Kinnor ( he, ''kīnnōr'') is an ancient Israelite musical instrument in the

yoke lutes Yoke lutes, commonly called lyres, are a class of string instruments, subfamily of lutes, indicated with the code 321.2 in the Hornbostel–Sachs classification. Description Yoke lutes are defined as instruments with one or more strings, arrange ...

family, the first one to be mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre", and associated with a type of

lyre The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a yoke ...

depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the

Bar Kokhba Simon ben Koseba or Cosiba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא, translit= Šīmʾōn bar Ḵōsēḇaʾ‎ ; died 135 CE), commonly known as Bar Kokhba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא‎, translit=Šīmʾōn bar ...

coins. It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people, and modern

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

s have created reproduction lyres of the kinnor based on this imagery. The word has subsequently come to mean

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...

Identification

The kinnor is generally agreed to be a stringed instrument, and thus the stringed instrument most commonly mentioned in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

. The kinnor is also the first string instrument to be mentioned in the Bible, appearing in Genesis 4:21.

Details

Construction

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

describes the kinnor as having 10 strings, made from a sheep's small intestine, and played with a

plectrum A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...

(pick), though the

Book of Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshu ...

notes that David played the kinnor "with his hand". The

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia The ''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'' refers to two different versions of a Bible encyclopedia: a 1915 fundamentalist edition, and a 1979–1995 revised evangelical edition. The first version was published under the general editorship ...

also notes that the early church fathers agreed the kithara (kinnor) had its resonator in the lower parts of its body. Like the nevel, the kinnor likely consisted of a soundboard with two arms extending parallel to the body, with the arms crossed by a yoke from which the strings extend down to the body. One etymology of ''Kinneret'', the Hebrew name of the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest ...

, is that it derives from ''kinnor'', on account of the shape of the lake resembling that of the instrument. If this etymology is correct it may be relevant to the question of the shape of the instrument.

Usage

King David as Orpheus in a synagogue mosaic - Google Art Project

The kinnor is mentioned 42 times in the Old Testament, in relation to "divine worship... prophecy... secular festivals... and prostitution." The kinnor is sometimes mentioned in conjunction with the nevel, which is also presumed to be a lyre but larger and louder than the kinnor. The

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

states that the minimum number of kinnor to be played in the Temple is nine, with no maximum limit.

Use of the word in Modern Hebrew

The word כינור ''kinór'' is used in

to signify the modern

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

.Jeremy Montagu, ''Musical Instruments of the Bible'', Scarecrow Press, 2002, p. 12

References

External links

*Bo Lawergren, �
Distinctions among Canaanite, Philistine, and Israelite Lyres, and Their Global Lyrical Contexts
” ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'', No. 309 (Feb., 1998), pp. 41–68. * {{Authority control Lyres Early musical instruments Israeli musical instruments Ancient Hebrew musical instruments Sacred musical instruments