The Jews was, still is, chanting with melody, not singing with emotion.
Gill.
And when they had sung an hymn,… The “Hallell”, which the Jews were obliged to sing on the night of the passover; for the passover, they say (l), was טעון הלל, “bound to an hymn”.
This “Hallell”, or song of praise, consisted of six Psalms, the 113th, 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, and 118th (m): now this they did not sing all at once, but in parts.
Just before the drinking of the second cup and eating of the lamb, they sung the first part of it, which contained the 113th and 114th Psalms; and on mixing the fourth and last cup, they completed the “Hallell”, by singing the rest of the Psalms, beginning with the 115th Psalm, and ending with the 118th; and said over it, what they call the “blessing of the song”, which was Psa_145:10, &c., and they might, if they would, mix a fifth cup, but that they were not obliged to, and say over it the “great Hallell”, or “hymn”, which was the 136th Psalm (n).
Now the last part of the “Hallell”, Christ deferred to the close of his supper; there being many things in it pertinent to him, and proper on this occasion, particularly Psa_115:1, and the Jews themselves say (o), that חבלו של משיח, “the sorrows of the Messiah” are contained in this part: that this is the hymn which Christ and his disciples sung, may be rather thought, than that it was one of his own composing; since not only he, but all the disciples sung it, and therefore must be what they were acquainted with; and since Christ in most things conformed to the rites and usages of the Jewish nation; and he did not rise up from table and go away, until this concluding circumstance was over; though it was allowed to finish the “Hallell”, or hymn, in any place they pleased, even though it was not the place where the feast was kept (p) however, as soon as it was over.
Barnes
And when they had sung a hymn - The Passover was observed by the Jews by singing or “chanting” Ps. 113–118. These they divided into two parts. They sung Ps. 113–114 during the observance of the Passover, and the others at the close. There can be no doubt that our Saviour, and the apostles also, used the same psalms in their observance of the Passover. The word rendered “sung a hymn” is a participle, literally meaning “hymning” - not confined to a single hymn, but admitting many.
At the Passover meal itself, no, instruments were not used.
In the Temple, yes, instruments were used.
Those are two different locations with two different rules, and confusing them causes most of the modern misunderstandings.
Now the careful explanation.
In Second Temple Judaism, instrumental music was tied almost exclusively to the Temple cult, not to domestic meals. The Hebrew Bible consistently locates instruments in priestly, Levitical, and sanctuary contexts.
Psalm 150 is explicit about this setting, listing trumpets, harps, lyres, cymbals, and dance in a public, sacred space. Likewise, 1 Chronicles 15–16 and 2 Chronicles 29 describe Levites appointed to play instruments “before the LORD” in the Temple, under priestly oversight. Instruments were regulated, consecrated, and restricted.
By contrast, the Passover meal was eaten in homes, not in the Temple.
Exodus 12 mandates that the lamb be eaten “in houses,” and by the first century this was well established practice. Domestic worship was vocal and textual, not instrumental.
This distinction matters.
During the Passover sacrifice earlier that day, when the lambs were slaughtered at the Temple, the Levites did sing the Hallel with instrumental accompaniment. The Mishnah (Pesachim 5) describes this clearly. Trumpets and other instruments accompanied the Temple liturgy while the priests performed the sacrificial rites.
But once the meal moved into homes that evening, the instruments stopped.
At the seder, including the chanting of Psalms 113–118, the Hallel was rendered a cappella, through chant or responsorial recitation. No lyres. No flutes. No percussion. Just voices. This was not because instruments were evil, but because instrumental music belonged to the Temple, and the Temple had rules.
There is also a cultural layer here.
After the destruction of the First Temple, Jewish tradition increasingly associated instruments with Temple joy and refrained from them in ordinary or mourning contexts.
Even before 70 CE, restraint in domestic settings was already normative. Sound came from Scripture, not strings.
Now bring this back to the Gospels.
When Jesus and the disciples “hymned” at the conclusion of the Passover meal, they were in a private setting, late at night, preparing to leave for the Mount of Olives. There is no historical or textual basis for imagining instruments present. The Greek verb ὑμνέω does not imply instrumentation. It simply means to sing or chant praise.
So the reconstruction looks like this.
Temple sacrifice earlier in the day: chanting with instruments.
Passover meal at night: chanting without instruments.
Jesus and the disciples: unaccompanied psalmody, structured, sober, textual.
Which again puts distance between ancient practice and modern worship assumptions. No band. No background music. No emotional underscoring. Just Scripture on human breath, carried by memory and covenant.
Quiet. Heavy. Intentional.
No “heavy metal rock bands” and if you ever went to a shul…you will find ancient chanting, disciplined reverence, and text-centered worship, that’s what you will find.
J.
