“Anathema” is a word which means an official and religious separation from the church/believer. The concept was originally formed as a thing with “is God’s possession”, such as an offering, money or sacrifice given to God, etcetera, but which thing man reclaimed without authority to do so.

To “take the anathema” is lay hold on what is God’s possession, which is not yours to tough. Achan taking the gold which God had slated for destruction is an example. The concept is not distinct in that God “has” the thing for His own use or for destruction, because either can fit. The concept centers on it being dedicated to God, and man “steals” this from God, making the thing “anathema.” So the conclusion is that the concept was something dreaded by the Jews, and later it was also applied to things or people outside of their particular legal system, upon which they wanted God to destroy (like the Muslim “fatimas”). At times the Greek word “Marantha” (“The Lord comes quickly”) was added as an exhortation that God execute this judgment rapidly upon the person. See 1Cor 16:22.

At times something “anatema” had to do with the point of view of the person seeing it. Mal 2:2 “I will curse your blessings.” God was going to curse what they called blessing. In the fight of the worldly leaders against God, they we calling many things “blessings” (from God), and God made those things curses. In Jos 6:18, the matter of Acan’s sin, all in the city was dedicated for destruction being the possession of God. Nothing was to be spared or taken by the Israelites. So here is where the idea of a man stealing God’s possessions in an illegal and illegitimate way.

In hebrew, “cursed” and “crucified” were synonomous terms. For the Jew, any person that died on a cross was also cursed by God Deu 21:23.

For centuries, the concept of excommunication is a type being anathematized, in which a person in denied his Christian rights, o participation in the community in some form or way. He has his membership in the community denied, and this is public. The most important point of this identification is in being denied the Lord’s Supper, which was denied to these people. The Hebrew concept, is a person who could not be judge nor witness, nor attend funerals, no circumcise their children, nor be in the company of other men closed that 2 meters. If they died still in this state, then they were denied their rights to a funeral, a formal and worthy burial, and only a single big rock or mound of rocks were heaped upon their body (Jos 7:26). It seems that for the apostles, the excommunication was a negation of participating in the Lord’s Supper, and was the loss of identification of being redeemed.

See Cursed
[G2764 cherem ] Citas: Lev. 27:29; Deu. 7:26; 13:17; Jos. 6:17, 18; 7:1, 11, 12, 13, 15; 22:20; 1Sa. 15:21; 1Ki. 20:42; 1Ch. 2:7; Isa. 34:5; 43:28; Rom. 9:3; 1Co. 12:3; 16:22; Gal. 1:8, 9.