Why Is Philemon in the Bible?

And did Onesimus's story have a happy ending?

When was the last time you heard a sermon on Philemon?

For me, it’s been a long time. So long, in fact, that I can’t remember if I’ve ever heard a sermon on Philemon.

And I understand why. Philemon’s contents can seem uncomfortable to our modern ears. It’s also Paul’s weirdest letter—it’s not immediately obvious how a pastor should preach it.

Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not weird that Paul wrote Philemon. Paul probably wrote a number of personal letters over the course of his ministry.

But it’s odd that the Church preserved this one, isn’t it? Philemon is totally unlike the other canonical letters—it’s written to an individual to address a household matter.

So why did it make it into our Bibles? Let’s explore the letter’s background.

How Did Onesimus Run Into Paul?

Like the rest of Paul’s letters, the letter is named for its recipient—it’s the Epistle (Letter) to Philemon. But the letter isn’t only addressed to Philemon. Paul also addresses it to Apphia (perhaps Philemon’s wife), Archippus, and the church that meets in Philemon’s house.

Why is this detail important? Because this letter wasn’t intended as private correspondence—Philemon hosts a house church, and the whole church would have gathered to hear Paul’s letter read aloud.

The letter, of course, concerns an enslaved man named Onesimus. Somehow, Onesimus left Philemon’s house in Colossae and ended up at least a hundred miles away, visiting an imprisoned Paul, probably in Ephesus.¹ Now, Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon and passive-aggressively twisting Philemon’s arm to ensure that Onesimus is treated kindly.

You’ve probably been taught that Onesimus was a runaway slave, and maybe that he stole some household goods on his way out the door. But Paul doesn’t actually say that Onesimus was a runaway. The letter doesn’t tell us how Onesimus ended up with him. We have to fill in those blanks.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Interpretation inevitably involves imagination. And I suspect that the traditional interpretation is wrong, and that Onesimus wasn’t a runaway. I have a hard time imagining how or why a runaway Onesimus would’ve crossed paths with Paul.

Paul was imprisoned—it wasn’t like they happened to recognize each other on the street. Onesimus, who was not a Christian, came to Paul. Why would a runaway slave waltz up to their enslaver’s imprisoned friend? To me, it doesn’t pass the smell test.

It seems more likely that Onesimus went missing specifically to seek Paul out, to ask for help in dealing with a difficult situation at home. In Paul’s day, the enslaved sometimes went AWOL in order to seek out one of their enslaver’s friends to advocate on their behalf, particularly if they felt they were being exceptionally mistreated or if some sort of conflict had exploded between themselves and their enslaver.² Legally, this wasn’t considered the same thing as running away. However, when the slave returned, we can imagine that an enslaver might still be angry—whether about the initial conflict, the slave’s absence, or the involvement of a third party—and might rain down severe consequences on the hapless slave.

So, Onesimus has likely come to Paul because he knows that Paul has influence on Philemon. And in the course of their conversations, Onesimus becomes a Christian. We don’t know the details of his interaction with Paul, but we can conclude that it proved a far more compelling draw to faith than his experience in Philemon’s house.

Paul, Passive-Aggressive by the Will of God

Let’s talk about the text of the letter to Philemon.

Y’all.

Paul pulled out all the stops when he wrote this letter. The letter is short, so I’m going to quote it in full here, interjecting some commentary—but please don’t just skim over the text. I want you to read it—out loud, if you can—and imagine the scene.

Onesimus returns to Philemon’s home carrying a letter from Paul. Remember how the letter is addressed to Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and the whole church in Philemon’s house? That means that the reading of this letter is going to be an event. Philemon isn’t going to read it to himself in private. It will be dramatically read aloud to everyone—perhaps even read by Onesimus. (In the Roman world, urban slaves were often educated and literate.)

So, imagine Onesimus reading the letter out loud to the whole church. Where does he pause? Choke up? Give lingering looks? How does Philemon’s rich neighbor react? What about the enslaved members of Philemon’s household?

Pay particular attention to the lines I’ve bolded. (Translation is NRSVUE.)

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ. I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother.

So, everyone is hearing Paul shower compliments on Philemon for his love for all the saints. (Do the household slaves agree with this assessment?)

Paul prays that Philemon’s sharing of his faith may become effective when Philemon perceives the good he may do. Has Philemon been ineffective at sharing the faith with the enslaved members of his own household, perhaps because he has not refreshed them as he has refreshed the saints?

For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Again, remember, everyone is hearing this. Maybe Paul isn’t forcing Philemon’s hand, but he’s certainly twisting his arm.

