Hosanna

Hosanna, the cry of praise or adoration shouted in recognition of the Messiahship of Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem (Matt. xxi. 9, 5; Mark xi. 9 sq.; John xii. 13), and since used in the Christian Church.

It is also a Jewish liturgical term, and was applied specifically to the hosanna branches carried in procession in the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, the seventh day of which was called the Hosanna-day (so also in Syrian usage; cf. Palm Sunday).

This festival (for which see Lev. xxiii. 39 sqq.; 2 Macc. x. 7; Jos. Ant. xii. 10. 4, Xiii. 13. 155 and the Talmudic tractate Sukkah) already suggested a Dionysiac celebration to Plutarch (Symp. iv. 6), and was associated with a ceremonial drawing of water which, it was believed, secured fertilizing rains in the following year; the penalty for abstinence was drought (ci. Zech. xiv. 16 seq.).

The evidence (see further Ency. Bib. cols. 3354, 4880 seq.; I Levy, Rev. des El. juives, 1901, pp. 192 sqq.) points to rites of nature-worship, and it is possible that in these the term Hosanna had some other application.

The old interpretation "save, now!" which may be a popular etymology, is based on Ps. cxviii. 25 (Heb. hOshVah-nna), but this does not explain the occurrence of the word in the Gospels, a complicated problem, on which see the articles of JH Thayer in Hastings's Dict. Bib., and more especially TK Cheyne, Ency. Bib. s.v.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.