Epistle to Philemon
| Epistle to Philemon | ||||||||||
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A fragment of a copy of Philemon, c. 250. |
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The Epistle to Philemon, often written as simply, Philemon is the eighteenth book of the New Testament. It is generally accepted to be the work of Paul the Apostle which would mean that it was written no later than 67 CE. It is written in ancient Greek to a man named Philemon. The letter is a personal correspondence where Paul asks Philemon to be less strict about his slave, Onesimus. This letter is in the public domain.
Personal
| Own? | Several translations. |
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| Read? | KJV and NIV translations. |
| Finished | 2016-04-27. |
I read this letter to better increase my understanding of Christianity.
Authorship and Dating
Philemon is generally accepted to be written by the Apostle Paul to a man named Philemon. Assuming the letter is authentic, it could have been written no later than 67 CE.
Despite this letter being generally accepted as being Paul's work, it seems to me to be noticeably different:
- It doesn't cover the varied topics of his genuine works.
- It doesn't feature the zealous piety of his other works.
- It's far shorter than his other works, which makes it harder to authenticate.
There are no known original manuscripts. The oldest copy is a fragment from Papyrus 87 dated to around 200-300 CE.
Content
Paul writes the letter on behalf of Philemon's slave Onesimus who is in trouble with Philemon, in hopes that Philemon will forgive his slave and treat him better than a slave in the future.
Review
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Overall: |
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Good
- Nothing.
Bad
- Paul asks to pay whatever debt the slave Onesimus may have caused to Philemon, which is quite generous, but then he reminds Philemon that he owes his life to Paul, which negates all generosity (1:18-19).
- Several times Paul explains that he is in chains as a result of his faith (1:9-13), indicating incarceration to a strong degree. Yet, his captors allow Paul to write and send personal correspondences, and he even requests Philemon prepare him a guest room, indicating he expects to be released soon (1:22). This is hardly an oppressive prison.
Ugly
- While it's nice that Paul is suggesting a slave be treated like a brother, there is no indication from this or his other writings that Paul was against slavery as an institution, and several of his disputed works even demand slaves be obedient (Ephesians 6:5-9).
Links
- librivox.org/group/220 - LibriVox - American Standard Version.
- librivox.org/group/383 - LibriVox - World English Translation.
- librivox.org/group/364 - LibriVox - Weymouth New Testament.
