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)
