PHILEMON, EPISTLE TO

This article appears in Volume V21, Page 375 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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PHILEMON, EPISTLE TO , a scripture of the New Testament. Onesimus, a slave, had robbed (vv. II, 1819) and run away from his master Philemon, a prosperous and influential Christian citizen of Colossae (Col. iv. 9), either offence rendering him liable to be crucified. Voluntarily or accidentally, he came across Paul, who won him over to the Christian faith. In the few tactful and charming lines of this brief note, the apostle sends him back to his master with a plea for kindly treatment. After greeting Philemon and his wife, with Archippus (possibly their son) and the Christians who met for

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

at Philemon's

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

(vv. 1-2), Paul rejoices over (vv. 47) his correspondent's character; it encourages him to make an appeal on behalf of the unworthy Onesimus (8-21), now returning (Col. iv. 9) along with Tychicus to Colossae, as a penitent and sincere Christian, in order to resume his place in the household. With a line or two of personal detail (2225) the note closes.
Rome would be a more natural rendezvous for fugitivarii (runaway slaves) than Caesarea (Hilgenfeld and others), and it is probable that Paul wrote this note, with Philippians and Colossians, from the metropolis. As

Laodicea

LAODICEA
LAODICEA, SYNOD OF

is close to Colossae it does not follow, even if Archippus be held to have belonged to the former town (as Lightfoot argues from Col. iv. 13-17), that Philemon's residence must have been there also (so A. Maier, Thiersch, Wieseler, &c.). Paul cannot have converted Philemon at Colossae (Col. ii. 1), but elsewhere, possibly at Ephesus; yet Philemon may have been on a visit to Ephesus, for, even were the Ephesian Onesimus of Ignatius (Eph. ii.) the Onesimus of this note, it would not prove that he had always lived there. No adequate reason has been shown for suspecting that the note is interpolated at any point. The association of Timotheus with Paul (v. 1) does not involve any official tinge, which would justify the deletion of Kai TiuhOeos o aSeXior ,uov in that verse, and of i'wv in vv. 12 (so

Holtzmann

HOLTZMANN, HEINRICH
JULIUS
- JULIUS
(1832— )

), and Hausrath's suspicions of the allusion to Paul as a prisoner and of v. 12 are equally arbitrary. The construction in vv. 56 is difficult, but it yields to exegetical treatment (cf. especially Haupt's note) and does not involve the

interpolation

INTERPOLATION (from Lat. interpolare, to alter, or insert something fresh, connected with pollee, a polish)

of matter by the later redactor of Colossians and Ephesians (

Holtzmann

HOLTZMANN, HEINRICH
JULIUS
- JULIUS
(1832— )

, Hausrath' and Bruckner, Reihenfolge d. Paul. Briefe, 200 seq.).
The brevity of the note and its lack of doctrinal significance prevented it from gaining frequent

quotation

QUOTATION

in the early Christian literature, but it appears in Marcion's canon as well as in the Muratorian, whilst Tertullian mentions, and Origen expressly quotes it. During the 19th century, the hesitation about Colossians led to the rejection of Philemon by some critics as a pseudonymous little pamphlet on the slave questionan aberration of literary criticism (reproduced in Ency. Bib., 3693 seq.) which needs simply to be chronicled. It is interesting to observe that, apart from the

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the
alphabet
- ALPHABET (see also WRITING)
; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

of commendation for Phoebe (Rom. xvi.), this is the only

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the
alphabet
- ALPHABET (see also WRITING)
; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

in the New Testament addressed, even in part, to a woman, unless the second epistle of John be taken as meant for an individual.
i History of the New Testament Times (1895), iv. 122-123. See, on this, Schenkel's Bibel-Lexikon, iv. 531-532.
Drysdale's devotional commentary (London, 1906). (J. MT.)

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