CHAPTER V.
Psallo as Affected by the Law of Evolution with More from the Lexicons.

We have seen that the philological principles presented in preceding chapters are characteristic alike of all living languages, and hence that the Greek language is no exception to the rule. In further confirmation of this fact, we now propose to show, from the highest lexical authority, that these principles are particularly exemplified in the word psallo (ψαλλω).

In the Preface to their renowned lexicon, referring to the different periods covered by the authors they cite, Liddell and Scott, to quote in part their language again, say: "The date of each author's 'floruit' is added in the margin; and by comparing this with the short summary of the chief Epochs of Greek Literature prefixed to the Catalogue, it will be easy to determine the time of a word's first usage, and of its subsequent changes of signification;" and, with still greater significance, they declare that "the Language changed differently in different places at the same time," in proof of which they found themselves compelled, as we have already observed in another chapter, to place Demosthenes and Aristotle in different Epochs.

Hence, from all the facts now before us, even granting that the word psallo (ψαλλω) was used in a given sense at one time, it would not follow that the same idea was perpetuated in the word without change. Whether it was or was not so perpetuated, is a question for decision upon its own merits. What, now, are the facts relating to this point? Is there any evidence that psallo (ψαλλω) was, in any way, affected by these evolutionary principles? We shall allow the Lexicons themselves to answer:

1. The Greek lexicon of Sophocles, himself a native Greek and for thirty-eight years Professor of the Greek Language in Harvard University, covers all of the Roman period and the Byzantine period down to the end of the eleventh century, in all more than twelve hundred years' history of the language from B.C. 146 to A.D. 1100. As the basis of his monumental work, this profound and tireless scholar examined, as we have found by actual count, 146 secular and 77 ecclesiastical authors of the Roman period, and 109 secular and 262 ecclesiastical, modern Greek, and scholastic authors of the Byzantine period, a grand total of 594 authors and covering a period of more than twelve hundred years, and he declares that there is not a single example of psallo (ψαλλω) throughout this long period involving or implying the use of an instrument, but says that it meant always and everywhere "to chant, sing religious hymns."

2. The Greek lexicon of Thayer which, by the [48] unanimous testimony of modern scholarship, now occupies the very highest place in the field of New Testament lexicography, although specially devoted to New Testament Greek, often gives the classical meaning of words. Accordingly, in harmony with the classical lexicons, as we have already seen, he says the word meant to pluck or pull, as the hair; to twang the bowstring; to touch the chords of a musical instrument, and hence to play instrumental music; but, in citing authorities in confirmation of these meanings, it is a significant fact that he is compelled, with the other lexicographers, to go back to the same periods of the language prior to New Testament times to which they appealed for the same purpose, and he cites some of the same authorities cited by Liddell and Scott; but when this prince of New Testament lexicographers comes to the New Testament period, he omits all of these meanings, and limits it to touching the chords of the human heart, saying that it means "in the New Testament to sing a hymn, celebrate the praises of God in song." Then, as if to put an end to the controversy, the great lexicon of Sophocles, devoted exclusively to the Roman and Byzantine periods, and thus covering the entire period of New Testament and patristic literature, says he found not a single example of the word having any other meaning.

We may now regard it as an established fact, vouched for by the very highest lexical authority., that in the course of centuries the term psallo (ψαλλω) [49] underwent several complete changes in meaning, although, as we have already seen, its one radical idea, "to touch," runs through all its varied uses and applications--and that at the opening of the New Testament period, its ancient meanings, to pluck or pull the hair, to twang the bowstring, and to touch the chords of a musical instrument, were as completely gone from the word as "to be happy" is now gone from the word "silly," or "private citizen" from the word "idiot."

We here introduce some illustrative examples of the use of psallo outside of the New Testament and after it had acquired the meaning simply to sing, and we select them from the Christian Fathers. Chrysostom and Theodoret lived, respectively, during the latter half of the fourth century and the first half of the fifth century, A.D., the former having been born in Antioch, Syria, in the year 347, and the latter having been born in the same city about the year 387, or hear the close of the fourth century. Commenting on Ephesians 5: 19, Chrysostom says:

Dost thou wish, he says, to be cheerful? Dost thou wish to employ the day? I give the spiritual drink; for drunkenness even cuts off the articulate sound of our tongue; it makes us lisp and stammer, and distorts the eyes, and the whole frame together. Learn to sing, psalms (μαθε ψαλλειν), and thou shalt see the delightfulness of the employment. For they who sing psalms (οι ψαλλοντες) are filled with the Holy Spirit, as they who sing (οι αδοντες) Satanic songs are filled with an unclean spirit. What is meant by, [50] with your hearts to the Lord? It means, with close attention and understanding. For they who do not attend closely merely sing ('αλπως ψαλλουσι), uttering the words, whilst their heart is roaming elsewhere.--The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XIII., Homily XIX., p. 138.^[3]

We accept the foregoing translation with the observation that, to be uniform, psallo, in all of its occurrences in the passage, should be rendered the same way. In the first and second, it is rendered "sing psalms;" and in the third, "sing." However, the fact of simply singing is preserved in each instance, and this is the vital point.

