberately brought to the worship service far from the temple. We cannot prove that they were played at the worship service, but they certainly had them there and played them on the trip back.↩

29The problem with saying that allowing instruments automatically must allow sacrifices is that the New Testament explicitly and repeatedly speaks of the ending of bloody sacrifices, but nowhere does the same for musical instruments. It is by divine revelation alone that the use of instruments in worship can be overturned.↩

30The five reasons he gives are:

1. Women played instruments in all of these cases. He counters that by claiming that women were never allowed to play instruments in worship, but see my exposition of Psalm 68 below.
2. God showed Moses all the plans for worship in the tabernacle (Ex. 25:40; Heb. 8:5), and nowhere in the law are women allowed to play and dance. However, Exodus 15 is in the law.
3. Only male Levites were allowed to play instruments. However, that is circular reasoning, and this section will seek to disprove the contention.
4. These passages would indicate that only women could play instruments and only in conjunction with female dancing.

This last seems to be an attempt at reductio ad absurdum, but it fails on two counts. First, many other passages indicate that men played instruments so the “women only” application would not be necessary, and second, it is assumed rather than proved that dancing should not occur in worship. I happen to be conservative on that point as well, but it should be exegesis, not preferences, that drive us to our conclusions. His argument implies the opposite – that prejudice, not exegesis, should exclude dancing from worship. Similar arguments can be found in Girardeau and other authors.↩

31The two phrases “to the LORD” and “before the LORD” are phrases that are used over and over to describe a public worship service (Ex. 24:1, 2 Chron. 20:18; Ps. 22:27; Ps. 95:6) and especially worship at the temple (Ex. 29:18,25; Lev. 1:5,9,11,13,17; 2:2,8-9,12; 3:5,11; 4:7,18,35; etc.).↩

32See John Goldingay, Psalms, volume 3 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008) for some of those parallels. He sees both as belonging to the context of Israelite worship.↩

33While I won’t deal with all the passages that have been discarded with this sweeping generalization, I would ask three questions related to such passages: 1) What things in the context demand that it be categorized as a non-worship celebration? Too many times circular reasoning is used: “It must be a non-worship celebration since instruments are not allowed in worship.” 2) If it is not worship of God, then why is the use of musical instruments in so many passages phrased as a command? Why is there not liberty given in those passages? The very mandate argues that it falls under the Regulative Principle of Worship, not general life. 3) If those commands are not commands to the church corporate, but are rather commands to individuals outside of church worship, is every believer under a mandate to learn to play musical instruments? If not, why not? It is easy for the church to obey the command by allowing a few gifted people to “play skillfully,” but it would be nearly impossible for every individual Christian to “play skillfully” (Ps. 33:3) with various instruments.↩

34Another less common way that this text has been dismissed as relevant is to claim that “whatever it means” it relates to temple, not synagogue. We will deal with that issue later in the booklet, but for now I simply point out that it misses the point – this passage clearly disputes their claim that only Levites could play instruments in worship.↩

35For example, Brian Schwertley claims that 1 Chronicles 15:14-28; 2 Chronicles 5:11-14, Ezra 3:10-11, Nehemiah 12:27-43, and 2 Chronicles 20:27-28 must all be Levitical uses of instruments because “each instance was either connected with the ark, the temple, or the wall protecting the central sanctuary. The victory procession recorded in 2 Chronicles 20 ended at the temple (v. 28)” (http://www.reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/music.htm). Aside from the inconsistency that David was not a Levite, Schwertley should apply the same exegesis to Psalm 68 that he does to these passages.↩

36Philip Mauro says, “the Temple, with its vast corridors or ‘porches’, was the regular gathering place of all the various parties and sects of Jews, however antagonistic the one to the other… [and] because of its many convenient meeting places [it became the place] where the disciples would naturally congregate [in the book of Acts]” (Philip Mauro, The Hope of Israel (Swengel, PA: Reiner Publications, nd), 126f.).↩

37Synagogue is simply a transliteration of the Greek word sunagoge, which means either “the place of assembly,” “the members of a synagogue” or “congregation of a synagogue” or “meeting” or “gathering.” (See BDAG.)↩

38Scripture indicates that from the time of Moses and on there were synagogues (assemblies) throughout the land on every Sabbath: “For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath” (Acts 15:21). This verse indicates that synagogues were a Mosaic institution. Psalm 74:8 calls them the “meeting places,” and Isaiah 4:5 calls them “her assemblies.” Moses commanded, “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation” (Lev. 23:3). The Hebrew word for “convocation” (miqra), like the English, means “an ecclesiastical assembly that has been summoned to meet together; an assembling by summons.” It would have been physically impossible to travel to the temple once a week from many parts of Israel. This is why the Levites were scattered throughout the land in every community to teach (2 Chron. 17:9; Deut. 18:6-8; Neh. 10:37-39). Thus the “calling of assemblies” (Isa. 1:13) and the “sacred assemblies” (Amos 5:21) should not be assumed to be temple assemblies. There were numerous “meeting places of God in the land” (Ps. 74:8). Israel was responsible to “keep all my appointed meetings, and they shall hallow My Sabbaths” (Ezek. 44:24). Thus we read of Jesus, that “as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day” (Luke 4:16). His practice of weekly public assembly was the practice commanded in the Bible. Thus the Septuagint translates the “rulers of the congregation” as “rulers of the synagogues” (Ex. 16:22; 34:31; Numb. 31:13; Josh. 9:15,18; 22:30).↩

39For example, in his commentary on Amos 6:5, Adam Clarke says,

I believe that David was not authorized by the Lord to introduce that multitude of musical instruments into the Divine worship of which we read, and I am satisfied that his conduct in this respect is most solemnly reprehended by this prophet; and I farther believe that the use of such instruments of music, in the Christian Church, is without the sanction and against the will of God; that they are subversive of the spirit of true devotion, and that they are sinful. If there was a woe to them who invented instruments of music, as did David under the law, is there no woe, no curse to them who invent them, and introduce them into the worship of God in the Christian Church? I am an old man, and an old minister; and I here declare that I never knew them productive of any good in the worship of God; and have had reason to believe that they were productive of much evil. Music, as a science, I esteem and admire: but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music; and here I register my protest against all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of Christianity. The late venerable and most eminent divine, the Rev. John Wesley, who was a lover of music, and an elegant poet, when asked his opinion of instruments of music being introduced into the chapels of the Methodists said, in his terse and powerful manner, “I have no objection to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither HEARD nor SEEN.” I say the same, though I think the expense of purchase had better be spared. (Adam Clarke, Clarke’s Commentary on the Holy Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, nd), Vol. IV).

See also his comments on 1 Chron. 23:5; 2 Chron. 29:25. For other examples of this interpretation, see James Burton Coffman, Commentary on the Minor Prophets, Vol. 1 (Houston: Firm Foundation, 1981), p. 180-183; Guy N. Woods, Questions and Answers, Vol. 1 (Henderson, TN: Freed-Hardeman University, 1976), p. 26-30.↩

40“Woe to you who put far off the day of doom” (v. 3).↩

41“But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph” (v. 6).↩

42“Woe to you who put far off the day of doom… I abhor the pride of Jacob… Therefore I will deliver up the city and all that is in it” (vv. 3,8).↩

43“Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives, and those who recline at banquets shall be removed” (v. 7).↩

44“Who lie on beds of ivory… [etc.] but are not grieved… Therefore they shall now go captive [etc.]” (vv. 4,6-7).↩

45Peter J. Leithart, From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution, (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003).↩

46Robert Gordon calls this a “Levitical preferment” to a Gentile, but Obed-Edom was not the first Gentile to provide leadership and access with regard to the Ark of the Covenant. In 1 Samuel 7 the Philistines send the ark out of captivity to Kirjath Jearim, a Gibeonite city. The Gibeonites are not yet considered Israelites. 2 Samuel 21:2 says, “the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites.” So the ark is in Gentile hands, and these Gentiles take very good care of the ark. They take much better care of it than the Levites of Beth Shemesh did. Both these passages prefigure the New Covenant church composed of Jew and Gentile.↩

47That synagogues were a Mosaic institution can be seen from Acts 15:21 where it says that “Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in… the synagogues.” The Jews said that the officers and courts of the synagogue system were established in Exodus 18. Leviticus 23:3 required people to gather for worship every Sabbath “in sacred assembly.” This was geographically impossible to fulfill via the temple; rather, the sacred assemblies were led by Levites in synagogues in every town and hamlet throughout the land. The Levites were scattered throughout the land in order to provide teachers or scribes (2 Chron. 17:9; Deut. 18:6-8; Neh. 10:37-39; etc.). Levites were trained in the law as teachers. Thus Psalm 74:8 speaks of these “meeting places” throughout the land. Though Levites also taught at the temple, and assisted in other ways (Deut. 18:6-8), most Levites taught in the cities (Deut. 18:6) in proto-synagogues (Lev. 10:11; Deut. 17:18; 31:9-13; 33:10; 2 Chron. 17:7-9; 30:22; 35:3; Neh. 8:17-13; Mal. 2:6-7). The Levites of the Old Testament were equivalent to the teaching and ruling elders of the New Testament with the Teaching Elders carrying the title of “scribe” (2 Sam. 8:17; 20:25; 1 Kings 4:3; 2 Kings 12:10; 18:37; 19:2; 1 Chron. 24:6; 27:32; Ezra 7:6,11; Neh. 12:10; Jer. 36:12; Matt. 7:29; 13:52; 17:10; 23:2-3; etc.).↩

48Leithart comments,

Further, the prophets always use the language of Zion to describe the future restoration of Jerusalem. Never once did an Old Testament prophet announce that “Moriah” would be raised up to be chief of the mountains.’) Always and everywhere, the promise is that Zion will he exalted to become the praise of the earth. Along similar lines, the prophets never held out the hope for a restoration of the glory of Solomon’s reign; Solomon is mentioned only once in the prophecy, in Jeremiah 52, a narrative passage that is identical to the last chapter of 2 Kings. Instead, the prophetic hope always was framed in terms of a restored Davidic king, or of the restoration of David himself to the throne of Israel. Israel’s eschatology always focused on David, not Solomon, and Zion, not Moriah. This striking emphasis will, I hope, make somewhat more sense after we examine the features of and the worship at the ark-sanctuary that was the center of Israel’s worship during that time. (Peter J. Leithart, From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution, (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003), pp. 17-18.)

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49As Leithart words it,

[T]he exhortation to publicize, proclaim, and tell about Yahweh is addressed to the nations (vv. 23-24,31). In fact, the psalm is structured as a series of concentric circles: initially, Israel is called to praise (vv. 9-22), then the nations join in (vv. 23-30), and finally the entire cosmos rejoices at Yahweh’s coming and His enthronement in Jerusalem (vv. 31-33). Not only Israel, but “the earth” is to proclaim the salvation of Yahweh (v. 23) and to recount His “wonderful deeds” (v. 24). As the nations join in Israel’s song of praise, they are simultaneously encouraged to reject their idols, which are nothing (vv. 25-26). In context, verse 29 is especially striking: The series of exhortations to “ascribe” glory to the Lord is addressed to the “families of the peoples” (v. 28a), and this same audience is being addressed by the closing exhortation of verse 29: “Bring a tribute (minchah), and come before Him; worship Yahweh in the glory of holiness.” Thus, the “families of the nations” are being invited to join the worship of Israel. (Peter J. Leithart, From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution, (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003), pp. 48-49.

