[PW] Re: Origin of the word AMEN

[Nichael Cramer]

>Lori Morse wrote:
>  I'm trying to answer a question posed by my son's Rabbi.  We are trying to
>determine WHO used the term AMEN first--the Greeks, Hebrews...OED has been
>checked, but doesn't really answer who was first, so to speak...
>
>TIA
>Lori Morse
>ljmorse at gmail.com
>Free Library of Philadelphia

Hi Lori

Liddle-Scott (the standard classical Greek dictionary) defines "Amen" 
as a "Heb[rew] Adv[erb]"
The on-line version can be found here:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%235236

Since "amen" is effectively a loan-word in Greek, it's probably pretty safe to
assume that the right of priority belongs to Hebrew.   ;-)

Nichael
[As a --possibly-- interesting related aside "amen" appears many 
times in the Greek New Testament.
Aside from its association with prayer, it is the word most typically 
translated as "verily"
as in "Verily, verily, I say unto you...."]
--
Nichael Cramer
Guilford VT
nichael at sover.net
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/