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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