↩

50Peter Leithart says,

Led by priests blowing trumpets, Levitical musicians surrounded the ark with a cloud of sound as it was brought from the house of Obed-Edom (1 Chr. 15:25-28). When the ark had been set in its tent, David assigned Asaph to head the Levites who were “to minister before the ark continually, as every day’s work required” (1 Chr. 16:37), and the context makes it clear that this “ministry” was in song and instrumental music: [David] appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of Yahweh, even to celebrate and to thank and praise Yahweh God of Israel: Asaph the chief and second to him Zechariah, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, with musical instruments, harps, lyres; also Asaph played loud-sounding cymbals, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests blew trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God. (1 Chr. 16:4-6). (Peter J. Leithart, From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution, (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2003), p. 55).

↩

51However, that did not mean that other trumpets could not be made and used. There were numerous trumpets used in later worship (2 Sam. 6:15; 2 Chron. 5:13; 20:28; Ezra 3:10). It was just that these two trumpets were reserved for one purpose.↩

52By the way, Old Testament saints also offered up such spiritual sacrifices (cf Ps. 40:6; Hos. 14:2; etc.).↩

53In the Old Testament, see. Is 61:10; 54:5; 62:5; Jer 31:32. In the New Testament see Eph. 5:22-33; John 3:29; Rev. 21-22.↩

54Genesis 9 makes clear that the rainbow will continue to be a sign for all mankind as long as history continues.↩

55Hebrews 6:2 calls Old Testament baptisms a foundational doctrine for the church. Paul taught nothing that could not be proved from the Old Testament (Acts 17:11; 26:22), so his doctrine of baptism also has roots in Old Testament baptism. For a discussion of the relationship between Old Testament baptism and New Testament baptism, see Phillip G. Kayser, Seven Biblical Principles That Call For Infant Baptism (Omaha: Biblical Blueprints Publishing, 2009).↩

56The Sabbath was called a sign in Exodus 31:13 and a sign of the covenant (Ezek. 20:12,20). As a sign it was a part of the ceremonial law. Nevertheless, the heart of this type of salvation continues on in the “first day Sabbath” (literal Greek of “first day of the week” in 1 Cor. 16:1-2 and many New Testament passages). See Phillip G. Kayser, First Day Sabbath (Omaha: Biblical Blueprints Publishing, 2009).↩

57Jesus called the Lord’s Table “this Passover” (Luke 22:15) and Paul spoke of the Lord’s Table as being the Passover (1 Cor. 5:7-8) and connected all the Old Testament ceremonial meals with the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 10-11).↩

58Besides, we have already seen that the Old Testament prophesied that New Testament saints would worship with musical instruments.↩

59

TDNT (under ψαλμός) says, “The literal sense ‘by or with the playing of strings,’ still found in the LXX, is now employed figuratively,” though no proof is given. See “ὕμνος ὑμνέω ψάλλω ψαλμός ᾄδω αἰνέω δοξάζω μεγαλύνω ἐξομολογέομαι,” TDNT, VIII:498-499. As we will see, there are a few other Lexicons that admit that the contemporary use of psalmos and psallo retains instrumentation in the idea, yet still affirm that in the New Testament the terms lose that sense – but again, with no proof.↩

60He says, “Since the word psallo cannot be separated from the word ‘heart,’ it literally means ‘plucking the strings of your heart to the Lord.’ When the music of the heart is expressed through lips that confess the Lord’s name, there is no need for supporting instruments” (What About Instruments in Worship). See also Kevin Reed, Musical Instruments.↩

61For example, they assume that the meaning of the terms in the New Testament must have changed because, otherwise, why would church fathers have excluded instruments? Likewise, they assume that church fathers would not have excluded instruments unless the Bible itself forbad instruments. Both arguments ignore 1) clear testimony from first century and later authors of an instrumental meaning of the terms 2) clear evidence of instrumentation in the church in the first centuries, and 3) clear evidence that the specific fathers that were hostile to instruments were opposed to instruments not because of Scripture but because of prejudice that sprang from Greek philosophy. We will see that the first three centuries are completely absent of any criticism of instruments in worship, despite the fact that instruments were played in at least some churches. (The material credited to Justin Martyr has been shown by several scholars to be written by someone centuries later.)↩

62This word had the original meaning of playing an instrument, a secondary meaning of singing while accompanied by an instrument, and a tertiary meaning of singing. In the Bible it most frequently refers to the Psalms, musical pieces that were unquestionably sung accompanied in the Old Testament.↩

63Though it is sometimes assumed that a hymn is an unaccompanied psalm, the following passages in the Septuagint show that “hymns” can be accompanied and still retain the meaning of “hymn” - 2 Chron. 7:6; Ps. 39:4 [40:3 in English Bible – note the title – the “hymn” is devoted to the chief musician]; also compare the English and Greek titles of Psalm 55, 61, 67, and 76 in LXX [54:0; 60:0; 66:0; 75:0].↩

64Again, though this term can refer to unaccompanied singing, it is instructive that every other New Testament occurrence of the term has instruments accompanying the “song” (Rev. 5:9; 14:3; 15:3). See also the Old Testament: Ex. 15:1; 2 Sam. 6:5; 1 Chron. 15:16,27; 16:42; 2 Chron. 5:13; 7:6; Neh. 12:27,36 in the LXX as well as numerous Psalms that use the word hodais in connection with instruments that accompanied the singing.↩

65

On the classical Greek meaning, see Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon. It gives a range of the old meaning as “tune played on a stringed instrument”; “twitching or twanging with the fingers”; “mostly of musical strings”; “the sound of a cithara or harp.” Bartels says,

“In secuar Gk. Psallo is used from Homer onwards, originally meaning to pluck (hair), to twang a bow-string, and then pluck a harp, or any other stringed instrument. The noun psalmos refers in general to the sound of the instrument, or the actual production of the sound.” (In Colin Brown, ed. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 671.)

↩

66Zhodhiates says it was

“later known as the instrument itself, and finally it became known as the song sung with musical accompaniment” (entry 5568).

↩

67Lust, Eynikel, and Hauspie, Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, part II lists Amos 5:23 as having the meaning of “music made with an instrument (harp).” (p. 523) Another example would be the genitive use in Psalm 66 [65]:1 where we have ode psalmou.↩

68For examples, see the titles of Psalms 4,6,12,61,67,76.↩

69

See the titles of Psalm 5 (flute) and 8,81,84 (instrument of Gath).↩

70

Mizmor is translated with psalmos 50 times. It clearly had an original meaning of a song accompanied by a stringed instrument. Halot even includes the idea of “small pipes … a song sung to an instrumental accompaniment.”↩

71

Halot defines as zamar as “song (with instrumental accompaniment.” NIDOTTE defines it thus:

The basic meaning of the vb. is playing a musical instrument in the context of worship, usually a stringed instrument (“make music,” Ps. 33:2; 98:5; 144:9; 147:7), but also a percussion instrument (149:3). More often it has the developed sense of singing to a musical accompaniment (cf. 71:22–23). The nom. זִמְרָה is used both of music (Amos 5:23) and of accompanied singing (Isa. 51:3). In Exod 15:2; Psa 118:14; Isa 12:2 (NIV “my song”), it is more probably to be related to the third root, with the sense “might” (NRSV) or “defence” (REB). The less common nom. זִמְרָה means a song accompanied by music, and so does the nom. מִזְמוֹר, generally rendered “psalm.”

↩

72Halot defines as “1. music played on strings Is 38:20 Lam 5:14, נגינות שיר stringed instrument to accompany singing (Pritchard Pictures 199, 202) Sir 479; —2. mocking song Ps 69:13.”↩

73

“to play music” (Judg 5:3; Psa 21:14; 57:8; 68:5, 33; 101:1; 104:33, etc.). Jenni-Westermann TLOT says,

šîr indicates not only a recitative but also instrumentally accompanied song. Thus various musical instruments are mentioned in relation to šîr: kinnôr “zither” and tōp “tambourine” (Gen 31:27), nēbel “harp” (Amos 5:23), nēbel ʿāśôr “ten-stringed harp” (Psa 144:9), with kinnôr, nēbel, and tōp, also m^eṣiltayim “cymbals” and ḥ^aṣōṣ^erâ “trumpets” (1 Chron 13:8). The expression k^elê šîr “musical instruments” (Amos 6:5; Neh 12:36; 1 Chron 16:42; 2 Chron 7:6; 23:13; 34:12), which appears in 1 Chron 15:16 and 2 Chron 5:13 together with a list of musical instruments, also indicates the instrumental accompaniment of cult songs (cf. also Kraus, op. cit)…

↩

74Colin Brown, ed. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 671.↩

75For more information on instrumentation in the synagogues, see the third section of this booklet.↩

76As quoted by Girardeau in Instrumental Music, pp. 116-117.↩

77James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other non-literary Sources (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1949), 697. Kitharismos is defined as “de eo qui plectro utitur” and psalmos is defined as “de eo qui ipsis digitis chordas pulsat.”↩

78David F. Detwiler notes that Philo avoided the use of the term psalmos to describe the Psalms (choosing humnos for that purpose instead) because psalmos still had such an instrumentalist connotation among Gentiles that it would miscommunicate if instrumentation was not in mind. He points out that “Josephus points in the same direction. He has psalmos and psallein several times, but always in the meaning of ‘plucking strings,’ ‘playing a stringed instrument’ (“CHURCH MUSIC AND COLOSSIANS 3:16.” BSac 158 (1901): 360). For examples, look at the Greek of Josephus in Antiquities 6:214; 7:80; 9:35; 12:323.↩

79The full quote is,

We think, then, that the “psalms” are those which are simply played to an instrument, without the accompaniment of the voice, and (which are composed) for the musical melody of the instrument; and that those are called “songs” which are rendered by the voice in concert with the music; and that they are called “psalms of song” when the voice takes the lead, while the appropriate sound is also made to accompany it, rendered harmoniously by the instruments; and “songs of psalmody,” when the instrument takes the lead, while the voice has the second place, and accompanies the music of the strings. And thus much as to the letter of what is signified by these terms. (Fragments on the Psalms, I, 7)

↩

80He said, “Psalm is a hymn which is sung to the instrument called psaltery or else cithara” (Didymus of Alexandria, Eis Psalmous, 4: 1, Sendrey, Music in Ancient Israel, 203. PG XXXIX, 1166).↩

81In his Inscriptiones Gregory tries to distinguish between the terms ‘hymn’ and ‘psalm’ by saying that “a psalm is the tune produced by a musical instrument” (Hine, Gregory of Nyssa’s Treatise, 129). He does of course caution that the musical instruments should not overwhelm the words, stating, “the meaning is most certainly not recognized when the tune is played on musical instruments alone” (Treatise on the Inscriptions of the psalms 2: 3; 25).↩

