Philemon 1 - Introduction

Title

The oldest known form is the briefest, To Philemon. That in the A.V. is from the Textus Receptus. Other forms are, Paul's (or The holy Apostle Paul's) Epistle to Philemon. One title runs, These sure things writes Paul to faithful Philemon. [113]

[113] The omission of one syllable in this Greek title (so as to read βαιὰ instead of (βέβαια) makes it run as a hexameter line, and gives the sense" Paul ona slender theme thus writes to the faithful Philemon."If we are right in this guess, perhaps this title was devised by a depreciator(pp. 147, 148) of the Epistle, and afterwards altered, at the expense of metre, by some wiser man.

See note on the title of Colossians.