ABSTRACT
Philemon is usually linked to Philippians on the assumption that, since both letters were written from prison, the imprisonment must have been the same. At any rate, the Letter to Philemon, which is a delightful piece of correspondence and shows Paul at his ingratiating best, does not contribute to the subject of asceticism, either political or otherwise. The political judgments and innuendos I have found in Philippians do not emerge in Philemon. The author seems entirely focused on his task of repairing the relationship between Philemon and Onesimus.1 Perhaps this shows in a negative mirroring that what Paul does say in Philippians is not simply his own anxiety and projection but is thought out with the Philippian situation in mind.
