Does PSALLO Authorize Musical Instruments

Lucifer is the Singing and Harp-Playing Harlog

The PSALLO in Ephesians 5 is never Musical Melody.  Paul commands SPEAK the Biblical text for our LEARNING.
Speak or LEXIS is the Opposite of ODE or Sing..
Psallo is IN THE HEART or Silent.
However, the Apostate Church uses a Latin Form which includes singing and playing but of male and female prostitutes trying to seduce a partner.

Vocal Psallo NOT Scripture Psallō IN THE HEART.  The Key factor in the Christian Assembly is that both male and female remain silent "so that we might all come to a knowledge of THE TRUTH or the Word of God. Religious Music was performed by WOMEN or EFFEMINATE Males.  They both thought that their condition and public persona proved that they spoke for the "gods."  Paul then rebuffs all mediators in song and sermon but the READER because: 1Tim. 2:5 For there is one God,         and one mediator between God and men,         the man Christ Jesus; Paul prevents and outbreak of WRATH or an ORGY Evil Psallo I. In gen., to play upon a stringed instrument; esp., to play upon the cithara, to sing to the cithara: “psallere saltare elegantius,” Sall. C. 25, 2  canituri,”  SING and cantare marked as SORCERY.    saltare et cantare; Cic. Catil. 2.10.23   Suet. Tit. 3 In that regard, epic's position is parallel to that of rhetoric. Beginning with Aristotle's Rhetorica (1404a), critics of rhetorical performance have ascribed to lively delivery the same effect as that of acting. There is a persistent association between theatrics, bad rhetoric and effeminacy. Rhetoric was forever at pains to disentangle itself from unwanted associations with female deception and histrionic art, because it was viewed as the art of socially weak women and slaves,and rhetoricians of all ages have assiduously fought against any trace of bodily and vocal practice associated with these groups. However, from the examples that I have just used, it is evident, I believe, which art of music I consider appropriate in the training of the orator and to what extent. Nevertheless, I think that I need to be more explicit in stating that the music which I prescribe is not the modern music which has been emasculated by the lascivious melodies of the effeminate stage and has to no small extent destroyed the amount of manly vigor that we still possessed. I refer rather to the music of old with which people used to sing the praises of brave men and which the brave themselves used to sing.  But this fact does not justify degeneration into sing-song or the effeminate modulations now in vogue. There is an excellent saying on this point attributed to Gaius Caesar while he was still a boy: "If you are singing, you sing badly; if you are reading, you sing." ēlĕgans   I. In the ante-class. period in a bad sense, luxurious, effeminate, fastidious, nice: elegans homo non dicebatur cum laude “mulier (Phryne—with formosa),” mŭlĭer , II. [select] Transf., as a term of reproach, a woman, i. e. a coward, poltroon: “non me arbitratur militem, sed mulierem,” Plaut. Bacch. 4, 8, 4. Cic. Catil. 2.10.23 In these bands are all the gamblers, all the adulterers, all the unclean and shameless citizens.         These boys, so witty and delicate,         have learnt not only to love and to be loved,         not only to sing and to dance,         but also to brandish daggers and to administer poisons; and unless they are driven out, unless they die, even should Catiline die, I warn you that the school of Catiline would exist in the republic.         But what do those wretches want? Are they going to take their wives with them to the camp? how can they do without them, especially in these nights? and how will they endure the Apennines, and these frosts, and this snow? unless they think that they will bear the winter more easily because they have been in the habit of dancing naked at their feasts. O war much to be dreaded, when Catiline is going to have his bodyguard of prostitutes! Suet. Tit. 3 While yet a boy, he was remarkable for his noble endowments both of body and mind; and as he advanced in years, they became still more conspicuous.         He had a fine person, combining an equal mixture of majesty and grace;         was very strong, though not tall, and somewhat corpulent. Gifted with an excellent memory, and a capacity for all the arts of peace and war; he was a perfect master of the use of arms and riding; very ready in the Latin and Greek tongues, both in verse and prose; and such was the facility he possessed in both,         that he would harangue and VERSIFY extempore.         Nor was he unacquainted with MUSIC,                 but could both SING and PLAY upon the HARP sweetly and scientifically.         I have likewise been informed by many persons,                 that he was remarkably quick in writing short-hand,                 would in merriment and jest engage with his secretaries                 in the imitation of any hand-writing he saw, and often say, "                 that he was admirably qualified for forgery." căno , cĕcĭni, cantum (ancient I.imp. cante = canite, “once canituri,” Vulg. Apoc. 8, 13), 3, v. n. and a. [cf. kanassō, kanakhē, konabos; Germ. Hahn; Engl. chanticleer; kuknos, ciconice; Sanscr. kōkas = DUCK; A. With carmen, cantilenam, versus, verba, etc., to sing, play, rehearse, recite ka^na^kh-ē , Dor. -Kha, hē, (kanassō) Od.6.82; odontōn men k. pele gnashing of teeth, Il.19.365, Hes.Sc.164: k. aulōn sound of flutes, Pi.P.10.39 (pl.), B.2.12, cf. S.Tr.642 (lyr.); ofthelyre, h.Ap.185. ka^na^kh-eō , a Verb expressing various sounds, kanakhēse de Khalkos A.rang, clashed, Od.19.469; kanakhousi pēgai plash, Cratin.186; kanakhōn holophōnos alektōr crowing, ., k. melos to let a song ring loud, A.R.4.907. Sal. Cat. 25 In the number of those ladies was Sempronia, a woman who had committed many crimes with the spirit of a man. In birth and beauty, in her husband and her children, she was extremely fortunate;         she was skilled in Greek and Roman literature;         she could sing, play, and dance, * with greater elegance than became a woman of virtue, and possessed many other accomplishments that tend to excite the passions. But nothing was ever less valued by her than honor or chastity. Whether she was more prodigal of her money or her reputation, it would have been difficult to decide. Her desires were so ardent that she oftener made advances to the other sex than waited for solicitation. She had frequently, before this period, forfeited her word, forsworn debts, been privy to murder, and hurried into the utmost excesses by her extravagance and poverty. But her abilities were by no means despicable; she could compose verses, jest, and join in conversation either modest, tender, or licentious. In a word, she was distinguished4 by much refinement of wit, and much grace of expression. * Sing, play, and dance] “Psallere, saltare.” As psallo signifies both to play on a musical instrument, and to sing to it while playing, I have thought it necessary to give both senses in the translation.

This is a recent research into the Latin uses of the word "Psallo." In its PRIMARY use in the Greek and Latin Texts.  7.16.14

Outward Command: SPEAK "that which is written for our Learning" ODE and PSALLO IN the heart. Meaning Keep it Silent BECAUSE: LEXIS or LOGOS is the OPPOSITE of ODE which means to enchant. Psallo is a word often connected to Apollo, Abaddon or Apollyon. He carried his bow and made the string "twang" to send forth a sinning arrow into the literal heart of enemies. He also carried the Lyre which he "plucked" intending to send forth a Love Arrow into his male of female frieds. Abaddon or Apollyon has been unleased from the pit and is the leader of the LOCUSTS which we understand to be the MUSES as his musical worship team. The muses are known in the literature as dirty adulteresses who become SHEPHERDESSES at Apollo's Worship Center at Delphi and Corinth. Psallo is USED primarily as: psallō   pluck, pull, twitch,ps. etheiranpluck the hair: esp. of the bow-string, toxōn kheri psallousi neurastwangthem, E.Ba.784; “kenon kroton” Lyc.1453; ek keraos ps. belossend a shaft twanging from the bow, When used of musicalinstruments Psallo means play or pluck II. mostly of the strings of musical instruments, play a stringed instrument with the fingers, and not with the plectron: Jesus said MY WORDS are SPIRIT and LIFE.  As the antithesis to the "spirit" as a person or people Ventus , B.  personified as deities, the winds: te, Apollo sancte,  omnipotens Neptune, invoco; Vosque adeo, Venti! Turpil. ap. Cic. Tusc. 4, 34, 73  Lucr. 5, 1230 (1228); cf. Ov. H. 17 (18), 37.— Spīrĭtus The air: imber et ignis, The BREATH of a god, inspiration: “ spiritum Phoebus [Apollo, Abaddon, Apollyon]  mihi, Phoebus artem Carminis Carmen , dedit, poetic spirit or inspiration, Hor. C. 1, 7, 23;Q. Horatius Flaccus, Odes (ed. John Conington) Let others Rhodes or Mytilene sing, Or Ephesus, or Corinth, set between Two seas, or [Baccho] Thebes, or [Apollo] Delphi, for its king Each famous, or Thessalian Tempe green;   There are who make chaste Pallas' virgin tower The daily burden of unending song, And search for wreaths the olive's rifled bower: The praise of Juno sounds from many a tongue, Telling of Argos' steeds, Mycenae's gold. Mark 6.7 He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Luke 8:2 and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; The Spirit OF God is the BREATH of God and not a "people." Psallo marks as Lawless those who used a "guitar pick", beat on a drum or blew a flute. The Phrase:  psallere saltare elegantius, ē-lēgo , āvi, 1, v. a., I.to convey away (from the family) by bequest, to bequeath away, pulso I.   Lucr. 4, 931),  to push, strike, beat (cf.: tundo, ferio, pello). Of musical instruments: “chordas digitis et pectine eburno,” to strike, play upon, Verg. A. 6, 647: “chelyn,” (harp) Val. Fl. 1, 139: “pectine nervos,” Sil. 5, 463: “cymbala,” Juv. 9, 62. A.      In gen., to urge or drive on, to impel, to set in violent motion, to move, agitate, disturb, disquiet: C.      To drive away, remove, put out of the way Psalmus , = psalmos,  I.      In gen., to play [psalmus] upon a stringed instrument; esp., to play upon the cithara, to sing to the cithara: “psallere saltare elegantius,” Sall. C. 25, Elego I. to convey away (from the family) by bequest, to bequeath away,  Sal. Cat. 25 In the number of those ladies was Sempronia, a woman who had committed many crimes with the spirit of a man. In birth and beauty, in her husband and her children, she was extremely fortunate; she was skilled in Greek and Roman literature; she could sing, play, and dance, with greater elegance than became a woman of virtue, and possessed many other accomplishments that tend to excite the passions. But nothing was ever less valued by her than honor or chastity. The Phrase:  “cantare et psallere jucunde,” jūcundus (jōcundus ), a, um, adj. jocus, I. pleasant, agreeable, delightful, pleasing (syn.: gratus, blandus; “class.): est mihi jucunda in malis et grata in dolore vestra erga me voluntas,   “verba ad audiendum mălus , evil, wicked, injurious, destructive, mischievous, hurtful : carmen, i. e. an incantation, Leg. XII. Tab. ap. Plin. 28, 2, 4, § 17: “abi in malam rem,” go and be hanged! burdensome,  plagis “male tibi esse malo quam molliter,” I would rather you should be unfortunate than effeminate, Sen. Ep. 82, 1:  “cantare et psallere,” Suet. Tit. 3: The Graces as Muses were "blue-eyed blond musical prostitutes." They were Abaddon-Apollyon's Praise Team. "Philodemus considered it paradoxical that music should be regarded as veneration of the gods while musicians were paid for performing this so-called veneration. Again, Philodemus held as self deceptive the view that music mediated religious ecstasy. He saw the entire condition induced by the noise of cymbals and tambourines as a disturbance of the spirit. He found it significant that, on the whole, only women and effeminate men fell into this folly. Accordingly, nothing of value could be attributed to music; it was no more than a slave of the sensation of pleasure, which satisfied much in the same way that food and drink did. The Phrase: gratus, blandus; The New Hermeneutics or the Kairos Time Grātus or  kharis religion beloved, dear, acceptable, pleasing, agreeable “Herophile Phoebo grata and: “superis deorum gratus (Mercurius) et imis,  “carmina,” id. C. 1, 15, 14; 3, 11, 23: “artes,” id. ib. 4, 13, 22: “error mentis, favorite, darling:  deserving or procuring thanks Grata testudo Jovis,” [G1361 Diotrephes] testūdo   Hermes made the first lute or lyre from a tortoise-shell while still in his crib. He is a type of Jubal. 1. Of any stringed instrument of music of an arched shape, a lyre, lute, cithern Mercŭrĭus , ii, m., = Hermēs,  as a herald, the god of dexterity; in speaking, of eloquence; the bestower of prosperity; the god of traders and thieves; the presider over roads, and conductor of departed souls to the Lower World:   Mercury or Hermes (Kairos) while still in his cradle scouped out a turtle and made the first lyre: the turtle should be graceful that it would be worshipped even today for its contribution Diotrephes He gave this harp to Apollo, Abaddon or Apollyon who is YOUR musical worship leader even today. G1361 Diotrephes dee-ot-ref-ace' From the alternate of G2203 and G5142; Jove nourished; Diotrephes, an opponent of Christianity:   From:. Trepho (g5142) tref'-o; a prim. verb (prop. threpho, but perh. strength. from the base of 5157 through the idea of convolution); prop. to stiffen, i.e. fatten (by impl. to cherish [with food, etc.], pamper, rear): - bring up, feed, nourish  trephô similar words mean that the was RAISED UP by Zeus. Hor. Ars 395 Orpheus, the priest and interpreter of the gods, deterred the savage race of men from slaughters and inhuman diet; hence said to tame tigers and furious lions: Amphion too, the builder of the Theban wall, was said to give the stones motion with the sound of his lyre, and to lead them whithersoever he would, by engaging persuasion “Pythia cantica” Hor. Ars 414, songs like the hymns which were sung in honor of Apollo, by the chorus in some comedies. A player, called Pythaules, played during the intervals when the chorus left off singing. Grata or GRACE in the sense of the Graces and Muses who were musicians under Apollo or Abaddon at Delphi where the Phythian serpent was worshipped.  Other forms are: khairō1. c. dat. rei, rejoice at, take pleasure in a thing, “nikē”Il.7.312; “phēmē” Od.2.35; “dōrō” Hes.Op.358; “molpa [sing and dance], hē, (melpō)A.dance or rhythmic movement with song, 2. more freq. song, suriggos ekhōnthe note,  klagg-ē klagg-ē twang of the bow howling of wolves and lions, baying of dogs, also, of musical instruments of song k. aēdoneios

