The Meaning of Salah, Maran-A'Tha, Anathema, Kedar | Saint Peter & Saint Andrew Coptic Orthodox Church

The question

We read in the Bible some words which need to be translated or explained in simple terms, as in the following: Selah : Which is mentioned quite often in the psalms, as in Psalms 46 to 50. Maran-a'tha : mentioned in (1 Cor. 16:22). Anathema : mentioned in (Gal. 1:8-9) and (1 Cor. 16:22). Kedar : as in (Ps. 120:5) and (Song. 1:5).

Please explain the meaning of these words, so that we may understand them.

The answer

SELAH

It is a word that is repeated in the Psalms 71 times. It means a musical stop to change the tune to another, for the psalms were sung associated with music at the time of

David, Asaph and others. At a certain place of the song, a sign was given to stop to give a chance to the musicians to adjust their musical instruments to a new tune.

MARAN-A'THA

The word "Mar", in Syrian and Aramaic means Master or Lord.

The word 'a'tha" means come.

The whole word means "the Lord comes" or "the Lord will come".

It was an expression that Christians used to greet each other with during the apostolic age, comforting each other with the coming of the Lord. In other words, they say to each other "rejoice, the Lord is coming again".

Sometimes, they wrote it at the end of their letters, as St. Paul concluded his first epistle to the Corinthians.

ANATHEMA

It is a Greek word that means "curse", and it also means the "cutting off" or the excommunication from the church. As in the Anathemas that were written by St. Kyrollos (Cyril) the pillar of faith during the heresy of Nestor upon every one who would violate the canons of faith.

St. Paul used it in his epistle to the Galatians to excommunicate by his ecclesiastical authority everyone who taught against the teaching of the apostles, even if it was an angel, he said "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.(anathema). " (Gal. 1:8). He used the same statement at the end of his first epistle to the Corinthians. This statement is very well known in the church canons.

KEDAR

Kedar is the second son of Ishmael, the son of Hagar (Gen. 25:13). The area where he lived was called after his name also (Jer. 49:28). The children of Kedar lived in tents that were black in colour or looked black because of the smoke of the fire that warmed them at night. Perhaps this is what the virgin of the Song of songs meant when she said "I am dark, but lovely, 0 daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar... " (Song. 1:5). The psalmist mentioned "the tents of Kedar" as a sojourn country (Ps. 120:5).

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Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory

Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory, Many Years with People's Questions, Part I: Biblical Questions. Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate. Translated by St. George Coptic Orthodox Church, Chicago, Illinois. Revised by Mrs. Wedad Abbas. Second edition, February 1993. Revised COEPA 1997. ISBN 977-5319-11-0.