As to the addition of Maran atha, both the meaning of the words and their relation to the context have been subjects of controversy. For a discussion of the Aramaic phrase, with related questions, see HDB iii. 241 ff. It is either an assertion, ' Our Lord cometh' (so RVm), or, more probably, an ejaculatory prayer, ' O Lord, come,' with parallels in Ph 4*, 1 P 4^ Rev 222o, devotional rather than minatory in its character and inten- tion. If it be taken as an assertion, it may mean, ' Let those who do not love the Lord fear and be
quick to amend, for He is at hand in triumph,' though the expected Parousia is not a recurring feature of the Epistle. Or the idea may be, ' The Lord is coming soon, and there is no need to trouble further with these men, for with greater wisdom thought may be given to Him.' But the term is better detached entirely from the reference to anathema, and considered simply as a little prayer, in which the normal yearning of the Apostle expresses itself, before he closes a letter or group of letters, in the writing of which his pastoral heart must have been pained again and again. The sudden way in which the expression is intro- duced suggests that it had already become a popular form of something like greeting in common use among the disciples, and had supplanted the earlier ' The Lord is risen,' unless both were used, the one on meeting and the other on parting. That would explain the absence of any attempt to translate it from the vernacular, and is confirmed by the usage of the next generation ; cf . Didache, X. 6, where also the word follows a warning ; and Apost. Constitutions, vii. 26, where any thought of enforcing a penalty is rendered impossible by the jubilant tone of the section.
In course of time ' anathema ' came to mean excommunication, for which sanction was found in the Pauline use of the word, which again was carried back to our Saviour's teaching (Mt 18"). Such men as are referred to in 1 Co 16^ Avould of necessity find themselves excluded from associa- tion with disciples, and rules for their treatment were prescribed (1 Co S^, Tit 3i», 2 Jn"*-"), and eventually expanded in great detail. But, while this kind of ostracism was a natural accompani- ment of anathema from the beginning, the word itself implied a certain relation to God, a spiritual condition with which God alone could deal, and with which He would deal finally or remedially. Execration and not official discipline is the dominant idea, with the censure of the Church as a corollary. See also artt. Discipline, Excommunication.
LrrERATiTRE. — See artt. ' Curse,' ' Excommunication," ' Mara- natha,' in HDB ; Grimm-Thayer and Cremer, s.v. ayaSe/na ; and the NT Comm. on the passages cited.
K. W. Moss.
ANCHOR (figurative).*— In He 6'9 the writer describes the hope set before the Christian, to which he has just referred in the preceding verse, as ' an anchor of the soul.' The use of an anchor as a figure of hope was not new, for it is found in pre-Christian Greek and Latin authors, and an anchor appears on ancient pagan medals as an emblem of hope. The figure would naturally suggest itself to any one who reflected on the nature and power of the faculty of hope. For it is of the essence of hope to reach into the future and lay hold of an invisible object, as an anchor drops into the sea and catches hold of the unseen bottom. Hope has power to keep the soul from wavering in times of storm and stress, just as an anchor by its firm grip keeps the ship from drift- ing with the winds and tides. But Christian hope reaching out towards the eternal world is some- thing much greater than our familiar human hopes of blessings yet unrealized ; and the use which this writer made of an anchor to represent the hope of the Christian soul at once transformed the figure (as the Catacombs bear witness) into one of the dearest symbols of the Christian religion.
Simple and beautiful as the figure is, however, some exegetical difficulties have to be faced in determining the extent of its application in the passage. These difficulties are reflected in the various renderings of AV and 11 V. In the original the word 'hope' of v.^^ is not repeated in v.^". Strictly rendered, the verse runs, ' which we have • For anchor in the literal sense see art. SuiP.
A^DEOI^ICUS
ANGELS
01
as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedtast and entering into that within the veil' — a state- ment which has been understood in two different ways. AV, by supplying ' hope ' at the beginning of the verse, makes ' sure and stedfast ' apply to the anchor, and by introducing a comma at this point leaves it doubtful whether the anchor is also to be thought of as entering within the veil. RV, by inserting ' a hope ' immediatelj' after ' soul,' limits the figure to a declaration that hope is an anchor of the soul, and makes the three epithets 'sure,' 'stedfast,' and 'entering' apply to hope itself and not to its symbol the anchor. The most obvious construction of the Gr. vindicates RV in making the three epithets hang together as all relating to one subject. On the other hand, AV is so far supported by the fact that aa(pa\7j and iSepalav (lit. 'not failing' and 'firm') suggest that the idea of an anchor was immediately in the writer's mind. It is probably right, therefore, to conclude that he means to say that the anchor is sure, steadfast, and entering into that which is \\dthin the veil, viz. the Holy of Holies. This is really a mixture of metaphors — the metaphor of an anchor entering into the unseen world to which Christian hope clings, and another metaphor by which the Holy of Holies becomes a type of that world unseen. But, in view of what the writer says at a later stage about the Most Holy Place with its ark of the covenant and cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat (9^-) as a pattern of heaven itself where Christ appears before God on oar behalf (v.^), the figurative faultiness of the language is more than atoned for by its rich suggestiveness as to the Christian's grounds of hope with regard to the world to come. It is the appearance of our great High Priest ' before the face of God for us,' he means to say, that is the ultimate foundation of the Christian hope. Cf. John Knox on his death-bed calling to his wife, ' Go read where I cast my first anchor ! ' with reference to our Lord's intercessory prayer in Jn 17. Cf. also his answer, when they asKed him at the very end, ' Have you hope ? ' ' He lifted his finger, "pointed upwards with his finger," and so died' (Carlyle, Heroes, 1872, p. 140).