The Ascension of the Shofar in Hebrew Worship

An Abstract by John Francis

Inarguably, the most cited instrument in Scripture is the trumpet. Not only is it present in great victories such as the fall of Jericho and Gideon’s routing of the Philistines, but it is also extant in foreboding occasions such as the tragic reclamation attempt of the Ark of the Covenant and in the warning tower of the watchman in Ezekiel. The trumpets of the Old Testament are basically two specific instrument types: חֲצֹצְרָה (chatsosera) otherwise known as, silver trumpets, and the שׁוֹפָר (shofar) also known as the ram’s horn.

In the Old Testament the silver trumpets were played by Levites for religious purposes. The varying trumpet calls in Numbers 10, were prescribed for these instruments. The shofar, by contrast, was clearly the people’s instrument, drifting between secular and military worlds. Subsequently it appears that the shofaris not only the instrument used now for all Jewish religious purposes, but with the menorah and Star of David, has become an icon of the Jewish faith.

Some musicologists claim that the shofar came into singularity soon after the exile. However, this actually is contrary to scripture, written liturgies, coinage, and historic art. Contrarily, “The Ascension of the Shofar in Hebrew Worship” seeks to prove that the shofar assumed the role as the religious instrument of the Jews from the silver trumpets during the synagogue period in and around the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. It will do so by briefly scrutinizing the five “biblical trumpet expressions,” examining the roles of the pre-diaspora and post-diaspora trumpets, the historic details of the fall of the Temple in AD 70 with their documented loss of religious material, and examining archaeological finds — specifically the iconography found in the Hammat Tiberius synagogue site, the Arch of Titus frieze, and the Bar-Kohkba coinage.

The preceding was an abstract of a research paper written by John Francis as a part of MUMIN 7513 Research in Worship History: Old Testament, a Ph.D. Seminar in Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. If this topic interests you, feel free to click the author’s name above and request a copy of the research paper.