1 Timothy 1:20

1 Timothy 1:20. Hymenæus and Alexander. The first probably identical with the false teacher named with Philetus in 2 Timothy 2:17, as teaching that ‘ the resurrection was past already,' i.e. that it was simply ethical and ideal, as a rising to newness of life. From St. Paul's point of view, this was to overturn the faith. Those who held it, like shipwrecked sailors, had no hope of reaching the haven where they would be. The Alexander is probably the same as ‘the coppersmith, who wrought St. Paul much evil,' of 2 Timothy 4:14, possibly also the same as the man put forward by the Jews in Acts 19:33. One who was a worker in copper, or rather bronze, would be likely to have influence with the workmen of Demetrius. One who was put forward by the Jews was not unlikely to identify himself with one form of Jewish error, i.e. an idealized Sadduceism, and as such to oppose himself to St. Paul, as preaching the doctrine, held by him in common with the Pharisees, of the resurrection of the dead.

Whom I have delivered to Satan. Better ‘whom I delivered,' the tense pointing to a definite time, probably on the occasion of his last visit to Ephesus. The act so spoken of involves (as in 1 Corinthians 5:5) the thought that Satan, when permitted, exercises a power to inflict disease and pain on the bodies of men analogous to that of which we read in the Book of Job. That power is, indeed, recognised by our Lord (Luke 13:16) and by St. Paul in reference to himself (2 Corinthians 12:7, and probably 1 Thessalonians 2:18). It might be connected, as in the case at Corinth (1 Corinthians 5:2), with excommunication, but was not necessarily identical with it. And in both the cases referred to, and therefore probably in all others, it was thought of as remedial. The ‘spirit was to be saved by the ‘destruction of the flesh;' men were to be ‘chastened' and ‘disciplined' (this rather than ‘ taught' is the meaning of the word) as those who, though offending grievously, were not as yet shut out from love and from the hope of pardon.

Not to blaspheme. The word is used probably to express the horror felt at the association of the name of God or Christ with a doctrine which overthrew the faith and led to impurity of life. Comp. Romans 2:24.