Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
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Athanasius the Apostolic
AD 373
When one knows properly these timely points, his understanding of the faith is right and healthy. But if he mistakes any such points, he quickly falls into heresy. Thus Hymenaeus and Alexander and their fellows were untimely when they said that the resurrection had already been. The Galatians were untimely in the other direction in making much of circumcision now. .
Again they say, “Who made the devil?” He made himself; for the devil was made by sinning, not by nature. “Or,” they say, “God should not have made him if he knew that he would sin.” On the contrary, why should he not have made him? For through his own justice and providence God corrects many as a result of the malice of the devil. Or have you perhaps not heard the apostle Paul saying, “And I handed them over to Satan so that they might learn not to blaspheme”? On Genesis, Against the Manichaeans.
Let us learn, brethren, when actions are alike, to distinguish the intentions of the actors; otherwise, if we shut our eyes to this, we might judge falsely, and we might accuse wellwishers of doing us harm. Likewise, when the same apostle says that he delivered up certain men to Satan, “that they may learn not to blaspheme,” did he render evil for evil, or did he, rather, judge that it was a good work to correct evil men even by evil? Letters.
Those whom the usual penalties do not recall to their senses, and even exclusion from prayers does not lead to repentance, must be subjected to the canons given by the Lord. For it has been written, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault, between you and him. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along with you. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Now, this truly has been done in the case of this man. Once he was accused; in the presence of one or two he was convicted; a third time, in the presence of the church. Since, therefore, we have solemnly protested to him and he has not acquiesced, let him for the future be excommunicated. And let it be announced to all the village that he is not to be admitted to any participation in the ordinary relations of life, so that, by our refusal to associate with him, he may become wholly the food for ...
I have delivered to Satan; whom I have excommunicated, that they may learn not to blaspheme, or speak against the truth of the faith. (Theophylactus)
The devil frequently, at that time, took possession of, or afflicted the excommunicated with diseases and other temporal evils. (St. Chrysostom)
And from them he would instruct us. You see how even from those times there have been seducing Teachers, curious enquirers, and men holding off from the faith, and searching out by their own reasonings. As the shipwrecked man is naked and destitute of all things, so is he that falls away from the faith without resource, he knows not where to stand or where to stay himself, nor has he the advantage of a good life so as to gain anything from that quarter. For when the head is disordered, what avails the rest of the body? And if faith without a good life is unavailing, much more is the converse true. If God despises His own for our sakes, much more ought we to despise our own for His sake. For so it is, where any one falls away from the faith, he has no steadiness, he swims this way and that, till at last he is lost in the deep.
Whom I delivered to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme! Thus it is blasphemy to search into divine things by our own reasonings. For what have h...
As executioners, though themselves laden with numberless crimes, are made the correctors of others; so it is here with the evil spirit…. He [the offender] was then immediately expelled from the common assembly, separated from the fold. They became deserted and destitute. They were delivered to the wolf.
Plainly Paul states that he delivered to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander, “that they learn not to blaspheme,” as he writes to Timothy. Nevertheless Paul himself says that a “thorn was given him, an angel of Satan,” by which he was to be buffeted, lest he should exalt himself. Weren’t these brothers delivered to Satan not for perdition but for giving them an opportunity to change? If so, what is the difference between blasphemy and incest and a soul entirely free from these? The free soul would be elated from no other source than the highest sanctity and all innocence. The elation of such a soul would be in the apostle’s case restrained by this buffeting, by means, some say, of pain in the ear or head. Incest, however, and blasphemy would have deserved a different punishment. The person would have been delivered over to Satan himself for a possession, not to an “angel” of his…. If you take the assumption that the crime of Hymenaeus and Alexander—blasphemy—is irremissible in this and in th...
That certain men, like Phygellus, and Hermogenes, and Philetus, and Hymenaeus, deserted His apostle:.
Plainly, the selfsame apostle delivered to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander, "that they might be emended into not blaspheming".
For the apostle likewise delivered Phygellus and Hermogenes over to Satan that by chastening they might be taught not to blaspheme.
