The term "Amen" (Egyptian, genesis, mythology, church)
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O only One, You who were in the sky when there was no land and no mountains. You Shepherd Lord, One only, Maker of everything there is !
The striking passages (as they are called by W. Budge) which are cited below come from Egyptian texts and they consist just a sample of a collection of relevant passages effected by the German Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch:
_God is one and alone, and none other existeth with Him. _God is the One, the One who made all things. _God is a spirit, a hidden spirit, the spirit of spirits, the great spirit of the Egyptians, the divine spirit. _He begetteth, but was never begotten; He produceth, but was never produced; _He begat himself and produced himself. _He createth but was never created; He is the maker of his own form, and the Fashioner of His own body.
Thοse divine attributes, which originally characterized the head-god of every company of gods, became the attributes of the unique Lord God of the monotheistic religions.
The German Egyptologist Jan Assmann writes as follows:
The Theban theology of these decades (18th dynasty, 1570-1293)can be interpreted as an attempt to fill the hyphenated formulation Amun-Re with theological content, that is, to develop a divine concept sufficiently comprehensive to include all the traditions concerning Amun and all those of Re as well. The pure Amun aspect of the city god and the pure Re aspect of the of the sun god are connected by the concept of the supreme being who had already emerged in the theological fragments of the Middle Kingdom(c. 2000-1800) in his aspects of primeval god, creator god, and god of life. I call this process “additive,” for I have the impression that this new concept of a supreme being was arrived at primarily by accumulation and juxtaposition. All aspects of divine unity –preexistence, creator, sustainer- were combined and connected with one another by means of simple but well ordered juxtapositions of sequences of predicates of Amun and Re.
An indication that Amen-Ra was the first “One and Only God” is the fact that Jews, Christians and Muslims are concluding their prayers by invoking his name: “Amen”
Jewish theologians honored their Amen-Ra worshiping Egyptian tutors by having Christianity and Islam chant Amen’s name for ever and ever!!
Both the name of the god Amen (imn) in the hieroglyphic script as the word Amen (imn) in Hebrew have identical spelling.
In the Wikipedia, however, you will read that the Hebrew word starts with aleph, while the
Egyptian name begins with a yodh.
Quote:
Popular among some theosophists proponents of Afrocentric theories of history, and adherents of esoteric Christianity is the conjecture that amen is a derivative of the name of the Egyptian god Amun (which is sometimes also spelled Amen). Some adherents of Eastern religions believe that amen shares roots with the Hindu Sanskrit word, Aun. There is no academic support for either of these views. The Hebrew word, as noted above, starts with aleph, while the Egyptian name begins with a yodh.
While it is true that the Egyptian name starts with yodh, in the Egyptian script yodh “at the beginning of words is sometimes identical with aleph” as we are informed by Alan Gardiner, the author of the famous “Egyptian Grammar.”
Moreover, it is to be noted that if the term “Amen” was an Hebrew word especially used to conclude prayers, the meaning of the word should have been adopted by Christians and Muslims and not its sound, so that worshippers would know what the meaning was of the word they were pronouncing.
When Moses brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, the Lord God gave Moses many laws and rules that would a line them selves up to the ways of the Lord and His plan which would eventually bring Lord Jesus to the earth.... So these laws rejected the customs and tradition of the Egyptians and the religion of the dead and their gods of the underworld , which God new commandment like `No graven images` contradict Egyptians religion ....Saying the the gods of Ancient Egypt which represent the dead and are not the Living God of Israel and Christianity who represents the life and living...... Ideas of a god of imn or amen is Not the term that the Old Testament uses [em`a] of Hebrew, which means `to take care, to be faithful, reliable or to believe something ``....... See there are many liberal scholars who will bring intrigue and reason to compare Judaism and Christianity to pagan root to undermine truth ...
