Note 1: [It is the opinion of Dr. Neander that this
treatise proceeded from our author before his lapse: but Bp.
Kaye (p. xvi.) finds some exaggerated expressions in it, concerning
the military life which savour of Montanism. Probably they do, but
had he written the tract as a professed Mointanist, they would have
been much less ambiguous, in all probability. At all events, a work
so colourless that doctors can disagree about even its shading, must
be regarded as practically orthodox. Exaggerated expressions are but
the characteristics of the author's genius. We find the like in all
writers of strongly marked individuality. Neander dates this
treastise circa a.d. 197. That it was written at Carthage is the
conviction of Kaye and Dr. Allix; see Kaye, p. 55.]
Chapter I.
All Sense Stimulation is God Created but Not Divinely Authorized for
Religion
Ye Servants of God, about to
draw near to God. that you may make solemn consecration of yourselves
to Him, [He speaks of Catechumens, called
elsewhere Novitioli. See Bunsen, Hippol. III. Church and House-book,
p. 5.] seek well to
understand the condition of faith, the reasons of the Truth, the laws of Christian Discipline, which forbid among other sins of the
world, the pleasures of
the public shows.
Ye who have testified and
confessed [Here he addresses the Fideles or
Communicants, as we call them.] that you have done so already, review the subject,
that there may be no sinning whether through real or wilful
ignorance.
Romans
14 defines two classes:
the wine drinking, meat eating backgrounds speaks of the Dionysics.
The vegetarian (nut eaters) defines the Orphics. Only the Essenes--if
in Rome--would fit the Jewish situation. A hundred years after Paul
wrote the Roman Government had to control the Dionysus worshipers.
Both had a charismatic musical background. Therefore, in Romans 14
Paul defined the SYNAGAGOUE or "school of the Bible." Paul says that
to follow Christ they would not stimulate mental excitement. The only
way to glorify God would be to speak "that which is written" with ONE
MOUTH and ONE MIND. Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 5 and
Colossians 3. Therefore, there is NO musical activity connected to
Christian worship. If they engaged in dramatic performances they
would be, as Paul said in 1 Cor 14, seen as mad or insane.
For such is
the power of earthly
pleasures, that, to
retain the opportunity of still partaking of them,
it contrives to
prolong swilling
ignorance, and
bribes
knowledge into playing
a dishonest part. To both things, perhaps, some among you are allured
by the views of the
heathens who in this
matter
are wont to press us with
arguments, such as these: commands
(1) That the
exquisite enjoyments of ear and
eye we have in things external are not in the least opposed to religion in the mind
and conscience; and
(2) That surely no offence is
offered to God, in any
human enjoyment, by
any of our
pleasures, which it is
not sinful to partake of in its own
time and place, with all due honour and reverence secured to Him.
But this is precisely what
we are ready to prove:
That these things are not consistent with true religion and true obedience to the true God.
There are some who imagine that
Christians, a sort of people ever ready to die, are trained into the abstinence they practise, with
no other object than that of making it less difficult to despise
life, the fastenings to it being severed as it were.
They regard it
as an art
of quenching all
desire for that which,
so far as they are concerned, they have emptied of all that is desirable;
and so it is
thought to be rather a thing of human planning and foresight,
than clearly laid down
by divine command.
It were a grievous thing, forsooth, for Christians, while continuing in
the enjoyment of
pleasures so great, to
die for God! It is not as they say; though, if it were, even
Christian obstinacy might well give all submission to a plan so
suitable, to a rule so excellent
Chapter II.
The Law of Silence, Direct Commands, idolatry of talent
Then, again, every one is ready with the
argument [Kaye (p. 366), declares that all the arguments urged in
this tract are comprised in two sentences of the Apology, cap. 38.]
that
all
things, as we teach,
were created by
God,
and given to man for his use,
and that they must be good,
as coming all from so good a source;
but that among them are found
the various constituent
elements of the public shows, such as the horse, the lion, bodily strength, and
musical
voice. It cannot, then,
be thought that what exists by God's own creative will is either foreign or hostile to Him;
and if it is not opposed to
Him,
it cannot be regarded as injurious to His worshippers,
as certainly it is not
foreign to them.
Beyond all doubt, too, the very
buildings connected with the places of public amusement, composed as
they are of rocks, stones, marbles, pillars, are things of God, who has given these various things for the earth's
embellishment; nay, the very scenes are enacted under God's own heaven.
How skilful a pleader seems human wisdom to herself,
..........especially if she
has the fear of
losing any of her
delights-any of the sweet enjoyments of worldly existence!
