Amen, the hebrew word

http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/amen.html
In behalf of a beleagured and exhausted mankind, exhuasted and downtrodden in a spiritually devoid world, language, words, and their eoterica and essence have come to their spiritual rescue to open the portals of heaven by utterance alone and that only for glimpses into the kabbalic heavens and beyond to the supernal and calm and configured worlds that reach by etz chaim to atzilut. The shmonei esrei and the word aman are such words of import. They exceed what we could possibly earn by merit alone, and are a sort of attributed merit.Acronyms used in our judaic heritage have that specific merit by attribution. AMAN.
Amen!
'Amen' in Hebrew
The root of the word comes from Hebrew aman, which means to nourish and make strong. Emunah (faithfulness) also comes from aman. The ancient Greeks used the word (AMHN) from Hebrew to mean 'truth', 'surely', 'absolutely'. It is one of just a few Hebrew words which have been imported unchanged into Church liturgy. The current meaning of Amen and its pronunciation is pretty much the same in any modern language and religion.
Jews
For Jews, Amen is also an acronym for El Melech Ne'eman, which means "Mighty, Faithful King".
Christians
Christians say either 'Ahh-men' or 'Ay-men'.
HANDEL'S MESSIAH THE CHORUS
The 'Ahh-men' pronunciation tends to be a bit more formal and used in liturgy, choral music, etc. An example can be heard in the closing part of Handel's Messiah 'Worthy is the Lamb'2. The Ahh-men in the final chorus is repeated dozens of times, runs to six pages in a typical choral score, and usually takes around 3 minutes 40 seconds to sing.
The 'Ay-men' pronunciation is often associated with evangelical Christians and Gospel singing. Unlike Handel's Messiah, the Gospel chorus 'Amen' has only five words, all the same (Ay----men, Ay----men, Ay----men, Ay-men, Ay--men.) yet can take much longer to perform as it is repeated over and over again, bringing the congregation into harmony.
Muslims
Muslims use Amen (Amin or Ameen) in the same way as Christians and Jews, even though the word does not appear in the Qur'an. Muslims say it after reciting Surah al-Fatihah, after completing their prayers, at the end of letters, etc.
Buddhists and Hindus
Many Buddhists and Hindus also use Amen at the end of prayers and as concurrence in the same way as the other religions.
But where did it all begin?
Pagans AMEN RA
From old Egyptian texts we can see that people regarded the sun as the emblem of the Creator. They called the sun Ra, and all other gods and goddesses were forms of the Creator. One of these gods was Amen; a secret, hidden and mysterious god named variously Amen, Amon, Amun, Ammon and Amounra. For the first eleven dynasties (c. 3000-1987 B.C.) Amen was just a minor god, but by the 17th dynasty (c. 1500 B.C.) he had been elevated to be the national god of southern Egypt. This position gave Amen the attributes and characteristics of the most ancient gods, and his name became Amen-Ra, that is, a supreme form of God the Creator. By the 18th Dynasty (1539-1295 B.C.) a college had been established to study Amen-Ra and as a focal point for worship.
ANATHEMAS AND GNOSTIC SPELLS THE SYMBOL 99
"Finally, we may note that the word Amen occurs not infrequently in early Christian inscriptions, and that it was often introduced into anathemas and gnostic spells. Moreover, as the Greek letters which form Amen according to their numerical values total 99 (alpha=1, mu=40, epsilon=8, nu=50), this number often appears in inscriptions, especially of Egyptian origin, and a sort of magical efficacy seems to have been attributed to its symbol."
(Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 1; 1907)

