Philemon in Perspective: Interpreting a Pauline Letter (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft Book 169)

This book is dedicated entirely to the interpretation of Paul’s Letter to Philemon. The letter is approached from a wide variety of perspectives, thus yielding several new insights into its interpretation. In a first essay the tendencies in the research on the letter since 1980 are outlined. This is followed by essays devoted to the epistolary analysis and to a rhetorical-psychological interpretation of the letter; as well as an essay devoted to the rhetorical function of stylistic form in the letter. After this there are two essays devoted to situating the letter in its ancient context: one views the letter against the background of ancient legal and documentary sources and another one against the background of slavery in early Christianity. The next two essays focus on theological aspects, namely on the letter as ethical counterpart of Paul’s doctrine of justification and on the role that love plays in the letter. Three essays focus on ideological issues: the contextual interpretation of the letter in the US, a post-colonial reading of the letter and the letter’s legacy of hierarchy and obedience. The volume concludes with four essays on the way in which the letter was interpreted by the some of the Church Fathers: Origen, Jerome, Chrystostom, Augustine and Theodore of Mopsuestia. Frontmatter 1 Table of Contents 7 Abbreviations 9 Tendencies in the Research on the Letter to Philemon since 1980 13 Paul's Persuasive Prose: An Epistolary Analysis of the Letter to Philemon 41 Affects and Emotions in the Rhetoric of Pauls's Letter to Philemon: A Rhetorical-Psychological Interpretation 73 "You Will Do Even More Than I Say": On the Rhetorical Function of Stylistic Form in the Letter to Philemon 91 How to Deal with Onesimus? Pauls's Solution within the Frame of Ancient Legal and Documentary Sources 125 The Letter ti Philemon in the Context of Slavery in Early Christianity 155 The Letter to Philemon as Ethical Counterpart of Pauls's Doctrine of Justification 181 Love in the Letter to Philemon 193 Contextual Interpretation of the Letter to Philemon in the United States 217 Paul, Power and Philemon. "Knowing Your Place": A Postcolonial Reading 235 Hierarchy and Obedience: The Legacy of the Letter to Philemon 263 The Reception of the Letter to Philemon in the Early Church: Origen; Jerome, Chrysostom and Augustine 285 St. Jerome's Dissertation on the Letter to Philemon 301 Honour Discourse in John Chrysostom's Exegesis of the Letter to Philemon 329 Theodore of Mopsuestia on Paul's Letter to Philemon 345 Backmatter 377 Main description: All the essays in this book are devoted to the interpretation of Paul's Letter to Philemon. The most important characteristic of the book is the wide range of perspectives from which this brief letter of Paul is interpreted. The following issues receive attention: tendencies in the interpretation of the letter since 1980, epistolography, rhetoric, style, ancient legal and documentary sources, slavery in early Christianity, contextual interpretation, post-colonialism, the letter's legacy of hierarchy and obedience and the reception of the letter by Church Fathers