Hosanna

In the Hebrew ceremonies, a prayer which they rehearsed on the several days of the feast of tabernacles. It signifies, "save us now;" or "save us, we pray." There are divers of these hosannas; the Jews call them hoschamoth, 1: e. hosannas. Some are rehearsed on the first day, others on the second, &c. which they call hosanna of the first day, hosanna of the second day, &c. Hosanna Rabba, or Grand Hosanna, is a name they give to their feast of tabernacles, which lasts eight days; because during the course thereof, they are frequently calling for the assistance of God, the forgiveness of their sins, and his blessing on the new year; and to that purpose they make great use of the prayers above mentioned. The Jews also apply the terms hosanna rabba in a more peculiar manner to the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles, because they apply themselves more immediately on that day to invoke the divine blessing, &c.

The Hebrews read it Hoshiah - na. The meaning is, "Save me, I beseech you;" from Jahash, to save; and Na, I pray you. It is hardly necessary to tell the reader, that it was with this salutation the multitude hailed Christ, in his public entrance into Jerusalem, five days before his death. The prophet Zechariah had predicted of the Messiah, that he should so come; and none but Christ ever did so. (Compare Zech. ix. 9. with Matt. xxi. 1 - 11.) It was prohesied also by David, that "prayer should be made for him continually." (Ps. lxxv, 15.) And here we find the unceasing cry Hosanna, which is a form of blessing and prayer included; as if they had said, "Preserve, Lord, this son of David! And the spreading of their garments in the way, and strewing the road with branches of trees, were all figurative of laying every thing at the feet of Jesus. The feats of Tabernacles was so celebrated, to denote holy joy in the gathering in all the Lords blessings; and some have thought, that this feast was particularly typical of this entry of the Lord Jesus; for it is somewhatremarkable, that at this feast they carried branches, which they called Hosannas. I cannot dismiss the consideration of this article, without subjoining one thought more, to remark the conduct of the Jewish children upon this occasion. For what but a divine overruling power could have produced such an effect, that in the moment their fathers, and the scribes and pharisee’s were moved with indignation, those little children should join the Redeemer’s train, and mingle their infant voices in the Hosanna of the multitude!And the reader will not overlook in this account, I hope, how thereby that blessed prophecy was fulfilled, and which Jesus himself explained and applied. "Have ye never read, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" (Matt. xxi. 16. Ps. 8. 2.)

“Save, I beseech thee,” or, “Give salvation,” a well known form of blessing, Mat 21:9; Mat 21:15; Mar 11:9-10; Joh 12:13.

Hosan´na a form of acclamatory blessing or wishing well, which signifies, Save now! Succor now! Be now propitious! It occurs in Mat 21:9 (also Mar 11:9-10; Joh 12:13)—’Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!’ This was on the occasion of our Savior’s public entry into Jerusalem, and, fairly construed, would mean, ’Lord, preserve this Son of David; heap favors and blessings on Him!’ It is further to be observed that Hosanna was a customary form of acclamation at the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast was celebrated in September, just before the commencement of the civil year; on which occasion the people carried in their hands bundles of boughs of palms, myrtles, etc. They then repeated Psa 118:25-26, which commence with the word Hosanna; and from this circumstance they gave the boughs, and the prayers, and the feast itself, the name of Hosanna. They observed the same forms also at the Encaenia (2Ma 10:6-7; 1Ma 13:51; Rev 7:9) and the Passover. And as they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with great joy and gladness, in like manner, on this occasion, did they hail the coming of the Messiah, whose advent they believed to be represented in all the feasts.

A word of joyful acclamation in Hebrew, signifying save now. The people cried Hosanna as Jesus entered in triumph into Jerusalem; that is, they thus invoked the blessings of heaven on him as the Messiah, Mat 21:9 . This was also a customary acclamation at the joyful feast of tabernacles, in which the Jews repeated Psa 118:25,26 .\par

Hosanna. (save now). "Save, we pray!", the cry of the multitudes, as they thronged in our Lord’s triumphal procession into Jerusalem. Mat 21:9; Mat 21:15; Mar 11:9-10; Joh 12:13.

The Psalm from which it was taken, Psalms 118, was one with which they were familia, r from being accustomed to recite the 25th and 26th verses, Psa 118:25-26, at the Feast of Tabernacles, forming a part of the great hallel. Psalms 113-118.

