Marcel Detienne, Dionysus Slain http://www.belinus.co.uk/mythology/Dionysus.htm

 

Silenus-Pan-Dionysus.html

 

 

 

Romans 14 Romans 15

Romans 14 Romans 15: Dealing with Doctrinal Differences Dionysus, Orpheus and Pythagoreans, meats, wine, vegetables and instrumental music.

Random Notes on the Sectarian Background To Romans 14-15

Romans chapter 14 is the weapon of choice when we want to do something which has no Biblical authority or which is contrary to all that we know about the Bible.

If, for instance, someone decides to change the church from synagogue model to pagan "worship center" those being set at nought imposed optional views, are usually silenced by the claim that even to teach the Biblical facts is "passing judgment" upon the imposers. The musical prophets of Baal and Asherah helped Ahab define Elijah as the "troubler of Israel." And Jesus was "musically" sat upon by the mockers who tried to label Him as Beel-zebub. Beliar was the common name for the army's enemies defeated to the beat of musical noise.

Changing the nature of the "church" from synagoguing and equipping to external rituals calculated to "lead the worshipers into the presence of God" is truly nothing to worry about: it is a terminal sign that people do not have the spirit, do not have eyes which see nor ears which hear. Therefore, it is a visible, supernatural sign that a people have moved beyond redemption. At one level it is a confirming sign that God and Scripture have been faithful.

The final contest--everyone's Armageddon--is whether our flesh defined in Romans 7 will win or will our spirits in Romans 8 win. If we can see it, smell it, taste it or feel it in every nerve ending in the body, it is body religion. If we have the urge to spiritually fall on our face in the presence of Deity who automatically evokes a quiet, reverent spirit then we are "in the spirit" which is the only PLACE God will seek us as we worship "in spirit" or in our mind and according to His Spirit of Truth.

It takes no judgmental spirit to tell the difference:

The Exodus Terminal Sin: Ignoring the Word, substituting music

To understand Romans 14 and 15 it helps to understand the terminal sin of the Jew's ancestors at Mount Sinai.

Paul in First Corinthians 10 and Romans ten defines the "demon worship" at Mount Sinai as the terminal, beyond redemption sin for all of Israel except a tiny remnant. That demon worship was "rising up to play" which worshiped the Egyptian triad Osiris/Isis/Horus (father, mother, child) incarnated as Apis the bull or Hathor the cow-eared goddess. Music was the "spirit inducing" element.

The "patternism" of the Exodus musical idolatry is introduced here. But those who believe the Bible see it as turning Israel over to worship the starry host.

This Egyptian "second incarnation" was idolized as the golden calf at Mount Sinai. The worship at Mount Sinai was musical idolatry.

Contrary to the view of Exodus as the "pattern for Christian worship and community" the prophets (anti-monarchy) saw this as the sin which lost The Book of the Covenant and had God impose The Book of the Law "because of transgression."

"Sending across the sea" for someone to replace the revealed Word is the pattern in Romans 10. In 1 Corinthians 10 the pattern is "descending" to resurect Jesus to bring Him into the "presence of the worshiper." This is an anti-Christ patternism. Or, the patternism is a musical facilitator to "lead the worshipers into the presence of God" by ascending.

Therefore, in Romans 15 Paul is calling our attention to many forms of pagan backgrounds which, if brought into the church, would destroy it because it is idolatry or self worship. On the other hand, Jesus established the church as synagogue or school of the Bible where all can meet on common ground as students. For instance, from the beginning:

The Elijah-Baal Contest Pattern

The conflict between worldly "religions" as opposed to God's urge to train and discipline has many prototypes in the Bible and secular history.

Defining the contest between Jezebel's musical prophets of Baal and Asherah where Baal is approached by noisy ritual while Jehovah is approached through the quiet Word:

"Unlike the pagan deities, Yahweh was not in any of the forces of nature but in a real apart. He is experienced in the scarcely perceptible timbre of a tiny breeze in the paradox of a voiced silence." (Armstrong, Karen, A History of God, p. 27)

This contest was repeated between the Baal-like Jewish clergy against John the Baptist (Elijah) and Jesus (God). They again tried to triumph over Jesus with music.

The gospels treat the lives of John the Baptist, Jesus and the Jewish clergy as fulfillig the ancient types and shadows such as the contest between natural religion and spiritual religion. For instance,

> Romans 14 is a direct command to keep the "forces of nature" out of the collective assembly. "Church" did not concern itself with eating of meats or keeping of days or any of those things which could be expressed in "natural forces."

> But, Paul does not include as optional the pagan practices which intend to and do affect the nature of the mind or spirit of the person. Those practices which Paul does not give room to included instrumental music, sexual and perverted sex as locked-at-the hip components of the pagan religions in Rome.

> However, Romans 15 defines how even natural people can be "synagogued" in an environment which excludes the "natural forces" so that all can listen carefully, silently and reverently for Christ to speak through His Word (Spirit) in a "scarcely perceptible timbre of a tiny breeze in the paradox of a voiced silence."

> This was profoundly grasped by early believers and even the Jew, Philo, to mean that "speaking to yourselves" meant "speaking to your self." And "singing and making melody IN THE HEART" meant what it said. Those who had learned the Old Testament Psalm or a portion of Scripture could "sing it to themselves" as they went about their lives. Therefore, "church" is the point of teaching but it has no pagan-like worship components.

Bringing God Down or Ascending with Self-Composed "praise songs" as one of the oldest superstitions.

Because God is not visible or perceptible to the uninspired human senses, it is another supernatural sign to those who believe that they both see, hear, feel and are inspired by Him to compose a hymn or play a guitar capable of bridging the gulf between the human and Spirit world.

