“By this also he has quenched his anger, by delivering him up. For masters are then most enraged, when they are entreated for the absent, so that by this very act he mollified him the more. "Thou therefore receive him, that is mine own bowels." And again he has not given the bare name, but uses with it a word that migh…”
John Chrysostom, 5th c. — Homily on Philemon 2
Original
12Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels:
Modern
Preparing…
Teens
Preparing…
Kids
Preparing…
In context
10I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:
11Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me:
— Philemon 1:12 —
13Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel:
14But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.