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Introduction**
This letter from Paul to Philemon was composed and delivered in 63 AD, the same year that Paul was released from his first stint in prison.
In that same year, Paul wrote his letters to the Colossians, Ephesians, and a letter to the church in Philippi.
6 years prior to this, in 58 AD, Paul had planned a visit to Jerusalem.
Paul had left Ephesus where he had ministered for 2 years, teaching at the school of Tyrannus.
There, according to , “The Word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.”
Do not read below:
But, there was the usual opposition.
Idol makers were being put out of business, and a riot ensued which was put down by the fear that Rome might move in to settle the situation.
And sometime after the uproar had ceased, Paul departed Ephesus for Macedonia.
Paul stayed in Greece for 3 months before going to Troas and then to Miletus.
From there, after exhorting the elders of the church in Ephesus, he set sail for Israel.
He wanted to arrive in Jerusalem in time for Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, also known as Pentecost.
This was the 2nd of the 3 pilgrimage feasts and marks the day on which the Torah was given to the Israelites.
(It was also on this day in 30 AD that the church was born.)
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Copies of Paul’s letter to the Galatians had reached Jerusalem at this time.
In that letter Paul was critical of those who tried to place the law on the backs of believers who were saved by grace.
This letter caused quite a stir among the religious Jews of Jerusalem.
Many Messianic Jews also did not know what to think of Paul’s letter.
Another group, the Sicarri, had begun an all out search for Paul.
They wanted to kill him.
The Sicarri would carry small daggers hidden in their cloaks, blend into crowds, and stealthily kill Romans and Roman sympathizers.
They were a blend of terrorist and assassin and they were causing a lot of paranoia in Israel.
At this time, the religious atmosphere within Israel was becoming more legalistic, which was just what the Sicarii wanted.
But Paul’s letter to the Galatians and his continued preaching of the Gospel of Grace was becoming a problem for them.
That being said, it wasn’t only the Sicarii that were a threat to Paul.
Wherever Paul went there were usually those who wanted to silence him, whatever that took.
In addition, wherever Paul went there were usually those who wanted to silence him, whatever that took.
There were a lot of people in Jerusalem who wanted to silence Paul.
And for this reason some friends of Paul pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem.
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But Paul hoped to be able to preserve the fragile unity between the Jewish and the Gentile churches by his visit.
He probably had hoped to do that in a couple of ways …
First, by explaining what he wrote … and
Second, by demonstrating that he was not anti-Moses.
He could do THAT by honoring the pilgrimage feast.
But James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem had another idea … for Paul to take a vow and with other devout Jews, enter the temple and fulfill that vow.
However, some who hated Paul saw a man with him in the Temple who looked a lot like Trophimus, a gentile friend of Paul.
And they began to accuse Paul saying that he had brought an unclean Gentile into the Temple.
A riot erupted and Paul was rescued from the mob that would have killed him by Roman guards.
Paul was eventually taken to Caesarea, where he remained imprisoned for the next 2 years before being taken to Rome to testify before Caesar.
It was while he was in prison this first time that he wrote what are often called the prison epistles:
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
Philemon
An Epistle is a letter … and these are letters that he wrote to people and churches from prison.
Now, as I’ve explained probably 6 or 7 times, the letters of the New Testament are not in chronological order.
Instead, with a few exceptions like the Gospels and Acts, they were assembled by author, from longest letter to shortest letter.
Paul’s longest letter was Romans and his shortest letter was Philemon.
We won’t go into great detail about the order of the books because we’ve done that so many times before.
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Rome became an Empire when Augustus Caesar became the first emperor of Rome in 31 BC.
Of course, the Roman Republic began back in the first century BC.
But it actually became an empire starting with Augustus.
So, by 63 AD, the Empire was 32 years old and had a long time to go.
The last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic King Odoacer in 476 AD.
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In 62 AD, James, the brother of Jesus was put to death by the ruling religious leaders in Jerusalem.
This was the same year that Paul
Josephus gives an account of his martyrdom saying that he was stoned to death.
Hegesippus, an early church historian recorded a more detailed account in which James was taken to the pinnacle of the Temple and asked to disavow Jesus to the crowds.
James, however, declared that Jesus was the Messiah.
The people began shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"
James was then thrown down from the pinnacle, but to their surprise got up on his knees and prayed aloud that the LORD forgive them.
The religious leaders then took up stones and stoned James to death.
In 63 AD, the current conflict of the Roman-Parthian War was at an end.
A series of conflicts between the Parthians and Romans had been going on since the mid-first century BC.
Conflicts would continue until 217 AD.
Nero was the Roman Emperor in 63 AD, though his rule only had 5 more years.
Also in 63 AD, Nero began planning for a great new palace with a thousand acre garden.
He also planned a great statue of himself that would be about 140 feet tall.
In 64 AD, a great fire burned for over 6 days.
Of Rome's 14 districts, 3 were completely devastated and only 4 completely escaped damage.
It was suspected that Nero had himself set the fires in order to clear land for the building of his great palace.
It was never proven, … but Nero did begin construction after the fire.
Also in 63 AD, the Temple of Herod the Great was finally completed.
It had taken more than 80 years to complete.
The structure proper had taken 46 years, but all the courtyards and everything that went with it had not been completed for 80 years.
This meant 18,000 people were suddenly out of work and a financial disaster ensued.
AND in 63 AD, the Jews appealed to Nero not to allow Gentiles to control Caesarea.
The decision that Rome made would be the spark that ignited the sacking of Jerusalem.
7 years later Jerusalem would be under seige and fall.
And the Temple of Herod would be destroyed by fire just 7 years after it’s completion.
And in 63 AD, Philemon of Colossae had a slave named Onesimus.
Onesimus is a form of the Greek word meaning “helpful” or “profitable.”
It was actually a common name for slaves, but not limited to slaves.
Of course, when Philemon had purchased Onesimus he had hoped him to live up to his name.
But he did not.
Instead, he turned out to be a thief and a runaway.
Philemon was a resident of Colossae and it seems that Philemon was converted through the ministry of Paul, perhaps in Ephesus.
That’s one possbility.
Another
While Onesimus was not useful first to Philemon, after he was converted by Paul, he lived up to his name by being useful in ministry to Paul.
There is the possibility that Onesimus lived up to his name in regards to the church as well.
In a letter that supposedly the early church father Ignatius wrote he named an Onesimus as being bishop over the Ephesians.
We must be careful with that information though, because 8 letters attributed to Ignatius are known to be pseudographical … written much later.
Some other letters may be authentic, but they are still in question.
So, how did a runaway slave from Colossae end up with Paul in Rome?
It may be that he followed Epaphras (who had raised up the church in Colossae) as he made his way to Rome.
If that’s the case, then perhaps Epaphras discovered Onesimus following him and brought him to Paul.
Paul could then decide what to do with him.
The penalty for a runaway slave could be as severe as death … the lenient punishment was to be branded on the face.
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