Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Onesimus
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Onesimus, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Für wen es gedacht ist
You will love this book if you enjoy ancient Rome and Greece, early Christian history, lively debate, and a narrator who tells his own failures plainly.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
What makes a slave stop trusting the gods? Onesimus begins life as a baby left on the temple steps at Pergamus, in one cradle beside his twin brother Chrestus. Each boy wears a small silver seal. His reads I LOVE THEE, and his brother's reads TRUST ME.
Onesimus: Memoirs of a Disciple of St. Paul is a novel by Edwin Abbott Abbott, a Victorian schoolmaster and scholar. He imagines the life of the runaway slave named in Paul's letter to Philemon. An old man writes his confession in eight books, and he hides neither his hatred nor his drink nor his theft. You get an adventure and a debate at once, with Epicureans, Stoics, Jews and Christians each speaking in their own voices.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1Twin foundlings meet a stranger at LystraFree
- 2Slavery tears the brothers apart
- 3Colossae, oracles and the Epicurean friend
- 4Letters from Antioch about the Christians
- 5Eucharis, and the price of freedom
- 6Philosophers fail him, one after another
- 7Flight, shame and a voice in Rome
Punkt 1 von 7
Twin foundlings meet a stranger at Lystra
The story opens in the last year of the Emperor Tiberius. Onesimus and Chrestus are found on the temple steps, and a kind woman named Ammiane takes them up. She has lately lost her own son, and she raises the twins in Lystra as her own. They learn to call her Mother.
The law, however, says that a rescued child belongs to the household that raised him. Nobody ever freed the boys; their emancipation is delayed, then forgotten amid Menneas’s illness and death. They grow up singing, riding and wrestling beside the sons of good families. They are happy and never guess that they are slaves.
When Onesimus is about ten, travelers arrive at the Iconian Gate. One is short, hook-nosed and bent, with eyes that seem to see through the surface of things. In the market courtyard the stranger heals a lame man in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Some cry that Zeus and Hermes have come down, but the stranger says there is one God. Then he lays his hands on the boy and says, May the Lord be a Father to you, little one.
The city soon turns on the stranger. Drought, locusts and an earthquake follow, and a grand procession led by a rich priest wins everyone back to Zeus. Onesimus is half won over by the splendor. But in his dreams the blessing returns for years. Early memories can wait quietly until the day they are needed.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Go deeper: the whole of Onesimus
About 5 h 50 min to read.Starten Sie 90 Tage kostenlosPaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 80,300 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 35 min
Questions about Onesimus
What is Onesimus by Edwin Abbott Abbott about?
It follows an abandoned twin who grows up a slave and searches the ancient world for something to trust. He meets oracles, philosophers and Christians before encountering the Apostle Paul again in Rome.
Who was the real Onesimus?
Onesimus is the runaway slave of Philemon mentioned in Paul's short letter to Philemon in the New Testament. Abbott invents his earlier and later life, so the novel is imagined history around a real name.
What do the tokens I LOVE THEE and TRUST ME mean?
They are silver seals worn by the twin babies. Onesimus later adds a third token reading HOPE, and the three words become the heart of his story.
When was Onesimus written and is it historically accurate?
Abbott wrote it as a Victorian scholar of early Christianity. The setting, names and customs follow real sources, but the plot and most characters are invented to give the period a human face.
Is Onesimus easy to follow?
The story moves from scene to scene, with clear dialogue and a narrator who explains his own thoughts. Letters and debates are framed by action, so you always know whose voice you are hearing.
Cite this edition
Abbott, Edwin Abbott. Onesimus. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/onesimus.
Abbott, E. A. (2026). Onesimus. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/onesimus (Original work published 1882)
Abbott, Edwin Abbott. Onesimus. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/onesimus.
@book{abbott2026onesimus,
author = {Abbott, Edwin Abbott},
title = {Onesimus},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/onesimus},
note = {First published 1882}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Onesimus, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
