Anathema in Greek

Anathema (Greek Word -Ανάθεμα-) meaning originally something lifted up as an offering to the gods; later, with evolving meanings, it came to mean:

Anathema in the New Testament

The traditional view is that in the New Testament the word anathema always implies denouncement and banishment. In some cases an individual pronounces an anathema on himself if certain conditions are not fulfilled (Acts 23:12, 14, 21). "To call Jesus denounced" [anathema] (1 Cor. 12:3) is to pronounce him execrated or accursed. If any one preached another gospel, the apostle says, "let him be denounced" (Gal. 1:8, 9); i.e., let his conduct in so doing be accounted banished.

Anathema in the Catholic Church

After the time of the apostolic church, the term anathema has come to mean a form of extreme religious sanction beyond excommunication, known as major excommunication. The earliest recorded instance of the form is in the Council of Elvira (c. 306), and thereafter it became the common method of cutting off heretics. Cyril of Alexandria issued twelve anathemas against Nestorius in 431. In the fifth century, a formal distinction between anathema and excommunication evolved, where excommunication entailed cutting off a person or group from the rite of eucharist and attendance at worship, while anathema meant a complete separation of the subject from the Body of Christ. While excommunication can be announced by a simple edict or papal bull, the Roman Catholic Church has a particular ceremony necessary for anathema, where the Pope clad in a purple cope (the liturgical color of penitence) is required, and he is surrounded by twelve priests with lighted candles. As the sentence is uttered, the priests cast their lighted candles on the ground, to symbolize the exclusion of the anathematized group from the house of God, and shout "Fiat! Fiat! Fiat!" or "Let it de done".

Anathema in Popular Culture

• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Anathema is the name given to the unholy form of a Priest's epic staff, the holy form of which is called Benediction.
• In the MMORPG EVE Online, Anathema is an Amarr covert ops ship.