I appeal to you for my child, One′simus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment.

παρακαλῶ σε περὶ τοῦ ἐμοῦ τέκνου, ὃν ἐγέννησα ἐν τοῖς δεσμοῖς, Ὀνήσιμον,

Early Fathers

John Chrysostom (349-407)

Homilies on Philemon

Being such an one, he says, as Paul the aged. Strange! How many things are here to shame him into compliance! Paul, from the quality of his person, from his age, because he was old, and from what was more just than all, because he was also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

For who would not receive with open arms a combatant who had been crowned? Who seeing him bound for Christ's sake, would not have granted him ten thousand favors? By so many considerations having previously soothed his mind, he has not immediately introduced the name, but defers making so great a request. For you know what are the minds of masters towards slaves that have run away; and particularly when they have done this with robbery, even if they have good masters, how their anger is increased. This anger then having taken all these pains to soothe, and having first persuaded him readily to serve him in anything whatever, and having prepared his soul to all obedience, then he introduces his request, and says, I beseech you, and with the addition of praises, for my son whom I have begotten in my bonds.

Again the chains are mentioned to shame him into compliance, and then the name. For he has not only extinguished his anger, but has caused him to be delighted. For I would not have called him my son, he says, if he were not especially profitable. What I called Timothy, that I call him also. And repeatedly showing his affection, he urges him by the very period of his new birth, I have begotten him in my bonds, he says, so that on this account also he was worthy to obtain much honor, because he was begotten in his very conflicts, in his trials in the cause of Christ.

[For moral, see Phm 1:16]

Later Commentaries

George Leo Haydock (1774-1849)

Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary: Philemon

I beseech thee, &c. He at length tells Philemon what his request is, and names the person Onesimus, but in such terms as shew how much S. Paul has this affair at heart, and that he will look upon the favour he asks as done to himself. It is, that thou wilt pardon Onesimus, whom I look upon and love as my son, and a most dear son, whom I have begotten, a prisoner, and in my chains. Wi. — How great is the ingenuity shewn by S. Paul in this epistle, in obtaining for Onesimus the pardon of his master, Philemon. Having in the preceding verse endeavoured by every argument which a real tenderness and compassion could inspire, and making use of every expression that could conciliate the favour of Philemon, to obtain his charitable request, he in this verse for the first time dares mention Onesimus by name; a name which he was sensible must sound harsh in the ears of one who had received an injury from him. See how he endeavours to prevent so unhappy an effect, by adding to the name every epithet that could any way tend to soften all feelings of asperity, and excite compassion and pity. I beseech thee then for my son, whom I have begotten, and that in my chains. Calmet. — The pardon I crave is not for your slave, but for my son. If in all antiquity there be any thing in the persuasive kind of eloquence truly admirable, it is this short epistle in which there are contained almost as many arguments as words.