Supernatural and Eschatological References to Music

References to music occur in New Testament texts that are concerned with the raising of the dead or with the Lord's return. The bulk of supernatural and eschatological references to music have to do with the trumpet sound of the Lord at the raising of the dead (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16) or the gathering of the elect (Matt. 24:31). They are extensions of the many associations of musical sounds accompanying specific acts of God that appear throughout the Old Testament. The ultimate instances of this are found throughout Revelation, in which the final, cumulative acts in history are announced by trumpet sounds and where singing seems to be a part of the eternal round of praise to be rendered to God. If any light can be gathered from these eschatological passages it would be that the literary style of the utterances (as well as other poetic utterances in the Epistles) would give a clue to the style of the composed and spontaneous texts that were actually sung by the new church. In a…