Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. And yesterday we started a great big game of what if history about the whole conundrum, the whole situation with Paul and Philemon and Onesimus. There's a lot of question marks surrounding this, but I think we can do some good logical Bible detective work to piece together what the most likely scenario is here. And I think the most likely scenario is very fascinating. Now, the big picture goal of all of this, just to kind of keep a carrot out in front and keep us moving forward, is to try to get to a place where we feel we can answer the question what if Paul hadn't sent Onesimus back to Philemon? But just between you and me, it's just an excuse to give this thing structure as we try to use the Bible and logic to flesh out the circumstances here. Yesterday we got Kraken on that, and today we continue by considering the whole Paul prison thing. We're assuming, and I think the best assumption is that Paul is in prison in Rome. This would be the imprisonment that happened to him at the end of his final missionary journey that we hear about at least in the Bible. Paul gets arrested in Jerusalem. He gets transferred up to Caesarea, which is, you know, about a day's walk from Jerusalem in Israel. He talks to a couple of Roman governors there who don't quite know what to do with them. This is all at the end of Acts. And then finally, Paul does something that's a much bigger deal than it sounds like to you or me. He appeals to Caesar, which was the right of every Roman citizen. And because Paul was a Roman citizen, they have to honor it and they put him on a boat and they ship him off to Rome. The journey there is in a lot of ways Paul's fourth missionary journey. I mean, it's really a prison journey, but so much happens on the trip. There's so much drama. But in the end of the book of Acts, Paul makes it to Rome, where he is held under a rather loose house arrest, and he's allowed to receive guests and write letters. And it is in this context that I think it makes the most sense to say that he met Onesimus. Now it's hard to say how long Onesimus had been gone from Philemon. I mean, it's the ancient world, so you look at it and you're like, well, it takes a long time probably to walk from Turkey to Rome. And it would, but there are hints in the text that Onesimus might have stolen something from Philemon, which means he might have had enough money to secure passage to Rome, as I have suggested before. I don't think Philemon was just trying to get away. I think Philemon had heard of Paul and thought Paul was reasonable. I mean, if Paul said the stuff that we looked at over in Colossians 3, if he'd said things like that to people who ended up in Colossae and people in Colosse repeated it, and Onesimus knew that Paul was held in high regard and had heard rumors that he was in jail in Rome. It sounds like Philemon knew about Paul's situation. Well, then maybe Philemon was like, this is my best shot. I need to go find this guy. That's my guess as to how it played out. It's a guess. You could make a biblical case, a reasonable case for it playing out in other ways. So Philemon gets to Rome. Maybe it was just a matter of a few weeks. If he secured boat passage, it could have been a really quick trip. Hundred-mile walk to Ephesus and then secure passage and get out of Ephesus as quickly as possible. And then it wouldn't have taken very long to get to Rome from there. Then, once Onesimus was in Rome, it probably wouldn't have taken him that long to find Paul. I mean, especially if Onesimus just went to the middle of town, which would be the modern-day Roman Forum and started asking questions about where Paul was. Well, where Paul was held wasn't very far from the Roman Forum. I mean, even if Onesimus went to the Roman Forum and then just each day walked a concentric circle around the blocks outside the Roman Forum, looking for Paul to canvas everything, it wouldn't take that long. If you go today to Rome and you walk down the Via Sacra, Main Street Forum, where all the ruins are, and you get to the end, there is a great big government monument building that kind of dominates the whole thing. People don't really like it very much. It's called Vittorio Emanuel. And if you walk around that great big building and then just go forward through the like eight-point roundabout that's right in front of that, and straight down that street, you get to Paul's apartment where he was under house arrest. Paul was right in the thick of things, and I really don't think Onesimus would have had that much trouble finding him. And if you want to go to Paul's apartment where he was under house arrest, you can, by the way, it's all labeled and marked. I actually made a video about it with a bunch of footage from Rome and stuff several years ago. I'll have Jeff link that down below. So let's say it only takes like a month or six weeks from Onesimus to get from Colossae to Rome. That really isn't a crazy guess. I think it could have been that quick. Well, Onesimus is already showing up with a soft heart at that point. And if he went and sought out Paul and it wasn't just an accident, I mean, if if it was a coincidence, it was quite the coincidence. So no, I think he was seeking out Paul, and I think he was getting there with a soft heart. And I think Paul very quickly, I mean, Paul evangelizes people at the drop of a hat. I can't imagine that Paul would have been like, well, but let's respect Onesimus' opinions. And you know what I would say to Onesimus if he showed up here? Nothing.
unknownI would listen.
