{"id":29,"date":"2022-11-08T22:00:54","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T22:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/chapter\/ancient-music-behind-and-in-the-bible\/"},"modified":"2024-07-24T23:49:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T23:49:33","slug":"ancient-music-behind-and-in-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/chapter\/ancient-music-behind-and-in-the-bible\/","title":{"raw":"Ancient Music behind and in the Bible","rendered":"Ancient Music behind and in the Bible"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"ancient-music-behind-and-in-the-bible\"><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--learning-objectives\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">In this chapter you will<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>explore indications in the Bible that some of its famous stories were passed down orally through song before being written<\/li>\r\n \t<li>see how translation bridges our time and others but also obscures differences<\/li>\r\n \t<li>find out what we know about ancient music before the Bible and what it tells us about music in the Bible<\/li>\r\n \t<li>learn about the different historical and musical contexts of ancient Israel, Second Temple Judaism, and early Christianity<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Biblical Music before the Bible<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"import-pf\">Some of the oldest traditions in the Bible may have been transmitted through <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId26\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishweek.timesofisrael.com\/the-essence-of-biblical-songs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">music<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. The story of the exodus was probably passed on in <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId27\" href=\"https:\/\/outorah.org\/p\/37745\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">song<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> long before it became a focus of a written tale. Miriam, the sister of Moses, and other women are said to have sung of the event and to have led the people in song (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId28\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Exodus+15&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Exodus 15:20\u201321<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>). Of this, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso has said, \u201cWhen the people of Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds to freedom, Miriam took her timbrel and led the women in dance. Because of Miriam and Moses\u2019 Song of the Sea, generations remember the crossing. It forms an important part of the Jewish liturgy. A generation later, when Joshua led the people across the Jordan, another miracle happened. However, no one sang, and so no one remembered.\u201d[footnote]Quote provided in personal correspondence with the author, who is very grateful to Rabbi Sasso for her input as well as for her work fostering artistic engagement with the Bible in her Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts program in Indianapolis.[\/footnote] In turn, <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId29\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2LcKCCNo950\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Debbie Friedman<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, a <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId30\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/obituaries\/la-xpm-2011-jan-11-la-me-debbie-friedman-20110111-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">songwriter who had a powerful impact on contemporary synagogue music<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, wrote a song of her own about Miriam\u2019s song.[footnote]This performance by Debbie Friedman was recorded on December 9, 2001, at Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts. It is shared on a YouTube channel dedicated to Friedman\u2019s memory.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1dcBTze-T4o[\/embed]\r\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">In the case of the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId32\" href=\"https:\/\/www.posenlibrary.com\/entry\/song-deborah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">\u201cSong of Deborah\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> found in <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId33\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Judges+5&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Judges 5<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, the situation may be similar to that mentioned in connection with <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId34\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thetorah.com\/article\/miriams-song-of-the-sea-a-womens-victory-performance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">the \u201cSong of Miriam\u201d in Exodus<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. Some scholars have sought to <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId35\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/43894345?seq=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">detect an earlier version<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> lying behind the present one. The words of <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId36\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thetorah.com\/article\/composing-the-song-of-deborah-empirical-models\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Deborah\u2019s song<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> are chanted in synagogues annually. It has also been set to music in other ways, including <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId37\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=W7Yb6r4-HCM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">in the original Hebrew<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> as well as in <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId38\" href=\"https:\/\/hymnary.org\/text\/praise_ye_the_lord_who_hath_avenged\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">a metrical hymn in English with seventeen verses<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.[footnote]On metrical settings of Scriptures\u2014in particular, the Psalms\u2014see <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/chapter\/the-protestant-reformation-and-metrical-psalms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">chapter 4<\/a> in this book.[\/footnote] The story of Deborah and her song have also been given <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId39\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0gpXcv3ibMU\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">contemporary gospel<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> and <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId40\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8mSUF0IiRZ0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">death metal<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> treatments by Christian artists in English.[footnote]There are also several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZhryO8yIGto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">songs<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6kXIUMRTCnI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spanish<\/a> that set the \u201cSong of Deborah and Barak\u201d to music or tell her story.[\/footnote] Here is a choral setting of part of the song in Judges (Judges 5:2\u20133, 10, 12) by American composer Adolphus Hailstork.[footnote]\u201cThe Song of Deborah\u201d by Adolphus Hailstork is performed here by the Choir of St. Andrew and St. Paul (Montreal, Canada), with Jean-S\u00e9bastien Vall\u00e9e conducting. It is shared on YouTube by the choir.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/youtu.be\/abCw5ffET5I[\/embed]\r\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Note also the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId42\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishweek.timesofisrael.com\/three-pivotal-songs-in-the-bible\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">\u201cSong of the Well\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> in <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId43\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Numbers+21%3A17-18&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Numbers 21:17\u201318<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, which may be another example of the same kind.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Translating the Bible and Music<\/h1>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_82\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"173\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Silver_lyre,_PG_1237,_Royal_Cemetery_of_Ur.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-82 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/bibleandmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/09\/443px-Silver_lyre_PG_1237_Royal_Cemetery_of_Ur-173x300.jpg\" alt=\"Lyre from Royal Cemetery of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia\" width=\"173\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a> Silver lyre from Royal Cemetery of Ur (in the British Museum). <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Silver_lyre,_PG_1237,_Royal_Cemetery_of_Ur.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Silver lyre, PG 1237, Royal Cemetery of Ur.jpg<\/a>, by <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/User:Neuroforever\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)<\/a>, is licensed under the <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.