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Philemon 1-3
New Catholic Bible
Philemon 1-3
New Catholic Bible
Salutation.[a] 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy[b] our brother, to Philemon, our beloved friend and fellow worker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus[c] our fellow soldier, and to the Church that meets in your house: 3 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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- Philemon 1:1 The salutation indicates that a group of Christians meets together in Philemon’s house and should aid him to decide Onesimus’ fate. These include Apphia, thought to be his wife, and Archippus, thought to be his son, who is also a pastor like Paul (“fellow soldier [of Christ]”). Under the circumstances, Philemon would have had to be an extremely strong-minded individual to resist the eloquent plea of Paul and his protégé Timothy.
- Philemon 1:1 Timothy: see Introduction to First Timothy.
- Philemon 1:2 Archippus: the apostolic worker mentioned in Col 4:17. Fellow soldier: the only other use of this phrase in the New Testament is in Phil 2:25 concerning Epaphroditus. It exemplifies Paul’s use of military terms to symbolize the service of a Christian (see Rom 6:13; 13:12; 2 Cor 10:3f; Eph 6:10).
