MARAN-ATHA. These Words are Syriac, and signify, The Lord comes, or The Lord is come. ‘Twas a Form of Threatning, Cursing, or Anathematizing among the Jews. Saint Paul pronounces Anathema Maran-atha against all those who love not Jesus Christ1. Si quis non amat Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, sit Anathema, Maran-atha. The greatest Part of the Commentators2 inform us, that Maran-atha is the greatest of all Anathema’s among the Jews, and equivalent to Shamatha, or Shem-atha, the Name comes, or the Lord comes: Which is as much as to say, ” Mayest thou be devoted to the greatest of Evils, and to the utmost Severity ” of God’s Judgments; may the Lord come ” quickly to take Vengeance of thy Crimes. But Selden3 and Lightfoot4 maintain, that Maran-atha is not to be found in this Sense among the Rabbins. Maran-atha may well enough be understood in an absolute Sense, Let him that does not love our Lord Jesus Christ be Anathema. The Lord is come, the Messiah has appeared; Evil to whomsoever receives him not. He particularly applies himself to the unbelieving Jews. Upon this Head may be consulted, besides the ordinary Commentators, Selden de Synedriis, l. i. c. 8. Lightfoot in a particular Dissertation upon Maran-atha, printed in the first Volume of his Works, Ultrajecti, 1699. and in the Dissertations of Elias Weihemajerus, de Paulino anathematismo, ad 1 Cor. xvi. 22. and of Johannes Rennerus, Maranatha, in the Collection of Dissertations called Thesaurus Theologicophilologicus, Part ii. p. 578, 582, &c.
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