"Save we pray": the multitude’s cry at Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mat 21:9; Mat 21:15; Mar 11:9-10; Joh 12:18). Taken from Psalm 118, which they were wont to recite at the feast of tabernacles in "the great Hallel" (Psalm 113-118), in responses with the priest, while they waved willow and palm branches with rejoicings. The seventh or last day of the feast was called "the Great Hosanna." The boughs too were called hosannas. They often transferred the joyous usages of this feast to other occasions of gladness, as that of our Lord’s approach in triumph to His capital. Feasts, on the prophetic significance of the Hosanna cry and the feast of tabernacles which is especially associated with consummated salvation). Heb 9:28; Rev 7:9-10; Israel shall join the Hosanna cry and say, "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Luk 19:38; Luk 13:35; Psa 118:25-26; Isa 12:1-3). (See FEASTS.)

Hosanna, save, we beseech! The exclamation with which Christ was greeted at his last entry into Jerusalem. Mat 21:9. It is a Hebrew phrase, known in earlier times and taken from Psa 118:25, which was recited as a part of the Great Hallel, Psa 113:1-9; Psa 114:1-8; Psa 115:1-18; Psa 116:1-19; Psa 117:1-2; Psa 118:1-29, at the feast of tabernacles, and which was therefore familiar to the Jews.

[Hosan’na]

This word, which is the same in the Greek, is considered to be a compound of two Hebrew words, and signifies ’save now,’ as in Psa 118:25. In the N.T. the sense appears to be ’bestow blessing.’ "Bestow blessing on the Son of David: bestow blessing [O thou who art] in the highest." Mat 21:9; Mar 11:9-10; Joh 12:13.

HOSANNA (הוֹשענא, Gr. ὡσαννά).—One of the Hebrew words which (like , Hallelujah, Sabbath, Sabaoth) have passed, transliterated and not translated, from the vocabulary of the Jewish to that of the Christian Church. In the NT it occurs only in three Gospels: in them it is found six times (Mat 21:9; Mat 21:15, Mar 11:9-10, Joh 12:13), but only in the history of our Lord’s triumphant entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and only as a vocal cry uttered, either by the palm-bearing multitude who met Him, or by the children who hailed Him thereafter in the Temple (Mat 21:15). Among the Jews, however, the word came to designate not alone the cry, but also the of palms, myrtle, or willow which on their joyous feast of Tabernacles, and especially on its seventh day, the people were accustomed—for the Law did not enjoin this ceremony—to carry in procession with the priests to the fountain of Shiloah and thence again to the Temple, where these ‘hosannas’ were piled up and beaten against the altar. It is only with ‘Hosanna’ as a cry that we are here concerned; but we cannot forget that when, in honour of our Lord, the multitude raised the cry, they ‘took branches of palm trees’ (Joh 12:13) as well; and therefore, besides expounding the meaning of the cry, we must consider how a ceremony customary at the feast of Tabernacles came to be adopted, popularly, on an occasion when the worshippers were assembling at Jerusalem to celebrate a feast of a widely different character, that of the Passover.

Philologically, the word Hosanna is explained as a derivation from or contraction of Psa 118:25 (Heb.): ânnâ Jahweh hôshî‘âh-nnâ (‘I beseech thee, O Lord, save now’). This Psalm was sung, and this verse of it used as a refrain by the people, at the feast of Tabernacles; and the refrain was abbreviated, through constant popular repetition, into Hôshaʽnâ, just as the old Canaanitish cry Hoi Dod (= ‘Ho Adonis’) was turned into a common interjection, Hedad.

