Introduction

Summary

The present publication is the first compendium of musical instruments and instrumental terminology in the Bible. It is at the same time both a reference book and a piece of a serious scholarly research based on historical facts, comparative linguistic analysis, and careful musical study. It is intended for specialists in different spheres of the humanities: musicologists, theologians, historians, philologists and Bible translators, as well as for all those who would like to have deeper understanding of the Book of Books.

In investigating the subject of musical instruments in the Bible, various sources have been drawn on, including the main existing translations of the Bible both ancient and modern, the treatises of the rabbinic teachers, the Christian Church Fathers and exegetes, and the works of medieval, Renaissance and present day scholars.

This compendium consists of seven chapters of which the first and the seventh are written as historical surveys. Chapter 1 describes the historical background of Hebrew instrumental music, its origins and links with neighbouring cultures (Egyptian, Assyrian, Hittite, Canaanite, etc.), the role of instruments in the religious, social, public and private life of ancient Israel, and the system of musical education. Also presented here are the latest achievements of musicologists (particularly organologists) in the field of Biblical study in co-operation with archaeologists and philologists. Chapter 7 traces the development of the Hebrew musical instruments in post-biblical times. It shows their new symbolic significance in the writings of the Church Fathers, and in the comments of medieval and Renaissance exegetes.