What does ἀνάθεμα (anáthema) mean in the Bible?
The Greek noun anathema has a complex history. In classical Greek usage, anathema (also spelled anathēma) could describe a votive offering placed in a temple — something set apart and dedicated.
Greek · G331
ἀνάθεμα
A (religious) ban or (concretely) excommunicated (thing or person)
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ἀνάθεμα G331
Pronunciation anáthema
What does ἀνάθεμα (anáthema) mean in the Bible?
The Greek noun anathema has a complex history. In classical Greek usage, anathema (also spelled anathēma) could describe a votive offering placed in a temple — something set apart and dedicated.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀνάθεμα (G331) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G331?
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include under a curse (3), [be] cursed (1), cursed (1), with a solemn oath (1).
Where does ἀνάθεμα (anáthema) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Acts 23:14. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (2), Galatians (2), Acts (1), Romans (1).
What This Word Actually Means
The Greek noun anathema has a complex history. In classical Greek usage, anathema (also spelled anathēma) could describe a votive offering placed in a temple — something set apart and dedicated. In the LXX, the word translates the Hebrew herem (devoted/consecrated thing), which in the context of holy war meant something devoted to God by being utterly destroyed — the opposite of a desirable offering.
It came to mean something or someone handed over to divine destruction, placed under divine curse. In the NT, Paul uses anathema in its curse-sense. Galatians 1:8-9 delivers the sharpest application in all of Paul: 'if anyone preaches a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse (anathema estō).' This is not personal anger; it is a solemn pronouncement that perversion of the gospel places the teacher outside the sphere of blessing and under divine judgment.
Paul repeats the statement twice in verses 8 and 9 — the repetition is deliberate intensification. Romans 9:3 shows a different dimension: Paul says he could wish himself anathema from Christ for the sake of his people Israel — a statement of such profound love that he would be willing to be cursed if it could save them. First Corinthians 12:3 notes that 'no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is anathema' — the curse-formula applied to Jesus is the mark of the anti-Spirit.
The word is rare but carries maximum weight every time it appears.
source_lexicon
How the Bible Uses It
Anathema appears six times in the NT: twice in Galatians 1:8-9 (gospel-perverters cursed), once in Romans 9:3 (Paul's wish for himself for Israel's sake), once in 1 Corinthians 12:3 (no Spirit-speaker says 'Jesus is anathema'), once in 1 Corinthians 16:22 (anyone who does not love the Lord — anathema; marana tha), and once in Acts 23:14 (the Jewish oath to kill Paul — 'under a curse/anathema'). Each use carries the sense of being set apart under divine judgment.
- Gal.1.8
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse!
Paul's first anathema-pronouncement in Galatians: even apostolic or angelic authority does not exempt a false gospel from divine curse. The hypothetical 'we or an angel' eliminates the major appeals to authority over the gospel itself. The gospel's content is not negotiable based on who the teacher is — not even Paul himself could permissibly alter it. This is the strongest possible grounding of the gospel's immutability.
- Gal.1.9
As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse!
The deliberate repetition of the anathema in verse 9 is Paul's most solemn rhetorical move in the letter. He prefaces it with 'as we have said before, so now I say again' — making clear this is not a slip of passion but a considered double-declaration. The change from the hypothetical 'if we or an angel' (v.8) to 'if anyone' (v.9) widens the scope to include the actual Judaizing teachers.
- Rom.9.3
For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,
The most emotionally searching use of anathema in Paul. He says he could wish himself anathema — separated from Christ and under divine curse — if that would save Israel. This is not a theological possibility he is asserting but an expression of the depth of his anguish over his people. The word here carries its full weight: anathema is not a mild ecclesiastical sanction but the most terrible condition Paul can imagine — and he would accept it for his people's salvation.
- 1Cor.12.3
Therefore I inform you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit-test in 1 Corinthians: anyone who calls Jesus anathema is not speaking by the Spirit. This is the negative boundary of Spirit-utterance. The contrast with 'Jesus is Lord' shows that anathema and kyrios (Lord) are theological opposites — cursed/destroyed versus exalted/sovereign. Applied to Galatians: those who pervert the gospel of the risen Lord are functionally producing the conditions where Christ's lordship is denied.
- 1Cor.16.22
If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be under a curse. Come, O Lord!
