#onesimus

but you slapped away my olive branch | you shot a hole through my white flag

The Book of Philemon

1 Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our dear helper in the faith,

2 And to Apphia, our sister, and to Archippus, our brother in God’s army, and to the church in your house:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give praise to God at all times and make prayer for you,

5 Hearing of the love and the faith which you have to the Lord Jesus and to all the saints;

6 That the faith which you have in common with them may be working with power, in the knowledge of every good thing in you, for Christ.

7 For I had great joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been made strong again through you, brother.

8 And so, though I might, in the name of Christ, give you orders to do what is right,

9 Still, because of love, in place of an order, I make a request to you, I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner of Christ Jesus:

10 My request is for my child Onesimus, the child of my chains,

11 Who in the past was of no profit to you, but now is of profit to you and to me:

12 Whom I have sent back to you, him who is my very heart:

13 Though my desire was to keep him with me, to be my servant in the chains of the good news, in your place:

14 But without your approval I would do nothing; so that your good works might not be forced, but done freely from your heart.

15 For it is possible that for this reason he was parted from you for a time, so that you might have him for ever;

16 No longer as a servant, but more than a servant, a brother, very dear to me specially, but much more to you, in the flesh as well as in the Lord.

17 If then you take me to be your friend and brother, take him in as myself.

18 If he has done you any wrong or is in debt to you for anything, put it to my account.

19 I, Paul, writing this myself, say, I will make payment to you: and I do not say to you that you are in debt to me even for your life.

20 So brother, let me have joy of you in the Lord: give new life to my heart in Christ.

21 Being certain that you will do my desire, I am writing to you, in the knowledge that you will do even more than I say.

22 And make a room ready for me; for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be given to you.

23 Epaphras, my brother-prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you his love;

24 And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my brother-workers.

25 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. So be it. — Philemon 1 | Bible in Basic English (BBE) The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain. Cross References: Genesis 43:9; Genesis 45:5; Matthew 23:8; Matthew 25:30; Acts 16:1; Acts 20:21; Acts 27:24; Romans 1:7-8; Romans 12:1; Romans 16:1; 1 Corinthians 16:18; 2 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 3:12; 2 Corinthians 8:23; 2 Corinthians 9:7; Galatians 5:2; Philippians 1:7; Philippians 2:25; Colossians 3:10; Colossians 4:10; 1 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:22

Philemon Summary

Summary of the Book of Philemon

Onesimus, Sweden.

Born Nesib in Nekemte, Ethiopia, and sold as a slave at age 4. One decade later, in 1870, a French vice consul bought Nesib’s freedom and left him in Sweden. Two years later he was baptized Onesimus. From 1876-81, he studied theology in Sweden.

Paul writes a letter to Philemon to urge him to take Onesimus as his slave, to continue the ministry...for Paul is old and would love to have his worked passed on as much.

I see the letter as also a relevant letter to us, to see the good in others. For Onesimus is a prisoner yet that doesn’t make him less of a man. As children of God, “your partnership in the Faith may become effective in recognising every good there is in us that leads to Christ.” (Phil 1:6). Man is all called to holiness and to Christ. This letter of Paul urges us to see the good in others no matter who or what they are. Paul also takes into account the nature of free will; where we are free to choose and decide. “I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.” (Phil 1:14)

Paul always wants the good in us to prevail. Truly, to enhance and exercise the gifts of our spirit. May we always have the initiative to do what is good and to see the good in others as what Christ would do to us sinners. May we live truly like how Christ did; loving us unconditionally and giving us more than what we ought to deserve.

An African slave taught America to vaccinate from smallpox

In April 1721, a smallpox outbreak swept through Boston. This was the latest in a string of six epidemics that had, since, 1630, laid waste to the city. Cotton Mather, a local slave owner and preacher, claimed to be in possession of a way of preventing contraction of the disease. Mather, who had first come to public prominence as one of the thinkers behind the Salem Witch Trials, had gotten the method from one of his former slaves.