..........In fact, you will find not a
few whom the imperilling
of their pleasures
rather than their life holds back from us.
For even the
weakling has no strong dread of death
as a
debt he knows is due by
him;
..........while the
wise man does not look with contempt on
pleasure,
..........regarding it as a precious gift-in fact,
..........the one
blessedness of life, whether to philosopher or fool.
Now nobody denies what nobody
is ignorant of-for Nature herself is teacher of it-that God is the
Maker of the universe, and that it is good, and that it is
man's by free gift of
its Maker.
But having no intimate
acquaintance with the Highest,
knowing Him only by
natural revelation,
and not as His "friends"-afar off,
and not as those who have been brought nigh to Him-
............
men cannot but be in
ignorance alike of
............ What He enjoins and what He forbids
in regard to the administration of His world.
They must be ignorant, too, of
the hostile power which
works against Him,
and perverts to wrong uses the things His hand has formed;
for you cannot know either the will or the adversary of a God you do not know.
............
We must not, then,
consider merely by whom all things were made,
............
but by whom they have been perverted.
We shall find out for what use
they were made at
first,
............
when we find for what
they were
not. law of silence
There is a vast difference
between the corrupted state and that of primal purity,
..........just because there is a vast difference between the
Creator and the corrupter.
Why, all sorts of evils, which
as indubitably evils even the heathens prohibit,
............
and against which they
guard themselves, come from the works of God.
Take, for instance,
murder, whether committed by iron, by poison,
or by magical
enchantments.
............
Iron and herbs
and demons
are all equally
creatures of God.
Has the Creator, withal,
provided these things
for man's destruction?
..........Nay, He puts His
interdict on every sort of man-killing by that one summary precept,
"Thou shalt not kill."
Moreover, who but God, the
Maker of the world, put in its gold, brass,
silver, ivory, wood, and all the other materials used in the
manufacture of
idols?
Yet has He done this that
men may set up a worship
in opposition to Himself? On the contrary idolatry in His eyes is the crowning sin.
What is there
offensive to God which is not God's?
But in offending Him,
it ceases to be
His; and in ceasing to
be His, it is in His eyes an offending thing.
Man himself, guilty
as he is of every iniquity,
is not only a work of God-he is His
image, and
yet both in
soul and body he has severed himself from his Maker.
For we did not get
eyes to minister to
lust,
and the tongue for speaking evil with,
and ears to be the receptacle of evil
speech,
and the throat
to serve the vice of gluttony,
and the belly
to be gluttony's ally,
and the genitals for unchaste excesses,
and hands
for deeds of violence,
and the feet for an erring life;
or was the soul
placed in the body that it might become a thought-manufactory of
snares, and
fraud, and injustice?
I think not; for if God, as the
righteous ex-actor of innocence, hates everything like malignity-if He
hates utterly such plotting of evil, it is clear beyond a doubt,
that, of all things that have come from His hand, He has made none to
lead to works which He condemns, even though these same works may be
carried on by things of His making; for, in fact, it is the one
ground of condemnation, that the creature misuses the creation.
We, therefore, who in our
knowledge of the Lord have obtained some knowledge also of His
foe-who, in our discovery of the Creator, have at the same time laid
hands upon the great
corrupter, ought
neither to wonder nor to doubt that,
As the
prowess of the corrupting and God-opposing angel overthrew in the beginning the virtue of
man,
the work and image of God, the
possessor of the
world, so he has
entirely changed man's nature-created, like his own,
for perfect sinlessness-into
his own state of wicked enmity against his Maker, that in the very
thing whose gift to man, but not to him, had grieved him, he might
make man guilty in God's eyes,and set up his own
supremacy.
[For the
demonology
of this treatise, compare capp. 10, 12, 13, 23, and see Kaye's full but
condensed statement (pp. 201-204), in his account of the writings,
etc.]
Chapter
III.
Direct Commands of God and
Necessary Inferences
Fortified by this knowledge
against heathen views, let us rather turn to the unworthy reasonings of our own people;
..........for the faith of some,
either too simple or too scrupulous,
..........demands direct
authority from Scripture for giving up the shows,
.........
and holds out that the matter is a doubtful one,
..........because such abstinence
is not clearly and in
words imposed upon God's servants.
Well, we never find it expressed with the
same precision,
"Thou shalt not enter circus or
theatre, thou shalt not
look on combat or show;"
as it is plainly
laid down, "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not worship an idol; thou
shalt not commit adultery or fraud." Ex.
xx. 14.
But we
find that that first word of David bears on this very sort of thing:
"Blessed," he says, "is the man who has not gone into the assembly of the impious, nor
stood in the way of sinners, nor
sat in the seat of scorners."
