New house rules
The unrest was not limited to Paul, however. Jesus' followers in Rome and the recipients of the First Epistle of Peter already had enough problems without Paul. Both the Jewish communities and the non-Jewish city councils had difficulty with the radical equality between Jews and Greeks, men and women, slaves and free people, especially in combination with the expectation that the end of time was near. Not only did they find the lack of respect for traditions and social relations within the communities scandalous, but what was happening in non-Jewish households was also unheard of: converted slaves and women saw themselves as free children of God and as brides of Christ. Some wanted to eat kosher or no longer work on the Sabbath. They stopped sacrificing to the gods, thereby endangering entire families and cities: they were therefore called "atheists." Others no longer wanted to have sex with their master or husband. They were used to such strange behavior from Jews, but new believers from among the pagans would regularly have been dealt with harshly by the pater familias who was their master, father, or husband.
The gospel provoked resistance, and that was not only positive. It could lead people to reject the gospel before they even understood it. Which is better: to say that people are equal but only cause strife and sorrow, or to let people experience the love of Jesus so that they actually treat each other as equals and beloved?
There are three letters that describe roughly the same house rules: the First Letter of Peter, Paul's letter to the Colossians, and his letter to the Ephesians. The bottom line is that you must respect existing social relationships: honor the emperor, your master, your parents, and your husband. But at the same time, faithful masters, husbands, and parents are expected to know that they too are servants of the Lord, brides of Christ, and children of God. In Christ, all are equal, but in this world there are social differences that must be taken into account if you want to reach others with the gospel. That message is spread throughout Asia Minor by means of circular letters. Silvanus takes Peter's letter to the churches he helped found in Asia Minor: Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Tychicus delivers his letter to Ephesus and the three cities in the Lycus Valley: Laodicea, Colossae, and Hierapolis, and who knows where else. In addition, they immediately face a practical problem: should the runaway slave Onesimus be returned to his master Philemon, and how should that master respond?

Senders
Traditionally, these letters are seen as having been written from Rome. Of course, this was not an attractive idea for Protestant theologians in the 18th and 19th centuries: Paul and Peter leading the 'Catholic' (because omnipresent) church from Rome and giving instructions to the local communities around the Mediterranean!
The majority of theologians, in the case of the letter to the Ephesians even a very large majority, believe that these letters were written after the death of Paul and Peter. They find the language too beautiful, the ideas about the church too advanced, and the abuses in Colossae too 'Gnostic'. Those who do consider the letter authentic therefore want it to have been written as late as possible: towards the end of Paul's life.
The only letter that everyone accepts as having been written by Paul himself is the note to Philemon, a plea for a runaway slave. Many scholars believe that it was written from Ephesus in the 50s. Others find this incomprehensible. Colossae is only about 170 kilometers from Ephesus, on an important trade route and paved road. There were countless contacts between the churches in and around Colossae and Ephesus. A runaway slave from Colossae, who had to fear a terrible death by torture, would be very foolish to go and live in nearby Ephesus and openly have contact with his master's friends there. They turn the argument that Rome was too far away on its head: it was far away and large enough to start a new life and dare to seek contact with Paul. Moreover, did not the teenager Timothy also travel back and forth between Corinth and Thessalonica (a total of about 900 kilometers)? Apart from that, Paul is presented in Philemon as an old man in long-term imprisonment. As a reader, one is more likely to think of his imprisonment in Rome in the 60s.
Regardless of the origin of the note to Philemon, when you read it in conjunction with the other letters Paul sent with Tychicus and I Peter, you cannot escape the traditional interpretation: the entire story can only have taken place in the early 60s when Peter and Paul were in Rome.

Peter and Paul. Fragments of the Fresco of the Good Shepherd, Catacomb of St. Thecla in Rome, 4th century.

