1 Timothy 1:20

1:18-20 The ministry is a warfare against sin and Satan; carried on under the Lord Jesus, who is the Captain of our salvation. The good hopes others have had of us, should stir us up to duty. And let us be upright in our conduct in all things. The design of the highest censures in the primitive church, was, to prevent further sin, and to reclaim the sinner. May all who are tempted to put away a good conscience, and to abuse the gospel, remember that this is the way to make shipwreck of faith also.

Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; {17} whom I have {n} delivered unto Satan, that they may {o} learn not to blaspheme. (17) Those who fall from God, and his religion, are not to be endured in the Church, but rather ought to be excommunicated. (n) Cast out of the Church, and so delivered them to Satan. (o) That by their pain they might learn how serious it is to blaspheme.

Of which men who have made shipwreck of a good conscience and concerning faith, Hymenaeus and Alexander are two persons. Of Hymenaeus we read, 2 Timothy 2:17,18 ; he affirmed the resurrection was past, and overthrew the faith of many. Of Alexander we read, 2 Timothy 4:14 ; he was a great enemy to Paul, the same person, as some judge, mentioned Acts 19:33 , then a friend to Paul, but afterwards one who did him much harm. Whom I have delivered unto Satan: we meet with the same phrase, 1 Corinthians 5:5 : see the notes there. Some think by it is signified a peculiar power granted the apostles, God in those primitive times confirming regular excommunications, by letting Satan loose upon persons excommunicated to torture them; but we find nothing of this in Scripture. I rather think the sense is no more than, whom I excommunicated and cast out of the church, making them of the world again, (as the world is opposed to the church, and kingdom of Christ), which, for the greater terror, the apostle expresseth by this notion of being delivered to Satan, who is called the god of this world, & c. That they may learn not to blaspheme: not that I might ruin and undo them, but that I might amend them by this exercise of discipline, teaching them to take heed of spreading damnable and pernicious errors to the reproach of God. Or, perhaps, with their perverse opinions (which is very ordinary) they mingled reproachful speeches concerning God.

1 Timothy 1:20 . Ὑμέναιος καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος , Hymenœus and Alexander ) A reproof, with the names expressed: comp. on Hymenæus and Alexander, 2 Timothy 2:16-17 ; 2 Timothy 4:14-15 .— οὓς , whom ) though absent. They were at Ephesus; Paul was at Rome. This was the part of an apostle; it was the part of Timothy merely to avoid them and to be on his guard.— παρέδωκα , I have delivered ) for [or to ] the destruction of the flesh [ 1 Corinthians 5:5 ].— μὴ βλασφημεῖν ) lest they should fall into blasphemy , and wholly complete their guilt by becoming more hurtful to themselves and others. [ The danger of blasphemy is near at hand to the man who has made shipwreck of his faith. Satan might harass them: he could not force them to blaspheme .—V. g.] —————

Hymenaeus and Alexander Comp. 2 Timothy 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:14. Have delivered unto Satan (παρέδωκα τῷ Σατανᾷ) See on 1 Corinthians 5:5. They may learn (παιδευθῶσι) Neither A.V. nor Rev. gives the true force of the word, which is, may be taught by punishment or disciplined. See on Ephesians 6:4.

20. Hymenaeus—There is no difficulty in supposing him to be the Hymenæus of 2Ti 2:17. Though "delivered over to Satan" (the lord of all outside the Church, Ac 26:18, and the executor of wrath, when judicially allowed by God, on the disobedient, 1Co 5:5; 2Co 12:7), he probably was restored to the Church subsequently, and again troubled it. Paul, as an apostle, though distant at Rome pronounced the sentence to be executed at Ephesus, involving, probably, the excommunication of the offenders (Mt 18:17, 18). The sentence operated not only spiritually, but also physically, sickness, or some such visitation of God, falling on the person excommunicated, in order to bring him to repentance and salvation. Alexander here is probably "the coppersmith" who did Paul "much evil" when the latter visited Ephesus. The "delivering him to Satan" was probably the consequence of his withstanding the apostle (2Ti 4:14, 15); as the same sentence on Hymenæus was the consequence of "saying that the resurrection is past already" (2Ti 2:18; his putting away good conscience, naturally producing shipwreck concerning FAITH, 1Ti 1:19. If one's religion better not his morals, his moral deficiencies will corrupt his religion. The rain which falls pure from heaven will not continue pure if it be received in an unclean vessel [Archbishop Whately]).

