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Bible essay on forgiveness
Thesis about the letter to the philemon
Bible essay on forgiveness
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The letter to Philemon is the shortest in of all of the apostle Paul’s writings. It is centered on a slave named Onesimus who had escaped from his owner, Philemon. Onesimus ran away from Colossae to Rome. While he was in Rome, Onesimus, came in contact with Paul. Paul led the runaway slave to Christianity. In 60-61AD Paul wrote a personal letter to Philemon while he was in a prison cell in Rome. In this short letter, so much is being said; especially regarding the act of grace. Grace is loving the unlovable; forgiving those who do not care if they are forgiven. The book of Philemon is about giving grace to others; the letter to Philemon provides many insights into the Bible from a historical, literary and contemporary interpretation …show more content…
Slavery, in the Roman world was apart of their everyday life. It was a core social institution. Slavery was not about race. It was a means to an end; such as completing manual labor or attending to certain household chores. Slaves were viewed as property, but an individual was also able to sell themselves into slavery. Some individuals became slaves in order to gain citizenship in Rome. The Roman and Mosaic Laws considered slaves property; because of this it gave the slave owners the right to punish a runaway slaves as they saw …show more content…
Although it is challenging to forgive, as a Christian, it is important to recognize that forgiveness is the result of God’s grace. We are blessed to have God’s grace, and because of that, forgiveness serves as a characteristic of who we are as a Christian. When there is human conflict it comes from human nature apart from God. Every individual is doing what seems right in their own eyes. When people do what they think is right, this will cause there to be anger, discrimination, violence and war. This is true today, we see this in the hate coming from North Korea, in Charlottesville over the weekend, and unfortunately all over the World. The letter to Philemon shows us that the way to peace is for everyone to do their best to live their life as described in the pages of the Bible. Looking at Paul’s teachings, and keeping in mind Paul's words to Philemon, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit” Christians should treat their community, employees, and their family members with grace and as brothers in Christ (Coogan, 2010, p. 2101). In today’s society, Christians should not view employees, students or anyone else as a stepping stone to achieve their goal. All Christians in leadership positions should recognize that God holds them accountable for the treatment of those who work under them. It does not matter if those involved are Christians or not; everyone deserves the grace of God; and
According to the Marvin Perry, “ slaves was practiced in ancient times, in many lands, and among most people.”(Perry, 112) Especially in ancient Roman, when Roman armies expand to other countries and areas successfully, they captured people during the battle and send back to Rome to be sold to the wealthy Romans as their slaves. During the last centuries of Republic and the early centuries of the imperial age, the Roman war brought back to a huge amount of slaves as their spoils of the wars. Slaves was considered legally to be a piece of property without their own freedom. In ancient Roman, people called their slaves as the “Speaking Tools” . Slaves did not treat as a human beings with legal citizen rights. They sold as products to the market and valued by their demographic characteristics including age, gender, personal skills, ethnic,manner, appearance, and personality. The lives of slaves conspicuously harsh by their tough works and cruel tortures from their inconsidered masters. The more brutal oppression of masters, the more intense of slave revolt, and finally to cause the massive revolt in Roman.
First, slaves were treated as things rather than people due to them being put on the market. In today’s society, products and things are put on the market to be purchased. Human beings do not fall into this category. Human beings are not put on the market, simply because it is not appropriate, nor is it acceptable. In Ancient Rome however, it was routine to place slaves on the market. This process came to the point where slaves were beginning to purchase or sell other slaves on the market. In Westermann’s journal it says, “Cato the Censor in the first half of the second century B.C, began the practice of permitting his older slaves to buy and to train young boys with the money that he furnished” . Clearly, it was ordinary to buy slaves. Although it was ordinary, it was still highly incorrect to treat human beings in such a way. Moving on, there were also certain ways to sell a slave on the market in Ancient Rome. A slave’s previous nationality was the assumption of their character. This included their work ethic, attention span, attitude etc. It was a common...
In the ancient times slavery was a common and normal thing. In 70 A.D it was estimated that there were slaves in Rome. There were no troubles or controversies over it. Slavery was widespread and most families owned at least one slave. Today there is only one real way to become a slave but in Roman Times (rise of Rome) there were three. 1=Slavery due to crime committed. 2=Not being a Roman citizen. 3=Taken prisoner by Romans. An example is war.
Silva, Moisés. Philippians. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005.
An awareness of the historical-cultural background of Paul’s letter to Philemon will aid in interpretation of the text. The information gleamed should allow for a greater contextual appreciation. With this knowledge in hand, the reader can grasp a deeper understanding of the theological teachings of the book of Philemon.
The experiences of enslaved women differed from the experience of enslaved men in ancient Rome; slavery within ancient Rome can be traced back to the first century BCE and was based primarily on the chattel slave system. Slavery within the ancient roman society was highly normalised as it was considered a part of roman culture. Slavery within ancient Rome was so heavily normalised that it is considered to be described as a “slave society” Joshel (2010, p. 6) states that “For slaves living in the Roman world, there was no outside – no place without slavery and no movement that declared slavery wrong. Slavery was a normal part of life, and this was true not only for the Romans but for every neighbouring ancient culture”. Not only was slavery considered a normal part of Roman life, but it affected a great proportion of the Roman population. According to historian Walter Scheidel (2007, p. 6) “ There were somewhere between 5 to 8 million slaves in the Roman empire, some 250,000 to 400,000 new slaves were required every year to maintain the numbers”. A majority of these figures were men, children and - women; either being enslaved through birth, kidnapping or captured through war. Roman slaves were not seen as victims nor was slavery considered to be a crime at that time, as slavery was considered to be to a ‘natural law of the nations’ as stated by Joshel (2010, p.6) “For the Roman lawyer, slavery is not a crime, and the enslaved are not victims; rather, as Gaius and other Roman jurists nations. Natural law applies to all animals, not only human beings, but it concerns little more than the union of male and female, procreation of children, and their rearing”. With an estimated 5 to 8 million slaves within the Roman Empire, whether...
