Michel Valsan, Om and Amen, London: Matheson Trust, 15.03. 2012

2000

from the Hiphil Imperative remits its origin to a causative plea, and persuades people to believe in what they have just heard or said, namely, that Jesus Christ is God's amen for the salvation of all mankind. Christians of all times and places should join in the praise of God through the same faith in His Amen. Thus amen becomes a binding concept for ecumenical understanding.

African Journal of Culture, History, Religion and Traditions, 2021

The concept of “Amen” translated as “Ase” in Okun language is a term that cuts across nations, cultures and religions, even though it may be translated or transliterated differently in terms of linguistic and discourse structures. Amen could probably be assumed to be the commonest word of human speech. Its use among the three great religions—Christianity, Islam and Traditional religion—cannot be overemphasized. For instance, the Old Testament usage of it is always at the end of a speech, while in the New Testament, Jesus used it mostly at the beginning of his message to his audience. Paul the Apostle oftentimes used it at the end of his letters to close his doxological statements and greetings to the churches. And also, the term is being used as a seal of an oath for legal backing or pronouncement of a curse as it is in the book of Deuteronomy 27 and Nehemiah 5:13. Jeremiah at another instance used Amen as an affirmation of God’s statements of the blessings and the curses of the cov...

An overview of the meaning and usage of "Amen" within the Old and New Testaments, and Second Temple period.

Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der Älteren Kirche, 1978

2020

In most recent English translations of the Gospels Jesus frequently says, "Truly I say to you" or "I tell you the truth." This translation conveys a clear meaning, but the problem is that in the Greek text, in the great majority of cases, Jesus does not use the Greek words for "truly" [ἀληθῶς / alethos] or "truth" [ἀλήθεια / aletheia]. Even though his conversation is being reported in Greek, Jesus consistently is quoted as using the Hebrew word amen. Jesus is coining a new word for use in the Gentile church. If the evangelists regularly report Jesus saying "Amen I say to you," is there a good reason why we should not? So although we were not aware of any other contemporary English translation that uses this rendering, the EHV decided to use this translation because it best honors the literary intent, and perhaps even the theological intent, of the text. Here is some of the data that supports this conclusion. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word amen occurs 30 times. NIV 84 translates it amen every time except twice. There are other good reasons to restore Jesus' amens. One of our EHV translation principles is that we try to follow not only the theological intent of the text but also the literary intent. That is why one of our rubrics says, "Hebrew/Aramaic words used in Greek text should remain Hebrew: amen, alleluia, abba, marana tha, raca, talitha koum, etc." 1 This seems to be a sound principle, so should we make Jesus' amens an exception to the rule? [Other examples of Hebrew/Aramaic words used in the New Testament are: hosanna, Armageddon, rabbi, corban, and "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani."] Another good reason not to translate the word amen as truth is that Hebrew and Greek have other common words for truth (amet, aleth-). If we translate amen as truth, it creates confusion and blurs distinctions when amen and emet or aleth-occur in proximity. Another reason for trying to be as consistent as possible is that a Bible translation is like a sweater. When you start pulling on a loose string, you can unravel a lot of things that are connected. The same principles that apply to the amen issue apply to a lot of other terms that move from one language to another language, words like satan/Satan, selah/interlude, diabolos/devil. Though maintaining complete consistency of terms is impossible, we want to maintain consistency across the translation unless there are 1 If we did not apply this principle to the Hebrew word alleluia Handel's famous chorus would be called the Praise Yah Chorus. Try singing that.

Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 2020

The Origin of the Word Amen: Ancient Knowledge the Bible has Never Told is a book that promises to pique the interest of any reader interested in classical Kmt 'Black Nation/Land of the Blacks', mdw nTr 'Hieroglyphs,' the Akan language, and historical-linguistic connections between the three. Specifically, the book promises to deliver information about how the word imn 'Amen,' as attested in classical Kmt 'Black Nation/Land of the Blacks,' persists in the contemporary Akan language. While under a steady hand this should be a simple enough thesis to substantiate, unfortunately, the authors' obvious lack of grounding in historical linguistics, their lack of knowledge of mdw nTr 'Hieroglyphs' as well as their lack of understanding the morphology (word structure) of the Akan language all mar the analyses presented in the book.

Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 2020

The Origin of the Word Amen: Ancient Knowledge the Bible has Never Told is a book that promises to excite the interest of any reader interested in classical Kmt ‘Black Nation/Land of the Blacks’, mdw nTr ‘Hieroglyphs,’ the Akan language, and historical/linguistic connections between the three. Specifically, the book promises to deliver information about how the word imn ‘Amen,’ as attested in classical Kmt ‘Black Nation/Land of the Blacks,’ persists in the contemporary Akan language. While, under a steady hand this should be a simple enough thesis to substantiate, unfortunately, the authors’ obvious lack of grounding in historical linguistics, their lack of knowledge of mdw nTr ‘Hieroglyphs’ as well as their lack of understanding the morphology (word structure) of the Akan language all mar the analyses presented in the book.

Studia Liturgica, 2022

The late John A.T. Robinson claimed to have identified in St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (16:22) "the remains of the earliest Christian liturgical sequence we possess". While assessing his thesis, I also continue with my own parallel investigation into another possible liturgical sequence in chapter fourteen of First Corinthians. This second sequence has previously been overlooked for two reasons: first, because of the ambiguity in the meaning of the word eucharistia, and, second, because Paul's focus in the passage is on glossolalia, leaving the liturgical import of it somewhat opaque.

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies , 2019

"Altogether then, the claim that amen as used in the instances we have discussed is inappropriate is found to lack firm biblical or etymological foundation. Neither does the suggestion that if it is a vestige of African worship culture then that provides a reasonable ground for thus condemning it. While it is recognized that amen is often babbled from mental laxity, it is suggested that the problem lies not in amen, as a word, but in the person, as a worshipper. Amen is a rich word, capable of communicating a spectrum of positive human intellectual and emotional responses to worship; a spectrum that fits squarely within the umbrella of acceptance and assent. G. B. Funderburk (1976:127) is correct is assessing that amen is “far more meaningful than a stop or signing-off word by which a prayer, song or declaration is terminated. It carries the weight of approval, confirmation, and support for what is said or sung.” Therefore, amen does not need to be curtailed to a few formal, highly rehearsed schemes of worship. It should be embraced as the bona fide, effective, biblical expression of assent it can be in contemporary Christian worship."

Lexham Bible Dictionary, 2016

Amen” (אָמֵן), a Hebrew word, has served an important role as a declaration of affirmation, and as the closing exclamation of agreement to a doxology or prayer in Jewish and Christian liturgy. The common understanding of Amen is “truly, surely, let it be so.” Amen is preserved untranslated in the Greek New Testament and frequently in the Septuagint, transliterated from the Hebrew to the Greek as “amen” (ἀμήν). Amen is used in some different ways in the New Testament compared to the Old Testament. The development of its liturgical use can be traced from the Old Testament, through the Intertestamental period to the New Testament and early rabbinic and Christian traditions.