ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – VERILY, VERILY – Amen Amen אסנ אסנ
John 12:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
Verily, Verily many sound a bit archaic but we say pretty much the same thing when we want to emphasize a point that we are not exaggerating or lying. Someone who has a reputation as a jokester will say something like; “Look, I’m serious here.” Johnny Carson the great comedian used to say: “I kid you not,” before he told a humorous story that was actually a true story.
Rabbis were great story tellers and many times they would do as Jesus did when he wanted His disciples to know he was not joking around but telling something that was a profound truth, he would preface the story with: “Verily Verily.” Actually in the Aramaic words are more recognizable as Amen, Amen. In the Greek it is picked up as a loan word from the Aramaic and is Amen Amen. Amen in Aramaic, Greek and as it is English means, this is a fact, this is truth. When you end your prayer with Amen you are asserting that what you said is to the best of your knowledge to be true and accurate. When you say “amen” you are literally taking an oath swearing that: “I swear that the testimony I am about to give or have given or has been given is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…”
In Romans 9:1 the Apostle Paul uses pretty a similar device when he says: “I am speaking with truthfulness and not lying.” The point is, that when you see Verily, verily, pay close attention to what follows for it will not only be a truth, but a profound truth.