초기 기독교 교회의 음악(Music of the early Christian church)

    초기 기독교 교회에서 예배에 참여할 수 있었던 예술은 음악뿐이었다. 그 하나의 이유는 예수 그리스도와 제자들은 어떤 경우에도 건축, 조각, 회화 등의 예술을 존중하지 않았기 때문이지만, 또 하나의 이유는 구약성경(출애굽기 20장 4-5절)의 가르침에 따라 기독교도들은 묘사적인 예술을 싫어했기 때문이다.

    "너를 위하여 새긴 우상을 만들지 말고, 또 위로 하늘에 있는 것이나, 아래로 땅에 있는 것이나 땅아래 물속에 있는 것의 어떤 형상도 만들지 말며"

    사도 바울은 그리스 궁전에서 수많은 우상을 보고 매우 격분했다. 사도행전 17장 16-17절 · 23-24절, 29절에는 다음같이 기록되어 있다. 

    "바울이 아덴에서 그들을 기다리다가 그 성에 우상이 가득한 것을 보고 마음에 격분하여 회당에서는 유대인과 경건한 사람들과 또 장터에서는 날마다 만나는 사람들과 변론하니  ······  바울이 아레오바고 가운데 서서 말하되 아덴 사람들아 너희를 보니 범사에 종교심이 많도다. 내가 두루 다니며 너희가 위하는 것들을 보다가 알지 못하는 신에게라고 새긴 단도 보았으니 그런즉 너희가 알지 못하고 위하는 그것을 내가 너희에게 알게 하리라. 우주와 그 가운데 있는 만물을 지으신 하나님께서는 천지의 주재시니 손으로 지은 전에 계시지 아니하시고  ······ 이와 같이 하나님의 소생이 되었은 즉 하나님을 금이나 은이나 돌에다 사람의 기술과 고안으로 새긴 것들과 같이 여길 것이 아니니라"

    초기의 기독교도들은 예배의 장소로서 처음부터 훌륭한 성전을 가지지는 않았었다. 그들의 경건하고 열성 있는 태도는 아무리 비천한 가옥도 교회당으로 삼았다. 그리스도의 말씀에 따르면 「어디에서 기도할지라도 마음은 나와 함께 있느니라」인 것이다. 그러나 음악은 기독교의 신성한 예배에서 처음부터 없어서는 안 될 부분이라고 생각되어 있었다. 최초의 기도교도는 유태인이었다. 그들이 예로부터 유태교의 예배 속에서 친숙해 온 것을 상당한 정도까지 교회 안에 끌어들인 것은 자연스러운 경위였다. 우리들은 팔레스트리나의 유태인의 종교적 양식 가운데서, 음악이 얼마나 중요한 지위를 차지하고 있었던가를 성경을 통해서 알고 있다.

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    Music was the only art that allowed early Christian churches to participate in worship. One reason was that Jesus Christ and his disciples did not respect art, such as architecture, sculpture, and painting, in any case, but another reason was that Christians disliked descriptive art according to the teachings of the Old Testament (Exodus 20:4-5).

    「Don't make an icon for you, and don't make any figure of what's in the sky above, what's in the ground below, or what's in the water under the ground.」

    The apostle Paul was very enraged to see numerous idols in the Greek palace. Acts 17:16-17, 23-24, and 29 recorded as follows. 

    「While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’  As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.」

     Early Christians did not have a good temple from the beginning as a place of worship. No matter how humble a house they were, their reverent and devoted attitude made a church. According to Christ, "Wherever you pray, your heart is with me." However, music was thought to be an indispensable part of Christian holy worship from the beginning. The first prayers were Jews. It was a natural process for them to bring into the church what has been familiar in Jewish worship since ancient times. We know from the Bible how important music was in the Jewish religious style of Palestine.