Isaiah 55 shows how God's "water cycle" of the Word works only if we hear it and recycle it through teaching others before we return it, un molested, back to Him. Spiritual scholars have always been disturbed by those who feel themselves competent to be the "bridge" or the mediator between man and God:

Background: Dionysus, Orpheus and Phythagorus

The people of Rome came from a Jewish background or a Greek-Roman pagan background. The Romans were predominately devoted to Orpheus, Dionysus or to the Phythagorean system. The Phthogoreans were fundamentally Orphic and believed that musical instruments could "lead you into the presence of the gods." The Orphics were the only vegetarians and were highly dependant on instrumental music. However,

"Instruments, especially flutes and drums, were used to induce ecstasy, or frenzy, in the worshippers of certain deities. The devotees of Thracian Dionysus (Bacchus) engaged in orgies at night. Members of the society were seized with a divine madness as they danced to the music and would seize an animal who was believed to be the incarnation of the god, tear the body limb from limb, and eat it on the spot. By this sacred communion they hoped to attain union with their god and themselves become Baccoi. There was a wave of Bacchic enthusiasm that swept Italy in 185 B.C. and created such a scandal that it was sternly repressed by the Roman senate." (Green, William M., The Church Fathers and Musical Instruments" unpublished paper, p. 32).

"Dionysus certainly roves more than the other gods; the traditional picture of him is not one of him sitting sedately on Olympus sipping nectar and listening to the Muses (9 females) sing.

Rather it is one of him roaming through the wilderness,

thrysus (a {shaking} reed bound with ivy and topped with a pine cone) in hand,

followed by bands of ecstatic women, his Bacchants, and spreading the art of cultivation of vines and of wine-making. Other gods may leave Olympus, but it is not habitual with them as it is with dionysus.

And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? Mt.11:7

The reed spoken of by Jesus was the KALAMOS. The reed in the picture is the THYRUS. The REED pipe was also made of Kalamos or donax:

Donax n1 n2 n3 [from doneô, "a reed shaken by the wind, " cf. rhips from rhiptô]

 

Doneô shake to make butter: proverb: a rare and dainty thing.

4. the bridge of the lyre, Ar.

Frogs

Rightly so, you busybody.

the Muses of the fine lyre love us

And so does horn-crested Pan, playing his reed pipe.

And the harpist Apollo delights in us as well,

On account of the reed, which as a bridge for his lyre

I nourish in the water of the pond.

Brekekekex koax koax.

1. shaft of an arrow, Il.11.584.

 

2. shepherd's pipe, Pi. P.12.25 (pl.), A.Pr.574 (lyr.), Theoc.20.29

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound Io

Oh, oh! Aah! Aah! A gad-fly, phantom of earth-born Argus is stinging me again! Keep him away, O Earth! I am fearful when I behold that myriad-eyed herdsman. He travels onward with his crafty gaze upon me; [570] not even in death does the earth conceal him, but passing from the shades he hounds me, the forlorn one, and drives me famished along the sands of the seashore.

Shepherd's pipe invented by Hermes: Apollod. 3.10.2

given by him to Apollo: Apollod. 3.10.2

Pindar, Odes Pi. P.12.25

[str. 3]

Perseus, the son of Danae, who they say was conceived in a spontaneous shower of gold. But when the virgin goddess had released that beloved man from those labors, she created the many-voiced song of flutes [20] so that she could imitate with musical instruments the shrill cry that reached her ears from the fast-moving jaws of Euryale. The goddess discovered it; but she discovered it for mortal men to have,

and called it the many-headed strain, the glorious strain that entices the people to gather at contests,

[str. 4]

[25] often sounding through thin plates of brass and through reeds, which grow beside the city of lovely choruses, the city of the Graces, in the sacred precinct of the nymph of Cephisus, reeds that are the faithful witnesses of the dancers. If there is any prosperity among men, it does not appear without hardship.

A god will indeed grant it in full today . . . [30] What is fated cannot be escaped. But that time will come, striking unexpectedly, and give one thing beyond all expectation, and withhold another.

But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings houses. Mat 11:8

Soft means:

Malakos (g3120) mal-ak-os'; of uncert. affin.; soft, i.e. fine (clothing); fig. a catamite: - effeminate, soft.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 1Co.6:9

Malakia (g3119) mal-ak-ee'-ah; from 3120; softness, i.e. enervation (debility): - disease.

"dionysus often seems to stand somewhere between male and female, between god and man, between death and life. He is a male god, but he is always surrounded by women, his chief worshipers.

"His worship involved transvestism and the blurring of sex roles. Men and women both dressed in long robes covered by fawnskins, and women, as bacchants, left their normal sphere of activity, the home, and danced madly on mountainsides. dionysus even looks somewhat ambiguous sexually; Pentheus in the Bacchae comments on the god's effeminacy: his long curls, his pale complexion.

The king/queen of Tyre was "the harp-playing prostitute" but HE/SHE wanted to be remembered as a MALE.

"The story goes that dionysus paid a visit to the house of a horticulturist, Ikarios. He left with this man a vine-plant, telling him that by following the instructions he would be able to extract from the plant an unusual drink. Ikarios planted the vine, harvested the grapes, fermented the liquid exactly as he had been told to.

"He then invited his neighbours over to taste the new wine. The fragrance of the drink amazed them, and before long they were singing its praises.

"Then suddenly the drinkers began to collapse, falling over in drunken stupor. Those left standing accused Ikarios of poisoning them, and they beat him to death and threw his mutilated body into a well.

His daughter hanged herself.

This, according to myth, was the first manifestation of dionysus, benefactor of mankind, giver of good things.

"Dionysus's worship is thus established by the simple means of killing the opposition. It has been suggested that every tragic hero who suffers and dies on stage at the Dionysia, the great dramatic festival at Athens (of the South?),

is in fact dionysus himself, being killed."

