Crowds And Praise

Qui praecedebant, et qui sequebantur, clamabant dicentes: Hosanna filio David, benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Turbae quae exierant cum eo de Jericho, et viderant mirabilia quae ostendit eis, caecos illuminatos, et Lazarum resurgentem, valde permoti miraculis, et sanitatibus quas praestitit eis, exsultando se forte transfundunt in laudes, ut impleatur ad litteram, quod per prophetam jam supra dixisse meminimus, Gaude valde, filia Sion, jubila, filia Jerusalem; quoniam non sine magna cordis exsultatione populus, et qui praeibat, et qui sequebatur, forte talia clamabat. Nam in his uterque populus intelligitur, qui et ante Evangelium, et post in Christum crediderunt; ipsi namque sunt qui et praecedunt et sequuntur. Omnes tamen unum dicunt, neque aliud qui praecedunt, et aliud qui sequuntur: sed omnes simul clamabant consona voce. Humanam quidem Christi dispensationem laudantes, et divinam praedicabant, in eo quod praedicabant, Hosanna filio David, benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Non enim aliter nisi Deus esset, in nomine Domini venire potuisset. Sed quia Deus homo factus est, mirabiliter restitutionem ejus praedicant, in illa coelesti Jerusalem sancta; in eo quod dicitur Hosanna in excelsis. Quem sane versum turba de psalmo centesimo septimo decimo assumit, qui manifeste de Christo prophetatur, et in synagogis Judaeorum celeberrime ac crebo legabatur: unde et illi populo notior erat. Et ideo assumunt eosdem versus, quibus ostendatur, quod ille, qui tam ibi, quam et alibi, repromittebatur de genere David venturus, jam venerit salvaturus Israel. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Liber IX, Caput XXI Source: Migne PL 120.704b-d

Those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying, 'Hosannah to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' 1 The crowd that went out with Him from Jericho and saw the miracles He performed before them, giving light to the blind, and raising Lazarus, being greatly moved by the miracles and the healing He performed in their presence, and likely exulting in themselves, poured forth praise, as it might be fulfilled to the letter what we recall was said through the prophet, 'Rejoice greatly, daughter of Sion, be joyful daughter of Jerusalem,' 2 because it is not without great exultation that the people who went before and followed behind would cry out such things. And by both these groups one should understand those who believed before and after the Gospel, whence they were going before and they were following. They all said one thing, it was not that those before said one thing and those behind said another, but all at the same time cried out with one voice. Certainly praising the human dispensation of Christ, and proclaiming the Divinity, since they were crying out, 'Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' For He was not able to come in the name of the Lord unless He was God. But because God was made man, they wonderfully declare his restitution in the holy heavenly Jerusalem, since it is said, 'Hosanna in the highest.' Which verse the crowd takes from the one hundred and seventeenth Psalm, which openly prophesies Christ, and was often and repeatedly read in the synagogues of the Jews, whence it was well known to the people. Therefore they took up those verses by which it is shown that He there, as elsewhere, was the one promised, who was to come from the seed of David, and had now come for the salvation of Israel. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 9, Chapter 21 1 Mt 21.9 2 Zech 9.9