Onesimus was a slave whose name appears twice in the New Testament (Phil 10; Col 4:9). Onesimus ran away from his master Philemon of Colossae and made his way to where the apostle Paul was imprisoned (probably in Ephesus).David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1996, c1992), 5:21. Paul converted Onesimus to the Christian faith and sent him back to his master along with the Epistle to Philemon. In it Paul asks Philemon to receive his slave as a "faithful and beloved brother". Paul offers to pay to Philemon anything his slave had taken, and to bear the wrong he had done him. He was accompanied on his return by Tychicus, the bearer of the Epistle to the Colossians (, ). The name Onesimus means "useful".

Notes