Biblical and historical evidence reveals that the early church did not worship God using musical instruments.
Church Leaders (2nd century to 6th century)
“The antagonism which the Fathers of the early Church displayed toward instruments has two outstanding characteristics: vehemence and uniformity.” (McKinnon, James, The Temple, the Church Fathers and Early Western Chant, Routledge, 1998)
CLEMENT of ALEXANDRIA (150-215 AD)
Leave the pipe to the shepherd, the flute to the men who are in fear of gods and intent on their idol worshipping. Such musical instruments must be excluded from our wineless feasts, for they are more suited for beasts and for the class of men that is least capable of reason than for men. The Spirit, to purify the divine liturgy from any such unrestrained revelry chants: ‘Praise Him with sound of trumpet,” for, in fact, at the sound of the trumpet the dead will rise again; praise Him with harp,’ for the tongue is a harp of the Lord; ‘and with the lute, praise Him,’ understanding the mouth as a lute moved by the Spirit as the lute is by the plectrum; ‘praise Him with timbal and choir,’ that is, the Church awaiting the resurrection of the body in the flesh which is its echo; ‘praise Him with strings and organ,’ calling our bodies an organ and its sinews strings, for front them the body derives its Coordinated movement, and when touched by the Spirit, gives forth human sounds; ‘praise Him on high-sounding cymbals,’ which mean the tongue of the mouth which with the movement of the lips, produces words. Then to all mankind He calls out, ‘Let every spirit praise the Lord,’ because He rules over every spirit He has made. In reality, man is an instrument arc for peace, but these other things, if anyone concerns himself overmuch with them, become instruments of conflict, for inflame the passions. The Etruscans, for example, use the trumpet for war; the Arcadians, the horn; the Sicels, the flute; the Cretans, the lyre; the Lacedemonians, the pipe; the Thracians, the bugle; the Egyptians, the drum; and the Arabs, the cymbal. But as for us, we make use of one instrument alone: only the Word of peace by whom we a homage to God, no longer with ancient harp or trumpet or drum or flute which those trained for war employ. (Clement, The Instructor, 2:4)
The Lord fashioned man a beautiful, breathing instrument, after His own image and assuredly He Himself is an all-harmonious instrument of God, melodious and holy, the wisdom that is above this world, the heavenly Word. … the Word of God scorned those lifeless instruments of lyre and cithara. By the power of the Holy Spirit He arranged in harmonious order this great world, yes, and the little world of man too, body and soul together; and on this many-voiced instruments of the universe He makes music to God, and sings to the human instrument. “For thou art my harp and my pipe and my temple.” (Clement, Readings p. 62)
TERTULLIAN (155-230 AD)
What trumpet of God is now heard – unless it is in the entertainment of the heretics?
ORIGEN (185-254 AD)
The kithara [lyre] is the active soul being moved by the commandments of God, the psalterion [harp] is the pure mind being moved by spiritual knowledge. The musical instruments of the Old Covenant understood spiritually are applicable to us. (Origen on Psalm 33:2; Patrologia Graeca 12:1304 B-C; trans. Everett Ferguson)
NOVATIAN (200-258 AD)
Why should I speak of strings set vibrating to noise? Even if these thing were not dedicated to idols, they should not be approached and gazed upon by faithful Christians.
EUSEBIUS (260-339 AD)
Of old at the time those of the circumcision were worshipping with symbols and types it was not inappropriate to send up hymns to God with the psalterion and cithara and to do this on Sabbath days… But we in an inward manner keep the part of the Jew, according to the saying of the apostle… (Rom. 2:28f.) We render our hymn with a living psalterion and a living cithara with spiritual songs. The unison voices of Christians would be more acceptable to God than any musical instrument. Accordingly in all the churches of God, united in soul and attitude, with one mind and in agreement of faith and piety we send up a unison melody in the words of the Psalms. (Commentary on Psalm 91)
GREGORY of NAZIANZUS (329-390 AD)
Let us take up hymns instead of timbrels, psalmody instead of lewd dances and songs, thankful acclamation instead of theatrical clapping… (Patrologia Graeca 35:709B).
BASIL (330-379 AD)
Of useless arts there is harp playing, dancing, flute playing, of which, when the operation ceases, the result disappears with it. And, indeed, according to the word of the apostle, the result of these is destruction. (Basil, Commentary on Isaiah 5)
EPIPHANUS OF SALAMIS (315–403)
The flute itself is a copy of the serpent through which the evil one spoke and deceived Eve… And see what the flute-player himself represents; he throws his head back as he plays and bends it forward, he leans right and left like the serpent. (Epiphanus of Salamis, Panarion XXV)
NICETAS OF REMESIANA (335-414 AD)
The corporal institutions have been rejected, like circumcision, the Sabbath, sacrifices, discrimination in foods. So, too, the trumpets, harps, cymbals and timbrels. For the sound of these we now have a better substitute in the music from the mouths of men. (Niceta, De utilitate hymnorum, in Roy Joseph Deferrari, ed., The Fathers of the Church, trans. Gerald Walsh (New York: Fathers of the Church Inc, 1949), 71)
AMBROSE OF MILAN (340-397 AD)
And so it is justly said, ‘Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning and follow strong drink,’ when they ought to be rendering praises to God; for this they should rise before the dawn and run to meet the Sun of righteousness, who visits his own and arises upon us if we have bestirred ourselves for the sake of Christ and not of wine and luxury. They are singing hymns—will you cling to your harp? They are singing psalms; what business have you with a psaltery and a drum? Woe indeed to you for abandoning your salvation and choosing death. (Patrologia Latina 14:717).
CHRYSOSTOM (347-407 AD)
David formerly sang songs, also today we sing hymns. He had a lyre with lifeless strings, the church has a lyre with living strings. Our tongues are the strings of the lyre with a different tone indeed but much more in accordance with piety. Here there is no need for the cithara, or for stretched strings, or for the plectrum, or for art, or for any instrument; but, if you like, you may yourself become a cithara, mortifying the members of the flesh and making a full harmony of mind and body. For when the flesh no longer lusts against the Spirit, but has submitted to its orders and has been led at length into the best and most admirable path, then will you create a spiritual melody. (Chrysostom, Exposition of Psalms 41, quoted in Source Readings in Music History, ed. O. Strunk, W. W. Norton and Co.: New York, 1950, pg. 70.)
