# Amen

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089 "2003-10-23T12:17:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089/1 "2003-10-23T12:17:33Z")

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Alright, I was doing some reading the other day and I heard something, which upon reflection might make a little sense.

In any event, the Christian practice of saying “Amen” originally comes from the Egyption practice of saying “Amen” in reference to Amen-Ra (sp?).

In any event, what’s the scoop on this? True…Not…

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**Author:** ![Lezaza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Lezaza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lezaza)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089/2 "2003-10-23T12:24:52Z")

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Middle English, derived from Old English, which is from Late Latin which came from Greek, from Hebrew, it means “certainly, verily”, from aman, to be firm.

(I really don’t like to cut away all the “amen”-writings, but I can’t make those signs, so…)

do note that the pronounciation of the latin _Amen_ and the egyptian Amen (which can be spelled Amon or Ammon as well) differs greatly.

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**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089/3 "2003-10-23T19:56:13Z")

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Hm…I’m just wondering because I saw a program called “The naked truth” and they mentioned the entymology in my OP.

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**Author:** ![Amun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Amun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amun)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089/4 "2003-10-23T20:41:53Z")

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From what I understand, the two are merely a coincidence in spelling. As Lezaza said above me, it means “certainly, verily, or I agree” and I think his etymology is correct.

On ‘Amun’: it literally translates to ‘the hidden one’ which I think was a title given their pharoahs, possibly because ordinary egyptian people were not allowed to see them. For example:

Tutankhamun

Tut - his name

ankh - the Egyptian symbol of life (T with a loop on the top)

amun - the hidden one, explained above.  
At least that’s how I see it.

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**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089/5 "2003-10-24T11:33:53Z")

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So…your username is “hidden one”?

😃

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**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089/6 "2003-10-24T13:15:40Z")

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While “Amun” probably does mean “the hidden one,” I believe that the term was usually understood as a reference to _the_ [Amun](http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/amun-re.htm), the god whose cult at Karnak and Luxor came to dominate much of Egyptian religion during the New Kingdom.

[Tutankhamen](http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/tut.htm) means “the living [ankk] image [tut] of Amen” (“Amen,” “Amun,” and “Amon” being variant transliterations of the same god’s name). Of course, you could also translate that as “the living image of the hidden one,” but there’s no doubt that it meant the god Amen as The Hidden One.

Remember, Tutankhamen’s name was originally Tutankh_aten_, a reference to the god “Aten” who Akhenaten (possibly Tut’s father) had established as the only god of Egypt during the Amarna period. After Akhenaten’s death, all references to Aten (a heretical belief in the eyes of most traditional Egyptians) were effaced–literally, in the case of stone inscriptions, and symbolically, in the case of Tut’s name. The god Amen was restored in Aten’s place in both Tut’s name and in Egyptian society in general.

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**Author:** ![JHW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b38774/32.png) [@JHW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHW)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amen/209089/7 "2003-10-24T13:51:26Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lezaza \*  
> \*\*Middle English, derived from Old English, which is from Late Latin which came from Greek, from Hebrew, it means “certainly, verily”, from aman, to be firm.  
> \*\*

I would identify the word “Amen” as coming from the Hebrew root 'MN (aleph-mem-nun) which has the connotation of “faithful” or “trustworthy” in ‘prayer-book Hebrew’. The word Amen occurs in Biblical narrative a few times that I can think of off the top of my head, usually indicating agreement by the speaker with something that someone else has just said. That’s how it’s used in ‘prayer-book Hebrew’ too.

There is a also a tradition (Midrashic, probably) that explains the word Amen as a Hebrew acronym for the phrase “God is a trustworthy King” ('El melech ne’eman).

The Christian use of Amen probably stems directly from the Jewish use of it.