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A Sample Letter: Paul's Letter To Philemon
Among the letters of St. Paul, there is one that is short, very personal and one that lends itself quite well as an illustration for our discussions on biblical discourse. I refer to the Letter to Philemon, a document that dates back to the latter years of Paul's missionary sorties around the Mediterranean. Paul writes to Philemon about this latter's slave. From what can be gathered from the letter, the slave Onesimus had run away from Philemon and perhaps may have even stolen something from his master. In any case, Onesimus found himself in the company of Paul, got baptized by him and perhaps even wanted to stay with him to minister to his needs while in prison. But Paul, not wanting to give offense to anyone (especially the rightful "owner" of the slave) sends back Onesimus to Philemon with a letter. The letter, as is customary of Paul, can be divided into four parts: (a) Address (b) Thanksgiving (c) Body of the Letter (d) Recapitulation and Conclusion. Here is a link to the text of the letter (RSV) http://www.geocities.com/abetesme/specia... Some tips for the reading of the Letter to Philemon:1. Read the letter as you would any letter, except that in this case, it is not a letter addressed to you primarily, but to somebody else. 2. It would help a lot if you would copy the letter, rewriting it in such a way as to highlight the parts of the sentence. 3. Remember that the letter was written in an environment that is radically different from yours. In that environment, slavery is an accepted societal institution. 4. Lastly, do not let any ideas regarding "Biblical Inspiration" to influence the way you read the Letter to Philemon. If it is in the canon of Scriptures, it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. That it does not contain anything prophetic (in the sense of "predictions about the future"[See Note]) is no indication that it is less inspired or not at all. Note: Some fundamentalist groups stick to the idea of prophecy as a prediction about the future. The idea can find support in Deuteronomy, but if we consider how the totality of the bible presents the idea of "prophecy" and "prophetic" the fundamentalist notion will have to be discarded. As an example: all the books from Joshua to 2 Kings are presented in the Hebrew Bible as "The Former Prophets" yet one can hardly find in these books people who predicted the future. Rather, one can see here people who looked at the present as an Event (Dabar = Word) of God. Go To Page: 1 2
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