Philemon

Philemon, EPISTLE TO, is the shortest of the four extant letters that bear to have been written by the apostle Paul during his captivity (see PAUL). It is a brief private letter (of twenty- five verses) addressed to Philemon, a man of wealth and liberality, who had been a convert of the apostle, and is now addressed by him as his 'fellow-worker.' It was at Philemon's house, and perhaps under his presidency, that the Christians of Colossæ held their meetings. In the Apostolical Constitutions he is represented as bishop of Colossæ, and subsequent tradition has it that he suffered martyrdom there under Nero. Philemon had possessed a slave called Onesimus, who, after robbing his master, had run off and found his way to Rome (or Cesarea), and there had come under the influence of Paul, and been converted to Christianity. At first the apostle seems to have been minded to retain Onesimus for his own service, but on further consideration he resolved to send him back to his former master, and accordingly made him the bearer of the epistle before us, in which 'Paul the aged' asks pardon for the runaway, and entreats the injured master to receive him 'not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.' The epistle exhibits fine delicacy and tact throughout, and has been characterised by Renan as 'a little masterpiece in the art of letter-writing.' Its genuineness may be said to be well established. Some writers, indeed, in the fourth century held that it was too trifling and unedifying to have been written by Paul; but the arbitrariness of this criterion was pointed out by Jerome, Chrysostom, and others. Baun also regarded it as a literary invention intended to illustrate the ideal relation of master and slave; but this view is not strongly urged by any of his modern followers, while some of them (Hilgenfeld and Holtzmann) have entirely abandoned it. There are commentaries on the Epistle to Philemon by Meyer, Bleek, Ellicott (Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, 3d ed. 1865), and Lightfoot (Colossians and Philemon, 7th ed. 1884).