Hymn in Acts 16:25

As I did some more bible reading and studying on the nature of a hymn, I found that I made a mistake regarding the rendering of Acts 16:25. In the previous blog, I mentioned that Luke used a verb form of hymn. Actually, Luke wrote the noun form. So Paul and Silas actually sang a hymn, or sang hymns. I went to Matthew Henry's commentary today and Henry argues that the hymns or hymn Paul and Silas sung were psalms. He, like other Puritan Reformed commentators of yesterday, believed that the use of the word hymn in Scripture was synonymous with the word psalm.

The great Baptist pastor and theologian, John Gill, also held that hymns (especially in Eph 5:19) were synonymous with psalms. His point is that the hymns listed by Paul were inspired just as the psalms were.

This poses a big problem for contemporary proponents of singing uninspired hymns. Anyway, I blogged today just to clear up one of my own mistakes.