Jews settled in Egypt for around 400 years from 1847 B.C. and during this sojourn they would certainly have been fully exposed to the worship of Amen-Ra. By the time of their exodus from Egypt in 1447 B.C., the term 'Amen' would be in their language even if it was not their god. It would be a word that had associations with reverence and majesty. This is not difficult to understand. People still talk about Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha, and often use those names completely out of context as expletives. Amen was seen as a powerful god and the name continued, out of context, as an exclamation or salutation; a classic example of language evolution. From the Jews, the word was adopted by Christians, Muslims and others
So Amen was originally the name of a Pagan god, who was considered a form of God the Creator. But he was certainly not considered God, or Christ. Interestingly, most Pagans today tend not to use the word, preferring instead to say "So mote it be", an old Anglo-Saxon term. Perhaps they see the word Amen in the Bible and the Tanakh and don't want to be associated with Christianity or the like. Indeed, in the Bible3 we see Jesus Christ referred to as "The Amen". Christ is God's Amen to all that he has spoken. Thereby the name used for an old Egyptian god is replaced by the same name used for Christ.
RECYCLING OF OLD AND ANCIENT FAMILIAR WORDS
Like many other words used in religion, (or art, mathematics, medicine, etc) it's easy to believe that our ancestors saw no point in creating new vocabulary when existing and familiar words could be recycled. (The term 'God', for example, has been recycled by most religions.) Yet some people are vehemently protective of things and believe Amen is a biblical word which is also found in the Tanakh and in Islam, and happens to sound like the name of a Pagan god. Others believe it is an Islamic word that can also be found in the Bible and Tanakh. And so on. The whole issue is hotly debated and any Pagan link denied by many. Who knows how many accidental or deliberate mistranslations have crept in over the centuries.
Those who believe that God is the Great Mathematician will no doubt point to the numeric value of Amen.
Nowhere in the Bible, the Tanakh or the Qur'an can we find words to suggest one can be redeemed by merely uttering a magic word.
FOCUS
Whether Amen is magic, rooted in a Pagan deity, originally a Christian word, a Muslim word, a Jewish word, or anything else, the question is the same: So what? When Christians, Jews and Muslims say Amen, they do not invoke any god or any power just by saying that word or indeed any other word. Amen does not even make other words more sincere. But Amen, like all the other language we use, helps us to focus on what we mean in our hearts.
And that is the answer to "So what?" What really matters is what is said by the heart.

Uses
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Amen
Amen in Judaism
Amen is derived from the Hebrew word emuna or "faith" with the same linguistic root, implying that one is affirming with, and of, "the faith" of Judaism (and its belief in Monotheism). Some Judaism have seen in the word Amen acronym for אל (’El) מלך (melek) נאמן (ne’eman), meaning "God, King [who is] Trustworthy."
In traditional and modern Jewish liturgy, "Amen" is often used by a congregation as a way to affirm and subscribe to the words uttered previously by whomever leads the prayer.

In the King James Bible, the word amen is preserved in a number of contexts. Notable ones include:
The catechism of curses of the Law found in Deuteronomy 27:15.
A double amen ("amen and amen") occurs in Psalm 89.
The custom of closing prayers with amen originates in the Lord's Prayer at Matthew 6:13
Amen occurs in several doxology formulas in Romans 1:25, 9:5, 11:36, 15:33, and several times in Chapter 16.
It concludes all of Paul's general epistles.
Amen concludes the New Testament at Rev. 22:21.

External links
Catholic Encyclopedia: Amen Retrieved June 24, 2007.
Classic Encyclopedia: Amen Retrieved June 24, 2007.
The Laws of Responding Amen in Judaism Retrieved June 24, 2007.
Strong's Concordance H543 Retrieved June 24, 2007.
Strong's Concordance G281 Retrieved June 24, 2007.
Assembly of True Israel: Glossary Retrieved June 24, 2007.
Amen: a Pagan Word? Retrieved June 24, 2007.
Ancient Egypt and Biblical Similarities Retrieved June 24, 2007.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/261102/jewish/The-Laws-of-Responding-Amen.htm

