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  • From: Richard Fellows <rfellows AT shaw.ca>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Onesimus
  • Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2004 22:50:42 -0700

Stephen Carlson wrote:

>There is also
> evidence that some early Christians were interested in and played
> with the meanings of names: Paul on the name Onesimus in Phlm 11;
> Matt 1:21 on the name Jesus; Matt 16:18 on the name Peter.

<snip>

>Furthermore, many of the meaningful names among
> early Christians are probably slave names selected by their masters,
> e.g. Onesimus ("useful"), Polycarp ("fruitful"), etc.
>
> Romans also changed their names at the time of adoption, which
> was more frequent than in our own society and happened to adults.
> The Gallio mentioned in Acts 18:12, for example, was originally
> L. Annaeus Novatus and later took that name when he was adopted
> his teacher L. Junius Gallio. When when see Paul in Rom 8:15,
> Gal 4:5 analogizing acquiring a Christian identity with adoption
> at least in some respects (a connection that certainly continued
> among his followers, cf. Eph 1:5ff.), we have to be on guard for
> the possibility that other aspects of adoption, including change
> of name, were also operative.

Good points. They raises the question of how Onesimus got his name. Since it
means "useful" it may be that he was given the name by someone who thought
the he was, or would be, useful. Who might that someone have been? ........

Paul, of course!

Philemon 10-11 (NRSV) reads, "I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus,
whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless
(AXRHSTON) to you, but now he is indeed useful (EUXRHSTON), both to you and
to me." Usefulness was the primary quality that Paul hoped for from
Onesimus, and this is confirmed by Phlm 20, which reads, "Yes, brother, let
me have this benefit from you in the Lord!".

Phlm 10-11 seems to me to be Paul's way of saying how and why he had given
Philemon's slave the name Onesimus. He tactfully does not mention the
previous name, but rather emphasises his new identity. It is striking that
these two short sentences contain all the elements often associated with
renaming situations:
1. We have the name with a meaning to match the person in question.
2. We have the father-son relationship. We have seen that new names were
often given by one who had a benevolent authority over the individual named.
We also know that adoptive fathers gave their names to their adopted sons.
And, of course, parents named their children. Also note the only other
person who is described as Paul's "son" was Timothy and we have good
evidence that "Timothy" was the new name that Paul gave to Titus.
3. We have the betterment of character, which is often associate with name
changes (see Philo). His character has been transformed from useless to
useful.
4. We have a religious conversion, which was also often accompanied by a
change of name in the ancient world. The religious conversion is referred to
by Paul in Phlm 11with allusion to Christ with the words AXRHSTON and
EUXRHSTON.

The juxtaposition here of the mention of the name, the statement of the
father-child relationship, the explanation of the religious conversion, and
the reference to the meaning of the name, suggests to me that Paul is here
explaining the new name and new identity of Philemon's former slave. We
cannot prove that Paul named Onesimus, but if he had done so, Phlm 10-11 is
just the sort of way that he would announce it.

The alternative is to believe that it is pure coincidence that Philemon's
slave had a name which represented the exact quality Paul found in him AFTER
his conversion. But good historians must abhor coincidences.

Could someone point me towards some literature on the question of how
Onesimus got his name? The idea that Paul named him is not new, but how far
back does it go?

Richard.








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