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.

‘on behalf of’³³, ‘my (e)mou=, possessive adjective in the emphatic position) child’³⁴, that is, the child of Paul the old man and prisoner (v. 9), evokes Philemon’s love not only for Paul, who loves Philemon (v. 1), but for Onesimus, who, as Paul’s ‘child’, has now become one of the holy ones (cf. v. 5)³⁵. That Paul has figuratively and spiritually ‘begotten’ (e)ge/nnhsa), that is, converted Onesimus into a holy one while ‘in prison’³⁶, not only demonstrates to his ‘fellow worker’ Philemon how Paul is doing the work of advancing the gospel even as a prisoner of Christ Jesus (vv. 1, 9), but summons Philemon to share in Paul’s special love for his child begotten by Paul as an old man in prison³⁷. Only after referring to him as ‘my own child’ begotten in prison does Paul climactically announce the name of Onesimus³⁸.

D. Paul wanted to keep Onesimus, his heart, to serve on behalf of Philemon (vv. 11-13).

        The pronouns referring to Philemon and Paul serve as catch-words connecting the D to the C unit: ‘I appeal to you (se) for my (e)mou=) child’ (v. 10)...’who was once to you (soi) useless but now is indeed to you (soi_) and to me (e)moi_) useful’ (v. 11). Having named Onesimus, a frequently-attested name for slaves meaning ‘the useful one’, Paul employs a clever word play on the name to further persuade Philemon