Where pipe-players are, there Christ is not. (Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca, Paris, 161 vols., 1857-66, 62:389)
Many people take the mention of these instruments allegorically and say that the timbrel required the putting to death of our flesh, and that the psaltery requires us to look up to heaven (for this instrument resounds from above, not from below like the lyre). But I would say this, that in olden times they were thus led by these instruments because of the dullness of their understanding and their recent deliverance from idols. Just as God allowed animal sacrifices, so also he let them have these instruments, condescending to help their weakness. (Chrysostom, on Ps. 150; Patrologia Graeca 55:494).
If one enters the sacred chorus of God, there is no need of a musical instrument… (Chrysostom, Exposition on the Psalms, 42.2-3; Patrologia Graeca 55:158-159)
[Musical instruments are] the devil’s heap of garbage. (Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca, Paris. 161 vols., 1857- 66, 61:103)
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354-430 AD)
Praise the Lord with harp; sing unto Him with the psaltery of ten strings,” For this even now we sang, this expressing with one mouth, we instructed your hearts. Hath not the institution of these Vigils in the name of Christ brought it to pass that harps should be banished out of this place? And lo, the same are bid to sound, ‘Praise the Lord,’ saith he, ‘with harp; sing unto him with the psaltery of ten strings.’ Let none turn his heart to instruments of the theater. (Augustine, Exposition on the Book of Psalms (Psalms 1-36), p. 311).
ISIDORE OF PELUSIUM (370-449)
Isidore of Pelusium, who lived since Basil, held music was allowed the Jews by God in a way of condescension to their childishness: ‘If God,’ says he, ‘bore with bloody sacrifices, because of men’s childishness at that time, why should you wonder he bore with the music of a harp and a psaltery?’ (Ridgley, Body of Divinity, vol. 4, p. 86; Lib. 2, Epistle 176. See also Isidore, Epistles II.176; Patrologia Graeca 78:628C).
THEODORET OF CYRRHUS (393-457 AD)
Question: If songs were invented by unbelievers to seduce men, but were allowed to those under the law on account of their childish state, why do those who have received the perfect teaching of grace in their churches still use songs, just like the children under the law? Answer: It is not simple singing that belongs to the childish state, but singing with lifeless instruments, with dancing, and with clappers. Hence the use of such instruments and the others that belong to the childish state is excluded from the singing in the churches, and simple singing is left. ((Theodoret, Quaestiones et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos 107; Patrologia Graeca 6.1353, trans. James McKinnon).
‘Praise him with psaltery and harp…’ These instruments the Levites formerly used when praising God in the temple. It was not because God enjoyed their sound, but because he accepted the purpose of their worship. For to show that God does not find pleasure in songs nor in the notes of instruments we hear him saying to the Jews: ‘Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy instruments’ (Amos 5:23). He allowed these things to be done for the reason that he wished to free them from the deception of idols. For since some of them were fond of play and laughter, and all these things were done in the temples of idols, he allowed these things in order to entice them. He used the lesser evil in order to forbid the greater, and used what was imperfect to teach what was perfect. (Theodoret, on Psalm 150:4; Patrologia Graeca 80:1996).
So it was not in any need of victims or craving odors that God commanded them to sacrifice, but that he might heal the sufferings of those who were sick. So he also allowed the use of instrumental music, not that he was delighted by the harmony, but that he might little by little end the deception of idols. For if he had offered them perfect laws immediately after their deliverance from Egypt, they would have been rebellious and thrust away from the bridle, and would have hastened back to their former ruin. (Theodoret, On the Healing of Greek Afflictions 7.16; Patrologia Graeca 83:997B)
APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS (375)
If any, belonging to the theater, come to the mystery of godliness, being a player upon a pipe, a lute, or an harp, let him leave it off, or be rejected. (Apostolic Constitutions 8.32; ANF 7, p. 495).
COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE
On the Lord’s Day, let all instruments of music be silenced (Girardeau, Instrumental Music in Public Worship., p. 49; citing Johann Caspar Suicerus, Ecclesiastical Dictionary, on the word ‘oργανον’, p. 501).
CHURCH LAW FROM 4TH CENTURY
If a cantor learns to play the harp, he shall confess this. If he does not return to it, his punishment shall be for seven weeks’ duration. If he persists, he shall be dismissed and excluded from the church. (Canones Basilii 74)
CASSIODORUS (485-585)
What a marvelous beauty flows from them [the psalms] into our singing. They rival the sweet-sounding organ with human voices, they render the sound of the trumpet with mighty shouts, they construct a vocal kithara by combining living strings, and whatever instruments seemed to do formerly, now can be witnessed and demonstrated in rational beings. (Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum).
There are many passing references to music scattered throughout the writings of the Fathers. Most of the passages deal with psalmody and vocal music, but a few are concerned with musical instruments. The authors of these passages were almost unanimous in rejecting the use of musical instruments. The Fathers brought three basic arguments to bear on the question of instruments: (1) instruments and other “ceremonies” were characteristic of the “infancy” of the church (i.e., the Jewish Dispensation), while the church was now in its maturity (the Christian Dispensation); thus, (2) the numerous references to instruments and instrumental music in the Old Testament should be interpreted symbolically; and (3) instruments were associated with immoral practices, even as some pagan writers had noted. …[T]he Fathers do not seem to have been writing in reaction to contemporary Christian practice. That is, they were not trying to correct abuses that had crept into the Christian church, for there is very little evidence that instruments had ever formed a part of Christian worship during its practice in the early centuries….. The vehement and unanimous objections of the Church Fathers to musical instruments apparently succeed in suppressing their use in Christian worship for many centuries. (David W. Music, Instruments in Church: A Collection of Source Documents, vol. 7, Studies in Liturgical Musicology (Lanham and London: The Scarecrow Press Inc, 1998), 27, 43).
