Yaw-shah naw

The Origin of "Hosanna"

The term was used widely in the Hebrew Scriptures (see The Older Testament and Which Bible Did Jesus Use?), including this example from the Psalms which plainly describe both Jesus Christ and His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem that was still centuries in the future:

"I thank Thee that Thou hast answered me and hast become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This is The Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which The Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

"Save us, we beseech Thee [i.e. "hosanna"], O Lord! O Lord, we beseech Thee, give us success! Blessed be He who enters in the name of The Lord! We bless you from the house of The Lord. The Lord is God, and He has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar!" (Psalm 118:21-27 RSV)

The New Testament

"Hosanna" is best known by many from the Triumphal Entry:

"And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to The Mount Of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. If any one says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and he will send them immediately."

"This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass."

"The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on them, and He sat thereon. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of The Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

"And when He entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?"

"And the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee." [see Nazarene]

"And Jesus entered the Temple of God [see "My Father's House"] and drove out all who sold and bought in the Temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers."

"And the blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the Temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant; and they said to Him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast brought perfect praise'?" (Matthew 21:1-16 RSV)

Fact Finder: Who is the "daughter of Zion" referred to in the verses above?
See Daughter of Zion

This Day In History, August 30

30 BC: Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (see The Ptolemies), died. She is said to have committed suicide by allowing a poisonous snake to bite her.

1125: Lothair II, Duke of Saxony, was elected king of the Germans.

1782: The French fleet arrived in the Chesapeake Bay to aid the American Revolution.

1862: The Second Battle of Bull Run occurred during the U.S. Civil War.

1881: In Germany, Clement Ader patented the first stereophonic sound system.

1914: The Battle of Tannenberg, one of history's greatest military disasters, ended after the Russian Second Army lost 30,000 troops after being encircled by the Germans.

1940: Sir J.J. Thomson, the English physicist who discovered the electron in 1897, died at age 83. He was buried near Isaac Newton in the nave of Westminster Abbey.

1945: Hong Kong was liberated when the British navy under Rear Admiral Cecil Harcourt sailed into Victoria harbor to accept the Japanese surrender.

1963: A "hot line" link between the White House and the Kremlin went into operation, designed to reduce the risk of accidental nuclear war.

1973: Kenya banned the hunting of elephants and the trade in ivory.

1980: A 17 day strike at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, ended when union leader Lech Walesa signed an agreement with government negotiators.

1981: Iranian President Mohammad Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar were killed in a bomb blast at the prime minister's office in Tehran.

1982: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat abandoned his headquarters in Beirut following an Israeli military intervention into Lebanon.