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The Blue Letter Bible

Dictionaries :: Anathema

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International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Anathema:

a-nath'-e-ma (anathema): This word occurs only once in the King James Version, namely, in the phrase "Let him be anathema. Maranatha" (1Co 16:22); elsewhere the King James Version renders anathema by "accursed" (Ro 9:3; 1Co 12:3; Ga 1:8,9), once by "curse" (Ac 23:12). Both words-anathema 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 cherem (see ACCURSED), and gradually came to have the significance of the Hebrew word-"anything devoted to destruction." Whereas in the Greek Fathers anathema-as cherem 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 Ro 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 1Co 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.

Written by Thomas Lewis

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