THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON

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“Servi sunt? immo conservi.”—SEN.

“Evangelico decore conscripta est.”—JER.

“Epistola familiaris, mire ἀστεῖος summae sapientiae praebitura specimen.”—BENGEL.

“Ita modeste et suppliciter pro infimo homine se dimittit ut vix alibi usquam magis ad vivum sit expressa ingenii ejus mansuetudo.”—CALVIN.

“PAUL, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy the brother, to Philemon, our beloved and fellow–worker, and to Apphia the sister,1 and to Archippus our fellow–soldier, and to the Church in thy house; grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I thank my God always, making mention of thee in my prayers—hearing thy love, and the faith thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and unto all the saints2—that the kindly exercise of thy faith may become effectual, in the full knowledge of every blessing we possess, unto Christ’s glory. For I had much joy and consolation in thy love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by thee, brother.

“Although, then, I feel much confidence in Christ to enjoin upon thee what is fitting, yet I rather entreat thee for love’s sake, being such an one as Paul the aged,3 and at this moment also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I entreat thee about my child, whom I begot in my bonds—Onesimus—once to thee the reverse of his name—profitless4 not ‘profitable’, and no Christian, but now truly profitable5 and a good Christian—whom I send back to thee. Him that is the son of my bowels,6 whom I should have preferred to retain about my own person that he may on thy behalf minister to me in the bonds of the Gospel—but without thy opinion I decided to do nothing, that thy kindly deed may not be a matter of compulsion, but voluntary. For perhaps on this account he was parted for a season, that thou mayst have him back for ever, no longer as a slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how far more to thee, both naturally and spiritually. If, then, thou holdest me as a comrade, receive him like myself. But if he wronged thee in any respect, or is in thy debt, set that down to me. I Paul write it with my own hand, I will repay it7—not to say to thee that thou owest me even thyself besides. Yes, brother, may I ‘profit’ by thee in the Lord.8 Refresh my heart in Christ. Confiding in thy compliance I write to thee, knowing that even more than I say thou wilt do. But further than this, prepare for me a lodging, for I hope that by means of your prayers I shall be granted to you.

“There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow–prisoner in Christ Jesus, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow–labourers.

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with the spirit of you and yours.”9

When Pliny interceded with Sabinianus for the offending freedman, he was able to write shortly afterwards, “You have done well in receiving back your freedman to your house and heart. This will give you pleasure, as it certainly gives me pleasure; first, because it shows me your self–control, and secondly, because you esteem me sufficiently to yield to my authority, and make a concession to my entreaties.” What was the issue of St. Paul’s letter we are not told, but we may feel quite sure that the confidence of one who was so skilful a reader of human character was not misplaced; that Philemon received his slave as kindly as Sabinianus received his freedman; that he forgave him, and not merely took him into favour, but did what St. Paul does not ask, but evidently desired, namely, set him free.10 We may be sure, too, that if St. Paul was ever able to carry out his intended visit to Colossæ, it was no mere “lodging” that Philemon prepared for him, but a home under his own and Apphia’s roof, where they and the somewhat slack Archippus, and the church that assembled in their house, might enjoy his beloved society, and profit by his immortal words.

