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.

wronged ‘you’ (se), Philemon, in anyway or ‘owes’ anything, Philemon is to ‘charge’ it ‘to me’ (e)moi_), Paul (v. 18)⁵⁴. Within the inverse parallelism of the chiasm Paul is appealing to Philemon to ‘charge’ him, because he has already appealed ‘to you’ (se) for ‘my’ (e)mou=) child, whom Paul has begotten in prison, Onesimus (v. 10 in the C unit). As the ‘father’ of Onesimus, Paul accepts responsibility for the debts of his ‘son’⁵⁵.

        With a triplet of emphatic pronouns Paul underlines his acceptance of the debt of Onesimus: ‘I (e)gw_), Paul, am writing in my own (e)mh=|) hand, I (e)gw_) will repay’ (v. 19). But, in view of the chiastic parallelism with the C unit, this is the ‘Paul’ (cf. Pau=loj in vv. 9, 19) who, as an old man and prisoner of Christ Jesus, is appealing to Philemon on the basis of love (v. 9). Does Paul’s ‘business partner’ really want to charge this old man and prisoner for the debt of his ‘son’ Onesimus, Paul’s very ‘heart’ (v. 12) and Philemon’s ‘beloved brother’ (v. 16)?

        Paul then deftly reverses the debts of their partnership: ‘But may I not tell you that you more than owe me your very self!’ (v. 19). Whereas Onesimus may ‘owe’ (o)fei/lei) a debt to Philemon (v. 18), Philemon ‘more than owes’ (prosofei/leij) Paul his very self (v. 19), both as a Christian and as a ‘business partner’ of the ‘prisoner of Christ Jesus’ (vv. 1, 9)⁵⁶. Within the chiastic parallelism ‘may I not tell you (soi)’ (v. 19) corresponds to Paul’s having much boldness in Christ to command ‘you’ (soi) what is proper (v. 8). Rather than command, Paul appeals to Philemon on the basis of love (v. 9) and the good he can do under benevolence (v. 14, the pivot of the chiasm). Since Philemon more than owes Paul his very self, he ought graciously, from love and under benevolence, not only to cancel any debt of Onesimus, but allow his slave to serve Paul as a substitute fellow worker for his ‘business partner’ Philemon (v. 13) in payment of Philemon’s debt to Paul of his very self!