Harper II.9
James Dodson
CHAPTER IX.
THE PRECEPTIVE THEORY EXAMINED—INQUIRY AS TO THE USE OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE SYNAGOGUE.
The question whether or not instrumental music formed any part of the services of the ancient synagogue demands some notice at this point.
In entering upon this branch of inquiry, it may be advisable to clear away some obstructions reared in our path by adroit disputants.
For instance, it is demanded of us that we prove the divine institution of the synagogue system of the Jews. This demand, too, comes not from Episcopalians merely, who have an interest in showing that religious rites and institutions may be lawfully originated by men acting on their own impulse, but even from persons who profess to believe the propositions contained in the Westminster standards. But so far as our present object is concerned, it matters little how this question may be determined. What concerns us in our present argument is not the question touching the origin of the synagogue, so much as the question relative to the forms of worship observed in it. The point which I desire to establish is this, that so far as we have any light shed on the modes of worship which subsisted in the ancient synagogue, the opinion that instrumental music was employed in it is discountenanced. Were it, indeed, necessary to discuss, as some would have us do, the origin of the synagogue, I should not hesitate to maintain that it was of
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divine institution, although, as in the case of sacrifice, the original appointment of it has not been recorded. In the Mosaic arrangements room for it was left and even a suggestion of it given, as appears from Lev. 23:3: “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of rest, a holy convocation.”
Before the close of the Old Testament canon, and, therefore, while prophets were still granted to the church for its guidance, synagogues were in existence, for in Ps. 74:8, it is said, “They have burned up all the synagogues in the land.” This translation has, it is true, been disputed, but, I think, unjustly. The very lamentation just quoted, uttered, as it was, by an inspired writer, is an implied sanction of such establishments. Our Lord, moreover, seems, out of conscience, to have attended regularly the services of the synagogue, Luke 4:16. If these facts do not prove the divine institution, they certainly prove the divine sanction of the synagogue. As already said, however, it is not requisite for our present aim to show that the synagogue system was divinely instituted. Whatever may have been the origin of that system, if it can be shown that there is no ground for the opinion that instrumental music was admitted into the synagogue, the ordinary worshipping place of the Jews, whereas it was so marked a feature of the temple worship, strong presumptive evidence will have been given that such music pertained exclusively to the ceremonial ritual, of which the temple was the chief seat.
Now, I fully admit that we have no very clear light shed on the methods of worship pursued in the synagogue during the Old Testament era, and in determining whether or not instrumental music was a feature of the synagogue worship in that age, our judgment must be formed under the guidance chiefly of these three facts, namely: the absence of any positive or probable evidence that instrumental music was used in the synagogue before the close of the Old Testament era; the well-known tenacity of the Jews in adhering to the customs handed down to them; and the extreme improbability that since the beginning of our era, till at least very recent times, any instrumental music has been employed in the synagogue service.
I am not aware that any evidence of a direct kind, or that any indirect evidence worthy of serious consideration, can be produced to prove that in the Old Testament age, instrumental music was included in the synagogue worship. So far as the Scriptures are concerned, there is an utter absence of any ground for a belief that the music of instruments was ever heard in the synagogue. Nor is there any other source of evidence known to me from which the conclusion can be fairly drawn that in the ancient synagogue musical instruments had a place.
Coming to the New Testament age, we find not only no evidence that in it, unless in very recent times, the synagogue service has embraced instrumental music, but much to prove the contrary.
It is well known that the Jews of our own day are agitated by the question of instrumental music. A new party, rationalistic and infidel in its spirit, embracing many of the wealthy, has risen among them, which clamors as loudly as any of our Gentiles can for the employment of instrumental music in worship; but these
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agitators, the ritualists in one respect at least, as well as infidels of modern Judaism, are confessedly innovators, none of them, so far as I know, presuming to plead for their pet project, on the ground that the synagogue in by-gone centuries embraced in its services instrumental music. Some of them contend for instruments on purely æsthetic grounds, while others of them seek to strengthen their demand by an appeal to the facts, that by divine prescription musical instruments were employed in the services of the temple, and that in the psalms the use of such instruments is countenanced and commanded. I am not aware, however, that the attempt is made to prove that in the ancient synagogue, whether before or after the beginning of our era, instruments of music were used in worship. The stream of tradition on this point seems to be too strong for even the boldest innovators to breast it.