Philemon 1:2

(2) Apphia. —The name is usually taken to be the Roman name Appia. But the occurrence of such a name in a Græco-Asiatic family, though of course possible, is perhaps improbable; and Dr. Lightfoot has shown that it occurs in the form Apphia in many Phrygian inscriptions, and may therefore be naturally supposed to be a native name. There seems little doubt that Apphia was Philemon’s wife, like himself “the beloved,” though not the “fellow-labourer” or “partner” of St. Paul. Archippus our fellow soldier.—From this mention of Archippus we may certainly conclude that he was a member of Philemon’s family; the ordinary conjecture makes him his son. The name “fellow-soldier,” applied elsewhere only to Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25), as the name “soldier of Jesus Christ” to Timothy (2Timothy 2:3), appears to denote ministerial office in Archippus, which agrees with the charge to him in Colossians 4:18 to “take heed to his ministry and fulfil it.” Church in thy house.—See Note on Colossians 4:15. The specially domestic and personal character of the Epistle need not induce any limitation of the phrase to Philemon’s own family. As the joining of Timothy’s name in giving the salutation did not prevent the Letter from being St. Paul’s only, so the joining the Church in the house in the receiving of the salutation does not prevent its being addressed only to Philemon and his family, who were, like himself, interested in Onesimus.

Apphia was the Roman name of a woman; the naming of her before Archippus, a minister, makes it probable she was Philemon’s wife. It appears this Archippus was a minister, from Colossians 4:17 . He calleth him his fellow soldier, because he was engaged in some of those many dangers Paul encountered, but we are not told in Scripture which. And to the church in thy house; all those Christians that live in thy family: we have the like expression, Romans 16:5 1 Corinthians 16:19 Colossians 4:15 . The apostle doth not always by the term church signify a body under ecclesiastical discipline, but sometimes calleth a company of Christians ordinarily conversing together by that name. Those who think the body of the church were wont constantly to meet in Philemon’s house, seem not to consider how the dangers of those times made such a thing hardly practicable.

Verse 2. - Our beloved Apphia . Codices A, D*, E*, F, G, and א (Sinaiticus) read adelphe (sister) for agapete (beloved), and also Jerome, Griesbach, Meyer; which also has been adopted in the Revised Version. The name Appia, or Apphia, is either the Roman Appia Hellenized, which was the conjecture of Grotins (see Introduction), or more probably a native Phrygian name, from Appa or Appha , a term of endearment . The name does not occur elsewhere in Scripture. The word ἀδελφῆ is not unlikely to have been added by way of explanation. St. Paul has used it in five other places, and always in the same sense, viz. Romans 16:1, 15 ; 1 Corinthians 7:15 ; 1 Corinthians 9:5 ; 1 Timothy 5:2 . Most commentators, and particularly Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Theophylact, among the ancients, infer that Apphia was the wife of Philemon. Otherwise, why mention her name here? Archippus ; comp. Colossians 4:17 , where he is said to have received a διακονία , i.e. a ministry or service, in the Church. This word, when used without a determining genitive, denotes service to others in a general and undefined sense. But more commonly with some limiting word; as διακονία λόγου , office of teaching ( Acts 6:4 ); διακονία τοῦ θανάτου , office or function of death ( 2 Corinthians 3:7 ).

The general view is that Archippus was the presbyter who ministered to that congregation which assembled at the house of Philemon, though Ambrose and Jerome, with other commentators ancient and modern, think that he was the bishop. Grotius, however, takes him to have been a deacon. (It is a very precarious inference that he was a son of Philemon and Appia.) Probably he was fulfilling a temporary mission only in Colossae, and that would be the διακονία in the passage cited. Epaphras, a resident in Colossae ( Colossians 4:12 ), is spoken of as having been the founder of the Church there ( Colossians 1:7, 8 ), and as still being responsible for it ( Colossians 4:13 ). Primasius calls Epaphras bishop and Archippus deacon; and so Grotius. It may be that these theories err in ascribing too rigid and technical a meaning to the terms of ecclesiastical service at this early stage of their employment. Epaphras was, however, at this time in Rome with St. Paul ( Colossians 4:12, 13 ), and it is possible that Archippus was filling his place temporarily. It will be safer to call him (with Bishop Wordsworth) a presbyter. It is, as we have said, an unsupported idea of some writers ancient and modern (Theod. Mopsuest., Michaelis, Rosenmuller, Olshausen, Lightfoot) that he was the son of Philemon (but see below). Our fellow-soldier ; i.e. of himself and St. Timothy, as engaged in the same warfare for Christ ( 1 Corinthians 9:7 ; 2 Corinthians 10:4 ; 1 Timothy 1:18 ).

