Were harps played in the Ephesian church?

 


Even lifeless instruments that produce sounds—whether flute or harp—if they don’t make a distinction in the notes, how will what is played on the flute or harp be recognized?

-1 Corinthians 14:7

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from the church in Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:16:8,9,19).

John lived in Ephesus when he went to Patmos to write Revelation. "Irenaeus is the source of the idea the John lived in Ephesus. Irenaeus was born in 130 - at least 30 years after John died." (source)

"At the end of the 2nd century, Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, claims that John's tomb is at Ephesus." (source)

When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

-Revelation 5:8

J. Foster, "The harp at Ephesus", in Expository Times 74 (1963), p. 156, "produces the following arguments:

a) A harp mentioned in a letter written form Ephesus. i.e. in 1 Cor. 14:7;

b) A harp occurring in a letter related to Ephesus, Rev. 5:8;

c) A bishop and a presbytery said to be as interrelated as a harp and its strings, Ignatious Letter to the Ephesians, IV 1;

d) The harp on the seal of Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus in A.D. 190, The Paedagogus III 8.

The author concludes from this evidence that Ephesus and the local Christian congregation had an antique musical tradition which included the use of at least one musical instrument."

(Ephesians 4-6, Markus Barth, p. 584, footnote 125)

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