John Gill Commentary 1 Timothy 1:20

"of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme." — 1 Timothy 1:20 (ASV)

Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander
The former of these is mentioned in (2 Timothy 2:17 2 Timothy 2:18) and that part of faith he made shipwreck of, or erred in, was the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, by which the faith of some nominal believers was overthrown; and this was accompanied by the loss of a good conscience, he seemingly had before; for his profane and vain babblings increased in ungodliness: the latter seems to be the same with Alexander the coppersmith, who did the apostle much evil, (2 Timothy 4:14) and it may be is the same with him who was at Ephesus when the apostle was there, (Acts 19:33Acts 19:34) and where he might now be with Hymenaeus, with whom he might agree in his erroneous opinions, and therefore are particularly mentioned, Ephesus being the place where Timothy now was.

It seems by their names that they were both Greeks; Alexander is a known name among the Greeks, since the times of Alexander the great, and even became common among the Jews; (See Gill on Acts 4:6), and Hymenaeus was a name among the Grecians, from Hymen, the Heathen god of marriage: one of this name is mentioned among those said to be raised from the dead by Aesculapius ^F17 ; there was also a bishop of Jerusalem of this name ^F18 .

Whom I have delivered to Satan ; not by excommunication, which is the act of a church, and not of a single person; but by an apostolical power he had to deliver men's bodies into Satan's hands, for him to torture and afflict them, in order to bring them to a sense of their sins, as a chastisement and correction, and a token of God's displeasure. (See Gill on 1 Corinthians 5:5).

That they may learn not to blaspheme ; or "that being chastised", corrected, or disciplined, "they might not blaspheme", as they had before done; either by words, contradicting, reviling, and scoffing at the doctrine of the resurrection; or by their unbecoming lives and conversations, giving themselves great liberty in sinning, supposing there was no truth in that doctrine. By this they not only blasphemed the Christian religion themselves, but caused it to be evil spoken of by others.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F17: Apollodorus de Orig. Deor. l. 3. p. 172.
• F18: Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 7. c. 14. 30.