The vocal ‘Hosanna’ was used by the Jews at the feast of Tabernacles when the branches also were employed; and on this account it has been asserted by Mr. Lewis N. Dembitz (in the Jewish Encyc. vol. vi. p. 276, s.v. ‘Hoshana Rabbah’) that ‘the Gospels by a mistake place the custom in the season shortly before the Passover, instead of in the feast of Booths.’ To this it may be answered, (1) that, according to another writer in the same Encyclopedia, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler (vol. vi. p. 272), Hosanna ‘became a popular cry used in solemn processions wherewith was connected the carrying of palm branches as described in 1Ma 13:51 and 2Ma 10:7.’ But (2) the procession in 1Ma 13:51 was not at the feast of Tabernacles, which was kept on the 15th day of the 7th month (Lev 23:34), but at a wholly different season, ‘on the three and twentieth day of the second month’; while the celebration in 2Ma 10:7, though ‘the procession was after the manner of the feast of Tabernacles’ (v. 6), was somewhat later in the year. Thus there was historical and uninspired (for the Jews did not hold the Books of Maccabees to be inspired) precedent for the employment both of the palm-bearing and the shout on other suitable occasions besides the feast of Tabernacles. And (3) was not the occasion of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem one that must have seemed eminently suitable alike to His disciples who began it (Luk 19:37) and to the candid (Mat 21:15) and grateful (Joh 12:17) Israelites who joined them in the celebration of it? The Jews, we know, were accustomed to associate with the feast of Tabernacles the highest of those blessings which Messiah was to bring. It was as Messiah that Jesus now presented Himself. He had chosen to ride that day upon the ass’s colt, in accordance with Zechariah’s prophecy (Zec 9:9), just on purpose to make an offer of Himself to Jerusalem as her promised King (Mat 21:4, Joh 12:14). What, accordingly, would the people look for at His hands? What would they ask from Him? Salvation; but salvation not on its negative side alone, of deliverance, but on its positive side as well, of fruition. If the approaching feast of the Passover would remind them of the former, how their Egyptian oppressor had been smitten (Exo 12:29), it was the feast of Tabernacles which pre-eminently supplied illustrations of the latter: its branches and its booths were redolent of that first night of freedom which their fathers had enjoyed under the cool booths of Succoth (Exo 12:37). so refreshing after the dust and heat of the brickfield and the furnace. Both sides—the negative and the positive, the smiting and the booths—were in one chapter (Exodus 12): they could hardly remember the one without the other. The form, therefore, which the celebration of our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem is described by the Four Evangelists as assuming, is not such as to require us to suppose that they made a mistake in placing it at the season of the Passover. On the contrary, it was neither unprecedented nor unnatural; and the fact that it was not a legally prescribed but only a popular ceremony, left them quite free to use it when they thought fit. It is not as if the Evangelists had transferred the unleavened bread of the Passover to the Feast of Tabernacles.

Hosanna is rendered in both Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 (cf. Psa 118:25, whence it is taken) ‘Save now.’ The now is not here an adverb of time, but an interjection of entreaty, as in ‘Come now’: the word means ‘Oh! save’ (Jewish Encyc.), or ‘Save, we beseech Thee.’ As given (1) absolutely, as in Mar 11:9 and Joh 12:13, the natural meaning of this would be an address to Christ, as Messiah, asking Him to bestow the salvation expected of Him; or, as our English hymn expresses it, ‘Bring near Thy great salvation.’ We can understand how, in this sense, ‘Hosanna’ should be followed by salutations or acclamations, ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord (Psa 118:26, Mat 21:9, Mar 11:9), ‘Blessed is the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord’ (Mar 11:10), or ‘Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord’ (Joh 12:13). All the different forms may have been used, for there was a multitude of speakers. The sequence of the thoughts is natural: for if Jesus be once conceived of as able to save (either by His own power or by that of Him that sent Him), the next thing, obviously, for His people to do, after asking Him to exert His power in their behalf, is to rejoice that He has come, and to bless Him for coming.