SPEAKER_00Uh-uh. No, Paul's going to explain the gospel to him right away. And my guess would be that Onesimus became a Christian very quickly. And now Paul has this conundrum. Onesimus is here now. I kind of have a slave, but I, Paul, don't really do that. I don't have slaves. That's not my gig. I'm a tent maker. I kind of beg from other people. I have assistants, people who I pay or who volunteer to be here, or who are paid maybe by the sending church back in Antioch, and they write things down for me. They help me with my research. But Paul doesn't ever call those people slaves, whether we're talking about Titus or Timothy or Aristarchus or all these other Epaphras, even who's from Colossae. All these other people who come and go, they're there because they want to be there. But now here's Onesimus. And as we read in all of those original sources, the whole class thing was very powerful. People had assumptions about that stuff. So there would have been some social pressure, even there in the apartment, to conceive of Onesimus a different way. But I mean, Paul Paul's a pretty bright guy, I think. Pretty quickly, he would have assessed that Onesimus is very talented and good at things. And if he were here, not as a slave, but voluntarily, and he could be really useful to me. Now there's language in the text in Philemon that indicates that maybe initially Paul even thought Onesimus was there by Philemon's order to come in Philemon's stead to provide help and service to Paul while he was in jail, in place of Philemon, who had suggested that he, Philemon himself, might show up in Rome. Maybe that's a stretch. And there certainly are people who would think I'm crazy, you know, better scholars than me who would think I'm crazy, but there are other scholars who think I might have a point here. And I was very excited to find that other people noticed this as well. I'm I'm all excited because this is like a little discovery for me. Here we go. Starting in Philemon verse 8. Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul, an old man and now a prisoner of Christ Jesus, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. That language there, son, is the same language that Peter uses to describe Mark. And Mark wrote down all of Peter's remembrances about Jesus. Mark was Peter's scribe. Mark was Peter's assistant. This language of like, no, he's not a slave. He is my son and my dearest assistant. I mean, that's how that language seems to be employed in other places in the New Testament letters. Now Paul is using this about Onesimus. He became my son while I was in chains. Well, that's a big deal. So he goes on. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. I'm sending him, who is my very heart, back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I didn't want to do anything without your consent. Okay, now look, I only hold this theory like 6040 in my brain. Of course I could be wrong. And again, much smarter people than me think I am wrong. But to me, that kind of sounds like Paul was expecting Philemon to come to Rome, and that Paul initially misunderstood Onesimus's arrival as Onesimus coming as a proxy for Philemon. Ah, Paul, I know it's me, Philemon. I told you I was gonna come and give you a hand. I know what you're up against in prison there. I care about it. I just can't get there. So I'm sending you my best man. This is Onesimus. He is trusted, he's a part of my household, he has the skill set you need, and he knows what he's going there to do. I think it's very possible that's how Paul read this situation. If when Onesimus got there initially, he was kind of bashful about what was going on, and Paul had to kind of tease it out of him. But obviously, eventually, Paul gets to the point where he becomes aware of what the situation is, and that triggers his mandatory reporting obligations, as we saw from ancient Roman law. And so now when Paul writes the letter back to Philemon and sends it with Onesimus, it seems like Paul might be kind of teasing the idea of you could send Onesimus back. He is incredibly useful here. He's a big help. But if we're reading this far between the lines, it's also possible that what Paul is saying is like, or Onesimus could stay at your house and you could do what you said you would do, Philemon, which is to come and help me and be useful during my time of great need here. Okay, we gotta wrap up for today. We have more what if history to play tomorrow. But however you read it, Paul clearly eventually got to the bottom of what the deal was with Onesimus showing up and his connection with Philemon. I think it's reasonable to suspect that Paul anticipated Philemon himself coming in the flesh. And I think it's reasonable to suspect that Paul might be suggesting, in so many words, to Philemon, that Onesimus could be like a donation situation. You could donate Onesimus to God and to the church. You could take a loss on this one, manumit him, and just send him back to Paul. Paul doesn't really keep slaves, but man, Onesimus sure is useful. And it would be great to have him here with your blessing as a freed man. Okay, obviously there are other ways to read what Paul might be saying here as well. And as we continue our little historical game of what if that we're playing here with the situation we have in view, we'll consider those other things Paul might have meant also. All right, remember the big picture question we're driving at here is what if Paul hadn't sent Onesimus back? But you know how it is, we're still playing with the text and trying to get a sense of exactly what the situation is so that we can have our best shot at answering that history what if question accurately. All right, more philemoning tomorrow. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.