John Paul Heil, «The Chiastic Structure and Meaning of Paul’s Letter to Philemon», Vol. 82 (2001) 178-206

This article proposes a new chiastic structure for Paul’s letter to Philemon based on rigorous criteria and methodology. The center and pivot of the chiasm, ‘but without your consent I resolved to do nothing, so that your good might not be as under compulsion but rather under benevolence’ (v. 14), is a key to explicating the letter’s supposedly unclear purpose. Paul wants Philemon to give his former slave Onesimus back to Paul as a beloved brother and fellow worker for the gospel of Jesus Christ, because of Philemon’s response to the grace of God evident in his faithful love for the holy ones as a beloved brother and fellow worker of Paul.

        The D (vv. 11-13) and D' (vv. 15-17) units continue the parallelism of the chiastic structure, but with a notable deviation in the inverse pattern. The D unit ends with a i#na clause in v. 13 and the D' unit contains a i#na clause in its first verse (v. 15). ‘Have him back (a)pe/xh|j) forever’ in the first verse of the D' unit (v. 15) inversely and antithetically parallels ‘whom I wanted to keep (kate/xein) for myself’ in the last verse of the D unit (v. 13).

        But ‘a beloved brother, especially to me (e)moi/), but how much more to you (soi_)’ in the middle of the D' unit (v. 16) inversely parallels ‘useful to you (soi_) and to me (e)moi_)’ in the first verse of the D unit (v. 11), as well as ‘he might serve on your (sou=) behalf me (moi)’ in the last verse of the D unit (v. 13). ‘Welcome him (proslabou=) as me (e)me/)’ in the last verse of the D' unit (v. 17) corresponds to ‘whom I am sending back to you, him (au)to/n), that is my (e)ma_) heart’ in the middle of the D unit (v. 12). That the pronoun ‘him’ referring to Onesimus and the verbs ‘keep’ and ‘have back’ occur only in these units enhances their chiastic parallelism.

E. The good that Philemon can do in regard to Onesimus must be from benevolence (v. 14). 

        The E (v. 14) unit represents the central and pivotal point of the chiastic structure. Although as a unit it is unparalleled, it does contain within it some key parallels with the other units. Like the D (v. 13) and D' (v. 15) units the E unit contains a i#na clause. Like the C (v. 8 and v. 10) and the C' (v. 18 and v. 19) units the E unit contains occurrences of the pronoun referring to Philemon: ‘your (sh=j) consent’ and ‘your (sou) good’ (v. 14).

        But most noteworthy are the E unit’s parallels with the B and B' units. ‘So that your good (a)gaqo/n) might not be as under compulsion but rather under benevolence’ in the second half of the E unit parallels ‘all the good (a)gaqou=) that is among us for Christ’ in the middle of the B unit (v. 6). And ‘but without your consent I resolved to do (poih=sai) nothing’ in the first half of the E unit parallels ‘knowing that you will do (poih/seij) even more than I say’ in the middle of the B' unit (v. 21). That these are the only occurrences of the noun ‘good’ and the verb ‘do’ in the letter enhances the significance of these parallels.