Philemon and P.Oxy 1423

Nijay Gupta (Ashland Seminary) points out the relevance of P. Oxy 1423 to the debate about whether Onesimus was a runaway slave, an absconded slave, or simply on "loan" to Paul. P. Oxy 1423 provides an instance of the case of the former:

Flavius Ammonas … to Flavius Dorotheus, officialis, greeting. I order and depute you to arrest my slave called Magnus, who ran away and is staying at Hermopolis and has carried off certain articles belonging to me, and to bring him as a prisoner together with the head-man of Sesphtha. This order is valid, and in answer to the formal question I gave my consent. I, Flavius Ammonas, officialis on the staff of the praefect of Egypt, have made this order.

Philemon and Theology

Barth and Blanke write in their ECC Philemon commentary:

"According to Paul’s best-known letters, every person, whether Jew or Gentile, needs forgiveness of sins, salvation by Christ’s blood rather than self-salvation by the misunderstood and misused law of God, and redemption from eternal death. For everyone the spiritual freedom has immediate consequences in the social setting of his or her own life. But Philem 16 makes it explicit that salvation and redemption, freedom and equality are divine gifts far too precious to be left to the handling of even so good a Christian and so legal a slave owner as Philemon. When this man receives and treats Onesimus as a brother he receives, according to verse 17, a person ‘sent back’ (v. 12) by Paul who is to be received the same way as the apostle hopes to be received. Not only brother Paul but also brother Onesimus will have to show and tell brother Philemon a few things relevant to faith and life, and the latter will have to listen to and follow good advice and proposals. if this be applied to twentieth-century conditions, it means that professional philosophers and social scientists, pastors and theology professors, politicians and industrial managers, trade unionists and revolutionaries have no monopoly on representing and proclaiming a social order that would deserve to be called free and just and peaceful."

Books on Philemon to Read

Philemon is a good little letter and here's the main books that you need to consult when examining it:

John Knox, Philemon among the letters of Paul: a new view of its place and importance (New York: Abingdon, 1959).

Norman R. Petersen, Rediscovering Paul: Philemon and the sociology of Paul's narrative world (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985).

Markus Barth and Helmut Blanke, Philemon (ECC; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000).

Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Letter to Philemon: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB; New York: Doubleday, 2000).

Philemon and Onesimus

Everyone knows that Onesimus was a fugitive slave who had ran away from his master Philemon and Paul seeks to return Onesimus, who sought refuge with him, to Philemon on amicable terms. Or is it? The main options according to Joseph Fitzmyer are:

(a) Onesimus was a run away slave. But Paul nowhere says this in the letter (there is no use of the terms phygas or drapetes) and it is only after Chrysostom that this view really gains popularity.

(b) Onesimus was sent by Philemon to Paul to bring food and aid and Paul pleads that Onesimus be released to his service. But this does not explain the apparent tension between Philemon and Onesimus in the letter.

(c) Onesimus did not run away from Philemon, but is only in some domestic trouble with his master, and seeks the intervention of an amicus domini (friend of the master) to mediate for him. This view is held by John Knox and Bruce Winter and would comport with an Ephesian provenance.

(d) Onesimus was not a slave at all, but only the estranged younger brother of Philemon. This view is associated with A.D. Callahan and is provocative, though I fear, unlikely (this was also the argument of the pro-slavery camp during the abolitionist controversy).