Maranatha

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Maranatha (also: Maranata ; ܡܪܢܐ ܬܐ / מרנא תא maranâ 'thâ' or ܡܪܢ ܐܬܐ / מרן אתא maran 'athâ' ) is an Aramaic exclamation that was probably used by the early Christians. In early Christian times, the Aramaic word Maranatha expressed the expectation of the imminent return of Jesus Christ after his ascension to heaven . It can be found in one place in the Bible, namely in 1 Cor 16:22  EU . Possible translations are: “Our Lord has come” (maran atha) or “Our Lord will come” or - most likely - “Our Lord, come!” (Marana tha) . Similarly, Rev 22:20  EU , where it is written in Greek: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus ! ”. The call probably comes from the early Christian communities, where the expectation of the return of Jesus was very pronounced.

In the Didache , the exclamation Maranatha was later used more in the sense of a prayer of thanksgiving and as a summoning of Jesus after the Christian communal meal of the Didache. In the Roman Catholic Church , Maranatha et al. a. spoken in the Advent season as a communion verse, with which the meaning of the verse is related to the birth of Christ or his return. In both cases the phrase is used in a liturgical context.

meaning

Based on the Didache , the sentence can be interpreted as an eschatological outlook, which is based on 1 Cor 11 : 23-26  EU .

The Christological meaning of the exclamation is related to "Jesus is the Lord", which is mentioned in Rom 10.9  EU and 1 Cor 12.3  EU , for example .

Trivia

Morris L. West uses the term in his parousia novel The Jugglers of God in the form maran 'athâ' , where "Mr. Atha “is the name under which the returned Christ 'appears' before he reveals himself with the reference to the whole expression.

literature

  • Otto Betz: Art. Maranatha. In: Bo Reicke, Leonhard Rost (ed.): Biblisch-Historisches Handwörterbuch, Göttingen 1994, p. 1144.
  • Max Wilcox: Art. Maranatha. In: David Noel Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Doubleday 1992, ISBN 3-438-01121-2 , Vol. 4, p. 514.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Michael Theobald: Maranatha . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 6 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997.
  2. ↑ Didache 10.6. In: Library of the Church Fathers. Retrieved February 8, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Max Wilcox: Art. Maranatha. In: David Noel Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Doubleday 1992, ISBN 3-438-01121-2 , Vol. 4, p. 514.