We have no reliable account of Onesimus' sub- sequent history ; but we may accept as in itself highly credible the tradition [Apost. Canons, 82) that Philemon not only forgave but emancipated his slave. More doubtful and also discordant are the records which represent Onesimus as attaining to the position of ' bishop ' or presiding presbyter, in Beroea, according to the Apost. Const, (vii. 46) ; in Ephesus, according to another tradition wliich identifies him with Onesimus, ' bishop ' of Ephesus in the time of Ignatius (Ign. Eph. 1 ; AS, under 16th Feb.). A tradition (also embodied in the AS) represents him as journeying to Spain ; and the apocryphal Acts of the Spanish Xanthippe and Polyxena are written in his name (see TS ii. 3 [1893]). Nicephorus (9th cent.) transmits (//■£ iii.
11) a tradition that he was martyred at Rome; while another aulhority (Oalcsinius) describes that martyrdom as taking place at Puteoli {AS, loc. cit,). The commonness of the name deprives these accounts of any historical reliability. F. W. Farrar, in Durkness and Dawn, ed. 1892, p. 79 If., and the autlior of Pkilochristos (E. A. Abbott) in his Onesimus, 1882, give interesting fictitious accoiints of what might have been the life-story of this slave. LiTtRATURE. — See under Philemon, Epistle to.
Hknry Cowan. ONESIPHORUS ('Oyf<ri0opos, ' profit-bringer ').— This is the name of a Christian convert belonging to Ephesus who h<ad visited Rome during the apostle Paul's imprisonment and had sought out the prisoner and ministered to his wants : ' Ho oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of luy chain ' (2 Ti 1'*). He had also performed out- standing services for the Church at Ephesus, to which the Apostle refers, mentioning that Timothy, to whom he writes, knew better (sii\Ti.ov) about them than he did himself (v."). The word used here and translated ' ministered ' (Gr. Si.aKoviiji) has been supposed to indicate that Onesiphorus acted as a deacon of the Church in Ephesus, but this is by no means certain. When in Rome during his second imprisonment the Apostle sends greetings to the household of Onesiphorus (4'*) ; and in 1'* he expresses the desire that the Lord may give mercy to the 'house of Onesiphorus.' St. Paul mentions that Onesiphorus had treated him very kindly when in Rome, and contrasts his action with that of other members of the Church of Asia, who had turned away from him and refused to help him in his need, particularly referring to Phygellus and Hermogenes.
Several questions arise here. Why does St. Paul speak of the household of Onesiphorus? Why does he not send greetings to Onesiphorus himself, as hedoes.e.gr., in4i' to Priscaand Aquila? Was Onesiphorus dead when the Epistle was written ? Most students conclude that Onesiphorus had already died. If this view be correct, an in- teresting point arises with regard to the prayer in 1" — ' the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.' Is this a prayer for one who was already dead ? Several who advocate the practice of prayer for the departed have quoted this passage in support of their posi- tion [e.g., Archibald Campbell, The Intermediate or Middle State of Departed Sovls, London, 1713, p. 72; E. H. Plumptre, The Spirits in Prison, do., 1SS4, pp. 128, 266 ; H. M. Luckock, After Dcath^, do., ISSl, p. 77, The Intermediate State^, do., 1896, p. 211). N.J. D.White, in .EGr, ' 1 and2Tiniothy and Titus,' London, 1910, p. 159, refers to 2 Mac 12^' in support of the contention that an orthodox Jew of the time of Christ could have prayed for the dead. It seems, however, to be an undue pressing of the text to regard the sentence in 1'^ as more than a pious wish on the part of the Apostle for one of whom he had very kindly memories (cf. G. S. Barrett, The Intermediate State, London, 1896, p. 113). In any case, we have no foundation whatever for the Roman Catholic system of prayers for the deliverance of souls from the pains of purgatory.
See, further, artt. in HDB and EBi.
W. F. Boyd.
ONLY-BEGOTTEN (MoroYfr,};, th;).— 1. Use of the phrase. — It occurs in a literal sense four times in the NT : in Lk 7'- (tlie widow's son at Nain), 8''- (Jairus' daughter), 9"* (the child in the scene after the Transfiguration), He 11" (Isaac) ; not at all in the other Synoptists. As referring to our Lord, it is Johannine only ; and outside the Fourth Gospel it is found once only — in 1 Jn 4". It is
UNLY-BEGOTTEN
ORACLE
113
used of Christ absolutely, ' tlie Only-begotten,' in Jn l"; and with 'Son of God' or 'his Son' in Jn 3'"- ", 1 Jn 4". The reading in Jn 1" is dis- puted ; the best-attested reading is nofoyefiis tieSi (without the article), 'God only begotten '(X*BC*L Peslu Boh. JEth., etc.) ; but AX with Old Lat., Vulg., Syr-cu, Arm., secondary uncials and almost all cursives, have 6 noyoyevT]s vl6i, ' the only begotten Son.' The Diatcssaron seems to have got out of the difticult}' by reading ' the Only-begotten ' sinipl}- ; Syr-sin is wanting here, but Burkitt (Evang. da-Mcph., 1904, ii. 307 f.) thinks that it had iiovoyevTt^ Oe&i, and that the unrevised Syr-cu had ' the Only-begotten ' as the Diatcssaron. This is to some extent confirmed by the Ignatian inter- polator {Philipp. 2 [late 4th cent.]), who also reads ' the Only-begotten ' (Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers : ' Ignatius '=, iii. [1889] 190; see also i. 254). The Fathers are divided ; the old Roman Creed (as given by Swete, Apostles' Creed, p. 16) has ' unicum tilium,' which evidently presupposes the second reading (the derived 'Apostles' Creed ' has 'filium eius tmicum dominuni nostrum' ; see below).