Reading Matthew in Hebrew X - Amen I say to you (slightly longer, edited version)

I haven't counted the occurrences of the Matthean formula "Amen I say to you" in the NT. I did look in Strong's concordance, but it lists only one. The reason is that Strong's is based on the KJV, where the expression has been changed to "verily," "truly," "in truth," or some such. Fortunately, others have counted the occurrences of this formula. It occurs 31 times in Matthew, 13 in Mark, and 6 in Luke. These numbers will, of course, depend upon which text is used.

In Greek, when the audience is plural the formula becomes "amen lego humin," and when singular it is "lego soi." There is an assonance in "amen/humin," which may have led some to believe that Matthew was originally written in Greek. The fact, though, is that the formula was already alliterative in Hebrew, as we have seen in Mt. 5.26:

אָמֵן אֹמֵר אֲנִי לָךְ

It sounds like "awmen omer ani lawch."

We will not be able to decide in which language Matthew was originally written on the basis of any single clue, but rather on the preponderance of the evidence.

According to A STUDENT'S VOCABULARY OF BIBLICAL HEBREW, by George M. Landes, the meaning of "amen" is "it is sure, certain."

The scarcity of "Amen I say to you" in Luke's gospel is, once again, due to Luke's editing of the Matthean material to make it less "Jewish," and more acceptable to the new, Gentile Christians. He did this by substituting expressions meaning "verily," "truly," "in truth," or sometimes, just leaving the formula out and writing "I say to you."

Mark has no problem with keeping the formula, but has less need for it, since his gospel is mostly narrative.