Paul closes 1 Corinthians with another anathema-formula for those who do not love the Lord, followed immediately by 'Marana tha' (Come, Lord). The pairing is eschatological: the curse on lovelessness and the prayer for the Lord's return stand together — judgment and hope as the twin eschatological realities. This confirms that Paul's Galatians anathema is not merely rhetorical but reflects the genuine theological conviction that gospel-perversion has eternal consequences.
Passage contextCanonical parallel
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It under a curse 3× 1 Corinthians 16:22, Galatians 1:8, Galatians 1:9
[be] cursed 1× 1 Corinthians 12:3
cursed 1× Romans 9:3
with a solemn oath 1× Acts 23:14
Show sample aligned rows
Acts 23:14 Ἀναθέματι to with a solemn oath Noun - Dative Neuter Singular Romans 9:3 ἀνάθεμα to cursed Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 1 Corinthians 12:3 Αναθεμα to [be] cursed Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 1 Corinthians 16:22 ἀνάθεμα to under a curse Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Galatians 1:8 ἀνάθεμα to under a curse Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular Galatians 1:9 ἀνάθεμα to under a curse Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Acts 23:14
Aligned rows 6
Books represented 4
Acts 1 Romans 1 1 Corinthians 2 Galatians 2
Source forms
ἀνάθεμα 4x anathema Romans 9:3, 1 Corinthians 16:22, Galatians 1:8, Galatians 1:9
Αναθεμα 1x Anathema 1 Corinthians 12:3
Ἀναθέματι 1x Anathemati Acts 23:14
Parsing patterns
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular 5x Romans 9:3, 1 Corinthians 12:3, 1 Corinthians 16:22, Galatians 1:8
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular 1x Acts 23:14
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Paul's double anathema in Galatians 1:8-9 is addressed to gospel-perversion — specifically the addition of human performance (circumcision, law-observance) as a condition of justification alongside faith in Christ. The church throughout its history has needed to exercise careful judgment about what qualifies as gospel-perversion versus what constitutes honest theological diversity within the one gospel. Not every doctrinal difference rises to the level Paul addresses here. The test in context is specific: does this teaching require something other than or in addition to Christ alone for the sinner's standing before God? That is the Galatians question, and that is what the anathema guards.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that 1 Corinthians 16:22's 'if anyone does not love the Lord, let them be anathema' establishes a general principle that Christians may pronounce curses on unbelievers or those they judge to be loveless — Paul is expressing an eschatological reality that belongs to God's judgment, not a formula for human use in church disputes.
- Do not claim that the anathema in Galatians 1:8-9 was Paul's way of practicing church discipline or formal excommunication — the verb 'let them be' (estō) is a third-person optative/imperative invoking divine judgment, not a first-person exercise of apostolic disciplinary authority; the mechanism is different from formal exclusion of a church member.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. A thing devoted to God or cursed; in NT usage, excommunication or complete separation from Christian community.
Strong's G331
Lexical occurrences 7 verses Greek text appearances 6 times Word forms 3 forms 7 references Verse guides 0 guides
Study link Acts 23:11-22 Source Gloss
a (religious) ban or (concretely) excommunicated (thing or person)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Acts 23:14 Noun Dative Singular Neuter
Ἀναθέματι anaqemati
a curse, a cursed thing
Read verse Romans 9:3 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
ἀνάθεμα anaqema
a curse, a cursed thing
Read verse 1 Corinthians 12:3 Noun Accusative Singular Neuter
ἀνάθεμα anaqema
a curse, a cursed thing
Read verse 1 Corinthians 16:22 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
ἀνάθεμα. anaqema
a curse, a cursed thing
Read verse Galatians 1:8 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
ἀνάθεμα anaqema
a curse, a cursed thing
Read verse Galatians 1:9 Noun Nominative Singular Neuter
ἀνάθεμα anaqema
a curse, a cursed thing
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 3 Aligned forms 7 Case pattern Nominative (5) Number pattern Singular (6)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Nominative · Singular · Neuter Rom 9:3 · 1 Cor 12:3 · 1 Cor 16:22 · Gal 1:8 · Gal 1:9 5×
Dative · Plural · Neuter Luke 21:5 1×
Dative · Singular · Neuter Acts 23:14 1×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
New Testament Witnesses
To bind under a curse.
