1 Timothy 1:18-20 Two are handed over

[hotcoffee]

1 Timothy 1:18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.​

Paul says he has handed two men over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. Since Satan taught his minions to blaspheme and really took great pleasure in it, this doesn't make sense on the surface.

Digging down a little into the commentaries, I found this explanation.

Whom I have delivered unto Satan.—In this fearful formula the offender is delivered over to Satan, the evil one. It is a solemn excommunication or expulsion from the Church, accompanied with the infliction of bodily disease or death. In ordinary cases, the offender was quietly expelled from the Christian society. But an Apostle, and only an Apostle, seems to have possessed the awful powers of inflicting bodily suffering in the forms of disease and death.​

Nasty stuff if you ask me. I guess when the people see what can happen to those who are false teachers, it would serve as an example for others who might want to follow them. But with these two out of the way, Timothy can go in and straighten things out in the church of Ephesus.

 

[b23hqb]

1 Timothy 1:18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.​

Paul says he has handed two men over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. Since Satan taught his minions to blaspheme and really took great pleasure in it, this doesn't make sense on the surface.

Digging down a little into the commentaries, I found this explanation.

Whom I have delivered unto Satan.—In this fearful formula the offender is delivered over to Satan, the evil one. It is a solemn excommunication or expulsion from the Church, accompanied with the infliction of bodily disease or death. In ordinary cases, the offender was quietly expelled from the Christian society. But an Apostle, and only an Apostle, seems to have possessed the awful powers of inflicting bodily suffering in the forms of disease and death.​

Nasty stuff if you ask me. I guess when the people see what can happen to those who are false teachers, it would serve as an example for others who might want to follow them. But with these two out of the way, Timothy can go in and straighten things out in the church of Ephesus.

Hymaneaus, along with another guy named Philetus, are mentioned by Paul in 2 Tim 2:17, are called a canker, or gangrene. They were probably gnosticizing (is that a word?) that the teachings on the resurrection not being true, but only in a spiritual sense, therefore Jesus is still dead and not alive.

The "I have delivered unto Satan" in v 20 of your post today, as you wrote, is representative of church discipline in literally excommunicating such people from any help and fellowship of the church, probably a form of last resort punishment to avoid more gnostic and blasphemous teachings.

 

[hotcoffee]

Hymaneaus, along with another guy named Philetus, are mentioned by Paul in 2 Tim 2:17, are called a canker, or gangrene. They were probably gnosticizing (is that a word?) that the teachings on the resurrection not being true, but only in a spiritual sense, therefore Jesus is still dead and not alive.

The "I have delivered unto Satan" in v 20 of your post today, as you wrote, is representative of church discipline in literally excommunicating such people from any help and fellowship of the church, probably a form of last resort punishment to avoid more gnostic and blasphemous teachings.

And Alexander mentioned here is differentiated because the commentaries say that he was a coppersmith. He's not the same Alexander who calmed the crowd in Acts 19:33.