LATER CHURCH LEADERS
AMALARIUS (780-850)
Our own cantors grasp neither cymbals, nor lyre, nor kithara nor any other kind of musical instrument in their hands, but rather in their hearts. For in so far as the heart is superior to the body, to that extent does what takes place in the heart better manifest devotion to God, than what is done by the body. These very cantors are the trumpet, they are the psalterium, they the kithara, they the tympana, they the chorus, they the strings and the body of the instrument, they the cymbals. Wherefore Augustine said of the last psalm in his book on the psalms. . . (Amalarius, De Ecclesiasticis Officiis, Libri IV).
AQUINAS (1225-1274 AD)
Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, STh., II-II q.91 a.2 obj. 4)
Instruments of this sort more move the mind to delight, than form internally a good disposition. Under the Old Testament, however, there was some utility in such instruments, both because the people were more hard and carnal, and needed to be stirred up by instruments of this kind as by promises of earthly good, and also because material instruments of this sort figured something. (Aquinas, Summa Theologica II.ii.2, xci., A. ii., 4 et conclusio).
ERASMUS (1466-1536)
We have brought into our churches certain operatic and theatrical music; such a confused, disorderly chattering of some words as I hardly think was ever in any of the Grecian or Roman theatres. The church rings with the noise of trumpets, pipes, and dulcimers; and human voices strive to bear their part with them. Men run to church as to a theatre, to have their ears tickled. And for this end organ makers are hired with great salaries, and a company of boys, who waste all their time learning these whining tones. (Erasmus, Commentary on I Cor. 14:19)
I make no question but all that kind of music was a part of the legal pedagogy. In the solemn worship of God, I do not judge it more suitable than if we should recall the incense, tapers, and other shadows of the law into use. I say again, to go beyond what we are taught is most wicked perversity. (William Ames quoting Erasmus, A Fresh Suit Against Human Ceremonies in God’s Worship, pp. 405-6).
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564)
Musical instruments were among the legal ceremonies which Christ at His coming abolished. (John Calvin, Lecture on Exodus 15:20)
In speaking of employing the psaltery and the harp in this exercise, he alludes to the generally prevailing custom of that time. To sing the praises of God upon the harp and psaltery unquestionably formed a part of the training of the law, and of the service of God under that dispensation of shadows and figures; but they are not now to be used in public thanksgiving. We are not, indeed, forbidden to use, in private, musical instruments, but they are banished out of the churches by the plain command of the Holy Spirit, when Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14:13, lays it down as an invariable rule, that we must praise God, and pray to him only in a known tongue. (John Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 71:22)
Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting of lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The Papists therefore, have foolishly borrowed, this, as well as many other things, from the Jews. Men who are fond of outward pomp may delight in that noise; but the simplicity which God recommends to us by the apostles is far more pleasing to him. Paul allows us to bless God in the public assembly of the saints, only in a known tongue (I Cor. 14:16). What shall we then say of chanting, which fills the ears with nothing but an empty sound? (John Calvin, Commentary on Psalm 33)
With respect to the tabret, harp, and psaltery, we have formerly observed, and will find it necessary afterwards to repeat the same remark, that the Levites, under the law, were justified in making use of instrumental music in the worship of God; it having been his will to train his people, while they were as yet tender and like children, by such rudiments, until the coming of Christ. But now when the clear light of the gospel has dissipated the shadows of the law, and taught us that God is to be served in a simpler form, it would be to act a foolish and mistaken part to imitate that which the prophet enjoined only upon those of his own time. From this, it is apparent that the Papists have shown themselves to be very apes in transferring this to themselves. (Calvin on Psalm 81:2).
In the fourth verse, he more immediately addresses the Levites, who were appointed to the office of singers, and calls upon them to employ their instruments of music — not as if this were in itself necessary, only it was useful as an elementary aid to the people of God in these ancient times. We are not to conceive that God enjoined the harp as feeling a delight like ourselves in mere melody of sounds; but the Jews, who were yet under age, were astricted to the use of such childish elements. The intention of them was to stimulate the worshippers, and stir them up more actively to the celebration of the praise of God with the heart. We are to remember that the worship of God was never understood to consist in such outward services, which were only necessary to help forward a people, as yet weak and rude in knowledge, in the spiritual worship of God. A difference is to be observed in this respect between his people under the Old and under the New Testament; for now that Christ has appeared, and the Church has reached full age, it were only to bury the light of the Gospel, should we introduce the shadows of a departed dispensation. From this, it appears that the Papists, as I shall have occasion to show elsewhere, in employing instrumental music, cannot be said so much to imitate the practice of God’s ancient people, as to ape it in a senseless and absurd manner, exhibiting a silly delight in that worship of the Old Testament which was figurative, and terminated with the Gospel. (Calvin on Psalm 92:4).
HEINRICH BULLINGER (1504-1575)
Since they also are not in accord with the apostle’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14, the organs in the great cathedral of Zurich were demolished on the 9th of December in this year of 1527. (Heinrich Bullinger, Reformationsgechichte, vol. 1, p. 418).
THEODORE BEZA (1519-1605)
If the apostle justly prohibits the use of unknown tongues in the church, much less would he have tolerated these artificial musical performances which are addressed to the ear alone, and seldom strike the understanding even of the performers themselves. (quoted in Girardeau’s Instrumental Music, p. 166)
DAVID PAREUS (1548-1622)
In the Christian church the mind must be incited to spiritual joy, not by pipes and trumpets and timbrels, with which God formerly indulged his ancient people on account of the hardness of their hearts, but by psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. (David Pareus (1548-1622), com. 1 Cor. 14:7).
WILLIAM PERKINS (1558-1602)
To these [‘popish superstitions’] may be added consort in music in divine service, feeding the ears, not edifying the mind. (1 Corinthians 14:15) ‘What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also.‘ Justin Martyr in his book of Christian Questions and Answers 107, ‘It is not the custom of the Churches, to sing their meters with any such kind of instruments, etc. but their manner is to use plain song.‘ (William Perkins, A Golden Chain (1597), p. 69).
