Philemon 1:20

ναί : cf. Philippians 4:3, ναὶ ἐρωτῶ καὶ σέ. ἀδελφέ : an affectionate appeal, cf. Galatians 3:15; Galatians 6:1-18. ἐγώ : “The emphatic ἐγώ identifies the cause of Onesimus with his own” (Lightfoot). σου ὀναίμην : ἅπ. λεγ. in N.T., it occurs once in the Septuagint (Sir 30:2), and several times in the Ignatian Epp. (Ephesians 2:2, Magn. ii. 12, Rom. Philemon 1:2, Pol. i. 1, vi. 2). Ὀν. is a play on the name Onesimus, lit., “May I have profit of thee”; Lightfoot says that the common use of the word ὀναίμην would suggest the thought of filial offices, and gives a number of instances of its use. It is the only proper optative in the N.T. which is not in the third person (Moulton, Grammar of N.T. Greek, p. 195). ἀνάπαυσον : see note on Philemon 1:7. ἐν Χριστῷ : St. Paul refers to the real source from which the ἀναπαύειν gets its strength.