What Do We Know About Hymenaeus?
Why does Paul refer to him as “shipwrecked?”
We don’t know much about Hymenaeus, but what we do know isn’t very good.
Hymenaeus rejected what was right.
…having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected…of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Timothy 1:19–20).
Paul encouraged Timothy to fight the good fight (1 Timothy 1:18). This meant he must hold on to faith and a good conscience. A good conscience refers to being able to identify good and evil and then act correctly.
Paul urges Timothy to cling to the right teaching and to live his life according to that teaching.
Hymenaeus had not done this. He strayed from what was right (1 Timothy 1:6) and veered off course.
Hymenaeus was a blasphemer.
How far had Hymenaeus strayed off course? Paul writes that he had delivered Hymenaeus to Satan so that he might “learn not to blaspheme” (1 Timothy 1:20).
To blaspheme means “to speak of God or divine things in terms of impious irreverence” (Mounce). The Jews were said to “blaspheme” when they opposed the gospel of Christ preached by Paul (Acts 13:45).
