[Gr. ἀνάθεμα a thing accursed; Μαρὰν ἀθά = Syriac māra·n ethā· ‘the Lord hath come.’] These words occur together in 1 Cor. xvi. 22. According to modern criticism, Maran atha is a distinct sentence having no connection with Anathema; but in earlier texts of the Greek it was connected with it and the connection variously explained; hence Anathema Maranatha has been taken as a portentously intensified form of Anathema in its various senses.
1526. Tindale, 1 Cor. xvi. 22 Yf eny man love not the lorde Jesus Christ, the same be anathema maranatha. [Wyclif, Be he cursid, mara natha. 1611 Let him bee Anathema Maranatha. 1881 (Revised) Let him be Anathema. Maranatha.]
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Others will have Anathema maranatha to have answered to the third and highest degree of excommunication among the Jews.
1856. Mrs. Stowe, Dred, II. ii. 23. I don’t see the sense of such an anathema maranatha as we got to-day.
