Aramaic
מָרַנָא תָא
maranatha
Our Lord, come; or Our Lord has come
An Aramaic prayer from the earliest Christian church — 'Our Lord, come!' — preserved in 1 Corinthians 16:22 in its original form.
Maranatha (מָרַנָא תָא or מָרַנָאתָא) is one of the very few Aramaic phrases preserved in the New Testament — and unique in being preserved in its original form rather than translated. The phrase appears in 1 Corinthians 16:22, where Paul writes (in Greek): 'If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema. Maranatha.' The Aramaic words are written in Greek letters but not translated, suggesting they were a standard phrase familiar to the early church. Aramaic was the everyday language of Jesus and the first Christians in Judea — Hebrew was the language of Scripture and worship, but Aramaic was spoken in homes and streets. Maranatha preserves a fragment of that first-century Aramaic Christianity. The phrase can be parsed two ways. (1) Marana tha — 'Our Lord, come!' — an imperative prayer for Christ's return. (2) Maran atha — 'Our Lord has come' — an affirmation of Christ's arrival, possibly his coming in the Eucharist. Modern scholarship slightly favors the first reading (the imperative prayer) because it matches the eschatological prayers of the early church. But both readings preserve real early-Christian usage.
Maranatha appears once in the New Testament canon — 1 Corinthians 16:22. The Didache, an early Christian teaching document (c. 100 AD), also includes it at the end of its Eucharistic prayer: 'Let grace come and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God of David. If anyone is holy, let him come; if anyone is not, let him repent. Maranatha. Amen.' This Eucharistic context suggests the prayer functioned in early Christian worship — both as a longing for Christ's return and as a recognition of his presence in the Eucharist. Revelation 22:20 — the closing prayer of the New Testament — echoes the same longing in Greek: 'Even so, come, Lord Jesus' (erchou Kyrie Iesou). The Aramaic Maranatha and the Greek Erchou Kyrie Iesou are functionally the same prayer. The persistence of Maranatha as an Aramaic phrase in Greek-speaking churches suggests it was a sacred formula too holy to translate — like the Hebrew 'amen' and 'hallelujah.' For the first generation of Christians, these were their parents' language; even as their children grew up speaking Greek, they preserved the original Aramaic words for the holiest moments. The phrase has been recovered in modern Christian usage. The Charismatic Renewal movement of the 1960s-70s popularized 'Maranatha!' as an exclamation of expectant praise. Maranatha Music — a worship music publisher — takes its name from the phrase. Many Christian songs incorporate it.
“If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema. Maranatha.”
The only New Testament occurrence
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Greek equivalent of Maranatha
“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.”
Same eschatological hope
Maranatha is the prayer of Christian hope. It says 'Our Lord, come!' — believing that the answer is yes, his coming is near. Every Christian generation has prayed it. Every generation has died with the prayer unanswered in their lifetime but with the answer still certain. The prayer keeps the believer's eyes lifted from the current moment to the coming consummation. To pray Maranatha is to refuse to settle for what is now — and to trust that what is coming is worth the wait.
Maranatha is an Aramaic phrase meaning either 'Our Lord, come!' (an imperative prayer for Christ's return) or 'Our Lord has come' (an affirmation of Christ's arrival). Both readings preserve real first-century Christian usage. The phrase appears in 1 Corinthians 16:22 in its original Aramaic — not translated into Greek — suggesting it was a standard prayer in the earliest churches and was treated as too sacred to translate, like 'amen' and 'hallelujah.'
Aramaic was the everyday language of Jesus and the first Christians in Judea — Greek was the lingua franca of the wider Roman Empire, but Aramaic was the language spoken at home. Maranatha preserves a fragment of that original Aramaic Christianity. It is one of only a few Aramaic phrases preserved untranslated in the New Testament (others include 'abba,' 'ephphatha,' 'talitha cumi,' and 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani'). The preservation suggests the phrase was a fixed prayer formula too holy to translate.
Maranatha is typically pronounced mah-rah-NAH-thah, with the stress on the third syllable. The 'th' is pronounced as in 'thin,' not as in 'this.' Some pronounce it MAH-rah-NAH-tha. There is no single 'correct' English pronunciation since the Aramaic was originally spoken with sounds that don't exist in English; what matters is reverence and meaning.