Alleluia

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Theliturgical mystic expression is found

In the old Greek version of the Book of Tobias, in theSeptuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew psalter, and in the original Greek of the Apocalypse it is transcribedAllelouia. In accordance with that most ancient transcription, ourLatin Vulgate gives it asAlleluia in theOld Testament and in the New. Thus it was given in the earliestChristian liturgies of which we have record. Yet, in place of it, forliturgical use, by way of translation, theEnglishReformers put the form of words we now find in theProtestantPsalter andBook of Common Prayer. The revisors of theauthorized Anglican version of the Bible have used the formHallelujah in the Apocalypse xix, 3. To justify this form authors and editors of some recentEnglish Protestant biblical publications have adopted a new Greek form of transcription,Hallelouia, instead ofAllelouia. [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, notHallelujah, is the traditionalChristian and proper English form of transcription. The accent placed as in ourliturgical books overu marks its verbal analysis, as that clearly shows in the last line of the HebrewPsalter:Allelu-ia. It is thus seen to be composed of the divinely acclaiming verbal formAllelu and the divine pronominal termIa. 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 whichGod said to Moses: "Thus shalt thou say to thechildren 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 thePsalter, and those drawn from a purely philological consideration of the word itself, the data of ancient Jewish andChristian tradition all point to the conclusion that it belonged, as a divinely authorizeddoxology, 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 ofmonotheisticfaith--thetrue believer's primitive Credo, primitivedoxology, primitive acclamation. That in part would explain remarkable fondness for itsliturgical use. As a rule she so uses it whereverjoy, consequently triumph or thanksgiving, is to be emphatically expressed. As to the time of its use, in theEastern 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 LatinRoman Rite, our own, according toSt. Gregory's regulation referred to in his Office, fromEaster toSeptuagesima it never leaves the Liturgy, except for some passing occasion of mourning or penance, such asMass andOffice for the Dead, in Ferial Masses duringAdvent, on the feast of themartyredHoly 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 ofEaster (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 thejoyous solemnity of the following day. During Eastertime it is the characteristic Paschal note of varying parts ofMass andOffice, constantly appearing at the beginning and end, and even in the middle, of psalms, as an instinctive exclamation of ecstaticjoy.Calmet thus expressed theCatholic view of its traditional import when noting (in Psalm civ) that the very sound of the words should be held to signify "a kind of acclamation and a form of ovation which mere grammarians cannot satisfactorily explain; wherefore the translators of theOld Testament have leftit untranslated and, in the same way, theChurch 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 alleluiatichymn of thanksgiving, the words passed into the service of theChristian Church, whoseliturgical language, like that of theSeptuagint and theNew Testament, was at first, naturally, Greek. Of course its essential character remained unchanged, but, as an emotional utterance of devotion, it was profoundly affected byChristian memories, and by the spirit of theChristian 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, theideas it suggested widened and elevated, and, above all, purified under the spiritualizing influence ofChristian 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 supremeChristian significance it appears in the earliest portion of the earliestliturgies of which we have written remains, in the so-called "primitiveliturgies of the East." These may be reduced to four, called respectively, and in the supposed order of their antiquity, those ofSt. Mark, St. James,St. Clement, andSt. Chrysostom. The last, now more commonly known as that of Constantinople, is the normal liturgy of theEastern Churches, used not only by the "Orthodox", or Schismatic, but by theCatholic, or "United", Greeks throughout the world. The Greek Liturgy of St. James is still used by theschismatic Greeks atJerusalem on hisfeast day, and in its Syriac recension is the prototype of that of theMaronites who areCatholics. 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 theCatholicCopts. 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 thisrubric, 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 someprayer recited by thepriest before Alleluia was sung by the choir or people. Then, for Alleluiatic anthem, comes the somewhat later insertion known as the Cherubichymn, before the Consecration: "Let us who mystically represent theCherubim, and sing theholyhymn to the quickening Trinity, now lay by all worldly cares, that we may receive the King of Glory invisibly attended by theAngelic orders: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!" In the next most ancient of these primitive Greekliturgies of the East, that known as the Liturgy of St. James, we find the followingrubric:

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 ourGod, cometh forwardto be sacrificed andto be given for food to the faithful; and He is preceded by the Choirs of HisAngels with every Dominion and Power, by the many-eyedCherubim and the six-wingedSeraphim 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 assistantministers, thus:

V. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the Name of theGod of Jacob defend thee;
R. Save us, O GoodParaclete, who chant to thee Alleluia.
V. Send thee help from the Sanctuary; and strengthen thee out of Sion.
R. Save us, O GoodParaclete, who chant to thee Alleluia.
V. Remember all thy offerings; and accept thy burnt sacrifice.
R. Save us, O GoodParaclete, who chant to thee Alleluia.

Further on, when the choir has finished theTrisagion, we have therubric:

DEACON: Attend!
READER: Alleluia!

The reading of the Apostle being concluded, therubric gives:

PRIEST: Peace be to thee.
READER: Alleluia!

Then, when thecatechumens have departed, after the "prayers for the faithful" before the Consecration, we have the Cherubic anthem, with its triple Alleluia for "Holyhymn 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 theliturgies of the East and in our own day, a supreme form ofChristian acclamation, or lyric cry, before, in the middle, and at the end, of the versicles and responses, and anthems andhymns. 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 duringLent, and in Offices for the dead, as theChristian cry of victory oversin and death. ThusSt. Jerome tells us it was sung at the obsequies of his sister Fabiola. With a kind ofholypride, in his own strong way he writes: "Sonabant psalmi et aurata temporum reboans in sublime quatiebat Alleluia." (See Hammond's Ancient Liturgies.)

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