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Question
Dear Father Angelo,
I would like an explanation of what Saint Paul says to the Corinthians in condemning the immoralities committed by some; specifically when he says “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Cor 5,5).
What does this verse mean? That despite the sins of the flesh one can still be redeemed some day?
Thank-you.
Davide
Priest’s answer
Dear Davide,
1. Let me answer you by quoting what the Jesuit and great Bible scholar F. Prat wrote in his monumental work entitled The Theology of Saint Paul. His word is particularly authoritative on account of his competence. Here’s what he writes:
2. “Two scandalous events took place in Corinth of which the entire community had rendered itself accessory by its tolerant indulgence. Venus, the patroness of Corinth, was honored by a kind of worship that conflated the wantonness of the Greek Aphrodites with the shameless deeds of the oriental goddess Astarte. In her temple one thousand hierodules openly sold their bodies for her profit and in her honor: sacred prostitution was raised to a sacerdotal rank. Public morals were correspondingly and lamentably lax. To live like the Corinthians was regarded, even among pagans, as a disgrace. In this pestiferous atmosphere some Christians had caught the contagion of vice. One of them was living in concubinage with his stepmother, no doubt a widow or divorced. ‘It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans – a man living with his father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride. Should you not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst’.
It was not a case of a passing sexual relation but of a permanent union like that of Herod Antipas with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. The Roman law, usually so easy going when it comes to marriage, prohibited this kind of unions, and the instances of these which profane history could offer were condemned by public opinion, which in this respect was in harmony with natural instinct. Now the Corinth faithful did not seem to be too concerned about it and continued to associate with the guilty man and admitted him to their meetings. Perhaps they allowed themselves to be deceived by that false maxim that baptism creates a new creature of a new christian, freed from all his former ties and exempt from all legal prohibitions. It is thus that in the eyes of the rabbis a conversion to Judaism sundered all relations of kindred and Maimonides expressly teaches that it is licit for the proselyte to marry his stepmother.
Paul’s indignation was great. His invariable custom was to submit all those guilty of creating scandals to a sort of excommunication which involved a cessation of all relations with other christians, even those of convenience and civility. He had threatened with it the mischief makers and the idle of Thessalonica, if they had not obeyed his orders; later on he would order Titus to avoid the obstinate heretic, the instigator of division and disorders. In the letter to the Corinthians that was lost, he expressly bade them to break off all connection with the unchaste (cfr 2 Ts 3,14). What then is his grief now to see them tolerate this infamy! Let them at once expel the incestuous man in order not to be contaminated by him! Easter, it seems, was at hand, and this symbolic exhortation was very appropriate: ‘Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, in as much as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor 5,6-8)’.
These last words, which contain the definite sentence of Paul are an allusion to the Law in Deuteronomy (17,7), prescribing the death penalty for certain crimes. Excommunication, a kind of symbolic death, replaces in the Gospel the actual death penalty of the ancient Law. He had at first thought of a much more severe punishment, and one more in proportion to the enormity of the crime committed.
‘I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as if present, pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed, in the name of (our) Lord Jesus: when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord’ (1 Cor 5,3-5).
Canonists, desirous of finding here an example of the greater excommunication according to the forms at present used in the Church, ask how Paul could issue it, or command the Corinthians to issue it in his name, without first instituting inquiry, the summoning of witnesses and an interrogatory. But these are all superfluous questions. Paul does not pronounce the sentence and he does not urge the Corinthians to pronounce it themselves; he only expresses his opinion on the penalty due for the man notoriously guilty of incest; perhaps he hints at the rigorous measure he is resolved to take in case the Christians should themselves do nothing. As far as he is concerned, he thinks it is just and expedient to deliver the guilty man over to Satan, but does not say what formalities should be observed if it came to that. This terrible punishment evidently presupposed excommunication, that is to say exclusion from the Church together with the deprivation of the graces and aids of which the communion of saints is the channel; but it included something more dreadful. The Apostles who had received from the Lord the power of restraining demons, also had the power to let them loose. The criminal who fell under this sentence, which was more serious than excommunication, was abandoned to the vengeance of man’s eternal enemy, and became the prey and plaything of Satan. But, as all the punishments inflicted by the Church are curative, their final aim was always the conversion and salvation of the sinner. Once at least in his life Paul made use himself of this formidable power: he delivered over to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander, to teach them not to blaspheme (1 Tm 1,20), or rather, that they may learn that lesson at their own expense, when exposed without refuge or protection to the tyranny of the devil. With regard to the Corinthian guilty of incest he is less severe; he contents himself with his exclusion, and if for a moment he thought of a more severe punishment, it was always with a view to saving the soul of the criminal by afflicting his flesh” (F. Prat, The theology of Saint Paul, Part I, pages 99-102).
3. The same concept emerges in a Bible commentary:
“Let him be delivered, etc. To deliver into the hands of Satan means to separate someone from communion with the Church, that is to say exclude him from partaking in all the goods that are administered by the Church. The man guilty of incest that is cast out of the kingdom of Jesus Christ will fall under the power of Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that is to be tormented by Satan in his body by means of disease and other afflictions, so that in his heart good feelings may be reawakened. So that his spirit may be saved. The punishment, though severe, is nonetheless curative, because it is directed towards correcting the guilty, repressing the petulance of his flesh, causing him to repent of the evil deeds he committed, and to reconcile with God in order to be saved on the day of judgment. Note that the Apostle, by delivering the incestuous man into the hands of Satan for the destruction of his flesh, not only inflicts upon him the excommunication and separates him from the Church, but he hands him over to Satan to have him afflicted and tormented. The Church fathers in fact say that the Apostles not only had the power to cast away the demons from the obsessed, but also to deliver the great sinners to the devil so they may be tormented and moved to repentance. Indeed in Scripture the devil is often portrayed as the cause of the evils that afflict man in his body, his soul and his assets. The examples of Job (Jb 2,7-8), Ananias (Acts 5,1-ff), Elymas (Acts 13,8-ff), and the various events in the Gospel where the devil renders mute, deaf, furious, ect. all those he comes to possess, are very well known”.
4. The Jerusalem Bible comments: “Often, in regard to this verse one talks about “excommunication, but the word itself is absent from the Bible (does not exactly correspond to ‘anathema’).
Sentences of exclusion were in use in the Old Testament, in Judaism, in Qumran. The New Testament however offers various cases in which the reasons and the modalities in which the sentence was carried out are not the same. At times the guilty was kept apart from the community temporarily (5,2.9-13; 2 Ts 3,6-14; Tt 3,10; cfr 1 Jn 5,16-17; 2 Jn 10), other times he was ‘delivered’ (here; 1Tm 1,20) to Satan, deprived of the support of the Church of saints and therefore exposed to the power that God left to his adversary (2 Ts 2,4; cfr Jb 1,6); even in these extreme cases repentance and final salvation are the outcome that one is hoping for (here; 2 Ts 3,15; etc.).
Such a discipline presupposes a certain power of the community over its members (cfr. Mt 18,15-18)
5. As you can see, even the early Church – that received the light of Divine Revelation – used mercy.
But its methods were different from ours. What then was an isolated case, unfortunately today is a common occurrence. Undoubtedly being delivered to Satan was dreadful, but also salutary. The salvation of the soul was the most pressing objective.
I wish you the best, I recommend you to the Lord and I bless you.
Father Angelo