Lucian of Samosata: Psallo and Instrumental Music

6.01.11 Well prophesied in Revelation 17-18

The "speaking" connected with tongues outlaws instruments: when you speak the LOGOS it is opposite to music.

Ephesians 4 Unity in Diversity

Ephesians 5 Singing amd Making Melody

Clangs and Gongs in the Classics

Ephesians 6 We Wrestle not with Musical Instruments.

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.

Church is Ekklesia or Synagogue: both for instruction only: both exclusive of any performing arts: you don't do music when God's Word is taught. I submit that you cannot be a Christian if you do not understand the meaning of "teach them what I have commanded to be taught."

Premise: Lucian of Samosata made psallein include the lyre after the time of Paul, therefore Paul commanded instrumental music in worship. However, Lucian learned his Attic Greek from material written perhaps 400 years before the common language of communication of Paul's time. This word had excluded musical instruments as it is translated as "melody." In Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 Paul used the word "melody" to include "speaking" one to another and eleminating external melody by using the human voice as one of the allowable instruments to accompany Psalmos.

The Beginning of Musical Idolatry: Part Two of Lynn Anderson review. Isaiah 30 sees it as the sounds of God repaying his enemies driving them into "hell" with wind, string and percussion instruments.

Lynn Anderson Psallo justifies Instrumental Music and sowing of Discord. REVISED 9.13.08 to organize rough thoughts.

The Disciples tried and failed to grasp the word PSALLO for the first time in 1878. However, those who ignore earlier discussions, like Tome Burgess and all his repeaters, dig up quotes from the ancient texts to prove that psallo demands "playing a harp." However, the texts all speak of males PLUCKING the harp to seduce a "youth minister" for pederasty. THERE IS NO OTHER MEANING IN HISTORY.

They could have seen that Paul put the "melody" in the place of the human spirit which is the only place God seeks our worship. Further, the parallel word in Colossians 3 is GRACE. We might assume that the word psallo never belonged in Ephesians 5 because it is never used to mean melody and Paul guided by the Spirit OF Christ had words which DID include the instrument:

meloid-ia A.singing, chanting
lur-aoidos one who sings to the lyre,
auloid-os A.one who sings to the flute
psilociitharista One who plays without singing
chorokithar-eus A.one who plays the cithara to a chorus, (Aphrodisias ZOE)
psaltes a player on the cithara, a musician, minstrel

Jesus cast out the musical minstrels 'like dung' and consigned the pipers, singers and dancers to the marketplace FROM WHICH the "psallo rope" drove the slackers to the Ekklesia for verbal instruction only. That is because all of the singers with instruments were known as parasites.

parasitor, to play the parasite, to sponge: parasitarier, parasitando pascere ventres suos
Similar to kitharizein. See Plautus, Persa
cĭthărīzo , āre, kitharizô, to play on or strike the cithara, Nep. Epam. 2, 1; Vulg. Apoc. 14, 2.

Now, tell us that the Spirit OF Christ or Paul was so stupid that he did not know HOW to define singing AND playing in the external sense. In the HEART is a place.

A SUMMARY OF THE WORDS PSALLO AND PSALMOS

In 1 Cor 13 Paul compared LIFELESS INSTRUMENTS (or Carnal Weapons) to WITCHCRAFT with a hi-tek FAMILIAR SPIRIT or empty wineskin as an echo chamber to get a message from the "gods" or to the SOUNDING BRASS echo chamber which was used as an AMPLIFIER to frighten the enemy into panic. That is the base meaning of PSALLO. Psallo has the BASE meaning of:

Psocho (g5597) pso'-kho; prol. from the same base as 5567; to triturate, i.e. (by anal.) to rub out (kernels from husks with the fingers or hand): - rub.

TRITURATE means to Grind into a FINE POWDER. That was the intention of ALL musical instruments. That included the flute-girls meaning prostitutes who SEDUCED the customers in Corinth to steal their TITHES AND OFFERINGS before they could return home with food for the children.

Psalmos means a SONG. There is NO DEFINITION of "a song played with a harp." You would have to use THREE words: (1) sing, (2) PLUCK and (3) define WHAT is to be plucked.

Otherwise, instrumentalists get their AUTHORITY from the foot of the old towers of babbling where Nimrod had his own Musical Worship Team "to generate morals through external means."

Psalmos has the same meaning as our SONG. When we say "sing us a song" we do NOT mean "with a banjo." and IF we want to ADD the banjo then we must say SING us a SONG and PLAY (pluck) the BANJO. Still can't get it, huh."

Furthermore, Paul--Peter warned you about Paul and simplistic treatment of his "scriptures"--hit the ANTI- music theme from so many directions that only those WISHING to ignore the word could handle it with dishonesty. First, look at the word for SONG which is an ODE which excludes instruments and includes SPEAK except in those Greek resources which use Psallo to identify the usual PLUCKING on the harp. We have told you that EVERY example used to prove that Psallo INCLUDES plucking follows the same procedure: you MUST tell people what to PLUCK or they might yank out your hair. In addition, ALL of this plucking of the strings is in the context of homosexual grooming of a young boy where priests ALWAYS had their "youth ministers of the gods."

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.
Psalmus , i, m., = psalmos, i. q. psalma,
I. a psalm (eccl. Lat.; cf.: carmen, hymnus), Vulg. Isa. 38, 20.--Esp., the Psalms of David,
Canto I. Neutr., to produce melodious sounds (by the voice or an instrument), to sound, sing, play (class. in prose and poetry; rare in Cic.)

