Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

Revelation 18:22

Musicians [μ ο υ σ ι κ ω ν] Only here in the New Testament. There seems to be no special reason for changing the rendering to minstrels, as Rev. The term music had a much wider signification among the Greeks than that which we attach to it. "The primitive education at Athens consisted of two branches : gymnastics for the body, music for the mind. Music comprehended from the beginning everything appertaining to the province of the nine Muses; not merely learning the use of the lyre or how to bear part in a chorus, but also the hearing, learning, and repeating of poetical compositions, as wel as the practice of exact and elegant pronunciation - which latter accomplishment, in a language like the Greek, with long words, measured syllables, and great diversity of accentuation between one word and another, must have been far more difficult to acquire than it is in any modern European language. As the range of ideas enlarged, so the words music and musical teachers acquired an expanded meanings so as to comprehend matter of instruction at once ampler and more diversified. During the middle of the fifth century B. C. at Athens, there came thus to be found among the musical teachers men of the most distinguished abilities and eminence, masters of all the learning and accomplishments of the age, teaching what was known of Astronomy, Geography, and Physics, and capable of holding dialectical discussions with their pupils upon all the various problems then afloat among intellectual men" (Grote, "History of Greece," 6, ch. 67).

Pipers [α υ λ η τ ω ν]. Rev., flute - players. Only here and Matthew 9:23. The female flute - players, usually dissolute characters, were indispensable attendants at the Greek banquets. Plato makes Eryximachus in "the Symposium," say : "I move that the flute - girl who has just made her appearance, be told to go away and play to herself, or, if she likes, to the women who are within. Today let us have conversation instead" (" Symposium, "176). Again, Socrates says :" The talk about the poets seems to me like a commonplace entertainment to which a vulgar company have recourse; who, because they are not able to converse and amuse one another, while they are drinking, with the sound of their own voices and conversation, by reason of their stupidity, raise the price of flute - girls in the market, hiring for a great sum the voice of a flute instead of their own breath, to be the medium of intercourse among them "(Protagoras," 347). Compare Isaiah 24:8; Ezekiel 26:13.

Millstone. Compare Jeremiah 25:10; Matthew 24:41.

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Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

Revelation 18:22

Old Testament

New Testament