82Basil states that the difference between a canticle and a psalm is that the canticle is a song that has no instrumental accompaniment while a psalm is a song that does have instrumental accompaniment. “…it is a canticle not a psalm: because it is sung with harmonious modulation by the unaccompanied voice and with no instrument sounding in accord with it” (Basil of Caesarea, Exegetic Homilies, tr. A.C. Way, The Fathers of the Church Series (Washington, 1965), 278).↩

83Trench points out that even the Classical Greek meaning had this idea: “It was of the essence of a Greek ὕμνος that it should be addressed to, or be otherwise in praise of, a god, or of a hero, that is, in the strictest sense of that word, of a deified man…”↩

84For a history of the use of the term, see the article by Delling under See “ὕμνος ὑμνέω ψάλλω ψαλμός ᾄδω αἰνέω δοξάζω μεγαλύνω ἐξομολογέομαι,” TDNT, VIII:498-499.↩

85NIDNTT says of its Old Testament usage,

The noun hymnos also translates hālal in the piel (2 Chr. 7:6; Neh. 12:24 v.l.) and the cognate t^ehillâh, praise (Neh. 12:46; Pss. 40:3 [39:3]; 65:1 [64:1]; 100:4 [99:4]; 119:171 [118:171]; 148:14). It is used for n^eḡı̂nâh, a musical term perhaps denoting a stringed instrument, in the titles of Pss. 6 v.l.; 54 (53); 55 (54); 61 (60); 67 (66); 76 (75); šı̂r, song (Neh. 12:46; Isa. 42:10); and t^ep̄illâh, prayer (Ps. 72:20 [71:20]). “SONG, HYMN, PSALM,” NIDNTT, 3:669.↩

86The following are some sample places where the Greek term humnos is used in connection with instruments (I have highlighted in bold for easy location):

Antiquities 6:166 (6.8.2.166) So Samuel, when he had given him these admonitions, went away. But the Divine Power departed from Saul, and removed to David, who upon this removal of the Divine Spirit to him, began to prophesy; but as for Saul, some strange and demoniacal disorders came upon him, and brought upon him such suffocations as were ready to choke him; for which the physicians could find no other remedy but this, That if any person could charm those passions by singing, and playing upon the harp, they advised them to inquire for such a one, and to observe when these demons came upon him and disturbed him, and to take care that such a person might stand over him, and play upon the harp, and recite hymns [humnos] to him.

Antiquities 6:168 (6.8.2.168) So Jesse sent his son, and gave him presents to carry to Saul; and when he was come, Saul was pleased with him, and made him his armor bearer, and had him in very great esteem; for he charmed his passion, and was the only physician against the trouble he had from the demons, whensoever it was that it came upon him, and this by reciting of hymns [humnos], and playing upon the harp, and bringing Saul to his right mind again.

Antiquities 6:214 (6.11.3.214) but when the demoniacal spirit came upon him, and put him into disorder, and disturbed him, he called for David into his bed chamber wherein he lay, and having a spear in his hand, he ordered him to charm him with playing on his harp, and with singing hymns [humnos]; which when David did at his command, he with great force threw the spear at him; but David was aware of it before it came, and avoided it, and fled to his own house, and abode there all that day.

Antiquities 7:80 (7.4.2.80) Before it went the king, and the whole multitude of the people with him, singing hymns [humnos] to God, and making use of all sorts of songs usual among them, with variety of the sounds of musical instruments, and with dancing and singing of psalms, as also with the sounds of trumpets and of cymbals, and so brought the ark to Jerusalem.

Antiquities 7:305 (7.12.3.305) And now David being freed from wars and dangers, and enjoying for the future a profound peace, composed songs and hymns [humnos] to God, of several sorts of meter; some of those which he made were trimeters, and some were pentameters. He also made instruments of music, and taught the Levites to sing hymns [humnos] to God, both on that called the sabbath day, and on other festivals.

…plus many more.↩

87Calvin expresses this understanding when he says,

…under these three terms [songs, hymns, spiritual songs] he includes all kinds of songs. They are commonly distinguished in this way – that a psalm is that, in the singing of which some musical instrument besides the tongue is made use of; a hymn is properly a song of praise, whether it be sung simply with the voice or otherwise; while an ode contains not merely praises, but exhortations and other matters. He would have the songs of Christians, however, to be spiritual, not made up of frivolities and worthless trifles.

↩

88The full quote is as follows:

Antiquities 7:364 (7.14.7.364) out of which he appointed twenty-three thousand to take care of the building of the temple, and out of the same, six thousand to be judges of the people and scribes; four thousand for porters to the house of God, and as many for singers, to sing to the instruments which David had prepared, as we have said already.

Other examples of this usage from Josephus could be multiplied. Here are a few:

Antiquities 7:305 (7.12.3.305) And now David being freed from wars and dangers, and enjoying for the future a profound peace, composed songs [ode] and hymns to God, of several sorts of meter; some of those which he made were trimeters, and some were pentameters. He also made instruments of music, and taught the Levites to sing hymns to God, both on that called the sabbath day, and on other festivals.

Antiquities 6:193 (6.10.1.193) Now the women were an occasion of Saul’s envy and hatred to David; for they came to meet their victorious army with cymbals and drums, and all demonstrations of joy, and sang [ado] thus; the wives said, that “Saul has slain his many thousands of the Philistines:” the virgins replied, that “David has slain his ten thousands.”

Antiquities 7:80 (7.4.2.80) Before it went the king, and the whole multitude of the people with him, singing [ado] hymns to God, and making use of all sorts of songs usual among them, with variety of the sounds of musical instruments, and with dancing and singing of psalms, as also with the sounds of trumpets and of cymbals, and so brought the ark to Jerusalem.

… and many more↩

89Danny Corbitt, Missing More Than Music: When Disputable Matters Eclipse Worship and Unity (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2008), 80.↩

90In Classical Greek the word psallo could mean either “to twang the bow-string” or “to play a stringed instrument with the fingers” and only “later, to sing to a harp” (Liddell & Scot, Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon. (Oxford, At the Clarendon Press, 1889)). Delling writes,

3. ψάλλω perhaps meant orig. “to touch” (etym. akin to ψηλαφάω), then “to pluck” the string, to cause it to spring, of the string of a bow, Eur. Ba., 784; Dio C., 49, 27, 4, “to play a stringed instrument,” Aristoph. Eq., 522; Menand. Epit., 301, “to pluck” strings with the fingers (opp. κρούω τῷ πλήκτρὥ), Plat. Lys., 209b, with κιθαρίζω and καπηλεύω as not a manly activity, Hdt., I, 155, 4, cf. the antithesis: to bear weapons – ψάλλω, to play the flute, to be a brothel-keeper and merchant etc., Plut. Apophth. Xerxes, 2 (II, 173c). When Alexander skilfully plays a stringed instrument at a feast his father reproaches him: “Are you not ashamed to play (ψάλλειν) so well?” Plut. Pericl., 1, 6 (I, 152 f.); of the ψάλλειν καὶ αὐλεῖν of γύαια at banquets, Plut. De Arato, 6, 3 (I, 1029e). In teaching: διδάξει. . .κιθαρίζειν ἤ ψάλλειν, Ditt. Syll., II, 578, 17 f. (2nd cent. B.C.). To practise one’s τέχνη an ὄργανον is needed, one cannot play the flute without a flute nor ψάλλειν without a lyre, Luc. De Parasito, 17.

Under the entry, “ὕμνος ὑμνέω ψάλλω ψαλμός ᾄδω αἰνέω δοξάζω μεγαλύνω ἐξομολογέομαι,” TDNT, VIII:490-491. Vine’s says, “primarily to twitch, twang, then, to play a stringed instrument with the fingers.” W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1966) under heading of “Melody.” Likewise see the entries under L-S-J, Souter Pocket Lexicon, Wingram, Zodhiates, etc.↩

91Since Josephus wrote in the century that the Bible was written, it is instructive that he only uses the terms psalmos and psallo with reference to playing instrumental music. David F. Detwiler says, “Josephus … has psalmos and psallein several times, but always in the meaning of ‘plucking strings,’ ‘playing a stringed instrument.’ [BSac 158:631 (Jul 01) 361] For the psalms he uses humnoi and odai, sometimes together” (in Bib Sac, Issue 631: Jul-Sep 2001, “Church Music and Colossians 3:16”). The meaning of the Old Testament Hebrew term for Psalm also indicates an accompanying musical instrument. See detailed discussion in Danny Corbett, Missing More than Music: When Disputable Matters Eclipse Worship and Unity (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2008).↩

92Everett Ferguson, A Cappella Music in the Public Worship of the Church (Revised Edition), (Abilene, TX: Biblical Research Press, 1972), 11.↩

93Ferguson, Ibid. p. 13.↩

94Ferguson, Ibid. p. 13.↩

95As one author worded it, “consistency” demands a cappella:

“If the meanings of psallo and psalmos demand musical instruments, then we are required to play a musical instrument when we are happy. What of a person who cannot play? Is there no way such a one can express their joy in song? If psallo inheres instruments, that is precisely the case. If we can understand the term to indicate vocal music in Jas. 5:13, why can we not make the same application in Eph. 5:19…Since this context applies to all, whatever psalmos and psallo mean/require, they mean/require all to do. If they inhere musical instruments, all are required to use them. Anybody not using an instrument is not performing a psalm, they are not making melody” (http://www.cofcnet.org/?q=bible_studies/doctrinal_studies/psalms_making_melody_and_instrumental_music).

↩

96J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (Lightfoot’s Commentaries on the Epistles; Accordance electronic ed. Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 2006), n.p. Interestingly, the NET Bible notes claim that Paul’s order of words in Ephesians may indicate that accompaniment was the most common form of singing in the New Testament church, though not the only form of singing:

Since ψαλμός refers in the first instance to instrumental music and ᾠδή to vocal music, it is not impossible, as has been suggested ad loc., that he had in mind the relative predominance of these two aspects. (Albert Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright, eds., NETS Notes (1st, Accordance electronic ed. Winona Lake: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Inc., 2007), n.p.)

↩

97Martin comments, “ψάλλειν, appearing almost sixty times in the LXX, can mean either praise by means of a harp or a song sung to God with (Pss 33:2, 3; 98:4–5; 147:7; 149:3) or without (Pss 7:17; 9:2, 11) the accompaniment of an instrument (Ropes, 303)” (Ralph P. Martin, James (WBC 48; Accordance/Thomas Nelson electronic ed. Dallas: Word Books, 1988), 206).↩

98This was oft repeated by the church fathers who were opposed to musical instruments. For example, Clement of Alexandria says, “And He who is of David, and yet before him, the Word of God, despising the lyre and harp, which are but lifeless instruments” (in Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (ANF II; Accordance electronic ed. 9 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885), n.p.).↩

99He says, “Most scholars believe that the citation hails from Psalm 17:50 LXX, but Reasoner (1990:111) notes that two parallels are found in the Samuel context that are lacking in the Psalms: the reference to Jesse (2 Sam. 23:1) and the use of the verb “raise” (ἀνίστημι, anistemi)” (Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998), 757).↩

100Leslie C. Allen says,

The basic meaning of the vb. is playing a musical instrument in the context of worship, usually a stringed instrument (“make music,” Ps 33:2; 98:5; 144:9; 147:7), but also a percussion instrument (149:3). More often it has the developed sense of singing to a musical accompaniment (cf. 71:22–23). The nom. זִמְרָה is used both of music (Amos 5:23) and of accompanied singing (Isa 51:3). In Exod 15:2; Psa 118:14; Isa 12:2 (NIV “my song”), it is more probably to be related to the third root, with the sense “might” (NRSV) or “defence” (REB). The less common nom. זִמְרָה means a song accompanied by music, and so does the nom. מִזְמוֹר, generally rendered “psalm.” (Quote taken from the article, “זָמַר זָמִיר זִמְרָה מִזְמוֹר,” NIDOTTE, 1:1,091.)