God’s kingdom is the place of joy (Rom. 14:17). Rejoicing belongs to the people of God (Pss. 68:3; 106:5). The music of the temple was typical, and figured the joy of the catholic church, where is the assurance of remission of sins and life eternal. (William Perkins, Commentary on Galatians (1617), Works II, p. 312).
GENEVA BIBLE (1599)
Exhorting the people only to rejoice in praising God, he maketh mention of those instruments which by God’s commandment were appointed in the old Law, but under Christ the use thereof is abolished. (Geneva Bible (1599) note on Ps. 150:3).
DAVID CALDERWOOD (1575-1650)
The Pastor loveth no music in the house of God but such as edifieth, and stoppeth his ears at instrumental music, as serving for the pedagogy of the untoward Jews under the law, and being figurative of that spiritual joy whereunto our hearts should be opened under the gospel. The Prelate loveth carnal and curious singing to the ear, more than the spiritual melody of the gospel, and therefore would have antiphony and organs in the cathedral kirks, upon no greater reason than other shadows of the law of Moses; or lesser instruments, as lutes, citherus and pipes might be [to be] used in other kirks. (David Calderwood, The Pastor and the Prelate (1628), p. 9)
DAVID DICKSON (1583-1663)
There is no exercise whereunto we have more need to be stirred up, than to praise; such is our dullness, and such is the excellency and necessity of the work, as the ceremonial use of musical instruments in the pedagogy of Moses, did signify and import; the religious use whereof, albeit it be taken away with the rest of the Ceremonial Law (the natural or civil use thereof remaining still the same, both before the Ceremonial Law and after it), yet the thing signified, which is the bending all the powers of our soul and body to praise God, is not taken away. (David Dickson, commentary on Psalm 33:2-3)
HENRY AINSWORTH (1571-1622)
The manner of singing, is to be holy, reverent, grace, orderly, with understanding, feeling, and comfort, to the edification of the church…Instruments of music were so annexed to the songs in the Temple, as incense to the prayers (2 Chron. 29). Such shadows are ceased, but the substance remaineth. (Henry Ainsworth, Orthodox Foundation of Religion (1653), pp. 405-406).
WILLIAM AMES (1576-1633)
It would be too tedious if I should reckon up all that have assented to these [i.e. Reformers who agreed with those he quoted rejecting musical instrumentation]. I will add only the two and thirty grave learned men, which were chosen in King Edwards days, to reform Ecclesiastical laws, and observances they judged this law fitting, ‘It likes us well to have this tedious kind of musicke taken away.’ (Ames, A Fresh Suit Against Human Ceremonies in God’s Worship, p. 405)
JOHN COTTON (1584-1652)
Instrumental music found in the ancient Jewish Temple is merely a type or shadow of the edifying and untheatrical singing with the heart and voice approved and practiced in the New Testament. (John Cotton, Singing of Psalms a Gospel Ordinance)
OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658)
Although Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans objected to the liturgical use of the organ, this is not to say that they objected to its secular use. Crowmwell moved the organ on which Gibbons played from Magdalen College to Hampton Court for his own use during the Commonwealth, where it was erected in the Great Gallery. Just as the royal court had its own appointed organists, so Cromwell employed John Hingston, who was also charged with the musical education of his daughters…Cromwell did not object to music—not even Latin motets—provided that it played no part in church worship. (John Harper, Changes in the Fortunes and Use of the Organ in Church, 1500-1800, in Studies in English Organ Music, ed. Iain Quinn, 2018).
JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688)
These songs were sung with harps, psalteries, cymbals, and trumpets; a type of our singing with spiritual joy, from grace in our hearts (1 Chron. 25:6; 2 Chron. 29:26-28; Col. 3:16). (John Bunyan, Works vol. 3, p. 496).
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714)
Let God be praised in the dance with timbrel and harp, according to the usage of the Old Testament church very early (Exod. 15:20), where we find God praised with timbrels and dances. Those who from this urge the use of music in religious worship must by the same rule introduce dancing, for they went together, as in David’s dancing before the ark, and Judges 21:21. But, whereas many scriptures in the New Testament keep up singing as a gospel-ordinance, none provide for the keeping up of music and dancing; the gospel-canon for psalmody is to sing with the spirit and with the understanding. (Matthew Henry, comment on Psalm 149:3).
JOHN GILL (1697-1771)
It is observed, that David’s psalms were sung formerly with musical instruments, as the harp, timbrel, and cymbal, and organs; and why not with these now? If these are to be disused, why not singing itself? I answer, these are not essential to singing, and so may be laid aside, and that continue; it was usual to burn incense at the time of prayer, typical of Christ’s mediation, and of the acceptance of prayer through it; that is now disused; but prayer being a moral duty, still remains: the above instruments were used only when the church was in its infant-state, and what is showy, gaudy, and pompous, are pleasing to children; and as an ancient writer observes, ‘these were fit for babes, but in the churches (under the gospel-dispensation, which is more manly) the use of these, fit for babes, is taken away, and bare or plain singing is left.’ As for organs…were first introduced by a pope of Rome, Vitalianus, and that in the seventh century, and not before. (John Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, Vol. 3, ‘Of Singing Psalms As A Part of Public Worship’ (1796), p. 384).
…these [instruments] were used in the times of the Old Testament, and were typical of the spiritual joy and melody in the heart, expressed by vocal singing under the New Testament. (John Gill, commentary Psalm 81:2).
