The Serugin, Te’amim, and Meturgeman in Christian Perspective-part 14

The Serugin, Te’amim, and Meturgeman in Christian Perspective-part 14

            One should note that a majority of Jewish authors agree that the purpose of the “graphemes” (te’amim) was to guide the one who intoned Scripture, among other things, in “exact…intonation” of Scripture.  This knowledge sheds much light on Nehemiah 8:8, “And they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.”  It is also important to note that Nehemiah 8:7b states very clearly, “… the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people stood in their place.”  The Levite musicians were charged with the responsibility of causing the people to understand the Law more distinctly.  Without doubt this Scripture is referring to the singing of Scripture.  This knowledge has great historical value because it attests to the fact that intoning the Scripture brought about specific understanding of God’s Word.  This knowledge opens the door to the reality that the music part of music has historically transmitted knowledge and understanding to the hearer.  Perhaps this knowledge should put to rest the current notion of musicians that the music part of music is benign and incapable of transmitting understandable meaning to the auditor.

            The Jewish Encyclopedia gives this information, “With the return of the exiles from captivity the religious instruction of the people was put into the hands of the Levites (Neh. viii. 7-9; II Chron. xvii. 8, 9; xxxv. 3). These functionaries were called   ("teachers"). In all probability the language of instruction was still Hebrew... How long the Levites continued in the office of teachers and how long the Hebrew language remained intelligible to the masses are unknown; but at a later time, when Aramaic had become the vernacular, and religious instruction had ceased to be the exclusive privilege of the priesthood, the Levitic   ("teacher") gave way to the lay   ("interpreter," "translator"), called also   or  .”  http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10742-meturgeman   The quotation above makes reference to a Synagogue meturgeman.  It is well known that meturgeman intoned and taught the OT texts in Aramaic from the serugin. This entry taken from the Jewish Encyclopedia  explains that in earlier times this function was the responsibility of the Levites and only at a later date this responsibility was given to a meturgeman.  There was conflict in these ancient times about whether this teacher could present the Aramaic translation with explanation or was restricted to only literal translation of the OT text. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meturgeman