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Philemon · Majority Standard Bible

Philemon 1 Majority Standard Bible

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About MSB
  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Majority (Byzantine) text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Formal (word for word)
  • 2022
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker, 2 to Apphia our beloved, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets at your house: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I always thank my God, remembering you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 6 I pray that your partnership in the faith may become effective as you fully acknowledge every good thing that is ours in Christ Jesus. 7 We take great joy and encouragement in your love, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints. 8 So although in Christ I am bold enough to order you to do what is proper, 9 I prefer to appeal on the basis of love. For I, Paul, am now aged, and a prisoner of Jesus Christ as well. 10 I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I became while I was in my chains. 11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. 12 I am sending back for you to receive him who is my very heart. 13 I would have liked to keep him with me, so that on your behalf he could minister to me in my chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness will not be out of compulsion, but by your own free will. 15 For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back for good— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a beloved brother. He is especially beloved to me, but even more so to you, both in person and in the Lord. 17 So if you consider me a partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it—not to mention that you owe me your very self. 20 Yes, brother, let me have some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. 21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask. 22 In the meantime, prepare a guest room for me, because I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you. 23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings, 24 as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. 25 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Apphia

    Sister addressed with Philemon

    Addressed by Paul together with Philemon and Archippus in the letter to Philemon.

    Cited in the guide: Philemon 2

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  • Archippus

    Fellow soldier of Paul

    Called by Paul his fellow soldier and told to complete the ministry he received in the Lord.

    Cited in the guide: Colossians 4:17; Philemon 2

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  • Demas

    Coworker of Paul

    A coworker of Paul who sends greetings from Rome, but later deserted him because he loved the present world.

    Cited in the guide: Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:10; Philemon 24

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  • Epaphras

    Founder of the Colossian church

    A faithful minister of Christ who taught the Colossians, wrestled for them in prayer, and was Paul's fellow prisoner.

    Cited in the guide: Colossians 1:7; Colossians 4:12; Philemon 23

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  • Luke

    Beloved physician and coworker of Paul

    Paul's beloved physician and coworker who stayed with him when others had left him in his final imprisonment.

    Cited in the guide: Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24

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  • Onesimus

    Runaway slave of Philemon

    A slave who became a believer through Paul in prison and whom Paul sent back to Philemon as a beloved brother.

    Cited in the guide: Colossians 4:9; Philemon 10

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  • Philemon

    Beloved coworker of Paul

    The believer to whom Paul wrote on behalf of Onesimus; a church met in his house.

    Cited in the guide: Philemon 1

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Cross references (25)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Philippians 2:25; Ephesians 3:1; Colossians 1:1; Philemon 9; 1 Corinthians 3:9
  2. 2 Philippians 2:25; Colossians 4:17; Romans 16:5; Colossians 4:15; 2 Timothy 2:3–4
  3. 3 Romans 1:7; Ephesians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 13:14
  4. 4 Romans 1:8; Ephesians 1:16; Colossians 1:3; Philippians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 1:3
  5. 5 Colossians 1:4; Ephesians 1:15; Psalm 16:3; 1 John 5:1–2; 1 Corinthians 16:1
  6. 6 2 Peter 1:8; Philippians 1:9–11; Colossians 1:9; 1 Peter 1:5–8; Matthew 5:16
  7. 7 2 Corinthians 7:13; 2 Corinthians 7:4; 1 Thessalonians 3:9; 3 John 3–6; 1 Thessalonians 2:19
  8. 8 1 Thessalonians 2:6; 2 Corinthians 10:8; 2 Corinthians 3:12; 2 Corinthians 10:1–2; 1 Thessalonians 2:2
  9. 9 2 Corinthians 5:20; Romans 12:1; Ephesians 4:1; Ephesians 3:1; Philemon 1–25
  10. 10 Colossians 4:9; 1 Corinthians 4:15; Galatians 4:19; 1 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4
  11. 11 2 Timothy 4:11; Job 30:1–2; 1 Peter 2:10; Luke 15:32; Romans 3:12
  12. 12 Matthew 6:14–15; Ephesians 4:32; Luke 15:20; Mark 11:25; Jeremiah 31:20
  13. 13 Ephesians 3:1; Philippians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 16:17; Philippians 2:30; Philemon 1
  14. 14 2 Corinthians 9:7; 1 Peter 5:2–3; 1 Chronicles 29:17; 1 Corinthians 9:17; 2 Corinthians 8:12
  15. 15 Genesis 50:20; Genesis 45:5–8; Isaiah 20:6; Acts 4:28
  16. 16 Colossians 3:22; Matthew 23:8; 1 Timothy 6:2; 1 Corinthians 7:22; Ephesians 6:5–7
  17. 17 2 Corinthians 8:23; Matthew 10:40; Philemon 12; Matthew 18:5; Ephesians 3:6
  18. 18 Isaiah 53:4–7
  19. 19 Galatians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 16:21–22; Galatians 5:2; James 5:19–20; 1 Corinthians 4:15
  20. 20 Philemon 7; 3 John 4; Hebrews 13:17; Philemon 12; 1 Thessalonians 3:7–9
  21. 21 2 Thessalonians 3:4; 2 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 7:16; Galatians 5:10; 2 Corinthians 8:22
  22. 22 2 Corinthians 1:11; Philippians 2:24; 2 John 12; Acts 28:23; Philippians 1:19
  23. 23 Colossians 1:7; Colossians 4:12; Romans 16:7; Colossians 4:10
  24. 24 Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:10–11; Colossians 4:14; Acts 12:12; Acts 15:37–39
  25. 25 2 Timothy 4:22; Galatians 6:18; Romans 16:20; Romans 16:23

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

Articles and answers on this site that cite Philemon.

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Commentary 1 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philemon (Homily I)

    These things are said to a master in behalf of a servant. Immediately at the outset, he has pulled down his spirit, and not suffered him to be ashamed, he has quenched his anger; calling himself a prisoner, he strikes him with compunction, and makes him collect himself, and makes it appear that present things are nothing.

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 13 (1889)