ALLELUIA. - A Hebrew religious acclamation ("Praise the Lord"), which passed 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, 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 at the 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) only at the beginning; and five (104, 105, 115-17) only at the end. In the Septuagint, according to the Alexandrian codex, only the initial a. is found; however, according to the Vatican and Sinaitic codices 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 with the a. alleluiatic (In Ps. 105, n. 1; PL 37, 1404). The psalms preceded by a. in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate are twenty (104-106; 110-18; 134, 135, 145-50): cf. Cassiodorus, In Ps. 105; PL 70, 753.
It has the value of a small doxology (cf. Ps. 106, 48 Heb.): the brief psalm 117 (Vulg. 116) constitutes a kind of commentary on it. In psalms 135, 3 and 147, 1 (Heb.) it belongs to the text of the poem, rightly translated in the Versions (Septuagint: Αἰνεῖτε τὸν Κύριον; Vulgate: Laudate Dominum). In the other cases the a. is a pure liturgical addition, with an antiphonal character: it probably indicates - more than the subject (cf. Cassiodorus, In Ps. 104; PL 70, 742) - the sacred destination of the psalms themselves. An allusion to such a solemn liturgy of the Temple can 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 [Gk. 18]), in which the a. is given as the triumphal song of the new Jerusalem; thus in Apoc. 19, 1-6; cf. also the apocryphal III Macc. 7, 13, where the whole people cries out a.). It was therefore considered, both as a choral song (cf.
Ps. 106, 48 Heb.) - especially as a refrain in the Alleluia psalms - and as a soloist's song: and in this 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 it was David who introduced into the liturgy the twofold acclamation: Amen, Alleluia. - v. AMEN; HALLEL.
Bibliography5 works
Igno Cecchetti
2. IN THE LITURGY
It is very probable that the Hebrew acclamation was already 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 of the mid-2nd century, which almost all end with a. In that case we could hold that it passed to the Church not only as a liturgical formula, but also as a melody. The inbilus, that is, the melismatic chant, which is above all characteristic of the alleluia melodies, and of which the Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries speak with such emotion (Augustine, in Ps. 99; in Ps. 32; Jerome, in Ps. 32; Cassiodorus, in Ps. 104), must be considered in substance as a musical legacy of the Synagogue. At 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 the common acts with the a.; the farmers guided the plough with it; the boatmen made the shores resound with it (Sidonius Apollinaris, Ep. 10); even the soldiers, in the war against the Saxons and the Picts (around 440), put the enemy to flight with the cry of the a. (Bede, Hist. eccl., I, 20). The a. was regarded as a holy word that instills comfort in the sorrows of earthly exile: "ad solatium viatici dicimus Alleluia" (Augustine).
In the strictly liturgical field the a. was soon chosen as the ritual expression of the Christian jubilation that bursts forth in the solemnity of Easter and from this is reflected upon all the other feasts of the year. A papyrus from Fajum, which informs us about the uses of the Alexandrian Church in the 3rd century, provides us with a proof of it. Rome in origin must have adopted the a. first for the feast and octave of Easter; then, at the time of Pope Damasus (366-84), it extended it to the whole paschal quinquagesima (the time from Easter to Pentecost): which gave occasion to the diatribes of Vigilantius. At this time, however, there were many churches, according to St. Augustine (Ep. 55, 17), that sang the a. even outside the paschal 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, in the 50 days of the paschal season) "ubique". Later, even the Roman Church under St. Gregory (d. 604) ended by conforming to the common use and introduced the a. into all the Masses of the year, except for the season of Lent and the office of the dead. St. Gregory, writing to John of Syracuse about this innovation of his, hints at a deliberate difference with the Greek Church, which he has eliminated. What it was we do not know. It is certain, however, that the Byzantines admitted the a. even in Lent and in the funeral liturgy. The a., moreover, in the conception of the ancient Church, was indeed an expression of joy, but entirely spiritual, which was perfectly reconciled with death, the birthday of the Christian soul to the blessed life. Rome in fact, with all the ancient liturgies both Eastern and Western, once had the custom of singing the a.
in the funeral rites: St. Jerome expressly attests it (Ep. 77).
The Latin liturgy since the early Middle Ages, before giving up the a. on the eve of Septuagesima, used to give it almost a farewell with an antiphon or even an alleluia office, in which the a. was repeated innumerable times. At present one is content to add it twice to the Benedicamus Domino of Vespers. When then in the Mass of Easter night, after the reading of the Epistle, the a. returns in triumph, sung three times by the celebrant and the choir, it is announced thus: Admonitio vobis, reverendissime Pater, gaudium magnum, quod est Alleluia !