CHAPTER VII.
Facts Accounting for Differences Among the Lexicographers.

In the light of such an array of facts as we now have before us, the very pertinent question arises, Why are there any differences at all among the lexicographers? We reply, for the same reason, and in precisely the same way, that we find differences among them on βαπτιζω. In fact, this word and the word ψαλλω, between which we have already seen an interesting analogy, present an equally interesting parallel in the treatment which they have received at the hands of the theological world. This may be seen from the following considerations:

1. There are no differences among lexicographers and theologians as to the classical meaning of either of these words. They all agree that βαπτιζω in classic Greek meant to dip or immerse, and that from the time of Aristophanes B.C. 450 to that of Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, a period of about four hundred years, the word ψαλλω meant to pluck, as the hair or beard, to twang the bowstring, to twitch a carpenter's line, and to touch the chords of a musical instrument.

2. In like manner, they all agree that, at the opening [68] of the New Testament period, ψαλλω had come to mean to sing, and that it is so used in the New Testament.

3. The one point of divergence is that some of them have ventured to say that the word, in the New Testament, involves the use of the instrument; yet the very highest authorities among them in New Testament Greek and all other Greek covering the New Testament period--authorities devoted exclusively to the Greek of that period, declare that, in the New Testament and in all patristic literature, it meant simply to sing.

Now, for a significant coincidence. It so happens that those lexicographers who have ventured to say that ψαλλω, in the New Testament, means to make instrumental music, are the very same lexicographers who have ventured to say that βαπτιζω means "to pour." The four illustrious names which appear on this roll are Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, John Parkhurst, and Edward Robinson, the first three of whom were of the Church of England, and the last a Presbyterian. The religious bodies with which these scholars were affiliated were prominent in their advocacy of pouring and sprinkling for baptism, and equally so in their use of instrumental music in the worship. Liddell and Scott would doubtless never have thought of "pour" as a meaning of βαπτιζω had it not been for their position and practice in the theological world. In the first London and first American edition of their lexicon they gave [69] "to pour upon" as a meaning of βαπτιζω, but in the very next edition they expunged this definition as inadmissible, and it has remained expunged from all subsequent editions even down to the Eighth, which is the last and greatest edition of their famous work. But if they could be influenced, on theological grounds, to introduce, as a meaning of βαπτιζω, that which was really never its meaning in any age, how much more would they be liable, on the same grounds, to introduce, as a meaning of ψαλλω, that which was at one time one of its meanings? So thoroughly was Mr. Robinson under this influence that, failing to find in the classics any support for his theological position on βαπτιζω, he sought to find it in New Testament examples of the word which he fancied were not suitable to the idea of immersion; but in this effort to save his theology, he had to sacrifice his logic, for even granting that some passage is not suitable to the idea of immersion, it would certainly not follow that it favored either pouring or sprinkling. All this only shows that great learning in the languages combined with vast research in Biblical literature does not always overcome theological bias. The latter has unfortunately played its part in translations of the Bible, in commentaries, in histories, and sometimes in lexicons.

Finally, if the word ψαλλω had been subjected to the same searching and widespread investigation to which the theological world has subjected βαπτιζω, I have not the remotest doubt that the classical lexicons, [70] when they come to New Testament Greek and all other Greek of the same period and of all subsequent periods, would expunge the idea of a musical instrument from ψαλλω just as Liddell and Scott, as we have seen, were compelled to expunge "pour" as a meaning of βαπτιζω. This conclusion finds strong confirmation in the fact that Joseph Henry Thayer, the author of the New Testament lexicon which, by the unanimous decision of present-day scholarship, stands not only at the head, but far above all other authorities in the special field of New Testament lexicography, was a Congregationalist; but, nevertheless, refused, as some others failed to do, to be influenced by theological considerations, and so put down, in his now famous lexicon, a faithful record of the true meaning of both these words.