Bible Encyclopedias
Anathema

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a -nath´ē̇ -ma ( ἀνάθεμα , anáthema ): This word occurs only once in the King James Version, namely, in the phrase "Let him be anathema. Maranatha" (1 Corinthians 16:22 ); elsewhere the King James Version renders anathema by "accursed" (Romans 9:3; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Galatians 1:8 , Galatians 1:9 ), once by "curse" (Acts 23:12 ). Both words - anathēma and anathema ̌ - were originally dialectical variations and had the same connotation, namely, offering to the gods. The non-Attic form - anathema ̌ - was adopted in the Septuagint as a rendering of the Hebrew ḥērem (see ACCURSED ), and gradually came to have the significance of the Hebrew word - "anything devoted to destruction." Whereas in the Greek Fathers anathema ̌ - as ḥērem in rabbinic Hebrew - came to denote excommunication from society, in the New Testament the word has its full force. In common speech it evidently became a strong expression of execration, and the term connoted more than physical destruction; it invariably implied moral worthlessness . In Romans 9:3 Paul does not simply mean that, for the sake of his fellow-countrymen, he is prepared to face death, but to endure the moral degradation of an outcast from the kingdom of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:3 the expression, "Jesus is anathema" - with its suggestion of moral unfitness - reaches the lowest depths of depreciation, as the expression, "Jesus is Lord," reaches the summit of appreciation.