One of the most common religious utterances, "amen" makes 13 appearances in the Hebrew Bible, 119 in the New Testament, and is plentiful in Islamic writings. To the Hebrews, the word meant "so it is," expressing assent or agreement, and also signifying truth. Thus, a Hebrew scholar terminating a speech or sermon with "amen" assured his audience that his statements were trustworthy and reliable. Also, in early times, many congregants were unable to read and thus join their spiritual leader in prayer; "amen" became the illiterate's contribution to, and participation in, textual recitation. Sort of like signing one's name with an X. The Talmud claims that "amen" is an acrostic, that is, an arrangement of words in which certain letters in each line, such as the first or last, are used to spell out a motto. "Amen," it turns out, is an acrostic formed from the first letters of the Hebrew phrase EI Melech Ne 'eman, "the Lord is a trustworthy King."
In the Bible, "amen" first appears in the Book of Numbers, in the "Ordeal for a suspected adulteress": May the Lord make you an example if malediction . . . . May this water, then, that brings a curse, enter your body and make your belly swell and your thighs waste away ! And the woman shall say, "Amen, amen !" (Num. 5:2 1-22)
Thus, the adulteress gives her assent to the curse. The word then makes twelve appearances in Deuteronomy (chapter 2 7), as assent .to "the twelve curses." For example: "Cursed be he who dishonors his father or his mother! And all the people shall answer, 'Amen!' " (Deut. 2 7 : 1 6).
PRAYER POSTURES
Actually, the word has pagan roots and originated in Egypt around 2 500 B.C.E. To the Egyptians, Amun meant "hidden one" and was the name of their highest deity, at one time worshiped throughout the Middle East. As later cultures invoked the god Jupiter with the exclamation "By Jove!," the Egyptians called on their deity, "By Amun!" The Hebrews adopted the affirmation, imbued it with fresh meaning, and passed it on to Christians. At the conclusion to the Our Father, it is customary to add "Amen." But as the Lord's Prayer is given in early versions of Matthew (6:9-13) , the "so be it" response does not appear. (See Lord's Prayer.)
One of the richest words in religious liturgy, "hallelujah;' meaning "praise ye the Lord;' is an ancient Hebrew term that appears in the Old Testament only in the Psalms, where it usually lies outside the main body of text. The Hebrew spelling of the word reveals its meaning and origin: halelu ! Yah, literally "praise!" + "Lord," where Yah is an abbreviated form of "Yahweh," God's personal name to the Israelites. The verb "praise" is in the plural imperative, clearly implying that the phrase is a command to the entire congregation: All if you praise the Lord! The use of the plural imperative was typical of Israelite worship.
"Hallelujah" (this spelling-of the word is an Old English translation of the Hebrew) most likely was a liturgical cry independent of any particular prayer, and this is probably why it exists outside the text of the Psalms. It may stand at the beginning of a Psalm, as in 1 1 1-12 ; or at the end, as in 1 04, 1 05, 1 15-17; or in both positions, as in 1 06, 1 1 3, 1 35, and 1 46-50. The joyous cry also appears in the Apocrypha: in the Greek Book of Tobit 13: 17, where it is a cry of praise for the New Jerusalem; and in 2 Maccabees 7:13, where rescued Jews erupt into rejoicing. John uses the word several times in the Book of Revelation.
Christians prefer the spelling "Alleluia," which is a second-century B.C.E. Greek, and later Latin, transliteration of the Hebrew halelu Yah. Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) suggested that the word was particularly suited for Easter services, and he laid out its use in Roman rite worship.
By Charles Panati in the book ' Sacred Origins of Profound Things', Arkana- Penguin Group, New York & London, 1996, p. 14-15. Edited and adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa
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