GRADUAL, PSALMS. - Fifteen Psalms (119-33 according to the Vulgate; 120-34 according to the Hebrew) that form a short collection of their own, inserted in Book V of the Psalter. The name derives from the Latin translation (canticum graduum) of the title šir hamma'ālōth, which should rather be translated "song of the ascents" or "of the goings up."

So far no sure explanation, accepted by all, has been offered for this strange expression. Some, having regard to the use of the Hebrew verbal root to describe the return from exile, hold that the S. G. were composed or sung on that auspicious occasion. Others see in the term a reference to the custom of singing them in the Temple on the "steps" that led from the court of the women into that of the Israelites. Some moderns, moreover, have wished to discern in the title an indication of the poetic genre of the poems, in which a "gradation" or "progressive concatenation" of ideas would be noted. The most probable hypothesis is still the one that explains the name as a reference to the custom of singing these S. during the annual pilgrimages, while the Israelites "went up" to Jerusalem or made their way to the Temple mount.

Bibliography

BIBL.: S. Garofalo, Il Salterio del Pellegrino, Brescia 1950.

Angelo Penna

@incollection{ec6_graduali_salmi, author = {Penna, Angelo}, title = {Graduali, salmi}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {986--987}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/graduali-salmi} }

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Gradual, Psalms

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