ABSTRACT
The slavery and contemporary era are used as the context for interpreting Philemon. To determine the arguments advanced and to discover the prevalent interpretive practices of the periods. A further argument advanced by pro-slavery proponents in coming to their interpretation of Philemon was the understanding of the human person as property. With the liberal reading strategy, the attempt is to locate the site of struggle, whether in the material conditions of the letter to Philemon or within the social location or hermeneutical presupposition of the interpreters referenced. John M. Barclay-takes the central tension in Philemon as the fact that in the house church, Philemon and Onesimus are co-equals but in the household they are socially unequal. For Taylor, when Onesimus absconded he became de-socialized from the house church. To read Philemon from the point of view of authority is to read the letter from the point of view of the status quo.
