Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Timothy 1:12-20, A blasphemer shown mercy, and two men handed over to Satan
Paul thanks Christ for taking a former blasphemer and persecutor into his service as an example of mercy, then charges Timothy to fight the battle well, as the prophecies about him foretold, unlike Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom Paul has handed over to Satan.
1 Timothy 1:12-20, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul thanks Christ for trusting him with service, though he was once a man who insulted Christ and persecuted his people. He calls himself the worst of sinners and says his rescue shows how patient Christ is, then breaks into praise of God as the eternal King. He charges Timothy to fight well and keep his faith and conscience intact, unlike Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom Paul has given over to Satan so that they learn to stop blaspheming.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/spirit-of-prophecy\/","n":"The Spirit of prophecy","s":"Jews of Jesus' day linked God's Spirit above all with prophecy. Many believed the prophets had fallen silent long ago, and they looked for the day God would pour out his Spirit again.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/soldiers-and-armor\/","n":"Roman soldiers and their gear","s":"The legionary was the most familiar picture of armed strength in the provinces: helmet, breastplate, boots, a big shield and a short sword, fighting shoulder to shoulder. Legions that held their ranks were thought almost unbeatable.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/put-out-of-the-synagogue\/","n":"Put out of the synagogue","s":"A Jewish community could punish a member by shutting him out of its life for a time or for good. Since the synagogue was the center of town life, expulsion cut a person off from neighbors and worship, and often from a living.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-satan\/","n":"The satan, the tempter","s":"The accuser, tempter and deceiver of Jewish belief, seen as the power behind human and political evil. In the Gospels he tests Jesus and is the strong man Jesus binds, and John calls him the ruler of this world.","r":""}
Ignorance lessened guilt in Jewish texts without removing it, and teachers used their own past as an example, sometimes a shameful one (Keener and his notes). Carson, Moo and Morris doubt that a later admirer would have called Paul the chief of sinners or recalled his violence. Prophecy was rare in Judaism but common in the church, so the prophecies at Timothy's commissioning mattered (Keener and his notes). Wright notes that Jewish and pagan thinkers alike saw conscience as a kind of divine presence guiding people. Moralists described their work as a battle and used shipwreck as an image (Keener and his notes). Hymenaeus is probably the man of 2 Timothy 2:17 (Keener and his notes), and the dictionary keeps this Alexander apart from the Alexander of the Ephesus riot and the coppersmith of 2 Timothy 4:14. Synagogue exclusion was graded and aimed at repentance (the cultural backgrounds notes). Handing over to Satan meant, for Keener, leaving the men in the sphere they had chosen; for Wright and the ESV Study Bible, putting them out of the church, where the accuser alone has influence, so that they come back.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 1 Timothy 1:12-17, and on 1 Timothy 1:13-15, 1:16, 1:17, 1:18, 1:19 and 1:20
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Timothy 1:12, 1:13, 1:17, 1:18, 1:19 and 1:20
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Timothy 1:20
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, comment on 1 Timothy 1:18-20
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 15, The Pastoral Epistles: Theology
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Alexander
