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Epistle to Philemon

 

 
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The Epistle to Philemon is a prison letter
Prison literature

Prison literature is a literary genre characterized by literature that is written while the author is confined in a location against his will, such as a prison, jail or house arrest....
 from Paul of Tarsus
Paul of Tarsus

Saint Paul, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul or Paul of Tarsus , was a Hellenistic Judaism, who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and was, together with Saint Peter and James the Just, the most notable of early Christian missionaries....
 to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church
Epistle to the Colossians

In the Christian New Testament, Colossians is an epistle written, according the text itself, by Paul the Apostle. The epistle addresses the church in Colossae, a rather insignificant Phrygian city near Ephesus in Asia Minor....
. It is one of the books of the New Testament
New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
 of the Christian Bible. The epistle is the most important early Christian writing dealing with forgiveness
Forgiveness

Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, and ceasing to demand punishment or restitution....
.

It is now generally regarded as one of the undisputed works of Paul. It is the shortest of Paul's extant letters, consisting of only 335 words in the original Greek text, and twenty-five verses in modern English translations.

, who is apparently in prison (probably in either Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 or Ephesus
Ephesus

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, in the region known as Ionia during the period known as Classical Greece. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League....
), writes to a fellow Christian named Philemon and two of his associates: a woman named Apphia, sometimes assumed to be his wife, and a minister named Archippus
Archippus

Archippus was an early Christian believer mentioned briefly in the New Testament epistles of Epistle to Philemon and Epistle to the Colossians....
 (see Colossians 4:17).






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The Epistle to Philemon is a prison letter
Prison literature

Prison literature is a literary genre characterized by literature that is written while the author is confined in a location against his will, such as a prison, jail or house arrest....
 from Paul of Tarsus
Paul of Tarsus

Saint Paul, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul or Paul of Tarsus , was a Hellenistic Judaism, who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and was, together with Saint Peter and James the Just, the most notable of early Christian missionaries....
 to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church
Epistle to the Colossians

In the Christian New Testament, Colossians is an epistle written, according the text itself, by Paul the Apostle. The epistle addresses the church in Colossae, a rather insignificant Phrygian city near Ephesus in Asia Minor....
. It is one of the books of the New Testament
New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
 of the Christian Bible. The epistle is the most important early Christian writing dealing with forgiveness
Forgiveness

Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, and ceasing to demand punishment or restitution....
.

It is now generally regarded as one of the undisputed works of Paul. It is the shortest of Paul's extant letters, consisting of only 335 words in the original Greek text, and twenty-five verses in modern English translations.

Content and reconstruction

Paul, who is apparently in prison (probably in either Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 or Ephesus
Ephesus

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, in the region known as Ionia during the period known as Classical Greece. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League....
), writes to a fellow Christian named Philemon and two of his associates: a woman named Apphia, sometimes assumed to be his wife, and a minister named Archippus
Archippus

Archippus was an early Christian believer mentioned briefly in the New Testament epistles of Epistle to Philemon and Epistle to the Colossians....
 (see Colossians 4:17). If the letter to the Colossians
Epistle to the Colossians

In the Christian New Testament, Colossians is an epistle written, according the text itself, by Paul the Apostle. The epistle addresses the church in Colossae, a rather insignificant Phrygian city near Ephesus in Asia Minor....
 is authentic, then Philemon must live in Colossae
Colossae

Colossae or Colosse , was an ancient city of Phrygia, on the Lycus , which is a tributary of the Maeander River. It was situated about 12 miles above Laodicea on the Lycus, and near the great road from Ephesus to the Euphrates....
. As a slave-owner he would have been wealthy by the standards of the early church and this explains why his house was large enough to accommodate church meetings (v. 2). Paul writes on behalf of Onesimus
Onesimus

Saint Onesimus was a Roman slavery to Philemon of Colossae, a man of Christian faith. Eventually, Onesimus transgressed against Philemon and fled to the site of Paul the Apostle's imprisonment to escape punishment for a theft he had committed , there, he heard the Gospel from St....
, Philemon's slave. Beyond that, it is not self-evident as to what has transpired. Onesimus is described as having been "separated" from Philemon, once having been "useless" to him (a pun
Pun

A pun, or paronomasia, is a form of word play that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humour or rhetorical effect....
 on Onesimus's name, which means "useful"), and having done him wrong.

The dominant scholarly consensus is that Onesimus is a run-away slave who became a Christian believer. Paul now sends him back to face his aggrieved master, and strives in his letter to effect reconciliation between these two Christians. What is more contentious is how Onesimus came to be with Paul. Various suggestions have been given: Onesimus being imprisoned with Paul; Onesimus being brought to Paul by others; Onesimus coming to Paul by chance (or in the Christian view, by divine providence); or Onesimus deliberately seeking Paul out, as a friend of his master's, in order to be reconciled.

There is no way of knowing what happened to Onesimus after the letter. Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius of Antioch was among the Apostolic Fathers, was the third Bishop and Patriarch of Antioch, and was possibly a student of John the Apostle....
 mentions an Onesimus as Bishop of Ephesus in the early second century. It was suggested by some Bible scholars in the 1950s that these two Onesimuses are one and the same, and further that Onesimus could have been the first to compile the extant letters of Paul, including the letter that gave him his own freedom as an expression of gratitude. This is a pat explanation for why the oblique letter is included in the New Testament alongside letters of much greater theological import, but presently it is only a conjecture.

Significance

Paul's letter is cryptic. His tactful address to Philemon was labelled "holy flattery" by Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a Germans monk, theology, university professor, priest, father of Protestantism, and Protestant Reformers whose ideas started the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western culture....
. Commending Philemon's Christian compassion, but at the same time subtly reminding Philemon of his apostolic authority
Twelve Apostles

In Christianity, apostles were missionaries among the leaders in the Early Christianity and, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ himself....
 over him, and the spiritual debt Philemon owes to him, Paul pleads with Philemon to take Onesimus back. Due to his conversion, Onesimus is returned "no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother" (v. 16). It is not altogether clear whether Onesimus is to be forgiven or manumitted
Manumission

Manumission is the act of freeing individual Slavery, done at the will of the owner....
, whether Onesimus is now Philemon's "brother" as well as his "slave", or whether his brotherhood supplants his servitude. On the interpretation of this verse hinges the social impact of Paul's letter.

The German Protestant theologian Martin Luther saw a parallel between Paul and Christ in their work of reconciliation
Reconciliation

Reconciliation may refer to:* Reconciliation , a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos* Bank reconciliation* Reconciliation bill...
. However, Luther insisted that the letter upheld the social status quo
Status Quo

Status Quo, also known as The Quo or just Quo, are an England rock music band whose music is characterized by the twelve-bar blues....
: Paul did nothing to change Onesimus's legal position as a slave—and he complied with the law in returning him.

The letter was a cause of debate during the British and later American struggles over the abolition of slavery
Abolitionism

File:BLAKE10.JPGAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical religious groups con...
. Both sides cited Philemon for support.