"dionysus too was represented hard by the clusters, to be the husbandman of the vine and the vintner. As we drank deeper, I began to look more boldly and with less shame at my sweetheart; Cupid (Eros. His "arrow" was not shot with a bow!) and dionysus are two of the most violent of the gods, they can grasp the soul and drive it so far towards madness that it loses all restraint; Cupid fires it with the flames which are his attribute, while dionysus supplies wine which is as fuel to the fire: for wine is the very sustenance of love." Achilles TatiusThe Adventures of Leucippe and Cltophon Book 2.2-3 (photo typical only)

"In the Eleusian mysteries, the wine was not noted for its alcohol but for drugs (egrot) perhaps from fermented barley or from mushrooms used to bring on the exhilaration. Of the priest, it is said that:

"As he performed the service, he intoned ancient chants in a falsetto voice, for his role in the Mystery was asexual, a male who had sacrificed his gender to the Great Goddess.

The great Mother Goddess of the protestant-Catholic eccumenical movement is Mary who is seen as Eve or ZOE. The Zoe principle is of a superior female goddess and she forces the lesser "Jehovahs" to form musical worship bands. She is called "the beast" and is "the female instructing principle."

The Dionysics were wine-drinkers, meat-eaters and also charismatic and believed that "music" mediated between men and the gods. In today's terms they "led the worshipers into the presence of God."

All of the groups were superstitious about certain holy days.

Paul pointed out that the Kingdom of God is a Spiritual kingdom: worship is in the "spirit" and not in the body. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether you eat meats or vegetables. If you are an Orphic vegetarian then there can be no possible spiritual connection between the cabbage which goes in one end and out the other. The weak had cultural scruples and the strong eats anything that doesn't eat him first. Sunday was not holy in the sense that pagans held certain days sacred or dangerous. Rather, the first day honored the Creator rather than the Creature.

If you want to "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy" then don't impose it. However, God did not prescribe the Sabbath as a day of worship (spiritual) but a day of rest (fleshly). Therefore, if you want to rest your body on the Sabbath that is not material: many in Rome kept both the seventh and first day. However, the first day was dedicated to the Lord because the Sabbath was highly contaminated by Saturn worship or "the worship of the starry host" which began in Babylon. Rather than being "holy" the sabbath was normally a day for "bread and circuses."

Background: Regulations of the Body

It is pretty misleading to suggest that Paul's permission of personal opinion related to our external flesh also meant that he denied that there were no regulations about what changed the spiritual nature:

Body control and training not part of the church's synagoguing function.

NOW the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the (objective) faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 1 Tim 4:1

Speaking lies in hypocrisy (as actors); having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 1 Tim 4:2

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 1 Tim 4:3

For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 1 Tim 4:4

The evangelist's job along with that of the elders is to "teach healthy doctrine and refute those who oppose it

If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. 1 Tim 4:6

But refuse profane and old wives fables (initiation rituals, incantations), and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 1 Tim 4:7

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 1 Tim 4:8

In the link below this connects to the Greek Gymnasium which was a vital part of the military "religion" of the Greeks along with training in music. This was to train men to endure warfare and know how to use their twanging bowstrings, beating on shields or playing of actual instruments such as the "sounding gong" to force the enemy to panic. This GYMNASIUM heresy hit the Jews when the temple was profaned with pigs.

To understand that the Old Wive's Tales had to do with self-composed incantations and "empty or artificial sounds." The women's tales also implicates speaking in tongues which Paul likened to lifeless instruments which "mumble" but cannot speak.

Baskaino (g940) bas-kah'ee-no; akin to 5335; to malign, i.e. (by extens.) to fascinate (by false representations): - bewitch.

"Bebelos was the term used to describe where a patrician was to keep separate from plebeians. Patricians had toilets that the plebeians could not use - but the patricians could use any toilet. This is what the word describes. What this is saying, in context,

is that as intakers of true doctrine we are to stay away from the 'lower classes' . . . those who are involved with 'doctrines of demons' -

all false doctrines, all legalism, and the Plan of Satan - that which we call 'evil'.}

The Dionysus or Bacchus Attack Upon Jesus

From the time that Antiochus Epiphanes came to power many Jews were anxious to accomodate themselves to the Greek worship. The first thing they did was build a GYMNASIUM in which "body worship" was carried out. Two important skills were the development of the body and the development of music. Both were important as arts of warfare. And, like David's military musicians, both bled over into religious confusion.

Beyond the practices which were not spiritual in nature, was the use of music in all of the pagan groups to induce a charismatic frenzy and "self-abandonment" which ended in sexual and homosexual practices to "bind the soul and flesh together." Doing this publically would "judge" or SET AT NOUGHT everyone else who understood that church was school and not remotely related to the pagan worship centers.

What influences the mind or spirit or innermost being is never "just a matter of opinion."

Paul then tried to keep certain personal opinions out of the collective assembly: why argue about eating or not eating meat when this is not an issue to be covered by the Christian Synagogue. You can hear the Word of God read and explained each week without first becoming a believer. The communion throughout history was not open to accepting just everyone while the synagoguing time was.

There is no Christian liberty great enough to permit you to impose something which wounds my spirit or hinders my "in spirit" meditation on the Word as it is being read or taught.

Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brothers way. Romans 14:13

And the "law against judging" is never powerful enough to prevent me from defending the Biblical assembly as "school" and not as permission for the Dionysic or Orphic "musical worship" legal approach to God as Spirit

The Jews accused Jesus of their own sin. Therefore, Paul will absolutely prohibit believers from participating in the rituals of Beliar. In effect, he says "divorce yourselves from them."

And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 2 Cor 6:15

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2 Cor 6:16

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 2 Cor 6:17

With this statement we understand that Paul's "nothing unclean" is not absolute: it permits no practice which impact the mind or spirit.

The Dead Sea Scroll translation of Psalm 41 shows how Judas and the clergy would try to triumph over Jesus. It was blind fold the victim, play loud music, mock him and put something in his path to make him fall. Their attempt was to SET AT NOUGHT or judge Jesus.

