Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

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2G4 Philemon, 11, 12.
forbid us to take npeafivTTjg as a designation of office.
XpioTov Itjoov
is added to give cogency to the statement. Ver. 30. rrapa/caAw ae
perhai)8 purjioscly follows close on the })receding statements, " I in
such circumstances entreat thee," shouldst thou not then cheerfully
comply ? And equally touching and forcible with his account of the
author of the request is now that of it-s object, "concerning my son,
whom I begut in my bonds, Oncsimus," as is abundantly obvious in
the tiwv TtKvov, etc. On the attraction at 'Or/yaz/ioj' see Winer's Gr.,
§ 66, 5, p. 553. The name is, as it were, hidden behind the descrij)-
tive clauses which i)recede it, Tekvov— yevvdoi—a mode of designation
familiar to the apostle, 1 Cor. iv. 14, 15; Gal. iv. 19, etc.
Paul
Vers. 11, 12.—Ver. 10 gives the relation of Oncsimus to
the present his relation to Philemon, both the former and the
present
one, and tlie request, enforced by both, for his favourable reception.
In the " once unprofitable to thee, but now prutitablc," etc.
Paul would seem to endeavour to soften the remembrances which
the name of Oncsimus must awaken in Philemon. With the " once
unprofitable," he meets the thought of Philemon ; but the rrort- intimates
that a change has taken place which is immediately affirmed
positively and expressly in the " but now useful." "Axpijo-og contains
as Bengel (erat enim noxius), Flatt, etc., assume, a litotes.
The word only here (similarly dxpdoc;, Matth. xxv. 30 ;
Luke xvii.
10, dXvairt?Jjgj Heb. xiii. 17); on the contrary, evxp^jorog, useful,
2 Tim. ii. 21, iv. 11. "And to me," adds the apostle by way of strengthening
the thought. As to the fact implied in dxprproc^ see ver. 18.
Evxpr]orog is referred by Do Wette, Meyer, etc., to his conversion,
in consequence of which Oncsimus could be serviceable to Philemon
in his si)iritual interests, and was so alrendy to the apostle, as his
conversion was to him a Kapirbg tpyov (Phil. i. 22, ii. IG). But in
that case eixp^^rog must be referred in one sense to Philemon, in
another to Paul ; and for the latter reference cvxpno-og would certainly
be no appropriate term. I prefer therefore to refer dxpi]fJTog
to the same class of relations as uxpr]OToc^ as is also indicated at ver.
13, comp. 1 Tim. vi. 2. So Flatt : while Christianity fits man for
citizenship in heaven, it renders him also the most useful citizen of
earth. On the allusion in tvxpi](^'ov, dxpjjorov to the significance of
the name 'Ovi'iaipog, comp. Winer's Gr. § G8, 2, note.* "Or d-rri-rtiixpa,
whom I scud back to thee ; comp. on the Aor. Winer's Gr., § 40, 5,
b. 2. Valuable Codd. add aoi.
Ver. 12 contains the request, thus skilfully introduced, for his favourable
reception, ii) 6t (wanting A.C. 17), in contrast with the
apostle who sends him. The apostle's interceding love is not satisfied
with simply naming the object ; he adds as explanatory toDt'
* An allu.sioti in ci'^pvorof, eta, to tho uamo Xptaroc (so also Olahauscu), is incon*
Bistont with tho subjoined pronouns.