We mistake if we consider that the occasion on which Paul interfered was really small. Throughout the Ro- man empire the number of the enslaved was perhaps seven times the number of the free. It was important that a practical exemplification should be given by Paul himself of the meaning of his own language, that in the new creation there is " neither bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all." There is no violent interference with the prescriptive rights of ownership which Philemon had acquired; Paul gently states that while his natural impulse was to retain Onesimus for the sake of his ser- vices (Phil. 13), yet, apart from Philemon's consent, he would forego the comfort which the presence of such a Christian brother was able to impart. Yet the language in which Paul speaks of Onesimus clearly shows that Philemon could no longer maintain those rights with- out forfeiting his Christian character. Slavery is no- where expressly condemned in Scripture anymore than polygamy ; the duty of emancipating slaves is not ex- pressly inculcated any more than the duty of family worship. The influence of vital Christianity implicitly forbids the permanency of a system which defeats the apostle's injunction: "jMasters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." Where the owner is Christian- ized, the bondsman is enfranchised. The interference of Paul in behalf of ( )ucsimus may thus be considered a divine act of emancipation, illustrating the legitimate and necessary infiuence of Christian principle. Amid all the defects and corruptions of the Christian Church we can discover proofs of its divine origin in everj- age
ONESIMUS
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ONIAS, CITY OF
and in every clime, by its tendency to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every voke ; the Church has very generally felt that the com- mand, " He who loveth God should love his brother also," strikes at the root of a system which severs the domestic relations of husband and wife, of parent and child, while it blasts the oppressor with the blinding and hardening effects of arbitrary rule and irresponsible power (Fairbairn). See Philemon.
Onesimtis, St., an early Christian bishop, who suc- ceeded Cains in the chair at Ephesus, and was the third bishop of that city. He governed that Church in 107. His festival is celebrated Feb. 16 in the Latin Church. See Acta Sa>ictonim, February' and March; Dom Cal- met, Diet, de la Bible, s. v. ; Baillet, Vies des Saints, vol. i.
Onesiph'orus {'Oi'riffi(popog,proft-bringinff), a be- liever of Ephesus, who came to Rome during the second captivity of Paul in that city (A.D. cir. 6-1), and having found out the apostle, who was in custody of a soldier, to whose arm his own was chained, was " not ashamed of his chain," but attended him frequently, and rendered him all the services in his power. This faithful attach- ment, at a time of calamity and desertion, was fully ap- preciated and well remembered by the apostle, who in his Epistle to Timothy carefully records the circum- stance ; and, after charging him to salute in his name "the household of Onesiphorus," expresses the most earnest and grateful wishes for his spiritual welfare (2 Tim. i, 16-18; comp. iv, 19). It would appear from this that Onesiphorus had then quit Rome (Kitto). It has even been made a question whether this friend of the apostle was still living when the letter to Tim- othy was written, because in both instances Paul speaks of '• the household" (in 2 Tim. i, 16, A,J?; tXeoQ u KvptoQ Til) '0}'7](Ti<popov o'lKif)), and not separately of Onesipho- rus himself. If we infer that he was not living, then we have in 2 Tim. i, 18 almost an instance of the apos- tolic sanction of the practice of praying for the dead. But the probability is that other members of the fam- ily were also active Christians; and as Paul wished to remember them at the same time, he grouped them to- gether under the comprehensive riiv 'Ov. oIkov (2 Tim. iv, 19), and thus delicately recognised the common merit, as a sort of family distinction. The mention of Stephanas in 1 Cor. xvi, 17 shows that we need not ex- clude him from the Srf^ava oTkov in 1 Cor. i, 16. It is evident from 2 Tim. i, 18 (ocra h' 'Ecpifftf) ciijKui'rjai) that Onesiphorus had his home at Ephesus ; though if we restrict the salutation near the close of the e))istle (iv, 19) to his family, he himself may possibh' have been with Paul at Home when the latter wrote to Tim- othy. Nothing authentic is known of him beyond these notices. According to a tradition in F'abricius (Ltix Evang. p. 117), he became bishop of Corone, in Messenia (Smith).
Oni'ar^S (^Oviapi^q), a name that appears in 1 Mace, xii, 20 as the author or director of the letter of the Lacedicmonians to Onias ; but it is evidently a cor- ruption for Onias (Oi'i(f 'Apaof, the latter name re- peated from the following verse). See Josephus, Ant. xii. 4. 10.
Oni'as ('Oj^/ac- perh. for rT^DX, a ship), the name of five Jewish pontiffs, mentioned by the Apocrypha and by Josephus. The following account of them is mostly from Smith's Dial, of the Bible, s. v. See High-I'RIkst.