# Public Philemon prints a personal appeal about Onesimus as a named unfree person

Date: 1979

## The fact

Philemon in the public collection asks a master to receive Onesimus as a brother. It is not manumission law. It is a humanitarian-person heading of medium confidence beside the obedience codes.

## Context

Do not call Paul an abolitionist. Do store a named person’s plea as printed.

[Paul the Apostle](/people/paul-the-apostle) is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Official Bible-society, Vatican, or library pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: German Bible Society — Nestle-Aland 28 online (https://www.die-bibel.de/en/bible/NA28/MAT.1; Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft).

## Significance

Printed Philemon is not a 19th-century emancipation statute.

Printed Philemon is not a 19th-century emancipation statute.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Paul the Apostle: https://factrail.ai/people/paul-the-apostle

## Drivers

- Humanitarian Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/humanitarian-access

## Sources

- https://iep.utm.edu/paul-new/
- https://www.die-bibel.de/en/bible/NA28/MAT.1

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/pa-philemon-person-heading