Aesthetics and
the Christian Musician Part 10
The greatest
commentary on an aesthetic of music based on beauty in the Bible is Amos 5:23:
Take thou away from me the noise (1995)
of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
The Hebrew word used in verse 23 for noise is hamown
(1995) which means tumult, disquietude, or a multitude of noise. Ezekiel 26:13 likewise uses the Hebrew word
hamown in a negative sense:
And I will cause the noise (1995) of thy
songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
There is no doubt about it; the Bible never makes positive
comments about noise, noisy songs, multitude of noise in music, or tumult in
music.
At this
point you may be wondering how I reconcile the references to “joyful noise” in
Psalm 66:1, 81:1, 95:1, 95:2, 98:4, 98:6 and 100:1 in the King James
Version. In the original text the word NOISE never appears in any of the
aforementioned Scriptures. Therefore,
the addition of the word NOISE is a
most unfortunate translation. In all of these Scriptures, the phrase “make a
joyful noise” is translated from the Hebrew word ruwa (7321). In all of these Scriptures, the actual
meaning is “Great acclamation” or with a “great shout of joy”.
None of these Scriptures leave the example of
a Christian aesthetic of noise connected to sacred music. It is only misguided understanding of what
the Bible actually states in the original text that has caused contemporary
Christian musicians to develop this completely false praxial aesthetic view of
music worship based on noise. For a more thorough discussion of the meaning or
the word “noise” in the AV, read the section Beautiful Music Performed
Beautifully in chapter eight (pages 346-3500 of my book, Music of the
Bible in Christian Perspective.
The NIV makes this point clear when it
translates hamown (1995) and shiyr (7892) as noisy songs. If God demanded that music be free from noise
then what makes a Christian musician believe that he will accept noisy songs
today?
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