Honanna is rendered in both AV and RV (cf. Ps 118'^ whence it is taken) 'Save now.' The •now is not here an adverb of time, but an inter- jection of entreaty, as in ' Come now ' : the word means ' Oh ! save' (Jewish Encyc), or 'Save, we beseech Thee.' As given (I) absolutely, as in Mk 11' and Jn 12'', the natural meaning of this would be an address to Christ, as Messiah, asking Him to bestow the salvation expected of Him ; or, as our English hymn expresses it, ' Briim near Thy great salvation. We can understand liow, in (liis sense, 'Hosanna' should be followed liy sahitations or acclamations, 'Blessed is he that idiiu'tli in the name of the LORD' (Ps IIS^", Mt 21", Mk IP), ' Blessed is the kingdom of our father David, that Cometh in the name of the Lord' (Mk 11'°), or ' Blessed is the King of Israel that coraeth in the name of the Lord' (Jn 12'»). All the diflerent forms may have been used, for there was a multi- tude of speakers. The sequence of the thoughts is natural : for if Jesus be once conceived of as able to save (either by His own power or by that of Him that sent Him), the next thing, obviously, for His people to do, after asking Him to exert H is power in their behalf, is to rejoice that He has come, and to bless Him for coming.
But (2) it is not only in this absolute construction that the Evangelists use the word Ho.innnn. St. Matthew employs it with a dative, ' Hosanna to the Son of David' (Mt 219) . ^nd both St. Matthew and St. Mark give us ' Hosanna in the liighest.' Both these variations have been censured by Dr. Kaufmann Kohler (Jewish Encyc. I.e. .supra) as ' corruptions of the original version' : the addition ' in the highest,' he declares to be ' words which no longer give any sense.' But in a connexion which
seems to justify St. Matthew, the dative is used alike in the OT (Ps 3^ ' Salvation belongeth unto the Lord ') and in the NT in a passage based upon that Psalm (Rev 7'" ' Salvation unto our God ; and unto the Lamb'); whUe there is surely nothing ' senseless ' in the thought that the salvation which God gives, or sends, to men should fill the highest heaven with rejoicings in His praise. We have the idea in the OT (e.g. Ps. 8') and in the NT (Lk 2", Eph 3'°). To some Christian commentators, however, and those of no mean weight, — e.g. Cor- nelius i Lapide and Dean Alford, — St. Matthew's use of Hosanna with the dative has seemed to render requisite a different interpretation of the word. Hosanna was, says Alford (on Mt 21"), ' originally a formula of supplication, but [became] conventionally [one] of gratulation, so that it is followed by a dative, and by " in the highest," — meaning "may it also be ratified in heaven,"' — and he cites 1 K 1**, where Benaiah answers David, saying, ' Amen : the Lord, the God of my lord the king, say so too.' Cornelius Jt Lapide takes ' Hos- anna to the Son of David ' as a prayer for Christ, ottered by the people ' asking all prosperous things for Him from God.' Now, this would, in itself, be admissible enough. Of Messiah, even when thought of as Divine and reignin", the Scripture says, ' prayer also shall be made for him continu- ally' (Ps 72"). But it seems unnatural to postu- late so violent an alteration in the meaning of the word — from 'supplication' to 'gratulation,' when, taken in its original meaning, it yields a sutticient sense : ' Save now, for it is to thee, O Son of David, that the power to save us has been giviu.' It was not unnatural that the people should .--[.lak in this sense: as Jews they knew already that '.salvation belongeth unto God' (Ps 3'). This view derives considerable confirmation from the parallel passage in the Apocalypse, where the whole scene in ch. 7''', and even the very words — ' the multitude be- fore the throne and before the Lamb . . . with palms in their hands' (Rev 7", cf. Jn 12"), who cry with a loud voice (cf. Lk 19^), saying, ' Salvation to our God . . . and to the Lamb' — seems to be based on what happened at Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday ; as if the Seer were beholding the salvation come which that day was asked, and recognized that the palm-bearers of the earthly Jenisalem were precursors of the 4iosts of the re- deemed. St. John, it will be remembered, has, in his Gospel (121"), tjjg remark, ' These things under- stood not his disciples at the first, but after he was risen they remembered,' etc. If, as seems clear, the vision is expressed in figures drawn from that event, then the acclaim in heaven must be held to settle the meaning of those Hosannas upon earth : the dative of the Apocalypse is the dative of the Gospel : it is the dative not of a prayer for Jesus, but of an ascription of salvation to Him as its Mediator and Bestower.