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Bible Dictionaries
Anathema
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Anathema (a-năth'ĕ-mah), set apart, separated, devoted. This Greek word represents a Hebrew phrase which generally denoted among the Jews the absolute, irrevocable and entire separation of a person from the communion of the faithful, or from the privileges of society, or from the number of the living; or the devoting of any man, animal, city or thing, to be extirpated, destroyed, consumed, and, as it were, annihilated. Joshua 6:17-21; Joshua 7:1-26. Another kind of anathema, very peculiarly expressed, occurs in 1 Corinthians 16:22 : "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. Maranatha." This last word is made up of two Syro-Chaldaic words, signifying "The Lord cometh;" that is, the Lord will surely come, and will execute this curse by condemning those who love him not.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Anathema'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/a/anathema.html. 1893.
