Philetus Φίλητος
False teacher who opposed Paul
Biography
Philetus is mentioned in 2Ti.2.17 as one of two individuals, along with Hymenaeus, who had strayed from the truth and were promoting false teachings in the early Christian church. According to Paul, their message was spreading like gangrene, causing spiritual harm to those who listened to them.
The specific false teaching promoted by Philetus and Hymenaeus was that the resurrection had already taken place (2Ti.2.18). This belief contradicted the Christian doctrine of a future bodily resurrection and threatened to undermine the faith of some believers.
Paul's mention of Philetus and Hymenaeus serves as a warning to Timothy, and by extension, to all Christians, about the danger of false teachings and the importance of adhering to sound doctrine. The passage also emphasizes the need for church leaders to confront and correct those who spread false teachings, in order to protect the spiritual well-being of the church.
In Scripture
1 biblical book ; 1 with study content2 Timothy 1 verse
- 2 Timothy 2:17
"and those words will consume like gangrene, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus:"
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Names & Aliases
| Form | Language | Script | Strong's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Named | Greek | Φίλητος | G5372 |
Encyclopedia Article
ISBE 1915 (Public Domain) Philetus
, Hymeneus. The apostle speaks of Hymeneus and Philetus as instances of men who were doing most serious injury to the church by their teaching, and by what that teaching resulted in, both in faith and morals. The specific error of these men was that they denied that there would be any bodily resurrection. They treated all Scriptural references to such a state, as figurative or metaphorical. They spiritualized it absolutely, and held that the resurrection was a thing of the past. No resurrection was possible, so they taught, except from ignorance to knowledge, from sin to righteousness. There would be no day when the dead would hear the voice of Christ and come forth out of the grave. The Christian, knowing that Christ was raised from the dead, looked forward to the day when his body should be raised in the likeness of Christ's resurrection. But this faith was utterly denied by the teaching of Hymeneus and Philetus.
2How It Overthrew Faith
This teaching of theirs, Paul tells us, had overthrown the faith of some. It would also overthrow Christian faith altogether, for if the dead are not raised, neither is Christ risen from the dead, and "ye are yet in your sins" (1Co 15:17).
The denial of the resurrection of the body, whether of mankind generally or of Christ, is the overthrow of the faith. It leaves nothing to cling to, no living Christ, who saves and leads and comforts His people. The apostle proceeds to say that teaching of this kind "eats as doth a gangrene," and that it increases unto more ungodliness. As a canker or gangrene eats away the flesh, so does such teaching eat away Christian faith. Paul is careful to say, more than once, that the teaching which denies that there will be a resurrection of the dead leads inevitably to "ungodliness" and to "iniquity."
See HYMENAEUS.
John Rutherfurd
(1) The father of Alexander the Great (1 Macc 1:1; 6:2), king of Macedonia in 359-336 BC. His influence for Greece and for mankind in general lay in hastening the decad