from
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Onesimus
useful, a slave who, after robbing his master Philemon (q.v.) at
Colosse, fled to Rome, where he was converted by the apostle
Paul, who sent him back to his master with the epistle which
bears his name. In it he beseeches Philemon to receive his slave
as a "faithful and beloved brother." Paul offers to pay to
Philemon anything his slave had taken, and to bear the wrong he
had done him. He was accompanied on his return by Tychicus, the
bearer of the Epistle to the Colossians (Philemon 1:16, 18).
The story of this fugitive Colossian slave is a remarkable
evidence of the freedom of access to the prisoner which was
granted to all, and "a beautiful illustration both of the
character of St. Paul and the transfiguring power and righteous
principles of the gospel."