“For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever;”
For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a while, that you might have him back forever — the providential framing suggests divine intention underlying Onesimus's flight: separation (apochōrizō — to divide/part) served a higher purpose. The temporal condition (proskairos chronon — brief time) contrasts with the permanent restoration (aiōnion — eternal/forever) Paul anticipates. The separation, painful and wrong in itself, becomes instrumental to reconciliation; slavery is superseded by permanent belonging in the new order.
Church Fathers on Philemon 1:15
He has well said, “perhaps,” that the master may yield. For since the flight arose from perverseness, and a corrupt mind, and not from such intention, he has said, “perhaps.” And he has not said, therefore he fled, but, therefore he was “separated,” by a more fair sounding expression softening him the more. And he has not said, He separated himself, but, “he was separated.” For it was not his own arrangement that he should depart either for this purpose or for that. Which…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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