ANDREW FULLER (1754-1815)
The history of the church during the first three centuries affords many instances of primitive Christians engaging in singing, but no mention, (that I recollect) is made of instruments. (If my memory does not deceive me) it originated in the dark ages of popery, when almost every other superstition was introduced. At present, it is most used and where the least regard is paid to primitive simplicity. (Andrew Fuller, Complete works of Andrew Fuller, Vol 3, P. 520, 1843)
ADAM CLARKE (1762-1832)
But were it even evident, which it is not, either from this or any other place in the sacred writings, that instruments of music were prescribed by divine authority under the law, could this be adduced with any semblance of reason, that they ought to be used in Christian worship? No; the whole spirit, soul, and genius of the Christian religion are against this; and those who know the Church of God best, and what constitutes its genuine spiritual state, know that these things have been introduced as a substitute for the life and power of religion; and that where they prevail most, there is least of the power of Christianity. Away with such portentous baubles from the worship of that infinite Spirit who requires His followers to worship Him in spirit and truth, for to no such worship are these instruments friendly. (Adam Clarke, Commentary, Vol. 2, pages 690-691)
I am an old man, and I here declare that I never knew them to be productive of any good in the worship of God, and have reason to believe that they are productive of much evil. Music as a science I esteem and admire, but instrumental music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music, and I here register my protest against all such corruption of the worship of the author of Christianity. The late and venerable and most eminent divine, the Rev. John Wesley, who was a lover of music, and an elegant poet, when asked his opinion of instruments of music being introduced into the chapels of the Methodists, said in his terse and powerful manner, ‘I have no objections to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor seen.’ I say the same. (Adam Clark, Commentary, Vol. 4, page 684)
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL (1788-1866)
[Instrumental music in worship] was well adapted to churches founded on the Jewish pattern of things and practicing infant sprinkling. That all persons singing who have no spiritual discernment, taste or relish for spiritual meditation, consolations and sympathies of renewed hearts should call for such an aid is but natural. So to those who have no real devotion and spirituality in them, and whose animal nature flags under the opposition or the oppression of church service I think that instrumental music would… be an essential prerequisite to fire up their souls to even animal devotion. But I presume, that to all spiritually-minded Christians, such aid would be as a cow bell in a concert. (Alexander Campbell, in Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Vol. 2., p366)
ALBERT BARNES (1798-1870)
Psallo … is used, in the New Testament, only in Rom. 15:9 and 1 Cor. 14:15, where it is translated sing; in James 5:13, where it is rendered sing psalms, and in the place before us. The idea here is that of singing in the heart, or praising God from the heart. (Albert Barnes, Notes on The Testament, comment on Eph. 5:19)
DAVID BENEDICT (1779-1874)
In my earliest intercourse among this people [Baptists], congregational singing generally prevailed among them. . . . This instrument [organ], which from time immemorial has been associated with cathedral pomp and prelatical power, and has always been the peculiar favorite of great national churches, at length found its way into Baptist sanctuaries, and the first one ever employed by the denomination in this country, and probably in any other, might have been standing in the singing gallery of the Old Baptist meeting house in Pawtucket, about forty years ago, where I then officiated as pastor… Staunch old Baptists in former times would as soon tolerated the Pope of Rome in their pulpits as an organ in their galleries, and yet the instrument has gradually found its way among them…. How far this modern organ fever will extend among our people, and whether it will on the whole work a RE-formation or DE-formation in their singing service, time will more fully develop. (David Benedict D.D., Fifty Years Among the Baptists, 1860, page 204-207)
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH USA 1842
Is there any authority for instrumental music in the worship of God under the present dispensation? Answer. Not the least, only the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs was appointed by the apostles; not a syllable is said in the New Testament in favor of instrumental music nor was it ever introduced into the Church until after the eighth century, after the Catholics had corrupted the simplicity of the gospel by their carnal inventions. It was not allowed in the Synagogues, the parish churches of the Jews, but was confined to the Temple service and was abolished with the rites of that dispensation. (Questions on the Confession of Faith and Form of Government of The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, Presbyterian Board of Publications, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1842, page 55)
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON (1834-1892)
David appears to have had a peculiarly tender remembrance of the singing of the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most delightful part of worship and that which comes nearest to the adoration of heaven. What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettiness of a quartet, bellows, and pipes. We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it… ‘Praise the Lord with harp.’ Israel was at school, and used childish things to help her to learn; but in these days when Jesus gives us spiritual food, one can make melody without strings and pipes… We do not need them. That would hinder rather than help our praise. Sing unto him. This is the sweetest and best music. No instrument is like the human voice. (Charles Spurgeon, Commentary on Psalm 42)
[Musical instruments were] rejected and condemned by the whole army of Protestant divines. (Charles Spurgeon, Works vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 223)
PHILIP SCHAFF (1819-1893)
The use of organs in churches is ascribed to Pope Vitalian (657-672). Constantine Copronymos sent an organ with other presents to King Pepin of France in 767. Charlemagne received one as a present from the Caliph Haroun al Rashid, and had it put up in the cathedral of Aixia-Chapelle… The attitude of the churches toward the organ varies. It shared, to some extent, the fate of images, except that it never was an object of worship… The Greek church disapproved the use of organs. The Latin church introduced it pretty generally, but not without the protest of eminent men, so that even in the Council of Trent a motion was made, though not carried, to prohibit the organ at least in the mass. (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 4, pg. 439.)
JW MCGARVEY (1829-1911)
We cannot, therefore, by any possibility, know that a certain element of worship is acceptable to God in the Christian dispensation, when the Scriptures which speak of that dispensation are silent in reference to it. To introduce any such element is unscriptural and presumptuous. It is will worship, if any such thing as will worship can exist. On this ground we condemn the burning of incense, the lighting of candles, the wearing of priestly robes, and the reading of printed prayers. On the same ground we condemn instrumental music. (J.W. McGarvey, The Millennial Harbinger, 1864, pp. 511-513)
A.T. ROBERTSON (1863-1934)
The word (psalleto) originally meant to play on a stringed instrument (Sir. 9:4), but it comes to be used also for singing with the voice and heart (Eph. 5:19; 1 Cor. 14:15), making melody with the heart also to the Lord. (A. T. Robertson, comment on James 5:13)
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981)
Nothing is needed more urgently than an analysis of the innovations in the realm of religious worship in the nineteenth century—to me in this respect a devastating century. The sooner we forget the nineteenth century end go back to the eighteenth, and even further to the seventeenth and sixteenth, the better. The nineteenth century and its mentality and outlook is responsible for most of our troubles and problems today. It was then that a fatal turn took place in so many respects, as we have been seeing, and very prominent among the changes introduced was the place given to music in various forms. Quite frequently, and especially in the non-episcopal churches, they did not even have an organ before that time. Many of the leaders were actively opposed to organs and tried to justify their attitude from Scripture; in the same way many of them were opposed to the singing of anything but psalms. I am not concerned to evaluate the rival interpretations of the relevant scriptures, or to argue as to the antiquity of hymn singing; my point is that while hymn singing became popular at the end of the seventeenth and particularly in the eighteenth century, that the entirely new emphasis on music which came in about the middle of the last century was a part of that respectability, and pseudo-intellectualism which I have already described. (Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (1971), pp. 265-6).
