What Does Philemon 1:20 Mean?
Yes, brother, may I have use of you in the Lord. Give rest to my inner parts in the Lord.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord.THE KEY
Paul’s “joy” carries the same root as Onesimus’s name, linking the welcome he asks for with benefit and rest in the inward parts.
THE MEANING
Here, joy is expressed as receiving benefit from another, while refreshment reaches the inward parts, where affection is felt. The verse speaks now wherever welcome in the Lord renews someone from within.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that welcoming one person has only private consequences: that welcome can become another person’s inward rest.
THE ROOT
ὀναίμην
onaimēn
GROWS FROM
ὀνιν- (ὀνίνημι)
To benefit, profit, or have good from someone; here, “may I benefit from you.”
“have use of you” in this verse is onaimēn. The phrase rendered “let me have joy of thee” uses ὀναίμην (onaimēn, may I benefit), from ὀνίνημι (oninēmi, to benefit). The same word family gives Ὀνήσιμος (Onēsimos, useful or beneficial), the name of the person at the center of the appeal: receiving him becomes Paul’s benefit and joy.
ALSO GROWS
Onēsimos: Useful, beneficial
Ὀνήσιμος
The name echoes the benefit Paul asks Philemon to bring him through this welcome.
onēsis: Benefit, advantage
ὄνησις
This related noun makes explicit the good or gain carried by the word family.
σπλάγχνα
splanchna
GROWS FROM
σπλαγχν-
splanch-
The inward parts, especially the organs understood as the seat of deep feeling.
“inner parts” in this verse is splanchna. “Bowels” here names more than a physical location: it is the inward self where compassion and affection are felt. The same word returns in Philemon 1:12, where Paul calls Onesimus his own σπλάγχνα (splanchna, inward parts).
ALSO GROWS
splagchnizomai: To be moved with compassion
σπλαγχνίζομαι
The verb carries the inward feeling of the same word family into action.
eusplagchnos: Tenderhearted, compassionate
εὔσπλαγχνος
This related word shows how the “inward parts” branch into a quality of deep-hearted care.
ἀνάπαυσον
anapauson
GROWS FROM
παυ- (παύω)
To stop or cease; in compounds, to bring someone to rest.
“give rest” in this verse is anapauson. The request for refreshment is a request for rest to reach the inward parts. English “refresh” holds the sense of renewal, while the Greek word also carries the settling force of rest.
ALSO GROWS
pauō: To stop, cease, or bring to an end
παύω
This is the base verb beneath the request to give rest.
anapausis: Rest, repose
ἀνάπαυσις
This related noun names the resting or relief the verse asks Philemon to give.
katapauō: To bring to rest
καταπαύω
This compound carries the same root into the act of settling someone into rest.
THE PATTERN
Rest is shared: the one who is received or refreshed can become a source of renewal for others.
Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall stop, that your ox and your donkey may settle, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed.Come to me, all you who toil and have been loaded down, and I will give you rest.For they have given rest to my breath and to yours. So perceive such as these.THE THREAD
Whom I send back to you. Receive him, who is my very own inner parts.The same Greek word, σπλάγχνα (splanchna, inward parts), appears here and in verse 20. Paul identifies Onesimus with his own inward parts, then asks Philemon to refresh those inward parts; how Onesimus is received reaches Paul himself.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us