The Letter of Peter and Silvanus

Peter did not write any letters, and certainly not in Greek. In this respect, those who doubt his authorship are entirely correct. But Silvanus, or Silas, who had once been sent from Jerusalem to Antioch and who had traveled with Paul and Timothy through Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece, may have come up with the proposal when they met in Rome, perhaps even before Paul arrived there. This is the story suggested by the letter itself.
Silvanus would then have continued traveling after the quarrel between Peter and Paul in Antioch, not only to Galatia and Asia, where Paul was active, but also to Cappadocia, Pontus, and Bithynia. Peter calls him "your faithful brother." His Greek was obviously perfect, and he could easily have sent a letter himself. But if he intended to visit the churches himself, a letter from Peter would allow him to carry with him Peter's authority and inspiration to encourage the followers of Jesus, to better organize their churches, and to provide the new believers in pagan households with rules of life that would lead to less conflict and suffering.
The recipients of the letter are addressed as strangers in the diaspora (1:1) and as strangers and sojourners (2:11), slightly different from the "twelve tribes in the diaspora" of James 1:1. Peter uses words that can refer to both Jews abroad and non-Jews in Israel, a subtle call to cherish one's own identity on the one hand and not to cause offense on the other. At the same time, it reminds the followers of Jesus from both groups of their true identity as children of God and inhabitants of a spiritual kingdom.
Silvanus and Peter write a beautiful letter. On the one hand, you recognize the style of the letters Silvanus wrote with Paul and Timothy, but you also find accents and images that fit the Peter we met in the Gospel of Mark. The idea that the community is an alternative temple, not built by people out of stones but a spiritual priesthood, goes back directly to Jesus when he quoted the psalms: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." Jesus, who once asked him to care for his sheep, now calls Peter the chief shepherd, the pastor, from whom the elders in the communities receive their pastoral task.
He does not present the house rules he sets out as expressions of a perfect divine order. He writes that it is better to suffer innocently than because of your crimes or meddling, just as Christ had to suffer innocently without reviling or threatening with God's punishment. He writes that you must be submissive to the Roman governor and the emperor, but at the same time calls Rome "Babylon," to indicate that he feels like a stranger in exile. Suffering is serious, but for the authors it is a sign that evil is on its last legs: the devil goes about like a roaring lion, knowing that his time is short.
The letter concludes with a warm recommendation for Silvanus and greetings from the congregation and "Marcus, my son." Marcus had also traveled in Asia Minor.

What to do with a runaway slave?

The new house rules are wonderful: if we all serve each other out of love, life is good, regardless of social power relations. But Paul is immediately put to the test: his young friend Onesimus is a runaway slave. What do the house rules mean for him?
Nowadays, many people in the West think that slaves are "the others." But when the governor of Bithynia investigates the Christians in 112, he is assisted by two female slaves who (like Phoebe) are deacons within the church. In Italy, roughly a third of the population was enslaved. A small elite owned half of all slaves. Among Jesus' followers, there were many more slaves than slave owners.
Rome financed its conquests by plundering other countries on a massive scale and, after all the violence of war, enslaving and selling many of the survivors (especially the young). Those who remained behind had to pay taxes for the "peace of Rome," which, incidentally, also brought economic growth. Thus, countless Gauls, Germans, and Jews came to Rome as slaves. Their children were also slaves. Paul himself appears to have been the grandson of Jews who had been taken away as slaves, the son of a freed slave of a wealthy family, possibly the family of Sergius Paulus. Like many descendants of slaves today, his name linked him to his slave past. But it also gave him Roman citizenship, with rights that other Jews who had never been enslaved would never have. Paul had the right to have the charges against him, which carried the death penalty, heard by the highest judge in the empire: Emperor Nero. If he was arrested in Jerusalem, that meant a long journey to Rome and months, perhaps even years, of waiting until all the testimonies and documents had been gathered (think of Paul's letters) and the emperor had time for his humble subject.

