„Jerozolimo, dla wszysytkich Twoich pieśni jestem harfą”. Pole semantyczne hebrajskiego rzeczownika רוֹנִּכּ (kinnôr)

• Authors: Zbigniew Grochowski

Title variants

EN

“Jerusalem, for all your songs i am a «Harp»”. The semantic field of the Hebrew substantive נּוֹרִכּ (kinnôr)

Abstracts

EN

What was the instrument played by the king David (cf. 1 Sam 16:16,23)? What kind of musical instrument did the exiles hang upon the willow in Babylon (cf. Ps 137,2)? Such a questions could be multiplied, and the first association which often comes on one’s mind is that very probably it was a “harp”. But the research done on the Hebrew substantive kinnôr (this is the original word expressing the musical instrument being in question) brings to a conclusion that also “zither”, “lyre” and “lute” should be taken in consideration. This substantive (rather frequent in the Old Testament: 42 occurrences in the Masoretic Text) inspired the translators of the Holy Scripture and the authors of the biblical lexicons, dictionaries and encyclopedias to a vast (and, consequently, sometimes quite complicated) interpretation of this word: it is not so easy to decide, which instrument actually represents the noun kinnôr. It seems to be rather sure that “zither” has not too high probability to be a designatum of this Hebrew word (and much more “lute” should be refused). A “lyre” is the most famous interpretation of kinnôr given by modern authors, but a “harp” which is also a very popular opinion is our favourite rendition, regarding kinnôr. That is why the title of this article is as follows: “«Jerusalem, for all your songs I am a harp». The semantic field of the Hebrew כִּנּוֹר (kinnôr).

Keywords

EN

kinnôr; biblical musical instruments; harp; lyre; zither

• Publisher: Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne Diecezji Elbląskiej w Elblągu
• Journal: Studia Elbląskie
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 14
• Pages: 253-269

Dates

published

2013

Contributors

author

Zbigniew Grochowski

• Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie

• https://orcid.org/0000000217855684

References

• Briks P., Kinnôr, w: Podręczny słownik hebrajsko-polski i aramejsko-polski Starego Testamentu, Warszawa 2000.
• Castiglioni L., Mariotti S., Cithara, w: Il vocabolario della lingua latina, Torino 2007,
• Harfa, cytra, w: Słownik symboliki biblijnej, (red.) L. Ryken, J.C. Wilhoit, T. Longman III, przeł. Z. Kościuk, Warszawa 2003.
• Kinýra, w: A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, (red.) J. Lust, E. Eynikiel, K. Hauspie, G. Chamberlain, t, 2, Stuttgart 1992.
• Klugman A., Skrzypce, w: Słownik polsko-hebrajski 2000, Wrocław 2000.
• Montanari F., Kinýra, w: Vocabolario della lingua greca, Torino 1995.
• Rak R., Muzyczne instrumenty w Piśmie Świętym, w: Podręczna encyklopedia biblijna, (red.) E. Dąbrowski, t. 2, Poznań – Warszawa – Lublin 1959.

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

2166011