The liturgical mystic expression is found
- in the Book of Tobias, xiii, 22; then
- in the Psalter; for the first time at the head of Psalm
civ according to the Vulgate and Septuagint arrangement, but at the end
of the previous psalm according to the Hebrew text as we have it; after
that at the beginning of psalms of praise, as a kind of inviting
acclamation, or at the end, as a form of glory-giving ovation, or at
the beginning and end, as for the last psalm of all; then
- in the New Testament, only in the relation of St. John's
vision of Divine service in Heaven as the worship-word of Creation
(Revelation 19).
In the old Greek version of the Book of Tobias, in the
Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew psalter, and in the original
Greek of the Apocalypse it is transcribed Allelouia. In accordance with that most ancient transcription, our Latin Vulgate gives it as Alleluia
in the Old Testament and in the New. Thus it was given in the earliest
Christian liturgies of which we have record. Yet, in place of it, for
liturgical use, by way of translation, the English Reformers put the
form of words we now find in the Protestant Psalter and Book of Common
Prayer. The revisors of the authorized Anglican version of the Bible
have used the form Hallelujah in the Apocalypse xix, 3. To
justify this form authors and editors of some recent English Protestant
biblical publications have adopted a new Greek form of transcription, Hallelouia, instead of Allelouia.
[See "New Testament in the Original Greek"; text revised by Westcott
and Hort (Cambridge, 1881), and second edit. of "The Old Testament in
Greek according to the Septuagint", by Sweete (1895). For change of
form, compare Smith's Dict. of the Bible (new edit., 1893) and
Hastings' Dict. of the Bible (1898-1904).] Alleluia, not Hallelujah, is the traditional Christian and proper English form of transcription. The accent placed as in our liturgical books over u marks its verbal analysis, as that clearly shows in the last line of the Hebrew Psalter: Allelu-ia. It is thus seen to be composed of the divinely acclaiming verbal form Allelu and the divine pronominal term Ia.
So, preserving its radical sense and sound, and even the mystical
suggestiveness of its construction, it may be literally rendered, "All
hail to Him Who is!"--taking "All Hail" as equivalent to "Glory in the
Highest," and taking "Who is" in the sense in which God said to Moses:
"Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel; WHO IS hath sent me to
you." As such, when was the expression introduced into the Hebrew
liturgy? -- Besides reasons proper to the text of the Psalter, and
those drawn from a purely philological consideration of the word
itself, the data of ancient Jewish and Christian tradition all point to
the conclusion that it belonged, as a divinely authorized doxology, to
the Hebrew liturgy from the beginning. As to when it was first formed,
there seems much reason for holding that we have in it man's most
ancient formula of monotheistic faith--the true believer's primitive
Credo, primitive doxology, primitive acclamation. That in part would
explain remarkable fondness for its liturgical use. As a rule she so
uses it wherever joy, consequently triumph or thanksgiving, is to be
emphatically expressed. As to the time of its use, in the Eastern
Church it is heard at all seasons of the year; even in Masses for the
dead, as it formerly was in the West. There, at present, in the Latin
Roman Rite, our own, according to St. Gregory's regulation referred to
in his Office, from Easter to Septuagesima it never leaves the Liturgy,
except for some passing occasion of mourning or penance, such as Mass
and Office for the Dead, in Ferial Masses during Advent, on the feast
of the martyred Holy Innocents (unless it fall on a Sunday), and on all
vigils which are fast days, if the Mass of the vigil be said. But it is
sung on the vigil of Easter (Holy Saturday) and on that of Pentecost,
because on each of those vigils, in early ages, Mass was said at night,
and so was regarded as belonging to the joyous solemnity of the
following day. During Eastertime it is the characteristic Paschal note
of varying parts of Mass and Office, constantly appearing at the
beginning and end, and even in the middle, of psalms, as an instinctive
exclamation of ecstatic joy. Calmet thus expressed the Catholic view of
its traditional import when noting (in Psalm civ) that the very sound
of the words should be held to signify "a kind ofacclamation and a form
of ovation which mere grammarians cannot satisfactorily explain;
wherefore the translators of the Old Testament have left it
untranslated and, in the same way, the Church has taken it into the
formulas of her Liturgy or of the people who use it at any time or
place what it may.
ALLELUIA IN GREEK LITURGIES
From the Temple, through the Coenaculum's alleluiatic
hymn of thanksgiving, the words passed into the service of the
Christian Church, whose liturgical language, like that of the
Septuagint and the New Testament, was at first, naturally, Greek. Of
course its essential character remained unchanged, but, as an emotional
utterance of devotion, it was profoundly affected by Christian
memories, and by the spirit of the Christian Faith. To its original
general significance was thus added a new personal sense as Paschal
refrain and, with that, among holy words, a mystic meaning all its own.
