It is described as a complete excision from the church and the giving up of the individual to the judgment of Cod and to final perdition. There is, however, reason to believe that these three grades are of recent origin. The Tal nmdists frequently use the terms by which the first and last are designated interchangeably, and some Rabbinical writers (wIntin Lightfoot has followed in his //ore Hair. et Talm., ud t Cur. v:5) consider the last to be a lower grade than the second; yet it is probable that the classitica tkm rests on the fact that the sentence was more or less severe according to the circumstances of the case, and though we cannot expect to find the three grades distinctly marked in the writings of the New Testament. we may not improbably consider the phrase arocro•c11a-yor rotriv e rclude from the assemblies (John xvi:2; Comp. ix: 22, xii :42) as referring to a lighter cen sure than is intended by one or more of the three terms used in Luke VI :22, where perhaps different grades are intimated. The phrase, to give over to the adversary Cor. v :5 ; I Tim.
i :20), has been by many commentators under stood to refer to the most severe kind of excom munication. Even admitting the allusion, how ever, there is a very important difference between the Jewish censure and the formula employed by the Apostle. In the Jewish sense it would signify the delivering over of the transgressor to final perdition, whilst the Apostle expressly limits his sentence to the 'destruction of the flesh' e., the depraved nature), and resorts to it in order 'that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.' But whatever diversity of opinion there may be as to the degrees of excommunication, it is on all hands admitted that the term Khch-rem, with which we are more particularly concerned as the equivalent of the Greek anathema, a setting apart, properly denotes, in its Rabbinical use, an excom munication accompanied with the most severe curses and denunciations of evil.
(3) In the New Testament. We are there fore prepared to find that the anathema of the New Testament always implies execration, but it yet remains to he ascertained whether it is ever used to designate a judicial act of excommuni cation. That there is frequently no such refer ence is very clear ; in some instances the individ ual 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 sim ilar meaning in Matt. xxvi :74 ; Mark xiv :71. The phrase 'to call Jesus anathema' (1 Cor. xii :3) refers not to a judicial sentence pro nounced by the Jewish authorities, but to the act of any private individual who execrated him and pronounced him accursed. That this was a com
mon practice among the Jews appears from the Rabbinical writings. The term, as it is used in reference to any who should preach another gos pel, 'Let him be anathema' (Gal. i :8, 9), has the same meaning as, "let him be accounted exe crable and accursed." In none of these instances do we find any reason to think that the word was employed to designate specifically and technically excommunication either from the Jewish or the Christian church. There remain only two pas sages in which the word occurs in the New Testa ment, both presenting considerable difficulty to the translator. With regard to the first of these (Rom. ix :3) Grotius and others understand the phrase to be anathema, (or accursed) from Christ, to signify excommunication from the Christian church, while most of the fathers, together with Tholuck, Ruckert and a great number of mod ern interpreters, explain the term as referring to the Jewish practice of excommunication. On the other hand, Deyling, Olshausen, De \Vette 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 separa tion, not indeed from the love, but from the pres ence 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 the Jews then were, from which they might be delivered by re pentance and the reception of the Gospel (Dey lingii Observatt , Sacra? P. II. p. 495 and sqq.). It would occupy too much space to refer to other interpretations of the passage, or to pursue the in vestigation of it further. There seems, however, little reason to suppose that a judicial act of the Christian Church is intended, and we may re mark that much of the difficulty which commen tators 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 intense desire.
The phrase, let him be anathema maran-atha seems, in the view of some, to be intended sim ply as an expression of detestation. Others hold that it is a Syriac exclamation, signifying. Let him be accursed, the Lord is at hand, a reminder that at the coming of the Lord rewards and punishments would be meted out (I Cor. xvi :22).