Philemon 1:1-3

IAddress and Salutation

Philemon 1:1-3

1Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ [Christ Jesus],1 and Timothy our [the] brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved [the beloved], and [our] fellow-laborer: 2And to our beloved Apphia [the beloved, and without “our”],2 and Archippus 3our fellow-soldier, and to the church in thy house: Grace [be] to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Philemon 1:1. Prisoner of Jesus Christ [in Greek, Christ Jesus]. [This does not mean a prisoner for him, but one whom Christ Jesus (i. e, his cause) has brought into captivity, has put in chains (Winer). That Paul announces himself as such, and not as an Apostle or servant of Christ, results not only from the confidential character, but the object and tendency of the entire letter. The apostolic title was unnecessary, because he writes as a friend to solicit a favor, and not as a teacher to expound and enforce the truth. Δοῦλος καὶ in some copies is a worthless reading. The allusion to his imprisonment was suited to awaken sympathy, and dispose Philemon to listen the more favorably to the sufferer’s request.—H. ] He prefers to entreat through love, rather than use the lofty tone of command; he would at the outset prepare the way for the request which he is about to make, by holding up to view his chains.—And Timothy the brother. See on Philippians 1:1, and the Introduction to the Pastoral Epistles. [Timothy was with Paul, at Rome, when he wrote this letter (Colossians 1:1); and, as ὁ shows, was not unknown to those addressed in the letter. He assisted the Apostle during his ministry at Ephesus (Acts 19:22), and could have met with Philemon and other Colossians at that period, or could have become acquainted with them at Colossæ, if Paul visited that city, since Timothy was Paul’s companion in that journey (Acts 16:1; Acts 16:6). Koch regards the relation in ὁ as the universal one which makes every Christian the brother of all other Christians, and not any specific relation in which Timothy stood to Paul and the Colossians.—H.]—To Philemon, &c. It is uncertain on what ground Philemon’s claim to the honorary title of fellow-laborer was founded. Perhaps he was an elder of the church (Meyer); perhaps also Paul calls him such, because, as head of the church in his own house, he performed services more or less important for the kingdom of God. [The term fellow-laborer (συνεργός) was applied often to preachers of the gospel (2 Corinthians 8:23; Philippians 2:25; Colossians 4:11); but as there is no evidence that Philemon sustained this relation, it is more probable that other and more private modes of co-operation are intended here. Priscilla is called συνεργὸς in Romans 16:3, who certainly was not a preacher. As suggested above, Philemon may have been so designated because he opened his house for public worship, and in various ways was so benevolent and active in ministering to the wants of the disciples of Christ. See on Philemon 1:7.—H.]

Philemon 1:2. And to Appia.Ἀπφίᾳ is the Greek form for the later Appia [as the similar word is written in Acts 28:5] Chrysostom conjectures that she was the wife of Philemon, and the mention of her in this connection speaks indeed for that supposition. So, too, Bengel, who suggests a reason why she is named here: uxori ad quam nonnihil pertinebat negotium Onesimi. [Unless she had been specially related to Philemon, her name would naturally have stood after the one which now follows.—H.]—And to Archippus (comp. Colossians 4:17). The honorable manner in which Paul mentions Archippus at this beginning of the Epistle would naturally make on him a favorable impression, and dispose him to support, as an ally, the request of Paul, of which he is hereby informed. It is, however, entirely uncertain whether he was deacon, bishop of the church, teacher, or a friend only of the family. According to the wholly unsupported view of some, he was the son of Philemon. [From his being mentioned thus in a private letter, it is evident that he bore some more special relation to Philemon than that simply of a partaker of the common faith. We can hardly doubt that he filled some office among the Christians at Colossæ; and from the earnest terms of the charge which Paul addresses to him in Colossians 4:17, it seems not improbable that this office was that of a pastor or preacher: “And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry (διακονία) which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.” The same expression (πληροῦν διακονίαν) occurs in Acts 12:25, where it is used of Barnabas and Saul with reference to their work as preachers in the Apostle’s first missionary circuit. There is a tradition that Archippus suffered martyrdom at Chonæ (now Khonas), not far from Laodicea.—Our fellow-soldier (συστρατιώτῃ) associates him with Paul and Timothy, as the sharer of similar dangers and hardships (2 Timothy 2:3), and implies more than συνεργός, a fellow-laborer in ordinary ways and efforts for the spread of the gospel. Without this distinction the two appellations could not well be applied to the same person, as e. g. to Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25. The military sights and sounds which surrounded the Apostle at Rome, when he wrote to Philemon and to the Philippians, made it so much the more natural for him to employ such terms.—H.]—And to the church [or, congregation] in thy house (τῇ κατ’ οἶκόν σου ἐκκλησίᾳ). We are to understand this not of the family of Philemon by itself, nor of the entire church at Colossæ, but of that part of the church which was accustomed to assemble in the house of Philemon, and in connection with the members of his household. From Colossians 4:15; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19 it is evident that several ἐκκλησίαι κατ’ οἶκον existed in one and the same city, which were more or less independent of each other. The abodes of the wealthier Christians, or of those who had large apartments, furnished most naturally the places of union for the believers in their immediate vicinity. This little house-congregation of Philemon also receives the greeting of Paul, and becomes in this way indirectly drawn into the affair of Onesimus. [It will be seen that this view does not imply by any means that all the members of Philemon’s family were converts, of had a personal connection with the church.—[Σου, after κατ’ οἶκον, in thy house, refers to Philemon, and not to the nearer name, because Philemon is the leading person, and is always meant in this Epistle when this pronoun occurs (Philemon 1:4; Philemon 1:6-7). In assemblies such as these messages from the Apostles were announced or read (Colossians 4:15-16); hymns were sung (Colossians 3:16) and prayers offered (1 Timothy 2:1); the Scriptures were read and explained (1 Timothy 4:13); the Lord’s supper commemorated (Acts 2:46; Acts 20:11); and in the weekly meetings, at least, probably collections were taken up when some exigency required it (1 Corinthians 16:2, unless παρ’ ἑαυτῷ implies that the contribution was private). Scenes like this Onesimus must frequently have witnessed under his master’s roof; though his heart was not touched and won to the gospel till he heard the truth again in a foreign land. See Philemon 1:10.—H.]

