Anathema

Biblical Texts

In the Greek text of the New Testament, anathema appears mainly in the letters of Paul. The New Korean Revised Version usually renders the word "let him be accursed" or "accursed."

• Romans 9:3: Paul says that for the sake of his fellow Israelites he "could wish that myself were accursed from Christ."
• 1 Corinthians 12:3: Paul states that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed.
• 1 Corinthians 16:22: The words "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema" are immediately followed by Maranatha.
• Galatians 1:8-9: Paul declares twice that anyone, whether a human being or an angel, who preaches a gospel other than the one he preached should be accursed.

A verb from the same root also appears in Acts 23, in the account of the Jews who "bound themselves under a curse" not to eat until they had killed Paul.

Background of the Word

The original meaning of the Greek anathema is "something set up." It referred to a votive offering dedicated to a deity and hung in a temple. In Luke 21:5, the "gifts" that adorned the temple translate the similarly spelled anathēma (ἀνάθημα), which retains this original sense.

The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) used this word to translate the Hebrew ḥerem. Ḥerem refers to something wholly devoted to God that may no longer be put to human use, and it is often something marked for destruction (Leviticus 27:28-29). The following events are connected to this concept:

• At the fall of Jericho, the city and everything in it became "accursed," that is, wholly devoted to God.
• Achan took some of the devoted things and was punished (Joshua 7).
• Saul did not fully obey the command to utterly destroy Amalek (1 Samuel 15).

Meaning in the New Testament

In the New Testament, anathema is used less in the sense of dedicating something for sacred use and more in the sense of being handed over to God's judgment and cut off from Christ and the community. Paul used the word in two different ways. In Galatians it serves as a stern warning that guards the content of the gospel; in Romans it expresses his self-sacrificial love for his own people. Revelation 22:3, "And there shall be no more curse," uses a closely related word (katathema) and depicts a new creation in which the curse has come to an end.

Interpretation and Issues

• Romans 9:3: This verse is often compared with the prayer of Moses after the golden calf incident, in which he asked to be blotted out of the Lord's book for the sake of the people (Exodus 32:32). Interpreters differ over whether Paul's statement should be read as a genuine wish or as an emphatic expression made in the knowledge that it could not be fulfilled.
• 1 Corinthians 12:3: The text does not say who called Jesus accursed. Proposals include opponents in the synagogue, utterances made in a state of ecstasy, and a hypothetical example.
• "Anathema Maranatha": The King James Version transliterated 1 Corinthians 16:22 as "Anathema Maranatha." As a result, the two words were sometimes understood as a single, more severe curse formula. Most modern translations and commentaries read the pronouncement of a curse and the prayer "Come, Lord" (or "The Lord is coming") separately.
• Use in church history: "Let him be anathema" became a formula attached to teachings condemned by church councils. The creed adopted by the Council of Nicaea in 325 concludes with anathemas condemning the tenets of Arianism, and the decrees of the sixteenth-century Council of Trent also used this form. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church have used it as a form of official ecclesiastical judgment. Protestant denominations generally do not use this formula; they read Paul's words as a pronouncement of God's judgment and handle actual cases through the procedures of church discipline and formal heresy designation. Traditions differ on whether the anathema Paul spoke of should be equated with excommunication (the revocation of a person's church membership and removal from the church).

In Korean Churches

The Greek term anathema is used mainly in commentaries and theology lectures rather than in sermons. Galatians 1:8-9 is frequently cited as a text warning against "another gospel" when churches address questions of heresy.