2. The Sentence passed upon him. — It has been asserted by some writers of emmence (see Corn, a Lapide, ad 1 Cor. V, 5) that the " delivering to Satan" is a mere syn- onym for ecclesiastical excommunication. Such can hardly be the case. The apostles possessed many ex- traordinary prerogatives, which none have since arro- gated. Even the title which they bore has been set apart to them ever since. The shaking oft" the dust of their feet against a city that woidd not receive them (Matt. X, 14), although an injimction afterwards given to the Seventy (Luke x, 11), and one which Paul found it necessary to act upon twice in the course of his mui- istry (Acts xiii, 51, and xviii, 6), has never been a practice since with Christian ministers. "Anathema," says Bingham, "is a word that occurs frequently in the ancient canons" {Antiq. xvi, 2, 16), but the form " Anathema ^Maranatha" is one that none have ever ven- tured upon since Paul (1 Cor. xvi, 22). As the apostles healed all manner of bodily infirmities, so they seem to have possessed and exercised the same power in inflict- ing them — a power far too perilous to be continued when the manifold exigencies of the apostolical age had passed away. Ananias and Sapphira V)oth fell down dead at the rebuke of Peter (Acts v, 5, 10) ; two words from the
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same lips, " Tabitha, arise," sufficed to raise Dorcas from the dead (ibid, ix, 40). Paul's first act in entering upon his ministry was to strike Elj-mas the sorcerer witli blindness, his own sight having been restored to him through the medium of a disciple (ibid. ix. 17, and xiii, 11), while soon afterwards we read of his healing the cripple of Lystra (ibid, xiv, 8). Even apart from actual intervention by the apostles, bodily visitations are spoken of in the case of tliose who approached the Lord's Supper unworthily, when as yet no discipline had been establish- ed : " For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and a good number (iKavoi, in the former case it is TToXXoi) sleep" (1 Cor. xi,30).
On the other hand, Satan was held to be the instru- ment or executioner of all these visitations. Such is the character assigned to him in the book of Job (i, 6-12 ; ii, 1-7). Similar agencies are described 1 Kings xxii, 19-22, and 1 Chron. xxi, 1. In Psa. Ixxviii, 49, such are the causes to which the plagues of Egypt are assigned. Even our Lord submitted to be assailed by him more than once (Matt, iv, 1-10 ; Luke iv, 13 says, " Departed from him for a sedson") ; and " a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet" the very apostle whose act of deliver- ing another to the same power is now under discussion. At tlie same time, large powers over the world of spirits were authoritatively conveyed by oiu: Lord to his im- mediate followers (to the Twelve, Luke ix, 1; to the Seventy, as the results showed, ibid, x, 17-20). See Sa- tan.
It only remains to notice five particulars connected with its exercise, which the apostle himself supplies : 1. That it was no mere prayer, but a solemn authoritative sentence pronounced in the name and power of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. v, 3-5) ; 2. That it Avas never exercised upon any without the Church : "Them that are without God judgeth" (ibid, v, 13), he says in express terms ; 3. That it was '• for the destruction of the tlesh," i. e. some bodily visitation ; 4. That it was for the improvement of the offender ; that " his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (ibid, v, 5) : and that " he might learn not to blaspheme" wliile upon earth (1 Tim. i, 20) ; 5. That the apostle could in a t;iven case empower others to pass such sentence in his aljseuce (1 Cor. v, 3, 4). See Anathema.
Thus, whUe the " delivering to Satan" may resemble ecclesiastical excommunication in some respects, it has its own characteristics likewise, which show plainly that one is not to be confounded or placed on the same level with the other. Nor again does Paul himself deliver to Satan all those in whose company he bids his converts " not even to eat" (1 Cor. v, 11). See an able review of the whole subject by Bingham, Antiq. vi, 2, 15. — Smith. See ExcojiJiuNiCATiON.
Hymn ("T/xvoe). This term, as used by the Greeks, primarily signified simply a soiuj (comp. Homer, Od. viii, 429 ; Hesiod, Op. et Dies,Q,bd ; Pindar, 01. i, 170 ; xi, 74 ; Isthm. iv, 74 ; Pyth. x, 82 ; ^Esch. Eum. 331 ; Soph. A ntirj. 809 ; Plato, Repuhl. v, 459, E, etc.) ; we find instances even in which the cognate verb vfivtiv is used in a bad sense {(pavXuQ iKkajxfiavtTai, Eustath. p. G34; comp. Soph. Elect. 382 ; CEd. Tyr. 1275 ; Eurip. Med. 425) ; but usage ultimately appropriated the term to songs in praise of the gods. We know that among the Greelis, as among most of the nations of antiquity, the chanting of songs in praise of their gods was an approved part of their worship (Clem. Alex. Strom, vi, 633, cd. Sylburg. ; Porphyr. de A bstin, i v, sec. 8 ; Phiurnutus, De Nat. Deor. c. 14 ; Alex, ab Alex. Gen. Dies, iv, c. 17, s. f. ; Spanheim in not. ad Callimachum, p. 2 ; comp. IMeiners, Geschichte aller Religionen, c. 13) ; and even at their festive entertain- ments such songs were sometimes smig (Athen. Deipnoa. xiv, XV, 14; Polyb. Hist, iv, 20, ed. Ernesti). Besides those hymns to different deities which have come down to us as the composition of Callimachus, Orpheus, Ho- mer, Linus, Cleanthes, Sappho, and others, we may with confidence refer to the choral odes of the tragedians as affording specimens of these sacred songs, such of them,