ABSTRACT
Introduction Although the Bible is a unique and extremely important source of information about ancient musical instruments, nevertheless it does not contain full details. There still remains a good deal of uncertainty and a number of gaps in our knowledge. Later exegesis adds some new facts and fills in some of the gaps, thus to a certain extent improving our knowledge. Among a wide range of post-biblical comments about musical instruments mentioned in the Bible one can single out three groups as the most important:
1. The Talmud* and later rabbinic literature; 2. The theological treatises of the Church fathers (both of the Eastern
and the Western Churches) and Medieval Byzantine works on history, lexicography, grammar and rhetoric; and
3. The exegetical practices of Bible scholars and translators in more recent times.
