PURPOSE

The purpose of this very brief document is to ensure that every time our readers state Amen! they know what it means and why they are making such statement.


INTRODUCTION

First of all let us clarify what we are not referring to when we say Amen!.


With that clarified, let us proceed.


DETAILS

In the New Testament we see the statement Amen used in two different ways. For example, Jesus often (over 70 times) uses it as follows: Amen, I say to you.... while in other texts we see it used as it is used in Matthew 6:13 - And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen. - a form also used frequently in the Letters, Epistles found in the New Testament as well as in the Book of Revelations.

It is obviously clear that in the manner Jesus is using the word Amen is not in the manner we use it at the end of a prayer.

In the manner Jesus used it, the meaning is: truly (what I am saying is the truth) which is the modern, as well the archaic definition, of verily, i.e. verily, thou art a man of God

In the manner that it is used at the end of a prayer, invocation or pronouncement the meaning intended is: So be it, if it is the Will of God.

It has been said that Moses introduced the use of Amen in religious practices of the Israelites after he led them out of Egypt because of the Egyptian god Amen-Ra. That has been denounced and denied on the basis that Moses would not be introducing a word/statement related to a pagan god in the Israelite religious practices.

However, it may be that the reason attributed to Moses for introducing the word Amen in the Israelite religious practices has nothing to do with Amen-Ra and all to do with the Egyptian Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, Amenhotep IV.

This Pharaoh changed his name to Akhenaten and was labeled a heretic because he established monotheism in Egypt (1), closing down all places of worship of pagan gods and disbanding their priests.

This may not be such unsustainable possibility when we consider that the Egyptian Pharaoh at the time when Jacob's son, Joseph, became the Administrator of Egypt could have very well been Amenhotep IV, known as Akhenaten. (1)


CONCLUSION

We hope that we have shed some light on the real meaning such frequently used word and its impact if said with the heart and not just with the lips.

Amen!









Published on April 21, 2015 - Feast of Mary, the Mother of Light