But (2) it is not only in this absolute construction that the Evangelists use the word Hosanna. St. Matthew employs it with a dative, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ (Mat 21:9); and both St. Matthew and St. Mark give us ‘Hosanna in the highest.’ Both these variations have been censured by Dr. Kaufmann Kohler (Jewish Encyc. l.e. supra) as ‘corruptions of the original version’: the addition ‘in the highest,’ he declares to be ‘words which no longer give any sense.’ But in a connexion which seems to justify St. Matthew, the dative is used alike in the OT (Psa 3:8 ‘Salvation belongeth unto the Lord’) and in the NT in a passage based upon that Psalm (Rev 7:10 ‘Salvation unto our God; and unto the Lamb’); while there is surely nothing ‘senseless’ in the thought that the salvation which God gives, or sends, to men should fill the highest heaven with rejoicings in His praise. We have the idea in the OT (e.g. Psa 8:1) and in the NT (Luk 2:14, Eph 3:10). To some Christian commentators, however, and those of no mean weight,—e.g. Cornelius à Lapide and Dean Alford,—St. Matthew’s use of Hosanna with the dative has seemed to render requisite a different interpretation of the word. Hosanna was, says Alford (on Mat 21:9), ‘originally a formula of supplication, but [became] conventionally [one] of gratulation, so that it is followed by a dative, and by “in the highest,”—meaning “may it also be ratified in heaven,”—and he cites 1Ki 1:36, where Benaiah answers David, saying, ‘Amen: the Lord, the God of my lord the king, say so too.’ Cornelius à Lapide takes ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ as a prayer for Christ, offered by the people ‘asking all prosperous things for Him from God.’ Now, this would, in itself, be admissible enough. Of Messiah, even when thought of as Divine and reigning, the Scripture says, ‘prayer also shall be made for him continually’ (Psa 72:15). But it seems unnatural to postulate so violent an alteration in the meaning of the word—from ‘supplication’ to ‘gratulation,’ when, taken in its original meaning, it yields a sufficient sense: ‘Save now, for it is to thee, O Son of David, that the power to save us has been given.’ It was not unnatural that the people should speak in this sense: as Jews they knew already that ‘salvation belongeth unto God’ (Psa 3:8). This view derives considerable confirmation from the parallel passage in the Apocalypse, where the whole scene in ch. Psa 7:14, and even the very words—‘the multitude before the throne and before the Lamb … with palms in their hands’ (Rev 7:9, cf. Joh 12:13), who cry with a loud voice (cf. Luk 19:37), saying, ‘Salvation to our God … and to the Lamb’—seems to be based on what happened at Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday; as if the Seer were beholding the salvation come which that day was asked, and recognized that the palm-bearers of the earthly Jerusalem were precursors of the hosts of the redeemed. St. John, it will be remembered, has, in his Gospel (Joh 12:16), the remark, ‘These things understood not his disciples at the first, but after he was risen they remembered,’ etc. If, as seems clear, the vision is expressed in figures drawn from that event, then the acclaim in heaven must be held to settle the meaning of those Hosannas upon earth: the dative of the Apocalypse is the dative of the Gospel: it is the dative not of a prayer for Jesus, but of an ascription of salvation to Him as its Mediator and Bestower.

It remains only to be added that the Third Evangelist, while recording the same Triumphal Entry, and mentioning the acclamations of the people, omits alike the palm-branches and the word ‘Hosanna.’ The explanation, no doubt, of both omissions lies in the fact that St. Luke wrote especially for Gentiles: his readers would not have understood the Hosanna, and would have misunderstood the palms. To Greeks the palm-branch would have been, inevitably, the palm of pride and victory: not, as to the Hebrew mind, an emblem of peaceful rest, and freedom, and household joy. ‘Hosanna’ would have meant nothing at all. Therefore the Evangelist to the Greeks paraphrases the word, and paraphrases with it St. Matthew’s and St. Mark’s addition to it, ‘in the highest’; rendering the whole by ‘Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest’ (Luk 19:38). And, as St. Matthew had the dative of ascription, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’—as looking for salvation to Him who had come to Jerusalem in this capacity; so St. Luke, in his paraphrase of the Hosanna, employs what we may call a dative clause: his ‘Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest,’ are introduced so as to show us these as the result of Christ’s coming as King in the name of the Lord: it is for these ends that He has come; and on this account the people call Him blessed. It was for these ends that He was born: wherefore the angels sang the same strain over Him at His Nativity (Luk 2:14); it is for these ends now that He paces forward to His cross: and therefore men, though as yet they understand it not (Joh 12:16), are moved, by a Power they know not, to bear Him record.

Literature.—Art. ‘Hosanna’ in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible and in Encyc. Bibl.; Jewish Encyc, loc. cit.; Milligan, Com. on Gospel of St. John and Revelation; Westcott, St. John’s Gospel; Cornelius à Lapide, Neale and Littledale, and Perowne, on Psalms 118.

James Cooper.

