II. But, whatever diversity of opinion there may be as to the degrees of excommunication, it is on all hands admitted that the term i2*?H, with which we are more particularly concerned as the equivalent of the Greek dvdOt/ia, properly denotes, in its rabbinical use, an excommunication accompanied with the most severe curses and denunciations of evil. We are therefore prepared to find that the anathema of the N. T. always implies execration ; but it yet remains to be ascertained whether it is ever used to designate a judicial act of excommunication. That there is fre- quently no such reference is very clear : in some in- stances the individual denounces the anathema on himself, unless certain conditions are fulfilled. The noun and its corresponding verb are thus used in Acts xxiii, 12, 14, 21, and the verb occurs with a similar meaning in Matt, xxvi, 74; Mark xiv, 71. The phrase " to call Jesus anathema" (1 Cor. xii, 3) refers not to a judicial sentence pronounced by the Jewish authori- ties, but to the act of any private individual who exe- crated him and pronounced him accursed. That this was a common practice among the Jews appears from the rabbinical writings. The term, as it is used in reference to any who should preach another gospel, " Let him be anathema" (Gal. i, 8, 9), has the same meaning as let him be accounted execrable and ac- cursed. In none of these instances do we find any reason to think that the word was employed to desig- nate specifically and technicalby excommunication either from the Jewish or the Christian Church. There remain only two passages in which the word occurs in the N. T., both presenting considerable diffi- culty to the translator.
ANATHEMA
21!
ANATHOTH
(a.) With regard to the first of these (Rom. ix, 3), Grotius and others understand the phrase "accursed from Christ," dvdQifia uvea c'nrb too Xpiorov, to sig- nify excommunication from the Christian Church, •while most of the fathers, together with Tholuck, Riickert, and a great number of modern interpreters, explain the term as referring to the Jewish practice of excommunication. On the other hand, Deyling, Olshausen, De Wette, and many more, adopt the more general meaning of accursed. The great difficulty is to ascertain the extent of the evil which Paul expresses his willingness to undergo ; Chrysostom, Calvin, and many others understand it to include final separation, not, indeed, from the love, but from the presence of Christ ; others limit it to a violent death ; and others, again, explain it as meaning the same kind of curse as that under which they might be delivered by repent- ance and the reception of the Gospel (Deylingii Ob- servatt. Sacrce, pt. ii, p. 495 and sq.). It would oc- cupy too much space to refer to other interpretations of the passage, or to pursue the investigation of it further. There seems, however, little reason to sup- pose that a judicial act of the Christian Church is in- tended, and we may remark that much of the difficulty which commentators have felt seems to have arisen from their not keeping in mind that the apostle does not speak of his wish as a possible thing, and their consequently pursuing to all its results what should be regarded simply as an expression of the most in- tense desire (rjb\6firiv=ri{)'x6firiv dv, I could wish, i. e. were such a thing proper or available, see Winer, Idioms, p. 222). Some have even thought (taking the verb as a historical Imperfect) that the apostle was simply referring to his former detestation of Christ, when yet unconverted (see Bloomrleld, Iieccnsio Sy- nopt. in loc), and Tregelles proposes (Account of Gr. Text ofN. T. p. 219) to remove the difficulty alto- gether in this way, by enclosing the clause in ques- tion in a parenthesis. See AVoltii Curce, in loc. ; Poli Synopsis, in loc. ; Trautermann, lllustratio (Jen. 1758) ; Me/h. Quart. Rev. 1863, p. 420 sq. Comp. Ban.
(b.) The phrase Anathema Maras-atha, uvdQtpa p.apdv dBd (1 Cor. xvi, 22), has been considered by many to be equivalent to the KPlHUJ, shammata, of the rabbins, the third and most severe form of excom- munication. This opinion is derived from the sup- posed etymological identity of the Syriac phrase itself, maran-atha (q. v.), NinX "pO, "the Lord cometh," with the Hebrew word which is considered by these commentators to be derived from firx C"c3, sheni atha, "the Name (i. e. Jehovah) cometh." This explana- tion, however, can rank no higher than a plausible conjecture, since it is supported by no historical evi- dence. The Hebrew term is never found thus divided, nor is it ever thus explained by Jewish writers, who, on the contrary, give etymologies different from this (Buxtorf, Lex. col. 24C6). It is, moreover, very un- certain whether this third kind of excommunication was in use in the time of Paul ; and the phrase which he employs is not found in any rabbinical writer (Lightfoot, Ilorm Hebr. et Talm. on 1 Cor. xvi, 22). The literal meaning of the words is clear, but it is not easy to understand why the Syriac phrase is here em- ployed, or what is its meaning in connection with anathema. Lightfoot supposes that the apostle uses it to signify that he pronounced this anathema against the Jews. However this may be, the supposition that the anathema, whatever be its precise object, is in- tended to designate excommunication from the Chris- tian Church, as Grotius and Augusti understand it, appears to rest on very slight grounds : it seems pref- erable to regard it, with Lightfoot, Olshausen, and most other commentators, as simply an expression of detestation. Though, however, we find little or no evidence of the use of the word anathema in the N. T. as the technical term for excommunication, it is