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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Philemon 1:23 - 1:23
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Epaphras my fellow prisoner (Ἑπαφρᾶς ὁ συναιχμάλωτός μου).
Epaphras is mentioned Col 1:7; Col 4:12. Some identify him with Epaphroditus, but without sufficient reason. Epaphroditus appears to have been a native of Philippi (Phi 2:25), and Epaphras of Colossae (Col 4:12). Epaphroditus is always used of the Philippian, and Epaphras of the Colossian. The names, however, are the same, Epaphras being a contraction.
It is disputed whether fellow-prisoner is to be taken in a literal or in a spiritual sense. For the latter see Rom 7:23; 2Co 10:5; Eph 4:8. Compare fellow-soldier, Phm 1:2, and Phi 2:25. In Rom 16:7, the word used here is applied to Andronicus and Junia. Paul was not strictly an αἰχμάλωτος prisoner of war (see on Luk 4:18). The probabilities seem to favor the spiritual sense. Lightfoot suggests that Epaphras' relations with Paul at Rome may have excited suspicion and led to his temporally confinement; or that he may voluntarily have shared Paul's imprisonment.