Paul’s Request for Onesimus
Intro Questions
- God is ... What do we learn about God in this passage?
- We are ... What do we learn about people in this passage?
- I will ... What has the Holy Spirit revealed to us in this passage? How can I apply it to my life this week?
- You can ... Who do you know who needs to hear this? Feel free to share with others by social media links at the bottom of this.
Other Resources:
Love and Helping Others. Philemon 1 https://virtualbiblestudy.com/lessons/philemon/philemon-bible-text-new-american-standard-bible-nasb/
Vs. 16
MORE THAN A SLAVE (PHILEMON 1:16)
Roman law in some respects treated slaves as persons but also viewed them economically as property. While slaves could hold property and buy their freedom, they also could be beaten and interrogated under torture. In the rare case where a head of a household was murdered by one of his slaves, all of his slaves would be executed. Thus, the term “beloved brother” (Philemon 1:16), as Paul calls Onesimus, indicated something more than a slave.
Onesimus was probably a household slave, the only type of slave addressed in Paul’s letters, which were written to urban congregations. Household slaves had greater opportunities for social advancement than did free peasants, and, in prominent households, often became powerful. Indeed, some noble women even married slaves of Caesar, thereby becoming slaves, to increase their social status! By saving money on the side, household slaves often purchased their freedom, and, with help from their former slaveholders, sometimes attained social prominence and wealth.
Slaveholders would send their trusted slaves, especially the more educated ones, on errands, often with money. Occasionally a slave chose to escape rather than return home, dangerous as such a venture was. Such may be the situation faced by Onesimus.
Roman law required Paul to return Onesimus to his master Philemon, or else face severe punishment. Paul does not advise Philemon to receive back Onesimus as a slave; he invites Philemon to embrace him as a brother. The letter to Philemon took the form of a “letter of recommendation,” in which a person of equal or higher status asked a favor for a person of lower status.
Escaped slaves, once recaptured, normally received severe punishment. One option for the slave was to seek out an advocate who would beseech the slaveowner on the slave’s behalf. In one situation, a close parallel to Paul’s letter, a Roman writer requested clemency for an escaped slave. Paul, however, asks not merely for clemency, but for Onesimus’s freedom.
Vs. 18
POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
In the Roman Empire, slaves were not permitted to marry, and any children they did have belonged to their owners. Slaves were at the service of their owners, male or female, who were free to punish or kill any slave who “wronged” them (Philemon 1:18). Even though there were few slave revolts, the fear that slaves would revolt or harm their owners was always present.
