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Phm_1:11. Ingenious allusion to the literal signification of the name (current also among the Greeks) Ὀνήσιμος , useful. The objection of Estius, that Paul expresses himself in words derived from another stem (not from ὀνίνημι ), presupposes a mechanical procedure, with which Paul is least of all to be charged. We may add that, while there were not such forms as ἀνονήσιμος and εὐονήσιμος , doubtless he might, had he wished to retain the stem of the name, have employed ἀνόνητος and ὀνητός (Suidas), or ὀνήτωρ (Pindar), or ὀνησιφόρος (Plutarch, Lucian). An allusion, however, at the same time to the name of Christian, as sometimes in the Fathers Χριστιανός is brought into relation with χρηστός , is arbitrarily assumed by Cornelius a Lapide, Koch, and others, and the more so, as the expressions have already their occasion in the name Onesimus, and, moreover, by means of σοί and ἐμοί an individually definite reference.
ἄχρηστον ] unserviceable, only here in the N.T. (comp. however, δοῦλος ἀχρεῖος , Mat_25:30; Luk_17:10). Plato, Lys. p. 204 B: φαῦλος καὶ ἄχρηστος , 3Ma_3:29; Sir_37:19. A definition, wherein the uselessness of Onesimus in his service consisted (the usual view from the time of Chrysostom: that he had robbed his master) does not appear more precisely than in the hint Phm_1:18 f.
νυνὶ δὲ … εὔχρηστον ] Comp. 2Ti_2:21; 2Ti_4:11; Plato, Pol. iii. p. 411 B: χρήσιμον ἐξ ἀχρήστου ἐποίησεν . The usefulness, which now belongs to Onesimus, is based simply on his conversion which had taken place, Phm_1:10, and consequently consists for Philemon in the fact, that his slave now will render his service in a far other way than before, namely, in a distinctively Christian frame of mind and activity (consequently without eye-service and man-pleasing, ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ κ . τ . λ ., as it is expressed at Col_3:2-9 ff.), and for Paul himself in the fact that, because the conversion of Onesimus is his work (Phm_1:10), in that transformation of the previously useless slave there has accrued to the apostle, as the latter’s spiritual father, gain and recompense of his labour (Php_1:22), the joy and honour of not having striven in vain (Php_2:16). Thus the benefits, which Philemon and Paul have respectively to enjoy from Onesimus as now constituted, are brought into contact and union. Comp. Theodore of Mopsuestia: σοὶ κατὰ τὴν ὑπηρεσίαν , ἐμοὶ κατὰ τὴν βελτίωσιν τοῦ τρόπου . What a weighty and persuasive appeal was urged in the ingenious καὶ ἐμοί (comp. Rom_16:13; 1Co_16:18) is at once felt.