Philemon 1:1-3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ To whom, as such, Philemon could deny nothing. Paul does not call himself an apostle, because he wrote to Philemon only in the character of a friend, to request a favour rather than to enjoin what was fit, Philemon 1:8-9; and Timothy Who was now with Paul at Rome, though, it is probable, not in prison; our brother So the apostle calls him, to add dignity to his character; unto Philemon, our dearly beloved That is, the dearly beloved of us both; and fellow-labourer In the gospel. This shows that Paul and Philemon were personally known to each other. And to our beloved Apphia Thought by some of the fathers to be Philemon's wife, to whom also the business about which Paul writes in part belonged; and Archippus our fellow-soldier In that holy warfare in which we are engaged. This person, Lightfoot thinks, was Philemon's son. The apostle, by addressing this letter not only to Philemon, but to these persons also, and to all the believers that met in his house, and by wishing them all manner of felicity, interested the whole of Philemon's family to aid him in his solicitation for Onesimus. Grace to you, &c. See on Romans 1:7.