Thursday, March 25, 2021

Edward Langton on Paul's Teaching of Men Being Delivered to Satan (1 Corinthians 5:1ff; 1 Timothy 1:20)

  

The Delivery of Men to Satan

 

I shall now consider together two passages in which St. Paul speaks of the delivery of men to Satan. In 1 Corinthians 51ff. he rebukes the Corinthians for not dealing sternly with a certain incestuous person whom they had allowed to remain in their midst. He declares that already he, as being present with them in spirit, though absent in body, he judged the sinner, and acting in conjunction with the Christian community, has resolved ‘to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus’ (verse 5). Again, in 1 Timothy 120 Hymenaeus and Alexander are included among those who are declared to have made shipwreck concerning the faith. Paul asserts that he has delivered them unto Satan that they may be taught not to blaspheme.

 

It is generally agreed that the words of the apostle imply the execution of a very solemn process of excommunication. Difference of opinion exists only as to the nature of the procedure, and with regard to what is involved in it. It is to be observed that whatever the punishment is, it is inflicted with a remedial purpose. In the one case this is expressed by the words ‘that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus’, in the other by, ‘that they may be taught not to blaspheme’. The words ‘for the destruction of the flesh’ in the Corinthian passage seem clearly to indicate the infliction of some form of physical suffering. According to some authorities the sentence means that the sinner is given over to disease and death, and the salvation referred to is that of the spirit, at the last judgment, after the flesh has been destroyed. ‘The flesh’ is viewed as the seat of evil desire which leads to sin; when this has been destroyed by death the sinner may be saved. There are, however, serious objections to the view that Paul anticipated the salvation of man from sin, either by the fact of physical death, or by influence brought to bear upon him after death has taken place. Such a supposition is alien to his teaching elsewhere. Moreover, there is no hint that physical death is involved in 1 Timothy 120.

 

It may be that Paul had in mind such a delivery of a man to Satan as is referred to in Job 112ff. Satan was allowed by God to torment Job and to inflict upon him much suffering. Since the tie this book was written, as we have seen, the character of Satan has been much developed in the direction of evil. He has become almost an independent prince with vast scope and ability to torment men in a multitude of ways. A great host of evil spirits now operate under his command (cf. 1 Enoch 1511, 161; Jubilees 101ff. 7-11). It is expressly stated that these have been left free to carry on their evil operations under men. Beliar (Satan), the angel of lawlessness, is called ‘the ruler of this world’ (Martyr. of Isaiah 24). Similar conceptions are met within the Rabbinic literature. Several passages in the New Testament show that these ideas were familiar to Jesus and the early Christians generally. In the temptation narratives Satan poses as one who has the kingdoms of the world at his disposal. Jesus speaks of him as ‘the prince of this world’ (John 1230, 1431, 1611; cf. 1 John 519). To Paul he is the ‘god of this world’ (2 Corinthians 44). He is said to have the power of death (Hebrews 214).

 

There is therefore good ground for the view that Paul believed that outside the shelter of the fellowship of the Church a Christian would be exposed to the malignity of Satan to a degree impossible inside that fellowship. Physical as well as spiritual torment might be inflicted upon the excommunicated, as in the case of Job. But it was not intended that such exclusion and torment should result in the eternal loss of the sinner. Rather it was meant to induce a spirit of repentance; he might be ‘taught not to blaspheme;; and his spirit might be ‘saved in the day of the Lord Jesus’; that is, at the Second Coming of Christ (cf. 1 Peter 15, 13). (Edward Langton, Essentials of Demonology: A Study of Jewish and Christian Doctrine, Its Origin and Development [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 1949], 194-96)