Philemon

Short letter written by Paul to Philemon.

Context
Shortest letter written by Paul
 * 25 verses long
 * Comes last in canonical New Testament but chronologically comes much earlier
 * Prison Letter
 * Written while Paul was imprisoned in a Roman prison
 * Either a Roman prison in Rome in the early 60s or a Roman Prison in Ephesus in the mid 50s
 * Only one written to a person, rather than a group

Characters

 * Philemon: The letter is addressed to Philemon, who owns Onesimus as a slave. A member or possibly leader of a Christ-community.
 * Onesimus: Philemon’s slave who has run away to seek help from Paul. He is to deliver the letter to Philemon. Upon meeting Paul, Onesimus becomes a convert, a Christian follower.

Story
Onesimus has run away to Paul for help as an amicus domini
 * Amicus domini: a friend of the slave owner who would legally moderate disputes between slave and slave holder.
 * Philemon believes Onesimus has stolen from him
 * When he meets Paul Onesims converts to Christianity
 * Paul then writes the letter to Philemon on Onesimus’ behalf.

Ideas

 * There is more going on that simply Paul speaking on Onesimus’ behalf
 * Slavery: There is dispute over whether Paul means to make a statement on slavery through this letter
 * Borg  reads the letter as condemning enslaving another Christian man. Calling it not spiritual.
 * However Ehrman claims that this is not a reflection on Paul’s ideas about slavery at all
 * He claims Paul had little concern for social inequality and roles based on the idea that history would soon come to an end up on Christ’s return