GREEK · G3682
Ὀνήσιμος
Onēsimos — Onesimus
Ὀνήσιμος, -ου, ὁ (i.e. profitable, ὄνησις, profit), Onesimus: Col.4:9, Phm 10 (a common name among slaves; see MM, iii, xviii).† (AS)
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Onesimus
Original Hebrew / Aramaic / Greek connected to this term
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
Historical dictionary entry
Useful, a slave who, after robbing his master Philemon (q.v.) at Colosse, fled to Rome, where he was converted by the apostle Paul, who sent him back to his master with the epistle which bears his name. In it he beseeches 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 (Philemon 1:16, 18). The story of this fugitive Colossian slave is a remarkable evidence of the freedom of access to the prisoner which was granted to all, and “a beautiful illustration both of the character of St. Paul and the transfiguring power and righteous principles of the gospel.”
Scripture references
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.