John records Jesus saying \u201cAmen, Amen\u201d some twenty-five times. It\u2019s typically understood as an oath formula, a \u201cdouble witness\u201d that stresses the truth of what Jesus says.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s an additional dimension. The double Amen appears in the Old Testament only a few times. The people respond to Ezra\u2019s blessing of Yahweh with \u201cAmen, Amen\u201d (Nehemiah 8:6), and several of the books of the Psalter end with a form of the double Amen: \u201cAmen and Amen\u201d (41:13; 72;19; 89:52)_<\/p>\n
The most significant use, though, occurs in Numbers 5:22, n the instructions for the jealousy test. The woman who is accused of infidelity responds to the priest\u2019s oath\/curse with an \u201cAmen, Amen.\u201d By that response, she places herself under the curse \u00a0of the rite, so that if she has been unfaithful she will become a curse among the people and her thigh will waste and her abdomen will swell (in a false pregnancy).\u00a0<\/p>\n
That is probably in the background in Nehemiah 8:6. Ezra reads the law, and the people, the bride of Yahweh, accept the full weight of Torah\u2019s curses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jesus uses the phrase in a different context, it seems. He is not an accused bride, but an accusing husband, bringing the covenant lawsuit against Israel. Every time He says \u201cAmen, Amen,\u201d His words present another jealousy test for Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John records Jesus saying \u201cAmen, Amen\u201d some twenty-five times. It\u2019s typically understood as an oath formula, a \u201cdouble witness\u201d that stresses the truth of what Jesus says. But there\u2019s an additional dimension. The double Amen appears in the Old Testament only a few times. The people respond to Ezra\u2019s blessing of Yahweh with \u201cAmen, Amen\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[600,580,394],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amen","category-gospels","category-numbers"],"yoast_head":"\n