( = "Oh, save!"):

By: Kaufmann Kohler

The cry which the people of Jerusalem were accustomed to raise while marching in procession and waving branches of palm, myrtle, and willow in the joyous Sukkot festival, especially on the seventh day, when the willow-branches of the "lulab" procession were piled up and beaten against the altar (Suk. iii. 9, iv. 5). The willow-branch thus received the name "hosha'na" (Suk. 30b, 31a, 34a, 37a, b, 46b); and the seventh Sukkot day was called "Day of Hosha'na" or "Hosha'na Rabbah." It was a popular festival, of ancient, probably Canaanitish, origin, connected with the prayer for the year's rain (Zech. xiv. 8-17); the multitudes accompanied the priests each night of the Sukkot feast to the spring of Shiloah, where the water for the libation ("nissuk ha-mayim") was drawn amidst great solemnity and rejoicing (Suk. v. 1-4), while the last day formed the climax of the festivities. "Anna Adonai hoshi-'ah-nna" (Ps cxviii. 25), the refrain of the psalms recited by the assembly, was, probably owing to constant repetition, abbreviated by the people into "Hosha'na," just as the old Canaanite cry "Hoi Dod" ("Wo Adonis") was turned into a common interjection, "Hedad." Thus "Hosha'na" became a popular cry used in solemn processions where with was connected the carrying of the palm branches as described in I Macc. xiii. 51 and II Macc. x. 7.

According to John xii. 13 (in the Sinaitic codex), which has the story preserved in its original form, the same cry was raised by the multitude on the occasion of Jesus' arrival at Jerusalem. They "took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord"—that is, the verse following "Anna Adonai hoshi'ah-nna" in the Hallel psalm— and then called him "the King of Israel." Luke (xix. 38), writing for the Gentiles, omits the palm-branches and the Hosanna cry, and changes the Biblical verse into "Blessed be the King, that cometh in the name of the Lord," while adding the Messianic salutation of the angels in the birth story, "Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." Mark (xi. 8-10) combines the two versions, and changes the words of Luke into "Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh. . . . Hosanna in the highest," the closing words of which no longer give any sense The same is the case with the words "Hosanna to the son of David" in Matt xxi. 9, "Hosanna in the highest" being a corruption of the original version. The Psalm verses recited have been interpreted by the Rabbis also as referring to the advent of the Messiah (see Midr. Teh. to Ps. cxviii. 17, 21, 22; comp. Matt. xxi. 42).

Wünsche ("Erläuterungen der Evangelien aus Talmud und Midrasch;" p. 241) thinks that the Passover and the Sukkot festivals have been confounded by the Gospel narrator (see also Festivals). It is noteworthy that the Easter week in the Syrian Church received the name "Shabbeta de-Osha'na" (= "Hosanna week"; Bar Hebræus, "Chronicle," quoted by Geiger in "Wiss. Zeit. Jüd. Theol." 1836, p. 417).

HOSANNA (=‘O save’!).—An acclamation used by the people on Palm Sunday in greeting Jesus on His last entry into Jerusalem, and afterwards by the children in the Temple (Mat 21:9; Mat 21:15). It occurs six times in the Gospels (all in the connexion above noted).

The expression, which has preserved its Hebrew form (like ‘Amen’ and ‘Hallelujah’), was originally (in Hebrew) a cry addressed to God ‘Save now’! used as an invocation of blessing. When the word passed over (transliterated into Greek) into the early Church it was misunderstood as a shout of homage or greeting = ‘Hail’ or ‘Glory to.’

The simplest form of the Palm Sunday greeting occurs in Mar 11:9 and Joh 12:13 ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,’ which really was the cry of the people. The additions that occur in the other passages (‘Hosanna to the son of David,’ Mat 21:9; Mat 21:15, and ‘Hosanna in the highest,’ Mat 21:9, Mar 11:10) seem really to be later amplifications due to misunderstanding of the real meaning of ‘Hosanna.’ The Hosanna cry (cf. Psa 118:25 f.) and the palm branches naturally suggest the Feast of Tabernacles, when the people used to raise the cry of ‘Hosanna,’ while marching in procession and waving branches of palm, myrtle, and willow. The great occasion for this was especially the 7th day of the Feast, when the Hosanna processions were most frequent. Hence this day was early designated ‘Day of Hosha‘na’ [Hosanna], and the lulab branches then used also received the same name. It was the greatest of popular holidays, probably the lineal descendant of an old Canaanitish festival, and still retains its joyous character in the Jewish Festival calendar (Hosha‘na Rabba).

It is not necessary, however, to suppose, with Wünsche (Erläuterungen der Evangelien aus Talmud und Midrash, p. 241), that a confusion has arisen in the Gospel accounts of Palm Sunday between Tabernacles and Passover. Such processions were not peculiar to Tabernacles. They might be extemporized for other occasions of a joyous character (cf. 1Ma 13:51, 2Ma 10:7), and this was the case in the scene described in the Gospels.