<\/a>[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">When modern speakers of English read the Bible in a translation into their native tongue, this can obscure the enormous gulf in time and space, language and culture, that separates us and our world from that of the biblical authors and the stories they tell us. We hear words like <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">lamp<\/em><\/span>, <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">house<\/em><\/span>, and <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">city<\/em><\/span> and instinctively envisage things we are familiar with. Perhaps bringing music into the picture (with assistance from archaeologists and historical reconstructions) can help jolt us out of this mind-set and alert us to the difference between the objects with which we have direct experience and their ancient counterparts. We may read that <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId45\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getty.edu\/art\/collection\/object\/103S12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">David played a harp<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> or encounter a reference to flutes in the Psalms and imagine the instruments we know. Alternatively, we may come across a reference to a lute or <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId46\" href=\"https:\/\/www.olivetree.com\/blog\/the-meaning-of-instruments-in-psalms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">lyre<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> and not have a sense of what one is, since it is not widely used in our time and context. When we look into the terms (as we will in the remainder of this chapter), we discover how much even familiar instruments have evolved and how different ancient ones seem to have been. We are made aware of the limits of our individual knowledge as a guide to interpreting the text as well as some instances when even our collective human efforts to investigate leave us uncertain. We are also alerted to aspects of the process of Bible translation that we may not have noticed previously. If translators use a familiar term that denotes a form of an object that differs from the ancient one, the reader understands the translation but ends up with a mental picture different from what the author of the text had in mind. Does this matter? Do you think it would be better if the translator instead used a term that is more accurate but unfamiliar to the reader? What about leaving a term untranslated so that one reads about the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId47\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20200218135411\/http:\/www.bibarch.com\/music\/music-ancient-instruments.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">kinnor and tof<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> (two Hebrew words for instruments that occur in the Bible)? In some instances, we aren\u2019t even certain what a <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId48\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleodyssey.org\/glossary\/gittith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">term<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> meant and therefore cannot hope to translate it accurately with any certainty. The process of translating the Bible and then reading and interpreting that translation can be taken for granted, although if you compare different translations, you will find they at times reflect each of the possible choices I just mentioned. The example of musical instruments, terminology, and the very sounds themselves help us make sense of not only biblical references to music but the process of reading and understanding an ancient text like the Bible more generally.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">The Oldest Surviving Music<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">It is helpful to begin by acknowledging what we do not know and, sadly, can never know. There are no recordings of music from the ancient world. We can never hear it as it sounded. And yet what we do know is surprisingly much. We have images of instruments in engravings and on coins that often provide a sufficiently realistic depiction to allow musicologists to construct replicas. We have some <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId49\" href=\"https:\/\/www.schoyencollection.com\/music-notation\/sumerian-music\/earliest-music-record-ms-2340\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">very ancient texts about music<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. We even have what today would be called \u201csheet music\u201d or <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId50\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210331003904\/https:\/\/www.themusicstudio.ca\/blog\/2017\/11\/the-birth-of-musical-notation-the-why-when-how\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">musical notation<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> carved in stone. The \u201cHurrian Hymn\u201d found at a site known as Ugarit or Ras Shamra in what is today Syria is probably the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId51\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.clariah.nl\/files\/dh2019\/boa\/0688.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">oldest example<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.[footnote]The Hurrian civilization was based in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and stretched through a significant part of the Near East, including into Canaan (the territory where Israel would come to be located).[\/footnote] In the same era in which <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId52\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/1357179\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Israel first began to be mentioned as a people in the land of Canaan in ancient sources<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, their neighbors in the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId53\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iconea.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">ancient Near East<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> told stories and recorded their melodies using <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId54\" href=\"https:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2018\/05\/introduction-to-writing-in-cuneiform.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">cuneiform<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, a method of writing used in that time and part of the world to inscribe language on clay. While there are unanswered questions, puzzles, and mysteries, <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">musicologists and scholars of the ancient world can figure out a great many things from these texts<\/span><\/span>. Here is one example, in which Peter Pringle performs a modern rendering of the music that has come down to us in written form using instruments and sounds that correspond at least roughly to those used in that part of the world in ancient times.[footnote]This performance by Peter Pringle features a lute that he himself made. The video is shared on Pringle\u2019s YouTube channel, which includes other examples of reconstructed ancient instruments and performances of ancient music.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w8tfBLvlN98[\/embed]\r\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">If you do not read music, you may be wondering what it means for music to be turned into a text that can be discovered millennia later, understood, and performed. If you want to learn that skill, there are many resources available. This book will never presume that you have a background in music, but over the course of it, you will undoubtedly pick up a number of concepts and skills along the way. If you do know music, you\u2019ll get more out of many things discussed here, but that does not necessarily mean you need to know music before you begin reading. Taking the time to go beyond the book and learn more about music, and\/or about the Bible, is worthwhile and will enrich your experience as well as your life more generally. This book does its best to allow you to benefit even if you have no background in the Bible, music, or either, and yet you get much more out of it if you do.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Music in Ancient Israel<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">Turning specifically to ancient Israel, we have art from places like <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId56\" href=\"https:\/\/megiddoexpedition.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Megiddo<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> in Israel that depict what are presumably also instruments mentioned in the Bible, such as the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId57\" href=\"https:\/\/chs.harvard.edu\/book\/franklin-john-curtis-kinyras-the-divine-lyre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">lyre<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. Here is another performance provided by <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId58\" href=\"http:\/\/www.peterpringle.com\/megiddo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Peter Pringle<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> using an instrument that he built as a replica of one depicted in an inscription on ivory found in an ancient royal palace that archaeologists excavated in Megiddo.[footnote]Video from Peter Pringle\u2019s YouTube channel. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peterpringle.com\/megiddo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">There is more information on his website<\/a>.