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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Philemon 1:13 - 1:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
13. ὅν ἐγὼ, emphatic, cf. Phm 1:19-20.
ἐβουλόμην, “was minded,” cf. 2Co 1:15. Apparently βούλομαι expresses greater deliberation and less emotion than θέλω, but in St Paul the feeling of love to Philemon conquered. The imperfect is of durative and here completed action; the aor. (Phm 1:14) of punctiliar and here completed action.
πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, apud, cf. 1Th 3:4; 2Th 2:5.
κατέχειν, “detain,” Luk 4:42.
ἵνα ὑπὲρ σοῦ, cf. Col 1:7. “In thy behalf”; cf. Chrysostom Εὗρες ὅπως ἀποδῷς τὴν πρὸς ἐμὲ λειτουργίαν διʼ αὐτοῦ. While however this is in itself the most probable interpretation of ὑπέρ, and agrees most closely with St Paul’s distinction of ἀντὶ and ὑπέρ, it is possible that he uses ὑπέρ here in the same sense that occurs in the papyri ἔγραψεν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ N N διὰ τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι αὐτὸν τὰ γράμματα, where writing on behalf of so and so is very nearly equal to writing in his stead (see P. Ewald).
ἐν τοῖς δεσμοῖς (Phm 1:10, note).
St Paul could not say precisely “in prison,” for he was still apparently in his hired lodging (Act 28:30), but Onesimus’ ministry had to be exercised in a condition of things represented by bonds (cf. Act 28:16), therefore the more trying to both agent and recipient.
τοῦ εὐαγγελίου. Probably genitive of cause, cf. note on Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ, Phm 1:1. Yet the very mention of “gospel” must have cheered St Paul, and Lightfoot fittingly compares St Ignatius’ references to his bonds, e.g. Ephes. § 11, ἐν ᾧ (i.e. Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ) τὰ δεσμᾶ περιφέρω, τοὺς πνευματικοὺς μαργαρἰτας.