Philemon 1:23

Philemon 1:23. Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus, saluteth thee. Epaphras belonged to Colossæ (Colossians 4:12), and had brought word to St. Paul of the condition of the Christians there. From the terms in which St. Paul speaks of him elsewhere (Colossians 1:7), he appears to have been closely connected with the congregation at Colossæ. Why the apostle calls him ‘fellow-prisoner' is not clear. In writing to the Colossians (Colossians 4:10) he uses the same expression concerning Aristarchus. But the term is different from that employed when he calk himself a prisoner. It does not necessarily imply ‘bound' as St. Paul was. Therefore it seems probable that the word is used of these friends because they voluntarily shared the imprisonment of the apostle, and so in fact were captives as much as he. It is not unlike St. Paul thus to magnify the service rendered to him. Or it may even be that, for zeal in his cause, they had been subjected to some sort of restraint. This, however, is not so probable as the former reason, because it is unlikely that those who were imprisoned for his sake would be put in the same ward, which is evidently implied in the text