Alexander

Who is Alexander?

Alexander was an early Christian, one of two heretical teachers at Ephesus—the other being Hymenaeus—against whom Paul warns Timothy. Hymenaeus and Alexander were proponents of antinomianism, the belief that Christian morality was not required. They put away—"thrust from them"—faith and a good conscience; they wilfully abandoned the great central facts regarding Christ, and so they "made shipwreck concerning the faith."

Hymenaeus is associated with the false teacher Philetus. What they taught is described by Paul as "profane babblings," and as leading to more ungodliness. Their heresy consisted of saying that the resurrection was past already, and the heresy had been so far successful in that it had overthrown the faith of some. The doctrine of these three heretical teachers, Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus, was one of the early forms of Gnosticism. It held that matter was originally and essentially evil; that for this reason the body was not an essential part of human nature; and that the only resurrection was that of each man as he awoke from the death of sin's penalty.