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

__NOTOC__ ''Maranatha'' (

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...

: ') is an

phrase In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...

which occurs once in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...

(). 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 tre ...

10:14. It is

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

into

Greek letters The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for 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, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

, 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 an English translation of the Bible published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches.NIV translates: "Come, O Lord"; the ''

Message A message is a discrete unit of communication intended by the source for consumption by some recipient or group of recipients. A message may be delivered by various means, including courier, telegraphy, carrier pigeon and electronic bus. A ...

'' 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 ...

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

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Jo ...

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

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

(alongside "

anathema Anathema, in common usage, is something or someone detested or shunned. In its other main usage, it is a formal excommunication. The latter meaning, its ecclesiastical sense, is based on New Testament usage. In the Old Testament, anathema was a cr ...

").

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 ( la, Ioannes Eremita Cassianus, ''Ioannus Cassianus'', or ''Ioannes Massiliensis''; – ), was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern ...

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

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

mantra A mantra ( Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ...

", 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; 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 an ...

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