Tongues and cymbals: Contextualizing 1 Corinthians 13:1.

Abstract

In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul's message is one of unity. The key to understanding Paul's metaphor of the cymbal in 1 Corinthians 13: I lies in knowing that within the biblical tradition, the cymbal was never played alone, but always accompanied other instruments, singing, and words of praise. Paul urges the tongue-speakers at Corinth to abandon their solo performances and place their girls in the service of building up the community. Love mandates that all utterances be interpreted for the community, so that the gift of tongues will no longer divide God's church, but will instead contribute to its unity in Christ.

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If I speak with the tongues of humans and of angels, but I do not have love, I have become a ringing bronze-thing, or a loud-sounding cymbal (1 Cor 13:1)

Several factors influence the interpretation of a metaphor. First, the interpretation is necessarily limited by what we know about the objects, persons, or situations alluded to. If what we know, or think we know, about the elements of a given metaphor in some way differs from what the speaker or writer knows, our interpretation will probably differ accordingly. This is often the case in the interpretation of metaphors found in ancient texts such as the Bible. Frequently, an image does not make sense to a given audience because important information is not available to clarify its intended meaning. In attempting to fill in the blanks, we risk retrojecting our own ideology, technology, cosmology, etc., onto a given metaphor. In so doing, we also risk missing the point.

Second, we interpret an image according to our understanding of the context in which it appears. Suppose, in the course of a conversation, I say to you, "Words drip from his tongue like honey." Assuming that you are familiar with the qualities of honey, you might interpret this image in one of two ways. If I had already made it clear to you that I was speaking of a politician, or perhaps a lawyer, you would probably decide that honey in this context is a bad thing: smooth but sticky, with minimal nutritional value. If you knew, on the other hand, that I was speaking of an actor, or a poet, you might decide that honey is in this case a very good thing: something soothing, tantalizing, and delectably sweet. Your interpretation would also be influenced by what you knew or assumed about my personal taste, and by your own evaluation of the person being discussed.

In chapters 13 through 15 of his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses a number of musical metaphors, referring specifically to five musical instruments. Such references occur nowhere else in Paul's writings. Perhaps for this reason, many scholars have overlooked the significance of these images. At the same time, a smaller number of exegetes and commentators have attempted to interpret these metaphors, but have imported ideas and assumptions foreign to the world of Paul and the first Christians.

In this essay I examine the metaphor of the "ringing bronze thing," or "loud-sounding cymbal." I propose to arrive at a clearer understanding of this metaphor by an investigation of the uses of cymbals, together with other musical instruments in sources unquestionably familiar to Paul and his first-century audience, namely the writings of the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible. I will also give careful attention to the context in which these musical metaphors occur. In so doing I hope to clarify their significance for Paul's ancient readers and for readers today.

Chalkos

The word chalkos means bronze, brass, or copper, and can refer to various vessels, implements, or other items made of this material, or, more generally, to anything made of metal (Liddell & Scott). Here the noun stands parallel with a well-known musical instrument, the kymbalon, which in many respects corresponds to the modern-day instrument known as the cymbal. Moreover, chalkos is modified by a participle denoting a ringing sound, peal, or echo. These contextual clues seem to suggest that chalkos here refers to a musical instrument, although the word does not appear elsewhere with this meaning. In light of this fact, speculation as to the nature, shape, or classification of such an instrument has yielded no definitive conclusions. A few proposals follow.

The chalkos has frequently been interpreted as a brass instrument similar to the trumpet or horn (Smith: 111). Others have identified it as a gong, such as might have been used in the rites of orgiastic cults, in preparation for the state of ecstasy (Schneider: 955; see also Conzelmann: 221). J. Schneider notes that the participle echon suggests an instrument that produced long-echoing and roaring or booming sounds, which he perceives to be uniquely characteristic of the gong (111). In his commentary on the First Letter to the Corinthians, Gordon Fee likewise interprets the chalkos as a gong, which he describes as a metaphor for an "empty, hollow sound"; he compares this to the empty sounds of pagan worship, alluded to by Paul in 12:2 (632). It should be noted, however, that there is no record of the use of a gong in any Hellenistic cult.

