It is a big surprise to Christians when they learn that they are not praising God when singing or saying the word, "Alleluia". The confusion comes when the Hebrew word, "Hallelujah" is translated as Alleluia (without the H sound). Most people are not aware that by dropping the H sound completely, it changes the meaning dramatically - from praise to criticism and disapproval!
In both Hebrew and Greek the word is spelled "hallelujah, halleluyah or halleluiah". In Hebrew, there are two words that can be spelled "Allel" or "Alleluia" in English. The first, "Allel", means to be weak, insufficient or worthless. The second, "Alleluia" means to act arbitrarily, deal severely with someone or to deal ruthlessly. The Hebrew or Greek lexicon has the correct spelling.
Strong's Concordance has spelled the word, alleluia incorrectly and this has led to a lot of confusion. The enemy of our souls, the devil, loves to have us say or sing that our God is weak, insufficient and worthless. He loves to have us say that God acts arbitrarily towards us, deals severely and ruthlessly with us. But hallelujah or should I say, "Praise the Lord, our God is NOT weak, insufficient or worthless". Nor does our God act arbitrarily towards us, deal severely or ruthlessly with us.
In the book, "Synonyms of the Old testament," p. 220, R. R. Girdlestone points out that, "this word is sometimes spelt alleluia in modern hymnbooks, in imitation of the mode of the spelling which found favour in medieval times. The letter H ought certainly to be restored at both ends."
In the booklet, "How the Word is Made Flesh", Eugene A. Nida shares how acute the problem of translating the Gospel into aboriginal languages can be. One missionary in Africa had "such difficulty with pronouncing certain sounds that he consistently ended his services with the benediction, 'Oh Lord kick us out gently, gently'" - when he thought he was saying "dismiss us with thy blessing." Another missionary "constantly urged people to prepare 'to go sit on a stick' rather than to go to heaven.'"
Many Christians have been telling God unknowingly - out of ignorance that He is a failure and unworthy, when they thought they were saying, "Praise the Lord!"
Any Greek lexicon or Greek grammar has the word spelled with and H sound in Greek. So the time has come to carefully, correctly and joyfully to say "Hallelujah" or "Halleluiah."
To order Rev. Gordon Williams "Exciting Praise: Expressing Appreciation to God" click here.
c. Gordon Williams Evangelistic Association 2000.
