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The Testimony of Yeshua
Philemon (The Gabriel Version)
Welcome Onesimus
3 May compassion be with you, and peace from Yehovah our Father, and from our Master Yeshua Messiah.
4 Philemon, I continually thank Yehovah for you, and remembered you in my prayers, 5 ‘and have’ from the first time that I heard about your faith and love for our Master Yeshua and for all of the 'special ones' [saints. 6 I pray that the sharing of your faith will yield productive results in works and in a precise knowledge of all the good things you have in Yeshua Messiah. 7 I have received much joy and encouragement from your love [1a] because you have refreshed the 'special ones'.
8 That is why I have ‘enough’ confidence in the Messiah to order you to do the right things, 9 yet for love’s sake, I’m appealing to you instead. I, Paul, an old man as you know, and now also a bondsman [2] for Yeshua Messiah, 10 appeal to you on behalf of my son Onesimus, who I have ‘been like a father to’ during my ‘imprisonment’. 11 Once he was useless to you, but now he will be very useful both to you and me.
12 I have sent him back to you. Welcome him as if he were my son. 13 I wanted to keep him with me, and he would have helped me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the Good News, 14 but I wouldn’t do this without consulting you because I was afraid that his service would seem to be compulsory rather than voluntarily. 15 Perhaps he left you for a little while so that you could keep him forever. 16 From now on he won’t be a servant, but more than a servant, a dear Friend of mine, and much more to you both in physical matters and in our Master!
17 So if you are in fellowship with me, welcome him as you would me. 18 If he has wronged you or owes you anything, charge it to my account. 19 I, Paul, have written this in my own handwriting, I’ll repay you (not to mention that you owe me your very lives). 20 Yes Friends, do me a favor ‘for’ our Master’s sake. Refresh my love [1b] in the Messiah. 21 I’m confident that you’ll hear and do what I wrote to you, and I know that you’ll do even more than I ask.
22 Meanwhile, get a guest room ready for me to stay in, because I hope that due to your prayers I’ll be returned to you.
23 Epaphras, a fellow captive with me in Yeshua Messiah, greets you, 24 and Mark and Aristarchus and Demas and Luke, my coworkers.
25 Friends, may the good will of our Master Yeshua Messiah be with your spirit, Aw-main.
[1a,b] See why “love” is better than the Greek “bowels”. Keyword bowels. “The Greek word properly denotes the upper viscera; the heart, the lungs, the liver. It is applied by Greek writers to denote those parts of victims which were eaten during or after the sacrifice.”—Barnes’ Notes on the Bible [2] See why “bondsman” is far better than “prisoner”. Keyword prisoner.
End of the letter to Philemon that was written from Rome and sent by Onesimus.
REVELATION is next.
Compare the Testimony of Yeshua Version of this book with the 1851 Murdock or the 1849 Etheridge Versions of “The Testimony of Yeshua” (New Testament).