Onesimus is his name

While Paul is under house arrest with the constant threat that the end of his life is near, a teenager seeks his protection. He is a runaway slave and an acquaintance of Jesus' followers in Colossae, a town in the hinterland of Ephesus. Paul knows his boss, Philemon; he may even have stayed with him on his way to or from Ephesus. The boy's name is Onesimus, which means "useful, beneficial" – they even used the nicknames of children born into slavery to confirm their role as servants! In a moment of madness, this teenager ran away from the small town of Colossae. Perhaps he was beaten by his master, perhaps he was angry because, as a slave, he could not have a relationship with the girl he was in love with, perhaps he had heard Paul preach about the equality of slaves and free people?
He cannot have been much older than Timothy when he was taken by Paul and Silvanus on that long journey to Asia, Macedonia, and Achaia. Now, some 15 years later, Timothy and Paul take Onesimus into their home. They get along well. Onesimus helps and inspires Paul, and Paul may even baptize Onesimus. As his "second father," he sees the young man being reborn as a beloved child of the Most High God. And doesn't Jewish law say that you must offer refuge to a fugitive slave and not hand him over to his master (Deuteronomy 23:16)?
After some time, the idyll is cruelly disrupted. An envoy from the churches in the Lycus Valley, Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis visits Paul in his imprisonment. It is their "trusted deacon" Epaphras, whom Paul and Timothy still know from his time in Ephesus; during the riots there, Paul, he, and others were arrested together. Epaphras became a missionary in his own region. Thousands of Jews had lived in this valley for hundreds of years, so it is not surprising that several groups of followers of Jesus soon formed there.
Epaphras also knows Philemon, so when he returns, he will not be able to avoid him. Besides, Mark also plans to travel from Rome to Asia Minor and visit Colossae. It will not be long before Philemon knows that his runaway slave is with Paul. And that could cause big problems for Onesimus and the people who are sheltering or protecting him.
The only way to keep the numerous slaves in ancient times under control was to kill runaway slaves without mercy or torture them to death. Crucifixion was considered a fitting punishment for runaway slaves. If you, as a slave owner, did not participate in this, other slave owners and the city council would consider it a threat to their own safety and call you to account. Hence the house rules in the letter from Peter and Silvanus (and Marcus was also present) that was also addressed to the people in Colossae: "Slaves, submit yourselves with all respect to your masters, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh." What does that mean for Onesimus? Should he return to Colossae? Does he want to go back himself to protect others?

The Letters to the Colossians and Philemon

Laodicea and Hierapolis recovered, but Colossae remained in ruins.The story is most compelling when we read both letters as having been written by Paul in Rome. The story that emerges is that of Paul making a plan with Epaphras, Onesimus, Timothy, and Tychicus, a good friend who will deliver the letters. A general letter is sent to the church in Colossae, where Onesimus, alongside Tychicus, will read the letter as Paul's emissaries and afterwards answer questions from the church. Paul, Tychicus, and Epaphras are described as servants (deacons) and slaves (doulos) of Christ. Onesimus, on the other hand, is referred to as "the beloved and faithful brother who is one of you." Paul will emphasize Christ's reconciliation on the cross and call for forgiveness between brothers and sisters. In doing so, he will emphasize that in Christ there is no difference between slaves and free people, and he will include Peter's house rules. He adds the aspect of the slave owner: "Masters, give your slaves justice and equality. Remember that you also have a Master in heaven." Numerous acquaintances, including Mark, who is still to visit, send their greetings to the church, and Paul expressly requests that the letters to Colossae and Laodicea be read in all the churches.
This letter still has a task to fulfill. Epaphras may have reported problems very similar to the situation in Antioch, Galatia, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome: there are people who want to impose Jewish traditions and laws on the church, such as what you can eat, what you can touch, Sabbath rest, and which holidays you must celebrate. As in the Gospel of Mark, these are called "traditions of men." But Paul also calls all this "angel worship" and the "cosmic elements" from which Christ has set us free. Many think of an exotic sect in Colossae that upholds Jewish law. But you can also see it as Paul's specific use of language: in his Letter to the Galatians, he declared the Jewish laws to be temporary because they were given by angels and bind us to the cosmic elements. The promise of the supreme God is eternal: all nations will be blessed in Abraham. But if Paul still believes this, you may ask, how can there be new house rules in the same letter? And that brings you to the heart of those house rules: they are not timeless laws that the religious community or the government must impose by force, but voluntary gifts of love from people in this world who know how precious they all are in the eyes of their heavenly Father.
With this perspective, you can see important similarities with the letters from the 50s. Paul is imprisoned for his gospel that breaks down the distinction between Jews and non-Jews made by the Law. Through baptism, the old man has died and the new man has risen with Christ, without distinction between nations, between circumcised and uncircumcised, or between slaves and free men. Love conquers all.
At the same time, there is a breathtaking vision: Through Jesus, Colossians 1:15-19 sings, everything was created, and through his crucifixion, everything was reconciled. If Paul is the author, then he has continued here the journey of discovery that began with the negative role of heavenly powers in 1 Corinthians 2, the great plan of salvation in Romans 11, and the descent of the heavenly Jesus in Philippians 2.
In addition, there is a petition addressed specifically to Philemon, which Tychicus will read aloud in the church. The letter emphasizes the collective: we are co-workers, even co-warriors. Philemon is praised at length. Paul announces that he would like to come and stay, and extensive greetings are exchanged. Everything is done to ensure that Philemon will grant the request to take Onesimus back into his home as a beloved brother. "Receive him as you would receive me," Paul writes, "he is my son and I am deeply attached to him." Paul thanks Philemon for the gift he gave him through Onesimus. The appeal he makes to Philemon in verses 8-20 is a highlight in Paul's letters.
We do not know how it ended, but 50 years later there was a bishop in Ephesus named Onesimus. It would be nice, perhaps too nice to be true, if it were the Onesimus of this letter. Things did not end so well for Philemon's house. According to various sources, the valley was struck by earthquakes in the years 60, 64, and/or 68.