2. Of the singing pronunciation of an orator, to declaim in a singing tone, to sing, drawl: si cantas, male cantas, si legis, cantas

C. Hence, because the oracles were of old uttered in verse, of any mysterious, prophetic, or warning utterance, to predict, warn, point out, indicate, make known, say

When the word PSALMOS or SONG is to be sung the HUMAN VOICE is always the FIRST INSTRUMENT OF CHOICE unless you specify OTHERWISE. A BARE-BONES PSALMOS is an ODE and odes EXCLUDES instruments and excludes SINGING in our sense of the word.

Ode (g5603) o-day'; from 103; a chant or "ode" the gen. term for any words sung; while 5215 denotes espec. a religious metrical composition,
and 5568 (psalmos) still more spec. a Heb. CANTILLATION): - song.

Therefore, when you ODE the Psalms or inspired Bible Text you CANNOT have an instrument. If you can't grasp the INTERNAL melody or Grace and insist on using a HARP then Peter's warning is for YOU.

If you again ODE you have to shut your machine's MOUTH.

Using PSALLO we have shown you you can ONLY PLUCK strings which means to yank the string and suddenly LET GO to twang or LEAVE A MARK. That is because Apollo or Abaddon is the FATHER of musical melody and always plucked his BOW and his LYRE in the same event.

Because you rest the deliberate sowing of discord on PSALLO, you cannot STRUM or use a PICK. You cannot blow a flute (meaning to pollute or prostitute) you cannot beat on the cymbal which is a SYMBOL of the LOCUSTS in Hebrew.

According to the Britannica "Melody as TUNEFULNESS belongs to the 19th century." Even then, melody DEMANDS a series of SINGLE TONES and would OUTLAW harmony.

You see, the definition of an ODE makes it CLEAR that PSALMOS is a HEBREW CANTILLATION. You cannot SING and CANTILLATE at the same time any more than you can WALK and RUN at the same time.

By the pale moon light you can SEE that Paul used the word SPEAK. That means speak as in speak.

The SPEAKING was one to another to TEACH: you cannot SPEAK with your guitar pick or by body worship. Paul called them LIFELESS INSTRUMENTS which means CARNAL WEAPONS. You cannot battle principalities and powers in high places who BROUGHT you music to DIVERT you from God's Word by the use of INSTRUMENTS which all authorities admit are claimed to connect to the Devil or Lucifer "the singing and harp playing prostitute.'

The purpose as in the SYNAGOGUE OF CHRIST where He invites the twos and threes to "come learn of me" was to SPEAK, to TEACH and to ADMONISH.

There was a LAW against "playing instruments and making a joyful noise before the Lord" when you ASSEMBLED which was only for instructions, to read or rehearse the Word.

In Romans 15 PLEASURING (charismatic) is outlawed because the assembly was to GLORIFY GOD using one MIND and one MOUTH and speaking "that which is written." Those songs and sermons were written by the Spirit of Christ.

That is the meaning of ODEING or SPEAKING which was always UNISON until witchcraft and voodoo got into "gospel music" in the 19th century AWAKENINGS which were quite identical to devil worship in Iraq.

Paul warned in Ephesians 5 "don't get drunk with wine." That was a POINTY word which points to the Greek gatherings where one got FLUTED or PIPED down with wine: music and wine make a successful BUSINESS.

"But perhaps nothing was more characteristic of the mystery religions than what they called ecstasy. Believers in the mystery religions sought to cultivate a magical, sensuous communion with the divine. They would do almost anything to get themselves into a semiconscious, hallucinatory, hypnotic, or orgiastic spell in which they believed they were sensually in contact with deity. Some used wine to assist in the euphoric experience, as Paul implied in Ephesians 5:18. Whether from literal intoxication or emotional exhilaration, when worshipers fell into a state of euphoria, it was as if they had been drugged. They assumed they were in contact with God. (MacArthur, John, Charismatic Chaos, p. 164. Zondervan)

If you ODE the PSALMS Paul has told the AWAKE people that the MODE is not MUSICAL but is COMMANDED to be CANTILLATION. Cantillation is simply raising the pitch of the voice and stretching out the syllables with the normal inflection of SPEAK in order to make your voice heard by a crowd. There was no charismatic SINGING and no INSTRUMENTS in the synagogue or School of the Bible. They spoke the word, Jesus SPOKE the Word, Paul SPOKE the Word and DIRECTLY COMMANDED that we SPEAK the Word. How?

The Lucian proof that Lucian demanded that "psallo" includes musical instruments is below: Just Click

Conclusions for those who don't like to dig through the evidence:

Psallo was never a MUSICAL word: It means to twang a bow to send singing arrows into the literal heart: Apollo's swift death of male and female. One twangs a harp string like one twangs a bow string BUT, the word specificially EXCLUDES the plectrum: you twang a bow with the fingers and the word loses its meaning if you twang a harp string with a plectrum. In addition, you SHOOT FORTH hymns as one shoots forth arrows.

Deborah dwelled under palm tree to apply the Law. She was a Judge and not a worship leader. Because of failed male leadership she had to become the warrior chief of the nation.

And when they celebrated her victory as a warrior the NIV translates:

the voice of the singers at the watering places. They recite the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts of his warriors in Israel. Then the people of the LORD went down to the city gates. Judges 5:11NIV

Here is the Greek word the NIV translates singers:

Chacac (h2686) khaw-tsats'; a prim. root [comp. 2673 = split in half]; prop. to chop into, pierce or server; hence to curtail, to distribute (into ranks); as denom. from 2671, to shoot an arrow: - archer, * bands, cut off in the midst.

Therefore, there is nothing similar to singing or musicians in this passage. The KJv reads:

They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates. Judges 5:11KJV

"At the sound of those who divide flocks among the watering places, There they shall recount the righteous deeds of the Lord, The righteous deeds for His peasantry in Israel. Then the people of the Lord went down to the gates. Judges 5:11NAS

All words related to "music" or instruments have the same roots in a destructive practice. For instance, to praise David meant that they ridiculed Saul and drove a wedge between the friendship.

