“Verily” or “Amen”—What Did Jesus Say?

Every reader of the Gospels knows the phrase, “Verily, I say unto you,” or “Verily, verily, I say unto you.”^[8] According to the standard English translations of the Old and New Testaments, it seems that Jesus alone used such a preamble. Most Christians, long accustomed to such expressions in the Bible, take it for granted that “Jesus talked that way.”

What struck me first about “Verily I say unto you”^[9] was that the Greek text simply transliterated the Hebrew amen for “verily.”^[10] That in itself is not altogether surprising, for elsewhere in the New Testament, notably in the epistles of Paul, amēn often comes at the end of an expression of praise to God. Paul speaks of God as the Creator “who is blessed forever! Amen!” (Rom. 1:25), and exclaims “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever! Amen!” (1 Tim. 1:17). Honorific amēn responses also appear several times in the Book of Revelation. All of this is in perfect accord with occasional Old Testament usage^[11] and with present-day practice in synagogues and churches.^[12]

Puzzling to me, however, was that amēn came at the beginning of something that Jesus was quoted as saying. There are no other instances in the New or Old Testaments of a statement beginning, “Amen, I say to you.” In Hebrew literature ’āmēn is always a response. For example, the Psalmist writes, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! ’āmēn and ’āmēn” (Ps. 41:14). In Numbers 5:22 one reads that before the priest gave her the “bitter water,” a wife suspected of infidelity had to listen to his words and respond, “Amēn, amēn.”^[13] Again and again we hear the phrase, “And the people all said, ‘Amen'” (Deut. 27:16-26). Amen is used exclusively in biblical literature as a response—except for Jesus’ mode: “Amēn, I say to you.”

• ^[1] Joachim Jeremias, Neutestamentliche Theologie (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus G. Mohn, 1971), 43-44. ↩
• ^[2] Cf. Victor Hasler, Amen: Redaktionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zur Einfürungsformel der Herrenworte "Wahrlich ich sage euch" (Zürich; Stuttgart: Gotthelf-Verlag, 1969), 177ff., in particular. ↩
• ^[3] Often γένοιτο (genoito, "let it be so"; Deut. 27:15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26; 1 Kgs. 1:36; Jer. 11:5; twice ἀληθινόν (alēthinon, “true”; Isa. 65:16); once ἀληθῶς (alēthōs, “truly”; Jer. 35:6). ↩
• ^[4] In addition, the author of Luke once writes, ναὶ λέγω ὑμῖν (ναι legō hūmin, "yes, I say to you"; Luke 11:51). Mark gives amen in each of his parallels to Luke's alēthōs (Mark 9:1; 12:43). ↩
• ^[5] See Morton Smith, Tannaitic Parallels to the Gospels, Journal of Biblical Literature Monograph Series, vol. 6 (Philadelphia: Society of Biblical Literature, 1951), 27-30. ↩
• ^[6] For two additional examples of "Amen!" plus strong affirmation in a response by Jesus, see Luke 18:29 and 23:43. ↩
• ^[7] In John, the formula has been extended to "Amen, amen," and amēn is clearly thought of as adverbial, the repetition being a means of dramatizing. The fact that in John no introductory statement or action is necessary exemplifies that author's method of picking out a synoptic literary device and enlarging its use without preserving original contexts. ↩
• ^[8] The latter phrase appears only in the Gospel of John, e.g., John 1:51; 3:3, 5. ↩
• ^[9] This is the KJV’s rendition of ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν (amēn legō hūmin, lit., “Amēn, I say to you”). The RSV renders the phrase, “Truly, I say to you.” The NIV renders it, “I tell you the truth,” while the NKJV translates, “Assuredly, I say to you.” The expression appears twenty-six times in Matt., eleven times in Mark and six times in Luke (Luke 4:24; 12:37; 18:17, 29; 21:32; 23:43 [ἀμὴν σοι λέγω, amēn soi legō]). In John we always find the amen doubled in this expression, that is, “Amen, amen, I say to you” (20 times). ↩
• ^[10] The Hebrew word אָמֵן (’āmēn, “surely”) was transliterated to Greek as ἀμήν (amēn), rather than being translated. ↩
• ^[11] For example, Deut. 27:15 and 1 Chron. 16:36. ↩
• ^[12] Perhaps amēn entered the early Greek-speaking congregations mainly on account of a predilection to keep liturgical words alive even when transferring material from one language to another. ↩
• ^[13] This is a good example of amen’s meaning. The NIV renders, “So be it.” ↩