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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Corinthians 5:5 - 5:5
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5. παραδοῦναι … τῷ Σατανᾷ. Two explanations of this passage demand our notice. (1) It has been understood of excommunication, as though he who was excluded from the Christian Church was thereby solemnly given back to Satan, from whose empire he had been delivered when he became a Christian. The ‘destruction of the flesh’ and the salvation of the spirit are then explained to mean that mortification of carnal concupiscence and that amendment of life which the sentence is calculated to produce. But it is better (2) to understand it of some temporal judgment, such as befell Job in the Old Testament, Ananias, Sapphira, and Elymas the sorcerer, in the New. Such an idea was common among the Rabbis (see Stanley’s note). It falls in with such passages as Luk 13:16; 2Co 12:7 (where ‘messenger’ may be translated ‘angel’), as well as with ch. 1Co 11:30 in this Epistle. The punishment was intended for the discipline and ultimate recovery of the spirit. Some have doubted whether this is possible, but we may bear in mind the acute remark of Meyer, that though ‘it is with an antichristian purpose that Satan smites the man, against his own will the purpose is made to serve God’s aim of salvation.’ He also notices that it is not the body but the flesh, i.e. carnal appetite, that is to be destroyed by the chastisement. A similar instance of delivery to Satan is to be found in 1Ti 1:20. Whether the power was confined to the Apostolic age or not is a point we cannot determine with certainty. A reference to 1Co 5:2 shews that the punishment spoken of here was superadded to excommunication.
ἵνα τὸ πνεῦμα σωθῇ. ‘Human punishment rests upon three grounds: (1) it is an expression of Divine indignation; (2) it aims at the reformation of the offender; (3) the contagious character of evil; a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’ Robertson. For ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ see ch. 1Co 3:13, 1Co 4:5, and Rom 2:5; Rom 2:16. For σωθῇ see ch. 1Co 1:18, note. It is remarkable that nothing is said about the exclusion of the woman from the Church. Was she a heathen?