TWOT says, “It is cognate to Akkadian zamaœru ‘to sing, play an instrument.’” BDB says that it can either refer to singing accompanied with instruments or to instrumental music alone.↩

101One author says,

Notice the Bible says to sing [psallo] with the understanding. From the immediate context, verses 16 and 19 show that understanding has to do with understanding spoken words. So the singing [psallo-ing] involved spoken words, not mechanical instruments… The bottom line is, whatever psallo does, it produces intelligible words in 1 Cor. 14:15. Playing an instrument does no such thing, but singing does. This supplies a Bible definition for psallo [verb], and by implication psalmos [noun]; to sing [verb], or the song that is sung [noun]. (http://www.cofcnet.org/?q=bible_studies/doctrinal_studies/psalms_making_melody_and_instrumental_music)

↩

102See especially Thiselton’s comments 1 Corinthians 14:7-9. He speaks of meaning, recognition, communication, intelligibility, and the rationality of instrumental music. Anyone who has studied music would appreciate the rational technical terms used by Paul. (Anthony C. Thiselton, NIGTC: The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 1102-1105).↩

103From the article under ψάλλω , BDAG, 1096. The full quote is as follows: > Although the NT does not voice opposition to instrumental music, in view of Christian resistance to mystery cults, as well as Pharisaic aversion to musical instruments in worship (s. EWerner, art. ‘Music’, IDB 3, 466–69), it is likely that some such sense as make melody is best understood in this Eph pass. Those who favor ‘play’ (e.g. L-S-JM; ASouter, Pocket Lexicon, 1920; JMoffatt, transl. 1913) may be relying too much on the earliest mng. of ψάλλω. ψ. τῷ πνεύματι and in contrast to that ψ. τῷ νοΐ sing praise in spiritual ecstasy and in full possession of one’s mental faculties 1 Cor 14:15. Abs. sing praise Js 5:13.
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1096.↩

104In Life 12 (2.12) Josephus says, “…being now nineteen years old, and began to conduct myself according to the rules of the sect of the Pharisees, which is of kin to the sect of the Stoics, as the Greeks call them.” His statement concerning the Stoics should be kept in mind when we get to the third section of this book dealing with the church fathers.↩

105McCracken, Instruments, panel 7.↩

106For an explanation of the grammar, see R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1937), 620-621.↩

107William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1967), 240-241.↩

108The Zwinglian churches allowed no singing during worship. Until Calvin came, the same was true of Farel’s churches. So pervasive was the song-abolitionist sentiment in the late 17^th to early 18^th centuries that Benjamin Keach had to write an entire book justifying audible singing among the Baptists: The Breach Repaired in God’s Worship. This did not settle the debate, as Isaac Marlow responded with his own book: Some Observations… Both are available from Early English Books Online. In America, Cotton Mather had to publish a book defending audible singing: Singing of Psalmes (1647) in which he argued against, “Antipsalmists, who do not acknowledge any singing at all with the voice in the New Testament, but onely spirituall songs of joy and comfort of the heart in the word of Christ.” Of course, it was an unbiblical “New Testament only” attitude that led to such controversy.↩

109For example, Isaac Marlow “asserted that there was no singing in worship before the time of David and that the practice David began was priestly and did not involve the congregation… If all were to sing, Marlow reasoned, women would participate, violating Paul’s instruction that they are to keep silent in the church, ‘for singing is teaching’” (David W. Music & Paul A. Richardson, I Will Sing the Wondrous Story: A History of Baptist Hymnody in North America (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2008), 11).↩

110As David F. Detwiler put it:

This is not to say that the singing should remain in the heart, as if Paul were advocating some sort of silent praise. Rather, the apostle was simply underscoring the fact that true worship (when it is offered in song, or in any other way) originates in the heart and is an expression of the entire person (Isa. 29:13; Matt. 15:8). ‘The voice must express the praise of the heart if the singing is to be really addressed to God.’ (“CHURCH MUSIC AND COLOSSIANS 3:16.” BSac 158 (1901): 364.)

↩

111Beck’s translation.↩

112Joseph Bingham, The Antiquities of the Christian Church and Other Works (London: William Straker, 1834), Book VIII, 492-493.↩

113For example, Brian Schwertley says, “The word of God is the only authority and infallible standard for determining the doctrine, government and worship of the church. If one strictly adheres to the regulative principle of worship, the biblical case against the use of musical instruments in public worship is irrefutable (no warrant, no practice). Although the study of church history obviously does not carry the same weight as Scripture, it can be helpful nevertheless. The testimony from church history in support of the biblical evidence against the use of musical instruments in New Covenant worship is incredibly strong. The great theologians and apologists (of both the eastern and western branches of Christendom) for at least five centuries regarded the use of musical instruments in public worship as things that belonged solely to the old covenant dispensation. If the apostolic churches had used musical instruments in their worship, the attitude toward instrumental music in public worship by the church fathers would be extremely difficult to explain” (http://www.reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/music.htm).↩

114John. L. Girardeau, Instrumental Music in Public Worship (Haverton, PA: New Covenant Publication Company, 1983 [original 1888], 120).↩

115Here is a sampling of claims that the early church universally rejected instruments: Edward Dickinson claims, “while pagan melodies were always sung to an instrumental accompaniment, the church chant was exclusively vocal.” (Edward Dickinson, Music in the History of the Western Church (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902), 54). James McKinnon says, “The antagonism which the Fathers of the early Church displayed toward instruments has two outstanding characteristics: vehemence and uniformity” (James McKinnon, The Temple, The Church Fathers and Early Western Chant, (Brookfield: Ashgate Publishing Company,1998), p. 69). Girardeau writes, “Instrumental music had no place in the early Christian churches” (John L. Girardeau, Instrumental Music in Public Worship (Havertown, PA: New Covenant Publication Society, 1983 [first published 1888]), 102-103). John Price states, “The early Church Fathers were unanimous and vehement in condemning musical instruments in the worship of the church” (John Price, Old Light on New Worship (Avinger, TX: Simpson Publishing Company, 2007), 67-68).↩

116McCracken, Instruments in Worship, panels 5-6.↩

117Edward Foley, Foundations of Christian Music: The Music of Pre-Constantinian Christianity (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992).↩

118For example, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics documents the use of musical instruments from the first century and on within the Western branch of the church. Far from introducing the organ in AD 666 (as many a cappellists claim), this encyclopedia shows that “Organs seem to have been in common use in the Spanish churches of A.D. 450, according to Julianus, a Spanish bishop…” John Arnott MacCulloch et al., “MUSIC,” ed. James Hastings, John A. Selbie, and Louis H. Gray, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics (Edinburgh; New York: T. & T. Clark; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908–1926), 32. Brendan Drummond goes on to comment:

Clement of Alexandria (c150-215) tolerated the lyre and harp due to their association with King David, but disapproved of most other instruments because of their use in pagan festivities and on the stage, where ‘this artificial music… injures souls and drives them into feelings… impure and sensual, and even a Bacchic frenzy and madness’. Similarly St John Chrysostom (c345-407), who wished to banish everything that recalled pagan cults and the songs of actors from Christian worship. Eusebius disapproved of the use of all instruments, even the harp. St Jerome (c340-420) shared his feelings and mentioned specifically the organ, advising a mother that her daughter should be ‘deaf to the sound of the organ.’ This aversion to the instrument which has become most associated with Christian worship is hardly surprising when one recalls that an early form of the organ, the water-powered hydraulis, was the favourite instrument of the Roman arena, where so many early Christians met their deaths.

Not all the early writers were so averse to popular culture, however. St Ephraim of Syria (d.373) apparently wrote hymn texts to be sung to the popular secular melodies of the day. And St Basil, bishop of Caesarea, (c330-79) defended the antiphonal and responsorial singing of psalms ‘with melodies to attract children and youths to the end that their souls and minds might be enlightened while, as they think, they are surrendering themselves to the pleasures of the music’. Here we have early acknowledgements of the value of music in attracting young people to the faith, and a strategy which progressive musicians today would readily endorse. Theodoret (c386-457), bishop of Cyrrhus, mentions the accompaniment of hymns with the clapping of hands and dance movements. Musical purists might, therefore, reflect that such accompaniment has an older pedigree than the organ.

↩

119James McKinnon later became professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Chair of the music department of the University at Buffalo. He is the author of five books on music and history.↩

120James McKinnon, The Church Fathers and Musical Instruments, Ph.D. diss, Columbia University, 1965 (Ann Arbor, Mich,: University Microfilms, Inc., 1967).↩

121McKinnon, Ph.D. diss., 262↩

122Ibid., 262.↩

123Everett Ferguson is Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the University of Abilene, Texas and the co-editor of the Journal of Early Christian Studies. He is the author of numerous books on early Christian studies.↩

124Everett Ferguson, A Cappella Music in the Public Worship of the Church (Revised Edition) (Abilene, TX: Biblical Research Press, 1972), 74. Of course, he still comes to the conclusion of no instruments being present, saying, “In view of the violent response to immoral uses of instruments in social life and their cultic use in pagan religion, it becomes incredible that the instrument was present in the worship of the church. That surely would have brought condemnation, or at least called for explanation. But there is not even a comment to this effect.” ↩

125James McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).↩

126McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature, 3.↩

127Ibid., 3.↩

128Ibid., 3-4.↩

129Ibid., 4.↩

130McKinnon, Music in the Early Christian Literature, 4.↩

131Ibid., 5.↩

132Ibid., 4.↩

133David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015), 233.↩

134Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (ANF II; Accordance electronic ed. 9 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885), n.p.↩

135See his Fragments on the Psalms, I, 7.↩

136Epistle of Ignatius to the Antiochians, chapter 12.↩

137I have not been able to finish my research in Migne’s Patrologiae Curus Completus: Series Graeca (167 volumes), Series Latina (221 volumes), and Series Orientalis (16 volumes). I have found reading extensively in another language to be tedious and incredibly time consuming. However, I suspect a treasure trove of quotes will be found in these volumes that will add much weight to what I have uncovered so far.↩

138TDNT defines this non-metaphorical use of the term as follows:

3. συμφωνία.

