The Pass One of TOR
Myriad moons ago, in the land of Pharaoh, there came to power a Being of wondrous propensities.
He was called Amenhotep IV. Amemhotep IV envisioned, and then implemented, a monumental and unsurpassed addition to culture. Amenhotep was the first to have a society introduced to the theology of a one-god religion. Yes, Amenhotep was the institutionalizer of monotheism, a religion of one god.
This was a true monotheism not the polytheism that Judaism, Christianity and Islam, each usually having at least two gods ~ the one
all-benevolent, the other all-evil ~ have been for hundreds & hundreds of years.
Yes, Amenhotep proclaimed the Aten, the Sun God, as the only god in all the universe; he even changed his name to reflect this new devotional imagery.
No prosaic Pharaoh was he, the works of Egyptian art were advanced to a vastly, almost abstract, beautiful form.
Of course when a vast change comes many resist it. After all, the feebleminded peasants were content to have had their religion spoonfeed to them by, less than astute, ancestors.
The established priests didn t want one-god concepts cutting into their lucrative, wholly unholy, business.
Nevertheless, the Pharaohs were considered gods in their own right.
Ergo, any opposition to the new religion was wee and reserved. But the only people to sincerely embrace Amenhotep s religion were the upperclass, the very well educated members of his governmental theocratic oligarchy. This was no small number, the ancient Egyptian government was a vast institution.
Not terribly long after Amenhotep's demise the priests and peasants of the polytheist deities were once again able to gain political power.
They began a systematic, and extremely well financed, program of wiping any trace of the reign of Amenhotep IV from the face of the Earth. His name, original as well as his new, were obliterated from temple, obelisk, monument and papyrus.
The polytheist re-writers of history were very efficient, but not 100% so. Monotheism s followers were also persecuted.
To even utter the former Pharaoh s name was a crime punishable by a sound thrashing or even death!
Thus, these believes in a single god, who used to end all prayers by speaking the new name Amenhotep had chosen, reverted back to ending their supernally aimed beseechings with the words - Freed From Doubt by Amenhotep.
But this was also seen as a blasphemous act by the ancient polytheistic spin-doctors. So, they needed to end their prayers, to their singular god, with another sound of solemn ratification.
And that way soon became the word - - - AMEN
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BTW: Amenhotep's followers, though many changes have been made to their religion, soon thereafter became know as... the Jews.