The word psallo in Greek is related to singing with instruments in its original meaning. The word is related to the twanging of bowstrings to send a "singing" arrow to pierce the literal heart. The word is also related to the SOP Jesus fed Judas as a supernatural sign.

Psallo or Melody excluded instruments by the time of Paul.

This exclusion was in the Koine or Greek language of commerce and communication rather than the language of the idle rich of musical performance and the theater.

Most scholars agree that this is the fact. Even Arndt-Gingrich.

After the New Testament was written, Lucian said that you cannot strum (psallein) without something to strum on. or "you cannot perform LYRIC poetry without a LYRE." You cannot "ride a horse without a horse."

This is used to prove that instruments were demanded by Paul.

However, Lucian used the Attic Greek in which This word permitted -- but did not demand -- instruments 400 years before the time of Paul. If one spoke the language of Elizabethian English in a novel that would not prove that the words still mean the same thing.

Therefore, Lucian is not an authority to ignore the Biblical commands of Paul who defined the instrument as the human voice.

Furthermore, Lucian's use of instrumental music was in connection with the continuing pagan fertility rituals where wine, women and song with instruments "strummed up" the dead "gods" to come to them in an intimate way in charismatic ecstasy. "In Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of a Courtesan we hear almost exclusively of women musicians and singers." The king of Tyre as the agent of the female or bisexual Lucifer gained his/her customers through literal music:

At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king's life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: Is.23:15

"Take up a harp, walk through the city, O prostitute forgotten; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered." Is.23:16

At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her hire as a prostitute and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. Is.23:17

Both Tyre and Babylon were truly "ecumenical" -- they would sing and play anyone out of their "contributions." See Wen Amun's encounter.

Therefore, if Lucian is our Master Teacher we are left without authority for music in Christian worship and are forced to accept his authority for music as a pagan "mind control" device. This includes women "on display" which is specificially excluded by Paul where "authority" was sexual power.

The LUCIAN proof-text nevertheless carries a MARK by which God always gives us a way of escape: lucian spoke of the "preachers and musicians" who built seeker centers to suck in more money. They knew that if you just play the flute (meaning pollute or prostitute) the fat heads and simpletons would cluster around quite sure that you truly had a god trapped.

DONKA D. MARKUS in Performing the Book observes

"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.

"indeed, they consider a speech a form of composition that ought not to be corrected. I would willingly ask them why they allow (if indeed they do allow) that history may be recited,

since it is written in the interests of truth and honesty, not for display?
Or why tragedy, when it requires a stage and actors, not an audience-hall?

Or lyric poetry, which requires not a reader, but a chorus and a harp-accompaniment?

However, this LYRIC performance which demanded a LYRE began as or ended as a homosexual affair:

They will respond that in these instances recitation has been established by custom.

In fact, behind the criticisms of the epic recital often lie issues about the performance of gender and social status.

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.

His testimony is important as it formulates general expectations about epic performance while at the same time shows that epic can always slide into an effeminate mode of presentation.

Epic's social image as a genre that glorifies male heroism has to be consistent with its mode of performance.

For Dionysius Thrax, the voice pitched to perform elegy or lyric is inappropriate because of the incongruity it creates between the epic content and its performance.

50 Signs of effeminacy appear in the preliminary vocal modulation of the recitator (liquido cum plasmate guttur mobile conlueris) and in his entire comportment and body language (patranti fractus ocello).

Persius continues with the audience and the emasculating effect of the public performance

on those who passively submit to the allurements of the recitator's virtuoso voice.
The sweet voice is an agent of titillation, arousing the audience, evoking images of sexual gratification:

51 Indeed, this entire section of Persius' satire represents the recital as partaking in the infamous association of performance and effeminacy.

It partakes in the deconstruction of traditionally held values of male excellence. Persius manipulates terms used also in Seneca the Elder's moralizing discourse in regard to the decline and emasculation of declamation as practiced in the rhetorical schools.

However, these female or Sodomite performers were the MUSES condemned in Revelation. They were, in the area John knew about, the LOCUSTS as musical performers. According to Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

(Mousikê, sc. technê, "art of the Muses"). A term which included among the Greeks everything that belonged to a higher intellectual and artistic education. Plato ( Rep.p. 136), while discussing education, speaks of "gymnastic for the body and music for the soul," and ranks literature under the head of music. Music in the narrower sense was regarded by the Greeks both as an agreeable amusement and as one of the most effective means of cultivating the feelings and the character.

Apollo is the Abaddon or Apollyon a word for Satan or the Devil in the book of Revelation. In the end times he is to unleash the MUSES which had been turned into LOCUSTS and sent into Hell because they failed to honor the Mother Goddess who has been caled Eve or Zoe:

The great importance they attached to music is also shown by their idea that it was of divine origin; Hermes or Apollo is said to have invented the lyre, Athené the simple flute, Pan the shepherd's pipe. Besides these gods and the Muses, Dionysus also was connected with music. Numerous myths, as, for instance, those concerning Amphion and Orpheus, tell of its mighty power, and testify to the Greeks having cultivated music at a very early epoch. It was always intimately allied to poetry.

Originally epic poems were also sung to the accompaniment of the cithara, and the old masters of poetry, such as Orpheus and Musaeus, are at the same time masters of music, just as in historical times the lyric and dramatic poets were at the same time the composers of their works.

The actual foundation of the classical music of the Greeks is ascribed to Terpander (q.v.), of the Aeolian island of Lesbos, who, in Dorian Sparta (about B.C. 675), first gave a truly artistic form to song accompanied by the cithara, and especially to the citharodic nomos. In the Peloponnesian school of the Terpandridae, who followed his teaching and formed a closely united guild, kitharôidikê received its further artistic development.

