ἀνάθεμα, 
-τος, 
τό, (equivalent to 
τὸ ἀνατεθειμένον); 
1. properly, 
a thing set up or 
laid by in order to be kept; specifically a votive offering, which after being consecrated to a god was hung upon the walls or columns of his temple, or put in some other conspicuous place: 2 Macc. 2:13 (Plutarch, Pelop c. 25); 
Luke 21:5 in L T, for 
ἀναθήμασι R G Tr WH; for the two forms are sometimes confounded in the manuscripts; 
Moeris, 
ἀνάθημα ἀττικῶς, 
ἀνάθεμα ἑλληνικῶς. Cf. 
ἐπίθημα, 
ἐπίθεμα, etc., in 
Lob. ad Phryn., p. 249 [cf. 445; Paral. 417; see also 
Lipsius, Gram. Unters., p. 41].
2. ἀνάθεμα in the 
Sept. is generally the translation of the Heb. 
חֵרֶם, 
a thing devoted to God without hope of being redeemed, and, if an animal, to be slain [
Leviticus 27:28, 
29]; therefore a person or thing doomed to destruction, 
Joshua 6:17; 
Joshua 7:12, etc. [Winer's Grammar, 32]; a thing abominable and detestable, an accursed thing, 
Deuteronomy 7:26. Hence, in the 
N. T. ἀνάθεμα denotes
a. a curse: 
ἀναθέματι ἀναθεματίζειν, 
Acts 23:14 [Winers Grammar, 466 (434); Buttmann, 184 (159)].
b. a man accursed, devoted to the direst woes (equivalent to 
ἐπικατάρατος): 
ἀνάθεμα ἔστω, 
Galatians 1:8; 
1 Corinthians 16:22; 
ἀνάθεμα λέγειν τινά to execrate one, 
1 Corinthians 12:3 (R G, but L T Tr WH have restored 
ἀνάθεμα Ἰησοῦς, namely, 
ἔστω); 
ἀνάθεμα εἶναι ἀπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, 
Romans 9:3 (pregnantly equivalent to 
doomed and so separated 
from Christ). Cf. the full remarks on this word in Fritzsche on Romans, vol. ii., 247ff; Wieseler on Galatians, p. 39ff; [a translation of the latter by Prof. 
Riddle in Schaff's Lange on Romans, p. 302ff; see also Trench, § 5; Bp. Lightfoot on Galatians, the passage cited; Ellicott ibid.; Tholuck on Romans, the passage cited; 
BB. DD., under the words, Anathema, Excommunication]. 
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