Fifteen years earlier, Mather’s congregation had purchased for him an African slave, a “Young Man, who is a Ne***, of a promising aspect and temper.” Mather named him Onesimus, after a slave in the Bible whose name meant “useful.” Mather described Onesimus as being Guramantese, but it is unclear what ethnic group exactly this refers to. One account suggests them to be the Garamante, who correspond to the Berber peoples of southern Libya. Another places Onesimus among the Coromantee from the coastal areas of modern-day Ghana.

Since smallpox was a common scourge in the 18th century, a slave’s value was predicated on his ability to stave off infection. One of the features of smallpox is that a person can only contract it once. Mather asked Onesimus if he had ever suffered from the disease. Mather describes the conversation that followed:

“Enquiring of my Ne*** man, Onesimus, who is a pretty intelligent fellow, whether he had ever had the smallpox, he answered, both yes and no; and then told me that he had undergone an operation, which had given him something of the smallpox and would forever preserve him from it; adding that it was often used among the Guramantese and whoever had the courage to use it was forever free of the fear of contagion.”

The operation Onesimus described was a common procedure in certain parts of the world. What happened was that pus from an infected person was rubbed into an open wound of a person uninfected with smallpox. If one survived this procedure, one was thus inoculated against smallpox, and could never contract it. The procedure was done in different places. In Africa, in China, in India, in the Ottoman empire. Most accounts place the origin of inoculation in either China (where they would blow scabs up a person’s nose) or India, and in both places, it was largely a secret procedure whose technique was passed down mostly in families.

By 1721, inoculation was not entirely unknown in the Western world. It was practiced in Wales and Scotland, and slave traders were known to look for inoculation scars on their slaves. The prices of slaves with the scars would then be hiked up. However, in colonial Boston, as smallpox decimated the population, very few of the inhabitants knew about the procedure. In haste, Mather wrote to the city’s physicians, urging them to perform the procedure so as to save lives.

The resistance was immense. Local newspapers vilified him. A grenade was thrown into his house, the throwers angered that he had dared to inoculate his own son, who almost died. His fellow ministers decried his sin, declaring that it was against God’s will to expose his creatures to dangerous diseases. All the physicians in the town, except one, Zabdiel Boylston, refused to carry out the procedure. The moment Boylston announced his intention to do so, Bostonians took to the streets in protest. Cue the first manifestations of the American anti-vaxxer movement.

The first people Boylston inoculated were his son, and two of his slaves. He was promptly thrown in jail, accused of recklessly trying to spread disease

At the core of Boston’s resistance to inoculation was a heavy racial bias. Mather had made no secret of the fact that he learnt of the procedure from his former slave, and this was the stick the town used against him. Inoculation existed in scientific documents where it was described as a “heathen practice” from Africa. The white puritans of Boston refused to defile their bodies with African heathenisms. To do so would be against God’s will, against predestination. Let God’s will be done. If the Lord God Almighty had decided that it was your day, that was it. Amen. As Peter Manseau notes, “This was not just a health crisis; it was also a theological one. The majority of Puritan clergy regarded the epidemic as divine will.”

The bias made the impact of the smallpox more severe than it should have been. In the end, Boylston was able to inoculate only 248 of the city’s 11,000 residents. Of these 248, only six died, a rate of one in 40. For the rest of Boston, the mortality rate was one in seven, with 844 people dead by the end of the epidemic.

Forgiveness is always in accordance with Torah

The consistency of God’s instruction is revealed when all of the information is reviewed carefully. One of the challenges that are brought up in regard to the veracity of the teachings of Paul is the tiny epistle written to Philemon. In this letter, Paul is urging his friend Philemon to receive back his former slave, Onesimus, who has since become a believer in Messiah Yeshua. The contention…

I never played much DOS shareware but it’s still oddly nostalgic! Also, Jill is just a good game.