Commending the section "MUSIC" pg.9

Not yet being flooded with questions, I thought I'd start looking from the front of the book. Doing that, I realized I'd never read Ruth Denson Edwards comments on Music (page 9 counting back from the Rudiments on page 13, the first numbered page in the 1991 edition.)

I recommend it to you. She offers a number of scripture citations conveying the long-standing importance of music, and a lovely reflection on music in nature.

The dating of Jubal to 3875 BCE I believe is based on Bishop Usher's chronology of the Bible that puts creation at 4004 before Christ -- though I think the dating of Jubal must rely on some general notion of years per generation. Jubal is one of the great, great, great, great grandsons of Cain. I'm not seeing a setting out of the years and generation of this line such as Genesis 5 gives for the descendants of Seth (Adam and Eve's third son -- good crossword name.)

Oh, anyone out there getting worried that I'm going to be terribly literal about everything in the Bible? Don't worry. Actually, no one is a literalist -- I've never heard anyone suggest that when Jesus says he is the door he's telling us he's made of wood with a brass knob (or glass and metal with a crashbar for that matter.) We all recognize some things as metaphor, mostly a question of which things and how much of the Bible we read that way. In this instance, for example, my own faith does not compel me to accept a literalist understanding of the creation stories in the Bible -- quite the contrary in fact. But it may often be easier in talking about the words of Sacred Harp to not be hedging things around with qualifications and caveats all the time. If you're curious about my understanding of some particular point, feel free to ask.