certain that it obtained this meaning in the early ages of the Church; for it is thus employed in the apostolic canons, in the canons of various councils, by Chrysos- tom, Theodoret, and other Greek fathers (Suiceri The- saurus Eccl. s. vv. dvdQtfia and aQopiopoe.). — Kitto, s. v. See Excommunication.
III. Anathema, in ecclesiastical usage, is the cut- ting off any person from the communion or privileges of a society. The anathema differed from simple ex- communication in being attended with curses and execrations. It signifies not only to cut oft" the living from the Church, but the dead from salvation. It was practised in the early Church against notorious offenders. The form has been preserved : the follow- ing was pronounced by Synesius against one Androni- cus : "Let no Church of God be open to Andronicus and his accomplices, but let every sacred temple and church be shut against them. I admonish both pri- vate men and magistrates to receive them neither under their roof nor to their table ; and priests, more especially, that they neither converse with them liv- ing nor attend their funerals when dead." When any one was thus anathematized, notice was given to the neighboring churches, and occasionally to the churches' over the world, that all might confirm and ratify this act of discipline by refusing to admit such a one into their communion. The form of denounc- ing anathemas against heresies and heretics is very ancient. But as zeal about opinions increased, and Christians began to set a higher value on trifles than on the weightier matters of the law, it became a com- mon practice to add anathemas to every point in which men differed from each other. At the Council of Trent a whole body of divinity was put into canons, and an anathema affixed to each. How fearful an in. strument of power the anathema was in the hands of popes in the Middle Ages is attested by history. Popes still continue to hurl anathemas against here- tics, which are little retrard^d. — Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. xvi, ch. ii, § 16. See Interdict.
Treatises on this subject are the following: Diirr, De anathemate (Alta. 1662) ; Baldwin, De anathema- tismis (Viteb. 1620); Bose, in Winckler's Tempe sacr. p. 231 sq. ; Fecht, De precibus contra alios (Rost. 1708) ; Pipping, De imprecntionibus (Lips. 1721) ; Pi- sanski, Vindicias Psulmorum oh execrationes (Regiom. 1779) ; Poncarius, Da imprecationibus in impios, in the Bibl. Lubec. p. 565 sq. See Imprecation.
An'athoth (Heb. Anathoth' ', MMS, answers, i. e. to prayers ; Sept. 'AvaSnoS:), the name of one city and of two men.
1. One of the towns belonging to the priests in the tribe of Benjamin, and as such a city of refuge (Josh, xxi, 18). It is omitted from the list in Josh, xviii, but included "suburbs" (1 Chron. vi, 60 [45]). Hither, to his "fields," Abiathar was banished by Sol- omon after the failure of his attempt to put Adonijah on the throne (1 Kings ii, 26). This was the native place of Abiezer, one of David's 30 captains (2 Sam. xxiii, 27; 1 Chron. xi, 28; xxvii, 12), and of Jehu, another of the mighty men (1 Chron. xii, 3). The "men" (D"*b3N, not D"03, as in most of the other cases; compare, however, Netophah, Michmash, etc.) of Anathoth returned from the captivity with Zerub- babel (Ezra ii, 23 ; Neb. vii, 27 ; 1 Esdr. v, 18). It is chiefly memorable, however, as the birthplace and usual residence of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. i, 1 ; xi, 21- 23; xxix, 27; xxxii, 7-9), whose- name it seems to have borne in the time of Jerome, " Anathoth of Jer- emiah" (Onomast. s. v.). The same writer (Comment, in Jer. i, 1) places Anathoth three Roman miles north of Jerusalem, which correspond with the twenty stadia assigned by Josephus (Ant. x, 7, 3). In the Talmud (Yoma, 10)it is called Anath (T1V). (For other no- tices, see Reland's Palcest. p. 561 sq.) Anathoth lay on or near the great road from the north to Jerusalem
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(Isa. x, 30). The traditional site at Kuriet el-Enab does not fulfil these conditions, being 10 miles distant from the city, and nearer west than north. Dr. Rob- inson {Researches, ii, 109) appears to have discovered this place in the present village of Anata, at the dis- tance of an hour and a quarter from Jerusalem (To- bler, Topogr. v. Jerus. ii, 394). It is seated on a broad ridge of hills, and commands an extensive view of the eastern slope of the mountainous tract of Benjamin, including also the valley of the Jordan, and the north- ern part of the Dead Sea (see Hackett's Illustr. of Script, p. 191). It seems to have been once a walled town and a place of strength. Portions of the wall still remain, built of large hewn stones, and apparent- ly ancient, as are also the foundations of some of the houses. It is now a small and very poor village ; yet the cultivation of the priests survives in tilled fields of grain, with figs and olives. From the vicinity a favorite kind of building-stone is carried to Jerusalem. Troops of donkeys are employed in this service, a hewn stone being slung on each side ; the larger stones are transported on camels (Raumer's Paliistina, p. 169 ; Thomson's Land a?id Book, ii, 548).