ABSTRACT
The concept of 'music' and the idiom of the music itself were very different in the cultures of Mediterranean and Near Eastern antiquity compared with modern Western and Western-influenced cultures. It is therefore appropriate to begin by considering the conceptual and phenomenological aspects of music in those ancient cultures in order to approach an understanding of 'music' as the early Christians are likely to have known it. The musical idiom, the sound of the music itself, is elusive. The Oxyrhynchus hymn attests to the early use of a Hellenistic hymnic musical idiom in a Christian context. Scriptural cantillation, lamentation and wailing, and song that belonged with dances, weddings and work, all had their musical styles which, it is reasonable to suppose, continued in use among those Jews who added a Christological dimension to their traditional beliefs. There is no clear evidence that Christians played musical instruments at their sacred gatherings or in their private devotions.
