Maranatha

Maranatha is an Aramaic phrase preserved untranslated in 1 Corinthians 16:22, consisting of two words that can be parsed in two ways: Maran atha ("Our Lord has come") or Marana tha ("Our Lord, come!"). Most scholars favor the imperative reading — "Our Lord, come!" — because the Didache (an early Christian document, c. AD 80–120) uses it in a liturgical context that is clearly a prayer for the Lord's coming. The phrase stands among the earliest evidence of the christological application of Maran (Lord) to Jesus in Aramaic-speaking Christianity, predating any Greek formulation.

Paul places the phrase at the close of 1 Corinthians in a context of judgment and prayer: "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha." The combination of the curse and the prayer for Christ's coming creates a solemn eschatological frame for the letter. The Aramaic formula in a Greek letter addressed to Corinth suggests it was already a fixed liturgical cry of the early church, carried from Palestinian Christianity into the Gentile mission. It expresses the core eschatological longing of the early church, echoed in Revelation 22:20: "Come, Lord Jesus."