Philemon 1:10

I beseech thee See on the same word just above.

my son … whom I have begotten Lit., "whom I begot." But English demands the perfect where the event is quite recent.

" Son": "begotten" :cp. 1 Corinthians 4:15: "I begot you, through the Gospel." The teacher who, by the grace of God, brings into contact the penitent soul and Him who is our Life, and by faith in whom we become "the children of God" (Galatians 3:26), is, in a sense almost more than figurative, the convert's spiritual father. The spiritual relationship between the two is deep and tender indeed. The converted runaway had taken his place with Timothy (1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2) and Titus (Titus 1:4) in St Paul's family circle.

See Galatians 4:19 for the boldest and tenderest of all his parentalappeals.

Onesimus The name stands last in the sentence, in the Greek; a perfect touch of heart-rhetoric.

"The name was very commonly borne by slaves" (Lightfoot, p. 376). It means "Helpful," "Profitable" ;and such words were frequent as slave-names. Lightfoot (p. 376, note) quotes among others Chrestus(" Good"), Symphorus(" Profitable"), and Carpus("Fruit"). Female slaves often bore names descriptive of appearance; Arescousa(" Pleasing"), Terpousa(" Winning"), &c.

On Onesimus and his status see Introd. to this Epistle, ch. 3, 4