Ps.
i. 1.
[Necessary
Inferences]
Though he seems to have
predicted beforehand of that just man, that he took no part in the meetings and deliberations of the Jews,
taking counsel about the slaying of our Lord,
yet divine
Scripture has ever far-reaching applications: after the immediate
sense has been exhausted, in all directions it fortifies the practice of the
religious life, so that here also you have an utterance which is not
far from a plain interdicting of the shows.
If he called those few Jews an assembly of the wicked,
how much more will
he so designate so vast
a gathering of heathens! Are the heathens less impious, less sinners, less
enemies of Christ, than the Jews were then? And see, too, how other
things agree. For at the shows they also stand in the way.
For they call the spaces
between the seats going round the amphitheatre, and the passages
which separate the people running down, ways.
The place in the curve where the matrons
sit is called a chair.
Therefore, on the
contrary, it holds, unblessed is he who has entered any council
of wicked men, and has stood
in any way of sinners, and has sat in
any chair
of scorners.
Definining the theater?
Ps 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
..........
nor standeth in the way of sinners,
..........
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Ps 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Ps 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
..........
his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Ps 1:4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Ps 1:5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
..........
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Ps 1:6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous:
..........
but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
We may understand a
thing as spoken
generally, even when it
requires a certain special interpretation to be given to it.
For some things
spoken with a special reference contain in them general truth.
When God admonishes the Isrealites of their duty, or sharply reproves them,
............
He has surely a reference to all
men; inferences
............
He surely pre-condemns
every sinning
nation, whatever.
If, reasoning from species to genus, every nation that sins against them is an Egypt and
Ethiopia;
so also, reasoning from genus to species, with reference to the origin of shows, every show
is an assembly of the wicked.
How God destroys with music
Chapter IV.
All Theatrical Performance is Based on Idolatry
Lest any one think that we are
dealing in mere
argumentative subtleties,
..........I shall turn to that highest authority of our
"seal" itself.
..........When
entering the water,
..........we make profession of
the Christian faith in
the words of its
rule;
..........we bear public testimony that we have renounced the devil, his pomp,
and his angels.
Well, is it not in connection
with idolatry, above all, that you have the devil with his
pomp and his angels?
from which, to speak. briefly-for I do not wish to dilate-you have
every unclean and wicked spirit.
If, therefore, it shall be made
plain that the entire
apparatus of the
shows is based upon idolatry, beyond all doubt that will carry with it the
conclusion that our renunciatory testimony in the laver of baptism has reference to the shows, See the
Story of Genun (Jubal).
And Enoch.
which, through
their idolatry, have been given over to the devil, and his pomp,
and his angels.
We shall set forth, then, their several origins, in what nursing-places they have grown to
manhood;
next the
titles of some of them, by what names they are
called;
then their
apparatus, with what superstitions they are observed; (then
their places, to what patrons they are dedicated; )
then the
arts which minister to
them, to what authors
they are traced.
If any of these shall be found
to have had no connection with an idol-god,
it will be held as free at once from the taint of
idolatry, and as not coming within the range of our baptismal
abjuration
Organon , to, ( [ergon, erdô] ) I. an implement, instrument, engine of any kind (mostly post-Aug.), Col. 3, 13, 12.--Of military or architectonic
engines (whereas machina denotes one of a larger size and more
complicated construction)
A. instrument, implement, tool, for making or doing a thing
3.musical instrument, Simon.31, f.l. in A.Fr.57.1 ; homen di' organôn ekêlei anthrôpous, of Marsyas, Pl.Smp.215c ; aneuorganôn psiloislogois ibid., cf. Plt.268b ; o. poluchordaId.R.399c , al.; met'ôidês kai tinôn organôn Phld.Mus.p.98K. ; of the pipe, Melanipp.2, Telest.1.2
Ergon [Ergô] I.work, 1. in Il. mostly of deeds of war, polemêïaerga, 3.a hard piece of work, a hard task, Il.: also, a SHOCKING DEED AOR ACT
Strabo Geography 10.3.16.....And on this site.
Of the rites of
Dionysus condemned by Paul in First Corinthians and the wine drinking
musical worship in Ephesus:
Also resembling
these rites
are the Cotytian and the Bendideian rites practiced among the
Thracians, among whom the Orphic rites had their beginning.
