1. Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timotheus the brother, to Philemon the beloved and our fellow-workman,
2. and to the sister Apphia and to Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the assembly which is in thine house.
3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. I thank my God, always making mention of thee at my prayers,
5. hearing of thy love and the faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus, and towards all the saints,
6. in such sort that thy participation in the faith should become operative in the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in us towards Christ Jesus.
7. For we have great thankfulness and encouragement through thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.
8. Wherefore having much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee what is fitting,
9. for love's sake I rather exhort, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also prisoner of Jesus Christ.
10. I exhort thee for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus,
11. once unserviceable to thee, but now serviceable to thee and to me:
12. whom I have sent back to thee: but do thou receive him, that is, my bowels:
13. whom I was desirous of keeping with myself, that for thee he might minister to me in the bonds of the glad tidings;