a. συμφωνία occurs first in Plat. and its primary ref is to the “harmony” of sounds in music τὴν ἐν τῇ ᾠδῇ ἁρμονίαν ἣ δὴ συμφωνία καλεῖται, Plat. Crat., 405c d, cf. Tim., 67c; Symp., 187b, opp. ἑτεροφωνία, Leg., VII, 812d and then the “agreement” of two sounds, “accord,” Resp., VII, 531a c. Aristot. An. Post., II, 2, p. 90a, 18 f. defines συμφωνία as λόγος ἀριθμῶν ἐν ὀξεῖ ἤ βαρεῖ, also as κρᾶσις. . . λόγον ἐχόντων ἐναντίων πρὸς ἄλληλα, Probl., 19, 38, p. 921a, 2 f. He distinguishes συμφωνία as the harmony of different voices from mere “unison” ὁμοφωνία, Pol., II, 5, p. 1263b, 35. The Pythagorean doctrine of the music of the spheres he describes as οἱ τῶν συμφωνιῶν λόγοι, Cael., II, 9. p. 290b, 22; thus συμφωνία is for him the harmony of many sounds.89

b. Later συμφωνία in the “concert” of many instruments, Paradoxographus Florentinus,90 43 and concretely an “orchestra,” P. Flor., I, 74, 5 (181 A.D.); P. Oxy., X, 1275, 9 (3rd cent. A.D.). A single instrument can also be meant, perhaps when Polyb., 30, 26, 8 recounts of Antiochus Epiphanes: καὶ τῆς συμφωνίας προκαλουμένης (sc. ὁ βασιλεύς) ἀναπηδήσας ὠρχεῖτο, and certainly in 26, 1, 4: ἐπικωμάζων μετὰ κερατίου καὶ συμφωνίας. Suet. Caes., IV, 37 tells similarly of Caligula: discumbens de die inter choros et symphonias, cf. Pos. Fr., 14 (FGrHist, IIa, 229): χορῷ μεγάλῳ καὶ παντοίοις ὀργάνοις καὶ συμφωνίαις. Acc. to Plin. Hist. Nat., 8, 64, 157 symphonia must be a wind instrument, acc. to Isidor. Etymologiae,91 3, 22, 14 a percussion instrument.92

… 3. For Philo συμφωνία is the “harmony” of musical instruments, Sacr, AC, 74, of fourths, fifths and eighths, Som., I, 28. The best harmony, which does not consist in the raising and sounding of a melodious voice ἐμμελοῦς φωνῆς but in the concord ὁμολογία of the acts of human life, is produced by a well-tempered soul τὴν πασῶν ἀρίστην συμφωνίαν ἀπεργάσεται, Deus Imm., 25.

… 3. The brother of the Prodigal Son can tell that there is festivity in his father’s house from the fact that he hears συμφωνία καὶ χοροί “flute-playing and dancing,” Lk. 15:25. The meaning of συμφωνία is contested.2 Possibly the double flute is in view, → 307, 17 ff.

“φωνή, φωνέω, συμφωνέω, σύμφωνος, συμφωνία, συμφώνησις,” TDNT, IX:305-306.↩

139Spicq dictionary says,

When the older son returns from the field, he hears “music and choirs” in his father’s house (Luke 15:25). Symphonia can mean the sound produced by a certain musical instrument or of voices and instruments “in concert,” more specifically what we call a band or an orchestra. (Celas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, translated by James Ernest (Hendriksen publishers, 1994), n.p.)

↩

140J. B. Lightfoot with Ignatius and Polycarp, The Apostolic Fathers, Part II: S. Ignatius, S. Polycarp: Revised Texts, Second Edition, vol. 2 (London; New York: Macmillan and Co., 1889), 41.↩

141In his letter to the Philadelphians, 1. See St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch, The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe, trans. James A. Kleist, 1st ed., Ancient Christian Writers (New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1946), 85.↩

142Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson (eds.), The Anti-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885).↩

143For discussion on dating, see Rutherford H. Platt (ed.), The Forgotten Books of Eden (New York, 1926), introduction to Odes of Solomon, p. 120.↩

144Sherwood Eliot Wirt says, “The first hymnbook of the early Church was (it is believed) the Odes of Solomon, which reached a level of Christian poetry that has not been surpassed in two thousand years” (“The Poet As Theologian,” in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 19 (1976): 40).↩

145For more see Ode vi:1-2; vii:19-20; xiv:7-8; xvi:1-2; xxi:3-4; xli:16-17.↩

146To pursue this further, visit http://theodesproject.net/about/scholars-notes/james-h-charlesworth/ and chase the links.↩

147Ode 7.17. Quoted in David E. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 298. Also see James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament: Expansions of the “Old Testament” and Legends, Wisdom, and Philosophical Literature, Prayers, Psalms and Odes, Fragments of Lost Judeo-Hellenistic Works, vol. 2 (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1985), 740.↩

148Ode xxvi, 1-3. In James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament: Expansions of the “Old Testament” and Legends, Wisdom, and Philosophical Literature, Prayers, Psalms and Odes, Fragments of Lost Judeo-Hellenistic Works, vol. 2 (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1985), 758.↩

149The full context of the Greek sentence written by Justin Martyr is as follows: Ὡς τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ τῶν ὅλων ᾄδοντας καὶ ψάλλοντας τοὺς ἀπὸ πάσης τῆς γῆς γνόντας τὸ σωτήριον τοῦτο μυστήριον, τουτέστι τὸ πάθος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, διʼ οὗ τούτους ἔσωσεν, ἐνδιάγοντας, κελεύει, ἐπιγνόντας ὅτι καὶ αἰνετὸς, καὶ φοβερὸς, καὶ ποιητὴς τοῦ τε οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῆς γῆς, ὁ τοῦτο τὸ σωτήριον ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἀνθρωπείου γένους ποιήσας, τὸν καὶ μετὰ τὸ σταυρωθῆναι ἀποθνήσκοντα, καὶ βασιλεύειν (56) πάσης τῆς γῆς κατηξιωμένον ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ. «Ὡς καὶ διὰ τῆς γῆς (57) εἰς ἢν οὗτος εἰσπορεύεται εἰς αὐτὴν, καὶ ἐγκαταλείψουσί με, καὶ διασκεδάσουσι τὴν διαθήκην μου ἣν διεθέμην αὐτοῖς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ J. P. Migne, “Patrologia Graeca: Greek Text,” Patrologiæ Cursus Completus (Paris: J. P. Migne, 1857), 649.↩

150Athenagoras, “A Plea for the Christians,” in Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. B. P. Pratten, vol. 2, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 136.↩

151Note the italicized phrases in his letter to pope Victor which show his commitment to Sola Scriptura and the Regulative Principle of Worship:

We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. … [After listing other bishops who agreed with his Scripturalism, he said,] All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said ‘We ought to obey God rather than man’…I could mention the bishops who were present, whom I summoned at your desire; whose names, should I write them, would constitute a great multitude. And they, beholding my littleness, gave their consent to the letter, knowing that I did not bear my gray hairs in vain, but had always governed my life by the Lord Jesus.

↩

152John Foster, “The Harp at Ephesus,” The Expository Times, February 1963.↩

153See the rebuttal in The Expository Times, April 1963, vol. 74, no. 7, 213-215. However, his skepticism that an early bishop would have a signet ring is curious, and his contention that this is the ring of the tyrant Polycrates is unlikely, as that ring had the engraving of an anchor upon it, not a harp.↩

154Theophilus of Antioch, “Theophilus to Autolycus,” in Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (Entire), ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Marcus Dods, vol. 2, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 106.↩

155Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian (ANF III; Accordance electronic ed. 9 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885), n.p↩

156Tertullian, “A Treatise on the Soul,” in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Peter Holmes, vol. 3, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 193.↩

157In particular, he seemed to have a disdain for the pipe and flute since they were associated with so much pagan debauchery. He said, “Let the pipe be resigned to the shepherds, and the flute to the superstitious who are engrossed in idolatry. For, in truth, such instruments are to be banished from the temperate banquet, being more suitable to beasts than men” (Clement of Alexandria, “The Instructor II,” in Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, 248). Notice that the context of his opposition was in banquets, not the church.↩

158Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria (ANF II; Accordance electronic ed. 9 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885), n.p.↩

159Frederic Farrar, History of Interpretation, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1961), 184.↩

160Hippolytus of Rome, “Fragments from Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture,” in Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. S. D. F. Salmond, vol. 5, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 201.↩

161For example, one of the Canons of Hippolytus says, “Whoever performs in a theatre or is a wrestler or a runner or a music teacher… or is a hunter or an animal trainer… none of these may be permitted to attend a sermon until they have been purified from these unclean works. After days they may hear a sermon.”↩

162For example, McKinnon cites him as saying, “The musical instruments of the Old Testament are not unsuitable for us if understood spiritually” (Origen, “Letter to Gregory”). Or the quote, “The strings are the harmony of the balanced sound of virtues and instruments” (Pseudo-Origen, “Selecta in psalmos CL,” in McKinnon, Early Christian Literature, 39).↩

163Epistle of Ignatius to the Antiochians, chapter 12.↩

164Both the masculine ψάλτας and the feminine ψάλτης refers to people who play the ψαλτήριον. If the definition of ψαλτήριον is a stringed instrument, then it follows that a player of a ψαλτήριον is a “player of a stringed instrument” or a harpist. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament shows the usage of this term as referring to a professional player of a stringed instrument.

ψάλτης for a (professional) player of a stringed instrument seems to be rare, Plut. Pomp., 36, 4 (I, 638d). More common is ψάλτρια: Noble and cultured participants in a symposium do not need the foolish and childish pranks of women playing the flute and dancing, ψάλτριαι, Plat. Prot., 347d. The street-police keep a watch on women flautists, ψάλτριαι and κιθαρίστριαι, esp. to prevent overcharging, also garbage collectors, Aristot. ‘Αθηναίων Πολιτεία, 50, 2 (ed. H. Oppermann [1961]); cf. Plut. De Cleomene, 12, 3 (I, 810a); Luc. Bis Accusatus, 16. ψαλτήριον is a stringed instrument; one should not listen to the flute and ψαλτήριον without words and song, that the spirit may be entertained and ennobled (v.) already Plat. Leg., II, 669e, cf. Aristot. Pol., VIII, 6. p. 1341a, 24 f.); Plut. Quaest. Conv., VII, 8, 4 (II, 713c). For attacks on the emancipation of music from words cf. W. Jaeger, Paideia,) II (1944), 298 f.; Söhngen, 87. On the ethical evaluation of music in antiquity v.) A. J. Neubecker, Die Bewertung d. Musik bei Stoikern u. Epikureern) (1956); earlier bibl. 100. (“NOTES,” TDNT, X:660.)

Keep this antagonism to stringed instruments among ascetic Greeks in mind when we discuss the fathers who opposed instrumental music.

Liddell and Scott only list the feminine form of this noun, but they do define it as “a female harp player.” Luks, Eynekil, and Hauspie define it as “harpist or psalm singer, cantor.” (LEH Septuagint Lexicon). Even if it referred to professional singers, the root idea of musical accompaniment is still primary in the word.