Strabo Geography

"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 [that they are most like gods], when they are happy; and such happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy, and engaging in music.

[10.3.10] And on this account Plato, and even before his time the Pythagoreians, called philosophy music; and

they say that the universe is constituted in accordance with harmony,
assuming that every form of music is the work of the gods.

And in this sense, also, the Muses are goddesses,
and Apollo is leader of the Muses,
and poetry as a whole is laudatory of the gods

The Lesbian singers perverted the simple reciting of works such as Homer and added tunes, instruments, dances and MUCH MORE. This is the MARK of the end-time Babylon whore worship. As a form of Lucifer his/her harps and harpists went back into Sheol to rot on a bed of maggots. As the king/queen of Tyre she was the MUSICAL ENCHANTER in the garden of Eden and was called "the singing and harp-playing prostitute." About now:

And the voice of harpers, and musicians [Muses or Locusts], and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman [theater builders and stage managers], of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone [grinders were concubines or prostitutes] shall be heard no more at all in thee; Rev 18:22

Not only is Lucian not a latter-day authority for Paul and the Holy Spirit, the other "proofs" for authority to worship God with machines is also called into question.

In the first part we noted that men like John Locke -- who helped give you the Constitution of the United States -- and Thomas Campbell -- who added "examples" and "inferences" as acts of Lockean toleration are used to refute the "old hermeneutic" which produced the Restoration Movement. Inferences were never used as AUTHORITY for YOU to usurp my liberty and steal the church houses of widows: inferences were to FREE people from the laden burden of a clergy both unBiblical, unhistorical and unngodly.

That hermeneutic was that Christian worship cannot include Legalistic music which was intimately connected to the sacrificial system.

We cited many ancient scholars who had always believed this based on the purpose of the Law of Moses and the clear teachings of the New. The Law as authority is clearly based on a failed understanding of the purpose of the Law as God's disciplining and even destroying power.

Furthermore, the new ideas taught that God communicates His will through direct commands, approved examples and necessary inferences. This would be the only ways to communicate His will even if the modern teacher is inspired -- and he is not.

Again, we cited scholars beginning within the lifetime of men who knew men who knew John to prove that this has always been the accepted way of understanding God's will. We cited scholars down through the halls of history to show that Alexander Campbell, like all of us, learned from reading the Bible and history.

How would the modern critic communicate his own authority to his children?

Locke's A Letter of Toleration, the Constitution of the United States and Thomas Campbell's belief in the Reformed "Regulative Principle" were not acts of Judge Borkean "strict construction." They were commonly-held views bur rarely expressed because of cowardice.

An institutional church can change its "bylaws" to allow musical instruments or a democracy is free to change its laws to allow the holocaust slaughter of innocent children. However, Locke, Campbell, or Judge Robert Bork would say that when you drift away from "direct commands" you sow discord and "little children" are offended.

No one not on the dole ever wanted to use inferences to IMPOSE on your money which YOU had "laid by in store BY YOURSELF" but to errect a burglar alarm against those who would infere that the Bible says nothing against instruments, or the LAW OF SILENCE to say 'God didn't say not to" when the Bible has a radical message against music as the KEY used even by Lucifer to unlock the emotional mind to infiltrate filth.

A beginning point to understand Religious Intoleration in the time of John Locke is to understand that no one ever first looked to the Bible to decide to burn a critic of John Calvin at the stake: Calvin pleaded for the mercy of the quick suffocation; the state used by Calvin opted for the slow roast.

A beginning point to understand strict construction of the Constitution is to understand that no one ever decided to abort innocent children because they believed that the Constitution "authorized it." Judge Robert Bork does not see how the Constitution advocating Lokean Toleration somehow contains authority for killing unborn children just because it does not say: "Thou shalt not pull the heads off little babies while still in the womb."

A beginning point is to understand that no one in the history of the church ever introduced musical instruments into the worship because they believed that the Old Testament was still in effect and instruments could be stolen from the sacrificial altars.

Secondly, no one every introduced instruments into worship because they read the word "melody" in Paul's letters and decided that singing demanded or even permitted instruments.

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."

All divisive and therefore sectarian additions of musical instruments to the worship among Jews, Christians and Muslims was based on the principle of commercial self-interest. This is one of the vital ingredients to being a sectarian. Therefore, one who refuses to add something entertaining to its worship is not looking out for "self" and cannot therefore ever be branded as sectarian.

From the beginning, the Catholic church made up its own rules about going with the flow. However, it has never forgotten the principle of dispensational distinction, and command and example:

As to the singing of psalms and hymns,

we have the proofs,

the examples, and

the instructions of the Lord Himself,

and of the Apostles". (Cf. also Col., iii, 16; I Cor., xiv, 26.)

In the ancient congregational singing both sexes took part; the words of St. Paul imposing silence on women in church being interpreted to refer only to exhorting or instructing.

Duchesne describes how the earliest worship of the Christians was parallel to that,

not of the Temple of the Jews at Jerusalem,

but of the local synagogues,

the Christians borrowing thence their four elements of Divine service-the lections (reading parts of Scripture), the chants (of the Psalter), the homilies (explaining those passages of scriptures), and the prayers. Catholic Encyclopedia

And because the synagogue was A School of the Bible and Jesus died to establish His ekklesia or synagogue, common sense and history proves that "there was never any praise service in the synagogue." You don't have to be anti-constitution to grasp that only ignorance would impose MUSIC in the TEACHING process.