The Laws of Responding Amen
By Eliezer Wenger

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/261102/jewish/The-Laws-of-Responding-Amen.htm

the laws of response
When:
• One should respond Amen whenever he hears another saying a blessing, even if the blessing does not contain G-d's name, such as the "May the Merciful One be blessed..." in the Grace After Meals1.
• In order to answer Amen, one may either hear the complete blessing, the ending of the blessing, or at least know to which blessing one is answering Amen to. If he does not hear the blessing at all and does not know to which blessing he will be responding, he does not answer Amen2.
• It is appropriate to answer after hearing G-d's name in a blessing, "blessed is He and blessed is His Name" (Boruch hu uvaruch Shemo). However, since this is only a custom and not an institution of the Rabbis, one may not say it during prayers at points where one may not interrupt, such as during the "praises" (Pesukei dezimrah), even though he would be permitted to interrupt for Amen3.
• One is permitted to answer Amen to any blessing that he hears through a microphone or live hookup4.
• One should answer the Amen immediately after the blessing is completed. One should not answer a "Hurried Amen," that is an Amen which is said before the blessing is even completed. Nor a "orphaned Amen," that is an Amen which was said a while after the blessing was completed. (Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch O.C. 124:1)
When Not:
• It one completes his own blessing at the same time that another person finishes his blessing, one does not answer Amen on the other's blessing, for it appears as if he is saying Amen to his own blessing5.
• One should not answer Amen to an unnecessary blessing. For example, if one washed for a meal and then says a blessing on the vegetable salad (during a meal one does not say a blessing on the various other foods, as it is included in the blessing of bread), that second blessing is considered an unnecessary blessing and no response of Amen is said6.
• Amen is said to a blessing that a child says for something which he needs to say a blessing on such as over food before eating. However, if the child is saying a blessing as part of his learning routine, such as when practicing reading, Amen is not to be said7.
• If someone says a blessing, but changes the text as instituted by the Rabbis, one does not answer Amen8.
• One may answer Amen to a blessing said by a non-Jew, if he hears the complete blessing from beginning to end. If the non-Jew is a believer in idolatry, Amen is not said9.
• Whoever forces himself to be a cantor against the will of the congregation, is not entitled to have Amen answered to his blessing (that he says as the cantor)10.
During Prayers
• One should concentrate well when answering the "Amen Yehei Shmei Rabbah..." in Kaddish, for those who answer "Amen Yehei Shmei..." with the fullest power of concentration will even have their decree of seventy years torn up and given more years of life. Also, this should be said in a loud (not yelling or shouting) voice, for this too achieves the removal of all evil decrees11. The text:
Transliteration: Amein. Y'hay sh'may raba m'vorach l'olam ul'ol'may ol'ma-yuh yis-buh-raych.
Translation: May His great name be blessed forever and for all eternity.
• One who ends the last blessing before the morning Amidah prayer, "Go'al Yisroel," together with the quorum, does not answer Amen.
• In the prayers there are certain exceptions to this rule (that one finishes the same blessing together with another, does not respond Amen), such as the blessing of "May Your name be praised..." (Yishtabach). If the person saying Yishtabach ends at the same time as the cantor, he should answer Amen12.
• If however, he finishes a blessing at the same time as the cantor, but the blessings are different ones, then he responds Amen to the cantor's blessing13.

