The Divine Liturgy: Antiphons
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By Fr. David Petras
After the opening Litany of Peace, the Byzantine Church sings an office of three “antiphons,” which are always from the Old Testament psalms of the Bible. They begin our celebration of God’s love for us and his creation with hymns of praise. An Antiphon is a psalm sung with a short refrain (the word for “refrain in Greek is “troparion”), for example, “Through the prayers of the Mother of God (Theotokos), O Savior, save us,” “O Son of God, risen from the dead, save us who sing to you, alleluia!” The Troparion which is sung at “Glory to the Father ... “ for the Second Antiphon is longer, the well-known and beloved Hymn of the Incarnation, “O only-begotten Son and Word of God ... “ The final refrain for the Third Antiphon is the “troparion” of the day. On feasts of our Lord, the Troparion of the Feast is the refrain for each verse of the Antiphon.
Antiphons are a changeable part of the Divine Liturgy. There is one set for Sundays, one set for Weekdays, unique sets for each of the Feasts of our Lord, and sometimes the Typica (Psalms 103, 145 and the Beatitudes) on certain festive days. The Typica, however, actually have their origin from the monastic Rite for Holy Communion. The Church books usually give three verses for each antiphon (sometimes four). In most of our parishes in the last couple of generations, this has been reduced to one verse of the psalm and the doxology (“Glory to the Father ... “) Often the Third Antiphon was completely eliminated, which was a shame, since it is the most important of the three, an invitation to all to enter into worship of God in the Divine Liturgy, “Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim God our Savior. (Psalm 94:1).
We know from ancient manuscripts that the antiphons were originally sung as people processed from church to church. In the first millennium, there were no parish churches as we know them today. Haghia Sophia (the great Church) was the Church of the city of Constantinople. Since the population may have reached a half million, though, they couldn’t all fit in the one church. Liturgies, therefore, were what we call “stational”. If the main Liturgy was at, say, the church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, then the people would meet at another church, say, the Church of the Mother of God at Blachernae, then process to St. Theodore’s (the city was more compact than modern cities), then to Saints Sergius and Bacchus. As they processed they would sing a psalm with a troparion. At the next church they would then stop to say a litany and prayer. Then they went to another church, and finally to the main church of the day (this was almost always done in three’s). The last psalm with troparia was Psalm 94, which we have already noted was perfect for an entrance psalm, and has become our present-day Third Antiphon. The prayer that was said with the Third Antiphon was a prayer of entrance into the church: “Lord, our Master and God, who established orders and armies of angels and archangels for the service of your glory in heaven, make this our entrance an entrance of holy angels, concelebrating with us and glorifying your goodness.” This prayer is still said today. Later all these processions just dropped out, but the antiphons remained. 
One of the most important hymns of the Liturgy is sung as a conclusion to the Second Antiphon, “O only begotten Son and Word of God ..." This has become one of the favorite Byzantine hymn of all time. The great Emperor Justinian, who built the Great Church of Hagia Sophia, introduced it into the Liturgy, and, by tradition, was its author, though he may only have commissioned it. This hymn succinctly proclaims the very center of the Christian mystery. In Jesus, God became a human being, but remained God “without change.” Since God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, it is impossible and inconceivable that he could ever not be God. Yet he has accepted the fullness of the human experience of life as a human being, even to the point of death on the Cross. St. Paul expressed this mystery well in his Epistle to the Phillipians 2:5-11. However, being God, Jesus could not be conquered by death, and arose from the dead as a human being in the power of God. The resurrection of Jesus, however, was not for himself alone, but brought the fullness of life into human existence.
Therefore, we sing, “You were also crucified, O Christ, our God, and by death have trampled death.” This is the hymn of the Second Antiphon. The Third Antiphon also concludes with a different refrain, the Troparion of the Divine Liturgy. The Entrance Hymn and the Troparion and Kontakion sung in the Divine Liturgy are actually part of the Third Antiphon, just as the Hymn of the Incarnation is part of the Second Antiphon. It was meant as a variation on the refrain for the psalm. The Troparion and Kontakion are both taken from the Divine Office (Vespers and Matins) for the day. Therefore, they are like the keynote hymns for the particular mystery celebrated or holy person honored. In the Byzantine tradition, almost all of the Church’s daily changing meditation on Scripture and the life of faith is contained in the offices of Vespers and Matins. Unfortunately, these offices are often ignored in parish practice. The Church has directed the restoration of these offices, “Where [the] practice of celebrating the Divine Praises has diminished, if not completely disappeared, the ancient tradition should be restored without delay, so as not to deprive the faithful of a privileged source of prayer, nourished by treasures of authentic doctrine. (1996 Liturgical Instruction, paragraph 98)” The Troparion and Kontakion help to serve this function within the Divine Liturgy.