Expression or formula with which a fact, a person or a community is condemned, cursed or anathematized. In principle it had a certain religious character of incantation, curse, sorcery and execratory ritual. In most of the towns and in recent times, it is nothing more than a curse and a relief.
In morality it is usually defined as the solemn manifestation of the desire for harm to others. Evidently, as such, it is governed by the Christian morality of charity and justice, taking into account that, even in the case of having received damage from the damned, it is not possible in evangelical language to repay evil for evil or desire harm. to the neighbor
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
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SUMMARY: imprecation in the old testament. Verbs. The nouns. The imprecation in the version of the LXX. Imprecation in early Christianity. The meaning in the Pauline writings.
When we speak of a word we have to look for its meaning so that it becomes understood by our mind and we describe it in the use of our conversation, in such a way that our interlocutors capture through the act of locution what it means.
The meaning is a necessity in order to arrive at the exact understanding of the word or at least its approximate character. Let us bear in mind that in this case the term imprecation, anathema, comes from the Greek language and from it is transferred to the Latin language.
Necessarily this locution will lead us to look for the synonyms and antonyms that it has in our own language and therefore investigate what it means in its original meaning. But, for our purpose, we are interested in knowing what related terms are used by the Old Testament, that is, in the Hebrew Bible, how the Greek Bible translated these words, what is the use of this terminology in the early Christian origins and above all which is the meaning in the Pauline writings and in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.
It is necessary to give the meaning of the word in our language. Imprecation consists of the action of imprecation, that is, uttering words with which the strong desire that someone suffers harm or harm is expressed. Hence, as we have already indicated, it is synonymous with a curse and at the same time with condemnation and expletive and therefore with anathema.
imprecation in the old testament
The Hebrew Bible basically contains two ways of expressing curse and imprecation against someone or something, through verbs and names or nouns.
verbs
The Hebrew Bible uses a series of related verbs. These are: ‘arar (curse). This verb expresses not only the action of cursing (Ex 22, 27; Nm 22, 6), but the curse of an individual (Gn 9, 25) and also expresses the curse of an animal (Gn 3, 17). The verb in the skin form also means to curse universally (Gn 12, 3 Ps 62, 5; 109, 28) or to curse a man (Lv 19, 14) or to be cursed by the name of YHWH (2 Kgs 2, 8), cursing relatives (Ex 21, 17; Lv 20, 9), cursing the magistrate (Ex 22, 27), cursing the king (2 Sa 16, 10; 1 Kings 2, 8). In the pual form it also indicates the curse (Jb 24, 18; Is 65, 20). The verb means in the hiphil form, on the one hand “consecrate oneself to God” (Lv 27, 28; Mic 4, 13) and on the other “anathematize” (Dt 13, 16; Nm 21, 2; Jc 1, 17). The same means remains in the hophal form of this same verb. The verb expresses another form of cursing, but in the sense of blaspheming the name of the Lord (Lv 24, 16). The verb manifests in the qal form, that is, the regular conjugation of the Hebrew verb, the same meaning of “cursing”, “filling with imprecations” (Jb 3, 8; Prov 11, 26; 24, 24; Lv 24, 11; Job 5, 3).
nouns
The Hebrew noun ‘a/ah means “imprecation, execration, curse”, with three subtleties. The first of them declares the imprecatory clause that is usually added against someone (Prov 29, 24; Nm 5, 23; Dt 29, 18). The second indicates mdtonymically “covenant”, “promise”, “oath” (Gn 24, 41; 26, 28; Ez 16, 59). The third clearly manifests “injury, outrage” (Is 24, 6; Dt 29, 19; Dn 9, 11). Another noun expresses the “anathematization”, the “vow” (Zc 14, 11). And metonymically it indicates two realities. One of them is the anathema against a person (Lv 27, 28), the other, what is offered to God in perpetuity (Lv 27, 21; Nm 18, 14). And it also declares the person to be exterminated or that which must be destroyed by God’s command (Dt 7, 26; 13, 18; Jos 6, 17).
imprecation in the LXX version
The term would be the transcription of the Greek word that originally meant religious offerings that, removed from profane use, were reserved for the gods, in whose temples they were hung. That is the meaning of some Old Testament passages, where the term appears (Jdt 16, 23; 2 Mc 9, 16).
The word anathema is a Greek neologism and indicates, on the one hand, exactly what is offered and reserved for the divinity (2 Mac 2, 13; Judt 16, 9); on the other hand what is abandoned to the wrath of God, that is, what is destined for destruction or rather underlies the curse. In the latter meaning, rather than in an imprecatory inscription from Megara (1st-2nd centuries AD), it is found only in the LXX, where it translates the Hebrew word (Lv 27, 28 s; Dt 7, 26; 13, 17; Jos 6, 17; 7, 11; Zc 14, 11).
