Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/Prefaces/Prefaces to Commentaries/Philemon

Philemon.

''Written for Paula and Eustochium, 387. The Preface is a defence of the genuineness of the Epistle against those who thought its subject beneath the dignity of inspiration. &#8220;There are many degrees of inspiration,&#8221; Jerome says, &#8220;though in Christ alone it is seen in its fulness.&#8221; Many of the other Epistles touch upon small affairs of life, like the cloak left at Troas. To suppose that common life is separate from God is Manich&#230;anism. Jerome mentions that Marcion, who altered many of the Epistles, did not touch that of Philemon; and brevity in a document which has in it so much of the beauty of the Gospel is a mark of its inspiration.''