ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 3

ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 3

            So the question is not whether women were involved in religious and secular music in the Bible, but whether or not they were used as practicing Temple musicians.  Rothmuller quoted Ambros as saying that "This temple music differs from its contempo­rary Egyptian counterpart by the essential circumstance that Egypt music was already entirely the women's function, whereas in Jerusalem only men were appointed to its performance."    Aaron Rothmuller, The Music of the Jews p.44, (quoting August Wilhelm Ambrose)

   Idelsohn agreed with Rothmuller when he stated that "Participation of women in the temple choir is nowhere traceable."  A. Z.  Idelsohn, Jewish Music in Its Historical Development, p. 16.  

                    Sendrey, who did not have a high regard for the authenticity of the Biblical Record, believed that "In their purificatory zeal, the priestly chroniclers tried particularly to eliminate anything that might have alluded to, or recalled, the primitive pagan, pre-Yahvistic rites of the Hebrews, when women participated regularly in them."  Alfred Sendrey, Music in the Social and Religious Life of Antiquity, p. 251. However, Sendrey did not attempt to document his notion of women participating in pagan pre-Yahvistic religious music in ancient Israel.  Sendrey does concede that, "The Biblical account contains no direct references to the participation of female singers in the Temple choir."  Ibid, p. 251.

Thought for the Day

It amazes me to read the works of authors who respect the Biblical Record but entertain the notion that the authors of Scripture would alter the Record because of personal prejudice.