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/27opcKxcg1c[\/embed]\r\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Biblical scholars have long consulted texts from Ugarit as relevant background to the study of the ideas and practices in the Hebrew Scriptures (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">what Jews call the Tanakh and Protestants refer to as the Old Testament<\/span><\/span>). Similar words for sacrifices appear, and gods and goddesses worshipped by the Israelites and their neighbors (for which biblical authors castigate and condemn them) have their stories told in texts from Ugarit. Just as these texts provide evidence of the kinds of stories, beliefs, and religious practices that were around at that time, there is good reason to think that the music of Ugarit and ancient Israel would have been similarly related. The Bible uses many musical terms that remain somewhat obscure to us. Sometimes etymology\u2014that is, looking at the roots of a word\u2014can be enough to allow us to deduce the meaning. In other instances, the same or similar musical terms are used in texts from other ancient cultures, and this provides important clues. For instance, the sistrum mentioned just once in the Bible (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId60\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2+Samuel+6&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">2 Samuel 6:5<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>) apparently refers to an instrument that we know about and actually have <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId61\" href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/553814\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">surviving examples of from ancient Egypt<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. A sistrum is a rattle, and it was <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId62\" href=\"https:\/\/exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu\/galleries\/Exhibits\/MIRE\/Introduction\/AncientEgypt\/AncientEgypt.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">used in Egypt, especially in religious contexts<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. There is some uncertainty about the meaning, and thus you may find that other translations offer a different rendering. The <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId63\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2%20Samuel%206&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">NRSV<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, for example, translates the Hebrew word (which comes from a root meaning \u201cto shake\u201d) as \u201ccastanets.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId64\" href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/502442\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Examples of that instrument have also been found in ancient Egypt<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. The sharing of musical instruments, as well as terms for them in common, shows us that in the ancient world, just like today, music did not remain within boundaries of people groups, territorial borders, or languages but moved between cultures.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Music in Early Christianity<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">Thus far you have been reading about ancient Israel, the people and culture that gave rise to Judaism (from the tribe and kingdom of Judah). The texts that came to be the Scriptures of Judaism in turn also became all or part of the Christian Old Testament, depending on which Christian denomination one is referring to. Christianity comes along much later than ancient Israel\u2014more than a millennium, later in fact\u2014during the time of the Roman Empire. Since the first Christians were Jews, they participated in the musical traditions found in Judaism in that era.<\/p>\r\n<span class=\"pullquote-right\">A hymn is a religious song, usually one addressed to a deity.<\/span>\r\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">There are texts in the New Testament that may have been the words to songs that early Christians sang. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId65\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Philippians%202%3A6-11&amp;version=ESV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Philippians 2:6\u201311<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> is a particularly good example. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId66\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Colossians+1%3A15-20&amp;version=ESV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Colossians 1:15\u201320<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> is another. The book of Revelation is full of singing and may have drawn on songs used in churches at that time. There may thus be <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId67\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleodyssey.org\/passages\/related-articles\/hymns-in-the-new-testament\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">hymns that are quoted by New Testament authors<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, although we cannot be certain, and scholars continue to debate this question. At any rate, the texts do not provide clues about what musical accompaniment there may have been if any. We have references to singing but know little about what they sang or how they sang it, although they undoubtedly sang the Psalms, just as Jesus did (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId68\" href=\"https:\/\/biblehub.com\/matthew\/26-30.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Matthew 26:30<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Our <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId69\" href=\"http:\/\/chantblog.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/oxyrhynchus-hymn.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">earliest Christian music with notation<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>\u2014that is, with the music written down and not only the words\u2014was found on a <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId70\" href=\"https:\/\/aleteia.org\/2019\/11\/24\/this-is-the-earliest-known-manuscript-of-a-christian-hymn-audio-included\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">papyrus at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.[footnote]On this see further Wendy J. Porter, \u201cThe Composer as Biblical Interpreter,\u201d in Borders, Boundaries and the Bible, ed. Martin O\u2019Kane (London: Sheffield Academic, 2002), 126\u201353.[\/footnote] You can <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId71\" href=\"https:\/\/aleteia.org\/2019\/11\/24\/this-is-the-earliest-known-manuscript-of-a-christian-hymn-audio-included\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">read a translation and see pictures of the manuscript online<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> in various places. Here is a modern attempt to record what that text indicates, performed by <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId72\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nts.live\/artists\/75362-atrium-musicae-de-madrid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Atrium Musicae de Madrid<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.[footnote]Provided to YouTube by the label Harmonia Mundi. Atrium Musicae de Madrid was conducted by Gregorio Paniagua.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aDUAVMjmktc[\/embed]\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Music as Illustration<\/h1>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">There are references to music and musical instruments in the Bible beyond those associated with the song lyrics in the Psalms or hymn-singing in churches. Jesus mentions playing music for dancing on a flute and singing a dirge (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Matthew 11:17; Luke 7:32<\/span><\/span>). First Corinthians includes references to a clashing gong, a clanging cymbal (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId74\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1+Corinthians+13%3A1&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">13:1<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>), and a trumpet or bugle making an unclear sound (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId75\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/verse\/en\/1%20Corinthians%2014%3A8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">14:8<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>). In other cases, we sometimes think of things as \u201csongs\u201d even when there is no explicit mention of singing or music (as in the \u201csongs\u201d of Mary and Simeon in Luke\u2019s Gospel, which we discuss later in this book). We won\u2019t have room to cover every possible mention of or intersection with music here. Search for music-related keywords in an online Bible if you want to dig deeper into what the Bible has to say that is potentially relevant.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Exploring Further<\/h1>\r\n<span class=\"pullquote-right\">Levites, descendants of Levi, had responsibilities in the Temple which included music (see e.g. <a href=\"https:\/\/biblehub.com\/1_chronicles\/9-33.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1 Chronicles 9:33<\/a>).<\/span>\r\n<p class=\"import-paft\">There are important questions that we should ask about music behind and in the Bible, which you may want to further investigate. Who made music? Was everyone involved in some way in local communities? Did men and <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId77\" href=\"https:\/\/www.womeninthebible.net\/bible-archaeology\/ancient_musical_instruments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">women<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> participate equally in playing instruments and singing? Were there \u201cprofessionals,\u201d specialists who made music as performers for public entertainment, in a similar manner to the Levites who sang in the temple? (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Temple<\/em><\/span> is another term that misleads many people reading the Bible today, who may envisage a \u201csynagogue\u201d or \u201cchurch\u201d rather than a place dedicated primarily to animal sacrifice.) Who sang the Psalms in the Bible even before they were written down and became part of the collection we know today? When and where were they sung? Were certain psalms connected with specific holidays and festivals? We will look more at the Psalms separately, and they will get attention more than once in this book, since they are obviously important evidence about music in the Bible as well as texts that have continued to be set to new music ever since.