Everett Ferguson Congregational Singing in Early Church
As "doctors of the Law take away the key to knowledge" Everett Ferguson quotes a lot of Scripture and church history but misses the rest of the story not part of his thesis.

Churches and theologians have probably spend more time trying to justify the use of music in the assemblies of Christ than teaching the lost.  That is because the lust of the eyes and ears looks in vain for the use of any kind of "music" in connection with God's people from Genesis to Revelation.  To the contrary, the Word asssociates musical instruments with Lucifer, warriors threatening the enemy, unauthorized sacrificial exorcism, prostitutes and Sodomites.

LEAVEN from ACU requested Teresa D. Welch, an instrumentalist to review Danny Corbitt's Missing More than Music.  Teresa does not endorse the ANTI-instrumentalists rehash as well as they might have hoped. Danny says that Paul and Silas sang hymns because they would not have their musical instruments with them.  I have worked on the HYMN word from Greek and Latin text and found that there was two VENUES of performing hymns.

In the Bible sense a Hymn is a prayer from recorded Scripture.
When Hymns are  SUNG the literature adds a word for SING and HYMN
When Hymns are accompanied with instruments they most often identify Dionysus or Apollo (Abaddon, Apollyon) as the "gods" being praised.

4.09.13
See the two major PSALLO words which are never DEFINED. Instead, I will show how the words are used having several meanings.  If we twang a bowstring to send forth a singing arrow into a literal heart then PSALLO would obligate the instrumentalists because there is very little about twanging a HARP string and then the examples are ugly or even forbidden.

Lynn Anderson The Beginning of Musical Idolatry

Danny Corbitt and Matt Dabbs Psallo ripening issues

Danny Corbitt Refuting Everett Ferguson Psallo, Psalmos, Psalmus, Psalma
John T. Willis 2. "Sing" is vocal; "make melody" is instrumental. Psalms 33:2-3; 144:9; 149:1, 3 make this crystal clear. Amos 5:23 further verifies this reality.  People forget that God turned Israel over to worship the starry host because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. The Levites were under the KING and the COMMANDERS of the army: they made war and not worship. We will examine these passages in context. 

Danny Corbitt Refuting Everett Ferguson Psallo, Psalmos, Psalmus, Psalma

Quick Added Notes 4.06.13

These represented all of the pagan sects in Rome such as those of Dionysus and Orpheus.  Both could be pointed out on the days when types of foods were available or prepared in the marketplace or the pagan temples in the Agora: in Athens it was quite separated from the Ekklesia for word-only discussions. The men who translated the Septuagint or LXX were aware that the PSALLO-based words pointed to making war or making strang love in the marketplace. Any lawful citizen able to attend the assembly was swept up by slaves using a red, polluted rope and driven to the ekklesia for instruction only. A gang of slaves, called Scythians, carrying ropes dipped in red ochre (miltos, hence Miltiades, i.e. the Red-Haired) would travel through the city on the days the Ecclesia was to meet, and would lash those citizens not in attendance with their ropes. With garments thus stained, shamed citizens could legally carry out no business until they visited the meeting grounds of the Ecclesia on the hill called the Pnyx.   -psallō , fut. so miltokharēs skhoinos psallomenē a carpenter's red line, which is twitched and then suddenly let go, so as to leave a mark, AP6.103 (Phil.): -Phurô  I. to mix something dry with something wet, mostly with a sense of mixing so as to soil or defile, to be doomed to have one's hair defiled with earth, II. metaph. to mingle together, confuse, bioton ek pephurmenou kai thēriōdous diestathmēsato from a confused and savage state, E.Supp. 201. Agora a^g, as, Ion. agorē , ēs, hē, (ageirō):— 2. market-place, III. business of the agora: 1. public speaking, gift of speaking, mostly in pl., eskh' agoraōn withheld him from speaking, generally, provisions, supplies, Agoraios b. agoraios, hē, market-day, IGRom.4.1381 (Lydia). (The distn. agoraios vulgar, agoraios public speaker, drawn by Ammon., etc., is prob. fictitious.) Agorazō a^g, fut. asō Ar.Lys.633, Men. 828:—frequent the “agora, hai gunaikes a. kai kapēleuousi” Hdt.2.35, 4.164, cf. Arist.Ph.196a5, Com.Adesp.710; occupy the market-place, Th.6.51. 2Corinthians 2:14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ,         and maketh manifest the savour of HIS knowledge by us in every place. 2Corinthians 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: 2Corinthians 2:16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death;         and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? 2Corinthians 2:17 For we are not as many, polus great, mighty, “megas kai pollos egeneo” Hdt.7.14, cf. E.Hipp.1; ho p. sophistēs, stratēgos stra^tēg-os 5. an officer who had the custody of the Temple at Jerusalem, “ho s. tou hierou” Ev.Luc. 22.52, Act.Ap.4.1, J.BJ6.5.3. which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God,         in the sight of God         speak we in Christ. ka^pēl-euō , A. to be a retail-dealer, drive a petty trade, Hdt.1.155, 2.35, Isoc.2.1 2. metaph., k. ta prēgmata, of Darius, Hdt.3.89; k. ta mathēmata sell learning by retail, hawk it about, Pl. Prt.313d; “k. ton logon tou theou” 2 Ep.Cor.2.17;  adultery The Psallo based words MARK a church, Kirke, or Circe: it is the mark of marketimereligion. You remember that Jesus cast the pipers inducing singing or lamenting or dancing into the MARKETPLACE along with all of the other merchandisers: there SHALL NOT--CANNOT be a Canaanite or Trader in the House of God Zech 14:21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein:         and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Kennaniy (h3669) ken-ah-an-ee'; patrial from 3667; a Kenaanite or inhabitant of Kenaan; by impl. a pedlar (the Canaanites standing for their neighbors the Ishmaelites, who conducted mercantile caravans): - Canaanite, merchant, trafficker. H3667 kena‛an ken-ah'-an From H3665 ; humiliated; Kenaan, a son of Ham; also the country inhabited by him:—Canaan, merchant, traffick. Mercātor , ōris, m. id., I. a trader, merchant, esp. a wholesale dealer (opp. to caupo, a retailer; class.). I.  Lit.: “venalicii mercatoresque,” Cic. Or. 70, 232: “multi ad eos mercatores ventitant,” Caes. B. G. 4, 3. — II.Transf.A. A dealer, speculator: “non consules, sed mercatores provinciarum,” Cic. post Red. in Sen. 4, 10.—Rarely of a petty dealer: “vilis sacci mercator olentis,” Juv. 14, 269.— B.A buyer, purchaser: “signorum,” Cic. Verr. 1, 20, 60: “veneni,” Juv. 13, 154. The word CHURCH does not define the Ekklesia: kuklos   of the circle which hunters draw round their game, 3  place of assembly, of the “agora, hieros k.” Il.18.504; “ho k. tou Zēnos tōgoraiou” b. crowd of people standing round, ring or circle of people, Eur. Hipp. 953  Continue then your confident boasting, take up a diet of greens and play the showman with your food, make Orpheus your lord and engage in mystic rites, holding the vaporings of many books in honor.2 [955] For you have been found out. To all I give the warning: avoid men like this. For they make you their prey with their high-holy-sounding words while they contrive deeds of shame. 2 Theseus compares Hippolytus to the Orphics, an ascetic religious sect that ate a vegetarian diet and had a reputation for hypocrisy. Bakkh-euō , A.  celebrate the mysteries of Bacchus, Hdt.4.79. Eur. IT 1243 Lovely is the son of Leto, [1235] whom she, the Delian, once bore in the fruitful valleys, golden-haired, skilled at the lyre; and also the one who glories in her well-aimed arrows. [1240] For the mother, leaving the famous birth-place, brought him from the ridges of the sea to the heights of Parnassus, with its gushing waters, which celebrate the revels for Dionysus. The Dionysus worshipers are those who do "evil things in the dark." Paul silenced them and everything which did not contribute to PEACE AND EDIFICATION which in this case is ONLY Education by "using one mind and one mouth to speak that which is written for our learning" (Romans 15). Disciples are students or learners and musical performances and speaking in tongues are identified by the same word for SPEAK.

