Maranatha (the Lord is Coming!) --- the Watchword of 1st-Century Christians

Maranatha (the Lord is Coming!) --- the Watchword of 1st-Century Christians Below is the 35th of multiple excerpts from Parts I and II of The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell. The initial 31 posts on this blog deal with the Book of Revelation, which is cogently interpreted in Part III of Russell's magnum opus. (For all blog posts, see russellparousia.blogspot.com)
"THE APOSTOLIC WATCHWORD, MARAN-ATHA,---THE LORD IS AT HAND. "1 Cor. xvi. 22. [1 Cor. 16:22]---...‘Maran-atha.’ (The Lord cometh.)' "The whole argument for the anticipated near approach of the Parousia [Second Coming] is clenched [closed tightly] by the last word of the apostle, which comes with the greater weight as written with his own hand [1 Cor. 16:21], and conveying in one word the concentrated essence of his exhortation,---‘Maran-atha. The Lord is coming.’ This one utterance speaks volumes. It is the watchword which the apostle passes along the line of the Christian host; the rallying cry which inspired courage and hope in every heart. ‘The Lord is coming!’ It would have no meaning if the event to which it refers were distant or doubtful; all its force lies in its certainty and nearness. ‘A weighty watchword,’ says [Henry] Alford, ‘tending to recall to them the nearness of His coming, and the duty of being found ready for it.’ [Ernst] Hengstenberg sees in it an obvious allusion to Mal. iii. 1 [Mal. 3:1]: ‘The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,...behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.’ [Hengstenberg:] ‘The word Maran-atha, which is so striking in an epistle written in Greek, and to Greeks, is in itself a sufficient indication of an Old Testament foundation. The retention of the Aramean [Aramaic] form [of the word, which is transliterated into Greek] can only be explained on the supposition that it was a kind of watchword common to all the believers in Israel; and no expression could well have come to be so used if it had not been taken from the Scriptures. There can hardly be any doubt that it was taken from Mal. iii. 1.’ We may add that the occurrence of this Aramaic word in a Greek epistle suggests the existence of a strong Jewish element in the Corinthian church. This was probably true of all Gentile churches: the synagogue was the nucleus of the Christian congregation, and we know that in Corinth especially it was so: Justus, Crispus, and Sosthenes [Acts 18] all belonged to the synagogue before they belonged to the church; and this fact explains what might otherwise appear a difficulty,---the direct interest of the church of Corinth in the [impending] great catastrophe[,] the seat and centre of which was Judea." [Russell is alluding to Rome's destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70, which closed the Old Covenant age and ushered in other events linked to the Second Coming. See the previous Parousia blog post titled "Changed in the Twinkling of an Eye -- in the 1st Century."]  

Next: Anticipation of "The End" and "Day of the Lord" in 2nd Corinthians

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