Hebrew Word Study: Angels Singing

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Blessings, Laura & Chaim

Luke  2:13: “ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,”

Growing up in a church I quickly learned that music played a very important role in your life.  If you could not sing or play a musical instrument, then, well what good were you in the church?  People would sing solos, sing in the choir, and sing in church quartets or quintets.  Every room in the church had a piano and by the time I was a teenager carrying a guitar in a guitar case was the ultimate status symbol.  I loved the church and I knew the church would be my life, but by an early age, I knew my chances of making a big splash in the church were limited.  I was just a good kid with glasses.  I was not a former gang member or drug addict with a nifty testimony. I would never be a Hollywood star saved from the fast life.  I was not a yeller or screamer so I would never be a hit as a preacher.  My only hope of reaching hero status in the church was music and even there when God was handing out the musical blessings I was, as usual, at the end of the line.

Oh, how I longed to have a musical voice. I would dream of singing Gospel songs that brought tears to the eyes of the brethren and even an Amen from the man himself  – the pastor.  But, alas, I was doomed to a voice that would clear a room before I could even hit the chorus.  I mean when the leader said, “Let’s heist this number” well, I believed in coming on with it. But when I did people all around me turned to look and not with admiring glances.  In grammar school when our class was preparing to sing their songs for the annual festival, my teachers would always whisper those dreaded words to Glenn Olsen and myself, “Just move your lips, don’t sing.”  However, in the sixth grade, I had a teacher declare that she never told anyone to move their lips and that God gave everyone a voice to sing, all they needed was a little training.  If Glenn Olsen and I were willing to give up our recess time she would teach us to sing. Glenn Olsen was another student also cursed with an unbaptist musical voice.  Hey, I would give up lunch and gym class if I could learn to sing.  Actually, I hated gym class anyways.

Well come next recess Glenn Olsen and I stationed ourselves at the piano with our beloved teacher sitting between us.  She struck a note on the piano and let out a beautiful  “Ahhhhhhh.”    Then she struck the same note and indicated to Glenn and me to also sing “Ahhhhhhh.”  From the look on our teacher’s face, what came out of our mouths was apparently not what she hoped.  We tried it a number of times and eventually I got the idea that I was somehow to match my voice with the sound that the piano was making.  She never explained to us how we were to accomplish this and even to this day I have not learned that secret.  This lasted for three recesses before we found ourselves out on the playground.  I overheard my teacher talking with another teacher when my name and Glenn’s came up.  I did not catch all the words but she was saying something about an ulcer and high blood pressure.  Anyways, my poor teacher could never again brag as to how she never told any students to just move their lips as Glenn and I became quite the expert at lip sync.

So I must admit that it is not without some bias that I declare to you that nowhere in the Bible does it say that Angels sing.  I defy anyone to show me where in the Bible they find angels singing.  They are either shouting or saying. But they are never singing.  It is only tradition and the many church Christmas pageants where you are forced to dress up in a sheet with a coat hanger halo and sing “Glory to God in the highest” that we get the idea of angels singing. Come on, I dare you,  look at any translation at this passage in Luke.  It clearly says the Angels said, not sing.  You want Greek, I will give you Greek.  The Greek word is legonton which means to speak, say, tell or command.  Oh, but you say, the Book of Luke was written in Aramaic. Well, the Aramaic Bible uses the word ‘amar which is also speaking or saying.  It does not use the word zamar or shir which is singing.

Angels are created supernatural beings.  They are spiritual so they do not have lips, tongue, vocal cords, lungs and something called a diaphragm without which you cannot sing.  Commentators are just a bunch of cowards, they will not point this out as they knew they are treading on sacred ground to say angels do not sing.  But in this I am no coward, I am going to let the world know you don’t need music to worship and praise God.  In fact, music was never really used in worship and praise with the ancient Hebrews.  David introduced music as a sort of side note but worship was performed without music, they got their religious frenzy going through genuine Spirit-filled worship and not fabricated by some sentimental or battle-raising musical beats and rhythms.   The early church would not even allow music until well into the eighteenth century and even then it was only singing the Psalms for this very reason.  The closest to music the church would get would be to chant and they did that just relieve the boredom.

The fact that angels do not sing should be very liberating to us who are musically challenged.  It means that we can praise and worship God just as much as you musically gifted worship leaders. Hey, we tone deaf Christians with our screeching that we call singing who make an awful noise unto the Lord are just as much able to worship God as you guitar playing angel-like voiced worship leaders. Let the world know worship comes from the heart and not a musical sound or beat. I mean not even the angels sing. We pick up on traditions like angels singing and somehow believe they are Scriptural when there is absolutely no Scriptural basis at all for it.  Let that be a lesson to us all, that many of our beloved traditions are just that, traditions and there is no Scriptural basis.  We must search the Scriptures for even our most cherished traditions. Not these traditions can be wrong, but don’t turn them into dogma if they are not found in the Bible.

Ok, I will admit that I may not be able to make beautiful music but I do like listening to a good worship song now and then when I feel like praising and worshipping my God.  I drive a bus for Senior Citizens and the Disabled for the Town of Cicero. The other day as I made my drop at the Cook County Hospital and Rush Memorial, I let my last passenger off at the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind.  This put me right on Ogden Avenue (the old Route 66) and on a fifteen-minute journey back to Cicero.  As the bus was empty I queued my iPod up to my favorite worship song by Chuck Girard, Sometimes Alleluia, and decided to spend some quality worship time with Jesus.  Even though Mr. Girard does talk about angels singing in the song, I am willing to overlook this little theological misstep.  As I began to lose myself in my little worship time I suddenly heard another voice singing along with Chuck Girard, but it was coming from the back of my bus. It was the most beautiful voice I ever heard, it blended so nicely with Chuck Girard.  This person had tremendous breath control as it seems she never took a breath, just one long beautiful melodic accompaniment, almost like a musical instrument, in perfect key and harmony with Chuck Girard. I have listened to this song hundreds of times but I never heard this before, it was just so beautiful but then it hit, “Oh my gosh, who did I forget to drop off?”  I pulled the bus to the curb to turn and apologize to my passenger for not letting her off at her destination, but I discovered there was no one else on the bus, only myself and ……………

Chaim & Laura

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