The Circular Letter to the Laodiceans, Ephesians, and others

There is something strange about the beautiful Letter to the Ephesians, and this is particularly evident when you compare it to the letter to the Colossians. In part, they deal with the same themes, both were written by Paul while he was in prison awaiting trial, and both were delivered by Tychicus. But in the letter to the Ephesians, no greetings are conveyed. And this despite the fact that Tychicus came from Asia and had worked with Paul in Ephesus. Timothy had even organized the churches there when Paul had to flee the city, but there is no mention of this either. In fact, in Ephesians 3:4, Paul seems to be proclaiming to them for the first time his view of the gospel, that Gentiles such as the recipients of the letter (2:11) are heirs of the promise together with the Jews! He also says that he has been praying for them since he heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus (1:15). Anyone who wanted to write a fictional letter from Paul to the Ephesians could certainly have done better, especially with the example of Colossians at hand!
If you look at old copies of this letter, you can see that sometimes the words "in Ephesus" are missing from the opening sentences. In the second century, some people knew this letter as the Letter to the Laodiceans, which would fit much better. Laodicea was close to Colossae, and Paul did not yet know the church there. An attractive solution to the puzzle is the idea of some biblical scholars that Paul and Tychicus saw this letter as a circular letter for several churches in Asia, or that the Laodiceans copied the letter – without the more personal elements – and forwarded it to other churches. And, indeed, it may well be that the joint authors (Paul, Timothy, and Tychicus) had copied a considerable portion of the letter to the Colossians. It is also possible that the place name Ephesus was added in Ephesus itself in the second century, when the church there consisted of people whom Paul had not known personally.
In this sense, the letter is unique, because for once it does not defend Paul's gospel against Jewish believers known to him in the mixed communities of Galatia, Corinth, or Rome, but summarizes it for converts from the Gentiles unknown to him. In doing so, the writer seems to deliberately vary on the theme of foreignness in the first letter of Peter:

"So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Christ is the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitted together, rises to become a holy temple in the Lord;
in whom you also are being built together to become a spiritual house of God."

Read in this way, this circular letter tells the story of Paul who (reconciled with James and Peter) increasingly came to see the entire movement as God's temple and as the body of Christ. This continues a development that began in the 1950s, when Paul began collecting money among the Gentiles for the poor in Jerusalem and, in his letter to the Romans, reflected on the role of Jews and non-Jews in God's plan of salvation.
We have already seen how Paul first introduces the idea that Christ descended from God's glory in his letter to the Philippians. In Ephesians 4:9, this insight still seems fairly new, gained from reading Psalm 68:19, where the poet says that the Lord ascends upward: "What else can this mean," Paul asks, "than that the Lord first descended downward?" This inspires him to want to follow Jesus in this respect as well: "whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
During a long wait for his trial, both in Judea and in Rome, Paul's thinking will have progressed further. Paul also learned more and more to live in two realities: we live on earth and in heaven; Jesus ascended into heaven and came to dwell in our hearts. In that sense, we have already died and risen with him: he has risen in us (this will be continued in II Timothy).
Paul also embraced the house rules. Inspired by Jesus as a human being and son of God, as anointed and crucified, as king and servant, he describes the relationships between men and women and slaves and masters. The radical equality in Christ transforms our unequal relationships here on earth. Our dignity is not determined by our place on the social ladder of the Roman Empire, but by the knowledge that we are free children of our heavenly Lord. When we serve as wives, slaves, and children, we do so out of our free, royal choice, just as Jesus came to serve sinners. And even if we already have a position of power and responsibility here, it is only to serve others as Jesus showed us.

Summary: Getting our house in order, early 60s.

