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and it was appropriated by the Oreeks to signify a composition in measure , to celebrate the praises of their gods , and designed , as all sueh verses were , to be sung . But as to the verb , it is clear from the circurnstances here stated , that the leading force of it in the
Septuagint is , to praise or celebrate ; and that the mafincr in which this was done , ( whether by singing or repeating a hymn , or in any other way . ) is not
expressed by it . Among tne Greek prose writers it appears to have been very seidon * used with any specific reference to singing , but most commonly in the sense of praising or celebrating .
"YotWcu ( psallo ) is , 1 believe , the only other verb employed in the New Testament in the present connexion . Accordingto Schleusner , it signifies , 1 . to touch , to strike with a gentle motion : 2 . to sing with lutes or other
instruments of music , to strike the harp or lyre ; in this signification it answers in the Septuagint to the Hebrew n £ gen , to play upon a musical instrument , or to sing with instrumental music , and to zsmer ^ to sinii with or without
instrumental music : 3 . to sing with the voice alone , and particularly to sing hymns / to praise and celebrate God . * Parkhurst , after quoting the same meaning as the first of
* For this last meaning Schleusner refers to Horn . xv . 9 .. 1 Cor . xiv . 15 . Eph . v . 19 . James v . 13 . which are the only places in which it is used in the New Testament . I know of no authoiity for supposing that before or in the time or the apostles ,
¦ vJ / aAAa ? f psallo ] ever was us ^ d to signify singing exclusively of instrumental accompaniments . There may be instances in wh ; ch the praise is the chief feature to which the reader is directed ; but that it signifies praise in general , without any reference to tbe manner
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Schleusner , says , 2 . " to touch the strings of a musical instrument with the finder or plectrum ;" 44 and because stringed instruments were commonly used both by believers and heathens in ringing praises to their respective gods ; hence , 3 , to sing , sing
praises or psalms to God , whether with or without instruments ; " and he refers to passages referred to in the note on Schleusner . It appears to me clear , that these learned lexicographers have rather too much acted the part of commentators . 1 believe that
of it , or even in reference to praise to the direct exclusion of instrumental music , is , 1 believe , utterl y incapable of proof . In Rom . xv . 9 . we have a quctation from the P-alms , where the original i > zsmSr , which Buvtorf , ( Lex . Chald . Talm . & Rab . ) explains , psallere , psallendo laudare et predicarey carter e ( to play or sing with instruments , to
praise and make public by such means , to sing : ) and in that passage , the object clearly is , not the manner of publickly praising , but the public praise itself . Nevertheless , though the mauner may he oi no consequence as to the spirit of the d * claration , yet the declaration itse f implies the manner . Buxtorf infurms us that zsmsr is rendered in . the
Targum by shebEch to praise , except in some places in the Psalms , where it it retained ; but sh ^ bech is used in the Targums for all the Hebrew words denoting praise , whatever manner of it they express , unless this was particularly the writer ' s intentions , and as to the Psalms , the auihority of the
Targutnist is in this case of no value , since his commentary was written several centuries after Christ , and is " in the corruptest Chaldee of the Jerusalem dialect . " Where the manner of praise is not the object , but the praise itself , I will not say that we should do "wrong in translating psallo by some general
word denoting praise , since we have no word of corre s ponding force in the language ; but I think 1 am fully justified in maintaining , that if the manner of praise be iu any way brought into view , * we cannot exclude the accornpa tu merit of instrumental music , which at least psallo always does include .
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44 On the Use of Vocal and Instrumental Music in Public Worshi p *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1813, page 44, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2424/page/44/
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