New Testament · Paul's Letters
A slave sent home a brother, the gospel quietly dismantling an institution in 25 verses.
A single page about one man, and the most delicate thing Paul wrote. Onesimus, a slave, has run from his master Philemon and somehow ended up with Paul in prison, where he has become a believer. Paul sends him back carrying this letter, which never commands, though it points out twice that it could. Instead it asks Philemon to receive him no longer as a slave but as a beloved brother, offers to pay anything owed in Paul's own handwriting, and mentions in passing that Philemon owes Paul his own self. The letter never calls for abolition and has been used on both sides of that argument for centuries, but the logic it plants, that a slave and a master are brothers, does not sit still.
If you remember one thing
Paul never orders Philemon to free him. He asks, in front of the whole church, in a way that makes refusal nearly unthinkable, and he offers to pay the debt himself.
“No longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother.”
Philemon 1:16
Philemon 16
No longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother. The letter never calls for abolition and has been used on both sides of that argument, which is a fact about its history worth knowing.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
He ran from his owner Philemon, met Paul in prison, became a believer, and was sent back carrying the letter that asked for him to be received no longer as a slave but as a beloved brother. His name means useful, and Paul makes a pun of it.
A Pharisee trained under Gamaliel who persecuted the church until he was stopped on the road to Damascus. He then spent thirty years planting churches across the Roman world and writing the letters that make up roughly a third of the New Testament. He was a Roman citizen by birth, which is why he could appeal to Caesar.
The whole book, with the people and places explained as you read. Available in WEB and KJV. Chapters marked ✦ carry a verse the New Testament takes up.
A quiz for Philemon is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.
