This short, personal letter of Paul to his friend and fellow believer, Philemon, has generated a surprisingly hefty amount of commentary. Textual scholars since the first centuries of the church's history have enjoyed studying this epistle. Part of the attraction is that while Philemon is quite brief, it is nevertheless the only piece of personal correspondence from Paul that has survived and found its place in the canon. Indeed, the particular and individual nature of Philemon caused some dissent among early church leaders, who wondered if it were not perhaps too personal to be of any great use to the church at large.

Not until St. John Chrysostom suggested a new interpretation of Philemon in the fourth century were all its critics laid to rest. It was Chrysostom who proposed for the fir…