SCHOLARS
BINGHAM: Music in churches is as ancient as the apostles, but instrumental music not so . . . The use of the instrumental, indeed, is much ancienter, but not in church service. . . In the Western parts, the instrument, as not so much as known till the eighth century; for the first organ that was ever seen in France was one sent as a present to King Pepin by Constantinus Copronymus, the Greek emperor. . . . But, now, it was only, used in princes courts, and not yet brought into churches; nor was it ever received into the Greek churches, there being no mention of an organ in all their liturgies ancient or modern. (Joseph Bingham, Works, London Edition. Vol. 3, page 137, Vol. 11, p. 482-484)
BURNEY: After the most diligent inquire concerning the time when instrumental music had admission into the ecclesiastical service, there is reason to conclude, that, before the reign of Constantine, as the converts to the Christian religion were subject to frequent persecution and disturbance in their devotion, the rise of instruments could hardly have been allowed: and by all that can be collected from the writings of the primitive Christians, they seem never to have been admitted. (Charles Burney, A General History of Music, 1957, p. 426)
CLARK: Gradually, over the course of the thousand years before the Reformation, the medieval church reinstituted progressively aspects of the Mosaic ceremonial cultus including the introduction of musical instruments which had been suppressed in churches until the tenth century. Their reintroduction was highly controversial…the introduction of instruments in worship accompanied the rise of sacerdotalism in medieval worship. The Reformation saw itself as recovering not only the biblical pattern of worship, but the praxis of the early post-apostolic church. The reformation of worship happened in stages. The first stage of the reformation of worship established the formal principle of the Reformation: sola scriptura. The Reformed churches applied the Scripture principle most thoroughly to the practice of worship. (R. Scott Clark, Recovering the Reformed Confession., pp. 246-7)
COLEMAN: The tendency of this (instrumental music) was to secularize the music of the church, and to encourage singing by a choir. Such musical accompaniments were gradually introduced; but they can hardly be assigned to a period earlier than the fifth and sixth centuries. Organs were unknown in church until the eighth or ninth centuries. Previous to this, they had their place in the theater, rather than in the church. they were never regarded with favor in the Eastern church, and were vehemently opposed in many places in the West. (Lyman Coleman, Primitive Church, p. 376-377)
CONYBEARE: Throughout the whole passage there is a contrast implied between the Heathen and the Christian practice… When you meet, let your enjoyment consist not in fullness of wine, but fullness of the spirit; let your songs be, not the drinking songs of heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the lyre, but the melody of the heart; while you sing them to the praise, not of Bacchus or Venus, but of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Conybeare and Howson, Life and Times of the Apostle Paul, comment on Eph. 5:19)
DICKINSON: While the Greek and Roman songs were metrical, the Christian psalms were anitphons, prayers, responses, etc., were unmetrical; and while the pagan melodies were always sung to an instrumental accompaniment, the church chant was exclusively vocal… The religious guides of the early Christian felt that there would be an incongruity, and even profanity, in the use of the sensuous nerve-exciting effects of instrumental sound in their mystical, spiritual worship. Their high religious and moral enthusiasm needed no aid from external strings; the pure vocal utterance as the more proper expression of their faith. (Edward Dickinson, Music in the History of the Western Church, p. 54, 55)
FINNEY: The early Christians refused to have anything to do with the instrumental music which they might have inherited from the ancient world. (Theodore Finney, A History of Music, 1947, p. 43)
FISHER: Church music, which at the outset consisted mainly of the singing of psalms, flourished especially in Syria and at Alexandria. The music was very simple in its character. There was some sort of alternate singing in the worship of Christians, as is described by Pliny. The introduction of antiphonal singing at Antioch is ascribed by tradition to Ignatius … The primitive church music was choral and congregational. (George Park Fisher, History of the Christian Church, p. 65, 121)
FORNEY: Although musical instruments are mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (harp, trumpet, and cymbals among others), the music of the early Christian Church was sung rather than accompanied by instruments. For centuries, Christians associated instruments with secular life and felt they did not serve religion. The organ, an invention of the Greeks, was the first instrument to be widely accepted for use in Christian worship. (Forney, Dell-Antonio, The Enjoyment of Music, 13th ed., p. 72)
GIRARDEAU: The church, although lapsing more and more into deflection from the truth and into a corrupting of apostolic practice, had not instrumental music for 1200 years (that is, it was not in general use before this time); The Calvinistic Reform Church ejected it from its service as an element of popery, even the church of England having come very nigh its extrusion from her worship. It is heresy in the sphere of worship. (John Girardeau, Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church, p. 179)
HETHERINGTON: In the beginning of the year 1562 a meeting of the Convocation [of the Anglican Church] was held, in which the subject of further reformation was vigorously discussed on both sides. [It was proposed] that the use of organs be laid aside. When the vote came to be taken, on these propositions, forty-three voted for them and thirty-five against; but when the proxies were counted, the balance was turned, the final state of the vote being fifty-eight for and fifty-nine against. Thus, it was determined by a single vote, and that the proxy of an absent person who did not hear the reasoning that the Prayer-Book should remain unimproved, that there should he no further reformation, that there should be no relief granted to those whose consciences felt aggrieved by the admixture of human inventions in the worship of God. (H.A. Hetherington, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, 1923, page 30)
HUMPHREYS: One of the features which distinguishes the Christian religion from almost all others is its quietness; it aims to repress the outward signs of inward feeling. Savage instinct, and the religion of Greece also, had employed the rhythmic dance and all kinds of gesticulatory notions to express the inner feelings . . . The early Chrisitians discouraged all outward signs of excitement, and from the very beginning, in the music they used, reproduced the spirit of their religion-an inward quietude. All the music employed in their early services was vocal. (Frank Landon Humphreys, Evolution of Church Music, p. 42)
KILLEN: It is not, therefore, strange that instrumental music was not, heard in their congregational services….. In the early church the whole congregation joined in the singing, but instrumental music did not accompany the praise (W. D. Killen, The Ancient Church, pp. 193, 423).
