Maranatha (1 Corinthians 16:22): Reconstruction and Translation Based on Western Middle Aramaic

Over the course of church history and modern biblical criticism, there have been multiple reconstructions and translations offered for the expression maranatha as it occurs in 1 Cor 16:22. However, a major lacuna is an exhaustive study of the morphology of the three linguistic components that make up this expression as they are found in Western Middle Aramaic texts. The data demonstrate that the modern reconstruction of maranatha as “marana tha” with its accompanying translation “Our Lord, come!” is unlikely, and thus I propose a different reconstruction and translation that better cohere with the linguistic data.