The short book of Philemon is one of the greatest anti-slavery passages in the Bible.

The slave Onesimus had run away from Philemon. At some point while Paul was under arrest, he encountered Onesimus, who then became a Christian.

Paul appeals to Philemon to accept Onesimus back “no longer as a bondservant, but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother” (v. 16) and to “receive him as you would me” (v. 17). These are clear anti-slavery statements. If Paul wants Philemon to accept Onesimus as he would receive him, clearly that is not as a slave. As Paul has said elsewhere, “do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23).

But there is one difficulty here: Why did Paul send Onesimus back at all? Why not say “slavery is wrong, you are free, don’t go back”?

The first part of the answer is in verses 8-9, where Paul says to Philemon: “Though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you.” And verse 14: “I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your good ness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.”

In other words, Paul wants Philemon to do the right thing willingly, by choice, and so he gives him that choice by sending him back.

The second part of the answer, and the main part, is even more amazing, and is I think this: this letter is ultimately about reconciliation. Paul is not sending Onesimus back with the intent that he would be Philemon’s slave again. As we saw, he says to receive him “no longer as a bondservant” and “as you would me.” Rather, Paul is sending him back so that the relationship may be reconciled. Not the master-slave relationship, but the personal relationship.

Onesimus is now a Christian. It is right for the rift between him and Philemon to be reconciled and restored. Not the slavery, but the relationship. And so Paul sends him back, as a statement to the importance of reconciliation and to create the opportunity for it to happen.

That’s what Paul is doing here. I find that amazing. And it ultimately reflects something more than the heart of Paul (one of the greatest Christians to ever live, in my view) but of Jesus Christ, whom Paul followed. “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Thus, the book of Philemon stands as not only a massive anti-slavery text, but also as a striking testimony to the value and importance of Christian reconciliation. And, even more than that, the reconciling heart of Jesus Christ.

A few weeks ago I posted on Crossway’s new Hebrew-English Old Testament.

It turns out that they now also have a Greek-English New Testament, which is perhaps even more useful, since Greek is a much easier language.

So, as I said regarding the Hebrew-English Old Testament, I say regarding the Greek-English New Testament even more:

If you went to seminary, made your way through your Greek classes and then forgot most of it, this is for you. You can start to recover a lot of the Greek you’ve forgotten by simply seeking to read the Greek naturally, in conjunction with the English to help assist your memory.

This, in turn, can perhaps build your habits and capacity to the point where you will want to dig even deeper to recover the Greek skills you’ve lost. But even if it doesn’t, simply reading more in the Greek, even with the assistance of the English, will in itself be of great help and use.

Here’s the summary from the Crossway site:

Combining Greek with the English Standard Version text, the Greek-English New Testament is an essential resource for students, pastors, and scholars who work with the Greek New Testament. On each spread, one page displays the Nestle-Aland Greek text, 28th edition, while the adjacent page contains the corresponding ESV text. Simply formatted and easy to use, the Greek-English New Testament will be an invaluable resource for anyone studying and working from the New Testament in its original language.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get it!

The Gospel Transformation Study Bible releases today from Crossway. I have found it to be a fantastic resource so far. Here’s the gist:

The apostle Paul summed up his whole ministry as existing “to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). That single-minded goal is the heartbeat of the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible. Produced out of the conviction that the Bible is a unified message of God’s grace culminating in Jesus, it is a significant new tool to help readers see Christ in all the Bible, and grace for all of life.

And here’s my blurb for it:

Filled with amazing insight and yet highly accessible, this is an outstanding resource for understanding what it really means for the gospel to be at the center of our entire lives—and why this matters.

Learn more at the Gospel Transformation Bible site.

Following up on my post about getting a Hebrew-English OT: It goes without saying that, if it’s valuable to have a Hebrew Old Testament, it’s even more important to have a Greek New Testament, if only for this reason: Greek is a much easier language than Hebrew.

Hence, if you’ve been to seminary and taken Greek, even if you’ve forgotten some of it, you probably still remember much of it. If you make it a habit to read in the original languages every day, even just a small amount, you can maintain your Greek and begin to recover what you’ve forgotten.

The reason I like this particular edition is that the more challenging verbs are parsed, and any word occurring less than 30 times in the NT is translated in the footnotes. I have unfortunately not developed the discipline of reading in the Greek on a regular basis, but it is a standard practice of mine to go back to the original languages whenever there is something that is unclear, I want to go deeper on, or that is ambiguous. This Greek NT is the best I’ve encountered for doing this, because of the fact that the more complex verbs are parsed and the less common words are defined right there on the page in the notes at the bottom. That is awesome.

Note that the one in the image above has a black cover. That’s what I recommend. Why would you ever get burgundy? You wouldn’t. Get the black one.

Sorry if this sounds like a day of advertisements today. I’ve had these stacked up on my “to blog” shelf for quite a while, and they were there for one reason: because they are super helpful, I genuinely recommend them, and I think that anyone who has taken some of the original languages should have a Bible in the original languages. For the NT, this is the one I recommend.

Here’s the description from Crossway’s site:

This reader’s edition of the UBS Greek New Testament is an essential resource for pastors, professors, and others who regularly work with the New Testament in its original language, as well as students and others learning Greek. Containing the complete UBS4 Greek New Testament text from the United Bible Society, this edition features a clean layout with the Greek text above notes on every page. These notes include parsings of difficult verb forms as well as translations of Greek words occurring 30 times or less in the New Testament. In addition, a dictionary in the back defines words occurring 30 times or more, serving as a helpful reference for all learning to read Greek. Published in two different leather covers, the UBS Greek New Testament will serve as a lasting resource for all seeking to study the New Testament in its original language.

For any pastors or others who have gone to seminary, taken Hebrew, but forgotten most of it: this is for you.

I’m in the category of those who took Hebrew and have forgotten almost everything they learned. Learning Hebrew was truly a miserable experience (though not nearly as bad as writing the book!). Most days we would have “board time,” which meant going to various rooms in the building to do Hebrew drills on the white board. One day, I started walking to the room where my white board was…and just kept right on walking back to my apartment because the drills seemed so futile!

BUT, I do think it is very important to be familiar with the original languages (and, I like Greek much better than Hebrew). For those who, like me, want to do what they can to stay connected with the original language of most of the OT, the ESV Hebrew-English Old Testament is a great way to do it. You have the English on one page, which you can actually understand; and then the Hebrew on the other page, where you can make out what you can with the help of the English and, as you do this, recover some of the things you had learned and slowly grow just a bit.

More significantly, of course, for those who do still remember their Hebrew and can read it straight, a Hebrew-English Bible is the best resource of all, and this is the one I would recommend.

Here’s the summary from Crossway’s website:

Using the standard Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) text, the Hebrew-English Old Testamentdisplays the ESV Old Testament alongside the original Hebrew. On each spread, one page shows the English rendering of a passage while the other shows the Hebrew, enabling readers to work through either language undistracted and uninterrupted. A durable hardcover and Smyth-sewn binding ensure this volume will last for many years. Anyone learning or proficient in Hebrew will find this a resource for everyday reading and study, as well as a comparison tool to see how the ESV translates Old Testament passages.