A side note: What does it mean for Onesimus to be Philemon’s brother in the flesh and in the Lord? Tim Gombis has argued that Philemon and Onesimus may have been biological half-brothers, and I’m very intrigued by this idea.

So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

One thing more—prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be restored to you.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Again. Y’all. EVERYONE IS HEARING THIS. And Paul even suggests that he’s going to come check up on the situation himself—as soon as he’s no longer imprisoned.

How can Philemon possibly give Onesimus anything but a warm welcome after this? He’d lose face—which would have been far more intolerable in his culture than it is in most of ours—if he rained down severe consequences on Onesimus.

In short, Paul doesn’t send back a defenseless slave to an uncertain fate. He sets up the situation so that Philemon ostensibly has a choice—when, really, Paul has constrained Philemon’s choices. (At least if Philemon ever wants to show his face among members of the church again.)

Did Philemon Free Onesimus?

So, what happened to Onesimus after he returned to Philemon? Perhaps Philemon manumitted him and sent him back to Paul. If we date Paul’s letter to the Colossians in the years after the letter to Philemon, this seems the likeliest outcome—Tychicus and Onesimus bring the letter to the Colossians to Colossae (Colossians 4:7-9).

Or perhaps Philemon welcomed him back home as a beloved brother and freed him either right away or at a later date. We can only speculate about the details. But I believe we can say with a fair bit of certainty that Onesimus did, indeed, get a happily-ever-after. Here’s why.

We still have the letter.

If Onesimus had been harshly treated, why would the Colossian church have preserved the letter at all? It’d have been an embarrassing episode that everyone tried to forget. But they preserved the letter.

Some scholars believe that Onesimus, later, was instrumental in gathering, compiling, and circulating the earliest collection of Paul’s letters.³ As Onesimus decided which letters to include, it makes sense that he saw particular value in this one. If Onesimus wasn’t the compiler of Paul’s letters, then perhaps he knew the compiler. Perhaps the compiler was someone else from Colossae who remembered this situation, someone who loved Onesimus. Or maybe Onesimus became someone well-known in the church, and so it made sense for them to preserve this piece of history.

Onesimus may even have become the bishop of Ephesus! (Ignatius writes glowingly of Ephesus’s bishop, named Onesimus.)⁴ The theory that this is Paul’s Onesimus has a ring of plausibility to me, but we can’t hold to it with any certainty—Onesimus was a common slave name.

But here’s what we can say—in the early second century, a former slave became the bishop of Ephesus (for the name Onesimus was only given to enslaved boys) and was praised by Ignatius, using language that closely echoes the letter to Philemon. Even if they’re not the same person, Ignatius seems to be aware of Paul’s letter to Philemon and eager to draw parallels between the two Onesimuses.⁵

That’ll Preach

The letter to Philemon is almost certainly in the Bible because Paul’s arm-twisting worked.

This strange little book of the Bible shows us how words can shape the trajectory of a person and a church, that advocacy matters. It shows that broken relationships can be mended when we repent and change the way we treat people—as beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord. It shows how the Kingdom of God overturns hierarchies of status, that the people society deems unimportant matter greatly to God—and should matter in the Church.

In short, this book preaches. I hope we’ll hear more sermons on it.

---

If you’d like to participate in the work I’m doing, here are the links!

Have a question or an insight? Agree or disagree with something I’ve said? Have another passage that you’d like to see me wrestle with in an upcoming post? Or just wanna hit “like”?

To support my writing financially, you can become a paid subscriber here on Substack or send a one-time gift on Buy Me a Coffee.

Think a friend (or your followers on social media) might find this post helpful?

---

ICYMI

1. Some commentators believe Paul was imprisoned in Rome or Judea, both of which would have been much more arduous trips. If the letters were written from Rome or Judea, it would strengthen my argument that Onesimus went AWOL in order to appeal to Paul, for as the length and difficulty of the trip increases, it becomes more unlikely that he would somehow, at random, end up with Paul. For a brief sketch of the arguments for each location, see Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Letter to Philemon, Anchor Bible Commentaries, 9-11.

2. If you want to do more reading, this is called the amicus domini theory. A good place to start is Fitzmyer, Philemon, 17-23.

3. F.F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, NICNT, (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1984), 200-202.

4. Dennis R. Edwards, “Letter to Philemon” in The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Commentary, eds. Esau McCaulley, Janette H. Ok, Osvaldo Padilla, and Amy Peeler, (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2024), 573. See also Fitzmyer, Philemon, 15.

5. Bruce, Philemon, 201.