Showing 1 selected witness from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ἀνάθεμα is built from this root:
Why This Word Matters
Highlights the intensity of the conspiracy. Acts 23:11-22
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Anathema in Galatians 1:8-9 is one of the most uncomfortable passages in Paul for congregations shaped by a therapeutic culture, because it seems incompatible with the love and tolerance they associate with authentic Christianity. The preacher's task is to help people see what Paul is actually protecting and why the double-declaration is not a failure of charity but an expression of it.
Paul is not condemning teachers he personally dislikes; he is pronouncing that any teaching which corrupts the good news of grace-through-faith-in-Christ alone is self-condemning in the most serious theological sense. The gospel is the sole hope of sinners. To corrupt it — to add conditions that the Savior's death was not sufficient to meet, to require human performance as a co-condition of standing before God — is not a minor doctrinal adjustment.
It is the removal of the only basis on which anyone can stand before God at all. If a doctor substitutes poison for medicine, the seriousness of the error is proportional to the need of the patient. The gospel is the only cure for the human condition; substituting it with a corruption of itself destroys the only hope. Paul's anathema is the severity of God meeting the severity of the need.
The pastoral application is not a license for anathema-pronouncing in contemporary church disputes — that would be a category error of the first order, and the full weight of Paul's text is reserved for the specific scenario of gospel-perversion. But the logic it expresses is permanently instructive: the good news of Jesus Christ is not a negotiable platform on which various religious traditions can build their own supplementary conditions.
The anathema is the fence around that truth.
Anchor passage
Gal.1.8
Doctrinal connections
- G602 Apokalupsis — revelation; the anathema is pronounced on any alternative to the revealed gospel; revelation and curse are the paired poles of Galatians 1
- G2671 Katara — curse; the word for the curse of the law in Gal 3:10-13; anathema in Gal 1 and katara in Gal 3 both name forms of divine curse, but in different theological roles: anathema falls on gospel-corrupters, katara fell on Christ as the law's penalty
- G2098 Euangelion — gospel; anathema is specifically tied to euangelion-perversion; the strength of the curse signals the irreplaceable importance of the gospel
- G2316 Theos — God; anathema estō is properly translated 'let them be under God's curse' — this is not Paul's personal curse but a solemn declaration of God's judgment
- H2764 herem — devoted thing (Hebrew); the OT background of anathema: things devoted to God and destroyed in holy war; Jericho was herem (Josh 6:17-18); the concept bridges to divine consecration-for-destruction
- Deut.13.1-5 — the prophet or dreamer who leads Israel after other gods must be put to death; OT type of the anathema-principle: false spiritual guidance that diverts from God's revealed word is capital in its seriousness
Anathema (also anathēma) from ana (up) + tithēmi (to place, to set). In classical Greek the word could mean something 'set up' as a votive offering — placed up in the temple as a gift to the deity. But the LXX's translation of Hebrew herem (things devoted to destruction under holy war) gave the word its negative sense of divine curse: something given over to God in the sense of being consigned to his destructive judgment.
Paul consistently uses it in this negative sense. The confusion between the classical positive sense (votive offering) and the LXX negative sense (devoted to destruction) is historical and lexical; in the NT, anathema consistently means the latter. The related word anathēma (with a different accent) could maintain the classical positive sense, but the NT's anathema is uniformly the curse-sense.
From Old to New Testament
The OT background of anathema is the Hebrew herem — the holy-war devotion of persons or things to destruction. Jericho and its inhabitants were herem (Josh. 6:17-18): devoted to God by being destroyed. Achan's taking of devoted things (Josh. 7) brought herem-curse on all Israel until the violation was dealt with. The gravity of herem came from its connection to divine holiness: to treat as ordinary what God had devoted to himself was to violate the boundary between holy and common at a fundamental level.
Paul's anathema in Galatians operates within this conceptual field: the gospel belongs to God in the sense that it is his gift and his truth; to substitute a corruption of it is to treat as ordinary what God has consecrated. Deuteronomy 13:1-5 establishes the OT principle: a prophet or sign-worker who leads Israel after other gods must be put to death, even if signs and wonders authenticate them — because the test of true prophecy is conformity to the revealed word, not miraculous performance.
Paul's 'even if an angel from heaven' in Galatians 1:8 echoes this Deuteronomic logic: the source's credentials do not validate departures from the revealed gospel. The NT's final word on the anathema-principle comes in Revelation 22:18-19: those who add to or subtract from the words of the book will face the plagues described within it — the divine self-protection of the revealed word against corruption, in both directions.
Canonical parallel
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain