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Phm_1:15. Paul now supports his course of procedure in having given up his previous plan of retaining Onesimus with him, and in sending the latter back, by the consideration that the brief separation of the slave from his master may perhaps have had the Providential destined aim, etc. This destined aim would have been in fact counteracted by the ulterior keeping apart of the slave from Philemon.
τάχα ] easily, perhaps, Rom_5:7. So also in classical writers, but more frequently conjoined with ἄν . Comp. for a similar use of ἴσως , Luk_20:13, and Buttmann, ad Soph, Phil. p. 180. Chrysostom aptly remarks: καλῶς τὸ τάχα , ἵνα εἴξῃ ὁ δεσπότης · ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἀπὸ αὐθαδείας γέγονεν ἡ φυγὴ καὶ διεστραμμένης διανοίας , καὶ οὐκ ἀπὸ προαιρέσεως , λέγει τάχα . A categoric assertion, although appropriate to the expression of a firm confidence, would have been less sparing of the feelings in the relation of the injured master to the fugitive slave, than the problematic mode of expression; it may readily be, that the way of the μοῖρα Θεοῦ has been such, etc.
ἐχωρίσθη ] εὐφήμως καὶ τὴν φυγὴν χωρισμὸν καλεῖ , ἵνα μὴ τῷ ὀνόματι τῆς φυγῆς παροξύνῃ τὸν δεσπότην , Theophylact. The aim of soothing underlies also the choice of the passive expression, as Chrysostom says: οὐκ εἶπεν · ἐχώρισεν ἑαυτόν … οὐ γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸ κατασκύασμα τὸ ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἀναχωρῆσαι κ . τ . λ .
πρὸς ὥραν ] Comp. 2Co_7:8; Gal_2:5; 1Th_2:17. This relative statement of time leaves it entirely undefined, how long the brief stay of Onesimus with Paul lasted.
ἵνα ] divine destined aim therein. Chrysostom and Jerome already refer to Gen_45:5.
αἰώνιον ] not adverb, which is αἰωνίως , but accusative, so that the adverbial notion is expressed by way of predicate. Winer, p. 433 [E. T. 582]; Kühner, II. 1, p. 234 f. Erasmus aptly observes: “ipsum jam non temporarium ministrum, sed perpetuo tecum victurum.” The notion itself, however, is not to be taken as the indefinite perpetuo (Calvin, Grotius, and many), or more precisely per omnem tuam vitam (Drusius, Heinrichs, Flatt, Demme, and others), in. connection with which Beza and Michaelis point to the ordinances of the law with regard to the perpetua mancipia (Exo_21:6; Deu_15:17); but—as is alone consonant with the N.T. use of the word concerning the future, and the Pauline doctrine of the approaching establishment of the kingdom—in the definite sense: for ever, embracing the expiring αἰὼν οὗτος and the αἰὼν μέλλων attaching itself thereto, and presupposing the Parousia, which is still to be expected within the lifetime of both parties; but not, that the Christian brotherly union reaches into eternity (Erasmus, Estius, de Wette, and others); so in the main also Hofmann: “as one who remains to him for ever, hot merely for lifetime; “comp. Bleek.
ἀπέχῃς ] Comp. Php_4:18; Mat_6:2. The compound expression (mayest have away) denotes the definitive final possession.