Philemon 1:1

Greeting

1. Paul See on Colossians 1:1.

a prisoner To the Colossians he had said "an Apostle." Here he speaks more personally. Cp. for the phrase, or its like, Ephesians 3:1; Ephesians 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:8; below, Philemon 1:9.

of Jesus Christ If he suffers, it is all in relation to his Master, his Possessor. See our note on Ephesians 3:1. Outwardly he is Nero's prisoner, inwardly, Jesus Christ's.

Timothyour brother See notes on Colossians 1:1. This association of Timothy (Timotheus) with himself, in the personal as well as in the public Epistle, is a touch of delicate courtesy.

Philemon All we know of him is given in this short letter. We may fairly assume that he was a native and inhabitant of Colossæ, where his son (see below, and on Colossians 4:17) lived and laboured; that he was brought to Christ by St Paul (Philemon 1:19); that he was in comfortable circumstances (see on Philemon 1:2; Philemon 1:10); and that his character was kind and just, for St Paul would suit his appeals to his correspondent; and that his Christian life was devoted and influential (Philemon 1:5-7). In fact the Epistle indicates a noble specimen of the primitive Christian. See further, Introd. to the Ep. to Philemon, ch. 3.

The name Philemon happens to occur in the beautiful legend of Philemon and Baucis, the Phrygianpeasant-pair, who, in an inhospitable neighbourhood, "entertained unawares" Jupiter and Mercury (Ovid, Metam., viii. 626 724), "gods in the likeness of men" (see Acts 14:11).

Philemon, in legend, becomes bishop of Colossæ (but of Gaza according to another story), and is martyred there under Nero. Theodoret (cent. 5) says that his house was still shewn at Colossæ. See further Lightfoot, p. 372.

fellowlabourer See on Colossians 4:11. Philemon, converted through Paul's agency, had (perhaps first at Ephesus, then on his return to Colossæ) worked actively in the Gospel, whether ordained or no.