Alfred Sendrey (205) has suggested rather that the intentional pairing of chalkos with kymbalon is meant to correspond to two different kinds of cymbals distinguished in Psalm 150:5. The Hebrew text of this verse reads, in translation: "Praise him with cymbals of sound, praise him with cymbals of shouting." The Septuagint of Psalm 150:5 reads, in English translation: "Praise him with melodious cymbals, praise him with loud cymbals." As noted, Sendrey interprets the verse as referring to two types of cymbals, and conjectures that they may have differed in materials, the former perhaps made of brass, producing a brighter sound, the latter made of bronze, producing a heavier, more penetrating sound.

I am not convinced that Psalm 150:5 refers to two different kinds of cymbals. Rather, we find in this verse an example of poetic parallelism. Such repetition is a key element of Hebrew poetry, serving to emphasize, clarify, and develop ideas. Consider the following example noted by Adele Berlin (70): "When I am in distress I call to YHWH; And to my God I call" (2 Sam 22:7a). The repetition does not mean that the speaker calls to God two times, but simply reiterates the same action. Nor are two deifies implied; "God" and "YHWH" refer to the same person (cr. Psalm 150:1, where a similar parallel expression occurs). The verse recurs with a greater degree of variation in Psalm 18:7: "When I am in distress I call to YHWH; And to my God I cry out." The call and the cry again signify the same action by the use of two different words. The paralleling of melodious cymbals with loud-sounding cymbals in Psalm 150:5 is likewise a poetic repetition; the variation of elements adds descriptive detail and emphasis to the phrase. Moreover, the entirety of Psalm 150 is structured by repetition. The imperative "praise" introduces twelve of the poem's thirteen cola, creating a distinctive rhythm of praise. The "cymbals of sound" and "cymbals of shouting" are not two types of cymbals, but part of the poet's rhythmic expression for cymbals that make a joyful noise of praise. This repetition forms a climax to the poem, at which point the final verse breaks from the established rhythm to exhort all living creatures to praise the Lord. We will see below that a similar parallelism is at work in I Corinthians 13:1.

Classical scholar W. Harris (38-41) has argued that the chalkos is not a musical instrument at all, but rather an acoustic device used in ancient theaters. He identifies it with acoustic sounding-vases made of bronze, which according to Vitruvius were used in a theater at Corinth in the first century BCE to amplify the voices of actors. These vases were called eheia, denoting their reverberative qualities. He maintains that an "echo" is not a musical sound at all, but a sound that signifies emptiness. (See also Klein: 286-89; for an opposing view, see Murphy-O'Connor: 81-93, esp. 83).

Yet compare again Psalm 150:3, which exhorts the Israelite people to praise God "in the ringing of the trumpet." In Psalm 150:5, examined above, the cymbals are themselves euphonious, literally "well-echoing." Far from being hollow or empty, the echos is a sound that can rise to heaven and offer wonderful praise to God. Nor is this echoing sound any louder than the sound of other instruments. In 150:3-5 the trumpet is one of seven instruments called to praise God together in a veritable symphony; they accompany vocal song and joyful dance.

Moreover, no one has discovered a "sounding-vase" at Corinth or elsewhere. Only Vitruvius makes mention of this device, in his DE ARCHITECTURA, where he does not identify it as a chalkos. According to Harris (38), the Corinthian theater that allegedly made use of these vases did not stand in Paul's time, and had not stood for nearly a hundred years. There is no guarantee that either Paul or his audience knew of the existence or function of such objects. In fact, with regard to each of the above hypotheses, one must keep in mind that there are no extant biblical, classical, or Hellenistic references to a musical instrument or device known as the chalkos. It is a futile exercise to attempt to reconstruct such an object out of thin air, and we must consider the possibility that Paul did not intend chalkos by itself to denote a specific or separate musical instrument or device.