When Moses brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt, the Lord God gave Moses many laws and rules that would a line them selves up to the ways of the Lord and His plan which would eventually bring Lord Jesus to the earth.... So these laws rejected the customs and tradition of the Egyptians and the religion of the dead and their gods of the underworld , which God new commandment like `No graven images` contradict Egyptians religion ....Saying the the gods of Ancient Egypt which represent the dead and are not the Living God of Israel and Christianity who represents the life and living...... Ideas of a god of imn or amen is Not the term that the Old Testament uses [em`a] of Hebrew, which means `to take care, to be faithful, reliable or to believe something ``....... See there are many liberal scholars who will bring intrigue and reason to compare Judaism and Christianity to pagan root to undermine truth ...
Pagan roots cannot be disputed but, to me, Jews, Christians and Muslims do very well in still honouring the original monotheistic God.
Pagan roots cannot be disputed but, to me, Jews, Christians and Muslims do very well in still honouring the original monotheistic God.
What is wrong with that?
I agree - very good posts. No matter what the origins of a thing, it's the current usage that matters to a society or group. I don't see many Christians refuse to prounounce the days of the week outloud, because of their "pagan" origins. Similarly, the Jewish months are mostly named after Babylonian months, yet they still use them.
Traditional Faith has not needed "liberal scholars" (as the other poster claimed) to help undermine it's pillars - the rise of Rationalism and the Age of Reason accomplished that. Now, scholars are merely trying to understand the ancient Near East (which includes Ancient Israel and it's religion and religious writings) in an unbiased manner as possible. If this includes pointing out the "pagan" roots of traditional Monotheism, then so be it.
A traditional believer can still keep their faith, and enjoy reading about the origins of their faith.
These things says
The Amen The True And Faithful Witness The Beginning 0f
The Creation 0f God..." - Rev.3:14 (I like these Terms)
Τhank you very much for the citation.
In all available Greek manuscripts the last phrase reads : «η αρχή της κτίσεως του Θεού». Amen is the beginning of the building of the God. Not the beginning of the God’s creation.
Sounds like you haven't met the Almighty God ~ the creator.
I suppose you have, then. Do us the favor of asking Him what He thinks of this thread. Surely he remembers those Egyptians and the trouble they caused His people.
As strange as it may sound, Egypt has played a central role in Biblical Theology and Biblical Interpretation - the Exodus account (of course), Egypt's semi-control over Canaan, and the community of believers who thrived in Egypt during the Babylonian Exile, then to Alexandria and the creation of the Septuagint and the school of Allegorical Interpretation that sprang from the city, and all the way down to the Coptic Church with it's additional, interesting books (Jubilees, Enoch, etc).
Is it any wonder that Egyptian ideas might have influenced Israelite Theology? The most interesting is the myth of Ptah and his creation of the world by his word - a motif that would be taken up and transformed by the author of Genesis 1. This motif of "creation by word alone" was a relatively rare one in the ancient Near East - most creation stories involved sex, violence and other aspects (the violent aspects of Creation, at least, which are preserved in some of the Psalms and other places in the Hebrew Bible in which Yahweh prevails over his primeval foes: Sea and it's minions). I suppose it was the slow rejection of these older ideas that the Priestly author of the Genesis 1 account was demythologyzing in his version. No longer defeated by an epic battle, Sea is already passive (though Chaotic) and God separates the Sea (by the Sky), and later separates the Sea again (to reveal the earth) in the process of Creation/Separation.
The image of the Spirit of God (or "Wind", "Breath", or "Awesome Wind" of God - depending on how you translate the term) flying or floating over the primeval Sea is an enduring one that always sticks with me. This "wind" or "spirit" is the same that inspires Samson and "rushes" through him to drive him to his heroic exploits and great feats of strength, as well as other Judges. It is a prominent feature of God that permeates the Hebrew Bible. In later Theology, it becomes tinged with a personality and becomes the Christian "Holy Spirit". The typical formula "when there was x" or "when there was not x" is present in the Account.
At the beginning of God's creating of the heavens and the earth,
when the earth was wild and waste,
darkness over the face of Ocean,
rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters -
God said: Let there be light! And there was light.
(Genesis 1:1-3, SB)
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