Begat Search

Onesimus

Mentioned in AD 64 traditional (Jones)

Useful, a slave who, after robbing his master Philemon (q.v.) at Colosse, fled to Rome, where he was converted by the apostle Paul, who sent him back to his master with the epistle which bears his name. In it he beseeches Philemon to receive his slave as a “faithful and beloved brother.” Paul offers to pay to Philemon anything his slave had taken, and to bear the wrong he had done him.

From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897).

Tagged in
2 verses

Computed from the data. Years are traditional (Jones).

Family

Two generations up and the children. Gold lines join partners; grey lines run from parent to child; a dotted line marks a parent named in the text but not by descent.

Timeline

The strip runs from Creation to AD 100; the shaded part, AD 39–89, is drawn below at a larger scale around these mentions. Years are traditional (Jones), shown as recorded, not as settled fact.

Mentions

2 tagged verses in 2 books. Select a book to read its verses.

  1. Colossians1
  2. Philemon1

The name in each translation

TextOccurrences of each name
BSBOnesimus 2
KJVOnesimus 4
ASVOnesimus 2

Whole-word, case-sensitive count of the name string (regex \bName\b, so possessives like "Abraham's" count) across the whole Bible text of each translation; this counts the string, not the person, so other people who share the name are included and pronoun references are not. How Begat counts

Every verse

All 2 tagged verses, by book, in canonical order. The Berean Standard Bible is shown; switch to the King James or American Standard Version.

Colossians1 verse
  1. 4:9

    With him I am sending Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.

Philemon1 verse
  1. 1:10

    I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I became while I was in chains.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary

The full entry, public domain, as printed in 1897.

Useful, a slave who, after robbing his master Philemon (q.v.) at Colosse, fled to Rome, where he was converted by the apostle Paul, who sent him back to his master with the epistle which bears his name. In it he beseeches Philemon to receive his slave as a “faithful and beloved brother.” Paul offers to pay to Philemon anything his slave had taken, and to bear the wrong he had done him. He was accompanied on his return by Tychicus, the bearer of the Epistle to the Colossians (Philemon 1:16, 18).

The story of this fugitive Colossian slave is a remarkable evidence of the freedom of access to the prisoner which was granted to all, and “a beautiful illustration both of the character of St. Paul and the transfiguring power and righteous principles of the gospel.”