KURTZ: At first the church music was simple, artless, recitative. But rivalry of heretics forced the orthodox church to pay greater attention to the requirements of art. Chrysostom had to declaim against the secularization of church music. More lasting was the opposition to the introduction of instrumental music. (John Kurtz, Church History, Vol 1, p. 376)
LANG: All our sources deal amply with vocal music of the church, but they are chary with mention of any other manifestations of musical art . . . The development of Western music was decisively influenced by the exclusion of musical instruments from the early Christian Church. (Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization, p. 53-54)
LEICHTENTRITT: The Biblical precept to “sing” the psalms, not merely recite, them, was obeyed literally, as is testified by many statements in the writings of the saints. Pope Leo I, who lived about 450, expressly related that “the Psalms of David arc piously sung everywhere in the Church.” Only singing however, and no playing of instruments, was permitted in the early Christian Church. In this respect the Jewish tradition was not continued. In the earlier Jewish temple service many instruments mentioned in-the Bible had been used. But instrumental music had been thoroughly discredited in the meantime by the lascivious Greek and Roman virtuoso music of the later ages, and it appeared unfit for the divine service. The aulos was held in especial abhorrence, whereas some indulgence was granted to the lyre and cithara, permitted by some saints at least for private worship, though not in church services. It is interesting to note that the later Jewish temple service has conformed to the early Christian practice and, contrary to Biblical tradition, has banned all instruments. Orthodox Jewish synagogues now object even to the use of the organ. (Hugo Leichtentritt, Music, History and Ideas, Howard University Press: Cambridge, 1958, p 34)
LORENZ: Yet there was little temptation to undue elaboration of hymnody or music. The very spirituality of the new faith made ritual or liturgy superfluous and music almost unnecessary. Singing (there was no instrumental accompaniment) was little more than a means of expressing in a practicable, social way, the common faith and experience. . . . The music was purely vocal. There was no instrumental accompaniment of any kind. . . . It fell under the ban of the Christian church, as did all other instruments, because of its pagan association. (E. S. Lorenz, Church Music, pp. 217, 250, 404)
NAUMAN There can be no doubt that originally the music of the divine service was every where entirely of a vocal nature. (Emil Nauman, The History of Music, Vol. I, p. 177)
NEWMAN: In 1699 the Baptists received an invitation from Thomas Clayton, rector of Christ Church, to unite with the Church of England. They replied in a dignified manner, declining to do so unless he could prove, “that the Church of Christ under the New Testament may consist or . . . a mixed multitude and their seed, even all the members of a nation, . . . whether they are godly or ungodly,” that “lords, archbishops, etc., . . . are of divine institution and appointment,” and that their vestments, liturgical services, use of mechanical instruments, infant baptism, sprinkling, “signing with the cross in baptism,” etc., are warranted by Scripture.” … “It may be interesting to note that this church (First Baptist Church of Newport, organized in 1644 cf. p. 88) was one of the first to introduce instrumental music. The instrument was a bass viol and caused considerable commotion. This occurred early in the nineteenth century. (Albert Henry Newman, A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States, American Baptist Publication Society 1915, p. 207, 255)
PAHLEN: These chants – and the word chant (and not music) is used advisedly, for many centuries were to pass before instruments accompanied the sung melodies. (Kurt Pahlen, Music of the World, p. 27)
PAPADOPOULOS: “The execution of Byzantine church music by instruments, or even the accompaniment of sacred chanting by instruments, was ruled out by the Eastern Fathers as being incompatible with the pure, solemn, spiritual character of the religion of Christ. The Fathers of the church, in accordance with the example of psalmodizing of our Savior and the holy Apostles, established that only vocal music be used in the churches and severely forbade instrumental music as being secular and hedonic, and in general as evoking pleasure without spiritual value.” (G. I. Papadopoulos, A Historical Survey of Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music (in Greek), Athens, 1904, pp. 10, II)
POSEY: For years the Baptists fought the introduction of instrumental music into the churches… Installation of the organ brought serious difficulties in many churches. (William B. Posey, The Baptist Church In The Lower Mississippi Valley, University of Kentucky Press: University of Kentucky, 1957)
PRATT “The, First Christian Songs. – Singing in public and private worship was a matter of course for the early Christians. For Jewish converts this was a continuance of synagogue customs, but since the Church grew mostly among non-Jews, the technical forms employed were more Greek than Hebrew. The use of instruments was long resisted, because of their association with pagan sensuality.” (Waldo Selden Pratt, The History of Music, 1935, p. 64)
RIDDLE: “In the first ages of the Christian church the psalms of David were always chanted or sung. In the Apostolic Constitutions (Book II, P. 57), we find it laid down an a rule that one of those officiating ministers should chant or sing psalms or David, and that the people should join by repeating the ends of the verses. The instruments of music were introduced into the Christians church in the ninth century. There were unknown alike to the early church and to all ancients. The large wind organ was known, however, long before it was introduced into the churches of the west. The first organ used in worship was one which was received by Charlemagne in France as a present from the Emperor Constantine.’ (J.E. Riddle, Christian Antiquities, p. 384)
RITTER: “We have no real knowledge of the exact character of the music which formed a part of the religious devotion of the first Christian congregations. It was, however purely vocal.” (Frederic Louis Ritter, History of Music from the Christian Era to the Present Time, p. 28)
TAPPER: “Both sexes joined in singing, but instruments of every kind were prohibited for along time” (Thomas Tapper, Essentials of Music History, p. 34)
WELIESZ: “So far as we can tell the music of the early Church was almost entirely vocal, Christian usage following in this particular the practice of the Synagogue, in part for the same reasons.” (Egon Weliesz, New Oxford History of Music, Vol 1, 1957, p. 30)
Encyclopedias
AMERICAN
“Pope Vitalian is related to have first introduced organs into some of the churches of Western Europe about 670 but the earliest trustworthy account is that of one sent as a present by the Greek emperor Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, king of Franks in 755” (American Encyclopedia, Volume 12, p. 688).
