Ver. 12. “Thou therefore receive him, that is mine own bowels.” And again he has not given the bare name, but uses with it a word that might move him, which is more affectionate than son. He has said, “son,” he has said, “I have begotten” him,1552 so that it was probable1553 he would love him much, because he begot him in his trials. For it is manifest that we are most inflamed with affection for those children, who have been born to us in dangers which we have escaped, as when the Scripture saith, “Woe, Barochabel!”1554 and again when Rachel names Benjamin, “the son of my sorrow.” (Gen. xxxv. 18.) “Thou therefore,” he says, “receive him, that is mine own bowels.” He shows the greatness of his affection. He has not said, Take him back,1555 he has not said, Be not angry,1556 but “receive him”; that is, he is worthy not only of pardon, but of honor. Why? Because he is become the son of Paul. Ver. 13. “Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have min- istered unto me in the bonds of the Gospel.” Dost thou see after how much previous preparation, he has at length brought him honorably before his master, and observe with how much wisdom he has done this. See for how much he makes him answerable, and how much he honors the other. Thou hast found, 552 he says, a way by which thou mayest through him repay thy service to me. Here he shows that he has considered his advantage more than that of his slave, and that he respects him exceedingly. Ver. 14. “But without thy mind,” he says, “would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be, as it were, of necessity, but willingly.” This particularly flatters the person asked, when the thing being profitable in itself, it is brought out with his concurrence. For two good effects are produced thence, the one person gains, and the other is rendered more secure. And he has not said, That it should not be of necessity, but “as it were of necessity.” For I knew, he says, that not having learnt1557 it, but coming to know it at once, thou wouldest not have been angry, but nevertheless out of an excess of consideration, that it should “not be as it were of necessity.” 1552 Old Lat. adds, “in my bonds,” which the sense requires. 1553 B. and Ven. “so as to show that he loved him especially.” 1554 The last Paris edition has a note from Raphelius and Hemsterhusius which curiously illustrates the variation of names. This οὐαιβαροχαβὴλ is in Sept. 1 Sam. iv. 21, οὐαιβαρχαβὼθ, Vat. Οὐαιχαβὼθ Alex., Or. Hex. οὐαὶ ἰοχαβὴδ, E.V. “Ichabod.” 1555 ἀπόδεξαι. 1556 προσλαβοῦ. 1557 i.e. by previous explanation, μαθὼν. 955 Philemon 1:4-6