Slavery in ancient Rome had a huge toll to society and was very important to the economy. Many unskilled slaves did a lot of old fashion manual labor for there masters, also slaves performed and did a lot of household work, and possibly hired at particular expert jobs and professions. Teachers were often slaves. Most distinct Greek slaves were to be expected as highly educated. Unskilled slaves / uneducated slaves, or people who were convicted of crime most of the time slavery could be used as punishment, these people worked on farms, in mines, and at mills. Their living conditions were heartless, very tight, had no right to do anything , and most of time lives short. In rome slaves were property such as a house is to a person in the beginning slaves had no rights to say or do anything over time slaves slowly were given rights and little freedom this happened overtime. This was sadly accepted as part of life in ancient Rome by the slaves themselves and by the society. Little to no credit had been given to the important contributions to the economy and
The ancient Romans were notorious for their keeping of slaves and everyone, including the people of the lower classes, had at least one slave.
"The widespread use of slavery in Rome is taken as a sign that Gemeinschaft dominated the life of the Roman republic and the early Roman empire" (Temin, 2004, p. 514). However, the Roman's did not have a great labor market because they had free labor and the United States still had a working class. Labor laws in Rome were substantially different from the United States; as Lawrence (2000) said, "the human life course tends to be viewed subjectively" (p. 443). Unlike ancient Rome, the United States disbanded slavery whilst the Romans kept slaves until the demise of their
Slavery was the practice of taking a human being and making them do the work of another by force. This was practiced through out the ancient world and especially in Rome and Greece. Slaves were nothing more than just property to the ancient peoples. They didn't have the rights of citizens nor were they able to do what they want in most cases. Slaves had many tasks that they had to do, many of which included taking care of the masters house and kids, cooking and cleaning that house, herding the cattle for the farming families, being guards for some prisons, fighting for entertainment of the masses, and more common was sexual activities with the slaves.
“[In Rome] people from all walks of life came together to create a diverse society” (Little 164). Like in all societies, there were different social classes and divisions between citizens. Besides the emperor, senators held the highest class. They were considered to be the emperor’s social equals. Next were the Equites. These men served as calvary in the army. “Plebs” were the working class of Rome. They were composed of artisans, bakers, construction workers, etc. The lowest class was constructed of women and, just below them, slaves. Women were not regarded highly in society and meant to stay silent and submissive. Slaves made up one-third of the total population (Littell 164). This was due to the fact that slavery was “widespread” and “important to the economy because agriculture was “the most important industry in the [Roman] empire” (Littell 163). Rome made more use of slaves than in any previous civilization. Most slaves were conquered people that included men, women, and children brought back by Roman armies (Littell 164). There were two types of slaves: city and rustic. City ...
Philemon was a slave owner who exercised his Christian faith through the church he ran in his own home. " Early Christians had no church buildings and therefore met in homes." P.454*** One of his slaves was Onesimus, who had at one time traveled and attended one of Paul's ministry teachings in Ephesus. Its thought that at this time Paul was a stepping stone in directing Onesimus' commitment in becoming a Christian. The situation between the master and slave become complex when Onesimus stole and ran from Philemon.
A strong Christian lesson on the true nature of forgiveness can be found in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount:
The substance of forgiveness is known to be an important thing and concept in the teaching of Jesus. In the Bible, Jesus has made it clear that unforgiveness is known to be a serious sin nurtured in the heart. As per Jesus Christ, it is said that the person needs to be forgiven even if a serious problem is caused due to him. If not, even we would not be forgiven from God. As per Jesus, if you forgive the sin done by the people, your heavenly will also forgive you if you have committed any sin. We would always want the heavenly father to forgive us for whatever wrong things or the mistakes that we do. In fact, we always think that it is the duty of God to forgive us. However, we never consider that the degree of offence we have done. We always think that he is the God and it is his prime duty to forgive us no matter what we do. But if somebody does the same thing to us, we always feel that it is not important to forgive them we think that we should not let them go just by forgiving them. Hence, the most important thing that needs to be considered here by us is that we should learn to forgive people (...
Forgiveness is the act of releasing an offender of any wrong or hurt they may have caused you whether they deserve it or not. It is a decision to let go of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group of people. When we choose to forgive, we’re wiping the slate clean, cancelling a debt, or as I love to say, “Letting it go.” In the Bible, the Greek word for forgiveness literally means to “let it go.” This concept, “forgiveness,” is easier said than done. Majority of people find it very difficult to let go of offenses and hurts caused by others. I really do believe that most people desire to let it go, but we lack the knowledge of how to do it. As believers, we are instructed by God maintain an attitude of forgiveness.