Word Survey: 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 Strong’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, how they were appeased, by adopting the name of a pagan deity into the Church.

The Egyptians, including the Alexandrians, had been worshiping, or been acquainted 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 Thebans.

This substitution of “Amen” for “Amein” was greatly facilitated by the fact that this Egyptian deity’s name was spelt in Egyptian hieroglyphic language with only three letters: AMN, just as we find a similar paucity of vowels in the Scriptural Hebrew, which prior to its vocal-pointing by the Massoretes, also only spelt its AMEIN as: AMN. However, with the vocal-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 archaeologists, such as Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, Dr. A.B. Cook, Prof. A. Wiedemann, Sir W.M.F. Petrie, and A.W. Shorter, as well as some authoritative dictionaries, all render the name of this Egyptian deity as AMEN.

Originally this AMEN was the Theban “hidden god who is in heaven,” “the hidden one, probably meaning hidden sun.” 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 pg. 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 dist 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.

Our Saviour Y’hoshua calls himself “the Amein” in Rev 3:14. Substituting a title or name of our Saviour with the name 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 with “Amen” instead of “Amein,” one could very well ask: Have we been mislead to invoke the name of the Egyptian Sun-Deity at the end of our prayers?

(This is an excerpt from the book "Come out of her my people" by Dr. Chris Koster)