In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the term ανάθεμα, “curse,” twice. He begins his discussion of prophesying and praying in tongues:1

Περί δε τών πνευματικών, αδελφοί, ου θέλω υμάς άγνοεΐν.

Ο’ίδατε δτι δτε έθνη ητε προς τα είδωλα τα άφωνα ώς αν ηγεσθε άπαγόμενοι. διό γνωρίζω ύμΐν δτι ούδεις έν πνεύματι θεού λαλών λέγει· Ανάθεμα ’Ιησούς, και ούδεις δύναται είπεΐν· Κύριος ’Ιησούς, εί μη έν πνεύματι άγίω.

Concerning spiritual things, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were gentiles you were enticed and carried away again and again by speechless idols. Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking in the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is a curse,” and no one is able to say, “Jesus is Lord,” unless he is in the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 12:1—3)2

The second ανάθεμα occurs in the final greeting of the letter:

Ό ασπασμός τη έμη χειρι Παύλου.

εί τις ου φιλει τόν κύριον, ητω ανάθεμα. μαράνα θά. ή χάρις τού κυρίου ’Ιησού μεθ’ ύμών. ή αγάπη μου μετά πάντων ύμών έν Χριστώ ’Ιησού.

The greeting is in my, Paul’s, own hand. If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be cursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you in Christ Jesus. (1 Cor 16:21-24)^[127] ^{^[128] ^[129] ^[130] This term is a crux interpretum in scholarship on 1 Cor 12:3 and 16:22. The syntax, especially in 12:3, is difficult, and it is unclear whether and why the Corinthians would have said such a phrase. One argument about this odd phrase contextualizes it by analyzing the language of lead curse tablets found in Corinth. Based on analysis of tablets from Corinth, many from the Sanctuary of Demeter, Bruce Winter suggests that Ανάθεμα ’Ιησούς means “Jesus, grant a curse,” and the Corinthian Christians asked their new Lord to curse their opponents, much like they once asked their old gods. This argument, however, places too much weight on a flawed syntactical parallel between 1 Cor 12:3 and statements in the curse tablets.^{^[131]}}

In this essay, I similarly use the material evidence of curse tablets, in Corinth and elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean region, to contextualize Paul's use of the term ανάθεμα. Through comparing the speech-act of cursing in Paul's letter with that of cursing in the lead tablets, I reframe the question: rather than ask about the philological background for Paul's obscure ανάθεμα statements and whether the Corinthians said something like this, I discuss how the term functioned in religious strategies for speaking to and for God.

To accomplish this, I first examine a selection of curse tablets: one from Megara, which includes the term ανάθεμα, a few from Knidos, which provide additional examples of rituals that publicly anathematize individuals, and several from Corinth, which locate similar practices in the area to which Paul wrote. I then turn to Paul's language in 1 Cor 12:3 and 16:22, within its literary context in a letter that at length addresses inspired speaking practices. I argue that both sets of texts— 1 Corinthians and curse tablets—address the tension between hidden and common knowledge in ritual communication with the gods. For magical tablets, this tension—created by mysterious speech and writing, secret and public aspects of the ritual, and blending of multiple traditions—influences the perceived efficacy. In his suggestions to the Corinthians, Paul prefers intelligible to obscure speech, and the human audience is just as important as the divine, if not more so. At the same time, he invokes his own ability to speak in tongues, or tap into mysterious and foreign languages and knowledge, and pronounce curses to bolster his authority.

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Source: Blakely S. (ed.). Gods, Objects, and Ritual Practice. Lockwood Press,2017. — 371 p.. 2017

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the term ανάθεμα, “curse,” twice. He begins his discussion of prophesying and praying in tongues:1

More on the topic In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the term ανάθεμα, “curse,” twice. He begins his discussion of prophesying and praying in tongues:1: