1:8

let him be accursed: Paul warns the Galatian Christians of “certain ones” who were “wanting to distort the good news about the Christ.” (Ga 1:7) These were apparently men who endorsed Jewish traditions rather than the message of the good news. Paul says that Christians should consider to be “accursed” anyone, even angels, who declared to them as good news something beyond that which they had received. He repeats this warning in verse 9. The Greek word for “accursed” (a·naʹthe·ma) literally means that which is “laid up.” The word originally applied to votive offerings laid up, or set apart, as sacred in a temple. In this context it applies to that which is set apart to be declared bad or evil. (1Co 12:3; 16:22; see study note on Ro 9:3.) In the Septuagint, the translators generally used the same Greek word to render the Hebrew word cheʹrem, which means a thing or a person “devoted to destruction” or “set apart for destruction.”​—De 7:26; 13:17.