INSTRUMENTS WERE USED WITH N. T. SINGING-part 3

INSTRUMENTS WERE USED WITH N. T. SINGING-part 3  

            If the words psallo and psalmos had changed meaning in the New Testament dispensation, and if they clearly represented only singing without any use of instrumental accompaniment whatsoever, then why did St. Paul mention psalms, making melody, and singing in the same passage of Scripture?  To make the meaning of the words clear, let's review their standard meanings.  Psalms (psalmos 5568) meant a Hebrew cantillation for voice and instruments.  Singing (aido 103) was a verb meaning to sing.  The words translated as “making melody” (psallo 5567) meant to twitch or twang or touch (play) on the strings of a musical instrument.  With these standard definitions of psalms, singing, and making melody, these words make logical sense in Ephesians 5:19.  If aido and psallo would have had the same meaning St. Paul, the great master of languages, would not have used both words in the same verse. If these words represent the same action (singing) then the verse should be rendered singing and singing in your heart.  Such a thesis does not seem to be tenable.

            There is also the argument that instrumental music was only a part of the old covenant and that it was not religiously "proper" under the new covenant since the sacrificial system was not continued after the death and resurrection of Christ.  It is true that the highly developed system of instrumental music of the Jews was silenced at the time of the destruction of the second Temple in A.D. 70.  Although this was a dark time for the Jewish music, it does not indicate a New Testament prohibition of the use of instruments in Christian worship.  The persecuted New Testament church was scattered and worshipped sometimes in "secret" which possibly accounts for some of the lack of instrumental music by the New Testament church.  Three things are apparent concerning instrumental music in the New Testament:  (1) it is not mentioned as much in the New Testament as in the Old Testament; (2) many groups of believers worshiped without the aid of instrumental music, and (3) the highly developed music system of the Temple did not continue in the early church.  However, instrumental music is mentioned in the New Testament and is never forbidden in the New Testament writings.