Genre
This brief letter is much closer to the average length of an ancient letter than are Paul’s other letters. It would have required only a single sheet of papyrus.
Situation
For a discussion of slavery relevant to this letter, see the articles “Ancient Slavery and the Background for Philemon”; “Slaves and Slaveholders in Ephesians 6.” Paul’s message to Philemon goes beyond other documents of his time in not only pleading for clemency for an escaped slave (itself considered exceptional) but also suggesting that he be released (to continue working with Paul in ministry) because he is now a Christian. So powerful was this precedent that many of the earliest U.S. slaveholders did not want their slaves to be exposed to Christianity for fear that they would be compelled to free them; the Christian message had to be domesticated (like early Stoicism was by subsequent Stoics) to make it neutral or supportive of slavery.
Slaves, especially skilled or educated males, were often sent on errands and trusted as agents with their slaveholders’ property. Such slaves could sometimes earn enough money on the side to buy their freedom (although their earnings legally belonged to their slaveholder, slaves were normally permitted to control the money themselves); still, a few took the opportunity of an errand to escape. Because a safe escape required them to get far away from where their slaveholder lived (in the case Paul addresses here, from Phrygia to probably Rome; cf. possibly 2 Tim. 1:16–17), they might take some of their slaveholder’s money with them. Recapture normally meant severe punishment.
Such theft may be the point of Philem. 18, but Paul might there account for the possibility that Philemon wants repayment for Onesimus himself. From the standpoint of ancient slaveholders, the lost time of an escaped slave was lost money and was legally viewed as stolen property, to which the one harboring him was liable. But more important, slaves themselves were not cheap, and Philemon might have already bought another slave to replace Onesimus. Slaves could cost between 750 sesterces (187.5 denarii) and 700,000 sesterces (175,000 denarii), with 2,000 as an average. (Keep in mind that a denarius was close to a day’s wage for many farmers in this period.)
Biblical law required harboring escaped slaves (Deut. 23:15–16), but Roman law required Paul to return Onesimus to his master, with serious penalties if he failed to do so. Paul uses his relationship with Philemon to seek Onesimus’s release: in a standard “letter of recommendation” one would plead with someone of equal (or sometimes lower) status on behalf of someone of lower status. Paul was not Philemon’s equal socially or economically, but as his spiritual father he had grounds to claim the equality that characterized ancient friendship.
Some compare this letter with a letter that Pliny the Younger later wrote to a friend on behalf of an estranged freedman who had pleaded for Pliny’s intercession. Despite the similarity of interceding for another, however, Pliny allowed that the slaveholder had a right to be angry, and he spoke merely of a former slave, not a current one. Paul’s letter is therefore more countercultural than Pliny’s.
Although some have suggested that Paul writes this letter from imprisonment in Ephesus, supposing that Onesimus would not have traveled as far as Rome, Rome remains the likelier site. Paul’s custody (v. 10) in this period was likely in Rome (Phil. 1:13; 4:22).
Following the usual patterns of persuasion in his day, Paul offers an opening appeal (Philem. 4–7), a main argument with proofs (vv. 8–16), and a summary of his case (vv. 17–22). That Philemon preserved the letter suggests that he granted Paul’s request. ◆
Quick Glance
Author:
The apostle Paul
Audience:
Philemon and the members of the church at Colosse
Date:
About AD 60
Theme:
Paul urges Philemon to show grace to Onesimus, his runaway slave, and apparently wants him to free Onesimus to allow him to continue in ministry with Paul.