Monday, September 29, 2014

Philemon: Text and Subtext

I love the little book of Philemon!  In it, we get a glimpse of Paul's relationship with some of the early Christians, as well as his knack for bringing his strong personality to bear on them through his writing.  We also learn a little about the dynamics of household slavery in the first century.  (Plus, in a single session's reading, you can knock off 1/27th of the New Testament!)

You really need to read between the lines of Paul's letter Philemon to get the thrust of his message.  What appears to have happened is that Onesimus is a runaway slave from Philemon who became converted to Christianity during Paul's imprisonment for the gospel.  Now Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon.  What kind of reception awaits him there?  We don't know, but we do know what Paul would like to see.

Paul wants Philemon to receive Onesimus back with open arms rather than with punishment.  He extols the "usefulness" (Onesiumus' name's literal meaning is "useful") of Onesimus to Paul.  Amid veiled threats ("prepare a guest room for me for I am coming soon" vs. 22), gentle nudging ("If you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me" vs. 17) and outright arm-twisting ("I say nothing about your owing me even your very self!" vs. 19), Paul is wrangling for Philemon to forgive Onesimus and accept him back, no questions asked.  Paul is using every rhetorical tool at his disposal to compel Philemon to do the right thing and act as a gracious Christian toward another fellow Christian in his debt.

My only problem with this book is that I would love to know the follow-up to this story, to see what happened to Philemon and Onesimus!

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