CATHOLIC
“Although Josephus tells of the wonderful effects produced in the Temple by the use of instruments, the first Christians were of too spiritual a fibre to substitute lifeless instruments for or to use them to accompany the human voice. Clement of Alexandria severely condemns the use of instruments even at Christian banquets. St. Chrysostum sharply contrasts the customs of the Christians when they had full freedom with those of the Jews of the Old Testament.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, pg. 648-652.)
“For almost a thousand years Gregorian chant, without any instrumental or harmonic addition was the only music used in connection with the liturgy. The organ, in its primitive and rude form, was the first, and for a long time the sole, instrument used to accompany the chant…. The church has never encouraged and at most only tolerated the use of instruments. She enjoins in the ‘Caeremonials Episcoporum’, – that permission for their use should first be obtained from the ordinary. She holds up as her ideal the unaccompanied chant, and polyphonic, a-capella style. The Sistene Chapel has not even an organ.”” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, pg. 657-688.)
“We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and the rites paid to the dead. But the Church, from a very early period, took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendor of religious ceremony. We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc. were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular but they were common to almost all cults.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III, pg. 246.)
CHAMBERS
“The organ is said to have been first introduced into church music by Pope Vitalian in 666. In 757, a great organ was sent as a present to Pepin by the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine, and placed in the church St. Corneille as Compiegne.” (Chambers Encyclopedia, Vol 7, p. 112)
FESSENDEN
“This species. which is the most natural, is to be considered to have existed before any other… Instrumental music is also of very ancient date, its invention being ascribed to Tubal, the sixth descendant from Cain. The instrumental music was not practiced by the primitive Christians, but was an aid to devotion of later times, is evident from church history. (Fessenden’s Encyclopedia of Art and Music, p. 852)
HASTINGS
If instrumental music was not part of early Christian worship, when did it become acceptable? Several reference works will help us see the progression of this practice among churches: “Pope Vitalian introduced an organ in the church in the seventh century to aid the singing but it was opposed and was removed.” (James Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics)
LONDON
“The organ is said to have been first introduced into church music in about 658AD.”
MCCLINTOCK AND STRONG’S
“The early Reformers, when they came out of Rome, removed them as the monuments of idolatry. Luther called the organ an ensign of Baal; Calvin said that instrumental music was not fitter to be adopted into the Christian Church than the incense and the candlestick; Knox called the organ a kist [chest] of whistles. The Church of England revived them, against a very strong protest, and the English dissenters would not touch them. (Mcclintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia Vol. 6, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1894, page 762)
“The general introduction of instrumental music can certainly not be assigned to a date earlier than the 5th and 6th centuries; yea, even Gregory the Great, who towards the end of the 6th century added greatly to the existing church music, absolutely prohibited the use of instruments. Several centuries later the introduction of the organ in sacred service gave the place to instruments as accompaniments for Christian song, and from that time to this they have been freely used with few exceptions. The first organ is believed to have been used in the Church service in the 13th century. Organs were however, in use before this in the theater. They were never regarded with favor in the Eastern Church, and were vehemently opposed in some of the Western churches.” (McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia, Vol 6, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1894, p. 759)
“Sir John Hawkins, following the Romanish writers in his erudite work on the history of music, made Pope Vitalian, in A.D. 660, the first who introduced organs into the churches. But students of ecclesiastical archaeology are generally agreed that instrumental music was not used in churches till a much later date; for Thomas Aquinas [Catholic Scholar in 1250 A.D.] has these remarkable words, ‘Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may seem not to Judaize.'” (McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia, Vol. 6, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1894, p. 762.)
“The Greek word ‘psallo’ is applied among the Greeks of modern times exclusively to sacred music, which in the Eastern Church has never been any other than vocal, instrumental music being unknown in that church, as it was in the primitive church.” (McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1894, p. 739).
SCHAFF-HERZOG
“The first organ certainly known to exist and be used in a church was put in the cathedral at Aix-la-chapel by the German emperor, Charlemange, who came to the throne in 768AD. It met with great opposition among the Romanists, especially among the monks, and that it made its was but slowly into common use. So great was the opposition even as late as the 16th century that it would have been abolished by the council of Trent but for the influence of the Emperor Ferdinand…. In the Greek church the organ never came into use… The Reform church discarded it; and though the church of Basel very early introduced it, it was in other places admitted only sparingly and after long hesitation.” (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol 2, p. 1702)
“It is questionable whether, as used in the New Testament, ‘psallo’ means more than to sing . . . The absence of instrumental music from the church for some centuries after the apostles and the sentiment regarding it which pervades the writing, the fathers are unaccountable, if in the apostolic church such music was used” (Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 961).
“In the Greek church the organ never came into use. But after the 8th century it became more and more common in the Latin church; not without opposition from the side of the monks.” (Schaff-Herzogg Encyclopedia, Vol 10, p. 657-658)
“The custom of organ accompaniment did not become general among Protestants until the eighteenth century.” (The New Shaff-Herzogg Encyclopedia, 1953, Vol 10, p. 257)
WYCLIFFE BIBLE DICTIONARY
“There is no record in the New Testament of the use of instruments in the musical worship of the Christian church.”
Bethel Cornerstone 