1 Corinthians 16:22
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.
Study Note
Study Note
The anathema formula 'if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha' is one of the most striking passages in the Pauline corpus for its combination of Greek liturgical curse (anathema) with an Aramaic prayer 'Maran atha' ('our Lord, come'). The retention of the Aramaic prayer in a predominantly Greek letter addressed to Corinth indicates that the phrase had achieved liturgical currency across the early church — a precious fragment of the Aramaic-speaking Jerusalem community's worship embedded in diaspora correspondence. Didache 10:6 preserves the same Aramaic prayer in an eucharistic context, confirming its liturgical function as a parousia-invocation accompanying the Lord's Supper. The verse is also important evidence that 'love of Christ' was already a constitutive criterion of community identity in the earliest Pauline mission — before the elaborate christological definitions of later councils.
Other Translations
If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha.
if any one doth not love the Lord Jesus Christ--let him be anathema! The Lord hath come!
If any man has not love for the Lord, let him be cursed. Maran atha (our Lord comes).
Cross References
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And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which …
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all …
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that …
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached …
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;