The Jews placed a stumbling block in front of Jesus and then accused Him of having one of those vile diseases common to the theatrical pagan priests:

All my enemies whisper (mumble a spell, Lachash = Nachash = the serpent) together against me; they imagine the worst for me, saying, 41:7

An evil disease, say they, cleaveth (just pourse out) fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. Ps.41:8

Beliyyaal (h1100) bel-e-yah'-al; from 1097 and 3276; without profit, worthlessness; by extens. destruction, wickedness - Belial, evil, naughty, ungodly (men), wicked. Satan.

Lieth: Shakab (h7901) shaw-kab'; a prim. root; to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel (rear of an army) against me. Ps 41:9

Disease means "counsel or teaching." Therefore, Jesus was called a teacher of Baalism, was Beliar and therefore subject to the army's musical panic attack.

The musical attack in the Dead Sea Scroll version of Psalm 41 (partial). The Jews used Beliar's methods but accused Jesus of being Beliar:

But Thou, O God,

dost despise all Satan's designs;

it is Thy purpose that they shall be done

and the design of Thy heart

that shall be established for ever.

 

As for them, they dissemble,

they plan devilish schemes.

They seek Thee with a double heart

and are not confirmed in Thy truth.

 

A root bearing poisoned and bitter fruit

is in their designs;

they walk in stubbornness of heart

and see Thee among idols,

then they set before them

the stumbling-block of their sin.

 

They come to inquire of Thee

from the mouth of lying prophets deceived by error

Who speak with strange lips to Thy people,

and an alien tongue,

That they may cunningly turn

all their work to folly.

 

All who have eaten my bread

have lifted their heel against me (cf John 13:18)

And all those joined to my Council

have mocked me with wicked lips. (Children piping and chiding.)

 

They have overtaken me in a narrow pass (gap) without escape

And there is no rest for me in my trial.

They sound my censure upon a harp

and their murmuring and storming upon a zither." Ps.41:11

 

Nevertheless, In Victory:

 

I will groan with the zither of lamentation

in all grief-stricken mourning and bitter complaint

until iniquity and wickedness are consumed

and the disease-bringing scourge is no more.

 

Then will I play on the zither of deliverance

and harp of joy,

on the tabors of prayer and the pipe of praise

without end.

 

And at the beginning of their weeks

for the season of Jubilee.

All my life the engraved Precept shall be on my tongue

as the fruit of praise

and the portion of my lips.

I will sing with knowledge and all my music

shall be for the glory of God.

(My) lyre (and) my harp shall sound

for His holy order

and I will tune the pipe of my lips

to His right measure.

 

Instrumental Music and Charismatic Frenzy Never Part of the Synagogue Culture

Because "music" has never been a part of God's spiritual worship at any time or any place, there is not need for a LAW to prevent people from trying to worship "in spirit" by assaulting the carnal body.

Music of any form was never a Biblical "worship" concept in the culture of the Jews who became part of the church. Among the pagans, instrumental music, sex and perverted sex were so intimately connected that anyone who had a minimal amount of Christian teaching would not think of bringing either into the collective assembly.

However, not even music would be "common" or unclean of itself. Paul's "nothing unclean" does not mean that sexuality used as an "act of worship" was pure. Paul is speaking of meats and drinks:

I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Rom 14:14

But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Rom 14: 15

Let not then your good be evil spoken of: Rom 14: 16

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Rom 14: 17

Eating and drinking are positive, external acts of the human body. There simply is no connection with the "spirit." However, if I bring my "meats" which would include any external ritual not absolutely necessary to carry out the synagoguing and Christ honoring work of the assembly, I will offend or judge SOMEONE.

Do you have a right to introduce music or theatrical performance because Paul told me not to judge you? No, you do not.

Music is not related to any of the functions of the assembly and will, in fact, destroy the "synagoguing" function. Music has no teaching value but eleminates the ability of the rational (spiritual) mind to learn.

Therefore, if the trumpet cannot teach the Word then your introduction of the trumpet SETS ME AT NOUGHT just as the Jews set Jesus at nought by reading the words each sabbath but not even being aware that their reading material was condeming or judging them. In fact, speaking or singing in tongues (out of our own spirit) is equated by Paul to the musical signals of warfare.

While none of these things were unclean of themselves, nothing physical or the "works of human hands" was related to the Kingdom of God because the Kingdom of God is "within you."

Because every single element associated with the pagan religions appealed to the human senses--lust of the eyes, flesh and EARS--they must remain within the private arena of their lives. A flute-playing, naked, practicing homosexual "waving the thyrus reed in the wind" and totally drunk on wine is not excluded from future teaching.

However, Paul will insist that the mental baggage people bring with them must be past-tense for spiritual fellowship to be possible.

Even those with pagan backgrounds have no authority to bring any of these practices into the collective assembly. And, we are doing righteous judgment if we do the teaching rather than let him lead.

And, as we will see in Ephesians below, Paul excludes them from the spiritual fellowship with the body. All of these pagan practices such as wine and music-induced "feeling" were just tenets of their creed which included sexual and homosexual practices.

Who were the combatants in Rome?

The Jews were not against eating meat in an absolute sense so these were not Jewish issues. None of the Jews were necessarily vegetarians. All might have consumed wine but not in a religious sense. Therefore, we are left with looking at the three major pagan sects in Rome. First:

The Dionysus or Bacchus Worshipers.

"The worship of Dionysus, or Bacchus, the wine god, was the most popular; his festival, the Bacchanalia, has given English one of its literary names for a drunken orgy. His female devotees, the Maenads, worshipped him in drunken frenzies. The Greco-Roman classics abound with descriptions of fulsome drinking and often drunkenness. The wine of the ancient Greeks, like that of the Hebrews of the same time, was usually drunk diluted with an equal part or two parts of water. (This level of mixture is called "tippling." A "winebibber" or "wine drinker" would be one who drank the naturally fermented wine with two thirds water. Jesus denied that He did that.)

Athenian There is a tradition or story, which has somehow crept about the world, .......that Dionysus was robbed of his wits by his stepmother Hera,
.......and that out of revenge he inspires Bacchic furies and dancing madnesses
....... ....... in others; for which reason he gave men wine.

