Liturgical dance

[RHWoodman]

Thanks for the insight on the Hebrew. I notice that Psalm 149:3 uses choir, where as the other citations use the word dance! I wonder how St. Jerome discerned and translated the word?

I notice no one has cited actual dancing in Scripture that are relevant to this discussion, even though there are some!

“So Mary the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took timbrel in her hand: and all the women went forth after her with timbrels and dances.” Exodus 15:20

“And David danced with all his might before the Lord: and David was girded with a linen ephod.” II Kings 6:14

These examples are all out doors of course, perhaps that is the best path to follow? Dancing outside of Church, before entering God’s house. I can not imagine the Levites and Priests dancing in the Temple of Solomon!

The online copy of the Vulgate from Biblegateway.com has the text of Psalm 149:3 read:

laudent nomen eius in choro in tympano et psalterio psallant ei

I think Jerome means “choir” there. My command of Latin is poor, but the online references I consulted say that “choro” is either the dative singular or ablative singular of chorus, which I know means “choir.” Since “choro” is preceded by “in”, I’m guessing that it’s ablative case, but that brings me no closer to understanding whether Jerome meant “choir” or “dance.” However, having said that, I checked several different sources for the meaning of machol (the English transliteration of the Hebrew word meaning “dance”), and I cannot find any support for translating machol as “choir.”

I also ran the text of the Vulgate through several online translators. Google Translate and Babelfish translated “in choro” to mean “dance.” The rest of the translation tools I used either choked and gave nothing or gave utterly meaningless results.