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.

occurrences in every verse of the pronouns referring respectively to Philemon and Paul add to this unit’s coherence: ‘...to you (soi_) and to me (e)moi_)...’ (v. 11); ‘...to you (soi)...my (e)ma_) heart’ (v. 12); ‘...I (e)gw_)...for myself (e)mauto_n)...on your (sou=) behalf he might serve me (moi)...’ (v. 13).

5. Philemon’s Consent (v. 14)

        A break in the syntactical pattern occurs in v. 14, separating it from the preceding unit (vv. 11-13). The sequence of relative clauses referring to Onesimus has concluded, so that the focus has shifted from Onesimus to Philemon. And the previous pattern in which occurrences of the pronoun referring to Philemon were coupled with occurrences of the pronoun referring to Paul has likewise concluded. Now the pronouns refer only to Philemon: ‘your (sh=j) consent’ and ‘your (sou) good’ (v. 14). That the focus returns to Onesimus, the subject of the verb in v. 15, confirms that v. 14 functions as the fifth unit of the letter, distinct from both the preceding (vv. 11-13) and succeeding (vv. 15-17) units.

        That the words ‘without’ (xwri_j), ‘consent’ (gnw/mhj), ‘nothing’ (ou)de_n), ‘I resolved’ (h)qe/lhsa), ‘compulsion’ (a)na/gkhn), and ‘benevolence’ (e(kou/sion) occur only in v. 14 further confirms this unit’s distinctiveness. The repetition of the full form of the preposition ‘under’ (kata_), which occurs only in this unit (cf. the short form in v. 2: ‘at your house’ [th=| kat' oi]ko/n]), contributes to both the unity and uniqueness of this fifth unit.

6. Philemon’s Beloved Brother (vv. 15-17)

        A pair of inclusions formed by second person singular verbs for ‘have’ with Philemon as subject and by the pronoun ‘him’ referring to Onesimus defines the unity of the sixth unit (vv. 15-17). This unit begins with Paul telling Philemon that ‘him (au)to_n) you might have back (a)pe/xh|j) forever’ (v. 15) and concludes with Paul’s plea that ‘if then you have (e!xeij) me as a partner, welcome him (au)to_n) as me’ (v. 17). Repetitions of the pronoun referring to Paul add to this unit’s cohesiveness: ‘especially to me (e)moi/)’ (v. 16); ‘if then you have me (me)’ (v. 17); and ‘as me (e)me/)’ (v. 17). As already noted, the return to the focus on Onesimus, ‘no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother’ (v. 16), in this sixth unit indicates its distinctiveness from the fifth unit focused on Philemon (v. 14).