Friday, July 7, 2023

Jean Daniélou on Marana tha (Μαράνα θα)

  

This is an Aramaic phrase, and should be regarded as the Church’s oldest liturgical prayer. Its meaning has been debated. Theodoret translates it: ‘The Lord has come’, breaking it up into Maran atha, which makes it an affirmation of the coming of the Messiah; but it seems more likely that it ought to be divided Marana tha, and translated, ‘Come, Lord.’ In Revelation (22:20) the expression ‘Ερχου Κυριε Ιησου certainly looks like a Greek translation of this phrase, and the Aramaic form appears in 1 Cor. 16.22. It voices the strongly eschatological attitude of the Jewish Christian community. (Jean Daniélou, The Theology of Jewish Christianity: The Development of Christian Doctrine Before the Council of Nicaea [trans. John A. Baker; London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1964], 336)