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death the offender goes straight to hell. The Good News Bible renders it, "Let him be condemned to hell!"
and the NIV renders it, "Let him be eternally condemned." George argues that "it means nothing less than
to suffer the eternal retribution and judgment of God."
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This view is supported by various means. First, it is supported by aspects of the Old Testament
concept of !rj. When someone was "hierem-ized," they were, for the most part, dedicated to destruction
and thus were killed.
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The Old Testament concept of !rj also is used eschatologically, especially of the
promises of the destruction of God's enemies.
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Second, it squares with concepts in extrabiblical literature. Dedication to destruction as death is
prevalent.
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In m. Sanhedrin 10, discipline is associated with having "no place in the world to come" for
those who fall under the penalty of Deuteronomy 13:12-18.
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Third, several of the New Testament anathemas intimate eschatological judgment. Peter's self-
cursing is seen as his devotion of himself to ruinous destruction at the future day of judgment or reckoning.
In Acts 23, Paul's would-be assassins used the same curse, and most scholars do not regard this as a self-
excommunication curse. Paul's self-imprecation in Rom 9:3 would have him eternally separated from
Christ. Paul's similar curse in 1 Cor 16:22 is tied to the eschatological Marana qa showing that those who
do not love the Lord would be devoted to the Lord's rejection and judgment at His coming.
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I am in basic agreement with this view. However, there are aspects that remain unexplained. First,
the aspect of the imminency of the judgment of God is not clearly addressed. In the New Testament
examples above, the self-cursings can also be seen as devotion to immediate divine retribution as well as a
ruinous destruction at the future day of judgment. In m. Sanhedrin 10, those who have no place in the
world to come faced imminent punishment by being executed by stoning or the sword.
Second, this view does not account for a community response to the anathematized offender.
Technically, it can be argued that in this context a community response is separate from the meaning of
anathema itself. However, the Old Testament concepts of taboo and defilement associated with !rj/
ajnavqema in Lev 27:28 and all property, as well as confiscation of property and disassociation from the
offender in Ezra 10:8, argue for a broader view of its intended result. The discussion on Ezra 10:8 indicates
that the reason the anathema included confiscation of property and subsequent banishment from the
community was the fear of God's imminent retribution.
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Paul's clear responses to false teaching indicate
that he knew the consequences of imminent divine retribution. As a result of these deficiencies, I have
chosen to hold to a more holistic view to which we will now turn.
Anathema as Relegation to Imminent Divine Retribution View
The clear themes of the meaning of anathema need to be recognized and tied together into a holistic
view as Paul's relegation of his dangerous opponents to God's imminent retribution. Several points need to
be made to clarify this definition. First, by relegation to retribution, I mean that Paul himself is not enacting
and performing the retribution. Anathema stresses what the offender faces before God, not the one uttering
the curse. This is seen in Paul's dealings with false teachers. Tarazi captures this idea best when he states,
"By issuing the anathema Paul is relegating the whole matter to the judgment of God Himself, who is the sole
dispenser of curses as well as blessings."
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The opposite relegation is also apparent when in Gal 6:16, Paul relegates those who walk as new
creatures to the peace and mercy that can only come (ejpi;) from God. However, this is not to say that
Paul's authority as an apostle has no bearing (Gal 1:1; 2:7). His authority from Christ lends weight to this
sober imperative. Rather it demonstrates that Paul believed something would happen to the anathematized
offender while he was responsible to communicate the anathematization to the offender and to the
community.