Charles Dyer explains how both the Hebrew and the Greek had the same loan-word to describe a stringed instrument:

The third stringed instrument listed among Nebuchadnezzar’s musicians is the פְּסַנְתֵּרִין, which appears to be a transliteration of the Greek word ψαλτήριον. According to Mitchell and Joyce, the ψαλτήριον was a triangle-shaped stringed instrument. Engel identified the ψαλτήριον with the santı̄r, the present oriental dulcimer. Wellesz connected ψαλτήριον with the following word סוּמְפֹּנְיָה and identified the instrument as an “upper-chested ‘concord harp.’”

The Aramaic word פְּסַנְתֵּרִין became the Persian santur and the Arabic santı̄r.30 The instrument was likely a trapezoid-shaped dulcimer either plucked or played with plectra. Thus Daniel 3 refers to three types of stringed instruments. Nebuchadnezzar’s string section included lyres, harps, and dulcimers. (Charles Dyer, “THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN DANIEL 3.” BSac 147 (1990): 432-433.)

The bottom line is that if the ψάλτας were the players of the ψαλτήριον, they were clearly instrumentalists.↩

165As cited by Giorgio Agamben, The Highest Poverty: Monastic Rules and Form-of-Life, trans. Adam Kotsko (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013), 25.↩

166Didymus of Alexandria, Eis Psalmous, 4: 1, Sendrey, Music in Ancient Israel, 203. PG XXXIX, 1166. Or as Blaising translates the same phrase, “The psalm is a hymn that is sung to an instrument, either a lyre or a psaltery.” Craig A. Blaising and Carmen S. Hardin, eds., Psalms 1–50, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 26.↩

167cited by James McKinnon in Music in Early Christian Literature, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 124.↩

168Epistula ad Marcellinuum de interpretation psalmorum 27; PG xxvii, 37-40, as cited by James McKinnon in Music in Early Christian Literature, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 53.↩

169Oratio contra gentes 38; PG xxv, 76-77; Thomson, 104-106, as cited by James McKinnon, Ibid.↩

170Life of Saint Anthony, 25.↩

171Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Gregory the Great (II); Ephraim Syrus; Araphat (NPNF-2 XIII; Accordance electronic ed. 14 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Publishing, 1890), n.p.↩

172Ephraem, metrical homily Description of Paradise, tr. Henry Burgess, Select Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem Syrus (London, 1853), 114. Ephraem, Hymn of the Resurrection, tr. Burgess, Select Metrical Hymns, 31.↩

173J.S. Assemai, Biblioteca orientalis pp 47-8, Rebecca J. Rollins, ‘The Singing of Women in Early Christian Worship’, Music in Performance and Society: Essays in honor of Roland Jackson, p. 52 – as cited by David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015), 125.↩

174David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015), 125.↩

175James McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature, 92.↩

176For example, Eastern Orthodox writer, John Nichiporuk, claims that Basil said, “of useless arts there is harp playing, dancing, flute playing, of which, when the operation ceases, the result disappears with it. And indeed, according to the word of the apostle, the result of these is destruction.” https://blog.obitel-minsk.com/2019/02/why-does-orthodox-church-not-use-musical-instruments.html. This is also quoted in Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin, eds., Music in the Western World: A History in Documents (New York: Macmillan, 2008), 23). I have not been able to track down this quote to verify its authenticity.↩

177Basil of Caesarea, Exegetic Homilies, tr. A.C. Way, The Fathers of the Church Series (Washington, 1965), 278.↩

178Ronald E. Heine (ed.), Gregory of Nyssa’s Treatise on the Inscription of the Psalms, (Oxford, 1995), 129.↩

179Treatise on the Inscriptions of the psalms, Ibid., 2: 3; 25.↩

180As cited by David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015), 224. Shirt gives the following additional interesting information in a footnote: > Victricius, De laude sanctorum 5 (PL 20. 447), cited MacMullen, Second Church, p. 170. As Gillian Clark brings to our attention, music historians (e.g. Herval, in Origines) regard this as being practical not allegorical reference to music and dance. For introduction and annotated translation of De laude sanctorum see Gillian Clark, ‘Victricius of Rouen: Praising the Saints’, Journal of Christian Studies 7. 3 (1999), 365-399.↩

181Prudentius, Cathemerinon 9, 22-24 and 2, tr. Carolinne White, Early Christian Latin Poets (London, 2000), p. 83.↩

182Egon Wellesz, A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961), 152.↩

183Commentary on Psalm xxxii, 1-2, as cited by James McKinnon, op. cit., 77.↩

184Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Jerome: Select Works and Letters (NPNF-2 VI; Accordance electronic ed. 14 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Publishing, 1890), n.p. The editor says that “Her cousin Eustochium seems to be meant.”↩

185David VanBrugge, “An Analysis of the Ancient Church Fathers On Instrumental Music,” p. 12 at https://biblicalspirituality.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/ancient-fathers-on-instrumental-music-by-david-vanbrugge.pdf↩

186Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Theodoret, Jerome, Gennadius & Rufinus: Historical Writings (NPNF-2 III; Accordance electronic ed. 14 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Publishing, 1890), n.p.↩

187There are numerous differences between Justin’s writings and the Exhortation to the Greeks, by Pseudo-Justin, including vocabulary, writing style, and the fact that Exhortation to the Greeks rejects Greek pagan philosophy.↩

188Theodoret, Book V, chapter 35. In Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Theodoret, Jerome, Gennadius & Rufinus: Historical Writings (NPNF-2 III; Accordance electronic ed. 14 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Publishing, 1890), n.p.↩

189James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie (eds.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics: Munas-Phrygians, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1917), 31.↩

190Philip Schaff, ed., Augustine’s Commentary on Psalms, John, and 1 John (Accordance electronic ed. New York: Christian Literature Publishing, 1886), n.p.↩

191Philip Schaff, ed., Augustine’s Commentary on Psalms, John, and 1 John (Accordance electronic ed. New York: Christian Literature Publishing, 1886), n.p.↩

192James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie (eds.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics: Munas-Phrygians, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1917), 32.↩

193David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015), 102-103.↩

194Shirt, Ibid.,” 164.↩

195As cited by John Mason Neal, and Richard Frederik Littedale, A Commentary On The Psalms: From Primitive And Mediaeval Writers And From The Various Office-Books And Hymns Of The Roman, Mozarabic, and Syrian Rites, volume 3, (London, 1871), 22.↩

196This Greek disgust with Roman instrumental music can be traced back as early as Cicero. Its influence upon Hellenistic Judaism and upon Christianity was quite strong. Philo, a first century philosopher, was a Hellenized Jew who opposed even the instrumental music used by the Jews of his day. Louis Feldman correctly points out that “Philo reflects the Greek contempt for instrumental music.” (Louis H. Feldman, Studies in Hellenistic Judaism (Brill, 1996), 525).↩

197James McKinnon, op. cit., pp. 2-3.↩

198John T. Noonan, Jr., Contraception (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966), 46.↩

199David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015), 189ff.↩

200This Greek method of allegorizing the embarrassing parts of Greek religious texts was adopted by Jewish Hellenists like Philo (a contemporary of Jesus, but not a Christian) and then was adopted by men like Clement of Alexandria who helped to form the Alexandrian School of allegorical interpretation.↩

201As one example, we can look at Clement of Alexandria. He said,

Leave the pipe to the shepherd, the flute to the men who are in fear of gods and are intent on their idol-worshiping. Such musical instruments must be excluded from our wineless feasts, for they are more suited for beasts and for the class of men that is least capable of reason than for men. We are told that deer are called by horns and hunted by huntsmen to traps, there to be captured by the playing of some melody; that, when mares are being foaled, a tune is played on a flute as a sort of hymeneal which musicians call a hippothorus. In general, we must completely eliminate every such base sight or sound—in a word, everything immodest that strikes the senses (for this is an abuse of the senses)—if we would avoid pleasures that merely fascinate the eye or ear, and emasculate. Truly, the devious spells of syncopated tunes and of the plaintive rhythm of Carian music3 corrupt morals by their sensual and affected style, and insidiously inflame the passions.

The Spirit, to purify the divine liturgy from any such unrestrained revelry, chants: ‘Praise Him with sound of trumpet,’4 for, in fact, at the sound of the trumpet the dead will rise again; ‘praise Him with harp,’ for the tongue is a harp of the Lord; ‘and with the lute, praise Him,’ understanding the mouth as a lute moved by the Spirit as the lute is by the plectrum; ‘praise Him with timbal and choir,’ that is, the Church awaiting the resurrection of the body in the flesh which is its echo; ‘praise Him with strings and organ,’ calling our bodies an organ and its sinews strings, for from them the body derives its co-ordinated movement, and when touched by the Spirit, gives forth human sounds; ‘praise Him on high-sounding5 cymbals,’ which mean the tongue of the mouth, which, with the movement of the lips, produces words. Then, to all mankind He calls out: ‘Let every spirit praise the Lord,’ because He rules over every spirit He has made. In reality, man is an instrument made for peace, but these other things, if anyone concerns himself overmuch with them, become instruments of conflict, for they either enkindle desires or inflame the passions. The Etruscans, for example, use the trumpet for war; the Arcadians, the horn; the Sicels, the flute; the Cretans, the lyre; the Lacedemonians, the pipe; the Thracians, the bugle; the Egyptians, the drum; and the Arabs, the cymbal. But as for us, we make use of one instrument alone: only the Word of peace, by whom we pay homage to God, no longer with ancient harp or trumpet or drum or flute which those trained for war employ. They give little thought to fear of God in their festive dances, but seek to arouse their failing courage by such rhythmic measures.

Clement of Alexandria, Christ the Educator, trans. P. Simon Wood, vol. 23, The Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1954), 130–132.

In another place Clement said,

He who sprang from David and yet was before him, the Word of God, scorned those lifeless instruments of lyre and harp. By the power of the Holy Spirit He arranged in harmonious order this great world, yes, and the little world of man too, body and soul together; and on this many-voiced instrument of the universe He makes music to God, and sings to the human instrument. “For thou art my harp and my pipe and my temple”c—my harp by reason of the music, my pipe by reason of the breath of the Spirit, my temple by reason of the Word—God’s purpose being that the music should resound, the Spirit inspire, and the temple receive its Lord. Moreover, King David the harpist, whom we mentioned just above, urged us toward the truth and away from idols. So far was he from singing the praises of daemons that they were put to flight by him with the true music; and when Saul was possessed, David healed him merely by playing the harp.d The Lord fashioned man a beautiful, breathing instrument, after His own image; and assuredly He Himself is an all-harmonious instrument of God, melodious and holy, the wisdom that is above this world, the heavenly Word.

T. E. Page et al., eds., Clement of Alexandria, trans. G. W. Butterworth, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, 1960), 13–15.↩

202Chrysostom said,

David formerly sang songs, also today we sing hymns. He had a lyre with lifeless strings, the church has a lyre with living strings. Our tongues are the strings of the lyre with a different tone indeed but much more in accordance with piety. Here there is no need for the cithara, or for stretched strings, or for the plectrum, or for art, or for any instrument; but, if you like, you may yourself become a cithara, mortifying the members of the flesh and making a full harmony of mind and body. For when the flesh no longer lusts against the Spirit, but has submitted to its orders and has been led at length into the best and most admirable path, then will you create a spiritual melody. (Chrysostom, Exposition of Psalms 41, (381-398 A.D.) Source Readings in Music History, ed. O. Strunk, (W. W. Norton and Co.: New York, 1950), 70.)

