Philemon Summary

Some rights that we all have as citizens include: freedom to express ourselves, right to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some of our responsibilities include, protecting the constitution, respecting and obeying laws, pay income and taxes, serve a jury when called, and the most important one is to defend the country if needs arise. The Romans were very big on these rights and responsibilities. They felt as if they all united under these rules, and nobody had more rights than others. The Romans followed these rules very strictly.

Society, in our expectations, is suppose to be the witness of justice or at least more righteous compared to individuals. Roman society is rather rigid in its judicial system as shown in the book by its mean of reciprocating abominable actions with abominable

Frank Thielman points out that, “In his letter to Philemon, Paul urges the reconciliation of a master to his slave.” John MacArthur notes that, “Philemon also owned at least one slave, a man named Onesimus.” Even though contemporary biblical scholars appear to agree that Onesimus was a slave, this does not mean that the exact

Onesimus steal money and other items from Philemon and this is what got him in trouble and put into prison. It is believed that Onesimus ended up with Paul because he has left his master, because his master was unpleased with him. It is believed that he ran into Paul by chance and Paul introduced him to Christ.

This example is found in the law that sates that no Roman citizen could pass from a Patrician family to a Plebeian, or the other way around. Also, a father had the power of life or death over his own children; no son was able to purchase property without his father’s permission. The laws also indicated the importance of Roman inheritance and it continuity. Roman citizens were not allowed to marry a slave or a foreigner, unless the people permitted it. The Twelve Tables laws appreciated fair judgment to all Roman citizens.

In the book of Philemon, many scholars differ in their opinion of why Paul wrote a personal letter to Philemon, the master to Onesimus. A couple of those reasons could be that Paul hoped that Philemon would release the slave so that he could work for him or that he wanted Onesimus to be treated better than before since slaves were treated harshly. Although, there were suspicions as to why Onesimus could have gotten himself into trouble. These reasons consist of him stealing property or money from his master, then accidentally running into Paul while he was in prison. The other reason consisted of him displeasing his master and leaving out to find Paul.

The composition and the governing structure of the Roman republic was not uniform throughout its existence, but some of the fundamental elements of its government came into being in the immediate aftermath of the monarchy’s collapse. Therefore, it is unsurprising that many of these institutions were created in reaction to the monarchy and its failures, and thus were shaped by this relationship. For example, the fundamental opposition to monarchy and the rule of kings that came with the experience of the Kingdom of Rome, remained quite strong in the Roman mindset throughout the existence of the Republic and into the beginnings of the Roman Empire, and its influence can be seen throughout Roman political discourse especially in the discussion

The Romans emerged from Italy and formed their culture that can find its roots among an array of native tribes and Greek colonies that populated Italy. There are two parts of the foundation of a Roman’s identity that stemmed from the cultural influences that produced the Romans, their culture and their ideals. The first component of the foundation of the Roman identity is the usage and the incorporation of others’ myths into their own etiological myth. The second part stems from these myths that made the Romans believe that their existence and success was the result of fate. By looking into Virgil’s Aeneid and Sallust’s Conspiracy of Catiline one can see that this two-part foundation produced a society and people that embodied this idea that they were the best parts of all the cultures

Some dispute that it has to be one rooted in the divine lawgiver to those shaped in his image, with the insinuations for dignity and basic rights. Have this not be the case, you might have a “natural law” that favors and empowers the strong over the weak on the basis of their ability to govern, or their intelligence, or their “fitness” to rule. The fact that I believe in the concept of “natural law” does not necessarily make it any more legitimate than it was before. I may agree with the message it is trying to disseminate but who is to say the counter argument is not substantiated as well. Although there were many who refuted the concept of a law beyond that of man, I would argue that these laws preceded man to begin with.

This law was exclusively made for Roman citizens and was derived from custom and legislation. Eventually, Rome developed its main legal code called the jus gentium (law of nations), which applied not only to Roman citizens, but also to foreigners within the borders of Rome. This system of laws was not founded through legislation, but was enacted by magistrates as a flexible alternative to the jus civile. These system of laws impacted the Roman Empire by establishing order and having flexible restrictions for all people entering or living in Rome.

Basicly he asked Philemon to treat him like he was no longer a slave, but more like a brother. Not only for him, but as someone dear to him as well. The way the letter was written was describing Onesimus as someone equal like himself. He even offered to pay his debt or whatever he was accused of stealing. He gave this advice because he wanted Philemon reputation and Christian love to show through his actions regarding Onesimus.

INTRODUCTION Archaic Roman law, not unlike early Germanic law developed from law revolving around family units. Thus, all Roman law we know and study today has developed from these primitive laws created out of necessity, governing fields such as familial relationships, succession and property. The concept of obligatio developed from the need for law to govern relations which do not always relate to the family unit, such as performance resulting from a binding agreement in the form of a contract or compensation with regards to a delict.

Natural law theory states that there are laws that are immanent in nature and the man made laws should correspond as closely as possible. Man can’t produce natural laws but he can find and discover through his reasoning. If a law is contrary to a natural law then it is not a law. Laws should be related to morality. It is a concept of a body of moral principal that is same for all the man

This concept of the natural law originates from God 's law. The concept of liberty is very dependent on the belief of natural law when creating a government system. In theory, the natural law comes from the state of nature and this helps many political philosophers create laws for a successful

In the sixth century, Justinian arranged for the compilation and codification of law. This resulted in Corpus Juris Civilis, or the Institutes of Justinian. There were laws pertaining to family, property, torts, and contracts. The goal was to simplify massive amounts of legal materials. When the Institutes of Justinian came, all previous laws were disregarded.