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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Philemon 1:20 - 1:20
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
20. ναί. In Php 4:3 it similarly “introduces an affectionate appeal.” Possibly it = “yes, you owe so much.” But far better as accepting the situation (Mat 11:26) that he has proposed. It thus = “yes, I am sure that you will welcome Onesimus back, freely and without payment from me.”
ἀδελφέ, Phm 1:7. “It is the entreaty of a brother to a brother on behalf of a brother” (Lightfoot).
ἐγώ σου ὀναίμην. ἐλώ is emphatic. Thou wast once profited by me, now may I get profit from thee by thy treatment of Onesimus. ὀνίνημι here only in the N.T. and in the LXX. of the Hebrew canonical books. But twice in the Apocrypha, viz. Tob 3:8 (B), Sir 30:2. This unique use of the verb by St Paul makes the allusion to the meaning of Onesimus (Phm 1:11) practically certain. For the possibility that it also especially connotes the benefits that a father receives from a son (here Paul from Philemon) see many quott. in Lightfoot, among them the passage in Ecclus.
ἐν κυρίῳ. (Phm 1:16.)
ἀνάπαυσόν μου τὰ σπλάγχνα. Repeat in my case what you have so often done to others (Phm 1:7). Some have curiously understood σπλάγχνα here as in Phm 1:12 and supposed that St Paul prays that Onesimus may be refreshed.
ἐν Χριστῷ, with ἀνάπαυσον. The phrase is added both as stating the only sphere of true refreshment (cf. Mat 11:28), and as carrying with it a solemn appeal.