Philemon: An Introduction and Study Guide: Imagination, Labor and Love
This guide explores and summarizes scholarship on Philemon, acquainting beginning students with what has been said about Philemon, and equipping them to understand the larger debates and conversations that surround it. It explores how different initial scholarly assumptions result in different interpretations and "meanings;" these meanings always have ethical implications. Reading Philemon challenges us to rethink the process of commentary and the communities interpretation creates.

Though only one chapter long, Paul's Letter to Philemon has generated a remarkable amount of commentary and scholarship over the centuries, figuring in debates over textual reconstruction, the formation of biblical canon, the culture of ancient Rome, Greek language and its translation, and the role of the Bible in Western politics and economics. The focus of this short letter is labor, love and captivity. Tradition since Chrysostom has argued the letter is an appeal to Philemon on behalf of a fugitive slave Onesimus, now a convert to Christianity. Yet this interpretation depends upon several assumptions and reconstructions. Other equally plausible contexts could be — and have been — argued.

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Philemon: An Introduction and Study Guide: Imagination, Labor and Love
This guide explores and summarizes scholarship on Philemon, acquainting beginning students with what has been said about Philemon, and equipping them to understand the larger debates and conversations that surround it. It explores how different initial scholarly assumptions result in different interpretations and "meanings;" these meanings always have ethical implications. Reading Philemon challenges us to rethink the process of commentary and the communities interpretation creates.

Though only one chapter long, Paul's Letter to Philemon has generated a remarkable amount of commentary and scholarship over the centuries, figuring in debates over textual reconstruction, the formation of biblical canon, the culture of ancient Rome, Greek language and its translation, and the role of the Bible in Western politics and economics. The focus of this short letter is labor, love and captivity. Tradition since Chrysostom has argued the letter is an appeal to Philemon on behalf of a fugitive slave Onesimus, now a convert to Christianity. Yet this interpretation depends upon several assumptions and reconstructions. Other equally plausible contexts could be — and have been — argued.

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Philemon: An Introduction and Study Guide: Imagination, Labor and Love

Philemon: An Introduction and Study Guide: Imagination, Labor and Love

Philemon: An Introduction and Study Guide: Imagination, Labor and Love

Philemon: An Introduction and Study Guide: Imagination, Labor and Love

Paperback(Study Guide)

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Overview

This guide explores and summarizes scholarship on Philemon, acquainting beginning students with what has been said about Philemon, and equipping them to understand the larger debates and conversations that surround it. It explores how different initial scholarly assumptions result in different interpretations and "meanings;" these meanings always have ethical implications. Reading Philemon challenges us to rethink the process of commentary and the communities interpretation creates.

Though only one chapter long, Paul's Letter to Philemon has generated a remarkable amount of commentary and scholarship over the centuries, figuring in debates over textual reconstruction, the formation of biblical canon, the culture of ancient Rome, Greek language and its translation, and the role of the Bible in Western politics and economics. The focus of this short letter is labor, love and captivity. Tradition since Chrysostom has argued the letter is an appeal to Philemon on behalf of a fugitive slave Onesimus, now a convert to Christianity. Yet this interpretation depends upon several assumptions and reconstructions. Other equally plausible contexts could be — and have been — argued.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780567674951
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 08/10/2017
Series: T&T Clark's Study Guides to the New Testament
Edition description: Study Guide
Pages: 128
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Robert Paul Seesengood is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Drew Theological School, Drew University, USA. He is the author of Competing Identities: The Athlete and Gladiator in Early Christianity (2007).


Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean, Professor of New Testament, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One: A Quick Overview of Paul's Letter to Philemon
Chapter Two: “I Appeal to You for My Child, Onesimus”
Chapter Three: Rethinking Onesimus and Philemon
Chapter Four: Rethinking Paul: Love, Labor and Affect in Philemon
Conclusion: Letters Lost in the Mail
Bibliography
Index

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