Now the Cotys who is worshipped among the Edonians, and also the
instruments used in her rites, are mentioned by Aeschylus; for
he says,
O adorable Cotys
among the Edonians, and ye who hold mountain-ranging instruments;
And he mentions immediately
afterwards the attendants of Dionysus: one, holding in his hands the bombyces (reed flute),
toilsome
work of the
turner's
chisel, fills full the fingered
melody, the call that brings on
frenzy, while another causes to
resound the bronze-bound cotylae. (cupped cymbals or vases)
<>"and again, stringed
instruments raise their shrill cry, and frightful mimickers from some place unseen bellow like bulls,and the semblance of drums, as of subterranean thunder, rolls along, a terrifying sound.
Note:In connection with this
bold use of "semblance" (eikôn) by Aeschylus, note Strabo's studied use of
"resembles" (eoike, twice in this paragraph) and "unlikely"
(apeikos). Others either translate eikôn "echo," or omit the thought.
The sounding brass (echoing) in First Corinthians thirteen
was a Greek military instrument or hollow vase. It is directly
related to the Chaldean which is a synonymn for astrologer. It was
used like the familiar spirit or "old wineskin" of the witch of Endor to call up a ghost from the subterranean world. By
whispering and murmuring into the skin the client heard mysterous
sounds which were interpreted as from the gods. At the same time, it
was used as a musical instrument or weapon to try to panic the enmy
with the noise.
Aristotle Politics 1341b and all the
instruments that require manual skill. And indeed there is a
reasonable foundation for the story that
was told by the ancients about the
flute. The tale goes that Athena found a flute and threw
it away. Now it is not a bad point in the
story that the goddess did this out of
annoyance because of the ugly distortion of her
features; but as a matter of fact it is more
likely that it was because education in flute-playing has
no effect on the
intelligence, whereas
we attribute science and art to
Athena
And since we reject
professional education in the instruments and in performance (and we count
performance in competitions as professional,
for the performer does not take
part in it
for his own improvement, but
for his hearers'
pleasure, and that a vulgar
pleasure, owing
to which we do not consider
performing to be proper for free men, but somewhat menial; and indeed performers do become
vulgar, since the object at which they aim is a
low one, as vulgarity in the audience
usually influences the music, so that it
imparts to the artists
who practise it with a view
to suit the audience a special kind of
personality, and also of bodily frame
because of the movements required)--we must therefore
give some consideration to tunes and
rhythms, and to the question whether for
educational purposes we must employ all the
tunes and all the rhythms or make
distinctions; and next, whether for those who are
working at music for education we shall lay down
the same regulation, or ought we to
establish some other third one (inasmuch as we see that the factors in music are melody
and rhythm,
and it is important to notice what
influence each of these has upon education),
and whether we are to prefer music with a good
melody or music with a good rhythm.
Charles Spurgeon Psalm 149 Ver. 3. Let them sing praises unto him with the
timbrel and harp. They who from hence 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 (Jud 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.
Chapter V.
Rising Up To Play, Making Sport, Drama, Bacchus Worship
In the matter of their origins,
as these are somewhat obscure and but little known to many among us,
our investigations must go back to a remote antiquity, and our authorities be none other than
books of
heathen literature. Various authors are extant who have published works
on the subject. The origin of the games as given by them is this.
..........Timµus tells us that
immigrants from
Asia,
..........under the leadership of
Tyrrhenus,
..........who, in a contest
about his native kingdom,
..........had succumbed to his
brother,
..........settled down in Etruria.
....................Well,
among other
superstitious observances under the name of
religion,
....................they set up in their
new home public shows.
The Romans, at their own
request, obtain from them skilled performers-the proper seasons-the name too, for it is said they
are called Ludi,
from Lydi.
And though Varro derives the name of Ludi
from Ludus,
that is, from play,
as they called the Luperci
also Ludii,
because they ran about making sport; still that sporting of young men belongs,
(playful or ludicrous) in his view, to festal days and temples, and objects of religious veneration.
Ludo
2 Peter 2:13 And shall receive
the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are
and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they
feast with you;
Entrupo (g1792) en-troo-fah'-o; from 1722 and
5171; to revel in: - sporting selves.
truphaô , ( [truphê] )
A. live softly, luxuriously,
fare sumptuousl,, en
ankalais mêtros truphêsai, of a child, E.Ion 1376, cf.
Ba.969; t. en tais esthêsi Isoc.2.32 ; t. kai
megaloprepôs diaitasthai X.Ath.1.11 ; leukos anthrôpos,
pachus, argos . . , eiôthôs truphan Sosicr. 1 , cf.
Ep.Jac.5.5, Gal.6.416, etc.; paison, truphêson, zêson: apothanein se dei Epigr.Gr.362.5
(Cotiaeum, ii/iii A. D.).
