''Maranatha'' (

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

: ') is an

phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...

which occurs once in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

(). It also appears in

Didache The ''Didache'' (; ), also known as ''The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations'' (), is a brief anonymous early Christian treatise ( ancient church order) written in Koine Greek, dated by modern scholars to the first or (l ...

10:14. It is

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

into

Greek letters The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as we ...

rather than

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

and, given the nature of early

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...

, the lexical difficulty rests in determining just which two Aramaic words constitute the single Greek expression.

Translations and use

The

NRSV The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is a translation of the Bible in American English. It was first published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches, the NRSV was created by an ecumenical committee of scholars "comprising about thirty ...

of 1 Corinthians 16:22 translates the expression as: "Our Lord, come!" but notes that it could also be translated as: "Our Lord has come”; the

NIV The New International Version (NIV) is a translation of the Bible into contemporary English. Published by Biblica, the complete NIV was released on October 27, 1978, with a minor revision in 1984 and a major revision in 2011. The NIV relies ...

translates: "Come, O Lord"; the ''

Message A message is a unit of communication that conveys information from a sender to a receiver. It can be transmitted through various forms, such as spoken or written words, signals, or electronic data, and can range from simple instructions to co ...

'' version paraphrases it as: "Make room for the Master!" This expression is also alluded to in Revelation 22:20: "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." In the ''

Catechism of the Catholic Church The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' (; commonly called the ''Catechism'' or the ''CCC'') is a reference work that summarizes the Catholic Church's doctrine. It was Promulgation (Catholic canon law), promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992 ...

'', "Maranatha" was translated as "Come, Lord!". In the

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

, the word "Maranatha" has been used as a solemn formula of

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in Koinonia, communion with other members o ...

(alongside "

anathema The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe that something or someone is being hated or avoided. The other refers to a formal excommunication by a Christian denomination, church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where a ...

").

Analysis

The NAB notes:

Use in contemplative prayer

Based on the teachings of

John Cassian John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman (, ''Ioannes Cassianus'', or ''Ioannes Massiliensis''; Greek: Ίωάννης Κασσιανός ό Ερημίτης; – ), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated ...

John Main John Douglas Main OSB (21 January 1926 – 30 December 1982) was a Roman Catholic priest and Benedictine monk who presented a way of Christian meditation which used a prayer-phrase or mantra. In 1975, Main began Christian meditation groups wh ...

recommended the recitation of ''Maranatha'' as "the ideal Christian

mantra A mantra ( ; Pali: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) belie ...

", meaning "Come Lord", repeated silently interiorly as four equally stressed syllables ''Ma-ra-na-tha'': "Not only is this one of the most ancient Christian prayers, in the language Jesus spoke, but it also has a harmonic quality that helps to bring the mind to silence. Other words or short phrases could be used but he saw it as important that during the meditation one doesn't think about the meaning or use the imagination." Other Christian authors and communities cultivate similar practices centred on this recitation, such as

Pablo d'Ors Pablo d'Ors (born 1963) is a Spanish priest, theologian and writer. He was born in Madrid; his grandfather was the essayist and art critic Eugenio d'Ors. He was educated in New York, Rome, Prague and Vienna. As a novelist, d'Ors has published hal ...

, who also recommends it as one of the linkages (along with the breathing and the hands) for the practice of contemplative prayer.E.g
Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati

References

Bibliography

* Black, Matthew. "The Maranatha Invocation and Jude 14,15 (1 Enoch 1:9)." In ''Christ and Spirit in the New Testament: Studies in Honour of Charles Franscis Digby Moule'', edited by

Barnabas Lindars Barnabas Lindars (born Frederick Chevallier Lindars; 11 June 1923 – 21 October 1991) was an English New Testament scholar. Lindars was educated at Altrincham Grammar School and then studied at St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained as ...

and Stepehn S. Smalley. 189-196. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973. * Hengel, Martin. "Abba, Maranatha, Hosanna und die Anfänge der Christologie." In ''Denkwürdiges Geheimnis: Beiträge zur Gotteslehre: Festschrift für Eberhard Jüngel zum 70 Geburtstag'', edited by Hrsg. v. Ingolf U. Dalferth, Johannes Fischer, and Hans-Peter Großhans. 145-183. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004. * Johnson, Christopher D.L
''Authority and Tradition in Contemporary Understandings of Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer''
Edinburgh PhD thesis, 2009. In print under {{ISBN, 9781441125477. * Moreau, Jean-Claude. "Maranatha." ''Revue Biblique'' 118.1 (2011): 51-75. * Moule, C.F.D. "Reconsideration of the Context of Maranatha." ''New Testament Studies'' 6.4 (1960): 307-310.

Translations and use

Analysis

Use in contemplative prayer

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading