2. The general character of Jewish music in the tiiue of Christ is wholly a matter of inference. There were no theoretical writers, as among the Greeks ; of their instruments sculpture portrays the silver trumpet alone ; and, notation not having been invented, specimens of their music contem- poraneously committed to writing do not exist. Yet within definable limits inference amounts to Cjertainty. (a) As to rhythmical structure, all ancient music was of the free form, in contrast to the measured form of modern music : ' time,' in our sense, was then unknown, (h) The varietj' and combination of instruments emploj'ed, to- gether with the musical arrangements generally (e.g. I Ch 15"^"--), imply at least some definite system whereby the intervals of melodic progres- sion Avere regulated. The existence of scales or modes, of some sort, cannot therefore be ques- tioned, (r) Thej' seem to have been in accord witli those in use at Babylon (Ps 137^'^). More- over, habitual contact with Greek influences in Alexandria and eise-wliere probal)ly produced (or at least goes to prove) an attinity v,ith the Greek modes, (d) The 'traditional melodies' now used in Jewish sj-nagogues are, in some cases, similar in kind to the music that we maj- infer to have existed in the time of Christ. Tradition might preserve melodies down to the invention of nota- tion, much as it preserved the vowel-system down, to the invention of ' points.' But the Jews them- 1 selves seem to have discontinued the Temple nielo-/ dies after its destruction ; so that the sj-nagogue' meloilies, whatever their origin, would not be those of the Temple. It may be supposed that Jewish Cliristians imported some of their Temple melodies into the Christian Church. Perhajjs it was they who introduced antiphonal singing : and even Greek liturgies are held to have been lai'gelj'
' aftected bj- Mosaic rites' (Swainson, Gr. Litur- gies). It is therefore not impossible that a Jewisji element still survives in some of the ancient ecclesi- astical plain.song. But no one can say for certain that this is so, or identify any particular instance.
LiTERATiRE. — Chappell, Histori/ 0/ Music ; Stainer, The Music iif the Bible; Edersheim, The Toiiple, etc.; art. 'JIusic' in Hastings' PB : Helmore, Plainsona, etc. The traditional Jewish melodies can be seen in E. Pauer's Hebrew Melodies (Augener), and in the collection of music for the synagogue edited by Cohen and Davis. F. S. RaNKEN.
MUSTARD. — In a simile the word {a-'ivavi) occurs in .Mt 1331, Mk 4^1. Lk 13''' : as a bold metaphor, in ilt 17-", Lk 17". It used to be strongly contended that the mustard referred to is not any of the familiar wild species of tlie Holy Land (such as the Sinapis nigm), but an arboreal plant (Snlmdorn persirri) found in the extreme south or sub-tropical part of Palestine, and said to be called among the Arabs by the same name [Khnrd'il) as mustard.
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MYRRH
MIRKH
This theory, however, may now be said to be ex- ploded (cf. Hastings" DB, art. 'Mustard'). The passages concerned clearly suggest, not a perennial shrub, but aji annual sown among and comparable witli other garden iierbs ; and if the expiession ' tree " be a difficulty {'great ' in Lk 13'^ is of weak authority, cf. RV), it is to be remembered that, when Jesus spoke to the multitude, it was in popular language. He meant that the tiny seed became to all intents a tree. An accurate botan- ist (Dr. Hooker) found the black mustard on the banks of the Jordan 'ten feet high, drawn up amongst bushes, etc., and not thicker than whip- cord.' And Dr. Thomson says that he has seen it ' on the rich plain of Akkar as tall as the horse and his rider' [LB, p. 414).
Equally prosaic is the criticism that the mus- tard is not 'the least of all seeds' (Mt.), or ' less tliau all the seeds that be in the earthy' i.e. annuals (Mk.). Enough, as before, that the language is not absolute and scientific. The mustard was probably the smallest a gardener ordinarily sowed. But the fact is, the saying is proverbial (found as such in the Talmud and in the Koran), and in good proverbs there is often the suppressed note of poetic licence (cf. the Sem- itic form of poetry in the introductory verse of the passage Mk 4^», Lk LS'^). The broad effect of the image is plain, that out of a speck of seed there was to come in due course marvellously great growth — a plant towering among the pulse and pot-herbs like a Titan, and with branching sprays on which the birds of the air ttnd shelter and rest.
The Arabs are given to special cultivation of mustard as a condiment (Hooker), and there is clearly emphasis on the statement that it was ' a grain ' (not a handful) which was taken ' by a man ' (Mt. and Lk.) and cast 'into his own garden' (Lk 13i« KV)-the garden {'field' in Mt 13^') being a place where, as observation attests, wild plants attain more than the normal size. Elsewhere this is tlie thought of Jesus — that God's Kingdom is taken from the world and developed on lines of its own (cf. the fig-tree favoured by being put in the choice and carefully protected place usually de- voted to vines, Lk 13").