What is hallelujah in church terminology?

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Hallelujah! Many people pronounce this word without even thinking about its meaning. What does hallelujah really mean? So they say when they want to emphasize gratitude to God for a safe way out of the current problem, whether it be a crisis or illness, problems in the family or at work.

Praise God in the Psalms of the Bible

Beginning and ending the service in the temple, the clergyman sings a solemn song and says: "Hallelujah!" And what is it? This word came from the Aramaic language and remained untranslated, as well as "amen", which means "so be it." It does not have a literal translation, and the meaning can be understood by reading the Psalms, where praise to God is used more than 24 times. Almost every Psalm begins with this word, and ends with it.

According to the Jewish interpretation, this word can be divided into two: hallelujah and I. The first would mean "praise" and the second would mean "Yahweh" (God). Now it becomes clear what hallelujah means. This is the cry "Givepraise God”: “praise God in song, praise God with your life, praise God with thanksgiving, praise God in obedience.”

The majestic exclamation has many translations. These are “Praise the Lord”, “Be blessed, Lord”, “Great is our God”, “Thanks be to God” and many others.

Hallelujah in Orthodoxy

To understand what “hallelujah” is in Orthodoxy, it is enough to attend a service in a church. At the mention of the Holy Trinity, the priest says "Hallelujah!" three times, praising and ex alting the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Especially significant Liturgies accompanying the Small Entrance, the reading of the Gospel, Communion, cannot be imagined without the majestic Hallelujah. When emphasis is placed on what the service is dedicated to, say “Praise God.”

The all-night vigil is repeatedly interrupted by praise. The inexhaustible power of the word "Hallelujah" gives hope to the righteous to get into the New Heaven and the New Earth, to get into the Eternal Kingdom. It, like a golden thread, runs through all Scripture, through all prayers and praises to God, as a confirmation of faith in the greatness of the Triune God.

The last book of the Bible, Revelation, also praises God through the apostle John, who was taken to Heaven and heard a voice saying, “Hallelujah! The Lord God is the Almighty King!”

Many theologians believe that God himself commanded that two words, "hallelujah" and "amen", be left untranslated in order to emphasize their divinity, so that people would more oftenthought about what it means.

"Hallelujah" as the cause of the split of the church in the 15-17th centuries

Until the 15th century, people in the Orthodox Church sang, but did not think about what “Hallelujah” was. The meaning of the word remained mysterious. The conciliar letter sent by the Pskov clergy was sent to the metropolitan. The reason for the argument was to sing "Hallelujah!" once or thrice. The year 1454 was a turning point, when Euphrosynus of Pskov went to the great Constantinople to get an answer to the question of what “hallelujah” is and how many times it should be sung. The Monk Euphrosynus claimed that he received the answer from the Mother of God herself, and it was necessary to sing purely, that is, once.

In 1551, during the Stoglavy Cathedral, the singing of the double "Hallelujah" was introduced. In the 17th century, the Greek churches were already singing the triple or triple Hallelujah. Not wanting to lag behind the Greek Church, the innovation was picked up by Russian Patriarch Nikon.

1656 was the year of the appearance of the Old Believers in Russia, who did not accept Nikon's innovations. They considered the hallelujah and baptism with three fingers to be heresy. After the Great Moscow Council, held in 1666, the strict "Hallelujah" was finally banned.

Prayer and praise to God

The believer's daily prayer should also begin and end with praise to God, then the person in repentance thanks him for the gift of faith, for the promises of the forgiveness of sins. "Hallelujah" in prayer means that God is always with us, He leads us through life, and we are grateful to Him. Every believer should figure out what hallelujah means.

This word is a hymn of love, faith, hope. It is sung when thanking God for the promise of eternal life. Even in death there is joy to be found, for the promise of the resurrection from the dead brings the joy of meeting Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit in Heaven.

Hallelujah of love - praise of eternal love on earth

What is the hallelujah of love? A song with this name became a love anthem more than 30 years ago, when the rock opera Juno and Avos was first performed. At that time, the time of the pro-communist Soviet Union, any mention of God was punished, it was forbidden to baptize children, it was forbidden to openly visit temples, and the appearance of a scandalous rock opera blew the minds of the townsfolk.

The opera "Juno and Avos" was written on the basis of real events, but shrouded in the grandeur of temple hymns, emphasizing that real love is under the protection of the Mother of God herself. And for 30 years now, the undying hymn "Hallelujah of Love" has been sounding.

A true story of eternal love

"Juno" and "Avos" - the name of two sailboats, which sailed the handsome nobleman Nikolai Ryazanov, a favorite of Catherine the Great herself. From the age of 14, having devoted his life to a military career, the stately military man did not come to court and, as a result of intrigues, was sent to the Irkutsk region, where he married the rich Anna Shelikhova. However, this marriage was not blessed by Heaven, the count's wife dies young, Ryazanov is sent to Japan. Then he ends up in Petropavlovsk, and from there he goes to California, where he buys the Yunona and Avos ships with his own money.

Here, the 15-year-old daughter of the commandant Conchitta conquers the heart of the warriors. Love flares up between them, but a real barrier arises: Ryazanov was Orthodox, Conchitta was Catholic. The count goes to Russia to get a marriage license, but dies on the way.

Tender Conchita remained true to her first love, every morning she went to the stone cape, looked at the ocean and waited for her betrothed, and when she found out about his death, she went to the monastery, where she spent a long 50 years. This is the story that gave birth to the rock song “Hallelujah of Love.”