Onesimus

d. c. 90 (trad.; the Ephesian bishop c. 107) · Runaway slave · “A brother beloved” · Colossae → Rome → (Ephesus?)

The Apostolic Fathers

Who Onesimus was

Philemon’s slave, “unprofitable” by flight and by pun (his name means “Useful”), converted at Rome by the imprisoned Paul — “my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds” — and sent home carrying the letter that asked his owner to receive him “not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.” Colossians names him “a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.” Fifty years on, Ignatius praises an Onesimus as bishop of Ephesus, “a man of inexpressible love”; whether the slave became the bishop — as Knox argued and the name’s rarity among bishops invites — the sources permit but do not prove. The traditions martyr him at Rome or Puteoli.

Common questions

When did Onesimus die?

Onesimus is dated d. c. 90 (trad.; the Ephesian bishop c. 107) in the archive, which places Onesimus in the Apostolic Fathers (AD 70–130). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

Which early sources mention Onesimus?

Onesimus is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Paul, Ignatius of Antioch and The Constitutions' compiler. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Onesimus from?

The archive associates Onesimus with Colossae, Rome, (Ephesus?). The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Who were Onesimus’ contemporaries?

The archive links Onesimus to 8 other figures, including Philemon of Colossae, Paul of Tarsus, Tychicus and Ignatius of Antioch. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

Scripture record

Primary-source mentions (3)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Philemon 1:11

c. AD 55

Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me.

Paul · read ↗

To the Ephesians 1

c. AD 108

I received, therefore, your whole multitude in the name of God in Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love, and your bishop in the flesh — whom I pray you by Jesus Christ to love.

Ignatius of Antioch · 1 · source text

Apostolic Constitutions VII.46 ('Onesimus, once the servant of Philemon', bishop of Berea)

c. AD 380

Of Berea in Macedonia, Onesimus, once the servant of Philemon.

The Constitutions' compiler · Apostolic Constitutions VII.46 · source text

Connected in the archive

People

Events in this lifetime

Place

Others of Colossae → Rome → (Ephesus?) in the The Apostolic Fathers

Places served

The 2 places the sources put Onesimus, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.

See these places on the atlas →