What Does Philemon 1:19 Mean in the King James?
I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Paul’s promise to pay Onesimus’s debt lands beside his reminder that Philemon already owes him his own self.
THE MEANING
The verse places two obligations together: Paul accepts responsibility for a debt, while Philemon’s own self is named as something already owed to Paul. A material account sits inside a relationship whose value cannot be measured in money.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a debt is fully settled once its amount is paid: the verse names a deeper obligation of life received.
THE ROOT
προσοφείλεις
prosopheíleis
GROWS FROM
ὀφειλ- (opheil-), from ὀφείλω (opheílō)
To owe or be under obligation.
“owe” in this verse is prosopheíleis. The word translated “owest” belongs to the same Greek family that names both the debtor and the debt itself. English can make the verse sound like a passing reminder, but the root keeps the person and the account bound together.
ALSO GROWS
opheilétēs: A debtor; a person under obligation.
ὀφειλέτης
The same word family names the person who owes, showing that debt is a relationship between people as well as an amount.
opheílēma: A debt; what is owed.
ὀφείλημα
This branch names the obligation itself, echoing Paul’s language of repayment while the verse points beyond money to Philemon’s own self.
THE PATTERN
A person can take another’s liability onto their own account to preserve a relationship.
For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever.If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account;All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.THE THREAD
If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account;“Oweth thee ought” uses the same Greek debt-root, ὀφείλω (opheílō), that appears in the form προσοφείλεις in verse 19. Verse 18 moves Onesimus’s debt onto Paul’s account; verse 19 turns that same language toward Philemon and the self he owes.
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