John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 16:22

"If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha." — 1 Corinthians 16:22 (ASV)

If any man love not the Lord Jesus. The close of the Epistle consists of three parts. He entreats the grace of Christ on behalf of the Corinthians; he makes a declaration of his love towards them; and, with the severest threatening, he inveighs against those that falsely took upon themselves the Lord’s name, while not loving Him from the heart.

For he is not speaking of strangers, who avowedly hated the Christian name, but of pretenders and hypocrites, who troubled the Churches for the sake of their own belly, or from empty boasting. On such persons he denounces an anathema, and he also pronounces a curse upon them. It is not certain, however, whether he desires their destruction in the presence of God, or whether he wishes to render them odious—indeed, even execrable—in the view of believers. Thus in Galatians 1:8, when pronouncing one who corrupts the Gospel to be accursed, he does not mean that he was rejected or condemned by God, but he declares that he is to be abhorred by us.

I expound it in a simple way as follows: “Let them perish and be cut off, as being the pests of the Church.” And truly, there is nothing that is more pernicious than that class of persons who prostitute a profession of piety to their own depraved affections. Now he points out the origin of this evil, when he says, that they do not love Christ, for a sincere and earnest love to Christ will not permit us to give occasion of offense to brethren.

What he immediately adds—Maranatha—is somewhat more difficult. Almost all of the ancients agree that they are Syriac terms. Jerome, however, explains it: The Lord comes; while others render it, At the coming of the Lord, or, Until the Lord comes. Everyone, however, I think, must see how silly and puerile is the idea that the Apostle spoke to Greeks in the Syriac tongue when meaning to say—The Lord has come. Those who translate it, at the coming of the Lord, do so on mere conjecture; and besides, there is not much plausibility in that interpretation.

How much more likely it is that this was a customary form of expression among the Hebrews when they wished to excommunicate anyone. For the Apostles never speak in foreign tongues, except when they repeat anything in the person of another, as for example, Eli, Eli, lammah sabathani (Matthew 27:46), Talitha cumi (Mark 5:41), and Ephphata (Mark 7:34), or when they make use of a word that has come into common use, as Amen—Hosanna. Let us see, then, whether Maranatha suits excommunication.

Now Bullinger, on the authority of Theodore Bibliander, has affirmed that, in the Chaldee dialect, Maharamata has the same meaning as the Hebrew term חרם, cherem, (accursed), and I myself was at one time assured of the same thing by Wolfgang Capito, a man of blessed memory.

It is not unusual, however, for the Apostles to write such terms differently from the way in which they are pronounced in the language from which they are derived, as may be seen even from the instances mentioned above.

Paul, then, after pronouncing an anathema on those who do not love Christ, deeply affected by the seriousness of the matter, as if he reckoned that he had not said enough, added a term that was in common use among the Jews, and which they made use of in pronouncing a sentence of anathema—just as if, speaking in Latin, I should say, “I excommunicate you,” but if I add—“and pronounce you an anathema,” this would be an expression of more intense feeling.