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">If you are interested in exploring this topic further, museum exhibits have a lot to offer that is relevant. For instance, those who wish to dig further into this subject may usefully visit an <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId78\" href=\"https:\/\/www.penn.museum\/sites\/expedition\/the-musical-instruments-from-ur-and-ancient-mesopotamian-music\/\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">online exhibit at the Penn Museum featuring Mesopotamian musical instruments<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. An <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId79\" href=\"https:\/\/forward.com\/news\/119659\/the-gittith-and-uggav-play-again-in-tulsa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">article in<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Forward<\/em><\/span> describes an exhibit of musical instruments from the Bible in Tulsa, Oklahoma. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId80\" href=\"http:\/\/www.potsdampublicmuseum.org\/pages\/68\/10\/ancient-musical-instruments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Potsdam Public Museum in New York has a collection<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. Visual art from the past, such as paintings and <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId81\" href=\"http:\/\/numismatics.org\/pocketchange\/secretchord\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">inscriptions on coins<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, can provide important information about what instruments were probably like in the biblical world as well as how <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId82\" href=\"http:\/\/www.getty.edu\/art\/collection\/objects\/2641\/master-of-jean-de-mandeville-david-with-musical-instruments-french-about-1360-1370\/?artview=dor16107\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">later generations imagined them<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> in light of what they were familiar with.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">For Further Reading<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Bayer, Bathja. \u201cThe Finds That Could Not Be.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em><\/span> 8, no. 1 (1982): 20\u201333.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Burgh, Theodore W. \u201cMusic and Musical Instruments in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel\/Palestine.\u201d The Bible and Interpretation. Accessed September 20, 2022. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId83\" href=\"https:\/\/bibleinterp.arizona.edu\/articles\/Music\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">https:\/\/bibleinterp.arizona.edu\/articles\/Music<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cThe Music of Israel during the Iron Age.\u201d In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music<\/em><\/span>, edited by Joshua S. Walden, 75\u201383. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Cosgrove, Charles H. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">An Ancient Christian Hymn with Musical Notation: Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1786<\/em><\/span>; <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Text and Commentary<\/em><\/span>. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2011.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Dumbrill, Richard. \u201cThe Truth about Babylonian Music.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Near Eastern Musicology Online<\/em><\/span> 4, no. 6 (August 2018): 91\u2013121. <a href=\"https:\/\/nemo-online.org\/archives\/1669\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">https:\/\/nemo-online.org\/archives\/1669<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Evans, Craig A. \u201cCelebrating Victory from the Sea of Reeds to the Eschatological Battle Field: Miriam\u2019s Timbrels and Dances in Exodus 15 and Beyond.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Biblical Theology Bulletin<\/em><\/span> 51, no. 4 (November 2021): 206\u201314.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Franklin, John Curtis. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Kinyras: The Divine Lyre<\/em><\/span>. Hellenic Studies Series. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2016.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Friedmann, Jonathan L. \u201cA Musical People: The Role of Music in Biblical Life.\u201d PhD diss., North-West University, 2012.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">\u2014\u2014\u2014. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Music in the Hebrew Bible: Understanding References in the Torah, Nevi\u2019im and Ketuvim<\/em><\/span>. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Gurney, Oliver R. \u201cBabylonian Music Again.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Iraq<\/em><\/span> 56 (1994): 101\u20136.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Kilmer, A. D., and M. Civil. \u201cOld Babylonian Musical Instructions Relating to Hymnody.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Journal of Cuneiform Studies<\/em><\/span> 38, no. 1 (1986): 94\u201398.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Knohl, Israel. \u201cThe Original Version of Deborah\u2019s Song, and Its Numerical Structure.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Vetus Testamentum<\/em><\/span> 66, no. 1 (2016): 45\u201365.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Mirelman, Sam, and Theo J. H. Krispijn. \u201cThe Old Babylonian Tuning Text UET VI\/3 899.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Iraq<\/em><\/span> 71 (2009): 43\u201352.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Mitchell, T. C., and R. Joyce. \u201cThe Musical Instruments in Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s Orchestra.\u201d In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel<\/em><\/span>, edited by D. J. Wiseman, 19\u201327. London: Tyndale, 1965.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Montagu, Jeremy. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Musical Instruments of the Bible<\/em><\/span>. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2002.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Porter, Wendy J. \u201cThe Composer as Biblical Interpreter.\u201d In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Borders, Boundaries and the Bible<\/em><\/span>, edited by Martin O\u2019Kane, 126\u201353. London: Sheffield Academic, 2002.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Pulver, Jeffrey. \u201cIsrael\u2019s Music-Lesson in Egypt.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Musical Times<\/em><\/span> 56, no. 869 (1915): 404\u20137.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Rupeikait\u0117-Mariniuk, Kamil\u0117. \u201cMusical Images in the Tanakh: Between Their Essence, Context and Interpretation.\u201d In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Of Essence and Context: Between Music and Philosophy<\/em><\/span>, edited by R\u016bta Stanevi\u010di\u016bt\u0117, Rima Povilionien\u0117, and Nick Zangwill, 71\u201381. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">West, M. L. \u201cThe Babylonian Musical Notation and the Hurrian Melodic Texts.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Music &amp; Letters<\/em><\/span> 75, no. 2 (1994): 161\u201379.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"ancient-music-behind-and-in-the-bible\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--learning-objectives\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">In this chapter you will<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<ul>\n<li>explore indications in the Bible that some of its famous stories were passed down orally through song before being written<\/li>\n<li>see how translation bridges our time and others but also obscures differences<\/li>\n<li>find out what we know about ancient music before the Bible and what it tells us about music in the Bible<\/li>\n<li>learn about the different historical and musical contexts of ancient Israel, Second Temple Judaism, and early Christianity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Biblical Music before the Bible<\/h1>\n<p class=\"import-pf\">Some of the oldest traditions in the Bible may have been transmitted through <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId26\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishweek.timesofisrael.com\/the-essence-of-biblical-songs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">music<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. The story of the exodus was probably passed on in <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId27\" href=\"https:\/\/outorah.org\/p\/37745\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">song<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> long before it became a focus of a written tale. Miriam, the sister of Moses, and other women are said to have sung of the event and to have led the people in song (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId28\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Exodus+15&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Exodus 15:20\u201321<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>). Of this, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso has said, \u201cWhen the people of Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds to freedom, Miriam took her timbrel and led the women in dance. Because of Miriam and Moses\u2019 Song of the Sea, generations remember the crossing. It forms an important part of the Jewish liturgy. A generation later, when Joshua led the people across the Jordan, another miracle happened. However, no one sang, and so no one remembered.\u201d<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Quote provided in personal correspondence with the author, who is very grateful to Rabbi Sasso for her input as well as for her work fostering artistic engagement with the Bible in her Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts program in Indianapolis.