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203Eusebius said,

Of old at the time those of the circumcision were worshipping with symbols and types it was not inappropriate to send up hymns to God with the psalterion and cithara and to do this on Sabbath days… We render our hymn with a living psalterion and a living cithara with spiritual songs. The unison voices of Christians would be more acceptable to God than any musical instrument. Accordingly in all the churches of God, united in soul and attitude, with one mind and in agreement of faith and piety we send up a unison melody in the words of the Psalms.
Translated from Eusebius, Commentary on the Psalms, 91:2-3; (Patrologia Graeca 23:1172D-1173A)

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204Jerome (342-420 A.D.), in remarking upon Eph. 5:19, says:

May all hear it whose business it is to sing in the church. Not with the voice, but with the heart, we sing praises to God. Not like the comedians should they raise their sweet and liquid notes to entertain the assembly with theatrical songs and melodies in the church, but the fire of godly piety and the knowledge of the Scriptures should inspire our songs… As quoted in John M’Clintock and James Strong, “Music, Christian,” Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1894), 758.

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205Aquinas said,

Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize. (Thomas Aquinas, Bingham’s Antiquities, Vol. 3, 137) As quoted in W. Frank Walton, “Why Do You Not Use Instruments In Your Worship?,” ed. Sewell Hall, Christianity Magazine (Jacksonville, FL: Christianity Magazine, 1999), 14.

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206Louis H. Feldman, Studies in Hellenistic Judaism (Brill, 1996), 525.↩

207David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015).↩

208For example, Clement of Alexandria (c. 195) said, “If a man marries in order to have children, he ought not to have a sexual desire for his wife. He ought to produce children by a reverent, disciplined act of will.” He also said, “Intercourse performed licitly is an occasion of sin, unless done purely to beget children.” Keep in mind that the dictionary defines “licitly” as in full conformity with the law. He is adding a qualification to being lawful – it cannot have any function beyond producing a baby. This is legalism. In another place Clement said, “To… a spiritual man, after conception, his wife is as a sister and is treated as if of the same father” (ANF 2.503). Justin Martyr (c. 160) writes, “If we marry, it is only so that we may bring up children” (ANF 1.172). Lactantius (c. 304-313) writes, “Whatever is sought beyond the desire of procreation is condemned by God” (ANF 7.143). Athenagoras the Athenian (c. 175) forbad any sexual relations between a couple once the couple had achieved conception (ANF 2.146). Augustine said,

In Eden, it would have been possible to beget offspring without foul lust. The sexual organs would have been stimulated into necessary activity by will-power alone, just as the will controls other organs. Then, without being goaded on by the allurement of passion, the husband could have relaxed upon his wife’s breasts with complete peace of mind and bodily tranquility, that part of his body not activated by tumultuous passion, but brought into service by the deliberate use of power when the need arose, the seed dispatched into the womb with no loss of his wife’s virginity. So, the two sexes could have come together for impregnation and conception by an act of will, rather than by lustful cravings. (Saint Augustine, City of God, Book 14, Chapter 26)

The Apostolic Constitutions (compiled c. 390) say, “Nor, indeed, let them have relations when their wives are with child. For [in that case] they are not doing it for the begetting of children, but only for the sake of pleasure. Now a lover of God should not be a lover of pleasure” (ANF 7.463). Thomas Aquinas wrote,

Consequently there are only two ways in which married persons can come together without any sin at all, namely in order to have offspring, and in order to pay the debt; otherwise it is always at least a venial sin… If a man intends by the marriage act to prevent fornication in his wife, it is no sin, because this is a kind of payment of the debt that comes under the good of “faith.” But if he intends to avoid fornication in himself, then there is a certain superfluity, and accordingly there is a venial sin, nor was the sacrament instituted for that purpose, except by indulgence, which regards venial sins. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Benziger Bros./Accordance electronic ed. (Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 2004), n.p.)

See also the quotes in chapter 3.↩

209As has already been noted, Chrysostom, Augustine, and other fathers had to oppose this viewpoint. It persisted despite scholars such as Thomas Aquinas refuting it. Huguccio said of sexual relations with one’s wife that it,

…can never be without sin, for it always occurs and is exercised with a certain itching and a certain pleasure; for, in the emission of the seed, there is always a certain excitement, a certain itching, a certain pleasure.

In his Summa 2.32.2.1. Only excerpts of Huguccio’s Summa on Gratian’s Decretum have been edited. See J. Roman (ed.) Smma d’Huguccio sur le Décret de Gratueb d’apres le Manuscrit 3891 de law Bibliotheque Nationale. For an introduction, see Kenneth Pennington, DMA, 6:327-328.↩

210The Stoic philosopher Ocellus Lucanus says, “We have intercourse not for pleasure but for the purpose of procreation….The sexual organs are given man not for pleasure, but for the maintenance of the species.” Ocellus Lucanus, text and commentary by Richard Harder (Berlin, 1926), quoted in Noonan, p. 47. This of course could have been said verbatim by any number of church fathers.↩

211David G. Hunter, Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 34.↩

212Augustine and Ambrose both present Susanna as a model of chastity within marriage. Jerome was particularly troubling in his insistence that married clergy be celibate. See Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds. Jerome: Select Works and Letters. vol. VI of A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series. Accordance electronic ed. (New York: Christian Literature Publishing, 1890), n.p.↩

213Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds. Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian. vol. III of The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Accordance electronic ed. (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885), n.p. David G. Hunter points out about Tertullian,

Nevertheless, Tertullian’s starkly eschatological outlook led him to denigrate sex, marriage, and procreation in a manner that resembled traditional encratite theology.¹⁰¹

Another parallel between Tertullian and the encratite tradition is that Tertullian, like Tatian, argued that a radical divide lay between the morality of the Old Testament and that of the New. Although he acknowledged that God had originally established marriage for the propagation of the human race, Tertullian held that with the coming of Christ the command to ‘increase and multiply’ had been abrogated by Paul’s warning that ‘the time is short; from now on let even those who have wives be as though they had none.’¹⁰² In these last days the only reasons for marrying even once are disreputable ones: sexual desire, a wish for comfort and security, or the desire to live on in one’s children.¹⁰³ While some Christians might argue that procreation is a civic duty, Tertullian complained, children are in reality troublesome burdens that distract their parents from preparing for martyrdom and the approach of the kingdom of God.¹⁰⁴ Although Tertullian did not completely reject first marriages, thereby remaining technically ‘orthodox’ on this question, his emphasis on the profound gulf between the old dispensation and the new reiterated the traditional encratite contrast between the Old Law and the New. (David G. Hunter, Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 118, http://www.questia.com/read/119351407/marriage-celibacy-and-heresy-in-ancient-christianity.)

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214Two examples are Justin, 1 Apol. 15, 29; Athenagoras, Leg. 33.4–6.↩

215For example, when Augustine wrote to Jerome, he said, “I have learned to hold the Scriptures alone inerrant” (Cited by Boice & Packer in, Does Inerrancy Matter? [Oakland, CA: ICBI, 1979]). In his Preface to the Treatise on the Trinity Augustine said, “Do not follow my writings as Holy Scripture. When you find in Holy Scripture anything you did not believe before, believe it without doubt; but in my writings, you should hold nothing for certain.”↩

216For examples, see 2 Cor. 11:13; Gal. 1:6ff.; Col. 2:1-23; 1 Tim. 4:1-11; 2 Tim. 3:1-4:5; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:18ff.; 2 John 7-11; Jude 3-23; Rev. 2:14-16,20-23.↩

217David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015), 234-235.↩

218As cited by McKinnon, Church Music in Early Christian Literature, 134-135.↩

219David John Shirt, ‘Sing to the Lord with the harp’: Attitudes to musical instruments in early Christianity – 680 A.D., unpublished doctoral thesis, (University of Durham, 2015), 122-123.↩

220Novatian, “De spectaculis” vii, 1-3, as quoted by James McKinnon, Music, 48.↩

221James McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 7.↩

222His commentary on Psalm 149. See also similar comments in his commentary on Psalm 150.↩

223This quote can be found under “Martin Luther,” in James McClintock & James Strong, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature Volume VI, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1894), 762. Note: I have searched high and low for the source and cannot find it. But given my respect for McClintock and Strong, I assume it is an accurate translation of some portion of German that I have not yet discovered.↩

224I found this quote in Joshua Busman, “Different Commandments: Sola Scriptura and Theologies of Worship in the Protestant Reformation,” 2010. This article can be downloaded at Academia - http://www.academia.edu/338201/Different_Commandments_Sola_Scriptura_and_Theologies_of_Worship_in_the_Protestant_Reformation↩

225Cited in John Barber, “Luther and Calvin in Music and Worship,” Reformed Perspectives Magazine, volume 8, number 26 (June 25-July 1, 2006).↩

226Emphasis mine. The quote can be found in John Calvin and John Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 217–218.↩

227“The beating of timbrels may indeed appear absurd to some, but the custom of the nation excuses it…” We would say that the Old Testament use of instruments needs no excuse and that it matters not if people think it absurd. We do not need to apologize for God as Calvin here does.↩

228See Idzerd Van Dellen and Martin Monsema, The Church Order Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1941).↩

229For his full sermon against instruments, see http://www.truecovenanter.com/cameron/sdtp_cameron_lecture02.html↩

230It should be noted that the Puritans and Presbyterians were not even unanimous in defending exclusive psalmody, but that is a subject for another paper. (Thomas Manton wrote the preface to the Confession and Catechisms, was on the committee of Triers who examined people going into the ministry, led the Presbyterian divines in their protest, etc.). In brief, he says,

Some raise a scruple, whether we may or must only sing scripture psalms, as the psalms of David and other prophets.

I answer – we do not forbid other songs, if grave and godly, to be received into the church. Tertullian showeth that in the primitive times they used this liberty, either scripture psalms, or such as were of private composure.

Thomas Manton goes on to give several pages of reasons why exclusive psalmody is not Biblical. See volume 19, pages 411 and following. See Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 19 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1874), 411.↩

231See Nicholas Temperley, The Music of the English Parish Church, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 37.↩

232For an archive of his commentary, go to https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Baynes%2C+Paul%2C+d.+1617%22 ↩

233For the audio lecture go to
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?sermonID=822141543572↩

234For example, M. C. Ramsay writes:

Those who maintain that Jewish worship had associated with it instruments of music fail to appreciate the facts; and some of the facts are as follows: The ordinary worship of the Jew was that of the synagogue, and it was always unembellished. The men of Israel were commanded to attend the temple worship only thrice annually. Throughout the remainder of the year, Sabbath by Sabbath, they met for worship in their synagogues. Their wives and children attended regularly the synagogue where the services were marked by simplicity… In the synagogue where there was congregational singing, there was no musical instrument. (Purity of Worship, Presbyterian Church of East Australia, 1968, 11)

Brian Schwertley says, “musical instruments … were not used in the Jewish synagogues until A.D. 1810 in Germany” (http://www.reformedonline.com/view/reformedonline/music.htm).

