Who: Paul, a Prisoner

Observation: "Paul (who), a prisoner (repeated word/theme) for Christ Jesus (who/deity)"

Notice: Paul mentions his name in this letter three times, and refers to being a prisoner five times.

Examine: This is the only letter Paul starts out with mentioning that he's a prisoner. In all the other letters he mainly mentions his apostleship, and sometimes a servant/slave/bond-servant, depending on your translation.

Paul (who):
1st "Paul, a prisoner"
2nd "I, Paul, an old man"
3rd "I, Paul, write this with my own hand"

Prisoner (repeated word/theme):
1st Prisoner for Christ
2nd A prisoner also for Christ
3rd My imprisonment
4th Imprisonment for the gospel
5th Epaphras, my fellow prisoner

Historical Background:
People are being put into prison for the sake of the gospel. Both Paul and Epaphras are in prison.

Interpretation:

Why: Mention prison?
Paul is in prison for the sake of the gospel, which he keeps emphesising. Paul's faithfulness to the gospel led him to lay down his rights of freedom, and in the same way, now he is asking Philemon to lay down his rights and take up forgiveness.

Imply:
Paul is putting a strong but subtle touch in his letter. He wants Philemon to know that the favor he is asking, is not from a place of authority (although he is) but from a place of sincerely living out the gospel, with all of it's implications.

Literary context:
why does Paul mention himself 3 times?
Paul is making sure that Philemon knows that he is the author of this letter, and at crucial times in the letter he invokes his name to reassure Philemon.


***interpretations can build on each other, or they can stand on their own. As in the example above the second interpretation builds off of the first, but the third stands on it's own.***