1)  Yes -- in that part of the world, at that time, caves were often used as stables -- a place to protect horses and mules -- among other things.  Cave are nice and cool, and require minimum labor to seal against the elements and dangerous wildlife (animal or human).

2)  Yes, short hair and beardless are health issues -- they hide fewer parasites and are much easier to clean.  Also, Jesus was Semitic, and did not look like a European with a tan.  

Here are three interesting bits of information I learned this week:

(1) Baby Jesus was, in all likelihood, born in a cave, not a manger in a stable.

(2) Jesus did not look like a hippie and was short, as most men were at the time, unlike today's man. As was the Jewish custom, Jesus had very little facial hair, and short cropped hair. He would probably have been around 5'1".

(3) The KJV of the Bible is inaccurate, as in its use of the word "dulcimer."

It's been a tough week.

It may be that the biblical translators were just thinking of this term generically.  The two words of which the word "dulcimer" is composed are dulce (sweet) and melos (melody), thus indicating some kind of a musical instrument that makes a sweet sound or melody.  Just a suggestion.

Biblical scholars tell us that "dulcimer" is a mis-translation. The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible contains this list: "horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum." There is no evidence that the "translators" of the King James Version of the Bible used any ancient manuscripts as a source. Their task was to put the Bible into an understandable English rendition of the scriptures. The NRSV, the NKJV, NIV and other "newer" translations use older and more reliable source manuscripts. There is no archaeological evidence for a mountain dulcimer-like instrument in the time of Daniel (400-100 B.C.E.). There are some depictions of hammered dulcimer type instruments during that time period. I realize that this is a brief and simplistic statement of a complex issue. It would take more time than I have at the moment to go in to the nuances of biblical translation, reliability of manuscripts, and biblical archaeology to do justice to this discussion. My point is that we do a gross injustice to lead people to think that people in the middle East in 400-100 B.C.E. knew of or even played a dulcimer-like instrument.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Yes, perhaps you guys are right. But we don't know for sure. It doesn't read, hammered dulcimer. It doesn't read, bagpipe. It reads, dulcimer. I'm going with 1 or 2 stringed dulcimer.

Interesting, to say the least.

Well at least we can say that we play an instrument with one of the oldest names for musical instruments.

My understanding, Terry, is that what is referred to as a "dulcimer" in the Book of Daniel was probably closer to a bagpipe than the fretted zither that you and I play, which has much more recent origins, as we know.  The KJV was an English translation from Aramaic and Hebrew, so to really investigate specifically what instrument was meant by the term, we'd need to know those languages.

There are a handful of references to something called a "dulcimer" in literature, but again, our lap dulcimer was probably not what the authors had in mind.

One of the most well known is Samuel Tayler Coleridge's "Kubla Khan":

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssianian maid

And on her dulcimer she played

Singing of Mount Abora.

 

--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator

As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie

Yes the term "dulcimer" was used in the KJV, it was a very popular instrument when that translation was written. (Hammer dulcimer)

DAN

The dulcimer.  One of the world's oldest instruments.

I have read or heard several times that the dulcimer is written about in the Bible.  But never could find it, as the NKJ only uses the word harp.  However, I got my hands on my wife's deceased brother's very old KJV.  

Sure enough,in Daniel, chapter 3, tis written 3 times the word dulcimer.  It doesn't say mountain or lap dulcimer, just dulcimer.  

It tickled me to discover this today.  Now, with authority,  I can state, "I play one of the world's oldest music instruments known to humankind."

Just thought I would share this very special information.

updated by @terry-wilson: 12/08/18 08:03:14PM