Anathema

The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe something or someone that is hated or avoided. The other is to refer to a formal excommunication by a church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where an anathema was a person or thing cursed or condemned by God. In the Old Testament, an anathema was something or someone dedicated to God as a sacrifice, or cursed and separated from God because of sin. These represent two types of setting apart, one for devotion, the other for destruction. Anathema derives from Ancient Greek: ἀνάθεμα, anáthema, meaning "an offering" or "anything dedicated", itself derived from the verb ἀνατίθημι, anatíthēmi, meaning "to offer up". In the Old Testament, חֵרֶם (chērem) referred to both objects consecrated to divine use and those dedicated to destruction in the Lord's name, such as enemies and their weapons during religious wars. Since weapons of the enemy were considered unholy, the meaning became "anything dedicated to evil" or "a curse". In New Testament usage a different meaning developed. St. Paul used the word anathema to signify a curse and the forced expulsion of one from the community of Christians. By the 6th century, the liturgical meaning evolved again to mean a formal ecclesiastical curse of excommunication and the condemnation of heretical doctrines, the severest form of separation from the Christian church issued against a heretic or group of heretics by a Pope or other church official. The phrase anathema sit ("let him be anathema"), echoing Galatians 1:8–9, was thus used in decrees of councils defining Christian faith. Examples include: "It's no wonder then, that Paul calls down God's curse, God's anathema, His ban on those behind their potential defection from Christ." "He shrank from the venerable saint as if to avoid an anathema." "In 1054, an anathema was issued by Rome against the Eastern Patriarch who then issued another one against the cardinal who delivered it." In 1526, the word anathema appeared in modern English for the first time and was used in the sense of "something accursed".