Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Charles H. Dyer
Associate Professor of Bible Exposition, Dean of Enrollment Management
Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas
The setting for the Book of Daniel in the Bible is the court of
Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It is beyond the scope of this paper to
examine the historicity of the Book of Daniel, but several scholars
have provided strong evidence for assuming the factualness of the
historical accounts presented in Daniel. 1 The third chapter of the
Book of Daniel records an unusual gathering on "the plain of Dura"
possibly located to the south of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar sum
moned all the officials of the provinces to Babylon to participate in
a solemn ceremony. 2
Recent scholarship has cast much favorable light on the sixth-century C back
ground for the Book of Daniel One example is Belshazzar s offering the title of
third highest ruler m the kingdom (Dan 5 7) Nabomdus was technically king, and
Belshazzar was his son and viceroy Thus the highest position he could offer was
"third highest ' However, this historical fact was lost by the fourth century C and
was only 'rediscovered ' in the past century by archaeologists The point here is that
apart from how one interprets the Book of Daniel, the historical portions of the ac
count have been validated by recent archaeological discoveries For additional in
formation see Bruce Waltke, ' The Date of the Book of Daniel, Bibhotheca Sacra
133 (October-December 1976) 319-29, Edwin M Yamauchi, The Archaeological
Background of Daniel," Bibhotheca Sacra 137 (January-March 1980) 3-16, R Har
rison, Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids Wm Eerdmans Publishing
C o , 1969), p p 1105-34, and Alan Millard, 'Daniel and Belshazzar in History,
Biblical Archaeology Review 11 (May/June 1985) 73-78
William Shea suggests that the gathering followed a revolt against Neb
uchadnezzar that occurred between December 595 and January 594 C Nebuchadnez
zar summoned these officials to Babylon to take a loyalty oath ' to him (William
Shea, "Daniel 3 Extra-Biblical Texts and the Convocation on the Plain of Dura,' An
drews University Seminary Studies 20 [Spring 1982] 29-52) The revolt in Babylon
was significant enough to be included in the official Babylonian record of the events
for that year 'In the tenth year the king of Akkad [was] in his own land, from the
426
The Musical Instruments in Daniel 3 427
month of Kislev to the month of Tebet there was rebellion in Akkad With arms he
slew many of his own army His own hand captured his enemy (D J Wiseman,
Chronicles of the Chaldean Kings (626-556 C ) in the British Museum [London Bri
hsh Museum 1956], 73)
For this article the New International Version is used unless indicated otherwise
Shea Daniel 3 Extra-Biblical Texts and the Convocation on the Plain of Dura
37
428 Bibhotheca Sacra / October-December 1990
s t r u m e n t s a r e listed. U n f o r t u n a t e l y t h e r e is s o m e d i s a g r e e m e n t on
t h e specific i n s t r u m e n t s listed in t h e a c c o u n t a n d their exact identi
fication. A listing of t h e w o r d s a n d their s u g g e s t e d i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s
as f o u n d in four t r a n s l a t i o n s of t h e text are listed below.
^ Egon Wellesz, ed , Ancient and Oriental Music (reprint, London Oxford Univer
sity Press, 1960), 242 Also see Carl Engel, The Music of the Most Ancient Nations
(reprint, Freeport, NY Books for Libraries Press, 1970), pp 59-62, an excellent repro
duction of an Assyrian trumpet relief is included on page 61
" D J Wiseman et a l , Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel (London Tyn-
dale Press, 1965), 23
Ibid Both Patton and Galpin identify the instrument with the syrinx, or pipes of
Pan, based on the suggested etymology of WTpnuD being sharak However, this iden
tification by suggested etymological similarities is tenuous (Priscilla Patton and Re
becca Patton, Before the Times [San Francisco Strawberry Hill Press, 1980], 190,
Francis William Galpin, The Music of the Sumenans and Their Immediate Successors,
the Babylonians and Assyrians (reprint, Freeport, NY Books for Libraries Press,
1970), 67
' Two classes of woodwind were known throughout the ancient Near East the
vertical end-blown flute, and the single- or double-reed shawm, ancestors of the mod
ern clarinet and oboe,\which were usually played in pairs The true flute, usually
made of reed, was a pastoral instrument, with a soft, breathy voice The louder, more
penetrating shawms, made of reed, wood or metal, were better able to hold their own
in orchestral ensembles" (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [1986 ed ],
s Music, by D A Foxvog and A D Kilmer, 3 442)
" Engel gives an excellent description (with illustration) of a clay pipe, or whistle,
discovered at Birs Nimrud near Babylon (Engel, Music of the Most Ancient Nations,
pp 75-76) Unfortunately the pipe, which was taken to the Royal Asiatic Society in
London, was later lost
*u Wellesz, Ancient and Oriental Music, Plate VIII (c)
430 Bibhotheca Sacra / October-December 1990
onrrp
With the third instrument Daniel introduced a new grouping in
Nebuchadnezzar's musicians. The first two instruments are wind in
struments; the next three are stringed instruments. The first of these
stringed instruments is the o n r r p , variously identified as the harp,
lyre, or zither.
The word seems to be a transliteration of the Greek word
}2 The was a type of lyre and is attested in Homer
(8th century C ) and in Herodotus (5th century C ). To find a Greek
instrument in the royal court of Babylon should not be surprising be
cause there is much evidence of contact and commerce between the
people of the Aegean and Mesopotamian regions, 1 3 and additional
14
evidence that musical instruments were carried between countries.