The only role of the Ekklesia or synagogue is to teach "that which is written for our learing." In romans 15 the method is to "use one mind and one mouth." The "tongue" of this mouth is defined as the opposite of the tongue of a wind instrument.

There is no singing in the tuneful sense in the Bible related to spiritual people. In This paper David makes it certain that the Psalms are NARRATED to teach the unaltered Word of God for the purpose of INSTRUCTION.

The Direct commands, examples and necessary inferences since church is a school for disciples is that the Word of God is spoken clearly and never musically.

Hebrew singing or rhymic prose had no fixed meter: "Since in all languages a sentence changes its meaning by mere intonations without adding or removing nounds, verbs or particles, the Syrian scholars who laid the fundament of correct language discovered a way by devising accents... and since these accents are a form of musical modulation, there is no possibliity of learning them except by hearing and through tradition from the master's tongue or the pupils hear. It follows from Bar Hebraeus' statement that the main concern was to secure an unadulterated and unadulterable version of the text This required (a) correct vocalization and (b) correct intonation. (p.87) " Nor is there a constant number of feet in a verse. Hebrew poetry is poetic p;rose. "Hebrew prosedy differes fundamentlly from classical prosody. No poem is written according to a repeating meter scheme.

Classical verse is mechanical; Hebrew verse is dynamic (p 89.   Music in Ancient Western Orient Curt Sachs

The word Law or nomos defines a legal form of performance dedicated most often to Apollo (Abaddon, Apollyon)

The godly Jews who rested on the Prophets (by Christ) understood:

To the law and to the testimony:
        if they speak not according to this word,
        it is because there is no light in them. Isa 8:20

The key word used to justify what has already taken place is the Greek "psallo."  Psallyohas no musical connection but was used by the Hebrew scholars translating the Septuagint (LXX).  In the Greek world the only "musical" concept derived from Apollo's (Abaddon, Apollyon's) bow which twanged to send forth "singing" arrows into the literal heart. His lyre was used to send forth "love arrows."  Making the heart strings sing or "shooting forth hymns" derives from its warfare and perverted application in pagan religions.

The translators of the LXX clearly understood that it was because of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai that God had turned them over to worship the starry host. When the elders demanded a King like the nations God knew that they wanted to worship like the nations.  He warned them and abandoned them.

The influence of the Catholic church restores a priesthood and of course what they call "Levitical singers."

The Qahal, synagogue or Church of Christ was ordained in the wilderness to Rest, read and rehearse the Word. This quarantined the godly people from the always Sun or heavenly body worship among the canaanites and Jews.

LACKING ANY BIBLICAL COMMAND, EXAMPLE OR REMOTE INFERENCE OF INSTRUMENTS IN THE EKKLESIA OR SYNAGOGUE, PSALLO IS THE LAST RESORT.

Although it simply means to strike or smite a string with your fingers, in the Bible it is always translated to SING. If an instrument is intended it is named.

WORD STUDY

The Hebrew Scholars who translated the LXX or Septuagint used 'psallo' words because they understood that the only true psalms or mizmor EXCLUDED instruments unless they identify a function of the God-abandoned sacrificial system. Then ONLY Levites were permitted to make noise but never close to any holy thing and never IN the Holy Place which pictured the Ekklesia or Synagogue when those who accepted the blood sacrifice Chirst and were baptized in the 7-foot deep laver could enter into the Holy Place.

Most of the other Psalms are historical and are useful for SPEAKING in order to TEACH and admonish. Many of the other types of songs were used (remember Gideon) to threaten the enemy.  Halal or praise means to make yourself vile: because the Israelites had been turned over to worship the starry host without God's Theocratic rule, the noise was a threat to rob, sodomize and the murder the enemy. Music was ALWAYS from tribal times to validate the superiority of the Alpha Male aka pulpit pastor of mega churches.

FIRST LOOK AT THE INTERMEDIATE LEXICON AS SUMMARY.

You will note that a different word is used for SINGING in the Old and New Testament:

psallō psaō I. to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch, Aesch.; toxou neuran ps. to twang the bow-string, Eur.; belos ek keraos ps. to send a shaft twanging from the bow, Anth.; so, skhoinos miltophurēs psallomenē a carpenter's red line, which is twitched and then suddenly let go, so as to leave a mark, id=Anth.

II. to play a stringed instrument with the fingers, not with the plectron, Hdt., Ar., Plat.

2. later, to sing to a harp, sing, NTest.

In Psalm 41 it was prophesied that Judas would not be able to triumph over Messiah: that act is excluded from the synagogue and excludes "vocal or instrumental rejoicing" including elevated forms of speech.  The Judas bag was always attached to a flute case for carrying the mouth pieces of wind instruments.  At the last supper Jesus had ground the SOP for him as the mark that Satan had entered him.

Psaō [a_, but always contracted],

A. “psē” S.Tr.678, inf. psēn （peri-) Ar.Eq.909: impf. contr. 3sg. prob. apepsē (v. apopsaō): fut. psēsō （apo-) Id.Lys.1035: aor. “epsēsa” Hippon.12 Diehl, A.R.3.831, (kat-, peri-) Pl.Phd.89b, Ar.Pl.730:—Med., freq. in compos. with apo:— Pass., aor. epsēthēn （sun-) LXX Je.31(48).33 (v.l. -psēsth-）; epsēsthēn （an-) BGU530.17 (i A. D.): pf. epsēsmai （par-) Poll.4.152. Later authors sts. use the contr. by a_ instead of ē, inf. “ana-psan” Dsc.4.64:— rub, wipe, “tis omphalētomos se . . epsēse kapelousen;” Hippon. l. c.; polish, PHolm.3.19; rub smooth, “austaleas d' epsēse parēidas” A.R. l. c.; of solderers, PLond.3.1177.285 (ii A. D.).

II. intr., crumble away, vanish, disappear, S.Tr.678 (s. v. l.). (psaō, psaiō, psauō, psairō, psēkhō, psōkhō, and perh. psiō, psōmos, seem to be different enlargements of ps-, which corresponds to ps- in Skt. psā ´ti, bhes- in Skt. babhasti 'crush, chew, devour', bhasman 'ashes'.)

Psallo by itself just means to PULL with your fingers and NEVER with a plectrum.

In a GODLY sense as used in the Bible it is always translated as to sing. While Apollo (the Psallo message) plucked his lyre to shoot forth love arrows, the godly people used it for the "shooting" word in "shooting forth hymns."

"And so the lyre-player [psaltees] not rudely nor inelegantly put the curb on Phillip when he tried to dispute with him about the way to strike [psalles] the lyre [psalteerion]. -Moralia, p. 67F.

Again, Phrynichus says in The Phoenician Women, '
        With plucking [psalmoisin]
        of the strings they sing [aeidontes]
        their lays in answering strains." -The Deiphnosphists, XIV. 635, Translated by Gulick, Vol. 6, p. 427.

Psallō ,
FIRST: A. “psalō” LXX Jd.5.3, 1 Ep.Cor.14.15: aor. “epsēla” Pl.Ly. 209b, etc., and in LXX “epsa_la” Ps.9.12, al.:

1 Cor 14:15 ti oun estin; proseuxomai tō pneumati, proseuxomai de kai tō noi: psalō tō pneumati, psalō de kai tō noi:

Judg. 5:1 Then SANG Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, SAYING,
Judg. 5:2 Praise [kneel] ye the LORD for the AVENGING of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.
Judg. 5:3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will SING unto the LORD; I will SING praise to the LORD God of Israel.

1Cor. 14:15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also:
        I will SING with the spirit, and I will SING with the understanding (mind, spirit) also.

Of tightening a bow string or a lyre string with your FINGERS: excludes using a PLECKTRON, it does not mean "play + the + harp

Plat. Lysis 209b  And, I suppose, when you take your lyre, neither your father nor your mother prevents you from tightening or slackening what string you please, or from using your finger or your plectrum at will: or do they prevent you? Oh, no. Then whatever can be the reason, Lysis, why they do not prevent you here,

All of the uses speak of "handling" a string of any kind.

Psa. 9:11 SING praises to the LORD,
        which dwelleth in Zion:
        declare among the people his doings.
Psalm 9.[12] For he who avenges blood remembers them.
        He doesn't forget the cry (clamor=applause, shout, loud sounds to afflict)

SECOND—pluck, pull, twitch, ps. etheiran pluck the hair, A.Pers.1062:

Xerxēs
kai psall' etheiran kai katoiktisai straton.

Aesch. Pers. 1060
Xerxes [1060] And with your fingers tear the robe which drapes you.
Chorus Anguish, anguish!
Xerxes Pluck out your locks, and lament our host.
Chorus With clenched nails, with clenched nails, with loud wailing.

ALL of the NACC "plucking" terms speak of vile older men pluckiing the harp to seduce a young male whos hairs had been plucked.  Tom Burgess implicates the pluckers but refused to quote the full story.

