www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Scripture and Patristic Writings Isaiah and the Hymn of Victory: Palm Sunday Cometh Soon!

In the Byzantine Liturgy, we sing the following Hymn of Victory at the conclusion of the Preface to the Anaphora:

“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.”

This Victory Hymn is actually a combination of two events, Isaiah's Heavenly Vision and the Gospel accounts of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus our Lord into Jerusalem. I wish to do a "survey' of this Hymn as it relates to its biblical sources, including some liturgical connections.

In Isaiah 6:1b-4, we read about the heavenly vision:

“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, IS THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE WHOLE EARTH IS FULL OF HIS GLORY." And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

This serves as a primer to Byzantine Liturgy. This proclamation is also found in Revelation 4:8:

“And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."”

Notice that John's image was not of six-winged Seraphims, but of four “living creatures”. This is an interesting twist to the Isaiah imagery of the Heavenly Vision. John states previously what those four creatures were:

“In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.” (Rev 4:6-7)

Ireneaus and Augustine both write that those four living creatures represented the Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Does the Byzantine Church agree with them? To get the answer we don't have to go far. We see these images (icons) of four living creatures in the Byzantine Temple, namely on the Royal Doors of the Iconostasis. Check out the following links for:

Matthew: http://www.orthodox.clara.net/hd_matthew.htm
Mark: http://www.orthodox.clara.net/hd_mark.htm
Luke: http://www.orthodox.clara.net/hd_luke.htm
John: http://www.orthodox.clara.net/hd_john.htm

What doors are these icons found? What was the significance of replacing “Seraphim” (angels) with “living creatures” in Revelation?

For additional study, check out this link:
http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/faculty/fjust/Evangelists_Symbols.htm

So what happened to the Seraphim in Isaiah's Vision? The answer to that will be found simply by looking up to the pendentives that support the Dome of a traditional Byzantine Temple. They are usually up there looking down on you … so smile!

“The Byzantine Rite inherited from Jewish worship the liturgical use of the Tersanctus and produced three significantly different variants of it: (1) The acclamation “Holy, holy holy, Lord Sabaoth, heaven[and earth are full of your glory. Hosannah in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the Lord's name. Hosannah in the highest.” This, as in the Latin Rite, concludes the preface of the anaphora, (2) the Trisagion, “Holy God, holy Strong, holy Immortal, have mercy on us”, which forms a part of the opening prayers of many offices and is sung solemnly before the scriptural readings in the Divine Liturgy, and (3) the Hagios Kyrios sung at the Pasa Pnoi at Sunday Matins.” [taken from http://arimathea.co.uk/heavl.htm ]

An interesting article on the Heavenly Liturgy according to the Byzantine Tradition can be found at: http://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/CARTS/Liturgy/Abstracts/Sept01.html#Melling

The term “Lord of Hosts” is found around 250 times in the prophetic writings, 15 to 17 times in the Psalms, and nineteen times in the History books of the Old Testament. It was a common title given to God. For:

“'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel'; and may the house of Your servant David be established before You.” (2 Samuel 7:26)

There is a lot of connection between the house (oikos) of the LORD, or Temple, and the house or kingdom that will reign forever. Unfortunately, David dies and the Temple is later destroyed. Yet, David's “house” lives on (Cf. the genealogies in the Infancy Narratives of Matthew and Luke) and that “forever” (i vo viki vikov) is Jesus, which is understood in the Triumphal Entry accounts. See an earlier thread on the Root of Jesse in how that “forever” will unfold:

https://www.byzcath.org/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=000025

Isaiah 6:2 and Revelation 4:8, both being visions so divine, lead us up to the singing of the Hymn of Victory in the Anaphora. Here, the celebrant prays:

“… even though there stand before You thousands of archangels, myriads of angels, Cherubim and SERAPHIM, SIX WINGED, MANY-EYED, SOARING ALOFT ON THEIR WINGS …”

The context of the Anaphora stays within an “angelic” context. There are no “living creatures” mentioned. But isn't this typical of the Byzantine Liturgy and the Apocalypse of John? We don't proclaim John's text in Church but his imprint is there nonetheless. We are given the number by St. John Chrysostom as being “thousands of archangels” and “myriads of angels.”

Here again the liturgy recalls the words of Daniel that come between his Vision of the Four Beasts and the Coming of the Son of Man:

“THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS were attending Him, And MYRIADS upon MYRIADS were standing before Him.” (Dan 7:10)

And also in the Apocalypse of John:

“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was MYRIADS of MYRIADS, and THOUSANDS of THOUSANDS …” (Rev 5:11)


Then we sing the Hymn of Victory. It is actually made up of our Isaiah passage: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.” … and something more: “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” Now this gets interesting as we compare the Gospels:

Matthew writes:
“Hosanna to the Son of David, BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" (Mt 21:9b)

Mark writes:
"Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!" (Mk 11:9b-10)

Luke writes:
“BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" (Lk 19:38)

John writes:
“Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; even the King of Israel” (Jn 12:13b)

All four Evangelists quote Psalm 118:26 (“Blessed is he … Lord!&#8221) , but each casts the words of the crowd differently. Matthew and Mark mention “our father David” or the “Son of David” in their proclamation and John simply mentions the “King of Israel.” These references are not to be found in any of the Prefaces to Christian Anaphoras except for the Chaldeans. We can see that our liturgical use omits the Davidic reference and only keeps the exclamation, “Hosanna in the Highest!”

