A thing DEVOTED TO DESTRUCTION — set apart and handed over to God to be annihilated; the Greek Old Testament's rendering of the Hebrew cherem, the 'ban' under which Jericho and its contents were placed (Joshua 6:17). It began as a NEUTRAL word (anathēma, a votive offering hung up in a temple) and darkened: what is given wholly to God is beyond ordinary use, and for an enemy that means devoted to ruin. Paul pronounces it TWICE in Galatians 1:8-9 on anyone — himself or an angel included — who preaches a different gospel. English 'anathema' descends straight from it, and it is worth knowing it meant a curse of total destruction, not a mere strong dislike. → first discussed at Galatians 1:8