10 h 15 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does freedom mean when another man owns your days?
In Colossae, Onesimus lives as a slave in the household of Philemon. Restless and full of doubt, he has no say over his own days. Edwin Abbott Abbott gives this briefly mentioned biblical figure a voice in a novel shaped as a memoir, making questions of slavery and faith deeply personal.
Onesimus leaves his master and meets Paul, a prisoner whose words and manner draw him toward the new faith. Abbott builds his imagined life around Paul's letter to Philemon, which asks that the slave be received as a brother. At stake is more than legal release: Onesimus seeks a freedom that changes how he understands himself.
What you’ll discover
- A life under ownership Enter an ancient Greek city through a man whose days belong to someone else.
- Doubt with a voice Follow Onesimus as he looks back and tries to make sense of his life.
- A prisoner who teaches Meet Paul through the eyes of a doubting slave drawn toward his words and manner.
- Freedom beyond legal release Consider whether freedom means only release from ownership, or something deeper within a person's life.
- A household facing change See how the call to receive a slave as a brother challenges Philemon's familiar authority.
Who will love it
For readers who love historical fiction about the first Christians and want to see Paul's world through a humble eye, with themes of doubt, faith and freedom.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A slave's life in a Greek city
- Doubt and flight lead him to Paul
- Faith changes what freedom means
- A scholar imagines the early church
Who’s who
- OnesimusA slave in Colossae who tells the story himself, restless and doubting, and who seeks a freedom deeper than legal release.
- PaulThe apostle and teacher, a prisoner whose words and manner draw the young slave toward the new faith.
- PhilemonOnesimus's master in Colossae, a respected householder who must decide how to treat the man he owns.
- ApphiaA member of Philemon's circle named in Paul's letter, part of the household and the small church that meets there.
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- Audiobook
- 10 h 15 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 4 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Onésime in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Onésime
by Edwin Abbott Abbott · 1882
A runaway slave meets Paul, whose words draw him toward faith and a new idea of freedom.
Challenging10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Onesimus is a novel in the form of a memoir. It was written in the nineteenth century by Edwin Abbott Abbott, a schoolmaster and scholar of the New Testament.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A slave's life in a Greek city
The story begins from a plain fact of the ancient world. Onesimus belongs to another man and has no say over his own days. His master is Philemon, a householder in Colossae, a town in Asia Minor. Abbott uses this setting to show how much of daily life rested on slavery.
Because Onesimus is the one who tells the tale, the reader sees the household from below. The master looks like a kind and respected man, and yet he owns people. That tension sits under the whole book.
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What is Onesimus by Edwin Abbott about?
It is a novel written as the memoir of Onesimus, the slave mentioned in Paul's letter to Philemon. It follows his doubts, his meeting with Paul and his growth in faith, in the setting of the early Christian world.
Who was the real Onesimus?
Onesimus appears in the New Testament letter of Paul to Philemon. He was a slave whom Paul sent back to his master and asked to be welcomed as a brother. Abbott invents the rest of his life.
Is Onesimus a true story?
No. It is historical fiction. It rests on the few facts in Paul's letter to Philemon and on the setting of the New Testament, while Abbott imagines the inner life and events around them.
The author
Edwin Abbott Abbott
1838–1926 · English theologian and novelist
Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) was an English teacher, theologian and author who was born and died in London. He was headmaster of the City of London School from 1865 to 1889. He wrote Flatland (1884), Onesimus (1882) and Silanus the Christian (1906), as well as works on grammar and religion.
More by Edwin Abbott Abbott
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