Also in our Byzantine Liturgy, the Great Entrance has a rich history of interpretation regarding angels and kings. In the priestly prayers before the procession, the celebrant prays thus:

“… You alone, O Lord our God, rule over all things IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH, and are borne on the CHERUBIC throne, and are the Lord of the SERAPHIM and KING OF ISRAEL, Who alone are HOLY and dwell in the saints.”

We can hear sound-bites from the Hymn of Victory in this priestly prayer though it is taken silently. Angels, angels everywhere! Even on the orarion of the deacon is usually written the words “Holy, Holy, Holy!” See the following website of the icon of St. Stephen, the first deacon with the one of the three words “Agios” or “Holy” written on his orarion:

http://www.saintstephens.on.ca/images/icon_small.jpg

“The orarion … is a long, narrow strip of cloth, not cut in any particular way, which was usually decorated with crosses or the opening words of the angelic Epinikios Hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy". In the Postbyzantine period its decoration was enriched with representations of cherubim, angels or saintly deacons.”

[This quote is taken from http://www.culture.gr/2/21/215/21505/215051/2150513/e21505119m.html ]

Isaiah is always in our face at the Byzantine Liturgy! We can't escape the Fifth Evangelist. He will be with us this coming Sunday as we celebrate the Feast of the Triumphal Entry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into Jerusalem (a.k.a. “Palm Sunday&#8221) . I hope this has been a spiritually enriching Great Fast.


Cantor Joe Thur
Deacon-student

[ 03-25-2002: Message edited by: J Thur ]

Dear Joe,

I've enjoyed the threads here, even though I haven't really done much in the way of participation. This thread, however, makes me itch to respond.

In the Byzantine Liturgy, we sing the following Hymn of Victory at the conclusion of the Preface to the Anaphora:

Let's not forget the Syrian Liturgy, which influenced others. :p We keep that angelic context which you described, and then some. Here's the preface to the Anaphora of Saint James, Archbishop of Jerusalem, Apostle and Martyr:


Unfortunately, when this hymn is sung in church, it sounds to me more of a drone-like singing rather than a hymn of victory. I can hardly decipher the words.

But sometimes I wonder if they can decipher the words in heaven? Like, when people cheer things here on earth, you can't always understand what they're saying, but you know it's good...maybe heaven's that way too?

The Holy, Holy, Holy is not only sung during the Liturgy, but is also intoned at the beginning of all prayers after the Sign of the Cross is made. If I may make a comparison, it is in the place in our Introductory Prayers that your "Heavenly King" prayer occurs in your Introductory Prayers. And it is there all the time. In that sense, our Liturgy and the Office don't waste time gradually easing you into heaven; they catapult you there.

This week, in the Syrian calendar, is the Week of Hosanna. The prayers from Monday to Thursday centre on Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It is, in our Liturgy, an event happening continuously during the week (like the reverse of an Octave in the Latin rite), as we sing in the hymns:


and these are esp. for you, Joe, since you've made Isaiah our new friend...


and yet again...


and lastly,


Isaiah thus has an important place in our preparation for the events of Holy Week.

Don't know how much of this is relevant or adds something new to talk about...mostly this is just a bunch of observations from our tradition. And some quotes from hymns about our new best friend.

How could I forget this?!

You mentioned the different versions in the different Gospels about what the people said:


During the Blessing of Palms on Palm Sunday in our tradition, there is a procession commemorating the Triumphant Entry. Hymns are sung, bells are rung, incense is swung (pardon the rhyme ), and the atmosphere is very jubilant. The passage about the Entry from all four Gospels is read. When these "cheers" are read by the priest, they are cheered out triumphantly by the congregation three times, in each of the different versions. What makes it even more colourful is that whenever the word "Hosanna" is cried out, two deacons throw into the air a large handful of flower petals. It's really quite awesome to behold.

Mor Ephrem,

Thank you for sharing your experience from the Syrian liturgy. It is always welcomed. The bit about the flowers being thrown after each Hosanna is quite interesting. Where did that come from?

Joe

Joe,

I'm not sure where the flowers came from. All I know is that Palm Sunday, because of the flowers and everything else, is one of the most beautiful and joyful Sundays of the year...second only to Pascha.

Mor Ephrem,

I forgot to thank you for the Isaiah quotes - and yes they are relevant. He seems to be everywhere! When we hear Isaiah we hear the Fifth Evangelist. When we do "awake" to this reality his words stand out loud and clear.
We can't understand the Gospels if we don't listen to the OT first. It all connects.

Joe