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Didache

About this book

Prayer After the Meal

Chapter 10

1 After you have eaten your fill, give thanks in this way:⁠ 2 'We thank You, Holy Father, for Your Holy Name that You have allowed to dwell in our hearts,⁠ and for the knowledge, faith, and immortality that You revealed to us through Jesus Your Child. May You be glorified forever.' 3 'You, Lord Almighty, created all things for the sake of Your Name and provided food and drink for people to enjoy, so they might thank You. But You have blessed us with spiritual food and drink and eternal light through Your Child.' 4 'Above all, we thank You because You are mighty. May You be glorified forever.' 5 'Remember, Lord, Your Church, and protect it from all evil. Perfect it in Your love, and gather it together in holiness from the four winds into Your kingdom that You have prepared.⁠ Yours is the power and the glory forever.' 6 'Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God of David. If anyone is holy, let him come; if anyone is not, let him repent. Our Lord, Come!⁠ Amen.' 7 Allow the prophets to conduct the Eucharist as they choose.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Corinthians 16:22 and Didache 10:6

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

Paul closes 1 Corinthians with an Aramaic prayer for Jesus to return. The prayer after the meal in the Didache, an early church manual, ends with the same Aramaic language, its only other use in early Christian writings.

Passages

1 Corinthians 16:22

New Testament
21 I, Paul, send this greeting with my own hand. 22 Let anyone who has no love for the Lord be accursed. Our Lord, come! 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

Didache 10:6

Early Christian
4 'Above all, we thank You because You are mighty. May You be glorified forever.' 5 'Remember, Lord, Your Church, and protect it from all evil. Perfect it in Your love, and gather it together in holiness from the four winds into Your kingdom that You have prepared. Yours is the power and the glory forever.' 6 'Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God of David. If anyone is holy, let him come; if anyone is not, let him repent. Our Lord, Come! Amen.' 7 Allow the prophets to conduct the Eucharist as they choose.
90–120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Didache

References

“... The first reference to Jesus’s coming as Lord is found in the μαραναθά invocation at Did. 10.6. Amongst the Christian literature of the first two centuries, the μαραναθά prayer appears in this form, as a Greek transliteration of Aramaic, only here and at 1 Cor 16:22. The roots of this “earliest Christian prayer” are found in the theophany tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures (Deut 33:2; Judg 5:4–5; Hab 3:3–6; Mic 1:2–5a; Zech 14:5), perhaps especially in the form preserved in the Aramaic Qumran fragment of 1 En. 1.9 (4QAram). ...”
Murray J. Smith, “The Lord Jesus and His Coming in the Didache,” in The Didache: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle in Early Christianity, ed. Jonathan A. Draper and Clayton N. Jefford (Atlanta: SBL, 2015), 381.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Corinthians 16:22 and Didache 10:6

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