AMEN. This old Hebrew expression has become "perhaps the most widely known word in human speech," being used to day in worship not only by Jews but by Christians and, in a minor degree, by Mohammedans. (a) As a religious term expressing affirmation and desire it signifies (as in the Greek translation of the O.T.) "so be it"; (b) but essentially it was an interjection of assent—"so it is," or "so it will be," even of secular application (1 ki. i., 36; Jer. xi., 4, xxviii., 6) in the sense of "yes." The Hebrew verb means to be firm, or sure; also to be trusted. (I) The term is employed by the user to adopt as his own, words spoken by another; so in Tobit viii., 8; cf. Judith xiii., 20. As a response of the people at the close of a doxology or prayer uttered by the priest, it is found in Neh. viii., 6; I Chron. xvi., 36; cf. Ps. cvi., 48. This use, which became especially common in the Jewish synagogue, was developed by the Christian church. In I Cor. xiv., 16, St. Paul refers to "the Amen." Justin c. 150 A.D. writes : "The president likewise offers up 'prayers and thanks givings, and the people answer the Amen" (Apol. I. 67 ; cf. 65) .
(2) Developed out of this use Amen is employed also by the offerer of thanksgivings and prayers, public and private, in order to sum up and thus to confirm what he himself has said. Signs of this use even in the O.T. are to be seen in the detached doxology placed as vv. 18 and 19 of Ps. lxxii., and in the short doxologies with which the 3rd and 4th books of Maccabees end. It is found in Rom. i., 25; Gal. vi., 18, etc., and it has become exceedingly common with Christians. Like (I), as an aid in focusing the con centration of the worshipper, its value is obvious. With the growing popularity of hymns the use of Amen has been extended.
(3) Unique, but in harmony with the meaning "so it will be," was the usage of Jesus Christ to introduce a statement of his own by "Amen" (translated "Verily"), "I say unto you" (or "thee"). In the Fourth Gospel uniformly, and only in that gospel, is the double and more emphatic "Verily, verily" (e.g., iii. 3) ; cf. the double Amen in Ps. xli., 13, etc. In Rev. iii., 14, the word Amen is applied, probably under the influence of Isa. lxv., 16, to Christ Himself ; i.e., He in whom things become true—"the faithful and true witness"; cf. 2 Cor. i., 20. The nearest parallel to the Amen introducing a sentence is in Rev. i., 7, where the writer closes an affirmation thus: "Behold he cometh . . . Even so, Amen." See Hogg, Jew. Qrly. Rev., Oct., 1896 ; Nestle, Exp. Times, 1897 pp., 19off.; Dalman, Worte Jesu pp. 185-187 (Eng. trans. pp. 226-229). (R. S. C.)