Notes

1.A translation of Pliny’s letter will be found in Excursus V. (Ep.ix. 21.) ↩
2.Ver. 5, πρὸς … εἰς. ↩
3.Ver. 9, τοιοῦτος ὢν ὡς is not unclassical, as Meyer asserts. (See instances in Lightfoot, Col., p. 404.) St. Paul must at this time have been sixty years old, and people of that age, particularly when they have been battered, as he had been, by all the storms of life, naturally ↩
4.ἀχρ. Litotes; erat enim noxius (Bengel). ↩
5.Ver. 11. There seems here, as Baur acutely observes, to be a double paronomasia, which I have endeavoured to indicate. For Χριστὸς and Χρηστὸς were confused with each other, and the Christians did not dislike this. Ἐκ τοῦ κατηγορουμένου ἡμῶν ὀνόματος χρηστότατοι ὑπάρχομεν χριστιανοὶ γὰρ εἶναικατηγορούμεθα τὸν δὲ χρηστὸν μισεῖσθαι οὐ δίκαιον (Justin, Apol.i. 4). (Tert. Apol.3.) supra, i., p. 300. ↩
6.“Son of my bowels, Anselm!” (Browning, The Bishop’s Tomb.) Σπλάγχνα = corculum, “my very heart;” “the very eyes of me;” םימתר. The elliptic form of the sentence, so characteristic of St. Paul, is filled up in some MSS. by Σὺ δὲ αὐτόν, τούτεστι τὰ ἐμὰ σπλάγχνα προσλαβοῦ. ↩
7.Ἀντὶ γραμματίου (a bond) τήνδε κατέχε τὴν ἐπιστολὴν πᾶσαν αὐτὴν γέγραφα (Theodoret). Some have supposed that Paul here took the pen from the amanuensis, and that this is the only autograph sentence. Oosterzee, &c., treat this as “a good–humoured jest;” and others think it unlike the delicacy which never once reminds the Judaisers of the chalukawhich St. Paul had toiled to raise. But a slave ↩
8.Ver. 20, ὀναίμην. “I send you back an Onesimus now worthy of his name; will you be my Onesimus?” It is vain for critics to protest against these plays on names. They have been prevalent in all ages, and in all writers, and in all countries, as I have shown by multitudes of instances in ChaptersonLanguage, ch. xxii. As a parallel to this play on Onesimus, compare Whitefield’s personal appeal to the comedian Shuter, who had often played the character of Ramble— “And thou, poor Ramble, who hast so often rambled from Him. …. Oh, end thy ramblings and come to Jesus.” ↩
9.Paul had been trained as a Rabbi. To see what Christianity had taught him we have only to compare his teachings with those of his former masters. Contrast, for instance, the Rabbinic conception of a slave with that tender estimate of human worth—that high conception of the dignity of man as man—which stands out so beautifully in this brief letter. The Rabbis taught that on the death of a slave, whether male or female—and even of a Hebrew slave—the benediction was not to be repeated for the mourners, nor condolence offered to them. It happened that on one occasion a female slave of Rabbi Eliezer died, and when his disciples came to condole with him he retired from them from room to room, from upper chamber to hall, till at last he said to them, “I thought you would feel the effects of tepid water, but you are proof even against hot water. Have I not taught you that these signs of respect are not to be paid at the death of slaves?” “What, then,” asked the disciples, “are pupils on such occasions to say to their masters?” “The same as is said when their oxen and asses die,” ↩
10.The ecclesiastical traditions about Philemon’s episcopate, martyrdom, &c., are too late and worthless to deserve mention; and the same may be said of those respecting Onesimus. As far as dates are concerned, he might be the Onesimus, Bishop of Ephesus, mentioned forty–four years later by St. Ignatius. A postscript in two MSS. says that he was martyred at Rome by having his legs broken on the rack. ↩
11.Farrar, F. W. 1879-80. TheLifeandWorkofSt.Paul.(2:438-478). Cassell, Petter, Galpin & co.: London; New York [etc. ↩
12.The reading is uncertain, but א, A, D, E, F, G (B is here deficient) read ἀδελφῇ, and we judge from Theodore of Mopsuestia that ἀγαπήτῃ may in his age, and perhaps in the Apostle’s, have given rise to coarse remarks from coarse minds. ↩
13.speak of themselves as old. I cannot think that this means “an ambassador” (Eph. 6:20). To say nothing of the fact that the reading is πρεσβύτης, not πρεσβευτής, and allowing that this two might often have been confused (just as, indeed, πρεσβὺς and πρεσβευτὴς interchange the meanings of their plurals), yet would Paul have said “an ambassador” without saying of whom? ↩
14.was valuable, and something in the character of Philemon may have led to the remark. Bengel rightly says, “Vinctus scribit serio,” as a father pays the debts of his son. Schrader, Lardner, Bleek, Hackett regard it as “no better than calumny” to say that Onesimus had stolen anything. ↩
15.answered the Rabbi—“May the Lord replenish thy loss.” They were not even to be mourned for by their masters; Rabbi Jose only permitted a master to say—“Alas, a good and faithful man, and one who lived by his labour!” But even this was objected to as being too much (Berachoth, f. 16, 2; Maimonides, Hilch.Aval., § 12; Hal.12). ↩

Source pages: 1153–1157