Philemon

Philemon was a person in the Bible New Testament and the recipient of the Epistle to Philemon.

He was an inhabitant of Colossae, and apparently a person of some note among the citizens (Col. 4:9; Philemon 1:2). He was brought to a knowledge of the gospel through the instrumentality of Paul (19), and held a prominent place in the Christian community for his piety and beneficence (4-7). He is called in the epistle a "fellow-labourer," and therefore probably held some office in the church at Colossae; at all events, the title denotes that he took part in the work of spreading a knowledge of the gospel.

{This entry incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897, with some modernization.}

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Philemon was a character in Greek mythology, husband of Baucis. The tale of Philemon and Baucis is part of the epic poem Metamorphoses by Ovid.