What Does 1 Timothy 1:20 Mean?
Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to the Adversary, that they may be trained not to speak harm.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.THE KEY
The Greek word for “learn” carries the force of being formed through discipline, making this a severe lesson rather than a transfer of information.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a severe logic: people are handed over to the Adversary so that they may be disciplined out of blasphemous speech. The handover is perilous, not gentle, and the text does not hide that cost. Its stated purpose is corrective; the verse does not say whether the correction succeeds.
THE ROOT
παιδευθῶσιν
paideuthōsin
GROWS FROM
παιδ- (paid-), from παῖς (pais)
Child; the stem behind educating or training a child.
“be trained” in this verse is paideuthōsin. The verb is a passive form of παιδεύω (paideuō), meaning to educate, train, or discipline. Here, “learn” carries the force of being shaped through correction, rather than simply receiving information.
ALSO GROWS
pais: Child; young person.
παῖς
This is the child stem at the heart of the word family, linking learning with formation.
paideia: Training, education, discipline.
παιδεία
This noun makes the formative sense clear: the aim is a changed response shaped through correction.
παρέδωκα
paredōka
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
Give or grant; the compound παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) means to hand over or deliver.
The verb names an act of giving someone over into another’s reach. The root keeps the force of surrender visible beneath the familiar English word “delivered.”
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: Give; grant.
δίδωμι
This is the verb at the center of “hand over”: someone is given into another’s reach.
apodidōmi: Give back; render; repay.
ἀποδίδωμι
It shares the same giving root, showing how a prefix shapes the direction of the transfer.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can depict correction as severe while naming formation as its intended end.
To hand such a one over to the Adversary for the perishing of the flesh, that the breath may be delivered in the day of the Lord Jesus.All training, for the present, does not seem to be joy but pain; but afterward it gives back the wholesome fruit of alignment to those who have been exercised by it.My son, do not spurn the straightening of the LORD, and do not tire of his reproof.THE THREAD
All training, for the present, does not seem to be joy but pain; but afterward it gives back the wholesome fruit of alignment to those who have been exercised by it.The word behind “chastening” is παιδεία (paideia), meaning training or discipline, from the same child-training family as παιδεύω (paideuō), the verb rendered “learn” here. That shared root makes the corrective force audible, while Hebrews names the experience as grievous.
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