📖 Biblical Definition
The shortest Pauline epistle, a masterpiece of gospel diplomacy in which Paul urges Philemon to receive his runaway slave Onesimus 'no longer as a slave but…a beloved brother.'
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
PHILEMON, n. A Christian convert at Colossae; the brief epistle Paul wrote to him.
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PHILEMON, n. A wealthy disciple at Colossae, host to a house-church, master of the slave Onesimus who fled and was converted by Paul at Rome; the canonical epistle is a model of Christian intercession in which the apostle offers to pay Onesimus's debt and asks Philemon to count the runaway as he would count Paul himself.
📖 Key Scripture
Philemon 10-11 — "I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable."
Philemon 15-16 — "Perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but…a beloved brother."
Philemon 18 — "But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account."
Philemon 6 — "That the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Treated as historical curiosity; ignored as the most concentrated picture of substitutionary reconciliation in the canon.
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No major postmodern corruption of the book itself. The risk is simply that it gets read less, or read past. The corruption that hides in the gap is the corruption of forgetting — and forgetting Scripture is the slow corruption.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Key terms: Onēsimos ('profitable'), proslambanō (to receive, welcome), adelphos (brother).
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G3682 — Onēsimos — Onesimus, profitable
G4355 — proslambanō — to receive, welcome
G80 — adelphos — brother
Usage
"Philemon is the gospel printed on a single page."
"Charge it to my account — the four words that hold up the cross."
"In Christ, slave becomes brother and the chain falls off."