Philemon 1:10

Philemon 1:10. I beseech thee for my child. He puts the tenderest word in the forefront of his petition, and speaks of the fugitive slave as his child, before he mentions him by name. This touch of the language can only be preserved by ranging the English words in the same order as the Greek.

whom I have begotten in my bonds. Conversion is so often spoken of in the New Testament as a new birth, that it is not surprising that the apostle employs the figure in speaking of one who had been won to Christ by his ministry. Having called him his ‘child,' he now explains the spiritual relationship, a tie stronger for such a man and at such a time than any links of natural kinship.

Onesimus. The name is Greek, and signifies ‘profitable.' The Jews, as may be seen all through the Old Testament, were specially regardful of the meaning of names, so we need not wonder that when he writes the name, the sense which it had , and how aforetime the bearer of it had not corresponded to it in his character, should at once come into his mind, and furnish the thought which follows in the next verse.