What makes the Letter to Philemon unique?
More than any of the letters that Paul wrote, his letter to Philemon is a good example of the kind of letters people wrote in the Greco-Roman world. It is the shortest and most personal of Paul’s letters. The style and tone of the letter suggest that Paul and Philemon were either close friends, or that at least they knew each other well. Paul and Philemon may have had what is known as a patron-client relationship. Most of the people mentioned in this letter (for example, Apphia, Archipus, and others), including Philemon and Onesimus, are also mentioned in Colossians, a fact which implies a close relationship between the two letters. Why was the Letter to Philemon written? The consensus among biblical scholars is that the recipient of the letter, Philemon, was a man of means who lived in the city of Colossae in Asia Minor. He had to have been wealthy in order to have owned slaves (verses 15 and 16) and to have had a house large enough to host church meetings (verse 2), even if they were