The LXX translates the word anathema from the Hebrew. There are other nouns that alternate with anathema, words like (Is 34, ), exolethreuma (1 Kings 15, 21), (Mic 7, 2), aphorism (Ez 44, 29).
The Hebrew word means a vow made to God, from which man cannot break, other times it expresses the death sentence, especially because of idolatry, inflicted in the name of God on individuals (Ex 22, 19) and later to entire populations (Dt 13, 13-19), although later the sentence was commuted for the confiscation of goods (Ezr 10, 8). For this reason, what is a bandit is removed from the profane sphere of relations with men and is consecrated solely to destruction.
Also the Greek Bible contains a series of verbs that express the connotations of the verbs in the Hebrew language. Thus the verb means “to curse”, “to imprecate evil on”. This verb translates the corresponding Hebrews na, qabab, qalal ‘arar (Gn 5, 29; Nm 22, 6; Dt 23, 4). The verb also expresses “speak against one”, “denigrate”, “accuse”, “slander” (Numbers 12, 8; 21, 5; Jb 19, 3). The verb “curse” contains two connotations in two New Testament passages. The evangelist Saint Mark presents Peter taking an oath under a curse of himself, to show that he did not know Jesus (Mk 14, 71). Saint Luke refers to the decision of many Jews who had pronounced on themselves the curse of God (Acts 23, 12. 14). The evangelist Saint Matthew uses a verb whose meaning is “to curse” or “to put oneself under a curse” (Mt 26, 74).
imprecation in early Christianity
Early Christian literature presents the term “anathema” only in five passages of Saint Paul’s letters (Rm 9, 3; 1 Cor 12, 3; 16, 22; Gal 1, 8. 9). Saint Paul does not refer to a specific person, since the apostle himself calls himself anathema, in the same way that no one can say that Jesus is anathema, and similarly anyone who does not love the Lord. On the other hand, the proclamation of the gospel cannot be different from the one preached by the apostle in the community, because if that were the case, whoever announced it would be “accursed”.
The use of this term in early Christianity corresponds to the influence that the Greek Bible has had on early Christianity, as far as terminology is concerned. Keep in mind that the Greek Bible was the Bible used by the first Christians and also by all the Christian Churches, at least until the fourth century AD Therefore, the first Christians used the terms of the Hebrew Bible, translated by the Greek Bible of the LXX.
meaning in the Paulines
The content of the Pauline writings expresses the meaning of these terms that we have already mentioned above, specifically referring to the five Pauline places where the expression appears.
In our opinion, the apostle Saint Paul makes a rereading of the Old Covenant, and for this he takes some patterns, where the lordship of YHWH over the other gods is proclaimed (Dt 7, 26; Jos 6, 17) and applies to Jesus Christ the same divine prerogatives than the Lord of Israel. This is a passage from the first Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 16, 22). In this case Saint Paul uses the gezerah sawah procedure, that is, the parallel with another Old Testament passage, in this case the fundamental concept is that of the slogan of the divine judgment of the one who is anathema because he is a sinner and does not recognize the lordship of Jesus.
Another passage expressed by the apostle in the same way as the LXX, that is, to designate the object of a curse (1 Cor 12, 3), although it is very difficult to understand the curse of Jesus, issued by the apostle, because it is impossible by contradictory that the Christian, animated by the Holy Spirit, can curse Jesus, that is, that he comes guided by God. It is more understandable to think that the apostle is fighting a curse that is related to the tendency of the Gnostics that are mentioned in the same Letter.
The apostle also culminates his tenacious attack against those who do not want to recognize salvation in Christ (Rom 9, 3), in the same way that the book of Exodus refers to those who did not recognize the sovereignty of the Lord (Ex 32, 32). The term anathema corresponds to the Hebrew term ‘arur. In both cases it is about not breaking solidarity with the people by the mediator. The experience of the Exodus refers to Moses, while in the passage from the Letter to the Romans, Paul expresses the unattainable wish that a curse would fall on himself, -anathema- provided that all are saved.
In this same sense we also indicate the two references of Saint Paul in the Letter to the Galatians (Gal 1, 8. 9). The Galatians are the victims of a machination produced by the apostle’s adversaries. Saint Paul himself censures the hypothesis of another gospel, where the Galatians want to recognize another gospel, Saint Paul sees only individuals who make a mess and want to falsify the gospel of Christ.
Saint Paul pronounces a curse against those who tried to announce good news opposite to what Saint Paul and his people have proclaimed and that the Galatians themselves have received. Hence, the same apostle carefully avoids referring to the term gospel to qualify the message of those who agitate against him, because it is only one gospel, that of Christ and he cannot attribute the name of any gospel to any other preaching. That is why he says if anyone announces a different gospel from the one you have received, let him be anathema. This term indicates the punishment inflicted on a person who was expelled from the people of God, because he did not live according to the law of Moses. Saint Paul, on the contrary, applies the sanction to those who wanted…