. IPISTUE >p ST. PAUL: PHILEMON REV. H.DRYSDALEJID. A DEVOTIONAL : COMMENTARY : THE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO PHILEMON UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME. II. TIMOTHY. By the LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM. PHILIPPIANS. By the REV. F. B. MEYER, B.A. THE PSALMS : Their Spiritual Teaching. By the REV. J. ELDER GUMMING, D.D. In Three Volumes. Volume I. Psalms I.-XLI. Volume II. Psalms XLII.-LXXXIX. Volume III. Psalms XC.-CL. PHILEMON. By the REV. A. H. DRYSDALE, D.D. DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARIES Edited by the Rev. A. R. BUCKLAND, M.A. THE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO PHILEMON A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY By the Rev. A. H. DRYSDALE, D.D. LONDON THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 4 BOUVERIE STREET and 65 ST PAUL S CHURCHYARD J906 NOTE This volume, originally issued in 1879, has been carefully revised, and the Biblio graphy brought up to date. CONTENTS % INTRODUCTION PAGE I. SPECIAL CHARACTER OF THE EPISTLE . 11 II. THE STORY IN THE EPISTLE .... 21 III. SIGNIFICANCE AND VALUE OF THIS EPISTLE . 33 IV. SPIRIT OF THE EPISTLE .... 49 TRANSLATION AND PARAPHRASE TRANSLATION WITH BRIEF NOTES ... 61 A FAMILIAR PARAPHRASE WITH PREFACE . 65 EXPOSITION ADDRESS AND SALUTATION I. NAME AND TITLE OF THE WRITER . 72 5 Contents PAGE II. FRIENDLY GREETINGS AND COMPLIMENTS . 78 III. SALUTATION TO THE CHURCH-FELLOWSHIP . 84 IV. A GENERAL BENEDICTION . 91 THE EXORDIUM OR PROLOGUE PRELIMINARY NOTE . .97 I. DEVOUT THANKS AND PRAYER . .99 II. REASONS FOR THE DEVOUT THANKS . 104 III. PURPORT OF THE PRAYER . .109 IV. GOOD OCCASION FOR THANKS . 116 THE BODY OF THE EPISTLE I. * APPROACHING THE SUBJECT . 122 II. PAUL UNVEILING THE SUBJECT . 128 6 Contents PAGE III. PAUL EXPLAINING THE SUBJECT ... 136 IV. PAUL ARGUING THE SUBJECT . .141 V. PAUL PLEADING THE SUBJECT ... 148 VI. PAUL ENFORCING THE SUBJECT . .153 VII. PAUL GUARDING THE SUBJECT . .160 VIII. PAUL COMMENDING THE SUBJECT . 167 THE CONCLUSION PARTING SALUTATIONS AND BENEDICTION . 174 APPENDIX ON THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OR LITERA TURE OF THE EPISTLE . .180 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION SPECIAL CHARACTER OF THE EPISTLE Paul s A TOUCHING story underlies this Epistle to Philemon. St runs A subtle argument on behalf of a bondman fJJJte? through it, along with a series of the most melting appeals. Add to this the wealth of noble sentiment which Paul s rich nature is inspired to pour into it, and the result lies before us in as exquisite a letter as was ever penned in so few words. Of its twenty-five short verses we may fitly say : They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires, Warm from the soul and faithful to its fires. The Epistle is very brief the briefest, indeed, of Paul s letters but it is instinct with a peculiar energy and pathos that amply entitle it to share in the verdict which was extorted from his unfriendly critics at Corinth : His letters, say they, are weighty and powerful (2 Cor. x. 10). Its matchless From a merely literary or aesthetic point of view the present one has commanded for itself an admiration all its own. This is due not so much to any finish in its style it is too condensed and earnest to be artificially precise but to the delicate tact of its address, the consummate grace of its rhetoric, and 11 The Epistle of St Paul to Philemon especially the matchless refinement of Christian thought and feeling that breathes through every line. There is but one of its merits. Bishop opinion unique Smalridge, They are thus summed up by an old writer, well Serm. 39. qualified to judge : I dare be bold to say there is not extant in all the monuments of ancient and modern oratory a more perfect pattern of persuasive eloquence than is this short Epistle of St Paul. It would be easy to present a long array of similar eulogiums. Writers of all ages have seemed to vie with each other in paying this Epistle the most golden tributes : Cicero never wrote with greater eloquence/ says Erasmus, characteristically. A masterpiece of its kind (Doddridge). More cogently and courteously no man could plead (Eichhorn). A small yet true chef-d oeuvre of the art of letter- writing (Renan). Such testimonies might be indefinitely multiplied from the most opposite quarters even from the most vehement impugners of supernatural inspiration. Demon- That it is really a production of the apostle whose strably it admits of no manner of doubt. So authentic name bears and strong are both the external and internal evidences, genuine. that there is a unanimity on the point well-nigh criticism perfect. Amid even the fearless rationalistic of the day (whose operation has not been