The word Maranatha (Aramaic מָרַנָא תָא / מָרַן אֲתָא) appears once in the Greek New Testament, preserved in its original Aramaic at the very end of 1 Corinthians: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Corinthians 16:22 KJV). It can be divided two slightly different ways in the Aramaic, giving two possible readings: “Marana tha” = Our Lord, come! (an urgent prayer addressed to Jesus), or “Maran atha” = Our Lord has come (a confession of His incarnation, or a declaration that He is coming). Most scholars favor the first reading — it is an early Christian prayer for Jesus’ return. Either way, the survival of the original Aramaic in a Greek letter to a Greek city is a clue: the prayer was so deeply rooted in the worship of the very earliest Christians that Paul did not even translate it.
The Aramaic word
Aramaic was the everyday spoken language of first-century Palestine — the language Jesus, the apostles, and most of the earliest church spoke at home. The Greek New Testament preserves only a handful of original Aramaic words (Talitha cumi, Abba, Ephphatha, Rabboni, and Maranatha among them), and each one is doing important theological work. The choice to preserve the Aramaic, rather than translate it, is the writer’s way of saying: this is how it sounded in the original.
The components of Maranatha:
- Maran (מָרַן) — our Lord (literally mari “my Lord” with the first-person plural possessive)
- Tha (תָא) — the imperative form of the Aramaic verb to come (come!)
- Atha (אֲתָא) — the perfect form of the same verb (has come)
So depending on where you place the word break in MARANATHA, you get:
- Marana tha → Our Lord, come! — a prayer
- Maran atha → Our Lord has come — a confession
Both readings are grammatically possible. Most scholars favor Marana tha (the prayer reading) on textual and contextual grounds; many commentators include both senses as theologically complementary.
What it likely meant in early worship
The prayer reading — Our Lord, come! — fits perfectly with the witness of the very earliest Christian worship. Several lines of evidence converge.
First, the Didache (a Christian instruction document from around the late first or early second century) records Maranatha as the closing acclamation of the eucharistic prayer. The whole community said it together at the end of the Lord’s Supper.
Second, the parallel Greek prayer is preserved at the very end of the Bible: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20 KJV). The Greek “Erchou, kyrie Iēsou” (Come, Lord Jesus) is the Greek equivalent of Marana tha. The earliest church prayed both forms — the Aramaic original where Aramaic was spoken, the Greek translation where Greek was spoken.
Third, the prayer fits the eschatological hope of the early church. Christians believed Jesus was risen and reigning, and they expected Him to return. Our Lord, come! was the community’s regular cry, addressed directly to the risen Christ. The fact that this prayer is addressed to Jesus is itself a quiet theological landmark — the earliest Christians were addressing Jesus as Lord in their corporate worship, in the same language and form they would have used in addressing the LORD of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Why Paul ends 1 Corinthians with it
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians has been a long, often difficult correction of a church that was dividing over factions, behaving badly at the Lord’s Supper, abusing spiritual gifts, and questioning the resurrection. The letter is a long pastoral effort to restore the church to faithful order.
He ends the letter with a startling sequence: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema. Maranatha. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen” (1 Cor. 16:22–24).
The Anathema (set apart for judgment) sits beside the Maranatha (Our Lord, come). The two together name the seriousness of the church’s calling. To not love the Lord is a serious thing; the Lord is coming. Maranatha is not just devotional sweetness; it is the prayer of a community that expects the One they are praying to.
But Paul does not end there. The very next sentence is grace and love. The Maranatha is followed by the warmth of a benediction. The church under judgment is also the church under grace; the Lord who comes is also the Lord whose grace is already at work.
What the word teaches us
A few things, gently.
The earliest Christian worship was prayer to Jesus. Maranatha is not addressed to the Father; it is addressed to the risen Christ. The same Jesus who walked the dust of Galilee, who died on a Roman cross, who was raised on the third day, is the Lord to whom His people address their deepest cry. Come, Lord Jesus is the prayer of a community that believes He hears.
The earliest Christian worship was eschatological. The first Christians lived in the hope of Jesus’ return. Two thousand years later, the prayer is still the church’s. We have not stopped expecting Him. Maranatha is the word for that expectation, in the language He spoke when He was here.
And the word reminds us that some of the deepest things in Christian faith do not have to be translated to be felt. Maranatha is what the first Christians said, in the language they shared with their Lord. When you say it now, you are joining the very oldest chorus the church has — a single Aramaic word, preserved across two thousand years, addressed to the same Lord who first heard it.
Reading 1 Corinthians 16 in context
For more on Maranatha — the Aramaic background, the Didache’s use of the prayer in early eucharistic worship, the connection to Revelation 22:20, and the early church’s reading of the closing of 1 Corinthians, The Context Bible opens up five lenses on every verse. Open it in your browser or download free.
“Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” — Revelation 22:20 KJV