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4 Comments
FOOTNOTES
1.
Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 215:2, 189:6.
2.
ibid 215:2, 124:11.
3.
ibid 124:8.
4.
Shaarei Halacha uMinhag Vol. 1 Page 166
5.
For that reason, on Yom Kippur night one must make sure to finish the blessing of shehecheyanu ("Who has granted us life...") before the chazzan so that he can answer to the cantor's blessing.
6.
Alter Rebbe's Shulchan aruch O.C. 215:3.
7.
ibid 215:2.
8.
ibid.
9.
ibid.
10.
ibid 53:29.
11.
ibid 56:2.
12.
Ibid 51:3.
13.
ibid.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01407b.htm
The word Amen is one of a small number of Hebrew words which have been imported unchanged into the liturgy of the Church, propter sanctiorem as St. Augustine expresses it, in virtue of an exceptionally sacred example. "So frequent was this Hebrew in the mouth of Our Saviour", observes the Catechism of the Council of Trent, "that it pleased the Holy Ghost to have it perpetuated in the Church of God". In point of fact St. Matthew attributes it to Our Lord twenty-eight times, and St. John in its doubled form twenty-six times. As regards the etymology, Amen is a derivative from the Hebrew verb aman "to strengthen" or "Confirm".
Hebrew Bible
Three distinct Biblical usages of amen may be noted:[1]
Initial Amen, referring back to words of another speaker and introducing an affirmative sentence, e.g. 1 Kings 1:36.[1]
Detached Amen, again referring to the words of another speaker but without a complementary affirmative sentence, e.g. Nehemiah 5:13.[1]
Final Amen, with no change of speaker, as in the subsciption to the first three divisions of Psalms.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen#Hebrew_Bible
Amen in Rabbinical Judaism
Main article: Berakhah
Jewish rabbinical law requires an individual to say Amen in a variety of contexts.[25]
Liturgically, amen is a communal response to be recited at certain points during the prayer service. It is recited communally to affirm a blessing made by the prayer reader. It is also mandated as a response during the kaddish doxology. The congregation is sometimes prompted to answer 'amen' by the terms ve-'imru (Hebrew: ואמרו‎) = "and [now] say (pl.)," or, ve-nomar (ונאמר) = "and let us say." Contemporary usage reflects ancient practice: As early as the 4th century BCE, Jews assembled in the Temple responded 'amen' at the close of a doxology or other prayer uttered by a priest. This Jewish liturgical use of amen was adopted by the Christians.[22] But Jewish law also requires individuals to answer amen whenever they hear a blessing recited, even in a non-liturgical setting.
The Talmud teaches homiletically that the word Amen is an acronym for אל מלך נאמן (’El melekh ne’eman, "God, trustworthy King"),[26] the phrase recited silently by an individual before reciting the Shma.
Jews usually pronounce the word as it is pronounced in Hebrew: /ɔːˈmeɪn/ aw-MAYN (Ashkenazi) or /ɑːˈmɛn/ ah-MEN (Sephardi).[27]

http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1383&letter=A&search=Amen

