ALLELUIA

ALLELUIA. This Hebrew transliteration into many languages means “praise the Lord” (Yah being short for Yahweh or the Lord). As in the Roman mass, the alleluia sung with interspersed psalm verses precedes the Gospel reading in the liturgies (q.v.) of St. Joh n Chrysostom and St. Basil (q.v.). The singing of alleluia also precedes the troparia of matins during Holy Week. The recitation of alleluia during prayers occurs frequently, especially after psalm readings (kathismata) in the daily cycle of services (e.g., vespers, matins, hours). The definition in Webster’s Third International Dictionary, which includes the statement, “an expression of humble mourning in the Eastern Orthodox Church,” can only be taken as a misunderstanding, probably a result of the liturgical setting of alleluia funerary tones. If the context of any liturgical occurrence is closely examined, one finds that alleluia can never be a lament, but can only mean “praise the Lord,” and is commensurately understood as such by the Orthodox.

Historically, in the singing of alleluia the movement of the music (q.v.) focuses on the last, most important syllable, which is as it should be, since this syllable is an abbreviated form of the divine name. In the Russian tradition another syllable (ee) has been added before “Yah,” since the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew (ia = yah) was not understood to be a diphthong by the Church Slavic translators of the 9th and 10th centuries. The mistake is occasionally repeated in modern translations from Church Slavic (or Russian) into English.