without its value, although its motto has too much resembled the old savage war-cry, Take thought, and spare nought ; red and though like Nature, as the poet paints it, in tooth and claw, it has shown ruthless delight in 12 Special Character of the Epistle tearing to pieces many a venerable tradition), this Epistle to Philemon has stood the most rigorous cross-examination, and come out of the ordeal with its authenticity and genuineness indisputably established. Indeed, the external or historical evidence for Paul s sole Paul s authorship is far too weighty to have been ever impugned. Only twice has even the feeblest measure of doubt been expressed on internal grounds. A few in the fourth century appear to have thought the letter was not sufficiently edifying, and possibly, therefore, not Paul s, while it has been reserved for one of the chief modern sceptical critics to suggest that as the style and story are almost too fine to be real, the letter is perhaps a well-designed effort of fancy to inculcate some noble Christian lessons, and therefore not likely to be St Paul s, if founded on fiction ! 1 The Epistle too unedifying to be worthy of Paul/ See the the one. Too and to be suggests exquisite engaging crit anything else than the outcome of a gospel romance/ documents the other. Such whispers opposite perversities may ^j^ed *o well be left to do the work of self-refutation. Kenan s his St Paul. conclusion may be accepted as the universal one, and his decisiveness of tone speaks volumes; Peu de pages ont un accent de sincerity aussi prononce*. Paul seul, autant qu il semble, a pu e*crire ce petit chef-d oeuvre. So far as appears, Paul alone can have written this little masterpiece. No one will suppose in fact, no one has ever been foolish enough to suppose that Timothy was in any sense joint author, because he is so closely 13 The Epistle of St Paul to Philemon associated with the apostle : Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy the brother. For the use of the singular first personal pronoun through out makes Paul s exclusive authorship sufficiently clear. Indeed, it is a remarkable circumstance that there is no plural verb in the whole Epistle, accord ing to the best Greek text. A private or Among the writings of the apostle this occupies 1 a ace uite itself. It is a letter of Letter!* P^ <l ^J personal friendship, the only specimen we have of what may be regarded as Paul s strictly private correspondence. All his other Epistles are official, endorsed as it were with the sign-manual and seal of apostolic authorita- tiveness, whether addressed to Churches or, like the Pastoral Epistles, to individuals in their public capacity. Here, however, we have a truly private letter, addressed in an avowedly unofficial tone to a personal acquaintance, about a purely domestic occurrence, and despatched with the same messenger that bore a public letter to the general Church where the apostle s friend was a worthy member. On domestic This precious relic has been preserved from the 01*1 mass ^ si m^ar letters written Paul to other affairs by friends in various parts of the world, probably for much the same reasons which have led to a selection of his great sermons, like that on Mars Hill, or the Address to the Elders of Ephesus, being chosen to fill the place they do in Holy Writ, while the rest were suffered to pass into oblivion. As suitable specimens of inspired eloquence they have embalmed for us, as in the purest amber, not a few of the 14 Special Character of the Epistle most exquisite filaments of sacred truth that have no counterpart to themselves in Scripture. So has this Epistle been set among the archives and of its standards of apostolic literature on account intrinsic fitness to fill up a hiatus in apostolic correspondence as an inspired guide to individuals and households in the application of Christian principles to ordinary domestic and social affairs. There is not much room for diversity of opinion on the date and birth-place of the letter. It is universally regarded as belonging to the apostle s first captivity. This lasted, however, upwards of four years Time and two of them in Ceesarea and two in Rome. Which of these places should be fixed on? A few have felt disposed, we cannot but think for very insufficient reasons, to say Caesarea; but the great bulk of authorities agree, on fairly conclusive evidence, that as Paul anticipates with certainty a speedy release (ver. 22), he wrote it from Rome a little before he was set at liberty (A.D. 63 or early in 64), when also we must date his Epistles to the Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians. In what precise order these four followed each other cannot be determined, though a plausible claim might be set up for Philemon being the first of the group.