A word used at the conclusion of a prayer, or in other connections, to express affirmation, approval, or desire. It is derived from the Old Testament Hebrew, and is perhaps the most widely known word in human speech; being familiar to Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans. It occurs thirteen times in the Masoretic text of the Old Testament, and in the Septuagint in three additional passages (Jer. iii. 19, xv. 11, Isa. xxv. 1). From these passages it is possible to trace in part the gradual development of Amen from an adjective (or, according to Barth, "Die Nominalbildung in den Semitischen Sprachen," 5c, 7b, a noun, meaning "firmness," "certainty") into an indeclinable interjection.
The primitive use of Amen is in I Kings, i. 36, where also it serves to introduce an affirmative answer. This introductory Amen occurs also in Jer. xxviii. 6; but in another passage (xi. 5) Jeremiah shows familiarity with the detached Amen. The detached Amen is that use of the Amen in which the expected answer is omitted and left to be inferred from the context. Num. v. 22 (in which Amen is repeated twice), Deut. xxvii. 15 et seq., and Neh. v. 13, show that the detached Amen was employed in solemn oaths for which the brief Amen was more effective than a whole sentence.
Liturgical Amen.
Similar to the detached Amen is the use of the Amen in Neh. viii. 6, I Chron. xvi. 36, and Ps. cvi. 48, from which it is learned that during the Persian epoch Amen was the responsory of the people to the doxology of the priests and the Levites. Too little is known, however, of the Temple worship of that period to make it possible to determine whether, as Graetz holds, Amen and Amen Halleluiah were the only responsories used. The passages in Psalms parallel to that cited above (xli. 14, lxxii. 18-19, lxxxix. 53) make it apparent that the responsory was longer; and there exists a reliable tradition (Tosef., Ber. vii. 22; Ta'anit, i. 11, 16b; Yer. Ber. 14c, end; Soṭah, 40b) that at a period not far removed from the oldest Pharisaic traditions Amen was not generally employed in the Temple liturgy. The opposite view of Graetz in his attempt to distort the evident meaning of the text in this Tosefta is disproved by Sifre, Deut. xxxii. 3, 306, which clearly shows that in ancient times the usual responsive formula in the synagogue and the Temple was: "Blessed be the name of the glory of his kingdom for ever and ever" () . Thus the statement in the Tosefta becomes intelligible: while synagogues adopted the Amen, the Temple preserved the longer form. Even in later times—at least during the existence of the Temple—the Amen could not entirely supplant the longer responsory ; and the ( ("Praised be the great Name [that is, the Tetragrammaton] for ever and ever") is a combination of the synagogue Amen with the Temple formula , the Aramaic equivalent of which is . This explains the great significance which the Talmud (Shab. 119b) and the Midrash (Eccl. R. on ix. 14, 15) attaches to the blessing, a remnant of the Temple liturgy.
Since the rabbis paid strict regard to precise arrangement of prayer-formulas, naturally the use of Amen in the liturgy was rigorously determined by them. The Amen as a responsory of the people is already spoken of by the rabbis, but it is to be noted that Amen was only the responsory to the reader's doxology ("Blessed art thou, O Lord!" Mishnah Ta'anit, ii. 5; Suk. 51b. It is here recorded that in the great synagogue of Alexandria the attendant, at the conclusion of the reader's doxology, signaled the congregation with a flag to respond Amen). Of equal importance with this doxology was the priestly blessing, to each verse of which the congregation responded Amen (Mishnah Soṭah, vii. 3). As expressly stated in a Baraita (Ber. 45a), the use of Amen at the conclusion of a prayer, mentioned in Tobit, viii. 8, must have been very common among Jews in ancient times. Still, the Christian custom of concluding every prayer with Amen seems to have brought this use of Amen into bad repute among the Jews (Ber. l.c.); and it was decided in Babylonia, about 400, that only at grace after meals the third benediction (originally the last) should conclude with Amen (Ber. l.c.), while in Palestine (Yer. Ber. v. 4) Amen was used at the end of the last doxology. In the Middle Ages the Spanish ritual followed the Palestinian custom; the German and Polish Jews conforming to the Babylonian usage (compare "ShulḦan 'Aruk," § 1, 136, end, and the commentaries thereon).
Desiderative and Responsive Amen.
The use of Amen in response to the expression of a good wish can be traced back to the first century of the Christian era (Ket. 66b); whence is derived the medieval custom of suffixing an Amen to every possible expression of a desire. Especially favorite phrases are ("Amen! may this be the will" [of God]) generally used after prayers which do not conclude with a doxology; ("May he live to see good days, Amen!"), a formula usually appended to the name in letters; and ("And let us say Amen!"), with whichthe reader concludes a special prayer or a prayer for a private person. The later responsive Amen is employed at the beginning and the conclusion of grace after meals (Ber. 47a); for, according to the rabbis, every doxology must be responded to with an Amen.
The meaning of Amen is discussed by Rabbis Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and Simon ben YoḦai. The former, a younger contemporary of the Apostles, says: "When the dwellers of Gehenna chant their Amen at the very time that the holy name of God is praised by the congregations . . . the doors of hell yield and angels carry them in white robes into paradise on the last day" (Eliyahu Zuṭṭa xx.). That this utterance is not a later invention, is proved by the kindred sayings of Simon ben YoḦai (Shab. 119b, Midr. Tehil., xxxi. 22). A poetical account of the power of Amen is given in Yalḳ. ii. 296 to Isa. xxvi. 2, in which the final release from hell is described as follows:
"After God shall have publicly revealed the new Messianic Torah, Zerubbabel will recite the Ḳaddish. His voice will be heard throughout the world, so that all dwellers upon earth, as well as Jewish sinners and righteous heathens in hell, will exclaim, 'Amen!' Moved to pity by this Amen from the dwellers of hell, God will bid the angels Michael and Gabriel release them from hell and place them in paradise; which command the angels will forthwith proceed to carry out."
A similar Haggadah occurs in Siddur R. Amram (13b, foot), which is referred to by Hogg ("Jew. Quart. Rev." ix. 17). The legend regarding a pious Jew who once neglected to answer Amen to the doxology, recounted by Jaffe in his introduction to "Lebush," i., belongs to the Middle Ages.
Amen in the New Testament.
As the Amen was widely employed in the Jewish liturgy in the time of Jesus and the New Testament authors, Amen occurs extensively in the New Testament. But the use of almost one half the number of Amens found therein (fifty-two out of one hundred and nineteen) is peculiar to the New Testament writings, having no parallel in Hebrew (see however, Dalman, "Worte Jesu," p. 186); fact that is used exclusively in a hypothetic sense (against 'Er. 32a), while in the New Testament, Amen expresses certainty. Another peculiarity is the use of ὁ Aμην in Rev. iii. 14 as a designation of Jesus. Therefore, as is never the case in Hebrew, the Amen is sometimes found at the beginning of a sentence without reference to what precedes. The explanation of Delitzsch that this Amen is an erroneous form of the Aramaic ("I say"), is disproved not only by the fact that is exclusively Babylonian-Aramaic, but by the further he attempted explanation of this use from II Cor. i. 20 is altogether unsatisfactory.
The primitive church's borrowings of its liturgy in the ealization of the power of the words and expressions of Judaism

The primitive Christian Church borrowed the Amen, as it did most of its liturgy, from the Jewish synagogue. Of especial interest is the following passage of Paul (I Cor. xiv. 16), "When thou shalt bless with the spirit (), how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned (ἰδιώτου ) say Amen?" Paul here speaks of the reader's duty to recite his prayers aloud in order that the ignorant people might have compensation in answering the Amen to the doxology. The very same teachings are given by the rabbis (Tosef., R. H. iv. [ii.] 12; Gemara, ib. ἰδιώτου ; compare also "ShulḦan 'Aruk OraḦ Ḥayyim," § 124, 4-6; § 139, 6). It is known that in the time of Justin Martyr (about second century) Amen was pronounced after prayer and the Eucharist ("Apologia," i § 65, 67). Jerome shows by his "ad similitudinem cœlestis tonitrui Amen reboat" ("Commentarius ad Galatas," preface to book ii.) that the Church had adopted from the Synagogue even the practise of enunciating the "Amen with the full power"—of the voice (Shab. 119b).
In accordance with the less public character of Mohammedan worship, Amen is very little used among the followers of Islam. Still it is universally employed by them after every recital of the first sura, the so-called Surat al-fatiḦa.
______________________________________________________________________
Bibliography: Ber. i. 11-19; Blau, Rev. Ét. Juives, xxxi. 179-201; Brunner, De Voce Amen, Helmstadt, 1678; Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, pp. 185-187; Delitzsch, Zeitschrift für Lutherische Theologie, 1856, pp. 422 et seq.; Grätz, in Monatsschrift, 1872, pp. 481-496; Hogg, Jew. Quart. Rev. ix. 1-23; J. Caro, ShulḦan 'Aruk, i. § 54, 2; § 56, 2; § 129, 6-10; § 215; Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v.; Baidawi and Zamakt Shari on first sura; Maimonides, Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah, i., Tefillah, viii. 9, ix. 1-4; Nestle, Expository Times, January, 1897, pp. 190 et seq.; Ps. lxii. et seq., xci. et seq.; Weber, De Voce Amen, Jena, 1734; Wernsdorf, De Amen Liturgica; Wolf, Curæ Phil. in N. T. on Matt. vi. 13, and I Cor. xiv. 16.L. G.
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