No credible scholar has ever denied that this was the original condition and therefore when Paul used the word for melody he meant what he said: "make the melody in the heart." Paul issued a direct command using words which specified the human voice as the accompanying instrument and therefore excluded mechanical instruments which he defined as "lifeless" or "carnal."

No literate person can fail to understand what Paul clearly commanded. Therefore, to add instruments by the authority of Lucian is to grasp up the "necessary inference" which has been branded as legalism and use it to justify sectarianism.

By pulling and squeezing Scripture to allow what may be pleasant and attractive to the world, the high road of Biblical authority is sacrificed and it can never be restored.

Before we look at Lucian - Look at The Languages

While Lucian used the word psallein to define strumming on a lyre after the time of Paul's use of melody to put the "strumming" in the heart as one of the optional "instruments" allowed in the word psalmos, Lucian was using a language much older than Paul's language. You simply did not write in Koine if you intended to peddle your product. God fooled the fools by writing in a language which would GUARANTEE that Jesus was correct when He warned that "doctors of the law take away the key to knowledge.""

Lucian knew, along with the philosophers, sermonizers and versifier that one "could play the flute and fool the fatheads and simpletons." Therefore, he used Attic Greek to address to the theatrical crowd but Jesus came using the simple Koine of the marketplace without the poetic, artistic turns of Attic. Tatian asks of the "for hire" theatrical performers:

While you arrogate to yourselves the sole right of discussion, you discourse like the blind man with the deaf.

Why do you handle the builder's tools without knowing how to build?
Why do you busy yourselves with words, while you keep aloof from deeds, puffed up with praise, but cast down by misfortunes?

Your modes of acting are contrary to reason, for you make a pompous appearance in public, but hide your teaching in corners.

Finding you to be such men as these, we have abandoned you, and no longer concern ourselves with your tenets,
........but follow the word of God.

Why, O man, do you set the letters of the alphabet at war with one another? Why do you, as in a boxing match,
........ make their sounds clash together with your mincing Attic way of speaking,
........ whereas you ought to speak more according to nature?

For if you adopt the Attic dialect though not an Athenian, pray why do you not speak like the Dorians? How is it that one appears to you more rugged, the other more pleasant for intercourse?

Attic being a dialect would be classified as a TONGUE: any language not readily understood by the masses was barbarian. Lucian wrote in "tongues" and thus fooled the fools and foolers.

Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich Preface (pg xi) shows the differences between Attic and marketplace Greek:

The earliest Christian literature ... is made up of a number of writings which were composed in the Greek language. It is not the Greek of more ancient times, least of all that of the Golden Age of Athens which is now taught in the institutions of higher learning and

occupies the most prominent place in the dictionaries used in them.
A comparison reveals, on the contrary, differences in phonology and morphology, in syntax and style, and, not the least of all, in the vocabulary as well.

Read the difference between Attic and Koine Greek by clicking here.

Arndt and Gingrich is also misused as authority for instrumental music. However, they clearly admit that the most scholarly dictionaries still reflect the language "more ancient" than the language used by Paul which excluded instruments in Christian worship.

Liddell and Scott, Preface (pg vi)

It will be understood, however, that the age of a word does not wholly depend on that of its author. For, first, many Greek books have been lost;
........ secondly, a word of Attic stamp, first occurring in Lucian, Alciphron, or later imitators of Attic Greek,
........ may be considered as virtually older than those found in the vernacular writers of the Alexandrian age.

Further, the language changed differently in different places at the same time; as in the cases of Demosthenes and Aristotle, whom we have been compelled to place in different Epochs.

And even at the same place, as at Athens,
there were naturally two parties, one clinging to old usages, the other fond of what was new. The Greek of Thucydides and Lysias may be compared in illustration of this remark.

No doubt this is the reason why the ARISTOCRATS see total authority which means COMMANDS to use instruments and we commoners aimed at by God in Koine can read the Bible and see music as intimately connected to mind control, paganism and religions usually homosexual.

It comes as no surprise that those wanting to introduce instruments and must -- after the fact -- find Biblical authority "still cling to the old usages."

Attic - The language of Lucian

Attic was the ancient Greek dialect that was the language of ancient Athens. Its closest relative was the Ionic dialect of Euboea. With the ascendance of the Athenian empire in the course of the 5th century BC, Attic became the most prestigious of the Greek dialects and as a result was adopted later as

the standard language by the Macedonian kings. Moreover, it became in Hellenistic times the language of the Macedonian rulers in the Middle East and Egypt.
This later phase of Attic is called Koine, a dialect common to all Greeks.

In literature, Attic is the dialect of Athenian comedy [mincing, lisping] and, interspersed with Doric lyric (from lyre) elements, of tragedy. In the second half of the 5th century BC, it also became the dialect of Greek prose, not only for such Athenian writers as Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Lysias, Isocrates, and Demosthenes but also for foreigners such as the orator and Sophist Gorgias of Leontini (Sicily).

During the Roman period, prose writers such as Plutarch and Lucian were Atticists:

they preferred to use the classical Attic dialect of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, rather than the spoken Koine of their own time.

We know of no WRITTEN KOINE until the late 19th century when the Papyri was discovered in Egypt.

The Judas Bag is defined as "for carrying the mouthpieces [reeds] of wind instruments." It is made up of two words meanining:

Speaking in tongues and
Of the World or Komos or COMIC.

There is a "secret code" in the urge to use Attic Greek rather than the language of Paul: music is admitted to be the tool or weapon by which the seekers can be sucked into the church by giving them what they desire. This of course repudiates Jesus who repudiated the ruling clergy and the masses, and Paul who turned from the Jews to the common people who readily received the message of Jesus without "cake and circuses."

Koine the Language of the Bible and the truth SPEAKERS

The fairly uniform spoken Greek that gradually replaced the local dialects [tongues] after the breakdown of old political barriers and the establishment of Alexander's empire in the 4th century BC is known as the Koine (he koine dialektos the common language'), or "Hellenistic Greek."

