Born "from above"

So I was preparing to give the GD lesson this past Sunday. The lesson was #5 in the NT: "Born Again" (John 3-4): all about why we need to be baptized and the symbolism of water etc, as well as the story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.

As part of the preparation, I reviewed the chapters in my copy of the NT in Hebrew. This translation was done directly from Greek into Hebrew and therefore contains some interesting insights into the original text. A couple of things were interesting about the Hebrew version of John 3:3, such that I looked up the text in the Greek version:

KJV: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Hebrew: "ויען ישוע ויאמר אליו אמן אמן אני אֺמֵר לך אם-לא יוָלד איש מלמעלה לא-יוכל לראות מלכות האלוהים"

Greek: "ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν, οὐ δύναται ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ."

1. The first thing that caught me by surprise was the Hebrew translation of "Verily, Verily". This is such a common term in the NT that I never even bothered to think about it. In Hebrew it is written as "אמן אמן" which is literally translated into "Amen, Amen". Now the Greek version has "Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν", and for those who do not remember their high school math Greek alphabet: Ἀ=A; μ=m; ὴ=e; ν=n... You got it: "Amen, Amen". Why the KJV authors decided to use "verily", I can only guess at based on the Hebrew meaning:
• In Hebrew the word Amen comes from the root .א.מ.נ which is the root of the word for "belief". In essence, Amen in Hebrew is used to show belief in the truthfulness of what you are hearing, or, in other words: "I believe you". When you turn this around and the speaker uses the word it conveys a call for belief in his words. In other words the speaker uses Amen instead of saying: "in truth", or "believe me, since this is the truth". 
• However, in English most of these meanings are lost when the word Amen is used. It seems to convey only a humble response to divine instruction. Something along the lines of "I will follow what you tell me to do" - very different from anything truth related, as it goes... So I'm guessing the translating body for the KJV of the NT chose "verily" since it conveys "in truth" exactly.
2. The second thing was the translation of "born again", which in Hebrew was "יוָלד מלמעלה" - literally translated into "born from above". Again I reviewed the Greek version and it uses the word "ἄνωθεν", which has the following optional definitions in an online Greek-English dictionary:
1. From above, from a higher place.
• Of things which come from heaven or God.
2. From the first, from the beginning, from the very first.
3. Anew, over again.
• It seems as though the Hebrew version put its stress on being born of God, where the English version put the stress on being reborn. I say they are both relevant and should not be taken one without the other...
  

BTW, the complete lesson (NT #5) can be found on my GD website: www.tudtuu.info

TOTD: The obvious isn't obvious when information gets in the way.