Now, here is an instance of the use of psallo in which the context clearly shows that it can have no other meaning but to sing. After saying, "They who do not attend closely, merely 'psallo'" ('αλπως ψαλλουσι), he adds the explanatory clause, "uttering the words" (τα 'ρηματα φθεγγομενοι), showing, beyond all just ground for doubt, that, with Chrysostom, "to psallo" was to use the organs of speech, which, of [51] course, might be going on while the "heart is roaming elsewhere;" but that, to be acceptable, it must be such an "uttering of words" as touches the chords of the heart, or comes from the heart.

We have a similar example from Theodoret. This eminent ecclesiastic of the fifth century, commenting on Eph. 5: 19, says:

For not only does he make melody (ψαλλει) in his heart who moves his tongue, but he who excites his mind to the understanding of the things said.--Commentary on Ephesians, London Edition, 1870.^[4]

Thus, according to Theodoret, "to psallo" is to "move the tongue"--that is, to utter words in song, and so to utter them as to excite the mind "to the understanding of the things said." This is in perfect accord with Paul's use of the word in New Testament times when he says: "I will sing (ψαλω) with the understanding (τω νοι) also.^[5]

Here we have clear and conclusive proof that in the New Testament period and at the time of Theodoret, nearly five hundred years later, the word meant simply to sing. This is the reason why the lexicon of Sophocles covering these periods, but not the classic period, gives no other definition of the word.

Hence, the conclusion is inevitable that one would be just as consistent to take the position that "silly" [52] now means "to be happy," and that "idiot" means a "private citizen," and then, in proof of it, to appeal to these definitions as given in the English dictionaries, as one is to take the position that psallo (ψαλλω) in the New Testament means to play instrumental music, and then, in proof of it, to appeal to this definition as given in the Greek dictionaries. If not, why not? The cases are precisely parallel. We are simply confronted with the fact that the greatest New Testament Greek Lexicon in existence gives "to play on a stringed instrument" as a meaning of psallo (ψαλλω) precisely as the greatest English dictionary in existence gives "happy" and "fortunate" as meanings of "silly," and "private citizen" as a meaning of "idiot."

It goes without saying, therefore, that those who quote Greek lexicons on psallo (ψαλλω), or any other word with a similar history, without carefully observing this distinction are both confusing and misleading in their use of such authorities; and yet this is precisely what is sometimes done in the case of this particular word. We have ready at hand a remarkable and significant instance in illustration. Professor Clinton Lockhart, who at the time referred to was a Professor in Drake University, but is now President of Christian University; J. B. Briney, at the time Editor of the Christian Companion; and W. K. Homan, at the time Editor of the Christian Courier, furnish a remarkable coincidence in their manner of quoting from Thayer's Greek Lexicon on this [53] word. We first give Thayer's definition of psallo (ψαλλω) in full, which is as follows:

Ψαλλω (from ψαω, to rub, wipe; to handle, touch); a. to pluck off, pull out: εθειραν, the hair. b. to cause to vibrate by touching, to twang; specifically χορδην, to touch or strike the chord, to twang the strings of a musical instrument so that they gently vibrate; and absolutely to play on a stringed instrument, to play the harp, etc.; Septuagint for niggēn and much oftener for zimmēr to sing to the music of the harp; in the New Testament to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praises of God in song.

That is his definition verbatim and in full, without giving his list of references to either the classic authors or the New Testament.

Now, for the coincidence before mentioned. Professor Lockhart quoted Thayer's definition as follows:

Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (the latest and largest New Testament lexicon in the English language): "Psallo--from psao, to rub, wipe; to handle, touch; to pluck off, pull out the hair; to cause to vibrate by touching; to twang; especially to touch or strike the chord; to twang the strings of a musical instrument; to play the harp, etc. Septuagint, for niggēn, piel form of nagan, and much oftener for zimmēr, piel form of zamar--to sing to the music of the harp."--Stark-Warlick Debate, p. 99.

He omitted the phrase, "in the New Testament."

Editor Briney quoted it as follows:

What is the meaning of the term psallo? As applied to music, Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, gives the following answer: "To play a stringed instrument, to play the harp; to sing to the music of the harp; to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praise of God in song."--Christian Companion, February 15, 1905, p. 4.

He omitted the phrase, "in the New Testament."