Attic, by virtue of the undiminished cultural and commercial predominance of Athens, provided its basis;

but, as the medium of communication throughout the new urban centres of Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, it absorbed numerous non-Attic elements and underwent some degree of grammatical simplification. Numerous inscriptions enable scholars to trace its triumphant progress at the expense of the old dialects, at least as the language of business and administration, although some rural dialects are reported to have survived as late as the 2nd century AD. (Britannica Online)

Again, Attic Greek is the language of choice for the poets, singers, dancers, dramatists and other theatrical performers. the vernacular was the "medium of communication." Thus the Old Testament association of musical instruments with telling God: "We don't want to hear from you anymore." (Job 21:7-14; Isa 5:11-13; Amos 5:21-24; 6:1-7; 8:10-13; Ezkiel 33:30-32)

The gospel was not really wasted on too many educated or rich people. Nor was its language restricted to the decadent theatrical world of Athens. Rather, common Greek was the medium of communication to take the gospel into the world where many traders had gone. Paul's "psallo" does not include instruments and that was the message Paul preached.

Paul spoke to the common people; Lucian spoke to the rich and powerful who defended their music with rich and powerful words because he had a vested interest.

While any thing which leads us further into understanding the time of the Biblical world is important, it is not possible to use Lucian to force Paul into changing the "instrument" from the human voice to the lifeless harp.

By showing disrespect for the direct words of Scripture there is no longer a foundation to build a Christian society.

Who was this Lucian?

b. AD 120,, Samosata, Commagene, Syria [now Samsat, Tur.]

d. after 180, Athens [Greece]ian,

Rhetorician, born in Samosata, Syria. He practised as an advocate in Antioch, travelling widely in Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and Gaul. He then settled in Athens, where he devoted himself to philosophy, and produced a new form of literature - humorous dialogue.

His satires include Dialogues of the Gods and Dialogues of the Dead. His ironic True History describes a journey to the Moon, and inspired a number of imaginary voyages. In his later years, he spent some time attached to the court in Alexandria. (He too, became a parasite. Paul called them "peddlers of the Word")

"Lucian is said to have been a disillusioned Christian. He had tried to follow Christian teaches and found them to difficult for his secular mindset. He also had disappointment at the hypocrisy he found in the Church. He turned against Christianity and sought truth else where. It is said he died discontent, having sought truth in religions, philosophies and experiences. He was a great satirist speaking against superstition and philosophies found in his day. "

The Brittanica notes that:

"As a boy Lucian showed a talent for making clay models and was therefore apprenticed to his uncle, a sculptor. They quarreled, and Lucian soon left home for western Asia Minor, in whose cities he acquired a Greek literary education. He became particularly familiar with the works of Homer, Plato, and the comic poets

So successfully did he master the Greek language (he was raised speaking Aramaic) and culture that he began a career as a public speaker, traveling from city to city giving model speeches and public lectures

to display his eloquence and probably also pleading in court. After touring Greece he went to Italy and then to Gaul (modern France). To this period of his life belong many of his surviving declamations on mythological and other stock themes and his rhetorical prologues.

Learning Greek through the classics Lucian would naturally learn Attic Greek. His understanding of Greek was based on the earlier writers. However, these writers universally ridiculed the musical performers who believed that their musical instruments "contained" the gods as did the Witch of Endoor with her old wineskin instrument.

They believed that they aroused the gods and "moved the worshipers into the presence of the god." Their musical 'speaking in tongues' was peddled as the voice of the god and the ultimate thrill was sexual intercourse with the 'uncovered " prophetesses (1 Cor. 11:5). There is no command, example, necessary inference or hint in the Classics that the musical performers ever contacted the Real God.

However, Lucian would probably not be useful on a voyage with a mixed crew who would understand Paul's use even outside of the Greek world. Long before the time of Paul Greek sailors were trading bronze for amber with Scandinavians, and tin from Cornwall either overland or by sea, and communicating with a universal form of language. A hundred years or so ago theologians were still studying "New Testament" Greek -- didn't know yet that the Bible was written in the vernacular.

We might note that whatever the Classical Greek writers thought about the word psallo, they uniformly attributed the use of instrumental music to the pagan religions where the primary purpose was to fool the simple people so that the performer could be a parasite. In that, they would have agreed with Lucian.

"Of the 80 prose works traditionally attributed to Lucian, about 10 are spurious. The writings of Lucian are outstanding for their mordant and malicious wit, embodying a sophisticated and often embittered

critique of the shams and follies of the literature, philosophy, and intellectual life of his day.
Lucian satirized almost every aspect of human behaviour.

"In True History, which starts by warning the reader that its events are completely untrue and impossible, Lucian describes a voyage that starts on the sea, continues in the skies, and includes visits to the belly of a whale and to the Elysian fields;

the tale is a satirical parody of all those fantastic travelers' tales that strain human credulity.

More Lucian as Authority on Christian Worship -- The Proof-Text

It may be significant that Lucian used the word psallein but not Psallo in his writings on the Parasite. Rather than seeing Lucian of Samosata as the authority for instrumental music in worship, Everett Ferguson in A Capella Music In the Public Worship of the Church, p. 3) quotes Lucian in order to show that it doesn't matter because this word was also applied by religious writers to vocal music about the time of Paul.

