Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Timothy 2:17

"and their word will eat as doth a gangrene: or whom is Hymenaeus an Philetus;" — 2 Timothy 2:17 (ASV)

In these three verses the apostle describes the heretical teachers. He warns Timothy to “avoid [GK 4325] godless chatter” (cf. 1 Timothy 6:20), such as some were engaged in their godless myths and hair-splitting controversies (cf. 1 Timothy 4:7; 6:3– 5). He says that their “teaching will spread like gangrene [GK 1121].” This word was used by medical writers of that day to indicate a sore that eats into the flesh. Hymenaeus is probably the man mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:20; nothing is known about Philetus. These two had “wandered away [GK 846; see 1 Timothy 1:6; 6:21] from the truth.” Their specific teaching was that the resurrection had already taken place, and thereby they were destroying the faith of some people. They were evidently explaining the resurrection in a spiritual sense, equating it with regeneration or the new birth. Paul gave an extended answer to this false teaching in 1Colossians 15.