Editor Homan quoted it as follows:

Professor Carr denies that psallo of itself carries the idea of an instrumental accompaniment to the singing. Well, the determination of this point is not essential to the settlement of the right to use the instrument, but it so happens that Professor Carr is at variance with the leading commentators and Greek lexicons.... Thayer's New Testament Lexicon: "Psallo: to rub, to wipe; to handle, to touch; to pluck off, pull out; to cause to vibrate by touching; to twang, to touch or strike the chord, to twang the strings of a musical instrument so that it shall gently vibrate, and in an absolute sense to play on a stringed instrument, to play the harp, etc. To sing to the music of the harp, to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praises of God in song.,'--The Christian Courier, February 14, 1907, p. 6.

He omitted the phrase, "in the New Testament."

Now, this omitted phrase, when left where Thayer placed it, marks the boundary line between what he gives as the classical meanings of psallo, on the one hand, and its New Testament meaning, on the other: [55] in the former he includes pulling out the hair and instrumental music as once signified by the word; in the latter he leaves out these meanings entirely. It is therefore unfortunate to omit the phrase when attempting to give Thayer's definition of psallo since this very material and significant distinction made by the author cannot otherwise be seen.

Leonard F. Bittle, for a number of years Editor of the Octographic Review, was a fine Greek scholar and gave much attention to this particular word. After extended research in the literature of the subject, he wrote the following as his deliberate conviction and conclusion:

Psallo, according to the best authorities, is derived from psao, and is in fact merely a strengthened form of this root word. Robinson in his Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament gives this account of it: "Psallo, future psalo (psao) to touch, to twitch, to pluck, e. g. the hair or beard, psall' etheiran (pluck up the beard) Aeschyl. Pers. 1062; also a string, to twang, e. g. the string of a bow, toxon neuran psallein [to draw the bowstring.] Eurip. Bacch. 784."

This definition, in which the older and the later lexicographers agree with Robinson, shows that in its radical or primary sense the word psallo has no reference to music. But from drawing the chord of a bow to striking the strings of a harp was an easy transition, so psallo came at length to denote the latter act especially.

But as singing usually accompanied the playing of the harp the word psallo was made to include the vocal music also. And the transition did not stop here. The word psallo began to be used without reference to the instrument, and became a synonym of ado, I sing.

So Thomas Sheldon Green, in his New Testament Lexicon, after noticing the primary and secondary meanings of psallo, adds this definition: "In the New Testament^[6] to sing praises, Rom. 15: 9; 1 Cor. 14: 15; Eph. 5: 19; Jas. 5: 13."

That this view of the matter is correct needs not many words to prove. Still for the sake of the doubting reader, we shall offer sundry reasons showing that the apostles, and other early Christians used psallo in the limited sense of singing or making vocal melody.

1. In the two parallel passages in which Paul exhorts his brethren to use psalms and hymns and spiritual songs instead of bacchanalian odes common among the heathen he expresses himself thus: "Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit: speaking (lalountes) to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing (adontes) and making melody (psallontes) in your heart to the Lord," Eph. 5: 19. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, singing (adontes) with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Col. 3: 16.

The Revised Version has "singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord." This is a better rendering, and excludes the idea of instrumental music entirely. Indeed the Common Version also excludes it. In writing to the Colossians Paul omits "making melody" (psallontes) and uses singing (adontes) only. The latter word includes the former, for singing is speaking words a musical tone. * * *

3. They who say that psallo in the apostolic epistles [57] means singing with the harp, and thus sanctions the use of other instruments in worship take upon themselves the burden of proving that the primitive disciples universally, deliberately, and persistently disobeyed a plain commandment of the Lord,--that Paul told these disciples to play on the harp and they never did so in their assemblies.

4. The assumption that psallo means to play on the harp does not sanction the use of an entirely different instrument like an organ or French horn any more than the fact that Christ broke bread at the Passover sanctions the use of beef or pork in the Lord's Supper. When the Savior says, Remember me in the breaking of bread they disobey Him who try to remember Him sacramentally in the eating of meat. So if Paul says, Play on the harp, they set at naught his counsel who play on something else. To sum up--In its primary sense psallo had no reference to music at all, but meant merely to touch or twitch or pull; then it was used to denote the drawing of the bowstring in shooting arrows; afterwards it was restricted to making music on a harp by touching its strings; then it was applied to singing with the accompaniment of harp-music; finally it was used to denote singing psalms without any instrument save the organs of speech. In this last and latest sense it is used exclusively in the New Testament, and occurs only five times--Rom. 15: 9; 1 Cor. 14: 15 (twice); Eph. 5: 19; and Jas. 5: 13.

From the verb psallo, I sing, comes the noun psalmos, a psalm. This name was at first given to any poem sung to the notes of the harp. It was afterwards applied to the poem itself without reference to the instrument.