2. Apphia—the Latin, "Appia"; either the wife or some close relative of Philemon. She and Archippus, if they had not belonged to his family, would not have been included with Philemon in the address of a letter on a domestic matter. Archippus—a minister of the Colossian Church (Col 4:17). fellow soldier—(2Ti 2:3). church in thy house—In the absence of a regular church building, the houses of particular saints were used for that purpose. Observe Paul's tact in associating with Philemon those associated by kindred or Christian brotherhood with his house, and not going beyond it.

Our beloved Apphia (Ἁπφίᾳ τῇ ἀγαπητῇ) Read τῇ ἀδελφῇ the (our) sister. Commonly supposed to have been Philemon's wife. The word is not the common Roman name Appia, but is a Phrygian name, occurring frequently in Phrygian inscriptions. It is also written Aphphia, and sometimes Aphia. Archippus Possibly the son of Philemon and Apphia. From Colossians 4:17 he would appear to have held some important office in the church, either at Colossae or at Laodicaea, which lay very near. In Colossians his name occurs immediately after the salutation to the Laodicaeans. Fellow-soldier In christian warfare. Perhaps at Ephesus. Applied also to Epaphroditus, Philippians 2:25. The church in thy house See on Romans 16:5.

Philemon 1:2 . Ἀπφίᾳ τῇ ἀδελφῆ : A Phrygian name, often occurring on Phrygian inscriptions. It is most natural to suppose that she was the wife of Philemon: but she must have occupied also, most likely, a quasi-official position in the Church; τῆ ἀδελφῇ , coming between συνεργῷ and συνστρατιώτῃ , suggests this, especially when one remembers the important part the ministry of women played in the early Church, cf. the labours, e.g. , of Mary, Tryphaena and Tryphosa, Persis, in connexion with whom the semi-technical term κοπιᾶν is used (see 1 Thessalonians 5:12 , 1 Timothy 5:17 , for the use of this word), and Prisca; on the whole subject see Harnack, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity , i., pp. 122 f., 161 f., 363 f. (1908).— Ἀρχίππῳ : there is nothing to show that he was the son of Philemon, rather the contrary, for why should the son be addressed in a letter which dealt with one of his father’s slaves? The inclusion of his name must be due to the fact that he occupied an important position in the local church ( cf. the words which follow in the text), which was thus, in a certain sense, included in the responsibility with regard to Onesimus.

Archippus occupied, apparently, a more important position than Philemon (see Colossians 4:17 , βλέπε τὴν διακονίαν ἤν παρέλαβες ἐν Κυρίῳ , ἵνα αὐτὴν πληροῖς ,—if Philemon had occupied any such official position mention would certainly have been made of it), but this would be most unlikely to have been the case if the latter had been the father of the former. It is more natural to regard him as the head of the local Church, who lived in the house where the members met for worship ( cf. Theodoret’s words, quoted by Lightfoot: ὁ δὲ Ἄρχιππος τὴν διδασκαλίαν αὐτῶν ἐπεπίστευτο ).— συνστρατιώτῃ : only elsewhere in N.T., Php 2:25 , but for the metaphor cf. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 , 1 Timothy 1:18 , 2 Timothy 2:3-4 ,— καὶ τῇ κατʼ οἶκον …: Cf. Acts 12:12 , Romans 16:5 , 1 Corinthians 16:19 , Colossians 4:15 . Up to the third century we have no certain evidence of the existence of church buildings for the purposes of worship; all references point to private houses for this. In Rome several of the oldest churches appear to have been built on the sites of houses used for Christian worship; see Sanday and Headlam, Romans , p. 421, who quote this interesting passage from the Acta Justini Martyris , § 2 (Ruinart): “Quaesivit Praefectus, quem in locum Christiani convenient. Cui respondit Justinus, eo unumquemque convenire quo vellet ac posset. An, inquit, existimas omnes nos in eundem locum convenire solitos?