Reading (Singing) Distinctly Gave the "Sense"

  Reading (Singing) Distinctly Gave the “Sense”   

Nehemiah 8:8 states, “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”

       This passage of Scripture has troubled many Bible expositors for centuries.  They have often queried, “What made the reading of the scrolls of the Law “distinct”?  They have also wondered how the Levite musicians were able to “give the sense’ of the meaning of the Law?  It has also been a great mystery as to what type or rendering of the scrolls by the Levite musicians actually took place.  (We know from verse seven that the Levites were among those who “…caused the people to understand the law…”)

       I have no doubt that this Bible reference, which over the many centuries has become an esoteric reference, is a reference to the intoning or singing of the Law by the use of the te’amim (the biblical musical notation) which is found above and below the text in some Hebrew Bibles.  This intoning, cantillation, or singing is what made the Levite rendering of the Law “distinct” i.e. more understandable to the people. 

       Note that the Bible does not say that the Levite musicians gave commentary (like the Halakah and Haggadah from the Midrash) on the content of the scrolls, but merely about their type of “reading”, which I believe refers to the singing of the Law through the use of the te’amim.  We know with certainty that this rendering was performed so distinctly (parash 6567, i.e. to separate or to specify) that it gave enough specificity to the meaning of the text that the congregation “understood the reading" of the Torah.

       So, you may legitimately ask, ”What should we learn from this text in the book of Nehemiah?”  I believe that Christian musicians in the twenty first century need to be aware that proper musical rendering of the good news of the Bible can make it more understandable to the hearers.  The music minister must render sacred music in such a way that the modern-day worshiper will be aware of the “sense” of the message in order to understand distinctly.