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James McKinnon (SUNY at Buffalo, U of NC at Chapel Hill)
o Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge, 1987)
o The Temple, the Church Fathers and Early Western Chant
(Ashgate, 1998)
Anneweis van den Hoek (Harvard)
o Clement of Alexandria and His Use of Philo (Brill, 1988)
David T. Runia (Leiden)
o Philo in Early Christian Literature (Fortress, 1993)
David Hiley (Univ. of Regensburg, Germany)
o Western Plainchant (Oxford, 1993)
Louis H. Feldman (Yeshiva Univ.)
o Studies in Hellenistic Judaism (Brill, 1996)
Calvin R. Stampert (Calvin College)
o A New Song for an Old World (Eerdmans, 2007)
Christopher Page (Cambridge)
o The Christian West and Its Singers (Yale, 2009)
Five Disputable Matters
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
"God Commanded the Early Church to
Chant."
"Texts on ‘Worship’ Only Apply to
Christian Assemblies"
"The New Testament is Silent on Singing
Praise with Any Accompaniment"
"The New Testament is Silent on Singing
or Listening to Solos"
"God Desires Division When we Disagree
over Praise"
www.MissingMoreThanMusic.com
www.MissingMoreThanMusic.com
I poured out praise to the Lord
because I am his.
I will pronounce his holy song,
because my heart is with him;
For his cithara is in my hands,
and the songs of his rest shall not be still.
Odes of Solomon, # 26, written by a Palestinian or
Syrian Christian likely near the end of the first
century.
Music in Early Christian Literature, p. 24, q. 36
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“Philo’s extensive writings permit us to gain a full picture
of the way Jewish religious and Greek philosophical
thought on the subject of music flowed together at the
beginning of the Christian era.”
Ferguson, A Cappella Music in the Public Worship of the Church, p. 11.
“… a highly original attempt at synthesizing Greek and
Jewish thought.” Feldman, Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, p. 504.
“The importance of Philo’s contribution to Patristic
thought lies above all in his role as a mediator between the
biblical and the philosophical tradition.”
Runia, Philo in Early Christian Literature, p.339.
“Philo of Alexandria has been called the Jewish Plato,
partly because he tried to harmonize the thought of Plato,
Aristotle, and other Greeks with the Pentateuch….”
Schueller, The Idea of Music, p. 130.
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“Of the musical instruments, Philo reflects Greek
tradition in expressing preference for the lyre…
Pythagoras [d 490 BC] … counseled those who
heard it [aulos, reed instrument] to cleanse their
hearing and to purify the irrational impulses of
the soul with righteous songs sung to the
accompaniment of the lyre…
Aristotle [d 322 BC] condemns the aulos as an
instrument which is too exciting and which, in
any case, prevents the use of the voice; and
hence he commends the ancients for forbidding
it to be played by youths and freemen…”
Feldman, Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, p. 525-526.
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“In contrast to his high regard for vocal music,
Philo reflects the Greek contempt for
instrumental music.”
Feldman, Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, p. 525.
“Philo followed philosophical thought in the
evaluations he gave to different kinds of
music…. stringed instruments over wind and
percussion instruments, the voice over
instrumental music, and ‘silent singing’ (the
thoughts of the mind) over vocal music….”
Ferguson, The Art of Praise, p. 422
“… it is clear that he [Philo] is reacting against the
constant use of these instruments a pagan
festivals…” Feldman, Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, p. 525.
“The overall picture of music in the Roman
Empire is a picture of decadence; in fact, as
early as Cicero (first century BC) there were
complaints about decline.”
Stapert, A New Song for an old World, p. 137.
Seneca [d. 65 AD] and Quintilian [d. c. 100] saw
“in the newfangled music signs of moral as well
as artistic degeneration... Under the empire, it
appears, a more sensual quality came to
pervade both vocal and instrumental music, the
songs and dances of private feast and public
spectacle alike.”
Dronke, The Medieval Lyric, p. 13, as quoted by Stapert, A New Song for an
old World, p. 137.
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“[Philo] thought that all wisdom was embedded
in the scriptures and that the discovery of the
full range of this wisdom must depend on
transcending the literal interpretations of the
Old Testament. The object, then, was to
discover those meanings which were hidden
behind the literal meanings of the words. A
text, he insisted, required allegorical
interpretations....
“In all of this, Philo is like his Greek allegorist
predecessors, the Stoics—or like Democritus,
who tried to find the hidden meanings behind
the literal ones.”
Schueller, The Idea of Music, p. 130-131.
