08 May 2008

Hymenaeus and Philetus

But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.-- 2 Timothy 2:16-18

Remembering that 2 Timothy was written in the 1st century, and not the 21st century, why would Hymenaeus and Philetus say that the resurrection had already happened? I think this is weird, not to mention the fact that I see none of these people who were supposedly resurrected walking around today. I know it's because they really weren't resurrected, but that doesn't answer my main question: Why would Hymenaeus and Philetus say that the resurrection had already occured when it obviously hadn't? Were they blind? Were they stupid? Were they tabloid columnists?

If resurrection meant "the physical rescusitation of dead bodies that would live forever", then they were obviously a couple of buffoons. All people had to do was look around and see that it wasn't true. Did Hymenaeus and Philetus really believe that they could fool people into believing that the resurrection already had taken place as defined above? If that's the case, then the jokes on them. But I have a hard time believing that these guys were that dumb. If they were just fooling around, then Paul wouldn't have made such a big deal of it. It almost sounds conspiratorial on their part.

I don't know. What do you think is happening in this text? I'm being led to believe that something else was meant by "resurrection" than what we normally believe it to mean.

3 comments:

Ross Wardenburg said...

Some people think Hymenaeus and Philetus were speaking of a spiritual resurrection as opposed to a physical resurrection.

Doug Hoag said...

I've heard that before, but I can't wrap my mind around the concept of a spiritual resurrection. I don't know what spiritual resurrection means. It seems oxymoronic to me.

Anonymous said...

I found a link with an embedded MP3 sound file with a possible explanation:

http://www.scripturessay.com/article.php?cat=&id=484

Mark