[B-Greek] YALLW
Chris Larimer
Chris.Larimer at pcusa.org
Thu Sep 18 23:17:46 EDT 2003
> On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 16:26:00 -0300
> "Brent Hudson" <brent at riveroflifembchurch.com> wrote:
> >I guess my point would be that that neither ShYR or ADW
> >have anything to say about whether the 'singing' is
> >acapella or with instrumentation -- just like the English
> >"sing" does not have that semantic information encoded
> >within it. It may always refer to the 'voice' but that's
> >all. I can't 'sing' a guitar or 'sing' a beat (cf., ADW)
> >but that doesn't mean that some instrument is not
> >accompanying my singing (so Ex 15.21).
> >
> >In short, I don't think either YALLW and ADW tell us
> >whether there is instrumental accompaniment or not. ADW
> >in the LXX may refer to 'singing' and not 'playing' but
> >it says nothing about whether someone is 'playing' with
> >the 'singing' nor does it imply that there is no
> >"playing" with the "singing". I don't think that
> >information is encoded in the term.
> >
> >Thoughts??
> >
> >Brent Hudson
I think that we can be fairly certain of YALLW meaning to sing with
instrumental accompaniment (e.g. Lam. 5) in LXX.
As to your question of why instrumental music fell out in the post-apostolic
period, the question can't be answered lexemically. The majority of
musicians were employed in the pagan temple cultus or the theatre (which was
often subsumed in pagan rituals). Therefore, there was a lasting suspicion
of those who came into contact with drama and instrumental music (cf.
Justinian and Theodora, 527-565 CE
http://www.syrianorthodoxchurch.org/news/voice/anews-v4-i2.pdf).
Chris
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