Although Hiram Bingham may have dismissed the matter of
instrumental music as a part of public worship precipitately, the Old Testament
accounts of music record the use for instrumental music in worship
repeatedly. Although in the New
Testament music is not mentioned nearly as much as in the Old Testament, it is
mentioned. Although writers argue about
the meaning of Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16, I Corinthians 14:26, James 5:13
as well as the mention of singing psalms, the meaning of words like psalmos
(5568) and Psallo (5567) have strong meaning of both vocal and instrumental
music.
The fact that the Septuagint considered psalm singing to connote
vocal and instrumental music should be ancient evidence enough that there was
no question, at the time of the Greek translation by the seventy scholars, that
it was proper biblically and historically to accompany singing with musical
instruments. Although St. Basil the Great of Caesarea is reported to have
expressly condemned instrumental music, he, along with St Gregory of Nyssa,
admitted that psalm singing as recorded in the Bible included (implicated) the
use of instrumental accompaniment. For a very thorough study of this topic
please read several chapters on vocal and instrumental music in my book Music
of the Bible in Christian Perspective.
What are the implications of the ancient writings and opinions
of the Church fathers about the use of instrumental music with music worship? To say the least, the church fathers did not
agree with each other, and from the ambiguity of some of their writings, it
becomes apparent that they had much difficulty interpreting the Hebrew Old Testament
writings and early O.T. translations like the LXX. It seems that perhaps their own opinions and
worship traditions clouded their views of how to interpret what the O.T.
actually said about the use of musical instruments with singing in worship.
No comments:
Post a Comment