Tag Archives: Nicea

Who Can Say “Jesus is Anathema”?

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St. Basil the Great (died AD 379) offers the prayers of the Eucharist at the altar. The Church at prayer was thought to be the clearest revelation of the Holy Spirit. Typically, the scroll in his hands indicates the first few words of the prayer the priest says quietly for himself at the offertory of the Eucharist.


You know that as Gentiles you were marched away to mute idols, however you were led. For this reason I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says “Jesus is anathema!” and that no one can say “Jesus is Lord!” except by the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 12:1-3)

“Anathema” was sometimes used by pagans to mean an offering was no longer available for human use but it was used in the Old Testament to mean a thing was cursed (Deut. 7:26) and therefore should not be touched. In Christian use, the word “anathema” came to mean an idea or opinion or person was outside the broad range of acceptable theological ideas or ethical behavior considered appropriate for Christians. “Arius is anathema” was common after the first ecumenical council at Nicea in AD 325.

Each slogan–Jesus is anathema/Jesus is Lord–is only two words long in Greek: anathema Iesous and kyrios Iesous. Evidently differing factions of the Corinthian parish used these slogans to identify themselves. Why would a Corinthian Christian say, “Jesus is anathema?” Presumably, this was what the Roman authorities wanted the Christians to say when they were arrested and asked to deny Christ. Perhaps some in the Corinthian parish who had gnostic tendencies used the phrase to denigrate the earthly Jesus because they thought “spiritual” experiences were more important; this might explain the hostility between those with certain “spiritual gifts” or “spiritual experiences” and the rest of the parish that St. Paul deals with in other portions of his epistle.

“Jesus is Lord!” was probably a quote from the baptism service in which a new believer affirmed their faith in Christ and was immersed in the water to die and rise with Christ. This affirmation-confession of faith was impossible without the prompting of the Holy Spirit. It has become a quick summary of classic teaching about the Holy Trinity to say that the Father is revealed by the Son and the Son is revealed by the Holy Spirit while the Holy Spirit is revealed by the Church. (Readers might be interested to read Vladimir Lossky’s thoughts on this here or here.)

Shameless self-promotion: However, the Holy Spirit was not always recognized as a distinct person apart from Christ or the Father. For an easy-to-read description of how the Holy Spirit was recognized and the Holy Trinity proclaimed, see Chapter 3 in my introduction to church history, which is also available here.

Excommunicate Evil

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Detail of a late medieval Greek Orthodox icon showing Saint Nicholas slapping Arius at the First Council of Nicaea.

In the letter I wrote to you not to associate with sexually immoral people, not meaning the sexually immoral of this world in general, or the avaricious and the greedy, or the idolatrous, because then you would have to leave the world. Now I write to you not to associate with someone who bears the name of brother or sister and who is sexually immoral or avaricious or idolatrous or slanderous or a drunkard or greedy. You should not even dine with someone like that.

Who am I to judge outsiders? Shouldn’t you judge insiders? God will judge outsiders. Expel the wicked one from your midst. (1 Cor. 5:9-13)

St. Paul refers to a previous letter that he had written to the parish at Corinth; alas, that letter has not survived. But in that previous letter, the apostle had instructed the Corinthians to shun the immoral. He hadn’t told them to shun everyone who was immoral because that would mean that they would have to shun the whole world! He had told them to shun those who were members of the Church but who behaved as if they were not Christians. St. Paul told the Corinthians not to worry about outsiders; God will judge the non-Christians. St. Paul told the Corinthians that they were responsible for maintaining the discipline of the “insiders” and that they should not even have dinner with the Christians who denied the faith by such notorious, public misbehavior.

The practice of shunning those who repudiate the Church by their public misbehavior came to be known as “excommunication” as the Christians being shunned were “former communicates” who were now forbidden to receive Holy Communion; in Latin ex, out of, and communio or communicatio, communion — exclusion from the communion). They were excluded from the fellowship, the koininia, of the Church. Excommunication was seen as spiritual medicine and not a spiritual punishment as it was not intended to punish the excommunicated person but was meant to correct the excommunicated person and bring them back to the path of righteousness.

As the Church developed in Western Europe, two kinds of excommunication developed. One was called “lesser excommunication” in which the person was not allowed to receive Holy Communion but could still participate in other aspects of parish activities. The “greater excommunication” involved the public shunning that St. Paul describes. A person who was a “greater excommunicate” was forbidden to participate in public communal life in any way: the members of the parish in good standing were not allowed to speak or eat or do business with or associate in any way with a person placed under the “greater excommunication.”

A lesser excommunication was issued if a person either hit or attacked a priest in public or associated in public with someone who was under a greater excommunication. Lesser excommunications have not been issued since 1869.

A greater excommunication is issued if a person denies the Christian faith in public, promotes incorrect teaching, throws away or mistreats the consecrated Eucharist, or if a priest reveals what someone said in confession. Great excommunication can be forgiven if the public misbehavior stops.

St. Nicholas–of Santa Claus fame–is said to have been so angry at the heretic Arius that he slapped Arius during the first ecumenical council held at Nicea in AD 325. Arius has become the “prototype” or “model” of those who are excommunicated or cast out of the Church for notorious misbehavior or incorrect belief.