Philemon 1:3

1:3 Grace and peace to you ¹  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Philemon 1:23

Concluding Greetings

1:23 Epaphras, ²  my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you.

Philemon 1:25

1:25 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be ³  with your spirit. ⁴ 

Philemon 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ⁵  a prisoner of Christ Jesus, ⁶  and Timothy our ⁷  brother, to Philemon, our dear friend ⁸  and colaborer,

Philemon 1:9

1:9 I would rather appeal ⁹  to you on the basis of love – I, Paul, an old man ¹⁰  and even now a prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus ¹¹  –

[1:3]  ¹ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:23]  ² sn Epaphras is probably a shortened form of the name Epaphroditus. This is probably the same individual whom Paul spoke of as “my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier” in Phil 2:25 (see also Phil 4:18). He is also mentioned in Col 1:7 and 4:12, where he is a founder of the church in Colossae (BDAG 360 s.v. ᾿Επαφρᾶς).

[1:25]  ³ tn Grk “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with your spirit.” The elided verb, normally an optative, has been rendered as “be.”

[1:25]  ⁴ tc Most witnesses, including several excellent ones (א C D¹ Ψ 0278 Ï lat sy), conclude this letter with ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”). Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, several good witnesses (Ì⁸⁷ A D* 048^vid 6 33 81 1739* 1881 sa) lack the ἀμήν, rendering the omission the preferred reading.

[1:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ⁵ sn The phrase a prisoner of Christ Jesus implies that Paul was being held prisoner because of his testimony for Christ Jesus. Paul’s imprisonment was due to his service to Christ, in the same manner as John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos because of his testimony (Rev 1:9).

[1:1]  ⁶ tn “our” is not present in the Greek text, but was supplied to bring out the sense in English.

[1:1]  ⁷ tn Grk “dear.” The adjective is functioning as a substantive; i.e., “dear one” or “dear friend.”

[1:9]  ⁵ tn Or “encourage.”

[1:9]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “an ambassador” (so RSV, TEV), reading πρεσβευτής for πρεσβύτης (a conjecture proposed by Bentley, cf. BDAG 863 s.v. πρεσβύτης). NRSV reads “old man” and places “ambassador” in a note.

[1:9]  ⁷ tn Grk “a prisoner of Christ Jesus.”