Hosanna

Hosanna is a form of Jewish acclamation, raised by the crowds who met Jesus on his approach to Jerusalem. Within the surveyed UPDV witness it appears in the gospel narratives of that approach — paired with the words of Ps 118 and with the waving of palm branches. The cry binds together a salvation-petition, a blessing on the one who comes in the name of Yahweh, and a recognition of the kingdom of David.

The Acclamation in the Crowd

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, those before and behind him in Mark's account take up the cry: "Hosanna; Blessed [is] he who comes in the name of Yahweh: Blessed [is] the kingdom that comes, [the kingdom] of our father David: Hosanna in the highest" (Mr 11:9-10). The shout has two halves — the blessing on the coming one, and the blessing on the coming kingdom — and both halves close with "Hosanna." The kingdom is named explicitly as David's.

Palms and the King of Israel

In John, the multitude who hears that Jesus is coming to the feast goes out to meet him: "took the branches of the palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried out, Hosanna: Blessed [is] he who comes, the King of Israel, in the name of Yahweh" (Joh 12:13). Where Mark's crowd hails the Davidic kingdom, John's crowd identifies the one entering as the King of Israel himself, and the gesture of palm branches accompanies the cry. The palm is the same kind of branch carried in earlier festal and victory contexts in Israel — gathered for the booths-feast rejoicing before Yahweh (Le 23:40), brought up to Jerusalem with olive and myrtle to make booths in Nehemiah's day (Ne 8:15), and carried with harps, cymbals, and hymns when the citadel was cleansed in 1Ma 13:51. The acclamation in John 12 places Jesus inside that same vocabulary of festal welcome.