13

I would have liked: “I would like” (Good News Translation). You could freely translate the first part of verse 13 as “If I did what I wanted, I would keep him here.” But Paul didn’t do what he wanted to do for himself. He let Philemon decide (verse 14).

keep him with me: Paul wanted Onesimus to stay near him in the town where Paul was in prison so that Onesimus could visit him and help him.

on your behalf he could minister to me: Paul knew that Philemon wanted to help Paul in any way he could. If he had lived near Paul, he would have come to the prison and helped him. Philemon’s slave Onesimus was there, and he could have helped Paul in Philemon’s place, or on his behalf.

on your behalf: This means “instead of you, in your name, for you.” Some other ways to translate it are: “what you would have done” (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English), “take your place” (New International Version), “as you would wish” (New English Bible).

in my chains: Another way to express the meaning of the phrase in my chains here, is “during the time I am in prison.” See notes on verse 10.

for the gospel: He was in prison because he preached the Good News about Jesus Christ (see verse 1).

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Paragraph 25 Good-bye

Read verse 25 again.

25

grace: See notes on verse 3. Paul said again that he wanted the Lord to help and bless Paul’s fellow Christians at Colosse, and he prayed for this. Verse 25 shows the way Paul ended many of his letters. (See 1 Corinthians 16:23, Colossians 4:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:28.)

be with your spirit: This does not refer to some spirit that was separate from the Christians Paul was writing to. He was talking about the people themselves. It is another way of saying “be with you.” The word your is plural and shows that Paul wanted this grace or blessing to be with all the Christians at Colosse. Also the word spirit is singular (meaning “one spirit”). Paul was writing to them as one group of God’s united people.

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24

as do: This means “these others also send you greetings.”

Mark: This was John Mark, the Jewish Christian who wrote the Gospel of Mark. (Acts 12:25).

Aristarchus: Another Jewish Christian who was there with Paul was Aristarchus. His hometown was Thessalonica. (Acts 19:29).

Demas: Demas was a Gentile Christian, not a Jew. Bible scholars don’t know if this was the same Demas who later left Paul (2 Timothy 4:10).

Luke: This was the same Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. He was a Gentile Christian and a medical doctor (Colossians 4:14).

my fellow workers: These four men were working together with Paul, helping him in various ways to help people know about the Good News (see verse 1). Notice that Paul did not say they were his “fellow prisoners,” as he said about Epaphras (verse 23). These four men were free to continue working with Paul to spread the Gospel, even though he himself was in prison.

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Paragraph 23–24 Fellow believers greet Philemon

In verses 23–24 Paul sent greetings to Philemon from fellow Christians who were where Paul was. Consider how you would translate such a greeting into your language.

Read verses 23–24 again.

23

Epaphras: This was a friend of both Philemon and Paul. Paul also wrote about this same Epaphras in Colossians 1:7, 4:12.

my fellow prisoner: There are two ideas about what this means:

(1) a man who was in prison with Paul

(2) a man who had been a prisoner like Paul was

The first meaning is probably the closest to what Paul was saying, because Paul sent greetings from Epaphras to the Colossian Christians. Since Epaphras was there with Paul as his fellow prisoner, it is more likely that he was in prison with Paul.

in Christ Jesus: Both Paul and Epaphras were in prison because of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Paul also referred to himself as “a prisoner of Christ Jesus” in verse 1. Paul was in prison because many people didn’t want him to continue preaching about Jesus. Some commentators say that Epaphras went into prison so that he could help Paul. Others say that Epaphras was in prison because he also preached the Good News, and the phrase “my fellow prisoner” seems to imply this.

sends you greetings: Epaphras and the others whose names are in verse 24 asked Paul to send their greetings to their friend Philemon. The you (singular) means that these friends were greeting Philemon as an individual person. It was their way of reminding Philemon that they still loved him and thought well of him.

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Section 22–25

Others greet Philemon

In verses 22-25 Paul wrote to the group of Christians who were with Philemon. So he used “you (plur)” in these verses as he did in verse 3. But in the main Sections of the letter (verses 4–21) he used “you (singular)” rather than “you (plur).” This is one thing that shows that verses 1–3 and verses 22–25 are separate from the other Sections of the letter. So verses 22–25, as a unit, are also a Section that is separate from the other parts of the letter.

After making his main point in the letter in verses 8–21, Paul finished the letter with a few final words in verses 22–25. He asked Philemon to prepare a guest room for him (verse 22), because he hoped that God would answer the prayers of the Christians at Colosse by allowing him to visit them again. Then Paul sent greetings to Philemon from five Christian friends who were there with Paul (verses 23–24). These peoples’ names are also in Colossians 4:10–14. Finally, Paul ended the letter with a Christian blessing (verse 25).

Read verses 22–25 carefully in the Berean Standard Bible and the Good News Translation.

Paragraph 22 Paul asks Philemon to prepare for Paul to come

In this verse, Paul asked Philemon to get things ready for Paul to come and visit Philemon.

Read verse 22 again.

22a

In the meantime: You could translate the Greek words here: “At the same time.” For example:

⌊ At the same time that I am asking this favor for Onesimus,⌋I will ask another favor ⌊for myself. ⌋

prepare a guest room for me: Paul was asking Philemon to prepare a place for him to stay at Colosse. This would be a place in Philemon’s house where Paul could sleep and where Philemon’s servants could cook food for him. Paul apparently thought that the people who had put him in prison would soon free him from prison.

22b

I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you: Paul was not simply saying that he wanted to go and see Philemon and the Colossian Christians. He was saying that someone else—probably God—would need to cause this to happen.

Here are two examples of a free translation of this part of verse 22:

I hope that God will make a way for me to become free so I can see you again.

I hope that God will cause those who imprisoned me to free me so I can see you again.

I hope: Paul did not say that he was sure the Roman leaders would free him, but he wanted and expected this to happen. Bible scholars do not know whether Paul ever went to Colosse again or if he ever saw Philemon again.

through your prayers: Paul knew that the Christians in Colosse were praying that he would be able to leave prison. So he was saying that, if he became free, it would be because God had answered their prayers.

restored to you: Paul hoped that the people who had put him in prison would release him, and that as a result, he would be able to visit the Colossians.

to you: Paul used you (plur) two times in this verse. So here again he was writing not only to Philemon but also to the Christians at Colosse who worshipped God in Philemon’s house.

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21

This verse is a summary of what Paul was asking Philemon to do for Onesimus. Paul believed quite strongly that Philemon would do what he was asking him to do. And Paul may also have been thinking as he wrote this verse that perhaps Philemon would cancel all of Onesimus’ debt. See notes on verses 19 and 20.

21a

confident: Paul meant, “I am sure,” or, “I know.” He was reassuring Philemon that he believed that Philemon would be willing to do what Paul was asking him to do.

your obedience: The Greek words translated your obedience literally mean “that you will agree to my request.” Paul had said in verses 8 and 9 that he was asking Philemon to do only what Philemon chose willingly to do. He was not ordering him. The way the Contemporary English Version translates it is probably closer to the actual meaning: “knowing that you will do what I ask you.”

I write: Paul himself wrote the part in verse 19 but probably did not write the whole letter with his own hand. He usually had someone write for him while Paul told him what to write. Paul was saying here that he was the one who had chosen what words to put in the letter.

21b

even more than I ask: Paul believed that Philemon would do all that was right as a Christian. This meant not only doing what Paul asked, which was to accept Onesimus back, but doing more as well. Paul may have been thinking about two things when he said even more : (a) Perhaps Philemon would not force Onesimus or Paul to repay any of Onesimus’ debts. And (b) perhaps Philemon would free Onesimus from slavery. But Bible scholars do not know whether Paul was thinking this, and they don’t know if Philemon did either of these things.

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20a

Yes, brother: Paul was again asking Philemon to welcome Onesimus. See verse 17.

some benefit: Paul was not asking Philemon to help him in some general way. He wanted Philemon to do a specific thing for him. He wanted him to forgive Onesimus and receive him back. So the meaning is clearer in the Contemporary English Version: “do this for me” (referring to the favor Paul asked for in verse 17).

in the Lord: The main idea of this phrase seems to be that Paul wanted Philemon to think about Paul’s request as a fellow believer in Christ would. And he wanted Philemon to think of Onesimus as a fellow Christian, not only as a slave. Paul believed that as Philemon thought like this, he would do what Paul was asking him to do.

20b

Refresh my heart: “Cheer me up,” “make me happy,” “set my heart at rest,” “relieve my worry.” Paul was saying, in other words here, what he already said in verse 20a. He used the same phrase here that he used in verse 7.

in Christ: This is the same kind of phrase as “in the Lord” (20a). Another way to say it is: “as a fellow Christian.”

Verse 20b means the same as verse 20a. Paul was still saying that he wanted Philemon to do what he had asked him to do. Here are two ways to translate it:

Make me happy as a Christian brother by doing this favor for me.

-or-

Cause me to be happy as your Christian brother: do this favor for me.

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19a

Bible scholars do not know if Paul wrote the rest of this letter with his own hand or if he only wrote this part. It seems that normally Paul dictated his letters to someone else who wrote them on paper. But a few times he wrote a small part of the letter himself, as he did here.

I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it: Paul emphasized that he was promising to pay what Onesimus owed to Philemon by writing the promise himself in his own handwriting. Another way of expressing this is like the Good News Translation: “I, Paul, will pay you back.”

19b

Paul may have been smiling in the last part of verse 19. He probably knew that Philemon would not force Onesimus to repay him. He probably would not force Paul to pay anything, because Philemon owed something to Paul too.

In the middle of this last sentence in verse 19, Paul stopped referring to what he owed Philemon and started referring to what Philemon owed him. So the Berean Standard Bible uses a dash (—) to set the last part of this sentence apart from the text in the earlier part of the verse.

not to mention: This is a way of saying something that Paul didn’t really want to say because he knew it might cause Philemon to feel a little ashamed. It was Paul’s way of reminding Philemon of something Philemon already knew. There are other ways to translate the phrase “not to mention.” For example: “I should not have to remind you, of course,” (Revised Standard Version), “I won’t mention that” (New Living Translation (2004)).

you owe me your very self: Paul had helped Philemon to become a Christian, and so Philemon owed his new spiritual life, his whole Christian life, to Paul. This meant that Philemon owed Paul much more than Onesimus owed Philemon. Another way to translate the Greek word seauton, “your own self,” is “your very soul.” Here are two alternate ways to translate this whole phrase:

Your debt to me is big because through me you received eternal life.

-or-

You owe a lot to me because I helped you believe in Christ.

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Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.

BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.