καταναθεματίζω

From the study of Matthew 26:74

Range of meaning

To call down a curse, to put under a ban or curse. Built on anathema / katathema, 'something devoted', which in the Greek Old Testament translates Hebrew ḥerem: something handed over to God for destruction. The verb belongs to the language of solemn religious cursing: invoking God to destroy or punish a person if a condition is true or false.

Against the English

KJV/BSB/WEB 'curse' and NASB 'curse' are accurate if 'curse' is taken in the old sense of 'pronounce a curse'. To most modern ears, though, 'curse' means using foul language ('cursing and swearing' = cussing). ESV ('invoke a curse on himself') and NLT spell out the self-curse reading. YLT's 'anathematise' keeps the technical sense but is opaque to most readers.

How it drifted

In older English 'to curse' meant to pronounce a malediction. From roughly the 18th–19th centuries the phrase 'cursing and swearing' came to mean profanity, and the KJV wording has been read that way ever since.

Used elsewhere in the period

The short form katathematizō is very rare; it appears here and in later Christian texts. The related noun katathema appears in Didache 16:5 and in some manuscripts of Revelation 22:3. Mark's parallel (14:71) uses anathematizein. Paul uses the anathema-group for solemn cursing: 'let him be anathema' (Gal 1:8–9; 1 Cor 16:22). Men who 'bound themselves under a curse' not to eat until they killed Paul (Acts 23:12, 14, 21) use anathematizō for a self-imposed curse. The Old Testament self-curse formula is 'May God do so to me and more also if…' (Ruth 1:17; 1 Sam 3:17; 2 Sam 3:35).