Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadInternational Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Anathema
Subjects in this Topic:
a-nath´ē̇-ma (ἀναÌθεμα, anaÌthema): This word occurs only once in the King James Version, namely, in the phrase “Let him be anathema. Maranatha†(); elsewhere the King James Version renders anathema by “accursed†(; ; , ), once by “curse†(). Both words - anatheÌ„ma and anathemaÌŒ - were originally dialectical variations and had the same connotation, namely, offering to the gods. The non-Attic form - anathemaÌŒ - was adopted in the Septuagint as a rendering of the Hebrew hÌ£eÌ„rem (see ACCURSED), and gradually came to have the significance of the Hebrew word - “anything devoted to destruction.†Whereas in the Greek Fathers anathemaÌŒ - as hÌ£eÌ„rem 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 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 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.