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.

        To be truly convincing a chiastic structure must adhere to rigorous criteria and methodology⁴. It must be evident that the chiasm has not been imposed upon the text but actually subsists and operates within the text. First, we will demonstrate how Paul’s letter to Philemon naturally divides itself into nine distinct literary units based upon verbal repetitions and syntax within each unit. Secondly, we will demonstrate how these nine units form an A-B-C-D-E-D'-C'-B'-A' chiastic pattern based upon precise verbal parallels between the chiastically paired units. Thirdly, through a close, audience-oriented listening to the sequence of these units within the letter, we will demonstrate how their chiastic structure operates rhetorically to indicate what exactly Paul is so deftly communicating in this most sensitively and tactfully persuasive letter⁵.