1 Timothy 1:20

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 timeand actof -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 spiritmay 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 chastenedof the Lord," where the reference is to the sickness and death sent as chastisement for the desecration of the Lord's Table. Compare the old English use of -teach" in Judges 8:16, -he took the thorns of the wilderness and briars, and with them he taughtthe men of Succoth." Cf. the striking use in Luke 23:16, -I will therefore chastisehim and let him go."