Read this if you…
- like seeing Paul personal and warm rather than theological (a one-page letter, not a treatise)
- care about the NT's most pointed text on slavery: a runaway returned as a beloved brother
- want the short Pauline epistle that pivots an entire moral question on tact and friendship
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
Depicted in Art
Paul blesses the converted Onesimus, whose arms are crossed in submission; the master Epaphras stands by in astonishment.
Benjamin West, 1780
Historiated initial: Onesimus stands before Philemon holding Paul's sealed letter — the moment the epistle is delivered to its recipient.
Byzantine miniature of Onesimus haloed and standing frontally as a saint of the Seventy Apostles, against a gold ground.
985
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Oxford University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
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Notable Quotes
Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?
- Ernest Renan, French philologist & historian of religion, 1823–1892: "St. Paul alone, it would seem, could have written this little masterpiece."
- Martin Luther, Reformation theologian, 1483–1546: "This Epistle sheweth a right noble example of lovely Christian love."
- J.B. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham & New Testament scholar, 1828–1889: "If purity of diction be excepted, there will hardly be any difference of opinion in awarding the palm to the Christian apostle."
- John Calvin, Reformation theologian, 1509–1564: "Nowhere else is the meekness of his temper painted in a more lively manner."
- John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople & Church Father, c. 347–407: "It was not only proper that these small Epistles, in behalf of things so necessary, should have been inscribed."
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