"The classical meaning of psallo continued into Hellenistic and post-New Testament times. The satirist Lucian of Samosata in the second century A.D. said

'It is impossible to pipe [aulein] without a pipe or to strum [psallein] without a lyre or to ride without a horse' (Parasite 17) (Ferguson, Acapella Music, p. 3)

But Cyrus was told how to turn warriors into women:

and make them bring up their sons to cithern-playing (Kitharizein), singing (psallein), and shop-keeping (Hucksterism). (Or translated lyre playing and harping which is redundant)
........ So wilt thou soon see them become women instead of men,

Lucian is used to prove that one cannot perform the talk of "making melody" defined by the Greek word psallo without a musical instrument. However, another translation just shows that you cannot perform "lyrical" music without a "lyre" as you could not perform "organ music" without an organ. Lucian is discussing the parasite or "sponger" and begins with Simon saying:

"Well, now we will bring to bear on sponging each of these essential elements of Art, and see whether its character rings true, or returns a cracked note like bad pottery when it is tapped. It has got to be, like all art, a body of perceptions. Well, we find at once that our artist has to distinguish critically the man who will entertain him satisfactorily and not give him reason to wish that he had sponged elsewhere. Simon, The Parasite, 4.

"Sponging" is the superior art and "the sponger has no ulterior object; occupation and pre-occupation are for him one and the same." However,
........ "Other arts, again, are useless to their professor unless he has his plant;

you cannot play the flute if you have not one to play;
lyrical music requires a lyre,

horsemanship a horse.

But of ours (sponging) one of the excellences and conveniences is that no instrument is required for its exercise. The Parasite, 17. Translated by H. W. and F. G. Fowler, Vol III, 1905

In the Greek world rhetoricians, sOPHISts (serpents), singers and musicians claimed the role of sorcerers. Because everyone knew that they were fortune telling liars they were called PARASITES. Fortunate for them lots of rich people laid a plate for a PARASITE who earned his food by singing, playing or sexual favors. The writers of the Restoration Movement RESTORED the idea of disposing a CLERGY SYSTEM. They were called SPONGERS if they did not take responsibility for going out and evangelizing the whole area.

Lyric: 1. of a lyre 2. suitable for singing as to the accompaniment of a lyre. Webster

Plato Ion notes: In like manner the Muse first of all inspires men herself; and from these inspired persons a chain of other persons is suspended, who take the inspiration.

For all the good epic poets utter all those fine poems not from art, but as inspired and possessed, and the good lyric poets likewise;

just as the Corybantian worshippers do not dance when in their senses,
so the lyric poets do not indite those fine songs in their senses,

but when they have started on the melody and rhythm they begin to be frantic,

and it is under possession as the bacchants are possessed, and not in their senses, when they draw honey and milk from the rivers that the soul of the lyric poets does the same thing, by their own report.

"The psaltery (psalterion, saltere, sauterie, Psalterium, Psalter, salterio) is an ancient intstrument seen in many forms. Early versions were simply a wooden board with gut strings stretched between pegs. The strings were plucked with fingers or by plectra (the name might have derived from the Greek psallein meaning plucked with fingers).

"The name of psaltery entered Christian literature in the 3rd century B.C. translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint where, in the Psalms, nebel was translated psalterion.

Thus, Nebuchadnezzar's idolatrous ensemble included the Aramic psantria. Notice, also, that the book of Psalms has also become known as the Psalter (or psalterium), from the hymns sung with this harp. Source

The word PSALLO clearly limits its use to twanging a bow string or a harp string with the fingers and NOT with a plectrum. If you wanted to play the guitar where guitarIST always meant PARASITE then you would be, as in the Apostolic Constitutions, be cast out of the church until you repented.

This is because it meant to really hurt someone by pulling on a string or hair and SUDDENLY letting go to LEAVE A MARK.

Therefore, Lucian never hinted that "you cannot sing without a harp" or "you cannot psallo without a harp." What he said is that you cannot play lyre music without a lyre. If you used a piano it would be piano music, wouldn't it?

And Plato added what Lucian also knew: that musical instruments with the right kind of song had the power to fool the "fat-heads' and "simpletons", the superstitious and the well-to-do; one had only to go there with some one to play the flute, the tambourine or the cymbals and there they would all be gaping as if he were a God from heaven." (Lucian, Alexander the Oracle-Monger).

Furthermore, Paul would not have written in Classical Greek directed to the common people; Lucian would have written Classical Greek to the sophisticated, paying audiences. Ferguson notes that Lucian used the classical understanding. However, he continued to ridicule instruments and associate them with superstitious, pagan idolatry.

But Not Too Fast!

Johannes Quasten in Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p. 83 notes:

In Antiquity women musicians and singers had a very bad reputation. The flutists, harpists and singers at banquets were courtesans. In Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues of a Courtesan we hear almost exclusively of women musicians and singers. Sullust writes of Sempronia:

She played the cithara and danced more elegantly than was becoming an upright woman, and she could do many other things which minister to voluptuousness.

Arnobius (fl. 4th century, Africa) identifies the harpists and the courtesans with one another. He asks:

Has God created souls for this, that women should become harlots, sambucists and harpists in order to surrender their bodies to lust?

Commodian tells the Christian virgin: "You transgress the law when you go about among musicians." (That is what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 14)

When Judah fornicated with Tamar he put in pledge the scepter of his kingdom. As punishment, the Didache has him lamenting:

23. Now I have much grief, my children, because of your lewdness, and witchcrafts, and idolatries,

which ye will work against the kingdom,
following them that have familiar spirits
ye will make your daughters singing girls and harlots
for divinations and demons of error,
and ye will be mingled in the pollutions of the Gentiles:
for which things' sake the Lord shall bring upon you famine and pestilence, death and the sword, avenging siege, and dogs for the rending in pieces of enemies,
and revilings of friends, destruction and blighting of eyes, children slaughtered, wives carried off, possessions plundered,
temple of God in flames, your land desolated, your own selves enslaved among the Gentiles,

and they shall make some of you eunuchs for their wives; and whenever ye will return to the Lord with humility of heart, repenting and walking in all the commandments of God, then will the Lord visit you in mercy and in love, bringing you from out of the bondage of your enemies.

