1 Corinthians 14:7,8

“Even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds..., how shall it be known what is piped or harped? 8. For, also, if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?”

If the sound of instruments is to furnish to the ear an intelligible and significant melody, it must be subject to the laws of tone and rhythm, to the intervals of scale and measure. The adverb ὅμως, which stands first, should not be confounded with ὁμῶς or ὁμοίως, likewise; it signifies: however; so Galatians 3:15, where it applies to the word ἀνθρώπου, of a man: “The covenant of a being who after all (however) is only a man.” So here this adverb, as Hofmann well observes, bears on the word ἄψυχα, inanimate: “Instruments, which after all are only inanimate beings, are also subject to this law of being intelligible only by means of the distinction of sounds.” How much more human language, which is the expression of intelligent thought! It is therefore by no means necessary to apply this ὅμως, as Meyer does, to the participle φωνὴν διδόντα : “Though, however, giving a sound.” This meaning does not agree so well with the position of the adverb.

The pipe and the harp represent, the one wind instruments, the other stringed instruments; they were the two principal instruments which the ancients used in worship and in sad or joyful ceremonies.

How shall it be known: “How shall one apprehend the air, and know whether he should weep, dance, etc.?”

Vv. 8. The trumpet itself, whose sounds are yet so powerful, is subject to the same law. Its signals are not understood except on condition of being distinct. This example is added to the foregoing hence the also; and it confirms them hence the for. The word πόλεμος, war, is here taken, as often, in the restricted sense of battle. What follows, 1 Corinthians 14:9, may be regarded either as the application of the examples quoted, to the gift of tongues, or as a new example borrowed from human speech in general. We shall have to decide between these two interpretations.