196 HOR^ PAULINiE. 



unto you, .... whom I have sent unto you for the same 

 purpose, . . with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved broth 

 er." Colos. 4 : 7-9. 



2. " I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, ichom I have 

 hegotten in my honcUr Ver. 10. It appears from the pre 

 ceding quotation, that Onesimus was with St. Paul when ht. 

 WTote the epistle to the Colossians ; and that he wrote that 

 epistle in imprisonment^ is evident from his declaration in 

 the fourth chapter and third verse : " Praying also for us, 

 that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak 

 the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonch'^ 



3. St. Paul bids Philemon prepare for him a lodging 

 " For I trust," says he, " that through your prayers I shall 

 be given unto you." This agrees with the expectation of 

 speedy deliverance which he expressed in another epistle, 

 written during the same imprisonment : " Him," Timothy, 

 *' I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will 

 go with me. But I trust in the Lord tlmt I also myselj 

 shall come shortly.''' Phil. 2 : 23 : 24. 



4. As the letter to Philemon and that to the Coiossians 

 were written at the same time and sent by the same mes- 

 senger, the one to a particular inhabitant, the other to the 

 church of Colosse, it may be expected that the same or 

 nearly the same persons would be about St. Paul, and join 

 with him, as was the practice, in the salutations of the epis- 

 tle. Accordingly we find the names of Aristarchus, Marcus, 

 Epaphras, Luke, and Demas, in both epistles. Timothy, 

 who is joined with St. Paul in the superscription of the 

 epistle to the Colossians, is joined with him in this. Tych- 

 icus did not salute Philemon, because he accompanied the 

 epistle to Colosse, and would undoubtedly there see him. 

 Yet the reader of the epistle to Philemon will remark one 

 considerable diversity in the catalogue of saluting friends, 

 and which shows that the catalogue was not copied from 

 that to the Colossians. In the epistle to the Colossians, 

 Aristarchus is called b\ St. Paul his fellow-prisoner, Colos 