See how Agrippa built a modern-style SEEKER CENTER

6. Now as many of the Levites, (26) which is a tribe of ours, as were singers of hymns, persuaded the king to assemble a sanhedrim, and to give them leave to wear linen garments, as well as the priests

for they said that this would be a work worthy the times of his government, that he might have a memorial of such a novelty, as being his doing.

Nor did they fail of obtaining their desire; for the king, with the suffrages of those that came into the sanhedrim, granted the singers of hymns this privilege, that they might lay aside their former garments,

and wear such a linen one as they desired; and as a part of this tribe ministered in the temple,
he also permitted them to learn those hymns as they had besought him for.

Now all this was contrary to the laws of our country, which, whenever they have been transgressed, we have never been able to avoid the punishment of such transgressions.

See the Catholic Restoration of the Levites.

We can understand why if women speaking or singing in tongues in Corinth could be silenced there would be no music and tongues.

The exception among the pagans were effeminate or emasculated men.

"Philodemos 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. (Paul called it mad or insane)

He found it significant that, on the whole, only women and effeminate men fell into this folly."

"According to Philo, the gods of the pagans exploit this weakness of men. For the sake of a better effect, and with the intention of more easily cheating their devotes, that they have set their lies to melodies, rhythms and meters.." (Quasten, p. 52)

But I Am a Sincere Christian Who Pipes the Pipe and Strums the Lyre

That very well might be. However, Lucian is called to the pulpit to prove that psallo demands musical instruments after the time of Paul. This, in turn, is used to prove that when Paul said "make melody in the heart" he might have meant "make melody on the harp."

Therefore, people will do what people will do and there is no point in trying to twist Scripture and history to defend what one has already done in the heart "spite of hell."

This same Lucian -- who also camped out in courts selling his rhetorical talent -- identifies the piping and strumming with courtesans.

"The pagans frequently used boys choirs in their worship, especially on festive occasions. This custom may be explained in the first place by the musical qualities of boys' voices; their individuality and beauty, which could not be matched by either men's or women's voices, was greatly valued in antiquity. Thus Lucian of Samosata calls the boy's voice 'perfectly delicate, not so deep as to be called masculine nor so fine as to be effeminate and lacking in power, but falling soft, mild and lovely upon the ear." (Lucian's Imagines 13)

"The chief reason, though, for the participation of boy's choirs in cultic celebrations is to be found in the fact that of the innocence upon the divinity. So it was, as can be seen repeatedly, that 'an innocent boy, whose parents are both still living,' was employed at pagan sacrifices and oracles as a medium between god and man.

"In Delos, at the solemn sacrifices, choirs of boys who danced and sang to the cithara and the flute were always in attendance Quasten, p. 88)

Anything, such as an old wineskin used by the witch of Endor or the basked seive through which the witch mumbled or musical instruments in which "the gods dwelled" could be used to distort the normal speaking voice of communication into a mystical or singing voice which induced a feeling in the worshiper. Through this they claimed that they could "lead you into the presence of God." Therefore, musical performers were always the mediators or intercessors between the paying customer and the gods. After the session they were almost always available for a private "act of worship."

We intend no guilt by association. However, it is dangerous to use Lucian or any secular writer to prove the definition of a word and then proceed to introduce instruments which have no divine command. Consistent with all of the musical performers of the Greek world:

The scoffer Lucian pours out his sarcasm in a passage in which he speaks of the fraudulent prophet Alexander of Abonouteichos (the Oracle Monger), who kept choir boys in the service of the gods with him:

To all others he forbade pederasty (Platonic love of a man for a boy) as shameful. In order not to admit his own guilt in this matter, however, the admirable fellow devised the following scheme:

he proposed to the cities in Paphlagonia and Pontus that every three years they should send him choir boys who would sing hymns of praise with him to the god. Moreover, only the noblest, fairest and most charming boys were to be sent -- after a previous careful examination.

These he confined with himself, slept with and abused with every possible lechery. (Lucian, Alexander, 41.247}

Choirs were used because "Thus they led the simple into error and sought to bewitch the ears of lay people, who are easily led astray by hymns and melodies."

Quasten notes that religious ecstasy (the madness at Corinth) was induced by music and the resulting emotions would produce a religious sense of purification by arousing submerged emotions. This was known as a "transfer to a state of prophecy." Seeing a tragic play released emotions, created morphine like endorphins and you then felt better. Music, therefore, was used for divination or soothsaying. For instance, Paul notes that "truth did not originate" in the form of their own songs. This was frequently practiced by women or disguised women worshiping the Mother Goddess:

"Through the din of tambourines, cymbals and flutes the ecstatis worshiper of the goddess prophesied the future to those present. From time immemorial music had been especially valued in the service of prophecy...When boys play music for Apis, the bull (The "play" before the golden calf at Mount Sinai) "the boys suddenly become inspired and prophesy the future.

"The relationship is shown by the Greek prophet and the Hebrew Naba which signifies not only "to prophesy" but also "to make music."

"Lucian notes that the false prophet Alexander selected the right place for his trickery, Phaphlagonia above Abonouteichos, where the inhabitants were agape and believed that they beheld heavenly beings--

"if a man who prophesies from a sieve appeared with a flutist and a cymbal player.

"In cultic action music was used in preparation for prophecy. Julius Firmicus Maternus refers to this fact in his remarks on an African cult. With the air full of flute music, the priests would put on women's clothing and then call on their goddess so that, filled with a wicked spirit, they might predict the future of foolish men. (Quasten, p. 39-40)