In its transliterated form the word ‘Hosanna’ passed over into early liturgical (esp. doxological) use (cf. e.g. Didache 10:6 ‘Hosanna to the God of David’), as an interjection of praise and joy, and was developed on these lines. The early misunderstanding of its real meaning was perpetuated. But the history of this development lies outside the range of purely Biblical archaeology.

G. H. Box.

(Hebrew: hoshi’a na, save me)

Exclamation of joy. Its origin is traced to the 117th Psalm, which was recited daily by a priest in the procession around the altar during the Feast of Tabernacles, when the people were commanded to rejoice before the Lord (Leviticus 23), and on the seventh day it was recited in each of the seven processions. When verses 25 and 26 were said, the trumpet sounded, and the people waved branches of palms and myrtle, and shouted the words with the priest. Hoshi’a na was repeated so often that it became abbreviated into hosanna; the feast being an occasion for rejoicing, hosanna and palm-branches became associated with joy. In the Mass it is said twice during the Sanctus at the end of the Preface, and is sung at High Mass by the choir; also during the distribution of palms and the solemn procession on Palm Sunday, in imitation of the reception Our Lord received on entering Jerusalem before His seizure and Passion.

"And the multitudes that went before and that followed, cried, saying: Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest" (Matthew 21:9; cf. Matthew 21:15, Mark 11:9-10, John 12:13). Thayer’s contention in Hastings’ "Dict of the Bible" that the word hosanna was derived from Psalm lxxxvi, 2, does not seem to have much to support it. The general opinion is that of St. Jerome, that the word originated from two Hebrew words of Psalm cxvii (cxviii), 25. This psalm, "Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus", was recited by one of the priests every day during the procession round the altar, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when the people were commanded to "rejoice before the Lord" (Leviticus 23:40); and on the seventh day it was recited each time during the seven processions. When the priest reached verses 25-26, the trumpet sounded, all the people, including boys, waved their branches of palms, myrtles, willows, etc., and shouted with the priest the words: "O Domine, salvum (me) fac; o Domine, bene prosperare. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini!" The Hebrew for salvum fac or serva nunc was hoshi’a na. This was repeated so frequently that it became abbreviated into hosanna; the seventh day of the feast was called the Great Hosanna; and the palm-branches of willow, myrtles, etc., received the name of hosannas.The Feast of Tabernacles was a season of great rejoicing, and it was a saying amongst the Jews that those who had not witnessed it did not know what joy meant. In this way hosanna became associated with rejoicing. The same has to be said of the use of palm-branches. In I Mach., xiii, 51-52, we read: "And they entered. . . with thanksgiving, and branches of palm-trees, and harps, and cymbals, and psalteries, and hymns, and canticles, because the great enemy was destroyed out of Israel; and he ordained that these days should be kept every year with gladness." In II Mach., x, 6, 7: "And they kept eight days with joy, after the manner of the feast of tabernacles." On these occasions hosanna was, doubtless, exclaimed in tones of joy and triumph. Like all acclamations in frequent use it lost its primary meaning, and became a kind of vivat or hurrah of joy, triumph, and exultation. It is clear from the Gospels that it was in this manner it was uttered by the crowd on Palm Sunday. St. Luke has instead of hosanna in excelsis "peace in heaven and glory on high".It was with this indefinite meaning that the word hosanna passed, at a very early date, into the liturgies of the Church; a position which it has ever since retained both in the East and the West. It is found in the "Didache", and the "Apostolic Constitutions". Eusebius (H.E., II, xxiii), quoting the account given by Hegesippus of the death of St. James, has: "And as many as were confirmed and gloried in the testimony of James, and said Hosanna to the Son of David", etc. St. Clement of Alexandria says it meant "light, glory, praise". St. Augustine (in 2nd Lesson for Saturday before Palm Sunday) says: "Vox autem obsecrantis est, hosanna, sicut nonnulli dicunt qui hebraeam linguam noverunt, magis affectum indicans, quam rem aliquam significans, sicut sunt in lingua latina, quas interjectiones vocant." (According to some who are versed in Hebrew, hosanna is a word of supplication, used like the interjections in Latin, to express feeling and other than to signify a thing.) In every Mass the word hosanna is said twice during the Sanctus at the end of the Preface. It is sung by the choir at high Mass. It is also repeatedly sung during the distribution of the palms, and the solemn procession on Palm Sunday. We gather from St. Jerome (Matthew 21:15) etc. that the faithful, in some places, were accustomed to salute bishops and holy men with cries of hosanna. Modern Jews have a procession of palm-branches, in the synagogue, every day during the Feast of Tabernacles, in September, while prayers called hosannas are recited. The joyous character of the festival receives its fullest expression on the seventh day, the popular name of which is the Great Hosanna (Hosha’na Rabba) (Oesterley and Box, "Religion and Worship of the Synagogue", and the Mishna tract Sukkah, III, 8).----------------------------------- See Dictionaries of Vigouroux, Smith, Kitto, Hastings; St. Jerome, Ep. xx (Reply to Pope Damasus); Idem, Comm. in Matt., xxi, 9, 15; Bingham, Antiquities, XIV, ii, 5. C. AHERNE Transcribed by Sandra Lamprecht The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