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“In any case the [allegorical] method came to
be employed by the Jewish contemporary of
Jesus, Philo of Alexandria, in interpreting the Old
Testament, and after him by the Christian
Alexandrians, Clement [d. 215 AD] and Origen [d.
265 AD], who established it as the standard for
Christian biblical exegesis. In commenting upon
the instruments of the Psalter [book of Psalms],
the exegete would ignore the historical usage in
Israel and their contemporary usage in pagan
society, and compose instead instrumental
metaphors.”
McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature, p. 6-7.
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“Like Philo, [the Church Fathers] frequently
interpreted [music] allegorically and symbolically. Philo, with the Stoics and the Neoplatonists,
began what the Church Fathers continued.”
Schueller, The Idea of Music, p. 133.
“In the eyes of the [Church Fathers], Philo’s
exegesis is predominantly allegorical in
character…. It is especially the allegorical
exegesis they are interested in. Many of the rules
and procedures of Christian allegorical exegesis
are built on the foundations laid by Philo. Origen
[d. 265 AD] appeals to Philo as a master and
model of the allegorical method.”
Runia, Philo in Early Christian Literature, p. 339.
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“Meetings in the Jewish synagogue were
primarily for reading, instruction, and prayer,
but not psalm-singing…. (Psalm-singing in
the synagogue is not actually documented
before the eighth century.)”
Hiley, Gregorian Chant (2009), p. 84.
“I can only confirm the fact that in the Rabbinic
literature there is no mention of singing in the
early synagogue.”
Levertoff, quoted by Smith, The Ancient Synagogue, the Early Church and
Singing, p. 5.
“The synagogue service was in ancient times
always songless.”
Mowinckel, quoted by Smith, The Ancient Synagogue,…, p. 5.
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“Indeed, the variety of form and content of the
early Christian assemblies mitigates strongly
against the idea that Christian worship was
basically a continuation of the synagogue
service. Nor is there any compelling reason why
is should have been. On the one hand, many of
the earliest Christians, being Jews, proselyte
Jews or Gentile adherents to Judaism, freely
attended the synagogues and temples anyway…”
Smith, The Ancient Synagogue, the Early Church and Singing, p 8.
“Christian services had a stamp of their own as
regards form and content precisely because
attendance at the Jewish services continued.”
Delling, Worship in the New Testament, p. 92.
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www.MissingMoreThanMusic.com
“If the second and third century material is
relatively sparse, … it favors us nevertheless with
striking vignettes of psalmody [psalm-singing] at
Christian meals… These passages suggest that it
was primarily in this context that the New
Testament enthusiasm for sacred song continued
to be fostered. Lending weight to this idea is the
near total absence of reference to psalmody in the
Eucharist. Justin omits mention of it in his
detailed description of the mid-second century
Eucharist at Rome…. What we do have points to
common meals rather than the Eucharist as the
principal context for Christian song.”
McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature, p. 9.
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The Eucharist had become separated from the
evening meal by the second century, and was
preceded by readings, prayers and
instruction. A description of it by Justin
Martyr does not specify chanting, whereas
singing still accompanied the evening
gatherings.”
Hiley, Gregorian Chant, p. 84.
“He [Justin] may have attended services in an
immense circuit of house-churches from
Antioch, Tarsus and Ephesus through the
Balkans to Italy.”
Page, The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, p. 64.
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McKinnon notes “the remarkable testimony of
Augustine [d. 430] … that Eucharistic
psalmody was looked upon by some of his
contemporaries as an objectionable
innovation.”
McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature, p. 11
It would be “mistaken to interpret the range of
the earliest Christian music in terms of what
the mainstream church eventually found
acceptable.”
Page, The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, p. 32.
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“One of the charges laid against Christians by
Celsus, perhaps in the 170s, is that the officials of the
communities caused a drum and the reed pipe or
aulos to be played before worship…. Celsus believed
that nobody in their senses could accept the
Christians’ claim about the death and resurrection of
Jesus, so it was necessary for the priests to rob the
congregation of their sanity and put them into a
distracted state…. When Origen quotes the passage
about the aulos and drum in his rebuttal of Celsus, he
does not deny the charge…. There were probably as
many varieties of Christian music and performance in
the first two centuries as there were competing
groups who claimed the name of ‘Christian’.”
Page, The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, p. 32
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“In this and in the following passage appear the
first hints of the patristic polemic against pagan
musical immorality…. [from Tatian, fl. c. 160]”
I do not wish to gape at many singers nor do
I care to look benignly upon a man who is
nodding and motioning in an unnatural way
And this Sapho is a lewd, lovesick female
who sings to her own licentiousness,
whereas all our women are chaste, and the
maidens at their distaffs sing of godly things
more earnestly than that girl of yours.
McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature, p. 22.
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www.MissingMoreThanMusic.com
“As we saw in our account of the transmission
of Philo’s writings, it was in all likelihood the
[Christian] school of Alexandria … that was
directly responsible for their preservation….
“His works were preserved through their
reception in the Christian tradition. If their
survival had been left to his fellow Jews,
these precious documents would have been
lost to posterity.”
Runia, Philo in Early Christian Literature, p. 135, XI.
“Clement refers to … seventy percent of Philo’s
works.”
Van den Hoek, Clement of Alexandria and his Use of Philo…., p. 210.
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Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 215):
“He who is from David, yet before him, the Word
of God, scorning the lyre and cithara as lifeless
instruments,... he sings to God on his many
voiced instrument and he sings to man, himself
an instrument: ‘You are my cithara, my aulos,
my temple’…
“Now this David whom we mentioned above, a
king and citharist, urged people to truth and
dissuaded them from idolatry; indeed he was so
far from hymning demons that they were
actually put to flight by his music, when simply
by singing he healed Saul who was plagued by
them.”
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Protrepticus 1.5.3-7, quoted by McKinnon, MECL, p. 30.
Clement of Alexandria:
“The Lord is now our congenial guest, for the
Apostle adds again, ‘teaching and admonishing
one another in all wisdom, singing psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in
your hearts to God. And whatsoever you do, in
word or deed, do everything in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father
through him.’ (Col 3.16-17) This is our grateful
revelry, and if you should wish to sing and play
to the cithara and lyre, this is not blameworthy;
you would imitate the just Hebrew king giving
praise to God.
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“‘Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise
befits the upright’ (Ps 32:1) says the prophecy.
‘Praise the Lord on the cithara, make melody to
him on the psaltery of ten strings! Sing to him a
new song’ (Ps 32.2). And does not the psaltery
of ten strings reveal Jesus, the Word,
manifested in the element of the decad?”
Paedagogus ii, iv, quoted by McKinnon, MECL, p. 33-34.
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…regarding Origen [d. 265]
“Allegorizing began with the Greek commentaries
on Homer in the sixth century BC and was
continued by the Stoics. Jewish Rabbis had used
allegory to expand the meanings of the Scriptures,
and Philo of Alexandria, combining both Greek
and Jewish traditions, tried to reconcile the Old
Testament and Platonism. Origen and certain of
the other Fathers continued this effort, which
became a standard form of biblical explanation
and exposition… Origen declared that only
through allegorizing could the more profound
meanings of biblical stories be discovered.”
Schueller, The idea of Music, p. 208.
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Tertullian (d. 225), speaking of the theater:
“While whatever transpires in voice, melody,
instruments and writing is in the domain of
Apollo, the Muses, Minerva and Mercury. O
Christian, you will detest those things
whose authors you cannot but detest.”
De spectaculis x, 8-9, quoted by McKinnon, MECL, p. 43.
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Novatian (d. c. 258)
“That David led dancing in the sight of God is
no excuse for the Christian faithful to sit in
the theatre, for he did not distort his limbs in
obscene gestures while dancing to a tale of
Grecian lust. The nablas, kinuras, tibias,
tympana and citharas played for God, not an
idol. It is not thereby permitted that unlawful
things be seen. By a trick of the devil sacred
things have been transferred into illicit ones.”
De spectaculis iii, 2-3, quoted by McKinnon, MECL, p. 47.
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www.MissingMoreThanMusic.com
Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 340):
“When formerly the people of the circumcision
worshipped through symbols and types, it was not
unreasonable that they raised hymns to God on
psalteries and citharas…We, however, maintain the
Jewish law inwardly… and it is upon a living
psaltery and an animate cithara and in spiritual
songs that we render the hymn. And so more
sweetly pleasing to God than any musical
instruments would be the symphony of the people
of God, by which, in every church of God, with
kindred spirit and single disposition, with one mind
and unanimity of faith and piety, we raise melody in
unison in our psalmody.”
In psalmos xci, quoted by McKinnon, MECL, p. 97-98.
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“The doctrine of opposition to instruments did
not develop until the third and fourth
centuries. By then Christians were comparing
their spiritual worship to pagan cults. But
more important was the rise of asceticism in
both the East and the West.
McKinnon, The Temple, the Church Fathers, …., p. IV 74.
