ANATHEMA
νάθημα
 

Council of Lyons excommunicates
 Emperor Henry II

 Papal Excommunication
Medieval illum. MS

Alternatives to Anathemas


ORIGINALLY the Greek word anathema (ἀνάθεμα) meant “something dedicated”. However it rapidly came to be used almost exclusively in the sense of “something devoted to evil” and thus accursed.  As a verb it came to mean “to curse”.  This is the sense in which it is used in the New Testament and in patristic texts.


AT an early date the Church adopted the word anathema to signify the exclusion of a sinner from the society of the faithful; but the anathema was pronounced chiefly against heretics. All the councils, from the Council of Nicæa to that of [...] Vatican [I], have worded their dogmatic canons: “If any one says . . . let him be anathema”.

The Catholic Encyclopedia,
(1907, New York: Robert Appleton Company) volume 1


ἀνάθεμα, poet. ἄνθεμα, ατος, τό, (ἀνατίθημι) properly, like ἀνάθημα,

anything dedicated, Theoc.Ep.13.2, AP6.162 (Mel.), CIG2693d (Mylasa), al., Phld.Mus.p.85 K.

2. anything devoted to evil, an accursed thing, LxxLe.27.28, De.7.26, 13.17, al.; of persons, Ep.Rom.9.3, 1Ep.Cor.12.3; ἔσται ἡ ψυχὴ ἀν̓́αθἒμας (sic) TAM5(1).21 (Chr.), etc.

II. curse, Tab.Defix.Aud.41 B (Megara, i/ii a.d.), cf. sq., SEG37.195 (Attica, Chr.) 

Liddell, H. G., Scott, R., Jones, H. S., & McKenzie, R. (1996). A Greek-English lexicon. “With a revised supplement, 1996.” (Rev. and augm. throughout /) (Page 104). Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press

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 ἀνάθεμα,  ἀνάθημα,  κατάθεμα.*

ἀνάθεμα is a new Hell. constr. for the Att. ἀνάθημα with no change of meaning,1 It denotes “something dedicated or consecrated to the deity.” It is used a. of the consecrated offerings laid up in the temple: CIG, 2693d, 12; Plut.Pelop., 25, 7 (I, 291b); 2 Macc. 2:13; Jdt. 16:19 A; elsewhere in the LXX we have ἀνάθημα, cf. also PhiloMigr. Abr., 98; Rer. Div. Her., 200. It is also used b. of “something delivered up to divine wrath, dedicated to destruction and brought under a curse.” In the latter sense ἀνάθεμα (more rarely ἀνάθημα) is found only in IG, III, 3, App., XIVb, 17 (a table of curses from Megara dating from the 1st or 2nd century a.d.)2 outside the LXX etc., where it is used for the Heb. חֵרֶם (Lv. 27:28 f.; Dt. 7:26; 13:17; Jos. 6:17 f.; 7:11 ff.; Zech. 14:11 etc.). What comes under the “ban”3 is taken out of ordinary human circulation and given up to destruction. Hence in the LXX we find such variants for חֵרֶם as ἀπώλεια (Is. 34:5), ἐξολέθρευμα (1 Βας. 15:21), ἐκθλιβή (Mi. 7:2) and ἀφόρισμα (Ez. 44:29).

1. In the NT it is used in the sense of offering only in Lk. 21:5, where the Jerusalem temple ἀναθήμασιν (אD ἀναθέμασιν) κεκόισμηται.

