Provenance And Date
PROVENANCE AND DATE
There are connections with Colossians: in both Paul is a prisoner (Phlm. 1, 9; Col. 4:3, 10, 18), the people sending greetings are mostly those who do so in Colossians (Phlm. 23-24; Col. 4:10-14), and Onesimus who features in this letter is mentioned as one of the Colossians and as going to that city with Tychicus (Col. 4:7-9). Clearly this letter is written from the same place as Colossians. Two features of this letter bear on this relationship. One is the fact that Paul asks Philemon to prepare a guest room for him (Phlm. 22), which argues that his place of imprisonment is not far from Colossae. The other is the fact that Onesimus seems fairly clearly to be a runaway slave, and the question arises, To which city would such a slave be likely to flee from Colossae? Both considerations are said to favor Ephesus, but the second could be evidence for Rome.
It is just as likely that a slave would flee to Rome because it was a long way away, as that he would go to Ephesus because it was close. In the end our decision must be that this letter was written from the same place as Colossians and that, while Ephesus cannot be entirely ruled out, Rome is a little more likely. As in the case of Colossians, the date will be in the early 60s if written from Rome, in the late 50s if from Ephesus.