page_title: History of music in the biblical period
section_title: Musical instruments
hierarchical_section_title: History of music in the biblical period / Musical instruments
caption_attribution_description: Coin from Jewish Bar Kokhba revolution. Written in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet also known as Ktav Ivri. Obverse: trumpets surrounded by "To the freedom of Jerusalem". Reverse: A lyre surrounded by "Year two to the freedom of Israel"
context_page_description: Knowledge of the biblical period is mostly from literary references in the Bible and post-biblical sources. Religion and music historian Herbert Lockyer, Jr. writes that "music, both vocal and instrumental, was well cultivated among the Hebrews, the New Testament Christians, and the Christian church through the centuries." He adds that "a look at the Old Testament reveals how God's ancient people were devoted to the study and practice of music, which holds a unique place in the historical and prophetic books, as well as the Psalter."
  The music of religious ritual was first used by King David: according to the Larousse Encyclopedia of Music, he is credited with confirming the men of the Tribe of Levi as the "custodians of the music of the divine service". Historian Irene Hesk notes that of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, the 150 Psalms in the Book of Psalms ascribed to King David, have served as "the bedrock of Judeo-Christian hymnology," concluding that "no other poetry has been set to music more often in Western civilization."
context_section_description: Among the earliest pictographic signs found have been of a boat-shaped harp found on a Sumerian clay tablet dating back to 3000 BC, and an earlier depiction of this harp was also found in modern southwest Iran dating around 3200 BC.
  Many relics of musical instruments have been found in Palestine dating from the Hellenistic age giving details about the state, character, and practice of liturgical music. In other cases, many musical instruments of the Hebrews mentioned in the Bible are identified by analogy with similar instruments found in other nearby cultures, such as Egypt and Babylonia. An example of some instruments mentioned in the bible can be found in Daniel 3:5:
  that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music...
  According to Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, all details of the First Temple, including its musical instruments, were made and viewed as "symbols of the universe", especially instruments like the kithara or lyre. In his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus explains that the musical instruments, along with other matters of Jewish religion, represent a perishable "image" of the cosmos, or of "a cosmic Temple."
caption: Bar Kochba coinage showing trumpets and a lyre, c. 132 AD
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2007:09:21 18:09:19", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5914", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "644", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "315"}