2. The Pauline use of ἀνάθεμα is along the lines of the LXX. For Paul the word denotes the object of a curse. 1 C. 12:3: οὐδεὶς ἐν πνεύματι θεοῦ λαλῶν λέγει· ἀνάθεμα Ἰησοῦς, “Accursed be Jesus!” It would be a self-contradiction for the Christian pneumatic to curse Jesus, i.e., to deliver Him up to destruction by God. The curse formula is also used in 1 C. 16:22: εἴ τις οὐ φιλεῖ τὸν κύριον, ἤτω ἀνάθεμα, cf. Gl. 1:8: ἀνάθεμα ἔστω; R. 9:3: ηὐχόμην ἀνάθεμα εἶναι αὐτὸς ἐγὼ ἀπὸ τοῦ χριστοῦ, “I could wish myself accursed from Christ and expelled from fellowship with Him.” The controlling thought here is that of the delivering up to the judicial wrath of God of one who ought to be ἀνάθεμα because of his sin. We can hardly think of an act of Church discipline,4 since the apostle uses the phrase ἀπὸ τοῦ χριστοῦ (R. 9:3) and also considers that an angel from heaven (Gl. 1:8) or even Jesus Himself (1 C. 12:3) might be accursed. That he would willingly see himself separated from Christ and given up to divine judgment ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν συγγενῶν μου κατὰ σάρκα (R. 9:3) is a supreme expression of the readiness of Paul for redemptive self-sacrifice for the people which excludes itself from the divine revelation of salvation (Ex. 32:32).

ἀνάθεμα corresponds to the Rabb. אָרוּר.5 For the thought of R. 9:3, cf. Neg., 2, 1: “The children of Israel—I will be an expiation for them אֲנִי כַפָּרָתָן,” and other passages6 where we do not have the חֵרֶם of the Synagogue ban.7 Cf. also Jos.Bell., 5, 9: λάβετε μισθὸν τῆς ἑαυτῶν σωτηρίας τοὐμὸν αἷμα· κἀγὼ θνῄσκειν ἕτοιμος, εἰ μετ᾽ ἐμὲ σωφρονεῖν μέλλετε.

Equivalent to ἀνάθεμα is the κατάθεμα of Rev. 22:3 (== Zech. 14:11, though this has ἀνάθεμα): καὶ πᾶν κατάθεμα οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι, there will no longer be “anything accursed” in the New Jerusalem, the Paradise of the last time (as there was in the shattered first Paradise according to Gn. 3:17 ff.). Cf. Did., 16, 5: σωθήσονται ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τοῦ καταθέματος, i.e., from Christ Himself, the Accursed (Gl. 3:13), believers will receive the blessing of salvation in the last days.

The rare κατάθεμα, which is probably another and sharper form of ἀνάθεμα (the κατα-frequently indicating a hostile influence), or which may be a contraction of κατανάθεμα, is not found outside early Christian texts (Act. Phil., 28, 15, 12, Bonnet) except on a Cyprian magic tablet of the 3rd century a.d.: θάψατε τὸν προγεγραμμένον ἐπὶ τοῦδε τοῦ φιμωτικοῦ καταθέματος == curse (Audollent, Def. Tab., 22, 23; cf. IG, III, 3 p., XVII). There is an artificial distinction between ἀνάθεμα and κατάθεμα in Ps-Just.Quaest. et Resp. ad Orth., 121 (III, 23 [1881] 198, Otto).8

3. In Ac. 23:14: ἀναθέματι ἀνεθεματίσαμεν ἑαυτούς, ἀνάθεμα has the significance of a curse in the sense of a vow or solemn obligation the breach of which will bring under the ban (cf. infra).

Theological dictionary of the New Testament. 1964-c1976. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley & G. Friedrich, Ed.) (Vol. 1, Page 351).


Alternatives to Anathemas

 

 


ALTERNATIVES  to ANATHEMAS
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FROM THIS: (separation /exclusion)
 

 

 


 


WE JUDGE HIM EXCOMMUNICATE and ANATHEMA ...
 

 


 

 

 

 

TO THIS: (inclusion /compassion)
 

 

 


 

Paul VI & Patriarch Athenagoras

Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew


Pope Francis and Patriarch Tawadras

Pope Francis and Rabbi Greenberg (ADL)


 

 


THE great desire, therefore, of the Catholic Church in raising aloft at this Council the torch of truth, is to show herself to the world as the loving mother of all; gentle, patient, and full of tenderness and sympathy for her separated children.  (Pope John XXIII)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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