Almost ten years later, we encounter Paul and Peter in Rome. In the letters that appear to have been written from Rome at that time, deeper insights are expressed about who Jesus is in heavenly reality, and practical rules are established for living in our reality. It is wonderful that men and women, slaves and masters, Jews and non-Jews are equal, but how do you achieve that as a convert and citizen in a Greco-Roman city? How do you translate the Way of Jesus into the Greco-Roman households of the first century?

• We begin with the letter from Paul and Timothy to the Philippians. Apparently, Paul has been arrested and charged because of the commotion he caused in Ephesus or Jerusalem. In court, his fellow Jews, even fellow followers of Jesus, testified against him. But in this way, the gospel has even reached the court of the Roman emperor Nero. Paul calls on the Philippians to live according to the example of Jesus, who as the Son of God became man and humbled himself to the cross, so that God might glorify him as Lord of all.
• Their friend Silas asks Peter for a letter to the churches in Asia Minor. Mark also sends his greetings. In 1 Peter, the house rules are laid out. The starting point is not Jewish law, but the example of Jesus. Peter calls on believers to respect social relationships. They would do better to suffer injustice from their husbands, their masters, or the emperor in order to win others for the love of God. Peter sees the church as the spiritual temple in which God dwells among us.
• Paul will also spread the house rules through a circular letter (of which we read the copy for the Ephesians) that Tychicus will take to Asia Minor. But he is immediately put to the test because a runaway slave from Colossae has found shelter and friendship in his house arrest. Onesimus is the name of the boy who must fear flogging and perhaps even death if his master gets hold of him. But his master is a member of the church in Colossae. They send Onesimus with a Letter to the Colossians, and one specifically addressed to his master Philemon, with an urgent appeal to accept Onesimus as their brother in love. In these letters, the image of Jesus before he was born is elaborated: as the firstborn of God's creation and as the creative power of God. This has a mystical meaning: he dwells as much in heaven as in our hearts.

Filippi aan de Via Egnatia in Macedonië, een Romeinse veteranenkolonie. © Balage Balogh, Archaeology Illustrated.  

A bit of background information: The population of the Roman Empire

There were around 50 to 60 million people living in the regions of the Roman Empire, roughly a tenth of the current population. Rome, Alexandria, and perhaps Antioch had hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, with Rome possibly reaching a million at its peak. But elsewhere, you would find tens of thousands, thousands, and hundreds of inhabitants per city.

Social classes

Power and wealth were extremely unevenly distributed. A few hundred families in Rome were extremely wealthy, mainly due to the wars of conquest and the right to exploit the provinces (as governors) in turn. In provincial towns, power was divided between a few dozen families. The wars had led to genocide, millions of slaves, and countless migrants. In Italy, roughly a quarter of the population, mostly of foreign origin, was owned by the elite. However, loyal slaves could be freed and then given the surname of the person who freed them. Rebellious slaves were tortured and killed. Most farmers and citizens were not wealthy. Many citizens owed allegiance to their 'patron,' the head of one of the prominent families in the city, who could represent their interests. Those who became too poor sometimes sold themselves and their families into slavery in order to survive. Foreigners had no protection. Travelers who were not citizens of the city they were visiting had to be careful. An exception were the citizens of Rome, who enjoyed legal protection throughout the Roman Empire.

Marriage, birth, and death

The head of the family had absolute power over the women, men, and children in the household. Torturing, mutilating, or killing one's own children or slaves was not punishable.
Marriage was for the purpose of producing legitimate children and heirs. Sexual fidelity was therefore only expected of the fertile young wife. Slaves had no rights; they could not even dispose of their own bodies or sexuality. Daughters of free citizens were married off in their teens. Men married for the first time around the age of 25. If one of the partners died, older (no longer fertile) widows were left alone with their orphans. Widowers, even if they were 50 years old, usually remarried a teenage girl or a young widow, sometimes no older than their oldest children. Many children therefore had an older father or only their mother. If women proved fertile and did not die prematurely in childbirth, they gave birth to an average of six to nine children. 
Infant mortality was enormous. Half of all newborns died before reaching the age of five. Those who survived childhood lived to an average age of around 50. The select few who actually reached that age lived on for another 15 years on average. A small group reached the age of 70 or 80.

Jews

There were several million Jews around the middle of the first century, spread mainly across Palestine, the eastern Roman Empire, and the Parthian Empire (especially in the area we now call Iraq). Jewish communities in the Greco-Roman cities were given some freedom to govern (and control) their communities.