Imagine that you are listening to, rather than reading 1 Corinthians 13:1. You hear the phrase, "I have become a ringing bronze." Paul has begun his analogy with a very generic reference to a metal well known for its capacity to produce a ringing sound. At this point, any number of interpretations might be suggested by the material mentioned: bronze-work was a major industry in Corinth, and was used in the manufacture of such diverse objects as coins, armor, and weaponry, decorative vessels and mirrors (Murphy-O'Connor: 83). Anticipating the need for clarification, however, Paul has added a more concrete image, "a loud-sounding cymbal." This is not a metaphor Paul has used before, but now that he has introduced it he can evoke in his audience a whole new world of images. He picks up the same musical motif again after his hymn to love. As we shall see, the analogy is strikingly appropriate to the situation at Corinth.

The phrase appears to make use of a deliberate rhetorical device known as pleonasm, a crafted redundancy that plays out the search for the most fitting expression. Recent scholarship, notably that of Margaret M. Mitchell, has demonstrated that Paul was well versed in the techniques of classical rhetoric. One encounters pleonastic use of the particle "or" in the writings of Plato and of the Greek orator Lysias (Liddell & Scott: 76 I). This particle frequently stands between "related and similar terms, where one can take the place of the other, or one supplements the other" (Bauer: 342). An example of this usage in Paul's writing occurs in Romans 14:13: "stumbling block or hindrance," where the two words are in fact synonymous.

In the phrase "ringing bronze-thing or loud-sounding cymbal," the latter descriptive element serves to fill out and therefore "disambiguate" the meaning of the first (cr. Berlin, 96-97). In the case at hand, while the words are not synonyms, they in fact describe the same thing. Compare Paul's description of two musical instruments, the pipe and lyre: "just as soulless things giving sound, either a pipe or a lyre ..." (14:7). Taken by itself, the expression "soulless things giving sound" could refer to anything from falling rocks to a babbling brook, or shoes slapping on stone pavement. The two instruments named clarify and limit Paul's meaning, thereby providing the substance of the metaphor.

In this case (13:1), the musical content of the metaphor is undeniable. Moreover, the chalkos is not meant to be interpreted in isolation from its immediate context, but only as paired with kymbalon. That is to say, the significance of chalkos echon hangs on the significance of its rhetorical counterpart, kymbalon alalazon, which I will examine in detail below.

Kymbalon

Kymbalon derives from the Greek kymbos, meaning cup, suggesting a cup-like shape for the instrument. Two kymbala were struck together, producing various metallic sounds within a range of possible tone colors (Larrick: 13). The word occurs in the singular very rarely; this may be a key to its significance here, as I will explain below. Many, including Werner, Stainer, and K. L. Schmidt (Smith: 113), have found in the reference to the cymbal, as in the "gong" above, an allusion to the rites of Hellenistic cults, such as the worship of Cybele or Dionysius. (See also Conzelmann: 221.) However, in the rites of these religions, the kymbala and other percussion instruments were not used by themselves, but together with such instruments as the pipe and lyre (Sendrey: 318).

According to the biblical record, the very same can be said for their use in worship in ancient Judaism, from the time of David through the end of the second temple period (for a discussion of the historicity of the relevant biblical texts, see Braun). Moreover, given Paul's background as a practicing and well-educated Jew, we must assume that he was very familiar with the Jewish liturgical practice of his own day and with the biblical texts describing the use of these instruments for the celebration of Jewish holidays and in the daily worship of YHWH. As for his audience, the musical practices of the earliest Christians derived from Jewish rather than Greek sources, and there is no evidence that the Christians at Corinth had any first-hand knowledge of the secret rites of Hellenistic mystery cults (Smith: 56). Therefore, the claim that Paul's mention of these instruments is primarily an allusion to pagan worship requires more evidence than the text provides.

