J. B. Lightfoot on Philemon 1:13-16

δὲ τῆς σῆς γνώμης οὐδὲν ἠθέλησα ποιῆσαι, ἵνα μὴ ὡς κατὰ ἀνάγκην τὸ ἀγαθόν σου ᾖ, ἀλλὰ κατὰ ἑκούσιον· ^{15}τάχα γὰρ διὰ τοῦτο ἐχωρίσθη πρὸς ὥραν, ἵνα αἴωνιον αὐτὸν ἀπέχῃς, ^{16}οὐκέτι ὡς δοῦλον, ἀλλὰ ὑπὲρ δοῦλον, ὡς κατὰ ἀνάγκην] St Paul does not say κατὰ ἀνάγκην but ὡς κατὰ ἀνάγκην. He will not suppose that it would really be by constraint; but it must not even wear _the appearance_ (ὡς) of being so: comp. 2 Cor. xi. 17 ὡς ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ. See Plin. _Ep._ ix. 21 ‘Vereor ne videar non rogare sed cogere’; where, as here, the writer is asking his correspondent to forgive a domestic who has offended. τὸ ἀγαθόν σου] ‘_the benefit_ arising _from thee_’, i.e. ‘the good which I should get from the continued presence of Onesimus, and which would be owing to thee’. κατὰ ἑκούσιον] as in Num. xv. 3. The form καθ’ ἑκουσίαν is perhaps more classical: Thuc. viii. 27 καθ’ ἑκουσίαν ἢ πάνυ γε ἀνάγκῃ. The word understood in the one case appears to be τρόπον (Porphyr. _de Abst._ i. 9 καθ’ ἑκούσιον τρόπον, comp. Eur. _Med._ 751 ἑκουσίῳ τρόπῳ); in the other, γνώμην (so ἑκουσίᾳ, ἐξ ἑκουσίας, etc.): comp. Lobeck _Phryn._ p. 4. 15. τάχα γὰρ κ.τ.λ.] The γὰρ explains an additional motive which guided the Apostle’s decision: ‘I did not dare to detain him, however much I desired it. I might have defeated the purpose for which God in His good providence allowed him to leave thee’. ἐχωρίσθη] ‘He does not say’, writes Chrysostom, ‘_For this cause he fled_, but _For this cause he was parted_: for he would appease Philemon by a more euphemistic phrase. And again he does not say _he parted himself_, but _he was parted_: since the design was not Onesimus’ own to depart for this or that reason: just as Joseph also, when excusing his brethren, says (Gen. xlv. 5) _God did send me hither_.’ πρὸς ὥραν] ‘_for an hour_’, ‘_for a short season_’: 2 Cor. vii. 8, Gal. ii. 5. ‘It was only a brief moment after all’, the Apostle would say, ‘compared with the magnitude of the work wrought in it. He departed a reprobate; he returns a saved man. He departed for a few months; he returns to be with you for all time and for eternity’. The sense of αἴωνιον must not be arbitrarily limited. Since he left, Onesimus had obtained eternal life, and eternal life involves eternal interchange of friendship. His services to his old master were no longer barred by the gates of death. ἀπέχῃς] In this connexion ἀπέχειν may bear either of two senses: (1) ‘_to have back, to have in return_’: or (2) ‘_to have to the full, to have wholly_’, as in Phil. iv. 18 ἀπέχω πάντα (see the note). In other words the prominent idea in the word may be either _restitution_, or _completeness_. The former is the more probable sense here, as suggested by κατέχειν in verse 13 and by ἐχωρίσθη in this verse. 16. ὡς δοῦλον] St Paul does not say δοῦλον but ὡς δοῦλον. It was a matter of indifference whether he were outwardly δοῦλος or outwardly ἐλεύθερος, since both are one in Christ (Col. iii. 11). But though he might still remain a slave, he could no longer be _as_ a slave. A change had been wrought in him, independently of his possible manumission: in Christ he had become a brother. It should be noticed also that the negative is not μηκέτι, but οὐκέτι. The negation is thus wholly independent of ἵνα ... ἀπέχῃς. It describes not the possible view of Philemon, but the actual state of Onesimus. The ‘no more as a slave’ is an absolute fact, whether Philemon chooses to recognise it or not.