Even as a form of divine acclaim its force was intensified, the feeling
it evoked deepened, the ideas it suggested widened and elevated, and,
above all, purified under the spiritualizing influence of Christian
thought. As that thought's supreme expression of thanksgiving, joy, and
triumph, "Alleluia" assumed a wider and deeper, a higher and holier,
meaning than it earlier had in the liturgy of the Hebrew people. With
such supreme Christian significance it appears in the earliest portion
of the earliest liturgies of which we have written remains, in the
so-called "primitive liturgies of the East." These may be reduced to
four, called respectively, and in the supposed order of their
antiquity, those of St. Mark, St. James, St. Clement, and St.
Chrysostom. The last, now more commonly known as that of
Constantinople, is the normal liturgy of the Eastern Churches, used not
only by the "Orthodox", or Schismatic, but by the Catholic, or
"United", Greeks throughout the world. The Greek Liturgy of St. James
is still used by the schismatic Greeks at Jerusalem on his feast day,
and in its Syriac recension is the prototype of that of the Maronites
who are Catholics. That of St. Mark, apparently the most ancient of
all, is very often in verbal agreement with the Coptic Liturgy of St.
Cyril and other similar forms, notably that of the Catholic Copts. The
liturgy called that of St. Clement, though undoubtedly very ancient,
seems to have never been actually used in any Church, so may be here
passed over. Now, first glancing through the liturgy of St. Mark, as
presumably the most ancient, we find this rubric, just before the
Gospel: "Attend: the Apostle; the Prologue of Alleluia."--"The Apostle"
is the usual ancient Eastern title for the Epistle, which the "Prologue
of Alleluia" would seem to be some prayer recited by the priest before
Alleluia was sung by the choir or people. Then, for Alleluiatic anthem,
comes the somewhat later insertion known as the Cherubic hymn, before
the Consecration: "Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim, and
sing the holy hymn to the quickening Trinity, now lay by all worldly
cares, that we may receive the King of Glory invisibly attended by the
Angelic orders: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!" In the next most ancient
of these primitive Greek liturgies of the East, that known as the
Liturgy of St. James, we find the following rubric:
PRIEST: Peace be with all.
PEOPLE: And with thy Spirit.
SINGERS: Alleluia!
Further on, immediately after the Cherubic anthem above
noticed, there is the following beautiful invocation before the
Consecration,
PRIEST: Let all mortal flesh keep silence and stand with
fear and trembling and ponder naught of itself earthly; for the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, Christ our God, cometh forward to be sacrificed and to be given for food to the faithful;
and He is preceded by the Choirs of His Angels with every Dominion and
Power, by the many-eyed Cherubim and the six-winged Seraphim who
covering their faces sing aloud the Hymn: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Finally, in the ancient Greek Liturgy of Constantinople,
we find the word used, as acclaiming expression to a kind of chorus,
apparently intended to be repeated by the congregation or assistant
ministers, thus:
V. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the Name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
R. Save us, O Good Paraclete, who chant to thee Alleluia.
V. Send thee help from the Sanctuary; and strengthen thee out of Sion.
R. Save us, O Good Paraclete, who chant to thee Alleluia.
V. Remember all thy offerings; and accept thy burnt sacrifice.
R. Save us, O Good Paraclete, who chant to thee Alleluia.
Further on, when he choir has finished the Trisagion, we have the rubric:
DEACON: Attend!
READER: Alleluia!
The reading of the Apostle being concluded, the rubric gives:
PRIEST: Peace be to thee.
READER: Alleluia!
Then, when the catechumens have departed, after the
"prayers for the faithful" before the Consecration, we have the
Cherubic anthem, with its triple Alleluia for "Holy hymn to the
quickening Trinity" as above in the Liturgies of St. Mark and St.
James. These extracts will suffice to show that the word from the first
has been as it still is used in the liturgies of the East and in our
own day, a supreme form of Christian acclamation, or lyric cry, before,
in the middle, and at the end, of the versicles and responses, and
anthems and hymns. The only difference in regard to it between those of
the East and West is that in the former it is still, as it seems at
first to have been generally, used all through the year, even during
Lent, and in Offices for the dead, as the Christian cry of victory over
sin and death. Thus St. Jerome tells us it was sung at the obsequies of
his sister Fabiola. With a kind of holy pride, in his own strong way he
writes: "Sonabant psalmi et aurata temporum reboans in sublime
quatiebat Alleluia." (See Hammond's Ancient Liturgies.)
Written by T.J. O'Mahony. Transcribed by Donald J. Boon.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume I. Published 1907. New
York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy
Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop
of New York
