κατανάθεμα

From the study of Revelation 22:3

Range of meaning

A very rare word, formed on the more common ἀνάθεμα (anathema). The basic idea is 'something laid down / set apart', and in Jewish Greek it narrowed to 'set apart for destruction'. So it can mean (1) a thing or person under a curse, an 'accursed thing', or (2) the curse itself. BDAG gives 'something accursed' for this verse. Behind it stands the Hebrew ḥerem, the 'ban': something devoted irrevocably to God, which usually meant destroyed (Leviticus 27:28–29; Deuteronomy 7:26; Joshua 6–7).

Against the English

KJV, WEB, NIV and BSB have 'curse'. The ESV's 'anything accursed' points to the object under the curse. The NLT extends the curse to everything ('a curse upon anything'). 'Curse' is not wrong, but in modern English it can suggest a spell or hex, or a vague 'bad luck'. The Greek is closer to a legal and sacred status: condemned, banned, given up to destruction.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Zechariah 14:11 renders the Hebrew 'and ḥerem shall be no more' as καὶ οὐκ ἔσται ἀνάθεμα ἔτι ('and there will not be an anathema any longer'). That is nearly John's exact wording, with κατάθεμα for ἀνάθεμα. The related verb καταθεματίζω describes Peter calling down curses in Matthew 26:74 (critical text). Didache 16:5, an early Christian text, uses κατάθεμα in its end-time section ('saved by the curse itself'). Paul uses the root ἀνάθεμα for a person under God's curse (Galatians 1:8–9; Romans 9:3; 1 Corinthians 16:22).