Philemon 1:19

ἐγὼ Παῦλος : “The introduction of his own name gives it the character of a formal and binding signature, cf. 1 Corinthians 16:21; Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17 ” (Lightfoot). ἔγραψα τῇ ἐμῇ χειρί ἀποτίσω : ἔγρ. epistolary aorist, cf. 1 Peter 5:12; 1 John 2:14; 1Jn 2:21; 1 John 2:26. Deissmann (op. cit., p. 239) calls attention to the large number of papyri which are acknowledgments of debt (Schuldhandschrift); a stereotyped phrase which these contain is, “I will repay,” usually expressed by ἀποδώσω; in case the debtor is unable to write a representative who can do so expressly adds, “I have written this for him”. The following is an example: “… which we also will repay … besides whatever else there is (ἄλλων ὧν) which we owe over and above … I, Papos, write it for him, because he cannot write”. See also Deissmann's Neue Bibelstudien, p. 67, under χειρόγραφον. It seems certain from the words ἔγραψα … (cf. also Philemon 1:21) that St. Paul wrote the whole of this epistle himself; this was quite exceptional, as he usually employed an amanuensis; the quasi-private character of the letter would account for this. See, further, Lightfoot's note on Galatians 6:11. ἀποτίσω : a stronger form than the more usual ἀποδώσω. As a matter of fact St. Paul, in a large measure, had repaid whatever was due to Philemon by being the means whereby the latter received his slave back, but see Intr. § III. ἵνα μὴ λέγω σοι : a kind of mental ejaculation, as though St. Paul were speaking to himself; the σοι does not properly belong to the phrase; cf. 2 Corinthians 9:4. καὶ σεαυτόν : the reference is to Philemon's conversion, either directly due to St. Paul, or else indirectly through the mission into Asia Minor, which had been the means whereby Philemon had become a Christian; in either case St. Paul could claim Philemon as his spiritual child in the sense that he did in the case of Onesimus (see Philemon 1:10). μοι προσοφείλεις : “thou owest me over and above”. See farther, on ὀφειλή, Deissmann, Neue Bibelst., p. 48, Licht vom Osten, pp. 46, 239.