Onesimus
I had a partially finished novel I wanted to finish after
Spartan Sisters. It is a novel taken
from a dream I had about 18 years ago and an incident that happened on a high
school trip to Italy. I am calling it Remembering Sorrento. It has some work, but will be enjoyable to
write.
That said, I have been feeling the need to work on a novel
that just has a basic outline. The main
character and name of the novel will be Onesimus. Most people don’t know who he is. He is mentioned in the book of Colossians as
the deliverer of the letter from Paul, and he is the subject of the book of
Philemon.
In Philemon we find out only a little about him. He is a runaway slave owned by Philemon. Somehow he ended up in Rome, while Paul was
waiting for his trial. What transpired
while in Rome is never said in any of those books, but in Paul’s letter to
Philemon, Paul says he is his son. Of
course, he was not Paul’s physical son, but was probably converted to
Christianity by Paul, so he became Paul’s spiritual son.
From Wikipedia
I have an idea of starting this novel with Onesimus being
from a village that is captured by the Romans and sold as a slave. He ends up, as just a child, for sale in one
of the great cities of the Roman Empire, Ephesus. He is then bought to be a slave, and
childhood companion of Philemon, of Colossae.
The name Onesimus is a slave name that means useful. You would not name your child this, but you
would call your slave this. In the
intervening years, Philemon and his household become Christian, and the Church
of Colossae meets in their home. Yet the
slave, Onesimus, does not become a Christian.
As a slave, he hears about the “freedom” in Christ and resents it as a
mockery since he is a slave.
The book of Philemon does not give explicit details, but
apparently Onesimus steals from his master and escapes, eventually arriving in
Rome. I see the interval between these
two events as Onesimus falling into sin that wrecks his life. I won’t give you the details yet. In Rome he meets Paul, who is there only two
years, before he is executed by Nero.
Saint Paul in the Church of Saint John Lateran in Rome
Sometime in that two years, Onesimus becomes a believer. Either he or Paul sees the necessity of
returning to Colossae to make it right with his master, Philemon. The letter is Paul’s introduction to Philemon
of the new Onesimus, no longer a slave, but a brother in Christ. This letter is one of the shortest books in
the bible, but one of the most powerful.
It is a book on forgiveness.
There is an Onesimus that appears in some church histories
as the Bishop of Ephesus, and in others as the Bishop of Byzantium. Ephesus was close to Colossae. So what if the Onesimus of the book of
Philemon became a leader of the early church?
Spartan Sisters is
finished, so now I am beginning work on Onesimus.
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