Harper II.17
James Dodson
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PRECEPTIVE THEORY EXAMINED—NEW TESTAMENT EVIDENCE—CONSIDERATION OF PSALLO CONCLUDED.
It may be said that the evidence adduced from the writings of the Fathers, as to the meaning of the word psallo, represents the state of the language at a date, 200 or 300 years later than the days of the apostles, and therefore does not avail
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for the interpretation of psallo in the New Testament. But on the other hand, let these considerations be allowed due weight:
First, This word is one which confessedly changed in meaning, going through several modifications, and appearing in a state of flux even within the limits of classical usage.
Second, Employed in the Septuagint to represent “zimmēr,” psallo must, nearly three centuries before our era, have been understood as possessing considerable latitude of meaning, for “zimmēr” seems to have been so used by the sacred writers. The Seventy may the more readily have accepted psallo, as the standing equivalent of “zimmēr,” because the former had been already associated, even in classical usage, with rites of worship. Those who were familiar with Hebrew would, in reading the Septuagint, be led to regard psallo, as meaning to praise or celebrate, and that with the voice alone, unless an instrument were named or manifestly implied in connection with it. The influence of the circulation of the Septuagint would be to accelerate and confirm the change of meaning in the case of psallo.
Third, With thorough knowledge of the classical meaning of psallo, and with the fact fully before them, that in the New Testament Christians are exhorted and directed to do what is implied in that word, the Fathers, whether Greek or Latin, never understood that instruments of music must be used in worship in order to compliance with those exhortations and directions. In connection with this let it be borne in mind, that the Eastern or Greek church, which might be presumed to know and feel the force of psallo, is, and always has been, utterly opposed to the use of musical instruments in worship.
Fourth, Those early Christian writers must have understood psallo, as used in the Epistles, to mean either simply to sing, or else to retain its later classical meaning, of singing with an instrumental accompaniment, but only in a figurative sense, just as the word sacrifice is often used in such a sense. Practically, however, the result is the same on either supposition.
Fifth, Had the view that psallo, as used in the apostolic precepts, does not require the use of musical instruments in worship, been an aftergrowth posterior to the apostolic age, we should have expected to find some tokens that it had taken shape, and gained acceptance only gradually; whereas the earlier Fathers, who touch upon the subject, are as definite and settled in this view as the later.
Sixth, If we assume that musical instruments were in use in the service of the early church, it will be difficult, if not impossible to account for the view taken by the Fathers of the directions given by Paul and James, in which the word psallo occurs, and if we suppose that they were not in use in those services, we cannot understand how this could be, unless the church regarded the directions in question as neither commanding, nor countenancing, the employment of instrumental music in worship.
The word psallo having been dwelt upon so long, the New Testament texts, in which it occurs, may be dismissed in a somewhat summary manner. One of these, as already mentioned, is 1 Cor. 14:15, where the apostle says, “What is it
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then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.” If the verb psallo means to sing and play, then in using it, as he does here, the apostle pledges himself to sing and play on an instrument to God. Must he not then have been an instrumental performer, seeing that he intimates his resolution to do whatever is meant by psallo, which is, according to the view we combat, to sing and play, not merely to sing while others play? I cannot help thinking with Dr. Hodge, that the apostle binds himself to no such performance, but to singing simply in the praise of God.
In Eph. 5:19, the Apostle directs us to do whatever is meant by “adontes kai psallontes.” In our version these words are rendered, “singing and making melody.” The Revised version leaves this unchanged. Even the Rheims version, produced by Romanists, translates the words under consideration thus: “Chanting and singing.” Against these renderings it is urged by the patrons of instrumental music that they are tautological, and that, if “adontes” be translated singing, “psallontes” must mean something different. But to this it may be replied that, even on the supposition of our opponents, there must be a measure of repetition; for they hold that psallo means to sing and play, nay, that singing is the principal element in the complex meaning of the word. Besides, in scripture, the use of various words in the same clause, to express and emphasize one idea, is not uncommon, as any one may see, who reads with care the 119th Psalm. Moreover, as the Apostle had just adverted to the Book of Psalms, as there is good reason to think, under the several name of psalms, hymns and songs, he here uses a variety of musical terms to enforce the one duty of using, in the way of song, the compositions named; the two participles which he employs being but echoes of two of the terms he had used to designate the psalms. In addition to all the considerations presented, let this be noted: that if the Apostle refers to instrumental music at all, he enjoins the use of it just as much as the use of singing, a conclusion from which most friends of instrumental music recoil.
As to Jas. 5:13, where the word rendered “let him sing psalms” is “psalleto,” it may be said that it contains not only a recommendation, but an injunction. If so, and if, moreover, psalleto means “sing with an instrument,” then it is the duty of every one who is merry or cheerful to play on an instrument of music, just as much as it is the duty of every one who is afflicted to pray. It is to be feared that but very few Christians, hitherto, have ever complied with the Apostolic injunction, so understood. The proper rendering of the word, I am persuaded, is that given in our authorized version. The feebler rendering in the Revised version, “Let him sing praise,” suits the purpose of our argument quite as well, although I prefer, in this case, the older version. It is a suggestive fact that, in all the New Testament, there is no express mention made of the use of any instrument in New Testament worship, unless it be in the symbolical book of Revelation. In one instance besides, Paul, by an incidental touch, suggests the vapidness of instrumental music, when he says, 1 Cor. 13:1,—“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”
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The survey now taken of the passages in the New Testament, supposed by some to favor the use of instruments of music in the worship of the present age, warrants, as I judge, the conclusion that such passages have no such bearing, and therefore tends to prove that instrumental music was ceremonial.
Thus a series of considerations has been submitted, converging to the establishment of this proposition, that instrumental music in worship was ordained simply as a part of the ceremonial system; and as our discussion has been somewhat extended and intricate, I shall here recapitulate the considerations advanced. It has been urged that instrumental music is in keeping with the sensuousness and carnality of the ceremonial law; that it sustained a peculiarly close relation to the ritual of the Levitical worship; that it was not used in formal worship, unless at the tabernacle and temple; that, in consonance with the rigidity of the ceremonial law, particular instruments were specified, which, moreover, are lost, while no description of them has been given adequate to guide in reproducing them; and, finally, that in the New Testament the continuance of instrumental music in worship receives no countenance.