Did Rabbi Elazar Ben Azaria Verily Say "Verily"?

My English students here in Israel misuse the word "very". In Hebrew we have the word "מאוד" which can be used as an adverb to modify a verb in a sentence. Hebrew speakers therefore, when translating their native tongue into English will construct sentences like: "I very like pizza". I vote we bring back the archaic "verily" which is the adverb for very that CAN modify a verb. "I verily like pizza", though archaic, is grammatically correct. And this neat word has even more possibilities as it means "truly", "certainly" and can be used as an interjection at the beginning of a sentence. "Verily, I like pizza!" sounds Shakespearean and biblical but is the correct way to use it.I came across this word while looking at the translations of the Haggadah. In the first English translation of the Haggadah (Alexander, 1770) we find it twice:

Had not he, blessed be his holy name, brought out ancestors forth from Egypt, verily we, our children, and our children’s children, would have been in servitude to Pharaoh in Egypt.

Rabbi Eleazer the son of Azariah saith, verily I am as a man of seventy years, and never had the happiness of knowing, that the saying of the redemption of Egypt was to be said by night.

I will not comment on the terrible translations here, but in subsequent Haggadot, largely influenced by the translation of the legendary 18^th /19^th century autodidact and second translator of the Haggadah into English, David Levi, only Rabbi Eleazer's interjection remains. His (much improved) version, reads:

Rabbi Eleazer, the son of Azariah, said, "verily, I am as a man of seventy years of age, and have hitherto not been able to prove, that the narration of the departure from Egypt, ought to be related at night.

Why is the word used here? The Hebrew text has: הרי אני כבן שבעים שנה starting with an emphatic exclamation for which no clear complement exists in the English language. It was only towards the end of the 18^th century that the radically renewed translation of A.A. Green removed the interjection all together: Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said, "I am about seventy years old…" Still, we find the 1770 "verily" in translations until today although subsequent translators have come up with several other suggestions e.g.

Behold, I am about seventy years of age (Magil's Linear Haggadah, 1913)

Lo, I am about seventy years of age (The Illustrated Haggadah, Meltzer, 1930)

Now I am as seventy years of age (Cecil Roth, 1934)

Look at me! Three score years and ten are written on my face (Haggadah translated by M. Samuel, 1942)

David and Tamar De Sola Pool use the interjection "Here I am as a man of seventy" in the Jewish Welfare Board Haggadah in 1943 which is also used in one of the latest English translations by Nathan Englander in 2012 "Here, I might as well be seventy years old"

Whereas the oft used Maxwell Haggadah kept "verily" for years, their new translation of 2011 has finally capitulated and now reads: "Note that I am like a man of seventy years of age"

Where did Alexander take his "verily" from? He was obviously influenced by English Bible translations and Shakespearean English. Shakespeare is probably the writer most associated with the word verily: "Verily, I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born," he writes in "Henry VIII." And in the Bible Psalms 37:3 reads: "Trust in the Lord...and verily thou shalt be fed". Looking in the King James Bible for "verily" reveals that it is used only 14 times in the Jewish Bible out of a total of 113 in both old and new testament. It is especially the apostle John who verily likes the word so much that he consistently doubles it throughout the whole book of John e.g. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." (John 6:47). It seems to be that it is especially Jesus who is quoted by John as (over)using the word…

It will therefore not be so surprising that Jewish translators over the years have shied away from using this translation for Rabbi Elazer's interjection. On the other hand, Elazer ben Azariah did live in the Land of Israel during the 1^st century, approximately the same time as Jesus, so they might have used the same (at the time) hip interjections in their speech? J