ANATHEMA (Gk. ἀνάθνημα [τὸ ἀνάθεμα]) — “that which is placed on high, suspended.” — In classical profane usage, in 2 Macc. 9:16, in Jdt. 13:23 (19), and in Lk. 21:5, it denotes an object consecrated to a deity, hung upon the walls or columns of a temple, a kind of “ex-voto.” In the Septuagint, moreover, it translates the Hebrew hērem.
When ἀνατίθημα in religious usage denotes consecration to infernal deities, it is uncertain whether in the time of the Septuagint (3rd–2nd cent. B.C.) ἀνάθνημα meant “object of curse” and ἀνατίθημι “to curse,” as in the tablets of Cnidus and the inscriptions of Megara (2nd–1st cent. B.C.), or whether they assumed this sense later, under Judeo-Hellenistic influence.
In the New Testament (apart from Lk. 21:5) it signifies: a) an oath to be fulfilled under penalty of severe privations (Acts 23:14); b) “an object of curse and execration” (Gal. 1:8–9). To pronounce it against Jesus was a blasphemous formula, incompatible with supernatural charisms (1 Cor. 12:3). Paul hypothetically consents to become an a., i.e., to be deprived of salvation in Christ, so that the Jews might be converted (Rom. 9:3). From a. comes the Hellenistic “anathema-tize” (Mk. 14:71; Acts 23:12, 14, 21).
Since the Jews substituted for the death penalty required by hērem the loss of goods and exclusion from the society of the faithful (Ezra 10:8), the concept of synagogal excommunication began to take shape from the time of Ezra; hence in the New Testament we already find the compounds ἀποσυνάγωγος and ἀποσύνδεσμος, “to be cast out or separated from the synagogue” (Jn. 9:22; 12:42; 16:2; Lk. 6:22). In the Talmud two forms of this excommunication are distinguished: niddah implies temporary exclusion (30, 60, or 90 days) from sacred assemblies and perhaps from society, while hērem denotes solemn and perpetual exclusion from all intercourse with the faithful, with the imprecations of Deut. 28 threatened.
IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. — The word a. had a sense analogous to that which it bore in Holy Scripture, namely: separation from Christ and consequently excommunication or separation from His Church. From the earliest centuries councils were accustomed to visit a. upon Christians guilty of grave crimes, especially heretics against whom it was ordinarily reserved. When conciliar canons visit a. upon a doctrine, anathematizing those who uphold it, this means that the doctrine is heretical. Hence the term anathematism, i.e., a conciliar decision regarding faith (the twelve anathematisms of St. Cyril of Alexandria, accepted by the Council of Ephesus in 431, are celebrated).
In the sources of the CIC and among ancient authors, the term a. is often used to denote major excommunication (i.e., total separation from the society of the faithful), in contrast to minor excommunication (consisting in simple exclusion from the sacraments). Today, minor excommunication having been abolished, the word a. — as canon 2257, §2 of the CIC notes — is synonymous with excommunication (q.v.), but is especially applied to those cases in which excommunication is inflicted with the solemnities described in the Roman Pontifical under the title Ordo excommunicandi ad absolvendi.