Plutarch, Lives [4] Such objects are to be found in virtuous deeds; these implant in those who search them out a great and zealous eagerness which leads to imitation. In other cases, admiration of the deed is not immediately accompanied by an impulse to do it. Nay, many times, on the contrary, while we delight in the work, we despise the workman
        as, for instance, in the case of perfumes and dyes; we take a delight in them but dyers and perfumers we regard as illiberal and vulgar folk

[5] Therefore it was a fine saying of Antisthenes, when he heard that Ismenias was an excellent piper: But he's a worthless man," said he, "otherwise he wouldn't be so good a piper."

And so Philip [Philip of Macedon, to Alexander.] once said to his son, who, as the wine went round, plucked the strings charmingly and skilfully, "Art not ashamed to pluck the strings so well?" It is enough, surely, if a king have leisure to hear others pluck the strings, and he pays great deference to the Muses if he be but a spectator of such contests

THIRD: Psallo is primarily making war: grinding the enemy into SOP.

ESPECIALLY of the bow-string, toxōn kheri psallousi neuras twang them, E.Ba.784; “kenon kroton” Lyc.1453; ek keraos ps. belos send a shaft twanging from the bow, APl.4.211 (Stat. Flacc.);

Why would Christ the Spirit permit a VIOLENCE and POLLUTION--LADEN word to be used to permit evil people to ATTACK His people when He died to give them REST from religion?

E.Ba.784 Already, look you! the presumption of these Bacchantes is upon us, swift as fire, a sad disgrace in the eyes of all Hellas. No time for hesitation now! away to the Electra gate! order a muster of all my men-at-arms, of those that mount fleet steeds, of all who brandish light bucklers,

of archers too that make the bowstring twang; for I will march against the Bacchanals. By Heaven this passes all, if we are to be thus treated by women.

Psallous to touch sharply, to pluck, pull, twitch
Neura, A.string or cord of sinew,

2. harpstring, Poll.4.62.

3. strand of a torsion-engine, IG22.554.15.

4. withe, to bind.

Baru-phthoggos , on, A. loud-roaring, “leōn” h.Ven.159, B.8.9; deep-lowing, of cows, Arist.GA787a33; b. neura loud-twanging bowstring, Pi.I.6(5).34; deep-toned, “auloi” [flute] 

Pind. I. 6 Just as we mix the second bowl of wine when the men's symposium is flourishing, here is the second song of the Muses for Lampon's children and their athletic victories: first in Nemea, Zeus, in your honor they received the choicest of garlands, [5] and now in honor of the lord of the Isthmus and the fifty Nereids, for the victory of the youngest son, Phylacidas. May there be a third libation of honey-voiced songs to pour over Aegina in honor of Zeus Soter of Olympia.

Bakkhē  A. Bacchante, A.Eu.25, S.Ant.1122 (lyr.), Ar.Nu.605, Pl. Ion534a, etc.: generally, Bakkhē Haidou frantic handmaid of Hades, E.Hec.1077; “b. nekuōn” Id.Ph.1489 (lyr.).

Mainas , ados, h(, (mainomai)The Mad Women of Corinth (1Cor 11) are well documentd.

A. raving, frantic, lussa v. l. in S.Fr.941.4; “bakkhē” E.Ba.915.

2. as Subst., mad woman, esp. Bacchante, Maenad, “mainadi isē” Il.22.460, cf. h.Cer.386, A.Fr.382, S.OT212 (lyr.), etc.; of the Furies, A.Eu.500 (lyr.); of Cassandra, E.Tr. 173 (lyr.).

3. = pornē, Poll.7.203 cod. A, Hdn.Epim.83.

II. Act., causing madness, esp. of love, “mainas ornis” Pi.P.4.216.

Pind. P. 4 Aphrodite of Cyprus brought the maddening bird to men for the first time, and she taught the son of Aeson skill in prayerful incantations,
        so that he could rob Medea of reverence for her parents,
        and a longing for Greece would lash her, her mind on fire,
        with the whip of Persuasion.

FOURTH: so miltokharēs skhoinos psallomenē a carpenter's red line, which is twitched and then suddenly let go, so as to leave a MARK,

This is never used of a carpenter's line used to mark a line in the Greek text, but of the polluted rope used to MARK men who dallied around the singing, playing, speaking in the marketplace.

The Agora or Marketplace: Hebrews says we have to go OUTSIDE of the Camp / Agora to find Jesus to be His Disciple and find REST.

Jesus consignes the Pipers, singers (lamenters) and dancers to the marketplace. The polluted psallo rope MARKS anyone who hangs around the public speakers, singers, and other MERCHANDISE peddlers. Paul called "corrupting the Word" selling learning at retail.  Therefore, the PSALLO word first used by the Disciples /Christian churches in 1878 (without scholarly support) MARKED them.

This only speaks of the polluted rope used to DRIVE those who dallied around the singing boys and girls in the marketplace where they sold radishes and the bodies of young men. When they were forced to the Ekklesia (church) they were MARKED. They were fined and not permitted "fellowship."

Jesus consigned the pipers, singers and dancers to the marketplace: they were the persistent Dionysus Abomination of Desolation who plagued the Temple.

Miltoô n the ROPE covered with red chalk with which they swept LOITERS out of the Agora to the Pnyx (The ekklesia was on the Pnyx: dalliers around the music girls disqualified them from discussion)

Phurô
I. to soil or defile,  be doomed to have one's hair defiled with earth, 
 to mingle together, confuse, thêriôdous (beasts) from a confused and savage state,

BEAST]

Thêriôdês [eidos]

Beluo-sus (bell- ), a, um, adj. [id.] , abounding in beasts or monsters: Oceanus, _ast; Hor. C. 4, 14, 47; so Avien. Ora Marit. 204.

II. of men, beast-like, wild, savage, brutal, Lat. bellui_nus, Eur., Plat., etc.:--
        to th. the animal nature, Eur.
2. in Pass. also to mix with others, have dealings with him,  

 

Mito-omai , Med., A. ply the woof in weaving, AP6.285 (Nicarch.): metaph., phthongon mitôsasthai let one's voice sound like a string, 

2. in Pass. also to mix with others, have dealings with him, Plat.

Thērion , to (in form Dim. of thēr),
A. wild animal, esp. of such as are hunted, mala gar mega thērion ēen, of a stag, Od.10.171, 180 (never in Il.); in Trag. only in Satyric drama, S.Ichn.147 (dub. in A.Fr.26): used in Prose for thēr, X.An.1.2.7, Isoc.12.163, etc.; of the spider's prey, Arist.HA623a27; freq. of elephants, Plb.11.1.12, al.: pl., beasts, opp. men, birds, and fishes, h.Ven.4, Hdt.3.108.
III. as a term of reproach, beast, creature, , cf. Eq.273; “kolaki, deinō thēriō” Pl.Phdr.240b;
 “hē mousikē aei ti kainon thērion tiktei” 

mousikê aei ti kainon thêrion tiktei

A.  Mousikos, musical, agônes m. kai gumnikoi  choroi te kai agônes ta mousika music,  

II. of persons, skilled in music, musical, X.l.c., etc.; poiêtikoi kai m. andres Pl.Lg.802b ; kuknos [minstrel]  kai alla zôia; peri aulous - professional musicians, mousikos kai melôn poêtês, use with singing, skilled in speaking before a mob. Melody, 

B. aei always
C. kainos , esp. of new dramas, the representation of the new tragedies,  (Aphrodisias dedicated to Aphrodite (ZOE); comedy, sexual love, pleasure, a woman's form of oath, Aster or Venus or ZOE.
Therion
D. Tikto mostly of the mother 
E. of Rhea one of the zoogonic or vivific principles

Phur-aō 2. metaph., malakēn phurasamenos tēn phōnēn pros ton erastēn ebadizen making one's voice supple, i.e. soft, towards one's lover 

See Jay Guin / Ryan Christian to see that the BEAST means "A new style of song or drama" the hunting is erotic.

They hoped that John wore SOFT clothing.

Con-fundo mingle, or mix together. to confound, to force people together in speech. b.Trop., of intellectual confusion, to disturb, disconcert, confound, perplex

B. Meton 2. Esp., with the idea of confounding, disarranging, to confound, confuse, jumble together, bring into disorderb. Trop., of intellectual confusion, to disturb, disconcert, confound, perplex 

Clamor: I. A loud call, a shout, cry; of men and (poet.) of animals (very freq. in all periods and species of composition) B. In partic., a friendly call, acclamation, applause:

Mito-omai A. ply the woof in weaving,.): metaph  phthoggon mitōsasthai let one's voice sound like a string,  
 
Surig-matôdês, A. like the sound of a pipe, whistling,

FIFTH  “gunaikas ex andrōn psogos psallei, kenon toxeuma”

1. Women and
2. Men
3. Psogos A. blamable fault, blemish, flaw, lampoon

MAKING poetry of Poets, compose, write, p. dithurambon, epea, Hdt.1.23, 4.14; “p. theogoniēn Hellēsi” Id.2.53; p. Phaidran, Saturous, Ar.Th.153, 157; p. kōmōdian, tragōdian,

4. Kenos 2. empty, fruitless, void, “kena eugmata eipōn” Od.22.249 throw without a projectile,
tox-euma    eballon Bakkhiou toxeumasi kara gerontos, of the cottabus,

metaph, of songs and words, Pi.I.5(4).47; so “kardias toxeumata” S.Ant.1085;

Pind. I. 5 Men whose voices name the outstanding island of Aegina as their fatherland, built long ago [45] as a tower for lofty excellence to ascend. My swift tongue has many arrows, to shout the praises of these heroes.

Soph. Ant. 1085 There, now, are arrows for your heart, since you provoke me, [1085] launched at you, archer-like, in my anger. They fly true—you cannot run from their burning sting. Boy, lead me home, so that he may launch his rage against younger men, and learn to keep a quieter tongue [1090] and a better mind within his breast than he now bears.Exit Teiresias.

SIXTH: never "MEANS" to PLAY on a HARP: Psallo means pluck but you must define WHAT is to be plucked.  You will find that all of these are of the gender confused.

II. mostly of the strings of musical instruments, play a stringed instrument with the FINGERS, and not with the plectron, “psēlai kai krouein tō plēktrō”
               
        IT EXCLUDES: Psallo and STRIKE with a Plektron

Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, Book 14 book 14, chapter 35: ... estin, ho men gar hēdistos Anakreōn legei pou: psallō d' eikosi khordaisi magadin ekhōn, ō Leukaspi, su

But some people raise a question how, as the magadis did not exist in the time of Anacreon (for instruments with many strings were never seen till after his time), Anacreon can possibly mention it, as he does when he says-
      I hold my magadis and sing,
      Striking [psallō] loud the twentieth string,
      O Leucaspis.
But Poseidonius is ignorant that the magadis is an ancient instrument, though Pindarus says plainly enough that Terpander invented the barbitos to correspond to, and answer the pectis in use among the Lydians-
      The sweet responsive lyre
      Which long ago the Lesbian bard,
      Terpander, did invent, sweet ornament
      To the luxurious Lydian feasts, when he
      Heard the high-toned pectis.
However, Diogenes the tragic poet represents the pectis as differing from the magadis; for in his Semele he says-
      And now I hear the turban-wearing women,
      Votaries of the Asiatic Cybele,
      The wealthy Phrygians' daughters, loudly sounding
      With drums, and bull-roarers, and brazen-clashing
      Cymbals, their hands each striking in concert,
      Pour forth a wise and healing hymn to the gods.
  Likewise the Lydian and the Bactrian maids
      Who dwell beside the Halys, loudly worship
      The Tmolian goddess Artemis, who loves
      The laurel shade of the thick leafy grove,
      Striking the clear three-cornered pectis, and
      Raising responsive tunes upon the magadis,
      While flutes in Persian manner neatly joined
      Accompany the chorus.

Pl. l. c., et ibi Sch.; “ean tis psēlas tēn nētēn epilabē” Arist.Pr.919b15; “mousikōtatos ōn khata kheira dikha plēktrou epsalle” Ath.4.183d; opp. kitharizō, Hdt.1.155, SIG578.18 (Teos, ii B. C.); prin men s' heptatonon psallon (sc. tēn luran) Ion Eleg.3.3: abs., Hdt. l. c., Ar.Eq.522, Hippias (?) in PHib.1.13.24; “korais” Men.Epit.260; “psallein (pluck) ouk eni aneu luras” (Lyre) Luc.Par.17:—Prov., rhaon ē tis an khordēn psēleie 'as easy as falling off a log',

Mousikos II. of persons, skilled in music, musical, X.l.c., etc.; “poiētikoi kai m. andres” Pl.Lg.802b;
III. of things, elegant, delicate, “brōmata” Diox.1; “hēdion ouden, oude -ōteron” Philem.23; harmonious, fitting, “trophē mesē kai m., ton Dōrion tropon tēs tukhēs hōs alēthōs hērmosmenē”

Rev. 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Thêrion , to (in form Dim. of thêr), wild animal in Satyric drama, was called sikinnis or sikinnon. IV. Astron., the constellation Lupus,
III. as a term of reproach, beast, creature

Sicinnis, a nymph of Cybele, although originally danced in honour of Sabazios, The Old Wineskin god even at Mount Sinai.

Plat. Phaedrus 240 has mingled with most of them some temporary pleasure; so, for instance, a flatterer is a horrid creature and does great harm, yet Nature has combined with him a kind of pleasure that is not without charm, and one might find fault with a courtesan as an injurious thing, and there are many other such creatures and practices which are yet for the time being very pleasant; but a lover is not only harmful to his beloved

kolax , a^kos, o(, A. flatterer, fawner, parasite, Eup.159.1, Antisth. ap. D.L.6.4.

2. in later Gr., = Att. goēs, Moer. p.113 P.

II. lisping pronunciation of korax, Ar.V.45.

Goēs , ētos,

A. sorcerer, wizard, Phoronis 2, Hdt.2.33,4.105, Pl.R. 380d, Phld.Ir.p.29 W.; “g. epōdos Ludias apo khthonos” E.Ba.234, cf. Hipp.1038; prob. f.l. for boēsi Hdt.7.191.

2. juggler, cheat, “deinos g. kai pharmakeus kai sophistēs” Pl.Smp.203d; “deinon kai g. kai sophistēn . . onomazōn” D.18.276; “apistos g. ponēros” Id.19.109; “magos kai g.” Aeschin.3.137: Comp. “goētoteros”

Epōd-os , on, （epadō）

A. singing to or over, using songs or charms to heal wounds, “epōdoi muthoi” Pl.Lg.903b. A BURDEN.

b. Subst., enchanter, “e. kai goēs” E.Hipp. 1038 (but “goēs e.” Ba.234): c. gen., a charm for or against, “ethusen hautou paida epōdon Thrēkiōn aēmatōn” A.Ag.1418 ; e. tōn toioutōn one to charm away such fears, Pl.Phd.78a.

The beast is: hê mousikê ae iti kainon thêriontiktei

III. as a term of reproach, beast, creature, hê mousikê aei ti kainon thêrion tiktei

A.  Mousikos, musical, agônes m. kai gumnikoi  choroi te kai agônes ta mousika music,  

II. of persons, skilled in music, musical, X.l.c., etc.; poiêtikoi kai m. andres ; kuknos [minstrel]  kai alla zôia; peri aulous - professional musicians, mousikos kai melôn poêtês, use with singing, skilled in speaking before a mob. Melody, 

Of the phrase

mousikê aei ti kainon thêrion tiktei

A. mousikos
B. aei always
C. kainos, esp. of new dramas, the representation of the new tragedies,  (Aphrodisias dedicated to Aphrodite (ZOE); comedy, sexual love, pleasure, a woman's form of oath, Aster or Venus or ZOE.
Therion
D. Tikto mostly of the mother 
E. of Rhea one of the zoogonic or vivific principles

Hdt. 1.155 [4] But pardon the Lydians, and give them this command so that they not revolt or pose a danger to you:
        send and forbid them to possess weapons of war,
        and order them to wear tunics under their cloaks and knee-boots on their feet,
        and to teach their sons lyre-playing [kitharizein]
        and song [psallein] and dance and shop-keeping. [kapēleuein]
And quickly, O king, you shall see them become women instead of men, so that you need not fear them, that they might revolt.”

Kapeleuo be a retail dealer, drive a petty trade, sell learning by retain, hawk it all about. “k. ton LOGOS tou theou (GOD)” 2 Ep.Cor.2.17; k. tēs hōras anthos or tēn hōran, of prostitutes,

Seee Isaiah 55 for Christ's promise of the free water of the Word not to be sold.

See Isaiah 58 where Christ outlawed seeking our own pleasure or speaking our own words.  There is nothing to traffick.

Acts 15:21 For Moses, from times long past,
        has his preachers in every town,
        reading his law in the Synagogues every Sabbath.

2 Cor 2.[17] For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

Adultĕro, I. Fig., to falsify, adulterate, or give a foreign nature to a thing, to counterfeit: “laser adulteratum cummi aut sacopenio aut fabā fractā,” Plin. 19, 3, 15, § 40: “jus civile pecuniā,” Cic. Caecin. 26: “simulatio tollit judicium veri idque adulterat,” id. Lael. 25, 92; id. Part. 25, 90: “adulterantes verbum,” Vulg. 2 Cor. 2, 17.—Poet. of Proteus: “faciem,”

Simulatio I. a falsely assumed appearance, a false show, feigning, shamming, pretence, feint, insincerity, deceit, hypocrisy, simulation, etc. (class. and very freq.; cf. imitatio). under pretence of a divine command, Tac. H. 2, 61.

OSTENTATIO. In gen., a showing, exhibition, display A. An idle show, vain display, pomp, parade, ostentation (the predom. signif. of the word)

Plat. Prot. [313d] For among the provisions, you know, in which these men deal, not only are they themselves ignorant what is good or bad for the body, since in selling they commend them all, but the people who buy from them are so too, unless one happens to be a trainer or a doctor.
        And in the same way, those who take their doctrines the round of our cities,
        hawking them about to any odd purchaser who desires them,
        commend everything that they sell, and there may well be some of these too,
        my good sir, who are ignorant which of their wares is

"Corrupting the Word" is "selling lerning at retail, adultery."

Ar.Eq.522,
Aristoph. Kn. 507 it is not without grounds that he has courted the shade, for, in his opinion, nothing is more difficult than to cultivate the comic Muse; many court her, but very few secure her favours. Moreover, he knows that you are fickle by nature and betray your poets when they grow old. [520] What fate befell Magnes, when his hair went white? Often enough had he triumphed over his rivals; he had sung in all keys, played (psallōn) the lyre

SEVENTH: 2. later, sing to a harp, LXX Ps.7.18, 9.12, 

There is no harp in any of these Psalms

Psa. 7:6 Arise, O LORD, in thine anger,
        lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies:
        and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.
Psa. 7:7 So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about:
        for their sakes therefore return thou on high.
Psa. 7:8 The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD,
        according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

Psa. 7:13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death;
        he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

All plucking or playing words implicate warfare.

Psa. 7:17 I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness:
        and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.

Praise is always confessing God and His Word.

Confĭtĕor , fessus, 2 (arch. II. Esp., after the Aug. per., sometimes, to reveal, manifest, make known, show.
II. In eccl. writers, to confess, own, acknowledge: Christum, Prud. steph. 5, 40.— With dat.: “tibi, Domine,” Vulg. Psa. 137, 1: “nomini tuo,” id. ib. 141, 8.—Absol., Cypr. Ep. 15.—confessus , a, 

Psalm 9.[12] psallite Domino qui habitat in Sion adnuntiate inter gentes studia eius

EIGHTH:  “tē kardia” Ep.Eph.5.19; tō pneumati

 Kardia 2. inclination, desire, purpose, as the seat of feeling and passion, as rage or anger, “oidanetai kradiē Kholō” Il.9.646;

Notice the semicolon

tē kardia” Ep.Eph.5.19; tō pneumati Is IN THE PLACE of the heart

Paul said 
Speak one to another
                    \ With
                             \Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (all "that which is written")
Singing AND psalloing
                \In the heart and to God

This would be a common expression to readers:

The man who was dying blessed me; I made the widow's heart sing. Jb.29:13

So my heart laments for Moab like a flute;
        it laments like a flute for the men of Kir Hareseth.
        The wealth they acquired is gone. Je.48:36
My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
        my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. Is.16:11
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.Lu.1:47
        Therefore did my heart rejoice,
        and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Ac.2:26

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. Lu.10:21

Plautus, Curculio CAPPADOX My spleen is killing me, my reins are in torment, my lungs are being torn asunder, my liver is being tortured, my heart-strings are giving way, all my intestines are in pain.

Hecuba Alas! a dreadful trial is near, it seems, [230] full of mourning, rich in tears. Yes, I too escaped death where death had been my due, and Zeus did not destroy me but is still preserving my life, that I may witness in my misery fresh sorrows surpassing all before. But if the bond may ask the free of things that do not GRIEVE them or WRENCH their heart-strings, you ought to speak in answer to my questions and I ought to hear what you have to say

GREGORY OF NYSSA (died c394)

8 . Now since man is a rational animal,
the instrument of his body must be made suitable for the use of reason;
as you may see musicians producing their music according to the form of their instruments,

and not piping with harps nor harping upon flutes,

so it must needs be that the organization of these instruments of ours should be adapted for reason, that when struck by the vocal organs it might be able to sound properly for the use of words.

2. And as some skilled musician, who may have been deprived by some affection of his own voice, and yet wish to make his skill known,

might make melody with voices of others,
and publish his art by the aid of flutes or of the lyre,

so also the human mind being a discoverer of all sorts of conceptions, seeing that it is unable, by the mere soul, to reveal to those who hear by bodily senses the motions of its understanding, touches, like some skilful composer, these animated instruments, and makes known its hidden thoughts by means of the sound produced upon them.

THIS WAS ALWAYS THE MEANING IN A RELIGIOUS SENSE, AS OPPOSED TO MAKING WAR AND SEX.

Psalmus , i, m., = psalmos, i. q. psalma, I. a psalm (eccl. Lat.; cf.: “carmen, hymnus),” Tert. adv. Prax. 11; Lact. 4, 8, 14; 4, 12, 7; Vulg. Isa. 38, 20.—Esp., the Psalms of David, Vulg. Luc. 20, 42; id. Act. 13, 33 et saep

PLAYING and AN INSTRUMENT always uses a compound word such as:

Kat-auleō ,A. charm by flute-playing, tinos Pl.Lg.790e, cf. R.411a; tina Alciphr.2.1: metaph., se . . -ēsō phobō I will flute to you on a ghastly flute, E.HF871 (troch.):—Pass., of persons, methuōn kai katauloumenos drinking wine to the strains of the flute, Pl.R.561c; k. pros khelōnidos psophon to be played to on the flute with lyre accompaniment,  

2. make a place sound with flute-playing, Thphr.Fr.87:— Pass., resound with flute-playing, “nēsos katēuleito” Plu.Ant.56.

II. in Pass., [ton monokhordon kanona parekhein tais aisthēsesi . . katauloumenon subdued by a flute accompaniment,   to be piped down, ridiculed, “gelōmenoi kai -oumenoi”  

III. c. acc. rei, play on the flute, “ta mētrōa”  , to have played to one as an accompaniment on the flute, -“oumenoi pros tōn hepomenōn ta mētrōa melē”

Eph. 5:18 And be not drunk  [methuōn] with wine, wherein is excess;
        but be filled with the Spirit; (The Word of Christ Col 3:16; John 6:63)
Eph. 5:19 Speaking to yourselves
                    \ in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
                             \ singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Eph. 5:20 Giving thanks [praying] always for all things unto God and the Father
         in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Hymns are prayers: you cannot be worshiping God if you are getting eraptured over the boy and girl singers always a mark of gender confusion by the leaders.

Epi-psallō ,

A. play the lyre, S.Fr.60, Poll.4.58（Pass.); “melesi kai rhuthmois” 
                SING, “tous humnous” LXX 2 Ma.1.30:—30 - Then the priests sang the hymns.

Psallo means to pluck and make a sound: it does not include either melody or rhythm.

Katapsallō ,
A. play stringed instruments to, [“sumposion kataulein kai k.” Pass., have music played to one, enjoy music, ib.785e; of places, resound with music, Id.Ant.56.

2. Pass., to be buried to the sound of music, Procop.Pers.2.23.

3. metaph., katapsalletai . . ho dēmiourgos is drummed out, Porph.

Hab. 2:19 Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
Hab. 2:20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

COMMENTARY

The Greek word psallo simply means to pluck. It was first used to pluck a bow string or a harp string or the excess hair on a male prostitute. When you suddenly let go the meaning includes to hurt or grind the enemy into a fine powder.

With no authority for Musical Instruments as tools of worship, the Greek word PSALLO is used to show that God actually commanded musical worship. This is not true.

Summary: An inspired passage from the Bible written as prose was not written so that it could be accompanied with a mechanical instrument.

However, an inspired passage written in a poetic form can be "spoken in the heart", spoken out loud, sung, or played with a mechanical accompaniment.

By saying "song" we mean that we can use it to meditate, speak, sing or sing with an instrument.By this definition we do not demand that either be done.

Therefore, when Paul told the early Christians to speak the psalms one to another he knew that a psalm could be chanted by a group while prose is not usually suitable. The psalms which he commaned are from the Greek noun form:

Psalmos (g5568) psal-mos'; from 5567; a set piece of music, i.e. a sacred ode (accompanied with the voice, harp or other instrument; a "psalm"); collect. the book of the Psalms: - psalm. Comp. 5603 (an ode).

Proponents of musical rituals insist that a "psalmos" necessarily includes a mechanical instrument. However, look again at the definition from Strong's even though scholarship denies that it included instruments at the time:

A sacred (inspired) ode

Accompanied by the

Voice

Harp

or other Instrument

The Britannica or Click Here Notes That:

"Music, like the word, also may have symbolic meaning. The basic elements out of which musical symbolism is built are sounds, tones, melodies, harmonies,

and the various musical instruments,

among which is the human voice.

Sound effects can have a numinous (spiritual) character and may be used to bring about contact with the realm of the holy. A specific tone may call one to an awareness of the holy, make the holy present, and produce an experience of the holy.

This may be done by means of drums, gongs, bells, or other instruments.

The ritual instruments can, through their shape or the materials from which they are made, have symbolic meaning. The Uitoto in Colombia, for example, believe that all

the souls of their ancestors are contained in the ritual drums. (See liturgical music BM members.)

Strabo, Geography [10.3.9] But I must now investigate how it comes about that so many names have been used of one and the same thing, and the theological element contained in their history.

Now this is common both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to perform their sacred rites in connection with the relaxation of a festival, these rites being performed sometimes with religious frenzy, sometimes without it; sometimes with music, sometimes not; and sometimes in secret, sometimes openly.

And it is in accordance with the dictates of nature that this should be so, for, in the first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and,

secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and,

thirdly, the secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses; and,

fourthly, music, which includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the delight it affords and by its artistic beauty,

brings us in touch with the divine, and this for the following reason;

for although it has been well said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing good to others,

yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy, and engaging in music; for,

if music is perverted when musicians turn their art to sensual delights at symposiums and in orchestric and scenic performances and the like,

we should not lay the blame upon music itself, but should rather examine the nature of our system of education, since this is based on music.

AUGUSTINE: on the Morals of the Manichaeans riducules them for believing that the gods came out of brass and other things by rubbing or abrading (making melody with them). Augustin uses figurative language much like Paul's warning that our melody must never be external but in the heart:

Augustine on the Psalms noted that making melody external is a work which David always performed trying to find God whom he believed had become lost:

"Make melody unto the Lord upon the harp: on the harp and with the voice of a Psalm" (ver. 5). Praise Him not with the voice only; take up works, that ye may not only sing, but work also.

He who singeth and worketh,

maketh melody with psaltery and upon the harp.

Therefore, Augustine makes the harp figurative:

Now see what sort of instruments are next spoken of, in figure: "With ductile trumpets also, and the sound of the pipe of horn" (ver. 6). What are ductile trumpets, and pipes of horn?

Ductile trumpets are of brass: they are drawn out by hammering; if by hammering, by being beaten,

ye shall be ductile trumpets, drawn out unto the praise of God, if ye improve when in tribulation: tribulation is hammering, improvement is the being drawn out. Job was a ductile trumpet.

When one speaks to teach and admonish one another Paul outlaws the nerve-frazzling forms of instrumental pagan "singing" where external singing was always a secular act. The spiritual form of worship was to teach the inspired word with "melody" in the heart. In a parallel passage to the Colossians, the "melody" means with "grace" in the heart. When one speaks with a "lilting voice" they are speaking melodiously or gracefully - but not with an instrument.

Paul makes it clear that the "psalmos" which is to be sung is accompanied with the instrument of the "harp of God" or the fruit of the lips. The verb form "psallo" or the method of making the melody is in the heart gracefully.

If Paul had not made this distinction there would have been no difference between the carnal worship of the pagans and the "in spirit and in truth" worship which Jesus accetps. If he had not made the distinction there would have been no difference between the pagan singing in the Corinthians pagan temples with instruments and Christian speaking or chanting which is a Christian group activity.

Lipscomb wrote as late as 1878 that:

We do not think anyone has ever claimed authority from Scriptures to use the organ in worship. They only claim it is not condemned. It is used as an assister in worship...Prayer, praise, thanksgiving and making melody in the heart (mind) unto the Lord are acts of worship ordained of God, but no authority do we find for the organ."

We cannot, therefore, have much confidence in modern efforts of musical churches to "evangelize" everyone into theatrical performance which can never be "worship in spirit and in truth." Only as a last resort, having abandoned the Bible, is "contending over words" used to force people into something they would never promote to the point of creating a sectarian division between God's people.

---

It should be noted that if "instruments" are inherent in the word psallo then each singer must have their own instrument or they cannot psallo. If all human experience is not adequate, it may help to summarize some of the evidence which denies that psallo gives the authority for instrumental worship. First, look at one of the examples:

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Ephesians 5:19

These are all the inspired text of the Bible and are therefore "Spirit" or the product of Jesus Christ as Spirit or Word.

Hymns "was that part of the Hallel consisting of Psalms 113-118; where the verb itself is rendered 'to sing praises' or 'praise' Acts 16:25; Heb 2:12. The Psalms are called, in general, 'hymns,' by Philo; Josephus calls them 'songs and hymns.'" Vine on Humneo 

We can settle the issue quickly and you can move on. Psallo does not meant just "play the harp." If Psallo still meant to sing a song with musical accompaniment then Paul said:

Speaking (teaching, dialoguing) to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

(singing) and (singing with instruments) in your heart to the Lord; Ephesians 5:19

Well, don't accuse the Holy Spirit of Christ with being confused!

Or is this typical parallelism which says:

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

Which just says in another parallel way:

singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Ephesians 5:19

The object was not what we call "worship" or God-directed, it was one-another directed to teach and admonish.

We will see that the "oding" was an act of the community and it cannot be done by one person to a group any more than speaking or dialog can be a team ministry.

From "filling up with the Spirit" or "the Word of Christ" in Colossians 3:16 the actions are:

be informed of the words of Christ (Spirit Eph 5:18; John 6:63),
speak those words one to another,
the result will be teaching and warning one another,
we will honor Christ by recycling His Words back to Him or else they are void (Isa 55)
and there will be unity which can come only through unison-type dialog and singing.

Looking at What Messiah Would bring to the World.

In Isaiah 11 Messiah would not be filled with a "little person" other than Himself. He was and is full Deity. Rather, Isaiah predicted that the Spirit which rested upon Him would be the mental disposition of God:

And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; Isaiah 11:2 and spirituality or "quick understanding" in the next verse.

This was the APPROVED PATTERN: The Spirit of Wisdom would rest on Jesus before He began to SPEAK in the synagogues and PREACH in all of the cities.

He left that Spirit in His Words. Later, Isaiah defines a process much like that defined by Paul in his "singing" passages.

As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and

my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed,

nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. Isaiah 59:21

Christ supplies all of our food stuffs for both body and soul. This form of presenting Christ's revelation is not new to Paul; it appears throughout the Word.

In Ephesians 4 and 5 Paul described the assembly of the pagans where wine, singing, instrumental music and dancing was used to create an artificial "spirit" so that they "prophesied." We would hear this as speaking in tongues. In chapter 4 and 5 Paul also shows that God pours out His wrath by the use of wrathful men who are identified by the modern form of out-of-your-mind charismatic preaching, shouting, hand waving and dancing across the stage. The Church Fathers identified as God inducing an effete principle, as with Saul, and this was supposed to cause people to just consider him mad.

Wherefore be ye not unwise (egotistical, ignorant, lacking understanding as in 1 Cor 14:20), but understanding what the will (what Jesus taught) of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:17

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Ephesians 5:18

Speaking (speaking or dialoging) to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Ephesians 5:19

"Philo uses humnos regularly for the OT Psalms."

Even before the time of Paul there was often a clear distinction between the melody of the song and the musical instrument.

Aristotle, Rhetoric notes

[1408a][1] for instance "having gone and having conversed with him," or, "having gone, I conversed with him."Also the practice of Antimachus is useful, that of describing a thing by the qualities it does not possess; thus, in speaking of the hill Teumessus,1 hesays,

There is a little windswept hill;

for in this way amplification may be carried on ad infinitum. This method may be applied to things good and bad, in whichever way it may be useful.

Poets also make use of this in inventing words, as a melody "without strings" or "without the lyre"

Euripides, Alcetis

Chorus

Under his shepherd care, in joy at his songs, were also spotted lynxes, [580] and there came, leaving the vale of Othrys, a pride of tawny lions, and the dappled fawn stepping beyond the tall fir-trees with its light foot [585]

danced to your lyre-playing,

rejoicing in your joyful melody.

Plato, Laws

Book 7[812d] Athenian

So, to attain this object, both the lyre-master and his pupil

must use the notes of the lyre, because of the distinctness of its strings, assigning to the notes of the song notes in tune with them;

but as to divergence of sound and variety in the notes of the harp,

when the strings sound the one tune
and the composer of the melody another,

or when there results a combination of low and high notes, of slow and quick time, of sharp and grave,

Kitharistes lyre player

Note 1 i.e. the notes (single) of the instrument must be in accord with those of the singer's voice [melody].

"The tune, as composed by the poet, is supposed to have comparatively few notes, to be in slowish time, and low down in the register;

whereas the complicated variation, which he is condemning, has many notes, is in quick time, and high up in the register." (England.)

1911 Britannica Music

But the only clue we have to the mental process by which in a preharmonic age different characteristics can be ascribed to scales identical in all but pitch,

is to be found in the limited compass of Greek musical sounds, corresponding as it does to the evident sensitiveness of the Greek ear to differences in VOCAL EFFORT.

We have only to observe the compass of the Greek scale to see that in the MOST ESTEEMED modes it is much more the compass of SPEAKING 'than of singing voices.

Modern singing is normally at a much higher pitch than that of the speaking voice, but there is no natural reason, outside the peculiar nature of modern music, why this should be so.

It is highly probable that all modern singing would strike a classical Greek ear as an OUTCRY; and in any case such variations of pitch as are inconsiderable in modern singing are extremely emphatic in the speaking voice,

so that they might well make all the difference to an ear unaccustomed to organized sound beyond the speaking compass.

Again, much that Aristoxenus and other ancient authorities say of the character of the modes (or keys) tends to confirm the view that that character depends upon the position of the mese or keynote within the general compass. Thus Aristotle (Politics, v. (viii.) 7, 1342 b. 20)

states that certain low-pitched modes suit the voices of old men,

and thus we may conjecture that even the position of tones and semitones might in the Dorian and Phrygian modes bring the bolder portion of the scale in all three genera into the best regions of the average young voice,

while the Ionian and Lydian might lead the voice to dwell more upon semitones and enharmonic intervals, and so account for the heroic character of the former and the SENSUAL character of the latter (Plato, Republic, 398 to 400).

Pausanias, Description of Greece

[5] There is a statue of Pronomus, a very great favorite with the people for his playing on the flute. For a time flute-players had three forms of the flute. On one they played Dorian music; for Phrygian melodies flutes of a different pattern were made; what is called the Lydian mode was played on flutes of a third kind. It was Pronomus who

first devised a flute

equally suited for every kind of melody,

and was the first to play on the same instrument music so vastly different in form

Libanios 60.8-12

Did the fire begin at the top, and spread to the rest -- his head, his face, his phiale, his kithara, his foot-length tunic? Citizens, I direct my soul to the form of the god, and my mind sets his likeness before my eyes, his face so gentle, his stone neck so soft, his girdle across his chest that holds his tunic in place, so that some of it is drawn taut, other parts allowed to billow out. Did not the whole composition soothe the spirit to rest?

For he seemed like one singing a melody,

(PLUS) and one could hear him strumming, so they say, at noon-tide.

Ah, blessed ears that did so! For his song was in praise of our country. And I see him as if pouring a libation from his golden bowl . . . and as the fire spreads it destroys first the Apollo, almost touching as he does the roof, then the other statues,

the Muses fair, the portraits of the Founders, the sparkling stones, the graceful columns.

We noted that the Greek demands speaking to one another in a liturgical sense, while the pagans used singing, instrumental and dancing groups to perform for the paying audience. This was a violation of the Christian principle of a "one another" ministry.

The Theologial Dictionary of the New Testament notes that:

"In the NT there is still no precise differentiation between ode, psalmos, and humnos. e.g., in Col.3:16 or Eph.5:19, in contrast to a later time,

when ode (canticum) came to be used only for biblical songs (apart from the Psalms) used in liturgy.

From the NT passages we may gather the following elements in the concept or the Christian ode as also confirmed from other sources.

(Sing in Ephesians 5:19 is Ode (g5603) o-day'; from 103; a chant or "ode" the gen. term for any words sung)

"a. Odai are the cultic songs of the community. They are not sung by the individual, but by the community gathered for worship...

Of a piece with this is the anonymity or the early authors, as also the attachment to OT tradition. Only in the 2nd century are the authors sometimes mentioned. In the Didascalia, 2, p..5.29, we can still read: 'It thou desirest hymns, thou hast the Psalms of David."'

(5) And He says by another: "Depart from me; the sound of thine hymns, and the psalms of thy musical instruments, I will not hear."

"b. The ode is inspired. This is shown by the epithet pneumatikos, though it does indicate more generally its religious character. . . . With the inspiration or hymns is linked their improvisation, e.g., in I C. 14:26 (cr. Acts 4:24); Tert. adv. Marc., 5,b; Apolog. 39,18." (Note: and condemned, we might add).

In Acts 1:20 psalmos is the book of Psalms and in Rom. 15: sing is psallo.

"Psallo is best translated by chant,

not sing.

The Greeks sharply distinguish chanting (psalmodia)

from singing (tragoudi).

The first is a sacred activity;

the second, a secular one. In English, unfortunately, the distinction is not sharp.. Constantine Cavarnos

The Head must be in charge as the only performer (See the above table):

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;

teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing (no instruments included) with grace (divine influence) in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:16

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:17

Paul is not confused about pagan singing to enthuse or exhilarate but connectes it to external teaching of God's Word and internal singing to God:

O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name:

make known his deeds among the people. Psalm 105:1

 

Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;

let this be known to all the world. Isaiah 12:5

The Definitions Used in the New Testament

Words are defined by how they are used in the Bible. If one sings a psalm with the accompaniment of a harp then the person is singing with a harp. By analogy, if one is eating "wine" from the cluster and it is obviously not intoxicating. It it bubbles in the vat and exhilarates and then intoxicates then this wine is intoxicating. The same is true of psallo.

"The very oldest of these psalms, a number of which point to David as their author,

are not liturgical congregational hymns,

but were originally individual prayer-songs, which emanated from personal experience,

but were, in later times, employed for congregational use..." Int Std Bible Ency., The Religion of Israel.

We might add that the preamble such as: "Upon the harp" or "To the tune of Lilly of the Valley" were added to the simple poems after death because they were the personal property of the composer, just as American Indian chants belong to them alone.

We have no evidence of congregational singing with instrumental accompaniment as worship in the Bible. The clergy performed the music in the Temple before the priests while the "congregation" even outside of the walls fell and "worshipped" when they heard the trumpet blast.

The common people were put outside the gates or "outside the camps" where they met God while the temple, sacrificial or civil-state rituals were taking place.

There was no praise service in the synagogue!

Zodhiates': Lexical Aids To The New Testament, pg. 1769 "...Actually a touching, and then a touching of the harp or other stringed instruments with the finger or with the plectrum; later known as the instrument itself, and finally it became known

as the song sung (Note: this says that psallo was assigned to the song which they sang with the instrument. Therefore, if you want to add secular melody you need to specify the instrument. Paul did: he called it the heart and not the harp)

with the musical accompaniment.

This latest state of its meaning, 'psalm,' was adopted in the Septuagint.