hō̇-zan´a (ὡσαννά, hōsanná): This Greek transliteration of a Hebrew word occurs 6 times in the Gospels as the cry of the people when our Lord entered Jerusalem as the Messiah represented by Zec (Pro 9:9), and of “the children” when He cleansed the temple (Mat 21:9 bis, 15; Mar 11:9 f; Joh 12:13). In Mat 21:9 it is “Hosanna to the son of David!” followed by “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!”; in Mat 21:15 it is also “Hosanna to the Son of David!”; in Mar 11:9 f it is “Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Blessed is the kingdom that cometh, the kingdom of our father David: Hosanna in the highest”; and in Joh 12:13 it is “Hosanna: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Thus in all the evangelists it is an acclamation or ascription of praise. This has raised the question whether the supposed derivation from Psa 118:25, beginning with ’ānnāh YHWH hōshı̄‛āh nnā’, “Save now, pray” (which is followed (Psa 118:26) by “Blessed be he that cometh (the Revised Version margin “or entereth”) in the name of Yahweh”) is correct. (See Thayer, HDB; Cheyne, EB; Dalman, Words of Jesus.) Various other explanations have been suggested. Thayer remarks, “It is most natural to regard the word Hosanna, as respects its form, as neither syncopated nor contracted, but the shorter Hiphil imperative with the appended enclitic” ‛hōsha‛nā’; compare Psa 86:2; Jer 31:7), for which there is Talmudic warrant. “As respects its force, we must for ... contextual reasons, assume that it had already lost its primary supplicatory sense and become an ejaculation of joy or shout of welcome.” It is said to have been so used in this sense at the joyous Feast of Tabernacles, the 7th day of which came to be called “the Great Hosanna,” or “Hosanna Day.” But, while the word is certainly an ejaculation of praise and not one of supplication, the idea of salvation need not be excluded. As in Rev 7:10 (compare Rev 19:1), we have the acclamation, “Salvation unto God ... and unto the Lamb,” so we might have the cry, “Salvation to the son of David”; and “Hosanna in the Highest,” might be the equivalent of “Salvation unto our God!” He who was “coming in the name of the Lord” was the king who was bringing salvation from God to the people.

Originally the word ‘Hosanna’ was a combination of parts of two Hebrew words that meant ‘save’ and ‘pray’. When the word was joined to the name of God, Yahweh, the expression became both a prayer and an exclamation of praise: ‘Save us, O Lord’.

The Hebrew form of the word occurs only once in the Old Testament, in Psalms 118. The scene is one of triumph, as Israel’s king enters the temple for a public ceremony of praise to God for a recent victory in battle. His entrance is followed by a shout of ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’, accompanied by the waving of palm branches, as the people welcome their victorious king (Psa 118:25-27). ‘Hosanna’ later became an expression of praise in expectation of the great Saviour-Messiah.

In the New Testament the word is used in a setting similar to that of Psalms 118. When people in Jerusalem welcomed Jesus as their Saviour-Messiah, they shouted praises of ‘Hosanna’ and waved palm branches. By going direct to the temple, Jesus showed that his messiahship was concerned chiefly with spiritual issues, not political. In the temple also he was greeted with shouts of ‘Hosanna’, and again Jesus accepted the praise. He was indeed the promised Messiah (Mat 21:1-17; Joh 12:12-15; see MESSIAH).