The Letter to Philemon: A New Translation With Notes and Commentary (Eerdmans Critical Commentary)

About this book

Although sometimes regarded as trivial because of its brevity or its treatment of issues distant from the modern world the letter to Philemon remains valuable both for its insight into the social setting of the New Testament and for its reiteration of a central component of the gospelbrotherly love. This superb new commentary in the ECC series is unique for its exhaustive study of the ancient world at the time Philemon was written. The volume examines the institution of slavery in Pauls day drawing on secular sources from Greece and Rome and from Christian writers of the time. The references to slavery found in Ephesians Colossians and 1 Timothy are also compared and contrasted with Pauls words in Philemon. In addition the verse-by-verse commentary focuses on important themes in Pauline theology including love faith and faithfulness church unity providence free will and human responsibility. Markus Barth makes his exposition even more useful by surveying the history of the interpretation of Philemon from the patristic age to modern liberation theologians. The product of Barths lifelong research and completed by Helmut Blanke this volume will become the standard work on Philemon.