Possible origins of the word 'AMEN'

Z · (#1 (**permalink**))

6. AMEN

The Hebrew of the Old Testament reveals to us that the Scriptural Hebrew word (which means: so be it, or verily or surely) is "Amein" and not "Amen". Likewise, the Greek equivalent in the Greek New Testament is also pronounced: "Amein". Anyone can check on this in Stong's Concordance, No. 543 in its Hebrew Lexicon, and No. 281 in its Greek Lexicon, or in Aaron Pick's Dictionary of Old Testament Words for English Readers. Why then, has this Scriptural word "Amein" been rendered as "Amen" in our versions? Again we can see how the pagans have been made welcome, been conciliated, by adopting the name of pagan deity into the Church.

The Egyptians, including the Alexandrians, had been worshipping, or been aquainted with, the head of the Egyptian pantheon, Amen-Ra, the great Sun-deity, for more than 1 000 years, B.C.E. Before this deity became known as Amen-ra, he was only known as Amen among the Thebians. This substitution of "Amen" for "Amein" was greatly facilitated by the fact that this Egyptian deity's name was pelt in Egyptian hieroglyphic language with only three letters: AMN, just as we find a similar poverty of vowels in the Scriptural Hebrew, which prior to its vowel-pointing by the Massoretes, also only spelt its AMEIN as : AMN. However, with the vowel-pointing by the Massoretes the Scriptural word has been preserved for us as AMEIN. On the other hand, the Egyptian deity AMN is rendered by various sources as AMEN, or AMUN, or as AMON. However, the most reliable Egyptologists and archaelogsits, such as Sir E.A. Wallis Budge,112 Dr. A.B. Cook,113 Prof. A Wiedemann, 114 Sir W.M.F. Petrie,115 and A.W. Shorter,116 as well as some authoritative dictionaries,117 all render the name of this Egyptian deity as AMEN. This AMEN was originally the Theban "hidden god who is in heaven"112 "the hidden one, probably meaning hidden sun".118 Funk and Wagnalls, Standard College Dictionary, describes it, "AMEN: In Egyptian mythology, the god of life and procreation ... later identified with the Sun-god as the supreme deity, and called 'Amen-Ra'." James Bonwick, Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, repeatedly and frankly calls the Sun-deity of Egypt by its correct name: AMEN. He states on pp. 123-125, "AMEN ... is in a sense, the chief deity of Egypt - supreme divinity. Whatever else he be, he must be accepted as the sun ... the hidden god, the solar aspect is clear ... there is the disk of the sun ... the sun Amen ... His identification with Baal ... establishes him as a solar deity ...." Smith's Bible Dictionary expresses AMEN as, "an Egyptian divinity ... He was worshipped ... as Amen-Ra, or 'Amen the Sun'." Herodotos recorded for us how the Greeks identified their Zeus with Amen-Ra.113

Yahushúa calls Himself "the Amein" in Rev. 3:14. Substituting a title or name of Yahushúa with the name o of the great hidden Sky-deity or the great Sun-deity of the Egyptians, Amen, is inconceivable! The difference is subtle, but it is there. By ending our prayers "Amen" instead of "Amein", one could very well ask: Have we been misled to invoke the name of the Egyptian Sun-deity at the end of our prayers?

-But worse is still to come.

http://www.iahushua.com/ST-RP/church.htm

Coach · (#2 (**permalink**))

Interesting!

TeamManager · (#3 (**permalink**))

Incase you are interested.

There's a word at the end of every prayer, the word "Amen". Where did this word come from, why do we say it, and what does it mean?

The Origin of the Word 'Amen'

The word 'Amen' makes its first appearance in the Bible under the most solemn circumstances. When a husband accused his wife of adultery, and she protested her innocence, and she had not been caught in the act, the matter was settled by God under the test of bitter water (Num 5:12-31). The woman was taken to the priest, and the priest put her under oath. She submitted to a ceremony in which she drank some water containing dust from the tabernacle floor. If she had committed adultery, she was be cursed with a wasting disease, but if she did not get sick, then she was proven innocent and her husband was proven wrong.

During the ceremony, when the priest pronounced the curse, the woman was required by God to say, "Amen, Amen". (Num 5:22). That is the first occurrence of the word in scripture. The Lord commands it to be said by a person who is yielding herself to examination by him in his presence.

Of course the word "Amen" may have been used before God gave this commandment, but we have no record of it. We first encounter the word in the mouth of the Lord, that is to say in one of his commandments.

Why do we say 'Amen'?

The word 'Amen' is almost always the last word of a solemn statement. In the first example, it was said by the woman at the end of the priest's pronouncement of the curse and of her taking the oath. We find the word "Amen" as the last word in several instances in the Bible.

* The word is found in the last verses of the Bible (Rev 22:20-21).
* The first three books of Psalms end with Amen (Psa 41:13, 72:19, 89:52).
* Most books of the New Testament end with it (KJV).
* In the land of Israel, when a prayer or prophecy was made, or a law of God was read, "All the people said, 'Amen'" (Neh 5:13, 8:6).
* The Lord's example prayer ends with 'Amen' (Mtt 6:13).
* Paul uses the word seven times in his letter to the Romans at the end of doxologies or benedictions ? (Rom 1:25, 9:5, 11:36, 15:33, 16:20,24,27)
* Paul implies that people should say 'Amen' at the end of a prayer in church (1Co 14:16).

The word "Amen" appears therefore to be the fitting last word for solemn utterances made before God.

What Does 'Amen' Mean?

Oddly, to get a scriptural answer to what 'Amen' means, we go to a place where it is used not as the last word but the first word. Jesus would often start a solemn statement by saying "Verily" or "Truly". In John's gospel (eg Jhn 3:3) Jesus is recorded as using the word twice in succession, "Verily, verily, I say to you...". This is actually the word "Amen".

When we compare an instance of this in Mark, with the same statement in Luke, we find Mark has left the word untranslated (just as ¿ÊÅË "Amen"), but Luke has translated it using the word ¿ÉÅÆÍς "Truly". (Mark 9:1, Lke 9:27). This shows us that the underlying meaning of the word "Amen" is truth and verity. It is a solemn affirmation. When we say, "Amen" we are saying, "Yes before God I agree with that, I believe that to be true, I want that to be so".

In some other interesting and helpful passages...

* Instead of saying, "Amen, Amen" Jeremiah paraphrased the second Amen in his statement, "Amen, the Lord do so" (Jer 28:6).
* One of God's names or titles is "The God of Truth". If we left the last word untranslated, the title would read, "The God of Amen" (Isa 65:16).
* Paul uses the word as an affirmation when he says of Christ, "For as many as may be the promises of God, in him they are 'yes' and in him 'amen'" (2Co 1:20).
* One of the names of Jesus is "The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness" (Rev 3:14).

These passages show us that the word "Amen" is a solemn affirmation of truth, a special word that we can use whenever we have said (or heard) something that is true before God.

Amen.

http://members.datafast.net.au/sggram/f484.htm