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Onesimus

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This article is about the biblical figure. For other uses, see Onesimus (disambiguation).

Onesimus
Decorated initial with Paul, Onesimus (delivering letter) and Philemon
DiedRome (then Roman province)
Venerated inCatholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
Oriental Orthodox Church
Lutheranism
Feast15 February (formerly 16 February in the West)

Onesimus (Ancient Greek: Ὀνήσιμος, romanized: Onēsimos, meaning "useful") was a Christian mentiond in the New Testament. He was a slave to Philemon, a Christian, and is the subject of Paul's Epistle to Philemon.[1]

He may also be the same Onesimus mentioned by Ignatius of Antioch (died c. 107) as bishop in Ephesus.[2][3] Eastern Orthodox tradition also list an Onesimus as the third bishop of Byzantium.[4]

In the New Testament

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The name "Onesimus" appears in two of Paul's epistles. The Epistle to Philemon was written by Paul the Apostle to Philemon concerning a runaway slave named Onesimus. [5] Onesimus turned up where Paul was imprisoned (Rome or Caesarea Maritima)[6] to escape punishment for a theft of which he was accused.[7] After hearing the Gospel from Paul, Onesimus converted to Christianity. Paul, having earlier converted Philemon to Christianity, sought to reconcile the two by writing the letter to Philemon which today exists in the New Testament.[8] The letter reads (in 1:10-16):

I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave — a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

In the Epistle to the Colossians 4:9[9] a person of this name is identified as a Christian accompanying Tychicus to visit the Christians in Colossae; nothing else is stated about him in this context. He may well be the freed Onesimus from the Epistle to Philemon.

In tradition

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He may[10] also be the same Onesimus named by Ignatius of Antioch (died c. 107) as bishop in Ephesus[3][11] In his Epistle written to the Ephesians while on his way to be executed in Rome, Ignatius wrote:

I received, therefore, your whole multitude in the name of God, through Onesimus, whose love surpasses words, in the flesh as your bishop. I pray that you may love him with a love according to Jesus Christ and that you may all be like him. For blessed is He Who granted unto you, worthy as you are, to possess such a bishop.

Painting depicting death of Onesimus, from the Menologion of Basil II (c. 1000 AD)

Onesimus must have accepted episcopal see of Ephesus following Saint Timothy.[2] If so, Onesimus went from slave to brother to bishop. According to Tradition), Onesimus was imprisoned and may have been martyred by stoning (some sources claim he was beheaded). [12] Given that Ignatius of Antioch died under Emperor Trajan (97-117), Onesimus's death more likely fell under that Emperor as well.

The 4th century Apostolic Constitutions (VII, 46) mention Onesimus as the first bishop of Beroea in Macedonia.[13]

Eastern Orthodox tradition also list an Onesimus as the third bishop of Byzantium, dating his reign from 54 to 68 AD.[4] However, the authenticity of the first 25 bishops of Byzantium are met with skepticism by scholars as "there is no evidence of any significant Christian community at Byzantium before Metrophanes of Byzantium".[14]

Saint

Onesimus of Byzantium
Bishop of Byzantium
Saint Onesimus
Installed54 AD
Term ended68 AD
PredecessorStachys the Apostle
SuccessorPolycarpus I of Byzantium
Personal details
Diedc. 107 AD
DenominationChristianity

Veneration

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Onesimus is regarded as a saint by many Christian denominations.

Catholic Church

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The traditional Western commemoration of Onesimus is on 16 February.[15] But in the 2004 edition of the Roman Martyrology, Onesimus is listed under 15 February. There, he is described as "[a] runaway slave, whom the apostle Paul received to the faith of Christ while in prison, regarding him as a son of whom he had become father, as he himself wrote to Philemon, Onesimus's master".[16]

Eastern Orthodox Church

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The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates Onesimus on a variety of dates:

Lutheran Churches

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The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod commemorates him and Philemon on 15 February.[21]

Notes and references

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  1. ^ Philemon 1:15-16. (New American Standard Bible (NASB))
  2. ^ a b http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4908
  3. ^ a b Ignatius of Antioch (1919) [1900]. The Epistles of St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch. Translated by James Srawley (3rd ed.). Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. pp. 39–40.
  4. ^ a b "Onesimus". Ecumenic Patriarchate of Constantinople. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  5. ^ The traditional designation of Onesimus as a slave is doubted by some modern scholars. Tolmie, D. F. (17 July 2009). "Onesimus – 'n wegloopslaaf? Oor die ontstaansituasie van die Filemonbrief" [Onesimus - a runaway slave? The origin of the Letter to Philemon]. Verbum et Ecclesia (in Afrikaans). 30 (1): 279–301. doi:10.4102/ve.v30i1.74. hdl:10520/EJC114225.
  6. ^ "The Letter to Philemon", Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J.; paragraph 5, pages 869–870, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 1989, Geoffrey Chapman
  7. ^ "Saint Onesimus at SQPN website". Archived from the original on 24 December 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2007.
  8. ^ Christian Bible - Philemon verses 19–16
  9. ^ Christian Bible: Colossians 4:9
  10. ^ This identification is questioned by Joseph Fitzmyer SJ, "The Letter to Philemon"; paragraph 4, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 1989, Geoffrey Chapman
  11. ^ The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians
  12. ^ "Apostle Onesimus of the Seventy", OCA
  13. ^ https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07/anf07/Page_478.html
  14. ^ Limberis, Vasiliki (2002). Divine Heiress - The Virgin Mary and the Making of Christian Constantinople. Routledge. pp. 10–15. ISBN 978-1-134-86279-5.
  15. ^ Livingstone (2000), p. 414
  16. ^ Martyrologium Romanum, 2004, Vatican Press (Typis Vaticanis), p. 150.
  17. ^ "Lives of all saints commemorated on 15 February". Orthodox Church in America. Archived from the original on 27 August 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  18. ^ "Lives of all saints commemorated on 4 January". Orthodox Church in America. Archived from the original on 27 August 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  19. ^ "Calendar: 6 July". Orthochristian. Archived from the original on 18 July 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  20. ^ "Lives of all saints commemorated on 22 November". Orthodox Church in America. Archived from the original on 27 August 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  21. ^ Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran Worship, Concordia Publishing House, 1982, updated by the same church's Lutheran Service Book, Concordia Publishing House, 2006.

See also

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