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-1\" href=\"#footnote-29-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a> In turn, <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId29\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2LcKCCNo950\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Debbie Friedman<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, a <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId30\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/obituaries\/la-xpm-2011-jan-11-la-me-debbie-friedman-20110111-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">songwriter who had a powerful impact on contemporary synagogue music<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, wrote a song of her own about Miriam\u2019s song.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"This performance by Debbie Friedman was recorded on December 9, 2001, at Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts. It is shared on a YouTube channel dedicated to Friedman\u2019s memory.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-2\" href=\"#footnote-29-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"oembed-1\" title=\"Debbie Friedman - Miriam&#39;s Song-Not By Might (2001)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1dcBTze-T4o?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">In the case of the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId32\" href=\"https:\/\/www.posenlibrary.com\/entry\/song-deborah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">\u201cSong of Deborah\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> found in <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId33\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Judges+5&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Judges 5<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, the situation may be similar to that mentioned in connection with <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId34\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thetorah.com\/article\/miriams-song-of-the-sea-a-womens-victory-performance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">the \u201cSong of Miriam\u201d in Exodus<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. Some scholars have sought to <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId35\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/43894345?seq=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">detect an earlier version<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> lying behind the present one. The words of <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId36\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thetorah.com\/article\/composing-the-song-of-deborah-empirical-models\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Deborah\u2019s song<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> are chanted in synagogues annually. It has also been set to music in other ways, including <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId37\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=W7Yb6r4-HCM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">in the original Hebrew<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> as well as in <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId38\" href=\"https:\/\/hymnary.org\/text\/praise_ye_the_lord_who_hath_avenged\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">a metrical hymn in English with seventeen verses<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"On metrical settings of Scriptures\u2014in particular, the Psalms\u2014see chapter 4 in this book.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-3\" href=\"#footnote-29-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a> The story of Deborah and her song have also been given <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId39\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0gpXcv3ibMU\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">contemporary gospel<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> and <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId40\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8mSUF0IiRZ0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">death metal<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> treatments by Christian artists in English.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"There are also several songs in Spanish that set the \u201cSong of Deborah and Barak\u201d to music or tell her story.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-4\" href=\"#footnote-29-4\" aria-label=\"Footnote 4\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/sup><\/a> Here is a choral setting of part of the song in Judges (Judges 5:2\u20133, 10, 12) by American composer Adolphus Hailstork.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"\u201cThe Song of Deborah\u201d by Adolphus Hailstork is performed here by the Choir of St. Andrew and St. Paul (Montreal, Canada), with Jean-S\u00e9bastien Vall\u00e9e conducting. It is shared on YouTube by the choir.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-5\" href=\"#footnote-29-5\" aria-label=\"Footnote 5\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"oembed-2\" title=\"The Song of Deborah - Adolphus Hailstork\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/abCw5ffET5I?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Note also the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId42\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishweek.timesofisrael.com\/three-pivotal-songs-in-the-bible\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">\u201cSong of the Well\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> in <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId43\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Numbers+21%3A17-18&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Numbers 21:17\u201318<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, which may be another example of the same kind.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Translating the Bible and Music<\/h1>\n<figure id=\"attachment_82\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-82\" style=\"width: 173px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Silver_lyre,_PG_1237,_Royal_Cemetery_of_Ur.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-82 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/bibleandmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/09\/443px-Silver_lyre_PG_1237_Royal_Cemetery_of_Ur-173x300.jpg\" alt=\"Lyre from Royal Cemetery of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia\" width=\"173\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-82\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Silver lyre from Royal Cemetery of Ur (in the British Museum). <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Silver_lyre,_PG_1237,_Royal_Cemetery_of_Ur.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Silver lyre, PG 1237, Royal Cemetery of Ur.jpg<\/a>, by <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/User:Neuroforever\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)<\/a>, is licensed under the <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/deed.en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">When modern speakers of English read the Bible in a translation into their native tongue, this can obscure the enormous gulf in time and space, language and culture, that separates us and our world from that of the biblical authors and the stories they tell us. We hear words like <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">lamp<\/em><\/span>, <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">house<\/em><\/span>, and <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">city<\/em><\/span> and instinctively envisage things we are familiar with. Perhaps bringing music into the picture (with assistance from archaeologists and historical reconstructions) can help jolt us out of this mind-set and alert us to the difference between the objects with which we have direct experience and their ancient counterparts. We may read that <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId45\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getty.edu\/art\/collection\/object\/103S12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">David played a harp<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> or encounter a reference to flutes in the Psalms and imagine the instruments we know. Alternatively, we may come across a reference to a lute or <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId46\" href=\"https:\/\/www.olivetree.com\/blog\/the-meaning-of-instruments-in-psalms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">lyre<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> and not have a sense of what one is, since it is not widely used in our time and context. When we look into the terms (as we will in the remainder of this chapter), we discover how much even familiar instruments have evolved and how different ancient ones seem to have been. We are made aware of the limits of our individual knowledge as a guide to interpreting the text as well as some instances when even our collective human efforts to investigate leave us uncertain. We are also alerted to aspects of the process of Bible translation that we may not have noticed previously. If translators use a familiar term that denotes a form of an object that differs from the ancient one, the reader understands the translation but ends up with a mental picture different from what the author of the text had in mind. Does this matter? Do you think it would be better if the translator instead used a term that is more accurate but unfamiliar to the reader? What about leaving a term untranslated so that one reads about the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId47\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20200218135411\/http:\/www.bibarch.com\/music\/music-ancient-instruments.