PHILEMON AND ONESIMUS THE SLAVE

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PHILEMON

PHILEMON AND ONESIMUS THE SLAVE​

This Letter generally dedicated to relationship between slave and his master. But this is not ordinary relationship, this is relationship in Christ. We do not know how Onesimus became a slave, we also do not know how Philemon got him into his possession, but we know for sure, from the Bible, that slaves are the part and a layer of every society on Earth, it is a class of people who became slaves, and the reasons for this are many.

Slaves sometimes run away from their masters, and again, the reasons for this are numerous. Onesimus, for whatever reason, run away from Philemon and became known to Paul as a runaway slave. Somehow Onesimus found Paul in Rome, in prison, and was very good help for him (10-11). It is still unknown if Onesimus was a Christian before he met Paul, or after, but it is very evident that Onesimus was a dedicated Christian and very useful to Paul in his confinement (12-13).

In which capacity Onesimus was useful to Paul, Paul does not specify, but the fact that Paul was imprisoned and unable to go wherever he want, for this reason Onesimus perhaps was a man to deliver exchange of messages between Paul and individual Christians and may be between Paul and the churches as well.

Paul, as the authority, being the Apostle of Christ, does not gave command to Philemon to accept Onesimus back, but talk to Philemon gently, and ask him as a brother in Christ (8-9) to accept Onesimus back, but no longer as ordinary slave, but as a slave in Christ (8-9.15-17).

According to the Law of Moses runaway slave shall not be return to their masters.

Deuteronomy 23.15-16​

15. You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you.
16. He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose, in one of your towns where it pleases him, *you shall not mistreat him. (Leviticus 19.33-34) (Deuteronomy 23.15-16) (To Philemon 1.10-17).

~ 16. *You must not ill-treat him. Once settled, he or she would be a resident alien and hence vulnerable to exploitation; hence this admonition. Compare Exodus 22.21: "You must not ill-treat a resident alien."​

Etz Hayim. Torah and Commentary.

Israelites know very well what it means to be slaves and serve others; they had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years and also served other occupiers who conquered their land. So, in this sense Paul did not violate any Laws concerning slavery but let Philemon know that the slave in Christ is a different slave and must be treated differently than the ordinary slave.

To farther extend this theme and cover more ground, it will be advisable to look at everything of how we, ourselves, relate to Christ. Actually, we are all slaves to Christ, we are His servants who serve Him not for money or for material goods, but we are His slaves (servants) because of our appreciation and love for His care for us, and His Great Sacrifice for us, in order to redeem us from death.

The Christians are not ordinary people; they are people of the family of Christ and shall act and live as the Christ Himself acted and lived His life. We shall live according to His will and to His Gospel, and if we do, we will be His children, and his servants forever.​

 

[Deacon]

Israelites know very well what it means to be slaves and serve others; they had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years and also served other occupiers who conquered their land.​

In the OT, slavery was an accepted part of ancient society, even within the Israelite community.

There are many notorious slavery texts that illustrate how the ancient Israelites could treat their slaves.

1. Human beings are property (Exod. 12:44; 21:20–21, 32; Lev. 22:11).

2. Foreign slaves in Israel did not experience the seventh year of release (Lev. 25:39–46).

3. Slaves within Israel were used to produce offspring for infertile owners (Gen. 16:1–4; 30:3–4, 9–10; cf. 35:22).

4. Sexual violation of a betrothed slave woman led not to death, as in the case of a free woman (Deut. 22:25–27), but to a mere payment/offering for damages (Lev. 19:20–22).

5. Slave owners were allowed to beat slaves as long as the slave lived for a few of days after the abuse (Exod. 21:20–21).

6. Biblical legislation contains inequality in the value placed on a slave’s life compared to a free person’s life (Exod. 21:28–32).

The most explicit slavery text appears in Joshua 9, where Joshua curses the Gibeonites, declaring that from that time on they would be "cutters of wood and drawers of water" (Joshua 9:27). And those Canaanites that the Israelites did not kill became forced laborers (Joshua 17:13).

In the NT slavery was also very common and an accepted norm. In the opening of his epistles, Paul frequently calls himself a slave of Christ (e.g. Romans 1:1). And he describes Christians as either slaves of Christ or slaves of sin (Romans 6). Either way we are slaves none-the-less.

Rob

 

[Ascetic X]

The law allowed for Hebrew men and women to sell themselves into slavery to another Hebrew. They could only serve for six years, however. In the seventh year, they were to be set free (Exodus 21:2).

This arrangement amounted to what we might call indentured servanthood. And the slaves were to be treated well: “Do not make them work as slaves. They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you” (Leviticus 25:39–40)

The law also specified that, “when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you” (Deuteronomy 15:13–14).

The freed slave had the option of staying with his master and becoming a “servant for life” (Exodus 21:5–6).

“Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly” (Leviticus 25:44–46).

Exodus 21 gives slaves unprecedented rights.

In the ancient world outside of Israel, slaves had no rights. But God’s Law extended to slaves the right to keep a wife (verse 3), the right not to be sold to foreigners (verse 8), the right to be adopted into a family by marriage (verse 9), and the right to food and clothing (verse 10). The law also limited masters in their use of corporeal punishment (verses 20, 26–27).

Under the Mosaic Law, and if economic circumstances demanded it, a Hebrew had the option of selling himself as a slave to a Gentile living in Israel (Leviticus 25:47).

The law also provided for the slave’s redemption at any time (verses 48–52). And the treatment of the Hebrew slave was to be considerate: slaves were “to be treated as workers hired from year to year; you must see to it that those to whom they owe service do not rule over them ruthlessly” (verse 53). If no redemption came, the slaves were still released, with their families, on the Year of Jubilee (verse 54).

in Ephesians 6:9 masters are told, “Treat your slaves in the same way [with goodwill]. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.” Elsewhere, the command is, “Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1).