ALLELUIA. – A Jewish religious acclamation (“Praise the Lord”), adopted into the Christian liturgy.
1. IN THE BIBLE
The expression Hallēlā-Jāh is composed of two words: hallēlā, imperative of hillēl, “to praise” (with a sense of jubilation), and Jāh, an abbreviation of Jahweh (the Lord). The versions have preserved it in its original form (Septuagint: 'Αλληλούζα; Vulgate: Alleluia).It occurs in the last two books of the Psalter, at the beginning or end of the psalms. In the Hebrew text, eight psalms (106, 113, 135, 146-50) have a double a., initial and final; two psalms (111 and 112) have it only at the beginning; and five (104, 105, 115-17) only at the end. In the Septuagint, according to the Alexandrian codex, there is only the initial a.; according to the Vatican and Sinaitic codices, however, the last psalm (150) also has the final one. The Vulgate follows the Septuagint, but has a double a. in the last four psalms (147-50). St. Augustine calls the psalms containing the a. alleluiatici (In Ps. 105, n. 1; PL 37, 1404). The psalms preceded by a. in the Septuagint and the Vulgate number twenty (104-106; 110-18; 134, 135, 145-50): cf. Cassiodorus, In Ps. 105; PL 70, 753.
It has the value of a brief doxology (cf. Ps. 106, 48 Hebr.): the short psalm 117 (Vulg. 116) constitutes a kind of commentary upon II. In psalms 135, 3 and 147, 1 (Hebr.) it belongs to the text of the hymn, and is rightly translated in the Versions (Septuagint: Αἰνεῖτε τὸν Κύριον; Vulgate: Laudate Dominum). In the other cases the a. is a purely liturgical addition, with an antiphonal character: it probably indicates—not so much the subject matter (cf. Cassiodorus, In Ps. 104; PL 70, 742)—the sacred purpose of the psalms themselves. An allusion to this solemn liturgy of the Temple may be seen in Apoc. 19, 1-6.
It soon assumed the character of a festive acclamation, as a synthesis of the religious sentiment of the chosen people (cf. Tob. 13, 22 [Gr. 18]), in which the a. is presented as the triumphant song of the new Jerusalem; so in Apoc. 19, 1-6; cf. also the apocryphal III Macc. 7, 13, where the entire people cries out a.). It was therefore regarded both as a choral song (cf.
Ps. 106, 48 Hebr.)—especially as a refrain in the Alleluia psalms—and as the song of the soloist: in the latter case it must have had a more florid melody.
Outside the psalms, it occurs in the Bible only in Tob. 12, 22 and Apoc. 19, 1-6. However, cf. I Par. 16, 36, where it would seem that David introduced the twofold acclamation into the liturgy: Amen, Alleluia. – V. AMEN; HALLEL.
2. IN THE LITURGY
It is very probable that the Jewish acclamation had already been introduced into the primitive Christian liturgy. An echo of it is found in the visions of John’s Apocalypse (19, 4) and in the Odes of Solomon from the middle of the second century, almost all of which end with a. In this case we may suppose that it passed into the Church not only as a liturgical formula but also as a melody. The inbilus, that is, the melismatic song, which is especially characteristic of Alleluia melodies and of which the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries speak with such emotion (Augustine, in Ps. 99; in Ps. 32; Jerome, in Ps. 32; Cassiodorus, in Ps. 104), must in substance be regarded as a musical legacy of the Synagogue. In the time of St. Augustine, the a. had become the popular song of the faithful. At Bethlehem, in the monastery founded by St. Paula, the virgins were summoned to common activities by the a.; with it the farmers guided the plough; the boatmen made the shores resound with it (Sidonius Apollinaris, Ep. 10); even the soldiers, in the war against the Saxons and Picts (around 440), put the enemy to flight at the cry of the a. (Bede, Hist. eccl., I, 20). The a. was regarded as a holy word that instilled comfort amid the sorrows of earthly exile: “ad solatium viatici dicimus Alleluia” (Augustine).In the strictly liturgical sphere, the a. was soon chosen as the ritual expression of Christian jubilation that bursts forth in the solemnity of Easter and from there spreads to all the other feasts of the year. A papyrus from Fayyum, which informs us about the practices of the Alexandrian Church in the third century, provides evidence of this. Rome must originally have adopted the a. first for the feast and octave of Easter; then, in the time of Pope Damasus (366-84), it extended it to the entire Easter season of fifty days (the period from Easter to Pentecost): this gave rise to Vigilantius’s polemics. At that time, however, many churches, according to St. Augustine (Ep. 55, 17), also sang the a. outside the Easter season. “Ut alleluia per illos solos dies quinquaginta in ecclesia cantatur, non usquequque observatur. Nam et aliis diebus varie cantatur alibi atque alibi; ipsis autem diebus (that is, during the fifty days of the Easter season) ubique.” Later, the Roman Church under St. Gregory (d. in 604) finally conformed to common usage and introduced the a. into all Masses of the year, except during Lent and in the Office of the Dead. St. Gregory, writing to John of Syracuse about this innovation of his, alludes to an intended difference from the Greek Church, which he had eliminated. What this difference was, we do not know. It is certain, however, that the Byzantines admitted the a. even during Lent and in the funeral liturgy. In the conception of the ancient Church, the a. was indeed an expression of joy, but of a wholly spiritual kind, entirely compatible with death, the birthday of the Christian soul to blessed life. Rome, in fact, like all the ancient Eastern and Western liturgies, once had the custom of singing the a.
in the rites for the dead: St. Jerome expressly attests this (Ep. 77).
From the early Middle Ages, before discontinuing the a. on the vigil of Septuagesima, the Latin liturgy used to bid it an almost farewell with an antiphon or even an Alleluia Office, in which the a. was repeated innumerable times. At present it is content to add it twice to the Benedicamus Domino of Vespers. Then, when in the Mass of the Easter night, after the reading of the Epistle, the a. returns triumphantly, sung three times by the celebrant and the choir, it is announced as follows: Admonitio vobis, reverendissime Pater, gaudium magnum, quod est Alleluia!