THE EXCITING TRUTH ABOUT PHILEMON
John Dudley Aldworth
June 2024
I’ve often wondered why the Apostle Paul’s letter to Philemon is so important the Lord included it in scripture. On the face of it, it’s the story of the runaway slave, Onesimus, who was converted under Paul’s ministry and sent back to be forgiven and reconciled to his master. It’s also a wonderful insight into the grace and compassion of Christ in the heart of his Apostle, Paul. But is there more to it than that?
What if, as best can be known, it is only because of Onesimus that the letter to Philemon is included in the Bible anyway: that in fact he put it there? What if it is firstly, and arguably, only, because of Onesimus that Paul’s letters are included in the New Testament canon? That, actually, it was he who “published” them as he compiled the beginnings of the New Testament canon, and that he did so before many of the other books were included? (Evidence of this upcoming later).
What if Onesimus got saved only under Paul’s teaching of the ‘sound words’ found in his prison epistles - i.e. that it was not under the previous gospel in which Gentile believers were saved through God’s promises to Israel and thus ‘grafted’ into the chosen people’s olive tree on condition they obeyed at least some of Israel’s religious laws. That in fact, he was saved only “by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 1:1:7, 2:8)?
And could this mean the gospel preached among Gentiles in the late first and second century was based first and foremost on Paul’s teachings as a prisoner bound in chains, not on his previous ministry “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16) in the Book of Acts period, nor on the earlier Pentecostal message of “repent and be baptised [into Israel] for the remission of sins’ (Acts 2:38)?
What if this story means that actually Paul’s prison epistles were the first written New Testament words of God to reach the Gentile world and not the gospels, Acts, or the writings of Peter John and James? If that’s so would it explain why Timothy was told ‘Hold fast to the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus’ (2 Tim. 1:13) when clearly those words comprise Paul’s teachings in his prison epistles?
Could it be that for centuries the true teaching of what message actually saves people everywhere has been partially hidden and obscured by a failure to understand that salvation is no longer of the Jews, as it was when Jesus ministered on earth (John 4:22), but now only comes through the word of grace revealed to and through Paul for Gentiles (Eph. 3:8-9)?
Fact is that, from being a freed slave forgiven for fleeing his master, likely after stealing from him, the redeemed Onesimus later emerges as a prominent Christian leader who put together the first compilation of New Testament writings entirely from Paul’s epistles. Now, if that’s hard to swallow, consider the following evidence.
In his letters to churches, written on his way to martyrdom, the prominent Christian leader Ignatius, who, like Polycarp, was a disciple of the Apostle John, speaks highly of Onesimus as “a faithful servant of Christ and one-time bishop of Ephesus”. Importantly, he wrote that Onesimus “produced the first collection of Paul’s letters”.
The great Scottish reformer and founder of Presbyterianism, John Knox, in his book, “Philemon among the letters of Paul”, states: “Onesimus played a major role in ensuring that Philemon was included with Paul’s letters in the scriptures and … his voice as bishop carried weight”.
In his work, “The Interpreter’s Bible”, Knox states: “Paul’s collected letters were published originally in the form of two papyrus rolls, the first containing Ephesians and I and II Corinthians, the second comprising Romans, I and II Thessalonians, Galatians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians. It is almost certain that the original collection was made before A.D. 95. With this publication of the Pauline letters the history of the New Testament, as a fixed collection of books, properly begins.”
Skilled Bible and church history researcher Brad Simon says the inclusion of Philemon in the first NT canon but exclusion of the letters to Timothy strengthens the case for Onesimus being the curator of the initial collection, rather than Timothy, as is often assumed today. He writes:
“The Apostle Paul was instrumental in leading Onesimus to Christ, and influential in securing his forgiveness and release from slavery. He dedicated his life to ensuring others could learn from the teachings of Paul that shaped his life.”
So where does all that take us? In my view to the following conclusions:
- Onesimus was saved by Paul proclaiming the grace of God and the mystery (Eph. 3:1-4), the ‘preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began’ (Rom, 16:25), that is, “Paul’s gospel”, not any earlier gospel.
- Proclamation of the dispensation of the grace of God as revealed to the Apostle Paul was the message that saved large numbers of people in the first two centuries of the present era.
- That it was the letters of Paul mainly as “the prisoner” that comprised the first written book of what was to become the more comprehensive New Testament. It was published to the Gentiles of the then Roman-ruled world. It was their gospel, God’s good news to them.
It is a sad reflection on Christianity that to this day the ‘form of sound words’ in Paul’s prison epistles is rarely preached as God’s ‘latest word’ to believers by which they can be saved. Nor is it recognised as it should be as ‘present truth’ (2 Peter 1:12) to all men, especially Gentiles.
John Dudley Aldworth
john.aldworth@hotmail.com