Soliloquies OE - maranatha (British Library Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, folio 5r)

__NOTOC__ ''Maranatha'' ( Aramaic: ') is an Aramaic phrase which occurs once in the New Testament (). It also appears in

Didache The ''Didache'' (; ), also known as The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations (Διδαχὴ Κυρίου διὰ τῶν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων τοῖς ἔθνεσιν), is a brief anonymous early Christian tr ...

10:14. It is transliterated into Greek letters rather than translated 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, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

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

Translations and use

The NRSV 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 translates: "Come, O Lord"; the '' Message'' version paraphrases it as: "Make room for the Master!" In the ''

Catechism of the Catholic Church The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ( la, Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae; commonly called the ''Catechism'' or the ''CCC'') is a catechism promulgated for the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1992. It aims to summarize, in book for ...

'', "Maranatha" was translated as "Come, Lord!". In the Latin Church, the word "Maranatha" has been used as a solemn formula of excommunication (alongside " anathema").

Analysis

The NAB notes:

Use in contemplative prayer

Based on the teachings of John Cassian, John Main recommended the recitation of ''Maranatha'' as "the ideal Christian mantra", 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, 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; 1923–1991) was an English New Testament scholar. Born 11 June 1923, Lindars was educated at Altrincham Grammar School and then studied at St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained as a ...

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 . * 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.

External links