Such traditions concerning the gods I leave to those who think that they may be safely uttered;

I only know that no animal at birth is mature or perfect in intelligence; and in the intermediate period,

in which he has not yet acquired his own proper sense, he rages and roars without rhyme or reason;

and when he has once got on his legs he jumps about without rhyme or reason; and this, as you will remember, has been already said by us to be the origin of music and gymnastic.

Athenian: "Is not the origin of gymnastics, too, to be sought in the tendency to rapid motion which exists in all animals; man, as we were saying, having attained the sense of rhythm, created and invented dancing; and melody arousing and awakening rhythm, both united formed the choral art?

"The Greek philosophers believed that music in education made lasting effects upon the human soul. However, this music was for its own educational value and not for worship. There are very few fragments of musical notation which survived. However, these musical fragments show that

"Greek music was predominantly vocal,
....... although instrumental pieces were sometimes presented.
....... The music was homophonic (not polyphonic); i.e., it consisted of single melodic lines. Britannica

The Dionysian Wineskin God:

MESSENGER (lying?) (The "barbarians" were usually foreign women musicians)

I was just driving the herds of kine to a ridge of the hill as I fed them, as the sun shot forth his rays and made the earth grow warm; when lo!
....... I see three revel-bands of women;
....... ....... Autonoe was chief of one,
....... ....... ....... thy mother Agave of the second,
....... ....... ....... while Ino's was the third.

There they lay asleep, all tired out; some were resting on branches of the pine, others had laid their heads in careless ease on oak-leaves piled upon the ground,
........... observing all modesty; not, as thou sayest,
........... seeking to gratify their lusts alone amid the woods,
........... by wine and soft flute-music maddened.

If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 1 Cor 14:23

Mainomai (g3105) mah'ee-nom-ahee; mid. from a prim. mao , (to long for; through the idea of insensate craving); to rave as a "maniac": - be beside self (mad)

The Hebrew "praise" word believed that charismatic ecstasy made God pay attention to you:

Halal (h1984) haw-lal'; a prim. root; to be clear (orig. of sound, but usually of color); to shine; hence to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causat. to celebrate; also to stultify: - (make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool (- ish, -ly), glory, give [light], be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage, [sing, be worthy of] praise, rage, renowned, shine.

Heylel (g1966) hay-lale'; from 1984 (in the sense of brightness); the morning-star: - lucifer.

The "uncovered prophesying" Paul outlawed in Corinth which was awash with the women prophesiers who "foretold" your fortune by falling into a charismatic fit with wine, instruments and mind-altering practices.

"Anon in their midst thy mother uprose and cried aloud to wake them from their sleep, when she heard the lowing of my horned kine. And up they started to their feet, brushing from their eyes sleep's quickening dew, a wondrous sight of grace and modesty, young and old and maidens yet unwed.

First o'er their shoulders they let stream their hair; then all did gird their fawn-skins up, who hitherto had left the fastenings loose, girdling the dappled hides with snakes that licked their cheeks.

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 1 Cor 11:5

Clement quotes Euripides

And in sooth methinks I see two suns,

And a double Thebes," (Eurip., Bacch., 918.)

said one frenzy-stricken in the worship of idols,

intoxicated with mere ignorance.

I would pity him in his frantic intoxication, and thus frantic I would invite him to the sobriety of salvation; for the Lord welcomes a sinner's repentance, and not his death.

Come, O madman, not leaning on the thyrsus, not crowned with ivy; throw away the mitre, throw away the fawn-skin; come to thy senses.

I will show thee the Word, and the mysteries of the Word, expounding them after thine own fashion.

And, NO, Paul did not approve of wine drinking: Timothy's stomach wine was a syrup:

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

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

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph 5:20

The Dionysic Choral Dance.

Britannica Online notes or Click Here: "The first time theatre truly freed itself from religious ritual to become an art form was in Greece in the 6th century BC when the dithyramb was developed.

This was a form of choral song chanted at festivals in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine, fruitfulness, and vegetation.

"Originally, it celebrated his rejuvenation (revival) of the earth; later, it drew on Homeric legends for its subject matter. According to Greek tradition, the actor and playwright Thespis invented the drama when he augmented the chorus of the dithyramb with a single actor who wore masks to portray several different characters.

"Comedy (from Greek komos, meaning "revel") was presented competitively in Athens from 486 BC at the Lenaea winter festival, though it fused much earlier traditions of popular entertainment, mime, phallic rites, and revelry in honour of Dionysus. Ancient shamanistic ceremonies also may have influenced its development.

Dithyramb a choric poem, chant, or hymn of ancient Greece sung by revelers at the festival in honour of the god Dionysus. The form originated about the 7th century BC in the songs of banqueters under the leadership of a man who, according to Archilochus, was "wit-stricken by the thunderbolt of wine." It was contrasted with the more sober paean, sung in honour of Apollo. The dithyramb began to achieve literary distinction about 600 BC, when the poet Arion composed works of this type, gave them names, and formally presented them at the Great Dionysia competitions at Corinth. These presentations consisted of a dithyrambic song accompanied by circular dances performed around the altar of Dionysus by choruses composed of 50 men and boys;

the whole proceeding was accompanied by reed flutes and was led by the speaker of a prologue.

Jesus pointed to this when he blamed the Jews and especially the clergy:

They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. Luke 7:32

The dance was the Dionysic dance:

Orcheomai (g3738) or-kheh'-om-ahee; mid. from orchos , (a row or ring); to dance (from the ranklike or regular motion): - dance

Connecting the circle has been an ancient superstition that one can contact the gods. It is still used in witchcraft and even among Christians who believe some kind of magic happens when you complete the "wheel" -- the Gilgal or Stonehenge.

And the weeping or lamenting is:

Thriambeuo (g2358) three-am-byoo'-o; from a prol. comp. of the base of 2360 and a der. of 680 (mean. a noisy iambus, sung in honor of Bacchus); to make an acclamatory procession, i.e. (fig.) to conquer or (by Hebr.) to give victory: - (cause) to triumph (over).

Theodoret (Quasten, Music & Worship, p. 65) claimed that the Jews brought liturgical music from Egypt and Philo wrote that "Moses learned rhythm, harmony, meter and everything concerned with instrumental music from the Egyptians." This is why Moses knew that the noise at Mount Sinai was not the sound of defeat or of victory. Rather, it was the "sound of them singing that I hear."

The Jews sang in the type of the Egyptian threnodies (elegies for the dead):

Thus they made a golden bull, the image of an animal that was held to be the most sacred in that land; they offered unholy sacrifices, performed impious dances and sang hymns which differed in no way from the pagan mourning songs. Philo, De specialibus legibus

Psalm 41 predicted that Judas would not 'triumph over' Jesus where triumph is blowing wind instrumenta and making a loud, rejoicing sound. God outlawed this for the Israelite congregation (Numbers 10:7).

Perseus Notes: Two figures walk toward the right, a bearded man playing a double flute (aulos) and a youth holding a drinking cup and a gnarled stick (like Shamgar's oxgoad.)

"Wine-drinking and music are a normal part of the komos or revel scenes frequently depicted on red-figure vases. The theme may be derived ultimately from the Dionysiac revels of satyrs and maenads, but probably most are merely human activities; part of the trend toward scenes of daily life and away from the mythological emphasis of the black-figure style. Certainly the subject is appropriate for wine cups and pitchers. However, the komos scenes almost always show much more exuberant figures than this rather sedate pair.

"In view of the disparity in age, the vase might allude to the homosexual fondness of mature Greek men for young boys, yet the scene scarcely looks like a seduction. Connection with the komos seems more likely, the quietness perhaps a reflection of the Berlin Painter's disinclination to portray highly dynamic scenes. The "barbaton" is the harp in the image from Perseus.

And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? Matt 11:7

"The staff to which the name thyrsus properly applied began to be shown as a stalk of giant fennel (narthex) segmented like bamboo, sometimes with ivy leaves inserted in the hollow end. Bacchae were depicted and described using them as weapons. Scholars differ on the extent to which these staffs can be explained as symbols of fertility.

"O ye who dwell upon the hallowed mountain-terraces! shall we chase Agave, mother of Pentheus, from her Bacchic rites, and thereby do our prince a service?"

We liked his speech, and placed ourselves in hidden ambush among the leafy thickets; they at the appointed time began to wave the thyrsus (reed) for their Bacchic rites, calling on Iacchus (Iacchus or Bacchus, honored by all, deviser of our festal song and dance - (worship facilitator), the Bromian god, the son of Zeus, in united chorus, and the whole mount and the wild creatures re-echoed their cry; all nature stirred as they rushed on.

Now Agave chanced to come springing near me, so up I leapt from out my ambush where I lay concealed, meaning to seize her.

But she cried out, "What ho! my nimble hounds (dogs, catamites), here are men upon our track; but follow me, ay, follow, with the thyrsus in your hand for weapon." Bacchae

But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment (figurative of a catamite: male homosexual)? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings houses. Matt 11:8

But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, Matt 11:16

And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. Matt 11:17

The follwing picture puts it all together. The little box on the spotted flute case is the Judas Bag.

"Flute-players in this pose in komos scenes by the painter are generally intent upon a neighbouring dancing figure whom they are stimulating with their music. The flute-case, of leopard-skin, with its mouthpiece-box, hangs in the field. The dancer had too many trips to the new wineskin and the stick helps keep him going in his exhilaration."

The mystical flute case is to the right. The small projection from the case is the Judas Bag used to carry the mouthpieces of wind instruments. Revelation 41 prophesied that Judas would not get Jesus to dance to his tune with wind instruments.

 

Orpheus: The Vegetarian God

Vegetarianism: Josephus knew certain priests who "supported themselves with figs and nuts." They had been sent to Rome to be tried before Caesar and they rejected all meat because it might have been offered to idols.

"However, vegetarian was not always just to guard against idol meat.
"Vegetarianism was a customary religious practice in the first century. It was a characteristic of the Orphic and Pythagorean sects among the Greeks and of the Essenes among the Jews." (Batey, Romans, Sweet, p. 166).

Many Orphics seem to have had a strong feeling of sin and guilt. They believed that there was a divine part in man--his soul--but it was wrapped up in the body, and man's task was to liberate the soul from the body.

This could be achieved by living an Orphic life, which included

abstinence from meat, wine, and sexual intercourse.

NOW concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 1 Cor 7:1

Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. 1 Cor 7:2

Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 1 Cor 7:3

"After death the soul would be judged. If a man had lived a righteous life, his soul would be sent to the meadows of the blessed in Elysium; but, if he had committed misdeeds, his soul would be punished in various ways and perhaps sent to hell. Following a period of reward or punishment, the soul would be incarnated in a new body. Only a soul that had lived a pious life three times could be liberated from the cycle.

The Problem with Musical Competition

"A certain number of musicians were gathered at a feast given by a great sovereign who took care to place them
....... according to their degree of mastery of their respective arts,

"when a man of wretched appearance, clad in rags, entered. The master of ceremonies raised him up above all the participants, whose faces expressed their evident disapproval. Wishing to display the man's merit and calm his guest's anger, the master asked him to let them hear a sample of his art.

"He took out some pieces of wood which he had with him, set them out before him and stretched strings over them. Then he set these strings vibrating and performed an air that made all those present burst into laughter because of the pleasure, the joy and the well-being that took possession of their souls.

"Then he changed his tuning and played another air which made everyone weep for the tenderness of the melody and the sadness which settled in their hearts.

Then he changed the tuning, and played another air which plunged everyone into slumber; so doing he rose, went out and was never heard spoken of again. (The Brethren of Purity of Basra )

However:

"The true, highest melody, however, is that which is sung without any voice. It resounds in the interior of man, is vibrating in his heart and in all his limbs. Isaac Loeb Peretz (1912).

