PSALLO
Jim West
jwest at Highland.Net
Thu Sep 3 08:26:04 EDT 1998
At 11:56 PM 9/2/98 -0500, you wrote:
>a) What then is the word(s) for "sing & play" together?
psallw- because, orignially, psallw meant "to pluck or play a stringed
instrument". Eventually, the plucking was accompanied by singing- thus the
word was used to describe both activities.
>
>b) There are plenty of references in the Old Testament that clearly
>mentioning singing to the accompaniment of instruments. What is the
>Hebrew, and is it an exclusive word?
Cf Ps 33:2-3 where singing and playing are coordinated by means of synthetic
parallelism. The hebrew for v 3 is shiru lo shir hadash, hetivu nagen
bithru'ah.
This verse, frankly, is sufficient to put the lie to the notion that singing
must be a cappella.
> More importantly, how does the
>Septuagint translate the original?
Certainly NOT! The LXX is not more important than the Hebrew text... But,
regarding the translation of the LXX- for Ps 33:3 (32:3 LXX)- asate autw
asma kainon kalws yalate en alalagmw.
> Are the words used for singing variants
>of PSALLO?
This is a bit unclear to me. Do you mean are there cognates to psallw? or
do you mean are there synonymous terms? The answer is yes.
> This is the question I really want answered! If they are, then
>it can easily be demonstrated that PSALLO is not an exclusive word and is
>in fact much like our English word "sing" -- limited in meaning, but
>applied broadly in its actual usage.
>
This is certainly a good summary of the facts as they exist.
>c) Does anyone have any other thoughts about the validity or folly of the
>argument presented in general?
>
Well- that would plunge us into the miry depths of theological debate- and
I'm not gonna go there.....
>Anyone helping out would eventually receive a courtesy copy of the
>manuscript as a means of saying thank you.
Not necessary.
>Erl Morrell-Stinson
Best,
Jim
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
Quartz Hill School of Theology
jwest at highland.net
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