The asceticism of the early church -- not
something new, but an inheritance from
Neoplatonism -- called for 2 rejections: (1)
that of worldly secular music in general…,
and (2) that of the "empty" music of
instruments.”
Schueller, The Idea of Music, p. 206.
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“The writings of these fourth century
churchmen reveal a wave of enthusiasm for
reciting, intoning or chanting the psalms at
various times during the course of the day and
night as a spiritual exercise for ascetic
Christians, or other exceptionally devout spirits,
with the example of the monks in mind. The key
figures in their references to this psalmody …
are more often the determined ascetics who left
the cities and villages … to live alone or to seek
a life as part of an ascetic community.”
Page, The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, p.
134.
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“Their lives [ascetics] attracted an unprecedented
amount of comment from two generations of writers
including Athanasius (d. 373), Basil (d. 379), Gregory
of Nyssa (d. 395), Ambrose (d. 397), John Chrysostom
(d. 407), Jerome (d. 420) and Augustine (d. 430). All
were writing within a period of some 75 years… and
some were bound by ties of blood, correspondence or
personal acquaintance…. The enthusiasm of this
group for psalmody reveals the desire to extol the
ascetic life of desert monks, which developed among
a remarkable group of intellectuals who were mostly
so inspired by the monastic life that they chose to
experience it for a time themselves and regarded it as
an ideal which all Christians could use to measure
their weaknesses and sharpen their aspirations.”
Page, The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years, p. 136.
Augustine (d. 430):
“Thus I vacillate between the peril of pleasure
and the value of the experience, and am led
more -- while advocating no irrevocable
position -- to endorse the custom of singing
in church so that by the pleasure of hearing
the weaker soul might be elevated to an
attitude of devotion.”
Confessiones x, xxxiii, 49-50, quoted by McKinnon, MECL, p. 155
Jerome (d. 420), speaking of a virgin:
“Let her be deaf to musical instruments; let her
not know why the tibia, lyre and cithara are
made”
Epistle cvii, 8, quoted by McKinnon, MECL, p. 142.
“The Church fathers … were forced to reconcile
their own antagonism toward instruments with the
embarrassing fact that God allowed instruments
in the worship of the temple. Most Church Fathers
avoided the issue by interpreting the instruments
of the Old Testament according to the method of
allegorical exegesis. But the exegetes of the
school of Antioch were compelled to confront the
issue directly because they adhered to a more
literal and historical type of exegesis. Their
explanation took the form of a sort of theory of
religious evolution by which the immature Jews
were allowed certain material aids for their piety.”
McKinnon, The Temple, the Church Fathers and Early Western Chant, p. IV:
76.
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John Chrysostom (d. 407)
“Some also take the meaning of these
instruments allegorically and say that the
tympanum calls for the death of the flesh and that
the psaltery looks to heaven. And indeed this
instrument is moved from above, not from below
like the cithara. But I would say this: that in
ancient times, they were thus led by these
instruments due to the slowness of their
understanding, and were gradually drawn away
from idolatry, Accordingly, just as he allowed
sacrifices, so too did he permit instruments,
making concession to their weakness.
In psalmum cxlix,quoted by McKinnon, MECL, p. 83.
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Theodoret (d. 466)
“The people of Israel spent a long time in Egypt
and were introduced to the shameful customs of
the inhabitants; they were taught by them to
sacrifice to idols and demons, to play , to dance,
and to take pleasure in musical instruments. God,
wishing to free them from their inclination to these
things, allowed them to make sacrifice, but not
every sort of sacrifice, certainly not to sacrifice to
the false God's of the Egyptians, but rather to
offer the Egyptian gods themselves to him alone.
For the Egyptians at that time deified the cow the
sheep, the goat, the pigeon, the dove..
Graecarum affectionum curatio, de sacrificiis 16, quoted by McKinnon,
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MECL, p. 107.
“The early Christian writers … were not alone in their
denunciations [of music]. They joined their voices
with those of pagan Romans who were painfully aware
of the decay of their civilization…. Barbarians, too,
when they encountered Roman popular entertainment,
were appalled…. John Chrysostom chastised his
congregation for being less upright than the
barbarians when it came to theater…. According to
Salvian [a Christian], the fall of the theater ‘was not
because Christians had learned to be faithful to their
vows and to the teaching of the church; but because
the barbarians, who despised the spectacula … had
sacked half the cities, while in the rest the
impoverished citizens could no longer pay the bills’.”
Stapert, A New Song for an old World, pp. 145-6.
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www.MissingMoreThanMusic.com