Arguing from another perspective, Smith has maintained, citing the meaning of alalazo, to "wail loudly," that the significance of the cymbal is its loudness, noisiness, and harsh or Wild tone (Bauer; Smith: 112). He perceives such harsh noise as undesirable and out of place in a worship setting (for an opposing view, see Sanders). In support of his argument he cites a description of the cymbal that reflects its use and appreciation in the twentieth century, but which in fact has very little to do with the image Paul is calling to mind:

   The cymbal as we know it in a modern orchestra ... is
   reserved for the wildest moments in the music, when it crashes out,
   the loudest and harshest of all the instruments. The ancient cymbal
   was of the same kind and had the same function.... The
   wild harsh character of its music is confirmed in this passage in 1
   Corinthians by the adjective that accompanies the word ...
   [Smith, n. 98, 112].

In the ancient biblical tradition that provides the background for Paul's metaphor, the cymbal had no such harsh, crashing function. Rather, the cymbal functioned as one of many instruments played in unison. There is no evidence that cymbals were played more loudly than any of these other instruments, nor were they used to accentuate "wild" moments in a musical composition.

Geary Larrick offers an important corrective to such modern assumptions about kymbala and other ancient musical instruments. While in our own period, in the West, the cymbal is considered aesthetically crude and is rarely used in worship services, the same did not hold true in the ancient Mediterranean world (13). All evidence points to the opposite conclusion. Larrick notes that by the standards of Western classical music, which continue to govern much of musical appreciation in the West today, the human voice is considered the most intimate of instruments, outstanding for its ability to convey emotion. Those instruments that are best able to imitate the sounds of the human voice, such as the violin, are perceived as aesthetically superior, even sublime. Percussion instruments, on the other hand, are perceived as least consonant with the human voice, and therefore inferior. They are considered "aboriginal," physical, and earthy. Larrick maintains, in my opinion correctly, that such a hierarchy did not exist in the ancient near east and is nowhere present in the Bible (31).

An examination of the uses of kymbala, or cymbals, in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible will yield a clearer understanding of how this instrument was in fact perceived by Paul and his audience. The first mention of cymbals in the biblical canon occurs in the description of the celebration following one of David's early victories, in 1 Samuel 18:6: "And dancers from all the cities of Israel came out to meet David, with kettledrums, and with joyfulness, and with cymbals." The cymbals here serve as an integral part of a public celebration, and are characterized by their joyful sound. All the cities of Israel are represented by women in the dance. The music of the cymbals and the kettle-drums together accompanies the dance, and probably continues while the women sing their praise-song of David's victory in battle (18:7).

Later, when he is king of all Israel, David and the people play before the Lord on well-tuned, or well-suited, instruments and with songs, in celebration of the restoration of the ark of the covenant (2 Sam 6:5; the same story is narrated, almost verbatim, in 1 Chr 13:8). The instruments are listed in detail, including kinnors and nebels (stringed instruments), kettle-drums, cymbals, and pipes. The musicians lead the procession of the ark up to the threshing floor of Nachor. Note that the cymbals are played in unison with four other types of instruments. They accompany singing and marching, in an attitude of joy and thanksgiving.

Chronicles records the institution of this music as an integral part of Israelite worship (1 Chr 15:16ff). David has pitched a tent to house the newly recovered ark of the covenant (15:1). The ark has been set in its place within the tent (16:1), and David now appoints some of the Levites to "minister before the ark," making prayers of thanksgiving, praise, and petition to the Lord (16:4). The musicians whom David appoints are likewise members of the Levite priesthood (15:16), and David gives them a special psalm of thanksgiving to sing (16:7). In response to the psalm, the people say "Amen" and "Praise be to God" (16:36). This is the very response that, according to Paul, a prayer or song ought to evoke. The song instructs, and the people should be able to answer according to its message. To the tongue-speaker, whose song is unintelligible, he asks, "How shall one who holds the place of the uninstructed say the 'Amen' to your thanksgiving, since that one does not know what you are saying?" (1 Cor 14:16).

The Chronicler next lists the names of those assigned to play each instrument, concluding with those appointed to the cymbals: "And the psalmists Aiman, Asaph, and Aithan made [the sound] heard with bronze cymbals" (1 Chr 15:19). Note that the priests' cymbals are described as "bronze things." The expression used, chalkois, is not properly an adjective but a plural noun, placed in apposition