Paison paizô [pais]
4. to play (on an instrument), Hhymn. II. to sport, play, jest, joke,
Hdt., Xen., etc.; p. pros tina to make sport of one, mock him,
When they MOCKED Jesus the
prophecy used the word Alarm or Triumph which is to play loud wind
instruments and make a loud rejoicing sound.
G1702 empaizō emp-aheed'-zo From G1722 and G3815 ; to jeer at, that is, deride:
Similar Greek:
huporcheomai ,
A. dance with or to
music, pros de kardiai phobos
aidein hetoimos êd' (fort. hê d')
huporcheisthai A.Ch.1025 : c. acc. cogn., orchêsin hu.
Plu.Num.13 ; hu. goous
sing and dance a lament, Hld.6.8.
II. sing and dance a character, of a pantomimic actor, Luc.Salt.16.
Empaizô , fut. - mock at, mock, t
- 2. euphem. in mal. part., LXXJd. 19.25.
-
- Jdg 19:24 Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and
do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.
-
- The viol or nebel is named after VILE which can be an
empty bag or a harp.
-
- Jdg 19:25 But the men would not hearken
to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them;
and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day
began to spring, they let her go
-
- illudo to play at or with any thing, to sport with, amuse one's self with, 2. To sport or fool away a thing, i. e. to destroy or waste in sport; in mal. part., to violate, abuse
-
- 3. Pass., to be deluded, Ev.Matt.2.16, AP10.56.2 (Pall.), Vett.Val.16.14; to be defrauded, of the revenues,
Cod.Just.1.34.2.
..........II. sport in or on, hôs nebros chloerais
e. leimakos hêdonais E.Ba. 866 (lyr.); tois choroisin e. to sport in the dance, Ar.Th.975; tôi gumnasiôi Luc.Lex.5 . -
- Hêdonê A. enjoyment, pleasure, first in Simon.71, S.l.c.,
Hdt.1.24, al.; prop. of sensual pleasures,
-
- E.Ba. 866 Euripides, Bacchae ........On Line
Text
-
- Chorus
-
- Shall I move my white foot in the
night-long dance, aroused to a frenzy, [865] throwing my head to the
dewy air, like a fawn sporting in the green pleasures of the meadow, when it has
escaped a fearful chase beyond the watchers [870] over the well-woven
nets, and the hunter hastens his dogs [Catamites] on their course with
his call, while she, with great exertion and a storm-swift running,
rushes along the plain by the river, rejoicing [875] in the solitude
apart from men and in the thickets of the shady-foliaged woods.
-
- What is wisdom? Or what greater honor do
the gods give to mortals than to hold
one's hand [880] in strength over the head of enemies? What is good is always dear.
-
- Empaiktês , ou, ho,A. mocker, deceiver, LXXIs.3.4, 2
Ep.Pet.3.3, Ep.Jud. 18.
See how Israel
rose up to PLAY at Mount Sinai.
This was the musical
idolatry of the Egyptian Triad. God saw this as a prayer to return to
pagan worship. Therefore, He turned them over to worship the starry
host (Acts 7, etc.). This included Saturn whose number in Chaldee is
666.
Valentine's day is dedicated to "peace, love and household
gods." February 14 was the second day of Parentalia
called the Lupercalia. The day is dedicated to Juno-Lupa,
the she-wolf. In The Inferno, Dante describes how in "The
Dark Wood:"
a She-Wolf drove upon me, a starved
horror (48)
- ravening and wasted beyond all
belief.
- She seemed a rack for avarice,
gaunt and craving.
- Oh the many souls she has brought
to endless grief!
The Lupercal is the
setting for the opening scenes of Shakespeare's play Julius
Caesar. It is the feast
time and Caesar says to
Antonius: Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, to touch
Calpurnia; for our elders say, the barren, touched in this holy
chase, shake off their sterile
curse. Act 1, Scene II. In this scene, Antonius is one of
the Luperci, young men (priests) who ran
a course in the city of Rome from the Cave of the Lupercal
(the place where, by tradition, the founders of Rome -
Romulus and Remus - were suckled by the she-wolf) around the
Palatine Hill, in order to purify the ancient site. They
wore the skins and blood of goats sacrificed in rites held
earlier in the day. During the run, the Luperci
struck the
women they encountered with
strips of goat skin (called a "februa") to promote fertility
|
However, it is of little consequence the origin of
the name, when it is certain that the thing springs from
idolatry. The Liberalia, under the general designation of Ludi, clearly
declared the glory of Father Bacchus;
- for to Bacchus these festivities were first consecrated by
grateful peasants,
- in return for the boon he
conferred on them, as they say,
- making known the
pleasures of
wine.
See
our comments on Romans 14.