Girardeau states, “The writers who have most carefully investigated Jewish antiquities, and have written learnedly and elaborately in regard to the synagogue, concur in showing that its worship was destitute of instrumental music” (John L. Girardeau, Instrumental Music in Public Worship (Havertown, PA: New Covenant Publication Society, 1983 [first published 1888], p. 39).↩

235Some sample quotes to this effect:

The worship of the synagogue was very different from that of the Temple, in that it had no sacerdotal rituals and supported no sacrosanct priesthood” (W. White, Jr., in Merril C. Tenney, gen. ed., The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975), 556).

The fact that the temple used musical instruments while the synagogues did not is significant, for the first Christian churches were closely patterned after the synagogue. (Brian Schwertley, http://www.entrewave.com/view/reformedonline/music.htm)

The most important legacy of the first century synagogue was the form and organization of the apostolic Church (W. White, Jr., The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. 5, 556).↩

236Literally hundreds of quotes could be added to these:

Furthermore, given the fact that musical instruments were only used by priests and Levites during the temple service and were not used in the Jewish synagogues until A.D. 1810 in Germany, one can safely conclude that the Jews themselves did not regard this instance in 1 Samuel 10 as a justification for musical instruments in public worship… This argument is considerably strengthened by the historical fact that musical instruments were not used in synagogue worship or the apostolic church… If one wants to find a non-Levitical, non-ceremonial use of musical instruments in public worship, the most logical place to look would be the worship conducted in the synagogue. (Brian Schwertley, http://www.entrewave.com/view/reformedonline/music.htm)

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237Thomas Peck words it this way:

Let the Papists, who believe in temples, priests and sacrifices, stick to their organs; let not the freemen of the Lord, who have boldness to enter into the holiest of all through the blood of the Son of God, who has passed into the heavens, borrow their pitiful machinery. We prefer the synagogue to the temple. (Thomas E. Peck, minister, Presbyterian Church, US [Southern]/professor, Union Theological Seminary), “General Principles Touching the Worship of God,” in The Presbyterial Critic (1855)).

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238This is illustrated in Matthew 15:1-20, Mark 7:1-23, Galatians 5-6, and other passages. The Pharisees described in these passages were not merely “laying aside the commandment of God” (Mark 7:8) but they also added “many” traditions (Mark 7:8-13). Man cannot live without law, so antinomianism always leads to some form of legalism.↩

239James 2:2 describes the Christian church as a συναγωγή.↩

240McKinnon,‘On the Question of Psalmody in the Ancient Synagogue’, Early Music History 7 (Cambridge, 1987), 183.↩

241George Foot Moore says,

…it appears that in the middle of the second century AD, the daily repetition of the psalms was a pious practice of individuals rather than a regular observance of the congregation. (George Foot Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of Tannaim, Vol 1 (Hendrickson Publishers; reprinted 1997 from Harvard University Press edition, 1927), 296).

J. A. Smith claims that this has been the scholarly consensus, quoting several scholars:

“I can only confirm the fact that in the Rabbinic literature there is no mention of singing in the early synagogue.” -Levertoff

“The synagogue service was in ancient times always songless.” – Mowinckel

“Meetings in the Jewish synagogue were primarily for reading, instruction, and prayer, but not psalm-singing.” – David Hiley

“To state it as simply as possible, there was no singing of psalms in the ancient synagogue.” – James McKinnon

McKinnon once suggested that there may have been chanting in the early synagogue, but Smith has pointed out that McKinnon based that possibility solely on a document dated centuries later, and therefore, “its relevance to the ancient synagogue is very doubtful.” (J.A. Smith, The Ancient Synagogue, the Early Church and Singing¸ published in Music & Letters, January 1984.)↩

242“the instrumental music was lost when the dispersed peoples, as an act of mourning, ceased playing instruments” (Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2008, under “Jewish Liturgical Music”).↩

243The practice of Jewish men wearing head coverings in worship (and often outside of worship) did not begin until after the Bar Kochba rebellion of AD 132-135. Even then, the practice was not firmly entrenched until the Middle Ages. This man-made tradition was added by Jewish rabbis to symbolize the shame of their exile and had other explanations such as the shame men should feel when in God’s presence. John Lightfoot cites evidence that early Pharisaic tradition held that men did not have a head covering in the synagogues.

We may observe Onkelos renders בְיָד רָמָה with a high hand, by בריש גלי with an uncovered head: as in Exod. 14:8; The Israelites went out of Egypt with an uncovered head; that is, confidently, not fearfully, or as men ashamed; and Numb. 15:30; “The soul which committeth any sin גלי בריש with an uncovered head;” that is, boldly and impudently. So Jonathan also in Judges 5:1; The wise men returned to sit in the synagogues בריש גלי with an uncovered head; that is, not fearing their enemies, nor shamed by them” (John Lightfoot, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, Matthew-1 Corinthians, Acts-1 Corinthians, vol. 4 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 230).

Lightfoot also cites evidence that the Judaizers (perhaps out of reaction to Christianity or perhaps out of a perverted notion of hyper-spirituality?) changed both the covering of the men and the covering of the women. The men who were formerly uncovered became covered in the synagogues and the women were formerly uncovered in the public but covered in the synagogue were no longer covered (for a time) in the synagogues, and had to be covered outside of the synagogue.↩

244“Instrumental music was prohibited in synagogue services as a symbol of national mourning” (Shalom Kalib, The Musical Tradition of the Eastern European Synagogue, volume one, part one, (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002), 2).↩

245Joshua Rabbin states,

In the rabbinic period, however, the use of musical instruments on Shabbat and Yom Tov (major holidays, like Rosh Hashanah and Passover, when work is forbidden) was eventually prohibited. A mishnah in Tractate Beitzah states that “one may not smack or dance or clap on Shabbat and Yom Tov” (5:2). The Talmud explains that “one may not smack or clap or dance, lest one fix a musical instrument” (BT Beitzah 36b). Fixing a musical instrument is a prohibited form of work on Shabbat and Yom Tov. Rashi notes that if clapping is forbidden because it might lead to fixing an instrument, playing an instrument would obviously be prohibited as well, for the same reason.

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246Bob William elaborates on these three points at http://www.biblelessons.com/origins.html:

1. Perhaps the main reason that the use of instruments in worship ceased in the synagogues was that the Rabbis decided to forbid such. According to their views, such could possibly lead to work on the Sabbath. Musical instruments remained a part of the Sabbath service in the temple because the rabbis apparently could do nothing regarding their presence there. But they could and did prohibit them outside the temple for fear that playing an instrument on the Sabbath, a permissible act in and of itself, might lead inadvertently to the musician’s tuning it, or mending it, or carrying it from one public place to another - all of these being forbidden acts of work. Since the main synagogue service took place on Sabbath mornings, no musical instrument could become an integral component thereof.
2. The rabbis gave another reason for banning instruments of music (as well as other types of singing): they apparently felt such joyous or celebratory music would be inappropriate in light of the sorrows that were being experienced by the Jews (i.e., the destruction of the temple and their exile). The rabbis apparently felt that such an attitude of mourning should be carried into the synagogue service as well. They quoted Hosea 9:1, “Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation (or “merriment”) like the nations,” and then declared: “An ear listening to songs will surely be cut off… A song in the house means destruction is at its threshold” (Sotah 48a, as given by Liturgica.com).
3. The music of the synagogues was further influenced by the legalistic and puritanical ethic of the rabbis in regards to their concern over promiscuity. They taught, “A woman’s voice is indecency” (Ber. 24a, as given by Liturgica.com); and, “Men singing and women answering is promiscuity; women singing and men answering is like fire set to chaff” (Sotah 48a, as given by Liturgica.com). These excessive fears of promiscuity led to the separation of men and women, and ultimately to only men singing in the synagogue in worship.

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247The full post is as follows:

Dear Rabbi,

Could you identify for me the halakhic prohibitions against playing instruments in the synagogues? I need this clarified, and would also like the references or Talmudic citations. Also, could you help explain the dates the oral teachings originated? I’m doing research on synagogue worship and would really appreciate your help.

Answer:

The classic talmudic source on musical instruments is the Babylonian Talmud (rabbinic text finished in the year 500 and edited until approximately 650 C.E.), tractate Beitza 36b, in which the rabbis explain that there is a rabbinic prohibition based on the fear that one might end up fixing the musical instrument if it was necessary. Rabbi David Zvi Hoffman (1843-1921), the rector of the famous Hildesheimer yeshivah [Talmudic academy], in his responsa Melamed Leho’il (first part, Orah? H?ayyim, chapter 16), explains the evolution of this prohibition. He writes that in 1819 the Rabbinic Court in Hamburg published a series of letters by different halakhic authorities under the name of Eleh Divrei Habrit in which they unanimously prohibited playing musical instruments (particularly the organ) in the synagogue even if played by a non Jew. This was a reaction against the custom of the Reform movement to play instruments during services. There was less uniformity on the issue of playing musical instruments the weekday services. Some authorities who were asked did not address this question at all and might have allowed it. Some authorities clearly prohibited their use while others clearly allowed musical accompaniment. In 1820, Rabbi Abraham Lowenstein, the head of Emden’s rabbinic court, prohibited organ playing in the synagogue on Shabbat, Holidays and weekdays asserting that we are not permitted to follow the customs of Gentiles. Beginning in 1863 many rabbis applied the same reasoning and the Hildsheimer Yeshivah in Berlin ordained rabbis on the condition that they would not serve in synagogues with organs. Rabbi Hoffman claims that the musical instruments in the Beit Hamikdash [the Temple in Jerusalem] were not at all like the organ and that the organ played in the Al Tnai synagogue in Prague was played before Shabbat started. He explains the reasons for prohibiting instruments as: a) Not to follow the Gentile’s ways b) Not to follow the heretics’ ways c) We are grieving for the Temple’s destruction Rabbi Hoffman sent a letter to five rabbis, all of whom prohibited the use of musical instruments in the synagogue. One rabbi did not answer and instead deferred to Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer’s opinion prohibiting them. Even though some rabbis thought that in modern times we are not experts in fixing instruments if they broke on Shabbat, this was not an accepted opinion (See Rabbi Yehezkel Landau, 1713-1793, Noda Beyehudah, second edition, Orah Hayim 49). I hope this is sufficient information for your research. (From the Schechter Institutes)

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248James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, volume 2 (Garden City, NY: DoubleDay & Company, 1985), 686. He takes this as a synagogue prayer that was later added to by Christians.↩

249Here are some of the many commands to lead with skill:

“Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.” (Psalm 33:3)

“So the number of them…who were instructed in the songs of the LORD, all who were skillful, was two hundred and eighty-eight. And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student.” (1 Chron. 25:7-8)

“Keniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.” (1 Chron. 15:22)

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250There are many character qualifications for musicians. Here are a few:

“I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” (Isa. 1:13)

“Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (Amos 5:23)

“Praise from the upright is beautiful.” (Ps. 33:1)

“…singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3:16)

“I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” (1 Cor. 14:15)

“But to the wicked God says: ‘What right have you to declare My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth.’” (Ps. 50:16)

“The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with wicked intent!” (Prov. 21:27)

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