Excommunication

Excommunication the judicial exclusion of offenders from the religious rites and privileges of the particular comemunlity to which they belong. It is a power founded upon a right inherent in all, religious societies, and is analogous to the powers of capital punishment, banishment, and exclusion from membership which are exercised by political and municipal bodies. If Christianity is merely a philosophical idea thrown into the world to do battle with other theories, and to be valued according as it maintains its ground or not in the conflict of opinions, excommunication, and ecclesiastical punishments and discipline are unreasonable. If a society has been instituted for maintaining any body of doctrine and any code of morals, they are necessary to the existence of that society. That the Christian Church is an organized polity, a spiritual “kingdom of God” on earth, is the declaration of the Bible; and that the Jewish Church was at once a spiritual and a temporal organization is clear. Among the Jews, however, excommunication was not only an ecclesiastical, but also a civil punishment, because in their theocracy there was no distinction between the divine and the statutory right (Exodus 31:14; Ezra 10:3,11; Nehemiah 13:28). But among Christians excommunication was strictly confined to ecclesiastical relations, as the situation and constitution of the Church during the first three centuries admitted of no intermingling or confounding of civil and religious privileges or penalties. Excommunication, in the Christian Church, consisted at first simply in exclusion from the communion of the Lord’s Supper and the love-feasts: “with such a one, no, not to eat” (1 Corinthians 5:11). It might also include a total separation from the body of the faithful; and such a. person was, with regard to the Church, “as a heathen man and a publican.” But this excision did not exempt him from my duties to which he was liable in civil life, neither did it withhold from him any natural obligations, such as are founded on nature, humanity, and the law of nations (Matthew 18:17; 1 Corinthians 5:5,11; 10:16-18; 2 Thessalonians 3:6,14; 2 John 1:10-11). SEE CHURCH.

I. Jewish. — The Jewish system of excommunication was threefold. For a first offense a delinquent was subjected to the penalty of נִדּוּי (niddui). Rambaam (quoted by Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae, on 1 Corinthians 5:5), Moriunus (De Panitentia, 4:27), and Buxtorf (Lexicon Tahn. col. page 303 sq.) enumerate the twenty-four offenses for which it was inflicted. They are various, and range in heinousness from the offense of keeping a fierce dog to that of taking God’s name in vain. Elsewhere (Talm. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 16, 1) the causes of its infliction are reduced to two, termed money and epicurism, by which is meant debt and wanton insolence. The offender was first cited to appear in court, and if he refused to appearer to make amends, his sentence was pronounced “Let NI. or N. be under excommunication.” The excommunicated person was prohibited the use of the bath, or of the razor, or of the convivial table; and all who had to do with him were commanded to keep him at four cubits’ distance. He was allowed to go to the Temple, but not to make the circuit in the ordinary manner. The term of this punishment was thirty days, and it was extended to a second and to a third thirty days when necessary. If at the end of that time the offender was still contumacious, he was subjected to the second excommunication termed הֶרֶם (cherem), a word meaning something devoted to God (Leviticus 27:21,28; Exodus 22:20 [19]; Numbers 18:14). Severer penalties were now attached. The offender was not allowed to teach or to be taught in company with others, to hire or to be hired, nor to perform any commercial transactions beyoand purchasing the necessaries of life. The sentence was delivered by a court of ten, and was accompanied by a solemn malediction, for which authority was supposed to be found in the “Curse ye Meroz” of Judges 5:23.

Lastly followed שִׁמָּתָא (shamma-tha), which was an entire cutting off from the congregation. It has been supposed by some that these two latter forms of excoanmunication were undistinguishable from each other. See BAN.

To continue reading this Bible article, click here.

Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia

Keywords: Excommunication

Bible reference(s): 1 Corinthians 10:16, 1 Corinthians 16:22, 1 Corinthians 5:11, 1 Timothy 1:20, 1 Timothy 6:3, 2 Corinthians 1:23, 2 Corinthians 13:10, 2 Corinthians 2:9, 2 John 1:10, 2 Maccabees 9:16, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 2 Timothy 3:17, 3 John 1:10, Acts 26:18, Acts 5:1, Colossians 1:13, Deuteronomy 7:26, Ephesians 5:5, Ephesians 6:12, Exodus 22:20, Exodus 30:33, Exodus 31:14, Ezra 10:3, Galatians 1:8, Galatians 5:12, Isaiah 43:28, John 12:42, John 16:2, Joshua 6:17, Joshua 7:13, Jude 1:14, Judges 5:23, Leviticus 17:4, Leviticus 27:21, Luke 21:5, Luke 6:22, Matthew 18:17, Nehemiah 13:28, Numbers 12:14, Numbers 18:14, Numbers 21:3, Revelation 2:20, Romans 16:17, Romans 9:3, Titus 3:10

Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.

Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.