References to music occur in New Testament texts that are concerned with the raising of the dead or with the Lord’s return.
The bulk of supernatural and eschatological references to music have to do with the trumpet sound of the Lord at the raising of the dead (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16) or the gathering of the elect (Matt. 24:31). They are extensions of the many associations of musical sounds accompanying specific acts of God that appear throughout the Old Testament. The ultimate instances of this are found throughout Revelation, in which the final, cumulative acts in history are announced by trumpet sounds and where singing seems to be a part of the eternal round of praise to be rendered to God. If any light can be gathered from these eschatological passages it would be that the literary style of the utterances (as well as other poetic utterances in the Epistles) would give a clue to the style of the composed and spontaneous texts that were actually sung by the new church.
In addition to the foregoing, a few passages mention music in a metaphorical way, such as 1 Corinthians 13:1, in which lovelessness is equated with sounding brass or tinkling cymbals (kjv). This passage has caused some critics to draw the conclusion that there is some prejudice against instrumental music in Paul’s thinking, if not in the church itself. This seems a bit flimsy in view of Paul’s directness and outspokenness in cases where he felt a vital principle was at stake. The Corinthian passage is too oblique to be considered this way.