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.

        Paul designates the next addressee of the letter, Apphia (v. 2), as ‘the sister’, that is, like Timothy, ‘the brother’ (v. 1), another fellow worker of Paul in the mission of the gospel¹⁹. Paul designates the next addressee, Archippus (v. 2), as our ‘fellow soldier’, a figurative term for a fellow worker with the loyalty of a soldier in the metaphorical ‘warfare’ involved in the work of advancing the gospel²⁰. Finally Paul addresses the letter to ‘the assembly at your house’ (v. 2), a gathering of Christians as a worshipping congregation at Philemon’s house, thus, a ‘house church’²¹.

        This establishes the rhetorical situation of the letter. As a prisoner in the work of promoting the gospel of Christ Jesus, Paul, together with a co-sender, his fraternal fellow worker Timothy, is addressing an implied audience composed not only of the beloved fellow worker Philemon, the primary addressee (v. 1), but also two other fellow workers, Apphia and Archippus, as well as the assembly of Christians gathered at the house of Philemon for the public reading of the letter (v. 2). Thus, the letter is a communal rather than private communication between partners with a mutual concern and responsibility for advancing the gospel.

        Paul directs the opening greeting of grace and peace ‘to you’ (the plural, u(mi=n) — not just to Philemon but also to the other fellow workers and the assembly gathered at his house (v. 3). Rhetorically the greeting unites the senders and recipients of the letter under the grace and peace they have all freely and graciously received from God, their common (‘our’) Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of the grace and peace that comes from the ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ (v. 3) that Paul is a prisoner of ‘Christ Jesus’ (v. 1) and a partner with Philemon and his other fellow workers, who share his concern and responsibility for the gospel. The A (vv. 1-3) unit thus