HYMENAEUS hī’ mə ne’ əs (̔Υμέναιος, G5628, hymenael, pertaining to Hymen, the god of marriage). A heretical teacher at Ephesus, an opponent of Paul, mentioned with Alexander in 1 Timothy 1:20 and with Philetus in 2 Timothy 2:17. The same man is doubtless in view in both passages. That he is mentioned first in both places implies that he was the leader among these false teachers.
Hymenaeus and Alexander were among those who, rejecting conscience, had made shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim 1:20). Paul’s delivery of them to Satan has been much discussed (cf. 1 Cor 5:5). Some take the meaning to be simply excommunication from the church, thereby placing them back into the world, the sphere of Satan. Others think it rather signifies supernaturally inflicted bodily punishment. A combination of both views may be involved. That more than mere excommunication is meant seems clear (Job 2:6, 7; 1 Cor 11:30; Rev 2:22) when compared with the cases of apostolic discipline in Acts 5:1-11; 13:11. The discipline, whatever its precise nature, was remedial in its intention, “that they may learn not to blaspheme,” i.e. that they may cease their railing against the true Gospel.
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The discipline had not produced the desired repentance in Hymenaeus when 2 Timothy 2:17, 18 was written. The doctrinal error of Hymenaeus and Philetus, destructively spreading like gangrene, was their denial of an eschatological resurrection. They allegorized the resurrection by insisting that it was a past spiritual experience, having occurred when they were raised from ignorance and sin as they came to know the true God. When they believed that the resurrection took place in the lives of believers is not indicated, perhaps at baptism. They prob. based their teaching on a misinterpretation of Romans 6:1-11 and Colossians 3:1. It was motivated by incipient Gnosticism, which held that matter was evil and that consequently salvation consisted in liberation from the body. The teaching of a future bodily resurrection was deemed illogical and inconceivable (cf. 1 Cor 15:12). That Hymenaeus taught that the resurrection takes place in one’s children is unlikely (cf. Acts of Paul and Thecla 2:14; Ecclus 30:4).
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The development of this heretical teaching in the Ephesian church was a fulfillment of the warning Paul had given the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:29, 30).
Bibliography E. F. Scott, The Pastoral Epistles (19366), 17, 18, 110, 111; R. C. H. Lenski, Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy (1937), 543-546, 811-813 E. K. Simpson, The Pastoral Epistles (1954), 38, 39, 137, 138; W. Hendriksen, NT Commentary, The Pastoral Epistles (1957), 86, 87, 264-266; C. K. Barrett, The Pastoral Epistles (1963), 47, 48, 106.
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