EPISTLE TO PHILEMON. 197 



1:10; in the epistle to Philemon, Aristarchus is mentione»l 

 without any addition, and the title of fellow-prisoner is given 

 to Epaphras.* 



And let it also he observed, that notwithstanding the 

 close and circumstantial agreement between the two epis- 

 tles, this is not the case of an opening left in a genuine 

 ■writing, which an impostor is induced to fill up ; nor of a 

 reference to some writing not extant, which sets a sophist at 

 work to supply the loss, in like manner as, because St. Paul 

 was supposed, Coios. 4 : 16, to allude to an epistle written 

 by him to the Laodiceans, some person has from thence 

 taken the hint of uttering a forgery under that title. The 

 present, I say, is not the case ; for Philemon's name is not 

 mentioned in the epistle to the Colossians; Onesimus' servile 

 condition is nowhere hinted at, any more than his crime, his 

 flight, or the place or time of his conversion. The story 

 therefore of the epistle, if it be a fiction, is a fiction to which 

 the author could not have been guided by any thing he had 

 read in St. Paul's genuine writings. 



III. Ver. 4, 5 : "I thank my God, making mention of 

 thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, 

 which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward ail 

 saints." 



" Hearing of thy love and faith'' This is the form 

 of speech which St. Paul was wont to use towards those 

 churches which he had not seen, or then visited. See Rom. 

 1:8; Ephes. 1:15; Col. 1 : 3, 4. Towards those churches 

 and persons with whom he was previously acquainted, iie 

 employed a different phrase; as, "I thank my God always 

 on your behalf," 1 Cor. 1:4; 2 Thess. 1:3; or, " upon 



* Dr. Benson observes, and perhaps truly, that the appellation o/ 

 fellow-prisoner, as applied by St. Paul to Epaphras, did not imply 

 ihat they were imprisoned together at the time ; any more than ycm 

 calling a person your fellow-traveller imports that you are then upon 

 your travels. If he had upon any former occasion travelled with you, 

 you might afterwards speak of him under that title. It is just so with 

 the term fellow-prisoner. 



