J. B. Lightfoot on Philemon 1:11-12

σοι ἄχρηστον, νυνὶ δὲ [καὶ] σοὶ καὶ ἑμοὶ εὔχρηστον· ὃν ἀνέπεμψά σοι. ^{12}αὐτόν, τουτέστιν τὰ ἐμὰ σπλάγχνα, 11. ἄχρηστον, εὔχρηστον] Comp. Plat. _Resp._ iii. p. 411 A χρήσιμον ἐξ ἀχρήστου ... ἐποίησεν. Of these words, ἄχρηστος is found only here, εὔχρηστος occurs also 2 Tim. ii. 21, iv. 11, in the New Testament. Both appear in the LXX. In Matt. xxv. 30 a slave is described as ἀχρεῖος. For the mode of expression comp. Ephes. v. 15 μὴ ὡς ἄσοφοι ἀλλ’ ὡς σόφοι. Some have discovered in these words a reference to χριστός, as commonly pronounced χρηστός; comp. Theoph. _ad Autol._ i. 12 τὸ χριστὸν ἡδὺ καὶ εὔχρηστον κ.τ.λ. and see _Philippians_ p. 16 note. Any such allusion however, even if it should not involve an anachronism, is far too recondite to be probable here. The play on words is exhausted in the reference to Ὀνήσιμος. καὶ ἐμοί] An after-thought; comp. Phil. ii. 27 ἠλέησεν αὐτόν, οὐκ αὐτὸν δὲ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐμέ. This accounts for the exceptional order, where according to common Greek usage the first person would naturally precede the second. ἀνέπεμψα] ‘_I send back_’, the epistolary aorist used for the present: see the notes on Phil. ii. 25, 28. So too ἔγραψα, ver. 19, 21 (see the note). It is clear both from the context here, and from Col. iv. 7–9, that Onesimus accompanied the letter. 12. αὐτὸν κ.τ.λ.] The reading of the received text is _σὺ δὲ_ αὐτόν, τουτέστι τὰ ἐμὰ σπλάγχνα, _προσλαβοῦ_. The words thus supplied doubtless give the right construction, but must be rejected as deficient in authority. The accusative is suspended; the sentence changes its form and loses itself in a number of dependent clauses; and the main point is not resumed till ver. 17 προσλαβοῦ αὐτὸν ὡς ἐμέ, the grammar having been meanwhile dislocated. For the emphatic position of αὐτόν comp. John ix. 21, 23, Ephes. i. 22. τὰ ἐμὰ σπλάγχνα] ‘_my very heart_’, a mode of speech common in all languages. For the meaning of σπλάγχνα see the note on Phil. i. 8. Comp. _Test. Patr._ Zab. 8, Neph. 4, in both which passages Christ is called τὸ σπλάγχνον of God, and in the first it is said ἔχετε εὐσπλαγχνίαν ... ἵνα καὶ ὁ Κύριος εἰς ὑμᾶς σπλαγχνισθὲις ἐλέησῃ ὑμᾶς· ὅτι καίγε ἐπ’ ἐσχάτων ἡμερῶν ὁ Θεὸς ἀποστέλλει τὸ σπλάγχνον αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κ.τ.λ. Otherwise τὰ ἐμὰ σπλάγχνα has been interpreted ‘_my son_’ (comp. ver. 10 ὃν ἐγέννησα κ.τ.λ.), and it is so rendered here in the Peshito. For this sense of σπλάγχνα comp. Artemid. _Oneir._ i. 44 οἱ παῖδες σπλάγχνα λέγονται, _ib._ v. 57 τὰ δὲ σπλάγχνα [ἐσήμαινε] τὸν παῖδα, οὕτω γὰρ καὶ τὸν παῖδα καλεῖν ἔθος ἐστι. With this meaning it is used not less of the father than of the mother; e.g. Philo _de Joseph._ 5 (II. p. 45) θηρσὶν εὐωχία καὶ θοίνη γέγονας γευσαμένοις ... τῶν ἐμῶν σπλάγχνων, Basil. _Op._ III. p. 501 ὁ μὲν προτείνεται τὰ σπλάγχνα τιμὴν τῶν τροφῶν. The Latin _viscera_ occurs still more frequently in this sense, as the passages quoted in Wetstein and Suicer show. For this latter interpretation there is much to be said. But it adds nothing to the previous ὃν ἐγέννησα κ.τ.λ., and (what is a more serious objection) it is wholly unsupported by St Paul’s usage elsewhere, which connects σπλάγχνα with a different class of ideas: see e.g. vv. 7, 20.