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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Philemon 1:9 - 1:9
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Paul the aged (Paulos presbutēs). Paul is called neanias (a young man) at the stoning of Stephen (Act 7:58). He was perhaps a bit under sixty now. Hippocrates calls a man presbutēs from 49 to 56 and gerōn after that. The papyri use presbutēs for old man as in Luk 1:18 of Zacharias and in Tit 2:2. But in Eph 6:20 Paul says presbeuō en halusei (I am an ambassador in a chain). Hence Lightfoot holds that here presbutēs = presbeutēs because of common confusion by the scribes between u and eu. In the lxx four times the two words are used interchangeably. There is some confusion also in the papyri and the inscriptions. Undoubtedly ambassador (presbeutēs) is possible here as in Eph 6:20 (presbeuō) though there is no real reason why Paul should not term himself properly “Paul the aged.”