Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things. — The Pastoral Epistles, 2 Peter and Jude, supply but too abundant evidence of the clearness of the Apostle’s prevision. Hymenæus and Alexander and Philetus, saying that the resurrection was past already (1 Timothy 1:20; 2 Timothy 2:17); evil men and seducers becoming worse and worse (2 Timothy 3:13); resisting the faith, as Jannes and Jambres had resisted Moses (2 Timothy 3:8); false prophets, bringing in damnable heresies and denying the Lord that bought them (2 Peter 2:1); these were part of the rank aftergrowth of the apostolic age, of which St. Paul saw even now the germs. It adds to the pathos of this parting to think that men such as Hymenæus and Philetus may have been actually present, listening to the Apostle’s warnings, and warned by him in vain.
To draw away disciples after them. — Better, to draw away the disciples — those who had previously been disciples of Christ and His Apostles. This was at once the motive and the result of the work of the false teachers. The note of heresy was that it was essentially self-asserting and schismatical.