1;>
Wellesz writes, "The influence exerted by Mesopotamian culture on the western
world was far reaching. Unfortunately the glories of the intellectual and artistic con
quests of Greece have dazzled our view of our cultural debts to others" (Ancient and
Oriental Music, p. 250). See also M Duchesne-Guillemin, "Survivance orientale dans
la dsignation des cordes de la lyre en Grce?" Syria 44 (1967): 233-46; Anne Kilmer,
"The Strings of Musical Instruments: Their Names, Numbers, and Significance," in
Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965),
pp. 261-72.
* Maximilian Ellenbogen, Foreign Loan Words in the Old Testament (Mystic, CT:
Verry, 1962), p. 148.
*' Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 1126.
* Wellesz writes, "The word kithara may not be Greek. That it was some times
called astas, rather than asias kithara is conveyed by the word , and practi
cally the same word haraka, has been used in Arabic from time immemorial in connec
tion with playing the lute Cud)" (Ancient and Oriental Music, p. 251).
Patton and Patton, Before the Times, p. 188. See also The International Standard
Bible Encyclopedia (1986 ed.), s.v. "Music," by D. A. Foxvog and A. D. Kilmer, 3:446.
20 "The sabbek (lower-chested harp) owes its name, in all probability, to the fact
that multiplicity [of strings] was confused with multiflexity, as we have seen in the
root sabaq (to intertwine, interweave), hence seba (lattice-work) and sebq (net-
work), whose kindred still thrive in Arabic" (Wellesz, Ancient and Oriental Music, p.
245).
21 Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 1126.
432 Bibhotheca Sacra / October-December 1990
stringed harp that would give the impression of lattice work. If the
word comes from sabitu it could be a seven-stringed lyre. No defini
tive answer can be given, but perhaps the best position is to relate
the word more closely to the Greek word . However, rather
than say that the *ono is derived from the it might be best
to reverse the order of borrowing, seeing the Greek as hav
ing been borrowed from the Near East. 22 Mitchell and Joyce provide
a possible explanation for the instrument.
The meaning of the Greek sambuk, a four stringed triangular harp, or
something similar, may give a clue to the meaning of sabk, though it
need not necessarily be expected to have precisely the connotation of
the later classical term. There are a number of triangular harps in the
monuments, and in the Assyrian reliefs these seem usually to be hori-
zontal, so m the absence of other evidence the meaning of "horizontal
harp" can be reckoned a plausible guess for this word 23
ThefrCQO,then, was a stringed instrument, probably to be identi-
fied as a harp. Wellesz identified it as a "lower-chested harp," an
instrument known from many Assyrian reliefs.24 The exact number of
strings cannot be determined. The association with the Greek word
would suggest four strings, though the similarity to the
Akkadian sabitu would argue for more strings. A comparison with
Assyrian reliefs suggests a harp with still more strings. 2 5
praoa
The third stringed instrument listed among Nebuchadnezzar's
musicians is the ]]03, which appears to be a transliteration of the
Greek word .26 According to Mitchell and Joyce, the
was a triangle-shaped stringed instrument. 2 7 Engel iden
tified the with the santtr, the present oriental dul-
rnaoio
The final instrument played by Nebuchadnezzar's musicians is
identified as the rnaoio. Identifying this instrument is difficult.
Most scholars associate the word with the Greek . Accord
ing to Driver this word describes in later Greek "a bagpipe, an in
strument consisting essentially of a combination of pipes supplied
with wind from a bladder blown by the mouth and called
'symphonia' on account of the combination of sounds produced by
it." 3 1 Accordingly the New American Standard Bible renders the
word "bagpipe," and the New International Version translates it
"pipes."
However, the identification of rnsaio as ("bagpipe")
has problems. First, the use of the word as an instrument
is not attested to in Greece before the fourth century B C 3 2 Galpin
notes, "About 400 A D Prudentius gives this name to the double-reed
pipe as a signal for battle amongst the Egyptians. Venantius Fortu
narais in the next century considered it a pipe plena suo flatu 'big
with its own wind'probably a bagpipe." 3 3 This is too late to have
been the instrument in the sixth-century C orchestra of Nebuchad
nezzar. Second, there is no evidence for bagpipes in Mesopotamia at
any time. 3 4
A second identification of rnSQlO also interprets it as a Greek
loan word but with a different understanding of that Greek
2 0
Engel, The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, 282
2 9
Wellesz, Ancient and Oriental Music, pp 238, 245-46
3U
Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, 1126
Samuel R Driver, The Book of Daniel (Cambridge Cambridge University Press,
1900), 39
3 2
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1986 ed ), s "Music," by D A
Foxvog and A D Kilmer, 3 446
^ Galpin, The Music of the Sumerians, 67
3 4
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1986 ed ), s "Music," by D A
Foxvog and A D Kilmer, 3 446
434 Bibhotheca Sacra / October-December 1990
Conclusion
Nations, frontispiece
Another example shows a military band with four musicians, one playing a hand-
drum, one a five-stringed rectangular lyre, one an eight-strmged lyre, and one a set of
cymbals (Illustrated Bible Dictionary, s 'Music, by D G Stradlmg and A
Kitchen, 2 1039)
^ s
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