In the New Testament it is used five times in the [58] singular number--Luke 24: 44; Acts 13: 33; 1 Cor. 14: 26; Eph. 5: 19; and Col. 3: 16; and two times in the plural,--Luke 20: 42; and Acts 1: 20. Each time it denotes a sacred poem, but in what way this differed from a hymn or song is not clear.--Octographic Review.

Before leaving the lexicons, it is deemed proper to state, in this connection, that a number of unavailing attempts have been made, by overzealous advocates of instrumental music, to break the force of the great lexicons of Sophocles and Thayer on the meaning of psallo. George P. Slade, whose tract on the meaning of this Greek verb was published thirty years ago, soon after the appearance of Sophocles' great work, made an attempt to elicit from the learned author of the lexicon, who was then still living, something that would break or modify the force of what the lexicon says on this word; but the attempt met with a signal failure. For some reason, Brother Slade withheld from his tract his note of inquiry, and gave out only a part of the noted linguist's reply, which was as follows:

Cambridge, February 1, 1880.

Rev. G. P. Slade.

Dear Sir: My lexicon is intended for those who wish to read the authors of the Roman and Byzantine periods of the language. It presupposes a good knowledge of the preceding periods (Alexandrian, Athenian, Ionic)....

Yours truly,

E. A. Sophocles.

--Search for Truth Concerning Instrumental Music, p. 21.

The dots at the close of the foregoing note indicate that something is omitted, but it may be safely assumed that Brother Slade omitted nothing that would favor the use of instrumental music in the worship. Hence, as the matter stands, the reply of the eminent Harvard Professor gave forth nothing in support of any other meaning of psallo than that given in his lexicon.

But Brother Slade makes this comment: "The Lexicons previously quoted embrace all periods of the dead language; Sophocles' Lexicon presupposes this knowledge, and no one would expect to find it in his Lexicon." But any one, who thinks properly, "would expect to find," in a lexicon made for a given period, the full and complete meaning assigned to a word which it really had during that period. It would be a poor lexicon that did not do this. The statement in Sophocles' note that his lexicon "presupposes a good knowledge of the preceding periods" merely means what it says, and it certainly does not say, and does not mean, that the definitions of words in his lexicon are not correct and complete for the periods which it covers. And here is a most significant fact. If Sophocles' lexicon were a general lexicon of the Greek Language, such as that of Liddell and Scott, and were not confined to certain periods of the language, we might expect to find, and doubtless would find in it, the same classical meanings of psallo, such as to "pull the hair," "to twang the bowstring," "to twitch a carpenter's [60] line," and "to make instrumental music," as are found in Liddell and Scott and other lexicons of similar scope. But the lexicon of Sophocles is limited to the Roman and Byzantine periods, including, in fact, only so much of the latter as to the end of the eleventh century, A.D. In other words, it covers the period from B.C. 146 to A.D. 1100. But we have already seen that before the beginning of the Roman period, i. e. B.C. 146, the above-mentioned classical meanings were no longer current in the language, and of course a lexicon limited to a time when psallo had no such meanings could not correctly say that it had them at that time. For this reason, they do not appear in Sophocles' lexicon at all.

We close this line of evidence with the strong testimony of Dr. James Begg who, in his work entitled, "The Use of Organs," says of the word psallo:

This attempt to fix the meaning of the word as implying playing instead of singing, as used by the New Testament writers, was thoroughly set aside by Dr. Porteous, by a variety of evidence, one part of which is thus concluded: "From these quotations from the Greek fathers, the three first of whom flourished in the fourth century--men of great erudition, well skilled in the phraseology and language of Scripture, perfectly masters of the Greek tongue, which was then written and spoken with purity in the countries where they resided; men, too, who for conscience' sake would not handle the word of God deceitfully, it is evident that the Greek word ψαλλω signified in their time singing with the voice alone. [61] * * * In regard to the verb itself, besides the passage in James and in Eph. 5: 19, just referred to, ψαλλω only occurs three times in the New Testament; twice (1 Cor. 14: 15), where its use absolutely excludes instrumental music, and must imply singing inspired (?) songs or psalms--'I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also;' and once (Rom. 15: 9), 'As it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.' It is interesting to notice that the latter passage is exactly copied from the Septuagint (Psa. 18: 49), and this affords striking proof of the correctness of the rendering for which we are now contending. As thus quoted by the apostle, we have an inspired rendering into the Greek verb ψαλλω of a Hebrew word which is usually translated 'sing praises' or 'sing psalms.' 'Singing psalms' was the only authorized vocal praise of the church of old. The question now, as every one knows, is not about the roots or the original meaning of words, but about the sense in which they were used by the inspired writers; ψαλλω never occurs in the New Testament, in its radical signification, to strike or play upon an instrument."--Cited by Girardeau, "Music in the Church," pp. 116-118.