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How about choirs, solos, and vocal bands?


Introduction. The singing involved in the worship rendered by the early church was simple and unpretentious. They spoke "to themselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5: 19).

Testimony of history. "From the apostolic age singing was always a part of divine service, in which the whole body of the church joined together; and it was the decay of this practice that first brought the order of singers into church... " (John M'Clintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, & Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. 9, pg. 776). Ignatius (ca. 110 A.D.) wrote, ""Now all of you together become a choir so that being harmoniously in concord and receiving the key note from God in unison you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father (Early Christians Speak, pg. 149).

An examination of "yourselves" and "one another". The pronoun (eautous) translated "yourselves" in Ephesians 5: 19 is used (when used in the plural) as a reciprocal pronoun (Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, pg. 163). In other words, the Ephesians were to sing one to another. The English "one another" (KJV,same Gk.) in Colossians 3: 16 conveys reciprocal action. The six participles in these verses ("speaking," "making melody," etc.) are plural and present tense, agreeing with the one to another action of the pronoun. Required mutual action, then, forbids a few singing to others who are inactive in the process. Obviously, congregational singing is taught in the New Testament.

How about 1 Corinthians 14: 26? Some had a "doctrine," "tongue," "revelation," and "psalm." It is apparent that the "psalm" was miraculous. Why could not this person simply have led the congregation in the inspired psalm? Whatever the case, we cannot exclude the verses which teach congregational singing.

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