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 extend his love to both Paul and his ‘child’ Onesimus³⁹. That Onesimus (‘useful’) was once ‘useless’ (a!xrhston) to Philemon acknowledges that as a slave he was useless to Philemon while he was away from his household⁴⁰. But, on a deeper level, since a!xrhston sounds like a-Xristo/n (‘without Christ’), Onesimus was ‘useless’ to Philemon while he was ‘without Christ’, that is, a non-Christian. Now, however, Onesimus is ‘useful’ (eu!xrhston) to both Philemon and Paul since he has become Paul’s ‘child’, that is, ‘with Christ’ (eu-Xristo/n), a good Christian⁴¹. Through this shrewd word play Paul proposes to his audience that the formerly non-Christian, ‘useless’ Onesimus has now become a Christian ‘useful’ to both Philemon and Paul in their common work of advancing the gospel⁴².

        The sequence of emphatic pronouns referring to Paul in his relationship to Onesimus, the focus of this D unit, continues: ‘whom I am sending back to you, him, that is my (e)ma_) heart’ (v. 12). This intensifies Paul’s warmly close and affectionate relationship to Onesimus. Not only is Onesimus ‘my (e)mou=) child’ (v. 10), who is ‘to me (e)moi_) useful’ (v. 11), but, indeed, he is ‘my (e)ma_) heart’ (v. 12). Paul is appealing to the Philemon whose love touched the ‘hearts’ (spla/gxna) of the holy ones (v. 7) to extend that love (cf. v. 5) to Onesimus, who as Paul’s child has now become a holy one, indeed, Paul’s very ‘heart’ (spla/gxna, v. 12)⁴³.

        The D unit concludes with three more occurrences of the pronoun to underline Paul’s special relation to Onesimus: ‘whom I (e)gw_) wanted to keep for myself (e)mauto_n), so that he might serve on your behalf me (moi) in the imprisonment of the gospel’ (v. 13)⁴⁴. Here