The Battle Between Orphics and Dionysics

The Orphic group was the primary official "vegetarian sect." Orpheus was the God of The Second Incarnation. Plato said that "cowards had their second incarnation as women."

Strabo Geography 10.3.16

Of the rites of Dionysus condemned by Paul in First Corinthians using the "weapons" of warfare or even the metallic chisel to help with the clangs and booms to bring down the gods:

[10.3.16] Also resembling these rites are the Cotytian and the Bendideian rites practiced among the Thracians, among whom the Orphic rites had their beginning. Now the Cotys who is worshipped among the Edonians, and also the instruments used in her rites, are mentioned by Aeschylus; for he says,

"And he mentions immediately afterwards the attendants of Dionysus:
one, holding in his hands the bombyces, toilsome work of the turner's chisel, fills full the fingered melody, the call that brings on frenzy, while another causes to resound the bronze-bound cotylae.

"and again, stringed instruments raise their shrill cry, and frightful mimickers from some place unseen bellow like bulls, and the semblance of drums, as of subterranean thunder, rolls along, a terrifying sound.

A Hellenistic mystery religion based on the teachings and songs of Orpheus is thought to have eventually arisen in ancient Greece, although no coherent description of such a religion can be constructed from historical evidence. Most scholars agree that by the 5th century BC there was at least an Orphic movement, with traveling priests who offered teaching and initiation, based on a body of legend and doctrine said to have been founded by Orpheus.

"Part of the Orphic ritual is thought to have involved the
mimed or actual dismemberment of an individual representing the god Dionysus (The god of wine)

who was then seen to be reborn. Orphic eschatology laid great stress on rewards and punishment after bodily death, the soul then being freed to achieve its true life.

Source

"Orpheus was the most famous musician and poet of ancient times. His lyre, given to him by Apollo (after he invented the Cithara), could enchant not only the wild animals, but the trees and rocks as well. As will become obvious, Orphism is closely related in many ways to Dionysus, and could be considered a reform of the Dionysian Mysteries and is often regarded as the highest religious form in the ancient world.

"Orpheus is said to have travelled to Egypt, where he learnt from the priests there and became the most learned among the Greeks in all that concerns the Gods and their initiatory rites. He excelled in the beauty of his verse and song,

and was believed to have discovered mysteries and how to achieve purification from sins,
cures of diseases and means of averting divine wrath.

These early rites were said to be very similar to those of Dionysus but have also been linked to the rites of Osiris and Isis."

"There are many stories of his death. Rejecting all women after the death of his wife, Orpheus was torn to pieces by Thracian women; or in another version, he was dismembered by Maenads (at Deium in Macedonia) at the urging of Dionysus, who resented Orphic rejection of sacrificial murder and the worship of Apollo (in whose temple Orpheus served as a priest).

The Oracle at Delphi to Apollo was quite identical to modern Seeker-Centers used to dispense the "new wineskin" religion, women, music, theater, swimming pool, gymnasium and gender-variant sex.

"There is more about the Thracian women. They were said to have been put up to their task by Dionysus who was angry against Orpheus because Orpheus had looked into the rites of the God.

"The Thracian women plotted his death, because he had persuaded their husbands to follow him in his wanderings and that, first after having drinking much wine, they dared to kill him; hereafter, it is said their men adopted the custom to march to battle drunk. Some believe he was killed near Mount Pieria, and close to this place an urn was preserved, which was said to contain the bones of Orpheus.

"It is also told that when the women who killed Orpheus wished to wash off in a river the blood-stains, the river sank underground, not wishing to lend its waters to cleanse manslaughter.

"Orphic initiates (and the stricter Pythagoreans) were vegetarians and also agreed to lifestyle and dietary restrictions, like not eating beans (apart from the effects beans have on the human body, they also resemble parts of it.) Pausanias mentions that Demeter gave the human race the products of the earth excluding beans.

"The refusal to kill and to eat animals, was a radical step in a world of general sacrifice to the Gods, and cut them off from many of the State ceremonies."

Therefore, Christianity was unique in that dietary practices did not automatically put you into a higher or lower social status.

However, the charismatic, musical practices DID MATTER and therefore Paul did not list either the music or sexual practices as something which would preclude associations for the purpose of maturing them.

However, it is insanity to assume that Paul used Romans 14 to JUDGE those who would not practice, would not tolerate but would continue to teach against both the Charismatic practices (madness) and the singing, dancing and instruments used to induce the charismatic feeling (swaying, dancing, hand clapping are body reactions and not "spirit" reactions.

Knowing this, Paul said that the Christian "Synagogue" does not really care who you are or what you are. No one is "unclean" or "common." Therefore, one can welcome a drunk into the fellowship because the "fellowship" is not a social club.

Nor does the teaching function limit itself only to those who NEED NO TEACHING.

Rather, the "synagogue" is for reading, teaching and explaining the revealed Words of Christ (Spirit).

From the earliest history, the public teaching assembly excluded no one. However, the baptized believers went into a private "upper room" or closed the doors to eat the Lord's Supper.

There is some evidence that even singing the hymns was a private function.

Therefore, to receive a person does not mean to endorse their charismatic, musical and sexual religious practices:

HIM that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. Romans 14:1

Proslambano (g4355) pros-lam-ban'-o; from 4314 and 2983; to take to oneself, i.e. use (food), lead (aside), admit to friendship or hospitality: - receive, take (unto).

Therefore, nothing not of a spiritual nature was made a part of the "belief system" or "creed" of the local assembly which was more school than pagan worship center.

The Pythogoreans

Many of practices of the Gnostics seemed wise in their own eyes but they really were fools according to Paul.

"...this sect crowned the image of Jesus along with those of Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle. Further, there were impostors of all varieties: magicians, soothsayers, jugglers, deceivers and hypocrites, 'who appeared using mighty words with a host of unintelligible formulae and taking up with scandalous ceremonies in order to rob men of their money." (Int. Std. Bible Ency., Gnosticism, p. 1246).