Philemon 1:3. Grace be with you, which is the ordinary salutation, as in Philippians 1:2. [Van Oosterzee follows Luther here; but it is better to render: Grace to you, &c, in exact conformity with the Greek. The verbal idea after χάρις would be the optative εἴη, and not ἔστω. Comp. χάρις … πληθυνθείη in 2 Peter 1:2, and ἔλεος … πληθυνθείη Jude Philemon 1:2. See Win., Neutest. Gr. § 64. 46, and Buttmann, Neutest. Sprach., p. 120. Ellicott decides for εἴη in such cases. The form is essentially the earnest expression of a wish or a prayer, and not an ascription of praise, or an authoritative benediction. Paul does not arrogate to himself any right to confer the blessing which he invokes, or profess to stand in any such relation to the church as would make him officially God’s representative in that respect. The laws of language, and not prelatical traditions, should govern our decision here. The elliptical doxologies are different, and there no doubt the annunciative or mandatory “be” would be correct rather than “may be” in optative and salutatory phrases like the present. See Buttmann, Neutest. Sprach., p. 120. Our English version does not treat this class of passages consistently; for while it inserts “be” in some of them (as 1Co 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:3; Ephesians 1:3; Philippians 1:2; Colossians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1), it omits it in others (as here, and in Rom 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; 1Ti 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4). The Vulgate has: Gratia vobis et pax, without any verb. Paul never employs the classical form of salutation, viz., χαίρειν or εὖ πράττειν, but substitutes for that, χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη, &c. This rejection of the customary form, and the invention of a new one, could hardly have been without a motive. The Greek formula, as containing a virtual prayer to the heathen gods, had in it a taint of heathenism, and before a long time something more consonant to a just Christian feeling might be expected to take its place. It is singular, certainly, that James only (in his Epistle, Philemon 1:1, and in Acts 15:23) employs the other expression. It occurs also in Acts 23:26, but in a letter which one Roman officer writes to another. The colloquial καίρειν (2 John, Philemon 1:10-11) was in various respects a different usage.—Ἀπὸ θεοῦ, κ.τ.λ., from God our Father, &c. The terms differ in this, that the former marks the relation which God sustains to all men; the latter, that which he sustains to his spiritual children, or such as believe on Christ. καὶ, though it does not occur here, connects the titles with this distinction in some other passages; comp. Galatians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:24.—H.]

Footnotes: 

Philemon 1:1; Philemon 1:1. [In inverting the names (Jesus Christ for Christ Jesus as in the Greek), our English version is not consistent with itself; comp. Philemon 1:6; 1 Corinthians 1:4; Galatians 4:14. The variation is without any motive, and must be an oversight. Paul adopts this order oftener than any other writer of the New Testament, though not so often as Ἰησοῦς Χριστός—Our before brother in the A.V. is too restrictive, and the Greek article for which it stands suggests probably a different idea; see Notes on the text.—Ἀγαπητῷ is simply beloved, and should not be strengthened, as in the A. V. here and in Romans 12:19; 1 Corinthians 10:14, and several other passages. Our before this epithet should be dropped here and carried forward to the next clause. Luther’s translation avoids these slight errors, except the first.—H.]

Philemon 1:2; Philemon 1:2. Griesbach, Meyer, and others read ἀδελφῆ instead of ἀγαπητῆ (T. R.), on the testimony of A. D.1 E.1 F. G. If this reading be genuine, ἀδελφῇ sister, must naturally be taken in the Christian sense of the word. [The appeal to the external witnesses is hardly decisive. Lachmann adopts ἀδελφῇ. Tischendorf has ἀγαπητῇ in his second and fourth editions, but has been undecided. Meyer urges with some reason that ἀδελφῇ may be the true word, and ἀγαπητῃ a copyist’s repetition of the epithet applied just before to Philemon. The Sinaitic Collatio shows τη αδελφη. On the whole, it would be premature as yet to correct the common text.—Omit our, and change the position of beloved.—H.]