Philemon 1:4

εὐχαριστῶ. There is no more reference to Timothy, for it was a personal request that St Paul was about to make. Contrast the plural in Colossians 1:3.

τῷ θεῷ μου. So Romans 1:8; Philippians 1:3. Philemon’s spiritual condition is new evidence of God’s love towards St Paul.

πάντοτε, with εὐχαριστῶ, cf. Colossians 1:3, note. “I give thanks always, namely when I make mention, etc.”

μνείαν σου ποιούμενος, “making mention of thee.” μνείαν ποιεῖσθαι occurs three times in the LXX., and in both its possible meanings (a) to remember, Job 14:13, and probably Isaiah 32:10; (b) to cause remembrance, to make mention of, Psalms 111(110):4, where it is a very literal translation of the Hebrew zeker ‘asah. For the classics references are given by Lidd. and Scott to the second meaning only, and this is found also certainly in one of the two letters of the 2nd century A.D. from papyri quoted by J. A. R. (Ephesians, pp. 276, 279), and probably in the other. One runs πρὸ μὲν πάντων εὔχομαί σε ὑγιαίνειν, καὶ ʼγὼ γὰρ αὐτὸς ὑγιαίνω, μνίαν σου ποιούμενος παρὰ τοῖς ἐνθάδε θεοῖς (Berl. Pap. 63212), the other καὶ αὐτὴ δʼ ὑγίαινον καὶ τὸ παιδίον καὶ οἱ ἐν οἴκῳ πάντες, σοῦ διαπαντὸς μνείαν ποιούμενοι. See also his quotation from Athenaeus on p. 280. St Paul uses the phrase three times elsewhere, viz. Romans 1:9; Ephesians 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:2, almost certainly in the second sense, for (a) he employs ἔχειν μνείαν to signify “remember,” 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Timothy 1:3; cf. Philippians 1:3; (b) in 1 Thessalonians 1:2 he adds μνημονεύοντες, “remembering.” The force of the middle appears to be intensive; see Colossians 4:1, note.

ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν μου, “at my prayers.” St Paul always uses this phrase with μνεῖαν ποιεῖσθαι.