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.

Onesimus is to be treated not only as a Christian but as a fellow worker of Paul, just like Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus (vv. 1-2)⁵¹. That Onesimus is a beloved brother especially ‘to me’ (e)moi/), Paul, but even more ‘to you’ (soi_), Philemon (v. 16), develops, by way of inverse parallelism with the D unit, how Onesimus, by serving on ‘your’ (sou=) behalf ‘me’ (moi) in the imprisonment of the gospel (v. 13), is both ‘to you’ (soi_) and ‘to me’ (e)moi_) useful (v. 11). Onesimus is a beloved brother to both Paul and Philemon ‘in the flesh’, that is, in the world as a fellow worker for the gospel, and ‘in the Lord’, that is, as a Christian (v. 16).

        If Philemon truly considers Paul to be his partner (koinwno/n; cf. koinwni/a in v. 6), then Paul requests that Philemon welcome ‘him’ (au)to_n), the ‘him’ (au)to/n) who is ‘my’ (e)ma_) heart (v. 12 in the D unit), as ‘me’ (e)me/), Paul (v. 17)⁵². In other words, Philemon is to welcome Onesimus as if he were Paul himself, the old man and prisoner of Christ Jesus (vv. 1, 9), Philemon’s fraternal partner and fellow worker for the gospel.

C'. Paul wants Philemon to charge him for any debt of Onesimus (vv. 18-19).

        The conjunction ‘if’ (ei) in v. 17 and v. 18) and the pronoun ‘me’ (e)me/ in v. 17; e)moi_ in v. 18) serve as catch-words joining the C' to the D' unit. In accord with their ‘partnership’ for the gospel Paul employs a commercial or business metaphor⁵³. If Onesimus has