When it is said
At Pascha it is sung three times in the night service, after the sixth song of the canon, the night’s long hymn. From Pascha to the Ascension it is sung every day at Matins, the morning service. In Bright Week it comes in the Paschal Hours too.
The rest of the year it belongs to Sunday. At Sunday Matins it follows the reading of a Gospel of the resurrection. It is also sung at the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
In Russian parishes the whole congregation sings it. In Greek churches it is read, usually by the abbot or bishop, or by a reader.
At the Divine Liturgy, after Communion, the deacon says it as he sets the paten, the plate for the holy bread, over the chalice.
Where it comes from
No author known
From Jerusalem
No one knows who wrote it. Deacon Vladimir Vasilik, a Russian scholar, links it with Jerusalem. It is first mentioned in two of Jerusalem’s own books: its lectionary, which lists the readings for the services, and its hymn book, called the Iadgari. The Iadgari keeps hymns of the 400s to 700s in a Georgian translation.
The same words on Good Friday
Mikhail Skaballanovich, a scholar of the services, found a sign of the hymn’s age far to the west. The Good Friday service of the Latin Church has a hymn much like it: “We worship Your Cross, O Lord, and praise and glorify Your holy resurrection, for by the Cross joy has come to all the world.” Vasilik thinks pilgrims to Jerusalem, such as Egeria in the 380s, may have carried it west.
Deacon Vladimir Vasilik, quoting Skaballanovich, on Pravoslavie.ru
Set to music by Rachmaninov
Russian chant books of the 1600s already write it down in znamenny chant, the old Russian church melody. Later, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Grechaninov and Vedel each wrote music for it. In Russian churches today the best-loved settings are by Arkhangelsky and Chesnokov.
Orthodox Encyclopedia (Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya), “Voskresenie Khristovo videvshe”
What the words mean
“We know no other but You”
One line comes from Isaiah. In the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, Isaiah prays: “O Lord, we know not any other beside Thee: we name Thy name.” The Greek words are the hymn’s own. The hymn sings them to the risen Christ.
The Scripture in it
O LORD our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us, but Your name alone do we confess.
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.”
Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil …
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ἀνάστασιν Χριστοῦ θεασάμενοι προσκυνήσωμεν ἅγιον Κύριον, Ἰησοῦν τὸν μόνον ἀναμάρτητον.
Τὸν Σταυρόν Σου Χριστὲ προσκυνοῦμεν, καὶ τὴν ἁγίαν Σου Ἀνάστασιν ὑμνοῦμεν καὶ δοξάζομεν·
Σὺ γὰρ εἶ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ἐκτός Σου ἄλλον οὐκ οἴδαμεν, τὸ ὄνομά Σου ὀνομάζομεν.
Δεῦτε πάντες οἱ πιστοί, προσκυνήσωμεν τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἁγίαν Ἀνάστασιν.
Ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἦλθε διὰ τοῦ Σταυροῦ, χαρὰ ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ.
Διὰ παντὸς εὐλογοῦντες τὸν Κύριον, ὑμνοῦμεν τὴν Ἀνάστασιν Αὐτοῦ.
Σταυρὸν γὰρ ὑπομείνας δι' ἡμᾶς, θανάτῳ θάνατον ὤλεσεν.