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| Dance
Seen Through "Old" Reading Glasses |
| Steve
Griffing |
| One
of the problems Bible scholars have in their search
for insights into New Testament worship is that
they often superimpose modern western assumptions
upon what is essentially an ancient oriental custom.
In order to see more clearly, they need to exchange
their intellectual reading glasses for new “old”
ones, which take into consideration the norms
of first century culture, and the mandates of
Old Testament doctrine. |
| Two
false assumptions are most commonly superimposed:
That Jesus Christ and His apostles were worship
reformers, and that the performing arts were specialized.
Neither assumption is accurate. |
| The
assumption that Jesus was a worship reformer may
be understandable, since the entirety of the sacrificial
cultus of the Jews, including its associated ceremony,
was set aside in the New Testament. But it must
be understood that this was more a matter of prophetic
fulfillment than of liturgical reform. This fact
can be seen clearly in the fourth chapter of John’s
gospel in which Jesus announced that the sacrificial
atonement for the Samaritan woman’s sins
could be accomplished neither at the Samaritan
temple in Mount Gerizim, nor at the Jewish temple
in Jerusalem. Atonement worship could only be
carried out “in spirit and in truth”,
that is in a “temple” that is spiritual
and eternal. Jesus purpose, therefore, was not
to reform worship in general, but specifically
to fulfill the sacrificial requirements as the
Lamb of God by offering His own blood. His primary
mission was to fulfill, not to reform worship. |
| Furthermore,
it is incorrect to assume that Christ’s
sacrifice overturned the entirety of Old Testament
worship for Christians. This is attested to by
the fact that neither Christ, nor His apostles
called for the abolishment of the expressive aspects
of the devotional worship tradition. In fact,
the Bible records numerous incidents in which
they participated in these practices as part of
their devotional life. (Luke 4:16, Matt. 26:30,
Acts 3:1) Ephesians 5:19-20, and Colossians 3:16
both uphold the Old Testament tradition of “psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs” as indispensable
features of New Testament worship. Thus, the apostles
and their followers did not enter the Church age
with a clean liturgical slate, but with the rich
biblical tradition of the worshiping arts wholly
in tact. |
| The
question of what that tradition looked and sounded
like points to the second false assumption: that
in the first century the performing arts were
specialized into distinct disciplines. Generally,
this specialization, however, does not appear
to be the case. While the biblical record is fragmentary,
the historical and archeological records are clear
that the performance of vocal and instrumental
music, as well as that of dance, was considered
a single discipline. Specialization was the exception
rather than the norm until the Renaissance. In
other words, singers, instrumentalists, and dancers
were usually the same people. Thus, in reading
the Bible, a reference to one is at once a reference
to all three. |
| Ethnomusicologist,
Alfred Sendrey, called this principle “the
triplicity of music” in his 1969 book, Music
In Ancient Israel. He wrote in this landmark piece
of research, “These three musical streams
spring from the same original source and tend
toward the same common aim: the glorification
of God.” (Not bad for a secular scholar,
I might add.) Sendrey then summarized that “...dance
played the same significant part in the life of
Ancient Israel as music and singing”, and
that, “voice, instrument, and body, the
natural media for singing, playing, and dancing,
have been united...into an indivisible entity.
In them, collectively, music in the broader sense
became a reality.” With this understanding,
a passage such as Ephesians 5:19 is transformed
from a scholastic exercise into an exuberant pageant
– from static “cerebration”
into dynamic celebration. On the other hand, superimposing
the assumption of modern specialization filters
out much of the artistic richness implied in the
New Testament. New “old” reading glasses
that are free from these false assumptions give
us a clearer picture of God’s pattern for
New Testament worship. |
| When
we understand that there exists a universal language
of Biblical worship that transcends testamental
boundaries, unifying voice, instrument, and body
into one glorious expression, our worship is infused
with fresh vitality and spontaneity. Then our
worship reflects more completely the unspeakable
joy that we express in response to His redemptive
grace. |
©
2005 Steve Griffing, ZionSong Ministries. All rights
reserved.
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