1 Timothy 1.20-Paul Handed Over Hymenaeus and Alexander To Satan In Order To Discipline Them Not To Blaspheme
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 8, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 1:20-Paul Handed Over Hymenaeus And Alexander To Satan In Order To Discipline Them Not To Blaspheme
Lesson # 32
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 1:18.
The apostle Paul in verse 20 identifies two pastors who suffered the shipwreck of their faith, namely Hymenaeus and Alexander.
He also reveals that he administered discipline to these two individuals by handing them over to Satan in order that they would be taught not to blaspheme.
1 Timothy 1:18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. 20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. (NASU)
“Among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander” is composed of the genitive masculine plural form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “among whom” and the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί) (ee-mee), “are” and the nominative masculine singular form of the proper noun Hymenaios (Ὑμέναιος) (ee-men-yoce), “Hymenaeus” and the conjunction kai (καί) (keh), “and” followed by the nominative masculine singular form of the proper noun Alexandros (Ἀλέξανδρος) (Ah-lex-ahn-droce), “Alexander.”
“Among whom” refers to certain unidentified Christian pastor-teachers who taught false doctrines in fulfillment of Paul’s prophesy recorded in Acts 20:28.
Therefore, hos in verse 20 refers to these pastors.
The word functions as a partitive genitive meaning that it denotes these pastors as a whole of which Hymenaeus and Alexander were a part.
The verb eimi denotes that Hymenaeus and Alexander belonged to a certain class of Christian pastors in Ephesus who suffered the shipwreck of their faith.
“Hymenaeus” was one of these unidentified pastors in Ephesus who was disciplined by the apostle Paul and thus expelled from the fellowship of the church in that city.
His sin is revealed by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:17-18.
2 Timothy 2:17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. (ESV)
Therefore, we can see from this passage that Hymenaeus was teaching that the resurrection or rapture of the church had already taken place, which upset the faith of many Christians in Ephesus.
Paul’s statement here in 1 Timothy 1:20 makes clear that Hymenaeus did not stop propagating this teaching after being confronted by Paul and ordered to do so.
This led to the apostle administering church discipline and expelling him from the fellowship of the church.
If he had stopped, Paul would have restored him to the fellowship of the church.
We know this because of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2 where Paul ordered the Corinthians to discipline a man who was having an incestuous relationship.
When he repented, Paul ordered that the Corinthians restore him to fellowship with themselves.
The fact that Hymenaeus was a pastor is clearly indicated by Paul’s statements throughout chapter one.
This individual was among a group of pastors who suffered the shipwreck of their faith.
That this was a group of pastors who suffered the shipwreck of their faith is indicated in that they are described in verse 3 as teaching false doctrine and being occupied with myths and genealogies rather than fulfilling their responsibilities to administrate the household of God.
Paul also describes them in verse 7 as desiring to be teachers of the Law but yet don’t understand the purpose of the Law and were misapplying it.
Furthermore in 2 Timothy 2:17-18, Paul says that Hymenaeus was teaching that the resurrection had already taken place.
So it is clear that Hymenaeus was a pastor and was not an unbeliever and neither were any of these unidentified individuals in this chapter who were teaching false doctrine because Paul has no authority over an unbeliever but only believers.
Thus, he would not have the authority to have these individuals stop what they were doing unless they were under his authority.
The Alexander mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:14 might be the same one mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:20 since both were disciplined by Paul.
However, the former is identified as a well-known coppersmith and no such identification is given of this individual in 1 Timothy 1:20.
So we can’t be dogmatic that the Alexander mentioned in these two passages are one in the same.
“Whom I handed over to Satan” is composed of the composed of the accusative masculine plural form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “whom” and the first person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb paradidomi (παραδίδωμι) (pahr-the-thee-thoe-mee), “I handed over” and the articular dative masculine singular form of the proper noun Satanas (Σατανᾶς) (sa-ta-noss), “to Satan.”
The verb paradidomi means “to deliver over” and is used of Paul disciplining Hymenaeus and Alexander by expelling them from the fellowship of the church until they have stopped teaching false doctrine.
It is used here of a judicial act performed by the apostle Paul in handing over these two to suffer the consequences of their actions in teaching false doctrine.
This judicial act is designed to get these two to stop conducting themselves against the will of God and to correct this behavior.
This decision is designed to correct their behavior and produce the holiness of God in them or in other words so that they can have fellowship with God and the church again and experience their sanctification.
There are several passages in the New Testament that refer to church discipline (Matthew 18:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 2:5-11; 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).
“Satan” refers to the greatest enemy of God and the church who is an angel.
Therefore, by Paul handing these two over to Satan, which the Holy Spirit directed, Satan would be allowed a certain amount of freedom to injure these two in some way whether hurting them physically or in some other manner.
Satan is restricted by God and can only go so far in harming these two.
Thus, Satan is the agent that God used to administer discipline to Hymenaeus and Alexander.
In fact, Satan himself more than likely did not personally administer this discipline but rather one of those in his army was assigned to these two.
1 Timothy 1:20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. (NASU)
“So that they will be taught not to blaspheme” is composed of the conjunction hina (ἵνα) (ee-nah), “so that” and the third person plural aorist passive subjunctive form of the verb paideuo (παιδεύω) (peh-thev-owe), “they will be taught” and the negative particle me (μή) (me), “not” and the present active infinitive form of the verb blasphemeo (βλασφημέω) (vlas-fee-meh-owe), “to blaspheme.”
This is a purpose clause that indicates that Paul disciplined Hymenaeus and Alexander by handing them over to Satan for the express purpose that they would be taught not to blaspheme.
The verb paideuo means “to discipline” in the sense of God expressing His love for Hymenaeus and Alexander by punishing them by removing them from the fellowship of the church and exposing them to Satan’s kingdom.
The verb speaks of training these two not to blaspheme God by handing them over to the authority of Satan who would have been given authority to cause these two suffering in some form.
The word speaks of educating these two through suffering and pain.
In 1 Timothy 1:20, the verb blasphemeo means “to blaspheme” in the sense of Hymenaeus and Alexander insulting God by not communicating the gospel and instead teaching false doctrine.
It indicates that by rejecting communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ and instead teaching false doctrine, Hymenaeus and Alexander were disrespectful to God and were insulting Him and were insubordinate to Him.
This verb expresses the fact that by rejecting communicating the gospel and instead teaching false doctrine, these two were disrespecting God since the gospel is concerning His Son Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.
It denotes that Hymenaeus and Alexander were blaspheming God in the sense of insulting Him by contradicting Him by teaching false doctrine instead of proclaiming the gospel.
The present tense of the verb is a customary present indicating that Hymenaeus and Alexander were “making it their habit of” blaspheming the Lord by teaching false doctrine instead of teaching the gospel.
The verb’s meaning is negated by the negative particle me and together they deny any idea of Hymenaeus and Alexander ever again blaspheming God by teaching false doctrine rather than the gospel.