Onesimus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Died | Rome (thenRoman province) |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Oriental Orthodox Church Lutheranism |
| Feast | 15 February (formerly 16 February in the West) |
Onesimus (Ancient Greek:Ὀνήσιμος,romanized: Onēsimos, meaning "useful") was a Christian mentioned in theNew Testament. He was aslave toPhilemon, a Christian, and is the subject ofPaul'sEpistle to Philemon.[1]
He may also be the same Onesimus mentioned byIgnatius of Antioch (diedc. 107) as bishop inEphesus.[2][3]Eastern Orthodox tradition also list an Onesimus as the thirdbishop of Byzantium.[4]
The name "Onesimus" appears in two ofPaul's epistles. TheEpistle to Philemon was written byPaul the Apostle to Philemon concerning a runaway slave named Onesimus.[5] Onesimus turned up where Paul was imprisoned (Rome orCaesarea Maritima)[6] to escape punishment for a theft of which he was accused.[7] After hearing theGospel from Paul, Onesimus converted toChristianity. Paul, having earlier converted Philemon to Christianity, sought to reconcile the two by writing the letter to Philemon which today exists in the New Testament.[8] The letter reads (in 1:10-16):
I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave — a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
In this passage Paul is offering a subtle and implicit wordplay on the name of Philemon’s runaway slave Onesimus Ὀνήσιμος (“Useful”) by referring to him as “the one once useless (ἄχρηστος) to you, but now useful (εὔχρηστος) [both] to you and to me.” Paul follows this wordplay up a few verses later (Phlm 20) with afigura etymologica on Onesimus’s name: in his exclamation to Philemon—ἐγώ σου ὀναίμην “may I gain some use from you”—he uses a rare verbal form of the word at the root of Onesimus’s name, ὀνίνημι, which is attested only here in the New Testament. By “gaining some use” (ὀναίμην) Paul means that he wishes to gain the services of “Mr. Useful” (Ὀνήσιμος).[9]
In theEpistle to the Colossians 4:9[10] a person of this name is identified as a Christian accompanyingTychicus to visit the Christians inColossae; nothing else is stated about him in this context. He may well be the freed Onesimus from the Epistle to Philemon.
He may[11] also be the same Onesimus named byIgnatius of Antioch (diedc. 107) as bishop inEphesus[3][12] In hisEpistle written to the Ephesians while on his way to be executed in Rome, Ignatius wrote:
I received, therefore, your whole multitude in the name of God, through Onesimus, whose love surpasses words, in the flesh as your bishop. I pray that you may love him with a love according to Jesus Christ and that you may all be like him. For blessed is He Who granted unto you, worthy as you are, to possess such a bishop.
.jpg)
Onesimus must have accepted episcopal see of Ephesus followingSaint Timothy.[2] If so, Onesimus went from slave to brother to bishop. According toTradition, Onesimus was imprisoned and may have beenmartyred bystoning (some sources claim he was beheaded).[13] Given that Ignatius of Antioch died underEmperorTrajan (97-117), Onesimus's death more likely fell under that Emperor as well.
The 4th-centuryApostolic Constitutions (VII, 46) mention Onesimus as the first bishop ofBeroea inMacedonia.[14]
Eastern Orthodox tradition also list an Onesimus as the thirdbishop of Byzantium, dating his reign from 54 to 68 AD.[4] However, the authenticity of the first 25 bishops of Byzantium are met with skepticism by scholars as "there is no evidence of any significant Christian community at Byzantium beforeMetrophanes of Byzantium".[15]
Onesimus of Byzantium | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Byzantium | |
 Saint Onesimus | |
| Installed | 54 AD |
| Term ended | 68 AD |
| Predecessor | Stachys the Apostle |
| Successor | Polycarpus I of Byzantium |
| Personal details | |
| Died | c. 107 AD |
| Denomination | Christianity |
Onesimus is regarded as a saint by many Christian denominations.
The traditional Western commemoration of Onesimus is on 16 February.[16] But in the 2004 edition of theRoman Martyrology, Onesimus is listed under 15 February. There, he is described as "[a] runaway slave, whom the apostle Paul received to the faith of Christ while in prison, regarding him as a son of whom he had become father, as he himself wrote to Philemon, Onesimus's master".[17]
The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates Onesimus on a variety of dates:
TheLutheran Church–Missouri Synod commemorates him andPhilemon on 15 February.[22]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