"In all probability the psalms of Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16 are the inspired psalms of the Hebrew Canon. The word certainly designates these on all other occasions when it occurs in the New Testament, with the one possible exception of I Corinthians 14:26..." (Our Note: this would agree with the idea that in Corinth they were singing the self-composed songs of paganism which didn't need both mind and spirit engaged.)

It should also be noted that the Septuagint also takes a dim view of most musical passages while other versions can be distorted to see God giving approval. For instance in the Septuagint or LXX:

You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. Amos 6:5 NIV

"who excel in the sound of musical instruments; they have regarded them as abiding, not as fleeting pleasure." Amos 6:5 LXX

Without knowing that Amos was condemning the marzeah which was a festival with and for the dead ancestor or god we might see him condemning the idleness and not the music. However, Jesus read the LXX and would have known that Amos was condemning religious festivals which had no abiding value. At the same time they neglected the Scriptures. This symbol of music and an idle disregard of the Word are common themes in the notes which follow. Jesus would call the "vain worship" at best because they invented and improvized and it was, therefore, by the rules of men.

Justin's Dialog with Trypho the Jew translates this passage--

Who applaud at the sound of the musical instruments;

      they reckon them as stable, and not as fleeting.

Who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments,

     but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.  

Christ came that we might "anoint" ourselves with His words so that we might teach or educate and grieve or admonish one another with the melody (grinding to bits) left in the human heart.

Music, here, is used as a metaphor for those who anoint themselves with wine, music, and effeminate perfume because they see their external body as the lasting part and neglect the spirit or mind.

Vincent's: Word Studies Of The New Testament, Vol. III, pg. 269-270 "...The noun psalm (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; I Cor. 14:26), which is etymologically akin to this verb (psallo in I Cor. 14:15 DEM), is used in the New Testament of a religious song in general, having the character of an Old Testament psalm...

"Some think that the verb has here its original signification of singing with an instrument. This is its dominant sense in the Septuagint, and both Basil and Gregory of Nyssa define a psalm as implying instrumental accompaniment...

"But neither Basil nor Ambrose nor Chrysostom, in their panegyrics upon music, mention instrumental music, and Basil expressly condemns it. Bingham dismisses the matter summarily, and cites Justin Martyr as saying expressly that instrumental music was not used in the Christian Church. The verb is used here in the general sense of singing praise."

CONEYBEARE AND HOWSON: "Throughout the whole passage there is a contrast implied between the Heathen and the Christian practice, q.d. When you meet, let your enjoyment consist, not in fulness of wine, but fulness of the Spirit; let your songs be, not the drinking-songs of heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the lyre, but the melody of the heart; while you sing them to the praise. not of Bacchus or Venus, but of the Lord Jesus Christ." (P.775, n. 5.)

Ephesians 5:19 enjoins: (1) Speaking TO ONE ANOTHER in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; (2) singing (adontes) and making melody (psallontes, psalming) with your heart TO THE LORD. (One is done with voice and lips, the other with the heart.)

Playing and singing or praising was a warrior's practice.

The bow, bow string and arrow "twangs." When, you hear this it is not "music" but you look down to see where the arrow "made melody right into your bleeding heart."

P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses See more by Clicking Below.

As wretched as my case doth seeme, yet have I left me mo

Than thou for all thy happinesse canst of thine owne account.

Even after all these corses yet I still doe thee surmount.

Upon the ende of these same wordes the twanging of the string

In letting of the Arrow flie was clearly heard: which thing

Made every one save Niobe afraide. Hir heart was so

With sorrowe hardned, that she grew more bolde. Hir daughters tho

Were standing all with mourning weede and hanging haire before

Their brothers coffins. One of them in pulling from the sore

An Arrow sticking in his heart, sanke downe upon hir brother

PSALLO: From psao, to rub, to wipe; to handle, to touch (Thayer): Liddell and Scott.- I. To touch sharply, to pluck, pull. twitch;

to twang the bow-string;

to send a shaft twanging from the bow;

so, schoinos miltophures psallomene a carpenter's red line,

which is twitched and then let suddenly go, so as to leave a mark. II.

To play a stringed instrument with the fingers, not with the plectron.
Later, to sing to the harp,

sing, N.T.

The connection is that the BOW was a musical type instrument which SHOT OUT ARROWS. It is a fact that they also spoke of SHOOTING OUT HYMNS. Therefore, there is NO musical content in Psallo and that is why Paul said "keep it in your mind."

Psallo CANNOT include an instrument because the Greek word psalmODIA meant to sing with a harp. A harpIST or fluteIST defines other words and the musical performers claimed to be sorcerers but were known as parasites.

THAYER: Shows that psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are not necessarily different:

(Sym. humnos, psalmos, ode: ode is the generic term;

psal. and hum. are specific,

the former designating a song which took its general character from the O.T. 'Psalms' (although not restricted to them, see 1 Cor.14:15,26), the latter a song of praise. (Note: these were also songs of ecstasy sung with the mind disengaged)

"While the leading idea of psalm is a musical accompaniment,

and that If hum. praise to God, ode is the general word for song, whether accompanied or unaccompanied, whether of praise or on any other subject.

Thus it was quite possible for the same song to be at once psalmos, humnos and ode (Bp. Lightft. on Col-3:16). See Trench, Syn, Syn. sec. lxxviii.)

Thayer: a. To pluck off, pull out: the hair. b. To cause to vibrate by touching, to twang; spec. to touch or strike the chord, to touch the strings of a musical instrument, to play the harp, etc.;

The idea is not to "make music" because Psallo is restricted to touching or yanking ONLY with the fingers.

Sept. for zamar and much oftener for nagan; to sing to the music of the harp; (Condemned: see below)

In the N.T. to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praise of God in song, Jas.5:13; Eph.5:13; Rom.15:9; 1 Cor.14:15 .

Evolution of Psallo: 1. From psao, to rub, to wipe; to handle, to touch. 2. To touch sharply. 3. To pluck off, or pull out, as the hair. 4. To pull, twitch, as a carpenter's line. 5. To twang the bow-string. 6. To send an arrow twanging from the bow. 7. To twang the strings of a musical instrument. 8. To play the harp or other stringed instrument with the fingers. 9. To sing to the accompaniment of the harp or other stringed instrument.

10. To sing (whether accompanied or not,

and in Christian context it was not in New Testament times and for some centuries later).

11. Currently used of chanting

This word is derived from the word yavw (psao), which in ancient Greek originally meant to rub, to wipe; to handle, touch (Thayer references Aeschylus, d. 456 BC). .. later in "Classical Greek", "psallo" meant to pluck off, to cause to vibrate by touching, to twang (ref. to Euripades, d. 406 BC), or to touch, to strike the chord, to twang the strings (ref. Aristotle, d. 322 BC), to play on a stringed instrument, to play the harp (ref. Aristotle again, Aratus, 270 BC, and Plutarch*, d. AD 120). * Other writers of Classical Greek contemporary with the N.T. age also used the word in reference to the playing of an instrument (Strabo, Josephus, Lucian),

but scholars universally recognize a clear distinction between the "Classical Greek" of these and other writers,

and the "Koine Greek" in which the N.T. is written.

Thus Thayer makes a distinction between the Classical Greek usage of "psallo," and the Koine use of the word and says, "In the N.T. to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praises of God in song."

Romans 15:9 (immediate context: Rom. 15:7-12)

. . . and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, "Therefore

I will give praise to Thee among the Gentiles,

And I will sing to Thy name."

"Psallo is best translated by chant, not sing. The Greeks sharply distinguish

chanting (psalmodia) from singling (tragoudi).

The first is a sacred (chanting or speaking) activity; the second, a secular (singing) one.

"In English, unfortunately, the distinction is not sharp, and the word singing is frequently employed to refer to the sacred activity of chanting.

A Greek would never,

never say tragoudo (I sing),

instead of psallo;

the two terms have connotations and associations which are worlds apart --

the first is related to the earthly realm,

the second to the heavenly."

(Letter to James D. Bales of Harding University, September 22, 1959, from Constantine Cavarnos, of the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 113 Gilbert Road, Belmont 78, Massachusetts.)

"Your letter to the St. Anthony Guild concerning the Greek word psallo has been referred to me, an editor of the new English Catholic version of the Old Testament. You ask the question:

'Does the use of mechanical instruments of music inhere in the Greek word Psallo as used in the New Testament?'

The answer is no.

The meaning of this word in the New Testament usage is simply 'I sing a sacred hymn in honor of God."' (Letter to Dr. James D. Bales from Father Stephen Hartdegen, C.P.M., Holy Name College, Franciscan House of Studies, 14th & Shepherd Streets, NE, Washington 17, DC)

Arndt and Gingrich on Psallo: "Abs sing/praise Js.5:13, M-M."

"Continually I stand amazed at the scholarship in the Arndt-Gingrich lexicon. It is my understanding that under the direction of Dr. Gingrich you are now revising that lexicon. On the word psallo, since Thayer, Green, Abbott-Smith, etc., limit the New Testament meaning to sing praises, I would appreciate the reasoning that brought Doctors Arndt and Gingrich to insert "to the accompaniment of the harp" in relationship to Romans 15:19; Ephesians 5:19; and 1 Corinthians 14:15. Further, why is the phrase excluded in relationship to James 5:13. (Hugo McCord to Dr. Frederick W. Danker)

Response: It was so kind of you to take the time to make your inquiry regarding the word psallo. I see by comparison with Bauer's first edition that the editors of A.-G. have incorporated the

obvious Old Testament meaning

into the metaphorical usage of the New Testament.

Bauer did not make this mistake, and we will be sure to correct it in the revision. I doubt whether the archaeologists can establish the use of the harp in early Christian services.

The revision of the Arndt/Gingrich lexicon gives this definition of psallo: . . . This process continued until

psallo in Modern Greek means 'sing' exclusively . . .

with no reference to instrumental accompaniment . . .

Moulton and Milligan: "Psallo, 'play on a harp,' but in the NT, as in Jas-5:13 = "sing a hymn."

We are forced to contend over words when words are used to force God to say what He never said but rather refuted throughout the Bible's reference to music.

Don't get personal: this is not about what you are allowed to do. That is not my job. It is about honestly handling the Words of Christ the Spirit. If we mishandle the word psallo then our conclusions will be wrong and the division always created over music between "internal" thinkers and "external" thinkers will never end.

Click for more details. We will see that all Bible properly read and all of the external witnesses prove that worship singing was without instruments.

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