"Aristotle tells us that it is the task of the initiate to suffer and to let himself be brought to a certain frame of mind.

He is not to seek to acquire knowledge and increased understanding.
The significance of ecstasy in the mysteries strikingly characterized by this statement.

The precise aim of orgies in the mysteries was to induce such a heightening of consciousness in a man that he would be receptive to the god who came to be united with him.

Such a person was then an enthusiast. Music was the most important element used to induce this condition. .. Aristotle explains that among the modes the Phrygian has the same power as the flute among instruments, for both are orgiastic and both heighten consciousness. This peculiar capability, which brought on religious ecstasy.. For that reason everything written in the Phrygian mode was. (Quasten, p 36-37)

"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)

Here a "musical" writer repudiates the "prophesying" in churches such as Corinth, Ephesus and Colossae.

The "piping" of the "childish" clergy in Jerusalem was to enact the mysteries of Dionysus or Bacchus. The effect that as they piped you would sing and dance. This was the feminine or effeminate role they tried to force upon the Incarnate God of the Universe:

Strabo in Geography identified the mysteries: 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.

And by the same course of reasoning they also attribute to music the upbuilding of morals, believing that everything which tends to correct the mind is close to the gods.

Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysus, Apollo, Hecate, the Muses, and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bacchic or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations; and they give the name "Iacchus" not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries, who is the genius of Demeter.

And branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common elements in the worship of these gods.

As for the Muses and Apollo (Apollydon in Revelation 9), the Muses preside over the choruses, whereas Apollo presides both over these and the rites of divination.

But all educated men, and especially the musicians, are ministers of the Muses; and both these and those who have to do with divination (prophesying) are ministers of Apollo;

Apollo had his oracle just up the way from Corinth: "As the god of youth, manly beauty, music, and song, he represents the Greek mind at its best. He was the god of prophecy, with his oracle at Delphi."

Now Iamblichus (De Mysteries, III.ix) goes into the matter of the so-called Corybantic and Bacchic 'frenzies' produced by musical instruments in the Mysteries of Ceres and Bacchus; and in his Life of Pythagoras (xxv) he, further, tells us that:

"Farther still, the whole Pythagoric school produced by certain appropriate songs, what they called exartysis, or adaptation; synarmoge, or elegance of manners; and epaphe, or contact,

usefully conducting the dispositions of the soul to passions contrary to those which it before possessed.

"For when they went to bed, they purified the reasoning power from the perturbations and noises to which it had been exposed during the day, by certain odes and peculiar songs, and by this means procured for them tranquil sleep, and few and good dreams.

"But when they rose from bed, they again liberated themselves from the torpor and heaviness of sleep, by songs of another kind. Sometimes, also, by musical sounds alone, unaccompanied with words, they healed the passions of the soul and certain diseases, enchanting, as they say, in reality....After this manner, therefore, Pythagoras through music produced the most beneficial correction of human manners and lives. Iamblichus (300 A.D.)

Pythagorus spent time in Babylonia and understood the mystery of "the seven heavenly spheres." The Babylonians played music up and down the steps trying to "ascend into the presence of a god" as he made his way to the collection plate in the templeof the Towers of Babylon.

"The Orphic creeds were the basis of the Pythagorean brotherhood, which flourished in southern Italy beginning in the 6th century BC. The Pythagoreans were aristocratic fraternities that sometimes had a political scope. Their main achievements, however, lay in the fields of music, geometry, and astronomy. They discovered that these subjects could be explained by numbers and ratios. Combining Orphic eschatology (the study of the last things, especially death and afterlife) with their discoveries,

they invested music, geometry, and astronomy with religious values.

According to their doctrine, the original home of the soul was in the stars. From there it fell down to earth and associated with the body.

Thus, man was a stranger on the earth, and he had to strive to liberate himself from the ties of the flesh and return to the soul's celestial home.

Contrary to this, neither the Old or New Testaments "invest" music with a "religious value." It has none. It is the left-over immaturity of youth which causes even young calves to jump, run and play.

However, when applied in a religious sense, the Old Testament universally invests it with pagan value.

Pythagorean Music and Divination

Music was always powerful because to the "fatheads and simpletons" you could sell it as the voice of a god actually speaking to you from his home in the instrument. Music is intimately connected with charismatic speaking in tongues which is a modern version of the Greek prophesying or the Ephesian Letters.

"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 the goddess so that,

filled with a wicked spirit, they might

predict the future to foolish men.

"In considering this cultic background it is necessary to understand the

view of music as dispositive to divination,

a view which derives from pagan philosophy.

This opinion resided in the old Pythagorean school, as Cicero notes.

The Stoa also recognized the employment of music in the service of divination. According to Stoic teaching, ascesis and listen to music were preparations for the ecstasy which, along with purity of heart and a relationship with God, was considered to be the most favorable condition for prophesying.

The notion which was basic to this conception was closely connected wiht belief in the purifying power of music. In both instances there was a question of eleminating tensions and obstacles in man which could stand in the way of the infusion of the divine and its revelation. (Quasten, Johannes, pg. 40)

The Solution to Warfare Against Jesus with Music

With all of the pagan, musical history informing all of the early church members it was no possible for them to bring their "culture" into the assembly. To the Jews in the synagogue this was not a problem because they met to study the Word and not to engage in superstitious "acts of worship." The church defined by Paul worships God by "giving heed" to the Words of God--just as we would honor Robert Frost by giving heed to HIS poetry rather than writing something to compete with his. Consistent with common decency, when you read the poem or song of a composer you did not "enhance" it with an instrument. This would have been an insult and something more atune to the occupation of the prostitute.

No! Paul does not give you permission to DO worship with music and prohibit others from opposing your insult to a Holy God. Rather, here is how people of all backgrounds can meet to DO church which is "A School of the Bible and of Christ."