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">kinnor and tof<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> (two Hebrew words for instruments that occur in the Bible)? In some instances, we aren\u2019t even certain what a <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId48\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleodyssey.org\/glossary\/gittith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">term<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> meant and therefore cannot hope to translate it accurately with any certainty. The process of translating the Bible and then reading and interpreting that translation can be taken for granted, although if you compare different translations, you will find they at times reflect each of the possible choices I just mentioned. The example of musical instruments, terminology, and the very sounds themselves help us make sense of not only biblical references to music but the process of reading and understanding an ancient text like the Bible more generally.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">The Oldest Surviving Music<\/h1>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">It is helpful to begin by acknowledging what we do not know and, sadly, can never know. There are no recordings of music from the ancient world. We can never hear it as it sounded. And yet what we do know is surprisingly much. We have images of instruments in engravings and on coins that often provide a sufficiently realistic depiction to allow musicologists to construct replicas. We have some <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId49\" href=\"https:\/\/www.schoyencollection.com\/music-notation\/sumerian-music\/earliest-music-record-ms-2340\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">very ancient texts about music<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. We even have what today would be called \u201csheet music\u201d or <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId50\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210331003904\/https:\/\/www.themusicstudio.ca\/blog\/2017\/11\/the-birth-of-musical-notation-the-why-when-how\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">musical notation<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> carved in stone. The \u201cHurrian Hymn\u201d found at a site known as Ugarit or Ras Shamra in what is today Syria is probably the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId51\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.clariah.nl\/files\/dh2019\/boa\/0688.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">oldest example<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"The Hurrian civilization was based in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and stretched through a significant part of the Near East, including into Canaan (the territory where Israel would come to be located).\" id=\"return-footnote-29-6\" href=\"#footnote-29-6\" aria-label=\"Footnote 6\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[6]<\/sup><\/a> In the same era in which <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId52\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/1357179\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Israel first began to be mentioned as a people in the land of Canaan in ancient sources<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, their neighbors in the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId53\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iconea.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">ancient Near East<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> told stories and recorded their melodies using <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId54\" href=\"https:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2018\/05\/introduction-to-writing-in-cuneiform.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">cuneiform<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, a method of writing used in that time and part of the world to inscribe language on clay. While there are unanswered questions, puzzles, and mysteries, <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">musicologists and scholars of the ancient world can figure out a great many things from these texts<\/span><\/span>. Here is one example, in which Peter Pringle performs a modern rendering of the music that has come down to us in written form using instruments and sounds that correspond at least roughly to those used in that part of the world in ancient times.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"This performance by Peter Pringle features a lute that he himself made. The video is shared on Pringle\u2019s YouTube channel, which includes other examples of reconstructed ancient instruments and performances of ancient music.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-7\" href=\"#footnote-29-7\" aria-label=\"Footnote 7\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"oembed-3\" title=\"THE OLDEST SONG IN THE WORLD\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w8tfBLvlN98?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">If you do not read music, you may be wondering what it means for music to be turned into a text that can be discovered millennia later, understood, and performed. If you want to learn that skill, there are many resources available. This book will never presume that you have a background in music, but over the course of it, you will undoubtedly pick up a number of concepts and skills along the way. If you do know music, you\u2019ll get more out of many things discussed here, but that does not necessarily mean you need to know music before you begin reading. Taking the time to go beyond the book and learn more about music, and\/or about the Bible, is worthwhile and will enrich your experience as well as your life more generally. This book does its best to allow you to benefit even if you have no background in the Bible, music, or either, and yet you get much more out of it if you do.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Music in Ancient Israel<\/h1>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">Turning specifically to ancient Israel, we have art from places like <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId56\" href=\"https:\/\/megiddoexpedition.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Megiddo<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> in Israel that depict what are presumably also instruments mentioned in the Bible, such as the <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId57\" href=\"https:\/\/chs.harvard.edu\/book\/franklin-john-curtis-kinyras-the-divine-lyre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">lyre<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. Here is another performance provided by <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId58\" href=\"http:\/\/www.peterpringle.com\/megiddo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Peter Pringle<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> using an instrument that he built as a replica of one depicted in an inscription on ivory found in an ancient royal palace that archaeologists excavated in Megiddo.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Video from Peter Pringle\u2019s YouTube channel. There is more information on his website.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-8\" href=\"#footnote-29-8\" aria-label=\"Footnote 8\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"oembed-4\" title=\"The Lyre Of Megiddo\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/27opcKxcg1c?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Biblical scholars have long consulted texts from Ugarit as relevant background to the study of the ideas and practices in the Hebrew Scriptures (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">what Jews call the Tanakh and Protestants refer to as the Old Testament<\/span><\/span>). Similar words for sacrifices appear, and gods and goddesses worshipped by the Israelites and their neighbors (for which biblical authors castigate and condemn them) have their stories told in texts from Ugarit. Just as these texts provide evidence of the kinds of stories, beliefs, and religious practices that were around at that time, there is good reason to think that the music of Ugarit and ancient Israel would have been similarly related. The Bible uses many musical terms that remain somewhat obscure to us. Sometimes etymology\u2014that is, looking at the roots of a word\u2014can be enough to allow us to deduce the meaning. In other instances, the same or similar musical terms are used in texts from other ancient cultures, and this provides important clues. For instance, the sistrum mentioned just once in the Bible (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId60\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2+Samuel+6&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">2 Samuel 6:5<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>) apparently refers to an instrument that we know about and actually have <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId61\" href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/553814\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">surviving examples of from ancient Egypt<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. A sistrum is a rattle, and it was <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId62\" href=\"https:\/\/exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu\/galleries\/Exhibits\/MIRE\/Introduction\/AncientEgypt\/AncientEgypt.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">used in Egypt, especially in religious contexts<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. There is some uncertainty about the meaning, and thus you may find that other translations offer a different rendering. The <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId63\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2%20Samuel%206&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">NRSV<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, for example, translates the Hebrew word (which comes from a root meaning \u201cto shake\u201d) as \u201ccastanets.