Studying 1 Cor 16:22

Sarel Slabbert

Hi guys,

I am currently studying 1 Cor 16:22 and I am looking into the relationship between the Anathema and Maranatha.

I found a few resources in Logos, but I was wondering if someone knows of any resources about these two words that are not currently found in Logos.

Allen Browne

Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians : A
Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000),
1348:

In a masterly concluding chapter to his very helpful Traditions as Rhetorical Proof: Pauline Argumentation in 1 Corinthians Anders Eriksson offers one of the very few convincing exegetical accounts of these final three verses, so crucial that Paul chose to pen them in his own hand as his final note. ... Eriksson insists on a synchronic approach which treats epistolary and rhetorical aspects together as a way of understanding Paul’s aims and strategy.

He footnotes this as:
Eriksson, “Maranatha in the Letter’s Peroratio,” in his Traditions as Rhetorical Proof: Pauline Argumentation in 1 Cor, 279–98.

Thiselton continues (1351-2) with more quotes from Eriksson:

“The peroratio has two main functions: recapitulation and emotional appeal.” The speech (or in this case the letter to read aloud in public) must end on a “high.” What more heightened climax can be envisaged than the vision of the return of Christ, when, to cite Spicq’s allusion to the gospel tradition, the Lord who comes will say either “Go from me, you who bear the anathema” (πορεύεσθε πʼ ἐμοῦ κατηραμένοι …) or “Come to me, you who bear the blessing (δεῦτε οἱ εὐλογημένοι τοῦ πατρός μου), inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt 24:34 and 41). “The future dimension is especially stressed by Paul in 7:26–31; 11:26; 15:24, 51–57.” Eriksson not only concludes that Paul’s ending follows rhetorical patterns by inviting fear and pity, love and longing, but also that “the maranatha effectively stirs the other deliberative emotion, which is hope. Maranatha is a prayer for the Lord’s return and as such it stresses the eschatological hope for those who love Christ and have not forsaken the Gospel.” “The traditional μαράνα θά plays a key role in the peroratio and therefore also in the whole letter.” In practical terms it shifts attention from “charismatic giftedness” to “the covenant theme, the christocentric emphasis; the eschatological tension and love.”

G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the
Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic;
Apollos, 2007), 749:

Paul moves right from the curse to the Aramaic expression “Maranatha” (“Our Lord, come!”), which points to “the coming of the Lord in judgment to redress wrong and establish right” (NIDNTT 2:897). The expectation that the Lord would come to redress wrong and establish his righteousness in the earth (see commentary on 1 Cor. 13:8–10, 12 above) grew out of OT prophetic and apocalyptic texts and is found throughout early Judaism (1 En. 1:9) and the NT (e.g., Matt. 3:7/Luke 3:7; Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6; 1 Thess. 1:10; 2:14–16; Jude 14–15; Rev. 6:17).

If you don't have that dictionary, search your Bible dictionaries for:
    Anathema NEAR Maranatha
For example, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, vol. 1, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1988; 2002), 121.:

Both words—anáthēma and anáthema—were originally dialectical variations and had the same connotation, “offering to the gods.” The non-Attic form anáthema was adopted in the LXX as a rendering of the Heb ḥērem (see ACCURSED), and gradually came to have the significance of the Hebrew word—“anything devoted to destruction.” Whereas in the Greek fathers anáthema—as ḥērem in rabbinic Hebrew—came to denote excommunication from society, in the NT the word has its full force.

Walter A. Elwell and Philip Wesley Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary,
Tyndale reference library (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers,
2001), 855:

The fact that maranatha occurs immediately after Paul’s imprecatory curse (1 Cor 16:22) has led many to the view that the Aramaic expression is part of the curse itself. The KJV rendering (“let him be Anathema Maran-atha”) leaves the impression that the two words are a unit, whereas anathema is a Greek word meaning “curse” and probably ends the sentence. It is nevertheless quite possible, some modern scholars believe, to relate maranatha very closely to the curse, since the prayer for Jesus to come in judgment reinforces the solemnity and reality of Paul’s imprecation. Interestingly, a church council in the seventh century anathematizes dissidents with the words “anathema maranatha, let him be condemned at the Lord’s coming.”

TDNT also would be worth checking.