Philemon

c. AD 61· In the text

Placed by the story. The date is a rough guide. How the dates are worked out

"affectionate" · Greek

From the Greek verb phileo, to love or to kiss.

A believer whom Paul addressed as beloved and as a fellow worker, known only from the letter that bears his name. A church met in his house, and Paul wrote that the saints had been refreshed through him. Paul, a prisoner, appealed to him for Onesimus, who had been his bondservant and had been parted from him for a while. Paul asked him to receive Onesimus as a beloved brother, offered to repay anything owed, and added that Philemon owed Paul his own self. The letter does not say where Philemon lived. It names Onesimus and Archippus, and Colossians places both at Colossae. Scripture does not record his answer.