***Judaism did not use musical insturments in the liturgy,...***
According to the Bible, there were temple musicians as well as a temple choir. Where did you get your information?
As far as your sentences, when I see the word choir, I never think of anything other than voices. When I see the word orchestra, then I think of instruments. You had two sentences one saying choir, one saying instruments. Two completely different subjects. No straw man at all.
IT: According to the Bible, there were temple musicians as well as a temple choir. Where did you get your information?
Irish, every word I write is there for a reason...it says in the liturgy. Of course, to a Reformed Protestant a liturgy means nothing and a temple is like a "church," right? No, it isn't. The liturgy was and is done in the synogogues and churches. The temple was for sacrifical rituals. The Jewish sacrificial rituals were accompanied by musical instruments, as the public looked on. In this regard, Judaism was just like another pagan religion. It was a show. And it was precisely because of the association of instruments wiht pagan worship that the early Church censored the use of muscial instruments. The earliest documents about this come from around mid seocnd century.
But while the Church is like a synagogue, is also like a temple (for Christ's bloodless sacrifice). Christian liturguical hymnology is a direct derivative of the synagogal chants. But the sacrificial offering of the Eucharist is temple-like. In order to assure that the Divine Liturgy or Mass is never confused with pagan practices, the early Church disavowed instrumental music.
The early Western Church developed beautiful hymnology better known as Gregorian chants. In the East there is equally rich hymnology that is used to this day at every Divine Liturgy.
As far as your sentences, when I see the word choir, I never think of anything other than voices. When I see the word orchestra, then I think of instruments. You had two sentences one saying choir, one saying instruments. Two completely different subjects. No straw man at all.
Irish, there are choral ensenbles, Beethoven's ninth symphony (symphonies=no singining) is called choral because there is a choir as well as insturmental music. Protestant music is instrumentla and choral. It didn't used to be in the early Presbyterian assemblies because in those days even the Protestants knew that instrumental music (which the Catholic intorduced porobably under Frankish converts' influence) was a corruption of the original church liturgucal practice (and Presbyterians consider themsleves liturgical Christians as far as I know).