Onesimus and Philemon
Thanks Jonathan for this commentary on the story in the New Testament about Philemon and Onesimus. May I take the liberty of telling a personal story about my own first encounter with Philemon?
When I was 11 y.o., I spent a summer with my grandparents, who offered, in place of an allowance, to pay me one dollar for every Book in the Bible that I would read that summer. Of course, I jumped at the chance. In those days, sixty-six dollars seemed almost unimaginable.
I had the 'good' idea of starting with one of the shortest: Philemon!
Not surprisingly, at that age, I found the content of Philemon very puzzling: the book’s author Paul writes to Philemon to say "I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. ... I am sending the slave Onesimus,—who is my very heart—back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me. ... He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord. So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me."
I had never before heard such language used about love between men, and asked grandmother about it.
She assured me that it meant that Onesimus, the slave, was like a 'son' to them both. This made sense to me at the time, but within a very few years as I began to question my own sexuality, I had reason to look up and read the passage again. And even now I wonder why I would have remembered this very minor event unless I had sensed at the time something of what you are suggesting, namely, that there is a barely visible sexual narrative just below the surface of Paul’s letter..
I am transcribing Jonathan’s response to this comment below:
That's very interesting, thank you—an intuited reading against religious guidance.I wish that I had been better about my intuition. I realize how much a religious subculture suppresses one's actuality, so that it can seem like coming awake, every day.I spent a few days reading about Philemon and was very startled. Scholars note that the Greek original - not the English - is full of rhymes and alliteration. It seems to have keys to public performance. It's a song about a slave.Paul calls Philemon a 'brother' (v.7, 20), and calls Onesimus a "beloved brother" (v.16). I took note of a point by the scholar Alicia J. Batten: "Paul therefore combines two words that he applies to Philemon separately, 'beloved' and 'brother,' in his description of Onesimus."So, two words are used of Philemon, separately, which in Onesimus are combined.I began to read it as a wedding song.A slave has no parents. Paul stands in their place, calling Onesimus his "child"—as he gives him away.There is the puzzling matter of "bowels" coming up in this book—references that are mistranslated "heart." The same word is used of the guts or the entrails, and also the woman's vagina, or the place where a child is born.Whatever qualities are assigned to human anatomy, it isn't a 'heart' but something lower that is in view--three times! Philemon has been "refreshing" the "bowels" of local Christians (v.7); and in sending Onesiemus, Paul is "sending my very bowels" v.12 in hopes that Philemon will "refresh my bowels" v.20.Is it possible there's a wry hint here of anal sex? I don't expect a scholar to suggest it.There could even be "gay" content in Colossians 4:9, when we seem to see Onesimus again. Paul is making arrangements for a party to arrive in the city, a man "coming with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you."A reminder to the early Christians—he is one of you.