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId64\" href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/502442\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Examples of that instrument have also been found in ancient Egypt<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. The sharing of musical instruments, as well as terms for them in common, shows us that in the ancient world, just like today, music did not remain within boundaries of people groups, territorial borders, or languages but moved between cultures.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Music in Early Christianity<\/h1>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">Thus far you have been reading about ancient Israel, the people and culture that gave rise to Judaism (from the tribe and kingdom of Judah). The texts that came to be the Scriptures of Judaism in turn also became all or part of the Christian Old Testament, depending on which Christian denomination one is referring to. Christianity comes along much later than ancient Israel\u2014more than a millennium, later in fact\u2014during the time of the Roman Empire. Since the first Christians were Jews, they participated in the musical traditions found in Judaism in that era.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pullquote-right\">A hymn is a religious song, usually one addressed to a deity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">There are texts in the New Testament that may have been the words to songs that early Christians sang. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId65\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Philippians%202%3A6-11&amp;version=ESV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Philippians 2:6\u201311<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> is a particularly good example. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId66\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Colossians+1%3A15-20&amp;version=ESV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Colossians 1:15\u201320<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> is another. The book of Revelation is full of singing and may have drawn on songs used in churches at that time. There may thus be <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId67\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bibleodyssey.org\/passages\/related-articles\/hymns-in-the-new-testament\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">hymns that are quoted by New Testament authors<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, although we cannot be certain, and scholars continue to debate this question. At any rate, the texts do not provide clues about what musical accompaniment there may have been if any. We have references to singing but know little about what they sang or how they sang it, although they undoubtedly sang the Psalms, just as Jesus did (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId68\" href=\"https:\/\/biblehub.com\/matthew\/26-30.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Matthew 26:30<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">Our <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId69\" href=\"http:\/\/chantblog.blogspot.com\/2011\/03\/oxyrhynchus-hymn.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">earliest Christian music with notation<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>\u2014that is, with the music written down and not only the words\u2014was found on a <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId70\" href=\"https:\/\/aleteia.org\/2019\/11\/24\/this-is-the-earliest-known-manuscript-of-a-christian-hymn-audio-included\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">papyrus at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"On this see further Wendy J. Porter, \u201cThe Composer as Biblical Interpreter,\u201d in Borders, Boundaries and the Bible, ed. Martin O\u2019Kane (London: Sheffield Academic, 2002), 126\u201353.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-9\" href=\"#footnote-29-9\" aria-label=\"Footnote 9\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[9]<\/sup><\/a> You can <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId71\" href=\"https:\/\/aleteia.org\/2019\/11\/24\/this-is-the-earliest-known-manuscript-of-a-christian-hymn-audio-included\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">read a translation and see pictures of the manuscript online<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> in various places. Here is a modern attempt to record what that text indicates, performed by <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId72\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nts.live\/artists\/75362-atrium-musicae-de-madrid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Atrium Musicae de Madrid<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Provided to YouTube by the label Harmonia Mundi. Atrium Musicae de Madrid was conducted by Gregorio Paniagua.\" id=\"return-footnote-29-10\" href=\"#footnote-29-10\" aria-label=\"Footnote 10\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[10]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"oembed-5\" title=\"Hymne Chr\u00e9tienne d&#39;Oxyrhynchus\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aDUAVMjmktc?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Music as Illustration<\/h1>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">There are references to music and musical instruments in the Bible beyond those associated with the song lyrics in the Psalms or hymn-singing in churches. Jesus mentions playing music for dancing on a flute and singing a dirge (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Matthew 11:17; Luke 7:32<\/span><\/span>). First Corinthians includes references to a clashing gong, a clanging cymbal (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId74\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1+Corinthians+13%3A1&amp;version=NRSV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">13:1<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>), and a trumpet or bugle making an unclear sound (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId75\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/verse\/en\/1%20Corinthians%2014%3A8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">14:8<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>). In other cases, we sometimes think of things as \u201csongs\u201d even when there is no explicit mention of singing or music (as in the \u201csongs\u201d of Mary and Simeon in Luke\u2019s Gospel, which we discuss later in this book). We won\u2019t have room to cover every possible mention of or intersection with music here. Search for music-related keywords in an online Bible if you want to dig deeper into what the Bible has to say that is potentially relevant.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"import-ah\">Exploring Further<\/h1>\n<p><span class=\"pullquote-right\">Levites, descendants of Levi, had responsibilities in the Temple which included music (see e.g. <a href=\"https:\/\/biblehub.com\/1_chronicles\/9-33.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1 Chronicles 9:33<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"import-paft\">There are important questions that we should ask about music behind and in the Bible, which you may want to further investigate. Who made music? Was everyone involved in some way in local communities? Did men and <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId77\" href=\"https:\/\/www.womeninthebible.net\/bible-archaeology\/ancient_musical_instruments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">women<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> participate equally in playing instruments and singing? Were there \u201cprofessionals,\u201d specialists who made music as performers for public entertainment, in a similar manner to the Levites who sang in the temple? (<span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Temple<\/em><\/span> is another term that misleads many people reading the Bible today, who may envisage a \u201csynagogue\u201d or \u201cchurch\u201d rather than a place dedicated primarily to animal sacrifice.) Who sang the Psalms in the Bible even before they were written down and became part of the collection we know today? When and where were they sung? Were certain psalms connected with specific holidays and festivals? We will look more at the Psalms separately, and they will get attention more than once in this book, since they are obviously important evidence about music in the Bible as well as texts that have continued to be set to new music ever since.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-p\" style=\"text-indent: 36pt;\">If you are interested in exploring this topic further, museum exhibits have a lot to offer that is relevant. For instance, those who wish to dig further into this subject may usefully visit an <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId78\" href=\"https:\/\/www.penn.museum\/sites\/expedition\/the-musical-instruments-from-ur-and-ancient-mesopotamian-music\/\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">online exhibit at the Penn Museum featuring Mesopotamian musical instruments<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. An <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId79\" href=\"https:\/\/forward.com\/news\/119659\/the-gittith-and-uggav-play-again-in-tulsa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">article in<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Forward<\/em><\/span> describes an exhibit of musical instruments from the Bible in Tulsa, Oklahoma. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId80\" href=\"http:\/\/www.potsdampublicmuseum.org\/pages\/68\/10\/ancient-musical-instruments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">Potsdam Public Museum in New York has a collection<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. Visual art from the past, such as paintings and <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId81\" href=\"http:\/\/numismatics.org\/pocketchange\/secretchord\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">inscriptions on coins<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>, can provide important information about what instruments were probably like in the biblical world as well as how <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId82\" href=\"http:\/\/www.getty.edu\/art\/collection\/objects\/2641\/master-of-jean-de-mandeville-david-with-musical-instruments-french-about-1360-1370\/?artview=dor16107\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">later generations imagined them<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> in light of what they were familiar with.