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So moving on to Philemon, this little tiny letter where it's a very personal letter. In fact, it's kind of impressive. We have it at all.

So Philemon, Paul is writing from prison. He got into trouble and he wrote several letters from prison. We know he was in prison in Ephesus, Caesarea, and Rome, probably other times.

So this letter is probably written from Ephesus in about 55 CE. So not going to spend a lot of time on this. This letter is really cleverly worded and Paul is writing in behalf of a slave.

And Onissimus means useful and so Paul is doing a word play. So he's Paul is writing to Philemon on behalf of Onissimus. Who's this slave that ran away and his name happens to be useful?

Yeah, it means it means useful. And so Philemon was the head of the church and he was this is an insight into how how the church worked. The early Christians met in individual houses, which gave the owner of that house and his wife.

So the husband and wife who owned it, a lot of authority in the Christian communities. So Paul is writing to Philemon, again, who is the owner and he mentions his wife and other people in the community. And he's encouraging Philemon to not prosecute Onissimus, but he shouldn't be in trouble. Philemon should accept him back as a Christian brother.

Now we're not sure whether this means that he should be freed or whether he should be just treated kindly. And that's a pretty big deal as far as the role of slavery. In fact, some scholars suggest that Paul wanted Onissimus to be his slave.

You know, that's, that's this plan useful. He says at the end, he's been, wow, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't keep him as my servant or slave. Have you want to look at that without asking you, but he's really been useful and you kind of owe me your entire spiritual existence because I converted you. So I'm not saying anything, but you know, it'd be really nice if this slave would continue to be useful to me.

Yeah, that's an interesting plan word. Yeah, so lots, lots going on. A little, little tiny personal letter, not going to spend more time on that, but a couple of interesting things.

There's some insights into slavery, some insights into how the church worked in that time, you know, that they met in the houses. Okay.

So moving on to Philippians, Paul is still in prison, you know, might as well write letters if you're in prison. And written about 56, probably from Ephesus to Philippi, which is a Roman colony and modern north eastern Greece.

And Philippians, one interesting thing about this is this is our first case where we get a letter by Paul that may actually be more than one letter.

You mean like a couple of letters combined? Yep, a couple letters that have later been edited together into one, into one coherent hole. So that's interesting.

So how do we know this? It's because, like, just to take a minute, how, oh scholars date the Bible when they don't have anything else to do on a Saturday, how, how they figure out when and where a book was written, is it's like imagining where are you standing, where are you?

If I were the author, what do I know? What do I presuppose? What kind of historical condition does this fit into?

Another part of looking at it is the first two chapters is to see kind of what the tone and how the text itself is working.

So the first two chapters are really friendly and positive, and the situation is really clear in Philippians. So Paul's in prison, the Philippians sent one of their faithful members, a Paphroditus, to take care of him.

A Paphroditus got sick, and so the Philippians asked him how he's doing, Paul writes back and says, you know, he's gotten better, he's doing well, it's a nice happy, clear letter.

And then at the beginning of chapter three, suddenly Paul is livid. He's really angry, he's talking about his opponents who seem to support the Jewish law, he calls them dogs, he calls them those who mutilate the flesh, probably a reference to circumcision.

He chastises two specific women fighting in the community. So is that clear why you'd think that might not be all part of one coherent letter?

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