Hymenaeus (Ephesian)

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For other uses of the name Hymenaeus, see Hymenaeus (disambiguation).

Hymenaeus^[1] (fl. 50–65) was an early Christian from Ephesus, an opponent of the apostle Paul, who associates him with Alexander and Philetus.

[edit] Association with Alexander and Philetus

Hymenaeus is included in the "some" who had put away faith and a good conscience and who had made shipwreck concerning faith.^[2] The apostle adds that he had delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme.

Hymenaeus and Philetus are included among persons whose profane and vain babblings will increase unto more ungodliness, and whose word "will eat as doth a gangrene."^[3] The apostle declares that Hymenaeus and Philetus rection are of the number of such people as those just described, and he adds that those two persons "concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some." Then, for the guidance of Timothy, he goes on to say the seal upon the foundation of God is, "The Lord knoweth them that are his: and, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." The inference intended is, that though Hymenaeus and Philetus had named the name of Christ, they did not depart from iniquity. There is no doubt in regard to the identity of this Hymenaeus with the person of the same name in 1 Tim. Accordingly, the facts mentioned in the two epistles must be placed together, namely, that though he had made a Christian profession by naming the name of Christ, yet he had not departed from iniquity, but by his profane teaching he proceeded unto more ungodliness, and that he had put away faith and a good conscience and had made shipwreck of faith.

The error, therefore, of Hymenaeus and his two companions would amount to this: They taught that "the resurrection is past already," that there shall be no bodily resurrection at all, but that all that resurrection means is that the soul awakes from sin. This awakening from sin had already taken place with themselves, so they held, and therefore there could be no day in the future when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth from the grave.^[4]

It is worthy of notice that in both passages where these persons are mentioned, the name of Hymenaeus occurs first, showing, perhaps, that he was the leader.

[edit] Gnosticism

This teaching of Hymenaeus had been so far successful: it had "overthrown the faith of some".^[5] It is impossible to define exactly the full nature of this heresy, but what Paul says regarding it makes evident that it was a form of incipient Gnosticism. This spiritualizing of the resurrection sprang from the idea of the necessarily evil nature of all material substance. This idea immediately led to the conclusion of the essentially evil nature of the human body, and that if man is to rise to his true nature, he must rid himself of the thralldom, not of sin, but of the body. This contempt for the body led to the denial of the resurrection in its literal sense; and all that Christ had taught on the subject was explained only, in an allegorical sense, of the resurrection of the soul from sin.

Teaching of this kind is described by Paul as having effects similar to the "eating" caused by a gangrene. It is deadly; it overthrows Christian faith. If not destroyed, it would corrupt the community, for if there is no literal resurrection of the dead, then, as Paul shows in 1 Cor 15, Christ is not raised; and if the literal resurrection of Christ is denied, Christian believers are yet in their sins, and the Christian religion is false.

The way in which the apostle dealt with these teachers, Hymenaeus and his companions, was not merely in the renewed assertion of the truth which they denied, but also by passing sentence upon these teachers—"whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme."

In the history of Hymenaeus and his companions, and in their bold and anti-Christian teaching which had overthrown the faith of some, we cannot fail to see the fulfillment of what Paul had said many years previously, in his farewell address to the elders of the church in Ephesus: "I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them".^[6] It was in the Ephesian church that Hymenaeus and Alexander and Philetus had arisen. The gangrene-like nature of their teaching has already been described.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Humenaios, so named from Hymen, the god of marriage
2. ^ 1 Tim 1:20
3. ^ 2 Tim 2:17
4. ^ John 5:28
5. ^ 2 Tim 2:18
6. ^ Acts 20:29-30

[edit] References

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• This entry incorporates text from the public domain International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, originally published in 1915.