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">For Further Reading<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Bayer, Bathja. \u201cThe Finds That Could Not Be.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Biblical Archaeology Review<\/em><\/span> 8, no. 1 (1982): 20\u201333.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Burgh, Theodore W. \u201cMusic and Musical Instruments in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel\/Palestine.\u201d The Bible and Interpretation. Accessed September 20, 2022. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><a class=\"rId83\" href=\"https:\/\/bibleinterp.arizona.edu\/articles\/Music\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">https:\/\/bibleinterp.arizona.edu\/articles\/Music<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">\u2014\u2014\u2014. \u201cThe Music of Israel during the Iron Age.\u201d In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">The Cambridge Companion to Jewish Music<\/em><\/span>, edited by Joshua S. Walden, 75\u201383. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Cosgrove, Charles H. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">An Ancient Christian Hymn with Musical Notation: Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1786<\/em><\/span>; <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Text and Commentary<\/em><\/span>. T\u00fcbingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2011.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Dumbrill, Richard. \u201cThe Truth about Babylonian Music.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Near Eastern Musicology Online<\/em><\/span> 4, no. 6 (August 2018): 91\u2013121. <a href=\"https:\/\/nemo-online.org\/archives\/1669\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><span class=\"import-url\">https:\/\/nemo-online.org\/archives\/1669<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Evans, Craig A. \u201cCelebrating Victory from the Sea of Reeds to the Eschatological Battle Field: Miriam\u2019s Timbrels and Dances in Exodus 15 and Beyond.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Biblical Theology Bulletin<\/em><\/span> 51, no. 4 (November 2021): 206\u201314.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Franklin, John Curtis. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Kinyras: The Divine Lyre<\/em><\/span>. Hellenic Studies Series. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2016.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Friedmann, Jonathan L. \u201cA Musical People: The Role of Music in Biblical Life.\u201d PhD diss., North-West University, 2012.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">\u2014\u2014\u2014. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Music in the Hebrew Bible: Understanding References in the Torah, Nevi\u2019im and Ketuvim<\/em><\/span>. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2013.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Gurney, Oliver R. \u201cBabylonian Music Again.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Iraq<\/em><\/span> 56 (1994): 101\u20136.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Kilmer, A. D., and M. Civil. \u201cOld Babylonian Musical Instructions Relating to Hymnody.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Journal of Cuneiform Studies<\/em><\/span> 38, no. 1 (1986): 94\u201398.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Knohl, Israel. \u201cThe Original Version of Deborah\u2019s Song, and Its Numerical Structure.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Vetus Testamentum<\/em><\/span> 66, no. 1 (2016): 45\u201365.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Mirelman, Sam, and Theo J. H. Krispijn. \u201cThe Old Babylonian Tuning Text UET VI\/3 899.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Iraq<\/em><\/span> 71 (2009): 43\u201352.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Mitchell, T. C., and R. Joyce. \u201cThe Musical Instruments in Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s Orchestra.\u201d In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel<\/em><\/span>, edited by D. J. Wiseman, 19\u201327. London: Tyndale, 1965.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Montagu, Jeremy. <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Musical Instruments of the Bible<\/em><\/span>. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2002.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Porter, Wendy J. \u201cThe Composer as Biblical Interpreter.\u201d In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Borders, Boundaries and the Bible<\/em><\/span>, edited by Martin O\u2019Kane, 126\u201353. London: Sheffield Academic, 2002.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Pulver, Jeffrey. \u201cIsrael\u2019s Music-Lesson in Egypt.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Musical Times<\/em><\/span> 56, no. 869 (1915): 404\u20137.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">Rupeikait\u0117-Mariniuk, Kamil\u0117. \u201cMusical Images in the Tanakh: Between Their Essence, Context and Interpretation.\u201d In <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Of Essence and Context: Between Music and Philosophy<\/em><\/span>, edited by R\u016bta Stanevi\u010di\u016bt\u0117, Rima Povilionien\u0117, and Nick Zangwill, 71\u201381. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"import-sbul hanging-indent\" style=\"margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 36pt;\">West, M. L. \u201cThe Babylonian Musical Notation and the Hurrian Melodic Texts.\u201d <span style=\"border: none windowtext 0pt; padding: 0;\"><em class=\"import-i\">Music &amp; Letters<\/em><\/span> 75, no. 2 (1994): 161\u201379.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-29-1\">Quote provided in personal correspondence with the author, who is very grateful to Rabbi Sasso for her input as well as for her work fostering artistic engagement with the Bible in her Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts program in Indianapolis. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-2\">This performance by Debbie Friedman was recorded on December 9, 2001, at Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts. It is shared on a YouTube channel dedicated to Friedman\u2019s memory. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-3\">On metrical settings of Scriptures\u2014in particular, the Psalms\u2014see <a href=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/chapter\/the-protestant-reformation-and-metrical-psalms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">chapter 4<\/a> in this book. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-4\">There are also several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZhryO8yIGto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">songs<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6kXIUMRTCnI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spanish<\/a> that set the \u201cSong of Deborah and Barak\u201d to music or tell her story. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-4\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 4\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-5\">\u201cThe Song of Deborah\u201d by Adolphus Hailstork is performed here by the Choir of St. Andrew and St. Paul (Montreal, Canada), with Jean-S\u00e9bastien Vall\u00e9e conducting. It is shared on YouTube by the choir. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-5\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 5\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-6\">The Hurrian civilization was based in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and stretched through a significant part of the Near East, including into Canaan (the territory where Israel would come to be located). <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-6\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 6\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-7\">This performance by Peter Pringle features a lute that he himself made. The video is shared on Pringle\u2019s YouTube channel, which includes other examples of reconstructed ancient instruments and performances of ancient music. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-7\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 7\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-8\">Video from Peter Pringle\u2019s YouTube channel. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peterpringle.com\/megiddo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">There is more information on his website<\/a>. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-8\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 8\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-9\">On this see further Wendy J. Porter, \u201cThe Composer as Biblical Interpreter,\u201d in Borders, Boundaries and the Bible, ed. Martin O\u2019Kane (London: Sheffield Academic, 2002), 126\u201353. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-9\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 9\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-29-10\">Provided to YouTube by the label Harmonia Mundi. Atrium Musicae de Madrid was conducted by Gregorio Paniagua. <a href=\"#return-footnote-29-10\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 10\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":3,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/29"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/29\/revisions\/981"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/29\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palni.org\/thebibleandmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}