It is possible that he is the Alexander, then a Jew, put forward by the Jews, doubtless against Paul, at the riot in Ephesus (Ac 19:33). that they may—not "might"; implying that the effect still continues—the sentence is as yet unremoved. learn—Greek, "be disciplined," namely, by chastisement and suffering. blaspheme—the name of God and Christ, by doings and teachings unworthy of their Christian profession (Ro 2:23, 24; Jas 2:7). Though the apostles had the power of excommunication, accompanied with bodily inflictions, miraculously sent (2Co 10:8), it does not follow that fallible ministers now have any power, save that of excluding from church fellowship notorious bad livers.

Verse 20. - Delivered for have delivered , A.V.; might be taught for may learn , A.V. Hymenaeus ; probably the same as is mentioned 2 Timothy 2:17, 18 , as holding heretical doctrine concerning the resurrection, and overthrowing the faith of some. It is an uncommon name, though borne by a Bishop of Alexandria in the second century, and by a Bishop of Jerusalem in the third. Alexander ; doubtless the same as "Alexander the coppersmith" of 2 Timothy 4:14 . I delivered unto Satan. The passages in Scripture which throw light on this difficult phrase are, chiefly, the following: the almost identical passage, 1 Corinthians 5:5 ; Job 1:12 ; Job 2:6, 7 ; Luke 13:10 ; Acts 5:5, 10 ; Acts 10:38 ; Acts 13:11 ; 1 Corinthians 11:30 ; 2 Corinthians 12:7 ; and Hebrews 2:14 . Putting these together, it appears that sickness and bodily infirmity and death are, within certain limits, in the power of Satan to inflict. And that the apostles were able, on fitting occasions, to hand over peccant members of the Church to this power of Satan, that by such discipline "the spirit might be saved." In the case of Hymenaeus and Alexander (as in that of the incestuous person at Corinth), the punishment incident on this delivery to Satan would appear to have been short or' death, but in the case of the two first not to have had the effect of bringing them to a true repentance. Might be taught ( παιδευθῶσι ); viz. by correction and punishment, as children are taught ( Hebrews 12:6-8 ).

20 . Hymeneus and Alexander ] The name Hymenæus occurs again in 2 Timothy 2:17 , and being uncommon and used in both places of an heretical person in the same locality may fairly be taken as referring to the same person; the heresy condemned is practically the same; ‘the profane babblings’ there representing the ‘vain talking’ of 1 Timothy 1:6 here, which is plainly echoed in 1 Timothy 1:19 —the test of orthodoxy being ‘faith and a good conscience.’ The name Alexander also occurs again in 2 Timothy 4:14 ; but being common, and having a distinguishing addition there ‘the coppersmith,’ and referring rather to a personal enemy of St Paul than to a heretic, may more probably refer to a different person, possibly the Alexander of Acts 19:33 . Fairbairn adds reasonably ‘in the 2nd Epistle Philetus not Alexander is associated with Hymenæus, and Alexander is mentioned alone and apparently as a worker of evil, not at Ephesus but in Rome, though it is possible enough he may have belonged to the region of Asia.’ whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn ] The exact force of the tense is whom I delivered ; of the mood, that they might be disciplined . In the N. T. the later usage holds of the subjunctive following the past tense instead of the optative and our idiom requires ‘might.’ A definite time and act of ‘delivering’ is thus seen to be referred to, explained by some ancient and modern commentators as being excommunication; e.g. Theod.

Mops., Latin Version, “ecclesiae alienationem ‘traditionem Satanae’ vocans”; by others as the judicial infliction of bodily sickness or calamity, such as the blindness inflicted upon Elymas by St Paul, Acts 13:11 ; by Ellicott and Fairbairn, as both combined. “The term” says Wordsworth (on 1 Corinthians 5:5 , where the phrase is the same) “appears to have had its origin from consideration of the fact that physical evil is due to the agency of the Evil Spirit; cf. Job 2:6 ; Luke 13:16 : Matthew 8:30-32 (add 2 Corinthians 12:7 ‘a messenger of Satan’). But St Paul states the aim and end of the sentence of excommunication against the incestuous Corinthian to be that by the punishment of the flesh, and consequent mortification of the fleshly lusts and appetites, ‘his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord’; so in the case of Hymenæus and Alexander; and generally his spiritual weapons are given him for edification and not for destruction. Cf. 2 Corinthians 10:8 .” may learn ] might be disciplined ; the verb, meaning properly ‘to train,’ ‘educate,’ as in Acts 7:22 , is generally used of ‘training by chastisement,’ ‘correcting’; cf. 1 Corinthians 11:32 , ‘when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord,’ where the reference is to the sickness and death sent as chastisement for the desecration of the Lord’s Table.